Issue 1 2012

Shawnee Mission East l 7500 Mission Road, PV KS, 66208 l September 10, 2012 l Issue 1 l www.smeharbinger.net

THE HARBINGER PG. 3O Soccer team starts season with 20 seniors and high expectations.

One of the main goals of the program is to make students more employable by simulating real-life situations in the classroom.

The ‘Case’ for Common Core

WORK PORTFOLIO

The program aims to raise national test scores, so America can be more competitive with other countries.

COMMON CORE CURRICULUM

Map of the United States of America

Fourty-five states have so far adopted the program, as shown by the map to the left.

WORLD ATLAS

The curriculum will be essayoriented, requiring more writing for the students and more grading for the teachers.

Geometry 101

How To Write an Essay

Once this program goes into effect, students will have to pass geometry to graduate.

KANSAS STATE TEST SCORES State tests will be more difficult, causing an expected decrease in scores but an increase in how accurately they reflect what students have learned.

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FINDING COMMON GROUND Kansas public schools plan to put Common Core Curriculum into full effect Fall 2013 written by Anne Willman Change is coming to education in Kansas. Next school year, curriculums across the state will look different than they do today. Math, English, test standards—all are about to change.

A new form of education standards will be introduced— the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Kansas is not alone. Not only will these changes be implemented in schools across the state, but students in 44 other states will face the same changes.

It took 14 months for the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to create the Common Core Standards. Experts, administrators and teachers specifically formed the standards with one distinct goal in mind: to prepare students for life after graduation.

“It is important to have standards that are preparing students for college and their careers,” Carrie Heath Phillips, Director of Common Core Standards said.

The standards were designed to teach students the information they need to take with them to the next grade level.

In this system, the information taught to students will build year after year, eventually meeting a main goal of preparing students for college.

The new Common Core standards will replace the current state standards. However, each state or school district has the choice to include additional standards if they choose to do so.

“For parents, teachers and students, they will have a clearer idea of what kids need to do in each grade,” Phillips said. “Previously, standards may be a huge long laundry list of things you need to do, but the standards are supposed to be more focused and more clear.”

The changes will take place as a result of the Common Core standards in two main subjects: English and mathematics.

continued on page 4

2 | NEWS

THE NEWS IN BRIEF

SEPT. 10, 2012 photo by Connor Woodson

written by Julia Seiden

SHARE SIGN UPS

SCHEDULE CHANGES At the beginning of this school year, the schedule changed to add more block days to increase seminar time, but now East is being forced to change some of the block days back to 7-period ones. Last fall during the first semester, students only had seven seminars out of almost 20 weeks of school.

The administration saw that students and staff were struggling to connect, and teachers didn’t feel they had enough time to help students with their school work.

Before the forced schedule change, the schedule this year was planned to be almost 60 percent one 7-period day followed by four block days, with the remaining weeks a mix of 7-period and block days. This schedule was made after a discussion between all of the SMSD high school administration who agreed it would be beneficial to allow students to have more seminar time by all adopting a common schedule.

East originally strayed from the common schedule, planning to have even more block days than any of the other SMSD high schools; by district order, our schedule is changing again. Adding more 7-period days will put East on a similar schedule to the rest of the District.

East has changed only two days of the first quarter from block days to 7-period days. The semester in total has only changed a few more days back to 7- period days to add to that. The biggest change will come in January when counselors will be trying to use seminar as an enrollment

hour opposed to taking students out of class.

“I personally love having more block days because I have more time to get ready and finish my homework for the next day.” junior Mary Grace Poskin said.

East received more block days by making most of the weeks a 4:1 schedule to accommodate early releases, pep assemblies and more.

“I like block days because I feel like we can get more done, there is more comprehension and kids don’t feel so rushed, and they don’t have as much homework,” math teacher Jennifer Horn said. ““I would prefer if they didn’t switch our block days back to 7-period days.”

The issue with block scheduling is that East needs to have more teachers for student supervision during the day.

If East goes back to block scheduling permanently in the future the district would have to hire around five new teachers, which is difficult due to the financial issues East is having now.

“I’m definitely a proponent of the four by one schedule, opposed to the three by two schedule because it makes the stress on students less.” Principal Dr. Karl Krawitz said The schedule being changed back to a few more 7-period days for the year should not cause issues with any school activities, but more may be added back in depending on how the district feels about East’s new schedule changes.

NEW STRICTLY ENFORCED DRESS CODE What’s new?

24%

The SHARE sign up for East wasn’t as glittery and loud as it has been in years past.

Normally the “SHARE Fair” is held during seminar and is used to let students explore the projects and decide which one(s) they want to be a part of, all while dancing and receiving candy.

“Dr. Krawitz thought that the SHARE Fair was too party-like so he took it away.” Share Executive Addie Anthony said, “That kind of bothered me.”

Students had to find a new way to decide which of the 80 projects they wanted to sign up for. The SHARE Executives decided to show a few of the project options to students with the dress code presentation in seminar during the first week of school.

“We figured out a way to still talk to students, it just wasn’t as fun.” Anthony said.

This year, the sign up was held Sept. 4-7.

Seven tables were lined up in the hallway and each table was for a different category.

There were different lists for each category to sign up for, like kid projects, art projects, pet projects and more. This was changed to make

No Sheer Tops With A Bandeau

No Sagging Jeans

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it easier for students since they were not able to get a closer look at individual projects like they would have in years past with the SHARE Fair. Once students put their name on the list, they were automatically placed in all SHARE projects in that specific category.

“I think the way SHARE has changed will make it so less kids show up to their projects,” junior Shaina Stasi said, “They won’t want to go to all the projects they signed up for with the new category system.”

Bev Timmons started SHARE at East more than 20 years ago and now around 1,200 East students are involved in Share project every year.

“It’s just nice to help other people and get involved,” Anthony said.

Students are also awarded to kids who have a certain amount of hours get the bronze, silver or gold award.

If you did not make it to the SHARE sign up you can talk to a Share executive during 3rd hour in the SHARE room, located on the 4th floor in the North stairwell.

MISSOURI STATE REP. HOLDS HIS TONGUE The Republican Senate nominee, Todd Akin, has been in the spotlight thanks to the comment he made on Sunday, Aug. 19 in St. Louis. When asked in an interview with KTVI-TV about his views on abortion, he replied: “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has a way to try to shut the whole thing down.”

Akin’s name immediately became infamous and splashed across headlines around the country. Tweets, letters and messages bashed Akin’s comments and antics.

Women sent him mail explaining how they personally have been raising their children conceived through “legitimate

72%

24 percent believe the dress code will have a positive effect on East, while 72 percent think they’ll have a negative effect.

No Spaghetti Straps

photo by AnnaMarie Oakley

78%

21 percent thought the dress code changes were necessary while 78 percent did not.

*based on a survey of 87 students

rape.” It was even brought up as hot topic at the Republican National Convention.

“In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview, and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year,” Akin said in a Jaco Report interview. “[...] But I believe deeply in the protection of all life, and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action.”

The voting for Senate and other political occupations will occur on Nov. 6.

With all of the negative publicity Akin is receiving, voters may think twice before checking his name.

Student Voice Faith Connelly got sent home

by Mrs. Pence for wearing a sheer shirt

“[I got sent home because] you could see the bandeau from the back of my shirt. I didn’t really care because I got to miss physics.”

NEWS | 3

POSTING a new SYSTEM

East is the first high school in SMSD to start a composting program with plans to reduce carbon footprint

photo illustration by Jake Crandall written by Grace Heitmann East introduced a new composting program this school year and is the first high school in SMSD to begin a composting program. Although it’s the first high school to have a composting program, East follows 10 elementary schools who have been composting their lunches for years. Through word of mouth and the initiative of parents, students and teachers, the schools have helped start their own composting programs in order to preserve the life around them.

Composting is the decaying of items into the earth that eventually provide minerals and nutrients needed for the surrounding plants, animals, soil and microorganisms. The average person creates four pounds of trash a day and it’s estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that 80 percent of that trash could be recycled or composted.

In May of last year, East was awarded a $4,500 grant through the Kansas Green Schools program to jump start a composting program. The Kansas Green Schools program, started in 2008, gives schools grants in the areas of waste, water quality and air quality and helps promote the conservation of the environment.

“We look at the impact their project will have on the students, school and community,” education specialist Rachel Wahle of the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education explained. “Also, a major factor is how environmental education is included into the project.”

As more grants from the Kansas Green Schools program were given out in the past years and the interest in bringing composting programs to more schools in SMSD grew. SMSD Energy Analyst Bruce Palmer noticed this and began creating an informal policy that would formalize and support the

efforts of the schools’ composting programs. Going along with the policy SMSD passed in 2010 to save energy, money, resources and become a more sustainable school district, Palmer established a volunteer base program that would allow any school to compost given they possess desire to do so. The district would provide the compostable bags and the monthly pick up service. The leftover money the schools received from the Kansas Green Schools grant could be used for educational materials on the environment.

“There’s a certain sense where SMSD is kind of leading the way in the green school area in my opinion,” Palmer said.

Passionate about protecting the environment, sophomore Emily Perkins Rock wrote the grant that brought composting to East earlier last year. Perkins Rock was already familiar with composting through her family’s vermicompost, a form of composting that breaks down food waste using various worms. She heard about it through her mom who was writing a grant for her brother and sister at Prairie Elementary to bring composting to their school.

“I thought it would just be so much better for our school’s impact on the environment if we were to start composting as well,” Perkins Rock said.

In May, Perkins Rock received the news that she won a grant for East to start a composting program. Over the summer, she made a video explaining how the process of composting will work at East. The video was shown during assemblies at the beginning of the school year and explained that instead of the usual two bins, there are now four.

Recycling, trash, composting and liquid bins are set up

where

Finding yourself confused in the lunchroom while clearing your tray? Use these bins to find out what goes where.

Trash

Recycle

What goes

around the cafeteria with signs explaining what goes into that bin. During the first couple days of school, members of the Environmental Club stood by the trash cans helping the students figure out where to throw their trash away. However, after the club members stopped helping out the students, so did the composting.

“We are all still in high school so we don’t want to use part of our life to help other people compost, which of course translates to the rest of the student body not wanting to use their time to compost their own lunch,” Environmental Club president Ada Throckmorton explained.

Environmental Club advisor, teacher and sponsor of the grant Russell DeBey explained that by starting your clean up earlier and throwing your trash out throughout your lunch will help things go more smoothly and help with composting. The Environmental Club is considering making bigger signs so the process is easier explained.

“I think it’s important that we take care of what’s been given to us,” Perkins Rock said. “The Earth enables us to do so much and the least we can do is preserve what’s been given to us. We have to think of the future because our children and our children’s children will be living on the same Earth and if we destroy it now, we are going to leave them a mess for them to clean up.”

Compost leftover foods napkins

paper aluminum cans plastic cardboard

glass capri suns chip bags candy bar wrappers

4 | NEWS

COMMON CORE CONTINUED continued from pg. 1

In the Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD), English will be based on the Common Core curriculum. From third grade through high school, mathematics are currently in a transitional curriculum.

“The transition is there because as we are preparing students for Common Core, we still have to address some of the objectives in the former curriculum in order to fully prepare students for the state assessments because the tests that students take this year are based on the former curriculum,” Betsy Regain, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for SMSD said.

Under the new curriculum, students will read more informational texts and there will be more emphasis on reading comprehension skills. There will also be a focus on detailed writing and in both short and longterm research projects.

“It is good because it lets teachers teach the writing process,” English Department Head Jeannette Bonjour said. “It will be good for teachers to be able to slow down, to spend that time. Kids will have more of an opportunity to ask questions about the process.”

Math will be linked to everyday life and critical-decision making. On the high school level, there will be a heavy emphasis on mathematical modeling and the use of math

LANCER VOICE Freshman Chloe Kerwin

“I think it’s a good thing because now everyone will be on the same page in their learning.”

and statistics to analyze life-like situations.

With these new standards, students are expected to be greater challenged. According to Phillips state test scores are expected to go down initially.

“We are going to have harder tests because the tests are going to be based on the new standards,” Phillips said. “They are more challenging because the new tests and new standards are based on expectations in college and in career.”

Although the state scores are expected to decrease, the national and international test scores are expected to increase.

“I think that the new [standardized] test will be more realistic and more accurate,” Phillips said. “I think that those [national] test scores will go up, but not immediately.”

Many of the new standards are designed to create more life-like situations. There will be more emphasis on presentation and models that are similar to those that are used in businesses.

“I think some of the changes they are making are pretty good and the part that I really like about the change is that there is an emphasis, in math where there is more application,” Principal Dr. Karl Krawitz said.

“Instead of the traditional style or approach of teach, drill, teach, drill, it is just mundane,

Sophomore Becca Zeiger

“I like that we’re learning everything the same but it diminishes individuality. There are other ways to teach the concepts they want us to know.”

so I think application is going to be huge.”

This new system will also allow a student to be able to move from one state or another and be able to learn the same subjects that were being taught at his or her previous school at a similar pace. This more consistent approach will allow teachers, administrators and students to work together to make the transition easier. In the past, student transfers have had to either play catchup or slow-down.

“I like the idea of common core because I think it is very much focused on students and on having high expectations for all students, but still providing scaffolding to help students that need it to get up to that expectation,” Bonjour said.

Although most states are on board, there still remains a small fraction that is reluctant to adopt the standards. Texas, Minnesota, Alaska, Virginia and Nebraska have yet to adopt the full Common Core standards.

“It is their own choice if [the states] want to adopt the standards or not,” Phillips said.

“I think that those states [that have yet to adopted the standards] have more of a cowboymentality, a do it themselves attitude.”

According to Phillips, many of these states agree with the elements of the Common Core standards, but have decided that

Sophomore Austin Dalgleish

“There will be more confusion than innovation because there will be a gap of three years where people don’t know whats happening because of the transition period.”

they want to have their own system for education. Minnesota, for example, is adopting the English language arts standards, but not the math portion.

The Common Core Standards also require that every high school student take Geometry or a math-based class that contains the elements of Geometry. Also, every student is required to have completed Algebra 2 by his or her junior year.

“They set a goal which is nice, but is it realistic for every student to be able to attain,” Dr. Krawitz said. “And if [they do], how are you going to equip staff members to teach those concepts that those kids haven’t been able to get ever or even get past a very introductory program?”

But proponents of the Common Core believe that with time, the program will answer its critics.

“I think over time, we will continue to improve on [the Common Core Standards],” Phillips said. “We will learn things about how children learn information, what is needed when you go to college and the workforce. What we have now is not the same thing kids will be learning in 15 or even 20 years.”

Junior Rob Simpson

“[Common Core] will limit the teachers’ ability to bring out individuality. It will only teach to the lowest common denominator.”

NEWS | 5

NELSON’S NEXT GENERATION The Nelson-Atkin’s Museum of Art employs teenagers to give tours, help organize the museum’s schedule and make art more appealing to the younger generation.

written by Hannah Ratliff

Though the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art’s Teen Advisory Group (TAG) was only launched this August, this new program is already finding solutions to a problem that has long plagued museums around the country: how to get high schoolers interested in art.

