Middle School Newspaper - Special Edition

POLY PREP’S Student Newspaper

the SPECIAL EDITION

POLYGON

Special Edition January 2022

polygonnews.org

About this issue: The eighth-grade students in Ms. Allen’s Media Studies class have spent the semester reporting news stories, crafting profiles, and writing op-eds. The students are excited to share their work with the rest of the Poly community in this special edition of the Polygon. Please reach out to polygon@polyprep.org with any comments or questions and be sure to visit polygonnews.org for more Poly student journalism.

How MS Sports Transformed During COVID HENRY CROWLEY

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iddle school sports at Poly Prep have returned after being shut down in 2020, and students and coaches are excited about getting to play. Teams have been taking lots of extra precautions to keep the school safe, in order to ensure that everyone gets a chance to experience sports as a 7th or 8th grader.

After middle school sports were shut down last year, any steps forward are seen as improvement no matter how small they are. Since the beginning of the year, Poly has offered lots of choices of sports for boys and girls.

Boys in the middle school have so far had the options of soccer, basketball and football, while girls in the middle school have had the options of soccer, tennis, and volleyball. Some of the co-ed P.E options available have been strength and conditioning, team handball, and wrestling.

Students have reiterated the importance of middle school sports, and many are glad that they just get to play

on teams this year. “Middle school sports are important because you get to be the big guys on your team as 8th graders, and you get to participate in a team which is very important to develop skills,” said Rafael Winitzer, an 8th-grade football player.

Even though people recognize the importance of sports, some people have questioned the safety of playing sports like football and soccer that in-

“We only play vaccinated schools in our league, but we try our best to do what we can from our end to keep our players safe.”

– Curtis Vanlandingham volve such close, unmasked contact.

Curtis Vanlandingham, coach of the middle school football team, said that “lots of teams practice outside and

Continued on page 3

Where Did the Middle School Lockers Go?

GRAYSON MONACELLI

VIA RAFAEL WINITZER Poly Prep MS football team playing Fieldston

New Schedule Sparks Controversy Within the Poly Community for Students and Teachers Alike DANIEL CORSALINI

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VIA GRAYSON MONACELLI Harper Goergen accessing a locker in the girls’ locker room

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hen returning from virtual school last spring, many things had changed at Poly Prep. Students were taking all their classes in the squash courts, middle school lunch was no longer at Commons, and lockers were no longer available. This year, most things have returned to normal— with the exception of having lockers.

Middle schoolers had lockers before COVID; however, they were not like most middle schools. They

were in an actual locker room, not the hallway, so the trip to and from the locker rooms added a lot of time to the transition between classes. When the middle school came back from virtual learning, the lockers were not in use, because all the classes were held in the squash courts. Now that middle schoolers are back to traveling about the building, the lockers still aren’t back.

With the new variant, it is as important as ever to take precautions against

COVID. A locker room is a space where students have to hold themselves accountable for wearing masks, social distancing, and various other health protocols.

These actions may be hard for students and may lead to the locker room becoming a dangerous place. “It’s very difficult to monitor mask wearing in locker rooms… and changing in locker rooms, you know people would most likely take their mask off and then that’s a very high-risk situation,”

Continued on page 3

n the first day of school, everyone received the new schedule.

It’s a seven-day system with alternating 45-minute and 70-minute classes. This change sparked a new controversy in the Poly Prep community as students and teachers had varying views on the new schedule.

“There’s no way for me to know which class I have next without looking at my schedule. There’s no practical way to memorize it,” said Gabi Winitzer, an 8th-grade student at Poly Prep.

“One time I lost my schedule and I had no idea where to go. I was completely stuck,” said 8th grader Henry Crowley.

Crowley also mentioned that the schedule was “too long” and “drags on.” “The seven day schedule is very confusing, mainly because we have five days in a week,” he said.

The students interviewed for this article thought the ideal schedule would be a five-day schedule with 50-minute classes.

Not only students have been affected but teachers too. Before coming to Poly, science teacher Christian Morehouse had “a five-day schedule with 50-minute classes.”

Morehouse said that “when first coming to Poly, it was very confusing to figure out what day I was teaching, mainly because all of my classes weren’t on Veracross.”

In regards to the 45- and 70-minute classes, Morehouse said that “I don’t mind some classes being 45 minutes and some being 70. I can usually pack all of the information into one 45-minute class so being too short isn’t a problem for me.”

Another key factor of the schedule change was the new seven-day system.

Many students have found that it is very unorganized and difficult to memorize but Morehouse thought differently. “I don’t really mind the seven-day sched-

“There’s no way for me to know which class I have next without looking at my schedule.

There’s no practical way to memorize it.”

– Gabi Winitzer ule. It’s nice not to have the same class every Monday or the same class every Friday afternoon. I also feel like this schedule gives me more time to plan my classes unlike the schedule at my old school which felt more intense,” Morehouse said.

“If I could have full power over the schedule I think that I would keep it the same but just make the class times more consistent,” Morehouse said.

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NEWS

SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

Middle School Club Teaches Culture in a New Way NOAH HENRY

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he middle school club list has a new addition in the form of Euro sports.

This club was born as a product of Christopher Tutolo, a French teacher who happens to be new to Poly this year, and his burning ambition to create a middle school club that he believes will be fun for students. In this club, students play a variety of different sports originating in Europe which in turn has an educational benefit as well.

Tutolo had been thinking of many different club ideas for a fair amount of time. He emailed Director of Student Life Jared Winston, the overseer of all middle school clubs, on several occasions and Winston helped him come to his final decision to make the Euro sports club.

“The first question I asked students in our club was if they know of any sports that they believe originated in Europe,” says Tutolo. “A lot of people said soccer and soccer, of course, was popularized in Europe but the origins of soccer did not necessarily start in Europe.” To clear the air and make them more knowledgeable about these sports, Tutolo allows these students to play said sports and learn about them in the process.

