May 2021 by The Review

SJSREVIE W.COM

THE REVIEW

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

VOLUME 72

. ISSUE 3

ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL . 2401 CL AREMONT LN . HOUSTON, TX 77019

GRADUATION ISSUE MAY 25, 2021

PHOTO BY Lexi Guo

ROADBLOCK: THE BIG DIG

ZARTMAN’S LEGACY ONE YEAR LATER

Community honors beloved history teacher

The River Oaks Theatre closes its doors

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PAGE 7

PAGE 11

Construction lingers on Claremont Lane

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

NEWS

After 11 years, Desjardins leaves his mark

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Review receives national recognition, names new editors

By Annie Jones and Julia Smith

hen Mark Desjardins leaves campus in June, the St. John’s that he leaves behind will look significantly different than the one he inherited. John Moody (’67), Chairman of the Board of Trustees, knows firsthand how Desjardins has made an impact. “I’ve worked closely with him for the past 11 years, and I witnessed a lot of the really remarkable things he’s done for our school,” Moody said. In 2016, the Opportunity of a Lifetime Campaign raised $100 million to purchase the Taub land and expand the school’s footprint. Desjardins’s tenure has also seen the construction of Flores Hall, Taub Lot, the Great Lawn, the Mav Café, Fine Arts Annex and the Academic Commons. “The opportunity to buy the property and build Flores Hall was pretty special,” Desjardins said. “That building will be around for a hundred years.” Construction plans originally allocated some of the money from the Taub project to dig two new tunnels, but updated regulations made construction impractical. The School instead redistributed the funds to reimagine the library as the Academic Commons, which Desjardins says has become the “intellectual hub” of the Upper School. The South Campus expansion helped accommodate growing class sizes. Beginning in 2015, the freshman class expanded by 25 additional students each year for four years. In a different sort of construction project, the class schedule was completely revamped under Desjardins. In 2016, a consulting team designed a new seven-day rotation for the Upper and Middle Schools in order to reduce student stress. The schedule allows for later start times and provides students with more time to finish homework. Desjardins’s two daughters, Daphne (’11) and Chloe (’14), attended St. John’s before the schedule change and his two sons, Eli (’18) and Lucas (’20), after. Desjardins said, “It was literally like two different schools.” The schedule change was a part of a larger effort to modify the School’s approach to counseling and mental health. “I’m proud to have lifted up the conversation about the importance of wellness,” Desjardins said. “It wasn’t something that was talked a lot about, and it impacts the daily life of the School.” Upper School Nurse Tesa Stark

MAY 25, 2021

By Staff

Dr. Desjardins stands on the Great Lawn in front of Flores Hall, both of which were constructed during his 11 years as Head of School. PHOTO BY Sarah Clark says that Desjardins prioritizes “care for the whole child.” “He cares deeply for not just our students and faculty but also our families,” Stark said. “I accepted this job because I knew working for Dr. Desjardins would be a great experience. Who else could get someone to move from Hawaii to Houston?” Desjardins has spent most of his adult life working in education. After graduating from Bates College in 1988, he earned his master’s and doctorate from the University of Virginia. He coached and taught at schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Before coming to St. John’s, he served as Head of School at the Texas Military Institute in San Antonio and at Holland Hall in Tulsa. Desjardins plans to use his personal and professional experience to write a book about navigating the culture of education and parenting. “I have a very interesting perspective about both leading schools and then raising four kids,” Desjardins said. “My book would give advice on what we need to do to ensure that we’re setting kids up for success.” Desjardins has worked with and supported his successor Dan Alig,

ILLUSTRATION BY Diane Guo

who used to be the Chair of the English Department and Dean of Students at St. John’s. “Dan is a thoughtful and energetic educator,” Desjardins said. “I know he loves St. John’s and the intellectual vibrancy of the School, and I have no doubt that he will continue to advance the institution during his tenure.” After more than a decade, Desjardins’s absence will be acutely felt. “We’ll miss the whole Desjardins family,” Moody said. “They had an impact on our campus. It’s the personal connections that people will really miss.” Desjardins has particularly enjoyed his time at St. John’s because of its inquisitive and hard-working students. “I’ll miss the community. The intellectual vitality and vibrancy of the student body is just electric,” Desjardins said. “If there’s one quality that I really appreciate and admire, it’s this intellectual curiosity. I think that’s the currency of St. John’s, and that’s very unique.”

s the school year wraps up, the Review continues to be recognized as one of the premier student journalism programs by the NSPA and CSPA, the two most prestigious student journalism organizations in the country. For the first time in the Review’s history, the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association awarded the March issue first place in Best of Show for all tabloid newspapers 17 pages or longer during their virtual awards ceremony in April. The cover story from that issue, “Seen But Not Heard,” by editor-in-chief Noura Jabir and features editor Ella West, received a first place Best of Show for social justice reporting and 10th place for design by editor Celine Huang. Huang also won a first place Best of Show in opinion writing for her critique “Mulan 2020: What happened to the original plot of the movie?” In March, the NSPA named the Review an Online Pacemaker finalist for the third time in the website’s 10-year history. The print publication was also a Pacemaker finalist last November. The Review was one of just 16 schools to receive a Gold Crown Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in Hybrid News, a recognition of the exceptional work done in both the print edition and The Review Online. And in December, the Review Online was named a Distinguished Site by School Newspapers Online for the fourth straight year. Editors and staff garnered numerous individual awards. Seniors Fareen Dhuka, Bailey Maierson and Edward Chen received first place in video news for a feature on the 2020 Student Choreography Showcase. Celine Huang also won first place in the computeraided art and illustration category. In March, Ella West won a first place Sweepstakes Award from Quill and Scroll, an international high school honor society, in the Political Writing category for her article about the congressional race between St. John's graduates Lizzie Fletcher (’93) and Wesley Hunt (’00). The NSPA Clips & Clicks contest honored stories from the fall semester. Ella West wrote or co-wrote four winning entries, including first place for best sports story with Ellie Monday. Editors for the 2021-2022 school year have been named, and they assumed their new positions on this issue. Editors-in-chief for the website are Megan Chang and Ashley Yen. Print editors-in-chief are Celine Huang, Russell Li and Ella West. Executive editors are Ella Chen, copy chief; Indrani Maitra, content editor and Afraaz Malick, managing editor. Online section editors are Dawson Chang and Ella Piper Claffy. Assignments editors are Wilson Bailey, Cameron Ederle and Ellie Monday. Copy editors are Abigail Hindman, Mia Hong, Annie Jones and Lillian Poag. Photo editor is Sarah Clark, and online photo and video editor is Lexi Guo. Alice Xu was named assistant design editor, and Sophia Jazaeri takes over as business manager. After spending her first year at St. John’s helping advise the Quadrangle yearbook, Sorrel Westbrook will switch publications, joining advisers David Nathan and Shelley Stein (’88) on the Review.

MAY 25, 2021

SJSREVIEW.COM

Geophysicist, teacher, star-gazer: Friedman retires THESE ARE A FEW OF HIS FAVORITE THINGS Math and science teacher Dan Friedman displays his dogs on his desktop. PHOTO BY Sarah Clark

By Russell Li

or years, Lauren Aguilar had heard of Dan Friedman, the “legendary” math and science guru and astronomy buff who organized events to view phenomena such as the 2019 super blood wolf moon and the 2017 solar eclipse. This year, Aguilar took three classes taught by Friedman. She worried about making a bad impression but realized her concerns were unfounded. “Mr. Friedman’s a teddy bear at heart,” Aguilar said. Throughout his 19-year tenure at St. John’s, during which he taught math and science classes and sponsored organizations including the astronomy club, dinosaur club, tautology club and the Student Affairs Council, Friedman has built a reputation for loving what he does. Friedman worked for 24 years in oil and gas exploration, searching for new drilling locations. He then became an independent consultant. Although consulting offered greater scheduling flexibility, Friedman did not enjoy chasing down clients. His wife suggested teaching as an alternative, which caught him by surprise. “Teaching?” Friedman asked her. “Why would I do that?” “Because you’d be good at it,” she said. In the summer of 2002, Friedman sought employment at St. John’s, just after his son Michael graduated. “It didn’t hurt at all that my son had just graduated, so the people here were pretty

comfortable with me,” he said. Friedman was no stranger to advanced math and science concepts covered in courses including AP Physics, Linear Algebra, AP Calculus BC and Astronomy. Throughout his career in the oil and gas industry, he had applied such concepts to real-world scenarios.

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Mr. Friedman’s a teddy bear at heart. LAUREN AGUILAR Friedman previously taught eighth graders part-time at another school because he wanted to get young students interested in science and math. Teaching eighth graders, he learned two things: teaching middle school was not for him, and, more importantly, he enjoyed the “academic challenge” of breaking down complex concepts. “You have to come up with alternative ideas,” Friedman said. “It’s a puzzle, and what I did for a number of years was effectively solving puzzles. You don’t necessarily know what the result will look like until you figure it out — teaching is very similar.” Senior Jenny Green, who took three math courses with Friedman, appreciates Friedman’s exploration-based teaching approach. “His teaching style is heavily based on self-guided labs and exposure to mate-

rial,” Green said. “You learn through wrestling with that material on your own, as well as through the natural questions he points you toward.” For Green, the self-guided approach to learning math that Friedman espoused did not come naturally, but once she became acclimated, exploring topics on her own became a favorite element of not just Friedman’s classes but her entire Upper School experience. A project about cryptanalysis in Friedman’s linear algebra course ranks among her fondest academic memories. Friedman will leave behind a curriculum that has stimulated the minds of limitless physics and post-calculus learners. “Students have benefited from being pushed by his math and physics problem sets,” said math and science colleague Dwight Raulston (’71). After retiring, Friedman and his wife will move to Seattle to live near their son Michael, daughter-in-law and grandchild. Friedman plans to visit “the mountains one day, the ocean the next” and stargaze more often. He will miss formulating new projects, steeped in applications of science and math, for students to “latch onto” and explore. “The beauty of teaching is that every year you get the chance to start over and use what you’ve learned from the previous year to build something new,” Friedman said. “The process is terrifically rewarding and refreshing.”

Community says goodbye to 22 faculty, staff members LOWER SCHOOL Susan Spitzberg (32 years) Laura Bohlmann (6) Becky Hoefar (6) Hamy Wojcik (1) MIDDLE SCHOOL Sandy McLanahan (20) Ivana Brown (10) Danielle Jones (8) UPPER SCHOOL Barbara DiPaolo (20) Dan Friedman (19) Chuy Benitez (13) Rebecca Lillenstern (9) Graham Hegeman (6) Sean Grifﬁn (5) Max Boyd (4) Kim Dickson (4) Tav Tavakoli (4) HEAD OF SCHOOL Mark Desjardins (11) ADVANCEMENT Lorin Crater (9) BUSINESS OFFICE Audrey Fussell (15) CLINICAL SERVICES Lorri Wolff (6) FOOD SERVICES Chef Willard Ferrell (8) COMMUNITY & INCLUSION Gene Batiste (4)

DiPaolo leaves behind 20-year legacy of passion, patience By Cameron Ederle

hile chaperoning a summer trip to China in 2005, history teacher Barbara DiPaolo taught eighth grader Christian Woo ('09) how to haggle. “I was surprised that I could buy something for way cheaper,” Woo said. “By the end of the trip, we had this joke that she was the best negotiator in China.” More than 15 years later, Woo recalls DiPaolo’s larger-than-life reputation. “Everyone would be shouting her name and giving her high-fives in the hallways,” Woo said. DiPaolo has taught 20 years at St. John’s, the first six years of which she spent teaching eighth grade history before crossing Westheimer to teach freshman and sophomore history. She has also taught senior seminars, her favorite of which was Modern Middle East. “I used to joke that I had job security because there’s always something going on in the Middle East,” DiPaolo said. DiPaolo was originally planning to retire four years ago, but her advisees convinced her to stay until they graduated this year. Advisory member Piper Edwards said their favorite game involved a plastic ball filled with glitter. When one of DiPaolo’s freshman history classes popped the ball, scattering glitter all over the floor, Edwards figured

NEXT CHAPTER

the game had come to an end. “We came back to advisory the next day, and she had gotten us a bunch more even though she pretended to hate it when we would play,” Edwards said. As a field hockey recruit who made dozens of trips during high school, Edwards considers DiPaolo an integral part of her support system. “If I ever needed help with a certain class or when I was traveling a lot for recruiting and having a stressful schedule, she was someone I could talk to,” Edwards said. “She was always there ready to listen and help.”

