Volume 113 Issue 8

The Spectator “The Pulse of the Student

Stuyvesant High School

SCIENCE

FEATURES

Competitiveness Addressed: Is Stuy as Cut-Throat as it Seems?

Discovering what Stuyvesant students really think about the competitive culture of the school. see page 6

By ZIYING JIAN, JUDY NAMKOONG, and RORIE TAYLOR with additional reporting by Anisha Singhal

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at Stuyvesant on December 8 to celebrate the opening of the Lin Brothers Robotics Lab. The lab was made possible by a $1 million donation from brothers Alfred Lin (‘90), a partner at Sequoia Capital, and Edwin Lin (‘93), Head of Global Fixed Income at Citadel. The brothers, along with additional stakeholders, donated through the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association (SHSAA).

The event was split into a morning portion and an afternoon portion. Several guest speakers spoke in the morning, including Principal Seung Yu, High School Superintendent Gary Beidleman, New York City Council members Christopher Marte and Gale A. Brewer, New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh, SHSAA president Elina Tetelbaum (‘03), and Edwin Lin, who all came to support one of Stuyvesant’s largest programs.

SHSAA Executive Director Diego Segalini was the Master of Ceremonies for the event.

Both the morning and after-

Report cards were distributed online on December 13.

Stuyvesant’s annual holiday instrumental concert was held on December 16.

Course selections opened on December 5.

The annual Downtown Mathematics Invitational was held at Stuyvesant on December 3.

An in-person SLT meeting was held on December 20.

The Stuyvesant Student Union hosted a Gingerbread House Competition on December 23 in collaboration with the Junior Caucus

Stuyvesant merchandise became available for purchase on December 11. Items include crewnecks, hooded sweatshirts, stickers, and tote bags.

How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?

Sometimes, it feels like we are more energized when running on two hours of sleep instead of seven…but this doesn’t mean that we are getting enough sleep. see page 12

Lin Brothers’ Robotics Lab Unveiled

noon events included demonstrations from Robotics members. Stuy Fission 310 demonstrated their robot in both events, while

tition robots they had worked on for this year’s FIRST Tech Challenge. “We demoed our robot on the field playing this year’s

cided to demo. It’s what we were proud of.”

Politicians were invited to attend in order to observe the

Body”

StuyPulse 694 and Stuy Fusion 479 demoed their robots during the afternoon event. Team members of Stuy Fission 310 were excited to showcase the compe-

Introducing

game,” senior and Vice President of Stuy Fission 310 Paul Serbanescu said. “People love seeing things move around and do things, so that’s what we de-

as Freshmen Caucus Co-Presidents

Chew and

new lab and speak on how this project came to fruition as well as discuss the door of opportunities the new lab opened not only for Stuyvesant but also for

students throughout New York City. “Christopher Marte spoke about [...] the value of Stuyvesant Robotics. He went to a competition last year, and he talked about how we did so well,” senior and President of Stuy Fission 310 Max Schneider said. “The state senator [Brian Kavanagh] commended [Principals Seung Yu and Eric Contreras] for the effort they put in.”

In the afternoon, along with demonstrations by Stuy Fission 310 and StuyPulse 694, Robotics teacher and coach Joseph Blay made a speech that had an effect on many members of the audience. “[The new lab] meant so much to [Blay], you could almost hear his voice breaking in terms of how far the Robotics program at Stuyvesant has come,” Schneider said. “I think it’s just important to emphasize [Blay] in all this and his position and how hard he’s worked too.”

To prepare the new Robotics Lab for its grand opening, the three Robotics teams—Stuy Fission 310, Stuy Fusion 479, and StuyPulse 694—helped clean, set up, and organize the space. “Over the summer, near the end of the summer, and all across the

Stuyvesant Holds School Safety Workshop

By SETH FENTON, DYLAN HUNTER, SAKURA YAMANAKA, and SOFIA SEN

In recent months, Stuyvesant has had a large number of safety incidents, including a shelter-in due to an anonymous phone call on October 26 as well as an evacuation due to an anonymous email threat on November 9. In light of these emergencies, students and staff alike have expressed grievances regarding a lack of communication from administration. Students have stated that certain teachers are unaware of the proper emergency protocols during safety situations and of the fact that actual emergencies have been presented as mere drills. Due to this string of incidents and the backlash that followed, administration decided to hold a safety workshop webinar on December 5.

the workshop was to better prepare students and staff for potential safety emergencies. During the workshop, administration provided attendees with information on how emergency procedures are executed and the steps that are taken to notify the NYPD, Superintendent Office, and parents. “My hope is that by reviewing, preparing and drilling our response protocols, the entire school community will be better prepared to respond in the event of an emergency situation,” Moran said.

By ABIGAIL CHO, MARGARET SANSONE, CHRISTINA WANG, and LAUREN YANG

votes

Prior

The administration organized the workshop to clarify expectations and provide general safety advice. “Through the safety committee, members expressed a desire to hear more on the topic of safety and we decided a panel discussion would be the most effective way to share tips, review protocols and answer questions,” Assistant Principal of Safety, Security, and Physical Education Brian Moran said in an e-mail interview.

Moran added that the goal of

The workshop included a slide deck created by Moran, Principal Seung Yu, and Assistant Principal of Pupil Personnel Services Casey Pedrick. In addition to the slideshow presentation, there was time allocated for attendees to ask questions as well as additional information provided on how communication with students’ families is facilitated during emergencies. “I provided the information on communication and tips for family emergency planning[,] collected questions, moderated the event and synthesized the questions coming in from the webinar to moderate as well as [provide] answers to questions to families while running the

NEWSBEAT

Seniors Hannah Riegel and Molly Thompson won the parliamentary debate at the Ridge Invitational on December 9.

Edwin Lin cuts the ribbon for the new Lin Brothers Robotics Lab.

Rain Shao / The Spectator

Julia Lee / The Spectator

Lin Brothers Robotics Lab Unveiled

like this, especially if you want it to be very organized and serve as many people as it does.”

beginning of the school year, we bought a bunch of furniture, got the tables in, set everything up, set all the machines up,” junior and Vice President of Stuy Fusion 479 Daniel Xu said. “The day before the grand opening, we just cleaned up and made it look very nice.”

The Lin Brothers Robotics Lab provides a large space for all students to pursue their interest in subjects related to technology. “There is a storage space for everything, [and students] have the space to work and don’t have to go into corners or classrooms,” Blay said. “This is a home throughout the day, not just after school, for kids interested in robotics.”

Decisions for renovating the layout of the space were directly made through the collaboration of Principal Yu, former principal Contreras, Assistant Principal of Chemistry, Technology, and Art Scott Thomas, and Blay. The lab replaced an area that used to stretch over three classrooms: a computer science classroom, a foreign language classroom, and an old assembly shop. “The beauty of the completion of the project is that it isn’t attributed to one individual but rather the entire community. It took many people and lots of effort to make the lab come to fruition,” Principal Yu said.

While the lab has been largely completed, it is still undergoing continuous optimizations by users. “Those clamps [on the wall] were added on Saturday,” Blay said. “We’re constantly adding more and more things. There’s a lot that goes into running a shop

Feedback from Robotics members was also taken into consideration when planning the layout of the lab. “I went through [the table placement] with all the students. The students picked out the tools they have in here, and mentors looked over what they picked out to make sure it was [correct],” Blay said.

As a result, the lab’s layout and architecture has inspired a feeling of comfort in regular students who attend classes in the lab. “With a typical classroom, what you have is just a bunch of rows of chairs and desks. In the lab, you get to sit around with a group of other people and interact with other students,” senior and Advanced Robotics student Ryan Lee said.

The space also allows members of the different Robotics teams to closely collaborate, as they previously had to use the Innovation Lab, the Ceramics Lab, and other classrooms to work.

“[Different teams can] work together all the time. I’ve made so many friends with 694 now that we’re in the same space, and it’s really great to talk to them,” Serbanescu said.

The Lin brothers’ continued support of Stuyvesant’s infrastructure is due to the valuable role the school played in their own lives. “Our experiences [at Stuyvesant] gave us the confidence to believe that we can do anything in the world if we only work hard enough. We wanted to give back to Stuyvesant and provide an enriching experience for today’s students so that they will look to their future with the same optimism and confidence

we had,” Alfred Lin said.

The pair’s desire to fund the Robotics lab primarily emerged from observing the Robotics team’s lack of sufficient resources. Edwin Lin had previously visited Stuyvesant and saw these issues firsthand during a tour of the Robotics Lab with Principal Contreras. “The team mentioned that they sometimes were forced to work in the hallways. It became clear that the current lab and resources did not satisfy their needs. After my visit, I called Alfred and said we should really do something for Stuyvesant,” Edwin Lin said in a 2018 interview with The Spectator.

Though the brothers had not been involved in robotics while attending, they were further inspired to create the lab in order to promote students’ creativity. “[I]n San Francisco, I’ve seen many companies investing in robotics. I believe this new lab can have a tremendous impact if it harnesses the creative energy of students who are interested and passionate about the field,” Alfred Lin said.

The Lin brothers’ lack of experience in robotics made their contributions more meaningful to many robotics members. “What stood out to me [during Edwin Lin’s speech was] there was no Robotics team at his time at Stuy, but he decided to fund the Robotics Lab, which was pretty interesting. [It shows] just how much of an impact it has that he even decided to support it,” Xu said.

In the future, the administration plans to extend use of the lab to elementary and middle school students. “I want us to ‘pay it forward’ to younger students who could benefit im-

WORLDBEAT

CORRECTIONS BOX

- The article in Issue 7 titled “Disaggregate the Asian Data” by Philip Virata featured the incorrect body of text. The article has been printed correctly this issue.

mensely from the exposure and opportunity to work with Stuyvesant students in the spaces we have in our building. Stuy students have an opportunity to be influential role models and mentors for younger students who may not know what opportunities are available to them,” Principal Yu said.

Poet Jason Koo Returns to Stuyvesant

By CRAIG CHEN, JADY CHEN, MOZEN KALEFA, IAN KIM, CHRISTINA WANG, and JASMINE YUEN

Poet Jason Koo—an associate teaching professor of English at Quinnipiac University—visited Stuyvesant on December 2 to share his poetry and professional experience. In 2012, Koo founded Brooklyn Poets, an organization that celebrates Brooklyn as the origin of American poetry, a genre associated with famed poets like Walt Whitman.

Though the event, which took place in the library, was held primarily for English teacher Dr. Emily Moore’s Poetry Workshop students, other students were encouraged to sit in as well, placing the total attendance at over 100 students. Koo is one of the contemporary poets studied in Dr. Moore’s class.

Koo is no stranger to Stuyvesant, as he visited Ms. Thom’s Writing to Make a Change class earlier this year and Dr. Moore’s Poetry Workshop class twice in 2011. “I’ve actually met Jason Koo many times before because Dr. Moore has brought Jason Koo to Stuyvesant as a poetry reader a number of times over the years,” English teacher Annie Thoms said. “I had him come into my Writing to Make Change class last year to talk about being a Korean-American male poet and writing from his identity in order to make [a] change.”

Koo’s visit was much like his previous ones, in which he read a selection of poetry and answered

students’ questions. As a KoreanAmerican poet in a predominantly Caucasian field, Koo has repeatedly spoken to the Stuyvesant community due to its large presence of Asian students. Koo expresses that his struggles as an Asian-American are a major theme across his poetry. “I hope our students benefit from seeing Jason Koo, an Asian-American male poet, who is strong in his identity, and in many ways, bucks cultural norms. It is affirming for me, and I hope it is for many of our students,” English teacher Minkyu Kim said.

At the start of the event, Koo read half of his poem “The Rest is Silence,” a piece featured in the 2022 Best American Poetry Anthology. It was among 75 poems that Best American Poetry guest editor Matthew Zapruder felt best reflected the modern state of American poetry. As Koo discussed topics of workplace diversity, equitable education, and the concept of AsianAmericans being bystanders, the poem he read resonated with many attendees. “One thing that I could really relate to was being an Asian in a predominantly white neighborhood [and] environment and being secluded,” senior Benny Ye said.

Students felt that meeting Koo helped enhance their experience with poetry with a fresh perspective of the field. “There are not a lot of Asian poets, and the poets I study in class are mostly white,” senior Arshan Pervez said. “It’s great to have someone else share their perspective.”

In addition, students were able

Ultimately, members of the Robotics teams are excited to use the new lab and believe its completion will create a great future for Robotics. “I’m excited to see what the future of Stuyvesant Robotics will be because now we have so much more potential, and I think we’ll be really great,” Serbanescu said.

to learn from hearing Koo recite his poems in person. “He knows exactly where to pause, and [...] what words [to] emphasize to deliver [an effect] to his audience,” Ye said.

Beyond his Asian identity, Koo’s poetry also encapsulates the difficulties that lie in chasing dreams, a sentiment that resonated with many attendees. “Before hearing of Koo’s struggles in pursuing poetry, I honestly had a shallow understanding of the types of troubles other people might face in our society,” junior Jayne Wong said. “After hearing his experience, it gave me a new view that poetry is not only about expressing yourself, but also about perseverance and not giving up, especially when trying to publish poems.”

The speaker event concluded with a Q&A session between Koo and the students. “Students asked amazing questions, ranging from ‘What factors went into discovering you were a poet?’ to ‘Do you watch anime?’” Dr. Moore said. Students were also able to purchase copies of Koo’s books as well as receive autographs from him.

For those who attended, the event offered new insights not only into the construction of poetry but also into the underlying meaning within poems. “Through this meeting, I have [gained a better] understanding about how poetry is not just a bunch of words structured uniquely on a piece of paper or computer screen [...] it’s also a collection of stories that the poet themselves may have wanted to convey,” Wong said.

Russia fired dozens of missiles across Ukraine on December 16, leaving 60 percent of Kyiv residents without power and 70 percent without water

President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act on December 13, which repealed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and created newfound federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.

At least 141 people died on December 14 from flash floods in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

A United Nations peacekeeper was shot and killed on the Lebanese-Israeli border on December 16. The shooting is still being investigated.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

really well. They’ve known each other for a really long time, which is good because [...] they have a special bond and can work with each other,” freshman and ChewLei campaign manager Valerie Chu said.

Though the Chew-Lei ticket did not have an official slogan, they ran on a platform with the objective of making freshman year memorable through bonding events. One of their plans is to collaborate with the Sophomore Caucus to host a Soph-Frosh Dance. “We don’t have a specific theme yet, but it’ll be around mid-winter to mid-spring because that is around that time when our cabinet

Introducing Cayla Chew and Vanna Lei as Freshmen Caucus Co-Presidents

is done,” Lei said.

Chew-Lei also plans on hosting more events relevant to specific holidays or memorable dates, such as celebrations for Pi Day and the third anniversary of COVID-19. “The [purpose of the] three-year COVID-19 anniversary [is to] support mental health [and] to go over the last three years of bad and good memories in quarantine and coming back to school,” Lei said.

Aside from events, one of Chew and Lei’s top priorities is to create two freshman offices on different floors as an exclusive freshman space to study and relax. “The 8th floor [office] would be the break room where you hang out with your friends and chill. And then the 9th floor [office] would be a quiet place for you to study

because if you [don’t separate the two], no one will be able to [accomplish] anything,” Lei said.

Additionally, Chew and Lei hope to add hooks to shower stalls to make showering after swim gym more convenient. “Most people throw their stuff over the wall, but that isn’t actually clean, and [your belongings] may get wet. If there are hooks for our bags and towels, there will be a smaller chance that something will fall on the floor while you’re trying to wear your clothes,” Lei said.

Chew and Lei plan on collaborating with the administration in order for their plan to come to fruition. “We already have an idea of where the hooks are going to be. To implement this, we are going to work with the administra-

tion to create a plan that is safe and effective,” Lei said. Chew and Lei note that though the hooks might not be added to the shower stalls immediately, they hope the installation is available for next semester’s swim gym students.

Another facet of the Chew-Lei ticket is a point system devised to encourage participation in events and contests. “It’s similar to how [you get tickets] when you play games at an arcade [...]. You get tickets for playing and winning and then you exchange them for prizes,” Lei said. “With each competition and event, you get points for either participating [in the contest], voting [for a winner], or winning.”

Once sufficient points are accumulated, freshmen can exchange their points for rewards such as

Stuyvesant Hosts Annual Blood Drive

By BILL CHAN, OLIVIA HAVEN, ANDREW LIU, ZOEY MARCUS, and VINCENT WANG

Stuyvesant held its second blood drive since the pandemic on November 30 in the first floor lobby in partnership with the New York Blood Center. The blood drive was organized by junior Yashna Patel, who also coordinated a blood drive last May. Sixty-seven students donated to the drive, and 10 had double red blood cell donations, which contribute twice the amount of red blood cells as a normal blood donation.

Patel has worked with the blood center since her freshman year and was inspired to host a blood drive at Stuyvesant after hearing about the shortages the center had during the pandemic. “I would constantly get emails about how they didn’t have enough blood, or that they had run out of a blood type completely […] since all the high schools were shut down and nobody went outside,” she said.

Patel also wanted to host the blood drive for more personal reasons. “I know how scary [needing blood] is,” she said. “My grandpa

had pancreatic cancer during the pandemic, and he had countless blood transfusions that basically saved his life.”

Well-organized collaboration was necessary to set the drive in motion. “There were lots of amazing volunteers and workers who really helped it all go smoothly,” senior and donor Hugo Jenkins said. Donors were surveyed and directed to the machines lining the first floor atrium while volunteers from the Stuyvesant Red Cross aided workers from the New York Blood Center.

This drive was only the second to take place since the beginning of the pandemic, but blood drives are not new school events.

“Before the pandemic, it was a tradition at Stuy to have multiple blood drives every year […].

Blood drives weren’t new to Stuy, but the pandemic had put a stop to them. But once we’d had one blood drive in May, [the Stuyvesant administration was] happy to hold one this fall,” Patel said.

Following the renewal of in-person blood drives, donations have only increased. This year’s drive was more successful than the drive from last May, with an increase of 16 donations.

Still, numbers are below previous years, and Patel hopes to increase turnout for the next blood drive, which is scheduled to take place in February. “[The donations were]

Despite this, many students still chose to go through with their donations. “It is a bit taxing on your body. I was very tired and exhausted for the next three days,”

merchandise, gift cards, and more. “The points are cumulative so with each point [you] don’t necessarily get a prize for each event. But [for] each contest or event that you participate in, [the points] gradually add up and then you can [redeem them],” Chew said.

Despite their late start in student government, Chew and Lei remain optimistic about the implementation of their plans. “We’re quite confident we’ll be able to gather everyone together. We’ve selected a handful of events from before as well as [talked] to fellow peers about what they’d like to see [during] their freshman year. Though none [of our events] are to occur this month, there are more plans for the future,” Lei said.

was going okay. And then after they gave me a lot of food,” Jenkins said.

Many students were also incentivized to participate in the blood drive due to the food offered: All students received free pizza for donating. “I [chose to donate because I] felt like it, and they were giving out free pizza,” senior and donor Katherine Zhao said.

Many donors also chose to participate because they understand the importance of donating blood and the impact their donation could have. “I know that many people need blood,” senior and donor Max Zeng said. “Imagine you got into a car accident and you are losing blood, but there isn’t any blood for you to survive. That’s why I think it’s so important that people are aware of the impacts of their donations. A single donation can save so many lives, and all it takes is 10 minutes.”

way more than I’d expected,” Patel said. “In past years we’ve gotten like 120 people donating, [and] I think in future years we can keep growing.”

With the benefits that came with the drive, there were also negative side effects for donors.

Jenkins said. “But [...] I think it’s very important to give back to the people who are in need of it.”

To ensure the donor’s safety, students were also monitored after their donation and given food. “They checked up on me during the whole process, made sure it

Stuyvesant Holds School Safety Workshop

continued from page 1

webinar,” Business Manager and Director of Family Engagement Dina Ingram said in an e-mail interview. “It’s important that families allow us to handle an emergency and be patient with the understandable desire for information. Trust that we are doing our best to keep students and staff safe in an emergency situation and that as soon as we are able, we will always send out information.”

Administration expresses its recognition of the importance of student input in how Stuyvesant handles safety. “We have student representatives at monthly safety meetings and listen to their input. These meetings are closed to the public with the exception of one per year where we invite the entire community,” Ingram said.

Moran worked with Ingram as well as with the Parent’s Association Safety Committee to host the workshop and address parents’ concerns. The administration attempted to publicize the event to make it accessible to students and parents. “The advertising of the workshop was done through my weekly update, asking the SU to include in their

Sunday [e-mails] and collaborating with the PA to advertise in their e-news and Instagram along with [e-mail] blasts to families,” Ingram said.

Some students found this workshop helpful in preparing for potentially dangerous situations. “My parents were watching [the webinar], so I wanted to watch it with them, but also since […] I’m a member of the school, I felt that I should be aware of what’s going on in terms of safety, so I can act accordingly if there’s ever an emergency,” freshman attendee Rohan Sen said. “It gave specific information about things you wouldn’t necessarily know, because you don’t plan about what to do when there’s an evacuation. So, knowing what you should do, instead of what you think you should do, is [important], for certain.”

However, many other students were unaware a safety workshop was taking place, which seemed to limit its effect. “I did not attend because I don’t think I knew about it that well. [...] I just kind of forgot about it,” sophomore Aeneas Merchant said. “They could have [announced] it through the morning announcement. [...] Stuff like that seems like the kind of thing you

would put on an announcement, especially if it’s kind of like a schoolsanctioned thing.”

To address the lack of student attendance, administration also implemented an extended homeroom on November 6 to ensure procedures covered during the workshop were accessible to the entire student body. Students and homeroom teachers went over safety protocols and engaged in discussions and a safety-related mix-and-match activity. “We wanted all students to benefit from a review of safety protocols. Whereas 268 [people] registered for the webinar and likely many more will watch the recording when released, the best way to ensure we reach all our students was to bring it into the classroom,” Ingram said.

A few students found the school safety homeroom helpful as a supplement to the safety workshop. “[The homeroom] engaged more people I’d say [...] cause you had to do the sorting game. It was sort of a more community thing, since we were doing group work. It helped me to memorize [the safety information] easier and it was engaging,” Sen said. “Plenty of my friends didn’t really know a lot of this stuff going into this school,

since they never had been put in this situation. So I think this information before something happens is definitely better than having to learn the hard way.”

Other students questioned the effectiveness of the homeroom safety session. “It [was] just kind of your average homeroom that no one really cares about. Everyone just did [the activity] to get through it,” Merchant said. “I feel like [the homeroom] could’ve been a little more engaging. [...] These kinds of [activities] [...] almost feel like an insult to your intelligence.”

Some students note that the issue may be rooted in the larger inadequacies in pre-made safety protocols and emphasize the importance of communication during safety incidents, citing a fire at Brooklyn Technical High School on December 8 as an example. “When there is a fire, everyone crowding around walking single-file quietly [...] is never really how it’s going to be. [...] There’s gonna be people running, screaming, all that kind of stuff. It’s definitely not going to be the kind of idealized fire drill that, you know, we’ve been trained to do,” Merchant said. “Brooklyn Tech recently had that fire. It seems like a lot of the pre-made protocol

Ultimately, students found the drive impactful as it gave them a safe and accessible opportunity to give back to their communities. “I think medical care like that should be available to anyone,” Jenkins said. “I felt like my blood could make a difference to someone.”

didn’t hold up well, but everyone was pretty safe. So it’s more about what the staff and teachers do and communicate in [the] moment.”

It can also be difficult for students to perceive the difference between drills and actual emergencies, especially if emergencies are announced as drills. “[For] fire drills, especially, no one really imagines it as a [real] fire, because they think, ‘It’s a drill, we don’t really have to focus,’ so they just kind of walk down with their friends,” sophomore Santino Suarez said, noting that some students fail to take drills seriously. “So there’s this weird gray area every time [there is] an evacuation that’s like ‘What is really going on?’ and I think it’s misleading and confusing.”