The group of 16, nearly a third of which are East students, hope to intrigue Kansas City teenagers with fun, interactive events open only to high schoolers, a demographic lacking in museum involvement. The group, which is exclusively for and run by teens, want youth to not just attend events, but explore the museum on their own as well.

“We just want to make the museum seem more accessible and like it’s a place where you can come and hang out,” junior Caroline Roe said. “The only time that kids really go to the Nelson is with school groups, so we hope people will take the next step and go as an outing on the weekend or something.”

After only two meetings, TAG is already deciding how to best attract the attention of local students with their first two events. A TAG Day of the Dead celebration exclusively for high schoolers will take place sometime in the week before the museum’s larger Nov. 4 celebration. A date has not been set for a smaller event called “A Message to Youth”, during which Belgian artist Ives Maes helps attendees create a piece of art from a

1933

message in an old World’s Fair. TAG plans to publicize these and other future events through Facebook, Twitter and flyers.

East students Sophie Fields, Jeri Freirich, Michelle Lu, Caroline Roe and Jeremy Williams make up five of TAG’s members, while the other 11 attend various high schools in the larger Kansas City area. This diversity has introduced East TAG members to a community of teenagers with a similar interest in art, something hard to find considering a program had to be created to get teens to visit the museum.

“It’s just fun to meet new people and make new friends from different backgrounds who have your same opinions and view on art and the world,” Roe said. “[I’ve made a lot of new friends], especially from the teen guides.”

Though TAG is still young, it has been nearly two years in the making. It took New Dimensions administrators Molly Vener and Hillary Nordholm years of researching similar organizations like the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council to create a selective application process and begin TAG this August. TAG’s 16 members were selected from the students who were most thoughtful and worked well in groups or alone. Some members, like Fields and Roe, heard about the program while they served as teen guides to the museum over the summer. After an online application, a team workday and multiple interviews,

-Timeline of the Buldings-

William Rockhill Nelson and Mary McAfee Atkins pooled their funds and opened the museum.

Vener and Nordholm went from 55 online applications to 16 TAG members.

TAG meets at the Nelson about twice a month for a two-hour-long meeting where they plan teen events, discuss ideas and work on goals like how to help teens make connections with art. Though TAG members receive a compensation check at the end of the year, the group treats their responsibilities less like a job and more like a privilege.

“It’s so much fun; it’s not really like a job it’s more of a little community,” junior Sophie Fields said. “I think a lot of people are starting to get close and everybody there is working towards a common good and wants the same thing. And everybody likes art and talking about it.”

With careful planning, TAG hopes their teen events will make local youth take notice of the cultural center that many have yet to explore. TAG hopes to introduce students to the museum with an exciting weekend event, but that a passion and interest in art and the museum is left long after the event is over.

“Most people don’t know that it’s one of the top museums in the world, and I don’t think people realize how important it is to our community,” Roe said. “I don’t think that teens really think about art... [but] it’s just a part of our culture that we should know about.”

2007

The Bloch Building, named after Henry W. and Marion Bloch, was designed to reel in the community, as well as contrast with the original building.

photos by Meghan Shirling

HOW ARTSY ARE YOU? TAKE THIS QUIZ TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH ART YOU’VE GOT IN YOU!

1.) How many times have you been to the Nelson? a) Ten times - I love art! -3 points b) Five - For school field trips. - 2 points c) Less than four - Chaffee made me. - 1 point

2.) What’s big, orange and white and stationed on the grounds around the Nelson? a) The Shuttlecocks - 3 points b) Tigers from India . - 2 points c) A Pumpkin Patch. - 1 point

3.) What year did the Nelson open? a)Idk, 2007? - 1 point b) Duh, 1933 - 3 points c) Obviously, 1956 - 2 points

4.) Claude Monet, most famous for his water lilies, is of what nationality? a) France - 3 points b) Germany. - 1 point c) Italy. - 2 points

5.) Pablo Picasso, the subject of the exibit Bonjour Picaso! coming to the Nelson this month, is famous for his ____ phase. a) Crazy - 2 points b) Hair - 1 point c) Blue - 3 points

If you got...

10-15 points - The Nelson is my second home 5-9 points- I’ll go occasionally with the fam 0-4 points- I don’t like art, get this away from me

6 |NEWS

FEELING CRAMPED

Students and faculty at Indian Hills Middle School struggle to adjust after the closing of Mission Valley

written by Maddie Hise

When Mission Valley shut down last year and the students got moved to Indian Hills, the school’s student population nearly doubled, with 751 students (previously, the largest amount of students the school had held in 25 years was 613.) Now, with 393 seventh graders and 358 eighth graders, the overcrowding trend has continued into the 2012-2013 school year.

In an effort to target the problem, the school added on revisions at the end of last year and over the summer. Among the new additions were a wing with four new classrooms allowing each teacher have their own classroom, a new computer lab, gym, locker rooms and a cafeteria. In 2008, Mission Valley got a $3.2 million new library, which became a cause of tax-payer frustration when the school closed. To appease annoyed members of the Mission Valley community, Indian Hills got their own new library that resembles the Mission Valley one, with wide windows that can be seen from Delmar.

The new additions haven’t completely solved the problem of overcrowding, but they’ve certainly improved things. While overcrowded hallways and staircases that have to be specified as up or down remain part of the crowding problem, the crowded

Thoughts from the Halls With freshman Allison Sernett

classes, shared classrooms and countless layoffs that were seen all over the school have been fixed.

The additions aren’t welcomed by everyone. East freshmen and Indian Hills graduates like Hayden Roste don’t appreciate the construction. Roste was annoyed that he didn’t get to enjoy the benefits that came after all the construction, just the chaos during.

“It sucked because there was construction during school last year,” Roste said. “We didn’t get to have the outcome of it.”

Freshman Tommy Sherk was just happy to be done with the school and all its problems.

“I’m glad to be out of there and not have to deal with it anymore.” Sherk said. “It was pretty crowded as is and the construction didn’t help.”

The merger did come with benefits, however. With Indian Hills now the only public feeder school to East, the freshman this year have had a different experience coming in knowing their peers before coming to East.

Now, looking back, some students seem to like knowing who they were going to high school with. They now have a friend group that they feel comfortable with and

won’t have to try to make new connections.

“We got all the drama out of the way in middle school so high school is more laid back.” freshman Samantha Belanger said.

Freshman Avery Bolar, a self proclaimed shy kid, is glad to know other students before getting to high school.

“I like knowing everyone,” Bolar said, “that way I’m not so shy and quiet all day.”

Students crammed into the school got to know each other well before getting to East, Sherk said.

“It was a close environment so you got to know everyone better which is nice in high school because you already know people.”

Sherk said.

Roste agees.

“It makes you feel more comfortable already knowing more people in your grade,” Roste said. “It was a big change though because we went from open space to pretty crowded.”

While the merger gave students from both schools the chance to meet each other, the two student bodies didn’t completely come together. Belanger said former Mission Valley students felt bitter that their school was shut down.

“The feeling in the school was differ-

ent.” Belanger said, “I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t feel a connection to the school.

The classes were big so I wouldn’t talk. The school felt chaotic.”

On the other hand, Indian Hills students felt that their school was being invaded.

“You could tell the Indian Hills students were resentful to have all the new students in their school.” Laudemann said. “I don’t think anyone was too happy.”

New to the Shawnee Mission school district, Bolar got an outside view of the school’s situation. Coming to Indian Hills he knew only five students, from his swim team, the PV Piranhas.

“I kept the same friends for like a month and a half or two months until people started branching out and like making friends,” he said.

Ultimately, Laudemann sees the addition of Mission Valley students as a good thing.

“It gives students a broader friend base.”

Laudemann said, “The students are able to make new friends plus it generates more school spirit since all the kids already are already together.”

What was the biggest difference between the schools?

What did you miss about Mission Valley?

How did the change prepare you for high school?

“The people, just the number of kids in the school... The halls were more cramped and there were just more people to meet and talk to.”

“It was smaller, so everyone knew each other better. At Indian Hills, there were a ton of new people. It was basically freshman year, a year early.”

“We definitely met a lot more people and made new friends, so I think that helped us get ready for high school and all the people there.”

Flyingthe Coop The Harbinger supports the decision to no longer use Chick-Fil-A for fundraising

artwork by Akshay Dinakar

THE HARBINGER a publication of Shawnee Mission East high school 7500 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS 66208

Editors-in Chief Anne Willman Chloe Stradinger Assistant Editors Andrew McKittrick Katie Knight Art & Design Editor Paige Hess Head Copy Editor Matt Hanson Copy Editors Anne Willman Chloe Stradinger Andrew McKittrick Katie Knight Erin Reilly Morgan Twibell Leah Pack Sarah Berger Ads Manager Sophie Tulp Circulation Manager Greta Nepstad Editorial Board Chloe Stradinger Andrew McKittrick Erin Reilly Anne Willman

Chick-Fil-A’s religious views are out of the coop and causing quite the cluck. Though the company has always openly operated on religious beliefs -each restaurant closes every Sunday -C.E.O. Dan Cathy’s personal views only recently became a part of the national spotlight.

In a quiet interview on July 17 with the Baptist Press, Cathy announced he was “guilty as charged” on being in favor of “the biblical definition of the family unit.” Simply put, Cathy announced he was against same-sex marriage.

Three days later, the Jim Henson company announced on Facebook that they would no longer be partnering with the fast-food company to serve Muppet toys with the kids’ meals after they took offense to Chick-Fil-A’s opposition to gay marriage. This caused an uproar -- not only from children with toy-less kids’ meals, but also from gay rights activists.

Due to the controversy and media cloud surrounding the restaurant chain, among other reasons, East has decided to discontinue their partnership with Chick-Fil-A in the Coaches vs. Cancer

STAFF 2012-2013

Jennifer Rorie Katie Knight Grace Heitmann Matt Hanson Julia Poe Kim Hoedel Duncan MacLachlan Staff Writers Julia Seiden Sophie Tulp Taylor Bell Nellie Whittaker Pauline Werner Caroline Kohring New Section Editor Sarah Berger News Page Editors Emily Perkins Rock Greta Nepstad Editorial Section Editor Jennifer Rorie Opinion Section Editor Kim Hoedel Opinion Page Editors Maggie McGannon Morgan Krakow Feature Section Editor Erin Reilly

Feature Page Editors Holly Hernandez Jeri Freirich Maddie Hise Spread Editor Morgan Twibell Mixed Page Editor Leah Pack A&E Section Editor Tiernan Shank A&E Page Editors Phoebe Aguiar Hannah Ratliff Sports Section Editor Grace Heitmann Sports Page Editors Alex Goldman Mitch Kaskie G.J. Melia Freelance Page Editors Vanessa Daves Julia Poe Audrey Danciger Staff Artists Matti Crabtree Akshay Dinakar Photo Editor Jake Crandall

EDITORIAL| 7 fundraiser this upcoming basketball season. Our school plans on continuing the fundraiser but has not yet decided on a new system of donating.

The Harbinger supports the decision of the school. As a public school, we should do our best to stay out of the political spotlight and not support a side on social issues, and instead support the student body as a whole. Students’ reservations about spending money at Chick-Fil-A should not interfere with their desire to participate in the fundraiser. Because East has a Gay-Straight Alliance club as well as a Fellowship of Christian Athletes club (officially an anti-gay marriage program, though that’s not their mission), it would be wrong for the school to get involved in this battle of the First Amendment. Our school must be careful and considerate about the message we send to both students and to the public, and using an anti-gay marriage business as a channel for a fundraiser sends a negative message.

As a newspaper, we fully support Cathy’s right to the freedom of speech.

Regardless of our position on gay marriage, we do recognize his right to state his. It’s important to understand that the company does not discriminate against gays, as it serves and employs minorities and majorities equally.

Chick-Fil-A’s charity foundation, WinShape Foundation, claims to focus on “making winners” by developing young Christians through camps, retreats and foster homes. They also,

according to a 2011 report in Equality Matters (a campaign for LGBT rights), have donated over $1 million to “anti-gay” groups, such as the National Christian Foundation, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Campus Crusade for Christ and more. Like Cathy, these foundations are against gay marriage due to religious beliefs.

Many activists have classified these foundations as “hate groups”. While it’s impossible to speak for everyone involved in the foundations, it must be recognized that disagreement over an issue does not necessarily equal hate towards the people involved.

Though Cathy’s views and the WinShape Foundation may cast a negative light on Chick-Fil-A as a business, it’s their right to run their company on whatever standards they deem appropriate.

The Harbinger commends East for avoiding getting directly involved with Chick-Fil-A. Though the students as individuals can choose whether or not they still eat at and support Chick-FilA, our public school should not plead “guilty as charged” in publicly taking a stance on such a sensitive issue.

EDITORIAL BOARD VOTES

FOR AGAINST ABSENT

9 3 0

The Harbinger is a student run publication. The contents and views are produced solely by the staff and do not prepresent the Shawnee Mission School DIstrict, East faculty or school administration.

Assistant Photo Editors Caroline Creidenberg Emma Robson Staff Photographers Katie Sgroi Annie Savage Connor Woodson Taylor Anderson Miranda Gibbs Meghan Shirling Maddie Schoemann Molly Gasal Stefano Byer Maddie Connelly Paloma Garcia Online Editors-in-Chief Sami Walter Duncan MacLachlan Assistant Online Editors Julia Poe Zoe Brian Online Head Copy Editors Jennifer Rorie Vanessa Daves Multimedia Editor Dalton Boehm Convergence Editor Erin Reilly

News Editor Pauline Werner Online Photo Editors Marisa Walton McKenzie Swanson Assistant Online Photo Editor AnnaMarie Oakley Video Editor Nathan Walker Live Broadcast Editor Connor Woodson Homegrown Editor Morgan Krakow A&E Editor Maggie McGannon Sports Section Editors Alex Goldman Mitch Kaskie Blogs Editor Susannah Mitchell Podcast Editor Thomas Allen Eastipedia Editor Taylor Bell Interactive Design Editor James Simmons Mitch Kaskie

Social Media Director Maddie Hise Webmaster Chris Denniston Live Broadcast Producers Grace Heitmann Chris Denniston Mitch Kaskie Connor Woodson Andrew McKittrick Thomas Allen Multimedia Staff Maxx Lamb Thomas Allen Chris Denniston Dalton Boehm Tessa Polaschek Nathan Walker Emily Perkins Rock Will Brownlee Miranda Gibbs Meghan Shirling Advisor Dow Tate

Letters to the editor may be sent to room 521 or smeharbinger@gmail.com. Letters may be edited for clarity, length, libel and mechanics and accepted or rejected at the editors’ discretion.

8 | OPINION

freespirited

Junior reflects on growing up with a hippie brother

photo illustration by Caroline Creidenberg

An opinion of Sarah Berger I tried to stop the tears. I couldn’t let my brother see me cry as I said goodbye to him.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried my best to smile as I hugged him.

“Stay out of trouble,” he told me.

This was the fourth or fifth time I had said goodbye to him. I had never cried over it once. Traveling made Andy happy. Living in California made him happy. So why was I so upset seeing him go this time?

