Volume 110, Issue 2

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

OPINIONS

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

The Nuclear Novelty

“The Farewell”

Opinions writer Elena Hlamenko explains why nuclear could be the energy of the future.

Arts & Entertainment writer May Hathaway reviews the critically-acclaimed film in “Farewell to Mediocre Asian Representation.”

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Volume 110 No. 2

Thomas Assumes Role as Assistant Principal of Technology

Over 500 Stuyvesant students marched to Battery Park from Foley Square as they took part in the Global Climate Strike on September 20.

Stuyvesant hosted the premiere of HBO’s new documentary, In the Shadows of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11 on September 10, 2019.

At the recent debate tournament at Yale, junior Aidan Ng and senior Jeffrey Chen won the tournament for Policy while junior Sarai Pridgen finished as an double-octofinalist for Lincoln Douglass. Senior Christian Bae made it to finals and junior Rae Jeong and senior Ben Shpetner made it to Semifinals in Congressional Debate. Junior Eric Han and senior Alex Annenberg went to Octafinals for Public Forum.

Senior and girls Tennis captain Alyssa Pustilnik as well as junior and boys Tennis member Nick Semyonov served as ballpeople at the U.S. Open.

By NICOLE BUREK, SAAD GHAFFOULI, and LINA KHAMZE Dr. Raymond Wheeler, former Assistant Principal (AP) of Music, Art, and Technology, retired this summer. For the coming year, Scott Thomas, AP of Chemistry and Physics, will also act as AP of Technology. In addition to all chemistry and physics courses, he will now oversee technical drawing, AutoCAD classes, photography, robotics, web design, and all other 5-tech and 10-tech classes. Thomas declined to comment on the record for The Spectator.

Principal Eric Contreras believes this change was logical and necessary considering the school’s set budget. “It’s a budget question. The work of the APs has changed tremendously. They do observations, they do scheduling, and they teach. Everything’s a tradeoff,” Contreras said.

He also noted that combining technology with chemistry

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and physics—and art and music with languages—helps even out department sizes.“If we had a department of music for a few teachers [and] a department of art for three teachers, it becomes very difficult to justify an AP of Social Studies with 27 teachers and an AP of Music with three teachers,” Contreras said. The response from teachers has been mixed, but Contreras’s utmost priority is ensuring that changes in administration are not being made without consideration of all feedback. “We have a staff of over 200 people in this building. You’re never going to get 100 alignment on anything,” he said. “It was teacher feedback that allowed me to take a step back and not rush into a sudden transformation of the department. The school [now has] a year to think about what’s the right long-term place we want to be in when it comes to department alignment.” continued on page 2

stuyspec.com

McAuliffe Assumes Role as Assistant Principal of Music and Art

By ANNETTE KIM, MADELYN MAO, and JESS ZHENG Following the retirement of former Assistant Principal (AP) of Art, Music, and Technology Dr. Raymond Wheeler, AP of World Languages Francesca McAuliffe will be taking on an additional role as the interim AP of Art and Music for the 2019-2020 school year.

McAuliffe’s new position as AP of Art and Music was finalized over the summer.

Though she has taken on the responsibility of overseeing two departments, McAuliffe credits the staff of the music department with making the transition as smooth as possible. “I do have a lot of help. I’m definitely not doing it on my own. Music teacher Liliya Shamazov is doing a tremendous job with the choir and letting me know what the needs are there, and

[I also get help from] music teachers Dr. Gregor Winkel, Joseph Tamosaitis, Harold Stephan—the entire Music Department,” she said.

Principal Eric Contreras shared how appointing McAuliffe as the new interim AP of the Art and Music Department was intuitive.

“I think there’s a very strong intersection between culture and art and music and language. That is a natural alignment,” Contreras said.

Contreras also explained his decision to not hire a new AP for the Art and Music Department. “I believe that the most meaningful intersection when it comes to students is in the classroom,” he said. “In principle, I can hire another administrator and there’s value in that. But I think there’s greater value in keeping your resources in the classroom level.” continued on page 2

Stuyvesant Implements Electronic Blue Cards ficiency in manually inputting blue cards. Additionally, parents voiced their concerns about the illegibility of handwritten blue cards—difficulty reading im-

company, the school administration encouraged families to submit their contact information online in hopes of minimizing complications in the

of MyHealth CJ Wilson said.

MyHealth’s LifeCode, a subset of MyHealth, also offers a variety of other health services to students, all of

portant contact information becomes a safety issue if a student is involved in an accident and is in need of a parent or guardian.

In partnership with MyHealth, an emergency medical

case of an emergency. “[Online blue cards] solve a lot of problems, mainly because they are typing it instead of writing it, therefore reducing issues with illegibility,” CEO and Founder

which expand the potential of organization in students’ health and safety. With permission, LifeCode can synchronize all medical records and give students access to a variety of re-

Andrea Huang / The Spectator

By KATIE NG, IAN LAU, and MAX KOSTER Students among the Stuyvesant community may have noticed a recent shift toward electronic systems for administrative tasks. JupiterEd, PupilPath, and Google Classroom have all become prevalent in classrooms as educational tools.

Within the past year, Talos has helped automate program changes, as well as Internet access and locker assignment.

Electronic blue cards are but the newest addition to the school’s adoption of technology.

Every year, students are required to submit blue cards that contain important medical and contact information in case of an emergency. Traditionally, these cards are distributed during homeroom at the start of the new school year and are kept in the nurse’s office. However, for the 2019-2020 school year, the administration has decided to shift from physical to electronic blue cards in hopes of streamlining the system and ensuring that all information is up-to-date.

The idea to transition to online blue cards was first proposed at a school safety meeting with administration, faculty members, and parents who were concerned about the lack of ef-

14

September 27, 2019

NEWSBEAT

Social studies teacher Robert Sandler was recognized by Carleton College Admissions for outstanding teaching.

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

sources. “With the collection of medical records, LifeCode is able to compile everything a first responder needs to know: medication, allergies, health conditions. With our barcode system, they can either call LifeCode or scan the barcode, which will become synced with one’s medical information as soon as they upload it,” Wilson said. Currently, only freshman and replacement student IDs contain LifeCode barcodes.

However, other students may receive barcodes upon request to the administration.

In order to bring electronic blue cards to Stuyvesant, Wilson worked closely with Director of Family Engagement Dina Ingram, who first developed a digital PDF version of the blue cards. “Originally, we wanted to comply with sending blue cards every year, but since Stuyvesant is such a large school, there is just not enough manpower to accommodate for all the students. Mr. Wilson had come to me with the suggestion of making this an interactive electronic document to streamline [the system],” Ingram said. “His company took the PDF I had made and created a signable online document.” continued on page 2

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The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

News Stuyvesant Implements Electronic Blue Cards continued from page 1

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

WORLDBEAT Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg led a Global Climate Strike across 150 countries on September 20, one of the largest environmental protests ever recorded.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry in response to allegations that President Donald Trump withheld funding for Ukraine’s military with the implication that he would continue to do so unless Ukraine launched an investigation into Hunter Biden’s dealings in the country.

Indonesia’s 2,000 wildfires for slash-and-burn farming are the worst the country has seen since 2015, and are endangering 1,000,000 people through respiratory issues.

The Supreme Court has allowed President Trump to proceed with a new policy barring asylum for migrants who pass through another country on their way to the United States. The decision builds off of one that allowed the Trump administration to carry out plans to use emergency funding to create a 2.5 billion dollar wall along the border with Mexico.

Thomas Assumes Role as Assistant Principal of Technology continued from page 1

Many students are either indifferent to the change or interested to see how it will turn out.

“I don’t think this change will affect me a lot because as AP, [Thomas] is a supervisor and a student can go to him during office hours. If he isn’t available, there are also teachers in all three departments as well as guidance counselors we can approach to address our concerns. It shouldn’t affect our day-to-day,” sophomore Deven Maheshwari said.

Junior Leon Ma also believes that Thomas could continue to support students and managing this transition. “Thomas, in my experience and in my friends’ experiences, has been a very approachable person and has been helpful during program changes. He is also understanding of people’s needs and tries his best to help them,” he said in an e-mail interview.

Junior Meril Mousoom has also found Thomas to be compassionate and helpful toward students in the past. “Thomas helped me out when I was doing a chemistry makeup lab. It’s not obvious, but he really sympathizes with the students and understands that there is an exception to every rule. He is also very passionate and willing to talk to students about physics or chemistry,” she said.

However, some students

worry that overseeing three departments will be difficult for Thomas to manage and that students will have less help in the future as a result. “[The change] may cause these three subjects to run a bit slower, such as when we were getting lab books and we had to wait for Mr. Thomas to come and handle everything on lab day,” Maheshwari said.

Program changes for the departments are especially a concern.

“I think some students will be more frustrated with their inability to successfully change their program,” junior Rudolph Merlin said.

However, Merlin has confidence in the administration’s decision. “If Mr. Thomas thinks that he will be able to handle being the AP of three major departments, why not let him do so?” he said. “The administration likely has good reason for him becoming the AP of three of the departments. If anything, that just shows his vast knowledge in some of the most important areas of our school’s curriculum.”

Ultimately, Contreras values the gradual change seen in departments and the responsibilities of their respective APs. “If you look at the history of Stuyvesant, it has evolved and shifted many times in different ways over many years. I think at one point, there was just music. There was just technology. It has been an ever-evolving alignment of APs.”

Once Wilson was granted approval from the Department of Education to be a vendor for schools, Stuyvesant piloted the program during freshman orientations in August, encouraging parents and guardians to submit their children’s forms through MyHealth. “[The website] allows information to be updated at any time, and it automatically sends an e-mail to the nurse so the school is immediately notified of any changes,” Ingram said. All students’ digital blue cards are downloaded to the school’s Dropbox and are regularly backed up in a hard drive, allowing administration to access the information immediately instead of sifting through thousands of physical cards.

In addition to the organizational benefits the online system affords the school administration, it also accommodates families who speak other languages. “[MyHealth’s blue cards] can be filled out in the family’s home language, but will be automatically translated back to English when it is sent to the school,” Ingram said.

Assistant Principal of Safety, Health, and Physical Education Brian Moran is eager to support this new system. “[Electronic blue cards] streamline students’ information so that it is more convenient to be accessed by

either the school administration or the parents. The cards can be updated whenever [necessary] instead of once at the beginning of the school year, ensuring that students’ information is, for the most part, accurate,” he said.

Students have reported little difficulty navigating the page.

“It was actually very straightforward. The fields were more or less the same as the physical blue card,” junior Kyron Liu said in an e-mail interview.

However, he also expressed a potential privacy concern.

“The only qualm I have with the online cards is that once I filled in the required information, it wasn’t too clear whether the following fields were necessary for the school (as it can be considered a privacy concern for some parents),” he said.

Moran responded to this concern with full confidence in the websites security. “[The site] is secure so the information is still confidential. It is not shared with anyone outside of the school,” he said.

Ingram said, “Any additional information [outside the blue cards] that students choose to provide MyHealth [with] remains confidential, accessible only by emergency responders. The school’s access to their students’ profiles is limited to their blue cards.”

Despite all the benefits of this system, the transition to electronic blue cards has not

been without flaws. Perhaps the largest difficulty the administration has faced is that most students are unaware that blue cards can be accessed online.

So far, only parents of the incoming freshman class have received letters notifying them of the recent change. Even then, most families chose to submit physical copies of the blue cards; only about 200 of the 900 freshman students completed the form digitally.

While the integration of the new blue card system has had some minor setbacks, Stuyvesant hopes to improve the efficiency and accuracy of obtaining important medical information, especially as it concerns student safety. “Supposedly 40 percent of all medical records have an error, so it is better [if] you have copies and can see them. The number one cause of bankruptcy in America is medical errors, and so is the third most common cause of death—more than 10 times the amount of people killed by cars.” Wilson said.

Ingram is also optimistic about the online blue card system. “Because the project is still [in its initial stages], we haven’t been able to judge how successful it is yet, but we hope that within the coming years, we can digitize [all our information] in the interests of convenience and accuracy,” Ingram said.

McAuliffe Assumes Role as Assistant Principal of Music and Art continued from page 1

Despite being initially hired as the AP of World Languages, McAuliffe actually minored in dramatic arts in college. “I’ve always loved music. And I love to sing—you can ask any family member. I’m always singing at home [and] in the shower,” she said. While McAuliffe does not consider herself a musician, she finds herself impressed and inspired by the music scene at Stuyvesant. “I hope to continue to contribute to the success of students who are artistic,” she said.

McAuliffe considers the new responsibility a demonstration of trust between herself, her students, and the administration. “I think that when you’re asked to do more, it means that there’s a lot of trust in the fact that you’re doing your job well to date,” she said. “I love challenges, so though it’s more people to connect with on a daily basis and more students to supervise, I get to know more about what’s going on in the school.”

While McAuliffe is optimistic, the change in administration has spurred concern from students. “A lot of [Stuyvesant’s] reputation is based on the quality of our STEM programs, but that means that a lot of the funding and attention gets diverted to the STEM programs,” senior Sara Stebbins said. “Being an arts and humanities person, I’ve become incredibly territo-

rial of the state of the humanities and particularly the state of arts and music at Stuyvesant, simply because much of the student body refuses to respect it.”

Stebbins continued, “Dr. Wheeler was at least always there and I think that was very important to the communication and sense of communication among the music department people. [...] It is important to have someone who is actively involved with music at Stuy[vesant].”

Senior Camilla Green also commented on Stuyvesant’s imbalance between STEM and humanities programs. “There’s definitely respect for [the music department] that’s missing,” Green said. “If you’re a student who cares about the music department on any level, it’s demoralizing enough to hear that from your peers, but when you hear it from your administration in the form of them not wanting to provide you with an AP for a full department of the school, it validates all of the demoralizing things people have said about these classes not mattering. It validates all of the sentiments that music and art classes don’t matter.”

Junior Alisha Heng shares a similar outlook with Stebbins and Green. “I feel [that] Stuy[vesant] should invest in a new Music and Art AP or let one of the already existing music teachers be the AP because putting three departments in the hands of one AP will not work out very well in

the long term,” she said. “The music and art departments play a crucial part in our talented student body and these students shouldn’t be neglected because Stuy[vesant] is being cheap.”

Despite strong concerns voiced by students, both the administration and staff look forward to maintaining and expanding the Arts and Music Department. “I place tremendous value in the growth of the arts and have been contemplating a music class in the future where we start intersecting high tech with traditional music,” Contreras said.

McAuliffe has plans for this possibility of integrating technology and music. “We’re hoping to secure funds to create a recording studio in the school.

It would be something that the students would have access to, as well as other students in the city,” she said. “Last year, I heard there was success with the students who were writing their own music and composing different pieces. I’d like to see more of that—more of student-created and student-driven works regarding art and music.”

McAuliffe also encourages students to voice their ideas for the Arts and Music Department.

“Please come to room 502 and let me know. Please let your teachers know. I know the staff here is very receptive to making the Stuy[vesant] experience as useful, as relevant, [and] as real as it can be for students,” she said.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 3

Freshman Survey Part A: Demographic Information Out of the incoming class of 2023, 70.4 percent of the student body is Asian, a recurring statistic in Stuyvesant’s recent history. These students mostly hail from East Asian countries, while 14.7 percent and eight percent are from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, respectively. Another 7.6 percent have backgrounds in Central Asia.

Despite state efforts to reform and diversify the specialized high school admissions process, Blacks and Hispanics continue to remain a minority, occupying 0.8 and 3.0 percent of the student body, respectively.

This year, 49.5 percent of accepted students are male—over five percent more than female students—with an additional 0.7 percent identifying as neither. When asked about sexual identity, 80.2 percent of students said they are straight, followed by unsure (seven percent), questioning (6.9 percent), bisexual (3.7 percent), and gay (2.2 percent).

Religious backgrounds are diverse. Approximately 18.4 percent associate with Christianity, a sector that encompasses Catholicism and Protestantism. 10.8 percent align with Islam, six percent with Judaism, and 26.8 percent with other religions. 38 percent reported that they do not affiliate themselves with any form of religion, deferring to atheism or agnosticism.

The incoming freshmen are most highly concentrated within the middle class, at 45.8 percent. 11.6 percent reported that their families are low class, 16 percent that they are upper middle class, and 1.7 percent that they are upper class. 24.9 percent of students either preferred to not answer or did not know.

A majority of students reported living in Queens, though the geographic breakdown does not vary as much as the other statistics, with 31.5 percent living in Brooklyn, 18 percent living in Manhattan, 6.5 percent living in Staten Island, and 3.9 percent in the Bronx.

Unsurprisingly, much of the incoming class come from middle schools that offered selective or Gifted & Talented programs, at a little over 50 percent. 35.1 percent attended their zoned public schools, 5.5 percent attended private schools, 0.7 percent went to parochial schools, and another six percent were homeschooled.

Middle School

Where in Asia is your family from?

Racial Breakdown

Borough Breakdown

Part B: Academic Information When asked about their participation in class during middle school, approximately 68 percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that they were frequent contributors to their middle school classrooms. On the other hand, 13.4 percent suggested that they were not the keenest to participate in middle school classes, responding agree or disagree, while 18.8 percent remained neutral.

Unsurprisingly, math and the sciences remain the favorite subjects among the majority of the class of 2023, racking up 42.5 and 22.9 percent of the responses, respectively.

Most incoming freshmen reported receiving ample sleep in middle school, with 62 percent getting at least seven hours of sleep a night and nine percent getting over nine hours of sleep. Surprisingly, however, about nine percent of students also reported getting under six hours of sleep. In the same vein, the majority of freshmen received little homework in middle school, with about 72 percent receiving at most two hours of homework a night. However, nine percent of freshmen reported that they received three or more hours of homework a night; it would be insightful to determine whether these are the students who got low levels of sleep and whether they hail from feeder schools.

Almost half of the freshmen stated they believe they would be in the top quarter of their class, and a full 85 percent believe they would be in the top half. This massive gap between expectations and reality indicates the large adjustments freshmen need to undergo to handle the increased academic difficulty, associated with a high quantity of overachievers. The incoming freshman class also has a rosy outlook on its college prospects, with 60 percent believing they may end up attending an Ivy League university; less than 10 percent of seniors end up meeting this goal.

After I graduate from Stuyvesant, I think I might attend an Ivy League university or other elite university.

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The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Survey Part C: Applying to Stuyvesant

Part D: Identity/Lifestyle

These questions provide insight into typical student culture outside of the school environment, which encompasses drug usage, sexual life (or lack thereof), and recreational time.

The majority of the incoming class are opposed to marijuana usage by high schoolers, at 47.7 percent. Another 67.7 percent are against “hard drugs” like cocaine and opiates. This value dropped to 35.4 percent when speaking of study drugs or prescription stimulants.

In regards to caffeine, a commonly overlooked drug, the survey reported abstinence among 57.4 percent of students. Most students who do intake caffeine consume no more than 100 mg, though the other side of the spectrum does exist: approximately 7.4 percent consume over 400 mg on a daily basis.

Statistics on whether or not students approve of sexual activity in high school appear to be much less skewed. 47.4 percent are against engagement in the practice, 30.2 percent possess a neutral opinion, and another 22.4 percent believe that having a sexual life in high school is either somewhat or completely justified.

Mental health is a common point of discussion at Stuyvesant. When asked how often students discussed the topic, 34.7 percent of the incoming class agreed that mental health is something they often think about, with 12.7 percent strongly agreeing. Only 12.4 percent either disagreed or strongly disagreed overall. 30.2 percent remained neutral.

Most of the freshmen seem willing to find room for recreation and extracurriculars despite Stuyvesant’s rigorous course load. One example of such an activity is television; a little over 40 percent of students reported that they are able to squeeze in time for one to three hours spent on video and streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube on school nights. Another 65.4 percent of students claimed that they spend zero to three-plus hours on Facebook, while 17.5 percent use other social media platforms.

Unsurprisingly, 52.5 percent of incoming freshmen noted that they intend on pursuing a STEM-related major in the future. Following this is 23.8 percent who wish to go into craft vocations, a career in the arts with a focus on engineering.

11.5 percent are interested in the finance and business fields. An underwhelming number of students noted that they are looking to pursue the humanities (9.7 percent) and the arts (2.7 percent), contrasting with the higher number of students who expressed interest in participating in art-related pursuits.

These questions provide insight into typical student culture outside of the school environment, which encompasses drug usage, sexual life (or lack thereof), and recreational time.

The majority of the incoming class are opposed to marijuana usage by high schoolers, at 47.7 percent. Another 67.7 percent are against “hard drugs” like cocaine and opiates. This value dropped to 35.4 percent when speaking of study drugs or prescription stimulants.

In regards to caffeine, a commonly overlooked drug, the survey reported abstinence among 57.4 percent of students. Most students who do intake caffeine consume no more than 100 mg, though the other side of the spectrum does exist: approximately 7.4 percent consume over 400 mg on a daily basis.

Statistics on whether or not students approve of sexual activity in high school appear to be much less skewed. 47.4 percent are against engagement in the practice, 30.2 percent possess a neutral opinion, and another 22.4 percent believe that having a sexual life in high school is either somewhat or completely justified.

Mental health is a common point of discussion at Stuyvesant. When asked how often students discussed the topic, 34.7 percent of the incoming class agreed that mental health is something they often think about, with 12.7 percent strongly agreeing.

Only 12.4 percent either disagreed or strongly disagreed overall. 30.2 percent remained neutral.

Most of the freshmen seem willing to find room for recreation and extracurriculars despite Stuyvesant’s rigorous course load. One example of such an activity is television; a little over 40 percent of students reported that they are able to squeeze in time for one to three hours spent on video and streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube on school nights. Another 65.4 percent of students claimed that they spend zero to threeplus hours on Facebook, while 17.5 percent use other social media platforms.

Unsurprisingly, 52.5 percent of incoming freshmen noted that they intend on pursuing a STEM-related major in the future. Following this is 23.8 percent who wish to go into craft vocations, a career in the arts with a focus on engineering. 11.5 percent are interested in the finance and business fields. An underwhelming number of students noted that they are looking to pursue the humanities (9.7 percent) and the arts (2.7 percent), contrasting with the higher number of students who expressed interest in participating in art-related pursuits.

Approximately how much sleep do you expect to get on any given school night at Stuyvesant?

My mental health is something I think about regularly

Part E: Academic Honesty The majority of freshmen agreed that they would be willing to sacrifice a good grade for the sake of academic honesty, with 37.1 percent agreeing and 26.3 percent strongly agreeing. This data might coincide with the results of the next question, with 49 percent of freshmen answering that they had never partaken in academic dishonesty in middle school and 39.7 percent saying they rarely did.

Similarly, many freshmen revealed that they don’t believe academic dishonesty in any form could be justified, with 20.2 percent of responders strongly disagreeing with justification and 27.4 percent disagreeing. What’s intriguing, however, is that the greatest number of responders, at 38.3 percent, took a neutral stance on the issue, showing that the results for this question are less skewed than those of the previous one.

Overall, it seems that the incoming freshman class is not inclined toward academic dishonesty and does not believe in its justification.

In middle school, I partook in some form of academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, copying, etc.):

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 5

Features Stuyvesant Runs on Takis

By THE FEATURES DEPARTMENT

What foods do Stuyvesant students rely on to comfort them when they are feeling down?

“My favorite comfort food is chicken noodle soup.

Whenever I got sick when I was younger, my mom would always make me some.” —Ana-Maria Skaricic, junior “My comfort food is popcorn chicken. I used to go get some with friends after school, so I guess it just reminds me of simpler times.” —Camilla Gawronski, junior “My favorite comfort food is probably takoyaki. I think the first time I tried it was at a Japanese street festival a few years ago. I don’t know how I lived without it. I think they’re the tastiest balls I’ve ever put in my mouth.” — Dean Chen, junior “There’s this Chinese dish that my mom makes: it’s white rice and white fish covered in a soy-ginger sauce. It reminds me of home and I love it. Every time we return home from a long flight or road trip, it [is] always the first meal we have.”

