March 5, 2021

a magazine of then & now & rubik’s cubes A LOOK AT LIFE RIGHT NOW AT RHS

Why Rubik’s Cubes?

E

veryone has to find a balance in life and it’s not always easy.

My piece aims to show this via the idea of cause and effect, with each side of the cube representing an aspect of our lives (financial, mental, and social states shown). It shows that this person’s life (Rubik’s cube) has had a relationship change or social mishap that resulted in an imbalanced mental state. While the Rubik’s cube metaphor has its flaws, the message beneath remains. A balanced, happy lifestyle incorparates many different aspects of life and takes them into account with equal weight.

2

POETRY: EYRAM DUMOR

E

yram Dumor is a sophomore at RHS. She has been writing original poetry since she was thirteen and recently represented our school at the Poetry Out Loud competition.

Photo by Mallory Moats In Confession: Forgive me, Father for I have sinned I guess that my heathen nature was too much for the grey haired man who watched me praying with the animals. Who knew I threw my veil off in the sand and ran.

Jaws wide open and lips stretched into a smile.

I only ever prayed that one day he would realize our religion was the same.

I’ve been told that one day I’ll find myself Being dropped into a casket.

A very nice oak box.

I found the words I loved, the stories, lived underneath the flowers.

I want the earth to swallow me whole. to open its mouth with a wildness that only youth can cultivate. for its lethargic fingers to force the air out of my lungs and let the dirt and mud drown me. to let the worms wriggle in between my fingers and the ants pick away at my flesh.

To slowly become the beginning of everything To become the seed that started a forest.

To do my penance.

3

I finally get a taste of the senior experience...

Back In Class: How Does RHS Feel?

By Helen Weiss

By Michael “Mandy” James

Polling before February 5: All interviews were conducted a week after RHS students returned to a five-day seated week.

Personally, I enjoy it because I’m better academically when I’m here all five days. So, it’s nice. If we have to [go virtual], personally, I wouldn’t really do well.

But for the safety of the students, it’s better to be virtual, especially if the pandemic cases are still rising.

-Olivia Sidwell, senior.

I feel like myself, and a lot of people I were finally used to hybrid. like that I know that the students that I get to see my wanted to be successful in school friends. To be honest, are doing well. A bunch of people have I prefer more people on been talking about how their parents my lunch table, but the are high risk. They think that it’s halls are a bit crowded really exposing them more; being in and I do not like that. hybrid felt safer for them. I know it’s -Lucas Schone, crowded and in the lunchroom, there’s It’s junior. no space. When we first came back it really nice was weird. I was actually really actually, I finalsurprised because I had forgotten ly get a taste of the how many people there actualsenior experience, I ly would be here. -Eliana guess. It’s nice seeing Stanislawski, senior. old friends.

-Titus Taylor, senior.

Honestly, [the five days was] kind of exhausting at first because we haven’t been back to normal since about September, but I love seeing all my friends again. It’s good seeing everyone. It’s gonna take some time to get back to normal and get back on track with everything. Other than that, I think it’s pretty good.

-Lauren Steelman, senior.

4

I It’s love being at an adschool for the full justment from five days, under northe hybrid schedmal conditions. I don’t want ule because I have a t say [coming back to five lot less freedom. But days] was an unsafe decision, but it’s nice to have more maybe a little bit questionable...I’m class time. I don’t really not sure where the data came from know enough about how it that supports these quarantine rules. works to have an opinion I understand that if a student gets on quarantine rules, quarantined, they can still come to but it’s nice that we school. My misunderstanding is if those don’t have a third of students are positive, we’re still althe school gone. lowing them to come to school. We won’t -Daniel Read, know if they become positive until they senior. start showing symptoms, which could be at school. I’m just not 100% supportive of it because I don’t know where any To be data or background information honest as a senior, came from that makes this a good no, I do not enjoy that. Not idea. in the slightest. I just got used to - Mrs. Anderson, science the hybrid schedule, at the beginning teacher. of this semester. Switching to hybrid in the beginning was hard, but coming back full seated has been even harder. I didn’t think about it when we came back for the first time this fall, but there are so many people here and I’m not a fan of it. It’s much louder. Much smellier. There are too many people. -Kaylee Stanley, senior.

