The ReMarker | May 2019 by St. Mark's School of Texas

the ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS DALLAS, TEXAS

remarker ACADEMIC SUCCESS

grade THE VALUE OF A

As the last grades get put in to decide the fate of students’ GPA and the announcement of valedictorian looms just around the corner, we take a look at the bigger picture of the role of academics. Just how valuable are grades and being named valedictorian?

ugging on the cuff of his white dinner jacket, Robert Musslewhite stepped up to the podium on the Commencement stage in Spencer Gym. The memories of the past 12 years of swim meets and late nights studying flooded into his mind as he started his

speech. Reflecting on the power of curiosity and not settling in life for the next 15 minutes, Robert slowly realized it was all worth it. From student council meetings to concert band to studying that extra hour to keep his grades up, it was all worth it. The sacrifices of missing swim meets to study for his exams. It was all worth it. After worrying about grades since the

first day of high school, he could finally say it: He was valedictorian. STORY CONTINUES, PAGE 5 STORY Sam Ahmed, Sid Vattamreddy, Colin Campbell ARTWORK James Shiao

VOLUME 65, NUMBER 7 MAY 10, 2019

Commencement set for May 24 by Sai Thirunagari inety-four seniors in white tuxedos will take the final step of their time here as they walk across the Commencement stage on the Green Commencement Theater on the Perot Quadrangle at 8 p.m. May 24, . The ceremony will feature speeches from the to-be-announced valedictorian, Senior Class President Joshua Kang and Victor Vescovo ’84, a retired naval officer, renowned undersea explorer and private equity investor, as well as the announcement of the winners of the Headmaster’s Cup, School Flag and Citizenship Cup. “I’m looking forward to sitting there [on the Commencement stage], looking out and seeing all 94 seniors and their families showing up for the rite of passage we’re going through,” Kang said. “I think that’s very symbolic.” Senior Class sponsors Joe Milliet and Amy Pool anticipate the bittersweet moment of seeing the class they’ve worked with for the past two years graduate. “We want the boys to feel when they walk across that stage, there’s a feeling of accomplishment, and they feel good about themselves,” Milliet said. In his speech, Kang hopes to encapsulate the Class of 2019’s experience at 10600 Preston Road, and he predicts he’ll best remember the brotherhood with his classmates after graduating. “I’m going to miss having the connection with these people who are very talented at what they do,” Kang said. Commencement marks the last time seniors will be officially recognized as students of the school, becoming a part of a long list of distinguished alumni the next Saturday morning. But in the week leading up to the ceremony, seniors undertake one of the busiest weeks of their year, filled with the trip to the Dallas Zoo with the first graders and the official Baccalaureate ceremony at 7:30 p.m. May 21, in which seniors, their families and faculty will gather one last time in the chapel to hear messages from a faculty member chosen by the seniors, a response from one senior selected by his peers and other readings, hymns and anthems by the choir. After the busy year filled with college applications and months of waiting for one evening, Milliet believes the faculty has endowed the Senior Class with the skills to thrive after graduation. “We hope we’ve provided them with the foundations, both academically and character wise, that they will be successful at the college level,” Milliet said. “We’re delighted they’re graduating, but we’re sad to see them go.”

agenda

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

Inside 3 Issues

The effects of rising insulin prices on members of our community, 3 The school’s approach to suspensions, 4

The pros and cons of the path to Valedictorian, 5 Examining the difficulties of having limited leadership positions, 6 At what age should students be learning how to invest? 7

Discoveries

Marksmen pursuing careers in scientific fields, 8 The effects of unhealthy eating at a young age, 9

10600

Faculty and staff leaving the school, 10-11 Sophomore Ajay Schlehuber’s journey with a speech impediment, 12 Junior Aaron Weiser’s grandfather’s experience winning a crucial Supreme Court Case, 13

Charlie Rose photo

THE NEW CREW Recognized for years of hard work and academic achievement, nine seniors Chase Honaker, Seth Weprin, Matthew Coleman, Joshua Kang, Robert Newman, Dylan Liu, Max Wang, Matthew Zang and Jonah Simon (front) were inducted as members into the St. Mark’s Chapter of the Cum Laude Society Apr. 24, joining ten of their classmates who were inducted into the society last year. The previous inductees are seniors Noah Carr, Mujin Kwun, Parker Davis, Sahit Dendekuri, Ruoming Fan, Shreyas Anaswamy, Conner Pierce, Richard Shen, David Vallejo and Creston Brooks (top). The ceremony marked the first time in decades that only seniors were admitted into the society. This year’s speaker was Dean Itani ’11. Itani graduated from Harvard in 2015 and currently serves as the Chief of Staff to the CEO of Aptos Reality.

‘

Sophomore Ekansh Tambe’s travels to the world’s borders, 14

Diversions

Planning for the perfect Mother’s and Father’s day celebration, 15 What goes on within our alumni network? 16, 17

—SOPHOMORE SHIV YAJNIK ON HIS MUSIC CLUB “MUSICARE” STORY ON PAGE 19

In brief

18 Culture

The pros and cons of music while studying, 18 Sophomore Shiv Yajnik’s composing and performing talents, 19 Featuring a student-run music-review blog: Daily Bass and Treble, 20 Spring Play photostory: Much Ado About Nothing, 21

Opinions

Buzz: summer waterpark preview and review, 22 Editorial: Revising ISAS schedule, 23 Are class meetings always necessary?, 24 A call for an increase in club activism, 25

26 Sports

The biased opinions facing college athletes, 26 Taylor Jenkins’ ’03 career in coaching in the NBA, 27 What are the school’s policies on running up the score? 28 The dangers of playing sports in the heat, 29 Spring sports updates, 30-31

Back page

Youth Ninja Warrior eighth-grader Christian Youst, 32

The students who are a part of this club are gifted musicians. We receive an overwhelming response after each performance, and the residents like to tell us their stories and experience with music. Every time we perform, we get to engage with the residents.

Nationals Bound Juniors Billy Lockhart and Christian Duessel took home the gold medal in the Men’s Junior Varsity 2x Final with a time of three minutes and 47.1 seconds during the Texas Rowing Championships April 13-14. Lockhart and Duessel also qualified for the National Rowing Championships after their performance at the Central District Championships May 4. They will be joined at Nationals by two teammates: junior Jack Trajan and sophomore Blake Hudspeth.

ARTS NEWS > PLANS FINALIZED FOR FINAL COFFEEHOUSE The last Coffeehouse will be today at 5:30 in the amphitheater. There are no sports on this Friday, so the performers hope everybody can attend. This will be the final Coffeehouse. > MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND CONCERT TO BE HELD The Middle School Spring Band Concert will take place on May 16 at 7 p.m.. The performance will take place in Decherd Auditorium and will include performances from the beginning band, intermediate band and the Middle School band classes. Refreshments will be provided after the concert is over. This concert is the culmination of the middle schoolers’ hard work and determination throughout the year. > FOURTH GRADE TO FINISH MUSICAL YEAR The fourth grade musical presentation will take place May 13 in the chapel. To conclude their last year in Lower School and their first year in specific musical courses, all fourth graders will be showcasing their musical growth during the school year as members of the creative music class, orchestra or choir. Lower School music instructor Mary Ann Livengood, Interim Orchestra Director Sarah Choi and Assistant Choirmaster Glenn Stroh will be conducting the lower schoolers. > DEBATE TEAM CONTINUES STREAK Junior Sahitya Senapathy and sophomore David Yang won four of their six preliminary debates, extending the school’s 11-year streak of reaching the knockout rounds before their elimination in the round of 32 at the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship Tournament April 12-14. The team traveled to Chicago to compete against 100 teams representing 20 states. Seniors David Vallejo, Max Wang, Samir Ratakonda

and Wheeler Sears rounded off their debate careers with 3-3 records at the tournament. GENERAL NEWS > BLUE AND GOLD DAY KICKING OFF SOON The Lower School Blue and Gold Day, May 17, will be a half day. Some of the activities the lower schoolers will get to participate in will include tugof-war, soccer, Lion Ball and Go Ball. There are also unique activities planned by the parent volunteers such as Hockaday Hula and Don’t Dump Your Lunch. There will be a flag ceremony before the activities and a cookout and Popsicles afterward. > MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH TEAM SWEEPS COMPETITION The Middle School Math Team competed in and won the Texas State 4A math competition in San Antonio at the University of Texas-San Antonio. The team, led by Middle School math teachers Lynne Steckler, Jeffrey Hale and Liz Kraft, won first in every category: number sense, calculator, general math and science. All 25 members of the team, comprised of sixth through eighth graders, earned at least one medal or trophy. Seventh grader Kevin Lu was the state champion in number sense, calculator math and general math. > ALUMNUS AWARDED SERVICE MEDAL The Alumni Service Medal and the Young Alumni Service Citation were presented to Jon Mosle ’79 and Noah Bricker ’10 respectively. Mosle has been a constant presence as a leader here for more than three decades. He began his service in 1995 on the Alumni Board. Over the years he has been a part of countless committees, eventually becoming the Board of Trustees President in 2016. Bricker began his service immediately upon graduation as a Class Agent and became a Co-Chair for his fifth reunion. In 2016, Bricker earned a seat on the Alumni Board.

At a glance: Upper School Final Assembly What

The final gathering of the entire Upper School, in which recognitions, such as subject and book awards, are announced.

When

May 24, 11 a.m.

Where

Hicks Gym

> NO SCHEDULE CHANGE IN PLACE FOR NEXT YEAR There will be no changes to the schedule for the next school year, but changes for the 2020-2021 school year are possible. According to Interim Head of Upper School John Ashton, discussions about the schedule are currently taking place, including questions over period length and lunchtime organization. However, no decisions have been made final yet, and any plans to change the 2020-2021 schedule must be made official by February 2020, when class schedules are made for that year. > QUIZ BOWL TEAM PLACES IN NATIONAL EVENT The quiz bowl team traveled to Chicago May 3 to compete in a national competition. The “a” team, comprised of junior Nicholas Cerny, senior Connor Pierce, sophomore Ned Tagtmeier and sophomore Aayush Goodapaty, finished fourth in a field of around 100 teams. SPORTS NEWS > MIDDLE SCHOOL SPRING SPORTS WRAPPING UP Many of the Middle School teams have wrapped up their seasons. Both the middle school blue and gold baseball teams have finished with strong records. The middle school water polo team is yet to finish, but the team looks to end their season strong and will play at the Texas State Championships over the weekend. The tennis team wrapped up their season at Cistercian. > VARSITY BASKETBALL MAXPREPS FINAL RANKING In the final rankings put out by MaxPreps, varsity basketball finished ranked 20th in the state and 181st in the nation. The team also finished first among area prep schools. Junior Andrew Laczkowski and sophomore Harrison Ingram were both named AllState, and both have received D1 scholarship offers. > TAYLOR NAMED AN ALLAMERICAN

Senior Jonathan Taylor was named an All-American lacrosse player by the US Lacrosse organization. He was also named an All-State defender after coaches from the THSLL came together and voted on regional and state honors. Taylor, who will continue his lacrosse career at Villanova University next Fall, is the first Lions lacrosse player to receive the national honor since Bear Goldstein did so in 2013. Goldstein played lacrosse collegiately at the Princeton University. > JV WATER POLO TEAM WINS STATE TITLE The JV Water Polo team won their regional championship at Keller ISD Natatorium Saturday, April 20. The team started out with two games April 19, winning first against Flower Mound Silver 14-3 and then against Guyer JV 12-6. The next day, they played against Flower Mound Navy in the finals and won 8-4 to finish off their season. > MONTGOMERY REACHES DEAL WITH NFL TEAM NFL running back and wide receiver Ty Montgomery ’11 signed with the New York Jets April 11. Montgomery played in 13 games combined for the Green Bay Packers and the Baltimore Ravens in the 20182019 season before his contract expired. Montgomery hopes for a fresh start with the Jets organization and is eager to make an impact on the team. He signed for a one-year deal worth $895,000. > DIXON RECEIVES END OF SEASON HONORS Parker Dixon ’16, a member of the Princeton Tigers men’s volleyball team, was named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Honorable Mention All-American April 29, marking his first career AllAmerican honor. Dixon finished the year with 357 kills, 407.5 points and a .290 hitting percentage, placing him fourth in kills and points and eight in hitting percentage in the conference.

issues

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

HEALTH CONCERNS

Insulin’s deadly spike Rising prices have forced many patients to question whether pharmaceutical companies have too much control.

e’s dizzy, tired and sick to his stomach. It’s only been a few hours since his last dose, but junior Brett Marsh is feeling the effects already. Living with Type 1 diabetes is an obstacle Marsh has to overcome every day, and the daily doses of insulin are a big aspect of his routine. Recently, the cost of insulin has increased exponentially. According to CBS News, the price of insulin has doubled in the past five years. The drug is a necessity for people with diabetes, but it is becoming difficult to obtain. From rationing, to abandoning insulin altogether, people like Marsh are putting their health at risk because the financial burden is just far too high.

“

Fifteen years ago, a patient with diabetes could pay less than $200 for a 20-milliliter vial of long-acting insulin. Today, that same vial costs almost $1,500 — Elsevier’s Gold Standard Drug Database

There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is insulin-dependent while Type 2 is not. The body produces insulin in order to keep blood sugar levels in a normal range. An inability to produce adequate amounts of insulin can result in serious consequences, according to School Nurse Julie Doerge. “When you get high blood sugar over an extended period of time [due to a lack of insulin], you end up with the bad parts of diabetes, which is losing your vision, losing a limb or going into kidney failure,” Doerge said. “There’s all kinds of terrible things that can happen.” Diabetes is a multisystem disease that affects your entire body, according to Dr. Prabha Mohan, sophomore Rishi Mohan’s mother. “It affects your heart,” Mohan said. “It affects your blood vessels, and blood vessels are everywhere. So, [diabetes] has just made it very difficult for people to survive. Even keeping diabetes under control is a challenge.” Diabetes is a hardship that millions of Americans have to face and control on a daily basis. Marsh became one of those millions when

he learned that he had Type 1 diabetes in second grade. “I was drinking water and asking to go to the bathroom all the time during class,” junior Brett Marsh said. “Eventually, my teacher got really mad about it, so she told my parents that I was going to the bathroom all the time. They took me to the doctor, and they told me, ‘You have diabetes.’” From then on, his life was changed forever. Marsh would have to monitor his insulin levels every day and rely on an insulin pump. If Marsh goes without insulin for a few hours, the impact is almost immediate. “I was sleeping over at a friend’s house for four hours, barely anything,” Marsh said. “My insulin pump failed at 5 a.m., and I left at nine a.m. When I got home, I felt awful, and I just started vomiting for a hour straight.” From sleepovers to daily activities, Marsh’s insulin levels are a central focus of his life because of the impact it has on his body. This harsh reality gets in the way of the simplest of tasks. “Anytime I try to leave to go anywhere, if my blood sugar is low, I can’t drive,” Marsh said. “Because if you start driving [with] low [blood sugar] and the cops think you’re driving wacky, that’s a DUI. I think I’ve been late to every single yearbook workday, and I’m always late to ACT tutoring.”

People with diabetes have to receive multiple doses of insulin each day, but the exact amount varies from person to person. This daily care is extremely expensive and the bills can quickly add up. “There’s the pharmacy cost, and then there’s your insurance cost,” Doerge said, “and a lot of people have had to go to these high deductibles — five or ten thousand dollar deductibles. So, you’re out of pocket a lot. If you think about a student at St. Mark’s, he has a whole lifetime ahead of him to pay, and I don’t think it’s sustainable.” $275 Multiple doses day in and day out over the many years of one’s life costs an enormous amount. That cost has skyrocketed in recent years. Fifteen years ago, a patient with diabetes could pay less than $200 for a 20-milliliter vial of Humulin R U-500, a type of long-acting insulin. Today, that same vial costs almost $1,500, according to Elsevier’s Gold Standard Drug Database. “A lot of my patients who can’t afford it go across the border to get insulin,” Mohan said. “They get it from Canada. They get it from Mexico. They get it from India. The same companies are doing it over there. How come they can provide it so much cheaper a few miles above the border in Canada but not here in the U.S.?” The three major insulin providers, Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk, hold the vast majority of the $27 billion global insulin market. The large corporations are able to maintain this monopoly by tweaking their 2018 insulin and filing for new patents. “I would say at least in the last ten years

Insulin Price by Year $300

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST

$200

$100

$21 $0 1996 2000

2010

STORY Henry McElhaney, Robert Pou ILLUSTRATION Jamie Mahowald

the big pharmaceutical companies have not made any major changes in the insulin world,” Mohan said. Many factors affect the price increase besides the companies wanting to make a profit. Insulin, like many other medications, is not direct-to-consumer, so the price set by the companies making insulin is not the price people pay. “I think you have to keep in mind that it’s not as simple as the drug companies wanting to make more money,” Doerge said. “There are a lot of people involved in it.” Insulin was never supposed to cost so much. Frederick Banting and his team of researchers invented insulin in 1921, and they sold their patents for the medicine to the University of Colorado for one dollar each. They hoped that by selling their patents for next to nothing insulin would be available to everyone, regardless of financial security. But now, things are different. Insulin is so expensive that people are forced to buy it from foreign countries that offer a cheaper price. Brett “Even in Britain right Marsh now with Brexit, there are Junior people stockpiling insulin because they get their insulin from Ireland and the border is about to be closed,” Doerge said. “You can’t really stockpile insulin because it doesn’t last forever, but they’re just trying to think, ‘How are we going to live? Where are we going to get our medicine from?’” What’s the solution? Will the major insulin producers lower their prices? Marsh believes laws need to be put in place to make a change. “Until there’s something legislation-wise that changes, nothing is really going to happen,” Marsh said, “because there’s nothing that the big companies, technically, are doing wrong. It is wrong, but there’s nothing legally wrong with what they’re doing.” At least for now, insulin is extremely expensive, and it will stay that way for the foreseeable future until a major change is made. “It’s really tough,” Marsh said. “It’s really just unfair because people can’t help needing it. You can be in complete control and still have horrible days and have to use more insulin. It’s unfair.”

PRICED OUT As insulin prices rise, patients are forced to choose between medical care and basic needs, worsening an already unpleasant procedure.

issues

4 Student Council members elected

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Punitive or positive?

by Alam Alidina resident Taylor Hopkin, vice-president Aaron Weiser and secretary Sarbik Saha were elected to the Student Council April 9 for the 2019-2020 school year. Hopkin is excited to take on his new role as leader of the student body and hopes to bring new ideas and programs to the table. “I want to foster an environment where there’s more inter-grade activities and communication,” Hopkin said. “I think we are already pretty unified as a school, but I want to push that idea forward and make it a part of the school year for everyone.” Hopkin, who first arrived at 10600 Preston Road as a sophomore, credits his interactions with teachers and his previous role as the Junior Class vice president with inspiring him to run. “Last year [Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair] Martin Stegemoeller suggested I run for vice president,” Hopkin said. “So I did, and I really enjoyed it. And I thought [being president] would be a lot of fun, and that I could do it.” Hopkin feels the role is a way to give back to a campus he loves. “I love St. Mark’s,” Hopkin said, “and I love the kids and the people. I think being able to serve them will be rewarding.” He is planning on discussing the responsibilities of his new role with senior Landon Wood, the outgoing president, to ensure a smooth transition and to prep him for the upcoming year. “We were pretty good friends because of football,” Hopkin said. “Right after I got elected he came up to me and said he’d give me some advice. I’m looking forward to meeting with him.” Class officer elections were held April 23. Colin Campbell, Aayan Khasgiwala, Enoch Ellis, and Aadi Khasgiwala were elected presidents of the classes of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively.

With lawmakers investigating a possible connection between school suspensions and prison sentences, schools must evaluate the effectiveness of their disciplinary systems.

