The ReMarker | April 2018

The ReMarker newspaper • St. Mark’s School of Texas • Dallas, Texas • Volume 64, Issue 6 • April 13, 2018

REMARKER

Data scraping is a strategy used by tech companies and analytics firms to extract human data from websites to build complex databases. They need your data for profit, research and marketing. And they’ll take what they want — you just won’t know it’s happening.

See story, page 7

• Story CJ Crawford, Sam Goldfarb Additional reporting Zach Landry Photo illustration Kobe Roseman

26 minutes with...

‘

I definitely value the little things in life more and have a more positive outlook on life because of the cancer.

Neal Reddy Page 18

News in brief

For the record

Upper School spring play

The Upper School spring play, Inherit the Wind, will premiere in two weeks, Friday, April 27.

Drama veterans Sammy Sanchez, Niteesh Vemuri and Will Hunt take center stage as the Judge, Bertram Cates and Reverend Brown respectively, bringing the play, which focuses on a fictionalized Scopes “Monkey” Trial, to life in Eamonn Lacey Black Box Theater.

News in brief

Lions lacrosse loses

4 6

Wins

Losses

VARSITY BASEBALL

The varsity lacrosse teams counter record now sits at 2 and 1 after they lost in overtime 10-9 to ESD. Though the game was filled with great performances by both teams and their respective players— including senior Sam Schroeder, who broke two checks down the right alley and stung a shot to the top right corner for a goal — the night ended with ESD storming the field to congratulate their players.

Inside News The manual Life Perspectives Buzz Commentary Sports Back page

2 10 11 16 21 22 25 32

Page 2

Take advantage while you can

W

ow. What a ride. I still remember the time where I broke down and cried uncontrollably when Mr. Baker called my mom to deliver the news that I was finally accepted into this great institution.

While my nine years here at times feel like two seconds, and other times feel like two decades, the school has seen me grow up from a little kid who loved smacking 4A and 4C during recess soccer (shout out 4B Elite), to an upper schooler who outlasts their parents at night because of the balancing act us upper schoolers have to play with work, extracurriculars, and still maintaining some sanity and enjoyment in life.

But at the same time, I’ve done things this year that question whether or not I really have grown up.

Take the second day of school for example. During lunch, there were 20 seniors playing wiffle ball in the quad, playing with the same passion we did nine years ago. Arguing about rules, debating whether or not Nick Malvezzi we were Research safe or editor out, and running so hard down the first baseline that any onlooker would’ve been anticipating at least five pulled hamstrings.

During the second inning, Mr Dini stopped for a bit and took in some of the action on Opening Day. On his way back to his office, Mr. Dini said “Senior year. Oh, what a time.”

And that’s exactly right. What a time. While it’s true first trimester grades do matter, and while college applications are not fun, senior year is a lot better than junior year, especially if you commit to that feeling.

Junior year was awful.

Staying up until 1:30 nearly every night, then coming to school the next day exhausted and sick, falling asleep in class, just to repeat it all again the next day to not only feel unhealthy, but worst of all, not to be happy.

The cycle was endless.

So over the summer, I made a commitment to myself that my senior year was going to be much different, and I was going to enjoy school again.

And starting with the senior retreat in August, I knew we were destined for a great year; turning back the clock to intense games of ultimate frisbee and water slide wiffle ball brought us back to our lower school days.

And like most of the other 89 members of our class, I’m still working close to how hard I did last year. But that didn’t deter me from making a point to engage in our class activities, even when it meant I might be up another hour because I traded getting a head start on homework for some Smash or decided to go rolling houses on school nights.

Senior year can be one of the most fun and relaxing times of your life. So approach it that way.

Reward yourself for all the years of hard work you put in to this school, and enjoy the memories of senior year with your classmates. See events you’ve never seen, get to know people you don’t know as well, and go support your classmates in everything from the athletic field to the robotics tournament.

Whether it’s the last football game, the Christmas Party or the other fun moments that come along with senior year, they won’t come around again.

Take advantage of the fun opportunities when they come around, because, in 12 months time, you’ll wish you would have.

NEWS Owen Berger photo

GETTING TO WORK

Before starting their new cardboard project in the Lower School Architecture Club, fourth graders Andrew Zhang (left), Winston Lin (right) and their classmates get some of their new supplies ready - colored markers, scissors and papers. The club is headed by fourth grade instructor Debra Materre in the 4C room.

News in brief NEW INDUCTIONS IN NATIONAL SPANISH HONORS SOCIETY The National Spanish Honors Society will induct members April 16. Students are eligible for induction during their sophomore year.

Cecil and Ida Green Master Teaching Chair Marsha McFarland, who is the sponsor for the society, said that there is no set number of students that are chosen.

Students are chosen based on their academic prowess and their passion for the Spanish language, according to McFarland.

MODEL UN HOSTED CONFERENCE APRIL 7 The Model UN club hosted a conference April 7 at the school

that will give the opportunity for upper schoolers, as well as middle schoolers, to represent a nation in a mock UN meeting. Students discussed real-world, geo-political issues and formulated solutions.

ROSEMAN RECEIVES UNC MOREHEAD SCHOLARSHIP ReMarker editor Kobe Roseman will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) on a full ride next fall after being one of 60 students in the nation to receive the Morehead-Cain scholarship.

Roseman found out he had been granted a scholarship March 9 after a long four-step process requiring a school nomination, online application and several interviews and a trip to UNC the week before.

The Morehead-Cain scholarship program offers four fully-funded nonacademic programs which Roseman plans to take full advantage of during his summer.

In his first summer experience, Roseman will travel to the Wind River Wilderness in Wyoming to backpack and kayak for 25 days before attending UNC. Former ReMarker editor Philip Smart ‘15 was the most recent scholarship winner to accept the scholarship.

SENIOR NAMED AS AN ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN Senior Harris Wilson was recently named an Academic All-

American by the National Speech and Debate Association. Wilson was one of 500 students chosen for the award out of a pool of more than 141,000 members of the National Speech and Debate Association.

The Academic All-American award recognizes students who display excellence in the academic curriculum as well as success in competitive debate and speech.

SORRELL CHOSEN AS COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER Dr. Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, has been named the commencement speaker for the Class of 2018 by Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini.

Sorrell was introduced to the Upper School community during his

chapel talk earlier in the year.

Sorrell will deliver the address at Commencement Sorrell May 25.

CUM LAUDE INDUCTION TO TAKE PLACE APRIL 25 The Cum Laude induction ceremony this year will take place April 25 during ninth period in the chapel.

The society will induct up to ten percent of juniors, all of whom will be new inductees; it will also induct up to 20 percent of seniors, half of whom will be new inductees.

Inductees have already been chosen by the committee, which met April 2.

­­­­­­— Sid Vattamreddy, Wallace White, Mateo Guevara, Chris Wang, Ishan Gupta, Michael Lukowicz

Say what?

Inside

3

National walkout

Taking a look behind the movement of students walking out of class.

Comments made by students, faculty and staff around campus

‘

Balloons were my favorite toy until I got a Wii. ­— Junior Daniel Mirochna

Around the corner On campus Upper School Band Concert · Where: Decherd Auditorium · When: April 17, 7 p.m. · What: The final Band performance this year.

Second Grade Fine Arts Evening · Where: Amphitheater · When: April 19, 6:30 p.m. · What: The second graders showcase their talents.

4 Tipping

‘

Teaching Marksmen the proper way to tip and the importance of tipping the right way in America.

I was playing baseball with a fork and a pea, and I hit Andres in the face. ­— Sophomore Lincoln Dales

6

West Virginia strike

Recent protests have ignited a debate concerning teachers’ wages.

‘

I don’t keep streaks with guys. ­ — Sophomore Odran Fitzgerald

History of the buildings

Off campus

Dallas PizzaFest · Where: Deep Ellum Art Co · When: April 15, 12 p.m. · What: A festival celebrating pizza.

7

A look at the history of buildings students and faculty walk through every single day.

6th grade Lion Pride Newspaper Meeting

‘

Arby’s. We have the meats... but we don’t have the locations.

— Malcom K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller talking business

Annual Dog Bowl · Where: Cotton Bowl Stadium · When: April 29, 1 p.m. · What: A day of unleashed fun for dogs.

News • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 3

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS SPARK RESPONSE With an April 20 nationwide walkout looming, students and administrators discuss the relevance of the issue on campus.

T

he clock hands move closer to 10 a.m.

April 20.

Some of the class begins to pack up their bags, even though class doesn’t end for another 25 minutes; the other half stays seated.

The teacher’s lesson continues with no signs of stopping, but halfway through third period, students pick up their backpacks and walk out of class.

Seventeen minutes. That’s how long the students stand outside in silence before coming back into class.

Started by a Connecticut student, Lane

Murdock, the National High School Walkout movement is promoting a nationwide school walkout April 20 at 10 a.m. to have a 17-minute moment of silence for the 17 victims of the Marjory Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14. This day was also chosen to commemorate the lives lost in the Columbine shooting in 1999.

Across the nation, students will walk out of class during lectures, quizzes and tests at the risk of disciplinary action against them.

Colleges have sent messages to students informing them that they will not recognize disciplinary infractions by students participating in the walkout.

Despite the national attention this day has drawn, Headmaster David Dini said this school has never witnessed anything like a walkout.

“I’ve been at St. Mark’s for 24 years, and I have never seen anything like that done here,” Dini said.

Dini is aware that sponsoring a movement would give the school a political agenda instead of remaining unbiased.

“We’re mindful of the fact that we’re not a political institution,” Dini said. “We’re an educational institution, so it’s not an environment that is conducive or that we really allow to become a place where political agenda makes its way into our everyday life because people have varying opinions and varying perspectives about how to respond to different issues.”

Like Dini, junior Gabe Bankston believes that sponsoring a walkout would move the school away from its non-partisan stance.

“I think at the end of the day, St. Mark’s has never taken a political stance and has been abstaining from taking a political stance,” Bankston said, “and I think to start it now might be a step away from what we’ve traditionally been and what we want to be.”

Although the school does not promote

a political agenda institutionally, Dini said. “Seeing the mass reaction from stubelieves in allowing students to become indents, it’s pulling in other students. As an volved in discussions about political issues, educator and a believer in young people, for exposure is important to an education. that’s exciting. Out of tragedy, if it prompts “Our goal—our mission—is to focus a generation of young people to engage, on your education and certainly to discuss and it is one of many ways to honor the issues and bring contemporary issues to lives lost.” provide exposure,” Dini said, “and to be That engagement is a pillar of leaderable to discuss in class, bring up issues ship instilled in all Marksmen, and Ashton and really debate, listen and learn from sees it as both an inspiration and an opporother people and to try to gain a sense of tunity for society to thrive. appreciation for perspectives that might be “It’s inspiring to me, and I love the level different from your own.” of engagement,” Ashton said. “Democracy While the community may have varyis only going to continue to be complicated, ing opinions on how to honor the tragic and at times when it is complicated, it is all events and support the nationwide movethe more reason for us to engage together ment, junior Ryan Warner believes we all and address these really complicated things have the same goal in mind. together.”

“No matter what In addition to side you’re on,” Warner administrators, IF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT IT, FIND A WAY TO said, “everyone wants junior Jonah Simon GET INVOLVED IN THAT ISSUE, GET ENGAGED AND the same thing: everyhas found this one wants gun violence CONTRIBUTE TO IT. THAT I SUPPORT 110 PERCENT. movement inspiring, Headmaster David Dini to go away. I think we as it is one of the first have the same goal in nationwide engagethe end, but the way we want to achieve ments by a newer generation in politics. that goal is different for everyone.”

“I think regardless of your stance on the Besides having a political message, issue, it’s really good to see kids out there Dini is also aware of the precedent that expressing their voice,” Simon said. “High supporting a walkout would set. school students especially are protesting in “What do you do next year when mass, which is cool to see. I’ve heard some there’s another issue of significance?” politicians talk about how kids don’t know Dini said. “There’s going to be another anything, and it’s cool, as someone of high walkout because of that topic. If you do it school age, seeing high-schoolers’ voices one time, then you’re doing it other times, being heard in a concrete way.” which is one of the reasons we’re really For Simon and others, safety here at mindful not to indoctrinate anyone into 10600 Preston road is not a concern, and a particular ideology or perspective but the walkout would be more about standing rather to challenge you to think critically with fellow students across the nation. for yourselves.”

“The security here is great,” Simon said, “and I’ve never felt unsafe on campus. I’m Although there have been moments of sinot worried about any sort of gun violence lence on campus before, Dini explains that at this school, but I am in favor of showing these moments of silence are different from solidarity with those who were affected.” a walkout protest.

Dini stresses the importance of school “There was a moment of silence on safety, which has been instilled in the comthe anniversary of 9/11,” Dini said. “For munity through the security team on staff. a number of years, we did that on the Under the leadership of Dale Hackbarth, a anniversaries, and nobody left classrooms. former Dallas Police Department SWAT ofIt was simply a moment on campus to ficer, the security team here has grown with acknowledge the significance of that event, the addition of three retired police officers but it was not an institutional movement. joining the staff in the past two years.

We followed national protocol of what we “I certainly appreciate the value and the should be doing.” feeling of the students across the country Even though the school will not involve who want to take ownership and responsiitself with the movement, Associate Headbility,” Dini said. ”Trying to bring visibility master John Ashton said the movement as a to the importance of safety and security at whole is reflective of an inspiring generaschool, which in my mind is the bottom tion. line: you want to go to school and feel safe “This is an issue that’s important to all while learning, which is why we place such of us, but it’s in your generation,” Ashton a big emphasis on it here.”

Improvements in crisis training

by Christopher Wang irector of Security Dale Hackbarth has wrapped up crises training sessions with faculty, staff and student bodies of Lower and Middle School. Hackbarth will begin training with the Upper School in coming weeks.

The purpose of the training is to keep members of the school community updated and encompasses steps and procedures for what to do during a crisis.

“I felt that it was time for us to do some training,” Hackbarth said. “The purposes for this training is getting all of the faculty and staff up to speed and to get everyone on the same page on how to react during a crisis and follow it up with the students.”

The main goal of Hackbarth’s training is to educate the community so members are confident in what to do during a crisis.

“I’d like to empower everybody so that they know we’re all in this together,” Hackbarth said. “To make this campus safe and secure, everybody needs to be on the same page, and if they see something, say something, and if they say something, do something.”

However, Hackbarth would also like to stress the fact that these hazardous situations are very rare, even though they seem to appear on the news very frequently.

“I’d like to push out the information that these crises instances are really rare,” Hackbarth said. “It just so happens that whenever a shooting happens at a school it stays in the news, and they analyze it from one end to another, making people think that these situations happen often.”

Ultimately, Hackbarth wants to reassure the school community about the importance and safety of a lockdown, as well as how fortunate the school is to have proactive security.

“I really want people to know that the lockdown does work,” Hackbarth said. “By securing the door, locking it and performing a lockdown, the problem will be solved 99 percent of the time. We’re so fortunate for the fact that we have an on-campus security staff and uniformed police officer almost all of the time, and if we ever need more help, it’s just moments away.”

D

• Story Lyle Ochs, Kamal Mamdani Artwork Naftal Mautia

From the roundtable

The ReMarker conducted a roundtable to discuss the issue of school violence. Here are excerpts from conversations with the participants:

I think that when the school considers or not to endorse this action there should be a recognition that it might facilitate some future exploitation.

— junior Gabe Bankston

Whether or not St. Mark’s takes an official stand on it, I don’t think students should be punished for missing school to participate in a protest or rally.

— junior Jonah Simon

There are definitely better ways one could honor and remember the ones who were killed in the shootings. Walking out insinuates that something is wrong with your school specifically.

— sophomore Henry Exall

I would honestly be willing to accept some form of punishment if the school doesn’t officially sanction it like a Saturday detention because it is an issue that is important to me and an issue that is important to a lot of students.

— senior Harris Wilson

The walkout is a protest, and walking out of class would mean that we are indirectly protesting St. Mark’s. The school hasn’t done anything wrong, and the security here is good. I don’t see what a walkout would necessarily accomplish.

— junior Ryan Warner

We are going to have discussions that are going to be uncomfortable.

We are going to have some that not everyone agrees with, but I think the key is being willing to enter into those discussions suspending judgment.

— Upper School Head Patrick Andrén

Andren was not present at the roundtable. His comment is from a separate interview.

The Consensus Upper schoolers were asked whether or not they would support a walkout in some way.

51% • Supports involvement • Against involvement Source: A poll of 87 upper schoolers

Page 4 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • News

LEAVING A LITTLE MORE Tipping

While it doesn’t seem like it makes a big difference, the tip at the end receipt is more important than some think.

T

o a customer, 20 percent can seem like a lot.

Maybe the waiter didn’t smile enough. Maybe the food didn’t come out fast enough or wasn’t good enough. Maybe someone is just having a bad day, and they don’t want to let go of an extra $3.

To a waiter, though, that extra cash may mean more. It isn’t just the obligatory percentage at the bottom of a receipt. It isn’t just a tip people leave, so they don’t feel guilty later. It’s important.

It’s how some waiters make ends meet, and it’s a vital part of their lives.

Throughout shopping centers

and restaurants, most waiters depend on tips to put food on their own tables—and at Neuhaus Cafe, a small bar and restaurant famous for its chocolate desserts, there’s no base salary. A good tip always goes a long way. “[A substantial tip] makes me feel like I’m being appreciated,” a waitress at Neuhaus said, “and also that I’m going to be able to pay my bills. It makes me feel like I’m doing something worth it for people and that I made someone else feel good.”

At Arepa TX, the opposite reaction can be observed for an unexpectedly light tip.

“I feel disappointed if the tip I receive doesn’t reflect the service,” an Arepa waitress said.

“Then I try to find out why or what went wrong. When the

customer’s not happy, I’ll do anything I can to change that around.”

Another person who has felt the stress of working for good tips is senior Daniel Garcia who worked at his uncle’s restaurant, Gabriella’s and Sophia’s located in Meadow Central Market. Garcia believes working for tips is difficult and can be nerve-wracking, but in the end, it’s fair.

“At a job, you have to at least meet a standard or a minimum, like smile with every customer,” Garcia said. “Trust me, I’ve had some really, really bad customers who are really annoying, but you just have to smile over it and restart after every table or shift.”

While working as a waiter, he learned that trying to get a good tip is no different then meeting new people outside of work.

“If you can, there are always times where you connect with the customers,” Garcia continued.

“I actually made some friends waiting tables, and there are nice people because all you have to do is do your job and then talk to them as people.”

Another lesson Garcia learned was simply how to be appealing to customers and earn the tips that made up most of his money earned.

“If you want a good tip,” Garcia said, “it goes back to ‘treat them the way you want to be treated.’ If you want good service, then you should provide them good service, and they’ll appreciate that because you’re not just staying at the baseline but really trying to go above it.”

Garcia is not the only member of the St. Mark’s community to have worked as a waiter. Shortly after graduating from SMU, Headmaster David Dini waited tables at the original Pappadeaux Seafood Restaurant in Houston.

Even though he wasn’t financially independent yet, he earned firsthand experience working in a service-oriented environment.

“It was a great place to work,” Dini said, “and it was a great place to understand the importance of customer service.”

Dini learned early on to always be open to unexpected responses; all customers have unique personalities and circumstances that often contrast with their appearances. Different experiences can also influence them.

“You learn the importance of treating everyone equally and giving your best effort to every person you come in contact with,” Dini said. “The importance of being positive and responsive, and never stereotyping or prejudging anyone—you’d always be surprised.”

Dini learned that the load of all the customers is shared by all the waiters, and everyone has to look out for one another at all times.

“If a meal came up to go to one of your tables and you’re not there to get it,” Dini said, “somebody else is responsible to get it out there.”

To this day, Dini remembers his time as a waiter when he sees someone in the same or a similar situation.

“I always try, to the best of my ability, to pay attention to people who provide service and tip them accordingly because it’s something that affected me personally,” Dini said.

Even though a 20 percent tip is widely accepted, Dini tends to tip much more whenever he is able to.

“If service is good,” Dini said, “I’ll tip substantially more than 20 percent. I consider 20 percent to be a minimum.”

• Story Duncan Kirstein, Michael Lukowicz Photo Duncan Kirstein

Alumni weekend brings back hundreds of former Marksmen DRIVE FOR SHOW Alumni and teachers show off their short game at the anuual kick-off round of golf.

Thursday, April 21 •

Alumni golf tournament at Cowboys Golf Club. Tee-off at 1:15 p.m.

•

Alumni vs. Students quiz bowl at 11:30 a.m. in Graduate Hall

•

Alumni visit classrooms 7th and 8th periods

•

Campus walkabout to visit faculty and classmates

Friday, April 22

SCIENTIFIC WONDER Science instructor Ken Owens dazzles guests with the magic of chemistry.

Saturday, April 23 •

Hard hat tour of Winn Science center at 11:30 a.m.

•

Chemistry show by chemistry instructor Ken Owens at 12 p.m.

Courtesy Alumni and Development offices

GOOD ENOUGH Despite a large bill or party, some choose to leave small or no tips for their servers after a meal.

PERSONAL OBSERVATION

No shoes, no parents, no service.

At the age of 13, junior Duncan Kirstein and his friend discovered that service only comes to those who wait... and promise to tip well.

by Duncan Kirstein

S

hazeb Dayani and I took a seat at a booth in the corner, garnering some odd looks and hushed whispers from waiters around us. We sat there, waiting.

Five minutes. Nothing. Ten minutes. Nada.

I started to get a little angry after 20 minutes without so much as a direct acknowledgement of our presence.

I called over several waiters to ask if we could order, all of whom told us the same thing: “Someone will be right with you.”

A few more minutes passed.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a man walking through the door of the restaurant. This man, however, was the man who always went out of his way to make my family’s dinners the best they could be.

If he saw us coming through the door, he knew exactly what to tell the chefs to prepare, and he would always be so nice to us. I called him over to say hi and to maybe finally get some answers as to why we were being ignored.

“You’ve been sitting here for that long?” was the only response we got.

My friend left to go talk to his fellow waiters. Fingers were pointed and points were made.

“Nobody wants to serve you two,” was all my waiter-friend said upon his return.

There are few places outside of where I grew up that I can call home.

St. Mark’s, where I have spent the better part of a decade feels like home.

Graham’s car, filled to the brim with Trident wrappers and slurpee cups, feels like home.

Weirdest of all, the small Chinese restaurant, one quarter mile south of my old address, feels like home. If I ever was in the mood for some Chinese food, I could just walk south down Midway road. Nov. 14, 2014, Shazeb joined me on this path.

As Shazeb and I started along the path to lo mein and egg foo yung, we discussed the politics of the day. Family Guy was good, but American Dad was objectively better. That’s pretty much as far as politics went.

Eventually, we arrived at our destination: two opaque-glass double doors. Nothing told us whether or not the restuarant was open—the restaurant hours had almost faded away completely from the door. I was sure the restaurant wouldn’t let me down, though, and it would be open.

I swung open the door with the exuberance of a child who was about to eat his favorite meal, and I dragged Shazeb to the “wait here to be seated” sign.

I didn’t know it would be half an hour before someone said anything meaningful to us.

The waiter answered Shazeb and my question when he came back.

“You’re two teenagers with no adults, nobody wants to wait on you only to not be tipped,” my waiter-friend explained.

I was a little heartbroken at what he told me. I never left a tip less than 20 percent, something I learned from my old babysitter, Dinora, one of the most generous people I have ever met.

All the time, she would take me and my brother out to lunch, paying for the meal herself.

No matter where we all went, we would always wait five or ten minutes, then be greeted in Spanish by the waiter.

I didn’t notice the discussions at first. The arguments about who would serve us. Years passed before I noticed the various disgruntled hispanic waiters that would push through their peers to come serve us.

Around the age of six, I asked Dinora why this was.

She answered simply that no one expects a good tip from a Hispanic person, especially when she is a woman alone with two children.

Assumptions followed Dinora wherever she went, but they are why, no matter how bad the service is, Dinora always left a 30 percent tip.

I thought of this as my waiter-friend told me about the conversation he had with his coworkers.

They explained to him that time and time again teenagers expect great service but leave nothing for it in return.

I was surprised and disappointed.

I was disappointed in the waiters for comparing me to those mean kids who took advantage of the people who are just trying to make a living.

I was disappointed in the kids for not tipping people.

I was disappointed in myself because, eventually, I would grow out of this no-tip stereotype and Dinora wouldn’t.

It wasn’t fair for anyone.

It’s because of that day and every other experience I’ve had that, no matter how bad the service is, I always leave at least a 30 percent tip.

News •April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 5 GREEK LIFE Italy trip members (from left to right) Asher Babilla, Benjamin Chen, Charlie Estess, Jimmy Francis, Griffin Goodno, Sky Park, Baxter Perry-Miller, James Thomson, Thomas Whitehurts, Ethan Xavier and Howard Zhang stand on the steps of the ancientGreek Theater at Taormina, Sicily

GOING ACROSS THE POND Middle school trips

Two groups of adventurous middle schoolers spent their spring break traveling far across the world to destinations exploring sites and learned from both ancient and modern cultures. Within the country, they visited the Washingtion D.C area along with other historical American monuments.

T

his past spring break two groups of middle schoolers travelled to Washington D.C. and Italy as part of an attempt to provide more middle schoolers with travel opportunities.

The Italy trip was led by Assistant Head of Middle School Jason Lange, fourth grade instructor Lynn Terman, and photography instructor Scott Hunt.

The group visited many parts of Italy including Sicily, Naples and Rome, linking those locations to several civilizations in history Lange explains.

“We proceeded through history,” Lange said. “We started at a Phoenician-Carthaginian site at Mozia and then to Greek sites at Agrigento and Syracuse and ultimately to some Roman sites in Agrigento and Taormina.”

Lange enjoyed the trip almost as much as the students did. His favorite part was observing the group’s reactions.

“My favorite part of the trip was watching the students’ reaction to certain places,” Lange said. “I clearly remember strolling around the corner in Rome and watching the Pantheon slide into view and hearing a collective gasp from the boys like, ‘Woah! That’s a whole lot bigger than I thought it was.’ For a teacher to experience those moments is priceless.”

Based on the success of the trip. Lange hopes to plan more international trips for the Middle School.

“What I would like to do is a series of trips,” Lange said, “one to Italy, one to Greece, one to China and maybe one to Egypt or Jerusalem. I feel like a Greece

trip is absolutely do-able, and an ancient China trip is do-able as well. I would pick those places because they are also civilizations covered in Humanities five and six.”

Sixth-grader Griffin Goodno describes his experience on the trip and how he would recommend it to his fellow middle schoolers.

“I believe these trips are good,” Goodno said. “I think it opens up the world to middle schoolers and younger children, and they get to see what they have been learning about.”

Lange is proud of how the boys behaved abroad and their attitude towards travel.

“I am incredibly proud of these 12 kids for taking a chance at a young age to go so far from home,” Lange said. “They set the record for the youngest students to travel the farthest during spring break.

Everywhere they went they were incredible ambassadors of the country, the state and the school.”

A group of 25 students also traveled to

Washington, D.C. over spring break. The trip was led by seventh grade humanities instructor Meagan Frazier, sixth grade humanities instructor Cynthia McMahon and History Department Chair David Fisher.

Frazier thought of having a trip for middle schoolers two years ago, but the idea never came to fruition.

“I wanted to take the boys somewhere where they can see what we talk about in humanities,” Frazier said. “When Mr. [Warren] Foxworth was here, we were

working on a trip to Boston, but then the school revised its travel program. We have been working on [the D.C. trip] since last year.”

The group made the most of its time in the nation’s capital, visiting almost every major monument in the area.

“We were really tired because we did everything,” Frazier said, “but I like that because the guys who had been to D.C. before or had not seen this particular side of history in D.C. before, they got to see everything. This was a trip where even if they don’t go back for 20 years, they have seen it all.”

Frazier hopes for there to be more trips like this in the future.

“As teachers it is important to move the classroom outside of the school,” Frazier said. “I hope that we continue to have more of these trips because it was really special for the students and the teachers.

There were certain things that I can’t teach because I’m not an expert in them.”

Lange believes travel to be so much more than a visit or a trip and emphasizes its importance to middle schoolers and all Marksmen alike.

“Travel is inherently educational, regardless of where we go,” Lange said.

“It teaches the boys to be independent, problem solvers, collaborators. It also teaches them some skills they can use as they graduate to the Upper School. If they become competent travelers in Middle School, they can become even more accomplished travelers as Upper School students.”