Moving forward, the administration emphasizes its understanding of the importance of clear communication. “We do our best to communicate first to those directly affected in the emergency— students and staff internally—and then provide information and updates as deemed necessary to families, staff and students. I begin crafting communication and collecting information immediately once we know students and staff are safe,” Ingram said.

Courtesy of Yashna Patel

By SOOBIN CHOI

Love is “to hold dear: CHERISH”—or so the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it. But the way a dictionary defines love is not how ordinary people experience this elusive concept. Love differs in innumerable ways, beginning with whom we love, the intensity of the love, and, perhaps most disputed, how we love.

Gary Chapman, the author of The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, categorizes the ways we love into five different forms, or “languages”: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Being the logic-oriented school Stuyvesant is, there are some skeptics of this philosophy. Sophomore David Jiang feels that Chapman’s method is just a more complicated way of defining love. “When people talk about love languages, everything that they say just falls underneath [the same idea of] loving [someone]. Love languages are just what people prefer doing to express how they love someone,” he said.

Assistant Principal of English Eric Grossman finds that classifying love is limiting. “I don’t think it’s just one thing. [...] I believe that, sure, we’re all different. I don’t know that I think [love’s] reductive, so for you the love language is food and for me the love language is massages. There’s just the kind of [feeling] like that’s the thing,” he said.

Yet for many Stuyvesant students, love languages are a good way to classify their needs for af-

fection. “[My] love languages are physical touch or quality time,” senior Katherine Chen said. “Just the absence of that other person makes you realize quality time is really important.”

Sophomore Ivan Hor is also partial to more tangible aspects of romance. “For me it would be physical affection,” he said. “Because if I ever have a partner, I would want to just sit there and just cuddle them.”

But some Stuyves ant students may have trouble ex pressing their ro mantic love. “I’d say Stuy kids have trouble expressing love because people at Stuyvesant think more with their minds than with their heart,” senior Ashley Liu said.

<3 at Stuy

Being a teenager can come with a boatload of ups and downs and emotional confusion. “A lot of [students] are awkward. They don’t know what they’re doing,” sophomore Abedur Rahman said. “It’s just a phase in life where

LillianZou/TheSpectator

every day, students walk out of class saying, ‘Thank you, that was a great lesson,’ expressing gratitude, expressing love for the class or the subject,” Grossman said. For him, the small things are what make Stuyvesant’s community so wonderful. “[Students] going above and beyond doing things that they don’t have to be doing [but] because they want to be doing is a form of express-

Hor’s love language echoes Grossman’s sentiments. “I do this quirky thing called coming to class every day. Isn’t that cool?” he said. “I try to keep it clean. If I see trash on the floor, I’ll try to pick it up and throw it out.

have that many close bonds with a lot of my friends. But this year, it’s been easy to get closer with people. And I really value that because they mean a lot to me. So I like that part of Stuy, the community is pretty good,” Meher said. Clubs and extracurriculars can help foster those meaningful relationships. “One of the things I love so far is the club that I’m in, [...] the Guitar Club. It’s a closeknit group so I really like going there, after school on Fridays, meeting with the people part of it,” freshman Sameeha Alam said. “We get to spend time getting to know each other since I’m still a freshman. [...] That counts as a form of love too since it’s the caring environment that makes me look forward to it.”

Sophomore Mahmuda Meher echoes Liu’s senti ments and jokingly states that Stuyvesant stu dents aren’t exactly winners when it comes to romantic love.

“[Stuyvesant students] are really bad [at relationships],” she said. “None of the relationships last because I don’t think people care enough. [...] And they don’t put as much importance into caring and loving someone. I think it’s a Stuy-specific thing. It’s also an age thing. People are not mature enough to be committed to a relationship.”

Though Stuyvesant students do not always excel at romantic love, friendships fill the school community with other types of love. “In my experience, Stuy kids are uniquely good at expressing many versions of love. I feel very, very grateful to have a job where

If [there’s] just a genuinely bad teacher, I’ll try to report them to the guidance counselor’s to see if things get fixed. I try to help my classmates out with work if they need it, because you know, it’s a tough school. And I can understand if the teacher is absent for some reason or if they’re tired or they’re a little bit off that day.”

Many students found themselves lacking friendships during the pandemic, but the transition back to school offered them an opportunity to form meaningful relationships. “Because I didn’t know anyone last year, I didn’t

Close yet not Close Enough

By ELAINE HUAN, RHEA MALHOTRA, and THEO SASSANO

Every Stuyvesant student has had friendships that leave you thinking, “Wait, can we even be considered friends?” Whether they’re with a homeroom acquaintance, a history classmate, or a chemistry lab partner, these relationships usually help pass time in class. But can a classroom acquaintance turn into something greater?

For many students, classroom friendships feel more distant than regular friendships. “I feel like I can build on some relationships, but in the moment it doesn’t feel like such a good connection,” freshman Lucia Robinovich explained. “I see a lot of potential friends, but they’re just people that are there to keep me entertained during class.” When it comes to friendships that are formed out of shared classroom experiences, the simple pleasure of having someone to talk to may just be enough.

Sophomore Brandon Waworuntu noted that such friendships can often be mundane and onesided. “Usually we just ask questions, talk about whatever’s going on at the moment,” he said. “I’m the one who asks the questions, though. I’m very sociable.” Still, he recognizes that deeper relationships can be forged when given time and energy by both parties.

“Once you get to know each other in class, you can hang out and talk more, [like] after school or something,” Waworuntu noted.

Unfortunately, having meaningful conversations isn’t as easy as it seems, and students often find it awkward and time-consuming to strengthen their relationships with

their classmates. “It’s very easy to make acquaintances but it’s more difficult to make deeper friendships because unless you’re very invested, you don’t talk a lot during class when you’re not supposed to and you only have a few minutes in passing,” Robinovich said. “You can always get their number but then it can feel awkward [and] you might be unsure whether they’d want to expand on it as well.”

Robinovich has had considerable success in bringing friendships from the classroom to her

personal life. “I’d say that I have maybe five acquaintances in each class and maybe two from each turn into deeper friendships,” she stated. “We’re all in the same building for five days a week, and usually we’ll have a coinciding free period.”

we have a schedule change, I see them again in different classes, and our relationship gets closer because now we can talk about certain things outside of just classes.”

Even when interactions are limited to classroom settings, seeing acquaintances in new contexts can

Hollywood and popular media may perpetuate an expectation of an all-consuming and whirlwind sort of romance. Though this may ring true for some at Stuyvesant, love also comes in quiet, sacred moments. “I know [my] parents, they won’t say ‘I love you’ to me, but they’ll give a plate of fruit after a fight,” Chen said.

And that is simply it: love is different for everyone. “You can show love in so many different ways. It can be both small things, big things depending on the person,” Alam said. “To a friend sending them a message, like ‘How are you doing?’ after not seeing them for a while—that’s a form of love. Just as much as hugging or kissing someone. No matter what level of relationship you have, it’s still possible to love someone.”

and life,” she said. “It’s pretty hard to maintain the relationship.” After all, once a semester has ended and daily conversations with peers are no longer guaranteed, a friendship can fizzle out in less time than it took to be formed.

In some cases, the ambiguity of classroom friendships can coalesce with romantic intrigue. “There’s a guy in my homeroom, like, I don’t really know about him because we don’t really have the same class period. [...] I kinda am confused with his intentions with me,” said freshman Eileen Lee. “I can’t just know if it’s romantic or not. I’d say it’s one of my biggest concerns or maybe something that really stuck in my head.” The path to a romantic relationship isn’t often straightforward, but uncertainty about whether one is even a friend tangles signals that are already mixed. After all, entering the friend zone while being considered a mere acquaintance seems to present an awkward situation.

When friendships made in the classroom do become more personal, they can be just as meaningful as those made through clubs or outside of school. “I met a girl in my Global class, and we started off as classmates but we hung out more and now we’re really close,” Waworuntu said. “We hung out over the summer and she even went to my birthday party.”

For sophomore Angela Lu, classroom interactions can be most fruitful when they aren’t limited to one subject. “Most of [my classmates], I’ll only be seeing for one period. We don’t share any other classes,” she said. “But when

serve to strengthen relationships. However, Lu feels that it can be difficult to gauge whether or not one has crossed the line between acquaintance and friend. “I know they probably have other friends or are just busy with schoolwork

When it comes down to it, you never know what to expect with acquaintance friendships. Everyone is bound to have different experiences with different people. Sometimes, the stars are misaligned and friendships are simply not meant to be. Other times, all it takes is two adjacent desks and a little bit of spark.

Ibtida Khurshed / The Spectator

Two friends wave when passing each other on the escalator.

Competitiveness Addressed: Is Stuy as Cut-Throat as it Seems?

By MILLIE BELL and JULIA CHERNOBELSKY

Stuyvesant’s reputation often paints an intimidating picture for prospective students. Though many of the rumors around competitiveness come from fallacious gossip spread by middle schoolers, they manage to plant a seed of doubt in the minds of many potential students, making them question if this is the right environment for them. However, these rumors don’t come from nowhere, and—as most Stuyvesant students find out—there is a strong sense of competition embedded in Stuyvesant culture.

The school’s reputation makes many high school applicants apprehensive. “[The competitive culture] was kind of the main thing you heard about Stuy,” junior Luca Bistrong said. “I was a little concerned because I wasn’t sure if I belonged there.”

Others, such as junior Margaux Scandura, went through a similar experience. “I heard about the competitive nature at the school, and it almost stopped me from applying. I didn’t want to constantly be competing with my classmates.”

While the competition is generally considered off-putting, it can also be a part of Stuyvesant’s appeal. Senior Polina Maller was excited by the idea of going to such a rigorous school. “I was one of two people from my middle school who got into Stuy,” she said. “Even though I had heard about the rigorous environment, I felt super cool applying. I was excited to be challenged and be surrounded by kids who wanted to be the best.”

As its reputation suggests, it is true that students experience a sense of competitiveness at Stuyvesant. Part of this comes from the fact that the most academically inclined and passionate students from every middle school usually come to the school, so the environment has more intensity than most middle or high schools. “In my middle school,

there were 10 to 15 other kids who were consistently at the top of the class. At Stuy, almost everyone is one of these kids,” sophomore Zoe Chun said.

A lot of this tension also stems from the structure of classes and the pressures teachers put on students. Senior Gabriel Huang explained how teachers reinforce the comparative attitude. “Many of

Quite a bit of how students allow competitiveness to influence them comes from their individual mindsets. Oftentimes, the pressure to be better is intrinsic. “I expected an intense environment, though not necessarily because of other students,” Chun said. “The mix of teachers’ expectations and my own is what worried me about Stuy.”

one my test scores,” Maller said. “I feel uncomfortable discussing test scores compared to my peers regardless of what their thoughts are.”

Many at Stuyvesant share this sentiment, while for others, it’s a matter of who they trust with grade information. “I feel like within my friend group and the people I know, I actually share test

get much lower grades but I’m not jealous of theirs because they worked hard and I just use it as motivation for next time.”

While competition seems to define Stuyvesant, it hides the extent to which students actually collaborate and give each other helping hands. Throughout the halls, peers are commonly seen working together on assignments or helping each other study. There is constant collaboration on group work and many in-school tutoring opportunities help students connect and aid each other. “I’ve met people who are ultra-competitive, but […] I’ve never witnessed a situation where someone was refused help,” Bistrong said.

Many teachers often go out of their way to help their students beyond the classroom as well. Though some teachers may contribute to competition, most teachers offer AIS tutoring or are easily accessible by email to schedule office hours.

By CINDY HAN, DANIELLA SOLOMON, CATHLEEN XI, and SOPHIE ZHOU

You wake up in the morning and go downstairs to eat breakfast prepared by your parents. You are driven to school on a yellow school bus. After a long, perhaps fulfilling school day, you go home, eat dinner, finish your homework, and go to sleep.

This is often what we think of as the “normal” student routine. However, for many Stuyvesant students, this is not the case. Some students deal with particularly difficult conditions at home that are often masked by their facade as students at an elite high school.

Financial situations can be a major cause of unstable living conditions. Anonymous junior A shared, “I grew up in Harlem and had to move because my family was almost caught in a shooting on my block. Then we moved to the Upper East Side, which is a neighborhood that is too expensive for us, where we had to live with five people in one studio in order to be in the proper school

my teachers encourage competitiveness by sharing class averages and standard deviations. Many people I know, including myself, compare themselves to this average and sometimes it can make me feel inadequate,” Huang said.

Though teachers are not always directly comparing students, the average Stuyvesant student often does this themself. “Some teachers name students with the highest scores just to give other students a goal to aim at,” junior Ty Anant said. “For me, comparing myself to the class average is more competitive because that has to do with the whole class rather than just one individual.”

The presence, or absence, of parental pressure is also a big factor in the way students perceive the competitive culture. “Unlike a lot of other Stuy parents, my parents are really laid back about how I do in school and don’t care as long as I don’t put too much pressure on myself,” freshman Sophie Shih explained. “Coming to Stuy with that kind of mindset is definitely a benefit and I am less stressed about school than others.”

Perhaps due to the competition encouraged by teachers, many students don’t feel comfortable discussing their grades or assignments. “I usually never tell any-

scores and grades a lot less than I know other people do. […] I know it can be pretty unhealthy,” Anant said.

Junior Ella Yemini has felt how unhealthy comparison can be, but tries to shift these feelings and the competition at Stuyvesant to be productive. “I am a little jealous when someone does better than me, but I use this as a motivation to try to do better the next time instead of holding negative feelings,” Yemini said.

Others use this strategy as well. “My friends and I always compare test scores,” junior Arielle Nudelman said. “It does make me feel somewhat worse when I

The Places Behind the Faces: Students Living in Unique Situations

district.”

Despite moving to a new space, A still experiences difficulties from her living situation.

“Most recently we’ve moved to a one-bedroom apartment […] [where] we live four people to one room [my mother, my two sisters, and I]; my father sleeps outside of the room,” A said. In addition to the sheer number of people the small space has to fit, the apartment is also unable to fit many of A’s family’s belongings, leading them to find different ways to reduce space. “The room is too small to fit four beds, three desks, and a piano, so we bought these little fold-out beds. Unfortunately, they had metal in them and broke within a month of purchase, so for around a year we just slept on the floor with pillows,” she described.

Crowded living situations like these lead to difficult working environments. “After around 10 p.m., my whole family has to be conscious of the fact that some people are sleeping, so I can’t have the light on, so it will be pitch black and I will be trying to finish studying and homework,”

she said.

A often feels isolated from her peers because of her situation. “My friends will talk about throwing homecoming parties and having people over to their house and living really close to Stuy, or even complaining about their four to five-bedroom houses, and it makes me feel awkward sometimes because I know I could never have friends over to my house because it is so small and cluttered,” she said. Additionally, many of her peers are unaware of her struggles. “I think also people hear ‘Upper East Side’ and assume rich, but not a lot of them know that in order for my family to live here, we had to live with five people in a studio for several years, ” she expressed.

Similarly, anonymous junior B has described how her relationship with her parents has impacted her. “[My mother] can get pretty violent at times,” B said. She describes her mother as a “tiger parent,” which refers to a controversial style of parenting where the parent adopts an authoritarian method of parenting

in order to ensure that their child achieves a high level of success and accomplishment.

B’s parents’ attitude toward her has led to extra pressure and stress. “My parents expect me to play the role of the perfect older sister who is not only academically successful, but also very active in taking care of her younger brother and contributing to the household, which is too high of an expectation for me, especially when combined with the unreasonably pressuring style of her parenting,” she expressed.

Parents may sometimes even be unaware of their impact on their children’s mental health. B added, “Despite my mom acting like she isn’t a crazy tiger mom like many others, sometimes I feel like I’m doing more or trying to do more in terms of getting better grades and doing more extracurriculars just so she’d stop nagging.”

School resources are essential for students without an adequate home environment. Administrations often provide support with specialized staff such as guidance counselors, with whom students can talk about their issues, or

Out of the range of intellect in the 3000 students at Stuyvesant, students ultimately try to support each other. “There is your fair share of really smart kids, but there’s also your fair share of really dumb kids, so we all know that we passed some threshold of intelligence, and that’s all that really matters. We’re not here to work against each other,” Bistrong said. This is even clearer in Stuyvesant’s hundreds of clubs and teams, which encourage camaraderie and succeed because of students’ ability to work together.

Ultimately, the perception of a competitive environment stands true only if one facilitates that kind of environment. “Stuy is definitely a hard school, and it takes a lot to excel within the school, but [...] between the kids [I don’t] really see much animosity since everyone is in a similar situation,” Anant explained. Despite elements of jealousy, so long as one has some element of confidence, as well as the willingness to reach out for help and support from other students and teachers, the pressure isn’t unmanageable.

academic resources such as study spaces or free tutoring. However, students who are disadvantaged at home still struggle with the effects at school. Certain school policies can be limiting to these students. B notes her frustration about Stuyvesant’s guidelines regarding when the school library closes. “I just wish the school didn’t kick students out after 5 p.m. because many students, including myself, don’t have a safe and/or quiet environment to work in at home,” she stated.

A’s and B’s stories are not unique to them. The New York State Education Department reported that during the 2017 to 2018 school year, 46 percent of the Stuyvesant student body was considered economically disadvantaged. More students than we might assume deal with difficult conditions at home that could interfere with their academics and mental health. While relief systems are in place to help these students, Stuyvesant and other schools across NYC can do more to provide equal opportunities and support these students academically and emotionally.

Mirei Ueyama / The Spectator

Students working together on a National History Day project.

Specializing in a Specialized High School

year. This can end up discouraging students from pursuing subjects of interest at a much higher level, as a pipeline exists favoring students with prior experience.

Most Stuyvesant students have heard the advice to develop a “spike,” a specific area to specialize and excel in through both coursework and extracurriculars. Many believe that it’s no longer enough to simply be proficient in a broad range of fields. Mastery in one department supposedly garners the most attention from admissions officers. Even if students don’t focus their efforts and hopes on college admissions, the presence of such expectations makes it increasingly difficult to escape the pressure to specialize, discouraging many from exploring new and interdisciplinary fields.

Course selections play a huge role in the ability to specialize. AP and honors classes taken freshman year can end up determining the kind of courses taken in all the later years. To get certain AP classes, the grade cutoff for students differs depending on whether they have previously taken a related AP class. The same applies for honors math classes, where students previously in honors have a much higher chance of getting into a highdifficulty math class the next

At the same time, students within the AP and honors pipeline can get discouraged from exploration as the pressure to take classes that will impress colleges looms over their heads. They wouldn’t want to lose the status of being an honors or AP student—specializing makes one feel special. The demanding nature of these classes can also take a toll on students, but many have built a culture of enduring them for the sake of bulking up a college résumé. Oftentimes, students will take an AP class they’re uninterested in over a compelling elective due to the limited room in their schedules. There’s a reason why course programming stirs up so much frustration every year; the AP and honors pipeline contributes to students finding themselves cheated out of obtaining a course that they might desperately want.

Specialization is not only rooted in our culture as Stuyvesant students but also in our school system. Take Brooklyn Technical High School, for example, where juniors and seniors are bound to a major and limited to courses in said major. With little flexibility to change majors, many students are stuck with a path that may not suit their interests. It’s difficult to be set in one’s ways at 16—after all, many students have seen so little of the world. But when it’s expected of them, the forced commitment often leads to a disconnect between students and their true interests. Administrations

should commit to offering a diverse range of opportunities and courses to meet potential interests of students. In a matter like this, administrative interference only exacerbates the problem. Even specialized middle schools perpetuate this problem, with schools like Mark Twain Intermediate School for the Gifted and Talented expecting 11-yearold students to choose a “talent” to focus on over their three years.

As high school students, we should not be afraid to fall out of and back in love with certain subjects and interests. We should not be expected to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives yet. Even college students continue to explore various different fields and majors before eventually deciding on one in particular. In fact, tunnel vision toward specialization can be dangerous, considering that the jobs that exist today may be outdated by the time we get to the workforce. It may be better to explore various interests in high school than to lock ourselves into a singular path.

Specialization may seem like a necessary step for high school students in order to ensure a successful future in college and our careers. However, it’s important to note that during our teenage years, it’s very unlikely that we already know what we want to do in our future. Rather than worry about developing a specific skill that distinguishes us from other students, we should instead take the opportunity of course selections and electives that Stuyvesant offers to discover different fields and to try out new things. At this point in time, we’re still young, and our future isn’t set in stone.

The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Spectator “The Pulse of the Student Body”

EDITORS IN CHIEF Momoca Mairaj* Maya Nelson*

NEWS EDITORS

Rebecca Bao Isabella Jia* Janna Wang Sarah Diaz**

FEATURES EDITORS

Lauren Lee Dalia Levanon** Shivani Manimaran Christina Pan Suyeon Ryu** Olivia Woo**

OPINIONS EDITORS

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SCIENCE EDITORS

Hellen Luo** Sathirtha Mondal Sonya Sasson Jovanna Wu**

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORS Phoebe Buckwalter Nicole Liu Kenisha Mahajan* Levi Simon

* Managing Board

HUMOR EDITORS

Erica Chen Finn Charest** Oliver Hollmann

SPORTS EDITORS

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PHOTOGRAPHY

EDITORS

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ART DIRECTORS

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COPY EDITORS

Kevin Chan** Nada Hameed Eman Sadiq Ruiwen Tang Raymond Yang Allison Zhao**

BUSINESS MANAGERS Inara Rabbani Amber Shen

WEB EDITORS David Chen* Samantha Hua Theodore Yochum

FACULTY ADVISER Kerry Garfinkel

Disaggregate the Asian Data

By PHILIP VIRATA

While perusing The Spectator, I came across a chart detailing mask-wearing by ethnicity. The groups included in the chart were white, East Asian, South Asian, African American, and Hispanic. To my surprise, there was no bar for Southeast Asians. Additionally, the author wrote that East and South Asians make up approximately 72 percent of students at Stuyvesant. The statistics the author relies on describe Stuyvesant’s population as being 72 percent Asian, not East Asian and South Asian. Just Asian. It was clear to me that both the surveyor and the author had neglected the Southeast Asian student body.

Unfortunately, this generalization isn’t confined to that Spectator article. Among the plethora of articles discussing specialized high school admission and ethnicity, there are few to no articles mentioning Southeast Asian students. When I learned about this paucity, I felt invisible and started searching for anything that represented my background. I assume other Southeast Asian students often feel the same way.

Whenever conversations about Asian education arise, Southeast Asians fall through the cracks, mainly due to monolithic views of the Asian community. Despite differing cultures, physical appearances, and socioeconomic compositions, East Asians and Southeast Asians are typically perceived as

the same. One example of the perpetuation of such monoliths by the media is Raya and the Last Dragon, which Disney heavily advertised as their first movie showcasing a Southeast Asian princess. However, it ended up consisting of a primarily East Asian cast, with most of the Southeast Asian actors taking on minor roles. I felt robbed of actual Southeast Asian representation and concluded that Disney used a Southeast Asian princess to garner profits.

Seeing Southeast Asians and East Asians as the same makes it easier to perpetuate the model minority myth. Countless people paint the narrative that Asians are the most hardworking minority group, as they have poverty rates akin to other minority groups, yet they thrive in many aspects of their lives, especially education. These generalizations ignore the experiences of Southeast Asians. The Pew Research Center reports that while 24 percent of Asian Americans have obtained a graduate degree, Southeast Asian groups report much lower rates: 10 percent among Vietnamese Americans and Filipino Americans, six percent among Hmong Americans, and five percent among Cambodian Americans. Within the Asian American community, the three groups who have the highest poverty rates are Southeast Asian: 37.8 percent for Hmong Americans, 29.3 percent for Cambodian Americans, and 18.5 percent for Laotian Ameri-

cans.