MISSING IN ACTION When a student is suspended, he misses all his classes and extracurricular activities.

re you more likely to end up in prison if you are suspended from school as a kid? Texas State Representative Eric Johnson seems to think so. Johnson authored House Bill 65 which was passed in the Texas House of Representatives April 10. The bill intends to find out whether a correlation exists between students’ suspensions from school and serving prison time. The bill requires Texas public schools to report all data relating to suspensions. Is the correlation between a suspension and prison time legitimate? Could cheating on one test indirectly lead to life in a jail cell? How does the school, unaffected by House Bill 65, ensure suspensions and disciplinary acts in general are restorative? ••• The disciplinary system in place to deal with infractions is crucial to maintaining the effectiveness of any punishment. Lion Tracks aims to serve as such a system. Interim Head of Upper School John Ashton has full faith that Lion Tracks can provide its intended results. “Lion Tracks is a great document,” Ashton said. “It is a strong document in that it’s very clear around expectations, around process and around potential consequences. And it’s revised and tweaked every year to strengthen it.” Part of making sure Lion Tracks and the whole disciplinary system works the way it is supposed to is making sure punishment is based on precedent. Nancy Marmion, sponsor of the Discipline Council, thinks this precedent is needed to make sure discipline is fair and consistent. “We do make those recommendations based on precedent,” Marmion said. “There’s not always an exact precedent for

everything that happens, especially now with technology changing so fast, but we try to find something that’s similar, so that one year a kid doesn’t get a punishment that’s way out of line with what a student has gotten previously.” Although he still thinks suspensions are more of a punishment, Peter*, a student who has received a suspension in the past, generally agrees with the way suspensions are currently handled by the administration. “You usually get a detention first, unless it’s something bad, and then a suspension,” Peter said. “I think a lot of the time suspensions do benefit students, but it always begins as a punishment for an action. I think everybody learns a lesson from their suspension, which is why kids don’t get suspended more than once.” Ashton says the punishment of suspension not only helps the student—it is also beneficial to the school community. “Our philosophy as a school behind student discipline is that by being in this community, we all have agreed to a set of values and expectations,” he said. “For us to be a healthy community and thrive as a community, we all have to come here with those understandings and uphold those commitments.” Ashton says the school makes sure students are able to get back up to speed without too many hurdles. Part of this recirculation into the community is stimulated by reflective essays—one per day the student is

STORY Toby Barrett, Robert Pou, Cristian Pereira PHOTO Collin Katz

Class Officers Vice President: Daniel Ardila

Vice President: Blake Hudspeth

StuCo Rep: John David McClain

StuCo Rep: Sam Morgan

Secretary: Camp Collins

Secretary: Sai Thirunagari

Junior President Aayan Khasgiwala

Senior President Colin Campbell Vice President: Camden Reeves

Vice President: Murphy Paul

StuCo Rep: Alex Nadalini

StuCo Rep: Charlie Estess

Secretary: Chase Martin

Sophomore President Enoch Ellis

Secretary: Aaron Greenberg

Freshman President Aadi Khasgiwala

suspended, according to Ashton. “There’s always a prompt of, as you reflect on things, explain what you did, explain what you understand now that you didn’t understand then of why it’s a violation of the school’s values,” Ashton said, “and what have you learned from this? What’s your commitment going forward?” To help suspended students, Marmion recommends planning an appointNancy ment with Director Marmion J.J. Connolly of Counseling Master Barbara Van Drie. Teaching Chair “Sometimes we recommend that a student get some counseling, that they speak to Ms. Van Drie or somebody else about how to deal with pressure or even just talking those things out with their parents and their teachers,” Marmion said. So, are suspensions punitive or restorative? Ashton hopes restorative. “A boy might make a mistake multiple times. We’re human. We started flawed, so it’s okay to make mistakes,” Ashton said. “But we hope there is a restorative and learning piece. It’s not just punitive.” Editor’s note: Peter is a pseudonym used to protect the identity of the student interviewed.

issues

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

The value of a grade T

As Marksmen step out of the classroom and into the real world, what role do the grades they earned in Upper School play?

hirty-one years later, Robert Musslewhite ’88, the CEO of Optum 360 and Optum Analytics, continues to reflect on the importance of his achievement and what it means to him. “To be totally honest I think valedictorian was a really nice honor,” Musslewhite said. “I loved St. Mark’s and loved my classes, my teachers and studying there. I really was proud of the accomplishments that I had, so it was a nice honor at the end of my career. I feel gratitude for all I got out of the St. Mark’s experience.” The trade-off between an extra hour spent studying for a math test or getting a full eight hours of sleep is a constant battle for every Marksman. And for students who receive the title of valedictorian, that trade-off constantly leans towards the study side. On campus, students are always told about the value of grades and awards to get into a good college to be set up in life, but what about the values learned through those processes? Is it really necessary to be the valedicSelecting a torian or have the perfect 4.0 GPA to make a differvaledictorian ence in the world? At St. Mark’s, the Despite ultimately valedictorian is not being named valedictonecessarily the student rian, Musslewhite didn’t in the Senior Class with the highest GPA. A set himself an end goal of committee of administhe achievement. He went trators and Senior Class through high school trying sponsors meets to conhis hardest in all of his sider from a list of high classes, and winning valeacademic performing dictorian became a product students. Here’s how of his hard work. the group determines the valedictorian: “I really liked school, for me, it went hand in 1. The committee hand,” Musslewhite said. gathers all grades from “Liking my classes and years 9-12. wanting to perform well went hand in hand. It’s 2. From that list, the hard to isolate just the goal committee narrows down to a small number of valedictorian.” of students based on Instead of taking rigor and performance the hardest classes to get of transcript. the highest GPA like the valedictorian usually does, 3. Looking at all some students have decidconsiderations, the ed to drop the level of some committee must come to a consensus pick and of their classes to focus on declare that student the what is important to them. valedictorian. Senior Harrison Lee, who dropped from the honors math track to AB calculus his senior year, believes that it’s better to spend time pursuing an interest as opposed to choosing the class that gives a GPA boost. “If math isn’t really your thing and you have to spend that extra time every night working hard, then is it really worth it?” Lee said. “You could definitely delegate that time to other more useful activities and enjoy your senior year more.” According to Headmaster David Dini, the goal of the school is to create an environment in which students take classes based on interest and curiosity rather than based on the potential GPA boost. “Ultimately, our goal is to creative an environment that doesn’t have disincentives to take a certain course that is appealing to you, we really hope to address that,” Dini said. “We want to make sure that you guys are not inclined to take a course simply because of the GPA boost, we want people to pursue something that they are passionate Robert Mussle- about, recognizing that rigor of white transcript has an impact.” ’88 Musslewhite, who didn’t have Valedictorian the same amount of class choices as current Marksmen do, encourages students to not worry about the GPA as much as taking classes they are interested in. “I would hope that students who had a strong GPA would still take classes that they wanted to take because they could have the confidence they would do well,” Musslewhite said. “It’s such an amazing place, and you only have one time to engage in the classes that you want and so taking advantage of that opportunity is much more important long term.”

For Harris Wilson ’18, the actual award of valedictorian has much more meaning to him than just the recognition. The award is a reflection of his dedication and the contributions he has made to the academic community. “When I got to college, I was pretty sobered by all the other really smart people here, and the fact that so much of college life and the rest of life is not GPA based,” Wilson said. “At the end of the day, college is first and foremost about completing your transition into an adult and getting that independence, not grades or GPA. ADDRESSING THE CROWD Each year, the valedictorian, with the Senior Class president and What matters a lot more is the guest speaker, gives a speech about his own time on campus and what impact they had. the kind of person you are, time spent with friends and classmates went down. He whether or not you can lead wishes he could have spent more time with his 89 brothand motivate, whether or not people want to be around ers he made here and solidified those relationships rather you.” than spending the extra hour studying for a class. “I wish I’d spent more time getting to know more Dini finds the countless hours of hard work on behalf of my classmates,” Wilson said. “I felt like senior year, of the award winners to trump the meaning of the award after I finished my last college application, I tried to take itself. In many ways, the recognition is also a tribute to more time to do that. I learned so many great things about the academic achievement of the different people in our grade, and I got close with people I entire graduating class. wasn’t really close with before.” “To me, valedictorian is tanHarris Finishing his freshman year of college, Wilson now gible recognition, but there is no Wilson understands that there ’18 inherent value in that,” Dini said. Valedicis a larger picture torian “It’s representative of hard work than just getting the and discipline and achievement, best grades and best but it’s an external recognition. test scores. There is a While it is certainly something we whole world out there value and celebrate, recognizing that doesn’t care about is really a credit to everyone that works hard. There are a the GPA, but rather the lot of other people who have contributed a great deal and values one has develhave worked really hard.” oped, like hard work, When it comes time for recognition, whether it is dedication and commitathletic, academic or extracurricular, Dini hopes students ment. aren’t concerned with the external good of the award, “When you leave rather the experience to obtain a goal. St. Mark’s and that sort Average GPA of “The recognition should never be the goal,” Dini said. of bubble, you start 700 millionaires to think more about SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER your development as a person as you get more At the end of the day, college is first accustomed to the real world,” Wilson said. “Beyond that, and foremost about completing it’s about building relationships and pursuing interests and taking risks in a way you can’t in high school. Defiyour transition into an adult and nitely grades are important, but you shouldn’t be leaving getting that independence, not high school with only grades on your mind.” grades or GPA. — Harris Wilson ’18 Looking back at the award now, Musslewhite sees it as a representation of the community and of the values of “We hope that students should be focusing on the value of what he learned and what he has taken in his life now. “The meaning of valedictorian over time has really learning and the value of discipline and the value of hard shifted to represent much more of just having been lucky work and sacrifice, those kinds of values are fundamental enough to go to St. Mark’s, and the opportunity to attend that will serve you far beyond your time here and will and experience St. Mark’s with my classmates. The indiultimately make a difference in the world.” vidual achievement pales relative to other achievements Similarly, Director of College Counseling Veronica in my career,” Musslewhite said. “It’s a moment when Pulido believes grades have a limited impact for the rest I think about what I got out of St. Mark’s and what an of life after school, and students should focus on the amazing place it was and how much the overall experilessons they learn through earning the grades. She sees ence really helped me in my life and career.” much more development coming from real-life experi-

By the numbers

2.9

“

ences such as internships and research as well as from mentors and advisors instead of just focusing on grades. “In terms of being a top student, I think students should think about the big picture,” Pulido said. “College is the big picture now, but hopefully the adults can tell the students that there is a big world out there, and we want to put you in the best competitive situation for whatever that means.” As Wilson spent more and more time studying and worrying about his grades, he felt his

STORY Sam Ahmed, Sid Vattamreddy, Colin Campbell PHOTO Charlie Rose

Where are they now?

VALEDICTORIANS FROM 2005-14

2005 Graham Radman, Equity strategist 2006 Scott Wingo, PhD candidate for Political Science at UPenn 2007 Asa Schachar, Developer advocate at Optimizely 2008 Jacob Vandermeer, Exotic derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley 2009 Nathan Long, MBA at Wharton School of Business 2010

Alexander Chuka, Hedge fund analyst

2011

Moez Aziz, Medical student at McGovern Medical School

2012

Prajan Divakar, PhD candidate in engineering at Dartmouth

2013

James Rowan, PhD candidate in mathematics at UC Berkeley

2014

Halbert Bai, MPH student at Yale

issues

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

ETHOS

By title or by example How does the Character and Leadership Program ask Marksmen to lead?

ourteen years ago, when Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown first learned of the school’s new Character and Leadership Program, he was skeptical. He questioned whether the program would prioritize vocal leaders who had established positions and formal responsibilities over the people who led the class from the ground up. It’s a question that’s still pressing today. How does a school which promises to “prepare young men for assuming leadership and responsibility” in its Statement of Purpose do so with such few formal leadership positions? ••• Brown found his answer when he realized the program would rework the definition of leadership itself. “I was forced to re-evaluate my idea of leadership,” Brown said, “because I realized that leadership was not vocal and visible.” Assistant Headmaster John Ashton wrestled with that same question when he was asked to lead the school’s Character and Leadership Program in 2005. For him the question begins with the ways leadership is defined in the communities on campus. “In a school setting – or any setting – there’s leadership defined by holding a position of authority or responsibility,” Ashton said, “a formal set of responsibilities that then would make one responsible for a larger initiative, or an organization or team.” These roles may provide ready access to hands-on leadership experience, and may allow students to better understand what leadership entails. But Ashton sees the creation of more formal leadership roles as detrimental in the long run. “We don’t have a plan necessarily in place to say, ‘Let’s create two, three, and four fold of those roles,’” Ashton said. “Because then we would be creating artificial leadership.” Ashton wants the definition of leadership to extend beyond formal roles and hopes the Character and Leadership Program teaches a broader interpretation. “Leadership defined broader than that is each of us every day, in all interactions, identifying where there’s need, and then having the skills to then respond to that need,” Ashton says. “When you’re in your English class or your biology class we each have to play a leadership role, to make sure that it’s a successful 45 minutes.”

Say what? Comments from all around campus FOLLOW THE LEADER With more students than leadership positions, not every Marksman is able to lead an organized program during his time here.

Ashton sees this definition already being implemented in the Middle School, as part of a “Digital Portfolio” which aims to create a collection of reflections over the values the Character and Leadership Program aims to instill. “The advisors have chosen six topics that come from the content that we’ve developed for character and leadership education,” Ashton said. “They then have the students participate in a leadership loop. What comes out of that then is a reflection, a series of reflective, effective questions, if you will, that the boys then respond to.” Ashton believes the program, which has the students write up and digitally upload a personal reflection on each of the values, has created opportunities for Upper School boys to serve in informal leadership roles. “Older students have assumed a leadership role by preparing a presentation, coming into the assembly and presenting them to the middle school,” Ashton said. “And then older boys go facilitate a discussion at the class meeting level. We’re looking for those places where the guys take responsibility to actually prepare and facilitate and talk about and discuss these things.” Every day looking out on the quad, Ashton sees this responsibility and leadership outside of the classroom and in a more recreational context. “Spikeball is the greatest thing,” Ashton said. “I love to watch it, because it’s such a joy to look at that scene out there with older boys and younger boys playing well. And it’s really an example of boys taking the initiative by themselves.”

For Ashton, the work Upper School boys put into implementing and running the Spikeball games is in itself an excellent example of leadership. “A group of guys that came to me in the fall and said, ‘Can we buy some for Upper School?’ Ashton said. “So we bought six and asked the boys to take care of them. Y’all have taken real responsibility for taking care of all those things. We don’t oversee this at all. The guys invite people to play. They take turns. They make sure people are participating.” Ashton thinks that, in the case of Spikeball, the boys were able to create their own leadership roles by taking upon themselves the responsibilities, but not the titles, of formal leadership roles. “I would argue and suggest that impact on community is every bit as powerful as formal leadership for this,” Ashton said. “So yeah, because I know I never want us to underestimate the real potential of self-driven leadership, we all have to strengthen community by our daily movement through the communities we’re in.” Brown has seen the effect of the Character and Leadership Program change his classroom over the past decade. The leadership curriculum has allowed his students to interact with works such as “Macbeth”, “The Great Gatsby”, and “Death of a Salesman” in a new way and has changed Brown’s classroom as a whole. “After I began teaching the Character and Leadership material, the way my students responded really changed,” Brown said. “It forced me to reevaluate the way I lived my own life, and try to be a better person. For me, the proof is in the pudding.”

‘

I’ve only completely turned off my cellphone twice — for Infinity War and Endgame. — Sophomore Daniel Sanchez discussing Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame If anyone wears an NFC East jersey from a team other than the Cowboys, they will be barred from entering campus.

‘

— Sophomore John Hubbard

‘

I wanna thank all of my opposing candidates and hope to see them again next year.

— Sophomore Blake Hudspeth after winning his class vice-presidency as the lone candidate.

‘

Fletchings? No. Fletchings are on the back of an arrow. Fletchlings are my kids. — Science Department Chair Fletcher Carron

‘

When I first came to St. Mark’s, I thought water polo was horses in water. — Sophomore Benny Wang

‘

For some reason, my daughter thinks you’re Jesus. — Athletic Trainer Matt Hjertstedt to senior Seth Weprin after receiving his graduation card

STORY Alam Alidina, Henry McElhaney ILLUSTRATION Jamie Mahowald

Senior Parker Davis named National High School Journalist of the Year

by Toby Barrett enior Parker Davis won National High School Journalist of the Year April 27 it was announced at the Spring National High School Journalism Convention, held in Anaheim, C.A. The award is given by the Journalism Education Association. Davis, however, was not there to receive the award. “When I found out I won, I was in the car on the way to take photos for [Hockaday] prom,” Davis said. “I’d gone to the convention for Thursday

To view Davis’s award-winning portfolio, go to: parkerdavisjournalist.com

and Friday just to be there and then came back Friday night so I could go to prom on Saturday, thinking there was almost no chance I’d win.” To be eligible to win the national honor, Davis first had to win Texas Journalist of the Year. The application required an extensive portfolio. “I started thinking about it over Christmas break,” Davis said, “thinking about if I was going to do the state competition, what all would it take, what all would I need to put together. I probably spent a dozen hours over Christmas break compiling stories and sheets of paper we use for journalism

that I would eventually need.” Once the news came from Anaheim, Davis was euphoric. “I was ecstatic,” Davis said. “It was crazy. It was not what I was expecting.” Davis attributes his success to not only himself but also the people who helped him along the way. “I think it speaks more to first, the strength of our journalism program, and second to the strength of the people in our journalism program more than it does me,” Davis said. “Because while I wrote a lot of these stories, while I took all the photographs that are on the site, I couldn’t have done any of the

writing if it weren’t for [Gene and Alice Oltrogge Master Teaching Chair] Ray [Westbrook] teaching us how to write in [beginning journalism].” The award also comes with prize money: $1,500 for winning the state competition and $3,000 for the national competition. The money was not the incentive for Davis to compete, however. “It wasn’t about the scholarship money,” Davis said. “It was taking everything I’ve done for the past four years and putting it together in a way that showed not only what it meant to me but how it impacted others.”

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

INVESTING

issues

Becoming financially literate

Most students don’t learn to invest until after high school, but should they be exposed to it earlier?

o you know how to pay taxes? What about getting a mortgage? These are questions that students leaving 10600 Preston Road will confront the moment they step off campus. Will they be prepared? Although financial literacy isn’t taught in most high school curriculums, it is often an essential part of adult life. But is it necessary that we learn it now? ••• Along with senior Noah Carr, senior Max Wang is co-president of the Finance Club, which he and Carr founded last year to teach students the basics about investing and personal finance. “We try and teach people about things like retirement savings like the 401k, how you would manage your taxes or what long term investments to make,” Wang said. The club invites guest speakers who are successful businessmen and have worked in the financial world for a long time to speak about their experiences. The club also played a stock market game during the year, where one of its teams won second in a state competition. “We would sometimes talk about the various fluctuations in the market based on current events,” Wang said. “For example, if General Motors was closing down some of its plants, we would talk about why that happened and what that means for the stock in general.” The sponsor of Finance Club, AP economics instructor Chris Disimile, said the AP economics course only includes a small amount of investment or financial literacy education. “We talk about interest rates, monetary policy and fiscal policy, and all those things are important in understanding and helping you read the paper and making sense of the economy,” Disimile said, “but not

much in terms of how is this going to help me figure out whether to buy stock A or stock B.” Goldman Sachs credit trader William Wolcott ’02 began investing when he was 19 years old and his father helped him set up a brokerage account. He believes his education here prepared him for his career. “You need to be able to evaluate things critically,” Wolcott said. “Certainly a lot of the skills you learn at St. Mark’s, not only in the classroom, but ethics and other things, are important as you’re evaluating executive decisions and deciding whether or not to invest in something.” For Wang, the alumni network helped him develop his financial literacy. “If you ask [Director of Alumni Relations Alex] Eshelbrenner about finance, he can give you several contacts of alumni in the business world that you can potentially reach out to,” Wang said. While Wang has already developed an interest in the financial world, he doesn’t believe it’s essential to study finance in depth in high school. “The things we learn in our math and liberal arts curriculum are already a good foundation for learning about finance in the future,” Wang said. Wolcott believes students should gain exposure to a variety of subjects in high school to be better prepared for any career. “Having a sound understanding of the basics of personal finances is important no matter whether you are in the investing world or not,” Wolcott said. “That can start at a young age.” Junior Jack McCutchan, who invests and was partly inspired to begin learning about finance by the Middle School Stock Market Club, thinks the Finance Club provides a good environment for beginners. As a start, McCutchan recommends learning basic economics and financial terminology.

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Trevor Crosnoe PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Wyatt Awtrey, Jamie Mahowald

STOCK MARKET Upper School Assistant Head Chris Disimile explains investing concepts to students in his A.P. economics class.

“Investing at an early age can expose you to a career path that you might want to go down,” McCutchan said. “It’s never too early to start networking.” McCutchan believes becoming financially literate has helped him broaden his global insight. “It’s given me a better understanding of how the world works,” McCutchan said. “Now I can see new connections between things, like if the President announces a steel tariff, then stock prices all around the world change.” Whether or not one pursues a financial career, Disimile believes understanding investing and the financial world offers many advantages. “That’s the benefit of financial literacy, understanding this power of compounding – of starting early and of paying yourself first,” Disimile said. “If you pay yourself first and put some money aside and invest it, then you’re going to be better off in the long run.”

Wolcott suggests

Buffet by Roger Lowenstein

One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch and John Rothchild

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

discoveries

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

SCIENCE

Why study STEM? Some see science and math as limited to the classroom and specific jobs, but their reach is much further.

ALL ALONE Many see jobs in STEM as less than those in other fields of study.

he sentiment of “Why do we have to learn this? I’m never going to use it” can be heard on a daily basis on campus. While most Marksmen may never need to know how to balance a redox reaction or how to calculate uniform circular motion, reasons to study science reach far beyond just passing the next test. Earth science instructor Dan Northcut ’81 had an inkling of what kind of job he wanted but wasn’t always sure what kind of career path he would end up pursuing. “My father was a geologist, so I always had an interest in science,” Northcut said. “Science was always part of me ― just the natural curiosity for the natural world around me. I always had that sort of inclination, so when I went to college, I already knew I wanted to do geology, but I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.” Northcut had multiple career options open to him. "There was a five to ten year time period in high school and college where I knew I wanted to do a particular subject," Northcut said," but I didn't know whether it was going to be for an oil company or in a museum or what." Northcut’s perspective career path changed later in his college career. “I didn’t know I was going to become a teacher until I was in my first year of graduate school," Northcut said. "I got a job as a teacher’s assistant tutoring students in an oceanography class, and that was what really turned my mind towards teaching science because I really enjoyed seeing people’s faces light up when they understood what it was I was trying to get across.” His advice for students who aren’t sure of what they want to pursue: find something they love and stick with it. “You have to find something you enjoy doing,” Northcut said, “something you enjoy being a part of. There’s an old saying that if you love your work, if you love your job, you’ll never do a day of work in your life.” Northcut also believes the sciences are a great option for students worrying about whether or not there will be jobs available for them once they finish their education. “Generally speaking, any kind of science degree you want to pursue, there’ll be jobs in that field,” Northcut said. “I would never tell somebody, ‘Don’t get a science degree, you’ll never get a job,’ because in the sciences, if you get a degree in chemistry or biology, there’s going to be jobs for you in that specific field.”

For students who question the importance of learning certain subjects, Northcut has an answer. “The general knowledge of basic sciences is something that helps you in life, because things will come up where knowing basic science will help you answer some kind of problem you’re having with something,” Northcut said. “Especially because all the sciences are so closely connected, and they all depend on each other’s concepts and so forth.” ••• Senior Matthew Zhang plans to pursue science in college with a biology major. “I always thought biology was really interesting,” Zhang said. “I’m thinking of a career in the medical field. I’m leaning towards physician at the moment.” However, Zhang recognizes the other possibilities in the field. “You can go into research,” Zhang said, “The field of research itself is pretty expansive. You can pretty much do research on anything you want. A lot of people imagine research as people just experimenting with drugs or testing in a lab, but you can expand it to things like technology research and so much more.”

“

I would never tell somebody, 'Don't get a science degree, you'll never get a job.' If you get a degree in chemistry or biology, there's going to be jobs for you in that field." — Earth science instructor Dan Northcut

Zhang also stresses the importance of not limiting oneself to a single subject. “Even if you think you know what career you want to go in to, experiencing other fields can open you up to different passions,” Zhang said. “It might even completely change what you thought you were going to do.” Additionally, Zhang recognizes the importance of studying all subjects. “A lot of colleges are emphasizing a liberal arts curriculum,” Zhang said. “They want to develop a well rounded student who’s not just proficient in one field but has experience in many fields. For example, as a pre-med, learning Spanish could be helpful because you may need to interact with patients who speak Spanish. Every science and subject

you learn all overlap.”

••• Mathematics Department Chair Joe Milliet majored in chemistry and biology at Tulane University. He always knew he wanted to teach but didn’t realize he would end up teaching math. “I did some student-teaching in chemistry in Joe Milliet New Orleans,” Milliet said. “I Thomas B. Walker found that when I was trying III '73 Department to teach chemistry, it was their Chair in Mathematics math skills that held them back. And so I would start each chemistry lesson with a math lesson.” Once he began teaching mathematics, he realized it was a subject that he both enjoyed teaching and was good at, so he stuck with it. “I could see that I was adept at teaching mathematics as well as science, and the opening that happened at the school that I first landed at was in mathematics,” Milliet said. “I had enough hours in mathematics because of my science degrees to go ahead and be a math teacher, and I stayed in that subject area and enjoyed math because math is the language of science. It’s an unusual route to being a math teacher, but it worked out well for me.” Milliet believes the current job market is definitely looking for people with highly developed science skills, particularly in the fields of technology and mathematics. “Jobs come down to competence,” Millet said. "A competent math or science person is going to get a job, a competent journalist or a competent artist is going to get a job. Now, there’s certainly a demand right now for people in technology, so people who are math majors, for instance, have a lot of options. All the science fields are certainly looking at math as well as technology companies. A lot of our former students will double major in math and computer science.” Milliet also stresses that even for students who don’t want to pursue strictly math or science-related subjects in college, it’s important to have a solid foundation in those subjects. “Math majors are going to be snatched by the finance people because they can always teach the business side later,” Milliet said, “but if they’re no good at mathematics, they’re not going to be successful in the world of finance. It’s also interesting that students in mathematics also have some of the highest GPAs in law school because they think logically and present arguments.”

