As technology and social media begin to influence and reshape teenage relationships, teens are now navigating a new world of dating. And in that new world, paired with academic and athletic pressure, fewer and fewer teens are choosing to engage in romantic relationships than ever before.
SEE COVERAGE, PAGES 16-17
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Each night, security guard Daniel Mauch clocks in to serve as the overnight shift guard on campus. Learn more about the security team on campus.
SMU professor and PhD candidate Will Roundabush has stepped up as a subsitute English teacher.
With an action packed animation film of the popular videogame Minecraft released, guest columnist Cam Hurley reflects on the new Minecraft Movie. 27
Dwight Philips, a PE and middle school basketball coach, impacts student lives across campus, teaching beyond the court.
GARDNER
It feels surreal to write this now with graduation looming just months away. I can still hear Mr. Atkinson’s words from our senior retreat echoing in my mind: “It will be here before you know it.” How right he was. Soon I’ll be walking across that stage, diploma in hand, and then almost immediately packing my bags for football camp at Duke.
The speed at which these 12 years have flown by is disorienting. Sometimes I find myself lost in memories: struggling with times tables in Mrs. Brooms’ class, the excitement of collecting cards with friends in Mr. Jordan’s room, learning organization skills from Ms. Jenkins that I still use today and discovering poetry in Dr. Brozovich’s class. Each teacher, each classroom, each year built upon the last to create this tapestry of experiences.
Learn about the benefit or drawbacks of the St. Mark’s name in college and school admissions.
Students share opinions on the yearly tradition of seniors ripping shirt pockets off the Oxford shirts of underclassmen on their last day of school. 30
Freshman Elijah Kim continues the long streak of dominant St. Mark’s fencers, competing in and winning the Junior Olympics.
The senior class planned and organized a school prank that was luau themed, bringing festivites to campus. 7 27 32 3 10 18
Even now, in these final weeks, we’re still creating memories. Senior assassin brings both laughter and paranoia as we hunt each other down with water guns. I’ve been jumping at shadows and eyeing water bottles suspiciously, wondering if today’s the day I’ll get eliminated. These moments feel especially precious knowing how numbered they are. The reality of adulthood weighs on me some days. In just a few months, I’ll shed this identity as a “kid” in many ways. No parents just a short drive away, no familiar house to return to when things get tough. Everything will fall on my shoulders in a new state, surrounded by new people and new expectations. I’ll have to manage my own schedule, my own meals, my own laundry, all while adjusting to college-level football practices and classes. It’s daunting to think about the responsibility, the distance, the unknowns that await me.
Just yesterday, I was driving home from practice and realized that soon this familiar route, past the church, the corner store where I would buy candy af-
ter school, the park where we spent countless summer days, would become a memory rather than my daily reality. It hit me harder than I expected.
But beneath the anxiety, there’s excitement too. This is what all those years of learning and growing were preparing me for. The late nights studying, the early morning practices, the friendships forged through shared struggles and triumphs, all of it was building toward this moment of transition. I’m ready for this next chapter, even with its challenges.
For now, though, I’m making a conscious effort to be present. To absorb every moment with friends who’ve been by my side through countless school days. To appreciate family dinners that will soon be infrequent.
The clock is ticking down on this chapter of my life, but I’m determined not to miss a single page before it closes. Two more months to be a kid, then a lifetime to remember what that felt like. It’s scary and thrilling all at once which I guess is exactly how growing up is supposed to feel.
SPRING BASKET DRIVE The Spring basket drive at school took place from March 31 - April 14. In the spirit of Easter, all advisories were encouraged to put together a basket filled with candy, chocolate and miscellaneous toys to bring a feeling of fun and happiness to the surrounding community. This year, the beneficiaries were Genesis Women’s Shelter, Jubilee, Wesley-Rankin Community Centers and the West Dallas Community Center.
MEASLES OUTBREAK Despite measles being declared eliminated in the U.S. 25 years ago, several measles outbreaks have recently occurred. The latest outbreak, first reported in South Plains, Texas, has grown to more than 450 cases, with experts estimating that many more remain unreported. The outbreak began in a Mennonite community, where close-knit living conditions facilitated rapid transmission. It has since spread to multiple states, largely among unvaccinated individuals.
PARKING LOT Over the past month, students have transitioned from the former student parking lot to sharing space with faculty and parents. Despite the nostalgia associated with the last parking lot, the new arrangement has been met with largely positive feedback, as its direct connection to the main road offers a safer and more convenient route for arrivals and departures.
Reviewing this month’s news from around the world
WHAT HAPPENED: SpaceX brought back two astronauts stuck on the ISS
WHEN: March 18
RELEVANCE: Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finally returned to Earth after being stuck on the ISS for nine months, a major victory for the private aerospace industry.
WHAT HAPPENED: Trump’s sweeping tariff plan has been put into action.
WHEN: April 9
RELEVANCE: As the next phase of Trump’s agenda for tariffs, he has imposed a 125% tariff rate on China. As a whole, many Americans have questioned the validity of his economic plan.
Football Coach Harry Flaherty
“I grew up in a unique family in that every adult male in my family played football at the college level or beyond. As soon as I was old enough to put on the pads, I begged my parents to let me play and never looked back.”
“At Princeton, I was blessed to find a group of seven very close friends who not only shared my passion for football, but were intellectually curious and deeply rooted in their faith. This was a new experience for me and those friendships have sharpened and encouraged me ever since.”
“I hope to teach our team to give their best effort, no matter the circumstance. Many let the circumstances dictate their effort, but we see true excellence in those who treat every moment as a ‘big moment.’”
From daytime officers to overnight guards, the school is centered on a multi-layered security approach to establish the safety and wellbeing across campus.
BY KEVIN HO AND CHRISTOPHER HUANG
At 9 p.m, the last classroom lights go dark, the doors click shut as faculty members depart and the echoes of the day fade away. The final cars pull out of the parking lot, beginning the trek back to the comforts of home. And as silence settles over the school in the midst of the night’s darkness, he clocks in for the start of his shift — at this time, while most are studying at home and beginning to wind down to end the day, his night of vigilance begins.
At 5 a.m, the morning breeze cuts through the campus, and he knows his shift is finally over. With his work done for the day, he gets in his car to go home to unwind. The typical traffic congestion that so many others dread after they get off their jobs isn’t there at this hour. For the most part, the roads are still empty. Much of the world still hasn’t quite woken up.
At 7 a.m, students and faculty members start to trickle onto campus. Laughter and footsteps soon fill the once silent halls that he had patrolled just a few hours before, and the Quad now buzzes with conversations and early morning activities. It’s a new day for them, but for him, his day is just about over — he’s getting ready to go to bed, as the school he had kept a vigilant watch over has come back to life.
At 2 p.m, while the campus hums with activity, he wakes up from his rest — he’s not there to witness any of it. His shift won’t start for another seven hours — for now, the free time is his own, a quiet pause before he returns once more to school at 9 p.m., when the cycle starts again.
Overnight Security Officer Daniel Mauch’s security career didn’t begin at the school. Before he was hired as an on-campus security guard in 1997, he had spent ten years working as a commission security guard, rotating between various locations across Dallas County.
“I worked many different accounts, for example, banks, different companies, armor services and money transfer, like liquor stores or cash deposits,” Mauch said.
Respecting guests and taking responsibility
When I was younger, I always romanticized growing up. I thought that the older I got, the easier my life would become, and I would be freed from my responsibilities at home and at school.
But as I’ve moved through my life, I’ve realized it’s the exact opposite.
As I’ve approached adulthood, I’ve realized more responsibilities have been placed upon me as a young man in today’s world.
Everyone’s relying on us.
Our parents, our teachers— they’re trusting us. Sooner than later, we’re going to step into the real world and face the realities that come with it.
It’s essential that we recognize these realities—some of which aren’t pretty.
To the average Marksman, sexual assault, homelessness and addiction might seem like distant concepts that will never play a role in their lives, but even if we may not be personally affected by these terrible parts of life on a daily basis, it’s still our responsibility to educate ourselves on what to do so that we can properly react to these situations if we ever encounter them.
To try and facilitate this edu
cation, the school invites guest speakers to share their knowledge and experiences in relation to these sensitive topics.
But it’s no secret that these discussions can be awkward and sometimes unappealing. Talking about such sensitive topics often leads students to not take speakers seriously and use humor as a way to avoid being vulnerable, ultimately checking out of the conversation. But as I’ve listened to talk after talk, I’ve started to appreciate guest speakers for what they’re offering us.
They’re taking time out of their lives, the administration’s lives and our lives to send us messages, so their topics and lessons must have some valuable quality. It may be an optimistic view, but I’m sitting in my chair for an hour whether I connect with the information or not, so I may as well try to get the most out of it.
And although I’ve tried to respect these speakers and appreciate their information at all times, I haven’t always done the best job. Sometimes, when the words become repetitive and the seat becomes a little too comfortable, I start chatting with the guy next to me, separating myself from whatever’s happening on the slideshow.
I’ll admit, it’s hard to pay attention to a speech when it’s the only thing between you and after-school practice or an overwhelming amount of homework.
But every time I find myself getting up to leave by the end, I don’t regret attending the assembly. If anything, I wished I had paid more attention.
Because these discussions can be meaningful, we just have to be willing to listen.
BY KEVIN HO AND ANDREW YE
A decade ago in Gilbert-Emory — a predominantly Black neighborhood in West Dallas — certain homes just under 700 square feet sold for $11,000. Now, the new townhouses next door are triple their size, selling for at least $600,000.
Similar patterns can be seen across not only the state of Texas but also the entire nation — modern homes towering over old residencies, luxury condos lining the streets of small towns, business chains displacing longtime establishments.
In 2017, nearly 40 percent of homes sold in Dallas were bought by investors, not families. Instead, they went to house flippers, investors, developers and builders. In that same year, Dallas was ranked among the top 20 most intensely gentrifying cities in the United States.
By 2022, The Dallas Morning News reported that housing affordability dropped to 12 percent of the housing stock. Currently, one in five neighborhoods in Dallas is already in the early stages of gentrification.
And as per The Dallas Morning News, it’s predicted that by 2032, the typical Dallas renter will only be able to afford 21 percent of rental units, and those looking to buy homes in the area will only be able to afford less than two percent of homes available on the market.
Neighborhood evolution is an occurrence that naturally occurs as time unfolds, but once gentrification begins, long-time residents who often live in historically marginalized communities soon face rising housing costs, property taxes and cultural shifts due to the influx of residential and commercial growth.
“When prices go up, people get displaced,” Director of Community Service Jorge Correa said. “Some senior citizens who’ve been there a long time might end up homeless. That affects places like Austin Street Center or North Dallas Shared Ministries, where they turn for clothes, health services or mental health support. It’s a ripple effect.”
But the cycle isn’t unique to just the DFW metroplex — it’s being played out in cities across the country as well.
Correa said that this pattern can be seen taking place in communities such as New Orleans after Katrina, where he witnessed traditional homes getting replaced by modern cafes and hotels.
On the surface, any type of development appears beneficial for cities. According to some, the process can attract emerging businesses and modernize
OUT Development happens at a large scale and it inevitably raises the prices of housing, which is detrimental to those who have low income. Here are statistics from Zillow, Center for American Progress, Governing Archive and NCRC about what’s in store.
infrastructure in struggling neighborhoods, which in turn creates important benefits for original residents. But other studies point out that if this transformation isn’t carefully orchestrated, it often results in the displacement of community inhabitants.
As property values rise due to gentrification, the residents who have lived in those neighborhoods face increasing financial pressures, forcing many to sell their homes.
Factors including unaffordable property taxes, lack of legal documentation and real estate investors seeking more opportunities can contribute to gentrification.
WE’VE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS THAT COLLABORATION IS ESSENTIAL TO ADDRESSING TOUGH CHALLENGES. THERE’S A SAYING THAT GOES, ‘IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST, GO ALONE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER.’” Natalie Breen, COO at Wesley-Rankin
And f or many, what was once a relatively stable community might become an area more difficult to afford living in. In some parts of West Dallas especially, certain home values have more than doubled, in addition to the steadily climbing rent prices.
Yet another symptom of gentrification is the cultural displacement that occurs in these environments. To Natalie Breen, the Chief Operating Officer at Wesley-Rankin Community Center, this outcome ultimately makes community members feel unwelcome — alienated in their own neighborhoods.
And in areas like West Dallas, the shifting of demographics also invites shops and other miscellaneous services to begin catering more primarily to new residents, turning a blind eye to legacy residents in the process.
“Neighbors may no longer speak your language or attend school with your children,” Breen said. “Small business owners are pushed out, cultural institutions change — maybe a change of grocery stores and the products you’re used to buying — a displacement of social support networks, all these things ultimately drive displacement and push people out.”
For Correa, the impacts of “moving in” extend far beyond the mere price discrepancies, as the social fabric of a gentrified neighborhood also unravels.
A tangible disruption in social life between residents of the same neighborhood surfaces — new residents often bring in different lifestyles and expectations that have the potential, on certain occasions, to create invisible barriers between the community’s denizens.
“Imagine a big, modern house with huge square windows next to a small, humble one,” Correa said. “It’s not good for either side. The old residents feel resentment, like, ‘how do I invite people over when the neighborhood’s not the best anymore?’”
Another common occurrence that comes with gentrification is that for those who have stayed on their properties for lengthy periods of time, their property values often seem to skyrocket overnight.
As a result, he believes that the problem with gentrification is not only caused by families increasing prices at an exaggerated rate, but that it’s also caused by deep-pocketed companies that view neighborhoods’ transformations as merely strategic assets for their business and rapid development opportunities — all with the sole goal of reaching maximum profit potential.
“It makes sense that some displaced people end up homeless,” Correa said. “Low-income renters in old houses get pushed out when landlords sell for good money. Many are seniors, and they’ve been there forever and don’t have anywhere to go.”
From Breen’s perspective, these housing challenges also reveal the deeper systemic inequities that can surface during the process of urban development.
“It makes the work of community-based organizations all the more important and valuable,” Breen said. “Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough affordable homes in our city to provide safe housing for all and we all feel the impact of that.”
Tackling the problem is far from a unilateral effort — it requires collaboration between a variety of entities, including public, private, nonprofit, government and individual community leaders.
Currently, several strategies are already in place, such as helping homeowners apply for tax relief programs, working with legal clinics to help residents establish clear ownership of inherited properties, educating families on financial literacy and preserving affordable housing by keeping land in the hands of the community.
“In West Dallas, we’ve learned over the years that collaboration is essential to addressing tough challenges,” Breen said. “There’s a saying that we really resonate with that goes, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.’”
$301K 134K 20% 13%
Average housing cost in Dallas People displaced from from 2000-2013
Of America is facing early stages of gentrification
Out of 72,668 evaluated neighborhoods were eligible for gentrification
This spirit of synergy is at the core of community-led initiatives like the West Dallas Community Vision Plan, a collective effort between residents, nonprofits and city planners to shape development in a way that prioritizes affordability.
A multitude of other efforts also exist within the DFW area, including Breen and her team at Wesley-Rankin and Haynes Boone, a law firm that worked with them to ensure that homeowners would be able to protect their assets.
Jorge Correa Director of Community Serivece
One of the ways to battle unaffordable housing is to build houses from the ground up that are inherently much cheaper than traditional houses on the market, and that is what Correa hopes to accomplish every year, leading the Habitat for Humanity initiative here in Dallas.
Correa has directed the Habitat for Humanity initiative for roughly 20 years, and he remembers “back when Habitat was a big thing, they’d stand in a huge circle with families holding hands.” But now, he says that gentrification has noticeably changed how they operate.
The efforts to create affordable housing are increasingly displaced by the very crisis they aim to solve, as rising costs due to gentrification “evict” not only the poorer families of a neighborhood, but also might jeopardize the feasibility of building low-cost houses — rendering once-viable solutions financially out of reach.
“The last Habitat for Humanity house we built this year wasn’t in West Dallas anymore,” Correa said. “Instead, it was in East Dallas, since it was at a lower cost. We’re starting over in a new neighborhood, but eventually, it’ll get too expensive there too.”
This potentially constant relocation of Habitat for Humanity projects poses a growing challenge in terms of the ability to fund future building initiatives. Yet for Correa, people in need of assistance will always be within the vicinity, and the mission to help them still remains.
“I don’t think it will get so bad to the point that Habitat for Humanity becomes impossible,” Correa said. “People move to where their needs are, and gentrification just shifts things, it doesn’t stop it. We’ll keep moving to where we’re needed, like nomads.”
From Correa’s perspective, the primary purpose of Habitat for Humanity is not to simply build houses or buy land, but it’s to help people who need their support, whether
In many Dallas neighborhoods, modern houses can be seen
it’s “building a house, playing music for them or just keeping company,” the volunteers will always be there for them. Correa says that they can’t solve everything, but their efforts can make their lives easier by taking “one step at a time.”
“Gentrification will keep happening. It’s like development, you can’t really seem to stop it,” Correa said. “But we should focus on doing it without hurting people, respecting their right to live where they want. St. Mark’s will adapt, and we’ll go where the need is.”
Although the process of changing neighborhoods is natural, Breen sees gentrification as something that isn’t entirely inevitable.
Community centers like Wesley-Rankin scattered all across the U.S. are essential to piecing together strategies to solve the harmful social consequences that occasionally arise with the ever evolving dynamics of neighborhoods.
Through regular assessments and evaluation with mass data sets, Breen believes that not only is their approach to addressing the issue of gentrification at Wesley-Rankin more refined, but it also ensures that their efforts are creating an actually meaningful impact.
She emphasizes that sustainable development needs to provide space for growth and also pay attention to affordability, but she also acknowledges that the plan is harder to put into action than it sounds.
For students, this gap between policy blueprints and lived reality becomes a call to action — one that challenges them to wield influence not from boardrooms but from classrooms, sidewalks and the quiet persistence of showing up.
“Share what you learn at school and with family or on social media,” Breen said. “Invite local experts to speak at your school and spread awareness. Support local businesses in communities that are experiencing rapid development. There are tons of ways to stay connected to the problem and help be a part of the solutions.”
While these policy proposals sketch a roadmap toward equity, their success hinges not just on political will but also on the kind of grassroots stewardship that Breen champions. It’s a reminder that systemic change is only as durable as the groundswell sustaining it.
“Students at St. Mark’s may not have direct policy-making power, but your voices and actions are powerful in shaping public opinion, influencing decision-makers and driving impact,” Breen said. “Even small actions like raising awareness, supporting local businesses and volunteering at agencies like Wesley-Rankin can make a big impact.”
To battle the record-high rates of chronic disease, the government has brought forth the “Make Texas Healthy Again” bill to promote healthy lunch options and encourage more physical education for students nationwide.
BY ANDREW YE AND MICHAEL CHANG
At noon somewhere in America, the lunch line shuffles forward.
A tray clatters with a limp square of pizza, edges curling like old and wet cardboard and a half-scoop of syrupy peaches from a can, the only color on a plate otherwise gray with a stale roll.
A quick grab at the milk carton, barely a gulp left after the first sip, and they’re done, stomachs still grumbling as hunger seeps in deeper.
For this student, it’s just another day, waiting for something better, or just something more, to fill the tray.
New “Make Texas Healthy Again” legislation is to be passed through multiple house and Senate bills. The legislation’s primary focus is to specifically improve the health of kids in public school; Senate bill 25 will increase the amount of required physical education hours for middle school students, and Senate bill 314 (House bill 1290) will ban certain food additives in school meals.
In addition, the legislation includes Senate bill 379 (House bill 3188), which will ban families in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from using food stamps on foods labeled as unhealthy. These bills are part of Texas’ ongoing obligation to combat the broader problem of record-high rates of obesity and other diseases.
Food Service Director Brennon Turner believes that the current emphasis on “making Texas healthy” is a step in the right direction.
“A lot of (diseases) are correlated to your diet and what you put in your body,” Turner said. “I think (the legislation) is a positive move, because our tax dollars should not be going to subsidizing junk food.”
Although the bills are targeted towards public schools, private institutions like St. Mark’s can still be tangentially impacted. Members of the food service team have already paid extra attention to reconciling taste with nutrition.
“We just try to build a menu that, of course, (students) like,” Turner said. “(Students) give us a lot of feedback, and the community has been operating here for a long time. But when we build those menus, we’re also thinking about the nutritional value.”
Many systems are in place to ensure that students get the best bang for their buck in terms of their diet. Pleasing everyone on campus is certainly a challenge, but SAGE navigates it quite well.
“We build menus that are well balanced between nutrient-dense items,” Turner said. “That’s kind of set up on the menu too, because we tag (items) with the color that represents the nutrient density of each one, and then we use those colors to try to create a menu that has good balance.”