These assertions arise from the lack of Asian “data disaggregation.” Many systems and studies see “Asian” as one group, despite the countless differences within the demographic. Large institutions like the National Institutes of Health don’t qualify Asians as underrepresented enough to receive educational and job-related benefits, even though Southeast Asians are genuinely underrepresented in STEM education. This grouping is also present within discussions surrounding affirmative action. Even though affirmative action exists to give opportunities to those who are systematically disadvantaged to create a diverse student body, schools still use these aggregated classification systems. When Southeast Asians mark that Asian box on their college applications, they are lumped together with all Asians in a way that ignores educational and economic disparities. Subsequently, when the data for graduation rates by race comes out for that year, surface-level observations make it seem as if all Asians are doing exceptionally well educationally and don’t need any help.

Even though the anti-affirmative action movement fights against this system, it also disregards Southeast Asians. The argument that grade-based admissions systems will give Asian people a more fair shot ignores the fact that Southeast Asians are disadvantaged within K-12 education. This data

is also aggregated, as out of 151 studies researching Asians in K-12 education, 97 percent have a monolithic predisposition in their methodology. Even alternatives, like affirmative action based on economic circumstances, do not solve these disparities, as some Southeast Asian groups are not economically disadvantaged and have much more complex barriers that still limit their educational success. No matter what side of the affirmative action debate one is on, Southeast Asians are left unrecognized.

I find myself lucky enough to surround myself with Southeast Asian friends who share very similar experiences regarding these harmful Asian monoliths. However, I felt isolated because of the fact that some of my friends at school hold these monolithic beliefs. One time, my friend jokingly told me that a particular person and I would get along because we were both “Russian and East Asian.” When I confronted them about the issue, they seemed genuinely confused, believing Southeast Asia was just a part of East Asia. Joining the Southeast Asian Alliance helped me cope with my feelings of isolation. Even though we’ve only had one meeting and five people in attendance, we connected over Southeast Asian snacks, drinks, music, and personal anecdotes. These communities are so important, as interacting with one’s culture in an educational setting helps with learning.

It is necessary to address these

monoliths. If researchers are conducting a report surrounding an Asian community, they should be as intentional as possible in attempting to disaggregate the data. The federal government could also step in by ensuring that schools with a significant amount of Asian students report disaggregated data in terms of academic achievement. To solve the issues surrounding education disparities in K-12 schools, people can advocate for more Southeast Asian staff, primarily focusing on hiring those who can teach English to the Southeast Asian groups with the lowest rates of English literacy. Schools should also start recognizing educational disparities and acting on them by preemptively contacting Southeast Asian students’ parents to help deal with the barriers that they will face.

State and local governments should also help by investing in organizations that distribute educational resources to communities that are economically disadvantaged or have poor school systems. When it comes to colleges, inserting an addendum in the race section of the college application to disaggregate the Asian community will force colleges to collect representative data and allow them to adequately accommodate the Southeast Asian community within the system of affirmative action. By taking these steps, Southeast Asians can move forward with newfound empowerment and proper recognition of their identities.

The Damaging Effects of Misrepresentation of Adoption in the Media

By JULIET BURGUIERES

From Superman to Annie, adoption is a part of the media we love. For many writers, adoption adds a level of complexity to their stories that appeals to audiences while still keeping a familyfriendly tone. However, despite the large selection of stories involving adoption, only a few positively portray adoptees and their families.

Movies and TV shows like Stuart Little, The Owl House, Elf, and even the IMDb description of I Am the Night (about “a teenage girl looking for her real father”) use the term “real” to describe biological families. When characters interchangeably use “real” and “biological,” it suggests that the inverse is also true—that “fake” and “adoptive” are the same. While this seems harmless, it proves that screenwriters are happy to exploit adoption stories. Even a minimal amount of research would find that the adoption community prefers the term “biological family” over “real family.”

Other shows, like Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego and Green Eggs and Ham, romanticize the issue of abandonment. In these shows, birth parents were forced to relinquish their children because they were involved in flashy crime organizations or were high-profile spies, respectively. These are irresponsible plotlines that may prompt adopted children to fantasize about another family out there that leads a glamorous life and is willing and able to care for them. Sadly, this is almost never the case. It sends the message that an adoptive family is like a placeholder for the “real” one that an adopted child should search for.

In a more sinister manner, Orphan and its sequel Orphan: First Kill are horror movies about families who adopt a child only to learn that this “child” is a homicidal grown woman. These films encourage parents to seemingly shield their biological children

Not only does the show promote the idea that adopted children are commodities, but the series also goes on to explore a romantic relationship between two of the adoptive siblings, which has rightfully elicited backlash. However, some viewers jus-

If you’re getting tired of this list, imagine how tired adopted families feel. My family adopted my sister almost eight years ago. Unfortunately, representations of adoptive families in mainstream media are often inaccurate. We try to protect my sister from watching media that misrepresents adoption, but it is hard. We are tired of digging through articles and spoiling plot lines to avoid showing my baby sister a degrading movie or show, which is all too common in much of the media currently produced for children.

just as much respect as biological families. The solution is all too simple: research. If writers simply learn the correct terminology to use and consider the message their stories of adoption promote, our media would be kinder and, in turn, children would stop growing up believing that adoption is “sad” or that adopted families aren’t “real.”

against the foreign threat, demonizing adopted children in favor of biological children. They suggest that adoption is dangerous and reinforce the idea that an adopted child is an outsider who does not belong.

Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy is another example that exemplifies the misunderstanding of the familial bonds adoption creates. The show depicts seven children whom an eccentric billionaire “bought” because of their extraordinary superhuman abilities.

tify these misrepresentations as attempts to create interesting media. As one article put it, The Umbrella Academy should be allowed to misrepresent adoption because “the point” is to “creat[e] compelling art.” This author believes that since the incestuous relationship “presents a challenging dilemma for the characters,” it is okay to make people uncomfortable. This show and many others like it, decides to delegitimize the bonds formed in adoption in favor of a more dramatic plotline.

Technoblade Never Dies

By ASTRID HARRINGTON

October 28, 2013, was an ordinary day for most people in the world. However, on that day, a 14-year-old from California posted his first video on YouTube, taking the name Technoblade. His video was the beginning of a journey that would touch millions of people. From the beginning, Techno’s channel focused on Minecraft player-versus-player combat, and he stood out from other creators by putting a bit of his own personality into every video. His technical skill and humor were a perfect combination, and his channel began to grow. As he became a bigger YouTuber, he became more and more of an icon, coining the motto “Technoblade never dies.”

I first discovered Technoblade during the pandemic, when life felt monotonous and dull. To cope, I turned to Minecraft. I’ve been playing since I was eight years old, and the game hooked me from the start. There’s something enchanting about wandering its rugged terrain, alone in a vast wilderness, and creating something from nothing. I began to watch YouTube videos of other people playing with their friends, laughing and joking around. Technoblade was one of those people, and he never failed to put a smile on my face. His videos showed me that Minecraft is a space made for building relationships and having fun.

Then, last summer, as I was on my way home from camp, I started talking to my parents for the first time in two weeks. My father told me that Technoblade had died of cancer.

I felt like the sky was falling. Even though millions of people had seen Techno’s videos, I felt like I knew him personally. I knew that he listened to Hamilton to study for his AP, that he always believed he would reach 10 million subscribers, and that his dog, Floof, tried to escape from him. I knew he hated

French, loved ender pearls, and had a habit of using “anyhow” as an all-purpose transition word. It didn’t seem fair that someone so undeniably human should die in such a random, cruel way. I thought back to his trademark phrase, “Technoblade never dies.”

Techno’s death sent ripples throughout the entire Minecraft community. Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, paid tribute to Techno by temporarily adding a crown to the pig on Minecraft’s launching screen, a reference to Techno’s Minecraft skin. Hypixel, one of Minecraft’s biggest multiplayer servers, created a memorial for him. His friends shared their memories with him, and countless people mourned him on their own. Somehow, despite the fact that he spent his life making videos about a block game, he had a massive impact on the world.

For a long time, I assumed that I needed to pursue a “serious” career in order for my life to have meaning. Stuyvesant culture amplified this feeling, and I often made the mistake of overlooking people who didn’t follow this path. However, Technoblade’s death made me realize that you don’t need to be a STEM genius or a powerful politician to make a difference in the world. You can change lives by just being yourself. Techno always followed his dreams, no matter how absurd they seemed. He chose an unconventional direction for his life, and over the course of his years as a YouTuber, he turned many bad days into good ones. He inspired people to do what they wanted. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research.

Especially at Stuyvesant, there’s too much pressure to be a certain kind of person. In reality, there are lots of options in the world, and different paths are right for different people. If you have a dream, go for it. Start a YouTube channel, write a novel, or compose your own music. You might just change someone’s life for the better.

Soler / The Spectator

Importantly, negative messages about adoption aren’t confined to the screen. For many of the harmful depictions of adoption in the media, my family has personal experiences that reflect the messages they promote. My sister was once on a Zoom playdate with a girl from her school when, out of nowhere, the girl began interrogating her about where her “real family” was. My mother calmly informed the little girl that we were my sister’s “real” family, but when she informed the child’s parents of the incident, they saw no issue with their child’s insensitive question. As a society, we have become accustomed to exploiting adoption with no regard to the pain it may cause.

A friend of mine once declared with confidence that my family had “bought a baby.” Too shocked to explain why this was false, I simply responded that she was wrong. The incident was perhaps more disturbing than if she had said it out of malice. It proves the power of the media to distort how well-meaning people talk about adoption.

My family is tired of justifying our legitimacy—we deserve

Websites like RainbowKids go to great lengths to explore the complexities of responding to questions about adoption. One great response to being asked if two siblings are “real” siblings is to say “They are NOW! (This clarifies that adoption makes us a real family.)” Articles from Adoption can give you other perspectives and opinions on adoption. HealthyChildren explains other facets of adoption and foster care that my article didn’t have the space to discuss. AdoptHelp has a comprehensive list of some terms to avoid when talking about adoption. By teaching oneself, anyone can help to create kindness and understanding. Simply using the right terminology can be the difference between alienating someone and accepting them. And for those already part of the adoption community, consider reading the articles for reaffirmation— there are people out there who recognize and accept you and your family.

Everyone has a role to play in creating a society that is more accepting of different families. I talked solely about adoption, and only from my perspective as the sister of an adoptee, but there are so many other stories to tell about non-traditional families. We must be thoughtful in our portrayals of different families and give them the basic respect they are due.

The Gateway Drug to Misogyny

By TIM GORETSKY

With the abundance of information and algorithmically procured content available on the internet, it should come as no surprise that echo chambers of content form to cater to certain people’s biases. If someone is unsatisfied with some aspect of their life, they might be more inclined to continue watching content that discusses or provides solutions to these problems. This is the case with self-help, a topic that has exploded on social media lately. With the recent social isolation and increased social media use due to the pandemic, more individuals—particularly teenage boys—are turning to the internet for advice on how to deal with their problems. While algorithmically curated content can suggest and promote positive things, such as an active lifestyle or (ironically) spending less time on devices, the content creators that discuss these topics can often also spread views under the pretense of “self-help” that can actually negatively impact their audiences.

For example, one of the most popular commentators online, Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist from the University of Toronto, partly gained popularity and admiration for his advocation of living by core principles of self-improvement and reflection. However, he has also become one of the most vocal opponents of modern third-wave feminism, particularly its intersection with LGBTQ+ rights. For many, his self-help philosophy serves as an introduction to his more problematic viewpoints. During middle school, I respected his self-help ideas, including taking care of your body and surrounding yourself with positive friendships. They were genuinely beneficial to me, but this favorable opinion to some of his beliefs made me more susceptible to the other problematic opinions he espoused, such as “slut shaming” and anti-trans rhetoric. I found it difficult to break out of these troublesome beliefs as a consequence of my admiration for the other views that Jordan Peterson had expressed. My experience was comparable to that of realizing that your family, people whom you cherish, are more complicated

and problematic than you previously thought. My story is quite similar to that of many teenage boys who sought a prophetic figure to solve all their problems. It’s difficult for all of us, especially at young ages, to compartmentalize the opinions of individuals, making many vulnerable to the exploits of ideological actors.

This effect can be further seen with the meteoric rise of figures like Andrew Tate. While he is more outspokenly misogynistic than others like him, he also sprinkles in self-help for young men within his rhetoric, interweaving anti-feminism with otherwise generally beneficial ideas. Figures like Tate characterize their entire philosophy as part of a suppressed counterculture, which can make them martyrs to their fans. For instance, when Tate claimed that his beneficial views of promoting exercise or working hard are being discouraged by society, people rallied behind him. This gives controversial figures more respect and thus makes their other less agreeable ideas more attractive to susceptible audiences, particularly the younger generation.

Counterculture appeal of the “red pill” (enlightenment from an oppressive reality) community carves out an easy-to-enter nook for misogynist personalists to shine in. There is something exciting about finding a community that goes against the trends of the day, and in general, a common entry point to this counterculture community is dangerously unassuming. While self-help is associated with alternative media, desperate men will subscribe to sexist commentators and in turn, increase the spread of these ideologies. Instead of addressing these problematic viewpoints with censorship, which only adds fuel to the fire of their cause, we should instead address the reasons why people fall into these echo chambers of sexism and shift the positive gateways of self-help into mainstream culture. The promotion of self-help should not be left to rogue figures with other ideologies to push, but instead should be normalized into common discussions to prevent others from taking advantage of the untapped potential. Without this, the rise of anti-feminism among youth becomes a symptom of general discontent, and that is far too dangerous to continue with.

Natalie

By RIYA SUNDARAM

What is a traumatic event?

This is a delicate topic with heavy implications. But modern media has come up with an answer: it’s the most tragic experience a writer can come up with that leaves characters emotionally scarred and motivates their every move.

No, wait. That’s not quite right.

All right, it motivates a character until the writers decide the event is no longer plot-relevant and discard it. Perfect.

Entertainment often struggles to depict trauma in a realistic way. Despite this incompetence, traumatic backstories are everywhere in the media and are viewed as the gateway to interesting characters. This attempt to gain audiences’ sympathies fails easily if not handled right, dehumanizing the characters and alienating the audience through the portrayal of these traumas. The overly common and often insignificant use of the traumatic backstory shows that writers don’t take trauma seriously enough, mirroring societal misconceptions of trauma, which in turn influence the audience.

The overuse of traumatic backstories in entertainment perpetuates a lack of understanding of mental health, creating a cycle in which media both contributes to and is influenced by societal views of these topics. This misconception claims that trauma is common and easily cured with a warm hug or some powerful words. That portrayal is an easy storyline to tell because it is short, wraps up neatly, and evokes emotion from viewers. Trauma is deemed not only forgettable and easy to overcome, but also secretly romantic. The idea that emotional damage can be “cured” by a special person further perpetuates this warped, romantic vision

What’s Your Traumatic Backstory?

of trauma. The use of a quick cure for trauma establishes a distance between the audience and the characters because they do not see the characters grow from their pain. If viewers can see the cast of a show or comic as more than characters, it allows them to form deeper connections with

measure characters based on trauma. If the purpose of a backstory is based on how sad you can make a character and not how your character can grow, then instead of humanizing the characters, this backstory dehumanizes them. It reduces their origin to a cheap device used to toy with the viewers’

show doesn’t frame this situation as tragic or a symptom of his trauma, but as a comedic gag. In the end, the mentor is forgiven without even an apology. Only a handful of kind words, complete with a gesture one might call basic decency, are provided.

Webcomics also contribute to the misrepresentation of trauma. In Wicked No More, the main character comes across an orphaned young girl who lives with her greedy aunt and uncle. They spend her inheritance money while physically abusing and neglecting her. The solution to “heal” the heartbreak this child has endured is a hug, initiated without any question for consent and with the assumption that the girl will like it. And since this show is a comic, she does.

orders the assassination of his child (Just Leave Me Be), a sibling who frames the main character for a crime (Into The Light, Once Again), and a manipulative person who leads the character to death, not once, but twice (The Villainess is a Marionette). The main problem with this trend is that the heroine’s traumatic backstory is often irrelevant to who she is now. Trauma can affect people for years, even if they don’t realize it. Webcomics in this genre fail to understand that as traumatic backstories are quickly abandoned after the first arc, their watchers will question their authorial decisions. In this way, webcomics value profit gained by exploiting a trend based on trauma over creativity or character development.

the characters and themes. This growth, however, can only happen if shows start portraying trauma from a different angle.

Shonen anime is action-based and has a long history of introducing many characters with tragic backstories. It is a common occurrence for shows to introduce more depressing characters the longer the series goes on to keep their fans interested. For example, Naruto, a very popular show in this genre, has numerous main characters with tragic backstories ranging from child abandonment to siblings forced to fight each other and failure to save loved ones. Many of the villains have traumatic backstories as well, and characters without them are seldom important to the plot. Tropes built on trauma are problematic because they encourage viewers to

emotions, which leaves audience members desensitized to tragedy over time.

Shonen anime also pushes the misconception that years-long trauma can be healed in one act of kindness. Onee main character, Naruto, was orphaned as a baby and shunned by the villagers he grew up with. However, after befriending a parental figure in this village for a short period of time, Naruto seems to quickly get over his childhood of neglect and any resentment for the villagers. This trope is repeated in another more recent Shonen anime, Bungo Stray Dogs. In this anime, one of the main, more villainous characters struggles with how his former mentor physically and verbally abused him, and the character constantly vies for his mentor’s approval. However, the

These stories all reinforce the belief that an emotional wound can be healed by a little bit of kindness. This idea does not hold true, as it takes years to deal with the effects trauma can have on a person. It is important for people to understand that both people who have experienced trauma and those around them want to help. It’s not your fault if you’re trying to help someone who’s struggling and they still struggle afterwards, and it’s not your fault if someone’s trying to help you but you can’t get over what you’re struggling with. Healing takes patience.

In webcomics, there is an entire genre that starts with the traumatic backstory. Yet the genre fails to take the trope seriously because it only sees the traumatic backstory as a trend to follow. Webcomics often follow this formulaic plot: the tragic heroine dies unexpectedly but is reincarnated in a different world with varying amounts of danger or romance awaiting her. Some examples of this backstory are a father who

The Facade of Moral Consumerism

By PHILIP VIRATA

People tend to separate the art from the artist. When you find your new favorite song, you’re probably not inclined to investigate whether or not the artist has done something controversial. Even outside of the music industry, separating the product from the morality of the creator is common. For example, approximately 85 percent of the world’s palm oil, a product used in most soap, cosmetic, and baked goods, is made using child and forced labor. About fifty percent of the world’s cobalt, which is used to make batteries for Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony, comes from mines that heavily rely on child labor. Despite these unethical sources, so many people buy from these companies without any hesitation.

Nonchalant consumerist attitudes are common within our society, yet the question of separating the art from the artist is still brought up sporadically. The controversy surrounding Kanye West is a prime example of irregularities in the frequency of discussion surrounding moral consumerism. Many are aware of the widespread scrutiny West has faced for his antiSemitic rhetoric. Responses to his comments were justifiably severe: his ties with many major companies were ended, and the percentage of Americans with a negative opinion of him has increased by 12 percent in just one month. West’s Reddit page, previously used to praise his musical feats, is

now filled with posts condemning anti-Semitism. However, this period isn’t the first time West has faced controversy. In the past, he implied that slavery was a choice, sold merchandise with the Confederate flag on it, and called racism a “stupid” and “dated concept.”

When these things happened, reactions were starkly different: none of his brands dropped him, his Reddit page didn’t turn into a place to talk about anti-blackness, and he did not face as much widespread backlash.

The reason why more people are discussing the morality of listening to West now is not a sudden change in accountability. The true reason for this increase in discussion around the morality of listening to West is how viral his anti-Semitic statements went. The change in virality from then to now can be attributed to the increasing popularity of social media and the many statements he made in a short time. Pressure from public figures on Adidas to drop West grew considerably after the “Honk if you know Kanye is right about the Jews” tweet gained popularity.

Balenciaga is another example of how virality changes society’s degree of reflection on its own consumerism, as they have recently been facing controversy for their new advertisements containing children holding teddy bears that are accessorized with BDSM bondage gear. These advertisements gained so much attention due to a TikTok video about them that received 3.2 million views.

This controversy has generated extreme public outrage, with people sending death threats to and publishing personal information about the photographer of the shoot, accusing Balenciaga of being a “cabal of pedophiles,” and burning Balenciaga clothes for social media attention. There hasn’t been nearly as much outcry against actual child abuse in labor, which people benefit from every day. It’s painfully clear that these people didn’t take action out of consideration for consumeristic morality. They did it in response to the social traction an issue had gained.

No matter how sincere the intentions of these actions may be, the question still remains: is it wrong to profit from products made by problematic entities? One would need to assess if buying or using these products allows for the spread of problems that the creator is guilty of. With artists, money is the most critical tool to prevent this spread, but boycotting their music doesn’t have a substantial effect on their wealth. Prominent artists get only 13 to 20 percent of their label’s streaming royalties, and since labels only get paid out about $3,300 to $3,500 per million streams by major streaming companies, listening to a certain artist contributes a minuscule amount to their wealth. However, when Adidas dropped West, he lost $1.5 billion. On top of this loss, Twitter has suspended West, taking away the platform he used to spread his anti-Semitic comments.

For Balenciaga, the situation is

a little bit different, as they are actually benefiting from the controversy social media has produced. It was not a coincidence that there was public outrage surrounding the same issue in three photoshoots published very close to one another. It was deliberate. Balenciaga is most likely taking advantage of the “shockvertising” tactic that has previously been successfully utilized by themselves and other fashion brands to gain profit when large discussions surrounding their products arise. By trying to garner support for boycotting Balenciaga, people are actually feeding into their tactic and helping them make money. However, while Balienciaga is benefitting from the general public, they are still being influenced by large celebrities. Kim Kardashian’s tweets about her relationship with Balenciaga in light of this dissension seemed to force them to post another apology. In the grand scheme of things, big corporations and celebrities hold all the power in keeping each other accountable, while the general public’s attempts to boycott a certain entity’s products have either undesired effects or no outcome at all.

It is essential to note that recognizing someone’s issues and being a benefactor of their products are not mutually exclusive. For all we know, the public figures and celebrities who pressured Adidas to drop West could be listening to his entire discography weekly. That action doesn’t negate the fact that they made an immense contribution to the repercussions

While audiences aren’t purposefully supporting this exploitation of trauma, their continued viewership contributes to it. Trauma is a big deal. The desensitization of trauma has made this significance seem less true, which is part of why it is so important that the representation of trauma in media starts to change. However, for screenwriters and authors to humanely portray pain, they have to accept that trauma will be a long-term struggle for the character, not just a quick story arc that’s resolved in a couple episodes’ time. Authors must invest time and research into understanding how real people deal with trauma, which will help them treat trauma seriously.

What is a traumatic event? It’s an intense experience that causes a person extreme emotional damage that takes more than any single moment to overcome. Trauma impacts the victims in various ways and can take years to conquer. Trauma is not measurable or curable by one act of kindness. Trauma shouldn’t be a trend.

West faced for his actions. Every single person reading this article has probably benefited from a company that uses child or forced labor. Does this fact mean that every single person who reads this article thinks child and forced labor is good? Obviously not. You don’t have to deprive yourself of consumerism to criticize its numerous problems.

If someone buys products from a problematic company or listens to a problematic artist, it does not mean that the person is condoning their actions. Nevertheless, society seems to pressure many into thinking that this equivalence is true, and out of fear of being canceled, people seem to abide by this idea. The cycle continues, as the people who were societally forced into this ideology pressure other people to think this way as well. This process is then called “activism.”