STORY Cooper Ribman, Han Zhang ARTWORK James Shiao

Use of Mathematics Post Education Percent of Americans who use some type of math in their profession Percent of Americans who use any math beyond basic algebraic operations in their profession SOURCE: THEATLANTIC.COM

94 22

WHAT WE DO Here are some of the advanced STEM classes the school offers: • AP Computer Science A • AP Computer Science Principles • Information Engineering • DNA Science • Astronomy and Geology • AP Environmental Science • AP Chemistry • AP Biology • AP Physics 2 • AP Physics C

discoveries

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

9 Junior finds new method to take notes

NUTRITION

An apple a day

Nutrition is an important part of our daily lives, but how exactly do we keep up with our health at school?

CHOICES Everyday, students are confronted with the choice to eat healthy or not.

uring the daily rush of homework, tests, assemblies and sports, it is often easy to lose sight of maintaining healthy habits. However, good nutrition is not something that can be ignored. According to Food Service Director Erin Woods, SAGE tries to ensure that students have access to healthy food during school. “We do have a mission to provide meals that offer variety and balance to everyone in the community,” Woods said. “My goal is to create an environment where students and adults have access to the foods they enjoy and need to create a balanced meal. Creating a relationship with the community is important. We are always available for questions and guidance.” In addition to providing healthy food, Woods recognizes the importance of teaching the science of good nutrition. “Learning and understanding what food will help your body work best is key to creating long-term healthy habits,” Woods said. “Education is key to helping students know how food can affect them and how they can make good choices. The online menu, the Touch of SAGE app and the dining “When you get the hall tablets purest nutrients in your featuring the system, your body will spotlight prorespond.” — Head Strength and gram and the Conditioning Coach performance KEVIN DILWORTH spotlight are all designed to help students have the knowledge to make the right choices for themselves.” This education is especially important as nutrition choices young people make can have dramatic effects later in life.

“We work with registered dietitians to ensure these choices are available everyday for lunch.” Woods said, “If a person is not exposed or educated early in life, they could have a difficult time making good choices as they grow older.” The effects of a poor diet are not only limited to health issues. Eating poorly can also have side effects affecting a student’s performance in school. “Each student and person will have a different experience if they have poor nutrition,” Woods said. “You may feel sluggish, find it hard to concentrate or perform less effectively at sports or in the classroom. Others feel fine the majority of the time but may have long-term effects.” Despite all of this effort, SAGE cannot be with students for every meal. “Setting goals and having a plan before you get to the lunch room or any meal can help you stay focused on the goal of creating meals that can help you stay energized through the day,” Woods said. “Applying the knowledge you gain here at school can help a great deal at every meal. In my experience, most students realize what decisions can create a balanced meal. Creating the habit of making these choices regularly is often the challenge with so many yummy choices each day.” However, there is more to food than just nutrition. “Every meal should be an experience that delights the senses, inspires the mind and fosters community.” Woods said Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Kevin Dilworth has his own ideas of good nutrition. “The most I want to say is eating healthy, just eating good, natural, clean foods,” Dilworth said. “I want to make sure that everything that I eat is fresh, organic and lean, and that it has enough proteins, carbs and fats.” Clean eating consists of consuming many different types of foods, such as chicken,

by Arjun Agarwal unior Meyer Zinn was playing around with different ways to take notes in math. Since typing equations into Microsoft Word fills you with enough rage to punch a hole right through your computer screen, Zinn knew he needed a new way to take better notes. That’s when he discovered LaTeX. “It’s the software you would use to format a scientific paper or an article for a journal if you were to publish one,” Zinn said. “It makes math notes really pretty and organized.” LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting program which includes features for the production of many different types of scientific and technical documents. Currently LaTeX is available to everyone as a completely free service. “I played around with it and noticed the notes looked really nice,” Zinn said. “They were relatively simple to put together; given that you’re trying to type math which has a lot of funny symbols and such.” Zinn said one of the only cons of using LaTex is trying to take notes rapidly. “It’s hard to do typing live because it’s easy to mess up like a curly brace or something,” Zinn said, “but when you’re taking notes by hand or on [Microsoft}Word, that’s not going to be a big issue.” Like most things, LaTeX takes a little while to get used to. It’s sort of a steeped curve to start,” Zinn said, “but once I became proficient with it, I could take most of my math notes on it.” One of the hardest things to do on LaTeX is graphs, so Zinn recommends just doing them by hand. However there are many reasons why Zinn uses LaTeX. “One of the best things I use it for is study guides,” Zinn said. “It definitely makes it easier to create a math study guide I can send out to the class.” Formatting equations and other math concepts are one of the biggest contributions of LaTeX to Zinn’s note taking. “This gets to be a big problem when you get into higher level math when you have a lot of different variables,” Zinn said. “LaTeX is a way I can assure myself that I can always go back and figure out what I meant in certain parts of long problems. It’s a really good way to communicate information that is hard to communicate otherwise.”

fish, greens, nuts, and grains. Ensuring only the healthiest nutrients go into your body can go a long way. When eating balanced and dieting, processed foods should be avoided. “When you get the purest nutrients in your system, you will respond,” Dilworth said. “Many artificial and processed foods have the wrong nutrients.” There are proper ways to diet according to percent Dilworth. “The best way to lose weight is to eat the proper nutritional food groups instead of following the ‘protocol’ and the ‘way’,” Dilworth said. However, not all dieting is good. “Bad dieting can cause health issues,” Dilworth said. “We can over-do dieting.” In fact, some “dieting” habits are purely destructive. “Skipping meals is the wrong way to lose weight,” Dilworth said. “You should never be missing a meal. The worst thing you can do is miss a meal because your body is functioning and moving every day. If you are an active kid and you are playing and studying, you need to make sure you have food for the body. You can definitely get the reverse effect where you feel sick” percent There are many other ways to diet poorly. “In addition to missing meals, using supplements to replace meals is unhealthy,” Dilworth said, “bad habits can also be reading poor online sources that give bad information.” Poor dieting has many negative effects, especially on teens, when their bodies are still developing. “Bad dieting can cause health issues,” Dilworth said. “You will feel sick. You will not be healthy. You will be imbalanced. There are also psychological issues. You can feel like you never reach your goal.”

STORY Cooper Ribman, Darren Xi PHOTO Ryan McCord

The percentage

of Americans who rank their diets as good, very good or excellent SOURCE: NPR.org

The percentage

of Americans who fail to eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables SOURCE NPR.org

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Turning the page J.T. SUTCLIFFE Long-time math instructor hanging it up after 35 years

lashback a few decades. A devastated, red-faced J.T. Sutcliffe is sobbing in the hallway outside her college-level math classroom at Wittenberg University. It’s not the first time Sutcliffe’s found herself here. By now, it’s a common post-test occurrence, and she’s not the only one to have recognized that. I think you need to get out of math. Those words from Sutcliffe’s professor, sharp and cold, rang through her head every time she saw a test in front of her. But in her heart, there was a different tune, a continued desire, a perseverance that fueled her choice to stick with mathematics. Thirty-five years, 105 trimesters and thousands of students later, she calls it the best decision of her life. ••• When Suzanne and Patrick McGee Family Master Teaching Chair J.T. Sutcliffe stepped foot on campus for the first time during her visit, she knew she had found something special. “I taught a BC calculus class that day,” Sutcliffe said, “and even though the fellas didn’t know me, they were respectful. They had clearly been well-educated, well-trained, but on the other hand, there were a couple of times during the class where we had those aha moments, and they got excited at those things. I thought, ‘This would be a fun place to be.’” Making the decision to leave the school after 35 years of service was tough for Sutcliffe, but it had been in the cards for a few years. “For the last about four years, I’d been asking when I should leave,” Sutcliffe said. “I’d been having so much fun the past few years, and I’d had so much satisfaction from teaching, so I wasn’t dying to leave. But when you get into your 70s, you begin to think, ‘Maybe I should get out while it’s still fun and people aren’t saying things behind my back all the time.’ After the 2018 class graduated, I told [Headmaster David] Dini, ‘It’s time. Let’s call it quits.’” Apart from the math, Sutcliffe keeps a coaching jacket from her time as eighth grade softball coach as a memorandum of her first few years on campus, and she still cherishes it as a part of one of her fondest memories on campus. “Back in the 1984-85 school year, almost everybody had to coach,” Sutcliffe said. “That year, it got cold during the season, and the head of Upper School took pity on me and gave me his jacket. I would wear it every day. I remember [Athletic Trainer] Doc Browning teaching us the infield fly rule. Coaching softball was so much fun.” Sutcliffe also took up sponsorship of the math team, but leaving campus, she hopes people don’t remember her as solely a math teacher or a softball coach. “[I want to be remembered as] somebody who, at their best moments, was somebody fun to be around,” Sutcliffe said. “Someone who cared about other people and who recognized all of the wonderful qualities of all of the people who have surrounded me these years.” Alums who visit when they return have already recog-

Parting words Final goodbyes from other departing and retiring faculty around campus

Also leaving The following faculty and staff are also departing at the end of the 2019 school year. At the request of these individuals, they wished to not be interviewed: • Pamela Elder, Green Library assistant, nine years of service. • Bart Epperson, head varsity football coach, seventh grade basketball coach, physical education, 13 years of service. • Cira Mesta, housekeeping staff, 30 years of service. • Benjamin Muratalla, food services chef 16 years of service.

nized part of this caring and appreciation, and Sutcliffe is grateful for their visits. “When alums come back,” Sutcliffe said, “they don’t even have to say much. The very fact they come back and visit means some sort of relationship was established. That’s a very satisfying thing for a teacher. Whether it was how I inspired them in mathematics or because maybe I just

and watching seniors look studmuffinly walking across the stage to receive their diploma,” Sutcliffe said, “and me seeing them and remembering all the fun times we had together, realizing we are sending out into the bigger world a group of wonderful men.” After this year’s graduation, Sutcliffe is ready to embark on a new journey allowing her to reminisce on her

“

When I was in college, my professor professor told me to get out of math because he saw me crying after a lot of math tests. I kept thinking, ‘I really want to be a math teacher.’ What you all convinced me of is following my heart was the best decision of my life. — Suzanne and Patrick McGee Family

Master Teaching Chair J.T. Sutcliffe

had a good relationship with them, or was a good advisor — whatever it was, that’s cool. That’s really cool.” Beyond mathematics, Sutcliffe hopes to have taught her students the value of relationships. “I hope I and [all the other teachers] have helped students all really come to grips with the fact that life is a lot more than grades or awards or the little nice notes along the way where we get our satisfaction,” Sutcliffe said. “I hope what you take with you is a really good set of relationships that last a lifetime. I hope you’ve realized your impact as individuals doesn’t have to be huge to make a real difference in this world.” Capturing her 35 years on campus in a set of memories, Sutcliffe places many of them under one category: Commencement. “I will take with me memories of graduation night

upbringing. “I grew up on the East Coast,” Sutcliffe said, “and I love the New England falls, but I can’t get up there because it’s during school. I’ve got a lovely Jeep. If there’s a pretty fall, I’ll just jump in the Jeep and drive up to New England to see the leaves.” Still, nothing is set in stone, and Sutcliffe is looking forward to the structureless life of retirement. “If I go anywhere,” Sutcliffe said, “I’ll go to Oregon, but that could change. I love outdoors. I love oceans, and I love streams and I love mountains, but it’s hard to get to them from Dallas. For the first year, I just want to do whatever I want to do. I’ll probably come by for some orchestra and choir concerts. It’ll just be fun to see what kind of trouble I can get into or what trouble I can stay out of.”

HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT CHAIR NICHOLAS SBERNA

ART INSTRUCTOR MAX WOOD

13 years, 51 campouts

rom 51 campouts as part of the Wilderness Program director to eighth grade class sponsor and football coach, zeroing in on a special moment on campus is difficult for humanities instructor Nicholas Sberna. “Finding a memory in my 13 years is so tough,” Sberna said. “It was an honor to just be asked to be department chair and wilderness director.” Beyond the classroom and the wild, Sberna hopes all his students have grown as people. “I hope some of the content sticks,” Sberna said, “and I hope the skills stick even more. For me, overwhelmingly, I hope my guys realize what matters above all of that is the importance of being a good person.” Next up for Sberna is a job at the Collegiate School in Richmond, VA, a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school in a state very close to Sberna and his family. “My wife and I met in Virginia,” Sberna said. “Our daughter’s middle name is Virginia for that reason. It’s always been a place we’ve had a strong attachment to.” Still, Sberna knows his time here will hold a special place in his heart. “It’s been a privilege to work here,” Sberna said. “It’s easy to lose perspective on that as a student. We’re fortunate to be part of this special community. It’ll pay dividends down the road in ways you’re not even aware of right now.”

Happy with the simple things

fter jumping from college to college across California and Texas, art instructor Max Wood found herself at 10600 Preston Road substituting for a friend who had been hospitalized and passed away. “I came here to help an art teacher, and I fell in love with the school,” Wood said. “[There was] a bit of guilt because I was enjoying teaching St. Mark’s boys while the school community was mourning for the loss of their beloved art teacher, but I believe my teaching at St. Mark’s was fate.” Wood not only teaches seven classes on campus, but she also sponsors the Handwriting Club and constantly strives to teach students proper manners and language in class. Between the “Yeah” tally chart on her classroom walls to the clay stains on her ceiling, Wood has left a mark on campus, and the students in turn have taught her as well. “I learned to be happy even with the simple things from my students — especially from the younger students,” Wood said. “They’re so pure and so innocent that even little things can make them laugh. I think for me, that's the beauty about the human being. This is a really beautiful school, and I hope this school continues to provide a good education for this country’s needs.”

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to the next chapter FRANK JORDAN Fifty one years of baseball cards, pancakes coming to a close

hen Frank Jordan began the first of his 51 years at 10600 Preston Road, NASA was preparing Apollo 11 for a possible moon landing one year later. The Billboard Year-End Hot 100 single of the year was “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. President Lyndon B. Johnson was wrapping up his presidential term and an author named Theodore Seuss Geisel was working on his new children’s book — The Lorax. Today, Jordan, after more than half a century of service, is as much of a legend on campus as all of them, and his illustrious legacy is indescribable. ••• When third grade instructor Frank Jordan decided to retire after the end of this school year, he found himself emotionally compromised. “I broke down crying when I told [Headmaster] David Dini,” Jordan said, “and the next day, I told [Lower School Head] Sherri Darver. It wasn’t easy. I decided at the beginning of the year. It’s the right decision. I didn’t even tell my wife, but I think she knew it was coming.” From memories of all his clubs and fantasy sports with students, Jordan recalls his time as sponsor of the Folk Dance Club as one of his fondest memories. “One of the guys who was in it is now a professional square dancer. I did environmental games, farming games. Pancake cooking club, which got banned from my room because of fire code. This year, I’m doing fantasy basketball, fantasy football.” Stories like that of his square dancing student make teaching lower schoolers worthwhile for Jordan, who says he enjoys having seen his Lower School students evolve into gentlemen. “It is very enjoyable watching students grow from young lower schoolers with their shirt tails untucked and shoelaces untied into fine, well-dressed young men,” Jordan said. “Watching them and thinking, ‘That guy’s come a long way.’” Jordan hopes all his students realize their most valuable lesson in his class wasn’t the two-by-two multiplication or the weekly spelling words, but the lesson of how to be the quintessential Marksman, and he hopes to have established this culture throughout the campus. “There are wonderful teachers here who continue to mold the boys into what it means to be a great Marksmen,” Jordan said, “show honesty, bravery in the right sense, show respect to others, be inclusive to those around them, be a good sportsman.” Jordan, widely known for his deep interest in sports, said he has aimed to teach these lessons through stories of athletes. “I’ve tried to tell stories of people, usually people who were great athletes, but even greater people,” Jordan said. “Roberto Clemente, who died taking

provisions to a country devastated by an earthquake. That’s the ultimate sacrifice right there. Jackie Robinson, who had the courage to be the first African-American in baseball. Those are just two stories right Being a Lower School teacher, it is very there of what I like to read to the boys and talk about.” enjoyable watching students grow from Although Jordan has young lower schoolers with their shirt instilled a sense of being the tails untucked and shoelaces untied ideal man in his students, he hopes all his students rememinto fine, well-dressed young men. ber success only comes after — Third grade instructor Frank Jordan failure. “There’s no problem making mistakes if they’re honest mistakes,” Jordan said. “That’s important. We all have our talents, and some boys have talents here, others here, but as long as you try, you’ve given it your best, there’s no shame. At least try and give it a shot.” This lesson is something Jordan credits his students for teaching him, as his mistakes have humbled him in his time at the school. “I make billions of mistakes myself,” Jordan said. “A lot of [my students] are a lot smarter than me, and I just try to conduct them down the path to learn more and be a good Marksman.” Jordan plans to stay in Dallas and visit campus frequently, but he also wants to incorporate time for the things he couldn’t do as a teacher. “I’ll probably do a little ing it through the year.” more gardening,” Jordan said. Upon leaving campus, Jordan hopes the Marks“That’s therapeutic, and I’d like to exercise every day. Keep my mind active. You’re guess is as good as mine. men he worked to mold realize what the school can offer them beyond an education. I’ll be back.” “I hope students appreciate the specialness of St. Jordan wants to embrace the unstructured life of Mark’s,” Jordan said. “One of the hidden treasures retirement before he plans anything big, but he still of the school is the relationships. The friendships wants to continue traditions with the school like his students make with each other last a lifetime. It’s truly annual trip to Yellowstone National Park with gradusomething to watch students come back from years ating lower schoolers. and years ago. It’s special. I hope the people here real“I’ll do the Wyoming trip this summer,” Jordan ize that. They might not until later.” said, “and I might do it again. I’d like to do it with the group I’m teaching now next year, but I’m not sure. STORIES Siddhartha Sinha, Luke Piazza, Eric Yoo PHOTOS Jerry Zhao, Ryan McCord People keep asking me, and I just tell them I’m mak-

“

By the numbers

227

combined years on campus of all departing faculty and staff

master teachers

members of faculty and staff leaving

THOMAS S. ADAMS MASTER TEACHING CHAIR JOHN PERRYMAN FOURTH GRADE HUMANITIES TEACHER CINDEE MCMAHON

COLLEGE COUNSELING ASSOC. DIRECTOR CASEY GENDASON

Two subjects, one teacher

A full cycle, and then some

hen Thomas S. Adams Master Teaching Chair John Perryman made his decision to leave campus after this school year, he had some trouble. “[The decision was the] hardest decision of its kind I have ever made,” Perryman said. “I love St. Mark’s very much and am deeply grateful to it. It is a great school with incredible staff, teachers, administrators, students and families.” As one of a rare bunch who has been educating upper schoolers in both English and history, Perryman is impressed by his students’ dispositions and assertions. “I learn something new each day,” Perryman said. “[My students] are fantastic, inquisitive, hard working, generous and kind.” As of now, Perryman is unsure of what life will bring next, “exploring a wide variety of opportunities” regarding what’s next for him, but he plans to stay in Dallas and visit 10600 Preston Road when he can. In his 14 years on campus, Perryman has served as assistant head of Upper School, sponsored the ninth grade class, coached varsity and Middle School football and track and was an advisor for the Leadership and Ethics Program, but disregarding these titles, Perryman values most his time with his fellow community members. “I have greatly enjoyed the teaching, coaching, advising and working with colleagues,” Perryman said.

A second try at retirement

raveling from Texas to California and back again, Middle and Lower School humanities instructor Cindee McMahon has always found herself back on campus. Before her first retirement, she helped start programs like We Charity, then called Free the Children, and Dallas Area Diversity Youth Organization, but after returning to campus at first in an interim role, McMahon has found new joy in teaching. “I really enjoyed teaching the kids,” McMahon said. “But I also have a major in art, and I've never used my major, so I want to do that. There are family things I want to be able to do. I want to be able to take trips at a whim. It was really the flexible time that helped me make my decision.” McMahon hopes her students have learned about how to properly gather information and enjoy the variety of people around them. “I consider myself more of a liaison between them and the knowledge, so if I've been able to encourage them and help them gain some independence and confidence on how to get information, hopefully I've helped with that,” McMahon said. “The other piece that means a lot to me is the community, the cultural blends, just getting to know each other, being empathetic with each other and respecting each other.”

ifteen senior classes have walked across the stage since Associate Director of College Counseling Casey Gendason came to campus, heading to colleges he helped them gain admission to. Now, he is leaving to start a new adventure in full time college counseling and educational consulting in Dallas. “It's bittersweet,” Gendason said. “I’ve loved working at St. Mark's and doing college counseling. I'm excited and itching to do something else still within college counseling, so it's hard in the respect that I'm saying goodbye to so many wonderful colleagues and students and families.” Beyond his work in the college counseling office, Gendason also served as ninth and tenth grade class sponsor and advisor, varsity tennis coach, gender studies instructor and co-sponsor of the student council. “I’m hoping I’m remembered for my presence beyond college counseling, for being someone students, colleagues and parents can come to talk to in a comfortable and honest atmosphere,” Gendason said. While he’s departing from campus, the memories he made here will remain with him wherever he goes. “[I’ll remember] watching the class of 2016 graduate, which was the first class where I had been here for 12 years,” Gendason said. “Knowing I had officially reached the full cycle will be etched in my mind for a long time.”

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OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

A journey through words

Sophomore to spend next year in Spain IN THE LIMELIGHT Sophomore Ajay Schlehuber reads through Death: A Comedy In One Act during drama rehearsal. Schlehuber performed in the spring production of Much Ado About Nothing May 2-5.