It’s a big change coming back. I, myself, prefer to be here, of course. As teachers, we’re here all five days, so I’m happy to I love it. I have the kids back five days. I like the five days because I get don’t think they feel quite the to see everyone at the same time. When we were in same. I really hope that seathybrid, it was basically teaching the same thing twice with ed classes don’t fail. I really the six different classes so instead of teaching something six like having the kids here every times we had to teach it twelve times. I feel prepared if we have to day. With the way I teach, that go virtual, but it’s also weighing heavy on my heart because I works best. I really don’t want have a handful of students in each hour that don’t have to go to an all virtual expereliable internet at home. -Mrs. Kinder, math rience, I would much rather teacher. go to a hybrid.

Its I -Mr. Rinehart, history okay. It’s keepenjoy seeing teacher. ing me from my job, and my students for the I need money. I was workfull five days, but it is ing mornings on the days I something that is more difficult didn’t have school. So I had to get for not only students but for us switched to night shifts. If we went to adapt to. The students aren’t used virtual, I’d be able to get a lot to physical seated days, but [this could more done because I wouldn’t be at cause] a lighter workload for the students achool the full eight hours.

-Kristana Gresty, senior. because of it. My students coming back this I like that we will be able to get through more content, but I felt a lot more comfortable with the hybrid. I don’t know enough about [the quarantine rules or COVID] medically to determine if it’s a good or a bad idea. I think as long as everyone’s safe and as long as it keeps people safe. If COVID cases start spiking, I think that [going virtual] would be a necessity. I don’t love virtual classes but if it’s going to keep people safe, then I think that’s a good idea.

- Mr.Loker, history teacher.

first week were very overwhelmed. They are having a hard time getting back into a routine of five days a week. I think a lot of people are super excited to be back at full capacity. The social interaction that we naturally need as human beings is finally being fulfilled a bit more, but there is still a concern from students and parents that they want more social distance.

-Mrs. Stormes-Mayberry, English teacher.

5

B

y now, most of my fellow seniors that are planning on attending college or university next year have gone through the college application process, and I don’t think that it would be controversial for me to say that it was rough. We take standardized tests and AP classes, write thousands of words in essays, and deal with a complicated financial aid system only to pay to submit an application that will most likely be put in a pile with thousands of other applications to be quickly skimmed over by admissions officers.

1. STANDARDIZED TESTS

Let’s begin with the part that everyone knows about: standardized testing. This includes the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and AP tests, among others. Students are charged a standard fee between $50 and $100 to take a test that they can put on a college application to supposedly show schools their knowledge and reasoning skills. However, multiple studies across the years have shown a distinct correlation between family income and scores on the ACT and SAT. This is because students with rich families can afford expensive tutors and to take a $50 test over and over again to attain the score they want. Furthermore, the SAT in particular has been shown to be racially biased. In 2018, it was reported that the average score for asian and white testers was 1100, while that of other groups was below 1000. It is nearly impossible to design a test without bias, either in the text or the testing environment itself, and this clearly shows that the SAT is written or administered in a way that significantly disadvantages certain groups.

2. UNFAIR MONOPOLY

In addition to standardized testing, there is a corporation that is omnipresent in the field of U.S. college admissions: College Board. It offers a range of services, such as the SAT, SAT subject tests, and AP tests, which, for many, are deemed necessary to get into the top colleges in the country. In 2020, the College Board received much criticism from students and parents alike for continuing to administer the AP test online due to COVID-19, despite multiple problems with the platform. However, there

6

have always been issues with AP classes and tests, such as courses covering too much material, the lack of guarantee of college credit, and the fact that low-income students often have less access to successful AP programs.

3. CONFUSING FORMS The College Board also has its own financial aid system, the College Scholarship Service Profile, or CSS Profile for short. The CSS Profile, although less well-known than the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is often required by some universities in order for a student to get financial aid. Students are encouraged to fill out the FAFSA as early as possible to get as much money as possible. However, these forms are often confusing for both students and parents who fill them out. The difficulty of filling out the FAFSA affects low-income students significantly more than others. Thus, the problems with the FAFSA make it harder for those who need it the most to get aid.

College is seen by many as a gateway to their future, but the application process is horribly complicated and puts students in certain minority groups and those with lower-income backgrounds at a severe disadvantage. Parents and students are taken advantage of by corporations such as the College Board because it is necessary to partake in their services to get into a student’s ideal college.

