North Pointe Vol. 49, Issue 2- Oct. 12, 2016

ON CAMPUS PAGE 4 The cast of “Peter Pan” practices stunts to prepare for Neverland.

DAJAI CHATMAN

NORTH

DAJAI CHATMAN

GROSSE POINTE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL

POINTE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12, 2016

SI NC E 1968

EDUCATIONAL BARRIERS Detroit and Grosse Pointe schools have the largest disparity of any two neighboring districts in the nation. These photos show some of the makeshift boundaries between Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park set up along the division line at Alter Road.

ALEX HARRING & LINDSEY RAMSDELL

By Lindsey Ramsdell, Abbey Cadieux & Anna Post EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & EDITORS

Just six miles away lies America’s worst economic border. The 57,371 students that live on that border attend Grosse Pointe and Detroit Public Schools.

EdBuild, a New Jersey non-profit, recently published a study with the purpose of exposing public school funding inequities. The report stated that the border separating Grosse Pointe Public Schools and Detroit Public Schools is the most economically disparate district boundary in the nation.

The Detroit News article, where the EdBuild study was first published, highlighted that the state of Michigan gives more funding per pupil to GPPS than DPS. Grosse Pointe schools receive $2,430 more per student than their neighboring Detroit schools.

Senior I’Kesha Hall attended school in Metro Detroit since 2006, only moving to Grosse Pointe at the end of her junior year last year. She went to Chandler Park Academy, which is a charter school, and noticed significant differences in the atmospheres of the two school systems.

“You have more advanced technology. You have more resources,” she said. “It’s more secure here. ... At my old school, it was a lot of police officers and stuff like that. They had a lot of hall monitors and stuff. They had like 13 of those just roaming 24/7 because they know what’s going on for real. There was a lot of fights there, too.”

The study looked at poverty rates, local revenue per pupil, median property value and median household income in neighboring districts. EdBuild found that 49.2 percent of the households in DPS live below the poverty line. This is compared to the 6.5 percent of households within the GPPSS boundary. No other neighboring urban-suburban school districts in the nation have an economic gap that wide.

The economic gap between the two cities reflects itself in the state funding per-pupil. GPPSS is allocated $9,684 for each student. DPS is given $7,434.

This lack of funds in DPS creates a lack of resources and programs available for students that help learning. Mrs. Hudson, a former special education teacher in a DPS middle school for 17 years, noticed this as one of the biggest differences between the two school systems and saw it as a challenge for students in her district. (Editor’s note: the source asked we refer to her by her last name and courtesy title only.)

“Detroit has a lot less resources. That’s not the fault of Grosse Pointe,” Hudson said.

IDEAS - PAGE 7

“Just as I see my peers doing amazing things overseas , I can also see a metropolitan city in need from the corner of my street.” @thenorthpointe www.northpointenow.org

VOLUME 49 | ISSUE 2

“The difference is where the kids are not getting as much services as you are equipped to get. But again, whose fault is that? It’s almost like things are put in place according to different districts. It’s not against you all, but the (Detroit) kids get a lot less resources.”

Hudson now works in a middle school in Oakland Park. The school she worked at in Detroit was closed after it was converted into a single-grade school, and almost all of the teachers resigned.

Although resources are limited, English teacher Geoffrey Young believes that financial educational barriers can be overcome through the attitudes of teachers and students. Young grew up attending DPS and enjoyed his experience there.

“So much of education is about the people who are in the building, even more than the resources, I think. So my school didn’t have a lot of resources, but it had a lot of caring teachers who were invested, and that was the case both through elementary school all through school,” Young said.

“Education is a lot of what you make it, so my parents and I always tried to make sure I was in the right kinds of programs and with the right kinds of teachers and with the other kinds of students that would promote my success.”

When Young began to teach in Grosse Pointe, one of the main differences he noticed, besides a greater number of resources, was the number of students and families that prioritized education like his did. Growing up he felt that there was a smaller group of students like that in his community. In Grosse Pointe, he sees this investment in education in a majority of students.

But the root of this differLINDSEY RAMSDELL ent community mindset returns to the great economic divide between Grosse Pointe and Detroit, Young said.

“I think one of the things that happens then for people who are in areas where the education system seems to not be so great or not producegreatness is that often times there are other factors that keep education from being the priority. We know a lot about how people’s needs work psychologically and socially and that when you are anxious about certain kinds of things, like putting food on the table or things like that that are more at the basic level of our needs, then it does become more difficult to focus on the other thing that would make education f lourishing and grow,” Young said. “I think that’s one of the factors I noticed in my community that kept some of my peers from really investing and benefitting from the educational experiences.”

LIFE - PAGE 5 Senior PJ Gusmano plays the drums with his band at the pep assembly on Friday, Sept. 30.

ALYSSA MCLARTY

Calendar... 2 News.......... 3

On Campus... 4 Life.................... 5-6

On Pointe... 7 Reviews.... 8

SPORTS - PAGE 11 “I remember growing up dreaming of being like the athletic figures I looked up to.”

Editorial..... 9 In-Depth... 10

Sports... 11-12

2 – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 – North Pointe

NEWS

Alumnus protests University of Michigan’s new pronoun policy

By Sonny Mulpuri & Billy Steigelman EDITORS

A recent policy at the University of Michigan has created controversy among the students and community, and a Grosse Pointe North alumnus has decided to take a stand against it, landing himself in national headlines.

This policy change regards how students would like to be referred to in their classrooms. It allows students at the university to choose which pronoun they feel is appropriate for themselves. Leading the protest against the policy, class of 2014 alumnus Grant Strobl has changed his pronoun to “His Majesty” to highlight what he believes is an unrealistic policy.

“The University of Michigan’s new policy ignores reality,” Strobl said via email. “If we are going to ignore reality, then I shall be referred to as ‘His Majesty’” Over the past year, a committee met at U-M to develop the policy. When the policy was released on Sept. 27, university officials sent an email to faculty members and students stating, “You can’t always know what someone’s personal pronoun is by looking at them. Correctly using someone’s designated personal pronoun is one of the most basic ways to show your respect for their gender identity. When someone is referred to with the wrong pronoun, it can make them feel disrespected, invalidated, dismissed, alienated, or dysphoric (or, often, all of the above).”

Through peaceful protests, Strobl is trying to bring the policy back to its former state by working with the administration.

His request to be called “His Majesty” mocks the policy which he hopes will help others see his point of view.

“The university should get rid of the policy and restore personal responsibility,” Strobl said. “The idea of forcing professors to refer to students by imaginary pronouns with the possibility of being sanctioned is absurd.”

However, the hierarchy at U-M is supportive of the new policy and believes that there are valid reasons behind it and benefits that it could yield.

In an article on www.universityherald.com, University President Mark Schlissel stated that the reasoning behind the policy. “(We want to make U-M) look like the public it serves,” Schlissel said. “There’s a shared ambition and we’re trying to release the creativity of all of our different units.”

Along with the U-M officials, other students are for the change. Junior Erika Benoit believes that it will help students who currently struggle with identification issues.

“I think it would help because it would take out the student having to tell the teacher what they like being called and making everything harder,” Benoit said. “I hope people will just accept what people want to be called without questioning them because they’re not in their heads so they can’t necessarily say that they don’t feel what they feel.”

Like Benoit, Strobl began to take a side on national issues such as this one while he was in high school. Strobl joined Young Americans for Freedom when he was a sophomore at North to help formulate his vision. Now, as National Chairman for YAF, he is committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.

GETTING INVOLVED| Grant Strobl gives a speech.

GRANTSTROBL.COM

To aid other students in finding their own perspectives on the issue, Benoit believes there should be more information given about the policy changes.

“I think there needs to be more awareness about it and education about it because a lot of people just think it’s that you can pick what gender you want,” Benoit said. “So you can have education on what it actually is and stories about different people and then try to implicate it maybe like how U-M did it, and go online and change your pronoun if you want to.”

Although his protest is mainly at the university level, Strobl still hopes his words will reach his alma mater.

“If North is interested in the mission of the academy being to pursue truth, they would not institute a rule that ignores this mission and is a complete fantasy.”

Underclassmen use lockers usually reserved for seniors

By Billy Moin EDITOR

Most students wait three years for the privilege and convenience of having a senior locker. However, sophomore Evy Zacharias is the exception.

Instead of using a locker in the A-building like most of her classmates, Zacharias and eight other sophomores have senior lockers.

“Having my locker in the senior hallway is definitely closer to a lot of my classes. I can definitely go in between my classes to my locker to get my books,” Zacharias said.

“I don’t get to be around my friends as much ‘cause they’re all in the sophomore hallway, but I would definitely pick a senior locker over sophomore lockers.”

According to Assistant Principal David Reed-Nordwall, Zacharias and the others had to be moved because of a lack of space in their designated hallway.

