The ReMarker | February 2017

|THE REMARKER |news| February 3, 2017|

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An uncertain future

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Why should we care about the condition of the environment around us?

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remember a storybook trail wandering through a serene thicket of aspen trees where watercolor wildflowers blanketed the ground.

It was secluded. A well-worn path a little above the base of the mountain, but just enough out of the main flow of foot traffic for the flowers to push over the sides and spill onto the gravel.

Bees hummed and buzzed lazily in the background, while butterflies popped up randomly to flit from petal to petal.

It was a vibrant scene, a trail full of life at every bend.

But what I found when I went back to Snowmass, Colorado this summer was a driveway and another sprawling log cabin ski house where the thicket once stood.

The place that harbors some of my first memories of nature is gone.

As with almost all environmental problems, I always seem to brush them off as problems, but invisible problems.

Most of the time, in my insulated and privileged life, the most troubling environmental issues don’t really affect me.

250 million people die each year from water pollution? That’s definitely a problem but I still turn on my faucet every day and get crisp, clean water.

The thickness of the ice caps has decreased more than 40% since the 1960s?

That’s for sure a problem, but I don’t live in a coastal area so my livelihood isn’t threatened. It’s still 60 degrees when I walk outside.

People in Beijing haven’t seen a blue sky in a few years and have to walk around with masks to keep their lungs safe?

That has to be a big problem, but I can still go eat lunch in an open-air park in the middle of downtown CASE Dallas with no mask LOWRY or fear of being able to breathe.

Editor-in-chief Madagascar has lost around 90% of its rainforests and could cause thousands of species to go extinct?

That’s absolutely a problem. Guess I won’t be able to see lemurs on the next season of Planet Earth.

What I’m trying to say is that I acknowledged environmental problems and the harsh reality of the status of the Earth, but I pretty much stopped there. They always seemed like someone else’s problems to fix because they didn’t affect me directly. But when I experienced deforestation firsthand, albeit in the most benign way, the internet rants and shocking statistics came to life for me. The storybook thicket that inspired a love of nature in my five-year-old self had been paved over with the steamroller of progress.

Imagine a venn diagram with the people that environmental problems affect in one bubble and myself in another bubble; there isn’t any intersection. But the demolition of that trail was the pin that popped my bubble.

Now, I remember fishing on a foggy lake with my dad as ribbons of sunlight begin to peak over the reeds, snorkeling through a coral-covered underwater arch in Hawaii and seeing the hazy milky way splatter across the sky in Ouachita National Forest, and when I think that there is a strong chance that of none of those experiences would be possible again in a matter of years, those invisible environmental problems materialize in front of my face.

These problems can’t be someone else’s problems any longer.

And I’m not saying I’m going to sell all of my possessions, donate that money to saving Manta Rays, and make clothes out of plastics I find in various recycling bins around Dallas. I just want the problems to be acknowledged so we can all focus on working on them together as communities, countries, continents.

But not only huge groups of people can make lasting differences. Yao Ming, while admittedly a superstar with a massive audience worldwide, has cut the number of sharks killed in China through an incredibly powerful ad campaign that educated viewers on how the consumption of shark fin soup is endangering this beautiful fish.

100 million sharks are killed each year and an estimated 73 percent of that is due to sharks targeted for shark fin soup.

Our generation has an uncertain future, and if we don’t bond together to get these problems recognized and confirmed worldwide, my experience in Snowmass will probably happen to you too.

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Sophomores Dylan Liu (left) helps Richard Shen (right) remove a misplaced nail from a plank before they begin to take measurements.

a peek INSIDE

at a GLANCE

Inside the news section

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A brief look at the news events on campus

FAKE NEWS A look into how the spread of fake news affects students in our community HOSPITAL WORK How a junior spent his summers working at a hospital alongside his father SYRIAN REFUGEES The story of a family of Syrian refugees and their journey from Syria to the United States ROLE OF RELIGION Delving into how religion affects campus life

ANNUAL BLOOD DRIVE TO COMMENCE The annual Blood Drive will take place Feb. 22 from 9 a.m to 2 p.m in Nearburg Hall.

In the past few years, the number of donors has decreased each year going from 60 donors in 2013 to 17 donors in 2016.

Even though the numbers are decreasing, director of Community Service Jorge Correa is optimistic about more donors showing up this year.

“Hopefully, we’ll have 20 to 30 donors give blood this year,” Correa said.

The only requirement to give blood is that the donor has to be over the age of 16 and have a parental signature.

Around the CORNER • DALLAS

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Where: 2301 Flora St. Dallas 75201 When: Today and tomorrow, 7:30 p.m What: Renowned conductor Jaap Van Sweden performs “Variations on a Rocco Theme” alongside cellist Alisa Weilerstein

• SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS

Where: 2403 Flora St. DALLAS, TX 75201 When: Today and tomorrow, 7:30 p.m What: A colorful intrepretation of classical Chinese dances that represent various aspects of the rich Chinese culture

say WHAT?

MATH TEAM HOSTS METROPLEX CONTEST The math team hosted seven other schools from the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the annual Metroplex Math Competition. The team wrote the test questions and organized the event for the other participating schools.

“The purposes of the Metroplex Math Contest are to foster a greater appreciation of the beauty of mathematics and its applications,” Math team co-captain Jesse Zhong said, “and to allow students to be challenged at a higher

level than a high school curriculum.”

Hockaday, Cistercian, Ursuline and other schools competed in multiple categories, including algebra and calculus. In both the team and individual tests, Hockaday took first place honors.

DEBATE TEAM WINS BIG IN ATLANTA The debate team swept the Westminster tournament in Atlanta on Nov. 19.

With eight wins and only two losses, sophomore David Vallejo and junior Harris Wilson finished the competition with a victory over the fifth ranked team in the nation.

42 teams from 13 schools debated.

“It was a pretty significant win not because of the size of the tournament but the quality of the competition,” sophomore debater Wheeler Sears said. “It’s incredible that two of the best seniors in the country lost to our underclassmen.”

FIRST STEPS INTO UPPER SCHOOL The annual eighth grade parent orientation to Upper School will take place Feb. 28.

The event aims to educate parents on the differences between Middle and Upper School, such as

separate English and humanities classes, increased athletic competition and the importance of extracurriculars.

According to Assistant Head of Upper School Scott Gonzalez, the goal is that parents will be well-informed of the changes affecting their sons from ninth grade and beyond.

“There is this idea that everything counts in ninth-grade,” Gonzalez said. “What we try to impart to the parents is that everything counts before then...and I truly believe that grades first through eight have been working steadily on skills and ways to prepare the boys so that they’re ready for the next step.”

LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION Students from Hockaday hosted a celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year Jan. 29.

The celebration included both Hockaday and St. Mark’s Chinese students.

The Chinese Lunar New Year occurred Jan. 28, ushering in the year of the rooster. The festivities included a display of traditional Asian clothes and calligraphy.

Cuisine such as spring rolls, sesame balls and dumplings were offered as well.

— Lyle Ochs, Zoheb Khan, Gabe Bankston, Antonio Ivarra

comments made by students, faculty and staff around campus

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junior Matthew Theilmann on his winter break

“Is this 21 Savage or something?”

Riley Sanders while listening to Frank Ocean’s Blonde

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I started taking karate classes online.

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Trying to understand the artist’s mindset is like trying to smell the color nine.

Photography instructor Scott Hunt

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The key to happy marriages is separate televisions. Everyone knows that.

Master Teaching Chair Bruce Westrate Whenever an administrator enters a room, he’s probably looking for me.

junior Reece Rabin

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ens of thousands of fraudulent Clinton votes found in Ohio warehouse” “Obamacare being used to fund abortions, death panels” “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president” Scroll through your Facebook feed for a while: odds are at least one scandalous, attention-grabbing headline, like those above, will appear. With the evolving nature of technology in our country, fraudulent statistics, unsubstantiated rumors and outright lies have found a home in social media outlets.

“The expression ‘fake news’ is completely new to me,” Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Master Teaching chair Bruce Westrate said, “because there has always been inaccurate news and a lot of made up news ever since the beginning of the republic.”

While spurious news reports may not be a completely new issue, the internet has led many to worry. One such person is Director of Libraries and Information Services Tinsley Silcox.

“The ubiquity of the internet and the ubiquity of social media have, in my opinion, made it possible for anyone to say anything about anything,” Silcox said. “And [someone who] doesn’t check their facts might see it and continue to move that along in their social media. That’s how I think we get to some of these very sensational stories out there that simply have no basis in fact.”

With new information on how forces outside of the United States may have attempted to use propaganda to sway the result of the 2016 Presidential Election,

many believe that such stories are more dangerous now than ever before and deepen America’s growing political divide.

“It’s confirmation bias,” assistant clinical professor at the University of Texas Dallas Janet Johnson said. “The term is validating people’s opinions.

These news organizations will put out fake stories to validate opinions, and when someone’s opinion is validated they want to share that opinion. It used to be that we read newspapers and watched the nightly news. Now, we have so many voices and we can search out information that confirms our beliefs.”

While most would agree that this is an issue, finding a solution can be difficult.

“Can [fake news] be limited? I don’t see how you could do that without trampling on the First Amendment,” Westrate said. “I think we have to ask ourselves: where does responsibility lie?

Does the government need to make sure we’re spoon-fed only accurate stuff or for us as consumers to make sure our information is from a reliable source.

And it’s easy enough to do, but most JANET JOHNSON believes fake news is spread because of confirmation bias

people are just too lazy to do it.”

Similarly, Johnson agrees that the everyday person can take small steps to verify the information they have found, either by investigating the source from which the ‘facts’ came from or training themselves to spot potential bias.

“If you read the stories, there are sometimes hints,” Johnson said. “If it’s validating your opinion more so than making you think about both sides, then you’re on to the fake story. The key point is, have you ever heard of the website or the news organization putting this out?

THE RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS THE MODERN MEDIUM OF NEWS HAS ALLOWED A FLOOD OF FAKE HEADLINES INTO YOUR FEED. CAN YOU TELL WHAT IS REAL FROM FAKE? HAVE YOU SHARED FAKE NEWS?

Where are they getting their facts from?

If Google doesn’t have the same story when you google it and nobody else is reporting on it, then it’s probably a fake story.”

Furthermore, fake news can enter into your feed through articles that friends have shared. As Johnson puts it, “Beware the share.”

“People don’t read, they just share,” Johnson said. “They just hit the ‘share’ button. They read the headline, but people are not actually reading the stories, and that’s the problem. The headline is clickbait to either validate your opinion or it’s so absurd you have to share it.”

Having been raised with social media, current students are used to fast access to information, but according to Johnson, this has come at a price of quality sources.

“The younger generation is very used to getting information when they want at a time when they need it,” Johnson said. “They don’t know what the New York Times, CNN or broadcast news really means. I think there’s a disconnect between generations when it comes to use quality. We just need more social media literacy.” ilcox and the rest of the library staff have made it a priority to aid students in developing the skills needed to achieve this kind of literacy.

“What we’re attempting to teach is not how to look up ‘ABC,’ but what we’re trying to instill are critical thinking skills,” Silcox said. “The important thing to do is use your tools like the internet and like a database to research an idea, a topic, something you heard about online. Is this true? Look it up online. Then you read the pros and the cons and decide the validity of that in checking several sources or several different databases.”

Though he wants students to be more careful news readers, Silcox

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also believes in the importance of having students become fluent in numerous aspects of the research process to better prepare for college and beyond.

“What we’re preparing you to do is to not get an 'A’ on the term paper this year,” Silcox said, “but to not be intimidated when you walk into your first university lecture in history or English and you’re assigned a paper and you walk into the library with 3 WE TRUST million volumes OUR and 400 databasFRIENDS TO es. That’s my job.

VERIFY THE INFORMATION That’s my goal for all the students at THEY St. Mark’s.”

SHARED. As the line BEWARE THE between real SHARE. and fake news — JANET continues to blur, JOHNSON Johnson maintains that being able to dig up the truth will be much harder than in years past. “[Journalists] have to keep centered and allow for the American people to form their own opinion,” Johnson said.

“In social media, there are so many voices now and so many journalists putting their opinions on Twitter that it’s going to be harder and harder to find the truth of a story.”

Despite the increasing difficulty to discern real from fake, Silcox has confidence that Marksmen have the desire for knowledge and tools needed to uncover the truth.

“I would hope that given all the resources that our students have that if someone saw something that they wondered was real news or not they would either go on their personal device or come to library and try to find some more information,” Silcox said.

“The important thing is to never lose that hunger for knowledge, that quest for information, that desire to figure out the real answer and to at least equip yourself with enough information that you can have that cogent conversation with somebody else.”

STORY BLAKE DAUGHERTY, AUSTIN MONTGOMERY, ANTONIO IVARRA ILLUSTRATIONS NAFTAL MAUTIA

| Feburary 3, 2017|news| THE REMARKER |

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FALSE STORIES IN SOCIAL MEDIA

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|THE REMARKER |news| February 3, 2017 |

KYLE CAMP

ONE INVENTOR TO THE NEXT DESPITE BEING ‘JUST’ A SOPHOMORE, KYLE SMITH HAS ALREADY WON A FASTPITCH COMPETITION IN LAS VEGAS AND COMPETED IN THE WORLD CUP OF INNOVATIONS IN SPAIN— AND NOW LEADS HIS OWN CAMP.

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ast summer, sophomore Kyle Smith founded and managed an engineering and robotics summer camp for children out of his own home.

He settled on the name KyleCamp and offered activities ranging from simple electronics to programming and robotics.

Although the dates have not yet been released, Smith plans to resume camp activities this summer. Like last summer, he plans on continuing to instruct kids of various ages, generally ranging from third to fourth grade, about a variety of technological skills.

“I think KyleCamp is a way for kids from around the community to develop a love for robotics along with computer science and electrical engineering,” Smith said.

Smith charged $175-195 per person. He offers a safe environment for panents to leave their children over the summer while the kids learn and have fun.

Last year, Smith taught two classes, one in the morning from 9-12 p.m. and one in the afternoon from 1-2 p.m. In both sessions, he offered a variety of fun, interactive challenges and activities

for the children to participate in.

“In the camp, we teach the kids about simple electronics, programming and robotics,” Smith said. “We do a myriad of robotics challenges including complex mazes and sumo bots.”

On average, Smith takes eight students per class but has had from four students up to 12 in the past. In either case, he offers as much individual attention as possible while helping campers collaborate and grow as young scientists.

Through his time as a teacher, Smith has grown and developed his raw love for science and its minor details into effective skills that he can communicate to others.

“I have learned so much about teaching and how to teach effectively,” Smith said. “And by preparing myself for each class I have gotten so much more proficient in simple circuitry and other small simple aspects of engineering.”

In his time teaching elementary school students, who he knows are incredibly active and constantly energetic, Smith has run into behavioral challenges and problems that he has dealt with

THE CAMPERS After hours of work on a robotics project, KyleCamp students show off their newest inventions.

effectively.

“I think the most challenging thing is actually holding the attention of the kids,” Smith said. “I have gained a ton of respect for teaching. It is incredibly challenging to create lessons that are both instructive and a ton of fun.”

While teaching, Smith has begun to appreciate small successes of his students that represent growth through his instruction.

“The most satisfying aspect is seeing the kids when they succeed,” Smith said. “When a student completes a challenge or finishes a binary problem and gets it right, that moment of joy is flawless.” s he looks towards next summer’s camp and opportunities in further years, Smith hopes to introduce a sort of mobile camp for children unable to attend camp sessions at the Smith family home.

“We are planning in the future to create a ‘class in a box,’” Smith said, “so kids who cannot necessarily come to the camp can still be excited by electronics and engineering.”

Even during the school year, Smith continues to reflect on the successes

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and failures of KyleCamp. Constantly looking to refine, Smith hopes grow his camp and look for ways to improve the learning experiences of creative, motivated young students.

“I hope to grow the camp and bring on a few instructors or helpers to help me out in the future to allow for more students,” Smith said. “Younger guys are so curious, and I think I have gained an appreciation for this curiosity. I have learned so much about teaching and how to teach affectively, and by preparing myself for each class I have gotten so much more proficient in simple circuitry and other small simple aspects of engineering.”

Smith looks at the camp through dual lenses—he hopes to inspire a generation of new tinkerers and inventors, and in the process, watching his students learn and discover has motivated him to continue his work.

“I hope that someone in my class might have been affected in a positive way,” Smith said, “that his or her interest in robotics or engineering has been sparked and possibly want to pursue it as a true passion.”

STORY REECE RABIN, MATEO GUEVARA PHOTO COURETESY KYLE SMITH

Author Wil Haygood speaks to Upper and Middle School students PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

STORYTELLING Speaking to Upper School students during an assembly, Wil Haygood tells of his work.

by Mateo Guevara istinguished and best-selling author Wil Haygood was on campus to speak to Upper and Middle School.

Haygood appeared on campus to speak about his story and to stress the importance of writing and reading in his life.

“Just the simple majesty of learning of books,” Haygood said, “what books have meant to me, how my life was altered because of my love of literature and because of my love of learning.”

Haygood came across the story of “The But-

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ler” while on the Obama campaign trail.

“I knew I wanted to find someone who worked inside the White House before the major civil rights bills were passed,” Haygood said, “because I thought if I could find such a person who worked under the weight of segregation at the White House that when this African-American won the White House, it would mean a whole lot to that person.”

Director of the Visiting Scholar Program Marjorie Curry organized the event but had some unexpected help.

“We were interested in Mr. Haygood,” Curry said, “but we had trouble contacting him. Then [head varsity basketball] coach Greg Guiler surprised me when he told me Mr. Haygood contacted him, in search of his coach, Mr. Scott Guiler.”

Haygood advises aspiring authors and journalist on the best way to improve their writing.

“Read everything,” Haygood said. “Read all the good magazines, do not read junk, read the well-known authors, read the good newspapers and listen to your own voice.”

Haygood stressed the importance of of dreaming and taking risks.

“Dream,” Haygood said. “It is important to dream and dream big. Somewhere in life you will be knocked back. Second chances are very big in this country, and when we get them, it’s important to take advantage of them.”

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| February 3, 2017 |news| THE REMARKER |

HOSPITAL COMMUNITY SERVICE

MARKSMAN HOSPITALITY WHILE OTHER STUDENTS GO TO THE MOVIES OR EAT DINNER WITH FRIENDS, JUNIORS BEN HURST AND KYLE ZHANG SPEND THEIR SATURDAY NIGHTS WORKING IN A HOSPITAL.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SERVICE On weekends,, Hurst (above) and Zhang (above right) switch their school uniforms for scrubs and retractable nametags at Baylor University Medical Center.

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or junior Ben Hurst, it was just another night at Baylor University Medical Center – checking in with patients, assisting with sonograms and jotting down notes – until it wasn’t.

A 17-year-old male was rushed in, barely conscious. Doctors frantically rushed to his aid, taking a sonogram and evaluating him as efficiently as possible.

After all, the boy had a bullet lodged in his brain. Time was of the essence.

This memory stands out in Hurst’s mind, not just for the direness of the situation, but also for what it stands for. To Hurst, working in the emergency room gave him an opportunity to help his community, learn from others and pursue a possible career.

Ever since Hurst first saw his dad work as a radiologist at Baylor, he developed an interest in the medical field. When he found a chance to volunteer at the hospital, he took it enthusiastically.

“I saw that there was this pretty cool opportunity, and it was always a dream for me to go work at Baylor,” Hurst said. “It was something I’ve always wanted to do, and that’s how I got involved.”

Hurst dove into this opportunity, starting out in the Emergency Room and later working in the sonogram room too.

“The main jobs I have in the ER are wheeling around patients and working in the sonogram room with my friend Joseph Kizhakkethil, RDMS,” Hurst said. “During a sonogram procedure, I bring the patients in, sit down and type patient information on a computer while he does the scans. He’s also teaching me how to work the machinery. He shows me how to scan various areas and lets me know why he puts the

probe in certain places.”

That same summer, junior Kyle Zhang had been searching for a job in the same field when Hurst tipped him off. Within a few weeks, Zhang also began working long hours at Baylor, learning from other doctors and interacting with patients regularly.

“One of the fields I’m looking into is medicine, and volunteering was a good way to gain more insight and experience,” Zhang said. “In addition, it was a good way to find out if it is an area that I would like to pursue as a career.”

Zhang, unlike Hurst, worked in the gastrointestinal lab where he attended to patients post-surgery.

“After their [a patient’s] procedure, they go into the GI unit and stay there for a few weeks, and we provide them with food and drink and help them acquire anything they may need,” Zhang said. “We also assist their family IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT members throughout the floor. After the patient leaves, we strip down YOU SEE SITUATIONS the bedding and remove all items the patient used. All surfaces are WHERE sanitized and items are restocked PEOPLE HAVE POLES before another patient arrives.”

Besides helping people in STICKING general, both Hurst and Zhang find OUT OF that every patient has a story to THEM OR share. On multiple occasions, they SOMEONE WAS SHOT have found themselves having indepth conversations with patients OVER A CIGARETTE. while originally tasked with a menial job.

– BEN “One time I spent an entire HURST

hour talking to this senior lady after supposedly only having to bring her water,” Zhang said. “She gave me a lot of good advice about life in general, including education, career and relationships. We had such a good time that she gave me her phone number and address and invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner.”

For Zhang, the most rewarding things that come from working at Baylor are the people and the relations he has formed.

“Although I help the patients, nurses and staff as much as I can, I also enjoy simply walking around the floor and talking to new people,” Zhang said. “They have a lot of interesting stories to share and great advice to give. After talking for a while, you build a bond with them.”

Hurst appreciates the variety of situations he’s helped out with, and he’s always eager to take on a new and unique task.

“We both worked on the trauma floor and saw interesting yet tragic accidents there,” Hurst said.

“Whether someone’s suffering from mental or physical trauma, it’s exciting to help people in different ways in each room.”

In addition to the experience gained from working at Baylor, Hurst learned the value of professionalism and responsibility.

“Even if you have a small role, like a volunteer, all of your interactions matter,” Hurst said. “Any mishandlings may go wrong, and giving improper instructions could give the wrong image to other people about what kind of place Baylor Hospital is. You want to make sure it’s a professional job, even at an early age, and show lots of responsibility.”

STORY ANDRE ARSENAULT, MICHAEL LUKOWICZ PHOTO RYAN NORMAN

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings visits with Upper School

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emphasizes that the point of the speaker series is to provide students a glimpse into the daily life of a politician.

“We do not plan for political exploitation of either party and the mayor will be respectful of both sides,” Washburne said. “In saying that, we have obviously had a tumultuous situation regarding one of our alums recently and I think the mayor would agree that St. Mark’s, like Dallas, is a diverse community of acceptance that is not defined by the actions of one member of the community.”

Furthermore, Chaiken stresses that it is neccessary to have an understanding of politics, especially as a student in the Upper School.

“I think that it is essential to our democracy for our generation to educate itself,” Chaiken said. “Soon enough, our generation will be the one with the responsibility of electing new leaders and we need to be informed in order to elect sensible candidates.”

COURTESY CREATIVE COMMONS

by Zoheb Khan he student-run Political Speaker Series had its second guest of the year, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, spoke at an Upper School assembly Jan. 30.

Senior Nick Chaiken and junior Hill Washburne, the co-founders of the speaker series, asked Rawlings to speak to students about different opportunities around the Dallas area available to Upper School students.

“We have initially focused on bringing in speakers who actually represent most of the students at the school starting with Pete Sessions, who is the representative for most St. Mark’s students in the House [of Representatives] and now moving to Mayor Rawlings of Dallas,” Chaiken said. “We hope to give two different insights into politics, one at the federal level and one at the local level.”

With the goal of the speaker series being to educate students on different political views, Washburne

MAYORAL TREATMENT Dallas Mayor and Democrat Mike Rawlings spoke to the Upper School during an assembly, Jan. 30.

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|THE REMARKER |sports| February 3, 2017 |

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RISKING LIVES their very

HASAN ALEZZALDEEN HERDED HIS SIX CHILDREN, WIFE AND ONE SUITCASE INTO THE TRUNK OF A CAR — A VEHICLE WHICH HE HOPED WOULD GET HIS FAMILY ACROSS THE SYRIAN BORDER TO JORDAN, WHERE HE KNEW A BETTER LIFE AWAITED AND, POSSIBLY, FREEDOM. ALEZZALDEEN IS JUST ONE OF THE THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES WHO LEFT ALL WORLDLY POSSESSIONS BEHIND, SEEKING A SAFER LIFE FOR HIS FAMILY IN AMERICA.

STORY DAVIS BAILEY, ALEC DEWAR, CJ CRAWFORD, WASEEM NABULSI PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS

THE PROLOGUE | JANUARY 20, 2017

Opening their home to a group of students to share an emotional story of risk, danger and reward

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s soon as eight-year-old Mohanad Alezzaldeen opens the triple-locked apartment door, his eyes open wide.

He can’t keep his feet still as he stares at the basket of cookies and brownies we’ve brought his family.

It’s impossible for his parents and five siblings not to join together in laughter.

And as we step into the

Alezzadeens’ dark, one-bedroom Dallas apartment, their warm smiles and eyes full of joy completely light up the room, hiding the terrors those eyes have seen, the life-altering paths those feet have trudged through and the agonizing pain they have stood witness to.

The miles they’ve walked with burned legs while fleeing Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s murderous

regime are hidden under the hospitality and friendliness they selflessly give to total strangers.

Despite these struggles, these scars, they sit us on their nicest – and only – couch while they sit on plastic lawn chairs in their living room.

The oldest daughter, Mona, brings out homemade tea in the nicest glasses they have. But they don’t

drink it.

Exiled from their home, their country, their friends, the Alezzaldeens have been on the run for four years.

The escape from the mass killings, the destruction of their own home, the burns that trace up the left side of mom Kholoud’s body, every family photo that is now ash somewhere in the Syrian desert, all badges — badges of the journey.

THE FATHER | HASAN ALEZZALDEEN

A suitcase, six children, one wife — and hopes and dreams of a better life to live

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shes to ashes, dust to dust. The house he raised from the ground with clay and cement, razed by bombs and shells into nothing more than pebbles and dust.

Hasan Alezzaldeen would tell you that he just worked as a simple man in Syria, but his old life was so much more than that. A hard-worker, not afraid to get his hands caked with the tan mud that was so plentiful in his homeland, Hasan spent his time doing what he loved: building.

As he started to build his family of eight, he took upon himself the “honor and duty” of building his own house. Erecting a two story compound made of concrete, Hasan took pride in what he did, turning the outside walls into murals — images of trees pieced together out of concrete colored to look like brown branches of wood.

He built that perfect house, that house surrounded by a garden so bursting with fruit that the kids could eat full meals off the bushes and trees, that house with room on top for three more stories for his eldest son when he has a family of his own, that house of his own sweat and labor.

But soon shells shook the neighborhood, and the Syrian Army swept through the town of Homs, Syria, murdering townspeople without a thought. Hasan’s “palace,” his little garden of paradise, was now a solitary island of familial love and peace among an arid sea of sand, murder and desolation.

But the brutal Syrian Army wasn’t the only trial the Alezzaldeens faced. After the army descended upon the region like a plague, next came the Shabiha — a military faction allied with Bashar Al-Assad.

“The Shabiha killed anyone who they could catch,” Hasan recounted as he turned to look at his family surrounding him. “We left because of our kids.”

Hasan knew every day his

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family spent at their domestic oasis in Homs was a constant and severe threat to their safety and survival. As much as he loved his house and his land and his country, one simple truth ruled above all else: if he wanted his children to live, he needed to get out.

So in the frigid winter air, he marched his family outside that wonderful, handmade home. Cloaked in snow and darkness, the six trembling children and two terrified — but tranquil — parents. Tranquil because if the man they were paying $25,000 to smuggle them across the country sensed anything at all was wrong, he’d leave them, leave them doomed in their own paradise.

They left the compound carrying all they were allowed — one duffel bag, one change of clothes. Leaving the house behind, they melted away into the nighttime snow, slipping out of town, where they met the smuggler.

Hasan piled his wife and six children and solitary bag of clothes into the man’s car, paying the man “the rest of the money we had left of our savings to take us to the border,” he said.

A FEW HOURS LATER, the smuggler, knowing he could be killed for aiding the family in their escape, crossed the Syria-Jordan border and immediately told the Alezzaldeens to get out of the car. Once they had exited the vehicle, the smuggler sped away, leaving Muhanad, Ahmad, Thuraya, Mona, Nour, Diana and their parents stranded in the cold, unforgiving desert with no idea what to do next.

Hasan led his family onward toward Jordan. Pace after pace, while wintery winds whipped sand at their eyes, the family shivered as they trudged on toward what they assumed to be a Jordanian border outpost. They knew they were inching forward on a tightrope with no net, certain death behind them and a shaky shot at life ahead of them.

Trembling and terrified, they knew if the Syrian Army caught sight of their escape, Hasan, Kholoud and each of their six children would be executed on sight.

Approaching the camo-clad Jordanian soldiers, the family prayed. They knew they could be sent back, they knew they could be turned away, they knew they could be abandoned again.

But the soldiers, water bottles and blankets in hand and grace in their hearts, approached the Alezzaldeens and answered their prayers.

Twelve days later, the Alezzaldeens, starting their new temporary lives in Jordan, left the refugee camp they spent so much to make it to. Hasan and his family would go on to spend the next three years in Jordan, but not before receiving heart-wrenching news, but news that could have been so much worse.

The city he had helped build, the neighborhood his kids had played soccer in, that “palace built with [his] own two hands,” all leveled, all given back to the dust and sand of the Syrian desert.

But, to Hasan, none of that mattered. He had his family.

THE SON | MOHANAD ALEZZALDEEN

Leaving behind a perfect life

TURKEY

When the Class of 1997 started a crowdfundraising drive to benefit refugees to refute classmate, alt-right leader Richard Spencer’s white-supremacist assertions, it might have been difficult for donors to put names to faces, to understand that the money donated — now totalling over $64,000 — could change people’s lives, could save people’s lives. Here’s a family of six refugees — who gave up their uncertain lives in Syria — to risk it all to forge a better life in America.

