Polygon: February 2022 by Poly Prep Country Day School

POLY PREP’S Student Newspaper VOL. CVI ISSUE IV February 2022 Issue

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POLYGON

Poly Goes Mask Optional After State Initially Called for Delay EMMA SPRING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

fter weeks of back-and-forth discussion surrounding Poly’s mask policy, following the green-light from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Director of Health and Well-being Sarah Zuercher confirmed that Poly will go mask optional as of Wednesday, March 2. This has been a decision long-time coming. After deciding to forgo a mask requirement on February 9, Poly abruptly reversed their decision and continued to require students and staff to wear masks after the involvement of state and city health officials amid widespread media coverage. “We received clarity today from the NY State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that such a measure is not permissible under current state- and city-wide restrictions,” wrote Zuercher in an email to the Poly community the afternoon of February 11. “Accordingly, we are going to delay our implementation of this mask-optional policy until it is permissible within state and city regulations.” Zuercher spoke to a senior DOH representative the morning of February 11. Throughout the day, Zuercher talked to representatives from both New York City and New York State. “I talked to the state in the morning, and then I talked to the city later, then I talked to the state again. I was going back and forth…They clarified that if we went forward [with the mask-optional policy], they would consider that a violation,” said Zuercher. “We don’t want to do anything that is counter to the DOH. We don’t get anything from that. Once I received all the information, I made the

decision [to reverse the mask-optional policy],” said Head of School Audrius Barzdukas. The decision comes as New York State drops its statewide indoor mask mandate following the surge of Omicron this winter. Hochul has yet to ease mask rules for public schools, however. A statewide mask mandate for schools remains in place until at least February 21. Hochul has said she would reassess the school mask mandate in early March. New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut have all rolled back mask mandates in schools in recent days. Prior to the reversal of their decision, Poly was to be the first school in New York City to lift a mask requirement, and the story was picked up by media such as the New York Post and New York Times. “We worked with the school and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the school agreed to delay its plan to no longer require masks until such a policy is permitted,” said DOH spokeswoman Jill Montag on February 11 according to the New York Times. “We are glad they decided to do the right thing.” Zuercher did not explicitly comment on whether Poly was in contact with the DOH prior to the initial decision to go mask optional. In an interview on February 14, when asked if Poly had contact prior with the DOH regarding their decision to remove the mask mandate, Barzdukas said he didn’t know. “Zuercher has a relationship with them as part of her job. I’ve never spoken to the Department of Health.” When asked if the DOH posed any ramifications for non-compliance in her conversation

Poly Introduces its First HBCU Week LOLA PITMAN AND ALIDA LISSAK MANAGING EDITOR AND ARTS EDITOR

he month of February is known as Black History Month and for the first time, Poly held its own week dedicated to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). HBCU week is nationally designated as the second week of September but Poly hosted HBCU week in the second week of February. The week was completed with a series of events aimed at raising awareness about HBCU. According to the HBCU website, “The mission of HBCU Week is to encourage high-school aged youth to enroll into HBCUs, provide scholarship dollars for matriculation and sustain a pipeline for employment from undergraduate school to corporate America.” To encourage engagement in this goal, Poly hosted events the

(continued on page 4)

What Does It Mean to Be an “Upstander”? JORDAN MILLAR NEWS EDITOR

oly held its first ever cross-divisional Upstander Workshop in early December, which has since created conflicting feelings among students. For the Upstander Workshop, every student from grades 5-12 gathered together in small teacher-facilitated groups during the assembly period to discuss how to create improved culture and community within the school. By working through various scenarios, the workshop encouraged students to stand up for themselves and others against harmful or uncomfortable actions, behaviors, and language that threaten the health of our school environment. An additional workshop with student-generated scenarios was hosted on January 19, and there are plans for more in the future. The Upstander Workshops were first developed during the 2020-2021 academic year by Director of Student Life Jared Winston and Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Omari Keeles. The inspiration for the workshops came from the winter reading book for middle school, titled What Lane? Winston describes the book as the story of a biracial child living in Brooklyn and his experiences with big “R” and little “r” racism throughout his daily life, and the opportunities both acted upon and missed for characters in the book to stand up for him. Winston said, “We used that as a great opportunity to talk about the role that we can all play in supporting each other and reflecting (continued on page 3)

polygonnews.org

VIA WILLIAM LING-REGAN week of February 7. Throughout the week there was a slideshow in the library displaying the notable alumni that have attended some of these colleges. There was also an HBCU trivia question every day. The first Upper School and Middle School student to get the trivia right won swag from the HBCU of their choice, as well as earned Spirit Cup points for their respective groups. On Monday, February 7, there was a panel discussion about why students should attend HBCUs and to address what an HBCU is in the first place. On that Wednesday Umoja & Lemonade student leaders led an assembly informing the student body about Black History Month in general. This assembly was focused on learning about (continued on page 3)

Exploring Early Decision for Poly’s Seniors CARLY PYLES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

rom the first day of school in September to mid-December, every member of the senior class was repeatedly asked the same all-consuming, million-dollar question by their peers: “Where did you ED?” Over 80 percent of this year’s senior class applied to college through an early decision or restricted early action plan; 55 percent were admitted. Applying to college “early decision” entails an earlier admissions deadline, an earlier notification of acceptance/rejection, and a binding agreement to enroll at the institution upon acceptance. The first preliminary early decision plans began in the late1950s, among smaller New England colleges. However, ED, as we recognize it today, truly took off during the 1980s and 1990s. While early decision is not a new concept, the number of students within and outside of Poly who have applied to an institution under an early decision plan has skyrock-

eted in the last couple of years. In 2016, 41 percent of the senior class applied ED; meanwhile, that number rose to 76 percent in this year’s senior class. The deans attribute this trend to the implementation of the new dean model in 2017, which

VIA CAROLINA HANNA enabled the college counseling system to become more personalized than it had previously been. Rather than having two deans assigned to each grade with a seperate grade-wide college counselor,

students are now assigned a dean at the beginning of freshman year who works with them throughout their next four years at Poly. The percentage of students who apply ED is so high because Poly’s deans — who function as a team of college counselors — encourages their students to take advantage of this opportunity, as applying early decision may provide the highest chance of being admitted to selective colleges. Colleges and universities are businesses who want to protect their yield, meaning the percentage of students who enroll after being accepted. Therefore, signaling through ED that a school is your first-choice, and that you will attend if accepted, often raises your admissions odds. Students can also demonstrate interest through a restricted early action (REA) plan; applicants are not bound to attend the school, but (continued on page 2)

FEBRUARY 2022

NEWS

The Infamous Slippery Floors

ED (continued from page 1) they are restricted from applying early decision anywhere else. Only a few colleges have an REA option. Emily Gardiner, one of Poly’s five Upper School deans, said, “Whenever a student has a school they especially like that has ED, it would be irresponsible as a college counselor not to recommend it. In general, data shows that ED can raise your admission chances almost no matter what. It can’t turn an unrealistic reach school into a target, so aiming both high and smart is key.” As Gardiner noted, it is critical to use the ED option strategically. Many students fear “wasting” their ED –– if students reach too high in early decision and miss on their top-choice school, they may have lost out on their best opportunity to be accepted to an institution. They will then have to choose whether they will apply ED2 or stick to a regular decision plan. From a financial-aid standpoint, it is also important to be very strategic with ED. The deans have different recommendations for full-paying students as opposed to students who qualify for full or partial financial-aid. Gardiner explained, “Families who qualify for significant or full financial aid [FA] are nearly always well-served by ED/REA, as long as they work with their dean to apply to schools that meet 100 percent of need and are reasonable reaches. In those scenarios of a high-need applicant at colleges of that type, simply getting in means full financial aid, so early admission does not change the cost. Also, some colleges are need-sensitive because they allocate their money responsibly, meaning it’s smarter to apply early as a full-FA applicant when funds are most available.” For families who qualify for smaller amounts of financial aid, the deans may shift their strategy. According to Gardiner, it simply depends on “the student applying and what their interests and strengths are.” She continued, “We’ve counseled students whose goal was merit or non-need-based aid only and for them, an EA/RD approach has sometimes yielded the best results.” Numerous students are content with their decision to ED and found it easy to commit to a school that they felt was a realistic reach for them. If students can pin down a school that they would be happy to attend if accepted, early decision is a great opportunity. Senior Zoe Feuer said, “I applied early decision

to a school because I knew the chances of getting into my top choice school were much higher because they take a large portion of their incoming class ED. In my opinion, it paid off.” Senior Lami Diallo is of a similar opinion, adding, “The ED process as a whole is a bit scary, especially considering that it’s binding. But looking back, I actually liked it because I knew that I wanted to go to UPenn since sophomore year, so ED was a chance for me to show my interest in the school as well as get the college process over with. Sure, it’s a bit scary committing to one school, but I think if you really like a school above everything else, you should take advantage of the ED process.” However, other students are not as comfortable with the ED strategy. Whether it be due to its binding nature or its connotation as one’s “golden ticket” to college, not to be wasted under any circumstances, choosing to apply early decision can feel very high-stakes. “There’s a lot of pressure at Poly pertaining to the need to attend a top school, and getting into your first-choice ED. Because of this pressure and a lot of fear of failure and rejection, a lot of people, myself included, end up not applying to the schools that they wanted to go to,” said senior Brianna Khrakovsky. She explained how some students feel that they have to make a calculation between the schools they want to go to and the ones they think they have the best shot of getting into with ED. “It sucks, because a lot of people give up on their dreams and never get the chance to know if they would’ve actually gotten in.” Other students choose to abstain from the ED process altogether, choosing to apply under only non-binding early action and regular decision programs. Uma Sooran is one of just under 20 percent of seniors who chose not to apply ED or REA anywhere. She shared, “The negative aspect of not EDing is definitely waiting longer for your results as you watch a lot of your friends finish with the college process in December. It can be hard waiting, but I still think it’s worth it at the end of the day. The main reason why I didn’t ED is because it is a binding agreement, and I did not feel comfortable enough with one school to commit without exploring other options. As you find out your results, hopefully you have more than one option, and you can learn more about each option before committing to a school.”

The POLYGON

Sports Editors Ben Mansfield Samantha Rodino

News Editor Jordan Millar

Middle School Editors Lucas Basham Brianna Sylvain

People Editor Chelsea Lin Features Editor Seanna Sankar Arts Editors Brianna Khrakovsky Alida Lissak

“

Careful where you step!” became a frequent reminder at Poly in the first few weeks of February. Seemingly overnight, the hallways and staircases became extremely slippery, causing several faculty and students to fall and injure themselves. While many students believed that the floors had been waxed, Head of Operations Matt Stelluto said, “the slippery floors were caused by the ice melt and its residue from the previous weekend’s snow storm that was tracked inside the building.” These icy floors quickly proved to be a hazard. “I was walking to a class and going down a flight of stairs when all of the sudden I slipped and lost control due to the slippery-ness of the floors,” said sophomore Lizzie Perry. “I fell down a couple stairs. Because one of my friends was standing below me, I fell on to her instead of the floor and was able to save myself.” Perry’s heroic friend, sophomore Briana Robles, said she was “walking down the stairs, and the floors were really wet, so [Lizzie] fell, and I just happened to be there to catch her.” Grateful to Robles, Perry said, “thankfully, I was ok, but in a scenario where [Briana] was not standing there, I might not have been.” Others, like Mandarin teacher Kai Kang, were not so lucky. “I guess I just walked too fast,” said Kang. “I fell on the floor. It hurts a lot.” She landed on her back, but Kang said, “it was [still] hurting for two to three days. I couldn’t do any workouts.” Just like Perry, Kang had someone to help her. “Linda Russo and Carolyn Licata helped me up. I was very grateful.” Perhaps the most serious in-

juries as a result of the slippery floors were sustained by Head of School Audrius Barzdukas. “I was walking down the stairs, and the next thing you know, I flew in the air and hit my head,” said Barzdukas. “Mr. Stelluto took me to the ER, and I had a CAT scan. I was diagnosed as mildly concussed.” Despite his injury, Barzdukas emphasized the care and concern with which the Poly community treated him. “Oh my gosh, there were about ten people [helping me]. That might have been the scariest moment, when there were about ten people helping me to the nurses’ office,” said Barzdukas with a chuckle. “Our nurses, Theresa and Ms. Zuercher, took good care of me.” Barzdukas has now fully recovered, because, as he said in an email, “Lithuanians are famously hard-headed.” Responding to the outbreak of falling, Stelluto said he had “mats placed at the building entrances, and Housekeeping mops the slippery areas with a product that dissolves the ice melt residue. However, additional measures will be taken. We have engaged with the school’s architects to assist us in coming up with a solution.” Barzdukas is grateful to the maintenance staff at Poly, who he sees as the real heroes amidst the sudden treachery of the floors. He said, “Our maintenance crew is the best. All of us see them all the time, cleaning up after us and keeping us safe, and I feel like they are vastly under-appreciated.” Thanks to the hard work of the maintenance staff, and the kindness of friends, colleagues and bystanders, the Poly community is getting back up after these slips.