Lockers are assigned to students by the district’s information systems supervisor Kevin Kurkowski. Taking data from the Student Information System, Kurkowski plugs it into a computer program that automatically designates which locker each student gets.

“It’s just a computer program,” Kurkowski said. “I mean it’s all done automatically.”

Reed-Nordwall said that locker assignments are based on three factors: which lockers are open, how easy it is to get to them and how assignments will affect the classes. Once the sophomore hallway fills up, the program finds space for the remaining students. Given that the senior class only has 305 students, making it the smallest of the four, the program was able to find extra room for the underclassmen there.

“We’re always looking for lockers. I mean ... we have the half-lockers. Technically it’s a locker but you can’t put anyone in it,” Reed-Nordwall said. “It’s just one of those (resource pieces) where it always comes up.”

As opposed to being spread out alphabetically among the seniors, Zacharias and the others are all in one row of lockers.

Although having a senior locker as a sophomore may be more convenient for the students, Reed-Nordwall notes that students are only moved as a matter of necessity.

“We don’t want to have groups moved around. It’s just, sometimes it happens,” Reed-Nordwall said. “Sometimes you get a smaller class and it’s no problem.”

ALLISON LACKNER

KNOTS offers ‘Chill Zone’ during homecoming for stress-free time

By Sopia Ketels INTERN

​

For the second year, Kids Need Opportunities to Socialize hosted the ‘Chill Zone’, a room set aside from the excitement of homecoming for students who wanted to enjoy the dance in a calm manner.

As a student volunteer, sophomore Daniel Bernas saw the impact that the volunteer staff left on the kids.

“The most common thing that we do is sit with a KNOTS kid at their table at lunch with special needs students,” Bernas said. “A lot of times the students don’t know how to interact with each other and keep to themselves, but you can notice that when the student volunteer comes, they start to talk and open up and they get really happy.”

With an event as big as homecoming sweeping the school, it was important to KNOTS that the special needs students received an equal chance to participate in this event. They also wanted to make sure that they never felt distressed or upset with the loud noise and big crowds that the dance brings. So, KNOTS leaders decided to create the ‘Chill Zone.’

KNOTS adviser, Lisa Lucas recognizes the benefit of the ‘Chill Zone’ as a safe way for students to spend their evening amidst the excitement.

“It’s just a place for kids to go for it to be quiet for them, because in the gym it can be very loud and crazy and sometimes students with disabilities need to be able to get away from that,” Lucas said.

The ‘Chill Zone’ was also not the only way for KNOTS students to interact with their peers at the event, they were also able to receive a true homecoming experience with their friends.

“I saw some of my KNOTS students and it was really nice to see them there having fun all dressed up,” Bernas said. “I got to see Josh, one of my students, and his mom was there and I got to see him, and his mom was happy he had a friend.”

For all KNOTS members, homecoming is important because it gives them a chance to experience a memorable event along with the rest of the student body.

“They get dressed up, they get their hair done, sometimes they’ll get their makeup done, sometimes they’ll pick out a fancy dress or suit,” Lucas said, “it’s just a great opportunity for them.”

SHELIA DOSS

ROLLING THE DICE | Students play board games in the Chill Zone. “Sometimes kids do really well with (the dance) and some kids wanna be there but they really need to be in a quieter area,” Lucas said.

NEWS

North Pointe – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 – 3

Student Association, Class of 2018 create homecoming geofilters Snapchat geofilters are a blossoming trend in the social media world, and students are learning how to make them for events around the school as well. Junior Catie Archambeau is one of those students. During spirit week, Archambeau designed a junior spirit day geofilter to promote Norseman pride throughout the school.

Snapchat has a website that allows one to design a filter or use one of the application’s for a fee, which is based on the size of the template. There are four steps in the construction process.

“They have templates you can use, so I just used one of theirs and edited it, and luckily, they had one that looked like a jungle,” Archambeau said.

A few days later, another geofilter appeared on many students’ Snapchat stories. Student Association President Olivia Randazzo and a group of students launched a homecoming geofilter that junior Alex Harring had designed a few weeks prior. Randazzo was in charge of approving the design

before it was sent to Snapchat users around the school.

“Alex created the design, and we thought that it was unique and that it went with the theme really well, and I thought that it looked clean,” Randazzo said.

“Then, we had to get it approved by Snapchat and have that go through. They have to approve it for that day and time period.”

Randazzo and a few other students decided the best time for the filter to be uploaded was Friday, Sept. 30 for the pep assembly due to the amount of student activity.

“We knew for a lot of people, it would be more likely for them to use their phone and use the Snapchat filter on Friday during the pep assembly and during the school day than during the dance, because that’s when a lot of people check their phones,” Randazzo said. “We thought that it would get more use (on Friday).”

CALENDAR PARENT CLUB MEETING Wednesday, Oct. 12 from 7-11 p.m. in the Student Union

CHOIR CONCERT

Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the PAC

By Lyndsay Kluge

PSAT TESTING

Wednesday, Oct. 19 from 8-12:20 a.m. for grades 9, 10, 11 ALEX HARRING

Early homecoming ticket sales bring increased profit Student Association sold homecoming tickets for $15 the Wednesday through Friday before spirit week and for $20 the week of homecoming. In previous years, ticket sales were only held the week of homecoming. This deal was offered to students as an initiative to boost ticket sales early on in order to increase revenue and disperse sales throughout two weeks.

“I think that having it at that (price), you can get two tickets for $30 for the first week of ticket sales. That’s saving a lot of money compared to $40,” junior Maddy Martinbianco said. “I think having it at $15 for the first part was a smart idea, and it saves a lot for people if you were to count.”

Student Association president Olivia Randazzo noticed that the new process worked more smoothly. She hopes the process stays the same next year because of positive feedback from students.

“In the past, it’s always been really crazy buying tickets for people and it was always really busy the week of homecoming so we thought that ... it would give people more incentive to buy them earlier opposed of them waiting until the last minute to buy them,” Randazzo said. “It just really helps (Student Association) kick off some of the stress from ticket sales because it’s always a really stressful time for us.”

According to Student Association adviser Jonathan Byrne, the group raised about $2,000 more than last year. With this increase in revenue, the group hopes to expand its role in the community by doing more service projects and giving donations to those in need.

Martinbianco believes Student Association’s push for more community service will benefit the school’s image.

“By charging even the $5 more per ticket the money is still all going back to the classes and the community because SA is here to support the individual classes or charities or things within the school,” Martinbianco said. “By increasing the revenue, we’re helping the school out a little bit more.”

Wednesday, Oct. 19 and Thursday, Oct. 20 from 5-8 p.m. in the gym

PROFITS THE WEEK BEFORE HOMECOMING

PROFITS THE WEEK OF HOMECOMING NATHAN LONCZYNSKI

Thursday, Oct. 20 at 8 a.m. in the Student Union Saturday, Oct. 22 at 8 a.m.

MULTIPROGRAM NIGHT

Follow FOLLOW US ON North Pointe on Twitter for updates @THENORTHPOINTE on everything IMPORTANT DATES North for

INSTAGRAM SENIORS November 21

Regular deadline for Diapers to Diplomas senior ads

November 30

Last day to order a book before prices go up Extended payment and deposit option available ALL INFORMATION AVAILABLE HERE: goo.gl/4mGv9e PIXABAY.COM

PICTURE RETAKES

ACT TESTING

CAITLIN BUSH

@thenorthpointe

Wednesday, Oct. 19

EVENING CONFERENCES

Homecoming ticket

By Michal Ruprecht

NO SCHOOL FOR SENIORS

Tuesday, Oct. 25 from 7-8 p.m in the Family Center

SPORTS BOYS VARSITY SOCCER Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at South High School

VARSITY TENNIS

Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. at University Liggett

VARSITY FIELD HOCKEY Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. at University Liggett

VARSITY VOLLEYBALL

Thursday, Oct. 13 at 4 p.m. at Anchor Bay High School

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Gabriel Richard Invite on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. at Hudson Mills Metro Park

ON CAMPUS

4 – North Pointe –Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016

‘Peter Pan’ cast takes to the sky

By Josie Bennett & Dajai Chatman

FACES IN THE CROWD Warren Galloway

EDITOR & STAFF REPORTER

Sophomore Warren Galloway turned his love for bow ties into a fully launched website and entrepreneurship opportunity.

Galloway has been creating and selling bow ties since June, 2014 on his website www. solacebowtie.com.

His fascination of bow ties and his dad’s knack for business helped him get a headstart into the world of bow tie making.

“I actually had a landscaping business that I started in sixth grade that wasn’t doing so well at the time. My dad, who does business stuff, sat me down and helped me come up with another business idea for me,” Galloway said.

While making a profit is usually the goal of starting any business, Galloway does it for other reasons.