The majority of SAGE’s food comes from trusted local distributors who pay attention
to the quality of their goods — after all, a dish’s nutritional value is largely determined by its ingredients.
“For the food items, we have a broadliner, who’s our distributor,” Turner said. “They do most of our groceries, they do some of our produce, and of course, we get some proteins from (a different provider). Some of our proteins come from another provider called Crystal Creek.”
WE KNOW GOOD FOOD HELPS KIDS DO BETTER IN LIFE. IT’S A SMALL STEP WE COULD TAKE TO SUPPORT HEALTHIER EATING BEYOND OUR WALLS.”
Julie Doerge, school nurse
In lieu of this legislation, Turner recommends staying away from ultra-processed snacks outside of school. Athletes, in particular, should limit consumption of foods high in unhealthy fats and sugars.
“We try to encourage (students) to eat whole foods,” Turner said. “That’s the main thing: start up whole foods. Eliminate sodas from your diet. Stick to your water, your whole foods and your whole grains. Those are the things that your body can absorb, break down and use for energy.”
Texas consistently ranks near the bottom in national health metrics, especially for children, a persistent issue School Nurse
Julie Doerge ties to diet and activity levels. She says past efforts like the “Make Texas Healthy Again” bill have been brought up in politics, but actually accomplishing it with different schools’ limited resources will be a challenge.
“Ultimately, I think it’s a good change, since it’s tackling unhealthy habits and adding a 30-minute PE class for everyone,” Doerge said. “But the cost for schools is a big hurdle.”
Funding remains the sticking point. Doerge notes that great ideas often falter when they reach cash-strapped towns, where public school lunches lean heavily on cheap carbohydrates and sugary items that lack nutritional value.
Nearly everything is processed since schools need to feed thousands of kids, there’s no chance for a home-cooked style meal.
The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation’s data support Doerge’s reasoning: 1.8 million Texas kids miss out on proper nutrition, with 33 percent skipping vegetables entirely and 90 percent snacking on sweets daily.
In other words, wealthier families can stock up on fresh foods, while those on tight budgets, like SNAP recipients, rely on cheap and nutrition-sparse meals like pasta and bread.
“Who wouldn’t support more food and veggies for kids?” Doerge said. “I’m glad others are thinking about how to address this.”
But that funding gap hits hardest in rural areas, where schools are lifelines,
BY WILLIAM KOZOMAN
The Parent’s Association’s annual Celebrate Community event brings together diverse groups of parents, faculty and alumni in one of the school’s biggest social events. This year, headlined by music group Big City Outlaws, the event celebrated its fourth year in its new, more open format.
Prior to 2022, Celebrate Community represented a more closed-off event similar to a fundraiser, with tickets costing more and attendance being relatively exclusive.
However, hoping to bring the event to everyone, the event has since changed to a more general event celebrating the
school community.
“It used to really be more of a fundraiser, so we had a big live auction, and tickets were really expensive to attend,” Parent Association President Katherine Steinbrueck said. “We’re really trying to make sure this event feels like the focus is, if you’re part of this community, then this is a party for you.”
As a result, the event has seen increased attendance from a wide variety of parents, with the core identity of the event changing to a social opportunity for parents, faculty and past students alike to converse and learn more about each other. Previously, the event featured more formal aspects like assigned seating.
“Now we don’t have any of that,”
Steinbrueck said. “You just come and you get to hang out with and you get to mingle more; you’re not stuck at a table. So I think people really like that.”
Now, Celebrate Community is much more focused on the social-side, but not abandoning the auction from the old event. Instead, it’s been nearly completely rebranded.
“It’s around 600 people that will kind of gather,” Steinbrueck said. “And honestly, it’s just an opportunity to celebrate our community. We have a really fun night, have a party, and it’s fun to be together. As a part of that, there is a silent auction. So many of our faculty and staff have volunteered. ‘Gifts of time’ is what we call them.”
providing breakfast and lunch to kids who might otherwise go hungry, especially over the summer. Doerge says she worries that without serious financial backing, the bills won’t deliver for those who need them most.
Closer to home, she sees parallels in student habits here on campus, where students skipping meals can lead to preventable health complaints like “getting headaches because they skipped breakfast or not having a meal in 12 hours.”
“Your blood sugar has probably crashed down to the basement, and your brain’s starving,” Doerge said. “You need food to think straight. The difference is the kids here can choose to skip eating, but in those lower-income neighborhoods, they don’t get the luxury of choice.”
Beyond campus, Doerge envisions our campus playing a role in easing these disparities. Doerge suggests tracking daily food waste, pounds of uneaten meals tossed out, and using that data to push for change, building on past efforts to donate leftovers like day-old bread to places in need.
Doerge sees our community as being able to help the bigger picture. Donating ripe fruits and imperfect vegetables to struggling ISDs could extend the school’s impact, echoing past efforts to redirect leftovers.
She ties this to a core belief: good food fuels better lives, a principle the legislation aims to champion despite its hurdles.
“We know good food helps kids do better in life,” Doerge said. “It’s a small step we could take to support healthier eating beyond our walls.”
The ‘gifts of time’ typically involve faculty and staff giving students a fun experience in some way.
For example, photography teacher Scott Hunt teaches some boys how to shoot photos, and Dr. Perryman takes boys to three barbecue spots around Dallas. One boy also gets the opportunity to be Headmaster for a day.
This year, the event was centered around the recently-finished Zierk Athletic Center to commemorate its completion. A unique, school-branded INEOS Grenadier electric SUV that stood in front of the school was also auctioned off alongside the event, continuing tradition.
While traditions define an institution, they can just as easily harm an institution’s image as they can improve it. Faculty and students give their opinions on various traditions at the school.
BY JOSH GOFORTH AND SHIV BHANDARI
Supplies flying.
Underclassmen laughing.
Everyone staring.
As the senior catches up with the junior trying to escape, he lunges towards the white shirt, grabbing him by the collar and tearing off his pocket in one swift motion.
Now out of breath, the two stare at each other.
The junior looks down at his maimed appendage.
That was his favorite shirt.
He looks up at the senior, who swiftly pulls out a pen and politely requests that the junior sign his name on his former clothing article.
He looks at the beaming senior. Back down at his shirt. Back at the senior.
He signs the pocket.
The senior, satisfied, pats his younger friend on the shoulder and saunters off, looking for his next target.
This bizarre ritual, referred to as “frocketing,” has become a common end-of-year senior custom over the years, but its harmful and violent nature has led to it being banned by the administration.
For Associate Headmaster John Ashton, frocketing embodies values that the school actively dissociates itself from, immediately preventing it from ever becoming a tradition.
“I wouldn’t qualify anything that’s destructive or antagonistic to the school as a tradition,” Ashton said. “I would qualify it as a bad habit. Pocket ripping is an example of this because, at its core, it doesn’t reflect our values. If you objectively look at the bad habits, they’re doing something to someone from a position of power, like destroying their property.”
Because of frocketing’s inherent tendency to occur without the consent of underclassmen, Ashton condemns the act and encourages boys to find other avenues of expressing their appreciation for their younger friends.
“Certain practices that are contrary to the school will eventually be unsustainable,” Ashton said. “Those tend to go away in the future, but I think the positive things that move the community forward will stay on. When we talk about leadership, it’s doing the things to advance your community that are sustainable over time because they build community.”
When done right, however, traditions can not only bolster a sense of community and brotherhood but also serve as defining, common experiences that boys can experience together as they go through their path to manhood.
“Rituals and traditions, at their best, confirm the school’s values and help boys move through the school,” Ashton said. “For example, the banner chapel in fourth grade is a seminal Lower School tradition, and the Pecos trip is a strong tradition that moves boys through a significant part of their experience in the Upper School. They advance the values of the school and build camaraderie.”
But not every tradition has to be strictly run by administration or confirm age-old values. In fact, sometimes, the most memora -
ble traditions are the unofficial, secret surprises that happen on a sleepy Friday afternoon.
The senior prank, a perfect example of a more casual tradition, is notorious for its creativity and the genuine joy it always brings, but its format has changed over the years, transitioning from being a more gotcha event that was played on someone to becoming a more inclusive activity that utilizes less targeted methods.
“The senior prank has been around for a long time, but it used to be some joke that disrupted everyone’s day that caused people lots of frustration,” Ashton said. “But I recall at some point back in the 90s, a class asked how could they do it differently, and they shifted it to what we now enjoy as a whole community. Now, it’s a surprise that everyone gets to participate in and enjoy. It’s still a prank, but we have fun together.”
The prank’s success is based on the trust between the administration and the senior class, a bond forged through years of connecting and getting to know each other. If students and faculty can work together in constructive ways, then there’s an opportunity to create something truly special.
“We do it together,” Ashton said. “I have great confidence born out of experience with students over the decades that some of the best solutions come from the experiences and ideas boys have. We always try to have a partnership with boys, and when things sort of drift, we try to shift things, and that’s how we’ve always operated. We rely on boys to work together because some of the best ideas come out of students.”
continued from page 3 RITUALS AND TRADITIONS, AT THEIR BEST, CONFIRM THE SCHOOL'S VALUES...THEY ADVANCE THE VALUES OF THE SCHOOL AND BUILD COMRADERIE.”
John Ashton, Associate Headmaster
For senior Reagan Brower, though, there’s something special about unofficial traditions that are completely student-run. For Brower, the absence of adult interference is both a privilege and a gift that enables the senior class to conduct classic traditions such as senior assassin, a squirt gun competition that’s updated live online.
“It’s not about our traditions going against the rules,” Brower said. “But if there were teachers chaperoning things like senior assassin, it just wouldn’t be as fun. We have rules, of course, but it’s the absence of adult presence that allows it to be a memorable tradition. It’s about our camaraderie.”
Ultimately, traditions foster the bonds between students and faculty through activities that are repeated year after year. As long as they remain safe and respectful, traditions can become an integral part of what it means to be a marksman.
“Traditions are a part of what makes you a senior,” Brower said. “It really brings you into the school’s culture, and it’s a memorable part of being a senior. And even though some traditions are expected, they’re still fun experiences that have bonded us as a senior class.”
Too often, speakers have their words drowned out by insincere applause or disruptive snickering, leading to their message being lost. Too often, serious topics are hijacked by disruptive behavior. Too often, we take the opportunity to learn from new perspectives for granted.
But none of us are perfect enough to warrant disregarding a guest speaker, especially when they’re talking about something as important and potentially life-altering as sexual assault.
Walking into the sexual assault talk in early March, I was fully expecting those exaggerated reactions to run rampant throughout the meeting. But while I sat through the meeting, those reactions never came. Sure, once or twice, someone tried to start cheering or clapping during an inappropriate moment, but the people around him prevented him from taking it any further, setting an example that stood throughout the meeting.
Frankly, I was impressed. Getting 200 teenage boys to sit still and stay quiet for an hour is nearly impossible, but the speaker managed it well. The jokes that were intentionally inserted into the conversation by the speaker successfully broke up the tension, and even during the speaker’s planned moments of humor, the audience was respectful, understanding the severity of the subject matter and the respect that it demanded. Because of our behavior, the message got through, and we earned our own respect in addition to learning about our responsibilities in the real world. We proved that we’re able to discuss uncomfortable, vulnerable topics effectively and clearly while maintaining respect and proper behavior.
But that’s only one step of the process. If we hope to grow into the type of man who’s immortalized on that bronze statue in the quad, then we need to keep treating everybody with respect, regardless of how our preconceived biases might suggest us to act.
If we want to be proud to be called Marksmen, then we need to earn the name.
We need to earn our pride.
We need to earn our responsibilities.
Everyone’s counting on us to be the best people we can be, but no one expects us to be perfect. Mistakes are an unavoidable part of life, but our guest speakers, teachers, parents and mentors are here to try to mitigate those slip-ups.
But we can't expect everything to be given to us. If we don't actively listen to—not just hear—our mentors, then we're going to make the same mistakes they made when they were younger.
But it's all about respect.
All we have to do is give them a chance to get through to us. If we want to earn our respect, then we must first give it to others.
Although turning 18 is often seen as a significant milestone, the transition to adulthood is defined by a gradual evolution of responsibility and identity.
BY WYATT AUER AND HOLDEN PURVIS
His eyes watched intently, gaze fixed on the hands of the clock inching towards midnight. For years, he had heard that this moment was a rite of passage, a gateway to freedom, independence and leadership.
Yet, as the final seconds of his 17th year ticked away, Nate Wilson ‘24 felt nothing. There was no sudden shift or instant transformation in his daily life.
He was still the same person – except now with a new label: adult.
For those who haven’t reached adulthood, turning 18 is often seen as a defining moment – the instant someone gains new freedoms and legal responsibilities, notably voting, jury duty and paying taxes.
In reality, this often feels less dramatic. For Wilson, a freshman in college at the University of Virginia, adulthood has been defined by the responsibilities he has gained and his transition to college life.
“Turning 18 doesn’t really make you feel much, It’s just kind of another day,” Wilson said.
This feeling reflects a common misconception about adulthood — that it arrives suddenly. For Wilson, the transition was much more subtle.
“You’re not dropping into Vietnam as soon as you turn 18. It’s really more of a gradual thing,” Wilson said.
To Wilson, a turning point was tricky to pinpoint because his life remained largely unchanged, with little adjustments compounding over the course of his life.
“Day by day nothing changes, but then after a year you realize a ton has changed,” Wilson said.
Eventually, this gradual build-up culminated unexpectedly, with the turning point coming at graduation in 2024.
“All of a sudden it’s over, and you’re like, damn, there’s no recourse for this,” Wilson said. “I’m on my own now.”
This newfound sense of freedom came with its own challenges for Wilson, namely moving out.
“Living on your own is a very different experience. Not necessarily bad, but it takes some getting used to,” Wilson said.
Among these adjustments, everyday responsibilities have become unexpectedly demanding.
“Doing your own laundry, cleaning your own room, no one telling you when to clean your own room. It’s a radical shift,” Wilson said.
These seemingly minor responsibilities defined his transition to college, and, ultimately, adulthood.
“Even though all these paths are available to me, I’m now responsible for my outcomes,” Wilson said.
As those responsibilities expanded, developing essential skills for self-management became necessary without the structure of high school to maintain accountability.
“The biggest skill you could have is learning to manage your own time and knowing how to not procrastinate,” Wilson said.”It’s important that people use their free time effectively and in a meaningful way.”
Beyond the legal and practical aspects of adulthood,
turning 18 also entails inheriting civic responsibilities that come with being part of a community. While not necessarily legal obligations, Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller believes these duties are moral imperatives that adults must uphold to maintain a healthy society.
“Your (civic) responsibilities would be the minimal sense of what people owe each other that would be necessary to sustain a community going forward, Stegemoeller said.”
St. Mark’s mission is to prepare its students for life beyond academics. However, implementing civic responsibility and life skills into the curriculum is challenging.
AT SOME POINT, I’LL HAVE TO REACH THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF BEING AN ADULT, BUT UNTIL THEN, YOU’RE ALWAYS THE SAME PERSON NAVIGATING NEW RESPONSIBILITIES.”
Nate Wilson ‘24
“St Mark’s is in an interesting position, because in many ways, it wants to help exactly in these areas (preparing for adulthood), but we’re also bound by college admissions and there’s not really a course on this that’s an AP course,” Stegemoeller said. “In a perfect world, we could take a step back and go, ‘What would we really want our boys to know when they leave here and design a curriculum around that?’ But we inherit a curriculum that’s entrenched in the college admissions process, and it’s really hard to vary from that.”
Although turning 18 grants certain privileges, Stegemoeller believes that rights such as voting can only be impactful if individuals are well-informed. He emphasizes adults should not vote aimlessly simply because they can, but rather with purpose.
“There’s a lot we could do to just try to get each other to even be aware of what the issues are,” Stegemoeller said. “If you vote, but you don’t know how a city works, how is your vote going to help?”
Still, beyond the slow accumulation of legal obligations, practical skills and civic responsibilities, the concept of adulthood is a gradual evolution of identity, as individuals learn to live independently and take control of their future.
“At some point, I’ll have to reach the dictionary definition of being an adult, but until then, you’re always the same person navigating new responsibilities,” Wilson said.
This definition of an adult may seem archaic, and as social norms change, the traditional, defining characteristics associated with adulthood can be delayed or never realized.
“I feel kind of bizarre being called an adult at 19,” Wilson said. “My grandfather might’ve been smoking cigarettes and working blue-collar jobs by this age.”
Continued from page 3
“Several years later around 1997, St. Mark’s wanted to go in-house, so they offered me a job and then I was able to work at one location,” Mauch said. “That motivated me to come here, and I’ve been here ever since.”
For him, making the change was a straightforward decision — the stability of working at a single location replaced the constant, inconvenient movement between sites, and working the overnight shift offered him a quieter, more consistent routine. And now, that decision has evolved into a decades-long commitment to the school.
The unique schedule of Mauch’s job doesn’t faze him. From his perspective, everything seems to flow naturally, as the regular rhythm of working the overnight shift perfectly suits his lifestyle. Each night consists of the same tasks — monitoring the entire campus infrastructure, setting up and charging the golf carts for the next day and checking all the utilities. This routine has allowed him to swiftly handle any problems that might suddenly occur.
“A few weeks ago in the new Zierk building, a fire alarm system went off, but I was able to reset the alarm system and call the assistant property manager. Then I went in to reset the pumps and made sure that no parts of the building had water damage,” Mauch said. “And that was at two two o’clock in the morning.”
The commitment to such a strict schedule has become second nature for Mauch. Accepting the overnight job’s unusual hours was a lifestyle change that he has lived by for nearly three decades, and although it was initially difficult to adapt to, he doesn’t regret it.
“It’s definitely a dedicated job, and I have to form my life around it,” Mauch said. “I can’t pretend to be a day person and be able to be awake all night long. I have to commit from seven to two for sleep, which is a period that most people are normally up and going, but I don’t have an issue with it. Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Overnight security coverage is just one part of the measures that the security team uses to protect the community. During the day, members of the team can be regularly seen managing carpools and riding around the campus in golf-carts, maintaining the perimeter of the school and constantly staying on the lookout — a visible and consistent presence that distinguishes the school’s methodical approach to campus safety.
“At St. Mark’s, the safety and wellbeing of this community is a high priority,” Director of Security Dale Hackbarth said. “We secure the campus using a multi-layered approach. This includes nine full-time in-house security officers. Six of the team are former DPD officers with cumulative 170 years of law enforcement experience. We also have a total 225 cameras with advanced analytics, as well as state of the art access control on all doors.”
In addition to these measures in place with the goal of deterring threats and allowing the security team to respond quickly to any situation that suddenly arises, they ensure that the school is secured 24/7, every single day of the year, with at least one member of the team present on the campus.
They also play a key role in maintaining the facilities on campus, working alongside the physical plant team to make sure that the campus is not only functional for the students and visitors, but also guaranteed to be safe at all times. From Hackbarth’s perspective, one of the major factors of how the security operates at school, their active visibility during the day and having someone on vigilant lookout during the night hours, is essential to giving people on campus the peace of mind that someone is always looking out for them.
“I want everybody to know that when they see khaki pants and a blue polo, there’s security here on campus,” Hackbarth said.
Having in-house security with years of experience on campus brings a distinct advantage. Officers know the ins and outs of the school’s layout, the routines and the community as a whole — and ideally, the community is familiar with them too. For Hackbarth, that level of familiarity builds trust and encourages openness, creating a campus culture where students and faculty feel comfortable reporting concerns and working with security to keep the environment safe.
“We balance the safety of our campus with creating a welcoming environment,” Hackbarth said. “We understand that security is not just about the technology or policies; it’s about creating awareness, respect and trust within our community. And I think the security department has a bright future here at St. Mark’s.”
ADMISSION DECISIONS On March 14, all applicants for the 2025-2026 school year were sent admissions decisions. Out of a pool of about 800 applicants, over 125 students were sent accepted decisions, and others were put on the waitlist. Many of the accepted students will join their respective grades next school year. Fifth grade and ninth grade had the highest number of accepted students out of the middle and high schools respectively.
TENTH GRADE PSAT The 10th grade Digital PSAT was taken on March 13. The class of 2027 reported to their designated testing spots across campus, including Graduate Hall and Nearburg conference rooms. After taking the two-hour test, the sophomores headed to the Commons where the class parents provided snacks and candy.
CB: “I picked up digital art over the summer and I had to learn the ropes. This piece is the first step in the long journey of my development as a digital artist. The roses represent the goals that you want to achieve and the snake represents everything in the way. It’s my statement on being willing to accept all the hardships and the possible drawbacks of chasing things that I love like art and piano and stuff because I find it physically rewarding.”