After a childhood marred by stuttering and years of hard work, sophomore Ajay Schlehuber has overcome his speech impediment.

ince he was a toddler, sophomore Ajay Schlehuber has had struggles that other students rarely face. From the seemingly basic act of saying “lollipop” to being too afraid to pursue his passions, he hasn’t had it easy to say the least. After years and years of practice, he has become more confident with his abilities. He has accomplished more with less opportunities. Today, Schlehuber is a star on the big stage. And he’s not stopping any time soon. ••• Schlehuber was diagnosed with a stutter when he was only four years old. Since then, he has been fighting to improve his speaking ability. “There isn’t a cure for stuttering,” Schlehuber said. “It is really just something you get better at and learn to manage.” Throughout elementary school, he had to begin learning how to cope with the stutter. Because he was at a bigger school, he was required to attend a program where he could improve his voice. “I had to meet with someone weekly for about an hour just to practice my voice,” Schlehuber said. “It would be learning how to pronounce words. I used to have a lot of trouble pronouncing words that started with ‘S’ or had the letter ‘L’ in them.” Schlehuber’s mother, Chudar Schlehuber only saw the diagnosis as a minor setback, but nothing he couldn’t handle. She very quickly took steps to ensure her son’s ability to cope with the stutter. “I started with educating myself

and found a speech therapist who worked with both Ajay and me,” Chudar said. “I made my focus providing a supportive environment for Ajay to express himself rather than focusing on the times when his speech lacked fluency.” Growing up, Schlehuber’s stutter was in the way of many goals he wanted to achieve. For example, he wanted to have a leadership role in his Boy Scout troop but was too scared to run despite meeting all of the requirements. “I was too hesitant to actually speak

“I really enjoyed that class,” Schlehuber said, “so much so that when entering ninth grade, I decided to sign up for the first acting class St. Mark’s had. From there, it’s been something I’ve learned to enjoy.” Even through all of his struggles, he has been able to persevere. Two months ago, he found out he would be starring in a one act play at Independent Schools Association of the Southwest art festival called ‘Jesus on the Oil Tank.’ “It was an honor to find out I got the role,” Schlehuber said. “It was the first time that I was really going to completely throw myself out there. We performed in front of He has taken these moments in over 100 people at ISAS, stride and moved forward. It’s I needed to make been amazing to see Ajay step out so sure I was truly ready. of his comfort zone and take risks.” That took a lot of mental — Chudar Schlehuber, Ajay’s mother preparation.” Chudar especially up and volunteer myself or reach out admires her son’s work ethic and to community service projects,” Schlethe fact that he has never expressed huber said. “Stuttering is a big mental resentment. game, so it is a lot easier to talk if you “When he first signed up for Acting understand what you want to say, or Styles 1 as a ninth grade elective,” you are talking to people you know.” Chudar said, “he said that he wasn’t interested in being on stage but was After years of work, Schlehuber signing up so he could work backfinally started to see progress. stage.” “The beginning of eighth grade Schlehuber says that of all of the was when I really went from stutterpeople in his life, his mother has ing a little bit, after working on it for played the biggest role in helping him all these years, to barely stuttering overcome his stutter. or stuttering the amount the average “She would always drive me to all person would,” Schlehuber said. my sessions, and she spent an enorHe thanks this major change in his mous amount of time trying to take life to a fellow classmate encouragcare of me or help me work on things,” ing him to apply for an eighth grade Schlehuber said. “She’s always been a improv class. big supporter.”

“

STORY Eric Yoo, Peter Orsak PHOTO Blake Broom

Middle School Choir to embark on traditional England tour this summer by Siddhartha Sinha wenty-three middle schoolers will be traveling to England for their 17th international choir tour June 5-16. Led by Director of Treble Choristers and Organist Glenn Stroh and chaperoned by humanities instructor Greg Crook, Middle School Assistant Head Jason Lange and fourth grade instructor Shannon Nadalini, the choristers will visit Windsor and Salisbury in southern England before their final performance at Tewkesbury Abbey, but the majority of the tour will be a residency. “The heart of our trip will be a choral residency at Hereford Cathedral,” Stroh said. “Our boys have been invited to rehearse and sing alongside the boy choristers there. This will give them the rare opportunity to collaborate with one of the world’s best choirs of men and boys.” While in residency, the middle schoolers will have the opportunity to work with not only Stroh but also other renowned artists. “I’m very excited to be directing the choir in these amazing spaces,” Stroh said. “The boys will get to collaborate with the choirmaster of Hereford Cathedral, Mr. Geraint Bowen, and two exceptional organists, Mr. Peter Dyke, the organist of Hereford Cathedral, and Mr. James Lancelot, the former director of music of Durham Cathedral.” The choristers will also get to visit some tourist attractions.

“Some highlights will be visiting Windsor Castle,” Stroh said, “seeing the best-preserved of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta and visiting a filming location for the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films.” During days without these attractions, the singers will serve the communities they visit while resting for their performances. “A typical day will include breakfast together, morning rehearsal, an excursion or activity, another meal together and some downtime with games of capture-the-flag or cricket before putting on their choir vestments to rehearse and sing a service of Choral Evensong for the public,” Stroh said. “After a job well done, the boys will return to eat dinner together and play games or join in another group activity before heading to bed.” Stroh is looking forward to the coming summer, and he’s grateful for the choristers’ dedication to the choir, hoping to give back a more worldly perspective. “This is such a great group of students,” Stroh said, “and I’m thrilled they will have a chance to share these experiences and make memories lasting a lifetime. These boys love to sing, and this will give them a chance to really shine as singers. Beyond their musical growth, being able to participate in a tour like this helps them gain perspective and come together as people of the world”

by Will Perchersky pproaching an entire school year in a different country with a different family speaking a different language, sophomore Josh Mysoré is prepared to take on an unforgettable study-abroad experience in Spain next year. Mysoré has a passion for the Spanish language. When he learned about the opportunity, he knew it was right for him. “I’ve been here since first grade, so I’ve developed a love for Spanish over time,” Mysoré said. “Whether it be in first grade with [Lower School Spanish teacher Eslendy] Noble to Middle School, it’s been a growing love.” Mysoré found out about the program through teachers in the Foreign Language Department. He took time to learn more about the opportunity that caught his interest. “I talked to [Cecil H. and Ida Green Master Teaching Chair Marsha] McFarland and [J.J. Connolly Master Teaching Chair Nancy] Marmion, and I found out about the proJosh gram,” Mysoré Mysoré sophomore said. “I went to the informational session, talked to the person who ran it, and immediately, I felt like it was something I wanted to do.” Mysoré wants to move away from the typical learning environment that Marksmen experience here. “I love St. Mark’s, but if you look around at the campus and students, everyone is very similar,” Mysoré said. “We all strive to take as many APs as possible and get leadership positions in clubs.”

This opportunity will allow Mysoré to immerse himself in a culture different than the one he has been accustomed to for the past ten years. “For me, education is more than just taking AP’s and going to the best colleges,” Mysoré said. “It’s really about learning, so I wanted to have an experience in which I had the opportunity to meet new people, be in a new culture, and do something besides St. Mark’s.” Although exciting, the year away comes with some concerns. “I’m definitely terrified,” Mysoré said. “There’s no doubt. There’s a lot that could go wrong.” With this decision, Mysoré has one goal in mind. “I want to be fluent in Spanish,” Mysoré said. “I consider myself a pretty good student, but this is that push over the level of just speaking classroom Spanish versus actually speaking Spanish.” Mysoré decided to choose the longer opportunity because he felt that it would be more beneficial than the shorter, more common semester-long programs. “I only found programs that really put you in a completely different environment in year-long opportunities,” Mysoré said. “It’s not just with English-speaking American students in a dorm. I felt like I needed a year versus a semester because I wanted a completely separate experience.” Furthermore, Mysoré knows this experience will allow him to grow and improve himself when it all comes to an end. “I’m definitely not fearless, but those experiences are part of life and that’s part of the whole process,” Mysoré said. “You go through a whole bunch of failure to come out stronger.”

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THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

Sophomore to intern with journalist this summer by Toby Barrett ophomore Michael Anderson will be working with investigative journalist Robert Riggs this summer. Riggs, an experienced journalist, is a former television reporter who now works on his crime podcast, The True Crime Reporter Show. While Anderson was looking for a summer job, his parents, close with Riggs, recommended that he look into working with the former television reporter. “I asked my parents if they had any recommendations [for a job],” Anderson said. “And they told me about him, and one conversation led to another. He asked me to come over every week day during the summer and help him out with things.” Though still committed to school, Anderson has already begun working Saturdays for Riggs, helping out with various tasks. “It really depends on the day,” Anderson said. “It’s usually whatever he needs. Sometimes I’ll organize stuff on his website or I’ll help him set up the lighting for his crime podcast he does. It’s usually odd jobs.” Riggs has been in journalism for decades, traveling the world in search of news. “He was one of the advisors for the journalist who broke the Watergate scandal,” Anderson said. “He went to Iraq, I think he went to Afghanistan and he’s traveled across the world and chased stories. He’s won the Peabody award with Oprah.” As internet news became increasingly prevalent and cable news increasingly less watched, however, Riggs’s professional focus shifted to internet marketing, as well as the adaptation of news companies onto new platforms on the internet.

POLITICAL HISTORY

If not now, when? Junior Aaron Weiser’s grandfather Dan Weiser saw a long, tumultuous career in politics, applying mathematics to make fair districts.

Anderson believes the decades of work Riggs has contributed are important. “A lot of his stories are breaking prison scandals and exposing bribery in Dallas, and exposing abuse in the Texas juvy system,” Anderson said. “His journalism has definitely impacted everyone for the better. And his work now, helping companies transition onto the internet, is also definitely helping the newer generation have access to things.” Through the work he has done so far, Anderson has become closer with Riggs and received valuable advice. “After spending a lot of time with him,” Anderson said, “I got to hear a lot of his stories and a lot of his wisdom about jobs and going around the world and what that means for the future.”

3 blue • 2 red

MATH IN POLITICS In an example population with five districts and a certain amount of voters (each with 12 red voters and 13blue voters), redistricting can produce districts favoring either party.

ourt is in session. It’s eight in the morning, and Martin Weiser is tired. Every remark the plaintiff makes, every rebuttal the defendant counters, every echo throughout the marble walls of the Supreme Court of the United States is barely enough to keep him awake. His father stands to the judges, to the justices, to the law. He produces a document, a string of figures and calculations, and he weaves through his arguments with mathematical precision. What finally wakes him up, though, is the sound of a gavel against a wooden desk. ••• Dan Weiser, father of Martin Weiser and grandfather of junior Aaron Weiser, began studying with a paradigm that would come to permeate his family: mathematics. But Dan came upon an unforeseen connection to his studies. “Like a lot of PhDs, he thought about becoming a professor in college,” Martin said. “But Martin Weiser he was also Son of Dan Weiser interested in politics. And the story goes, he asked my grandfather, who was a professor at University of Houston, and my grandfather told him the horror stories of college politics ― about the rarely seen warfare going on between professors to get tenure or to not get tenure, debating all sorts of little tiny things as if they’re really important, and my dad supposedly thought, ‘real politics is easy.’” The linchpin was his intrigue in mathematical politics: the numbers of fairness. In his early years, this interest was regarding money. After his graduation, Weiser worked stints at significant oil companies like Exxon before working in research for Mobil Oil, helping to bid on leases in their research and development department. But by the early 70s, the politics of people had become

1 blue • 4 red

more pronounced, especially to Weiser, and in the midst of the civil rights movement, mathematics played an unprecedented role in the concept of fairness. “By constitutional law, we have a census every ten years,” Weiser said, “and that’s done on the ‘0 years, 1950, 1960, et cetera. In 1970, they had a census. Normally, you’re supposed to reapportion. When the census comes in, Congress decides how many house seats each state gets, which is controversial, because it decides ‘what is fair?’ There are only 435 seats in the Hose, so if you gain one, that means someone else had to lose one.” Reynolds v. Sims, a 1964 landmark Supreme Court case, established a seemingly decisive ‘one-man-one-vote’ system, requiring legislative districts to be equal in population. But the margin of leeway accepted by the court, hovering around ten percent, seemed to carry an uncomfortable bias for Weiser. Dan sued the state of Texas, because while Texas had adhered to the margin the Supreme Court had established in 1964, Weiser believed, with mathematical proofing, that there was a newer, better option: his Plan B. Weiser v. Bullock pitted Dan Weiser against Secretary of State Bob Bullock, and Weiser’s victory garnered the institution of Plan B ― at least temporarily. “When the time came, it went to the Supreme Court,” Martin said. “It was still Weiser v. Bullock. But when it was actually heard in the Supreme Court, it became White v. Weiser because my dad had originally argued at the District Court level, and he had won. But now it flips, and now he’s the defendant.” His Plan B standing under fire by White and the Supreme Court, Weiser turned to an alternate — Plan C. Backed by figures calculated by adding machines, Weiser’s Plan C successfully stood against the deviations of previous plans, and on June 18, 1973, after four months’ debate, the court ruled in favor of Weiser. “Of course, my dad was into redistricting,” Martin said. “He won a court case about it. But he had a lot of general themes, like the environment, women’s rights, civil rights and then the concept of being busy. He was always doing stuff; he was always talking to or meeting with people.” His other legacy, Martin says, was single-member districts. Weiser

worked to contrast single-member districts with the antiquated, definitionally disproportional plurality-at-large voting systems, in which representation was less specific and based around voting capital, rather than population. To Weiser, mathematically ensuring the soundness of voting districts was interwoven with the enfranchisement of the country’s historically restrained people. “It’s a really crazy way to vote,” Martin said. “We used to elect all the members of the Dallas city council at-large, meaning that everybody in the city voted for every single separate number of every part of the city. That meant that certain parts of Dallas had an enormous influence over everything.” This particular heritage has bestowed onto his family a sense of pragmatic altruism, the belief that not only should one want to help others, but one should work to make that help a reality. This progress, according to the family, arises from healthy discussion. “My grandfather’s legacy taught me that discussion is very good,” Aaron said, “and disagreeing with people can be Aaron advantageous Weiser Junior to get the best opinions out of a lot. Having Plan Bs and Plan Cs, creating a fair place with a lot of room for nuance is super important ― being progressive and wanting the best for everybody.” The family’s Jewish heritage also appears to them as a source of inspiration. In the words of Hillel, to whom Martin recounts his father’s admiration, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?” “My dad’s sense was if you look at the civil rights,” Martin said, “it’s a question of how long are people going to have to wait. They’re suffering, actual suffering. It’s not theoretical. It’s not, ‘Oh, we’ll get to that.’ No, it’s people who are actually living and dying ― or suffering at least ― or it’s not as good as it should be. And people are second-class citizens. This is real stuff in real people’s lives, so, “if not now, when?” He wanted it now. And he lost a lot of fights; of course, you do. But he was really good, and so he won more than he thought he should have.”

STORY Jamie Mahowald, Austin Williams ILLUSTRATION Jamie Mahowald

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Marksmen Ball to kick off tomorrow

PHOTOJOURNALISM

Photography at the edge

For the last two years, freshman Ekansh Tambe has traveled to five different borders across four different continents to capture pictures of what really happens at these tense locations. SPEAKING UP Standing on the iconic red dot, freshman Ekansh Tambe shared his experiences and the stories he’s heard at the borders in a Ted Talk April 15 in hopes to bring a new perspective to his audience.

AT THE BORDER The stretch of fence (upper left) was taken during Thanksgiving Break in 2017 at Sasabe, Arizona at the U.S.-Mexico border. During winter break of last school year, freshman Ekansh Tambe (bottom left) snapped a photo at the Korean DMZ in the Joint Security Area 25 feet from the spot where a North Korean soldier was shot while defecting just two months earlier.

he headlines seemed to never stop: Illegal immigrant statistics. Border patrols overstretched. President Trump wants to build the wall. Two years ago in the summer of his seventh grade year, freshman Ekansh Tambe saw all the controversy in the news surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border. Curious to see what was really going on with his own eyes, the young photojournalist planned a short weekend trip to Brownsville, Texas. It was just an idea. He’d snap a few photos and go back home. From the very first day, Tambe realized that, whether he was talking to the residents, the state troopers or immigrants, they all had inspiring stories that brought a fresh perspective, a perspective that needed be to shared. ••• From that first trip to Brownsville, Tambe has turned his initial curiosity into a multi-year photography project, covering not only the entire U.S.-Mexico border but also the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the borders of Israel, the Spain and Moroccan border and the remnants of the Berlin Wall. The initially curiosity-driven trip became a moving photojournalistic journey for Tambe after hearing stories from various people at the border. “Meeting all those people and hearing their stories was so awesome that I decided that I wanted to do the entire border,” Tambe said. “So, then I did that over a total of 11 days, spread out over three total trips. That was so incredible and inspiring that I decided I want to do all these other different world borders.” The first story he heard at the border, a story from a state trooper, was especially

moving for Tambe, giving him a taste of just how severe and dangerous the situation was on both sides of the border. “She told me that the worst she had seen there was a mother in Mexico who had to choose between floating her twoyear-old daughter across the Rio Grande in the hopes of adoption in the U.S. or giving her over to the cartel for trafficking,” Tambe said. “That was the very first story I heard at the border, and it was really impactful.” Beginning his documentation of the border, Tambe found help from unexpected people, such as border town residents. “[There was a woman] who voluntarily gave my whole family a tour of her border town for four hours until midnight,” Tambe said, “and she took us to places that we wouldn’t otherwise have dared to go — places that we just weren’t comfortable with going to.” The experiences he had with people at the border towns changed previous notions Tambe had about the border and people who lived near it. “As I started to travel along all of them and document my journey with photography and meet all the people and hear their stories, I realized that all the people are just like you and me. There are different problems at all these different borders, but they all have people just like you and me,” Tambe said. After documenting a place as politically controversial as the southern border, Tambe realized that the first step to coming to a solution for the border was to listen to everyone’s point of view. “The first step in all of this is gaining perspective of everybody, of the Border

STORY Tianming Xie, Axel Icazbalceta PHOTOS Courtesy Ekansh Tambe

Patrol agents, of the residents, of the people inside the US and opposite your political party,” Tambe said. “Gaining the perspective of everybody I’d say is the first step to really solving whatever problem you want to solve.” However, despite his journey at the border, Tambe sees himself as just an informer, not as the person who will answer the question of what needs to be done. “As a photographer, I think it’s my job to document the facts, talk to the people, and then present everybody else who can’t do these things with the facts so that they can make an educated, well-informed decision about what needs to happen, about all of these things,” Tambe said, “so I don’t think it’s my place to say exactly what needs to be done.” To contrast with the relatively close U.S.-Mexico border, Tambe also visited the Korean DMZ, where the tour was not as welcoming. “You’re only allowed inside the DMZ if you’re with a private guided tour,” Tambe said, “so then I had to a tour there and got to go to the places where the tour guide was taking me, so I didn’t have as much leeway to go to exactly the places I wanted to go, but that’s understandable, obviously.” Looking ahead to the future, Tambe continues to explore possible events and places to photograph and hear the stories of the people over there. “I’m thinking of maybe in the future doing the Venezuela-Colombia border and traveling with the caravans coming to the US,” Tambe said, “but there’s a lot of research that’s going to go into that which I have yet to begin, so that’s a little further out in the future.”

by Trevor Crosnoe he Marksmen Ball will take place tomorrow evening at the Belo Mansion downtown. The event, which is the seniors’ last formal dance, includes a dinner and the unveiling of the yearbook and its dedicatee. Seniors, their dates and their parents will attend. The evening begins with photos followed by a reception. As the meals begin, the Marksmen Ball video is shown. According to Senior Class Co-sponsor Joe Milliet, it is a highlight of the night. “In the video, they show three pictures for each boy in the Senior Class,” Milliet said. “There’s a picture when they’re little, then one when they’re about Middle School age, then one when they’re in Upper School.” After the video concludes, the Senior Class sponsors go on stage and make a few remarks before the yearbook is unveiled. The dance is appropriately titled the “Marksmen Ball” after the name of the yearYearbook book, The dedicatees, past 5 years Marksmen. Yearbook 2018 Curtis Smith adviser Ray 2017 Westbrook Dr. Bruce begins the Westrate reveal by 2016 recognizing Dr. John Perryman the seniors 2015 who created Jim Bob the yearWomack book. 2014 “I bring Bill Kysor out all the yearbook guys, the seniors who worked on the yearbook, and I introduce them and tell everyone what they did,” Westbrook said. After the staff is introduced, the editor of the yearbook will go up to give a description of the book and present it to the crowd. At the end of his speech, the editor reveals the dedicatee of the yearbook. “That’s always my favorite moment of the ball because usually, the person has no idea,” Westbrook said. “The editor will give him or her the first copy of the yearbook and then we ask them to say a few words. They’re usually shocked.” After the dedicatee is announced, the mother-son dance begins. “The dance floor is really crowded,” Milliet said. “It’s a slow dance and there isn’t much space to move around.” At this point in the night, the DJ begins his set and plays for the rest of the ball.

By the numbers

5 borders

4 continents

11,000+ photos taken

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

diversions

Fun with the family

Upper School Final Exam Schedule

With Mother’s Day and Father’s Day just around the corner, here are some activities around Dallas that will help you celebrate the holidays.

Monday • English finals (in class)

NORTHPARK MALL

Not nutritious, but delicious DOWNTOWN DALLAS

Dive into the city’s history

HEADING OUT La Duni’s NorthPark Center location is augmented by their coffee and dessert studio, serving cakes, cookies and exotic coffees. Photo courtesy La Duni Latin Kitchen

What better way to celebrate your mother than to take her out to brunch? La Duni Latin Kitchen, well-known around the Dallas area for the incredible food, drinks, and especially desserts—it has the best cakes and cupcakes I have ever had, and that’s not an exaggeration. On Mother’s Day only, La Duni is offering a three-course brunch for mothers and their families. The meal consists of mimosas, a gigantic buffet with all the necessities—plus the best bread pudding you will ever have, if it’s the same one from last year—and a take home treat. Be quick, however—the event is reservation only. The brunch will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. La Duni has two locations: one at NorthPark and another at 4620 McKinney Ave.

Tuesday

This historic part of downtown Dallas is most notable for being the place where former president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And while there’s plenty to learn about the tragic event at the Sixth Floor Museum, the West End Historic District is full of other activities and restaurants to keep your family busy for an entire day. The Dallas World Aquarium, a surprisingly beautiful and well-kept gem of downtown Dallas, is a great place for you and your family to spend a few hours. In addition to the aquarium, the district offers Segway tours and is also home to other notable museums like the Holocaust Museum and the Old Red Museum.

• English finals (in class)

Wednesday 22 • Reading day (no classes; review sessions at school)

TIMES PAST Looking south on West End’s Pacific Avenue, the Dallas Historic District boasts a refuge of artifacts from old Texas. Photo courtesy Passingthru

CITY PARK

Thursday • Foreign language finals

Green in a sea of gray An excellent place to go on any occasion, Klyde Warren Park lies in the middle of downtown Dallas’s buzzing streets, making it a refreshing new experience from your quiet neighborhood. Every food truck there is top-notch, so lunch there is always a win. And it’s one of the newest and most intricate parks in the city: there’s something for everyone. It’s a great biking environment—it’s easily accessible from almost anywhere and it has bike racks. There’s also a nice trail with trees and other greenery. There’s a picnic area, an outdoor auditorium, playgrounds—yes, more than one—and water fountains. Plus, it’s surrounded by museums and other cool attractions that are at most a five-minute walk away.