— Charlotte Siragusa, senior

“My comfort food is ramen. On a cold winter night, it’s nice to have because it’s warm.”

— Eric Eom, senior “There’s this Chinese dish that my mom makes: it’s white rice and white fish covered in a soy-ginger sauce. It reminds me of home and I love it. Every time we return home from a long flight or road trip, it [is] always the first meal we have.” —Charlotte Siragusa, senior “My favorite comfort food is Thai iced tea. I like the taste of it—it’s bittersweet taste. The aftertaste has a kick to it and nothing else is like it. I get it at a place that’s a ten minute walk from me. I associate it with myself because it’s what I drink when I’m studying alone.

— Dikkila Sherpa, senior

“Instant noodles. It makes me feel happy and warm because I make it myself and it’s my own creation. Also, the flavor packets are fire.” —Abdullah Alam, junior “Peanut butter M&M’s. I like chocolate peanut butter stuff. The chocolate shell around the peanut butter works really well.” —Margot Donnellan, freshman “My comfort food is spicy rice cake. It’s so spicy that when you’re sad you forget why you’re sad in the first place. It was one of the first things that my mom taught me cooking wise, and we would make it together when I was younger.” — Rebecca Kim, senior

“Pizza, because there are a lot of places around [Stuyvesant] to get it, and it’s really good. I really like pineapples on it.” —Diya Rao, sophomore “My favorite comfort food is lasagna because I like making it, and my family makes it a lot, so it’s something I grew up with.” —Isabella Stenhouse, freshman “My favorite comfort food is a traditional dish, tteokguk. It’s usually eaten for New Years. There’s a saying that when you eat it, you become a year older. It’s my favorite because it’s simple and very smooth.”

— Stacy Kim, junior “My favorite comfort food is vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I feel like the sweetness from the ice cream is kind of a nice warm hug, and it helps get my mind off of things.”— Khandaker Ridwan, senior

“In terms of food it’s probably soup dumplings, or xiao long bao in Mandarin. I don’t know why it’s called that, but the literal translation is “small dragon bun.” There’s something so satisfying and warm with having a thick soup within tender dumpling skin and a meaty filling.” — Alan Guo, junior “My comfort food is mac and cheese because it reminds me of my childhood. My dad used to make the Kraft box one with the weird looking orange powder because it was quick and easy. I thought it was so amazing growing up, but I’m not sure if I would eat that now.” — Zoe Shah, junior “Sriracha. It goes with everything and the spiciness helps me forget about and relieve my pain. Sriracha is delicious. I can also use it as pepper spray 2.0 so that’s a bonus. I should be the next ambassador of Sriracha.” — Kelly Huang, junior

“I like cereal. Cereal is good. It’s not just a breakfast food, it’s everyday food. I eat Fruity Pebbles a lot. I eat it every day when I get home, and sometimes at night, but not in the morning. I have a stash at home, so I never run out. Cereal makes me forget about all my pains, about my failed test scores.”

— Yi Ling Wu, junior

Ten Out of Ten: Stuyvesant Students on Self-Esteem

By CLARA SHAPIRO

In the pimpled years of adolescence, self-love can seem like a lofty goal. The ever-critical media feeds off of insecurity, convincing young people that they are too dumb, too ugly, too fat. The word “fat” weighs particularly heavily on teenage girls, as according to the Park Nicollet Melrose Center, 78 percent of 17-year-old female Americans report hating their bodies. Boys are not exempt from body insecurity either.

“Everyone thinks that girls are the only ones with eating disorders, but it’s almost equal,” school counselor Jess Chock-Goldman said.

An anonymous male junior described his aspirations for a personal fitness renaissance: “I would lose eight pounds of fat […] I have about 17 pounds of fat on me. I would be able to have what I call an ‘x-pack’ instead of a six-pack,” he said.

This numerically-oriented student gave his assets a tepid assessment: “On a scale of one to ten, I would say a three for physical attractiveness. For personality, probably a seven or an eight. For intelligence, a run-

of-the-mill five out of ten.” this,’ you forget what you can But not everyone at do, because everyone is capable Stuyvesant is experiencing of something. A lot of people an all-time confidence nadir. just don’t see it in themselves.”

“I do love myself,” freshman Sophomore Leo Smulansky Maya Doron-Ripa said. “I c l a i m s don’t really believe in changing yourself in any way because it doesn’t live up to other people’s standards. I like myself.”

Junior Asher ElHanani echoed this: “I feel pretty good about myself in general,” he said.

“I like my ability to just not care about what other people think of me, and that just makes life a lot easier.”

He traces his confidence back to his self-affirming attitude: “A lot of people who struggle with their self-esteem fo(percus on what they can’t do, Ismath Maksura/ The Spectator what they don’t have,” he said. haps somewhat sarcastically) to “And when you focus on nega- be among the people who “just tive statements, negative as in ‘I don’t see it in themselves.” can’t do this’ and not ‘I can do “I don’t think I’m good

enough for anything,” he said.

“I feel like everyone around me is better than me at everything.

My parents always compare me to other people in order to judge my worth.

I don’t feel like I deserve to be where I am in life.”

Why do so many Stuyvesant students struggle with feelings of inferiority when they are among the most intelligent students in New York City? For some, this struggle stems from not being able to live up to expectations: their expectations as well as their parents’.

For others, low selfesteem is the product of gossip and criticism.

“I kind of want people to be more critical to me, to confront me, instead of talking behind my back,” sophomore Andy Lin disclosed.

Though no panacea can eradicate the rituals of the high-school hierarchy, one method of coping may be to talk it all through.

“Therapy, therapy, therapy!”

Chock-Goldman said. “It is the most important thing. I’m in therapy. I’m very open about being in therapy. I think it’s very important to have someone to talk to, to work through the things that are a little heavier to handle in our minds. And I will tell you: the number one thing I do at Stuy[vesant] is refer people to therapists. And it’s totally private. Colleges don’t know, teachers don’t know, friends don’t know. Everything’s private. And it’s so good to be talking to someone.

One time a week, two times a week. It’s 45 minutes all about you. That’s pretty cool.”

For students looking for a solution that doesn’t require a guidance office referral, one of the best ways of coping with criticism and gossip may be to simply not care.

“What matters is what you think about yourself, and not what other people think about you,” El-Hanani counseled. “Just look at yourself and ask yourself, ‘Am I a good person? Can I do good things?’

And if the answer to that question is ‘yes,’ then I think that you’re okay.”

Page 6

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Features Introducing Stuyvesant’s New (and Returning) Teachers

By THE FEATURES DEPARTMENT

Christine Yan / The Spectator

ULUGBEK AKHMEDOV (Physics)

By SUAH CHUNG Returning physics teacher Ulugbek Akhmedov was constantly exposed to physics during his childhood in Uzbekistan. His father, a physics teacher, and science

teachers in high school encouraged Akhmedov to pursue physics as his major in the Tashkent University of Uzbekistan.

Akhmedov’s passion for physics expanded and deepened while in university. “My favorite topic in

physics is electricity, because you can see what’s going on right away, and it takes less time to set up,” he said. “I also think light and optics are interesting, because you study the reflections, refraction lenses, and mirrors.”

In his specialized high school in Uzbekistan, Akhmedov also loved his chemistry class. He liked “the dangerous experiments involving fumes” and recalled a great experience with his teacher. “My teacher also taught more advanced chemistry after school in a club,” he said.

His teacher’s passion for learning and teaching inspired Akhmedov’s decision to become a teacher.

After graduating college, he taught at a few different high schools before coming to Stuyvesant. Here, Akhmedov finds the “quiet pause from students after they understand something [he] explained” most rewarding. Akhmedov greatly values the hard work that everybody puts in to create these moments.

Outside of his interest in science, Akhmedov is learning to draw portraits and paint.

Kasey Chan / The Spectator

ANDREW WILLE (Math)

By CHRISTINE CHANG Math teacher Andrew Wille’s first teaching job was in college as a classroom assistant for an elementary school in Chicago. “I did it just so I could make a few extra bucks in school,” he said. It was through that job that Wille found

he enjoyed being in a classroom and interacting with students.

Wille left college with the aspiration to live in a different country.

“I wanted to expand my experiences and one of the most pragmatic ways of doing that was to immerse myself in a different way of life with different people, a different

language, and a different culture,” he said. When he looked into ways to accomplish this, Wille found that “teaching English was a really good opportunity to live abroad,” he said. He, therefore, taught English in Paris for one year.

However, teaching mathematics is Wille’s true passion. “I believe math is a creative subject,” he said. He elaborated that the fundamentals of math are due to the creativity of those who discovered them. Wille became a math teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School, eventually becoming the school’s mathematics department coordinator, before coming to Stuyvesant.

Wille is overall impressed by Stuyvesant, and is in particular impressed by the students. “The students do things because they want to do it, not just to get the hours,” he said. He commends the different programs and organizations, marveling at the diversity of the clubs and the passion of the students who take part.

“I’m staying,” he said with a smile. “It’s my first day, but I do love it here.”

PATRICK HONNER (Math)

By RAYMOND WU Born and raised in Michigan, math teacher Patrick Honner moved to New York City as a young adult to pursue a career in technology. Because of both his knack for computer programming ever since a young age and his love for math, he thought a technological profession would be both enjoyable and practical. However, Honner was not satisfied with this career and pursed teaching math instead.

“I’ve always loved math, and I’ve always felt like I had a knack for explaining things, so in many ways, whatever I did in my career, I felt I was always doing some teaching,” he explained. “In addition to really loving math and enjoying talking about math, I really [enjoy] working with young people.”

Honner has been teaching math for 16 years, 12 of which were spent at Brooklyn Technical High School. This year marks his first at Stuyvesant. “In my teaching career I’ve been very lucky to work with some of the very best people around: teachers, leaders, and students. When the opportunity to come to Stuyvesant presented itself, it seemed like a natural step for me to continue working with

the very best teachers, leaders, and students,” he said.

As the school year progresses, Honner hopes that his students will engage with math in new, meaningful, and enjoyable ways. He aims to accomplish this through incorporating writing, photography, and art into his math teaching. Honner himself enjoys photographing and writing about math: he blogs at mrhonner.com, where he posts photographs of his visual mathematical experiences; writes for The New York Times; and even has a column for Quantum Magazine, where he aims to connect “ideas at the frontiers of mathematical and computer science research to math and computer science that [teachers, students, and life-long learners] may know from school or that remember from their own education,” he explained. Very recently, he also co-authored the Barron’s 2019 Specialized High School Admissions Test prep book.

Though it has only been a few weeks since school started, Honner “can already tell [Stuyvesant] is a special place [and] a great school,” he said. “I’ve been teaching for a long time, but I’m new here, and this is a new place that has its own identity, and I want to find my own place here.”

HAN LING (Foreign Languages)

By RAYMOND WU Mandarin teacher Han Ling knew he wanted to be a teacher ever since graduating from college.

His first job as an educator was teaching Chinese college students and adults how to speak English.

Later, he taught Mandarin to English-speaking students.

Ling grew up and attended school in Chengdu, China. In school, he especially loved his English teacher. “We did a lot of fun stuff in class. We watched American movies [and] listened to western music [because] we learn English from those materials,” he said.

Ling’s love for languages led him to take French classes for one year as an adult. He chose to learn French because of his love for fashion, photography, art, and

museums, all of which are heavily French-inspired. Ling pursued his interest in photography with street photography, capturing candid shots of the bustling city life. More recently, he has been doing portrait work, both inside and outside the studio.

He moved to New York City in 2012 to attend graduate school at New York University. It was there that he first heard about Stuyvesant: “The first roommate I got after I moved here graduated from Stuyvesant, and since then, I knew Stuyvesant was one of the best schools in New York City [and] even in the country. Then I met more people from this school, and I heard that the students work real hard, study real hard, and that made me feel that this is the school that I want to be at,” he recounted.

SOO BIN (RAYLEEN) LEE (Math)

Joseph Yu / The Spectator

By AFLAHA FATEHA Math teacher Rayleen Lee has always had a passion for mathematics and teaching.

She spent a lot of time in college teaching all grade levels from kindergarten through 12th grade. Before deciding to pursue education as a career, though, Lee worked many other math-related jobs.

Lee’s first job while in college was at a textbook company in Korea, where she took American math textbooks, translated them to Korean, and figured out how to implement them in Korean classrooms. However, Lee’s experience with this job led to her realization that she wanted to work alongside students. This experience led Lee to switch to a math major at her alma mater, New York University (NYU).

At NYU, Lee met Stuyvesant students, including members of

the debate team. From merely observing how these students interacted with each other, Lee realized that Stuyvesant was an environment she would enjoy working in.

Although it has not been long since her first day here, Lee has already discovered that both her fellow staff members and students exceed her expectations. One of her favorite things about the staff at Stuyvesant is how knowledgeable and passionate they are about the subjects they teach.

“It’s not something that you really see at other schools. Although all teachers know how to teach, a lot of the time I can’t tell if they know a lot about the subjects they teach,” Lee explained. Lee hopes that one day, she, too, will reach this level. The faculty has also been extremely helpful and friendly towards Lee, taking her in with open arms and showing her

the ins and outs of teaching at Stuyvesant, including even the small details such as how to check her mailbox and take attendance.

Her students, too, are passionate and dedicated to learning. Lee considers this to be extremely valuable to education and does not think she would see students like this anywhere else.

Lee’s biggest goal is to make sure her students understand the concepts she is teaching.

She hopes that her freshmen not only exceed at geometry but also feel comfortable in their first math class at Stuyvesant.

As for her sophomores, Lee hopes to challenge them but is confident that “They’ll do fine; they’re very smart kids and already know everything about class at Stuy[vesant]. I’m confident in them.”

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 7

Features Introducing Stuyvesant’s New (and Returning) Teachers LOK MAN (CECILIA) YANG (Guidance)

By RACHEL OK Ever since she was in high school, guidance counselor Cecilia Yang wanted to be a teacher. After graduating high-school, she had to decide between majoring in counseling or teaching. Her mom encouraged her to choose teaching, so Yang became a math teacher at Bayside High School and, afterwards, Francis Lewis High School.

However, she was not satisfied with the job. “After seven years of

teaching, I started to get tired of it,” she said. Seeking a job with more one-on-one interaction with students, Yang returned to college to receive a degree in school counseling. Her first counseling job was at Lower East Side Prep High School. Although working there meant a longer commute, she was motivated to “get [her] foot into the field,” she said.

Stuyvesant is the second school Yang has counseled at. In contrast to her previous 100 student case-

load, Stuyvesant presented a huge caseload for her. At the same time, “I love working with big schools because I want to [help] more students,” she said.

Only less than a day of working with the students, Yang is already impressed. “All the students here are so self-motivated,” she said with a smile. “They’re always trying to reach their highest potential.”

Yang also wants to learn from the students, specifically about

the high-school lifestyle and the college admissions process. “It’s a two-way street,” she described.

By doing more research into student resources, Yang aims to better equip herself in order to be more resourceful to her students.

Looking forward, Yang described programs she wants to implement for her students to better help them. “I want to create mini-groups for my caseload based on different needs [such as] personal growth [and] emotional

needs,” she explained. By creating these groups, she hopes to counsel students in a more personalized manner. She expressed excitement for the new school year and the students she will be counseling: “[I want to] get to know them as much as possible,” she said.

When she is not counseling students, Yang plays piano with her five and six year old children and explores the city.

REBECA MOREL WERNHAM (Physical Education)

By VERONIKA KOWALSKI

Frances Sy / The Spectator

A New York City native, Physical Education (PE) teacher Rebeca Morel Wernham was born and raised in the Lower East Side. As the youngest of five in a Dominican family, Morel’s life has always been full of joy and laughter.

Morel designed her own major at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts that included sports, science, and chemistry. Though her initial intention was to become a surgeon or a sports doctor for a professional team, she fell in love with PE when she was exposed to it as part of her self-designed major.

“I fell in love with coach-

ing, teaching, mentoring,” Morel reminisced. “At one point, I did go back and did a [post-baccalaureate] and stopped coaching for a little bit for a while, but when I was doing my [post-baccalaureate], I realized that I didn’t want to pursue [medical] school anymore.”

After 15 years teaching at the Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, Morel developed emotional ties to her students. Some former students eventually worked alongside her. “It got to the point where my former students became my colleagues, both in the classroom and out, working as dean, and as secretaries.” She looks forward to connecting with her students at Stuyvesant as well.

To keep her students engaged, Morel shares music and games in the gymnasium. Her favorite genres to play on Spotify are Hot Rhythmic and Soul Coffee—spin-offs of hip-hop and jazz. She also brings back games that her students used to play as children, such as tag. “I like the silliness. There has to be an element of silliness. There has to be an element of being able to laugh at yourself,” she affirmed.

In addition to being a music lover, Morel is a sneaker aficionado. Right now, her favorite sneaker brand is Nike Air Max Ones.

Morel currently lives in the Bronx with her husband of three years and her son of eighteen months.

CARRIE CHU (Math)

By MATYLDA URBANIAK

larly drawn to Stuyvesant because of the student body —hardworking, multilingual, diverse— reflecting the immigrant roots of our country,” she wrote in an email interview. As a math teacher, she will be able to share what she loves with her students here. “I am excited to explore the creativity and beauty of math and learning with my students. I had so many wonderful math teachers who instilled in me their love of math and opened up math as a language and art form. I want to share that with my students,” she explained.

In the meantime, Chu is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Teaching Chinese in order to delve back into her roots, and find ways to integrate techniques for teach-

Jingwei Liu / The Spectator

While most people dream of travel far away, math teacher Carrie Chu has already taught on three continents. Like most teenagers, she entered college unsure about what she wanted to pursue. So, she did the only rational thing; instead of starting school at Williams College immediately, she took a gap semester in Madaba, Kenya. She spent half a year teaching English to fourth graders in a village without water and electricity, and had many life-changing experiences.

“I was arrested and held in custody for some time because I was mistaken for a Chinese spy,” she recalled in an e-mail interview.

Since then, Chu has taught in

a variety of environments, many of them not unlike Stuyvesant.

Her first job after college was at King’s Academy, a boarding school in Jordan. “What drew me to this school versus the many others was the commitment to diversity of all sorts—socioeconomic, racial, ethnic etc.,” she said. Despite her degree in math, Chu found herself diversifying the subjects she taught at this school. For example, Chu taught beginner Chinese classes in addition to the standard math classes.

As she took time off to travel through Berlin and Taiwan, Chu found herself drawn back to teaching, and after deciding to move back to public school teaching, Stuyvesant seemed like the perfect place. “I was particu-

ing language into teaching math.

However, she also finds downtime throughout the year. “[I] have fun playing board games

with my fellow teacher friends— of course after completion of homework,” she remarked.

By CLAIRE TEMPELMAN

seem a little overwhelmed, and I tell them, I know how they feel,” she said.

Leo is very passionate about the role of the arts in a student’s education, even in a school that is predominantly STEM-oriented.

“Arts are a great place for students to think creatively, whether or not they’re interested in the arts. The lessons you learn in creative thinking can be carried out in other disciplines.” Leo also also works to dispel the popular notion that some students are simply unable to create art. “You don’t have to have talent. Talent’s great!

But it’s about effort, taking risks, and being creative,” she said.

Athena Lam / The Spectator

KAREN LEO (Art) Karen Leo, Stuyvesant’s newest art teacher, has been in the art industry ever since graduating from college. A LaGuardia High School alumna, Leo has worked as an illustrator, studio assistant, gallery guide, and short film creator. She only got involved in education five years ago, when she served as an assistant to an art teacher at her child’s school. Her positive experience there inspired her to pursue education, and she has been teaching ever since.

Leo, who is currently teaching Art Appreciation, relates to her new freshman students: “They

“I’ve been teaching for a long time, but I’m new here, and this is a new place that has its own identity, and I want to find my own place here.”—Patrick Honner, mathematics teacher “I was particularly drawn to Stuyvesant because of the student body —hardworking, multilingual, diverse—reflecting the immigrant roots of our country.”—Carrie Chu, mathematics teacher

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 8

Features

By MAHIRAH KHAN

By VERONIKA KOWALSKI My family is Roman Catholic.

Though I have never been particularly religious, I found meaning in attending mass at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice when given the chance. In case you’ve never seen it, it’s a massive, millennium-old cathedral that combines Gothic and Byzantine architectural styles in the most beautiful way.

This summer, my family and I traveled to Italy with a group of approximately 40 other tourists. It was our first time traveling abroad together in seven years, and it also might be one of our last times doing so, since my brother is in college, and I will soon follow. We spent 11 days sightseeing in Florence, Venice, Rome, and Pompeii, among other places.

We entered the church for the first time as tourists, com-

By ELLEN PEHLIVANIAN Some students know him as the math teacher who posted a photo of his son on Google Classroom; others know him as the math teacher who married another math teacher, and others even know him as the teacher who owns a beer company called Sterr Bros. He is the beloved mathematics teacher Brian Sterr.

Fellow mathematics teachers Brian Sterr and May Sterr, formerly May Wong, became close while grading Regents examinations, dated for more than four years, and got married, all while teaching at Stuyvesant. Though the whole school knows how adorable their son Nolan is, there is much more to their relationship and family life than many students are aware of.

Brian Sterr recalls the first time he and May Sterr really got to spend time together. They were grading Regents exams together, which Brian Sterr sarcastically described as “very exciting.” Because no other teachers wanted to grade the exams, they were the only ones there. That gave them the opportunity to chat and become wellacquainted with each other.

“I thought Mr. [Brian] Sterr was an interesting person when he told me his stories from his study abroad in Europe, along with his Peace Corps experience in Tanzania. I definitely felt more comfortable around Mr. Sterr as time passed. I enjoyed talking to him about everything,” May Sterr said.

One particular memory that

Hearing from friends about the overwhelmingness of junior year, Zhou expected the worst.

Things didn’t turn out so badly, though. “I consider myself lucky that I had to pull a full zero allnighters throughout junior year,” Zhou said. Homework was manageable, especially since he chose classes that he was genuinely interested in. On top of academia, he found the time to participate in a few high-commitment clubs.

Senior Hana Kim echoed a similar experience with fearful expectations and a different reality.

“My expectation was that junior year would be ruthlessly hard and that I would always be frazzled and overloaded,” she said. “But I honestly don’t think junior year was as hard as most people make it out to be. It was definitely stressful, I’ll give it that. But by the time you get to junior year, you kind of learn how to pace yourself and how to study.”

With demanding coursework starting from freshman year, students naturally develop better studying habits and organizational skills. “One of the biggest lessons that I took away was how capable I am of handling my workload,” senior Tashfia Hasan said. “Even with all that stress, you have got to figure yourself out. My junior year really allowed me to see what I enjoy doing.”

Like Hasan, senior Bernard Wang was also able to reap the rewards of junior year, even if he did not expect them. Having signed up for four Advanced Placement classes with no free periods, Wang expected his grades to drop. “After going through junior year, I can say that it was definitely the most work I’ve ever done in an academic year in my life. As a result of all that work, I felt really bummed out a lot during the year.”

However, Wang ended the year with his highest grades through-

Michele Yi / The Spectator

Junior year has arrived for the class of 2021. For many, even hearing the words “junior year” are enough to make heads spiral and cause fear to take over. Junior Kelly Wu recalled, “I was really stressed all throughout the week prior to the first day and honestly thought that junior year was going to be too overwhelming. Everyone always says that junior year is the worst year for high school students.”

Many students walk into junior year expecting the worst and anticipating the hardest to be thrown at them. With the stress of the SAT and difficult classes, it is understandable why students would be nervous. But for some students, these fear-inducing expectations did not truly capture the reality of junior year. “I was expecting my year to go like hell,” senior George Zhou admitted.