TK: “It’s about robberies of jewelry from famous families in Dallas that were never solved back in the late 60s and 70s. It is written very newspaper style and is very factual. More fascinating than that, however, was learning about the history of Dallas. She talks about places, families and fortunes that are still around. It was a really fun and interesting way to look at local history.”
Each year, the Lower Schoolers select a new inductee to the Leadership Wall. Day after day, these students look up to the accomplished leaders on the wall, reminding them of their journey on the path to manhood.
BY RISHIK KAPOOR, NICHOLAS HUANG AND EMILIANO MAYO
George Washington. Mahatma Gandhi. Albert Einstein. For a young student, these leaders seem to have reached legendary status. But the qualities that defined their leadership aren’t as unreachable as they seem. The Lower School Leadership wall cultivates deep-rooted character traits that will eventually allow these young leaders to bloom, helping them aim for the same heights as the likes of these icons.
The Lower School Leadership Wall is an integral part in the path to manhood Lower Schoolers embark on. In a way, the Leadership Wall is the very beginning of the journey, setting role models for the Lower School students to emulate.
“The leadership wall was started by a past Lower School head,” Marion Glorioso-Kirby, current Head of Lower School, said. “Her name was Barbara York, and she wanted there to be a visual representation of leaders for our young marksmen to be able to see and then study their leadership qualities and the history of what they had done.”
Each year, students in the Lower School nominate historical figures they believe embody the values and qualities of leadership that the school upholds.
“It’s a meaningful and powerful tradition that we have that cultivates leadership and character in our young Lower School students,” Lower School instructor Tracey McKenzie said.
The process begins with guided discussions in class during community time, where students explore what makes a great leader. Teachers help facilitate these conversations and direct students toward relevant resources, encouraging them to check out books from the library on leaders in various fields such as mathematics, history, politics and wartime leadership.
see LEADERS on page 10
BY HOLDEN PURVIS
For the past two decades, St. Mark’s, Greenhill, Hockaday, Parish and ESD have rotated hosting the annual Dallas College Previews event. This year, the event was hosted by Greenhill on April 6. Each year, the college fair draws around 1,500 students, parents and college representatives. Students had the opportunity to speak with admissions officers from over 100 colleges across the U.S. as well as a few international institutions.
From 1 to 2:15 p.m., juniors participated in a case studies program, during which students, parents and an admission officer reviewed mock applications and determined which applicants would be admitted, denied and waitlisted. The goal was to help students understand how admissions officers weigh different factors of an application.
“It is a full fledged admission officer that will run the session, and so it kind of gives you an insight in terms of the admission process,” Al G. Hill, Jr. ‘63 Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido said.
Following the case studies, the fair opened to all freshmen, sophomores and juniors from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. where students were welcome to meet with any of the visiting representatives. For sophomore Ian Lockard, this event was a great opportunity to explore the numerous unique colleges.
“I realized each college has its own quirks and traits that really make it unique and different from the others, which I didn’t really expect,” Lockard said. “I thought they were all kind of the same. I looked at everything from Nebraska, a big state school, to a tiny liberal arts school in the middle of Ohio. So there’s definitely a big variety of colleges out there.”
College representatives scanned students’ QR codes, so they could send additional information and track students’ demonstrated interest.
Pulido emphasized that the event was a preliminary step in the college search process.
“In terms of learning more about the institution, it doesn’t mean that you have needed to do ten hours of research on all these colleges,” Pulido said. “You’re just starting to gather bits and pieces of the different institutions.”
Pulido also encouraged students to keep an open mind when exploring the college fair.
“I think it’s important just for exposure, if nothing else,” Pulido said. “I like students to go in with a fresh mind, to check off the ones that you think you want to speak with ahead of time, but also say, ‘I would like to know a little bit more about some of these other colleges.’”
At the core, the event was designed to help students begin identifying and narrowing their college interests.
“Ultimately, all you’re doing is gathering information,” Pulido said. “You’re not signing up, you’re not doing anything enrolling to this institution, you’re really on a fact-finding mission, creating your criteria for college.”
Continued from page 9
“We want to give our boys role models to reflect a wide range of leadership styles, because leadership styles (vary from one person to the next),” McKenzie said. “It’s not all just cookie-cutter, they’re all different.”
After gathering information, students compile a shortlist of potential nominees and conduct further research, often involving discussions with their families about the characteristics they admire in leaders. Once they have refined their choices, they make a formal nomination. A group of selected students then undertakes in-depth research projects on the nominees, culminating in an assembly where the chosen leader is honored and officially added to the leadership wall.
“Our first appointee to the leadership wall was the first leader of our country, George Washington,” Glorioso said. “So that is how the wall began, and then from then on out, students in the Lower School nominated men and women from history that they felt best represented our school’s qualities and values of leadership.”
These first graders walk by the leadership wall and both physically and metaphorically look up to the people on the wall. It’s a constant reminder to the young students of the importance of leadership and character.
“Who would you want little boys to look up to and to read about?” Glorioso said. “Who would you want visitors who don’t know St. Mark’s to learn about and read about? And what do you value in a leader that you want represented on that wall?”
When consulting family, friends and teachers about what the community values, the students themselves can understand the community on a deeper level. It’s a practice that unearths the deep-rooted values that the community holds.
“And I think that that takes a lot of thought and a lot of time,” Glorioso said. “If you were going to appoint somebody to the leadership wall, who would you pick? So you have to think about it for yourself first, and you have to think about it with your family.”
In addition, the leadership wall, in its essence, is a retrospective exercise, allowing students to understand what leadership means to them specifically.
“And if you have to start answering that question for yourself, then you will also start to think about how you can embody those things,” Glorioso said. “If we start that in first grade, and every year after that, I’m asking you the question, ‘What qualities of leadership do you value? What field of study do you want to see represented?’”
To answer those questions, the leadership wall is used to teach Lower Schoolers how to apply the knowledge from the figures placed on the wall into their lives.
“What I think is great is that we connect the values that the leaders have back to what the boys have in their own life to inspire them to lead with heart, purpose and wisdom,” McKenzie said. “We try to give them empowering messages and try to impress upon them that you can be a leader at any age. We want to see those same qualities come out of them at this age.”
Will Roudabush, an accomplished professor at Southern Methodist University, has recently found his place on campus teaching students as an English substitute.
BY KAYDEN ZHONG AND MICHAEL CHANG
Fantasy, dragons and romance.
While these cliches of the Medieval Era are often overlooked by the untrained eye, Dr. Will Roudabush has devoted much of his life — a large portion of his academic research, in fact — to studying literary invention in the Renaissance.
He’s written articles on Shakespeare, taught English at multiple universities and continues to indulge himself in reading historical fiction.
Now, he’s become a regular on school campus, as a long-term English substitute.
Roudabush’s interest in teaching English did not fully develop until late into college years. In fact, for a while his interests spanned a variety of disciplines.
“I was definitely interested in business and psychology,” Roudabush said. “I studied widely, took different classes and then decided what I wanted to major in.”
High school, in particular, was when English first began to intrigue him; one of Roudabush’s first mentors in the subject was his English teacher during sophomore year.
“I can remember reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and that was the first book where I pored over every word,” Roudabush said. “That (experience) was really formative, and so I was drawn to English.”
Roudabush first began teaching as a graduate student at the University of Alabama following his graduation from Rhodes College in Memphis.
However, pursuing graduate school education in the form of a master’s degree and later a doctorate was not his original goal.
“I thought that I would apply to teach directly out of college,” Roudabush said. “But when I had the opportunity to go to graduate school, I decided I wanted to attend to become a better teacher and be more knowledgeable.”
After completing his master’s program in Alabama, Roudabush decided to pursue a PhD at Southern Methodist University (SMU). His primary focus was on the Renaissance
works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
“I was always inclined toward history, fantasy and romance, but it was one of the professors I had at Rhodes College who helped me go from being just a student to someone who actually had meaningful and specific things to say.” Roudabush said. “And so I took classes with him for four semesters and saw a remarkable improvement in my writing, my thinking and my reading.”
He emphasizes the importance of having a supportive community throughout his journey from student to educator.
“I had many excellent mentors at Rhodes who helped me grow as a person, as a reader and a writer,” Roudabush said. “They helped me find my voice and gain confidence in my own ideas and writing.”
THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL AND TRANSFORMATIVE PLACE. THAT’S WHAT EDUCATION IS ABOUT. IT’S REALLY COOL THAT THESE BONDS ARE SO STRONG AND THAT THESE OPPORTUNITIES ARE HERE.”
Will Roudabush, long-term English substitute instructor
Roudabush would stay at SMU for more than eight years, teaching courses ranging from Introduction to Drama to Surveys of British Literature before coming here, where he will continue to work in the future, as a long-term substitute for English instructor Cameron Hillier. He believes that the divide between teaching high schoolers and teaching college students is surprisingly narrow.
“I’ve taught a lot of first-year college students, and so age-wise there’s not a huge difference,” Roudabush said. “I really love getting to sit around the Harkness table with the seniors in my class. Everyone’s engaged and eager to learn, and it’s a collaborative environment.”
Senior Andrew Xuan, a member of Hillier’s Dystopian Literature class, is one of the students fortunate enough to have Roudabush as a substitute
teacher. Xuan has so far has had a positive experience with Roudabush.
“I will say that most English classes are pretty discussion-based and that Dr. Roudabush is no different,” Xuan said. “It’s what you would expect out of a good English class.”
At SMU, Roudabush did his best to make classes more collaborative.
However, there were always limitations imposed on the physical space and the classroom environment.
“One of the great advantages of the Harkness table is that it disperses some authority in the classroom,” Roudabush said. “People are able to work out ideas on their own, and I try to build on that as much as I can.”
Xuan points out that this mindset is reflected in the way that Roudabush moderates classroom discourse.
“The biggest difference between Dr. Roudabush and Mr. Hillier is that Dr. Roudabush takes more of a backseat role during discussions,” Xuan said. “He doesn’t interject with his own thoughts as much.”
Regardless, reading a text in class without extra activity can often be challenging or monotonous for students; to try and help the class feel his own enthusiasm, Roudabush implements a slow-reading strategy where students reenact scenes and pay extra attention to specific language.
“We’re reading Shakespeare’s Othello right now,” Roudabush said. “It’s great to go through it slowly. Students read a scene aloud and perform it. If you just read it and then move on, you miss so much, so I’ve enjoyed reading Othello with the juniors. In the Dystopian Literature class, we’re reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , and it’s just such a thought-provoking novel about what we value, what we care about and where we are now.”
During his ongoing time as substitute, Roudabush finds the overall school culture quite positive and welcoming, being most impressed with the numerous activities and outlets for learning.
“This is a beautiful and transformative place,” Roudabush said. “That’s what education is about. It’s really cool that these bonds are so strong and that these opportunities are here.”
The increasing prevalence of phones at school has posed challenges for some public school districts, and a statewide ban has been proposed. At school, phone use is regulated by teachers and the administration, and the rules will adapt as the technology landscape changes.
BY CHRISTOPHER HUANG AND KAYDEN ZHONG
Backpacks, textbooks, folders, pencil bags, notebooks: these are the essential tools that have been carried around by middle and high schoolers for much of modern schooling. But in the past decade, one new staple has been added: cell phones. According to research from the Pew Research Center, nearly 95 percent of teenagers aged 13 to 17 have access to a smartphone.
On any phone there can be pictures, videos, text messages, social media apps, videogames and much more. For many people, their phones are not only their personal property, but an integral part of who they are. So for many students around the state, a ban on cellphones in school would be an unwelcome surprise.
Texas House Bill 515, or HB 515, introduced to the Texas House of Representatives in early March, is a proposed ban on cellphone use in public schools around the state. If passed, it would take effect in the 2025-2026 school year. Students would be required to store their phones away during the school day and would only be able to access them when the school day ends or if medically approved to use them for other reasons.
Similar legislation around phones in schools has been introduced and passed in other states. Florida passed a law in 2023 prohibiting phone use during class, becoming the first state to limit the use of phones during school hours. California passed a law in 2024 requiring all school districts to have developed their own policies limiting phone use by mid-2026.
However, as a private school, the school would not be subject to HB 515, even if it passed. With public school districts across the nation implementing policies restricting phone usage in schools, the school grapples with the unique challenges phones provide in multiple ways. Phone and technology use guidelines are outlined in the Lion Tracks, the official school rulebook, and individual teachers may enforce certain phone restrictions on their students.
According to Head of Upper School William Atkinson ‘95, the approach taken by the Upper School Office towards phone use during the school day on campus is aligned with the technology policy listed in Lion Tracks.
“When you’re on the school WiFi, you need to be following the school’s standards and expectations,” Atkinson said. “Devices must be used for academic purposes and necessary communications only, and there are certain approved locations (in which) you can use those devices. When you’re in these locations using devices, (they are for) academic purposes and necessary communications only as well and there are no headphones on campus.”
ANYTIME A PHONE IS OUT NOT IN A DESIGNATED AREA, THAT’S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A BOY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND A PHONE CAN BE CONFISCATED THAT TIME.”
William Atkinson ‘95, Head of Upper School
For general phone use in classrooms, Atkinson believes that they are only necessary when a teacher asks students to use their devices for an activity. He sees the classroom
as a place for face-to-face interactions and conversations and as an environment in which students can engage in learning, something that he promotes during his English classes.
“Every class has different dynamics and different needs,” Atkinson said. “In my class there is really no need for a cell phone ever, and since it’s English we’re usually discussing a piece of literature, so we’re having face-toface discussions around the Harkness table, which I think (is) incredibly profound and important. Or, we’re working and writing individually, whether that be a reflection, an essay or an exercise. There’s no need for a phone to be present in my classroom, so it should be put away.”
In and out of the classroom, however, it is not uncommon for students to run astray of these rules. Occasionally, students use devices for non-academic purposes or outside of designated locations, in which case Atkinson believes that appropriate action should be taken.
“We always enforce the technology policy, so anytime a phone is out not in a designated area, that’s an opportunity for a boy to learn more about the technology policy and a phone can be confiscated at that time,” Atkinson said. “It’s not a mystery if a phone is being held sideways. The good thing is if we ask a boy, I find in my experience, ‘Hey, it looked like you were on social media or playing a game,’ the boys are very forthcoming and that’s the
BY ARMAAN NEWASKAR
Toward the end of the first semester, as part of Middle School Science instructor John Milam’s engineering class, students, primarily seniors, began to devote themselves to a go-kart project that would engulf their attention for months to come.
According to Makerspace Director Stewart Mayer, who has been heavily involved in the project, it was a way for the boys to take their Comptuder-Aided Design (CAD) skills and turn them into something physically tangible.
Mayer’s background with engineering extends to his childhood. His continual enthusiasm has allowed him and his students to push boundaries in their work.
“I’ve always loved engineering, from the time I was a tiny little kid playing with Legos until now, where I’m a grown man playing with Legos,” Mayer said. “I’ve always enjoyed engineering and I’ve always loved hands-on
projects.”
Mayer had an undeniable passion for proejcts and in middle school he even built a hovercraft the size of a car. Unfortunately, he felt as though those gifts and more importantly the passion he had for engineering were not properly nurtured in high school.
“For me the educational system kind of let me down,” Mayer said. “Through high school and college, there were almost no opportunities that let me have fun with engineering, and it kind of hurt me at my core quite honestly.”
That hurt would serve as the foundation for his path in education and at the school, where he has managed to successfully bring the joy of engineering to the students. This project exemplifies that, as it was initially meant to be a small thing at the end of a one-semester course under Milam, but blossomed into something much greater.
“After the first semester (Milam’s) class was over, but
expectation. There’s no need to inspect a phone, it’s a conversation and that is what we want.”
In classrooms, certain teachers may enforce restrictions on phones already, like chemistry instructor Jonathan Moody. For different teachers, there are different rules, but many tend to ask students to deposit their phones into a basket or some kind of container when a major assessment occurs.
“In my three chemistry classes, the expectation is that (the phone) is in the hall on a test day, but on a normal day, (students) are supposed to put it in a little caddy or bin at the front of the classroom and pick up it on the way out,” Moody said.
Apart from the Lion Tracks handbook, teachers can restrict phone usage within the classroom, serving as another mechanism for regulating and managing the issue of phones. This practice helps mitigate the problems that phones can create and enhances the learning experience on campus.
As phones become more and more prominent in the lives of students, school officials and legislators will have to grapple with the distractions they can provide. House Bill 515’s ban on phones may be a novel idea for many public schools in the state of Texas, but at the school, teachers and the school as a whole have set clear technology use guidelines that continue to adapt.
the vast majority of the students are continuing on in Rummel’s class, who was kind enough to let the project continue,” Mayer said.
Science instructor Doug Rummel has guided many of the students, providing instruction and direction in the Makerspace while they continue their projects.
While Mayer hopes to have the project wrap up soon, there is still beauty to be found in its length. It is a testament to the passion of the students and their commitment to their work, as well as the willingness of the faculty to adapt to their students’ passions.
This project in particular serves as a synthesis of many of the skills students have learned throughout their time in the robotics program, such as welding and 3D printing. It’s a complex and lengthy process which has demanded concentration and excellence from those working on it. But for those who truly love engineering, both the process and the final product are fun beyond comparison.
Every spring, teachers are given the opportunity to propose a potential course. Despite having to create a completely new curriculum for the class, teachers continue to promote their classses for the benefit of their students.
BY DOAN NGUYEN AND NICHOLAS HUANG
The freedom to choose your own classes is one unique privilege given to students.
With core subjects like mathematics and language required, there are few decisions students have to make every spring. So these seemingly insignificant decisions—choosing fine arts, English classes, electives—are chances for students to pursue interests and find new ones.
It excites students to take a class that they want to take, rather than required to take.
But behind the various classes are the teachers that proposed them. Teachers who have to design the curriculum. Teach an extra class.
From a student’s perspective, it seems like extra work and headaches.
But course requests are an opportunity for teachers to teach a unique class that they have a specialized passion for.
Philosophy. Dystopian Literature. Special Operations.
To these passionate teachers, it’s about offering a chance to learn something outside of one’s comfort zone.
It’s about making a difference.
In late winter, film studies instructor Mark Scheibmeir proposed a class for all high school students: ‘Documentary Film.’ Scheibmeir and all the other faculty members who put forward potential classes don’t get any material benefit — they have the sole motive of helping our school grow as a collective.
“A lot of teachers probably don’t get into teaching for financial reasons,” Scheibmeir said. “We do it for the students and to see how we can
Next year, there could be up to five new courses. We had students comment on what compelled them to take the course and what they expect for the class.
“BEFORE I SAW THIS COURSE, MY CHOICES FOR MATH WERE ADVANCED TOPICS, WHICH IS INFAMOUSLY HARD OR AP STATISTICS, WHICH I THINK IS TOO EASY. I DIDN’T KNOW WHICH CLASS TO TAKE UNTIL I SAW THIS.”
make a difference. When we see students that might benefit from a course, we want to fulfill that for them.”
Specifically, English 12, a mandatory class for seniors, has traditionally had the most diverse classes, ranging from ‘Dystopian Literature’ to ‘Literature of Human Rights.’ These classes offer opportunities for students to engage in discussions that they truly are interested in, and this year, the English department has added three new courses: ‘Creative Writing: Poetry’; ‘Creative Writing: Short Fiction & Creative Nonfiction’; and ‘The Bible as Literature.’
A LOT OF TEACHERS PROBABLY DON’T GET INTO TEACHING FOR FINANCIAL REASONS. WE DO IT FOR THE STUDENTS AND TO SEE HOW WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. WHEN WE SEE STUDENTS MIGHT BENEFIT FROM A COURSE, WE WANT TO FULFILL THAT FOR THEM ”
Mark Scheibmeir, film studies instructor
“We have a slew of options for the kids to choose for the English 12 courses, so they don’t all (get enough signups),” Director of Academic Information Systems Paul Mlakar said. “And that’s where staffing can be in flux, or if some are more popular than others, we want to have student-driven decision making when it comes to the requests.”
Of course, it’s always possible that some classes just don’t have enough student interest, and they may be dropped.
On the other hand, some classes can actually be expanded as student interest increases.
“I NEEDED A FINE ARTS CREDIT, AND THIS CLASS HAS AN ACTUAL CONNECTION TO WHAT I’VE BEEN LEARNING IN JOURNALISM FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS—IT’LL KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE.”
“We’ll try to honor all those requests,” Mlakar said. “And so sometimes that means that if one teacher offers a class, but we need two sections of it, we might need another teacher to step in and teach a second section. That’s happened with some of those English 12 classes, too.”
The addition of new courses also provides the opportunity for departments to expand their curriculum.