Editors-in-Chief Carly Pyles Emma Spring

Managing Editors Maerose Daniels Lola Pitman

Opinions Editor Selah Ilunga-Reed

WILLIAM LING-REGAN PHOTO EDITOR

Photography Editors William Ling-Reagan Caroline Hanna Online Managing Editor Marta Balikcioglu Layout Editors Danielle Jason Sidney Rothkin

The Polygon is published at least seven times a year by the students of Poly Prep Country Day School. We welcome both letters to the editor and guest opinions pieces of interest. All submissions should be emailed to polygon@polyprep.org and must include the author’s name. The Polygon reserves the right to edit all submissions for spelling, grammar, and length. Letters should be no longer than 200 words, and opinion pieces should be no longer than 750 words. These pieces reflect the views of the writer and not necessarily the staff of the Polygon.

Faculty Advisor: Rachael Allen The Polygon c/o Poly Prep CDS 9216 7th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11228

FEBRUARY 2022

NEWS

All About Wordle

HBCU Week (continued from page 1)

The new app that’s got everyone talking... MAEROSE DANIELS MANAGING EDITOR

ou may have heard the phrases, “Did you do said. Liao enjoys the word “stare” as a starting the Wordle?” and “How many tries did you word. Math teacher Stephen Bates, another daily take?” recently floating around the Poly campus. Wordler, plays “for the challenge,” he said. “It’s Wordle has sparked conversation and healthy fun, like a peaceful competition.” He enjoys uschallenges between strangers through the power ing “crash” as a starting word. of the internet and connected many students and Gemma Pauls, Grade 10, shares her stratefaculty on campus. The gic starting word, “Adieu.” internet sensation Wordle “It uses the most vowels,” has amassed millions of she said. We may begin to users just months after its stray from the “How’s the release from Josh Wardle, weather?” Cliché conversaa software technician in tion starters; Perhaps we will Brooklyn who created the hear more of: “Hey, have you game as a gesture for his done the Wordle?” partner. In the game, the user must June Dorsch, Grade guess the correct five-letter 11, said, “[Wordle] forms word in a maximum of six a routine for my morning. attempts. After plugging in I get to have a little fun…I a word as a guess, the player do it on the bus to school. gets feedback: A green brick It’s quick and easy. You means that the letter is cordon’t just binge it like rect and in the exact location, Candy Crush until you’re a yellow brick signifies that done because playing it the letter appears in the word once a day makes it more VIA CAROLINE HANNA but in a different place, and a manageable.” A tip Dorsch gray or black brick indicates uses to preserve the excitement of a fresh game that the letter does not appear anywhere in the is by straying from a “useful” starter word. “I word. find that it’s not as interesting when people [start Psychologist Lee Chambers analyzed the with] a specific word. I try to find a word that re- addictiveness of Wordle in an interview with lates to what I’m doing at the moment.” Players Insider and claimed that Wordle “stimulates all getting the same word may create a similarity both the language- and logic-processing areas to a stranger next to them. Acquaintances who of our brains.” The addictiveness to the game don’t typically interact are now talking, Rachel growsh the user base rapidly. “Since launching Dilieto, Grade 11, said. “Wordle has completely Wordle, I’ve been in awe of the response from revolutionized and shaped the modern version everyone that has played. The game has gotof small talk. I’d rather hear about how many ten bigger than I ever imagined,” Josh Wardle tries it took for you to do the Wordle than how wrote on Twitter. In October, Wordle had 90 you feel about the weather.” users. That number grew to 300,000 in NovemThe game exercises friendly competition, ber, and now millions are playing, according to and math teacher Emily Liao, an everyday the Times announcement. The game has travWordler, appreciates the pleasant conversations. eled from Wardle’s idea of a romantic game “I have a close group of 15 people but we can’t for his and his partner in Brooklyn to the daily meet each other that frequently right now…it lives of millions to a seven-figure buy-out from endures joy and competition between us,” she the New York Times.

VIA POLY PREP COMMUNICATIONS Black history through music, beginning with a slideshow by Upper School president Ryantony Exuma ’22. It made sure to acknowledge how much of popular music today was created or heavily influenced by Black culture. Directly following, Gabby Perry ’22 and Chaliya Holder ’22 ran a panel discussion, composed of black Upper School students. A student on this panel, Justin Mondesir ’23, said in a later interview, “[the goal is to] creat[e] a week to open up the conversation for young students of color to get an opportunity to be in an environment where they’re no longer a minority.” On Thursday there was a micro fair in the Library that included a screening of the HBCU

documentary, Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities. To conclude the week there was a HBCU vs PWI (Predominantly White Institution) discussion in the Theater during clubs block. Olivia Umeh ’23, who attended this discussion, said, “The HBCU panel this afternoon really cleared up some of the main questions I had about applying to a historically Black university. Being able to hear perspectives of alumni who had similar high school experiences to mine [as a Black student at a PWI] assured me that any skepticism I have about applying to an HBCU is natural, but also that attending one would be a welcoming, once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

What Does It Mean to Be an “Upstander”? (continued from page 1) upon how individual choices that we make in difficult situations can lead to progressive change in society.” The school’s student body looks far different from five and even 10 years ago, but issues of bullying have always existed. Winston hopes to communicate, however, that this is not explicitly an anti-bullying program. “This is first and foremost a community development program. Do we hope to mitigate bullying as a result of these workshops? Of course. We do recognize, though, that bullying, unfortunately, will happen in our halls and beyond despite our best efforts,” Winston said. In instances where bullying does happen, the school hopes to teach students the various response strategies, understand the impacts of their words, behaviors, and actions, and encourage empathy. Ultimately, Winston believes that being an “upstander” means to treat yourself and others with dignity and to lead a life of integrity. The very first Upstander Workshop was looked over by the division heads, along with Assistant Head of School Michal Hershkovitz. In one given scenario, a student was trying to study for a huge set of tests in the library while another group of students were being disruptive. In another scenario, a student is upset with the amount of trash being left behind in Commons, as a group of students leave their lunch table without cleaning their table. Using these scenarios, students across grades were encouraged to

learn what exactly it means to be an upstander, and how to model that behavior. The Upstander Workshops have sparked very mixed reactions. Some students feel as though the workshops are unnecessary. “Sitting in a classroom for an hour talking about different hypothetical situations and barely getting any type of reactions or involvement from the student body isn’t helpful…not that it’s a bad concept to fight to create an upstanding community, but trying to reach all students at once is unobtainable,” said junior Damien Jung. “I feel like a lot of people don’t take it seriously, as shown by how people talk about it outside the workshop,” said junior Alfonso Rada. However, other students have found the Upstander Workshops to be helpful. “It was very engaging and I feel like together we can help the community,” said freshman Tristan Zam. “I feel like it helped me think about my community and my place in it,” said freshman Tessa Weber. Winston is well-aware of the critiques the workshops have since received. In fact, Winston said there were many negative comments from students in the feedback forms that were sent out after each workshop. He shared that in the feedback forms sent out to teachers, there was much more of a positive reception, but there were still some suggestions. Winston notes that one teacher shared “I wonder if there’s a world in which we can get students thinking about

their own stories/positionality at Poly; I think that shapes a lot of the conversation under the surface but isn’t made explicit.” Winston believes that the negative feedback was likely caused by discomfort that students experienced during the workshops. “I totally get where these students are coming from. While this work can be uncomfortable, I encourage students to view that discomfort as growth in action. That which is difficult is often significant, and cultural development and change take time,” Winston said. The second program was more teacherand student-driven. In addition to working through student-generated scenarios of upstandership, students across grade levels developed Bills of Responsibility, which will be posted around the school in common areas to remind everyone of the community’s intentions. After gathering feedback from the first workshop, a special committee of teachers was established. Known as the Social and Emotional Learning Committee, members include English teacher Lee Marcus and history teacher Eliza Jimenez. “Soon, we’re going to be moving away from just a workshop planning committee. Instead, we’re becoming an advisory committee, so we will be advising students and coming up with the workshop content,” Marcus said. “We’re trying to establish a cohesive culture while also recognizing that we do have very distinct Upper School and Mid-

dle School cultures. We are constantly thinking about how ‘upstandership’ applies in both settings,” Jimenez said. The third and upcoming workshop will be a student-led program, which was always the plan, according to Winston. The Middle School Senate is continuing to develop an Upstander program for late April for only students in grades 5-8. In the Upper School, the Student Government is similarly developing a workshop for grades 9-12 that will take place in late April as well. But Upstander work will extend beyond just this programming. “The Women’s Affinity group is going to have a DEIB assembly talking about cultural issues at Poly in March and we will then finish March with a Health and Wellness assembly talking about culture,” Winston said. A large part of the Upstander initiative is to set a base-level in terms of how the school community will look and feel going forward. Winston isn’t sure if the Upstander Workshops will look the same or different in the future: The future is largely dependent on student and faculty opinions. But either way, he wants to continue creating a positive culture within the school. “On the heels of this pandemic, it is so important that we establish what we stand for at a foundational level—working with students across grades facilitates a meaningful dialogue about culture here at Poly and reminds us of who we are today and who we strive to be tomorrow,” Winston said.

NEWS

FEBRUARY 2022

Mask Mandate (continued from page 1)

VIA WILLIAM LING-REGAN with them on February 11, Zuercher said, “We didn’t go down that road with them. The DOH has been a really good partner with us throughout the pandemic and we want to maintain that.” WHY POLY WENT MASK OPTIONAL Zuercher had announced February 9 that the schoolwide mask requirement would be lifted on February 14 and replaced by a mask-optional policy — the same day the state lifted its mask mandate for businesses.The change in policy would have applied to both the Dyker Heights and Lower School campuses. The decision to lift the requirement was made in consultation with Poly’s Health and Safety team, Zuercher, and Barzdukas. Barzdukas clarified that there wasn’t always agreement among team discussions. “The way committees work is we seek consensus—we have never [had] unanimity on things,” said Barzdukas. “At the end of the day, as the Head of School, I’m the one who’s ultimately responsible for these decisions.” Barzdukas was initially unclear about sharing who, specifically, was on the health advisory team. “We have an MD,” he said February 14 after initially saying in a previous interview that the Polygon quoted last week, “we have a team of physicians.” In an interview February 10, Zuercher further explained the purpose and importance of the health advisory team throughout the pandemic. “The strength of [the health advisory board] has been that we sometimes bring opposing viewpoints and then hash through all that and it helps us clarify the decision that we come to and I think make a stronger plan because of that,” said Zuercher. “Everybody’s opinion is very impactful, so everybody’s opinion swayed the decision. Ultimately, [for] this kind of decision, Mr. Barzdukas, is the ultimate decider and the owner of the decision. In the end, I feel like we have made a good decision for the health of the school.” Zuercher also further explained the rationale behind lifting the mandate, attributing it to the sharp decline in COVID cases in the Poly community. “As we look at the layers of our COVID safety strategy, we don’t need to keep all the layers as we always have as cases go down,” Zuercher said. “While [masking] can be very effective, with Omicron being highly contagious, we think it’s one of the less effective mitigation strategies when you look at everything we’re doing—testing, vaccination, boosters, [and] air filtration.” Zuercher also attributed the swift change in mask policy to how fast Omicron went up and down. Zuercher stated that while Poly initially was following the New York State DOH for the majority of the pandemic, Poly moved to both the five-day quarantine and a test to stay protocol prior to the state releasing those guidelines. “We have made other changes to our protocols in advance of the state changing its guidelines. We have tried to really closely adhere to state guidelines, but we think making this change will have a big positive impact on our students and on our community,” said Zuercher. “Our community, of those who are eligible, are 99.9 percent vaccinated. The public schools are a totally different situation and I think statewide if all the schools were in our school’s situation, Hochul would have already gotten rid of the mask mandate.” As for the Lower School, Zuercher explained that they don’t think that the way the group of unvaccinated kids under five is wearing masks is particularly effective in preventing transmission. “They’re little kids, so they’re chewing on them, wearing them below their nose,” said Zuercher. She further explained how the risks of wearing masks might actually outweigh the benefits. “There’s research that’s coming out for kids that the masks might inhibit language acquisition, social and emotional development, [and] their ability to read facial cues,” said Zuercher. Head of Upper School Sarah Bates was out of the direct loop of conversation among the administration regarding the mask-optional decision and was at first looking forward to seeing students’ faces. “Then when I found out yesterday that the mandate hadn’t been lifted in schools, it didn’t feel great that we were doing that,” said Bates on February 11. “So while it’s going to be tough to pull that back in our mentality, [that] we all want to be moving on, it’s necessary. We have to follow what the government officials say.” THE COMMUNITY RESPONDS This would have been the first time the Poly community wouldn’t have been required to mask indoors since March 2020. With such a change, community members had mixed emotions.

