THE REVIEW
SPC Preview Excited to cheer on the Mavs this weekend? See how teams have prepared.
ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER
On Page 17
2401 CLAREMONT LANE · HOUSTON, TX 77019 · VOLUME 65 · ISSUE 5 · FEBRUARY 13, 2014
CONSTRUCTION
CAFETERIA PREPS FOR DEMOLITION by Pallavi Krishnarao
Today marks the last day of corn muffins, breakfast tacos and Bluebell ice cream in the Arnold Student Center. Due to the destruction of Winston Hall, the cafeteria will no longer be in operation and food services will be suspended, Feb. 17-28. After this period, the school will offer rotating vendor services. “We are trying to find vendors that everyone knows, like Mission Burrito, Demeris and Papa John’s, and get a variety of food,” Food Service Director Anita Walker said. “We already have some vendors lined up, and we will make adjustments as we go.” Students will be able to purchase food with their existing ID numbers, and the cafeteria will continue offering cold lunch options like sandwiches, salad and fruit. “We will have the same cashiers. The school will first pay the vendors, and then we will bill the charges to the students’ accounts,” Walker said. “Everything will be posted, including prices and what we are having for lunch that day.” Picnic tables have been set up in the plaza for al fresco dining. “I think it will be interesting not to have a cafeteria, and it will be a challenge to provide food for students, faculty and staff,” history teacher Barbara DiPaolo said. “I hope it will be a fun bonding experience as we eat in new places and don’t just gravitate to ‘our table’ with people we already know.” Next year, the cafeteria will prepare food from the vacated Blanco’s building. “They are renovating the Blanco’s kitchen because it is too small,” Walker said. “Most of the equipment from [this cafeteria] will be put in that facility, but it will probably not be finished until this summer because we have to get city permits and go through the health department.” In the meantime, students will have to cope without cafeteria favorites. “I’m definitely going to miss the spaghetti days and the garlic bread,” freshman Arisa Sadeghpour said. Faculty members will also mourn the loss of the cafeteria. “I will miss the fried catfish and Miss Vicky’s yellow cake,” science teacher Doug Elliott said. “But the new cafeteria will make it all worthwhile.” Though Walker cherishes her time in the current cafeteria, she is looking forward to the new construction. “I have great memories here, but I’m very excited because the kitchen certainly needs to be updated,” Walker said. “Though change is hard, it is worth it when you see the pictures and the vision of the new facility. We will all struggle a little bit, but we will do our best to make the best of the school year.”
Online this Month Music Chapel footage, Olympics viewing guide, Love Chapel and AAAG Assembly coverage
JAKE NYQUIST
Fashion for a cause Senior Sloane Gustafson adjusts one of her designs on senior model Kristen Willson. After designing outfits for various charity fashion shows, Gustafson plans to showcase her work in March to benefit SEARCH’s House of Tiny Treasures.
From concerts to catwalks: Students fundraise for charities Individuals embrace talents to organize events supporting those in need by Megan Shen
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Hurricane Sandy fundraiser was another exception to the policy. For Moorhead, fundraising means more than a simple act of kindness. She personally witnessed the plight of Zambian orphans after visiting the country for the first time in the summer of 2011. “The kids’ desire to learn and thirst for knowledge really impressed me,” Moorhead said. “It’s just an amazing contrast to here, where many students complain about going to school.”
hen freshman Abigail Moorhead sang along with laughing orphans in Zambia two years ago, she never expected to end up using those same musical talents to raise over $100,000 towards the orphans’ education. While SJS policy does not allow students to solicit donations with the official sponsorship of the school, Moorhead is one of many students who devote their time outside of school to supporting charities financially. According to Upper School Community Service Coordinator Marci Bahr, the school’s policy protects the “I want my clothes to have a community service program from greater message and a greater spending all its time on fundraisers. purpose than just myself.” “It’s the difference between philanthropy and service,” she said. Sloane Gustafson “My function is to find sweat equity projects for our kids to use their time and talents to truly serve the community.” Upon her return to America, Moorhead The no-fundraising rule is not rigid. was inspired to help fund the education The Headmaster grants permission for of the children she had met. Working fundraisers about once every other year. with the members and director of her “Sometimes the only thing we can do local theater group, Wildfish Theatre, for an organization is to give it money. she organized Voices for Zambia 1. The For example, during a disaster overseas, concert, which featured Moorhead and we can’t make clothes or cook food to her friends as singers and actors, raised send over because it wouldn’t be efficient,” over $20,000 through ticket sales and Bahr said. donations. To garner funds for the 2004 tsunami “The money allows the kids to get food in Indonesia, students organized sevdrops and receive a private education, eral events, including a talent show, a which is extremely rare in Zambia,” bake sale and performances. Last year’s Moorhead said. “The American that
NEWS...............................................2 FEATURES........................................4 ENTERTAINMENT.............................7
BEYOND...........................................9 IN FOCUS.............................................10 OPINIONS.......................................13
sponsors a child can also go to the country to meet the child and their family.” Moorhead also continued to volunteer at Camp LIFE, a program sponsored by Family Legacy Missions International, for two summers and traveled to Zambia again this winter break. “I loved being able to interact with the kids from year to year and see how they’ve grown,” Moorhead said. After the success of the first concert, Voices for Zambia became an annual event. Four concerts, all held at both Wildfish Theatre and Ecclesia Church, have funded sponsorships for over 70 orphans and a new house for a children’s village. After designing for numerous charity runways, including her own show in 2012 that raised over $50,000 for victims of domestic abuse, senior Sloane Gustafson will use her passion for fashion design to benefit SEARCH’s House of Tiny Treasures this year. SEARCH is a local homeless services center. “I want my clothes to have a greater message and a greater purpose than just myself,” she said. Gustafson was inspired to help SEARCH after studying how art techniques can help children cope with their emotions for her Independent Study Project last year. Every month, she taught three hour-long art lessons at the House of Tiny Treasures, a preschool program that houses around 30 homeless children. Continued on Page 6
SPORTS.........................................16 ODDS & ENDS.......................................18 PHOTOSTORY................................20
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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NEWS
In Brief News around campus Chapel Unites Community All-School Chapel brought the K-12 community together in Liu Court, Feb. 6. Musical groups from all divisions performed “Stand Together,” composed by Jim Papoulis. “The logistics of the performance are very difficult,“ senior Daniel Bland said. “But when it does come together, I think it’s a pretty special experience.” Headmaster Mark Desjardins encouraged students to try new activities during his speech. “All-School Chapel is one of the few events we have at SJS that unites all three divisions,” senior Zack Lee said. “The house system really helps build a sense of community within the Upper, Middle and Lower Schools.” This is the third year that the school has implemented a separate All-School Convocation and All-School Chapel. While Convocation briefly kicks off the new year, Chapel follows a traditional chapel schedule, with hymns, prayer and readings.
Freshmen Celebrate V-Day Lori Gobillot and Sue Worscheh, cochairs of the Class Nine Valentine’s Dance Committee, organized the annual all-freshman party, Feb. 8. The dance was one of the last major events to be held in the cafeteria before its demolition. “It was fun. Definitely less crazy on the dance floor than homecoming, which was a big plus,” freshman Matthew Fastow said. “I thought the setup was pretty nice, and I had a good time with my friends.”
Scholastic Honors Awarded Upper School students collected a total of 78 accolades, including 28 Gold Keys, 25 Silver Keys and 25 Honorable Mentions in the Harris County Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Gold and Silver Key honorees have the opportunity to attend awards ceremonies next week, and Gold Key works will
respective Canadian committees, and senior Daniel Jellins earned the same accolade for his role on the International Court of Justice representing China. Junior Meghna Dara won Best Position Paper, and junior Hannah Tyler along with senior Xavier Gonzalez won Best Delegate for representing China. Model UN sponsor Wendall Zartman said, “I think that whatever country we get is cool because every country is interesting for different reasons.”
I-Club Celebrates China
JAKE NYQUIST
In unison Junior Dara Ladjevardian, senior Jake Peacock and others warm up prior to their performance of Jim Papoulis’ “Stand Together” at All-School Chapel.
progress to the national level for judging. National medalists will be announced March 17. Senior Francesca Ervin earned a Gold Key for her writing portfolio. Ervin said, “Every piece in my portfolio was created during [English teacher Rachel] Weissenstein’s creative writing class, so I owe a big thank you to not only her but the people in the fiction group for helping me clean up my work and get it ready to submit to Scholastic.”
US Head Selected SJS ushered in a new era of change with the appointment of Hollis Amley as the new Head of Upper School. Amley is currently the Assistant Head of Academics at St. David’s School in Raleigh, N.C. Headmaster Mark Desjardins began the search process last spring after the departure of former Head of Upper School Kef Wilson for the Savannah Country Day School in Savannah, Ga. Current Interim Head of Upper School Ann Louise Hagerty was a member of the
search committee which consisted of representatives from each department and was chaired by Head of Lower School Chris Curran and Upper School counselor Pat Reynolds. Hagerty said, “I was impressed with her humanity, her understanding of our school mission, and her comfort with change and progress.”
Model UN Debates Sixty SJS students participated in the Houston Area Model United Nations Conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center with about 800 other students, eager to debate issues that the real UN faces. “It was really a learning experience,” junior Andrew Saucer said. “I think I enjoyed it more this year than I have in years past.” SJS students represented eight countries: Belarus, Benin, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, Lesotho, Qatar and Zambia. Juniors Gabe Bennet-Brandt and McKenna Gessner were awarded Honorable Mention for Best Delegate for their
International Club hosted a two-day Chinese New Year event as part of its annual tradition of highlighting a foreign country’s culture and history. The celebrations began with the International Club Assembly, Jan. 30, which featured junior Katherine Wu’s guzheng (a Chinese stringed instrument) performance as well as a traditional Mongolian dance. Senior Ryan Friedman spoke about his experience in Beijing last year with School Year Abroad. Festivities continued the following day as International Club ushered in the Year of the Horse with activities and food at lunch. International Club co-chairs Meghna Dara and Jennifer Melcher invited lion dancers to perform in the Mini Quad during lunch, and students modeled traditional Chinese garb in a fashion show. “The Lion Dance was the highlight of the lunch,” Dara said. “With the fire-breathing Lions, my Snapchat was filled with cool videos.”
Official SAC News Your generous student government is planning the greatest Field Day yet. It will include all grades from kindergarten to 12th grade. We are also creating a completely original activity: a house system-based scavenger hunt. Prepare for a second semester of fun. by Prefect Nikolai Hood
Compiled by Pallavi Krishnarao, Amy Liu, Gabe Malek, Megan Routbort and Matthew Steiner
Faces in the Cloisters
Get to know your classmates better Harry Kagan
Amy Dong
Stacie Dudley
While many students struggle to fit their classwork into a single 24-hour day, freshman Harry Kagan somehow finds time to write two novels and a philosophical treatise into his schedule. The treatise is “an essay on separating non-absolute from absolute concepts,” Kagan said. “It deals with how different types of people view society.” Kagan started a novel for his Independent Study Project in middle school and has another in the works. “I like setting my novels in the future,” Kagan said. “I can do whatever I want to the future.” His novels are a frequent topic of conversation in study hall with his proctor, Latin teacher Mindy Wolfrom. “I’m glad Harry’s figuring all his ideas out so early,” Wolfrom said. “The great philosophers, Descartes, John Stuart Mill, they all started in their 20s. Harry’s getting a head start.”
Though many have seen sophomore Amy Dong perform on stage, few know that she chose dance over competitive table tennis. Dong began playing at the Chinese Civic Center in elementary school but quit before high school to focus on dancing. “I love dancing because I can forget about school and stress and just focus on jamming out to music with some amazing friends,” Dong said. Dong has been dancing since she was three. “At first I cried every single time I had to go dance because I was scared of making mistakes in front of the other kids,” Dong said. Dong placed first at regionals and third at nationals for Dance Showcase USA and won a platinum award at the second International Dance Championship in Hong Kong two years ago.
You can find senior Stacie Dudley scouring the web and Cactus Records for new music to add to her record collection. “I have a lot of classics like the Beatles, Cat Stevens, Velvet Underground — things like that,” Dudley said. “I like the way vinyl forces you to listen to a full album. It brings a kind of formality to listening to music.” Her music collection is more than a hobby. Dudley has been the president of the Indie Music Club since her junior year. Founded by Meryl Gibbs (’12), the club provides a platform for students to broaden their musical horizons. Beyond her record collection and music appreciation endeavors, Dudley participates in Tibetan Buddhist meditation, takes online courses and looks forward to attending concerts and festivals at various Houston venues.