OPEN DOORS The amount of Syrian refugees accepted by countries around the world.

M

1 - TURKEY

6

2.7 MILLION

2 - LEBANON 1 MILLION

3 - JORDAN 655,675

1 2

4 - IRAQ

4 5

3

228,894

5 - EGYPT 115,204

6 - GERMANY 43,431

The United States has let in 15,000 Syrian Refugees.

SOURCE: www.Amnesty.org

FAMILY PHOTO Sitting on the solitary couch in their one-bedroom Dallas apartment, the Alezzaldeens pose for their first family photo in years. From left to right: Mona, Ahmad, father Hasan, Mohanad, Nour, mother Kholoud, Thuraya and Diana.

THE DAUGHTER | MONA ALEZZALDEEN

Bonding with new friends over soccer, school life

H

igh school freshman Mona Alezzaldeen did not attend school for five years.

Before this past fall, the last time she had been in a classroom was in the fourth grade in her school in Homs, Syria.

Mona has experienced a lot since then—war, destruction, death, homelessness.

And even though she doesn’t speak English and can’t talk to any of her classmates, Bryan T. Adams High School has been like a home for her—something she hasn’t had since she fled Syria.

A far cry from the school she went to in Syria, Mona quickly noticed the differences during her first few weeks of school. Unlike with her school in Homs, Mona said that

school here is stricter, harder and longer— something she doesn’t mind.

“All of my teachers like me,” Mona says proudly.

With only three years of high school left until college, Mona is working hard and making plans for her future. She wants to be the first of her family—including her parents—to go to college. After that, she says she might want to become a doctor, but she doesn’t know yet.

And although she is one of the only Syrian refugees or Arabic speakers at her school, Mona has been able to bond with some of her classmates, many of whom are refugees and have had similar experiences as her.

“Most of my friends are Mexican or have parents who are Mexican immigrants,” Mona said. “And most of them only know Spanish because they’re new to the country, like me.”

Despite a seemingly insurmountable language barrier between them, Mona has found

THE MOTHER | KHOLOUD ALEZZALDEEN

Fiercely protective of her family, even still

K

holoud Alezzaldeen would risk anything and everything for her family. She has the burns to prove it.

The entire left side of Kholoud’s body, running down from her shoulder to her toes, although healed and scarred, serves as an ever-present reminder of the reason they left Homs.

All that she saw and loved as a mother was now perverted by the shells and bombs of the Syrian Army and the Shabiha, who only saw through a lense of destruction.

Whatever that was built beautiful in their paradise keeps its integrity only in her memories.

Even as we watch her tell the family’s story, Kholoud’s calm, serene demeanor does not hide the fact that she has witnessed horrors and struggle in her life. Her eyes look worn down, sunken and exposed. They add what would seem to be years of stress to a mother in her early-thirties.

Her city, her home, even her family is scattered by the bombs released by Syrian forces. Kholoud still does not know whether or not she has brothers anymore. Whether they are dead or alive. After their arrest and abduction by the Syrian government, they have disappeared. Her mother, fearing the same fate, has fled to Lebanon.

Nonetheless, Kholoud has found solace in America, as well as new family. Emily, a white woman who has been at their side through an Anglican church in Richardson, is considered an honorary Alezzaldeen by the whole family.

“She is our friend and basically our family,” Hasan said.

In addition to being the Alezzaldeens’ friendly face to help them adjust to American life, Emily has been helping Kholoud with her latest venture to increase the family’s income: sewing. Kholoud Sews is her website where she sells various pieces such as throw blankets, table runners and placemats.

The website, the business’s Facebook page and business

a way to connect and form friendships with her classmates without having to say a single word.

“I play soccer with my school’s soccer team during PE!” Mona added excitedly when asked what she likes to do for fun.

From the expression on her face, it is clear that Mona loves soccer.

And while many girls like her—including her own sister—struggle to make friends and adjust to life in the United States, Mona has used soccer as an icebreaker for the many conversations that are yet to be had.

With a hijab on her head and a soccer ball at her foot, Mona is able to express herself better than words ever could. In that moment, as Mona dribbles the ball between her feet, language barriers crumble as new friendships form.

In that moment, Mona is able to forget the war and destruction and sorrow. In that moment, Mona is free.

cards were made and are run by Emily. As of now, the website has had about 82 orders during the Christmas season.

Kholoud has also begun crafting earrings with designs sewn in the center. However, the earnings made by her are sold through her employers at Gaia, a company that retails products made almost exclusively by immigrants. She doesn’t receive any of the earnings made, but she does get paid by the hour. It’s a small step forward for the Alezzaldeen’s, but every penny counts.

Because of her growing business and online presence, Kholoud has brought it upon herself to learn English in order to become more hands-on with her business’s image, both online and in in-person meetings. While Hasan learns through his various jobs around the city and prior schooling, only knowing basic English and grammar, Kholoud meets with a tutor named Lory that teaches other immigrants in the area.

Kholoud attributes the majority of the family’s progress with English to Emily.

“It’s because of Emily that we are learning English better,” Kholoud said. “To be honest, the two youngest [Mohanad and Nour] know English better than the older siblings. The other day, as Mohanad was leaving the apartment, he said, ‘Bye bye Mama, see you soon!’”

In addition to the language and Kholoud Sews, Emily has also aided the family in their fragile financial situation. Emily only knows Ed Maynard through her church, and the Alezaldeens have entrusted everything to him. Their accounts, bills and social security numbers have been given to this stranger to watch over, for free. As any other family would immediately doubt Ed’s intentions, the Alezzaldeens really have no other option. But so far they haven’t regretted their decision.

“She [Emily] is my sister,” Kholoud said with a smile. It was the first and only time she broke into English during our conversation.

When the Alezzaldeens left Syria, they had left everything, and only the essentials made their way to America with them. All the framed photos of the family together, the various pictures of their children and portraits of a wife and husband, all gone, taken by Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and the Shabiha.But this doesn’t bother Kholoud, for what was destroyed in the flames does not compare to what survived.

Kholoud doesn’t miss her house. She doesn’t miss her family heirlooms, she doesn’t miss her furniture and she doesn’t miss her photographs because she escaped with something far more valuable—her family.

ohanad’s life in Syria was perfect.

Surrounded by his loved ones, fiveyear-old Mohanad would spend his days in Syria playing marbles with his family and competing in soccer games for the fans who paid admission to cheer him on.

Life was perfect. And he thought nothing would be able to change it. But something did more than that.

It took the Syrian Army sweeping through his city, a barrage of Shabiha bombs, and a few third degree burns seared onto the side of his legs to not only change the five year old’s life, but to completely obliterate it — to end his life as a toddler and start his life as a Syrian refugee.

After three and a half years of living in various places in Jordan, hiding from the Syrian Army, Mohamad and his family’s application for refuge in the United States was accepted.

He had lost five uncles, one home and a childhood — but had gained a future.

Upon arriving into the United States, the changes were hard to deal with for the now eight year old. He had never gone to school before, because as a five year he had left his home just before his pre-school year was supposed to begin.

Being four years behind in schooling that is in a different language in the first place would normally not be a desirable situation for a child, but after walking away from the destruction of his childhood home, the new obstacle that faced him seemed much better.

Small things about America were difficult to adjust to, one of which was his bewilderment at the mass amounts of vegetation across the ground in America.

In Syria, which is mainly a desert terrain, all trees had a purpose because they took up valuable water. It was baffling for him to see such mass vegetation doing nothing for the people that lived around it.

Mohanad has attempted to adjust to the American lifestyle and start his new life by applying himself to learning the English language and he can now articulate certain conversations with his family without thinking. He gets closer to fluency each day and hopes that with a mastery of the English language he will be able to more easily live in America.

Another way that he has adjusted to the American lifestyle is through common interaction with his peers. In the second grade at his school Hexter Elementary, although he does not know his own school’s name, periods of time like recess and homeroom at his school are precious opportunities to mesh with the American culture. While swinging on the swings during recess he can be a normal kid for once.

Mohanad dreams of being a pilot one day. Fortunately for him, his family was able to escape the Syrian civil war alive, providing him with the opportunity to have a future and make all of the family members and friends killed or left behind in war torn Syria proud of him by achieving his dream.

LOOKING FORWARDFather Hasan Alezzaldeen (far left) and mother Kholoud Alezzaldeen (below) recount their journey from Syria.

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|THE REMARKER |news| February 3, 2017 |

SOCIAL MEDIA DEBATES

NOT YOUR TYPICAL

FIGHT THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO DISCUSS POLITICS IS ON THE RISE, EVIDENCED BY THE RECENT ELECTION, BUT IT’S NOT JUST POLITICIANS. STUENTS ARE ALSO USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO EXPRESS THEIR VIEWS.

J

unior Waseem Nabulsi stared intently at his keyboard, wondering if he should say something.

He knew he had to comment on this post. It was one he just couldn’t pass by. He felt it was his duty to inform the person who posted it why they were wrong.

However, it wasn’t until the next morning, when a dozen people had responded to his post, that he realized the impact of what he had just done.

There are various pros and cons of people using social media to convey their thoughts, one con being the backlash people see.

An advantage is that politicians, reporters and citizens can communicate with their followers instantaneously.

With the rise of politicians using social media to convey their thoughts, they can use social media as a medium to campaign. Political Forum sponsor Bruce Westrate doesn’t like this new trend.

“I hate it,” Westrate said. “I think it’s an inevitable thing and a permanent thing. I don’t know how much I’m going to learn from 140 characters from anybody.”

President Donald Trump used social media to communicate to his 46 million followers throughout his campaign.

“I think Trump partially does this because he enjoys it,” Westrate said, “but also because it has paid off for him. He can run around the press without all the hostile filters in between. I think that’s the value to him.”

On the other hand, Political Forum president Ivan Day says Trump’s tweets allow us to see the inner workings of his mind and therefore his administration.

“At times his tweets are incredibly abrasive and rude and outlandish, but it’s helped with transparency issues,”

Day said. “We know as citizens that we have this free stream of conscious from Donald Trump. Whether or not we agree or disagree with him is irrelevant. I just think it’s important that we have that transparency.”

IVAN DAY Finds social media to be a good platform

Contrary to this belief, Westrate thinks that social media doesn’t accurately represent a person or a politician.

“By nature, social media is superficial, impulsive, and not very well thought out,” Westrate said. “Either that or it’s too well thought out and meaningless.”

Nabulsi is an active user of social media, utilizing it to discuss politics. He points out the oppurtunity social media gives to people to have a constructive argument.

“I think that social media is a great platform if you’re sharing your views in a respectful manner and if the arguments that are being started are constructive rather than just meaningless arguments,” Nabulsi said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sharing your opinion on social media if you’re willing to back up what you’re posting when it is controversial or when someone else is curious about your viewpoint.”

Westrate also stresses the importance of having thoughtful, fact-based discussions to validate claims by both sides of an argument, and he has recently seen student improvement due to social media.

“I’m very struck by how thoughtful the students are this year,” Westrate said. “Some of them are extraordinarily thoughtful and consider multiple points of view. We can model a scenario where

there is a civilized, polite discussion.”

Even though there has been a rise in student thoughtfulness, Day thinks students still have a tendency to impulsively pose backlash against a post they don’t agree with.

“I see a lot of people who may not agree with things that they see being written on social media,” Day said.

“They express verbally their disagreement but would never ever try to engage with that person online because of the large social backlash that they would receive.” abulsi believes social media allows users to exclusively hear what they want to hear, causing them to disregard opposing arguments that they may not have a proper understanding of.

“I think that the downfall of social media is that you can surround yourself with a lot of people and a lot of news outlets voicing the same opinion,” Nabulsi said. “Getting out of the bubble that you’ve put yourself in and finding that other opinion, that other voice, that other viewpoint is essential to get your voice out.”

Day also agrees with this, regardless of whether you get your information from social media or from like-minded peers.

N

YES

“Generally what happens is that people form their own echo chambers where the only political opinions they want to hear are ones they already hold,” Day said. “That’s the issue that happens with social media and politics.”

The algorithms many social media sites use only show you posts with opinions that you agree with, and they allow users to form groups of people with similar opinions, creating a hive mind.

“People create these sole political opinion communities in which any sort of opposing political opinion is ostracized and attacked,” Day said, “regardless if the person holds many other of the same political opinions as the group.”

The backlash to an opposing opinion is what prevents some people from posting on social media at all, and Westrate thinks people should be able to take the backlash if they truly care about what they’re saying.

“When I was growing up,” Westrate said, “whenever I heard someone say something that hurt my feelings, my parents would say, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’ Now it seems like people are capable of being hurt by words, and I don’t quite understand that.”

100%

100%

80%

80%

60%

60%

40%

40%

20%

20%

NO

YES

Do you use social media?

NO

Have you ever gotten into a political argument over social media?

YES

NO

If so, did you find it to be constructive?

Surveys conducted with 50 Upper and Middle School students.

STORY KAMAL MAMDANI, JAMES ROGERS PHOTO OWEN BERGER

Math team to compete in national tournament at MIT

by Kamal Mamdani he top eight participants on the Math Team will compete in the annual Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT) on MIT’s campus Feb. 18.

The competition is the most prestigious one that the team competes in, hosting students from all over the world.

Tryouts held by sponsors Amy Pool and Clara Ann Norman are in the fall every year, and the team members are chosen based on not only their math abilities, but also their teamwork skills.

T

NEWS

Once the team of eight and one alternate is chosen, the boys meet many times outside of math team practice to prepare for the competition.

Led by senior captains Kevin Choi and Daran Zhao and junior captain Jesse Zhong, this year’s team consists of two other seniors, one other junior, one sophomore and one freshman.

“Getting chosen as one of these members certainly means you are among the strongest mathematically on the Math Team,” Pool said, “but also that you’re one of the most committed.”

Zhao says the tactic this year is

to use the senior-heavy aspect of the team to their advantage, utilizing their veteran skills to make the most out of the competition.

“This year won’t be as much about gaining experience as it is about showing other teams how we’ve gained experience in the past,” Zhao said. “We have four seniors on the team this year out of eight.”

The most reliable way to get invited back every year is to place among the top 40 teams. All other teams that want to participate are placed into a lottery system where only a handful of teams are chosen to join the previ-

ous top 40 for the next year’s tournament.

“By raw numbers, top 40 means a lot of success for us,” Zhao said.

Unlike the tournaments within Texas, HMMT allows the team to compete in an environment where every team is very talented.

“It’s a good opportunity to get outside of the Texas bubble that we live in,” Zhao said. “It’s also really humbling to see really good people, because in tournaments in Texas we always look to win, but at HMMT we just look to perform well because everyone there is really good.”

ROLE OF RELIGION

?

SYMBOLS OF RELIGION Students of various grades hold their prized religious symbols. For some students, these symbols mean the world. For some, however, they mean nothing.

Integral or insignificant T

his is the day that the Lord has made.

A religious statement heard every week in chapel.

Some think chapel is very religious, to the point of being overbearing or unnecessary. Some think chapel is only one small point in the fairly non-religious school week.

Some think religion plays a big part in St. Mark’s, founded as an Episcopal school.

Some think religion is not found in the school, essentially non-existent.

One major question arises: What role does religion play at St. Mark’s?

While the school is technically based upon an Episcopalian charter, the role of both the Episcopalian religion and religion in general in on-campus life has evolved over time. According to senior Killian Green, Chairman of the Chapel Committee, students have adapted religion to be a large part in helping them cope with busy schedules.

“Religion is a very big part of the St. Mark’s experience and St. Mark’s campus since we use religion in all different ways,” Green said. “The benefits of religion can simple as you being stressed and coming into the chapel, no matter what religion you are. It’s just a time to relax and that’s what religion is to me and a lot of people.”

To better involve the school’s many different backgrounds and cultures, Green hopes to give students a complete view of different religions rather than focusing on one.

KILLIAN GREEN believes religion is integral

“What I like to say about the St. Mark’s chapel experience is that; yes, it is Episcopalian in nature,” Green said, “but it’s more of a non-denominational Episcopalian chapel. We’re really encompassing and we like to highlight all the different religions that are reflected in our student body.”

Sophomore Seth Weprin echoes Green’s sentiments, believing that it is beneficial for students to be exposed to and understand a variety of cultures and religions.

“I think they do a fairly good job of keeping [the atmosphere] non-denominational like they try to,” Weprin said. “However, I think there’s a big role religion plays in our education. I think they utilize not just one religion, but a multitude of religious education, and I think they do a really good job of teaching us about that, and not just focusing on one religion.”

Unlike Green and Weprin, sophomore Emmett Berger, religion has had little influence on his school

RELIGION PLAYS A DIFFERENT ROLE FOR EACH STUDENT. FOR SOME, IT CAN HELP COPE WITH STRESS. FOR OTHERS, RELIGION IS A NONEXISTENT ASPECT OF CAMPUS LIFE. HOW DO STUDENTS ADAPT THEIR OWN BELIEFS TO THEIR LIVES ON CAMPUS?

experience. “[Religion] doesn’t play a role,” Berger said. “There’s pretty much no religion. I mean, you could say chapel is religious, but, it’s just a place for everyone to go and reflect on their thoughts and it’s barely religious. In the classes and hallways there’s no religion.”

CONVERSLY, Berger thinks the role religion currently plays in the school is a good one, and the role shouldn’t be grown or diminished.

“I think it’s good to teach about religions in a historical setting and how religion developed the world we live in now,” Berger said, “but I don’t think religion should be the basis for a syllabus of a course, because that promotes religious bias.”

EMMETT BERGER thinks religion is not part of daily campus life

Weprin agrees with Berger on the role he thinks religion plays in the classroom, as well as in school in general.

“I think the role [religion] has in education is good enough,” Weprin said. “I don’t think it needs to play any role outside of the classroom.

Outside of the classroom, there doesn’t need to be any real focus on religion.”

“I think it’s important that we

don’t just shove Christianity down everybody’s throat like we might have in the past,” Green said. “I might not have been here when that happened, but I think is a key is that we’re accepting of different cultures, and by highlighting that, we can connect to individual students and different religions represented in the student body.”

Hoping to incorporate different student interests in the weekly chapel talks and foster more student participation, Green hopes the newly-founded Chapel Committee result in more engaging chapel talks led by both alumni and students.

“We have a body now,” Green said. “Gordon [Gunn] and I wanted a body, so that we can make the Chapel Committee more prestigious and also an efficiently run organization that it has been in the past.”

Furthermore, Green and chaplain Arbogast hope to expand the Chapel Committee program to the Middle School, allowing younger kids to get an early glimpse and experience of Upper School life.

“This is a transition year,” Green said, “so we’re shaping the Chapel Council to be more self-sufficient and to get on its feet to handle all chapel affairs to hopefully impact the chapel in some way. We’re just laying the foundation for the future Chapel Committees to have a platform to do whatever they want.”

STORY SAM SHANE, ZOHEB KHAN PHOTO KABEER SINGH

NEWS

| February 3, 2017 |news| THE REMARKER |

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|THE REMARKER |news|February 3, 2017|

10

MALECALL Taking you back to the basic fundamentals of all things manly

THE VALENTINE’S ISSUE BAD PICK UP LINES DATE ADVICE VALENTINE’S DAY TREATS

VALENTINE’S DAY

Valentine’s Day done right Staff members of The ReMarker were writing important stories about real men, MaleCall decided to talk about the man you don’t want to be. Here is your official guide on what not to do on Valentine’s Day.

MAN SCHOOL Pick-up lines: rated Fact: Pick up lines work. Fact: They only work sometimes.

Fact: 42.7 percent of the time, these one-liners work 100 percent of the time.

What not to do on a first date If you like her, chances are, you will want a second date. Avoid these few behaviors and she’ll say yes to that second date.

TALK, TALK, TALK This one is a little bit tricky. There is a fine line between talking too much and not talking enough. If you talk her ear off, you have no chance for a second date. But if you don’t talk enough, it’ll make for a horribly awkward night.

BE LATE Being late absolutely ruins your 11 12 1 chances from the get go. Five 2 minutes early is ten minutes 10 9 3 late in the dating world, so if you want to have a chance to 8 4 finish the first date or even get 7 6 5 a second date, don’t be late.

“Do you have a Band-Aid? ‘Cause I scraped my knee falling for you.”

“Can you touch my hand? I want to tell my friends I’ve been touched by an angel.”

MAKE HER PAY Alright, alright, alright, we are beating a dead horse here, but picking up the tab at the end of the night is key. It’s chivalrous, it’s a way to better your case for a second date.

“Hey, I lost my phone number. Can I have yours?”

“If you were a transformer, you’d be Optimus Fine.”

“Hey babe, want a raisin? Sorry, none left. Perhaps a date then?”

Top treats for your Valentine

BE ON YOUR PHONE This is probably the most simple of all. Don’t use your phone on your date. Be attentive, be conversational, be awesome. Being on your phone makes you not awesome. It makes you uninteresting and lowers your chances for another date.

Valentine’s Day is a time of giving to your significant other. Whether it’s through a tasty heart-shaped treat, a beautiful flower or a masterfully articulated card expressing your love, a good gift is key to Impressing your one special girl. Pick them up at your local grocery store before the big date.

“Go on, feel my jacket! It’s made of boyfriend material.”

“My doctor told me I’m missing some Vitamin U. Can you help me?”

Rating scale:

NEVER USE

NEWS

USE ONCE IN YOUR LIFE

BOX OF CHOCOLATES These big red boxes filled with random chocolates that sometimes taste weird are classics for a date. I’m pretty sure someone compared love to a box of chocolates... or was it life?

CANDY HEARTS We wouldn’t recommend getting these little candies for a long term relationship—they are more middleschool-ish. But hey, they are tasty and have motivational messages on them.

SINGLE ROSE They do it on The Bachelor, right? It’s a timeless gift — and super classy. Tell her to put it between her teeth, take her by the hand, and dance the tango romantically. It will be legen—wait for it—dary.

VALENTINE’S CARD The card is also good for Valentine’s Day. It’s a good middle ground between “I love you” and “I am thinking about you.” It’s versatile, it’s timeless, but most importantly, it’s a great gift.

STORIES RETT DAUGBJERG PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS ILLUSTRATIONS RETT DAUGBJERG

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|THE REMARKER |life| February 3, 2017 |

LITERARY FESTIVAL

HANGING OUT WITH

Michele Santosuosso

ADNAN KHAN PHOTO

History instructor Michele Santosuosso gives her thoughts about being a mom, teacher— and secret society agent?

What’s the best part about being a mom?

I really like kids, I’ve always wanted kids.

My kids in particular are fun—there’s always activity, and they’re into sports. I like going to their sports games.

What’s the best part about being a teacher?

I enjoy history, so I think it’s great getting to talk about something I enjoy all day. I also enjoy being with students and hopefully—I hated history in high school, a lot, I thought it was the most boring subject in school—impacting enough students to realize that history isn’t the most boring subject in school and just getting them excited about learning different topics.

We heard you’re teaching an elective-style course. What would that be about?

Post World War II through today.

I heard you are invovled with Tasty Club. What is it about?

We don’t cook on campus, but we meet at the beginning of the month to decide the theme of the month. For example, it could be savory or home-cooked meals and then at the very end of the month people bring stuff in and sometimes, there’s a competition. We look at different recipes like the science behind cooking/baking.

Five visiting writers participate in a panel discussion for the Upper School for the tenth annual Literary Festival Jan. 6.

RILEY SANDERS PHOTO

a peek INSIDE

at a GLANCE

Life stories on the inside

A brief look at the events around campus

12

A HELPING HAND A look into the community aiding people outside of school.

13

DIRECTING HIS PEERS A peek into senior Zach Cole directing his own play.

14

SOLVING THE CUBE How sophomore Creston Brooks started his Rubik’s cube career.

18

STUDENT COMPOSER A profile on eighth-grader Shiv Yajnik composing his own music.

Favorite school lunch?

I eat salad for lunch every day with protein, so I guess my favorite protein would be the smoked salmon at the salad bar.

What’s the coolest thing you own?

I don’t own anything cool anymore. I really like my—it’s not cool— but my Beats running earphones. I don’t own anything cool!

If you could go back and witness one event in history, what would that be?

I would go toward maybe 1870 to 1914.

That’s right before World War I, kind of the formation of the modern European map, but then I wouldn’t want to be alive during World War I, so just that chunk of time.

What’s the most important invention in history?

Paper.

FIVE STUDENTS ATTEND TPSMEA ALL-STATE CHOIR The TPSMEA All-State Choir performance took place Jan. 26-28 at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. The five students in attenWOODSMAN One of the many woodworking pieces Ben Clayman has created.

LIFE

LIT FEST BEGINS PLANNING As yet another successful Literary Festival comes to a close, Literary Festival coordinator David Brown and student chairs Davis Bailey and Sahit Dendekuri have already begun to organize next year’s event. Brainstorming ideas begins

the search for next year’s visiting authors. Most invitations are sent during the school year before the festival is scheduled.

“By the spring, we will have begun to probably send out some invitations, especially if it’s a writer in demand,” Brown said.

STUDENTS ATTEND YOUNG ARTS WEEK Seniors Christian McClain and Hyer Thomas attended the 36th annual National YoungArts Week in Miami from Jan. 8-15.

They got the opportunity to work with acclaimed artists, participate in YoungArts programs and start taking their artistic abilities to the next level.

Thomas feels his time at the program was a worthwhile experience.

“It was a lot of creativity in one room,” Thomas said.

“A lot of times at St. Mark’s it’s all about numbers and facts, but there it was all just creativity, which I thought was very interesting.”

— Jason Peng, Sahit Dendekuri, Eric Hirschbrich, Naftal Mautia

artist in ACTION PHOTO CHRISTOPHER MCELHANEY

Are you in a secret society?

I don’t know. I’ll never tell.

dance were Daran Zhao, Ethan Pittson, Jake HorigomePigg, Camp Collins and Brendan Goldaber.

Choir Director Tinsley Silcox says that the process of being selected for All-State was very difficult because over 1,000 students auditioned for the program.

The audition pieces included difficult excerpts from Estampie Natalies

by Václav Nelhýbel and Credo Mass by Mozart.

“I’m extremely proud of the whole Upper School Choir,” Silcox said, “but especially these guys that made All-State, what an accomplishment!”

PHOTO COURTESY BEN CLAYMAN

What’s your spirit animal?

Lion!

New year’s resolution?

I would say to be more chill, have more patience mostly with my kids.

TEN SENIORS ATTEND WRITING COLLOQUIUM The Frankenstein Writing Colloquium took place at the Oakridge School Jan. 30. The colloquium accepted only a select few students from each school participating.

This year, ten seniors from the school participated in the colloquium.

“The AP literature classes taught by instructors [GayMarie] Vaughan and [Lynne] Weber read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein this year,” English Department Chair Michael Morris said.

In the colloquium, which was the fifth writing colloquium in the DFW area that the school has participated in, students discussed the book based on a variety of topics.

2

BEN CLAYMAN

pieces created per year

2-3

weeks used to plan a design

“What I anticipated woodworking to be is you make a piece of furniture and you use it, and that was it. But it’s more about making pieces of art, even pieces of art that say something about society.”

— junior Ben Clayman

12

|THE REMARKER |life|February 3, 2017 |

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

own world Beyond our

T

he final chord of piano notes resonates through the quaint recreational room at St. Joseph’s Residency.

Juniors Kal Buscaino and Calvin Hosler, leaders of the Piano Club, walk away from the slightly out-of-tune piano as the nun alerts them that their allotted performance time has ended.

The elderly leave the room in small groups as Buscaino and Hosler take a seat in the front.

A short, white-haired woman sits down next to them, with a content and assured face.

“I just want you all to know,” the woman said, “I’ve been going through a deep, dark depression lately, and I was sure today would be a ‘down day.’ But the music you all just played has lifted my spirits up in a way I didn’t know was possible. And I thank God for that.”

Buscaino and Hosler were shocked.

They just planned to provide casual entertainment with a piano, not lift the spirits of the depressed.

But they did so much more.

Their experience showed that something as small as playing the piano could have a profound effect even on complete strangers.

Their experience showed them you can do something you love while still benefiting others.

Their experience showed that you don’t have to stay within the known, familiar boundaries of 10600 Preston Rd. You can go out and have an impact on the outside world.

••• Before the Piano Club, Buscaino only felt the need to play the piano when he had nothing to do, as a stress reliever.

The experience with the woman at St. Joseph’s Residency reinvigorated his love for the instrument — because he knew he could entertain others with it.

“Now that I’ve started the club,” Buscaino said, “there’s a viable reason to play the piano. There’s an actual purpose, we’re helping people.”

Hosler believes benefiting the elderly by brightening their days validates the purpose of the Piano Club.

CALVIN HOSLER feels his music can bring joy to others.

“[The experiences we’ve had] let us know that our club really means something,” Hosler said. “I’ve been in a lot of clubs where we didn’t really do much, but our Piano Club really felt like it was really worth something and it meant something to other people.”

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GOING BEYOND THE CAMPUS TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD, STUDENTS HERE HAVE FOUND THE IMPORTANCE OF AFFECTING COMMUNITIES OTHER THAN OUR OWN. Community Service Director Jorge Correa views reaching out to Dallas as an important aspect to the workings of a thriving community.

“We all depend on each other,” Correa said. “Like in a home, whatever one person does affects the outcome of somebody else. When you go out there into the public, you are being part of a community even when you’re not aware of it. There are things that other people may do for your benefit, and that’s what we try to do here.” orrea believes that reaching out and impacting those in the Dallas community gives joy and benefits both sides, with those giving their time receiving just as much happiness and just as many lessons as those they help.

“I think whenever you do something that’s good,” Correa said, “when we help somebody else, you feel better about yourself. Many of our boys do way more than they should in terms of hours and limits, and I think that a person who’s ready to do that can lead a happier life by making other people happy at the same time.”

Serving as a contact between community service project coordinators and volunteers, Associate Director of College Counseling Casey Gendason believes in the same benefits of reaching out but also feels students should actively participate within the school community.