Moral consumerism is not activism. It is a facade used to fuel cancel culture and promote fearmongering. It is shifting our focus away from the actual issues that are being perpetrated and placing a hypocritical and unfair burden on the people. The next time you want to tell someone, “Hey! Don’t listen to that artist!” or “Hey! Don’t buy from this company,” ask yourself: are my statements influenced by my own moral compass, or are they influenced by popularity and societal pressures? Once we are willing to make these distinctions in rationale, the facade of moral consumerism will fade away.

Chuer Zhong / The Spectator

By HELEN MANCINI

While walking up to the Terry’s cash register, bagel or roll in hand, you may have noticed the paper sign taped to the counter reporting the store’s small tax on credit card purchases. That tax may seem to be an unfair nuisance or a disheartening reality check on just how much you spend on lunch each day, but it’s actually an attempted remedy to one of the underlying components of America’s unjust payment system.

America loves credit cards. Every Super Bowl, Samuel L. Jackson asks us, “What’s In Your Wallet?” and goes on about the endless reward points and cash back of Capital One. All credit card users have to do to get these rewards is use their cards and pay back their loans to the credit card company on time. In America’s consumerist culture, the idea of spending to be able to spend more sounds too good to turn down. Credit cards further help users by providing money to spend in advance of receiving a paycheck. As long as users pay their credit card bills on time, they can raise their credit scores, which makes it easier to qualify for bank

What’s In Your Wallet?

loans in the future. On the surface, the system seems to benefit responsible spenders, but in reality, it benefits the rich.

When you swipe a credit card to pay for an item, the merchant automatically has to pay a processing fee to the credit card company. Many think that credit card companies get their money from charging interest on debt, but processing fees are also a major source of the money that comes back as rewards for users. To compensate for the merchant fee, many businesses raise the prices of all goods, which ends up hurting low-income customers who tend to use cash or prepaid cards. Credit card users remain unharmed because the high prices are offset by the rewards they receive from credit card companies. Over time, these user rewards add up. The richer you are, the more money you can spend and the higher your rewards become.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently reported that half of low-income households do not have access to credit cards, generally because companies deny poorer individuals good rates. Undocumented individuals who do not have

access to banking also cannot qualify for credit cards, which cuts them off from many necessary benefits. Credit card us-

wealth gap. Despite the inequality credit card companies create, it is still expected that you get a credit

Credit card debt levels relative to income are highest among low-income families.

ers rack up high credit scores by successfully paying their fees on time, which helps them qualify for loans that poorer individuals with low credit scores arguably need more. This cycle leaves low-income people paying the high prices of credit cards with no rewards while still being unable to qualify for loans. These economic conditions only exacerbate the existing structural inequities in the United States and contribute to the growing

card once you begin your adult life. This norm is indicative of the nature of America’s cutthroat economic system. Richer individuals are able to profit off of their existing money, while poorer individuals must overcome many barriers to even have access to basic economic tools like credit cards. Even if they do qualify, the lack of financial literacy in low-income communities can cause irresponsible credit card usage.

The Demonization of GMOs

By KIKYO MAKINOSILLER

When buying groceries, it is common to see certain brands of food products proudly bearing a “certified organic” sticker. As defined by the Department for Agriculture and Rural Affairs, organic products avoid using artificial fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives during production. In contrast, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are synthetically created through gene modification, an inorganic product of agriculture. In recent years, GMOs have become synonymous with bad food practices and harmful health effects. Fifty-one percent of American adults believe that genetically modified (GM) foods are worse for human health than organic foods. With the rising popularity of health fads and “clean” diets, GMOs have been scrutinized to no end.

Urban health myths cloud consumers as they browse shopping aisles and contribute to stigma toward GM produce. Some consumers even claim to have experienced allergic reactions due to genetic modifications in their food. A woman named Grace Booth experienced anaphylactic shock from corn tacos in 2000. Unable to identify an allergen, she blamed Cry9C, a pest-repelling protein used to genetically modify animal feed. Thus began the debate on the health risks of GM foods. Though the cause of Booth’s reaction is still unknown, the Food and Drug Administration concluded that there was no direct link be-

tween Cry9C and allergic reactions. One study concluded that the technology used for producing GM crops does not increase the risk of exposure to allergens. To further alleviate consumer worry, research also suggests that the treatment of

immune or resistant. However, considering that GM crops can be modified to be disease resistant, it seems that there is no considerable reduction in species diversity or increase in disease. Therefore, it is important to step back from these pre-

gests that increased agricultural productivity correlates with considerable reductions in poverty throughout the world. This relationship is because food prices decrease for consumers when farmers profit from greater yield. Organic food farming in general uses about 40 percent more land than conventional farming.

While America’s current credit system is causing harm, credit cards cannot just go away. People working at credit card companies, long-term customers who do not want to change their routines, and people who need high credit scores for a mortgage are just some of the many groups who would surely reject this abolishment. Despite a general nationwide awareness of the vastness of income inequality in the US, individual action seems impossible. But it is important to keep in mind that systemic issues like credit exist because we create and uphold them, meaning we can also change them. This action looks like boycotting cashless stores and encouraging stores (like Ferry’s) to factor in credit card fees at the register rather than marking up all their prices. We can also advocate for financial literacy courses in public schools so that people of all socioeconomic backgrounds can learn how to build credit. Down the line, our generation may even be able to envision a new system of credit that is more accessible to all.

animals does not differ noticeably between those on organic versus GM farms.

In addition, there is little evidence to support that GM crops reduce the diversity of non-modified species. There is a relatively well-known theory that GM crops are all the same species, thus making them more susceptible to disease because they are produced from the same genes. Supposedly, once disease hits, they will all die because none of the crops contain specific genes that make them

conceived notions to identify the unique advantages of GM agriculture.

First, GM crops increase yield, meaning that more food is produced per acre of farmland. Agricultural yield is incredibly important. As we continue to discover the devastating effects of clearing out natural landscapes for farmland and the consequences of an ever-decreasing amount of arable land, we must prioritize using our land to the best of our ability. In addition, evidence sug-

These statistics further increase when looking at specific products. To produce the same gallon of milk organically, you need 59 percent more land than if the milk had been produced conventionally. Meat requires 82 percent more land. For crops, it’s more than 200 percent. Forgoing fertilizers and pesticides means that food production becomes much less efficient, requiring organic farmers to use more land to produce the same amount of food. However, genetic modifications mean that we can also forgo these chemicals without dire consequences. For example, pest-resistant crops can be created using genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a toxic protein when ingested by certain insects. Studies show that there is an overall decrease in pesticide and herbicide use when farmers adopt GM seeds. This reduction means that consumers worried about unhealthy chemicals in their food don’t have to limit themselves solely to organic options.

These comparatively low prices make GM foods more accessible than their organic counterparts. Overall, organic foods are 47 percent more expensive than their non-organic counterparts. Prices range from

seven percent above the nonorganic price for spinach to 82 percent for eggs. Roughly three billion people across the globe do not have access to affordable organics and must rely on genetically modified alternatives. This situation is especially important in the context of current global economies. Many people and economies are recovering from the pandemic, putting a strain on budgets. The price of groceries has drastically increased in the past few years, making food less and less accessible. Many families struggle to buy healthy foods like fruits and vegetables because they are already more expensive than their less nutritious counterparts. Seeing that a product is GM should not deter consumers from purchasing nutritious foods, and those grocery shopping should not feel guilty when they are unable to afford the organic option. There is no nutritional difference between the two options. Lower food prices ensure lower rates of hunger.

Food accessibility is a key factor in improving the standards of living for people everywhere. With a growing global population and an everincreasing demand for food, it is estimated that farmers will soon need to produce up to 70 percent more food to meet demand. In 2021 alone, 193 million global citizens lived in food-insecure households. It is important to note that this crisis is due in part to large amounts of food waste and inefficient dispersal of resources. In farming areas with limited land or large communities to feed, there is no doubt that GM foods provide immense benefits.

Joey Chen / The Spectator

Ashley La / The Spectator

DART, The Real Life Space Defender

NASA has taken steps to improve Earth’s protection against an asteroid strike.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is the first mission that tests the effects of kinetic impact on asteroid displacement. It marks the monumental steps taken to reach a reliable form of planetary defense. Launched on November 24, 2021, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it made an impact with the target asteroid Dimorphus on September 26, 2022. It was launched with the intent to garner new research and form plans for the future. DART’s journey through the cosmos held high hopes for what it meant for the future of humanity.

complete the test was to measure DART’s effect on Dimorphus’s orbit and its significance. DART appeared to have not only managed to push Dimorphus out of its original orbit but also take off parts of the asteroid itself. It left behind a trail of rocky debris that spanned over 6,000 miles. Even so, the question still remains: What do these results show, and was DART really such a big deal?

SCIENCEBEAT

NASA has canceled its GeoCarb Mission, which was initially intended to launch a satellite into the geostationary orbit and monitor greenhouse gases, as a result of technical concerns, cost performance, and the availability of new data resources.

By GARY JIANG

A city-sized asteroid is currently en route to slam into Earth within the next couple of weeks. There’s no stopping the asteroid. Earth is doomed! Yet, this theoretical scenario is not as hopeless as it seems because we may actually be able to stop the asteroid.

Space, as vast and empty as it is, brims with dangers that can threaten our existence on Earth.

Asteroids and meteorites are some of the more relatively common threats, with approximately hundreds to thousands of meteorites falling onto Earth every year. Most of these are harmless,

as the majority of them burn up in Earth’s atmosphere before reaching our planet. However, extinction asteroids are a different story. Larger asteroids, such as those the size of a house, hold the same power as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Asteroids larger than a mile will cause damage equivalent to millions of megatons of TNT. To put into perspective how much destruction that can cause, many scientists accredit the extinction of the dinosaurs to a nine-milewide asteroid slamming into Earth. Though its occurrence is extremely rare, with only one hitting Earth every 1,000 centuries,

NASA’s mission consisted of the DART spacecraft crashing into a binary asteroid system, which is a group of two asteroids, typically consisting of one smaller asteroid that orbits around the other. The asteroid system that NASA had selected for the DART mission was Didymos, formed by the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphus. They are actually relatively small asteroids, with Didymos and Dimorphus measuring 780 meters and 160 meters long, respectively. DART successfully came in contact with the latter of the two. NASA had chosen this asteroid system for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Dimorphus’s orbit around Didymos proves to be very helpful; with one full cycle taking 11 hours and 55 minutes, it gives NASA a good way to measure the effectiveness of DART. Furthermore, these asteroids don’t threaten our planet while being easily observable, making them great for experimentation. With anticipation levels running high, NASA’s crew anxiously awaited DART's final moments as it crashed against Dimorphus’s cold, rocky surface.

After slamming into Dimorphus with a velocity of 22,000 km/h, all that was needed to

To start off, DART gave scientists new information about collisions that occur in space. Prior to DART, the only resource available to predict how impacts from foreign objects would alter a celestial object was simulations. These simulations had restrictions, and couldn’t simulate asteroid collisions of great scale. The only way to know for sure is by performing these collisions, something that DART was able to accomplish.

By giving more data on how asteroid material, density, and other properties can affect the aftermath of collisions, DART also allowed NASA to improve on what they had previously known about asteroids and apply it for future testing. Plus, DART’s ability to cause a change in Dimorphus’s orbit already proves asteroid deflection to be quite possible. As for how impressive this was, NASA initially predicted a change in the orbit of 73 seconds, an expectation that was smashed by the whopping 32 minutes that actually occurred. This is pretty shocking as the DART spacecraft is relatively insignificant compared to Dimorphus, which has a mass of five billion kilograms compared to DART’s approximate mass of 570 kilograms.

Now, NASA plans to make improvements toward Earth’s first planetary defense with the data provided by DART’s discoveries. Regardless, it is important to note that DART is only the first mission of its kind. There are no final standings about continuing

On December 5, researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, successfully conducted an experiment with controlled nuclear fusion that, for the first time, produced more energy than it consumed.

A team of researchers from the University of Maryland created a chemical compound called Pillar[6] MaxQ that can reverse the effects of drug overdoses

with asteroid deflection or using another strategy, such as satellites and gravity, to push or pull asteroids. Currently, the next steps are to continue to do more research and collaborate with outside space agencies, such as the European Space Agency.

We only have one home, Earth, and now we can all sleep easier knowing that NASA is working hard to defend it. The DART mission has set the foundation for planetary defense, already proving itself to be particularly useful. With promising results bringing an even brighter future, DART will go down in history as the pioneer of space defense. The possibilities of the future are now at the reach of our fingertips. NASA’s continuous research into this field may provide us with an answer sooner than we think.

IRT-TMR: The Treatment For Your Sleep’s Haunting Beast

By ERICA WONG

You have probably had a nightmare before. Whether as a child or a teen, drifting pleasantly to sleep only to wake up panicked is familiar to many. However, while the majority of the population rarely have disturbing dreams, nearly three to eight percent of the population has nightmares at least once a week. This small percentage suffers from what is called nightmare disorder, which comprises a pattern of continuous, frightening, and vivid dreams.

Nightmares are triggered by everyday stressors like sleep deprivation or past trauma. Almost all individuals who struggle with this disorder have repeated occurrences of nightmares to the point that it routinely disrupts sleep, causes anxiety about sleep, and can even bleed into their daytime behavior. Unlike many people’s nightmares, these individuals’ nightmares may be extreme enough to dictate their life, overtaking their thoughts and worsening underlying mental disorders like depression.

Though people with mental illnesses are more prone to suffer from nightmare disorders, they can affect all types of people. While those affected can use medications like Prazosin or Triazolam to treat nightmare disorders, these medications can have unintended side effects. Instead, individuals generally

treat nightmare disorder through imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT).

the nightmare. At home, they rehearse this ending for 20 minutes

mares, and allows a person to take control of their dream, giving an individual power or agency against their unknown fears. IRT is the safest and most effective option to fight nightmare disorder, as there are no adamant side effects.

Yet, for nearly one-third of all participants, IRT is ineffective in preventing these terrifying nightmares. To boost IRT’s strength, neuro-researcher Sophie Schwarts and the University of Geneva proposed a technique called targeted memory reactivation (TMR). Using IRT-TMR therapy, a patient would perform the same steps as they would in an IRT therapy session, but as they focus on altering their nightmares, a short piano chord is played in the background. Then, as the patient sleeps, this sound is played again during REM, the dreaming stage of sleep. The rationale behind this technique is that hearing this specific cue during both IRT therapy and REM sleep will activate the brain's memory storage, thus strengthening the associated memory of the altered nightmare into a positive dream.

minutes. As participants slept, they wore a headband with sensors, recording their brain's electrical activity and tracking their sleeping stages. The headbands sounded off every ten seconds during the REM stage, the cue boosting the effectiveness of IRT therapy. Then for two weeks, participants practiced IRT daily and recorded their dreams in a diary. Results showed that those who used TMR had a lower weekly average number of nightmares compared to those who just used a standard IRT treatment.

During a session of IRT, a patient will recount their most recurring type of nightmare. Then, they will discuss possible stress or trauma relating to the dream and brainstorm a different ending to

a day. Over time, this method of therapy will reboot the brain to adjust the nightmare into a positive dream. IRT works on nightmares that do not seem to have any causes, like PTSD-related night-

In a 2022 study, 36 individuals with nightmare disorder performed an initial IRT session. However, while half of the participants were randomly assigned to rehearse the revised nightmares in silence, the other half rehearsed a short piano chord, a TMR cue, played every 10 seconds for five

IRT is versatile and works in many different situations depending on the severity of an individual’s dreams. People may decide to reimagine only part of their nightmare, while others may want to forget about it completely. Despite the positive results, there is still room to improve this research. The experiment only involved young, healthy participants with no history of mental disorders. Perhaps with the success of this study, IRT-TMR research can be explored among varied individuals, like people with psychiatric disorders or older adults, giving people more freedom in their method of treatment. Overall, IRT-TMR therapy seems to be a new development in the study of nightmare disorder, allowing all who suffer from these terrifying dreams to get a good night’s rest.

Jaden Bae / The Spectator

Speaking from the Mind! Literally.

By ANGELINE SONG

You knew it would be a death sentence, raising your hand for the first time in a couple of weeks. You had planned what you wanted to say but for whatever reason, your mouth chose not to work. You can’t help but wish your thoughts could be spoken through someone or something else. For decades, scientists around the world have pursued technology that would give people the ability to speak through machines. In 2021, the code was cracked: technology restored a man’s ability to speak after a major injury through a machine. This discovery is a fundamental and new approach to the engineering research done in neuroprosthesis.

In 2019, a study led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang at the University of California San Francisco was conducted to evaluate the potential of recording neural activity from the cerebral cortex. The study utilized electrodes and decoding techniques to assist communication and mobility. A 36-year-old man with anarthria—an inability to speak— due to his stroke, was chosen for his score of 26 out of 30 on the Mini-Mental State Examination for cognitive function. Unfortunately, while he was extremely capable of cognitive function, he

was unable to physically express himself through speech, and could only produce vague sounds like grunts and groans due to his facial paralysis. The technology that assisted him with communication was a computer-based typing interface which clocked in at an average of five correct words per minute.

A medical procedure to install a neural implant in the subdural space was required to record and use brain signals in the cortical regions of the brain that control speech. This implant would then be hooked up to a connector that sent signals from the device to a computer. In February 2019, the operation was performed and ran smoothly over the span of three hours. With nothing but time to lose, the study was up for collecting data in April 2019.

Over a strenuous period of 81 weeks, 50 long sessions were conducted to develop and test the new technology. These sessions were separated into two groups: isolated and sentence tasks. For isolated tasks, the subject was visually presented with singular words derived from a list of basic and caregiving terms such as “good” and “water.” The subject would attempt to say the word on the screen and the device would collect data. Similarly, sentence tasks were conducted with the visual presentation; however, this

time, the subject was presented with 50 sentences. The subject was told to attempt to speak these words as fast as they comfortably could. The data collected by both tasks were collected in real-time and inputted into an AI to help modify and concentrate what was said—essentially autocor rect for brainwaves. With the data collected, the AI would predict a set of words by processing the neural ac tivity as well as a corre lated probability that the subject “said” the words that the signals indicated.

The study proved to be successful. The technology developed bumped the subject’s previously stated average of five correct words per minute to a rate of 18 words per minute with up to an astonishing 93 percent accuracy.

This was a breakthrough and radical approach to a solution. The typical procedure for those who are in the industry of communication neuroprosthetics is through spelling-based approaches, to type out

letters one-by-one in text. However, the method used in this study was critically different in that it translated signals that control the muscles of speech. This works to better translate how people normally communicate at a much faster pace. Writing and

advancement regarding the field of neuroprosthesis. This study was the first successful demonstration of a direct translation of thoughts into words and it’s only going further in its ability to give those who need it a chance.

Chang is currently supervising further studies working to refine the technology using a wider range of participants affected by major paralysis. While this may seem like a huge step toward a future where everyone will have the ability to speak their mind, the lengthy legal and ethical complications that await should be noted. With both the rise of AI as well as the rapid commercialization of modern technology, we have to be careful and think about the implication this could have on our

compared to what is accomplished by mimicking speech.

Chang’s idea to cut out the middleman worked fantastically; the much higher word count and accuracy regarding the subject was both miraculous and a huge

How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?

By MICHELLE NG

It's first period—or frankly, any period—and the urge to go to Terry’s and get an iced coffee to make it through the rest of the day is growing stronger. As Stuyvesant students who receive inadequate sleep, this experience is all too familiar. But sleep deprivation doesn’t always have us completely exhausted—in some instances, we actually feel more energetic. Investigations regarding sleep deprivation have debunked a common misconception about sleep.

cycles, all of which are important to how we feel after we wake up and our brain activity throughout the day. The first stage, which oc curs right before sleep, is called wake. People are still conscious during this period, and the eyes are either still open or beginning to fully close. Following this is N1, or light sleep, in which brain activities begin to slow down and the body starts to enter a state of full relaxation. An uninter rupted sleep is one that doesn’t spend too much time in N1 but rather moves onto N2 quickly, also known as deeper sleep. This third stage makes up about 45 per cent of the en tire sleep, in which there is a clear drop in heart rate and breath ing. Our muscles re lax and our body temperature drops.

Moving on, the fourth stage is N3, or deep sleep. The body relaxes fully, and it is seen as the most impor tant for bodily recovery. It’s

characterized by low frequency and higher amplitude delta waves. Even with bodily functions slowing down during this period, it is evident that N3 contributes the most to brain activity in terms of creativity and memory. Lastly, our bodies enter rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which makes up about a quarter of our entire sleep. Our muscle movements become quite irregular and we are not as restful because we may be dreaming during this stage. Even so, REM sleep also contributes to

sleep patterns, diet, and anxiety can impede this ideal sleep cycle. However, experiments conducted by neurophysiologist Marcello Massimini suggest that getting the suggested eight hours of sleep is not necessary to fully function. In fact, we may be able to function more efficiently when we don’t get enough, or less than the average six hours. According to his study in the journal Cerebral Cortex, the brain becomes more reactive and sensitive as the day goes on, while bodily reflexes may be noticeably

a consistent sleep deficit lasting multiple weeks or months. Even in relatively healthy adults, there are short-term effects of either type of sleep disruption, which include emotional distress, somatic pain, and far more memory and performance deficits. The long-term effects are more severe. These vary from hypertension, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and colorectal cancer. The probability of these effects taking place is based on genetics and how consistently one is able to go through every cycle of sleep. If one wakes up feeling muzzy and groggy throughout the day, it’s a clear indication that they were disrupted in their sleep. If this is constant, they may

Nonetheless, a future where everyone on Earth will be able to say what’s in their heads is far away. But this successful study is a major leap and opens many doors for both the disabled and other creative thinkers in the field of neuroprosthesis.

even have insomnia. In order to calculate how much sleep we need, we need to try to understand our personality and how we feel when it’s time to sleep. Asking yourself simple questions, such as whether you fell asleep easily or found yourself tossing and turning, can help you get a firm feel of your sleep rhythm and which patterns are best for you. Note how long it takes for you to fall asleep, or when your regular natural wakeup time is. Don’t try to sleep more or less than needed, but just the right amount. If you do find the best-fitting pattern and stick with it, your body will feel far more refreshed and you won’t need that cup of joe.

chronic,

Gabriel Gutierrez / The Specta tor

Naomi Lai / The Spectator

By AARYA BALAKRISHNAN

In the past, Western medical treatment was developed under the idea that people of color had “inferior” bodies. Physicians argued that the difference in skull sizes between races signifies how Black people were born naturally submissive. Science became a vessel to legitimize racial discrimination. However,

Racial Bias in CRISPR Treatment

proves that CRISPR fails to treat people of African descent.

Cancer is a challenging disease to treat because there are over 200 distinct types. Each one has a variety of symptoms and is triggered by unique factors, and it can affect people of different races, ages, and lifestyles. But all cancers are caused by a genetic mutation that makes cells replicate uncontrollably. Lately, a gene-editing technology called CRISPR has shown promise in cancer treatment. CRISPR, coinvented by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, is a tool that consists of a guide RNA and a unique Cas-9 protein. The RNA first searches for the targeted genes and binds to them. The Cas-9 protein then cuts out the malfunctioning genes with extreme precision.

this risk to public attention. When he and his team began studying CRISPR's effects on cancer treatment, they turned to the Cancer Dependency Map. Run by Broad Institute, the DepMap is a collection of trials in which CRISPR was used to remove 18,000 cancer-causing genes in 994 lines of cancer cells. The researchers found that, on average, CRISPR failed to remove two to five percent of the cancer-causing genes in a single cell line. However, their observation of the 41 lines using cells from people of African descent showed that failures were about 20 percent more common.