In the case of the math department, a new Multivariate Calculus course is being added to the system, allowing advanced students to choose between the math-intensive Advanced Topics class or the more general Multivariate Calculus course.
“It was more of a discussion with the members of the math department, recognizing that we’ve got a great course in advanced topics with Dr. Feng,” Mlakar said. “But if (students) are going into a different STEM area than just math, we recognize that Multivariate Calculus is the next calculus that a lot of kids will take if you’re going into engineering or other sciences.”
Ultimately, teachers prioritize the experience of the students first, creating classes that they believe that students would be interested in.
The new courses act as both an opportunity for the teacher and for the student to explore new fields of study.
Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair in English GayMarie Vaughan has taught a variety of English 12 courses, such as ‘Science Fiction’ and ‘The Literature of War and Survival.’
To her, just being in a class with people who share the same interests — who want to be there — is more than enough.
“It’s work, but it’s fun work,” Vaughan said. “If you’re gonna spend time doing something, you might as well be doing something you enjoy.”
“I FELT LIKE LEARNING ABOUT THE BIBLE, THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK IN HISTORY, AND I WANTED TO EXPLORE HOW THE BIBLE’S ENDURING STORIES AND THEMES HAVE SHAPED WESTERN LITERARY TRADITION.”
“I THINK POETRY IS THE BEST FORM OF LITERATURE IN WHICH I CAN EXPRESS MY OWN THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS. I ACTUALLY MAKE CERAMIC ART THROUGH A SIMILAR PROCESS OF INTROSPECTION.”
Introduced at the start of this year, the use of “vibecoding” has become increasingly popular. A means of coding through artifical intelligence assistance, vibecoding allows non-coders to program whatever they desire.
BY DOAN NGUYEN AND ROHAN KAKKAR
Computer Science instructor Ivann Grande’s daughter’s birthday was a couple days away.
He’d planned to work on his present during spring break, but Grande had been busy writing third-quarter comments and grading eighth grade coding projects. And his daughter’s special day had come quicker than he thought.
Grande had a gift in mind: a ‘Harry Potter’themed escape room, built entirely with code. He’s built countless websites throughout his career, and he wanted to use talents and experience to create something memorable for his daughter.
But if he’s learned one thing about coding, it’s that programming requires long nights and dedication. He needed time. And he was running out of it.
So he pumped preliminary questions into ChatGPT to give him the base structure of his virtual treasure hunt. It was quick and easy. Copy and paste. Without giving it a second thought.
If the code had an error, no problem. Grande would just reword his question and try it again. Of course, Grande could do this all on his own, and he still coded pieces of his gift throughout the process. But what usually took half of a week became just a day with the help of artifical intelligence.
And Grande’s daughter loved her birthday present.
by Bryan Li
Popularized in February 2025, ‘vibecoding’ is a form of AI use: pumping and dumping entrees from AI to assist with hobbies or goals. Vibecoding is a term that has exponentially grown in use, surprisingly by some who are outside of the
coding community — they can program without actually knowing how to program.
“It’s a means of generating code for the sake of generating it,” Grande said. “Even programmers will vibecode. They know how to do it, but they don’t want to spend the time, they just need a quick answer.”
In Grande’s dilemma with his birthday gift, he utilized a form of vibecoding. He was looking for a quick and streamlined solution and ChatGPT responded instantly to his demands. In this case, it was harmless. But there’s a fine line between coding for personal reasons or taking credit publically for artificially-done work.
“When people saw my gift, they asked me, ‘Did you program all of this?’” Grande said. “Of course, I had to say I didn’t program it all. You can’t take credit for something you didn’t do from scratch.”
In general, Grande believes vibecoding is a creative, casual way to use AI. However, when using artificial intelligence to code starts leaking into one’s profession, then it’s unacceptable.
“For those that just plug and play, especially if it’s just a one-time thing, it’s not a big deal,” Grande said. “It’s when it starts becoming a part of your profession. When you’re getting paid to do work. That’s a problem.”
Junior Eric Zhang has been competitively coding for several years, and since the introduction of AI two years ago, his productivity has skyrocketed. While he already knows the fundamentals of several different coding languages, he believes that AI is helpful in all situations and has become very mainstream.
“There’s a very popular tool called GitHub Copilot and it’s based off of the GPT technolo -
gies that we’ve seen come out,” Zhang said. “Ever since I’ve started using that tool, I’ve been able to triple or quadruple the efficiency of which I can write code, because there’s a lot of simple things that will automatically fill it out for you.”
In addition to assisting him in filling out basic code or searching for keywords, Zhang believes that AIs can be helpful in acting as an assistant that one can communicate with while coding, with the AI able to fix items that the coder leaves comments about.
While AI has made it easier to code, Zhang believes that it does not allow true beginner coders to start coding as its suggestions may be far too complicated for the beginners to understand.
“It’s almost like learning how to Google and knowing which keywords will give the correct output,” Zhang said. “So, inherently, I feel like that is sort of a skill that people have developed. I think for a beginner, it wouldn’t really help because they would use code that they don’t know how it works.”
This newest wave of developing AIs have produced a lot of fear among employees about their job security. However, Zhang believes that this point is far from occurring and AI has a long way to develop before reaching this point.
“(AIs) just look at all of the data that’s available and try to predict what happens next,” Zhang said. “However, for these models to improve, they need more data, so the curve that they improve upon is logarithmic. You need exponentially more data in order to improve. If we really wanted to improve by one or two percent, we would need tens of times more data than humanity has ever generated.”
BY WILLIAM KOZOMAN
There’s no doubt that the planetarium stands out as one of the jewels of campus. For the school, it’s a place to watch an exciting show, learn more about the cosmos and even prepare for eclipses.
And for Planetarium Director Michael Lane, who joined the school faculty last year, managing such an important part of campus so early has proved to be a learning experience that continues to provide more and more promise.
Lane had to take on a flurry of change as the planetarium underwent a massive set of software upgrades that changed the entire showrunning experience.
“There was a steep learning curve to figure out how (the planetarium) works,” Lane said. “We had a certain system of software last year, and it was a lot of work to learn, but then we completely changed the software.”
But eventually, Lane ended up learning the software like the back of his hand. But, just knowing how to put a show together isn’t the only important piece — he had to discover how to theme his shows and make them appealing to a large audience.
“When creating a show, you first have to think of a theme,” Lane said. “Standard ones are the current night sky, taking a look at Mars, the Solar System, a tour of
the universe and even a show on eclipses. All of these shows might be relevant for some parts of the year.”
Lane, in particular, has tried to stress the educational element as well as the visual appeal. For students, he finds it important to make sure what they learn is put in context and applicable for their learning.
“I’m trying to find that right balance of, ‘let me teach you something that is understandable, but also just show things that are cool’, and I’m trying to be creative about types of shows to do,” Lane said. “We never just stop and look up anymore, we kind of just rush off to the next thing.”
And now, with a level of comfort with running the planetarium and all its shows, Lane hopes to expand its use so students, parents and other members of the school community can rely on a constant source of learning and entertainment.
With a number of shows and the skill to run the planetarium, Lane remembers how it drew him here in the first place and how his decision has since paid off in dividends.
“I think the excitement of a new school and the excitement of working in a planetarium was what really drove me here,” Lane said. “And then when I came here, it was just so nice.”
EVENSONG On March 30, the Upper School Choir hosted Evensong at 7 p.m. Evensong was an opportunity for choristers and other members of the school’s community to come together and enjoy the music outside of the usual choir performances during chapel. Following this performance, the choir sang at their spring concert on April 16 and will sing at Baccalaureate and Commencement.
MENTAL HEALTH From March 31 to April 4, the Mindful4Life Club hosted a week of events for Men’s Mental Health Week, with a unique activity for each day. Throughout the week, students attended a presentation on the neuroscience of addiction by Mr. Drew Dutton, participated in a tug-of-war tournament, joined a chapel prayer, engaged in a roundtable discussion on the theme of brotherhood and showed support by wearing mental health shirts during the school day. The events aimed to promote awareness and reduce the stigmas around mental well-being.
SENIOR EXHIBITION As the fourth quarter begins, several Senior Exes will take place. Seniors present to younger students about hobbies, passion projects and important life lessons that they have learned during their Path to Manhood. These presentations range from sports to art to values, such as commitment. Despite the wide variety of topics presented on, all students who present have valuable information to give to the Marksmen of the future.
This cycle we listened to people around campus and took the best quotes. Here is what they said:
“I HAVE SENIORITIS ALREADY.” GAVIN
Years after their graduation, some alumni find their way back to campus, taking on the same roles and responsibilities as the teachers that impacted their lives.
BY TEJAS ALLADA AND DIEGO ARMENDARIZ
A preparatory school for college.
When thinking about the purpose of St. Mark’s, many people may consider this description. They imagine school as a place where once boys leave for college and march into their future, never looking back. For most schools, this is the case. But, something about the school in particular has graduates returning to campus year after year.
Language Department Chair and Spanish Teacher Zachary Erwin ‘96, an eight year Marksmen, came back after years of teaching at the graduate and high school level in 2018 to teach Spanish.
“What brought me back was that I heard that there was a position open for both a Spanish teacher and a new department chair,” said Erwin. “I had been considering the idea of going back into preparatory school teaching, and so I decided to apply. I knew that if I came back to St Mark’s, I would find really bright students, and I would enjoy working here.”
After nearly 22 years of separation from campus, the school had changed drastically in several areas: The literal campus and even the “culture” and attitudes of students. While this could have been a shock for more distant alumni, for Erwin it felt like home.
“I don’t think there was anything that really surprised me because I had been back several times to visit,” said Erwin. “I came back for the funeral of one of my favorite teachers. At one point, I had been back for a reunion, and I had come back to visit with some of the teachers that were really important to me that are still here. So I had sort of seen the changes at school, and a lot of what’s here now is like it was here when I was a kid.”
BY DIEGO ARMERNDARIZ
While many college students today worry about getting the perfect internship or crafting the perfect resume, History and Social Sciences Department Chair David Fisher had always used the summer months as little opportunities to branch out and try new things. After his freshman year at Harvard, Fisher was still trying to decide what exactly he wanted to devote the rest of his life towards, and at that point in time, he thought it could be Latin American Studies.
Luckily, his brother-in-law happened to be setting up research and conservation centers throughout South America, and offered him a job at a ranch in Venezuela.
The drive from the Simon Bolivar International Airport to the Hato El Frío ranch deep in the Venezuelan Llanos took 20 hours. The first thing Fisher noticed when he stepped onto the sprawling green Venezuelan landscape was the hut.
His humble abode for the next two months consisted of a bedroom for the occasional guest researcher or tourist, a kitchen and then a second, smaller, bedroom where Fisher would be staying. As he made himself comfortable in his room consisting of a hammock, a mosquito net and some books, he was given the keys to a Land Rover, a shotgun and instructions on how to care for the various creatures around the ranch, such as the pregnant crocodile that resided just yards away from the hut. His tasks for the summer were simple: he needed to clean and maintain the hut in preparation for occasional guests, show visitors around the ranch, and, most importantly, protect and feed the crocodile.
So began the most bizarre summer job Fisher had ever worked. While it wasn’t always constant back-breaking labor, it was so unlike anything he had ever experienced before that every day brought new opportunities to learn.
The nearest grocery store was over two hours away by car, so most of his meals came from fishing or hunting, specifically the piranhas in the river or the wild groups of capybara that trot around the ranch. But with every successful hunt came the careful task of preparing the pounds of meat and the arrival of hundreds of birds of every kind.
Vultures, caracaras and hawks all swarmed the trees at the scent of a possible meal. If Fisher left his kill alone for even a moment, he knew that a it would be picked clean by the squawking feathery mass above him.
The greatest challenge was the near complete isolation Fisher faced. His weeks spent alone gave him nothing but time to think. There was a Dutch zoologist who stayed for a single week, and some assorted tourists that left almost as soon as they arrived, but he lacked any real human interaction. His only contact with the outside world was a small handheld radio.
Fisher’s experience with isolation and nature solidified his perspective that prioritizes living freely, and with a purpose. Whenever opportunities arise, he takes advantage of them as much as possible. For Fisher, if he isn’t living an adventure then he’s doing something wrong.
Dream careers evolve as they explore new avenues and learn new things about themselves, making finding a final destination difficult, but all the more gratifying.
BY KIRAN PARIKH AND WILLIAM KOZOMAN
There’s a question that comes up at every family gathering. It comes up in Lower School projects. It’s a question that is implanted in every kid’s brain.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Usually, kids have the same answer—a doctor, firefighter, pro athlete, paleontologist or an astronaut. Senior Daniel Deng was a little different.
“Up until middle school I didn’t really have any career path dreams,” Deng said. “Once I got to like sixth or seventh grade, I really, really wanted to be a math teacher. We had people like Mr. Stanbury and Mr. Hale, and they were absolutely great teachers.”
But when he entered Upper School, Deng’s dream didn’t seem feasible anymore. Math just wasn’t working out for him. However, freshman year also brought a new passion to him: biology.
And in the middle of junior year, a little more than two years later, Deng’s passions seemed to all come together.
For Deng, a lifetime musician and singer, one experience stood out in particular.
While shadowing a doctor at UT Southwestern, Deng found a field of medicine that combined his two passions of biology and music: otorhinolaryngology, a study of ear, nose and throat diseases.
But it was more than just a merging of interests—it was a glimpse of how he could make a real difference. In fact, what struck Deng wasn’t the operation itself, but how the patient reacted afterward.
“I remember the patient getting all emotional after that because it was just such an improvement in her quality of life,” Deng said. “I realized that I wanted to be someone who’s able to use their knowledge to help people in important ways— and that just made me all the more motivated to go down that career path.”
More than everything else, Deng finds his fulfillment in helping others.
“There’s a quote from the greatest showman—from P.T. Barnum—It’s that ‘The noblest act is that of making others happy,’” Deng said. “And I guess both of (my dream) career paths—what they had in common was that their job was to not only teach and not only to cure, but also to make people happy and make people live their lives a little better.”
As Deng looks toward college and beyond, he’s also mindful of making sure the path he follows is truly his own.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be your life,” Deng said. “The minute you step out of the house and into college, you’re going to realize that you don’t have parents to tell you where to go—and you need to figure out what you want to do. If you’re still going down the path your parents forced you to, you’ll reach a dead end sooner or later.”
Former history and social sciences teacher Bill Marmion passed away on March 29. During his impactful 31-year tenure, he taught ancient and medieval history, religion, AP economics, and AP U.S. history, while also serving as the Chair of the History and Social Sciences Department. His contributions to the school impacted the lives of many Marksmen.
Deng’s passion for helping others drives his ambition, but he also recognizes that the journey won’t always be linear. Rather, that flexibility is part of the excitement for him—because he knows no matter where the path leads, his purpose will remain the same.
I REALIZED THAT I WANTED TO BE SOMEONE WHO’S ABLE TO USE THEIR KNOWLEDGE TO HELP PEOPLE IN IMPORTANT WAYS—AND THAT MADE ME ALL THE MORE MOTIVATED TO GO DOWN THAT CAREER PATH.”
Daniel Deng, senior
“I don’t know where I’m going to be in 15 years. Maybe not even five years. Maybe not even next year. It’s good to have a guess as to where you’re going to be—some sort of framework to follow,” Deng said. “But you shouldn’t be too distressed over little path adjustments that you may take along the way.”
Like with Deng, college counselor Phoebe Butler has seen a number of students change their interests over time, including herself, going from a journalism major to eventually working in college counseling. In her role, she tries to help identify what a person would truly enjoy based on all of the aspects about them.
“Bill was a man of keen wit, intelligence and thoughtfulness. He was a loving father and husband, always speaking with joy and pride about his family. He cared deeply for others and was fully invested in the lives of Marksmen on every corner of the campus.”
–Eugene McDermott Headmaster David W. Dini
“Mr. Marmion was the most candid teacher at St. Mark’s. He was so deeply honest that he couldn’t hide his opinion, which he always expressed with critical gusto and often with great humor.”
–Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Dr. Martin Stegemoeller
“Mr. Marmion was an educator of great intellectual depth who cared deeply for his students not only in the classroom but also on the playing fields and in the arts. His baritone voice, punctuated by ‘ha ha’s’ whether he discovered something new or laughing at himself, still lives in my memory. He added much to our institution as he cared deeply about his craft and the future of our community and nation.”
–Cecil H. & Ida Green Master Teaching Chair Scott Gonzalez
“I just try to find out who that person is and what makes them happy, because usually money and contentment will come along after that,” Butler said. “I try to help encourage kids to think outside the box, not only in their career, but with what they want for college and what they want for life.”
One obstacle that she sees is students limiting themselves to popular majors like business or medicine, which could be due to reasons like the attention drawn to them, family pressure, or simply a lack of knowledge of available options. To her, the solution lies in asking new questions and digging deeper into a student’s self.
“We see the jobs or the careers that are sexy or that make money, but I don’t think there’s a lot of room for what would make you happy in that conversation,” Butler said. “ But it all really comes down to just getting to know the person.”
She particularly remembers a student who was adamant about studying law in high school, but ended up transitioning to math and finding his passion there.
“He was pretty adamant he was going to go into international things, politics and law,” Butler said. “He told me he was not a math person. But now, he’s applying for PhD math programs. And I was like, ‘how did you get there?’ So once he got to college, he was exposed to law and realized that’s not what he wanted to do. And then he was exposed more to math, and he fell in love with it.”
Teen dating is experiencing a dramatic decline as Gen Z navigates romance through digital connections. While technology offers new ways to connect, many teens are missing crucial relationship experiences that studies suggest contribute to healthier long-term partnerships later in life.
BY HILTON SAMPSON, LINYANG LEE, MATTHEW HOFMANN AND DOAN NGUYEN
Senior Daniel Sun met his girlfriend at a school dance in the fall of his freshman year. The next year their relationship began to grow. Once-a-day snaps turned into late night texting. Their casual conversations developed into deep ones.
By December of their junior year, it was official—they were dating.
Yet unlike generations past, their developing bond faced a distinctly modern challenge: they rarely saw each other in person.
In a different school, without a car and with a different evening schedule, Sun lacked the opportunity to see her regularly, if at all.
So they relied heavily on digital lifelines—FaceTime calls every night, constant texting, and Snapchat updates throughout their days apart. Now a senior with his own transportation, Sun’s relationship has survived in an era when fewer teenagers than ever are engaging in formal romantic relationships. An era where digital communication dominates. Where traditional relationship milestones are increasingly delayed, or even bypassed altogether. Where the phrase ‘we’re together’ has too many different meanings.
An era where dating isn’t as clear-cut as it used to be.
According to research from the American Institute for Boys and Men, teen dating is rapidly declining nationwide. Only 56 percent of Gen Z adults reported having had a romantic relationship during their teen years—a significant drop from the 78 percent of Baby Boomers and 76 percent of Gen X-ers who dated as teenagers.
The decline is even more pronounced among young men. Just 54 percent of Gen Z men reported dating as teens, with 44 percent having no relationship experience at all during their teenage years—double the rate of older generations.
Lisa Phillips, who studies teen relationships, has seen this shift firsthand through interviews conducted with young men for her book, “First
Love: Guiding Teens through Relationships and Heartbreak.”
“Their relationships are different,” Phillips said. “Certain things that were considered markers of teen life when I was a teen, and even when people 15 years younger than me were teens, tend to be happening less and happening later.”
Among the factors contributing to the general decline of teenage dating relationships, Upper School Counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu recognizes shifting priorities.
PEOPLE DON’T WANT TRUE RELATIONSHIPS ANYMORE. THEY JUST WANT THE BENEFITS AND A QUICK HIT OF DOPAMINE, WHICH IS JUST PERPETUATED WITH THE EASE
Eduardo Mousinho, senior
“There are a lot of resources around optimizing your experience as a teenager in terms of academic resources, tutoring, sports and club sports,” Bonsu said.
She notes that the growing focus on both academic and extracurricular pursuits limits both the time and flexibility for students to pursue romantic relationships—especially in the rigorous and demanding environment of the school.
“The primary focus of adolescence now,” Bonsu said, “is to be as prepared as you can be for higher education.”
Sun feels this pressure particularly from his parents. Encouraging him to prioritize his studies, Sun’s parents were initially hesitant towards his pursuing a serious relationship.
Eventually though, they saw that having a girlfriend did not limit his ability to perform in the classroom.
Senior Eduardo Mousinho, who has dated his girlfriend for over two and a half years, shares this experience and balances his workload, athletics and extracurricular activities with spending time with his girl friend.
“Dating is no different from another time commitment,” Mousinho said. “You just find a way to make it work when something is important to you. You know what you prioritize, in this case a relationship, and you just make the time work.”