Because this time I knew I was actually going to miss my big brother. *** “That’s Andy, that’s my big brother,” I boasted to the kids on the playground.

Andy is always something I have been proud of. Growing up I always looked up to him. I always wanted to do what he did.

I would mix my Barbies up with his G.I. Joes in an effort to get him to play with me.

When I was six, he stuck his tongue to a frozen flagpole and I was right behind him ready to try it next. He tried to teach me how to skateboard when he was about twelve which resulted in me falling down a hill and never wanting to try it again. When he went through his punk rocker faze, I would help add the studs to his denim jackets and watch him and his band practice from our garage.

As we grew older we grew farther apart.

Andy soon became more of an embarrassment than a role model. His horrible grades and constant fights with my parents caused me to want to be the opposite of him. Only my close friends knew about Andy. It wasn’t until he left that I was comfortable with my friends meeting him.

“There is a hippie on your couch,” my best friend Greta told me with a straight face.

“That’s Andy, my older brother,” I said trying not to laugh when one of my best friends met him for the first time.

I couldn’t help but laugh at Greta’s shocked expression when she turned around and saw him for the first time.

Other peoples’ first impressions of Andy always make me laugh. Most people don’t actually believe we are related. We have the same brown hair and large smile, but that is where our similarities in appearance end. Andy is about a foot taller, 100 pounds heavier and twice as hairy as I am. His hair looks like a matted mane with some dreadlocks thrown in. His face is covered with a beard that he had been growing for months.

He closely resembles the caveman from the Geico commercials.

Two years ago I watched as he begged my parents to let him move away. It was the middle of his first semester in college and he was already tired of it. I watched Andy as he called my dad and begged him to let him move. I watched as he stood in the driveway with tears in his eyes pleading with our dad to let him get out of Kansas. A month later in December I said my first goodbye to him.

It was the easiest goodbye. I didn’t even hug him or get up from the couch, I just said “bye” and he told me to “stay out of trouble.”

In a way I was looking forward to him leaving. I wouldn’t have to be embarrassed of the fact he wasn’t really going to school or that he looked like a homeless person.

Almost every time I go somewhere with him people stare at us. If we go to a store people will turn their heads as he passes by.

If we go to a restaurant people at the tables next to us glance over every few minutes trying to get a better look at him. I have always hated the stares. They have always made me uncomfortable but they have never once bothered Andy. He smiles and says, “How’s it goin’?” or “Have a good one.” That is probably my favorite quality about him.

He doesn’t care about people judging him.

He doesn’t let little things in life bother him,

he makes the best he can of any situation.

For a while I liked it when he was gone.

He wasn’t there to make my parents angry or eat all the food in the house. Then I started to miss him. I missed his advice he would give me. I missed him looking out for me and always making sure I was ok. I missed hearing The Grateful Dead playing in the morning. I felt like I had taken all those years he lived with me for granted. I wished I had said so much more to him the first time he left. I wished we hadn’t drifted apart as we grew older.

When he came back that April I barely recognized him. He had more hair and a wider smile. It was then that I knew I shouldn’t be worrying about him or missing him as much. He was genuinely happier when he was away from Kansas. When he came back that time he also made more of an effort to spend time with me. Before he left the most time we spent together was arguing over what to watch on TV, but now we e e Lov k a actually bond. He tells me M ar stories about the olive farm Not W where he lives. He makes sure to ask what I am up to or what I’m interested in. He makes sure to remind me not to make the same mistakes he did. He would give advice at any chance he had.

This past summer standing on our driveway it felt like I was looking at my brother again for the first time in a few years. Except this time I was looking at another person, too. I was looking at a friend as well. I was looking at someone who lives life and full embraces imperfections.

I wasn’t embarrassed or worried about what my friends would think. I was looking back at Andy, my big brother who I have learned to be proud of once again.

HOW TO: be like a hippie

Roll your eyes at anything remotely mainstream.

Answer any problem with “peace will prevail!”

Let the flow of your hair be natural. Except the occasional wash won’t hurt.

Stand up for what you believe in, especially love and peace.

an opinion of

films pull you in, making you feel as if you are really there and experiencing the same thrills.

Watching someone climb an 8,000 foot tall sheer face of rock without ropes, a harness or anything to keep them from falling to their death is terrifying. You know that they probably aren’t going to fall, but you know how one misplaced hand or foot means the end for them. When a kayaker goes over the waterfall and you don’t see them pop right back up, you fear for that person’s life. You have no idea who they are but you care about their safety in that one moment.

It’s not just the films about death as well as gravity defying sports that get to me, but the ones about a culture, family or environment. Though the emotions are different, its the same intensity. I was up in arms about a mine being built in a remote corner of Alaska, that would potentially destroy thousands of habitats and ruin the local fishing economy. After seeing a film about it and being so upset about it that I couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever endanger a community, habit and species that much.

Phoebe Aguiar

I am not a crier. I am not an emotional person. Few things can draw an emotional response out of me. On this short list, movies rank low. Rarely do I tear up or gasp during a movie. I do have one exception, and that is the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

Considering the number of people who have already asked me, you’re probably wondering what the Banff Mountain Film Festival is.

The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival has been held every year since 1976, in Banff, Alberta Canada at the Banff Centre.

The festival lasts for nine days from late October into early November, where films, books and photos are judged and prizes are awarded in different categories. After the winners are selected at the end of the festival, some of the noteworthy films are sent around the world on a tour.

This tour comes to Lawrence, and for the last three years I have been fortunate enough to see it. I say “fortunate” because I feel that my parents have given me an opportunity to see and be aware of lives outside of the Johnson County bubble.

Watching people jump off cliffs, climb mountains, brave rapids and row across the ocean is the closest I will get to actually doing these things.

The little window that the films provide is a glimpse of a different life and a different mindset. The

These stories can elicit an emotional response from me, someone who is usually emotionally detached from most movies.

I have let a squeal or two over the past few years at this event. They make you feel more than the multi-million dollar sappy romance movie, because they feel more real. You get to look into a life, culture or location that you would never see otherwise. This is what makes this so amazing, and so unique.

After years of going, the Banff Mountain Film Festival has become a staple in my family life. It’s become something that my family loves so much that we clear our schedules.

Drive to Lawrence countless times in a week.

Spend more time together for the Banff than we would in an entire month.

I care about this

OPINION | 9

so much, because it’s like nothing else. You can’t just pick one word to describe it. It’s so much than just a bunch hippies climbing around on rocks. It’s what people are really like and how truly awe inspiring human beings are that they can push themselves to, literally, incredible heights when they know that a slip will mean failure or even death.

These are the things that keep me and my family coming back each year. These stories are important and we can learn so much from are the ones 90 percent of people are not seeing. You are absolutely enthralled the whole night, from start to finish.

I have had a hard time putting all of my thoughts, emotions and ideas about this festival into words. You can’t just put a label on the films, let alone the festival itself.

It has had such an affect on not only me but my whole family.

FLICKS &THRILLS Staffer Phoebe Aguiar discusses her love for the action-filled Banff Mountain Film Festival in Lawrence, Kansas.

CHASING WATER

ON TOUR THIS YEAR BLUE OBSESSION

This thrill-filled climbing film captures the beauty of the glaciers and icefalls of Southeast Alaska.

Pete Mcbride follows the Colorado River away from his childhood ranch, capturing an exciting journey and the spirit of the American West in this adventure film.

THE FREEDOM CHAIR

This movie features the British Columbian spirit bear, and its complex relationship with a local guide, as its environment is threatened by a proposed oil pipeline.

SPOIL

In this inspiring film , Josh Dueck, who survived a devasting ski accident in 2004, sit-skis the wildest back-country around the world.

10 | OPINION

ANXIETY

ATTACK

Junior reflects onanxiety life long stuggle to cope with and control anxiety Staffer reflects on lifelong struggle with written by Katie Knight My mother practically drags me by my ankles to get me in the silver Passat. It’s a hot July day and I’m headed to my least favorite place—University of Kansas’ main campus for volleyball camp with my high school team.

When we drive up to the dorm 45 minutes later, I yank my pink duffle bag and pillow from the trunk and head to my source of torture—crappy food, lame drills, grumpy coaches--for the next week.

That night after the opening evening session, I lie in my bed in the mildew-smelling room. My mind is racing again, analyzing and over thinking everything about the day.

I was beyond wide-awake an hour ago.

These panic attacks almost always came out of nowhere with no apparent cause or trigger. The monster sets in and spreads throughout my body.

I press the button on the top right corner of my iPhone. The clock flashes 12:02. What feels like an hour passes. 12:17. I’m restless.

What if I don’t fall asleep? What if I make myself sick in the morning from being so exhausted?

I feel my throat tighten. My heartbeat speeds up.

The monster is coming. He tries to spread out through my entire body, tries to make me tense up. It starts in my chest, then to my shoulders, last it goes for the killer: my throat.

I hate him. I hate him.

I pop out of bed. I need to go call my mom, I tell my sleepy-eyed roommate.

Two seconds later, I’m in the hallway in my white and blue striped boxers and t-shirt.

I make my way down the hall, press my back to the wall, slowly sliding down until my knees are to my chest, sitting near the emer-

gency exit door. after a basketball game. At 2 a.m. I woke up “Mom?” I say, my voice shaking. “I need for no apparent reason and became restless. you to pick me up.”

After 30 minutes of trying to fall back asleep, Then I tell her. Tell her how I hate it here. I grew impatient. The monster came and I How I want to leave. How I don’t know why called my mom to pick me up in the middle but I feel like I’m going to have a panic at- of the night. tack.

Or the time when I was 12, finally out She refuses. “You need to get through seeing a scary movie with my friends withthis,” she tells me. “I know you’re tough out any adults there. Twenty minutes into enough.”

“Cloverfield,” the terrorizing Godzilla imI’m desperate. Crying. Begging. Plead- poster had just reached New York when I deing for her to just come pick me up, I don’t cided I couldn’t take it anymore; I called my want to learn anything -- I just need to leave. grandma to come save me five minutes later.

Please mom, I’m panicking. Panicking and I Or the time when my volleyball team don’t know why. went to Minneapolis for a tournament. AfWhat caused it? I don’t know. The cocky, ter a day of playing, we went to the Mall of entitled upperclassmen? The soggy salad? America’s theme park; the monster kept me The stupid drills? I from going on even just don’t know. the slowest of rollerAfter my mom coasters.

Katie’s cyclic inner journey refuses for the last Over the years, my through panic attacks time, I creep back coping mechanisms into bed, shaking evolved into three Trigger from head to toe. main ideas. The first Tonight, the monwas distraction; during Realization Calm ster wins. my elementary school *** years, I became a masI can’t remember ter at Mario Kart on the a time when anxiety Nintendo DS because foCoping Panic wasn’t a part of my life. cusing on anything else, Mechanism It’s always been there, whether it be something ready to come out of noas small as a video game, was where. Ready to ruin the fun. better than being engulfed in my That stupid monster kept me from liv- anxiety. ing my life like a normal kid would. I would The second way for me to cope was choose to not go to a certain place or do breathing techniques. To this day I still have certain things because I was afraid of being the routine that my mom taught me drilled afraid; I hated the way I felt when I was anx- into my brain. Breathe in slowly through your ious. It controlled everything I did. nose.Breatheoutthroughyourmouth.Closeyour There was the Friday night in first grade eyesanddothis10times.Getyourheartbeatto when I spent the night at a friend’s house slow down.

CIRCLEOFANXIETY

photo Ilustration by Miranda Gibbs

My most important way to prevent anxiety was getting a good night’s sleep. While most people just get a little crabby if they don’t get enough sleep, it always made me twice as anxious. *** All it took was four words to change my life forever.

“You’re not going crazy,” Dr. Gillette reassured me. “Your body just doesn’t make the necessary chemicals to keep you calm.”

In addition to the anxiety, I had had constant stomach and headaches after eating for a solid year. After connecting the dots, Dr. Gillette told me I was most likely allergic to wheat and, with the exception of my anxiety, had been asymptomatic, my whole life until the last few years. Basically, the allergy caused my body to stop creating a chemical that is needed to regulate human emotions.

So, between eliminating wheat from my diet, taking prescribed medicine and a gradual two months recovery time for my body, tada! I’m a human being again. After about four months, panic attacks were no longer a regular part of my life.

Since I was diagnosed nearly a year ago, I have learned how to have control over my mind for the first time in my life. I just don’t think about the things that used to consume my thoughts and actions.

Is this what it feels like to be normal?

In the end I know I’m stronger than I think I am. I spent the first 15 years of my life a paranoid, high-strung mess of a person. Now, I feel like the level-headed one in my family, of all the ironic things. Now, I’m ready to really start my life. No monsters included.

OPINION | 11

2.

3.

1.

photos by Maddie Connelly

art of writing the

written by Jennifer Rorie

My family doesn’t ever get rid of anything. There are shelves full of family memories: three-ring binders full of letters, family movies, college diplomas. My grandma even has an entire room in her house dubbed the “archive room.”

Nothing gets thrown out.

Most people might find this to be an illness or just simply crazy. And at times I feel the same way. However, there are the times when I feel fortunate to have it all, like when I hold the letters and know that my ancestors held that very piece of paper in 1910. I step back and look at the letters from my great-great-great uncle to his parents from the battlefields of World War I. Or possibly the home videos of my grandma as a little girl. Or the countless photo albums of my ancestors. Some people don’t even know their greatgrandparents’ names.

The letters, in particular, are something that I’ve loved to look at. I admit, I can’t read them because I have issues with cursive, but there is something wonderful about having my grandma read them to me at our farm or on road trips.

The words that my family has written over the years come alive once more. Hopefully I will have them to show to my grandchildren.

The only problem is they will have none from me.

We hear it all the time, whether it is from our parents, teachers or anyone over the age of 60: “Kids these days are just losing all forms of true communication.” I’d like to go on record and clump myself in the same group as these socalled curmudgeons.

Most youth today have lost the art of writing a letter. It’s as simple as that.

I’m fully aware that people consider writing a letter to be something of the past. It’s obvious when I open my mailbox and the only thing in there are college postcards, coupons

1.

who: Jennifer’s great-greatgreat-great-uncle, Gran

a letter

and bills of some sort. I’m even too old now to receive an invitation to a friend’s birthday party. But to me, there is still something magical about a letter.

What I love about getting a letter is that you can feel the sincerity of a letter when you open the envelope and unfold the paper. A letter is thought out. The words are carefully chosen. It takes time to sit down, get out the pen and paper and write. A letter simply isn’t a text. They aren’t limited to 140 characters. Many of the letters I value have more like 2,000.

A few of my favorite family letters come from my greataunt Eleanor. A graduate student at George Washington University in 1930, she always did exactly what her mother wouldn’t approve of. Her mother, Luella, was a traditionalist. She believed a lady was in bed by 10, never out on a Sunday night and the boys, well, they had to be approved by the parents. One weekend Eleanor decided she wanted to go visit some gentlemen friends in upstate New York. Since she knew her mother wouldn’t approve of, she mailed the letter as she was on her way to the bus station to leave.

Because of the letters, I know my aunt Eleanor. I have a connection that my posterity won’t possess. My aunt Eleanor knew the art of writing a letter.