STANDING TALL Students pictured in front of Temple of Concordia in Agrigento, Sicily.

A CAPITAL PRESENCE Washington D.C group posing in front of the Capitol building.

Pictured are Jack Burdette, Morgan Chow, Shreyan Daulat, Henry Dobbs, Enoch Ellis, Elijah Ellis, Samuel Elluemunoh, Kevin Evans, Nathaniel Fisher, Micheal Gao, Axel Icazbalceta, Abishek Jain, Aadi Khasgiwala, Jedidiah Kim, Oliver Lambert, John Leffel, Samir Mamtani, Zubin Mehta, Hayward Metcalf, Jayden Musco, Stice Neuhoff, Akash Raghunathan, Sampath Rapuri, Miller Trubey and Daniel Uglunts.

Story Mateo Guevara, Sid Vattamreddy Photos Jason Lange, Scott Hunt, Lynn Terman, Meagan Frazier

Twenty-six year-old Worship book to undergo revisions through faculty and student input

by Sid Vattamreddy or the first time since 1992, the school’s longstanding worship book is being revised. A committee comprised of students, faculty and staff are beginning this multi-year revision project, led by Chaplain Stephen Arbogast.

The committee consists of Arbogast, faculty and staff members Scott Gonzalez, Kathy Mallick, Tinsley Silcox, Glenn Stroh and junior Will Hunt, sophomore Aaron Thorne and freshman Rahul Banerjee, students who are all on the Chapel committee.

Arbogast started the project by asking students to send in any prayers or songs that they felt should be considered to be added to the new edition of the book.

“Right now we are doing research,” Arbogast said. “Once we

F

have that list of prayers and songs that we could add, we will test them out and see which ones people like and which ones people do not like and go on from there.”

Although Arbogast leads the committee making these changes, the idea of making the revisions was not his. “[The revisions] were something that had been proposed to the school in the last self study,” Arbogast said.

“When I came, the school had been thinking about them for at least the last ten years.”

The committee hopes to have the new edition of the worship book finished by the 2019-2020 school year.

Arbogast said that he does not expect these changes to be too drastic.

“No one is telling me that they don’t like [the current worship book] or that they want to change it dra-

matically,” Arbogast said. “What I am hearing is the ongoing reflection and changes you would have just because it has been 26 years.”

Arbogast says that the revisions are being made to better reflect the school’s diverse community as it has changed in the last 26 years, while

also maintaining the Christian roots the school has.

“The idea is to have the worship book reflect the more religiously diverse community while also retaining our traditional roots with the Episcopal church and our values as a school,” Arbogast said.

Page 6 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • News

THE PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE Teacher protests

Protests by teachers in West Virginia have raised the issue of educators’ wages. How much is our children’s future worth?

A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY West Virginia’s teachers protest for increased wages at the state capital in Charleston, W. Va. Public schools in all 55 counties of the state shut down for over a week as teachers have gone on strike.

S

tudents in West Virginia walked into class on a Monday morning in late February, fresh off the weekend, to find the swivel chair behind the teacher’s desk empty.

Maybe there’s a sub today.

But the sub wasn’t coming in either.

They were out with the rest of the state’s public school teachers, chanting the words “55 Strong” over and over again, each time a little bit louder.

They don’t get a break. They work second jobs and night shifts just for stability. And now, they can’t keep up anymore.

They’ve been pushed to their limits.

Educators are needed more than ever in today’s society, but the incentives to take up teaching roles are slowly waning away.

In light of the West Virginia teacher’s protests, the issue of teacher wages has come into the spotlight once again.

In some cases, teachers in public schools are forced to take separate jobs to earn a living, a measure rarely taken by members of the faculty here.

Compared to the importance of education for the future generations, Director of Finance and Administration Suzanne Townsend feels the pay for teachers is very undervalued.

“I think they’re too low,” Townsend said. “My husband is a public school teacher, and when you look at society and

you look at the importance of education, I do think it’s undervalued. But, with the public school system, teachers know going into it that they are not going to get paid a ton.”

It’s nothing new that teachers are underpaid, as this is just the first time in while where teachers have left the classroom to fight for better wages. Susan and Patrick Magee Family Master Teaching Chair holder J.T Sutcliffe believes the people with the abilities to teach are taking their skills to higher paying jobs.

“One thing that bothers me is that we’ve had students from St. Mark’s who say, ‘I’d really like to teach, but I can’t afford to bring my family up to where I want with a teachers salary,” Sutcliffe said.

“Many teachers have skills that would earn them significantly more in different markets than they do in the classroom, if all they were doing was looking at the finances, they would be doing something else.”

Sutcliffe believes most teachers are aware of the low wages that come with the teaching profession, as there’s simply not enough money to match every teacher’s salary to a different profession that uses the same skills that are taught in school.

“I’ve been working my entire career to better the education system,” Sutcliffe said, “but it’s very hard when you can’t

get the best people drawn into the classroom. When most teachers figure out on what they’re getting as hourly pay, they see that it’s not a high paying job.”

In addition, teachers are deterred from the profession due to mandatory state testing which limits their freedom to teach, as affirmed by Cecil H. and Ida Green Master Teaching Chair holder Marsha McFarland, who taught at J.J. Pearce High School prior to her time here.

“I think it’s overwhelming what all of the public school teachers have to do with the mandatory state tests they need to prepare their students for,” McFarland said. “It limits the amount of freedom of what you can do in a classroom because you have to teach to the test.”

Paying attention to every single student in the large class sizes of public school is an impossible task, and the small class sizes at school makes teaching here very appealing according to McFarland.

“One of the problems in public school is that you have huge classes,” McFarland said. “Even though you have a class full of wonderful students, trying to grade all of the students and trying to reach out to them is just really exhausting. When I got my rosters at the beginning of the year, I was always excited when I had less than 30 in a class. When you have 30 in a class, it’s still hard to reach everybody in that class.”

According to math instructor Jeffery Hale, another reason teachers here are more likely to stick around longer is due to the consideration the administration takes into the personal requests of teachers.

“If my plate gets too full,” Hale said, “I feel like I could go to the administration and ask them to backtrack a few things be- • ‘The boys want to learn, cause I’m missing out on work hard my own family time, and and have high expectations, St. Mark’s has been very supportive in that which not only for themselves, is amazing. In public but also for the school, whatever you’re faculty.’ tied to, that’s pretty Math instructor Jeffery Hale much it, and I think that is something that is very compelling for me to want to stay.”

Ultimately, Hale believes the quality of the students he teaches is the biggest incentive in staying here.

“The biggest incentive for me, really throughout my entire career,” Hale said, “is that I like to be around great kids that want to work hard and in a school that has high expectations. When the expectations are high, it produces a solid work ethic and a willingness to put great effort. And to me, that’s one of the biggest things I enjoy about St. Mark’s, which is that the boys want to learn, work hard and have high expectation, not only for themselves, but also for the faculty.”

• Story Wallace White, Christopher Wang Photo Courtesy Charleston Gazette-Mail

Five publications win CSPA Crowns

by Ishan Gupta he 2016-2017 publications of The Scientific Marksman, the Marque, the Mini Marque and The ReMarker won Gold Crowns and the Marksmen won a Silver Crown at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) convention in New York City over Spring Break.

As last year’s managing editor and the current editor-in-chief of The Scientific Marksman, senior Cal Rothkrug believes the magazine’s main purpose was not to win awards but rather to publish quality and informative content. At the same time, he believes their first Gold Crown showed recognition to the magazine, and he hopes it attracts more members for the future issues.

“If the guys keep the same discipline, have the same end goal in mind and do what they have to do to get there,” Rothkrug said, “then they’ll keep winning Gold Crowns just like we did this year.”

Current Marque editor-in-chief junior Matthew Coleman believes their goal is also to make the best magazine possible by portraying the Upper School’s literary pieces, artwork and photography.

“Getting a Gold Crown at the end of the year is always icing on the cake,” Coleman said. “I know that

T

Killian [Green ’17] and Josh [Bandopathay ’17] from last year were super psyched about it, but they pretty much knew they had it in the bag. Personally, I will be more excited to find out this year.”

The Mini Marque design editor of last year’s issue freshman Alam Alidina knew the staff was going to be held up to a high standard because of the magazine’s first Gold Crown award the previous year, but they were still excited when they heard about their award this year.

“We really worked hard to train the staff, make sure the staff knew what was going on and knew how to use InDesign and all the other applications we used,” Alidina said.

“I think the advisors were definitely a huge part of that, Ms. [Meagan] Frazier and Ms. [Danielle] Clayton, and the general attitude of the staff was fantastic.”

Current Marksmen editor-in-chief senior Omar Rana is proud of the diligent work last year’s staff put into the book leading up to the yearbook’s ninth consecutive CSPA award.

“We did get silver, which is great, but we feel like we have the process to get a gold,” Rana said. “We’re still really proud and feel fortunate that we’re one of the few schools to get that award.”

In the picture

WILD ART STUFF (WHEN IT GETS HERE)

BRINGING IN DONATIONS The Lower School began its annual Goodwill Drive where they accepted donations to be used by Goodwill. Goodwill is a nonforprofit organization that provides job training and job placement services to people. The organization is made up of thrift stores that use donations to pay for the services they provide. Lower schoolers were out accepting donations throughout the day from April 2-6.

BEHIND THE BUILDINGS The breakdown

News • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 7

Many names grace the buildings on campus at 10600 Preston Rd. But who are the actual people behind these famed buildings?

The Winn Family

Robert K. Hoffman

Ross Perot Jr.

Charles E. Nearburg ’68

Steve Winn ’64 announced that the Winn Family Foundation would be donating $10 million in October 2014. During the next two years, more than 55 other families pledged additional gifts which totaled $32 million. Combined with the Winn’s original gift, the project surpassed its $40 million minimum goal which allowed project approval by the Board of Trustees in April 2017.

The Robert K. Hoffman Center, named after Robert K. Hoffman ’65, was received as a gift donated by Julie and Ken Hersh ’81. The building was named in honor of Hoffman after he passed away. Marguerite Hoffman, widow of Robert Hoffman, donated funds towards the journalism suite located in the Robert K. Hoffman Center. In honor of her husband’s good friend, his wife and their son Daniel Hersh ’13, she named the suite the Hersh Journalism Suite.

The Perot Family Quadrangle was formed using funds from the Sarah and Ross Perot, Jr. ’77 Foundation. This donation was made during The Centennial Challenge Campaign. honors the Perot Family, the southern section of grass located directly in front of Centennial Hall is named in honor of Cecil and Ida Green.

Nearburg Hall’s funds were donated by Charles E Nearburg ’68. He served on the Board of Trustees from 1992 to 2013. Nearburg made sure that the Wood and Metal program would have a new home in the building. Previously scattered in different spots on campus for years, the new Wood and Metal facility includes a workshop, storage space, a computer-aided design computer room and its own air filter system, separate from the rest of the building.

Did you know? Robert Hoffman, Ken

Did you know? The east dining room

Did you know? Nearburg established

Did you know? Melinda and Steven Winn also donated towards the construction of the Winn Family Wrestling Center.

Design Architectural Firm: Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

Hersh and Daniel Hersh were editors of The ReMarker newspaper during their time here.

Recognition: Robert Hoffman served

on the Board of Trustees from 1975-2003, was president of the Board from 1984-1986, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus

Fun fact: While the entire quadrangle

in the Great Hall is named the Perot Dining Room. Sarah and Ross Perot Jr. ’77 donated funds for the room in honor of Perot’s parents Margot and H. Ross Perot.

award in 1992 and was also named a Life Trustee in 2005.

the school’s Facilities Committee, one of the school’s eight standing committees.

Recognition: The Alumni Association awarded Nearburg the Alumni Service Medal in 2005, and the Board of Trustees named him a Life Trustee in 2015.

The Fojtasek Family Named after: Joe Fojtasek, husband of

Jacqueline Fojtasek and father of Russell Fojtasek and Randall Fojtasek ’81, who became a member of the Board of Trustees from 1997-2015 and president of the Board from 2012-2014 and was honored with the Alumni Service Medal.

The McDermott Family The McDermott-Green Math and Science Quadrangle, with laboratories, the science lecture hall, a planetarium and an observatory, was named after both the McDermott family and the Green family in the 1960s. Margaret and Eugene McDermott were friends of Cecil and Ida Green, and together, they funded multiple renovations of the school. In 1989, construction on the new two-story McDermott-Green Science Center began, with new classrooms for Middle School and Upper School. The family funded the Eugene McDermott Headmaster position in 1999, one of the four endowed faculty positions, and also funded the Eugene McDermott Master Teaching Chair in Science in 1985, one of the 15 Endowed Master Teaching Chairs.

Did you know? The McDermott-Green Math/Science Quadrangle only has a science section now because in 2008, when Centennial Hall was constructed, the math section of the quadrangle was destroyed in order to make space for the new building’s math wing.

Recognition: Margaret McDermott was named an Honorary Alumnus in 1983.

The Green Family The Cecil and Ida Green Library was named after Cecil and Ida Green. They did not have sons but were still big believers in the school’s mission. Green, who was one of the founders of Texas Instruments, and Ida Green also funded the Cecil and Ida Green Master Teaching Chair in 1988 and the Ida M. and Cecil H. Green Commencement Theatre (the southernmost portion of the Perot Quadrangle).

Fun Fact: Fojtasek and his wife founded

Morris G. Spencer Named after: Morris G. Spencer, Board of Trustees member from 1952-1985 and President of the Board from 1956-1960.

Fun Fact: Spencer was one of the scien-

tists who helped found Geophysical Service, Inc., which later became Texas Instruments.

the Fojtasek Family Scholarship Fund in 1996, which is a part of the Financial Aid program.

Recognition: Not only was Green pres-

ident of the Board of Trustees from 19641966, but he was also named a Life Trustee in 1987. Ida Green was named an Honorary Alumnus in 1983.

Did you know? Green included the

school as a beneficiary to his estate after his

death in 2003.

The Hicks Family Named after: The Cinda and Tom Hicks

family, including four alumni: Mack Hicks ’99, Alex Hicks ’02, Bradley Hicks ’04 and William Hicks ’10. Tom Hicks served on the Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2007.

Fun Fact: Hicks was the owner of the Dallas Stars hockey team when they won the Stanley Cup, and his son, William, brought it to school for show and tell.

The places • A quick look at the names across campus A. Earl Cullum, Jr., Alumni Commons Addy Family Mathematics Wing Albert G. Hill Tennis Center Arthur Douglas Greenhouse Arthur P. Ruff Baseball Field Bailey Field Dallas Gordon Rupe Amphitheater Eamonn William Lacey Theater Eberhart Plaza Flag Plaza Fojtasek Family Lower School Graduate Hall Grandparents’ Courtyard H. Ben Decherd Center for the Arts Hersh Journalism Suite Hunt Silcock Field Ida M. and WW Cecil H. Green Commencement Theatre James Livengood Choir Room McDermott - Green Science Center

Michel L. Mullen Family Fitness Center Montgomery Field (MS Baseball) Morris G. Spencer Gymnasium Nearburg Hall Norma and Lamar Hunt Family Stadium Novakov Film Room Perot Family Quadrangle Ralph B Rogers Natatorium Riggs Family Foyer Robert K. Hoffman Center Roby Mize Training Room Roosevelt Family Organ & Carillon The Cecil and Ida Green Library The Class of 1964 High Table The Edsel Dining Room The Perot Dining Room Thomas O. Hicks Family Athletic Center W. W. Browning, Jr., Great Hall Winn Family Wrestling Center

• Story Andy Crowe, Ishan Gupta Photos Adnan Khan

Juniors take first step towards senior year, receive off-campus privileges for remainder of school year

by Duncan Kirstein s of March 26, juniors who turned in their off-campus permission forms on time are now permitted to sign out and leave campus during their free periods.

Seniors have enjoyed the ability to go off campus all year, and now juniors will be able to join them.

To many, this seems like a small development in the notoriously chaotic year that is junior year, but many seniors look back fondly at recieving their new

A

privilege.

“It’s pretty cool to be able to go somewhere and get lunch or something,” senior Reaves White said.

“There’s always a sense of awe when little kids see you walk on campus with a bag of Chick-Fil-A or Chipotle. I know that sounds a little dumb, but it’s a big deal.”

Some students, however, don’t feel like the ability to leave campus during the day is as great as other opportunities presented to upperclassmen. Senior

Avery Pearson rarely takes advantage of the ability himself, but he acknowledges that it is special to many.

“I definitely feel that I don’t use off campus privileges as much as other people do,” Pearson said. “I used it the first day I got it, but after that, I’ve been way too lazy to go off [campus].”

Pearson is not alone in this, as he expresses that there are other seniors who feel that the amount of time required to sign out, leave and come back is more than the privilege is worth. Pearson

believes that while it is fun to get lunch at a nearby restaurant, free periods are better spent doing homework or being with friends.

White also acknowledges a downside of eating off campus for many meals, as he has seen the amount of money in his wallet diminish.

“It gets expensive really fast,” White said, “and you definitely should keep track of how often you go somewhere and how much you’re spending. You’re going to regret it if you don’t.”

Page 8 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • News

SAVING WHAT HE CAN Alpha male

Junior Trevor Burke is trying to save the rapidly shrinking Blackland Prairie. Working with many different organizations, he’s bringing the prairie closer to a healthier size and state.

James Rogers: What exactly is the Blackland Prairie?

Trevor Burke: The way the Blackland Prairie works is that it’s this stretch of land up from the tip of southern Oklahoma all the way down to San Antonio. It’s a thin strip of land that used to be about 20 million acres in area, and now it’s less than 5000 acres.

The Blackland Prairie had very rich black soil, which is where it gets its name.

JR: What has been causing the reduction in size of the area?

TB: Throughout history, because it was so fertile, many farmers used the land to let cattle graze and planted crops on it. Unfortunately, the prairie grasslands can grow relatively fast but not nearly as fast as the cows eating the grass.

Cows despise the Blackland Prairie grasses, so the keen farmers would plant Johnson grass, which is similar to a weed that grows really fast, and the cows love it. This began crowding out other native

grasses in fields until all that was left was Johnson grasses.

JR: What organizations have you worked with in your conservation efforts along with Boy Scouts?

TB: The Connemara Conservancy, the Twelve Hills Nature Center and the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area.

It’s become almost a hobby.

Some of what I do fits into the realm of Boy Scouts, and some doesn’t. I do it because it’s fun, and I really enjoy helping out and making an impact.

JR: Describe your experience as one of the speakers for the TEDx event at SMU. TB: The TEDx experience was really cool for me. I’ve had a lot of experience with the TEDx people in my life. I was initially a participant there in the seventh grade, and in recent years I was an attendee chaperone, so I helped herd the other participants who came to the TED talk.

This past year, I sent in a script and

• Story James Rogers Photo Courtesy Trevor Burke

FOR THE PRAIRIE Junior Trevor Burke learns all that he can about the small bobwhite quail to teach more kids about the Blackland Prairie bird.

applied to be a speaker. I filled out my idea about saving the Blackland Prairie and making a difference. They really enjoyed my idea and thought I could give a good talk, so they accepted me.

I definitely wanted to work really hard to make sure [my speech] was a good image and a good representation of all the work I have done.

I worked really long over the Thanksgiving break in typing it up and memorizing it.

JR: What was your role in We day?

TB: My official title for We day was Social Media Champion. I was a volunteer there, and I helped out the Social Media team.

All the speakers sent in their speeches, and the team snagged excerpts from the speech that sounded really empowering.

I also played a game called Plinko. I

plopped [the disc] in, and it ended up in one of the $1000 spots on the bottom. That money goes to the school.

JR: Looking forward, do you anticipate continuing your environmental conservation work?

TB: I absolutely intend to continue on with my efforts to save the Blackland Prairie.

Right now, I’ve done a number of projects with the conservation of prairie grasses.

I’ve moved on to the conservation of endangered animals, and I want to work to restore the full environment as much as possible.

I do definitely plan to make an impact wherever I am for any conservation effort, whether it’s this Blackland Prairie or another endangered environment. I’d hate to see any sort of environment go extinct.

I plan to make a difference wherever I can and encourage others to do the same.

News • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 9

Keeping perspective

404: NETWORK NOT FOUND

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data leak, the morals of advancing social technology are being looked at with a more discerning eye.

E

ighty-seven million Facebook users (and counting).

That’s 87 million people who had their account data collected without their consent. Post history, feeds, addresses, graduation photos, family photos, comments and friends—all curated into a massive data set.

While the content of an account contains personal information—precious bits of someone’s thoughts, actions, memories, history, carefully woven together to create their social media presence and persona–it amounts to nothing but data.

Tech behemoths like Facebook, Google and Amazon make billions of dollars off of that data, making them the gatekeepers of the connected hive mind that is the internet.

But what happens when the gatekeepers lose sight of what goes in and out?

••• Researcher Aleksandr Kogan created thisismydigitallife as a Facebook quiz for users so that he could collect their data for what they thought were being used for “educational purposes.”

That data was then curated by the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica in 2015 and, without the millions of users’ consent, used as a profiling database for multiple political campaigns, including the Trump campaign.

However, this scandal is not tech• ‘Computer scientists and niengineers need to be aware cally of these issues because if conthey’re not aware, they might unintentionally create sidered something harmful or a hack dangerous in some way.’ per se.

Harvard student Dylan Clark ’15 Facebook knew about the data-scraping, and it was entirely legal. The app, utilizing a loophole in Facebook’s system, collected data on not only the quiz takers but also all of their Facebook friends. While this may not be an illegal breach of privacy, it certainly brings the ethical ramifications of certain technological innovations into question.

“When you are a company that makes money off of people’s data,” Harvard computer science student Dylan Clark ’15 said, “and that’s the only way that Facebook makes money, if you aren’t actively trying to do everything you can to protect it, you’re failing the people.”

Clark feels the outcry in the wake of such an event is warranted, but he says blame shouldn’t necessarily be aimed toward Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“It’s more of a blame on this system,” Clark said. “Tech companies have grown so fast in the last few decades with no oversight and no regulation.

It’s part of this revolution. It’s not their fault that they have all this data. It’s led to great things and great innovations and products. I think they’ve inherited a responsibility to protect it, and I think that most companies don’t pay attention to that.”

Clark notes that at Harvard, computer science students study more on the theoretical side of the practice, which includes attending some lectures on the

ethics of the field. In addition, he feels that an actual course in ethics would be more consequential on improving issues in computer science innovation.

“There definitely has been very good discussion about these issues,” Clark said. “Computer scientists and engineers need to be aware of these issues because if they’re not aware, they might unintentionally create something harmful or dangerous in some way. They might not have ever meant to, but it’s a failure of the education system if stuff like that happens.”

The loophole that Cambridge Analytica exploited only exists because of the relatively loose data protection laws here in the United States, as Akin Gump lawyer Michelle Reed points out.

“As of present, the

United States’ system’s common law statutory protections, other regulatory protection for privacy allow a very liberal use of data,” Reed said. “Given the disparate system that we have, I think it’s unlikely there’s going to be any significant changes on a cyber basis any time soon because there are so many different issues on both sides.”

However, the controversial impact of the Analytica data scrape might become a catalyst for change.

“In the coming months and years, consumers are going to become a little more discerning of how their data is being used,” Reed said. “I think you’re going to see a change in cyber standards, and a little bit more aggressive in privacy most likely.”

Clark is hopeful that his generation of computer scientists will be more focused on the ethical ramifications of their work, but for now the world is a place where these events are frequent.

“I think there was an MIT talk where someone presented a new algorithm,” Clark said, “hailing it as great, and someone in the crowd called them out and asked if this wasn’t ethically horrible or racist. The presenter said something about not thinking about that sort of thing, since he was just an engineer.

That’s the attitude that needs to fade time that looking for morals seems like away. You’re not just an engineer writing a nuisance to those who look only for code. You’re doing much more than that. profit. Clark compares Facebook’s ethical People are starting to realize this, so I do dilemma to the ethics of algorithms that think it’s going in that direction.” scan loan data.

The new “The algorithm [decides] that people • ‘Given the disparate need for inin certain zip codes with certain sociosystem that we have, I think it’s unlikely creased cyberseeconomic statuses aren’t qualified for there’s going to be any curity has been loans,” Clark said, “because it’s too risky significant changes on recognized at to the bank. From one view, that’s okay. a cyber basis any time Stanford UniAn algorithm can’t be racist or anything. soon because there are so many different versity, where It’s an algorithm. It’s just numbers. But issues on both sides.’ it plays a major that’s ignoring the whole other side of Lawyer Michele Reed role in underthe argument—that when that data is graduate computer science. correlated to race or other aspects of “The way that I’ve seen it work at people’s lives, it’s discriminating against my school,” said Jason Riggs, a Stanford other people.” graduate who majored in computer sciFor Clark and Reed, they have ence, “is there is usually one core course hope that as technology advances, more that’s part of an undergraduate people will pay closer attention to the computer science education deeper effects such innovations may that is the introduction have on people. to cyber security.”

“You can’t take a class on ethics in The class has computer science,” Clark said. “You become a part can’t take a class on how to make sure of Stanford’s your network doesn’t come up with computer something racist. But there are people science working on that. I would reiterate that culture, education of people as they come up in and even the world is absolutely critical. So, I hope employ- in the future that this will be a standard ers are part of curriculum.” starting to Aleksandr Kogan created expect Stanford grads Facebook quiz thisismydigitallife to have taken the course.

“Anybody who takes that course, at Stanford for example, will tell another stuwhich was taken by... dent who hasn't taken it yet that you have to take this course,” Riggs said. “And anyone who works in this industry will ask if you took this cyber security course.”

However, companies today still who exposed the data of... struggle with the thin line between scouting publicly available information and potentially violating the data owner’s privacy.

“It’s always the defense that if something was made publicly available in some way, shape or form, that there is no damage,” Reed said, “and there is in fact no violation because it was public, not private.”

Reed draws a distinction between to analytics firm “phonebook information,” things like addresses and phone numbers that are publicly available, as well as the extra data that companies can access from online sources.

“Accessing phonebook information isn’t considered a breach because it is publicly available,” Reed said. “That’s why identity theft protection statutes across the nation have sort of ‘phonewhich worked on book-plus,’ where it’s all of this information plus an account number, plus a credit card number, plus you name it.”

The Cambridge Analytica controversy is one of many events in the past ten years that blurs the line between innovation and security. Technology Source: Vox.com has advanced exponentially in so little

• Story CJ Crawford, Sam Goldfarb Photo Courtesy Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

270,000 users on

87 million+ users

News • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 10

THE MANUAL Your guide to all things manly

In this issue: Ballpark Favorites Summer Jobs

CHEETOS JALAPENO BACON DOG What: The name says it all. A juicy, bacon-wrapped hot dog covered with cheetos cheese sauce and topped with jalapeños and cheetos, making this item a perfect blend of spice and crunch.

EATING FOR THE CYCLE

With the Texas Rangers’ season underway, ballpark food aficianado and Associate Creative Director Zach Landry takes you through all the best eats Globe Life Park has to offer.

THE TRIPLE B

THE BOOMSTICK

What: Bacon. Brisket.

Bologna. This power combination comes topped with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce on a soft bun. A sandwich of this size is enough to fill any appetite.

What: Inspired by former Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz, this twofoot hot dog comes smothered with chili, nacho cheese, jalapeños, caramelized onions all served on a massive potato bun.

HOME PLATE CHICKEN SANDWICH What: Everything is bigger in Texas. This full-sized sandwich (the size of home plate!) comes with a chicken breast crusted and fried with Lay’s original chips and topped with your choice of toppings.

Cost: $26 Cost: $11

Cost: $18

Where: American Hot Dog Stand (Sections 22,48)

Where: Homeplate Butcher Block (Section 24)

Cost: $27.50 Where: Homeplate Butcher Block (Section 24)

Where: The Flew and Coop Stand (Section 50)

• Guide Zach Landry Photos Zach Landry

Summer Stacks

If your parents have already taken away the Xbox and told you to do something with your life, getting a summer job is a great way to learn some new skills, and more importantly, rake in some cold, hard cash.

1 SET SOME GOALS Save for college? Learn a new skill? Maybe earn some extra spending money? Determining what you want to get out of your job will help focus your job search.

2 DECIDE THE TYPE OF JOB YOU WANT It’s always a good idea to take some time to decide what you want to do. Not only will you enjoy your work, but you will save lots of time by finding a job that matches your interests.