Compiled by Irene Vazquez and Eugenia Kakadiaris Photos by Jared Margolis and Jake Nyquist
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
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NEWS SNAPSHOT
Masterminds Award presented to Benitez for photos impacting Houston arts community Photography teacher reflects on power of visuals to effect change by Irene Vazquez
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huy Benitez’s work depicts reality. “With photography, you give visual proof to the existence of events and situations,” the photography teacher said. “When you present that proof to the right kind of political and governmental powers, you can show that poverty exists, that trash exists, that discrimination exists and that change needs to occur.” Benitez was featured on the cover of the Houston Press Magazine’s January 2014 issue for winning the Masterminds Award. The award is presented to people and organizations that have made an impact in the Houston arts community. Presentations at the Jan. 25 ceremony showcased the works of various winners. Choreographer Jhon R. Stronks and The Apollo Chamber Players, a string quartet, also received the award. Benitez grew up in El Paso, and became interested in photography during high school when a friend came back from a party with pictures documenting the night. “I was at the same party but I had no proof that I was there,” Benitez said. “That was when I realized the tangible quality of photographs. After that point, I bought my first cheap camera and started taking pictures of different events and friends.” Benitez is currently a member of the Society for Photographic Education and a board member of the Houston Center for Photography. “I knew that I wanted to be a photogra-
pher once I realized what I wanted to say, to communicate artistically,” Benitez said. “After I realized I wanted to communicate where I came from, my Latino culture, I started doing research and drawing inspiration from other Latino photographers.” Benitez is known for the panoramic style of his photography. “It’s a nod to mural painting,” Benitez said. “After the Mexican revolution, murals became a huge part of representing the past, present, and future of Mexican culture. I wanted to challenge myself to display the same kind of elaborate detail in my photography.” After graduating from Notre Dame in 2005 and earning an MFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston in 2008, Benitez began teaching photography at SJS. “Mr. Benitez’s works are perfectly executed,” junior Collins Yeates said. “He works hard and is very dedicated and deserving of this award.” Benitez was previously named Best Photographer in the Houston Press Best Of awards in 2011. He is focusing a new project on the Houston cycling community. “I became an avid cyclist in 2009. As I’ve become more involved, I’ve started paying more attention to the media coverage,” Benitez said. “Whether you think it’s bad or good, the cycling community is growing. I’m catching it right at the cusp of a lot of change that will affect how people are going to think about bicycling in the city of Houston.” The number of people commuting on bicycle has increased by 62 percent between 2005 and 2010. He hopes to document this shift in his new project. For Benitez, receiving a Mastermind
CLAIRE DORFMAN
Double exposure Photography teacher Chuy Benitez was recognized by the Houston Press as both a recent Mastermind Award recipient as well as Best Photographer in their 2011 Best Of awards. He currently focuses on the Houston cycling community.
Award is the culmination of years of dedication. “I am proud to have such a talented and active artist as a friend and colleague,” art teacher Dan Havel said. “As a teacher who still practices his own artwork, I think one
of the most valuable things we can teach aspiring art students is that you never stop making art. It just gets better. In Mr. Benitez’s work, his successes reflect the many years of time, thought, reflection and action with the camera.”
MOOD FOR THOUGHT
Educational consultant promotes discussion, awareness by Michael VerMeulen
The thought-provoking question reverberated around the auditorium. “Who are you?” “Who are you?” “Who are you?” This deceptively simple activity was one of several used by guest speaker Derrick Gay to open dialogue on identity and stereotypes during his assembly, Jan. 29. “The intended goal of this exercise is to provide participants with a deeper understanding of the numerous ways in which we perceive our place in the world and construct meaning by regarding who we are,” Gay said. “Another goal is to recognize the ways that these identities inform how we construct meaning about ourselves and others.” Gay, an educational consultant who travels across the country, presents on a variety of issues and topics. “He works with school leadership teams to create ongoing programs in the schools, to assess any school climate issues or to give workshops” Upper School English teacher Angela Flowers said. “He and the school worked together to map out a plan.” Gay first heard of SJS through his relationship with Flowers. “Derrick Gay and I attended graduate school together at Teachers College at Columbia University,” Flowers said. “Der-
rick was a brilliant student, and I have the utmost respect for him. I am a sucker for an excellent writer, and his papers were exceptional. We got into the habit of reading one another’s essays in preparation for class meetings and exams.” Gay began his official relationship with SJS when he met former Head of Upper School Kef Wilson at the NAIS People of Color Conference in 2011. Gay has also worked with several other independent schools. Flowers said, “Many independent school administrators around the country know one another from past jobs, conferences, and administrator meetings, so that is how Derrick began planning with SJS.” In Gay’s initial visit to SJS in the fall, he made a significant impression on the administration at SJS. “He had a workshop with the teachers in September,” an administrator said. “It was a very interactive experience, and he definitely succeeded in raising our consciousness on the variety of issues that he covered with us.” Gay is well-versed in a multitude of topics that involve acceptance and community. “I cover a vast range of topics from the power of language, micro-aggressions, unconscious bias to issues on identity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, learning differences,” Gay said. “Additionally, I also incorporate my background in music into
MEREDITH LLOYD
Who are you? Educational consultant Derrick Gay spoke to students about identity and awareness, Jan. 29. His visit to the school last spring helped to shape his presentation.
my consultancies by performing opera workshops and concerts at schools. Independent of the topic, my goals are usually consistent: heighten awareness, educate, deepen perspectives, raise consciousness and encourage people to become change agents.” Gay does not cover the same material for every place that he visits. “Every workshop and assembly is customized based on the needs of the school,” Gay said. “To be sure, there are a number of factors that I consider: region, demographic, and age group to name a few. My SJS presentation was informed by a
visit last spring where I met with parents, faculty and students.” Listeners cite Gay’s interactive and thought-provoking oratory style as distinguishing him from others in his field. “He makes you look inward at yourself to see what you believe in and the type of person that you are,” an administrator said. “He teaches on an incredibly personal level. Instead of trying to make people follow certain rules, Mr. Gay makes you examine your own thinking. What you are thinking about when you encounter someone different from you is also greatly examined, so he really gets his message across.”
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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FEATURES MAN’S BEST FRIEND
Teachers assist animal rescue programs Math department faculty donate time to care for neglected animals in society, provide loving homes by Gabe Malek
For some teachers, the term “teacher’s pet” means something much more than an eager student. Teachers are active participants in local and national animal rescue programs Friends for Life, Pets Are Wonderful Support and the Humane Society. Math teacher Bobbie Oldfield has helped countless animals throughout her 18 years supporting the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, and by providing a home for abused and abandoned Houston animals. “I first started donating to Best Friends in 1996,” Oldfield said. “Since 2008, [librarian Marilyn] Sharp and I have been traveling there during the summer. We will be there this year. I’ll primarily work with the dogs, and she will work with the cats.” Oldfield mainly cares for old, sick dogs, both at her house and at Best Friends. “I have two that are epileptic, four that are 17 years old, two that are blind, and one that has no teeth,” Oldfield said. “I have lost many dogs over the years, and it breaks my heart every time.” Math teacher Douglas Sharp, on the other hand, primarily takes care of cats. He and his wife currently care for seven rescue cats and two rescue dogs. “I actually had never owned a cat until I met my wife,” Dr. Sharp said. “Now, I’ve found that I don’t go looking for them,
they come to me, and for them my house provides refuge.” Dr. Sharp says that animals have helped him more than he has helped them. “When you know that an animal loves you and trusts you, that’s as valuable as anything else in the world,” Dr. Sharp said. “Most of us want to be in a position of giving love, and you don’t have to worry about any protocols with an animal, you simply tell them you love them without worrying about any judgment.” Oldfield also views animals as a necessary part of her well-being. “When you are with an animal, you can forget about all of your problems and just focus on the critter,” Oldfield said. “In several ways we need them as much as they need us.” Oldfield and Dr. Sharp also agree that society does not treat animals adequately. “Gandhi once said that ‘the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated,’ and we don’t treat ours very well, which says a great deal about our morals,” Oldfield said. “When Best Friends hosted the Strut Your Mutt event here in Houston, I remember that not a single piece of trash was left on the ground after it had finished. Animal lovers are a different breed.” Dr. Sharp believes that society has the resources available to better the treatment of animals. “Here, we are rich enough to where we
COURTESY PHOTO
Puppy love While volunteering at the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah, math teacher Bobbie Oldfield cared for Annie (left), a sixteen-year-old Katrina survivor and Swedde (right), a 10-year-old epileptic dog. The Sharps have also adopted animals in need.
ought to spend the time and money to fix this problem,” Dr. Sharp said. “It’s easy for people to buy cute pets during the Christmas season, but people don’t take care of them. Over time the cuteness wears off, and the people become disinterested.” Dr. Sharp encourages others to help if they are aware of animal cruelty.
“If you see something that is terribly wrong, don’t just walk away,” Dr. Sharp said. “Make sure that the animal gets some kind of attention. If you can intervene, do it. If you don’t feel comfortable, there are people who you can call that can take care of the situation.”
Behind the Scenes Valentine’s Flower Sales
JAKE NYQUIST
Roses are red Students crowded the cafeteria during lunch, Feb. 5-7, in order to purchase flowers for and send messages to their friends and sweethearts. SAC will deliver over 1,000 flowers to advisories on Feb. 13, and the revenue generated by the sales will fund events such as Homecoming, Field Day and the freshman Valentine’s Day Dance. by Amy Liu
As intense floral aromas drift about the campus, students will know with a whiff that Valentine’s Day spirit has taken the campus by storm. Students showed that love is in the air by buying carnations and roses for friends or sweethearts during lunch, Feb. 5 to 7. All Student Affairs Council (SAC) members contribute in the organization, flower sales, assortment and delivery for this annual tradition. To sell the flowers, SAC set up a table in the cafeteria with two types of paper slips: white for carnations and pink for roses. “A rose is more serious, and it means ‘I really like you,’” prefect Jeffrey Fastow said. “Carnations are just a friendly gesture.” Students must write down the recipient’s name and advisory and are welcome to add other personal notes. To prevent unkind messages from unknown senders, anonymous flowers are discouraged.
“SAC has to read through all the comments,” SAC advisor Barbara DiPaolo said. “If there’s anything rude, obscene or inappropriate, we won’t send the flower.” Last year, SAC sold over one thousand carnations and roses and ran out of cards within the first ten minutes of selling. “I know people who buy only two or three for their closest friends, and some who buy at least 15,” sophomore Amy Dong said. Some students may even purchase 20 flowers or more. “A few years ago, there was actually a boy who bought 100 roses for a girl,” Fastow said. Students are charged $2 per rose and $1 per carnation, which SAC bills to their accounts once the slips are returned. “The revenue raised for SAC is in turn used to sponsor events such as Homecoming, Field Day and the freshman Valentine’s Day dance,” Fastow said. SAC picks up the flowers from Costco
the day before distribution to ensure that fresh flowers greet true lucky recipients. “We try our best to keep the flowers from dying or withering,” Fastow said. Representatives then spend two to three hours tying cards to flowers with pink ribbon and sorting flowers out by advisories. Since Valentine’s Day falls on the same day as SPC this year, distribution is scheduled for Thurs., Feb. 13. SAC will stay after school on Wednesday to sort and store the flowers in coolers of iced water. “Roses have so many thorns,” Dong said “I got poked numerous times when tying on the ribbons.” Despite the occasional injuries, sorting flowers still has its positive moments. “It was still fun because we had lots of conversation and got to play loud music,” Dong said. Some students are concerned with the exclusion that may result from the flowers. “I think that the idea of roses is pretty cool but kind of a Hollywood cliché,”
freshman Sophie Li said. “It’s also kind of thoughtless to assume that everyone will get flowers.” Romantic connection or not, students anticipate the opportunity to spread joy to their classmates. “For many busy high schoolers who aren’t in relationships, Valentine’s Day may just blow by without any celebration,” junior class president Akshay Jaggi said. “Giving flowers allows anyone to enjoy the loving spirit of the holiday.”