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It's just time for me to ride oﬀ into the sunset. BARBARA DIPAOLO Edwards says the most important virtue she has learned from DiPaolo is patience. “She encourages me to step back and take deep breaths,” Edwards said. “She always says that students and teachers are all trying our best, so we all have to be more patient with everyone.” Lewis Schiffer (’11) fondly remembers DiPaolo’s straightforward attitude as an

Barbara DiPaolo, right, receives a memory book compiled by her friend and colleague Gara JohnsonWest, during a reception in her honor. PHOTO BY David Nathan advisor, which he considers instrumental in bringing light to “some of the shenanigans” that he was getting into. “There was no fluff in the advice she gave,” Schiffer said. “She was going to let you decide for yourself.” Alumni, students and colleagues have collected quotes and stories about DiPaolo in a book compiled by Gara Johnson-West, a close colleague in the history department. Johnson-West and DiPaolo began teaching at St. John’s in 2001. “The kids know that Barbara is someone who’s invested in them and is someone who loves them and wants them to be the best version of themselves,”

Johnson-West said. Schiffer agrees. “It's surreal that she is retiring,” he said. “She can step away from St. John’s knowing that she has done tremendous work.” DiPaolo’s love for her students has kept her “inspired and excited to go to work every day.” Although she is retiring, she intends to return next year as a substitute teacher. “I’ll still be connected,” DiPaolo said. “It’s just time for me to ride off into the sunset.”

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

THE BIG DIG

Massive sewer project progresses...slowly

IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL The sewer construction project on Claremont Lane started last summer and is expected to continue through November. PHOTOS BY Sarah Clark

By Ella Piper Claffy

ollege counselor Kenley Turville was driving down Westheimer last August, returning to school for the first time since March, when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. After parking in Taub lot and crossing Claremont on her way to campus, Turville came across an enormous construction crane that has inconvenienced her life ever since. The crane was just the beginning of a massive, $12.7 million construction project that began in July and is not projected to finish until November. In 1986, BRH-Garver Construction began their first microtunneling project for the City of Houston, which took place on Claremont as well. According to Heidi Domino, a field clerk for BRH-Garver Construction, the existing underground pipe system has fallen into disrepair and is being replaced with larger, steel-reinforced pipes. When completed, the School’s wastewater will be directed through the new pipes. “We are tying in these new pipes with a bigger sewage line on West Alabama,” Domino said. “The whole point is to create more flow down Claremont and Buffalo Speedway.” Richard Still, Director of Safety, Facilities and Physical Plant, was just as surprised as everyone else when the construction equipment showed up. Although he had been in communication with a previous contractor, he stopped

receiving updates after that contractor was taken off of the project. BRH-Garver came in without consulting Still. Domino said that “the engineers designed the project so that we would not disrupt the School and its daily activities.” Many teachers with classrooms on the west side of Mewbourne Hall disagree. Math teacher Alice Fogler originally planned to keep her classroom door open to help with air flow, but she has kept it shut most days in order to muffle the incessant construction noise. The outdoor tents along Westheimer are the only place Fogler could move her classes to get away from the clamor, although she is “not sure it would be much quieter.” Fogler says that the only things louder than the construction are the eighth graders having lunch and recess on the Great Lawn. The nonstop racket from the construction has also prevented students in Turville’s advisory from watching virtual assemblies and Chapel programs, since her advisory meets by the Mav Café, which borders Claremont. Unless students have earbuds, she says, it is nearly impossible to hear online presentations. “We’re continuing to be flexible,” Turville said, “and I’m grateful for the space to social distance that our advisory location provides, but we have to shout just to have conversations.” The construction has also disrupted athletic practices. According to freshman Cora West, the girls’ lacrosse team can smell the sewage all the way out on Caven Field. During a recent game against Lamar, members of the opposing team mentioned it. “There’s a certain point on the field where the stench just hits you,” West said. “It’s almost enough to make you want to wear a mask.” A flagman on the project, Roger Evans — who introduced himself as Mr. Roger

— says that, while workers are careful to be safe and keep a low profile, the depth at which new pipes must be installed makes the project potentially hazardous. “Everything down there is made with steel so that the tunnel doesn’t collapse,” he said, “but it is still very dangerous work.”

installed per day. Each pipe measures 10 feet long with a 36-inch circumference. Once the pipes are underground, workers use hydraulics to move them down the street, a process that takes about two-and-a-half hours. While the project has caused frequent inconveniences for those in and around campus, Still said that the construction has some unforeseen benefits. Since traffic around the main gate (Gate 1) is limited to the Upper School, morning drop-off time has decreased significantly. Cars heading north on Buffalo Speedway have also stopped using Claremont to cut through the neighborhood, which eases carpooling and keeps the process “running smoother than ever,” according to Still. Some of the thanks is due to Mr. Roger. As a flagman, he spends most of his day sitting on his stool listening to his favorite artists like the Spinners, Isley Brothers and Sam Cooke. Mr. Roger’s projects are usually on highways where he looks out for speeding cars, not pedestrians. “This is a new thing, me working with so many A ﬂagman on the construction project, Roger Evkids,” Mr. Roger said. “I’m ans directs trafﬁc outside the Upper School. "Even having to get in shape and though I am not a policeman, some people expect move around. Even though me to do that job." I’m not a policeman, some people expect me to do that In February, construction came to job.” a halt for a week while workers took While there have been a few time off to ride out the polar vortex that complaints from drivers regarding the incapacitated the entire state. The mud construction, mostly in the form of around the trench froze, making the annoyed facial expressions, for the most ground around the 40-foot ditch slippery part people have been unfazed. and treacherous. As for the students, many have taken “If you slip into that hole,” Mr. Roger the construction in stride. said, “it’s automatic death.” “It’s been such a crazy year,” West Despite the wintry weather delay, said. “What’s one more obstacle?” Domino maintains that the project is on schedule and set to end in November Additional reporting by 2021. Cameron Ederle and Arjun Maitra The “Big Dig” has taken so long mainly because only three pipe segments can be

DESIGN BY Bailey Maierson

MAY 25, 2021

Seniors use space technology to prevent vehicle break-ins

FEATURES

ENGINEERING CLASS CREATES INVENTIVE CAPSTONE PROJECTS By Noura Jabir and Abigail Poag ROBOTIC HAND

By Arjun Maitra and Shreyes Balachandran

fter a string of burglaries in 2018 and 2019 shook the St. John’s community, Pierce Ederle began drafting designs for a new type of car alarm. Ederle, now a senior, found his inspiration from space technology. During his junior year, he researched spacecraft engineering in the Scientific Research and Design course, a class in which students teach themselves and teachers act as mentors. After hours of scouring journal articles and press releases, Ederle learned that the International Space Station contains tiny sensors that detect “microbial and debris impacts” similar to those that hit car windows during break-ins. “I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could adapt that technology to fit into my own community,” Ederle said. After talking with his SRD teacher, Neha Mathur, Ederle decided to apply the information that he learned from his research on NASA asteroid shielding technology to build an alarm system that detects damage to car windows. Ederle partnered with senior Benjamin Dokupil to create a prototype of the car alarm for their year-long Engineering Capstone project, which they dubbed the Aegis Patch. In February, the pair received a provisional patent, which grants them a year of protection to finish the product before they file an official, non-provisional patent. Their invention utilizes sensors that detect impact using the piezoelectric effect, which is the accumulation of an electrical charge due to pressure. Ederle and Dokupil wrote an algorithm to measure the activity of the sensors and created a customizable app that alerts car owners when the alarm is triggered. After developing their prototype, they made

For the patent application, Pierce Ederle and Benjamin Dokupil drafted a design for their car alarm sensor using inspiration from NASA technology.

Seniors Mary Louise Mannon, Albert He and Grace Nockolds constructed a robotic hand to fill the demand for an affordable, durable prosthetic that could perform physically demanding labor. Mannon drew inspiration from her older brother, who was born without a left arm and works on an oil rig in Midland, Texas. After watching him struggle to find a prosthetic that met his needs, she teamed up with her classmates to engineer one. They focused on the prosthetic’s fine motor functions and heavy-lifting ability, aiming for the hand to safely lift 30 pounds.

ILLUSTRATION BY Pierce Ederle refinements to reduce the size of the product to that of a bottle cap. For the past two years, Ederle’s teachers and classmates have served as valuable resources in the development and prototyping process. SRD and advanced engineering courses provided Ederle with “a small group of like-minded individuals” who motivated him to keep up with his research and “think outside the box.” “They were my biggest asset in bringing the idea to light,” he said. Mathur says that Ederle's interest in combining coding and engineering enabled him to transform his idea into a working prototype. She sees a promising future for the Aegis Patch. “I do hope that [Pierce] continues this,” she said. “He’s on a good path, and he has done so much work in these two years.” Ederle found the project to be a rewarding experience in which he learned “valuable” lessons about applying his classwork to the real world. He highly encourages other people to get involved in SRD. “If you come up with an idea and research it, there's so much potential for innovation.”

Freshmen create Growth Garden app to help students curb social media use

PHOTO COURTESY OF Albert He

ROBOT

Junior Jessie Beck and seniors Aiden Dowd and Georgianna Mathews built a robot for the FIRST Tech Challenge, a nationwide contest in which robots face off to complete assorted tasks. This year’s contest required the robots to launch rings into goals of various heights and move objects around a playing field.

DRONE

Seniors Amelia Schueppert and Luke Witten designed an Autonomous Drone Sanitization System that would enable cheaper, more efficient subway car disinfection. The pair intended for their drone to feature a 3D-printed body, Raspberry Pi-programmed flight controller and electrostatic spraying nozzle that imbues disinfectant with a negative charge, increasing its spread over seats, railings and other surfaces.

By Natalie Boquist and Natasha Janssens

ccording to a recent study, the more social media platforms young adults use, the higher their levels of depression and anxiety tend to be, so a trio of freshmen have begun building an app to help curb the dangers of social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram. As part of the Technovation Girls competition, Eleanor Dow, Abigail Hindman and Kate Lu submitted Growth Garden, an app that aims to make users more aware of their screen time. The competition teaches girls about computer science and is open to contestants aged 10-18 who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship. The goal of the competition is to create an app that can solve a problem in the team’s community. After watching the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” which explores the dangerous impact of social networking, Lu recognized the harmful effects of these platforms, which she says can distract teens who are trying to study. “No other generations have grown up with social media being such a big part of [their] lives,” Lu said. Dow hopes that Growth Garden users will increase their self-esteem and productivity. “We want to help students not only feel better about themselves but also develop better social media habits by utilizing on- and off-screen time, which our app will help regulate,” Dow said. To boost users' focus, the app allows them to create

goals but without setting specific social media time limits nor recording the amount of time spent on social media. The app contains a calendar section where users set daily goals as well as a garden section in which they can view four growth stages of a rose, reflecting whether or not the user has met their goal for that day. The team eventually wants to add holiday plants and trees as visualization options. “It makes it more fun and creates a visual so they can see their progress,” Dow said. During the competition, teams that are not familiar with coding can follow weekly lessons to learn how to craft, code and market their apps. The SJS team also used Thunkable, a platform that incorporates a dragand-drop format, allowing users to build apps without learning the intricacies of coding. While participating in the competition, the freshmen learned more about the world of coding. “It was hard to understand the vocabulary, but [the competition] was nice because it gave us an introduction to technology and computer science,” Lu said. Dow, Lu, and Hindman submitted the app on April 19 and are awaiting results. They intend to enter more apps into the competition in the future.

