Graduation 2022

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

VOLUME 73, ISSUE 4

GRADUATION 2022

OFF AND AWAY

Our seniors have navigated hurricanes, the Great Texas Freeze and a global pandemic.

See where they’re headed next in our special section.

PHOTO | James Li DESIGN | Alice Xu & Diane Guo 2401 CLAREMONT LANE

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HOUSTON, TX 77019

RALLY FOR ABORTION RIGHTS

EXAMINING THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE

Leaked Roe v. Wade draft opinion spurs student activism

How security concerns, Holocaust education and the

SPORTS BETTING

Can fantasy sports lead to a gambling addiction?

college process impact students

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CULTURE

12-13

SPORTS 16-17

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ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

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THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

NEWS

'Creating balance and joy': Mavs reflect on Amley's legacy After 8 transformative years, Division Head leaves to helm Florida school

NEWS

By Serina Yan

O

n a Friday afternoon as people quietly worked, a lull in the administrative office was interrupted by the high pitched scream of a goat.

Administrators like Dean of Students Bailey Duncan have come to accept Amley’s efforts to bring levity to an occasionally stressful job. Whether randomly pressing a goat scream button or hanging a disco ball in her office, departing Head of Upper School Hollis Amley takes her job seriously, but tries not to take herself so.

After eight years, Amley will be leaving St. John’s at the end of the year to become the ninth Head of School at Canterbury School of Florida in her hometown of St. Petersburg. Amley is eager to be closer to family.

Over the years, colleagues have come to appreciate Amley’s vast knowledge and quick wit.

Chris Curran, Associate Head of School, always jokes about how Amley can “talk so intellectually about art history and a ridiculous Bravo show.”

Recently, Amley gave her final Chapel talk, in which she told a story about a student named Clovis. Amley vividly described how Clovis reluctantly agreed to play the bagpipes on their way back from an advisory lunch, all the way through the New York City streets and into the school hallways, where students came out of their classrooms and listened.

In that particular moment, it was all about spontaneous community building for Amley.

“Community is often established in the little things and the mundane,” Amley said. “It's not planned, and sometimes those moments are the ones that we remember.”

Besides being Head of Upper School, Amley has taught art history, often weaving anecdotes into her class discussions. Senior Camille Carleton recalled one amusing story that Amley shared about the time one of her classes was studying El Greco’s painting “View of Toledo,” only to discover that the grandmother of bagpipe-player Clovis actually owned the painting.

“A lot of the stories I tell are absurd or have some humor in them,” Amley said. “I want to help people realize that we all have awesome or crazy things that happen to us—it's just a matter of cataloging them and thinking about what you can learn from them.”

What makes Amley such an effective leader and administrator are her strong communication skills, empathy and critical thinking, according to colleagues.

“She is fearless when it comes to important topics,” Curran said. “She can lean into discomfort, and she treats everyone with dignity.”

When Amley arrived at St. John’s in 2014, she had three goals: (1) lead the construction of Flores Hall, (2) grow the total Upper School student population by 100 over four years, and (3) improve emotional health by redefining how the School measures success.

Check, check and check.

Amley is most proud of her work in helping to rethink the daily schedule. The seven-day-rotation, designed in 2016, allows for longer class times, later start times and more free time for students. The schedule also led to a different approach toward assemblies, Chapel, advisory and classes.

“It was really way more than a schedule,” Curran said. “It was about what and how we teach — the schedule was just the framework to allow that to get executed.”

Revamping the schedule was a part of an effort to improve the culture surrounding emotional wellbeing and academics. Amley’s goal was to stop measuring success through grade point averages, college acceptances and standardized test scores. Amley sought a broader definition.

“I was really trying to find ways we could redefine success more multi-dimensionally and celebrate it,” Amley said. “To not just redefine it and then stick it up somewhere, but to really live into it.”

Amley’s impact on St. John’s manifests itself in the school’s classrooms and architecture as well. She was heavily involved in redesigning the academic commons, working with architects and SAC leadership to transform the space into a collaborative hub. She also helped make some classrooms more innovative, replacing traditional furniture with rolling desks and glass whiteboards.

“She’s done a really good job of coming in and trying to create more balance and joy,” Duncan said. “She is always looking for ways to maintain St. John's academic standards and rigor without making that the only identifier as to what makes the school special.”

Amley has been teaching for over 20 years at independent schools including the Browning School and St. David's School. Although initially told she could not teach while serving as Division Head, Amley insisted on undertaking the extra responsibility. She considers teaching as “the absolute thing that gives me energy and joy.”

“I'm not an Upper School Head because I wanted to be an Upper School Head,” Amley said. “I'm a teacher who ended up becoming an Upper School Head.”

Teaching allows Amley to understand firsthand what her teachers and students are experiencing, even when significant changes occur. Amley often asked her class about their thoughts on school Covid-19 policies, gaining valuable insight.

Curran noted, “She is someone who always keeps the student experience at the forefront of new programs and changes.”

Amley’s “student-centered” philosophy is present in her work with Unity Council, an organization that “serves to promote an environment of acceptance, equality, and progress within the St. John’s community.” As one of the faculty sponsors, she supported co-chairs Elizabeth Schaefer and Eliot Aiman in hosting forums; working with affinity groups; and furthering diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Schaefer looks up to Amley as an empowering female role model.

“She's a big inspiration to me, and I know she's an inspiration to so many people,” Schaefer said.

“That can't really be quantified.”

Amley hopes that her successor, Kevin Weatherill, will continue to promote Unity Council and its mission.

“What she's developed with Unity Council has been transformative,” Curran said. “It is a model of what we hope the St. John's experience offers students.”

Amley often asks members of the senior class to leave the school a better place than they found it. As she prepares to leave St. John’s for the next chapter of her life, students and colleagues agree that she has done exactly that.

Amley famously keeps goat scream buttons on her desk to relieve tension in the US Office.

PHOTOS | Serina Yan

Ms. Amley takes a break on the Plaza with a papier-mâché sculpture made by freshmen Alice Zhang, Daniela Laing, Katie Czelusta, Sofia AboulEnien, and Mateo Ramirez-Valentini.

PHOTO | Virginia Carolyn Crawford

NEWS

May 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

3

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

Childress retires in her 'prime'

COMMUNITY BIDS FAREWELL TO 19 FACULTY, STAFF LOWER SCHOOL AMEE MCINNES (7 YEARS) CLASS ONE AUDRA PARRISH (30 YEARS) CHOIR & MUSIC CATHERINE YUKSEK (3 YEARS) CLASS FOUR LANGUAGE ARTS & SOCIAL STUDIES MIDDLE SCHOOL AMY GRAY (16 YEARS) ENGLISH MEGAN HUFFMAN (5 YEARS) SPANISH CARSON JAMES (2 YEARS) SCIENCE

NOW AND THEN Martha Childress leaves her domain after 41 years.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | Georgia Andrews PHOTOS | Aleena Gilani (2022), The Rebel (1982)

HOLLIS AMLEY (8 YEARS)

By Aleena Gilani

A

fter 41 years, St. John’s “legend” Math Department Chair Martha Childress is going out in her prime.

“It's a funny thing, that I'm going out on a prime number,” Childress said.

During her 10-year tenure leading her department, Childress oversaw “a time of rebuilding” for her department, as many veteran teachers, including Douglas Sharp (47 years), retired.

“It became a great opportunity to bring in new teachers with new ideas and a lot of excitement about math,” Childress said.

The scale of Childress’s hiring efforts is immense — all but three of the current math department members were hired during the last ten years.

“She's cognizant of what we need, and she brings in candidates that are good fits,” said math teacher Letty Reza, who was hired in 2020.

Childress considers the addition of so many new math teachers her “legacy to the School,” noting that the department is “very different now than when I became department chair."

Childress also created the Algebra Assessment, which she designed for freshmen new to St. John’s.

“When students come from other schools, they cannot possibly know what our curriculum is like, so it's difficult for them to know what math class is the best choice for them,” said Bethany Goldman, Childress’s successor. “The Algebra Assessment gives us information that, combined with our own knowledge of the curriculum, lets us make the correct recommendation for those students.”

Before the Algebra Assessment was implemented, new students would often choose math courses without knowledge of their contents.

“There was no recommendation given to them. It was just ‘sign up for whatever you want,’” Childress said. “There was a lot of movement from class levels, and it was really somewhat chaotic.”

Childress meets with Wally Pye and Alex Safos (both '84).

PHOTO | The Rebel (1982)

UPPER SCHOOL HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL

Childress’s colleagues also appreciate her dedication to ensuring that the math curriculum “stays at the forefront of what is new and what is exciting,” Reza said.

Every summer, Childress encourages math teachers to attend a conference at Phillips Exeter Academy to learn new teaching methods and craft their own math courses.

“Just about every member of the department has gone to that conference,” Goldman said. “It's a great time to get to know and spend time with your own colleagues and to be exposed to a wide array of ideas and new practices that you can do in your class.”

The conference has prompted some teachers to develop their own courses. Childress herself, alongside math teachers Austin Garvin and Alice Fogler, started a new problem-based learning class, Algebra II Advanced, after attending the conference.

Childress has influenced the way her department teaches by encouraging her colleagues to teach a wide range of math courses.

“Once upon a time, all math teachers would teach the same thing every year,” Goldman said. “She has really mixed it up and is giving people a chance to teach different things, which is really nice because that's how you learn and grow.”

On May 4, Childress stood at the podium of the Lowe Theater for the last time. Before she presented the math awards during the annual Upper School Awards Ceremony, she packed dozens of math puns into her preamble, eliciting boisterous laughter and cheers from an appreciative audience.

In her final year, Childress taught two sections of calculus and one geometry class.

“I love having her as a teacher,” freshman Ellie Burger said. “I feel like it's a very supportive environment, and she's always trying to get us to do as best as we can.”

Teaching has been a constant for Childress since she graduated from the University of Texas in 1973. After working in Texas public schools for eight years, she and her husband Creag moved to West U in 1981. Friends and family encouraged her to apply to St. John’s, even though she knew little about the school.

“Who would have thought? Forty-one years later — I'm still here,” she said.

Although initially hired as a math teacher, Childress also worked as a college counselor. While serving in this role, Childress mentored new college counselors, including current Head of School Dan Alig.

“It's hard for me to think of myself as Mrs. Childress’s supervisor,” Alig said. “She really mentored me and took care of me as a young teacher and college counselor here.”

After 28 years of college counseling, Childress decided to pursue a higher role in the math department.

“I loved doing college counseling, but when the math department chair came up, I thought I’d go back to my roots,” Childress said.

The longevity of Childress’s tenure factors into her unique understanding of her department.

“She knows a tremendous amount about the School, about its history, about the way things are done, about the way they've been done and why what we do now works better,” Goldman said. “Anything that I wonder about, she's a good person to ask and get an answer that's really informed.”

ANGELA ANDERSON (4 YEARS) ACADEMIC SUPPORT COORDINATOR MARTHA CHILDRESS (41 YEARS) MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT CHAIR AUSTIN GARVIN (7 YEARS) MATH & COMPUTER SCIENCE JESSICA MACMURTRIE (3 YEARS) SPANISH ALEX MOYA (1 YEAR) HISTORY DORIAN ROLSTON (2 YEARS) ENGLISH / DEBATE SORREL WESTBROOK (2 YEARS) ENGLISH / REVIEW FINE ARTS KAT CORDES (7 YEARS) MS/US THEATRE DIRECTOR CLINICAL SERVICES STACI DEGREGORI (6 YEARS) MS NURSE TESA STARK (7 YEARS) DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL SERVICES ADVANCEMENT & BUSINESS OFFICE MARK DINI (16 YEARS) CHIEF ADVANCEMENT OFFICER CAROLYN THOMAS (27 YEARS) STUDENT ACCOUNTS

Yet Childress’s influence is not limited to the domain of her department. From singing in faculty chapels to hosting holiday parties, Childress has proven herself an integral member of the School.

“The math department will miss her, and really, the School will miss her,” Goldman said. “We won't even know how much until she's gone.”

Although Childress’s tenure will end in June, she intends to volunteer in the library and pick her grandson, Dexter, up from the Lower School.

“It'll be different,” Childress said, “but the School will still be a great place to return to. Always.”

4

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

NEWS

MAY 20, 2022

Students grapple with identity amid ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

Upper School mother Liliya Kades left Odessa, Ukraine in 1989. Russia's invasion of her home country in February has spurred many Ukrainians to explore their heritage.

PHOTO | Oleksandr Ratushniak, UNDP Ukraine (Creative Commons)

By Elizabeth Hu

M

argot Kades and her family watched in shock as scenes of collapsed buildings, explosions and Ukrainians huddled in bomb shelters flashed across their television screen.

Margot and her father received the news of Russia’s invasion with astonishment and disbelief — but for her mother, her childhood home was being blown apart.

When Liliya Kades left Ukraine in 1989, it was still part of the Soviet Union and deeply integrated into Russian culture.

“Everything was Russian,” Liliya said. “We weren’t allowed to study Ukrainian, since Russian was the main language. I can understand Ukrainian, but I can’t really speak it.”

Margot, a junior, has visited St. Petersburg, but she has not yet been to Ukraine. When asked about her heritage, she used to tell people that her family was from Russia instead of Ukraine because that part of her felt “a little disconnected.” But the Russian invasion has pushed Margot to acknowledge and find pride in her Ukrainian heritage.

As they watched the news, Margot said she “took a step back.”

“It was definitely more emotional,” Margot said. “My mother was watching her home be destroyed, and she couldn't do anything about it.”

Neither Liliya’s husband nor her daughter knew how to comfort her.