Many people have come to realize the problems in the application process and there have been pushes to change the process. Changes that promote equality in college applications and admissions are clearly needed.

IS our generation post cARING? I

n February 2012, former RHS student Sam Jennings wrote an article for the ECHO about his generation’s views on living in a “past-tense world.” In other words, a world post-Iran, post-Vietnam, post-9/11, even post-LSD epidemic. A world that after all that in the past century seemed drained of its motivation and lacking the trust of our world leaders that led us to those acts in the first place.

To build onto that, recent generations-Millennials and Gen-Z specifically-- have been raised in an age of nihilism: an era where the human population has discovered just how relatively insignificant we are, how the sun will eventually destroy our planet, and how we--the smartest animals on the planet--are simultaneously moving forward in leaps and bounds in the realm of science and technology, while also destroying our

Photo by Mallory Moats Jennings’ orignal article from February 2012 ECHO

By nathaniel Jackson planet. With each passing year, beliefs in those classic societal systems the generations before us have always followed. For example, organized religion in both the world and United States, has been making a rapid fall since the 90s. Most of the rapid decline can be blamed on a massive distrust in organized religion in general. With the fall of these systems, comes the rising influx of more “radicalized” political ideas, without the rules and regulations of religion. With such large changes to the basis of so many people’s beliefs, we look for an answer as to ‘why?’ Many see life as something with no purpose, with no true way to find the answers to life like religion can do for its followers. These thoughts of no purpose (or no point to life) is nihilism- the belief that life is meaningless.

Many reject this idea of meaninglessness and are fearful of an existence without meaning.

However, looking out and realizing the relative meaning and importance of life and decisions is very clarifying. When the world is falling apart because you got a 60% on the math test, you forgot your chemistry notes, or you didn’t get to finish that book for English class, remember what you will look back on from high school; those scores, notes, and books aren’t going to be your biggest worry. What will matter to you are your friends and experiences that will shape you into the person you are.

To me, nihilism is like leaving a blank answer on a test; you don’t know what the answer is and you don’t want to act like you do either. Life’s end will be the end of something, whether that is the complete end to consciousness or not doesn’t really matter. But as depressing as nihilism seems, it is not inherently bad. To not have meaning doesn’t mean human feeling doesn’t matter.

Everything you do while you are alive is still just as important because it affects you and others. So if it’s true nothing matters, then it sounds like the perfect chance to make the best of it, and do whatever makes you happy.

7

M

idway through the year in Anatomy and Physiology I, after learning the makeup of the criss-crossing body, students have a chance to put their brimming knowledge to the test. Dissection is the official culmination of months of knowledge and the ultimate learning tool. The gravity of the process is made clear, and the experience should only be granted to those who understand the cost.

“It’s exciting when you get your cat cadaver, and most people are nervous yet excited because you’re getting a learning tool that’s unlike any other learning tool you’ve ever had,” says Dr. Keith Peter-

8

son, Anatomy and Physiology teacher of Rolla High School. “And students realize the depth of it pretty quickly. ” The strict program is designed to completely immerse the students into the anatomy of the cat; however, as with any dissection, the first steps are the most jarring. The first small cut signifies a complete change of identity for the cat. Suddenly, a once-living animal is now an academic tool used to help teach teens the anatomy of living organisms and meet lab requirements.

“If someone doesn’t want to do that [dissect a cat], then they just simply don’t take the class,” says Dr. Peterson. “They might want to take the class but

they don’t want to do that. That’s just a decision you have to make. A lot of that’s because we have to meet lab requirements for the class. However, when we start dissecting cats, you’ll find it’s an amazing learning tool.”

According to Missouri law, cats are never more than an object that humans have complete control over. A cat is, by law, treated just as any piece of property. Like the old chair in the living room, a cat can be treated and discarded in just the same fashion.

“With Missouri law, dogs and cats are property,” says Kevin McCue, an animal control officer at Rolla Animal Shelter. “If there is someone who wants to take the animal to a veterinarian and have it put down regardless of what the excuse may be, the vet may ask why but that vet has every obligation to put it down or tell them to go find another vet. But they [the cat owners] have that right then, to have that animal put down if that’s what they want to do, because it’s property.”

