Issue 11

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208 ISSUE 11

the photo

ie

by Ann n io t a illustr

E n I o i t a F r e n L e g E

S e

Savag

INSIDE:

EAST ALUMS START BUSINESS page 7

BEST NETFLIX DOCUMENTARIES page 21

ROYALS AND SPORTING KC PREVIEW

page 28-29

7 es 16-1 g a p n yo r stor e n r e W a auline terize en by P

charac ization has o t e m pular r it points ve co o a p h r s i e e e h Selfi , and t bout wheth ence n o i t a r a d n gene cussio or self-confi s i d a led to volvement -in to self

writt

As our generation relies on the internet more and more, it is important to utilize this resource, but also be cautious

2 editorial

W

e’ve all heard it a million times — “don’t trust the Internet.” Our doctors remind us after we Google our symptoms, our parents warn us before we accept a friend request on Facebook and our teachers reprimand us when we use Wikipedia as a source for our research paper.

It’s obvious that not everything on the Internet is true. But that doesn’t mean that everything on the Internet is false, either.

The Harbinger believes that this generation should trust the Internet, but within reason.

As long as we are wary, we should take advantage of the Internet as an important resource. We have access to information about anything and everything literally at our fingertips. We should utilize this abun-

dance of information, but we should also be sure to check our facts and think critically.

For example, there have been one too many instances when a satirical news story has been taken seriously. Earlier this year, after marijuana was legalized in Washington and Colorado, fake articles from various websites claiming large amounts of people had died within the first 24 hours of legalization began to circulate. As outlandish as these claims may seem, many people believed them. This is when thinking critically comes in — when something sounds crazy, it probably is.

Say you’re reading an article that’s a little less out there, maybe you’re researching something on Wikipedia. In this case, it wouldn’t hurt to click on another link and verify what you’ve found. Fact checking on

a second website takes only a few seconds, but could potentially save a lot of trouble down the road when you find out what you thought to be true turned out to be a hoax.

This seems like common sense, but it is the only way to use the Internet effectively.

The Internet was designed to distribute information and make life easier. It’s silly for us to be so worried about misinformation that we don’t take advantage of its benefits. We can use the Internet to look up current events, educate ourselves about candidates and of course, look up pointless facts to prove our friends wrong.

[FALSE]

[TRUE]

Votes For: 10 Votes Against: 1 Absent: 1

HARBINGER STAFF LIST SPRING 2015 CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Morgan Krakow Sophie Tulp

ASSISTANT EDITORS Caroline Kohring Tommy Sherk

HEAD COPY EDITOR Pauline Werner

ART & DESIGN EDITOR Phoebe Aguiar

NEWS SECTION EDITOR Sophie Storbeck

EDITORIAL SECTION EDITOR Will Clough

A&E SECTION EDITORS Audrey Danciger Yashi Wang

CIRCULATION Kylie Schultz

OPINION SECTION EDITOR Audrey Danciger

FEATURES SECTION EDITORS Courtney McClelland Claire Pottenger

SPORTS SECTION EDITOR Will Oakley

SPREAD SECTION EDITORS Aidan Epstein Chloe Stanford

NEWS PAGE DESIGNERS Will Brownlee Ava Backer Ali Lee Chase Tetrick

A&E PAGE DESIGNERS

Sophie Storbeck Kylie Schultz Will Clough Ellie Booton Sophie Tulp Morgan Krakow Caroline Kohring Tommy Sherk Pauline Werner Susannah Mitchell

PHOTO EDITOR Annie Savage

Anna Dierks Abby Walker Ellie Cook Katie Hise

ASSTITANT PHOTO EDITORS

OPINION PAGE DESIGNERS

EDITORIAL BOARD

Ellie Booton Alex Masson Tyler Keys

FEATURES PAGE DESIGNERS Haley Bell Caroline Heitmann Daisy Bolin Celia Hack

SPORTS SECTION EDITORS Teagan Noblit Michael Kraske Ellis Nepstad Caleb Krakow

COPY EDITORS Maddie Hyatt Caroline Heitmann

Hailey Hughes James Wooldridge

Sophie Tulp Morgan Krakow Pauline Werner Tommy Sherk Caroline Kohring Susannah Mitchell Phoebe Aguiar Katharine Swindells Mike Thibodeau Will Oakley Audrey Danciger Julia Poe

ADS MANAGERS Abby Walker Celia Hack

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Morgan Browning Haley Bell Joseph Cline Kaitlyn Stratman

Abby Hans Allison Stockwell Abby Blake Kylie Relihan James Wooldridge Annika Sink Katie Lamar Elizabeth Anderson Annie Lomshek Ava Backer Ali Hickey

ONLINE LIVE BROADCAST EDITORS

STAFF ARTISTS

Mike Thibodeau

Abby Walker Caleb Krakow Annie Lomshek

STAFF WRITERS Elaine Chamberlain Celia Hack Jessica Parker Daniel Rinner Chase Tetrick Ellie Cook Mac Newman Annie Jones Annie Lomshek Jemima Swindells Olivia Favreau Davis Finke

ONLINE EDITORS-INCHIEF

Susannah Mitchell Julia Poe

ONLINE HEAD COPY EDITORS Katharine Swindells Mike Thibodeau

Ellis Nepstad John Foster

ONLINE NEWS SECTION EDITOR Will Clough

ONLINE FEATURES SECTION EDITOR ONLINE SPORTS SECTION EDITORS Michael Kraske Daniel Rinner

ONLINE ARTS EDITOR Sean Overton

ONLINE HOMEGROWN SECTION EDITOR Stella Braly

ONLINE OPINION SECTION EDITOR Celia Hack

ONINE EASTIPEDIA SECTION EDITOR Matthew Kaplan

ONLINE VIDEO EDITOR Matthew Bruyere

ONLINE SOUND EDITOR Leah O’Connor

WEBMASTER Jacob Milgrim

ASSISTANT WEBMASTER Callie McPhail

MULTIMEDIA STAFF Alex Masson Tyler Keys Gabe Snyder Ellis Nepstad Matthew Bruyere Katie Lamar Abby Hans Annika Sink Nick Mantel Jack Griswold

SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Katie Lamar

INTERACTIVE DESIGNERS Haley Bell Caroline Heitmann Mike Thibodeau Nick Mantel Jack Griswold

ONLINE PHOTO EDITORS Callie McPhail Katie Lamar

SME PHOTOS Abby Hans

ANCHOR

Taylor Norden

ADVISER Dow Tate

4 news

FEB. 6, 2015

FEB. 17, 2015

A

FEB. 7, 2015 FEB. 17, 2015

WEEK

PHOTOS

IN

OUR BEST SNAPSHOTS OF LIFE AROUND EAST

FEB. 6, 2015

Junior Hannah Eldred tries to teach young girls how to jump at the Little Lancer Cheer Clinic. “Instead they thought it would be funny to tackle me and put their stinky feet in my face.” Eldred said.

FEB. 7, 2015

Junior Chloe Kerwin works on an assignment for her photography class. “I was researching Ray Metzker.” Kerwin said. I really enjoy the assignment because I love looking at someone else’s perspective of life and what their passion is.”

FEB. 10, 2015

FEB. 10, 2015

The Lancer Dancers unveil their National’s hip hop routine at a varsity boy’s basketball game. “I was excited, nervous but confident we would kill it.” Senior Audrey Phillips said, who is pictured in the center.

FEB. 17, 2015

Senior Gunnar Englund drives the ball to the hoop at the varsity game against Olathe South.

“I got by my man and no one helped so I just took it all the way.” Englund said.

FEB. 17, 2015

Freshman Tyler Cunningham looks at his teammates as he swims the 500 freestyle. Cunningham dropped 15 seconds pushing him into the top 8. “It hurt a lot but my friends, family and coaches really brought me home on the last 100.”

Cunningham said.

news 5

THE RACEbeforeTHE RACE written by Claire Pottenger

As politicians are gearing up for the 2016 election, it is important to know the potential candidates. Even though the majority of students aren’t able to vote, their different stances on education and other issues make a difference

The Republican Party Political History • • •

The Democratic Party

Jeb Bush

Political History

1987 and 1988: first held political office as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce Served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2006 Brother to 43rd President George W. Bush and son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush

•

Stance on Education

According to ontheissues.org, Jeb Bush has made it clear that education reform is a top priority for his potential administration. He is a supporter of Common Core Standards and has openly stated he supports higher education standards in the U.S. He also believes that there is too much standardized testing occurring and there are other ways to measure success.

Age: 62

Political History • •

Hillary Clinton supports Common Core education as well as national standards, national tests and a national curriculum, according to ontheissues.org. She firmly believes in weeding out sub-par teachers and school-based merit pay. She also does not support vouchers for low-income parents because it would take away resources from schools.

Age: 67

Rick Perry Political History

Rick Perry has served four terms as the Texas governor.

In 2012, Perry was a potential candidate for the presidential election.

•

•

Chris Christie

In 2001 Christie was nominated by George W. Bush as the United States Attorney for New Jersey.

In 2009, Christie ran for Governor of New Jersey and won.

Stance on Education

Elected U. S. Senator for Massachusetts in 2012

Warren supports reducing student loans, according to ontheissues.org, and firmly supports more of a focus on public schools and universities. She also supports grants to teach sex education in school.

Age: 65

While Governor of Texas, Perry cut school funding but simultaneously increased graduation rates, according to ontheissues.org. He believes that the budget cuts they made were thoughtful reductions and schools have done well with the resources given.

Age: 64

•

According to ontheissues.org, Christie advocates rewarding teachers that do their job well. He doesn’t support teachers’ unions and believes they do not reward good teachers properly. He also believes that children in failing schools should be allowed to attend better schools nearby.

Age: 64

Elizabeth Warren

Stance on Education

Stance on Education

Political History

Hillary Clinton was a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009 and ran for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination. She later conceded her nomination when it became clear that Barack Obama held the majority of the vote for the Democratic Party.

She was then appointed Secretary of State by Obama and held the position until 2013. She is also the wife of former president Bill Clinton.

•

Stance on Education

Hillary Clinton

Political History • •

Joe Biden

In 1972, Joe Biden became the fifth-youngest U.S. Senator the nation has ever had. He served as a senator until 2009.

Biden ran for president in 1988 and again in 2008 but dropped out of the race.

Several months later, he became Obama’s running mate and became the U.S.’s 47th vice president.

Stance on Education

According to ontheissues.org, Biden supports paying more teachers to have smaller class sizes when children are younger. He also believes that it should be a national standard to have 16 years minimum of education. In addition he believes that more should be demanded from teachers, but teachers must be paid more for that to happen.

Age: 72

6 news

photos by Morgan Browning written by Will Brownlee

A

Visual representation of what the new “Central Square” will look like according to Lane4 Property Group, which is responsible for the re-design.

desolate area of empty parking lots, boarded up windows and broken glass bottles litter the 95th and Metcalf area. This contrasts what the area used to be, which was a bustling hub of retail social life when the Metcalf South Mall was in its prime.

But Lane4, a local property group, plans to revitalize the area to its previous splendor. They want to tear down every existing structure, and fill the 63-acre area from 95th and Metcalf to 93rd and Glenwood with a combination of housing, retail, office space and restaurants. They call this new potential development Central Square. The project is still in its beginning stages, but Lane4 hopes to get approval from the Overland Park City Council on March 16. On Feb. 11, Lane4 held a public meeting outlining their vision for the project.

The president of Lane4, Owen Buckley, led the forum.