“I think the best part about it is getting recommendations of the types of bow ties that people want to see more of, and inspiration to make new bow ties is a part I love about it,” Galloway said.

Audrey Cho

ALL PHOTOS BY DAJAI CHATMAN

FLYING HIGH | Junior Hazel Lyman smiles as she tries out her flying scene with a fellow cast member. “Seeing it is really cool, but actually being on it, it’s, I can’t really describe it,” junior Hazel Lyman said. “It’s like being on like a swing but that’s a really bad description because it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

READY TO ROLL | Sophomore Grant Sachs stands at the ready to help cast member Grace Guthrie fly during her specifically choreographed flying scene. “Its pretty interesting, it’s actually a harder job than I thought it be,” Sachs said. “So I’m one of the people that pull(s) the ropes and it may only be half the person’s body weight, but it’s difficult for me because I’m a skinny person. But I think it’s pretty cool because it takes a lot of work to set something like this up. And it’s really cool to see something like this happening and the people look like they’re having a blast doing it.”

Aside from drawing and riding a unicycle, freshman Audrey Cho loves dancing in her free time. She trains for two hours a day, five days a week in hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer.

She has been dancing for the past 10 years. “(Dancing is) very important (to me),” Cho said.

“When I dance, it’s easy to convey thoughts even without speaking and you feel so light and graceful, when I’m normally pretty clumsy.”

Though enjoyable, training for 10 hours a week can be exhausting for Cho. She uses sketching, reading and stretching to relax.

She has been working towards accomplishing her goals one step at a time. Just last winter, she auditioned for the Cinderella Ballet at the Detroit Opera House.

“I would love to be a professional ballet dancer, but right now I want to improve my technique, especially on pointe,” Cho said. “It’s where you wear these special shoes that allow you to go right up on your toes and dance there.”

Christopher Fong

READING SCENES | Middle school drama teacher and Peter Pan director Sean Kifer goes through scenes to help plot the movements of the cast members on the stage,” Kifer said. “The main thing is making sure we’re safe and the actors are safe and it’s a slow process. It’s kind of like choreographing a dance, you know, you have to start and kind of break it down step by step and build it up to a finished product.”

WATCHING CLOSELY | Junior Caitlin Mayernik sits and watches as the cast and crew go through senior Grace Guthrie’s choreographed flying scene as Peter Pan in the children’s room. “It’s so exciting, it’s so exhilarating,” Mayernik said. “It’s like a childhood dream come true because it’s awesome to fly, and like I can’t even explain it, it’s amazing.”

FIVE MINUTES WITH

Special education teacher Ellen Nichols

By Josie Bennett EDITOR

KATIE LINK

Special education teacher Ellen Nichols shows off her ballet shoes that she uses for her weekly ballet class.

Newly hired special education teacher Ellen Nichols, and a 2008 alumna, has taken up a new hobby that she has had a interest in for a while. She recently started ballet lessons at Christina’s Adult Ballet in Farmington Hills .

She goes every Wednesday from 5:30-7 p.m.

“I follow a lot of ballet accounts on Instagram,” Nichols said. “It’s just a really pretty art form.”

To Nichols, this is a completely new experience that she wished she’d had growing up, even though her interest in dance didn’t blossom until later in life.

“I was very shy when I was younger, so I didn’t do a lot of sports just because I think that required you to branch out and meet new people, and I wasn’t really interested in doing that,” Nichols said. “Everybody needs hobbies.”

Another thing Nichols realized was the amount of physical strength that goes into

ballet. One of the workouts she does within her class is called the bar method. This workout is ballet-based strength training.

“I walk away from the class with sore legs and sore arms, and I didn’t realize that it would be such a crazy workout,” Nichols said.

“You have to be really disciplined and super strong to ... be good at it, and I just thought that it would be a good way to work out and get exercise.”

Nichols is only a beginner, so she hasn’t performed any complicated routines. Most of her lessons consist of learning different ballet positions, forms and moves and stringing them together to make smaller numbers.

She hopes that in the next year or two, she will be able to be able to perform more complicated dances.

“Once I become a little bit better at it,” Nichols said. “I’ll be able to wear pointe shoes.”

Working at the restaurant Moy’s is already affording sophomore Christopher Fong real-world work experience.

“I practically was living and taught all my life— even as a baby and all of my childhood—that hard work would soon pay off in the long run if focusing on the goal to support the betterment of our society,” Fong said.

The owner of the restaurant is Alvin Fong, his father, who inherited the restaurant from Christopher’s grandfather.

“I did not find this job, but rather was born into the business,” Christopher said. “We have been in this business for over 50 years.

However, the location at Mack is 10 years old.”

Although Fong has grown up in the restaurant business, he doesn’t want to continue operating his family’s business. However, he will use the knowledge he’s gained from working there.

“The most important thing I have learned from working at Moy’s is that small businesses are hard and tough to operate,” he said. “I would carry on the knowledge gained at Moy’s to improve the hard and tough work produced in the future.”

By Jacqueline Squillace, Syeda Rizvi & Tarun Sanikommu

What is your most memorable vacation?

Oh thats an easy one. My fiance and I just got back from Iceland. We just went in August and it was the coolest place I’ve ever been to in my life. They call it the “land of fire and ice” because there’s volcanos and there are glaciers and geysers and steam, and there’s steam coming out of the ground and there was this hot river that we went to. So by that was my best vacation.

What is your favorite movie?

I’m gonna say that my favorite movie in the whole wide world is the first Harry Potter. I just love Harry Potter so much, you know those ABC family Harry Potter marathons that they have like every single weekend. I will watch every single movie and my fiance that I live with is like you’re crazy.

How did you meet your fiance?

We actually met on a sailboat. I can’t wait to tell my grandkids that. So we had mutual friends I went to North, he went to South. He was two years older than me.

We just had mutual friends and I went sailing one day and he was there and we just hit it off. That was like five years ago and we’ve been together ever since.

LIFE

North Pointe – Wednesday, Oct. 12 – 5

PHOTOS BY MADAME FOSTER

FOND MEMORIES | French teacher Pamela Foster 2-year-olf photo taken when she was in Kenya.

FAMILY PHOTO | Pamela Foster with her mother and father Rita and Martin Frei at one year old when they were vacationing in London.

MAKING FRIENDS | Pamela Foster with a Maasai woman at 3 years old when she was living in Kenya in the Maasai Mara Village.

French teacher’s globetrotting brings her to G.P.

By Ritika Sanikommu & Katie Thomas EDITOR & STAFF REPORTER Her childhood was spent in three continents and four countries. French teacher Pamela Foster’s life has been a worldwide journey that eventually led to her love for language.

Born to a Swiss-German father and Singaporean mother, Foster was brought into a cultural melting pot.

Foster was born in Madrid, Spain and spent the first four months of her life there. When she was a few months old, her family moved to Nairobi, Kenya and later to Libreville, Gabon in Africa for her father’s job. After their years in Africa, she relocated to her father’s hometown in Switzerland. But that wasn’t their last stop. Heading westward, they made their way to New York in 1980, where Foster’s father, Martin Frei, still resides.

Her father’s work as a master chef and culinary instructor for the Swiss government took the family to various countries. Their constant relocations embedded in them a love for traveling.

“I believe that travel is very important. Travel is also very exciting, but in your life, you can only do that to a certain amount of time,” Frei said. “Until the kids reach a certain age and then once they have to go through school, you cannot move around like that anymore because you have to settle down.”

The second leg of Foster’s globe-trotting adventure began

when she moved to New York and became a teacher. She then took a two-year break to initiate her stint in the fashion and advertising industry. However, her love of teaching eventually pulled her back. After bouncing around some of New York’s best schools, Foster met her husband, a Michigan native, and moved here to start a family.

Foster’s diverse familial upbringing exposed her to various cultures. From their travels, her family took away traditions and values that remain important to them today. Her father’s parenting style was tinged with a global influence.

“We raised her as an American kid, but there are certain things-for example in our family-with certain small traditions which are leftovers from the time we used to travel a lot.

Like we used around the house, certain words which are not English,” Frei said. “For example we don’t use the word ‘milk’ (instead, we say it in) Swahili, ‘maziwa’.”

Language has always been a significant part of Foster’s lifestyle. Though French and English are currently her two mastered languages, Foster has been fluent in multiple. At age 4, she was fluent in Swiss-German, French, English, Swahili and Malay.

Despite her multiple cultural backgrounds, French is one of the most prominent languages in Foster’s personal life. Her two children were born in America, but the French instructor

continues to incorporate the European culture into the kids’ everyday routines.

Despite her daughter’s initial resistance to the language, through her own pursuits she developed an affinity for it like her mom.

“Since my kids were born, I decided that I needed to teach them a little French. I just did it naturally, so my children learned French nursery rhymes, and they learned how to count, things like that, and when I actually really wanted to start teaching my daughter when she was 3, she pushed back.