Let’s Talk About Junior Year

out his six semesters at Stuyvesant. “So overall, quality of life went down, which was expected, but my grades went up, which was a weird surprise,” Wang reflected.

It’s no doubt that junior year will challenge every student, but as daunting as it may seem, it may turn out a lot differently from

Sightseeing Religiously

plete with the requisite tote bags, camera phones, and entry tickets.

Not only was the place was huge, but the sheer volume of art was overwhelming. As if the building’s structure wasn’t ornate enough, every square inch of the interior was caked with imagery. From the lowest part of the floor to the tallest spire, no iota of space was left untouched. “Only true devotion can lead to something being built like this,” I thought. “This is truly a masterpiece.” We left only when the members of the parish hurriedly scuffled out the tourists so they could set up for the Sunday service.

Hours later, we returned for mass. The clergy had rearranged the setup of the room so it would be suitable for prayer. This time, the setting sun hit the myriad of golden tiles of the ceiling at an angle that made it glow. Worshippers

waited respectfully for the service to begin. Meanwhile, the organist rendered hymns that were familiar to me from the Polish mass I attend in Brooklyn. The clergy dressed the same way, and spoke the same way too, albeit in a language I couldn’t understand. Cognitively, I knew that certain standards were held by each division of the Catholic community, but this time was somewhat different.

I stepped out of the church that time feeling like I had been a part of something bigger than myself.

I have a background that spans over time as well as space—that it inhabits multiple continents, yes, but has also percolated masses of generations, over many centuries.

We had long since left Venice when our tour guide took us to a chapel dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. This was a man who forfeited a life of luxury for poverty

and simplicity. He is among the most significant figures in Christian history.

Paradoxically, this building appears larger on the inside than it does on the outside, just like in Danielewski’s tale “House of Leaves.” Some of the colors had faded from the frescoes, and the staircases were slightly warped from being battered for so long, but other than that, it didn’t look too bad for a thirteenth-century establishment.

One narrow, lopsided staircase led down to the basement into a cavity about the size of a classroom, if not smaller. St. Francis’ final resting place was a brick column in the middle of the room, surrounded by a cast-iron chainlink barrier. Two women clutched at it as if they were holding on to dear life. They certainly weren’t statues, but it took me a double-

“Ms. W, I kind of like you. —Mr. S.”

the couple shared after they began dating eventually inspired Brian Sterr’s wedding proposal. “[In the] fall of 2015, I had a video project I assigned where students had to create a short video on a

that it was me for another two months or something.”

The actual proposal relied heavily on the Stuyvesant community. “I had various students [who] she had before [...] drop things

took it out and realized what it was, Brian Sterr popped the question—and the rest is history.

To May Sterr, the proposal was a surprise. “I didn’t think much of [the movie and dinner]

“I see students who are involved in a lot of different things. [...] I hope that my son will also have a lot of varied interests and try to pursue several of those interests at the same time. [...] He is a little bit outgoing, and I think, at this age, he seems to have a sense of humor and all that, so I hope that continues to develop.” —Brian Sterr, mathematics teacher math topic, and they worked in groups,” Brian Sterr said. “One of my groups made a video that featured the two of us. […] It was an animation they had drawn, and the storyline was basically Ms. Wong needs help from me, and then I help her with her math, and then we go out for Chinese food at the end. Then, I give her a fortune cookie and the fortune reads, ‘Ms. W, I kind of like you. —Mr. S.’” Brian Sterr smiled and chuckled as he also recalled the story of his marriage proposal. “The following spring after the video, I ordered this giant fortune cookie. [...] The same phrase that they’d used in the video, I took that and had that made inside the fortune cookie,” he said. “I got one of the students who made the video to give it to her while she was teaching. [...] I probably didn’t tell her

off in her classroom while she was teaching, just because I know it embarrasses her a lot,” Brian Sterr recalled. “But they were just random things; [...] they all had fortune cookies inside of them.

And then they had other random things like a bottle of nail polish, where the name of the color was ‘red my fortune cookie.’”

Some objects had a card written by Brian Sterr with it. The first card invited her to dinner, the second card invited her to see a movie after dinner that same day, and the third card was a short message that said they had been dating for exactly three and a half years.

After the movie (on the second night), they sat on the promenade in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Brian Sterr gave her another box with random items in it, and at the bottom was the ring box. When May Sterr

because it was our three-and-ahalf-year anniversary on that day.

We often had dinner in a restaurant on our anniversary,” she explained.

Brian Sterr’s relationship with May Sterr inspired many things, including his decision to take Mandarin classes at Stuyvesant.

He began taking them so he could communicate with his mother-inlaw, who only speaks Mandarin.

“I don’t get a report card because I’m not on the register. Both the teachers [who] I’ve had have checked my homework, and I do take the tests and quizzes and all of that,” he described. He added that his wife occasionally helps him with the nightly homework, but he admitted that the homework still takes him a long time.

In fact, Brian Sterr revealed that one of his students is actu-

what one may expect. Senior Wesley Wong advised, “Looking back, junior year was full of ups and downs, and I would be lying if I said there weren’t times I felt like giving up, but I think it’s important not to let the expectations you have determine the outcome of your year.”

take to figure that out. They were both completely frozen. Immobile. Inert.

A third woman sat at one of the benches, kneeling, and again, was utterly motionless. Her eyes were closed, and there was a look of pure happiness on her face: nirvana. She left more of an impact on me than did the mosaics constructed from each of fifty thousand pieces that were meticulously put back in place after an earthquake. She stayed in my mind as I walked back down those majestic corridors. I thought about her on the plane home from Europe. And I’ll remember her when my family and I go to church this Sunday.

Today, I still don’t believe in a higher being, but I get why some people do. I can only hope that the life I am planning to lead will allow me to experience even a fraction of that level of fulfillment.

ally his Mandarin partner: “The student [who] I’m partnered with is in my math team class. I think he’s the only one in [the Mandarin class who] I’m currently teaching.”

Brian Sterr has many hopes and dreams for his one-year-old son Nolan, but he does not want to be a controlling parent, or, as he says, “that kind of parent.” He adds that both he and his wife are fairly laid back. “If he’s doing well with everything and has really good academics, I would probably encourage him to take the [Specialized High Schools Admissions Test],” he said. “But I don’t think we’re gonna pressure and tell him, ‘You have to go to Stuyvesant.’”

Teaching at Stuyvesant has exposed Brian Sterr to qualities and traits that he hopes to see in Nolan when he grows up. “I see students who are involved in a lot of different things. [...] I hope that my son will also have a lot of varied interests and try to pursue several of those interests at the same time. [...] He is a little bit outgoing, and I think, at this age, he seems to have a sense of humor and all that, so I hope that continues to develop,” he expressed. “And maybe I’ll understand [Nolan’s humor] a little bit more when he can talk. But every now and then I’ll do something, and then he’ll just start cracking up. And I’m like, ‘Are you laughing because I did this? Should I do it again?’ And he starts cracking up again. And I don’t know why he thinks that’s funny, but that’s fine.”

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 9

Science

By GERARD LIN Chuck Yeager began his career as a private in the Air Force during the most intense years of World War II in 1941.

His outstanding record earned him a post-World War II job as a test pilot. Six years after he enlisted in the Air Force, he would become the first person to travel beyond the speed of sound—Yeager flew the experimental X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 on October 14, 1947. His flight proved that supersonic travel was possible and sparked a new race for supersonic technology between the United States and the Soviet Union, both already embroiled in the Cold War. The U.S. was the first to develop a functional supersonic military aircraft: the Douglas F4D Skyray in 1951. However, this plane never saw combat. Later on, the Soviets were successful in developing and mass-producing the first viable supersonic aircraft: the MiG19.

The challenge of building a better supersonic airplane soon turned to the commercial realm. Both sides wanted to push the limits of their technology: a commercial supersonic plane would require engines capable of keeping an aircraft much larger than a fighter jet in the air for extended periods of time. In addition, the aircraft’s frame would have to withstand immense pressure from shock waves and endure high temperatures caused by air friction. The French and British soon joined the race, but before then, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the development of the Soviet Union’s own supersonic airliner.

By CHLOE TERESTCHENKO and ZOE PICCIRILLO As Stuyvesant students, we know the importance of spending our summers effectively. For many, this means participating in a program, getting a job, or taking college classes in a variety of subjects. The Science department would like to share with the student body a recap of some of the many science activities performed by Stuyvesant students over the summer. We hope this article will shed some light on just what our STEMminded students get up to in their free time.

A popular option for rising seniors is to work in a professional research lab as part of the Regeneron Research elective course, which is taught and guided by biology teacher Dr. Jason Econome. Students search for labs by e-mailing professors and sending out resumes and cover letters, and many work nine-tofive hours for around six weeks during the summer in their target labs. Students then return to school to write a paper regard-

The Future of Supersonic Travel

The Tupolev Tu-144 made its first flight near Moscow on December 31, 1968. The plane, developed by the Soviet Union, was the first of its kind.

The Tu-144 flew three months earlier than the British-French BAC Concorde. Coupled with the U.S.’s dropping out of the supersonic race—which was going strong at the time— many thought that the Soviets would win the race to build a commercially and financially viable supersonic aircraft.

However, the Tu-144’s early public success did not last for long. At the Paris Air Show on June 3, 1973, the Tu-144 was scheduled to make an appearance to impress possible customers and investors. The Concorde flew before the Tupolev, and the Soviet pilots were dead set on beating their Anglo-French rivals. The Tu144 climbed into the air, but several seconds after takeoff, the plane disintegrated. This accident caused 14 fatalities, six of them among the crew and the other eight being people on the ground.

The Paris accident delayed the Soviet supersonic program for four more years, allowing the Concorde to enter service in the commercial sector first.

The final nail in the coffin for the Tu-144 came on May 23, 1978, when a Tu-144 caught on fire and forced an emergency landing during which two engineers were killed.

With the Soviets’ plane tragically forced out of the picture, the European-born Concorde was set to take the stage of supersonic travel. However, the plane found difficulty in making a name for itself. It could only hold 128 passengers, far less than what the traditional airplane could. The high price of fueling and maintaining

such a plane led to the sale of prohibitively expensive tickets that only the rich could afford; one round-trip ticket from New York to London would cost a whopping $12,500. The high price of flying, along with a growing list of public accidents and malfunctions in the technology, led to a widespread decline in interest in supersonic travel. Plane manufacturer Airbus ended maintenance support for the Concorde in 2003, and the Concorde was indefinitely retired after its last flight on October 24, 2003.

The retirement of the Concorde marked the end of the era of commercial supersonic travel. However, NASA and several aerospace companies are now planning to end the 16-year hiatus in supersonic travel. Enter QueSST, a supersonic plane which might just be the future of air transport.

NASA, in conjunction with the aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, has set in motion an ambitious project to revitalize the field of supersonic air travel. It is called the Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST (Quiet Supersonic Transport) aircraft, and its main selling point is its reduction of the incomparably loud sonic booms caused by supersonic takeoffs when breaking the sound barrier.

The plane would achieve quiet supersonic travel by using a unique design that obscures the pilots’ vision completely in order to streamline the shape of the craft. However, the QueSST aircraft would have a 4K camera that would allow the pilots to see in front of them, unlike the “droop snoot” (a snoot that droops, obviously) on the Concorde, which dropped down to allow vision during takeoff and landing.

The noise reduction that QueSST brings to the table is important because a particularly loud sonic boom can be so intense as to shatter glass windows or even cause structural damage to surrounding buildings. This is why the Federal Aviation Administration has banned commercial supersonic travel over land. The development of a quiet supersonic aircraft could possibly lift the ban, which may well foment further commercial interest in manufacturing it.

Other government agencies

The retirement of the Concorde marked the end of the era of commercial supersonic travel.

and aerospace corporations are also tackling the development of supersonic technology head-on. For example, the European science consortium, which includes the German Aerospace Center and the French Aerospace Lab, is currently developing the Stratofly MR3, an airplane capable of holding 300 passengers that would reach speeds up to Mach 8—around 5,400 miles per hour, or eight times the speed of sound—at altitudes higher than 98,000 feet. The consortium is exploring the use of ceramic reinforced with carbon fiber to construct the plane, as well as liquid hydrogen for fuel, to improve upon existing technologies.

Stuyvesant’s Summer Sciences

ing their research and submit it to the Regeneron Science Talent Search, a nationwide competition which seeks to discover the next generation of scientific researchers in America.

Senior Christopher Shi worked at the Lukas Dow Laboratory at the Weill Cornell Medical College, focusing on new base editor variations of CRISPR/Cas9 genomes. “Adjusting to the lab environment [was] difficult because I was by far the youngest [member],” Shi said. Working in the lab was a rewarding experience for him, however, and he plans to continue his research in college. He appreciates the way his research mentors guided and pushed him throughout the summer. Shi also added that students should “be persistent in finding a lab, and even though you may get rejected, [make sure] not to take things personally.” Ultimately, the challenge of finding a lab was a worthwhile experience for this particular student.

Similarly to Shi, junior Neil Sarkar worked at an internship in a laboratory for approximately six weeks at the NYU Lan-

gone Medical Center: he studied a way to diagnose medulloblastoma brain tumors. Sarkar found the experience rewarding, as he improved both his laboratory and organization skills, but also found it intimidating at first. Additionally, Sarkar believes that he has made valuable connections through this experience. “It is important to develop a network of people for professional development and support, even at such a young age, so my lab experience has contributed to that,” Sarkar said. For students who hope to have an internship, Sarkar advises that they prepare a resume and cover letter to send to prospective laboratories.

Junior Michael Nath participated in the Summer STEM Academy at the John Jay Campus for approximately five weeks. During this program, Nath researched microRNAs for four days a week. He found this opportunity through Harvey Blumm’s opportunity bulletin and encourages others to be just as ambitious in their search for summer activities. “Go to any college’s website and send e-mails [to faculty] for oppor-

However, the still-high price of a potential ticket for a seat on one of these airplanes remains an issue. The crafts would have enormous difficulty competing with the already well-established subsonic airplanes used by the aerospace industry.

But one company has avoided this problem by taking supersonic development entirely into the private sector: Aerion, an American aircraft manufacturer based in Reno, Nevada, is developing the Aerion AS2 business air-

tunities,” Nath said. Though he enjoyed his experience at the academy, Nath faced some challenges: “If you’re working in a lab, you get treated like a guinea pig or lab rat. You have to run a lot of errands and wait on your PI [principal investigator] a lot,” Nath said. Nath will be continuing the program through a fall extension and is grateful for the connections he made there.

While many students pursue programs in New York City to stay close to home, some choose programs at colleges and universities outside of the city. Junior Zen Phyu participated in a week-long forensic science research program of the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) at the George Washington University in Washington D.C. She found the program online and wanted to do the forensic science portion because of her love for crime shows. “Getting to live on a college campus was such an amazing experience,” Phyu said. “It made me learn to be independent, and I made closer friendships with the people there because of the massive amount of [time] I

plane. This airplane holds up to 12 passengers, and is expected to cost $120 million to purchase. The plane comes at a hefty price, but its future seems bright enough to make it well worth it.

Supersonic travel, if implemented properly, could cut many flight times in half. Daily trips across the globe would become as commonplace as smaller-scale air travel today.

Corporate business trips, governmental state visits, and even family vacations would be revolutionized. But for now, we can only dream about looking down at Earth from 98,000 feet, zipping through the sky faster than the speed of sound.

spent with them.” Throughout NSLC, there were several guest speakers, from crime investigators all the way to FBI agents.

Phyu enjoyed the way the program incorporated lectures and hands-on activities, such as fake crime scenes and court hearings. After the program, Phyu is much more inclined to pursue forensic science in the future. She believes programs like NSLC, which expose students to real-life activities in their chosen fields, are the best way to gain exposure to a potential career.

There is a vast amount of opportunities available for Stuyvesant students to take advantage of, from research labs to college academies. All of these options allow students to explore their interests before going to college, bringing them experience and lifelong connections. Every student we interviewed agreed on one thing: the key to gaining the most rewarding experience is to remain persistent and follow your passions. We hope that after reading about some of your fellow students’ science activities, you are inspired to work toward your own.

Page 10

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Editorials APs? A-Please Change is a constant in any system, but Stuyvesant has gone through change at an unexpectedly drastic pace over the past several years, much of it surrounding Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes.

Take, for instance, the freshman course offerings: in their time at the school, current upperclassmen have seen the number of non-Regents social studies courses go from three—AP Human Geography, Advanced Topics in (AT) Global History, and Big History—to one: AP Human Geography. In the science department, meanwhile, two AP courses, AP Environmental Science and AP Biology, were offered to freshmen last year.

This marked a dramatic change from just two years ago, when there was only a Topics in Biology course for freshmen who had taken Regents Biology in middle school, and a Biology Research course for particularly invested students during the spring semester.

While changes have proliferated most among the freshman course offerings, their reach is schoolwide: a sophomore can now take AP Chemistry, every junior is automatically enrolled in AP Physics 1 this year, and every senior is now required to take some form of AP Calculus. Meanwhile, some language students have seen non-AP courses in their language become inaccessible and have found themselves forced into AP courses to fulfill the three-year language requirement.

The upshot of all this is twofold: one, AP courses have become more accessible: underclassmen have more AP options, particularly in the sciences (previously, the only AP courses available for underclassmen had been three social studies courses: Human Geography, World History, and European History), and every junior will have the opportunity to take an AP course. Two, AP courses have become more mandatory and less avoidable, while some non-AP honors courses, such as AT Global History, have been

squeezed out.

However, despite these positive aspects, the change creates more problems than it solves.

While it opens up more APs for more students, it also pushes students who may not have a particular aptitude in a given field into a class they are neither interested in nor prepared to take. This jeopardizes the core appeal of AP classes, which is not the AP name or the AP test but rather the environment in which a group of people passionate about a subject convene to advance their knowledge in a space full of students with similar interests. Students who would not have been able to take an AP class are now mandated to do so, which benefits neither the student who is being put in that position nor his or her counterparts who may be more interested in the field.

One argument to counter the idea that students are not prepared for the mandatory APs is that the teachers were already teaching at the AP level, and to change the course to an AP is only a name change. However, if this is the case, the purported benefit of getting more students involved in fields such as engineering is moot; the change merely means that students will now take the AP exam. In addition, mandatory APs still have the homework cap of one hour rather than the normal half hour for non-AP courses.

This in itself shows that it is more than a name change, as students are being signed up for a potential half an hour of extra homework a night for little practical benefit.

This could be remedied by requiring that nonmandatory AP classes abide by the 30 minutes of homework non-AP classes are supposed to abide by.

Ultimately, all rationales provided for the increase in the number of required APs fail to adequately explain the change, leaving open the question as to what the real reason is. There are two distinct possibilities: one, this is a genuine but misguided attempt at im-

proving the academic rigor and appeal of Stuyvesant; or two, that the move is solely motivated by a desire to improve the school’s ranking by having more students take AP classes.

If it is the latter, it warrants serious reevaluation, as it seems to prioritize the school’s status over the well-being of the student body. If it is the former, the premise needs to be scrutinized more closely. Is an AP class always a more academically intense experience than a non-AP class? The jury is out on that question; take, for example, AP Physics 1. As compared to the Honors Physics curriculum, AP Physics 1 covers fewer topics and requires less reliance on math. AP Physics 1 may be an exception, but it certainly questions the assumption that all AP classes will necessarily be richer than their “regular” counterparts.

While the rate of change at Stuyvesant concerning AP courses suggests that the administration is willing and eager to make bold moves, it also requires an ability to evaluate and monitor the effects of the changes.

First, we urge the administration to examine the effects of offering AP classes to freshmen and sophomores, and of requiring juniors and seniors to take AP Physics 1 and AP Calculus, respectively. If the evidence suggests that these initiatives have not yielded positive results for students, the administration should not maintain these offerings for the sole purpose of achieving a higher ranking. Second, AP classes demand committing more time and energy than a regular or honors class requires, and taking a nationally administered exam. Therefore, students should be able to opt into these classes only if they have a passion for the subject matter. Stuyvesant’s motto is Pro Scientia Atque Sapientia—for knowledge and wisdom. Making passion a prerequisite for AP courses will help promote both.

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Page 11

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Opinions

By JULIA HA and ANNA LU The growth of social media has continuously revolutionized the way and the rate by which old and new ideas are communicated. The different factors that influence how social media is able to facilitate our cultural trends can be explained by the amount of content and ideas that are shared online. For example, the recent resurfacing of a 2015 video of a turtle getting a plastic straw removed from its nostril combined with blogging about the pressures of climate emergencies caused a spiral into discussions about environmentalism on social media. Before long, the media had encouraged a large movement among younger generations to live sustainably, with an increasing number of YouTubers blogging their sustainable hauls and social media users encouraging others to purchase metal straws to prevent turtles and other animals from continuing to suffer from our mindless pollution.

The bedrock of sustainable living is conscious consumption, in which consumers invest in products of better quality that can be used for longer and are generally made without harming the environment, limiting the need to buy replacements. Conscious consumers recognize that consumption is a necessity, are mindful of unlearning the unnecessary practices of consumption, and actively work to reduce their negative footprint on the environment.

Companies and corporations have noticed this widespread interest in sustainability and environmentalism online as a potential source of profit.

Many companies have rebranded

Branding Environmental Sustainability

themselves through greenwashing or claiming to be more green or eco-friendly than they actually are in order to drive sales and profits. This strategy sends the message that purchasing a given company’s products constitutes a personal contribution to the environment, fostering an individual sense of ethical responsibility in potential consumers.

The term “greenwashing” was coined in 1986 by Jay Westerveld in an essay in response to the irony of the “save the towels” movement in hotels.

As hotels urged visitors to reuse towels in order to save water, Westerveld saw that they wasted resources in different ways, while chiding the public for their own faults. The game, of course, was that hotels had a profit incentive to promote the movement: not washing linen as often would save money.

Westerved’s essay was published a year after Chevron’s People Do campaign. In the mid1980s, Chevron commissioned this campaign, which was used to broadcast its environmental dedication. In reality, it was violating the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, as well as spilling oil into wildlife refuges. From toxic air emissions at their facilities to 890 violations of waste-water pollution laws leading up to the campaign, Chevron tried to avoid the backfiring of this campaign by paying the EPA millions of dollars in fines, painting a rosy picture of its dedication to ecological good deeds.

While Chevron was one of many companies to participate in greenwashing early on, a general increased accessibility and circulation of information, primarily through the Internet, means that greenwashing has also evolved

as a marketing technique. As the term became popularized, greenwashing has taken many forms, from the use of non-government regulated words such as “biodegradable,” “organic,” and “ecofriendly” to the claim of creating products that will aid the environment in some way—this is while using production methods that directly do the opposite. A corporation might produce efficient light bulbs in factories that pollute rivers. The difference between the earlier act of greenwashing and more evolved acts of greenwashing is that companies have become increasingly aware and precise in the way they market eco-friendliness by flipping the role of ethical responsibility onto the consumers. Now, it is the consumer who seemingly holds the burden of being environmentally conscious instead of the company itself, a burden that is somehow alleviated by consuming more.

The retailer H&M is a modern example. While ethical clothing brands like Reformation exist and do execute their environmental promises, sustainable clothing is hard to come by at an inexpensive price; this makes sustainability difficult to commit to. Because of this, H&M’s Conscious sustainable clothing collection offers shoppers with cheaper options for consumers with good intent. With the launch of this collection, H&M even pledged to be 100 percent “climate positive” by 2040 by exclusively using renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency in its operations. While 2040 is still a long way off, affordable pricing and an eco-friendly message compelled shoppers to be quick to buy into the hype. This was especially since H&M has

already taken positive steps in alleviating their burden on the environment by being a member of the Better Cotton Initiative and offering a recycling program.