FLOWER REVENUE Roses (921 @ $2).................$1,842 + Carnations (743 @ $1)...........$743 TOTAL
$2,585
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
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FEATURES PLAID IS THE NEW BLACK
Uniform trends evolve with changing times by Rebecca Chen and Pallavi Krishnarao
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hether hated for discomfort or cherished for ease, uniforms remain an integral part of students’ daily lives, both past and present. FIGHTING RESTRICTIONS
Since the 1950s, girls have worn collared blouses under jumpers or a white blouse with the same plaid and red skirts as today. Only starting at the turn of the century have girls been allowed to wear pants and shorts. The issue of skirt length has persisted for generations. “I recall measuring sticks being brought out at one period as ‘good taste’ boundaries were tested,” Elsa Morse (’73) said. Hemming skirts was a common phenomenon in the ’90s. “The plaid skirts were cooler to wear than the red skirts or the jumpers, and they were hemmed way above the knee. Red skirts and red jumpers were also hemmed very short,” Leslie Harris (’91) said. “A few months ago I was driving down West Alabama and saw a bunch of SJS girls with tooshort plaid skirts, so I guess that not much has changed.” Boys faced different uniform issues, predominantly concerning hair and earrings. “One of my classmates grew his hair out but was forced to cut it to keep it above shoulder length,” Daniel Ringold (’93) said. “The school also prohibited boys from wearing an earring— boys piercing their left ear was popular for a short period of time. That rule led to several boys walking around school with a band-aid over their left earlobe.” CHANGING WITH THE TIMES
Until the late 1970s, boys were required to wear short- or long-sleeved button-down collared shirts with ties. On the last day of the third quarter, Tie Day occurred as boys shed their ties and ceremoniously threw them into a tie tree in the Quad. “Tie Day was a big deal when I was little,” Morse said. By 1973, boys only had to wear ties during the second and third quarters of school, rather than having to endure them through the hot summer months. “Fake black ties were the thing,” Coach Richie Mercado (’79) said. “There were extras at the Mothers’ Desk for those who forgot.” Until 1991, honor roll students had a slightly different dress code option from the rest of the students. The 1967 student handbook stated that boys “on the scholastic honor roll for a year may wear the honor tie the following year” and “may wear the honor jumper under similar conditions.” In addition, anyone who lettered in a varsity sport could wear their letter sweater.
Model students Fashion designer Bach Mai (’07) imagines a redesign of the girls’ uniform.
“Back then, not many people were on the honor roll. There were about 25 kids in the entire Upper School,” English and math teacher Dwight Raulston (’71) said. “When more people started to be on the honor roll than not, the distinguishing clothing was abolished— it became a way to identify those who weren’t on the honor roll rather than those who were.” By the 1980s, the uniform regulations had relaxed, allowing girls and boys to wear polo shirts rather than the traditional oxfords. Students were free to choose outerwear, socks and jewelry. “As I recall it, the uniforms were very basic, with fewer choices. That said, we could meet the requirements with different styles,” David Wallace (’82) said. “Besides that, we wore khaki or dark grey pants with white knit shirts or white or blue oxford shirts. We could buy SJS outerwear for cold weather, but we could pretty much wear any sweaters or coats without increased scrutiny.” In the mid-1980s, SJS banned logos on clothing. “Another focus that arose as the school began to diversify its student body (in the late ’70s) was discouraging status symbols,” Wallace said. “That manifested itself in prohibiting expensive logos. Students and parents didn’t much like that rule. There was even discussion of whether or not students should be allowed to use Cross pens.” “There was a big issue about people wearing logo shirts like Polo or Brooks Brothers, so they enforced a rule that no logos on shirts were allowed,” Jim Perdue, who attended SJS in 1985, said. Students used creative methods to abide by the new logo restrictions. “Banning logos led to some silly results, with students putting a piece of masking tape over the logo on their shirt to stay out of trouble,” Ringold said. “It was also popular to wear a t-shirt under an oxford shirt, but SJS implemented a rule that any print on the t-shirt couldn’t be visible through the oxford.” SUPPLYING UNIFORMS
SJS initially did not have an official uniform provider. Students could purchase plain oxfords and khakis from JCPenney, Foley’s, Palais Royal and other department stores. “There were no uniform stores, but I recall you were restricted to Palais Royal or some other place that made only unbranded, plain dress long-sleeved dress shirts,” Verdue said. SJS began its partnership with Sue Mills
COURTESY PHOTOS
School chic French teacher Shelley Stein (’88; left) remembers wearing the powder blue jumper associated with honor roll. The honor roll uniform option was abolished in 1991.
in 1991 and only allowed the company’s clothing to be worn after 1992. Before that, the official uniform supplier was Parker Uniform. However, wearing clothing from the official provider was a less stringent rule than it is today. Ringold said, “Parker Uniform clothes felt only slightly better than large grit sandpaper, but almost no one wore them. The few classmates who did wear them are still known today as being one who wore ‘Parker pants.’” MAINTAINING INDIVIDUALISM
Despite the ubiquitous uniforms, students still managed to express themselves while abiding by the rules. Harris said, “The cool thing for girls at the time was to wear their dad’s or older brother’s white button-down oxford or formal shirt, somewhat wrinkled after being just thrown in the wash.” Girls frequently tucked in shirts loosely, leaving the shirt puffy at the waist, or they knotted the shirt-tail of button-downs at the midriff. Even little aspects of an outfit could bring out a student’s personality. “People definitely got creative with socks and shoes,” Aly Lyman (’02) said. “There was the middle school phase where socks had to be pulled up as high as possible, followed by a switch to ankle socks in high school.”
Most members of the community regard the uniform as an integral part of the school. “You were expected to dress respectfully and care about your appearance and about representing the school well,” Wallace said. “Some students groused about that, but both parents and students generally agreed that part was reasonable.” Morse’s brother, Coach Stobie Whitmore (’68), was a lifer at SJS. “The uniform was very important to our headmaster as it helped break down monetary status issues,” Whitmore said. “In general, the poorest girl looked the same as the richest. Our uniform is not a punishment and should be worn with pride and dignity.” In fact, the uniform’s legacy extends beyond the Storied Cloisters. “I still find myself having two ‘go to’ outfits each season and preferring extra minutes of sleep to wardrobe selection,” Morse said. “And I’m still quite particular about what socks I wear.”
LEAVING A LEGACY
The SJS uniform, in all its variations, has impacted students. “While wearing my SJS uniform, I was recognized as an SJS student in the community — a point of pride,” Morse said. “I appreciate the identification that the school seeks to maintain a distinctive, clearly identified character, the simplicity and the equality that the uniform represents.”
BACH MAI
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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FEATURES MOB MENTALITY
Viewers weigh moral dilemma of online piracy Convenience overrides legality in quest for online entertainment by Brooke Kushwaha
Streaming a TV show or movie illegally takes minutes, but serving a sentence for Internet piracy lasts up to five years. Illegal online streaming makes hit shows and movies more accessible than ever before, perfect for procrastination, but the practice is also against the law. “It’s very convenient,” sophomore Amy Dong said. “You can watch it at any time on your own, and you can pause and rewind the movie at any time or rewatch the scenes that you really liked. Plus there’s an unlimited selection of shows or movies to watch, unlike on Netflix.” The main argument for watching illegal TV is that it is efficient and free. A person can access any TV show or movie and stream it on demand, with extensions such as ad-block and antivirus software further improving their online viewing experience. “Not everything that I like to watch is always on TV,” freshman Jada Johnson said. “Illegal TV is always there, so I just watch that. I don’t even think about it. They want you to watch the show, so why not?” Illegal TV watching is certainly the most passive form of breaking the law. Most anti-piracy organizations target big-ticket illegal uploaders and vendors rather than the viewers themselves. Internet piracy is not a victimless crime though, especially when the victims are independent artists and musicians losing a major chunk of their revenue. “I had no idea it was illegal, but when I figured out it was illegal, it made me stop and think about it like, ‘Wow, I’m actually breaking the law,’” Dong said. “If it’s such a small deal that I didn’t even know it was
ANDREI OSYPOV
illegal, then I thought that no one really cared to enforce it.” When pirating a blockbuster movie, the real victim is not the filmmaker, but the corporation that owns the legal rights to the distribution of that film. The two most illegally downloaded movies of all-time, “Avatar” and “The Dark Knight,” are also two of the highest grossing films to date. TV shows are a little more complicated, because they rely far more on ratings and regular viewership. “Old shows are really hard to find, and it’s really expensive to get the seasons. It’s impossible to find it legally, so I have to find it illegally,” sophomore Isabelle Draper said. “Especially when I was obsessed with ‘Downton Abbey,’ and it wasn’t available in the US, I would try to go on to different websites to find it online. It was already available elsewhere but not here.” Some insist that if networks did not delay the American release, they would get
more profit and viewership. Instead, illegal websites serve as the outlet for viewers who do not want to wait. An example of delayed release hurting viewership is the return of “Sherlock.” Starting Jan. 1, the first episode was broadcast throughout the United Kingdom, causing a frenzy of analysis and spoilers for any individual not in the UK. Hundreds of independent livestreams connected viewers from around the world. These illicit livestreams allowed foreigners join in on the program without being a step behind. “I watch it because it’s easier, and you don’t have to pay for it. Why would you not watch it?” sophomore Kyle Zhu said. Ultimately, illegal streams expanded the popularity of “Sherlock” and other shows from across the pond. Especially in a detective show, it is never good to be the one in the dark. “If it’s on the internet but you’re paying for it somewhere else, you’re doing
something wrong,” sophomore Haroon Alli said. As long as this free-for-all attitude pervades, TV and movie distributors themselves may be the ones thinking twice, rather than the pirates.
TOP PIRATED TV SHOWS 1. Game of Thrones (5.9 million*) 2. Breaking Bad (4.2M) 3. The Walking Dead (3.6M) 4. The Big Bang Theory (3.4M) 5. Dexter (3.1M) 6. How I Met Your Mother (3 M) *Downloads according to TorrentFreak
Students collaborate to collect donations for nonprofits Continued from Front Page “It was interesting to see the impact of making art on the kids,” she said. “There’s something very empowering about putting their names on their art because they really don’t have much to call their own.” Gustafson is collaborating with nine designers to plan the show “Home Sweet Home,” scheduled for March 1. In addition to senior co-chair Claire Dorfman, several other students are involved with either planning or modeling. The proceeds will be used to construct an additional
building for the House of Tiny Treasures program. “I have a much more personal connection with this charity because I’ve really gotten to know the kids and their stories,” Gustafson said. Junior Patrick Kowalski and sophomore Hunter Kowalski’s fundraiser stems from a passion to help other children. The brothers started the non-profit organization Kids 4 Kids with their friends Sam and Isaac Goldstone in 2010. “My mother is an anesthesiologist, so since we’ve been around cancer we decided
it’d be best to work with those victims,” Patrick said. “Because we’re students ourselves, we decided to help kids afford college through grants.” Kids 4 Kids has awarded over $10,000 in scholarships to child cancer survivors through a variety of fundraising events, including pumpkin carving, a lacrosse tournament and a 5K fun run held on the SJS campus. The organization’s board members regularly communicate by e-mail and Skype to plan events and review applications. “It can be emotionally wrecking some-
times because we have so many applications and can’t say yes to all of them,” Patrick said. “But it does feel satisfying to find really good cases and know that we helped them succeed.” Gustafson, Kowalski and Moorhead expect to continue their fundraising efforts, which have enjoyed growing success over the years. “We’ve oversold our last two shows,” Moorhead said. “People who didn’t even know about these children are now involved in donating, sponsoring kids and going over to Zambia.”
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
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ENTERTAINMENT MOVIE MASHUP
‘Hollywood’ ushers in changes for winter play Guest director leads two casts in adaptation of three-person show by Oliver Ruhl
“If combining two movies makes a hit, combining three would make a blockbuster!” exclaimed senior Megan Chapman as a flurry of screenplay pages fell to the stage of the black box theater. This year’s winter production, ‘‘Completely Hollywood (Abridged),” ran Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 and comically condensed 186 Hollywood movies into just over 90 minutes of skits and insanity. The play is different from previous black box shows. Written by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, known for their reductions of The Bible and the works of Shakespeare, the three-person show pokes fun at America’s obsession with the movies. Because the play features only three actors, guest director Jimmy Phillips decided to double-cast the production. While recent musicals have featured two casts, winter shows typically featured a single ensemble. Cast X included juniors Robin Granberry, Andrew Jing and Oliver Ruhl while Cast Z included sophomore Hannah Curtis, junior Gabe Bennett-Brandt and Chapman. “Double-casting was actually really helpful,” Jing said. “It’s great being able to step out for a second and see a different take on your character.” But for Phillips, double-casting did not lighten the workload. “It gives the students a lot of opportunity to learn, but it takes double the time,” he said. “We have to alternate between casts each run-through, and doing that isn’t always easy.” “Hollywood” showcased an increased technical intensity, featuring over 100 props, many costume changes and numerous sound cues. Black Box productions are usually more minimal. “When we got all the props and started using lighting and sound, it was really chaotic at first, but that’s what made the show so fun,” junior and assistant director Priyanka Jain said. With a prop list so large and specific, most props had to be bought or made. In another departure from tradition, “Hollywood” featured improvisation and
ANNA HUANG
Quick change Juniors Robin Granberry, Oliver Ruhl and Andrew Jing don different costumes throughout the play and contend with over 100 props and sound cues. Audience interaction heightened the already high energy of this year’s Black Box production.
audience interaction. Audience members were interviewed throughout the show and some were even called on stage to act as extras. “It was really neat how they broke the fourth wall and incorporated the audience into the play,” junior Martha Jamail said.