Tutolo thinks that Euro sports appeals to students because it’s a chance for them to be physically active during club time which is an opportunity not seen very often in other clubs. He understands that some-

times the 70-minute class periods, which were newly introduced to Poly this year, are draining for a lot of students and wants his group to be a break from all of that.

coming a teacher as well. “That actually left a pretty profound impact on me when I was in middle school,” said Tutolo. “In my own French classes we got to play

VIA CHRISTOPHER TUTOLO Students in Euro Sports club playing pétanque The physical aspect of the club will certainly make it all the more memorable, as Tutolo intends. He remembers learning about French history while his teacher allowed him and his classmates to play sports originating in France, an activity that was a major inspiration for him be-

pétanque, which was a very cool cultural aspect of learning about a language and learning about a culture.”

Not everything will be easy concerning the group. Tutolo still has to figure out how to manage some games he wishes for the kids to play that will either require a

bit more space than he anticipated or simply can’t be played inside. He said he is thinking of solutions and should come up with them eventually.

Another possible issue concerning the group would be making the games fun and fair for everyone. Many people in the group come from different grades and have different physical characteristics that may make the games more advantageous to others.

“There was some thought that I needed to put into making the teams match and making sure 5th graders get included because as you can imagine 8th graders being older and having grown a lot more doesn’t make for even competition sometimes,” said Tutolo.

The idea of Euro sports is a unique and refreshing club idea that not too many people were expecting. Usually when introduced to new concepts, people tend to stay away as they would rather choose something more familiar to them. Nonetheless, it seems that many students gladly accepted Euro sports as an option, with a lot even choosing it as their main club. A number of students in the club seem to like it for the physicality of the club, exactly as Tutolo hoped they would. When asked about his opinion on the new club, Winston said, “I was surprised! Mr. Tutolo has brought great energy and enthusiasm to his new role here at Poly, and I think Euro sports club is a prime example of that.”

The Effect of COVID on Poly Students and Teachers

A look back at how Poly Prep responded to the pandemic in the 2020-2021 school year HARPER GOERGEN

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OVID continues to drastically affect schools, classrooms and classes across New York state, and Poly Prep, a private school in Brooklyn, is and was no exception.

In New York State, there have been approximately 71,000 cases of students with COVID and 28,000 teachers who have reported cases of COVID in schools, that includes public and private schools across the state, according to the New York State COVID Report Card.

To date, 95 percent of public school teachers in New York City but only 63 percent of public school teachers in the state of New York have gotten vaccinated. The progress with vaccines has been much more successful in New York City than in the rest of the state, but COVID continues to spread.

Poly was founded 167 years ago in 1854 in Downtown Brooklyn. Poly has two separate campuses, the Lower School campus is located in Park Slope, and the Middle through Upper School is located in Dyker Heights. The Dyker Heights campus is 26 acres and includes a football stadium, tennis courts, gyms, and many academic buildings.

After COVID was detected in New York City schools, Poly shut down two days before the start of spring break in March of 2020. The next day, the students started onVIA HARPER GOERGEN

“Online school made students feel lonely as well as not...a part of a school or social community.”

– Tessa Lawson line classes, unlike most schools..

Alex Gerling, a student in the middle school, said, “Poly tried to keep their schedule similar to what it was during COVID, only making small changes to the schedule. They wanted us (the students) to feel as normal as possible.”

Students wearing masks in class at Poly For students, their schedules stayed relatively the same. Unlike the students, many faculty members had major changes, such as Athletic Trainer Alyssa Alaimo.

Alaimo, discussed what she did during the height of COVID as a trainer. “John Pomponio, who is the other athletic trainer, and I built, with the help of our tech department, a virtual athletic training room, so we were still seeing athletics virtually.”

Alaimo also worked with athletes on their mental health during the quarantine. “I was also attending many meetings on behalf of the athletic department to branch between athletics and academics and to make sure the mental health of our students was there.”

Students, as well as teachers, felt a range of emotions

when it came to being online versus being in-person.

Most students prefer being in-person rather than online.

Jedi Scott, an eighth-grader at Poly, talked about the differences between being online for classes versus in-person. “I think that it was definitely difficult because it was hard to get extra help from my teachers,” said Scott.“I feel like it was different and harder to talk to my friends as much as I did during in-person school before COVID came.”

Another student in the 8th grade, Tessa Lawson, had the same opinion as Scott.

“Online school made students feel lonely,” said Lawson, “as well as not...a part of a school or social community.”

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SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

NEWS

Combatting the Arrival to a New School

The welcoming process at Poly: How the deans create a warm environment

LUCY GOLDBERG

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VIA ALIA CARPONTER-WALKER Ms. Carponter-Walker working with Poly students.

any Poly Prep students who have known this community for so long (or even these past few years), may still remember their first impressions of the place they might now call a second home.

How are new students welcomed to Poly, and how has that affected their first impressions of the school before they became part of the community?

In the case of Sabrina Rapaport,a new 8th grader at Poly, “the first day was really hard because I didn’t know where anything was,” she said. But like many other students, she explained that her friends and teachers helped her throughout the transition to her new school by saying “Hi” in the hallways and showing her the ways around those very halls.

Rapaport has been adjusting to her new school, but she hasn’t been doing it

alone. She has a twin sister, Kate, going to Poly as well. Rapaport said that she feels at Poly “there’s a lot of competition going on [within the eighth grade]…[so] sometimes it’s good when no one I know is in my class and then Kate is in my class.”

But like many other students, she explained that her friends and teachers helped her throughout the transition to her new school by saying “Hi” in the hallways and showing her the ways around those very halls.

On the other side of the situation, middle school dean Alia Carponter-Walker said that the Poly faculty try to welcome students with orientation and private meetings with their deans. But that is not all—she also gave some inside details for what the future may hold for Poly’s welcoming process. According to Carponter-Walker, “We are going to try to continue to do Poly Pals [next year], which stopped in the first year of the pandemic.”