“We wanted to help, but what do you say?” Margot said.

“We didn’t really know how to feel.”

The conflict has led junior Katya Bigman to reevaluate her cultural identity. While Bigman proudly speaks the Russian language and practices Russian customs, she acknowledges some people might associate that heritage “carries that association with Putin and what the Russian government is doing.” To Bigman, Russian culture, language, and heritage should not be conflated with the actions of Putin's regime.

My mother was watching her home be destroyed, and she couldn't do anything about it.

MARGOT KADES

Margot feels that the war does not alter the centuries of history and culture that Ukraine and Russia share.

“I also feel like I belong to this Russian sphere, even though I am Ukrainian,” Margot said. “There's so much influence.”

Russia has been one of the main destinations for Ukrainian refugees from internal conflicts. The similarities between the two countries have made it easy for immigrants to settle in.

“There are people who grew up speaking Russian but have chosen to be Ukrainian because they believe in the prospect of a free and independent Ukraine,” said Upper School history teacher Eleanor Cannon.

The two countries were already ethnically and linguistically similar before Ukraine’s fifty years as part of the Soviet Union, a period of time that further “Russified its culture.” Ukraine has been independent for over thirty years, but Putin maintains that Ukraine was, and still is, a part of Russia.

Putin intends to “denazify” Ukraine, claiming that

its government, led by a Jewish president, is “openly neo-Nazi.” He has also deemed the recent influx of European countries joining NATO as a “provocation” that necessitated his invasion.

“NATO was not a provocation,” Cannon said. “If we had not expanded NATO and helped support what used to be Eastern Europe, they would have just expanded earlier.

We'd be talking about Germany, not Ukraine.”

Putin, now 69, was first elected president in 2000. As he creeps closer to the end of his career, Cannon says that the authoritarian leader wants to restore Russia to its former status as a global superpower.

“He doesn't want any competition,” Cannon said. “He wants Russia to be what Russia was at its peak.”

For the past two months, Ukraine has been repelling a Russian force four times larger than its own from its capital, Kyiv. Russian failures to quickly depose the Ukrainian government — many expected Kyiv to fall within a few weeks — have tarnished the nation’s reputation as a military superpower.

“This represents a significant shift for Russia's place in the world. What does that mean for China and the United States?” Cannon said.

American teenagers living thousands of miles from the conflict have few avenues to meaningfully contribute to Ukraine’s war effort. Margot says that sharing information can make a difference, but she is worried that people are using it as a way to say that they contributed to the cause.

“There needs to be a sense of humanity about the situation,” Margot said. “It's easy to feel disconnected from these problems when we have the privilege of living here, isolated from these more global conflicts. People are forgetting these are actual people's lives that are being destroyed.”

Many Ukrainians have shared the realities of daily life in a war zone through social media. Countless TikToks and Instagram posts depicting the war's destruction have gone viral in America.

“My grandmother is keeping in touch with people she knows there through Facebook,” Margot said. “There's a lot of discussion and discourse going on in those forums.”

Beyond sharing videos and infographics on social media, many Americans have shown their support by placing both American and Ukrainian flags in their yards, emboldened with phrases like “I stand with Ukraine” in yellow and blue.

The entire world is feeling the effects of Russian sanctions. Germany, Italy and other countries that rely heavily on Russian oil are suddenly trying to find other energy sources that can be active immediately.

“Putin was counting on Europe rolling over like they did in previous years because they needed his oil and gas,” Cannon said. “But the Europeans this time said, ‘we will forgo the energy.’ People are carrying signs in Berlin saying ‘we'd rather freeze before Ukraine loses freedom.’”

The blockade on the agricultural exports of Ukraine, one of the world's largest breadbasket nations, does not bode well for the rest of the world. Africa and the Middle East, which get most of their wheat from Ukraine, will especially suffer.

Whether the war between Russia and Ukraine escalates further or ends after a few months, Margot has noticed that Americans are learning about international issues, as well as their privilege of living in a country not currently at war.

“If anything, for our generation and for younger Americans, this Russia-Ukraine war thrust them into the midst of global affairs,” Margot said. “It will unite a lot of people in a way that is going to be really impactful.”

Peace negotiations ended when Russia began to target Ukraine’s southeastern Donbas region. Although Russia has been repeatedly condemned for its violations of human rights, Putin continues to attack citizens and buildings indiscriminately — the United Nations has recorded tens of thousands of Ukrainian deaths, with 10,000 killed in the siege of Mariupol alone.

“Even if there’s a war, you’re still not supposed to target civilians intentionally, which is what they have been doing,” History Department Chair Russell Hardin said.

“There have been a number of places that they have specifically targeted even though they knew that they were not military locations.”

I never had a chance to experience what it was like to be independent until I came to the United States.

LILIYA KADES

On April 23, Putin began attacking Odessa, the city where Margot’s mother was born. On May 8, he celebrated Victory Day, the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over the Nazis, by hitting two Odessan neighborhoods with air-tosurface missiles.

“I never had a chance to experience what it was like to be independent until I came to the United States,” Liliya said.

“Fighting for freedom, which is what my parents did, is in peoples’ blood.”

While Odessa has changed a lot in its thirty years of independence, the bombing and war have rendered it nearly unrecognizable.

“I remember seeing all the ships coming from Turkey, or Greece or the Soviet Union as a little kid. It was always interesting finding out about other cultures through any glimpse of the outside world Odessa provided. After I left Odessa at 14 years old, I have always remembered it as a very historical city,” Liliya said. “But now I’m seeing people fighting and being killed for their independence, and mothers and children getting persecuted for it. What can you say about that?”

READ KATYA BIGMAN'S POEM "A PUTÍN"

NEWS

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

5

Alig reflects on first year as Head of School

By Cameron Ederle

L

ess than a year after becoming Head of School, Dan Alig has already had to deal with national press attention.

“You never expect to be a cartoon,” Alig said, referring to a caricature drawn by nationally syndicated artist Nick Anderson that appeared online and in publications nationwide. “But if you’re a school administrator, you already kind of are a cartoon.”

The editorial cartoon, which addressed the School's curriculum, featured Alig as big-boned, balding and wearing his trademark bowtie. Only one of these traits was accurate.

After the brief flurry of national media attention, Alig resumed his usual responsibilities.

From the beginning of the year, Alig has focused primarily on getting the school back on track.

“Right away, we needed a path back to normalcy,” Alig said.

Alig allowed parents and visitors back on campus and relaxed mask requirements in order to “rebuild the community” as swiftly as possible. Wearing masks in classrooms became optional in February; assemblies and Chapel soon followed. Alig is thankful for the smooth transition back to “what it felt like in 2019.”

“We could’ve had a lot more hiccups for sure,” Alig said. “It feels awesome to see kids' faces and gather in Chapel without fretting.”

In order to formulate concrete, long-term goals, Alig has spent much of the year talking with students, faculty and staff.

“It's a listening tour, a learning tour,” Alig said. “It’s about understanding what’s been going on for the past eight to nine years and getting to know people who are new to me.

It's been illuminating.”

Alig has worked with the Board of Trustees in order to revise the Refresh Project, spearheaded by the former Head of School Mark Desjardins in 2014 and upadated in 2019. Due to Covid, the plan has not been fully enacted.

“We had a pandemic; we had a transition,” Alig said. “A lot has transpired in the last three to four years.”

The ongoing strategic plan includes initiatives for foreign language fluency across departments, spiritual development and a “long-range After syndicated cartoonist Nick Anderson portrayed Mr. Alig in a March 24 editorial facilities plan” to develop recent land cartoon with a noticeable loss of hair and gain in weight, our illustrators decided to more acquisitions. accurately represent him in a series of more flattering caricatures.

The revised Refresh Project is set for completion this fall. A survey will be available to those who wish to provide feedback and will serve as a roadmap for Alig over the next several years.

His prior roles at St. John's, including English Department Chair, college counselor and academic dean, have prepared him for his new role, but not completely.

“I have only existed in Upper School,” Alig said. “So, the Lower School and Middle School are points of insecurity for me.”

Visiting classes, attending sporting events and working the carpool line, Alig has made an effort to spend more time across Westheimer. He admits Alice Xu Diane Guo that he still has much to learn.

Prefect Liv Rubenstein appreciates Alig’s appearances at athletic and fine art events, but she especially enjoyed seeing Alig greet students each morning in the circle drive.

Additionally, Alig regularly connects with prefects.

“It feels like he truly cares and is interested in our lives,” Rubenstein said.

Alig says that he is growing into the public side of his job, including outreach with the larger Houston community.

“There is definitely a need to focus internally on students and our staff Lucy Walker Max Stith and faculty members, but at the same time, there's also a lot of caretaking and a lot of representing St. John's is Power Program in Houston and aids colleagues have embraced Alig's return. that needs to go on,” Alig said.

Breakthrough Houston, a local program Specifically, Martha Childress remembers One of Alig’s most important outreach that guides underserved students to mentoring Alig while they were college responsibilities is maintaining the achieve college success. Alig feels he’ll counselors, although Childress admits that relationship between the School and The “eventually strike a balance” between both “he didn’t need much.”

Church of St. John the Divine. his internal and external responsibilities.

Childress orginally planned to retire last Alig promotes alumni affairs by sending After eight years in Atlanta, Alig is happy year, but when she heard that Alig was newsletters and hosting events like Alumni to be back in Houston, mostly for its mild going to return, she stayed an extra year.

Weekend. winters and “international flavor.” His past “And I’m glad I did.”

He is on the board of the Knowledge

Illustrating Alig

Review wins prestigious awards, names new editors

By Annie Jones

T

he Review has been honored by all three of the most prestigious student journalism organizations in the country: Quill and Scroll, NSPA and CSPA. For the fourth straight year, the Review was named a Pacemaker Finalist by the National Scholastic Press Association. This year, only 66 publications were named Finalists.

The Review received a Pacemaker in 2015 and 2018.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association awarded the

Review its highest recognition for print and online journalism: a CSPA Gold Crown.

The Review Online received Third Place Best of Show at NSPA, its highest-ever finish. The website was also named a Distinguished Site by Student Newspapers Online in October, making St. John's the third school to qualify for the honor, which they have earned for the last five years.

The website also received ten Best of SNO awards this

Review editors and advisers celebrate at the NSPA Storytelling Workshop in Philadelphia in November, after taking home first place Best of Show for the October 2021 issue.

PHOTO | The Review

year. Sections of “Our Problems Matter,” a centerspread on discrimination against the East and Southeast Asian community written by Russell Li, Ella Chen and Ashley Yen, were published on the website as separate articles, and three of these received Best of SNO awards.

In November, over a dozen Review editors attended the NSPA Storytelling Workshop in Philadelphia, where the November issue of The Review received First Place in Best of Show, marking the second straight year and third time in its history that a single issue earned this honor.

The Review earned 15 awards from NSPA for exceptional writing, artwork and photography. Editor-in-Chief Celine Huang won four awards, including first place front page design and second place artist of the year. She also claimed a slew of artistic awards, including another for front page design and three for page design.

The new editors-in-chief for the Review are seniors Wilson Bailey, Cameron Ederle, Diane Guo, Alice Xu, and junior Annie Jones. The Review Online will be led by juniors Dawson Chang and Ella Piper Claffy along with section editors Emma Chang, Aleena Gilani, Elizabeth Hu and Lucy Walker, as well as site editor Arjun Maitra.

Print section editors are Abigail Hindman and Lillian Poag (News), Mia Hong (Mavericks), Lydia Gafford (Culture) and Richard Liang (Sports).

Sub-editors, who will be responsible for copy editing and designing pages, are Georgia Andrews, Amanda Brantley, Lily Feather, Elizabeth Hu and Serina Yan. Lexi Guo will serve as photography editor and James Li as multimedia editor.

Sophia Jazaeri has been promoted from business manager to production manager.

Advisers for the Review are David Nathan, Shelley Stein ('88) and Sorrel Westbrook, who will be teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area next year. History teacher Sam Abramson will be joining next year.

6

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

NEWS

Supreme Court leak sparks downtown rally

By Ellison Albright, Lauren Baker & Johnathon Li

W

hen freshman Kai Gomez fi rst arrived at the abortion rights rally at Discovery Green on May 7, she stood in the back of a small crowd. Glancing back only minutes later, she saw thousands of people behind her, rallying for the same cause.

“You could really feel the anger about what's happening,” Gomez said. “You could feel the energy.”

About two dozen Upper School students joined the rally following the leak of a Supreme Court draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case. The brief signals the probable overturn of Roe v. Wade and further restrictions in Texas.

On Friday afternoon, students gathered in Flores to make signs for the rally, which they joined along with roughly 5,000 other Houstonians. The signs sported punchy slogans like “Hands Off My Uterus” and “Reproductive Rights are Human Rights.”

The protest was organized by gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke’s campaign, which wrote on Instagram that “every woman deserves the freedom to make their own decisions.” Also in attendance were Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-18) and Texas Representative Ann Johnson (D-134).

Junior Jay Love said that Jackson Lee generated the most emotional moment of the rally when she held a coat hanger above her head, shouting, “We will not go back.”

Bans on abortion will not deter women from getting abortions — they are only going to ban safe abortions.

KAI GOMEZ

Wire hangers evoked the historical use of such objects to end pregnancies in cases when abortion was unavailable or illegal, frequently resulting in physical trauma and sometimes death.

“Overturning Roe v. Wade creates a dangerous situation,” Gomez said. “Bans on abortion will not deter women from getting abortions — they are only going to

Freshmen Emmie Kuhl, Kai Gomez and Talulah Monthy met at Discovery Green to protest the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade.