C

“I also love the St. Mark’s community and I’m such a part of it,” Gendason said, “that by being able to give some of us to them and know that they see me as a contact and see the students as reliable, helpful, contributing people, that contributes to the satisfaction I feel.”

Junior Andrew Smith imparts good on the outside community by channeling his main interests, figure skating and computer programming — passions he’s been involved with for most of his life.

Working with the Citizens Instructor Initiative in Allen, Smith assists by teaching three to seven-year-olds the basics of figure skating.

In addition to instructing children, he also coded an organizational software to help run the rink called OpenRec. ANDREW SMITH enjoys sharing his passions with others.

According to Smith, getting involved with the Citizens Instructor Initiative was a “gradual process.”

Throughout the years, his involvement increased exponentially, leading him to becoming the administrator of affairs.

“I started in the sixth grade as a citizen instructor,” Smith said, “helping teach classes thrice a week for an hour-and-a-half each day. I ended up

STORY ZACH GILSTRAP, MARK TAO PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

LIFE

taking on more and more responsibilities as they were required, and I generally tried to help out as much as I could around the premises and ended up morphing myself into this weird hybrid position that I’m in now.”

Many of the children Smith worked with had recently immigrated from countries all around the world.

One girl, Charlotte, was four-years-old and had immigrated from Korea shortly before her and Smith’s first encounter. he relationship formed between the two morphed into a semester-long bond strong enough to break the language barrier.

“She didn’t know much English,” Smith said. “I ended up learning small amounts of Korean to communicate with her. I had to teach her what a high-five was. I had to introduce her to [American] culture. It’s great to think that I and some of the other people I REALLY were able to introFELT LIKE duce education in WHAT I WAS the United States DOING WAS to them. I now see ACTUALLY them, and they’ve HELPING progressed pretty far SOMEONE. in the program. It’s THAT MADE really gratifying to IT WORTH IT. see the things that — KAL you’ve taught them BUSCAINO in their early levels.”

Smith sees working with children as an opportunity to impart some of the lessons and values he’s learned on to other communities outside of his own — and he refuses to take those opportunities for granted.

“Here, we have a very strict set of morals,” Smith said, “and I think that being able to impart some of that on the communities that don’t have it is really important. Being able to impart some of the knowledge is something that is kind of cool, and I don’t think we would be able to do [that] otherwise.”

Playing piano for the elderly and instructing children to figure skate – these are both viable ways to impact the outside community and make a difference in someone’s life.

There is a wealth of opportunity for all people to take what they love and spread it to other communities.

And, according to Hosler, you can still do so much more.

“Your passion doesn’t have to be something big,” Hosler said. “With activities and clubs, it can be something small, but the smallest thing can still bring joy into someone else’s life. Just know that there is always an option to make your own impression on the outside world.”

Alums start BRAMI, a healthy bean company

By Mark Tao

BOOMING BUSINESS Standing in Jalsa’s production plant, Amee Joshi proudly displays her signature product.

W

hen Amee Joshi, owner of Jalsa and mother of sophomore Jayan Joshi and eighth grader Rajan Joshi, launched Jalsa in December 2013, she never thought she would be in business for more than a year.

She started by selling salsa out of the trunk of her car. In six months, Jalsa hit the shelves in Whole Foods.

And then it came to Central Market.

Then Sprouts. In a little less than three years and more than 15,000 sold jars later, Amee’s product spread from her family kitchen to the entire DFW metroplex. It’s still spreading further towards places like Houston and even Florida.

Even Jayan was completely surprised by the success and the spread of his mom’s own type of salsa.

“My mom had been making Jalsa for a long time, and then she started talking about how she might make a company out of it,” Jayan said. “I just laughed about it because I didn’t think she would actually do that. She did, though, and it grew a lot bigger than any of us thought it would have grown into.”

Amee’s salsa products first began as a party-favorite recipe passed down from her mother-in-law from New Jersey.

“My husband’s mother used to make it at home with jalapeños, and she gave me the recipe years ago,” Amee said. “My husband loved it, my family enjoyed it, and I figured that if people liked it, let’s see what happens if we turn it into a business.”

She spent a year learning about the basics of retail in the food industry and thought about whether or not Jalsa would be a viable product to sell.

“I had no background in the food industry,” Amee said. “It was really just learning how to manufacture something and what the entire process would be.”

Although Amee has faced

The

spice is right AMEE JOSHI, MOTHER OF TWO MARKSMEN, HAS STARTED HER OWN INDIAN SALSA COMPANY. many difficulties along the way, she feels that she has received a lot of support from some of the school’s parents as well.

John Rubi, father of third grader Peter Rubi and president of Bartush Foods in Lewisville, helped her navigate the process of starting a food business.

“Bartush Foods and Mr. Rubi were instrumental to helping me understand the legalities of starting a food business,” Amee said. “They helped manage that whole process for me.”

Additionally, Jennifer Brower, mother of Nick Brower ‘12, helped Amee design her own logo, label and website for Jalsa, while Vahan Ayvazian, father of eighth grader Van Ayvazian, helped her navigate stores and also advised her on how to grow things.

Amee’s family has supported her along the way as well. Her sons and her husband help out whenever they can in various ways.

“Outside of his job, my husband has been helping me make deliveries,” Amee said. “Every time we manufacture, he always comes with me and makes sure the flavor is right, because he knows better

than anyone else about what it should taste like. The boys always bring it up to campus and introduce it to people, and they also help me build boxes when I’m shipping and do all the mundane work that has to be done at home.”

She has even employed some students to help her out by giving samples of her product in various stores.

Looking back, Amee believes that Jalsa has been a very rewarding endeavor for both herself and her family.

“I’ve met some great people and I’ve definitely expanded my skill set,” Amee said. “I learned a lot about starting a business and the food industry and how people shop.”

She hopes that Jalsa will expand further to become something that can give back to the community.

“A big piece of Jalsa, at least for me as the owner, is to give back,” Amee said, “and we definitely launched Jalsa with the idea of creating something that over time can develop growth and we can give back to the community.”

Jalsa Shredded Chicken What you’ll need boneless chicken breasts oz. Jalsa tablespoon sour cream Cooking it up

1. Mix the Jalsa and sour cream together 2. Slow-cook chicken and mix for four hours 3. Cool and shred the chicken by hand

STORY DYLAN LIU, ALBERT LUO PHOTOS JAYAN JOSHI

STOCKED UP Loaded with a strong, spicy flavor, Jalsa offers a unique fusion of both Tex-Mex and Indian elements.

Dillon Dandurand ‘10 and William Hicks ‘10 co-founded a healthy snack-based company called BRAMI, offering beans high in protein and fiber.

“It’s on trend,” Dandurand said. “It’s vegan, it’s high protein, it’s low calorie, it’s all natural, it’s clean label, simple ingredients, non-GMO, gluten free – the list goes on and on.”

Dandurand highlights the food’s positive, healthier effects in comparison to its more negative, unhealthy nutritional facts.

“It’s got the most protein per calorie of any plant on earth,” Dandurand said. “So, you could make the argument that it provides the most protein and fiber for the least amount of bad stuff, and so that’s what interested me in why I joined the team early.”

Hicks also became interested in the company as a result of his work and study in investment banking.

“I was also on Wall Street working on investment banking,” Hicks said, “and I didn’t really feel I was getting enough out of the experience for how much I was putting in. I also realized I didn’t want to be a one-dimensional, financial analyst kind of guy.”

Hicks got the opportunity to work for BRAMI after Danduran told him about an open position in the company.

“I wanted to do something to learn how to run a business,” Hicks said, “and Dillon said they were looking for another founding member to take over the operations, and so I joined about a year after Dillon did, and I’ve gotten to do things that I never would’ve done on Wall Street.”

The company’s growth since its founding 10 months ago has greatly pleased Dandurand.

“I think we’re very happy with the success so far,” Dandurand said. “We’re about a year in and we’re already in five regions of Whole Foods which is very unique for a product of that age. We’ve raised $1.55 million which is impressive for a company at our stage.”

According to Hicks, BRAMI hopes to expand the limits of what it offers by devising new healthy snacks for consumers to buy.

“We’re definitely happy with where the company is at,” Hicks said, “but we’re also thinking about expanding into new products outside of the beans.”

Through this experience, Dandurand believes he has learned the valuable life lesson of doing things you feel uncomfortable doing.

“I think you definitely learn what you’re more comfortable with and what you’re better at,” Dandurand said, “but I think you learn how to do things that you don’t necessarily excel at our want to do.”

LIFE

13

| February 3, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

AMEE JOSHI JALSA

Community members attend Student Diversity Leadership Conference

by Eric Hirschbrich o learn more about interacting in a diverse student body, several students and teachers went to the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC).

While there, they heard from guest speakers who are standing up against injustice. Interim Assistant Head of Upper School Scott Gonzalez describes Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, as an advocate for the disadvantaged.

“He has worked with underrepresented populations who have for whatever reason didn’t get representation in courts or were mistreated by law enforcement officials in order to set them up,” Gonzalez said.

Stevenson has recently worked on

T

helping children as young as eleven or twelve years old who are being held in prison.

“He has an important message about the idea that all justice is dispersed equally,” Gonzalez said, “and not all representation in a court of law is equal either.”

The conference split up students and teachers between different speakers and workshops. DADYO member Kannan Sharma spoke about the difference between the conferences.

“The Student Diversity conference is a part of the bigger program, the PCC, or the People of Color Conference, that affects adults,” Sharma said.

In comparison to most high school campuses, the SDLC has no dominating viewpoint, and because of the inherent freedom to openly express ideas, most

people’s voices are heard when they otherwise are overlooked.

“There are people who are not only hurting and who wish to be treated respectfully and are often at the receiving end of some negative feedback,” Gonzalez said. “There are also those who are working to unify our schools and to unify our citizenry.”

The students returning from the conference understand how to take action against injustice. Sharma notes that learning about all the problems that students at other schools face has prepared him to notice negative action in everyday life.

“Once I came back I started seeing things from a different perspective,” Sharma said, “because people there brought to light things that sometimes you don’t face here.”

COURTESY MARJORIE CURRY

|THE REMARKER |life| February 3, 2017 |

14

DIVERSE LEARNING Sophomores Davis Yoo and David Vallejo learn about leadership in a diverse community at the SDLC.

CRESTON BROOKS

‘mad CUBE skills’ HE’S CUBED SINCE SEVENTH GRADE. HE’S PARTICIPATED IN COMPETITIONS FOR THREE YEARS. AND WITH A RECORD OF 6.88 SECONDS, HE’S NOT TOO BAD AT IT EITHER.

N

erves have always been his greatest enemy. Two seconds in, eyebrows furrowed, Sophomore Creston Brooks freezes — but luckily, instinct kicks in and his impatient fingers, trained for the job, spontaneously start on their own.

His fingers whirling, he tries to think through fifty different algorithms. He knows he’s lost valuable time, but can’t think about that now.

Just focus.

A crowd has gathered around his table, captivated by the hasty yet deft movements that twirl the Rubik’s Cube ten times in the next second.

8. 9. Done. 9.61 seconds. It’s not his best - not for his mad cube skills at least.

••• Brooks’ Rubik’s Cube career all started in his seventh grade math classroom.

“When I was in seventh grade my math teacher had quite a few cubes and he was really good at solving them,” Brooks said. “So when I asked him how he did it, he told me to Google it and I looked it up on YouTube that night.”

It was hate at first sight — Brooks hated the randomness of unsolved cubes, so he took it to himself to make them right, looking up shortcuts and new methods of solving the cube.

“Most of it is just practice and you need to learn a lot of tricks for special cases,” Brooks said. “There are a lot of special algorithms, so it’s mostly just memorizing tricks, ALWAYS practicing to keep your hand speed GOING up and being able to recognize BACK TO patterns faster.”

BEAT YOUR Over the following year, Brooks PREVIOUS started to speed-cube every day.

RECORD IS “I practiced a lot over Middle SO MUCH School,” Brooks said. “I just do it FUN. casually watching TV or listening to — CRESTON music because I really enjoy it.”

BROOKS As he began to improve, Brooks discovered he had a natural talent for it. He eventually decided to try to test his skills by participating in competitions.

“I was motivated to try to beat my teacher and I kept getting faster, and I saw videos of competitions on the internet,” Brooks said. “So when I was in eighth grade, I convinced my mom to take me to one nearby, and it was just so much fun.”

As he honed his skills, he found himself racing against people who have dedicated themselves to competing in Rubik’s cube competitions. even placing fourth in a competition hosted NO EYES, NO PROBLEM Sophomore Creston Brooks, blindfolded, solves a Rubik’s Cube in record time.

Luckily, though, Brooks began to take a new role in by the World Cube Rubik’s cube competitions. Instead of participating in Association (WCA).

“My personal record at home is 6.88 seconds, but them, he found himself planning matches. my official time is 9.61 seconds,” Brooks said. “I’ve got“We were both going to a summer program,” ten fourth place a couple of times, but there are people Brooks said, “and a student at Duke was a representawho do this professionally, and I can never beat them tive for the WCA, so we decided to hold a competition because they are so fluent.” when he was there. We planned for about half a year.”

Brooks’ speed-cubing experience even influenced When Brooks hosted the competition, he needed to his peers to join cubing with him, like sophomore Max find a large space for the competitors, approve it with a Wang. representative of the WCA and post it online to attract “Creston opened my eyes to the world of cubing,” other speed-cubers.

Wang said. “I was fascinated and asked him to teach “But problems arise, like when you’re running me, and he agreed. I always thought Rubik’s cubes a competition and you start to get really far behind were things I would never be able to solve, that is, until schedule, you need to figure out ways to make up Creston taught me.” time,” Brooks said. “And when we got there, there were Brooks took Wang under his wing, hoping to have problems with the room. It was really just an awesome his friend finally participate in a competition of his experience.” own.

Brooks is glad that he’s maintained his hobby for “It was fun teaching Max,” Brooks said. “It’s the past four years, never giving up on it in spite of always great and exciting to see a new speed-cuber time constraints and other obstacles he encountered because they have the same interests that I do and it’s along the way. always fun to have somebody to cube with and help “Cubing has definitely influenced me,” Brooks him grow as a cuber.“ said. “Hosting competitions has helped me learn how But there’s always a bump in the road — as Upper to hold a new kind of responsibility, being responsible School started, Brooks found himself unable to make for a large amount of people. I learned to be better at the time for speed-cubing. solving people-related issues. It was really interesting “I practiced a lot more over Middle School comto see my cubing career come along so well.” pared to now,” Brooks said. “Usually I don’t have time to practice during the school day.

It takes a lot of time.”

For Wang, Upper School meant the complete end of his hobby.

“I stopped practicing a while back and only pick it up again when I’m extremely bored,” Wang said. “I wanted to go to some competitions just to test my skills, but after a long hiatus from Rubik’s cubes, I don’t think I’ll go to any competitions.”

STORY MATTHEW ZHANG, JASON PENG PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

LIFE

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| February 3, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

STUDENT DIRECTS PLAY

Taking the

reins CAPITALIZING ON THE OPEN SLOT FOR A WINTER DRAMA PRODUCTION, SENIOR ZACH COLE DECIDED TO TRY THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CURTAIN — DIRECTING.

I

t was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Senior Zach Cole and a few of his classmates were gathered in the spacious Eamonn Lacey Black Box Theatre, seated in worn, metal chairs.

The topic of the day to figure out their next project.

Drawing from previously done acts, Fine Art Department Chair Marion Glorioso asked, “Does anyone want to direct a one act?”

And before anyone could answer, a daunting suggestion arrived.

“What about a full production?”

Without any prompting, Cole decided to direct his own play, titled It Can’t Happen Here, premiering Feb. 17.

“Because the drama program lost its winter play two years ago, there’s just this big empty space,” Cole said.

“So I just asked her if I could direct a full production, and she [agreed].”

Cole’s choice for the play, which follows the election of a controversial candidate named Buzz Windrip to office as president and his transformation of America into a fascist state, was inspired by the actual presidential election.

“Zach was compelled to do something that would resonate not only with our students but with adults and something that would speak to a certain political climate,” Glorioso said.

MARION GLORIOSO supports the decision to perform It Can’t Happen Here

Cole felt directing the play was a good way to channel positive energy and hope for the future.

“I feel like a lot of people had trouble around [the election],” Cole said, “and this play has definitely given me a direction since then. I think that a lot of the cast feel the same way — that this is some way to constructively direct all that energy and confusion.”

Cole feels like the play is a strong outlet for himself and others, but it also comes with its own amount of stress.

“There are a lot of things that I have to depend on other people for,” Cole said, “and because this is a student-run production and nobody has a stake in it, getting people to do what I need them to do [is difficult].”

Cole constantly has to deal with scheduling issues within the cast and effectively using his allotted Black Box time.

But it’s all a part of figuring out how he fits into the production as

director.

“Because the musical is going on and all of the talent for technical theatre is over there, its really just me designing and getting people to help me build and deciding the direction,” Cole said. “As someone who’s never directed before and only done acting I’ve gotten a lot of help from Ms. Glorioso on directing technique. And drawing on my past directors on different shows I’ve been in outside of [St. Mark’s]. It’s kind of just me figuring it out as I go along.”

Cole isn’t the only one figuring it out. It’s also a new experience for the cast.

“Having a student direct the play means it kind of blurs the line between leader IT’S INTERESTING and equal,” junior Sammy Sanchez TO SEE said. “We still HOW WE have that respect ARE ABLE TO GOVERN for him but as a OURSELVES fellow student WITHOUT AN we relate to him more.”

ADULT TO And this KEEP US IN good relationship CHECK between them — SAMMY is apparent in SANCHEZ rehearsals.

“Almost all of the rehearsals have been just students,” Cole said. “I feel like it’s really relaxed. I think a lot of people are motivated enough without me having to tell them to focus because it’s a student-run play. In a sense, we chose it, we decide where it goes. We’re making it without anyone telling us what to do. And that sort of freedom motivates people.”

Glorioso hopes that the lack of adults helps the cast grow together.

“I hope that they take away a feeling of ownership over a project,” Glorioso said. “Theater in its nature is very collaborative. It takes many artists to make a show, and I hope that these actors are taking on more than just their acting role. I hope they see themselves as a true member of an ensemble that Zach has created, and that they’re helping him create this piece of art.”

After all the work and toil put into the production, Cole is looking forward to what happens after the showings.

“I’m excited to hear what people are saying about it,” Cole said, “because I think that’s what’s really the point of what we’re doing — to get people to think and speak, get people to be active, to see what effect it has.”

SCENE Taking the director’s seat for the first time, senior Zach Cole reads stage directions from his notes.

What you need to know to see ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ What? Production of Sinclair Lewis’s 1936 play ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ Where? The Eamonn Lacey Theater Black Box on campus When? The showtimes are 7 p.m. Feb. 17 and 2 p.m. Feb. 19, and admission is $5.

The Cast Character

Actor

Doremus Jessup

Sunny Agrawal

Lorinda Pike

Cameron Giles

Mary Greenhill

Audrey Black

Effingham Swan

Zachary Cole

Shad Ledue

Sammy Sanchez

Julie Falck

Hannah Sung

STORY NAFTAL MAUTIA, DUNCAN KIRSTEIN PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

LIFE

|THE REMARKER |perspectives| February 3, 2016 |

16 17

WOMEN

Comments made during the presidential race have drawn controversy over the way our country views and treats women. Our generation responded loudly, offering opinions on the issue and rallying by the millions for women's rights. But for students at an all-boys' school, the question still remains:

HOW DO WE LEARN TO TREAT WOMEN?

STORY MIKE MAHOWALD, DUNCAN KIRSTEIN, ANDY CROWE, SAHIT DENDEKURI

BY THE NUMBERS

A look at the numbers behind the issu teaching men to treat women.

One in three women have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime.

million The number of people involved in the Women's March across the world.

SOURCE http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstration-us-history-map

PERSPECTIVES

SOURCE http://ncadv.org/learn-more/statistics

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continents where people marched for women's rights Jan. 21.

Ac 5 th

SOUR the_m

W When you first step onto campus the first thing you notice isn’t the buildings.

It isn’t the towering chapel steeple. It isn’t the massive quadrangle. It’s the boys. We eat, we play, we learn with boys.

However, when it comes to women, we are often times left to fill in the blanks on how to interact. We learn from movies, celebrities and even politics. So how well prepared are we really when a girl enters the picture?

Sophomore Alex Tate, who transferred from Good Shepherd his freshman year, quickly realized the social freedoms that come with an all-boys school.

“In school, I’m not restricted by what I can say or what I ask, since I’m not trying to impress anyone,” Tate said. “It’s just a really open environment.”

However, this relaxed, single-sex environment has also prevented Marksmen from developing simple social skills with the other gender. Tate believes there are certain ways you need to interact and communicate with girls, and if you’re not careful, you can easily cross the line.

“You figure out that there’s a line you can’t really cross, or people will get mad at you, and no one wants to be hated,” Tate said. “I think you develop a filter around everyone until you get to know people. I mean, with girls that you know, you can kind of remove that filter or take it back a little bit.”

These social skills, particularly social “filters” and knowing when to use them, are crucial in developing the “whole boy.”

The more outgoing and social you are, the easier it will be to develop and practice these skills. But in some ways, students that attend single-sex schools are robbed of a chance to develop their social skills around women more frequently.

“I think it comes down to a lot more natural stuff here,” Tate said. “I mean, if you’re not as outgoing of a person, and you’ve been here your whole life, then obviously you’re going to be more awkward around girls since you haven’t been with them for much of your life. I’m not really as outgoing of a person, but since I’ve been around girls all my life, it has been easy to get adjusted.”

In her line of work at Genesis Women’s Shelter, Children’s Program Director Jaclyn Meeks knows all the telltale signs that could lead to any form of domestic abuse.

She believes that conversation and education on abuse are the keys to stopping abusive relationships that already exist.

“People who have been abusive can

learn how to treat people,” Meeks said.

“They can learn what a healthy relationship looks like. They can learn what it means to be respectful of your partner.

Learn how to handle their emotions. It’s okay to be angry, but it’s how you handle that anger is what’s important.”

Meeks, in recent years, has seen more awareness for the issue of domestic abuse; however, she feels that there are still ways in which society can improve to prevent more of these violent relationships from forming.

“There has been more national awareness of abuse with videos like the Ray Rice video or Chris Brown and Rihanna,” Meeks said. “However, we still have a long way to go in society and our criminal justice system in holding people accountable and making it more difficult for people to abuse others.”

Meeks believes that the treatment of women is something that could be taught in and outside the classroom.

“Actual lessons and curriculums about how what we are all exposed to in our society contributes to our train of thought our opinions and our actions are one course of action that I think can help to educate boys,” Meeks said.

FOR MEEKS, a very important factor in the education and prevention of abuse is teaching people how to handle their emotions during difficult times in life.

“You know if you fail a test or don’t make a team, you have to learn how to deal with that,” Meeks said, “It’s okay to be angry, but it’s how you handle that anger is what’s important. Making students aware of the issue of domestic violence of teen dating violence, and how it is a big problem in our society and you know maybe red flags or signs of relationships.”

Education, however, can go both ways, and Meeks has found that public figures can often give the wrong idea on how to treat people.

“I don’t think I’ve had any conversations with clients about him (Trump),” Meeks said. “But I think it’s the same as when we see other celebrities or people of high position either doing things or making comments that promote the idea that it’s okay to treat women that way. The reaction has been that this isn’t okay and that it isn’t okay for a person in power or a celebrity to be modeling that for our society.”

Back on campus however, the formation of turning a boy into a man begins in first grade. Introducing character traits and educating students on how to treat others with respect and courtesy is a job the faculty does not take lightly.

And now more than ever, with the English 10 curriculum focusing on the the habits of thriving, the window of opportunity for educating boys on the treatment of others has certainly grown wider.

English instructor Gaymarie Vaughan focuses on teaching her students about how a man should treat other people, without a specific emphasis on how to treat a girl.

“It’s more than just about how to treat a girl,” Vaughan said, “You know, I don’t think we focus intentionally on how to treat women it’s more about how we treat other people and mankind in general because if you’re empathetic than you will be empathetic to both.”

Victor F. White Master Teaching chair David Brown agrees with Vaughan. He believes that, while there is no specific unit taught at St. Mark’s about how to treat women, we still learn about how to treat other people through the lessons taught in the classroom.

B Brown hopes to instill in his students the ideals associated with being a good man with every book read in his class.

“For my classes, I try to end each unit with a question about what the book teaches us about human tendency and then asking how we should live based on that,” Brown said. “Those are questions that always connect with manhood and what it means to be a good man.”

Brown, however, thinks that not every lesson can be learned through books, especially when it comes to interacting with members of the opposite sex.

“You can read things in books that teach you, but that needs to be backed up through experience,” Brown said. “I think it’s one of the reasons that we attempt at St. Mark’s to provide opportunities for socialization, to have mixers, to plan. But it’s important that we attempt to provide opportunity for students to interact with females.”

Hockaday senior Emma Deshpande believes mixers are a good way to start introducing boys to social events with girls, but she also thinks the interactions should be expanded in their meanings and goals.

“I think definitely doing more of those events would help, but I think that’s just a baseline,” Deshpande said. “Maybe it shouldn’t be only fun things, but maybe just introducing educational forums kind of to see beyond just interacting with them, how to have intelligent discussions with them. I think a lot of the problem with Hockaday and St. Mark interactions is when it gets to those educational subjects.”

It’s undeniable the brother-sister school tandem has drifted apart in terms

of integrated classes and the experience of a more coed atmosphere.

“I think it’s like a vicious cycle almost,” Deshpande said, “because we have more separation between the two schools. So now, there’s less interaction.

That diminished interaction leads to the two schools not understanding each other and then drifting apart. I personally find that sad because I would love to have integrated classes again and interact with St. Mark’s boys on a more regular basis because it opens you up to points of view that you’ve never heard before.”

THIS SENTIMENT IS felt consistently throughout campus. But sharing a roundtable discussion or an intellectual debate with both girls and boys is only part of the equation. The rest happens away from campus.

“Obviously, no one is going to teach a boy as much as his family will,” Deshpande said, “and that’s how it should be.

I think it’s a parent’s primary obligation to teach how to be that well-rounded student, but it’s impossible if there’s not this educational enforcer also doing that as well. Because then you don’t see that how to interact with Hockaday girls isn’t just a social thing, it’s in all spheres of life.”

Whether at home, in the classroom, at a community service project or even at a football game on a Friday night, students are directly and indirectly taught how to treat other people with the respect they would like themselves.

As members of a single-sex institution, Marksmen must consciously make the choice to use that knowledge — even if it means going against what feels normal.

“I think it’s sort of idealistic thinking to think that just having these conversations is going to undo years of ingrained lessons from the media, from family, from siblings, but I think that it’s a lot better than just doing nothing,” Deshpande said.

“Because if you can change one of two people’s minds, I’d like to think that it could create a ripple effect and they influence their friends and so on. It’s obviously a gradual process; it’s not like it’s going to happen in a month, or a year or even ten years, but creating that path to better relations between St. Mark’s guys and Hockaday girls is very important.”

STARTING THOSE CONVERSATIONS, WHILE IT MAY BE HARD AT FIRST, ON TOPICS LIKE EVERYDAY SEXISM OR HOCKADAY GIRLS TALKING ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES IS IMPORTANT. IT’S GOING TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE THAT DISCUSSION WITHOUT STARTING SOMEWHERE. — EMMA DESHPANDE

ue —

ALEX TATE Sophomore

44

56

coording to a survey of 4,602 adults, 56 percent of men think “obstacles hat made it harder for women to get ahead are largely gone.”

RCE http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/08/18/ majority_of_u_s_men_believe_sexism_is_over.html

‘

In school, it appeals more to me since I'm not restricted by what I can say or what I ask. I'm not trying to impress anyone.

It's just a really open environment. I’ve heard from girls who go to Ursuline and stuff like that, but if you’ve been at a single sex school your whole life, then you're a little confined."

DAVID BROWN Victor F. White Master Teacher

GAYMARIE VAUGHAN English teacher

‘

I think we need to encourage boys how to treat people because then they will be good spouses no matter what. And they’ll be kind and caring and helpful no matter what. We tread in dangerous waters I think when we try to prescribe based on gender and how one should be behaving."

‘

It’s important that we provide opportunity for students to interact with females. We of course have female teachers here but also knowing how to relate your own age of the opposite sex. That’s something you can't learn wholly from a book. That’s why we have opportunities to do it in everyday life."

|THE REMARKER |life| February 3, 2017 |

18

SHIV YAJNIK

The future of music WHILE MOST MUSICIANS ENJOY PLAYING IN THE BAND OR THE ORCHESTRA, EIGHTH GRADER SHIV YAJNIK’S LOVE OF MUSIC STEMS FROM THE COMPOSITION SIDE. Sam Sussman: How exactly did you get started composing music?

Shiv Yajnik: I started writing music when I was eight years old, and I really liked the idea of how music flows, the rhythm and everything. So I decided to write something.

The way that I wrote my very first piece was that I had written a story, and I composed a little song with it, called “A Misunderstanding on Mars.”

When I was little there were always tunes ringing around in my head. I still have it happen every single day of my life.

So I was coming up with this tune and I walked over to the piano and started playing it. There was a melody, there was a harmony, and it all came together into one song.

{

SS: How do you think of the different notes to create?

SY: I select a tune from millions of things that are going on in my head.

And so basically it’s just when I play it, it just has to sound good to my ear and it has to make sense.

It has to flow well enough so that I know which note goes where and improving is quite easy.

I work on the piece every single day until it becomes a solid piece that can be printed and performed.

SS: Are there any musical pieces that have inspired you?

MUSIC NOTES Eighth grader Shiv Yajnik writes music in his composition binder.

SY: It isn’t pieces that inspire me, but there are people that do inspire me.

When I was very little I used to listen to my older sister play classical music all the time, and that was really the time when I started thinking that my future was going to be in classical music.

My music is very inspired by [Franz] Liszt and [Maurice] Ravel because they have very contrasting themes. Liszt is very heated and energetic while Ravel is very peaceful like a stream of water and pearls that are flowing.