She didn’t want to, so I just let it go and I let her seek out French,” Foster said. “Now my kids are just so excited because they can’t wait to take French when they’re older, and they are requesting that I be their French teacher.”

After figuratively marking up the map, the expedition spanning multiple countries and continents came to a close.

Foster’s journey finally led her to Grosse Pointe, where she has found a home at North.

“North is my last stop. I want to be a little old French teacher here,” she said. “I feel at home, and I wouldn’t want to be any other place.”

Seniors go out with a bang at pep assembly It was the performance that brought people to their feet while the whole student body cheered them on agenda. The cover band, which remains nameless, performed “Waiting” by Green Day, a first for the pep assembly. The band consists of seniors Will Fishwick (vocals and rhythm guitar), Alex Eklund (bass guitar), PJ Gusmano (drums) and Billy Dumbrowski (lead guitar).

By Ratika Sanikommu & Erin Kaled EDITORS

Q&A:

NP: When did you guys form the band?

Will Fishwick: Middle of August was when we started practicing. We didn’t get PJ, the drummer, until after the school year started. It was me, Billy and Alex for the middle of August and that’s when we started practicing together.

NP: What did you guys think of the reaction from the students?

AE: It was pretty cool. They started chanting “seniors” in the middle of it.

PJ Gusmano: The feedback I got from people was good. They liked it, so that was pretty cool.

WF: They really enjoyed when Billy unplugged his guitar and (sat) down. I was like, ‘what are you doing?’

NP: What were your biggest challenges?

PJ: When I practice I am just the rhythm, so I can’t hear what the song sounds like with the actual melody.

WF: The tone of the guitars definitely was a challenge ‘cause the amps we have didn’t let us get ... what was on the recording, so we had to play around with that to match and just respecting the music and what was written. We need to go as close as we can to the track.

Senior PJ Gusmano

NP: Did you always start having a close relationship or did you later develop that?

AE: We were all friends.

WF: It was pretty much already there.

It’s always different with music ‘cause they have to know what the other person is gonna do and how they’re gonna play it, and so that came along with time.

NP: Did you have any creative differences?

WF: I mean, yeah, there was a couple. Billy always kept improvising in the middle, and I was like, ‘please stop.’ If you can make it sound good, then you can do it, and eventually he did it. If you can make it sound good. do it, but otherwise respect the song and how it was. originally played.

Senior Billy Dumbrowski Senior Alex Eklund NP: What inspired you to start it?

Alex Eklund: We just wanted to have fun at our last pep assembly and do something interesting.

WF: We knew that they usually had a student performance at the end of the pep assembly but there’s never been like a live band.

NP: What is your rehearsal process like?

AE: We kind of get together at someone’s house, and we go over the song, and then we see like, ‘does this part need some work?’

Let’s work on this transition, just feeling what everybody needs to do to get better.

ALL PHOTOS BY HANNAH SPINDLER

NP: What is your creative process when you are making music?

WF: We haven’t written anything. We might want to.

We’re pretty much just a cover band right now. For creative process, there’s no music to listen to, so you really just have to listen to each other and see what sounds good and mess around with different tones and see what mixes the best.

NP: Do you have advice for people looking to start their own band?

WF: Do it with your friends. It’ll be a lot more fun to do it with people you know and to not get frustrated with each other, or you’ll get on each other’s nerves and break up, so just have fun. And I would start with covers, but once you get more into what (everyone is) doing, you can start writing your own music.

Senior Will Fishwick

6 – Wednsday, Oct. 12, 2016 – North Pointe

IN-DEPTH Reverse in application trend shows students spread themselves too thin

By Katelynn Mulder & Amber Braker EDITOR & INTERN

counselor Milissa Pierce said. “Seeing longevity, like Cub Scouts, or band or Spanish for four years, or leadership like ‘I created a club or an organization, and we did something’ can be helpful, too. I don’t think it’s ‘you have to do it all.’ You have to show commitment so that the colleges know you will be committed to something when you get there.”

Following this trend, the best time to explore different activities and areas of interest may be freshman year. During sophomore year, students should start to have a good idea of the activities that they want to continue to participate in. Though it is never too late to start getting involved in extracurriculars, by junior year, students should generally be well

“

If you don’t know how to fully develop skills or the habit of going to one things, or just a few things, and really learning it and knowing it well and enjoying it, then you’re just going to be realy shallow in a lot of things and that doesn’t help.

Shannon Gabriel SENIOR

“

Club involvement can be a serious commitment that takes up a lot of free time. For senior Shannon Gabriel, the president of the Diversity Club and an editor on Harbinger, that means occasionally pulling late nights in order to keep up with homework and learning to cope with the large workload of AP classes as well as extracurriculars. But though being involved in many clubs is time-consuming, she believes that it is necessary in order to pursue her passions.

“I have felt overwhelmed because I do tend to overbook myself. But I think it’s worth it,” Gabriel said. “Day to day, I’m tired and sometimes stressed out and sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But when I get a chance to sit down and think about what I’m doing, whether it’s once a week or once every few months, or whenever it happens to be, I sit down and I’m thinking about all of the stuff that I’m involved in, and I’m passionate about all of it.

I love doing all of it, and I’m interested in all of it. So for me, it’s worth it.”

Gabriel also believes extracurricular involvement allows for the development of skills in regards to managing time, interacting with people and trying new things that will help with challenges later in life.

“I think it kinda gives me the upper hand in college and in life because I have been able to sort of juggle all of these different things pretty successfully for a number of years,” Gabriel said. “I feel like that has prepared me for all of the different things that I’m going to be doing in college and real life.”

As college acceptance rates decrease annually, the competition for admission can lead students to spread themselves thin across multiple extracurricular activities in the hopes of looking more well rounded on college applications.

Gabriel believes colleges want to see a willingness in their students to dive right into the work they are given.

“They want a student who they know will succeed in what they do at their college,” Gabriel said. “And if you don’t know how to fully develop skills or the habit of going to one thing, or just a few things, and really learning it and knowing it well and enjoying it, then you’re just gonna be really shallow in a lot of things and that doesn’t help.”

However, the trend in extracurricular involvement is changing. Colleges are beginning to look at activities outside of school in terms of quality rather than quantity. According to a 2013 Huffington Post report, admission offices prefer to see high school students focus on a few special interests instead of a dozen organizations in which they can only participate superficially.

Specifically, they are now focusing on whether the activity has helped the student grow, how leadership has been demonstrated and if the student has received outside recognition for their achievements and hard work.

“It’s important to show passion or desire in some area. You don’t have to do everything and do it all. You should be finding the things that you are the best at and good at and really work hard on trying to improve those,”

established in clubs and other activities. Finally, in senior year applying for college takes priority so club involvement should be limited to only the ones a student is most interested in.

It also helps to get involved in programs over the summer.

Colleges like to see that students have taken advantage of time off of school to learn and experience new things instead of only spending time watching television or hanging out with friends.

No matter what the extracurricular activity is, as long as the student was dedicated to it and used their time in a constructive way, admission offices will view it favorably.

“For instance, do colleges appreciate it if a student works three days a week and manages their schedule with three honors classes or their AP

class? Absolutely, because it shows that they can manage things so it’s not that they had to,” Pierce said. “Let’s say maybe they are contributing to the household or the family. That is something that absolutely has integrity in it and they would appreciate, but I think colleges are looking realistically at how much students have on their plate now. And the quality issue is something that we are really hearing more from them.”

Colleges also look at how a person spends their summer vacation.

If a potential student has no examples of any growth or activity over the summer their application will not be as strong as someone who has participated in organizations or clubs throughout the year.

While being involved in extracurricular activities are important, grades and test scores matter even more. According to school counselor Jill Davenport many colleges look at academic performance before they consider extracurriculars.

“Many schools claim they do a holistic review, meaning that they look at the activities and they look at extracurriculars and they look at the essays, but grades and testing scores are certainly the first thing they look at,” Davenport said. “If all else is created equal then they will go to the extracurriculars and are more well rounded, but when you start talking about the high end schools they expect you to have it all. The activities as well as the grades.”

Ultimately, activities outside of school are meant to show colleges each student’s unique personality and character through their applications, and not just their academic records.

“Part of it is just what they read into your character. Remember when you submit something it’s the judgement of the person judging it, so you have to be careful with some of the messages that are being sent out,” Davenport said. “But consistency is something that speaks to your character and working through, because no matter what you do there’s going to be some challenges that come along the way in third years.”

According to www.usnews.com, another way for a college admission to stand out is for students to show that they have taken the initiative.

Universities love seeing students who show specific interest in their school, who go out of their way to write any optional essay during the admissions process and who reach out to the college admissions offices with questions of their own.