By VINSON CHEN

You look at the night sky and see a line of bright lights. Are they stars? Planes? Aliens? Or are they just one of Elon Musk’s new projects? Elon Musk has been a hot topic in conversations and in the news for the past few years, mostly due to Tesla’s widespread manufacturing of electric cars and SpaceX’s reusable rockets. However, one of Musk’s lesser-known but equally fascinating and important projects is Starlink.

Starlink is a satellite internet service provider operated by SpaceX. Satellite internet is different from the more common land-based internet. There are multiple forms of land-based internet such as cable or fiber, and all land-based internet services are transmitted near Earth’s surface. Satellite internet, on the other hand, is transmitted through Earth’s atmosphere rather than near the surface. When someone uses satellite internet, a data request is sent to a satellite dish. The satellite dish then sends the data request to a satellite, and the satellite sends signals back down to the satellite dish. The satellite dish is attached to a modem and router, which interprets the information and sends it back to the device. Latency is the amount of time it takes for a data packet to travel between two places. Generally, land-based internet has lower latency than satellite internet since devices using landbased internet only have to travel between a device and the closest cell tower rather than between a device and a satellite. Even with these weaknesses, satellite internet, especially Starlink, still has very important benefits.

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changes in recent decades have proven these racist claims to be unscientific. Though the medical industry is becoming more progressive, many treatments are still affected by historical racial inequality. One such treatment, CRISPR, is often revered as the most outstanding achievement in regard to cancer treatment. Yet, a recent analysis led by Sean Misek, a postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard,

When genetic diversity is unaccounted for, CRISPR may identify the wrong genes as cancerous. Even a single nucleotide mismatch can cause the Cas-9 to malfunction. These errors result in a plethora of consequences. If CRISPR removes the incorrect genes, this may cause new mutations within cells that accelerate cancer growth. Furthermore, if the cancer patient survives, these mistakes can often lead to anomalies in their gamete cells that can leave their offspring with permanent mutations.

Sean Misek recently brought

Misek and his team suggest that since people of African ancestry have the highest genetic diversity of any racial group, there could be a higher risk of inaccuracy. Most modern researchers agree that our ancestors originated from East Africa. As a result of this, African people had a comparatively longer time to evolve unique genetic characteristics. When researchers studied 154 chromosomes from European, Hispanic, Asian, and African populations, they found that Africans had the highest percentage (64 percent) of rare genome sequences and the lowest percentage (36 percent) of common genome sequences.

According to Misek, another

Starlink: A Constellation of Satellites

ral and remote areas to receive land-based internet because they’re so far away from internet infrastructure, such as cell towers. This means that in order to receive land-based internet in rural and remote areas, new internet infrastructure would need to be built. However, building new internet infrastructure is too expensive for internet providers since rural and remote areas don’t have enough customers to compensate for the high construction costs. This is where satellite internet providers such as Starlink come into play. Satellite internet doesn’t require internet infrastructure to be built other than installing a satellite dish, modem, and router, making the internet more accessible to those in rural regions. In urban areas where there is plenty of internet infrastructure already built, however, satellite internet services including Starlink are suboptimal because they are slower than land-based internet.

Starlink currently provides internet coverage to 40 countries around the world, and there are many countries currently on the waitlist to gain access to Starlink services. Starlink first started development in 2015 and launched its first satellites on May 23, 2019. There are 3,558 Starlink satellites currently in orbit, and almost all of them are currently operational. Starlink has sent this many satellites into orbit throughout 70 trips made by the reusable rocket, Falcon 9. Starlink has stated that they plan to launch a total of around 30,000 satellites into orbit in order to provide global coverage.

So what’s so special about Starlink compared to other satellite internet providers? One huge difference about Starlink is the

number of satellites it operates and how far from Earth these satellites are located. Most satellite internet providers have a handful of satellites that orbit in high Earth orbit (HEO) located at around 22,236 miles above Earth’s surface. This is because HEO is a geostationary orbit. Objects in geostationary orbit travel at the same speed as the Earth rotates, meaning that satellites in HEO hover over the same area all the time. For instance, a satellite in HEO above

use HEO satellites. In return, Starlink satellites have extremely low latency compared to HEO satellites because they’re so close to the ground.

The upside of this lesser land coverage is that most satellite internet providers only use a handful of satellites that each cover a large area, resulting in the loss of internet over a large region if a disruption or technical problem were to occur in one satellite. In this case, since Starlink uses many satellites, a technical issue

aspect leading to racial oversight is the lack of African representation in genetic trials. One example is the Genome-Wide Association Studies, a government-run database. These studies scan DNA and find links between specific sequences and their correlated diseases. Of the thousands of studied genes, roughly two percent of the genetic information comes from African people. Comparatively, White Europeans make up 78.4 percent of this database. These numbers are observably unequal. When popular tools like the GWAS neglect to account for the genomes of a whole race, it can have noticeable consequences on the advancement of technology around the world. As scientists learn more about genetic disorders, they recognize that CRISPR holds great promise in treating them. However, CRISPR currently includes many oversights that stem from long-time racial ignorance in the medical field. These studies illustrate that diverse workers within these fields are crucial to lessen discrimination in medicine. In turn, this emphasizes the importance of schools like Stuyvesant teaching science curriculums to students of all colors. These seemingly minuscule opportunities can carve a path toward improvement in treatment for everyone.

lites. In addition, Starlink satellites can move without human intervention, which works in combination with the satellite’s ion thrusters. These ion thrusters are used for mobility and are powered by krypton ions, which are highly effective at generating propulsion. This is beneficial since it helps remove human error from satellite maneuvering.

New York would stay above New York no matter the time of day. In contrast, Starlink has many satellites that all orbit in low Earth orbit (LEO) or around 342 miles above Earth’s surface. Satellites in HEO are so high up that they can provide coverage over huge areas, minimizing costs for the company. Because Starlink satellites aren’t in geostationary orbit and aren’t high enough to provide coverage over massive areas, Starlink needs more satellites to provide the same coverage as companies that

in one satellite would not produce as devastating of an effect as land-based satellites would.

Starlink satellites also include many features that make them unique. For starters, a Starlink satellite uses a single solar array, or a collection of solar panels, to power itself, making Starlink satellites self-sufficient in terms of energy generation. Since only a single solar array is used rather than multiple solar arrays in various areas, the simplicity of the design allows for easier manufacturing of Starlink satel-

Starlink recently received more media attention after Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted at Elon Musk on February 26, 2022, two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, saying, “We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations.” Fedorov requested Musk to provide Starlink’s service to Ukraine after a national internet outage and Musk complied, expanding Starlink’s coverage to include Ukraine. Musk and countries such as the U.S., U.K., and Poland have helped pay for some of the Starlink services used in Ukraine. Starlink internet has been and still is currently being used by many Ukrainian citizens along with the Ukrainian government and military. “[Starlink] has been a turning point in our survival,” the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister, Olga Stefanishyna, said.

Starlink has proven itself to be an extremely useful service that has many upsides compared to other satellite internet providers. As more and more Starlink satellites become operational and as the price of Starlink subscriptions drops, Starlink will most likely become the leading satellite internet provider. With a goal of 30,000 satellites providing global coverage, Starlink will transform our planet to connect even the most remote places to the rest of the world.

Rachel Wang / The Spectator

Rin Fukuoka / The Spectator

New School, Boo School Music

By ZOE BUFF and BRANDON PHILLIPS

“New School, Boo School” was heard on the streets of Chelsea as cars honked their horns and marching students held up signs. Plastic containers were used as drums, pounding the beat of war on The New School’s picket line. Just down the street, The Mannes School of Music, bearing the very policies they were protesting against, towered over them.

The Mannes School of Music offers a wide variety of classical music and jazz classes, from music theory and composition to instrumental lessons and orchestra. In addition to its college and graduate degree programs, Mannes includes a pre-college program for elementary to high school students. It’s a great institution for musicians to hone their skills in a cooperative environment. Unfortunately, these sentiments are not shared by the administration at Mannes’s parent university, The New School. The New School, a liberal arts university, acquired Mannes as a subdivision in 1989, thus roping Mannes into all of its policies. Approximately 96 percent of music teachers at Mannes are considered part-time employees, paid by the hour depending on how many students they attract. Part-time employees are not generally unionized, save for select cases like The New School. Yet due to recent grievances committed by the school, its part-time teachers have decided to go on strike.

Teachers at Mannes have a base salary of about $70 per hour, whereas most music teachers of the same caliber in New York charge over $100 per hour. Things came to a breaking point when The New School released a new proposal asking workers to accept diminishing wages for the next five years. These circumstances are especially unreasonable given that these teachers haven’t received a raise since 2018. The proposed contract, which would last

until 2027, suggests a 1.87 percent increase each year. However, these raises would be rendered obsolete by The New School’s proposed “unlimited authority” to increase health insurance prices. They plan to increase premiums by 10 percent each year, amounting to 61 percent after five years due to compounding. Regarding the exclusion of part-time music teachers from health coverage, a lawyer said, “that would

Animosity has only increased between administration and faculty given their obscene pay gap. In the fiscal year 2014-15, The New School’s President Van Zandt made $1.1 million while teachers struggled to manage the increased cost of living in New York City. As a New York Times article writes, “the strike is a culmination of years of contentious relations between the adjunct faculty and the university’s

their teachers, which include picketing, or demonstrating outside the building in an attempt to deter students and faculty from entering, and holding signs sporting slogans such as “Their working conditions are our learning conditions.” Support from the union has been essential in fighting back against the school’s oppressive policies. “There’s a reason why unionization across the United States is burgeoning, because if you don’t have a union, you’re dead,” Barto said. The strike has also been met with backlash from several parents threatening to withhold tuition payments or remove their students from the school, putting pressure on both The New School administration and the teachers.

Surprisingly, articles about The New School’s strike hardly mention the Mannes School of Music. Most sources seem more interested in The New School’s academic programs or even one of its other subsects, the Parsons School of Design. Unfortunately, it has become a common trend for music, especially classical and jazz music, to be pushed aside in the news in favor of more popular subjects, like sports. Whenever the arts manage to be mentioned by sources covering the strike, the focus is centered on Parsons, given its more appealing nature of visual art and design to general audiences.

Playlist

The Musical World Cup

By THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT DEPARTMENT

There is nothing more quintessentially American than the dismissal of foreign cultures. In honor of the great global uniter, pan-continental sports competition, the Arts & Entertainment department has decided to highlight songs from other languages.

Pontos De Luz Gal Costa Tropicália Portuguese

only eliminate about 60 people, a very small subset of the entire faculty.” This only goes to show that the Mannes School of Music sees the teachers as numbers instead of people. New provisions also diminish the job security of long-standing faculty members, allowing the school to terminate faculty after only eight semesters and deny them reappointment rights and termination pay. Under the new proposition, faculty are also no longer allowed to take harassment and discrimination suits to a neutral arbitrator with a union rep and lawyer.

administration and is part of a nationwide trend.” Perhaps the most recent high-profile example of this trend occurred at the University of California when 48,000 academic staff protested job security. With rising inflation and costs of living, it has become crucial for teachers to protest diminishing wages, especially those who teach music. In an interview with Van Magazine, Mannes flute teacher Mary Barto said that her “average salary is about 30 percent lower than all the other divisions.”

Mannes students have also been participating in the protests to support

The strike lasted for 25 days before finally concluding on December 11. The union and the university came to a tentative agreement. In a New York Times article, Matthew Spiegelman, a visual art teacher at The New School, stated that while the compensation did not meet all of the teachers’ demands, most issues were resolved. “Most importantly, we opened the door for many more improvements in the future and for other universities to step up and treat their faculty with respect and dignity,” he said. The strike’s success has proved nationwide that improvements are possible when people band together to make change.

Revelations: A Celebrated Masterpiece of Modern American Dance Culture

By SANTINO SUAREZ

Alvin Ailey’s Revelations is a deeply moving and distinct experience. The theater is packed shoulder-toshoulder with dance connoisseurs and novices alike. While the dancers have beautifully precise technique, the storytelling, diversity, atmosphere, and music of Revelations are what set it apart and ignite the human spirit.

Alvin Ailey was an American dancer, choreographer, and activist who is known for blending elements of modern dance, ballet, jazz, theater, and other styles into his work. Born on January 5, 1931, in Rogers, Texas, Ailey was subjected to racism and forced to work cotton fields with his mother to make ends meet. Ailey sought refuge from his grueling life in his local Baptist church, which inspired his love for music, theater, and dance—elements he would later incorporate into his performances as a choreographer. In March of 1958, Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He felt it was important to create a dance company where black dancers could avoid deeply-rooted discrimination within the entertainment industry and feature African-Americans’ stories, a revolutionary idea for the medium in the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Revelations is Ailey’s most acclaimed choreography and the signature performance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

The history told in Revelations is timely and timeless all the same. The dance performance is broken into three major sections: “Pilgrims of Sorrow,” depicting the sufferings of slavery, “Take Me to the Water,” representing a baptism, and “Move, Members, Move,” evoking a church pew under the sweltering Texas sun. Each act has an entirely different tone. “Pilgrims of Sorrow,” the opening act of the performance, has

an earthy ambiance. The dancers, wrapped in brown and beige cloth on a dimly lit stage, move slowly and seem to emerge from the ground and reach for the heavens. This act is a depiction of the suffering endured by enslaved people. In the opening song “I’ve Been ‘Buked,” a folk hymn associated with the Civil Rights Movement, the dancers move as one despairing mass as they de-

rippling water across the stage as the dancers step to and fro jubilantly, as if cleansed from their sins.

In contrast, the next scene, “I Wanna Be Ready,” features a sinner who doesn’t feel worthy of receiving forgiveness from God and wants to live a pure life as told through the lyrics: “I would not be a gambler, I’ll tell you the reason why / Because if my Lord were to call on me, Lord,

dozen dancers join the scene to form a congregation. This act is the most uplifting of the three, as it celebrates the environment of the church and its community.

Music is one of the core aspects of Revelations. Throughout the full 36-minute performance, gospel, blues, and soul music fill the air and propel the dancers. At times, the songs are mournful through interwoven acapella arrangements; at others, they are very uplifting and energetic with an assortment of percussion instruments accompanying the vibrant choir.

Alas-Alas

4:00 A.M. Taeko Ohnuki City pop Japanese

Synagermos

scend together and extend their arms to form a protective human arch. Their movements are full of pain and sorrow, yet they are ultimately triumphant in their unity.

The second act of Revelations begins with “Take Me to the Water.”

The stage is covered in a deep blue, and the dancers wear white and paleblue outfits to represent the sacrament of Baptism. The lead dancer, representing a priestess, rhythmically sways with a flowing white parasol, and leads a congregation of dancers to witness and celebrate the baptisms of a young man and woman. In the song “Wade in the Water,” long, smooth bands of silk in teal blue and turquoise mimic the movements of

I wouldn’t be ready to die.” This piece is a physically challenging solo performance, requiring a strong core and precise, intentional, reaching movements to demonstrate the struggle one would face in leading an honorable life.

The stage scene for the final act, “Move, Members, Move,” mimics a hot summer day with a large sun at the center of the backdrop. A dozen dancers fill the stage carrying wooden stools and wearing bright yellow dresses, adorned with large brimmed hats and handheld fans to represent church service. They greet each other through their body language and use their fans to talk and gossip amongst each other. An additional

Traditionally, ballet dancers are pale, thin, and demure. However, Ailey’s dancers are predominantly black, muscular, and range in height and age. Lead positions in the company are held by both male and female dancers. Each dancer is seen as an individual, rather than the standard mold of a prima ballerina. The dancers express themselves fully with each movement, and that’s what makes every Ailey performance so unique. Revelations ’s attentive care to its dancers foments strong connections with audience members, too. With each exhalation and the sweeping of their feet on the floor as they move, each dancer shows their emotions on their face, rejecting typical stoicism. Ultimately, Revelations is about hope, unity, and connecting with one another on a human level.

Tragically, on December 1, 1989, Alvin Ailey died from AIDS at the age of 58. Today, Ailey’s work is considered a vital artistic representation of American culture and has been performed at the White House multiple times, as well as at the 1968 Olympics. Revelations is hosted as a feature performance every year at The New York City Center from November 30 through December 24, allowing New Yorkers to witness Ailey’s masterpiece live and soak in the array of human emotion from a unique lens.

Binibini

Surf rock Hebrew Goblin SULLI K-pop Korean

Starálfur Sigur Rós Post-rock Icelandic

Som Jag DJ Billybool & Bladee Trance Swedish

Renklerin İçinde Kargo Alternative rock Turkish

Hamlet Minassian Pop Armenian

Panx Romana Punk rock Greek

Zack Tabudlo Contemporary R&B Tagalog

Nagorny Karabach Einstürzende Neubauten Industrial pop German

D.D.T. and the Tralala Boys Charlie Megira & The Hefker Girl

Stacey Chen / The Spectator

Eliza Oppenheimer / The Spectator

Arts and Entertainment

Ada, Alex, and Ascension through “Gathering” Art

By EMILE LEE-SUK

The year is 1957, and Alex Katz has just met his future wife, Ada Del Moro, at a party. She quickly becomes nearly the singular focus of his paintings, and within three months, they get married. When you walk into Alex Katz: Gathering, the first thing you see is Ada’s enlarged face on the first painting on the museum’s display: Blue Umbrella (1972). The exhibit, which opened in October of this year, is housed at the Guggenheim museum. From his student sketches to his recent landscape paintings, the exhibit contains artworks spanning Katz’s entire life and artistic journey. Climbing the Guggenheim’s iconic spiral staircase, Ada is a constant; through her you can see the evolution of Katz’s style, starting at his scrappy sketches at the bottom of the museum to his massive, iconic creations near the top.

Katz was born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York. He studied art at The Cooper Union from 1946 to 1949 and spent his summers honing his skills at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. By the 1950s, Katz settled into Manhattan as an artist and began making a name for himself in the local art scene. He started with portraits, painting many of his artist friends, and of course, Ada, setting him apart from others in a time when abstract art was especially popular.

Close to the start of the stairwell, you enter the beginnings of Katz’s career during the ‘50s. One of the first pieces you see, Ada Ada (1959) is a distinct, strong representation of his work from that time. The painting depicts two near-identical women (who are supposed to represent Ada), standing against a white background— a characteristic staple of Katz’s work from this time. Katz replicated even the minor details across the painting, but there still are small differences in

Film

By DOROTHY HA

Good ol’ Saint Nick spends all year keeping tabs on the world, filling his naughty list with the names of every misbehaving person on Earth. Typically, those on his naughty list find a lump of coal in place of a present under the Christmas tree, but in Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night, Santa employs a new method to punish the especially naughty: murder.

A breath of fresh air from the typical sickeningly-sweet holiday film, Violent Night is a satirical thriller-comedy that puts an entirely new spin on Santa Claus. The film transforms the jolly old man that children have loved for centuries into a gruff, heavily-tattooed, no-nonsense exViking-warrior-turned Kris Kringle. Played by David Harbour, this Santa isn’t afraid to kick some naughty list butt.

The movie opens with Santa chugging a glass of beer in a Bristol pub on the night of Christmas Eve, begrudgingly preparing for his strenuous one-night sleigh ride around the world. Meanwhile, a little girl named Trudy Lightstone (Lea Brady) is delightedly awaiting Christmas in her filthy-rich grandmother’s lavish mansion with her dysfunctional family when a group of mercenaries breaks in, hoping to steal 300 million dollars from the Lightstones’ family vault. Luckily for Trudy, Santa happens to pop through the chimney during the robbery and, after seeing that Trudy is on his nice list, sets out on a bloody path to ensure that Trudy lives on to see her next Christmas.

Though Violent Night’s plot isn’t particularly sophisticated, it delivers exactly what it promises: a gory, chaotic film filled with unadulterated carnage and a ho-ho-whole lot of Christmas-themed quips. Mayhem follows Santa Claus as he serves justice by slaughtering the nefarious mercenaries, who all happen to

the two Adas’ expression and composure that establish that these are two separate drawings on the same canvas. The painting seems almost too simple, with minute details beyond the flat col-

The new style introduced with this piece is considered to be a precursor to the genre of pop art, with its simple yet radical palette and a heavy focus on facial expression.

terizing multiple complete figures—a shift from his typical close-up headshots. With dancers, he is able to display more intricate poses, some almost feeling inhuman. This reinforces the painting’s uncomfortable atmosphere, highlighting Katz’s range considering cheerful works like The Red Smile

Walking away from the 1960s, you reach the 1970s portion. Black and Brown Blouse (1978) is another portrait of Ada and it continues to replicate many of the techniques from works like The Red Smile: it zooms in on Ada’s face and continues the use of simple shading with slight blurring. However, Ada’s countenance is far less cheerful, and her eyes, which follow the viewer, almost appear sad, emphasized by the white of her pupils; the black-blue background contrasts with The Red Smile’s bright red. This piece stylistically unites aspects of Paul Taylor Dance Company and The Red Smile, using the base concept and subject of the latter with the melancholy tone of the former. This lets the portrait take advantage of both The Red Smile’s effectiveness as an image and the emotions that manifest in Paul Taylor Dance Company.

As you near the top of the staircase, you reach Departure (Ada). Made in 2016, it is one of Katz’s more recent paintings of his wife. However, it is almost completely different from what we’ve seen of Ada in the exhibit. Ada’s face isn’t highlighted: instead, her back is turned, and her full body is shown. Like in Ada Ada (1991), she appears to be in motion: though this time, her whole body is moving, walking away. This painting shows another stylistic shift as Katz welcomes simplicity with minimal details and limited colors.

ors and an inexpensive background. Despite the arguable blandness of his work, it is clear by the time you reach the 1960s this was something Katz was making an effort to remedy. Katz created The Red Smile (1963) during a turning point in his career. He borrowed aspects of commercial billboard advertisements, with many of his future works being on a similarly physically large scale. Like he did in the Blue Umbrella, the subject of the painting is Ada’s zoomed-in face, allowing for more detail in her eyes and hair than in the full body art of Ada Ada The heavily saturated red background contrasts with the pure white used in Ada Ada, adding a new sense of rejuvenation and vibrancy to Katz’s work.

Continuing to explore the 1960s, the focus of Katz’s paintings—while largely Ada—occasionally shifts to other aspects of the artist’s life. Paul Taylor Dance Company (1963-1964) is one of Katz’s works that depict his social circle (Taylor was a dancer, choreographer, and close friend of Katz). The work’s pitch-black background and the blank expressions on the faces of the dancers create an eerie atmosphere for a painting based on a dance scene. Katz creates dimension on the dancers’ unique outfits with lighting, as more desaturated shades of the clothes’ colors are applied in streaks, making the clothes look shiny and elastic. He uses this piece to show off his proficiency at posing and charac-

Continue ascending in the museum and you’ll reach Ada Ada (1991)... again. Yet this painting is much more than a recreation of the 1959 original. Just as in The Red Smile, Ada’s face is the painting’s center, and Katz uses similar techniques with shadow. The painting marks Katz’s return to saturated colors, with a bright cyan background contrasting Ada’s dark black attire. Unlike its 1959 counterpart, the two Adas have distinctly different expressions, with the one on the left having arched eyebrows, with the right Ada’s face being much more relaxed—looking back and forth between the two faces feels more like naturally watching the face change rather than looking at two versions of the same thing.

By the time you hit the exhibit’s last, isolated room, there are only a few monochromatic paintings up on the walls. For example, White Reflection (2020), is just a white canvas with a few marks of texture on it, meant to represent light on water. Ocean 9 (2022) is also a portrayal of light on water, though it uses black, with white marks that look almost like snow being the rushing of river water. These works are a major departure from everything the exhibit seemed to have been building up to. After a career of painting people, Katz’s style becomes abstract, which ultimately feels not only out of place in the exhibit, but also, disappointingly as though he is conforming to the artistic standards that he had broken so many years ago.

