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Friday, October 29, 2021 • St. Mark’s School of Texas • Dallas, TX • Volume 68, Issue 2
ABORTION | The ‘heartbeat bill’
Texas ALL EYES ON
IN PROTEST Citizens gather in downtown Dallas (foreground) to protest Senate Bill 8, including half a dozen Hockaday students, while the state capitol building in Austin watches from afar.
Senate Bill 8— commonly referred to as the ‘heartbeat bill’ — has generated a flock of publicity from around the nation. What impact does this new legislation have? Is it here to stay? Why is this issue so divisive? See coverage, pages 16, 17, 18
STORY Jonathan Yin, Austin Williams, Toby Barrett, Peter Orsak
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Jonathan Yin, Ekansh Tambe
PHOTOS Courtesy Eleanor Lockhart, Creative Commons
Senior Auction raises a record-breaking $113,992, funding Class of 2022 scholarship efforts by Dillon Wyatt he Senior Auction Sept. 26, raised roughly $113,992, breaking the previous donation record by nearly $40,000. The Senior Class showcased its talents to the community by auctioning off items such as sports clinics, barbeques and pool parties. The money raised from the event then goes towards Senior Class endeavors for the remainder of the year. “The money goes towards senior debts that we incur throughout the course of senior year,” class sponsor Brian Boucher said. “It helps pay for our senior retreat, it helps pay for senior week events and
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it helps with events associated with graduation. In addition, it helps pay for young alumni experiences that seniors get when they are in college.” In most years, the surplus the school had after senior privilege spending would be put into the Path to Manhood Scholarship, which gives students financial aid to attend the school. Unique to this year, the larger surplus allowed for a new fund to be created. “The school found themselves, based on the funds being raised, able to establish their own scholarship,” Boucher said. “It is an endowed scholarship position and scholarship fund that is going to be called
news & issues 2 discovery & stem 9 life & 10600 11 indepth 16 arts & culture 20 ratings & reviews 22 editorials & opinions 24 health & sports 27
the Class of 2022 Scholarship.” The abnormally large sum was in part due to the return of a normal senior auction. With last year’s auction held virtually due to COVID-19, the ability to be back in-person and for the community to come together made for a record-setting day. “We didn’t have a traditional senior auction last year,” Boucher said. “So a lot of what the Class of 2022 is doing this year is bringing back a lot of traditions. I think there was a larger-than-normal outpouring of support and enthusiasm for the auction. Part of it is a tribute to our seniors who put in a really great effort on auction day.”
10crypto revival
Future of currency or risky investment? Students and teachers share their thoughts.
17donor society
In addition to the outpouring of support and enthusiasm from members of the community, Lower School Head Sherri Darver, without warning, made a generous and unprecedented donation to the Senior Class. “Mrs. Darver in the middle of the auction had an announcement made that she was donating $2,022 to the class,” Boucher said. “This was not for any auction item — it was just a thank you to the class. That was very warmly received. I think that gave momentum to the rest of the auction, and people were willing to give more after seeing the generosity that was shown.”
Community members honor the school in their will with the Terrill Society.
31spc preview Looking at upcoming SPC tournaments for volleyball, XC, football.
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the remarker october 29, 2021
news &
Community service
Flipping the script by Keshav Krishna or the past week, I’ve been making a bold choice: pressing a little black button called channel up. Instead of CNN, the news station of my choice, I’ve been watching Fox News. Call it a social experiment. Call me smart for finally switching over to the right news channel. Call me crazy for watching those clowns. It all depends on your perspective. Fox News is the blue cheese of cable television – it’s an acquired taste. It was tough at first. I watched Fox somewhat regularly for the last presidential election, and the change since then is staggering — prime time news shows replaced by opinion, and the few moderate panelists replaced by rabid rightwing rabble- Keshav Krishna Issues Editor rousers caught in the rapture of Trump’s gospel. The pandemic, insurrection and new administration didn’t reverse their rightward shift. Instead, they doubled down. But beyond the fearmongering, anti-science, xenophobia and straight-up lying, it was entertaining and sometimes even enlightening. Here’s what I’ve learned. Find yourself a friend who defends you like Fox and Friends defends Trump. That’s unconditional support right there. Gutfeld!, a late-night comedy show hosted by Greg Gutfeld, is the most popular late-night program on television. Personally, I thought it combined awkward jokes, a typical lack of substance and production value inferior to our McDonald’s Week video. To each his own, I guess. But with a primetime viewership of nearly double CNN, Fox News is doing something right. Before, I found that baffling. Now I can see why. America is a fundamentally conservative nation. Fox News is the only mainstream conservative network. Unless one of those two statements changes, millions will continue to tune in. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that discourse in this country has fallen off a cliff. It’s the same on CNN. Watching a bunch of panelists and the anchor gang up on one poor conservative or liberal isn’t a debate – it’s the political equivalent of WWE Raw. It isn’t “presenting both sides.” It’s a circus. And it’s a disgrace. If there was one thing to take away from Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robby George’s visit, it was that opposing perspectives make conversations better. They make ideas better. The media isn’t furthering public discourse in this country. Not by a mile. That just means we have to. So the next time someone questions your views, don’t take a page out of Tucker Carlson’s book. Listen.
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Back in full force After a year filled with challenges, separation and adaptation, we sat down with Community Service Board Chair Matthew Shen to discuss how the school is getting back to its giving ways. “Last year, we did not have drives because we couldn’t have enough people coming to campus and donate things as well as we couldn’t send those supplies out to volunteer organizations because they wouldn’t trust what we sent them because of sanitation issues. That was the primary challenge of not being able to help, and also, because we didn’t connect with these projects or drives the connection between St. Mark’s and these institutions weakens. The primary problems we had were ensuring these organizations that we would still be interested and engaging with them in the future beyond COVID-19.“ “We also work hard to create virtual programs for a lot of things. For example, Rays of Light had a couple of online programs.
[Community Service Director] Jorge Correa was always in contact with Gooch Elementary to make sure that they knew that we were extending our helping hand whenever we could. The toughest thing was getting people to just do service.” “Things are back to normal, for the most part. We have our basic Monday meetings now and board members get involved with the St. Mark’s community and beyond. We’re also rebuilding a lot
of important connections. We had a very, very successful clothing drive this year and a lot of the projects are going back in person and we’re creating new projects. We have a bunch of community service board members working as we did in previous years like 2019 and early 2020 to provide the student body with opportunities to get engaged.” INTERVIEW Zack Goforth PHOTO Neil Song
BOXING Shen prepares a package of goods for the food drive, which benefitted two local food pantries.
issues in brief MODEL UN EVENTS After a year of virtual events, the Model United Nations club, led by club president senior Pranay Sinkre, has two upcoming in-person events later this fall in Texas: Central Texas Model United Nations (CTMUN) and DAMUN (Dallas Area Mode United Nations). As many as 14 Marksmen will travel to Austin from Nov. 5-7 for CTMUN, and all members of the club will attend the DAMUN in Irving on Nov. 13 according to History and Social Sciences chair David Fisher. LIBRARY REOPENEING The library has been able to return to several of its normal operations. Unlike last year, with seating limited to 24 students, both the first and second floors of the Green Library have been opened. The Green library has also reinstated its old hours and now closes at 6pm, Monday through Thursday. Due to COVID-19, the library staff had to revamp the
web portal, which now includes links to electronic newspapers and a list of newly added titles COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CONFERENCE College admission counselors Phoebe Kingsak and Josh Shandera attended the annual National Association for College Admissions and Counseling Conference in Seattle Sept. 23-25. The conference is attended by high school college counselors, directors from various schools and universities and college focused organizations. It is for high school admissions counselors to listen to staff in various colleges’ admissions offices, and for the counselors to interact with the staff members. This year, there were 3,200 people in attendance and another 1,500 virtually attending the conference. WRITING CONTEST Submissions for the Literary
inside 03Hispanic Heritage
Hispanic members of the community talk about culture, politics and family.
04ZONING SEGREGATION
How an archaic practice continues in Dallas today and why it affects us.
06THE DIPLOMAT
Meeting Marc Stanley ‘75, a lawyer appointed as the ambassador to Argentina.
for your information Festival Writing Contest are due Nov. 2 with only junior and senior submissions allowed. Categories for submissions consist of poetry with a 150-line maximum length and fiction and personal essays with a five-page maximum length. The winner of each category will be awarded with a small, private audience with the author who selected his work during the Literary Festival in January. Juniors and seniors must only submit to a single category and may not submit more than two entries COMMUNITY SERVICE The Chapel Council is planning to recontinue readings with the Lower School. The inspiration for this idea comes from previous events of the same nature, with members of the Upper School going down to read stories to younger Marksmen. The plan is yet to be finalized, and is in the discussion for the future of the Chapel Council.
last month October 10 Former President Donald Trump marked his return to national politics with a visit to the battleground state of Iowa, where he continued to repeat claims of a “rigged election.” He also vowed to “take back America,” prompting some pundits to predict a third presidential run. October 11 Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill barring private companies from enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. October 15 The Texas House passed a bill curtailing transgender students’ participation in public school sporting events, only allowing them to participate on teams that align with their birth gender.
October 19 The third special session of the Texas legislature adjourned after an eventful session which included pivotal decisions such as deciding how to spend COVID-19 relief funds and approving a new congressional map. A last-minute property tax relief bill also passed October 22 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton described President Biden’s election victory as an “overthrow” to an El Paso crowd. Paxton, who as the chair for Lawyers for Trump attempted to overturn the presidential election result through legal means, made the comment during an announcement for a lawsuit to resume construction of the border wall.
point by point Six new members join school’s Alumni Board Aaron Kaufman ‘67 is a longtime judge who graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Kaufman has been involved with the Alumni Board for decades and was formerly a member of the Ralph B. Rogers Alumni Award committee. Charles Branch ‘10 serves as a personal assistant to former President George W. Bush and is currently pursuing his MBA from Harvard University. During his time on Preston Road, Branch was elected as Student Council president. Eugene Jabbour ‘96 is the owner of Competitive Camera, a camera and video specialty retailer in the metroplex. He most recently served on the 25th reunion committee. Jabbour’s son is sophomore Preston Ghafar. Chip Fowler ‘05 is an associate attorney at the law firm Robert D. Lybrand and a member of the Terrill Society, the school’s legacy society. Sam Acho ‘07 works as a lead college football analyst at ESPN. Before his media career, Acho played for the Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL. Additionally, Acho was selected to speak at Commencement in 2015. Jesse Diaz ‘04 returns to the the Alumni Board. He was previously a member but, due to his employment at PepsiCo Frito-Lay, had to move to Atlanta.
COMPILATION Ian Dalrymple
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HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
Plurality versus reality ACROSS THE STATE From the arid plains of the Panhandle to the halls of the state capitol, Hispanic Americans have made their mark across the state.
With an emerging plurality, Hispanic Americans have a growing influence on the political, social and economic trajectory of Texas. This heritage month, members of the community reflect on the Hispanic American experience.
• Junior Jose Jimenez on growing up Hispanic I consider English to be my second language. I usually speak to my parents in Spanish, but I speak to my brother in English. A few years ago, I started to notice that I began to lose my understanding of certain Spanish words and concepts because I was more involved in learning English. At first, I didn’t speak a lot of English. When I went to kindergarten, I went to a school that was 99 percent Hispanic, but the teachers spoke English. Then, I went to a school that was around 95 percent Hispanic, but everyone there spoke English, too. So I had to increase my JOSE JIMENEZ Junior fluency in English and learn all the slang because of that. It’s challenging because English is a much larger part of my life than Spanish, and it’s hard to be fluent in both. For example, I have some trouble using bigger words in English for things like vocabulary quizzes in English class. Adjusting to St. Mark’s was pretty tough. The culture and people were just really, really different from my old school. When I first came here, I felt a little left out. Being from a completely different culture, I felt a little separated. But what St. Mark’s does great is getting everybody together and involved, so eventually, I adjusted and felt like I belonged here. Some members of my family are undocumented. There’s all this talk about rapists and drug traffickers coming across the border, but that’s not a lot of people. A lot of people are coming into the United States to work hard, make a life for themselves, and raise a family. Back in Mexico, it’s really bad. There’s a lot of corruption, gang violence, drugs, cartels. The economy is really bad. Whenever something bad happens, news sources, politicians, they all try to blame one race for it. And that makes me mad. My mother came here when she was 17. She was told by her parents to go over to the United States and to get a job and help them financially. My dad decided to go to the United States because he would be rewarded more for the work he did, and he could also help his family more. It all comes down to opportunity. Hispanic people come here and work incredibly hard. You go to the cafeteria, to construction sites, and the people there are speaking Spanish. Not a lot of people notice that. A lot of the things we don’t see happening, that work is done by Hispanics. Hispanic people have become a much more necessary part of society than most Americans realize.
• Immigrant Correa on cultural changes When I left Chile in 1994, we didn't have a Black population, but then the earthquake hit Haiti and Chile came to help, and they started taking people to Chile. Now we have immigrants, same as the ones that
are showing up here on the border. They started going over there to change, to improve their lives, like all immigrants. There’s a lot to learn, from the language itself, even the way of walking, talking, behaving. My daughter, she’s CEO of March on the Polls, which means to teach people to vote and to encourage them to go out there and vote. Before, if you were not into politics, politics didn’t get to you. You did your life and you didn’t care who was over there in Washington doing whatever. jorge correa Well, that changed in the last few years, where all the politics Spanish instructor come to you, it doesn’t matter where you are — as an immigrant, as a woman, as everything.
Every American has heard the word “familia.” They say it with a strong accent. That word – it's very important. We believe in that, and I think it's one of the things that we can bring to the American people in our new home in this culture — the meaning that it has for us.
• An expert weighs in on Hispanic American history For people from different cultural backgrounds, recalling important historical events during this period is the important thing. Having cultural celebrations and customs and food and dances, that's a pretty traditional sort of thing. Schools should devote some time to discussing the particular groups that comprise this population because we're certainly not all the same: we have distinct histories and distinct cultures, although we share similarities, especially in terms of language. I think it is important to connect the present population with the founding of settlements in Texas. These groups are culturally connected. Even if individuals arrive later, the cultural connections go all the way back. For example, the language Spanish is spoken in Texas longer than English. Tex-Mex food is an offshoot of regular Mexican food. So the connections are there, despite the boundary that was established in 1848. There's a sense that Hispanics just arrived yesterday because of concerns about migration. When they're constantly considered immigrants, that's ignoring their deep roots in this place. It's not
like the Chinese arriving in California, or the Irish in Massachusetts — when the Mexicans arrive in Texas, they're arriving in a place that was part of Mexico. They have a connection that is significant, and that connection goes beyond Hispanic. Certainly, migration from Mexico and Central America has been more or less steady over the last 50 years. The numbers have increased so that these populations now amount to about 40% of the total. However, because many people are not yet citizens, many cannot vote, so the electorate is much smaller. They’re certainly not 40% of the total electorate. So their impact has been growing gradually. My major stress would be to stop thinking about Mexicans and other Dr. John Chavez Latinos as simply immigrants. To SMU history professor give an example, I am sometimes asked what part of Mexico I was born in, and I tell them I was born in Los Angeles, which of course was part of Mexico, and that my family's been in the United States for over 100 years. They're still considered immigrants. I think that is counter to the historical presence of this population if you tie them into their indigenous past. STORY Keshav Krishna, Toby Barrett PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Keshav Krishna
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Zoning Segregation
A chance to grow Zoning segregation has been a problem in Dallas for decades. Now, a new generation of leaders are seeking out new ways to solve the problem.
DIVIDED Redlining, a term coined in the 1960s, is used to describe the systematic division and oppression of communities of color. Many communities with primarily-white populations were intentionally separated from primarily-Black communities by freeways during the city planning process.
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he wall just stands there, stained with artwork, graffiti and everything in between, eight decades after its creation. It stands with seemingly no purpose other than to bear the creative release of the community it cleaves. However, at one point in time, during an overlooked period in the nation’s history, it did serve a purpose. The Detroit Eight Mile Wall, a six-foot-high slab of concrete constructed in 1941, served as a means of physically separating black and white homeowners. It was a half-mile long, one-foot-thick reminder of the way this country treated people of color and lower socioeconomic status – a reminder of what Lorre Allen, the school’s director of Inclusion, Diversity and Human Resources and Human Resources, faced while growing up in Detroit. “You have to remind yourself that you’re going to take down these barriers,” Allen said, “not physically, but mentally take down these barriers and not allow them to prohibit you from moving forward.” Allen, who was one of two Black students in a Catholic elementary school, was aware of the challenges she had to face. “I learned to persevere,” Allen said, “and I developed resilience and built character. The challenges of racial segregation were difficult, but I didn’t allow it to stop me from pursuing my opportunities.” Jaynie Schultz, City Councilwoman for District 11, just north of the school, asserts that residential segregation in Dallas today is the result of actions city leaders historically took to perpetuate racial segregation. “For example, after World War Two, with the GI Bill, when African-American soldiers were coming back,” Schultz said, “African-American soldiers had LORRE ALLEN the opportunity and the money to be able to buy homes, but they were not allowed to because of redlining and other tools to keep them segregated.” “The same thing happened with the Hispanic community and the Jewish community. Back then, banks would literally draw red lines on areas where minorities weren’t going to get housing loans. So, basically, anybody who wasn’t white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant couldn’t buy homes in certain areas of Dallas. Redlining was the old tool, and what’s used now is single-family zoning. It’s not as much racial segregation as economic segregation at this point.” Schultz, who previously served on the City Planning Commission and obtained a master’s in urban studies from the University of Texas at Arlington, believes examining niches in the community is essential towards providing people with what they need.
“The lens the Dallas City Council has taken on addressing residential segregation is one of equity,” she said. “Last year, we passed a racial equity resolution saying that we’re not working toward equality, we’re actually working toward equity. You’re not going to build the exact same house all over town. What you have to do is look at a particular part of Dallas and figure out what kind of housing is needed.” One example of the need for disparate approaches is the lack of grocery stores in South Dallas. “Right now, there’s a desperate cry for more grocery stores but not enough population density to justify building those stores,” Schultz said. “So we have to build more Jaynie Schultz houses so that there are enough people living there for those stores to get built.” In northern Dallas, however, where property prices are more expensive, there isn’t a need for more grocery stores, and building more houses to increase population wouldn’t be a feasible plan, anyway. Results, though, have been marginal, in part due to the antagonistic attitude many Dallasites have toward affordable housing. “I’m going to be honest – the progress is very slow,” Schultz said. “There’s a lot of NIMBYism [Not In My Back Yard] in Dallas. ‘I don’t want affordable housing near where I live. I don’t want houses that don’t look like mine in my neighborhood’. So one of the things that we are doing is working with neighborhood leaders to help them understand the bigger picture of this city in terms of housing.” You’re not going to build the exact same house all over town. What you have to do is look at a particular part of Dallas and figure out what kind of housing is needed. Jaynie Schultz District 11 City Councilwoman
Korey Mack ‘00, a former city council candidate here, is familiar with the concept of redlining and racial segregation in neighborhoods. Mack grew up in a community that was, at one time, an exclusively white neighborhood. “In the 1950s,” he said, “many of the families living in my neighborhood moved to places such as University Park and North Dallas, and then my grandfather, who was in the military, was fortunate enough to get a loan to buy a home in that neighborhood.” As members of the community moved to other parts of the city, people of color quickly filled the gaps. Mack believes his neighborhood was evidence that a neighborhood can look a certain way demographically. Occasionally, the planning of growth in a city inhibits
communities of color and imparts physical boundaries, according to Mack. “When certain freeways were erected,” he said, “it was not by an accident that they bifurcated thriving black neighborhoods.” Mack believes racially homogenous communities have disadvantages. “In the neighborhood in which I grew up,” he said, “there were very few options for quality grocery shopping. Additionally, the zoning in these communities looks very different from other communities in Dallas.” Mack, who has served on the City Planning Commission with Schultz, worked with neighborhood partners such as the St. Philip’s School and community centers, attempted to improve community advocacy in less fortunate neighborhoods. “I started to realize that folks are not completely understanding the process of responding to notifications of new developments being proposed in their neighborhoods,” he said. “That’s leading to a lot of folks not standing up for what they believe in, whether that’s in support or opposition.” Mack notices a disparate impact on the response to these notifications in communities of color. “Typically, more affluent communities have better established community groups,” he said, “homeowners associations, neighborhood groups, that sort of thing. So there’s a higher level of sophistication in dealing with the city that we don’t see in underserved and under-resourced communities.” However, the impacts of Korey Mack racial segregation can also be very forthright and personal. Mack believes it ties into interactions with those who are different from us. “I remember I was driving to a track meet in Addison with my grandmother,” Mack said, “and I was wearing my St. Mark’s wrestling sweater. We got lost fairly far from where I lived, and I went up to a lady in a minivan to ask for directions. She didn’t even acknowledge that I was there and locked her doors, acting like there was a safety issue for her and her kids.” Being open to learning from someone who differs from us is crucial, according to Mack. “Opening up is not a danger,” he said, “but an opportunity to grow. That’s the view that I try to share with my kids and the students I come across here at St. Mark’s. It’s more than celebrating the fact that we’re different. Instead, it’s about learning what’s inherent in all those differences, because I think that illustrates a lot of the ways in which we have things in common.” STORY Keshav Krishna, Zack Goforth GRAPHIC Morgan Chow
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COLLEGE ADMISSION STORIES
Doing anything to get in Some students will do anything to impress college admission counselors. Twenty-six letters of recommendation? Yes. Sending in a piece of a chair? Done that. Before they came here, all three college counselors worked in college admissions: Veronica Pulido at Duke University; Josh Shandera at UT Austin and Phoebe Kingsak at New York University. We asked them to share some of the craziest things that crossed their desks. What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen included in a student’s application? Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido: Students used to send in their paper version of the application, so we would actually get a lot of different things and additional pieces. For instance, a piece of a chair — wanting to get a chair in, a foot in, a random shoe or something to get in the door. Associate Director of College Counseling Josh Shandera: One of my most memorable things I saw on a kid’s resume was that he listed an interest or hobby as “Cat OBGYN.” And there was a little dash that explained that he helped deliver his cat’s kittens. That has stuck with me for a very long time. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen included in a student’s application? JS: One of the more interesting things I saw was that a girl listed one of her accomplishments as winning a Jeep for perfect attendance, and I Googled the story and found her award. So, she won a Jeep for it. What’s the most unrealistic or exaggerated thing you’ve seen included in a student’s application? Associate Director of College Counseling Phoebe Kingsak: Usually, it’s to do with extracurricular activities. You have to list all of them and how many hours you’ve done, and I think high school students don’t realize we can do math. We can tell you didn’t do 158 hours of community service in one week and go to school, eat and sleep — that’s just not possible. What’s the most extra or unnecessary thing you’ve seen included in a student’s application or done by a student during the application process? VP: Twenty-six additional letters of recommendation. This is beyond the college counseling and the teacher recs, but I clearly remember there were 26 additional letters of recommendation. It was just dumb.