Poly Pals is supposed to pair a new student with a student who has been at Poly since at least the previous year. From the perspective of a dean, Carponter-Walker believes this is a great way for students to gain comfort within their school.

Another tactic for deans attempting to build comfort amongst Poly’s community is by connecting multiple students with

(MS sports continued from page 1) we practice social distancing when possible, and if not we try to remain masked.” He added that “We also clean our equipment after every use, so that no one is getting sick that way…We only play vaccinated schools in our league, but we try our best to do what we can from our end to keep our players safe.”

“Middle school sports are a very important foundation for our school. They give students something else to do as well as train them for the years to come.”

– Curtis Vanlandingham But even though Poly has taken these precautions, there are still some things that students won’t get to experience this year. Although it isn’t due to COVID, field renovations have made it even harder to practice this year. Some teams like the baseball or basketball teams have their own

inside areas to practice, but some other teams just have to share the turf field. Sometimes the middle school football team is even forced to practice on the oval lawn in front of Poly.

When asked what he thought the biggest change was in this year of sports, Winitzer said that “The toughest thing is that we didn’t get to play last year in 7th grade when we could’ve gotten lots of experience leading into this year, so now as 8th graders we kind of have to start from scratch.”

Even though there are some changes, Vanlandingham is happy that kids get to play in the first place unlike lots of other schools.“Even if there are a few things that we’ve had to change, I’m just glad that we can still play. And Coach [Bill] McNally [who is the school’s director of sports information] has been doing a good job organizing everything—I want to make sure he gets the credit he deserves,” he said.

While lots of precautions have had to be taken and many sacrifices made to the Poly sport programs, teams have still gotten to play this year. “Middle school sports are a very important foundation for our school. They give students something else to do as well as train them for the years to come,” concluded Vanlandingham.

similar interests. But how does the faculty form these strong relationships with their students? For Carponter-Walker, she had a really close relationship with her college counselor who inspired her to work in education. Especially “the way that he welcomed us and also how he treated us like adults and gave us a safe place,” she said. As a dean, she now tries to replicate that relationship that allowed her to feel more comfortable with her own students.

Getting input from current students and faculty is a great way to continue making newcomers feel welcome in the Poly community, which Carponter-Walker said helps improve the following years—especially when “a lot of what we are doing for new kids is revamping for the next year.”

(Lockers continued from page 1) said Sarah Zuercher, the director of health and well-being at Poly Prep.

With that being said, middle schoolers do enjoy having locker rooms. “It would be great to have the least amount of weight inside our backpacks,” said Lucy Goldberg, an eighth-grade student at Poly Prep.

Because middle schoolers have been getting around the building with their backpacks and without the lockers, it is now in question whether or not middle schoolers even need lockers.

Most have adjusted very well to life without lockers. “I think without the lockers transitions are quicker. It’s quicker to not have to put the stuff from previous classes away,” said Goldberg. Perhaps not having access to a locker isn’t a problem.

“I think not having the middle school lockers rooms because of COVID has caused us to think about the best way to have lockers…what we want to do is rethink the best way to have a locker room and our current setup maybe isn’t the best way,” said Zuercher.

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SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

PEOPLE

From Dreaming to Deaning: The Middle School Deans

VIA ADAM BISCEGLIA Adam Bisceglia with his baby

VIA POLY PREP WEBSITE Peter Soto

VIA ALIA CARPONTER-WALKER Alia Carponter-Walker

Becoming a Father: Mr. Bisceglia’s Paternity Leave

How Well Do You Know Ms. Carponter-Walker?

Unmasking Peter Soto

JEDI SCOTT

MAGGIE SARCOS

MONTAUK MARGOLIES

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dam Biscgelia, a middle school dean at Poly Prep, recently went on paternity leave to take care of his newborn baby, Enzo. “I was, from day one, totally in love with him and it grows every single day,” said Bisceglia. That wasn’t the only big change in Bisceglia’s life since 2020 that made him change how he viewed Poly.

Now in his mid-30s, Bisceglia is one of the four middle school deans at Poly Prep. He has “salt and pepper hair. He’s about 6’0” or 6’1”, 170 pounds, and he’s got a little stubble beard-wise or sometimes he has a full-grown beard,” said Peter Soto, another middle school dean. He joined Poly in 2014 not as a dean, but as a learning specialist. Then in 2016, he was a learning specialist and a dean, and finally in 2018, he became a full-time dean for the 7th grade. Now he is a dean for one-fourth of the mid-

“I was, from day one, totally in love with him and it grows every single day.”

– Adam Bisceglia dle school. It’s safe to say that Bisceglia has had a lot of different roles at Poly.

Seven years into his tenure at Poly Prep, Bisceglia went on paternity leave to be with his wife and newborn son, Enzo. The leave started in early September just after his baby was born. Perhaps, his hazy memory shows how sleep-deprived he has been! He then came back at the end of October.

Paternity leave was a great break for Bisceglia because “It was really, really an incredible experience being able to be there and do all of those little things with him for those first couple of weeks.” Bisceglia feels very lucky to be able to have this break, saying “Not everybody is able to have that kinda time right at the beginning so I felt very fortunate.” He notes that he also appreciated a big break from his computer, checking and responding to emails.

“The only thing that was important about my schedule at that point was just whatever the next thing that the baby needed.”

It was hard for Bisceglia to go back to work. He said “I love working here at Poly, but the downside to spending so much time off in the beginning is that it becomes very hard to leave [the baby] because you develop these good routines...The hardest thing was just leaving for the first time and learning how to settle back into your work life and your home life.”

Although his baby is important, Bisceglia has had big-

Continued on page 6

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ith a smile on her face, you can find Alia Carponter-Walker roaming the halls and asking students about their day, or busy working in her office.

In casual wear with her hair in a low bun, she carries herself with poise and cheerfulness. She works at Poly now as a middle school dean but there have been a ton of experiences that have led her here, one even being in another country.