• Guide Zach Landry Graphic Naftal Mautia

3 GATHER YOUR MATERIALS For most jobs, you will need a résumé, cover letter and/or references.

You’re sure to impress your potential employer when you show up with a clean, crisp résumé.

4 BEGIN YOUR SEARCH Talk to your teachers, friends, parents, counselors, coaches — ­­ anyone you can think of — for help with your search. Networking can often be the best method for finding some work. If all else fails, an online search will most likely churn up some potential options.

5 TIME TO APPLY You’ve found the perfect job. You’ve created a résumé. You’ve asked your old little-league coach to be a reference. It’s time to fill out that application.

6 THE INTERVIEW Your future employer saw your application and résumé and decided to call you in for an interview. Rehearse your answers for common interview qustions, so you’re prepared when they ask you. And remember, always dress to impress for in-person interviews.

Page 11

Hanging out with... senior Abdullah Akbar

Find out about the rapper’s funniest moments and best memories at school.

Riley Sanders photo Do you have any special talents?

I don’t know. I’m good at making people hyped.

Proudest accomplishment in school?

Probably winning state last year in quiz bowl was my biggest accomplishment.

How did you get into Quiz Bowl?

In fifth grade, there was this Quiz Bowl Club, but it was super casual. I found out that I could get one or two questions even though the older kids could get a lot more questions than me.

What do you do in your free time?

Especially nowadays, since third [trimester] started, I usually play basketball with my friends and shoot hoops in the gym. I play some videogames like Counterstrike or Minecraft or something, or just chat with my friends.

Where do you see yourself with a rap career in the future?

I like to pursue it as a side hobby.

Me and my brother have this friendly rivalry going on. We might start releasing tracks soon together.

Who is your favorite rapper?

I would say Tupac was the guy who got me into rap a lot. Listening to a lot of Tupac, but right now, maybe old school Nas. He was pretty good.

If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Probably something called Haleem, it’s a Pakistani dish. It’s like ground up lentils with goat meat, or beef sometimes.

Most interesting thing you own?

I have a lot of old computers. I have computers from like 1998 to now. I get a lot of them because I just collect old computers I find that were thrown away and stuff.

What will you miss most about 10600 Preston Rd.?

It’s pretty cliché, but definitely the people. One of the things I will remember the most is all the basketball games I’ve played.

Not even the specific individual games, but just all the people I played, all the friendly trash talking we did and all the fun moments we had together.

LIFE Jorge Correa photo

FINALLY FINISHED

After nearly two months of hard work and construction, members of the Habitat for Humanity organization were finally able to formally present the house to the Badwi family March 24. Volunteers laid groundwork and planned landscaping during the morning and later joined in the Habitat tradition of bestowing the house keys to the family.

Life in brief

DEBATE TEAM TO COMPETE IN NATIONAL TOURNAMENT Four members of the debate team will compete at the National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) championship April 14-16.

Juniors David Vallejo, Samir Ratakonda and Wheeler Sears, along with senior Harris Wilson will participate in the contest at the Marist School in Atlanta, GA.

Figure Stone, the first art museum exhibition that presented ancient handaxes and figure stones as art.

By integrating participation into the tour, the second graders learned about the visual aesthetics that sculptures emit but also the emotions these aesthetics represent.

SECOND GRADE ATTENDS LOCAL ART PRESENTATION Second-graders went to the Nasher Sculpture Center March 9 with the goal of learning more about prehistoric art.

The class was accompanied by an alumni gallery teacher, Avi Varma ‘02, and an alumni curator, Jed Morse ‘90.

The field trip included a show entitled First Sculpture: Handaxe to

ROCKETRY CLUB HOLDS FIRST MEETING IN A YEAR Rocketry Club is being revitalized after a one-year hiatus and had its first meeting March 6 under club co-presidents William Haga and Matt Powers, with additional help from club sponsor Stephen Balog.

Haga says the goal for this year is to spark an interest in rocketry for club members and gain expe-

rience in preparation for the Texas American Rocketry Challenge, a local contest in the months of February and March, as well as a national competition in April if the club qualifies.

PHOTOGRAPHY PROGRAM TO HOST REGIONAL CONTEST The annual Association of Texas Photo Instructors (ATPI) competition will take place on campus April 28.

The ATPI competition is a statewide contest to identify the top photography program in the state of Texas and offers various accolades and scholarships for individual photographers and their work.

The photography program has taken first place in the competition for the past 11 years and is looking for its 12th consecutive win.

DR. LEE BERGER PLANS ANOTHER RETURN TO CAMPUS Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger will make a return to campus to give a presentation to lower schoolers April 17 from 11:40 a.m. to 1:20 p.m.

Berger plans to share his latest insights and discoveries about the development of early hominid man with them.

EIGHTH-GRADERS ENGAGE IN FARMING COMMUNITY SERVICE The eighth grade went to to help provide resources to a food desert at the Bonton Farms March 24 at 8 a.m.

There, the eighth-graders spent the early part of the trip learning about food deserts and the goals of Bonton Farms, and went to the Extentsion Farm (a subset plot of land on Bonton) to work.

The eighth-graders engaged in a variety of projects, including tree planting, wildflower seeding, fence work, animal feeding, watering and weeding.

SCHOOL CHOIR HOSTS ANNUAL SPRING CONCERT The annual spring concert, featuring performances from choristers of all grade levels, took place April 10 at 7 p.m.

The concert featured a variety of musical pieces, including “Masajabule,” a choral melody sung in Zulu.

The spring concert also featured various pieces the school choir will perform at the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS), and will be one of the last choral performances of which the senior choristers will take part.

­­­­­­— Dylan Liu, Sam Ahmed, Matthew Zhang, Sam Goldfarb, Albert Luo, Tianming Xie, Mark Tao

Inside

12

Headliners

CONCERTS

Standardized testing

They’re used to level the playing field, but what about these tests enables true fairness?

14

Faculty yoga class

After months of training, science instructor Nupur Israni offers yoga lessons for faculty.

20

March for Our Lives

A few snapshots of the activists who walked through the streets of Dallas March 24.

5 Seconds of Summer at the House of Blues

April 19

Judas Priest at the Bomb Factory

April 28

Airlines Center

ALBUMS

May 1-2

Drop date

< Joyride, Tinashe 777, Jason Derulo Last Man Standing, Willie Nelson

Before they taught...

Everybody comes from somewhere — and for our faculty members, from some cool places.

Concert date

< P!nk at the American

15

Artist in action

MOVIES

Today Today

Senior Toussaint Pegues and his laser-etching

‘

I joined the [Dallas] Makerspace in December. I needed a 3D-printer for a science project, so I joined there.

They’ve got a lot of other cool stuff besides the 3D-printers, like lasers.

16

total etched laser carvings

3

days per week at the Dallas Makerspace

April 27

Release date

Rampage Super Troopers 2

< Avengers: Infinity War

Today April 20 April 27

Toussaint < Pegues Riley Sanders photo

Page 12 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Life Keeping Perspective

With the current hyper-competitive climate of the college admissions process, more and more families with means are turning to tutors and SAT and ACT prep companies. Here, we examine the role of money in the testing process and the implication that it has on the admission process.

1083 average national SAT score in 2017 (out of 1600)

22.5 average national number of hours students spent preparing nationally

30.7

PAY TO PLAY?

ARE STANDARDIZED TESTS

average number of hours students here spent preparing

19.1% percent of students here who used both a tutor and self-study

61.9% percent of students here who used just a tutor prepare

23.8% percent of students here who used just self-study Source: poll conducted from 33 students

I

t’s one of the most dreaded aspects measuring achievement, which can of the college admissions be improved through rigorous process. studying and test preparaSATs, SAT subject tests tion. and AP exams are just a Students who have few of the things that the resources for define the high school standardized test experience. prep are often able to And to all colimprove the scores leges, these stansignificantly, which dardized tests are may prove to create necessary because a potential gap in they level the playing achievement befield and help breaktween students who down a student’s can and can’t afford academic potential to prep. one number.

“For the old SAT,” They’re supposed to Sutcliffe said, “we were be fair. trying to check more on Yet, lingering questions aptitude and reasoning still remain as to the extent to skills than math skills. which standardized tests are Now, they’re trying to test fair. the ‘common core,’ which Can these tests be truly is a change in curriculum MONEY RULES THE GAME As the amount of considered “leveling the playing resources demanded by standardized test without a support of prep increases as an upper schooler ages, field” if additional, test-like teachers in the process of the amount of money one must spend on preparation is required to perchanging the curriculum. the standardized tests increases drastically. form well on these tests?

The questions are skill questions, but not always, ··· Tests like the SAT and ACT are meant to provide to me, fair.” admissions officers with one number with which they can compare students from different educational However, Sutcliffe does believe there are standardbackgrounds. ized tests that do an even better job of measuring a “I think standardized testing is a second place student’s proficiency in an academic field—the AP indicator as to how well a student might do in colexam, which she considers an evaluatory assessor that lege,” Associate Director of college counseling Casey accurately measures a student’s abilities.

Gendason said, “and if you’re smart and know how to “[AP exams] really are great indicators and really take tests, then you typically can do very well on the do give us pretty good reliability on how well a stu[standardized] test.” dent has mastered the topic,” Sutcliffe said. “Teachers To that end, Gendason believes colleges know around the country use those questions because the standardized tests can’t always accurately assess a questions asked on AP exams are so carefully devised, student’s work ethic and drive in the classroom. tested, and thought about.” “[Standardized tests] do not account for day-toHistory instructor Bryan Boucher, who grades day grind, [willingness] to do homework, engagement questions for the AP United State History exam, also in an activity, ideas, curiosity, contributions made in expressed confidence in the AP exam’s ability to evala classroom setting, uate a student. so I think it has some “I think an AP exam is a comprehensive tool that Casey Gendason indication of the likereally does a pretty good job of assessing a student’s Associate Director lihood of going deep, knowledge in whatever that particular subject is,” of college counseling and the ability to go Boucher said. deep because of your At the same time, Boucher also recognizes the god-given brain talent, but it sits second fiddle to your problem with using a standardized test, which can pogrades, your transcript, and the day-to-day.” tentially advantage students who have the resources to prep, as a significant measure a student’s knowlBecause standardized testing does play an importedge. After all, the test represents a student’s perforant role in the admissions process, students and fammance one day out of his entire high school career. ilies with the resources can utilize test prep services “The amount of time put in by educators nationand private tutors to help improve their scores. ally to score that exam is pretty impressive, and it “A family with means can take the, ‘We will do gives me a lot more faith in the tests that I had before I whatever it takes for our child to land at the college was a grader,” Boucher said. “Having said that, an AP he wants to go to,’” Gendason said. “That means test test [like the SAT and ACT] is just a one-day snapprep.” shot.”

Like Gendason, Suzanne and Patrick McGee FamiIn the end, Sutcliffe believes the best standardized ly Master Teacher JT Sutcliffe, who has had experience tests questions emerge from assessing a student’s writing and grading questions for both the Advanced reasoning and logic skills.

Placement (AP) calculus BC exam and the old Scholas“It’s not, ‘Can you solve an equation,’ but, ‘What tic Aptitude Test (SAT) exam, believes that standardkind of reasoning skills do you have,’ because if you ized tests are important because they do help colleges have better reasoning skills, you probably will cope to evaluate a student’s intelligence. better in college,” Sutcliffe said.

“The SAT and ACT are In spite of the emphasis [some] of the few places where that may be placed on stanthe playing field is leveled,” WHAT’S ON THE AP EXAM REALLY ARE THE CORE dardized testing in the process, Sutcliffe said. “Even though I was Sutcliffe ultimately believes OF TOPICS. WE DON’T FEEL CONSTRAINED BY never a big fan of standardized THE [AP CURRICULUM], BUT WE MOVE PAST IT. that how a student performs testing, I felt it was an important Master Chair in Mathematics JT Sutcliffe and grows in the classroom is demarcation for people to get more indicative of the type one a picture of how to level that will be in college. playing field. It was fun to try to “You are learning the create questions that were not hard questions, but that facts you need,” Sutcliffe said. “You are seeing conchecked on basic skills.” nections because the teachers are knowledgeable in Sutcliffe has since resigned from the SAT comtheir fields, so you are getting more than just facts; you mittee that helps field test and write questions for are seeing them in a context. You are being asked to the exam, but she does recognize the tests stray away communicate both in writing and in words, so you are from measuring a student’s critical thinking skills and developing the communication skills that are probably reasoned intelligence and are now more geared toward the most needed skills out there.”

• Story Sahit Dendekuri, Mark Tao Photo Riley Sanders

Life • April 13 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 13 Coming Soon

ARTS AROUND THE CORNER

The much-anticipated ISAS Fine Arts Festival started at Hockaday yesterday.

Students share favorite moments and impactful outtakes from past festivals.

1

The exciting elements of ISAS.

I’m most excited to share my work with others and get feedback it from the critiques. I’m also eager to see what other schools have to offer in the 3d design category as this is my first ISAS. — Junior Davis Yoo

2

The impact that ISAS has.

I would have to say (as a film student) that the thing that has impacted me the most over the years has been when we actually screen our films in front of other students and we’re able to fill the theaters to capacity. After the showings I’m getting complimented left and right, and I am also getting positively critiqued on my work. I think that ISAS has been a very useful experience to me, and has really expanded my interest in the arts.

— Senior Clay Morris

3

Taking a break from academic work.

ISAS is so cool because it gives us a break from the intensity and the rigor of the academic classes here, and gives us a chance to

experience the kind of underappreciated arts here. We all struggle with that math class or that science class or that English paper, and it’s really rigorous.

That’s kind of how it is here, and that’s a good thing. As an actor it’s a great place to take chances and express myself without any of that extra pressure, and all the guys benefit from that freedom.

— Fine Arts Board Niteesh Vemuri

4

The trip is an escape from all the academic stress.

It’s a whole weekend where you don’t have to worry about school or the next test. You’re surrounded by so much art and that’s amazing. You’re up from seven in the morning to eleven at night listening to bands, looking at different pieces of art, admiring the work of your friends.

It’s just an awesome time to see what the guys you’ve been going to school with for such a long time are good at.

You see actors, musicians, artists, and it’s really cool. I guess the bonding time is just that sort of nonstop art experience with your friends. Also, the simple stuff makes it a lot of fun.

Sometimes just sitting in the quad

• Complied by Sam Goldfarb, Albert Luo Photos Riley Sanders

playing some instruments and just relaxing around so much art and artistic people before you get back to school and have to worry about final exams and AP exams makes the whole trip worthwhile.

— Senior Kannan Sharma

5

The importance of the festival and what went into it.

It has taken three years of parent and administrative support. An incredible number of volunteers and faculty members are needed to bring this off – the festival touches every facility in the school. They experience the peak intensity of their arts involvement and feel the support of so many fellow students.

The festival has meant so much to us that we need to step up to the plate every decade and host. It really brings the entire school community together in a celebration of the arts.

— Hockaday headmaster Ed Long

By the numbers

3,700

Students attending the festival this year

550

Different performances

28

Arts disciplines represented

THE ARTISTS IN ACTION Clockwise from top left, students begin preparing for this year’s ISAS festival taking place at Hockaday April 12-15 — sophomore Pablo Arroyo sketches in his notebook, senior Kannan Sharma hits his drum sticks together, senior Clay Morris shoots a scene for a film, junior Davis Yoo sands a part of a piece of furniture and sophomore Camp Collins reviews his choir music.

16

Classrooms and venues

.5

Miles worth of artwork on display lined up end-to-end

Page 14 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Life

STRETCHING OUT Faculty yoga class

After months of rigorous preparation, biology instructor Nupur Israni is sharing her yoga talents with the rest of the school faculty.

A

total of 200 hours of intensive yoga training in just ten weekends.

Ten hours of Saturday yoga training and ten hours of Sunday training were what comprised the majority of her weekends.

But after nearly two months of strenuous practice, biology instructor Nupur Israni became a certified yoga instructor.

She dove into a new field of teaching completely unrelated to science— yoga.

She gave her first lesson at Gaia Flow Yoga and, using her experience there, has now opened up a class for faculty members here at 10600 Preston Rd. Initially, Israni took up yoga as an alternative form of cardio after dealing with several health problems.

“I began practicing yoga close to four years ago,” Israni said, “and I actually went to yoga because I wanted to increase flexibility, and strength, and tone my muscles. I had a few health problems after that, and yoga was still a good way for me to still be able to exercise and use my muscles without running on a treadmill or taking a spin class.”

However, it was only when Israni studied the discipline of yoga in person that she began to appreciate its complexity and physical demands.

“I was in awe of everyone around me,” Israni said. “I think I had a misrepresentation of what I thought yoga was.

Stereotypically, people believe that it’s a very passive practice, and I thought that too. It was only when I tried it and saw what other people were doing in the room that I really started to gain appreciation for it.”

As she became more invested in yoga, she decided to apply her teaching skills to the field itself.

“The teacher-training was a 200hour certification [course],” Israni said.

“It was ten hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, for ten weekends in a row, no break. It really taught me discipline because I was basically working seven days a week for ten weeks in a row.

Once I finished, I began teaching at the studio, and now I’m teaching faculty.”

Israni offers classes twice a week— Wednesday morning and afternoon— which draw 15 to 20 faculty participants every week.

For science instructor Dan Northcut

HOLDING THE POSE Clockwise from the top left, science instructor Nupur Israni guides Middle School assistant head Jason Langue, science instructor Dan Northcut ‘81, Dr. Dale Hackbarth and Lower School counselor Gabriela Reed through a sequence of different yoga poses after their Wednesday workout.

‘81, Israni’s class was a way to improve his flexibility and overall strength.

“I thought that this would be a good way to start working on flexibility, core strength or a range of motions that those of us over 30 need to keep up on,” Northcut said. “I was hoping that it would begin to get me loosened up and work on things young people take for granted.”

Northcut thinks Israni’s class benefits

everyone greatly, as it adds an entirely new aspect to physical education.

“It’s not quite like any other physical activity,” Northcut said. “If you’re doing yoga, it’s going to benefit all other physical activities too, because you stretch things out and get things moving more freely.”

• Story Mark Tao, Dylan Liu Photos Chris McElhaney

For Assistant Head of Middle School Jason Lange, Israni’s yoga class has provided him with a wide variety of workouts and a place to cool down after a long day at school.

“The class definitely provides some much needed balance to my life,” Lange said. “I love my work, but it gives me very little time to focus my mind and concentrate on my well-being. Mrs. Israni’s class provides me with opportunities to do both of those things, and it’s keeping my exercise routine fresh.”

In addition to the yoga itself, Lange finds Israni to be a very encouraging and knowledgeable teacher.

“She’s always explaining new positions and flows very carefully,” Lange said. ”She reminds us that we’re getting better each week, and she makes us

believe we can do anything in yoga.”

Another regular participant in Israni’s class is English instructor Curtis Smith, who decided to join the group as a way to help with his post-surgery recovery process.

“I had double knee replacement last June,” Smith said, “so I wanted to learn an excellent way to stretch and to be more mindful as I exercised. Yoga and Ms. Israni were the perfect solution. She makes me think about movement and why certain areas of my body are less flexible and how to overcome that.”

And for fellow Audrey Lane, one of the most important aspects of the yoga class is its focus on mental strength.

“She actually incorporates a lot of different information into her yoga class,” Lane said, “so there’s a mental component to it during the mental practice, which I think she does a lot more differently than a lot of the studios that I’ve been to.”

To Israni, the variety of all of her faculty students contributes strongly to the overall diversity of the group.

“We’ve got people from different departments,” Israni said, “all different ages and men and women, so we’ve got a group diverse group. Everybody brings something really unique to our practice, and you’ve got different athletic abilities.”

But for Israni, the most satisfying and fulfilling thing about these classes comes from seeing the progress that her students make from week to week.

“No matter where anyone started, everyone has grown,” Israni said.

“For some people, that [growth] has been huge, and for others it’s been just microsteps, but nonetheless, everyone’s moving forward. That’s the thing about yoga. There’s always a place to go.”

At a glance: the yoga class Part 1

Guided meditation

Part 2

Core warm-up

Part 3

Discussion of yoga

Part 4

Yoga flow

Part 5

Cooldown, relaxation

Life • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 15

BEFORE THE CLASSROOM In Conversation

They mentor, lead and guide us through the first 18 years of our lives. But, they weren’t always at the front of our classrooms, leading discussions and preparing us for life. So, how did all these instructors from different careers end up teaching?

• Compiled by Tianming Xie, Matthew Zhang

History instructor Bryan Boucher

Assistant Head of Upper School Chris Disimile

I always wanted to be a teacher. When I was at col-

lege, I had no designs on working for the golf industry. I had been planning to go directly into teaching, but I came upon this opportunity in my college’s career center, and I thought what’s the harm in applying?

My job was essentially to work with junior golf programs, or

work to introduce the game of golf to underserved populations.

I thought this would a unique experience to have for two to three years and go back into a teaching career after that. The connection that I found was that I was impacting kids, just in a more indirect way than I have in teaching.

Ida Green Master Teaching Chair in Science Dr. Stephen Balog I was finising my doctorate at UT Dallas. We were

building a detector for high energy gamma rays, but the funding for the project was cancelled.

I was suddenly without a job, and I went to work for a company that built thermocouples when I got a call from Mrs. Barta, the Science Depart-

ment Chair at the time. She said, “Can you teach physics?”

I said, “I don’t know; I’ve done it in graduate school, but I’ve never actually taught a class.”

She called me for an interview, and I ended up being the physics teacher for the rest of the year. I actually really liked it, and I didn’t even look at any other type of job.

History instructor Stephen Arbogast

When I was at Yale, I really

wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I grew up. I visited a friend at a major Wall Street investment bank, and I really liked the atmosphere.

Teaching was something I was always interested in. I think what planted the seed for me was when one of the Wall Street firms had

a community service day. I went to volunteer for Junior Achievement. My partner and I taught fifth graders about the business world and the basic business literacy class. It was exhausting, but it was a great thing. I thought that teaching could be something that I would want to do for a living down the road.

Biology instructor Bonnie Flint I decided to pursue ecology in college. While I did

my master’s degree, we had to be a teaching assistant. My initial thought was, “This is going to be horrible. I don’t care about teaching; I just want to do my research.”

Eventually, I saw more of what professors had to do.

When doing research and

running labs, you get all of this extra stuff: finding grants to fund your research and managing people. I just wanted to go really far in one area. Ironically, I was disappointed the first time I had to teach, but once I experienced it, I really liked it. It’s one of those things that you need to try it to see if you like it.

Humanities instructor Timothy Mank

I worked a dozen years

at Goldman Sachs, but my very first role out of college was with community service programs in a Jesuit school.

Though I loved the excitement of working in Goldman, I didn’t want to work there my entire life, so I was glad to make the transition back into education.

St. Mark’s is not a typical school, and Goldman Sachs is not a typical financial firm— we only helped a narrow segment of the market. St. Mark’s doesn’t pretend to be a great school for every kid.

It’s a school for students who are academically oriented. So, there is more similarity than most people think.

Trustee Master Teaching Chair Lynne Schwartz I had lots of different jobs

before becoming a teacher. I worked for a publisher called Sage Publications. I worked as a manager at Brentano’s bookstore, and I later went to work for Lord and Taylor as a department manager.

Then I had two children, so I stayed home and got a children’s shoe salesman part time job. I was going to go back to my job at Lord and Taylor after my kids got older, but I read an article in the Dal-

las Morning News about the Dallas Institute of Humanities, where English teachers gather together to study the classics.

I saw a picture of all these teachers having a great time on the porch of this wonderful old house. I thought to myself, “I want to be an English teacher; why didn’t I think of that before?” I never made the phone call to Lord and Taylor. Ten years after I graduated from college, I finally found who I wanted to be.

After graduating college, I

traveled to a different country.

Music was my passion, so I pursued that for many years.

When I came back, Mr. Foxworth asked me to coach the middle school football team. I immediately reconnected with the community.

I wasn’t sure if teaching was what I wanted to do, but

by circumstance, a job position opened in seventh grade.

I was a history major, but I was also a songwriter. History and English coming together into humanities was a perfect blend. Coming from an educational family and 12 years of St. Mark’s, I understood I could do this without a proven track record.

Science Department Head Fletcher Carron I started at Boston Consulting Group, and while

I was in training there, 9/11 occurred. 9/11 made everyone think differently about their career paths, and work dried up at the consulting firm.

I don’t know how teaching got under my radar, but I started considering it. Ms. McMahon, my wife’s family friend, called the science department chairs to see if they had any openings. Sadly,

the chemistry teacher at that time had leukemia. They gave me a one year position—I had no real teaching experience.

That first year, I stayed on campus until eleven every night, planning the next day or grading work. Teaching was such a departure from the stress and lack of fulfillment that I felt doing the consulting work that, even though I was working more, I just fell in love with it.

Sophomore violinist looks to lead Upper School orchestra concerts as concertmaster

by Sam Ahmed ophomore Nicholas Cerny sits in the first seat of the violin section, proud of where he has gotten. The countless hours of practice every day finally paid off. Concertmaster. The most coveted position in the orchestra.

As the concertmaster for the orchestra this year, Cerny prepared himself for the position. He represented Dallas in the summer, participating in the highly regarded Indiana String Academy program that only accepts about 40 kids from the United States and 35 from all across the world. The violinist was extremely grateful for the whole experience.

In addition to the opportunity, Cerny has learned a lot of valuable information to help him lead the orchestra as first chair violin this year.

S

“I learned a lot about how to lead musically and collaborate with other people through chamber music,” Cerny said. “I hope to use that new knowledge to benefit the orchestra.”

Orchestra Director David Fray is thankful for the program in Indiana and for Cerny’s presence in the orchestra.

“He came back all fired up, and he knows lots of violin literature, I’ve learned a lot from him,” Fray said. “It clearly has helped his violin playing and his knowledge of chamber music, and it’s clear that he’s the best violinist; no member of the orchestra would have an argument about that.”

With the rest of Upper School orchestra under way, Cerny reflects on how Fray impacted his violin career.

“Dr. Fray has been very helpful,

especially when it comes to learning things for TPSMEA All State,” Cerny said. “It’s been a really wonderful experience to help lead the orchestra and guide it under Dr. Fray.”

For the school year, Dr. Fray reflects on what Cerny’s role in the orchestra should be.

“He’s the leader of a team; it’s a team effort, it’s not him and his playing,” Fray said. “With him as the leader both musically and in terms of his attitude, and enthusiasm for what we are doing, as well as his knowledge of orchestral playing, he is a valuable concertmaster.”

Cerny has high hopes for the Upper School orchestra program this year.

“The quality gets better and better every single day we play,” Cerny said.

“At the end of last year, we played some pieces that were quite hard.”

With violin as such an integral part of his life — practicing about two to three hours a day — and being involved in the top flagship level of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO), Cerny hopes he can keep violin incorporated in his life moving into the future.

“I want to incorporate music in my life post high school and post college,” Cerny said. “Even if I don’t go into music as a profession, I would still like to incorporate it as much in my life as possible. Violin has just been a great way for me to connect, because it allows me to see different styles of music. I really love violin because of how versatile and diverse the music can be.”

Page 16 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Perspectives

ANY LAST WORDS? • Story Zach Gilstrap, Davis Bailey,

Kobe Roseman, Sam Ahmed, Ishan Gupta Photos Courtesy interviewees

T

o quote countless movies and memoirs, “hindsight is 20/20.”

Your perception of an experience can be one way while you’re in the heat of things, but a few years, or even decades, later, your perspective can change completely, bringing new insight into exactly what the experience meant to you.

Several current students and alumni commented on what

about St. Mark’s means the most to them in hindsight— touching on aspects of the community such as impactful teachers, inspiring coaches and the occasional mini taco reference.

And through these “20/20” remarks, which included both praises and criticisms of the school, these Marksmen offered their last words — words that define a community throughout the years.

Hoops and Homes What does St. Mark’s do right?

St. Mark’s is really good at preparing not just men who are academics, but men who will succeed in the future as leaders and have character, and will care about others.

There’s a general sense of solidarity around here. People are willing to help each other, and it’s a really great environment.

I think there needs to be a critical lens turned to what it means to be a healthy man in today’s society.

I don’t think anyone at St. Mark’s is talking about gender theory, because masculinity itself is a construct. This also means taking a look at what roles women play in leadership positions at St. Mark’s.

What have you enjoyed most?