“At this stage, the plan is very conceptual and we’ve now introduced it to the city council and the city staff,” Buckley said. “On March 16 we will ask the City Council if this plan has enough wheels to consider a public and private partnership.”

By public and private partnership, Buckley means that the citizens of Overland Park will be involved in paying for the project through tax revenues if the City Council approves the plan next month. According to Buckley, the municipality and Lane4 would both invest in the development with the hope of raising enough money necessary to start construction. The exact amounts at this time haven’t been determined.

English teacher and Overland Park citizen Jeanette Bonjour remembers the days of Metcalf’s past, and is excited that they’re revamping it. Bonjour has fond memories of visiting the mall’s Santa every year as a child, eating at new fast food restaurants and shopping for clothes.

“That was my mall,” Bonjour said.

“It used to be so alive and functioning.”

Metcalf South, which opened in 1967, used to be the equivalent of today’s Oak Park Mall, one of the most popular galerias in the entire metro; a place where adults, teenagers and children all gathered to eat, shop and socialize.

However, in the last 15 years, Metcalf South has deteriorated significantly, with more and more businesses leaving every year. Little remains of the mall Bonjour once held so dear, now just empty storefronts sitting abandoned.

The project has yielded mixed results from Overland Park residents. Some praise the proposed plans and others criticize them, citing tax increases and incompetent construction companies as reasons to oppose. East parent and Overland Park resident Celia Lustig has mixed feelings about Central Square.

“Of course I want to see some-

thing fill those vacant spaces but I’m also not looking for more construction gumming up the works and increasing my taxes,” Lustig said.

Lane4 purchased the property last February. They started surveying the land to see what could and could not be built there based on the environmental factors. They then started brainstorming what would fit into the makeup of the neighborhood and overall community. Lane4 held two board meetings last April to get ideas from Overland Park citizens.

“There was a really unprecedented response from the community on what they’d like to see here,” Buckley said. “The results of that were residential office, retail and entertainment. And that was somewhat typical. We were anticipating a lot of that, but now were figuring out how to lay it out starting with a blank canvas.”

The next step according to Buckley is getting the project approved so they can move forward with the development of Central Square. He emphasized that nothing is set in stone and the plans are still flexible.

“What I really wanna stress right now is this is really complex, it’s hard, it’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s wonderful.” Buckley said. “The sky’s the limit.”

Lane4, with the help of the city of Overland Park, hopes to build a successful housing, retail and entertainment settlement, once again making 95th and Metcalf something to talk about.

“No one enjoys driving past the project today. It’s just not a nice reminder,” Buckley said to conclude the meeting. “Everybody wants to see it developed sooner than later, so we’re asking the city right now if we can move forward.”

Boarded up and closed business off of Metcalf Avenue, soon to be rebuilt

far left

news 7

The worms live and feed in a trough filled with food waste. They then digest the food and their waste creates a rich soil

left

Dunn and Novikov periodically pick up buckets of food waste from customers’ homes for the worms to digest

WASTE into WEALTH

East alumni work to start environmental composting business using worms written by Will Clough

E

photos by James Wooldridge

“ arthy” is how East alumnus Clint Dunn describes the smell. He’s referring to the 8-by-2 foot structure in his basement filled with worm poop. It’s his business. Vermicomposting, as it’s officially called, is a type of composting that uses worms to speed up and improve the process of breaking down food.

The worms turn organic waste — like banana peels or carrot tops — into usable and healthy soil. Dunn and his partner, East alumnus Ivan Novikov, are planning on using these worms to turn waste into wealth.

Worm farming has actually been a dream of Dunn’s since high school. He’s now 20 and is finally the owner of a registered LLC: “Can of Worms Composting.” He got the idea for the farm after reading about one in a scientific magazine.

“I had always been interested in this idea ever since I was a sophomore or junior in high school,” Dunn said. “But I didn’t actually get it started until talking to Ivan over the summer.”

Throughout high school, he tried starting a farm several times, but his plans always fell through due to a lack of time and organization. Then, before Dunn left for Hobart William Smith Colleges last summer, he and Novikov met for lunch. They had known each other since high school and Dunn knew Novikov would be interested in the possibility of doing something serious with the worms. Novikov was immediately hooked. He loved the idea of doing something that was both environmental and profitable.

“About 40 percent of our food gets thrown away,” Novikov said. “And I thought it would be a great idea to make money off of all that food that America throws away.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 13 percent of greenhouse gases are associated with food growth, distribution and waste. Dunn explained that by allowing worms to convert this to healthy soil, plant growth can be improved,

landfills can be reduced and greenhouse gases can be reduced.

He and Novikov want to make this difference themselves.

They decided to begin their first farm in a friend’s garage, but cold weather conditions caused them to relocate to a storage area in Dunn’s basement. The project first began with a lot of research. In order to get the best product, the boys needed to know as much as they could about how the actual process worked.

They soon discovered that there are three main steps involved in vermicomposting: Waste, Worm and Soil. The old food (Waste) is slowly eaten and later excreted (Worm), leaving behind compost (Soil) that is full of nutrients and healthy bacteria. This compost — essentially healthy worm poop — is what will be sold as a final product. Studies from Cornell University have shown that this vermicomposted soil can encourage plant growth, increase water retention and protect against plant disease. While Dunn is away at school, Novikov and Dunn’s family ensure that these three steps are followed.

“It’s pretty simple, we just put any food that we don’t eat into a bucket outside,” Clint’s sister, senior Kendall Dunn said. “The worms will eat pretty much anything that’s organic.”

Once a week, Novikov comes by the Dunns’ house to deposit the collected food waste into the farm. He also makes sure that the temperature stays between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit and waters the top layer of newspaper that covers the compost. The rest is up to the worms.

The boys use a species called Esenia Fetida — better known as Red Wigglers — that prefer to stay at or near the surface.

Hundreds of them crawl upward as the new food waste is deposited into their bin. They eat this food and leave behind casts, which are excrement that are rich in nutrients and very beneficial to plant life. Novikov then collects these casts which will eventually be sold for use in gardens and other plant-friendly environments.

“This spring we are planning to sell to a retail market,” Dunn said. “But in the long run we are looking to sell to farmers and other things like that.”

Dunn and Novikov plan to release their vermicompost soil for the first time at East’s Earth Fair on March 28. Until then, they want to focus on proving the benefits of vermicomposting and improving their product to the best level possible through a series of lab tests and trials. Above all, they want their clients to understand that food waste is not only easy to recycle — it’s sustainable.

BREAKING IT DOWN vermicompost (n): the product of composting method using worms to create a mixture of decomposed vegetable and food waste to use as fertilizer LAYER ONE: the covering a layer of dampened balled-up paper on the surface of the bin mimics the layer of leaves on the forest floors in worms’ natural habitats

LAYER TWO: worm food below the surface, the worms feed on organic food waste including apple cores, coffee grounds, lettuce and carrots

LAYER THREE: the filter once the food waste has been digested, the worms’ waste falls through the bottom of the bin through a filter to be collected

THE FINAL PRODUCT finally, the product is packaged into individual mason jars to be sold as rich soil

art by Pauline Werner

8 news

CONVERTING the

CLUB O

written by Alex Masson photo by Elizabeth Anderson

n Halloween of 2014, nothing scared the members of Meadowbrook Country Club (MCC) more than a letter.

Members were advised that as the golf season came to an end, so would the club.

“Over the last two months, we have seen a steady decline in our membership,” the letter from Jeff Smith of Van-

Trust Real Estate read, “As we evaluate these scenarios, it has become clear this will be MCC’s last season.”

Nearly two months later, plans have been made on what will become of the 136-acre championship golf course that closed in October. Meadowbrook could have opened the tee boxes to the public, like Deer Creek did in late 2010 when the club faced a similar situation, or could have sold some of its property like Homestead Country Club. However, VanTrust Financial has decided to turn the property into a park and a residential area.

The plans include creating an 88-acre park, which would be larger than the 75-acre Loose Park. The Meadowbrook Park would become the second biggest park after Shawnee Mission Park, which

sprawls over 1,000 acres.

According to the column by Steve Rose of the Kansas City Star, it has been estimated that the park will have several miles of walking and jogging trails. The Meadowbrook Park will more than double the 44 acres at Johnson County’s existing Antioch Park. It would be at least eight times longer than the nearby 11acre Franklin Park.

The residential third of the development area will mimic a European style neighborhood, with narrow streets lined with houses, but also have expansive housing areas that would be backed by the park.

Since the plans have only been recently approved, there is no set date for the beginning of construction on either the park or the residential area.

park points joggers

golf team With the closing of Meadowbrook’s golf course, the golf team will be forced to find a new home for their invitational tournament, and to also find a new course to fill out their try-out schedule. Originally, the Shawnee Mission East Invitational was held at Meadowbrook, and featured all of the Shawnee Mission schools, along with a handful of Olathe schools. Now, the tournament will be hosted at Milburn Country Club.

“Well it’s disappointing to lose such a great course,” Senior Lucas Jones said. “We seemed to always play well in tournaments there. But on the up side, we get to play great courses all over town, and our tournament this year is at Milburn which is a great course. We also have a few kids on the team that are members there so we will still have a little home course advantage.”

Because the park going to be built with seven to eight miles of jogging trails, running-oriented sports like cross country and track & field will have a new place to send their runners that isn’t along major streets or through local neighborhoods. However, many varsity runners like sophomore John Arnspiger aren’t impressed with the construction of the new running trails.

“The world is my jogging trail,” said Sophomore John Arnspiger. “I think it would be cool. But not necessary.”

members

One of the appealing selling points about Meadowbrook was the fact that the monthly fees for access to the entire club, including the 18-hole golf course, was only $169 monthly. According to long-time member Joe Cannova, there was also no initial fee. This is significant cheaper than the monthly cost of the nearby Indian Hills Country Club, having $1,500 monthly dues.

“I was actually really disappointed Meadowbrook closed because I went there almost everyday this past summer,” said Sophomore Emma Cannova. “It’s really laid back there and is a great place to golf and swim.

I’m not going to be joining another country club since we recently got a pool in my backyard, but my parents are considering different options for golfing.”

columns 9

All American Girl Patriotism runs in the family opinion by Audrey Danciger photo illustration by Annika Sink

I’m just gonna say it: if you don’t feel even the slightest bit patriotic while watching the Fourth of July scene in “The Sandlot”, you’re probably dead inside.

How could you not be moved by the explosion of hypnotic fireworks that illuminate the field like stadium lights? The boys stop the game to stare in amazement at the sky above them and Ray Charles soulfully croons “America the Beautiful.” It’s hard to express my love for this country in words, but watch this scene and you’ll know exactly how I feel.

I love America.

My heart swells when I hear “The Star-Spangled Banner”, USA is my absolute favorite game-day theme and if I had it my way, we would all be reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance” in the morning just like we did in elementary school.

My love for this country doesn’t stem from my fondness for apple pie or Super Bowl commercials.

My grandfather passed down his undying passion for the U.S. to my father, who passed it down to me like a dominant, genetic trait with no chance of ever being repressed.

My grandfather grew up in the small, eastern European country, Latvia. From a young age, tales of the “wild, wild west” ignited his dream to one day live in America. At 20-years-old, he was working abroad as a

America the Great

sailor on a British ship when World War II broke out.

Russia annexed and exiled nearly half of Latvia’s population, leaving my grandfather devastated without a home or family to return to.

He determined his only option was to make a new life for himself in the U.S. when his ship docked in New York in 1940. However, because he was serving in the British Navy, he couldn’t simply leave the ship.