Carponter-Walker is a 27-year-old woman who loves to spread positivity at Poly and works for students to have a great experience at school. It’s her first job as a dean, but she’s always been very fond of working with students.

When she first graduated college, she worked as a teacher for 5th and 6th graders in Madrid, Spain. It was a lot to handle as a teacher, but an incredibly eye-opening experience for her. She figured out her passion, working with students. She had to teach not just one, but two subjects, which were science and English.

An important thing for her was creating her own curriculum and trying to make learning as fun for kids as possible. “It was really cool because I got to do my own lesson planning,” she said. “Here in Poly, we do a lot of project-based and hands-on learning. There, it was very closely tied to the textbook so I got to implement a lot of other things that excited me as a student, and they still use my curriculum!”

One of the biggest differences from being in a school in the U.S. was the model of the school. “I was with 300 students,” she said. “And I went from class to class, but it was more like a middle school model even though it was elementary school.” The other huge difference was the maturity level of the children. She feels that there, kids were much more dependent on their families, while here people grow up much more quickly, “You guys are a lot more mature at Poly, even at the same age group.

I think that it’s a very family-oriented culture in Spain,” she said. “You know how at 18 you leave your parent’s house, go to college, and then eventually find your own home? That’s not what it’s like there—you stay at your house, you go to college from your house, you really don’t move out until you’re married and having kids. I think the kids here [at Poly] have a different maturity level than the 5th and 6th graders there in Spain.”

Working with students has led to her immensely enjoying her current job now as a dean of middle school students.

She loves the idea of having deans, and believes that it benefits the students at Poly. “The idea of having this dean model where there’s a person that you can go to for anything, academic, social, emotional, if you’re having a bad day, if you’re having a great day. That for me is such an

Continued on page 6

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eter Soto didn’t always like school. Now he’s a middle school dean for Poly Prep. Soto is a tall man with brown eyes. He has dark brown hair, never messy. He’s friendly and his door is always open to anyone who needs help. He has worked at Poly for a combined 12 years.

Soto started working at the Lower School straight out of college. He was an assistant fourth-grade teacher and eventually became a P.E. teacher. After eight years at Poly, in 2013, he left Poly in order to further progress his career, working at different schools such as Dalton and Brooklyn Friends. Poly had been in his life for a long time as he went there for middle school and his mother taught at Poly. “I think it’s very important in life to have different experiences so that you can appreciate things more and really understand things more,” said Soto.

Soto was never a regular P.E. teacher. He related to the students as he went through a lot of hardships during middle school. “In middle school, I went through a lot and I didn’t know it at the time but I was pretty set and in a bad spot mentally. My parents had just split and I think that made me grow up a little bit faster than some of my peers,” said Soto. Poly recognized his natural talent in connecting with children and decided he would be a good fit for middle school dean, and so in 2018, he returned as middle school dean.

Returning to Poly came with challenges, especially returning to a new job and new people. Soto wasn’t used to talking to parents directly and connecting with them. In his new position, he also had much more to deal with on a day-to-day basis—people constantly coming in and asking questions and needing help. Problems became more urgent.

Soto said, “the magnitude of the things I deal with on a dayto-day basis became a lot more urgent. If I had a student in harm’s way in the P.E. world but they are also in harm’s way in the academic world, I want to help those people.”

He cares about students on a personal level not just as a student or a player but as a person. His goal is to help students with the decisions they make and their mistakes along the way. Helping students that didn’t know they needed help like he did when he was younger was his goal. During his time as a coach, he was able to learn things that other deans weren’t able to and apply them to helping his students.

Soto hopes to continue working with his peers and strives to be a good father to his kids. He enjoys making short attainable goals that you can check off. Soto said, “I have so many goals. I really believe in making attainable goals. Short goals that you are able to check off and then move on to more goals.” He also hopes to help people with a negative outlook on life and school change their mindset.

Soto has other goals besides Poly Prep. “I think my overall goal is to be a good father and be there for my kids,” he said.

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PEOPLE

Fight and Flight: The Story of Vivienne Foley

SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

Sprinting Olympic-Speed Toward Female Equality

Whether dodging bullets or waking up at 3 a.m., Foley has done it all KIERA GOODMAN

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ivienne Foley worked in the media for more than 30 years, and experienced many historical events. She covered stories about bombings, shootings, wars, and so much more. The experiences she had have shaped the person she is today, in and out of the media.

Foley was a former Senior Producer in the news industry. She worked for CNN and CBS, and has so much experience and stories to share. She had her first job at the age of 19 and has never forgotten the journey she had along the way.

Overall Foley believes that “one of the things that’s really nice about working in news is that every day is very different.”

The media industry can be very thrilling and fun, but there is also the fact that you don’t really get off of work at any time—you have to be ready to answer a phone call if it comes in, or be ready to travel within the next few hours or days.

“When I was based in the Moscow bureau for CBS I had my apartment there, and one year I was only in my apartment in Moscow for one month because the rest of the year you were traveling,” Foley stated.

When working with the media, Foley had to travel to an extraordinary amount of places, and there were so many to choose from, but when asked which place was her favorite she almost immediately came to her conclusion. “Cuba because we would come out of the Russian winter, and we were going into the sunshine, and the ocean was there.

There was music, and...I also remember the crew, all of us, having a really good time there,” she stated.

Foley spoke about how hard the news industry can truly be. “The hardest part about the job are the hours, and never quite knowing what’s happening tomorrow, or when your phone’s going to ring.

And when you are going to have to take off…and not being able to make plans and dinner parties and things like that,” she said.

Viviennne recalled her first encounter with immense danger. “The scariest experience was actually covering an area of Armenia, and both Republics wanted the area.

There was a lot of gunfire, and I guess I was still young then and I went in too far and I had bullets fly over my head,” Foley explained.

For a young news worker, these experiences shape the people they are to today: “I would say that was a wake-up call for me, but I am glad I got [the experience] early on.”