COURTESY PHOTO | Kai Gomez ban safe abortions,” adding that the women who will be the most affected are those who cannot afford to leave their states to obtain the procedure legally.

“There are so many women that are hurting,” Gomez said. “My heart just hurts for them.”

Spanish teacher Jessica MacMurtrie said she was happy to see such strong attendance at the rally. Surrounded by a passion for change, she felt she was not alone in her views — “not the only person that's worried about this.” She recalled an older woman holding up a sign with a pair of hot pink underwear glued to it that read, “Get government out of our panties.”

“She walked to the foot of the hill, turned around and showed it to all the protesters,” MacMurtrie said. “Everyone went crazy.”

MacMurtrie will be leaving St. John’s next year to attend South Texas College of Law with the goal of becoming a civil rights lawyer.

Across the nation, people protested the leaked draft opinion across the nation on both May 7 and 14. Junior Jack Lovett, who is spending the spring semester in Washington D.C., has attended six protests in the capital.

Lovett is concerned that people from states with trigger laws are at higher risk because these policies would put significant bans in place immediately after Roe is overturned.

“There's a sense of urgency for people from Texas,” Lovett said, adding that these impending bans would make abortions nearly impossible to obtain in 19 states.

MacMurtrie says the potential bans will fuel women’s anger and motivate them to fight for their healthcare rights. The issue is personal to the women protesting, but she appreciates the men who stand in solidarity.

“We need women to support us, but we obviously need the other half of the popu-

Upper School students Sophia Jazaeri, Leah Beach, Alex Flores, Adele Wan and Jaya Thekdi prepared signs after school.

PHOTO | Axel Johnson

lation,” MacMurtrie said.

Jay Love, who stays politically active by attending marches and working on campaigns, noted that men should consider how the overturn of Roe could potentially have consequences beyond the scope of abortion.

“If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the right to privacy could be taken away for all people,” Love said.

A change to the right to privacy could affect the decisions on cases like Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage.

Supreme Court leaks are incredibly rare.

The last time a major decision was prematurely revealed was in 1973 when Roe v.

Wade came out before the official opinion was issued.

Erica Harris, a litigator and mother of an incoming freshman, wrote and fi led an amicus brief on behalf of Advocates for Youth and NEO Philanthropy, who testified in support of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Amici briefs are traditionally submitted by either an individual or organization that has a vested interest in the case.

“The leak is not a good thing,” Harris said. “It undermines the collegiality and good faith feeling amongst the members of the Court.”

While some are grateful for the information shared by the leak, most also understand this event raises a larger issue about the confidentiality of the Court.

“I think all of us should want the court to deliberate in secrecy,” said Justin Nelson, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

While the ultimate decision is left to the justices, protesters are determined to keep morale high and do as much as possible. In Houston, there was no reported violence; police officers handed out Gatorade and bottled water.

In D.C., Lovett noticed a heightened police presence at the protests. Large black fences were erected outside the Supreme Court — the hostility has been limited to some shoving and counter-protesters spraying water.

For MacMurtrie, who has volunteered for Democratic candidates including Judge Hidalgo, the way forward is to keep protesting.

“Don't sit back. Don't be passive. Don't think this is going to go away or get better on its own,” MacMurtrie said. “We thought that too many times. So get loud, get mad.”

MAVERICKS

M

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

7

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

Brenckmann finds his footing in the shoe resale business Sophomore Max Brenckmann started his own shoe business during the pandemic, amassing Instagram followers and a loyal clientel along the way

By Wilson Bailey

MAVERICKS Brenckmann on Instagram, where he has almost 6,000 followers. Once a price is negotiated, customers use PayPal to complete the transaction.

“Because Instagram is such a direct interaction between buyer and seller, when there is room to drop a few bucks in the price, I’ll do it,” Brenckmann said.

Sometimes, transactions are not so smooth. Brenckmann has been scammed a couple times, the most notable con costing him $500.

“I had done $2,000 in sales with this guy from L.A. before,” Brenckmann said. “I bought two Dunks and, when my packages arrived, the shoeboxes were empty.”

When Brenckmann confronted the scammer, he was blocked.

In 2021, Brenckmann moved over 200 hundred pairs. His most expensive sale was a pair of Chunky Dunky Nike SB Dunks, a limited edition collaboration between Nike and Ben and Jerry’s, a garish hodge-podge of faux cowhide and tropical tones. They sold for $800.

My typical customer is a college student with a fashion passion. But women snatch up all my Nike Dunks, the retros — all of it.

MAX BRENCKMANN

Usually, Brenckmann’s prices are fixed.

He aims to make 20-30% on the sticker price paid to big box stores, but he regularly undercuts the prices found on StockX, the leader in establishing the value of aftermarket shoes.

“Some resellers don’t like StockX because they eat up most of the inventory,” Brenckmann said. “It’s nice to be able to beat their price and use that in negotiations.”

But beating StockX’s prices sometimes puts Brenckmann at a loss on a deal.

In one instance, Brenckmann took a tip from popular trend forecasting

PHOTOS | Isabella Diaz-Mira DESIGN | Diane Guo

account, Sneaker Invest, and bought 20 pairs of Jordan 1s in the grade school sizes. After collecting dust for six months, the shoes increased $5 in value, and Brenckmann barely broke even.

Brenckmann usually houses 300 pairs at a time in his gameroom, but specializes in the Nike Dunks and Jordan 1 silhouettes.

“My typical customer is a college student with a fashion passion,” Brenckmann said.

“But women snatch up all my Dunks, the retros — all of it.”

While most of his shoe deals are negotiated on his public Instagram account, he has a private story for the sneaker whales.

“I have 50 or so people on that are either constantly buying or buying in bulk,” Brenckmann said.

For these customers, he will typically bundle 20 to 50 pairs together.

“The collectors will pay a premium,” Brenckmann said. “It’s better for the buyer to obtain the last 20 pieces of their collection instead of [making] 20 individual deals.”

Brenckmann uses Instagram Live for his sports card business. He will post when he is going live with packs for sale. When a viewer buys a pack Brenckmann opens it on the livestream, like an interactive unboxing video.

“A guy once bought a $50 pack, and I pulled a Klay Thompson-signed rookie card,” Brenckmann said. “When the stream ended, I looked it up — the card was worth over five grand.”

Many of his sales come from repeat customers, who leave rave reviews in the comments section.

“Legit as always. Would sell him my liver if I need to,” one reviewer said.

Brenckmann wants everyone to feel as excited about shoes as he was when he went to that North Carolina basketball game. This year, he launched the Feet Come First project in order to further that mission. He has donated over 150 pairs of shoes.

“I wanted to give back to the kids who love shoes but don’t have the resources to kickstart their collection,” Brenckmann said.

With his shoe and sports card businesses firmly established by 2021, Brenckmann set ambitious goals for this year: reach $600 thousand in sales, hit 10,000 followers and create a company website.

In five years, he hopes to have a brick and mortar store.

Despite selling hundreds of shoes, his own personal collection is only a little over a dozen, featuring the creme-de-la-creme of his many deals.

Unsurprisingly, his favorite shoe is still the Carolina Blue Jordan 1.

“It’s the shoe that started it all for me,” Brenckmann said.

Brenckmann's Picks for the Hottest Summer Kicks

1 2 3 4 5

Nike Dunk Low "Panda"

Air Jordan 4 "Lightning"

Air Jordan 1 High "University Blue" Air Jordan 11 "Cool Grey"

Yeezy Slides

COURTESY PHOTO | Max Brenckmann

L

ike so many middle schoolers during quarantine, Max Brenckmann was bored. So, he scoured Youtube for “how to be a shoe reseller.”

Now a sophomore, his one-man company has eclipsed six figures in sales.

When he was nine, Brenckmann traveled with his father to Chapel Hill to see the North Carolina basketball team play. There, amongst a powder-blue sea of Jordans, a sneakerhead was born.

Before starting Feet First, Brenckmann struggled to obtain valuable shoes for his own personal use. He lost out to typical struggles of the business — bots and lack of time and connections. Tired of flipping used sneakers from eBay and restoring them with a washcloth and some elbow grease, Brenckmann went to his local sneaker shop, the now-defunct Modern Hype on Kirby. There, he met Sahid, an employee at the store. Brenckmann paid above market for unreleased, factory Nikes.

They did not even have a box to go with them.

“Sahid was crafty,” Brenckmann said.

“Those backdoor pairs really fostered the start of our business.”

With some capital established, Brenckmann tried to negotiate with Sahid on more valuable shoes.

“They were $5,000, and, no matter how hard I tried, he wouldn’t sell,” Brenckmann said.

The shoes were never released to the public, and Sahid made bank on the resell.

Brenckmann decided to focus his business on selling mid-range priced shoes exclusively on Instagram. He added sports cards, too, carrying on a hobby he and his father enjoyed.

Despite the practice being common among resellers, Brenckmann does not use automated computer programs, or “bots,” to purchase his inventory. Resellers can pay thousands for a bot that floods a sneaker release page to acquire dozens of shoes. When a shoe is “dropped,” Brenckmann uses auto-fill software that populates the information form.

On one occasion, Brenckmann went to the local storefront for Parisian-inspired brand A Ma Manière a couple hours before opening to get his hands on a pair of Christmas-edition Jordan 1s. The line was already around the street.

“I whipped out my phone and used the auto-fill to get a pair.”

Sometimes this strategy yields 20 pairs, while the average customer struggles to procure a single pair.

Prospective buyers then direct message

8

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

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MAVERICKS

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

9

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

Student-directed projects showcase ingenuity

By Aleena Gilani

N

ot many high school students can say that their passion brought them to a U.S. Coast Guard base, but junior Chloe Schueppert’s engineering project did just that.

As part of the Engineering Capstone course, Schueppert and her partner, senior Leah Beach, developed a research buoy that can detect trace amounts of oil for future cleanups. After presenting the project at the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston in February, the team won Special Awards from several organizations, including the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Coast Guard.

Schueppert was invited to present the project on the Ship Channel to a Coast Guard research and development team.

“People are really excited about kids doing super cool stuff in the world,” she said.

While at Sector Houston-Galveston, Schueppert met with officials from the Texas General Land Office and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

As of now, Schueppert and Beach are 3D-printing their prototype at The Ion, a sprawling tech hub in midtown.

“A year ago, I never would have imagined that my project would be this close to being a real thing,” Schueppert said.

“It's my pride and joy.”

Although they were overseen by Engineering Capstone teachers Nolan Harris, Franco Posa and Matt Bounds, Schueppert and Beach designed and built the buoy themselves.

“There's not a lot of rules about choosing a capstone project,” Schueppert said. “It just needs to be feasible and help people.”

Like the Engineering Capstone course, the Independent Study Project program also offers students the opportunity to start self-directed projects. Students who register for an ISP take it as a pass-fail course, and present their projects at the end of either semester.

“Once you get your ISP approved and you have your idea, you're working completely on your own time,” senior Natalie King said. “You can take things in whatever direction you want. I love the variety of things you can do.”

King chose to research student happiness after learning about the World Happiness Report, a self-assessment survey that collects data on the contentment of people across the globe.

“I just thought that was a really cool concept,” King said.

“I wanted to see how it could apply to a school community, or how I could come up with certain factors that would be applicable to high school-aged kids.”

King created her own happiness survey that Upper School students took during advisory. She says that the School is considering using her survey again in the coming years.

“We want to keep surveying and trying to get a sense of happiness at St. John’s,” King said. “Just to see where we’re doing a good job, and where we could work harder.”

For junior Ariana Lee, an ISP was an opportunity to combine her interests in film and dance. Inspiration struck during quarantine, when she discovered choreographers including Galen Hooks and Jojo Gomez on YouTube.

There's not a lot of rules about choosing a capstone project. It just needs to be feasible and help people.

Siegel recommends that students with niche interests pursue them through ISPs. “Take the time to explore something that you’re interested in,” he said. “It’s very worthwhile.”

Junior Chloe Schueppert presented her Engineering

CHLOE SCHUEPPERT

“They do things like music videos and concept videos,” Lee said. “So I figured I'd just make my own.”

Lee decided to direct, edit, choreograph and perform in a dance video to Billie Eilish’s “my boy.” Lee has wanted to create a dance video for a long time, but turning the concept into an ISP compelled her to finally make one.

“The fact that this was something I'd be presenting to other people motivated me to really do it,” Lee said.

Senior Josh Siegel wanted to start an ISP that has a “personal bearing” on his community and life. Although it took reading countless sources and a visit to the Museum of Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans, he finally settled on an exploration of Jewish activism in Houston and the South from 1950–1970.

Siegel found that the controversial nature of the topic made it daunting to present.

“It’s essentially about pleasing the establishment, or not pleasing the establishment,” he said. “There’s a lot of actual casualties and metaphorical casualties along the way.”

Capstone project to Coast Guard officials.

COURTESY PHOTO | Chloe Schueppert

Junior Ariana Lee presented her ISP on dance and film.

COURTESY PHOTO | Ariana Lee

Hard act to follow: Hlavinka takes his last bow

By Lauren Baker

B

obby Hlavinka is the quintessential musical theater kid: he has starred in “Mamma Mia,” “Into the Woods” and “Newsies.” He can memorize full shows, acts and, of course, show-stopping numbers. But Hlavinka, now a senior, would still be a wrestler, if not for a series of injuries.

During Hlavinka’s sophomore wrestling season, he was slammed face-first into the mat — shattering all of the bones in the right side of his face from his temple to his jaw. Fortunately, Hlavinka’s bones stayed in place, so he did not have to undergo reconstructive surgery. According to the doctors, if he had hit the floor at a slightly different angle, his face could have been paralyzed.