Even still, some parents remain opposed to their teens dating during such an important academic chapter of their lives.
RELATIONSHIP STAGES
Teenagers in the modern age experience different stages of dating relationships than previous generations. With technology at their disposal, many teens initally meet online and stay connected through their devices—until the end.
Many students feel the same way.
Despite growing hesitancy, the developmental importance of teenage dating remains a positive experience.
“The pros of being in a relationship as a teenager is that you get that experience,” Bonsu said, “And when it comes to long-term committed relationships, the more experience you have, the more of a benefit it is than it is a detriment.”
Morgan Chow ‘23 learned a lot from his first relationship.
He started dating his first girlfriend the November of their senior year.
They got food together. They listened to Spotify Jams together. They played video games together.
He could talk with her about the petty things that annoyed him. He could talk about the really serious things in life.
And going into their freshman year of college more than 1,500 miles away from each other— Chow thought long distance would work out. After all, they’d make it work out so well going to different high schools, doing different extracurriculars and different sports.
But at a new school with so many new people to meet—Chow found it hard to constantly communicate with his girlfriend.
“I tried compromising a little bit, but it was difficult for me to hold up my end of the deal because a lot of the time I just genuinely did not have the time,” Chow said.
There were things that he couldn’t give up— like hanging out with new friends that he had made—to really talk with her all that much. And it became a burden.
Though his relationship with his girlfriend ended after a month of long distance— he’s taken away a lot from it.
He learned about responsibility because he had a partner that he supported and also felt support from. He learned about really trusting people—in any relationship he’s in. He learned about his boundaries—and what he’s willing and not willing
to give up.
“For that being my first relationship ever, it was really healthy,” Morgan said. “It was really good for me. And, hopefully, it was good for her as well.”
According to the American Institute for Boys and Men, Americans who had teenage romantic relationships are more likely to be married or in committed relationships later, a nearly 20 percent gap that widens among younger generations.
Bonsu adds that dating in teenage years teaches boys what intimacy, emotional communication and conflict resolution means to them, something that Mousinho has taken to heart.
“You aren’t just responsible for yourself, but you are responsible for the well-being of another person,” Mousinho said. “Being able to talk to them and understand what they are going through is critical.”
Sun sees his own relationship reflecting this personal growth as well.
“I think you should always look into a relationship for not only the fun you can have, but for the opportunities you can use to grow as a person,” Sun said.
For many teens who date, relationships have become increasingly ambiguous. The lines between labels are now unclear, confusing teenagers looking for a genuine connection.
Phillips links this shift to technology.
“Social media has made the whole concept of what a relationship is, and what a romantic or a sexual experience is much more elastic,” Phillips said.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a situationship as “a romantic relationship between two people who do not yet consider themselves a couple but who have more than a friendship.”
With social media platforms being so accessible, students have an easier time communicating, yet they often miss out on formal, longer-term commitments.
Additionally, many people take the picturesque or curated profiles of online influencers and create unrealistic expectations for what a partner should look like, act like or value.
Senior Noah Williams acknowledges that this can create non-starters for relationships when the vision of dating someone is tarnished by false, unrealistic expectations.
“Sometimes unrealistic expectations can exist because of content that is perpetuated on the internet,” Williams said, “leading to really high
standards that discourage people from dating and learning about each other.”
These standards, combined with the ease of communication that makes for more casual conversation, has led to the rise of the situationship.
“I feel like most people are just looking for that short-term relationship,” Sun said.
Situationships have become increasingly common among teenagers and young adults. The ambiguity can be appealing, offering companionship without commitment, but it can also lead to confusion and emotional distress when expectations don’t align.
“People don’t want true relationships anymore,” Mousinho said, “They just want the benefits and a quick hit of dopamine, which is just perpetuated with the ease of connection with social media.”
Phillips points out that boys are often assumed to have the upper hand in the culture of ambiguous relationships, situationships, friends with benefits.
“But a boy can be just as vulnerable as a girl.” Phillips said.
Phillips finds it common for dating relationships, and even short-term situationships, to have a profound impact on a boy’s emotional well-being.
“When they go through tough times with relationships, it can actually be a lot worse for boys,” Phillips said. “If they lose their girlfriend, it’s likely they’ve lost their main resource for emo
tional intimacy.”
The Pew Research Center notes that post-breakup behavior has also changed significantly in the digital age.
Forty-three percent of teens have untagged or deleted photos with an ex on social media, and 42 percent have unfriended or blocked former partners.
On the other hand, technology does offer opportunities for increased connection if used in the proper ways. Williams met his girlfriend through mutual friends freshman year, but used Snapchat to get to know her better before they began officially dating.
“I felt more comfortable at times talking to her over Snapchat at the start of when we started ‘talking,’” Williams said. “It seemed more casual than a text and helped me learn a lot about her before we began hanging out more and then dating.”
“I think we just both want to focus on the present and have fun the rest of senior year,” Sun said. “But our hopes are that we’ll continue (dating) in college.”
This transition period can be particularly challenging as teens navigate their evolving identities.
“(This) generation does not have, in some really great ways and some really difficult ways, the clarity of purpose around first relationships that my generation had,” Phillips said.
For those who do maintain long-distance relationships, technology offers more tools than ever before. Video calls, messaging apps and social media can help bridge physical separation.
However, as Sun experienced firsthand, these digital connections have fundamental limitations.
As teens approach college, they face decisions about continuing high school relationships.
“The pros slightly outweigh the cons in having a respectful end to a relationship happening senior year.” Bonsu said.
The numbers support her assessment—the vast majority of high school relationships don’t continue beyond graduation.
Sun and his girlfriend, who will attend different colleges in the fall, haven’t discussed long-distance plans in depth.
The lack of physical presence—the inability to hold hands, share experiences side by side or simply be in the same room—remains a significant hurdle to overcome.
As modern relationship dynamics continue to evolve, teenagers must navigate relationship beginnings and endings without established norms to guide them.
Yet Phillips knows values can still be instilled in teens, especially from their parents.
“Tune in to boys’ need for emotional expression and attention,” Phillips said, “to engage in conversations about crushes and romantic relationships, and to do that from an early age.”
Bonsu urges parents to follow the same advice.
“Teach kids about your values,” Bonsu said. “Dating is values-based. Their values might be different from your values, but keep that dialog open.”
Whether through traditional dating or evolving relationship forms, the fundamental challenge for today’s teens remains learning to navigate emotional connection in an increasingly digital, achievement-focused world.
As dating patterns continue to shift, the need for meaningful connection remains constant— even if the pathways to finding it are being reimagined with each generation.
In a changing landscape of careers and college admissions, every litle advantage can benefit one’s life. The school’s name and culture affects life after graduation, desired by some prospective families.
BY CHRISTIAN WARNER AND ERIC YI
The school that one attends often influences the student’s life through college admissions, internship opportunities and other forms of general perception.
At St. Mark’s, some hold the name-value of the school to be relatively strong, bolstering their experiences with these aforementioned qualities of student life.
Through the daily actions and activities of the school’s community like Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini’s role as the president of the International Boys School Coalition (IBSC), many students, faculty and staff believe the school has obtained noteworthy name-value.
“I think the message and the reputation of the school is strong in Dallas and throughout much of the United States and among school communities worldwide,” Director of Admission & Financial Aid David Baker said.
The school’s reputation begins with the students. The highly selective admissions process searches for a specific type of student, one who moves the class forward especially through communication and discussion.
“My point is that collaborative engagement is what makes each student beneficial to everybody else,” Baker said. “I want each boy to learn something from the boy sitting next to him, and that’s not going to happen without collaborative engagement. We are invested in each other’s success.”
Baker highlights the process of admission as not only a sign of the level of interest in the school, given the around 800 applicants per year, but also as a key component to the school’s continued success.
As students progress through the different grades and eventually graduate, the vast alumni network plays a key role in how the school is perceived by others.
“Lions are everywhere, and those Lions represent the values and the nature of this institution,” Baker said. “I can’t tell you the number of people who come in here, and their first point of contact with the school was meeting one of our alumni.”
The strong emphasis placed on school values and building a sense of brotherhood and community carries over into life after graduation through the alumni network.
“Having been here so long, sometimes the students that graduate from St. Marks, their connections continue to always be St. Mark’s and not necessarily the college which is different from other high school Students,” Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido said. “At St. Mark’s, (alumni) really find that this is home, and, poten-
tially, if they go into the business world or whatever, they’re going to (find opportunities through their) St. Mark’s connection much quicker.”
During the college admissions process, the school that one attends plays a role in how colleges view the applicant. According to Pulido, St. Mark’s has an exceptionally strong appeal to college admissions.
“HAVING BEEN HERE SO LONG, SOMETIMES THE STUDENTS THAT GRADUATE FROM ST MARKS, THEIR CONNECTIONS CONTINUE TO ALWAYS BE ST MARK’S AND NOT NECESSARILY THE COLLEGE WHICH IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.”
Veronica Pulido, Director of College Counseling
“A school like ours is dedicated to academic rigor, in addition to creating a lifestyle of understanding the positive features of growing into young men (like) characteristics, manners, leadership and ethics,” Pulido said. “When a college looks at an applicant from St. Mark’s, they value that a student has decided to come to this institution versus any other school in the country. For that reason alone, I do think colleges are going to take a second look to say, ‘okay, this is an environment where academics comes first, then all the other great things that go along with the St. Mark’s environment add to the whole person.’”
Pulido believes it is beneficial when a college dean looks at an application more than once.
“Once we can get a college to look at our boys twice, three times, four times, that always adds value because it’s not just a ‘one and done, this candidate isn’t qualified,’” Pulido said. “They will take that holistic approach in terms of figuring out who we are as a school and then how the individual student really engages in the St. Mark’s community.”
One note of concern, however, for some students and parents is the change in the school’s ranking as determined by some third-party website. Pulido believes that rankings such as this hold little value in terms of college admission, comparing it to college rankings that also hold little merit in how strong a school is.
“Ultimately, the colleges are smarter than looking at just rankings,” Pulido said. “(For example), they’re going to look to see what has this child engaged in on their campus academically to the best of their ability.”
Additionally, the school’s history of producing strong students also helps out in the college admission process to an extent. According to Pulido, colleges may see the school as one that reliably provides strong and successful community members. Of course, this further stresses the importance of maintaining a strong reputation.
“I think school reputations are fragile things, and the reputation of our school is in our hands—faculty, staff, current students, alumni and parents,” Baker said. “Like it or not, we move through the world as representatives of St. Mark’s School of Texas.”
The environment of the school is striking in many ways; the all-boys nature of the school and general culture and traditions each build upon the student life. For senior Andrew Jin, he applied to the school for first grade after his parents learned about its academic reputation, paying less attention to other aspects. Yet over time, his perspectives on the school opened up.
“I remember for most of Lower School, having a vague sense of like, ‘these people get me; these kids are cool; they’re smart.’” Jin said. “We were interested in creating cars, Legos and Pokemon back then; just really simple thoughts of this place is pretty good. I don’t think I could articulate exactly what made me feel that way, but I would have to imagine it was the environment with teachers like Ms. Carrio who made the whole class feel warm.”
For senior Duncan Ardis, even though he first came to the school in eighth grade, a more matured and rigorous level than when Jin arrived, their reasons for applying are similar with the academic intensity of the school held at the forefront.
During his first few weeks at the school, his expectation and impression of the school shifted from this overly-nerdy, academically-focused student body to a more balanced one. Before St. Mark’s, he attended a public school, experiencing a vastly different environment.
Yet while they both arrived in different grades and at different times in life, they both experienced the same highs and lows that come with the school. In the end, Jin believes that each year has continuously built upon his character, not understating the prominence of how St. Mark’s will affect his future.
“You’re given a key like a couple years in the past,” Jin said. “You don’t know what to unlock. You’re told to keep the key. The key is kind of heavy, but you keep lugging it along, until one day, the door that the key opens is in front of you, and it’s imposing, and you unlock the door and you just walk through. Sometimes you don’t realize the lessons you’ve been given.”
TIMBER, Terrarium Invertebrate Marine Biology Ecosystem Reptile, aims to observe naturally created and artificially created ecosystems and study the effects humans can have on different ecosystems. TIMBER has already made valuable contributions to campus, like completely renovating and overhauling the pond by Winn Science Center.
continued from page 14
While most teachers who come back to campus are much older and are set on teaching as their career path, Arnav Lahoti ‘24, who is studying applied math at the University of Texas, will consider a return to school much later on in his life.
“I think I would consider coming back to teach math when I’m in my 50’s or 60’s,” Lahoti said. “The community on campus is really connected, it’s much smaller so it’s tight-knit. The teachers, administration, and students are really supportive and well-connected.”
Additionally, Lahoti believes in the wide range of options that faculty are given. Whether it is sponsoring a club, coaching sports, taking advantage of various programs, or connecting with the school’s vast alumni network, the beauty of being a teacher is that, like students, opportunities on campus are endless.
A teacher’s relationship with their students is integral to a healthy learning environment. Not only are students more able to grasp information, but teachers can learn more from their students as well. Because Erwin
filled the shoes of a Marksman, he truly knows who they are as people, and this assists him in his teaching.
I THINK IF SOMEBODY IS REALY MEANT TO BE A TEACHER, I DON'T THINK IT'S HARD TO FIND PASSION. I THINK IF YOU REALLY LOVE YOUR SUBJECT AREA AND YOU REALLY LOVE SHARING IT WITH OTHER PEOPLE, THEN IT'S EASY TO DO.”
Zachary Erwin ‘96, Language Department Chair
“I think even though times have changed, I do have a good sense of what it feels like to be a St Mark’s kid, and I think I have a pretty good sense of what St. Mark’s boys are and of the pressures that St. Mark’s boys are under,” Erwin said. “But also of what St Mark’s boys are capable of. And I also feel like I’m carrying on the example of the teachers that taught me, and I know that if they had high
standards, it was because they cared about us and loved us and wanted to achieve great things.”
While the experience of a Marksman is a unique one, returning alumni such as Erwin are able to understand what it means to live by the school’s motto of courage and honor. For them, there is never a dull moment when at the school they called home for so long.
“I think if somebody is really meant to be a teacher, I don’t think it’s hard to find passion,” Erwin said. “I think if you really love your subject area and you really love sharing it with other people, then it’s easy to do.”
In Erwin’s 20 years of teaching, he has helped several students along their paths towards becoming teachers. As both a college professor and grade school teacher, he has fostered in them the same love that was given to him as a teenager. While none of his former St. Mark’s students have taken up the chalk and whiteboard just yet, Erwin hopes that as his time at the school continues, so too will his legacy.
“Hopefully somebody in one of my classes will have caught the teaching bug in the same way that I caught it from Señora Marmion, but only time will tell,” Erwin said.
With graduation looming, seniors are finalizing what they will pursue after graduation. Senior Hans Hesse, however, has chosen a unique path in enlisting in the United States Armed Forces.
BY ERIC YI AND SHIV BHANDARI
Late nights spent editing essays for the 10th time.
Visits to campuses across the country during breaks.
Trying to bolster a resume.
Trying to avoid constant comparisons.
Trying to cope with the constant pressure.
Sometimes, the college admissions process can seem like a stressful marathon, and applicants can be swept up in the mix of expectations, hopes and fears if they’re not careful.
Associate Director of College Counseling Phoebe Butler believes that, because of preconceived notions of success or lofty expectations, students can pigeonhole themselves into only considering a limited range of options, leaving them unaware of other potential possibilities because of internal or external pressures.
“Parents can be a big worry,” Butler said. “Because of the financial investment of the school, they almost expect a certain outcome that usually doesn’t mean a state or public school. Kids have a similar worry, but they’re more worried that they won’t get into a highly selective school because of the outcomes of previous years.”
Instead of focusing on general outcomes or trends, Butler suggests that students should focus on building themselves up as people, not just applicants to a school. By focusing on what they can control, students will find success naturally in whatever form that means to them.
“College admissions is just so individualized,” Butler said. “There’s all this comparison, but people have different qualities and life stories. You can’t recreate that magic, and a lot of people at independent schools end up not worrying enough about finding the right fit for them.”
Additionally, Marksmen have a range of options available to them that don’t follow the traditional college path–service academics, gap years and trade schools are all progressive possibilities that Butler believes students should consider before reaching a formal decision.
“We’re sending more and more kids to places we’ve never sent anyone before,” Butler said. “They’re paving the path for future Marksmen and making those colleges possible. At this point, non-traditional pathways aren’t really non-traditional.”
Choosing to follow one of these unorthodox paths, senior Hans Hesse has enlisted in the United States Armed Forces, citing his personal beliefs as his motivation to pursue this unique opportunity.
“I want to serve my country and defend the defenseless,” Hesse said. “My grandfather was in the military, and he was a pillar in my family: very strong, courageous and honorable. I see this decision as an opportunity to follow in his footsteps while doing it in my own way.”
COLLEGE ADMISSIONS IS JUST SO INDIVIDUALIZED. THERE’S ALL THIS COMPARISON, BUT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT QUALITIES AND LIFE STORIES. A LOT OF PEOPLE AT INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS END UP NOT WORRYING ENOUGH ABOUT FINDING THE RIGHT FIT FOR THEM."
Phoebe Butler, Associate Director of College Counseling
Inspired by his grandfather and motivated by his desire to serve, Hesse has chosen to delay a traditional college education, which he currently plans on pursuing after concluding his time in the military.
“I think a lot of people try to rush into college,” Hesse said. “Even if they have no
clue what they want to study, they just go to college because that’s what people will tell you. For me, that’s a pretty expensive gamble. If I know that I want to join the military, I might as well do that now and then take multiple gap years to figure myself out.”
Choosing to move away from the traditional path most students take after graduation hasn’t been easy, though, and Hesse has endured repeated criticism and doubt from others who believe he should change his decision. Instead of giving in to the criticism, Hesse used it as motivation to continue working hard, only gaining further conviction that he was making the right decision for his life.
“At first, my parents were hesitant,” Hesse said. “But through all the work I’ve done without them prompting me to wake up early or go to train, they’ve definitely become very supportive because they know that I’m serious about this. I’m not going into it without doing my research or being prepared, and I’m doing it for the right reasons.”
Hesse encourages other students who may not necessarily be confident in how they want to spend their adult life to consider non-traditional pathways to ensure that they’re usefully spending their time and not indecisively waiting
BY SHIV BHANDARI
A slight breeze blows through the campus, rustling blades of grass and shaking the yellow clusters of pollen out of the trees that tower over the now-desolate parking lot.
With the sun setting, the campus is quiet. The noises of traffic seem to intrude on the zen frame.
But emanating from the Decherd Auditorium, quiet notes of music slowly begin to pour over the campus.
First from a cello, then from a viola and finally from a lonesome grand piano, the notes swell, harmonizing into the classical pieces written centuries ago.
It’s taken a year to get here, but the Chamber Music Club is finally performing
its first official concert, bringing together Upper School Marksmen in a final end-ofyear performance.
For sophomore co-founder Tony Lu, this moment was special. First coming up with the idea for a chamber music club after taking part in a school recital, Lu worked with other students and piano instructor Angela Hendricks to make it a reality, officially founding the club in September 2024.
“We had some great musicians who were really passionate about music, so I had the idea of getting everyone together and doing a big performance,” Lu said. “I started planning and talking to a lot of people who were interested, but we had to cut down from forty people to ten people who were really committed.”
Commitment was never an issue for group members, and the club regularly practiced together before various smaller events, building relationships and preparing members for the final spring concert.
“We perform at coffeehouse, chapel and community service events, so we have a lot of small events,” Lu said. “But we had this idea that it all built up to this concert, so as we got closer to March, we all got together and kept practicing. One group actually had three-hour practice sessions every Sunday across several weekends, and that’s pretty incredible.”
The spring concert was the evening of April 9, and there were multiple performances from each member of the club, and their music filled Decherd Auditorium
for something to happen to them. He emphasizes the economic benefits, too, which many families can benefit from.
“I think that a lot of people lack that defining purpose, and they don’t really know what they want to do, which is fine,” Hese said. “It’s okay to an extent to figure that out in college, but I think that, if you have a person who’s willing to work hard, but they don’t know what they’re doing, taking a gap year or two or joining the military before spending all that money on college can be a good thing.”
Choosing what path to pursue after leaving the school can be stressful, but Butler encourages each student to consider their own personal motivations and values to help narrow down the wide range of options, and she emphasizes that, no matter what a student chooses to do, the College Counseling Office will always serve as a recourse for boys who need it. If students are following their passions with a plan, whether that be years of education at a university or pursuing a military career, they are on the right track.