DESIGN BY Diane Guo ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF Abigail Hindman

PHOTO COURTESY OF St. John's School

‘CAMTALOUPE’ WHITEBOARD

Created by senior Gabrielle Solymosy and junior Leah Beach, the Camtaloupe is a low-cost alternative to traditional whiteboards that digitizes handwritten text. A wireless button cues a Raspberry Pi camera to take a photograph of handwriting, then a neural network translates the image files into text. The original and translated files are then sent via an automatic email system at the end of the day. This technology aims to simplify the distribution process for notes between teachers and students and ensures that students with learning differences or audio/visual impairments have reliable access to notes.

ELECTRIC SCOOTER

Seniors Ellie Alban, George Hagle and James Sy collaborated on a new-age electric scooter that offers a superior alternative to rentals. Designed to alleviate the “last mile problem” for commuters, the aircraft-grade aluminum scooter would carry public transit users to and from transportation hubs.

PHOTO COURTESY OF St. John's School

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

'A constant state of anxiety': Covid year in review By Abigail Hindman and Lillian Poag

OVID-19 first struck over fifteen months ago, knocking the St. John’s community into a state of uncertainty. While students were originally appreciative of the unexpected two-week spring break, the pandemic’s escalation caught everyone off guard. No one knew that a short break would turn into a year of masks, missed milestones and mental health crises.

and hang out with friends over Facetime and Zoom, which helped lessen her anxieties about Covid. “I was able to talk to my friends more than ever because all my extracurricular activities were canceled,” Nguyen said. “After online school, my friends and I would call to make up for the hours of social interaction we lost during the day.”

COVID BEGINS

IN-PERSON CLASSES

Starting March 13, 2020, students tried to adapt to the social isolation and boredom that came with the School’s closure. Such a drastic change in the educational routine worsened pre-existing problems. “We have seen a lot of concerns become more prominent during Covid,” Upper School Counselor Ashley Le Grange said. “One of the hardest things students struggle with is Covid burnout, which comes with not knowing when this will end.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from August 2020 until February 2021, the number of adults experiencing symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder has increased 5.1%. Despite these challenges, people found different ways to cope. Since freshman Vincent Reyes could not hang out with his friends as usual, he spent his summer golfing, researching stocks and focusing more on his mental health. Science Department Chair Susan Bigge took up gardening for the first time in eight years. She also filled her extra time talking to her family in England. “In some ways, I have spent more time with my family because we have a specific time on Saturday afternoons to Zoom in together, and we never did that before,” Bigge said. Senior Leena Hanson’s lockdown hobby was doing crossword puzzles everyday for six months; she even wrote her Common App essay about her new habit.

ONLINE SCHOOL

On Aug. 19, online classes started again. For freshmen, the beginning of school was supposed to be a time to reconnect with old friends and make new ones, but without the usual social events, lunch period and downtime in class, students were not given any opportunities to socialize in person with their classmates. “Because I was new, I knew almost no one in my grade,” Reyes said. “Zoom was not the best outlet for meeting new people, so I found myself turning to social media more.” Other students also took advantage of their free time at home to interact virtually. Remote school allowed freshman Emma Nguyen to reach out to more people

While some were relieved with the School’s reopening in October, others felt a spike of anxiety at the thought of coming into contact with hundreds of people after being isolated for so long. Being back on campus came with both physical risks and mental health benefits. “Some students did not see people their own age for a long time, and that was really difficult for them,” Bigge said. “It tends to put everything in perspective to see that other people are going through the same things as you.” As students were gradually allowed back on campus, some felt the impact quarantining had on their friendships and their own identities. “I used to be a very social person,” Reyes said, “but because of the pandemic I definitely became more of an introvert when we returned to in-person school. I wanted to keep my circle of friends close.” Seniors also had to accept that they would lose some of the usual freedoms and benefits that come with their last year of high school. While some were upset with losing Senior Country and simplified Senior Teas, others were just grateful to be back. As Leena Hanson notes, “you can’t miss what you never had."

community care system is always active,” Le Grange said. “Picking up the pieces and figuring out the different things that have changed people forever can continue to affect somebody's mental health.” Le Grange emphasizes that the community is in this together. “We are very fortunate that we are on campus and that has had a great impact on the mental health of our students,” Le Grange said. “The best thing is being able to ask for help, get support and know that you are not alone.”

POST-VACCINE

In April, the School began offering COVID-19 vaccines to students and faculty who had not already been vaccinated. After many upperclassmen and faculty got vaccinated, the School threw its first Covid-safe Prom in the athletics parking lot. Last year, Prom was one of Covid’s first casualties. While masks were required for the dance portion of this year’s Prom, students at their own after-parties followed the new CDC guidelines that allow vaccinated people to remain maskless. For Hanson, this was the first time she had been in a large group of people without masks, which she said was “a little weird.” “The biggest group I’d been in before [that] was eating lunch at school,” she said. More than a year later, students finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hanson is grateful that, despite the chaos, she still ended high school with one last year full of positive experiences. “Senior year was definitely not normal,” Hanson said, “but it is one I will always cherish and remember.”

SECOND SEMESTER

Within the first two weeks of the spring semester, a total of 26 new COVID-19 cases had been reported on the School website, raising concerns that the new year would not bring a return to normalcy. Le Grange noticed many students felt they were living a “hybrid life.” “We all need to find ways to enjoy the positive aspects in life and figure out how to engage in those regularly,” she said. As the pandemic continues to disrupt both regular activities and special occasions, many students struggle to accept and adapt to the new normal. “It is still rough because there is a lot going on for me personally and in the world,” sophomore Sophie Denham said. “I feel like everyone is in a constant state of anxiety.” Le Grange has also seen an increase in Covid-related anxiety and depression. “With any traumatic event or experience, an entire

ILLUSTRATIONS AND DESIGN BY Alice Xu

MAY 25, 2021

SJSREVIEW.COM

ONE YEAR LATER

School commemorates Zartman's life, impact this was the first time I could smell Wendall's cologne. I smiled with an internal feeling of peace and calmness because I knew that he was there by our side.” Nearly 14 years ago, while on a trip to Costa Rica, Meza and Zartman visited a hummingbird garden. “I shall never forget seeing how Wendall felt so much joy seeing nature firsthand,” Meza said. Zartman planned on retiring in 2021 and traveling to Hawaii with Meza to visit Zartman’s family. In their 37 years together, Zartman and Meza traveled across the world, including Europe, Asia and Central America. Each summer they took road trips around the United States and Canada. “Those were some of the best times of our lives,” Meza said.

APPRECIATING LIFE AND CONNECTIONS Head of Upper School Hollis Amley presented Wendall Zartman with his 20-year service medal in 2018. PHOTO BY John Lewis

By Ella West

ast spring, history teacher Wendall Zartman would sit outside his apartment nearly every morning listening to birds singing, then share what he had heard with his classes over Zoom. Zartman, who had been battling stage 4 prostate cancer since the beginning of the school year, passed away on April 17, 2020. Zartman's senior advisory wanted to find a way to pay tribute. Knowing that he had owned two parakeets, Chica and Elvis, for over 10 years, the students spent the summer building a birdhouse that now hangs from a tree in the Quad. One of his advisees, Brinkley Morse, remembers Zartman as “one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He always looked on the bright side of things and always looked happy.” Because the family could not have a proper in-person funeral together a year ago, they finally got to hold a private graveside memorial service exactly a year after his death. Although it rained almost the entire day, when the service began, the sun came out. “I knew Wendall was there helping me with the service,” said Raul Meza, Zartman’s life partner of 37 years. Chica passed away a month after Zartman, so Meza takes extra care to ensure that Elvis is not lonely. One day, while he was taking care of Elvis, the strangest thing happened. “I attend to this parakeet three times per day, and

At school, Zartman spent most of his free time on the Quad, talking with students and colleagues. “He had the ability to make every student feel known,” said Russell Hardin, History Department Chair. “It’s a rare and wonderful quality for someone to be a teacher to everybody.” Zartman taught Marco Stix when he was a sophomore and last year visited with him regularly. “He was always there for me whenever I needed him,” said Stix, now a senior. “I would go into his room every day and tell him everything.” Stix says that Zartman taught him how to listen to others. “A lot of people take listening for granted,” Stix said, “but Mr. Zartman was always there for other people.” Before seniors stopped attending classes on campus this year, Stix took time each day to sit on the Quad and reflect on his time with Zartman. In the fall, Stix plans to attend Bowdoin College in Maine, where he will continue this tradition. “Mr. Zartman appreciated life and the connections he formed,” Stix said. “Every person who talked to him ended up better for it.” As a tribute to the meaningful conversations Zartman would have around campus, the School dedicated a bench to him outside one of his old Quadrangle classrooms, Q107. “It's exciting to think of the people who will get to sit on this bench and remember him,” said Hollis Amley, Head of Upper School. “There will always be plenty of people around to tell everyone about this amazing history teacher, advisor and friend.” Along with the bench and birdhouse, a plaque was placed outside the history office to honor Zartman’s legacy, part of which quotes Head of School Mark

PHOTO BY Sarah Clark Desjardins: “Wendall was deeply passionate and knowledgeable about history, but his single best attribute was his uncanny ability to connect with students. Those who were fortunate to have him as a teacher or advisor always knew Mr. Zartman had their best interests at heart.” History teacher Eleanor Cannon has long made a habit of arriving early on campus, where she would often see Zartman seated on a bench. “He was calm, centered,” Cannon said. “I never saw him upset or flustered.” Having worked with Zartman for nine years, Cannon knew she could rely on him, even when discussions became contentious. “His gift was finding peace, giving, compromising and building people up,” Cannon said. “That is his legacy — bringing our community together no matter what.” Zartman also taught one of Cannon’s children, Peter (’20). “Every student who had Mr. Zartman felt known and loved,” Cannon said. “He connected with students in such a genuine way and was really interested in them as people.” To show his commitment to the student body, Zartman contributed annually to the Headmaster’s Student Assistance Fund, which was established to cover costs for students beyond their financial aid packages. “Mr. Zartman believed in leveling the playing field and giving all students access to the ‘extras’ that complete the SJS experience,” Director of Development Dawsey Romero said. In 2020, the R.R. Vale Foundation, directed by Laura and Andrew (’86) McCullough, established the Wendall Zartman Endowment for Tuition Assistance.

With colleges closed, gap years gained popularity By Max Beard

hen the first wave of COVID-19 infections swept the country, most universities shut their doors — at least for the first semester — and by August, all hopes of a traditional freshman college experience were gone. Rather than endure the monotony of “Zoom University” while paying full tuition, an increasing number of 2020 graduates opted to take a gap year, hoping that they could begin college when schools reopened in the fall of 2021. Nationally, 16% of 2020 high school graduates planned to take a gap year, up from 3% in 2018, according to the Higher Education Research Institute. For Asher Moll and Matthew Yekell, a gap year had not been in their post-high school plans; the decision to take a different path was a result of the pandemic. “I always fantasized about taking a gap year,” said Yekell, who was accepted to Stanford. “I felt like I could do a lot of stuff I've always wanted to do, but I never realistically thought about doing it until Covid hit." Stanford University officials stated in May 2020 that they would bring back students in the fall, albeit with many modifications. By August, however, they announced the complete shutdown of in-person learning. Yekell praises Stanford's flexibility and supportiveness in accommodating gap years. For Moll, who was headed to Georgetown, that decision came later.