Upon closer scrutiny, however, it becomes clear that Conscious is a mere feel-good name that stands in stark contrast to H&M’s entire business model of unsustainable fast-fashion. Fastfashion requires quick replacement and is designed to fulfill a culture of impatience. By using hazardous chemicals, solventbased glues, and cheap materials to produce temporarily trendy clothing, H&M ensures that consumers are much more likely to purchase from H&M again in a short amount of time.

The fatalism behind many modern attempts at sustainability is a reminder that companies and consumers need to explicate their roles in the process of creating a sustainable economy. Corporations must hold themselves to standards of transparency and business methods that avoid greenwashing, and consumers must also take responsibility for keeping those corporations accountable.

The first way companies can achieve transparency and build credibility for their environmental initiatives is to disclose their annual carbon footprint.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a non-profit that plays a huge part in promoting corporate environmental responsibility, with over 7,000 companies releasing their greenhouse gas emissions numbers to CDP. The information companies provide is evaluated, and their performance is scored and released to the public each year. Since big investors look at this information to gain insight into the practices

that companies are using to manage and reduce their environmental impacts, companies are motivated to adopt more sustainable methods of production in order to seem more appealing to both investors and consumers.

Amazon has received a score of “F” from the CDP for multiple consecutive years due to its unwillingness to disclose any carbon reports and answer any questions about its emissions.

However, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, has promised to measure its 2019 carbon footprint and release a carbon report by the end of the year. The problem with this recent commitment is that the decision was not a result of pressure from investors or consumers, but rather from its own employees. As consumers, we may feel largely at the whim of distractions. Even though Amazon’s overwhelmingly popular free two-day shipping option is presumably not sustainable, consumers have never raised it as a concern. This highlights the need for responsibilities to be fulfilled on the consumer end of the economy as well. Consumers must demand that companies find ways to provide products and services with minimal environmental impact, or else companies will not break out of their current injurious habits.

It’s not that we all have to stop consuming, but that we have to acknowledge our individual responsibility to consume ethically and sustainably. This means being conscious of the role we play in the profits of green capitalism and reforming how the system is sold to us. Consumers have power, and with it comes a responsibility to use it for good.

Baby Bonds: Trust Funds for America’s Children

By ISABEL CHING

In today’s sprawling, complicated, and fast-moving society, having money opens countless doors. It means more educational opportunities, more job opportunities, and a huge advantage in the playing field we call life. Democratic candidate Cory Booker recently proposed a plan dubbed “baby bonds” which would attempt to level that field for all children in the United States. Under his plan, every newborn would receive a savings account with $1,000 at their time of birth, and the federal government would deposit into these “American Opportunity Accounts” based on their socioeconomic status. By the time these accounts are full and their beneficiaries reach 18 years of age, the poorest children would receive $46,200, and the wealthiest $1,700.

Designed to combat poverty across the nation and prevent the intergenerational poverty cycle that often afflicts poor Americans, these baby bonds could completely transform the way young adults see money and the future.

With experts noting that relative mobility rates, or the chance that a child born to parents in the bottom fifth of the national income distribution reaches the top fifth, currently hover at 7.5 percent in the U.S.—half of Canada’s current 13.5 percent—it seems about time America’s poor youth are given the chance to fight the poverty cycle.

But baby bonds won’t just benefit the poorest citizens of our society. Rising tuition prices, coupled with the rising cost of living in America, make it difficult for adults—let alone students and

young people—to live comfortably and debt-free. That could all change. The money from these AOA accounts could be used to purchase a car, pay for college, or start a new business, giving young Americans a chance to get on their feet and prepare for the real world.

The economic potential of such an initiative is boundless—all it needs is a little faith.

Aside from providing young adults with a much-needed financial boost, Booker and his team argue that baby bonds would serve to heal the racial wealth gap that plagues American society today.

The Federal Reserve found that the median net worth of a white household was roughly $171,000 in 2016, almost 10 times that of a black household, which was estimated to be around $17,600.

Researchers have also found that in 99 percent of neighborhoods in the U.S., black men earn less in adulthood than white men who come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Statistics like these indicate just how deeply entrenched racism is in American culture, whether it be in the workplace or onin the street; it is a result of centuries of oppression. The pervasiveness of racism today in all facets of American life has restricted the social and economic growth of minorities, both through education and employment discrimination. It is imperative that modern society addresses these concerns and begins to take political action.

Numerous Democratic politicians have also proposed solutions designed to lessen the racial wealth gap, including student loan initiatives and even universal basic income. But researchers at the

Center for American Progress, a research group that aims to approximate the impact of the policies of 2020 Democratic candidates, have found that baby bonds are the most effective way of achieving racial parity, with experts estimating that the program would reduce the black-white wealth gap by 24 percent over the next four decades. This would mean that by 2060, the median wealth of white U.S. families would be about 2.7 times that of black families. Other Democratic proposals, including Elizabeth Warren’s plan to make college debt-free, are not expected to lessen the wealth gap by more than 10 percent, and Warren’s specifically would result in a whiteblack median wealth ratio of 4.6, far higher than Booker’s projected results.

Cory Booker’s plan, though in its early stages of development, has already faced much opposition in Washington, with skeptics pointing out that “trust funds” of this kind would give children less incentive to work for themselves and save for the future. The lack of requirements placed on the spending of the baby bonds is equally alarming to the program’s critics, considering the potential cost of the program is estimated at around $60 billion a year. For comparison, the budget of the entire Department of Education in fiscal year 2019 was $59.9 billion. But in the context of overall federal spending, paying for baby bonds would be a minor financial endeavor. In the same spending period, the budget for the Department of Defense was $686.1 billion.

To put it bluntly, the cost of waging forever wars in foreign na-

tions is over 10 times the estimated cost of financially supporting our nation’s young children.

Yet, as with every ambitious proposal to revolutionize American society, baby bonds should be well-regulated, and their use should be limited to proper purposes. Entrusting the bond recipients with complete control of their accounts could be disastrous and end in a complete waste of taxpayer dollars—after all, teenagers tend to buy first and ask questions later. Instead of simply handing teenagers large sums of money, the federal government and banks should reserve these bonds for educational and professional purposes and ensure that the money is used in a productive manner. Recipients should be able to withdraw funds to finance higher education, career and vocational training, GED programs, and the living expenses that accompany such programs. Living expenses could include childcare for single or working parents, food, rent, and transportation, all which are costly services that may make it difficult, if not impossible, for recipients to participate in training and educational programs. Student loans are another huge expense which could be dealt with by using funds from AOA accounts.

But what makes Booker’s plan unique is not its finances and predicted social impact, but its subjectivity. Unlike Andrew Yang’s proposal for universal basic income, which would provide every American with $1,000 every month no matter their circumstance, Booker’s plan takes into account a person’s socioeconomic status, thereby distributing wealth more evenly and financing the needs of people

who need it the most. Unlike a universal basic income, which grants the money with no strings attached, his plan would also allow the federal government to have more control over the money they are giving to America’s youth.

In a time of such heated racial tension and the looming threat of a possible recession, baby bonds would give American children of lower socioeconomic status a huge financial boost and provide them with the opportunities afforded to their more affluent peers. Booker’s proposal is not perfect, but it is the beginning of a plan that could provide a viable solution to excessive student debt, resolve the blackwhite wealth gap, and ultimately, help America’s kids grow up.

Booker’s proposal is not perfect, but it is the beginning of a plan that could provide a viable solution to excessive student debt, resolve the blackwhite wealth gap, and ultimately, help America’s kids grow up.

Page 12

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Opinions Affordable Education Shouldn’t Be a Present from Plutocrats

By KRISTIN CHING

Only a century after the birth of our nation, the rising cost of higher education began to shock the American conscience. An 1875 New York Times article lamented that “gentlemen must pay more for their sons in one year than they spent themselves in the whole four years of their course.”

Such concerns have only worsened since: the average cost of tuition for four-year institutions has increased by five percent per year since 2000, making the approximately 44 million Americans who currently owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt even more harrowing.

However, our government has done next to nothing to address the issue. In fact, it’s exacerbated it. Average state spending on a per-student basis has declined by roughly five percent over the last quarter-century, and funding for higher education remains 20 percent below pre-recession levels. Instead of remedying an issue that threatens to cripple the next generation of educated young adults hoping to realize their version of the American dream, our local, state, and federal governments have fallen back on billionaire philanthropy to resolve our students’ financial woes.

Last year, when investor Ken Langone announced that he would pay full tuition for every NYU medical student, a gift that cost him $100 million, he was lauded by figures across the political spectrum. Soon thereafter, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $1.8 billion

By ELENA HLAMENKO and LAMIA HAQUE Starting from as early as four years of age, students are exposed to standardized testing that aims to find “gifted” individuals among them. Following Gifted And Talented (G&T) screening throughout lower school, lucrative middle schools such as Brooklyn’s Mark Twain and Christa McAuliffe weed out the brightest using criteria based on state test scores, attendance records, yearly report cards, and in some cases, “talent” auditions. In their third year of middle school, nearly 30,000 students take the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) with hopes of getting into one of the eight elite high schools in New York City; only 18 percent of applicants succeed. The next four years of a high schooler’s life may be crowded with AP tests, honors classes, and college admission exams such as the ACT and SAT. In short, examinations and academic selection never seem to end, with G&T programs marking only the beginning of the extensive process. Yet, a recent recommendation put forth by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s appointed diversity council has suggested the elimination of all G&T programs in New York City, threatening to upset the entire screening system. Ultimately, eliminating G&T programs would not only prove ineffective at combating educational inequity, but it could also worsen the divide.

The primary appeal of G&T programs is their enriched educational curricula and their goal to prepare students for challenging material and ultimately, real-world success. Though

to Johns Hopkins in hopes of reducing students’ reliance on loans, earning his fair share of praise, too. More recently, when Robert Smith announced at Morehouse College’s 2019 commencement ceremony that he would repay the student loans taken by 396 men of the graduating class, his act of generosity was rightfully met with widespread gratitude. But this particular brand of billionaire-driven student philanthropy marks nothing less than a severe failure of public policy.

Despite having the highest average tuition of any developed nation, the U.S. has remained stagnant even as other countries push for more measures to make college affordable. Policymakers are satisfied with this insufficient substitution of philanthropy for public policy, choosing to ignore the hundreds of thousands of other college students who must shoulder the burden of their unrelieved debts as they stumble into their next stages of life. This phenomenon of government inaction necessitating philanthropy plays out in other realms, too, such as health care, where it has become commonplace for those in need to use GoFundMe to ask strangers for the money needed to cover the cost of treatment.

Rather than depending entirely on wealthy investors and benefactors to compensate for inadequate public investment in education, the government should address certain provisions of federal tax law. For example, the “carried interest loophole” currently allows for the revenue of private equity firms to be taxed as investment income—at a rate of

no more than 20 percent—rather than earned income, which would be taxed at a rate of roughly 37 percent. This loophole is projected to cost the government about $15.6 billion in lost revenue from 2016 to 2025—money that could easily be spent making college more affordable.

price tuition. The availability of student loans, it seems, has enabled colleges to increase tuition at rates that far outpace those of inflation. The government then has the opportunity to use its control over the federal student loan market to control costs. It could prohibit colleges from increasing

Instead of remedying an issue that threatens to cripple the next generation of educated young adults hoping to realize their version of the American dream, our local, state, and federal governments have fallen back on billionaire philanthropy to resolve our students’ financial woes.

Furthermore, restricting access to federal student loans may in fact incentivize universities to lower their tuition. Higher education does not operate the way typical markets do; instead of demand gradually decreasing as prices increase, federal student loans have allowed students to bridge the gap between what they are able to afford and the exorbitant price of many institutions.

This has allowed demand to remain steady and in turn, allowed colleges to regularly raise tuition by thousands of dollars every year. In fact, in 2015, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that every $1 increase in subsidized loan amount maximums led to a 60 cent increase in sticker

sticker prices to levels higher than the Consumer Price Index under the threat of funding tuition out of their own endowments.

Though President Trump has failed to reform our college financing system as promised during his 2016 campaign, there lies hope in several Democratic candidates for president.

Pete Buttigieg, for one, promises to create a state-federal partnership and expand the Pell grant, money the government provides to low-income students to attend college. Under his plan, public college would be debt-free for lowincome students. Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 campaign brought the idea that students should be able to attend public colleges tu-

Keep Gifted Schools

the acute differences between G&T and non-G&T classes may seem insignificant for children as young as four years old, they are exposed to enhanced common core instruction, hands-on projects, and in some cases, high school courses such as U.S. History, Global History, or Algebra, which are not offered in every district school.

A G&T system typically goes hand-in-hand with enriching after-school activities as well, such as robotics, chess, or taekwon-do. In perpetually underfunded public schools, free and educational after-school activities are a rare sight and a major pull factor for parents. To enter the intensive G&T system, children are required to answer nearly 80 questions testing skills such as pattern identification and basic puzzle solving. They also must demonstrate relatively high intellectual development in a test setting, needing a score in the 90th percentile for district programs and a score in the 97th percentile for citywide programs. While many school districts have separate gifted classes for students, the five city-wide programs available are NEST+M, The Anderson School, Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars (TAG), Brooklyn School of Inquiry, and Q300: The 30th Avenue School.

De Blasio’s appointed council seems to have seen the value of G&T schools differently and has put forth the notion of eliminating the G&T program, with magnet schools and “mixed-ability” classrooms serving as replacements. But if the test-centered frenzy were to tell the mayor anything, it’s that zoned, non-G&T schools are underfunded and insufficiently

stimulating to their G&T counterparts. Along with other reforms de Blasio has in mind, eliminating the G&T test will also change the middle school admissions process, as the mayor strives for a more holistic and demographically representative selection. Instead, magnet schools and “enrichment programs” are planned to replace the number-based screening process, though the report created by de Blasio’s diversity council lacks specifics. The lack of specifics decreases the validity of de Blasio’s plan, making its potential benefits harder to believe.

De Blasio’s panel’s plan is meant to take NYC’s school system one step forward, but all it would do is bring it a step back. Some believe de Blasio is going forth with the right motions, as a racially unbalanced program rightfully deserves changes. However, eliminating the G&T program would be counterproductive. If the G&T program were taken away, then a new program would have to be built from the ground up, which would take more time and experimentation than to simply adjust the G&T program. De Blasio’s alternative also lowers the bar for students, making the school system less about education and more about keeping everyone on the same level. Instead of lowering the bar and educational standard, students should retain the right to a public education that fits their academic abilities and intellect.

A more beneficial solution would be an expansion of G&T programs across the city, with an emphasis on underrepresented communities. At the moment, many parents are

held back from enrolling their children in the G&T system due to a lack of availability. In addition to not every district school having G&T classes and only five city-wide programs to boot, the G&T program supply is nowhere near the demand.

Though some expansion has been seen in recent years with Queens adding the G&T program to 29 schools, insufficient expansion has been made into underrepresented communities, as the South Bronx region added G&T classes to nine schools in 2018. Instead of ending the G&T program, de Blasio and his task force should focus on expanding programs to students in Black and Hispanic communities. While it may take time to train teachers to teach G&T classes, it is nothing compared to the time and resources it would take to implement de Blasio’s alternative. Accessibility is one of the first steps to a better education, and by expanding the G&T program, more students will experience the educational preparation meant for realworld success and competitive middle and high school enrollment.

It is hard to say whether the vision proposed by de Blasio is shared by the majority of parents in the city. But from middle-class families, and perhaps from many families who had their children take the G&T exam, support is nowhere to be found. As some sought after private schools charge around $30,000 for kindergarten alone and up to $55,000 for high school, parents panic as to where to find a source of reliable public education for their children; 66.91 percent and 76.32 percent of NEST+M

ition free into the mainstream, vows to cancel all of the nation’s outstanding debt. Elizabeth Warren has backed a similar debt cancellation plan, specifying that borrowers earning $250,000 or more wouldn’t receive any debt relief.

Though their sweeping proposals beg feasibility evaluations, their prioritization of college affordability proposals speaks to their willingness to address the issue.

Opponents of such reform posit that lowered tuition and government aid would compromise the quality of education.

But in doing so, they neglect the benefits reaped by other countries with comparatively low tuitions and various support programs. In Canada, for one, where college is seen as a right and not a privilege, college students receive much more government support than their U.S. counterparts do. Funding comes from both the federal and provincial levels, resulting in significantly cheaper tuition, such as the $8,000 annual price that students pay for Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada. And the country has been rewarded for its education investment. With nearly 58 percent of citizens receiving a tertiary level education, Canada boasts the world’s most highly educated population.

If the aforementioned candidates were to follow through on their proposals, the U.S. has the potential to follow suit, providing opportunities to a greater quantity without compromising quality. They have the ability to herald a new era, one in which philanthropy would no longer need to serve as the band-aid solution it currently does.

and The Anderson School’s student body get admission offers from specialized high schools, respectively, quantitatively proving the success of the G&T program. On the other hand, de Blasio’s panel’s current educational experiment proposes to use NYC’s children as lab rats, with no promise of success. The plan also threatens to push away the same pool of Asian and Caucasian families that make up 75 percent of the city’s G&T system, which may send their children to chartered or suburban schools in the event of the elimination of the G&T system. In turn, racial demographics in the public education system would experience a greater rift.

At the end of the day, the main concern for parents is whether their children are learning and improving. Education is a priority, and the fact of the matter is that de Blasio’s panel’s plan would not result in the betterment of NYC’s school system. It would instead lower the quality of education and worsen an already severe racial divide. The current experimental alternative is poorly planned and would be outright ineffective, with no guarantee of minimal success. An expansion of current G&T schools would make the program more accessible and is a safer alternative to the council’s plan of public school admissions upheaval. Students would also be more prepared to apply for high school and would have a better chance of entering prestigious institutions. The current generation of students is our future, and creating a secure system of quality education ensures a promising future.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 13

Opinions

By JUSTIN MURDOCK

Japan v. Korea: Tensions Rise, Peace Dies?

It is often said that the more things change, the more things stay the same. This seems to be the case with relations between South Korea and Japan. Both countries have gone from being underdeveloped agrarian societies to economic and technological powerhouses by the end of the 20th century. However, despite their prominence and prosperity, it seems that they have difficulty letting go of a good deal of antagonism in their shared history. For centuries, Japan unsuccessfully sought to invade Korea until the peninsula’s colonization in 1910 by the resurgent Asian superpower. During a brutal occupation period, the Japanese used Koreans as forced laborers, among many other atrocities. This finally came to an end when Japan was defeated in World War II and Korea was liberated. However, tensions between the Western powers and the Communist bloc resulted in the forced division of Korea into North and South along the 38th parallel.

About a decade after the end of the Korean War, Japan reached an accord with South Korea to make amends for the period of colonial exploitation. The two countries signed the Treaty on Basic Relations in 1965, which was intended to promote diplomacy and settle humanitarian and socioeconomic issues arising from the colonial period. However, this was concluded at a time when Japan was already enjoying economic prosperity and ascendancy, partly because they had supported the U.S. in the Korean War. South Korea, on

the other hand, was still an underdeveloped and struggling agrarian society. Despite Japan’s assertion that this treaty was the final resolution of any and all war-related claims, South Korea remained unsatisfied.

Recently, South Koreans who lived through the traumas of colonization have begun seeking redress from Japanese companies in Korean courts.

Mr. Lee Chun-shik, who suffered as a forced laborer in colonial times, sued his former “employers,” Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Company, for a huge sum in exchange for both violations of his rights as a Korean citizen and as a human. The South Korean Supreme Court ruled that victims of forced labor have the right to claim damages for compensation notwithstanding the 1965 treaty, allowing the victims to seize assets of Japanese companies in South Korea to satisfy their claims. Not long after this, Japanese trade minister Hiroshige Seko announced that Japan would take South Korea off of their “whitelist” of countries cleared for preferential export screenings, which limited the shipment of three important chemicals for South Korean conglomerates like Samsung. The Japanese asserted that South Korean export controls were weak, potentially allowing the chemicals to be diverted to weapons use, while the South Koreans claimed the export restrictions were simply retaliation for the Supreme Court ruling.

While the law may be on Japan’s side, it seems that justice is on South Korea’s side.

It is undeniable that the Kore-

ans are the victims of colonial abuse and even modern exploitation. During the colonial occupation and even during the Treaty on Basic Relations, Korea was severely underdeveloped and was taken advantage of by Japan. While the Japanese enjoyed rising economic prosperity after World War II, partly due to the largesse of the U.S., the Koreans struggled economically until well into the latter half of the 20th century.

Even today, while the Japanese have taken some measures to assure the world that there is

given the rising nuclear threat of North Korea and the expansionist designs of China.

The U.S., which is allied with Japan and South Korea while having an adversarial relationship with North Korea and China, has strongly urged the two countries to set aside past personal conflicts. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn even noted that “intel sharing is key to developing our common defense policy and strategy.” Decades of U.S. efforts to foster peace and stability in Asia could unravel if

Decades of U.S. efforts to foster peace and stability in Asia could unravel if Japan and South Korea continue the apparent tit-for-tat measures that give no one an advantage except their common adversaries. no export ban in effect against South Korea, the timing of their export restrictions seems suspect, especially given their Trumpist appearance.

The acrimony between South Korea and Japan has nonetheless reached the point where it is harmful to their own self-interests and the interests of the U.S. while being helpful to their rivals in Asia.

South Korea announced that a crucial intelligence-sharing pact with Japan would be null and void in early September 2019, deeming it unable to meet “national interests.” The rift between the two countries could not arise at a worse time,

Japan and South Korea continue the apparent tit-for-tat measures that give no one an advantage except their common adversaries.

Japan and South Korea should strive to reconcile and reach a final accommodation to right any lingering wrongs of the past that the lopsided 1965 treaty failed to address, and the U.S. should do what it can to mediate between the two countries to reach a mutually acceptable resolution. North Korea continues to develop its nuclear missile program at an alarming pace, seeking to ensure the survival of its communist regime and

even to promote reunification of Korea on its terms. Meanwhile, as China continues to flex its newfound economic muscle, it has continued to militarize the South China Sea, wholly disregarding the territorial claims of its neighbors. China seeks to reassert its primacy as the “Middle Kingdom” or dominant power in Asia, and perhaps in all the world. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s preference to cozy up to dictators and authoritarian governments while alienating and insulting allies like Canada, France, and Germany does not give Japan and South Korea the luxury of squabbling, lest they find that China and North Korea have gained insurmountable advantages in the meantime.

South Korea and Japan now stand at a crucial crossroad. As we speak, President Trump continues to pursue a policy of “America First” ironically all around the world. Given the rise of authoritarian powers and the fraying of alliances between democratic nations, the time has come to put aside selfish interests in the world and work together for what is right, just, and protective of freedom for those who value it. Japan could take a leading role toward this worthy goal by more fully assuming responsibility for its wartime actions, while South Korea could stand to be more pragmatic in recognizing the advantages of a more harmonious relationship with Japan. Meaningful change may be hard to come by in the world of international politics, but the opportunity here should not be wasted by petty squabbling.

Trump’s Newest Targets are Kids with Cancer

By CLAIRE SHIN I, like most people, can relate to the agony of having to sit in a hospital atrium while awaiting my beloved uncle’s cancer test results or the outcome of a close family friend’s emergency surgery. Every single time, I’ve been blessed with a sigh of relief upon discovering that my loved one will be able to come home. I feel fortunate to know that American healthcare has so far worked in my favor. Others aren’t so lucky. Some will heave a sigh of anguish when they hear the news of a death or a terminal illness. Some will have to overcome great adversities to secure the health of their loved ones, facing obstacles like the great amount of time it takes to care for an ill relative, impossibly high medical bills, and of late, the American government itself.