“I didn’t realize how far they would take it though. I can see why people have so much fun in plays.” Audience participation was both an unexpected twist for playgoers and an exciting change for actors. “That’s what made the show really fun
for me, the insane amount of audience interaction,” Jing said. “It was different from other shows that I’ve done in that we actually got to play with audience members each show.”
Maverick Munchies Bistro Des Amis by Iris Cronin
With its modest, homey curb-appeal and removed location, Bistro Des Amis tends to get lost in the frantic culinary din of Rice Village, where restaurants and shops often confuse trendy with good. But this quaint French eatery soars where competitors stumble. The atmosphere is cozy and intimate, feeling more like a living room than a restaurant. The bistro is actually based out of a house, complete with a screened-in porch and bookshelves stocked with French cookbooks. It’s removed from the hectic center of the Village, far enough to escape the noise and crowds but still a short walk to your car. During the day, the space is sunny and welcoming, and at night candles set the mood. This is one of the best-kept secrets
of the Village, and never feels crowded, even at high-pressure times like lunch hour and weekend nights. Service is quick and attentive. Much like the location itself, the menu at Bistro Des Amis eschews fashion in favor of reliable favorites. You can’t go wrong with the Boeuf Bourgingnon, a hearty classic, or the Osso Bucco, a tender lamb stew livened up with a mint and red wine sauce. The French onion soup is another win, beefy and topped with a melted slice of gruyere. Dessert consists of well-executed classics: a dense creme brulee, lightly sweetened with vanilla, and the always popular Nutella crepes are favorites for a reason. For unpretentious, unsullied French cuisine, look no further.
DIRECTIONS AND INFO Bistro Des Amis 2347 University Blvd. (713) 349-8441 Tuesday-Thursday 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Friday & Saturday 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Closed Sunday & Monday
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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ENTERTAINMENT DOWAGER COUNTESS APPROVES
‘Downton Abbey’ captivates unlikely fan base Period drama amasses dedicated following in youth demographic by Emily Sherron
E
ager fans awaited the sound of “I’m Laura Linney, and this is Masterpiece Classic,” signaling the arrival of season four of “Downton Abbey.” This period drama details the daily lives of the British elite in a Yorkshire county estate, dubbed Downton Abbey. Despite its origins from across the pond, the show has amassed a cult following, and even a club, at SJS. Sophomore Julia Boyce, a member of the Downton Abbey Fan Club, attributes the show’s success to the perennial American obsession with all things British. “Part of what I love is just seeing how different and complex English society was then versus now,” Boyce said. “It is interesting to see how society has both progressed and regressed.” For junior Meghna Dara, head of the Downton Abbey Club, the connection at SJS relates to the biggest commonality across the community — nerdiness. “Since we’re all pretty much self-proclaimed nerds, it makes sense that an intellectual show would appeal to us,” Dara said. The show’s incorporation of major
historical events and trends—including the sinking of the Titanic, World War I and The Roaring Twenties—allows students to bridge textbook readings with the show. The evolution of costumes from the first season’s ultra conservative gowns to the liberating drop waist twenties garb demonstrates how the show has depicted changing historical periods. “I found myself connecting the show to what I was learning in AP World History sophomore year,” Dara said. “Also, watching it while reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’ sophomore year allowed me to better understand British culture.” Both students and faculty members appreciate the show’s complexity. “It’s almost like reading an intricate novel,” Rachel Weissenstein, sponsor of Downton Abbey Club, said. “There are many parts and characters, but students are used to juggling complex plot lines.” This intriguing complexity fuels junior Martha Jamail’s obsession with the drama. “I think the show is popular because it is the first Masterpiece Classic that is based on an original story instead of literature,” Jamail said. “When you watch it, you see the amazing sets, costumes and cinematography characteristic of Masterpiece Classics, but ‘Downton Abbey’ also has a story that keeps people guessing.” For other students, the show’s maturity adds to its appeal.
“It’s not centered around sex and alcohol like most teen shows,” Dara said. “That’s what I like about it. It has substance.” Many find the show engaging because of the cultural differences between 20th-century English aristocrats and present-day America. Junior Priyanka Jain said, “Something about watching the struggles and triumphs of people whose lives are so different from mine is really interesting.
Amidst the daily routine of school, extracurricular activities and social media, “Downton Abbey” allows viewers to experience another perspective. “There is so much vying for my attention, yet the show manages to captivate me,” Weissenstein said. “It’s nice to be transported from everyday worries in examining a different world than our own.”
512.473.2775 w w w. w i n n t u t o r i n g . c o m
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
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BEYOND
TEENAGE DREAM
‘Our relationship was worth the distance’: High school sweethearts beat odds together Recent alumni couples continue relationships despite challenging transition to college environment
Courtesy Photos
Gotta be you Jade Juzswik and Fan-Hal Koung (both ’11; left) began dating their junior year and elected to pursue a long-distance relationship after graduation. Erica Reed and Ben Lee (both ’12; right) attend the University of Texas at Austin together, eliminating the difficulties faced by other couples who are separated for most of the year at different colleges. by Rebecca Chen, Lydia Liu and Pallavi Krishnarao
A
mid tossed caps, graduation gowns and congratulatory parties, one conversation point brings a bittersweet tone to the celebrations accompanying graduation: what happens to that high school relationship? Relationships are hard enough, and the added strain of being college-bound is a challenge for recent graduates. In spite of the distance that comes with attending different colleges, some couples decide to try and maintain the relationship. Even though Jade Juzswik attends Rice University, her boyfriend, Fan-Hal Koung (both ’11), is nearly 2,000 miles away at Stanford University. “When we were seniors and knew we’d probably be going to different universities, we talked about whether or not we’d like to stay together in college,” Juzswik said. “The only reason we could think of not to stay together was the distance. We knew our relationship was worth the distance.” Julia Johnson and Jack Craddock (both ’12) found themselves in a similar predicament when they ended up on opposite coasts after graduation, with Johnson at the University of Virginia and Craddock at Stanford. The couple began thinking about their future at the end of junior year. “We didn’t want to have the subject hanging over our heads our entire last year of high school,” Johnson said. “We discussed it for a while, but I don’t think either of us ever really thought we would break up. We both thought it would be worth it, so we thought we might as well try—if dating was too hard we could always be friends.”
Though senior Cameron Hull is still at right in front of us.” SJS, she also has to experience the difficulWhile couples who attend different ties of a long-distance relationship since colleges face the trials of separation, Erica her boyfriend, Logan Smith (‘13), attends Reed and Ben Lee (both ’12) attend the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. University of Texas, which makes the con“You don’t see each other every day so tinuation of their high school relationship you have to make up for all that face-toeasier. face time and communication in some “We spend much more time together way,” Hull said. [than we did in high school],” Reed said. For the high school sweethearts, this sit“In the evenings, we switch off making uation is especially challenging due to busy dinner for each other. On weekends, we schedules and time zone differences. usually go hiking.” “ObviDespite their ously, you close proximity, want to Reed and Lee talk to your have their own set “You grow to really appreciate the of obstacles. boyfriend at least “The biggest other person and make the most once a day, challenge our first of every time you’re together.” but a lot of year of college times labs was getting or class or Jade Juzswik (’11) outside of our different comfort zones,” time zones Reed said. “I get in the should have been way,” Juzswik said. “You have to watch going out with my sorority sisters more some of your friends go out on dates. Or often, but instead I would stay in and you want to go out with your friends, but hang out with Ben most nights. Now, we you also want to talk with your boyfriend. are both second-year college students, so It’s also difficult when you can’t spend things have calmed down.” Valentine’s Day or anniversaries with your Even for couples who are not on the significant other.” same campus, maintaining a relationship Johnson and Craddock have maintained from high school sometimes takes away their relationship for close to three years from the college experience. despite the miles. “Freshman year is all about making “I would say the challenge rarely comes new friends, but I spent a lot of time in from one another but just the lack of time my room talking to Fan-Hal and trying to we have to spend together,” Johnson said. adjust to being away from him,” Juzswik “Both of us want to be fully invested in said. “I broadened my social circles in our colleges, and I think that is sometimes sophomore year and made more friends, hard when we don’t get to talk all that but I wish I’d done more freshman year to often because we have so much going on get involved at college.”
Couples emphasize honesty and communication as keys to any successful relationship, especially long-distance ones. “Be open and honest with your significant other, both before you start long-distance and when you’re apart,” Juzswik said. “Talk to your significant other about your worries and troubles, but also be sure to share all your happy moments with them. No matter what you choose, don’t spend your whole senior year agonizing over it.” Johnson believes in the feasibility of a successful long-distance relationship. “I know a lot of long-distance couples in college — it’s less rare than you think. Know that it’s doable if you truly think it’s worth it,” Johnson said. “If you’re on the fence about staying together, I would say it’s going to be hard, but if you really want it to work, it easily can.” College relationships can strengthen bonds, allowing each to appreciate the other in new ways. “When a lot of your relationship is just talking to each other, you learn how to listen well and how to care about a person in a different way than you might have in high school,” Johnson said. “The distance has taught us how to be better friends to one another.” As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Time spent apart often makes moments together even sweeter. “Despite the challenges, there are also a lot of great parts,” Juzswik said. “Reunions are indescribably happy, special and memorable. You grow to really appreciate the other person and make the most of every time you’re together. We get the feeling that if our relationship can last long-distance, it can survive pretty much anything.”
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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IN FOCUS
Tree of Love: Examining the Roots Students reflect on their high school relationships and what they have learned about love Story and Reporting by Megan Routbort Additional reporting by Rebecca Chen Photo by Jake Nyquist Pictured below: Richard Appel and Margaret Trautner
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IN FOCUS
S
ometimes, it begins in a flash. Sometimes you have been friends for months. Maybe it is the way she absentmindedly flips her hair. Maybe it is the rhythm he taps out with his pencil during chemistry class. You probably cannot even pinpoint how it started. All you know is that you have been stricken by authentic, headover-heels puppy love. Maybe you are too afraid of rejection to tell her how you feel. Maybe you are scared of ruining your friendship with him. Either way, you are desperately searching for a one-way ticket straight out of the friend zone. It does not matter who you are. It happens to all of us, from the shyest freshman to the bigshot senior football captain. We fall for the one who
make us feel special, the one with whom we share inside jokes, the one we can talk to for hours. No one can predict what will happen in a relationship. Maybe you are flatout rejected. Maybe you date for a few months, only to feel the spark that was so strong, fizzle out. In the rare case, maybe you stay together throughout high school, only to be separated by college. Even more rarely, couples manage to beat the odds and bridge the distance to eventually get married. Regardless of the outcome, dating within the storied cloisters profoundly affects our time here.
