Digital Issue:
Triumph:
Tiger Times goes digital at www.ttonl.org
Varsity girls volleyball opens season with win. Page 7
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Tiger Times volume X X X XV
Au g u s t / S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 3
issue 1
Students reach wider audience through YOUTHECA By Yeni Cho and Sara Shin
Students have pursued their interests by starting clubs outside of school, but have had difficulty finding platforms to launch these clubs. However, this year, several students participated in the annual Global Youth Talk and Activities (YOUTHECA) Expo on Aug. 3 at the Coex Exhibition Hall. YOUTHECA, a student network that runs on an online forum, strives to help youths pursue their interests by allowing them to share their activities with others. At the conference this year, UNICEF executives, along with several other students who participate in clubs outside of school, attended to promote their clubs. Elizabeth Huh (11) delivered the motives of Rewrite Beautiful Action Beta, an organization dedicated to empowering women while Matthew Nam (11) advocated Share Ground Korea, a club that encourages people to donate for a fundraising auction. “Looking at the pictures and talking to the members, I found out that many more schools that were present learned about [UNICEF] and were more than willing to help out,” said Shanna Hurt, UNICEF adviser. “We are talking about a strength in numbers. The more people, the more we can help.” In order to get their message
Campus change accomodates for more students By Sarah Yesl Kim
Photo by Yeni Cho
Explaining their club purpose with posters, Elizabeth Huh (11) and Yuni Sohn (11), leaders of Rewrite Beautiful Action Beta, convince a visitor to sign their part-time volunteer pledge and help to empower women. across effectively, some students chose to make pamphlets posters, while others took an interactive approach. Julia Jeong (12), who had a booth for Scoliosis Youth Awareness club, gave people an opportunity to learn about scoliosis through firsthand experience. “Most people are not aware of scoliosis and do not even know if they have this condition,” Julia said. “To make my presentation more engaging and [to] show how rare this
condition is, I let people measure their own back curves and see for themselves how their spines would be if they had scoliosis.” In the past, clubs such as Scientia and Pearl Buck Student Association presented at YOUTHECA, but stopped attending due to a lack of student interest. Although YOUTHECA was a burden to students because they had to invest their time and efforts while managing other responsibilities, they still
saw the conference as an opportunity to share their interests. “At first, YOUTHECA was definitely a challenge since it was our first time,” said Dustin Yoon (11), UNICEF historian. “However, through the conference, we were able to connect with different groups and in the end, we got over 70 signatures to our donation pledge. I am definitely willing to participate next year and promote our club to others outside the SIS community.”
Seniors face facility changes and hope for privileges By Heejin E Hong
The administration introduced several facility changes for seniors in conjunction with the completion of the new elementary school building. The old Transportation Department office was transformed into the senior lunch room to cater to the relatively larger high school student body and facilitate frequent senior class meetings. Additionally, lockers that were previously on the first floor were moved to the second and third floor of the former middle school wing. “[The administration] received complaints from the elementary school [students] that seniors were using horribly inappropriate language while elementary students were passing by,” said Jarret Lambie, high school principal. “Many grade school students said that they were too afraid to go to the nurse because they had to pass through the hallway.” Despite these changes to senior
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Photo by Christine Lee
Debating about soccer, Taejin Kim (12) and Daniel Hong (12) argue in the senior lunch room. The room was made due to the increase of students. facilities, policies of senior privilege have yet to be implemented. According to Mr. Lambie, in order to incorporate a change in school regulations, a proposal must be presented to the school committee. If it is approved, it then needs the headmaster’s recommendation and consent to be officially implemented. “The HSSC Senior Council has
not put together a proposal [for senior privilege] yet and has not presented one to [the advisers] and the administration,” said Sean Syverson, HSSC adviser. “[HSSC] can work on implementing these changes, but as of now, SIS has no senior privilege policies.” Although senior privilege was a widely discussed topic during
HSSC campaigns, a set proposal has not yet been confirmed. The HSSC plans to propose allowing seniors to order food during lunch period and to arrive late to or leave early from school if study hall was their first or last period. “We want to give seniors the independence to make choices that can help them use time efficiently outside of school,” said Angela Son, senior class president. “Hopefully, [senior privilege] will develop an autonomy that [seniors] can carry with them to college.” Seniors have expressed anticipation and support for the implementation of class privileges, which will address parts of their school life that were disappointing. “Especially with the change in our schedule, the privilege of being able to order food is great to have,” Alex Son (12) said. “My friends and I have already found ourselves hungry as soon as second period ends. I never really liked JJ’s food as much, so with [senior] privilege, we can now eat whatever food we want.”
The completion of the new school building has allowed the school to accommodate the increase of newcomers this year by designating the entire main building for high school students. 47 new students—21 freshmen, 17 sophomores and nine juniors—have been admitted to the high school, a huge increase compared to previous years. “We had to increase our cap [for the number of high school students per grade level] to accept more qualified students,” said Yang-Min Ko, Deputy Director and Secretary to the Admissions Office. “The number of elementary students has decreased, enabling us to balance the loss by increasing the cap for middle and high school.” According to Peter Corcoran, Director of Schools, the decrease in elementary school students and the subsequent increase in middle and high school students are due to new acceptance policies, which require students to have lived three years overseas or hold a foreign passport. Yet, Mr. Corcoran says that it is difficult to determine a single cause behind the increase in middle and high school applicants. “I speculate that [part of it is due to] foreign trained workers moving into Korea to fill in leadership positions at large corporations like Samsung,” Mr. Corcoran said. “People working for these large corporations have come to work in Korea’s corporation pool.” The arrival of foreign trained workers is thought to have resulted in a surprising number of students from Europe, as well as parts from the world other than the United States. Fred Schneider, Dean of Students, hopes this will bring more cultural diversity to the school. “The tendency is for the majority to make the new ones more like them,” Mr. Schneider said. “You can really tell when a student is new by the way they behave. Though they will likely be forced to conform, I hope new students can maintain their individuality.” Mrs. Ko refrains from disclosing specific statistics on the current maximum student capacity to avoid having parents think that it is more flexible than it actually is. Due to this year’s particularly high acceptance rate, the school will be unable to accept as many newcomers next year.