“It’s not the end of the world, but it’s annoying to have your hopes up and a glimpse of the end of the pandemic, but it quickly reverts back,” said senior Scarlett Beard of the mask-optional policy reversal. “I feel like Poly should have been more careful and aware because they were so quickly shut-down. It’s clearly a process; it’s not just a decision.” On February 10, when the plan was to go mask optional, math teacher Gyanesh Sharma said, “I have somebody at home with preconditions, but I am a biologist and a biochemist, and I understand the chances of you getting COVID with a mask on is definitely reduced, but the chances of you getting COVID right now is so low if you already haven’t had it. So I will not be wearing a mask very often unless I’ve been told that I have to. If anyone feels like wearing a mask, it’s their body and they’re trying to protect themselves. That’s perfectly fine by me.” Sophomore Jane Littleton also felt comfortable taking off her mask.“SinceIknowthatmosteveryoneisvaccinated,that’sacomfort to me. People don’t wear their masks right anyway,” said Littleton. While some were excited at the prospect of taking off masks, others were not so comfortable. “I am going to wear my mask on Monday [February 14] and [my daughter] has stated she is going to wear three masks on Monday because my mother-in-law has breast cancer and that’s what makes us feel most comfortable right now,” said health teacher Phoebe Aberlin-Ruiz. Senior Anne Vasquez added, “I think it’s kind of stupid because [Poly was] sending people home literally two weeks ago [for not wearing masks], so to say, ‘oh yeah, it’s optional now’ is a little ridiculous in timing at least. Also, immunocompromised people still exist. Even though people at Poly have to be vaccinated, not every single person that people at Poly lives with can be or are vaccinated, so I think it’s opening up a can of worms that we really don’t want to open.” Zuercher said she understood the fear and discomfort that arose. “For people who are concerned about not wearing a mask, wearing a well-fitting N95 mask, even if everyone around you isn’t wearing a mask, is still a really good protective measure,” said Zuercher on February 9. Every Poly student aged 5 plus is vaccinated and aged 16 plus have to be boosted. Poly’s weekly testing program would have and still will remain in place to closely monitor school case trends. “The risk is increased in school transmission and that’s why we are going to be really carefully paying attention to cases, to symptom reporting on RUVNA, to figure out if that’s happening,” said Zuercher. Many community members were still torn, with some even foreseeing the clash Poly has since had with the government. “It’s been two years of masking and while the CDC still says, ‘well actually, maybe we should keep our masks,’ states, for obvious political reasons, are saying ‘no take ’em off,’” said history teacher Timothy Shea on February 10. “Putting the mask back on after already having it off is a big step.” History teacher Virginia Dillon said she would have and still will continue to mask, as she is nine months pregnant. “There [are] a lot of difficult factors that go into making these decisions,” said Dillon. “Anyone who tells you that this decision is easy to make probably isn’t thinking through all the different factors…there’s lots of push and pulls, and there’s no decision that’s going to make everyone happy and comfortable.”

“We don’t need to keep all the layers as we have cases go down.” - Sarah Zuercher

Math teacher Victoria Stawowy-Mokos was also hesitant, pointing out that Poly had been closely following the guidelines of the DOH up until recently. “Not always, but we’ve been following the lead of the biggest school system in the country, and now we took it on our own reins to make that decision...It seems like we went from one extreme to the other very quickly. At this point, masks aren’t hurting anyone –– everyone’s used to it at this point –– so I don’t know why we had to abruptly decide this.” Zuercher had hoped the community would have been able to adjust to the change. “Like every COVID safety decision we’ve made, there are going to be some people who are really happy and some people who are really unhappy,” said Zuercher on February 9. “We try to look at the evidence and the science and make the best decision that we can to balance COVID safety with overall mental health, emotional, and social well-being. If we realize this was a big mistake, then we will go back to masking.” Even if the school continues to mask, Barzdukas acknowledged the ability to go mask optional in the first place. “We’ve been very fortunate as a school to implement our testing and our contact tracing protocols. There aren’t schools as fortunate. I wish everyone had the resources to do things the way we were doing it,” said Barzdukas. Poly remains optimistic that a return to a mask-optional policy is in the near future. “The good news is that for this Sunday’s testing, we’ve had no positives. This is the longest stretch of no positives we’ve had since the first week in December. As long as there’s no new variant, as soon as New York State lifts the mask mandate, our plan is to immediately put our mask-optional [policy] into effect,” said Zuercher on February 14. “We remain open to the fact that we need to adjust and that’s kind of how life goes… We look forward to a return to normalcy as soon as is permissible.”

VIA LEVI STEIN

FEBRUARY 2022

NEWS

SATs to Go Online in 2024 LOLA PITMAN MANAGING EDITOR

he dreaded SAT is… potentially less dreaded? Long associated with paper and pencil, the SAT is coming to screens near you. The College Board recently announced that the SAT would be delivered entirely online beginning in 2024. In November 2021, College Board piloted this digital SAT in the U.S. and internationally. Eighty percent of students responded that they found it to be less stressful and one hundred percent of educators reported having a positive experience, according to an article on the College Board’s website. Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at College Board, was quoted in the same article, saying, “The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant.” With the use of technology familiar to the young people who take the test, the consensus is that a digital test would be easier than a paper test for our generation. Furthermore, the test can be completed on each student’s personal computers, making them even more comfort-

“The popularity of the SAT ... might drop in favor of the ACT which is going to be standardized.” - Doug Wong able with the obvious stress of test taking. However, to ensure that the integrity of the test is upheld, the digital test will still need to be taken in-person at a test center or school. The question is will these changes affect the control and domination that standardized testing often has on the college process? “The popularity of the SAT, especially for the class of 2025 and maybe class of 2026, might drop in favor of the ACT which is going to be standardized… because [the ACT is] not changing,” said Dean Doug Wong. “It’s still going to be paper based so on and so forth. There is a lot of mystery still

involved [concerning the digital SAT], in a lot of ways you kind of go with what you know and that’s sort of what the ACT will be.” Along with the new digital component of the test, the College Board is proceeding with other changes as well. The SAT will shrink from three hours to two, including shorter reading passages and allowing the use of calculators on all math sections. Together, these changes will result in more time allowed per question. The SAT scoring system will also be more efficient, allowing students to receive their scores in days rather than weeks. The online system will also create a unique test for each student, eliminating the possibility of sharing answers. Leading up to these changes, in the past years many colleges have phased these tests out of the admissions process, making the submission of the test optional as part of a student’s application. As of now, the SAT and ACT are still deeply ingrained in the American high school experience. Studying for the test is a key part of junior year: “Start studying in August or September of your junior year,” one college preparatory website advised. “This isn’t early—it’s a perfect time. Avoid taking the SAT/ACT near the end of junior year, when you should be focusing on finals, AP and IB exams.” In this new test-optional world, news outlets like the New York Times have reported that many students are still choosing to take the test because, “tests provide important information beyond assessing achievement. Some studies have shown that SAT and ACT scores, combined with a student’s grade point average and other factors, can help predict a student’s success in college, especially in the crucial first year.” Colleges take a strong score into consideration and can help a student get into some colleges that may have otherwise been out of reach. As the future of standardized testing shifts with the new digital generation, students will be looking out for how the college process changes along with it.

NO ANcient civ festival this year CHARLOTTE ARZOUIAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Poly Class of 2008 participating in the festival, the first year Fabella led students in the festival

VIA CAESAR FABELLA

t’s the last period of the day, and students are watching the clock like hawks. 3:38… 3:39…. It seems like an eternity until it strikes 3:40, and the day is finally over. Reading through passages and answering questions for more than five hours doesn’t exactly make school fun, let alone the long hours of homework ahead. Although groups like the Middle School Senate are trying to improve Poly, the bottom line is that not everyone learns optimally through writing and reading. Many need to create projects or watch a video to grow academically. If you’re a 6th grader, you’ve probably seen artifacts coating the shelves of Caesar Fabella, a 5th- and 6th-grade history teacher’s classroom. Students figured out that these recreations were students’ projects from the Ancient Civilizations Festival, a hands-on showcase and loved tradition at Poly, that didn’t take place in the 6th grade this year, leaving many 6th graders confused and sad to see it go. As Fabella said, the Ancient Civilizations Festival was one of the most cherished projects of the 6th grade. The festival took place primarily in history class, where students would research an ancient artifact and attempt to recreate it. However, there was also some involvement in other 6th grade subjects. For one, students would create a board game related to ancient civilizations in math. In science, students would perform an old-dye experiment. In music, students would even learn an ancient song. Finally, and by far the most grand part of the process, on the day before spring break, 6th graders would share their work and celebrate with an after-party full of snacks, treats, and fun. The project was very accommodating to learners considering its diverse range of learning practices in the buildup to the festival. The Ancient Civilizations Festival will not take place this year, which has left many students heartbroken. Older students who had done the project in previous years were confused why such a worthwhile experience had been removed, and 6th graders who were eager to begin their research were disappointed when they heard the news. Eighth grader Zoe Panzo, who participated in the project in 2020 when she was in 6th grade, re-

calls not being able to present her sculpture due to COVID-19. “It was really disappointing and sad when we didn’t get to present [in the festival] because we had spent so much time working on it,” said Panzo. The former 6th graders had been working on their project for months before COVID-19 hit Poly. “I would have loved to see the tradition continue because it has been a Poly tradition for so long. I thought the best part of the festival was that it wasn’t just in history; we did dances, art projects, scenes, and there was even a component in band,” Panzo said when asked if she wanted to see the festival this year. “So, by taking away this tradition they aren’t just taking it away from the history curriculum—they are taking it away from the visual arts curriculum, the drama curriculum, the dance curriculum, and the band curriculum.” So why isn’t the festival happening in the 6th grade if it was adored by so many students? Chair of the History Department Maggie Moslander xplained, “It’s not quite accurate to say the festival was ‘canceled.’ We make decisions about the kinds of assessments that are most helpful in achieving our goals for student learning, and as part of moving the Ancient Civilizations class to 5th grade, we decided to move away from the Ancient Civ[ilizations] Festival in favor of different kinds of assessments.” In other words, the festival no longer takes place in the 6th grade because of a new curriculum. Teachers thought it would be more beneficial to teach students about democracy to provide them with some background information for the 7thgrade lesson about U.S. history. Ancient Civilizations is now taught in the 5th grade. In another interview, Fabella, a veteran of the festival, mentioned that although it entails a lot of work, the festival is well worth the time and the effort. Fabella added that he would be happy to see the tradition continue in the 5th grade. “It’s a worthwhile experience for the students,” said Fabella. “In fact, a lot of the Upper School students and alums asked me if we still have the Ancient Civillations Festival because they have had such a wonderful and memorable experience participating in it.”

The Elusive English A+: An Investigation

SACHA MENDELSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

s report cards are released and impending college decisions issued, grades are at the forefront of every Poly student’s mind. Something that is rarely seen on a high school student’s report card, however, is an A+ in their English course. Among students, the English department has a semi-notorious reputation for never issuing A+s. Freshman Madison Shepherd said, from her experience, she believed it is more difficult to obtain an A+ in English than other subjects. “On every assessment I have turned in I have received good comments that highlight minimal errors, yet I have received in the A- range consistently,” she said. Why is it so difficult to attain “perfection” within English, and in what case is this seemingly inaccessible A+ given? English teacher Christy Hutchcraft stated, “no grading system is going to be perfect.” Hutchcraft alluded to the challenges of grading written work, which can often be subjective. On the topic of subjectivity within English, the head of the English department, Peter Nowakoski, said “we must accept that subjectivity is built into English in a way that it isn’t, say, in other subjects.” Michal Hershkovitz, the assistant head of school, said in an email to the Polygon, “It is important that students understand that there is rarely ‘one correct answer,’ even in the STEM fields. Math teachers, for example, are often as concerned with the process by which a student derives an answer to a problem than with the answer itself.” When asked how the English department might actively take steps to avoid subjectivity, Nowakowski mentioned the concept of rubrics, department-wide standards, and discus-

sions about their grading policy. Hutchcraft mentioned within “the English department we have meetings about this, almost once a week it seems like, where we talk about what good writing looks like to us.” Hutchcraft stressed the importance of standards held throughout the department to ward off any bias within the grading process. When the question of the English department issuing A+s came up, Nowakoski said, “Yes, but they are extremely rare… Simply put, an A+ should represent not just mastery of a subject or the material and skills, but it should go beyond everything we conceive of.” Hershkovitz added, “it is my understanding that A+ grades are reserved for work that reflects mastery of the content and skills assessed above and beyond expectations.” To stress the rarity of this “perfect” grade, Nowakowski said, “I think I have given out one [A+] in my entire career.” Nowakowski emphasizes the arduous road it takes to achieve this extremely high mark. Hutchcraft added, “you can check all of the boxes on the rubric and still have a fairly dry, flat paper.” The human heartbeat of a piece, combined with the right skill-set and intellectual creativity, she explained, is when A+ territory begins to be uncovered. Many teachers feel that subjectivity is closely intertwined with the English grading system, as it is with all other subjects. Hershkovitz emphasized that, “students must understand that grading—which should always be transparent and equitable—is also always subjective. By that I mean that it is and must be based on the subjective assessment of a given teacher…Subjectivity is neither avoidable nor a bad thing, especially when it reflects expert judgment.”