STAGE ONE: THE CRUSH
Every romance has to start somewhere, but launching a relationship is often the hardest part. “Most everyone is frightened of starting a relationship, not because it is uncool at SJS but because it is scary,” freshman Matthew Fastow said. Romantic relationships can form long before friendship, which might develop over time, as was the case with juniors Danielle Golub and Alex Cherches. “Alex and I had friends who thought we’d be good for each other, so they encouraged us to hang out one-on-one,” Golub said. “We were never really friends before we started dating, but now he’s my best friend.” The opposite is also true: juniors Cameron Crain and Taylor Welch were friends long before they started dating. “We became friends in sophomore year. I had a crush on her for awhile,” Crain said. “It took me until junior year to ask her out.” However, it does not necessarily take a year of friendship to lead to a relationship. “I was shy and had low self-confidence,” Crain said. “I would tell other people who are considering dating to not wait that long.” Staying friends for too long can kill the chance for romance as your crush begins to see you platonically and relegates you to the friend zone. “If you get friendzoned or rejected, you can learn from your mistakes and come out as a better person,” junior Joe Kang said. Some shyer students only manage to express their longtime romantic interests when events like Cotillion and prom provide the opportunity. Seniors Helene Snyder and Jack Kaplan began their relationship by attending prom together. Snyder said, “We went as ‘crushes’ and then officially started dating in June.” Many other students, like junior Jack Ramzel, choose to take the plunge from friendship into establishing a relationship. “Jack and I had been going out on quasi-dates, just hanging out,” junior Elizabeth Elrod said. “One night when he came to pick me up, he handed me a box of Oreos with a note asking me to be his girlfriend; he said I could keep the Oreos if I said yes, but that he would need them back to drown his sorrows if I said no. Of course, I said yes.” STAGE TWO: THE RELATIONSHIP
Recognition of a pair as a “dating couple” begins when the two define their relationship. Very few couples within the storied cloisters choose to “make it Facebook official” and change their relation-
ship status on social media. “Putting it on Facebook doesn’t add anything to a relationship except the horrible voice in the back of your head that reminds you that if you break up, you’re publicizing it to hundreds of acquaintances,” Golub said. But word quickly spreads through school when a couple gets together. “You almost always hear from the friends of the people in question, not the actual couple,” junior Reece Wallace said. A longstanding tradition in which girls don their boyfriends’ athletic sweatshirts also publicizes a relationship. “I’ve had teachers comment when I’m wearing Alex’s sweatshirt,” Golub said. “It is basically how they found out I’m in a relationship.” Casual interactions and dates allow the couple to get to know each other romantically. “When we started dating, we casually went to places like Torchy’s Tacos to just have fun,” Snyder said. “Now we text all the time and regularly go on dates on the weekends.” The amount of time that students have to devote to school makes it more difficult for couples to spend time together. “With my being on three varsity sports, it is a struggle to make time for full dates during the school year,” junior Akshay Jaggi said. The longer a couple stays together, the more they exit the honeymoon phase, exchanging it for a serious, committed relationship. During the first few months, a relationship is more casual, with little expectation of commitment. “After the honeymoon phase ends, what you share starts to look more like a real relationship,” senior Jeffrey Fastow said. “You go through ups, downs and rough patches, but you start to really know each other.” Eventually the couple matures and reaches a new level. “Being in a relationship has matured me and grounded me,” Crain said. “It is like having an anchor.” STAGE THREE: THE BREAKUP
Since informal studies show that two percent of high school sweethearts end up getting married, it is not surprising that most couples who date end up going through a breakup. Popular breakup coping mechanisms include downing pints of Ben & Jerry’s and eradicating all traces of the ex from your life. Being at the same school makes the latter a challenge. “Breaking up in high school is undeniably awkward. You have to see your ex all the time and making conversation can be difficult,” senior Molly Vitek said. Attending school events, especially
dances, with one’s ex can feel awkward, as acknowledged by junior Sarah Hansen. “We broke up after I’d turned in my Cotillion forms,” Hansen said. “It wasn’t that bad because we kept our distance, but it was weird when both our parents took pictures.” Though it may feel heartbreaking at first, students get through breakups with time and distance. “It is terrible, but then it gets better slowly until it is fine. Going out with your friends helps,” junior Mary Harvey said. “I also watch a lot of ‘Hart of Dixie.’” Freshman Ellie Faraguna said, “During a breakup, people are comforted with the hope that the person they shared so much with can still be a part of their life, but it is easy to say and hard to do.” STAGE FOUR: THE SINGLE LIFE
The post-breakup relationship differs for each couple. Some want nothing to do with each other, while other exes can re-establish friendship, and infrequently, even get back together romantically. Despite a general acceptance of dating at SJS, many students remain single throughout high school. “We’re a bit of a nerdy school. Guys don’t think they need to have girlfriends to be popular,” junior Brandon Alston said. The single life offers perks, albeit different ones, from life in a serious relationship. “I’m really enjoying being single right now because I have more time to develop my relationship with my one true love: Harry Styles,” junior Maren Flood said. Students who choose to avoid stable, long-term relationships can be just as fulfilled as their peers in relationships. Junior Anna Cauthorn said, “I dated for a year, and while I don’t regret the experience, I believe that the single life is equally, if not more, conducive to the self-discovery that high school is all about.” TO DATE OR NOT TO DATE
So, is there a point to dating in high school? Answers are varied. “Dating is honestly a complete waste of time when you’re in high school because people aren’t mature and don’t know what they want,” junior Lee Hampton said. “Look to your future and focus on your studies. That’s my philosophy.” Five percent of students who answered a Review Online poll agreed with Hampton, saying that dating in high school is not worth the trouble. But this is the minority opinion: 67 percent indicated they would like to have a relationship. “Dating in high school is a totally arbitrary thing. It doesn’t matter and it doesn’t make that much of a difference in how you change into a different person through high school,” Golub said. “But there’s nothing wrong with it either.”
What makes SJS relationships different Every relationship is different, but similar traits in SJS relationships have arisen as a result of our environment. At a school with stringent uniform guidelines, school sweatshirts hold special significance. Often, a girl in a relationship will wear her boyfriend’s personalized outerwear. “It’s a cute and adorable way for people to declare that they’re in a relationship,” senior Daniel Bland said. The tradition alerts teachers and peers to the nature of relationships. Students also face challenges in their relationships because of the academic environment. “SJS has a weird perspective on dating. Comparing how couples act at other schools to how they act here can be like comparing life on two different planets,” Golub said. “Here, if you sit next to each other in the halls and do work together you’re
called out for PDA, even if it is totally platonic. At Lamar, my friends tell me that couples make out in front of everyone. I definitely prefer it here.” The burdens of homework, school and sports can be taxing on the amount of time that couples have to spend together, yet couples find innovative ways to spend time with each other. “A lot of our time together involves homework and studying,” Cherches said. “We try to maintain a mix of going out on actual dates and doing work together.” Almost all couples concur that school remains the biggest priority, which changes the dynamic of their relationship. “I go to my boyfriend for help with homework,” Elrod said. “Our lives revolve around school, so it plays an important role in our relationship.”
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BEYOND TECH WHIZ
Taffet participates in computing competitions
JAKE NYQUIST
Programming pro Alumnus Philip Taffet (above), works on a coding program. In November, Taffet was selected to present his research in supercomputing to judges for evaluation at SC13, a conference in Denver for industry researchers, and at the end of January he and others SJS alumns participated in HackRice, a 28-hour hackathon.
Alum continues coding pursuits as freshman at Rice University by Christian Maines
Over Thanksgiving, most college students fly home to visit family, settle into old bedrooms and reconnect with friends, but Rice freshman Philip Taffet (‘13) had a different kind of connection in mind. Last November, Taffet presented his research, “Scalable Client-Server Visualization of Callpath Traces for Large-Scale Parallel Executions” at SC13, a supercomputing conference in Denver for researchers and industry. To qualify for competition, each attendee had to design a poster illustrating the research they had done in the field of supercomputing. If selected, teams or individuals presented their posters to judges
for evaluation. Companies involved in the supercomputing industry also attended the conference to introduce new products and deliver speeches. “I worked on improving a program that allows other programmers to analyze the performance of their programs running on supercomputers,” Taffet said. “Basically the problem we were facing is that our users wanted to analyze programs running on some of the world’s biggest supercomputers, and our code wasn’t designed for that scale. I fixed it by having that big supercomputer actually help with the analysis.” Along with Rohan Ramchand, Yamin Arefeen and Brett Gutstein (all ’13), Taffet recently competed in HackRice, an annual hackathon sponsored by the university in which teams are told to design and code a piece of software in 28 hours. The competition, sponsored by companies including Google and Microsoft, began Jan. 25. “You try to take an idea that you had
beforehand, or an idea that you come up with, and implement it to build something cool,” Taffet said. One of their plans was an augmented reality game. The concept of the game is that one person’s phone will be infected to start, and other people try to avoid that person to prevent infection. The team’s other idea was a piece of software that functions like a version of eHarmony for programmers, matching them with projects that need developing. The software would draw information from the programmers’ accounts on source code repositories such as GitHub and SourceForge to determine what programming languages and development they were involved with. In the end, the team decided to create an encrypted cloud storage system that could function in a “hostile environment.” “The idea is that somebody can break into the server and steal it or secretly com-
promise it, but they still can’t decrypt any of the data,” Taffet said. Programming competitions are not new territory for Taffet. His accomplishments in these events include experience in hacking marathons such as picoCTF. Capture The Flag competitions like picoCTF consist of unscrambling and decrypting code to find a string of letters and numbers, called flags. Taffet’s team placed 28 out of around 2,000 teams in picoCTF. In his junior year, he and others placed fifth at HP CodeWars, a first-class computer programming competition hosted on Hewlett-Packard’s Houston campus. “Hackathons typically last 24 to 28 hours,” Taffet said. “I remember one where we began at 8 a.m. one Saturday morning and finished at 1 p.m. the next day. It’s really up to you whether or not you sleep. I always try to sleep at least a few hours, but you don’t have to - you only have 24 hours to work.”
Catching up with former Head Prefects Guan Chen (’13)
Samantha Heinle (’12)
Charlie Caplan (’11)
I’m currently a freshman at Harvard. I’ve yet to decide for sure on my concentration, but I’m leaning towards either molecular and cellular biology or history and science. Theatre’s been something that I’ve really gotten involved with on campus. I’m on tech for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the third oldest theatre troupe in the world, and I’m planning on taking courses in directing and scenography. Additionally, I’ve joined the kendo club and On Harvard Time, the comedy news show. It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since I was on SAC helping to plan events like Field Day and flowers on Valentine’s Day. I’m not involved with student government this year, besides voting, but I really enjoyed my time as Head Prefect last year.
I’m a sophomore at Harvard, joint-concentrating in music and literature and considering a secondary in philosophy. On campus, I sing in two choirs, teach piano and work in the rare books library. Second semester on SAC was always busy but fun. Field Day was the most time-intensive event of the semester, and we really enjoyed planning it. We were particularly excited to introduce the House System my year. My favorite event, however, was always Valentine’s Day roses. I enjoyed the SAC bonding that was inevitable as we stayed late after school sorting roses and got to school early the next day to distribute them. I also remember thinking I needed a bigger car as I stuffed twelve dozen roses, Jo Chen and Joseph Caplan, who had volunteered to help me pick up the roses from Costco, into the backseat.
Howdy, I’m a junior at Harvard where I study philosophy, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants fun, interesting classes and doesn’t want boring, paid summer internships. I’m the Graphics Editor for Satire V, a student-run comedy news website. I wrote and illustrated a children’s book, “Moleberry Makes New Friends.” You mayn’t believe it, but there was a time before I was the globetrotting philosopher with one of the top 10 self-published mole-themed children’s book to come out last November. Years ago, I was a SJS student just like you. Well, just like one of you, I was Head Prefect. I remember fondly the months we He-fects bravely stumbled our way through First Fridays, the weeks we discussed how best to stop the rampant cheating during Field Day, the day we failed to stop the rampant cheating, and so much more.
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
13
OPINIONS EDITORIAL
Clubs should wake up from winter hibernation We must admit, life on campus seems to lack activity. Maybe it’s the lingering cold weather or the fact that it has finally sunk in that we have three months left of school, but we feel a little lethargic. Clubs always start off strong. In September, the entire Upper School filled the plaza. Candy and brownies were exchanged for email addresses. Afterwards, the same complaint fills the hallways: “I signed up for too many clubs!” Club leaders eagerly email their new recruits, hosting introductory meetings and filling the calendar with activities. Unfortunately, as the year goes on, pre-planned meetings get delayed or even canceled. When the reality of responsibility and the time commitment of leading clubs begins to sink in, meetings dwindle, especially when the number of attendees fails to match the number of emails on the initial list. We are not saying that every club has experienced this post-winter slump, but a considerable few have. Part of the problem comes from our overcommitment as participants. Becoming the next Max Fischer from “Rushmore” can be tempting. It sounds feasible to run on the JV track team, pitch appeals to Junior States of America (JSA) and write the odd poem for Imagination sophomore year. But as a
JAKE NYQUIST
Club recruitment Despite the enthusiasm to join organizations during Club Fair in September, participation has dwindled and meetings have become infrequent now.
senior, captaining the varsity track team, organizing each JSA meeting as president and editing the literary magazine is a whole other beast. Pruning your extracurricular commitments doesn’t have to start when you suddenly realize you have no hours in the day to lead five clubs. Freshman year is a wonderful time to try as many different clubs as you like, to discover where your interests
lie. But after you find those true passions, make sure to stick with them. We’re not advocating that you limit yourself solely to those activities, but out of respect to club leaders and sponsors, regular attendance at three clubs is better than scattered membership in nine. As senior club leaders, we also succumb to overcommitment. Club leadership is predominantly se-
nior-centric. As academic work piles up, as musical rehearsals become more frequent, as sleep debt increases, leading clubs moves farther down on the list of priorities. This annual rite of sloth is not fair to the younger members of the club who still want to participate. Consider handing off some duties to interested underclassmen to give them a feel for a leadership role in a club. In fact, the transition of power should take place in January. Juniors will have an entire year (and even the summer) to execute their plans for the club. This takes pressure off seniors while getting the next generation of leaders involved and committed. The spring is arguably the most important time to participate in clubs. We believe that the senioritis of spring semester should not spark lethargy in clubs, but should instead rekindle the enthusiasm from the beginning of the year. At the same time, as the pressure mounts for juniors and underclassmen with the AP’s, SAT’s and final exams looming, attending club meetings will provide a welcome relief from school stress. So the next time a club email appears in your inbox, don’t immediately delete it. Remember why you signed up for the club in the first place. It was probably for more than a brownie at Club Fair.