I am grateful to St. Mark’s for laying the foundations of manhood and for providing a supportive community. Many key moments of my growth happened on this campus.

What were things you enjoyed most as

really nice team dynamic and develop from there.

I’ve loved playing basketball here. I’ve been playing since I was really young.

It’s a way to represent your school, and it feels good to be on the court, communicate with your teammates, to yell.

I love math team.

When I was growing up, I was only involved with individual competitions.

But now, we can form a

How do we build character?

Community service has been great. We can help directly impact the community through projects like Habitat for Humanity.

I never would have thought I would be building a house.

It gives you a broader perspective.

Luke Williams ‘14

How could we improve?

If your stated goal is to educate boys for the next state of life, then avoiding political discourse is a big mistake.

Political discourse is essential to becoming an involved member of society.

We need to find other ways to preserve amenability while not risking something that is a core value.

Chapel Talks Describe your general feelings of being a student here.

Canyon Kyle ‘18 > We are blessed to be a part of such a

close community that is like-minded. Take advantage of every opportunity you have and make the most of every day. Your time at St. Mark’s goes by fast.

Jesse Zhong ‘18

Emotional Intelligence What could St. Mark’s improve on?

Current students and alumni across generations reflect on their time at St. Mark’s — and then some.

If you could change three things, what would they be?

I would’ve appreciated more of an environment that was focused on growing emotional intelligence, mental health competency, social awareness.

Emotional intelligence was lacking in the culture. It was very much about how successful you could be, and that’s not all there is to it.

Vishal Gokani ‘14 a student?

Chapel was instrumental to my development.

I remember phenomenal chapel talks by Coach Turek, Father Dangelo, Coach Guiler and many others.

I never forgot those chapel talks, which sowed vital seeds for my spiritual growth and led me to understand what was truly important.

How did faculty help you?

In college, I was taking challenging coursework and was trying to balance many commitments. During Christmas break, I stopped

by Coach Turek’s office.

Coach Turek helped me to develop the resilience and habits that I needed to get into and to get through medical school.

Chris McElhaney ‘18 > St. Mark’s has always pushed me to up my standards so much that it has become the norm. I don’t think that if I had gone somewhere less challenging that I’d be the same person academically or have had the benefit to my character.

Mohit Singhal ‘18 > There have been lows and highs, but allin-all, I think I’d be less prepared for my future if I didn’t go to St. Mark’s.

St. Mark’s is somewhere where they’re hard on you but they know they can be hard on you. That experience is something you’re not going to find anywhere else.

Omar Rana ‘18 > I think the school does an awesome job of fostering relationships between the younger generation and the older. I point to the senior-buddy program; I have truly enjoyed being a big brother and role-model to my first grade buddy.

Joe Bush ‘12 > I think there is an incredible level of “buy in” on campus that I did not fully appreciate until I left. We all pushed each other, not because we were competing with one another, but because there was a sense that the place was special and it was our job to make it even more special.

Orlin Ware ‘18 > I do not think that the true strength of this school lies in its formal education, but rather in the vibrant and supportive community that helps shape boys into men. That aspect of this school is priceless and is the main reason Marksmen have changed and continue to change our world for the better.

David Campbell ‘86 What’s one thing you love about St. Mark’s?

It’s a community that’s aligned in what it is trying to achieve. What we and the Board [of Trustees] are for is to support [Headmaster] David Din and the faculty and staff and what they are trying to achieve.

On the agenda for the school is what is in Goals for St. Marks IV, which is a very aspirational stateme of things accompanied by a state of purpose. I think if we can achieve those goals then we have achieved what we want to do in terms of continuing improving the school and continue it on its great trajectory.

What advice would you give to someone in your shoes?

I would say I came to enjoy St. Mark’s but high school was more of struggle for me. I settled into a more comfortable place in college, but for anyone who feels out of sorts embra what you enjoy and your time may come at another place. Find your pa and enjoy your path.

What are three things St. Mark’s does right?

I think the St. Mark’s community is very excited about the school and where it is headed. People are energized by what St. Mark’s stands for and what it achieves and also what S Mark’s wants to be able to accomplish. It’s a nice mix of pride in what we do but also not ever being satisfi and knowing we can strive for mor

Care and Dilligence

What’s one thing you love about St. Mark’s?

The people I have met at St. Mark’s are really interesting people. No matter what they do, the vast majority of them actually care about what they are doing.

They would be willing to work with you. People actually care about what they are do-

6

e s ni,

ent

d

fa e

ace

ath

St.

t fied re.

e

.

-

e

Perspectives • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 17

Blast from the past

Take advantage while you can I

Niteesh Vemuri ‘18

Scott Palmer ‘01

Blake DeSantis ‘18

Matthew Conley ‘15

What is St. Mark’s doing right?

What is St. Mark’s doing right?

What is St. Mark’s doing right?

What could St. Mark’s improve on?

Something that I’ve noticed about St. Mark’s is that it puts a lot more emphasis on the people rather than the facilities with money. I think a lot of schools prioritize how good they look on paper, and I honestly think St. Mark’s doesn’t see that as a priority, I think the testament to that is just the strength of the alumni community.

What could St. Mark’s improve on?

I think we are starting to see a lot more regulation. I see why that is necessary with technology and everything, because when I talk to people [who attended St. Mark’s] 10-20 years ago, it seems like there was just so much more freedom to make themselves and their personalities. But I think we need those regulations, because with technology it gets harder to control that.

What members of the community have meant the most to you?

To [McGee Family Master Teacher] Ms. Sutcliffe: How lucky I am to have had my freshman-year Algebra teacher, who spent countless evenings guiding me through conic sections and systems of equations, be involved in virtually every aspect of my St. Mark’s life.

She’s taught me to keep the bigger picture in mind always, while consoling me through the failures and celebrating my successes.

The thing that impressed me the most about the school when I worked there was the level of camaraderie that the students have. When a graduating class finishes their time at St. Mark’s there is truly this love that they have for one another. It really is a brotherhood that has only gotten stronger since I graduated.

What means the most to you from your experience?

The more time passes, the more fortunate I feel that I was able to go to St. Mark’s. It really has had a huge impact on almost everything I have done since then, and I feel lucky that St. Mark’s was kind enough to pick me. I can’t imagine life without that having happened. It was a pivotal eight years that I spent there. I have such fond memories of friends, teachers and coaches and St. Mark’s will always play an important part in my life.

What advice would you give to someone in your shoes?

For someone struggling, it’s supposed to be hard sometimes, the great thing about St. Mark’s is that there are resources so that when it is hard you go out and find those resources and they help you through it and you look back and see what you can achieve because of that struggle.

One of the great things about St. Mark’s is that it does challenge and push you to overcome those issues.

I love being a part of this community.

The academics side of things can get rough at times, but being a part of the St. Mark’s community is completely worth it. The teachers really care about the students and it’s a really great environment to go to school.

What means the most to you from your experience?

Since first grade I have always enjoyed being a part of our grade and around all the guys. Over the years there have been a lot of little things that brought our class together, such as inside jokes. Senior year has been a great time as everyone has come together and been having a good time spending our last year together as a class.

What advice would you give to someone in your shoes?

The bond we’re able to make with the teachers here is truly special. Teachers genuinely care and want you to do well and will help you reach your goals in the classroom, but they also have an interest in what you are doing outside of the classroom.

What members of the community have meant the most to you?

Joe is always available to help you and teaches the material not just so that you can do the homework but so that you truly understand the concept and why they work.

Gopal Raman ‘17

Past, Present and Future

What are three things St. Mark’s do right?

What does St. Mark’s do right?

ing, and it’s really tough to be in a place where no one else cares and you are the only one that cares.

That just takes a toll on you, and its awesome that St. Mark’s has a culture of students who care, the diversity of things there.

People care about all sorts of things at St. Mark’s, and it really makes the experience great.

One thing I would say is that definitely be grateful for being able to go to a school like St. Mark’s, it’s a really exceptional place, it’s so rare to see so many things that are embedded in St. Mark’s culture.

There is incredible richness in the St. Mark’s community.

St. Mark’s knows how to educate boys — not just in the academic sense, with obvious results, but also in a “manhood”sense, showing them what it takes to evolve from a boy to a man.

What are three other things St.

I think the school’s conduct process could use serious improvement. All violations of the Lion Tracks are seen as simply that — a violation. This would not only create a far healthier environment, but it would allow our students to graduate and leave St. Mark’s with a better understanding of ethical principles and a stronger sense of empathy.

What is St. Mark’s doing right?

St. Mark’s does a good job of listening to students. The ReMarker has a very strong voice on campus — something most high schools are not lucky enough to have.

More importantly, the opinions and ideals set forth by the newspaper, by the student council and many other groups are actually heard and considered.

This allows the school to continue evolving. The world is always changing, and it is good that the school recognizes it.

Can you describe your feelings on being a student at St. Mark’s?

I still take great pride in having graduated from St. Mark’s. My 12 years there brought me through times of serious highs and lows, yet I walked across the stage feeling that I had the tools, relationships and ability to lead a successful life in practically any field I chose.

Warren Foxworth ‘66

Mark’s does right?

I especially enjoyed the people to whom I was exposed, both students and teachers. I enjoyed the small, intimate atmosphere, almost like an early experience with a selective college. And I enjoyed the opportunities outside of the classroom, like sports, yearbook involvement, and other opportunities.

What could St. Mark’s improve on?

St. Mark’s must continue to anticipate the future and what it needs to do to meet it head on. I personally believe that we were slow to accept the possibilities of technology. The past is great, but it should not prevent us from accepting the future.

know what you’re thinking.

“But Carson, you’re not a writer. You’ve never even written for The ReMarker before. You’re just the business manager.”

And a writer I’m not.

And as cliche as it is to say “as cliche as it is,” there’s no way that I’m going to leave St. Mark’s without attempting to put into words how much this place and the people here have come to mean to me — notice I said attempt.

When I give tours for Lion and Sword, I preface each tour with same two sentences: “I’m definitely a little biased, but going to St. Mark’s is the best decision I have ever made. This school has grown me into the man I am today.” At this point, prospective parents are either worried that their sons will also only grow to Carson be 5”6’ or Crocker Business imManager pressed by my public speaking skills.

But I wasn’t always the St. Mark’s poster child.

As an incoming fifth grader, I was a boy in every meaning of the word. I was a bit of a hooligan, definitely a class-clown and without a doubt, a jokester. In all honesty, at that time I was only concerned about three things: basketball, the Dallas Cowboy, and girls (ew, cooties). In the second week of the fifth grade, I received three referrals for not doing Japanese homework.

Three. Whole. Referrals.

Needless to say, my mom was not happy.

This year, I’ve only gotten in trouble once for not doing homework (sorry, Mr. Tholking). At this point, you might be saying to yourself, “Wow Carson, that’s pretty damn impressive.”

To that I say, you’re damn right it is.

This turn around in my behavior from fifth grade me can only be attributed to the faculty here.

It’s the people like Dr. Balog, Mr. Milliet and Mr. Brown, who all wake up early to meet with me for early morning review sessions.

It’s the people like Coach Phillips, who was driving home one day, saw me shooting hoops outside my house, and stopped to play for 30 minutes. People like Mr. Westbrook, who puts up with my daily shenanigans. People like Dr. Perryman, Mr. Teasley and Mrs. Santo, who all support my crazy endeavors to start a clothing-themed holiday (be on the lookout for a big Vest Day in April).

And people like Mrs. Pulido, who is like a second mom to me at school.

But that’s all just the tip of the iceberg — that list could go on forever.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s the people that have made this place a home for me these past eight years. Because, believe it or not, the teachers here are actually cool, and I’m lucky to call them friends (even if I can’t friend some of them on Facebook until after I graduate).

I really am going to miss the hell out of this place. Don’t be surprised if you see me tearing up in my white tuxedo on graduation night.

So if you’re reading this and you’re really only concerned about basketball, the Dallas Cowboys and girls, don’t worry — I’ve been there.

This place has a way of making men out of boys.

Page 18 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Life

HANGING UP HIS HAT

Sophomore Neal Reddy reflects on how his life has changed after beating Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

A HARD FOUGHT WIN After four months of chemotherapy and treatment, sophomore Neal Reddy puts his signature hat up for the last time.

H

e wears a pristine white Oakley hat in the middle of a crowd of middle and upper school students. He is different. He stands out. He gets the occasional weird stare but has learned to shrug it off.

He wears the hat to cover up his hair loss, an unwanted by-product of chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. For four months, Sophomore Neal Reddy had gone through all the hospital visits. The missed class events. And the sleepless nights. But now, he can finally hang up that same white, slightly tattered Oakley hat and say he beat cancer. ··· Reddy was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, in late July. After his parents noticed a lump on his neck, they took him to a pediatrician, and while the pediatrician didn’t think much of it, Neal’s mom, Dr. Pratyusha Reddy, who is a physician, knew something was up. One CT scan later, Neal was told the news.

“Then she told me it was Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and at the moment I couldn’t really react because I just woke up from anesthesia,” Reddy said. “Once it soaked in, it was really shocking, and I was in disbelief to have a life-threatening illness” Doctors quickly put him on IV infused drugs and steroids and scheduled him for four rounds of chemotherapy. His treatment began right as school did. Reddy decided to cover up his hair loss with his signature white hat.

“It was a little weird cause I stood out from everyone, and I got weird stares,” Reddy said.

“But as the year went on, people knew or found out, and then I could begin to wear the hat without caring about what other people thought, it also made me learn that you have to stop caring what people think.”

Ram Reddy, Neal’s father, noticed Neal’s attitude wasn’t defeated, always staying motivated throughout the treatment and setbacks.

“Initially, he was a little down after learning about the diagnosis. Luckily, this is a type of lymphoma that is curable,” Ram said. “Sometimes things can go wrong, and a bad outcome is not uncommon, but he stayed on the positive side of things and took it one-day-at-a-time. He had a lot of determination and support from his teachers and his friends at school to help him get through this.”

Neal was finding it more and more difficult to keep up with the school work since he missed up to two to three days of the week and now racked up more than 270 excused absences.

“I was extremely tired throughout the chemo, and I just missed so many • ‘We supported tests and assignments and him all the way, but class time,” Neal said. “I it was mostly him.

He was determined was just really behind, but I to continue to go to think I’m caught up now.” school and not miss With the absences, Redout. We, as a family, just supported him and dy is grateful for what his tried to do our best to advisor and teachers have help him through this.’ done to help him out in his Ram Reddy situation.

“My teachers gave me extensions on a lot of stuff, and they excused me from a lot of assignments which really helped me out. Also, my advisor, Casey Gendason, really helped me with almost everything. He kept in touch and made sure I was okay,” Neal said. “He also contacted my teachers and informed them about how I was doing, so I didn’t have to contact every single one. They made the environment a lot better for me.”

As well as faculty members on campus, Neal was

appreciative of the support he received from his sophomore classmates and the whole community.

“The whole grade rallied around me, which was really inspiring,” Neal said. “It was really reaffirming to have the whole grade right behind you. Everyone kind of pitched in to help me with homework and see what I missed which really

pushed me forward. Several of my friends in the grade and outside of the grade really checked in on me and made sure I was doing fine in school, and the grade sent cards which really meant a lot to me.”

Gendason, class sponsor and Neal’s advisor, also noticed the Class of 2020’s strong efforts to keep Neal a part of the class.

“I’m proud of the class of 2020 for being great friends and making sure he wasn’t forgotten and asking him what we can do to help,” Gendason said. “I feel like the grade did a very thoughtful job of making sure that he knew that he was still part of the group.”

Being cleared in late October, Neal is ecstatic to

have the burden of a life threatening illness gone from his life and has learned some important lessons along the way.

“I definitely value the little things in life more and have a more positive outlook on life because of the cancer. I also take less things for granted,” Neal said. “Cancer is something that you can’t fight alone, and I learned to rely on other people.”

Gendason now sees Reddy as a huge inspiration to himself and the community.

“He has such inner strength, and I feel like I see his head being held higher,” Gendason said.

“He has more confidence in contributing to groups and also has great perspective now on what matters and how you can’t get bogged down in the small stuff. I’m really proud of him growing in character and in strength.”

Reddy’s motivation for thinking about how his life will be so amazing in the future got him through the cancer and has inspired him to persevere through anything now that he has beaten the cancer.

“I had a really strong will to survive and to make it because I knew I had a great life ahead of me, and I could do anything I wanted despite the cancer,” Neal said.

• Story Sam Ahmed, Sahit Dendekuri Photo Riley Sanders

At a glance Deadlines for leadership positions in prominent groups on campus for the 2018-2019 year It is a peer based infraction review system that serves to provide different student input and outlook towards disciplinary issues.

Discipline Council

May 1

Ethos and Leadership

May 14

These programs provide a variety of opportunities for students to get involved within the community.

Marque

Distributed Mid-April

The literary magazine on campus which promotes student writing and art.

Lion and Sword

May 9

A service group that volunteers for the school to give tours and assist with school events.

Chapel Council

April 16

It serves as primary means for students from every religious, cultural and philosophical perspective to provide leadership to the Chapel Program.

Life • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 19

TREBLE THREAT Musical Mastery

In addition to playing the viola and the piano, junior Shreyas Annaswamy has trained in classical Indian music since he was young.

A

fter school, junior Shreyas Annaswamy heads home. He does his homework and, like many musicians, gets ready to practice music. He looks over the sheet music and warms up; however, despite being known for his devotion to the piano and viola, Annaswamy practices his classical Indian vocals.

In addition to viola and piano, Annaswamy also practices singing daily.

Annaswamy says that he owes a lot of his musical skill to learning how to sing — even before learning how to play instruments.

When Annaswamy was young, his

parents taught him how to read music and understand notes and turn them into songs.

“I started when I was five,” Annaswamy said. “My mom used to sing too, so she started me off learning basic notes and how to sing them. There is an Indian scale that matches the Western scale.”

In his youth, he practiced singing until he could perform complex devotional religious songs for worship, and soon, he was presenting his talent at temples in front of many other people.

“I basically learned [the Indian scale] and learned to put it to rhythms and sing it at various speeds, and then I went to small songs, putting the notes with lyrics and I progressed like that to more complicated songs.” Annaswamy said. “When I was younger, I used to perform a lot in various local temples. It would be like praying.”

Shreyas noted that singing helps tie him to his family’s culture.

“If I didn’t sing, • ‘There are that would be a part very few people of India that I didn’t that are in both have with me.” Anworlds because Indian music is naswamy said. so different from As a result of his Western classical singing, Annaswamy music.’ had a competence Orchestra Director Dr. David Fray of scales, rhythm and tones that many his age didn’t have. In learning piano and viola, his deep-set confidence and understanding of music let him quickly improve.

“Giving me such an early exposure to music and this type of different exposure to music let me, when I learned piano and viola, look at it differently than

other students who didn’t play anything would have,” Annaswamy said.

As a result of Annaswamy’s practice and commitment to learning viola, he has improved and become a musician that others count on. Orchestra instructor David Fray said that hard work and practice make a noticeable difference to other musicians and the conductor.

“I wish I had a lot more students like him. In terms of the viola section, I can count on him to play the right rhythms,” Fray said. “A lot of guys depend on him.”

However, as a result of his natural competence for singing and other musical instruments, Annaswamy was fearful of being targeted and ridiculed for practicing singing.

“I’ve always been very shy of my singing and my performances.”

Annaswamy said. “Ever since I came to St. Mark’s, there has been a couple Youtube videos up of me singing when I was younger, and I would always be embarrassed when people would listen to them. It was mainly out of insecurity that they wouldn’t understand, that it was foreign, that it would look strange to them, that they would mock me in the worst cases.”

Fray noted that the musical experience

from an art like classical Indian singing is uncommon, and that Annaswamy’s love for music has helped him develop his musical skills.

“He is a very musical boy, a quick learner, and very conscientious – the kid actually practices, which I wouldn’t say about all my students,” Fray said.

“But he’s very musical, he’s very serious about what he does, and he’s made tremendous progress.

As Annaswamy continues to practice music, he’s learned that singing, just like piano and viola, is a part of him that he should be proud of. He knows that even if his talent for singing is difficult for some people to understand, what other people might say or do shouldn’t matter if he loves music.

“Music has been such a big part of my life, I don’t plan to let it go at any time” Annaswamy said. “It’s like another half of me that I need in my life.

I’m learning to accept the fact that it’s a big part of me, so I shouldn’t be embarrassed of it.”

• Story Eric Hirschbrich Photo Riley Sanders In the picture

TABLE TENNIS TOURNAMENT During assembly March 23, the annual ping pong tournament took place. The original competitors were senior Harris Wilson, junior Blake Rogers, freshman Varun Trivedi, sophomore Tianming Xie and eighth grader Evan Lai. Lai (left) faced off against three-time champion Xie (right) in an extra match after Xie won the finals against senior Harris Wilson. The seven point game between Lai and Xie ended with Lai barely beating Xie 9-7.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Junior Shreyas Annaswamy wears traditional Indian clothing while he practices his classical Indian singing at his house.

• Years Experience with Instruments 12

Singing

Piano Viola

• Weekly Practice Schedule

8 6

Shreyas’s goal is to practice his singing, viola and piano every single week. He has an intense practice regiment that consists of:

Singing

2.5 hours per week

Viola

3.5 hours per week

Piano

4 hours per week

Page 20 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Life

MARCH FOR JUSTICE Lookbook

4

In the past few years, gun violence in the US has reached an all-time high, and as a message of unified activism, citizens of Dallas took the streets of the city March 24 at the March for Our Lives protest to voice their beliefs on the issue.

• Photos Riley Sanders, Duncan Kirstein, Kamal Mamdani

2

3

5 1

6

8

7

5. UP IN THE TREES As more protesters begin to gather at City Hall, many take advantage of the environment and available spaces around them—even climbing up into the tree to demonstrate and vocalize their viewpoints.

6. A RALLYING FORCE Another example of early-age activism— many attending the march show that a simple, peaceful message can mean a lot and go a long way.

2. COHORTS OF DEMONSTRATORS Protestors at the march formed a number of groups to support the cause, holding their own hand-made signs to add to the protest.

3. ADVOCATES AT A YOUNG AGE March for Our Lives featured participants off all ages, and many young adults, teenagers and even kids made known their opinions on the complex and sensitive issue of gun control.

1. UNIFIED TOGETHER As they walk the streets, swaths of young adults stand side by side holding a March for Our Lives poster, demonstrating their solidarity and unity as a group of young Americans voicing their opinions and changing the world.

4. ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE PRESIDENT The National Rifle Association (NRA) was a target of much of the protesting, receiving criticism for its blind-eye to the gun violence, and many made visible their disagreement with the organization’s policies and regulations.

7. A FAMILY EFFORT In spite of the sensitive, touchy topic at hand, many protesters show up in groups with their friends and their families as an additional showing of union, solidarity, support and mutual respect.

8. A MULTI-SIDED ISSUE The recent, tragic events that occured in Parkland, Florida have created a spark of protest throughout the country, and there is no doubt a wide cluster of opinions on the broad topic of gun control. To that end, many counter-protestors voiced opinions of their own regarding the topic at hand.

Life • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 21

BUZZ

< Senior Henry Kistler

Reviewing the best of the best... and the worst of the worst

In this issue: Restaurants for teens

Indian • Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant

Carson: Even though Sage is

Senior Carson Crocker >

Chinese • Mei Mei Chinese Buffet Henry: In one of the most

unexpected but amazing experiences, Mei Mei Chinese Buffet showed me just how great food can be if you just take a risk.

A friend recommended the place to me, but before then, I had never even heard of it.

When I first walked in, I felt like I was in a cafeteria — which honestly isn’t too far off from the vibe of the place. But at the same time, after you pay your $10 all-you-can-eat fee, you’re

free to roam about the strangest combination of foods.

Mei Mei has everything from french fries to fried rice and orange chicken.

But something about it just works. If you’re starving and just looking for a lot of food, this is the place to be.

Don’t go expecting the finest cuisine in the land, but it definitely gets the job done, and I’ll for sure be back sometime soon.

BEST CHEAP CLOSE

doing great this year, there is a cornerstone of my St. Mark’s diet they just cannot replace: tikka masala. This place is really lowkey — tucked away in a little shopping center off a non-major road.

For $12.95 (cutting it close there), I may have gotten the most generous portion of tikka Masala ever. I asked for it to be medium spicy, and it was definitely a little spicier than expected, but manageable for a guy like me (I ate seven of the 12 Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin’ Wing Challenge wings before I started bawling my eyes out, quit and proceeded to drink a gallon of milk).

Anyways, the sauce was incredibly flavorful, and there was a solid amount of chicken chunks amongst the rice and sauce. If you’re missing the Indian food from last year and need a quick fix, this six-min-

ute drive from school can solve your problem.

Henry: Miss the old Indian

food? I have the solution.

Head over to Taj Mahal for a quick and delicious eat. Don’t be fooled by its old and a bit rundown atmosphere.

The buffet-style restaurant has minimal choices but maximum amount of flavor and offers exactly what Indian food day used to be and a bit more.

For around $13 you have the all-you-can-eat buffet-style with an in-and-out-time of around 30 minutes.

I had the chicken tikka masala over jasmine rice with naan and tandoori chicken on the side. A classic, yes, but sensational.

The naan bread was fresh, warm and brushed with butter, some of the best I have had. I would definitely recommend coming here.

RESTAURANTS FOR TEENS

Mexican/tacos • Bachman Tacos & Grill Carson: I will preface my

review by saying I demanded this little gas station taco joint be on the list of restaurants for us to eat at.

I usually go with fellow senior Sammy Sanchez, and he orders in Spanish while I cower behind him, painfully aware of my gringo-ness. This time, though, I ordered all by myself — I guess my eight years of Spanish have paid off for something (I’m kidding, Mrs. Marmion).

When you’re served the tacos, you’re just given meat and tortillas, along with some grilled and fresh onions, a lime and salsa on the side.

Sammy and I have an entire process to make these tacos ridiculous: add a pinch of the fresh onions, layer on the grilled onions, squeeze a bit of lime and drizzle on the green salsa.

In my humble opinion, these are the best tacos in Dallas, and, if you disagree

with me, you’re wrong and you probably hate puppies.

Henry: I’ll admit, I had no idea

what to think when Carson and I pulled into an empty Chevron gas station by Bachman Lake for tacos. We walked into the convenience store and ordered five tacos each: two trompo, one bbq, one chicken and one fajita.

I couldn’t believe it when the total came out to $18 and change. At more well-known places (like Torchy’s), tacos can run up to $5 for one. Here all tacos are $1.69, and each one is incredible.

I still am not 100 percent sure what the trompo taco is (I think it’s pork), but whatever it is, all I know is I want to spend the rest of my life with this taco.

At Bachman Tacos, you’re going for quantity and quality; perfect for two broke high schoolers on a budget needing a quick taco fix.

YOU’VE NEVER

HEARD OF I

n the sixth grade, seniors Henry Kistler and Carson Crocker squared off for the now infamous wing eating contest in the Great Hall — a battle that ended with 146 wing bones and dozens of dirty napkins stacked in a mountain.

Ever since, the two have been selfproclaimed “food kings” on campus.

And now, they’re ready for their next challenge.

The requirements: • Must be within three miles of school • Must be affordable for teenagers • Odds are you’ve never heard of this place before • Reviews Carson Crocker, Henry Kistler Additional Reporting Kobe Roseman Photos Kobe Roseman, Carson Crocker, Henry Kistler

Greek • Greek Isles Carson: With this place being

kind of expensive, Henry and I had to order the cheapest thing on the menu–the lamb gyro.

Personally, I am a very pro-lamb and pro-gyro guy; nothing is better than a flatbread piled high with meat.

For $13, we had the option to get a soup or salad (I’m a man, so I went with the soup) and a gyro with fries. The soup ­—chicken lemon rice — was pretty good.

The gyro, however, was as great as they come, especially with that tzatziki sauce (I think

that’s how you spell it?).

Let’s just say my taste buds took a nice little trip to Flavortown. There was so much lamb in that sandwich that I could barely finish it, but like the champion-eater I am, I struggled through those last few flavor-filled bites — Carson: 1; Food: 0.

Henry: I walked in, and it

gave me a little bit of a fancy vibe. The menu was pricey, and I was underdressed. They brought out complimentary bread with olives. That was fine but nothing above average.

I asked a few questions about the menu, and most of their popular menu items were way out of my price range for a casual meal. Carson had been to the restaurant before and told me to order the lamb gyro.