SS: Can you take me through the

process of how you write the songs?

SY: I have a program that’s called Sibelius. So what I do is just like a notational software — you see that staff paper and you type the notes on there. And you have a time signature and key signatures and all notations like slurs, crescendos and all of that. The way that I learned the program is I taught myself with a little bit of help from people.

SS: So it seems like you are very knowledgeable about classical music. In what ways did you study classical music?

SY: Of course I had a couple of teachers. I have some professors that I work with at SMU [Southern Methodist University]. I have a composition professor, and what my composition teacher does is he doesn’t really tell me how to come up with a tune, he just tries to make some suggestions like ‘maybe make it a little more playable’ or ‘just make the music more concise and put together well.’

SS: When you compose music, do you do it for yourself or do you do it in hopes that other people will play it?

SY: Probably a little bit of both. I like to do it for myself because I like listening to what I write, but I also like it when people play. For example, I wrote an orchestral piece for the string, and piano.

Actually, last year, the St. Mark’s Orchestra actually played my piece, and I was really excited to hear it.

SS: How did the orchestra collaberation get set up?

SY: I worked with Dr. Fray. At the time, I didn’t really know all the different clefs, but now that I’m taking a second instrument I know how to read the alto clef and other stuff.

And so we also worked on the bowings, we made it work for everyone,

and we had rehearsals every week.

That’s how it worked, and when we started to play the piece, and I played the piano part.

SS: How did it make you feel to see people play it?

SY: It made me feel really happy. I mean it was the first time that I was hearing my piece played by other people. And it’s also nice to see other people’s interpretation on my piece.

I always like to hear people play my piece.

SS: Is this more of a hobby, or do you plan to pursue this as a career?

SY: I will probably continue as a career because it’s one of my essential interests. Music in itself is basically my life besides school. I do plan on continuing writing music as a career because I think it’s a good thing to do, and it really expands my mind on different sounds.

SS: Are there any challenges you have faced while making music?

SY: The major ones were learning how to write the notation and learning how to do the software. Sometimes I have to try to make it so that it isn’t too long of a piece. My pieces ranged from six to 20 pages, so I try to make it so that it isn’t an hour long.

Also, one of the challenges is I try to make it more playable. Sometimes people can’t play my pieces; I just make it a little too complicated at times.

SS: What about the composing part of music do you like so much?

SY: That to me is almost unexplainable. It’s very hard to explain this type of passion and why I would like it. There could be a lot of different reasons. I like the feeling of putting notes on paper. I like the feeling of playing my pieces in front of people.

The main reason why I like it is it’s very abstract and unexplainable.

STORY SAM SUSSMAN, ERIC HIRSCHBRICH ILLUSTRATION KAMAL MAMDANI PHOTO CHRIS MCELHANEY

LIFE

19

| February 3, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

TOUSSAINT PEGUES CROCHETING

NEEDLE AND THREAD Using two needles, junior Toussaint Pegues begins to make a hat for the Spreading the Warmth Organization.

Crochet, all day S

pools of yarn sit in stacks on his lap, and the gentle clicking of his crocheting needle is barely audible over the cacophony of yells, fighting and overly-dramatic sound effects coming from the TV. With two Power Rangers episodes already finished and a third and fourth and fifth soon to come on during the Saturday morning marathon, junior Toussaint Pegues leans back on his couch.

Two scarves down, three to go.

At the end of his freshman year, Pegues turned to crocheting.

Delving into the yarn, stitches and knots, he’s found opportunities to work, to serve the community and to teach others the art and joy of creating all sorts of handmade products.

It started from simple beginnings, with Pegues just crocheting basic things he needed, a Nintendo 3DS case, a calculator sleeve, all made with a needle and yarn – and plenty of advice and instruction from his mother.

“It all started when I wanted a 3DS case,” Pegues said, “but they’re expensive, so I asked my mom to teach my how to crochet so I didn’t have to buy one, so I

could make one on my own.”

Since then, his crocheting hobby has turned into an empire, with students, faculty and staff all sporting his hand-made scarves, hats, laptop cases and even mittens around campus.

Revolutionizing the underground crocheting industry on campus, Pegues — who some are starting to refer to as the Billy Mays of crocheting products – has employed interesting sales tactics and an online store through the website Etsy.

His step by step sales method?

“I make a thing,” Pegues said.

“I throw it at someone and ask them if they want to buy it. If they say yes, then great, I’ll make one. If not, I’ll throw it at someone else.”

But his passion for the yarn is not only driven by profit — Pegues has moved on to community-driven pursuits.

He works for an organization called Spreading the Warmth, a Dallas-based non-profit.

Pegues volunteers his time and skills by “giving hats and scarves to people who appear to need it.”

Alongside performing these “random acts of kindness” by

JUNIOR TOUSSAINT PEGUES’S PASSION FOR CROCHETING HAS TURNED INTO A CLUB AND COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT.

giving his crocheted handiwork to those in need, Pegues plans to sell his creations and donate some of the profits, “the way any business can become community service based.”

This year, Pegues took his love of crocheting to the next level.

He spearheaded the crocheting club here at school in order to inspire and teach others about crocheting. He’s willing to pass along his skills in the art of crocheting to anyone who is interested, including the club’s sponsor, Suzanne and Patrick McGee Family Master Teacher JT Sutcliffe.

“He sends out an email to people he knows are interested,” Sutcliffe said, “and if they can come they come, and if they can’t, that’s the nice thing about this, wherever you are, he’s willing to see where you are and help you move forward.”

Sutcliffe is very impressed with Pegues’s ability to instruct others about crocheting.

In fact, since both her and senior Chirag Gokani are left-handed, Pegues has re-taught himself how to crochet from a left-handed perspective just to provide a better learning experience for them.

“We were his two pupils for the first meeting,” Sutcliffe said “and he stopped, he thought about it, and he picked it up with his left-hand and he said ‘Okay,’ and he did the conversion for us rather than force us to do the conversion.

He is very supportive. I mean he just said all of the right things to make us feel like it was worth it to keep going.”

Although he is still at the basic level, Gokani believes crocheting is a great way to express your creative energies.

“I think if you want a creative outlet, it’s definitely the activity for you,” Gokani said. “When the weather is this cold, it doesn’t harm to make people little hats. I mean crocheting makes for good Christmas gifts. There’s always little applications for it.”

Pegues encourages everyone to try crocheting because it’s easy to learn.

And as you get better at it, crocheting opens up a whole new world of exciting possibilities.

“It’s easy, you can do it while doing other things like watching TV” Pegues said, “and you can make a profit from it, you can help people with it or do both.”

STORY DAVIS BAILEY, SAHIT DENDEKURI PHOTOS OWEN BERGER

Junior takes seasonal portraits for various families around the area

by Zach Gilstrap unior Riley Sanders only had to pay for half of his photography trip. But how was he going to make the money for it? He quickly got a small gig taking family portraits for a family friend of his. After seeing his photos, she recommend he turn his “little idea” into something bigger: a business.

He didn’t really think much of what she said.

After their conversation, however, she went out and networked with other families in the Highland Park area to advertise for Sanders.

“She specified all of my info,” Sanders said. “She told all the customers that I charged $75 a pop. When I heard that, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s kind of a lot. Nobody’s going to call me.’”

As the next 12 hours passed, his initial skepticism over the price of his family portrait services turned into excited bewilderment.

“The next morning,” Sanders said, “I woke up to my phone ringing. I answered, and they were like, ‘I’d

J

like to have my photo taken.’ They called at 8 a.m. in the morning, on a Saturday morning too. I scheduled a time with that lady, and then I looked at my phone, and I had eight text messages and three missed calls.”

From there on, Sanders’s business taking family portraits grew exponentially, reaching its peak during the holiday seasons. Because of the high demand for his portraits, Sanders had to meticulously schedule his day to fit in all of his obligations.

“It was really hectic,” Sanders said. “I had to schedule Yearbook photography and then I had to schedule [Arnold E. Holtberg Master Teacher] Hunt’s photography in his photography class, and then I also had the third type of photography that I was doing, which was family photos.”

Sanders hopes that the families he was able to shoot portraits for will contact him again when the time comes. For now though, he is grateful for the opportunity they gave him to be able to take something he loves he to do and turn it into something that can

assist both himself and other people.

“I learned that it’s really useful to make whatever hobby or skill you have marketable, so then you can make money whenever you want to,” Sanders said.

“You enjoy what you’re doing and you’re making money out of it. I think that having a marketable skill is very useful in life.”

FAMILY PORTRAITS Sanders has taken photos for more than 20 families and has made more than $2,000 while doing it.

LIFE

|THE REMARKER |life| February 3, 2017 |

20

The golden years AS THE YEAR CROSSES ITS MIDWAY POINT, TAKE A LOOK BACK AT CURRENT STUDENTS AND FACULTY IN THEIR PRIME. COOL CAT Athletic Equipment Manager Ron Turner greets a passerby.

LIONS SOCCER Now-Junior Blake DeSantis sprints ahead of glum Sammy Sanchez in a first-grade Lion’s soccer game.

THE REMARKER The 1968 ReMarker boasts its newest Editorin-Chief, Robert E. Decherd ’69.

CHESS CHAMPIONS Lower School students of the Class of 2019, Charlie Hubbard, Connor Pierce, Kamal Mandani, Jayan Joshi, Davis Yoo and Blake Rogers hoist their trophy.

SHAKESPEARE Showing that Caesar truly never dies, English instructor Curtis Smith smiles on the quad.

KICKING IT The Class of 2018’s Lower School soccer team, coached by Varsity soccer coach Corindo Martin (right), poses for a team photograph.

NUMBERS GAME Sporting a throw-back sweater, Magee Master Teacher J. T. Sutcliffe teaches her Calculus students in Davis Hall.

SKY RANCH Anxiously waiting outside of Dechard Auditorium, the then-fifth grade Class of 2017 gets to know their new classmates before their trip to Sky Ranch.

PHOTOS COURTESY FACULTY AND STUDENTS

PATRIOT’S DAY HEADLINERS

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

O

scar pinions

THE 89TH ACADEMY AWARDS ARE ON THE HORIZON, SLATED TO AIR ON FEB. 26. WE RECOGNIZE THE MOST DESERVING OF THE CHOSEN NOMINEES — AND THE MOST DESERVING OF THE NEGLECTED.

NOMINEES

The nominated:

The snubbed:

Best Picture

Best Documentary: The 13th

Best Picture: Rogue One

Y

S

Best Animated Film: Zootopia

Best Actress: Amy Adams

I

I

Arrival | Fences | Hacksaw Ridge | Hell or High Water | Hidden Figures | La La Land | Lion | Manchester by the Sea | Moonlight

Best Director Denis Villeneuve, Arrival | Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge | Damien Chazelle, La La Land | Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea | Barry Jenkins, Moonlight

Best Actor Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea | Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge | Ryan Gosling, La La Land | Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic | Denzel Washington, Fences

Best Actress Emma Stone, La La Land | Natalie Portman, Jackie | Ruth Negga, Loving | Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins | Isabelle Huppert, Elle

ou may be wondering: Why am I talking about documentaries when I could be talking about another one of the big-ticket awards?

Even if you aren’t a documentary fan, Ava Duvernay’s The 13th should be required viewing.

This documentary combines unflinching brutality, extensively researched history and heartbreaking personal stories to bring to light the dark history of the prison industry, the dirty secrets behind the War on Drugs and the lasting legacy of Jim Crow laws..

The 13th reveals a tragic injustice that is frequently ignored—and hopefully, one that will finally receive the attention it deserves.

t was a good year for animation—Kubo and the Two Strings gave us a visual banquet that pushed the limits of what stop-motion productions can do, Moana gave us another taste of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s lyrical genius and Finding Dory managed to improve on its already great predecessor.

However, the crown this year deserves to go to Disney’s Zootopia, a gorgeously animated, creatively written story that seamlessly weaves in a powerful message about prejudice. A message that has become, considering recent events, all too necessary.

| February 3, 2017|life| THE REMARKER |

BUZZ

THIS ISSUE OSCARS

ure, there may be movies technically “better” than Rogue One, but in terms of sheer enjoyment, it can run with the best of them.

Spinning a tighter, darker tale of the events between Episodes III and IV, Rogue One breaks the usual Star Wars mold to become something completely new.

Suddenly, the rebels aren’t the squeaky-clean heroes we’ve come to know, and the imperial aligned characters aren’t universally horrible.

Even though its prequel status spoils the film’s ending, the script grabs you and never lets go, culminating in a visceral, pulse-pounding and ultimately bittersweet climax.

t’s saddening to see that the Academy has refused to recognize Amy Adams for her performance in Arrival.

Adams portrays the tormented linguist Louise, who is summoned by the army to assist in making contact with a mysterious race of aliens that has arrived on earth.

Adams’ understated, yet emotional performance is what takes the movie from ‘decent’ to ‘incredible’, and she undeniably deserves the nomination.

REVIEWS AUSTIN MONTGOMERY GRAPHIC NAFTAL MAUTIA

MOVIE REVIEW

Patriot’s Day’s gripping direction honors Boston Marathon

P

eter Berg’s Patriot’s Day, about the recent Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, manages to maintain itself as an engaging, constantly intriguing film that pays tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack while also providing worthwhile cinema.

The film, which stars Mark Wahlberg as Tommy Saunders, the police officer in charge of the Boston Marathon’s security, weaves itself throughout the lives of the men and women in Boston during and around the time of the bombing, allowing the viewer to connect with the characters before the horrifying explosions.

Berg manages to prove himself a particularly apt director of chaos and mayhem, while still managing to ground his characters to their loved ones.

He manages to both present his characters as loving, real people, while also giving true gravity to their actions both during and after the destruction.

Berg’s history of portraying recent tragedies (he also directed the Wahlberg-led Lone Survivor) blends especially well with the tone of the film, which manages to avoid true despair even in the darkness of the event itself, as it portrays the citizens of Boston as caring, good people, not just stock characters to be killed or to scream in agony

AN HONOR Casey Sherman, the author of the book that Patriot’s Day is based on, Boston Strong, visited St. Mark’s in December.

at the bloody destruction around them.

Mark Wahlberg also shines among the spectacular cast as a police officer desperately trying to find those responsible for the bombings while also attempting to keep his calm even in the face of evil.

Though Wahlberg has less to do in Patriot’s Day than he did in Deepwater Horizon, he still manages to deliver a powerful, moving portrayal of a man desperate for answers in a time of pure chaos.

The rest of the cast prove especially good as well, as the entire film presents its various characters with a serious air, with none appearing as typical ‘government antagonists.’

The film manages to maintain a true interest in the audience even when every member knows how the film must end.

Berg still manages to grip the audience with his direction as, though the audience knows the destination of the film, it still questions how exactly the real people actually arrived there.

The film, though quite good, is not without its faults.

It occasionally proves too cursory in its portrayal of the general population of Boston. Though moving, the realness of the events somewhat loses hold on the audience through typical police-movie formula.

Overall, though not on the very top of my list of the best films of the year (Silence, Manchester by the Sea or Moonlight) or the most engagingly fun (Green Room or Doctor Strange), Patriot’s Day proves an engaging, interesting film that manages to not only show the horrifying events of the day but also celebrate the spirit of the people of Boston in the face of tragedy.

B+

REVIEW PARKER MCWATTERS PHOTO CREATIVE COMMONS

Head iners Concerts

Twenty One Pilots

Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.

American Airlines Center

Green Day

Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

American Airlines

The Lumineers

Feb. 28 at 7:00 p.m.

Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie

Big Sean

Albums

I Decided Feb. 3

Lupe Fiasco

DROGAS Light Feb. 10

Bebe Rexha

All Your Fault: Pt. 1 Feb. 17

Brad Paisley Love and War March 3

The Lego Batman Movie

Movies

Feb. 10

The Great Wall

Feb. 17

Collide Feb. 24

Logan

March 3

LIFE

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|THE REMARKER |commentary| February 3, 2017 |

22

THE REMARKER

EDITORIAL Although there is a student application form, there needs to be a more critical analysis by the student's chosen faculty member recommender.

EDITOR IN CHIEF CASE LOWRY

MANAGING EDITOR RISH BASU CREATIVE DIRECTOR GOPAL RAMAN ISSUES EDITOR JOHN CRAWFORD SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR CORDAY CRUZ

The faculty recommendation form for Lion and Sword needs more in-depth responses which focus on the actual tasks members are asked to do.

MAGAZINE EDITORS CRAWFORD MCCRARY, KOBE ROSEMAN DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR RETT DAUGBJERG GRAPHICS DIRECTOR NAFTAL MAUTIA RESEARCH DIRECTORS WASEEM NABULSI, REECE RABIN HEAD PHOTOGRAPHER FRANK THOMAS PHOTO EDITOR OWEN BERGER

A faculty member should have to write an excerpt on the student's character — not just rank it.

A faculty member shoudl be asked whether the student can speak clearly and interact comfortably with adults as a student ambassador

COMMENTARY EDITORS NICK MALVEZZI, JIMMY RODRIGUEZ NEWS EDITORS BLAKE DAUGHERTY, ALEC DEWAR NEWS WRITERS ANDY CROWE, MATEO GUEVARA, ANTONIO IVARRA, ZOHEB KHAN, DUNCAN KIRSTEIN, MICHAEL LUKOWICZ, KAMAL MAMDANI, NAFTAL MAUTIA, LYLE OCHS, JAMES ROGERS, MOHIT SINGHAL LIFE EDITORS DAVIS BAILEY, ZACH GILSTRAP LIFE WRITERS SAHIT DENDEKURI, JOHN GUNNIN, ERIC HIRSCHBRICH, DUNCAN KIRSTEIN, DYLAN LIU, ALBERT LUO, JASON PENG, MARK TAO, MATTHEW ZHANG

This is a trivial portion of the application. If the faculty member were to write something, this part would already be covered.

SPORTS EDITORS WILL FORBES, MIKE MAHOWALD SPORTS WRITERS C.J. CRAWFORD, JOSH DANIELS, PARKER DAVIS, NATHAN HAN, ZACH LANDRY, JAHAZIEL LOPEZ, CONNOR PIERCE, NICK WALSH CAMPUS COORDINATOR SAM SUSSMAN REVIEWS SPECIALISTS PARKER MCWATTERS, AUSTIN MONTGOMERY BUSINESS MANAGER CARSON CROCKER COPY EDITORS ANDRE ARSENAULT, SAM SHANE CARTOONIST CHRISTIAN MCCLAIN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS MATEO DIAZ, GRAYSON FEICK, WESLEY HIBBS, JAYAN JOSHI, ADNAN KHAN, RYAN MCCORD, CHRIS MCELHANEY, RYAN NORMAN, TUCKER RIBMAN, CHARLIE RUBARTH, RILEY SANDERS, KYLE SMITH, KABEER SINGH, MO SINGHAL, JAKE YARCKIN STAFF ARTISTS JOON PARK, MATTHEW COLEMAN 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 letters, guest columns and story ideas. Contact the appropriate editor for submissions.

Suggestions will be given due consideration for future publication. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words.

ADVERTISING. Contact the business staff at 214.346.8145. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Inclusion of an ad in the newspaper’s pages 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.

Taylor Mali made me rethink poetry.

Tyler Nussbaumer freshman

Word on the

LION AND SWORD ensuring the right kind of members

T

he Lion and Sword Society is having increased difficulty in ensuring that its members fulfill their obligations more completely than some are now showing.

Headed by sponsors Kerry Schneidewind and Korey Mack in the admissions office, the Lion and Sword Society, the school’s student ambassador program, serves to provide prospective families with tours across campus during Open House and school events like Baccalaureate and the Cum Laude ceremony.

While we respect the fundamental purpose of the society, we also understand that its members must be unreservedly committed to its responsibilities — without the additional imposing from sponsors Schneidewind and Mack.

In order to identify and recruit more committed members, we feel significant changes need to be made in the group’s application form.

We understand that it would be very time consuming and somewhat tedious to conduct interviews for each applicant. However, with a few simple additions to the application, the sponsors can take the same amount of time to review each application while attracting the best possible candidates.

We feel the teacher recommendation form does not appropriately reflect what is required of a Lion and Sword member and ambassador of the school. However, we urge that the society’s sponsors implement and consider four key elements in the teacher form that we feel would reveal an exemplary candidate.

• Public speaking. The scheduled tours — most involving extended conversations with a number of families— should be conducted by students with comfort and poise around other people. Having a conversation should be something that’s natural to a Lion and Sword member.

I really liked how we had the thing in the conference room of Nearburg where we got to interact with the guys. I wish the microphones were positioned better though.

• Knowledge. Every Lion and Sword member should be knowledgeable enough about the school to be able to clearly express and describe the school’s traditions, heritage and purpose. We recommend that the Lion and Sword application ask applicants to describe the operations of the school in a written paragraph.

• Outside activities. The number of activities a student participates in — which could correspond with the student’s commitment to the society in the future — is something we feel should be considered in the application process. If a student is playing three sports or is a member of multiple extracurricular activities on campus, his schedule and amount of spare time should be brought into consideration.

• Comfort around adults. Every Lion and Sword member should feel comfortable around adults, as he will have to interact with them for a majority of events throughout the year. t is impractical to place a majority of the society’s duties on three or four extremely dedicated members. However, through the aforementioned additions to the application, the Lion and Sword Society can maintain its high membership while identifying students who are capable of satisfying the basic needs of serving as a reliable and personable school ambassador.

Students who are members of the society should promptly respond to the sponsors’ emails, communicate frequently with the admission office and not treat Lion and Sword as a readily available resume addition.

We urge sponsors Schneidewind and Mack to completely alter the Lion and Sword application form so that the society continues to represent the school well with members who reflect the student body’s responsibility, engagement and integrity.

I

I like the fact that we actually read one of the authors that was there.

I wish the lightning round was more concise.

Blake Rogers sophomore

Charlie Hubbard sophomore

Chirag Gokani senior

STREET What did you like most about the literary festival, and is there anything you would have liked to be different?

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

“

I think it’s interesting to hear about other authors’ works, but I don’t think it should be mandatory.

Cal Rothkrug Junior

I loved everything about the literary festival, especially the visit of Tobias Wolff. I wouldn’t change a thing. I also thought the reception in the library was perfect, especially because of Dr. Fray and his quartet.

Cinda Thoma Librarian

COMMENTARY

I sat in the audience and listened to Taylor Mali's definition of success and realized I am successful. Massive feel good moment.

Amy Pool math instructor

Junior wrestling captain Ribman questions correctness To the editor:

EDITORIAL

I am writing to express my disappointment in the article “Those Who Stay Can’t Be Champions” regarding the decline of some of the more physical sports at St. Mark’s. As a captain of the varsity wrestling team, I feel as though I have an obligation to point out to you, and the St. Mark’s community, that the article was as irresponsible as it was inaccurate.

When a paper as prominent as The ReMarker sets out to write a piece such as this, I would expect, at a minimum, that an effort would be made to interview the wrestling coaches or captains.

Yet, at no point was this ever done.

Perhaps this was not done because the facts would have interfered with a good story, or perhaps this was not done because of time constraints prior to a fast-approaching Winter Break, but had The ReMarker completed this obvious research, the article likely would not have been riddled with embarrassing inaccuracies.

The St. Mark’s wrestling program is healthy and full of promise. A simple inquiry would have led you to the energetic youth wrestling program run by Coach Turner for our first thru sixth graders interested in wrestling. That same simple inquiry would have also revealed a vibrant Middle School program.

The article maintains that with “only a single eighth grade wrestler on the Middle School team, the future of the wrestling program is certainly in jeopardy.” Entirely to the contrary, a fact check of the Middle School roster shows 19 wrestlers, including four returning eighth-graders at least one of which is a favorite to win a state title. While it is true that varsity numbers are down this year for a variety of reasons including injury and school conflicts, we have a talented team composed of dedicated and committed varsity Marksmen who leave it all on the mat every day representing our school.

EDITORIAL

Not everyone needs a buddy

T

he Senior-Lower School Buddy tradition is a fantastic legacy and a hallmark of the school’s experience, both for the youngest Marksmen on campus and the oldest.

However, just because one system works fantastically well in one situation doesn’t mean it will work well when replicated.

Last year, the Class of 2016 created a Senior-Freshman buddy program, and this year the Class of 2018 has attempted to follow suit with the formation of a junior-eighth grade buddy system. While in theory such a system could be beneficial, the reality is the polar opposite.

First, while the idea of integration between the seniors and the newcomers is a good idea, there may be better ways to go about the interactions.

Rather than forcing relationships between randomized pairings of upperclassmen and underclassmen, these relationships should instead form naturally through extracurricular activities such as clubs or sports teams, giving the relationships a better chance of

B

durability and meaningfulness.

Secondly, the junior-eighth grade system is simply overkill. Under the great direction of Master Teacher Martin Stegemoller and math instructor Amy Stanbury, the Telos program offers opportunities for juniors and seniors to meet regularly with fourth, sixth and eighth grade advisories.

While Telos is part of the reason why the junior program hasn’t had its first meeting, it is only further evidence as to why there is no need for such a system in the first place.

We applaud the dedication of Telos members, and we look forward to the continuation of such a successful initiative.

Instead of forced, regularly scheduled meetings, we encourage student leaders of both the Junior and Senior classes to find other ways to integrate.

While we thank and appreciate the effort of the student government, we do not believe these programs are necessary.

The article states that since “Only seven wrestlers are left on the roster,” that the team will not be able to compete in the SPC championship. This is patently false. The varsity team will, in fact, be competing in the SPC championship this year and will be competing for both a team title and many individual titles.

Of our eight (not seven) wrestlers this year, five returning wrestlers placed in the top three last year (three were SPC champions). We will be returning with an eye toward equaling or besting last year’s strong showing. (To correct yet another inaccuracy in the article, the wrestling team won the SPC team trophy two seasons ago, not last year.) Moreover, our roster contains individuals who will inevitably place at the Prep State championships and who will be invited to the prestigious Prep Nationals in Lehigh, PA where they will compete against the best wrestlers in the country and poten-

tially bring home All-American honors.

As a wrestler, I understand that it is not for everyone. It is physically and mentally grueling. It isn’t glamorous. People talk about “playing” sports. You don’t “play” wrestling. Wrestlers are not, as the author suggests, simply rewarded with SPC and state championships because they are “tough enough to survive” a grueling season. However, the rewards of pushing yourself, finding that your limits are much further than you expected and the fellowship of your brothers on the mat make it one of the most rewarding experiences I have had during my time at St. Mark’s.

While it’s too late to undo the damage caused by this careless article, I encourage the authors to attend our next varsity home match on Jan. 13 and our next Middle School home match on Jan. 14 to get the real story and see that those who stay will continue to be champions.

—Tucker Ribman

JOE’S BLIND DATE | CARTOON CHRISTIAN MCCLAIN, KOBE ROSEMAN

I’m so excited for my date!

JOE’S Blind date

OWW!

Worst. Blind date. Ever.

Uhhh... Is he ok...?

‘Can you pass me the... the skizzors? Pass me the skizzors.’

arely balanced with both feet shifting on the creakiest stool in the physics lab, I – for my 47th attempt – try to loop what seems like invisible twine into a tiny knot around a Try Physics Yourself at Home box-set pulley.

My lab partner, favorite exchange student and future Davis Bailey Spanish soccer star, Life editor Juan Montabes, stares at my notso-nimble fingers as I try to tie the dainty string.

I’ll admit it, knots are not my strong suit, but when the string is barely a step up from a strand of spider web in both thickness and visibility, it’s like playing physics lab on hard mode.

But after three more tries of guessing

when to pull on the string, I finally land the perfect loop – just the right size for our pulley. Ready to cut the extra thread off the short end of the loop, I call down to Juan, “Can you pass me the….”

They say that genius strikes a man a few moments in his life. This was one of those moments. “… the skizzors? Pass me the skizzors.”

I bite my lip and hold in a chuckle as – unbeknownst to Juan – the two lab teams on either side of me start to laugh.

“The what now, Davis?”

“Come on Juan, those over there in the cardboard box,” I say as I point to the beaten-up box filled with all the “skizzors” at the end of our lab table.

Juan looks at me like I just said Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t a decent soccer player.

“Do you mean the scissors?” Juan retorts, with the lack of pronunciation-confidence that any foreign language student

learns to thrive on.

So begins our verbal ping-pong, a game of chicken between the nonchalant, completely and utterly wrong American (me) and the studied, yet under-confident, exchange student (Juan).

“Scissors?” I say back, moving my mouth slowly, as if just saying the word that way makes me uncomfortable. “I think that might be the British way to say it?”

“No, Davis. There is no way you pronounce it skizzors.”

Suddenly, Ben Clayman, from the next table over, keeps the dream alive. Not loud enough to be too blatant, but just within earshot, he calls to his partner, “Hey Fausto, can I get those skizzors from you?”

Within minutes, a subtle orchestra of wonderful mispronunciation has enveloped the physics classroom. The room erupts in pure joy as a cacophony of that second syllable’s buzzing Z-sound becomes louder

and louder.

With everyone in the whole class seeming to need to borrow the “skizzors” at the same time, I’m nearly convinced myself.

And Juan? Still skeptical, but just a bit quieter with his questioning as we finish the lab.

But like any masterpiece cooked up in my sixth period physics class, I forget about it within a week.

Forget – that is – until I walk into class early about a month later.

Juan stands up at the front of the classroom, about to turn in his lab report.

He looks at his lab book and his freshly-printed Force vs. Time graphs, then looks up at Mr. Carron.

“Can I borrow your skizzors?”

Hook, line and sinker, and wholeheartedly believing himself to be, as he says, just like a real American.

COMMENTARY

| February 3, 2017|commentary|THE REMARKER |

23

Black History Month: there’s still more to do T

his month is Black History Month, a month to honor the contributions and innovations of black Americans to history. As a month devoted to just one race, it garners some contention. And I’ve found myself debating its necessity and purpose.

Morgan Freeman said it well in an interview on 60 Minutes, arguing that the history of black people should not be relegated to a single month. “Black history is American history,” he said, insisting that it should be talked about together with regular American history. He Corday Cruz argues that African history Senior Content should be fully taught in Editor American history, but the distinction between the two should be minimal, at best.