EYE-CATCHING From mailing in a piece of furniture to sending 26 letters of recommendation, the counselors have seen applicants try to gain an advantage in all kinds of ways. Oftentimes, these efforts don’t impress admission officers as much as students think.
JS: I worked at UT, where we don’t consider legacy, but I had a kid lay out in his resume all of his familial relations to UT. And it was way too much. What is the most common mistake students make in their applications? JS: At UT, I read plenty of essays that were addressed to Texas A&M or Georgia or Michigan or other schools. Those are some pretty easy ones that kids miss, or things within their application, especially the resume, where it just doesn’t add up as far as the timelines because they usually made a mistake somewhere, and it’s just not quite right. Or they’ve put something in one place but then don’t list it somewhere else and you’re like, “Well, is this real? Is this not?” So just trying to be consistent with those things. PK: How they write their essays. Everyone is brainwashed by English class and MLA format. You are just telling a story. You’re not writing an essay. Students think you need the five paragraph structure with a thesis statement and a concluding paragraph, and that’s not what these essays are. Did you ever have any awkward interactions with students and parents who were contacting the school to try to get an advantage? JS: After decisions are released, it can be a very highstress time. It’s never the student. It’s always the parent. You’ll have an upset parent call you, and they basically just want to vent. So I’ve definitely had my fair share of “You’ve made a mistake” conversations.
What did you get tired of reading about the most in applications? JS: Lots and lots and lots of sports essays. There are ways to do good sports essays, but the number of times that kids talk about tearing an ACL, or something like that, that’s a common thing that people talk about. That’s one of the things that would be more monotonous sometimes because it’s a very similar story, and the student just hasn’t made it super personal. What do students often overlook when completing and submitting an application? JS: I think sometimes students undersell themselves. Either in the resume or essays, I’d be looking for examples of leadership, I’d be looking for depth of involvement, and sometimes you read an application and you say, “Okay, a student did this.” But then you talk to the person and you’re like, “Oh this is really cool.” They told me a lot more than what they actually put in the application. There is a fine line between bragging and giving a full picture, but I think it’s helping someone understand the extent of what their commitment or involvement has looked like because if you just list an activity, if you don’t take the time to actually explain it somewhere else if you’re given the space, then you lose an opportunity to actually help someone understand what that looked like. STORY Will Pechersky, Grayson Redmond GRAPHIC Cooper Cole
SCHOLARSHIPS
college ege
As seniors continue to work through the college admissions process, financial aid awards play an important role in how they make decisions about the next step. In order to be in the running, students have to research and apply for scholarships of their choice. Here are a few available to students that stand out. NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] provides successful undergraduate applicants with awards that include academic assistance (up to $9,500 per year) for two years of full-time study and a 10-week, full-time paid ($700/week) internship at an NOAA facility during the summer. Deadline: Jan. 31, 2022 $20,000 Coca-Cola Scholars Scholarship Achievement based scholarship awarded to graduating high school seniors who gave over 6,450 Coca-Cola Scholars in 2021. Deadline: Oct. 31, 2021 VFW Voice of Democracy Scholarship Audio-essay program that provides high school students with the unique opportunity to express themselves in regards to a democratic and patrioticthemed recorded essay. First place winner receives $30,000 while the first place winner from each state wins a minimum scholarship of $1,000. Deadline: Midnight, Oct. 31, 2021
National Merit Scholarship Program Scholarships awarded through National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) programs are regarded as some of the highest academic honors attainable by U.S. high school students. Last year NMSC awarded scholarships valued at about $39 million to approximately 8,500 qualified students. These are among the largest scholarship competitions in the United States, with more than 10,000 students receiving college scholarships totaling $47 million. High school students enter the competitions by taking the PSAT test, also referred to as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). Deadline: NMSQT Test (PSAT) Equitable Excellence Scholarship Provides 100 $5,000 annual scholarships that will be renewed to award recipients each academic year for four years, for a total of $20,000 per recipient, or awards 100 one-time $2,500 scholarships that can help students to underwrite immediate costs associated with higher education such as tuition, books or room and board. Deadline: Dec. 17, 2021, or until 10,000 applications are submitted
Source: Forbes; https://www.forbes.com/sites/markkantrowitz/2021/06/23/which-are-the-most-generous-and-prestigious-scholarships-and-fellowships/?sh=2e961147465a Source: fastweb; https://www.fastweb.com/college-scholarships/articles/prestigious-scholarships-and-fellowships
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ARGENTINE ambassador
Texas diplomacy Marc Stanley ‘75 was nominated to be the United States Ambassador to Argentina by President Joe Biden after careers in politics and law.
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hen Joe Biden offers you a tie swap, what do you do? Marc Stanley ‘75 was a speaker at the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) when the then-Vice President made that exact proposition. “We exchanged ties,” Stanley said. “I kept his, and he kept mine, and there’s a great photo of it that he signed. It said, ‘I got the better end of that deal.’” Stanley’s life at the highest level of politics has resulted in his nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. But he started out locally as a Marksman. “When I was at St. Mark’s, I worked for a city councilwoman named Adlene Harrison, and she became mayor of Dallas,” Stanley said. “Then, I went to school in Washington D.C., so I could work in the Capitol.” After working for members of Congress for four years, Stanley went to law school, but still stayed active in politics, running former Governor Ann Richards’ and former Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s campaigns in Dallas. “I’ve just been involved in every presidential campaign since I graduated from college,” Stanley said. Stanley first became acquainted with Biden in 1988, eventually forming a friendship through their work with the
NJDC. Biden was active in the council, speaking in its conferences and making phone calls. “He was very involved with us,” Stanley said. “When my brother died about six years ago, President Biden even called us after one evening Shivah ceremony. He spent 30 minutes on the phone with me and my mother.” In his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden offered Stanley leadership of Lawyers For Biden, which organized all the legal volunteers for the Biden campaign and raised campaign funds.. “After he and [Vice President] Kamala Harris won, it was suggested that I apply to become an ambassador,” Stanley said. “That’s been a lifelong goal of mine. I asked to be considered for Argentina and got a phone call from the White House in April saying the President would like me to serve there.” He applied for Argentina specifically for a multitude of reasons. “I love the country,” Stanley said. “I think it’s one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to. I have friends and relatives there, and I like the connections between Argentina and Texas, particularly Dallas––also, quite frankly, the similar time zone. Argentina has tremendous natural resources and beauty. It has great, educated and
DONE DEAL “Marc — I got the better of the deal, my friend.” In 2010, Stanley swapped ties with Joe Biden, the Vice President at the time. Biden signed an image of the occassion.
PRESIDENTIAL CHAT Marc Stanley talks to President Joe Biden. Stanley has been involved in the Democratic party’s politics at the local, state and national level since his time in high school, culminating in his time chairing Lawyers for Biden during the President’s winning campaign in 2020.
intelligent people, and they have a lot of challenges that they’re working on, which I’d like to help with.” The South American democracy currently faces a range of economic challenges made even worse by COVID-19. “I think the biggest issue right now is their economy,” Stanley said. “They have a huge debt to the IMF [International Monetary Fund], and they’re facing 50 percent inflation, along with unemployment and poverty. They used to be the fifth largest economy in the world in the 1920s, and now they’re somewhere in the 70s.” Stanley also wants to improve the American-Argentine relationship by expanding positive knowledge of the United States in Argentina. “I’d like to raise the approval rating of our relationship and feelings about the United States with Argentines,” Stanley said. “I’m going to travel the whole country to talk about our brand and make sure they understand our culture and our business opportunities.” Stanley also wants to further American foreign policy in the region by helping counter the influence of
America’s opponents in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba and Venezuela. “We’d love to see [Argentina] join us in standing against the human rights abuses in Cuba and other Western Hemisphere countries,” Stanley said. “We’d like to see them oppose the Venezuelan regime by not accepting the results of their election standing for the rule of law. We would like to see them buying more U.S. goods than Chinese goods, but overall, we think we have a really good bilateral relationship.” After a lengthy and thorough vetting process, Stanley is still awaiting confirmation by the Senate, like many other nominated ambassadors. Stanley will also get training to be an ambassador before he can start the job, but before his official confirmation, he is still looking forward to improving relations with Argentina. “We have so much in common with the Argentinian people in the love of human rights and the rule of law and democracy,” Stanley said. “And there’s no reason why our friendship shouldn’t grow even more.” STORY Myles Lowenberg, Dawson Yao PHOTOS Courtesy Marc Stanley
Chapel Council to travel to other religion’s places of worship in new type of interfaith visits by Ian Dalrymple he Chapel Council is planning interfaith visits, where students would be given the opportunity to visit places of worship from different religions to learn more about those faiths. Chaplain Stephen Arbogast says that these visits will expose students to new experiences. “The Chapel Council has been working on interfaith visits, which we’ve never done before,” Arbogast said. “We haven’t chosen any place yet, but the hope is that this year will be a pilot, and some students could have a chance to visit places they wouldn’t normally be exposed to.”
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Arbogast says that, despite not being available yet at the school, these visits are commonplace across the country. “It happens all over the country,” Arbogast said. “One of the reasons that we want to do it is that we don’t have many opportunities to invite guest speakers to talk about religious congregations.” According to Arbogast, studens may also have the chance to speak with somebody who practices the religion. This, he says, is a chance for students to ask more about the religion. “In most cases, there might be an opportunity to speak afterwards
with either one of the leaders or a member, to have an opportunity to ask questions,” Arbogast said. “For example, students could ask, ‘Why do you stand up for this, or sit down for that?’ ‘Why are people divided about this?’ ‘Why do you sing these songs or those songs?’ It can help us better understand the context of the community.” Senior Abhi Jain, co-chair of the Chapel Council, says that it plans to offer visits to four different religious ceremonies. “We are planning to visit four religious centers or places of worship this year,” Jain said. “These include a
Christian church, a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple and a Jewish synagogue.” Arbogast says that, often, all students need to observe a new ceremony is a group to participate with. “In some cases, students might live next to a religious congregation and never go inside because it would seem uncomfortable, even if it’s someplace that’s actually bordering their house,” Arbogast said. “If they have a group of other people who are willing to go with them, they might think to themselves, ‘I would love to see what goes on there.’”
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Senior electives
Dividing up the Harkness table For the first time, seniors are finding themselves having different discussions than their peers do in English class. This is because of the new elective system. Following changes in AP English class offerings in 2020, seniors had the opportunity to choose from different semester-long elective courses for twelfth-grade English. A few months into the first semester, here’s a look at some current senior electives and the details of this transition — and the English curriculum’s future. Creative Writing:
Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown: Both of my graduate degrees are in creative writing. It’s what my focus in education has been, and I do creative writing myself, so I get to teach something I’m very passionate about, and the students, likewise, seem to really be interested in writing creatively instead of just writing academic essays all the time. Senior Henry Piccagli: Our last story was a nonfiction piece, and we just wrote a fiction piece. Mr. Brown prints 16 copies of every single story, and he hands them out. We all get to read and annotate each other’s essays, and then we’ll discuss our peers’ essays and critique them.
Dystopian Literature:
English instructor Cameron Hillier: If you are interested in current events, you read the news and are interested in the way the world is now and are concerned about the future, this is a lot of fun. It might not be the most uplifting, but we also want to talk about, if we do see and agree with these problems in our society, what we can do to fix them, how we can change it and stop ourselves from going in a direction we don’t want to go in. English and history instructor Dr. John Perryman: I have learned a lot from the students about modern life. I’m of the age where I went off to college with a brand new typewriter. You guys have grown up with computers and cell phones, so I’m constantly learning from the students about social media. Senior Miki Ghosh: The thing that I’ve enjoyed most so far is that, because it’s an English elective, everyone in that class wants to be there and is very invested in it and really enjoys it, so the energy in the class is really insane because everybody who’s in it really enjoys it.
Literature of Human Rights:
English instructor GayMarie Vaughan: We talk a little about the nature of capital punishment in the US today. We’ve had a couple of guest speakers such as a woman who spoke about gendercide in the world, specifically the killing of female infants. We had [head wrestling coach] Reyno Arredondo, who spent time in Afghanistan, come talk to us about what it was like to be in Afghanistan. We’re having someone come speak to us about the death penalty. Senior Enoch Ellis: I love the way Mrs. Vaughan makes us stay up to date with current human rights violations — even if they’re not exactly heartwarming stories. Also, the Socratic-
esque atmosphere of the classroom discussions always welcomes new ideas and conversations.
Literature of the Apocalypse:
THE TABLE Elective teachers include English instructor Cameron Hillier, Head of Upper School Colin Igoe, English instructor GayMarie Vaughan, Master Teaching Chair David Brown and English and history instructor John Perryman. Trustee Master Teaching Chair Lynne Schwartz (not pictured) also teaches one of the senior electives.
Trustee Master Teaching Chair Lynne Schwartz: I’ve always been fascinated by end-of-the-world stories and wondered why there are so many of them and why they’re so popular. I really wanted to explore those stories and the issues behind them with a class because I feel like you haven’t really studied a book or studied a subject unless you’ve had a class to talk about it with. Senior Soham Verma: I think this class involves a lot of imagination and creativity, and that’s what I enjoy because when you read literature of the apocalypse, you feel like you’re a child again and you’re making your own movie.
Literature of War and Survival:
Head of Upper School Colin Igoe: Perhaps the highlight for me has been that guys keep a journal every day, and a lot of the writing that they’re doing is thoughtful and and taking things that in some ways are abstract. These conflicts don’t have anything to do with them in terms of having lived in these wars that we’re reading about. Senior Evan McGowan: I was definitely surprised by the participation from everyone in the classroom and the quality of conversations. Everyone participates in meaningful ways.
Pop Culture:
Schwartz: We’re about to go into a study of global marketing and how American products are marketed overseas, and how ads for Americans differ from ads for other countries for American products. Senior Sam Reitch: Most of our first quarter grade relies on a big presentation that we do, and we get to choose whatever topic we want for it, so it’s been really cool just being able to do research about and prepare a presentation on something you actually are interested in doing do a full presentation on. STORY Will Pechersky, Zack Goforth, Nolan Marcus PHOTO Hudson Brown, Zachary Bashour
Ahead
looking ing
Taking a peek at different electives the English Department offers seniors second semester: A One-Hundred-Year Partnership: A History of Dallas and St. Mark’s: Perryman: I wanted to learn more about the history of Dallas and of St. Mark’s by myself, how big cities work and the most effective way for citizens to impact policies in a city. The work I’m doing will hopefully tie in with my role as Director of Civic Responsibility, and trying to find new ways we can plug in with the city and share our intellectual and other resources with the city. Black American Literature: Igoe: James Baldwin is a guy that we’re going to read and write about in Black American literature. [James Baldwin’s nonfiction essays] are timeless and also speak very much to some of the things we’re dealing with right now as a country and as a world of what it means to be a citizen and what it means to be an American. Science Fiction: Schwartz: I have been a science fiction buff ever since I was in elementary school when I first read short stories that had to do with science fiction. I spent one whole summer just reading science fiction when I was nine years old, and I just never looked back. I’m fascinated by the fact that these authors can envision future things that actually do happen.
A look into the new senior electives and their impact on students and teachers alike by Will Pechersky eginning in the 2020-2021 school year, the English Department combined the AP English language and composition course with the AP English literature and composition course into one class for juniors to take in the same year due to the similarity between the course content. This change opened up the opportunity to implement semester-long elective courses for seniors beginning this school year. English Department Chair Michael Morris sees value in this freedom for seniors. “If we kept AP literature senior year, most guys would want to take AP literature, and therefore, we wouldn’t have enough students or teachers available for an elective system for seniors,” Morris said. “We believe that students really benefit from being able to choose a course they’re interested in after having a foundation of the three years of English courses.”
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Given the uniqueness of the new structure, Morris and his colleagues have focused on keeping the various courses in tandem with each other. “We still do have common elements that we expect of all the classes,” Morris said, “so we meet every month just to ensure that we’re staying on track with those common elements and that there is a similar rigor to the courses even though they’re very different in terms of what they’re studying.” Over the first two months of school, Morris has received positive feedback on the new system from the community. “I think that teachers are really excited about being able to do it,” Morris said. “We’re continuing to think of the future too, so we’re already sort of anticipating what little tweaks and changes would we make to the courses that we’re offering, so we’re trying to learn from the experiences as anybody should do.”
With the combination of the two AP courses for juniors, there’s an added layer of difficulty for students and teachers to cover the full content in one year. “It’s a big ask, but I’ve taught the combined course for many years at other schools before this past year, and I think bright, hard working students such as we have here can do it,” Morris said. “It definitely makes for a challenge.” English instructor GayMarie Vaughan has a unique perspective from teaching both a senior elective course and a junior AP English language and literature course. “The pace is pretty quick,” Vaughn said. “We have a lot to cover. There’s six particular kinds of essays that the boys have been preparing to do on their AP exam, so it’s just fitting all that in and getting them enough practice at it.” In opening the space for unique, elective courses, the opportunity to pursue other aspects of English classes outside of
a set curriculum grows even wider. “Talking about how we should live as human beings is more important than ‘Can you pass an AP exam?’, but we also realize that’s important to them for college admissions and all of that,” Vaughan said. “We’re happy to narrow that into one year to allow us to do more meaningful work in the classes we get for senior year.” With the change, students now have the ability to select elective courses that appeal to them personally. “It runs like just about any other English class, it’s just that the boys get to choose the topic, so you have a whole bunch of people in the class that are really interested in what you’re reading and what you’re talking about,” Vaughan said. “The participation and the interest is amplified, so it’s a really energizing experience to have a class everybody’s picked to be in.’
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parenting
Watching from above Years ago, when kids went out, parents could only trust their childrens’ word — that their kids were going where they said they were. Now, with the help of tracking apps, parents don’t have to rely on any of that; their kids’ location, cell phone charge and driving speed are just at their fingertips.
HELICOPTER PARENTS Some parents hover just above their childrens’ shoulders — watching as if they’re in a helicopter.
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unior Patrick Flanagan was in big trouble, and he didn’t even know it. Apparently, he was skipping school, and his parents had called everyone — his advisor, administration, security — to track him down. Flanagan, mid-nap during his free period, was unaware of the events unfolding, but Life360, the app his parents were using, seems to have thought differently. Life360 allows members of family to show their location to their family members at all times, along with driving statistics such as the speed a car is going. In this case, the app tracked Flanagan’s location inaccurately, causing concern from the parents who could check it. “No matter what I’m doing,” Flanagan said, “If my parents check the app and see I’m not where I’m supposed to be, they get confused and upset. When the app stops working, it’s not something I can fix.” However, Flanagan says being able to know the location of family members has practical benefits and can be used for good things, too. “Sometimes it’s helpful,” Flanagan said, “Because I can know how long I should expect to wait before being picked up, since it shows where they are.” Upper School counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu has a nuanced view on Life360 and other tracking apps, a topic she hears a lot about from adolescents. When parents use tracking apps, Bonsu says, they convey to their children that they do not trust them. “Now, the trust that an DR. Mary bonsu
adolescent is looking for from their parents has to be demonstrated,” Bonsu said. “Sometimes, they are demonstrating that they can be trustworthy, but the parents aren’t recognizing it. Then you would say that’s helicopter parenting. But sometimes adolescents don’t demonstrate trustworthy behavior, and so their parents are acting in a way that is rational to that lack of trustworthiness, and we wouldn’t call that helicopter parenting.” Appealing to the popular notion of the word, helicopter parenting refers to parents who don’t recognize the natural and normal signs of independence in their child based on their developmental level, strengths and potential. Dr. Mary Bonsu Upper School counselor
The growing use of tracking apps for a kid’s location, driving, and web browsing has sparked accusations of helicopter parenting. But, according to Bonsu, even though helicopter parenting is a wellestablished part of the popular lexicon, it’s not a clinical term. “Appealing to the popular notion of the word, helicopter parenting refers to parents who don’t recognize the natural and normal signs of independence in their child based on their developmental level, strengths and potential,” Bonsu said. “So instead of doing the things that allow for their independence to grow, they tend to parent from a place of fear and control.” For Upper School parents, the threshold for what
LIFE360
is considered helicopter parenting is lower than what would be appropriate for a younger child. “A parent may be the one doing the calling and the talking to teachers,” Bonsu said, “not necessarily giving their child the opportunity to resolve issues with their teacher, and the child doesn’t get to learn or is delayed in learning how to negotiate with teachers or how to resolve conflict with peers.” Restrictions on different aspects of an upper schooler’s once-independent life could be positive and well-intentioned, but it could also be indicative of a larger pattern and parenting style. “Helicopter parenting can also be seen in physical skills and development,” Bonsu said. “They make all their lunches even though they’re old enough to do so, they wake them up every morning versus allowing them to use an alarm. They just do things in anticipation of their child failing at the learning opportunity, versus being focused on the fact that their child may be able to learn from mistakes or failures.” At the intersection of new tech and parenting, weighing the potential benefits and downsides of using tracking apps in these cases is a challenge for any parent and kid, and Flanagan sees the vastly different experiences an app such as Life360 can bring. “I think it’s a lot more about how you use the app than the app itself,” Flanagan said. “It can cause undue stress, but it can also be a really helpful app if it helps create less worry and everyone is on the same page as you.” STORY Myles Lowenberg, Keshav Krishna GRAPHIC Morgan Chow
The bells and whistles of Life360, an app that enables parents to know where their kids are at any time of the day.