“Sometimes kids will have community service and activities that are all just high school related, while there are other people that went and created opportunities outside of school. They created programs or they created an activity for a special population that had not been created before, so they are taking it to the next step,” Davenport said. “So even if it’s still at school, that they are taking it to the next step of something that wasn’t already there, they created programs.”

The MSU Admissions staff responded to our questions via email

KATELYNN MULDER & AMBER BRAKER

IDEAS

North Pointe – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 – 7

ON POINTE Top 10 things we're talking about this week

By Caitlin Bush EDITOR

1 Event

HALLOWEEKENDS

2

WWW.CEDARPOINT.COM

Cedar Point is hosting its annual Halloweekends through Sunday, Oct. 30. The amusement park features haunted houses, mazes, scare zones and shows for a spooky experience. Fridays 6 p.m.-12 a.m., Saturdays 11 a.m.-12 a.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tickets are $66.

Streaming

HATERS BACK OFF!

Movie

Album

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

JOANNE

“Keeping Up With the Joneses” centers around an ordinary couple that discovers that their “perfect” neighbors are government spies. But they find themselves in an international battle and struggle to keep up. It hits theaters Friday,

Lady Gaga’s fifth album, “Joanne,” drops Friday, Oct. 21. The album's lead single, “Perfect Illusion,” was released Sept. 9, and fans will be able to hear 10 more pop songs on the upcoming album.

INSTAGRAM @LADYGAGA

6

IMDB.COM

7

Event

Movie

WWW.IMDB.COM

OUIJA

5

EREBUS

Netflix original series “Haters Back Off!” debuts Oct. 14. The comedy show stars Youtubers Colleen Ballinger, Angela Kinsey and Steve Jim. It follows Ballinger’s Youtube persona, Miranda Sings, as she becomes famous.

4

3

Attraction

NETFLIX.COM

FOOTBALL GAME

“Ouija: Origins of Evil” hits theaters Friday, Oct. 21. In 1967, a family unwillingly summons an evil spirit after discovering a ouija board, and the youngest daughter becomes possessed.

They are forced to confront unthinkable fears in order to save her. Rated PG-13.

HAUNTEDPONTIAC.COM

To get into the Halloween spirit, visit Erebus, the world's largest haunted house, in Pontiac. The maze includes four floors and is open Mondays through Thursdays 7-11 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 6 p.m.-1 a.m. and Sundays 6-11 p.m. Tickets are $23-$50 depending on the desired deal.

9

VALHALLA

Come cheer on the varsity football team Friday, Oct. 14 when they take on Roseville High School. The game will be held on North’s turf. Admission is $5.

10 Event

ALL-STAR COMEDY FESTIVAL

Event

RED WINGS GAME NHL.COM

The Detroit Red Wings will take on the Ottawa Senators Monday, Oct. 17 at the Joe Louis Arena at 7:30 p.m. The Red Wings are currently ranked third in the Atlantic Division, while the Senators are sixth.

TWITTER @TODDCAREY

8

Todd Carey, a musician and singer-songwriter from Illinois, is coming to Detroit’s Fifth Avenue Theatre on Thursday, Event Oct. 13. Carey is known for his TODD CAREY hit song “Nintendo.” Tickets CONCERT are $7-$10. Mark Daisy will open the show at 8 p.m., and Carey will perform at 9 p.m.

MY TURN ALEX HARRING

There's no place like home

Throughout the school year and summer, my timeline displays colorful photos of students volunteering in front of grandiose backdrops, flying thousands of miles to give back to the world. I commend those students. Being a citizen of the world allows you to gain new perspectives and formulate new opinions on world issues while helping the underprivileged.

But just as I see my peers doing amazing things overseas, I can also see a metropolitan city in need from the corner of my street. Detroit is a mere 10 minutes away, but the socioeconomic divide between Grosse Pointe and Detroit is nationally recognized.

We remain farsighted when it comes to Detroit, taking

OLYMPIAENTERTAINMENT.COM

The All-Star Comedy Festival hits the Fox Theater stage Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. Featured comedians are Deon Cole, Corey Holcomb, Earthquake, Tony Rock and Rodney Perry. Tickets are $59-$99.

NHL.COM

our time and resources to the ends of the Earth. And when I say we, I include myself.

Our view of Detroit, crafted by upbeat slogans and news pieces, is skewed. It may seem like the “comeback city” is actually making a comeback, but trust me when I say that it’s just a facade.

My work with Summer in the City, a volunteer organization for youth with the goal of restoring Metro Detroit, exposed me to problems that I never even knew existed.

I know I’ve never lived in Detroit, so I can’t provide you with first-person anecdotes, but here’s what I do know: some kids at the camps Summer in the City sponsored couldn’t read English well enough to answer questionnaires about their experiences—and they’re going into middle school.

Many participants didn’t have adequate transportation to get to the site, so they were either late or absent, and not by their own doing. And for a few campers, the complimentary lunch was the only full meal they’d eat.

This isn’t our fault, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to stop it. We don’t need to take long plane rides to offroad villages or travel to another continent to help people (although if you can, you should). Remember that we can

do the same amount of good overseas as we can do while staying on Mack Avenue.

By no means am I diminishing the work of our peers who do chose to aid in foreign countries, because the work they’re doing is fantastic. But I also see a community that is right in front of us that we aren’t helping, and I wonder why we don’t.

I look at the pictures of students traveling around the world, and I think about organizations like Forgotten Harvest and Detroit 2020 that give students our age an opportunity to help restore the city that was once a booming industrial town.

The youth in Grosse Pointe have a clear advantage when it comes to helping Detroit: we know there are problems, and have the resources to help solve them. So there’s no excuse for not volunteering. If you can’t afford to go to another continent, as most can’t, there are enough opportunities in Detroit to suffice. You just have to be willing to look for them.

Be the change you want to see in the world, but realize that sometimes that change is needed closer to home than you may think.

8 - Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 – North Pointe

Mendes’ new album illuminates world of pop

By Gowri Yerramalli EDITOR

“Illuminate” Shawn Mendes, 2016 Available for $13.99

REVIEWS Shawn Mendes fans have been brought out of the dark about the singer’s recent activity through his album “Illuminate.” The Stitches singer released his new album on Sept. 23 after keeping his fans guessing for several months about his new music.

The album includes some of his newly-released chart toppers, such as “Treat You Better and Mercy.”

From being only 15 when writing his first album to 17, Mendes not only portrays an improvement in his musical maturity, but also takes a sophisticated approach towards the meanings behind his songs. As the singer explained to his fans, he tries to delve into deeper thoughts by conveying actual experiences that he has had through his lyrics. Songs such as Three Empty Words and Ruin explain Mendes’s experiences with heartbreak and previously failed relationships, while others explain his changed outlook on life.

One song in particular on the soundtrack tries to portray a common global issue. The song Treat You Better, one of Mendes’s radio hits, attempts to raise awareness for domestic violence, even providing a graphic music video to supplement the song. In the video, a girl is shown being emotionally and physically abused by her pa r t ner, with Mendes

singing that he can treat her better than her boyfriend. The singer also supplies his listeners with the National Domestic Violence Hotline number near the end of his video, in hopes of improving this issue.

As for the musicality of the album, the singer shows a significant improvement in the quality of his voice and tone. His voice is clear through all of the songs and drops significantly in octaves, giving fans a surprise with his new undertones, compared to his high tenor voice in “Handwritten,” his first album. Mendes also alternates between a forced, heavy voice to a relaxed, light tone when singing about different themes in his music. This alteration helps convey the message of the song more easily to the listener.

The artist strolls away from his usual acoustic sound temporarily by incorporating more beats and rhythms to provide a diverse flavor to his sound. Although there is still an apparent underlying acoustic theme throughout the track , the use of more modern rhythms helps create an edge to his songs. He also integrates many R&B and pop elements to create a vintage sound with a modern twist, but his constant use of guitars and pianos always brings fans back to the original Shawn they fell in love with through his first album.

With the theme of the album being life experiences, Mendes has included a variety of upbeat and slow songs to showcase the positive and negative experiences the singer has faced. He kicked off the launch of his new album with the release of Treat You Better, which quickly rose to become one of the Billboard 100 within the next few weeks. Other upbeat tracks such as “No Promises” and “Honest” explain the positivity of a budding relationship and the frustrations it can bring. The slow songs, including “Three Empty Words” and “Mercy” depict the ruin and melancholy a relationship can bring when it is over.

The cover art for the album has a vintage, unique look, illustrating Mendes’s style of music in the album. It depicts a guitar and a chair and has a rustic background, but also gives off a modern vibe to the viewers. The subtle colors in the background of the picture draw the fans’ attention toward the album.

With all of these elements combined, this new album has really brought fans into the light about the new Shawn Mendes.