On July 29, Georgetown announced they would close their doors for at least the fall semester. Until August, Moll was planning on going to college, but ultimately he did not want to spend his freshman year at home. “I figured I should just kick the can down the road and have a more fulfilling experience,” Moll said.

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I ﬁgured I should just kick the can down the road and have a more fulﬁlling experience. ASHER MOLL After deciding to take the year off, Yekell reached out through Stanford's alumni network to secure a job working for Maven Road, a small consulting firm. Communicating exclusively in Spanish, he currently works full time in data science and tutors three to four afternoons per week. “My gap year is a bit more structured than most,” Yekell said. “I’m the kind of person who flourishes with that structure.” Moll has also found his groove. “It’s definitely jarring at first being used to going to school every year and then suddenly having a year off,

but I’ve adjusted to it,” Moll said. Moll spent what would have been his first semester volunteering with the Houston Urban Debate League, which he had worked with extensively in high school. While there, he worked with former SJS debate coach Andy Stubbs, teaching Zoom classes to under-resourced students. He also volunteered for the Biden campaign. “For the most part, the fall was pretty chill,” Moll said. Moll’s spring semester involved more traveling. He spent January and February in Costa Rica, volunteering to pick up trash, work with kids, and save turtles. Later, he participated in an immersion program in Spain. "I've become more independent and I've learned more about myself over this year,” he said, “which is the cliché reason that kids take a gap year, but it actually is kind of true.” Yekell advises students considering a gap year to consider their priorities. “It's important to know what kind of person you are and what kind of stuff you need to do to be happy,” he said. “Think: Do I want to explore someplace new, or am I okay with staying home? Do I want to try and make as much money as possible, or do I want to learn as many skills as possible?” Yekell credits his gap year for broadening his intellectual passions. “I'm still interested in social science and sociology,” he said. “But now, my interests have expanded.”

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

Senior receives Gates Scholarship, other top awards The Mavs tennis team won the match, and later the South Zone. Shearod's winning streak is not limited to the tennis season; in addition to the Gates, he also received several other selective scholarships: • The Ron Brown Scholar Program awards $40,000 over four years to 45 African-American seniors annually. • The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation awards up to $160,000 over four years and free college counseling to just over 100 seniors annually. • The Jackie Robinson scholarship, for which Shearod is a candidate, awards up to $30,000 to about 60 seniors annually. • QuestBridge is a program through which low-income seniors apply to partner colleges. Shearod was accepted to Yale through QuestBridge.

Maxx Shearod is a Gates, Ron Brown, Jack Kent Cooke and QuestBridge scholar. PHOTO COURTESY OF Maxx Shearod

By Annie Jones

enior Maxx Shearod was watching a Maverick tennis match from the next court when he got the email. The simple subject line, “CONGRATULATIONS,” would prove to be lifechanging. The email came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and told him that he had just won the Gates Scholarship, which is awarded annually to 300 American students and pays for the entirety of a recipient’s college expenses. Shearod hurdled the net and ran to his mom, hugging her and jumping for joy. “It felt like a magical moment,” he said.

Director of College Counseling Jamie Kim is Shearod’s college counselor. She has never had one student receive the Gates, Brown, Cooke and QuestBridge. “That might never happen again in my career,” Kim said. “It’s impressive to get just one.” Kim advised Shearod through much of the process, which he said was similar to the college application process. Scholarships focus on grades, personal essays and interviews. The Ron Brown application, for example, involved several interviews, including some with other applicants. “After the group interviews, I genuinely felt underqualified,” Shearod said. “There was a guy who was already a published author, and then there was this girl who wanted to start an artificial intelligence program to educate people on social issues.” When an interviewer asked him how he would like to change the world, Shearod spoke about the stigma around mental health issues in the Black community. “I always felt like it was a problem that needed to be addressed,” Shearod said. In another interview, he was asked what he would want written in his obituary “in 50 years.” “That was the limit he put on my life,” Shearod joked. “So I had to deal with the fact that I only have that much time and then figure out how I want to be remembered.” Many of the scholarships asked personal questions, which, according to Kim, required a lot of vulnerability from Shearod. Applying for so many scholarships was also a long and involved process. “You have to show them through your writing what

TOP FIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR

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30-foot branch crashes onto Quad, narrowly misses students Story by Noura Jabir The Perpetual Pandemic: Exercising social responsibility amidst inequality, stigma Story by Laney Chang, Fareen Dhuka, Megan Chang and Ashley Yen

“Mulan” 2020: What happened to the original plot of the movie? Written by Celine Huang Non-SJS students invade Zoom meetings, disrupt classes Story by Russell Li Photo Gallery: Faculty don lace collars, honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg Story by Fareen Dhuka, Gabrielle Solymosy and Ethan Kinsella

you value. It takes time to develop those ideas,” Kim said. “These applications required a lot of time, selfreflection, self-awareness and constant effort. I'm very proud of Maxx for navigating all of this and staying the course throughout the last 12 months.” Shearod has received scholarship funds from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation since seventh grade, but he had to reapply for college. Since he received multiple scholarships, different programs will cover different costs associated with his undergraduate years. The Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship will supplement tuition by providing resources for enrichment, the Gates Scholarship will cover tuition and housing, and the Ron Brown Scholarship will fund summer internships and mentorship. Besides being captain of the tennis team, Shearod is a co-president of the African-American Affinity Group and photo editor on the Review. Kim said that his leadership and contribution to various communities, as well as his academic success, contributed to his scholarship sweep. “Maxx is just an amazing human being,” Kim said. “I think at the end of the day, people saw that.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY Max Stith

MAY 25, 2021

SJSREVIEW.COM

Service academies provide extra challenge for aspiring cadets By Ella Chen

s a four-year-old, Pierce Ederle lived on Duncan McLaren was inspired to apply to a service Fort Campbell, a military base in Kenacademy because of Pete Siegel, a friend of his fatucky, where he liked to pretend to fly the ther who served in the Navy. McLaren recalls Siegel helicopters. He still has a picture of himself in the coming over wearing a naval insignia when he was cockpit of a Black Hawk helicopter. in middle school. As a Boy Scout, McLaren thought Because his father was a pilot, Ederle got to see Siegel’s Navy seal patch “looked so cool” and envimilitary life firsthand and “meet a lot of really cool sioned wearing one himself. people.” As he got older, Ederle always imagined “He’s fun to talk to, intelligent, and he carries that he would apply to a service academy. himself with such dignity and confidence,” McLarWhile applications to both colleges and military en said. “That’s the kind of person I aspire to be.” academies require essays, recommendation letters Because the process is so lengthy and complicated, McLaren has already begun his application to and standardized test scores, students applying to military academies also need to the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. pass a candidate fitness exam, a Military Academy. medical exam and apply for McLaren, who is on the a state senator or conwrestling and football teams, has worked gressperson’s nominawith a nutritionist tion. These government officials are and a trainer to form limited to up to 10 a workout plan in nominations per order to prepare vacancy at each for the Candidate academy. Fitness AssessEderle apment, which plied to the U.S. requires male Military Acadcandidates emy at West to perform Point. Securing 12 pull-ups, a nomination run a timed required addimile and do tional interviews, 81 sit-ups in recommendations two minutes. and essays about While on a why he wanted to high-protein serve. diet, McLaren has Earlier this semester, stayed away from the Ederle checked the West “Baskin-Robbins flaPoint candidate portal in vor of the month” the middle of physics class. and eats more PHOTOS COURTESY OF Pierce Ederle He left for a few minutes to vegetables. call his family and let them Ederle, who runs know that he got in. both cross country and track, is focusing on buildIn addition to West Point, there are four other ing upper body strength. He frequently works out United States service academies: the U.S. Navy at Memorial Park and often breaks up his runs with Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; the U.S. Air sets of 12 pull-ups. Force Academy in Colorado Springs; the U.S. Coast Service academies are known for instilling a sense Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut and of discipline and structure in their cadets, which U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, McLaren appreciates. New York. “Having a plan and working through it gives me Two recent graduates, Cameron Cook (’17) and structure,” McLaren said. “That’s where I thrive.” Eric Lee (’19), are both midshipmen at the U.S. NaBefore becoming an associate director of admisval Academy. Without family in the military, they sion at St. John’s, D’Hania Hunt graduated from relied on information sessions and conversations West Point and served for 23 years in locations with military personnel. ranging from Iraq to South Korea. By the time she When he was a freshman, Cook attended a session retired from the military, she had obtained the rank hosted by a volunteer — also known as a blue and of Lieutenant Colonel. gold officer — that aids students with the admisSince military academies only began accepting sions process. Cook initially considered going into women in 1975, many are still male-dominated. the military after college, but after the information Today, 77% of West Point’s cadets are male. session, he decided to apply to the Naval Academy. Despite the gender imbalance, Hunt had a positive Lee attended a summer seminar in Annapolis, experience. which introduced him to student life and school “There was a lot of respect on both sides,” she culture. Lee took a computer science course and said. “Everyone considered me a little sister, so you participated in a mock sea become a family very quickly.” trial, which includes a According to Hunt, people tend to overlook the acthree-mile endurance and ademic rigor of military academies. When she was obstacle course. teaching at West Point, Hunt worked with students “The best part about the on projects that had a direct impact on the military, seminar was just being one of which completely revamped the Army’s able to meet different fitness test. people from all around Cook initially planned to major in electrical enthe country with the gineering but instead studied cybersecurity at the same drive to challenge Naval Academy. themselves in every“I wasn’t a techie or anything in high school,” thing they do,” Lee Cook said. “If I hadn’t gone here, I wouldn’t have said. “It made known that that was something I wanted to do.” me certain of Ederle plans to major in mechanical engineermy decision to ing and looks forward to studying Chinese and apply to the joining the Black Knights, West Point’s paraacademy.” chuting team. Junior As Ederle prepares to attend West Point, he recalls the photo of his four-year-old self in the helicopter. “When that photo of me in the Black Hawk was taken, I had no idea where my life would take me,” Ederle said. “But even then, I was a curious and motivated toddler who wanted to learn how the cool helicopter worked, and that’s still something I possess today.” GRAPHICS AND DESIGN BY Bailey Maierson

SENIOR SEEKS SQUASH SUPREMACY By Gabrielle Solymosy and Ethan Kinsella

ina Varma was seven when she first picked up a squash racquet. Her father Rishi, who played all the “racquet-and-ball” sports, introduced his children to the game. But unlike Sebastian (’19) and Lucia, a sophomore, it was Nina who “got really into it.” Her practices began with two other kids at the West University rec center, and now she belongs to a community of over 400 athletes. Varma began traveling to tournaments across the nation when she was 10. “There was not a community in Texas at all,” Varma said, “so I would go to the East Coast for tournaments and then do squash camps in the summer.” Varma has won eight U.S. silver and six bronze titles and has been named a U.S. Squash Scholar four times. She won first place in the junior women’s division of the Texas Open in 2013 and, in 2017, was the fourth-ranked junior player in the Southern United States. Last June, Varma was awarded a wild card entry for her first professional tournament, which will take place June 3-6 at Lifetime City Centre in Houston. She plans to continue her squash career after college, aspiring to join the pro tour.