FEBRUARY 2022

OPINIONS

“Elite Brooklyn School”

SELAH ILUNGA-REED OPINIONS EDITOR

Teaching Kids to Learn? L

ast Monday night, I stayed up until 2 in the morning. I had SAT prep for two hours until 9:30, and then I made myself a double espresso and crammed for the three different assessments I had coming up the following day. As I was preparing for my long night ahead, divvying up time among AP U.S. history, Spanish, and math, I internally commended myself for my excellent organizational skills, looking with great pride at my detailed planner. What a well-prepared, well-taught student I am, I thought to myself, thank gosh for Poly Prep. But was it Poly that gave me those academic skills? Or was it Poly who simply overloaded me with work, forcing me to obtain those skills as a means of survival? Even worse, skills like that could just be facets of access to good resources, which often cost large sums of money, which not everyone has. My peers and I spend hours each night toiling over homework and studying en masse, yet were we ever truly and equitably primed to access the achievement this school expects of us? My first year at Poly was seventh grade, and I distinctly remember a handful of friends of mine who were in the “Foundations” class that year. That class was a specially scheduled period for selected students, where learning specialists at Poly helped kids to organize their workloads, outline their essays, communicate with their teachers, et cetera;—building essential skills for success at a highly academic school like Poly. In seventh grade, though, students tend

to see things as a little more black and white, and so the Foundations attendees were publicly marked as the dumb kids who needed extra support to keep up with the rest of us. However, looking back, I wish I was placed in Foundations. I wish I was coaxed into building lasting academic skills. I wish I was taught to learn rather than taught to cram. Though Poly’s curriculum has an impressive handful of intro courses in each subject, there is no existing class which builds skills for new high school students. We have never learned to learn. I don’t know if a built-in class like Foundations still exists in the middle school, but I’m certain it has no counterpart in the Upper School, which is a great pitfall of Poly education. Un-primed students—kids who have neither had access to a resource like a personalized learning specialist nor inherent academic luck or talent—often struggle greatly at Poly. A Poly friend of mine once said in utmost seriousness, “You get a tutor or you fail.” So what of the kids who can’t get a tutor? Are they doomed to fail? This further exacerbates the inequities of education, leaving poor students in the dust while their wealthier duplicates are handheld into greater accolades. I guess what bothers me most is the idea of extra. That getting a tutor, or being in Foundations, or even meeting with teachers means you are receiving extra help. Simply the cost of a tutor is an extra expense, when tutoring seems to be the only route to true achievement. Giving students the tools they need to tread the toiling waters of a com-

MAEROSE DANIELS MANAGING EDITOR

petitive school should not be going above and beyond; it should be the least expectation of a school with the resources of Poly. Being given armor before battle is not a special treat. Creating more preparatory curricula before enrolling students in advanced courses isn’t one either. But what to do? There is no quick fix for Poly’s lacking foundational course options, no bandaids which will heal the bullet holes of a flawed academic ecosystem, one that Poly exists inside of, not the other way around. In truth, an overhaul of the entire academic pipeline, from preschool to grad school, is required to improve the quality of learning in all schools, not just Poly. There are some things we can do as a school, however. To start, perhaps, a Foundations-like course in the Upper School should be made more widely available, or maybe even required for underclassmen. In addition, there ought to be active work by students, teachers, and administrators to destigmatize asking for help from teachers, or reaching out to the learning support department. Hopefully, in some utopian future, Poly, along with many high schools, will be able to shift away from focusing solely on letter grades, and more towards the quality of the learning experience kids receive from the school. Unfortunately, that future can only exist with a greater overhaul of our national education system. For now, teaching essential skills is not extra, and you are not dumb for asking for help. In fact, that’s probably much smarter than drinking an espresso at 10 p.m.

oly is infamous for the countless scandals, news articles, and controversy entwined within its walls. Over the years, various news outlets have plucked at the elite Brooklyn private school; the news loves to report on this elite Brooklyn private school. Did that previous sentence sound repetitive to you? The media’s passion for conveying how elite this Brooklyn private school truly is cannot be emphasized enough.

VIA NY DAILY NEWS

VIA NEW YORK POST

VIA NEW YORK TIMES Elite, defined by Merriam-Webster, means: “The people who have the most wealth and status in a society: the most successful or powerful group of people.” The eliteness of Poly Prep leaves the institution under a spotlight—one false move and the claws of the media brawl for the latest exposé. These news outlets consistently zoom out of Poly’s atmosphere in the articles to broader topics. Although these topics often highlight essential issues, Poly’s spotlight in the post seems a little excessive. Also, some advice from a fellow journalist, a thesaurus exists.

Faculty Op-Ed: Winston Reveals the Value of Vulnerability JARED WINSTON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

have always been angry. I was angry when my parents got divorced. I was angry about having to share an air mattress with my brother until I was 12. I was angry when my dad went through a second divorce. I was angry when my brother went to jail for stabbing two people. I was angry when he didn’t receive the sentence I felt he deserved because of his privilege. I was angry when I got laughed at during a slam poetry competition for calling out toxic school culture in front of my peers. Shame, both internal and external, can be a toxic force. It makes us resent our scars, rather than appreciate the lessons they have taught us. These memories do not define me—they inform how I navigate this life. They remind me to be resilient, understanding, and open to the reality that we all carry invisible stories with us through this world we share. I share my invisible stories with you to model vulnerability and to help fight the fear of shame you might feel when you reflect upon your own scars. I always wonder what invisible stories the students, faculty, and staff here at Poly come to campus with. I wonder how different we would treat each other if we knew those invisible stories. I imagine we would be a bit more empathetic, generous, graceful, and kind with

our words, our behaviors, and our actions. Beyond my scars, I was also angry at the world. We treated this planet terribly. We treated each other horribly. Few people had so much and so many had so little. We spoke and spoke about change, but it didn’t seem to be happening—at least as fast as I wanted it to. It felt like life kept putting up speed limit signs when all I wanted was to rush toward a more righteous world. Throughout middle and high school, I worked tirelessly with my therapist to channel my anger. If I was angry, nobody would know. Once a week with Dr. Robins, I would cry my eyes out. It was always important to her that I knew what to do with my anger—how I could turn that anger into creating positive change. When I showed up to school, I smiled wide and got involved. While I wish I could have been more vulnerable at school, I learned at an early age to not just feel and talk, but to do. Action and inaction are both choices. We can say we know what the right thing to do is, but knowing and doing are two different things. We don’t do the right thing all the time. Could we ever? I often wonder, though, how different the world would be if we did the right thing. All. The. Time. We are born into this world without context. We look to those who have been in our

shoes for guidance. We hope they might lead us in the right direction. We trust that they have our best interest in mind. We wait until something connects with us so deeply that it inspires us to live out what we know is right. Imagine Poly 10 years from now. What does it look like? What does it feel like? What do we stand for? How do we treat each other? Where are we going? These questions swirl around my head constantly. When I wake up, when I make dinner, when I’m out for a run. These questions echo in my mind. Community doesn’t build itself and culture takes time to develop. If I could snap my fingers today and give each and every Poly student a community where they feel valued, supported, and recognized, I would have done so on my first day on the job. You know I would. That change takes time does not mean it isn’t happening. Time is this mysterious ingredient that reveals change to us as the days and seasons of hard work pass. Time has an ineffable quality—it processes change in a way that we can’t touch or see at any one moment. This reality means we have to be relentless. We have to be relentless in stating our values and modeling how to move forward together. We have to be relentless in discussing and improving our good faith

efforts to create community here at Poly. I hope you trust that we are moving in the right direction. As school returns to normal, I hope you lean into this path we are on together. I believe in us and I believe in what we can do. Change is challenging, though, and it takes courage and integrity to start it up and see it through. It means standing up to do the right thing when it is difficult. It means caring when it isn’t cool to care. It means defying the norm in hopes of creating a better world. Whether you are a senior on your way out of Poly, or whether this is your first year in middle school, improving school culture means showing up every day for yourself and for others. I do still get angry. I get angry when I see dirty lunch tables. I get angry when I hear students using identity as a weapon. I get angry because these are choices we make. My job, though, isn’t to shame you for being human - nobody is infallible. My job is to remind you that you have “it.” That we have all we need—deep in our bones—to act on our highest aspirations. There is so much that needs to be done, and we have what it takes. Let’s get to work. Jared Winston is the Director of Student Life.

FEBRUARY 2022

OPINIONS

Trials and Tribulations of the Upstander Workshops A Critique of the Upstander Workshops EMMA SPRING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

oly Prep’s favorite word is culture. “Culture matters,” Head of School Audrius Barzdukas preached in an email to the Poly community in November. The series of Upstander workshops, introduced by Director of Student Life Jared Winston aims to “strengthen a culture where we stand up for ourselves and others against harmful and uncomfortable actions, behaviors, and language,” as also stated in an email to the Poly community. While these interdivisional meetings might intend to open dialogue and build a more supportive community, they are not an effective enough measure in creating a respected and valued community. The problems with the program start with the curriculum itself. The first workshop of the year in December had students, in interdivisional groups from 5-12 grades, examine different conflict scenarios, curated by Winston. Later, in the January workshop, groups looked at student-surveyed “Upstander” scenarios. I will give Winston credit for mindfully setting up the second workshop with the help of an advisory team of faculty to review student-generated scenarios and a teacher-training session. Still, however, despite the efforts, nothing in the workshop targeted real intolerance, except for maybe ageism and athleticism. In one scenario, for example, an uninvited older kid sat next to a younger kid on the school bus, even though many seats were open. In groups, students analyzed how they would respond to the dilemma, asking themselves, “What would I do as the younger kid, as the older kid, or even as a bystander?” Another was how to go about a girl always being picked last in drafting to play on a sports team. From my perspective as a senior and a Poly student of nearly 10 years, we do not need an hour-long session to teach students how to react to such a futile situation. These are elementary lessons being taught to middle and high schoolers at a school that prides itself on academic excellence. The scenarios did not make most kids uncomfortable. The scenarios were certainly not serious. It’s life, and I think the point is to figure it out on your own. The idea of these workshops seems fruitful in retrospect, but not only are these scenarios relatively uncommon, but they also require little brain energy when generating response ideas, especially when all grades are mixed. The distinction between high school and middle school is necessary to have age-appropriate conversations. The two schools are separated into the Chapel and theater for this reason. These

workshops should be separated by age, which, adeptly, Winston plans to do in April in a third Upstander workshop. Winston acknowledged that the scenarios were surface-level, but emphasized the importance of breaking the ice in conversation. “We need to develop a common language that helps us realize our shared, foundational values as a community. As we move towards introducing more discomfort in future workshops, it is critical that both faculty and students feel familiar with having these types of dialogues…If we hope to build a strong, lasting culture on the heels of this global pandemic, we need a strong foundation that roots us in a shared understanding,” said Winston in an email to the Polygon. The January workshop also asked students to create a “Bill of Responsibility,” a list of values every Poly student is obliged to follow. If students don’t know the basic value of respect, however, I would argue that they shouldn’t be a Poly student in the first place.

Instead of focusing on only solutions, we should understand where our intolerance for diversity comes from and how to recognize what is important to report and what’s not. Endless psychological papers prove that once students reach8thgrade,thesebasicvaluetrainingprogramsdon’twork. With such a banal curriculum, neither students nor teachers seemed to care. According to the students I talked with, many teachers mindlessly read off of the pre-prepared slideshow, as students slumped in their chairs, citing answers with apathy. Students and teachers described that they went through the motions, as the information went through one ear and out the other. Still, I understand the intention to create a more connected student body. Creating an environment of trust and comfort would allow the community to flourish. As a senior leader myself, I agree that the easiest way to evoke such an environment is through school-wide discussion. Separated by computer screens and tennis courts,

older students have not had the opportunity to interact with their younger peers for the past two years. Maybe the point is that the frivolousness of the workshop itself binds students together over the criticisms they share. Nevertheless, is the intention for culture change there? Yes. Are these workshops a waste of time? Also yes. I certainly cannot say that making institutional change is easy, nor can I, by any means, do it myself. Winston and administrators are, understandably, trying to put the best efforts they can. It seems then that the problem is that concrete solutions may not exist. Instead of focusing on only solutions, we should understand where our intolerance for diversity comes from and how to recognize what is important to report and what’s not. Winston explained, however, that the Upstander workshops were never posed as a solution to culture problems at Poly. “The Upstander workshops were not a reactive or responsive community program—we began this work in Middle School Advisory last year,” wrote Winston. His goal has never been either to solve every issue at Poly. “Rather, [the goal is for] students to recognize their individual agency and responsibility to others… In only 115 minutes of programming, we have sparked a productive community-wide conversation about what we need to be talking about as a school— that is a success in my book. Moving into the end of the year, we now have a more clear vision in mind of what this school community needs and where our school culture stands. Culture does not build itself, and we all bring value to this conversation—own your voice, get involved, and let’s drive Poly towards its potential,” wrote Winston. Nevermind the intentions of the workshop and its favorable foundations, I still go back to the thought that perhaps there should be a solution that stems from a general understanding of how class, race, gender, and everything else plays into our community instead of reminding students that with great power comes great responsibility. Uncle Ben could have told us that. Students cannot be expected to confront real issues with training solely on how to ask someone to change seats on the bus. Sorry, but the middle schooler on the bus has to suck it up. Poly has bigger problems. Every little thing that bothers someone cannot be solved, and I’m not sure why it needs to be either. Perhaps, as the Upstander workshop is thoroughly fostering, the lesson is not to care so much about the little things.