ON THE GREEN Klyde Warren Park occupies a central location, nestled between the energy of Uptown and the cultural significance of the Performing Arts District. Photo courtesy HRA Advisors

• Last day of classes

Friday

• Math finals • Upper School Final Assembly • Commencement

FOOD MARKET

Fresh off the farm FROM THE ROOTS One of the farmer’s market’s most famous attractions, The Shed is an openair canopy where one can buy a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and food product from local vendors. Photo courtesy Dallas Farmers Market

Although many may not know it exists, the Dallas Farmers Market is one of the biggest farmers markets in the state of Texas. It’s one of the most visited farmers markets in the area as well, so much so that parking is actually hard to find — I recommend reading their parking tips on their website. The big attraction of the market is the 26,000 square foot vending area full of a grand variety of vendors. There’s also tons of restaurants in the area that serve food made from fresh ingredients taken straight from the market. The market also hosts a variety of events, it has coffee shops, and it has bars to relax. It’s a great place to take a family, and you can also buy your meals for the coming week while you’re there.

Tuesday • History finals

Wednesday 29 • Science finals

COMPILATIONS Cristian Pereira PHOTOS Creative Commons

The grid

COMPILATIONS Jamie Mahowald, Cristian Pereira

Finals and school may be taking a toll, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any fun. Here are some events to help you kick back and relax. Memorial Day Music Fest What

Price

Location

When

Who to bring

First ever live music festival, celebrating our veterans.

Free admission, parking prices vary

Klyde Warren Park

May 26

Partiers and good-timers

Baccalaureate

Addison Kaboom Town

Shawn Mendes concert

A farewell to the seniors, Famous fireworks show The young singer is on led by the faculty and complete with music tour to promote his new the St. Mark’s Choir. and an air show. self-titled album.

Free

St. Mark’s Chapel

Addison Circle Park

May 21 7:30 p.m.

July 3

Seniors and their families

Family

Aladdin, The Musical From the same producer as The Lion King, the Broadway musical comes to Dallas

$29.50

$30

American Airlines Center

Fair Park

July 22

Shawn Mendes fans

June 6 7:30 p.m.

Disney fans

perspe

16, 17

ALUMNI NETWORK

On the shoulders of

giants

With the growing strength of the alumni network and the prominence of the alumni app, a tool to help connect alumni with one another—whether one year or one decade apart— graduates such as Dean Itani ’11 have found it much easier and accessible to obtain mentorship, advice and job opportunity from fellow graduates.

tudy biology, get through pre-med and get a residency. Nothing much else could cross the mind of Dean Itani ‘11, and his pursuit of his dream: to become a doctor. But something didn’t feel right. Four years of bio, and more for a residency? His long-perceived goal was falling away. He just didn’t feel like his heart was in it. Economics seemed like a path he enjoyed, and business intrigued him. But where do I start? Then he rediscovered the resource that had been with him ever since he walked across that stage at Commencement. He, like every other graduate, had a knowledge bank on speed dial through the alumni network. He could always give a Marksman a call. ••• The alumni network is often an experience talked about, but the depth of the connections is seldom explored. Connections made go beyond simply material concerns but rather can help create genuine cross-generational friendships. To Headmaster David Dini, the connections formed are organic and often create a holistic and reciprocal relationship with the school and alumni. “It’s a real symbiotic relationship that requires care and feeding,” Dini said. “In other words, whether you’re young or you’re more removed from the school, there’s a desire in the same way to care for those in your community. You search for opportunities to benefit from it, and then you also have a real desire to contribute to it.” The highly interconnected network of alumni creates a wealth of knowledge and experience from a wide range of industries and trades. The Alumni

Office facilitates the experiences necessary for more organic connections to happen and contribute to the strength of the network. “I think the idea that you can, by your own knowledge and experience, contribute to the betterment of another Marksman’s experience; that’s something that people love,” Dini said. “So I think that sort of innate goodwill and sense of common experience, common connection and common bond, strikes at the core of what makes the alumni network and the community so robust.” Dean Itani ‘11 knows how he can count on his marksmen for help. “Relative to the Harvard network, what I think of the St. Mark’s network is it’s certainly smaller,” Itani said. “But I have a greater degree of confidence that anyone I ask for help, guidance or advice, they will answer.” When Itani graduated from here in 2011, he went to Harvard College with a clear career path in his mind. “My goal was to be a doctor,” Itani said. “That was always the goal. But I didn’t want to go to school and study biology for four years, before getting my residency to study biology.” Even though he was preparing for his career as a

physician, Itani explored a variety of subjects during his time at Harvard and eventually came to the realization that he was interested in other careers as well. “I ended up getting to my senior year before I decided all this pre-med work I’ve been doing, all the classes – I didn’t actually like it that much,” Itani said. “I was just doing it with the end goal in mind.”

after hi intervi he cou At

Because Itani spent his time in college preparing for the medical route, he found that he wasn’t quite prepared for other careers. “I graduated my senior spring without a job,” Itani said. “I didn’t have a great view, a great understanding of what the world of business would look like. I didn’t really have a great plan.” So he went to the first place he could think of: the alumni network. Ken Hersh ‘81, Bush Presidential Center President and CEO, agreed to meet with him, just to talk over what the world of business was like. “He sat down with me for 45 minutes––which now, knowing Mr. Hersh more and more––he’s such a busy guy and I didn’t appreciate how big a deal 45 minutes of uninterrupted time was,” Itani said. They both realized Itani had a lot of work left to do to figure out what specific path to go down. Hersh gave him strict guidelines to narrow down his search for a new career: research any and every industry in business; don’t accept a single job, regardless of the pay or company; and talk to as many people possible. “I spent 30 days talking to 30 or 40 people,” he said. “And a majority of those were St. Mark’s guys. A few of

then-B prepar “T who kn with yo imagin resourc Af numbe commu but als “S brings or New I knew talk to

STORY Ishan Gupta, Wallace White, Aaron Thorne, Christopher Wang ILLUSTRATION James Shiao

There’s an app for that? HOME PAGE The first screen every user is greeted by is a comprehensive list of ways to connect. Alumni have the option to find other alumni using a filtered search, scroll through their graduating classmates, find the person they’re looking for on the map or view the entire directory of over 7,000 alumni registered in the database. Additionally, the user can explore schoolrelated news and achievements from on and off campus.

An app that connects alumni to a database that helps create mutual connections – although it’s a t current students are unaware of either the app of how to get started on it. Here’s the step-by-step gu MAPPED OUT If you’re out of town or planning to move, the world map has nodes indicating the current residence of alums who are registered with the app, each of which displays any available contact information. Clicking a node will lead the user to a profile of the individual. Searches can also be filtered depending on what specific criteria you’re looking for Marksmen dot the globe from Asia to Europe to America, and anywhere in between.

NARROWED DOWN In order for alums to find people that may share certain life aspects with them, such as occupation, education or location, a selection of filters are provided on the filters screen to narrow down the user’s search. Once the filters are applied, users can either use the map to click the nodes to lead to alumni profiles that match their search, or they can find a list of alums that match the criteria without the visualization.

ectives

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

They said it Former Marksmen share their experiences from the alumni network and fellow alumni throughout the world. Reaching out. The way I’ve done it [utilizing alumni] is you call these alums and see what their experience is and the wealth of knowledge in our alumni network is absurd. You have people pretty Nick much in every industry, Chaiken from finance to oil to gas and ’18 Duke engineering. It’s pretty much University student any industry you could think of. I always make sure when I’m talking to these alums that I’m not wasting their time. When I’m in that position where a kid is reaching out to me, I’m definitely going to be happy to help. I’m busy? Doesn’t matter, because I know how much help its has been for me. Taking initiative. I got on the directory and just looked up by industry, you know, like oil and gas. I found Patrick Collins ’98 and he emails me back Drew Nicholas immediately and pulls me ‘09 into his office introduced Wharton Business me to one of his partners, School student and they just sit down, and I tell them what I’m trying to do, and I was trying to get into investment banking, in oil and gas. And they’re like, “man, here’s how its kind of works, you know,” He just gives me the one on one version of everything. And we’ve kept in touch. That was seven, eight years ago

them were Harvard guys.” And by the end of the month, he decided to go to work for Boston Consultant Group [BCG]. But since it was the summer his senior year of pre-graduate school, and normal iews would happen in fall of senior year, the only job uld land was in Dubai. t least until his old classmate Joe Loftus ’11 called. “[Loftus] had just started in the Dean Dallas office of BCG, and in the first Itani ‘11 Aptos Re- day of member training they said tail Chief they were still looking for one or two of staff to people to fill out the class in Dallas.” the CEO It was a big change for Itani, but he decided the job was worth it. Talking it through with Loftus, BCG consultant John Michel ’10 and other alums, Itani red for and landed an interview a month later. Those interviews are very peculiar, and having people now the process, prepping you, doing the mock cases you - it makes a huge difference,” Itani said. “I can’t ne going into one of those interviews without that ce.” fter having been involved in 10600 Preston Rd for a er of years, Itani has found that the unifying, close-knit unity here has a large impact not only in high school so beyond the campus in the business world. St. Mark’s is that unifying background,” Itani said. “It people together. I was walking on the street in Atlanta w York, and I saw a guy with a St. Mark’s sweatshirt. w it was our St. Mark’s, and I had to stop him and just him.”

tool well-used by graduates, most uide to the alumni app. USER PROFILE After the user finds the alum he’s looking for, he reaches the alum’s profile, which includes a list of ways to get connected. Users can get a better understanding of the alum’s personal history by looking through their past jobs and education, and if they’re interested in speaking with alumni, users can contact him by e-mail, phone or home address. The site only shows information the alum allows.

Facts about the Alumni App The Pride magazine,

the alumni directory and a page dedicated to your own class are just a few things that make up the app. In addition, the app features a system that allows you to become a mentor, and tagging you as one in order for younger alums to find people that could help them jump into their respective fields.

WHERE TO DOWNLOAD The Alumni app is available on both iOS and Google Play

the amount of years since the app was released.

7,095

number of community members available on the app as of May 2019

How to gain access to the app In order for current students to utilize the app, they must first follow these guidelines: •

•

• •

First, you must join the student

alumni association or talk to Ahlberg and Ribman Family Director of Alumni Relations Alex Eshelbrenner ’04 and be briefed on its proper usage and how to gain access Second, you may make an account either by linking an already existing LinkedIn account or by using your own e-mail. Third, wait for the Alumni Office to confirm your account and grant you access to the network. Fourth, you must understand that the information attainable through the app is a privilege, and the sensitive information accessible must be responsibly used.

Recognizing Marksmen. I used to play this game with my kids when we were traveling on spring break or in the summertime. My Paul son wears sweatshirts 12 Gendender ‘87 months a year, so when Alumni Board President we’d travel, I’d tell him to bring his St. Mark’s sweatshirt and we’d play the game. You could be in San Francisco, New York or D.C. wearing that St. Mark’s sweatshirt and invariably, someone is going to stop you and go, ‘Oh, you go to St. Mark’s!’ Assembling a team. With a few others, I have also worked to pull together an informal group of alumni in the legal field. As part of that process, we reached out to graduates working in the industry. Interestingly, one of the (many) highly accomplished graduates was Ryan Brannan, Class of ’99 - who was serving as a Texas Department of Insurance Commissioner. Turns out, I had forgotten that I had worked with Ryan and had a couple of long Buffalo Wild Wings lunches with him years ago when he was a new attorney. When he reminded me, it all clicked, Joe Zopolsky but I forgot at first because it ‘92 Attorney at had been ten years. Glast, Phillips & Murray PC I think that is a microcosm of the way that, although we move further away from classroom and into the professional realm, keeping in touch with other alumni––young and old - has become for lots of us not only a top priority and manifestation of our passion for the school, but also an integral part of our own professional life missions as well. Getting connected. I was offered through my connection with the alumni network and Mr. Genender, he was very helpful in getting me in contact with Michael Sorrell, the president of Paul Quinn college, about helping in a program he’s doing this summer. I didn’t have a way to contact him, and I Jimmy Rodriguez didn’t want to Facebook ’18 Duke Univer- message him because I sity student figured that’d be kind of weird. Mr. Genender was able to help me get in contact with Mr. Sorrell about this program, and all I really had to do was send him my resume and my email, and he made one or two edits. He basically vouched for me with Sorrell and he ended up being like, ‘Oh, I’d love to have him.’ And so I got it because Mr. Genender helped me out, which was really nice.

culture

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

STUDY HABITS

Education to the beat With students all over campus listening to music while they study, its use begs the question: Does music really help?

t’s a typical day’s pile of homework. A math assignment from the textbook, a science worksheet, a little bit of reading in English and history and a quick foreign language activity. Not to mention the daily review of notes from class earlier that day. Only one way to get through it. Earphones in. Favorite playlist on. Time to get to work. Humming the song running through your mind, all the work gets done in the normal few hours. But what if that homework time could be hours shorter? What if that song in your head — the one you thought was helping you get through the night — was actually hurting you? What if your late nights weren’t because of the homework? What if they were because of the playlist? •••

Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie sees your brain attenuates to certain noises and doesn’t listening to music while studying as another form of attend in the same way. So if a train goes by your multitasking, and as with any form of multitasking, house every night, eventually, you will stop waking it negatively affects the quality of work. up to that. And it’s not just noise, it’s also smells. You “For the most part,” Van Drie said, “despite will get desensitized to it. Basically, you get desensia lot of people’s thought, our brains are not wired tized to white noise quickly because it’s just static.” for multitasking, and [listening to music] is another channel. If we’re attending to something else, then Similar to how Van Drie doesn’t see white noise as it’s difficult to attend to the task that we’re supposed special from a neurological perspective, Director of to be doing.” Treble Choristers and Organist Glenn Stroh doesn’t But Van Drie said music can also act as “a see white noise as a form of music based on his bridge,” helping shut down other distractions as definition. long as both the music and the task are appropriate. “While some might get some of the same bene“Lyrics are not helpful because you’re attending fits from white noise that they can get from music,” to the words,” Van Drie said, “but again, it depends Stroh said, “I consider music to be a creation which on the task. If you’re going to sit down and do a roucommunicates something to a listener, and I have a tine, boring task and you didn’t want to do it, using hard time applying that criteria to white noise.” the music to narrow the number of things you are Stroh, an avid music listener and performer in PLUGGED IN As listening to music while studying becomes more and more common, students need to ask how well music works for them, attending to might be a way, if you had headphones nearly all his activities, uses specific genres to incite on, to restrict your range of attention. For somecertain feelings, appeal to his disposition and stimu- how necessary music is for them and which subjects they need it in. body who has a hard time late activity. would use music to help study for quizzes, tests and beginning a task, I would say, “[The genre music he was performing. ‘Listen to some music to get I listen to] really “When memorizing something for a quiz or test you zoomed into your chair has to do more in school,” Stroh said, “I would sing the words or People are working to hold your and your computer.’” with my mood and numbers I was trying to learn to a well-known tune, attention because your attention is the task at hand,” and usually found it easier to recall that information. Nevertheless, Van Drie asserts listening to music monetized, so you have to view your Stroh said. “I tend In a similar way, when while doing homework forces time and attention as your most to avoid more I was in conservatory, I I believe it’s the human brain to divide aggressively dissoGlenn Stroh sometimes wrote lyrics to different for itself among tasks, something precious commodity.” nant music when Director musical themes to help me different of Treble — Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie I need to concenit is not set up to do. Rather, Choristers and memorize the notes.” people. For Organist Van Drie claims music has just trate, because it me, it seems Although Stroh has become the most popular medium of entertainment ends up being a distraction for me. If I want to relax, natural to experienced the benefits recall during monotonous tasks like studying. I usually turn to jazz. If I am trying to focus, I might of listening to music while melodies “[Students] will make more errors,” Van Drie listen to Bach or something else from the canon of studying, he understands and identify said. “They can say, ‘I can do this.’ Yes, you can do Western art music. If I need to meet a deadline, it the value of silence in a patterns this. Will you perform as well as if you were focused might be classic rock or hip-hop.” in musical workspace, calling it “a blank canvas [that] sometunes.” and attentive? No, you won’t. Would you do that Apart from his leisure time, Stroh also listens to times can inspire with a new musical idea or revelaDirector while you were taking a test? It’s just that they’re music for his jobs as organist, digital music instruction.” of Treble bored, so they want to mildly entertain themselves tor and director of treble choristers. Stroh endorses the idea of allowing students to Choristers while doing something else. The word multitasking “Some of that listening is directly related to and Organist listen to music while they work, but he added that should be eliminated because it is not a thing. You music or concepts I want to teach to the choir or Glenn Stroh monitoring yourself and staying responsible while can’t do it. It just means error-prone, slow processin digital music and is part of my preparation as a working is imperative, especially when it comes to ing.” teacher and performer,” Stroh said, “but I also listen listening to music. As for white noise, Van Drie doesn’t find anyto music at work simply for enjoyment and have “If [music] is helpful, absolutely,” Stroh said, thing special about it other than how quickly one can found it can either help me relax, focus, get motivat“but we are all different. I think the challenge is to be desensitize to it. ed, or be a moment of transcendence or escape.” honest with yourself when something might become “It’s not special,” Van Drie said. “Eventually, Dating back to his own time in school, Stroh a distraction, and respond accordingly.”

“

STORY Siddhartha Sinha, Tianming Xie ARTWORK Jamie Mahowald

Taking the pulse Results from a poll asking 188 participating upper schoolers how much of a role music plays in their study habits, how much they think it affects them and how often they listen to music otherwise.

Do you listen to music while you study? 80.2%

If yes, what genre of music do you listen to?

Do you think music helps or hurts in studying?

50.3%

In how many other situations do you listen to music? 48.9%

48.1%

31.9% 29.9% 22.9% 19.8%

Yes

10.5%

Pop/Rap

Rock

9.8%

Classical

22.0%

18.1%

6.5%

Country

1.1%

Other

Helps

Hurts

Neither

All

Most

Few

None

culture

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

MUSIC COMPOSER

My Instagram

The piano man

A glance at senior Ayush Saha’s account, @ayushsahaart, where he posts his artwork. In his own words:

Music was just a fascination for sophomore Shiv Yajnik 12 years ago. Today, it’s his passion, his club inspiration and his refuge.

e feels hundreds of eyes following him as he walks onto the bright stage. But he’s not nervous. He doesn’t get stage fright. The notes play in his head. He envisions the music. His fingers are the paintbrush, and the piano is the canvas. After a poised bow, he takes a seat and gently lays his hands on the keys. He takes a deep breath and his fingers glide across the keyboard, letting the music flow free. ••• Sophomore Shiv Yajnik started playing the piano when he was four years old. “I watched my sister’s piano lessons when I was really young,” Yajnik said, “and I was really fascinated with the piano, so I asked my mom if I could take some piano lessons.” At first, he Shiv wasn’t Yajnik Composer deterand pianist mined to practice piano rigorously, but his attitude shifted as he grew older. “When I was in Lower School, I didn’t practice a lot,” Yajnik said. “I did want to go to a higher level, but I didn’t have that much exposure to pianists who played at a higher level. I started practicing more in Middle School, and my practice hours grew more and more until now.” Yajnik learns from two instructors, Alex McDonald, a competitor in the 2013 Van Cliburn international piano competition, and Marcy McDonald, Alex’s mother, and has an hour-long lesson every Friday and Saturday. In addition to the weekly lessons, Yajnik spends up to three hours each day practicing the piano if he has time. To balance his school workload with piano, Yajnik decided not to play sports this year. He wakes up at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. to practice at least an hour before school and will practice after school as well. “The rigor of practicing the piano has taught me to build discipline and diligence in all areas of my life, especially in my academics,” Yajnik said. “I have learned time management and concentration in music practice, and this helps in everything I do.” Yajnik participates in

local, regional and state competitions every month or two. This year he won first place at the Collin County Young Artist Competition and earned the chance to perform with the Plano Symphony Orchestra. But he doesn’t only perform music — he writes it, too. When he was eight years old, Yajnik decided to try his hand at creating his own pieces. “My piano teacher gave me a spiral with a black cover and staff paper in it, and it was that book in which I wrote my first composition,” Yajnik said. After writing an 18-page-long first piece, Yajnik became obsessed with composing. On the way to school, inside restaurants, at home: Every chance he got, he wrote. He’s composed a total of seven pieces and is influenced by the classical music he has studied or listened to. Yajnik also receives instruction from his composition teacher, David Karp, a nationally recognized pianist and composer who has published hundreds of works. “My ideas are original,” Yajnik said. “I always first think of the piece in my mind, improvise it on the piano and then write it on Sibelius, [a music notation software].” Yajnik has also submitted to composing competitions. His two most recent pieces, “Ondine” and “Fantasia quasi Sonata in b-flat minor,” have placed at the state level, and “Ondine” placed nationally. His piece “Celestial Rhapsody” won first place at the state level and earned second nationally, so Yajnik performed it at a state convention for music teachers. He plans to continue participating at national and international competitions.

“Composing music allows me to express my creativity and liberate my thoughts and feelings in a unique way,” Yajnik said. In addition to his performances and compositions, Yajnik took his passion for music to the next level by founding MusiCare this year. MusiCare is a community-service club in which Upper Schoolers perform music at nursing homes and rehabilitation centers for senior citizens once a month. “The students who are a part of this club are gifted musicians,” Yajnik said. “We receive an overwhelming response after each performance, and the residents like to tell us their stories and experiences with music. Every time we perform, we get to engage with the residents, and it is a very positive experience for the performers and the residents.” Although the club doesn’t perform only for senior citizens suffering from mental illnesses or diseases, Yajnik has noticed that music has a positive impact on everyone they have played for. He was inspired to create the club after noticing that his grandfather who has Alzheimer’s disease responded well when he played piano for him. “Music was almost like a mnemonic device for him,” Yajnik said. “It really elevated his mood.” Yajnik plans to continue playing music and might study it in college. “Music is a language through which I directly express my emotions and stories,” Yajnik said. “I know this is something that will continue to be an important part of my life.”

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been obsessed ‘with dinosaurs; my favorite movie is Jurassic

Park, so that’s why I named it “Childhood Obsession”rather than “T-rex” or something like that. I usually do paintings, so with this one sketch that has so much detail to it, I thought it’d be a challenge, which is definitely what I try to have in all of my art. This took about 12 hours to sketch everything, but I split it into about four or five sessions. It was easy for me to get through those 12 hours because I enjoyed it.

I have my charity event every year called ‘FOIL: Festival of Illustrated Literature. I’ve only

had it two times so far. Essentially, what I do is bring together artists and writers from different schools. This year, we had about seven different private schools, and I matched them up. They work together to create exhibitions with different themes. One of the themes was land of the free, so these flowers are supposed to be part of a red, white and blue thing for the land of the free.

COMPOSER After he became fascinated with the piano, sophomore Shiv Yajnik began not only playing the instrument, but also writing his own pieces. Go to https:// youtu.be/ DP5kKO0_ Y5E to watch Yajnik play his original composition “Ondine” on the piano along with a violinist and cellist.

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Arjun Agarwal PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Jerry Zhao

one is called “Great-souled Man,” and ‘itThis was based off a project that we were doing in

English. We were reading Coriolanus, and one of the topics that we were discussing was Aristotle’s version of the great-souled man, what that represents and if it is even possible to have a great-souled man. So we try to connect Coriolanus to that whole topic. This was only for St. Mark’s for a project, which is something I really enjoyed, but it was different from my normal artistic spur of the moment, “I’m just going to paint this because I feel this.”