PHOTO BY Juan Carlos AbadÍa For the past five years, Varma has played for the Junior Southern Regional Champions Squad, a part of Team USA, but in February, she had to stop training when she began having non-epileptic seizures, which are often triggered by physical activity. Varma now plans her exercise schedule around her condition to ensure that her parents are always there to help her. She usually trains twice a day, at least six times a week, and ends each session with weightlifting and cardio. In order to improve her hand-eye coordination, she plays online games. Because she is not currently attending school, she has turned to squash for motivation.

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I love the sport. I want to take it to the next level. NINA VARMA “I have nothing to do except a lot of doctor’s appointments,” Varma said. “Training for college gives me purpose.” Now that she has resumed playing, she is “back on the grind.” Her condition makes training more difficult, but it is curable, and she is working towards resolving it. Varma intends to play NCAA squash at Yale University next year. “I plan on spending most of the summer getting in my best shape to play for college. Hopefully I'll get that experience of playing on a D1 team,” Varma said. “It’s really exciting because Yale is No. 3 in the country for squash.” Even when she could not attend classes, squash gave Varma opportunities for social interaction beyond school. “I'm really thankful for squash at the moment,” she said. Despite the setbacks, Varma’s positive and competitive spirit has persevered. “I want to be able to play squash my whole life and enjoy it,” she said. “I love the sport. I want to take it to the next level.”

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

Composting, beach clean-up efforts tackle environmental issues

Juniors Ana Soﬁa Miró and Elan Grossman collect trash along the Galveston shoreline. PHOTO COURTESY OF Marci Bahr

By Afraaz Malick

n response to the ongoing climate crisis, students have become active leaders in protecting and caring for the environment. Freshman Hammad Younas was astounded by the sheer amount of waste produced on campus, so he partnered with sophomores Lia Symer and Lucia Varma to start a student composting project. When trash is taken to landfills, it is continually compressed. As bacteria break down the waste, they produce methane, a greenhouse gas. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, municipal solid waste landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions in the United States. In 2019, these emissions were equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from 21.6 million passenger vehicles or the carbon dioxide emissions from nearly 12.0 million homes. “There's a direct effect of reducing our carbon footprint,” Younas said, “and it will encourage our community to learn more about ways they can help our environment and to learn more about climate change.” On May 12, the group’s first round of composting took place. It was later picked up by Moonshot Composting, the same company that collects campus food waste. Younas says that their project is “a stepping stone to a long series of projects that we can undergo to make our school more environmentally friendly,” and he encourages others to research how they can make a difference. The project will expand next year, adding multiple bins and volunteers across campus. CLEANING UP GALVESTON In 2018, Environment Texas ranked six Galveston beaches as some of the most unsafe places to swim in the state. To make an impact outside of the SJS community, Mia Masterson, Katharine Stepanian and Grace Perrin, all juniors, led a community service project designed to clean up the west end of the island. They wanted to keep the beach clean and set an example for others to clean up after themselves. On March 27, 18 SJS volunteers cleaned up trash along the shoreline. They noticed that not many people were venturing into the water, even though it was a nice day. They saw a lot of trash, and not far away, they observed food trucks selling items that would soon become plastic waste. “At first, it was hard to see any trash because of the shells and other debris from the ocean,” Masterson said. “But once you started looking, it was everywhere.” The group hopes that their project can serve as a starting point for St. John’s students to understand the magnitude of the litter that is produced by our community. “Students should make an effort to throw away everything, even if the trash can is out of the way,” Perrin said. “Every little thing goes a long way because it helps you practice better habits and strive to better the way we treat the environment.”

ILLUSTRATION BY Max Stith

'Invisible' communities poisoned by rampant industrial pollution By Indrani Maitra

alen Bradley was sitting at home when he felt a “sort of vibration” followed by a deafening boom. A short time later, he could hear the sounds of sirens from emergency vehicles. A chemical facility of the K-Solv Group, a corporation that specializes in environmental disaster response, released more than 40 volatile contaminants into the air in surrounding communities. The industrial fire forced authorities to issue a shelter-in-place order on April 7 that lasted four hours. Bradley could see the billowing plume of black smoke creep across the sky from his home in Northshore. Still, the sophomore felt nothing but “mild annoyance.” “It happens so much that we’ve all become desensitized,” he said. During the fire, Bradley felt “trapped,” even though Harris County Pollution Control dispatched a mobile air monitoring team. He said that local government entities and the petrochemical industry should do more to protect air quality in Houston. “It felt like the petrochemical company didn't have a plan,” Bradley said. “It's really disappointing. I don't understand why these plants don’t do a better job protecting the environment.” The fire was neither unforeseen nor an anomaly — the petrochemical industry has a history of industrial violations, particularly with regard to environmental safety. In 2015 and 2016, the same K-Solv facility was fined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for violating the Clean Air Act and failing to disclose the emission of toxic chemicals into surrounding neighborhoods. Such industrial facilities dominate the landscape Bradley drives through on his 45-minute commute to school. Meanwhile, in Bellaire, junior Thalie Waters always sees the “pretty side of oil.”

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Racism isn’t a moral failure. It's a systemic issue. IRENE VÁZQUEZ “Considering where I live and normally go, I rarely ever see the refineries or the smoke or the factories, even though I am very aware of them,” Waters said. The stark dichotomy between the lush green lawns and soot-coated streets stems from a history of deliberate policy decisions. Houston’s massive infrastructure upholds its reputation as the stronghold of American oil — every day, the 10 refineries dotting the Houston metro area process nearly three billion barrels of crude oil, according to Energy Capital. But underlying Houston’s status as an industrial juggernaut is a tortured legacy of environmental racism, defined as the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color. Harrison Humphreys, Transportation Policy Advocate with Air Alliance Houston, described environmental racism as “one of the most insidious and flagrant forms of discrimination.” “All you have to do is look at a map of Houston, and you can see how deliberate the placement of these waste facilities and garbage dumps is,” Humphreys said.

These urban disparities — where refineries, chemical plants, sewage treatment facilities, highways and hazardous waste sites are intentionally placed near low-income neighborhoods of color — exacerbate existing structural inequities in Black and brown communities. “Racism isn’t a moral failure,” said Irene Vázquez ('17), a recent Yale graduate and former editor-in-chief of the Review who has reported on equitable development in Houston’s Third Ward for the Texas Observer. “It’s a systemic issue, and environmental racism is jarring proof.”

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I don’t know how to describe the feeling of betrayal. DEAN DAVIS Back in 1979, a study of the distribution of industrial waste sites throughout Houston found that 14 of the city’s 17 hazardous facilities — accounting for over 80 percent of the city’s waste — were built in historically Black and brown neighborhoods. Little has changed over the past 40 years. According to a study published by the National Academy of Sciences, Black Americans are exposed to 21% more pollution even though they produce 23% less pollution than the average household. Sophomore Dean Davis lives in Kashmere Gardens, a historically Black community in Northeast Houston. As a child, Davis’s personal oasis was an abandoned railroad yard near his home. While all his friends were at the beach, Davis would go down to the railroad yard and relax with a book. “It wasn't too dangerous,” Davis said. “It was kind of a cool spot to hang out.” One day in Dec. 2019, as he prepared to head out to the railroad site, his father told him he was no longer allowed to go there. His father had recently learned that Union Pacific, the company that owned the site, was poisoning his community with the preservative creosote, a carcinogenic chemical. Clusters of rare cancers festered for decades across his community. Reports from the Texas Department of State Health Services found that elevated levels of leukemia, as well as lung, esophagus, liver and kidney cancers, occurred in the surrounding communities. The data also revealed that Union Pacific had been dumping toxic pollutants into Kashmere Gardens for decades, yet Davis and his neighbors only found out at that December press conference that the railroad was causing cancer in their community. “It was just all so crushing,” Davis said. “I don’t know how to describe the feeling of betrayal.” Throughout his childhood, every breath Davis took had been tainted with toxic vapors, but what is particularly concerning for Davis is the knowledge that many of his classmates may one day be employed in the industry that has knowingly damaged his neighborhood for so long. “I feel awful knowing that some of my friends are going to end up working at these companies that are harming my community,” Davis said. “We’re invisible.”

THE REVIEW 2021 GRADUATION SPECIAL

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Brown University Elijah Dahunsi Rachel Hecht

I78

Lafayette College Nicholas Sorak

Lehigh University Henry Granberry

Vermont, NH, Maine

Colgate University Benjamin Dokupil

Hamilton College Julia Smith

Rensselaer Amherst College Polytechnic Institute Carter Hollingsworth Tyson Luna Eric Johnson

Middlebury College Matthew Hensel Olivia O’Reilly

Dartmouth College Katina Christensen Piper Edwards Eric Strawn

Bowdoin College Marco Stix

Did Not Respond Pete Anton Mansﬁeld Owsley

THE REVIEW GRADUATION SPECIAL

College Final Results

How Much Did Finances Impact Your College Decision? 1 = Not At All 5 = Deciding Factor

36.6% 1 28.5% 2 18.6% 3

MAY 25, 2021

What's Your School Setting? (Press One)

By The Numbers: Majors

(Results Account For Double Majors) Business/Economics

Humanities/ Social Sciences

Engineering

Sciences

Undecided

Student Athletes

Performing and Visual Arts

12.2% 4 4.1% 5

Math/Computer Science

Spread Design By Grace Randall (Cover, Center) Bailey Maierson (Center) Matthew Hensel (Center, Back)

Review Senior Editors 20-21 Noura Jabir, Abigail Poag, Grace Randall (Print Editors-in-Chief); Laney Chang, Fareen Dhuka (Online EICs); Julia Smith (News); Ethan Kinsella (Features); Gabrielle Solymosy (Culture); Max Beard (Opinions); Matthew Hensel, Bailey Maierson (Design); Maxx Shearod (Photo); Rahul Rupani (Business)

MAY 25, 2021

CULTURE

The Last Picture Show: River Oaks Theatre closes

THE ICONIC RIVER OAKS THEATRE AS SEEN IN 1939 AND 2021

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION & 2021 PHOTO BY Grace Randall 1939 PHOTO COURTESY OF Houston Metropolitan Research Center

Community members mourn loss of 82-year-old art deco cinema By Annie Jones

edged amid a stucco shopping strip, the River Oaks Theatre’s bright red facade and flashing lights recall the glamour and eccentricity of 1930s art deco. For 82 years, it served as a home for indie flicks and foreign films, world premieres and cult classics. On March 25, the theater closed its black doors, likely for good. The Landmark-owned theater has joined a long list of businesses closed by the pandemic (including the Regal and ArcLight movie chains, along with the iconic Cinerama Dome), but the demise of the River Oaks Theatre hit many Houstonians particularly hard. “It's a community theater, not just a multiplex in a strip mall,” said Laura Crawford ('83), a St. John’s parent and lifelong patron. “It played independent movies; it played old movies and foreign movies. It was incredibly special.” The River Oaks Theatre was long known for its avant-garde selection, according to English teacher Kem Kemp. “When I was younger, I had some friends who were watching foreign films, and I wanted to be cool like them,” she said. “That theater is the first place I developed a taste for those. Watching a movie there is its own experience.” Before the advent of on-demand streaming, the River Oaks Theater was one of the only places to watch underground or independently-produced films. As the founder of Houstorian, an organization which shares stories of Houston history and culture, James Glassman ('88) credits its cultural impact to the diversity of its films. “There was a time where you couldn’t watch those movies anywhere else,” Glassman said. “You couldn’t stream them; you couldn’t rent them; really, you could only see them in theaters.” One experience viewers could never replicate at home was the theater’s midnight screening of the 1975 cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Every Saturday, costumed performers would act while the musical played behind them, interacting with the audience and the screen. “I have a lot of really good memories with friends there, and I’ve met new friends at ‘Rocky,’” said senior Syd Hammerman, who frequented the midnight screenings. “The actors have certain cues and callbacks that interact with the video, and if you go enough times, you learn them all and can participate.” The River Oaks Theatre also supported local filmmak-

ers. David Purdie, a native Houstonian, premiered his documentary “AstroWhirled” about the closure and demolition of AstroWorld there. Weingarten Realty, the owner of the building, has not prioritized saving the theater in the past. According to Houstorian, community members rallied in 2009 to prevent the real estate investment trust from converting the building into a new business since the company had been closing and rebuilding surrounding stores. The community efforts were successful despite the theater’s financial struggles. Originally, the River Oaks Theatre had only one screen with a main seating section and two balconies, but those were converted into separate small theaters in 1987. Otherwise, there have been no major structural changes to the historic building. Glassman hopes it stays that way. “Historical buildings are an actual record,” he said. “It’s a link The theater held midnight that binds us to screenings of the cult classic "Rocky the people who Horror" on Saturdays. came before us.” The fate of the theater still hangs in limbo. Several protests against the theater’s closure took place outside the building, and some patrons (including U.S. congresswoman Sylvia Garcia) held a candlelight vigil after the last screening in March. “When we went to protest, we thought that it would be like in 2009 when the theater stayed open,” senior Carolyn DePinho said. “We thought we just had to prove that we wanted it enough. But the protest was small, and circumstances are very different now.” The community’s efforts were not enough to save the River Oaks Theatre from closure. The building has not been granted protection as a historical landmark, leaving Weingarten Realty free to modify or demolish it.