But I’m not sure I can say that about myself.

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know the last time I sat down, wrote a letter, stamped it and put it in the mailbox.

I’ve gotten stuck in the 21st century ways. When I want to say happy birthday, I use Facebook. When I want to make plans, I text. When I want the whole world to know all of my problems, I use Twitter (actually that’s not true, but way too many people do that).

Even though I love a good letter, I also love to text. I can’t imagine my life without a phone. Part of this, obviously, is

2.

THE WAR RECOUNTS

what:

Gran’s accounts of daily life during WWI

Great-great-great grandparents

because I’m simply used to it. I don’t have to write a letter to make plans—that may take days. However, the fact that it would take days to plan something makes the time people spend together more meaningful.

I can have a four hour conversation with someone over text, but that isn’t the same as a face-to-face conversation.

People have lost the art of true communication. It’s hard for people to walk up to someone to say “Hi.” We have to check their Twitter feed or Facebook stalk them first. When did it become OK to do a background check on everyone you meet?

It’s obvious people don’t have a problem bashing someone on the internet. They do it everyday. But would they say it in a letter? Would they say it to their face? You know a person is going to read a letter, so you have to think about your words before you send it. Or in a simple conversation, people wouldn’t be so blatantly mean. Maybe in “Mean Girls” they would, but not in real life.

Writing letters and having conversations can be considered an art. Some people are naturally good at it, some are not. And I’m most certainly not saying that back when letters were the only option that everyone was nice, or even good at it. Some were mean, and some just plain couldn’t communicate. But in a day in age where everything is so fast-paced, a letter seems much more thought out and sincere.

So, the next time you want to truly communicate with someone, consider a letter. Just because you have a fancy iPhone where you can have conversations with 10 people at once doesn’t mean you have to. Think of something my mom always says, “The beauty of technology is you can use everything invented before your time.”

3.

THE LOVE LETTERS

what: Letters between the

two when they were separated after both attended MU

who:

Great-great aunt Eleanor and her mother

when: 1920-1924

when: 1904-1908

when: Late 1917 to early 1918

who:

Senior talks about her disappointment with this generation’s communication skills

LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER

what:

Eleanor’s mother’s attempts to keep control over her daughter despite her leaving for college

WALKING TOWARDS HER FUTURE

FEATURES | 13

Exchange student and model Neva Cirkveni returns to America to prepare for college written by Nellie Whittaker

Neva Cirkveni is no stranger to the United States. The 17-year-old foreign exchange student from Zagreb, Croatia, has been here before; seven times, in fact. But this time, Neva is here for a very specific purpose: to get into college.

All of this dates back to 1974, when Neva’s father, Neven Cirkveni, came to Shawnee Mission East for his senior year of high school.

Neva started learning English at the age of three when her dad told her made-up stories about “super bunny,” a rabbit with superpowers, in English. Then, he enrolled her in an English kindergarten. While Croatian and English are her first and second languages, respectively, Neva also knows five other languages: French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek.

Neva is even staying with the same host her dad stayed with 38 years ago, Virginia Powers. Powers has been involved in the AFS program for 40 years and she and her husband hosted Neva’s father when their daughter was a sophomore and their son was a junior in high school. Neven became a part of their family. “[Neven] visited us several times throughout the years,” Powers said. “We considered him a son after the time he spent with us.”

Neva met Powers on one of her seven previous trips to the United States. She came here four years ago with her dad, who was here for the Presidential Inauguration because of his interest in politics. They came to visit the Powers before they went to Washington, D.C. “My dad stayed in touch with her and he took me to meet her before we visited Washington, D.C. four years ago,” Neva said. “That was when we started planning for me to come here. [My dad and I] both wanted it.”

Although she’s been to the United States multiple times, she doesn’t feel at home here.

In Croatia, Neva would just walk up to a friend and start telling them what’s happening in her life. When she did that here, her friend was offended that she didn’t ask about his life. She is also used to talking for long periods of time; she and her friends go to her favorite café, Lemon, almost everyday before or after school. They spend at least an hour sitting and talking after having finished eating.

“That is the whole point of going out to eat for us: sitting at a café and just talking for

hours,” she said.

The daily routine here has been a big obstacle for Neva. At her school in Croatia, the schedule is very different; class begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m. every other week, and goes from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. the other week. So getting up at 6:30 a.m. and staying at school till 2:40 p.m. makes for a long day.

“It’s the getting up at 6:30 every day that kills me the most,” Neva said. “Especially since I am used to sleeping in ‘till 1p.m. every day, every other week.”

On a typical day in Croatia, Neva eats lunch around 4:30 p.m., and dinner at about 9 p.m. She found it difficult to eat at noon and 6 p.m. so she has adjusted to having a big snack, like a sandwich and a granola bar, at 4:30 p.m.

Then, she makes herself a dinner, separate from that of her host, closer to 9 p.m.

Another everyday change Neva has problems adjusting to is the lack of public transportation. She uses it to get around the urban setting of her hometown, Zagreb, Croatia, and having to have someone drive her everywhere is a foreign concept to her. She has tried getting around by foot, but that has had undesirable results: whenever she tries to walk somewhere, she ends up lost, having gone the opposite way she wanted to go.

“All the houses in the suburbs look alike to me,” she said. “But if I go to the Plaza, I can tell you where everything is in no time.”

Neva puts up with all these cultural differences because she knows she needs the experience to get into college.

Columbia University, in New York City, is her first choice of schools. Neva plans on majoring in liberal arts and then going to law school or medical school. She realizes what a top-notch school Columbia is, so she is taking every opportunity she can get to ensure she gets in, starting with spending a semester here.

“I wanted to come here to create opportunities for myself in the future,” she said, “I want to be able to adapt better in different cultures and meet new people. And it just looks good on a resumé, too.”

While most senior foreign exchange students are enrolled in junior English classes here, Neva got special permission to be in a senior English class. She did it because she knew that they practice writing college application essays in the senior English classes and she thought that would be very important for her to get into a good college here.

She is also in calculus, which is especially challenging for her since some of the math

photos courtesy of Neva Cirkveni words used here, like “radicals,” are different from the ones she learned. She knew it would be the more challenging course, but she decided to take it anyways.

Neva’s parents will pay for one-third of her college tuition. She is hoping to get another third of it from scholarships. Beyond that, she must pay the remainder of the tuition herself.

She has begun earning this money through modeling.

“My friends have been telling me that I should be a model for years,” Neva said. “But I never had much interest in it.”

Her modeling career started when she met with an Abercrombie & Fitch representative on a trip to Milan for her 16th birthday. She was shopping at a store and was approached by a man, who worked in the modeling department of the company.

“He asked me if I was interested in doing some modeling for the company and I just said yes,” Neva said.

Since then, she has modeled for other companies and was even pictured in Story magazine, the Vogue of Croatia. Recently, she has been asked to model in Istanbul, Spain and Australia.

“What I love about it is the opportunities to travel and see places,” she said.

However, Neva does not want this to become her career.

“I will continue [modeling], but never as a job,” Neva said. “I’ll do it as a hobby and a way to earn money, like for college, but I want to do important things.”

Senior Emma Meara has gotten to know Neva, and naturally, Neva has told her about her modeling.

“It’s funny because it’s not what she wants to do in the future,” Meara said. “It’s just what she has available to her.”

Neva is using what’s available to achieve her goals; her modeling will help her through any financial struggles she faces in college, where she can do what is important to her.

“I don’t want to think about my weight or what diet I’m on; I just think that stuff is superficial and stupid,” Neva said. “I want to do things that actually matter.”

MODEL

ATTITUDE

Tips from the industry to build collegiate confidence

Posture: Having good posture shows people that you are confident in your ideas, so they will be too.

Smile: Smiling makes you more approachable, and people will feel more comfortable being around you when you’re happy.

Personality: Putting forth your own twist on your strut and talk will let your personality shine through and make you stand out from others.

14 | FEATURES

MIDDLE EAST to MIDWEST written by Greta Nepstad

They smile as they crouch in the tall grass. It’s a game, hiding from their grandfather as he rants about unripe fruit being wasted. Hiding in the graveyard of green, unripe plums they created, the Wadood sisters giggle as their grandfather starts romping around the farm looking for them. They’re not worried, though. He doesn’t have his glasses on.

Senior Sana, junior Yasma and sophomore Mariam Wadood haven’t seen their grandfather in nine years.

They don’t have plum or cherry trees in their backyard, or Peshawar ice cream around the corner. That is all 7,000 miles away, across the Atlantic Ocean in Peshawar, Pakistan where they lived until 2003.

The Wadood sisters left Pakistan with their mother, Bushra, two years after their father, Ali, left to start a life in Kansas as a civil engineer.

“I don’t remember him leaving, but I remember being sad,” Yasma said.

Mariam doesn’t remember much because she was only six when her family moved, but Yasma and Sana have strong memories of what it was like to live in Pakistan.

“We had a huge backyard,” Yasma said. “We also had a chicken coop. Sometimes we’d go back there, but I was too afraid to pick them up because they’d flutter. My sisters could do it easily, though.”

The first day of school for the three sisters at Leawood Elementary was full of adventures and misunderstandings.

A new environment, different people and no uniforms.

In Pakistan, it’s expected that a student asks to enter the classroom before doing so, and when Sana asked her teacher if she could enter the classroom on her first day, the teacher was caught off-guard.

“It was confusing at first, and I was anxious because I had to make sure my sisters were in the right classrooms,” Sana said.

Yasma went through a similar experience. Since the English she and her sisters learned in Pakistan was British English, picking up on American phrases was difficult.

“This girl asked me, ‘do you mind if I sit here?,’ and I thought she said ‘can I sit here?’ and I said yes,” Yasma said.

“She walked away and I figured out I was supposed to say no.

I had no idea what was going on.”

Yasma was only eleven years old when her classmates started calling her names.

“Pakistani whore,” they called her.

She laughed to be polite. She didn’t understand, but they were laughing, so she copied them. She became good at laughing at her own expense. She laughed when boys in her English class chanted “USA, USA,” when she walked into the room on the day that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

She laughed when girls asked in her French class if she had her green card. She even laughed when they made fun of her language.

She wasn’t always so polite though. In the early years of elementary school, when Yasma’s classmates first began to realize that she was a Muslim, she behaved quite differently.

“Sometimes when people used to say the “F word” towards my religion, I would get a temper,” Yasma said. “I would sometimes kick them. When my grandfather found out back in Pakistan, he was like ‘that’s my granddaughter’.”

Yasma tries not to take the name-calling and bullying seriously. When people call Yasma the Taliban or a terrorist, they don’t realize how very real and terrifying the Taliban

photos courtesy of the Wadood family can be to people living in parts of Pakistan. Her uncle suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder when a car parked in the street near him exploded. One of her mom’s phone calls to her sister was dropped when a bomb went off near her sister’s home.

That’s the family the Wadoods left behind, and it’s what they miss the most about Pakistan. Since they’ve been in Kansas, they’ve missed their cousins’ weddings, their grandparents’ funeral, and the birth of their cousins.

“I miss Pakistani weddings,” Yasma said. “They’re so colorful.”

Yasma and her family are so far away from their first home, but they’re never far from their Pakistani roots. The sisters all wear long sleeved shirts and long pants, and they sometimes wear a shalwar kameez, a set of loose trousers and tunic. They pray five times a day, once in the morning and four times after school, always facing Mecca. When they’re at home, Yasma and her sisters speak Urdu, but they also speak Arabic, Pushto and Hindi.

Being Islamic, it’s part of the Wadood’s religion to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad. When a Muslim goes to Mecca, he or she prays and walks around the Kabbah seven times. It’s the same journey that the Prophet Abraham took. The process takes 10 days, and for those who travel far to get to Mecca, they could stay as long as a month.

At the end, a celebration is held where meat is sacrificed.

The reason the Wadoods haven’t been back is mainly because their family has expanded in the past nine years.

Since moving to Kansas, Sana, Yasma and Mariam have welcomed four new siblings into their family. First came Khalil and Ahmea, the twins, then Bakbakwara, also known as Coco, and then Hussein, the baby. Caring for the younger children takes up most of the older sister’s time. With such a large family, a vacation across the Atlantic Ocean would be very expensive.

None of the Wadoods have made their pilgrimage to Mecca, but they hope to one day. Yasma even has plans

Yasma (third from left) sits with her best friend (left) as they pose for a 2nd grade school photo in Peshawar, Pakistan. to attend the Peshawar University in Pakistan after she graduates from Shawnee Mission East.

“I would be in college already in Pakistan,” Yasma said.

“I have some friends over there and they are in college and they’re like ‘did you get held back?’ I told them they have school here for two more years and they feel so bad for me!”

Mariam is unsure of where she wants to go to college, but Sana is certain she wants to go to a college in the U.S. “I mean, I’m studying for the SATs and it just makes sense to go to college here,” Sana said.

Wherever the Wadood sisters end up, they’ll always have a home in Pakistan and in Kansas.

“Every day at school is an adventure,” Yasma said. “Stuff happens to me that wouldn’t happen to a normal person.

And it’s fun, and I’ll miss that.”

GOING TO SCHOOL IN PAKISTAN

art by Andrew McKittrick Students wear long uniforms that cover their whole body.

College starts after 10th grade.

Teachers are allowed to punish their students by hitting them.

After 3rd grade, classes are segregated by sex.

ONLINE | 15

OPPONENT

FOOTBALL

TIME LOCATION

Fri, Aug 31 7 pm SM North Stadium SM South Thu, Sep 6 7 pm SM North Stadium Olathe North Fri, Sep 14 7 pm CBAC Olathe Northwest Thu, Sep 20 7 pm SM North Stadium Olathe South Fri, Sep 28 7 pm SM South Stadium Olathe East Fri, Oct 5 7 pm Lawrence Free State HS Lawrence FS Fri, Oct 12 7 pm SM North Stadium SM Northwest Fri, Oct 19 7 pm SM South Stadium SM West Fri, Oct 26 7 pm SM South Stadium SM North

SOCCER

DATE

Tues, Sep 11 Thu, Sep 13 Tues, Oct 2 Tues, Oct 9 Thu, Oct 11 Tues, Oct 16

7 pm 7:30 pm 7 pm 7 pm 7 pm 7 pm

SM Soccer Complex SM North Stadium SM Soccer Complex SM Soccer Complex SM Soccer Complex SM Soccer Complex

Olathe East SM North SM South SM Northwest SM West Olathe South

16 | SPREAD

WHEN THEY’RE OFF DUTY

DEUTSCHLAND It was Valentine’s Day and Mrs. Pearson was checking her e-mail.

She saw that the Goethe-Institut, which is a worldwide cultural organization working with urban culture in Freiburg, Germany had sent her something about the scholarship she had applied for. She was elated when she found out she was the only U.S. citizen selected to attend the 18-day summer seminar for cross border communication there.

“They wanted to get a good mix of people from all over the world,” Pearson said.”It was a matter of looking at the applications that they had, and then deciding which people would fit best for which seminar. But I think they figured since I was equally qualified in French and in German, that it was really appropriate for the area we were in.”