So he poisoned himself.

With a tin of sardines that had been left in the sun on the deck of the ship for a week he gave himself food poisoning and secured a sure way off the ship and into a New York hospital. His ship had already left the states by the time he had recovered, allowing him to finally obtain his visa.

That’s is where my grandfather’s new life began.

He found a job in New York that put his extensive knowledge of sailing to good use and enrolled in night classes to further his education. Soon he was running his own company and supporting his wife and two children.

My dad told me my grandpa’s story at a young age and each year I live in this country it becomes more and more meaningful. To me, his story epitomizes the American dream and shows exactly why the U.S. is so “fabulous” -- as he always put it -- opportunity.

And I would have to agree.

America doesn’t guarantee greatness, but it guarantees a chance. Each person who enters the U.S. has the opportunity to create, to innovate and to grow. My grandpa was a Latvian immigrant, with no family, no home and no money who still made something of himself. If that doesn’t show that anyone can make it in America, I don’t know what does.

I’ve seen that scene from “Newsroom” where the news anchor explains why America is not the greatest country in the world. I’ve explored the Tumblr page titled “Why America Sucks” and I’ve read countless tweets about gross things that happen #onlyinAmerica.

None of those change the way I feel about this country. Even as an American-born citizen I still feel blessed to have the freedoms that so many countries deny their people. It doesn’t take moving to the U.S. from another country to appreciate freedom of speech or the right to vote. Remembering my grandpa’s journey, I try not to take these things, among others, for granted and am constantly inspired to work just as hard as him.

My love for America runs blood deep and nothing could ever take away what this country did for my grandpa and what it continues to do for me.

Audrey’s top five American favorites

50

states see page 22 for more

In - N - Out Burger

Forget every other fast food chain. You haven’t lived until you’ve had an In-N-Out burger

The 50 States

I love the fact that we have such a solid, even number of states

Saturday Night Live

SNL is one of my favorite American traditions. God bless you, Lorne Michaels

Free Speech

Does this really need any explanation?

Midwestern Hospitality

It’s almost a law here that you have to at least nod at everyone you pass on the street

10 columns

photos by Callie McPhail

LEARNING THEhard way opinion by Haley Bell

Overcoming the fear of falling

to try again. I didn’t want to fall and that meant I wouldn’t let myself jump.

My coaches told me that I needed to learn to fall. That if I didn’t learn, I would never become a better skater.

Without falling, I couldn’t learn new jumps or push myself to get better.

So I had a choice: fall or fail. I thought it would be easy.

“Haley just fall.” I said this to myself thousands of times, each time I set up for a jump. But, as soon as my feet

M

y coach tells me to try a double loop. My legs shake and the voice in my head starts telling me that I’m going to fall. Timidly, I glide backwards on my left foot as I reach my right toepick into the ice. I snap my hips into the jump.

My foot hits the ice again. My head drops. My body crumbles into a pile until I am lying with my back on the ice and looking up at my coach who is giving me pointers.

“Do it again. This time keep your head up. It will help your balance,” she tells me.

Following her instructions, I get up again and try the jump one more time.

I fall. Again.

I’m a figure skater. I started skating in the Carriage Club Ice Show when I was five. I started competing and moving up levels when I was nine, but it wasn’t until I was 14 that I started letting myself fall.

Now, every time I fall, I see it as an accomplishment. But three years ago, I was afraid of falling.

Falling once during a practice meant that I gave up. I was too scared

I WAS EMBARRASSED, AND FRUSTRATED AND DESPERATELY WANTED TO FALL. left the ice, I came back down, looking around the rink to see who saw me chicken out.

I was embarrassed, and frustrated and desperately wanted to fall.

First, I had to learn that falling out of a jump didn’t hurt as much as I thought. Second and most importantly, I had to learn to trust myself.

My coach gave me “falling lessons.”

She would tell me to try a jump that I could already do. The catch was, I had to make myself fall at the end.

I did a waltz jump, the easiest jump I know. When I landed it, I just sat down on the ice. It wasn’t what my coach had in mind, and definitely wasn’t falling.

One day at practice, my friend Lilly got on the ice right behind me for our warm up. She chased me around the ice. Each lap, as she got closer, I started to panic more. I knew what was com-

ing.

Laughing when she caught me, she shoved me over. As I slid across the ice, I realized nothing was broken. I was alive. The sting of hitting the ice went away before I stood up. It didn’t hurt to fall.

The next problem was learning to trust myself. My coaches told me that I had the ability to do the jumps they were teaching me, I just needed to let myself try the jumps, instead of wimping out each time I skated into them.

My coach had me try my axel, a one and a half rotation jump, while wearing a harness, that way she would be able to pull me up before I fell. For the first few months, she would help me with the jump, holding me in the air for long enough to complete my rotations. The more jumps I did wearing the harness, the less she helped.

Finally I was jumping completely on my own, only wearing the harness to help me to trust myself. Then, I took the harness off and jumped in the exact spot where I would with the harness, imagining I was wearing it.

I finally began to land the axel on my own. When I didn’t land it, I’d fall.

And I’d get back up and try again.

I struggled with my fear for a long time, I still do. But I know it’s getting better and all of my “falling practices” are paying off.

My coach once told me that you couldn’t be considered a figure skater until you had fallen out of a jump from mid-air and hit the ice.

During a practice about a year ago, she asked me to try a double flip, even though I had never practiced them before. I was feeling confident that day, and skated to the middle of the ice to try the jump. I jumped. I fell. And I hit the ice. Hard.

I got back up and jumped again.

I fell. But, sitting in the middle of the rink, I realized that I hadn’t thought twice about trying the jump again after my first fall. The fall hadn’t phased me.

Finally, I felt like a skater.

Slowly, I have built trust in myself.

I have learned that falling doesn’t hurt as long as I get back up and try again.

Fall or fail. I decided to fall.

ICE PRINCESS

above

Bell practices for her next routine at Carriage Club, which will be performed to Uptown Funk

Getting a license proves to be a difficult task to overcome

E

very kid awaits their 16th birthday because they can finally have some freedom and be able to drive themselves around. My 16th birthday came and went. No license.

The day after I turned 14 I went to the DMV to take the test and get my permit.

By the fifth question I knew I had failed the test. I had already missed the maximum amount. I expected the test to be all common sense but little did I know it was the complete opposite. The white instructional book I left at home had all the answers in it.

I never opened it -- big regrets.

I handed the lady behind the counter the test and she gave me a fake, soft smile when she told me that I missed 11. I missed too many to be able to retake that day so I walked out of the DMV with my head down.

I realized that I should have studied more and taken the driving test more seriously. I was disappointed but it got even worse when I saw 20 Instagram pictures of people getting their permit with the caption “Watch out, I am on the road!!!”

Fast forward six months. I walked back into the DMV. I was confident I would pass the test -- this time I had actually studied. I just wanted to get it over with.

As I approached the DMV worker she gave me the same fake smile and beckoned me over.

She gave me the thin sheet of white paper with my three digit number on it. I waited the longest 30 minutes of my life before I was called up to the counter.

D

opinion by Teagan Noblit

BUM IN THE ROA PS

columns 11

I walked over the desk, pulled out the all too- familiar blue plastic school chair and took a seat. This time I got the first ten questions right. I was in the groove.

I suddenly gained a lot of confidence and ended up getting a 22 out of 25 — a passing score.

I skipped out of the DMV with my mom rushing behind me. I was so excited I had finally passed at age 14 and a half- six months too late.

I refused to post the classic “Watch out, I am on the road!!!” Instagram so I just texted a few friends thinking it was the biggest deal ever.

A full two years of not driving took me to my 16th birthday.

Three days after my birthday I went to the DMV. I had not studied at all. I still hadn’t learned my lesson. My mom was disappointed in me for not studying because my parents had warned me so many times that I needed to study and I had refused.

I assumed since I had passed before I could easily pass again. Another big mistake.

I missed six the first time-- a failing score. I tried to take the test again. On my second try I missed 10-- another failing score.

About a week later I went over to my grandma’s house and she helped me study. She spent $15 on an online package of around 500 questions from the driving test. She texted me every day reminding me to take a practice test. I followed through on that about three out of the 10 times. I would reassure her that I had practiced. I studied for a whole week and then went to take the test again.

I didn’t pass.

I had one more try before I would have to wait six months to take the test again. I didn’t pass.

My aunt had even given me a car, her gold 2005 Honda Civic. It wasn’t the best car but it was a car at least, if only I could

get behind the wheel. The car sat in the driveway mocking me.

That night, after a sigh of disbelief, my parents decided that I would have to take Driver’s Education.

I was sitting in Driver’s Ed preparing for the eight hours of torture and six hours of driving that were required to pass the class.

I went to the DMV the next day after I completed the required amount of hours. I walked up the lady at the counter with a smirk. I had beat the system. I had avoided passing the test at the DMV and I could drive.

Take that, DMV. Teagan —­1, DMV — 0. For the first time I walked out of the DMV proud. I could drive.

I could finally drive.

On my first day driving I wasted a whole tank of gas driving around the city listening to music way too loud.

It has been a week and I haven’t had any accidents yet.

After five visits to the DMV and five failed tests later, I am officially on the road. Two years later and I finally learned my lesson, to prioritize taking your driving test.

photo illustration by

Haley Bell

12 columns

photos by Ali Hickey

INSIDE SCOOP ON THE COOP

opinion by Anna Dierks

T

Sharing some insight on what it’s like to live with chickens in the suburbs

he death of Nigel was an extremely painful experience. Not only did we all lose an important part of our family, but also a large part of our hearts. Losing chickens is always hard, but Nigel’s death really rocked my family. It was extremely upsetting to hear that my baby had been reduced to a pile of feathers because of one hungry coyote.

Last Mother’s Day when my mom declared she’d rather be given chickens than any diamond necklace or chocolate arrangement, we knew she meant business. By noon that day, my dad, being the dedicated husband he is, managed to buy a Craigslist coop and coaxed me into a trip to purchase our first two chicks.

After the arrival of our new pets, we set out on our Sunday night routine and packed up a picnic for the park.

And hey, why not bring along our chicks. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely that night eating KFC fried chicken and chasing around our not-so-fried chickens.

The inspiration for my family’s chickens stemmed from a trip to my cousins’ farm in Phoenix, Arizona last spring break. Our extended family owns an endless amount of land and is surrounded by neighboring farms, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to own more than 50 chickens. Somehow from that experience, my mom concluded that farm fresh eggs and a fertilized lawn made owning chickens in the middle of Kansas City (emphasis on the city) worthwhile. We proceeded to get the “all clear” regarding the legality of our chickens from the Leawood City handbook.

From then on, my summer mornings consisted of loving on eight little chicks snuggled up together under their warming light. But in a matter of weeks our chicks transformed into large, not-so-cute chickens and the laundry basket that had once swallowed their tiny selves couldn’t contain them any longer.

Now, almost a year later, our new pets have become more than just good conversation starters; they are also active members of our family.

After being moved into their coop, the chickens grew larger in size and even larger in attitude. One chicken in particular, Cleo, had become notorious for pecking her fellow chickens’ eyes out. As a result we were forced to use our second, smaller coop in order to keep her

separate from the rest of the chickens. We referred to it as our chicken prison -- no way were we about to put up with any more chicken murders. By this time my whole family had grown a deep rooted love for our exotic pets, excluding Cleo.