Location Safety Feature Tracks family members and friends’ locations in real time, displaying them on a map. Driving Safety Feature
Provides snapshots of driving behavior that show miles driven, top speed, total drives and more.
Digital Safety Feature Detects data breaches and provides protection from identity theft. Family Safety Assist Service Supplies in-person help like roadside assistance, disaster response or medical assistance.
GRAPHICS Courtesy Life360
24/7 Emergency Dispatch Automatically responds to SOS emergencies from monitoring alerts like crashes.
the remarker october 29, 2021
Is it time for an upgrade? by Will Spencer s someone who’s always been interested in computers, I’ve often felt a certain inherent satisfaction in automating a manual task or in finding unconventional, computerized ways to accomplish menial jobs. No matter how simple the original task is or how easy it might be to accomplish it manually, there’s always an irrational pull towards the cooler, more “technological” option. When faced with a boring but easy option and an inconvenient but cool one, some hidden force often compels me to pick the second. I remember being late a few times to online classes in the past two years due to Linux’s refusal to open Microsoft Teams when sticking with a normal operating WILL SPENCER 10600/Culture Editor system would have resolved the problem altogether. My adult cousin is an electrical engineer who’s experienced the same sort of sentiment when doing contracting work for companies. He’s been tasked a few times with reducing the electricity bills of companies with large office buildings.
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While he suggested improvements like increasing natural light and removing pointless power drains, he often noticed the executives’ strange fixation on solar power, something that’s gained a certain sciency allure in the past few years. Better options were staring the executives right in the face, but for some reason they seemed to have an inherent preference for solar because, in my cousin’s words, “Solar is sexy.” The fact of the matter is that we live in a culture that holds itself out to be intellectual and based in science. Ironically, this inevitably creates a rather irrational tug towards the more technological option. Upgrading certainly has its merits, but often the convenience of the upgrade isn’t worth the effort it takes to make the change. Institutions like our school certainly get a lot of criticism for their reluctance to bring technology to their classrooms. Much of this criticism is, of course, merited, but it can’t be denied that there’s a certain value in just sticking with what works. So, to my fellow tech junkies out there, I have a question: Is it really time for an upgrade?
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discovery & bigPICTURE ROBOTS AT WORK The Robotics Club works to make a winning robot in a competition for points. The robot will work to drop the lamp poles it holds precisely into holders in a crowded field. QUOTE “It has a turret to drop and hold three poles,” senior James Singhal said, “and we will have an an arm with a forklift mechanisim to pick them up.” PHOTO Courtesy James Singhal
STEM in brief TEACHING TECHNOLOGY The Teaching Technology Across Generations club has resumed operations. The TTAG’s purpose is to visit elderly living facilities and help the residents with understanding technology such as emails, Zoom calls and other technological issues. The club has visited the Edgemere Assisted Living Facility nearly every week. The club awards community service hours upon every visit to Edgemere. The club has recently ballooned in popularity, with new joiners having to reach out to the club’s president, junior Aadi Khasgiwala TECH UNDERWATER Seniors Isaac Song and Benjamin Gravel have recently assisted Victor Vescovo ’84 in developing and app used for recovering deep sea samplers. These samplers gather material at the bottom of the ocean to use for research. Song and Gravel had a little over three months to design and test
their app. Vescovo reached out to Makerspace director Stewart Mayer to find boys suitable for the project. THE AQUARIUM Since the start of the school year, science instructor Dan Northcut has mainained the stability of the fish population in the Winn Science Center’s aquarium. In environmental science, Northcut also plans to have more time to spend in class outside as the weather cools. POLLINATOR GARDEN The Cultivation Nation hosted a community service event Oct. 15 at the Northaven Trail. Along with around 40 volunteers, they planted over 150 native pollinator plants to nurture the local ecosystem. The Cultivation Nations focused primarily on varieties of milkweed to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies and wasps. They were also joined by Brad Namdar, a congressional
for the tech nerd candidate for Texas’ 32nd District, in support of environmental awareness. The group plans to host similar pollinator planting events in the future in order to help local species of plants thrive. In the future, the group will also work to maintain the garden they planted. The Cultivation Nation also taught Lower Schoolers about local plant species and will continue to keep working in the Winn Science Center’s greenhouse. COVID-19 UPDATE The school’s mandatory mask policy will stay in place until at least the holidays. The school has had no internal transmission so far during the school year, which School Nurse Julie Doerge thinks may be because of the school’s high vaccination rate. Lower schoolers will be able to get the Pfizer vaccine at the end of October after it was approved for younger children, further bolstering the school’s vaccination numbers.
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October 11 William Shatner, famous for playing Captain Kirk in Star Trek over his long career, embarked on a flight to space in a Blue Origin-made rocket. October 15 The Apple Watch Series 7 launched to the public. A QWERTY keyboard and an easier screen for reading are some of its new features.
November 9 The NVIDIA GTC Keynote is free to view and will host speakers targeting a wide audience of professionals, like developers and researchers, educators and students. November 12-14 The DevJams ‘21 hackathon is availible for all high-school students to enter in for free. The Google-supported hackathon, in it’s fifth year, will focus on applying coding and entrepreneurial skills to solve real-world problems.
What’s new?
Apple’s new operating software was released Sept. 20 along with updates about the new iPhone 13s, iPads, and Apple Watch 7.
What’s in it?
inside
The update contains new additions to FaceTime, allowing users to now call with Android devices. It also has upgrades for texting on iMessage texting and the Maps app for navigation.
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10a look at the past
Science instructor John Mead co-authors a book introducing evolution.
October 6 Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan have won the chemistry Nobel Prize for a new way of making molecules called asymmetric organocatalysis.
November 1-5 The sixth Inside Quantum Technology Exhibition will go on for five days. The conference is not open to the public, but new technologies could be announced after its completion.
the release of iOS 15
The ReMarker’s Will Spencer writes about his experiences with tech and shortcuts.
The meteoric rise and appeal to younger people of cryptocurrency.
September 10 NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected its first rocks on Mars. However, the rover won’t make it back to Earth until 2031.
Next month
what the tech?
09another option
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last month
FACETIME One new addition to FaceTime is Shareplay, which allows users to share their screens.
How to access it?
iOS 15 is free to download on all Apple phones starting from the iPhone 6S to more recent additions.
Hopefully, the driving directions that Apple gives will be better with the new update. It used to be worse than other apps. Miles thornburg
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CRYPTOCURRENCY
By the people, for the people
With its promise of a platform for exchange run solely by the majority, cryptocurrency has risen both in price and prominence. But do these financial freedoms come with some unintended costs? Alumni, teachers and students with knowledge about this market share their thoughts.
ICONIC Bitcoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, with over 106 million people using cryptocurrencies as a whole, according to Crypto.com.
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lexander Zuch ‘21 is an active investor — such an active one that he owns six cartoonish pictures of penguins. But these simple-looking penguin photos aren’t just for show; the most expensive one he holds is worth a little over $20,000. These pricey images are examples of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a type of cryptocurrency, with other more wellknown examples being Bitcoin or Ether. Cryptocurrency as a whole has recently experienced heightened popularity from investors like Zuch, who began investing in March 2020 during the pandemic. He believes the increasing demand is due to the unpredictability that cryptocurrency offers. “There’s an entire crowd of people our age that got into it because they can just make a lot of money and come together with others,” Zuch said. “I see cryptocurrency being the future, and I see that there are big profits to be made because it’s so volatile. I think that is the main reason why people in our generation are so attracted to it, especially because so many people now are so impatient. We expect a lot to happen in very quick times.” Another major factor in cryptocurrency’s popularity is its ability to be free of the regulation ALEXANDER ZUCH ‘21 of a central power while still ensuring safe exchanges through specialized computer code called cryptography. Even though the practice is sometimes complicated and confusing, Zuch believes that trust is needed for the entire network to run smoothly. “There’s no direct middleman, and you can trust that your transactions will go through,” Zuch said. “You also don’t have to know who the other person is
that you’re transacting with. I think a reason that sometimes older people do not get into it is that they really want to understand the actual technology, but it’s very hard even for people who have been in the space for a really long time to actually understand what’s going on. You have to just believe in the people that are much more experienced and in the core technologies themselves.” However, this independent nature lends itself to some more concerning consequences. AP Economics instructor David Fisher explains exactly what these harmful unintended effects could be. “If the government can issue its own government-monitored cryptocurrency, that system is okay and may indeed be the future,” Fisher said. “Yet cryptocurrency, in its most classic sense, refers to the independent production of things of value used as a mode of exchange. The problem with this is that there is almost a rival currency in operation. Because there’s no oversight, a whole bunch of transactions can occur using this cryptocurrency that david fisher we have absolutely no control over. Anything could happen.” Another downside to using cryptocurrency in its intended way is the volatility and unpredictability. While that might raise its attractiveness, it can also hurt its reliability in the future. “It’s like the question of, ‘Why did people flock to California in the 1800s to look for gold?’” Fisher said. “There’s no guarantee that anyone will find it. There’s going to be one person who’s going to make a killing out of Bitcoin but 99 others who are going to suffer as a result of it. One of the definitions of money is that it is a store of value, but a problem there is that if people start to put their savings into Bitcoin, everything is fine until Bitcoin
crashes, which could very easily happen. As a store of value, it’s very lousy. You usually want something that’s more stable and rises centrally over time.” Parent Arnold Spencer ‘84 has two roles in the budding industry — a lawyer and a businessman. As a businessman, Spencer involves himself in mining arnold spencer ‘84 Bitcoin, but as a lawyer, he helps companies and people navigate the increasingly complicated legal system around cryptocurrency. He is currently the defense lawyer for Jimmy Watson, bodyguard of the recentlydeceased tech mogul John McAfee, following a scandal where McAfee and Watson were accused of manipulating cryptocurrencies by advertising them on Twitter. “I do a lot of work involved in complying with securities laws, and the traditional laws really do apply to cryptocurrencies for now,” Spencer said. “The second theme is new rules and regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies. I would say that just about every government agency is asking themselves how cryptocurrencies affect us and whether we need to apply laws.” For students interested in this market, the cryptocurrency club offers a place to start. Blake Molthan, the club’s founder, is passionate about the prospect of cryptocurrencies and focuses on currencies he thinks will have a real chance of becoming widely used. “I do a lot of research into the coins,” Molthan said. “The first thing you should look for if you’re trying to invest in a cryptocurrency is the total circulation. What’s becoming more common is people will make these cryptocurrencies with trillions of coins, with the price at 0.00001 cents per coin, and they’ll say, ‘We get it
stats
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Current Cryptocurrency Prices and Total Market Values as of October 25, 1 p.m. Bitcoin Price total value
$62,987.04 $1,187,114,570,363
Ethereum Price $4,177.40 total value $493,643,804,231 Binance Coin total value Cardano total value
$484.63 $81,010,268,944 $2.16 $71,250,716,417
up to a penny, and you’ll be a millionaire.’ But since there are that many trillions of coins out there, it’s impossible for it to get up to that seemingly low price. It’s just not a viable thing to invest in, so I stick with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano: the more mainstream ones with actual societal applications.” While it is not yet perfect, Molthan sees the appeal of cryptocurrencies to younger people as rooted in an appreciation for a more democratic way of money. “It’s run by the people,” Molthan said. “New coins are printed automatically, but it requires people to be mining. It’s just a very democratic system, and it makes it a lot more appealing because you don’t have that government intervention, and you don’t have some higher-up figure controlling it. It’s all done by us.” STORY Morgan Chow, Myles Lowenberg GRAPHIC Morgan Chow
Master Teacher John Mead co-authoring human evolution book with author Marc Aronson by Ian Dalrymple ugene McDermott Master Teaching Chair John Mead is co-authoring a book on human evolution with writer Marc Aronson. Mead has been thinking about writing the book for years. “It’s something that has been a long time coming for me,” Mead said. “For the last 30 years, I’ve been teaching human origins, and one thing that I’ve always griped about has been the lack of a comprehensive book for teenagers on human origins. Skull in the Rock is great, but the challenge is, if you are a younger student who wants more than this, it doesn’t exist unless you get into the world of adult books. I got tired of complaining about it and said, ‘It’s time to do something about it.’” Mead began the writing process after
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talking to Aronson. “Knowing Lee Berger led to me knowing Marc Aronson, the co-author of Skull in the Rock,” Mead said. “We were talking about Skull in the Rock, and he was excited to see what I had done in promoting and teaching people about Homo naledi, so our idea of a Homo naledi book started, and then that grew to the book that I had dreamt of.” Aronson says that the most difficult challenge was keeping up with new research. “The biggest pitfall that we’ve faced is that we’ve been working on this for over a year, and there have been so many new discoveries,” Aronson said. “As we were writing, we had to keep changing the book, and we had to figure out which parts of the book were going to stay the same no matter what is found, and which parts needed to
reflect these later discoveries.” Despite these challenges, Mead and Aronson have kept writing and are showing their book to publishers. “We’ve been working on it throughout the pandemic,” Mead said. “We put together a book proposal, which includes the rationale for having the book in the first place, a table of contents and sample chapters. We’ll give it to different publishing houses, and then they will get back with us and let us know if they’re interested. The hope is that we’ll be in conversations with a publishing house to actually have a publishing date sometime by the new year.” Mead says the book was not only the product of hard work, but also his own fortune. “This certainly brought to the forefront
how lucky I am, being here at St. Mark’s, to have all the opportunities I’ve had,” Mead said. These opportunities led Mead to work in South Africa, where he met Berger. “There was the opportunity to visit South Africa that the Parents’ Association made possible through professional development,”Mead said, “the opportunity to build my relationship with someone like Berger and the other scientists there, who provide people and information about the topics that I can write about here, the fact that I can do all the research I’ve done over the years to teach my students here.” Mead wishes for the book to help others. “Hopefully, it will help a lot of other teachers who haven’t had the opportunities I have,” Mead said. “I see it as a gift to the broader community as well.”
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life &
Hangin’ Out With
Matthias Canon
Junior Matthias Canon moved from Peru to Dallas this year. The ReMarker sits down with him to discuss how he's been adjusting to life in his new home.
bigPICTURE ENGAGING IN CIVIL DISCOURSE Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George visited campus in early October and spoke in an Upper School assembly. A group of seniors including Zack Stone (below) had the opportunity to eat lunch with the duo. Date Time Location People
What brought you and your family to Dallas? We moved here because Peru was quickly becoming one of the most infected countries from COVID-19 in all the world. Also, a Marxist named Pedro Castillo won the presidency, so it was pretty bad in the country. That led us to us moving here. My dad is also originally from Texas. Compared to your old school, what’s different here? One of the things I really enjoy about St. Mark’s is the variety of things you can do here. There's courses here that they didn't offer at my old school — electives like astrology and geology. There's also a huge amount of clubs compared to my old school's ten or 12. Also, the grading system is different. Before, I used the International Baccalaureate system which is one to seven, and here the grades are one to 100. Why do you not eat during the school’s lunch period? Generally, most Hispanics eat lunch later than Americans. I'm used to eating lunch at around 2:30-3 p.m., and at my old school, lunch was at 1 p.m., but here it's at 11 a.m. I just eat a snack because I'm not hungry yet. I eat lunch after school at my home. What do you miss most about Peru? I would definately say the food in Peru is better. Unlike here, there are only a few fast food places. I really enjoyed the seafood in Peru. Since it's next to the coast, there's a lot of great seafood resaturants. There were also Japanese and Chinese restaurants as there are here. In Dallas, my favorite restaurants are Bistro 31 and Houston's.
Oct. 8 11 a.m. Dechard Hall George, West
QUOTE “They are people that talk and think differently from average people," Stone said. "I remember them saying, 'It's about asking the same questions and coming to different answers.'" PHOTO Courtesy Dave Carden
10600 in brief MIDDLE SCHOOL FLEX TIME The Middle School’s new flex time gives students the opportunity to cater club meetings. As a result of this new period, dozens of new clubs have formed. With flex time being on Fridays, the Middle School schedule was altered to having assemblies on Mondays, chapel on Tuesdays, class meetings on Wednesdays and advisory on Thursdays. DEBATE TOURNAMENTS Seniors Max Chuang and Zayn Bhimani ranked in the top 32 of 91 debate teams and reached the double octafinals at the Greenhill Fall Classic Sept. 17-20. Additionally, sophomores Anish Guddati and Sid Bidare made it to the finals of the Marist Ivy Street Invitational Varsity Tournament Sept. 25-27 Freshmen John Hohmann and Deven Pietrzak also made it to the finals in the National Speech and Debate Opener hosted at the University of Kentucky Sept. 11-13.
ELEVATED COOKING CLUB The cooking club plans to partner with a local organization to provide food for the Dallas community. In addition, the club catered food for Coffee House, making over 80 waffles and numerous cupcakes. They kept their products fresh by wrapping them in tin foil and preserving their heat using an oven. They also hosted a cooking competition during an Upper School assembly. QUIZ BOWL PERFORMANCE Quiz Bowl’s A-team, with seniors Miki Ghosh and Tomek Marczewski and sophomores Aditya Shivaswamy and Ethan Bosita, took third place in the Texas Quiz Bowl Alliance Jamboree on Sept. 11th. The B-team, with senior Isaac Song and sophomores Vardhan Agnihotri and Arnav Lahoti, placed in the top ten teams. Both teams also competed in the Texas Quiz Bowl Alliance Kickoff Sept. 25th. The A-team placed fifth.
for the Marksman... FOOD DRIVE RESULTS Over 2,000 pounds of canned food were collected across all grades in the annual Food Drive. Students donated assigned items in each of their advisory groups throughout the past few weeks, collecting food items like canned meats, canned fruits and stuffing mix. The collected food will be donated to the Salvation Army. NO-SHAVE NOVEMBER No-Shave November will be returning to campus this year to raise awareness and money for the fight against testicular cancer. Wristbands will be available for purchase throughout the month, and all proceeds will go to the No-Shave organization. Purchasing a wristband is required in order to participate in the event. Additionally, there will be a special Upper School assembly featuring a video presentation.
The second of the two-part feature of Scott Moore and his time on the battlefield.
15Terrill Society
A look at the members of the Menter B. Terrill Society and its purpose.
19New clubs
Sitting down with the founders of the new organizations on campus.
Next month
Today Lower School October Birthdays Chapel Halloween celebration on campus and Lower School Halloween parties
November 5 Grade five Father/Son Breakfast Community Service Candy Drive ends
Saturday ISEE testing grades five through 11 Sunday Halloween Monday Community Service Candy Drive begins Early application deadlines for colleges due. Tuesday Middle School and Upper School Fall advisor conferences No Middle School and Upper School classes Blessing of the Animals 2 p.m.
November 10 Parents Association Faculty/ Staff Appreciation Admission Open House 5:30 p.m. November 11 Lower School parent/teacher conferences Grade seven campout Veterans Day McDonald's Week theme announced in Upper School Assembly November 15 McDonald's Week begins November 19 Grandparents' Day, 30 minute classes.
say what?
inside 14War Stories
Next week
comments overheard around campus "I'm the G.O.A.T., no cap!"
"Call the judge, and get some fudge."
Janet Lin Chinese Instructor
Conor Duffy Senior
"We didn't lose the tug-ofwar battle, we just failed to win."
"Where do the rocks in the fish tanks come from? Are the fish connected to them, like emotionally?"
Ethan Gao Sophomore
George Genender Junior
"I could really use a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle right about now."
"But Mr. Houpt, I can't unpeel my banana."
Jack Cohen Junior
Noah Asmeron Junior
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St. mark's press
Off to the presses
To maintain control over the design and distribution of literary works authored by faculty members, administrators, teachers and staff members have come together to establish a school-operated publisher.
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ublishing a book has always had a reputation of being a difficult venture. Whether it’s the arduous process of writing and rewriting hundreds of drafts or simply finding a willing publisher, the path towards publication is riddled with challenges. But what if part of that challenge could be avoided? Through the collaboration of faculty members and administrators, the school has established its own solution to some of these obstacles: the St. Mark’s Press. The story of the school’s still budding press started out as a mission to create guiding digests for any teacher of certain curricular texts through the lens of Character & Leadership. For Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown, however, this mission quickly grew beyond its original scale. “All we talked about doing was making a question and answer digest that we would use for aid in teaching those works through Character & Leadership,” Brown said. “That summer, as I worked on Macbeth, I got a lot more into it, and I realized after a few pages that I was really writing more of a commentary that had a Character & Leadership filter but that also went into everything else in Macbeth having to do with characterization, symbols, themes DAVID BROWN and cross-references.” When all was said and done, Brown had a product that would have fit right in with other literary analyses of Macbeth. “When I finished, I had a book-length commentary
ETHICS EDUCATION The Character & Leadership handbook covers the school's fundamental Character & Leadership principles and definitions for various topical terms.
on Macbeth and thought that other educators might be able to use it,” Brown said. “I thought about sending the manuscript out to educational publishers to see if they were interested in publishing it, but, before I did that, I thought, ‘What if the school published its own works so that it could have more control over what we want to do with them?’”