From the editors Love is in the issue
We apologize in advance for this ostensibly girly issue. Between our centerspread on dating, the Behind the Scenes on SAC’s Valentine’s Day flowers and the Beyond feature on alumni couples, it might seem like The Review has been bitten by the lovebug. The impending appearance of chocolates and roses on campus divides the student body into advocates of spontaneous, romantic displays of affection and dedicated supporters of Singles Awareness Day. Our advice to anyone dreading the sappy romanticism of Feb. 14th: It’s not worth worrying about. Have fun if you’re in a relationship, but don’t get down on yourself if you’re not. If you’re single and still need some comfort, check out Elliot Cheung’s column and Irene Vazquez’s commentary on the next page. In the mood for a distraction from the fuss of Valentine’s Day? We direct you to Cara Maines’ editorial on the gender inequity on SAC (Page 15). We were very impressed by the articulation of her position and her passion for the topic, and we hope that you will take the time to
R
appreciate it. Besides being the month with Valentine’s Day, February is a busy time. Recently-elected SAC representatives assumed their new positions after running in mid-January. This week celebrated the closing of Winston Hall, which marks the beginning of the construction that will bring dramatic changes to the Upper School. We commend SAC for the success of the #SACScavHunt and for finding a way to engage students of all grade levels. Continuing the spirit of community, we strongly encourage students to support our athletes at Winter SPC, which marks the culmination of the winter sports season, this Friday and Saturday. And our athletes who have been practicing for hours for these few games, those Thespians in the musical, “The Robber Bridegroom,” are busy preparing for their performance, March 7-8. February might be the shortest month of the year, but once it passes, the school year is winding down. March goes by in a flash with less than two weeks of school,
and April wraps up second semester classes, signaling the impending threat of AP exams and finals in May. Time flies when you’re having fun, and we have a feeling that the rest of the year is going to fly by. Still, take the time to relax, and don’t wish away these last few months. Love,
Samantha Neal, Alyyah Malick and Lydia Liu (S + Al + Ly = Sally)
The Review · St. John’s School · 2401 Claremont, Houston, TX 77019 · review.sjs@gmail.com · 713-850-0222 blogs.sjs.org/review · Facebook SJS Review · Twitter @SJS_Review · Instagram @_thereview
Member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association-Crown Finalist 2014, Gold Medalist 2012 & 2013 · National Scholastic Press Association-6th Place Best of Show (2012), First Class 2012 & 2013 Editors-in-Chief Lydia Liu, Alyyah Malick, Samantha Neal Senior Design Editor Parker Donaldson Online Editor Amy Kang Assignment Editors Rebecca Chen, Pallavi Krishnarao, Megan Routbort Design Editors Jessica Lee, Christopher Zimmerman Photography Editor Jake Nyquist Video Editor Emma Gobillot Copy Editors Iris Cronin, Tiffany Yue Asst. Online Editor Cara Maines Online Copy Editor Oliver Ruhl Social Media Editor Srini Kumar Business Manager William Clutterbuck Asst. Business Manager Gabe Malek
Staff Suman Atluri, Jay Bhandari, Kelly Buckner, Joseph Caplan, Stefania Ciurea, Elliot Cheung, Jake Chotiner, Chloe Desjardins, Claire Dorfman, Caroline Harrell, Anna Huang, Priyanka Jain, Eugenia Kakadiaris, Brooke Kushwaha, Mikaela Juzswik, Amy Liu, Christian Maines, Inaara Malick, Jared Margolis, Katherine McFarlin, Isabelle Metz, Matthew Neal, Andrei Osypov, Kanchana Raja, Megan Shen, Emily Sherron, Benjamin Shou, Matthew Steiner, Jennifer Trieschman, Irene Vazquez, Michael VerMeulen, Virginia Waller, Max Westmark Advisers David Nathan, Shelley Stein (‘88), Steve Johnson
Mission Statement The Review aims to inform the St. John’s community, prompt discussion, and recognize achievements and struggles through our print and online presence. Publication Info The Review is published eight times a school year. We distribute 950 copies each issue, most of which are given for free to the Upper School community of 574 students and 80 faculty. Policies The Review provides a forum for student writing and opinion. The opinions and staff editorials contained herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Headmaster or the Board of Trustees of St. John’s School. Staff editorials represent the opinion of the entire
editorial board unless otherwise noted. Writers and photographers are credited with a byline. Corrections, when necessary, can be found on the editorial pages. Running an advertisement does not imply endorsement by the school. Submission Guidelines Letters to the editor and guest columnists are encouraged but are subject to editing for reasons of clarity, space, accuracy and good taste. On occasion, we will publish letters anonymously, provided the editor knows the author’s identity. The Review reserves the right not to print letters received. Either email letters and guest columns to review.sjs@gmail. com; give them to David Nathan in the Review Room (Q-210); or mail letters to The Review, 2401 Claremont, Houston, TX 77019.
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
14
OPINIONS
10
Top Ten Winter Olympic Sports
by Joseph Caplan
1. Snowboarding As much as I can’t wait to see the Jamaican bobsled tear through its course, my alltime favorite part of the Winter Olympics is watching the snowboard half pipe event, specifically Shaun White, the Flying Tomato. The tricks these boarders do make you question the laws of Physics that Ms. Bigge teaches.
2. Bobsled This might not always be number two on the list, but this year is an exception as Cool Runnings returns. Not only is it a team version of that already-awesome sport, Luge, but this year the Jaimaican squad is going to make you feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme.
3. Hockey This a great sport to follow and always leaves me wanting a team in Houston to watch after the Olympics ends. It’s like Lacrosse for people who can comfortably wear a t-shirt in 40 degree weather.
AMY LIU
COLUMN
Celebration of love evokes mixed feelings
4. Speed Skating The true Olympic Subway sponsor is not Michael Phelps, but Apolo Ohno. It’s an awesome sport to watch as skaters zoom around curves and make tactical decisions on when to pass others, especially on the last lap.
5. Freestyle Skiing This one is actually multiple events like the half-pipe, moguls and ski-ballet. Not only do these events make my knees wince as the athletes skid down a giant clump of moguls, but they also make me realize how unimpressive my skiing is.
6. Figure Skating Figure Skating is a pretty sweet event to watch. From what I’ve seen in “Blades of Glory,” it is actually a pretty dangerous sport that requires far more strength and athleticism than one might think. Here’s to a successful Iron Lotus in the Sochi Olympics.
7. Curling This is the bowling of Canada, and, like Canada, gets made fun of a lot by Americans. However, curling actually looks like a lot of fun and is pretty darn intense to watch. Also, before you go dissing curling, check out the Norwegian curling team’s pants.
8. Ski Jumping This is another one of those crazy sports that makes you happy you aren’t in the athlete’s shoes...or I guess skis. Athletes go down a long ramp until they go flying off a huge jump and somehow land without breaking every bone in their body.
9. Luge This is a one-man sledding event in which athletes go feet-first down winding tracks. Lugers often rip down the courses in speeds of over 90 miles per hour. If you’ve got a need for speed then look out for this event.
10. The Biathlon This is a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. If the skier fails to hit the targets, then extra distance or a minute is added to the skier’s total time. This event can last for hours, depending on how accurate the skiers are, so get comfy.
by Elliot Cheung
Love is what binds us together. Love is what we as human beings strive for. Love is the most beautiful, most powerful force in the universe. Wait, did I say love? I meant money. Valentine’s Day actually seems to celebrate both. Expensive chocolates, overpriced set “dinner-for-two”s, luxurious flower bouquets—all things I have neither the inclination nor the girlfriend to buy. But regardless, the pricey set pieces that the occasion entails seems to undermine the point. While it’s true that we care about what we spend money on and we spend money on what we care about, I’ve always found that when it comes to gift-giving, thoughtfulness and time, not money spent on a gift, carry far more value. I’ve spent large sums of money buying fancy gifts for friends who then give me a nice thank-you note and a smile in return. But I’ve also given a gift that
cost me five dollars, plus about 40 hours of work, that I’m proud of and will be cherished for far longer. I’m no romantic expert, but I’d imagine the same rules apply for couples. Buying a $40 bouquet, while a nice gesture, seems like a cheap (or rather, not-socheap) way of showing someone you care. The huge production made of Valentine’s every year does nothing to advance public opinion. Weeks before the actual day, romantic movies like “Endless Love” start coming out. Cutesy cards pop up in stores. The entire world becomes pink and red. The whole deal seems a little overwhelming, especially for a day that doesn’t even merit a break from school. The occasion gets overblown. And an overblown day dedicated to romantic love is not kind to those without it. But that’s just one side of me talking. The side that is as bitter as dark chocolate. The other side of me really likes Valentine’s Day. I’m a fan of cheesy—both for food and emotions. I’ve always been a sucker for corny movies and TV shows. I ashamedly enjoy romantic comedies and Disney movies more than any teenage guy should. I should probably never admit it, but sweet romantic gestures, no matter how consumerist or overblown, never fail to put a smile on my face. A day like Valentine’s that celebrates sappy romantic love, no matter how con-
sumerist, overblown, or vomit-inducing, I also find heartwarming. Valentine’s Day is the one day a year that can make people act like they do in romcoms. They get stupid and giddy, but it is also cute because it is out of love. Hearing about the adorable things my more romantically-inclined friends do may create jealousy, but it also warms my romcom-loving heart. So while I’ll probably be spending much of the day with my videogames—my true love— I’ll be able to experience the cute and sweet part of Valentine’s from other people. And I’ll still have some money left over. For anyone else who might be a little bitter at Valentine’s—I hope to God I’m not the only one—find ways to enjoy it. If you’re like me, observe and ask about the sweet things other people do. Maybe help a friend plan something nice. Or if you’re like me in a slightly worse mood, sabotage your friend’s date and laugh about it. The possibilities are endless. Being single doesn’t have to mean Valentine’s is no fun. Even if Valentine’s Day can be a little sad, it’s just one day. Let the couples enjoy their day doing corny things for each other and spending too much money. Don’t let a little lovesickness ruin a perfectly fine day, and remember that half-price chocolates go on sale on the next day.
COMMENTARY
Holiday shouldn’t just highlight romance by Irene Vazquez
What does famed American suffragette Anna Howard Shaw have in common with a 3rd-century Roman saint? Both individuals are commemorated on Valentine’s Day. Granted, romantic love is a really nice thing and should be appreciated for what it is. If I were not single, I would probably not be writing in this fashion. I am taking this Valentine’s Day to appreciate the people who have stuck with me throughout the good and bad, namely my family and friends. It must be acknowledged though that Valentine’s Day in the United States is overly romanticized. In many other countries, Valentine’s Day is used to celebrate friendships as well as romantic relationships. In Latin America, it is known as The Day of Love and Friendship. Other countries have separate celebrations for the appreciation of friends. In the
States, though parents have Mother’s and Father’s Days, we have no specific day to celebrate our friends. In its current, treacly form, Valentine’s Day isolates the vast majority (the single portion) of the SJS student population. In the happy days of my youth, my biggest concern on Valentine’s Day was deciding between Toy Story or Scooby-Doo Valentines to hand out to my classmates. The great American Valentine’s advertising industry has taught us to associate the day with romance, ignoring all people in our lives that we love in a different sense. Valentine’s Day also casts shame upon those who are single. Some people call it Single’s Awareness Day (SAD). This stigma of single-ness on Valentine’s has gotten so great that some adult singles flee to Brazil, where Valentine’s Day is overshadowed by Carnaval. In seventh grade, a couple of my friends and I organized a Secret-Santa-style exchange and bought each other gifts
on Valentine’s Day. It was a fun way to ensure that everyone was included and appreciated. In Upper School, SAC provides the opportunity to send all my friends flowers. Students and teachers are often underrated for their general efforts in life, so this Valentine’s Day is an excellent opportunity to show people that someone cares about them and flood campus with appreciative roses and carnations. Take this time to let people know that someone loves them. If it is in a romantic way, that’s fine. If it is a best friend who has tolerated every bit of you drama since kindergarten, let him or her know. There is something to love in everyone. People should not be ashamed of their plans (or lack thereof ) for Valentine’s Day. Full disclosure: if I happen to get a date between the time this article is written and the time The Review goes to press, I will abandon everyone. I wish I could feel sorry for that, but I just do not.