It came with a starter soup and a side of fries. The gyro was huge and full of meat.

It also came with a side of tzatziki sauce which made the sandwich.

Overall, I was very pleased with my meal and definitely would come back but only for a special occasion.

Probably a date or dinner with parents kind of restaurant.

Page 22 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Commentary Staff editorials

STUDENTS AND FACULTY MUST TRUST INSTRUCTORS SHOULD NOT GIVE EACH OTHER WITH CELL PHONE USAGE FINAL EXAM AFTER AP EXAM With this year’s multiple scandals involving students’ phones, the faculty-student relationship must change.

W

e have noticed a sharp increase in the number of instances of faculty members confiscating students’ cell phones or social media accounts and, in consequence, viewing private chats to find inappropriate messages.

First of all, students must be careful what they send from their electronics. Nothing is completely private, and students must know they are responsible for what they post on social media platforms or what they text to friends. Content posted online will never go away, so students need to be cautious with what they put online.

There have been too many occasions in which students have posted something they thought only their friends would see, and then this post is spread until it eventually falls in the wrong hands. Know that you are liable for anything you say or post, so be careful with what you put online.

Secondly, we feel administrators should respect students’ privacy unless it is a serious issue of bullying or danger.

If what a student posts does not pertain to the school in any way, administrators should not feel the need to become involved in the matter. On the other hand, if a student were to post content detrimental to

the reputation of the school, we fully understand the need to intervene.

We certainly understand if a student voluntarily submits his phone if he feels he has been bullied or abused in any way, but we feel faculty should not arbitrarily confiscate any students’ phone.

There have been occurrences though where certain students have been hurtful and rude to others, and for this, we applaud the administration for stepping in.

However, there is a line that needs to be established between stepping in during cases of bullying and invading the innocent fun and privacy of students who are not trying to harm others.

Students should not have to worry about what they send to a friend in confidence, as long as it’s not harmful to others. What they send on their own time should be their own business, not that of the administration.

On the other hand, faculty members should not have to worry about students sending inappropriate, harmful messages.

The mission of St. Mark’s is to teach students to be men, and it is our duty as men to act maturely at all times, and by doing so, representing our school in the most positive light.

If a student takes the time to study for the AP exam, he should not have to take a final, too.

P

retty soon, students will start having group study sessions, meeting with teachers more frequently and teachers will start reviewing material from the beginning of the year in class.

It’s about to be exam season.

For eighth-graders through nearly all tenth-graders, studying for the final exams in their core classes is enough to make them more stressed than ever, but for most juniors and seniors, the final exams aren’t what they’re worrying about. They’re focused on the Advanced Placement (AP) exams.

Not only do upperclassmen opt to take the AP exams at the beginning of May, but they also are required to take a final exam after these AP exams.

This final covers the same material as the AP exams, sometimes more.

We believe this policy is unnecessary and overcomplicated.

If a student works hard to study for an AP exam, he should be exempt from taking a final exam in the same class. After a student studies hard for the AP exam, he should not have to continue studying for a final exam after taking the AP exam. Some teachers say that if a student takes

the AP exam, he will not have as hard of a final exam as if he did not take the AP exam. We believe even this compromise is pointless.

A final project after the AP exam provides the same benefits of a final exam without forcing student to study double.

We understand in some classses, such as calculus, studying for the AP exam is also studying for a final exam. However, this is not the case in most classes.

Instead of a final exam, an assessment more along the lines of a final project would be more beneficial to students while still giving instructors a culminating activity. We applaud the teachers who already use final projects instead of final exams when a student chooses to take the AP exam for the class he is in. More teachers should use this method because it is more reasonable for the student.

Changes should be made to the policies regarding final exams soon, and the various departments should opt for a final project rather than an exam as their culminating activity. In making this change, the faculty will offer students an opportunity to be creative while still offering a viable evaluation method.

Things we’d like to see

As seniors approach college transition, past opportunities should return By not meeting regularly — or even at all — students are not taking advantage of leadership opportunities.

A

s the years go on, it seems that there are less and less events where Hockaday students and St. Mark’s students have the opportunity to interact during school hours. The trend has gone from getting bused to the opposite campus to take classes with the other school to only seeing them on Friday nights at sports games.

As students preparing for college and beyond, fear that this lack of opportunity to interact with Hockaday might give us a disadvantage as most, if not all of us, are headed off to co-ed schools and jobs in the next few years.

We are not used to interacting in a classroom setting with women, so we hope to encourage some type of change in the next few years that will make the transition easier.

One suggestion to integrate the

two schools better is to bring back the “Hot Dogs with Hockaday Program” where Hockaday students would come here and have a picnic-style lunch with people going to colleges in the same area of the country as them.

For example, students going to school in Virginia — University of Virginia, William and Mary, Washington and Lee, etc. — would sit together to get to know other students who will attend college with or near them. This would be a helpful way to get to know Hockaday students before we go to school with them for the next four years.

Another suggestion would be to use the week after AP tests and before graduation, when seniors don’t have classes, to host a lecture series. One day students from St. Mark’s could go to Hockaday and listen to some of

their favorite teachers give a lecture, and one day Hockaday students could come to St. Mark’s and hear some of our favorite instructors.

These are just two suggestions out of many by which we could better prepare Marksmen to attend co-ed institutions for the next four years. We urge administrators to find a way to create interactions between the two schools.

SAMMY SANCHEZ, KANNAN SHARMA, MICHAEL LUKOWICZ

KOBE ROSEMAN

MANAGING EDITORS DAVIS BAILEY ZACH GILSTRAP

EXECUTIVE PAGE EDITOR MIKE MAHOWALD

ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR ANDRE ARSENAULT

CREATIVE DIRECTORS NAFTAL MAUTIA RETT DAUGBJERG

HEAD PHOTOGRAPHER RILEY SANDERS

ISSUES EDITOR BLAKE DAUGHERTY

COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR ALEC DEWAR

COMMENTARY EDITORS JIMMY RODRIGUEZ SAM SUSSMAN

SENIOR WRITER REECE RABIN

RESEARCH DIRECTORS ZOHEB KHAN NICK MALVEZZI

COPY EDITORS

MICHAEL LUKOWICZ SAM SHANE

PHOTO COORDINATOR OWEN BERGER

FOCUS EDITORS CJ CRAWFORD DUNCAN KIRSTEIN

LIFE EDITORS

SAHIT DENDEKURI MARK TAO

LIFE WRITERS SAM AHMED SAM GOLDFARB ERIC HIRSCHBACH DYLAN LIU ALBERT LUO TIANMING XIE MATTHEW ZHANG

NEWS EDITORS KAMAL MAMDANI LYLE OCHS

NEWS WRITERS

ANDY CROWE MATEO GUEVARA ISHAN GUPTA JAMES ROGERS SID VATTAMREDDY CHRISTOPHER WANG WALLACE WHITE

SPORTS EDITORS PARKER DAVIS CONNOR PIERCE

SPORTS WRITERS COLIN CAMPBELL JOSH DANIELS NATHAN HAN JAHAZIEL LOPEZ AARON THORNE NICK WALSH

SPORTS MAGAZINE EDITOR WILL FORBES

ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR ZACH LANDRY

REVIEWS SPECIALISTS HENRY KISTLER AUSTIN MONTGOMERY

ARTIST

MATTHEW COLEMAN

CARTOONISTS SAMMY SANCHEZ KANNAN SHARMA

CARSON CROCKER PAXTON SCOTT

PHOTO EDITOR KYLE SMITH

PHOTOGRAPHERS MATEO DIAZ ADNAN KHAN CHRIS MCELHANEY RYAN MCCORD JACK MCCUTCHAN RYAN NORMAN KATHAN RAMNATH CHARLIE RUBARTH LEE SCHLOSSER ROHIT VEMURI

MIDDLE SCHOOL LIAISON BEN ADAMS

ADVISER

RAY WESTBROOK

ONLINE VIEWING.

Each issue of The ReMarker, along with archival copies, can be viewed on the school’s website, www.smtexas. org/remarker.

READER INVOLVEMENT.

The ReMarker encourages reader input through guest columns and story ideas. Contact the appropriate editor for submissions.

I don’t even remember what sleep is.

—fifth grader during a nervous breakdown

EDITOR IN CHIEF

ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGER

Cures narcolepsy (by means of sleep deprivation)

*unintelligible screaming*

STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS. 10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TEXAS 75230 214.346.8000

BUSINESS MANAGER

Homewo k —a satisfied customer

REMARKER

Homewo k - Recurring year-long program - About six doses per day - Group experience with others just like you

Back in my day, we didn’t even have computers.

You kids have it easy.

—a father to a son who couldn’t care less

Side effects may include: sudden loss of free time, anxiety, random episodes of stress, busy weekends and extreme irratability

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Letters to the editor are welcome and encouraged.

They must be typed, signed and not exceed 300 words.

E-mail submissions are not accepted.

ADVERTISING.

Contact the business staff at 214.346.8145. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Inclusion of an ad is not an indication of an endorsement by The ReMarker, any of its staff members or faculty or staff members of St. Mark’s School of Texas.

DISTRIBUTION.

Press run is 3,800 copies. Copies are provided free of charge to students, faculty and staff at various distribution sites on campus. More than 2,600 copies are mailed out to alumni courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions.

MEMBERSHIP.

The ReMarker maintains membership in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, New York City, NY; National Scholastic Press Association, Minneapolis, MN; and the Interscholastic League Press Conference, Austin.

Commentary • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 23

Sorry, this is just the spring fever talking

How I learned to be an upperclassman

W

elcome to my completely all-over-the-place, stream-of-consciousness, brain-dump senior column: complete with uneasy excitement, bittersweet nostalgia and tough goodbyes.

For the sake of time, I’ll cut out the deep metaphors and careful storytelling from this one. Because even though I have 12-years worth of stories to share, this column’s elusive demand to put my St. Mark’s experience into words can only be met with a montage of moments and my best attempt to describe this weird, unique sort of “spring fever” that’s starting to hit me.

Spring fever works differently for different people. For some, it’s an engulfing senioritis and excitement for what’s ahead.

But that’s not what it’s been for me.

For starters, during this time of year, everything — every test, every hallway conversation with a teacher, every night spent in the publications suite and every second hanging out with my friends — seems to be haunted by looming ticks from a timebomb we all know will detonate May 25.

There’s something ominous about that date. Something I’m completely Kobe terrified about. And beyond that fear, Roseman I’ll catch myself in moments when I just Editorfeel so completely confused on what life in-chief beyond this place could or maybe even should look like.

But then I snap out of it.

With every second I spend in this end-of-journey malaise, I push those feelings to the side and force myself to appreciate how well prepared I am for anything and anywhere after May 25. Coming from this place, it would be hard to not see the world as your oyster.

So here I am: in a love-hate relationship with those looming ticks of the timebomb and gripped with an uneasy excitement towards that May night on the quad.

This time of year has taught me that nostalgia is like chocolate cake — and I only know that because I’m probably having a bit too much of it recently.

It’s so easy and tempting to indulge in the do-you-rememberwhen or I-wish-we-could-go-back-to highlights of the St. Mark’s experience.

It’s memories like my first day in Ms. Carrio’s class (when I met Garrett Mize while he cried into his arms), memories like my first time awestruck inside of the chapel (realizing this school is nothing like my old one) and memories like my first time meeting my senior buddy (over an always-great McDonald’s apple pie) that make me sorry all the “firsts” have turned into all the “lasts.”

It’s memories of being sent out of Mr. Foxworth’s fifth-grade humanities because I “like to entertain others during class.” It’s memories of playing “Zombie Apocalypse” on the football field every day in sixth grade. And it’s memories of meeting with Mr. Gendason about “how I’ll get involved” freshman year that make me realize just how much this place forces you to grow.

A little bit of nostalgia is definitely natural this time of year. And when it comes to keeping perspective on my 12 years here, it’s almost essential.

But as rampant as the nostalgia has been during this weird spring fever of mine, I’ve learned to treat it like chocolate cake.

I enjoy it most not when I have it for every meal, but when I indulge occasionally.

Because even writing a few paragraphs of it has given me that sort of sick-to-my-stomach feel that makes nostalgia a bit more bitter than sweet.

As my 12-year career at St. Mark’s comes to an end, I can’t help but think back on some of my favorite memories from this amazing place.

Sure, I’ve had some insanely difficult math assignments, I’ve spent upwards of 10 hours on a Sunday writing a research paper, I’ve been up until the latest hours of the night finishing up some homework that I should’ve started earlier, but even with all that struggle, I wouldn’t change anything about my experience here.

My time at St. Mark’s has been filled with just as many challenges as it has been with triumphs, just as much difficulty as joy.

If you’ve known me for any period of time, hopefully you’ve seen that I’m a pretty happy person. If I see you on campus, chances are I’m going to smile and ask what’s up.

I’ve always considered myself an outgoing person, but it was during my sophomore year that I realized the importance of making a concertJimmy ed effort to reach Rodríguez Commentary out to others. editor I was one of four sophomores on the varsity baseball team, so, naturally, I was nervous going into the season. In general, I kept my mouth shut unless talking to the other sophomores and just minded my own business around the upperclassmen. Soon, however, this all changed.

The seniors on that team, members of the class of 2016, changed my perspective on the role of upperclassmen and the impact they can have on younger students.

And it was all because of a simple hug.

It was during a game early in the season, and coach Hunter decided to give me a chance to play second base so he could see what the best fits would be for each position.

My heart was pounding during my first at-bat.

I worked the count to two balls and two strikes, and I got a fastball on the outside of the plate. As I threw my hands at the ball and watched it go into right field for a base hit — my first on the varsity team — I was overjoyed. Even though the game didn’t matter and it was in a low-stress situation

GRID

THE

Word on the

STREET

Students and faculty share their opinions on issues in the news and around campus.

‘

NOTICED

BAFFLING Support for Hockaday Although many Hockaday students show support for our sports teams, we are not reciprocating this. Marksmen should try to make it out to a few Hockaday sports games before the year is over.

Senioritis Although we are happy to hear about where the seniors have been accepted into college for next year, we sincerely hope seniors will finish the year strong, culminating what has been a productive and fun year.

Spring pep rally The April 6 pep rally was a huge success.

Students and faculty alike loved the inflatable obstacle course brought into Hicks Gym, and the energy at that night’s lacrosse game against ESD was magnificent.

Spring Fling Spring Fling, with the theme “A Dance for the Decades,” provided a great party for the entire Upper School to enjoy last Saturday night. Our thanks to Student Council President Canyon Kyle and the entire student council for putting on an exciting event!

BRILLIANT

‘

Our generation is almost done using Facebook anyway. It’s not a concern to me.

Alexander Zuch Freshman

Our opinions on what’s going on around campus, all in one place.

Sleeping during guest speakers We were shocked to see students falling asleep during a recent guest speaker’s address to the Upper School. It is a privilege to have notable guests visit the school, and students must be sure to be respectful and listen to what they have to say.

With just a little over a month left, I know I wanted to end this column in some way that lets me make the tough goodbyes.

To the Class of 2018, to The ReMarker, to my family, my teachers, the younger classmen and to anyone else I’m probably forgetting, this place has changed my life and without you, there would be no me.

But the best part of this place is the fact that it doesn’t end May 25.

To my 89 brothers, whether you’re a short drive or a 12-hour plane ride away (Jake…), there will be plenty more memories made over the next several years. To The ReMarker, I’m just a call away if you need me and be sure to send me copies next year. To my family, I think you know I’ll be around (yes, mom, I’ll call you regularly). To my teachers, I’m looking forward to finally being able to friend you guys on Facebook, and you can expect me to make the office-to-office rounds when I’m on breaks.

And finally, to the younger classmen, be ready to leave here on the highest note possible — senior year lives up to the hype and saves the best of this place for last.

Thanks for the brain-dump and sorry if this column was a bit allover-the-place.

That’s just the spring fever talking — complete with uneasy excitement, bittersweet nostalgia and tough goodbyes.

with nobody on and nobody out, I still felt on top of the world.

The coach called time to go check on the pitcher, and during this break, Brannon Rouse ‘16, one of the seniors on the team, did something I’ll never forget.

He came out of the dugout, ran up to me and gave me a massive hug. I know it sounds a little silly, but for a sophomore who barely knew the seniors on the team and who had just accomplished a goal he’d had since first grade, this was more than just a hug.

It was a message. That I belonged on the team.

That the upperclassmen actually cared about me.

That there was nothing to be worried about.

That hug is a perfect example of how those seniors acted toward me the entire season. They exemplified leadership and character, and under their guidance, we were able to win the SPC championship that year.

After my experience sophomore year, I decided I wanted to be for younger students what those seniors were for me: an example, a friend, a leader.

Through baseball and basketball, Telos and The ReMarker, coach Guiler’s basketball camps and lunch periods spent playing frisbee on the quad, I built a network of guys in various other grades who can count on me for advice, support, or just friendship.

And as I became closer with more and more people on campus, my attitude on a daily basis got brighter and brighter.

I went from walking silently from class to class to looking forward to those five minute passing periods. From keeping my head down to saying “hi” to my peers, my friends, my brothers who are making my 12th year on this campus one that I’ll never forget.

And hopefully, the guys who I’ve become close with will do the same when they’re upperclassmen.

Because if the Class of 2016 taught me one thing, it’s that an upperclassman shouldn’t be scary, intimidating, shut off from the rest of the school.

He should ask how your day is going. He should be approachable. He should be someone who’ll celebrate your successes and support you when you struggle.

He should be there.

Security follow-up meetings We were happy to Spring basket drive hear that the security team, led by The Spring Basket Dale Hackbarth, Drive was a great has begun meetway to bring the ing with each school together grade to discuss to support a great what to do in the cause. With nearly event of a campus every Middle and threat.

Upper School advisory contributing to a basket, we know the school had a positive impact on the greater community through this event.

OVERLOOKED

I don’t like Facebook, and now in light of this, it makes me dislike it even more.

Nicholas Cook eighth-grader

‘

It’s not going to stop me from using Facebook. I still disapprove of the sale of my data without my consent.

William Gonzalez sophomore

‘

No, I don’t trust them as much anymore. I’m worried about my personal info.

Madden Smith junior

Do you trust Facebook after the Cambridge Analytics scandal gave up the information of 50 million people?

‘

Your data is not private. It is also valuable, with companies funneling a huge amount of money into the data industry.”

Meyer Zinn sophomore

‘

I’ve never used Facebook, and I dont plan on it after this scandal. There are much better options out there.

William Aniol freshman

‘

I don’t trust any of this stuff. It’s surprising that people expect privacy on the internet anymore. This kind of thing has been going on for a while. It troubles me that the public are willing to hand over their private info to these companies.

Bruce Westrate Marcus Master Teaching Chair

Page 24 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Commentary

Finding my brothers on the playing fields and behind those beige doors

I

always wanted a brother.

Growing up with four sisters was a blast — don’t get me wrong — but throughout all those years, I always wanted a brother.

I never knew I’d get 89 of them.

It all started in Middle School football. Me and a group of other nervous football hopefuls sat, knees shaking, hearts thumping, lined up in Zach the locker room like Gilstrap Managing sardines before the editor highly-anticipated ESD game.

Back in those days, a lot was riding on this game.

Social media posts and Preston Hollow-wide wordof-mouth drove the anticipation of this game up to a monstrous height, and in the moments before the game, we were tense, scared, afraid, excited.

But when we hit the field, we went into overdrive and countless tackles, pitfalls and questionable calls later, we won triumphantly. And five years later, I view that exhilarating win as the true beginning of our football team’s brotherhood.

From our rather small roster in JV to our hard fought but ultimately unsuccessful season junior year, our journey throughout Upper School hosts plenty of successes and failures. But despite it all, our grade’s intense passion for each other’s prosperity led to our

ReMarker staff.

Many of my closest friends belong to this community, this band of brothers who spend long weekday production nights designing page after page, recounting story after story, choosing color after color to create the best product possible.

And no, I’m not dramatizing this — newspaper, although it was the most time-consuming activity I participated in, really helped me feel as though I was a part of something bigger than myself, something bigger than a grade on a report card. And I know that from now on, whenever I see a section we designed back in junior year or hear a timelessly-funny quip from Ray, I’ll feel a sense of overwhelming pride in the fact that I spent my fair share of time living behind that big beige door.

And although I’ve already cliched myself into oblivion, when talking about a place like St. Mark’s, I really believe there’s no other option. What this school has done for me can’t be described in some creative, left-of-field manner — and really, it doesn’t have to be.

I can speak so simply as to say that St. Mark’s, a place that has nurtured and nourished me, a place that has completely changed my future, has given me a lifetime supply of brothers, a lifetime supply of inside jokes and hilariously good times.

And while I’m away from this amazing place, I’ll always keep in mind what wondrous glories lie on the gridiron and behind that ominous beige door.

senior year being a huge success, the culmination of all the hardships and tribulations experienced in the past.

Now this all may sound cliche, but hear me out: I have never had a closer group of friends – of brothers – than what I had with the football team. And after our heartbreaking loss to ESD at the end of last season, spirits were initially low. Walking back solemnly to the locker room, tears of disappointment and loss streamed freely down our eye-black covered faces, and as we entered the locker room, the concrete hull of a building was completely silent.

But moments later, like a ray of morning light peeking through the clouds, an air of pride and love swept through the locker room. The team, sophomores and up, embraced as brothers, commemorating a season hard fought, a brotherhood for lifetime.

In a room several feet away from the gridiron lives another source of brotherhood for me here: the journalism suite. That fabled room was where I spent the majority of my time during Upper School; to put it shortly, I lived in those rooms behind that big, ominous beige wooden door.

Immersing myself in news writing, page design and the wonderfully wacky world of journalism was the joy of a lifetime, a classic and essential St. Mark’s experience. But beyond the newspaper itself, I found a group of the smartest, most hard working, most reliable and most outrageous group of brothers working on The

Why everyone should ‘lean in’ to make this school worth it

I

t’s a bright Wednesday morning as I enter Hoffman, warning the touring parents not to trip over the sea of backpacks in front of them.

“So I know the school is pretty hard,” a parent in the back asks. “What makes all the work worth it?”

Most guides would give a long answer about the various extracurriculars, the brilliant teachers with ample office hours, or the innovative curriculum that teaches students to engage. Instead I take a moment to look around the building, as my fellow ReMarker members joke around while they design new Ice Bowl jerseys, Alec as laughter rings out of the Dewar Senior Lounge when Seun Communications advances in the Smash Bros editor tournament, and as a fifth grader frantically hurls a wiffle ball towards a senior ready to lay down a tag. I laugh and give a two word answer: “the students.”

Because it really is the students that make this place worth it for me.

Everything else that our school does is an added bonus, but it is the way that students are taught to engage one another at this school that makes it worth it. A shy freshman walks in to his first class in high school and through a series of Harkness table discussions, interactions with older classmates and mentoring from faculty, leaves a socially active member of the community.

These unique relationships that students are able

to foster transcends grade levels, giving a graduating Marksman years of connections for the future. Upon entering my senior homecoming, I’m greeted by a barrage of freshman excitedly telling me about the awkward bus ride, a wave of sophomores on ReMarker joking about my last blunder on the paper, a group of juniors making fun of my messed up tie and an annoyed homecoming date.

It is all of these people that I will remember from my time at St. Mark’s, not the long nights or unexpected pop quizzes.

As a senior that’s been hit with just about everything St. Mark’s has to throw at him, I give one piece of advice:

make friends.

No matter what you are going through at this school, it is the friendships you create that will make the experience worth it. Whether you’re catching up on a couple hundred pages of annotations, staying up at school until 10 o’clock to finish a story, or studying for two tests and an in class essay on a Monday night, there is no better a way to endure than surrounded by people going through the same thing.

Mr. Morris says this all the time in his classes and I think that it applies to everything you do here: “Lean in.”

The culture at St. Mark’s is such that if you lean in and engage with the community, the community will give you so much back. St. Mark’s teaches students how to handle a large workload so that they can get the most out of the rest of their educational experience. In life, creating a community in a work environment allows us to turn what would be tedious hours of studying to working with a community towards a shared goal.

So work hard, engage, lean in and remember what makes this place worth it — the students.

TAKING

Unsung hero

Ar

the glo

b

STOCK

e

d oun

Looking at the rising and falling stocks around campus

2016-2017 publications win crowns

A discussion of issues outside the scope of campus, around the country and across the globe.

Don Denman

Grounds Supervisor

T

he ReMarker would like to thank Don Denman for all he does for the school on a daily basis.

Not only does he excel in his job as grounds supervisor, ensuring that the campus is in order and looking nice for students, faculty, staff and visitors alike, but he also plays a vital role for the varsity baseball team.

Before each varsity game, Denman prepares Arthur Ruff Field by smoothing out the dirt in the infield and around home plate, which ensures regular hops on ground balls. He also places chalk down on the foul lines so the players and umpires can clearly see the difference between fair and foul balls. On top of this, in the event of rainy weather, Denman spends hours making the field playable by putting dry dirt in the infield and smoothing it out.

Without a doubt, Denman is vital to the team’s success.

Once again, we would like to express our greatest appreciation for everything Don Denman does.

Thank you, Mr. Denman.

Stormy Daniels scandal raises further questions of President Trump’s morality

A

dult film star Stormy Daniels is suing President Trump for a “hush agreement” they made based off of an alleged affair they had starting in 2006. Mrs. Daniels claims that she has been threatened multiple times to stay quiet about all of the claimed happenings. The President and his staff are suing the film star back, creating the biggest controversy of Trump’s presidency thus far.

This dispute brings up many questions about the President’s morality. As the most powerful man in our country, every move he makes, every action he performs and every word he says is watched over very strenuously.

He has a whole country of followers, so shouldn’t he be setting a good moral example instead of getting tangled up in a dispute with an adult film star? This is not what we want to see out of our President, and even if these rumors are just rumors, we hope the President will be the utmost example of morality and integrity throughout the rest of his presidency.

Congratulations to the five student publications from last year, all of which won either Gold or Silver Crowns at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s National Conference over Spring Break.

Latin Team success We applaud David Cox and Claire Strange for their excellent work in preparing the novice, intermediate and advanced teams for success at the Texas State Junior Classical League Area C competition.

Skipping chapel Too many students are skipping chapel. We have chapel once a week, and it is a good time to reflect on our actions, so we hope that students halt this unholy offense.

Phone usage By now, all students should know which areas on school are acceptable phone usage zones, yet students continue to use their phones wherever they want, so please follow the rules and guidelines provided for phone usage.

Page 25

We’re all just one big team

Executive page editor Mike Mahowald looks back on his time in the stands

SPORTS

B

ig props to Garrett Mize and Willie Wood.

Scoring a buzzer beater, a game winning goal and then enduring a thousand pound dog pile is pretty savage. At the best lacrosse team in the state’s stadium too.

I would just like to say that I was the first man to storm Highland Park’s field.

Anyway, when I look back on a twelve-year career at an all male institution, it’s the memories on the fields and in the gyms that are most vivid, that bring back the most powerful emotions.

They make me realize how lucky I have been to be in a community like ours.

I’ve said it before, Mike Mahowald but a St. Executive Mark’s page editor student section is a powerful thing.

One hundred students form a cohesive unit of chanting Owen Berger photo and spirit to cheer on our best friends. Even the freshmen at the top of the stands play a role.

I get chills replaying Parker Dixon’s buzzer beater over ESD or Willie’s shot against Highland Park. These are our teams.

My first year in Upper School, I was intimidated. The sophomore, junior and senior classes stood together rooting our football team on to a victory against Cistercian. My buddies and I tentatively joined in, handing out a couple high fives here and there.

Then everything clicked. A junior called my name out and invited me to the front row. It was the first time I was really welcomed into a St. Mark’s Upper School community.

So my advice to all you youngsters who have yet to make it through the academic ringer we all go through: have a broader view of things.

There are nights when you will have an entire physics Webassign due at midnight, and the only thing you feel is hopeless. It’s a really overwhelming feeling.

But it is so comforting to know that there is just one other person who is in there with you.

It will make your night a lot brighter. Don’t get isolated.

The last thing you should believe is that this is a competition. We are all teammates experiencing the same victories and defeats.

To quote the great Dr. John Perryman, “This is the varsity.”

We are all on the varsity.

Make it count. Whether it’s playing golf together, having a weekly poker night, or anything else, find time to spend together.

Your classmates at St. Mark’s are incredible students, athletes and friends.