Headliners Keep an eye out for these upcoming release, concert and drop dates.

VIDEO GAMES

Rage 2 The Sinking City Madden NFL 20 Control Borderlands 3

CONCERTS

Release date

May 14 June 27 Aug. 2 Aug. 27 Sept. 13

Ariana Grande Paul McCartney Florida Georgia Line Jennifer Lopez Khalid

MOVIES

Concert date

May 21 June 14 June 14 June 24 July 23

Aladdin Godzilla: King of the Monsters Toy Story 4 Spider-Man: Far From Home The Lion King

ALBUMS

Release date

May 24 May 31 June 21 July 5 July 19

Beauty Marks, Ciara Dedicated, Carly Rae Jepsen Tim, Avicii (posthumous) Happiness Begins, Jonas Brothers Late Night Feelings, Mark Ronson

Drop date

May 10 May 17 June 6 June 7 June 21

culture

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

MUSIC REVIEW

A beat per week Freshmen Zayn Bhimani and Jack Burdette have examined everything from the intricacies of jazz to Kendrick Lamar’s impact on music on their blog. Luke Piazza: What are your jobs and responsibilities for Daily Bass and Treble (DB&T)? Jack Burdette: What I normally do is edit—for every article I’ve gone through, I put at least one or two edits on it. So that’s what I’ve done consistently, and then I have one article of my own, the tribute piece to Nipsey Hussle, and hopefully I’m going to start doing more of those articles. [Bhimani] actually owns the blog, so he’s the one who submits everything, but I edit everything. Zayn Bhimani: I’m usually on the back hand with the decisions and everything –– what gets posted and who we outline, but in terms of writing, we’re making it invitation-based. If someone wants to write a story, they can just come to me, and I can talk to them about it and edit it. LP: What inspired you to start writing? JB: I think one thing that’s helped a lot in general is that my mom is a writer, and she writes on a blog. So even if it wasn’t a conscious thing, maybe I was following in her footsteps. I have always been into English. It’s always kind of been my favorite subject, and when Zayn told me that he was creating his blog, I was like, “I’d love to kind of help however I can,” and that just kind of turned into me contributing a lot. Jonathan Yin: What caused you to begin reviewing music on DB&T? ZB: The school has the Literary Festival every year, and there was this woman named Amanda Petrusich, and she’s a blogger for the New York Times. She came into my music class with Mr. Stanbury and I found it really interesting. I’ve had a pretty deep

interest in music my entire life. I wanted to try it [blogging] out, so the weekend after the festival, I just took out a computer and tried to create a website and started a blog, just to see how it was –– it just snowballed from there. Now we have a couple posts, and it has a pretty huge popularity. JY: How do you find new artists and albums to review on your website? ZB: I’ve always been listening to not so much popular music but just music in general. I have around 50 playlists on Spotify. I just like exploring music and finding new stuff, so it’s kind of tailored toward new music. It’s more of a blog to find new music and discover more artists. I also have a Twitter where I invite new artists to come and give me their music, and I’ll review it. If it’s good I’ll put it on the blog. LP: How do you plan on expanding DB&T? JB: We’ve had this idea for a while where we get people to do either op-eds, or if they have a particular type of music that they’re really into, then they can write about that. But [freshman] Daniel [Uglunts] is hopefully doing one on opera. We’ve been asking other people, because we have our own niches; we listen mostly to hip hop and rap sort of music, so we have that inclination to write more about that type of stuff. But we want to appeal to the

TUNING IN While Spotify may dominate the music industry, freshmen Zayn Bhimani and Jack Burdette still browse Josey Records for new and old tracks to review.

widest group and the widest audience, so we’re trying to get a lot of people with varied musical tastes and musical opinions and get them to write. JY: How much work goes into each story? ZB: There is definitely a ton of research. Usually, we use albums as references, or we talk about different artists from before. When I’m writing, I like to refer to earlier artists and talk about their songs. I have to listen to all their songs and look up other information about them. Research could take up to two to three hours just to get a sense of what they’re trying to say. INTERVIEWS Luke Piazza, Jonathan Yin PHOTO Ekansh Tambe

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THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

culture

SPRING PLAY

My dear Lady Disdain The school’s drama program produced William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing May 2, 3, 4 and 5. Directed by Toby Vintcent Fine Arts Department Chair Marion Glorioso, the play tells the story of two couples who, through twists and turns, find love through the trickery of their friends. PLANNING IT OUT Act II scene 3: Princes Don Pedro (left: CJ Crawford), Claudio (center: Henry Exall) and Leonato (right: Ruoming Fan) ploy to convince Benedick (offstage: Will Hunt) that Beatrice (offstage: Leah Segal) is in love with him.

MUSIC IN THEATRE Throughout the play, The Musician (Eli Yancey), along with Balthazar (not pictured: Will Mallick), serenades the floor with “O Sole Mio.”

THE PRINCE’S BALL Act II scene 1: Milling about a masquerade party, a group of revelers converse, including Conrade (far left: Beto Beveridge), Benedick (down left: Will Hunt), Beatrice (down left center: Leah Segal), Margaret (center left: Meredith Black), Claudio (center right: Henry Exall), The Musician (up left: Eli Yancey), Balthazar (up right: Will Mallick), Hero (left: Isabella Page), and Don Pedro (far right: CJ Crawford).

IN JEST Act II scene 1: Chatting at a party, Beatrice (right: Leah Segal) jokes with Prince Don Pedro (left: CJ Crawford) about the nature of their relationship with Benedick (offstage: Will Hunt).

IN THE CRUX Act V scene 1: At the peak of the play’s theme of misunderstanding, Claudio (right: Henry Exall) scolds Benedick (left: Will Hunt) for his attitude as Benedick begins to suspect Claudio’s ploys. PHOTOS Ekansh Tambe

buzz

Splashing into summer

As the school year winds down and the three-month-break gets closer, we recommend planning an excursion to a waterpark to cool off. Great Wolf Lodge

reat Wolf Lodge is an indoor and outdoor waterpark that is fun for the whole family. Whether you want a day trip to the parks or a three-night stay with the family, there are plenty of activities to fill your schedule. First off, Great Wolf Lodge offers hotel lodging. With a room to stay in for the night, guests can explore the entire place. They have their iconic “MagiQuest,” a game where you are given a wand along with the freedom to search for treasure chest. With each chest, you are taken on a journey throughout the entire hotel, and it is an entertaining experience for everyone. They also have an arcade, laser tag, a theater and a ropes course. The lodge also contains both an indoor and an outdoor waterpark that is complete with slides and different other pool attractions, as well as a wave pool and a lazy river. But, the main slide has to be the Howlin’ Tornado that takes the rider through a huge cone shaped tube where he rocks back and forth. Great Wolf Lodge offers many activities for the entire family and is a nice getaway for this summer.

Hawaiian Falls

awaiian Falls is an excellent place to take your family for the whole day. I recommend you rent a few chairs in advance — the park gets crowded pretty quickly. The food there is okay, although they have Dippin’ Dots. So how are the slides? Great. Each slide has a unique aspect to it — well, except maybe the ones in the kids section. There’s two tube slides that are equally as fun. There’s a big U-shaped slide that swings you from side to side. But my two favorites top everything else the park has to offer. First, the tallest slide in the park will give you a thrill. It starts up pretty straight, and then there’s a sudden drop. When you see the drop in front of you, you think, “Why did I do this to myself?” And as you plummet dozens of feet back to Earth, you realize this is the only thing you’ve ever wanted to do, and you’ll surely want to go back again. The other slide that’s by far the most fun is the rocket-themed tube slide. You get put in a capsule and hear a three second countdown. When the lifeguard get to zero, the floor falls out from under you and you free fall for a few seconds. It’s exhilarating, and just like the tall slide, you’ll definitely want to do it again. Hawaiian Falls is great for holidays like Fourth of July, or if you just have a free day this summer. It definitely won’t disappoint.

Don’t change it up. “Keep everything simple during these last four weeks and stick to your routines. This is not the time to take on something new.”

Healthy habits. “Be sure to eat healthy and get adequate restorative sleep during the month.”

As Marvel’s decade-old cinematic universe comes to a close, Creative Director Cristian Pereira looks at his favorite films from the series.

1. Avengers: Endgame

The Russos’ storytelling is better than ever, and nobody can deny it makes for an incredible end to the 11-yearold saga.

With so many stand-out moments, Infinity War confirms that the ten-year, 21-film wait for Thanos’s arrival was well worth it.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn turns a group of unknown misfits into household names in the first cosmic-scale entry in the franchise.

4. Iron Man

Hurricane Harbor

urricane Harbor is Six Flags’ water park. Although it may not be as exciting as its roller coaster counterpart, it by no means is not enjoyable. The park is a site to see. When you first walk through the gates, it’s hard to take everything in. It’s much bigger than something like Hawaiian Falls, and the slides definitely look more menacing. The food here is not the best, but after all, you are there for the water slides. For starters, the Black Hole — Hurricane Harbor’s 80-foot goliath — is a huge thrill. When you first see it, you think it’ll be a nice lazy twirl down to the bottom, but you pick up speed pretty quickly. Although waiting in the line on stairs isn’t great, the final parts of the line are interesting, as the top of the slide is space-themed. Another great ride is the Der Stuka. Introduced in 1985, it’s a massive open body slide whose big feature is its massive 72-foot drop. And let me tell you, that drop is one of the scariest, most exciting things I have ever done in my life. And that would make sense — its name literally means “attack plane” in German. Hurricane Harbor is a win. If you’re seeking the Six Flags thrill but are willing to lose some of the magic in favor of cooling off, Hurricane Harbor is the place for you. REVIEWS Cristian Pereira, Eric Yoo ILLUSTRATION Jamie Mahowald

With finals in a couple of weeks, Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie offers her advice as students get ready to take on the biggest tests of the year. Plan ahead. “Make a plan now for these last weeks of school, including all the tasks that need to be completed. Start with a list of final exam times and locations, other exams and papers, sports obligations, other school events, social events and family events. Prioritize the tasks. Make a calendar with all the items and see where you are overloaded and where you can spread tasks out. Execute your priorities.”

A legendary franchise

2. Avengers: Infinity War

Finals season suggestions

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

Stay connected. “Meet with teachers if you’re not sure about a concept and go to review sessions. Remember teachers are here for you; this is their chosen profession because they want to help you learn. Don’t feel intimidated to meet with teachers individually. Many alums are proud of their ability to meet with professors in college and they attribute learning this skill to their time at St. Mark’s.”

Remember to sleep. “If it’s a choice between study more and eight hours of sleep the night before the exam, choose sleep. Your memory retrieval skills are impaired on less than eight hours of sleep.” INTERVIEW Cristian Pereira

Despite being the oldest movie in the franchise, Robert Downey Jr.’s acting, humor, and charisma keeps Iron Man at the top of the list.

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Full of memorable scenes, the Russos’ first Marvel Movie is a shining example of the MCU’s story-telling potential.

6. The Avengers

The movie that caused audiences to start taking the franchise seriously is still amazingly entertaining today, and the nostalgia is huge.

7. Thor: Ragnarok

Taika Waititi’s colorful 80s-themed space adventure completely revamped the Thor character, and made audiences love him again.

8. Spider-Man: Homecoming

With Tom Holland absolutely stealing the show, Homecoming shows audiences they’re not tired of Spider-Man movies.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

Without the same punch as his predecessor, James Gunn takes Vol. 2’s characters in a whole new direction.

10. Captain America: Civil War

Although not as powerful as the comic, the Russos prove their masterful understanding of each character.

editorials

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

the

remarker

STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS. 10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TEXAS 75230 214.346.8000 EDITORIAL BOARD editor in chief SAM AHMED

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ISAS arts festival schedule requires reconsideration for arts scholars Revising the current class schedule during the festival brings many benefits

ifty-two consecutive years running. Ninety member schools. Upwards of 20 performance venues. More than 3,500 student attendees, over 140 of which are Marksmen. All wrapped up into three intense days dedicated to celebrating the fine arts—the ISAS (Independent Schools Association of the Southwest) arts festival. Two of those days, Thursday, April 11 and Friday, April 12, conflicted with regularly scheduled classes. Nearly a fourth of the Upper School is absent on these two days. These absentees are primarily concentrated in the Junior and Senior Classes, since several fine arts programs at the school only send upperclassmen to represent us here. In many junior and senior classes during ISAS this year, attendance numbers were in the single digits. One section of precalculus was canceled since the class only had a single attendee. While this case was particularly extreme, similar cases were not entirely uncommon. Several teachers dismissed class due to particularly low numbers. While some used the class days to begin review for final exams or AP tests, others continued to teach new content despite the greatly reduced class attendance. In those classes, students who

attended ISAS were responsible for catching up on multiple days of make-up classwork and homework. While catching up on school is stressful enough on its own, the busy ISAS schedule leaves students little time to do the work they missed— and that time should be spent engaging with the arts, not focusing on tasks. Except for bus rides, which are a sub-optimal environment to complete assignments, students don’t have the chance to focus on schoolwork. Clearly, the current situation places undue stress on the school’s fine arts scholars— students who faculty select to represent our high-achieving programs. There are several potential solutions to the problem: Review content only Teachers could use the days during the ISAS conflict only to review material for final exams or AP tests. This solution would not only prevent the backlog of work that fine arts scholars experience after attending the festival but also provide students not involved in fine arts valuable prep time for important assessments. Extra reading days The schedule could be altered to

mirror the reading day commonly seen before final exams. Teachers could host focused review sessions at different times throughout the day. The attendance issue would be fixed, since students from multiple periods of one class would simultaneously be in the classroom. If a teacher chose not to offer a review session, students could attend one offered by another teacher in the same subject. Cancel classes Class could also be canceled outright for that Thursday and Friday or just Friday. This practice is employed by many of our peer schools, including Hockaday, Greenhill and Parish, among others. While missing an opportunity for class certainly has its drawbacks, it would provide an always-appreciated break from the stressful end-of-year push. These solutions are not the only possibilities. Finding the best way to handle the ISAS schedule is certainly a complicated process. However, the current system places an undue burden on the school’s fine arts scholars. We urge administrators to reconsider the ISAS schedule so two missed days no longer turn into two weeks of catch-up.

Club leaders and sponsors must provide quality experience next year Students and faculty should prepare to commit to a full year of activities

his year, like years before, many clubs offered by students at the beginning of the year died off –– some within weeks, others within months. Few made it to the end of the year. As students begin to prepare their club ideas for next year and new leaders are selected for existing groups, they must remember their responsibilities. ‘President,’ ‘vice president’ and other titles undoubtedly look good on a college resume. But in recent years, some students faced with that pressure pick up as many “filler positions” as they can, beefing up their resume without properly carrying out the responsibilities they’ve been assigned. Certain clubs that used to be active on campus years ago either are holding meetings rarely and inconsistently or have stopped meeting overall. We urge leaders to look past the superficial benefits of running a club and truly take charge of the organizations they seek to lead.

We understand that running a club isn’t an easy task, and leaders are bound to run into challenges throughout the year. But club leaders who don’t regularly hold scheduled meetings deny students the opportunity to participate in what can be one of the most impactful aspects of student life. There are a few ways to make sure a club is being led the right way. Only start or lead a club if you know you are going to hold constant meetings and remain committed. Make a weekly schedule and stick to it. Promote your club to encourage continued involvement. If attendance is an issue, let more of the student body know about it by setting up flyers or talking about it in class assembly. Your excitement is contagious: students will come if you promote actively. Remember the distinction between a club and a interest group. If you want to have a

meeting to just hang out and talk about a topic, that’s fine. But don’t make it a club. Clubs are official meetings that should engage the community in a unique way. Although it’s mainly student leaders’ responsibility to guarantee the club’s success, we urge teachers and administrators to help keep clubs in check. Faculty sponsors should require a set of goals and a preliminary schedule from your club leaders and check in every month or so to ensure the activities are running smoothly. Administrators already provide a contract that prospective leaders must sign and submit before establishing their clubs, and club leaders should hold themselves accountable and keep their word to uphold the standards set by the faculty. Student leaders must devote more effort into the formation and execution of clubs to ensure they provide a successful and meaningful experience — or not bother in the first place.

editorials/opinions

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

STAFF EDITORIAL

Class meetings should be limited to critical functions Extraneous grade-level assemblies must be eliminated and replaced with more efficient methods.

his school year has seen the rise of unnecessary class meetings during 10:30 a.m. periods. On several occasions, entire grades attended a mandatory meeting just to hear announcements that could have been sent over email, or to engage in an activity that could have been better completed elsewhere. For example, the Freshman Class held a meeting to discuss correct email procedures and etiquette. While those certainly are valuable skills to learn, taking up a rare 10:30 period to teach them is not the most effective. The tutorial could have been distributed over email

or even presented during individual Monday morning advisories. The Junior Class held a meeting with less than five minutes of announcements and instructions. The remainder of the time was filled with impromptu announcements from within the class about sports, fine arts performances and other events –– announcements that were obviously solicited just to fill time. Calendar updates, application openings and deadlines, community service reminders and spirit messages can all be distributed over email instead of forcing an in-person meeting. This would save time and hassle for everyone involved,

students and faculty. One factor contributing to the unnecessary meetings is their scheduling procedure. Class officers and sponsors schedule these meetings well before they occur, independent of any pressing need to hold them. Student leaders have to struggle to come up with announcements or activities to fill the time. These extraneous meetings can be canceled, or never scheduled in the first place. We urge class sponsors to reconsider the current procedure for holding class meetings. Class meetings during the 10:30 period should only be called if

there is a significant task or presentation that the whole grade must be present for. They should be flexible, responsive and tailored to a grade’s needs, not rigid and pre-set regardless of necessity. The Tuesday and Thursday 10:30 periods provide a rare half-hour of unstructured time for both students and faculty — time that could be the only free moment during the school week for students to meet with a teacher for extra help, tie up loose ends and prepare for the days ahead. Meetings should only be held if convening in person is essential. If it can be sent in an email, just send it.

This summer, find a way to get out from under the gun

ind your passion. Find your passion. Find your passion. Everyone tells us to find our passion. Senior– exes, college admission reps, advisors, teachers, parents. That need lies beneath so much we do here: after all, St. Mark’s is a college preparatory school. To get into college, we have to play the game. We have to build our resumes to be compelling candidates. Those resumes need to show leadership, which takes years of commitment to build. But what if one of us wanted to change his path? It’s like there’s a gun to our heads, constantly threatening us: don’t waste all this progress you’ve made, or else. Don’t step off the path you’ve started on, or else. Don’t take any risks, or else. So many sources here tell us that we should just do what makes us happy. The English curriculum, especially in tenth grade, focuses on building our stores of internal goods, the intangible stuff that brings fulfill-

ment in life. The Cum Laude induction speaker, Dean Itani ’11, focused his talk about avoiding what he called “shiny objects” and instead finding meaningful points of engagement — but only after everyone in the chapel heard his tremendously intimidating, Sam terrifying resume. Goldfarb Opinions The resume that we all editor shouldn’t focus on, that’ll just build itself — unless we change our paths. Itani did talk about redirecting his interests from medicine to consulting, but that was only after he began his higher education. While we’re here, there is this constant threat that we can’t change our focus for fear of starting all that progress over. That pressure comes from a lot of sources. The school, our parents — and mostly ourselves. Marksmen

Summer at home isn’t so bad

ut I never asked you to bring me here! At this point, my dad just buries his face in his palm and gives up. On the other side of my room, my mom — getting more annoyed every second waiting next to the door — looks up from her phone and stares straight into my eyes, with an expression I can only describe as disgust. I shouldn’t have said that. While my parents argue over how they possibly could’ve made such a lazy child, Tanisha — my older sister — walks over to my bed, her flip flops slapping the wood floor with every step, and practically orders me to put away my laptop and go outside for once. Usually I don’t admit defeat, especially when I’m right. But in this moment, unless I want my parents to strand me here in the Dominican Republic for the rest of my life, I’m going to have to give them what they want. So I put on my shoes — slowly and with a sad face so they don’t feel too good about themselves — but right before I walk out the door, I look back at my computer. It’s not the fact that I was comfortable in my bed. It’s not the fact that I don’t want to explore the countryside again — even though I don’t. It’s the fact that I was right in the middle of a Rick and Morty episode, and now I’ll have to rewind two minutes when I get back to remem-

ber what happened. See, that’s the thing about taking me anywhere — and I mean anywhere — away from home. France, Mexico, Italy — you name it. If it has international Netflix, I’m sorry, but some days you can’t pull me away from my screen without an army. I’ve never understood why people travel in the first place. Everybody tells me, “it’s for the experience” or “it’s for the culture.” But standing in a line outside with the sun glaring onto my back is not the type of “experience” I want to have every summer. Watching Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3 over two days in the hotel room, however, is a cultural phenomenon I’ll probably never forget. And who can blame me for not wanting to spend an hour in a museum Ishan Gupta

Content Manager

where everything looks the same? Of course, there’s value in visiting an art museum for the first time –– but after the second or third visit, it all starts to look the same. But when I’m abroad, my Netflix account offers me a wider selection of high-demand movies and TV shows than I will

ever have in the U.S. How could I not take advantage of that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? ••• For the longest time, I had no idea other people didn’t feel the same way as me about traveling. It wasn’t until I told my friends how bored I get on family vacations — and I was met with eye rolls and check-your-privilege scoffs — that I understood, I’m all alone on this one. Other people don’t look at vacations the way I do, and maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe my parents are right when they tell me I’m lucky to go on these trips. Or that I’m lucky they let me bring my computer. That I even have a computer. I’ve been on too many vacations to remember what it was like when I was just a chubby little kid with no idea where in the world he was or why in the world he was there. All he knew was, his favorite people were right there with him, and he wouldn’t want it any other way. So don’t feel so bad if you’re not traveling the world this summer. For everyone who gets to stay in town and just relax, I’m actually jealous of you. Use the summer to take it easy, spend time with family, binge watch some shows. It’s a big world, but you aren’t missing out –– there’s just as much fun to have right here at home.

constantly push themselves to be better, to work harder, to achieve goals. We have to in order to survive, let alone thrive, here. So this summer, I have a challenge. Put down the gun. Just for a few moments this summer, put down the gun. Do something for you, not because you feel like you have to, not because someone told you to, but because it’s something you want to try for yourself. The harsh reality is that we do have to play the game. We have to show leadership and years of commitment to be compelling candidates. The gun won’t go away just yet. Not completely. But when you have the chance to take a risk this summer, to push yourself differently or think in a new way, take it. After all, since you put the gun down, both of your hands are free. Do something amazing.

Around the

Quad Students and faculty share their opinions on issues in the news and around campus. should not have ‘ We school on ISAS

because the kids who are gone get behind, and the kids who stay aren’t focused on anything being taught.