Motors Versus Mud: Student Parking Troubles ELLA CARTER AS TOLD TO EMMA SPRING

very morning, I drive through the front gate at Poly greeted by security guard Jason, a Ruvna screening, and the job of parking my car. My car doesn’t have an off-roading setting, yet for the past few months, I’ve had to sludge through the mounds of wet soil to make my way up the student parking hill towards another day of school. Back in 2019, Poly community drivers all parked in the front and back lots. With the pandemic, many opt to drive to avoid urine- and germ-filled public transportation, but there aren’t enough parking spots to accommodate.

field, with the grass disintegrating into the wet soil beneath. The day after harsh weather events were always the worst. To get up over the mud-slide of a hill, I had to floor it. Otherwise, I’d roll backwards into the baby turtles in the pond, meaning I’d kill not only myself but also the wildlife native to our man-made hole filled with water. I have been lucky enough to have gotten my car stuck

onto the hill. Still, Jason encouraged me to continue to make my way through the snow for parking. After minutes

“The first time, I manually pushed my car, while avoiding the two bodies of water in either valley, as my shoes got pulled off from the suction of the mud. The second time, I recruited a security guard to help.” - Ella Carter VIA EMMA SPRING

VIA EMMA SPRING Since returning from pandemic quarantine, while teachers stuffed their cars in the lot, juniors and seniors like myself parked their cars on the “hill” by the 9/11 Memorial Garden. That is, until security discontinued this practice this month after noticing the muddy and dangerous conditions, or what my Tiguan would call quicksand if it could talk. Once a beautiful tribute to the lives lost from the attack on the World Trade Center, the memorial garden has become a pit that most resembles a monster truck battle-

in the mud on the hill, not once, but twice this year, in addition to plenty of extra time skidding up the tundra to park. The first time, I manually pushed my car, while avoiding the two bodies of water in either valley, as my shoes got pulled off from the suction of the mud. The second time, I recruited a security guard to help. After half an hour of efforts to no avail, Admissions Coordinator Ellen Kinnane was kind enough to give the car the extra push it needed to escape the mud’s grip. Pushing cars out of quicksand was far beyond her paygrade. Another time, I arrived early to Poly’s campus for morning workouts. Upon my arrival, there were two feet of snow on top of the extra snow plowed from the path

of skidding and getting nowhere, I gave up. In rebellion, I left my car in the middle of the bus path. As students arrived, after my bold statement, students were permitted to park in the teachers’ parking lot, on the safe concrete. Perhaps, because of my daring act, Poly sent out an email on February 13 informing faculty and student drivers that they will forgo all parking on grassy areas, decreasing parking capacity by about 30 spaces. Perhaps because of my audacity, parking for students and employees will now come on a first-come, first-serve basis. Those who arrive after the lots are full will have to park on the street. Juniors, seniors, people with tiny cars, and baby turtles, you are welcome.

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Black Power-Black Arts

“In Color and Mind: The Visions and Words of Malcolm X” “In Color and Mind: The Visions and Words of Malcolm X,” a class project from Alex Carter’s Black Power-Black Arts course, required students to create an artwork and write an artist statement that examined the significant ideological patterns and life experiences of Malcolm X shown in their artwork. A significant focus of the project required students to see Malcolm X as a human being and, as his friend Ossie Davis said, as a man that “did not hesitate to die [for Black people], because he loved us so.” Students gained artistic inspiration by listening to Malcolm X’s favorite music — jazz.

Student: Anne Vasquez Artwork Title: Light Within Blackness Description: “Light Within Blackness” highlights the concept of community and spiritual awakening within the Black community, referencing Malcolm X’s experience and conversion to Islam. The concept of spiritual awakening is reflected in the Kaaba, the building at the center of the Masjid al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The concept of community is essential and represented by people of different skin tones and hair textures to establish a broad-based community.

Student: Mariama Diallo Artwork Title: The Black Prince Description: “The Black Prince” sparks a discussion of Malcolm X and the ideologies, black nationalism, and self-defense. Growing up, Malcolm X has always been a role model for me. I was always captivated by his confidence, the attention he commanded, the way he carried himself, as well as the intensity and passion with which he spoke on issues that affected all Americans, especially the injustices faced by black Americans.

Student: Tasha Fonstein Artwork Title: X is a Placeholder Description: Utilizing acrylic on canvas, the background is black with stripes of white. An “X” at the center explodes with the colors of the Pan-African flag: red, green, and black. The painting itself holds the power of Malcolm’s Pan-African ideas that burst through the “X” and the white strokes of paint that represent the white hegemonic oppression on Black history. The ideologies of Pan-Africanism and the unity of African-descendant people are critical to Malcolm X.

Student: Mia Edwards Artwork Title: Strength in Our Culture Description: “Strength in Our Culture” depicts a black Muslim woman holding the hands of two young children, leading them away from the numerous white hands trying to grasp them. Some of the hands hold out Christian relics, such as the cross and the bible, while the woman walks away from them, staring back with menacing eyes. The woman and children are wearing the colors of the Pan-African flag and making their way towards fragmented pieces of a map outlining the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Dealing With Loss of Smell from COVID-19

Mile-High Adventures

CAROLINE HANNA PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Studying at Colorado’s High Mountain Institute

ou just got some really bad news. The person you got dinner with last week tested positive for COVID-19. You head on over to your local testing site and pray that you got lucky and dogged the COVID-19 bullet. A day later, your test results come back positive and you start to experience some basic symptoms — a sore throat, chills, and a stuffy nose. Everything seems to go pretty normally and nothing really concerns you too much. Until one morning when you make your favorite lunch. A turkey bacon avocado sandwich with spicy mayo, and you can barely taste it. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the loss or distortion of smell and taste has emerged as one of the telltale symptoms of COVID-19, with an estimated 86 percent of mild cases displaying signs of olfactory dysfunction. There are a few different things that can go wrong with your olfactory nerves when you have covid. In most cases, patients cannot perceive smells, which is known as anosmia. In other cases, people develop ageusia where any sense of taste is lost. In others, the dysfunction eventually manifests as warped senses of smell and taste (parosmia and parageusia, respectively), making previously familiar scents and flavors rancid, like being assaulted with the overwhelming stench of rot, feces, and chemicals. How does one go through life without being able to enjoy food? It seems so mundane and underwhelming to feel like you are eating cardboard for every meal. And, it’s even worse if everything tastes like chemicals or rotten food. Not being able to enjoy eating is a physically

and emotionally draining symptom of Covid that unfortunately can last months and in some cases, never go away. Personally, I was terrified of this when I had covid. I was constantly lighting candles to make sure I could still detect their scents. At first I was only concerned with the decreased quality of life I would have if I could not smell my favorite scents or taste my favorite foods. However, as I began to think about it longer, I realized losing the ability to smell and taste poses some very practical dangers. You need your sense of smell to see if something is burning or if there’s a gas leak nearby. You also use it to see if food is rotten. Losing this sense could be a detriment to one’s safety. Additionally, having a distorted or lost sense of taste can lead to loss of appetite, malnutrition, unintended weight loss, a harmed immune system, and depression. When every meal is a flavorless chore, or at worst a repulsive gag-worthy one, how do people adjust to this new life? Fortunately, there are a few things you can try in order to retrain your senses to go back to normal. Levi Stein, a sophmore here at Poly, went through this experience. Even after his initial symptoms subsided and he had quarantined for ten days, he realized he had no sense of smell. Levi said, “I’ve been slowly regaining it over the past few months and have been trying to retrain it by smelling strong scents and imagining what I remember them smelling like.” Hopefully for Levi and everyone else going through this upsetting experience, techniques like his can return your senses to normal.

LOLA PITMAN MANAGING EDITOR

s the wind rips through my four down puffy layers, I curl deeper into the cocoon of my below zero sleeping bag, while not losing focus on the voices of my peers. My heart is full, though my feet are throbbing in pain and my hands are cracking. Five months ago, I was stressed and anxious. Why, in the name of a city girl, did I decide to enroll in a wilderness school?! Yeah, I had done a few canoe trips here and there; I had gone hiking (more like a nature walk) with my family. But who did I think I was, leaving all my friends and family to up and go to a school in the middle of Colorado with 50 other high school students? It was one of the best decisions of my life. The High Mountain Institute is similar to a college study abroad program, but for high school juniors or seniors from all over the United States and Europe. As stated on the HMI website, “students return to home schools invigorated about education, experienced in leadership, and more aware of the world around them.” The education at HMI couldn’t be more different from the one at Poly. As a fall student, I experienced three sections of on campus education and three wilderness expeditions that allowed me to flourish and challenge myself. A deep connection with the teachers opened me up to feel more comfortable reaching out, not just about academics, but also for advice in general. Students and teachers at HMI interact far more than in the traditional ways. HMI teachers are backpacking instructors, running partners, lunch buddies, and mentors. During my time at HMI, I engaged in three backing-packing trips. The first was a 16-day trip through the Mount Massive wilderness, during which our group of 10 students and three teachers focused on building a foundation of camping, risk management, and leadership skills. This trip began on my third day at HMI. I am not going to lie; it was terrifying. I was surrounded by strangers, hiking for miles a day, but I soon realized the uniqueness and value of this wild experience. On this trip, I was introduced to a HMI staple called “Circle.” “Circle” is an evening ritual on expeditions where, under the stars, the group gathers to learn more about their peers. (continued on page 9)

Bienvenue Beatrice! Reflections on a semester abroad in France

Everyday Innovations What is a cryptocurrency? TJ IANNELLI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

BEATRICE LARKIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER ast semester, I attended School Year Abroad, a school in Rennes, France. It is an American school, high school students from all over the country can spend either a semester or a year there. I made friends from Hawaii to Chicago to D.C., and lived with a host family. I decided to go because I felt that COVID made me feel that I was really missing out on a high school experience, and I wanted something different. I also have been taking French for as long as I can remember, and I wanted to improve. By the end I was having long conversations with native speakers, and was able to pick up the language. It was so different from anything that I was used to, and taking the risk definitely ended up being the right decision for me. Being thrust into a new environment in Rennes, France, encouraged me to make new friends and new experiences, allowing me to grow throughout the process. In the beginning, I was constantly uncomfortable. It felt like not knowing how to swim and being thrown into an ice-cold pool. Every morning when I woke up in somebody else’s house, I had to speak French, learn the bus system, and all while making new friends. This challenge definitely forced me to be my best, nicest, and most energetic self the whole first month, which I feel has trained me well for other situations in life. Throughout that month were many ups and downs, phases of missing home, and phases of never wanting to go back. When I first got to France and observed my host family, their meticulous focus on rules and their sense of humor did not exactly jive with my personality that well. While they were very nice and we got along fine, I never really felt a bond to them. I thought that I could never live in Rennes or another country because I was nothing like them. The way that they ran their house and their personalities did not click with me. It is not that I did not like my host family, I just didn’t really relate to them. This led me to, at first, view all French people in the same light as them. During my time with my host family, there was a loss in their family, resulting in a stay with friends’ host families for two weeks. While living on the whim of a stranger’s kindness is a daunting concept, the people that took me in ended up making the experience incredibly easy. The first week I was with one friend, and the second week I was with another. Throughout my time with the other host families, I developed immediate connections with them, making me feel more at home in France than I ever had before. I felt in touch with the culture, gaining a deeper understanding and bond with the French people around me. First, I

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stayed with a host family of a close friend, who had a great sense of humor and the host mom, Cécile, was one of the sweetest people I have ever met. My stay with them felt so natural and comfortable, despite the circumstances. After a week of being with them, I moved in with another friend and her host mom, tearing up after Cécile dropped me off at my new host family’s home. She described in detail my nut allergy and the mannerisms I have around it. It warmed my heart to see that she paid attention and knew these things about me after only one week. At my other friend’s house, her host mom Jacqueline was a very interesting and lively person. She had a very energetic personality, and loved to hear me talk about back home and enjoyed swapping stories. After having the opportunity to live with people that I related to, I feel like I have it in me to live abroad in the future. It made me realize that one can find people to relate to anywhere. Looking back at my time in France, I know the friends I made were crucial to all the amazing experiences I had. They supported me and made every day fun. They were truly what made my experience go from simply fun, to life-changing. I went on many adventures with them, such as going to Sète and then to Paris about halfway through the program. Both places were extremely different from Rennes, where I lived and went to school. I had also never been to either city, and I grew to love both in completely different ways. Sète was in the South of France. It was warm, and my friends and I learned something new every day as we traveled the cities, visiting museums, hiking, and sightseeing. I really loved learning about the history of monuments while enjoying the sun with my friends. Paris was so insurmountably vast that I could not fully comprehend it. I feel like because I am from New York City, I do not often have that overwhelmed reaction to places I visit. Paris is an epicenter of culture, and I was glad to have learned much about it beforehand so I felt like I deserved to visit a place with such a rich history. My overall experience at SYA was life-changing, and I am a more confident and self-sufficient person after this experience. The way that I was thrown into this environment led me to fostering such great friends, becoming proficient in French, and navigating a new city by myself, proving that I was capable of more than I thought. I loved all of the hands-on activities and traveling we did, and I loved learning about the places I visited. I grew to be very comfortable with my friends, teachers, and to love our little SYA community, whom I now miss very much.

ryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular over the past few years. Cryptocurrency is essentially a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Some cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are even accepted by major companies like Microsoft and Home Depot as payment. Last September, El Salvador became the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender, although they are still under pressure to reverse this decision. With the world seemingly accepting cryptocurrencies more and more, it is only a matter of time until it becomes a part of people’s daily lives. However, the main issue is that many people have no idea what a cryptocurrency actually is, where it came from, and what it could result to in the future.

The Origin:

The first concept of a cryptocurrency was in 1983 by an American cryptographer, David Chaum. He developed the idea over two years, eventually creating Digicash, which was a form of cryptographic electronic payments that used a software to transfer money from a bank to an individual using encrypted keys that were untraceable. In 2009, bitcoin was created by someone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, an individual with an unknown true identity. In the simplest explanation possible, bitcoin is a ledger, like a bank statement with a record of transactions, that the individual manages, rather than a bank. This process is called the blockchain.