The Guggenheim takes full advantage of its circular format to create what is almost a timeline for Alex Katz: Gathering, letting viewers track the advancement and parallels in his products across time periods. The exhibit works best with Katz’s portraits, allowing observers to explore the evolution of his style, but falls flat when it comes to his recent pieces, which seem like a disruption of the exhibit and its themes. When it comes time to leave the exhibit, Ada is the last face you see, her face (and the techniques behind her portrayal) now immediately recognizable.

Christmas Greetings and Christmas Beatings

be on his naughty list. The murders are bizarre and creative, ranging from electrocution by Christmas tree lights to bludgeoning with the help of a stocking filled with billiard balls. Even with the frequent fights and killings, the film manages to remain well-paced. While the cinema-

the heavy onslaught of violence. Yet among all the blood and battle is an ultimately triumphant tale of good against evil that carries just the right amount of sentiment. The movie is far from the Hallmark cardlevel cheesiness of most Christmas films, but it still manages to incor-

via walkie-talkie. Since the movie is jam-packed with Santa’s valiant but brutal violence, the sparsely placed heartwarming scenes are all the more touching. The film also explores themes of kindness and growth as Santa, initially jaded and disenchanted with the world’s increasing materialism, regains his faith in humanity when the originally money-hungry Lightstones use stacks of dollar bills to kindle a fire to keep Santa warm while he is weakened from his injuries. Their sacrifice not only revives Santa but also his love for Christmas and mankind.

However, what really brings Violent Night’s premise to life is its immensely entertaining repertoire of characters. The strained, uberrich Lightstone family consists of personalities from Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo), the elderly family matriarch who cusses like a sailor, to Bertrude (Alexander Elliot), a social media-obsessed teenage influencer, who was named after his grandmother in the hopes of winning her favor. Their fierce and petty bickering in combination with their general ridiculousness makes for many humorous moments. Even Santa’s reindeer contribute to the hilarity. In one scene, Santa chastises them for being “so unprofessional” when they poop on the Lightstones’ roof, adding irritatedly, “Rudolph would never do this!” The head of the mercenaries, Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo), brings lots of humor to the film with his villainously vulgar mouth and dry, witty one-liners.

deal, not some psychotic maniac in a red suit hell-bent on ruining the holidays. Though he is a murderer, Harbour’s Santa has a heart of gold, lending his character a bit of nuance. Violent Night is undeniably funny and unique compared to most Christmas movies—but its largest drawback is the plot’s lack of originality compared to similar comedy-thriller Christmas films. It’s one thing to pay homage to previous films, which is something that Violent Night does with its extensive references to the holiday classic Home Alone (1990), such as when young Trudy sets gruesome Home Alone-inspired boobie traps for the mercenaries. It’s another thing to simply reuse ideas. The similarities between Violent Night and its predecessor, Die Hard (1988), which follows a policeman as he defeats a group of terrorists who interrupt a wealthy organization’s holiday party to rob money from their vault, are, unfortunately, too glaring to ignore. Violent Night feels almost as if Die Hard was stripped to its core and reconstructed with the addition of a grumpy Kris Kringle and a couple of foul-mouthed jokes. Though this plot works well for Violent Night’s humor, it leaves viewers wondering if the movie could have reached its fullest potential had it used more originality.

tography of the fight scenes can be wearying at times, with the camera constantly whipping around in an attempt to immerse the audience in the action, these scenes are nicely spaced apart to allow for Christmas comedy and a needed break from

porate sincere moments between the wholesomely faithful Trudy and the gruff but goodhearted Santa Claus. They share several adorable interactions, such as when Trudy proclaims her wholehearted trust in Santa when he tries to reassure her

David Harbour, of course, is the real star on the tree, delivering a superb performance as a grouchy, buff Santa Claus. From his scowling expressions to the heavy yet purposeful way he carries himself, Harbour leans fully into his role. Furthermore, his character carries a complexity that sets him apart from past murderous Santa characters. Fighting tirelessly to protect Trudy and her family, this Santa is the real

Still, the film is mostly successful in its comedy and in the box office, having raked in 13.3 million dollars on its first weekend. Ultimately, Violent Night is a wild holiday movie overflowing with creativity and Christmas fun, and what it lacks in plot depth and originality, it makes up for with a delightfully vengeful Saint Nick and obscene humor that is sure to make even the most miserable Scrooge chuckle.

Moral of the story: no funny business this holiday season, or you might just end up taking a sharpened candy cane to the head from Santa Claus!

Rhea Malhotra / The Spectator

Jasper Caro / The Spectator

New York through Edward Hopper’s Eyes Art

of his life. During his lifetime, Hopper experienced both world wars and the Great Depression, and his paintings highlight the emotions of Americans during these pivotal eras.

Hopper is often regarded as the most prominent artist of the Realist movement, an artistic period of the 19th century that aimed to depict subjects accurately and naturally. He is best known for oil paintings like Automat (1927) and Nighthawks (1942). Though his oeuvre is dominated by oil paintings, Hopper also made many prints in his early career. Despite the success of these early works, Hopper never enjoyed illustrating, and instead began to paint from his observations and imagination. Most of Hopper’s works are portraits, both of important people in his life and of New York City. In addition, some of his pieces reflect the patriarchal society in the workforce and at home, with a man occupying a higher position of power and asserting dominance over a compliant woman. During Hopper’s time, the city was at its peak of urbanization, but he often portrays the metropolis in a lifeless yet soothing manner. The majority of his work consists of mellow, muted colors— dull midnight blues, dim vermilions, alabastrine ivories, smokey greens— and depict no more than a few subjects. Though his paintings present a calming, undisturbed ambience to the viewer, conveying contentment in solitude, his art simultaneously invokes a feeling of alienation and strangeness, creating a dissociation from today’s New York City.

featuring a pale young woman alone in an automat—a vintage eatery in which fast food is served by vending machines. She has a rosy complexion and tart red lips, and is dressed in a teal fur coat and straw hat. The woman sits alone at a table for two, her focus on the white porcelain mug in her hand.

The establishment is brightly lit, contrasting with the solemn blue-black background that fills the large commercial window behind the woman. The mood of both the painting and the woman is ambiguous and open to interpretation: is Hopper depicting a comfortable reclusiveness, or is it empty detachment? The skillful use of light reflections in the window behind the woman convey depth, creating a three-dimensional feel in the backdrop. In general, windows are a recurring symbol in Hopper’s paintings, representing boundaries between the chaotic city outside and the peaceful interiors of establishments. In Automat, the window reinforces themes of alienation, emphasizing the woman’s role as a mere spectator to the outside world.

portrayals of New York—a fast-paced city with endless energy, a city that never sleeps. His subjects are often alone, and even when he depicts multiple people, they never interact, accentuating the theme of isolation. Relevant to the melancholic sentiments of wartime and Depression America, the people in his paintings are emotionless, almost afraid to show any sign of vulnerability when so much is at stake.

By MAEGAN DIEP and GRACE RHE

The crowds shuffle quietly, gazing at paintings of an almost unrecognizable New York City. Acting as a time capsule, the Whitney Museum’s Edward Hopper’s New York exhibition

provides a look at the city’s comingof-age.

Edward Hopper was an American realist painter and printmaker born in 1882, to parents who exposed him to the arts at a young age. He went on to study at the New York School of Art before moving to Greenwich Village, where he lived and worked for the rest

The exhibit has a notable section dedicated to Hopper’s wife, Jo. This segment contextualizes the subject matter, creating a personal bridge connecting the viewer to the artwork. There is a subtle difference between this bit and the rest of the exhibition, as a major component of Hopper’s paintings is unfamiliarity and distance from the subject, which is absent here.

One of Hopper’s most famous pieces, Automat, is an oil painting

With a similar theme of independence and reflection, Hopper’s New York Movie (1939) depicts a blonde woman dressed in a sapphire blue jumpsuit, outlined with a crimson red. Despite being the main subject, she stands to the side of the theater, leaning against the cantaloupe-colored walls. The woman appears to be in deep deliberation, as the lighting casts shadows over her eyes and creates a mysterious impression. From the glimpse of the theater house, it is evident that the audience is incredibly small; a row of velvety seats separates the only two discernible attendees, and their gazes remain fixated on the stage. The overall duskiness contributes to the reticent, undisturbed atmosphere.

By frequently focusing on a single subject, Hopper’s pieces recognize the individuality of New Yorkers and zoom in on their stories. His works are remarkable for countering the over-representation of paradigmatic

Coming from an upper-middle class background, Hopper never painted members of the lower class, despite the homelessness epidemic during the Great Depression, or people of color. Instead, he depicted the same white upper-middle class man and woman over and over again. The subject matter also always wore the same style of clothes, conforming to the modest clothing customs in the workforce. Jo was his only hired model, and he used her figure in all of his paintings. Overall, Hopper’s selective vision creates an idealized New York, censoring out blemishes he saw in the city and refusing to acknowledge the city’s diversity and the stories of the overlooked.

Despite misrepresenting New York’s demography, his paintings reveal a general overview of the grim social and economic conditions in his time. The paintings express the intrinsic solemnity of the world wars and the Great Depression. In that regard, Hopper’s illustrations stand as a historic cache for a modern audience, allowing them to compare Hopper’s New York to present-day New York.

Edward Hopper’s New York is a transportive experience, encouraging the comparison of Hopper’s subdued New York City with the bustling urban environment that today’s New Yorkers are accustomed to. Hopper’s work is unique because its ambiguity allows viewers to focus on the subjects portrayed, projecting their own emotions and perspectives onto them in order to understand a past that is more recent than it seems.

Taylor Swift’s Influence on Rising Pop Artists Music

By RAAITA ANWAR

It is undeniable that the pop star phenomenon Taylor Swift is one of the most influential artists of our time. With 11 Grammy wins and dozens of Billboard hits, Swift is the most streamed female artist on Spotify. Swift’s music catalog spans various genres, from country on the eponymous album Taylor Swift (2006) to the synth-pop of 1989 (2014). The singer-songwriter’s inspiration has ranged from first love and romantic dreams to the crippling pressure placed on her by media.

No matter the topic of Swift’s songs, her exceptional songwriting skills allow her to resonate with lis teners. Swift tells stories through de scriptive imagery, utilizing metaphors and symbols to evoke overwhelming emotion. A prime example of this is “cardigan” (2020), in which Swift uses the extended metaphor of an abandoned cardigan rescued from beneath a bed to how finding new love validated her ex peri enc es.

Many of her lyrics come from diary entries, which makes her songs come off as heartfelt and personal. Her ability to incorporate her life story into relatable topics like love, heartbreak, and insecurities allows her songs to resonate with listeners.

Swift has greatly impacted the music industry, inspiring many contemporary artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Gracie Abrams, and Maisie Peters, as well as rising Gen-Z stars Conan Gray and Olivia Rodrigo.

Gray’s debut album, Kid Krow (2020), was a huge success. The album’s third track, “Maniac,” opens with the lyrics “You were with your friends partying / When the alcohol kicked in / Said

to any Swiftie. Additionally, the album’s 10th track, “Heather,” begins with the lyrics, “I still remember / Third of December / Me in your sweater,” which are similar to the lyrics of Swift’s “Last Kiss” (2010): “Fresh on the pavement, I ran off the plane / That July ninth, the beat of your heart.” In these songs, both Swift and Gray use dates to memorialize important moments in their lives. Other than the lyrical similarities, Gray also emulates Swift’s famed yelling vocals in his album Superache (2022). In the album’s eighth track, he yells the vocals, “Scattered ‘cross my family line / I’m so good at telling lies,” similar to the way Swift sang

computer that we all would use and I remember we all huddled around it and watched together. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, Taylor Swift is the coolest person on the earth.’”

Olivia Rodrigo, another rising pop star and three-time Grammy award-winning artist, has received global acclaim for her heartfelt songs. When Rodrigo released her hit album SOUR (2021), many noticed the similarities between her discography and lyrics to those of Taylor Swift. The album’s fourth track, “1 step forward, 3 steps back,” uses the same piano backing as Swift’s reputation-era song “New Year’s Day” (2017). Rodrigo gave Swift writing credits for “1 step forward, 3 steps back,” as well as a large royalty payout. She also credits Swift’s “Cruel Summer” (2019) with inspiring her raw screams during the bridge of the fifth track, “deja vu,” in which she chants “I know you get déjà vu.” Besides the similarities in Rodrigo’s songs, she even credits Swift as her biggest inspiration. In an interview with NME, Rodrigo mentioned, “I’ve always looked up to Taylor since I was literally five years old. Obviously I think she’s the best songwriter of all time.” Gen-Z artists like Rodrigo grew up listening to Swift, which influenced their musical taste and gave them the confidence to write about experiences that may have been seen as taboo before.

In addition to using similar vocal techniques as Swift, modern artists like Gray and Rodrigo have adapted Swift’s songwriting techniques in their songs, which are based on their life experiences. In Rodrigo’s song “drivers license” (2021), she tells the heart-wrenching tale of getting her driver’s license and reminiscing about her extinguished first love. In Gray’s “Heather,” Gray recounts how his crush fell in love with a girl named Heather, abandoning the real or imagined connection they had. These

songs exemplify the lasting impact Swift has had on expanding the musical experience beyond just listening to a song. Gray’s and Rodrigo’s music also have similar themes to Swift’s, including heartbreak, falling in love, societal pressures, and insecurities. These themes, along with the different musical devices in their songs, pique the listener’s interest.

However, it is important to differentiate between taking inspiration from an artist and simply mimicking their music. Both Gray and Rodrigo have unique elements in their music that set them apart from Swift. Rodrigo’s raw self-expression and relatable youthfulness helped her cultivate a vast fanbase of Gen-Z supporters who are able to understand and admire her work. Gray’s incorporation of indie influences in his music, experimenting with pop music formulae and acoustic instrumentals, has expanded his fanbase. Both Rodrigo and Gray incorporate common conflicts faced by Gen-Z, which offers a sense of comfort and relatability.

Over the past decade, the influence of Swift’s songs has transformed the music industry and pioneered an era of storytelling through songwriting. She has written songs that empower others to have open discussions about societal issues, some of which are rarely brought up in the music industry. Her support for women’s rights, education, LGBTQIA+ rights, and more has inspired people and shown them what can be accomplished through music. Whether it be through her heartbreaking love songs or upbeat dance pop earworms, her extraordinary discography, lyrics, music video concepts, and more serve as a shining example to new pop stars who grew up listening to her music. Gray said it best in an interview with GQ: “Taylor Swift raised an entire generation of songwriters.”

Lily Serry / The Spectator

Arts and Entertainment

Balenciaga’s Blunder Fashion

By LIANNE OHAYON

Luxury fashion houses are no strangers to scandals. From Gucci’s straightjacket-esque outfit making headlines for its insensitivity toward mental health issues to Burberry’s noose-string hoodie turning suicide into a marketable trend, companies constantly push the limits of what is acceptable in today’s society to fulfill their perverted and “artistic” visions. Recently, Balenciaga has been added to the aforementioned group of brands for its pedophilia-endorsing advertisements.

The “Balenciaga Gift Shop” holiday campaign featured young children holding teddy bears. But they weren’t your run-of-the-mill stuffed animals—the bears were outfitted with bondage harnesses, fishnets, and other BDSM gear.

Another photo that dropped on the company’s website for its Spring/Summer 2023 collection displayed paperwork from the Supreme Court’s United States v. Williams case (2008), which argued that prohibiting child pornography was not a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. When considering both of these campaign pieces, it is undeniable that everyone involved with this shoot (the photographers, marketers, and lawyers) was aiding this unconventional and borderline illegal expression of art.

Almost immediately after the campaign dropped, the vast majority of the public was appalled. The hashtag #cancelBalenciaga trended on popular social me-

dia platforms Twitter and TikTok. Celebrities including 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord and Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel spoke out against Balenciaga. Kim Kardashian, arguably the face of the fashion house, only spoke out almost a week later, saying she was “currently re-evaluating” her fu-

value.

As expected, Balenciaga’s response to the campaign was lackluster at most. A day after the campaign launched, it was taken down. Balenciaga released a blanket apology for “any offense [its] holiday campaign may have caused.” Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga, also apolo-

ter children. Though this all seems thorough, Balenciaga isn’t directly taking ownership of the campaign ad—it is simply apologizing to those who had been offended. This trend is common in many celebrity apologies, with celebrities failing to own up to their usage of slurs by addressing their apology to those who were offended (for example, Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez).

In this apology, the company also fails to address the ad with the Supreme Court case, which is an integral reason for Balenciaga’s controversy. Balenciaga has continued deflecting the blame onto other parties involved by filing a $25 million lawsuit against North Six Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardin for their inclusion of Supreme Court documents in its advertisement. Even if the production company is a separate entity from Balenciaga, the photos were undoubtedly approved by Balenciaga’s team, who did not thoroughly vet the content.

to boycott fast fashion because it is all they can afford, which is reasonable. However, the treatment of children in the fashion industry, whether in photographs or behind sewing machines, is a more widespread issue than consumers care to admit.

By VITA KIRSCHSTEIN and TESSA KOLOVARSKY

Social media has been overtaken by a new trend: “crying girl” makeup. Consisting of streams of shimmering tears, puffy pink under-eye, flushed cheeks, and swollen lips, the look romanticizes the vulnerable female visage. To replicate the mesmerizing “crying girl” look, makeup artist and influencer Zoe Kim Kenealy suggests applying red eyeshadow around the eye, gobs of gloss for swollen lips, and of course—the pièce de résistance—glittery tears. Kenealy’s tutorial, like the crying girl makeup look, has gone viral, receiving millions of views. This expressive makeup trend bears similarities to the “angry girl” makeup trend of early fall, which combines downward angled eye brows, heavy contour, a bold lip, and a fox eye to create an irate expression. These makeup trends pressure women to present at tractive, composed exteriors in all situations, regardless of what they are feeling or the environ ment they are in. This perpetuates impossible beauty standards that prioritize perfection over free dom of emotional expression.

The “pretty crier” aesthetic promoted by crying girl makeup stems from the fear of being la beled as an “ugly crier,” which is traditionally seen as unfeminine. This phenomenon has made glob al superstar Kim Kardashian a laughingstock of the Internet; her sobbing face has become a viral meme numerous times, prompt ing hate comments on social me dia making fun of her for being an “ugly crier.” De-

ture with the brand. While it’s hard to judge certain celebrities’ actions as “performative” in comparison to others, the hesitation to denounce Balenciaga certainly places Kardashian in with the group of celebrities who are unwilling to value their morals over brand partnerships with high monetary

gized personally for “the wrong artistic choice of concept.” Finally, Balenciaga’s CEO Cédric Charbit released Balenciaga’s plan for bettering their content validation process, reorganizing their image department, learning about how to protect children, and donating to numerous organizations that shel-

Balenciaga’s abhorrent campaign ad and photos exemplify that companies are not above accountability or the public. The public’s voice can be a very valuable check on the power of large institutions. The reaction and response to the ad also shows what people care about, which is where things start to get blurry. Because Balenciaga is a high fashion company that is well above the price range of many consumers, it is easy for the general public to boycott Balenciaga. But what about accessible fast fashion companies that exploit children? Many people are unable

Since its apologies, Balenciaga has not released any more collections or pursued other collaborations. But inevitably, it will. In an ever-changing world of fashion combined with the pressure to be profitable, the fashion house must definitely stay relevant. Are an apology and a misguided lawsuit enough for the public to move on? How quickly will the public forgive and forget? Media coverage has already died down, and Kim Kardashian still has Instagram posts featuring Balenciaga apparel. Arguably, “cancel culture” is only effective if the targeted entities stay canceled, which is not the case for most celebrities and companies; they simply continue with their lives after issuing a blanket apology statement.

But there is still hope. Perhaps this time, Balenciaga will stay blacklisted and boycotted because people will stop buying from them. Maybe Kardashian will “re-evaluate” her relationship with Balenciaga enough to find a new brand to endorse, a task that doesn’t seem too difficult for someone with her status. Even if Balenciaga rebounds, maybe by reading this article and remembering what happened, we can ensure that Balenciaga, and eventually other companies, can’t simply leave the past behind them.

To Be Pretty When You Cry and Scream

spite these incidents, Kardashian remains world-famous for her beauty, allowing her to brush off hurtful comments by turning to the validation of her adoring fans. However, for women and girls who lack this constant stream of validation, the consequences of being perceived as an ugly crier may seem greater; they are susceptible to the internalization of these unrealistic standards for female emotional expression, which can take a toll.

Supermodel Bella Hadid gained a different reaction when making a splash (of tears) online. Hadid posted vulnerable

ates for dealing with tragedy is also perpetuated by TV shows, including HBO Max’s Euphoria (2019-2022). Some of the show’s most famous scenes feature a crying Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney). Throughout Sweeney’s emotional delivery, she manages to maintain her glamorous appearance—as silent tears coat her flawless skin in a dewy gloss, her cheeks flush a charming pink, her mascara unsmudged and her hair perfectly curled. These scenes, made possible by dazzling makeup, carefully placed shots, and choreographed scripts, present devastation as glamorous and

ful. When clips of Cassie’s crying scenes trended, comment sections were flooded with “I wish I looked like that when I cry,” triggering insecurity. The idea that glamour is needed to counteract the unpalatable nature of emotional expression is a recurring theme in the media nowadays, contributing to women’s internalization of unrealistic expectations for emotionally trying situations. Ideas from popular shows like Euphoria affect the way girls see their own emotions. They watch as Cassie, with her perfect blowout and full face of professionally done makeup, cries in the most appealing way she can, swallowing her deepest fears with poise, and wonder why they cannot do the same. This idea of perfect girls and the allure of suffering contributes to the romanticization of sadness, which becomes self-loathing when tragedy strikes and the illusion of perfection is shattered.

With the fetishization of sadness comes its evil twin: the fetishization of anger. A viral showcase of “angry girl” makeup by art TikToker Sarah New demonstrates how to achieve the foxy look by applying smoky black eyeliner, dark contour, and red lipstick. Although this makeup trend normalizes anger, an emotion that is often dismissed as “delusional” or “sensitive” in women, the question remains as to why girls must look pretty for their emotions to be validated.

Classic female villain makeup, such as the look worn by Angelina Jolie’s titular character in Maleficent (2014), is another example of TikTok’s “angry girl” makeup inspiration. The intimidating Ma-

leficent makeup look—severe grayscale contouring, dramatic arched eyebrows, and a bold red lip—has become iconic. Its symbolic embodiment of Maleficent’s rage is associated with strength and boldness, giving it the potential to empower and validate these characteristics in women. Despite this potential, it further promotes the idea that women must be beautiful for people to care about their feelings, opening a gateway for the romanticization of cruelty via the glamour and makeup of many villainous roles. Another recent example is the viral audio clip from Girl Interrupted (1999), in which Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie), who sports a softer version of “angry girl” makeup, mercilessly urges Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy) to commit suicide. Despite the clip’s dark themes and Lisa’s undeniably malicious character, it widely circulated as a thirst trap.

Ultimately, makeup trends like “angry girl” and “crying girl” cause more harm than good, perpetuating the idea that female emotional expression should be beautiful and controlled. Though these looks have the potential to normalize sadness and anger, they also glamorize and fetishize these emotions, placing an impossible standard on women. Using makeup to imitate a crying or angry face reveals broader societal issues, such as the argument for girls and women to be “natural” and the pressure to be beautiful while bare-faced. The constant cycle of trends falling in and out of style pressures women to conform to constantly evolving idealized beauty standards, feeding insecurity on a global scale.