“My face was like a fine paste,” Hlavinka said.

Still, he returned to wrestling after winter break.

One time after practice, while laying down in the locker room and struggling to stay awake and breathe, he thought, “If I pass out, I might die here.”

Hlavinka later learned that he had a bacterial infection and was suffering an anaphylactic shock brought on by the collapse of his sinuses. He took it as a sign that he should quit wrestling and threw himself completely into the role of Skye in “Mamma Mia.” It was almost like Bobby and Jack were one person.

JOSH SIEGEL

One of Hlavinka's most formative theater experiences was performing the Balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet" in freshman English. Hlavinka played Romeo, while classmate Eve Kroencke played Juliet.

“He got a better grade than me, and I was annoyed because I knew he deserved it,”

Kroencke said.

Even though he was relatively new to acting, he was cast in a significant supporting role in “Mamma Mia." While performing on stage came naturally, one of his greatest challenges was learning how to act off stage; Hlavinka admits he had a lot of maturing to do.

“As a performer, he's grown exponentially,” said Jamie Stires-Hardin, who directed Hlavinka in all three Upper School musicals. “His ability to understand his characters’ struggles — to understand what they were fighting for — made his performances very real and honest.”

The only thing that was keeping me afloat was the musical and the people in it.

BOBBY HLAVINKA

Bobby Hlavinka, as union leader Jack Kelly, strikes his final pose in "Seize the Day." After appearing as the love interest in “Mamma Mia,” he portrayed the naïve dairy boy Jack in “Into the Woods” and a rebellious young union leader, also named Jack, in “Newsies.”

The highlight of his musical theater experience was performing “Santa Fe,” a should-I-stay-or-should-I-go number at the end of Act I in “Newsies.”

During a performance, in a rush of excitement, Hlavinka decided to stomp on the metal scaffolding to punctuate his decision to stay and fight for the rights of the young newsies.

“It was perfect,” he said. “Everything about it.”

The role was personal to Hlavinka because Jack struggles with the decision of whether or not to stay and fight in New York or escape to Santa Fe. It’s a dilemma that every senior faces as they prepare to leave the security of their childhood.

“It was almost like Bobby and Jack were

PHOTO | Isabella Diaz-Mira PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | Lily Feather & Lucy Walker one person,” senior Josh Siegel said. “I teared up multiple times.”

Beyond the theater, Hlavinka said that some of the most important lessons he learned in high school were extending compassion to more people and putting in effort towards his goals.

“If you actually care about something and you want to do it, you can be very good at it,” Hlavinka said.

While Hlavinka pours hours into theater, he maintains a strict fitness regimen, a holdover from his wrestling days.

Besides having his face shattered, Hlavinka only has two regrets: not having done more theater and not being nicer to everyone. After Hlavinka put so many hours into lead roles of three musicals, he has developed professional aspirations.

Hlavinka would like to continue acting at Texas A&M, but because they do not have a

theater program, he plans to first adjust to the college environment, then audition for professional theater jobs.

Since “Newsies" closed, Hlavinka has appeared in a student film and received a callback for a professional production of “Newsies," but lost out on the role because he “couldn’t dance.”

“I'm waiting until after my first year of college," Hlavinka said. “Then I'll attack it head on.”

Now that Hlavinka has found what makes him happy, he has also discovered that classmates and teachers alike want him to continue musical theater after high school.

“The only thing that was keeping me afloat was the musical and the people in it," Hlavinka said. “They were kind, and they cared.”

“The musical is family. It’s the best community at St. Johns.”

10

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

CULTURE

MAY 20, 2022

Record pollen count assaults sinuses

By Wilson Bailey & Lucy Walker

ILLUSTRATION | Alice Xu & Georgia Andrews

C

THE REVIEW

CULTURE

L

iving in Houston, we know better than to expect April showers to bring May flowers. Instead, spring just dumps pollen everywhere.

With record levels of pollen in the air this spring, freshman Grady McMillin’s allergies have been so debilitating that they have affected his attendance and concentration at school.

“I don’t usually get sick, but I’ve actually gotten sick this year,” McMillin said. “I’ve had to stay home from school because I was feeling so bad.”

Doctors typically measure pollen intolerance on a scale of zero to four. After McMillin’s allergist tested him for susceptibility to different types of allergens, he scored four on every assessment.

McMillin’s allergist recommended a course of immunotherapy to increase his resistance to the ubiquitous yellow powder. He will take three injections every week with the hope of improving his tolerance to pollen over the next three to five years.

“It’s not going to be fun, but I’m hoping that, if I start now, I’ll be done by the time I go to college,” McMillin said.

More than 25 million Americans are allergic. On April 4, the pollen count in Houston was over 12,000 pollen spores per cubic meter. Over the last five years, the highest recorded pollen count was barely over 6,000.

Director of Clinical Services Tesa Stark attributes the spike to the milder than usual weather in January and February.

“We had a much longer season where things could bloom,” Stark said.

If you’re looking to combat the onslaught of pollen, here are some of the best over-the-counter remedies lauded by students and teachers alike: Benadryl is useful for calming symptoms during shorter allergy attacks; however, do not

According to Space City Weather, a temperate winter combined with a windy spring to heighten the dispersion of pollen.

Symptoms of pollen sensitivity take several forms, manifesting as dry, itchy or irritated skin in addition to congestion and respiratory issues.

“I consistently wake up at 3 a.m. not being able to breathe,” freshman William Baker said.

The majority of Houston’s pollen descends from the sprawling live oak trees that define the city’s landscape and canopy the St. John’s campus. The fluffy yellow strands of pollen that accumulate beneath the trees, colloquially known as catkins, create the film of allergens that cover windshields, outdoor furniture and basically anything left outside.

“It’s everywhere,” freshman Genna Larsen said. “I want to sit outside because the weather is nice, but

there is pollen everywhere, on all the tables.”

Oak tree pollen is most prevalent at dawn, which has become an issue for junior Konnor Allen during his early-morning runs.

“My nose will just close up,” Allen said. “I’ll look around and just know — it’s pollen.”

While Houstonians may think our pollen problem is the worst, Houston is only average, according to Pollen.com.

In comparison, the Rio Grande Valley and panhandle are far worse. Nationally, The Rocky Mountain and Midwest regions have the highest levels of pollen saturation.

For seniors heading off to New Haven, Connecticut (ranked No. 9 for worst pollen allergies), they will need to bring plenty of Claritin, but those moving to Durham, North Carolina, (ranked No. 99) might have a repreive.

take it for more than five days in a row. If experiencing prolonged stretches of congestion and watery eyes, try Claritin or Zyrtec once a day. These maintenance drugs are safe to use for longer periods of time. If you have

trouble swallowing pills, nasal mists like Flonase are a viable alternative. Sprays are also effective at keeping respiratory tracts from drying out, which can cause nosebleeds.

Additional reporting by Ella Piper Claffy

AN A

Auburn University

Babson College

Barnard College

Boston University

Bowdoin College

Brown University

Jon Collins Deal Beth Ann Dominey

Christopher Means

Madeline Ou

Michael Skaribas Megan Wetzel

Natalie Faillace

Sydney Chon Joseph DePinho Natalie King John Perdue Celine Huang +RISD

Davidson College

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Fordham University

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Matthew Erasmus

Ryan Hogan Lucía Valderrabano

Gracie Malone

University of Michigan

University of North Carolina

Northwestern University

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Elan Grossman

Sarah McClure

Tanner Watson

Curtis Donovan

Swarthmore College

Texas Christian University

Erin Walsh Thalie Waters Ella West

Lafayette College Owen Paschke

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Andrew Ragauss

Lindsay Frankfort Afraaz Malick

Loyola Marymount University

University of Miami

Ryan Kao

Remi Clonts Norah Feldman Leonardo Morales

St. Edward’s University

University of South Carolina

Jasmine Chapa

Ava Hicks Wellsley Moore

University of Virginia

Vanderbilt University

Sloan Davidson Oliver Magdol Katharine Stepanian

Claire Pedrick Bryce Pollock

Michael Greer

University of Utah Thane Stark

DID NOT RESPOND Patrick Batsell Lauren Campbell

Duke University

Nia Evans Bobby Hlavinka

Lucy Haire Gabriela Jammar

USC

Spelman College

Ella Flowers Morgan Grace

Hailey Burnette

Vassar College

Wake Forest University

Washington and Lee University

Evie Barrett John Avery Foutch Will Gordon Zoe Hirshfeld Brady Puckett

Sarah Clark Elisabeth Marek Brabson Pacha William Suttle

Ananya Agrawal

Hannah Garrou

Carnegie Mellon University Pragya Devashish Todd Achuff

University of Georgia

Scott Martin Lillian Trask

WashU Michelle Cai Brad Raizner Hannah Woodhouse

MOST COMMON SPECIES

A TO Z GUIDE

Illustrations by Celine Huang, Max Stith and Gabe de la Cruz, with Evelyn Fearon

University of Chicago

Case Western Reserve University Anshul Nayak

Chapman University

Columbia University

Colin McCullough

Gabe de la Cruz

Cornell University Dartmouth College Meeah Bradford

Eliot Aiman Olivia Doan Bo Farnell

Trey Al-Uqdah Eden Anne Bauer Leah Beach Ella Chen Alex Flores Alejandro Garza Ryan Guthrie Lexie Leitner Catherine Lu

Eugene McCarty Duncan McLaren Reyna Ngu Steven Otillar Matthew Perez Nicholas Plana Austin Sim Michelle Simon

UT Austin

Georgia Institute of Technology James Wang

re Occidental College Lily Pesikoff Will Smith

Harvard College Maria Cheng Russell Li Dian Yu

Princeton University Wenqing He Romit Kundagrami Anahi Marquez Kate Willey

Harvey Mudd College Richard Zheng

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King’s College London

Megan Chang

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College of William & Mary

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Nathan Wilson

Isaí Meléndez Elizabeth Schaefer Joshua Siegel Ashley Yen

Wellesley College Kennedy Black Sophie Trammell

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ALL DECISIONS AS OF MAY 19

Owen McCabe Daniel Colson Mia Masterson Nylah Ali Alasdair McFarland Chloe Zhao Isabel McIntyre Peter Sall Ellie Monday Grace Perrin Jessie Beck Olivia Pieper Katie Wasserman Emmanuel Sgouros Nathan Titterington John Marian Elizabeth Cox

Rice University Mia Baumann Cici Calhoun Alexander Elliott Stefan Gustafson Nyla Hartigan Jackson Harvey

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Texas A&M Bobby Casey Ellie Eikenburg Eve Kroencke Charlie Leach Maggie Miller Hamzah Mir Foster Stephens

SMU Kenny Burke Justin Ganim Sam Marian Miles Masterson Connor McManus Maddie Mossman Noah Gehrig Saleh

174

66

COLLEGES

C/O 2022

BY THE NUMBERS: MAJORS*

54 HUMANITIES/ SOCIAL SCIENCES

Number of Seniors

108

100

OTHER

ENGINEERING

How much did finances impact your college decision?

51.8%

80 60

22.9%

40

14.1%

20

1

2

7.6%

2.9%

4

3

5

Deciding Factor

Not at all

How many schools did seniors apply to?

SENIORS APPLIED EARLY DECISION II

(If admitted Early Decision, how many applications were seniors planning to submit?)

25

16

22

Attending In-state?

Number of Seniors

79

SENIORS APPLIED EARLY ACTION

21

20

SENIORS APPLIED RESTRICTED EARLY ACTION

No 34.7% (59)

VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

4

19

UNDECIDED

28

17

15

14

Yes 27.5% (48)

12

11

10

9

5

5 No 72.5% (126)

STUDENT ATHLETES

MATH /COMPUTER SCIENCES

10

SENIORS APPLIED EARLY DECISION I

Yes 65.3% (111)

18

SCIENCES

64 BUSINESS/ ECONOMICS

HOW MANY APPLIED EARLY

26

90

10

*ACCOUNTING FOR DOUBLE MAJORS

Applied In-state?

SENIORS

0

1

3

3

2

3

6

7

6

5

6

5

4 2

4

5

6

7

8

9

3

4

5

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21+

Number of Schools

SCHOOL SETTING

SCAN THIS CODE TO SEE ALL OF THE FANTASTIC BEASTS!

RURAL 16%

URBAN 63% SUBURBAN 21%

ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN Celine Huang (Cover, center) Max Stith (Center, Back) Sarah Clark (Back) Gabe De La Cruz (Center)

SENIOR EDITORS

Russell Li, Celine Huang, Ella West (Print Editors-In-Chief); Megan Chang, Ashley Yen (Online EICS); Ella Chen, Indrani Maitra, Afraaz Malick (Executive Editors); Ellie Monday (Assignments); Max Stith (Design) Sarah Clark (Photography)

CULTURE

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

11

Through thick and thin: Staying peas in a pod, post-Quad

By Ella Piper Claffy

“W

e met when we were nine years old,” Candance Martin (’87) said. “We’ve only told that to like a million people.”

After attending River Oaks Elementary together, Kim Roquemore (’87) and Martin went to different middle schools before reconnecting in ninth grade at SJS. Decades after graduating, they still consider themselves best friends.

The duo has achieved what many wouldbe BFFs consider a wonderful, yet daunting, goal: forging a lifelong friendship in high school.

“She knows about everything — she knows my family, every part of my life, every chapter. We grew up together. We’ve lived life together,” Roquemore said. “I can't imagine my life without Candi, and I definitely can't imagine St. John's without her.”