“We try to set boys up with unyielding, unending support,” Butler said. “We’re always here for them, and I’ll fight whoever I need to to get the best thing for a kid at the end of the day.”
as students, faculty and family members alike watched.
In the future, Lu hopes to expand the club further than just the school, but he acknowledges the loss of key seniors and the difficulties that will present without their leadership. Still, though, Lu remains determined to continue the club and its performances next year.
“Optimally, we can make this a greater Dallas thing,” Lu said. “We want to bring in students from other schools and do more community performances because I have a lot of friends who want to chamber music, and it’s unfair that only Marksmen can play. It was difficult getting people together, but we did it, and I’m glad it worked out in the end.”
Given the ever-changing landscapes of college admissions, students are becoming more focused in one or two fields, leading to the downfall in popularity of the so-called Renassaince Man.
BY ROHAN KAKKAR AND GRAYSON KIRBY
It’s not about learning, I just need to keep my grade. I’m going to be a doctor, I don’t need to pay attention in my math class.
Having already decided his future career path, the student decides to only focus on attaining a high grade in his classes–neglecting to learn crucial information and instead cram information into his short term memory to score well on tests. He keeps up this cycle, pumping information into his brain and dumping it shortly after his tests to make room for another “unimportant” subject.
As the college admissions process becomes more and more competitive, many students feel pressured to develop a deep passion for a particular subject at an early age to create a strong college application in hopes of scoring acceptance to an elite college. By closing themselves so early, they often begin to view certain classes as obstacles in their journey and something that they just have to get a good grade in and not learn the material.
Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller believes that the term “renaissance man” has several meanings–stretching from the creative inventors of the classical Roman and Greek periods to a person who strives to return to these values.
“A renaissance man now means somebody who’s like a polymath, and they’re good at a lot of different things,” Stegemoeller said.
Through the changing landscape of college admissions and artificial intelligence, Stegemoeller feels like the place for individuals who are well-versed in a variety of topics is disappearing–and it is a problem.
“It’s a problem if you have a kid who begins to pick up as a young boy that school is about getting into college,” Stegemoeller said. “And getting into college requires you to have a specialty where you win to show that you’re better than others, so that a college will take you to be an expert in that thing, whether that’s football or robotics or whatever. You’re gonna have a lot of kids who are just kind of ‘zombieing’ through the rest of their classwork.”
In order to solve this problem, Stegemoeller believes that if educational institutions shift priorities to an approach to promote learning first, students will pay more attention and try to actively retain the information that they are learning in
class.
“ I think if we figured out a way to assess kids on longer term retained knowledge they would approach learning in a way where they would retain knowledge,” Stegemoeller said. “And if they knew that the six months after a course, without any warning, they could be asked to explain something (from the course) and that if they explained it that would be recognized somewhere on a transcript, I think they would respond.”
A RENAISSANCE MAN NOW MEANS SOMEONE WHO’S LIKE A POLYMATH, AND THEY’RE GOOD AT A LOT OF DIFFFERENT THINGS”
Martin Stegemoeller, English instructor
With colleges and universities searching for specific areas of interest that are prevalent in an applicant’s extra-curricular and courses, the conventional
‘renassaince man’ is becoming more and more rare. However, some students still choose to engage in a variety of activites rather than focusing on one specific area.
Junior Ben Standefer is one of these students that still sees the value in expanding one’s area of expertise.
“With our community at St. Mark’s we are exposed to many different opportunities and experiences,” said Standefer, “and I think that while I am here I should take advantage of those opportunities.”
Despite Standefer believing that he has a career path ahead of him that he is interested in, he still does just as much outside of that field as he deos in it.
“I do see my self continuing to pursue STEM after high school,” Standefer said, “but I also think its important to have a variety of experiences, especially in leadership, that build character.”
Standefer is on the Community Service Board and has also started several service oriented non-profits. One of the companies that he created is called Binary Tree, it is a non-profit that provides coding lessons to young adults in Africa who
BY GRAYSON KIRBY
Once every year, dozens of tables are set out on the Quad for an alumni cookout. Marksmen young and old eat burgers and talk with friends about current and old times, alumni flock to the campus that built so many core memories to celebrate class reunions, new constructions and the St. Mark’s brotherhood during alumni weekend.
April 24-26 is the school’s Alumni Weekend. Twelve graduating classes are celebrating reunions, ranging from the Class of 1965 to 2020. Several events are taking place both on and off campus that will bring classes and alumni together.
“We always kick off the weekend with an alumni golf tournament at the Dallas Cowboys Golf Club,” Director of Alumni Relations Jack Mallick said. “It’s a great casual way to kick off Alumni Weekend.”
Alumni take this weekend as an opportunity to return to the school to reminisce and talk to their former classmates about their time at here.
They often get to relive their days here, a special alumni chapel is held as well as an alumni cookout on Friday. On Saturday, there is a formal dinner that is held in the Great Hall.
Awards are handed out to alumni, including the Lee Smith Courage and Honor Award, which will be presented to Colonol Cedric Lee who graduated in the Class of 1996. Colonel Lee is the highest ranking U.S. Military Official in St. Mark’s history.
The Alumni and Development team also take this opportunity to recognize faculty and staff who are retiring or are celebrating milestones during their time here. Nancy Marmion and Doc Browning are both being celebrated for their 40th
year here at St. Mark’s.
This event not only strengthens the already concrete bond between Marksmen, but also serves as a crucial building block for the current school community.
Much of the donations given to the St. Mark’s fund comes from alumni, especially those who are returning to campus to celebrate a class reunion which is crucial in sustaining the culture that makes the school so special.
“St. Mark’s is a non-profit entity,” Director of Development Tim Crouch said. “We draw in funding and tuition to better benefit our students and faculty’s campus life. It’s so important to keep alumnus engaged to make sure that St. Mark’s continues to be the staple of our students lives that it has been for years.”
are interested in developing code and programming but have not had access to proper education.
“I started Binary Tree about a year ago and now there’s around 30-40 students around the country who work with the orginization,” said Standefer, “We design curriculum and organize fundraisers around the country.”
Standefer’s wide variety of activities both within and outside of St. Mark’s have given him new insights and advantages that he can use for the future, whether it be in college or much later in life.
“I think being a Renaissance man now puts you in a position to combine those interests in ways that maybe other people haven’t thought to do,” Standefer said. “Stepping into leadership roles in other groups have helped me in other capacities, and I’ve learned some really great skills.”
ALUMNI GOLF TOURNAMENT
Alumni compete in a golf tournament at Cowboys Golf Club.
CHAPEL
A special chapel service is held for alumni to reminisce on their time as Marksmen.
COOKOUT
On Friday, April 25, students and alumni can enjoy burgers and hot dogs on the quad at an all-school cookout.
DINNER
On Saturday, April 26, alumni celebrate with a special dinner in the Great Hall.
Five years. That’s how long fans were waiting for Playboi Carti’s anticipated album. Playboi Carti has been an iconic figure in recent pop culture, and he and his brand OPIUM have influenced trends in social media and fashion. With that being said, his new music has been absent for years. When he did drop, a host of expectations were layered on to the album. In some ways it met and even exceeded them, but in others it fell short.
What started out as hype for Carti’s third album transformed into contempt as time went on. All of a sudden, in early March, social media was taken by storm by the arrival of I AM MUSIC - SORRY 4 DA WAIT. In comparison to previous projects, I AM MUSIC - SORRY 4 DA WAIT is less polished, despite the fact that Carti had half a decade to work on it. In exchange for that polish is a level of experimentation which Carti hadn’t truly ventured into before.
His formula remains the same, as well as the things which have made him so iconic (like the voice switches, adlibs and the production quality), but he pushes that formula in interesting ways. That doesn’t always mean interesting, as tracks like “OPM BABI” are among his absolute worst due to the excess of adlibs, but for the most part Carti’s efforts pay off. “RADAR” and “FINE S**T” demonstrate this, and even songs with some overdone elements like the beat in “EVIL J0RDAN” remain entertaining because of how well they capitalize on Carti’s strengths.
Probably the best highlight of the project were the features. Both Carti and the artists featured seem to give some of, if not their best performances on the album when in tandem with one another. “RATHER LIE,” “CHARGE THEM H**S A FEE” and “TRIM” are some of his best songs ever. Future stands out as the definite MVP on the feature list, but Travis Scott, Jhene Aiko and the Weeknd aren’t far behind. Kendrick Lamar was definitely a unique addition, but his style seems to mesh with Carti’s better than it initially seemed.
Other great features include Young Thug and TY Dolla $ign on “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES” and Skepta in “TOXIC”. The only poor performance was Lil Uzi, who wasn’t particularly good or bad. His place in the album speaks more to Carti’s song selection than it does to Uzi’s abilities as a rapper.
Despite all the praise Carti has earned, it’s necessary to acknowledge that I AM MUSIC - SORRY 4 DA WAIT suffers from a volume issue, and while it serves as a great demonstration of Carti’s style, it gets tiring at times. 34 songs is a lot, and towards the end it feels exhausting to digest in one sitting. The ending is definitely strong with songs like “BACKRooMS”, “SOUTH ATLANTA BABY” and 2024, but that ending stretch would hit better if there wasn’t so much fluff preceding it.
Overall, I AM MUSIC - SORRY 4 DA WAIT is an entertaining album. It isn’t perfect, but it displays what Carti excels at and is coupled with some of the best collaborations of the past six months.
Though a fun watch, the movie adaption of history’s most successful video game seems to prioritize clipworthy moments and a nonstop flurry of memes over a coherent plot.
About halfway through “A Minecraft Movie”, a CGI pig threatens Jack Black’s Steve, unironically warning he will “unalive” him unless he hands over an Orb that would let the pigs take over the Overworld. While death threats aren’t new in action and adventure movies, there’s something not quite right about online vocabulary designed only to get past TikTok’s strict community guidelines seeping into dramatic speech in such a frank and decontextualized way. But that’s emblematic of Minecraft as a whole, a movie so catered to a generation whose attention span has been utterly fried by endless scrolling that from scene to scene it genuinely felt like I was rotting on my For You page.
The movie bounces around like a garish pinball machine with the pacing of a lightning bolt to the heart. Characters say random things, do random things, state every thought they are feeling at an elevated volume and are generally just annoying. The whole thing feels almost MadLibs-ian. Nether’s Got Talent? A traveling zoo run by a real estate agent out of her car? Steve breaking into song one too many times? What the hell, sure. As a whole, the film seems game for just about anything, often to its own silly detriment. Each scene feels specifically designed to violently grasp the viewer’s attention, as if the movie feels it’s in danger of losing its audience at any given moment.
Jack Black’s Steve is probably the closest thing the movie has to a lead, offering an extended introductory monologue and quarterbacking the driving plot developments, yet Black has never been quite as annoying as he is here. The character is modeled after Black himself, adopting the Tenacious D persona that has permeated public consciousness thanks to Black’s usually natural charm. Jason Momoa, whose character has some sort of odd rivalry with Steve, is given the chance to flex (no pun intended) his acting skills and natural charisma, with the script adding an extra layer of nuance more than afforded to Black. As for the roles played by the rest of the cast, which includes Wednesday breakout Emma Meyers and Oscar Nominee Danielle Brooks, well, the five(!) credited writers seem to have bitten off more than they can chew.
None of this is to say there aren’t some endearing qualities. There are — they’re just few and far between. Jennifer Coolidge’s school principal character was the most consistently funny of the cast, offering a side plot that I would genuinely enjoy as a 10-episode series. The CGI and design work is also frankly impressive, successfully translating Minecraft’s signature blocky style to the real world without losing much of what makes it so aesthetically pleasing in the first place. Director Jared Hess, whose Napoleon Dynamite looks vaguely like Hamlet in comparison, builds a first act funny enough
that when the film devolves into chaos the chaotic creative spirit feels like overkill.
Underneath the surface, I can’t help but dread the fact that Minecraft heralds the beginning of a new wave of films, one made with Generation Alpha as the priority. If this is what it takes to get kids to movie theaters, then so be it, but I just wish it wasn’t such a stark reminder of why they have such a hard time sitting still and paying attention in the first place.
Summer is right around the corner, and that means that concerts are picking up. Here are some of the most popular artists coming to visit Dallas in the next month.
BY WILLIAM
KENDRICK LAMAR - APR. 26
It’s no surprise that Lamar has come off probably his best year ever. Between winning his beef with Drake, tying a record for five Grammys by one single record and then taking the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show, the rapper is riding high. He comes to AT&T Stadium April 26 to help kick off his new Grand National Tour, a joint venture with SZA to promote their albums GNX and Lana, respectively.
POST MALONE - MAY 9
Post Malone, too, will be embarking on a new concert tour, the “Big A** Stadium Tour,” which starts April 29 in Salt Lake City. It’s no surprise, then, that he will also be coming to Arlington to perform at AT&T Stadium on May 9. The tour is designed to continue promoting his newest album, F-1 Trillion, this time in collaboration with fellow musicians Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell.
HALSEY - MAY 17
Yes, another big artist is starting a new concert tour. Her first in over a year and a half, Halsey will be beginning “For My Last Trick: The Tour” on May 10 to support her 2024 album, The Great Impersonator. On the 17th, she’ll be visiting Dallas’s Dos Equis Pavilion, where she will perform alongside Del Water Gap and the Warning, two of the many artists who she is collaborating with for the tour.
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While political debates rage over President Trump's tariff policies or even his federal workforce reductions, economists and academic leaders are sounding the alarm about a far more consequential development: the drastic cuts to federal scientific research funding.
see RFK'S on page 24
EDITORIAL
For Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, March 25 was just another day. A Muslim, she left her house to celebrate Iftar, Ramadan’s evening meal, with friends. Then, six officers—none in uniform—approached her on the street. They arrested her, put her in an unmarked car, and, before long, she found herself in an ICE facility in Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles away.
But Öztürk wasn’t in the country illegally, and her papers hadn’t expired. She was on a student visa and had spent years in America at various colleges, contributing to the country’s intellectual environment. The PhD student hadn’t committed a crime—she had contributed to an article for the Tufts Daily student newspaper, where she criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and her university’s policy on pro-Palestinian protests.
It wasn’t long before the public noticed the connection between her arrest and the article, and that she was almost certainly detained, with her visa taken away, for this reason. As ICE later said in a press statement, she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” though the agency did not release any evidence to back the accusation.
The glaring issue, however, is not her deportation or how poorly she was treated. It’s what it was for: the most
basic American liberty of freedom of expression. From all the evidence available, she is a prisoner of conscience in the United States of America. Her arrest, in the middle of the street without an indictment or warrant by plainclothes officers feels like something that would be more likley to happen in an authoritarian country.
As it stands, Öztürk will not receive the full rights of a trial, instead getting a hearing before an immigration court. She isn’t definitively innocent, but if she is deported the public may never know the truth. And Öztürk isn’t close to being the only one in her situation. Several students across America’s universities have faced deportation and the revocation of their student visas for a number of reasons, almost all political.
Bizarrely, a new “Catch and Revoke” policy by the State Department seeks to weed out students whom they deem unfit to remain in the country. But this review is not a careful, in-depth analysis to ensure no false accusations: the entire program is based on using AI to spy on students’ activity and then determine whether they are fit for deportation. Recently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio almost seemed to brag that more than 300 student visas had been revoked by the administration, mainly for activism.
see DEPORTATION on page 24
continued from page 23
In another incident, Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, was similarly detained for being a leader and spokesperson at pro-Palestinian protests held at the university. To deport him, Rubio applied a Cold War-era, 1952 law that allowed him to designate non-citizens for deportation himself. A judge recently ruled this deportation legal which could set a dangerous precedent for the hundreds of other detained students. The case still can be appealed, though, so time will tell whether or not judges sympathize with protestors like him. If deported, Khalil will be forced to leave behind his American wife, who is expecting a child in mere weeks.
These actions to restrict free speech are a startling and flagrant violation of the rule of law and America’s values. Though non-citizens and international students don’t enjoy some of the rights that citizens do, they deserve respect and morality. And, as the Supreme Court has previously ruled, even noncitizens in the United States are protected by the First Amendment.
With this recent shift, countless international students and other immigrants will face detention and deportation or have to live in constant fear of it, something unthinkable in a country that has prided itself on being the land of the free. These students aren’t accused of blatant crimes that would warrant a severe punishment or hasty deportation — their crime is speaking their mind.
For many aspiring international students, America could slowly become no longer the land of opportunity or the country with the world’s most prestigious universities. It could become a place where making the wrong statement could land them inside of a cell, betrayed by the country they worked so hard to be a part of. This is a devastating blow to the U.S. — international students help bring intelligence, expertise, and a unique perspective to American universities, contributing to their vaunted status in the world. If they instead become pariahs, they, and the quality of American education, will undoubtedly suffer.
This situation also presents a scary vision for America’s future. Though international students and other immigrants are the ones affected now, there’s no telling that this injustice couldn’t someday spread to U.S. citizens. If expressing controversial opinions is now grounds for legal retribution, then millions of American citizens, who make up the vast majority of protestors, will be in danger.
There have already been moves to erode the rule of law in other areas. Though the government hasn’t taken direct action to arrest citizens involved in college protests, it has threatened retribution by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars from universities if they allow protests deemed crossing the line. Similarly, law firms representing government opponents have also faced targeting.
These actions serve to slowly chip away at the line between freedom and tyranny. Little steps like the deportation of students for free speech, or the threatening of college campuses, could easily add up to something even worse. It’s important for students to support each other, and to not let their inalienable rights slowly fall by the wayside. Several lawsuits already seek to prevent these unconstitutional actions, though few have received definitive rulings. In the meantime, everyday Americans need to stand up for their international brothers and sisters, or else face going through the same injustices themselves.
continued from page 23
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s devastating cuts block $47 billion annually to critical research on Alzheimer’s, heart disease and other conditions. The National Institute of Health has been forced to freeze or cancel numerous federal grants in recent weeks, creating immediate ripple effects throughout the scientific community.
Most concerning is a planned $4 billion reduction in funding for universities and research institutions. This would create unrepairable budget gaps for schools, severely restricting their research capacity. A lot of research would just have to stop with brutal hits to specialized expertise in emerging fields like artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, environmental science and cancer research — areas where American leadership has historically driven global innovation.
tion and cutting financial aid and scholarships. Undergraduate research opportunities will become increasingly scarce as faculty scramble for limited funding, hindering future scientific breakthroughs.
America’s global scientific status is also at risk. For decades, its research universities have attracted the world’s brightest minds and been leaders in cutting-edge innovation. Now, international competitors sense opportunity. France and other nations have begun recruiting American scientists, promising a more welcoming environment. Top students out of high school or college may increasingly choose to study abroad where research funding is more stable.
The Trump administration sees research funding as an expense rather than an investment — yet, the economic argument for research funding can’t be overlooked. Studies from the National Center for American Progress show publicly funded R&D generates returns of 30 percent to 100 percent. American prosperity has historically been fueled by technological advancement, and federal cutbacks now put that legacy in jeopardy.
In particular, anyone facing health challenges is greatly affected by these cuts. Reduced biomedical research leads to longer waits for treatments and slower scientific progress. The economic impact is equally concerning, with fewer specialized jobs available in research.
The effects are already visible. Research labs across the country have begun laying off workers and abandoning projects, including ongoing clinical trials. Prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Columbia, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, have announced hiring freezes. Johns Hopkins University, one of America’s premier research institutions, recently announced 2,200 layoffs due to NIH funding reductions.
And while immediate impacts on student admissions may be limited, the long-term consequences for higher education are catastrophic. Universities typically try to compensate for lost research funding by reducing class sizes, increasing tui-
The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that provides grants to libraries and museums nationwide, has been forced to close entirely, placing its staff on administrative leave. These cuts also jeopardize vital collaboration between universities and surrounding industries that rely on academic research, affecting nearby communities.
Congress must immediately restore research funding to provide stability for the scientific world — but this can’t be done without people speaking out.
Readers concerned about these developments need to contact their local representatives. Visit house.gov or senate.gov to find your elected officials and demand they prioritize research funding above all else.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. If these cuts remain in place, the U.S. risks a lost generation of researchers and innovators capable of addressing our most prominent challenges. The cures for cancer, solutions to climate change and technologies that will power our future economy hang in the balance. Our national security, economic competitiveness and public health depend on maintaining our commitment to scientific research. The time to act is now.
An oversimplified guide to what falls where in our hierarchy of events across campus.
COMMENTARY
MATTHEW HOFMANN Managing Editor
I’d say I am a pretty competitive guy. I want everyone around me to do well, but I want to win. I enjoy winning. And the thing I’ve been trying to win throughout high school has been an SPC championship in lacrosse.