Don’t go through this place without knowing that. Make it happen.

MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAMS LOOK TO FINISH SEASON STRONG Both Middle School baseball teams have each played five games, with the seventh grade holding a record of 2-2-1 and eighth grade having a 1-4 record.

The two teams will compete against Oakridge April 18 and Episcopal School of Dallas April 19 in their final games MASON RARESHIDE against SPC opponents this season.

The Middle School lacrosse blue team has a record of 2-1 and will play at Highland Park Wednesday. The gold team sits at 2-2 and will play a home game tonight against Keller.

Tennis is also underway, boasting a record of 3-1. The

SMASH A BACKHAND

Freshman Mark Motlow launches a backhand across the court during the tennis team’s match against ESD March 1. The team won both that match and their counter match against the Eagles April 5. The team’s next match is a counter match on Tuesday against Cistercian.

Sports in brief team’s next match is against Cistercian on Wednesday, and their final match is at home against Trinity Valley School April 26.

Track and field’s next meet is April 19 at Trinity Christian Academy.

Water polo has started its season with a record of 5-1-1.

JV TEAMS LOOK TO CONTINUE EARLY SUCCESS The two JV teams in the spring sports season, baseball and lacrosse, began their seasons with promise.

JV lacrosse beat both of their opponents thus far, McKinney and Rockwall, by large deficits.

Coming off a 17-5 victory over Rockwall, the team looks to continue their winning streak Tuesday when they face Plano West Senior High School in a

home game.

JV baseball, comprised of all freshmen, has gone 1-3-1 in their first five games. Coming off a down-to-the-wire tie against Trinity Christian Academy, the team looks to pick up the pace going forward.

The team’s next game is Tuesday night against Cistercian.

SENIOR CLAY MORRIS SETS LONG JUMP RECORD Senior Clay Morris on March 24 set the Bradley V. Urschel Invitational meet record for the long jump with 22’2.5.”

The track captain also won the high jump event and in the previous week, set a personal record of 6’6”, placing third on the all-time record list for the Lions track team for the high jump.

Both record-setting jumps are

the second highest scores in the SPC currently.

Morris will look to take the SPC titles when teams meet here May 4-5.

LACROSSE TEAM TRAVELS TO NORTH CAROLINA Head coach Hayward Lee’s lacrosse team earned valuable in-game experience against some of the country’s most elite high school teams during their trip to North Carolina over JOHN BURTON Spring Break.

In their first game, the Lions lost 8-7 in overtime against St. Anne’s Belfield from Charlottesville, VA after the potential game-winning shot bounced off the goalpost.

In what would turn out to be

its final game, the team beat South Carolina’s Wando High School 9-4. Its last game was canceled due to a snowstorm.

EIGHTH GRADER FEATURED ON SPORTSCENTER Eighth grader Colin Smith received national coverage after being featured on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays segment Feb. 28.

In his highlight, Smith, who stands at 6-feet-6 inches tall, was seen by SportsCenter’s millions of viewers dunking a basketball while jumping over and clearing the opposing defender standing between him and the basket.

The play, which landed sixth on the list, occured during the eighth grade gold basketball team’s game against Home School Athletic Association this past winter.

­­­­­­—Josh Daniels, Aaron Thorne, Nathan Han, Colin Campbell, Parker Davis

Inside

26

The scoreboard Varsity Lacrosse

4 3

Where to play

Taking a look at the athletes who forego St. Mark’s sports for athletics elsewhere.

Wins

Varsity Tennis

5 2

27

UIL certifications

One of the biggest athletic bodies in Texas is taking a look at player safety.

29

Wins

31

Heading for SPC

Setting the stage for SPC as teams enter the meat of their counter seasons.

Losses

Varsity Baseball

4 6

Wins

Losses

Varsity Water Polo

8 1

Wins

Losses

Spectating advice from the Superfans

‘

Film in sports

Many sports use film, but many don’t. What are the advantages, and why not use it?

Losses

Highlight reel

‘

As the seasons come to a close, attendance has been spotty at best.

We’ve been strong all year, and now student sections are falling off. Let’s pick it up and cheer on the boys in their final few games.”

— Senior Sam Sussman The student section against ESD was awesome, and it is paramount that this level of spirit is brought to every game for the rest of the season. Yell loudly, be there early and keep up the good work.”

— Senior Will Wood

‘

Junior attackman Connor Cheetham [My goal for this season is] to be able to do whatever my team needs me to do, be it scoring, feeding or playing a different role such as getting players open or giving them easier and more opportunities to score.”

6

Goals

7

Assists

42

Greatest amount of minutes played this season out of a possible 48

Page 26 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Sports

THE OTHER NAME ACROSS THEIR BACKS Student athletes

Every day, hundreds of athletes take to fields across the school, working to bring home an SPC Championship.

But there are some, just a few, that find themselves giving up the Lions name in favor of playing for another team.

S

core: 1-0. Time ticking off the clock. One more save, and he’ll have a shutout victory.

The opposing player drives down the side of the field, dribbling towards the goal.

Senior Nick Malvezzi knows it will come down to this. The striker enters the box, plants his foot and fires.

Malvezzi leaps to his left, extending his arms towards the tailing ball. The ball falls right into his outstretched gloves, right as time expires. His teammates run out onto the field, congratulating him and celebrating the victory.

It’s your typical high-school athletic triumph. But there’s just one difference. Malvezzi isn’t playing for his high school.

the development process of helping people grow.”

Sullivan doesn’t necessarily see an inherent difference in playing for a team outside of school when it comes to growing and maturing as young men. However, he questions whether coaches and trainers outside of the school environment will have the same motivations.

“They’re still participating on a team,” Sullivan said.

“They’re still having those team experiences. Now, you start then separating out, do the adults that are working with them in that setting have the same sorts of goals?”

Sullivan, though he would love to see as many people as possible play for the school, understands the decision some athletes make.

“Nobody is requiring that person, for example, on that soccer team, to sign that contract,” Sullivan said.

“That’s your choice to do that. It’s just a decision, and I respect it. It’s a decision that you as an individual and a family as a singular unit has to make for themselves, and I respect that.”

After years away from school soccer, Malvezzi has found many either don’t understand or don’t appreciate his decision to play for the Academy.

“I’ve gotten a good amount of push back, both lighthearted and more serious, for not playing for St. Mark’s,” Malvezzi said. “I think the frustration is highlighted at times, but I’ve mainly received playful jabs from my friends for not playing for St. Mark’s.”

Malvezzi, who instead plays soccer for the Dallas Texans

BLURRED LINES Despite the school offering over a dozen varsity sports, some students still choose to pursue athletics outside of school rather than with the Lions.

‘

‘

in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, is just one of many students here who have chosen to forgo playing for Lions athletic teams in favor of other programs outside of school.

“When it came time to either play in the Development Academy, the top level of youth soccer in the US, or to join a less competitive team in the club — which would allow me to also play high school soccer — there was no question in my mind,” Malvezzi said.

Malvezzi attributes his decision to forgo a school soccer career to the opportunities playing club can offer him that he says the school can’t compete with.

“The youth soccer landscape is one where the best coaches, competition, facilities and opportunities lie in club soccer and not in the high school game,” Malvezzi said. “Not to mention that the private school soccer season is only three months, whereas the club season is year-round.”

Sophomore Daniel Ardila has followed a similar path in tennis, with the ultimate goal of having the opportunity to continue playing after he leaves the school.

“To reach the goal of playing college tennis, I actually have to push myself every day,” Ardila said. “And to do that, I feel like I have to seek training at other places, places where my coaches are, places where I can develop.”

Ardila sees the track he took as a truly natural specialization for athletes as they move out of Middle School and into Upper School.

“I think diversity in sports and playing a bunch of different things is really important,” Ardila said, “but I think when you get older and you have a specific track you want to follow, then it gets really important to drop the other stuff and focus on that one thing.”

Senior Calvin Hosler, who competes for both the wrestling and baseball teams, has worn the Lions name across his chest since seventh grade, both on the mat and on the field. Unlike, Malvezzi and Ardila, he sees his experience playing for the school as a part of his career he could never give up. “[Athletics] have a huge effect on my spirit and the spirit of the school,” Hosler said. “Sports are where schools can manifest themselves, whether positive or negative. When our teams win and also have class and sportsmanship, it feels good.”

School athletics, Hosler adds, have taught him invaluable lessons that are only learned outside the classroom.

“I’ve learned how to deal with failure, especially after my injuries and defeats,” Hosler said. “I’ve also learned important qualities of leadership. Sports have given me an opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself and have that chance to make an impact on other people, especially after being part of St. Mark’s sports since seventh grade.”

Athletic Director Mark Sullivan agrees with Hosler about the impact school athletics can have.

“I think that’s what makes this place special,” Sullivan said. “As somebody who has done the Wilderness Program a number of times as well as managed in the athletics program for a long time, those experiences on teams or in groups outside of a classroom are huge moments in

I ALWAYS PLACE MY ACADEMICS HIGHER THAN MY TENNIS, BUT MY TENNIS IS A CLOSE SECOND.’

Sophomore Daniel Ardila

‘WE WANT TO WIN, BUT NOT AT ALL COSTS. WE’RE NOT GOING TO SACRIFICE OUR CHARACTER.

Athletic Director Mark Sullivan

Soccer: The Academy vs. St. Mark’s Academy

St. Mark’s

12

Hours per Week

12

35

Games

21

4 20

Coaches

1

Players

16

THE BREAKDOWN

15

the number of varsity sports offered here

teams across Middle and Upper School

8

Lions athletes by number of sports played by percent

One...

41 percent

Two...

37

None...

14

Three...

8

SENIORS PLAYING COLLEGE ATHLETICS Source: Athletic Department

• Story Parker Davis, Connor Pierce Photo Kyle Smith

Kareem Itani ’13 competed on an Academy team similar

to Malvezzi’s during his freshman year here. However, after taking a year off from soccer to focus on other aspects of his experience at St. Mark’s, Itani began competing for the school during his junior year.

Itani appreciated and enjoyed his time playing for the school, and even without the exposure club teams can provide, he was still able to advance his career to the next level, joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s team after graduation.

“I felt like I was having more fun while I was playing [at the school],” Itani said. “Academy is definitely fun for those who are very, very competitive at soccer, but at some point it becomes more of a burden than a hobby.”

Even though he has decided to focus on tennis outside of school, Ardila agrees with Itani that school sports can provide a more enjoyable and rewarding experience, in some ways. Because of this, he plans to return to the school tennis team for his senior year.

“I think I am missing out, honestly, just on a great social time with my peers,” Ardila said. “I played soccer, too, and soccer isn’t even my main sport, but because there wasn’t as much of a time restriction, I could play those sports in Middle School. I’m just going to look forward to playing as a senior just because hopefully by then I’ll have the load of college off my plate.”

Unlike what Ardila plans to do, Malvezzi continued to play for the Academy through his senior season, during which he committed to play collegiate soccer for Boston University beginning this fall.

“I think it was no coincidence that [Boston University] saw me at the Development Academy showcase, where there were coaches from all over the country and from all divisions of the NCAA. If I had played for [St. Mark’s], there’s a strong chance I wouldn’t be playing soccer in Boston in the fall.”

Even though Malvezzi never got the opportunity to represent his school alongside his classmates, he still has no regrets regarding his decision to play club soccer in pursuit of a college career.

“I always strive to be the best in anything I do and reach the highest level when putting my time and effort into something,” Malvezzi said. “The Development Academy allowed me to do both of those things. While I certainly would’ve enjoyed my time on the field with my classmates, I’ve enjoyed my club experience and wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Sports • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 27

COACHING COACHES ON PREVENTING INJURY Keeping perspective

After years of increased concussion awareness at all levels of football, the University Interscholastic League is making changes to what coaches need to know about concussions and how to prevent them.

I

n 2017, Lions football team members were diagnosed with a combined total of one contact-induced concussion.

One. But this number shouldn’t be a surprise; it is rather a microcosm of high school football’s new trend: player safety.

After years of an unsafe and concussion narrative surrounding the sport of football. Texas, the state which graduates the highest number of Division I football commits in the country nearly every year, is at the forefront of this increasing emphasis on safety for its athletes.

In October 2017, The University Interscholastic League (UIL) passed a bill mandating that all Texas high school football coaches be certified to teach tackling.

With new SPC regulations seemingly sure to follow, Texas has taken an unprecedented measure to combat football’s biggest problem.

In the last five years, Texas has lost 49 football programs and an estimated total of 3,500 players at the high-school level.

From Pop Warner participation plummeting to NFL ratings decreasing, it seems that football has somewhat lost its lure.

Movies like Concussion featuring Will Smith and testimonies from ex-football players have brought to light the risk of putting on the helmet and shoulder pads.

In a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, three out of 14 ex-high school football players were found to suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a trauma induced disease causing memory loss and other symptoms.

While these recent findings have caused negative press attention for the sport nationally, a conscious effort is being made to combat this issue through an emphasis on correct tackling form and procedure. To the coaches, officials and players behind this effort, football is not dangerous; it was just being played in a wrong, reckless manner before.

The UIL bill, passed in October 2017 and released to the public on March 20, showcases the attitude of change those in

ON THE LINE Players prepare for the snap during the Lions’ scrimmage against Prestonwood Christian Academy Aug. 25. The University Interscholastic League is attempting to further improve player safety with measures the SPC has yet to take on.

charge of football now feel.

In a press release on the organization’s website, the following was written: “The University Interscholastic League (UIL) and the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) have worked collaboratively to take an unprecedented step forward to make football a safer sport. In October 2017, the UIL Legislative Council passed a rule requiring every Texas high school and junior high school football coach to become certified in teaching tackling as a part of the official UIL Coaches Certification Program beginning with the 2018-19 school year.”

Also found in the press release were the thoughts of the executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association D.W Rutledge: “The game is changing, and we have to be willing to change with it,” Rutledge says in the article.

• Story Colin Campbell, Nathan Han Photo Courtesy Kathan Ramnath Verbatim

The situation Four athletes on how music has come to be a key part of their workouts.

‘ ‘

Listening to music while erging helps us to zone out during our lengthy workouts.

Edwardo LudwigBernardo, Senior crew captain

‘

I would say that music plays a role in our warm up before games because it gets the players ready to go and gets us game ready. Outside of warmups music doesn’t have a big role, but before games it’s crucial.”

Sam Schroeder, Senior lacrosse captain

We have walk-up songs, one song for every player on the team. The songs get us in the zone and gives us that home field advantage feel which is really important for the success of the team.”

Calvin Hosler, Senior baseball player

‘

We listen to music in practice when we’re playing individuals. Listening to a song I know pumps me up and gives me a sense of positive energy while I’m playing. I think that when I hear good music during tennis, it translates to success when I’m playing my actual match, but I still have to focus in and bear down to win when I actually play.”

Alex Piccagli, Sophomore tennis player

“By implementing a mandatory tackling certification, we’re continuing our legacy in Texas as leaders in high school football and taking necessary steps to move the game forward. Preventing injuries is paramount for all coaches and players, and we felt that as an organization it was our duty to seek out the best possible solutions to keeping our players safe.”

As for St. Mark’s, these new requirements

do not apply because of its private school status. But for head football coach Bart Epperson, safety has always been important no matter the official “rules.”

“Every year we’re reviewing new techniques and safer techniques that have gone through USA Football,” Epperson said. “ I’ll go out and ask other coaches, not just in high school but at the collegiate level, and I’ll ask ‘what are you guys

teaching and how are you teaching it?’”

Epperson also believes that safe tackles can be good tackles.

“I think you can have a safe, effective tackle where neither one can get hurt,” Epperson said. “We spend a lot of time filming our practices and when I watch film, I make sure our guys are blocking the right way and hitting the correct way so we are safe in everything we do.”

Texas is the first state to pass a bill of this sort and more are sure to follow as this movement gains momentum.

Epperson believes this bill puts writing on the wall for new SPC regulations.

“For the SPC, if the UIL passes it, there’s a good chance we’re going to adopt that and all the studying that they’ve done,” Epperson said. “At the end of the day, we’ll look at it, and if it’s something we need to tweak and adjust, we’ll do it.”

Page 28• The ReMarker• April 13, 2018 • Sports

big upset Next level

Former Lions basketball assistant coach and current graduate assistant on the UMBC men’s basketball team recounts his experience with the team’s historic upset in the NCAA Tournament as well as his time here.

MARCH MADNESS Jake Brudish (second from left) looks on during the team’s opening practice at the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County men’s basketball team made history by becoming the first ever 16-seed to knock off a 1-seed in the men’s tournament by taking down the University of Virginia 74-54.

> Basketball has taken me all over the world and I could not be more thankful. Growing up playing in [the Amateur Athletic Union], we would play around 100 games per year across the country, which gave me great exposure and competition at a young age. My father and I also founded a nonprofit, Hoops International Inc., in 2007. Our motto at Hoops International is “Off the court, into the world.”

We run camps and clinics for at-risk youth and coaches from around the world, using basketball as a common ground to address a number of cultural issues.

We have worked with groups from over twenty-five countries here in the U.S., and I’ve traveled to Lebanon, the Caribbean, Columbia South America and Australia a few times. In college I got to play in some unbelievable environments, but the NCAA tournament experience this year with UMBC was absolutely remarkable. > As a player, I’m proud that I scored over 1,000 points in high school and that I was part of a successful Division I team at SMU playing for Hall of Fame Coach Larry Brown. I think my greatest accomplishment is all the hard work that I’ve put in that has allowed my teams to win through the years. Whether it be high-level pickup, AAU, high school, college and now coaching, the foundation set in my early years has given me success at all levels.

My basketball IQ, skill set and passion has

HISTORIC WIN Jake Brudish (third from left) celebrates as UMBC became the first 16 seed to defeat a 1 seed in the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

enabled me to be a complementary team member who understands my role on any team, and that is probably what I am most proud of. > I most enjoy building relationships and trust with players. I love bringing positive energy every day on the court. When I see the light bulb turn on for players, and they gain confidence in themselves and their teammates, it is an amazing feeling that I can’t get enough of. Even more rewarding is seeing this sense of confidence and emotional-intelligence translate off the court. > I owe all of my passion for basketball and coaching to my dad, Stan Brudish. He put a halt on his business career when I was young to coach me and spend time with me in the gym. At a young age playing roughly 100 games per year, my family was able to travel, meet different people and were a part of an inclusive community which meant the world to me. Some of my fondest memories are my dad coaching high school when I was in middle school.

Today, it is hard to walk into a bar in downtown Annapolis without having a former player of my dad’s get emotional, telling me how much he meant to them. I then get emotional, often moved to tears and have to step outside. Moments like this have really inspired me to want to make a similar impact. > One of my coaches at SMU, George Lynch, his son Jalen played at St. Mark’s and G Lynch spoke very highly of Coach Guiler.

Knowing that, I took similar initiative that I was always asked to take on the court.

I picked up the phone and called Coach Guiler and the rest was history. We met up for lunch on campus that week and him and I hit it off on both a basketball and personal level. I felt a great vibe from the people around campus that day, and knew that this would be a special opportunity.

I can’t thank Coach enough for believing in me and letting me be a part of the St.

Mark’s community for a year. I feel like I still am, and that says a lot about the inclusive character that St. Mark’s embodies. > I enjoyed so much about my time at St. Mark’s, but mostly the relationships I formed and built upon. I most remember the long conversations Coach Guiler and I would have at night after practice. Coach inspired and challenged me in new ways, bringing a sense of purpose and peace into my life which I will forever be thankful for. > Persistence and building relationships led me to UMBC. My dad and I started to get to know the staff when they got to Maryland two summers ago. I’d come up and play pickup with the team, and also played pickup with [Head] Coach [Ryan] Odom’s son in Annapolis. He is a sophomore where I went to high school. I also worked Coach Odom’s camps here at UMBC, which allowed me to spend time around the program. Building a rapport with our staff made my decision easy once Coach Odom offered me a graduate assistant position. They are all high character, family guys and I think those characteristics really shined through this season. >My time at St. Mark’s really inspired me to be myself and follow my heart. I had a blast in college, but it was not easy to find my niche in a lot of ways. I felt at home when I was on the court • ‘Embrace at St. Mark’s. I was also each moment.

There will be inspired by the care that ups and downs the boys had for one and it is easy to another – they really get hung up on were a team and a great outside hype or emotions.’ community as a whole.

Jake Brudish My high school basketball team and group of friends never went to wrestling or swimming matches, but the St. Mark’s kids genuinely supported all of their classmates in so many ways. I definitely hope to bring that sense of inclusiveness with me moving

forward. >We worked hard, and accomplished a lot all season. Our season entailed a lot of “firsts.” It was our first time beating Vemont in 23 games. First time beating Stony Brook on the road in ten years. First time winning the America East Championship in ten years. Second time beating Albany in the last 19 meetings.

We got more and more comfortable in that role, and truly believed “Why not us?” We also knew that our style of play was different than Virginia was used to facing, and we could use that to our advantage. As a team, everyone continued to buy into Coach’s philosophy, and we were excited to compete against a great team.

No secrets here. The hard work that this team had been putting in for the last two years laid the foundation, and we were fortunate to go out and execute as a team. >I don’t think it’s really hit yet. To be honest, when the game was over, I was just honored to shake [Virginia head basketball] Coach [Tony] Bennett’s hand, someone that I have respected from afar for years. The hand-shake line was very humbling, and I think that is what’s great about sports. The celebration in the locker room was overwhelming, and it still seems surreal. It is difficult to put into perspective and wrap your mind around when you’re actually a part of it. The responses and everything surrounding the outcome has really been special though. It’s an amazing feeling knowing that we were able to put a smile on people’s faces. >I hope that I can help players translate lessons on the court into real life and help players the same way Coach Odom has helped me. >I definitely aspire to continue coaching at the college level. I hope to be a positive influence on young men, on fans wherever it might be if I’m fortunate enough to do so.

• Story Jahaziel Lopez Photos Courtesy Jake Brudish

Alumni continue to make impactful contributions at the next level

by Colin Campbell or former Marksmen playing collegiate sports, the winter season finished and spring sports have begun.

Jack Gordon ’15 finished the basketball season for the Cornell Big Red as the team’s third leading scorer and most accurate three point shooter with a percentage of 43 percent.

Gordon finished with a career-high 16 points against Dartmouth, a win that propelled the Big Red to its first

F

Ivy League Final Four in school history.

After joining Princeton University’s water polo team as a walk-on, Andrew Lin ’17 started 14 out of 28 games this past season.

Lin scored five goals and registered seven assists for the 14th-ranked Tigers.

Will Ingram ’17 logged minutes in each of Middlebury College’s three Division III basketball tournament games.

The Panthers ultimately reached the Elite Eight in the tournament.

As a volleyball player for the Princeton Tigers, Parker Dixon ’16 has started 21 out of 22 matches so far this season.

He currently ranks third on the team in total blocks, kills and points.

He is second on the team in total digs.

The Tigers currently boast a record of 9 wins and 13 loses.

On the lacrosse field, both Jake Vaughn ‘17 and Nehemiah McGowan ‘17 have made an impact for their teams early in the season.

Vaughn currently ranks third on Sewanee’s squad with 15 goals scored and has started five out of the team’s ten games at attack.

As for McGowan, he has played in several games so far for the Amherst College Mammoths as a long stick midfielder.

Sports • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 29

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL In conversation

With new methods for sports training gaining popularity at the school, watching film is a fundamental, but sometimes overshadowed, way to progress as an athlete.

W

hile the technique, objectives and atmosphere of a sport rarely ever change, the methods of training have evolved throughout the years. In this day and age, watching film is an extremely popular and effective tool which has been utilized by some, but not all, sports at the school.

Websites such as Hudl or Maxpreps, which allow athletes, coaches and even parents to watch and review in-game footage on a mobile device or in a team setting, have had a major impact on high school sports, changing the way film is studied and exchanged as a whole.

Senior lacrosse captain Sam Schroeder believes these websites are key to his and the team’s overall progression.

“There is huge value in being able to go back and watch in-game decision making versus what we retrospectively should have done,” Schroeder said. “There is a ton we can learn on the field, but watching film allows for more perspective.”

While learning from one’s mistakes is possibly the biggest upside to film, Schroeder feels it also improves team chemistry on and off the field.

“Film brings the team closer because when we watch film and see what we do wrong, it’s usually not just one individual’s fault, but rather a group of people,” Schroeder said. “It makes each player accountable so we

WATCHING CLOSELY Senior Sam Schroeder analyzes recent game film, gaining integral information that helps him raise his level of play. Film has proved crucial for sporting success at the school.

don’t make the same mistake in the future.

Furthermore, when someone on the team makes a good play, we recognize it in film, and it boosts the team’s confidence.”

The Impact of Film

40% 40% of sports at the school use film on a regular basis

the year Hudl was founded

Over 160,000

the amount of active teams that use Hudl worldwide

4.2 Million

the number of people who use Hudl worldwide Source: Hudl (www.hudl.com)

Varsity basketball coach Greg Guiler uses film to his advantage and believes it has a significant impact on his team, affecting how he strategizes for practices and games.

“You have to utilize the technology we have at our disposal these days,” said Guiler. “My practice plan absolutely depends on what I see on film. Watching film is probably the number one thing I have our assistant coaches do outside of the practice and game window.”

Beyond the act of watching film as a

team, Guiler finds players can often learn a lot by watching film on their own through online film sites.

“In the past, I’ve taken the guys to the film room, and we watch the film as a group and talk through things,” Guiler said. “This year, I had them bring their own devices to practice the day after a game, and I went through the Hudl film for each kid to be able to watch himself and look at his own clips.”

Even though film is a popular method of athletic progression for multiple sports at the school, there are still many of teams that don’t use film on a regular basis.

Varsity tennis coach Sana Cortais feels while film can be beneficial, it isn’t high on the team’s list of priorities compared to working on technique and fitness.

“Film isn’t something we use in tennis as much as in other sports although it is definitely a beneficial tool in any sport,”

• Story Nick Walsh, Josh Daniels Photo Riley Sanders

Tennis team to undergo staff changes for upcoming season

by Nick Walsh he tennis team, which has had a different head coach each of the last four years, will again have a completely revamped coaching staff for the current spring season.

This year, it will be lead by first-year head coach Sana Cortais and assistant coaches Jerry Lacey and Kathi Eckel.

As a new coach, Cortais will heavily focus on improving team chemistry throughout the season.

“The goal this season is to foster a strong sense of team unity and belonging,” Cortais said. “I want to get the boys to understand working together can help them achieve something way better than working individually. Whatever the results may be, I want to build a sense of brotherhood.”

Cortais understands the recent uncertainty in the tennis coaching position and hopes to work through it with the team.

“Coming in, I knew the team had been through so many changes, so I wanted to start on a fresh slate,” Cortais said. “I wanted to build a standard of bringing te team together so they have a strong sense of unity for the future.”

Cortais looks to embrace the different types of players on the team and train them accordingly.

“Every player has different skills, talents and ways of thinking,” Cortais said. “I want to take each player and develop them to the best they can be based on what they have and can offer.”

T

While training is a big part of the tennis team’s ideals and goals, Cortais looks to develop an atmosphere where her athletes can enjoy the sport as a whole.

“I want to have an environment where we’re working hard but also having a good time,” Cortais said. “It’s a balance of putting in the effort and focus when needed but really enjoying the process at the same time.”

Cortais feels like this unique atmosphere will help the team grow closer, especially when taking consideration of the individuality of tennis.

“It’s nice to be in an environment where you can promote it as a team and develop a sense of accountability and leadership among all the members of the team,” Cortais said.

While victories and championships are definitely a big goal, Cortais feels success is defined more by the foundation of the team.

“Making the season a victory would be getting everybody to feel like they’re part of the team,” Cortais said, “they’re included and everybody feels like they have a big role in being on the team.”

Overall, Cortais is looking forward to the current season.

“I’m really excited for the opportunity to be here and to be part of the school,” Cortais said.

“I’m just eager to have a great time and a successful season. Hopefully we can accomplish great things.”

Cortais said. “Right now we don’t really have the technology, resources or time for it. I feel like I barely get enough time with the boys on the court as it is.”

While many teams use film to their advantage, Cortais doesn’t believe the tennis program’s lack of film hurts the team in any way.

“I don’t know if film has ever been used on the tennis team before,” Cortais said. “I think it could give the team an edge because it’s always good to have a visual of things. But to me, film is something which would be considered a bonus but not a necessity.”