Pearson wanted this scholarship because she loves the study of language and cultures. The seminar focused on talking about crossborder cooperation and projects working to educate the communities in Germany and France of their cultural connection.

The organization establishes projects that people can do to help merge the cultures of Switzerland, France and Germany. One of the projects Pearson took part in was called Children and Animals. They visited a farm that used to be a refuge for animals but is now a place for German and French children to come and play with the animals as well as learn about their different cultures.

“I think that projects like this are important because it makes people understand in a people to people sort of way what is possible for the world,” Pearson said. “That sometimes people have to take the initiative to get things done rather than laying around for politicians to do something.”

Freiburg is located along the southwest border of Germany, close to the border of France and Switzerland where the countries meet.

Besides the importance of community projects, Pearson feels the concept of intertwining cultures is also important.

“It’s just a way of breaking down barriers and breaking down conceptions that people have that the French and the Germans don’t get along,” Pearson said. “The French and the Germans of today understand that if they are going to make Europe work as a whole, they need to be working together so that Europe will not fail.” “[France and Germany] decided that they had a lot of common interests that they could help one another with,” Pearson said. “They understand that they have a bond even though historically they have been separated by kings, queens, politicians etcetera. Ethnically, they are the same people.”

Studying in Strasbourg 30 years ago, Pearson witnessed how polluted the Rhine River was, but because of the citizen projects that are going on there now, it has become remarkably cleaner than it used to be. This is just one example of how the efforts of seminars like the ones at the Goethe-Institut can be seen.

“What I liked about the seminar we were in was that we were from five different continents, 18 different countries and there were 21 different people,” Pearson said. “It’s the sort of atmosphere that I love. I got to meet people in places that I had never met before and I think I gained some good contacts--maybe for life, I hope.”

THE PROPOSAL Meredith Birt and her boyfriend Jonathan of three and a half years were sitting at the Hermitage hotel in Monte Carlo, France overlooking the marble ice terrace and the princess palace off in the distance. This was their first stop before heading to the Le Louis XV restaurant for dinner in Beausolei, Monaco just a block outside of Monte Carlo.

“I sat down next to him, he said ‘you know I love you’ and I said yes. He pulled out the ring, and I was very eloquent and said ‘are you serious?’” Birt said. “He said ‘Yes I’m serious.’ Later on he told me how nervous he was.”

Ever since her fiance was 25 or so, he has wanted to go to Monte Carlo. The only problem was, Birt had to teach so the only time they could go was during the summer. He had this fantasy of going to the Casino Royale, dressing up in a tux and Birt dressed up to, hanging out with a bunch of people in Monaco.

Instead of a fancy night at the Casino Royale, they were spending time at their romantic hotel in Beausolei on their last night there when he first got the idea that he would propose. He wanted them to be overlooking the balcony and all the beauty of Monaco. The balcony wasn’t exactly what he had hoped their view would be; it was overlooking a little side street in town. He decided to wait until dinner that night.

Birt noticed that he was acting a little strange with his hands in his pockets all day. And that he was wearing a polished grey suit. He didn’t want her to see the lining in his suit coat where he was hiding the ring.

“We had gone to the Casino Royale the night before where I kind of thought maybe he would propose, but he didn’t and I was just like ‘Alright, oh well, that’s what you get for getting your hopes up,’” Birt said. “I was shocked [when it happened] and then I just had this weird feeling of I wish I was home for like two seconds so I could go and tell my parents and my friends but you know, it was pretty perfect the way it was.”

Birt said what made up for not having her family close to tell about her engagement was getting to meet up with her second cousin Margarita in London for dinner and her roommate from college.

The main thing that Birt and her fiancé did throughout London and Monte Carlo was spend time together. They took a tour of the princess palace, went to the British museum, she took him to her favorite pub called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and he took her to have high tea for the first time.

“Besides that, we had a couple really nice dinners and got to watch ridiculously wealthy people waste their money,” she laughed.

“The best part was getting to show each other what we knew about London.”

SPREAD | 17

A look into how a few of our teachers spent their summers in interesting ways

KARATE MAN Stay calm, David Muhammad tells himself. Ignore the butterflies. He doesn’t need to hype himself up or use anger to get himself in the zone. He listens to some mellow jazz by Mos Def to keep his mind clear before the fight. The second he bows before entering the match, his nerves disappear.

The mental and physical instincts of training kick in as the match begins. Every movement has to be perfect. One mistake can give his opponent an easy chance to attack. The hours of explosive lifting, sprints, plyometrics and footwork drills are now coming into play. In each competition he is working towards his ultimate goal: to make the USA karate team.

He tried out in July. To his disappointment he didn’t make the team, but he plans on trying out again next summer. He has participated in competitions across the country and has had his share of ups and downs throughout competing. Muhammad eventually wants competition consistency, but right now, according to him, the main key is training.

“In the summers, I have to take every free moment when I am not teaching to train,” Muhammad said. “I have learned how to get a lot out of short training sessions. As cliche as it may sound, it is not how much one trains but how they train.”

Muhammad spent his summer teaching karate to people anywhere from the ages of 3 to 70, training karate, living and breathing karate. Muhammad has taken classes since the age of three gaining his 4th degree black belt, helped run his father’s karate studio since the age of nine and has now spent 24 years doing what he loves— teaching and training.

A typical class at the Kwanzaa Martial Arts Academy will begin with meditation to focus the class in. After meditation, they recite an oath to unite everyone as a group and bring them closer as a family: We as members train our spirits and bodies according to the strict code. We as members are united in mutual friendship. We as members will comply with regulations and obey instructors.

“After that, we do basic warm ups like sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks and sprints,” Muhammad said. “Then we work with them on basic techniques, memorized set movements called katas, or forms, and then maybe some sparring drills or self defense scenarios.”

In the summer, the classes for the kids are eight hours a day versus just a couple hours after school like it would be during the school year. It’s intense, according to Muhammad, but it allows the students to be exposed to a bigger variety of martial arts activity than they would be in their regular classes during the year.

According to Muhammad, he best part about teaching karate is seeing how it impacts the students that come into the studio.

“You see a lot of turn-around in kids who come in with ADD, who come from broken homes, a lot of inner city kids or international kids as well,” Muhammad said. “It’s just nice to give a kid something that they can take and use the rest of their life beyond just beating people up.”

Karate is his outlet, his way of life. It brings him peace and gives him something to put everything he has into.

“It amazes me that, through a very physical activity, I am able to find peace and help others,” Muhammad said. “Because of this, I have fallen in love with karate. I plan to continue training for the rest of my days.”

21

Ms. Birt and her fiance have been officially dating for 21 months.

They met on New Year’s Eve.

30

days

Ms. Pearson was in Germany the whole month of June, her favorite site to see was the Black Forrest.

He teaches classes 6 days a week. 2-3 classes during week days and 6 classes on Saturdays.

Mr. Muhammad earned his black belt in karate when he was only 11 years old.

11

June 7

months

years old

days a week

years

Mr. Muhammad has been doing karate for 24 years, he started when he was 3 years old.

11

6

24

months

Her fiance proposed on June 7 at the Hermitage hotel in Monte Carlo.

Their wedding is in 11 months on July 20.

They are honeymooning in Hana, Hawaii.

11

3

hours

meals a day

Lunch is the most important meal of the day in Germany, but Ms. Pearson’s favorite food there was delicate chocolates.

The plane ride to Germany was 11 hours because Ms. Pearson flew there from Dallas, Texas.

16 | SPREAD

WHEN THEY’RE OFF DUTY

DEUTSCHLAND It was Valentine’s Day and Mrs. Pearson was checking her e-mail.

She saw that the Goethe-Institut, which is a worldwide cultural organization working with urban culture in Freiburg, Germany had sent her something about the scholarship she had applied for. She was elated when she found out she was the only U.S. citizen selected to attend the 18-day summer seminar for cross border communication there.

“They wanted to get a good mix of people from all over the world,” Pearson said.”It was a matter of looking at the applications that they had, and then deciding which people would fit best for which seminar. But I think they figured since I was equally qualified in French and in German, that it was really appropriate for the area we were in.”

Pearson wanted this scholarship because she loves the study of language and cultures. The seminar focused on talking about crossborder cooperation and projects working to educate the communities in Germany and France of their cultural connection.

The organization establishes projects that people can do to help merge the cultures of Switzerland, France and Germany. One of the projects Pearson took part in was called Children and Animals. They visited a farm that used to be a refuge for animals but is now a place for German and French children to come and play with the animals as well as learn about their different cultures.

“I think that projects like this are important because it makes people understand in a people to people sort of way what is possible for the world,” Pearson said. “That sometimes people have to take the initiative to get things done rather than laying around for politicians to do something.”

Freiburg is located along the southwest border of Germany, close to the border of France and Switzerland where the countries meet.

Besides the importance of community projects, Pearson feels the concept of intertwining cultures is also important.

“It’s just a way of breaking down barriers and breaking down conceptions that people have that the French and the Germans don’t get along,” Pearson said. “The French and the Germans of today understand that if they are going to make Europe work as a whole, they need to be working together so that Europe will not fail.” “[France and Germany] decided that they had a lot of common interests that they could help one another with,” Pearson said. “They understand that they have a bond even though historically they have been separated by kings, queens, politicians etcetera. Ethnically, they are the same people.”

Studying in Strasbourg 30 years ago, Pearson witnessed how polluted the Rhine River was, but because of the citizen projects that are going on there now, it has become remarkably cleaner than it used to be. This is just one example of how the efforts of seminars like the ones at the Goethe-Institut can be seen.

“What I liked about the seminar we were in was that we were from five different continents, 18 different countries and there were 21 different people,” Pearson said. “It’s the sort of atmosphere that I love. I got to meet people in places that I had never met before and I think I gained some good contacts--maybe for life, I hope.”

THE PROPOSAL Meredith Birt and her boyfriend Jonathan of three and a half years were sitting at the Hermitage hotel in Monte Carlo, France overlooking the marble ice terrace and the princess palace off in the distance. This was their first stop before heading to the Le Louis XV restaurant for dinner in Beausolei, Monaco just a block outside of Monte Carlo.

“I sat down next to him, he said ‘you know I love you’ and I said yes. He pulled out the ring, and I was very eloquent and said ‘are you serious?’” Birt said. “He said ‘Yes I’m serious.’ Later on he told me how nervous he was.”

Ever since her fiance was 25 or so, he has wanted to go to Monte Carlo. The only problem was, Birt had to teach so the only time they could go was during the summer. He had this fantasy of going to the Casino Royale, dressing up in a tux and Birt dressed up to, hanging out with a bunch of people in Monaco.

Instead of a fancy night at the Casino Royale, they were spending time at their romantic hotel in Beausolei on their last night there when he first got the idea that he would propose. He wanted them to be overlooking the balcony and all the beauty of Monaco. The balcony wasn’t exactly what he had hoped their view would be; it was overlooking a little side street in town. He decided to wait until dinner that night.

Birt noticed that he was acting a little strange with his hands in his pockets all day. And that he was wearing a polished grey suit. He didn’t want her to see the lining in his suit coat where he was hiding the ring.

“We had gone to the Casino Royale the night before where I kind of thought maybe he would propose, but he didn’t and I was just like ‘Alright, oh well, that’s what you get for getting your hopes up,’” Birt said. “I was shocked [when it happened] and then I just had this weird feeling of I wish I was home for like two seconds so I could go and tell my parents and my friends but you know, it was pretty perfect the way it was.”

Birt said what made up for not having her family close to tell about her engagement was getting to meet up with her second cousin Margarita in London for dinner and her roommate from college.

The main thing that Birt and her fiancé did throughout London and Monte Carlo was spend time together. They took a tour of the princess palace, went to the British museum, she took him to her favorite pub called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and he took her to have high tea for the first time.

“Besides that, we had a couple really nice dinners and got to watch ridiculously wealthy people waste their money,” she laughed.

“The best part was getting to show each other what we knew about London.”

SPREAD | 17

A look into how a few of our teachers spent their summers in interesting ways

KARATE MAN Stay calm, David Muhammad tells himself. Ignore the butterflies. He doesn’t need to hype himself up or use anger to get himself in the zone. He listens to some mellow jazz by Mos Def to keep his mind clear before the fight. The second he bows before entering the match, his nerves disappear.

The mental and physical instincts of training kick in as the match begins. Every movement has to be perfect. One mistake can give his opponent an easy chance to attack. The hours of explosive lifting, sprints, plyometrics and footwork drills are now coming into play. In each competition he is working towards his ultimate goal: to make the USA karate team.

He tried out in July. To his disappointment he didn’t make the team, but he plans on trying out again next summer. He has participated in competitions across the country and has had his share of ups and downs throughout competing. Muhammad eventually wants competition consistency, but right now, according to him, the main key is training.

“In the summers, I have to take every free moment when I am not teaching to train,” Muhammad said. “I have learned how to get a lot out of short training sessions. As cliche as it may sound, it is not how much one trains but how they train.”

Muhammad spent his summer teaching karate to people anywhere from the ages of 3 to 70, training karate, living and breathing karate. Muhammad has taken classes since the age of three gaining his 4th degree black belt, helped run his father’s karate studio since the age of nine and has now spent 24 years doing what he loves— teaching and training.

A typical class at the Kwanzaa Martial Arts Academy will begin with meditation to focus the class in. After meditation, they recite an oath to unite everyone as a group and bring them closer as a family: We as members train our spirits and bodies according to the strict code. We as members are united in mutual friendship. We as members will comply with regulations and obey instructors.

“After that, we do basic warm ups like sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks and sprints,” Muhammad said. “Then we work with them on basic techniques, memorized set movements called katas, or forms, and then maybe some sparring drills or self defense scenarios.”

In the summer, the classes for the kids are eight hours a day versus just a couple hours after school like it would be during the school year. It’s intense, according to Muhammad, but it allows the students to be exposed to a bigger variety of martial arts activity than they would be in their regular classes during the year.

According to Muhammad, he best part about teaching karate is seeing how it impacts the students that come into the studio.

“You see a lot of turn-around in kids who come in with ADD, who come from broken homes, a lot of inner city kids or international kids as well,” Muhammad said. “It’s just nice to give a kid something that they can take and use the rest of their life beyond just beating people up.”

Karate is his outlet, his way of life. It brings him peace and gives him something to put everything he has into.

“It amazes me that, through a very physical activity, I am able to find peace and help others,” Muhammad said. “Because of this, I have fallen in love with karate. I plan to continue training for the rest of my days.”

21

Ms. Birt and her fiance have been officially dating for 21 months.

They met on New Year’s Eve.

30

days

Ms. Pearson was in Germany the whole month of June, her favorite site to see was the Black Forrest.

He teaches classes 6 days a week. 2-3 classes during week days and 6 classes on Saturdays.

Mr. Muhammad earned his black belt in karate when he was only 11 years old.

11

June 7

months

years old

days a week

years

Mr. Muhammad has been doing karate for 24 years, he started when he was 3 years old.

11

6

24

months

Her fiance proposed on June 7 at the Hermitage hotel in Monte Carlo.

Their wedding is in 11 months on July 20.