LITERARY ANALYSIS As of this newspaper's printing, Brown has so far published three
literary digests for three classic curricular works: Macbeth, Oedipus and The Great Gatsby. Following Brown’s proposition was a series of meetings between the faculty and the administration that resulted in the founding of the St. Mark’s Press. According to Associate Headmaster John Ashton, the primary purpose of the press remains true to the original goal of the literary digests. “The purpose of the St. Mark's Press is to publish the content and approach for Character & Leadership education at the school so that the work is then shareable,” Ashton said. Thankfully, much of the John ashton infrastructure needed to publish books was already at the school in the Development The meeting room is where ideas for books are Office. Since everything was already set up to design and born. Here, faculty members and administrators print publications like the Pride magazine, founding the work together to turn curricular materials into school’s press was a much shorter process than it would published books. have otherwise been. "It's been fairly organic," Ashton said. “We already have communication and design teams "When faculty are designing materials for the that publish a professional grade publication in our courses they're teaching that tie into Character alumni magazine,” Ashton said. “Our team takes the & Leadership education, they'll make it known content and lays it out and designs it. We already have that they're working on this unit that ties in these partnerships with other businesses who actually do the materials, and we'll support them with professional printing.” development the summer."
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time me
A book's long journey from a brainstorming meeting to a bookshelf
THE MEETING ROOM
Also published on the press is a collaborative work on the school’s fundamental Character & Leadership principles largely written by Malcom K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Dr. Martin Stegemoeller. “Mr. Brown and I, just a few years ago, thought, 'We should have a press that cranks out approaches to literature from a Character & Leadership angle in English 10,'" Stegemoeller said. "A lot of people liked the idea, so I helped out with getting a Character & Leadership handbook started, along with a bunch of other people like Mr. Ashton who contributed a ton to the writing process.” Writing the Character & Leadership Handbook was a monumental task, but, to Stegmoeller, the final product was well worth the effort. “The first time I got a summer grant to start the book was seven years ago,” Stegemoeller said. “I went and spent the summer in Trieste, Italy and worked on it almost every day. I got a good first draft of it and then kept revising and letting other people look at it, and it turned out pretty well.” According to Communications Coordinator Alex Hughes, there's a lot of work behind producing the books that remains unseen by readers. "There's a lot of thought that goes into each decision in order to make the book the best that it can be and function as well as it can," Hughes said. "When you see the final product, it's really a culmination of a lot of people's efforts, time and thinking, and it's fun to be part of the process and to see where it's going to go in the future." Brown hopes the influence of his books and the press will soon serve as a resource both for teachers on campus looking to publish their work and for teachers at other schools wanting to improve their classes. "I hope that teachers get ahold of them and find them useful so that they can bring more educational and more enjoyable units when they teach these great classic works,” Brown said. “I also hope that more teachers will be aware of and use this press to write works in their own fields that teachers at St. Mark’s and beyond can use.” STORY Will Spencer, Aaron Liu PHOTOS Will Spencer
FACULTY AUTHORS Once the topics are agreed upon, faculty members begin the long process of writing, revising and editing until a full manuscript is achieved. Since this activity can be extremely timeconsuming, most choose to work on manuscripts over the summer. "Teachers in the English Department met to talk about how we would change the curriculum in English 10," Brown said, "and one of the things that we decided to do would be to take the works that we teach at each grade level and write some ideas about how to teach those through Character & Leadership. I volunteered to take the one for Macbeth."
DEVELOPMENT OFFICE After a manuscript is completed, the text is then organized and manipulated by the Developmen Office into a readable format. "Mr. Brown wrote the content and came to us with a finished manuscript," Hughes said, "and then from there we worked to do the layout and went back and forth with him with formatting. He had some ALEX HUGHES specific ideas about how he wanted it to be done."
THE PRINTING PRESS Once the final product is finally completed, all that's left is to bring it from a digital form into a physical one. "We have a printer called Blanks that we've worked with for a long time," Hughes said. "They're the ones who print the Pride magazine and all of our other materials. Once the layout is approved, I send it to them, and they print and bind the books."
the remarker october 29, 2021
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Homecoming
Marksmen return to the dance floor
A full two years after 2019’s Homecoming celebrations, Marksmen and their dates began the weekend of Oct. 22 at the football game vs. Episcopal High School from Houston before making their way to House of Blues Dallas for a Roaring Twenties-themed party the next night. Former students also returned to campus for the game as well as a more standard Alumni Weekend as the school hopes to hold more traditional events of the past.
CLASSY AS EVER Juniors Luke Noack, John Charest and Adam Alfalahi drop their coats off before entering the dance floor for the first time since freshman year.
PACKED HOUSE Two years after their last homecoming, students face off in a dance battle and enjoy the music.
DOWNFIELD SNAG Senior Conor Duffy reels in a pass thrown by junior quarterback Asher Wilburn late in the fourth-quarter.
SHINING LIGHTS Hockaday girls enjoy the music mix and light show put on by DJ Junk Food, who kept the party going for three hours.
DANCE BREAK Younger attendees enjoyed an assortment of non-dancing activities, ranging from poker and blackjack to arcade games like Pacman (pictured).
PHOTOS Tiger Yang, Neil Song DESIGN Will Pechersky, Austin Williams
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Veteran’s experiences SERVING THE FLAG Moore sits in the turret of a humvee in the gunnner position during his deployment in Iraq. Moore on an air assault mission (below) in the deserts of Iraq.
What is war? Associate Director of Communications Scott Moore recounts moments from his two tours with the U.S. Army — one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. These troubling yet defining and pivotal scenes are narrative adaptations of the stories Moore told us. The following includes graphic imagery and violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on Scott Moore’s time in service overseas. Part one appeared in the September edition of The ReMarker.
the th e LOsses Two American personnel transports were heading down the main road in Iraq. Moore suddenly saw a puff of smoke a mile down the road. Then came the radio call. “Suddenly, they’re calling for medivac,” Moore said. “There’s talk of several soldiers that were killed.” It was a suicide bombing. A van, loaded with canisters of compressed gas and explosives, drove down the road ready to blow up the first Americans who went past. The result: two soldiers and an interpreter dead. “Just because they got out of headquarters five minutes before we did, they got hit,” Moore said. “If we had been the first ones out, it could have been us.” In war, no combatant is ever safe. No matter how careful someone is, a freak accident can end that person’s life in the blink of an eye. “A soldier I served with had done a tour over there with my unit,” Moore said. “One of our guys was killed with a couple of Green Berets by a double-stacked antitank mine. They drove over and it just blew them apart. It was instantaneous. That tore the soldier I knew up because the guy who got killed was his team chief.” That soldier signed up for another tour immediately after, returning home for around nine months before departing again, this time with Moore’s unit. “It just played havoc with his mind,” Moore said. “He wasn’t ready to deploy again, and, when he came back home, he self-medicated and ended up dying.” Less than four months after coming back to the safety of the land he fought to protect, he was dead. War was undoubtedly cruel. It was also cruelly ironic. Lieutenant Andrew Bacevich, the son of a vocal anti-war professor at Boston College, served with Moore. He was killed by an improvised explosive device in Salah Ad Din province. There were countless others. “We had people you’d see on base one day, and the next day they were gone,” Moore said. “That’s just the way combat was over there.”
the th e DAMAGES “The teenage boys were looking at us like they couldn’t wait to get a swipe,” Moore said. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. Moore was witness to many of the scars left across Iraq and Afghanistan throughout his deployment. On his third mission in Iraq, the U.S. base had been mortared repeatedly from a house the base had pinpointed. As the mission began, troops loaded a massive armored bulldozer onto a flatbed. “In the U.S., our telephone wires run down the roads and are up really high,” Moore said. “In Iraq, it was like someone just hand-strung them all. There were hundreds going across the street, some low enough I could touch them. We’re driving down the road, just knocking everyone’s power out.” Moore remembers watching people on the sides of the road shaking their heads. At the time, he was the lowest person on the totem pole, simply there to learn and observe. “By the time we get to the house, it’s just women and children,” Moore said. “The men who were firing the mortars had taken off. We tell them, ‘You’ve got 10 minutes — you need to get everything you can out of here.’” Soldiers helped civilians remove furniture and belongings, but a mistake with the bulldozer tumbled debris on top of everything that had just been moved to safety. “I remember seeing all the families standing there,” Moore said. “The women were all in tears. I could tell we were creating a lot of animosity. I sat there on only my third mission thinking this was going to be the longest year of my life.” In Afghanistan, Moore worked with a subgovernor who had been on the wrong side of the Taliban. “The Taliban had taken him and his sons who were three and five years old,” Moore said. “They doused his sons with gasoline. They made him sit there and watch as they set them on fire. One at a time. It was unspeakable — just as evil as pure evil.”
the th e Aftermath Most veterans are silent. They’d rather not speak about their time overseas. The death. The survival-is-the-only-thing-that-matters mindset. It can be too much to even think back on. But when Moore returned home, he made a promise to speak out. “When I got home, it was very hard to adjust to civilian life,” Moore said. “My biggest purpose had gone from keeping myself and my soldiers alive to selling widgets. I’d say it took me four or five years after Afghanistan to be able to really focus on my civilian career.” Moore’s family finds a lot of honor in his service, but it’s one of the things that has also caused them a lot of pain. “My daughter was really young when I went to Afghanistan,” Moore said. “My family was kind of shielded from it, but being in the military has been a hellacious road to go down the past 20 years.” Despite this, Moore’s pride in his service remains as strong as ever. “It’s a great idea for Americans to give up a year or two of their life for something bigger than themselves,” Moore said. “The priority isn’t you. It’s something bigger than you. It gives you a perspective that’s invaluable for the rest of your life.” STORY Austin Williams, Keshav Krishna PHOTOS Courtesy Scott Moore
Junior represents U.S. at global robotics challenge, focusing on removing plastic from water by Dawson Yao unior Anthony Wang and his robotics team represented Team USA in the 2021 FIRST Global Challenge June 27 to Sept. 28. The challenge chooses one team from each country to complete in a series of challenges, with the primary goal of solving a pandemic-related problem in the teams’ respective country. The competition is split into three parts, the first being the Solution Challenge. Teams must brainstorm and execute solutions for their problems. Next is the prototype challenge,
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which requires a team to utilize a nanosatellite, or a CubeSat, to help provide a tangible solution to the problem addressed. “We launched a cube satellite many kilometers into the atmosphere to analyze data,” Wang said. Wang’s team is now finished with their project. With all project components submitted, the team is eligible for six awards to be announced 1 p.m. Oct. 30. The team collaborated with Team Zimbabwe, as both teams wanted to combat the same problem.
“We focused on water-based plastic waste in our lakes, rivers, and oceans, whereas Team Zimbabwe focused on land-based plastic waste,” Wang said. For 2021, the FIRST Global Challenge’s theme is “Discover & Recover.” In light of the pandemic, the challenge will focus on finding new ways STEM can counter the problems faced by communities and individuals around the world. Wang’s team chose to focus on plastic pickup, attempting to keep the waters clean. “We had the opportunity to experiment with control systems on
water, propulsion in water and machine learning algorithms for plastic waste detection and localization,” Wang said. Wang was first introduced to robotics in the first grade, when he joined a team competing in the FIRST Lego League, organized by the same group hosting the FIRST Global Challenge. “I was one of the founding members of my team in first grade,” Wang said. Wang’s team developed rapidly, eventually merging into a bigger team. “The team I was first on merged into Technicbots, where the older team members mentored us,” Wang said.
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PLANNED GIVING CIRCLE OF DONORS J.T. Sutcliffe, Alan Schoellkopf ‘91 and Rob Parks ‘71 are three of over 118 Terrill Society members.
Profession of love Established ten years ago, the Menter B. Terrill Society serves to honor a group of people — alumni, parents, faculty members and trustees — that have chosen to include the school in their long-term estate planning.
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o Board of Trustees Development Chair Alan Schoellkopf ’91, one of the most significant ways we can tell someone we love them is by including them in our will. As of Oct. 13, there are 118 individual members of the Menter B. Terrill Society — 118 people who have chosen to honor and support the school through financial means. Their commitments fall under the umbrella term of ‘planned giving.’ “There are a number of ways you can become a member of the society,” said Scott Jolly, assistant headmaster for external affairs and Terrill Society member. “Most people think about planned giving through a will, but there are lots of other ways too. In your life insurance or retirement plans, you can name St. Mark’s as a percentage SCOTT JOLLY beneficiary, which works in a similar way.” Director of Development Tim Crouch believes that this society should be put on an appropriately high platform because of its profound effect on the school. “Planned giving is a huge profession of love and belief in both our school and the boys here,” Crouch said. “That decision is a real statement. You name your kids, your grandkids and things you really love in your estate plan, so we don’t take that affirmation lightly.” It can be difficult to approach community members with the topic of planned giving, but Crouch emphasizes its potential to support the school in a huge way. “Some people can be cynical about planned giving and say, ‘Well, you’re just talking to me because I’m near the end of my life,’” Crouch said. “I think our hope is to have these conversations with folks in our community as early as possible. We want to tell you what this gift is going to do long before we’re ever going to get it.” Society members have the ability to designate where their funds are used when the school receives them. “Much of the time people will say, ‘Man, I’m really passionate about financial aid,’ or ‘One day, I think this will be big enough to support a master
teaching chair,’” Jolly said. “We have those conversations to make sure we have as much information as possible and know exactly what their intentions are.” Terrill Society members weighed in on the motives and aspirations behind their decisions.
need more places like St. Mark’s. I want to support what the school does for both the students and the community at large. I have deep gratitude for what the school gave me, and I want future faculty and students to have the same wonderful experiences that I had.”
Scott Jolly: “This place has been home to me for 22 years. It’s been a place to grow deep roots, and, from a career standpoint, just a tremendous place to spend my time. In addition, my son Zach graduated in 2010. He received a great education here, so I want to make sure that I give back and have the opportunity to do something that would be special for our family.”
Parks: “I earmarked my gift in conjunction with Scott Jolly because when you start restricting money, you may not be giving in a way that’s compatible with the school wants. And I think the school has a pretty good sense of where it’s going and what it should be doing. One of the specific things we talked about is when students have trips abroad, sometimes there are kids that don’t have the money. I want to make sure that money is available so those kids are not left out.”
Former Headmaster Arnie Holtberg and wife Jan: “Our existence in the society shows how much we care and are committed to the school — specifically to financial aid, which was something I promoted at the school during my time as headmaster. Both Mrs. ARNIE HOLTBERG Holtberg and I were recipients of scholarship funding from universities. I certainly couldn’t have attended a private university such as Princeton without financial aid. So, it’s easy for us to support that cause and to want that kind of opportunity for young men at St. Mark’s.” Rob Parks ‘71: “St. Mark’s was really the basis of my entire education. In some sense, everything else after it was just froth. This school made me button down and do the subjects that I was not particularly interested in or good at — it turned out that those subjects were most useful to me later in my career. It also helped me do something that I always wanted to do, which was live in France and perfect my French.” Former Suzanne and Patrick McGee Family Master Teaching Chair J.T. Sutcliffe: “I joined the society because St. Mark’s is my family. When you have money remaining, certainly you want your family to have it. I am convinced that we
Marcy Adams, wife of the late Tom Adams, Master Teacher and coach: “Tom came to St. Mark’s without any relationships, friends or family in the entire state of Texas. His love for the school grew so quickly and so strong that it really became his family to him. Tom always wanted to fund a master teaching chair for a fellow TOM ADAMS staff member — he thought the world of the people he worked with, and everyone who knew Tom thought of him as unbelievably dedicated to the school as a whole.” Holtberg: “We initially joined the society for two reasons. One: so we could do our best to sustain the school and make sure it embraces and embodies the qualities that we think it should. Two: because we want to make sure people see that type of commitment and hopefully step up themselves. I may be retired, but I’ll forever have a commitment to making sure St. Mark’s is the best place it can be.” STORY Austin Willliams, Shreyan Daulat PHOTO Evan Lai
• Read more about the Menter Terrill Society at smtexas.org/support-st-marks/planned-giving/the-terrill-society.
Grandparents Day sees significant alterations by Will Spencer ov. 19, Grandparents’ Day will be returning to campus after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Special changes are being made to how the day is operated so that guests are best protected. In order to minimize the risk of spreading the virus to vulnerable grandparents, students and their guests will be dismissed before lunch at 12:20 p.m. after a half day of classes. “When we have a significant number of elderly people on campus, it makes sense not to have everyone unmasked while eating in a dining hall,” Head of Upper School Colin Igoe said. “Not serving lunch beforehand adds another level of safety, particularly when we bring in a population that may not be as familiar with our habits and our routines and that is certainly a higher risk population.” For Upper and Middle School students, the day’s schedule will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will consist of a shortened day five rotation of classes. “It’ll be your normal day, but the classes will be 30 minutes long, and between all of them will be ten minutes of passing time,” Igoe said. “You’ll still have all your classes, so they’ll get to experience the full range of classes you would have had that day.” The extended ten-minute passing periods are intended to accommodate any lowmobility grandparents and to mitigate the crowding caused by the increased number of people on campus. “It’s more time to get your grandparents from building to building and around campus,” Igoe said.
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Since many grandparents coming to campus will likely be more susceptible to tripping hazards, Igoe asks that students make sure not to leave obstacles on walkways. “We never want to just leave backpacks lying around, but, particularly on that day, we’re going to have a lot of people on campus,” Igoe said, “so be mindful of putting your backpacks in the appropriate places.” Igoe hopes that this year ’s Grandparent’s Day will be especially important to students after a year of distance. “The magic of this place is the strength of our community, and I believe that grandparents are a part of that community,” Igoe said. “We’ve had a challenging year and a half, where, for many people, the biggest challenge has been being distant from those whom you love. What a great way it is to come back and be together on campus with people you care about.”
ABORTION | The ‘heartbeat bill’ | continued from page one
Controversy A STIRRING
Senate Bill 8 has sparked debate across a multitude of perspectives — legal, religious, ethical and moral. We talked to experts from surrounding fields and Hockaday students about the law’s implications.
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housands of people from all walks of life pack downtown Dallas Oct. 2. Speeches from religious leaders, immigrants and politicians headline the event. In surrounding apartments, people bang on pots and pans. Chants of “My body, my business” and “SB 8 is nothing but hate” echo through the streets. There are duct taped-over breasts, torn condoms and vulgar expletives everywhere –– expressionism at its loudest. Among all these thousands, everyone shares one thing in common: a demand for the overturning of Senate Bill 8. After the Department of Justice deemed the bill unconstitutional before a U.S. district judge in Austin, rallies across the state of Texas and the nation followed suit. Hockaday seniors Eleanor Lockhart and Naz Soysal stood among the sea of protestors. Lockhart, who works for Planned Parenthood’s TeenAge Communication Theatre Program (TACT), decided to attend the rally because this issue is especially important to her. “I think it’s important to not just have political views or opinions,” Lockhart said, “but to show up and take time out of your day to contribute when you have the opportunity to.” Lockhart and Soysal hope that taking action will lead to tangible change moving forward, and SB 8 will be permanently nullified. “Protesting puts a lot of pressure on the court system as well as politicians — it directly threatens their ability to claim that this is a popular option,” Soysal said. “It makes it a lot harder for people to justify what they’re doing.” Senate Bill 8 places limits on the legality of abortions revolves around the pressure it places on women to make after a heartbeat is detected in an unborn fetus. The bill a stressful decision within a limited timespan. Richards itself comes with a multitude of complications that go recognizes this as an issue for his patients. beyond any previously passed abortion law in Texas. “As a provider, my role is to educate patients about Most significantly — beyond recent ethical debate — is their medical options and help guide them to the decision the new opportunity for citizens to turn in other citizens that’s right for them and their family,” Richards said. who they suspect of aiding and abetting an abortion. “The problem with shortening this window to the two “This bill allows any person to bring a civil lawsuit and a half weeks beyond a positive test is that it rushes against someone who aids or abets an abortion that occurs the process of considering options and making educated, after a point about six weeks into pregnancy,” District informed decisions.” 114 Texas Representative John Turner said. “This point Supporters of the law champion its life-saving is described by its supporters as the time when cardiac qualities, built primarily on the belief that life begins with activity is detected.” a heartbeat. Texas Governor Greg Abbott voiced a similar Turner highlighted the unorthodox nature of this opinion before signing the bill live on Facebook. enforcement method, taking the legal definition of injury “Our Creator endowed us with the right to life, and into account: harm that an individual suffers directly by yet millions of children lose their right to life every year the hand of another. because of abortion,” Abbott said. “In Texas, we work to “With respect to the way our legal system save those lives. That’s exactly what the Texas normally works, it’s very unusual to allow Legislature did this session.” someone to bring a lawsuit against another While SB 8 has made headlines across the person without even claiming to experience nation, abortion laws have been in place in injury,” Turner said. “As far as I know, this is Texas for years. unprecedented. It’s been described as a bounty “The basic law in Texas before this bill was hunter system, allowing private citizens with that abortion is permitted up to 20 weeks of no relation to the circumstances to show up in pregnancy,” Turner said. “There are various court and sue a stranger.” other restrictions on abortion procedures as JOHN TURNER Another key talking point is the term well — a requirement for a sonogram to be ‘heartbeat bill,’ often used synonymously with SB 8. taken, a requirement for in-person visits with a provider, Obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Hampton Richards ‘95 parental consent requirements for minors and others.” offered some clarification as to where the heartbeat falls Another point of contention within SB 8 is its lack within a typical pregnancy timeline. of exemptions for victims of incest or rape. According to “At four weeks, a woman misses her period and The San Antonio Express-News, by declining to include this receives a positive pregnancy test,” Richards said. “About exemption, Texas joins seven of 13 other states that have two and a half weeks later, we can see a heartbeat by passed similar six-week abortion bans. ultrasound. We would call that six and a half weeks “I believe the only thing in the bill that relates to the pregnant.” subject of sexual assault is that a person who causes Pushback from those opposed to the law often pregnancy by assault cannot bring a lawsuit against his
GLANCE
at a
Senate Bill 8, enacted May 19 and commenced Sept. 1, makes abortions illegal after a heartbeat is detected in the state of Texas, with no exceptions for rape or incest. It allows almost any citizen to bring civil lawsuits against those involved in such abortions. This “bounty hunter” system, which circumvents the precedent of Roe v. Wade, effectively outlaws abortions after six weeks.
victim,” Turner said. “But if a woman who is raped and becomes pregnant seeks an abortion post-six weeks, anyone who assists in providing the abortion can be sued.” Another common question surrounds the legality of SB 8 in contrast to Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court ruling that gave people the right to access abortion legally across the country almost 50 years ago. SB 8 bypasses this ruling through its enforcement measures. “Under existing precedents, in order to strike down an unconstitutional law, typically one would bring an action in court against the public officials who are responsible for its enforcement,” Turner said. “This particular bill deliberately omits any public enforcement element. Therefore, under existing judicial principles, it can’t be challenged in the normal way.” To Turner, the permanence of this law is hard to determine. “Clearly, litigation is going to continue for a while,” Turner said. “We’ll hear from the Fifth Circuit Court and possibly the Supreme Court. Additional opinions will likely come from district courts. I can’t venture to predict how it will ultimately be resolved. My own opinion is that the courts should make sure judicial review of this bill and of its six-week ban is not avoided, even though avoiding judicial scrutiny is what proponents of the bill were likely trying to do.” While Turner strongly opposes SB 8, he believes abortion as a whole is difficult to navigate because of the wide range of stances. “I do believe that public policy needs to make room for a variety of opinions about this topic — respecting the opinion and decision of the woman who is directly involved and whose body is affected, as well as attempting to consider the moral status of the developing human life within that woman,” Turner said. “That’s what makes this such a difficult issue. I respect a diversity of opinions on this whole subject.”