While this is a valid claim, it’s almost too perfect.

Sitting in AP U.S. History last year, I noticed that the majority of the Civil Rights movement zoomed by in about a week.

Marcus Garvey got a quick nod; Malcolm X earned a few paragraphs for his efforts.

As much as I understand that there’s a lot to teach in one year, omitting large parts of black histo-

ry can be dangerously misleading.

As crucial as Martin Luther King, Jr. was to the fight for civil rights, we’re not getting the full history by only talking about Dr. King. Lots of people see Malcolm X as too extreme, but without knowledge of his story, we lack a crucial part of history.

Without fully addressing the Black Panthers, people believe that they are a militant ground and never understand their contributions to bettering the black community.

Black History Month, and, as an extension, courses teaching black history were created to shed light on figures that were receiving minimal attention before their introduction. The point is for everyone to respect the culture and contribution of black people throughout history.

So eventually – hopefully – we won’t need it, but that time is certainly not now. The respect still isn’t there.

Not even a month ago, I had an acquaintance ask me in the middle of a soccer counter game if I would trust him with the “black card.”

Which black card? American Express? Uno? He meant using the N-word.

I politely declined with an “I don’t know…” and continued playing the game. I hope he meant no harm by it, but he ignored the rich history of racism that word carries in his effort to be cool.

THE

GRID

NOTICED

Literary Festival Full of interesting figures, this year’s Literary Festival was a success. Thanks to the organizers for their leadership throughout the process!

We are excited to learn that long time Lower School instructor Sherri Darver was given the permanent role as head of Lower School.

Despite being asked by head of Upper School Patrick Andren to not overload students with homework over the three day MLK weekend, many teachers used the weekend to assign extra work to their students, taking up much of the extra day given for the holiday.

The recent visiting scholars, David Hudgins and Wil Haygood, have been great additions to campus, offering insightful inputs and giving helpful advice to students.

Basketball attendance In a stark improvement from our football turnout, it is great to see students from the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools coming together to support our fellow student-athletes. We hope to see everyone at tonight’s game vs.

Cistercian at 7 p.m. in Hicks.

Sour milk Too often students are finding milk cartons that are expired and taste sour. This is a must–fix for the health of our student body.

No student input

Consistency in the ice cream machine

The lack of student involvement, much less input on the hiring of several key positions is concerning and needs to be changed.

Members of student leadership from across the Upper School, not just seniors, should have a say on potential candidates.

The quality of the ice cream machine has improved vastly recently. No longer is it soupy, and swirly nozzles are back. What a time.

No More Pep Rallies

After spending half the season without them, the new diving blocks are a much needed welcome to the natatorium.

Visiting scholars

BRILLIANT

MLK Homework

Swimming Blocks

B

Looking at the rising and falling stocks around campus

New Head of Lower School

This was a big disappointment. Upon arrival at the January Coffeehouse, students found that there was not nearly enough seating for everyone who was there. In the future, please make sure Coffeehouse takes place somewhere big enough to fit everyone.

Just casually dropping the N-word brings with it two and a half centuries of hate, ignorance and caricature. It doesn’t accomplish anything, and it surely doesn’t make you cooler. Saying it to be ironic, funny or cute has the same effect. ut it goes both ways. By saying the N-word, it makes people who aren’t black desensitized to the caustic nature of the word, allowing them to think it’s more acceptable. With our own disrespect, we are doing the entire concept of Black History Month a disservice.

That’s why we still need Black History Month.

I logged onto Instagram a couple of months ago and saw three white girls in blue bandanas flashing the gang sign of the Pirus Bloods with their fingers.

I was irate. This trivialization of gang violence, a grave problem across America, spoke volumes about what needs to be fixed.

Then I stopped. I asked myself, why do they think this is okay? And I realized: it’s because it’s a problem on both sides.

Too often, we romanticize what we don’t want to do. Rappers make selling drugs look like a cool, enviable career, when most people actually do it just to put food on the table. They shove gang violence and turf wars and portray them as cool because they don’t know how to admit that it’s a problem.

And that’s what we need to fix. It starts with us.

TAKING STOCK

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

Hockaday Coffeehouse

BAFFLING

|THE REMARKER |commentary| February 3, 2017 |

24

We’d love to see some more pep rallies on the days of big basketball games or soccer matches. They provide a great way of getting in the school spirit for competitive sports events.

OVERLOOKED

Rish, put your phone away

W

hat I’m about to say is going to surprise a lot of people. And by “a lot of people,” I mean everyone at the school. Because I am 100 percent sure that no one else at the school is in the same situation I am currently in.

If I get my phone taken away again by a faculty member, I have to go to the Discipline Council.

Yes, the DisciRISH pline Council.

BASU At this point, Managing Editor I’m past the lunch and Saturday detentions. Past the visits to the Upper School office to retrieve my phone. Now— if it happens again — I go straight to the roundtable to face the all-intimidating Discipline Council.

So, you’re probably wondering how

COMMENTARY

many times you have to get your phone taken away to schedule a visit with the Discipline Council.

To answer that question, one would have to venture 30 pages deep into the Lion Tracks handbook until he reaches the discipline section — but to no avail.

My current case is so rare that it technically isn’t even in Lion Tracks.

I’ve broken new ground.

I have gotten my phone taken away four times this year. But the moral of the story lies in another area of discussion.

For my first Saturday detention, I had to write an essay about an article that affirmed harmful uses of technology to the brain and emotional intelligence.

And while the articles were somewhat enlightening, my essay was mediocre at best because I didn’t agree with it.

Phones can and should be used for good.

The first time I got my phone taken away, I was looking over Mr. Gendason’s

edits on one of my college essays.

The second time I got my phone taken away, I was reviewing a Quizlet set before a Frankenstein vocabulary test.

The third time I got my phone taken away, I was on the school website, checking my grade on the recent physics test.

But for the fourth time, my phone rang blatantly during a BC calculus test (sorry, Joe), and it got taken up deservedly.

For three out of the four aforementioned instances, I was using my digital device for educational purposes. And even if looking at a bright screen for long periods of time has a small effect on your brain and face-to-face interactions, the benefits outweigh the consequences.

In today’s world, phones are more than just unimportant distractions that we use to pass time — they are used to gather information and organize our lives.

Without the useful platforms on our

digital devices — which include everything from the reminders application to the quick access to the Internet — there’s no way I would be able to survive a school year. ’m not saying that every Marksman should be able to freely pull out his phone whenever he wants to. I am hoping that teachers won’t have to waste time during their day taking a student’s phone because he was studying for a test they have next period or looking up an important fact.

Technology is not necessarily a distraction. Phones and computers have enhanced education in the past decade, and they can be used for something more than just playing games.

So, if you catch me using my phone during school, I probably won’t be doing something like playing games or surfing the web.

But please, still tell me to put it away — the Discipline Council awaits.

I

MAKING PLAYS

Sports editor Will Forbes talks about appreciating the highs and lows of sports.

I

Sophomore Seth Weprin (24) chases down a loose ball in a varsity soccer game against Greenhill Jan. 13. The Lions lost the game 2-0.

a peek INSIDE

at a GLANCE

Inside the sports section

A brief look at sporting events on campus

26

COACH RETURNS Tennis coach Jerry Lacey is coming out of retirement

27

OUT FOR GOOD Junior Clay Cassidy will never get to return to the rink

31

STAYING IN SHAPE Talking with faculty and staff about their workout routine

32

SNEAKERHEADS Sitting down with Ryan Parker about his passion — shoes

for the RECORD A status update on Lions sports teams

Varsity basketball

14

11 losses

wins

Varsity soccer

11

6

1

wins

losses

tie

10 wins

JV soccer

1

loss

JV TEAMS LOOK TO CONTINUE EARLY SUCCESS Both junior varsity soccer and basketball teams are focusing on finishing strong after some stellar play over the course of the season.

Having played the majority of their games, the soccer team’s record is an impressive 10-0-1, and the Blue and Gold basketball teams are 8-6 and 9-3, respectively.

After some early losses, junior varsity basketball player Kyle Smith believes that the team has built solid team chemistry and as a result have been playing better since the start of the year.

“Our team has come together in our team dynamic. Our ball movement is cleaner and our plays much more consistent,” Smith said.

Each of the three teams will be wrapping up their seasons on Feb. 3 with games against Cistercian Preparatory School.

Those games will take place at home.

MIDDLE SCHOOL OFF TO STRONG START Middle School athletic teams will be capping off successful seasons this week.

The seventh-grade gold basketball team sits at 8-3, and the eighth-graders at 14-0, while soccer teams sit at 10-0 for seventh grade and 8-1 for eighth grade.

Eighth-grader Daniel Sanchez believes the eighth grade Gold team’s success has stemmed from not only their ability to match nearly every team they’ve played on side of the court, but also the momentum they’ve carried with them since their first game.

“This season, we’ve started fast and we’ve kept it that way,” Sanchez said.

The eighth-grade basketball teams will finish off their year Feb. 4 at the Middle School SPC Tournament, while the seventh grade teams, along with soccer, wrestling and swimming, will all finish up their season during

ALUMNUS COMPETES IN NFL PLAYOFFS Ty Montgomery ’11 scored two touchdowns along with 47 yards on 11 carries and 34 yards on six receptions in the Green Bay Packers’ win over the Dallas Cowboys Jan. 16.

Montgomery’s versatility has certainly contributed to the injury-plagued Packers’ recent success.

He’s seen significant playing time as a running back, wide receiver and even as a kick returner.

The Packers won eight games in a row after defeating the New York Giants in the wild-card matchup and the Dallas Cowboys for the divisional championship.

Montgomery and the Packers’ road to Super Bowl LI came to an end Jan. 22, when the team lost to the Atlanta Falcons 44-21 in the NFC championship game.

The team is due to begin offseason workouts in late May.

— Nathan Han, Parker Davis, Zach Landry

in the SPOTLIGHT

2

rushing touchdowns in the Divisional Round of the playoffs

Ty Montgomery ’11

the same week in various competitions.

TY MONTGOMERY ’11

348 457

receiving yards

by Montgomery this season Rushing yards in his second NFL season

SPORTS

RYAN NORMAN PHOTO

’m on a Southwest Airlines 737 on the way home from Baltimore, but thanks to the miracle of technology, I’m still able to watch my beloved Dallas Cowboys take on the Green Bay Packers.

My flight takes off at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, just ten minutes prior to kickoff. I connect my laptop to the airplane’s complimentary wifi and begin streaming the game.

Two early touchdowns by former Marksman Ty Montgomery drove the Packers to a 21-3 first half lead, and I nearly turn off the game. I can’t stand to watch Aaron Rodgers tear apart our defense any longer.

The Cowboys fans spread across the plane are all glued to their various digital devices to watch and see if their WILL FORBES hometown Sports editor team can clinch a berth in the NFC Championship. The anxiety is palpable.

Fans audibly react after big plays – both good and bad – and the plane is filled with groans and claps and exclamations of “Feed Zeke!”

In the second half the Cowboys roar back behind a masterful performance from rookie QB Dak Prescott, and with under a minute left Dan Bailey knocks down a field goal to tie the game and – hopefully – send the game to overtime.

Everyone on the plane is glued to their devices. The plane lands, but nobody notices. Everybody is too consumed with the game and as Orlando Scandrick flies in for a sack to force third down and a mile, everyone prepares to sit there on the Love Field tarmac for overtime.

Until on third down when Rodgers rolls left, turns and fires. It looks like perfect coverage by the Cowboys secondary and Rodgers is making a hard throw, throwing across his body.

But, in typical Rodgers fashion, the throw is right on the money and just minutes later, a 51 yard field goal ends the Cowboys season.

I’m crushed and angry that it could all end so abruptly. I’m audibly cursing Aaron Rodgers on the middle of the airplane. His State Farm commercials aren’t even funny! He’s just a poor man’s Jake!

My dad and I ride home from the airport in stunned silence, legitimately sad about a game, which makes me think what’s the point of getting so worked up about something that really doesn’t matter?

But that’s why we watch sports.

The rush of emotion from that game encapsulates why people invest so deeply in sports. The lows like that game make the highs that much higher. The highs like when the Cowboys win the Super Bowl next year. *aggressively knocks on wood.* So keep yelling at your TV – or your laptop on an airplane that hasn’t moved in an hour.

25

| February 3, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

The agony of defeat

|THE REMARKER |sports| February 3, 2017 |

26

AN ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER

HERE’S TO A

FOR THE BOOKS After filling up an entire championship banner, the tennis team looks to win one more for Coach Lacey.

NEW

BANNER YEAR

AT THE CONCLUSION OF A LONG, STORIED CAREER, TENNIS COACH JERRY LACEY IS LOOKING TO MAKE ONE FINAL, LASTING IMPACT

A

t the end of a long, grueling day of tennis, the tennis team is one win away from completing a historic year. The team has won 108 matches in a row, and they are only one win away from finishing the 2002 season with a perfect record.

In the final match, the players split the first two sets for only the fourth time in the team’s season, and the record comes down to one final set. The opposing coach suggests a tiebreak, but there can’t be one. No, that just can’t happen, not with this much on the line.

Finally, the Lions win the set six games to three, and the team triumphs.

They’ve done it.

The perfect 109-0 season.

The season that will earn head coach Jerry Lacey a mention in Sports Illustrated’s noted “Faces in the Crowd” feature.

The season that will cement Lacey’s place in local coaching history.

And now, Lacey, returning to the head coaching position after retiring in 2012, hopes to win another title, one that would bring a new banner, and with it, a crowning accomplishment for his career.

••• Long before he came here, Lacey was born in New York City as the son of Irish immigrants. He still remembers how hard his parents had to work to make a living.

“My mother went through eighth grade, and then she went to work after eighth grade full time,” Lacey said.

“She went to night school at Hunter High School, and it took her six years but she did get her high school diploma. [She relied on] her stick-to-itiveness.”

Over the course of his life and coaching career, Lacey has drawn on the values he learned from his parents to succeed.

“I have an older brother,” Lacey said. “We had scholarships for high school, prep school, and college. Fortunately, we were able to go to graduate school also. They couldn’t afford it, but we took her work ethic. Imagine work-

ing full time and for six years going to night school. That was my inspiration.”

After graduating from Iona College, Lacey came to St. Mark’s in 1987, where he served as a humanities teacher. Since then, Lacey has also served as a middle school tennis coach and both as an assistant and head upper school coach.

“I started with Middle School PE tennis in 1987,” Lacey said, “and PE tennis went all the way until 2015. I helped out with the varsity my first couple years. I assisted the head of the varsity tennis team, and then I picked it up and did both Middle School tennis and varsity tennis starting in about 1992.”

In his time coaching at St. Mark’s, Lacey has amassed countless wins and won many awards, including being named National High School Boys Coach of the Year for the historic 2002 season.

Although Lacey retired from teaching and head coaching in 2012, he has continued to serve as an assistant for the last few years.

“I’ve seen it change throughout the last four years,” Lacey said. “Three years, I assisted Coach Palmer. I was his coach in Middle School and Upper School, so he was quite a handful. That was wonderful, a former player and captain as a junior and senior. Last year, I assisted [head lacrosse coach Hayward] Lee.” Lacey credits much of his success to two core tenets he has focused on in his time as a coach.

“That’s one thing that I stress—the concept of first you’re playing on a team—not individually,” Lacey said.

“It truly is a team effort. Even in this technological age, I think those two principles – team and sportsmanship – still apply.”

And those principles are what makes him such a special coach, according to former tennis captain Sam Khoshbin ‘14.

“One of my favorite memories with [Lacey] is how he addressed the team while other SPC teams began stacking their lineups,” Khoshbin said, ”as in

they’d put bad players in the high spots and good players in the low spot to try and win matches. Even if it meant losing, [Lacey] wouldn’t stoop to that.

That was a powerful exhibition of principle to see as a kid in high school.”

Since he has stopped teaching, Lacey has also had some more time to relax and do some other activities that he enjoys.

“I look forward to walking now every day,” Lacey said. “I’ve always enjoyed at the start of my days doing The New York Times crossword, keeping me mentally aware. I read. That keeps me busy.”

But for now, Lacey, in his final year as head coach, is focused and excited for the upcoming season and the challenges that follow.

“The number one [goal] is to vie for the SPC Championship,” Lacey said.

“Try to accomplish winning SPC as a team. I think at this point in my career, the two principles can be applied and

that’s what I’ll stress this season.”

Lacey and the tennis team will prepare for their upcoming matches with a series of warm-ups against non-conference teams, including the final warmup against Highland Park, before their first match on February 28.

And all the preparation boils down to one goal: the SPC title, a title that would mean a new gym banner of SPC championships.

“The spirit theme, at least when the team is selected, is to wear t-shirts in practice of ‘Here’s to a New Banner Year,’” Lacey said. “[The team’s] excited and we’re ready to go.”

And so as the tennis season rapidly approaches, there isn’t much reminiscing about the past or discussion about the third tennis head coaching change over the past three years.

The team is focused on its goal: winning an SPC championship and bringing a new trophy to 10600 Preston Road in Lacey’s return to coaching.

THE LEGACY a quick look at Lacey’s impact on the community

30 6

years Lacey has coached St. Mark’s tennis

Lacey’s perfect record in 2002

SPC Tennis championships won under Lacey

GAZING ON Jerry Lacey looks across the tennis courts he has led Marksmen on for the past 30 years.

SPORTS

Year Lacey was featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd”

STORY CONNOR PIERCE, NATHAN HAN PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS

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| February 3, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

CLAY CASSIDY HOCKEY

IT ONLY TOOK ONE DAY, ONE GAME, ONE CONCUSSION. IN AN INSTANT, JUNIOR CLAY CASSIDY’S PASSION FOR HOCKEY WAS RIPPED AWAY FROM HIM. NOW, HE HAS TO SPEND THE REST OF HIS TIME

Off the ICE. T

he crisp, chilled air of the hockey rink breezes through the grates of junior Clay Cassidy’s goalie mask during his Dallas Stars Elite hockey practice.

Cassidy allows hours of practice and muscle memory to take over as he lunges out to cover up an incoming puck.

All of the sudden, his body crumbles under the weight of another player who was pushed onto him. Cassidy’s head smacks into the rock hard ice, a loud crack sounds, and his mind immediately thinks the worst.

Concussed.

That was the last time Cassidy would ever strap on his goalie pads and skate out onto the rink as a part of his team. After his fourth concussion, Cassidy decided to quit the biggest passion in his life. *** “I started hockey because my neighbor used to play street hockey in my alley, and my brother and I started playing with him and thought it was fun,” Cassidy said. “After the practice that [the concussion] happened, I had a pretty good feeling I was done. It was overall a terrible feeling. I kind of had that moment where I just like didn’t know what to do. I was at a loss because it was such a big part of my life.”

Even though Cassidy somewhat expected his doctor discouraging him from trying hockey again, he was still unnerved when he heard the news. Months after he was diagnosed with his fourth concussion, Cassidy still feels upset about his situation because of the impact

it had in his life.

“I’m still definitely disappointed about it because it was such a big part of my life,” Cassidy said, “but my feelings have hanged a little bit over time because every bad thing has a good thing in it.”

Despite his doctor’s suggestion, there was a time where Cassidy considered continuing to play hockey, but he reached a final decision with the help of his parents.

“I was definitely considering playing through my concussions,” Cassidy said, “but me and my parents came to the decision that there is life after hockey. There was a lot of discussion about what they can do to your brain and how that will affect your life after.

Hockey is fun and all, but I still have the rest of my life to live. ” Regardless of Cassidy’s uncertainty about his future with hockey, his parents supported him throughout the whole process.

“They said that if I wanted to keep playing, I could definitely keep playing,” Cassidy said, “They probably wouldn’t have been happy with me playing, but they would’ve supported me.”

New research and data about concussions has had a huge effect on Cassidy’s decision to quit hockey.

“When we went to the doctor he told me that I look into concussions and consider quitting because there was all this new research coming out about dementia related to concussions,” Cassidy said, “my parents told me that if I continued playing hockey, the sport is getting rougher and rougher, and if I want to

LEFT OUT Junior Clay Cassidy sits alone with his hockey gear, which will have to be retired after his fourth concussion.

play in college it’s going to be a few more years and there’s probably going to be a few more concussions in there.

So we decided that it was best for my mental health to keep out of hockey.”

Cassidy feels that it is important to find some upside in his loss of hockey and has taken up coaching as a way to stay connected to the sport he loves.

“I coach kids now and it is pretty fun,” Cassidy said, “it helps me because I’m still involved in the sport.

Still being involved in the sport is fun and kind of helped me get over not being able to play anymore.”

Along with coaching hockey, Cassidy has found other benefits with his loss of hockey, including his golf game.

But his social life has also greatly improved since his injury.

“I definitely have much more of a social life now because I used to practice four to five times a week and literally live at the hockey rink,” Cassidy

STORY CJ CRAWFORD, NICK WALSH PHOTOS RILEY SANDERS

SPORTS

said, “so that’s a good thing that came out of it. And I guess I have more time to study and play golf now too which is nice. I’m definitely a competitive person and I wouldn’t do well without some kind of athletic activity so I’m glad I can still play golf.”

Cassidy lived in Switzerland from August to December, which made dealing with his loss of hockey especially difficult.

“It was definitely a big change,” Cassidy said, “first I had to quit hockey and then I moved to Switzerland, so it was like two big parts of my life had changed at the same time.”

While quitting the sport he loves was very upsetting to Cassidy, he understands the long term benefits of his decision and is excited to see what his future without hockey will be like.

“I mean, I love hockey,” Cassidy said, “I would’ve given anything to keep playing, but life goes on.”

|THE REMARKER |sports| February 3, 2017 |

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WINTER SPC PREVIEW

Soccer prepares for tournament run RECORD: 8-6-1 SPC RECORD: 3-2 LAST YEAR’S SPC FINISH: THIRD

GOING FOR GOAL Looking to create a scoring chance, sophomore Seth Weprin dribbles the ball during the Lions’ 2-0 loss to Greenhill Jan. 13.

THEY SAID IT Senior Captain Jake Vaughn: “This year’s team has had a more relaxed mentality to it. This has been good and bad for us through out the year. At times we are unfocused and it has cost us. On the other hand though, when we can use that energy and relaxed attitude to play with passion while stating focused, we can’t be beat..”

INTERESTING FACT Freshman William Holtby is currently the youngest player on the team.

CAPTAINS Corday Cruz and Jake Vaughn

Basketball relies on young talent RECORD: 11-8

FREESTYLE FACEOFF Gasping for air, junior Michael Liang attempts to win points for his team in a freestyle heat during the varsity swim meet Dec. 6 against Cistercian. The Lions won the meet 121-49.

LAST YEAR’S SPC FINISH: THIRD THEY SAID IT Head coach Greg Guiler: “We want to lay a foundation for being better men 20 years from now, 10 years from now and even just next year. When I think about the difference between a man, someone who cares for, and a boy, someone who is cared for, I think the maturation I’ve seen from this group over the season has been terrific.”

Swimming looks to keep winning RECORD: 2-2

INTERESTING FACT This team, with only four seniors, is one of the younger teams in recent years, coming just one year after the varsity team graduated nine seniors.

SENIORS Will Ingram, Fabian Reyher, James Hancock and Michael Wang

LAST YEAR’S SPC FINISH: FIRST THEY SAID IT Senior captain Jacob Hum: “Going into SPC, I think the entire team is expecting to win. I think we are expecting it to be a little closer than usual since this is Cistercian’s best team in a while. We are also anticipating that the younger kids step up because we need them to improve for us to have a successful meet and for later swim seasons.”

INTERESTING FACT The team has 16 freshmen who are looking to make an impact in their first SPC Championship.

SENIORS Wesley Hibbs, Easton Honaker, Jacob Hum, Andrew Lin, Rohin Maganti, Christian McClain, Rohil Rai and Matthew Yang

PUSHING TO THE FINISH LOOKING FOR REDEMPTION AFTER COMING UP JUST SHORT LAST YEAR, WINTER SPORTS TEAMS GEAR UP FOR SPC TOURNAMENT PLAY.

BUCKETS Eyeing the hoop, senior guard Will Ingram prepares to drive the lane during the Lions Jan. 13 loss to Greenhill.

ON HIS BACK Flipping his opponent, senior Elias Ware secures a pin during the Lone Star Pools Tournament Dec. 10.

Wrestling hopes for strong finish LAST YEAR’S SPC FINISH: SECOND THEY SAID IT Senior captain Elias Ware: “I’d describe our season as one of growth and development. Although we only have 8 guys, the guys that we do have are very dedicated and are all very good wrestlers. That said, it’s hard for us to do well as a team in tournaments because we lack the manpower to get lots of team points, but individually, we’ve done very well. Our best wrestlers are juniors and sophomores, and they will have a very good chance at some state titles next year individually and hopefully an SPC title for the team.”

INTERESTING FACT The team, with only eight wrestlers, won their duel against All Saints’ with six pins and two forfeits.

SENIORS Rob Crow, Ivan Day, Elias Ware and Andrew Whigham

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| February 3, 2017|sports| THE REMARKER |

WATER POLO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

STATE SQUAD Simenc led Coach Mihai Oprea’s water polo team to its second straight championship in his final high school game in 2015.

All he does is win

TIM SIMENC ‘15 HAS BEEN WINNING CHAMPIONSHIPS SINCE HE WAS A FRESHMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL. THIS YEAR, HE ADDED SOME MORE HARDWARE TO HIS COLLECTION, HELPING CAL WIN THE NCAA WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIP. TOP OF THE WORLD The student body raises Simenc to celebrate the volleyball SPC championship following his junior season.

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or Tim Simenc ‘15, winning championships is getting to be a normal occurrence.

Fall of his freshman year in 2014, he lifted his first SPC championship trophy as a member of the varsity volleyball team.

Later that year, he won another SPC championship with the water polo team.

Then his teams won both again when he was a sophomore.

And then as a junior, both teams completed “threepeats,” and the water polo team won its fourth state championship in program history.

After volleyball won yet another championship his senior year, he led water polo to its fourth consecutive SPC title and its second consecutive state championship.

A captain of both sports during his senior year, Simenc’s career is certainly one of the most decorated of any athlete in school history in terms of team success.

Individual accolades soon followed, as Simenc earned spots on both the United States Junior National Water Polo Team and the water polo team at the University of California Berkeley.

Simenc contributed as a freshman for the Golden Bears, a national power in NCAA water polo, last year before taking on an increased role on the team

this season. Behind a strong effort from Simenc, Cal knocked off USC 11-8 in overtime to win the NCAA water polo championship Dec. 4, a record 14th national championship for the program.

Simenc was back on top of his sport.

“The excitement level was off the charts,” Simenc said, “and I felt so proud to be a part of the team.”

The feeling was similar to the one he got after the state championships at St. Mark’s, just heightened because of the increased magnitude of the accomplishment. The energy around the team after the game was unlike anything he had ever been part of.

“A couple dads bought bottles of champagne that we sprayed everywhere,” Simenc said. “It looked like we had just won the World Series or the NBA Finals.”

His St. Mark’s wins, however, have not lost any of their luster, as he feels personally responsible for those titles. Whereas he was a contributing player on this year’s Cal squad, he was the workhorse for the Lions, the star player who carried the team to success.

“I always see my second state championship as my baby, my championship,” Simenc said. “It will always have a special place in my heart because I

left Texas on top.”

Even since leaving Texas, Simenc has not been able to escape St. Mark’s water polo. Across the bracket from him in the final four of the NCAA Water Polo Tournament was one of his high school teammates and friends, Nathan Ondracek ‘15.

Although Ondracek’s Harvard squad fell to USC in its semi-final matchup, Simenc believes that having two former Marksmen make contributions to national powers is a testament to the culture that head coach Mihai Oprea has created around the school’s program.

“Something is going right at St. Mark’s, and it is because of Coach Oprea,” Simenc said. “Every success I have had in the pool is because of Coach Oprea, and Nathan [Ondracek] would agree with me on this too.”

Thanks to Oprea and the culture that Simenc helped create, the future for St. Mark’s water polo — now a bona fide state powerhouse — looks bright. The Lions added additional State and SPC championships last year following Simenc’s graduation, and this year’s squad looks to be a stronger contender to bring home more hardware.

And in regards to Simenc’s future, he just hopes to keeping winning championships, and if the past is any indication, that shouldn’t be too hard.

STORY WILL FORBES PHOTOS COURTESY TIM SIMENC

BACK ON TOP Simenc reached the peak of his sport yet again this season, knocking off USC 11-8 in the national championship.

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|THE REMARKER |sports| February 3, 2017 |

DWIGHT PHILLIPS COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Hardwood classics WITH INCREDIBLE STORIES ABOUT HIS TIME ON THE FLOOR, COACH DWIGHT PHILLIPS RECALLS HIS EXPERIENCE AT TEXAS TECH AND THE EXTRAORDINARY TALENT HE SQUARED UP AGAINST.

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of famers,” Phillips said. “They didn’t know that they were going to be hall of famers, but just competing against each other out there on the floor with these guys, they were just like me.”

But as he reflects upon his experience at Texas Tech, Phillips is able to view them from an entirely different perspective.

“I look at these guys that are going into the Hall of Fame,” Phillips said, “and I tell my son, I matched up against that guy, I played against that guy, we beat these guys when we were in college. It has changed my life because it’s one of the most memorable things that I’ve done for myself to get where I am today, and I think without that experience, who knows where I would have been, where I would be now.”

While Phillips had a great college career, in the end, it was thanks to one man that he even stepped on the court in the first place.

“There’s a guy named Bob Odell who got me started in basketball when I was like six or seven years old,” said Phillips. “You know, if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would have even played basketball.”

Phillips’s relationship with Odell transcended the court, and the lessons learned from his athletic career have stuck with him to this day.

“He was just a guy in the community who was there to help change, try to bridge gaps and racial issues in the community, and he did it,” Phillips said. “He stuck with me and we stuck

arrying a stern look and walking with swagger, the 6 foot-9 inches specimen met his opponent at half court.