However, most of the time the use of euthansia is saved for severe and warranted occasions. In instances such as the family feline Snuffles suffering from liver disease, vets and animal officials take measures to treat pets to a painless death.

“If they have to be put to sleep, that can certainly be done in a humane way, in my opinion,” says Dr. Brian Yanke, veterinarian at Rolla Animal Hospital. “I mean, I had to do two earlier...in the way we do it we give them a sedative shot so it’s a shot in the muscle. It stings a little bit, but not much more than getting vaccinated. And then they drift off to sleep. And when once they’re unconscious, we give them the second shot [the euthanasia shot].”

The nice house cat Snuffles’ life is ended in the same way he might doze off on the La-Z-boy. Domesticated cats are able to die with the respect left from their life of purpose; however, cats specifically bred to be euthanized can lose the respect granted to house pets.

“Carolina [Biological Supply] gets - and I have looked into it over the years - some of the cats raised specifically for ending up in a lab,” says Dr. Peterson. “The reason for that is they have to be of a certain size and quality. So that is disappointing.”

The need for an exact type of cat demanded by biological companies only highlights the statutory definition of the cat. Like abundant piles of unused cars, unwanted personal items or unappealing furniture in junkyards, cats can be treated with the same lack of reverence. The societal view of an animal’s disposability allows for an abundant waste of life.

“Every spring we see hundreds of kittens that need homes and most, a lot of them, don’t get a good

home,” says Dr. Yanke. “So as far as the need for bodies, they’re already out there. So raising them just specifically for that purpose [dissection] does seem like kind of a wasted life. {One solution is} possibly taking unadopted strays or especially ones that are not adoptable - if they’re just running around the streets. If there’s a way to humanely trap them and humanely euthanize them, then their life is serving a good purpose as opposed to just running around.”

Stray cats are given the chance to prove docility.

“We’ll give it {a stray cat} a couple of days to come around, get used to the surroundings and get used to us,” says McCue. “And most times them calm down, and they allow us to interact with them. In some cases, you could have it here for two weeks, and it’s just not [calming down]. It’s just not working out. Just being aggressive towards us and anybody else who walks in past it. So, that’s when you’ve got to make the tough decisions. Yeah, and we don’t like to have to do it. For the sake of the city’s liability, we have to do what we have to do. But, every animal deserves a chance.”

However, in the breeding of cats used for biological selling, the animals are not even given a chance to be domesticated. In a climate of technological innovation, the move toward a digital learning environment is pushed heavily. In several schools around the United States, ‘hands on’ dissection has been banned completely, and 3D programs emulating dissection have been subbed in the animal’s place.

However, the internet’s imitation of the dead cat cannot seem to ‘live’ up to the real thing.

“I don’t like ordering a bunch of cats because fatalities of cats go up, and virtual would obviously prevent the death of the cat, but it would not give the same experience,” says Dr. Peterson. “If I felt that the virtual programs would give the same quality of education that the specimen that the cat’s cadavers do, then I would switch to that but I just don’t.”

The dissecting of animals should be given to students who prize the knowledge gained through hands-on experience and respect the animal - even in death.

“I think dissecting should be kind of a privilege left for the students that are actually going to really, really take it seriously,” says Dr. Yanke. “Not everybody should be doing it.”

9

10

COMIC BY MICHAEL “MANDY” JAMES

DO YOU EVER GET NOSTALGIC FOR THINGS YOU DIDN’T ACTUALLY EXPERIENCE?

LIKE THE MONGOL CONQUEST?

WELL, I WAS THINKING MORE LIKE THE 60’S.

...

S ’ 60 .

12 ES E IM TH D T , AH GOO

I JUST NEED TO BE ALONE RIGHT NOW...

BRO, ARE YOU CRYING?

11

HISTORY’s Mor e than just a textbook...

B Y MAL LORY MOATS

L

earning about the past can be an enlightening experience especially when it pertains to your community or even your own relatives. However, these discoveries can only be made possible through the preservation of history. In Rolla, the State Historic Society of Missouri Research Center in Rolla houses archives and records. Many students at Rolla High School have explored and preserved the past by creating documentaries and stories to enter into competitions. No matter what medium is used to uncover the past, there is always something new to be learned that may just impact how you live in the present.