WWW.SHAWNMENDESOFFCIAL.COM

STREAMING SERVICES

MOVIE

MUSIC

APP

YOUTUBE MUSIC

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

THE ALTAR

BLACKBOX

Modern witchy woman Banks has graced the undercurrents of the Internet with her second album, “The Altar”, released Sept. 30.

Banks has the unWWW.AMAZON.COM mistakably moody timbre that attracts the ears of the most dramatic soundtrack producers.

While fans were anxiously awaiting another album from their unofficial princess of dark pop, “The Altar” does not ring loud enough to cause the ripple of her breakout album, “Goddess”. The singles on the album are powerful, yet only a few standout tracks show the artist’s growth over the two-year gap.

However, one thing that “The Altar” does well is reinforce her image, showing the firm footing she has in her little weird corner of the alternative pop and contemporary R&B genre.

Competing with hailed artists like FKA Twigs and SOHN, the footprint Banks has left on the game is so distinct, it is plastered all over “The Altar”.

Key tracks include “Gemini Feed,” “This Is Not About Us” and “Mind Games.” As one of the preteased singles, “Gemini Feed” encaptures the entire, purposely loopy feel of the album. Banks does what she does best on the track, littering out run after run effortlessly, keeping listeners on their toes and lulling them into the explosive chorus.

The most basic and distinguishing parts of any Banks song are love, greed, manipulation and deceit—and Gemini Feed plays well into all of those.

Sodden track “Weaker Girl” plays to the more typical, empowerment vibe, while “This Is Not About Us” counteracts that in a more resounding, aggressive way.

Banks’ music has the oversaturated sound that can either surround or suffocate a listener. This means some tracks lack distinction. The most noteworthy are the ones with hardened rhythms and minimal warbles. When pandering to a more Top 40 crowd, The Altar may remind some listeners of the lesser known tracks on Rihanna’s ANTI album.

Either way, Banks’ heavy-yet-tinny voice patently marks up every track. If listeners are looking for something to paint the backdrop for their cold and moody October, “The Altar” is perfect.

Blackbox is an enigmatic puzzle game that forces the user to think outside the boundaries of the application in order to solve ITUNES.APPLE.COM un ique puzzles.

The game’s main shtick is that most puzzles are able to be completed without “touching” the screen. For many of the puzzles, Blackbox utilizes the user’s phone’s functions outside the application in order to complete them.

For example, while the user may not have to touch anything on the screen, some challenges will require the brightness to be turned up.

Puzzles can range anywhere from making use of the microphone for different sound levels or moving the phone in particular directions.

The concept is indeed very interesting, however many puzzles are almost impossible to complete without using the three hints the game allows. The concepts cultivated in this title may be too abstract for many people to understand, seeing as not many games in the past have had the ability to use a device’s built-in features to augment gameplay—a new development that only seems to have been able to emerge recently.

This is a shame because Blackbox could garner a lot of interest from the general public, but the problem of accessibility might be too great for some.

The artistic style of the game, on the other hand, does not have the same imagination as the gameplay.

It consists of a typical spartan aesthetic of solid colored backgrounds laid against a foreground of geometric shapes. The style is very utilitarian and serves its purpose. However, with a game as “out-of-the-box” as this one, the aesthetic should mirror its creativity.

Blackbox is a simple game at its core that relies heavily on a central gimmick of using unconventional methods to solve challenging problems. Unfortunately, the game is marred by a steep barrier of accessibility and the fact that the gimmick itself has a real possibility of losing appeal after it’s been exhausted.

It is worth a try for the novelty if nothing else.

PLAY.GOOGLE.COM

Music’s newest trend is digital streaming services. Some big names in this industry include Spotify and Apple Music. But recently, Youtube has come out with its own music app to supplement the cur-

rent service.

Similar to other services of the same kind, Youtube music is subscription-based, meaning there is a free version and one for $10 per month. The paid version is connected to Youtube Red. However, it isn’t worth buying a subscription because there really isn’t anything special about it.

Most components of the streaming service are the same as many others: songs can be saved in the “liked” music section, there is a list of trending music worldwide and content can be searched for by artist, song or album.

But it is also lacking in many features that people have enjoyed from other services such as the ability to follow artists and get updates on new music they release.

There are some unique features of Youtube Music that users may find interesting. Audio and video modes allow users to toggle between listening and seeing the music videos.

The variety of music available, including live performances, music videos and songs from artists that are unavailable on other streaming services is also a plus.

Another is the offline mixtape. This creates a mix of song recommendations based on previous listening history. The curated list is automatically available offline, so users can listen to it anywhere.

These features and many others are unavailable to a free subscription user, and the limitations make it almost identical to the normal Youtube app except with less video diversity. They make it seem more like an additional amenity for Youtube Red subscribers than a standalone music streaming service.

The free version carries the typical inconveniences of no-cost streaming services that users have come to know and hate including ads and the inability to play music offline.

The Youtube Music app adds almost nothing new or significant to the music streaming industry. It has the same flaws and basic components as any other app of the same kind. The free version is limiting in terms of usability, and the paid version isn’t worth the cost.

In Tim Burton’s latest film, Burton takes author Ransom Riggs’ “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” to the next level on the silver screen. The anticipated SCREENRANT.COM highly movie for book lovers and film fanatics stars Asa Butterfield (“Hugo”), Eva Green (“Casino Royale”), Samuel L. Jackson (“Avengers”) and Allison Janney (“West Wing”).

The film follows the story of Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield) and his adventures about discovering the truth of his grandfather’s peculiar bedtime stories. Deciding to investigate, Portman travels to a demolished orphanage on the Welsh island of Cairnholm to find that the inhabitants are trapped in a continuous loop on September 3, 1940, living in constant fear for their lives.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” maybe more appealing to readers and fans of Riggs’ novel, so they’re more likely to point out it’s many flaws. There were many details stripped from the movie since they most likely couldn’t fit into the allotted two-hour time. Beside the majority of details missing, Burton switched and changed characters around from the novel. In addition to the new and absent details, Burton made the events move faster, making it harder to comprehend if audiences had not read Riggs’ novel.

Eva Green’s portrayal of Riggs’ Miss.

Peregrine was one of highlights of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”.

Opposite from her former role in Burton’s “Dark Shadows” as the evil villain, her latest character is still slightly controlling, but her heart is still in the best interest of the kids resigning at the home. She takes all the aspects of the character and embraces it to make Miss.

Peregrine more realistic.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” may fit Burton’s usual aesthetic, however, his take on Riggs beloved novel is missing a majority of its most valuable parts, having them be replaced by unnecessary add ins. Though, it may be a little upsetting to fans of the novel, it will still entertain viewers of the film.

Youtube Music; 2016, ITUNES; Available on Apple devices

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”; 2016; Directed by Tim Burton; PG-13

“The Altar”; By Banks; 2016; $17.99, 47 minutes

Blackbox; Ryan Mcleod; 2016; Available for Apple and Android

By Amber Braker

By Katie Link

By Abbey Cadieux

By Giuseppe Parison

EDITORIAL

North Pointe - Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 - 9

Turning a new leaf “Grosse Pointe Public School administrators and teachers are responsible for encouraging and ensuring freedom of expression and freedom of the press for all students, regardless of whether the ideas expressed may be considered unpopular, critical, controversial, tasteless or offensive.”

The circus on Capitol Hill

BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICY Lindsey Ramsdell EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Mora Downs MANAGING EDITOR

Billy Moin MANAGING EDITOR

Ritika Sannikommu EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Alex Harring ASST. MANAGING EDITOR

Gowri Yerramalli BUSINESS MANGER

Caitlin Bush NEWS EDITOR

Abbey Cadieux IDEAS EDITOR

Anna Post SPORTS EDITOR

Katelynn Mulder ASSISTANT EDITOR

Sonny Mulpuri DIGITAL EDITOR

Our editorial represents the opinion of the North Pointe Editorial Board consisting of the editors above. Members who have a conflict of interest with an editorial topic do not partake in that meeting or vote.

LINDSEY RAMSDELL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Lindsey Ramsdell MANAGING EDITORS: Mora Downs, Billy Moin EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Ritika Sanikommu ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Alex Harring DESIGN EDITOR: Emma Brock BUSINESS MANAGER: Gowri Yerramalli SECTION EDITORS: Josie Bennett, Caitlin Bush, Abbey Cadieux, Anna Post DIGITAL EDITORS: Erin Kaled, Sonny Mulpuri, Sarah Wietecha ASSISTANT EDITORS: Allison Lackner, Trevor Mieczkowski, Katelynn Mulder, Montana Paton, Michal Ruprecht, Billy Steigelman, Tommy Teftsis PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katie Link, Alyssa McLarty, Lauren Sexton STAFF REPORTERS: Dajai Chatman, Darcy Graham, Bella Lawson, Nathan Lonczynski, Giuseppe Parison, Asia Simmons, Addison Toutant INTERNS: Amber Braker, Nicole Fazekas, Sofia Ketels, Lyndsay Kluge, Syeda Rizvi, Tarun Sanikommu, Jacqueline Squillace, Katie Thomas The North Pointe is edited and produced by Advanced Journalism students at Grosse Pointe North High School and is published every two weeks. It is in practice a designated public forum without prior review.