Pregnancy: from start to finish Key dates in abortion legislation, visualized 0 weeks: Conception
Pregnancy is counted from the date of the mother’s last period.
6 weeks: Heartbeat detected
13 weeks: Second trimester
Senate Bill 8 effectively outlaws most abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
indepth
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24 weeks
At 24 weeks, the baby is typically able to survive without its mother. This is the most widely accepted definition of life.
IMPACT
GUEST COLUMN
What does this mean for women? Senate Bill 8 imposes unprecedented regulations on abortion. But how does it affect women?
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enate Bill 8 creates brand new can become prolonged, and they feel less implications for Texan women who in control of that decision.” want to get or are considering getting Additionally, Soyal feels the terms an abortion. of the bill that limit the permissible time To Hockaday senior Naz Soysal, period for seeking an abortion to six weeks the largest and most damaging of these into pregnancy are too restricive. implications is the bill’s lack of situational “At six weeks, you do not know that provisions. you’re pregnant,” Soysal said. “It takes “There are no exceptions,” Soysal said. four weeks to normally have a period, and “I could go to a football game, get raped it’s not abnormal for your period to be a in the bathroom and then have to carry a week late. So by the time people really start child completely to term without my own considering, ‘Oh, I might be pregnant,’ consent. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, it’s your they basically have five days to get an choice,’ but with this sort of bill, it is not abortion. And Texas has a mandatory three a woman’s choice — it could be purely day waiting period, so it’s really infeasible men engaging in horrific actions and impossible for anyone to resulting in women being forced have an abortion at that point.” to deal with the consequences on In her practice, Thomas their own.” has come across many such Similarly, clinical women. While an exemption psychologist Anna Thomas for “medical emergencies” believes that the bill’s firm is included in the law, other uniformity, from a medical medical circumstances might standpoint, is problematic. cause women to seek an NAZ SOYSAL “This is where I draw a abortion. With the new bill, distinction — abortion is a procedure these women can no longer access an inthat not only applies to people who state professional abortion. are in situations where pregnancy is “They might learn about a genetic unexpected,” Thomas said, “but also anomaly past six weeks of pregnancy,” to people who have an expected and Thomas said. “At six weeks, people planned pregnancy, but learn, maybe in oftentimes don’t even know they’re the development of the baby, that there’s pregnant because we haven’t done any going to be negative health outcomes for screening or anything that would tell them the mom or the baby. If someone like that that information.” is not allowed to have an abortion and Another medical risk of SB 8 is the instead has to deliver that baby, the trauma increase it may cause in non-professionally
executed abortions — incredibly dangerous procedures — owing to the scarcity of available in-state procedures. At six weeks, people oftentimes don’t even know they’re pregnant. Dr. Anna thomas Clinical psychologist
“There are trauma risks to any experience, medical or otherwise,” Thomas said. “There’s just going to be increased stress as well as depression or anxiety if somebody did have to have a procedure that was not performed by a medical professional or somebody in a safer setting.” Past the direct effects of the new legislation, SB 8 also presents new financial challenges to abortion-seeking women. Soysal believes these, in combination with SB 8’s practical implications, suggest an alarming future. “SB 8 really strips the autonomy away from women who don’t have the finances to pay for top-notch medical care, to travel, to leave school, all those things,” Soyal said. “It gives women little flexibility and forces anyone who wants an abortion out of state, which is something you cannot force upon low income women or people like us — kids that are still going to school and can’t miss three days for an abortion procedure in New Mexico or Oklahoma. That’s really, really dangerous and damaging to women overall.”
What’s at stake for men? While the issue of abortion is inherently related to the female body and the life of an unborn child, men play a role in that child’s conception. The responsibility should not rest on females alone. Men can contribute immensely to the immediate prevention of pregnancy — contraception. Using a condom correctly during sex has an efficacy rate of 98 percent. Lowering the rate of unwanted pregnancies directly lowers abortion rates, putting less women in situations where they may need to make this difficult choice. Making such a life-altering decision can be difficult to do alone. Having a partner to openly communicate with can make the trauma women experience less severe. Prospective fathers can suffer emotional trauma themselves as they help their partner decide and cope with the final decision. Men are obligated to support their children, both financially and as father figures. Suppose the mother decides to keep the child — by law or choice. Men will have to consider the potential ramifications on their futures.
RALLYING TOGETHER Activists from across the state gathered together in downtown Dallas Oct. 2 to march against Senate Bill 8. Organized by Planned Parenthood, over 3000 protesters marched through the city, sporting contraceptives and brightly colored signs.
s: Viability
Source: United Kingdom National Health Service
26 weeks: Third trimester
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39 weeks: Term
Prior to Senate Bill 8, Texas legislation allowed abortions up to the third trimester, as protected by Roe v. Wade.
If a pregnancy is carried to term, the baby is born. Sources: Planned Parenthood, Dr. Hampton Richards ‘95
STORY Jonathan Yin, Austin Williams, Toby Barrett, Peter Orsak PHOTOS Courtesy Eleanor Lockhart, Creative Commons GRAPHICS Jonathan Yin
Senate bill 8 will cease more heartbeats than it protects by Eleanor Lockhart hen Shawanna was just 16 years old, her mother died of ovarian cancer. Shawanna, a high school junior, found herself taking care of her eight-year-old sister while balancing coursework and a part-time job. When she turned 17, however, she became pregnant — about to create a new life when she could barely maintain her own. Financially, emotionally and mentally unprepared to be a mother, she sought an abortion with Planned Parenthood. Raising a baby through her unplanned pregnancy would have crippled her life’s course, upending the careful balance she maintained between school and familial responsibilities. Texas Senate Bill 8, which went into effect Sept. 1, obstructs women’s ability to access abortion procedures by barring the practice after detection of a fetal ‘heartbeat,’ which, when first observed, is but a rudimentary bioelectrical signal. As this signal can be detected after only six weeks of gestation (on average, women become aware of their pregnancy at 5.5 weeks past conception), the bill will prevent millions of Texan women from attaining safe, informed abortions. Note the difference: the bill won’t prevent women from getting abortions, it will only prevent the safety inherent to medically-induced procedures. It will do nothing but put those who can no longer access abortion procedures at risk of complication from back-alley abortions: a survey conducted pre-Roe v. Wade fouxnd that, among women with low incomes in New ELEANOR LOCKHART York City who had Hockaday senior had an abortion, eight in ten had attempted dangerous, self-induced procedures, using coat hangers, knitting needles or toxic household chemicals. These methods can lead to infection, hemorrhaging and irreversible injury to internal organs, threatening the mother’s life. It is naive for pro-life lawmakers to assume that their regressive regulations will substantially lower the number of abortions obtained by desperate women, and ignorant for them to not acknowledge that there is greater harm to human life in the hazardous procedures that these desperate women will resort to. The law’s enforcement methods are deeply problematic, as well –– it empowers everyday civilians to sue anyone even remotely related to the abortion and incentivizes them with $10,000 rewards. This form of ‘vigilante justice’ can incriminate not only the woman who obtains an abortion, but a friend who recommends the clinic or even the Uber driver who takes her there. Women like Shawanna, women who find themselves pregnant and unable or unwilling to carry their child, must have access to safe abortion services. Although Senate Bill 8 appears to simply block abortions after six weeks, it truly constitutes a nearlycomplete ban of medical abortion: by the time that many women become aware of the life growing inside them, it may be too late.
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ETHICS
Setting the precedent: Supreme Court decisions
Both sides of the coin
In as complicated of an issue as abortion, there are a myriad of stances one can take. But in a politically dominated world, two arguments have risen above the rest: pro-life and pro-choice.
Throughout history, a slew of cases regarding reproductive rights have reached the Supreme Court. With Texas Senate Bill 8 dividing the nation, we look back at a few landmark decisions.
1973
Roe v. Wade
Jane Roe (pseudonym) sued Henry Wade, challenging a Texas law outlawing abortion unless the health of the mother is in danger. Decided 7 - 2 States can regulate abortions pertaining to the mother’s health during the second trimester and can prohibit abortion entirely during the third trimester, as long as the mother’s life is not in danger. During the first trimester, the question is completely up to the mother and her physician.
1979
Bellotti v. Baird
A Massachusetts law required parental consent for minors to have abortions. Found unconstitutional Established the right to independent judicial assessment for minors seeking abortions without parental consent.
Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health 1982
The city of Akron enacted a law with 17 provisions regulating abortions. Upheld Roe v. Wade Because the law was clearly intended to dissuade women from abortion, the Court overturned the law, reaffirming Roe v. Wade’s protection of privacy.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey 1992
A group of abortion clinics and physicians challenged Pennsylvania legislation restricting abortion. Decided 5 - 4 Upheld the legislation, imposing a new standard for laws restricting abortion. From then on, the court would ask if challenged laws present an “undue burden... before the fetus attains viability.” Source: oyez.org
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SPEAKING OUT As a part of the rally, various activists, politicians and women shared their stories with abortion.
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s it at conception? Is it at a detectable child, and foster care and adoption stance on abortion in their religious heartbeat? Viability? At some point, systems are simply abhorrent at this values. Marchant herself attributes everybody has to recognize that a point,” Soysal said, “And you have religion as one of her primary fetus becomes a human life. But this is to consider the mental trauma from motivations. an incredibly contested discussion, with growing up in a family that does not love “In many religions, abortion is an well-supported perspectives on all sides. you. The biggest argument from the prointrinsic evil — a direct killing of the According to SMU Professor of Ethics life side is that abortion is murder. But innocent,” Long said. “And you never Dr. Steve Long, many stances beyond you’re weighing a life that has not existed directly kill the innocent, because it simply pro-life or pro-choice exist — yet with the life of a mother.” cannot be squared with the virtue of those are just the most prominent. And in On the other hand, deontological justice.” a party-driven landscape, more and more ethics maintain that rules can only be Long believes that in our increasingly emphasis has been placed on these two set if you would accept them yourself — party-driven political landscape, many viewpoints. would you be willing to get an abortion valuable arguments have been drowned “Both of those yourself? out. camps tend to have a “Deontological “There are many more stances than There are many more stances than similar form to their ethics are dutyjust pro-life or pro-choice,” Long said. just pro-life or pro-choice. But those are just the loudest. ethics — they are based, which argues “But those are just the loudest. And rights-based, which that you should abortion is a wedge issue, so politicians DR. STEVE LONG argues that we begin only act on a rule tend to focus on those for votes. I’m not SMU Professor of Ethics with individuals,” or principle that sure that either of those positions are Long said. “The debate is really up to you believe to be universal,” Long said. necessarily the best way to think about which right is predominant: the right of “Many deontologists tend to be more the ethics of abortion.” the baby or the right of the woman.” opposed to abortion than utilitarians.” Society has come upon universally Ethics is a complicated discipline, Hockaday senior Kendall Marchant accepted ethics in the past. For example, with no universally “right” answer, falls in the deontological school of the women’s right to vote was long but Long identifies two schools of thought. contested by men until 1919, but now thought that seem to dominate today’s “It is ethically wrong women’s right to vote is a political landscape — utilitarianism and to have an abortion in all seemingly obvious aspect of deontology. circumstances except in cases equal political representation. “Utilitarianism argues that you of rape, incest or when having Long is hopeful the topic of always do what is for the greatest good the baby would result in the abortion will find a similar for the greatest number,” Long said. death of or serious harm to the ethical conclusion. “And on utilitarian grounds, people mother,” Marchant said. “Most “There are some things have argued in favor of what is called often reasons for abortions have that aren’t so much a matter of rule utilitarianism — giving women to do more with not being ready Dr. sTeve Long compromise as they are dealing the choice to determine when or if they to have a child or not wanting with the truth,” Long said. should have an abortion.” to have another. Making abortion illegal “And I think one of the things that we Hockaday senior Naz Soysal explains forces people to think about plans for a need to recognize is that truth is complex. how utilitarian principles can be applied possible pregnancy in advance, which Abortion is certainly in the public realm to this subject. will allow for less unplanned pregnancies right now, especially with the Texas “A lot of the time, abortions happen and as a result, less abortions.” law. We’ll have to see what kind of because of an inability to care for that In addition, many ground their conversation comes out of it.”
The big three: breaking down normative ethics Utilitarian Ethics determine right from wrong by focusing on the outcome — what would produce the greatest good for the greatest number?
Deontological Ethics argue that morality of an action should be based on duty or a series of rules, rather than the consequences.
Virtue Ethics emphasize virtues and morality — what is a good human life? And how can I achieve that? How should I live in this world? Source: Dr. Steve Long
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the remarker october 29, 2021
extracurricular opportunities
Sharing passions After becoming familiarized with the changes the new schedule implemented at the start of the 2020-21 school year, many students found themselves with an unexpected bonus: a free 80-minute flex period at the end of the day. While some students spend the time studying, relaxing, eating a snack or getting ready for sports, others turn to clubs. There are a wide variety of clubs — from bowling to artificial intelligence to Asian-American history to musical analysis — that span an assortment of interests. We took a look at a few of the newly founded clubs on campus: the Data Science Club, the Anatomy and Bodily Functions Club, and the Lego Club. These organizations have piqued students’ interests in topics they may not have ever considered before. Data Science Club Data science isn’t a new field for senior Evan Lai, who feels his experience with coding helped him get started. “I have a background in coding and I wanted to apply that to something,” Lai said. “[Since] my dad is a software engineer, he led me in that direction. I wanted to do my own stuff with research, so that’s what got me into data science.” Lai’s next challenge was getting students interested in the club. He drew inspiration from when he first started experimenting with data. “Data science is a really broad field, especially in the specifc industry,” Lai said, “but I think what really draws people to it is the real world applications of using data: for data science in particular, how you analyze data, and from the analysis, what can you synthesize from that and what conclusions can you make. Basically, data science is trying to make use of that data to find something that’s interesting.”
DESIGNING CODE Senior members of the Coding Club Nico Gomez, Matthew Fan and Darren X collaborate on a group analysis project in the Winn Science Center Maker Space.
In the long term, Lai does not have specific plans for the club. Instead, he plans to guide club members while they work on projects. “It’s mostly just individual projects that we might be working on for one or two weeks, and then we group up every week,” Lai said. “We don’t really have a milestone in this club, most of it is just educating kids that are really interested.”
FILMING THE BLOCKS Club members work together to create stopmotion videos. The group has made five videos so far.
Anatomy Club Led by juniors Silas Hosler, Svanik Jaikumar and Branden Song, the Anatomy Club was created to address a long-standing need within the student body, according to Hosler, “I thought it was time to provide students with a place to discuss the body and its functions,” Hosler said. “There can be instances where something happens to our bodies and we don’t know exactly what’s happening, and the Anatomy Club is the perfect place to learn.” SILAS HOSLER Hosler found the club fair useful to expand the club’s reach across campus. “The club fair was definitely our best source of members,” Hosler said. “I chose very effective marketing that depicted the club’s goals, and people naturally gravitated towards our table.” The club will prioritize member engagement as they determine meeting discussions. “We plan to choose meeting topics through a democratic vote,” Hosler said. “All of our discussions will be student-led, so, if there’s something one would like to discuss, it could easily become a topic.” Hosler hopes that, through continued engagement, the Anatomy Club can continue to function. “Our goals are to maintain all of our members and to have an increased number next year,” Hosler said. “I hope that people have fun with it and that it’s something that our members will look forward to throughout the week.” Lego Club Another new club on the scene this year is the Lego Club led by junior Patrick Flanagan, who rekindled his love for the blocks during February’s winter storm. “I got really bored when the blizzard hit,” Flanagan said, “so I decided to get all my Legos from upstairs, put them in the snow and take pictures of them. Everybody really liked them, so I decided to turn them into a stop motion movie. I got people to voice-act for it and I put it on YouTube.” Flanagan increased interest in his club at
HANDS HELD HIGH Juniors Luke Stallings, Zack Nivica and Patrick Flanagan promote the Lego club at the club fair, trying to enlist members.
the club fair by displaying a huge new build. “At the club fair, a lot of people wanted to come see the Lego golf hole we made,” Flanagan said. Flanagan hopes to use the club to interact with kids in his communities through a method they all love. “We’re heading towards more community service,” Flanagan said. “Our goal is to host a camp to teach underprivileged kids to use Legos, to make stop motion videos or design things online if they can’t build it in person. It’s really about bringing the community together.” STORY Nikhil Dattatreya, Grayson Redmond PHOTOS Courtesy Patrick Flanagan, Evan Lai
ON THE GREEN A Lego figure hits a golf ball into the hole while being displayed on a 3,500 piece build at the club fair.
Sanctioned clubs for 2021-2022 UPPER SCHOOL Academic Team AAPI History Club Anatomy Club Armed Forces Club Artificial Intelligence Club BioMed Club Blues Club, Bowling Club Business Consortium Chess Club Chess for Humanity Chinese Club Civil Rights Club Classics Club Climbing Club Cryptocurrency Club Cultivation Nation Cycling Club Data Science Club Disaster Rescue Club elevated Cooking Club Financial Technologies Club Fine Arts Board GENgap Club Green Mark’s Club Hackathon Club Historical Analysis Club History Club Humanity 4 Humanity International Cultural and Heritage Organization International Public Policy Forum Junior World Affairs Council Lego Club Lion’s Share Marque Martial Arts Club Math Team Mobile App Development Club Model United Nations Musicare Club Music for the Mind Musical Analysis Club Pathfinder Club Philosophy Club Physics Club Ping Pong Club Political Forum Programming Club Rocketry Club Science Bowl Scientific Marksmen SM Acapella SmovieTalks SM Psychology Club SM Science Bowl Team Spanish Club Student Alumni Association Tabletop Games Club Teaching Technology Across Generations (TTAG) Transportation as a Service (TaaS) Veterans Affairs Council Young Investors Association MIDDLE SCHOOL Academic Team Angling Club Armed Forces Club Art/Digital Art Club Baseball Club Chess Club Chinese Club Classics Club Computer Science Club Culinary Club Debate Club Everything Mythology Film Club Football Club Golf Club Green Team Club Hand Bell Choir History Club Hockey Club Innovation Club Kahoot Club Magic the Gathering Club Make Wacky Things Martial Arts Club Math Team Modern History Club NFT Club Philosophy Club Reading Club Rock Music Club Rubik’s Cube Club Sports Club Sports Debate Club Stock Market Club LOWER SCHOOL Chess Club Third Grade Legos and Robotics Club Fourth Grade Legos and Robotics Club Source: Divisional offices
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arts &
my instagram A look at sophomore Nathan Meyer’s photography from his Instagram account, @nathanmeyphoto. In his own words:
bigPICTURE PLAYING THE PART Juniors Aadi Khasgiwala (right) and Shreyan Daulat (left) perform “All of Me” by John Legend for an audience of students at the September Coffeehouse. Date Time Location People
Sept. 24 7 p.m. Hall & Lacey Black Box Theater Performers, Hockaday and St. Mark’s students
“Pentasection” I took a photo of myself in my room. I was seeing what I could do with Photoshop because I had some extra time and I thought it looked cool. I decided to paint it a little bit, and eventually I came up with this. I was listening to a lot of Vietnam War era music, and that inspired me. This reminds me of some Vietnam War era stuff with the helmet and everything.
QUOTE “It was a great experience to play with my friends and to see all the other talent that was at Coffee House as well,” Khasgiwala said. “Getting to be part of that is just an awesome experience.” PHOTO Courtesy Daniel Uglunts
for the art enthusiast this week Today Lower School Chapel for October birthdays 9:45 a.m. Lower School Halloween parties Monday Candy Drive begins Tuesday Playboi Carti: King Vamp Tour at Credit Union of Texas Event Center Wednesday Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin at American Airlines Center Tai Verdes at House of Blues Dallas Museum of Art: “Arts & Letters Live” with Ai Weiwei Friday The Firehouse Theatre presents Legally Blonde Trevor Noah presents Back to Abnormal
culture in brief
this month November 5 Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Metamorphosen November 9 Middle and Upper School orchestra and band recitals National Go to an Art Museum Day November 10 Holiday at the Arboretum begins November 14 Choral Evensong Chapel 7 p.m. November 16 Dallas Summer Musicals presents Hamilton November 17 4th Grade Drama Show November 18-21 Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents “Bartók & Beethoven”
BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS The Blessing of the Animals ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Nov. 2. Seniors and lower schoolers are required to attend. The event will take place on the field adjacent to the Winn Science Center, and the animals will be divided into sections for dogs, cats and other animals.