It is not easy to find people to share one’s formative high school years, and the rush to establish such a relationship can be counterproductive.

“Everyone is insecure going into freshman year,” sophomore Charlotte Stokes said. “I was so worried about finding people quickly that I ended up with the wrong people. The friends I have now, even though I may not have been close with them in October of freshman year, I know I’ll be close with them in May of senior year.”

A 2018 University of Kansas study claims that two people must clock upwards of 200 hours with each other to become “close friends” as opposed to acquaintances, casual friends or just friends. For reference, the time spent in one year-long class accounts for about 125 hours.

The same research concludes that time spent beyond the classroom or place of employment contributes far more to the formation of friendships. Cate Stewart (’97) recalls the road trips she took with friends to her family's farm as the turning point in those relationships.

“There were no extraneous high school expectations,” Stewart said. “We could just be messy, weird 17-year-old girls not wearing shoes or brushing our hair. We could be more vulnerable.”

According to Stewart’s longtime friend and fellow roadtripper Susie Frazer (’97), everyone would pile into Stewart’s 1988 black Volvo 240 and take the 90-minute journey down I-10 to her grassy, overgrown ranch in New Ulm. “Car time,” usually spent listening to the Lemonheads, Tom Petty, Prince and the Violent Femmes,

transformed their group dynamic and serves as the basis for their 25-year friendships.

Given the rigors of SJS, it can be difficult for students, like seniors Kate Willey and Lily Pesikoff, to find time outside of class to socialize.

“There’s always some fun extracurricular thing that you can be doing,” Willey said.

“There’s an understanding between Lily and I that, even if we don’t sit together every lunch or every DaVinci, it’s not because we don’t care about each other, it’s because we have other things that we care about, too.”

Somehow, Roquemore and Martin’s friendship formed without ever having a class together, contradicting the assumption that high school friendships are formed in the hours of late-night homework help.

“I don’t know what happens in BC Calc or whatever crazy math class she’s in,” Pesikoff said, “but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know her.”

During a Zoom interview, Pesikoff and Willey appeared together, smushed next to one another in bed. Once every five minutes, they collapsed on each other, laughing at a memory or inside joke.

Pesikoff brags about having the contact information for Willey’s older brother Jack, even though she’s never texted him, while Willey shows off a necklace made for her by Pesikoff’s mother.

When Willey moved to Houston from New York City the summer before seventh grade, Pesikoff was the first person to reach out. They first met in person at a back-toschool gathering Pesikoff hosted. When Kate arrived, Lily was waiting on the front steps to meet her.

By the time they entered Upper School, they were fast friends. One of the keys to their friendship is avoiding jealousy.

“We're both accomplished people,” Pesikoff said, “and we know how important it is to show up and support each other. It's never like ‘I wish that were me’ or ‘I wish I was the one getting that award,’ because she's a hardworking person. Everything she gets, she deserves all of it, and that’s what makes our friendship healthy.”

Another secret they’ve discovered is making time for one another, especially back during quarantine. Pesikoff and Willey went out of their way to stay in touch, arranging Friday picnics and the occasional dance party on each other's sidewalks. Thai food, Willey’s favorite, was a staple.

Candace Martin ('87), right, celebrates at former classmate and best friend Kim Roquemore's ('87) wedding in 2018.

COURTESY PHOTO | Kim Roquemore These small acts exemplify the pair’s most important advice: keep it simple.

“At this point in our friendship, there’s no need to do big things,” Willey said. “Our relationship is just a compilation of the little things.”

Days from graduation, Willey and Pesikoff “have a pretty good idea” about which of their other friends are in it for the long haul — about five people.

Stewart identified five as the magic number of friends that survived the test of time, mentioning “an unbroken, 20year long conversation between the five of us.” She says the name of the game is communication. Even though some of her friends went to different colleges, “the conversation never really got interrupted.

It used to be email, now it's text — we text each other nightly.”

Willey and Pesikoff picked colleges at the opposite ends of the country — although they will both be Tigers at their respective universities. While Pesikoff will be studying music at Occidental in Los Angeles, and Willey is pursuing International Affairs at Princeton, they have little doubt in their ability to stay in touch.

Decades later, Roquemore and Martin still have an impact on the trajectory of each other’s lives.

After graduating, Roquemore did not return to St. John’s until Martin convinced her to attend their 25-year reunion.

“It took me 25 years to come back to St. John's. And I only went to that reunion because Candi came down from Dallas. And we went together,” Roquemore recalled.

“St. John's without Candi was not where I wanted to be.”

One year later, Roquemore was hired as an Upper School English teacher.

Even the best of friends need to accept that changes are inevitable.

“The intensity of the relationship, the seeing each other and being in each other's lives on a daily basis, of course that fades,” Roquemore said. “But that’s just a part of growing. And you can't, you shouldn't, maintain that.”

Martin understands the need to give her high school friends a little space, noting that, with so many years of history, “it’s easy to pick up where you left off.” As friends who have witnessed each other’s development, Stewart and Frazer consider maintaining high school relationships invaluable.

“The oldest and closest friends that I have,” Martin said, “are friends from high school.”

Twenty-five years after graduting from St. John's, friends from the class of 1997, Jennifer Hogan, Susie Frazer, Cate Stewart and Sarah Galfione, gather for one of their regular get-togethers at Marina Green in San Francisco.

COURTESY PHOTO | Cate Stewart

12

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

CULTURE

HOW IS THIS ARTICLE DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER ARTICLES?

BECAUSE WE ARE ADDRESSING THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE

By Lily Feather

PHOTO & DESIGN | Diane Guo

E

velyn Arouty still remembers the day she found out that Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker was being held hostage at a synagogue outside Dallas. Scrolling through Instagram in late January, she repeatedly noticed posts referencing “Prayers for the Cytron-Walker family.”

Arouty, a sophomore, knew both Cytron-Walker and his teenage daughter from Greene Family Camp, a Reform Jewish summer camp north of Austin.

During the 11-hour hostage situation on Jan. 15 at Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Arouty and her camp friends texted each other, unable to get in touch with the rabbi’s daughter. They felt helpless, wondering if she was okay.

Known to his congregants as Rabbi Charlie, Cytron-Walker “is there for everybody, constantly,” Arouty said.

It was exactly his welcoming personality that led the rabbi to admit a 44-year-old stranger from England into his synagogue and prepare a cup of tea for him before realizing his guest was an antisemitic gunman on a mission.

The standoff ended after 9:30 p.m, when Cytron-Walker flung a chair at the gunman and ran for the door with the other three hostages. FBI agents stormed the synagogue, shooting and killing the gunman.

The gunman’s plan was to leverage the lives of the Jews in exchange for the release of a terrorist being held in a Texas federal prison. He believed that “Jews control the world,” a pervasive antisemitic theory.

I don’t think people realize that antisemitism not only still exists, but is still dangerous.

LIV RUBENSTEIN

Law enforcement representatives initially stated on CNN that the attack was not motivated by antisemitism and “was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” but officials later walked the statement back.

Since the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, the Secure Community Network, an organization dedicated to self-defense workshops for American Jews, has seen an increase in security and safety training. The shooting, in Pittsburgh, killed 11 people and injured six.

According to the Texas Tribune, Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel typically spends about $175,000 a year on hiring law enforcement to patrol its grounds, and, on Jewish High Holy days, the syngagogue will employ as many as 15 guards and a bomb-sniffing dog.

After the Colleyville attack, Jewish leaders called for increased funding to provide security at houses of worship.

Arouty soon noticed that her synagogue increased security.

“It just makes you think the world isn’t safe anymore,” she added. “Things like that need to be acknowledged.”

But at St. John’s, none of her friends or teachers mentioned the attack.

No one, not even the Unity Council or Jewish Affinity Group, responded to the event.

“Absolutely nobody knew about it,” Arouty said. “That’s only four hours away.”

Senior Liv Rubenstein was at a party when she heard the hostages had been released. She was greatly relieved, but none of the other attendees even knew what had happened to begin with.

“I don’t think people realize that antisemitism not only still exists, but is still dangerous,” she said.

JEWISH STUDENT LIFE

As a Jew at St. John’s, Arouty describes her experience as mostly positive.

In recent years, the school has provided a day off on Yom Kippur, which allows Jewish students to observe the holiest day of the year. During Passover, the cafeteria provided matzah for people observing the holiday’s restrictions on leavened bread products, but that practice has fallen through the cracks because of Covid. Food Services Director Alan Mallett has committed to bringing the matzah back next year.

Most Jewish students, however, point to Chapel as a bone of contention. Arouty recounted how she and her younger brother have, on separate occasions, been told by teachers to recite the Lord’s Prayer while in Chapel, both in Lower and Middle School. When Arouty’s brother told the teacher that he was Jewish, the teacher insisted nonetheless.

“That is totally inappropriate,” said Ned Mulligan, Director of Spiritual Life, who states unequivocally that students are in no way required to recite the Lord’s Prayer during Chapel, a point that he clarifies at the start of every school year.

When she was in Lower School, a classmate once made a Nazi salute when Arouty was in the room. In Middle School, a former friend made “questionable comments and jokes” to her.

“You can’t really do anything,” Arouty said. “You just tell them that is not okay.”

Rubenstein recounts a number of insults over the years, including comments about the size of her nose or when people say she “doesn’t look Jewish.”

“It’s not the compliment that you think it is,” she said.

As a freshman, while taking Global Issues in Historical Context, Rubenstein noticed their textbook said that Jews refer to their god as Yahweh because they do not say G-d’s

name. The textbook, which is still being used, repeats Yahweh 18 times. In fact, Jews use different epithets for G-d (Jews also do not write out G-d’s name on paper) but Yahweh is actually G-d’s name in Hebrew. In modern Jewish culture, it is forbidden to even say Yahweh.

While not as egregious as the antisemitic violence in the news, these microaggressions “get under your skin after a while,” Rubenstein said.

You can’t really do anything. You just tell them that is not okay.

EVELYN AROUTY

Rubenstein’s Jewish elementary school, The Shlenker School, put a shatter-resistant film on the windows to prevent children from being injured in case an explosive device detonates. The Houston Jewish Community Center and Shlenker have received multiple bomb threats.

“When you’re Jewish,” Rubenstein said, “You expect and plan around violence.”

COLLEGE PROCESS FOR JEWISH STUDENTS

During her college search, Rubenstein consulted Hillel, an organization dedicated to informing students about the Jewish experience on college campuses. Based on her research, “several schools were crossed out.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, last year one-third of Jewish undergraduate students experienced antisemitism, including slurs, vandalism and being held responsible for actions of the Israeli government, especially after the conflict between Israel and Gaza last May. With the rise of antisemitism, 15 percent of college students felt the need to hide their Jewish identity.

“You’re constantly having to explain not only that you deserve to be there but also having to explain geopolitics and the history of antisemitism — there’s just not time for that,” Rubenstein said.

In recent years, an anti-Zionist movement has become prevalent on college campuses. The BDS movement seeks to “Boycott, Divest and Sanction” the state of Israel. While BDS claims to be a peaceful organization, calling itself “a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality,” its critics condemn it for its demonization of Israel and the conspiracy-fueled belief that Israel is an apartheid state.

BDS has gained a following among self-identified pacifist college students, while its leaders opposed Israel’s

CULTURE

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

Sophomore Evelyn Arouty wears a sweatshirt from Greene Family Camp, where she first met Rabbi Cytron-Walker.

Cytron-Walker was taken hostage in January.

PHOTO |Isabella Diaz-Mira existence altogether. During the current school year, 17 BDS resolutions were considered on college campuses across the country, and, of those, 11 passed at universities including Pomona University, the University of Illinois and Columbia.

Rubenstein noted that Jewish leaders have long recognized the relationship between antisemitism and opposition to Israel’s existence (also known as anti-Zionism). She hoped that people would recognize both the antisemitism and anti-Zionism that motivated the Colleyville attack, but the topic made people uncomfortable when Rubenstein brought it up.

“I thought that maybe this incident would be the time where something would change,” she said.“It didn’t.”

On his sister’s college visit to Swarthmore in 2019, senior Josh Siegel met with several Jewish professors who told him their school was not a welcoming environment for Jewish students. Because of these warnings, and because he knew that BDS was prevalent, Siegel did not apply.

“There’s always going to be antisemitic presences on college campus,” Siegel said. “Antisemitism is rampant in all institutions across all of time.”

Last fall, colleges including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Minnesota and Weslayan began the semester on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, one of the two most sacred days in the Jewish calendar. Jewish students faced a difficult decision. At Wisconsin, which ranks sixth in the nation in terms of largest Jewish population, the college’s Hillel chapter informed Chancellor Rebecca Blank of the scheduling issue. After further complaints from students, Hillel and other Jewish organizations, Blank sent out an apology letter to the school — but refused to move the start date.

A similar situation occurred at Weslayan, in which the administration also did not change the start date. Dotan Appelbaum, Senior Board Advisor of the Wesleyan Jewish Community, reacted in an interview with the Wesleyan Argus: “I was simultaneously outraged and entirely unsurprised.”

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ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

Chair Rachel Weissenstein teaches Viktor Frankl’s Holocaust memoir “Man’s Search for Meaning” in her spring seminar.

In Clay Guinn’s senior English seminar, students read Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust-themed graphic novel “Maus,” which sparked controversy in January when it was unanimously banned by a school board in Tennessee because it allegedly caused students “discomfort.” After the ban, Maus shot to the top of Amazon’s online bestseller list.

Until it was removed from the curriculum last year, students in freshmen English used to read “Night,” Elie Wiesel’s memoir about his experiences during the Holocaust.