The brief exchange lasted only seconds, but it would dictate the rest of the game.

Throughout his college basketball career at Texas Tech, it was essential for coach Dwight Phillips to set the tone during the routine pregame handshake line.

“We’d meet at halfcourt and shake hands, right?” Phillips said. “I used to always grab the guy by his arm. I would shake his hand really hard and yank on it. I’d say you’re going down, bud, or something, you know. That’s when the war started.”

Throughout his college basketball career at Texas Tech, Phillips never backed down from a challenge. Going against well renowned players such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Joe Klein, Patrick Ewing and John Kuncak, Phillips was constantly tested on the court.

“We had a reputation when I was at Texas Tech of always being a tough team to play against because we didn’t back off from the competition,” Phillips said. “I gave it my best effort and that was the only way that I knew how to play.”

Despite playing against basketball legends, Phillips didn’t think too much of it at the time.

“As I look back, we didn’t know that those guys were going to be hall

DRIBBLING THROUGH TIME Phillips (small) poses in his team photo in college. He played against some of the best players in the world in his day.

He pivots (big) at the top of the key in one of Texas Tech’s games.

with each other until he died. The things that he taught me about sports is that it’s not about the game, it’s about the experience, because you can make a difference in somebody’s life through sports. Sports is an avenue that bridges gaps in the world.”

Throughout his college career, Phillips was surrounded by numerous future NBA stars, but Hall of Fame inductee Hakeem Olajuwon’s great sportsmanship separated him from the rest.

“A lot of these guys were always good characters, but Hakeem was IT’S a statesman,” EXTREMELY Phillips said. “I HUMBLING felt like, as far as BECAUSE I all those guys who GOT TO PLAY I played against, AGAINST he was the one SOME OF who you could tell THE BEST he didn’t need the BASKETBALL NBA to be a star.

PLAYERS. He’s smart, he’s — DWIGHT well-spoken, but, PHILLIPS after the games, he would always come and shake hands and talk. He didn’t talk basketball, he talked about life.”

Even though Olajuwon was courteous and polite off the court, his demeanor changed drastically once the game started. Phillips remembers the time when Olajuwon dunked on him.

“One time the ball came off the rim and I thought I had him blocked out, but it was like his knees were in

the back of my head,” said Phillips.

“I mean it was so much to the point where he just dunked it with one hand!

He didn’t catch it, he just pounded it back in off the rebound. My college teammates laughed at me for about a year.”

Out of all the great basketball players Phillips competed against, Phillips feels Michael Jordan was the best.

“Well, skill-wise, Michael Jordan was a man amongst boys out there,” Phillips said. “Now, as far as toughest, I’m going to give it to Joe Klein personally because I had to guard him.

But Joe Klein was like an animal. He was like 6’11” probably about 275-280 pounds. One walking ball of muscle.

Here I am 6’9”, probably 210 pounds soaked wet with a roll of quarters in my back pocket.”

While Phillips had many great years playing basketball, becoming a father showed him the mental difference between college sports and everyday life.

“When you are an athlete, there’s a certain cockiness about you and anytime that you have kids, you want what’s best for the kids, and you’re going to have to change,” said Phillips.

For my son and for my daughter, I’m thinking, you know, I’m still going to be competitive, I still want to instill that competitiveness in them, but you know what, the arrogance, the cockiness, stuff like that, it’s got to go.

You’re not thinking for yourself anymore, you’re thinking for your family.”

STORY JOSH DANIELS, NICK WALSH PHOTOS COURTESY DWIGHT PHILLIPS

Junior Houston Engleman opts to help soccer team as manager

I

nstead of lacing up his cleats and competing on the field with his fellow classmates, junior Houston Engleman works on the sideline. Serving as a varsity soccer manager, Engleman hopes to get to know the team better.

Rules prevent Engleman – who is heavily involved in an Academy club soccer team– from also playing for his high school team, but he wanted to stay involved with the team this year even if he couldn’t be on the field.

“I love playing soccer and in the event that I am able to play next year, I would like to have been involved with the team as much as I could,” Engleman said.

While managing during the games, Engleman is actively involved in the team’s play.

“During the game I will help out with the team any way I can,” Engleman said.

SPORTS

“I give pointers to players and answer any questions, sometimes talking strategy with coach Martin.”

Managing this year will help Engleman develop chemistry with the team and allow him to prepare for next year’s season.

Engleman was a solid contributor to the varsity squad his freshman year, but he had to step away from the program to focus on his club team.

With hopes of earning an opportunity to play in college, club is the best option for Engleman right now, but, similar to senior Josh Bandopadhay, he hopes to be able to come back to the school team for his senior season.

“I played freshman year and had a lot of fun, so it is something I would like to do next year,” Engleman said.

— Josh Daniels

TEACHER WORKOUT GROUP

Fitting in fitness AFTER YEARS OF RUNNING HIS OWN CROSSFIT GYM, DIRECTOR OF SECURITY DALE HACKBARTH SPREADS HIS EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE TO FACULTY. Parker Davis: How did you all come up with the idea to create the workout group?

ZL: Outside of your workouts, what’s one thing you do to stay in shape?

Director of Media Services Rick Cerovsky: Well, a few years ago, Mr. Hackbarth and I were talking about working out. He owns a CrossFit gym, and I saw him working out up here, doing CrossFit. So I asked him when he was doing it and if I could join him. He said sure. So we started doing it together.

RC: Stay active. When I’m not working out, a lot of times I’ll be doing work outside. It’s just about staying moving. A body at rest stays at rest, so you just have to stay active and keep pushing yourself.

Director of Security Dale Hackbarth: It’s a CrossFit model. Up until about six months ago, I owned a CrossFit gym downtown right by Farmers Market. I’ve been doing CrossFit for about 10 years and I’ve run my own gym for the past six years. It’s just a different workout model. It’s functional movements with moving weight from ground to overhead.

THE GRIND First stop, Smith and Hackbarth kick it off with a few sets of kettlebell swings.

Zach Landry: What is the main reason you wanted to work out in a group?

English instructor Curtis Smith: I really like Mr. Hackbarth’s reasons. He once said, ‘Why do I work out?’ And then he puts his watch down on the floor, and he says, ‘So that I can bend over in years to come and pick up my watch and tie my shoes. I want to be nimble enough to [do that]. You get only one body.’ Mr. Hackbarth and Mr. Dilworth have been super wonderful in teaching me. I’ve enjoyed learning from them.

GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM Second stop, the workout squad spends some long minutes on the erg machines.

PD: What do you think the benefits are of working out in a group?

DH: It helps you motivate one another. If I workout by myself, I can come up with a zillion and one reasons not to work out. It’s easier to stay motivated when you have a friend working out with you because when you look out of the corner of your eye, and he’s not slowing down or she’s not slowing down, the energy just feeds off one another.

RC: When you’re working out with a group, you’re able to push each other, and when you want to quit or they want to quit, you have that support to push you and keep you going, which is really nice.

That’s one of the things about Coach Dilworth’s program. It’s that he’s there, he’s motivating you, he’s pushing you. You have that sense of, even though you would like to take a rest and take a break and catch your breath, he’s there pushing you.

DH: Yard work. I’m big into biking. I love mountain biking. I’m spoiled because I go to Colorado occasionally. They’re nice trails but on the fun ones all you have to do is ride the brake down.

Those are great. I love mountain biking and doing workouts on the side. I’m always doing something.

CS: I like yard work, cutting grass, raking leaves, trimming trees, all of it. Whatever it is. Think about it, how much of our life do we spend on concrete, especially here in Dallas? It’s scary.

You could go from Centennial [Hall] home and not touch Mother Earth. We are disconnected from the earth. We yearn to have some of that at times, to get out and get our feet in the dirt.

PD: Is there anything else you want to add?

CS: I always think the most selfish thing you can do is to get an education. After all, whom does it benefit? You. If students were to realize that getting an education is the most selfish thing you can do, then the work doesn’t become work - it’s self fulfillment.

The same thing about working out. It’s probably the second most selfish thing you can do. After all, whom does it benefit? You. And it teaches you a great life skill about how it makes you feel good, which is something you can take with you the rest of your life.

DH: We are all fighting Father Time one way or another. The best way to do it is to become active. Working out is always 20 percent. Diet is 80 percent. If one is looking at trimming up, it all starts with diet. Working out definitely helps and you need that. You’ve got to burn more calories than you take in. It’s a simple math equation.

There are so many benefits to working out.

You know what keeps me motivated? When I look at the Marksmen out there and Kevin Dilworth has got you guys going on the track. I wish that would fit into my schedule. I’d go out there and do that stuff with Kevin. If anybody wants to talk about fitness or what it means to me or wants to join us… the more the merrier.

ALL IN THE HIPS To finish off the intense workout, the men each complete a couple sets of deadlifts.

STORY ZACH LANDRY, PARKER DAVIS PHOTOS OWEN BERGER

Harrison Ingram ranked number six basketball player in state

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ighth grader Harrison Ingram has been ranked number six in the state by Lone Star Prep Spotlight. Next year, he hopes to make a contribution on the varsity basketball team.

Playing with his AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) team, Mo Williams Elite, Ingram travels a lot more than the average high school athlete. The exposure to the game and the various types of players only adds experience to the middle schooler.

“We play all around America, and we play the top teams in the nation, so that’s how I think I got on these guys’ radar,” In-

At 6 foot 3, an eighth grade Marksman has captured the attention and admiration of basketball coaches across the state.

gram said.

According to Ingram, playing on the AAU circuit is much different than playing on his eighth grade team coached by Dwight Phillips.

“St. Mark’s is a lot different than my other team because I play a different position on both teams,” Ingram said. “On the Mo Williams team I play shooting guard.

On the school team I play small forward and power forward. It’s just a lot different.

Playing for St. Mark’s is a little bit easier. I can kind of score whenever I want.”

Now, with the accolade of his new ranking, Ingram is ready to raise his game to the next level.

With this much attention on his game performance, Ingram senses a lot of the pressure that comes with his presence in games.

“Sometimes it can be tough because when I play in games,” Ingram said, “everybody expects a lot out of me. It’s just a lot of pressure sometimes. But yeah it’s pretty fun.”

Even though there’s a good amount of pressure on Ingram, he’s up for the challenge. He estimated that he’s scored almost 40 points in one of his games.

As for high school basketball, Ingram has set himself a few goals.

“I think a good goal for playing on varsity next year would be to have a winning record and to dunk on somebody,” Ingram said. “And after that, I think it would be really cool if I could go play at a Division I program somewhere. My favorite school is Duke.”

There is a bright future ahead for Ingram, and he’s looking forward to show what he’s got. ­ — CJ Crawford

BALLIN’ OUT After being recognized for his talent, eighth grader Harrison Ingram has secured his spot as a top ten player in his class.

SPORTS

| Febrruary 3, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

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PHOTO RISH BASU

ANCHOR DOWN Varsity basketball team members watch and cheer on their teammates from the sideline in a game vs. Trinity Valley Jan. 18. The team is off to a slower start with a counter game record of 1-4. They will look to get a win tonight in a home game vs.

Cistercian at 7:30

ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS

10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TX. 75230

THE REMARKER THE BACK SPORTS PAGE THE REMARKER FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017 PAGE 32

MEET THE

Sneakerheads Rett Daugbjerg: Why is your shoe game stronger than Fabian’s?

IT IS MORE THAN A HOBBY. SENIOR FABIAN REYHER AND BASKETBALL COACH RYAN PARKER DON’T JUST WEAR SHOES, THEY COLLECT THEM.

Coach Ryan Parker

Ryan Parker: Ultimately fashion, including shoegame, is about wisdom. That, my friend, can only come with experience. A young man, new to the sneakerhead movement (just like I was at 15, 18, even 24) is just grasping at other people’s ideas.

He can’t exercise the judgment of Heads who grew up on the Airmax 1, Jordan 1 or Sambas. It takes time. Nostalgia matters here. These were our soldier boots in which we battled, not grails we kept in boxes in air tight glass in sealed rooms made of cedar.

This is why Fabian isn’t on my plane yet; he can’t be. It’s not his fault. He’ll put on “Grinch” Kobes as a 29 year old and just destroy the downtown Y league.

But until sneakers mean more than dollars and exclusivity, the young man is just borrowing the culture.

Senior Fabian Reyher

Rett Daugbjerg: Why is your shoe game stronger than Coach Parker’s?

Fabian Reyher: The sneaker world is entering a new generation, and this new movement has left older sneakerheads with outdated style. Though the classics will always be classics, Jordans are simply not as valuable as they used to be, and brands like Adidas have become much more mainstream.

Fashion changes everyday, and Coach Parker’s shoe game has become slightly outdated.

RD: What is your favorite shoe you own and why?

RP: I recently found a pic of me at my second birthday, rocking the Chicago 1s; my dad knew how to outfit his boy. It’s been with me since birth.

The first basketball team I made, my mom bought me Bred 11s, paid $125 (A FORTUNE), and I wore holes in them, just wrecking anyone who dared to face me. In reality, I was an unathletic driveway baller who rode the bench in real games, but when I put on those patent leather glass slippers, I was the prince ready to ball.

My favorite shoe is the “Bred” Jordan 11.

You feel invincible because you understand that Michael Jordan was invincible.

RD: What is your favorite shoe you own and why?

FR: The term ‘hypebeast’ is used to describe a sneakerhead that purchases a pair of sneakers for a lofty resale price, only because it is a “hyped” shoe.

I traded three pairs of shoes for my first pair of Oxford tan Yeezys a year ago, but to this day, that pair of sneakers has been my favorite.

Not only were they created by one of the most influential people in the world, but owning a pair seperates you from so many sneakerhead-wannabes.

RD: How did you get into collecting sneakers?

RD: How did you get into collecting sneakers?

RP: If you look at a shoe and it moves you, meaning you think, “I can’t leave the store without these,” then you’re on your way.

Then it becomes about priorities.

I sold off about 55 pairs to pay for the birth of my daughter, so things will always change.

Collect while you can. The second your foot stops growing, buy as many pairs as you can until your wife puts the kabash on it!

FR: There’s a certain culture that comes with hip-hop music, and fashion is a huge part of it. You can’t watch a music video without the artists showing off their $2000 sneakers, and as someone who truly enjoys hip-hop music, I wanted to copy that style.

After watching Kanye wear his Yeezy 2s in the “Birthday Song” music video, I was hooked.

ADIDAS YEEZY BOOST 350 Colorway: Oxford tan Company: Adidas Designer: Kanye West Retail price: $200 Resale price: $900-$1200

FUN FACT: The Yeezy Boost 350s sold out in 12 minutes on Adidas’s online website.

Later that day, the shoe sold for $10,000 on Ebay.

THE FAVORITES

A little more about Reyher and Parker’s favorite shoes in their collection.

NIKE TRAINER PLUS

Colorway: Black/White Company: Nike Retail price: $110 Material: Flyknit Where to buy: Shoe retail stores

INTERVIEWS RETT DAUGBJERG PHOTOS OWEN BERGER

SPORTS

FUN FACT: The Nike Trainer Plus collection is one of the most popular fitness and training shoes in the country.

FOCUS MAGAZINE A ReMarker Publication February 2017

to make a man

12

26 24

16

5 25 25

INSIDE Kevin Dilworth

4

Jim Bob Womack ’98

5

Dwight Phillips

6

J.T. Sutcliffe Frank Jordan

7

Scott Gonzalez Mary Beth Duffy

8

Sam Carpenter

9

Lower School

10

The Andrén family Jbeau Lewis ’98

12

Steve Miller

13

Middle School

14

Andrew Lin

15

David Dini

16

Brendan Court

22

Martin Stegemoeller

24

Ali Rowghani ’91 Christian McClain

25

Fatherhood

26

The Marksmen family

28

Goals IV

30

FROM THE EDITORS

TO MAKE A MAN TAKE ONE STEP on

campus and you’ll see it — the path to manhood. Not just the 12-foot bronze statue greeting visitors as they approach Centennial Hall. You’ll see it all across campus.

You see it when a lower-schooler stands up for his friend getting teased. You see it when a seventh-grader puts on a Lions jersey for the first time and feels like he’s part of something bigger than himself.

You see it in upper-schoolers taking leadership positions, in teachers staying late to work with students and in alumni being leaders in their cities and alma mater simultaneously.

One step on campus and you can tell the goal isn’t just to produce Ivy League or straight “A” students.

For over a century, the goal has been to make men.

But what exactly does that mean? What does a man look like? How are men made?

And what about this path to manhood makes it something so rooted in the culture of the school?

This magazine strives to answer these questions.

Throughout this magazine you will find stories that define the path to manhood.

Many of these stories take the form of long features and first-person narratives from our best — some of the most prom-

inent leaders in the community who influence boys everyday.

In these features we looked at what makes them the people they are today — the stories, people and decisions that shaped the trajectory of their lives, bringing them to care for others at the school.

HOWEVER,

with this month’s approval of Goals for St. Mark’s IV — the fourth edition of the school’s goals since 1984 — it’s clear that in the next era of the school, the emphasis on the development of men will only will get stronger at 10600 Preston Road.

With plans to strengthen the leadership and ethics program, Goals IV will bring the school into a new era of developing men.

Aside from features on leaders in the community, many stories in the magazine focus on questions surrounding the culture of the school that makes men.

The journey from wearing white oxford shirts to donning the storied blue shirts and bright white tuxedoes may be a long process, but when the cigars come out on that warm May night, you can see it.

The school’s mission has been realized — the seniors are now men.

— Kobe Roseman, Crawford McCrary

FOCUSMAGAZINE STAFF Focus, a thrice-yearly magazine supplement to The ReMarker focusing on a single topic, is a student publication of St. Mark’s School of Texas, 10600 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75230.

EDITORS Crawford McCrary Kobe Roseman

PHOTOGRAPHERS Owen Berger Chris McElhaney Riley Sanders Frank Thomas

The ‘Path to Manhood’ statue, which arrived in spring 2009, greets visitors to Centennial Hall, where most of the school’s administrative offices are located.

WRITERS André Arsenault Davis Bailey Rish Basu C.J. Crawford John Crawford Andy Crowe Corday Cruz Rett Daugbjerg Blake Daugherty

Sahit Dendekuri Alec Dewar Will Forbes Zach Gilstrap Nathan Han Zoheb Khan Duncan Kirstein Zach Landry Case Lowry Michael Lukowicz

Albert Luo Mike Mahowald Nick Malvezzi Lyle Ochs Reece Rabin Gopal Raman Sam Shane Mark Tao

Dilworth holds a Bible, ‘the cornerstone of his life.’

H

e was in Baltimore looking for me, and I didn’t know it because I hadn’t been back.

He was in town looking for me at my Big Momma’s house — that’s what I call my grandmother. I got there, and I’m just shaking. He’s looking at me saying, “You’re never coming back [to Baltimore] again.

This is it. No more running. You’re staying.

We’re going to make this thing work and you have to trust me.”

And that’s the first time a man had to tell me, “you have to trust me.”

From that point on when he said that, I trusted him no matter what. I’m gonna trust you. I’m gonna trust you that you’re gonna help me survive. And that was the whole key — that you help me survive. Because that’s all I’ve been trying to do is survive.

And he said, “we’re gonna do more than survive.” He said, “I’m gonna save you.”

Man, this is gonna get heavy for me.

Because he was — my granddad was everything.

He literally saved me from everything — death. I was scheduled to die. I was set up, the street life. I was set up because of who he was, I mean he poured so much into me every single day and if I can give anything — I’m the man today because of what he put into me. I’m the man today because of him.

He poured a pure concrete foundation in me to stand on and that’s what I go back to every time I find myself in a rut.

I go back to words that he has said to me because I don’t have men in my life that I can go to that inspire me so much other than the man that took me and raised me.

A

KEVIN DILWORTH

Strength and Conditioning Coach, grandson

M

PAGE4

My best friend passed away. He got killed.

That was the last straw for me. And it was so crazy because at that particular time when that happened, my grandfather [pastor Tony Dilworth] was so persistent on me becoming something fantastic and big.

Interview Zach Landry

lot of men come around me because of who I am and what I was able to give. He stayed there because of what I was anyway because most people wouldn’t dare toil with me if they knew what I used to be. They only toil with me because of my accolades and what I have.

When you look at all the tattoos and scarring on me, you don’t know up underneath there’s so much pain, so much anguish and so much — really the deliberation of trying to get me to a point and fight every single day with an internal being of like, who am I, ‘cause I didn’t know who I was for a long time. And he showed me who I was. He made me believe in Kevin.

He said ‘you gotta believe in Kevin.’

Kevin is important. Kevin can do anything.

Kevin can do this, Kevin can do that.

You hear it so much that you start believing it. And then when people doubt you, Kevin can’t do that. It’s just that point it’s like, I’m saying into my head, boom, I would do it.

I JIM BOB WOMACK ’98 Director of Development, son

The watch Womack’s parents gave him signifies their pride in his graduation.

don’t have a whole lot in my life that is a value, or a possession. When people talk about what you would bring out of a burning house: I would grab my family then my dogs, I’m not going to grab pictures or possessions.

There are two things that matter to me that are possessions outside of my wedding ring and my class ring: a shotgun my parents gave me and the watch.

The watch was handed to me by my parents after Final Assembly in 1998. I’m walking out of final assembly with my buddies all excited and my parents pull me aside into the Commons.

They hand me a box, and I open it up and it’s a really nice watch.

They said ‘We are so proud of you, and together, we bought this watch for you.’

My parents didn’t get along, my parents didn’t talk a whole lot after the divorce — and they came together because of the pride they had in the accomplishment that I had made, and of course they helped a lot, but the meaning behind it is so much more than just a timepiece.

It shows me how proud my parents are of me, how proud they are of what I did at St. Mark’s, and it’s a constant reminder of not wasting opportunities, it’s so much more than a watch.

RAHUL BANERJEE

Middle schooler, grandson My grandmother was the biggest social servant and mentor I’ve seen in my entire life.

Even though she was a successful and proud woman, she cared about everybody else more than herself. She passed away,

but her lessons are still with me and have continued to influence my life.

Seeing what I do to affect other people inevitably makes me smile. When I was in seventh grade, I volunteered at the North Texas Food Bank. Even

though it was hard work, it had a great effect on my life because there are people way less fortunate than us.

Being able to give back, rather than take, take and take is so satisfying.

Interview Rett Daugbjerg, Zoheb Khan

PAGE 5

He’s the man who makes everyone smile from ear to ear every day.

The man who remembers everyone’s names, family and favorite activities.

The man who towers over every young man, but can make him feel bigger just by talking to him.

Many students would consider him a mentor and role model.

But coach Dwight Phillips has his own mentors.

From family to co-workers to even his own coaches growing up, here are some of the people who inspire Phillips to inspire others every day.

THE COACH’S INFLUENCE TREE

Strength and Conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth

Interim Assistant Head of Upper School Scott Gonzalez

“I’m not too old to learn from the young guys,” Phillips said.

“Whenever I need him, he’s there,” Phillips said.

Bob O’Dell, Founder of Little Dribblers, a basketball league for underprivileged kids.

DWIGHT PHILLIPS

Former humanities teacher and tennis coach Jerry Lacey

His mother, Elzela Phillips

“He took an interest into me and my brother when we were 5, 6, 7 years old,” Phillips said. “As time went on, he mentored me all through high school... He was so instrumental in helping me grow — not just in basketball but in life, too.”

PAGE 6

Interviews Lyle Ochs, Nick Malvezzi

You can often find Phillips sitting with Lacy on the benches near Hicks Gymnasium “She played dual roles as a mother and father,” Phillips said.

J.T. SUTCLIFFE Suzanne and Patrick McGee Family Master Teaching Chair in Mathematics, 50th year in education I always wanted a family — I wanted three boys.

I never had the family. God gave me instead 92 seniors a year and lots of other kids.

Teaching has been a wonderful experience for me...

I walk into my office and I see all the smiling faces on my ‘Favorite People Wall’ looking back at me, and I remember all the happy times we had together, all the happy times that will come.

And it’s the happy moments that make me smile.

A favorite fishing hat and sweatshirt always accompany Sutcliffe on her many trips to the Oregon coast.

FRANK JORDAN Third grade teacher, 50th year in education I try to grow in patience. That’s one thing I try to do.

I know that [the students] are more fluent with technology. I let them take care of that for me — I’m a dinosaur.

But, what I try to be is a conduit, a guide, to direct them in areas where they can achieve...

I would say watching the Lower School kids grow into fine Marksmen, just feeling that I was a part of that is something I’m very proud of.

Jordan holds a drawing of a bear a student gave him years ago.

Interviews Andy Crowe, Sam Shane

PAGE 7

First-time grandfather Gonzalez is a doting granddad to Porter.

MARY BETH DUFFY

Parents’ Association President

SCOTT GONZALEZ

Interim Assistant Head of Upper School

I

like a new challenge. I’m a person who doesn’t like to do the same thing everyday, so even in my teaching I change a book almost every year. I do that with my colleagues in the English department. If I don’t change a book, I’m willing to have someone ask me “Why don’t we try something new,” and I always enjoyed that challenge.

I still remember one of my first experiences in the firefighting crew.

I had never done anything like that before, but I learned so much about myself and what I needed to do in

PAGE 8

Interviews Dylan Liu, Mark Tao

order for me to get a small crew to hike in about 20 miles to knock a tree down, etc.

I learned something I knew nothing about and I pushed myself in ways I never thought I could, and I had to work with others who had strengths different from mine, but I was responsible for the final outcome.

I think that so many of those instances during the years I worked in the Forest Service where I had to think on my feet. That continues to be one of my skill sets that I still enjoy and get amped up by.

My husband has moved us around in his career, and I just decided that I wanted to stay home with the kids, but I’ve always been volunteering.

That’s been really interesting and fulfilling.

When they asked me to take the Parents’ Association job, it wasn’t something that I wasn’t necessarily planning to do.

But the school has given my boys so much, and all of the boys so much, that I thought it was a “thank you.”

It was something I certainly could make the time for, and I knew I would work with some great people, some great parents.

But really the benefit to me has been seeing how hard the maintenance and the staff and the faculty really support all [of the boys], and it’s really been eye-opening to me.

They really go above and beyond. It’s been a pleasure.

SAM CARPENTER

Carpenter learned a lot from a recently drafted baseball player.

Assistant Varsity Baseball Coach While I’ve been coaching, I’ve learned some really good things from my players.

I had a young man play for me a number of years ago, and he went to W.T. White High School — the most popular kid there.

He was quarterback on the football team, [and he was] drafted in the first round by the Giants out of high school.

And as a senior, he told me something, and I’ve remembered it and passed it along.

Because I knew he was popular, I kidded with him about going to all those parties when he was a senior. He said, “Coach I’m not gonna miss a party, but I’m gonna go home early.”

So that stuck. I’m not a party animal. I like people, but I’m not a party animal. That’s not me. You learn things from people as you go along. And it doesn’t matter how old they are or how young they are.

There are some very intelligent people out there who have been thinking about some things that I may not have thought about. People out there who have perspectives I may not have. And I can borrow those. Partly in jest, partly in truth.

I describe my life as three “P’s.”

I’m a procrastinator, I’m a plagiarist (I’ve never had an original idea and I don’t think I ever will), and I’m persistent — I stay with things. If it’s something I want to do, I’m gonna stay after it.

Interview Naftal Mautia

PAGE 9

S

She always wanted to work with kids.

Ever since she was a little girl.

Having spent about 35 years in lower school education, Head of Lower School Sherri Darver’s passion for working with children has yet to die.

But that flame of passion for nurturing the youth ­­— a flame strong enough to burn near two decades — couldn’t have been started were it not for the impactful people she had in her life.

She thanks those people every day, because without them, according to Darver, she wouldn’t be the woman she is today.

And, as she had a common thread of meaningful leaders and influences through her years, the Lower School instructors continue to create an environment in which their students can thrive and learn the ever-important lesson on how to become good men.

Through various initiatives and programs such as those helmed by first-grade instructor Kay Carrio and third-grade instructor Frank Jordan, Lower School students are surrounded daily by reminders to take that extra step down their best path.

And with those extra steps, it is with every intention that the Lower Schooler students will use the lessons they’ve learned and impact those they will be around daily— because it’s the right thing to do.

CONTINUED, PAGE 11

PAGE 10

FO R T H E B OYS

Interim Head of Lower School Darver reads a story with fourthgrader Andrew Jin.

IT ALL STARTS

SOMEWHERE Interim Head of Lower School Sherri Darver has felt the lifelong benefits of being surrounded by quality mentors—something lower-schoolers experience every day.

Story by Zach Gilstrap, Crawford McCrary, Mike Mahowald

A LIFETIME OF PASSION— SHERRI DARVER

D

arver grew up in Pennsylvania in a family of six, and naturally, her older brothers guarded her close — she laughs at it today, though she wasn’t fond of it at the time.

“When growing up,” Darver said, “my brothers were very protective of me, it was difficult to date or do anything they thought was dangerous.”

But now, Darver is able to implement the lessons she learned from her parents and the protection from her brothers in her daily life and her work.

“My parents were fanatical on punctuality,” Darver said, “so I think that’s where I got that from.

I always remember to say hello to people and greet them, and to be friendly and outgoing. Organization, responsibility for your actions and the importance of school were not things you played around and messed with.”

One of the earliest people she remembers impacting her life was her fifth-grade teacher. During a challenging time in her life, according to Darver, he was there to help her along the way.

“At that time in history,” Darver said, “we ate lunch in the classroom at our desks, so he was with us eating in there. We were in the classroom all day, and I really got to know him well. He was one of those people I could talk to about anything.”

The conversations they had together, the life lessons he ingrained in her mind — all of those memories and experiences lived with her for years, prompting her to reach out to him recently.

“I reconnected with [my fifth-grade teacher] a few years ago and told him how much he impacted my life,” Darver said. “Anybody who comes into your life and impacts you in a positive way shapes you and helps you grow as a person. I hope I never stop having people like that in my life.” aving taught fourth grade for the majority of her 24 years here, Darver left the schoool when her granddaughter was born, but stayed on campus by substitute teaching and proctoring tests.