Community Service Board, will begin Nov. 1 and conclude at the end of the same week. The drive will benefit the Salvation Army, where donations will be given to children in need. Candy, including leftovers from Halloween the day prior, will be collected in large bins outside Nearburg Hall.
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT A photography exhibit will be held in Nearburg Hall following Thanksgiving Break. The exhibit will display pieces from honors photography students. There will total of eight photos from the students’ submissions to YoungArts, a program that identifies talented young artists and gives them opportunities to develop their talents. The exhibit will continue until mid-April.
DEBATE TOURNAMENT Seniors Zayn Bhimani and Max Chuang reached the quarterfinals of the varsity division at the Heart of Texas debate invitiational held at the school Oct. 18 before being eliminated by a team from Coppell High School. Sophomores Anish Guddati and Sid Bidare reached the top 32 competitors of the tournament before being eliminated by a team from Montgomery Bell Academy. The tournament was held online as a precaution against the ongoing pandemic.
CANDY DRIVE The annual Candy Drive, hosted by the
inside
headliners videogames
21passion for MUSIC
Orchestra instructor Sarah Choi recalls her experiences growing up while practicing cello and piano.
22Electronic music
A deep dive into electronic artists, musicians and the culture surrounding the unique genre.
MCDONALD’S WEEK McDonald’s Week, a juniorled charity event, is returning to many of its pre-tornado traditions: • The event will begin Nov. 18 and end Nov. 19. • The event’s co-chairs are juniors Murphy Paul, Silas Hosler and Trey Stager. • According to McDonald’s Week co-chair Silas Hosler, the theme of the week this year will be a children’s martial arts film. • Events will be held at the McDonald’s at 10720 Preston Road. • The proceeds will benefit Austin Street Shelter. • With fewer COVID-19related hindrances, Hosler expects this year to raise a record-breaking amount of money. • The week’s activities will consist of daily events in the morning before the school day begins.
movies Call of Duty: Vanguard
Nov. 3
Battlefield 2042 Halo Infinite
Eternals
Nov. 5
Nov. 19
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Nov. 19
Dec. 8
Encanto
Nov. 24
concerts
albums Enrique Iglesias & Ricky Martin
Nov. 4
WALK THE MOON Steve Aoki
Voyage, ABBA
Nov. 5
Nov. 6
Formula of Love, TWICE
Nov. 12
Dec. 3
30, Adele
Nov. 19
“Infinity” I took a picture of a mirror, and I cropped it in and replicated it getting smaller so that it looks like a tunnel. It was for an assignment called “Heaven,” where you’re supposed to replicate what you think heaven looks like. In many cultures, there’s this idea that death isn’t the final thing. There’s stuff that happens afterwards like reincarnation, or heaven or hell, and nothing ever really stops, so you’re just going down this path of continuity.
“Looking through the Mirror” I have an old pickup up in my backyard. I was able to get some contrast between the white and black because it was pretty bright outside and pretty dark inside the pickup, and part of the mirror was reflecting the sun.
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orchestra
A lifetime making melodies
Since she was in elementary school, orchestra instructor Sarah Choi has always made music. Whether it was on the piano or the cello, Choi worked hard every day to grow her musical talent. Now, she inspires the same passion and work ethic in her students every day.
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t least an hour and a half of practice. Every night. Throughout high school, traveling to competitions and overcoming temptations to quit, orchestra instructor Sarah Choi finally received a reward for her efforts: an acceptance to The Juilliard School in New York City. This journey started when Choi was very young. Choi grew up in a musical environment, with all her siblings playing instruments as well. Her parents signed them up for music lessons starting from a young age. “When I first started playing music, it was totally parent-driven,” Choi said. “Like most things when you’re young, you don’t know what you like. I’m the eldest of four, and for our family, everyone has to learn the piano, so that’s the baseline, and then you can choose another instrument. The second child is a violinist in New York City and the third child and last child are pianists. My parents wanted me and all of my siblings to explore music.” Learning an instrument requires work, and it’s not something you just sit down and learn all of a sudden. If you can see it through, and put in the work, effort and focus, the reward on the other side is a lot of fun. Sarah Choi Orchestra instructor
Choi’s parents, however, have never played an instrument. Growing up in harsh circumstances, survival was their priority, so they didn’t have time for music. Choi believes this is why they insisted on their kids learning music. “My parents came from a place in a time that didn’t allow music,” Choi said. “They grew up during the post-Korean War, and with nothing. They came from a place where you don’t think about music, because you’re just trying to get food. They immigrated to Canada and worked hard to be successful. They wanted their children to have opportunities that they didn’t get in their childhood.” In elementary and middle school, Choi was not burdened by a lot of homework, so she had ample time to practice both instruments. “I practiced 30 to 45 minutes daily,” Choi said. “The problem for me was that I had to practice both of my instruments, and so the time added up. I probably
practiced over an hour and a half every night.” The long practices sometimes frustrated Choi, and, a lot of times, she practiced just for the sake of practicing. Like many musicians, Choi wanted to take a break. “I considered quitting all the time,” Choi said. “I think it’s normal, and every musician has considered it once, if not more, during their careers. I remember throwing a tantrum in my mother’s house as a teenager saying, ‘I’m done, I don’t want to practice anymore!’ I wanted to quit piano multiple times and cello even more because I was pursuing that more intensely.” SARAH CHOI Eventually, she would have Orchestra Instructor to quit one instrument. To fully dedicate herself to her craft, she had to choose between piano and cello. “I distinctly remember playing both cello and piano throughout high school,” Choi said. “At some point, I realized that I only have to keep track of one line of music if I play the cello. On the other hand, I have to keep track of ten fingers while playing piano. So, I made my decision to stick with strings.” Still, despite dropping piano, Choi didn’t quit cello. Meeeting people through music and traveling created a passion to keep playing. “I think I have stuck with music for so long because of the powerful social experiences I had,” Choi said. “Through music, I got to travel the world. I met people who love music, but who were also brilliant in other parts of their life. This has sustained me until now.”
their solo work to each other and to the community.” Right now, Choi is a mother before a musician. Taking care of her kids is her priority, and any free time she has she invests in her children; however, she has future musical goals. “As my kids grow up, my plan is to start to incorporate music — in any form — into my life again,” Choi said. “I want to return to singing in a choir, and I’ve always said that I wanted to do percussion. There are lots of things to do. It’s just not the right time for me to pursue them.” Nevertheless, music is still a major part of Choi’s everyday life as an orchestra instructor. She enjoys teaching students rhythm and technique and believes that through dedication, hard work and experience, practicing music can become a joy, and not a burden. “At the end of last year, one of my students said, ‘Music and class became more and more fun the more I worked on them,’” Choi said. “That pretty much sums it up. For music, there is a learning curve. When you begin, you have to learn how to make sounds comfortably and consistently on an instrument you’ve never had to work with before. Learning an instrument requires work, and it’s not something you just sit down and learn all of a sudden. If you can see it through, and put in the work, effort and focus, the reward on the other side is a lot of fun.” STORY Shreyan Daulat, Dawson Yao PHOTOS Courtesy Dave Carden
When Choi first came to the school, her goal was to sustain the orchestra program that was already in place. In the last few years, she has begun to make her own additions to the program. “When I came to St. Mark’s, my first goal was to not ruin the excellent program that [former orchestra instructor] Dr. [David] Fray had set up,” Choi said. “I wanted to keep the program afloat. As I became more comfortable with the program and the students, I slowly tried to increase the visibility of the students on campus. I continued with Dr. Fray’s tradition of providing holiday music during the holidays. I added an event during the father-son breakfast. Also, we are trying to do more recital opportunities to give students more chances to present
DRESS REHEARSAL Choi conducts orchestra students in one of the many rehearsals leading up to their recital.
IN UNISON Choi directs orchestra students in class to help perfect each note. To Choi, establishing good habits and improving technique is crucial to fostering good musicians.
Roosevelt family organ undergoing repairs, to be reinstalled in chapel by Aaron Liu fter sustaining heavy damage from the tornado in October 2019, the Roosevelt Family Organ has been undergoing repairs in the workshop in Montreal where it was originally constructed. Organist and Choirmaster Glenn Stroh hopes to wrap up the project and bring the instrument back to campus by the end of the school year. Here’s an overview of the restoration process:
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Creation: The organ was originally built in the Orgues Létourneau
workshop in Québec before being moved into the chapel in 2014. The instrument was custom-built for the spacing in the school chapel and was regularly used in student chapel services. Damage Assessment: After the tornado, the organ was exposed to damaging levels of water and humidity, causing irreparable harm to much of the body of the instrument. Many parts of the organ were made of wood, which broke apart and had to be completely replaced.
Dismantling Process: Before being moved to the workshop for repairs, each of the 3,432 pipes along with the components of the organ case had to be dismantled, packaged and loaded onto semi-trailers to be sent to Canada. In the meantime, an electronic organ was purchased for temporary use in chapel services and Baccalaureate. Voicing: Along with the physical repair process, the organ-building team and Stroh will spend a few weeks going through the process of “voicing” the instrument — individually checking the
quality of each pipe one by one. Each pipe has a different intended sound, with different pipes imitating different instruments, like flutes, violins and oboes. Installation: The restoration team hopes to begin putting the organ back together during Spring Break this year. The process will involve reassembling each component once it’s brought inside the chapel. Part of the process will take place during classes, and Stroh hopes students will be able to see the reconstruction during the school year.
reviews
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the remarker october 29, 2021
ratings &
ELECTRONIC MUSIC REVIEW
The electric groove
Ever since the rise of the synthesizer in the 1980s, music and its production have become increasingly dominated by computer-generated sounds. Most artists have since used this technology to imitate organic instruments, but others have embraced the synthetic nature of artifical sound and crafted an identity of their own. We’ve explored the subgenres and artists that make up this second group.
Electrofunk
This marriage between the electronic and funk music genres overlaps heavily with disco music. The concept of electro-funk seems to lack many similarities with mainstream songs, but the genre has nevertheless generated more than its fair share of chart-topping titans of music.
Justice
Daft Punk
ROBOT ROCK The culture surrounding electronic music is often associated with certain visual aesthetics, including highcontrast colors, references to classical statuary, 80s technology and everything artificial. Especially common is the motif of the “artificial sun,” meant to suggest a sort of dystopian corruption of nature by modern technology and culture.
Likely the most well-known and influential electronic music artists of all time, this French music duo recently ended their 24-year adventure in the genre when they formally disbanded in February 2021. Daft Punk’s presence in the mainstream has encouraged many listeners to take a closer look at the genre they occupy, serving for many as a gateway to electronic music as a whole. Vocals in the duo’s songs are far more common than most others in the genre, but they often repeat and serve primarily as a complement to the complex and varied instrumentals that make up the bulk of their songs’ substances.
Synthwave
Chillwave
Synthwave is a genre that deliberately calls back to the music, film and culture of the 1980s, the decade in which the greater genre of electronic music truly came into its own. The genre of synthwave and the culture that surrounds it often feature an embedded visual aesthetic of neon lights, retro technology and dense cityscapes. Notably, the genre recently burst into the collective consciousness with the Weeknd’s chart-topping single “Blinding Lights.”
Carpenter Brut Carpenter Brut, the stage name for the synthwave artist Franck Hueso, pulls no punches when it comes to loud, inyour-face beats. Hueso’s music has been aptly described by many as “caffeine for your ears.” Citing a special influence from 1980s horror films, Hueso’s tracks seem precisely formulated to maximize adrenaline in the minds of listeners. Carpenter Brut makes no attempt to emulate organic instruments, instead placing his music firmly in the world of synth. Vocals in his music are few and far between, so any prospective listener should be prepared to immerse themselves in the instrumentals alone.
If Daft Punk is a gateway into the genre of electronic music, then Justice can be described as another step down the rabbit hole. Like Daft Punk, the real complexity of Justice’s music is embedded in instrumental arrangements, but a few of their tracks — notably their single “D.A.N.C.E.” — feature remarkably prominent vocals. Judeo-Christian motifs dominate Justice’s branding, with their debut album Cross featuring songs like “Genesis,” “Let There Be Light” and “Waters of Nazareth.” Justice’s works range from more familiar, vocal-laden songs to very unusual tracks, making the duo a strong pick for anyone wanting to dive further into the genre.
Featuring a great deal of overlap with the much more well-known genre of Lo-fi, chillwave is a genre of electronic music made up of light, feel-good and often nostalgic tunes. Music in this genre is often deliberately reminiscent of retro video game soundtracks, and branding for songs and albums often references escapist, comfortable ideas like the beach, summer and sleep.
Perturbator Perturbator, the alias of synthwave artist James Kent, is similar to Carpenter Brut in that his music is deeply entrenched in synthetic sounds and wholly divorced from any kind of organic instrument. Taking influence from media like the 1995 cyberpunk thriller television film Ghost in the Shell and the 1987 American dystopian film The Running Man, Perturbator’s branding and sound are firmly entrenched in synthwave culture and the genre of dystopian science fiction. Likely Perturbator’s best work is the high-octane 2014 album Dangerous Days, including the track “Complete Domination,” a collaborative song with the aforementioned Carpenter Brut.
Leon Chang Leon Chang sits comfortably in the chillwave genre, his most well known works being bird world [sic] and its sequel return to bird world, albums designed to impersonate a nostalgic soundtrack for a fake video game. What differentiates Chang’s music from video game soundtracks of the ‘90s is the layered complexity of his arrangements.The best example of Chang’s expert ability to play off of retro ideas with new sounds appears in his song “Popcorn Castle,” which references tracks and samples sound effects from the original Legend of Zelda while incorporating modern, synth-y chords that transform the simple retro aesthetic.
HOME HOME, the pseudonym for the American electronic artist Randy Goffe, is most well known for his 2014 album Odyssey and especially its song “Resonance,” which reached over 94 million streams on Spotify. HOME’s songs, featuring distorted, progressing chords with muted but light melodies, invoke a decidedly nostalgic feel. Another good song from HOME is “We’re Finally Landing,” which is similar to “Resonance” but quite a bit less repetetive in its progression. A perfect sound in the background of most activities, HOME is certainly worth a listen for anyone, electronic music fan or not.
STORY Will Spencer GRAPHIC Will Spencer
Is Cary Fukunaga’s No Time to Die a fitting sendoff for Daniel Craig’s James Bond? by Darren Xi he end of an era. Daniel Craig’s James Bond bids the world a spectacular farewell with the release of No Time to Die after 15 years of playing the famed secret service agent. The film opens with Bond five years into his retirement, living a peaceful life in Jamaica. When Felix Leiter shows up asking for his help in tracking down a scientist captured by SPECTRE, his inner sense of justice refuses to give SPECTRE any success, and he accepts the mission. A kidnapped scientist had been in the process of developing a weaponized virus known as Heracles. Like every other Bond movie, the mission is nothing as it seems on paper, and Bond finds himself in a deadly battle against a mysterious villain, played by Rami Malek, and tangled up in the abuse of a fatal new technology. Despite some elements of predictability, twists and turns fill the movie, which left me constantly wondering what would
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Grade:
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No Time to Die Directed by Cary Fukunaga Rating: PG-13 Stars: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Rami Malek
happen next. However, unlike previous Bond films, this one is nearly a sequel to Spectre, so trying to watch No Time to Die as a standalone film as I did will leave you confused at the backstory of Bond’s retirement and his previous missions as an agent. I was not familiar with the many classic Bond characters going into the film, which left me piecing names to faces for essentially the entire time. When I could not follow the storyline, the robust action scenes kept me intrigued. Watching Bond dance around bullets while firing his own, drive cars in ways I never could have imagined and parkour through cities reminded me how real movie scenes could look and how well guns and stunts could keep me hooked to films. This Bond movie went where no other one had gone before and incorporated a significant amount of emotion. I never thought of a 007 film as one that would warrant tears, but, as I watched the credits
play, I felt my eyes welling up. Whatever the movie lacks in clarity and storytelling, it makes up for by captivating the audience through emotion. Craig’s acting also provides a redeeming factor for the convoluted plot. He imbues an emotional aspect into the older Bond, one that has not been explored by the previous actors or in Craig’s previous films. I found myself invested in his character not only because of the events unfolding in the movie but also because of the relationships that Craig’s Bond brought to the forefront of the film. But, at the end of the day, this movie is severely hindered by its role as a sequel to Spectre. So if you are a fan of James Bond and have watched the previous movies, I would wholeheartedly recommend No Time to Die, as it gives Craig’s Bond a storybook ending. If you are like me, however, and have not watched the other Bond films, I would find a different action movie.
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opinion
editorials &
MAIN EDITORIAL
Governor Abbott, state Republicans: repeal this bill The Texas abortion bill is not just too restrictive and unconstitutional, it is also unwanted. There is only one option: repeal it.
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enate Bill 8, the Texas bill restricting access to abortion, is the most restrictive abortion law in the country. SB 8 is the first law to ban abortion before 20 weeks since 1973, the year of the landmark Roe v. Wade case that decided that Americans’ right to abortion in the first trimester and — with some limitations — the second was protected by the constitution. And 58 percent of Americans still support this Supreme Court decision, according to a 2021 Gallup poll. The unpopularity of the ‘heartbeat bill’ is unquestionable. Beyond protests and social media posts, this law simply isn’t popular with Texans, as a statewide survey of 1,200 registered voters in February 2021 by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune can attest. 81 percent of Texans support the right to abortion in instances of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. Half of Texans surveyed believe the right to an abortion should extend beyond these cases. Even among pro-life voters, 56 percent support the right to abortion in cases of rape, incest or the mother’s life being in danger. Given the content of the law, SB 8 simply does not reflect what Texans want. If the majority of Texans didn’t want this bill — and are overwhelmingly opposed to what it proposes — then why was it passed? The answer is simple: political expediency. More and more, politicians in Austin and in Washington are clamoring to pass legislation that is popular with the fringes of their party in an effort to win political points. But in the
process, the will of the American people — the citizens these politicians were elected to represent — is sacrificed. This is not only an issue with the Republican Party. Democrats are also at fault for partisan political bickering, as can be seen in the “human infrastructure” bill debacle at the national level. But the fact remains that here in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott and state Republicans are sacrificing Texans’ constitutionally protected right to first trimester abortions in one of many last-ditch attempts to reignite a voter base in a state that is more and more turning away from them. But the severity and consequences of the law cannot be overlooked. Though the political climate in which SB 8 was passed does provide necessary context for why the law took its present form, it is the text of the law that will hurt people in this state. The law outlaws abortions after a “fetal hearbeat” is detected, which typically happens six weeks into the pregnancy. Six weeks is not nearly enough time for any woman to first find out she is pregnant and then decide to have an abortion. For many women, six weeks into a pregnancy will mean a period that arrives two weeks late. There is a reason Roe v. Wade forbade laws that restrict abortions in the first trimester — the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy — and required reasonable regulations during the second trimester: 12 weeks provides enough time to come to the decision of aborting the fetus or carrying the pregnancy to term. Six weeks does not.
Furthermore, SB 8 making no exception for pregnancies resulting from rape is cruel. Rape is traumatic enough, but it is our belief that forcing someone to carry the pregnancy to term is inhumane. And Governor Abbott’s statement on “working tirelessly” to “eliminate all rapists” is ignorant at best, patronizing at worst. According to RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence nonprofit, 8 out of 10 rapes are committed by people known to the victim. Despite the violence and evil of the crime, it is a painful experience to file a case against a relative, a friend or other formerly trusted person. If Governor Abbott really wants to “eliminate all rapists,” he ought to consider passing legislation to actually address these issues. Beyond imposing these highly restrictive measures on Texan women, many other Republican-controlled states have indicated they intend to introduce similar bills in their state legislatures. Florida, Arkansas and the Dakotas are just the first of several states to follow suit with Texas. The effects of this Texas bill will be felt across the nation. And not in good ways. Beyond the political science behind the bill, the facts remain the same: SB 8 is unconstitutional, unwanted and far too restrictive. While the judicial system will take its course to determine the constitutionality of the law, we hope the precedent set by Roe v. Wade will be upheld. Beyond this, we implore our state government to do as its people demand and repeal this bill. Texans don’t want SB 8, so our Texas leaders shouldn’t implement it.
EDITORIAL
St. Mark’s-Hockaday school relationship has clear paths for improvement
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or some time now, the strength of the relationship with the Hockaday School has waned. With weaker bonds to our counterparts at Hockaday, our student body’s connection to theirs is deteriorating to an “in name only” relationship. We believe the main cause for this gradual estrangement has been a lack of quality interaction between the two student bodies beyond social functions. While we have a great deal of mixers, dances and other events with loud music and refreshments to put boys and girls together in one place, these events fall quite short of the sort of interaction needed to sustain the relationship our schools should strive for. This relationship is not simply an ideal: it has existed before.