Last Friday, we beat St. John’s at home in the semifinals. It was a dominant performance. The energy was good. Everyone was excited for the final versus ESD. I loved that win.
Fast forward to after the ESD game, and I have to stand and watch our rivals hoist the trophy in their huddle, cheering while doing so, for the tenth year in a row. All four of my high school SPC championships have been lost to ESD. I hated this loss.
What made this loss especially tough is the fact that there isn't a second chance, not one more year I can come back and finally get the job done. All of my SPC championships were lost to ESD.
So as I stood there, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Regret. Anger. Sadness. It all hit me.
And as I’ve thought about it more this weekend, it really is hitting me how many lasts I will be going through in these next few weeks.
I will have my last chapel. My last advisory. My last Upper School assembly. My last St. Mark’s lacrosse practice. So many lasts coming in the next few weeks.
In thinking about these last events, I realized that the anger, sadness and regret I felt could be a postitive. It is a reminder of how meaningful these moments are in my life. If there were infinite opportunities to win an SPC championship, then it wouldn’t mean so much to win
one.
The same thing goes for all of my other school events. There are only so many times that the entire school gathers for convocation. Everyone crowds into the Great Hall, students packing the floor.
In the moment during each of the convocations in the past, they have flown by and seemed liked something that would exist forever.
On the lacrosse field, it seemed like there would always be another morning lift on a Monday, or another day with milk and cookies after practice.
EVEN THOUGH I PARTICIPATED IN CERAMICS FOR JUST A FEW WEEKS MAKING MY PINCH POT, I FELT AT HOME AND INCLUDED IN THEIR INNER CIRCLE.
It always seemed like there would be one more Hammer 44 drill or Blue vs White scrimmage day.
So back to me standing there, watching ESD celebrate. I look back at that with a different perspective now.
Life is full of finite moments. That is what makes it so special.
To me, there is one shot at pushing off these lasts. In three weeks, SMLAX will start its state playoff run. One more chance to get a win I’ve been searching for these last four years.
But in the end, I will know that I will have more and more of these last moments in my life. I shouldn’t stress about one of these moments too long after it passes or try and delay the inevitable.
As Matthew McConaughey said, “You just got to keep livin' man, L-I-V-I-N.”
COMMENTARY
OLIVER PECK Editorial Editor
As I prepare to graduate in May, I wanted to share some advice for tackling the daunting college application process. Here's what I wish someone had told me from the beginning.
I know you've heard this a million times, but seriously—START EARLY. This doesn't mean finishing all your essays by summer's end, but at least get a solid draft of your personal statement and fill out the basic CommonApp info before senior year begins. When school started, I only had a rough draft of my CommonApp essay, but it’s crucial to get inital ideas on paper so the counselors have something to work with.
Create a document to brainstorm for your supplemental essays—write down your most memorable experiences, and see if you can tie that into an essay. The easier it flows onto the paper, the more authentic it’s going to be. Don’t worry about how you’ll be perceived; focus on telling your story.
Trust me on this: frontloading this work makes a massive difference once first quarter assignments start piling up. Your applications will be significantly better when you're not frantically writing them the night before deadlines.
Choosing where to apply can be tricky, but ask yourself some of these questions: What kind of campus size feels right? Can you handle freezing winters or prefer year-round sunshine? Stay close to home or venture far? Life in the city or a college town?
Start with a broad list (anywhere from 15-30 schools) and systematically narrow it down. I created an Excel spreadsheet with columns for application deadlines, my level of interest, key statistics and other important info. This visual organization helped me whittle it down to my favorites. Make sure you have a good balance between reach schools, target schools and a couple of safety options. It’s perfectly fine to aim high, but be honest with yourself about your chances. If you can visit campuses, TAKE NOTES IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOUR TOUR. Quickly jot down what you liked and didn't like while it's fresh—these impressions blur together after you've seen multiple schools. Months later, you'll be glad you have them. Maybe my biggest advice: talk to actual students at your top-choice schools. Ask the counselors for contact information and reach out to set up a call. Students are genuinely excited to share their experiences and help you figure out if their school is right for you. I spoke with five college students across three different schools, and these conversations were key in my final decision.
Applying Early Decision (ED) comes down to personal preference. Many of my classmates chose not to ED to keep their options open or because their top choice didn't offer it. I went the ED route and couldn't be happier with my decision, but there's no right answer here. That said, if you're torn between a few favorite schools that offer ED, I'd encourage you to choose one and go for it. The admissions advantage is significant, and if you've done your research and found a school you truly love, the commitment shouldn't feel scary.
Choosing to use an outside college counselor is up to you, but after briefly trying one, I realized our school counselors were all the support I needed. The three counselors we have are amazing if you take the time to build a genuine relationship with at least one of them early in the process. Remember, they'll be writing your recommendation letters, so the more you connect with them the better.
Though it sounds impossible now, try not to let applications consume your entire life. If you survived the end of junior year, college applications are practically a cakewalk (not really but still). Chipping away at it over the course of five or six months makes it completely manageable.
Looking back, this period holds some of my favorite high school memories. I chose not to overload on APs and instead took classes that genuinely interested me—and I've never enjoyed school more.
The application process can feel like a grind, so it’s important not to sacrifice your well-being or time with friends and family just to squeeze in one more extracurricular or AP class. Remember to actually enjoy your senior year. Take breaks when needed. The best possible version of yourself emerges in applications when you're not burning out. I hope these insights make your application journey a little smoother. If this helps even one person feel more confident, then sharing my experience was worth it. Good luck future seniors!
LACROSSE SPRING BREAK The lacrosse team played in Vero Beach, Florida from March 15 to March 17. The first game consisted of a 11-3 victory over Vero Beach High School and the second game was a thrilling 6-5 loss against St. Edwards. The first game was on March 15 and the second game was on March 17. Standout players included sophomore Mac Saye who put up multiple goals against Vero Beach and junior Rocco Renda with multiple defensive outings against St. Andrews.
LUKA RETURNS TO DALLAS Despite an underwhelming season, Mavericks fans flooded the American Airlines Center to witness the homecoming of their former franchise player who was traded three months earlier: Luka Doncic. Emotions were at an apex following a tribute video to Doncic, and multiple “fire Nico [Harrison, Maverick’s general manager]” chants were initiated throughout the game. With the support of the Dallas community, Doncic put on a barrage of buckets during his return, accumulating 45 points while going 16-28 from the field.
FLORIDA WINS MARCH MADNESS Sixty-four teams fought to beat the daunting odds and bring home a championship for their school in the March Madness tournament. Yet another year passed lacking a perfect bracket. Most lost when 12-seed McNeese upset 5-seed Clemson, leaving only 5% of brackets perfect. Despite all of the first seeds winning their conference, the predictable Final-Four matchups led to thrilling victories, with Houston going on a 14-3 run in their comeback win. Ultimately, the Florida Gators took home the national championship, marking their third tournament win.
7 14 St. Mark’s ESD VARSITY LACROSSE, 4/12
Mark’s TACA VARSITY BASEBALL, 4/11
Mark’s Oakridge VARSITY TENNIS, 4/8 3 14 5 0
Senior Jack Frary and math instructor Lauren Logan reflect on their high school sports careers and their decisions to not pursue athletics in college.
BY NEIL YEPURI AND RONIT KONGARA
High school athletes dedicate significant hours of their weeks to practicing and building themselves up for peak performance. Despite having academics, these students go above and beyond to allocate their time in an effective manner, turning their life into the ultimate balancing act.
I remember that fateful day in May 2023. Liverpool F.C slotted seven goals past Manchester United. As Roberto Firmino danced his way to the stands, the United coach and players looked helplessly for an answer to their unexpected downfall. That was the day I realized my team was a bad team.
I have surrounded myself with sports my whole life. Whether it was watching the national Mexican team lose against the Netherlands in the 2014 World Cup, or seeing the Arizona Cardinals miss out on the playoffs, I have always seen my teams fail time and time again.
For most people, these losses would be a sign to maybe cheer for a different team or to simply stop watching until their teams win. There have been times where I questioned my passion for these teams. There have been times when I see other fans celebrating either a Champions League trophy or a Super Bowl and I wish that was me celebrating.
My love for the Arizona Cardinals was brought to life when my grandpa and my dad took me and my brother to our first ever NFL game. When I saw the team running into the field with such energy and prowess, there was just something about those black and red uniforms that almost spoke to me. I didn’t know that the Cardinals were one of the few teams that had never won a championship, I only knew that that team was the one I wanted to watch.
For Manchester United, it was different. As any young kid living in México during the 2010s, you were either a Real Madrid or Barcelona fan. I opted for Real Madrid, but as that club won time after time, I began to lose the love for supporting a team. I kept asking myself: “What is the point of cheering for a team if all you do is win?” The player that brought me out of this dull cycle was none other than Marcus Rashford: Manchester United’s elegant and energetic winger. I remember watching him play with so much risk and flair, but he always managed to remain composed and poised.
When I began supporting Manchester United, I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew they weren’t the triumphant and powerful team they once were, but there was something about the passion of the fans and the players that appealed to me. Year after year Manchester United began to fall farther and further away from glory. Gone were the days where trophies would shine in their stadium, and for many years I did not get to celebrate for any of the teams.
SPORT: Tennis
GAME: St. Mark’s vs Oakridge
DATE: April 8
SCORE: Lions 5, Owls 0
STATS: Li won all six of his sets in the varsity tennis teams match against Oakridge.
But, at some point, that act has to end. A miniscule percentage of high school athletes go on to play a sport in college, and an even smaller percentage of that group goes on to the professional level. Eventually, other things – jobs, families, or other responsibilities – take precedence over competitive athletics.
It’s not easy to give up such a major part of life, but some high school athletes are faced with that decision. Some choose to continue their sport in college; however, some choose not to.
For senior Jack Frary, sports have been a major part of his time in high school, being on both the football and baseball teams. But, baseball holds a special place in his heart.
“I’ve been playing baseball for as long as I can remember, probably since I was 3 or 4 with T ball,” Frary said.
Throughout high school, Frary had trained with one goal in mind: to get recruited to play in college. So, Frary set up a training regiment geared towards rapid improvement, with college scholarship offers in mind.
I remember May 25, 2024 when Wembley Stadium had a rift in its color as Manchester United faced Manchester City in the FA Cup Final. I remember being scared, praying and hoping for a miracle. Manchester United had played one of its worst seasons historically, and the FA Cup was the miracle that both the team and fanbase needed. I screamed as the full-time whistle echoed throughout the stadium; Manchester United had just won 2-1.
When I think about supporting a bad sports team I think about enjoying the small moments. Loving teams that constantly lose and that bring constant disappointment have shown me that life is about enjoying the small victories too. Most times life moves so quickly that we only stop to enjoy huge triumphs, rarely do we stop and think about those small moments of joy that at the time seemed meaningless.
In February, freshman Elijah Kim won the cadet men’s saber division at the Junior Olympics hosted in North Carolina. Originally starting fencing as a complete rookie at age 10, Kim has come a long way from his beginnnings.
BY RONIT KONGARA AND WILLIAM KOZOMAN
En Garde
His body tenses up in anticipation of the upcoming start.
Prêts
Allez
He shoots off the line, sword and body moving in unison, a single blur, towards his opponent.
And just like that, the bout is already over.
On Feb. 17, freshman Elijah Kim competed in the USA Fencing Junior Olympics hosted in Charlotte. Competing in the Cadet Men’s Saber division, Kim won the gold medal, defeating his opponent in the final match 15-7.
Kim has been fencing since he was young, starting first at the age of 10. Initially driven by the need to defeat his brother in lightsaber duels, Kim fell in love with the sport, continuing with this passion through middle school and into high school.
“There was one night I remember where I was playing with lightsabers, and my brother kept beating me in duels and so I said to my mom, ‘Mom, I want to go, and learn how to fence,so I can come back and beat him in a sword fight,’” Kim said. “Starting out, I (became) very passionate about the sport.”
Starting out was not an easy journey for Kim. Instead, the path to becoming a good fencer was full of learning experiences and struggles. Completely unaware of what fencing was when joining originally, Kim learned to adapt to the new sport, one different from anything he had experienced before. But, he certainly wasn’t a prodigy at the start. Through losing matches and gaining more experience as a fencer, Kim learned a valuable lesson on what differentiated a beginner fencer from an elite level one.
“I think the number one thing is to not think of yourself as like a small fish in a big pond. I realized that if you just believe in yourself, you can be like all these other guys who you think in your head are really good,” Kim said. “You’re not as bad as you think. Those guys aren’t as good as you think. They’re also human. Because in fencing, the mental aspect is the biggest part, because that can either win you the match or completely lose you the match.”
But Kim’s progression has not been just his alone. Kim attributes a lot of his success to the coaching he has received and the role models he has had around him during his journey. Having joined one of the top fencing clubs in the nation, Kim
was surrounded by strong fencers who were some of the best in the nation, and he looked up to them as someone to become like.
I REALIZED THAT YOU JUST HAVE TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, THAT YOU CAN BE LIKE ALL THESE OTHER GUYS WHO YOU THINK IN YOUR HEAD ARE REALLY GOOD. YOU’RE NOT AS BAD AS YOU THINK. THEY AREN’T AS GOOD AS YOU THINK.”
Elijah Kim, freshman fencer
“I would say there was a lot of role models were older than me at my club who I really looked up to when I was younger, and I wanted to become like them. There’s a lot of professional guys who I look up to, fencing wise, who I try to take lessons from and try to mature to be like,” Kim said.
Having reached the top as one of the
best fencers in his age group in the nation, Kim has seen a lot of success in his fencing career, but the circumstances of his success are not lost on him. Leading up to Junior Nationals, Kim realized how lucky he was to be in that position.
“I realized that I’m so privileged to to have the coaches and have a group, because it takes a village, right?” Kim said. “I’m so fortunate to have that kind of base, especially to say, like how random is it that the Korean national coach came to Texas of all places to start up a fencing club that is now the best saber club for 8 years in a row. And so I’m just so I was just so grateful that everything worked out in my like to create that result.”
Kim’s journey has also had an affect on him as a person. According to Kim, the randomness of outcomes in fencing has put him in some vulnerable positions that have taught him valuable lessons in his spiritual journey.
“I think that it really because fencing is a sport where on any given day, anybody can win, right? There’s been cases in the past where I lose to somebody who’s just
BY ARCHER WILBURN
Over the weekend of March 8-9, athletes from across the country gathered at Duncanville Fieldhouse in Frisco, Texas for the GasoNextGen Tournament.
Among them, freshman Wes Jackson showcased his talent to gain the appraisal of college scouts and tournament administrators.
Sophomore Dawson Battie presented his talents at the tournament, demonstrating his impressive shooting ability, along with sharp court vision.
Unlike a traditional multi-day camp, the GasoNextGen event was a one-day showcase, where players were assigned to teams based on age rather than experience.
The opportunity to showcase their
abilities with new players from out-ofstate was pivotal for their development as a player.
“It was really a new opportunity for me to play with new people,” Jackson said. “It gave me a chance to show my skills without restrictions, without coaching— just freedom to hoop and get my name out there.”
Jackson didn’t disappoint, playing several impressive games throughout the tournament.
Across three showcase games, he put up solid numbers: 15 points, six rebounds, and an assist in the first game; a standout performance of 19 points, five rebounds, and two assists in the second; and 10 points, four rebounds and an assist in the last game.
His hustle and determination allowed
him to put up an impressive performance among a camp of athletes brewing with talent.
“A couple of (scouts) came up to me, took pictures, or wrote down what they saw me do. It felt good to know someone was watching and that my hard work is really paying off. I spent countless hours in the gym before— it felt good.”Jackson said.
Not only did he get the recognition he was searching for, but also he built valuable connections and gained confidence, fueling his passion for next season.
However, for athletes the showcase isn’t just about exposure. It represents their commitment to the game of basketball.
“It definitely takes a lot of time,” Jackson said. “If it’s something you want
like, ‘who even is that?’ And I’m just like, ‘Why? Why am I fencing? Like, what is the point of all this?’ But through those kind of experiences where you lose to somebody who’s way worse, you find yourself in such a vulnerable position, and it’s in that moment that I feel like I grew the closest in my spiritual journey with God.” Kim said. “And I think that’s the number one thing that that has developed me as a person, I would say that yes, the different qualities are great, or that those like kind of virtues are important to learn, but I think those naturally come with with your character development when you walk close to God.”
As for Kim’s plans for the future, he hopes to get recruited by a college in the future and continue his academic journey there. As for a professional career in fencing, Kim doesn’t wish to go down that path, but he does have one long term goal he hopes to achieve in his fencing career.
“Qualification for fencing in the Olympics is really tough, so I don’t know,” Kim said. “I’ll see where it takes me, and whether it be at 2020 or 2032 or even 2036, that’s my goal, where I want to compete.”
to be good at, you’re going to have to make sacrifices. You gotta get in the gym. Right now, I’m learning how to balance everything—training, school, and I don’t have a lot of time to be with friends—but it’s the choice I made and I’ll stick by it.”
Looking ahead, his goals are clear: make varsity next year, showcase his talent, then go DI for college basketball.
“I want to play at the highest level I can and get those opportunities to really test myself,” Jackson said. “Varsity would be that next step—to see what I need to work on, what I do well, and prepare for the next level.”
With talent, determination, and a sharp scholastic future, Jackson is making all the right moves on and off the court.
Many athletes have bought into new sports technologies marketed on social media and TV, but it’s important to ensure the safety and integrity of these products through thorough research.
BY WESTON CHANCE AND MARSHALL SUDBURY
Most people have encountered an athlete that seems to be covered from head to toe in accessories. Most of the time, a favorable appearance is paramount, but sometimes athletes hope to gain a competitive edge with these items. From all different configurations of arm and leg sleeves, to athletic tapes, to special shoe insoles, to Q-collars, to recovery devices, sports consumerism has become increasingly popular among athletes. However, many new technologies tend to lack consistent results.
For sophomore lacrosse player JT Teinert, a Q-collar helps him feel safer on the field.
“Its purpose is to protect my brain by reducing its movement during hits, in addition to safety and long term health,” Teinert said. “In lacrosse, contact is unavoidable, so I’ll try anything to protect my body. I think what it does is more important than how it works.”
Head Athletic Trainer Matt Hjertstedt
DIGGING IN ON THE RESEARCH IS REALLY IMPORTANT. WITH THOSE TWO (GUARDIAN CAP AND Q-COLLAR), THERE’S NOT REALLY A TON OF GREAT STUDIES. SO, I THINK IT’S JUST BEING REALLY CAUTIOUS OF WHAT YOUR’RE PURCHASING AND WHY.”
Matt Hjertstedt, head athletic trainer
has seen athletes try all sorts of alternative technologies to aid their safety or performance. Athletes who compete in contact sports require more protective gear and often suffer from higher injury rates, so they are more likely to buy into new equipment claiming to protect players.
“I think a lot of (these devices) are related to football – for example, a Guardian Cap, which is that rubber shell that goes over the top of the football helmet,” Hjertstedt said. “A Q-Collar would be something else, and both of those are theoretically put out there for concussion prevention.”
However, potential buyers should still be wary of how effective these technologies really are, even if companies claim that their product can help players avoid injury or concussion.
“Digging in on the research is really important,” Hjerstedt said. “With those two, there’s not really a ton of great studies. So, I think it’s just being really cautious of what you’re purchasing and why.”
The school, however, has invested in some new technologies for athletes, especially for recovery purposes. Many of these have become quite popular among Marksmen. For instance, the training room features Normatec, air compression devices geared toward combating soreness in the legs.
“Normatec has good research behind it,
BY MARSHALL SUDBURY
which is why we purchased it as an item to help somebody recover. It’s also created for a very specific instance where somebody is doing very hard, repetitive workouts, day after day after day,” Hjertstedt said. “When I recommended getting it, it was for our SPC tournaments because we do back-toback-to-back games, so we were trying to let the guys get the most optimal recovery in between.”
While recovery items make up a large faction of sports consumerism, athletes also use accessories in games to feel more comfortable or enhance their looks. While wearing some tape or an arm sleeve mightseem inconsequential, every piece of gear has an effect on the body.
“Whenever you put something on or in the body… even if it’s just ibuprofen or an ankle tape, there are always consequences for what you’re doing,” Hjertstedt said. “If I lock down your ankle, which is because we’re focusing on ankle stability due to an injury; you might not have as much plantar flexion now in your foot, so your hamstrings are going to have to work harder. There’s always a risk versus reward.”
Companies use the media and advertising to hype up their products to consumers, some even going as far as making claims about producing state-ofthe-art equipment that exceeds expectations in testing. However, those claims don’t always prove to be true.