It turns out my family wasn’t the only one infatuated with our chickens. Every friend, neighbor and relative within a ten block radius came over to check out our latest addition. Those first couple of months I was offered at least a dozen rides home in exchange for five minutes with the chickens. I also gained nearly 20 Instagram followers during that time, surely because of my excessive chicken posts.

After a few weeks in the coop, our pets became more acquainted with their coop and also with each other. It was only then, when things were starting to settle down, that we came upon the rooster incident.

It is important to understand that all of our chickens were meant to be female, even Nigel. We made this decision purposefully so that we wouldn’t end up with more baby chicks.

Though we had carefully selected our chickens from the crate labelled “females $2.39,” there’s really no guarantee what sex you’re bringing home. Therefore, I wasn’t shocked when I woke up to the crow of a rooster one morning, in extreme contrast to the mechanical crow that usually blares from my iPhone every morning at 6:15 a.m.

Not sure where that chicken ended up, but by the time I made my way downstairs it had been exiled from our quaint little coop.

After our experiences with dead chickens, combative chickens and male chickens we began to receive eggs at last. They started out small, only about the size of a golf ball. But now our eggs are hauled in by the bucket, larger than those you’d find even at Costco.

Now I wake up every weekend to my brother shrieking “Eggs, mommy, eggs!” and I can’t help but smile. I carefully select the brown-tinted eggs, rather than the stark white, artificial-looking alternative. While scrambling, frying or deviling my day away I can’t help but be reminded of the days when those egg-making machines fit into the palm of my hand. And although pecked toes and feather-littered laundry isn’t my idea of pleasant, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And no, we are not planning to eat the chickens.

The Dierks family estimates that they eat 8-12 eggs per day

JCCC Honors: Dig deeper. Aim higher.

“I was first pulled in by the scholarships, but the Honors Program allowed me to further understand my studies and connect with professors. I also was drawn in by the potential to study abroad.”

Lizzy, JCCC Honors student and De Soto High School graduate Johnson County Community College’s Honors Program stimulates and challenges academically talented students.

An Honors application is required for admission. For more information, call Pat Decker at 913-469-8500, ext. 2512, or visit www.jccc.edu/honors.

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feature 15

SHAPED through the

trings written by Daisy Bolin

photo illustration by Hailey Hughes

Senior Akshay Dinakar’s love for violin and music influences him throughout his life Senior Akshay Dinakar steps out of the shower, throws a towel around his waist and checks his phone. One unread email from Carnegie Hall. Dinakar opens the email and sees an acceptance letter from the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA).

“I went absolutely bonkers,” Dinakar said. “I ran around my house laughing and kind of collapsed on the floor upstairs. I was so overcome with joy.”

But it should’ve been no surprise that he was accepted into NYO-USA. Not only has he been practicing his violin almost every day for 15 years, he was also previously accepted into the program his sophomore year. His experiences from two years ago have made looking forward to this year’s trip much more exciting and rewarding. * * * “I don’t actually have a conscious memory of starting to play violin,” Dinakar said.

He can’t remember this, in the same way people don’t have a conscious memory of learning to walk. From a young age, violin has almost always been a constant in his life. The rhythmic patterns help him to do things like solve math problems and shoot a basketball. Dinakar’s familiarity with his violin and emotional understanding of music allows him to communicate with the audience when he is performing. For example, when Dinakar performed in a fundraising concert for Parkinson’s disease, he says the piece he prepared helped him to communicate hope to the crowd.

Dinakar’s violin coach, Gregory Sandomirsky, says Dinakar is extremely gifted.

“To be a musician and to be the best of the best is very tough,” Sandomirsky said. “Akshay being in this prestigious orchestra speaks of his accomplishments themselves.”

Dinakar’s passion, focus and drive have assisted him in his success of being chosen as one of 40 violin players. Out of thousands of applicants, only 120 students are chosen to represent the U.S. on the annual tour beginning in Carnegie Hall, and this year, continuing through famous halls in China. This year’s trip is about more than just sharing musical gifts — it is also one of the U.S. government’s four pillars to better the diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.

Although language and culture are two large barriers between countries that are so far away, there is one thing that brings everyone together.

“They say that we have 192 nations in the world,” Dinakar said. “But the thing all of them share is music.”

The first time Dinakar was accepted, sophomore year, the orchestra traveled to Russia and the United Kingdom performing sold-out shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg and London.

According to Dinakar, the students were treated with just about the same luxuries the President would be treated with, such as personal trams, photographs when they were seen outside and constant interviews. They were practically famous.

The amount of exploring and growing Dinakar experienced in Russia was enough to inspire him to practice more and even

better prepare for this year’s trip.

Dinakar expects to have more life-changing experiences on the next trip, just like the first time. He got to work with many world class musicians, such as Robert Chen, that taught him essential points like how to stand upright and poised for hours at a time.

Dinakar says the month of practice prior to being in New York as well as the two weeks of prep in New York are well worth the time and effort. There is more to look forward to than just performing for thousands of people.

“It’s an all expenses paid month-long sleepover with 120 best friends,” Dinakar said.

But for Dinakar, the most important part of the whole journey is getting to do what he loves: play music. And through his music and the opportunities that National Youth Orchestra gives him, he is able to make friends from across the country, and bond with them through their shared passion for music.

“I see music as a broad beautiful thing that cannot be limited to one definition,” Dinakar said. “Music acts as a universal language. I think that that is one of the main objectives that the National Youth Orchestra strives to achieve. Strengthening bonds between people through music.”

Akshay over the years

Five years old

17 years old

10 years old

15 years old

EXPRESS

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CLASSROOM

SELFIE

YOUR I

Spread 17

Selfies have come to characterize a generation, and this popularization has led to a discussion about what they mean for those who take and share them written by Pauline Werner

t’s something that Kim Kardashian and Pope Francis have in common. And it’s something most young people have done.

It became a real word 2013, and it’s come to characterize a generation: the selfie.

Selfies have experts transfixed. Their popularization started a cultural conversation among experts and teens alike revolving around what it means for young people to take a selfie and post it online. That conversation is split between whether this generation is self-involved or self-confident, between whether selfies are a negative or positive trend. Yet for better or worse those born since 1995 have earned the nickname the Selfie Generation.

“I think [being called the Selfie Generation] is pretty true,” senior Madison Porter said. “It makes you proud of how you look, and you should be able to flaunt that the way you want.”

A Harbinger Survey of 58 students found that 98 percent of East students have taken a selfie and shared it over social media. Of these, 99 percent have shared selfies over Snapchat or through texting, and 25 percent have posted selfies to Instagram or Facebook.

Dubbing it the Selfie Generation, the U.S. Census reports that those under 21 make up 26 percent of the U.S. population, the largest age group in the country. Pew Research Center found in a survey of 800 teenagers that 91 percent have posted selfies online, a statistic that rose from 79 percent in 2006.

As a researcher, Dr. Elizabeth Losh, Director of the Culture, Art and Technology Program at the University of California, San Diego, is drawn to the selfie because of what she calls their universal nature. “[Selfies are] practiced all across the world,” Losh said. “People in Thailand take selfies, people in South Africa take selfies, and so it’s interesting to see how a particular

practice both has gone global and become varied.”

Varied in the sense that people take selfies for a variety of purposes. Senior Claire Ridgway has 51 selfies on her Instagram, documenting moments where she feels good about something in her appearance.

Junior Hallie Hayes uses them mostly for private communication through Snapchat or texting.

According to Grace Choi, a Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri studying selfies, one way to look at selfies is as a form of narcissism or self-obsession.

“They could be seen as narcissistic, that people just want to show positive traits of themselves so they might edit their photos, use different angles,” Choi said.

Fifty seven percent of East students said that they had edited a selfie to make themselves look better according to a Harbinger poll. But both Porter and Ridgway disagree that this manipulation is self-obsession.

“When someone posts a picture of themselves that they like, I don’t think that’s narcissistic,” Porter said. “I think it’s fine to be confident and comfortable in your own so you can say ‘Hey, I think I look pretty today.”

Dr. Negar Mottahedeh, associate professor of Cultural Studies at Duke University, studies the negative effects that seeing edited selfies online can have on a person’s self-esteem. This negative effect, she says, comes from the ways that a person can manipulate a selfie before it’s posted. “[Selfies] make people see themselves better but at the same time worse,” Hayes said. “Because now you see so many people in the best possible way since they can edit the photos.”

She says tools like cropping and filtering could hurt the self-esteem of someone comparing themselves to an edited image.

However Ridgway chooses to look at taking selfies as a way to feel self confident,

regardless of whether or not it’s seen as narcissistic. Her selfies are designed to show off something she feels good about, whether it’s her eyebrows or her lipstick.

“You hear people all the same saying ‘Oh my God. All she does is take selfies and she thinks she looks so good,’” Ridgway said.

“It’s more an avenue to liking yourself and actually being proud of who you are.”

According to Losh, this is a common argument in defense of selfies’ positive cultural power. Mottahedeh says that this idea of people taking control of the way they are represented online is a significant change from the past. So while mainstream media used to be more dominated by things like newspapers and celebrities, she says selfies have contributed to the general population’s ability to control what they see online. “[With selfies] we have this enormous amount of user-generated content where we get to see a much broader amount of users and content creators contributing to a culture of self-representation,” Losh said.

This culture of self-representation refers to the idea that people are taking command of the media that they view online, producing it and commenting on it. Choi says that this idea of control also applies to the media that’s viewed online. The rise of the selfie, she says, has increased the diversity of the faces that people are exposed to online. This results in images of everyday, diverse people competing with the airbrushed celebrities that can dominate the mainstream media.

“History is usually written around people who are in power, very important figures like presidents and kings,” Mottahedeh said.

“But the selfie really captures that kind of history, people’s history.”

When Ridgway scrolls through her Tumblr and Instagram feed, she says that selfies allow her to experience more diversity. In this way, Losh argues that selfies can serve to open up a person’s world.

“It’s important for people to see people who aren’t just these famous crazy-pretty people who can afford to make themselves look the ideal way,” Ridgway said. “Because they can build their confidence and people can realize that people don’t always look like that.”

In a survey done by AOL and the TODAY Show, 65 percent of teenage girls said seeing their selfies on social media boosts their self-confidence. Forty percent said that social media helps them present their best face to the world.

“I think people finding a way that they can look at themselves through a camera that makes them happy and makes them feel like they want to share it with the world is a great thing,” Ridgway said.

Whether the ‘Selfie Generation’ is the most self-centered or empowered yet is still a debate among experts, but Losh cautions against judging too harshly. She says that society has had anxieties about young people for thousands of years.

“But what I do think is different is this ability to document yourself,” Losh said.

“This ability to do this everyday self-documentation is creating a new group of social practices.”

Social practices that involve self-documentation for the purpose of sharing the image online. The discussion about what these social practices mean for young people is varied, but experts can agree that it’s a significant cultural shift.

“I think the selfies I take make me feel more comfortable with myself and more confident and so I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Porter said. “It’s just a way of self-expression.”

MOST

FAMOUS SELFIES

HOW MANY FAMOUS PEOPLE CAN FIT?

*Photos Courtesy of Instagram and Twitter*

2.4 Million Retweets

FAMOUS KIM FACE 26.5 Million Followers on Instagram

YOU MAY NOW, TAKE A SELFIE This “famous selfie” is actually photoshopped

SME CLASS OF ‘14

679 likes

CAR

COMMON

PLACES TO TAKE A

SELFIE

BATHROOM

GAME

S E O G T S A

E photo illustrations by Katie Lamar & Hailey Hughes

!