Shane Ndeda Senior since the majority ‘ Iofthink kids in my classes were absent, I think it would be best not to have class, because for those that did have class, it was mostly review, and not new material that was being taught. Neal Reddy Junior

you could make ‘ Ia think strong argument

that because so many students are absent you could take a day off, or even two. Since so many students are missing, teachers have to teach all their material twice.” David Cox Latin instructor

Q: Should school be in session

on class days that conflict with the ISAS arts festival? less than ‘ Ihalfhadmywaystudents,

but I continued to teach classes. It’s not my call but I think it’s something to be discussed.

Stephen Houpt Physics instructor tends to affect ‘ ISAS mainly upperclass-

men. For this reason, I do think we should have school on those days, but flexibility on all sides is absolutely necessary. John Perryman Thomas S. Adams Master Teacher

not productive for ‘ It’s learning because you

‘have so few people

in the classroom that everyone else has to catch back up–and it’s a waste of time for the people who are there. Kathan Ramnath Junior

seems like there’s more juniors and ‘ Itseniors taken for ISAS. While it’s disrup-

tive to their classes, the rest of the school can operate fairly normally during those two days. It may affect some individual teachers, but it doesn’t necessarily require non-school days because of that. Bryan Boucher History instructor

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

opinions

Final grades and comments Thoughts on happenings around campus for the school year Sports game spirit

We started the year strong during fall trimester sports. Football game attendance remained consistently high, even at important road games. Volleyball had the support of the entire school during their home-court run to SPC. However, the student section weakened throughout the second and third trimesters, and except for basketball, our teams were backed with ever-waning support.

SAGE food service

In their second year, everyone on campus appreciated SAGE hitting their stride. Options in the cafeteria were consistently delicious and inclusive of all dietary needs. Students and faculty appreciated the special drinks, live-cooking action stations, and themed meals for special occasions.

School assemblies

Assemblies this year were unfortunately one of the lower points this year, especially in the fall. The exciting activities, competitions and games from years were conspicuously absent at the start of the year. Their increased frequency at the end of the year marked a substantial and welcome impovement. Next year, let’s try to start with strong assembly spirit!

Science Center opening

One of the most-anticipated highlights of the year, the opening of the Winn Science Center exceeded all expectations. Classes integrated smoothly into the new space for lower, middle and upper schoolers. The new labs, maker space and computer science rooms provide the facilities our classes and clubs need to forge on into the future. We look forward to the re-opening of the updated McDermott-Green building in the fall.

Fine arts engagement

The fine arts programs offered performances and portfolios as strong as ever. The band and orchestra performed beautiful concerts. Evensongs and Lessons and Carols were especially inspiring this year, thanks to the choir’s angelic voices. Drama produced two standout shows: And Then There Were None and Much Ado About Nothing. Photography, wood and metal, visual arts and ceramics put out beautiful works that graced the halls and displays around campus. Their creativity and talent is much appreciated!

All-school bonding

JAMES SHIAO

Student mentorship this year saw many highs, but one notable low. The Telos and Lower School buddy programs continued to facilitate meaningful interactions. However, the lack of frequent meetings of the freshman-senior buddy program was a missed opportunity that could be improved on. We hope it can return next year!

B+ A+ C+ A+ A B

25 Remember what we have; it could always be so much worse

athryn Allen, my mom, grew up with dyslexia and spent hundreds of hours working to overcome it. Alia Ahmed, my sister, blew a disk in her back but still found a way to play goalie during her senior night. Sorosh Ahmed, my father, failed out of his first year of college but still ended up graduating with two engineering degrees. Unis Ahmed, my paternal grandfather, taught himself to read under the only streetlight in his small town in Bangladesh and ended up working for the United Nations in New York City. Bob Cordes, my godfather, was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma brain tumor in the summer of 2017. He was given a life expectancy of a year to 15 months, but 21 months later, he is still living life to the fullest. And I, Sam Ahmed, have constantly complained about how I have lots of “work” to do. All of these people that I have mentioned, except for me, have smiled and said that things could Sam have been Ahmed Editor in worse when Chief they talk about their lives. At St. Mark’s, we hear almost every student complain about some test or quiz they have to study for. I am guilty of that, and so are all of us. You would think that it would be nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, why shouldn’t we complain? To be fair, St. Mark’s is a tough school, so we should be able to complain. But what I realized over the course of my 17 and a half years is that we don’t have the right to complain. We don’t even have the right to think about complaining because we are privileged. So go ahead and tell me how the lunch today sucks, and that we unfortunately have chicken again today. Worldwide, almost a billion people — yes, I said a billion people — don’t have access to clean water, and around that same number of people go to bed hungry at night. On campus, we waste hundreds of pounds of food daily in the cafeteria and don’t even bother to pick up our trays. Go ahead and tell me how much homework and studying you have to do. Globally, 58 million children don’t have access to an education. And we fall asleep in class, ask questions teachers have already answered and get mad when a teacher puts a question on a test that was “impossible.” Listen, I know I am guilty of complaining as well, but everyone here needs to have some perspective. If you think about it, we won the genetic lottery. We were born into families who were loving and caring and fortunate enough to send us to St. Mark’s. We all have a supportive group of friends, family, faculty and classmates that are here to rescue us in times of need. The reality is that life isn’t meant to be easy. We aren’t supposed to be handed these amazing grades and achievements. We have to earn them. So when that big paper comes up in the next week, or you are hit with a couple bad test grades, just remember. Remember how fortunate we are to even be in a place like St. Mark’s before you start complaining.

sports

THE REMARKER • MAY 10. 2019

IVY LEAGUE ATHLETES

Held to the same standards

Ivy League Alumni Athletes

With many Marksmen playing sports in college, do they face a stigma from peers?

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e doesn’t deserve to be at an Ivy League school. If he were a normal applicant, he wouldn’t get in. He’s taking a spot from someone who’s more qualified academically. For a certain group of Ivy League students, they have to face the stigma of being accepted into a university they wouldn’t have been able to get into otherwise. Not owing to their race, creed or color. Rather, it’s simply because they are athletes. Along with the full-time-job-type commitment of playing a Division I sport, they must handle the demands of an Ivy League education. In the process, they sacrifice their sleep and social life, recognizing it must be put aside. However, Seun Omonije ’18 didn’t face resentment at 10600 Preston Road after making his commitment public. However, in New Haven, CT, as a member of the Yale football team, Omonije feels this sort of backlash everyday as a football player at an Ivy League university. ••• While on campus, Omonije felt the community completely supported him and respected the fact that his athletic ability provided him an opportunity to attend Yale. “The St. Mark’s community viewed me as ‘Ok, maybe he’s getting into this college through a different path, but at the end of the day, he’s working hard just like I’m working hard,’” Omonije said. “At other schools where people might not know me, it’s easy for people to be like, ‘Well he’s just an athlete. His grades aren’t as good as mine.’” On the other hand, he doesn’t always get the same respect everywhere because not everyone sees the amount of work he puts into his craft. “There are obviously going Seun Omonije to be some people ’18 that disagree or Yale football player don’t really see the value of athletics or see us as equals,” Omonije said. “That’s something you can’t escape. I just have to step back and realize maybe if I take the time to talk to them they’ll understand a little bit more.” After arriving on Yale’s campus, the differences between the community here and at Yale became apparent to Omonije. “They don’t understand everything and don’t get to see everything the way

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you do at St. Mark’s,” Omonije said. “St. Mark’s respected me because they saw me grind, but Yale has more variability in the people you meet, so you’re going to have more ignorance, but that’s just the nature of it.” The college recruiting process is one that begins as early as ninth grade and lasts through eleventh grade, according to Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido. If a student is going to be recruited, he will have had contact with coaches well before their senior year. “College coaches, if they’re interested in an individual,” Pulido said, “will start to reach out to the student to either submit any type of standardized testing or a transcript with the rigor of curriculum to see what is available, what has the student done, and how well have they done in the process.”

STORY Jack Davis, William Aniol ARTWORK Charlie Rubarth

Damon Wright Baseball Blakely Thornton Football

2005

THE APPS On the left, top-tier students’ college applications lay next to standout athletes’ applications.

has to take a backseat,” Ribman said. “You’re expected to handle the same workload as everyone else and there’s obviously a huge time commitment with playing a Division I sport, but you really don’t get any special treatment by anyone.”

While there may be a difference in terms of academic achievement between a normal student Harvard is admitting versus an athlete, Ribman believes it’s not as big as people may think. “You still need to have good grades and test scores, so nothing’s really a guarantee,” Ribman said, “but having the coach support your application in the admission process definitely helps you. There’s definitely a disparity between the candidate they’re admitting regularly versus an athlete, but I don’t think it’s such a big difference where it’s super visible.” Omonije feels each student’s talents complementing They saw my progression from my each other perfectly is key for sophomore year to my junior year every community to thrive. “It’s sort of a compenbecause of the sacrifices I made my sation,” Omonije said. “He’s sophomore year. The summer of my helping the Yale community junior year, they saw the work and in this capacity. Like the way hours that I put in. — Seun Omonije ’18, Yale someone who doesn’t play sports is helping the commufootball player nity.” Once a student has provided the necLike Omonije, Pulido believes colleges essary materials to a coach to be considare looking for all types of individuals to ered for recruitment, the process transimake their colleges better. tions over to the admissions office. “Whether it is someone that’s going to “If they gather all this information add to their athletic department, someone from the coach side of things,” Pulido that’s going to add to their Fine Arts desaid, “they send it over to admissions partment, someone that’s going to add to for somewhat of a pre-screen to see if the any particular field on the college campus, student is going to be competitive. The the colleges want to recruit students in admissions will give a yay or nay to then many different fields,” Pulido said. continue recruiting a student. Nothing is Pulido doesn’t feel as if there is a official until the admission side of things stigma against committed college athletes; says, ‘Absolutely, we are going to admit rather it’s recognizing what an individual the student, and I’m going to give you an excels at and how he or she will uniquely admission letter.’” contribute to their college. Similarly to Omonije, Tucker Ribman “Ultimately, everyone has their ’18 felt greatly supported by his classmates strengths,” Pulido said. “Whatever that here after committing to Harvard for strength is, that’s what we’re going to wrestling. highlight in the application process.” “I never really felt like people thought Additionally, Omonije believes that all I was undeserving,” Ribman said. “You students are held to the same standards. still have to be a hard worker, and I never Each student at a school brings something really experienced anyone coming at me different to the table, whether that may be behind my back or anything.” on the playing field, in the studio, or in the Ribman believes his workload and classroom. time management here prepared him for “Everybody gets accepted to college the rigorous demands of an Ivy League because they bring something different to education on top of athletics. the table,” Omonije said. “My little niche, “You have to set your priorities and so to speak, is I’m an athlete. Everyone has know what’s important: academics and something they’re elite at that puts them athletics, and sometimes your social life into the school.”

“

2004

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Over the years, many alumni have played athletics at Ivy League colleges

Barry Newell Football John Stathas Football John Christensen Golf Drew Lassiter Lacrosse

2006

Andrew Smith Crew

2007

Asa Schachar Crew

2008

By the numbers

Charlie Neil Soccer Jett Aubrey Crew Jacques Barjon Track and Field

2009

2010

hours per week Omonije dedicates to football

hours Ribman trains and competes in wrestling

career touchdowns Omonije has scored

Charlie Neil Soccer Kirk Hayes Baseball

Fred Addy Lacrosse Jeff Perkins Lacrosse

2011

Zach Christian Track and Field Reece Cannday Track and Field

2012

Rodney Chen Fencing

2013

Paul Gudmundsson Football Bear Goldstein Lacrosse Justin Harvey Lacrosse Warren Smith Waterpolo

2014

Jacob Wilner Football Yima Asom Soccer Ben Wilson Water Polo

2015

Jack Gordon Basketball Luke Hudspeth Crew Nathan Ondracek Waterpolo Raymond Chen Fencing

2016

Parker Dixon Volleyball

2017

Sam Clayman Golf

2018

Reece Rabin Baseball Seun Onomije Football Tucker Ribman Wrestling

sports

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

NBA COACH

An unexpected journey Starting as a player on the courts of 10600 Preston Road, Taylor Jenkins ’03 now finds himself at Fiserv Forum and leading one of the NBA’s best squads.

aylor Jenkins’ ’03 basketball playing career ended here. He never played in college, and he certainly didn’t play professionally. He hardly had any exposure to basketball past the high school level. Yet 16 years later, he finds himself in a seat next to a top candidate for Coach of The Year –– Mike Budenholzer –– surrounded in a huddle by MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo and All-Star Khris Middleton. Although Jenkins doesn’t have the typical basketball background of professional coaches, the connections he’s made and the passion he’s developed for the game of basketball have landed him a dream job in the professional sports world. Jenkins is an assistant coach for the team with the best record in the NBA in the 2018-2019 season, the Milwaukee Bucks. ••• While earning a business degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenkins was still undecided about what he wanted to do with his life post-graduation. After exploring various fields, Jenkins quickly realized his passion was in sports management. Subsequently, in the summer of his junior year at Penn, he lucked out in earning an internship with the San Antonio Spurs, which changed his life forever. “Without this internship, I probably would never have gotten the opportunities in the beginning that have led to me to this point,” Jenkins said. “I just couldn’t have been in a better situation with the Spurs, one of the top organizations in all of sports.”

RUNNING A DRILL On the courts at the Milwaukee Bucks’ practice facility, Taylor Jenkins ’03 directs players in a drill during practice.

the ‘call up to the NBA’, bringing Jenkins along with him to be his assistant coach and right-hand man. “It was such an amazing experience, getting my opportunity to go from the D-League to the NBA, having that blessing,” Jenkins said. “[I realized] that all the time I put in to the D-League and the investment in my development has led to that moment, knowing that my career could be over if I don’t make the most of it.” After a five-year tenure in Atlanta as an assistant coach from 2013 to 2018, Jenkins was brought to Milwaukee this season to be an assistant under Budenhol-

After a second internship with the Spurs following his graduation from Penn, Jenkins was presented with an assistant coaching opportunity in the NBA D-League (now the G-League). When he got this chance, Jenkins learned the value of taking advantage I want to have the highest challenge, of opportunities, unexpected as they may be. I want to have to go tackle something “You never know what opportunity comes, and it and better myself. That’s what St. may be the direction that you were hoping,” Jenkins Mark’s presented every single day. It said. “Or it may be that you weren’t really thinking about going this direction, maybe the minor leagues challenged me to be the best student is a different role than I was expecting, but if this is I could be. — Taylor Jenkins ’03, assistant coach going to give me an opportunity to learn and grow, Milwaukee Bucks and you never know what it might lead to, take it.” Jenkins worked as an assistant coach for the Auszer, who took the Bucks’ head coaching job. tin Toros (now the Austin Spurs), the Spurs’ D-League It’s been a long journey for Jenkins, but if he could affiliate, for four seasons. In his last season as an highlight any one word from his journey, he would assistant coach in 2011-2012, he helped lead the team say it’s being ‘blessed.’ to their first ever D-League championship, which was “I’ve been fortunate because the stars aligned in a fulfilling experience for Jenkins. a lot of different ways,” Jenkins said. “Every day I’m “All the sacrifice, year after year, you put so much learning something new about what it means to be an sweat and tears each and every day,” Jenkins said. NBA coach. One thing that you don’t want to take for “As a collective unit just to have that bond with the granted is someone [Budenholzer] that has been in coaches and the players, for the rest of our lives we are your shoes, values your role as an assistant coach and saying we were champions.” wants to grow you to one day be a head coach and After the 2012 championship campaign, Jenkins have that ultimate responsibility.” was promoted to lead the Toros as their head coach the For Jenkins, having the opportunity to work with following season, his first ever experience as a head MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo is a one-ofcoach. a-kind experience. He believes Antetokounmpo’s best During his time in the Spurs organization, Jenkins attribute is the fact that he’s a humble superstar who had developed a strong relationship with coach Mike is in touch with life outside of basketball, which is Budenholzer. When Budenholzer was appointed as uncommon in today’s game. the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, he gave Jenkins “When you work with someone that truly wants

“

to be the best that they can be and realizes that they can’t do it by themselves, it makes it that much easier to build a relationship,” Jenkins said. “There’s a caring nature to [Antetokounmpo], where there’s still that competitiveness and that fire, but he also has the balance of realizing there’s a different side to the journey, there’s something beyond basketball.” Through his six years as an NBA assistant coach, Jenkins attributes several of the qualities that have made him successful in his career to his time here. “In basketball, we try to do things the right way,” Jenkins said. “It’s how you treat people and how you go about your daily ethics, that stuff was embedded in me when I started in third grade at St. Mark’s. St. Mark’s is a place that has a competitive environment but also at the same time, a place that wanted to foster the true development of a young man, and that stuff really spoke to me.” Even though Jenkins’ everyday life is centered around a professional sport, he makes sure to not lose sight of the fact that life is bigger than basketball. “Realizing that we’re all a part of this journey together and the relationships, at the end of day, matter the most,” Jenkins said. “The results will be the results, but we need to be able to have fun and enjoy this blessing that we have, coaching a sport that we love. It’s going to make you want to work that much harder, because you realize how fortunate you are in the career that you have.” For Jenkins, his present circumstances in consideration, being a coach at the NBA level is everything he could have dreamed of and more. “I’m getting to teach a sport that I love amongst the some of the brightest minds and most talented athletes in the world and compete at the highest level,” Jenkins said. “There are thousands of people that want our jobs and want this opportunity, so having that mentality of anything that’s thrown my way, I’m going to tackle it and give it my best and continue to grow. I don’t know where it will lead, but it’ll lead to something good because this is what I love to do.”

“

When you get players to buy in and recognize that you care about them and you really do have the intentions on helping them be the best player that they can be, that takes it to another level.” Taylor Jenkins ’03, assistant coach Milwaukee Bucks

STORY William Aniol, Aaron Thorne PHOTO Courtesy Taylor Jenkins

Marksmen say: ‘Thank you, Dirk’ — recognizing a legend for his grit, talent and humanity by William Aniol here’s a reason every boy at 10600 Preston Road who’s a Mavs Fan For Life wears the 41 across his back. Number 41. Twenty one seasons in the league. Only one team, one city, one fan base. Thank you, Dirk. Thank you for your unparalleled loyalty, perseverance and grit in a time where these qualities are scarce in today’s NBA. But you were uncommon, the full package, a one-of-a-kind talent and human being. Along with being the greatest European player of all time, your 21 seasons in Dallas set the record for longest tenure with one NBA team. You left your mark on the game, forever changing and revolutionizing the way we view the power forward position in the Association. You popularized your signature shot, the one-legged fadeaway, which players

all over today’s NBA now try to mimic. And Mark Cuban, we better see a 41-foot statue of the fadeaway in front of the American Airlines Center soon. Although there have been the highest of highs –– and the lowest of lows, highlighted by the frustrating 2006 Finals –– you stayed. You stayed true to your fan base, city and teamWilliam Aniol mates. Sports editor You only cared about bringing a championship to the city of Dallas and nowhere else. I wish there was a way for us as a city to give back to you, but nothing could match what you gave to us. Coming over to the states from Würzburg, Germany as a raw seven-foot-tall 20-year-old, you had to adjust not only

to the challenge of the NBA, but also to living in an entirely different culture. Throughout your 21 seasons, you became your best self and responded in the face of adversity, never backing down from whatever challenges presented themselves, before ultimately climbing the mountaintop in 2011. This city owed that championship to you for everything you did for us. You proved everybody wrong. They said, “He’s too soft,” and “The Mavs can’t win a championship with Dirk as their go-to guy,” but you pulled off the unthinkable. You took down the super team of super teams, the ‘Big Three’ of LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Just as every little boy has their sports icon growing up, I am proud to say you were mine. Being born and raised in Dallas, I grew into a Mavs Fan For Life solely because of you. I vividly remember the moment you

hoisted that golden Larry O’Brien trophy –– the moment my die-hard Mavs fandom was born –– almost as if you were lifting up the city of Dallas as a whole. I was only eight, but I remember it like it was yesterday. You didn’t even have to form a super team to hoist the trophy. You won the right way. The way that means much more, with veterans who gelled together seamlessly and knew their roles. A different breed, an uncommon humble superstar in today’s game –– thank you again for everything you’ve done on and off the court, changing the lives of countless people in our city and the league. There’s a reason every boy at 10600 Preston Road who’s a Mavs Fan For Life wears the 41 across his back. Dirk, we look up to you as our hero –– because as special you were as a player, you are even a better person. Which is why we play.

sports

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

Two basketball players named to All-State

RUNNING UP THE SCORE

How high should we go?

Although there are no written rules about blowing out another team, many sports have understood rules that keep their team honorable.