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
15
OPINIONS Miss-representation
Widening SAC gender divide raises questions Student government lacks female voice by Cara Maines
Listening to the speeches of the sophomores running for Student Affairs Council (SAC), I noticed that the candidates seemed pretty evenly split between girls and boys. In fact, seven of the 13 students running were girls. Yet later that week when Dean Popp announced the sophomore representatives for the spring semester, I wasn’t surprised that no girls had been elected. Over the past two years, my grade has had the opportunity to elect 12 representatives. Only one of those representatives, Amy Dong, has been a girl. If you look at SAC as a whole, you’ll notice that this isn’t just my grade. Of the 18 students currently on SAC, only four are girls (22 percent). As a point of reference, the Upper School student body is 52 percent female. Although more than half of our students are girls, less than a quarter of the governing body is female. This isn’t just a SJS problem; it’s a national issue. This past year, the number of women reached a record in the Senate, holding 20 of the 100 spots. The very fact that reaching 20 percent is a celebrated achievement showcases what is wrong with the representation of women in the United States. We’re more than half of the pop-
TIFFANY YUE
ulation, yet we have to fight for minimal representation. Having women in government matters — so that girls will grow up feeling like they have opportunities, so that women’s health and social rights will be protected, so that one day women will achieve full economic parity to men. It’s all too easy to brush these numbers aside and say that they don’t matter, that’s just the way it is. But these excuses are just that — excuses. It’s important that female students look at the SAC representatives
and actually feel represented, and it’s discouraging not to see other girls on SAC. It makes me feel like it’s hopeless to even run, a sentiment shared by others female students. The evidence is in the numbers: 75 percent of freshman candidates were girls, which dropped to 54 percent among sophomore candidates. By junior year, girls have come to realization that the odds are against them, and fewer bother to run. Only five of the 17 junior candidates were female, 29 percent. And of the current se-
niors from their prefect election last spring, only five of 22 candidates were girls, under one quarter. It’s tempting to believe that our school is gender blind or, worse, that if girls aren’t winning, they just aren’t qualified. It’s impossible not to notice gender, though. We all have preconceived notions about how girls and boys are supposed to behave. We’re a generation raised on Disney movies and Grand Theft Auto: gender is not, and has never been, irrelevant. Maybe the first step to changing this phenomenon is to encourage more girls to run for SAC; maybe it’s to ask voters to carefully evaluate each candidate and set aside their own biases and stereotypes. What I do know is that equal representation of boys and girls is important and something we should strive for as a community. According to the school’s mission statement, SJS “is dedicated to the enhancement and expansion of future leadership for Houston and the country.” Part of enhancing and expanding leadership within our own community involves offering equal opportunities for boys and girls to serve on student government. I’m not saying that students should vote for girls just because they’re girls. What I’m asking for is a student government body that fairly represents the makeup of the student body and gives girls the opportunities they deserve.
TRIAL AND PREP-ERROR
SAT preparation is as flawed as it is neccesary So many options, so few desirable choices by Iris Cronin
The tone of my SAT preparatory experience was set immediately and completely on the first day of class, which was not a class at all, but my first practice test. I pulled into the parking lot at 10 a.m. on the dot, smug and ready to prove that I could achieve standardly. I was promptly cut off — and nearly killed — by a white Lexus SUV, which turned out to belong to my classmate and seat-partner for the next two weeks. My would-be murderer and completely unqualified driver was a sweet girl, with a lot of hair and very little understanding of basic English grammar. When I went into the classroom and sat down, she tapped my shoulder. “What are we doing today?” I told her we were taking a diagnostic exam. She paled. “Oh no. I didn’t study.” Before I could assure her that that was the entire point, the proctor finished passing out tests and told us to begin the essay section. Halfway through, I realized I had basically been writing gibberish for 10 minutes. Next to me, Lexus Girl, who had yet to finish an entire paragraph, let out a soft, mewling noise of despair. My introduction to the sadism of the College Board was complete. Now, allow me to submit that no one is debating the necessity of SAT Prep classes. My own diagnostic exam, despite my overwhelming confidence, revealed that I have the test-taking skills of a sleepy koala. What my two-week cram course showed was, rather, that the system (which obviously demands some kind of test prepara-
tion) is broken. Botched. Bewildering. It is designed to make smart kids look dumb and less gifted students look positively comatose, and so this is how prep courses, like the one I took at TestMasters, approach students. One of the most basic flaws with these classes is the assumption of stupidity. As much class time is given to basic geometry and vocabulary as is given to the real tools, like reading comprehension strategies and essay techniques. Students are spoon-fed basic skills, and the feeding takes hours. Yet, in all this endless, mindless absorption of things most high school juniors already know, there is an absence of any real learning. This arises from one source: the instructors are not teachers. They are not certified, have no specialization and are so bored by the material that explanations are half-baked and absentminded. One day we were learning (I use the word begrudgingly) about distance problems, and I, bored, decided to work the entire page of problems instead of just the assigned one. When I reached the last question, the strategy we had been taught did not work. I tried again. Nope. I raised my hand and asked the instructor, a burly troll of a man who had introduced himself to us by telling the class how much he could bench, if he could do the problem on the board. “No,” he told me. “I didn’t tell you to do that one. Don’t worry about it.” I told him I knew that, but I wanted to see if I was applying the formula wrong. “I said don’t worry, you probably won’t see one like that on the actual thing.” The actual thing of which he was speaking was the SAT. The thing I was paying his employer a lot of money to prepare me for. A lot of money for this guy to skip problems out of laziness. I gave up asking
JARED MARGOLIS
A necessary evil Junior Iris Cronin thumbs through the multitude of test prep books available. Books are just one of the many overpriced, mind-numbing prep options.
and turned the page. Now, did my scores improve after two weeks with TestMasters? Absolutely. Did they improve enough to evidence the worth of 33 hours of intense prep? Probably not. I suppose I’ll find out on judgment day. Some of these flaws and offenses are unique to institutionalized prep like TestMasters or Princeton Review. Some people forgo these vendors and prepare on their own with tutors or self-prep. But some kind of preparation is required for the SAT, and all methods have their own pitfalls. Preparation is, across the board, as necessary as it is infuriating, mindless, time-consuming and expensive, all of which should be blamed not on the individual providers but on the behemoth that has created their niche in the first place. College Board has fixed the game,
monopolizing a pointless industry and creating a college application process that hinges on a single test, which in turn hinges on someone’s knowledge of how to take that particular test. That is the sum total of what I learned in SAT prep. A rough idea of how to take the SAT. Let’s hope it’s enough.
SAT PREP COMPARISONS Kaplan SAT Classroom: 18 hours, $699 TestMasters Spring Break Course: 36 hours, $749 Princeton Review SAT Fundamentals: 18 hours, $599
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
16
SPORTS GooD sport
Athletes devote year-round effort to club sports despite imposing time commitment
JAKE NYQUIST
No ‘I’ in team Club sports like swimming and soccer consume students’ time with practice and travel. Senior Austin Allday (above) trains with the Dad’s Club swim team for 18 to 20 hours per week. Senior Jack Simmons practices with her club soccer team, the Albion Hurricanes, for six hours per week and travels to tournaments as far away as Florida. by Chris Zimmerman and Iris Cronin
F
or Elena Skaribas and Austin Allday, swim practice starts at 5:45 — in the morning. Along with other members of the swim team, the junior and senior participate in club swimming outside of school. Both swim for Dad’s Club Swim Team, which practices twice a week in the morning as well as six days a week in the afternoon. “It is completely exhausting and messes with your sleep schedule,” Allday said. “Morning practice was definitely really draining. I felt like I was more awake during the mornings, but I was unbelievably tired in the afternoon.” Senior Jack Simmons has been balancing school and club soccer with the Albion Hurricanes since sixth grade. “It seemed like fun, and I liked soccer,” she said. “I played in a church league starting in fourth grade, but that was just ‘run around a field and then eat popsicles’ stuff.” Much like club swimming, soccer out-
sity and time commitment. The morning side of school is physically draining and practices for Dad’s Club swimmers last time consuming. from 5:45 to 7 a.m. on Mondays, and “I’m mentally fine for school, but by Simmons practices for nine hours a week, Friday every week I can’t walk because including travel time. In addition to the I’m tired from the combination of club hours spent at practice, she spends time and school sports,” Simmons said. “It’s playing in tourso much fun naments that though. I love vary in distance that feeling of from two to 18 soreness and “Club is the whole-hearted hours away. exhaustion at “It’s definitely the end of the dedication to the team. No hard to balance week.” excuses.” with a social Skaribas cites a similar Jack Simmons life,” Simmons said. “Last year experience with I was out of early morning town on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for swimming practices. all but two weekends of the fall semester. It “I’m definitely more tired at school,” Skaribas said. “I have to leave some assign- makes seeing your friends hard. For school ments to the next day if I don’t finish them work, I just learned to time manage really well. I’m actually way more productive because I have a set time to go to bed. It with homework during [soccer] season.” doesn’t affect school too much other than Despite the time commitment, the just being physically exhausted.” constant travel helps to form and cement Club sports practices differ markedly from those of school sports, both in inten- bonds between teammates.
“Your team for club is your family,” Simmons said. “They are the only people you see on the weekends; they are your social life for all of your in-season time. There is no one else to hang out with when you travel.” In club swimming, the environment is more focused on individuals. “Club is all about yourself, your times and what you can do to improve yourself,” Skaribas said. “For swimming, I know that if I do everything like I am supposed to, it will pay off and everything will go well.” Club sports inspire devotion in participants. “Club is the whole-hearted dedication to the team,” Simmons said. “No excuses. You have to be at practice and games.” Even in the highly-individualized world of club swimming, meets and personal improvement is a high priority, occasionally winning out over school teams and other commitments. “Club swimming is your life if you do it,” Allday said. “Everyone has bought into that.”
Upon further review Winter SPC
35
Number of miles from school to the swim team’s SPC meet location. Both boys’ and girls’ swimming will be competing at Conroe Independent School District’s Natatorium. The all-day meet features 22 swimming events and a separate program for diving. The team will continue its annual shaving tradition the day before SPC.
12
Number of SPC games scheduled at SJS. The Wrestling tournament will be held in the gym and all Division I girls’ soccer games will be played on Skip Lee or Caven. “We have worked really hard this season,” captain Abby Avery said, “and to have a chance to play our last games together on our home field is something we have been talking about all season.”
26
Number of Winter SPC championships won throughout the school’s history. Girls’ basketball has garnered the most SPC championships (18) of any SJS sport in any season, including 10 wins from 1966 to 1975. The other titles have come in boys’ basketball (5), boys’ soccer (2) and wrestling (1).
JAKE NYQUIST
Champions Head Coach Alan Paul and Assistant Coach Danny Henderson hoist the 2013 wrestling SPC trophy.
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
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SPORTS
Sports briefs Winter SPC Preview
Boys’ Basketball After consecutive SPC titles in 2011 and 2012 and a second-place finish last year, the seniors on the boys’ basketball team hope to finish their Maverick careers where they began: first in SPC. “We’re preparing for SPC by working hard every day to get better for the tournament,” senior Jim Mace said. “We all knew that losing Yusef [Chabayta (’13)] and Kory [Haywood (’13)] would be hard to overcome, but our senior experience has really helped us overcome losing guys.” The team is seeded second in South Zone with a 14-12 record. The team won their last game of the season against Houston Christian, 5453, after a buzzer shot by captain Justise Winslow, Feb. 7. “It was an incredible game. The team fought so hard and never stopped believing that the game was in reach,” Winslow said. “I made the winning shot, but there’s no way I’m in that position without my teammates. [Senior] Risher [Randall] (pictured left) made an unbelievable three-point shot off the glass. This win really embodies our saying, ‘Team Is Everything.’”