Today:

While almost everyone knows of bitcoin, not everyone knows how it works or how to buy it; this is the main issue with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies expanding in the future. Currently, there are many exchanges where you can buy bitcoin. One of the most popular places to buy cryptocurrency is Coinbase. Founded in 2012, the platform grew immensely recently with its quarterly revenue going from 315.07 million in September 2020 to 1.8 billion in March 2021. Most people might know them from their recent Super Bowl ad that crashed their app with a QR code. Currently, cryptocurrencies aren’t widely accepted, with some people even retracting the ability to buy their products with bitcoin. One of these companies is Tesla, who briefly accepted bitcoin for a month in 2021, but retracted it due to environmental concerns over the mining of bitcoin. Currently, there are large warehouses that people set up to mine bitcoin, but many of these are set up to use lots of electricity from a non-sustainable source.

Future:

The future of bitcoin is uncertain, as it is still extremely volatile and just starting to be regulated by the government. Regulating cryptocurrencies becomes an issue because of the fact that anyone can make one, whether it is legitimate or not is difficult to say. Another issue with cryptocurrencies is the environmental impact of mining currencies on large scale computers. According to a study done by the University of Cambridge, the total electricity consumption of the bitcoin network annually is about 138.3 TWh. This is just about the same electricity usage as Egypt, an entire country with a population of just over 100 million people. There are efforts to make bitcoin “green” which involve the use of sustainable energy sources like wind and solar to power the mining computers. The government regulation of bitcoin is currently managed by the Securities and Exchanges Commission, but there are advocates for cryptocurrency to be managed like any other currency. This is on the grounds that it would be simpler for the individual and government if the government used the regulators they already have in place to manage something like the U.S. dollar. This in turn would make the rules of cryptocurrency easier to understand. With the hopes of a cleaner method to mining and a refined regulation of bitcoin, a future society with cryptocurrencies integrated into it seems very plausible.

HMI (continued from page 8) Each night begins with a spotlight: One person has one minute to tell their life story, two minutes of round-robin popcorn questions, and then it gets serious. Each circle member thinks of a deep question to ask the person in the spotlight. These could range from “what’s an internal and external scar of yours?” to “what’s a hard moment in your life that you are not grateful for?” At the cost of sounding cheesy, these questions really did work, allowing for a deeper understanding of my peers’ and my teachers’ lives. With each new spotlight came a greater sense of vulnerability, a stronger connection, respect that transferred onto campus after our first expedition, and the intense questions didn’t end. After a month on campus, I joined a new group of peers and instructors taking on the canyons of Utah for my second expedition. There, I explored the beauty of the canyons in Cedar Mesa and took on more responsibilities. I knew virtually nothing about reading a map. Naively, I saw it as a bunch of rivers and mountains, not a path for me to hike. On the second expedition, navigation became a student’s job: finding water sources, and investigating an entirely unique ecosystem. The instructors were there just to make sure you made it to the campsite by the six o’clock sunset. Thankfully, I don’t have many horror stories from this expedition, but back on campus I heard about a group that went down the wrong canyon and had to walk

VIA LOLA PITMAN an extra six miles once they realized the canyon walls were not matching the map. These mishaps are essential to the growth that ultimately allows for independent traveling and decision making on the third and final expedition. Students are given more autonomy as the semester progresses. With 11 other students, now friends, by my side, we earned this autonomy, learning wilderness first aid and becoming certified to travel independently of instructors. This allowed us to navigate and live on our own in the backcountry for 10 days. Our instructors traveled an hour behind us, checking in with a designated student leader every day. With our wilderness train-

ing, our strong communication around group goals and dynamics, we experienced something that many people don’t have the chance to—successfully backpacking through the canyons of Jacobs Chair, Utah, on our own. The integration of our expedition learnings into the classroom is still astounding to me. Academics do not halt when leaving campus for an expedition. Instead, they are an integral part of the wilderness experience. All of the classes were place-based in nature; we participated in discussions and completed assignments that connected us to Colorado, Utah, and the American West. The faculty not only taught classes on campus but led the wilderness expeditions. As a result, teachers have the chance to mentor students in all settings of HMI: the classroom, the residential setting on campus, and the backcountry. This helped foster the connection that my peers and I hold so fondly with each of our teachers. They joined in on our late night circle meetings, sharing about their experiences and creating the trust that only comes with mutual respect and vulnerability. The uniqueness of the High Mountain Institute’s backcountry expeditions is something that will always stay with me, introducing a love for nature and a different type of connection with my peers and teachers that will inform my future relationships. What makes it even more special is that my time there was finite, making each experience in the moment bounded by the surrounding mountains.

FEATURES

A Pandemic History ABBY BEN-UR CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ovid-19 has been afflicting the world today for almost two years. Everyone has felt the effects of the virus and it’s changed the world forever. However, pandemics, quarantines, and vaccinations have been around for much longer. Every aspect of how the world deals with disease and pandemics has changed hundreds of times, spanning thousands of years. There have been around 249 major pandemics from 1200 B.C.E. to 2022. This includes smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, and many more. One of the first examples of a severe, documented pandemic is the Justinian Plague in the 6th century. The Justinian Plague was the first of many major bubonic plague pandemics. It wiped out somewhere ranging from 25 to 60 percent of Europe’s population and lasted eight years. Emperor Justinian, the namesake of the plague, blamed the various minorities, which included Jews, gay people, and pagans among others, in Europe for bringing the disease to Constantinople, the capital of the Ancient Roman Empire. He forced them into quarantine, thinking this would slow the death rate. Jumping forward a thousand years, the most recent pandemic, Covid-19, has derived from other types of coronaviruses that have been around for centuries. Distinct strains of coronavirus were first discovered in the 1960s, but have mutated a great deal since. Mutations of diseases normally occur in animals and stay in animals. However, in some rare cases, it transfers to humans and our unprepared immune systems. For example, smallpox, a disease that caused people to develop massive blisters and severe fevers, was thought to have originated from cowpox and horsepox, similar diseases that afflicted animals. Covid-19 originated in bats. Other viruses can be extremely deadly, but can’t survive changing seasons, like yellow fever. Yellow fever had been ravaging the world for more than 200 years before it broke out in Boston in 1693. It ended up killing tens of thousands of people, mostly in the summer, and almost completely died out in the winter. Vaccination and inoculation have been around for a long time, and have been studied and changed for centuries. Starting in 1000 B.C.E. with Emperor K’ang-hsi inoculating his children in China by grinding up smallpox scabs and blowing them into their noses, preventive measures have been discovered and developed countless times. In 1776, half of the 10,000 Continental Army soldiers in Quebec got infected by smallpox. It was suspected that the British army sent recently variolated people into the Continental camps, using smallpox as a weapon of war. That same year, a man named Edward Jenner discovered that infecting people with cowpox, the disease he suspected smallpox came from, could prevent smallpox infections. He tested this out on a young boy by scraping matter from a cowpox sore and inoculating him. The boy was sick for a few days but made a full recovery. A few months later, Jenner infected the boy with matter from a smallpox sore. The boy survived and didn’t even fall ill, proving this vaccination to be effective. The word of Jenner’s success spread and while it has been refined, the science behind the first vaccine still works today. As decades passed, vaccination spread around the world and was widely endorsed.In 1879, a man named Louis Pasteur created the first laboratory-made vaccine, a vaccine for chicken cholera. He experimented by infecting live chickens with the disease to see how long it took them to die. After an assistant forgot to reinfect the chickens and left them alone with only one dosage for the holidays, he figured out that the thing that weakened the virus was exposure to oxygen. They all recovered. Pasteur then examined how rabies affected animals. In 1884, he announced that he had successfully formulated a vaccination for dogs from rabies and soon developed a similar vaccine for people. While he was mostly focused on animals, Pasteur inspired a man named Jaime Ferran, who developed a cholera vaccine by taking bacteria from a cholera-infected person’s waste, growing it, and injecting it into people’s arms. This is very similar to the way vaccines work today and helped further enhance vaccines into what they are in the present. Quarantining is another huge aspect of pandemics and the prevention of pandemics. The word quarantine stems from the Italian word for forty, “quaranta,” because ships were required to stay docked for forty days before entering infected cities. Emperor Justinian

forced the minorities of Constantinople to quarantine, which is one of the earliest examples of this practice. Another early example of quarantine emerged during the Black Death, which wiped out a fifth of Europe’s population in the 14th century. In Italy, the health officials decided that the air itself was poisoned with the Black Death, so they took a great deal of time inspecting food, wine, sewage, and destroying the clothes of the dead. In Reggio in 1374, the Lord of Milan decreed that all infected people should be taken to fields outside the city to die or recover. To further protect the country, the health officials in Ragusa, Sicily, created a quarantine law that ordered “that citizens or visitors from plague-endemic areas would not be admitted into Ragusa until they had first remained in isolation for 1 month; (2) that no person from Ragusa was permitted go to the isolation area, under penalty of remaining there for 30 days; (3) that persons not assigned by the Great Council to care for those being quarantined were not permitted to bring food to isolated persons, under penalty of remaining with them for 1 month; and (4) that whoever did not observe these regulations would be fined and subjected to isolation for 1 month,” as University of Maryland’s Paul Sehdev wrote in “The Origin of Quarantine.” Quarantining, just like vaccinations, has been changed over time as the world progressed. As the world slowly works through Covid-19, it’s interesting to look back in history and see how far we’ve come. While Covid-19 has been tragic and life-altering, it’s helped the world learn new ways to deal with crises. As more sicknesses inevitably emerge, new ways to deal with and stop them will emerge as well.

FROM THE POLYGON ARCHIVES: Above: November 5, 1918 letter to the Polygon from Poly alum detailing his time in the Canadian Air Force in 1917. Top right: October 29, 1920 Polygon Weekly Gasp feature with nursery rhymes and poems featuring the diseases of the times. Bottom right: October 29, 1918 Polygon news piece regarding teachers getting vaccinated for the Spanish Influenza.

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A Poly Love Story

Valentine’s Day Q&A With History Teacher Harold Bernieri ’85 CHELSEA LIN PEOPLE EDITOR

Who is your spouse? “Her name when she was at Poly was Jean Sarachman.” Where and when did you guys first meet? “The first time I met her was before school started—we used to get books before school started. So I collected my books and bumped into her and she was with a friend of mine and then the next time I saw her, we actually had Chemistry together—we were in one class together.”

VIA HAROLD BERNIERI

What was your first impression of her? “Well, I was intrigued by her! And very much attracted to her.”

How did you guys get together? “It just sort of naturally evolved. We started talking and over a course of a couple months, we finally went on a date in October of 1982. I was a sophomore and she was a junior—that was the first year she had transferred into the school.” What was the first thing you noticed about her? “Her eyes—she has green eyes.” What is your favorite thing about her? “My favorite thing about her is that she’s my best friend.”

What was your favorite Valentine’s Day with her and why? “My favorite Valentine’s Day is the one that just passed, because we got to celebrate all these Valentine’s Days together.” Fun Facts Married in 1990 Two kids that both went to Poly Both ran track in high school Like to go out to dinner together, wander around Manhattan, and go birdwatching Both teachers—she’s the head of a grammar school

Poly People: A Snapshot in Time

The students in Rachael Allen’s Journalism class have spent the past few months interviewing, researching, and writing profiles of people inside and outside of the Poly community. The following are excerpts from student profiles of Poly community members. You can read the full versions of the profiles below—as well as others—on the class website: https://polyprepjournalism.wordpress.com/.

Jamie Nestor Erika Freeman

Jase Franklyn On the outskirts of New York City lies a high school—Poly Prep. At the back fields of the school, a track and field practice commences under the dark skies of a December night, brightly lit up by large spotlights looming over the field. There, Jase Franklyn coaches a group of high school students, subtly making adjustments to each throw they make. By TJ Iannelli

It’s 3:40 on a Wednesday afternoon at Poly Prep and there are still three students in lab 4 of the science building. Microscopes are out and the students are making sketches of plant cells on their assigned worksheets. Mrs. Erika Freeman sits at the table next to them, answering questions, all while speaking to a student from another class about a different assignment. Looking in at this classroom, one would think that the room was at its full capacity, especially this far along after school hours. Then in comes four more people, smaller than the ones already taking up the room.

Hannah Gross

By Jess Dosik

By Julia Reyfman

Hannah Gross, 17, gets the same Starbucks coffee almost every morning, and she has for the past 5 years. “A blonde vanilla latte, a blonde vanilla latte, a blonde vanilla latte…” she repeats continuously in her head as she waits in line. She plans what she is going to say meticulously, but the barista asks her a question. “What milk do you want?” Hannah freezes. She knows she wants regular milk, but at that moment, she questions absolutely everything she knows. She freezes.