ARCHIVES

T

he State Historical Society of Missouri has a research center in Rolla located inside the Curtis Laws Wilson Library on the Campus of Missouri S&T. The research center’s materials concern the history of Southern Missouri and the Ozark Highlands.

“The State Historical Society of Missouri was founded in 1898 to preserve Missouri’s newspapers. Since then, we’ve expanded that to any sort of archival material like letters, documents, diaries, photographs, audio-visual, anything that documents the history of Missouri and its people both here and abroad,” said Katie Seale, senior archivist at the center in Rolla.

“We want to preserve those and organize them in a way so that they are usable and available to researchers.

So anytime someone has a question and reaches out to us, we try to help them. We also do quite a bit of public programming just to let people know what kind of resources we have available and also to share some of the information that we’ve gleaned from these materials as well.”

Similarly to the Phelps County Historical Society, the research center in Rolla mostly acquired their items through donations from local people. Some of the notable archives concern the Civil War and even a local invention which attempted to create a 3-D movie.

“We have a lot of civil war [items],” said Seale. “Rolla was one of the main headquarters of the Union Army in Missouri. It was the end of railroad head, so we have lots of diaries and letters that were written right here in Rolla. We’ve got a lot of really great descrip-

tions in those letters of what Missouri was like in 1861 or 1862. So those are always super interesting to see. Another item that’s really interesting and very local is called the rotoscope. So, some local gentlemen named Rob Carney and Tom Smith invented an early attempt at a 3-D type of filmmaking. They had a huge curved screen that allowed you to see like a 180 degree view, and [Carney] actually strapped this large camera and his invention to the front of his car and drove around town, so we’ve got images of 1960s era Rolla, and it’s great because you can see all the people on the sidewalks and everybody is just turning to stare.

Carney gets out on Route 66, now I-44, and he actually gets pulled over by the state highway patrol because he’s got this attachment just strapped to the front of his car. So, it’s a really interesting piece. He takes it up on an airplane. He goes on a rollercoaster ride up in St. Louis, and then he brought [the rotoscope] back and put it all together and did these shows around town, so we have those films and some of the pictures from when he was putting that stuff together. So, it’s a really cool local invention that we’ve got a part of here in the office.”

On occasion, the office does have to get rid of items that don’t pertain to their mission, but that never means just throwing them away.

“We always ask the donor upon donating any materials, ‘if we don’t keep these items in our collection do you want them returned to you or is it okay if we discard them?’” said Seale. “And when I say discard them that doesn’t mean they just go in the trash. Usually if it’s materials that are in good archival quality and need to be preserved but it doesn’t fit our mission statement, we’re going to look for an organization that it fits better in. There are a few things we discard, like anniversary napkins. There’s no archival research potential in those. But we are always very upfront with the donor and letting them know what we want and take. We do that beforehand, and that really cuts down on anything that we don’t keep here in the office.”

Seale also offered a word of advice for students, history lovers or not.

“I think the biggest thing is realizing that history is not just the boring names and dates that it sometimes seems like it can be when you are having to learn all of this in history classes,” said Seale.

“There’s a lot of really good interesting things to discover about the state of Missouri, but then Rolla and Phelps County in particular that you may have not known, and we’re always happy to help anybody wanting to look a little more into their local history or their family history.”

The State Historical Society of Missouri’s Research Center in Rolla is open by appointment. To schedule a tour, you can visit their website: https://shsmo. org/ visit/rolla for more information.

STOR IES

E

lena Bai, Angela Yang, and Finn Meggit

three Rolla High School students are exploring the darker parts of American history by creating a project for National History Day. National History Day is a science fair for history where 6th to 12th graders create a project under one of the five categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, and website.

“We’re competing in the documentary category,” said Yang. “And the theme of this year is Communication in History: The Key to Understanding. We’re taking a spin on that and focusing on miscommunication in the McCarthy era of the Red Scare and how propaganda miscommunicated the ideas of communism and spread that idea into the American consciousness.”

The group chose this topic because they had not learned about it much at school, and wanted to make more people aware of the stigma surrounding communism.

“Even though communism doesn’t have as much of a stigma as it did before, the American bias against communism found in a lot of places still drastically limits political discourse and prevents actual beneficial change,” said Bai. “McCarthyism is also an interesting topic.”