L A R VI

EXPRESS

16 Spread

CLASSROOM

SELFIE

YOUR I

Spread 17

Selfies have come to characterize a generation, and this popularization has led to a discussion about what they mean for those who take and share them written by Pauline Werner

t’s something that Kim Kardashian and Pope Francis have in common. And it’s something most young people have done.

It became a real word 2013, and it’s come to characterize a generation: the selfie.

Selfies have experts transfixed. Their popularization started a cultural conversation among experts and teens alike revolving around what it means for young people to take a selfie and post it online. That conversation is split between whether this generation is self-involved or self-confident, between whether selfies are a negative or positive trend. Yet for better or worse those born since 1995 have earned the nickname the Selfie Generation.

“I think [being called the Selfie Generation] is pretty true,” senior Madison Porter said. “It makes you proud of how you look, and you should be able to flaunt that the way you want.”

A Harbinger Survey of 58 students found that 98 percent of East students have taken a selfie and shared it over social media. Of these, 99 percent have shared selfies over Snapchat or through texting, and 25 percent have posted selfies to Instagram or Facebook.

Dubbing it the Selfie Generation, the U.S. Census reports that those under 21 make up 26 percent of the U.S. population, the largest age group in the country. Pew Research Center found in a survey of 800 teenagers that 91 percent have posted selfies online, a statistic that rose from 79 percent in 2006.

As a researcher, Dr. Elizabeth Losh, Director of the Culture, Art and Technology Program at the University of California, San Diego, is drawn to the selfie because of what she calls their universal nature. “[Selfies are] practiced all across the world,” Losh said. “People in Thailand take selfies, people in South Africa take selfies, and so it’s interesting to see how a particular

practice both has gone global and become varied.”

Varied in the sense that people take selfies for a variety of purposes. Senior Claire Ridgway has 51 selfies on her Instagram, documenting moments where she feels good about something in her appearance.

Junior Hallie Hayes uses them mostly for private communication through Snapchat or texting.

According to Grace Choi, a Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri studying selfies, one way to look at selfies is as a form of narcissism or self-obsession.

“They could be seen as narcissistic, that people just want to show positive traits of themselves so they might edit their photos, use different angles,” Choi said.

Fifty seven percent of East students said that they had edited a selfie to make themselves look better according to a Harbinger poll. But both Porter and Ridgway disagree that this manipulation is self-obsession.

“When someone posts a picture of themselves that they like, I don’t think that’s narcissistic,” Porter said. “I think it’s fine to be confident and comfortable in your own so you can say ‘Hey, I think I look pretty today.”

Dr. Negar Mottahedeh, associate professor of Cultural Studies at Duke University, studies the negative effects that seeing edited selfies online can have on a person’s self-esteem. This negative effect, she says, comes from the ways that a person can manipulate a selfie before it’s posted. “[Selfies] make people see themselves better but at the same time worse,” Hayes said. “Because now you see so many people in the best possible way since they can edit the photos.”

She says tools like cropping and filtering could hurt the self-esteem of someone comparing themselves to an edited image.

However Ridgway chooses to look at taking selfies as a way to feel self confident,

regardless of whether or not it’s seen as narcissistic. Her selfies are designed to show off something she feels good about, whether it’s her eyebrows or her lipstick.

“You hear people all the same saying ‘Oh my God. All she does is take selfies and she thinks she looks so good,’” Ridgway said.

“It’s more an avenue to liking yourself and actually being proud of who you are.”

According to Losh, this is a common argument in defense of selfies’ positive cultural power. Mottahedeh says that this idea of people taking control of the way they are represented online is a significant change from the past. So while mainstream media used to be more dominated by things like newspapers and celebrities, she says selfies have contributed to the general population’s ability to control what they see online. “[With selfies] we have this enormous amount of user-generated content where we get to see a much broader amount of users and content creators contributing to a culture of self-representation,” Losh said.

This culture of self-representation refers to the idea that people are taking command of the media that they view online, producing it and commenting on it. Choi says that this idea of control also applies to the media that’s viewed online. The rise of the selfie, she says, has increased the diversity of the faces that people are exposed to online. This results in images of everyday, diverse people competing with the airbrushed celebrities that can dominate the mainstream media.

“History is usually written around people who are in power, very important figures like presidents and kings,” Mottahedeh said.

“But the selfie really captures that kind of history, people’s history.”

When Ridgway scrolls through her Tumblr and Instagram feed, she says that selfies allow her to experience more diversity. In this way, Losh argues that selfies can serve to open up a person’s world.

“It’s important for people to see people who aren’t just these famous crazy-pretty people who can afford to make themselves look the ideal way,” Ridgway said. “Because they can build their confidence and people can realize that people don’t always look like that.”

In a survey done by AOL and the TODAY Show, 65 percent of teenage girls said seeing their selfies on social media boosts their self-confidence. Forty percent said that social media helps them present their best face to the world.

“I think people finding a way that they can look at themselves through a camera that makes them happy and makes them feel like they want to share it with the world is a great thing,” Ridgway said.

Whether the ‘Selfie Generation’ is the most self-centered or empowered yet is still a debate among experts, but Losh cautions against judging too harshly. She says that society has had anxieties about young people for thousands of years.

“But what I do think is different is this ability to document yourself,” Losh said.

“This ability to do this everyday self-documentation is creating a new group of social practices.”

Social practices that involve self-documentation for the purpose of sharing the image online. The discussion about what these social practices mean for young people is varied, but experts can agree that it’s a significant cultural shift.

“I think the selfies I take make me feel more comfortable with myself and more confident and so I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Porter said. “It’s just a way of self-expression.”

MOST

FAMOUS SELFIES

HOW MANY FAMOUS PEOPLE CAN FIT?

*Photos Courtesy of Instagram and Twitter*

2.4 Million Retweets

FAMOUS KIM FACE 26.5 Million Followers on Instagram

YOU MAY NOW, TAKE A SELFIE This “famous selfie” is actually photoshopped

SME CLASS OF ‘14

679 likes

CAR

COMMON

PLACES TO TAKE A

SELFIE

BATHROOM

GAME

S E O G T S A

E photo illustrations by Katie Lamar & Hailey Hughes

!

L A R VI

18 feature

Passing

Down the

Senior Kelsie Bornholtz’s granfather leaves impact on her life’s philosophy

Positive

Senior Kelsie Bornholtz vividly remembers the day her great-grandfather passed away. It was Father’s Day, June of the summer before her freshman year. He lived far away in Iowa, so she had phoned him, as she did every weekend to tell him about her week. His daughter, Bornholtz’s grandmother, had told her he was napping, and to call back later. She’d been busy, the call had slipped her mind and he had passed away that night.

“It was one of those things where you just don’t really believe it happened, you think ‘I’m just going to wake up from this dream and I’m going to call him when I wake up and he’s just going to be there,’” Bornholtz said. “And it doesn’t work that way. I’ve never been so impacted by a loss. My whole family was that way, but I was probably one of the ones hit the hardest by it.”

Bornholtz lives her life like any 17-year-old girl, but her experiences growing up have had a huge impact on the way she sees life today. The influence of her great-grandfather, as well as her parents’ divorce and the responsibility she’s had to take for her siblings, have all changed the way she looks at herself and her future . Because of them, Bornholtz doesn’t believe in limiting herself. She knows what she is capable of.

“Kelsie is a very determined person and I would say she is more academically determined than anything,” Bornholtz’s friend, senior Misha Smith, said. “She is determined to do what she puts her mind to, and if that means she has to be competitive, then she will be.”

Bornholtz was only in kindergarten, and her younger brother and sister just infants, still living in Remsen, a small town in Iowa, when her parents divorced, changing her life forever. Her mother was working to get her degree at the time, so now that there was only one adult in the house, Bornholtz took on a lot of responsibility for her siblings, acting as a kind of “second-mom.”

At 10 years old, Bornholtz had to pick up her brother and sister from a babysitter and walk them home. There she would make their dinner, do their homework with them and put them to bed. Her own bedtime was only 20 minutes later.

“To me divorce was a funny word,” Bornholtz said. “It was just something that we had to deal with. It was just ‘mom and dad don’t live together, and you have to watch your brother and sister on this day because we’re not around.’

But it definitely helped me grow up.”

written by Katharine Swindells

When Bornholtz was in sixth grade, she moved with her mother and siblings to Kansas City, and her mother remarried. Her mother is home a lot more now, taking care of Bornholtz’s 7-month-old half-brother, Keith. Her father still lives in Iowa, with his wife and twin 3-year-old sons.

Although she doesn’t have to look after them, Bornholtz still feels a lot of responsibility to what she calls her “second set” of siblings. Bornholtz says her role in the lives of her brother and sister when they were young still shows today.

Having been such a constant in her siblings’ lives, Bornholtz admits she’s apprehensive about next year, when she will become a freshman at K-State, and hopefully pursue a career in Sports Nutrition. Having spent almost her entire life being the role model of the family, she knows it’ll be her sister Kylie’s turn, and she worries about how they’ll manage without her.

Bornholtz’s personal competitiveness is another thing that makes her nervous for college. Being surrounded by

photos by James Wooldridge

others who also want to go into sports nutrition, Bornholtz knows it’s a tough environment. She wants to be the best, and she knows just how hard she’ll have to work to do that.

Her tendency to want to watch over people, and her desire to succeed, Bornholtz links back not only to her childhood, but also to her great-grandfather. She calls him her grandpa, the same way her father did. As a child, Bornholtz and her family would drive down on weekends to where he lived with her grandmother, in Salix, Iowa, and spend the days swimming in Browns Lake. When she got older and couldn’t always make it, she would still call him each Sunday, a tradition that continued when she moved to Kansas. To Bornholtz, he was her best friend for most of her life, and his life story had a big effect on the way she is today.

“My grandpa taught me to fight for everything I’ve ever wanted, and told me I could get it, so that’s what I’m out to do,” Bornholtz said.

Bornholtz’s great-grandfather was barely a teenager when he immigrated to the United States from Italy with his family. Bornholtz says his stubborn determination came from this, the way he grew up very poor in Iowa. He lived with his wife and three children in a house he built with his hands, never taking anything for granted, living what Bornholtz calls “the typical American dream.”

“And that toughness, that’s something that he just instilled in all of us,” Bornholtz said. “We are a very tough and competitive family, and that’s something we have to thank him for. Because it’s just who we are now.”

After he died, Bornholtz spent the next week in Iowa, with family. Surrounded by so many people, friends and relatives she hadn’t seen in years, she realized how many people her great-grandfather had impacted, how much love was there. He had worked so hard to create a life for himself and his family, and it had all paid off.

And, years later, Bornholtz hasn’t forgotten that. She wants to live her life for herself -- get a tattoo, go skydiving, do anything and everything. And she knows that it’s all about having a goal, even if it changes every day, and working as hard as she can to get there. It’s about having the support of the people she loves, but ultimately knowing that when it comes down to it, she only needs to depend on herself.

“I think that that’s down to the way I was brought up, and how it made me,” Bornholtz said. “I’ve done a lot for only being a senior in high school and I just don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to do more. I’m excited to see what I can do.”

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20 a&e

SPRING

SHOWS

You need some way to fill your time.

What better way to do that than with mindless entertainment?

SORT OF

Follow the flow chart to find the best new show for you

written by Phoebe Aguiar

START HERE

NEW SEASONS OF OLD SHOWS

YES SO

GOT EXTRA TIME?

NO

Do you like trying new things?