Foley has been thrown into many different situations, and for all of her positions she needed to be ready for anything and very hardworking. “There was one situation where we had to get up at 6 a.m. in the morning, and the reporter took an Ambien pill instead of taking whatever pill she normally takes, so she was really sleepy, so I had to organize coffee at the live site so she could stay awake and we could get through our live shot. It all depends on what situation you’re thrown into,” Foley explained.

Foley realized she wanted to work in media based off of everything happening around her. “I realized I really wanted to tell stories that were happening around me in Russia when I was there when I was younger,” she said. “[I] wanted those stories to be able to go out to the world, because it was changing very quickly there, and I was offered the opportunity to. I enjoyed being able to get that story out because it was very important to me.It felt like I was doing important work.”

Foley worked in the media for a very long time. She started when she was 19 and throughout her career was able to experience different positions in the media. After a long hesitation she responded, “I think my favorite job was probably running around in Russia covering those stories when I was working for CBS, because it was a lot more international travel.” Despite what Foley said about the traveling being hard,

Continued on page 6

VIA VIVIENNE FOLEY Vivienne Foley covering a story in Afghanistan

CHLOE GUEDES-SMITH

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leonora Mendonça has spent much of her career fighting for women‘s parity in track and field. She has spent lots of her time devoting energy to make the environment safer for the women runners.

Mendonça, 73, has a house in Massachusetts and an apartment in Brazil, though she spends most of her time in the U.S. She is a strong independent woman who has had many achievements. She may be short but has a huge welcoming presence.

She competed for Brazil, where she was born and raised, but came to the U.S. at a young age. The first time she came to the U.S. she was a senior in high school, doing an exchange program in Michigan. Later, she was in the U.S. studying when she started meeting women athletes and learning more about their stories and experiences and how they share their views.

As she started to hear more stories, the idea that she had about “the status quo” started to change. She learned that women were not allowed to do long distances and started to challenge that idea by following the steps of the women before her.

Mendonça then helped establish the International Runners Committee (IRC) during 1979 in California. “We didn‘t have the same opportunities as men did [in track and field] so we started to do something about it,” said Mendonça. At this time bodies of track and field thought that long distance running for women was detrimental for their health and they were not allowed to participate in it. The IRC had various people who were record holders, doctors, coaches, and scientists in different areas come to prove that long-distance running was not detrimental for women.

“We had to prove that [long distance running for women] was not [bad for their health]. On the contrary it was very beneficial to everyone participating in physical activities, especial-

VIA ELEONORA MENDOÇA Eleonora Mendonça running in a race ly long-distance events,” said Mendonça. In 1981 the IOC (International Olympic Committee) approved the marathon and 3,000 meters.

However, when the IOC approved the marathon and the 3,000 meters they left out the middle distances. Men could do the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters in addition to the marathon and 3,000 meters, but women could only run fast or long—there was no intermediate distance for them.

After many years fighting for equality for women in track and field the IRC held a press conference during the world championships and made a big announcement. “We announced [on] the 13th of August, 1983 the International Runners Committee is suing the International Olympic Committee for discrimination. Sexual discrimination. It was the first ime that the International Olympic Committee had been sued for discrimination,” said Mendonça.

ration. In fact they threatened her and told her she had to pay to organize the races, which she did not.

On multiple occasions they tried blocking her route but she was able to work around it and continue with the race.

They did not make it easy for her but she kept on going.

Another bump in the road was when she made the qualifying time for the world track and field championship and won, but the national federation refused to submit her name.

“They didn’t want to say my name…but…everybody knew that I was the one that had finished the race,” said Mendonça.

Mendonça now works with women who have never before told stories about their experiences in track and field during their career. She has a project called “The First Ladies of Brazilian Track and Field” where she has athletes tell their stories, sometimes for the first time.

“We didn’t have the same opportunities as men did [in track and field] so we started to do something about it.”

– Eleonora Mendonça After the IRC’s press conference and the support it received, the IOC announced the inclusion of the 10,000 meters for the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. Later 5,000 meters was also included. The IOC had to respond in court the reason for not letting women run the 5,000 or 10,000 meters.

After a few months the 10,000 meters was put in the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea; later the 5,000 meters was put in as well.

Mendonça also organized lots of road races “for everyone but for women in particular ” back in Brazil. She organized the first all-women‘s race in South America, but it was not welcomed by the local fede-

“I began to hear stories about their career not only the success but how much they had been shut off…they had been victims of sexual assult, race and gender discrimination, and sexual harassments and I became extremely bothered by all of these narratives that were almost commonplace in the early days of track and field,” said Mendonça.

She wants to dedicate her time working on this because the ladies are getting older and she wants to make sure that they have an opportunity to voice their suffering. She does not want the stories to be lost.

“It has been a long road but I ran a marathon so I know how to do distance.”

SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

PEOPLE

6

The Car of Harvey Karp’s Dreams

(Foley continued from page 5) she enjoyed it too.

To all of the people out there considering media as a career path, Vivienne personally believes that the jobs she experienced were awesome. She said, “I would recommend it because I think it is a really honorable job for the most part, depending where you’re working and what you’re working on. But I think it’s really important that stories be researched, investigated, and told. And I think it’s really important for the world, and I think it’s important we know the truth about what’s going on.”

(Bisceglia continued from Page 4)

VIA HUTCH KARP Harvey Karp’s Corvette Stingray

HUTCH KARP

H

aving a supercar can seem pretty fun and exciting, until you actually buy one like Harvey Karp did many years ago. Karp is now 81 years old and purchased a Corvette Stingray when he was 25 years old.

Karp was just a small boy when he realized he needed a sports car in his life—the addictive noises, those sharp aggressive body lines. Most importantly he would not get made fun of. This car gave Karp a goal in his life because getting such a car would make his adult life different from his horrific childhood. As a child, Harvey always worried about how he looked and if he was going to run into some bad people after school. The 1966 Corvette Stingray has meant a lot to him; he explained how getting the car was the

main highlight of his life, especially the crazy adventures and the publicity.