Donald Trump, in a decision that has been dubbed “the most inhumane” of his policies, recently implemented an unannounced policy that forces the deportation of immigrant families who are currently staying in the U.S. for life-saving healthcare for their terminally ill children. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) recently sent out letters indicating that the agency is no longer considering deferrals of deportation for families whose children are staying in the country for medical care their native countries might lack the supplies to treat. This status, called medi-

cal deferred action, had previously allowed immigrants to legally stay in the country to work and receive healthcare while receiving much-needed treatment for their illnesses.

By withdrawing this policy, the administration has effectively halted the life-saving treatment of children with leukemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and a host of other deleterious diseases. Often, this essentially means a death sentence for these children.

states, indicating that similar occurrences are happening around the country.

Enraged and confused by the egregiousness of the unannounced change, 110 Congress members wrote a letter to the Trump Administration asking for a clarification in the policy shift as well as an explanation for the lack of an official statement. But when questioned, the USCIS seemed to “have no idea of the humanitarian—and poten-

Then, on the morning of August 28, 2019, ICE and USCIS had a meeting about the issue for the first time, and Boston Globe reporter Sarah Betancourt said, “ICE is definitely punting this back to USCIS.” Meanwhile, Maddow laid out the following scenario to describe the stupidity and severity of the situation: “Imagine leading one of the most influential and richest countries on Earth and then getting the idea that what that

This is the lifeline that the Trump administration is tearing apart, and we have an inherent, moral obligation to stop the federal government from doing this in the name of the American people.

The Miami Herald recently reviewed the case of an immigrant man whose child was diagnosed with metastatic Stage Four neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that develops in nerve tissue. The man was told by the U.S. government to terminate treatment and get out in 33 days, regardless of his child’s condition. He is “desperate” to stay in the country so that he may remain with his daughter. MSNBC featured the story of Jonathan Sanchez, a 16-year-old with cystic fibrosis whose family also received a letter booting them out of the U.S. More and more cases have been appearing in other

tially fatal—consequences of what it is doing,” prominent MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow said. When radio station WBUR called in to ask for clarification, the USCIS deflected the blame onto ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which is supposedly taking medical deferred action requests into consideration. MSNBC found that ICE isn’t actually processing the requests, however, and ICE has stated to the Miami Herald that it had no idea USCIS was telling reporters that ICE was handling the responsibilities to save children with life-threatening maladies.

country ought to do to better itself is target children with terminal diseases. Imagine believing that these children pose such a threat to this nation that you need to channel the power of the entire federal government to effectively cut off their life-saving treatments and kick their helpless families out of the country. Imagine that, once you’ve decided to do this, you forget about it without a care in the world, thinking no one would care or even notice because the affected group is made up of ‘just immigrants.’ So you don’t even come up with a plan in case someone—somewhere—asks

you to answer for your actions: when you are inevitably questioned, you say, ‘some other agency is doing it!’”

This piece will be printed in the Opinions section of The Spectator, but there’s not much opinion to be had. The growing outcry of grieving parents across the country has made it clear that the consequences of revoking medical deferred action will cost the lives of innocent children across the U.S. Most immigrants—especially immigrants with children battling lifethreatening diseases—pose no threat to the U.S. Since the USCIS has given immigrants a 33-day deportation window, there’s still time to undo the changes.

To me, the story of Sanchez serves as a chilling reminder of my own cousin, who is an incredibly strong teen survivor of lung cancer.

I have witnessed firsthand the struggles that families endure when their loved ones are diagnosed: it is certainly filled with anxiety and pain, but it also teaches priceless values to the victim’s caregivers. As my aunt said, “His link to the world was fragile. He had such a delicate lifeline to us, and we held onto every passing moment and day as if it were his last, because…it could have been his last.” This is the lifeline that the Trump administration is tearing apart, and we have an inherent, moral obligation to stop the federal government from doing this in the name of the American people.

Page 14

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Opinions When Fossil Fuels Fail, Nuclear Energy is the Answer

By ELENA HLAMENKO

average capacity factor of 92.3 percent, meaning they operated at full power on 336 out of 365 days per year. By contrast, hydroelectric systems delivered power 38.2 percent of the time (138 days per year), wind turbines 34.5 percent of the time (127 days per year), and solar panels only 25.1 percent of the time (92 days per year).

Following accidents at Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi, and Three Mile Island, public perception of nuclear power has been falsely skewed to see it as a toxic and dangerous source of energy. Though the magnitude of those accidents is undeniable, data analysis of the recorded deaths and health effects from those three incidents proves that nuclear accidents are nowhere near as deadly as those in large-scale industrial disasters. For example, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the partial meltdown of the ThreeMile Island reactor in March of 1979 led to 2,000,000 people in the region experiencing an increased radiation dose of one millirem. For context, an exposure from a chest X-ray is about six millirem and the area’s natural radioactive background dose is about 100-125 millirem per year. In a public statement, the NRC stated, “In spite of serious damage to the reactor, the actual meltdown had negligible effects on the physical health of individuals or the environment.” Similar conclusions can be drawn for accidents even as serious as Chernobyl. In the three decades following the accident, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) has identified no long-term health consequences to populations exposed to the Chernobyl fallout, with the exceptions of an increased risk of thyroid cancer in children, people who consumed dairy products contaminated with 131-iodine, and citizens not properly evacuated in Belarus, Ukraine, and western Russia. Since the accident, around 6,500 incidents of thyroid cancer linked to the accident have been reported.

Though such numbers are significant and the effect of the fallout on local communities should not be underestimated, comparing health complications related to nuclear acci-

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Michael Hu / The Spectator

The year 2019 marks a 41year low for coal consumption in the United States with expenditures dropping to 691,000,000 short tons (MMst) per year.

Though consumption of coal has been on a decline since 2007—in part due to the closure of many coal-fired power plants and rise of renewable energy on the market—this appears minimal when compared with the impressive clean energy campaigns launched by several nations around the world, including Germany. Currently the largest producer and burner of coal in Europe, Germany unveiled its ambitious Energiewende campaign in 2009 from what started as a grassroots movement to encourage legislators to get behind renewable energy expansion.

The plan calls for the phasing out of all nuclear power plants and going completely carbon neutral—producing no net carbon dioxide—by 2050. 10 years later and in the wake of pressing concerns of climate change, Germany’s Green Party as well as the general public watch as Merkel and Energiewende legislators struggle to meet even the 2020 benchmark for carbon emission reductions: 40 percent of 1980 levels.

The issue with Energiewende isn’t solely its short time span or difficulty in its implementation given Germany’s booming transportation industry—a business almost entirely reliant upon coal and oil. It’s the unnatural shift to entirely clean energy sources in a country illequipped with natural resources to capitalize upon in the first place. While Germany’s northern border—from Denmark to Poland—is lined with wind turbines as far as the eye can see, geographic limitations in the rest of the country make it difficult for Germany to even attempt to sustain its current energy expenditure on clean energy alternatives. The reality is that as Germany continues to demolish nuclear power plants and invest billions of Euros into solar panels, wind turbines, and the like, an energy vacuum is going to emerge, placing pressure on the country to buy electricity from neighboring nations,almost all of which get the majority of their energy

from fossil fuels.

Still, in light of UN and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports claiming a “climate change apocalypse” threatening the survival of humanity as soon as 2050, Energiewende remains an admirable feat, albeit a flawed one. The main problem with Germany’s attempt at “going green” on a national scale is its stubborn refusal to revive and implement nuclear power plants. Though it was initially a leader in the rise of nuclear power throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the 1986 Chernobyl accident froze Germany’s nuclear development, with plants beginning to be demolished in the early 21st century. Rising environmentalist concerns and the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011 sealed nuclear energy’s fate, as the rate of nuclear power plant destruction has continued to escalate in the past eight years. Yet, with climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gases being a priority for both an environmentally conscious public and established politicians, nuclear energy must be revisited with the intent to revitalize the industry.

While environmentalists continue to preach for the implementation of clean energy sources such as solar panels, hydroelectric dams, and wind turbines, at the end of the day, nuclear energy remains minimally ecologically invasive and is the most energy and costeffective source of electricity we have. Since they produce energy via nuclear fission rather than chemical burning, nuclear power plants generate energy with no carbon emissions. In fact, nuclear power plants only release greenhouse gases from the required usage of fossil fuels during construction and maintenance, which amounts to the same amount of fossil fuels used as solar power: a total of four to five percent as much as a natural gas-fired power plant. Most importantly, nuclear power plants operate at a much higher production rate than renewable energy sources or fossil fuels. In terms of capacity factors—a measure of what percentage of the time a power plant produces energy—nuclear power plants, which generated almost 20 percent of U.S. electricity in 2016 alone, had an

dents with those related to industrial disasters of similar and greater magnitude truly puts them into perspective. Over 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India in 1984, killing nearly 4,000 people immediately, with over 12,000 other deaths reported within the next several days. A typhoon struck Henan Province, China in 1975, causing the failure of a major hydroelectric dam and an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 deaths through drowning. A comparison between the death toll of nuclear accidents and industrial disasters reveals that the former is not as devastating as the public sees it to be.

Combined with improved reactor designs, standardization in emergency protocols, and a better scientific understanding of nuclear power, nuclear energy is more than sufficiently safe to provide power on a global scale.

Yet, one of the biggest obstacles to the adoption of nuclear power is contradictory information and public opinions on the larger issue: climate change.

According to a poll conducted

by Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, only 64 percent of Americans believe that climate change is caused by human activities. The other 36 percent is thus unlikely to support a transition to nuclear power, much less a reduction in fossil fuels, when they do not believe in any environmental consequences for their actions.

The reality is, many of the current natural disasters plaguing

our planet—from fires in the Amazon rainforest to record heat waves hitting Europe—are caused by increased global temperatures due to the greenhouse effect. As temperatures rise and ice caps in the Arctic melt at increasingly fast rates, sea levels will rise and threaten the existence of countless coastal cities. In fact, Indonesia has already begun moving its capital from Jakarta to a more in-land location, in light of the former capital sinking over seven inches per year. Jakarta serves as an example of what can happen to any coastal city, including New York. If humans do not reduce their usage of fossil fuels in the coming years, climate scientists warn that Miami Beach, Atlantic City, and even New York, could be underwater as soon as 2100. That’s only 80 years away.

In light of its countless benefits, nuclear energy should be the future of clean energy expansion. As finite supplies of fossil fuels run dry, clean energy sources such as hydroelectric power, solar systems, and wind turbines prove not as cost efficient as their nuclear counterparts, while also running on lower capacity factors and yielding less energy. To make nuclear power an international reality, public perception of the medium must change through greater circulation of data on the likelihood of a nuclear accident and objective information on the results of accidents in the past. The ultimate goal of halting irreversible climate change and long term survival starts with nuclear power.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 15

Arts and Entertainment Thinkpiece

By BRIAN ZHANG

At Stuyvesant, the stack of popular brands is piled high, with the most elite probably being Morning Glory, Fountain Pen Hospital, Muji, and Blick Art. Perhaps stationery distracts students from the immense expectations awaiting them each day (I mean, what can you expect from a school that has been featured as Niche’s #1 choice for the second time in a row?). Popular statements like “You have such great taste in supplies!” and “They must help with organization” open up a new avenue in conversation that does not involve “I’m so tired today” or “How much sleep did you get last night?” Such conversations make stationery a particularly enticing subject.

The Japanese-derived term kawaii has a secondary definition of being able to be loved, which aligns with stationery serving as a safe haven. Boring lectures during class? Try some of Line Shop’s ultra neon pens or Blick Art’s soft pastel chalk, and add some dazzle to your notes. The occasional escape from academia is understandable, but it doesn’t quite explain why such a large majority of American students are picking up on this trend. According to a recent lifestyle talk by Microsoft News, students’ ravenous hunt for the cutest and newest stationery takes root in the urge to blend in.

Conformity is presented in different ways, whether it is by simply observing the popular people in school or following #Studygram accounts on Instagram, which actively promote a relationship between productive study habits and kawaii stationery.

Junior Michelle Chen comments on the influence that social media has had on her decisions to purchase stationery: “People on Youtube and other outlets who see stationery as a crucial part of personal expression inspire me to experiment with bullet journaling and art myself.”

The practice of investing in stationery does, however, take a financial toll, especially considering companies’ clever marketing strategies. Everything in life is a double-edged sword; just remember to choose wisely and at a distance farther than the length of three of Yoobi’s stackable markers, or you’ll be sorry.

Film

By MAY HATHAWAY

Farewell to Mediocre Asian Representation

“Crazy Rich Asians” (2018) was once seen as the hallmark of 21st-century Asian representation: the all-Asian cast was radical for its mere existence in Hollywood, and Asian communities rejoiced at being able to see actors who looked like them in such a popular film.

However, “The Farewell,” written and directed by Lulu Wang, not only succeeds in representing Asian faces on the big screen but also raises the bar much higher for future Asian representation.

The premise of the film is a rather jarring one: Billi Wang (Awkwafina), a 30-year-old Asian American writer travels to Changchun, China with her family to see her grandmother (Zhao Shuzhen), who unknowingly has terminal lung cancer. The family uses Billi’s cousin’s wedding as an excuse to reunite the family one last time.

One of the film’s highlights is Awkwafina’s phenomenal acting, which showcases Billi in the gray area of the clash between Chinese and American culture. In New York, Billi is confident and bubbly: she navigates the subway and haggles at the laundromat with the ease of a native New Yorker. In China, her attitude is completely different. She sullenly sits at family dinners and often argues with her mother about the family’s silence. Billi doesn’t entirely fit in, but the time she spends with her grandmother illustrates her family’s deep and unbreakable bond.

Awkwafina’s acting allows Billi to serve as an intermediary between the audience and her family. Just as many viewers are unfamiliar with Asian family dynamics and societal norms, Billi clashes with various members of her family and explores the intricacies of what it means to belong to something larger than oneself.

Wang’s screenplay, which is in part based on her own experiences, also displays a solid understanding of Chinese culture and the contrast between Western and Eastern familial ideals. Dialogue like Billi’s grandmother warning “I heard people in New York will rip your earrings off,” is both funny and relatable to many Asian youths familiar with well-intentioned family members who get carried away with Internet gossip. In another scene, Billi plays a game similar to Quack-Dilly-Oso with her family at the wedding, and though the game may be unfamiliar to some

audiences, the scene is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face as the family laughs away. “The Farewell” stays light with scenes like these but isn’t afraid to get serious, balancing out emotionally deep moments as Billi’s family gradually fractures under its lie. Interspersed in the confusion is Billi’s uncle, who cogently presents his thoughts on collectivism and the true meaning of death,

In “The Farewell” on the other hand, Billi goes to a spa with her aunt, confronting her about the family’s decision to keep Billi’s grandmother in the dark. As they speak, Billi goes through cupping therapy, a popular form of alternative medicine in China. Wang’s incorporation of cupping amid important dialogue speaks to her attention to detail, and it immedi-

its impact on life, and its effect on a community. Adding to our philosophical considerations is Billi’s argument about the immorality of hiding the truth. In this way, the film tackles numerous sides and lets the audience decide what to think at the end of it all.

In “The Farewell,” Asian-ness is not commodified like it was in “Crazy Rich Asians.” Whereas much of the latter’s advertising came from its all-Asian cast, it was a remarkably American film that commodified Asian faces in a seemingly innocuous form of racial neoliberalism. In “Crazy Rich Asians,” Asian-ness is divorced from the story itself. None of the characters, including those who live in Singapore, seem to be connected to their cultures save for a few stereotypical references. The film merely attempts to sell its cast without making sure the script accurately represents Asian-ness as well.

The differences between the two films can be best highlighted by their respective spa scenes. In “Crazy Rich Asians,” Rachel, the protagonist, befriends another girl at a party. Most of the dialogue is casual chatter and the discussion is centered on Nick, Rachel’s boyfriend. Here, culture is distinctly separate from Rachel’s romantic arc.

ately makes the film feel familiar to Asian viewers. Unlike “Crazy Rich Asians,” Wang’s film takes every moment to remind its audience that this is a movie that refuses to cater to Westerners. Instead, it cherishes Asian authenticity, doing so in an unapologetic and graceful way.

“The Farewell” presents Asian identity in the best way possible. It unflinchingly presents the discomfort of cultural clash and the moral concerns of Billi’s situation which, while almost exclusive in its Asianness, maintains its relatability. The objective is not to represent race but rather to represent culture.

This is the key difference between “The Farewell” and “Crazy Rich Asians”: one tells authentic stories about Asian people, and one is a “Notting Hill” (1999) remake with Asian actors. Because of this characteristic, Wang’s piece allows for greater emotional depth, and its ruminations on life and death and morality will penetrate viewers to greater effect.

This is not only a good film but also an important one. Non-Asian audiences need to watch “The Farewell” because it forces viewers to consider an alternate worldview, something that is rare in many American films. We shouldn’t just expect films that represent Asian faces. We should be looking for the Asian experience.

Sammi Chen / The Spectator

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Aries Ho / The Spectator

It seems as though the usual complaints that come with the start of a new school year have suddenly abated. As much as it is at the expense of our piggy banks, there is always one thing that students look forward to: stationery.

The overwhelming sensation upon discovering that Muji is dishing out their five-notebook packs for just three bucks is perhaps something we can all relate to. Contrary to the stereotypical image of an impatient New Yorker, we are never fazed by the long, snaking lines that accompany these special events. And not to mention, our pencil cases are already stocked to the brim with the trendiest school supplies or just about whatever YouTube bullet journalists deem “smooth” and “good for calligraphy.”

But if the process of waiting for and purchasing stationery is as essential as it appears to be, why does it continue to control a large sphere of influence in both our academic and social lives?

The answer touches upon science as much as it does upon our attitudes toward personal enjoyment and social conformity.

Nowadays, stationery companies are coming up with increasingly clever technology to add a dash of “kawaii,” or endearing quality, in their designs. According to a Brains On! Article, “Why do we want to bite cute things?” by Molly Bloom, cuteness is actually associated with specific anthropomorphic characteristics that often leak their way into modern stationery. This can mean anything from a pencil featuring a blushing bunny to a walrus plush with abnormally long eyelashes, but the purpose never changes; increasing dopamine release instills within us the “aww” effect, while dimorphous expression, a phenomenon defined by exhibiting something different from your emotions, prompts us to think, “Gosh…

This thing is so cute—I don’t know if I should even use it.” Essentially, you cherish it so much to the extent that you hesitate to use it for fear of damaging it. In that case, that “something” becomes more of an attachment than just a physical object.

Kawaii at Stuyvesant

Page 16

The Spectator ● September 27

Arts and Entertainment Literature

By ALTHEA BARRETT Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft are two writers well known for influencing the horror genre in the early 19th and 20th century, respectively. Though they both build suspense in their work, the ways that they do so differ greatly. Poe often focuses on a psychological horror centered on the human mind, while Lovecraft is well known for playing up his readers’ fears of the unknown, feelings of despair, and the theme that not all knowledge is power.

Furthermore, their histories, which influence their writing styles, are very different. Poe suffered from depression and alcoholism which likely caused his interest in insanity, though he did live a good life with a decent career and did have a loving marriage that encouraged self-awareness and realism in his work. Lovecraft, on the other hand, had a family history of psychotic episodes, frequent debilitating mental breakdowns, and fears of everything, from other people’s gazes to the progression of time—he often used his writing as a form of escapism. His love of science, particularly of astronomy, also informed his creation of horrific beings such as Cthuhlu and the other Great Old Ones.

Two stories that most strikingly illustrate the difference between Poe and Lovecraft are

Film

By AGATHA EDWARDS **Note: This article is not a review of the live-action Lion King movie; it is a comparison between the two movies. And if you haven’t watched either of the two movies, you might not want to read this because it contains some details that are important to the plot.

Twenty-five years ago, Disney set out to make a cartoon about a group of lions in Africa and one particular lion’s early life as he struggled through family tensions and hardships, friendships, and personal beliefs. The film was a hit and grossed $9.6 million worldwide. This summer, a remake was created with the same title: “The Lion King.” Due to the popularity of the old version, millions flocked to movie theaters to see the new and (possibly) improved version. The film grossed over $1.4 billion, becoming the ninth highest-grossing film ever. The plot was the same but there were major differences, the biggest being that this new movie was live-action while the prior one was a cartoon. There were, however, other noticeable differences.

The Songs: Before any dialogue is even spoken, the first song (“Circle of Life”) fills the ears of everyone in the audience. For the first minute or so in both films, the only sounds in the song come from animals and a man singing in an African language, but afterward, a woman begins singing in English. When I watched the 2019 version and heard this voice, I felt like something wasn’t right. To me, the new voice was emptier and not as clear as the 1994 version. After

A Difference in Perspective: Paranoia Edition

“The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Cool Air.” In Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator murders the old man he lives with because of his fear of the old man’s disfigured eye. The murderer describes himself as merely a very nervous man, using the retelling of his murder to explain that he cannot possibly be mad, because a madman would not have been able to plan out such a scheme.

Throughout the story, he spirals in his own loop of confusion and paranoia as he recounts the events leading up to his final confession to murder.

Poe’s use of an unreliable narrator makes this story what it is. The narrator constantly tries to justify his actions and explain them as sane while simultaneously condemning himself.

“You fancy me mad […] But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded…with what dissimulation I went to work!” He does not address his motives, thinking that to “rid [him]self of the eye forever” is good enough. It is only when the narrator becomes convinced that the dead man’s heart is beating loudly in the presence of police officers that he is thrown into a crazed fit betraying him to be psychotic.

Poe’s story focuses on paranoia as the source of horror, but this isn’t the case for Lovecraft’s. In his sci-fi horror story “Cool Air,” Lovecraft expresses his paralyzing fear of a new

technology: air conditioners.

The narrator starts the story by admitting that he shivers whenever he feels a draft of cool air and that his story will explain the horrors that have made him fear the cold. He states that he had moved into an apartment beneath a Doctor Muñoz. The narrator suffers a heart attack one day and goes up for help.

As he is treating the narrator, Muñoz discusses the wonders of progress and remarks on his air conditioner, which keeps the room cool on a hot summer day.

The narrator proceeds to visit the doctor frequently until one day the air conditioner stops working. The narrator stumbles in to see Muñoz’s remains and a letter explaining that the air conditioner had been preserving his body, as he had actually been dead for eighteen years.

Lovecraft’s writing style highlights two key things: the fear of the unknown and the idea that knowledge is not always good. In “Cool Air,” he voices his concerns through the narrator stating, “The abnormal always excites aversion, distrust, and fear.” In 1926, air conditioning was a new technology. The point of this story is to impress upon the reader a wariness of scientific progression, as this results in the rise of the undead Doctor Muñoz. The narrator has been traumatized by his discovery of the undead to the point that every draft of cold air

reminds him of the incident and reignites his horror.

Furthermore, this narrator does not try to convince the reader of anything, instead saying, “What I will do is relate the most horrible circumstance I have ever encountered, and leave it to you to judge whether or not this forms a suitable explanation of my peculiarity.” He has no need to do so, as he is only the vessel for the reader to experience the horror. Lovecraft’s character makes no indication to suggest that he is anything other than a reliable narrator.

The main difference between Poe and Lovecraft’s perspective is that while both portray some form of paranoia, Poe portrayed it as a filter on reality while Lovecraft did so as the correct lens through which to view the world. Poe’s character is clearly not in touch with reality and is an infamous culprit. Meanwhile, Lovecraft’s character plays the fool and finds out the truth too late. This reflects on the writers themselves: Poe saw paranoia as the affliction of a madman to be studied, and Lovecraft saw paranoia as the rational way to view the world around him. These two differences between Lovecraft and Poe are telling of how authors of various perspectives deal with the same topic: those who don’t deal with it may treat it as something to dissect, and those who do may treat it as a simple fact of life.

The Lion King: Old and New having heard the old soundtrack countless times, I couldn’t bring myself to accept the new version of the song; I was too attached to the old one. This happened with every song in the 2019 version.