And once former Lower School Head Barbara York announced her retirement in January of 2016, things all “fell into place,” as she was on campus when the announcement came out and immediately expressed her interest in taking over for York.

Now, Darver, who was named for the permanent position of head of Lower School in December, looks back at York as one of the primary influences on her in terms of settling into a leadership role in the community.

“She would always check up on me until she knew I had my feet wet,” Darver said. “She was just always that person who never gave up and always gave you that extra push. She worked so many hours at this job and made the relationship so important. It was not just a job to her, it was the relationship.”

When assuming the position of Lower School head in the fall, Darver feels it will be her obligation to impart what lessons she has learned onto the future — the boys in the Lower School. And it all starts with the one-on-one interactions, those the boys will remember and keep with them — just as she did.

“I will hopefully pattern my own style of leadership after those I’ve had,” Darver said. “If a boy is sent down to the office for some reason, I have to help them understand the consequences of their behavior and how to make different choices through guiding them on their path to manhood, and that comes from all that I’ve learned along the way.”

H

THE RIGHT DIRECTION— LEADING THE LOWER SCHOOL

H

e didn’t feel like he’d done anything out of the ordinary. He’d simply done what he had been taught to do.

When fourth-grader Noah Williams saw a classmate being picked on in the locker room, there was no question as to what he would do.

He simply knew he had to say something.

“A kid was getting picked on because he was getting undressed in the locker room,” Williams said.

“And I just stopped that.”

His display of courage and compassion is some-

somebody loses something, boys will say ‘somebody took it from me,’ but in actuality, you lost it yourself.

It’s just little steps in the hopes they would become better Marksmen in terms of leadership.”

Jordan has a yearly tradition in which, near the end of the year, he starts the Kindness Kids program.

Whenever they feel the need to, his students can go to the black chalkboard and write the name of a student who did something nice for them.

“You can get on there through doing small acts of kindness,” Jordan said. “That’s what it’s all about.

That helps them become more cognisant of their environment.”

The core of the character education presented

WE HAVE SUCH A CHUNK OF TIME WITH THEM ANDTHE BOYS AT THAT TIME ARE VERY MALLEABLE AND, HOPEFULLY BEING A GOOD MENTOR WILL HELP THEM GO A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. thing teachers in the Lower School try to replicate in their students through various programs and initiatives, all for one reason — to make good men.

One of the main initiatives at the helm of the leadership of the Lower-Schoolers involves the “Lion Pride” necklaces, a character education activity that rewards boys for acts of kindness toward their peers.

Among other teachers, Ackerman Master Teaching Chair Kay Carrio has implemented the program into her class, and feels first-grader boys’ actions exhibit character development.

“There are badges they can earn for showing kindness, for having empathy for others, for being responsible,” Carrio said. “We introduce a character trait once a month. We’ve talked about empathy so far. We’ve talked about responsibility, honesty. When there’s opportunities in the classroom, we recognize a boy is showing those virtues. We make a big deal about that and celebrate it together. ” Third grade instructor Frank Jordan has taught the same grade for nearly 50 years. And through half-a-century of teaching experiences, common threads of leadership and character education can be traced clearly.

“I think a big [focus] is responsibility and being responsible for one’s actions,” Jordan said. “When

to Lower School boys is leadership, a quality that Carrio has integrated into the schedules of her first-graders. arrio is beginning to notice progress with her first-graders.

She can see that they are beginning to ease into various leadership roles in their classes.

“At the beginning of the year they were bashful, they were shy, they didn’t really know how to take charge,” Carrio said. “Now, they’re more confident.

They can stand at the front of the room, and demand attention and do a really good job with it.”

As Lower-Schoolers, their time at St. Mark’s is a big chunk of their life, and almost everything they do revolves around the community. With this, according to Jordan, comes the opportunity for the instructors to impart as much good as they can onto their boys — just to build them into the best men they can be.

“I had one parent write me a note,” Jordan said, “and the note said, ‘thank you for teaching our son the way we cannot and being the parent we cannot be.’ We have such a chunk of time with them and the boys at that time are very malleable. And, hopefully being a good mentor will help them go a step in the right direction.”

C

First-graders Peter Andrén (left) and Elijah Kim (right) pal around with their newly introduced senior buddies.

PAGE 11

JBEAU LEWIS ‘98 United Talent Agency agent

AS AN AGENT representing artists, you have to have a vision for that artist’s career; you have to lead that artist in the right direction, to help them achieve their dreams, and obviously they’re people too.

They’ve got their own opinions but you have to be able to effectively spell out what that vision is and be able to get them on board and move them in that direction.

So that’s how my career has developed, as most people do, you rise the ranks of leadership within

‘

your business in the company you’re working So I’ve grown in the 13 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve grown form being a low level entry level guy to being a senior agent with people that report to me.

So when you’re in that position you’ve got to be able to have that vision and encourage and empower the people who are on your team to chase that goal that you’re after.

There’s a lot of leadership involved every day.

PATRICK ' ANDREN Upper School Head, father

' WILLS ANDREN

' HENRY ANDREN

I believe that my father is a good man.

He knows how to be a father. He knows what is right for us, for my family, my mother, my brothers. I think he knows what’s best, and I think that he makes a lot of good decisions for us.

He tries to make his family the best they can be, and he helps people out when they need it.

7th grader, son

PAGE 12

Interviews John Crawford, André Arsenault, CJ Crawford

5th grader, son

' PETER ANDREN 1st grader, son

He’s really good at football, he played in high school.

When you start [being a father], you have no idea what you’re getting into. I was a teacher, I lived in a boarding school with kids, but when they’re yours, it is completely different.

On the one hand, you are utterly terrified that you are going to mess up everyday, and on the other, you are just ecstatic every time they accomplish something of figure something out or they have wonderful experiences. You feel the highs with them and you feel the lows with them. For me, it’s just this journey that is beyond words.

Or at least words that I can come up with.

“Space Cowboy 1951”

“Les Paul and Steve Miller, 61 years of friendship... Master and Student 2006”

STEVE MILLER

I

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Marksman, Philanthropist

t’s been a really creative life for me. Absolutely not. At a very young age, I was exposed to some really great musicians. Les Paul was my godfather, and I was able to see a great artist, who’s kind of a genius, and he was also a great business man and an inventor.

And all the while I think he had 25 top ten songs, had a television show, and did all these things. So I saw at a very young age what it could be, and I saw how much fun he had, what a great guy he was.

He was always very generous with me and very encouraging. Never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever be an entertainer. I was like everybody else, I would see people on television doing stuff, and that was just so far away from me.

But as time went on, and I started playing very early, I was a real self-starter.

We had a band at St. Mark’s, and we were some of the first rock and roll bands in Dallas. And of course our parents thought it was cute but it could’ve never have been a job because that

meant going around night clubs and hanging around gangsters and hoodlums, and, you know, it just wasn’t a good life.

I have to go back to Les Paul. He was like the greatest guitar player around, and if he came to Dallas, every good guitar player within 200 miles of him would go to see him, so the show would be sold out and full of all these great musicians.

I mean, he was that much better than everyone around him. What Les Paul did that was really beyond all that was that he was generous with his stage.

ALL THIS TRAINING YOU’RE GETTING AT ST. MARK’S ABOUT ETHICS IS REALLY IMPORTANT, Rather than being all, “Ah, this is my stage, my show, let me play and only me,” he would invite other guitarists on the stage.

And all of the sudden you would see this spontaneous, creative jam session right in front of us.

Those were some of the first musical events I ever went to, so I thought that’s how you did it, you know you brought people

out, there were kinda these cutting sessions, some may be better than others. Little musical competitions, but jamming all in good spirit.

But really, if you want people to work with you, you have to share the spotlight, share the stage, you have to share your resources, and you have to pick wisely about who you work with.

It’s all common sense.

I’ve had friends who had problems with drugs and now they’re dead. You know, it’s really sad. Generosity and good manners get you farther than the snarkiest quip ever will.

I’ve always had people be generous to me and when I work with someone I want them to have a good living, a good home, a good vacation, and I think that this world is very dog-eat-dog and people only think about getting rich, but I wanted to be generous to the people that help me pull it together.

All this training you’re getting at St. Mark’s about ethics is really important, and ethics and manners come to make a huge difference when you’re navigating your way through the real world.

“1973 working my way up the ladder”

“Fly Like An Eagle 1976”

“Run Like a Beagle 1986” Captions for above photos were written

by Steve Miller

PAGE 13

WORKING AS LEADERS OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL, WARREN FOXWORTH AND DEAN CLAYMAN HAVE A UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP — AND INTERESTING PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE AT ST. MARK’S

CAUGHT IN THE

MIDDLE

Story by Will Forbes and Alec Dewar

How do you guys try to push each other to do your jobs better?

Warren Foxworth: I wouldn’t say that we try to push each other to do better. I’d say we do our jobs, and then we do better when we work together.

We don’t always think the same way or have the same ideas but through either bouncing them off each other or collaborating, we seem to always come to what is the best decision that we could come up with depending on a time

PAGE 14

Interviews Will Forbes, Alec Dewar

or a particular instance so I don’t think there is anything purposeful in Mr. Clayman trying to make me go one way or me trying to make him go another way.

We divide up the responsibilities a bit but we each jump in to help one another when necessary.

Dean Clayman: I would say we are both driven to do our best to serve the boys of Middle School. What pushes me to do my best job is looking to the example that Mr. Foxworth sets and saying that if he can

serve the boys with that level of compassion and with that level of commitment and understanding, then I need to do the same thing.

How do you try to lead the Middlel School boys more than just educationally?

WF: Well we try to make it personal. You know how Mr. Clayman is out there every morning greeting all the boys when they come in and he knows almost everybody’s name that’s in the Middle School and in the Upper School, my

guess is he’s working on the lower school. We try to joke with the kids, but then also know when joking is not appropriate and it’s time to get serious and it’s time to buckle down.

I think we both have senses of humor that are very middle-schoolish in a lot of ways and therefore the boys can identify with us, but I think they also respect us because they know that we stop when we are going to stop.

DC: I think we have a responsibility to know the

boys. I think when you feel as though somebody truly knows you, you trust them, you’re patient with them, you’re willing to listen to them.

When you feel that someone doesn’t know you and doesn’t understand you, you’re far less willing to open up to them.

So I think a good bit of our job in middle school is communicating as best we can how well we know the boys and taking it very seriously when it comes to getting to know each boy as best we can.

WF: And notice we are not in our offices a lot, at lunch time, we are both out there watching the boys, being with the boys, before school and after school.

Having two sons here, how would you compare your role as a father to being kind of a father-figure for the entire middleschool?

DC: You know, certainly having sons here has been a great gift. To be able to see them navigate their way through school here has been great. But I do see my relationship with the boys in the Middle School a bit differently. Certainly there are advisory-type perspective that I take with them. But, I’ll be quite honest, I feel as though I have quite a bit more patience with the boys of the middle school than with the two boys who share my last name as I do. There is both a familiarity and a love at home that can lead to great compassion but it can also lead to some very direct remarks.

So I’m probably a tad bit more direct with my sons than I am with most boys here in the Middle School.

Obviously working with middle-schoolers you guys both enjoy it or else you wouldn’t be doing it, but certainly there are some frustrations with it. How helpful is it to manage those frustrations to have someone going through those same problems right next door?

Andrew Lin sports his water polo attire

DC: Certainly there are challenges each and every day but I will say first and foremost you will be frustrated if you have expectations of normality. Once you understand that the Middle School experience is one of changes from day to day and possibly from hour to hour. I think once you get into the mindset of expecting change it becomes less frustrating and more invigorating.

It’s getting in the mindset that’s difficult.

WF: Even though I am by title the head of the Middle School, I think that the assistant heads over the years, and Mr. Clayman particularly, we have worked really well in talking about problems.

It’s almost like a marriage in the sense that we work together to come up with the best solutions for a problem. It’s not all on one peron’s shoulders.

What is one characteristic in each of your counterparts that you have tried to emulate?

DC: I would say, for Mr. Foxworth, something that I try to understand, is he has such deep compassion, he truly understands that mistakes are truly opportunities for growth and not in any ways indictments on character or achievements. He has such a good perspective.

ANDREW LIN

Senior, Leadership and Ethics Council co-chair, brother I probably would not be here today if not for my brother. Like, you would not be interviewing me right now if it weren’t for my brother.

Growing up I was a huge soccer player, big fan of the sport, really into it — was going to be my main sport at St. Mark’s.

My brother did wrestling in Middle School, and he really liked wrestling and would always do weird fireman-carries on me.

So come sevventh grade, my first year at St. Mark’s, I had my shin guards in my bag and [my brother] George was like, “What sport are you doing?” And I said,

“soccer.”

But he was like, “You should try out wrestling — it’s really fun.”

And so I literally threw my shin guards off and threw them aside, and did wrestling in Middle School.

All sorts of stuff like that happened. I did water polo because of him and eventually transitioned to swimming because of how much I liked water polo.

I’ve also tried not to be the same person, but I’d say most of the stuff I do is modeled after George because I saw how happy doing

stuff and being involved at St. Mark’s made him and thought that I wanted to be that way.

Interview Nathan Han

PAGE 15

HOW ONE MAN USED TRAGEDIES TO CHANNEL HIS OWN LIFE’S PURPOSE

By Kobe Roseman and Rish Basu

Photography

by Frank Thomas

PAGE 16

THE MAN HE’S BECOME

‘HE’S NOT GETTING BETTER’

“He’s not getting better. . .”

Sitting in front of the radiologist, a 19-year-old David Dini didn’t want to accept the doctor’s words. But the circumstance was getting harder and harder to deny — Dini’s best friend, Robert Iglesias, might never wake up. …

Six months earlier, Dini and Iglesias had just received their diplomas from Strake Jesuit High School in Houston, the city where they were born and raised.

And like they had done almost every weekend and summer in high school, Dini and Iglesias headed straight for Pirate’s Beach in Galveston.

The area was so familiar to them that they even had their own route for water skiing — first they’d ski through the open waters of Pirate’s Cove, then through a 60-yard-wide canal before heading back to the house.

Days after arriving, Dini and the Iglesias family all hopped in a boat and headed out for an afternoon of skiing — just like they had all done hundreds of times before.

Dini skied first and lifted himself back onto the boat, handing his best friend the rope.

He then situated himself at the wheel and received the signal to push the throttle forward.

The cold Galveston waters splashed everyone on the boat as Dini drove into the canal they were all so familiar with.

What Dini and the Iglesias family didn’t know was that another boat at the end of the canal would soon be coming straight towards them.

The boat had just pulled out.

Dini yelled at the approaching boat — You’re on our side of the canal!

Robert Iglesias was skiing through a bend in the canal, so he couldn’t see the oncoming boat

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until it was too late — when he cut across the wake, he immediately saw the boat coming straight at him.

Dini watched in horror as the boat went straight at his best friend.

On June 17, 1984, Robert Iglesias was checked into John Sealy Hospital with severe head injuries and a coma that would last fourteen years.

And all Dini could do was watch as he suffered. …

After several years in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, the Iglesias family moved Robert out of the hospital and into their home, outfitting a large living room with

hospital-like capabilities to support his care, making it possible for visitors to see him.

Dini’s mother, Jeanne, was one of those visitors.

She saw the tragedy unfold around her and decided she needed to do something. So, for years after the accident, Jeanne Dini would visit Iglesias on Wednesday afternoons. She would sit at his bedside, hold his hand and read to him for hours on end.

“She had gone every week and read to Robert when nobody else was coming,” Dini said. “...I remember going with her many times, but people were really intimidated when they go to see him because it’s hard.”

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ini will always admire his mom’s efforts and be grateful for all the hours spent by his friend’s bedside. But it became harder and harder for him to visit Iglesias with his mom, to put the accident behind him, to move on — like all his friends did.

And while adjusting to a new life at Southern Methodist University (SMU), it became clear the experience would have a lasting impact.

“Those kinds of things — all the different aspects of that experience — they just shape who you are,” he said.

But not even the college environment gave Dini the needed escape from the horror of tragedy.

He and his father sat on the second floor of the restaurant, overlooking the tennis courts and workout facilities beneath them.

Initially, Dini thought it was just a typical lunch with Dad. But that’s when Richard Dini sat him down.

I know it’s been a hard time for you, but what you are doing in school is unacceptable. You either get your act in gear, or you’re out of school.

Dini couldn’t believe what his dad was saying — how could he come down on me like that?

Doesn’t he know my best friend still hasn’t woken up?

But in hindsight, Dini knew his dad was absolutely right. “[My dad] challenged me in a time when I needed to be challenged,” Dini said. “. . . because I was just self-loathing.”

So, after he graduated from SMU, he started feeling the same confusion as he had before — what do I do with the rest of my life now?

Dini thought about becoming a lawyer, because that was “something to do,” but it was just a default. In reality, he didn’t have a clue on what he wanted to do.

But again, his dad helped show him the way. And according to Richard, the path was simply to go to work.

“You need to get a job while you are thinking… go work at a restaurant,” his dad told him.

So he did. Dini began waiting tables at the original Pappadeaux restaurant on Westheimer Road in Houston, paying homage to his

Family time is quality time in the Dini household.

Gathered around the fireplace in the headmaster’s residence, (clockwise) daughters Caroline and Claudia, son Thomas, David Dini, wife Nancy and daughter Megan (with back to camera), take a break during the rush of the Christmas holidays.

Since the boating accident, Dini wasn’t working. In fact, he wasn’t doing much of anything.

He started to gain weight, stopped studying. He even deactivated from his fraternity, Phi Delta, soon after joining.

He became self-destructive, depressed.

“My life didn’t really move on,” Dini said. “My priorities started changing too. I started seeing the world in a very different way.”

But then, unexpectedly, his dad snapped him back to reality, meeting downtown at the Metropolitan Club to discuss Dini’s life.

Dini remembers the lunch like it was yesterday.

family’s history of owning seafood restaurants —Dini’s grandfather owned Dini’s Sea Grill for 64 years. he restaurant business has always been important to the Dini family. But after eight months at Pappadeaux, Dini realized there might be other challenges to tackle.

“My dad certainly instilled in me from an early age that you should really focus on serving other people, and that should be first and foremost in your mind at all times,” Dini said. “And working in a restaurant, you really get that.

You see that, really in living color.”

So, once again, Dini’s dad offered inspiration.

Dini had seen his father act as a servant leader throughout his life. For years, Richard Dini had worked in the development office at Rice University, and years later, he went on his own, forming Dini Partners — a company which raised funds for nonprofit organizations like schools, museums and hospitals.

And as a result of his dad, Dini started to become service-minded too.

He fell into a career in education development, just like his dad.

Dini started to look like a new man. …

At the age of 27, Dini called Denver, CO home.

Just two years earlier, he married his wife, Nancy, and moved to help run a fundraising campaign at Graland Country Day School near Denver, where he was the Director of Development.

But Dini’s work in educational development actually started two years earlier when he worked alongside John Cooper, founder of fellow SPC institution John Cooper School and the Headmaster at Kinkaid for 35 years.

“I learned a great deal from him,” Dini said. “That was a real inspiring time. We worked to kind of put in place some foundational

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elements [for the school].”

When he worked at Graland, Dini was in the middle of an $8 million fundraising campaign when he — totally unexpected — received a call from a school in Texas.

“Our search fell through…,” St. Mark’s consultant Linc Eldredge said.

St. Mark’s was looking for a new head of Development and Alumni Relations, and former Headmaster Arnie Holtberg was reaching out to Dini through Eldredge.

After agreeing to consider the job, Dini met Eldredge in a busy Colorado airport’s Admirals Club.

They sat down to talk, and the next words Dini heard Eldredge say would change the trajectory of his life.

“I think you need to come down and interview,” he said. …

Upon arriving at 10600 Preston Road for the interview, Dini remembers eating lunch with Holtberg.

Dini watched, fascinated, as he interacted personally with the Marksmen, calling each boy by his first name. By the end of his visit, Dini knew this was the kind of community he wanted to be a part of.

So in 1994, he moved back to Texas and took the job.

From the start, he knew there were high expectations for him. As a new headmaster, Holtberg had lofty goals — and he was counting on the relatively unknown 27-yearold to help get him there.

Fortunately, Holtberg’s instinct was good: just seven years after moving to St. Mark’s, the school completed a $52 million campaign for the school — over six times more than his last campaign in Colorado.

“I certainly wouldn't be sitting here and don’t think I would’ve ever become a school head if it weren’t for that chain of events happening,” Dini said.

CONTINUED, PAGE 20

‘MY DAD CERTAINLY INSTILLED IN ME FROM AN EARLY AGE THAT YOU SHOULD REALLY FOCUS ON SERVING OTHER PEOPLE’ PAGE 19

‘IT REALLY STARTS WITH FAMILY.’

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

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attack could just mean he’s in the hospital...

But the worst came into Dini’s head.

It took time before his wife was able to tell Dini what he didn’t want to hear.

“Did he not make it?” Dini asked.

Shock, devastation and sadness filled the room as tears began to form behind Dini’s eyes.

“No,” Nancy said.

Dini tried to process the information again. But he couldn’t.

His dad was a vibrant and healthy man — and he was perfectly fit.

It just didn’t make any sense. he tears were at full force now as Dini sat speechless in the chapel restroom. Nancy gave him more details: his dad was just out for a walk, and that’s when it happened.

But it was the afternoon of graduation, and Dini’s day was nowhere near finished.

Dini and his wife headed straight to the headmaster’s house behind Centennial Hall. No need to stop at the office.

When they got there, they took a seat out on the back porch, and talked.

Dini’s day wasn’t close to being over — he still had to host the Commencement speaker, Jbeau Lewis ’98, and his family for dinner at the headmaster’s house before the ceremony. Caterers were already setting up for the meal.

And Dini still had to hand diplomas to the men in white tuxedos later that night — a group of men he had grown to love in the two years he’s served as headmaster.

But family has always been there for Dini, so he knew someone needed to be there for his mom.

Dini’s nephew, who was very close to his parents, was in Galveston and was racing over to Houston as quick as he could, plus Dini’s eldest daughter was flying in from St. Louis that night, so his mother would be with loved ones.

But he desperately wanted to be there too.

Caterers moved in a timelapse blur in and out of the house as Dini sat outside on his porch, battling back and forth inside his

May 20, 2016 Dini was in his second year as Eugene McDermott headmaster, and today would bring the academic year to a close.

It’s Commencement for the Class of 2016, and Dini knew it would be a big night for the seniors who soon would be walking across that graduation stage.

By 3 p.m., Dini’s already assisted in the rehearsal, the ceremony’s preparations. So for the next activity of the afternoon, he was in the chapel.

Class sponsors Stephen Balog and J.T. Sutcliffe sat with him in the back of chapel as they watched Senior Class President Philip Montgomery and valedictorian Akshay Malhotra practice their speeches on the altar.

Other than the five of them, the chapel was empty.

But then, Dini heard the chapel’s double doors fly open, and turned to look.

His wife, Nancy, was rushing through the back of the chapel, and Dini noticed right away she had the something-is-wrong look on her face.

“I need to talk to you,” she said.

The two stepped out and walked into a side room in the chapel for some privacy.

“It’s your dad...” she began to say.

Dini was nervous. Alarmed, as he puts it.

“He’s had a heart attack.”

Dini began to process the information — A heart attack doesn’t mean death, a heart

head whether to stay or go.

It would be at least two hours before he could see his mom if he booked the next flight to Houston, so he wouldn’t be there immediately if he decided to leave and miss graduation.

But no matter which way he went, it felt like the wrong decision.

There was no right answer.

An agonizing hour passed on that porch before Dini achieved a semblance of clarity in his mind.

He had to be here for another family he’d grown to love over the past 22 years of his life — his school family.

“It’s graduation — you really want it to be special, and that only happens once,” Dini said.

“It’s like, you go through senior year together and you’ve known boys, and you want to be there and you want to be present. You want to participate in that.”

But immediately after the final diploma left his hands and white tuxes and camera flashes started to fill the Great Hall, he would be in his car, booking it down the 200 mile that separated Dallas from Houston, Dini from his family.

And the only people who knew what Dini was going through were his wife and Associate Headmaster John Ashton. That’s the way Dini wanted it.

“People made kind of a big deal about the fact that I was here for graduation and not there, but it wasn’t that way at all,” Dini said. “That was part of the reason I didn’t leave — because I didn’t want it to be a big deal. I wanted it to just be graduation — and it was.” s one would imagine, the dinner was really hard for him — hard to park his emotions and not get distracted. And it didn’t get easier by the time he walked onto the graduation stage and took a seat where everyone could see him.

But Ashton — his good friend of many years — was sitting right next to Dini on the stage. He was there for him and would get him through the night.

By the time the last senior walked across the stage, Dini was almost done. He was almost able to let his emotions go.

It’s just about 9:30 p.m. when Dini finally stepped off the stage. Then, he and his daughter Meagan went straight to the car and drove to see his mother. …

Today, David Dini would give anything to have his father back.

But somehow he doesn’t torment himself about it.

On June 28, 1998, Robert Iglesias passed away after spending 14 years in that coma.

And although Dini’s initial college days were plagued with depression after the accident, he learned something from losing a friend at such an early age — he learned never to take anything for granted.

Sure, Dini hated to lose his dad and wishes they could have more time together. He misses

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his Italian mannerisms, the warm embraces as greetings. And he misses the elaborate conversations they used to have. ut because Iglesias taught him to never to take things for granted, Dini had already told both his dad and mom everything that needed to be said.

“I want you to know how I feel about you,” Dini had told his dad earlier. “So if something happens and we don’t have a chance to have this conversation intentionally, I don’t want to leave anything to chance.”

And today, eight months after his death, Richard Dini still influences Dini’s everyday life.

“I feel a great sense of responsibility and pride in who he was and the way he lived his life,” Dini said. “And I feel a responsibility to live up to that example everyday.”

Dini loves his family — his wife and four kids. But he’s self-critical when it comes to being a parent, always comparing himself to his father.

“My life’s work is demanding,” he said. “And there are times when it causes me to compromise.

My dad was always home pretty early, he was at every game and he always managed to balance that really well. I always admired that and I don’t think I’ve done that as well as I would’ve liked.”

But visiting the headmaster’s residence, you see otherwise. You see his family joking around with each other — joking about how long it takes for his daughters to get ready and how serious the oldest son, Thomas, looks while sitting in the family’s den.

The love is obvious. Family really is the greatest part of his life.

And it makes sense, because family’s always been there for Dini.

His mom and dad. His wife and kids. His school, Marksmen and the people he sees everyday.

“Obviously I’m the product of my surroundings like anyone else,” Dini said. “I was blessed to have a great family, great parents — loving and supporting parents who are great role models and inspiration for me as a young person and as an adult…. And then I’ve been blessed to have my own family too. I’ve had a phenomenal wife who’s been a great partner for now more than 25 years.

And we’ve been lucky to have four great kids...” itting in the headmaster’s office, it feels like it’s all worked out in the end for Dini. But when asked what makes him the man — the servant leader, the loving husband and devoted father — he is today, Dini gives an answer that seems like a hundred different moving parts.

But when you get to the heart of it all, his answer has one place where it all starts from, something in his life that’s constant.

“I’ve had incredible professional opportunities,” he said. “I've had the chance to work with great people, great educators, great teachers, and to be around great kids throughout my adult life.

All those experiences have I think in many ways shaped the person I’ve become. But I mean, it really starts with family.”

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T

HE NIGHT OF JANUARY 8, 2006 WAS A QUIET ONE — THE WEATHER HUNG AROUND 40 DEGREES.

AS DRIVERS CRUISED UP AND DOWN THE STREETS OF DALLAS, GOING ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS

WITH SILENT CONSISTENCY. BRENDAN COURT ’06 WAS AMONG THEM.

A VIVACIOUS, HIGH-SPIRITED STUDENT ENJOYING

THE SECOND TRIMESTER OF HIS SENIOR YEAR,

COURT WAS DRIVING DOWN THE TOLLWAY

WHEN

tragedy

STRUCK.

to teaching Story by Reece Rabin

Sixth and seventh-graders (right) from around Dallas meet in the chapel to do work for a class taught by seniors.

Brendan Court Program Director Curtis Smith (left) greets students at the start of the summer program while senior Andrew Whigham (above) works on a new lesson with a student.

PAGE 22

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Court’s car flipped as he changed lanes, killing him in a crash that rocked the community, especially community members, like Director of Community Service Jorge Correa, who were close with Court as a student.

“We were in shock, similar to when a family member passes unexpectedly,” Correa said. “You sit down, look around in disbelief…

I was especially shocked because I worked closely with him. One day you’re talking to someone, and the next you can’t talk to him anymore.”

Other faculty members like English instructor Curtis Smith remember Court as a ‘vertical’ Marksman who embraced the campus culture, a senior friendly with everyone in the 12th grade and first grade classes, and those in between.

“I was amazed at his funeral, how many people were there,” Smith said. “It was like a state funeral — like the governor died.”

Like Smith, Correa knew Court as a bright, energetic student who’s love for life extended far beyond Preston Road.

Years before the Brendan Court Program’s inception, Correa recognized Court’s innate desire to help others succeed.

“Knowing Brendan and how motivated, how involved, how full of life he was about everything that had to do with St. Mark’s,” Correa said, “it’s easier to understand the program later on.”

After his funeral, Brendan’s parents, David and Alice Court, decided to turn the tragedy of their son’s death into a positive legacy that would continue to assist others in the Dallas area for years after his passing.

They discovered a lasting way to honor his memory and shape

the lives of Dallas schoolchildren in the way that Brendan did in life — by sponsoring and renaming the Muse Program in 2006, thus beginning the Brendan Court Program, more commonly abbreviated to Brendan Court.

“Brendan was a real sort of outreach guy,” Smith said. “It wasn’t just about St. Mark’s, it was about the community.”

Brendan Court, a summer enrichment program serving non-St. Mark’s sixth and seventh graders, remembers its namesake by offering individual class-by-class support and instruction to underprivileged children who normally could not afford summer tutelage.