To prepare, the group did interviews with some people about their topic via Zoom.

“Most notably, we recently did a couple interviews, one with Dr. Margaret Duffy, a media professor at Mizzou, and the other one with Tony Pecinovsky, a member of the Communist Party in the St. Louis,” said Bai. The group will submit their final project to the regional competition at the end of February. After the project is judged, they’ll learn whether or not the will move on to the state level. But no matter what the results are, the group agreed it was a good learning experience that broadened the way in which they view the world.

“I barely knew what McCarthyism was when we started,” said Yang. “I had to look at the Wikipedia page.”

“T he biggest thing is r ealizing that history is not just the boring names and dates. ”

DOCuMENTAR IES

S

ometimes your own family history is just as interesting as the history you learn in the contents of your history book. For Rolla High School students Carter Chance and Maddy Pense this proved to be true. Two years ago, they were given the opportunity to write stories based on one of their relatives, and they were chosen to be featured in The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration.

“The title of my story was ‘A Legacy Towards Equality,’” said Chance. “I wrote about my fifth great-grandfather. He was a general for the Union Army during the Civil War. He was in the First Battle of Bull Run, and he was defeated by Stonewall Jackson, which is a big deal.”

Chance had known a few things about his relative before, but in order to write the story he had to do more research. Pense had a similar experience when researching her fourth great-uncle.

“The summer before, we had gone to Tennessee and visited his cabin. Then when they talked about the Grannie Annie thing at school, I thought that would be a good opportunity to write about [him],” said Pense, “Carter Shields was born in Cades Cove, Tennessee, and then he and his brother enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 and fought throughout the war.

We thought he was injured at the Battle of Shiloh and went home from there.”

The injury of Pense’s fourth great-uncle at the Battle of Shiloh was the subject of her story. However, a couple of months ago after her family had watched a Civil War movie, Pense decided to research her fourth-great uncle again. To her surprise, the records did not match up that her fourth great-uncle was injured at the Battle of Shiloh, meaning her original story was wrong.

“He [Carter Shields] wasn’t on any Civil War records for serving at the Battle of Shiloh like we thought he was, so I looked at some other stuff and discovered his regiment wasn’t even in service until 18 days after Shiloh,” said Pense. “So I was trying to figure out when exactly he was wounded, and I figured out he was wounded at the end of the war.

So even the history that’s accepted by National Park where his cabin is located at is wrong.”

Carter Shields was actually wounded at a battle during the Atlanta campaign in 1864. But because of Grannie Annie, Pense would have never discovered any of this information.

“I pretty much knew nothing about him,” said Pense. “If I hadn’t written it then, I probably wouldn’t know all of it that I know now.”

Both Chance and Pense presented their stories at the Missouri History Museum as a part of The Grannie Annie Family Stories Celebration.

“We had to tell our story in front of an audience,” said Chance. “It was a really cool experience.”

Chance and Pense’s stories can be read online at http://www.thegrannieannie.org/Vol.14Stories.htm.

WHATs in style?

By Jillian Launius “What’s in style?” - a phrase commonly uttered by fashion giants and consumers alike has drastically changed over the decades. However, it seems with the growing influence of the internet, answers fluctuate more than ever. One in four U.S. malls is expected to close by the year 2022 according to a study done in 2017 by Credit Suisse. This extinction of the shopping supercenters is not limited to the buildings themselves. ”In the past decade, as shopping dollars migrated online and a parade of well-known retailers toppled, the malls that didn’t evolve fast enough stumbled into a devastating cycle of dwindling traffic, lower sales, and disappearing storefronts,” says The Washington Post. The keyword being “storefronts.”

With the age of malls coming to end, retail giants such as Dillards. Overcome. And Hollister find it a challenge to keep up with the times.

Jamie Cantrell, Rolla High School’s fashion design teacher recently attended the Dallas Wholesale Market and is in agreement with these findings.

“Malls are disappearing. Some of your typical Originally pictured in 1974 edition of Rolla Hi Echo clothing stores that you are used to seeing are going to disappear,” says Cantrell.