While there are many benefits to film, Guiler believes it’s important not to use film too extensively and potentially overload the team with information.

“I’ve played and been around coaches who’ve watched no film because they didn’t want to allow themselves or their team to be distracted worrying about opponents,” Guiler said. “They just wanted to play their best basketball and let the cards fall as they may.”

Overall, Guiler feels the use of film can be invaluable if used in the correct way and amount.

“When guys are faithful to watch film with a critical eye they grow as players,” Guiler said. “Relying on me to show them stuff is good, but it’s even better when they take the initiative to look at it themselves because they own that coaching.

You are your best coach.”

Page 30 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Sports

FOUR YEARS, TWO SPORTS AND ONE CHAMPIONSHIP 23 minutes with... Jason Leneau

Assistant lacrosse coach Jason Leneau details his experience of being a multi-sport athlete at the University of Virginia.

D

uring his freshman year at the University of Virginia, assistant wrestling and lacrosse coach Jason Leneau couldn’t wait to get his collegiate lacrosse career started. He’d been a wrestling and football star back in high school, but he’s in Charlottesville for lacrosse. Just lacrosse. At least, that’s what he thinks.

As he’s getting in shape for the season, he gets an unexpected phone call. It’s Lenny Bernstein, the then-wrestling coach at Virginia. One of the team’s athletes, who just so happens to wrestle at Leneau’s weight class, has gone down with an injury.

All of a sudden, Leneau, who thought he had put the grind of being a multi-sport athlete behind him, is thrown back into the fire.

That Friday night, as he heads to his first match against Duke, his lacrosse coach, Dom Starsia, stops him and asks where he’s going. Before he can explain himself, Leneau is back in his lacrosse pads and on the practice field. He finally finishes up and, already feeling the effects of being a two-sport college athlete, exhaustedly heads to his match.

To his surprise, despite his exhaustion, he wins his first match as a college wrestler. But with that victory comes something else: the knowledge that the next four years of his life are going to be much different than he thought just a few days before.

Growing up, Leneau had played almost every sport imaginable, from baseball to wrestling to football to lacrosse. But his best sport had always been wrestling.

“Early on in my wrestling career, that was my best sport but not necessarily my favorite,” Leneau said. “I wrestled at a high level and the talk was ‘Should I try out for the Olympics or something crazy like that?’ It sounded awesome and you know that motivated me to continue to work and get better.”

But as his career progressed, he began to wear down from life as a wrestler.

“As the years grew on, I was starting to burn out,” Leneau said. “It’s trying. It wasn’t highly regulated as it is now for safety purposes, and back then, you know, the winter was not always my favorite.”

So, as he started his career at Virginia, his plan was to play lacrosse. But after that call from Bernstein, he was back at the sport that used to be his life.

“You know being a freshman on campus,” Leneau said, “kind of a new kid, new atmosphere, playing [and] participating in another D1 sport was pretty special.

That experience honestly got me back into wrestling again.”

Over the next four years, he wrestled for the team off and on, taking a break for his junior year but returning for his senior season. During that time, Leneau’s main focus remained on lacrosse, where his main role with the team was competing on face-offs. In his freshman year, Leneau was able to contribute to Virginia’s national championship victory.

After that initial triumph, Leneau never again repeated that same success in wrestling or lacrosse, but he still deeply values the time and work he put in as a multi-sport athlete. After his lacrosse team lost in the national semifinal during his senior season, he finally began to put it all into perspective.

“That moment coach shared something with me which was pretty special: ‘Thank you for everything that [you] have done,” Leneau said. “That was a special moment for me because I got the chance to see it all come together from the standpoint of I made the right decision to pursue that Division 1 school and also got to have opportunities while doing it.”

Looking back on his career as a twosport college athlete, Leneau can hardly believe he was able to do everything he did.

“Sometimes it might have been a little bit insane trying go to school and graduate in four years with a degree with two fulltime jobs on top of that,” Leneau said.

But despite the ups and downs and

THE ATHLETE Lacrosse coach Jason Leneau (top) competed in two sports at the University of Virginia, including a national championship in lacrosse. Leneau’s NCAA Championship-winning lacrosse team (above left) in 1999. Mid-reversal, Leneau (above right) attempts to take down his opponent during a match in his time at UVA.

the difficulties he faced in his time at Virginia, in the end, Leneau especially values his time at the school and the unique bonds he was able to form throughout the athletic program.

“The friendships are the biggest

• Story Connor Pierce Photo Owen Berger, courtesy Jason Leneau

Junior exchange student becomes school’s only decathlete

by Jahaziel Lopez, Aaron Thorne unior exchange student Dominik Fronc is preparing for the track and field season, in which he participates in an event that no one else at the school does: the decathlon.

Very few athletes at 10600 Preston Road have ever engaged in this event in the history of the track and field program.

The decathlon is a combined event in track and field, consisting of ten events. It’s held in two consecutive days. The decathlon consists of four runs: 100-meter, 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter and the mile.

It has three jumps: long jump, high jump and pole vault and three throws: discus, javelin, and shot put. The participants get points for performance in each event, and the individual with the most overall points wins.

Fronc grew up doing track and field, but when he started having to focus on certain events, it was hard for him to choose. This is where his interest in decathlon began to grow into a passion.

“I just like all the events,” Fronc said. “Each is so different, and I didn’t really know how to decide which event to specialize on, so that’s why I tried decathlon.”

Fronc won second place in Slovakia, his home country, at the country’s high school

J

national championship event. While choosing a school in his exchange program, he made sure to find a school that would allow him to continue to do track and field.

Fronc has always been passionate about track and field and has been working hard all year for track season, but he faced an obstacle when he broke his fifth metatarsal in his foot earlier in the year. “[The injury] didn’t help me to get better at my sport,” he said. “I came here I worked on it a lot with Trainer Matt, so that helped me. It took me a while to get used to track again after my injury.”

Fronc appreciates the tenacity of the coaching staff, and he feels like he owes part of his success and his recovery to them. “[The coaches] helped me get back from my injury, and they’re really good coaches,” Fronc said. “[In] the practices, they expect you to do as hard as you can, so the practice is really productive. They have a very motivational attitude towards us.”

After his short time in the states, Fronc has established his athletic goal for the year.

“SPC championship,” Fronc said. It’s big here. People take it seriously, so I want to perform as good as I can and get as many points as I can, so we can win.”

things that I appreciate the most,” Leneau said. “You know, we all sweat it together.

We all worked hard [against] each other but battled for the common goal of being champions and the best at what we do. It makes me embrace the grind.”

Sports • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 31

KEEPING PACE Sophomores Christian Duessel and Billy Lockhart and seniors Eduardo Ludwig and Riley Sanders (from left) race during the Heart of Texas Regatta March 3-4.

THE PUSH FORWARD Two minute drill

As the spring season moves into the home stretch, athletes, coaches and teams are a making a push towards titles.

THE PITCH Junior Robert Newman practices his throwing during a practice.

2017 RECORD 12-4 2018 RECORD 10-2 NOTABLE For the first time in twenty years, freshmen greatly outnumber seniors on the team, as there are 16 freshmen on the team and only one senior athlete.

THEY SAID IT I expect for our young guys to gain experience and finally have an opportunity to get stronger, get better, get more experience and get ready for the next one to three years.” ­— head coach Mihai Oprea

THE DRIVE Junior Wheeler Sears looks down the fairway after his opening shot.

2017 SPC FINISH 3rd 2018 RECORD 2-1 NOTABLE The team is excited about competing at Trinity Forest golf course, the new home for the Byron Nelson.

THEY SAID IT “I think we have a good group of guys who have exceeded expectations.

The leadership from our captains has been been outstanding. We can make a run at the SPC tournament, and I think the guys are excited to shock some people.” — head coach Greg Guiler

DOWNSTREAM Sophomore Billy Lockhart paddles during a recent regatta.

VAULTED Junior John Harbison completes a succesful pole vault.

2017 SPC FINISH 4th 2018 BEST FINISH 2nd Place at NOTABLE The 4x200m recently Head of the Colorado Regatta NOTABLE Christian Duessel and set the third best recorded time Billy Lockhart, sophomores, are in the race in St. Mark’s Track and Field history. onthe varsity quad boat, typiTHEY SAID IT “I think that this cally made of upperclassmen. high school season is going THEY SAID IT “This season, the team has been coming together as I projected. I think we are a much improved team, like never before. I love the and overall I think it has done support and enthusiasm this year and I think we’re on what I thought it was going to track to win some medals in the do. A lot of people have come through. I’m just looking for state regatta in Austin and the some big committment here in Centrals regatta in Oklahoma the last five weeks..” — head City.” --- senior captain Riley coach John Turek Sanders

UP THE FIELD Senior Blake Daugherty moves the ball towards the opposing net.

2018 RECORD 6-4 NOTABLE The lacrosse team has one of the most unique schedules of any sport, playing schools such as Highland Park, Jesuit and Plano West.

THEY SAID IT “We’ve made a lot of progress, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.We play in an extremely difficult league full of big 6A and 5A schools all year round. I think that we’re making progress to keep pounding the rock and try to start peaking in April.”

— head coach Hayward Lee

THE TOSS Senior Harris Wilson prepares to serve during a recent match.

2017 RECORD 13-3 2018 RECORD 10-2 NOTABLE Head coach Sana Cortais is the team’s fourth head coach in the past four years.

THEY SAID IT “We are off to a great start to the counter season, and now as we’re getting deeper in we’re really starting to fire together as one team. As we go forward, I would expect for our team to continue to step up, especially those guys who are younger or who are more inexperienced.”

---senior captain Davis Bailey

• Compilations CJ Crawford, Josh Daniels, Parker Davis, Nathan Han, Jahaziel Lopez, Nick Walsh Photos Riley Sanders, Will Rocchio, Owen Berger

In the picture

REMARKER JUST A DAY AT THE BEACH Dressed in beach attire, Marksmen across the Upper School cheer on the varsity lacrosse team as they take on ESD April 7. The Lions lost the game 10-9 in overtime.

St. Mark’s School of Texas

10600 Preston Road Dallas, TX. 75230

ARNETT

Sports • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page 32

BY THE NUMBERS A look at junior Cole Arnett’s stats over his first ten innings pitched this season.

10 0.70 0.80 5

Innings pitched so far this season

Earned run average (ERA)

Walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP)

Hits allowed

6

Runs allowed

11

Strikeouts

3

Walks allowed

2-1

Varsity baseball record in counter play

Junior Cole Arnett

Despite rain and early-season struggles, baseball continues with winning record in counter play

by Nathan Han fter the first game of the season was cancelled due to rain, the Lions baseball team lost three games in a row to start their season, two of which came in their opening tournament, the Hillcrest Round Robin March 27.

“The start of the season was rough because so many practices were cancelled due to the rain,” junior Cole Arnett said.

“We just didn’t have the amount of reps fielding, hitting and pitching like we would in other years.”

A

But after collecting their first win against Parish in a dominant 14-0 fashion, the team has heated up, starting the counter game season strong with an 11-0 win against Casady and a 10-6 win against ESD. Despite the rain lingering, forcing the Lions to cancel a rematch against Hillcrest and reschedule a game against ESD, the squad has quickly overcome their rough start, led by a strong group of captains, including senior captain Canyon Kyle.

“It was tough not knowing whether

you were playing until the last minute,” Kyle said, “but I think we did well in dealing with the weather.”

The team will need to ride its hot streak, into counter play, in order to reach their ultimate goal of a second SPC title in three years.

“The thing we need to work on is just remaining consistent,” Arnett said. “We’d score 11 one game against Casady then get shutout another so just staying consistent during the season is what matters.”

But the heart of the push for the SPC

title will be led by the group of senior captains, which include Jimmy Rodriguez, Haverford commit Zach Landry and Princeton commit Reece Rabin.

This group of seniors, along with Arnett, who was the lone freshman on the last title team, are hoping to replicate their 2016 title run.

“The first one was sweet,” Kyle said, “but winning SPC for the second time, at the end of my senior year, would just be amazing and a perfect end to my time here.”

A

Addendum

A ReMarker special section April 13, 2018

Inside EDWARD RO DYNAMIC DUOS THE YEAR IN REVIEW LITTLE DO YOU KNOW FINAL REMARKS COLLEGE MAP

30 minutes with...

2 3 4-5 6 7 8

I will never forget my time here at St. Mark’s, and as my former brothers walk across the graduation stage, I hope a part of me stays with them.

JUAN MONTABES

Page 2

SCHOOL SURVIVAL

GUIDE

As seniors’ final months at the school draw to a close, members of the Class of 2018 share the secrets, tips and tricks that helped them survive Upper School.

Throwbacks LEFT IT ALL ON THE FIELD Seniors Blake DeSantis and Sammy Sanchez give it their all in a first grade soccer game.

For more memories from the Class of 2018, turn to page 4.

Page A2 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Addendum

What kind of school is St. Mark’s? My second home.

W

atching my class cheer on senior Sammy Sanchez as he downs 50 chicken nuggets. 11 p.m pick-up basketball games.Those “go-back-to-bed” 6 a.m mornings setting up for the McDonald’s Week events.

I’m at Zoheb that point Khan in my St. Research Mark’s caDirector reer where it’s beginning to dawn on me: I won’t be a St. Mark’s student anymore. My 9-letter name will be etched into the wooden panels of the graduate hall -- where, not to long ago, I spent my study hall period studying for Mr. Rozelle’s vocabulary quizzes.

And as I try to capture eightyear stint at 10600 Preston Road in a mere 500 words, those are the first three memories to come to mind -- pickup basketball games, chicken nugget eating contests and frigid mornings.

Great.

Oddly enough, it’s those snippets of time when my classmates and I are engrossed in our own little bubble -- bantering, yelling, laughing -- that make this place so important to me.

Whenever my parents have guests over at the house, I am inevitably asked the question: “Should I send my son to St. Mark’s?” And, as if I’ve given the same spiel a hundred times, I rattle off something combination of fantastic academics, quality facilities and abundance of extracurricular opportunities.

Sure, those thing are all true -- St. Mark’s has instilled in me an appreciation of learning, and I’ve learned so much about leadership through out-of-the-classroom opportunities.

But for me, it’s been through those small memories and experiences that I’ve learned the most. I refrain, however, from telling my guests about those pickup basketball games, chicken nugget eating contests, and frigid mornings.

In five months, I won’t see my classmates everyday. I won’t be able to take part in the classic senior lounge banter every second period.

I won’t see Mr. Martin on my trek to math class every afternoon.

There isn’t much I can physically take of St. Mark’s to college, besides a couple St. Mark’s shirts and my ReMarker sweatshirt plastered with “Zobee” across the back.

And I’ll talk to my classmates over Facebook about our new college lives and what it’s like to actually talk to girls on a regular basis.

My daily ties to St. Mark’s will inevitably diminish. Yet, separated by hundreds of miles, my classmates, teachers and I will be inextricably bound together by the collective memories we’ve both deliberately and accidentally forged.

And in five months, when I’m a St. Mark’s alumnus, I’ll walk to class with a lion and a crest emblazoned across my sweatshirt. I’m sure I’ll get the occasional “ What type of school is St. Mark’s?”

And I’ll probably respond with the usual. Private. All-boys.

College-preparatory.

But under my smile, I’ll fondly remember those 11 p.m pick-up basketball games, chicken nugget eating contests and frigid mornings.

SERVICE MINDED CITIZEN Despite his and his family’s worries that a lack of American citizenship would bar senior Edward Ro from attending the Air Force Academy, through sacrifice and dedication, his dream of higher education in service of his country will come true.

H

NEW PASSPORT After the long process of acquiring his United States citizenship, senior Edward Ro is now eligble for admittance into the United States Air Force Academy, where he will attend for the next four years after he graduates in May.

e stares at his phone. Moments ago, he found out from Congressman Sam Johnson that he had been accepted into the United States Air Force Academy.

Not bad for a kid who was born in and spent the first seven years of his life half a world away in South Korea.

Not bad for a kid whose English skills were entirely limited to the phrase “that’s not even mine” just ten years before.

This acceptance was his. An opportunity to serve a country he had just become a citizen of was his.

His initial wave of shock passed, Senior Edward Ro calls the people who gave up so much for him to be able to chase his dreams: his mom and dad. Ro’s journey to becoming a citizen really started when he was just seven years old. His family moved to New York City and lived in his Aunt’s basement. After moving to Texas, his family built a community and a base in America.

“We dropped everything, sold out apartment, said goodbye to family and then moved to New York,” Ro said. “We lived in my Aunt’s basement for like 6 months. When I attended preschool in New York my mom would walk me to school and on

there was a bakery and every single day we would pick up a different type of bread to feast for lunch. One day was a hot dog thing, the other a doughnut. I remember I could name every single bread in the bakery and I ate the food there on rotation.”

As Ro’s English capabilities grew along with his appetite for pastries, so did his attachment for this new place he could call home.

“Us starting from nothing to where we are now is one of the reasons I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy,” Ro said. “I wanted to give back to a country that gave us a different life.”

Weeks before his acceptance into Air Force, Ro received his passport, bringing him official evidence of his integration into the United States.

“It was really fulfilling and it was a huge weight off my shoulders. It was a great feeling to be fully integrated into this community that I have lived in for 10 years now,” Ro said.

“I am a part of the community in all ways now, socially, legally, I have become a citizen of the US.” Attending a service academy requires applicants with a commitment to something greater than themselves.

To Ro, this requirement wasn’t intimidating, rather, it was a draw.

“The big motto there is ‘integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do,’” Ro said. “Those three lines tie in pretty well to the St. Mark’s values and the virtues that St. Mark’s upholds. I know I’ve succeeded in this environment in Dallas so I feel like I can succeed in a similar environment for the next four years.”

Ro feels that the structured schedule of Air Force will help bring the best out of him.

“There’s definitely a physical and military aspect to everyday life at the Air Force Academy,” Ro said. “When I went to the camp over the summer I was definitely tired but I felt like I was fulfilling my potential.”

In order for Ro to be admitted into the Academy, he and his parents had to become full-fledged American citizens, meaning that Ro’s parents also had to become citizens of the United States, something that requires a huge step from Ro’s parents and inspires Ro more than anything else.

“In order for me to become a citizen since I was not yet 18 both my parents had to become citizens,” Ro said. “They literally gave up their nationality so that I could go to where I wanted to go for college. They gave up being Korean so that I could go to the Air Force.”

• Story Blake Daugherty, Alec Dewar Photo Owen Berger

Former exchange student Montabes checks in from 4941 miles away.

I

t’s funny after my junior year at St. Mark’s as an exchange student having to do another year back here in Madrid. I’ve seen such a contrast between senior year in Spain and senior year in the United States, one of the big aspects of that difference being college apps.

While most of the Class of 2018 now knows where they will be heading next year for university, I haven’t written a single college essay, and I’ve only visited a few universities. We have to prepare for this huge exam in June, along with all our final exams — most of which Juan count Montabes for as Foreign Correspondant much as 70 percent of my final average in the class.

I miss all the events at St. Mark’s, from homecoming to pep rallies to sporting events. In Madrid, I just go

to school for class. I just show up for class and then leave.

Some of the highlights of my year in Texas were experiences outside the classroom: the homecoming dance, the baseball season, the surprise party my classmates threw me before I left. And I don’t think y’all appreciate assemblies enough, assemblies were the best, especially the movies and videos that were shown for Homecoming or McDonald’s Week.

And I miss the monotony breakers, which I really wish we had in Spain. I was reminiscing the other day on my time at St. Mark’s, scrolling through the website when I saw the words “monotony breaker” written down for the first time ever.

And “bam” I made the connection — monotony and monotonía — it’s the same root word! I had always thought monotony was some Indian word we had just adopted at St. Mark’s.

I remember my first football game here, when I showed up for Lion Pride

Night, and I saw the quad filled with people and the Inn N Out food trucks pulled up by Nearburg Hall, and I thought to myself “is this what it will be like every game here?”

And seniors, while I wish I could come back to see y’all graduate, I’ll have to stay in Spain to prepare for my own graduation in May. While y’all have Prom and Marksmen Ball, in Spain, we have something for seniors called a capella, which is when our school takes us all to Toledo and puts us in a bullfighting ring, standing on the sand. Then, they release a bunch of little bulls into the ring, and we have to run from them. The teachers all participate too! And then, once we are done, we have this big huge paella.

While we get ready to graduate, I know we won’t have the same traditions, but we will still be graduating together. To the Class of 2018, I miss y’all. Add me on Fortnite and we can get some sick wins.

Addendum • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page A3

DYNAMIC DUOS A casual Q & A with the class of 2018’s most iconic combos.

ARJUN AND KABEER Mike Mahowald: Who would win in a fight: two lions or a T-Rex?

GQ all the time.

KS: I’m a beast alright.

Arjun Singh: A T-Rex Kabeer Singh: Two lions. Because we’re lions.

AS: Actually, right. Our last name does mean lion.

MM: do you relate to the movie Stepbrothers?

MM: Who has the bigger heart?

AS: Literally me. Because you are selfish.

MM: Who is the better dresser?

KS: I am.

AS: Kabeer is.

KS: He is practically color blind. He just throws on clothes.

AS: He’s really into fashion. He’s on

KS: Yes. We had bunk beds for like ten years, and it’s honestly horrible.

You think it’s gonna be awesome and then you hear him snoring and it’s just horrendous. If you’re on the top bunk, our roof was so low it was 2 inches from you.

MM: Was one of you set top bunk?

KS: We would switch.

AS: I don’t know how we even decided. We kinda just switched off.

MM: Who does your little brother love more?

KS: Me. He loves me more.

AS: What?

KS: I just don’t play video games with him.

AS: I don’t play video games with him either. What kinda thing is that?

KS: I think it’s equal now.

MM: Adidas or Nike?

KS: Nike.

AS: Adidas.

KS: The heck? Nike’s just better. It’s American.

AS: Adidas has all that heritage though. It’s the older brand. I don’t care if it’s American or not. I’m not gonna wear clothes just cuz it’s American.

KS: I’m going Nike. Really… Adidas?

BEN AND DEAN Mike Mahowald: Word on the street is you guys bond over Rick and Morty; What other things do you do together?

Ben Clayman: Just watching lots of different TV shows together like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones.

Dean Clayman: Black Mirror.

BC: Little bit of Black Mirror, not a lot.

MM: Who is the better golfer?

DC: I am.

BC: He used to be the better golfer, but he’s not very diligent about his practicing...

DC: I’m better.

BC: So I believe I have passed him now.

DC: I’m better.

MM: Clearly Ben is a notorious troublemaker, so how would you deal with him when he gets sent to the office?

DC: I usually make him call his mother.

MM: Ben, has your dad ever gone out of his way to embarrass you at school.

BC: He does go out of his way to embarrass me.

DC: On a somewhat regular basis by the way.

BC: I would say our funniest interactions are just in the library. It’s usually me, Jack, Calvin and Fausto in the library, and he just makes fun of them all the time. Directly in front of me.

MM: How do you guys feel about combining your name to Bean Clayman?

BC: I’ve actually thought about this a lot. It has really been on my mind lately, and I have decided it is a good idea. I like it. I look forward to doing

that in the future.

DC: See, I’m more of a Ken Bayman.

BC: Yeah I’ve never liked that.

DC: I just think Ken Bayman sounds strong.

MM: Ben, are you nervous about the whole hair situation?

BC: I am. I’ve been very nervous about it. The upside is that my mom’s dad had a full head of hair, so I might be ok. I might not end up losing it all.

DC: I think Ben manifests more physical characteristics from the maternal genes.

MM: What is your best memory together outside of St. Mark’s?

DC: I would say playing golf together at Pebble Beach.

BC: Yeah me too. I was gonna say that.

PHIL AND CHRIS Mike Mahowald: Compare yourselves to a duo in tv or a movie.

Sammy Sanchez: Oh, those dudes in the muppets at the top of the balcony who are just sitting their making fun of people. What are they called?

Matthew Theilmann: Oh yeah, Statler and Waldorf.

SS: We’re those guys. They just sit in the balcony and mock.

MM: How do we feel about vests?

MT: You can take this one.

SS: Very pro. As a duo, we are very pro. It’s not just me. It is both of us.

MT: Yeah, yeah, pro vest.

MM: Favorite American hero?

SS: Teddy Roosevelt.

MT: Oh that’s a good one.

SS: He’s just the coolest president.

He’d be like ‘Oh I’m going to take some time off as president to go fight bears.’

MT: The secret service would ask where Teddy was and realize he was just in the forest. That’s a good one. I would probably say Lincoln.

MM: Give each other a most likely to.

MM: Where does Phil and Chris come from?

SS: Through Film Studies.

MT: Yeah through Film Studies. I said ‘Do you want to make our second trimester project together?’ and we talked about it. There was one film where we wrote it and spent the entire day, and we were like ‘Oh wow it’s night.’

SS: That was “Trump’d.” We started at like 10 a.m. It took us hours because we were just messing around the whole time. When we finally finished, we looked outside and were like ‘Oh it’s dark.’

MT: So it’s this director duo in Hollywood. They met in college and make all their movies together.

SS: “21 Jumpstreet,” “22 Jumpstreet,” “The LEGO Movie.”

MT: Yeah their names are Phil Lord and Chris Miller. They produced “How I met your Mother” too.

SS: They do all their stuff together.

MT: We made this connection once and just nicknamed ourselves after them.

MT: Most likely to get a tattoo of Che Guevara.

SS: Most likely to defend a terrible reboot. Just of any franchise. I’m sure one will come that he likes.

MM: How did your friendship begin?

Page A4 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Addendum

MAY 27, 2017: THE BEGINNING OF THE END After a long and grueling junior year, the Class of 2018 was ready to lead the school. With 90 Marksmen donning blue shirts for the first time, we were ready for everything senior year had for us. (We thought) it didn’t matter what shoes we wore or the visibility of our belt. We ran the school.

LOOKING BACK ON IT ALL From deadly Nerf wars to late night movie screenings, the Class of 2018 has been through it all. Follow along to learn how to survive senior year, the Class of 2018 way.

August 21, 2017: Total Eclipse

August 19, 2017: The Louis Awards

May 27, 2017: Surprise!

Orientation day was bittersweet for the seniors. The school year was starting up again and seniors were starting to stress over colleges. However, the total eclipse on orientation day provided the Class of 2018 with an unforgettable beginning to the school year.

The darkness the eclipse brought was foreshadowing for the school year laying ahead.

The 90 members of the class descended upon Camp Hoblitzelle for a couple of days of relaxation and class bonding. With seniors ready to slide into the new school year, the Senior Retreat provided the class with the last few moments of summer fun. The Louis Awards, mixed with team competitions, made this retreat memorable for everyone.

Thirty-two members of the Class of 2018 were luc enough to be a part of Kay Carrio’s first year as an structor at 10600 Preston Road. Because of the im she left on the 12-year Marksmen, they decided to surprise her with her own blue shirt, commemora her first 12 years at the school.

August 22, 2017: The Last First Day

September 1, 2017: Wide Left

September 14, 2017: First Roar

Dynamic Duo Phil and Chris walk across the Perot Quadrangle, conversing about the school year ahead.

After L’s such as the Saturday at Chris’s and Trump’d Two, the two needed to bounce back for senior year.

It was the last first for everyone in the Class of 2018.

Senior year was here.

The football season had an early highlight in the game against Greenhill. With a tied game heading into overtime, the Lions needed a miracle to seal the victory.

Greenhill scored and was about to tie it up. However, the extra point entered immortality when it was shanked and went wide left. Final Score: 21-20.

The Thursday before the first varsity football gam the Class of 2018 descended upon Tom Thumb: c parked out front, guys running in and out with mo tains of toilet paper in hand, plans made to wreak havoc on their first victim. Roar. Word on the stree that Will Wood is still trapped in the bush.

• Timeline Andre Arsenault, Jimmy Rodriguez, Sam Shane Photos Staff Photos, Courtesy David Carden

cky n inmpact o ating

me, cars ounk et is

Addendum • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page A5

Flashback Friday: Class of 2018 throughout the years

September 14, 2017: Lil’ Buddies

September 24, 2017: Senior Auction

The Class of 2018 experienced one of the most longstanding school traditions when we received our lower school buddies on this fateful Thursday morning.

12-year club members finally came full circle, while the seniors who entered the school later finally got to experience what all the fuss was about.