Chloe Huang / The Spectator

Stuy Moment #12: Cupcaketastrope

Tina Siu / The Spectator

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

The Worst Christmas Decor

By DANNY YE

It’s that time of year again. While we all love Christmas for gifting us a week-long “break” to catch up with our ever-increasing workload, a main part of the holiday cheer is all the decorations put up two months before the actual holiday, just to be taken down the day after. I sure do love seeing weeks of planning and decorating go down the drain faster than a child’s hopes and dreams after finding out that Santa isn’t real. No matter how determined you are to prove your “dedication” (lack of better things to do) to this holiday, just be sure to avoid these horrible ways to decorate for Christmas.

Mistletoe

We’ve all seen those infamous Hallmark movies. The main character and female love interest co-

incidently end up in a romantic situation under a parasitic shrub (yes, mistletoe is parasitic) and kiss. The end. Unfortunately, you are not in a movie, you do not have a destined female love interest just waiting to swoon over you, and you will not find love beneath a plant. The only reasons for hanging mistletoe in a shady corner of the room are a) you enjoy having a green bundle of stems and leaves in close vicinity, possibly the result of getting mind controlled by a parasitic plant *cough* *cough* or b) you are patiently waiting to sneak up on an unsuspecting person for a kiss and then justify casual sexual assault with “the plant,” in which case, uh… all power to you, I guess.

Christmas Lights

Every year, the greatest sign of wealth is the number of god-

forsaken Christmas lights in a person’s front yard. It’s almost a competition to see which house can blind you the fastest as you ride down a street of the rich, entitled upper class. The best thing you can hope for is a city-wide blackout, caused by that one poor extension cable overheating under the stress of having to support six different plugs. Unfortunately, Santa is not an overgrown moth, and he will not be attracted to the five-foot radius of lights around your house.

Christmas Trees

The most iconic symbol of Christmas also happens to be the dumbest. Surprisingly, it is not a good idea to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees just to have them wilt within the next month and sometimes even before Christmas. No amount of lights

will mask the fact that the tree is slowly dying and will not live long enough to see the next year. A prime example of this comes from the social experiment known as the Sophomore Bar. How did this even happen? Not only did someone manage to carry an entire Christmas tree up six floors, but a rational person authorized this and decided that bringing a tree into the school was a good idea. So if you have a locker in the corner of the Sophomore Bar, good luck trying to open it through the branches.

Christmas decorations are really the most annoying part of Christmas. There is an ironically ridiculous amount of plant life, especially for a holiday in the middle of winter. Their green color is a perfect fit for the Christmas theme, especially combined with

What Lies Within Room 250

NEWSBEET

Climate change has caused the North Pole to melt, rendering Santa homeless

Electric Christmas decorations have caused a nationwide electric grid shutdown

Santa was recently chased out of Stuyvesant by a troupe of deans for disrupting Stuyvesant’s learning environment.

Check out stuyspec.com! (But not right now, because it’s currently down.)

the red berries and lights—after all, the main point of Christmas decorations is to turn your neighbors green with envy and red with rage!

By ISAAC HO

I’m standing in front of the doors to Room 250 at 3:00 a.m. After a moment’s pause, I wonder whether this was such a good idea. Perhaps I, Private Isaac Ho, the newest investigator for The Spectator, shouldn’t have taken this case on my own. Then again, the editors had to send someone. There has to be some innovation happening in that lab tucked away behind the guidance suite that the rest of Stuy doesn’t know about. Unfortunately, Privates Chu and D’Angelo are still scarred from their excursion to the 11th floor, while Private Ubaid is being forced by Dr. Greenwald and Ms. Shamazov to organize a choral performance of the Gettysburg Address. It’s all up to me.

Taking a deep breath, I walk in and flick the lights on. They reveal a spotless room, empty except for a few workstations, some 3D printers in the corner, and for some reason, a couch. Suddenly, a trapdoor creaks open and I glimpse the elusive Assistant Principal of Chemistry, Technology, and Art, Mr. Thomas. I duck behind an intricate art deco pillar and hear him mutter something about energy efficiency before turning the lights off on his way out. Luckily, stumbling to the bathroom

at ungodly hours (part of the Humor Department’s Spec ops training course) has made me adept at navigating in the dark, so I can still feel my way to the trapdoor and slip inside.

Beneath is a dimly lit hallway with a velvety carpet running down the middle and display cases on either side, filled with strange gizmos and gadgets. “Wait, why have display cases in a hidden room?” I wonder. “Probably just vanity,” I tell myself. “Oh man, selling these is going to give The Spectator so much extra budget. We’ll be able to print in color—and maybe even have a functioning website!”

In the first case is a time machine. Hermione Granger may have used one to take multiple classes in the same period, but Stuy kids don’t want that: selling extra sleep would be much more lucrative. Next I find a computer running Headtome, a new and improved version of Facebook (why do students use that platform anyway?). A few bribes to Student Union officials will require clubs to use Headtome for all future communications—after paying a small fee, of course. Soon enough, I also find a stash of pure caffeine powder (much more efficient than coffee); a suspiciously large, hot, and flame-patterned egg (perhaps

a legendary pokemon like Moltres); and a chainmail tie (goes well with a chainmail vest).

I make my way back to the

matic effect.

First prompt: Identify the element with the symbol “W.” Tungsten. Easy. Second: pe-

rimeter appears in midair, followed by containers of various chemicals. I barely have time to think that this might be bad before a jar of hydrochloric acid zooms past my head and shatters on the opposite wall.

A bald, bearded ghost appears to my left and asks, “Need a hand?”

I do the natural thing when offered with help to solve a lifeor-death chemistry problem. I say, “If you mean help getting out of here, yes!”

With a shimmer, the room around us transforms into the Humor Department’s office. I take a shaky breath before asking, “Who are you, and what just happened?”

Faith Choi / The Spectator

The apparition responds, “My name is Irwin Zahn. Sorry about that—my lab gets a little temperamental when people answer its questions incorrectly. That’s fine for Mr. Thomas, of course, but not so much for others.”

“I see,” I respond. “Then why was he keeping these wonderful inventions down there?”

entrance with my haul. At the hatch, I’m faced with a screen showing the periodic table. The exit, it seems, is locked. “A test? Of course an AP would do that,” I say out loud, for dra-

riodic trends. A little harder. Next: stoichiometry. Damn, first question wrong. This might take a while. Suddenly, a titration lab setup clinks into existence. Then a bomb calo-

Rudolph’s Revenge

By MIKAYLA LIN

In a world full of nuclear superpowers, we are familiar with world-ending danger. But today’s threat isn’t from Russia, rising sea levels, or the risk of touching grass. Instead, this threat comes from a different “R”: Rudolph. Our favorite Christmas mascot, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, has gone bad. This morning, billions woke up to a large stack of papers titled “Rudolph’s Mani-

festo” instead of the usual gifts under the tree.

These papers detailed his grievances and two demands to be met before he would “destroy Christmas once and for all.”

The first demand is a worldwide ban on the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” He wants all copies to be confiscated, and anyone caught distributing or listening to “the cursed song” has to serve a five-year sentence as one of his

elves.

The second is for a ban on Santas everywhere. All mall Santas are to quit immediately and turn in their beards, and parents are to stop perpetuating the lies of Santa’s existence. Failure to comply will result in an avalanche of coal, dooming one to exist in pure darkness.

You might wonder why Rudolph, the star of every Christmas, would suddenly turn into a Grinch. It turns out that the heartwarming under-

dog story that we’ve sung every winter season was a lie; the real story is much darker.

The Spectator was able to contact the North Pole and interview some elves. In fear of repercussions, they have chosen to remain anonymous. However, as we interviewed them, the real facts started emerging. One elf described Rudolph as “a troubled reindeer.” After Santa discovered Rudolph’s red nose, Rudolph was at first overjoyed, but he soon became bitter. A

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure you’ll find more productive uses for them, though. Bye now!” He vanishes.

Well, he’s certainly right. If you want to buy any of our new, unreasonably priced SpecHumorTM products, stop by room 642 right away!

close friend of Rudolph revealed that “Rudolph was angry at Santa for allowing the exclusion to go on for so long—he had just wanted to play reindeer games with all the other reindeer.”

In the past few months, Rudolph staged a coup that ultimately ended in a takeover of the North Pole from Santa. Luckily, Mrs. Claus was able to

A Battle Royale of the Christmas Traditions

By SARA HELLER, ABIGAIL JIN, and FREDA DONG

Lately, there have been way too many ways to celebrate Christmas, making the holiday stressful. Between leaving out cookies and milk for Santa, hanging up big red stockings by the fireplace, and more, who wants to do a kazillion things to get into the festive mood? We all know Stuy students don’t have the time for that.

Have no fear, for the Humor Department has a solution! We interrogated—I mean, interviewed—the most popular holiday traditions and asked them to defend their spot as a Christmas tradition. Which traditions will keep their spot, and which will be lost forever?

Leaving out cookies and milk for Santa

You want to know why I should stay on as a tradition? Obviously so that you can bribe Santa to give you gifts if you’ve been naughty. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without me, and everyone knows it. If you don’t leave out cookies for Santa, he’ll be hungry—and going to everyone’s house in one night is a pain by itself. Take away the cookies,

and what do you get? A hangry Santa! You do NOT want to see Santa when he’s hangry. He’ll start bouncing off the walls and you’ll wake up to a wrecked house. What’s more, Santa’s got very low blood sugar, so he needs his cookies. You don’t want him fainting coming down your chimney, do you? It’s not easy to drop 15 feet and not feel dizzy. If you take away the cookies, you’re taking away Santa’s happiness. And if Santa’s not happy, you’re not getting anything other than coal. What you should replace is stockings—that tradition is wack. What, you put up massive socks so Santa gets whacked by floppy red things when he exits the chimney? That’s the Christmas spirit!

Hanging up stockings by the fireplace

I would never whack Santa—intentionally, at least. What would be the point of Santa coming down the fireplace if there weren’t any stockings for him to fill with toys and candy? Also, what better use is there for Santa’s old socks? But don’t underestimate me—these are no ordinary dirty socks. They’re decorations that light up the room brighter than the fire in the fireplace. I

create the perfect cozy Christmas aesthetic (the Christmas tree is so overrated!). You should see the unknowing smiles of naughty children when they see their stuffed stockings, unaware that they’re full of coal! Anyway. One tradition I can’t wrap my head around is your dad dressing up as Santa. It’s so dumb—with a fake beard and red hat, you’ll totally never be able to tell it’s your dad. How could you unashamedly lie to your kids?

Dad dressed up as Santa Well, excuse me! Putting up a good disguise is easy, as long as the fake beard doesn’t fall off. My belly is naturally large enough already, and I have the buff muscles necessary to carry a huge sack of gifts. Plus, I get to say “ho ho ho” all day long— admit it, you want to as well, but you don’t want to sound like a weirdo. I’m literally bringing holiday spirit to my family by being Santa, which means this ought to be the best tradition on the list, especially considering what I put up with. Do you know what I have to put up with around the holidays? It’s so annoying when my children sing the same few Christmas carols over and over again! I have to pretend to think

that they’re good singers, and I deserve an Oscar for such acting. The stupid Jingle Bells tune gets stuck in my head for the next 11 months, and then it’s the holiday season again.

Little kids singing oversung Christmas carols but highly off-key Don’t be such a Grinch. The hills are alive with the sound of music! (Even if it’s bad music.) My holly jolly melodies may be highly contagious and infectious, but I’m the best way to spread Christmas delight. After all, how could you ever get sick of the inspiring story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? And admit it—children singing is the funniest thing you’ll hear all year. It’s comical to hear them trying to be Mariah Carey despite having voice cracks every few seconds. But laughter and joy are part of Christmas, right? You know what’s overrated, though? Christmas trees! Seriously, it’s just a tree with lackluster decorations on it, and it doesn’t serve any purpose. What a pointless tradition!

Putting up a Christmas tree Bro, have you forgotten that I’m the OG tradition, the oldest and most famous one? It was

Prince Albert who introduced me to Queen Victoria. Can any of y’all say you have a royal’s endorsement? I am the first thing people think of when it comes to celebrating Christmas, and I’m the most noticeable, too. There’s even a big Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center that thousands of people visit; can any of you guys say the same thing? Everyone loves and wants me— how idiotic of you to think that you’re the best Christmas tradition when clearly, it is me.

Not gonna lie, after hosting these interviews, we think that all of these traditions suck and need to deflate their egos a bit. But who are we to ruin the festive mood? Don’t worry; with so many traditions to choose from, a very merry Christmas is on its way to you! Honestly, though, who has time to celebrate Christmas? You should be working on your college apps, catching up on sleep, and dealing with the heap of homework that your teachers assigned, due two days after the break, because apparently that’s legal. So forget Christmas—celebrate The Last Day of School instead. It’s a much worthier holiday!

The Couple Home for Christmas The Remix The Sequel: The Holidays Strike Back: A Film Review

By BENSON CHEN

Hey, Flogang! I know that I said that there would be no review this week because I would be celebrating Christmas with my family, but I felt the need to get this one out to my fans, all 31 of you guys.

This season’s HOTTEST Hallmark Holiday flick stars a digitally de-aged Macaulay Culkin as a precocious nine-yearold boy named Justin, who wishes that his mom, Denise (played by Vanessa Hudgens), would just be like her happy old self again.

After an ugly divorce with her ex-husband Hunter Chadington, her belief in true love shattered, she now distracts herself with that big-city workaholic life. Along with juggling severe alcoholism, I guess you could say she’s a LITTLE bit too busy for Christmas and for buying her son food and water. However, she soon learns the Christmas trials and tribulations of love, hope, AND Christmas after she falls in love with small-town boy Dennis, played by Michael Cera, on Christmas day.

Our boy Dennis, after be-

ing fired from multiple jobs for just being such a darn friendly and pettable guy, has his whole world flipped upside down when he meets Denise. Though she rejects him the first few times, he eventually wins her over when he clarifies that he isn’t actually a lanky little girl with a bowl cut.

In a series of montages, they go to a movie and on a dinner date, spray paint and hotwire Hunter Chadington’s car for a joyride, and, most importantly, fall in love, all within a 10-hour period. Mind you, Justin has been tagging along this entire time, earning his screen time quip by quip like an indebted servant.

Dennis has never felt this way about anyone in his life and is ready to propose to Denise that night. Dennis publicly asks Denise to marry him, and Denise accepts (at this point in the movie, my entire family began collectively sobbing). The impossibly large crowd that forms to applaud around the couple somehow has a person who is able to legally officiate a marriage, and so they are wed on the spot.

However, before the two can go immediately fornicate in

escape during the chaos. “Rudolph trapped my husband in the chimney…he’s still there. I can still hear his ‘ho ho ho’s haunting me inside my dream. If only he had listened to me and cut down on his cookie intake. One cookie less, and he wouldn’t be dangling above the fireplace,” Claus said. She then

wig, revealing that he, too, could

boats to land with the glare

Rudolph’s Revenge

became too distraught to continue.

The situation in the North Pole is pretty bleak as well. We spoke to the newly formed elves union. “Rudolph cut back our hours from 22 a day to just 16. Without working in factories all day long, we have no idea what to do with our lives. We’ve had to turn to knitting, arson, and spending time with our family—it's absolutely ter-

rible. We demand a restoration of our work hours.”

All international organizations have been alerted and are discussing this situation as we speak. NATO has stated in a press release that they “will be sending out their very best team of construction workers who will take down the Santa-trapping chimney brick-by-brick if needed.” The Red Cross, in collaboration with The Lumistella

Company, has promised to evacuate the elves and “relocate them to various factories and to make Elf on the Shelf™️ all day, every day until their death.”

To the families wondering how they can keep themselves safe, the U.S. government has announced a new program that solves two problems at once. They are going to produce a new line of weapons in bright colors so they look like toys.

of his head.

I ADORED this movie; my kids and I have watched this at least five times, and I’ve watched it alone 10 MORE times. Though I spoiled the entire film, I can promise you that it never gets old. NEVER. My only complaint is that in some shots, you can see the CGI on Macaulay Culkin start to fray, and there’s just a very short grown man in the background. This issue can be overlooked because I “love”

Other reviewers have called it “a phenomenal masterclass in sound design in film” and “the greatest LGBTQIA+ film to date.” My friend’s dog died right after she viewed this film, and she hated that animal. After seeing this movie, my brother discovered that all the skin tags on his forearms disappeared. My uncle walked in on me watching this film and asked who the actor for the cutie on the screen was, and I responded “Micheal Cera.” He’s been locked in his bedroom watching this movie for at least a week now.

In the words of the President, “I can see no way this would backfire in any way. Be sure to arm all your kids, so that if they see Rudolph, they can take him down with their rocket launcher.”

Hopefully, with this rapid response, this situation will be over before we know it. Until then, The Spectator will keep you updated on the situation.

a Mickey Mouse-themed hotel

vince Dennis to stay by saying that he is the true Christmas

holiday husband she had made

guide

By AAHAN SHAH

After much waiting, the holiday season has befallen us! For many, this means gathering for a holiday meal with their family— including extended family. Your grandparents or other relatives may not have seen you in a while and might have different ideas about what to talk about at the dining table. To make sure that your little cousin doesn’t start doing Fortnite dances or that your Aunt doesn’t ramble about the amazing societal advancement made by the air fryer, I’m offering topics to make sure that your conversations aren’t boring at all! But first, here are some to avoid at all costs.

Politics

There’s always one person who thinks that talking about politics will spice things up and contribute to the festive mood. Unless their family is full of think tank employees from Washington, that person is capital “W” WRONG!

Your uncle: “Hey, that Mitch McConnell is one ball-buster, isn’t he!”

Uncle Joe really just thought “Politics!” and didn’t try to ask for permission to speak about it.

Mom: “Okay Joe, that's enough politics for today, and please do not say ‘ball-buster’ around the kids! Can you start taking care of my niece and nephew instead of not buying them gifts for the fifth year in a row?!

Uncle Joe: “Okay, Okay. It’s just that ranting is the only thing

The Worst and Best Conversation Starters For Your Christmas Dinner

that makes me forget having to unwrap the ninth new scarf from Mom tomorrow morning. Who said that Nerf guns were for kids only? Also, I’m indebted to every sports betting software out there because I bet that Germany would win the World Cup! Maybe, my high school janitor has a plan. Apparently, he died a millionaire!”

Relationships

Grandparents: “Timmy, how many girlfriends do you have, sweetie pie?”

Timmy: “Grandma, Grandpa! I don’t have any, okay? Just leave me alone! All I want to do is play Call of Duty with my boy Jerome. I don’t need no females when I get my perfect loadout!”

Grandpa: “Oh, we’re just playing with you, son, but back when your father was a child he had quite the lineup. He’d pick and choose every day, just like you choose your characters in that video game of yours, am I right?

Grandma: “Oh, Arnold! He’s just a kid, let him be!”

Timmy: “You know, I’m not going to try with the ladies at this point. The only thing I have time for is my PlayStation!”

Grandparents: “Oh, Timmy; you know, back in my day…”

Timmy: “Yeah, I know, I know—kids played outside until the sun came down and your parents called you guys home, blah blah blah. Well, there’s something named the metaverse, if you can climb out of that rock! Now you can make fake friends that don’t even know your name and you

can be in a virtual playground with them!”

Please do not start any of the conversations above because you DO NOT want to kill the vibe of the holiday meal.

And now, onto the part that you have been waiting for: the suggestions!

TV Shows and Movies

It is a fact of life that any conversation about your favorite shows leads to an awesome discussion about whether you agree or disagree with your family’s preferences. A normally quiet person will rise up and give the greatest speech that mankind has ever heard as to why The Rings of Power is just mid.

If your discussion leads to sitcoms, two sets of people will take center stage. The Humor people will act out one of the scenes until everyone’s dying laughing, milk that they drank for breakfast snorting out of their noses, and everyone will compliment the actor/actress: “Oh my goodness, what a surprise; I didn’t know we had a little comedian in the making!”

Or what about the Godfather? Now that’s a great one; it’ll turn a guy into an actor. “Leave the cake, take the cannoli!” Or, your dad goes, “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse. You better let me have the last piece of chocolate cake or you won’t be eating for the rest of your life.”

The only exception is when the Arts and Entertainment peo-

Average Gifts

By MADELYN LI NUNEZ

The time has come for Santa Claus to be stripped of his role as the jolly old fat man who needs a new diet regimen. Good Ol’ St. Nick has finally become bored of stalking 1.9885 billion children and would rather be using the Gas app all day. But Santa cannot just give up being the crinkly Kringle who knows whether you have been bad or good, so you have to be good, for goodness’ sake. Can he? Of course not! Except, if Santa is spending all his time choosing Principal Yu as BTS’s number one fan on Gas, how will he formulate naughty and nice lists? The answer: he will not.

Introducing Santa’s new giftgiving technique—the average method! From now on, Santa Claus will be creating the dumb and the dumber lists using the same strategy as your parents when they’re deciding if you deserve food and shelter every day: by basing it on your average. So, depending on your definition of a “good” average, you may be in for a treat. Depending on your definition of a “bad” average, you are still in for a treat—just not a very good one. Nonetheless, Santa was extremely disappointed in everyone’s averages when he was formulating his dumb and dumber lists, so what better way to help you raise your average than to give you gifts intended to do just that? There

is none! So thank Santa’s overworked elf, elf Moran (who hates his job and secretly wants to become an Assistant Principal), for leaking the 2022 Gift-AveragesCutoff scores. And yes, people, reading these cutoffs should be more terrifying than reading the SHSAT cutoff scores the year you took it.

99-Plus Average: You are the reason everyone else’s parents remind them how disappointing they are every day. Congratulations! They de serve a reality check on how substandard they are and how superior you are to the rest of us. Just for that, you are going to get an SAT prep book for Christmas. Keep up the hard work. Santa sat down for some tea and crumpets with your parents last weekend, that these SAT books were the perfect present to pressure you to get into an Ivy League college. Maybe one day you will be just as successful as Santa Claus. I am sure you can already feel

the frostbite as you imagine sitting back and relaxing with your toes wiggling in the snow, while a bunch of tiny people with pointed hats do all of your work for you.

91-to-98 Average: Wow, you are a disappointment. Where are all of the other points in your average? To help

ple try to put on an Opera performance. An A&E writer will try their best to fake-cry while everyone secretly looks up the best holiday deals on their phones. I mean, no one wants Mamma Mia!

Gen-Z Slang

Now would be a great time to introduce the slang of our generation to your parents and grandparents. You’ll get more questions from your grandparents than you did from your English teacher after using GPT Chat to write a paper on the history of the oppression of peanuts by the sunflower seed industry. It’s not plagiarism if it isn’t written by a human, right? By the way, sunbutter absolutely sucks, but one must respect the sunflower’s grind. It gets so many bees.

I think it’s good college interview prep. The same situation between you and your elders and you and the interviewer is the same: You both have a long and fruitful conversation on how American rock music was affected by the arrival of the Beatles, Queen, and Green Day. It makes you sound really cool and your Harvard interviewer might forget about how you weren’t able to solve world hunger by junior year.

For example, if your grandmother asks you, “Hey, why do those young ruffians always say ‘no cap’? I didn’t get the memo. Can you please tell me what I keep seeing in your tic-tac videos and why the teenagers are always saying ‘no cap no kizzy yo’? I would love for you to enlighten

me, honey bunch!”

You: “Dawg, you’re speaking facts on God for real no cap no kizzy you feel me! But you never wanna exhaust your Gen Z dictionary or you might go back to having to play Pictionary and saying the word ‘rosemary’ every time you talk about one of your friends, you know what I’m saying?”

Your cousins: “Dude… Bars.”

You: “So, Grandma and Grandpa, no cap is when you are not lying and I know that my dad is lying whenever he talks about his college days saying that he was top of the class! You know why? Because he never said ‘no cap’! What’s even worse is that he’s always wearing a cap!”