A month after the theater closed, the website Friends of River Oaks Theatre was launched (saveriveroakstheatre.org). Its goal: convince Weingarten Realty to lease the building as a movie theater again. The website lists several film industry leaders who support the theater, including director Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”), Picturehouse CEO Bob Berney, producer Elizabeth Avellán (“Spy Kids”), and writer-director Wes Anderson (‘87). In a statement to the Friends of River Oaks Theatre, Anderson emphasized the venue’s historical value. “One of the things in this world you genuinely and definitively cannot construct is an old building,” Anderson said. “Add to that: the rarity of an actual existing and operational movie palace. This one has a history like literally no other left in Houston.” The website also mentions the Southwest Alternative Media Project, a “media arts organization” that supports independent artists, and the Royal Mystic Order of Chaos, a group of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” performers. On March 27, the two groups hosted a variety show to raise money for SWAMP’s fund benefiting the theater. They raised almost $10,000 through ticket sales and donations, but organizers have not yet announced how the money will be used. Many Houstonians remain hopeful, particularly because of Weingarten Realty’s merger with Kimco, which is projected to be finalized by the end of the year. Kimco often remodels and remarkets its businesses, which gives some hope that they will renovate and reopen the theater. The Friends of River Oaks Theatre recommends that community members ask Mayor Sylvester Turner and other city and county officials to support the theater. They also sell t-shirts to raise money for the theater’s possible restoration. The website encourages Houstonians to remind city officials of the theater’s community importance. For many, the theater is too valuable to destroy. “When you're immersed in a theater with nothing else distracting you — and you have people in the same immersive experience — it's pretty special,” Crawford said. “If you write a great short story, you want the reader to read it from beginning to end. It’s the same with a great filmmaker. They're creating an experience that is supposed to be consumed whole.”

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

Guide to Covid dining: Where to go, what to get floor which makes it difficult to choose the takeout or delivery options. Although there is little social distancing between outdoor tables, masks are required indoors, and seating is at 75% capacity. Hungry’s provides a multitude of vegan options, and the pizza is amazing. Seating Capacity 75% Dine-in, take out or delivery Masks required

Local Foods (2555 Kirby)

Junior Eve Kroencke dines at Bebidas at Westheimer where former Editor-in-Chief Sophie Caldwell serves her a salad. Many restaurants have expanded outdoor dining options.

By Ella Piper Claffy and Georgia Andrews

estaurants are reopening, students 12 and older are getting vaccinated and everyone is hankering to eat a long-awaited meal from their favorite lunch spot. But lingering health concerns make it difficult to go out if you do not know how seriously restaurants are taking precautions. We surveyed a variety of nearby restaurants that students frequent in order to provide a guide for your next reservation or quick bite after school.

Bebidas (2606 Edloe St.)

Within walking distance of campus, Bebidas offers short wait times and outdoor dining, making it an ideal option for coffee, juice, smoothie, dessert or phenomenal chicken salad sandwich. Curating a healthy, delicious menu, as well as the staff’s willingness to go the extra mile, sets them apart. Although masks aren't required, takeout is available.

PHOTO BY Sarah Clark

Seating Capacity 100% Masks not required Dine-in or takeout

Chuy’s (2706 Westheimer)

A quick drive from St. John’s, Chuy's is the perfect choice when you’re in search of convenient and tasty Tex-mex. (The creamy jalepeño sauce is a must.) While the curbside system is efficient, the restaurant is also open for dining in and has a delivery option. As far as indoor seating, they are at half capacity, with every other table in use. Seating Capacity 50% Masks encouraged Dine-in, takeout or delivery

Hungry’s (2356 Rice Blvd.) Fully equipped to deliver a safe, fun dining experience, Hungry's has an imaginative outdoor dining area on the second

A first-rate lunch or dinner option for students looking to dine safely in a bright, environmentally conscious space. Just a three-minute drive from campus, the restaurant features locally sourced ingredients that are highlighted in meals like the must-get avocado BLT. Masks are required of diners and staff members, and staff take daily temperature checks and disinfect every table after diners leave. Seating Capacity 75% Masks required Dine-in, curbside or takeout

Mia’s Table (3131 Argonne)

A sister restaurant to Grace’s, Mia's Table boasts a slew of American favorites. Their free vanilla soft serve is the perfect follow-up to the mouthwatering cheeseburger. They are open for dine-in, takeout and delivery, and staff wear masks and disinfect surfaces between visits. Seating Indoor/Outdoor Dine-in, curbside or delivery Masks required

The Teahouse (2089 Westheimer) An easy and refreshing stop to make on your way home. The Teahouse's indoor seating option is small, and they have

returned to 100% capacity. Masks are recommended but not required. The large menu with customizable drink options (go with the #1 Teahouse Cream Tea with tapioca) allows you to tailor your drink to perfection. Seating Capacity 100% Masks recommended Dine-in or takeout

Tiny’s No. 5 (3636 Rice Blvd.) A great place to safely brunch with friends on the weekend, especially since Tiny's is fully equipped with a comfortable and charming outdoor seating area. Indoors, the restaurant is at 75-100% capacity, and masks are required for diners and staff. If you need a cookie fix and aren’t comfortable dining out, you can go to the walk-up window of Milk and Cookies or have their chocolate chip cookie dough shipped to your front door. Seating Capacity 75-100% Masks required Dine-in, curbside or takeout

Whataburger (3639 Westheimer)

The ultimate post-football game destination, Whataburger remains the only fast food restaurant in River Oaks. You’d be hard-pressed to find any student who doesn’t have a table tent number in their bedroom. The establishment is a perfect option for food on the go or an after-school milkshake (try the Dr Pepper shake).The restaurant remains at half capacity, and although masks are not mandatory, they are encouraged and required for staff. The drive-thru makes take-out easy. Seating Capacity 50% Masks encouraged Dine-in or takeout

FEEDING OUR ST. JOHN’S FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR OVER 30 YEARS

VISIT ANY OF OUR 11 HOUSTON LOCATIONS | becksprime.com

MAY 25, 2021

THE REVIEW

Students find new ways to remain connected By Lydia Gafford

or the past five years, science and math teacher Dwight Raulston has kept two old TVs in his classroom just so students could play Super Smash Bros during their free periods, but lately Nintendo characters like Kirby have been battling far fewer foes. Video games have long been a popular pastime, and in 2019 the eSports club was so big that at club meetings, the room was so full that sophomore Rhyder Swen remembers that “there was no space for movement.” Although video games are more popular than ever, they have been moved out of enclosed spaces because crowded rooms are no longer permitted on campus. For many students, gaming connects people who would not interact otherwise. Party games such as Skribbl.io can bring players together in collaborative and competitive situations without being in close proximity. Over the past year, video games like Among Us and Animal Crossing have fueled sales of the Nintendo Switch console. “All the Switches sold out,” Swen said. “You couldn’t buy a Switch for [months] because it was so popular.” Swen has received approval to start a Jackbox games club, in which a large number of students can play games from the online party game development company.

“

You don't have to know how to play video games — and it's social. It's witty, comical, humorous and other synonyms for funny. RHYDER SWEN “You don’t have to know how to play video games — and it's social,” Swen said. “It’s witty, comical, humorous and other synonyms for funny.” Freshman Adley Halligan, who does not consider herself as an avid gamer, still enjoys playing Pokémon GO. The mobile game is experiencing a bit of a revival after reaching the height of its popularity when it was launched in 2016. Halligan started playing when junior Ellie Monday “got most of the basketball team into it.” “From there it’s history,” Halligan said. Halligan now plays Pokémon GO every day. Conveniently for the team, there’s a Pokéstop on campus that

can be reached from the Quad. One of her teammates, junior Lily Pesikoff, even hosted a Pokémon GO tournament for the team.

“

It's really taught me to appreciate not just the coders of the game, but also the people who design them. ARJUN MAITRA “I made it to the second round and then I lost to Ellie,” Halligan said. “I’m still not over it.” Some students do more than just play video games. Freshmen Arjun Maitra and Shreyes Balachandran, both Review staffers, are creating a mod (gamer-speak for “modification”) for Hearts of Iron IV, a strategy-based computer wargame. They started their project after the campus closed last March. “We thought this would just last us a month or so, but it turns out we both really enjoyed it,” Maitra said. “Towards the end of July, people were getting excited about it.” Undertaking such a massive project is a far cry from the small games Maitra created in middle school. He and Balanchandran are collaborating with several members of the Heart of Iron IV community to program the mod. “It’s really taught me to appreciate not just the coders of the game, but also the people who design them,” Maitra said. For Balachandran, the mod combines his interest in video games and history. “We decided to make the setting of our mod based on what would have happened if Austria won the Austro-Prussian war,” Balachandran said. “My favorite part is the history, so I came up with the idea for the initial war. We found some developers to make alterations and the coding developers to code it. The mod has provided them both

with entertainment during a year of isolation. “For me and my friends, gaming has become an increasingly important part of life because it is one of the few ways to find entertainment right now,” Balachandran said. “I get the feeling that this increase in interest for gaming is not going to go away.” Swen appreciates video games for providing an opportunity to connect over the internet with friends and strangers. While some people are fine with just chatting on Zoom, “other people need something to do,” Swen said, “so they turn to video games.” Students have been using their gaming activities as a core method of communication. Swen says that online platforms like Discord and Reddit help connect a large community of people. “When you can't be with your friends all the time,” Halligan said, ”it’s easier to find something online that you can do.” Maitra notes that, at a school where extracurricular activities always seem to serve the purpose of résumé-building, gamers appreciate having a hobby just for themselves. “That can be a great feeling, once you finish playing a game,” Maitra said. “Even though it might not be a college accomplishment, it definitely makes me happy.”