The “hipster movement,” as Cantrell referred to Cantrell’s attendance at the Dallas wholesale it, has penetrated all aspects of the fashion inmarket helped to shine a light on what will be redustry. This concept of bringing past decades into placing these fashion superstores. current trends or restyling old pieces has taken ‘We kind of have come out of a time where people the internet by storm. wanted to wear name-brand brands. For many years “You are seeing anything goes. Vintage goes. New we had Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch. But York street style goes. Country goes,” says Cantrell. now, we have this kind of hipster movement.“ However, with this mesh of styles and quickened pace comes a challenge for the fashion industry.

“You can have a blogger that starts mixing and matching a whole bunch of different looks together and all of the sudden that’s the trend and now the wholesalers are scrambling, saying ‘ we don’t have anything like that? How are we going to catch up to that?” says Cantrell. Wholesalers, the step between couture and on the rack clothing, have found it nearly impossible to keep up with the changing demands of clients. The demand for ever-changing trends and specified looks have led to a change in business model, with small online boutiques and resale shops taking precedence over the market.

“That makes it easy for anybody to get into that market because you don’t have to have a store, you don’t have to have employees. You can do it out of your home and have fewer garments,” says Cantrell.

A specification of what stores offer and a more exact supply to the demand chain has been created by this outburst of small boutiques (in contrast with the malls that cluttered the last decades of fashion). Perhaps a more direct line from couture to the customer will change the question of “What’s on trend?” to a more unique and ever-changing experience.

14

New clothes: an old fad

By Meghan Williams New 2021 fashion trends are already a hot topic.

According to Refinery29 and many Gen Z TikTokers, skinny jeans are out and mom jeans have been reinstated as the go-to pants. Cropped cardigans are all the fame at the moment and so are skirts of all lengths. The 90s and early 2000s are certainly making a comeback, and quickly too. Many other old trends have also made a remunerative return, such as bell bottoms from the 70s and garage grunge from the 80s. But with

new fashion developments happening what seems like every ten minutes, clothing companies are having a difficult time keeping up with the fast-paced environment of the industry and this “fast fashion” is hurting the Earth.

The New York Times originally fabricated the term “fast fashion” for Zara in 1990, they used it to describe Zara’s mission to take 15 days from a design being drawn up before it’s on the rack in stores. But now, fast fashion is not a gold sticker for being efficient, but rather one of the environment’s biggest predators. The mass production of clothing is emitting dangerous greenhouse gases into our delicate atmosphere, which is totally not fetch. And the carbon emissions are not exactly chic for the climate. On top of that, the tawdry clothing eventually ends up in landfills after the stitching breaks or fabric tears or the clothing is deemed “so last season.” And then the cycle restarts. A new trend is discovered and companies start mass producing new clothing. The fashion industry has even been deemed the second most polluting industry in the world by the UN Conference on Trade and Development. With new trends on the rise, so are temperatures.

This statistic may sound surprising at first, but if you pause to muse, the picture comes into focus.

Despite the negative impacts on the environment, there is still a draw to buy clothes from these companies, it’s incredibly cheap and a very easy way to keep an updated wardrobe. But at what cost?

Shopping at these stores is inexpensive and they also have a wide selection of clothing, but the harm to the environment is no longer worth the cost. According to statistics from the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, the fashion industry was responsible for 10% of all carbon emissions in 2019 and that number is expected to rise to larger than 50% by 2030. The fashion industry is also to blame for 20% of water waste worldwide. It can take around 33.4 kilograms of carbon for production and delivery of a single pair of jeans. Buying new clothes every few months is not sustainable, especially if they’re not going to last very long, but there are ways to responsibly shop.

There are plenty of environmentally friendly clothing stores such as Eileen Fisher, Boden, Patagonia, Reformation, and Levi’s, but shopping sustainably can be very pricey. Fortunately, thrifting is an affordable middle ground.

Thrifting is both inexpensive and incredibly environmentally friendly, implementing one of the three R’s- reuse. If you’re lucky, you can even find great vintage pieces. And with the return of the 90s and 2000s fashion there are plenty of things in style available at these second hand stores. If there are no thrift stores in your area, ordering from small online boutiques is always another great option. They’re a little more expensive than Urban Outfitters, but much cheaper than Eileen Fisher. And the environment certainly appreciates any efforts towards cleaner production of clothing.