Meg Caro “Let’s pull up your profile right now,” said Ms. Caro. She went on her computer and within a few seconds had my Common App pulled up. Ms. Caro says, “This is where it all goes. Combined with Naviance, this is where I submit any of your documents that schools need.” To the outsider looking in, Ms. Caro is your typical college guidance counselor for those in high school at Poly Prep. However, her contributions and importance to the Poly community run far deeper than just her job. By Devan Kodali

Paolo Javier

Hidden away in a secluded office, almost always smelling like something floral or fruitlike, Jamie Nestor sits positioned towards the wooden door a few feet away from her. The 11th grader is seated slouched over on the couch, his bad posture only highlighted more due to the contrast to Nestor’s practically perfect seated posture: shoulders back, sitting up tall, neck inline with spine, and feet planted evenly into the floor. When the kid finally exits, she spins her chair back around as she delves back into her work in front of her, only waiting for the next kid to show up at her door in need of dire help. By Sophia Chamorro

Richard James Jeremi Lewis

Paolo Javier is a poet, a filmmaker, a musician, and an artist of all trades. But back in fourth grade, he wasn’t any of those things. Living in a small town in the Philippines on the outskirts of Manila, he was unenthused by school, and couldn’t seem to find a passion that he could follow. Until one day, a friend of his introduced him to the Queens hip hop group Run-DMC, putting his life on a course defined by growth, adversity, and art.

Jeremi Lewis initially avoided teaching. Lewis, the youngest of three boys, came to America in the mid-80s from Jamaica with his family, who came from a Seventh-Day Adventist background, and grew up in East New York and Brownsville. When he was very little, he wanted to be a lawyer; then in high school, he wanted to be a psychiatrist; now he works as a learning specialist at Poly Prep specifically for mathematics.

By Lucas Basham

By Seanna Sankar

It’s a warm, summer day in Athens, Greece and Richard James has just bolted across the finish line to win the 2004 World Championship. Thirteen years later, he’s become the head strength and conditioning coach at Poly Prep as he attempts to pave the way for the next generation of athletes. By Suryan Kamble PHOTOS VIA JASE BBQ, POLY PREP COMMUNICATIONS, AND HANNAH GROSS

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Sunday Routine With Michal Hershkovitz A Walkthrough of the Assistant Head of School’s Typical Sunday BEATRICE LARKIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Goodbye, Ms. Nestor CHELSEA LIN PEOPLE EDITOR

pper School Dean Jamie Nestor will be leaving Poly at the end of this school year and will be heading to Pittsburgh, P.A. to lead the Senior School at Sewickley Academy. In the Head of Upper School Sarah Bates’ email of January 18 announcing Nestor’s departure, she says “Her incomparable blend of empathy, effectiveness, and excellence has inspired all those who work with her, as well as her lucky students.” Over the past 11 years, Ms. Nestor has served as a Middle and Upper School Latin teacher, an eighth-grade homeroom teacher, the dean of student life in the Middle School, the dean of student life in the Upper School, and an Upper School Dean. Below is a Q&A with Ms. Nestor.

VIA MICHAL HERSHKOVITZ

he Assistant Head of School, Michal Hershkovitz, describes her mixed feelings about Sundays. She explains, “I really really love my job, but my job has a lot of responsibilities that leave me very very tired on Fridays.” She elaborates on how she takes Saturdays as a day to decompress, but leaves Sunday as preparation for the upcoming week. “I think my dislike of Sundays has to do with this feeling that I have to get myself ready for the stress of the next week,” said Hershkovitz.

“I don’t blame you at all if you find this really unappealing, but I love to clean,” – Michal Hershkovitz Nevertheless, she enjoys some small rituals on a Sunday, taking time for herself. She divulges an unpopular activity that she enjoys. She describes how activity is synonymous with her take on Sundays: organizing as a way of de-stressing. Hershkovitz explains that to her, it is an “instantaneously gratifying activity,” but also a mode of procrastination, “I clean joyfully, and thoroughly.” Hershkovitz shares, “I always read the newspaper, there’s no question about that. While I do read the newspaper daily, I do so more leisurely on Sunday.” Not just the newspaper, as she reads many books as well. She expresses guilt over her habit of reading multiple books at once. “I just have all of these books I am reading at the same time.” After some reading and a leisurely wakeup, she has breakfast. Herskovitz explains, “it’s my favorite meal of the day, on any given day.” She has a daughter—a former Poly student—that is now in college. She shares that, “when she is in town, we like to go to Miriam in Park Slope.” She expresses the fact that this place has a sense of home for her: “they do an Israeli breakfast that is utterly my favorite thing in the world.” However, she also enjoys making her own breakfast. She discusses her

favorite types of breakfast foods. “My daughter is definitely the pancake-maker, but I am more of an eggs person,” she said. She also shares that she likes to experiment, and that her “ husband is always very complimentary, no matter what we make, or how it tastes.” Other than the usual preparation for a hectic Monday or making breakfast, there are some Sunday traditions around meals that she loves: “at least once a month, we have dinner with friends.” She explains that these are “the kind of friends that are more like family, and are former Poly parents.” She has a strong connection with the family. She explains that although now all of their kids have grown up, their bond has remained, “they are fabulous cooks, and once a month, still invite us for Sunday dinner.” Hershkovitz emphasizes the importance of these bonds, as she said, “it is familial in the sense that as young adults, people love to return to family, which is what this meal is.” This sense of home is clear, and we then learn more about the food that she will traditionally bring. She elaborates, “I am always asked to bring the appetizers; my appetizer making is almost as skillful as my cleaning.” She discusses her appreciation for a beautiful cheese plate. “I take great care to make sure that the colors work, that the different cheeses play well off each other.”

“We raised our children together—we raised our children at Poly together.” – Michal Hershkovitz She continues to discuss the familial bond she has with this Poly family, specifically her love for this Sunday dinner: “it is really like coming home, it feels very warm.” While Herskovitz voiced a dislike for Sundays, she expressed her fondness for small traditions like cooking, cleaning, and seeing friends before the weight of the upcoming week hits.

VIA CAROLINA HANNA What’s the most important thing you’ve learned at Poly? “I’ve learned the importance of relationships, and I think I always knew that relationships are very important for building trust between students and faculty members or staff, but I think over the last six years in this dean iteration, I’ve learned how important for the student and even the relationships between faculty and students—for faculty understanding of the experience of the student and vice versa and how trust can be built. On a personal note, the relationships I’ve built here at Poly over the past eleven years, both with students and faculty, have been so meaningful to me and how it made me the person that I am today.” What are some of your best memories at Poly? “I still remember my first seventh grade Latin class that I ever taught—I had a really fun group of kids. I remember the proms I’ve attended very distinctly. I remember the first faculty meeting Mr. Barzdukas opened with over the summer. I’ve attended baby showers and weddings for my colleagues—those stand out to me so much, favorite memories of students coming back to visit after they’ve graduated, celebrating with students

on successes in the classroom and with college acceptances.” Why did you first choose to work at Poly? “I had known about Poly for a while, because I attended graduate school at Columbia and one of the people in my class was married to the former head of school, so I knew about Poly from her and after I finished to graduate school, I moved to Connecticut to teach and I really wanted to come back to New York, specifically Brooklyn, because my now husband was living here and there was an open Latin position at Poly the year that I was looking.” Why did you choose to depart from Poly? “For a change, for an adventure, for the next step in my professional life. My family is really lucky that we have the ability to move with my partner’s job. It’s a new adventure—a bittersweet adventure.” What is your favorite thing about Poly? “Everyone always says the people, but it’s so true. I’ve worked in a number of different schools and nobody has made an impact on me the way that the Poly students and faculty have.”

FEBRUARY 2022

ARTS

The Afternoon of Student Choreography ALIDA LISSAK ARTS EDITOR

COURTESY OF POLY PREP DANCE TEAM

he Afternoon of Student Choreography (ASC) is an annual winter dance concert, but differing from the spring dance concert. ASC is fully run by students. Students organize it, choreograph the pieces, and perform in the showcase. It is an experience for students to learn about leadership and develop their creative talents, encouraging them to collaborate, rely on each other, and work hard. This year ASC was scheduled to run on Sunday, January 30, unfortunately, due to inclimate weather conditions, it was rescheduled for after school the following day. ASC continues its uniqueness by also being a benefit concert. Every year, the student

associative directors choose a charity and run a pay-what-you-can system at the door. This system offers students and families a way to give back, using an art form they love to create real change. This year not one, but two charities were chosen: Cora Dance and Brown Girls Do Ballet. Maddy Doty ’22, this years co-associate director and member of Poly Prep Dance Team spoke on the significance of these charities: “This art form has had a great impact in our lives and these two organizations both stressed the importance of offering dance education and performance experiences to students that may not have access to dance classes.” Choreographing is a whole new

challenge taken on by students. Knowing what you want to perform and then combining movements to bring it to life can be very hard. These dances are very personal, and performing them is even more rewarding because it showcases all the hard work they put in. Poly’s dance team performed an energetic piece in ASC this year, their first performance since Homecoming. This year’s benefit concert is part of the rebirth of arts at Poly, as the pandemic lessens. Doty shared that the dance community has greatly missed the joy of performing for a live audience. Because the benefit concert requires tireless dedication, a strong dance community has been nutured at Poly. When asked Atiya Pope ’23 what her favorite part of ASC was this year, she replied that it was her dance partner, Adrianna Neal ’23. “The energy that she brings to the stage every time she dances affects everyone around her and it shows while performing. I already can’t wait to do it again with her next year,” said Pope. Another example of this was the display of community during the duet by Gabby Perry ’22 and Doty. They performed their duet for the ASC preview in Chapel and Perry said her favorite part of dance has been connected with Doty, on and off stage, through high school dance classes. As a senior, she remarked that this is what she will miss the most about dance at Poly. ASC is one of the dance community’s favorite traditions, and the dance department is looking forward to sharing more pieces soon.

FEBRUARY PLAYLIST Quiet, The Winter Harbor Mazzy Star Basement Jack Steve Lacy Extraordinary Machine Fiona Apple By Your Side (Neptunes Remix) Sade, The Neptunes jealousy (feat. Rema) FKA twigs, Rema Super Stars Yves Tumor Helen of Troy Lorde Jazz (We’ve Got) A Tribe Called Quest Billions Caroline Polachek family ties (with Kendrick Lamar) Baby Keem Break The Ice Britney Spears

Compiled by Danielle Jason

“Valentine’s Day” Review

A Rain Check on Singing Valentines

ALIDA LISSAK ARTS EDITOR

f you are looking for a Love Actually-esque Valentine’s Day-themed movie, look no further than Valentine’s Day (2010). It is a fun movie about love or the lack thereof, that starts with seemingly separate storylines that eventually intertwine. A holiday about love evokes a wide range of emotions, often depending on one’s relationship to love, a deeply complicated feeling. This movie does a stellar job of displaying these varied feelings, as well as making fun of this holiday, creating a light and funny feel. No matter your opinion on the holiday, you can find a character that agrees in this movie: someone finds love, someone hates Valentine’s Day, someone sells flowers for the holiday, and a child seeks love. Love can be ridiculous and outrageous: this movie shows just that. Another grand appeal of this movie is the star-studded cast. From Taylor Swift to Bradley Cooper to Julia Roberts to Eric Dane to Queen Latifah, you could not want for more. The movie begins in Los Angeles, on Valentine’s Day, with Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) proposing to his girlfriend, and much to the

surprise of his friends, she says yes. Bennett, a florist, is then thrown into his busiest day at work, due to the holiday. Here we meet Jennifer Garner’s character, Julia Fitzpatrick, who’s one of Bennett’s closest friends. On this Valentine’s Day, she is enamored with her new boyfriend Dr. Harrison Copeland, played by the one and only Patrick Dempsey. At the florist shop, a cute young boy, Edison, comes in to buy flowers for a girl he likes at school. Already you may feel slightly like you’re going to lose track of the many characters and their many plotlines, but as they intertwine, you will remember all of them fully. On a plane flying to LA, two of our characters are randomly seated next to each other and end up getting along great. Is there a possibility for romance? These are just a few characters we get to know throughout the movie. There’s heartbreak, cheating, friends-to-lovers, childhood crushes, high school relationships, an older couple and an “I hate Valentine’s Day” dinner party. Track these characters’ interactions with the controversial holiday of love, in the funny, yet heartfelt movie Valentine’s Day.

Singing Valentines from February 2020

VIA POLY PREP COMMUNICATIONS

inging Valentines is a time-honored Poly tradition done by acapella. Usually, a student sends the acapella group armed with a song of their choice to honor (or embarrass) a recipient. These songs are always love songs in an ode to the special day. Last year, Singing Valentines took the form of an online video for the whole school of acapella singing a love song. Unfor-

tunately, things did not line up this year for this tradition. Marta Balik ’22 said, “With Ms. Wyatt’s maternity leave and the other things acapella is working on, there was not enough time or supervision for Singing Valentines to be possible.” The student body will be holding out hope that Singing Valentines will make a reappearance next year.