They are honeymooning in Hana, Hawaii.

11

3

hours

meals a day

Lunch is the most important meal of the day in Germany, but Ms. Pearson’s favorite food there was delicate chocolates.

The plane ride to Germany was 11 hours because Ms. Pearson flew there from Dallas, Texas.

18 | FEATURES

SUMMER

OF

written by GJ Melia East Government teacher Ron Stallard and his daughter were in their backyard celebrating spring break with a bonfire and karate session. With a whole spring break ahead, Stallard was looking forward to as many rounds of golf as he could possibly play along with spending plenty of time with family and friends. But fate had other plans.

Using some of the wood from the fire, Stallard showed his daughter how to break a board. It was going smoothly until one board just wouldn’t bend. As he collided with the board, his foot stopped, but his tibia continued into his ankle. His ankle exploded in pain. As soon as it happened, he went right down to the ground.

Having broken his ankle several times, Stallard was used to ankle injuries, yet none of this magnitude.

“I’ve never fallen down before,” Stallard said. “When you feel an ankle go, you can recover. This time, it just felt like it exploded.”

When Stallard went to urgent care the next day, three fractures were discovered in the initial diagnosis. Stallard was put in a boot and crutches until June.

In June, a specialist told Stallard that in addition to his fractures, he had a calcified chunk of bone loose in his ankle and two torn ligaments. Given the newfound severity of his injury, the doctor told Stallard he needed surgery. Initially the procedure would be

SURGERY arthroscopic, a minimally invasive surgery he had previously had on his knee.

“When they did my knee, I was back running again after three weeks,” Stallard said. “So going into surgery on the ankle, I was thinking it would be easy.”

But the surgery was much different than expected. Even Stallard’s specialist had not realized how bad his injury was.

When Stallard got out of surgery, he didn’t notice how big the incisions were until two weeks later, after the splint was off. The doctor who performed the surgery had to cut Stallard’s ankle entirely open and perform a different surgery for the ligaments.

But Stallard’s greatest pain of the surgery was not in his ankle. It was from the tourniquet on his leg which blocked blood flow to his lower leg so they could carry out the surgery.

“I came out of surgery with just screaming pain in [my] upper thigh,” Stallard said.

“Then, after 48 hours the nerve block in my lower leg wore off and so then my ankle started hurting.”

Stallard was prescribed one painkiller, Hydrocodone. The powerful narcotic was stronger on his brain than the pain in his ankle. He took only a few doses before he stopped taking the medication.

“What scared me more than anything was the fact that I could actually feel, in my leg,

2 weeks after surgery 4 weeks after surgery

the scar now

photos courtesy of Mr. Stallard

specifically the ligaments I had torn,” Stallard said. “That’s how I knew I had messed it up worse than in the past.”

After two weeks, the splint was taken off and the stitches were removed. Special super glue was put in the incisions, and a cast over that. Again, after a two-week period, the cast was taken off. Stallard was then put in a boot and crutches for five weeks after that.

“Nine weeks post-op I was able to walk without the boot,” Stallard said. “At the start of physical therapy, the therapist said to try to get it moving.”

It has been a slow process, but Stallard is now able to play golf and other mild activities as long as he wears his doctor prescribed brace. Math teacher Jamie Kelly had plans with Stallard to play golf the day after his injury happened. But because of the injury, Stallard was unable to participate.

Stallard’s injury and his recovery have affected his life in many ways. When the injury first occurred, he did not expect it to be nearly this bad, nor did he think it would take this long to heal. His summer plans of golf and other activities were completely changed. It was much more difficult to get around the house and to places he needed to

be. He was not able to drive, while in the boot or cast.

“The most notable effect on him was the limp,” Kelly said. “You could definitely tell that he was in pain, especially at his age.”

Stallard’s attitude has not changed since the injury occurred.

“He has had a very positive attitude about it,” Kelly said. “But you could tell he was disappointed that he couldn’t do normal activities like golf. Especially in the beginning, when he had to rely on other people to do things for him.”

Along with golf, Stallard competes in an over-40 division for track and field when healthy. If he had not gotten the surgery, he would not be able to compete again.

“I still want to coach and go play basketball and go to track meets and participate,” Stallard said.

Stallard will be able to start doing more exercises such as jumping and running at 12 weeks post-op, which is in the middle of September.

“Full recovery could take anywhere from six months to a year,” Stallard said. “The focus now is just getting it back in shape.”

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20| Features

Packing Up Her Trunk Senior Gabby Magalski travels to Thailand over the summer to work with elephants written by Taylor Bell

Senior Gabby Magalski rides her elephant, Pang Wang Jaow, down the dirt road with her partner Annie McTigue. Even in full elephant trainer garb, a dark, blue denim suit, she can still feel the sharp hairs of her elephant pricking up as Pang Wang Jaow trudges to the river for a bath. Magalski looks across at the dense, green Thailand jungle, spotting the occasional stalk of bamboo below her. Wobbling precariously atop her elephant’s back, she leads Pang Wang Jaow towards the river .

Magalski spent three weeks of her summer in Thailand with a group called Rustic Pathways, which specializes in international teen travel. She spent roughly one week at the elephant reserve and two touring around the exotic country.

She and the Rustic Pathways group visited temples, marketplaces and a place called Tiger Kingdom where they had the opportunity to step into tiger cages for a photo-op.

Magalski settled into to her small, wooden room on the first day of her trip. With only one window and two twin beds which were pressed together to make room for walking, McTigue and Magalski had few luxuries. In the bathroom they found a single toilet and a shower, with only occasionally working pipes with cold water.

The next morning, Magalski rose early. The group of 26 reserve volunteers were paired up and assigned to elephants which they would take care of for the rest of the week. Magalski and McTigue were assigned Pang Wang Jaow, a middle-aged female. Excited, the girls went to wake her from her reserve home in the lush, green jungle. They rode her down the road, off the bank and into the river for bath time; a routine that became their everyday ritual.

“They were really dirty in the morning from spending the whole night in the jungle,” Magalski said.“They get dirt and leaves all over their back that they can’t reach with their trunks.”

While their elephants waded in the cold water, the girls would scrub the elephant’s rough, grey skin with their hands, making sure to get all the excess brush, dirt and leaves cleaned off.

Next came breakfast. The elephants wrapped their newly cleaned trunks around the hay, bananas and sugar cane that Magalski fed them out of her hands. Their long, prickly hairs grazed her fingers as they popped the food into their mouths.

“They were very grabby,” Magalski said. “If you

had a banana and they knew it, they would stick their trunks in your pockets.” *** With more than four transportation changes to get to the reserve, traveling to Thailand was no easy task. A flight to Los Angeles, then to Tokyo added up to over 20 hours.

“The flying was pretty awful,” Magalski said. “I was just kind of going with it, I wanted to be where I was going.”

After a one day layover in an empty Tokyo airport, the crew of 26 arrived in the large, modern airport in Singapore. They had yet another layover until finally making it to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, where they were shuttled in vans to their rooms at the elephant reserve.

The group continued their daily routine and played with the elephants all week at the reserve.

“The mahouts [elephant trainers] would play soccer with the baby elephants,” said Gabby. “They can be pretty dangerous when they are playing.”

They also rode their elephants around the jungle, passing through small villages of simple bamboo huts.

When she wasn’t with her elephants, Magalski liked to hike up the mountain by the reserve. Peering through the towering jungle trees, she viewed the vast scenery of Thailand from a bird’s-eye-view. *** After returning home, Magalski had trouble getting back into routine.

“I basically went to bed when the sun set and woke up when it rose in Thailand,” Magalski said.

“It’s not like that here.”

After spending three weeks away from any technology, it was confusing for Magalski to make the change back to normal. Letting go of the experiences from Thailand, and especially saying goodbye to Pang Wang Jaow was a struggle.

“It was really sad,” Magalski said. “I miss my elephant.”

Even after a difficult time coming home, Magalski’s trip to Thailand has brought to light her love of traveling. She even plans on getting involved with the teen leadership program, AMIGOS, so she can travel internationally again.

“It’s really nice to learn about other countries’ values and their culture,” says Gabby “[This trip] gave me a better understanding of the world.”

photo courtesy of Gabby Magalski

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22 | A&E

a look INSIDE café gratitude

Above: The café’s blackboard with the question of the day: “What is best about you?”

Below: A waitress serves a customer.

photos by Emma Robson

a taste of

Staffer reviews the downtown organic & vegan restaurant

GRATITUDE written by Audrey Danciger

“I am transformed”, a café specialty, includes two spicy brown rice and black bean tacos with cashew nacho cheese, guacamole and salsa.

The café offers a variety of smoothies, including “I am luscious”, an almond milk, cocoa, vanilla bean, fig and date concoction.

The café appetizer “I am vibrant” is made with kale sauteed in lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt, and can be served with buckwheat crackers.

Attention all hard-core vegans of the surrounding Kansas City area: I have found the perfect restaurant for you. As for those picky eaters out there, you may want to sit this one out.

Having first heard about Café Gratitude from my vegetarian, hippie god-sister, I should have assumed that it was something of the hipster variety. But I had no idea just how hipsteresque it would be.

The place was pretty packed, but not so much that we couldn’t be seated within one or two minutes. We sat at a small table with a wooden chair on one side and a long orange couch, complete with pillows, on the other that tended to multiple guests at different tables.

There was so much to take in: the back wall had a bright mural of mountains and an orchard, there was a giant mirror which took up a good portion of the brick wall to my back and there were so many chattering people around me. They looked relaxed and happy and most of them, with their full beards or headscarves, looked like, well, hipsters.

As ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2 played softly in the background, our waitress came up and introduced herself. “Welcome to Café Gratitude! All the food served here is completely organic and vegan...”

Vegan? I thought. To be honest, I had always thought of vegans as crazy people who held

Dine ‘n Dash

Try Take Out

chickens at protest rallies for P.E.T.A. or women who didn’t shave their armpits. I mean come on, I like pigs, but can anyone truly hate bacon?

But no one around seemed crazy; they weren’t holding any chickens at least, so I decided to look at the menu and see what I could find.

The menu was a long white piece of paper but rather than boring, hackneyed titles like “House Salad” it described things like “I Am Thriving” or “I Am Renewed”. These titles, of course, had nothing to do with their items. Really, what type of food comes to mind when one hears “I Am Immortal”? The idea was something I’d never seen before, and I loved it.

After searching through the menu and seeing things such as, ‘Brazilian nut Parmesan’, and ‘kimchee’, I decided to test my luck and pick an item solely based on its name from the menu. I chose “I Am Vibrant” without the slightest clue of what I had ordered until I glanced back at my menu seconds before the meal came out.

I had apparently ordered ‘seasonal greens sautéed with garlic and pumpkin seeds’, which, to my surprise, wasn’t half bad. It was salty and bitter, but in a good way. The big pile of greens on the orange plate in front of me was fresh with the added crunch of the pumpkin seeds. I enjoyed it so much that I ate the whole thing, revealing a clean plate and words that read, “What are you thankful for?”

Worth a Visit

After we had finished our meals and paid the check, we went to the back to check out the ‘Question of the Day’ chalk board. That day’s question, “What’s your secret power?”, was written boldly across the middle of the board. All around it were unique answers written in bright colors of chalk from things like ‘Girl Power’ to ‘I’m not telling’. Throughout the whole night I had tried to come up with what my power could be, but had no such luck.

As we walked out of the restaurant to friendly employees calling after us, “Come again soon!” I realized that my secret power was the ability to embrace new experiences.

Sure, the whole ‘vegan’ thing threw me through a loop at first, but that was quickly dismissed by the friendly service and tasty food. If you’re a vegan looking for something to do this Friday night or simply fearless when it comes to trying new foods and experiences, Café Gratitude surely won’t disappoint. But for those of you who are more hamburger and french fries people, the bar and grill down the street may be a better option.

I certainly don’t plan on becoming a vegan anytime soon, but one thing I do know is that I will be visiting Café Gratitude sometime in the near future, ready for the next question of the day and whichever menu title intrigues me most. Possibly ‘I Am Adventurous’?

Culinary Genius

A&E | 23

FALL A&E EVENTS PREVIEW what’s on the calendar in September written by Pauline Werner

THE WORDS

photos by Spencer Davis and courtesy of mctcampus.com

SEPT. 7

“There’s more than one way to take a life.” The Words, an upcoming drama/romance out Sept. 7, starring Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana and Olivia Wilde, tells the story of a young man who reaches the top of his writing career by passing another man’s writing off as his own.

Watch as Cooper’s character, Rory, faces immediate and devastating consequences when he is exposed.

“PIPPIN”

AT THE KANSAS CITY REPRETORY THEATER

SEPT.

SEPT. 14

SEPT. SEPT. 18

Let your hair down and head over to the Starlight Theater on Oct. 11 for Florence + The Machine’s second Kansas City concert. The band has yet to disappoint. Lead singer/songwriter, Florence Welsh’s distinctive voice is known around the world.

Nominated for a Grammy in 2011 for best new artist, Florence is sure to deliver a performance to wow everyone attending the nearly sold out show.

SOON TO

THEATERS photos courtesy of allmoviephotos.com

11

SEPT.

7

SEPT.

SEPT. 19

ODD FUTURE

Huge on the underground music scene, Odd Future makes its second trip to the area for a concert on Sept. 19 at The Granada in Lawrence. Led by rapper Tyler, The Creator, Odd Future comprises of other rappers Hodgy Beats, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis and Mike G, along with several other members that may come and go. Coming together, they create music that is, in some cases, highly controversial.

With lyrics designed to shock and create a message combined with lots of talent and loud beats, Odd Future will give you an experience you’re not likely to forget.

1

IN 3D OCT. SEPTEMBER 14

BEN FOLDS

With a 13 year gap from the alternative rock band’s last album, The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner (1999), The Ben Folds Five trio -- made up of lead singer and pianist Folds, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee -- releases their fifth studio album The Sound of the Life of the Mind on Sept. 18. After splitting up in 2000 for over a decade, the trio came back together in January to announce the recording of their highly-anticipated new album.

OCT. 11

COMING “FINDING NEMO”

ART WESTPORT

Let your artsy side out at the 33rd annual Art Westport festival. The weekend of Sept. 9-11 will feature live entertainment and food from restaurants like The Jerusalem Cafe and The Westport Flea Market, both well reviewed local eateries. Showcasing everything from photography to ceramic to watercolor pieces created exclusively by Kansas City artists, Art Westport is a laid-back cultural experience with something everyone can enjoy.

Follow the story of young Prince Pippin of France as he searches for some meaning in his royal life at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre from Sept. 14 to Oct. 7.

In his endeavors, he finds himself wading through the perils of war, turbulent romances and royal politics before finding himself living among peasants. The Tony award winning former Broadway musical has been revitalized as a “modern-day rock fable” with stunning choreography and score.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

SEPT. 9-11

“THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER” SEPTEMBER 21

OCT.

“HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA” SEPTEMBER 28

24 | PHOTO STORY

Far Left: Even though the rain ruined Varsity Volleyball’s Lancer Day signs and facepaint, Junior Savannah Bellem kept her spirits up.