THE VICTORY The home team wins a blowout game against a visiting team with a score of 89-7. Would this ever happen in our gyms?

aving lost to the opponent for four years in a row in the SPC title game, the Lions’ lacrosse squad was hungry. Hungry for redemption. ESD won the first contest in the regular season. An eight to seven overtime heartbreaker for the Lions, with a sudden death goal prompting Eagle fans to jump out of the stands to take Hunt Field by storm. Staring at each other in disbelief, the home side didn’t know what to do, think or say but to be in shock. They stood in defeat, staring at the scoreboard with all hope lost, but also hungry knowing just as in the past four years, they would have their shot at redemption in the SPC Championship. But this year was different, given a new degree of motivation. Right when the first whistle went off, the Lions were ready to bring home the trophy –– or so they thought. Four long and tiring quarters passed until one team rose as champions. For the fifth consecutive year, the Eagles took SPC. This time, a blowout score of 10-2. However, the Lions would get their third shot at redemption. A team can use a blowout defeat as motivation next time around, and Lions were hungrier than ever after their first two devastating defeats to the same opponent. And they did. Just three weeks later, they ousted ESD 11-7 in the state semifinals to move on to the State Championship. ••• Assistant Athletic Director Josh Friesen believes sportsmanship is a valuable lesson for all athletes. “Regardless of age, you should be a gracious and humble winner,” Friesen said. “When you are in a situation where you have the lead on another team, and there is no hope for them to come back, you need to make adjustments so your team doesn’t embarrass them. Those kids go to school just like our kids, and they don’t deserve to be embarrassed.” In nearly 21 years of experience here,

Friesen finds non-SPC teams to be the most likely to run up the score. “I think a lot of schools do a great job of taking care of one another, especially within the conference,” Friesen said. “When you play teams from outside of the conference and you don’t have a relationship with their athletic director or with their coaching staff, they are way more likely to not look out for the other team.” However, Friesen holds his teams to a higher standard and refuses to run up the score when the game is out of reach for the opponent. “I look out for the other school no matter how big or small it is,” Friesen said. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is or what the history is between the two teams, we are going to treat them with respect.” Although no coach enjoys losing, Friesen sees a positive result that can sometimes be overlooked. “I use it as a lesson about what not to do as a coach,” Friesen said. According to Friesen, there are certain unwritten rules that coaches here tend to follow. “In basketball, if you are up by 20 points, you don’t press,” Friesen said. “In baseball, you don’t steal bases when you are up by ten runs. You stay put until someone advances you with a hit. “If the other team is disrespecting us by In football, if you are up by running up the score, it becomes a bonding three touchmoment for us as a downs with two minutes to team” — Assistant play, you run Athletic Director the football. In JOSH FRIESEN lacrosse, you don’t score 20 goals; you get to 19 and then stop.” Like Friesen, head varsity basketball coach Greg Guiler follows a similar philosophy. “If we have 90 points with two minutes to go, we aren’t going to push to get 100 points if the other team has 40,” Guiler said. “You want to be sportsmanlike throughout

STORY Luke Nayfa, SeMaj Musco PHOTO Collin Katz

by SeMaj Musco unior Andrew Laczkowski and sophomore Harrison Ingram have been recognized as AllState players by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches for the 2019 season. It’s the second time Laczkowski has been recognized and the first time for Ingram. “I was really happy when receiving this news because it is always an honor to be recognized for the hard work I put in day in and day out,” Ingram said. Being a two-time winner, Laczkowski expressed gratitude for being awarded again. He is hopeful for other Marksmen to win in the future. “I was honored,” Laczkowski said. “I felt like all the hard work I had over the past year and the past off-season really paid off. I was really thankful for the coaches of Texas honoring me with the award. I was proud of Harrison for being a first-time award winner. Hopefully next year we both win it again and we get another St. Mark’s guy on there too.” Ingram believes the award shows the value of keeping his play consistent. “This accomplishment means a lot to me,” Ingram said. “It lets me know that I am not going unnoticed. My performance is being noticed by important people, and I must keep it up.” For Laczkowski, the recognition showed that with hard work one can get through difficulties and still be able to thrive in what they do. “It means a lot,” Laczkowski said. “It was a rough year for me mentally. Working through that and making sure that I got this award really helped me and showed that no matter what problems you have, you can always work through them. You can always get to the level you want to be, the top level in Texas.”

the season.” Guiler also thinks a big loss can often lead to a wake up call for his team. “Anytime you lose it stings” Guiler said. “I am always far more critical of my team, just by nature of hating to lose, after a loss.” The line between disrespect and competitiveness can sometimes be blurred. It’s a multifaceted issue, since a lack of points may affect tiebreakers and standings in SPC, according to Head Athletic Director Mark Sullivan. “We often times as a conference find ourselves with two, or three or four teams all in a bunch, and one of the tiebreakers is a point differential,” Sullivan said. “We want to make sure that in those kind of contests that we have an opportunity to maximize our point differential, but then to shut things down once we’re at that point. We don’t want to get ourselves at a competitive disadvantage where we might lose a tiebreaker because we didn’t want to score more than eight runs on a team when the tiebreaker might’ve been ten.” Most sports do not have a written rule which ends the contest if one side is leading by a certain amount. However, assistant coach Jason Leneau believes the majority of the time it boils down to the coach’s personal discretion and sportsmanship. “I think there is a sportsmanship factor involved,” Leneau said. “In sports like football, basketball and lacrosse, they are sports where you can score in bunches, and the game can get out of hand quickly, so it’s about sportsmanship there.” Although there is no set school policy regarding running up the score during games, Sullivan believes that courtesy for the opponent drives Lions coaches’ decision not to. “We want to treat everybody that comes into our gyms and onto our fields with respect,” Sullivan said. “There isn’t a set policy because sport by sport, there are different situations and there are different sort of gentlemen’s agreements between either schools or coaches.”

Unwritten rules

points before pressing stops in basketball

maximum amount of goals in lacrosse

run lead in baseball

sports

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

SUMMER WORKOUTS

Staying hydrated in the heat Going into summer workouts, it is crucial that all athletes not only understand how to react to a heat-related injury, but stay hydrated to prevent any heat-related injuries.

an up. Toughen up. Deal with it. For years, that was what dehydrated athletes were told. It was widely accepted that withholding water made them tougher, stronger and all around better. In recent years, however, this attitude has begun to change, especially in the wake of tragic stories like Jordan McNair, a football player at the University of Maryland who died after trainers and coaches failed to recognize the symptoms of heatstroke. Soon summer workouts will start for many sports on campus, and our coaches and staff are prepared to ensure such accidents are avoided. ••• The Athletic Department’s primary goal is to prevent any type of heat-related injury rather than having to react to an injury. “We are aware that there are issues out there,” Athletics Director Mark Sullivan said. “But having staff that recognizes this is key to the first step of preventing anything.” Trainers Matt Hjertstedt and Doc Browning and our Medical Advisory Board have created many protocols for many scenarios during the summer. These protocols are designed to prevent athletes from any heat related injuries. “Depending on what the wet bulb temperature is, then you have ‘x’ number of breaks in an hour,” Sullivan said. “Once it reaches a certain point, we don’t even go out in “An athlete comes in, weighs the heat in the in, and at the end of practice, first place.” he weighs again. Depending on what that weight difference is, The trainthere’s protocols in place. ers are always — Director of Athletics checking nuMARK SULLIVAN merous factors in order to stay ahead of any possible injuries. “They’re constantly monitoring the situation in terms of what the external concerns are such as the temperature of the day, the grass, the turf, and the track,” Sullivan said. Head strength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth emphasizes the importance of ensuring athletes stay hydrated throughout the year, especially as the seasons change. “We know people aren’t drinking as much in the winter so when it gets to the spring and gets hotter, we put those reminders out,” Dilworth said. An important part of the protocol is to be pre-

pared to respond if an accident does happen. One crucial part is ensuring that all players are familiar with the necessary equipment should they need to use it. “We have ice towels and ensure everybody is familiar with our outdoor ice bath and make sure we have ice bath potential in the training room as well,” Sullivan said. Not only does the school provide more than enough hydration during workouts, many players make it a point to preemptively try to prevent a dangerous situation by hydrating themselves outside of workouts. “Something the football team says is ‘Tomorrow’s hydration starts today,’” sophomore Abe Echt said. “So we always make sure to drink a bunch of water beforehand so we are hydrated and healthy during workouts and games.” Hydrating early is crucial because it keeps the players hydrated for the next day’s workouts. Trying to hydrate the day of won’t work immediately, so one must hydrate before working out. “I know if the heat index is going to be high, then they need to hydrate right now,” Dilworth said. “You can’t hydrate the day of. Hydration starts way before we start working out. You can control body temperature while working out but to control hydration, that starts beforehand.” If necessary, there is equipment around the field and in the training room, each capable of lowering core temperature quickly, which is crucial in these situations. “If we have to, we have 911 readily available to us, and the nice part is that the people that respond are just around the corner so to speak,” Sullivan said. “That response time is very quick.” Athletes also practice at different times during

the day in order to avoid the heat. Most practices occur early in the morning before the heat sets in, so the teams are able to practice outside for longer. “Kids are [working out] at the wee hours of the morning when most kids aren’t even awake. Later in the day, the times we are in the heat are short and efficient, and then, we’re out of the heat,“ Sullivan said. Another regulation which helps prevent heat-related problems is an acclimation period. For example, in football, teams begin practices without shoulder pads and helmets to become accustomed to working in the heat, but this doesn’t stop everything. “You just assume that because you’ve gone through proper acclimation that the risk of a heat related injury is gone,” Sullivan said. “You have to know it’s possible even though you’ve taken all those measures” The most crucial part to preventing any heat-related injuries is to continually monitor all

GEARING UP During the summer, coolers and water bottles are crucial parts of keeping athletes hydrated during workouts.

athletes. “It goes back to the medical staff and coaches paying attention to kids and paying attention to the athletes and then being thoughtful about what we’re having them do in the sun,” Sullivan said.

STORY Jack Davis, Drew Woodward PHOTO Jack Davis, William Aniol

Sophomore hosts two foreign soccer players

other because we’re hosting so they switched the groups,” Hunt said. “But both of us were able to make it out of the group stage, which was my first time, so I was super stoked. Their team looked amazing. We’ve been going out to each others’ games and supporting each other at our games, and it’s really fun to celebrate with them when they score.” Hunt found hosting the Ghanaian players to be a fun and rewarding experience, which he hopes to do again. “We haven’t been able to do a ton together because they’re on a tight schedule with training and then our games, but we’ve still been hanging out together at my house,” Hunt said. “They got to meet up with FC Dallas’ Ghanaian players, and so that was a fun experience. It’s just really fun having the different cultures and ethnicities in the house.”

William Aniol photo

by Rajan Joshi ophomore Knobel Hunt hosted two Ghanaian soccer players during the 2019 Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup, an international soccer tournament which started April 14. The two Ghanaians, Emmanuel Awuah and Razak Abubakar, enjoyed their time in Dallas as well as on campus April 18. “I’ve just been in the mall, to the cotton bowl and where we play our games,” Awuah said. “Overall, [Dallas is] a really fun place to be.” When they arrived at 10600 Preston Road they were amazed by the drastic differences from their school in Ghana. “[The school] is really nice compared to the school we have in Ghana,” Awuah said. “It’s very different from what we have there. When we were in class, there weren’t many students in the class compared to Ghana, where we can have 50 students in a class. But here, we have only 12 or 13, and that’s encouraging, as it makes the students get what the teacher is saying.” On the soccer field, Hunt’s team –– FC Dallas Premier –– narrowly outperformed the Ghanaian team — Bechem United FC — in the U17 tournament. However, they didn’t have a chance to play each other. While Bechem United FC lost in the quarterfinals, FC Dallas Premier made it one round further, getting to the semifinals. “Neither of us were able to play each

JUGGLING IT UP Out on the Quad, two Ghanian soccer players, along with their host sophomore Knobel Hunt, show off their soccer skills and enjoy their time on campus.

sports

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

THE TROPHY After their victory, juniors Billy Lockhart and Christian Duessel hoist their first place trophy.

Crew looks to end season strong at USRowing National Youth Championship 2018 REGIONAL FINISH 2nd 2019 REGIONAL FINISH 2nd NOTABLE Juniors Christian Duessel and Billy Lockhart’s Varsity 2x boat won gold at the Texas Rowing Championship. THEY SAID IT “As a team, I felt like we rowed very well in the last regatta, and we

hope to continue on with that momentum through the end of the year” – sophomore Matthew Schopmeyer

DENIED Soaring above the competition, senior Robert Newman leaps up from the water to block a shot during the Allison Maloney Tournament.

Water polo caps off season with a victory in the 6A state championship game May 4

2018 RECORD 14-3

2018 STATE FINISH 3rd

2019 RECORD 12-0

2019 STATE FINISH 1st

NOTABLE Seven team members were selected to be on the All-Region team. NOTABLE Senior goalie Chase Honaker committed to UCLA for water polo earlier

this season.

THEY SAID IT “This season, we have all the same kids from last year because we WARMING UP Sophomore Mark Motlow returns the ball during warm-ups leading up to the team’s counter match against ESD April 5. The Lions lost the match 0-5.

Tennis closes out season with a top three finish at SPC 2018 RECORD 9-4

2019 RECORD 9-2

2019 SPC FINISH 3rd

NOTABLE Senior captain Adnan Khan can serve a ball around 90 mph. THEY SAID IT “So far, this year has been a lot of fun, and I’m excited for the next three

years. I hope the seniors can lead us to an SPC title and finally end our dry streak.” — freshman Jeremy Yu

THEY SAID IT “Even though we lost a lot of strong seniors and ESD has gotten very competitive, we’re trying our best to take the championship this year.” — junior Alex Piccagli

2-ON-1 Defending senior Landon Wood’s goal, senior defenseman Jonathan Taylor and junior midfielder John David McClain swarm an attacking Highland Park player.

Lacrosse falls short during SPC championship game to ESD to take second place in conference 2018 RECORD 13-7

2018 STATE FINISH 2nd

2019 RECORD 9-6

2019 SPC FINISH 2nd

NOTABLE The Lions’ season ended with a 7-6 loss against Southlake in the Texas

High School Lacrosse League (THSLL) playoffs.

NOTABLE The Lions finished second in the THSLL North District East Division and in

SPC.

THEY SAID IT “We lost a really special group of guys last year, but so many guys

have stepped up this year at every level, too many for me to name really.” — head coach Hayward Lee COMPILATIONS Drew Woodward, Peter Orsak, Rajan Joshi, SeMaj Musco PHOTOS Richard Honaker, Peter Malouf,

had no seniors last year, so our team has gotten to play together for two years. We mesh well as a team which helps our performance during games.” — sophomore Aayan Khasgiwala

sports

THE REMARKER • MAY 10, 2019

SWING AWAY Rotating through the ball, senior Colin Neuhoff takes a full turn at a pitch in a recent home game.

Baseball squad wraps up season at SPC tournament 2018 RECORD 9-9

2019 RECORD 6-8-2

2019 SPC FINISH 10th

NOTABLE The Lions were edged out 4-2 by Houston Christian in the opening round of SPC. THEY SAID IT “The tendency was to look ahead at games instead of taking care of the ones that were in front of us, and that can sometimes be a trap.”— head coach Johnny Hunter

HANDOFF Sprinting the second leg of the 4x100 relay in the Navy-Green Quad Meet, junior Garrett Davis hands off the baton to sophomore Josh Mysore. The team ran the relay in 43.57 seconds.

Track team earns 2nd place finish at the SPC meet 2018 SPC FINISH 3rd

2019 SPC FINISH 2nd

NOTABLE Sophomore Kit Colson ran the third fastest 200m time in school history with a time of 21.76 at SPC.

BONDED After their final match at SPC, junior Tony D’Apice, freshman Mac McKenzie, junior captains Camp Collins and Romil Mathur, head coach Greg Guiler, senior captain James Rogers, freshman Anashay Monga and sophomore Rex Corey celebrate their fourth place finish.

THEY SAID IT “Our team’s success can be summed up by the phrase ‘It’s not magic, it’s hard work.’ We know all the races will be kicker’s races at the end, so we’re going to have to want it more.”— sophomore Michael Vanesko

Golf completes season with 4th place finish at SPC

COMPILATIONS Siddhartha Sinha, Sai Thirunagari, Jack Davis PHOTOS Randy Colson, Courtesy Greg Guiler, Preston Patton

THEY SAID IT “This year I feel like we’ve practiced a lot more together as one group. We’ve had a lot more tournaments — more experience for everyone.”— junior captain Romil Mathur

2018 SPC FINISH 11th

2019 SPC FINISH 4th

NOTABLE Senior captain James Rogers posted his career best round (81) the final day at SPC.

For the sports junkie A deeper dive into Lions sports for the spring season. Statistics and records reflect games through May 6.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS Senior Jonathan Taylor (left) readies himself to defend against attacks on the Lions’ goal, and Connor Cheetham (far left) one-handed cradles the ball as he attacks the opposing net. Taylor was named all USILA All-American and All-State for this season.

THSLL lacrosse Advanced stats:

SPC Baseball

Water Polo

Advanced Stats:

North Region 4/26 Championships Result: Win vs Denton (24-1)

The Lions reached the SPC champi- Senior Andy Crowe hit a onship nine out of the last ten years, walk off single vs Oakridge winning five of them to secure the third seed in the North. SPC Finish: 2nd (6-14 L vs. ESD)

North Zone Regular THSLL Division 1 Standings: Season Standings One seeds in the state tournament: Westlake Highland Park Dallas Jesuit The Woodlands

All-Team Selections

FWCD Trinity Valley St. Mark’s Greenhill Oakridge ESD Cistercian Casady

7-0 6-1 5-2 3-4 3-4 2-5 2-5 0-7

Senior defender Jonathan Taylor USILA All-American and AllState

SPC Tournament Final Matchups

Senior midfielder Parker Clark All-State

Championship Episcopal vs. Kinkaid

Junior midfielder Titus McGowan All-District

3rd place game .St John’s vs. John Cooper

Senior defender Blake Rodgers All-District

5th place game Trinity Valley vs. Greenhill

North Region 4/27 Championships Result: Loss vs Southlake (3-4) TISCA Championships 5/3 Day 1 Result: Win vs Friendswood (22-5)

Advanced stats: Regional honors: Senior Chase Honaker 1st Team All-Region Senior Robert Newman 1st Team All-Region Junior David Li 2nd Team All-Region Senior Mark Weisberg 2nd Team All-Region Head coach Mihai Oprea Regional Co-Coach of the year

SPC golf

SPC track and field SPC results:

Advanced stats:

Results from SPC at Woodforest SPC North Zone finish: 1st in the Woodlands 3/27 Team after 1st Round: 330 Team after 2nd Round: 332

Individual event results from SPC championships: 4x2 relay team

SPC Final Standings:

2nd

Pablo and Andres 4th, 5th Arroyo in the 3200m

1. Kinkaid 2. Trinity Valley 3. John Cooper 4. St. Mark’s 5. St. John’s 6. FWCD 7. EHS 8. ESD 9. Oakridge 10. Casady 11. Greenhill 12. St. Andrew’s

Garrett Davis in the triple jump

Players with Lowest Season Averages: Romil Mathur

79.00

Camp Collins

84.00

Mac McKenzie

84.13

5th

SPC crew The last two: Billy Lockhart and Christian Duessel won gold in the Texas Men’s 2x Jr. Varsity Championship. Second place in the varsity quad and double at Centrals.

Next Up: USRowing National 6/8 Championships SPC tennis:

Advanced stats:

Finish: 3rd

SPC Records:

SPC standings:

100 Meter dash 10.57 1600 M Run 4:16.52 High Jump 6’ 9” Shot Put 58’ 4” Discus 178’ 9” Triple Jump 46’ 7.25” Long Jump 23’ 5.5” 200 M Dash 21.31 110 M Hurdles 14.22 300 M Hurdles 38.12

ESD St. Mark’s Greenhill Cistercian Trinity Valley

7-0 6-1 5-2 3-4 3-4

Single’s top three: Mark Motlow (1) Jeremy Yu (2) Max Palys (3)

remarker

the STRESS RELIEF Taking a break from their workload, juniors Mason Rareshide, Anthony Andrews and Luke Adams compete in a spikeball match during their lunch period.

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ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON RD. DALLAS, TX 75230

THE REMARKER • MAY 1O, 2019

NINJA WARRIOR

Running the course Eighth grader Christian Youst discusses his experiences as a Junior Ninja Warrior, an activity he started in second grade.

Jahaziel Lopez: Can you tell me a bit about yourself and how you came about doing Ninja Warrior? Christian Youst: I started six years ago. It was the end of second grade, and I was just at my house. My dad pulled me into his room to come see a show he was watching, and it turned out to be American Ninja Warrior. I watched it and one of the competitors that was on the show, his name was Samsan, and he actually had a gym, which was right next to where I used to live in Houston. We just went there one day, and it was something I wanted to do. I wasn’t too good at first, but it was a lot of fun, and I knew I wanted to keep on doing that. I went back more times, and it just became a bigger part in my life. JL: For those who may not know what Ninja Warrior is, could you describe it in your own words? CY: Basically, it’s an obstacle course show where you’re just competing against the course. It’s you versus the obstacles. It’s upper body obstacles, balance obstacles and agility. There’s a bunch of different types of challenges to do.

ULTIMATE CLIFFHANGER Testing his grip strength, Youst hangs from one of his favorite obstacles.

JL: Are you nationally ranked? CY: Yes. A few years ago, I competed in a national competition. National competitions for Ninja Warrior are actually kind of new. It was called the UNAA, which stands for Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association. I had to qualify through an area and then a regional competition so I could qualify for nationals. I got first place in area and then regional. The nationals were at my home gym in Dallas, so that was a big advantage. I figured it would be my year. But I got fourth. At the time, I was kind of disappointed because I wanted to win. But looking back on it, I feel like that’s something I should be proud of. JL: Have you ever made it on TV? CY: They have a kid’s show, and the first season was this summer. You had to submit an application, like they do for the adult show. My application got accepted, so I was on the show. It was a great experience. I loved it. My episode has aired. It’s the 11th episode of the first season. I went to a watch party in Houston for that.

JL: Since you do Ninja Warrior courses, do you do other events, like the Spartan Race? CY: I mostly stick with Ninja Warrior competitions. But I rock climb for fun. That helps with building endurance and grip strength. JL: What does your training consist of? I wasn’t too good at first, CY: I try to go to the ninja gym at but it was least two times a week. Normally a lot of fun on Wednesdays and then someand I knew time during the weekend. I also I wanted train at my house because I have a to keep on Ninja tower. My dad actually built doing that. I went back one and I like that a lot. more times, There’s a couple of different and it just obstacles on it to just work on grip became a strength and agility. My training bigger part of my life.” consists mostly of running the Christian course and also doing conditionYoust, eighth ing. I mainly focus on obstacle grader work and course running.

“

JL: Do you play any other sports, and if so, how have maybe playing those sports helped with Ninja, or how has Ninja helped you play these other sports? CY: I play baseball, and I think that helps with Ninja, and Ninja helps with baseball. For both of them, being fast helps. It really does. I’d say I’m the fastest on the team. Being quick in the mind, being able to think, is a plus both on the field and on the course. JL: Has school helped with Ninja stuff, or vice versa? CY: For Ninja Warrior, you’ve got to be smart about what you’re doing. So, when you’re doing a certain obstacle, you have to do it with the right technique. Schoolwork is pretty technical. You have to do it well, and you have to do it efficiently. Efficiency is a big thing in Ninja Warrior, because that’s how you can win. Do things efficiently, so you save your grip strength, you save some of the energy you might need later on.

and he had the fastest time, so he beat me by two tenths of a second. But I’d say that’s just motivation for me, because I have one more year to do the Ninja Warrior Junior show. The ages for that show are nine to 14. I get one more year, so I’m hoping this will be my year. JL: What’s next for you? Is Ninja something you want to continue pursuing? CY: I want to get better and better until I can eventually compete on the adult show because this is just a stepping stone. The Ninja Warrior Junior show is great to talk about, and it was a great experience and all, but the dream for so long has been the real show. Win the show. Get to the top of stage four.

HANGING OUT Holding on to some equipment, Youst gets ready to take on the next part of the course.

JL: What’s your favorite Ninja event? CY: My favorite one is the ultimate cliffhanger. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically where you hang on a ledge with your fingertips. You have to climb across, and then you have to pull up and kind of reach up. It’s the fourth obstacle of the third stage. JL: What’s your favorite memory from doing Ninja? CY: My favorite memory is just how great our community really is. We’re always supportive of one another. Whenever someone fails on an obstacle, everyone is always there to pick them back up or cheer him on to finish the rest of the course. JL: What’s another personal record of yours that you achieved? CY: On the show, I got knocked out pretty early. It was the round of 32, but I had the second fastest run of anybody. I got paired up against the best competitor on the show. The Ninja Warrior Junior show is kind of a side by side thing. It’s a little bit different from the adult TV show. I went up against that guy

INTERVIEW Jahaziel Lopez PHOTOS Courtesy Christian Youst

GOLDEN BOY Proudly showing off his medals, Youst hopes to accumulate even more awards in the future.