Karp bought this car when he was 25 years old from a local Chevrolet dealership in Yorktown Heights in 1966. He was the only person in his neighborhood with such an exotic car. Being the only one made him feel special but at the same time obnoxious knowing that no one else could afford it.

Karp did not let this car sit around all day, as a collector would suggest nowadays. So he drove and drove on adventures and different paths around the U.S. One of the most memorable times Karp had with his Corvette was when he traveled from New York to California in convertible mode. “We kept the top down and the car was so loud it was deafening,”

Karp said. With the loud exhaust burning directly in Karp’s ear, and the wind blowing vigorously, it was safe to say that this was a crazy driving experience.

Karp elaborated on the struggle of the engine burning directly in his ear

So he drove and drove on adventures and different paths around the U.S. while driving. “It was hard to hear, one of the problems was I couldn’t really talk much to my wife, because the car was so loud,” said Karp. The exhaust was one of the main reasons for owning a Corvette.

Along with the loud noise it caused, “the exhaust ran outside the car and the heat rose up through the door,

where my arm was, so that was very extravagant,” Karp explained.

In addition, Karp always had worries about this Corvette as the past two cars he had owned were stolen. “However, when I sold the Corvette to my friend, he drove it back to New York and took it to the dealer for a service. It got stolen out of the dealership one night,” Karp said.

Luckily Karp did not come across any robberies or acts of vandalism when he owned this car.

The car’s loud exhaust had a deep pitch to it making Karp feel love and motivation. This noise stuck to him and was an addiction, Karp said. “It always woke me up in the morning and made me feel great about myself because I knew it would drive me to happiness.”

ger problems in the past couple of years than not being able to see his baby for eight hours of the day. COVID has been a big challenge for him. “When COVID first started, we were all so limited and we quickly became limited in the ways we do things,” he said. For example, Bisceglia thought it was “sad not being able to see the play or the musical in person” and it was “tough to have the Capstone project fully virtual.”

Another significant struggle was not being able to meet with students in-person. “[Meeting virtually is] not the worst thing in the world. We’re still able to connect and check in, but it’s not the same as having an in-person check in. It will always feel a little bit different,” Bisceglia said. “This year we’re back inside and in our normal classrooms so to come back and start to have that sense of normalcy at Poly again feels really nice.”

Despite how tough his last few years at Poly have been, Bisceglia has been loved throughout this time and since 2014 when he joined Poly. Middle school dean Peter Soto describes him as “a distinguished young man and he’s a good friend of mine. He is truthful and honorable.

He is a great educator. He enjoys music, has a collection of records; he enjoys reading and he enjoys tv shows. He is a good problem solver, very responsible, and I’m very grateful to be working with him.” Along with that, he also said “I think he’s very well-liked amongst the other students and faculty and I know that faculty leans on him for support and he is very, very helpful for teachers and other deans on the team with him. He is a tremendous support for me when I need help making decisions and or help with other students.”

Bisceglia’s past couple of years have been wild, and now he’s looking forward to making his life more tame and normal again. He really missed some things about Poly before COVID that always makes kids and faculty smile. “I’m excited to just participate and be there for some of those events like Oasis Night or Capstone at the end of the year. These are the things that I get excited about—opportunities to see you guys [the students] getting engaged and excited in the work that you’re doing, or the games that you’re playing or things along those lines and supporting you along the way,” he said.

(C-W continued from page 4)

VIA MAGGIE SARCOS Poly middle school deans smiling together

incredible model,” she said. Talking to students about their days and experiences makes her job lively and eventful.

Now, along with working at Poly, she is going to grad school and studying. Many of her weekends are filled with going to Philadelphia for school at the University of Pennsylvania. She is working toward a master’s in school leadership and policy, which teaches how to manage schools and improve the experiences of both students and faculty. For Carponter-Walker, this experience is stressful and it’s often hard for her to find time between being a dean and student.

Along with this, she tries to find time to also see her family and friends consistently. She often combines her hobbies with seeing the people she loves. For example, since one of her biggest hobbies is to work out, she will sometimes take a workout class with a friend. She’s also been a dancer for a long time, and has been working with the same choreographer since high school. She sees many friends through working on small dance projects.

Although all of these aspects of her life can be hard to balance, Carponter-Walker is grateful for being able to work with students and it makes up such a big part of her life. She said, “I think that every experience that you have with education or working with kids formats that way that you’re going to continue to work in education.

I’m super fortunate to have had a lot of experience in my short career this far.”

7

SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

OPINIONS Poly Needs More Study Halls: Here’s Why

VIA ALEXA LEAHY 8JP hard at work in study hall

ALEXA LEAHY

E

ighth-graders of Poly Prep scroll through Google Classroom, looking at all the work they have to do for the night. A majority of the students have after school activities which means they get home late. So many of them, including me, are tired when they get home, but can’t rest because they have so much homework. The homework can stretch hours, which would not happen if more study halls were built into the schedule.

We have a 45-minute study hall once every seven school days and with all the work piled onto us daily, the work becomes unbearable.

According to research conducted by Stanford University in 2013, “56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress. The remaining students viewed tests and the pressure to get good grades as the primary stressors. Notably, less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.”

This means over half of the students that took part in the

study found homework a primary source of stress, and the fact that less than one percent of these students said homework was not a stressor is incredible. Adding more time to work on homework at school whether in a set study hall or during lunch could drastically reduce the percentage of stu-

This means over half of the students that took part in the study found homework a primary source of stress. dents considering homework as a primary source of stress.

In 2021, the U.S. Census published an article stating that, “Forty-two percent of school-aged children were involved in sports, 30 percent were involved in lessons, and 28 percent were involved in clubs. Nine percent of children participated in all three extracurricular activities.”

Twelve percent of the U.S. population is made up of children ages 10-19. If 98 percent of school aged children are involved in extracurricular activities, then about 11 percent of the whole U.S. population is a student that has extracurricular activities. Many students have to juggle not only school work, but activities outside of school as well.