I felt like the producers should have kept the old songs because they are a staple of the 1994 version. It’s like when you hear remixes of popular songs: they aren’t as good as the original.

Timon a n d P u m baa: Everyone (who has watched either one of the two Lion King movies, and if you haven’t watched at least one, what did you do in your childhood?) knows that Simba’s two unexpected friends—a meerkat (Timon) and a warthog (Pumbaa)—help Simba grow and overcome his past troubles. In the 2019 version, these two animals have much more screen time and deliver a whole bunch of hilarious jokes that actually made me laugh. They even crack some jokes that would only make sense to current audiences (based on recent sayings and trends). These two critters make the new film extremely enjoyable, especially after witnessing what Simba goes through with his lion family (which was even more heartbreaking because it was live-action). The producers made the movie extremely enjoyable and comedic through

Timon and Pumbaa.

Simba’s Time Away from Home: In the 1994 version, after Simba spends time away from his family, Timon and Pumbaa are the only ones there to comfort and spend time with

Daniel Berlinsky / The Spectator

him. It seems like the three have a great time together. However, in the 2019 version, Simba hangs around lots of different animals, and though he mainly stays around Timon and Pumbaa, the other animals do have an impact on his life. Most of the animals are scared that Simba will eat them, and this fear drives them away from interacting with him.

It is more obvious in this film that Simba feels left out when he

isn’t with his lion family. This is hinted at in the 1994 film but is much more apparent in the 2019 one. Personally, I wish they had kept the extra animals out because I felt even worse for Simba after I saw how the other animals viewed him. He had already gone through a tough childhood and had continued to be neglected.

The Journey of Simba’s Fur: In the 1994 film, a monkey finds a tuft of Simba’s fur that blows through the wind, signaling to him that Simba is still alive. In the 2019 version, this tuft of fur makes a much more epic excursion that leads to some cool cinematics that I personally really enjoyed. The fur is first shown blowing off of Simba’s mane, and it travels through the Sahara, trees, and water, being picked up by a few animals along the way. It’s such a magical journey, and it gave me the impression that all the animal communities and biomes in Africa are one. This reflects society as a whole: without one essential part, the others collapse.

Similarly, if the wind hadn’t been blowing correctly, or the ant hadn’t picked up Simba’s fur, it would not have been delivered to the monkey, and Simba’s future would have remained unclear.

playlist

Reminders of Home: A Mixtape

By THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT DEPARTMENT

Arts & Entertainment editor Emma Linderman demanded that this playlist’s theme be about culture so that she could promote “Jump in the Line” by Harry Belafonte.

Brooklyn Baby Lana Del Rey Indie Pop Hometown Twenty One Pilots Pop Rock 7 Years Lukas Graham Soul Pop Grow As We Go Ben Platt Pop The Long and Winding Road The Beatles Classic Rock The Only Thing Sufjan Stevens Indie Pop Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond Soft Rock City Lights Hall Johnson Folk Rock The Only Living Boy in New York Simon and Garfunkel Folk 15 Step Radiohead Alternative Rock Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood The Animals Rock I’m Afraid of Americans David Bowie Rock “Summertime” My Chemical Romance Alternative Rock “Summer Days” Martin Garrix ft. Macklemore and Patrick Stump Funk “California Dreamin’” The Mamas & The Papas Folk Rock “Young Dumb & Broke” Khalid R&B

Page 17

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Arts and Entertainment The Nature of Social Media Activism

Thinkpiece Among the many images that populated Instagram and Snapchat stories this summer, the stark sight of the Amazon burning stands out, not only because of the devastating image but also because of the text that more often than not accompanied the photo, that is, some slight on popular newspapers and their failure to report on it.

The Amazon rainforest, home to 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity and the source of 20 percent of the world’s oxygen, has been burning for about a month, but social media users began posting about a week or two after the forest erupted into flames, which led established journalists and newspaper companies to publish articles on the issue. The nature of journalism has been changing: traditional black-and-white print has gone out of style, and people are increasingly depending on their apps or YouTube videos for news.

This isn’t to criticize the new age of information, for the digital age makes news more accessible to the masses. People, especially teenagers, are more informed about the current state of our world, whether it be politics, pop culture, or social justice.

Of course, as a result, people feel a sense of obligation to educate their followers on current events. In the case of the Amazon rainforest, this meant posting photos of the event, regardless of their accuracy, on Instagram and Twitter. Some of the images are indeed fake, taken from the earlier years of the forest burning. Though the situation in Brazil has blown up in 2019,

the forest burns nearly every year. However, the fire this year is one of its worst, so much so that the state of the forest has forced the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, to declare a state of emergency.

From the posts, the Amazon fires would seem like an uncommon occurrence, but they aren’t.

The danger has just increased

uel Macron, have also posted images of the fire burning at some point other than 2019. Those images are nearly indistinguishable from more accurate ones, and this brings to light the dangers of social media and using it to define this new age of activism.

While information can be spread quickly, there are some dangers concerning reliability and false

caption and an article in the New York Times is how thoroughly the source has been checked for facts.

An article goes through many stages before it is published. This isn’t the case with social media.

It’s much easier for people to fall susceptible to fake news while on social media than while reading any polarizing newspaper. And

dramatically and hence, people have rallied behind their hashtags and photos to “combat” this situation. People like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cristiano Ronaldo, and the president of France, Emman-

information.

Photos and words have always been used to bring attention to crises—that’s why journalism exists as an industry. However, the difference between an Instagram

yet, people online may still feel like they’re receiving the whole story from one picture, post, or story. This may be due to the fact that humanity’s attention span in the last 15 years has decreased

Sophia Li / The Spectator

By YASMINE CHOKRANE

dramatically. Additionally, social media promotes “bite-sized” entertainment and is meant to be consumed on a superficial level.

The flipside, however, is that social media can prompt people to research more into a situation. This translates on a massive scale when you consider celebrities using their platform to bring awareness to dire issues. Emma Watson, for example, uses social media to promote her work for HeForShe and gender equality.

Other examples include Ryan Murphy and his work supporting LGTBQ+ rights, and DiCaprio and his posts supporting environmental activism.

While celebrities are able to donate major campaigns and attend public events, the majority of activists cannot. Those who can’t afford to donate or don’t have the ability to travel get involved by participating in local protests and posting online.

On the other hand, there are people online who criticize others for posting about issues instead of instigating any “real” change.

It is not uncommon for people to complain about how changing one’s profile picture won’t change the number of people who died in an event.

And to some degree, those people are right. There lacks any substantial evidence that posting on social media effects change.

People participating in online activism don’t harm anyone with their participation, but they also don’t help with the state of the tragedy either. There is no ideal way to go about activism, that’s for sure. But there’s no problem with continuing to try and find one.

Emma Donnelly / The Spectator

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food

By MATTHEW WAGMAN Some of you upperclassmen may remember a short-lived column from two years ago called Cheap Ass Food, which showcased different wallet-friendly restaurants throughout New York City. But who has time to gallop the five boroughs when you’re taking multiple college-level courses? As it turns out, there are actually a few tasty, cheap(ish) options you can realistically get to, eat at, and sprint back from in the meager 41 minutes allotted. In the coming issues, I will review a few under $8 meals, which should please your taste buds more than chicken over rice for the fourth time in a week.

Tucked under one of those seemingly eternal green construction scaffolds is the Tribeca branch of Amish Market, with its many promotional sandwich boards dotting the sidewalk. The eatery has multiple counters with distinct menus inside, emulating a miniature Chelsea Market—$12 meals and all.

However, they do offer a few relatively affordable options for your

Cheap *ss Lunch #1: Amish Market Deals on Deli Classics

pre-studying attempts to consume enough calories to avoid fainting for another three periods.

Their footlong “subway-style” sandwich is less than $7 with tax, as is their vegetarian tossed salad (meat and fish bring it closer to $9), both filling and not too heavy.

While the sandwich has nothing on the variety of the original footlongs of Subway, it is a hearty, classic delistyle sub. It comes with a choice of three cold cuts (pretty good turkey, okay salami chicken, and pretty standard ham), four cheeses (provolone, swiss, cheddar, and surprisingly good American). Your meat and cheese selections come between two thick halves of a whitebread hero slathered with copious amounts of mayo, topped with reasonable slices of tomato, and a fair amount of lettuce. At 12 inches, it could even feed two people with moderate appetites (read: this will only feed one football player or cross country runner). The taste is decent, with no overpowering flavors but rather largely standard all around, and there are five or so condiments to choose from on the

rack near the cash register, including mustard and hot sauce.

Though the salad looks wilted and if it has been sitting out on the counter all day, with six options for a leafy base, over 20 topping options excluding meats, and about 15 dressings, it’s enough to fill anyone up and beats the school cafeteria salad bar by a mile. Salad bases include kale, mixed greens, lettuce, and a few others. Standout toppings include crunchy walnuts and the first artichokes I’ve seen in a long time. With the current special that gives you a free water bottle with any sandwich or salad, alongside the well-stocked condiment bar, it’s an excellent choice for any day of the week that won’t leave you broke and eating school pasta by Friday.

Directions: 53 Park Place, on the corner of Murray and West Broadway.

Once off the bridge, go down two blocks and turn right at the 1-2-3 train station, then continue for two or blocks or so.

Page 18

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Arts and Entertainment The Disney Problem: Part 1

film

By MORRIS RASKIN $130 billion.

That was the estimated value of the Walt Disney Corporation in 2015. Industry insiders believe that the company has increased in value by about $20 billion since then, making the monster entertainment provider’s value presently estimated at $150 billion.

It’s no secret that Disney is a powerful company which plays a big role in the media we consume, but the extent to which they reach potential customers in the mainstream is unbelievable. Their acquisitions since 2000 alone have been incredibly successful. In 2006, Disney bought Pixar [“Toy Story” (1995), “Finding Nemo” (2003), “Monsters, Inc.” (2001)]; in 2009, Disney purchased Marvel Studios [“Iron Man” (2008), “The Avengers” (2012), “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014)]; and in 2012, they bought Lucasfilm (Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises).

The company made headlines earlier this year when they acquired 21st Century Fox; Disney now has control over valuable properties such as the X-Men, the Simpsons, “Avatar” (2009), and a majority stake in the streaming service Hulu, among many, many other things.

At first glance, it seems like Disney picking up Fox is a good thing. The Avengers can now exist in the same universe as the X-Men, etc. However, further review reveals the amount of power that Disney is amassing is almost scary. As Disney gains more and more control over entertainment, they can overwhelmingly control smaller businesses such as local movie theaters.

Usually, movie studios earn about 50 percent of the profits a movie makes at a theater while the rest goes to the theater and its employees. However, Disney has recently been requesting around 60 to 65 percent of the ticket sales from movies. This is simply unfair to theater owners, who need

film

By MORRIS RASKIN “You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past.” —Chuck Palahniuk, author of “Fight Club” (1996).

He’s not wrong.

This quote accurately defines a growing trend in Hollywood.

Studios are finding that producing original content is much more of a risk than revisiting time-tested and fan-loved properties that are guaranteed to make a quick buck.

Mega-corporations like Disney understand that for every original box office smash like “Avatar” (2010), there are a dozen flops like “Serenity” (2019), an original movie that got terrible reviews and didn’t make much of anything at theaters.

Beginning with “Alice in Wonderland” (2010) and stretching to “The Lion King” (2019), the Disney live-action remakes have stretched 11 films and counting.

That may sound like a lot, but it’s just the beginning, as Disney has 15 more live-action remakes in various stages of production at the moment, bringing back titles ranging from “The Little Mermaid” (1989) to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1996).

If you’ve read part one, then you’ll know that I am not a fan of the live-action remakes. It’s not because I don’t think that they’re good. In fact, I’ve actually enjoyed a bunch of them. Disney usually knows how to make a good movie,

the profits to pay workers and fight them. the upkeep of the theater itself.

But movie theaters aren’t On top of that, for certain mov- where the problems end. Disney ies such as “Star Wars: The Last will be releasing its highly anJedi” (2017), Disney insisted that ticipated streaming service Distheaters keep the movie playing ney+ on November 12, 2019. for a minimum of four weeks and Like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have it play on the biggest screen. Prime, Disney+ will allow you to Some small theaters only have one stream movies and television on or two screens in total. Thus, a demand. However, unlike those multi-billion dollar company forc- other streaming platforms, Dising a small business to waste their ney has power over all the intelvaluable screen space on a single lectual property that Disney owns. movie for at least 28 days is ridic- Which is to say, a lot of power. ulous. Many theaters retaliated by This means that while using Disnot playing the movie at all, which ney+, you will have access to the must have been very detrimental libraries of Marvel, Pixar, Star to the theaters’ ticket sales, as “Star Wars, National Geographic, FOX, Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017) was a ESPN, Disney itself, and more. huge movie, and is part of one of With Disney+, you can watch the most recognizable franchises anything and everything Disney, in the world. This same thing hap- from “The Sound of Music” pened in Brazil with the animated (1965) to “Iron Man” (2008). film “Coco” (2018), where many As time goes on, more and Brazilian theaters boycotted the more Disney movies and showing of the movie. shows will However, a boycott can’t always work as it is impossible to deny the sheer power of Disney’s global box office numbers. In the eight months of 2019 alone, the studio’s movies have grossed a total of over nine billion internationally.

Movies like “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), “The Lion King” (2019), “Captain Marvel” (2019), Sunjung Bok / The Spectator “Toy Story 4” (2019), and “Aladdin” (2019) have made Disney be added to Disover a billion dollars each. In fact, ney+, including eagerly “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) has awaited original content. This slate already made history by becom- of new programing stretches for ing the highest-grossing movie years to come, with new programof all time. Movie theaters can’t ing coming out every few weeks. just boycott these movies, as they Most of the anticipated shows make incredible amounts of mon- are spin-offs or sequels of other ey. Disney has a unique grasp on popular content, such as Marvel’s what the general public wants to “Loki,” “WandaVision,” and “She see, and they know how to make Hulk” to name a few. Star Wars is a movie very successful, leaving getting its spin-off treatment too theaters worldwide struggling to with “The Mandalorian,” as well

especially if it’s based on quality source material. However, we see how Disney’s remaking skills can go very wrong with movies like “The Lion King,” “Dumbo” (2019), and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (2016).

There are two main reasons that I really dislike the Disney remakes.

First, when Disney remakes an animated classic, they forget about an aspect of the original that made it so great in the first place: if these movies were meant to be made in live action, they would be. The movies are animated because they are supposed to capture things that simply cannot be made using a camera and real actors.

This is extremely evident in movies like “The Lion King.” In real life, lions do not smile or frown like humans do. In real life, birds can’t move their beaks in a way that imitates human speech. You can’t try to make an anatomically correct animal and expect it to behave like a human when you make it talk or emote. When I watched the film, I felt totally sucked out of the movie during the most emotional scenes, because when they were smiling, they looked the same as when they were frowning, making it hard to empathize with any of the characters.

This exact reason is why I fear for the quality of the upcoming “Little Mermaid” remake. While in the animated classic, Ariel lives in

as Pixar with “Monsters at Work” and “Forky Asks a Question.” But after a certain point, the sheer number (and randomness) of the new titles coming in the coming years is almost comical. A “High School Musical” TV series with an all-new cast, a Cruella DeVille live-action solo flick, and an all-new Muppets variety show are just a few examples of the depths into the Disney catalog that the spinoffs derive from.

Disney+ is already making some people very nervous—most notably the people at Netflix. The company is in a bad place, as it has recently begun losing subscribers and is in a near 15 billion dollar debt according to TechCrunch. com. Disney will also be removing all of its content from the streaming service, which will severely narrow down Netflix’s catalog. On top of that, while Netflix charges a monthly fee of $12.99 for its most basic plan, Disney+ will charge just $6.99 for a monthly subscription. All the TV and movies you could ask for monthly, all for the price of about two cups of coffee. It seems almost too good to be true, and it can be expected that many people will jump on this offer.

While it is true that Netflix has some big titles like “Stranger Things” (2016- ) and “Breaking Bad” (2008-2013) and it will still have much more overall programming than Disney+, but it’s going to be very hard for the service to convince people to choose them over the draw of all-new Disney content, especially if it is more cost-efficient.

Disney’s reign spreads far and wide, far past just screen-bound entertainment. Everything Disney has to be bigger and better than

The Disney Problem: Part 2 an aquatic wonderland filled with brightly-colored, cute talking fish, real life fish are not cute at all, but rather… gross. It will be unsettling to watch a real human surrounded by actual, slimy, scaly fish in the live-action version.

This brings me to my second concern. Disney has dozens of spin-offs, remakes, adaptations, prequels, and sequels in the works,

tinuations. At least when a prequel or sequel to a movie comes out [“Avengers: Endgame” (2019), “Monsters University” (2013)], they add something new to already existing properties, whether it be new stories, characters, or at the very least, a different script. Remakes are basically the film equivalent of tracing a picture. It is both blatant copying and undoubtedly

its competition (Universal, Sony, etc.). One hundred and fifty million people paid a visit to the Disney theme parks last year. Disney has about 300,000 paid employees including those employees from the Fox merger. Disney makes $15 to $20 billion in revenue each quarter. Everything about this entire situation points to a forthcoming monopoly, and it is making many people, inside the industry and out, nervous. If Disney continues to control the entertainment industry the way they do now, they could begin to lower the quality of their films. Without a plethora of viable options outside of Disney, we would be forced to watch their content, or nothing. Disney could also raise the prices of movie tickets, and we wouldn’t be able to do anything to do about it, because they will have wrapped the general public around their finger when it comes to movies and television.

Not only does Disney rule the movie scene far more than any other company, but it also has a healthy grasp on television, and it will soon rule streaming with an iron fist. No company has ever controlled entertainment in the same way Disney does presently, and it is a cause for concern. The measures to take now are not clear. One route to take could be a viewer boycott, which would be extremely difficult for many people including myself. I love Marvel, Star Wars, and so many other Disney properties so much that giving them up seems near impossible for me and many other fans.

Raising awareness seems like a doable way to ever so slightly stem the growth of Disney, but it can only go so far in the end.

The future is uncertain. Will Disney continue to grow at its current rate? Will a competitor challenge its authority? Whatever happens, we better buckle up and put on our rose-colored glasses because it’s Disney’s world, and we’re all just living in it.

Disney has started something that can’t be stopped, at least for the foreseeable future. With 15 new remakes planned, and each new remake making hundreds of millions, there’s no end in sight. I’m not sure there’s much we can do about this problem as consumers, and some people may (justifiably) not see it as a problem at all. I mean, some of the remakes are good, and there

It’s no secret that Disney is a powerful company which plays a big role in the media we consume, but the extent to which they reach in the mainstream is unbelievable.

and I fear that soon, the lack of original content will become a big problem for moviegoers. Movies that will give audiences new stories, adventures, and ideas are being sidelined for surefire box office smashes that just tread on territory that has already been visited.

Remakes, however, are the worst of all of the franchise con-

worse. Sure, you can add fancy colors or some finishing touches to a traced picture, but in the end, it’s not the original, and it never will be. These classic movies’ originals left such an impression on audiences because they were fresh and original when they came out. Remaking a movie 20 to 30 years later simply can’t recapture that glory.

are some future titles to be excited about. However, this rapid-fire production of remakes is a call for us as individuals to go support original content in our theaters and ensure that production of fresh, creative new movies isn’t stemmed by the remake machine.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 19

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

By VICTOR KUANG and TONY MOH You know how program changes were mad stressful this year? The Program Office had nearly all of the 21st-century technology at their disposal, and they still managed to mess up various schedules, potentially killing thousands of academic careers. That being said, if you were involved in this process, did you get hungry waiting for 90 minutes just to make a Talos request with a guidance counselor only to be denied within seconds of making the request?

Or maybe you just wanted to have a quick little bite before you berated an administrator?

In any case, for (probably?) the first time in The Spectator’s history, we are proud to present the Program Office’s magnum opus: a finished product! The entirety of their manpower was spent grinding out this literal recipe for disaster, so we’re sure that this’ll be a hit.

Ingredients: • 69 pounds of “chicken” The first ingredient in our feast. Yeah, we know what you’re gonna say already.

The good thing about using random meat is that it saves you so much time and guesswork! While your customers are starving in line for hours, waiting for their food to arrive, you can chill in the

A Recipe for Disaster

teacher’s lounge while snacking on some fresh Hudson River caviar and Joe’s Coffee.

If your customers start complaining, open the fridge for two seconds and close it so it looks like you’re working.

Can’t tell if the meat’s still fresh? Who cares! Just cook it anyway and yeet yourself out of the building once the authorities start coming.

Don’t worry about the large amount of meat and other ingredients you’ll end up having to carry. It’ll be your last good, normal meal in a long time so you better stock yourself up so your parents don’t yell at you for being too skinny during dinner.

• All the salt, thyme, basil, oregano, celery salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic salt, ground ginger, and white pepper in the kitchen As the name implies, you’ll need 11 special herbs and spices™ to make this dish shine. One thing you can do is just stage a burglary on your own house! Who cares if you end up holding your family hostage so you can ransack the kitchen while they scream in confusion and possible agony? Grab any flavored thing you can and rub it in: salt packets, halal food, school lunch pretzels, etc. There’s no need to worry about running out. If you happen to run low on salt, don’t fret. You have the perfect salt mine right in

front of you—your fellow students!

• A bag of “breadcrumbs” For this version of fried chicken, you won’t need to actually get this bread. Just ask the people coming out of the guidance office with their crumpled old schedules in hand if you can have them.

If they got the change they wanted, score! Even if they didn’t, half the time they’ll be so frustrated by the administration that they’ll toss out their schedules in disgust anyway.

• A quart of buttermilk Usually the hardest ingredient to get for fried chicken.

Don’t worry if there’s no buttermilk for sale at your local grocery store—all you need is a cafeteria fridge and a little chemistry. If you’re lucky, the fridge will already be stocked before you even check.

• Five eggs Also to fry stuff.

• 10 sticks of butter To guarantee that you’ll get that GOODNESS known as a heart attack. If you pass out after eating this, tell your parents that it was the fault of “Talos’s incompetency” once you come to your senses.

Steps: 1. First, put all of your ingredients on the ground.

It’s really easy: while you

wait behind and (hopefully) in front of a bunch of other people, just casually put your food stuff on the ground to create a makeshift kitchen. Don’t worry if others stare at you in bewilderment—you are, after all, an artist! This’ll be radical new art, and you’ll certainly go down in history for being such a thinker.

2. Then, put the egg yolks into a bowl you just so happened to be carrying, along with some butter and whisk it. After that, add some buttermilk and butter and whisk it some more for that fried food goodness. Nothing says I want Dr. Steven O’Malley like making a fat-based solution for everyone to see!

3. After that, cut the chicken into pieces. We won’t really tell you how to cut it, as we don’t want to limit your creative freedom in cooking this dish. However, it’s gonna be much better if you cut your chicken just like how you’d cut Analog Electronics if you didn’t drop it—quickly and effortlessly.

4. Coat the chicken in that fat mixture and breadcrumbs. Standard fried chicken step here, and remember to season with some of the herbs and spices! This is super basic, like, more basic than

transferring into Complex Calculus right after finishing Algebra II basic.

5. The penultimate step in creating this tasty morsel is to gather enough power to heat the chicken. As you will be walking 1,000,000 kilometers on Snake Way along with 3000 other kids to see a guidance counselor, there will not be a proper source of electricity. To get this dish to work, one must raise their hands into the air and shout, “People of Earth! Lend me your energy!” Then, just hope that everyone gives whatever is left in their mental fiber so you can throw the spirit bomb onto the questionablyedible piece of meat lying on the ground.

6. If that doesn’t work, channel your anger from not getting four free periods in a row and concentrate that energy to slap the chicken with 85,600 joules of caffeinated teen angst.