Comments should be directed to the student editors, who make all final content decisions. The views expressed are solely those of the authors or the student editorial board and do not reflect the opinions of the Grosse Pointe Public School System.

We are a member of the Michigan Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, National Scholastic Press Association and Student Press Law Center.

We subscribe to McClatchy-Tribune Information Services and iStockphoto.com.

One copy is available free to all community members. Additional copies may be purchased. Our editorial policy and advertising rates are available online at northpointenow.org.

The North Pointe is printed on 100% recycled paper.

EDITOR’S DESK SARAH WIETECHA

OUR EDITORIAL Each year, teachers from a specific department from both North and South form a committee to review their curriculum, and their proposed changes are then analyzed by the Board of Education. This year, the English department falls under inspection, and the North Pointe Editorial Board has a few suggestions.

In previous years, progressive changes were made to the English Department regarding the sequence of classes for non-AP English students.

Power of Language was added as an alternative to Humanities, allowing students who did not want to take the AP track to enhance their reading and writing skills before college.

As it goes under review this school year, the Editorial Board thinks that the department should consider including more novels by authors of color as part of the curriculum.

Studying topics such as racial oppression and injustice are already a focus in most of the English classes, and the Board believes that should stay the same. Students spend time discussing the connotations of Huckleberry Finn and Jim’s relationship in American Literature and the injustice behind Tom Robinson’s trial in “To Kill A Mockingbird” in Freshman English. But ironically, despite the efforts to expose students to our culture’s history of racial bias, students do not read any books actually written by non-white authors.

That’s not to say that authors of color are completely bypassed. Students spend some time on poems and short stories written by authors such as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. However, the amount of time spent studying their works are much shorter in comparison to the time spent reading entire novels written by predominantly white authors.

The current English curriculum for all high school students in our district includes many iconic novels and plays such as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Crucible” and “Great Expectations.”

Though some of these books discuss topics

such as oppression and racial prejudice, they are all told through the eyes of a white person.

The fact is that these white authors did not experience slavery and were not oppressed. They may have observed racist instances, but only an author who has experienced it first-hand will truly know how to convey it. For a rounded education, students should be reading full works by authors of color. As the department teaches history through literature, which is a noble pursuit, there should be a diverse spectrum of authors in the list of core novels to ensure a full and balanced education.

Spending time on the “classics” is important, but when they are all written by white authors, students aren’t afforded a complete understanding of the time period they are trying to learn about.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” builds a solid understanding of the 1830s and ‘40s, but is satirical at its core. Books such as “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker and “Roots” by Alex Haley may provide deeper exposure to racist time periods in our nation’s history. Especially after the racist incidents that occurred in our community last year, all students could benefit from reading texts from a more diverse standpoint.

If adding or substituting in more books by oppressed authors is not a possibility, the current units that include works by oppressed authors should be prioritized. Ideally, instead of cramming these authors into shortened units through poems and short stories, full novels by authors of color would be required reading and fully implemented into the curriculum.

As we graduate and venture into college and beyond, it is important that we have been exposed to both classical works as well as those that deal with the tough topics in life such as racial prejudice. While books by authors of color may not be as old or well-read as books like “Frankenstein” or “The Great Gatsby,” they hold equal, if not more, importance when it comes to educating students on periods of oppression.

CONTACT US 707 Vernier Road Grosse Pointe Woods MI, 48236 Phone: 313.432.3248 Email: northpointe@gpschools.org Twitter: @thenorthpointe Website: NorthPointeNow.org FACULTY ADVISER: Shari Adwers, MJE “Yes, my English class is pretty diverse, and we kind of talk about the struggles of different races.”

“Yes, because I feel they get multiple races in, and everyone gets to say their opinion.”

“Yes, because we are given authors of different races, different genders, different sexualities and different religions.”

Aryianna Peterson

Sean Bly

Demetri Gritsas

FRESHMAN

SOPHOMORE

JUNIOR

YOUR TURN: Do you feel English classes present a diverse array of authors?

By Alyssa McLarty & Nathan Lonczynski PHOTOGRAPHER & STAFF REPORTER

“Yes, because I feel that with just a broad span of authors that are different, it helps gives a different perspective to the students.”

“I do think our curriculum tries to represent a fair amount of diverse experiences. But... there’s room for us to do much better.”

“We are working towards making text more diverse for our students, especially representing the population we have at North and the community in general.”

George Costigan

Geoffrey Young

Alyssa Sandoval

SENIOR

ENGLISH TEACHER

ENGLISH TEACHER

A circus, the “big top”. Known for their troupe of acrobats, trained animals, gymnasts and daredevils, a circus was sure to bring some fun to anyone who enjoyed the event. The problem with circuses, however, is that they have fallen out of style.

The public can only enjoy some nostalgic family time in the “big top” every few years. Even though circuses are less common now-a-days, I would argue that they are still at the peak of their popularity, decades later.

Circuses have even advanced to be broadcast on national television for all to see. But which circus am I talking about? The all mighty, all famous, renowned circus that is the presidential election of 2016.

With news anchors like Matt Lauer and Lester Holt residing as our as chief ring leaders, the presidential election has spun out of control into a frenzy of mudslinging and racist remarks.

It resembles a ‘king of the hill’ fight for the top prize, which in this circus, isn’t just the audience’s attention, but the most powerful position in the world.

Consider Donald Trump as the clown and Hillary Clinton as the lion tamer, in our socalled presidential circus. Like a clown tries to appeal to the audience’s sense of humor, Trump has been consistent with his barrage of women, people of color, government officials and the lion tamer herself on Twitter.

While freedom of speech is a respected right, excessive defamation and slander just to get attention is juvenile, and considerably un-presidential like. Like all clowns, some find Trump off-putting. But, many still enjoy his theatrics and he remains a favorite in American culture for entertainment and still polls high in many hard core Republican states.

Moving on to the lion tamer, Hillary Clinton puts on a show, putting herself and her subordinates in danger of public humiliation, but somehow always comes out without a scratch. The email scandal left the Clinton administration scrambling for a way out, but somehow they pulled it off, leaving Clinton leading in the polls in many swing states. She also provides moments of anxiety for onlookers, specifically when her bought with pneumonia had the public worried that they would elect a person who will not be in good enough health to lead. Still though, she emerged from this relatively unscathed, save for her opposers’ comments on her age and health.

These candidates have forgotten the real purpose behind running for president and have resorted to subtweeting each other like teenagers and compelling the other to “delete your twitter.” This poses a problem for millennial voters in their decision making when it comes time to go to the polls. In a recent Michigan poll, Trump is coming in at 0%, but that doesn’t change the fact that this election’s motto has been “I’ll pick the lesser of two evils.” Could this mantra have been stopped early on in the race if the candidates and their teams had not decided to duel it out in the big top for their adoring and bloodthirsty audience? Possibly.

With all this, I implore you, do not believe everything you hear on the internet or TV about our two circus candidates. Research real facts and evidence before making a decision in November on who to vote for. If you can’t vote, don’t be a pawn in the circus, support whomever you choose civilly and justly, without disparaging the other. This is the way to “Make America great again” and bring the most powerful seat in the world back to the importance that it holds.

FEATURE

10 – Wednseday, Oct. 12, 2016 – North Pointe

Pollution the

By Alex Harring & Trevor Mieczkowski EDITORS

Q&A with science teacher Chris Skowronski

North Pointe: How is the air polluted?

Chris Skowronski: When we talk about air pollution, we can really break it into two different things.

You have the developing world and the developed world. In the developing world, you don’t have the laws that we have here. You don’t have the Clean Air Act. So, there people actually getting a lot of fuel from themselves from cutting down trees, and they’ll actually use that as something to use for cooking and for heating their homes and things like that. When you just burn wood just throughout your house, it’s going to create an air quality issue They don’t have laws for cars like we do here with catalytic converters where it just makes air pollution a lot less if you have that technology on your car. So, in the developing world they also have cars that pollute a little bit more. They also have more people in terms of there’s going to be more cars and more burning of fuelwood and those types of things. When it comes to factories, (the) developing world again doesn’t have the same technology that we have here. When they burn things, there’s no filters or there’s no scrubbers to take out the pollutants. In the United States, when it comes to air quality, the biggest issues would be from burning coal and from running cars. So, those are really the two big things.

NP: Would “there being no fresh air anymore” be a true statment?