ILLUSTRATIONS AND DESIGN BY Diane Guo and Alice Xu

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

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MAY 25, 2021

SPORTS

Texas Two-step: Wrestling, girls’ golf claim championships

GRAPHIC BY Grace Randall; PHOTOS BY Kim Yen (golf ) and Elizabeth Romere (wrestling)

Golfers on a roll, defeat Hockaday to capture 4th consecutive SPC title

Prep State win caps off delayed, shortened wrestling season

By Mia Hong and Emma Chang

By Wilson Bailey

he girls’ golf team’s SPC win this month was a much-anticipated event. But it did not come without hardship. Denise Pan (’20) was on the cusp of winning her fourth straight SPC championship when Covid forced officials to cut the 2020 season short. “We were robbed,” said Pan, now a freshman on the Carnegie Mellon golf team, which placed second in the Division III national championships. “We were definitely going to win SPC before the season was canceled.” Freshman golfer Brielle Burns expressed similar confidence prior to the 2021 championship. “We can be pretty confident that we’re going to win SPC this year,” Burns said. Despite battling 20 mph winds on Hockaday’s home course, the Mavericks successfully defended their SPC title on May 8, making them winners of the past four SPC titles. The championship squad, consisting of juniors Reyna Ngu and Ashley Yen, sophomores Eloise Chapman and Isabel Soliman, and freshmen Brielle Burns and Kenna Lee, defeated Hockaday by 23 strokes. Head coach Jack Soliman attributed the win to simulating a game-like atmosphere during practice. Leading up to SPC, Soliman regularly scheduled practice matches against other schools in order to help the girls develop a more ambitious mindset during play while also “bringing some fun into practice.” “Having competitive experiences affects the mentality of our team,” Soliman said. “It pulls us together, builds trust and helps with team bonding.” To meet safety protocols, one of

many changes to the golf season involved modifying the SPC tournament. Normally, multiple schools come together and play in the championship match. This year, only the winners of the North Zone and South Zone tournaments participated in a dual match to determine the overall SPC champion. Non-SPC tournaments were also restructured. The Mavericks only competed in five this season and won four. “In previous years, we had schools from other cities play against us in tournaments,” co-captain Trinity Liaw said. “But this year, all of the tournaments we played in were pretty small with only a few schools from the Houston area in attendance.” Even though high-level golfers graduate every year, Soliman is confident that the Mavs will remain triumphant in future years. “We can only become better and stronger as a team,” Soliman said. “We have a very bright future ahead of us.”

Captains Nicole Doyle and Trinity Liaw PHOTO BY Kim Yen

ohn Perdue initially joined the wrestling program in seventh grade in order to improve his body control and toughness for football, but along the way he became one of the best wrestlers in the country. At the 2021 National Prep Championship in Pennsylvania, Perdue, a junior, became the only SPC wrestler this year, and just the third Maverick all-time, to earn All-American status. To become an All-American, a wrestler must finish in the top eight in their weight class. Normally, wrestlers qualify for nationals by placing in the top three at state, but this year the tournament was open due to cancellations, so Perdue and 13 other Mavericks competed May 2-3. Three-time captain Sebastian Jimenez secured a Top 12 finish in the 145-pound division by winning four matches. Junior Duncan McLaren and sophomore Tyler Langin both reached the Top 12 in the 220-pound division. On the way to securing his All-American finish, Perdue won three matches. In the quarterfinals, he started his match against Caden Rogers from Malvern Prep in Pennsylvania by attempting a tie-up. “Before I knew it, I was on my back,” Perdue said. “It was pretty brutal.” Rogers went on to handily win the 195-pound division. “He absolutely rocked me,” Perdue said. “I can see why he’s the champion; he was a monster.” Before heading to nationals, the team defended their Prep State title in Dallas, more than doubling the second-place team, Liberty Christian, 207.5-95. Episcopal finished third with 92 points. Led by head coach Alan Paul, the Mavs had four state champions: Perdue, Jimenez, Langin and senior Michael Daichman (170). “We have the best top-to-bottom team we have ever had,” Jimenez said. “We are strong at every weight.” Jimenez finished as the second-most decorated wrestler in school history, winning 131 matches — two fewer matches than the record holder, Layo

Laniyan (’18). Jimenez ended his junior year just 13 wins away from the record, but there were fewer opportunities this season to add to his total. “If we had a normal season, Sebastian would have crushed the record,” Perdue said. “Covid really messed that up.” Next year, Jimenez will wrestle for the Duke Blue Devils, becoming the first Division I wrestler in school history. Jimenez and Perdue credit their success to the team’s high standard for all members of the program. “When everyone buys in, everyone will trust each other on the mat,” Perdue said. Before every practice, wrestlers neatly line up their gear bags against the wall. If the bags are out of place, Paul will stop practice and have the team do conditioning drills. This attention to detail has led to three consecutive Prep State Championships, two straight Prep Dual State Championships and the last five SPC titles. Since 2013, SJS has won seven SPC titles. Most recently, the team was featured on Channel 2 News. “Coach Paul stresses that it’s better to become good people than to get all those accolades,” Perdue said. “If you practice with discipline, you’ll do things the right way on the mat, in school and in the community.” One silver lining of the wrestling season being put on hold this winter was that it allowed some wrestlers to participate in other sports. Perdue joined the swim team in order to improve his cardio and became an important contributor to the program’s South Zone title. He even set a school record in the 50-yard freestyle (21.36) in the South Zone meet. “If we can extend this culture of perfection to other sports, great things will happen,” Perdue said. “Wrestling is the perfect mold of how to build a family-based culture; we are willing to run through a wall for anyone on the team.”

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

Another week,

Another record

Junior distance runner Emmanuel Sgouros keeps getting better

9:45.35

By Dawson Chang, Penelope Macpherson and Thomas Center

ith two runners on his tail, junior Emmanuel Sgouros rounded the last curve of the 1600-meter SPC finals and sprinted toward the finish line. The St. Mark’s crowd screamed encouragement to one of their runners while Sgouros felt his muscles groan from pushing through 40 mph winds. Nearing the finish line, Sgouros summoned a final reserve of energy to pull ahead. With six-tenths of a second to spare, he crossed the finish line, capturing his second title of the day. In addition to placing first in the 1600-meter race (4:26.00), Sgouros also won the 3200-meter (9:47.33), which took place in Dallas, May 8. During his first race, the 3200m, Sgouros conserved his energy instead of going all-out since he would run again four hours later. Though he prioritized strategy over speed, Sgouros still felt tired during the second race, so he spent as little energy as possible until the final stretch, when he burst ahead of his competitors. “He did it tactically,” head track coach Richie Mercado said. “He didn’t overdo it, and that really paid off.” This season, Sgouros broke the school record for the 1600m three times, most recently by almost 10 seconds. His time of 4:12:88 is the fourth fastest in Texas, 36th in the nation and a 22-second improvement over his best time last year. He also broke the 3200m school record by more than 39 seconds (9:05.82), which is second best in the state, 75th nationally. “I knew I was working hard and running well,” Sgouros said, “but I had no idea I would be running this fast.” Drew Woodfolk (’18), a two-year letter winner at Washington and Lee, set the previous marks for the 1600m and 3200m. “During our senior year, the track captains and I wanted to leave the program in a better state than we found it,” Woodfolk said. “Emmanuel’s accomplishments are a testament to the fact that that actually happened.” Kyle Puckett (’20), who is now a freshman cross country and track runner at Washington University in St. Louis, ran frequently with Sgouros last year. “Emmanuel has always inspired me,” Puckett said. “He’s an absolute beast.” Last summer, Sgouros trained in his hometown of Roussa Ekklisia on the island of Crete, where he took advantage of the cool weather and frequently scaled the mountainous terrain in order to better prepare for hilly cross-country courses. Since Greece had fewer COVID-19 cases than the United States at the time, Sgouros worried less about the pandemic.

“

He’s choosing to do things that will make him better at running. That means he might not do stuﬀ that other kids would, like going to parties or eating junk food. RICHIE MERCADO Sgouros has kept himself in shape this year by running twice a day, about 70 miles a week. Sometimes he pushes himself to run 15 miles at a time. He also avoids eating sugar and fast food, and he always sleeps at least eight hours a night. During the school week, Sgouros wakes up as early as

Drew Woodfolk set the previous St. John's 1600-meter record in 2018.

Woodfolk also established the school 3200-meter record in 2018.

4:22.21

9:05.82 Sgouros has broken the 1600m record three times this year alone.

Just a week after setting the 1600m record, Sgouros set the 3200m mark.

4:12.28 PHOTO COURTESY OF Bruce Schwartz; DESIGN BY

5:30 to exercise. He sometimes spends his free periods or lunch running. “He’s choosing to do things that will make him better at running. That means he might not do stuff that other kids would, like going to parties or eating junk food,” Mercado said. “When it comes to the team, he’s always right there.” Although track and cross-country athletes compete individually, Sgouros finds inspiration in his teammates. “Without good teammates, it’s hard to look forward to going to practices and long track meets,” Sgouros said. “It’s a lot more motivating to run for something other than just myself.” During quarantine, Sgouros started training with Tim Goldsack, a private coach. Since then, Goldsack has helped Sgouros improve his strength with new workout routines. “When Emmanuel and I first met, he told me that he really wanted to go from being one of the best in Texas to being one of the best in the country,” Goldsack said. “So we took his training to the next level.” Although strength is important, Goldsack says that a large part of Sgouros’s ability comes from his positive attitude. “Emmanuel doesn't let the emotion of a race get to him,” Goldsack said. “He trusts the training and his talent, and then he executes the race perfectly.” Mercado appreciates Sgouros’s mindset as well. “He’s very humble, quiet and grounded,” Mercado

said. “When he’s practicing, he’s just one of the guys.” Since Sgouros holds some of the best times in the nation, colleges have taken notice, especially after he competed this year at national meets in Alabama and North Carolina. Once Covid restrictions lessen, Sgouros hopes to run in more out-of-state meets against tougher competition. “If I get into a race where I have to chase after somebody who’s better than me, I think I could run even faster,” he said. Sgouros also aspires to make the Greek national track team within the next few years. “I’m proud of being American, but as a firstgeneration immigrant, I have always had a special longing for Greece,” Sgouros said. “It’s also easier to make the national team in Greece than it is in the United States since there isn’t as much competition.” With his senior year fast approaching, Sgouros wants his records to serve as motivation for future runners. “Hopefully they see my records and are not intimidated,” Sgouros said, “but instead accept the challenge of trying to chase after them.”

MAY 25, 2021

OPINIONS

ILLUSTRATION BY Celine Huang

By Ella West

uring a depressive episode last year, I was unable to find joy in anything that once mattered to me. My favorite activities turned into burdens, and I simply wanted to sleep (or cry). I found refuge in the unlikeliest of places — Slava’s Boxing Gym in the Heights. Within these four industrial walls, usually frequented by middle-aged men with body dysmorphia, I finally found an outlet. On my first day of training, Slava Kozakov himself taught me one-two combinations and how to throw a right hook without breaking my hand. For those 90 minutes, I couldn’t think of electromagnetism or dissolving friend groups. Boxing was the only thing that mattered. For years, I was intrigued by the idea of boxing, but I didn’t think it was a sport for teenage girls. Sure enough, I discovered that I was one of the only women at the gym — and definitely the only teenager. I couldn’t care less. When I was boxing, I found a release like none other. I developed a greater appreciation for what my body is capable

of, and I began the process of loving myself for who I am — not who I want to be. While by no means a panacea, boxing helped me realize that I am worth fighting for. The world is changing rapidly around us, so it’s okay if we are no longer the same people we were at the beginning of the pandemic. And, quite frankly, I don’t want to be the person I was in 2019. As authorities lift mask mandates and life returns to “normal,” we need to move forward, not backward. After living in fear of a deadly virus for so long, we must find what makes us unequivocally happy. If what you are doing right now works for you, that’s great. But for many of us, it’s time to find a new outlet. When I started boxing, it was my crutch. If I didn’t go almost every single night, I would turn into a nervous wreck. But after a few weeks, I started making changes. I re-evaluated my priorities, cut out toxic people and sought out friends who uplift me. If an activity made me miserable, it was gone. So began the healing process.