7. Lastly, season the fried layer! You’ve seasoned the meat, sure, but you should make it more enjoyable with exterior flavor. For that extra sharp kick, you can add some spices or grades from last year’s finals.

And that’s a wrap, folks, we just showed y’all how to save yourselves from starvation!

Date-ability Guide

By BERRY LIU Tired of seeing all of your friends making new posts about “getting cuffed”? Sick of spending your Valentine’s Days at home binge-eating ice cream and cup noodles?

Are you too nervous to ask out your crush? Well then, this article is for you! The following four categories will let you know whether or not you have the elite genes required to get yourself a girl or mans.

For the low cost of $19.99 + tax—wait, we’re not allowed to charge people for these articles? Fine, it’s your lucky day.

For the low cost of $0, you can find out whether or not you are an A+ boyfriend/girlfriend material.

1) Intellect (3 points) You are a godgifted prodigy. You have a 1600 on your SAT, a 36 on your ACT, and 5s on each of the 40 APs you have taken since entering high school thanks to your Time Turner.

Hermione would be proud of you.

(2 points) You are exceptionally gifted. You have main-

tained a 94+ GPA and have scored in the top five percent on the SAT and ACT. In the four AP exams you’ve taken, you’ve scored a mixture of 4s and 5s.

(1 point) You have moderate levels of intellect. Your grades lie between 80 and the low 90s. You have gotten acceptable SAT grades and haven’t bothered with the ACT. AP classes are for chumps.

(0 points) You are barely passing your classes, and have scores in the 50th percentile on the SAT and ACT. At least you’re good at art and writing so you can be unemplo—I mean an artist/writer in the future.

2) Wealth (3 points) Your dad owns Epic Games, and your allowance consists of 4000 VBucks a day. You have the money to go to expensive pasta places for dates.

(2 points) Your parents give you a regular allowance.

You are wealthy enough to get guacamole every time you go to Chipotle without a second thought. You only shop for

groceries at Whole Foods.

(1 point) The average Joe, you can only spend whatever money you’ve earned over the summer. You are willing to treat your significant other to bubble tea on occasion, as long as the stamp goes on your card.

(0 points) Cup noodles every day. At least you can provide for your bae, right?

3) Aesthetic Appeal (3 points) You are a god among humans. Just walking out of your house causes anyone within a 10-meter radius to swoon. You are the reason why half of the LGBTQ+ community exists. Of course, you are forced to cut class to prevent chaos.

(2 points) Everyone secretly admires you as you pass them by on the street. People have accidently cut themselves on your washboard abs. Every day, you are forced to reject at least five confessions.

(1 point) You go to the gym a couple times a month, but refuse to eat healthy, leading to a fit body concealed by a thin layer of fat. I’m sure at least one person secretly har-

bors a crush on you.

(0 points) Your face makes Jabba the Hutt look like Chris Hemsworth. You look like a combination between a pinecone and a deformed marshmallow.

4) Personality (3 points) Your personality is on point. There is no one in existence who can turn down your friendship. Barack Obama follows you on Instagram. God has you on speed dial. You are number one on Santa’s nice list. Heck, even the Grinch begrudgingly likes you.

(2 points) You are one of the most popular people in school. You have reached 2000 friends on Facebook, and regularly dap your homies on the escalator. Your smile is warm enough to melt ice.

(1 point) You have a couple close friends, and most people in your grade at least know your name. You have it alright as far as personality is concerned, but could always stand to be a little less uptight.

(0 points) Your personality is at rock bottom. Cold oatmeal has more flavor than

you, you sad excuse for a human being.

(-1 points) You pewpetuawwy speak wike this. Youw pewsonyawity has hit wock bottom wong ago, and wathew than settwe at the bottom, it has sunk wight thwough. Owo this nyegative point, you sowwy excuse fow an existence.

Results 12 points—There is no human in existence who can match your brilliance. Better hope someone invents a cloning machine so you can finally find your match.

11-8 points—You are very attractive, and chances are, your crush likes you back. If only you had the guts to ask them out…

7-4 points—You’re alright, I guess. You can always shoot your shot. You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t make, right?

3-0 points—Forget about it. Spend the next year contemplating your mistakes and take this quiz again afterwards.

Maybe you will improve your score.

-1 points—You need to see a therapist.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 20

Humor Legends of Stuyvesant High School

By CAROLINE PICKERING Once more, Satan has come to reap our souls from our bodies as the school year begins anew in a never-ending cycle of despair that reminds us all of our fragile and pitiful existence. This year we welcome the freshmen, who come into our arms with wonder in their eyes and joy in their hearts, with little knowledge of what they are getting themselves into. Of course, Stuyvesant has its own well-documented mythology, passed down from generations of students who have managed to somehow have every person in their family get into Stuyvesant. Therefore, it is up to us at The Spectator to teach the youths the ancient legends that have been passed down through the years at our school.

The 11th-Floor Pool Seen only briefly on students’ schedules before the start of every semester, the 11th-floor pool is a mysterious realm that every student has heard of. There resides the monster-deity Talos, master of destruction and chaos, ruler of our demented website. Talos sucks away at students’ hopes and dreams of their program change requests ever being fulfilled, occupying an island of kickboards in the pool that is mostly a mixture of chlorine and urine and surrounded by a ring of Razor™ scooters just waiting to utterly annihilate the ankles of any brave soul who tries to defeat Talos, thus bringing peace to our realm.

Also, it’s on the 11th floor, so let’s face it, no one’s actually going to climb all those stairs.

The Juul Pod Harvest

Embezzlement Scandal in the Band Department

By MATTHEW BARK In a school where nearly 50 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, $50 sounds like an exorbitant amount of money to expect of students at any time. Nevertheless, Stuyvesant’s Music department is historically known to levy this fee upon all band and orchestra students, claiming that the money goes to repairing the droolsplattered, dented 20-year-old instruments, funding the sheet music that suspiciously seem to be recycled year after year, and buying a bunch of guitar scale posters in the hopes that freshmen will absorb via osmosis the ability to play Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.”

While trying to explain the true rationale behind the hefty fee, music teacher Dr. Gregor Winkel replied with, “We have had instances where people were printing their own money.” However, with Stuyvesant students’ uncanny ability to only become brilliant when their life is on the line, it is no surprise that students would actually resort to such measures. Thus, to protect the world from devastation and unite all peoples within our nation, Jessie, James, and the Humor department (sorry, Meowth) decided to take it into their own hands and sleuth for a decades-old unanswered question: where do the band fees go?

Our investigation began in the first-floor halls. Sophomore and concert band flutist, Sunny Bok, confused by a perpetually excited Dr. Winkel as Johannes Bach’s Korean counterpart, weighed in on the issue. “I had long suspected that the Music department was misusing their so-called ‘band fees,’” Bok confessed. “Once I even saw Dr. Winkel surreptitiously open a manila envelope with a student’s name on it to pay for his chicken nuggets!”

Unfortunately, this is not

an isolated incident. With the collection of this year’s band fees, students have begun to report seeing Dr. Winkel carry around boxes of 40-piece McNuggets throughout the school daily.

The investigation carried on to scanning through school documents. Upon further inspection, some incredibly incriminating details about former Assistant Principal of Music, Art, and Technology Dr. Raymond Wheeler surfaced. Famous for his catchphrase “Stop noodling around,” and as Dr. Winkel’s predecessor and long-time partner in crime when it comes to catching student phone use in band class, Wheeler’s retirement was paid tribute by The Spectator News department for his years of teaching and dedication.

In his interview with The Spectator, Dr. Wheeler gave some insight into how he plans to spend his retirement, confessing his love for indulging in the likes of fine coffee and tropical cruises accompanied by his wife. To afford such luxuries, Dr. Wheeler has most definitely been doing some “noodling around” of his own with the band fees, especially in preparation for his departure. Furthermore, it appears Dr. Wheeler has been speaking in code this whole time, alluding to a major clue in tracking down his next cruise destination: Italy, home of Renaissance art, pizza, and of course, pasta noodles.

Unfortunately for Dr. Wheeler, it seems his Italian vacation will be short-lived.

With band students getting craftier with their methods every year, it appears that Dr. Wheeler’s funds have run short. As for Dr. Winkel, following in Dr. Wheeler’s footsteps, it seems he, too, is gearing up for a very lavish, relaxing retirement in spite of this year’s lower payout, as the sole recipient of this year’s “bread.”

Once every new moon, there are reports of shadowy creatures crawling into the halls and searching from the impenetrable lockers, to the sticky floors of the gym locker rooms, the otherworldly senior bar, and the murky depths of every toilet stall. They run at the first light of dawn, hissing about how this month’s bounty will make the Juul Lords very pleased. We aren’t sure who exactly the Juul Lords are, but we do know that they require an abundance, otherwise bad things are sure to happen.

Coincidentally, it can be noted that about a week later Club Pub funds go up significantly.

The Escalators Long ago, Stuyvesant High School lived in harmony.

Then, everything changed when the Escalator Nation attacked. Only the DOE, master

of all four elements (suspicious meals, poorly allocated funding, no-snow days, and bureaucracy), could stop them, but when the school needed it most, it vanished. A hundred days passed and the Spectator Humor department discovered that we’re getting new escalators (?) at some point in the next two years (maybe?), and though their transportation skills are great, they need years of academy training before they’re ready to save anyone. But I believe the new escalators can save the school.

The Student Union Only a few brave souls have ever dared to enter the dark and mysterious chambers of the Student Union room in past years without being a member, and none have ever lived to tell the tale of what they had seen. However, there

have been several sightings of them meeting every September in Battery Park around a fire, wearing extra large gym shirts that they appear to be using as cult-like robes, while roasting a sacrificial lamb. It is here that they induct new members by having them drink Muji pen ink and sell their souls to Stuyvesant in exchange for entrance to their dream colleges.

With this holy knowledge bestowed upon you, youngerlings, may you walk the halls of these schools confident of what is within the walls: government wiretaps listening to all of your deepest secrets. Let the school year not defeat you as you go on a quest to battle the never-ending onslaught of work and unhappiness that is your life.

There Ain’t No Rule A Dog Can’t Play For Stuy

By CHRISABELLA JAVIER Frustrated at Stuyvesant High School’s lack of success in recent sporting events, Athletics Director Peter Bologna has made the decision to admit Air Bud to join the teams at Stuy.

“Look, I’ve been staring at the PSAL rules for about a minute, and there ain’t no rule saying a dog can’t do PSAL sports, and even if there WAS a rule, we could just become really good at ultimate frisbee,” Bologna said. “The only problem we face now is trying to figure out what sports he will do. Okay, yeah, he might not be able to complete the Stuy Diploma, but let’s be honest: those things are useless for people, much less dogs.”

Bologna also mentioned the rise of school spirit following Air Bud’s admission: “This good boy is the only good thing about Stuy.

I have seen a rise in incredibly lame disses about other specialized schools, mostly along the lines of ‘Air Bud can obliterate any other school with .01 percent of his power!’ In fact, there is evidence that people outside of Stuy are starting to fall for Air Bud as well, considering the fact that the guards have

had to remove people after they broke into the school to ‘pet that REALLY GOOD BOY,’” he said.

Upon hearing this news, every one of Stuyvesant’s sports teams has begun to chase after Air Bud during his classes, trying to get him to join their team so they can fetch gold. “Yeah, it’s chaotic,” senior Victor Kuang said. “I mean, one minute the class has stopped just so we can pet [Air Bud’s] incredibly soft fur—he’s so at peace when we do it—and the next minute we see a bunch of kids from the track team trying to break down the doors with signs saying stuff like ‘Join Us Air Bud! You Are A Very Fast Boy!’ I don’t think he minded.”

Similar events have occurred since the school year started. Members of the football team have made the decision to carry Air Bud to all of his classes, and the golf team has brought gourmet dog food for him every day. While Air Bud has not chosen a sport yet, he is so beloved by the teachers that he gets a PSAL free and a personalized jacket reading “AIR BUD #1” from Principal Eric Contreras himself.

The excitement of having a dog join Stuyvesant’s sports teams

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was explained by junior Chrisabella Javier when we went to see Air Bud take the swim test: “It’s a DOG! He’s so cute and so good at everything! Look at his doggy paddle! And his butterfly! I didn’t even think dogs could do that! He should join our swim team. You know, we’ve won the City Championships for the past few years, and we’ve got these really nice uniforms that he would look great in! They’re red and black…wait. A well-off, successful team that is in no way an underdog with red and black uniforms—holy [expletive], we might be the bad guys in this sports movie,” she exclaimed.

We at The Spectator had an interview with Air Bud to see how he felt about everything. After catching him trying out for the boy’s fencing team (and doing very well, we may add—he was waving the sword in his mouth while the team took pictures of him stabbing a freshman), we asked him which team he was most likely to join.

“WOOF! ARF! BARK! BARK!” he said, before rolling over to get some (very well deserved) belly rubs and yummy treats. At the time of reporting, we can confirm that he is a very good boy.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 21

Sports Champions League

They’ll Be Aiming for the Reds

By MATT MELUCCI and AHMED HUSSEIN As the orange Champions League ball rolled from the center spot to kick-off the muchawaited final between Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC, both teams had one focus in mind: the trophy they had to walk past to get onto the pitch.

Months of hard work culminated in this one game, and the pressure was on for both teams.

Liverpool had lost the previous year’s final to Real Madrid, and Tottenham had infamously never won the trophy, let alone been in a final. Both teams had difficult (albeit different) paths to this point that included many late winners, comebacks, and most importantly, goals. It wasn’t long before the favorites, Liverpool, made their mark. In fact, it took them only two minutes to win a penalty before their Egyptian superstar, Mohamed Salah, dispatched it cooly. The game remained back and forth without any goals before Liverpool legend Divock Origi came on to score Liverpool’s second and give them the safety net they needed.

Liverpool lifted the trophy for the sixth time in their history, giving Jürgen Klopp his first trophy as Liverpool manager. This year’s Champions League should be far from the same. There will be a new ball, new teams, new players, and new challengers, all fighting for the crown sitting on Liverpool’s head. Here’s how Matt and Ahmed think the group stage will go.

Group A

Real Madrid: This group boasts two battles: the battle for first place and the battle for third place. Real Madrid and PSG will likely battle for first. Madrid have had their problems recently with form and injuries, but they’ve improved this summer with the signing of Eden Hazard, who is one of the world’s best wingers and will add some much-needed flair to their stuttering attack.

Luka Jovic, Eder Militao, and Ferland Mendy will provide competition for players whose starting jobs have seen little threat in recent years. Their manager Zinedine Zidane will hope to replicate his famous spell a few years ago that saw three consecutive Champions League trophies in Madrid.

Paris Saint Germain: While Madrid is arguably in worse form than PSG, this summer has been an odd one, even for Parisian standards. Neymar’s future was in question all summer, with Barcelona and Real Madrid circling for the Brazilian’s signature. He ultimately stayed against his will.

PSG’s signings have seemed random, and there is an air of desperation about them, especially Mauro Icardi, who isn’t an upgrade on their current starting striker, Edison Cavani. They did better business elsewhere, signing Idrissa Gueye, Pablo Sarabia, and Abdou Diallo, who will provide good competition within the squad. Nonetheless, PSG didn’t improve at full-back, which is a position PSG lacks quality in and one that is becoming increasingly important in the modern game.

All in all, there’s too much drama in Paris. Madrid edges this one.

Galatasaray: Galatasaray did good business this summer. They signed 12 players for just 4.5 million Euros, which is unheard of in today’s market. They brought in a good mixture of experience and youth, but not enough quality to challenge the juggernauts in this group.

Club Brugge: Club Brugge struggled to make it into the group stage. The Belgian team lack the quality to threaten anyone in this group but Galatasaray.

Group B

Bayern Munich: Last year in the round of 16, Liverpool knocked Bayern out 3-1, with Bayern never truly posing a threat. This year, Bayern is back and ready to climb to the top of the European Cup. They clinched the Bundesliga title this past season, beating Borussia Dortmund by only two points. Expect to see Robert Lewandowski driving the offense, Phillipe Coutinho adding a creative spark in midfield while on loan from Barcelona, and Lucas Hernandez keeping the back line in order. Reenergized, Bayern is ready to finish first place and move on to the round of 16 with the Spurs.

Tottenham: The Spurs had a great run last year until Liverpool cut them just short in the finals.

This year, Tottenham is looking to redeem itself and obtain that elusive first Champions League trophy. They have added support to their midfield with two newcomers: Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele. With the likely transfer of Christian Eriksen to a new league, however, the Spurs may not be capable of beating Bayern, thus ending up second in the group and ultimately passing into the round of 16.

Olympiacos: Olympiacos is unlucky to be drafted in the same group as the two prime candidates for the quarterfinals: Tottenham and Bayern. They have been playing well in the tournament and made it to the Europa League last year. Coach Pedro Martins has warned Bayern and Tottenham about playing at the Karaiskakis Stadium, a tough arena to visit for travelling teams.

Olympiacos will at most make it to the Europa league this year.

Crvena zvezda: The last time Crvena zvezda won the European Cup was in 1991, nearly 30 years ago. The Serbian team last year was drawn with PSG, Napoli, and Liverpool. Though Crvena zvezda beat Liverpool at home and tied Napoli last year, they suffered brutal losses against PSG and Liverpool, gaining them only four points in the group stage. There is once again not much chance of Crvena zvezda surpassing Olympiacos, let alone Bayern and Tottenham.

Group C

Manchester City: Sometimes it feels like the M in Manchester City stands for money. The club somehow always finds the money to improve without selling much of their squad. It’s hard to knock their decision-making, though.

They made two smart signings in Rodri and Joao Cancelo, who bring further (and largely unnecessary) quality and depth in

the midfield and at full-back. If their squad can stay healthy, City should win it all this year.

Atalanta: Only Atalanta can provide a challenge for City in this group. The Italian side shocked the world last season by qualifying for this competition. Their team boasts a creative core with an experienced backline that few teams have been able to figure out. The likes of Alejandro Gomez and Duvan Zapata are game-winners, and Atalanta’s interesting 3-4-1-2 formation creates loads of chances for their star men. A tough nut to crack, Atalanta can be very dangerous when underestimated.

Dinamo Zagreb: The Croatian side is another team that can be very good on their day. They probably won’t challenge for the top two spots, but the Europa League seems a fair alternative for them given that they kept a hold of the exciting Dani Olmo despite interest from larger clubs.

Shakhtar Donetsk: Shakhtar will be damning their luck now that they’ve drawn Manchester City again in the group stages.

The Ukrainian team withoddly a lot of Brazilian players have lost many of their best players recently. And with an aging squad, they will likely finish bottom of the group.

Group D

Juventus: Juve has conducted some interesting summer business with Mathijs de Ligt’s arrival from Ajax, along with Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot as free transfers. They are still dependent on Cristiano Ronaldo, now 35 years old, to lead their attack as he did last year, when Juve managed to knock out Atlético Madrid with his hat trick.

Maurizio Sarri, the new manager coming to Juve from Chelsea, has the necessary experience to lead the skilled team deep into the tournament.

Atlético Madrid: With Antoine Griezmann’s departure to Barcelona this summer, Atlético has proceeded with a whopping $130 million transfer for João Félix, a teenager from Benfica. Last year, Juventus defeated Atlético 3-2 in the round of 16, and Atlético is looking to redeem itself. With Diego Simeone preparing the team, Atlético’s offense is ready for anything with Félix, Alvaro Morata, and Thomas Lemar driving the attack.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen: Bayer had a quick exit last year in the group of 32 against Krasnodar, a performance they want to recover from. This year, with Julian Brandt’s departure to Borussia Dortmund, Bayer will likely take the backseat to Atlético and Juventus in this group. On the other hand, Leon Bailey is hungry for more goals, and Jonathan Tah is ready to control the back line, so Bayer is capable of at least reaching the Europa League.

Lokomotiv Moscow: Lokomotiv Moscow doesn’t have much to look forward to in this competition, unless their opponents slip up. Though they are not known for lighting up the scoreboard, Lokomotiv Moscow like to play physical. They have previously

played against Atlético Madrid, only to lose 3-0 and 5-1 in the Europa League in 2018. They will have a rough time facing the contenders in this group, ultimately finishing last.

Group E

Liverpool: Liverpool will have no trouble passing to the round of 16 with this group. They have had varied outcomes when facing Napoli, but having won the competition last year, they will likely come out on top of this group. With star defender Virgil van Dijk and a dangerous offense led by Salah and Mane, Liverpool will make it deep into the competition this year.

Napoli: Napoli failed to pass the group stage last year and was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Europa league, proving a disappointment in both competitions. Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Martens, and Arkadiusz Milik seem a dangerous trio this year, however, especially since they are under the management of Carlo Ancelotti. Napoli poses a threat in this group and will pass to the round of 16 with Liverpool.

Redbull Salzburg: An ambitious young team led by American manager Jesse Marsch may just be what it takes to steal Napoli’s position at second in this group. This team enjoys good ball movement, leading to various opportunities in attack.

Though they have lost Moanes Dabour, a prominent goal scorer, to Sevilla, Redbull Salzburg may be the silent but deadly draw in this group.

Genk: The last time Genk qualified for the group stage of the Champions League was in 20112012. Last year, they lost in the round of 32 in the Europa League. Genk has not been having much luck in this competition, and unfortunately, they will finish last in this group.

Group F

F.C. Barcelona: New arrivals Antoine Griezmann, Frenkie de Jong, and Lionel Messi form a dangerous lineup for this competition. Barca has repeatedly won the Champions League and La Liga, and they will not have much trouble reaching first and round of 16 in this “group of death.”

Borussia Dortmund: Manager Lucien Favre’s 4-2-3-1 formation may help change Dortmund’s fortune this year as Axel Witsel continues to manage the midfield. They were defeated in the round of 16 last year and look to hold a deeper campaign in the competition this year, especially with Mats Hummels back in the defending line. Dortmund may have trouble obtaining second place in the group due to Inter Milan’s new arrivals.

Inter Milan: With the arrival of experienced players from across Europe’s best leagues including the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Diego Godín, and Alexis Sánchez, Inter Milan can cause some trouble in this group. Stefan de Vrij has been a stellar defender for Inter, and with Antonio Conte managing, the team may be able to overcome a relatively young Dortmund and pass to the round of 16.

Slavia Praha: Slavia Praha is a solid team with great distribution from the midfielders to the strikers, creating opportunities around the pitch. However, in this high caliber group, Slavia Praha will not be able to surpass their contenders in their intense battle for the round of 16.

Group G

RB Leipzig: Yet, another team whose recent rise to success largely has money to thank. They have used their money extremely well though, bringing in young players and developing them into future stars, unlike many other rich clubs. They have a tightly knit group of guys who play well.

They should top this group.

Lyon: After making some smart signings to try to mitigate the loss of key players, Lyon could have been a lot worse this season.

However, this year’s squad is easily a downgrade. Over time, they can grow into the team they were last year. But until then, they will likely finish second.

Benfica: The Portuguese outfit has made hundreds of millions of Euros of profit off of player sales in recent years, and this summer was no different. They sold their crown jewel Joao Felix for an eye-watering fee of 126 million Euros. The problem with this business model is that it usually leaves the team lacking quality to go deep in European competition. This year is no different.

Zenit: Few countries have succeeded in beating Russia in battle in the winter. However, many clubs can boast about doing so.

After Zenit fans’ racist treatment to the newly signed Malcolm, things are not looking sunny in Russia in more ways than one.

Group H

Ajax: After reaching last year’s semi-finals, Ajax showed the world what a young an exuberant team that plays positively can do to Europe. Even after losing key players Mathijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong, the team still looks strong and will fancy its chances against a weakened Chelsea.

Chelsea: There were no new additions to Chelsea’s squad this year due to their transfer ban, but Chelsea fans will be happy to see that new manager Frank Lampard is giving a chance for Chelsea’s loan army to prove their worth to the team. Players like Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, and Kurt Zouma will feel like new signings despite being at the club for years. The team is still gelling, so topping this group will be a tough ask, but qualification should still be the goal.