Girls’ Basketball Though the team lost their starting five players from last year, the team is hoping that underclassmen will fill the roles and bring a spark for SPC. “Several newcomers in particular have made big impacts on the team,” captain Isabelle Metz said. “Sophomores Gabby Otey and Alice Chambers have helped by executing the offense and getting rebounds, respectively. Freshmen Kate and Carson Copeland as well as sophomores Jessica Vlasek and Caroline Ankoma-Sey
provide a devastating unit that wears other teams down with their speed and toughness.” Even though each player brings an individual arsenal of skills, like captain Sarah Gow (right), their best times come when they play as one unit. Metz said, “What makes our team so special is that, while we all know our job, we work best as a team.”
Boys’ Soccer Head coach Ziad Allan revamped the team by establishing a new system of offense. The team, which placed eighth in Division I last year, clinched second-seed in South Zone this year. “Our communication, passing and overall ability as a team has grown substantially,” freshman Hayden Simmons said. Their success is in large part due to their revamped practices. “My favorite part of the season has been the practices. Ziad is by far the most creative and unpredictable coach I’ve ever had,” junior Akshay Jaggi said. “I just really love my soccer family because the guys on the team know when to be serious but also when to have fun and joke around.”
Girls’ Soccer The girls’ soccer team has had to adapt to injuries, including two torn ACL’s, two ankle sprains and one concussion. “Despite the numerous injuries we’ve had, the team has shown resilience and adapted to work well with each other,” captain Jack Simmons (pictured middle) said. The addition of five freshmen has strengthened the team’s bond.
“The team has put dedication into fitness to help overcome our thinning number of subs, and their hard work shows during games. The players who were pulled up, especially the freshmen, have risen to the occasion and stepped up to give our team more depth.” The team clinched a third-seed in South Zone. “We have had a lot of great moments,” captain Abby Avery said. “One of my favorite parts of the season was when we were playing up in Austin and won both our games, 3-0, without five of our starters. It showed the strength of our team, and we realized how good we actually were.” Despite the differences in age and experience, the team shares great camaraderie. “I’ve never felt so close the team, and we have great chemistry,” Simmons said. “We are a family.”
Boys’ Swimming The team aims to earn its first SPC title with the help of strong senior captains and promising underclassmen. “A newcomer this year who has made a significant difference is freshman Cooper Lueck who has stepped up in his individual events and medley relay,” senior captain Austin Allday said. “We only had one senior last year, and he was a diver, so we did not lose much experience.” Though swimming is an individual sport most of the time, the team members continue to push both themselves and their peers. “I really think the competition within the team has driven all of us to improve throughout the season,” freshman Matthew Fastow said. “Meets usually are great
for bonding, but, even more importantly, we have had several swim team dinners scattered throughout the season.”
Girls’ Swimming After a long season, the team has tapered their workouts to prepare for the final stretch at SPC. The team hopes all the hard work from the season will translate into those final races. “Freshman Grace Wilson and sophomores Lauren Jhin, Noel Higgason and Ellie Strawn are all valuable competitors that we rely on to score points,” junior Elena Skaribas said. “My favorite moment was competing at the Corpus Christi meet in January. It is always fun to go on travel meets, especially since this year SPC is in Houston and not in Dallas.”
Wrestling Following the first SPC championship in the program’s history, the wrestling team hopes to continue its success this year. “We’re watching film and working hard on improving our techniques so we can beat the people we need to beat at SPC. We also work hard in the mat room to make sure we’re in the best condition possible,” senior captain Sean Yuan said. “My favorite moment of this year was traveling with the team to Dallas for state duals. It’s always fun to go up on the bus with the guys and wrestle hard.” With the loss of key seniors from last year, new wrestlers have stepped up to compensate for lost talent. “The freshmen have contributed a lot to the team,” Yuan said. “Evan Eisenberg and Austin Schultz are both strong freshmen that have made it into the starting lineup.” Briefs written by Matthew Neal Photos by Jake Nyquist
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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ODDS & ENDS
Extras JAKE NYQUIST
Senior night After missing out on the entire basketball season due to an ACL tear suffered during football season, senior Josh Hanson plays for the final minute of the Feb. 4 game against John Cooper, which was also Senior Night. The team won 49-37 in its last home game of the season and will face St. Mark’s in the first round of SPC, Feb. 14.
Sixty Seconds
SAVE THE DATE
with Martha Jamail
Feb. 13 Last day of the cafeteria
We really appreciate your submissions and hope that you have enjoyed them as much as we have. Here’s junior Martha Jamail’s: Name Robert Jamail’s little sister Grade 11th (the one that breaks people) State of mind All the way out of it Known for Sometimes skipping between steps Color Scarlet and black Happiness I’m never happy Misery When people point out my spelling errors Sports team The independent Olympic athletes 2012 Olympic sport That horse ballet thing Fav spot on campus The big library window Dream date Grocery shopping in the
moonlight or kaiju fighting Relationship status Drift compatible Comfort food Spinach pie Hate to love Orchestra Love to hate Orchestra Guilty pleasure Watching my tortoise eat. He looks like a little dinosaur Cafeteria food Peas and carrots Place to live Hobbit Hole I wish I could snap. It would’ve saved me a lot of ridicule in English class. Treasured possession Willie Nelson’s autograph The best thing Hugs Spirit animal Quokka. Or jellyfish (shout out to XC ladies Zoo Animal Red Pandas Superpower My intimidation TV show Community
Movie Serenity Book Alexander McCall Smith’s books Hero Nah, I’m more of a fan of the anti hero/thief with a heart of gold type (ie Han Solo) Phobia Emory Strawn in the yearbook room at deadline time Video Game Legend of Zelda: Windwaker Stress reliever Panic rabbit Motto The thug life didn’t choose me Sing in the shower? A little too dangerous for me Doppelganger Hey! The word we used was doppledeaner! I am Heen the dog from Howl’s Moving Castle I’d rather Be snuggled up Follow us? To the ends of the earth! Follow Quadrangle on Instagram?
Word for word Soundbites around campus Getting adopted by Brad and Angelina is like winning the Mega-Millions lottery. Getting adopted by us is like winning a pretty good scratch-off. Mr. Leakey, master of self-deprecating humor, in his Love Chapel speech What makes a sweatshirt Juicy?
The Review is the thought police of St. John’s. Mr. Friedman: “Can anyone explain why this nebula looks so red?” Nikolai Hood: “It’s because of all the communism.” Astronomy class combines world affairs with science
Jake Nyquist reveals his ignorance of fashion despite having two sisters
Amy Dong acknowledges the power of our publication
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Valentine’s Day SPC begins Boys’ Basketball @ Houston Christian, 12 p.m. Girls’ Basketball @ EHS, 11 a.m. Boys’ Soccer @ EHS, 10 a. m. Girls’ Soccer @ SJS, 11 a. m.
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SPC finals (check The Review Online for game times and updates)
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School Closed for President’s Day
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Sophomore AP Exam meeting during lunch in W205
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African-American Affinity Group Assembly in the Lowe Theater Junior AP Exam meeting during lunch in W205
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Extended Advisory Lunch
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Senior AP Exam meeting during lunch in W205
The cold ages me. Meghna Dara bemoans the Houston winter chill after the trek from Caven
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Big Bend Trip Begins
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By the numbers
SAC Valentine’s flowers sold
Community Service Chapel in the Lowe Theater
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28 Big Bend Trip Concludes
March 3
No School, faculty work day
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Senior Celebration in the Lowe Theater
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Spring musical “The Robber Bridgroom” premieres in the Lowe Theater at 7:30 p.m.
8 KELLY BUCKNER
Love is in the air Upper school students took advantage of SAC’s flower-sending services and purchased 921 roses and 743 carnations for friends and sweethearts over the course of three days. Members of SAC were responsible for labeling and distributing the flowers.
Encore performance of “The Robber Bridgroom” in the Lowe Theater at 7:30 p.m.
FEBRUARY 2014 THE REVIEW
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ODDS & ENDS
Blast from the Past
Reminiscing on ’80s hair with English teacher Warren Rawson A few weeks ago, a friend who I’ve known since second grade tagged me in a photo on Facebook. The picture he tagged me in was of two of my friends and me, sitting at a picnic table in someone’s backyard, during the fall of our senior year in high school. Our hair is all amazing. My friends have hair that rises high off their heads, and is feathered back into “wings” so substantial that they look like they could support your body weight if a stiff enough breeze came along. Add to that the amazingly precise part that runs right down the center of their hair and you have two classic zipper cuts that would have fit right in a Men Without Hats video. And then there’s my hair. It’s not
feathered into wings. It’s not parted down that reach down well below my knees. Or the middle. It’s not 80s hair. No, It’s hair the innumerable pictures of me playing that you might see on a first grader whose tennis, wearing shorts that NBA Hallmom does the barbering. It’s hair you of-Famer John Stockton of the Utah Jazz might see in archival footage of the Beatles might think were short. But the pictures don’t embarrass me performing on the Ed Sullivan Show. My anymore. Instead, they just make me laugh very straight, very brown, and very shiny because all those goofy, ridiculous pictures hair hangs down well below my ears in a are me, and yet they aren’t. But full-fledged bowl cut. whether or not I can come to I used to be embarrassed by terms with the difference pictures that showed me (or lack of difference) what I was like as a kid. between the boy in Like the one where I’m Did you know? standing on the front the bowl cut and the person I am now, I’ve porch of my cousin’s Dr. Rawson used learned to live with house in the Bronx, to teach at Kinkaid sporting a velour shirt the possible contradicand cut-off jean shorts tions.
C(heart)ed By Tiffany Yue
McComic By Katherine McFarlin
Breakdown of People at CVS on Feb. 13
Elementary school students buying Employees cards
People buying cigarettes before CVS stops selling them Reluctant boyfriends looking for cute teddy bears in ballerina costumes
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Sweatpants and t-shirt crowd scoping out potential Feb. 15th deals
Just picking up a prescription Those unconditionally and irrevocably in love
SJSproblems
Not using someone else’s calculator because it feels weird ... SJS Confessions is MIA ... Einstein and Latin phrases are the clues in our school-wide scavenger hunt ...
Doing homework on snow days ... Watching Crash Course World History videos on YouTube as your study break for WHAP ... Sending Valentine’s roses to your teachers
Not wanting to go off campus for lunch because you had to park in Caven ... No more breakfast tacos ... Not having a Juicy sweatsuit for the Houston Christian basketball games
Featured Instagram sjs_sac As a part of Winston Celebration Week, SAC ran a scavenger hunt through their new Instagram account. SAC posted clues in the morning, at the start of lunch, and at the end of the day that led students to different objects around campus including physics teacher Erol Turk’s cutout of Albert Einstein (left) and a painting in Farish Hall. Participants had to Instagram a selfie of themselves with the correct object, and the first three students to post the picture collected points toward the overall prizes. The students with the most overall
points will earn points for their house and either a prime parking spot or a free dress day for their advisory. After each of the clues were announced, a mad rush ensued as students scrambled to the be among the first three to post their selfie (right). “I thought the scavenger hunt was a good idea, but I was really embarrassed when I was completely wrong,” senior Austin Allday said. The scavenger hunt will conclude today, and the winners are likely to be announced this afternoon.
THE REVIEW FEBRUARY 2014
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REARVIEW
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Life on campus undoubtedly looks better when viewed through an Inkwell filter (3). There is always a story to tell here on campus, and there are few better ways to spread yours than with a meticulously edited, quasi-hipster snapshot of your daily adventures. With the fall comes football season and our largest outpouring of school spirit. Whether we are cheering at a pep rally (9) or fulfilling our duties as SAC members by toiling to create a homecoming experience that makes a splash (4), the thing we cherish most is time spent with friends (2). When winter comes, we retreat from the cold of Skip Lee in a hailstorm (5) and move onto Liu Court (11) or into the VST to strike sets and celebrate the closing night of the fall play (1). During the school day, the Headmaster’s fireplace (7) draws crowds and warms chilled fingers until a sunnier day arrives,
one when we can spend time with friends in “Hammock Village” (6). But often the most unexpected, candid moments we share on campus are the most wonderful. We share a smile with a beloved teacher (12). We steal a last laugh on the balcony before bidding farewell to Senior Country (10). We unite to do good and effect change with friends and colleagues (8). Spending time with the people we care about, the ones who have forever changed our lives with their friendship, is an integral, memorable part of our experience as students here. At the end of the day, Instagram is just another form of social media we use to capture these shared experiences. Twenty years from now, maybe we will scroll back through our newsfeeds to encounter pictures that provide a window leading back into our time in high school and capture the camaraderie between everyone on campus.
Photos courtesy of Meg Bres (@megsico), Cameron Hull (@cam_Oh), Dara Ladjevardian (@daraladj), and Elise Viguet (@elise_viguet) | Story by Megan Routbort and Iris Cronin