However, if more study halls were provided, especially here at Poly Prep, that could make it easier to deal with work for a lot of students.

I understand that it is hard to fit study halls into the schedule, yet I feel that it is possible. We have four 25-minute advisories which is not necessarily a lot, but one could be replaced by a study hall. Although students would only be gaining 25 minutes of study hall, just a small amount of time can help.

Eighth grader Ijeoma Stanley expressed how beneficial more study halls would be.

“I spend about 1-2 hours each day on homework and having more study halls in the schedule would help so much. I feel that study halls could replace DEAR, [Drop Everything and Read], because not many people read in DEAR and getting work done is more important,” Stanley said.

Another possibility is giving students the option to go inside during lunch. Although some people might not spend that time working, others would. At the moment, 8th graders are not allowed to go into the school building from 12:40 to 1:10 which really limits us from getting work done. Once students finish their lunch, it would be very helpful for them to have the chance to make the most of their time.

Although there could be a concern that some people might take advantage of the ability to go inside during lunch, I think that as long as some people are able to be productive during that time, it is worth it.

For the teachers and administrators reading this article, put yourself into the student’s shoes. Think of the stress we go through everyday as a result from homework and studying for tests. And for the students reading this, don’t be shy to let teachers or trusted adults know if you are feeling stressed out over schoolwork.

Why Poly Needs P.E. Every Day

A Rest From the Stress

BRODY SMITH

Why the 8th grade needs more breaks

H

ow many times this year have you found yourself zoning out into space during a 70-minute period? How many times have you been late to class because five minutes to get from one class to another isn’t enough time? How often do you look at your schedule and heave a sigh of disappointment because there is no P.E. class that day?

I know that the majority of my classmates, including me, have these problems every single day. “A lot of the time, when I ask to go to the bathroom during class, my teacher won’t let me and will say I should have gone during break,” said Henry Crowley, an 8th-grade student at

Poly. “But five minutes is not enough time to get across campus and use the bathroom.”

Sometimes it seems like compared to our old 45-minute periods we get through only 10 extra minutes of work in a 70-minute period simply because we lose focus after about an hour. It just seems less efficient.

Many students think that we should go back to having 45-minute blocks every period and having P.E. every day. “It has been proven that kids who go to P.E. do better in their classes that day than if they didn’t have P.E. This is because it allows the kids to work out extra energy and have the ability to focus more on

Continued on page 8

VIA BRODY SMITH Eighth graders Jedi Scott and Aaron Collins in P.E.

EDEN GOLOMB

T

he 8th-grade students of Poly Prep bend over from the weight of their heavy backpacks as they rush from one class to another in order not to be late. With each class, their amount of homework assigned grows as their mental energy dwindles. With barely any breaks during the day, the students then have to hurry to the bus and then finally tackle their homework and extracurriculars.

Along with busy days, most of the 8th grade only has one study hall and recess each seven-day cycle. Some don’t even have any because of Latin or extra help. Without a break, students get tired and ultimately focus less in class.

A study by philosophy professor Alejandos Lleras in Illinois tested four groups of 21 people in different study scenarios to see how well they could focus. The work made by the groups without any breaks slowly decreased in value, while the work made by the groups that did have breaks stayed the same level throughout the time.

“Lleras believed the group [with breaks] fared so well because they were allowed two brief diversions in which they performed an entirely dif-

ferent task,” wrote OnlineSchools.org in an article about breaks and what happens with and without them.

Not only do breaks help with focus, but they can be vital for students with mental health conditions. Ella Nelsen-Adams, a sophomore at Poly, reflected on the lack of breaks in an article from the November issue of the Polygon. She said, “As an individual with ADHD, I find it hard to sometimes stay productive throughout the entire period and I get very tired. I appreciate when teachers give us breaks

Without a break, students get tired and ultimately focus less in class. throughout the class because it helps me feel more engaged.”

Even though breaks are important and necessary for students, not everyone believes that study halls, recess periods, or even five-minute breaks during class would be the best thing for Poly. Teachers might argue that stu-

Continued on page 8

SPECIAL EDITION JANUARY 2022

OPINIONS

8

Shouldn’t Everyone Be in the Yearbook?

VIA QUINN MARLOE Driver and bus of Route 6

QUINN MARLOE

A

lmost everyone who works, learns, or teaches at Poly Prep is included in the yearbook. Almost everyone.

I take the bus to school. And a lot of kids do as well; there are no less than 38 bus routes coming and going to and from the Dyker Heights campus. However, bus drivers are not included in the yearbook. You can look; you’ll find the security guards, maintenance and food staff there, but no bus drivers. Why not? They get students and teachers to and from school everyday. In fact, buses are the primary way people get to and from school most days. I think that they could spare a few pages just for a name, picture, and simple title of 38ish bus drivers.

Don’t you?

I have and had a pretty good relationship with my bus driver.

He will drive by me on my way to the bus stop, and let me get on early. Last year, when I had a different bus driver, he did the same thing, and I talked to him like I would a friend. I consider and considered him a part of my day.

I’d bet most people do as well, as bus drivers are the first school-related adults most students see in the morning.

Driving a bus is also not very easy, and they do it every weekday, some for hours, with loud, sometimes annoying kids, having to judge traffic and which way is best, and memorize a route with multiple stops. For this, they should get credit for the hard work that they do.

I don’t think that bus drivers don’t want to be included. In the November Polygon issue, Oscar,

the driver of bus three, had an article written about him. If a driver will allow themself to be interviewed, then I don’t think they would mind a picture with a name and simple title, such as, what route they drive and for how long they have been driving it.

For me, being in a yearbook— even if I look less than ideal (I’m not good with pictures)—gives me a sense of belonging to the community of Poly Prep. Bus drivers are a part of the community as well, and they might want to feel that sense of belonging too.