Junior Josie Feldman enjoyed reading “Night” and was dismayed that it was no longer being taught.

“Numbers and facts often minimize the emotional impacts of the Holocaust,” Feldman said.

“In ‘Night,’ Wiesel recounted his personal experiences of the Holocaust, and his narrative left a much greater impact on me than learning about the Holocaust from a textbook or teacher.”

Feldman said that her teachers have handled Holocaust education well overall.

“People hear stories about how teachers are talking about the Holocaust, and they ask the Jewish kids about it,” Feldman said. “That’s never happened to me.”

According to Weissenstein, “Night” is no longer taught

in the Upper School because the curriculum is constantly being changed. In recent years, it became apparent that many incoming ninth graders had already read “Night” in their respective middle schools.

History teacher Derrick Angermeier consulted with two English teachers before they taught Night last year, to give them context on the events of the Holocaust.

“It’s frustrating sometimes to see Holocaust education get lumped in with the so-called controversial subjects of the historical record,” said Angermeier, who helped restructure Modern World History’s Holocaust curriculum last spring.

In his Modern World History class, students spend a few days on WWII and the Holocaust, discovering the stories of French Jewish children victims.

“One of the most transformative things that you can do with Holocaust and genocide studies is use it as a powerful empathy tool,” Angermeier said.

Junior Arianna Doss first read “Night” in seventh grade when she had little to no context about the Holocaust.

When she started, she told a friend not to worry, because the main character would be reunited with his family in the end.

“Why wouldn’t there be a happy ending?”

The shocking conclusion deepened Doss’s understanding and made the events of the Holocaust much more real for her. Today she considers the memoir as “life-changing and perspective-altering.”

“It was hard to imagine as a seventh grader, or even now as a junior, society’s capacity to dehumanize and do awful things to people,” she said.

Amy Frake, an educator at the Holocaust Museum Houston, was pleasantly surprised when JAG board member Abby Golub reached out to her about giving a presentation for Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Rememberance Day, on April 28.

For some Jewish students, the event was too painful.

“I didn’t go because I didn’t want to cry,” said one Jewish student who asked to remain anonymous.

Frake told stories of the Holocaust through the diaries of those who lived it.

“Even if students have studied the Holocaust before, they’ll often know the basics, but they usually don’t have an in-depth idea — and often they’ll have some misconceptions,” she said.

Numbers and facts often minimize the emotional impacts of the Holocaust.

JOSIE FELDMAN

Besides teaching students about history, Frake notes that the Holocaust is still an important part of the cultural conversation. Holocaust comparisons are still prevalent, such as when Putin recently claimed the invasion was to “denazify Ukraine.”

“If students can understand the background of the Holocaust, they can be part of this conversation, and they can judge for themselves if a comparison makes sense or not,” Frake said.

Over the last few years, Frake has noticed an uptick in antisemitism, including hatred toward the Holocaust museum.

“Something that surprises me about my job is how relevant it still is.”

STUDYING THE HOLOCAUST

For many students, World War II can seem far away, but Jewish students are still deeply impacted over 75 years later.

During a football game back in Middle School, some visiting students overheard that Siegel’s grandparents had been killed in the Holocaust. The students then denied the Holocaust ever happened, called Siegel an offensive Jewish slur, and then kicked a soccer ball at his face.

German propaganda used during WWII, featuring caricatures of large-nosed Jews with bags of money, is still prevalent today. Senior Lindsay Frankfort tries to brush off these stereotypes when people make comments about “Jewish noses” or assume that she is Jewish because of her appearance.

Some St. John’s students have been told by classmates to “go back to the gas chambers.”

“Even though I wasn’t there at the Holocaust, it still hurts, because I’m part of it,” Arouty said.

Literature at St. John’s specifically focusing on the Jewish experience is present but limited. English Department

A collection of ancestral photos from Matt Stein, husband of Review adviser Shelley Stein, tell the story of his relatives who were persecuted during the Holocaust.

COURTESY PHOTOS |Matt Stein DESIGN | Lily Feather

14

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

CULTURE

Fausse Fatales: Our fixation on female scammers Cultural Commentary by Jennifer Liu

F

rom Hermès scarves to Manolo Blahnik shoes, high fashion from the 2000s has become a cornerstone of modern pop culture. Countless Buzzfeed articles discuss the most iconic outfits from “The Devil Wears Prada” or gush over the fashion sense of each character in “Gossip Girl.”

Beyond fashion, another staple of the 2010s has returned to prominence — an enticing lineup of shows featuring scammers and con artists.

Movies and shows like “Catch Me If You Can,” “White Collar” and “The Hustle” center around swindlers, and the latest Netflix sensation is “Inventing Anna,” the smash hit, limited-run series that dramatizes the true story of Anna Sorokin, a.k.a Anna Delvey, a young, fash-

ionable, alleged German heiress who revenge on authority figures in our lives. conned her way through New York high Although Sorokin and her ilk seem society in the 2010s. to be scamming their way to the top of As recounted in the Shonda Rhimes promale-dominated industries, they have duction, starring Julia Garner from “Ozark,” also become outlets for sexism toward Sorokin’s deception remained unchecked women in business. Former Theranos CEO for years. In the show, Anna’s designer Elizabeth Holmes (‘02), for example, casts a friend Val describes her as someone with long shadow on current and future female “real taste.” Anna looked right at home entrepreneurs. Women in STEM, a field dressed in Alaia, Balenciaga or Dior. She largely populated by men, have been subwas the quintessential Society Girl. jected to jokes and comparisons to Holmes, Sorokin embodied every aspect of the even though many work in completely “old money” aesthetic: she ordered the different industries. right wine, connected with the right people Male scammers, on the other hand, have and spoke with unchecked confidence. suffered little-to-no backlash from society.

To explain her mounting debt, she made Think about the “Wolf of Wall Street” and endless excuses about faulty credit cards — “Catch Me If You Can.” Sure, Jordan Belfort ultimately leaving hotels and hosts on the is a convicted felon, and Frank Abagnale is hook for untold thousands. infamous for fraud, but they have amassed Despite her illustrious persona, Sorokin’s a following of self-described “alpha males” real rise to fame happened during her trial, who worship their audacity. when she was portrayed as an ambitious Despite their criminal convictions, our young woman with an eye for fashion. culture tends to believe the motives and There was an Instagram page solely dednarratives of white women. Holmes and Soicated to her court outfits, and Anna had rokin have their supporters who correctly Saint Laurent clothing delivered to her in point out that many Silicon Valley leaders prison. commit the same crimes and get away with Sorakin was ultimately convicted on it. eight counts of white-collar crimes, In March, Hulu released “The including grand larceny and Dropout,” an eight-part series about theft services, for which she Holmes based on a 2019 podcast. is facing deportation while Take a look at the posters for in custody at an ICE facility both “Inventing Anna" and “The in upstate New York.

Dropout." They each feature a Part of the public fascicloseup of half their protagonists' nation with “fausse fafaces, one eye staring straight at tales” like Sorokin is the you. Telling a story from a scamsatisfaction of watching mer's perspective is a privilege not their manipulation. afforded to others.

We are charmed by A similar phenomenon appears in protagonists who the true crime genre with the “missrely on brains not ing white woman” syndrome, a term brawn like Loki and that encapsulates the overrepreILLUSTRATION | Robin Hood. Their sentation of lost white women.

Georgia Andrews, triumphs feel like The lifestyles of Sorokin and Diane Guo & Alice Xu MIRROR, MIRROR: The posters for "The Drop-

Holmes are easily glamorized for TV because there is already a culture inclined to believe that whiteness is inherently innocent.

Although scamming shows are far from morally righteous, there’s no denying that they are still enjoyable. Since the release of “Inventing Anna” in February, “Saturday Night Live" presented a parody sketch “Inventing Chloe,” and popular show and movie review sites such as Screenrant and WatchMojo have produced videos about the series.

“Inventing Anna” ultimately kills two birds with one stone. The intersection of high fashion and true crime is guaranteed to ensure its place in popular culture.

out" and "Inventing Anna" are eerily similar.

Thank you, Aston Martin Houston, for loaning St. John's the Bond car for the 2022 Prom.

SPORTS

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

Zhao reigns victorious in SPC Junior leads girls to first championship since 2018

By Richard Liang

W

hen Victoria Zhao missed a backhand down-the-line, she found herself down 0-3 to senior Abigail Platt from Greenhill in the second set of the No. 1 singles final. After cruising through the first set 6-3, she was exhausted and out of rhythm.

This was uncharted territory for Zhao, a highly sought-after college recruit who is ranked No. 8 in Texas and 59th nationally among high school juniors.

As a dejected Zhao headed to the bench during the changeover, she heard freshman teammate Remy Phan shout, “It’s all about the mindset.” Suddenly, Zhao was reminded of what she prides herself on: mental grit.

“Something clicked in my brain,” Zhao said.

“I never looked back.”

When Zhao was little, she participated in swimming and dancing — but neither suited her.

She comes from a long line of professional athletes. In China, her father was a standout track athlete and her mother starred on the Chinese national volleyball team.

Zhao’s parents wanted her to discover a sport for which she felt a natural passion, so they sent her to sporting camps with her cousin. Christine Wang (‘20), currently a golfer on a top three NCAA program at the University of Southern California had a five-year-old Zhao tag along while Wang worked on her golf swing by playing tennis. They spent the summer smacking orange tennis balls back and forth at Westheimer Indoor Tennis Club.

The unique blend of physicality, elegance and

strategy made tennis appealing. After watching Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic play on TV, Zhao was convinced that she would become a professional, too.

When you’re young, you’re always telling yourself: ‘I’m going to be a pro,’” Zhao said. “I wanted to be a professional tennis player so bad; it was all I thought about.”

By the time she was eight, Zhao swept through her first dozen tournaments to become a Super Champ, the highest tier of junior tennis in Texas.

Zhao dedicates her time to prepare for the 20 national tournaments she competes in each year. During the school year, Zhao allots over 20 hours a week to her training routine, which involves multiple hitting sessions and workouts.

Every summer since fifth grade, Zhao travels to Southern Florida to train at some of the most selective tennis academies such as IMG and hit with professionals.

“It was definitely intimidating hitting with Grand Slam winners,” Zhao said. “I was nervous, and what sucked was that they were going all out. Roddick was serving up aces, Haas was slapping balls and I was out there trying to survive.”

As a freshman, Zhao traveled to Tianjin, China to train with the Chinese national team, staying at the house of one of the top female tennis players in the world.

Zhao has had to strike a balance between her academics and her commitment to tennis. As of this year, Zhao has missed over 300 classes in high school. Any given tournament can take

15

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

up at least a week of school.

“When I started playing at higher level tournaments, I realized that a lot of the top players were homeschooled because it gave them a lot of flexibility with their schedules,” Zhao said. “I’m up until three in the morning every day finishing makeup work.”

While Zhao’s tennis lifestyle is taxing, she likes to think of it as a “class on what it takes to succeed.”

As a Maverick, Zhao headed into the SPC finals with a 19-0 record in all SPC countermatches. In the finals, her perfect record was on the line.

Thanks to Phan’s advice, Zhao’s mind was clear as she stepped up to serve. Instead of aiming for winners, Zhao played the rest of the match to her strengths — long rallies and precise angles. She worked her way back, eventually leading 6-5. On match point, her opponent's forehand sailed wide. With Zhao’s victory, the team clinched the SPC title.

A decade of oncourt dominance has translated into Zhao’s verbal commitment to play Division I tennis.

“I can’t wait to compete at a higher level,” Zhao said. “Not only do I get to play college tennis, which has been a dream of mine for a long time, but I also get to play at a place that has no mosquitos.”

S SPORTS

Zhao is ranked No. 8 in Texas and No. 59 nationally.

PHOTO | Emma Chang

SPC RECAP

Girls secure golf, tennis titles; runners-up in softball, lax

By Lillian Poag & Lucy Walker The rest of the SPC began play on April 28.

The girls’ lacrosse team battled St. Stephen’s in the quarterfinals, winning 14-6.

With a 10 a.m. start time, the team did not expect many fans to show up; captain Savi Augustine was pleasantly surprised to see teachers and peers witness their victory. Many faculty members let their classes out early to cheer on the team.

After the Mavericks beat the Episcopal School of Dallas 7-5 to reach the finals, the team ran to embrace Augustine.

The Mavs put a scare into Hockaday, trailing by just three goals at halftime. While the girls did not complete the comeback, their second place finish still felt like a victory.

The seniors were the last class coached by Third baseman Jessie Beck tags an Episcopal player in the SPC finals. the late head coach Angie Kensinger.

PHOTO | Emma Chang “Coach K meant so much to not only me, but the whole lacrosse program at St. John’s,” he spring SPC championships started out strong as Augustine said. “When we won SPC last year, I thought of the girls’ golf team finished their undefeated SPC her and how proud she would be.”

Both tennis teams earned a first-round bye for being the tournament season at the Pecan Valley Golf Course top seeds in the South Zone. in Fort Worth, winning their fifth consecutive championCaptains Russell Li and Keval Shah spent time scouting ship.

The Mavs’ top five golfers finished the tournament 38 other teams, structuring their line-up around their oppostrokes ahead of Kinkaid with a team score of 600, their nents’ strengths and weaknesses.

The boys beat ESD 3-2 in the quarterfinals and bested best showing of the season. defending champion St. Mark’s in the semifinals, 4-1. The “Our girls played well top-to-bottom,” head golf coach Mavs’ run came to an end against John Cooper School Jack Soliman said. “This is the first time I had a team in the finals, the second straight year they lost 3-2 in the where all five girls shot under 80. I don’t think it’s ever happened at SPC.” finals to the eventual champion.