NO

Congratulations on being a productive high school student, unless you’re lying to yourself

That’s all I Do

GRACE AND FRANKIE So you love a comedy that you can binge watch in one weekend.

With Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, “Grace and Frankie,” chronicles the story of two women who are enemies until their husbands leave them for each other, forcing Grace and Frankie to reconcile.

From the co-creator of the 90’s hit sitcom, “Friends,” there is already promise for “Grace and Frankie.”

YES

What was your dream job as kid?

EWW! YES Are you a hopeless romantic?

Billionaire Police Officer I’ll die a cat lady

How good are you at binge watching a show?

I have the attention span of a goldfish

For you it might be too soon to try something new, so rejoice, some of the biggest hit shows are returning this spring.

If dragons and gory battles are your style, then HBO’s “Game of Thrones” season five will premier Apr. 12. Early previews and behind-the-scenes features hint at massive production value and a season filled with dragons, death and deception.

Perhaps you want to learn more about our government than you do in your AP gov class and be more entertained. Then the Netflix original, “House of Cards,” is set to premiere its third season on Feb. 27. Maybe Frank Underwood will take over the world, but we’ll have to wait and see.

I don’t play nice with others

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH You enjoy the laughs but not other people so Fox’s new comedy “Last Man” on Earth is the show for you. Everyone on Earth is dead from a virus, there is one survivor who is completely average, and there’s no one to tell him no: it’s a comedy plot that’s hard to ruin. Created by Will Forte, who also stars as Phil Miller, the last man on Earth premieres Mar. 8.

Do you hate people or do they just hate you?

It’s Ok Party

I keep it classy JCrew or Urban Outfitters

I think people like me...maybe?

I don’t conform

What are your weekend plans?

Sit at Home Well, you have no likes or interests. Maybe you should try PBS

BATTLE CREEK It’s hard to go wrong with a cop show, especially when it’s two partners that don’t get along but have to somehow save the day.

While “Battle Creek” has more substance than that, hopefully, most know the basic plot line. Starring Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters, Battle Creek is set to premiere Mar. 1 on CBS.

IZOMBIE

Congrats, you can now use “quirky” as an adjective to describe yourself on your college applications. In the meantime, the new CW show, “Izombie,” is about a medical student who accidentally turns into a zombie and uses the perks of being undead to help solve crimes. A loose adaptation of the comic book series by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, “Izombie” is scheduled to premiere Mar. 17.

Too Weird

THE REAL FLICKS ON

}

Four Netflix documentaries actually worth wasting your time on written by Susannah Mitchell

a&e 21

“MAN ON WIRE” It’s rare to see actual, real-life magic. You would expect tricks or sleight-of-hand, but French wire-walker Philippe Petit is a master of a different form of magic. His magic is the kind that leaves you awe-struck, not because you wonder how he performed a specific trick, but because his talent is amazing in itself. The documentary “Man on Wire,” released in 2008, follows him as he prepares to, and eventually does, walk on a wire between

the Twin Towers in 1974. The film incorporates footage of his planning and re-creates footage of his sneaking into the World Trade Center. The first part of the film is filled with suspense, and I couldn’t help wondering exactly how Petit and his team will be able to pull it all off. They do, but not without complications, and during the climax of the film is when the magic happens.

Although there is no footage of the walk

itself, director James Marsh lifts the viewer into the clouds with Petit through a series of photos and reactions from Petit’s friends and girlfriend. His act is extraordinary, and the way Marsh captures the magic enveloped in wire-walking 1400 feet in the air is beautiful. Petit doesn’t wave a wand or conjure rabbits out of thin air, but his own magic is still amazing.

“JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI” David Gelb’s “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” is a look into what it means to truly master a skill. The documentary follows Jiro Ono, an old man who’s been hailed as the world’s greatest sushi chef. His Tokyo restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, has three Michelin stars, making it one of the world’s best restaurants.

He has also been hailed as the world’s greatest sushi chef. Jiro has been making sushi for over 50 years, making it his life’s passion. In his restaurant, Jiro’s oldest son works with

him.

The film also works to explore Jiro’s relationship with his son, and how his celebrity status and influence have affected his son’s life. Because of Jiro’s fame, no matter how good his son is at making sushi, his son will never be considered as good as his father.

This kind of tragedy drives home the main point of the film: what does it mean to be a master? How does one achieve that status?

The father-son story is accompanied by

beautiful shots of Jiro’s sushi and an extensive look into how each piece of sushi is made. Countless hours go into making rice perfectly sticky, selecting and preparing the most delectable fish and finding the highest-quality ingredients. The film has the best cinematography of any documentary on Netflix, hands down. “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” makes the viewer just as hungry as it makes them fascinated with the art of sushi making and the mastering of a skill.

“HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE” The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s is a crucial piece of American history that is often glossed over. David France’s “How to Survive a Plague,” though, educates the viewer from a standpoint that won’t be found in a history textbook. The documentary follows the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the Treatment Action Group (TAG). At the time, the two organizations fought against the government and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide

more widely-accessible drugs to those suffering from AIDS. Both community-driven organizations fought for their lives, and many were lost along the way due to the disease. In one particularly powerful scene, protesters are shown dumping the ashes of deceased AIDS victims onto the White House lawn in a plea for help.

Millions died before the FDA allowed a protease inhibitor to be released, an antiviral drug that allowed what was formerly a dead-

ly disease to become a manageable, chronic one. From ACT UP and TAG’s beginnings in the mid-1980s to 1996, “How To Survive A Plague” shows how an activist group can go from basement meetings to enacting change across the country, and saving millions of lives. If anything, the documentary shows the value of all lives, gay or straight, and how to change even the most pessimistic of fates.

“THE ARTIST IS PRESENT” In performance artist Marina Abramović’s exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), “The Artist is Present,” she sat down in a chair. She sat, seven hours a day at a table, still, and stared into the eyes of whoever sat across from her. Abramović did this six days a week for three months, forging emotional connections with the thousands of audience members who sat three feet away. Sitting across from her, many began to cry, having been moved beyond words. This raw, human connection is what the documentary “The Artist is Present” is

really about. The documentary gives insight into who Abramović is as an artist, as well as following her as she prepares and presents her 2010 exhibit at MOMA. The film also covers her personal history. Abramović has been called the “grandmother of performance art,” beginning her career in the 1970s. She ended up paving the way for controversial, dangerous art in which the artist performs, or presents, their work to an audience. She began a love affair with German performance artist Ulay, and the two would collaborate throughout the entirety of

their 12-year relationship.

One of the most touching moments of the film is when Ulay comes to sit with her at the exhibit. The two begin to cry, and Abramović reaches across the table to hold his hand.

The pure emotional connection that passes between them is what makes the film so remarkable. It is possible to love anyone, even by simply looking into their eyes, and that is a message that perhaps we can all embrace.

22 a&e “Saturday Night Live” celebrates 40 years of comedy written by Sophie Storbeck artwork by Audrey Danciger

SNL turns The Show “Saturday Night Live” kicked off its 40th anniversary episode with a hilarious rap from Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. During the musical number, they referenced some of SNL’s best moments. It was a great start to the episode, regardless of what Debbie Downer (Rachel Dratch) said.

Most of the new episode was meant to pay respect to previous cast and crew members while remembering some of the show’s best hits. I was fine with that, but it seemed to drag on.

I wanted to see more sketches with the new and old cast members together, but there were hardly any.

SNL almost made up for the lack of new sketches by making the ones they did have longer and more memorable. My favorites were “The Weekend Update” skit which involved Melissa McCarthy as former cast member Chris Farley’s Matt Foley smashing into the Weekend Update desk and destroying it.

The “Celebrity Jeopardy” skit, featuring Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek, was one of the best. The reference to accused sex offender Bill Cosby, played by Kenan Thompson, followed by Trebek’s frantic, “Oh dear God, no. I’m very sorry — we filmed that in June!” made it even better. Another favorite of mine was the revival of “The Californians,” which somehow ended with Bradley Cooper making out with Betty White.

Another weak point of the episode was the musical guests.

Paul McCartney was the first to perform, and by far the best.

That’s not saying much though, since McCartney was followed

by Miley Cyrus. Her voice wasn’t right for the song she chose, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon. Cyrus was okay overall. I just wasn’t entertained by her vocals or performance.

Kanye West followed Cyrus. I honestly don’t remember if he rapped well or not. I was distracted by the fact that he was laying under what looked like a giant tanning bed. He eventually got into a crouching position and was joined by Sia and rapper Vic Mensa. The whole thing was really weird, and I didn’t make the emotional connection I think I was supposed to.

Overall, the anniversary episode did a good job of paying tribute to the previous seasons, but it wasn’t as entertaining as I hoped it would be.

40 The Cast

Andy Samberg

In sixth grade my friends and I would burst into the chorus of Samberg’s “I Threw it on the Ground” whenever we dropped something, which, in hindsight, was incredibly annoying, but I thought it was hilarious at the time. Samberg wrote and starred in the best digitals shorts of SNL like “Laser Cats” and “Lazy Sunday.” He and Adam Sandler made another short for the anniversary special about the actors breaking on camera.

Bill Hader

Hader’s “Weekend Update” character, Stephon, is one of the weirder ones. He’s funny, but I also find it kind of creepy when he covers his nose and mouth with his hands. Hader’s character is also my favorite on “The Californians.” His characters are unique and creative, and never seem to get boring.

The App SNL released a free iOS8 app on Feb. 12 for fans to build up to the anniversary episode. The app comes with SNL-inspired emojis via the emoji keyboard. The emojis can be sent to phones without iOS8 or the app since they send like a picture would.

In addition to the emojis, the app lets users navigate easily through the 40 years by letting them search for clips by season, sketch, character, recurring sketches, cast and talent and impersonations.

It runs smoothly and I can waste my time by browsing through my favorite skits. In order to watch full episodes of SNL though, users need to download the NBC app.

I’d highly suggest getting this app as a fun time-waster or to easily rewatch SNL’s best moments.

Check out these SNL emojis

Cecily Strong

The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party is another one of my favorite Weekend Update characters. Strong manages to act annoying and annoyed with the anchors’ ‘ignorance’ about the news. I also love her skit “Niff and Dana” about two employees who bash on their co-workers to save themselves from getting fired.

“Land Shark”

“More Cowbell”

“Coneheads”

“D@*% in a Box”

EAST AIRLINES UTH ION: SO T A N I T S DE AFRICA

H MARC

East students abandon the cliches of Seagrove and beach resorts in Mexico for more exotic spring break trips written by Jemima Swindells photos by Annie Savage art by Katie Hise

INES L R I A T EAS 13-23

theWorld Around for 10 Days

a&e 23

MARCH 13-23

For a mission trip with her church, sophomore Ellie Mitchell is going to La Romana in the Dominican Republic over spring break. There, she and her group of 18 other high school students will teach English to six through seven-year-olds. When she is not teaching she will be building a second level to the school so the town can allow full-day education for the children, instead of their current standing half-day system. She will be working hard from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, but they do get the afternoons off.

In that free time they will explore the 15th century inspired town of La Romana. There, they will have the opportunity to visit the church, amphitheatre and chocolate museum. They will also get a sense for the local food and culture.

“We get to go to a cool restaurant where we get to do their traditional dance so that will be fun” Mitchell said.