However, I should at least acknowledge why they may not be in the yearbook. For starters, bus drivers don’t technically work for Poly. They work for another company (Safe Coach Bus Company, Dimino Bus Company, etc.), and Poly may only include people who work for or learn at Poly. Their companies may not want them in a yearbook as well.

I wouldn’t know why. Big companies do weird things.

Bus drivers also may not have the time to do it, Polyglot editors may not be able to make room in the yearbook, or the drivers might just not want to, for privacy. For them, it could say “not pictured” as the book does with some kids.

When asked if he would want to be in the yearbook, my bus driver said that “I would not want to be in the yearbook to protect my privacy, but other drivers might want to be.”

Bus drivers are an important part of many Poly people’s lives, transporting and cooperating with them, and I think they should be acknowledged for that in a place where everyone can see.

(Breaks continued from page 7)

dents don’t work productively enough during study hall or that 8th graders don’t need recess because they have P.E. They might even say that if they give students a five-minute break during class that they might run around the hallways and disrupt other classes that are still working.

I find that it is more important to have breaks during the day and being able to focus really well in class than trying and failing to be productive every second of the day.

A solution to give students more breaks would be to take days that have three or more 70-minute classes and cut each class to 60 minutes in order to give students 30- or even 40-minute study halls or recesses.

That way the 8th graders would still get all of their work in class done and also have time for a mental break.

On the other hand, teachers might not want their classes to be cut short. If that is the case, instead of 60-minute classes the school could alternate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) blocks and assemblies with recess and study hall periods. Every week students would have one study hall or recess and one DEIB or assembly. If the school chose to do this, the 8th grade would have more breaks without getting rid of time from their academic classes.

Even without the addition of more study halls and recesses in school, everyone could improve upon their lives by taking breaks and refocusing. By doing so we can see our work in a new perspective and stay focused for a longer period of time. I implore everyone to try to add breaks into their day and see how it improves the way they work.

(P.E. continued from page 7)

their schoolwork,” wrote Logan Wadkins, a writer for the International Health Magazine.

It is also important to get daily exercise for both physical and mental health reasons, and some students don’t have time to do that once they get home because there is too much homework due the next day. “Physical activity is proven to be more beneficial in lowering weight, improving focus and causing kids to be more healthy,” continued Wadkins.

Possibly the most important reason to have P.E. class as a kid is that it “puts children on track to make regular exercise a habit,” wrote Marisa Healy in an article for One World International School. Other benefits to having daily physical activities are that you can learn “self discipline and goal setting,” said Healy, both of which are important life skills.

The fact that daily P.E. is healthy and helps students to focus throughout the day is a strong rationale for adjusting the schedule to have 45-minute blocks, which would allow us to have a P.E. class every day along with our arts core and normal academic classes. We actually had this schedule up until two or three years ago, up until right before COVID. The problem was that we had all of our academic classes every day, and each of those classes assigned homework due the very next day.

The system overwhelmed many students and made them stressed.

To the administrators reading this, the solution for the homework problem could be to make it so that teachers could give homework only every other class, instead of taking away half of the P.E. periods.

The Value of Money Over Mental Health ELIZA RORECH

A

s an individual pursuing my education at Poly Prep Country Day School located in Brooklyn, New York, I’ve heard my fair share of socioeconomic commentary amongst students, whether positive or negative. This type of discourse alerts my moral compass and invites me to deeply examine its effects on the overall community.

As a result of this, I believe that discussion of socioeconomic status is destructive to the cohesiveness of our school body from top to bottom.

In some of my own experiences, I’ve heard students comparing wealth statuses with each other, assuming that a peer’s designer brand pieces are “fake” because of their preconceived perceptions of them.

Taking a step back, it seems that socioeconomic status stems in the “cliques” within Poly.

It’s often obvious which kids come from the wealthiest families because of the clothes that they wear, their houses, and even what their parents do for a living, which the whole grade seems to know.

For students not included in the financial aid or scholarship programs, the price tag on an education at Poly Prep isn’t cheap. Tuition prices range from $30,150 to $53,890, depending on a child’s age. According to Poly’s website, the total fees are comprised of tuition and TRP (tuition refund plan).

Plus, there is an additional fee for newly-enrolled students.

The U.S. Census states that the median

household income in the United States for 2019 was $68,703; therefore, any family that can afford Poly tuition fees is likely vastly more affluent than the average fami-

of pleasant emotions, and more depression and anxiety. Similar results have been demonstrated for a variety of age groups and people around the world.” As this evi-

VIA POLY PREP WEBSITE Tuition prices for different grades at Poly for the 2021-2022 academic year ly in America.

As stated by psychologist Tim Kasser in an article by the American Psychological Association, “individuals who say that goals for money, image, and popularity are relatively important to them also report less satisfaction in life, fewer experiences

dence conveys, the effect of focus on wealth and popularity can be damaging to mental health.

I acknowledge that I, and Poly, cannot censor what students are going to say, but I truly believe that dialogue about wealth negatively affects students and makes peo-

ple feel lower on the hypothetical socioeconomic ladder.

The students who engage in this behavior are likely unaware of the potentially scarring effects it can have on our community. The best thing we can do to begin to solve this issue is to simply cut ties with the culture that fosters these kinds of conversations and comparisons. This happens through a re-education of what society tolerates as its norms.

As has been observed in the past, emails about important issues in the community have not been as heavily effective as faceto-face assemblies. This was evident when Director of Student Life Jared Winston sent an email asking students to do a better job of cleaning up after their lunch. The email’s impact seemed minimal so Winston held an assembly where he made a personal appeal on behalf of the facilities crew to ask students to be part of the solution to on campus garbage. An assembly made up of highlighting toxic behaviors, culture, and values could be a strategy to directly target the core issue.

It’s important as individuals, specifically as members of the Poly community, to reevaluate our morals and values and note how they are reflected in our behaviors and how that affects others. Maya Angelou once said “People will forget the things you do, and people will forget the things you say.

But people will never forget how you made them feel.”