During the 1990s, both schools ran on the same schedule, allowing a plethora of opportunities for our boys and Hockaday girls to interact in academic settings. Classes here were offered to Hockaday students and classes at Hockaday were offered to our students. The drama programs functioned as one unit to put on productions. The Community Service programs were similarly joined. Simply put, the two schools had a much closer connection. Some have suggested the gradual decline is in part due to Hockaday’s moving away from a more traditional block schedule in the late 1990s as the two schools had previously enjoyed. However, the drama program still works closely together to put on a fall and spring play at the school and a winter musical at Hockaday, and the Community Service boards — while separate — work together to provide opportunities for us to work together. We believe the continuation of this legacy remains crucial to each schools’ connection to each other. In an editorial written on the same topic six years ago, The ReMarker offered two ways to deepen the school’s bond DANCE PARTY While events like Homecoming present a great opportunity for with Hockaday: our Hockaday and our students to meet each other and spend time together, we think student councils more academic settings would be the best conduit for a stronger relationship between the schools. could collaborate more often on events, PHOTO Charlie Estess
and similar clubs could meet together to build relationships based on mutual interests. Over half a decade later, we do not see these changes, so we once again urge both schools’ student councils and club leaders to reach out to their counterparts and form or strengthen connections for the sake of students at both schools. Furthermore, we urge both schools to plan and coordinate events to recreate the academic bonds lost between the two student bodies. Shared academic settings were the greatest loss to both school communities following the schedule change of the 1990s. Through events such as speaker series, guest panels and similar events, both student bodies would benefit from participating in academic settings with both sexes present, which a great number of students at both schools have not experienced in several years. We also recommend, if possible, that opportunities for inviting our counterparts at Hockaday to student-led events — such as the Literary Festival and the STEM Festival — be seriously considered while planning for these events is underway. While we understand that the logistics for housing so many people in one place is unfeasible with our current school facilities and COVID-19 protocols, a good starting point would be inviting key people at Hockaday to our events, such as science club officers to the STEM Festival. We believe this would further the goals of intellectual conversation between both student bodies. We are told of our close relationship with Hockaday. While we see this relationship in some aspects, we do not see it in many others. We believe there is great potential for a deeper, academic connection with Hockaday that would be of great benefit to both student bodies.
the remarker october 29, 2021
student newspaper of st. mark’s school of texas 10600 preston road dallas, texas 75230 214.346.8000 Editorial Board editor in chief AUSTIN WILLIAMS assignments editor WILL PECHERSKY editorials & opinions editor AXEL ICAZBALCETA graphics director COOPER COLE head photographer EVAN LAI indepth editor JONATHAN YIN managing editors TOBY BARRETT PETER ORSAK publications photo editor EKANSH TAMBE Section Editors arts & culture, life & 10600 SHREYAN DAULAT WILL SPENCER health & sports ARJUN KHATTI DILLON WYATT innovation & discoveries, news & issues KESHAV KRISHNA MYLES LOWENBERG Focus Magazine editors MORGAN CHOW IAN DALRYMPLE Advertising business manager IAN MIZE Writers BEN ADAMS AARON AUGUSTINE NIKHIL DATTATREYA ZACK GOFORTH GRANT JACKSON AARON LIU NOLAN MARCUS GRAYSON REDMOND MATTHEW REED DARREN XI DAWSON YAO Photographers ZACHARY BASHOUR HUDSON BROWN CHARLIE ESTESS PATRICK FLANAGAN SAL HUSSAIN AKASH MUNSHI LARS OCHS OWEN SIMON NEIL SONG TIGER YANG Adviser RAY WESTBROOK Headmaster DAVID W. DINI audience The ReMarker is intended for the students, faculty, staff and alumni community of St. Mark’s School of Texas. Press run is 4,000 copies, with more than 2,600 of those mailed out to alumni, courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions. opinions and editorials Editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board and are not necessarily those of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff. All personal opinion columns, bylined with the writer’s name and photo, represent the views of that writer only and not necessarily those of The ReMarker, Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff. online viewing www.smtexas.org/remarker podcast @focalpointpodcast instagram @remarkernewspaper reader involvement The ReMarker encourages reader input through guest columns and story ideas. Contact the appropriate editor for suggestions. letters to the editor Letters to the editor are welcome and encouraged. They must be typed, signed and not exceed 300 words. E-mail submissions are not accepted. advertising Contact the business staff at 214.346.8145. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Inclusion of an ad does not represent an endorsement by the school’s administration, faculty, or staff or ReMarker staff members. membership The ReMarker maintains membership in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, New York City, NY; National Scholastic Press Association, Minneapolis, MN; and the Interscholastic League Press Conference, Austin.
opinion
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editorials &
the remarker october 29, 2021
EDITORIALs
Next month, remember the purpose of No-Shave November and support the cause behind it
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s you grow your beards out, remember what you’re doing it for. Facial hair is one of the thousands of things we take for granted every single day. This month’s goal is to embrace it. Because the 1.8 million people who were diagnosed with cancer last year didn’t have that luxury. As your facial hair grows out, think about the parents, the children, the uncles, the aunts, the brothers and the sisters who fight cancer every day. Think about the impact your participation could have on them. Think about your
own possibility of developing the disease. Yesterday’s video was a reminder of how you can make a difference by simply putting down the razor, and no one should be taking it lightly. Purchase wristbands when you see Student Council members at the front of campus. Talk to your family about why you’re participating. Donate the money you would usually spend on shaving. This month is a chance to make an impact on the world, and we expect the community to take full advantage of it.
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fa acts &
”No-Shave November is a web-based, non-profit organization devoted to growing cancer awareness and raising funds to support cancer prevention, research and education.”
Fundraising comes from participants donating money usually spent on grooming — razors, shaving cream, waxing appointments — to the organization. The school tradition is to allow students to grow out their beards as would be usually disallowed in the dress code and sell wristbands to raise money for No-Shave November. Source: no-shave.org
After unprecedented Senior Auction with record returns, revenue is being used well
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he Class of 2022 Senior Auction Sept. 26 was nothing short of historic. Normally, the ceiling for total proceeds from the auction hovers around $70,000, but this year’s auction garnered returns exceeding $110,000. The Senior Auction Chairs quickly capitalized on this excess, working with class sponsors and administration
to create a new endowment — an endowment in the name of the Class of 2022. In short, it will be founded with a $50,000 donation from the proceeds of the Senior Auction, which will be invested and grown as means of financially supporting students who may not have the finances to pay for the school’s tuition.
WATCH
stocks to
Lunch line wait SLIGHT INCREASE
Despite there still being a decent wait, noticably faster lines are gratefully welcome
We are grateful for these efforts, and we fully support the endeavors of this endowment. We hope the money can be used to support not only incoming Marksmen, but also those who are leaving and have left — college students and young men who are in need of financial assistance. Moreover, we feel this endowment is a necessary step in
the bulls and bears of stocks on campus
Spike
Fan attendance at football games KEEPING STEADY
Despite a slight hiccup at the match against Founders Classical, there is a consistently good attendance at home football games. Good work, boys.
Printer availability STEADY DECLINE
Ease of connecting to printers has gotten worse recently, and we would appreciate some guidelines for printer connection troubleshooting.
around the quad
STUDENTS AND FACULTY ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS
It was refreshing to see how civil discourse can be executed. That, even though your views can be diametrically opposed, you can still agree to disagree. CORINDO MARTIN math instructor
I think Dr. West and Dr. George highlighted the importance of truthseeking and reconciliation with each other. I think the only way we can go forward is if we see each other as friends and not enemies. NOAH ASMEROM junior
CARD
report repo rt
Coffeehouse
Spirit parties After the issue with the first spirit party, we are happy to see the quality and number of students attending spirit parties increase.
addressing and combatting Dallas’s notorious income inequality issues. In the future, we encourage Senior Auction chairs, class sponsors and the administration to consult the opinion of the Senior Class before allocating auction funds. However, we look forward to seeing the good that this endowment provides to Marksmen after us.
Back with a bang, the last edition of Coffeehouse was top notch with great performances, an excellent atmosphere and wonderful planning.
Spirit Week participation
While we understand it’s the last week of the quarter, we hoped more people would participate in themed dress days. Good turnout nonetheless.
Homecoming video
Q: What was your biggest takeaway from the panel with Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George? It really showed that even though we are different politcally, we can still be best friends, and that’s what our nation needs. LUKAS PALYS freshman
As young men, it is our duty to forever be truthseekers and not be afraid to speak up for those who are marginalized. SAMPATH RAPURI senior
No matter the circumstances, don’t hate people who are different from you or think differently from you. Christian TSVETANOV junior
The return of Homecoming wouldn’t have been complete without an excellent video. Our greatest compliments to all who worked on the project.
Commons after school
Every day, there is consistenly a mess in the Commons. Wrappers on the ground, food scattered on the floor. Come on, guys, clean up after yourselves.
Drs. George and West panel
While certainly a wonderful opportunity for the whole Upper School to hear from these two men, the lack of time for questions is all that holds this event back from an A+.
opinion
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editorials &
There’s no ‘H’ in Jonathan: the storied history of my name
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t’s my first week at a new school — Matthew’s Elementary. Not a familiar soul in sight. I’ve got to make a new friend during recess. Just got to. Otherwise, I’m going to be really lonely and depressed. So I turn to the kid next to me, a kid engrossed in a seemingly fascinating woodchip. Hey, nice to meet you. I’m Jonathan. The kid looks up from his woodchip. Yo, you’re like that Johnny Appleseed guy we were talking about in class today! I’m utterly confused. I don’t have an apple, much less any apple seeds. What? He breaks into a mischievous grin, tossing the woodchip aside. Yeah, what’s up, Johnny Appleseed? Wanna race to that slide? Loser has to talk to the girls over there! Ever since kindergarten, I’ve never been able to comprehend my nickname. Countless questions bounced around in my head as I walked home, trailing after my mom’s dress. I don’t get it — I spent hours struggling to learn how to spell and write my name, finally vanquishing the vile eight-letter beast with three packs of blue Crayolas. But it seems like all my work’s gone to waste. Out of all those other kids, why me? I didn’t even like apples. Why didn’t I get to choose my own nickname? And, the most pressing question of them all: where in the world did that extra H come from? Years pass, and being Johnny — not Jonathan — has just become a fact of life, like how the purple Jolly Ranchers are definitely the best and if you weren’t faster than me in PE, how was I supposed to listen to you? Every time, I sign my times tables worksheets with my full name. And every time, unfailingly, my clueless JONATHAN YIN peers spell my name InDepth Editor with that accursed H, as “Johnathan,” or, horror of horrors, with an O at the end: “Johnathon.” Nothing I do rids me of that nickname. But honestly, I’m glad. It makes me feel special, like I have something to distinguish myself from those uncool kids with no nicknames. Even Superman has a nickname. I’m basically Superman, if you think about it hard enough. But all good things must come to an end. Eventually, my blissful years in elementary school draw to a close. That’s when my tyrannical parents force me to apply to St. Mark’s. Wait, it’s a private school? Oh boy. Two months later. I stand awkwardly in a three-piece suit during my visit, gazing out at the Perot Quadrangle with my mouth agape. One of the kids breaks away from his group of friends and jogs over to me,
furnishing a nametag — why is it spelled wrong? Hey, I’m Harrison. I’ll be your buddy today. You’re Johnathan, right? Not again. What? He laughs, swinging his bag onto his shoulder. Oh, my bad. I’ll just call you Johnny. What’s your favorite subject? Needless to say, the name stuck. It’s my first day, where I needed to “make a good impression on the teachers,” and here I am, the subject of nursery rhymes and math problems. Who’s ever going to take me seriously when I have 42 watermelons in my backpack and 12 friends I need to share them equally with? I keep writing my full name out on each and every homework assignment. I keep introducing myself as Jonathan to anyone willing to listen (that’s spelled J-O-NA-T-H-A-N, by the way). But any name other than Jonathan is here to stay. Various flavors of my mutilated namesake begin to appear with stunning regularity. It becomes a competition to see who can come up with the most outlandish names at lunch. Hey, look, it’s Johnny Boy! No, it’s Johnny Bonny! Monathan? Johnny Appleseed! Joj! J Dawg the Large! I do a mental double take. Say what? That one doesn’t even make sense... My friends just chuckle. Yeah, okay, J Dawg the Large. Whatever you say! I’ve accepted that I’ll probably never be addressed as Jonathan by my friends. But the disconnect between our perceptions of my name is particularly impressive. Even today, some of my closest friends still don’t know how to spell my name correctly. And even today, I still can’t introduce myself as Johnny to others without dying a little bit inside. Despite this pain, I’ve slowly grown to embrace my name, a token of my friends’ appreciation. But what’s in a name? Why is it so important to me that others know how to spell it correctly? What makes my name so special? What does it even mean? My parents tell me over dinner one night in ninth grade. Well, it means you’re a gift from God. I put down my chopsticks. Huh? We’re not even Christian. My mom smiles, looking over at my dad. Yeah, we just picked it out of a baby name book when the hospital made us give you a name. Oh. The next day at school, I spot a kid I’ve never seen before. A kid sitting alone at lunch, staring forlornly into his pasta. A kid who needs to make a new friend. Hey, nice to meet you. I’m Jonathan, but my friends call me Johnny. CARTOON Cooper Cole
Austin Williams
the remarker october 29, 2021
My essentials: six things I can’t live without
Editor-in-Chief
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veryone has those little things that hold their life together. My mom, for example, loves her Duolingo, and my dad gets through the night with his blue-light goggles. Editorials & Opinion Editor Axel Icazbalceta can’t go a day without saying ‘pog.’ I figured my essentials were interesting enough that I’d share ‘em: The Club This daunting piece of plastic keeps criminals out of my vehicle. You’d be surprised how many car-jacking reports there are on the neighborhood app NextDoor. Mom always keeps me posted on the latest crimes, and Dad always keeps this oddly-shaped thieffender-offer attached to my steering wheel (with frequent reminders).
The Marvelous Tab Suspender People don’t take advantage of Google Chrome extensions. This one’s uncle, The Great Suspender, was removed from the store because it “contained malware,” but I valued it so much I tracked down a new version. Essentially, it presses pause on tabs that have been open for a while so you can have more of that precious computer memory back. Perfect for when college apps leave you with more tabs than you can count. 0.00771545 of a Bitcoin Mined on my PC back in 2018 — the glory days — this sucker was once worth $62.03 and has shot as high as $520. Right now, it’s worth about $455, but it could be in the hole tomorrow. It’s an experiment more than anything — who doesn’t like watching currency fluctuate by the second? I’ve also got 0.008675 Ethereum sitting around, for my cryptocurrency aficionados.
Three cups of coffee I wouldn’t say I’ve reached Arts & Culture, Life & 10600 Editor Will Spencer’s level of caffeine dependency yet, but I certainly rely on my white Yeti to get me through the day. One time, I left my mug in our newspaper advisor Ray’s office while he was off-campus, and I had to fight to keep my eyes open during third period. St. Mark’s is a grind, and my yearbook quote will be dedicated to the juice that keeps me running. Wired Apple earphones After three sacred days of mourning the tragic loss of my AirPods, I discovered my worn-in earphones and was welcomed by a warm wave of nostalgia. Only the good stuff pours out of these ‘buds, and they bring instant flashbacks to watching Karate Kid on my iPad Mini. They’ve only got one perceivable downside — it’s terribly uncomfortable to bench press when the bar hits the wire. Maybe I’ll return to those Bluetooth beauties one day…
Honorable Mention: Tootsie Rolls I’m a big candy guy. I’m not ashamed of it. If you peek into the editor’s office, you’ll see a fat tub of these on my desk. Ask me politely — maybe I’ll share.
Follow The ReMarker on Instagram at @remarkernewspaper Also follow Focal Point at @focalpointpodcast and listen on most major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts
the remarker october 29, 2021
Sports
health &
The dilemma of high school sports by Arjun Khatti 007. Racing through the mom-made victory tunnel for the very first time, I felt as if nothing could stop me. “I could get used to this,” I figured, so I signed up for the next season. 2016. I joyously stepped off the field after another dominating victory, clenching my Cool Blue Gatorade in one hand and my bright red Adidas shin guards in the other. There was no better way to kick off the weekend. Unfortunately, that happened to be our last game of the season. “Welp, can’t wait for next year,” I thought. 2017. It all hits me. A decision has to be made. A decision that, for a hyperactive 12-year-old boy, trumped all other priorities for the upcoming school year. Soccer or basketball? Soccer was my first love and my go-to sport ever since I became a proud member of the St. Alcuin Dinosaurs as a three-yearold. At the same time, basketball was more my style. The feeling ARJUN KHATTI I got from Sports Editor playing the game enticed me more than anything. But no matter which way I saw it, I was in a lose-lose situation. For the first time in my life, I was being forced to quit a sport.
Hard hats
The football team started awarding one offensive and one defensive player with hard hats this season for being standout players during practice each week.
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Throughout my high school career, the thought of losing another sport has kept me engaged in as many as possible. I am a member of the cross country, basketball and track and field teams, and my obligations as an athlete couldn’t be any higher. It’s always a challenge going from an endurance-based sport like cross country to a game of sprints like basketball. But I wouldn’t change my situation for anything. I can’t see myself quitting any time soon, especially when I have the unwavering support of my coaches and teammates. But what happened to me in seventh grade is bound to happen again; I’ll have to give up another sport. Most of us will never make it to the next level of competition, but the adrenaline rush we get from high school athletics is hard to beat. In other words, there is no better time for a high schooler to enjoy the world of sports than right now. So go do that sport you’ve always wanted to try. Or continue playing whatever sport you already do. Don’t quit. Because, sooner or later, life will force you to give it all up.
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Lion’s mane The Superfanmen started selecting one Marksman each week to wear the Super Fan Chain for their dedication to the school’s athletic program.
bigPICTURE GEARED UPJunior Blake Malouf and freshman Henry Estes sport the new hard hats. Senior Fisayo Omonije, who committed to Johns Hopkins University for track and field, reps the new Super Fan Chain. Date Location People
Oct. 8 Norma and Lamar Hunt Stadium Blake Malouf, Henry Estes, Fisayo Omonije
PHOTOS Camden Reeves, Sal Hussain
I think they are a fun tradition to have, not only because they are unique, but because the hard hat really represents what we want from every single one of our players: toughness, endurance and perseverance.
We made the Super Fan Chain to recognize school spirit in the way the Lion’s Club does with behavior and good deeds. We thought, ‘What if we made a chain for a fan who represents the community well in sports?’
MAX VAFA Senior football player
ALEX NADALINI Super Fan Man
sports in brief FOOTBALL MAKES HISTORY The varsity football team won its 400th game in program history, defeating Founders Classical Academy 57-0 Sept. 24. The Lions began their dynasty when Texas Country Day School and the Cathedral School for Boys merged to create the school. As of Oct. 22, the team has amassed a 401-255-9 record with a 60.9 winning percentage. ALUMNI ATHLETES UPDATE As the 2021-2022 school year unfolds, many fall alumni athletes have hit their strides. Sam Clayman ’17 and the Princeton men’s golf team finished fourth at the Cornell Invitational Sept. 19. Anthony Andrews ’21, a defensive back for the Yale Bulldogs, will be playing against the Columbia University Lions Oct. 30. The Bulldogs are currently 2-3, recently falling to Dartmouth. Pablo Arroyo ‘21 and Andres Arroyo ’21 and the MIT men’s cross country team
finished first at the Live in Lou Cross Country Classic Oct. 2 and will be competing in the NCAA D3 East Regionals Nov. 13. SCOTT WINS AWARD In his first ever collegiate football game for Dartmouth College, Paxton Scott ‘20 earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for his eight catches, 87 receiving yards and one touchdown in a win against Valparaiso University 28-18, announced Sept. 20. After having no competition his freshman year due to COVID-19, Scott now leads the team’s receiving core with 33 receptions, 361 total yards and three touchdowns in six games. CROSS COUNTRY MEET The Middle School cross country team hosted their first Lion Run this season Sept. 22, marking the first time the school has hosted an on-campus meet since 2013. Due to construction on its campus, Hockaday has been
for the sports fan unable to host its usual two-mile races that the Lions have been accustomed to running over the years. In an attempt to give runners more opportunities to compete, the Lions invited several SPC north zone teams to run a two-mile course on campus. Although the team planned to host a second Lion Run Oct. 13, it was canceled due to weather concerns. COLLEGE COMMITMENTS Several Marksmen committed to continue playing sports for their respective universities: senior Fisayo Omonije committed Sept. 27 to run track and field at Johns Hopkins University; senior Sahil Dodda committed Oct. 19 to the University of Pennsylvania to run for cross country and track and field; junior Jake Park committed Oct. 3 to play lacrosse at Air Force Academy; senior Evan McGowan committed to Cornell University Oct. 3 to row for their crew team.
inside
29MALE CHEERLEADERS
Uncovering the disappearance of male cheerleaders on campus
31SPC PREVIEW
An inside look at the fall sports teams’ season recap and preview for SPC
Today Varsity football at ESD at 7 p.m. JV volleyball vs. Greenhill at home at 4:30 p.m Varsity volleyball vs. Greenhill at home at 5:30 p.m. Ottawa Senators vs. Dallas Stars at 7:30 p.m. Dallas Mavericks at. Denver Nuggets at 9:00 p.m. Sunday Sacramento Kings vs. Dallas Mavericks at 2:30 p.m. Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday Varsity volleyball vs. Excel Volleyball Club at home at 6:30 p.m. JV volleyball vs. Excel Volleyball Cluv at home at 5:30 p.m. Dallas Stars at Winnipeg Jets at 7 p.m.
Next month November 5 Varsity volleyball SPC tournament begins at Greenhill November 6 Varsity volleyball SPC tournament concludes at Greenhill Varsity cross country SPC Championships at Norbuck Park at 8:30 a.m. November 13 Varsity basketball at Jimmy Gale Oak Cliff Showcase at South Oak Cliff High School at 2 Dallas Stars vs. Philadelphia Flyers at 7 p.m. November 19 Varsity Basketball vs. Hillcrest High School at home at 7:30 p.m. Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns at 9 p.m.
five minutes with... Sophomore Raja Mehendale on Formula One car racing
28THREE-SPORT ATHLETE
How senior Elijah Ellis balances school work while playing three sports
Next week
“During COVID-19, when everyone was quarantined, it was one of the few sports that was still going on, which was strange. The sport takes place in so many different locations and in so many different countries, but it was still going on.” “I’ve always liked motorsports, but I really get to know the personalities of each driver. The field’s not that big — there are only ten teams and 20 drivers. I get to see how each driver acts both on and off the track.”
“I’ll stick to racing with my legs as opposed to racing any car but it’s certainly something that I admire when I’m watching these drivers. It’s a great sport but not something I would do myself. ” INTERVIEW Ben Adams
Raja Mehendale >
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Sports
health &
the remarker october 29, 2021
THREE-SPORT ATHLETE
Jack of all trades No matter what time of the year it is, senior Elijah Ellis is always playing a sport. From competing on the gridiron, to the wrestling mat, to the track, he embodies the “no days off” mentality. In what is likely his final year being a true multi-sport athlete, Ellis reflects on his experiences.