15 Modern sketches by Belle Staley

May 22nd, 1974

Febuary 9th, 1973

16

March 4th, 1975

F

rom our 1975 Sweetheart Queen Laura Tryson to our 2021 Homecoming Queen Kate Campbell, our school has progressed and adapted in so many ways. In this gallery, your Rolla “Hi” Echo (as they would say in the 70s) recreated iconic decade photos to show the student body their perspective of constrasting and comparison.

April 7th, 1975

17

along the lines

By Emma Starns

M

ore and more power is generated to fuel the technological developments of this century.

Organizations all over the world have become more advanced in the usage of not just the internet but also power sources regarding utilities and electricity. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more people are choosing to stay home, or limit their outings into society. While this is an excellent way to avoid contracting the virus and coming in direct contact with others, doing work and school virtually can exhaust one’s utility and internet bill.

So, how does one get everything they need to accomplish done at home, while not breaking their bank accounts? Thankfully, many utility companies have fixed rates. A fixed rate is a monthly payment made to the company that the customer chooses or is placed with based on where they live, regardless of the amount of power or electricity they have recently used. For those who do not have this benefit, it can be exhausting to keep track of the daily habits that can become a parasite to energy consumption.

It’s hard enough to balance energy use on a per-

Photos by Mallory Moats

sonal level, but what about when school is in session? At the February 4, 2021 school board meeting, the board and guests heard from representatives from Performance Services Inc. Business development manager Sterling Miller offered energy-saving statistics from former projects that could be implemented at Rolla Public Schools. Deputy superintendent Kyle Dare said that the district is not asking for specific actions from the pre-Thanksgiving learning environment review, but he did call this evaluation “a conversation starter.” Just as residents in the district struggle with energy inefficiency (among many other potential issues), the schools also have to responsibly understand and use these resources.

With more concerns entering into many aspects of daily life, new solutions and precautions are proving to be more important than ever. Citizens face problems out and inside of school and work, making these energy conversations even more complex.

Impacted by recent events, the Rolla School District is trying to do their best to choose the best energy options and keep everyone safe in this changing environment.

R

olla has quite its share of places of interest, whether that is stores, restaurants, or trails. However one thing Rolla has consistently not had is an international store with goods and products from another nation. During the pandemic, Kristina Colón Leininger, had opened up a shop on 611 N Pine Street in the Downtown area of Rolla.

“I opened officially in mid September. It kind of fell in my lap- the store. I had been wanting to do this dream for a long time. And then during COVID, a spot became available, and somebody had approached me and said ‘Hey, I remember you wanting to do a store is that still something you want to do?’” said Leininger.

Kristina’s Casa primarily sells products and brands of food that are from Latin America. Which is made up by 33 countries ranging from Mexico to El Salvador to Argentina. The wares include soda, spices, candy, coffee, vanilla, microwave meals, arts and crafts, and other goods that aren’t at the supermarket. Mrs. Leininger might not have what you’re looking for but she can make a special order from a place that does to get something you might be looking for and is something she’d sell, such as a spice that is hard to come by.

“The majority of people will come in for the spic-

es that they need for their dishes. And we have a lot of people that love Puerto Rican candy, Mexican candy, and chocolates,” said Leininger.

It is important to note that the bodega and Mexican foods and goods as a whole aren’t just spicy or bad for heartburn. Latin America as a whole is the native range for many plants used all over the world; chocolate, avocado, all peppers, pineapple, vanilla, coffee, potato, tomato, and papaya are all native to Latin American countries.

“My favorite staple product would be something that’s called sofrito. We can make that ourselves.

It’s a mixture of vegetables and herbs,” said Leininger.

She lived in New York and moved down to Rolla

Photo by Mallory Moats with her family, as she had some of her extended family here already and wanted to be with them.

She worked as an Optician in New York. Over time at Rolla, she had the idea of bringing in some of her culture to the city.

“I want to connect with other people that are familiar with my culture. And that’s been pretty beautiful to have a place that people can sit down and have coffee meet for the first time. We don’t have a lot of that in our area. So to have that connection, it’s good, real.” said Leininger.

Photo by Quinn Guffey

WHAT’S THE IDEA? Hi, it’s Kyle and Quinn. :) Our inspiration for this photo came from looking back at vintage school newspapers and reflecting on how things have changed. We wanted to take a picture symbolizing the magazine’s focus on the past, hence the vintage camera. Thanks for reading our magazine!