It was around Au gust when seniors Mackenzie Hanna, Sydney Bahr and Jordan Kiehl started planning their spring break. They decided that going to Mexico would be too expensive, and that they didn’t want to go to Seagrove because it was too predictable. The three seniors talked with their parents and they had soon decided to go on a cruise. This spring break, Hanna, Bahr and Kiehl will be going to Belize, Honduras and Mexico with their moms for a week. The cruise ship leaves from New Orleans, so they are all driving down in one car a day early to explore the city. The sevenday trip allows them only about a day in each of their destinations. However the girls aren’t going to let the short amount of time get in the way. They are already planning on going zip lining and snorkeling. They have also booked a private tour guide to show them around the island of Roatan, which is just off the coast of Honduras. Roatan is home to the Carambola Botanical gardens where Hanna, Bahr and Kiehl have the opportunity to take a hike up a small mountain for a view of the whole Island.

South Africa lies 8,800 miles and a 22 hour plane ride from Kansas City; this is where junior Elisabeth Shook is going with her aunt. Shook and her aunt will spend spring break in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Shook’s aunt loves to travel and decided to go to South Africa with her niece for vacation. During their nine-day vacation, they will go on a three-day safari in Cape Town, visit Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and go to the famous Victoria Falls that spread over a mile wide on the border of Zimbabwe. South Africa is known for it’s beaches, mountains and vast, open safaris but also has political history and culture. Located in downtown Johannesburg is the Apartheid Museum, one of the most prestigious museums in South Africa for its focus on South Africa’s former oppressive segregation system.

24 sports

After a season filled with injuries and players quitting, the boys basketball team finds themselves hitting their stride near the end of the regular season. With a 10-7 record, they believe they can come together and make a run in the state tournament.

BASKETBALL 360 GUNNAR ENGLUND SG

LUCAS JONES C

JACK FLINT PG

“I’D SAY IT’S BEEN A PRETTY BUMPY YEAR, WITH WINS AND LOSSES AND ALSO WITH INJURIES. WE HAVE TIMES WHERE WE PLAY GREAT AND TIMES WHERE WE PLAY TERRIBLE. I THINK WE ARE STARTING TO PLAY MORE CONSISTENTLY NOW AND ARE GETTING CLOSER TO BEING THAT GREAT TEAM THAT WE ALL KNOW WE CAN BE.” -GUNNAR ENGLUND

DEFENSE BLOCKS

JONES: 41 REST OF TEAM: 16

STEALS

4.6 PER GAME 78 TOTAL

REBOUNDS DEFENSIVE: 262 PER GAME: 24

95 PER GAME: 5.6

OFFENSIVE:

ZEB VERMILLION PF

STARTING FIVE

JAY GUASTELLO F

“WE SHOULD HAVE A BETTER RECORD THAN RIGHT NOW. WE LOST A COUPLE GAMES WE SHOULD HAVE WON, BUT WE ARE ON A THREE GAME WINNING STREAK AND WE ARE FINALLY STARTING TO STEP UP AND COME TOGETHER.” -LUCAS JONES

(as of February 20)

10-7

FG % 31% 3-POINT

195 POINTS

54% 2-POINT

390 POINTS

FREE THROWS BENCH PRODUCTION

80% ATTEMPTS: 292 MAKES: 193

7 PPG 113 total points RYAN DORNBUSCH SG

photos by Annie Savage, Katie Lamar, Hailey Hughes, Abby Blake and James Wooldridge

W

written by Abby Walker art by Tommy Sherk

As the spring season grows closer, the lacrosse, track and girls’ soccer teams anticipate new coaches and mindsets

A

s spring sports tryouts approach, beginning Mar. 2, athletes have been preparing to exceed their last seasons and improve their performance. Whether they are relying on a gym to get them in shape, after-school conditioning or just tossing a ball around in their backyard, everyone wants to have a successful year. Seniors John Aliber and Sam Pottenger use CrossFit to get them back into lacrosse shape, while senior Kaycee Mayfield goes to track conditioning daily. Here’s a quick look into how some other athletes are getting into shape for the spring season of sports.

SOCCER TRACK LACROSSE

ith this year’s new lacrosse head coach, Will Garret, the players have high expectations as their record last year was 11-6.

“I think with our new head coach we’ll be able to place better than last year,” senior John Aliber said. “He’ll be able to voice his opinions better than [our coach] did last year.”

To get ready for the season ahead as well as for new coaching, some of the athletes are taking a different route to train — CrossFit classes.

CrossFit is an extreme exercise class with workouts used by police academies, military training and some of the fittest athletes in in the world.

CrossFit takes everyday motions and activities and takes them to the max. The classes avoid specialized motions that would be directed at just one group of people. Instead, they individualize the workout to every person that walks in. According to CrossFit, the workouts push every person, without pushing anyone too far.

For some, CrossFit is just a way to stay in shape. But for other athletes, such as Aliber, CrossFit is used to prepare for a sport.

S

everal track athletes agree that going on a run around the block allows them to train anytime they have a free mo-

ment.

“I’ll just run,” junior Maddie Wilson said.

“I’ll try to do some speed things but sometimes I’ll just go on a nice run.”

Alternatively, senior Erik Harken is trying something new to keep in shape.

“I’ve been doing indoor track,” Harken said.

“I’ve been competing at some meets and I’ve gotten some fast times so that’s good.”

Harken is hoping indoor track will prove helpful for the season, even though he has never run indoor track before.

Other athletes are participating in the after-school conditioning specific for Track and Field.

Senior Kaycee Mayfield says that condi-

B

eing able to work well with teammates is essential for any sport. Without it, no goal is made, and no state title achieved. The team bond and cooperation between the players on the East girls soccer team is nothing short of this. And this is what senior varsity player Emma Braasch says is one of the team’s assets.

“We’ve always been really close,” Braasch said. “Everyone works really hard so that makes the team chemistry really cool.”

But great teammate relations don’t guarantee wins and success, especially since many key players graduated last year.

“This year we will all have to step up and make up for the great players we lost,” junior, Elisabeth Shook said. “We definitely have the team to do that.”

To do that, the girls are prepared to work hard for the team. Braasch believes that to do this all of the girls will need to show up to practice and work hard.

sports 25 Aliber has been doing CrossFit training since his freshman year, utilizing the individualized approach.

“It’s less kids and more one-on-one,” Aliber said.

As an alternative to Coach Delaney’s after-school weight program, Aliber meets with about 12 other high school-aged athletes to train.

Senior Sam Pottenger and freshman Milton Braasch have been taking part in CrossFit classes to prepare for lacrosse as well.

“We do a competition lift and a lot of high-intensity workouts,” Braasch said. “No time there is wasted. It’s a great place to get totally ready for any situation you could face in a game.”

The players have high expectations for what they want to accomplish this season and of what they hope to gain from these CrossFit workouts.

“Hopefully I’ll be faster and stronger and just move more athletically,” Pottenger said.

For Braasch in his first season, his first step is to make the highest team he can.

“I want to make varsity and play this year,” Braasch said. “That’s my goal.” tioning contains a lot of working on running form.

As the spring season comes up, Track and Field will likely look different than past years.

With five new head and assistant coaches starting in the 2015 season, the athletes are starting to gear up to impress them this next season. The new coaches include a new pole vault coach, javelin coach, an assistant distance coach, an assistant sprint coach and an assistant hurdle coach.

“They’re doing pretty well,” Harken said.

Last year’s new district head coach, Emily Nackley, changed the program as well. Her practices were different than what the athletes were used to.

“She definitely changed the program for the better,” Mayfield said.

While Braasch is still playing on the girls’ varsity basketball team, head coach Jamie Kelly’s conditioning has started for the girls.

About 10 to 20 girls show up daily.

At conditioning, the workouts consist of a lot of running and various drills such as passing, shooting, and scrimmaging .

Some of the girls have been keeping in shape for soccer with soccer. By participating on their club teams, girls keep their skills and familiarity with the sport fresh. Shook is one of those who has been keeping her dexterity with her club team.

“I have club team practice once a week and games over the weekend,” Shook said. “I try to do as much running on my own as I can.”

All of the hard work is an attempt to accomplish winning state, something the team hasn’t done since 2000.

“I really want to win state,” Braasch said. “I think it’d be really cool if we could do that my senior year.”

26 photoessay

Team Games class spends their first unit in the pool playing water polo.

Switching between deep and shallow ends, four teams compete for the champion title.

left Sophomore Phillip Fuson passes the ball to a teammate.

“Water polo’s always fun, even when you’re really little like me,” Fuson said. “It’s pretty competitive, but we still keep it fun.”

bottom left

photo by Annie Lomshek

photo by James Wooldridge

Senior Drew Terry shields the ball from his opponent. “Not only is water polo an intense physical workout,”Terry said.

“It is a strategic game in which only the best game plans will prevail.”

right Coach Ufford watches the class from a chair won the diving board. “We like to expose our students to a variety of activities,” Ufford said. “It provides each student the opportunity to get out of the classroom, get moving, and have fun in the process.”

bottom right Junior Sara Nestler reaches to steal the ball. “I was reluctant to take team games because of how many boys there are, but I actually really like it,” Nestler said. “It’s awkward because I’m one of four girls and the guys take it very seriously. I’m scared sometimes because I don’t want to get dunked by them.” photo by James Wooldridge

photo by Annika Sink

photo by Hailey Hughes

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28 sports

Rebuilt in Blue written by Mike Thibodeau

After their season went downhill in August last year, Sporting’s rebuilt as they prepare for their 2015 season

A

urelien Collin and C.J. Sapong are out. Roger Espinoza is back in. It’s been a busy offseason for Sporting Kansas City as they prepare their move to the Western Conference. With the opening night only two weeks away, Sporting is preparing for a turnaround after last year’s implosion in August.

After a season devastated by injuries, World Cup exhaustion and lack of depth in key places, the then-defending MLS Cup Champs watched their cracked season finally crumble in October in their first playoff game. A header from New York Red Bull’s star Bradley Wright-Phillips in the 89th minute put the Red Bulls up 2-1,

and put a cap on Sporting’s season.

Since that night, Sporting has signed seven new players, including former Wizards draftee Roger Espinoza. They’ve dumped eight old ones, including two fan favorites Collin and Sapong. And with the addition of two new MLS clubs, they’ve been moved to the Western Conference. That’s going to mean new starters, possibly a new formation and new rivalries coming in March.

Sporting’s lost some of their main guys and they’re going into the tougher Western Conference, but I believe Sporting is going to come back stronger and tougher than they ended last season, and here are three big reasons why:

Krizstian Nemeth

Rest

Dom Dwyer

Last year, we had the second best striker in the league with Dom Dwyer. Over the offseason, we brought in someone who might be even more dangerous. Krisztian Nemeth, a former Liverpool Under-21 team star and Hungarian national team member, he could be one of the most dangerous pickups in the MLS. The kid’s only 25 and he’s already had experience at a number of top-tier European clubs and for the Hungarian senior national team.

With a guy like Nemeth up alongside Dwyer, our attacking presence will definitely be bolstered. With the addition of Nemeth, it also opens up the possibility for Vermes to try some new formations.

A combination of playing from March to December in 2013, the World Cup using two of our best players and then international competition, our players tanked in the second half of the season. Up until August, we were neck and neck with Seattle and L.A. for the best record of the season. After August, we fell to fifth in the Eastern Conference where we barely snuck into a first round playoff exit.

Exhaustion and a crazy amount of injuries left us without any depth in key positions and forced us to put in players who weren’t ready to start.

But that early playoff exit might be a key to success this season. Sporting will get key players back like defenders Ike Opara and Chance Myers back from injury to shore up strengthen our back line. Designated players Matt Besler and Graham Zusi won’t come back from the World Cup in the middle of the season again, a break that left both players exhausted and nearly led to a broken foot for Zusi.