Soliman referred to team captain and Yale signee Ashley “We competed well as a team and gave ourselves a chance in every match we played,” Shah said.

Yen as a “generational athlete — one that comes around Girls’ tennis finished 15-1 en route to their title. once or twice in a long coaching career.”

Back-to-back shutouts over Trinity Valley in the quarterfiSoliman said the team still has the talent to win their sixth straight SPC title. Sophomore Brielle Burns placed nals and Awty in the semis set the stage for a matchup with third overall, followed by Yen in fourth and sophomore Greenhill, a team that the Mavs had not faced since 2019.

Kenna Lee in seventh.

“We were pretty nervous because we had never seen how the North Zone teams played,” junior captain Dalia Khera “We will be winning for a long time to come,” captain said.

Reyna Ngu said.

At Pecan Valley, the boys’ team finished ninth.

The Mavs’ nerves did not affect their performance — “Even though our team didn’t have a lot of experience decisively winning SPC 4-1. For returning players, the vicwith tournaments, everyone played their best,” sophomore tory was redemption for a disappointing 2021 postseason.

“Last year, we were the favorites to win,” junior captain captain Jerry Zhang said.

In between rounds, Soliman held a steak cookout, but the Ava Phan said. “This year, we didn’t underestimate the other teams.” dinner quickly turned into a competitive cook-off.

Phan’s father had no doubt that the Mavs would triumph; “Some of the boys were bragging about how they could cook better than me,” Soliman said. “I’m a seasoned veterhe had already designed victory t-shirts the night before the championships. an when it comes to grilling. They have a lot to learn.”

T

The girls’ track team placed sixth, led by top scorers senior Cici Calhoun (2nd place 800m, 3rd place 1600m) and freshman Jackie Chapman, who won the discus and placed fourth in the shot put.

Two weeks after SPC, Calhoun, a Rice signee, shattered the school record for the 1600m in a postseason meet with a time of 5:16.6, eclipsing the mark set in 1979 by Bridget Jenson.

The boys’ track team focused on individual improvement to perform their best at SPC. They finished seventh.

“We thought we were finally going to come together and showcase what we could really do,” junior William Thames said. “We didn't get that opportunity.”

When Gatorade Cross-Country Player of the Year senior Emmanuel Sgouros got pneumonia and could not run up to his usual standards, Colson admitted, “At that point we were toast.”

The baseball team felt confident heading into SPC after solidifying relationships on and off the field. Captains stressed that everyone had a role on the team.

“Just because we’re captains doesn’t mean there’s a hierarchy on the team; everyone is treated with the same level of respect,” senior left fielder Charlie Leach said.

“That culture built within the baseball program has led us to build camaraderie.”

After beating Greenhill 5-3 and the Oakridge School 7-4, they hosted rival Kinkaid in front of a packed Randall Field.

Kinkaid entered the semifinal matchup as the number one seed, while the Mavs finished third in South Zone. The Mavs were only down by one entering the sixth inning, when freshman Owen Sherill appeared to score a run.

The play was then appealed and the run was thrown out.

Kinkaid took advantage of the confusion and scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth. The game resulted in a devastating 5-1 loss for the Mavs.

The last chance for the Mavs to pick up a SPC title was the softball team, which steamrolled Hockaday 20-1 and Kinkaid 13-1 on their way to an intense final matchup with Episcopal.

Tensions flared in the first inning of the finals when senior Jessie Beck scored a run, which was contested by the opposing coach and, after review, Beck was ultimately called out.

“It confused us more than anything else. All of us were completely thrown off,” freshman left fielder Julia Mickiewicz said. “That call was just impeding good softball.”

Ultimately, the Knights beat the Mavs 7-3.

In the end, the Mavs came away from SPC with two titles and two second-place finishes.

16

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

Wanna Bet? A Guide to Gambling Terms

Action: a basic bet.

Bad Beat: A bet on which a bettor is poised to win but ultimately loses, usually on a buzzer beater or seemingly insignificant final play.

Chalk: The player or team favorited to win (whereas a “lock” is a term used to designate a strong favorite).

Cover: Betting outcome based on a spread bet; The favorite must cover by winning above the spread. Ex: If the spread favors the Astros by 3.5 runs, and they win 7-4, then they do not cover the spread.

Future Bets: Bets placed on outcomes far in the future, such as picking the Super Bowl winner before the season even begins.

Handle: Total amount of money wagered on a sporting event.

Handicapping: Extensive research conducted before betting.

Hedging: Attempting to gain a small sum by betting against another bet.

Juice: The fee charged by a bookie for accepting a bet or the interest owed on an unpaid debt.

Over/Under: A betting option based on the combination of what both teams will score. Ex: If the over in the Cowboys-Saints game is 52 and the final score is 28-21, then the result is under.

Proposition bets (props): Bets on any element not tied to the final outcome of a sporting event. These can include which team scores first, if a particular player hits a home run, or who wins the coin toss.

Public money: The side on which most bets are placed.

Push: When a game lands exactly on a spread, and all bets are refunded.

Spread: Points added to “even the playing field” between two unevenly matched teams; the bigger the spread, the more lopsided the expected result. Ex: The point spread between Rice and Texas was minus-26.

Sportsbook: Where one bets on sporting events, typically found in casinos and now online.

THE REVIEW

MAY 20, 2022

SPORTS

GAMBLING ADDICTION: W

By Ella West & Cameron Ederle

hen Saul Malek (’16) began seriously gambling on sporting events during his sophomore year at Trinity University, he bet on mainstream professional sports. Three years later, he was wagering money he didn’t have on obscure prop bets — like how many points a tennis player would win in a match or runs the Astros would score in the 7th inning of an arbitrary game.

At the time, Malek was placing bets with a bookie who also attended Trinity. Besides taking wagers, the bookie would set the odds and pay the winners on behalf of a third party.

His gambling losses became so egregious that Malek tried to avoid his bookie and “find some way to get this money that I don’t have — or tell my parents and get bailed out.”

Ultimately, Malek had to admit the truth. He was an addict.

Addiction is a specific behavior that becomes allconsuming and creates significant social, emotional, academic and/or financial problems, according to Upper School Counselor Ashley LeGrange. She emphasized the official classification of addiction as a disease, rejecting the falacy of addiction as a choice or lifestyle.

LeGrange says that teenagers tend to dismiss addictive behavior, believing they could stop if they only “wanted to.”

“That’s one of the most concerning things with addiction,” she said. “We train the brain how to cope with our feelings and experiences. If we use substances as a coping mechanism to feel different, we’re essentially training our brain to need those substances each time we want to feel different. The more we reinforce the more normal it becomes to “need” it.”

A year and a half into sports betting, Malek knew it was destroying his life.

“That’s part of the insidious, destructive nature of gambling,” Malek said. “It takes so much from you. To stop gambling means that you have to face all of that destruction without the anesthetic of gambling to take you into a dream world.”

In August 2019, while Malek was publicly celebrating one year of gambling sobriety, his girlfriend found out that he had continued to gamble in secret. Rather than quitting for good, Malek had only stopped for about a month because he didn’t have access to a bookie. Once he found another, he was gambling again.

Only when his girlfriend broke up with him did Malek begin to take his addiction seriously.

“The final straw was getting dumped,” Malek said. “It was the reality check that I needed. I really sensed the desperation.”

In an effort to win her back, Malek asked his Gamblers’ Anonymous sponsor in Houston to tell his ex-girlfriend once he successfully stopped gambling for at least five months.

“I knew if I didn’t make any changes in my life, there would be no long-term abstaining from gambling.”

GETTING HOOKED

Sports betting has become an integral part of youth culture.

For decades, the National Football League fought to distance themselves from the sports betting industry, but in 2021, the NFL finally embraced gambling.

This season, according to Politico, celebrities including Ben Affleck, Martin Lawrence and Jamie Foxx starred in commercials for WynnBET, DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM. According to Malek, these sports betting apps emulate the effects of “gateway drugs” — the virtual aspect creates a detached, “harmless” entry point for impressionable users to be drawn in.

Then, they can’t stop.

“I’m not saying to abolish gambling or fantasy football and all this because I’m not the moral police,” Malek said. “But I will say that it progressed for me to the point that I needed this nonstop action.”

Sports commentary YouTubers like Jomboy are sponsored by sports betting companies like Draft Kings.

Even popular Instagram accounts, including Bleacher Report, promote online gambling — although some followers have asked them to stop enabling addiction. “[Sports betting] is becoming a lot more normalized and more accessible,” senior Stefan Gustafson said. “The media makes teenage guys bold and want to do it.”

According to Malek, aggressive advertising by these sports betting companies has cultivated an environment in which fans can no longer enjoy games without something on the line.

SPORTS

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

17

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

IT ISN’T JUST

A GAME

26 student-athletes sign with colleges CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK CiCi Calhoun Rice University

Sarah Clark Washington & Lee University

Hannah Garrou

Swarthmore College

Emmanuel Sgouros University of Texas at Austin

Caroline Thames Rice University

FOOTBALL Stefan Gustafson Rice University

Duncan McLaren University of Chicago

John Perdue

Brown University

FENCING Meeah Bradford Cornell University

Wenqing He

Princeton University Sports betting ad campaigns typically target a specific demographic: wealthy young men between the ages of 18 and 35. This group, Malek explained, is an easy mark: they’re already watching the game, so they might as well make it interesting.

Because many students fall into this target demographic, they are exposed to gambling and sports-betting early on.

Malek was introduced to low-stakes gambling by playing fantasy baseball while at St. John’s.

Fantasy baseball is a game in which players act as the general managers of virtual teams. They draft and set rosters, earning points each week based on how well their team performs.

“To St. John’s credit, students were able to get more out of fantasy sports because they actually understood the statistics and numbers side of it,” Malek said.

Although fantasy baseball (or rotisserie baseball, as it was initially called) is still popular, the real force in the gambling world is fantasy football, which, according to Forbes Magazine, has grown into an industry that generates $40 to $70 billion annually.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimates that, over an 18-week season, the “average fantasy gamer spends three hours per week managing a team, translating to 1.2 billion hours for 23 million players.”

Malek thought that fantasy sports were pretty harmless.

“It is sort of like a gateway because there’s so much interest and enthusiasm in fantasy sports,” Malek said.

FROM FANTASY SPORTS TO HARSH REALITIES

Derek, a student who asked to remain anonymous, is not concerned about the long-term consequences of his friends’ sports betting habits, but he does acknowledge that sometimes they need to slow down, especially when “they’ve hit a cold streak.”

Although Derek enjoys playing fantasy sports with his friends, he has never placed a bet — and doesn’t plan to.

“Growing up around sports, I know how unpredictable it is,” Derek said. “It’s too hard to bet and put everything on the line.”

ONE STEP AT A TIME

In July, Malek will celebrate three gambling-free years. He’s focusing on graduate school, a new romantic relationship and “staying on the straight and narrow.”

When it comes to his gambling problem, Malek says, “I don’t take any chances.”

Since getting clean, Malek has shared his story both locally and nationally. He has spoken with St. John’s students and was featured in a 2021 New York Times article on the dangers of sports gambling.

While Malek doesn’t feel as if it’s his place to tell people not to gamble, he suggests questioning the motives behind the activity.

“I really liked the idea of feeling like a big shot through being able to brag about my wins and carry cash around,” Malek said. “I just used it as a way to try to manufacture self-esteem — to try to be popular.”

For gambling addicts looking to recover, Malek preaches the efficacy of the 12-step plan and suggests answering the 20 Gamblers Anonymous questions, which include questions such as, “Did I lose time from school or work due to gambling?” and “Did my home life get impacted?”

Malek has developed a network of contacts through GA meetings across Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, which have been integral to his recovery, but he’s most grateful for his family.

“There are plenty of people who kind of throw you away because of the lying, manipulation and financial ruin,” Malek said. “But my family has been really supportive.”

Many students get involved with fantasy sports through their athletic teams, friend-groups or family. When playing with other students, each league tends to have a reward for the winner and a punishment for whoever places last, such as having the loser spend 24 hours in a Waffle House.

This year, many seniors went on a Spring Break trip to the Bahamas — where the betting age is 18 — and either returned with large sums of money or empty wallets.

Most bet on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, while others wagered on more obscure sporting events, including Russian minor league hockey games.

Gustafson, who lost $60 on the trip, felt comfortable gambling for the first time because it was legal and he has no family history of addiction.

“I never had an extreme urge to go back to bet more,” Gustafson said. “Betting on college basketball is definitely more for comraderie’s sake.”

Gustafson is slightly wary of legal sports betting expanding in Texas.

“I would actually have to stay out of it because it is fun to sit down with friends and watch a game — to all collectively have money on something,” he said.

While some of the vacationing seniors were new to sports betting, many had been gambling for years. Since the Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports betting in 2018, 30 states and Washington D.C. have done so, but not Texas. Many find ways around the restrictions.

DESIGN & ILLUSTRATIONS | Diane Guo & Alice Xu

RIDING Elisabeth Marek Washington & Lee University

BASKETBALL Jackson Cormier Wesleyan University

FIELD HOCKEY Megan Chang

Johns Hopkins University

Sloan Davidson

University of Virginia

Erin Walsh

Davidson College

Megan Wetzel Boston University

BASEBALL Mathew Chotiner

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Patrick Fanning Tufts University

Christopher Means Babson College

Nathan Wilson Whitman College

SWIMMING Todd Achuff Carnegie Mellon University

Ella Flowers

University of Southern California

WRESTLING Mathew Perez University of Chicago

William Suttle

Washington & Lee University

GOLF Ashley Yen

Yale University

LACROSSE Mason Muller Rhodes College

18

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

THE REVIEW

OPINIONS

MAY 20, 2022

O OPINIONS

We are not overreacting: It's worse than we thought ILLUSTRATION | Amanda Brantley

Staff Editorial

H

ere we are again.