Left: Junior Ryan Carter gets pumped up for the first 2012 Varsity football game. Carter felt that “the rain added fuel to the fire.” photo by Caroline Creidenberg

DON’T

Parade RAIN ON MY

For the first time in history, it rained on Lancer Day. Several floats were dampened, but students remained enthusiastic.

Right: The Marching Band and Drum Major, Senior Max Hofmeister, were excited to play in the rain. “It was a challange for us to overcome,” said Hofmeister.

Left: “Our float kinda got messed up but it was okay in the end and was a lot of fun,” said Freshman Sarah Allegri, who rode the Freshman Aladin themed float.

photo by AnnaMarie Oakley

Below: The rain carried over to the first Football game that night, but it didn’t stop the Lancer’s from winning 23-0 against the South Raiders. photo by Jake Crandall

photo by Caroline Creidenberg

photo by Stefano Byer

A&E |25

APPARITION APPARITION

Apparition movie proves to be less than satisfactory. photo courtesy of http://theapparition.warnerbros.com/ written by Erin Reilly When a couple’s (Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan) house becomes the site of several supernatural occurrences, they seek the help of a paranormal psychologist (Tom Felton) who reveals that the couple is being haunted by a malevolent force unleashed by an experiment several years earlier.

Not only did “The Apparition” leave me $12 poorer and with many unanswered questions, it also broke every rule of good filmmaking. I have tried to describe the offenses this atrocity transgressed.

Rule #1: Have a plot.

Firstly, the plot was so confusing that anything scary about this movie was overshadowed (this is coming from someone who only needed minimal Wikipedia consulting after watching “Inception”).

This was sad, because there was so much potential for this movie. The tag line of the movie, “once you believe, you die,” seemed to be a new concept for the horror genre. The notion that something inescapable is blurring the lines between reality and illusion, yet kills the victim once they truly believe that something is toying with them, is seriously disturbing.

However, the trailer provided a better show than the actual film, which did little to back up what Warner Brothers advertised the movie to be. The tagline had hardly anything to do with the plot in the end product, which was even more confusing and irritating than the fact that the preview contained all the key footage for the movie.

HORRIBLE HORRORS A LOOK AT THE WORST HORROR FILMS OF ALL TIME

Skip It

Rule #2: Don’t kill pets.

Todd Lincoln, in his directorial debut, made a horrific mistake when he killed the dog within the first fifteen minutes of the film. This was a completely unnecessary trauma for the audience, as it did nothing to further the story. It only provided for the little girl next door to growl at Greene’s character “your house killed my dog.” Then that plot line

“ ” If you want to watch something scarier with a richer plot, tune in to TLC’s latest series, the “Toddlers and Tiaras” spin off “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”

ended, and left me even more confused. How did she know the house killed the dog? Wasn’t Ashley Greene supposed to be haunted, not her house? The questions kept coming, leading me to Rule #3: Don’t leave your audience confused with questions or open plot lines.

I wish this movie would have panned out as they adver-

Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror (2007)

Jason X

This collection of stories is told by Snoop Dogg (sorry, Snoop Lion), who plays the narrator, a guy named Devon who sold his soul to the devil.

Somehow, it becomes a moral campaign. In the end he just throws them all in a pit of Hell.

Netflix

tised in the preview. There were some points in the film that could have been quite disturbing. Many times the furniture was repositioned of its own accord in a fashion reminiscent of Stephen Spielberg’s “Poltergeist.” Some elements of Oren Peli’s “Paranormal Activity” were also evident and replicated throughout the film, specifically with the damage the entity makes to the couple’s house, including mysterious scratches on the walls, moved furniture and broken video cameras.

I believe this is one of many movies that has tried to mimic Peli’s success with “Paranormal Activity” and the cheap but effective scares that haunted audiences even after they left the theater. This is comparable to the slew of unsuccessful copycats in the 80s after Ridley Scott’s classic “Alien” became a hit. These kinds of spin-offs are inevitable when an original, successful film comes about; I just hoped that “The Apparition” would be the film to lead an era of copycats, not join one.

I guess it should have been a sign that the movie wouldn’t impress when Felton (Malfoy himself) didn’t even show up to the premiere of the movie.

I had a much more enjoyable experience laying in my basement watching “Game of Thrones” while battling meningitis last week than I did watching this movie. If you want to watch something scarier with a richer plot, tune in to TLC’s latest series, the “Toddlers and Tiaras” spin-off “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”

In Jason X (yes, that’s 10, for those of you keeping count), director James Isaac gives new life to Jason Voorhees, the character that just won’t die. During a killing spree, Jason accidentally cryogenically freezes himself. He’s un-thawed in the year 2455, where wakes to kill again...in space!

See It

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

The birds appear to have been made on a 90s PC, and have a bizarre penchant for exploding when they fly into things. No further discussion needed.

Midnight Premiere

IT’S NOT JUST DOING HOMEWORK.

IT’S DOING WORK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE, TRANSFORMING AMBITION INTO ACHIEVEMENT.

umkc.edu/choose

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THE VIBE“FIBE” THE

Staffer reviews Google Fiber and the hype surrounding its’ arrival

written by Leah Pack Imagine internet connectivity with speeds up to 10 times faster than people are experiencing now. The possibilities are endless, or at least that’s what Google Fiber claims. Google Fiber is bringing internet in the United States to a whole new level by using strands of glass for wiring opposed to metal wires. This glass allows for light to shine through, letting information travel faster.

In 2009 Google teams took part in the development of the Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband plan. In doing this, team members saw the opportunities that something like Google Fiber would present to them. The search for the location of headquarters then began, and applications were sent in from cities around the country in 2010 in hopes of having Fiberspace, the Google Fiber headquarters, near them. It was announced in March 2011 that Kansas City, Kan. would be the first city to receive the revolutionary internet service. Then, in May, Google announced that Kansas City, Mo. would also receive it.

According to Google Fiber’s community manager Rachel Hack, Kansas City’s infrastructure and community of entrepreneurs stood out to Google. Not only did the utility part of the infrastructure meet Google’s needs, but the business infrastructure also encouraged the construction project to move at what Google likes to call “Google speed.”

“I think it’s one of those things where they saw the potential in Kansas City,” senior Helena Buchmann said.

“We are the heart of America but it wasn’t really until the past 10 years that we have started developing up to par with what our name deserves.”

Buchmann is one of the few East students who lives in a Fiberhood, a neighborhood designated by Google that will be able to use Google Fiber in the first rally, or the initial steps. Buchmann’s Fiberhood, North KU Med, has already exceeded their goal of having five percent of households preregister for Google Fiber, a major step in the rally process.

Google Fiber, it seems, is here to give people the chance to discover their potential. Some families will connect to the internet for their first time from home, allowing them to use online banking, search and apply for employment and check on health records. Some of these families will experience these services that many people have been using for years, for the first time. There are also agreements that both cities -- 30 sites in Kansas City, Kan. and 300 in Kansas City, Mo. -- will receive free services from Google Fiber. Places such as schools, libraries, government buildings, emergency service centers and healthcare facilities were considered and chosen by the mayor.

Along with helping individual homes take advantage of the technological advances we have today, Google Fiber is bringing jobs and people to Kansas City.

“People from New York and Chicago have been emailing into Google saying, ‘I need to move to Kansas

art by James Simmons

City right now. I need to be where this is happening because this is going to be a big deal,’” Buchmann said.

“It’s going to help our cities grow so much. The more people, the more possibilities.”

Fiberspace, the attraction that housed the start of Google Fiber, is located on the corner of 43rd Street and State Line Road. What looks to be a simple building about the size of a swimming pool is actually an internet haven, filled with devices to show people how the renown service works.

“Ultimately Fiberspace is here for people to experience Google Fiber,” Fiber marketing representative Tyler Jacobs said. “Why we’re here. What we do.”

Fiberspace is open to the public every day of the week. The warm colors, countless couches and LaZ-Boy chairs parallel the homey and relaxed feeling given off by the employees. Computers, televisions and interactive structures fill the room, strategically placed in order to avoid covering up the artwork on the walls.

The Fiberspace employees chat amongst themselves or with visitors over the background noise coming from the football game on TV, an intense NASCAR race on Wii and YouTube videos.

“I think we have some repeat visitors, especially to the video game section,” Hack said. “During the summer we would have people coming in here playing for two hours.”

Everyone at Fiberspace, including employees, are more than welcome to experiment with all of the electronics and Google is more than happy to have gamers hangout until closing. Across from Fiberspace is an event space where experiences varying from tours to cooking or pilates classes via high speed internet are held. There is a very positive tone in the headquarters that draws people in and encourages them to learn more about what is being offered. Being part of a city that was chosen to be the home to Fiberspace allows for an almost powerful feeling, with the thought that we will be some of the first to use a service that has the ability to be extremely successful.

The first rally ends on Sept. 9, followed by the installation process which will begin in homes in the fall.

After the first group of Fiberhoods are completely set-up with the services, Google teams will analyze everything to see what worked and didn’t work in order to improve the process when it comes time for expansion, enabling more and more possibilities.

“The endless possibilities are almost things that we haven’t imagined yet. I think it’s entirely possible that the next YouTube could come out of Kansas City,” Hack said.

“There is someone somewhere that will take incredible bandwidth and make that next great application that will make education better or health care better. For a while people just wanted to watch videos online because you could watch a video online, not because it was really that great of a video. It’s more about wow, look what I can do because I have this access.”

SPEED OF GOOGLE FIBER 6

18

300

1,000

MBPS

TIME TO DOWNLOAD THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY IN 1080P

AVERAGE U.S. CONNECTION

3 0 3 6 hrs

min

AVERAGE COMCAST CONNECTION

0 9 5 4 hrs

min

VERIZON FIOS

0 0 3 4 hrs

min

**0 0 1 0** GOOGLE FIBER

hrs

min

http://buzzniss.com/2012/08/all-about-google-fiber/

OF

A&E | 27

28 | SPORTS

“WATCHING HER FLY” Senior high jumper Grace Pickell continues her high jump career after a summer mixed with success and defeat

written by Julia Poe

“It’s a part of the sport,” Grace Pickell’s dad always says. “Jumpers always end on a failure.”

“No matter what, even if you win the meet, and you win state, or you win the Olympics,” he’ll remind her. “You always end with hitting the bar. There’s just a limit to how high you can jump.”

Grace doesn’t want to believe her dad.

She keeps her eyes focused on the turf under her fluorescent pink and yellow Nike spikes, refusing to watch her competitors continue to jump.

She fights the tears.

She’s not used to this.

She’s not used to watching girls jump higher than her. She’s not used to finishing last, and she doesn’t like it. Sitting on the hot turf of the stadium in Bloomington, Indiana, she just feels wrong.

She’s used to winning. She likes winning.

“Once I start something, I get really competitive, and I just need to win,” Grace says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s just a silly pick up game of basketball or a national championship, I get into it. I’m not conceited, I just want to win.”

Grace knows that she’s lost the chance to win the meet, the National Championships.

As she packs her track bag, she decides to put it all behind her. The off day. The high nerves.

The bad finish. There’s always another meet just around the corner. *** A slow chant fills Cessna Stadium with a rumble. Over and over again, they chant the same name.

Grace is doing the impossible. Or at least, what she thought was the impossible. She’s peaking at state. She’s about to win state.

She’s going to set a record in the process.

She takes a moment to look at the verse written in silver Sharpie inside her left wrist —Isaiah 41:10.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” She starts her approach. Ten steps. Bends the knees. Into the air.

photos by McKenzie Swanson All she does is pray. Please, God, please, let me clear it. Don’t let my shoulders hit, don’t let my back hit, don’t let my heels hit.

And then, impact. Grace has landed on the mats and she hasn’t even brushed the bar.

Tim Pickell and Grace’s jump coach Chuck Sulzen watch from the stands as Grace shatters their expectations once again.

She had started the year with excruciating pain- tendinitis in her left leg. Grace sat out practices. Her coaches simply hoped that she would make it through her first meet.

So they didn’t expect Grace to win her first meet. Or her second. Or her third. They didn’t expect her to continue, almost undefeated, all the way to the state championship. And they didn’t expect to be leaping to their feet as Grace cleared the bar, set at the state record breaking height of 5’ 10 1/2”.

On the mats, Grace can hardly contain herself. Everything around her is a blur.

She catches tiny details— a friend from St. Thomas Aquinas running to hug her, the bright colors of uniforms, the tears streaking down head coach Brie Meshke’s face.

“She honestly exceeded every expectation I could have set for her,” Meshke said. “It was one of the most exciting moments of my coaching career, watching her clear on her first jump. It was awesome. It was perfect.”

Grace races towards her dad and her coaches. She hugs them, then bends over, dropping her hands onto her knees and laughing at what she has accomplished.

“Seeing your child achieve something that they’ve worked so hard for and that they really love,” Tim said. “It’s just like watching a bird fly. It’s beautiful.” *** After winning State, Grace was looking forward to flying through a summer of meets. She’d been invited to participate in the Junior Olympics, which consisted of three meets - the regional qualifier in New Mexico, the national qualifier in Bloomington and the world competition in Barcelona, Spain.

Grace took second in New Mexico, barely clipping her heels as she attempted to clear the Olympic trials height of six feet. She went into Bloomington with confidence, predicted to take second in the competition,

expected to progress quickly to Barcelona.

Once again, she shattered expectations, but not in the way she wanted.

There are a lot of things Grace and her dad remember from Nationals. It was hot.

The competitors were quiet, serious. Most of them were in college, wearing Florida University and Texas A&M on their jerseys.

What Grace remembers the most is the starting height - 5’ 7”. Almost a foot higher than the starting height at State.

Grace didn’t place first. She didn’t place second. She didn’t place at all. They could think up a million excuses, but Grace and her dad have settled on the same conclusion.

“It was a bad day,” Tim says. “Maybe things didn’t go how they were supposed to.

Too bad. She’s still a good jumper.” *** The steep, grassy hill behind East from the junior lot to the tennis courts doesn’t look very friendly to Grace. Not after two hours of sprinting, core work, shot putting and jumping in the Kansas heat with an Olympian.

Grace, her family and her coaches aren’t just training for next week’s meet anymore.

They’re not just training her to defend her state title. They’re readying her for Division I jumping. They’re training her to fight for a spot on the team that will wear red, white and blue in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Former Olympian Ed Broxterman is helping her do just that. After contacting the Pickells at the end of the summer, Broxterman has spent two or three hours a week training Grace. He gives her additional workouts to do on her own that focus on strength and endurance. Although Grace describes each session as “grueling,” she believes that harder training will prepare her for college.

To get to a Division I level of competitiveness, Grace is using a combination of basketball training and workouts that Broxterman provides her.

The running and weightlifting that head basketball coach Scott Stein gives her help Grace to gain strength, while training with Broxterman focuses on the technique of each jump.

Grace doesn’t just confine her workouts to the times she schedules with Broxterman.

Despite the glaring heat and humidity of early September, she still enjoys to head out onto the track with a friend to practice jumps.

Each training, recreational or not, has the same goal of preparation. With college applications nearing, Grace knows her top three schools: Kansas State, Kansas University and Arkansas University. The next year will be dedicated to decision making.