This high-quality instruction is facilitated largely by one group: the school’s upperclassmen.

As these Marksmen aid the learning process of younger students, they acquire and hone leadership skills that extend far beyond the teaching setting at Brendan Court.

Senior Gordon Gunn, who taught English to Brendan Court students last summer, remembers the experience as being entirely reliant on forming individual relationships with students.

“I think one thing that my experience at Brendan Court taught me was that a lot of the times, the most important thing when teaching someone is to initially focus more on just learning about that person than anything else,” Gunn said. “Because once you know someone, then you know what areas need the most work and which areas you can further improve.”

In his summer as an instructor, Gunn and others passed on to the students what Smith calls a beautiful, multifaceted education.

For the kids, this multifaceted education is part of what Smith calls the school’s “candy store.”

“I say, ‘I don’t like this flavor, but, boy, I like that one,’” Smith said. “And the more you can eat different flavors and taste them, the sooner you find things that really comprise who you are.”

Smith has seen the growth and development of students within the summer system for almost twenty-five years.

He began his involvement in the program in 1992, long before the Courts became the chief funders, when it was called the Mesquite Program.

“It was the same philosophy,” Smith said. “You have students who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity for summer enrichment, and you bridge the downtime between May and September.”

Twenty years later, the same goals apply: to serve the community by helping prepare hardworking but less privileged students for success during the school year.

“The kids are usually from around the area — West Dallas, East Dallas,” Correa said. “They come here, like anyone who needs to do work in the summer, a little reticent, not very convinced that this is something they want to do.

But little by little, you see how all these students realize what St. Mark’s has to offer to them from infrastructure to programs.”

However, it’s not just the facilities that make Brendan Court great — it’s the people, both students and teachers.

“My belief is the true litmus test for the program is gumption,” Smith said. “If I talk to a young student in the sixth or seventh grade, and say, ‘how would you like another month of school,’ and they say yes, I don’t care what their gray matter has — that’s the guy I want.”

And to keep the minds of these hard-working but mostly-underprivileged children occupied requires the help of St. Mark’s students in their roles as dedicated, compassionate teachers.

Within this process, student-instructors often pick up leadership attributes foreign to those who have not seen both sides of the desk.

A 10-year Marksman and first year teacher, Gunn found the best way to lead Brendan Court students was by teaching through their interests.

“I asked my class to write an inclass essay on a prompt based off of Lord of the Flies, and the results were poor,” Gunn said. “But, when I then asked the kids who I knew loved soccer to write a letter to their favorite player, and the kid wearing the Coldplay tee shirt to write a song, the results were incredible.”

These incredible results facilitated by teachers like Gunn have helped lead the program to a decade of tremendous success — last summer, the Court family

witnessed the program celebrate its tenth anniversary.

As students revealed a pair of new Brendan Court banners, laden with rocket ships and other colorful design, David and Alice Court walked outside to take pictures of the newest additions to the program, pictures that were sent immediately to their oldest son, Colin Court ‘03.

“That shows you how proud they are,” Correa said.

And as the program continues to flourish, Brendan Court’s legacy is cemented – in the form of others following his example in helping students thrive in the Dallas area that Brendan loved.

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erving nearly 50 students a year, the Brendan Court Program is approaching its 500th student and will most likely hit that number this summer.

But anyone connected with the program knows it’s not about that milestone — it’s about creating lasting relationships that transcend educational differences and help bond student and teacher.

“When they come back, these students feel that St. Mark’s is a welcome place, and they come looking for the older kids, our students,” Correa said. “It’s very comforting to see how they create these relationships. This is basically what we do with our community service program. We force relationships that wouldn’t happen in a natural way. You need to discover — we are all sharing the same city.”

As Correa has witnessed first-hand, the school’s community service program has helped Marksmen mature into leaders through its various year-around opportunities, including Brendan Court, Rays of Light and Genesis Shelter, among others.

“I think our students are prepared for any call of their level while they’re out there in a neighborhood or working with an agency,” Correa said. “Things happen — they need to be ready, to be prepared to make a call when it needs to be made. Does that prepare them to be leaders?

Yes. They show by example, they lead by example — they’re the ones doing the things nobody else wants to do.”

PAGE 23

Caffeine enthusiast Stegemoeller gets fueled up every day using his favorite mug.

MARTIN STEGEMOELLER

Malcom K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair I did not have a strong role model growing up. But I took my first philosophy course when I went to college in England, and the professor of that class had a huge influence on me.

I wouldn’t say he became a role model, but he started giving me the tools to self-critique and self-correct in ways that nobody ever had before,

PAGE 24

Interview Michael Lukowicz

and that was a huge turning point in my life for sure. But in a sense it was also the people that I was reading.

I got way into Plato, got way into Nietzsche. Here at school, [Headmaster David] Dini’s been a great role model.

[Master Teacher David] Brown has been a great role model and friend — I think I’m still growing.

CHRISTIAN MCCLAIN

Student Council president, brother, son

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y older brother, he’s a goofball, definitely, but he’s taught me how you should be tough and helped me in a lot of situations where I didn’t know what to do I kind of followed his lead in a lot of situations and without him I don’t think I would be at St. Mark’s or even know what to do in life honestly.

He’s a really big role model for me and I draw inspiration from him every day and I feel like man I know that I

always can reach out to him if I ever need to.

Ever since I was a little kid, both of my parents have always told me be a leader, don’t be a follower. Do what you think is right, what you believe in.

I think that my parents have always been such a big important part of my life and I think they’re definitely one of the main reasons why I guess I’m a leader today. They just always push me and support me and they always told me and my brothers, ‘Do what we believe is best. Don’t just do something just because you see someone else do it. Be your own person.’

ALI ROWGHANI ‘91

Former Pixar, Twitter CFO, alumnus St. Mark’s had a big role in making me who I am and in designing my intellectual interests, my curiosities and my defining work ethic. It’s not like you look back on an experience when you were in seventh grade or eleventh grade and say ‘Ah, I learned from that experience.’ It’s not so much that for me.

It’s more of having a work ethic that you bring to everything, a certain critical thinking, a certain ethical standard, a sense of right or wrong and an ability

The Student Council leader dons his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hat.

to decipher what’s smart from what’s not smart.

Just the critical thinking skills that St. Mark’s plays a big role in refining. I think that’s the real enduring value of the education as opposed to looking back to a particular lesson.

All of those experiences go to building a sense of judgment.

Sort of a perspective that’s who you are.

Interviews Blake Daugherty, Albert Luo

PAGE 25

F Story Davis Bailey, Sahit Dendekuri, Alec Dewar

T H E

T O

A ‘lifetime of decisions’ await Marksmen as they transition from

Forty seven minutes of sleep, spread out over the 67 degree Dallas night.

A constant presence of caffeine and the smell of ground coffee beans.

Fumbling with white buttons, groggily getting ready for another day.

A commitment that, like alumni Ryan Bowles ’90, Sandy Campbell ’76 and Jake Wagner ’00, rarely sleeps.

The familiar trials of an education at 10600 Preston Road stand out to any student who has creaked in the Decherd auditorium seats or shivered through a cold chapel service.

But these challenges aren’t confined just to the halls of the school — only training wheels for the barriers and obstacles of starting a family, the barriers and obstacles for fatherhood.

For Jake Wagner ’00, father of three-year-old Hudson and one-year-old Luke, fatherhood represents “pivots.” A pivot towards responsibility, a pivot towards selflessness, and most importantly, a pivot towards — as he puts it — caring for others.

Wagner explains it like this: for most maturing young adults, the first 18 years of life are filled with some sort of care or guidance, someone looking out for you to make sure nothing goes wrong. But then life happens — and college, a career and eventually a family start to demand “complete independence.”

“You’re ultimately pivoting from being used to being cared for your entire life to then raising kids,” Wagner said.

“You spend the vast majority of your life caring for other people, but trying to be prepared for all of that is really difficult and challenging.”

Ryan Bowles right) relays his tales of fatherhood.

Jake Wagner (far right) recounts his childhood and his father’s impact on him.

PAGE 26

P A T H

For Wagner, the first three decades of his life, including the years spent at the school, form the set of values that prepared him to take on the responsibility of fatherhood – “complete selflessness, patience, responsibility, all of those values that help you learn to care for someone else.”

Wagner, however, strives to be more than just a father. He longs for the personal involvement and strengthening of a bond that comes from making time for soccer games or missing Christmas Eve dinner to care for a sick two-year-old with a 102 degree fever.

He strives to become, in his words, “a dad.”

“People use the term father and dad interchangeably, but they are different,” Wagner said. “Father is your formal role or position in a family, while dad connotes a more personal relationship, more involvement. You can tell the true character of a dad by how his kids react to him. I want to be a dad that is extremely present.”

Even though becoming a good dad requires a lifetime of both work and sacrifices, fatherhood gives just as much as it demands.

According to Wagner, fatherhood, despite the “terrifying” responsibility of having a “tiny human being relying on you for every need,” provides some of the most enjoyable, silly and fun experiences anyone could hope for.

From watching cartoons again to savoring the pinnacle of a 3-year-old’s diet — chicken strips and pizza — it is all the small, “awesome things” that make fatherhood worth it.

“It’s a compilation of so many small

things,” Wagner said. “It’s a million of those small moments. Life gets so much more complicated as you get older. You have to enjoy the small moments like having dinner with your family or taking your kids to the park because it all just adds up.”

Ryan Bowles ‘90 believes that fatherhood is something you can never truly be prepared for, something you have to figure out for yourself as time goes on.

He remembers sitting in bed with his wife at 3 a.m. the morning after the delivery, with his newborn son’s squeals echoing through the house, all the baby books spread out on the bed, thinking, “What in the world do we do now?”

“My wife and I joked around, and still do, that having a child is one of those things that’s almost a universal experience,” Bowles said, “There are all these resources that can prepare you and all these books that you can read, blogs, expert opinions, parents. You can tap into all of those and still have no idea whatsoever what to do when it actually occurs.” e likens the whole experience to getting behind the wheel of your first car, with no control, trying not to crash.

But Bowles believes his responsibility as a father is to guide his kids on the right path, while never fully taking control over them and their decisions.

“Our job is to guide,” Bowles said.

“Sometimes forcefully, sometimes gently — guide our sons back on the path.”

According to Bowles, being a father is one of life’s greatest experiences, and he cherishes every little moment. The first word. The first day of school. The first drive.

H

c

F A T H E R H O O D carefree upper schoolers into the realities of becoming a parent “It’s gone quickly,” Bowles said. “Our elders tell us that time goes really quickly once you have kids, so savor every moment. You kind of mark that time, and it’s important to mark that time, find landmark moments in your kiddo’s lives, in the life of your family — vacations and things like that. It’s great, and it’s a crazy experience.”

And just like Wagner, Bowles hopes to leave a legacy of being an involved, present and righteous father for his children.

“Fatherhood is not one moment it’s an entire lifetime of decisions,” Bowles said, “So the legacy is one that I hope my kids say, ‘He consistently invested in me, consistently spent time with me, both quality and quantity. And that he always did what was right.’”

••• Sandy Campbell ’76, a father of two graduates of the school and former Marksman himself, finds that fatherhood is passed down like a torch, and he strives to emulate his father in instructing his own sons on their paths to manhood.

Campbell’s father was soft-spoken but always incredibly supportive of his family. As a child of the Great Depression, his father moved to Dallas with his mom and

older brother in the fifties to start a new business and life for his family.

“My dad was strong, quiet,” Campbell said. “He was always present, and that’s probably the thing I knew the most about him. Didn’t say a lot, but he had wisdom about him. You didn’t hear him, but he was always in the stands, every ball game. He was a great role model, very even keel.”

Campbell says the biggest lesson he has learned from his father is to always put family first.

“My dad was a man of very simple tastes,” Campbell said. “He loved his family, he loved golf and he loved St. Mark’s. I think that was what had the most profound effect on me. I wanted to be fully engaged with my kids and have them know that I would always be there for them and love them unconditionally.”

Crediting St. Mark’s as having played an important formative role in both his life and his sons’, Campbell asserts the school helped to prepare him with the virtues and skills necessary for fatherhood.

“Certainly, [the school] had a profound effect on me in so many ways with the things you learn in the classroom, on the playing field, with your teachers, with your mentors,”

Campbell said. “There is no question that all of that goes into the mix of what ultimately makes you a good father.” y sending his sons to the school, Campbell hopes to instill in them the same qualities that have helped him on his journey towards becoming a better man and better father.

Both through lessons taught at school and in the home, he strives for his sons to be equipped with the same guiding virtues.

“There are so many lessons that are helpful to have learned to equip yourself to be a better parent,” he said, “and primarily those are the lessons that you are going to pass along to your child hopefully so they become better men and fathers some day as well.”

Learning right from wrong, never compromising integrity and not sweating one’s missteps all come to mind for Campbell when thinking of the lessons he hopes to teach as a father.

But Campbell’s proudest moments as a father come after years of exhilaration and exhaustion, years that are both chaotic and exciting. Becoming a father is more than just being “adept” at diaper changing.

“It’s really rewarding to see your boys grow into fine young men,” he said. “I hope that I’ve instilled in them

B

those qualities that will make them self reliant, respectful, appreciative, empathetic men.

Very similar to what St. Mark’s is doing with the Path to Manhood and the servant leader qualities that that program espouses.”

••• The school’s statement of purpose espouses the virtues of delayed gratification, responsibility, respect and leadership all qualities that provide the base for a successful career and the foundation for leadership roles in one’s community.

But according to Ryan Bowles [FATHERHOOD ’90, Sandy IS] ‘A TERRIFYING Campbell ’76 and Jake RESPONSIBILITY Wagner ’00, OF HAVING A these quali- TINY HUMAN ties are not BEING RELYING limited to the ON YOU FOR classroom, EVERY NEED,’ boardroom, — Jack Wagner ‘00 law office or hospital. They serve as the building blocks for a good man, a good father.

They provide the strength to get up and work after a night spent checking on a screaming baby, the patience and understanding to sit down and the kitchen table for an hour and explain that ‘No, you don’t need another cookie’ and the respect needed to continue on the path to fatherhood.

Sandy Campbell (far left) explains the significance of being a father in the upstairs lounge of Centennial Hall. Ryan Bowles (left) relaxes in the Grandparents Courtyard.

PAGE 27

Welcome

to the Jeff Hiller ‘79 relaxes in his chair, reminiscing on the strenghth of the school community.

family PAGE 28

Story by Case Lowry, Duncan Kirstein, John Crawford, Kobe Roseman and Gopal Raman

In r

T

he scent of celebration curls up from the smoke of the cigars.

White tuxes, extended hands and pats on the back are rampant in the courtyard as the Class of 2010 mills about the area giving and receiving congratulations.

After a round of one of these congratulatory handshakes and hugs, Sloan Rudberg, who had just received the prestigious Headmaster’s Cup, reaches into his white tux and slides out a slim white envelope.

The lazy May heat hangs above the scene like a blanket and cicadas preach their summer sermon to the trees while Rudberg opens the envelope from Casey McManemin ‘79.

“Each year we’ll get a lunch at a place of your choosing and catch up,” McManemin said in the letter. “Congratulations, you make the old boys proud.”

It may not seem like a tremendous offer on the surface, but Rudberg knows it is. He knows that he’s being offered more than a meal. He knows that he’s gaining a mentor, a life coach, a friend.

And now he knows what he has always glimpsed, that when you graduate from the school you never really leave.

It’s the St. Mark’s family, and you’re in it for life.

“I keep [Mcmanemin’s letter] on my bulletin,” Rudberg said. “Casey was someone who was invested in me and my success and was a mentor and friend.

Our lunch sessions are great. They’re about work and life…. he told me to not forget to live life while I’m living. He told me that spending time with family is really important and having adventures is really important. Don’t forget about those things.”

Director of Development Jim Bob Womack ’97 says the school attracts an unparalleled amount of alumni donations and suggests that Rudberg’s anecdote is more of the rule than the exception.

“Last year we hit a record high with 59 percent participation,” Womack said.

That number is unheard of in the independent school world around the nation, Womack says.

“In fact, we know through benchmarking that we’re at the top of the par-

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Crossing that Commencement stage doesn’t mark the end of a graduate’s affiliation with St. Mark’s.

In reality, it’s just the beginning of a lifelong connection that transcends classes and decades.

Because, once you graduate, you become a member of the Marksmen family — forever.

ticipation rate in our Alumni Association for all independent schools, which is really, really exciting to see and something that our alums are really proud of,” Womack said.

For former Alumni Association President Jeff Hillier ‘79, now a Board of Trustees member, the whole network of graduates should be members of the Marksmen family for life.

“We as a school and as a community want you to be a part of that St. Mark’s family forever,” Hillier said. “Whether you are 24 and just getting out of school and looking for work, or you are 50-years-old and making a career change, or you’re looking for a community to be a part of. I think we as alumni really need to focus on being a part of that.”

Hillier went through the process himself and now has a different perspective as a father. Hillier’s son, Cameron Hillier ‘13, is experiencing the connectivity of the community after college graduation. “[Cameron has] had lunch with Jim Bob, he’s had lunch with [Associate Headmaster John] Ashton, he’s had letters of recommendation from [Humanities Chair Nick] Sberna, Dr. Steg [Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller] has worked with him on his resume and his mission statement — he wants to teach,” Hillier said. “That’s the kind of support I think we can find in the community, and I think that’s great we have that level of support in the community.”

It’s not common for schools to have a 59 percent alumni involvement, but what makes alumni like Hillier want to give back is knowing that many educational opportunities and relationships have played a central role throughout their life.

“I mean, it sounds trite,” Hillier said, “but we have received so much from the school, and in terms of me personally, the doors that going to St. Mark’s opened up for me, to this day, 40 years later, still opens more doors.”

The school provided his sons with character development, leadership development and ethical development along with a focus on the whole boy, Hillier says.

“For me as a father that is immeasurable and I can’t put a value on that,” he said. “That’s what makes me want to give back.”

Leadership and ethical development are just as important as educational development to Hillier.

“Speaking as a guy who’s been married now for 32 years,” Hillier said, “to me, respect, particularly for women, is an important characteristic of a man, well, respect for everybody. I think empathy is very important. my single greatest concern in my life is taking care of my wife and my sons.”

Respect and empathy are two things that pretty much rule Hillier’s life.

“They impact how I work, what I do for a living, how hard I work, being a role model for my sons is very important to me,” he said.

“That shapes what I do day to day.”

Hillier’s successor as president of the Alumni Association, David Campbell ‘86, believes there are opportunities for leadership everywhere — big and small.

“The traditional indicators of leadership,” Campbell said, “I think are far too narrow to think of them in, ‘Who’s going to be Student Council president?’ I think leadership has a much broader meaning. When someone in the cafeteria has dropped a tray full of things, are you going to be a leader and help them pick it up and be a role model for your friends?”

In fact, it was the leadership of the faculty that Campbell believes creates connections with the students here.

“I think that the St. Mark’s faculty is phenomenal,” Campbell said, “and the dedication they show and the impact they have on students are really high, so I would’ve had a real affinity for St. Mark’s because of the teachers. The bonds you form with teachers, what we owe them, how much they dedicate their lives to helping the boys at St. Mark’s creates this affinity.”

W

hile the atmosphere St. Mark’s has is special, other schools can be similar in certain ways.

“I think St. Mark’s has aspirations to develop good men,” Campbell said, “to have impact, and it’s reflected in the latest St. Mark’s goals in having more involvement in the community and helping shape the students in how they can help the community, and I think that’s special at St. Mark’s.”

Womack believes the school’s recipe for success is how it becomes “home” for all members of the community — parent or student, past or present.

“I’ve said for years when people have asked me, ‘What’s special about St. Mark’s?’

— to me this place is home,” Womack said.

“It’s home because I’m an alum, it’s home because I’m a faculty member, it’s home because I’m a part of this. As a parent, it’s home.”

Still, Womack believes alumni togetherness is measurable by more than just the amount of money given to the school.

“The gift is something that is important because the class comes around, but the by-product is it’s also a measurement of the success of the year,” Womack said. “It doesn’t mean that if you didn’t raise a big gift that it wasn’t successful. By no means. But it’s usually a by-product because peoples’ dollars and their resources often follow their hearts.”

Womack says today more than ever, alumni gravitate back to campus, as St. Mark’s remains a part of their lives even after graduation.

“Guys come back because this place is important to them. You see alumni on campus all the time because this place matters,” Womack said. “Just like family matters in their lives.

And that’s amazing to see. When I graduated 20 years ago, I’ve talked to my classmates about this – we didn’t feel this call back.”

For Rudberg, while the school does a great job of facilitating relationships between alumni, the real connection comes from the human interaction between alumni, something as big as committing to lunch for the foreseeable future or something as mundane as picking up the phone.

“I think it’s really important to our community to have these kinds of links, Rudberg said. “Through the alumni organization and clubs, and the alumni office after I graduated, I feel like part of the community – but I would say it also takes this kind of stuff, like I’m going to give this guy a note and we’re going to go to lunch and talk about life. I’m going to give this person an invite to what I do and how I think about the world, and give my advice.

Rudberg hopes he can develop those close-knit connections to Marksmen who follow him.

“I personally talk to Marksmen in a way that I can, and I do hope that others do that more and more,” he said. “I think we definitely have that kind of community where someone will pick up the phone and talk to another Marksman from a different year.”

PAGE 29

TO LEAVE A MAN

A view of the St. Mark’s chapel tower at night

For the first time in 15 years, the school has finalized its new set of goals for the future.

Every component of the recentlyapproved Goals IV document strives to make sure boys will leave the school as men.

T

By Rish Basu and Rett Daugbjerg

PAGE 30

hirty-three years ago, the school looks and operates completely different.

The campus is oriented east-west, with houses where the Albert G. Hill Tennis Center currently resides.

The Master Teaching program is not yet established and the chapel sits where the Lower School is today.

Until it all changed.

Goals for St. Mark’s I was released in 1984, and inside was an extensive set of initiatives and goals — goals that would forever change the future, mission and development of the school and its students.

Now, the school’s campus is as we know it.

Centennial Hall and the Perot Quadrangle face north. Along Orchid Lane sits houses with multiple grassy areas that belong to the school’s property.

Nearburg Hall, Hicks Gymnasium and the Great Hall have been built in the past two decades.

For 33 years, Goals for St. Mark’s I, II and III have served as the school’s compass, guiding us through development of infrastructure, faculty, staff and students alike.

The Goals for St. Mark’s documents have provided the school a foundation for the future, establishing goals and mapping success in the lives of the school’s community And now, a new chapter to the book was approved Jan. 10: Goals for St. Mark’s IV. Goals for St. Mark’s IV, which underwent multiple revisions and drafts in a grueling 18-month process, is now the acting guide for the school’s near future.

Gathering input from multiple sources — including the Board of Trustees, parents, alumni, faculty and

students — Headmaster David Dini, Associate Headmaster John Ashton and former Board of Trustees President Taylor Wilson ’81 began the process of drafting the document in August 2015.

This was just the beginning.

Over 30 drafts were written over an 18-month period. And with weekly meetings with committees comprised of faculty groups, parents and board members, the writing of goals for St. Mark’s IV was anything but careless.

“We’ve probably met over 20 times and invested dozens and dozens of hours taking everything that was there initially and whittling it down into how do you get it to a concise document that includes all of the relevant thinking about what we need to do,” Dini said.

After months of writing, constant feedback and elaborate discussions on the school’s operations, Dini, Ashton and Taylor narrowed down the school’s goals into six core objectives: students and learning, civic responsibility, faculty and teaching, enrollment access and affordability, campus resources and institutional stewardship.

Campus resources

Goals IV also looks into the physical improvement of the school in the campus resources objective. It aims to evaluate the ‘how to use’ of the resources we have on campus and further improve them with new facilities.

“Campus resources involves strategically thinking about all of the resources we have on campus and how we use them,” Ashton said, “from facilities like the new science building to infrastructure such as IT infrastructure.”

The objective looks beyond the en-

richment of students and faculty to the physical institutions around campus.

Institutional stewardship

Institutional stewardship refers to how we continue to increase resources for the school. Aspects such as the school’s endowment, alumni engagement and board governments will be reviewed and assessed in the next decade.

Ashton acknowledges that this an overarching goal that doesn’t contain a lot of specifics, but it is something that will arise along the way.

“It isn’t just about financing and fundraising or endowments,” Ashton said. “It’s also about managing all of our resources well and being good stewards of the resources we have been given.”

Although all the pieces are put in place, Ashton realizes that the institutional stewardship aspect of Goals IV will be realized later in the execution process.

“If you think about this document, we have it in our minds to look out five to seven years from now,” Ashton said. “Strategic plans are much more nimble now. Beginning now and over five years, hopefully we will realize all of these things over five years and certainly get the ball rolling on every one of these broader ideas.”

Like Ashton, Wilson believes some of the objectives presented in Goals IV will not immediately be realized.

“The final version of Goals IV includes more than 70 recommended implementation steps aimed at achieving our core goals,” Wilson said. “Mr. Dini and his team will be focused on some of these items in the short-term, and others will be longer-term in nature.”

Enrollment access and affordability

Students are the beneficiaries to the objectives of faculty, and Director of Development Jim Bob Womack ’98 believes improvements to accessibility of the education are among the most forward-looking objectives in Goals IV. “I would say one of the most exciting objectives is accessibility to the St. Mark’s education,” said Womack. “What is the cost of being a St. Mark’s student and how do we make it as affordable as possible for everyone qualified to be a student here?”

Additionally, Ashton states the document emphasizes identifying students who will better the community as a whole.

“An emphasis on enrollment access and affordability asks ‘How do we make sure that we are identifying the boys in Dallas that will better the community and make St. Mark’s a richer place?’” Ashton said.

The goal of enrollment access and affordability also proposes to further the presence of financial aid at the school, as well as expanding the school’s outreach.

“Even though we have a strong demand now, if someone lives far away and might not know about St. Mark’s but would thrive here, we want to expand our outreach efforts to those people,” Dini said.

Civic Responsibility

Along with students and learning, the school plans to be very intentional about civic responsibility in the school’s future. Starting next year, Community Service Director Jorge Correa plans to establish new projects that not only help the city of Dallas, but also teach us the importance of being engaged within a

AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT After 18 months of planning, school leaders are ready to begin the most challenging component of Goals IV: the actual implementation.

community.

Students and learning

As written in the goals for St. Mark’s IV document, the “students and learning” objective serves to “provide an excellent academic program that includes comprehensive character and leadership education and foster an environment that promotes the healthy development of boys.”

For Dini, this objective is going to be one of the biggest initiatives the school is going to take on in its development of men.

“Under the program of the school, there is a reinforcement of the core academic and extracurricular strengths of the school in ways that continue to reflect how to improve in those areas,” Dini said. “There is character and leadership education in this plan, which you didn’t really see reflected in Goals III. Because we are in a different stage in the school’s development than we were at that point, there’s greater focus and intentionality on formalizing some of those efforts in Goals IV. Wilson believes the new curriculum will pave the way for the path to manhood and foster a healthy upbringing of boys to men.

“We refer to teaching the whole boy as a way of emphasizing our commitment to offering boys a variety of opportunities for involvement and leadership both inside and outside the classroom,” Wilson said. “ Our statement of purpose also speaks to the school’s commitment to professing and upholding certain core values. Goals IV includes various initiatives that are all consistent with both of these elements of our foundation.”

Another aspect of the student’s lives

A

lthough Goals for St. Mark’s IV has wrapped up its final stages, the end of the 18-month process essentially marks the beginning of a new stage.

“This really only marks the beginning,” Associate Headmaster John Ashton said. “We’re already starting to think strategically and operationally about the course of the next five years.”

To that end, Ashton and other administrators are putting together a spreadsheet for each of the goals.

“We’re thinking about who’s going to be be responsible for each of these pieces and what that looks like,” Ashton said. “So that’s the second part: how do we get better?”

After every edition of the goals documents, the school sets out to complete its objectives, which is the stage we are currently in, continuously improving the school as a whole.

“If you think about this document, we have it in our minds to look out five to seven years from now,” Ashton said. “Strategic plans are much more nimble now. Beginning now and over five years, hopefully we will realize all of these things certainly get the ball rolling on

that was addressed in Goals IV was the daily schedule. Goals IV specifically states that the school will “create and implement a daily schedule that better addresses evolving needs of students and faculty.”

Ashton sees community service as a responsibility to the city of Dallas and an opportunity to make the school’s community richer with more service-oriented men.

“We always talk at St. Mark’s about our second mission — what our responsibility is to Dallas,” Ashton said. “We’ve tried to strengthen and sharpen that to think about our responsibility to the city. So we are actually preparing you guys to actually lead cities and care for cities and solve the complex problems that we face.”

Correa knows the students play a major role in the development of the city.

“We are a part of the city and we are in the heart of the city, and I understand very clearly that we have a responsibility to make our students part of the city,” Correa said.

“We need to make students aware and make them realize that we depend on each other.”

Correa is excited about the direction in which the school’s community service program is headed — a program that will have a new name, community engagement, starting next year.

“I’m very happy with how the administration has put community service at a high level of importance within the school,” Correa said. “It sends a strong message to students, to parents, to other schools that the school cares.

The school is not isolated. We are a part of Dallas. We are a part of a small family. Within our school, we care what happens in the city of Dallas.”

every one of these things.

In a few years, it is safe to say that the school — maybe not in its appearance, but rather in its operations — will be a lot different.

“Our objective throughout this process has been to embrace ambitious, aspirational goals consistent with the high standards appropriate to St. Mark’s, while recognizing and capitalizing on the School’s strong existing foundation,” said former Board of Trustees President Taylor Wilson. “The future of St. Mark’s is very bright, and the Board of Trustees looks forward to working with Mr. Dini and our community to implement these important goals over the coming years.

Ultimately, Goals IV seeks to improve the school through various objectives while keeping in mind the overarching attention to each student’s path to manhood.

“Goals IV aims to continue to enhance the school’s curriculum and develop innovative programs that challenge each boy to realize his fullest potential,” Headmaster David Dini said.

PAGE 31