After a few weeks of working with Slava, I developed a keen sense of my own self-worth, and I no longer had to box. Yet, I still go as often as I can. I box because I love it, not because I need it.

“

While by no means a panacea, boxing helped me realize that I am worth fighting for. ELLA WEST

After finding my liberation through boxing, I wanted to share it with others, and SJS provided me with the perfect opportunity: the Paul Chapman Fellowship in Service-Learning. I proposed a six-week boxing program with a focus on self-acceptance and body positivity for female participants in Breakthrough Houston, an organization that assists students from underserved communities on the path to college. In March, I was selected as a grant recipient.

Since I first stepped into the ring, I have gotten involved with amazing organizations like Jane’s Due Process and become one of only three teens in Texas who have ever designed and taught a teenREACH presentation for Planned Parenthood. Just because my priorities shifted doesn’t mean that I have changed who I am. I have kept the things in my life that make me happy. Doing what you love isn’t a cure-all, but it sure as hell helped me. A month ago, one of the other trainers told us that Slava had a triple bypass and would not be back for several months. The knockout blow came two weeks later when we learned that the gym would be closing permanently as of May 21. It felt like a sucker punch, but after the initial shock, I had to move on. Breakthrough Boxing will still take place. And I will find another gym. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches, and sometimes you need to hit back.

Consent is far more complicated than 'No Means No' By Julia Smith

“W

e all know the difference between yes and no.” I must have heard this sentiment repeated 10 times the morning of Rahel Bayar’s virtual consent assembly on April 12. This declaration is an oversimplified view of consent, but after years of limited curriculum instruction, I understand its roots. Last school year, we received less than three hours of consent education from Speak About It, a consent education and sexual assault prevention group. This year, Bayar spoke to students for an hour and a half total. Consent is a complex, controversial and involved subject. The miniscule amount of time provided to discuss it limits the conversation. Consent can involve power dynamics, coercion, fear, drugs and alcohol, bystanders and friends, all of which are wrapped up in a culture that we have the power to change. It is easy to understand why some students feel that the typical presentations we hear are unnecessary. We are told the

same concepts each time: yes means yes, victim blaming is never okay, and there is always an awkward extended metaphor that explains consent without using the words “sex” or “rape.” Many of us have already learned these painful lessons on our own.

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If we ignore problematic behavior in our friends, whether it’s a joke or a lewd comment, we contribute to a culture that trivializes the importance of consent. JULIA SMITH Surface-level warnings and rudimentary discussions are not the best use of our limited time. Yet the resultant flippant attitudes towards consent education are dangerous. They contribute to a culture that enables nonconsensual actions. On April 2, news broke that Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) repeatedly

showed his colleagues photos of nude women, boasting about his “conquests,” even on the House floor. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, columnist Alexandra Petri specifically references one part of the allegations: Gaetz did it repeatedly. “To me, this is something you do, ideally, zero times,” she writes. “But if you can’t do it zero times, then ideally it happens only once.” Gaetz is just one in a long line of men, including Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump, who have garnered positions of power despite allegedly disregarding consent. The culture that allowed a congressman to violate consent on the floor of the House of Representatives can be found throughout the nation, whether obvious or not. Think about “locker room talk” or how fraternity members are three times more likely to commit sexual assault than their unaffiliated peers. In small groups like these, objectifying language abounds, and disrespect is normalized. When individuals are not held account-

able for their attitudes, acceptance is implied, and sexual assault becomes far more likely. St. John’s is not exempt from this culture, and our consent education should help us change the narrative. If we ignore problematic behavior in our friends, whether it's a joke or a lewd comment, we contribute to a culture that trivializes the importance of consent. If we laugh awkwardly or turn away to avoid tough conversations, we have, consciously or unconsciously, decided not to intervene. To make real, lasting change, we must convince ourselves that consent education applies to us even if we think we know everything. And we cannot assume our classmates are on the same page because not all of them are. We need true consent education, which ideally spans weeks. It should involve difficult discussions, participation, and an examination of our relationships, covering consent in all its complexity. No means no, and yes means yes, but that should be the beginning — not the end — of the conversation.

THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

STAFF EDITORIAL

Thank you, teachers St. John's School 2401 Claremont Lane Houston, TX 77019 review@sjs.org sjsreview.com Facebook SJS Review Twitter @SJS_Review Instagram @sjsreview

Member National Scholastic Press Assn. Pacemaker 2015, 2018 Pacemaker Finalist 2019, 2020

Member Columbia Scholastic Press Assn. Gold Crown 2015, 2020, 2021 Silver Crown 2014, 2016-2019

Blue and Gold Award 2019

SNO Distinguised Site 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Print Editors-in-Chief Noura Jabir, Abigail Poag, Grace Randall Online Editors-in-Chief Laney Chang and Fareen Dhuka Assistant Online Editors-in-Chief Megan Chang and Ashley Yen Assignment Editors Julia Smith (News), Ella West (Features), Indrani Maitra (Culture), Russell Li (Sports) Copy Editors Ella Chen (News), Ethan Kinsella (Features), Gabrielle Solymosy (Culture), Afraaz Malick (Sports), Max Beard (Opinions) Design Editors Matthew Hensel, Celine Huang, Bailey Maierson Photography Editor Maxx Shearod Business Manager Rahul Rupani Staff

Georgia Andrews, Wilson Bailey, Shreyes Balachandran, Chaahat Batra, Natalie Boquist, Thomas Center, Dawson Chang, Emma Chang, Edward Chen, Ella Piper Claﬀy, Nico Del Frate, Olivia Doan, Cameron Ederle, Louis Faillace, Lydia Gaﬀord, Diane Guo, Lexi Guo, Abigail Hindman, Mia Hong, Natasha Janssens, Sophia Jazaeri, Annie Jones, Rahul Lal, James Li, Penelope Macpherson, Arjun Maitra, Ellie Monday, Leo Morales, Sierra Ondo, Ria Pawar, Lillian Poag, Jack Ringold, Grace Rustay, Keval Shah, Yasmin Stein, Max Stith, Kate Vo, Alice Xu, Willow Zerr, Chloe Zhao, Evan Zhang

Advisers David Nathan, Shelley Stein ('88) and 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 The Review will be published three times during the 2020-2021 school year. We mail each issue — 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 Headmaster or the Board of Trustees of St. John's School. Staff editorials represent the opinion of the entire Editorial Board unless otherwise noted. Writers and photographers are credited with a byline. Corrections, when necessary, can be found on the editorial pages. Running an advertisement does not imply endorsement by the school. Submission Guidelines Letters to the editor and guest columns are encouraged but are subject to editing for reasons of clarity, space, accuracy and taste. On occasion, we will publish letters anonymously. The Review reserves the right not to print letters received. Letters and guest columns can be emailed to review.sjs@gmail.com or hand delivered to the QR room (Q201).

teacher’s job is never easy, but the global pandemic posed a fresh set of challenges that extended far beyond the classroom. On top of grading papers, administering tests and planning lessons, teachers had to reckon with a rapidly changing world. Educators burned the midnight oil — and even risked their lives — to give their students the knowledge and support that they needed to navigate the pandemic. As students struggled to transition online, teachers revamped lesson plans. They Zoomed into work — often with their own children vying for attention. Dogs and cats made unwanted cameo appearances as half-asleep teenagers tried to learn without knowing when they would step on campus. An already challenging job became nearly impossible. And yet, our teachers kept us on track. When we were finally allowed back on campus, we hit the ground running, grateful to see our friends again, and not worrying nearly as much about our internet connections. Life was still far from normal: we wore masks, got our temperatures checked daily, and sprayed our desks with

disinfectant after every class. Like always, our teachers were there to help us. They passed out wristbands, reminded us to social distance and exercised incredible patience amidst hybrid learning, doing everything in their power to ensure that quarantined students were not excluded. Teachers put their lives on the line for us this year, never sacrificing the quality of our education. They supported us and helped us grow without ever seeing our (entire) faces. Teachers go above and beyond: they are guides who model how to live responsibly and selflessly. We won’t see our teachers for another three months, and even then, we might only occasionally pass them in the hallways. Seniors might not see them ever again. So, visit your teachers while you can. Thank them for all the work they poured into their job this year and every year, and let them know how much you appreciate them. And always be mindful that teachers endure so much because they care about you and your success.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

A love letter to our campus Dear Readers, After four years of research and deliberation, we have come to a conclusion: the campus looks prettiest on Sunday mornings. Without students crowding the hallways or sprawling out across the Plaza, it’s easier to appreciate the light sifting through the tall Quad windows and the live oaks stretching over velvety green lawns. When publication day looms, we spend hours each weekend holed up in Q201, finalizing page designs and tracking down missing quote and fact checks. Our workdays have shown us a deserted campus and instilled in us a unique appreciation for its beauty. We often get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of our daily routine that we fail to recognize how fortunate we are to learn in such a pleasant environment. People — our peers, teachers and parents — are at the heart of our community. But the campus itself shapes our community. The acres of sports fields give us room to grow as athletes and individuals. The VST’s studios, stages and practice rooms provide us with state-of-the-art creative spaces. As for the Review, our new publications room, with all its charming clutter, has served as a home — complete with an ever-brimming pantry of premium Costco snacks. These spaces facilitate the connections that we will value for years to come. They house dearest memories and form a backdrop to many formative moments of our lives. So in between your band practices and problem sets, take a few minutes to look around. If you ever get the chance, come to campus on a Sunday morning. Savor the silence, study your surroundings and remember that stillness when Monday rolls around. In honor of our impending departure, we’d like to dedicate a letter to the Storied Cloisters themselves.

Dear Campus, Thank you for providing scenic morning walks; the view of the Great Lawn as we emerge from the tunnel makes even Monday grogginess bearable. Thank you for quiet study sessions in the Reading Room — where else could we pore over our history textbooks under a stained glass window? We can’t imagine life without the endearingly odd archival photographs lining the Quad halls or Mr. Havel’s miniature city of ceramic towers on the Plaza. On Grandparents’ Day, our families all marveled at your Hogwarts-like Great Hall — from the vaulted ceilings and gold chandeliers to the gleaming floor tiles in the bathroom. The ivy that clings to your limestone walls pairs nicely with the red chairs dotting your landscape. The view from third-floor Mewbourne never fails to calm our pre-test nerves, and when we stay on campus past 6 p.m., we linger to watch the sun set behind the clock tower. We will miss the unexpected sight of googly eyes on trash bins and the faded inspirational posters that hang outside the science classrooms. In the spring, azaleas bloom pink and white in front of the Science Building. In the fall, asps line the walkways, their spiky bodies a familiar (and feared) marker of the changing seasons. And in the winter, smoke curls up from the Flores fireplace.

In short, you are beautiful. From your limestone arches to your speckled carpet, we have cherished our time within your walls. Love,

Laney Chang

Fareen Dhuka

Noura Jabir

Abigail Poag

Grace Randall

PHOTO BY Nancy Randall

MAY 25, 2021

SJSREVIEW.COM

PORTRAITS BY Grace Randall

60 seconds with

PETE ANTON

CAMILLE MCFARLAND

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THE REVIEW

MAY 25, 2021

COUNTDOWN TO COMMENCEMENT

SARAH CLARK

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1. Seniors celebrate their last day of school, May 5, by sporting their college gear on the bleachers at Skip Lee Field. 2. Georgi Mathews and Alex Williams chat before enjoying a meal with faculty members at the Senior Dinner, May 21. 3. Meridian Monthy and Natalie Brown, who are both attending Yale next fall, embrace. 4. Lauren Aguilar and Jim Rouse share a high-five. 5. Tyler King and Janie Spedale read letters from their parents after enjoying dinner.

SARAH CLARK

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