CS: That’s false. Air quality is better in the United States than it was back in the day. And in the rest of the world, in China and India, it’s much worse than what it’s been. If you go back to before the Clean Air Act, we had horrible air quality ...

It’s not perfect now, but it’s better than what it was. If we get rid of the Clean Air Act, we will return to those days that we had.

NP: In general, how does pollution affect us?

CS: Your lungs are going to be impacted. When you breathe things in, it doesn’t just necessarily (mean) you breathe it out. It stays part of you. It can impact your digestive system and your entire health, so it can be a huge issue ... the number of people that die each day from air quality around the world is a huge number. It’s bigger than what you would think.

NP: What can we do to help protect air quality?

CS: Invest in renewable technology.

So, when solar geothermal in places that have that type of activity, that’s going to limit how much coal you’re going to use. Even natural gasses is a better alternative because natural gas burns cleaner than coal. So, get away from coal as soon as possible.

Coal is really cheap, which is good for our electricity cost, but it has so many health impacts. So (getting rid of) coal would be good and then encourage public transportation. If people are using more buses and trains, then they’re going to use less fuel overall. So, getting away from oil as well.

Contributing: Emma Brock & Katelynn Mulder

problem

MORE FACTORIES COMING TO METRO DETROIT AND THE INCREASED USE OF CARS IN THE MOTOR CITY RAISED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE QUALITY OF OUR AIR

SPORTS Enough is enough

North Pointe – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 - 11

Walking on to success North alumna earns varsity letter as MSU track walk-on

By Anna Post EDITOR

Architecture and Design | Arts and Sciences | Engineering | Management

DIANE MONTGOMERY

TEAM SPIRIT | Rustmann alongside former teammates at a track banquet. “High school and college running is very different, and college running is more intense, and there’s more hours in it,” Rustmann said.

NORTHPOINENOW.ORG

ON THE FIELD | Rustmann with fellow track runners Katelyn Carney and Chloe Bigwood. “I think it (balancing school with sports) helps me with time management, but it is a huge time commitment, but I definitely think it’s worth it,” Rustmann said.

By Bella Lawson & Asia Simmons STAFF REPORTERS

them to run.”

Since graduating two years ago, Class of 2014 alumRustmann’s name can still be found on the cross counna Sarah Rustmann walked on to and earned a var- try record board in the gym, but she is most well known sity letter from Michigan State University’s track team. for her achievements in track.

Rustmann made all three teams as a walk-on in her freshFor MSU, Rustmann’s main track event is the 800m. man year: cross country, indoor and outdoor track. As At the Big Ten indoor championships in the 2015 spring opposed to college recruits, walk-ons have to try out to season, she was the 800m leg of the distance medley relay secure a spot on a team and aren’t guaranteed a scholar- and ran a 2:10 split. The team ended up in placing fifth. ship if they do.

In outdoor track, at the Raleigh University relays this “Basically you get in contact with the coaches and you season, she ran a 2:11 split in the 4 x 800m relay, helptell them your times and discuss with them about being ing her team take second with a total time of 8:55:24. on the team,” Rustmann said. “If they think that your She also scored 3 points for MSU at the Louisville times are good enough for their program, then they’ll let University Invitational during the 2015 outdoor season, you walk on.” running 2:11 in the 800m behind Training to be a walk-on was based five other runners. on what was taught from high school Rustmann typically runs 6 to 7 She always had a track for Sarah, but running for colmiles a day, including one longer lege is more intense because of the run once a week and workouts twice smile and was ready to a week. This totals to around 45 to long hours.

Rustmann is a junior at Michigan 50 miles a week.

State University, majoring in kine- take on any challenges Senior Mikah Sherrill ran track siology and hopes to be a future with Rustmann freshman year. that came her way. physical therapist.

“Sarah was literally the sweetest According to girls track and field Diane Montgomery girl you could ever know and she coach Diane Montgomery, Rustmann ENGLISH TEACHER was so talented,” Sherrill said. “You was a motivated and spirited athlete couldn’t talk to her and not laugh or during her four years of track at the smile, she brought such joy to the high school level. track team.”

“Sarah Rustmann is a really fun young lady. She alSherrill said was pleased to hear the news about Sarah ways had a smile and was ready to take on any challeng- receiving her varsity letter. es that came her way. She is a twin, so I almost always “I’m very very excited, happy and proud of her because saw her with her sister, Julia (who also runs at MSU, but I know how hard she worked to get there, and I know did not earn her letter as she has been plagued with inju- that’s something that means a lot to her so I’m happy.” ries). The two of them together were great to work with,” Although Rustmann spends a lot of her time at MSU Montgomery said via email. “Both of them worked very training with her teams, she enjoys being able to represent diligently to achieve their goals and to support the team. her university at meets.

They ran every distance from the 200 to the mile. They “It is a huge time commitment but I defiwere always willing to run whatever the team needed nitely think it’s worth it,” Rustmann said.

“

“

Sweaty athletes flood the training room with aches and pains after a two-hour practice. A day’s workout consisting of intense conditioning and drills results in a thrown out shoulder or sore tendon. But hey, another day, another ice bath. Right?

Competition thrives in many athletes. For some, the incentives to win has been instilled in them since they were young.

I remember growing up dreaming of being like the athletic figures I looked up to. I would sit on my living room floor with my brother and imagine myself running the streets of Philadelphia like Sylvester Stallone. In my fantasy, we would run for miles around our neighborhood and punch the meat in our fridge like Rocky did when he trained.

Granted, I could barely throw a punch. However, I wanted to be the best version of myself that I could be, even if that meant doing things that were unreasonable for a 6-year-old to do at that time. Later on in my athletic career, I learned to have those same high expectations for myself and to push myself to my greatest potential. But there comes a time where we need to reconsider those uplifting moments in movies and come to the realization that we aren’t the Italian Stallion.

We are athletes—young student athletes— whose bodies are still growing. As hard as it is to sit out during a practice or game, we need to know when enough is enough. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 50 percent of all injuries seen in sports medicine are related to overuse. As athletes continue to ignore what their bodies are telling them, they are only straining themselves and becoming more prone to injuries in the future.

Look at hockey player Marc Savard. He was a top-line center for Atlanta Bruins in 2006 and faced multiple career-altering injuries that had a lasting effect on his health. After sustaining a concussion when he was blindsided by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke in 2010, he suffered another concussion the year after. Savard was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome as a result from his multiple traumas and hasn’t been on the ice since.

The high intensity games, the rush of adrenaline and passion for the sports we love is enough to mask the pain we feel for something greater than an ankle sprain. But we need to remember that although our high school sports careers are important to us, our health down the line trumps a two-hour practice or conference match.

The bottom line is, it’s high school sports.

Not the Olympics. There’s no need to put our bodies under more stress just so we can continue to play. We want to play the game we love and be there for our team, but it’s important to recognize our body’s limits and take necessary precautions even when we have a minor injury. It is crucial to our recovery process and to the fate of our athletic careers.

THINKERS, HIPSTERS, AND GAME CHANGERS. Lawrence Technological University isn’t for just anyone.

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12 – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 – North Pointe

SPORTS

CROSS-COURT RIVALS Varsity volleyball fell to South Oct. 4

By Dajai Chatman STAFF REPORTER

TEAM EFFORT | Sophomore Regan Sliwinski huddles with teammates. “I like hitting a lot, just the adrenaline. (Before games), usually I listen to a couple of songs, ‘No Problem’ by Chance The Rapper, it always gets me in a good mood,” Sliwinski said.

REACHING HIGH | Junior Maddy Martinbianco blocks a hit from cross town rival, Grosse Pointe South Blue Devils.

“I’m a middle hitter. I’m basically the middle blocker so I block the outsides, we’re supposed the be the faster players,” Martinbianco said. “(I want to improve on) hitting faster and getting ready for my senior year.”

SWAN DIVE | Senior Katie Snow bumps the ball to teammate Kirstin Bessette to set up for a hit. “(Before games) I have to drink three bottles of water, and then I have to drink a bottle of Pellegrino. I’m really superstitious, so I have to do a lot of things the same,” Snow said. “I want to be able to help my team play the best game that we all can play together.”

SERVING IT UP | Junior Rebecca Alway serves the ball to opposing team. “(Next game I want to) be really aware on defense, know what’s gonna happen whether they’re going to tip or hit, positioning myself correctly, know where the hit is gonna go,” Alway said.

SCORING SPIKE |Junior Abby Kanakry goes up for a hit, scoring against the Blue Devils. “(I like) just being in control, being able to slam the ball down to the ground when I’m playing middle or just being able to have a chance to help the team,” Kanakry said. “I’m not very good with teamwork, so it’s kind of hard when I get frustrated with somebody, but I definitely think volleyball can help with that.”