FEBRUARY 2022

ARTS

What Does Social Change Look Like at Poly? In Laura Coppola’s art class “Art and Social Change,” having explored contemporary artists that create a form of art called “social practice” or “socially engaged” art, students used the tools of art, activism, community organizing, and politics to propose needed change at Poly. These watercolors represent the experiences students believe could positively impact student life at school to turn issues from racism and sexism to student stress and communication between administrators and students into opportunities to build and transform communities.

harlie Bonthorne ’25: There is no definition of a perfect body. There is no definition of a perfect mind. We are all perfect, and deserve to express it. Whether it’s complimenting another individual, or reading positive messages directed at you, students and faculty should always feel comfort and supported in their own skin. When you look into a mirror, there is no outline, no cookie cutter that defines our shapes. My proposal project suggests a change in the school bathrooms that will allow students to recognize their internal and external beauty! With this change in the school lavatories, students will feel more confident and proud of their bodies. Next time you visit the school bathrooms, take a post-it and pen, write a positive message, and take a glance at the other notes. Let me know what you think. Let me know how beautiful you are. Oh shoot! I’m already aware.

bby Ben-Ur ’25: This proposal for change highlights the disrespect and apathy for women’s sports at Poly. This project would hopefully bring awareness to the fact that women’s sports are underfunded and under-appreciated and that women deserve the same respect and attention as men. This project would have female artists paint a mural depicting strong athletic women on the side of the bubble (batting cages). I think this mural is important because it calls attention to this injustice. This call to action suggests that women should be paid attention to and that women athletes deserve the same respect as men. I think putting it on the side of the bubble would attract attention from anyone watching a baseball/ softball game or on the fields and remind them of the importance of female sports.

akley DeCristofaro ’25: If you are on a tour around Poly Prep, it is likely that you will see little to no ramps and elevators around the school. This is unacceptable. If you are a person with a physical disability, then how would you be able to get around campus? You wouldn’t. Many students at Poly are athletes, meaning that they are easily susceptible to getting injured. If one day you come to school with crutches, you will have to have a friend help you around the school building. Because seeing a ramp on campus is such a rare occurrence, I took it upon myself to make sure that Poly has enough ramps. Building ramps is tedious and costs a lot of money. Therefore, by encouraging students to help work on them (and get service hours while doing so) it would make the process of establishing ramps around campus easier.

rances Brooks ’25: My idea was inspired by a lack of female representation in early issues of the Polygon. I wanted to shine a light on the achievements of the first women at Poly, as well as women at Poly today. My social practice sketch shows an event held in the library where students make a new issue of the Polygon highlighting our female student body.

SPORTS

FEBRUARY 2022

Poly Alum Brian Flores Confronts Racial Discrimination in the NFL EMMA SPRING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ormer Miami Dolphins head coach and I think they are naming Daboll. I’m sorry about Poly Prep alum, Brian Flores is filing a that. BB” In the lawsuit, Flores speculated that the Giclass action suit against the NFL and three ants sat down to interview him only to fulfill the teams—the Dolphins, Broncos, and Giants—alrequirements of the Rodney Rule. Among other leging racial discrimination in their hiring and measures to increase diversity, the NFL policy firing practices. mandates that all teams interview at least two While all three teams denied any wrongdominority candidates for head coaching positions. ing, in the 58-page suit, Flores claims that, in A Brooklyn native of Brownsville and son the 2019 season, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of Honoffered him duran im100,000 dolmigrants, lars for each Flores, game lost to class of place the team 1999, was in a better a running position for back and top-tier draft linebackpicks. Flores er for the also claims Poly Prep that Ross Blue Devpressured ils. After Flores with his time an imprompat Poly, tu meeting to Flores recruit a new attended quarterback Boston even after College Flores refrom 1999 fused to comto 2002 ply to obey Flores, front row third from left, while on the Poly football team

VIA POLYGLOT 1999

NFL tampering rules. Identified as uncooperative, says Flores, the Dolphins fired him just a season after he led the Dolphins to their first back to back winning seasons since 2003. Flores also accuses the New York Giants of interviewing him for the job of head coach after they already decided to hire Brian Daboll. Flores learned of this when he received a mistakenly sent congratulatory text from New England head coach Bill Belichick three days before his interview. “Sounds like you have landed -- congrats!!” Belichick texted Flores. “Did you hear something I didn’t hear?” Flores replied. “Giants?!?!?!” Belichick texted. “I interview on Thursday,” Flores wrote. “I think I have a shot at it.” Later, Flores and Belichick sorted out the confusion. “Coach, are you talking to Brian Flores or Brian Daboll,” Flores asked. “Just making sure.” “Sorry — I f**ked this up,” Belichick replied. “I double checked & I misread the text.

as a linebacker. A leg injury before his final game in 2003 ended his dreams of playing professionally. Flores is taking on one of the richest and most powerful organizations in the country, both absolutely and culturally. The NFL is the richest sports league in the world with a revenue of near 16 billion dollars with the Super Bowl being the most watched event in the United States each year. The league is 70 percent Black. Of 32 NFL coaches, three are people of color; one of them is Black. Despite the suit, Flores has said he still desires to coach in the NFL. “I understand the risk. Look, I love coaching football... And I still want to coach,” Flores told CNN. “God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals,” Flores said in a statement. “In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”

A CLOSER LOOK: STARTING FRESHMEN ON VARSITY BASKETBALL SADIE SCHOENBERGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

his season, Men’s Varsity Basketball has continued to dominate in the Preparatory Ivy League. In a game on February 18, the team competed and won against Trinity 68-51. Freshman Connor Igoe, Jayden Forsythe, and Karim Camara have caught the eyes of many as starters for this undefeated team in the Ivy Prep League, making up a substantial forty-nine of those points. While at Poly, it’s not uncommon to have talented freshmen on varsity teams; Edgar De La Rosa, head coach of the team with over 30 years of coaching experience, described this group as “probably the strongest freshman group I’ve seen in a while. They’re one of the reasons that we are doing well, contributing greatly to our success.” One of the top scorers on the team, Forsythe, responds to the question of feeling added pressure based on his grade level. “I’ve been around the varsity atmosphere since sixth grade,” Forsythe said. “There’s no pressure for me to be starting as a freshman because I know what I’m capable of doing. All the work I put in is to get where I’m now.” At the last Poly game, Forsythe scored 25 points, continuing to serve as an outstanding player on the court. Another player starting as a freshman, Igoe, said “It feels great to know that you can go out, competing with guys four years older than you and still be successful.” “Plus,” he adds, “it’s also exciting to know we got three more years of this.” Igoe also explains that “[he’s] been around the team for a year before doing workouts, so [he] doesn’t feel any additional pressure. Our team chemistry is great so easing into the team was fun and worry-free,” he adds. “I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and continuing to build relationships with my teammates and coaches.”

VIA POLY PREP COMMUNICATIONS “Karim is doing a terrific job,” De La Rosa remarked. Camara started the season as a sixth man for the team and since then has gained a starter position, scoring 13 points at Friday’s game. “I’ve been on the coaches’ radar since 5th grade when I attended a Poly basketball camp in the summer. I’ve involved myself in multiple clinics and basketball camps at Poly from then on. In 8th grade, during covid, I started official practices with the team,” Camara said. While still new to the team, like both Forsythe and Igoe, involvement in previous years has been crucial in building Camara to his full potential and position in the varsity lineup. Camara reflected on both the near and far when asked about his hopes for the future. “For the rest of the season, I look forward to winning a championship and proving our dominance in the Ivy League. In the future, I look forward to becoming more of a leader on the team and helping Poly become recognized for our basketball program throughout the state.” During the winter season, attending varsity basketball games have become a routine for most students. Energy is always high spirit, and Poly comes together to support the team on its impressive winning streak. Along with our common Poly chants, a new chant “He’s A Freshman” has been added to the audience’s vocabulary as we continue to watch Igoe, Camara, and Forsthye showcase their talents on the court.

ELEKTRA URBATSCH: WATER POLO STAR SELAH ILUNGA-REED OPINIONS EDITOR

hroughout her life, since her early childhood, junior Elektra Urbatsch has loved the water. She recalls with fondness her first swim classes, saying, “I loved them, I couldn’t wait to get in the pool.” Soon her passion paid off: an instructor at her pool recommended that a nine-year-old Urbatsch try water polo lessons. Elektra Urbatsch excelled at water polo from the start, working her way up the ranks of her Northeastern club team in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her excellence in the sport was noticed on a larger scale, and soon she was selected to attend a national team showcase with 70 other girls, and ended up progressing to the United States national team of 20. Urbatsch’s 8th-grade year was her first on the national water polo team, during which she traveled around the United States, usually competing in California.

Urbatsch joyfully reminisced on the friendships she’s made and the experiences she’s had through water polo. Most recently, she traveled around Europe this summer, training with the national team, and competing against other countries such as Germany, Greece, and Croatia. A favorite memory of hers is when she got to play a water polo match against the Croatian team in open water. Greece, however, was more familiar for Urbatsch, whose family is originally from the country. Urbatsch expressed that it was nice to see family and revisit all her favorite spots in town. Against Germany, the competition was fierce, but the American national team pulled through a win, which Urbatsch described as being incredibly satisfying and one of her most prideful athletic accomplishments. (continued on page 16)

FEBRUARY 2022

Sticks & Checks for the Blind: A Q&A With Nick Mulder CARLY PYLES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

enior Nick Mulder started volunteering with NY Metro Blind Hockey (NYMBH) in his freshman year. NYMBH is a non-profit organization that helps teach visually impaired people of all different ages, skill levels, and levels of visual impairment to learn and play ice hockey. Tell me about NY Metro Blind Hockey and their mission. “NYMBH is a non-profit organization that aims to teach and help visually impaired individuals learn and play the sport of ice hockey. Players range from all ages between seven and 67 and skill levels range from beginner to professional. The level of visual impairments of the participants also varies between slight loss of eyesight in one or both eyes to completely blind. The wide range of skills, ages, and visual capabilities allows everyone who has a visual impairment to play ice hockey. NYMBH has several major goals—the most important of which is to better connect the visually impaired community with the rest of the world by coming together and playing hockey. The organization also aspires to send the younger and higher skilled players to the U.S. National Blind Hockey Team. NY Metro Blind Hockey participates in the major blind hockey tournaments held annually in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Newark N.J., and skates once a week to once every two weeks throughout the year in Syosset, Long Island.”

nothing planned after my morning skate. I was fascinated and challenged with how to explain basic skating strides to a visually impaired person who could not see what I was doing. I often caught myself overexplaining a turn or technique to the player I was working with, causing them more confusion. It took me over a year to get used to working with visually impaired players because you cannot use any traditional method of coaching. You have to explain everything, including distance from the boards. I also had to get used to using a different type of puck, which is much larger than a typical hockey puck, and houses roughly 12 bells and chimes that all rattle when the puck is in motion. This helps the players track and catch the puck during play. I’ve learned from that first day that the players often learn the best by trying and failing at a skill or stride, and the more that the player experiences on the ice, the more they will get out of the skate. My responsibilities during a typical skate start off the ice, helping the goalies dress since the goalies are often completely blind. I often spend my on ice time explaining drills to the more experienced players who walk the younger and less experienced players through the drills, and helping the two goalies with everything from positioning in the net, to skating to and from the net. Finally, I often give a goalie or player a ride to the LIRR station in Syosset since almost every player uses mass transit to get to the practices.”

as I found myself busy at almost every moment, helping players I had never met before with drills and positioning. The most impressive part was the national team game after the skate and practice for the less experienced players. Since the national team was missing some players, several volunteers were asked to play in the game. While I am a decent hockey player with good speed, it was not enough to keep up with the top players on the national team, as the top players routinely outskated myself and other volunteers who were trying to give them a challenge.It was the most humbling experience I have ever had in hockey, and taught me that no matter what obstacles stand in your way, nothing can stop you from following your passion and doing what you love.”

VIA NICK MULDER

VIA NICK MULDER How did you become involved with them? What are your responsibilities? I was approached after a practice by Ted Caputo, the head of the organization, and he asked if I had an extra hour to spare to help coach some adult players. I gladly accepted, considering it was another lazy Sunday with

What is your favorite part of volunteering with NY Metro Blind Hockey? “My favorite part of volunteering with NYMBH was traveling to Newark, N.J. to volunteer at the annual summer tournament, where teams from New Hampshire, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia all compete in friendly games and a practice. The event lasted over six hours, yet it all went by in the blink of an eye,

Why do you feel like this is an important cause? “I feel like this is an important cause because visually impaired people often are unintentionally ‘left behind’ by advances in society socially and technologically. Often, visually impaired people live their lives completely dependent on others for help with food, housing, clothing, transportation, and other everyday life necessities. Providing a place for visually impaired people to come and feel equal to the volunteers on the ice is a special thing to be a part of. The players often feel free to skate hard, and learn new things without the worry of seeing or feeling unequal to others on the ice. On a more personal level, my grandfather has been legally blind since I was six, and I have often wanted to help him around his home with moving around and finding things that he needs. Before volunteering with NYMBH, I had virtually no idea how to treat, or help a visually impaired person besides getting out of their way when they are on the sidewalk. NYMBH not only allows me to improve my coaching skills, but it also provides me with important training for helping visually impaired individuals on and off the ice.”

ELEKTRA URBATSCH (continued from page 15)

Back home in New York City, there is little more that Urbatsch can accomplish in the Northeast’s limited water polo ecosystem. At Poly, however, she competes on the volleyball team in the fall, as well as putting her aquatic skills to use in the winter swim season. Another facet of being a water polo player in the area is that few people know the sport, and if they do, they fail to acknowledge the difficulty of succeeding in it. Urbatsch expressed frustration at the fact that most people don’t understand the work she’s put into water polo to succeed on the level she has. Nonetheless, Urbatsch’s massive athletic achievement is unquestionable. Though she can’t disclose all details, she plans to play Division 1 water polo (hopefully somewhere in California) after her graduation from Poly, and continue on with the national team. Urbatsch even mentioned possibly playing for the Greek national team, depending on where her college life takes her.

VIA ELEKTRA URBATSCH