My first sports love was… the game of football. I started when I was very young, and I actually almost quit when I started playing tackle football. A close friend of mine convinced me to stay with it, so I’m definitely glad I had someone by my side to encourage me to keep going. I started to really develop a passion and love for the game ever since. I never thought about specializing in a sport because… even though I knew it would be a challenge in high school, I felt that I was prepared to play three sports, and the school would help me in that endeavor. I also knew that by playing other sports in the winter and spring, I would get better for football. I can use that time to get stronger and faster for the football season, get the benefits of being on a team and contribute to success in different athletic communities. Being a multi-sport athlete is important to me because... I enjoy being different — outside of the norm. It’s very common nowadays for people to just specialize in one sport, but I never wanted to do that. It would be a waste of a gift that God has given me not to put full effort into each of the three sports that I’m passionate about. I love competing. Any chance I get to simply compete is also a win in my mind. Managing different coaching styles is... a learning experience for sure. I have to learn to take the message and the criticism for what it is and not focus too
ALL YEAR LONG While most athletes here stick to one or two sports, Ellis keeps himself occupied in the world of sports by doing a sport every season.
much on the tone that it is delivered to me. Some coaches may seem harsh and tough, but that’s just their coaching style. That’s what they need to do to push you. Having three different coaches has allowed me to be very teachable. The way [track and field] Coach Turek acts is different than how [wrestling] Coach Reyno Arredondo acts. That’s just something I’ve had to get used to. For football, I’m on my third head coach in four years. I’ve really had to adapt to the circumstances and control only what I can control. That’s what has allowed me to be the best version of myself. I prepare for competition by… focusing solely on the task at hand. Game day is the big moment I always prepare for. I can forget anything else that happened that day in school. Also being able to interact with a group of guys who love a certain sport, whichever one that might be at the time, is something I can always look forward to. There’s nothing like that feeling. My experiences in each of my sports… are much more similar than they are different. Obviously football is a pure team sport in the sense that it’s me and ten other guys executing at once, whereas wrestling is oneon-one. But what makes wrestling a team sport like football is the fact that I have the whole team cheering in my corner. There’s a big difference between that atmosphere and one where I’m alone. With track, it’s that same feeling. Since by the
numbers
70
percent greater chance of getting injured as a one-sport athlete than as a multisport athlete
71
percent of DI football players played multiple sports
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ON THE GRIDIRON While Ellis has found immense success and gratification in all three of his sports, football is his primary sport and the one he hopes to pursue at the collegiate level.
percent of 2021 NFL Draft picks played multiple sports in high school
I’m running sprints for such a short period time, being able to warm up with the team and have a similar sense of support from everyone around me is a big help. In college, I want to… play football for sure. That has been my dream since I was a little kid, and my goal is to bring that to fruition. Now it’s just a matter of working on finding the best fit. That’s the main interest, but, I would also be satisfied with wrestling at the college level as well. I have one more wrestling season coming up, so if I get an offer, I would definitely consider that heavily. At that point in my sports career, I would have to specialize in one or the other, with football as my priority. STORY Arjun Khatti PHOTOS Sal Hussain
Sports
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health &
the remarker october 29, 2021
Male Cheerleaders
From co-ed to companionless There hasn’t been a male cheerleader at the school in five years. Before that, 15 years. While other groups have attempted to fill that void, this long-tenured tradition appears to have disappeared for now.
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or decades, Lions and Hockadaisies have lined up side-by-side on the track to cheer on the football team. Half guys, half girls. But then came a sudden absence. Marksmen no longer wanted to serve as cheerleaders. No more routines. No more pep rallies. No more tumbling. “I think the portrayal of cheerleading in the media as very feminine has contributed to men migrating away from the sport,” Nick Kowalske ‘20 said. But just five years ago, Kowalske broke the silence, becoming the first Marksman to join the team since 2006. Ever since Kowalske’s tenure on the team ended, no Marksman has put on the uniform. That begs the question: where did male cheerleaders go? Forty years ago, it was commonplace to see Marksmen repping blue jeans and white button-downs while hoisting up Hockaday flyers. David Wood ‘82 was among this now-rare breed of male cheerleaders. Playing football through 11th grade, Wood was faced with a tough decision entering his senior year: he could either continue playing football or join the cheer team. With wrestling as his main sport, Wood decided to choose the latter and save his body for the winter season. “During practice, the linebackers would kind of tee-off on me and try to kill me,” Wood said. “My senior year, one of my best friends was the middle linebacker, and he was ferocious. I thought, I can either get killed, go to two days and be hot all summer, or I can go hang out with five girls and four guys that were all good friends.” Wood recalls a very supportive atmosphere regarding male cheerleaders during his time at 10600 Preston Rd. “It was great –– I never felt any stigma attached to it,” Wood said. “It was kind of like doing any other activity. St. Mark’s is really supportive of people with
all different hobbies –– from athletes to actors to the people on the newspaper.” When Kowalske joined the team, Wood, father of REPPING THE UNI’ Junior Sal Hussain sports the Lions cheerleading outfit alongside Hockaday cheerleaders Landon ‘19 sophomore Stella Grabham, senior captains Sarah Roberts and Lea Whitley and seniors Abigail Willingham and and Grey ‘17, Campbell Harris. Male cheerleaders at the school have never worn skirts as pictured. was excited to part of the sport. see a revival of this old custom. “I went to team practices, but I was also practicing “In 2016, Landon was on the football team,” Wood at a cheerleading gym outside of school to catch up to said. “I remember them having a new male cheerleader, where everybody else was,” Kowalske said. “I found and that was kind of a buzz. I thought it was cool. It was my place mostly through tumbling. Because I had a lot awesome to bring the tradition back.” of flips and skills that some of the other team members While some might think being the sole male on didn’t have, I could contribute something that was new a cheerleading squad could be isolating, Kowalske and different, which I think really helped me find my emphasized quite the opposite: he was met with support spot on the team.” from the vast majority of his classmates. “I didn’t think much about it,” Kowalske said. “I was The rare sight of male cheerleaders over the last kind of just having a good time. Especially performing couple of decades has left a void in school spirit. But at pep rallies, I knew the audience, my classmates, in a different way than the other cheerleaders. In that sense, it Wood hypothesizes that male cheerleaders may still be on campus –– just in a new form. Over the last decade, was a little more personal. There’s obviously a different the Super Fan Men have pioneered school spirit by dynamic when you’re the only guy, but overall, I was leading pep rallies and cheers paired with in-depth social just there to have fun. Being the only male didn’t really media coverage of Lions sports. change much.” “I love the Super Fan Men, too,” Wood said. “It’s During his time at the school, Wood said most of been an awesome addition. Maybe times are different the male cheerleaders stuck to lifting up the Hockaday now, and those guys have stepped into the role that was cheerleaders, serving as the “muscles of the operation.” previously held by male cheerleaders.” But for Kowalske, tumbling quickly became his favorite Hockaday senior and cheer captain Sarah Roberts said her great aunt, a Hockaday alumna, remembers plenty of Lions who joined the team and truly loved it. Although many teenage boys may feel that cheerleading is “only for girls” or not physically challenging, Roberts affirms that cheerleading is no joke of a sport. She urges Marksmen to follow in Kowalske and Woods’ footsteps and try out for the team. “I think that there’s a stigma around cheer being a ‘girly’ sport, but as a swimmer and a lacrosse player in the other seasons, I can attest to the fact that cheerleading is difficult,” Roberts said. “I really hope that in the future more guys come to try cheer –– they’re missing out on a lot of fun.” LEADING THE CHEER Wood supports the pyramid (left) and screams into the megaphone (above) while supporting the Lions football team during the 1981-1982 school year. The Lions finished 5-5 on the season, beating then-rival team St. John’s 16-15.
STORY Peter Orsak, Arjun Khatti GRAPHIC Evan Lai, Courtesy David Wood
Hockaday seniors Landry Grover, Brooke Adams establish the Hockaday Hype Women by Nolan Marcus nspired to make a culture change, Hockaday seniors Brooke Adams and Landry Grover founded the Hockaday Hype Women Sept. 20. Their inspiration came partly from Jack Trahan ‘19 and Luke Evangelist ‘19 when they created the Super Fan Men Instagram account two years ago. “I thought it was really cool,” Grover said, “especially because of the help they got from St. Mark’s and how much more student support there was.” According to Grover and Adams, Evangelist and Trahan were friendly towards them and specifically told them they could make a huge culture change at Hockaday. “We knew both of them, and we just
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wanted to build that legacy at Hockaday because we understand that Super Fan Men is mostly a St. Mark’s account,” Adams said. “We wanted to build that same spirit and support.” Grover and Adams are getting that spirit and support they want from the community, and according to them, the account has been a success. “A lot of teachers love it, the parents love it and especially the students love it. The current Hockaday athletics Instagram is run by the coaches,” Grover said, “so, the students really like our account because it is student-led.” Additionally, Grover, who’s committed to the University of Denver for lacrosse, and Adams, who’s committed to the University of Texas
at Austin for swimming, are both prominent student-athletes which, according to Adams, gives the two an inside scoop on what is going on in the Hockaday sports community. “We are comfortable being a voice for the athletes in the community,” Adams said. “I think just in the past two weeks, we’ve had increased attendance at games, and people have been asking how sports teams are doing –– what their schedules are like. So, it’s very cool to see.” Adams and Grover are also working with their student council so that the account can cover all student achievements. “We are definitely working with student council to collaborate on events,
and we are working on pep rallies and things of that nature,” Adams said. “We are also trying to collaborate with other factions at Hockaday, such as the fine arts board, to make graphics and posters.” Their goals do not stop with just increased Hockaday attendance. Grover and Adams also want more students from 10600 Preston Rd. to come to Hockaday games. “One of the main benefits we have been looking for is to collab with the Super Fan Men and get more guys out at our games and more girls out for their games,” Grover said. “We want it to feel more like a brother-sister environment at the athletics scenes.”
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the remarker october 29, 2021
Marksman committment
Lunging to the next stage Senior Adam Lai, the fifth ranked fencer in the nation, committed to Princeton University this August to continue his fencing career. Lai shares the lessons he has learned through his years of training.
Dilworth earns spot in alma mater’s sports hall of fame by Ben Adams trength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth was inducted into the Abeline Christian University Sports Hall of Fame for his athletic achievements Oct. 15. Dilworth played on the track and field team at ACU and competed in the 4x100, 4x400, 200-meter dash, long jump and triple jump. Dilworth competed in many races during his time in college, but there are a couple that stand out to him as his favorite memories. “My favorite athletic memory would have to be Penn relays and us winning the sprint medley,” Dilworth said. “We ended up breaking the American record in the sprint medley, which got us in a position to also be in the Hall of Fame for that event. We got a plaque with all our names in the Penn Relays stadium.” At the time of Dilworth’s college career, Abilene Christian was an NCAA Division II school; however, Dilworth and his team were able to compete against Division I schools during the Penn relays.
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A SUMMER TO REMEMBER After winning gold at the July Challenge and Parafencing National Championship for Globus Fencing Academy, Lai celebrated with his coach, Lee Hyo-Kun. Just one month later, Lai announced he will rep black and orange for Princeton’s fencing team next fall.
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t just came naturally to him. He loved sports. At one point, he was involved in ten of them. But there was one sport he was born to play — one that not many kids were playing at age six. Other six-year-olds were busy playing football, basketball and soccer. Senior Adam Lai was fencing. “Six-year-olds can fence?” the other kids thought. The unique sport was new to many who asked what sports he played. Many people had to ask a second time when he told them he did fencing. But now, people won’t ask a second time when he tells them where he’s going to fence at the collegiate level. Lai committed to continue his fencing career at Princeton University in August. Ranked fifth in the nation, Lai rose in the rankings from his freshman year until now while competing for Globus Fencing Academy. As a kid, Lai wanted to try as many sports as possible. His mom signed him up for every sports team with an open slot. But as his time at 10600 Preston Rd. progressed, he realized fencing was meant for him. “The other sports were fun,” Lai said. “But I never got to compete nationally for other sports as I could with fencing. I just had a knack for it. That passion I had for fencing has
allowed to me experience more, as well as travel the world.” Lai has been able to travel to places like Eislingen, Germany, and he is hoping to compete in the Junior World Cup in Sosnowiec, Poland in December. But none of this would have been possible without the guidance of one of the world’s best fencing instructors. “I have a Korean coach, Lee Hyo-Kun, who’s fenced in the Olympics and coached the number one team,” Lai said. “So that was a great opportunity for me to fence under him for three years, which has really helped my game.” Due to COVID-19, many of the top fencing tournaments across the nation shut down, causing Lai to miss out on prime opportunities to showcase his talents to college coaches. Luckily, at the start of summer, many tournaments started back up, and Lai was one of the first to jump back in and try to earn a spot on a Division I team. “I signed up for a lot of regional tournaments just to get my practice going again and get back into the grind,” Lai said. “I went to a camp in New Jersey and trained with a lot of skilled fencers and made a lot of friends there. After that, I went to a summer nationals tournament and placed really well there, and many coaches told me to email them and they would let me know if I had an offer or not.” To figure out which college best suited him, Lai decided to go on unofficial visits to colleges and tour their fencing strips whenever possible. After going to Princeton twice on unofficial visits, he knew where he wanted to go. “I have a couple of friends who go to Princeton, so it’s great that I can be teammates with them,” Lai said. “Another reason for going to Princeton is I know their fencing program and coaches are really well known. A third reason is obviously education. My parents always encouraged me to go to a college with strong academics, and Princeton offered that.” Many people here believe the sport is easy to pick up and receive offers for, but Lai knows that it takes just as much effort as other sports to master the craft. “I know a lot of friends of mine in lower grades that come up to me and say that it must be so easy to get into a good school for fencing,” Lai said. “And even some moms come and ask me how to get their kids into college for fencing. But it does take a lot of effort and time, and it’s not just an easy way to get into a good college.” While Lai will soon begin competing at the collegiate level, he hopes that not only Marksmen, but also other schools will begin teaching the sport, so that it can grow and expand. “Mainly, the school’s fencing is for beginners and people just trying the sport,” Lai said. “I think what they should do is try to promote it elsewhere because if other schools tried it, there could be SPC tournaments.” STORY Dillon Wyatt PHOTOS Charlie Estess, Courtesy Globus Fencing Academy
Dilworth had not been to ACU in over 10 years, but he was able to attend the hall of fame induction ceremony Oct. 15 and was recognized at the university’s football game the following day for his outstanding athletic achievements. “Being a role model is very important because it gives guys the opportunity to see what it takes to be successful,” Dilworth said. While Dilworth may not get the opportunity to be a role model for the college students at ACU anymore, he sees the importance in sharing what being a good man is all about. “It’s very important that my path, my way, my discipline and my habits stand out a little bit so that it gives the young men here an opportunity to see what it takes in order to engage in success and to engage in purposeful living,” Dilworth said. Without track and field, Dilworth believes that his life would be a lot different than it is today and he would not have the opportunities he has now. “I owe everything to track and field because it saved me. It not only helped me as a person, but it also maneuvered me as an athlete,” Dilworth said. It’s huge that I’m able to watch what I do, what I say and how I act.”
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FALL SPC
The final stretch With just one week left in the fall season, varsity football, cross country and volleyball are primed to make an impact in SPC.
Football pushes through challenging SPC counter games
Volleyball looks to make a move on SPC competition
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t’s Friday night, Sept. 10. The bleachers erupt with noise as fans dressed in red, white and blue rise from their seats. But this isn’t a football game. This is FNV – Friday night volleyball. Senior captain George Warren believes this level of energy was instrumental in the Lions’ victory and hopes future games will have similar turnouts. “I remember the home game [against Country Day],” he said, “before the football game on Friday, and everyone came out to that. We got the job done in four sets, and it was a lot of fun because everyone came out to support us. It would be great if we could have another game like that.” This season, the Lions’ main rivals are Greenhill and Trinity Valley, with Greenhill being an especially enjoyable matchup, according to Warren. “I think that us, along with those two teams are the top three teams in SPC right now,” he said. As the team has already played all of their future opponents for the rest of the season, they’ve had the opportunity to assess the competition, according to senior captain Will Shoup. “The first loss to Trinity Valley was a rough game,” he said. “They finally had all of their players back and that was a close one. I think we need to work on a few things and get back to them in the future.” Although the team has areas of improvement, Shoup believes they are performing well. “We’re really strong on offense,” he said, “but I think most of our issues come down to taking care of the ball and minimizing our errors on serving and defense, which is something we work on a lot in practice.” The loss of many instrumental players is an opportunity for others to rise to new challenges, according to Warren. “We’re going to need players to step up and hit around the block,” he said. “[Senior] Miller [Trubey] is looking really good right now. I also think the freshmen have done a really good job stepping up.” STORY Dillon Wyatt, Ben Adams, Zack Goforth PHOTOS Sal Hussain
In the Lion’s den
Cross country prepares for SPC championship at local course
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ov. 6. 8:30 a.m. Norbuck Park. This is the final race of the season. For some, its their final race as a Lion. Senior captain Sahil Dodda has big expectations going into their final race. “Our goal every year for the team has been to win the title,” Dodda said. “That’s what we’ve been looking forward to for the past couple of years. And not having one last year was definitely a little bit tough. So this year, we’re pretty hungry to get after it.” Turek’s squad won the last SPC Championship in 2019, but this team boasts a whole new squad of runners. As much as they want to win, these athletes are keeping their eye on the prize and not getting ahead of themselves. “Our mindset every time we step to the line is that we don’t want to put unreal expectations or crazy goals for a certain race,” Dodda said. “There’s a very good chance that if we set the bar too high, we’re not going to reach that and we’re going to be disappointed.” Dodda will look to win the meet individually and he believes his biggest competitor is another senior from St. John’s, Emmanuel Sgouros, who he has raced against many times before. “For me personally, it’s between him and me,” Dodda said. “We’ve been going back and forth the past couple years. So this year is going to be the deciding one.” Dodda, who has competed in other meets much bigger than SPC, is feeling pure excitement when thinking about the fact that his team will compete for the title in just one week. “Let’s face it, it’s just fun to race,” Dodda said, “and it’s hard to explain, but it’s just another race with my guys. It’s what we’ve been trying to work for all year, and we’re just having a good time.”
t was the first quarter. The Lions were threatening to score again against Houston Christian Oct. 8 and stretch their 14 point lead. Standing tall over the center, he receives the snap. He scans the field looking for an open receiver, but with no one to throw to, he heads through the hole in the offensive line towards the first down marker. As he nears the line to gain, he gets tackled and hears a pop. Starting quarterback Alex Nadalini had no idea he had just torn his ACL ultimately ending his senior season. This was not how the senior envisioned his senior year unfolding. He wanted to finish the season in full pads, but instead, he has to stand on the sidelines with crutches and a big brace covering his leg. However, Nadalini has the utmost confidence that his teammates will go out on the field and play to the Lions’ standard during his absence. “I trust that we will keep rolling and keep our offensive momentum going,” Nadalini said. “[junior quarterback] Asher [Wilburn] has played really well in the games he’s played in, so as long as we keep the fundamentals and basic things we do in check, we will be good to go. Defensively, we need to keep getting better every week and making tackles and making plays. As long as our effort is there, and we are working hard and controlling what we can control, we will be able to execute.” With just one regular-season game left against rival ESD, Nadalini hopes the team’s early success will ride into their final game. “We are trying to keep the momentum and stay steady,” Nadalini said. “We want to keep getting better every week. We have to practice with 100% effort every rep to get better.” While winning an SPC championship means everything to Nadalini, he believes investing in the process put forth by new head coach Harry Flaherty will put the team in the best position to win. “We have talked about winning as a team,” Nadalini said. “Coach Flaherty has tried to get the point across that rather than focusing on trying to get to SPC, the team needs to focus on each week at a time and executing and doing what we can do to win the next game.”
Staff writer Ben Adams analyzes some of the attributes that put senior captain and Loyola Chicago commit Miller Trubey among the best in the SPC
1 - Height The senior captain’s 6-foot-10-inch frame gives him a unique advantage on the court 2 - Wingspan No matter how far Trubey needs to reach to spike or set to a teammate, he is almost always able to do so with his 7-foot wingspan 3 - Touch Trubey’s 11’6” max touch allows him to get to a significant amount of the balls that fly over the net 4 - Vertical Opponents can only hope to block Trubey’s spikes, as his 30” vertical allows him to tower over defenders 5 - Spikes Trubey’s monster spikes are a big reason why the volleyball team boasts an 8-4 record, as of Oct. 25 PHOTO Sal Hussain
STAYING STRONG Junior libero Zach Nivica, senior captain runner Sahil Dodda and junior wide receiver Blake Malouf, prepare for an actionpacked final week of SPC.
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REMARKER
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ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON RD. DALLAS, TX 75230
TIE-DYE PREPARATIONS Students gather on the Quad after the first day of Spirit Week to tie-dye fresh white t-shirts for Tie-Dye Thursday. Other themes included Major League Monday, Tropical Tuesday, Wild West Wednesday and Blue and Gold Friday.
CelebratION
Gold team triumphs at Spirit Week Led by senior gold team captains Caleb Vanzant, Tate Laczkowski and Corvin Oprea, and senior Blue team captains James Fults, Zack Stone and Mac McKenzie, Marksmen celebrated Spirit Week last week. This year’s festivities featured tug-of-war, a nerf war, a relay race and stuco-faculty dodgeball. After two years of makeshift traditions, this extremely important one made its return, rekindling the fierce annual rivalry between blue and gold teams. BATTLE OF STRENGTH Seniors Henry Piccagli and Henry Schecter head the blue team side of the rope.
TUG-OF-WAR Fighting hard, seniors Elijah Ellis (front) and Sal Abbasi (back) lead the charge for the gold team.
WINNERS Senior Tate Laczkowski hoists the gold team flag in victory. His team was undefeated throughout the spirit week games.
COMPILATION Ekansh Tambe PHOTOS Sal Hussain