Spearheaded by co-chairs Cal Rushton, Jesse Zhong and Harris Wilson, the seniors put on quite the show, pitching their auction items and raising a record $81,000. With items ranging from piano lessons to a day of fishing, everyone contributed their own item.

2006: Gold Lions Reign

After a fierce rivalry between the Gold and Blue first grade Lions soccer teams, the Gold Lions beat out the Blue Lions in a match said to rival a World Cup Final classic.

2008: Wyoming Adventure

With 14 courageous third-grade Marksmen braving the wilderness of Wyoming (and a little bit of Montana) for five days, this trip is rumored to have inspired Bear Grylls to explore.

November 14, 2017: Assassin

October 22, 2017: Bora Bora

It was everyone’s favorite day: McDonald’s Week All-Day day. A day light on classes, full of saturated fast-food goodness...and bloodshed as the seniors’ game of assassin took a turn for the worst. Ambush after ambush, they fell one by one. The carnage: 40 down in one day.

10600 Preston Road was transported across the ocean to French Polynesia for a night. Led by the merciful and supa hot fire spitting King Akbar, the Class of 2018 made sure that the school had an unforgettable homecoming. Edward RoW didn’t split his pants at this hoco, so that should be called a success.

2013: Bar Mitzvah szn

Seemingly every weekend during our seventh grade year was taken up by a bar mitzvah service and the following rager, awkward boy/ girl divide and all. Pictured here are some of the seniors in their middle school prime.

December 15, 2017: Christmas Party

January 12, 2018: Strictly Business

Kicking off the Winter Break with the traditional Christmas Party, seniors carried their little buddies down the aisle to decorate the massive Christmas tree that graced the Great Hall. Headmaster Dini, Father Arbogast and Student Council President Canyon Kyle all delivered speeches before dismissing the boys.

Stocks were rising on this fateful Friday night.

Eagle wings were clipped and Lions were crowned the kings of the jungle. It might’ve been a classic basketball destruction of our crosstown rivals, but we made sure we looked our best. After all, it was strictly business.

2016: First Sophomore Update

Upon returning from a brief but impactful sophomore retreat, the Class of 2018 created the Sophomore Update, influencing grades below us to also create similar things for their grades.

Class of 2020, take notes.

March 19, 2018: Skip Day

February 12, 2018: Winter Olympics

After two-and-a-half trimesters of homework, college applications and papers, the Senior Class took a well-deserved break and played hookie for the day.

Instead of heading to English or economics, seniors ditched their classes and instead took to a viewing of the new Tomb Raider movie.

Despite several forecasted snow days, Marksmen begrudgingly braved the chilly Texas winter without seeing an ounce of snow. That was, until the Senior Class transformed 10600 Preston Road into a winter wonderland complete with opening ceremonies, a sledding hill and complimentary hot chocolate.

2017: The Great War

Featuring Houses Red and Blue, blood, sweat and tears were shed in Spencer Gym during the class Nerf war. Some teachers even got in on the mayhem, including David Fisher, who must’ve had a K/D ratio of 17:1 in all three battles.

Page A6• The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Addendum

LITTLE

DID YOU KNOW...

With 90 kids spending countless hours together over their time at St. Mark’s, certain stories, shenanigans and memories are never forgotten. Here are our favorites (so far)...

I

f your laptop ever breaks, take it to a repair shop around town; don’t send it to China. Just ask senior Henry Kistler.

With an English paper on the horizon, Kistler’s laptop had some issues that needed to be addressed.

Apparently it was a very legitimate and simple battery issue, and someone in a totally real repair shop in China could fix it for cheap.

The simple repair turned into a weeks-long ordeal, and Kistler is now left with a working laptop and a ridiculous story.

“So, I was writing my paper and my computer screen went completely blue and an error message popped up,” Kistler said. “My real mistake was only saving my paper locally to the hard drive on the computer.”

After looking into the problem, Kistler learned he only had one option: to package up the computer with the

(SAD)URDAY AT SAMMY’S Senior Sammy Sanchez still mourns the Saturday that could have been. He wears a party hat every Saturday to commemorate.

SATURDAY AT SAMMY’S

O

ne might think the most heated competition between the Class of 2018 takes place in college admissions, on the athletic fields, or even in the classroom.

However, the title goes to none of these.

In reality, the fiercest battles go down in the Senior Lounge, where at least a half-dozen seniors gather every period to chase the glorious high of victory, howl abuse at each other and hurl their game controllers to the ground.

Of course, I’m talking about nothing other than Super Smash Brothers 4, the Marksman’s battlefield of choice.

The competition began with the donation of a Wii U (courtesy of Mr. Dalton Glenn) to the Senior Lounge, along with several GameCube control-

MOHIT’S STUDY GUIDES HARD WORKER The culprit, senior Mohit Singhal, poses candidly with one of his original study guides that no one helped him with.

Seriously, no help.

very-real-problem and ship it to China.

“My only option was to send it away for three months and hope for the best. They were supposed to reboot my hard drive, give me a new battery and send me back a new and improved computer.”

Kistler arrives at school the next day without a computer and sits down in his normal seat in English class.

With the paper due, the unnamed teacher takes role and has everyone turn in their work. When it’s Kistler’s turn to hand it in, he explains everything about the very serious and completely real problem with his computer.

“I’m sorry, but my paper is with my computer that is sent off to China,” Kistler said.

“Okay, so how long do you think it will take?” the teacher asks.

“I’m not sure, hopefully a few days.”

A few days go by. The teacher asks again.

“No sir, it’s not back yet.”

A few weeks go by.

“Not yet, sir.”

Three. Whole. Months.

“I don’t know what to tell you sir.”

Finally, the unnamed teacher walks

by Kistler’s morning history class, where Kistler was found taking copious notes on a mysterious laptop that was supposed to still be in China.

Busted.

“Oh that was my mom’s computer, sir.”

Nope.

Finally, after some intervention from superiors, Kistler was quickly returned his totally broken and completely unusable computer from China and turned his paper in.

It was a few months late, but it was still a paper.

W

e’ve all seen them.

The movies where one heroic, gutsy teenager successfully organizes a party of epic proportions.

They always seem to go off without a hitch in the movies, but in real life, not so much.

There’s a reason the senior class doesn’t speak about Saturday.

It’s because no Saturday can compare to the Saturday that never was.

The Saturday at Sammy’s.

With a family out of town, then junior Sammy Sanchez knew he could pull it off, pull off what hadn’t been pulled off before. He knew he was going to get the entire grade to his house on that infamous Saturday night junior year.

Word of mouth was what started and ended the night that could have been. Once one teenager is told about an open house, many more find out. In this case, too many, but we’ll get to that.

lers, an equal number of Wii remotes and a game called Super Smash Bros.

As there were no other games to play at the time, Smash quickly became a favorite pastime for the seniors on their free periods, who of course conducted themselves with utmost civility during matches.

“Give me that controller before I throw you through the ping-pong table.”

“Did you just suicide me? You really want to get strangled with a power cord, don’t you?”

“I swear, the next person who says the words ‘Meta Knight’ is getting shot.”

“If you play Kirby, you are bad and you deserve to feel bad!”

Yes, utmost civility.

T

When the majority of the now senior class found out, organization began. The class came together in a truly magnificent fashion to figure out logistics. It was almost like there was a formal, grade-wide committee dedicated to planning and executing the gathering. The committee lasted all of three days — Tuesday through Thursday — before it was immediately disbanded and put out of mind.

You see, the party that could have been had a fatal flaw; it was too massive too soon.

With dozens of anxious juniors all texting about going to a parentless house on a Saturday night, someone is bound to find out about the event.

In our case, it happened to be a (rightfully) concerned parent.

Sure enough, one thing led to another and the party was cancelled faster than it was planned.

So, with our master plot spoiled, the class mourned together for that

While the stages of Smash aren’t always the friendliest place, they’re always fun to visit, whether it’s during a quick game with friends before starting your homework, or during a bitter grudge match with far too much money wagered on the outcome.

But still, after five near-fights, seven broken GameCube controllers, dozens of warnings from Mr. Gendason and other teachers, and thousands (yes, literally thousands) of bitterly fought matches, there is still nothing that brings the class together like a late afternoon brawl in Luigi’s Mansion.

Unless you pick Bayonetta, of course. Or Meta Knight. Or Cloud.

Or…actually, just go random, unless you want to get punched.

he year of a presidential election, the year of the London Olympics, and the year the world was supposed to end, 2012 was crazy.

It was also a year of chaos and despair for the Class of 2018, who were regularly getting pulverized on Humanities quizzes. Cs and Ds piled up, parents grew angry, and it seemed that 2012 would be a year of darkness—at least, until a prophesied hero arose.

It was a then eighth grader, the young Mohit Singhal that first brought the hero’s works to the class’ attention.

“Y’all, I made this Quizlet,” Singhal said. “If any of you want access, you

have to buy me snacks from the student store.”

The older, wiser students, recognizing this situation as unfair, protested, but Mohit would not relent. “Buy me snacks,” he demanded, “or keep getting 50s on your quizzes. Take your pick.”

Reluctantly, the other students acquiesced, and for a brief time, Mohit Singhal became the richest man in eighth grade, devouring jellybeans, animal crackers, and other foodstuffs with reckless abandon.

Certain…discrepancies began to appear in Mohit’s story, and things Mohit could not possibly have known

SENT OFF Senior Henry Kistler holds the infamous laptop that mysteriously went to China for an extended period of time.

HENRY’S LAPTOP Saturday night that never was and never spoke of it again — until it was our turn to make the McDonald’s Week Video, at least.

As for advice, here is Sanchez: “To all the underclassmen out there: one day your parents will go out of town for a weekend. Having seen far too many movies, you’re going to decide that throwing a huge party is a good idea. Your parents will also find out about it and shut it down before it even happens. There’s a reason we don’t talk about Saturday.”

Though the Saturday at Sammy’s never happened in our universe, Sanchez believes that somewhere, somehow, there was a party at his house on a Saturday night during junior year.

“I believe that there’s an alternate universe out there wherein the party actually took place. In that alternate universe, alternate Sammy is dead because his parents came home the next morning before they said they would.”

SENIOR LOUNGE SMASH

THE GAMECUBE GRAVEYARD The remains of broken GameCube controllers sit below the TV in the senior lounge.

began appearing in the Quizlet. A small band of investigators under the tutelage of Dr. Stegemoller confronted Mohit, and demanded he reveal the truth; Mohit was forced to admit that it was not he who was making the treasured Quizlets, but his mother, Dr. Singhal.

The students rejoiced—with the scheme exposed, they could now use the Quizlets freely, without having to pay a snack tax.

To this day, Mrs. Singhal is revered as a hero, the Class of 2018’s secret protector. Mohit still claims that he made the Quizlets though.

Addendum • April 13, 2018 • The ReMarker • Page A7

FINAL REMARKS As the seniors on staff move on, they reflect on their times in the Publications Suite.

KOBE ROSEMAN

ZACH GILSTRAP

DAVIS BAILEY

MIKE MAHOWALD

NAFTAL MAUTIA

BLAKE DAUGHERTY

SAM SUSSMAN

RETT DAUGB-

ANDRE ARSENAULT

ALEC DEWAR

REECE RABIN

JIMMY RODRIGUEZ

ZACH LANDRY

WILL FORBES

ZOHEB KHAN

SAM SHANE

JOSH DANIELS

AUSTIN MONTGOMERY

RILEY SANDERS

CARSON CROCKER

NICK MALVEZZI Kobe Roseman Position: Editor-in-chief From the staff: Kobe — did you even do anything this year?

Even though you’ve adapted certain traits from past editors (@Case @Phil) you were the best editor we could’ve had, and The ReMarker wouldn’t have been nearly as remarkable without you. And as always, you keep the publications suite bumping on Saturdays.

Response: This was a year for the books and you guys made it possible every step of the way. Thanks for everything you guys do and for letting me aux in pubs. ReMarty soon?

ride, and now as the rooster stops crowing, and the sun sets over the barnyard door, it is time to say farewell. Rett, you’ve been a great leader to this staff, really herding us all together making us a cohesive unit. Good darn. Have a good one, and good darn diddly doo.

Response: Man, I’ll miss that. As the rooster crows for the last time and I hang my ten-gallon hat on the door, I’ll remember with a tear in my eyes how many times someone lightened the mood with a good ‘ole made up saying. Thanks, gents, for the terrible impressions and ridiculous analogies, and for a fun few years.

Zach Gilstrap Position: Managing Editor From the staff: Biggest heart in the game! Your love was an infectious force on staff and we all really appreciated your energy and work ethic this year. Thanks for your music taste and your commitment to accurate column writing. Hong se de che hen kuai di qu! (if you real, you know what this means…).

Response: The red car really does drive fast! Seriously though, thanks a lot guys, it really means a lot. In future, I’ll keep fighting for greater Kanye recognition and making sure a rapper by the name of J. Cole never gets mentioned again. I know you guys’ll have my back.

Andre Arsenault Position: Assignments Editor From the staff: Dr. Dre, thanks for being mini Ray. Way to keep the assignments in check this year and I also really liked your work with NWA. Without you, style rules wouldn’t be style cool (Get it? Because of the Associated Press?). You are for sure in our top two favorite Arsenault twins of all time.

Response: Gents, it’s been a great four years. I’m delighted to say that the seniors always turned in stories on time, and we never had any problems on that front. As for style rules, well I’m glad we have a great team of copy editors… Thanks again boys, it’s been real.

Davis Bailey Position: Managing Editor From the staff: Davis, you were one of the hardest workers on staff, and there’s no way the paper could’ve gotten done without you. Your drive and positive attitude were infectious, and your leadership drove everyone on staff to do their best work. Thanks for doing everything in a way that would make Mr. Dini proud.

Response: Always striving to make sure we are living up to Mohit’s vision. Also, shoutout to Sid Vattamreddy for always keeping me busy.

Alec Dewar Position: Communications Director From the staff: Alec, thanks for being a great father figure for the whole staff. Your leadership by example is truly stuff that we can only learn from the man of the house. While the time has come for everyone to move on, we will never forget all the lessons you’ve coordinated with this campus over the years.

Response: Thanks guys. Some of my best memories of high school come from production week nights and long saturdays with the whole squad. Glad you took after the father figure and flooded me with ideas of great stories throughout my three years on staff.

Mike Mahowald Position: Executive Page Editor From the staff: Pichael, even though you occasionally miss a workday for a certain someone from a certain college, the level of effort you bring to every cycle has been unmatched.

Your ability to get stuck with a halfway done page and finish it on Saturday is something Scott Malkinson would be proud of.

Response: Was it worth all the late nights and desperate problem solving? Probably not. Heck of a ride though. You guys are savages. I will ReMarty with any of you any day.

Naftal Mautia Position: Creative Director From the staff: Thank you, P-tal, for making that one cover graphic over the summer that we all really liked. Even though you sometimes smell like cookies and sneeze, your creativity is unmatched by anyone on staff except for Rett who was also creative director. You would make Abhi proud.

Response: It’s been real y’all. I’ve had a lot of fun these past four years, and I’m gonna miss it all. But P-tal’s on to bigger and better things — recreating that dang smell.

Blake Daugherty Position: Issues Editor From the staff: Brett Daughtry, you are a gentleman and a fantastic journalist. Your stories were the most red content in the paper, and we all appreciated the way you gingerly approached controversial topics. You did great to maintain the flame of journalistic integrity through your fiery work ethic, and we wish you all the best.

Response: You guys know how to make me feel special. It’s been fun “making” deadlines with everyone. I appreciate everything you guys have done for me and won’t forget the memories we’ve made.

Sam Sussman Position: Commentary Editor From the staff: Resident tall guy, bowl-cut guy, super fanman guy, and most importantly, the guy who cranks out a story covering the entire student body’s sentiments in under 30 minutes. It’s been a wild ride. Your resemblance to Kevin from UP and seemingly constant weird placement of your hands make you someone we’ll remember for years to come.

Response: Y’all are so generous. I’m so glad that y’all were able to capture all of my best features in one paragraph. I’ll miss all of y’all, but I will not miss cramming all of commentary into one night.

Rett Daugbjerg Position: Creative Director From the staff: Well good darnit. It’s been a real yeehaw of a

Reece Rabin Position: Senior Writer From the staff: Reece, I’m not quite sure how you made it through high school without getting in serious trouble for anything. As the Senior Writer you’ve worked really hard to fulfill your responsibilities and the staff really appreciates it. Batliza would be proud of you, so would the seemingly endless list of love interests you’ve had at St. Mark’s.

Response: To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all my free time now that my term as Senior Writer has ended. I hope I made Batliza proud. Thanks all of y’all for some fun, trouble-free years and I’m gonna miss it.

Jimmy Rodriguez Position: Commentary Editor From the staff: Jimmy! You’re a dawg, no buts about it. Aside from being a beast commentary editor, your almost dunk will forever be immortalized in the paper. You are the gatekeeper of your own destiny and you will have my glory day in the hot sun.

Response: Appreciate it. Hopefully someone can carry on my tradition of being a warmup dunker next year. It’s been so fun working with y’all over the years — can’t wait for the reunions!

Zach Landry Position: Associate Creative Director From the staff: Randall, Woody, Haverford. Go Fords.

Baseball. Short-stop. Hum Babe, Four Horsemen. Go Fords.

Randall, Randall, Haverford. Zoolander. Journalism (kinda).

MANual. Mother’s Day page, Ballpark food page. Tech basketball. Baseball. Randall. Go Fords.

Response: Fellas, I’m gonna miss y’all when I head to Monsters U in the fall. Educating tomorrow’s Marksmen on the art of manliness has been a high point in my journalism career.

I’m gonna miss always finishing my page before production Saturday.

Will Forbes Position: Sports Magazine Editor From the staff: What a year it has been! Will, you have always approached every article with a Mike Wilson work ethic.

Your work on the article, “Top area games to watch during each week of the HS football season” will never be forgotten.

If we ever need someone to write a Sports Illustrated article or cover a wrestling program, you’re our man.

Response: I’m so glad I found the perfect outlet to write about the two things I love most: sports and kids. In all seriousness, working on The ReMarker has been an incredible experience.

Nick Malvezzi Position: Research Director From the staff: In the great words of your transcription earlier this year, “To start saying if you who is the other five or are you going to process your right as a human being overshadows my feelings about what I may think.” Couldn’t have said it any better! Been quite the ride, and thanks for all your hard work — you really channeled your inner kirby powers with every research assignment.

Response: Haha thanks guys. I’ll never work with a better group of guys in my life. Thanks for a great ride!

Zoheb Khan Position: Research Director From the staff: Zoheb, you truly made research great again this year. You approached every assignment in a factual (and appropriate) manner. Thanks for baking cakes for us on production nights — you will always be the best cake baker.

Hope you get over your fear of girls in college.

Response: I guess my thorough research on cake baking finally paid off. I’ll make sure to continue to explore the nooks and crannies of cake baking more in college. Seriously though, I wouldn’t trade my time on staff for anything. I’m going to miss y’all.

Sam Shane Position: Copy Editor From the staff: Hi, Sam. Staff here. Hope you’re doing well.

First of all, thank you so much for your continued hard work on copy editing stories and mentoring the younger classmen.

But more than anything else, we have genuinely appreciated your contributions to editorial board meetings every month.

Thank you for that.

Response: Thanks boys? It’s been a fun ride in the pubs suite over the past four years. Y’all have made sure my job is never easy and I thank y’all for that. But for real, check the lounge more for the senior writer.

Josh Daniels Position: Staff Writer From the staff: Joshie boy, Jawshua, Yosh. You have truly been an integral part of this newspaper. Your unwavering support and very hard work is appreciated on staff and we’re honestly not sure how this paper would have come together without you. You are Ruthless.

Response: Even though I still can’t design a page by myself, I had fun and learned a lot writing for the sports section.

Austin Montgomery Position: Reviews Sensei From the staff: Hello there. Your passion for writing well thought out reviews during your time on the ReMarker is dwarfed only by your passion for Coca Cola products. Nothing we say here can do you enough JUSTICE, but rest assured that we here at the staff love you. Without you, we wouldn’t know which sushi in Dallas is best. And that’s…well that’s just awesome. We’ll be seeing you on the reddits. XOXO Response: Thanks guys. If I were writing a review of my fellow writers on the ReMarker, the vast majority of you would get an above average rating (probably). I’ll miss working with the rest of you, and I’m looking forward to seeing how y’all apply your talents in the future.

Riley Sanders Position: Head Photographer From the staff: Riley, you’ve been an absolute stud this year as head photographer. You always did a great job making sure photo requests were turned in on time without being too salty. Despite the lack of variety you display by only owning one orange sweater, you were able to provide the paper with a bevy of creative photo ideas.

Response: Wow, you guys were able to put up with me for an entire year. Thanks for taking me seriously, pretending to like my photos, and keeping me nice and busy this year. You guys welcomed me into The ReMarker family, and I’ll have fond memories of my time working with everyone on the staff.

Carson Crocker Position: Business Manager From the staff: Carson, thanks to you and KT for selling ads for the paper and making bank. If you sold anymore ads, the paper would become more like Yellowpages than an actual newspaper. Thanks for being the consistent success that keeps the paper going behind the scenes.

Response: It’s been an honor, guys. Paxton–congrats on the promotion.

Hanging up the ‘mostly black’ Nike Frees for the last time

M

y untied shoelaces flapped violently in the wind behind me as the soles of my size six Nike Frees slapped the cracked concrete.

I’d left my mom in the dust, turned on the jets, and tried to cram my budding tears back into my eye sockets.

The awful, terrible, I-need-torun-home-right-now revelation that my mom dropped on me that 2010 Saturday afternoon?

I’d be leaving Bradfield Elementary, the school I’d been at since my first day of counting to Davis one hunBailey dred, my Managing first day editor of what would be a long string of minute variances on the game of dodgeball, my first day of incredibly unhealthy but incredibly edible school lunches. Since my first day of kindergarten.

And I’d be headed to some weird place, some place called St. Mark’s.

So, logically, the only thing for fourth-grade me to do when my mom dropped that revelation on me was to sprint home.

At the time, I “knew” a lot about St. Mark’s. I “knew” that teachers there assigned four to five hours of homework a night… for each subject. I “knew” that you had to walk the same halls as these herculean 18-year-olds who wore a different colored shirt to establish dominance. And I “knew” I would never see any girls for all eight years until I graduated … (but maybe that wasn’t that bad!)

I had toured the school in the same way I’d tour an art museum; it was neat to walk the tiled hallways of Centennial Hall, neat to walk across the bridge of the Green Library’s second floor, neat to see actual fish in two actual ponds, but I’d never really imagined myself wearing the white oxford, the grey shorts, the “black or brown” shoes. nd even after I sprinted the two blocks home to my house that day, my parents somehow convinced me to “just give it a shot.” And give it a shot I did.

I slogged through Ms. Johnson’s nightly two hours of math homework.

I brought the required black pen, blue pen, red pen and white out to Sra. Ward’s class every day. And I, as much as any excited fifth grader could be expected to, stayed mostly referral free.

In the next eight years, with every backbreaking time I lugged my backpack across the quad, I’d pick up something new.

I learned that “manhunt” is definitely a totally different, better version of tag. I learned to be pleasantly surprised by the Indian food. And I learned that as soon as I left behind my torn up fifth-grade Nike Frees, some new fifth grader, knees knocking and teeth superglued together in a permanent grin, would step up to fill my place.

So when I stepped onto campus for the first time in August this year, slid on my last-ever pair of school shoes (still black Nike Frees) and looked around at the faces that surrounded me, I felt a strange serenity and confidence, knowing that whenever I decide to finally leave campus, someone will be there to step up and take my place.

While the Class of 2018 is now preparing to take our final steps across the graduation stage, the brotherhood, the friendships, the bonds forged during the freezing 5:30 a.m. setups for McDonald’s week, the 11:00 a.m. ultimate frisbee games on the quad and the 4:00 a.m. shenanigans of the Senior Retreat will never leave us behind.

And next time I fall into some awful struggle, some insurmountable, real, obstacle (even worse than changing schools as a fifth grader), I know that wherever I am, I can always come back home.

A

Page A8 • The ReMarker • April 13, 2018 • Addendum

WA (2) MN (1)

NH (2)

OR (1) NY (8)

IL (6) CO (1)

KS (1)

IN (4)

PA (7)

OH (1)

RI (1) CT (3) NJ (2)

MO (5) VA (5)

CA (5) TN (9)

OK (1) AZ(1)

MA (8)

MD (1) D.C. (1)

NC (4) SC (2)

MS (1) GA (5)

TX(40)

Scotland (1) LA (2)

FL (1)

Sunny Agrawal

UT UCSD UTD UT Abdullah Akbar Georgia Tech UTD

Vanderbilt University Andre Arsenault Harvard University Davis Bailey Harvard University Owen Berger UVA Kal Buscaino UChicago Daniel Byeon UT Clay Cassidy Duke University Ben Clayman Indiana University Jordan Cox University of Washington

Vanderbilt University Carson Crocker Sewanee Josh Daniels Furman University Rhodes College

W&L Rett Daugbjerg Dartmouth College Blake Daugherty Cornell University Blake DeSantis UChicago Alec Dewar Georgetown University Vanderbilt University

UChicago Mateo Di­az Houston Engleman Claremont McKenna Princeton University Kevin Feng UT (Moody Honors) Will Forbes Florida A&M Eliott Ford II Baylor University Matthew Fornaro SMU UT Matthew Freeman Kansas State University Daniel Garcia College of Staten Island

Yale University Zachary Gilstrap SMU Dalton Glenn John Gunnin Colgate University Tulane University William Hall Sewanee SMU

SMU Crawford Helbing UT University of St. Andrews Jake Horigome-Pigg

Calvin Hosler Joshua Hudecek

Benjamin Hurst

Cornell University UT Oregon State University WashU SMU

Boston College Alan Jiang UT Cooper Johnson Baylor University Reagan Jones Texas A&M Zoheb Khan UChicago Henry Kistler TCU Canyon Kyle SMU Zach Landry Haverford College Andrew Li Georgia Tech UT University of Minnesota Michael Liang SMU Eduardo Ludwig Northeastern University Lehigh University

Case Western Reserve Michael Mahowald Stanford University Nick Malvezzi Boston University Gabe Martin Austin College Naftal Mautia Vanderbilt University Christopher McElhaney Colgate University Garrett Mize W&L Austin Montgomery UT (Plan II Honors) WashU William and Mary Clay Morris University of Oklahoma

Tulane TCU Waseem Nabulsi Yale University Stanford University Brown University Perry Naseck Carnegie Mellon RPI WPI Ryan Norman Elon University Seattle University

Furman University Seun Omonije Yale University Jack Parolisi Dartmouth College WashU Notre Dame

Avery Pearson Toussaint Pegues Ethan Pittson Matt Power Reece Rabin Omar Rana

Fausto Reyher Tucker Ribman

Edward Ro Jimmy Rodriguez

Kobe Roseman Cal Rothkrug Cal Rushton Sammy Sanchez Riley Sanders

Sam Schroeder Sam Shane Kannan Sharma Arjun Singh Kabeer Singh

Mohit Singhal Andrew Smith Sam Sussman Matthew Theilmann Rohan Vemu Niteesh Vemuri Orlin Ware

Hill Washburne Reaves White Harris Wilson Will Wood Allan Zhang Kyle Zhang Jesse Zhong

Ole Miss Morehouse College Undecided SMU (President’s Scholar) Tulane University Princeton University Rice University WashU Boston University Johns Hopkins University Harvard University Air Force Academy Duke University Notre Dame Vanderbilt University UNC (Morehead-Cain) UPenn UVA NYU Georgia Tech UT WashU UT Vanderbilt Univrsity UTD (McDermott Scholar) ASU USC UT Emory University UT Vanderbilt University UT Depaul University UPenn UPenn SMU SMU SMU UPenn UT (Business Honors) UChicago Austin College Columbia University

*List subject to change. Waitlist decisions not included.

Key to abbreviations: UT: University of Texas at Austin UCSD: University of California San Diego UTD: University of Texas at Dallas Georgia Tech: Georgia Institute of Technology UVA: University of Virginia UChicago: University of Chicago Sewanee: University of the South W&L: Washington and Lee University SMU: Southern Methodist University WashU: Washington University in St. Louis TCU: Texas Christian University RPI: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute WPI: Worcester Polytechnic Institute Ole Miss: University of Mississippi UNC: University of North Carolina UPenn: University of Pennsylvania NYU: New York University ASU: Arizona State University USC: University of Southern California