The morning of July 1, Grace didn’t want to think about college. She turned her cell phone off. It was the first day that colleges were allowed to personally call Grace. She was afraid to have to pick up the phone and be asked to say, “Yes” or “No” to an offer from a college.

Emails from colleges have been streaming into the inboxes of Grace and East athletic director Sam Brown since her victory at State. Around the nation, colleges ranging from Division III schools like Wichita State to high ranked universities like Alabama and Kansas State want Grace to jump for them.

Grace has been calling on Brown for advice ever since he became the new director at the end of the last school year. When it comes to which college to choose, he only has one piece of advice.

“At this point, Grace can go wherever she wants,” Brown said. “She’s got the abilities and she’s got the intelligence and the grades.

Now she just needs to choose based on the school, on what she wants to major in, because she’s going to excel wherever she is.”

They believe that Grace can do it, and so does she. Grace doubted herself in Bloomington, but only for a second.

Tim says that every jumper always ends on a failure. Grace doesn’t want to think about limits, or failure. Grace wants to prove him wrong. The bar and mats on the ruddy track behind East aren’t stowed away until she’s had a perfect jump.

Sometimes it takes five jumps, sometimes it takes 50, but eventually, Grace always clears the bar.

SPORTS

ROUND UP

SPORTS | 29

A LOOK

AHEAD SEPTEMBER 10

Girls’ tennis vs. Sion; Notre Dame De Sion 3:30 PM

Q & A with Football Coach Chip Sherman

SEPTEMBER 11

interview with Grace Heitmann

Boys’ soccer vs. Olathe East; SM Soccer Complex 7 PM

What summer training did you do and how do you think the training paid off?

“We spent a lot of time running, lifting weights and doing football drills and things and that got us really prepared for the season. And well, so far, yeah. The one game it showed and now have to, you know, keep getting better all the time.”

SEPTEMBER 12 Girls’ tennis vs. Barstow; East 3:45 PM

How have you incorporated the new players?

“What we’ve done is identified what those kids do well and we have them do it. And I think that’s one of the keys — let everyone do what they’re good at. Not everyone’s good at everything so some people are good at this and some people are good at that. Let them do what they’re good at.”

SEPTEMBER 13 Girls’ golf vs. Lawrence 7:30 AM Varsity Volleyball Triangular; SM 7:30 PM

How far do you think your team will get this year and who do you think will be your biggest competition?

“Oh it’s been just one game. We’re just 1-0, that’s as far as we are. It’s going to be one of those years that’ll be interesting to see how we progress as the season goes on and how much better we’ll get. And that’s hard to say ‘cause there’s a lot of good teams. The Olathe schools are good, this year Shawnee Mission West is good. There will be a lot of good teams.”

Boys’ soccer vs. SM North; SM North 5 PM

SEPTEMBER 14

How is your health?

Football vs. Olathe Northwest; CBAC 7PM

“I’m doing great! I got a scan, a big scan coming here in about 10 days and that’s every so often. The scans look inside of you and look to see if anything’s wrong. But I feel good, I feel good.”

SEPTEMBER 15

What are you looking forward to most this year?

“I’m just enjoying being with the team, I really am. I’ve coached for 34 years and I’ve really, really enjoyed being around these kids.”

Cross Country Baldwin Invitational; Baldwin, KS Golf Course 8 AM photo by Jake Crandall

Summer Training Hours XC

hours a week

6

hours a week

-Daily Runs -Plyometrics -Intervals -Weights

BOYS’ SOCCER

7.5

hours a week

-Kickarounds -Scrimmages -Drills

FOOTBALL

15

hours a week

-Running -Weights -Drills

photo by Marisa Walton

4

VOLLEYBALL

30 | SPORTS

photo illustration by Jake Crandall written by Alex Goldman

S

SONS OF SENIORITY

ixty-eighth minute. Two goals down. The boys’ soccer team is trying to come back against Shawnee Mission Northwest in the first round of 2010 regional playoffs. Senior Clint Dunn, then a sophomore, can feel the fatigue setting in and knows his team’s season is about to reach its conclusion.

Pass after pass, turnover after turnover, the Lancers look like a lifeless team. Something is off; this isn’t the same team that claimed the Sunflower League championship after going undefeated just a couple weeks ago. The pinpoint passing and dominant possession of the ball that the team owned all season has been replaced with lazy long passes and sluggish play.

Finally the whistle blows. The Lancers lose and the high school soccer careers of 17 senior boys have come to an abrupt ending. Some are crying, others still can’t believe they won’t ever don columbia blue and black again.

“You don’t really feel it until the final whistle is blown and it really hits you,” Dunn said. “We knew we were going to lose but then you get hit by the harsh reality when Kelly gives his speech and the hugs start.”

Head coach Jamie Kelly, who is five wins away from the 60 career mark, noticed the Lancers let their guard down way before the Northwest game and believes they just stopped playing as a team.

“With the 2010 team, we played like a team all season,” Kelly said. “Then we played Freestate for the league champions at the end of the season. Then we fell apart and lost to Blue Valley West and Shawnee Mission Northwest. We started playing as individuals and for themselves.”

According to Dunn, the biggest fault of the 17 senior team was the clash of personalities, a fault he doesn’t believe this year’s team with 20 seniors possesses.

“We had a lot strong personalities on that team and when you’re together for 15 hours a week for two and a half months there will be conflicts,” Dunn said. “I think we have a special team this year. We have talent, speed, depth and we have a unique chemistry. We all get along and like to have fun.”

He and the other 19 seniors now are in the chase for redemption after last season’s second round exit at regionals.

Like the 2010 team, the Lancers will be coming into the season with expectations to the ceiling after a 14-4 record last season and a number nine ranking in the state of Kansas according to kansashighschoolsoccer.com.

“I think this will be one of the best years East has ever,” Dunn said. With this many seniors only good things can happen. I like the pressure on us. It’s fun being the team to beat and not being the underdog. We are just going to have to

step up and play to our expectations.”

Senior Matt Terry, who has played with Dunn on varsity for two years, has enjoyed the leadership role that comes along with senior year.

“During the summer we’d run kick-around practices,” Terry said. “Just knowing that the kids are looking up to us, we’d like to set a good example on and off the field. It’s nice being the oldest on the field and having all the experience from your last three years of high school ball.

The Lancers have also started off the season with a new practice regimen. Alternating with distance runs from Indian Hills middle school to 71st and Mission and sprints in practice, Kelly is looking to make sure the team is in top form all season.

“Since I’ve already had a lot of these boys, I don’t have to work on teaching them new things,” Kelly said. “Instead, I can focus on getting them to be quicker and show them different formations we can use. With the expectations so high this season we want to make sure that we are all in our best shape.”

Senior Hank Tamblyn, who will be on his second year of varsity, believes that the seniority and experience gained from last season will even further improve a solid team.

“We’ve already found our roles on the team since last year,” Tamblyn said. “We will be able to get in a groove pretty quick.

With so many seniors there’s also a lot of competition and that really motivates all of us.”

With so many experienced players on this years squad, players like senior Sam Bihuniak will have to sacrifice their playing time for the team’s sake. After playing two seasons on C-Team and last year on JV, the second string left back keeps the selfless team first mentality that his coach preaches.

“I know I probably won’t have much playing time at the beginning of the season,” Bihuniak said. “I’d prefer that I’d have more playing time, but I’ll do whatever is best for the team. A lot of us want to end our careers at East on a high note.

Hopefully we all keep that mind-set through the season.”

The Lancers may have only lost three seniors from last season, but will be faced with the challenge of having to fill current senior Austin Wilcox’s hole he left in the midfield.

Wilcox is now playing with Sporting Kansas City’s Junior team, which restricts their players from playing high school soccer.

Last fall, Kelly, knowing that Wilcox was gaining attention from the Kansas City soccer club, began prepping his midfielders for the preceding year’s responsibility.

“A lot of players were anxious to fill the spot, which is good,” Kelly said. “I changed the formation and chose

In 2010, Lancer soccer was dominated by seniors. With 20 seniors this year, can they live up to their high expectations?

[Andrew] Manalo and Andrew McClanahan to help with the middle. Both players have been working hard and the position is in very good hands.”

Senior Andrew Manalo will become part of Kelly’s new 3-5-2 formation with three center midfielders. Manalo, who played both JV and varsity ball last year, along with junior Andrew McClanahan will be expected to fill the gap Wilcox left behind.

“It’s really different from last year; we will try to clog the middle of the field a lot more,” Manalo said. “The transition has been pretty smooth so far, so we’ll see how it keeps as the season progresses.”

Along with a new look in midfield, the Lancers will be trying new formations and different tactics.

“One great thing about having so many seniors is their familiarity with the formations which allows me to take them to the next level,” Kelly said. “We start working on better counter attacks and different ways to clog the opposing team’s offense. We’ve got a ton of speed on the team and will be looking to exploit it.”

Coach Kelly will also have to decide which senior keeper will get to start for the season. Last fall, Garrett Raibble and GJ Melia split time all season giving the Lancers’ a dynamic duo at goal. Now with Will Cray getting moved up from JV, Kelly will have a trifecta of options in the posts.

Dunn believes that this dilemma between the goalposts will actually benefit the Lancers and help them throughout the season.

“The competition to see who will start has really brought out the best in all of them and they’ve only been getting better,” Dunn said. “It also doesn’t hurt to have reliable backup goalies in case someone gets injured.”

The Lancers will have their top returning scorer, senior Tyler Rathbun who is entering his fourth year on varsity.

“Knowing that this season is my last and that we would be a state contending team, I wanted to make sure that I was in top shape to help my team,” Rathbun, who saw the back of the net 13 times last year, said.

With all the depth, skill and seniority on this year’s Lancer team, Kelly wants all 24 players to keep in mind the last time he had over 15 seniors on the team.

“I remind the team that at some point in the season something isn’t going to go our way,” Kelly said. “We can look back at that and say don’t go individual, don’t do your own thing and just stay together as a team. If you do that you will see the results of it. As long as we stick together and keep focused, we could have a very successful season.”

Spiking Forward

SPORTS | 31

VOLLEYBALL TEAM LOOKS TO REBOUND AFTER FOUR PLAYERS QUIT SINCE NEW COACH’S ARRIVAL

photos by Marisa Walton

“In the years past, we’ve had great coaches here for years, great coaches, but the empasis has been on seniors and varsity only.” -Coach Cooper written by Matt Hanson

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our members of East’s varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams left their respective teams over a disagreement in the direction the team was taking under new head coach Charles Cooper.

Junior Katie Knight quit first on the Friday, Aug. 24, officially citing academic reasons for her resignation. She was followed by sophomore Audrey Danciger the following Monday. After talking with Danciger and Knight, senior Audrey Hitchcock and her freshman sister Lola met with Cooper the next day to discuss the situation. By the time their meeting was over, both Hitchcocks decided to leave the team as well.

According to Audrey Hitchcock, all four girls were dissatisfied with the direction Cooper had decided to take the team and the program in his first year as head coach, one that was distinct from any of the East programs’ previous philosophies. Cooper emphasized selflessness and fundamentals as the key to building a long-term program.

Audrey Hitchcock claims it wasn’t Cooper’s emphasis on team and “sisterhood” that turned her and the other girls away. It was his emphasis on fundamentals that frustrated them.

Hitchcock and the other girls felt that his dedication to teaching his players fundamentals was too excessive and often held the team back.

“He doesn’t care about end result,” Audrey Hitchcock said.

“If you can get a kill, yay, but if you can’t reach high and get a kill, you need to work on [that] for a long time.”

Cooper says he instituted his philosophy as part of the effort he’s making to build a long-term program. As the third East coach in the past four years, he hopes to establish a last-

ing, consistent coaching philosophy with Division-1 style fundamentals serving as its foundation.

“In the years past, we’ve had great coaches here for years, great coaches, but the emphasis has been on seniors and varsity only,” Cooper said. “You can’t build a long-term program [that way]. I’m initiating policies this year of being selfless rather than selfish. Team first rather than individual. My guess is the four people that no longer want to join the program just couldn’t pass the philosophy.”

One of the reasons Cooper has made such drastic changes to the program is because of the inexperience of the players he has had to deal with. He says that many of the players in the program have little experience playing volleyball, especially the underclassmen. To target this problem, he has put an even greater emphasis on teaching fundamentals than he already wanted to.

“I like to keep long-term training the younger kids who don’t really play club ball and teaching them the right way to play,” Cooper said. “They have to learn to read the court rather than just play automatically. I think it’s more of a thinking person’s game than what’s been here for years. There’s a lot of technique involved.”

In the days between Knight’s initial departure and the Hitchcocks’ resignations, rumors ran wild among/amongst the remaining team members that more members of the team would quit, but none of the remaining 42 girls in the program left after the Hitchcocks. Amidst the rampant speculation, Cooper attempted to separate truth from rumor.

“The rumor mill was that all the seniors were quitting, all the varsity was quitting,” Cooper said. “That was totally false.

I was told my junior setter who’s setting right now was quitting, and that was totally false. Nobody else out of the [original] 46 was quitting.”

When he spoke to his players, Cooper tried to keep them focused on their future as a team, not the players who quit.

“Coach Cooper told us that they quit the program, but more importantly that we all need to step up, work together as a team, do our jobs and stay focused,” senior captain Anne Recker said.

Cooper’s players responded just like he hoped they would.

According to Recker, the departures of Knight, Danciger and the Hitchcocks have had a positive effect on the team.

“Since the girls quit, we have definitely come closer as a team,” Recker said. “We have moved on and are now focused on our goal, to get past sub-state.”

Two days after the Hitchcocks quit, East played two matches against Olathe North and Blue Valley Northwest.

Varsity impressed Cooper and Principal Dr. Karl Krawitz with a particularly strong showing against a strong BVNW squad, losing in the third and final game 25-23. Recker says that although the team had difficulty with Cooper’s coaching approach early on, their first matches are indicative of the progress they’re making.

“Coach Cooper’s style and philosophy is very different for most of us,” she said. “At first, everyone struggled to figure out just what he wanted, but as the season progresses we are understanding it better. After our first matches we could see the payoff of his coaching, and I’m sure we will just get stronger as the season goes on.”

32| PHOTO STORY

Left: Ehly pours batter into a cup cake tin. “I am the baker,” Ehly said. “Helen is the better cook.”

“I am the savory and she is the sweet,” interjected Petrow. photo by Jake Crandall

Far Left: After cooking a fruit crumble with peaches, blackberries and bluberries, Ehly and Petrow update their food blog (www. yellowbrickoven. wordpress.com), as part of a project they started last summer. photo by Jake Crandall

NO PLACE LIKE THE KITCHEN Seniors Helen Petrow and Rae Ehly take their love of cooking to the world wide web with their blog at yellowbrickoven.wordpress.com

Above: Before the cupcakes are cooled, Ehly tastes them. “We find our recipes on other blogs or books but then make them our own,” Ehly said. “We will add more sugar or a different spice.” photo by Jake Crandall

Left: The two friends joke around in the kitchen. “We have been cooking together for about a year but we have been friends much longer” Petrow said. photo by Jake Crandall