Without all of the matches and injuries this year, Sporting can focus on another MLS Cup run.

Dom Dwyer put away 23 goals in 35 matches last year. Throughout the season, even after Sporting fell off, he was able to find the back of the net. This year, with Sporting able to put their defensive back line back together, with their strong additions to their midfield core and with their new additions to the front line, expect Dwyer to have an even better year.

With Sporting’s defense returning to their former glory, the team won’t have to spend as much time scrambling to defend their goal and they’ll be on the attack more. With the return of Roger Espinoza, a combination of him, Benny Feilhaber and Zusi will set up dangerous plays for the striker.

And with the addition of forwards Bernardo Anor and Nemeth, Sporting will be able to stretch opposing defenses much better, allowing Dwyer to get into space and slot the ball away.

FOREVER

sports 29 AFTER THEIR ASTONISHING SEASON LAST YEAR, THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS ARE LOOKING TO CONTINUE THEIR SUCCESS INTO THE NEXT SEASON

ROYAL

written by Ellis Nepstad

L

ast year, the Kansas City Royals accomplished many unthinkable tasks, even by their fans’ standards. They broke their 29 season streak of not making the playoffs. They managed to slip into the Wild Card playoff game, and come back to defeat the Oakland A’s 9-8. With eight wins in a row, they broke the previous league record of seven consecutive playoff victories, sweeping the Oakland A’s, the Los Angeles Angels and the Baltimore Orioles. And they made it all the way to the World Series, only to come up one game short of being champions. Now that spring training has started, the Royals have many high expectations and fans waiting for them in Kansas City.

After the season ended, the Royals made trading actions in the offseason that upset many fans. The Royals said goodbye to three key post-season players: Nori Aoki, James Shields and Billy ‘Country Breakfast’ Butler. Each left for different teams during the postseason. Aoki was an outfielder, who batted in the beginning of the line up.

Shields was the big pitcher and Country Breakfast was the designated hitter.

“I think we should have spent all of our money [to keep] James Shields,” freshman fan Jonah Watt said, “He was our best pitcher.”

Many fans were upset to see the three players leave, but understood that money was the issue.

“I was sad to see them go,” math teacher and avid Royals fan Patricia Kennedy said, “But they just wanted too much money and they weren’t worth what they were getting.”

Since the three left, the Royals had to add players to fill the roles of those who left. They picked up pitcher Edinson Volquez from Pittsburgh, designated hitter Kendrys Morales from Minnesota and outfielder Alex Rios from Texas.

With spring training starting, many fans including Kennedy are heading down to Surprise, Arizona, to get a glimpse of what this year’s team will look like. Spring training is the baseball equivalent to pre-season for football, but it lasts longer.

According to many Lancer fans, including junior

Andrew Stottle, the atmosphere at spring training is more relaxed, and not the same as a regular season game at the K. “Spring training is not like a normal MLB baseball game,” Stottle said. “The weather is really nice, and the players are more interactive with the fans. You get a lot of balls and autographs and stuff like that.”

Prior to the start of spring training, Sports Illustrated ranked each of the thirty MLB teams. The Washington Nationals landed at the top, and the Royals were voted 19th. However, rankings can change, and games won’t start to matter until the season starts. Spring training ends on April 4. After that is when games start to count.

On April 6, the royals will kick off their season against the Chicago White Sox out at Kauffman Stadium.

Last year, the Royals finished in a close second in the American League Central, behind the Detroit Tigers. Currently, the Tigers are ranked 7th by Sports Illustrated. The past four seasons, Detroit has ended up at the top of the division.

“Detroit is going to be really good,” Stottle said. “But I think it will just be a two-horse race in the AL Central.”

As well as the Royals did last year, many people doubt that they will return to the World Series, and the trading they did in the offseason will come back and hurt them.

“I think our offensive looks good,” Watt said. “But I don’t think we will do as good as we did last year, without Shields.”

Royals started their spring training last Thursday, Feb. 19. Now with the regular season coming up, the fans are waiting for the start.

Big Name Pickups Kendrys Morales Pitcher Last Played for the Pittsburgh Pirates 31-years-old

Edinson Volquez

Designated Hitter Last played for the Minnesota Twins 33-years-old

30 sports

pictured left

Pat Foley, a Kansas City Blues professional rugby player, has become head coach of the East’s rugby team

PROS at PRACTICE T

he Lancer rugby team circles up and shifts side to side.

“Alligator alligator tooth like a saw Ruck me ruck me Rah rah rah!”

The group of boys breaks up, lingering smiles shifting into game faces after they scream, getting ready for the game. With each step they take and game they win, they’re working to improve. Under these game faces, there’s a main goal to win state, and perhaps go beyond that.

Last year, their dreams of continuing further on were cut short when they finished third in the state. This year, with Kansas City Blues player Pat Foley taking over as head coach, they’re looking to be better than they ever have. He’s been an assistant coach at East for the past two years.

The Kansas City Blues is Kansas City’s home professional rugby team. Foley is one of their newest players, having joined last year. He played as a back, similar to a wide-receiver in football, for the 11 years he has played rugby. He knows how to coach both the backs and the other main rugby position, forwards, who drive the ball up the field, but lacks expertise in actually playing as a forward.

Foley decided it would only be fair to have someone more experienced at playing forward coaching them. He contacted teammate John Hoover, a respected forward who got his own start in rugby freshman year at East.

“I’ve actually helped in various ways with the Lancers since I graduated high school,” Hoover said. “It’s important to me that we keep the tradition of a rugby team at SME. I only wish that I had more time to help.”

Hoover and another KC Blue teammate, John Knutsen, have been stopping by practices whenever they can make it. They’ve been teaching the rugby players about scrums, a fight for possession, lineouts, which are similar to a jump ball in basketball, rucks ,fighting for the possession with your feet along with kicking and passing techniques. While Hoover concentrates on the more-experienced backs, Knutsen helps teach some of the newer players, who are often forwards.

“They are just both really nice guys that are fun to be around and to be coached by,” senior Jack Anderson said.

“This is my first year playing. I have so much to learn personally from all of the coaches so whatever advice they have I will take it because it will only make me better.”

Hoover has been playing rugby for roughly 14 years. After his senior year at East, he joined the Blues, and has been playing with them ever since. Many of the drills and techniques he runs are practiced by most international teams. He also watches a large amount of professional rugby to stay up-to-date on what other teams are doing.

“They have brought up our confidence immensely,” Anderson said. “Playing with them makes the whole team better, because we start to work as a unit more, and in turn we are able to try and repeat what they have showed us.”

Kansas City Blues players coach East rugby team to increase their chances at a state championship written by Kylie Schultz photo by Hailey Hughes

Senior Devin Price was skeptical about the team’s prospects this season. But with the change in coaching, he’s eagerly looking to the future. Along with bettering their rugby skills, the team is attempting to change their mindset. The coaches have been engraining it into the players’ minds that they’ll be a good team and a contender for a state champion.

Hoover is excited to see the team improve this season, even if the everyday changes seem unnoticeable to the team.

“Every player I have ever seen gets exponentially better their second season,” Hoover said, “So it’s always great to see a freshman out playing because you know by his senior year, he’ll be a major contributor.”

To accomplish their goal of winning state this year, the lancer rugby team is hoping to get the the level of rugby powerhouse schools like Rockhurst and St. Thomas Aquinas, which are both ranked in the top 25 teams in the country.

Foley believes that if the team works hard enough with their new techniques and playing styles, they’ll be fit to go to nationals themselves in years to come.

“Our senior forwards are getting more and more excited, more and more vocal about instilling this new culture on our team,” Foley said. “We’re trying to take it to a completely new level.”

Save the Date

32

photo essay

BROCK’S STEPS FOR THE PERFECT TIE DYE

1

soak clothes in water for 20 minutes

2

lay out shirt and fold into design of choice

3

apply dye depending on style you want

4

leave tied and let dry for 24 hours

5

rinse out dye, wash and wear

photo by James Wooldridge photo by Kate Lamar

Junior Brock Arverson’s passion (if you couldn’t tell by his clothing style) is tie-dying. He uses any sort of clothes from old T-shirts of his own to jeans from the thrift store a block from his house to sweatshirts he finds in the lost and found at work. “I love knowing that all of my stuff is indavidulaized,” Arverson said. “It’s pretty great how you really have to try to make a mistake.” photo by Annie Savage

photo by James Wooldridge

CHOOLS

School, Local and Worldwide News Broken Down written by Tommy Sherk

news 3

Love 146 Benefit Concert Rocks Out For A Cause The annual charity concert put on by Coalition, Love 146, received $1,001.75 in donations on Thursday. Teacher and Coalition sponsor David Muhammed, along with the rest of the Coalition members plan to donate the money to aid sex trafficking prevention through the organization Love 146. Because the concert raised about $150 more than last year’s show, Senior and Coalition Executive Noah Marsh is satisfied.

“It’s been consistent,” Marsh said.

“It looked like a lot of people had fun and enjoyed the bands.”

When the band A Gecko Named Terrence played, avid fan and senior Coalition member Peter Madison felt he had to get on stage to assist the band by playing the cowbell.

“The music took control of me,” Madison said. “It just felt right. It was a rad time.”

In all, there were seven performances, ending with the sophomore band, Snow Day in May. Coalition is planning on hosting the concert again next year.

WHAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING LOOKS LIKE TODAY

20% VS. 80%

for English teacher Kristin Fry. “Mr. Witt told me he saw it on some news channel. I went home that afternoon, went to Barnes and Noble, and pre ordered my own copy,” Fry said.

Fry, being a lover of the first novel, is intrigued by the sequel’s premise and its setting, taking place after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird. The book, which has already become a number one bestseller in pre-sales, is set to be released July 14.

of those trafficked involve sexual exploitation

of those trafficked involve labor If adjusted for inflation, a slave in the American South would’ve cost $40,000 in today’s currency. Love146 reported that a child in their program was formerly sold for $72.

‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ To Resurrect A Sequel Since first published in 1960, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has sold over 30 million copies, has been adapted into an Oscarwinning film and has been incorporated into many high schools’ English curriculums. Now, 55 years later, Lee has decided to release a sequel written decades ago -- To Set a Watchman. However, controversy and confusion has surrounded the 88-year-old author, with speculation over whether or not Lee was fully on board with the decision due to her old age. Yet, the excitement for the new book surpasses the controversy

MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

$40,000

THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION ESTIMATES THAT THERE ARE

20.9 MILLION PEOPLE

ENSLAVED

$72 1850

GLOBALLY

2015

BREAKDOWN OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS BY GENDER

KS To Cut Education Funding In an attempt to alleviate the harsh debt Kansas will be in following the current fiscal year, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has decided to reduce education funding.

Kansascity.com estimates a $600 million dollar deficit for the next year, in turn education cuts will be around $44.5 million. For the Shawnee Mission School District, cuts will be around $1.4 million.

In an interview with The Kansas City Star, Superintendent Jim Hinson believes these cuts will cause a budget strain for the district, as multiple construction projects were

set in motion before the knowledge of the cuts. Senior Ali Dastjerdi believes Brownback’s solution to improve Kansas’ economic standards is flawed.

“That’s like trying to solve an alcoholism problem by taking up cocaine,” Dastjerdi said. “There is overwhelming evidence that education funding both directly and dramatically impacts economic prosperity.”

10%

boys

17%

59%

14%

girls

women

men