On May 2, almost nine months after Texas enacted one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision written by Justice Samuel Alito sent shockwaves through American politics.

The rest of the country found out what we in Texas already knew — and had been discussing — since our first issue of the year.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case preventing states from criminalizing abortion, is hanging by a thread. At least five of the nine Supreme Court Justices want to overturn Roe with the justification that it is unconstitutional and that abortion restrictions must be left to the states.

Of course, we know what Texas is going to do. They have already done it.

The Supreme Court does not care about teenage girls. It cares more about the Constitution, a 235-year-old document, than the health and welfare of women. Our revered judicial system,

ideally free of corruption and political infighting, claimed that abortion rights should be overturned because they are, in Alito’s words, “not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.”

SCOTUS seems to think that they can cherry-pick precedent.

The Supreme Court has long enjoyed its reputation as the least political branch. Within the Supreme Court building, a hellenistic temple so grand that it's called the Marble Palace, a man publicly accused of sexual misconduct sits near a woman with just two years of judicial experience.

To top it all off, someone just leaked a highly confidential document — no one has any idea who did it.

But the Regressive Justices in the Marble Palace don’t concern themselves with policy — good or bad. It’s not their job to care. The Constitution is paramount, and the lives lost or ruined by their rulings are merely collateral damage. Thomas Jefferson wanted the Constitution updated every 19 years, but the majority of the current Supreme Court only seems interested in TJ's stance on

state’s rights.

If the government wants to ban abortions, then we need it to provide birth control and prenatal care, paid parental leave, and expanded daycare.

Alito’s leaked draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization seeks to overturn the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v.

Casey, which would allow states to implement harsher abortion restrictions. Texas violated the Casey ruling with its restrictive “heartbeat bill” long before Mississippi instituted its own 15-week ban, but the Jackson Women’s Health Organization brought Mississippi’s law before the Court in December.

Instead of modifying or overturning Casey, Alito appears to have taken the nuclear option, somehow claiming that Roe is both outdated and too radical.

He reasons that birth control is more readily available than it was in 1973, and maternity leave eliminates the need for abortion; however, a 2021 study found that only 40% of employers offer paid maternity leave.

If the Regressives on the Court

overturn Roe, women in the 13 states that plan to completely ban abortion will live in fear. Any Texan with a uterus knows that, if they are raped and impregnated, they will have to re-live the violation every day for nine months. Don’t skip over that word — raped. Assaulted, abused, attacked.

And if they choose to do something about it, then somehow they will be treated as criminals.

If SCOTUS can strip away the right to abortion, guaranteed by a case that has been established law for 50 years, just imagine what’s next. Obergefell v.

Hodges is in danger; the Chief Justice, a so-called moderate, opposes samesex marriage. And what about after that? Contraception? IUDs? Of course we are angry. We’re teenagers — we’re growing and changing, becoming aware of the world’s complexity — and the Supreme Court is trying to drag us backward.

But above all, we are deeply, deeply afraid.

Students need to embrace an innovative mindset

By Russell Li

L

et’s play a quick game of Name That Global Challenge. I’ll start: Changing disease patterns, population growth, climate change, resource depletion. How do we effectively address them?

We’ve all had discussions, both impassioned and analytical, about the direction our community — and society at large — is headed. Naturally, we react with differing degrees of comfort. Some embrace the shifting sands of time, relishing the opportunity to ride the tidal wave of change and remodel their world according to their own ideals and visions.

Others may cling to the here and now, resentful of the breakneck pace at which the world is evolving, preferring to patch up problems as they arise, like an endless game of whack-a-mole.

Regardless of your position, I urge you to buckle up for the adventure because that whirlwind of new developments are here to stay. This is not to suggest that you passively endure these next few years, accepting the inevitable. Instead, consider using an adaptive strategy that involves collaboratively addressing problems before they worsen. Such a strategy, though

necessarily multifaceted by design cannot just include advocacy or policymaking.

Long-lasting outcomes require substantive, proactive solutions. But how?

The answer lies in technological advancement, which requires embracing an innovative mindset. This isn’t just some nerdy sandbox fantasy. Novel STEM-centric solutions have already been developed and deployed within the medical, environmental and energy sectors.

For instance, regenerative medicine involves the reprogramming of existing biological components to rebuild dysfunctional cells, tissues and organs, an outcome that saves lives by reducing the necessity of organ transplants or surgery.

Novel chemical solvents that derive their properties from organic molecules instead of water can already halve the energy required for the carbon capture process. Such materials extract the same quantity of pollution from power plant emissions as traditional methods, in turn boosting energy production. Lightweight nanomaterials with high surface area revolutionize membrane separation, thereby improving the treatment of wastewater produced by drilling and

fracking. And this doesn’t even cover artificial intelligence and blockchain.

To fully address the challenges that await us, we cannot merely tolerate innovation without contributing to it, and a stagnation or decrease federal funding of university research will result in a net decline in innovation. As newly minted adults, we possess the mantle of responsibility; however, we cannot create change without some level of expertise. Hence, the first step to embracing sustainable innovation is altering our mindset to become more growth-centric. Fortunately, St. John’s provides an ideal environment for us.

Rather than hand us answers on a silver platter — which shouldn’t be the focus of education and rarely happens when dealing with real-world concerns — our school’s holistic curriculum establishes a foundation for any student to venture down intellectual paths, however they wish.

So, find a subject and chase it, even if you only have tangential experience. Don’t feel constrained to only researching the materials in your coursework because learning should not stop in the classroom.

And the Internet exists, in case you

forget. Do not overload your already busy schedule but acquire the tools necessary to create something that will contribute to your future.

Consider starting a project in which you practice applying the expertise you’ve gained. It need not be large-scale or serious; last year, one of my classmates built a handheld device that measures the area of any two-dimensional shape.

Who knows, maybe your product will have potential to make an immediate impact or serve as a stepping stone to a broader contribution. An entrepreneur like Elon Musk, while admittedly imperfect, seems to genuinely care about the future and has toiled to save it by addressing population growth and resource depletion. Do you share such a motivation?

We may not all become entrepreneurs, but we should all have a vested interest in societal evolution — because we will soon be living in the world resulting from our current choices. Adopt an innovative mindset while you still can, and use it as motivation to create the future you envision.

OPINIONS

MAY 20, 2022

THE REVIEW

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

19

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS St. John's School 2401 Claremont Lane Houston, TX 77019 review.sjs@gmail.com sjsreview.com Facebook SJS Review Twitter @SJS_Review Instagram @sjsreview

Member National Scholastic Press Assn.

Pacemaker 2015, 2018 Pacemaker Finalist 2019, 2020, 2021 Best of Show 2021

Member Columbia Scholastic Press Assn.

Gold Crown 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022 Silver Crown 2014, 2016-2019

Writing Excellence 2022 SNO Distinguished Site 2018–2022 Print Editors-in-Chief Celine Huang, Russell Li, Ella West Online Editors-in-Chief Megan Chang and Ashley Yen Executive Editors Ella Chen, Indrani Maitra, Afraaz Malick Assignment Editors Wilson Bailey, Cameron Ederle, Ellie Monday Section Editors Dawson Chang and Ella Piper Claffy Copy Editors Abigail Hindman, Mia Hong, Annie Jones, Lillian Poag Design Editors Diane Guo, Max Stith, Alice Xu Photography and Video Editors Sarah Clark, Lexi Guo, James Li Business Manager Sophia Jazaeri Staff

Ellison Albright, Georgia Andrews, Lauren Baker, Natalie Boquist, Amanda Brantley, Thomas Center, Emma Chang, Kaitlyn Chang, Virginia Carolyn Crawford, Isabella Diaz-Mira, Turner Edwards, Louis Faillace, Lily Feather, Lydia Gafford, Aleena Gilani, Nick Hensel, Mia Hirshfield, Elizabeth Hu, Smith Inglesby, Natasha Janssens, Johnathon Li, Richard Liang, Jennifer Liu, Arjun Maitra, David Schaefer, Annie Villa, Lucy Walker, Chloe West, Serina Yan, Katharine Yao and Willow Zerr

Advisers David Nathan, Shelley Stein ('88), Sorrel Westbrook Mission Statement The Review strives to report on issues with integrity, to recognize the assiduous efforts of all and to serve as an engine of discourse within the St. John's community.

Publication Info We mail each issue of The Review — free of charge — to every Upper School household with an additional 1,000 copies distributed on campus to our 700 students and 98 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 Head of School 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 columns are encouraged but are subject to editing for clarity, space, accuracy and taste. On occasion, we publish letters anonymously. We reserve the right not to print letters. Letters and guest columns can be emailed to review.sjs@gmail.com.

Our last goodbye...

To our St. John’s family— What a wild ride it’s been. And just like that, the curtain closes on our journey through Upper School. With the exception of a few Review editors and people presenting their Independent Study Projects, the class of 2022 has vacated the Quad. Senior Country has been repurposed as an AP testing room. And the campus seems eerily calm and peaceful. Such a stark contrast to the abrupt stops, starts and jumpscares that have defined the last four years.

But let’s not confuse a hectic Upper School experience with a negative one.

Whether we came to Upper School from across the city or across Westheimer, we’ve reached many long-anticipated milestones.

We’ve screamed on the sidelines during stunning athletic victories, like the football team’s first-in-a-decade win over Episcopal and the girls’ golf team’s back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back SPC titles. We’ve given standing ovations after artistic performances by both the Fine Arts department (Newsies, every Student Choreography Showcase, Mamma Mia!) and independent student bands (Claremont Heir, Triton). Beyond Covid-19, we’ve endured unanticipated disasters including a winter freeze, Astroworld, extreme weather events and the tragic deaths of Wendall Zartman, Angie Kensinger, Will McKone and untold friends and family.

Just as we once acclimated to the Upper School as freshmen, we now must bookmark the adolescent chapter of our lives and direct our attention toward our next adventure. We cannot, and should not, forget those whose guidance and support have been invaluable in transforming all those nervous incoming freshmen into confident, accomplished graduates.

To our parents, who have long sought to provide a safe, welcoming environment and sacrificed their time by driving us to countless playdates, sleepovers and extracurriculars: we promise to FaceTime or call (maybe text?) as often as possible next year.

To our teachers, who endured hundreds of classes filled with sleepy, stubborn students; who facilitated chaotic class discussions; who unflinchingly convinced us that we did in fact know all the material and would knock our final exams and standardized tests out of the park: we look forward to visiting as soon as we’re back in town.

To our school staff, who put in late-night and early-morning hours to ensure that all facets of school life, from arts to athletics to attendance to aesthetic appearance to all snacks and meals, are operating seamlessly: Thank you.

To our siblings, who have taught us patience and courage: We love and admire you (but let’s maybe keep that part a secret).

To our friends and classmates who participated in the four-year journey alongside us: We are proud to call you fellow Mavericks.

As we look forward to the next four years, we especially want to offer our gratitude to one often underappreciated group — our college counselors. We recognize that college looms large, understandably so, in the minds of many families, and emotions are often heightened. Having desires and goals is natural, but we urge future college applicants to remember that the college process is not the journey of your college counselors — it’s yours.

Teachers do not force-feed you all the information in their respective subjects; rather, they focus on equipping you with the tools to succeed, if you so choose.

Your college counselors are in the office right up until the week before they give birth, all while hosting dozens of meetings each

day with few, if any, breaks. And even as they provide advice on applications, they remind students to maintain perspective about the more important factors in life—humility, character and care above oneself. Don’t take them for granted, and remember that they are human, too.

We’re grateful to have served this year as editors-in-chief, and we hand the baton off to next year’s crew, who will continue to faithfully represent and engage with the Maverick community.

Thank you for trusting us to share your stories.

Signing off for the last time, Ella West

Russell Li

Celine Huang

20

THE REVIEW

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL

BACK PAGE

MAY 20, 2022

MAV CAFÉ BY THE NUMBERS What is your go-to café food?

Muffin 30.7% Donut Holes 12%

Plain Croissant 6% Cinnamon Roll 1.2%

Chocolate Croissant 26.6%

Big Chocolate Chip Cookie 23.5%

Chai Latte 11.4%

Iced Caramel Macchiato 15.4%

Latte 17.4%

Hot Mocha 6.9% cha o dM Ice .9% 6 Other 11.2%

What is your go-to café drink?

When do you go to the café?

During lunch

How often do you go the café?

32%

13% 20%

21%

Da Vinci 80-min carrier

18%

33%

12%

4%

8%

1-2 times a week

How do you prefer to order?

3-4 times a week

Once a day

Why do you love the Mav Café?

"I have a crippling caffeine addiction" "Yummy food relieves my stress" "It has sugar"

How much money have you spent at the Café this year?

"No comment"

25%

"I don't want to know" 15%

"Too much" "If I tried to keep track, I'd probably cry"

In-person

10%

17%

Free carrier

60%

Smoothie 15.4%

12%

Before school

Between classes

Hot Chocolate 15.4%

Mobile

No preference

Information from a Google Form survey sent to Upper School GroupMe chats

> 5 times a week

A few times a < A few times a month month

Café Stats according to barista Erika Martinez Most popular drink Iced caramel macchiato Most popular food Chocolate croissant Favorite café item Espresso

ILLUSTRATION AND DESIGN | Amanda Brantley