Valencia: The bats improved over the summer with some great new signings. However, the start of the season has shown that they’re still figuring things out on the pitch. They might well challenge for top two if they can pick up their form.

LOSC: Lille pulled off a surprise second-place finish in Ligue 1 last year with their creative and quick play, but they sold basically every one of the consequences in their team, so it will be tough to replicate that form.

Page 22

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Sports Athlete of the Issue

How To Serve Up—An Interview with Corinne Pita

By AKI YAMAGUCHI

Corinne Pita

Grade: Senior Height: 5’8 and a half Eye color: Brown Hair color: Brown DOB: 3/3/2002

1. When did you start playing volleyball?

Freshman and sophomore years of high school, I started playing for Asphalt Green down the street.

2. What are your goals for this year?

Our main goal is to continue the chemistry we had last year as a team. Our team back when I was a freshman and sophomore used to be known for our lack of team chemistry. There was some drama on the team and girls didn’t really get along until last year when our two captains Ally Archer (19’) and Hanah Jun (19’) finally had a talk with the girls in the beginning of the season. They were like: “Hey, we aren’t going to have any drama. We are not going to have any cliques. We are going to be friends. We are going to like each other. We are going to

3. What do you want to improve within your own skills this year?

I definitely want to say my offense. I am known on the team for my skills on defense.

Last year, I was a defense specialist, which meant I only played back row and I only passed, which is fine because I was very good at that position.

This year, I’ve been given the responsibility of playing front row outside, which means that I need to improve my hitting and placing. It’s a bigger consideration of the court as I am also doing the other side, which is something I need to work on remembering and being aware of.

4. What is your respective position on the team, and what do you do there?

I am an outside hitter; I hit on the left side. What we do is we service the balls, as outside hitters are the best passers. We receive the ball and then once we are done, we either playback row, deep end and cover the really deep hits, or we go to front row and we hit on the left side, trying to score points.

5. Are there any challenges the team faces specifically?

Yes, we do. We lost five starters last year—all of them were seniors. They all played positions that were all really important to the team, so this year, it’s almost like we are starting from scratch. We only have three returning starters

and that’s kinda a problem.

Now, [the three of] us are used to working with certain girls, so we have to re-adapt and work with a new group of girls. Seeing them at practice, the new starters seem to be adapting well, but it’s something I’m concerned with to see what happens when we get to league games and how they will handle the pressure.

6. How do you deal with playing volleyball and your schoolwork? Do you have any tips?

For schoolwork and volleyball, everyone hears this, but it’s all about time management. If you have a free period, I’m sorry but you can’t hang out with your friends as much as you’d like to. When you are doing schoolwork, you need to be on top of it. You don’t want to be going home after a late practice—7:00 o’clock on a Tuesday when you have a test in two days, and you are all groggy and tired, and you haven’t done any work. If you have free periods or lunches, always do your homework before practice starts or at least, as much as you can. That’s your goal for success in both your grades and for your team.

7. Favorite memory or funniest memory?

For the first time in some five years, we won a tournament and we had half our starters. I played front-row there and Alina Luckey (‘19) was the other outside. There was one play I think in the semifinals where we were passing the ball and hitting this really long rally. There was this one outside girl who swung and the ball hit her in the face but even though it hit her in

Zoe Oppenheimer / The Spectator

Led by senior co-captain Corinne Pita and junior cocaptain Anais Delfau, the Vixens are looking to win backto-back championships. Pita has been on the team since her sophomore year, proving to be a key player on the team since. Last year, she was a key back with 14 aces off her serves and 14 service points.

The Spectator sat down with Pita to learn more about this winning captain’s life on volleyball.

work together. That mentality carried us all the way through to the championships, and my co-captain Anais (Delfau 21’) and I have decided that that’s what is most important to the team.

the face, it popped straight up for a perfect pass and she was sitting on the floor all discombobulated. The pass was perfect, though, and on the next hit, we actually scored a point off her face pass.

8. Something you are going to miss?

I’m going to miss the camaraderie after I finally found a group of friends, a family. You know, I’m part of other clubs, but this is the highest commitment club I’m part of at Stuy[vesant]. For the first time, these group of girls came together to do something that they’ve never done before. We won City Championships and that came with the friendship and camaraderie that we are going to carry into this year.

That’s something that I really

value and all my teammates will tell you the same. We have become like family and we are one of the closest sports teams at Stuyvesant. It’s why we are so successful, and having to leave that, it’s definitely going to suck.

Choice drink: Shirley Temple Favorite food: Mushrooms, in any shape or form Motto to live by: Be yourself because everyone else is taken.

Fun fact: I got into Stuyvesant a week before school started because I came from out-of-state, so I took the test in August. Everything had already happened and so for me in one day, I got my ID, got my locker, got my homeroom, and got my classes. That was no fun.

US Open

A U.S. Open to Remember

By LEWIS WOLOCH Like many previous U.S. Opens, 2019’s tournament pool was a mixture of old faces, young guns, and unknowns giving seasoned celebrity players a run for their money. Let’s start with the women. Serena Williams was a remarkable highlight of the whole tournament, as she played like the Serena Williams of 10 years ago. She blew past several opponents, most notably her 6-0, 6-1 game against Wang Qiang of China in the semifinals.

However, 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu stole Williams’s thunder in the finals. She won her first-ever Grand Slam title and the first Grand Slam singles title for a Canadian. Keep in mind, Williams has won 23 of those.

One of the most exciting storylines of the tournament

was Coco Gauff. The 15-yearold sparkled in the singles and doubles tournaments, and though she was beaten handily by the number one overall player Naomi Osaka in the third round, the two had an incredible moment after their match was over. Osaka embraced Gauff and had her stay on the court for an emotional postgame interview. In the doubles tournament, Gauff and her 17-year-old partner Katherine McNally upset the nine seed in the second round before losing another heartwrencher in the third set.

The male bracket, per usual, featured the Big Three: Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal.

However, only one was left standing by the semifinals.

Both Djokovic and Federer fell victim to injuries in the fourth round and quarterfinals, respectively. Djokovic

couldn’t even finish his game against Stan Wawrinka and forfeited in the third set while he was down 2-0. The crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium, which is always an interesting component of these matches, booed Djokovic off the court, sparking debate about whether Djokovic should’ve finished off the game. Federer was up 2-1 in his third-round match, but suffered from neck and upper back throughout the game and especially during the fourth set, ultimately falling victim to the biggest upset in the men’s tournament.

The men’s side culminated in an incredible match between Nadal and Danil Medvedev, two men vastly different in age, height, popularity, and charisma. Nadal, who has always been well-liked due to his charm and quirky habits, was the easy favorite to beat

Medvedev. Medvedev sparked controversy in some of his early matches by yelling at the referees and giving the crowd the finger. During his thirdround match, he even basked in the boos of the crowd, saying in his postgame interview that he was motivated by them.

The match was a fantastic one.

Nadal went up 2-0, but right when it seemed he was going to cruise to a victory, Medvedev came back with his 130 miles per hour-serve and long strides. He tied it at 2-2, but his comeback wasn’t enough to defeat the great Rafa, who held on in the fifth set. The game lasted five hours, and the many (over 20) rallies between the two men proved a testament to their insane athletic abilities.

Tennis is expanding, and the future of the sport is very bright. This tournament

showed the heart, competitiveness, but most importantly, sportsmanship of every player, even Medvedev (he had a long talk with Nadal after their game). Tennis is a sport that pits two players against each other head-to-head and ends in a friendly hug or handshake.

The maturity shown by many of the younger players in the tournament illustrates both the older players setting great examples and the youngsters learning. I know I’ll be tuning in a year from now to get a little Medvedev entertainment as well as see Gauff step into the spotlight again and the Big Three continue to dominate while fighting through injuries. As long as we, the fans, continue to support and love tennis, the U.S. Open will get better and better every year.

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

Page 23

Sports NBA

By ARYAN SHARMA What. Happened. It’s like an earthquake hit the NBA this past summer because a whole lot of teams got shaken up. We have never seen so many elite players get moved and traded before, completely shifting the power balance in the league. The dynasty of the Golden State Warriors ended when Kevin Durant moved to Brooklyn. The Toronto Raptors lost their best player, MVP Kawhi Leonard, to the LA Clippers in Finals. The level of parity in the league has never been higher, which only makes the game even more exciting for fans to watch.

With all the dust settled and the season set to start on October 22, let’s take a look at how the season is shaping up with the preseason power rankings.

1. Los Angeles Clippers 2018-19 Record: 48-34 Key Additions: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Maurice Harkless Key Losses: Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander The Clippers swiftly signing Kawhi Leonard and trading for Paul George in one night was the power move of the off-season.

They were already a promising team in the West and now have Leonard, who has proven himself to be one of the top three players in the league by winning his second championship last season, and George, who finished third in the MVP voting last year. Both of these superstars are unselfish and arguably, the best two-way players in the league. The Clippers now have All-Stars at their core, and along with their depth in Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley, and Lou Williams, are the team to beat.

NBA Preseason Power Rankings 2. Milwaukee Bucks 2018-19 Record: 60-22 Key Additions: Robin Lopez, Wesley Matthews Key Losses: Malcolm Brogdon, Nikola Mirotic Though the Bucks lost a great young player in Malcolm Brogdon, the Milwaukee Bucks have one thing that every other team doesn’t: the reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. He is a freak of nature, and the fact that he doesn’t really have a jump shot yet and is still improving should terrify opponents. They were successful in keeping Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez, giving Antetokounpo a talented supporting cast of shooters and role players to try and win the east.

3. Philadelphia 76ers 2018-19 Record: 51-31 Key Additions: Al Horford, Josh Richardson Key Losses: Jimmy Butler, J.J Reddick The 76ers may have lost a star in Jimmy Butler, but most likely got better this off-season.

They added a solid veteran in Al Horford and an underrated Josh Richardson to their depth. They have one of the best lineups defensively in the league and of course, have a beast in Joel Embiid. Last season, the Sixers were +7.5 points per 100 possessions when Embiid was on the floor, but were -2.5 points when he was off. However, their success largely will depend on Ben Simmons’s ability to run the offense efficiently, and his ability to shoot (or lack thereof) can either rocket them to the top or cause them to fall to the middle of the east.

4. Los Angeles Lakers 2018-19 Record: 37-45 Key Additions:Anthony Davis, Danny Green, Jared Dudley,

Avery Bradley Key Losses: Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Tyson Chandler LeBron James and Anthony Davis may be the best duo in the league, but the Lakers lost many key players in the process. In the trade for Davis, they signed away Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball, two of their best young ball-handlers from last year. They were stuck, waiting for Kawhi Leonard to make his decision, and eventually had to re-sign many of the flawed players they had last year, including Rajon Rondo and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Lakers had also signed Demarcus Cousins, but he will unfortunately be out for the rest of the year following an Achilles injury. In his absence, the Lakers signed Dwight Howard, who though is not the AllNBA Defensive and First Team he used to be, can provide quality minutes rebounding and guarding the rim both starting and off the bench. LeBron’s teammates showed they didn’t have the best chemistry last season, but Davis is the best teammate James has ever had. Will that be enough to carry them to the top of the stacked west?

5. Houston Rockets 2018-19 Record: 53-29 Key Additions: Russell Westbrook, Tyson Chandler Key Losses: Chris Paul There is no doubt about it: the Rockets got much better this year. Though Russell Westbrook is not as good as Chris Paul when it comes to shooting, he is four years younger and has a better contract. While the oncourt chemistry between James Harden, a top-two scorer, and his old teammate, Westbrook, is still a question mark, he is a talent upgrade over Paul. Paul didn’t have

a great relationship with Harden and is more prone to injury, while Mr. Triple Double is sure to wear his passions and heart on his sleeve day in and day out. With the two former MVPs paired with sidekicks like Eric Gordon stretching the floor and Clint Capela controlling the interior, the Rockets are in great shape to make some waves this season.

6. Denver Nuggets 2018-19 Record: 54-28 Key Additions: Jerami Grant Key Losses: Trey Lyles The Denver Nuggets didn’t make any major changes this season, which is a good thing. They were the second team in the west last year and have a 24-year-old named Nikola Jokic, who had the best plus/minus in the playoffs, averaging 25.1 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 8.4 assists. They also have budding stars in Jamal Murray and Gary Harris, along with a solid coach, Mike Malone. The Nuggets are a strong team with an MVP candidate in Jokic, who can help them be one of the best in the west this season.

7. Utah Jazz 2018-19 Record: 50-32 Key Additions: Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jeff Green, Ed Davis Key Losses: Jae Crowder, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Favors, Kyle Korver Though the Jazz didn’t pick up any superstars, they had as good of an off-season as anyone.

Rubio and his lackluster shooting have been replaced by a veteran in Mike Conley from the Memphis Grizzlies. The addition of Bogdanovic and Green will open up space for their star Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell had defenses all over him during his first two years in the league, but the young star will have more room to work

with this season, as he won’t be the only shooter on the court.

And having Rudy Gobert, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, only adds to the versatility of this scrappy squad.

8. Golden State Warriors 2018-19 Record: 57-25 Key Additions: D’Angelo Russell, Willie Cauley-Stein Key Losses: Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, DeMarcus Cousins, Shaun Livingston It’s over; the dynasty of the Warriors is over. They lost key players this year in Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala. The Warriors could have been much higher on this list, as they still have Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson, but Thompson will be out for much of this season, suffering from a torn ACL. D’Angelo Russell proved to be a great player on the Nets last year, but his role on the team is still uncertain. However, Curry could revert to his 2016 form, when he had the greatest individual offensive performance in NBA history. That could make the Warriors a sleeping giant until the playoffs come, by when Thompson is expected to be back.

There have been plenty of memorable NBA off-seasons, but this one has been one of the craziest of all time. With so many players being moved, it will take time for some teams to find their stride, so these rankings will inevitably fluctuate over the course of the season. Though it is still uncertain which is the best duo, and whether some underdogs can take the league by surprise, there is no doubt that this will be a season to remember.

Boys’ Badminton

Birdies Look to Take Off

By MAX MAH and SAMIR HASSAN The Stuyvesant boys’ badminton team, the Birdies, are days away from their first game of the season against Martin Luther King Jr. High School. After finishing 6-4 last year in the Manhattan Central Division and taking a tough 5-0 loss to Bronx High School of Science in the first round of the playoffs, it is up to Coach Marvin Autry and senior co-captains William Jiang and Ken Lee to get the Birdies back on track to the championship.

During the first few days of school, while most students reacclimated to Stuyvesant academic life, wrestled with program changes, and hauled textbooks home from school, the Birdies finalized their team roster through a period of intense tryouts. They have since begun their daily weekday practices, which will continue until league play starts. Many of the team members have also taken advantage of the Stuyvesant gym being open on weekends to get additional practice time in.

The Birdies lost a total of five players to last year’s graduating class—nearly half of the starting lineup. The Birdies will sorely miss Benjamin Ang, the Birdies’ second singles, along with James Lee and Kevin Wang, the Birdies’ first doubles.

“Returning team members will have to work hard in order to fill these starting positions and keep our team competitive within our division,” Jiang said.

According to Jiang, juniors Nicklaus Yao and Asifuzzaman Sami, along with sophomore Meshane Peiris, have shown a lot of potential and are expected to step up in the absence of the graduated seniors. Coach Autry is also enthusiastic about the fresh crop of young players who will be joining the team this year. “We have a freshman here who is a [nationally] ranked badminton player, which will help give us a big boost,” said Coach Autry, referring to Lukas Chang.

This year, the captains have changed their practice routine quite a bit. “Instead of practicing through playing games against each other during practices, we plan on focusing more

on improving individual skills, forms, and footwork before applying these skills during practice games,” Jiang said. “With badminton being such a fastpaced sport, it’s important that our members work on gaining more endurance.” Coach Autry added that the players will be running more, which is something that was not stressed in the previous season.

The Birdies will also focus on nurturing their young talent with the help of their returning veterans. “Some of our returning players have developed more skills and honed these skills compared to our newer players,” Jiang said. “These more skilled players can teach our newer players in order to establish an overall even balance of skill throughout our team.” Jiang is optimistic about the effect the veterans will have on the new players.

Jiang then implied that the Birdies are looking to improve the team culture. “This year, we’ll be emphasizing motivation and dedication to the team rather than solely looking at initial skill levels during our tryouts,”

he said. The mental aspects of sports are often overlooked and players can lose skills when their head isn’t in the game, which is why the new focus on attitude will be a major factor in improving the team.

The strongest competitors that the Birdies faced last year are Seward Park High School and Brooklyn Technical High School. Seward Park’s doubles players and Brooklyn Tech’s singles players are exceptionally strong, making it a challenge for the Birdies whenever they play them; the Birdies have lost four times in the previous two seasons at the hands of these teams. Despite the losses, the Birdies still managed to make the playoffs, but they fell to Bronx Science and Franklin Roosevelt D. Roosevelt High School in the early rounds. This year, the team is looking to minimize their losses and go farther into the playoffs. One of their main goals is to reach the championship game for the first time since 2016, when they impressively finished with a score of 9-1.

While Seward Park and

Brooklyn Tech are two longstanding obstacles to the Birdies, the Central Division has recently lost the Dr. Susan S. Mckinney School of Art, with Morrisania Educational Campus taking its place. 28 percent of Stuyvesant’s wins in the last two seasons have been against the School of Art. The new and unknown competitor Morrisania Campus may throw a monkey wrench into the Birdies’ plans if they prove to be stronger than the School of Art. The expectations for the year are similar to last year. The Birdies feel that they can replicate their form from the previous season, but are excited to see if their changes to practice and the team culture will lead to changes in their results. Key losses to the roster certainly won’t help, but their returning players have grown in skill and they have high hopes for their rookies. If these changes aren’t enough, the Birdies also have to deal with a new team in the division. With all these new aspects combined, it’s hard to predict how the Birdies will do. The new season can’t start soon enough.

Page 24

Boys’ Soccer

The Spectator ● September 27, 2019

THE SPECTATOR SPORTS The Peglegs On the Aim for Playoffs

By AKI YAMAGUCHI and SHIVALI KORGAONKAR With only seconds left in the game, the Stuyvesant Peglegs, the boys’ varsity soccer team, were down by one against Washington Irving High School. The entire game had led up to these last moments. The desire to win was apparent on each player’s face—both on the field and on the sidelines. Anxiety filled Pier 40, as numerous Stuyvesant students watched to cheer on the Peglegs in their last regular-season home game.

All they needed was one more goal. One more goal and they would earn their spot in the playoffs. As the referee glanced down at his watch and got ready to blow the whistle, forward Jeremy Moller raced down the

son on the premise followed the ball with their eyes and watched as it skimmed the crossbar and fell out of bounds. The whistle blew, and the game ended. The Peglegs had lost.

After a devastating end to last season, the Peglegs have lots to prove this season. For some, like senior captains Jeremy Moller and Henry Kotkin, this season is their last chance to fulfill their long-time goal of making it past the first round of playoffs. Coming off a record of 4-5-1 in the regular season last year, Kotkin says, “Our number one goal is to make it to the playoffs because we didn’t make it last year.” With practices every day and scrimmages every week, the boys are on the path to overcoming the inevitably difficult season ahead.

In an effort to prepare,

field, leaving two defenders in the dust. Knowing this was his last chance, Moller took a step and struck the ball. Every per-

the Peglegs scrimmaged many tough teams from outside their division during the offseason.

Playing notoriously challenging

Dorin Flocos / The Spectator

“Our starting lineup is primarily seniors, so a big part of this season is to help develop the players that are going to be making up the team in the coming years”— Jeremy Moller, senior co-captain

schools like Brooklyn Technical High School, the Peglegs managed to secure one win, one tie, and two losses. For the captains, this is an opportunity to find the weak spots in their lineup and strengthen it before the regular season begins. Kotkin explains, “We have a solid lineup, but some of our bench players that come into the game definitely need to step up in certain positions.” The starting center backs, senior Lewis Woloch and junior Amane Anderson, were both injured during the preseason games, so the defensive line, and thus the whole team, suffered without their lineup intact.

It’s crucial for the Peglegs to strengthen both their starting lineup and bench, as there will be 12 seniors graduating this year. With some of their leading scorers like Sean Takada (‘19) and Kevin Mitchell (‘19) gone, forwards Moller and sophomore Leo Rahn will need to step up and fill their shoes.

Furthermore, with the big loss from the lineup, the underclassmen will need to be ready for a challenge next year. Moller said, “Our starting lineup is primarily seniors, so a big part of this season is to help develop the players that are going to be making up the team in the coming years.” With the addition of six freshmen, it will be integral to strengthen and prepare them for when they come off the bench.

This season, the Peglegs will once again face their long-time rival—Martin L. King Jr. High School—as well as new teams like Beacon High School and Millennium High School. Martin L. King finished the regular season with an undefeated re-

cord, and then went on to win the City Championship. Beacon and Millenium both went into playoffs with an 11-1 record, having only lost to each other.

The added pressure of competitive new teams will make success more difficult to obtain for the Peglegs.

Considering the boys will need to win or tie a majority of their games to make the playoffs, each player will need to display extreme determination and perseverance this year.

Many of the teams they will play

made playoffs last year, while the Peglegs didn’t. With all the injuries and new lineups, the Peglegs will need to strengthen their chemistry and rectify their flaws. However, this is not an impossible feat. Every practice, the Peglegs come in ready to work and improve. Every team has the same goal of winning a championship title, but in the end, it comes down to which team wants it the most. And only the Peglegs can decide how badly they want to win.

Football

Julian Giordano / The Spectator

The Peglegs Prevail in Season Opener

By PAUL LIOU and ROHAN SAHA With very high expectations coming off a successful 2018 year and facing a solid team in an away game, the

Peglegs could’ve faltered under pressure. However, on a bright and sunny afternoon, the Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s football team, outlasted the Long Island City High School’s Bulldogs in a 28-22 victory this past

Saturday. This slim margin of victory doesn’t accurately convey the narrative of the game.

Through the first three quarters, spectators saw the same Peglegs team that finished the prior season with a dominant

8-1 record. The team entered the fourth quarter riding the quarterback-running back tandem of seniors Lucas Dingman and Franklin Liou; they also had a superb defensive showing, letting up only eight points.

However, the defense began to implode when the fourth quarter rolled around. It began with minor injuries due to the toll of the first three quarters, and the second-team defense was unable to produce at the level the first-teamers had, allowing the Bulldogs to put up 14 points.

In the end, though, it was not enough, as the Peglegs were able to close the game at 28-22 for a promising victory against a team that was a respectable 6-3 the prior season.

Dingman picked up right where he left off from his great 2018 season, throwing for 213 yards on 14 out of 25 completions and four touchdowns in the air, spreading the ball around with four different receivers—each grabbing a touchdown. The four receiving touchdowns were set up by the ground game and were provided by Liou, who picked up 93 yards on 16 carries. This perfect

balance of air and ground offense allowed for the Peglegs to rack up 28 points.

Senior and captain Clement Chan believes the minor flaws shown by the team during the game will be erased with more chemistry among the studentathletes. “Our team chemistry will allow us to prevail. We’ve been playing together for the past two to three years, so we’re a well-oiled machine,” he said.

This “team chemistry” will be tested on September 13 when the Peglegs will face the Judges of Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. The Judges, who finished 7-2 in 2018, are a formidable opponent who reached the semi-finals last year and are currently 1-0 with a 21-18 victory over Beach Channel Educational Campus this past Friday. The two teams squared off last year with the Peglegs edging out the Judges in a close 25-20 victory, and it is sure to be another close one this Friday. With a win in their home opener and against a tough team like Cardozo, the Peglegs have the chance to start the year off strong and ultimately cruise into the playoffs.