“I think that helmets get really oversold in the concussion prevention world,” Hjertstedt said. “Some have better scores, but the research has shown that those don’t necessarily translate over to better concussion prevention.”
Often, the trainers have found, athletes can better prepare themselves by eating healthy and getting enough sleep rather than by purchasing the most expensive gear.
“As a high school athlete, your goal should be to eat a well-balanced diet. You need lots of carbohydrates and calories,” Hjertstedt said. “My biggest concern is herbal supplements and caffeine. Celsius is one that gets advertised as a healthy energy drink and it’s not.”
Q-COLLAR
A neck device that protects an athlete’s brain during impact. Normally used in high-contact sports such as football and lacrosse.
LEG SLEEVE
A tight and elastic band of fabric that is used to improve blood flow.
NORMATEC
A compression device that provides physical therapy that helps athletes recover.
The Lions recently sent eight rowers to San Diego for the first time to compete in the San Diego Crew Classic, hosted from March 28-30. The regatta, which hosts competitions for hundreds of high school, college, and adult teams, includes some of the best teams in the nation, giving the crew program a chance to prove itself before regional and national championships.
“It’s a regatta where a lot of the top national teams in America will come together and it gives us a good representation of where we stack up,” junior Ian McGowan said. “It was really fun getting to compete against some really competitive teams in San Diego.”
As a newcomer to the regatta, the two four-man boats were placed in lanes that were more susceptible to the wind and other elements, which can slow the teams down.
“Lane placement is really important on that course. The higher ranked lanes have more protection for the wind, so you have the potential to row faster and it gives you a little advantage,” McGowan said. “Since it was our first year there, we kind of got thrown in a worse lane.”
Despite their minor disadvantages and unfamiliarity with the course, the two boats still placed well as they rowed in salt water for the first time.
“We had decent races, but nothing out of the ordinary, and we ended up barely missing the finals because we were in a
really fast heat,” McGowan said. “And since the regatta is in salt water, your boat will ride a little higher in the water, so that changes how things feel.”
Besides their own races, the crew team enjoyed the beach and watching some of the top college crew teams compete.
“After our heat on Saturday, we went to the beach to hang out and have fun,” McGowan said. “Then the event also had collegiate races, and there were some very good men’s rowing teams there… It was fun to see all the good racing happening.”
Out of the hundreds of teams competing, most were from the West Coast, as St. Mark’s represented the only Texas highschool team in San Diego, although a handful of other school-based rowing clubs also participated. Several
Texas teams sent their boats together in order to minimize the costs of shipping the boats to San Diego.
“All the Texas teams sent all of our boats in one trailer,” McGowan said. “We brought our boats down to Austin and the Texas Rowing Club was kind enough to drive our boats to San Diego.”
Crew now looks forward to the US Rowing Central Youth Championships, which will be hosted in Oklahoma City in early May. The top three boats in each event will then qualify for the national championship event held in Florida.
“I’ve never been on a team where we didn’t qualify for nationals,” McGowan said. “Nationals is the ultimate goal, that’s what we all have our eyes set on.”
“Powerhouse” is a well-known term used often to describe the top schools in the country despite its subjective nature. Assistant Athletic Director Josh Freisen and sophomore Asher Yoffe touch on the characteristics of a powerhouse program.
BY SAM MORSE AND MICHAEL JIMENEZ
Duke Basketball. University of Alabama Football.
Both of these programs have dominated in their sports, competed for national titles and gained the respect of their opponents year in and year out. Through their consistent accomplishments, the sports community has given each of these schools the coveted title of “powerhouse”.
The term “powerhouse” isn’t limited to college sports, however, as various powerful high schools have been coined football or basketball powerhouses across the country. Monteverde basketball, Prolific Prep basketball and Mater Dei football, among many others, have all reached this level of dominance.
This term is supposed to retain value and only be given to a select number of schools who have proven themselves as the greatest of their sport. However, it is often thrown around carelessly, regardless of whether the school dominates in a small conference or on a national stage.
For Assistant Athletic Director Josh Freisen, powerhouse schools deserve the title through how other schools perceive and react to them.
“When other kids are coming to your school and measuring themselves against you, then that starts to establish that you’re the top dog,” Freisen said. “When people are excited to beat you, that shows that you were a focus of theirs and that they took you seriously.”
As a Kansas alumnus, Freisen has experienced the environment of a well-known athletic program and has felt the pressure of playing on a team with high expectations. Despite the elevated standards, Freisen and his teammates remained gracious with each win, which Freisen has noticed is a common trait amongst powerhouse schools.
“One sign of a team that believes in itself is they don’t over celebrate wins. They know
they’re going to win. They expect to win,” Freisen said. “They don’t rush the court, they don’t rush the field. They don’t overly celebrate because they expect to win the game.”
With consistent winning and an expectation to succeed comes a certain sportsmanship that creates mutual respect between both teams. For example, football powerhouses such as Alabama take pride in refusing to storm the field after a win, despite their enthusiastic fanbase, because they see it as disrespectful.
Similarly, St. Mark’s upholds the same values of sportsmanship, taking pride in winning with grace and losing with humility. As a freshman basketball coach, Freisen looks to promote the same values in his players.
“I hope that everybody shows respect, because if you’re being disrespected then disrespecting others doesn’t help you climb the ladder,” Freisen said. “I would hope that all schools, whether or not they are a powerhouse, would want to earn people’s respect by doing things the right way.”
While others schools’ perception of another program weighs heavily on coining a program as a powerhouse, for sophomore Asher Yoffe, a program’s culture and history of winning are the ultimate determining factors.
“It all starts with winning, and then the culture adds to it,” Yoffe said. “The worst team in the league with a good culture isn’t going to be a powerhouse, but a good team with a winning culture separates them from normal good teams.”
With the ever-changing dynamic of sports, there will always be underdog teams that make a surge to the top of the standings any given season. However, the term powerhouse can only be earned through sustained success over the course of many years.
“Consistency is extremely important because, for example, with the Spurs, they were an amazing
team a few years ago, but people look over that now just because they’ve had a few rough years,” Yoffe said.
Although every program across the country has a culture associated with them, a coach can completely turn a program around by instilling a culture of winning in their players, promoting team success over individual accolades.
I WOULD HOPE THAT ALL SCHOOLS, WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE A POWERHOUSE, WOULD WANT TO EARN PEOPLE’S RESPECT BY DOING THINGS THE RIGHT WAY”
Josh Freisen, Assistant Athletic Director
“A big piece is coaches who are not harsh, but demand a lot from their players, like UCONN and Dan Hurley, where all the players hold each other accountable,” Yoffe said.
For the most elite high school programs, competing at the national level against other highly touted teams across the country is what separates them from the rest of the pack.
“National recognition is pretty important,” Yoffe said. “For the teams that travel the country and play other national teams, then it’s extremely important.”
In the case of St. Mark’s, playing a national schedule against the top ranked teams isn’t feasible, however, some teams can be considered a powerhouse at the local and state level.
“There’s teams who play St. Mark’s, they know St. Mark’s and they plan against you,” Yoffe said. “If teams are talking about you on their schedule and they’re worried about you, I think it’s definitely something that can qualify you as a powerhouse.”
Coach Dwight Phillips looks back on how his playing career at Texas Tech University exposed him to the people who have inspired his philosophy and molded him into the coach he is today.
BY MICHAEL JIMENEZ, WESTON CHANCE AND ARCHER WILBURN
Lower Schoolers run rampant around the gym in their yellow shirts and blue shorts as foam balls fly across the room. Amongst all of the coaches, one distinct voice can be heard above them all.
Later in the day, as the Middle School basketball team prepares to take the court, that same voice can be heard and recognized by almost everyone on campus.
For both students and athletes alike, coach Dwight Phillips has served as a role model and inspiration for countless students and alumni across campus.
For Phillips, after his collegiate basketball career came to an end, the guidance he received throughout his collegiate career inspired him to become a coach in hopes of spreading those same lessons to the next generation of athletes.
“I coached basketball for 13 years and then I came to St. Mark’s and I’ve been here 25 years,” Phillips said. “I’ve coached football, basketball, track and field, and now I coach volleyball also.”
I HAD A GREAT OPPORTUNITY HERE TO COACH SOME OF THE BEST ATHLETES A PRIVATE SCHOOL COULD OFFER AND BE PART OF A SCHOOL SO SPECIAL.”
Throughout his career here, Phillips’ passion for coaching has impacted many athletes and coaches. That passion can be traced back to his early days in college when he was coached by Gerald Myers, the former head coach for the Texas Tech basketball team.
“My passion came from my college coach. He was in that company with Bobby Knight and those guys, creating great chemistry” Phillips said.
The experience of playing at a prestigious basketball program gave him the desire to continue his love for the sport. Playing at Texas Tech lit a fire in him, one that continues to shape his coaching philosophy today.
“I always wanted to be that coach. My dream was to coach college basketball, but when I came to St. Mark’s, that
changed,” Phillips said. “I had a great opportunity here to coach some of the best athletes a private school could offer and be part of a school so special.”
Phillips’ desire to win is what has ultimately shaped his coaching style into what it is today. Now, as a coach of multiple teams across campus, he hopes to spread those same messages from college to his players.
“My philosophy is that I’m going to outwork you. I’m going be physical, and I’m going to make life miserable for you,” Phillips said.
Junior Pranav Danda has had the opportunity to work with Phillips both as an advisor and as a coach. Now, the
starting varsity point guard for the Lions, Danda credits Phillips as playing a major role in his development on and off the court.
“As an advisor, Coach Phillips placed a big emphasis on being respectful and the way we interacted with adults and classmates,” Danda said. “He emphasized how important it is to take care of each other.”
During Danda’s seventh grade year, when Covid-19 precautions still loomed large, Phillips coached Danda in the middle school intramural basketball league.
“We really practiced the fundamentals,” Danda said. “But he also understood that scrimmaging and learning through
continued from page 26
“Starting the summer after my freshman year, I really haven’t gone more than just a couple days without working towards my goal of getting recruited in college. I had a routine of throwing, hitting, lifting that was pretty much every day of the week,” Frary said.
To Frary, baseball and the process of trying to achieve his goal became a part of who he was. But as the time for recruitment rolled around, Frary’s ultimate goal fell through. Changes in NCAA roster rules in 2025 led to reduced scholarships across many sports this past year. Thus, many of the spots in the top baseball programs were filled quickly. Frary, stuck in this recruitment mess, eventually ended up not committing anywhere for baseball.
“I did look into some Division III schools, but it really just didn’t feel like it would be the same level as playing Division I athletics that I had aspired for, and I wasn’t super sure that I would really enjoy the Division III lifestyle as much as getting the choice of where I wanted to go
to college based off academics,” Frary said.
So, after getting into Vanderbilt, Frary decided to not continue his baseball career at the collegiate level, though still open to acting as a walk-on on Vanderbilt’s team.
Frary, however, isn’t the only member of the community who has made this decision. Middle School math teacher Lauren Logan played volleyball at a very high level during her high school career, but she also decided to not play at the collegiate level (though for different reasons).
For Logan, the decision came down to what she hoped to gain out of going to college and what she wanted to experience. Collegiate athletes often have their college lives centered around their sports, with separate dorms, special meal plans, modified class schedules and whole different classes. Logan did not want this.
“(I decided not to) because I wanted a well rounded experience in college,” Logan said. “When you’re a collegiate athlete, that’s all you do. You have to love the sport, you have to be all in, and you have to
be a die hard athlete for that sport. And as much as I love volleyball, I wanted to also experience everything that is college, and not just the volleyball aspect.”
IT HELPED ME TAKE A STEP BACK AND LOOK AT MY LIFE AND BE GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING I HAD AND ALL THE POSITIVES.”
Lauren Logan, Middle School math instructor
Though not competing with the actual college team, Logan maintained her passion for volleyball by joining an intramural volleyball team that competed against other student teams within the University of Arizona, and she now coaches the sport here.
Though both Logan and Frary dropped major parts of their lives, both believe that they learned something from the decision to step back from sports. For Logan, taking that step back helped her realize that there was more to her life than just
live game scenarios was really important. For me specifically, he taught me how to be more of a vocal leader on the court, which is something I pride myself on.”
Beyond the role of advisor and coach and in addition to being one of the nicest people on campus, Danda appreciates all the times Phillips truly went above and beyond to help him succeed.
“When I was a freshman and I hadn’t even played a single minute of high school basketball, he showed up at 6:30 a.m. every morning to put the hoops down, just so I could get some shots up before school,” Danda said.
volleyball.
“It helped me think big picture because I was able to take a step back,” Logan said. “At the time, in any sports season, that’s all you’re thinking about. You’re all in but at the end of the day that sport is typically only three months out of a year. It isn’t the end all be all of everybody’s life. It helped me take a step back and look at my life and be grateful for everything I had and all the positives.”
Frary experienced a similar realization–that baseball isn’t everything. But, he has absolutely no regrets about the path he took to get to where he is.
“I think that time away from the daily hitting and throwing has helped me kind of realize that life is still great without baseball,” Frary said. “It’s just one aspect of life. I’m really grateful for all the time and all the hours I put in. I have definitely surpassed anything that I thought I would be able to do in terms of skill. It’s hard to have any regrets, because I really do think I did almost everything in my power to try to reach my goals and achieve my goals. But you know, all good things must come to an end.”
As players continuously improve, coaches are now turning to statistics gathered throughout the season to influence play calls throughout games.
BY AKASH MANICKAM AND CHRISTOPHER GUFFEY
In the first game of the Lions’ varsity football season this year, the team fell short by one point to the Fort Worth Country Day Falcons. After a furious fourth-quarter comeback, head varsity football coach Harry Flaherty elected to play for overtime instead of attempting a risky two-point conversion. While the attempt failed, Flaherty and the rest of the team lived with the choice.
In the final game of the Lions’ varsity football season, the team prevailed by one point against the rival Episcopal School of Dallas. This time, it was the Lions who shut down a two-point conversion while scoring four touchdowns with four successful extra points.
The science of late-game heroics is becoming increasingly scrutinized as decision-making technology advances. More detailed data collection tells a more complete story of each game, play by play.
No sport is an exact science, but the onus is now on coaches to find the balance between the numbers and their instincts.
Flaherty says analytics is a broad field with many subcategories, and that both the usage and depth of analytics varies with the level of the sport. For the varsity football team, Flaherty uses data to optimize each practice during the week leading up to Friday night games, and he has developed his analysis techniques over the course of his entire coaching career.
“We perform weekly and yearly ‘selfscouts’ that give us a breakdown of the schemes we have run and the success of those schemes,” Flaherty said. “We break down opponents’ film to determine their schematic tendencies against certain formations or in different situations. We analyze how many practice reps we got on certain schemes and concepts compared to how often we actually ran them in games.”
The Athletic, NBA and Basketball Business writer Mike Vorkunov, who covered the New York Knicks for more than three seasons, says that widespread understanding of advanced statistics will eventually reach the more casual tiers of the sports community.
“There is a lot more analysis based off of advanced stats and analytics than there used to be,” Vorkunov said. “The media has been more fluent in that stuff. But mostly, as teams have changed their approach to playing basketball and how it builds rosters, that has a trickle down effect on how the media understands basketball and covers the game.”
At the collegiate and professional level, physical measurables play a more important role. In categories such as height, weight, arm length, and speed, players are compared to existing professionals and probed for indicators of future success. Processes such as the NFL Draft and Pro Days allow scouts to both collect these metrics and see the prospect up close.
Recent developments in technology have driven the focus of sports analytics to coaching decisions. Flaherty has observed this trend both through personal experience
and throughout the football community.
“What do the percentages say about attempting an onside kick?” Flaherty said. “What does the ‘card’ say about whether we should go for two in this situation? If we go for it on fourth down and don’t make it, what are the chances they score from this field position? As these types of charts and data sources have become more prominent, new careers have emerged as a result. I have had several college classmates and teammates combine their statistics and economics backgrounds with their athletic experiences to forge careers with professional sports teams.”
Vorkunov believes the lack of accessibility for sensitive information on professional teams is an issue for outside analysts. However, certain widely available sources of data have helped him through his career.
“Most of the analytics that teams use is tightly held and often doesn’t get beyond the team’s facility, and certainly does not go to the public,” Vorkunov said. “There are several public databases that are very good and helpful, like KenPom for college basketball and Darko and EPM for the NBA. I use that when I try to assess teams and players and sometimes might use it in stories or to guide stories or opinions.”
Flaherty says that, despite the technological progress of analytics, his use of databased coaching tools is purely secondary to his personal coaching expertise and experience. When he came to the school, he observed that his approach closely mirrors
the philosophy of Director of Admission and Financial Aid David Baker.
“(He) has very sophisticated systems and
AS TEAMS HAVE CHANGED THEIR APPROACH TO PLAYING BASKETBALL AND HOW IT BUILDS ROSTERS, [ANALYTICS]HAS A TRICKLE DOWN ON HOW THE MEDIA UNDERSTANDS BASKETBALL
Mike Vorkunov, NBA and Basketball Business writer
processes for analyzing and rating applicants, but he will also say, ‘We want to know what data we are ignoring when we make decisions,’” Flaherty said. “In other words, we are going to ultimately use instincts to pick the students we feel are best for the community, but we will be aware of the risk factors as we make these decisions. In football, I am a fan of data and analytics as helpful insights and context, but I do not make decisions purely based on the data.”
Vorkunov follows a similar philosophy in his field. He knows sports is not an exact science and believes context is a vital piece when it comes to analysis.
“Not all data is helpful, whether it’s because the statistics aren’t helpful or because they lack context,” Vorkunov said. “Stats should be part of the story you tell
BY SAM MORSE
Under the beaming lights that engulf the Norma and Lamar Hunt Family Stadium, Senior Captain Henry Estes leads the Lions onto the football field, preparing for the high tension competition under the Friday Night Lights.
With excitement buzzing and fans cheering, hundreds of people watch in support of the Lions. However, one person especially focuses on Henry. Willie Harrison 36’, Henry’s little buddy, asked his mom if he could stay up late and watch Henry finish his game, supporting and caring for Henry’s passions.
Like many other senior-buddy relationships, Estes and Harrison have created a bond over time that’s centered around creating a role model for the young Marksmen. However, after his football season in the fall, Estes decided to reciprocate his support by attending one of Harrison’s basketball games in the winter, not allowing it to degrade to a one-sided senior-buddy dynamic.
Since first attending Harrison’s game, Estes has come to numerous other winter basketball games and spring football games, a moment that brings Harrison excitement each time. Inspired by the impact his own senior buddy had on him, Estes recognizes the importance of taking
advantage of the senior-buddy opportunity.
“I really wanted to support him with everyting he does and make him feel special because I felt special when my senior buddy came to my games,” Estes said.
As a lineman, Estes realizes that his stature may seem intimidating for younger kids, resulting in him looking unapproachable. Taking this into consideration, he makes sure to be present and supportive while fostering his relationship with his buddy.
“My attendance helped him realize that someone older than him can humble himself enough to come to his games,” Estes said. “I also hope he realizes that I’m
— you should not base whole stories on a statistic.”
Vorkunov is cautious about the future of analytics, and he believes that the current hype around the trend may not reflect the actual practical applications of sports data.
“There is still plenty that can be learned about defense and health and sports performance,” Vorkunov said, “and that’s likely where teams are putting their resources and hoping to next gain an edge. I don’t think it will ever be the only way that the media talks about players or how teams make their decisions.
Flaherty emphasizes the importance of balance between the numbers and his personal instincts, and the rest of his coaching staff follows a similar philosophy, including Defensive Coordinator Judd Garret, who scouted opponents and conducted analysis for the Dallas Cowboys.
“If you have a play call you like in a certain situation, you want to know whether it has been successful for you in previous situations,” Flaherty said. “You might still call a high-risk concept because you really like a certain matchup and have a good feel for your players’ confidence to execute, but you at least want to be aware you are taking a risk. I agree that ignoring analytics is detrimental, but being governed by it takes away coaching instincts, ability to read situations, and trust in certain players you believe are ready to execute a specific scheme in a given moment.”
not this giant who doesn’t want to come to his games or is too cool for that.”
Through mutual care for each other’s passion for sports, both Estes and Harrison have created unique memories together, walking onto the field together for both Henry’s basketball and football Senior Nights.
Furthermore, Estes’s presence as a role model outside of the academic world has provided Harrison with essential lessons that come with playing sports. For example, Estes was there for Harrison during a tough loss, encouraging him to keep his head up and take the loss in stride, a unique lesson that best comes from a senior role model.
Last Monday, the senior class hosted a Luau themed prank which students from all grade enjoyed. Festivities included a dunk tank, shaved ice, games on the quad and fun decorations adorning the exterior and interior of buildings.
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