New Year’s Resolutions

This is a must-do! You need to share your resolutions with people you love and trust so that they will hold you to your word. If you want to exercise more, shout it out! If you want to get better grades, let the whole world know! If you want to stop picking your nose during office hours because your teacher said that that’s why you have a negative participation grade in class… actually, that’s disgusting. Keep that to yourself, please.

That concludes our Holiday Conversations 101. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New-Year’s-ResolutionsFailure, and Happy NervousPresents-Unwrapping!

whine, “Why are you not like the other kids?” in the same nasally Rudolph voice from the 1964 version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. So here is Santa’s gift to you: your savior, a fill-in-the-blank dictionary. It is time to drown out all of the complaints from your parents by immersing yourself in your new dictionary Mad Lib. I am sure you have been called a failure numerous times by now. You know the definition, so go fill it out!

71-to-80 Average: Jack-in-the-box, who? This is an ARISTA-tutor-in-the-box! Clearly, you need a lot of help with your grades, and your brand new ARISTA-tutor-in-the-box will do just the trick! Just be careful when opening the box your ARISTA tutor is in. Signs of claustrophobia, starvation, and head trauma are common among ARISTA tutors after being in a box at the bottom of Santa’s present sack during the whole trip from the North Pole. If your ARISTA tutor continues to display these effects after a week, Santa will be glad to ship you a new one.

tutor-in-the-box? Your very own personalized AIS hotline! Just give 248-555-5508 a call any time you want help bringing your average up. (Having a 61 average myself, I can vouch for my own extremely helpful AIS hotline. You should give your own a call. ;) Trust me.)

51-to-60 Average: Are you sure Stuyvesant is the right place for you? Brooklyn Latin might be a better fit. Or maybe Automotive High School? Here are some SHSAT prep books… maybe you should consider retaking it to find a high school that’s a better fit for you. Santa Claus highly recommends it.

50-or-Below Average: I have no words for you. Santa has no words for you. Not even the elf who wanted to be a dentist instead of a toy maker was this disappointing. Here is the first spot on the “dumber” list and a one-way ticket out of Stuyvesant. Get out.

81-to-90 Average: I am sure you are exhausted from hearing your parents

61-to-70 Average: Here is a box of tissues to wipe your tears, because I know for a fact that your average is the bane of your existence. Just kidding! The jolly old plump man is not that cheap. Do you know what’s better than an ARISTA-

And those are the 2022 GiftAverages-Cutoff scores. I do not know about you, but receiving a one-way ticket out of Stuyvesant instead of coal is something I look forward to this Christmas. Once again, a big thank you to elf Moran! I might say a good word or two to Principal Yu about you to help you get that Assistant Principal role.

Joanna Meng / The Spectator

Stuyvesant Sports

By PATRICK KAWULOK

This fall, Stuyvesant boasted 15 PSAL teams, with a total of 362 athletes. Many went above and beyond to lead their teams to success, and to talk about all of them would require the entire Spectator. Amid all the talent, there were some especially notable athletes who were excellent at their sports and played major roles in their teams’ wins. Here are the Sports Department’s Top 10 PSAL Athletes of the fall 2022-2023 season.

Lukas Chang (boys’ varsity badminton)

When asked about the best sports teams at Stuyvesant, the boys’ varsity badminton team always seems to pop up, and it’s not hard to see why. They reached the PSAL playoff finals in all of the past three seasons, and each time, senior Lukas Chang played a crucial role in the first singles position. At the high school level, Chang just can’t seem to be challenged. The 11th best singles player nationwide breezed through the PSAL season without losing a single set as he led his team to become PSAL champions, comfortably beating Townsend Harris in the finals 4-1. For the last four years, Chang has been at the heart of the boys’ varsity badminton team, and he’ll surely be missed next season. “My games are like tapioca pearls. They’re either really good or horrendously bad. [There’s] no in between,” Chang said.

Sienna Hwang (girls’ varsity golf)

It’s safe to say that golf isn’t as prominent in New York City as other sports such as soccer or basketball, with many high school golfers just starting out. As a result, anyone with prior experience has a big advantage. Freshman Sienna Hwang started playing golf in middle school, and that experience, combined with her talent, makes her an excellent player. In her first year on

Co-ed Wrestling

Top 10 PSAL Athletes: Fall Season

the team, Hwang has cemented her place as the best player, proven by her success this season. While she did start the season off a bit slow, with a regular season record of two wins and two losses in four games, she showed her skill in the playoffs, where she was undefeated with three wins and no losses. Her most impressive feat this season was a league-low nine-hole score of 39 in the finals against Bayside, where the team went on to win the PSAL Championship.

“I think the entire team played a really big role winning this year. After all, it’s the first time we’ve won in 13 years,” Hwang said.

Jack Colvin (boys’ varsity soccer)

Despite the boys’ varsity soccer team’s struggles early on in the season—losing three of their first four games—they managed to piece it together in time to qualify for playoffs, in large part due to senior Jack Colvin. Colvin, the top scorer of the Manhattan/Queens AA division (often considered the most difficult division) managed eight goals and two assists in 13 games, with some especially clutch goals that decided the fate of the team’s final league standings. In both a 2-1 win against Washington Irving and a 1-0 win against Long Island City, Colvin scored the winning goal. “It’s been a great experience playing with the team over the last two years, and I just wish we had been able to keep our run going further into the playoffs,” Colvin said.

Sabrina Xu (girls’ varsity tennis)

Tennis, similar to badminton, separates their players by positions of first to third singles and doubles based on skill. In most situations, one would expect the first singles player to be the top athlete of the team. In this case, however, while the girls’ varsity tennis team certainly had their ups and downs, one player who consistently played well throughout the season was sophomore

Sabrina Xu, in the third singles position. Even though the team’s regular season, with a record of three wins and seven losses, did not reflect their playoff success, Xu herself maintained an impressive record of seven wins and two losses in nine games. In the playoffs, she continued to win, remaining undefeated in the team’s three games. Despite being in her first year on the team, Xu has really stepped up and played a big role in the team’s success. “I’m Batman,” Xu simply said, when asked for a quote.

Angelina Lin (girls’ varsity swimming)

While girls’ varsity swimming has many great swimmers, this year, sophomore Angelina Lin showed to be one of the best of the best. In the regular season, she placed first in every race, also swimming the fastest 100yard and 200-yard freestyle in the Bronx/Manhattan I division. She performed well through the playoffs, placing second in her races against Francis Lewis, where the team’s season would come to an end, barely losing 4652. Overall, Lin has had a great season, culminating in her spot at States. “Pain is temporary, but glory is forever,” Lin said, truly the words of an athlete.

Jacob Guo (boys’ varsity fencing)

Fencing doesn’t really allow for excellence in terms of stats, as typically, a player can only get five touches per game. Additionally, given how strong every player on the boys’ varsity fencing team is, it is difficult to choose a “top” player. The most impressive players end up being the ones who play well most consistently. Finishing 9-0 without any major challenges shows just how good the boys’ varsity fencing team is, and their captain, senior and foiler Jacob Guo, has been especially impressive. Playing 13 games, winning 12, and getting 65 touches proves that he’s good at what he does. With his and his teammates’ skills, the team

continued into the PSAL playoff tournament, where they placed second in the city.

Isabella Stenhouse (girls’ cross country)

Usually a major factor in athletes’ “impressiveness” comes from their consistency over the course of the season, because while any good athlete can have a lucky game or two, only the best can replicate that skill over and over again. In running, there is no luck, and all that matters is who is the fastest on the track. Senior Isabella Stenhouse was certainly the fastest. Due to injury, she wasn’t able to take part in any runs in the early season, but when it came down to the biggest race of the season, she showed up to win. In the City Championship 5k race, she placed first, leading the Greyducks to be crowned the 2022 XC Champions. “It was a tough season for me individually, but I’m really happy to come away with both the individual and team win[s]. I’m very thankful for how my teammates and coaches supported me as I built my fitness back up,” she said.

Susan McKnight (girls’ varsity soccer)

It’s hard to imagine how the girls’ varsity soccer team would have performed without its captain, senior Susan McKnight, who ended the season with 15 goals and seven assists in 11 games. With the fourth most goals in the Manhattan AA division, McKnight played a crucial role in all of the team’s close games. She contributed a clutch goal in a 3-0 win over Fiorello H. Laguardia, and in a 3-0 win over the High School of Art and Design, she scored two and assisted one. “I’m so grateful for the team and community we have created throughout the season. Soccer season is truly the best time of the year,” McKnight said.

Sam Glusker (boys’ varsity football) While the boys’ varsity foot-

Reassemble the Spartans

By SARADINDU AHMED and DALER KHUDAYKULOV

With all their might, a pinned, sweating, and struggling wrestler has to stop both their shoulders from hitting the ground so they don’t lose the game.

The Spartans, Stuyvesant’s co-ed wrestling team, have been finding it difficult to keep up with the intensity in their ground work during matches this season. The team has gone an unprecedented 0-3 so far, but the Spartans are still hopeful about returning to the PSAL wrestling playoffs with vengeance. Last year, the Spartans went undefeated in the regular season with a 10-0 record. However, the team lost to New Utrecht in the first round of playoffs with a final score of 30-45. This year, the Spartans have hit a rough patch, losing their first three bouts to the Eagle Acad-

emy Eagles, Martin Luther King Jr. Knights, and Kingsbridge Academy Tigers. Nonetheless, the team is looking to get their mojo back and revert back to their accustomed winning ways.

To make this return, the Spartans have started to rebuild their roster and tune their techniques with the proper guidance of the team’s coach, captains, and experienced players.

With the start of the new season, the Spartans have racked up experience, as well as new potential. Though the players suffered from a lack of willpower and spirit in tough situations in their initial games, the team strives to show determination and grit in its remaining matches.

The co-captains, senior Anvar Kadirbekov, junior Joseph Kim, and junior Zoe Chin, hope to rebuild the roster and organize the team in preparation for its upcoming tournament against

Bronx Science. “We were undefeated last year, so we hope to keep that pace. Though we lost a lot of starters, this year, we have a lot of new members,

and we hope to rebuild the roster in time for the match against Bronx Science,” Kadirbekov said.

The captains have been leading by example, showing how to

ball team narrowly failed to make the playoffs this year, senior and running back Sam Glusker still managed to have an incredible season. With 15 touchdowns and 100 total points in seven games, Glusker led the Peglegs offense in many of their victories. In a 12-8 win against Franklin K. Lane High School, Glusker aided the team with two touchdowns, and in a 21-14 win against Christopher Columbus High School, he helped with two touchdowns again. Of course, he couldn’t have done it without the help of his teammates, namely senior and quarterback Efe Kilic, who threw for all of Glusker’s seven receiving touchdowns. “I just showed up, and my teammates and coaches had faith in me and put me in positions to succeed,” Glesker said.

Shivani Shah (girls’ varsity volleyball)

A centerpiece in the success of the girls’ varsity volleyball team was senior and setter Shivani Shah. Shah ended the season with the most assists in the Manhattan A I division, with 149 in 11 games. Not only did she accomplish that feat, but with 24 aces and 53 service points, she led the team in points, as well. It is clear how large of a part she played in the team’s undefeated regular season, with nine wins in nine games, as well as their playoff success, where they made it to the quarterfinals, only narrowly losing to number one seed John Jay Campus. “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game,” she said.

Honorable Mentions: Efe Kilic (boys’ varsity football) Venus Wan (girls’ varsity volleyball)

Siddhartha Mutha (boys’ varsity soccer)

Daria Minhas (girls’ varsity swimming & diving)

Julian Huang (boys’ varsity badminton) Alika Peker (girls’ varsity tennis)

bring the heat to the mat. Chin is a prime example of hard work and dedication, with an impressive head-to-head record of 2-0. Kadirbekov and Kim have also been up to the mark, each with a record of 1-1. Despite recent setbacks, the team’s captains aren’t discouraged and are attempting to remake the team with anyone willing to put in the miles.

With the co-captains’ assistance at every turn, the new recruits are more driven than ever. Anyone can learn how to wrestle, regardless of background. Thus, anyone may participate. The captains are very encouraging, and attendance for the team is high. All members put forth a lot of effort to help each other out during practice while the captains simultaneously instruct and supervise. Captains and experienced

“Wrestling is a sport that takes time to learn. We have a lot of new talent, and we’re going in the right direction. Though we lost the last couple matches, we learned a lot.”

––Richard Murray, Stuyvesant Spartans coach

The Next Patrick Mahomes?

struggling Rattler in the Red River rivalry game against Texas to give the Sooners a spark on offense. The freshman hero then went 16 for 25, gaining 212 yards and scoring two touchdowns to take down Oklahoma’s longtime rivals, the Texas Longhorns, in a 55-48 win for the Sooners. Little did he know that this game would put him over Rattler in the depth chart, shoving him into the national spotlight as the new starting quarterback for one of the nation’s top teams.

his sophomore season as USC’s new starting quarterback under a coach whose system he’s accustomed to, Williams has shined.

In a year where he threw for over 4,000 yards, slung the ball for 37 touchdowns, and was intercepted a mere four times, Williams flew to the top of the list of Heisman finalists. He eventually took home the coveted Heisman Trophy in December, breaking the college football record for most Heismans won by a single school.

quarterback and current runnerup for NFL MVP, Mahomes.

By ANAS AHMED

This past season in college football was an absolute rollercoaster ride for fans across the United States. As the season came to a close, four finalists were selected for a chance to receive the illustrious Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the best player in college football at the end of the regular season. The finalists included Ohio State quarterback C. J. Stroud, TCU quarterback Max Duggan, Georgia quarterback

World Cup

Stetson Bennett, and USC quarterback Caleb Williams. Among these stellar quarterbacks, one shined more than the others, and he was none other than Williams, the sophomore quarterback for the USC Trojans. Last October, Williams was a backup quarterback at the University of Oklahoma, playing secondstring to the consensus preseason number-one quarterback in college football, Spencer Rattler. Looking for a chance to showcase his skills, Williams came in for a

Soon after the 2021 season was over, Williams entered the transfer portal, a decision many expected, as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, Lincoln Riley, had gone to USC to help bring a national title to the Trojans. Unsurprisingly, Williams followed Riley to Los Angeles, a choice influenced by the fact that Riley was the first to give Williams a true shot at glory in the Red River rivalry game and throughout the remainder of the 2021 season. The two looked to bring back a strong winning culture at USC. “We’re going to put out a football team that hopefully you’re proud of on the field, but you’re proud of what they do in the classroom, you’re proud of what they do in the community and that we represent you well and then we work incredibly well together,” Riley said. Now entering

Whether it be because of his incredibly talented arm, offbalance throws, or extravagant playmaking ability, Williams has gotten quite the NFL comparison, with some saying he resembles a younger Patrick Mahomes. “I don’t think there’s anything that I can’t do that he’s doing out there.

I think it’s really cool [...] I’ve had comparisons to a bunch of other people, and since I have, [Mahomes] is pretty cool,” Williams said in an interview with CBS Sports Radio. What may come off as a bit self-centered from Williams can be overlooked, as his play does most of the talking for him. When Williams surveys the field, scrambles out of the pocket, and fires the ball downfield with pristine accuracy, it’s hard for fans not to see the obvious resemblance to the Kansas City Chiefs

Ultimately, to beat some of the best quarterbacks in the nation for the Heisman, Williams not only had to resemble Mahomes’s play style, but he also had to showcase electric play in clutch situations. In a classic rivalry game against UCLA, the Trojans were down 20-21 at halftime, losing to a worse football team. Williams rushed for a touchdown in the first quarter and failed to sling the football to his receivers. Coming out of the locker room, the future Heisman had one goal in mind: lock-in and dominate. After a phenomenal second half of the game, Williams led the Trojans to a 48-45 win, with over 500 total yards and three touchdowns. With this win, USC entered the top five schools in the nation, one spot away from college football playoffs. “They had a lot to say all week. We blocked it out. They had a lot to say today. We blocked it out. We did our job. We fought. We kept fighting,” Williams said. This resilience from USC and their talisman quarterback was a common theme throughout the season and ultimately elevated Williams into the national spotlight once again as he prevailed over fellow Heisman finalists.

The World Cup Is Not The Pinnacle of Football

sets in this year’s World Cup has only exacerbated this issue. One of the most dramatic upsets was Morocco’s 2-0 victory over Belgium, the latter who ranks second on FIFA’s international rankings. This sent Belgium into a flurry of anger, provoking riots in Brussels, where cars were lit on fire, large fights broke out, and heartbroken fans rampaged the city.

Riots weren’t all the World Cup instigated, however. After Argentina’s victory over Mexico, a video of Messi seemingly kicking a Mexico jersey in Argentina’s dressing room took Twitter by

Co-ed Wrestling

storm. Messi went viral for all the wrong reasons, and Mexican fans attacked the football legend from all angles––including professional MMA fighter Canelo Álvarez, who called out the Argentine forward for “disrespecting” Mexico. It was clarified later, however, that this was a mere accident on Messi’s part, but this highlights how the intense nationalism elicited by the tournament can lead to hatred driven by irrational assumptions and excessive aggression.

FIFA’s campaign was set up for failure: intense rivalries brewing over was inevitable, but they didn’t make their lives any easier with their selection of Qatar as the host country. On one hand, Qatar represents a revolution-

ary win for an often unrecognized part of football: this year’s World Cup marks the first time a Middle Eastern or Arab country has hosted it. On the other hand, Qatar represents everything that is wrong with FIFA. The country has a particularly egregious track record when it comes to human rights, which FIFA knew of but conveniently chose to disregard in their vetting of Qatar. To build the infrastructure for the tournament, Qatar relied on the exploitation of migrant workers, resulting in over 6,500 casualties. Additionally, FIFA was aware of Qatar’s laws regarding the LGBTQ+ community. Fans had hoped that they would stand in support of the community, but they instead

reinforced Qatar’s restriction of LGBTQ+ rights. FIFA’s lack of action only perpetuates the same narrative we’ve always known––they are just another corporation that will always prioritize money over human rights and lives.

Players weren’t particularly happy with FIFA, either. The sweltering climate in Qatar meant FIFA had to reschedule the tournament to the winter––which directly coincided with the regular season leagues. As a result, stars like Senegal’s Sadio Mané, France’s Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba, and Japan’s Yuta Nakayama, among an expansive list of others, were all ruled out from injury prior to the tournament’s opening match. The World Cup

Reassemble the Spartans

wrestlers provide rookies with priceless advice for tense situations. With all the support, the wrestling squad has a strong attitude and is constantly striving for growth. “A lot of the members are coming to practice every day and working hard, so I’m proud of them,” sophomore and wrestler Aronya Sarker said.

The Spartans have been going through progressive and constructed training to overcome the lack of consistency in their groundwork, the latter of which led to losses in their first three matches this season and their playoff match last season.

The team lacked the spirit and willpower to fend for themselves against opponents in tough situations, which made them likely to lose by falls, also known as pins.

In response, their workout has been developed to be intense, rigorous, and demanding, with many different routines to get the muscles animated. The Spartans start with sets of knee-ups, butt kicks, and dropping and sprinting. The Spartans have been getting themselves in unfavorable and gruesome positions under their opponents during the matches in the first half of the season. Advantageous and applicable strength can be formed from these workouts, since a wrestler can develop the power and might to lift an oppo-

nent with their legs and back.

In terms of coaching, the Spartans are led by inspiration and well-experienced coach Richard Murray, who shares his wisdom and enlightens the wrestlers with new techniques and forms. Recently, he has been showing the Spartans how to escape from potential falls during wrestling situations. With his advisory, the Spartans can excel tremendously in the regular season. “Wrestling is a sport that takes time to learn. We have a lot of new talent, and we’re going in the right direction. Though we lost the last couple matches, we learned a lot,” Murray said.

The chemistry of the team has proven to be a crucial com-

ponent for the Spartans. The team encourages members to perform at their highest potential, which is a major factor in the team’s success. The team members maintain close relationships with each other, providing one another emotional and spiritual support. They strive to create a friendly and inclusive environment so all players can flourish in the Spartan camp. “The team is very welcoming, and we are pretty close-knit. We try to enjoy the sport and do our best,” Sarker said.

At this stage of the competition, it’s now or never for the Spartans. With only a handful of games remaining, the team needs to start breathing fire in order to

is the pinnacle of players’ careers, and FIFA’s scheduling prevented many stars from reaching their dreams. Players and commentators alike have voiced their disgust at the tournament being allowed to continue and have also reprimanded FIFA for disregarding Qatar’s human rights violations.

Football unites the world. The World Cup does not, and neither does FIFA. While the tournament is intended to bring people together, FIFA’s propagation of discrimination, combined with the heightened political tensions and national rivalries, does exactly the opposite. Simply put, the World Cup is a terrible portrayal of the jogo bonito.

reach the playoffs. Team chemistry is something that has been developing over the last few weeks, and the captains are growing into their roles, even though their roster is mostly fresh. As their match results improve by the smallest of increments, the team is developing overall. The Spartans need to put the foot on the accelerator in their most recent home game against the Harry S. Truman Mustangs, a team that has likewise struggled to see daylight. The Spartans need to overcome their challenges rapidly and show some resilience, because in wrestling, it’s either conquer or be conquered.

Whether it be because of his incredibly talented arm, off-balance throws, or extravagant playmaking ability, Williams has gotten quite the NFL comparison, with some saying he resembles a younger Patrick Mahomes.

Boys’ Basketball

Factor in Ireland, who’s averaging a dominant 18-15, and the Storm have a formidable frontcourt that can put their heads down and score just as well as they can wall off any attempt at their own basket.

In the backcourt, guards and seniors Jeffrey Tan and Kyle Lee run a mostly efficient offense, though it’s not without its flaws. The Storm often face teams faster and more athletic than them, requiring them to put more emphasis on defense. “We are not the most athletic team, and this year especially, we have struggled a lot with shooting, specifically from the three-point and free throw lines,” Sherer said.

However, when the Storm are able to break through, they can cut the opposing defense like butter. “Our best game is when we push the ball in transition, force steals, and get easy layups,” Ireland said. The gritty defensive tactics of the Storm have clearly worked, as they sit undefeated atop the competitive Manhattan A I league. No team has scored over 60 on them in a league match.

Their success on the court

starts off the court, and as alluded to earlier, one of their greatest strengths is their chemistry. Some of this dynamic

with only Sundays off. Sewell is notorious for his grueling practices and emphasis on commitment to the team, but you’ll be

portive, and when they’re playing efficiently, the Storm can often go on lengthy scoring runs fueled by that enthusiasm.

tributions from bench players such as sophomore and crafty point-forward Samay Kothari and junior and forward David Glick have been integral. Kothari hit a huge three-pointer in the last five seconds of the Storm’s Seward Park game to force overtime, and Glick has been a key contributor when starters are in foul trouble or need a rest. As per usual, the team’s greatest obstacle will be Murry Bergtraum. Bergtraum nearly always finishes at the top of the standings with an undefeated record. However, last year, the Storm came within the closest margin of beating the powerhouse, and they hoped to finish the job this year in their first matchup on Monday, December 19.

can be attributed to the sheer amount of practice time implemented by Coach Sewell, who was the PSAL Coach of the Week in the same week Ireland was honored. Over the past spring and summer, varsity, junior varsity, and prospective players hooped, lifted, and conditioned with each other in the park and in summer leagues. Now that the Storm are inseason, they practice or play six days a week, rain or shine,

hard pressed to find a player who tells you this style is bad for the team. “Coach Sewell is a very stubborn guy, but his coaching does help us reach our potential. He pushes us to practice and play harder,” Sherer said. Out of all of this practice comes a team that plays like a well-oiled machine. Teammates play off each other as if they’ve been doing it for years, because, in many cases, they have. The bench is high-energy and sup-

“I think this year is the culmination of all the team chemistry and work we’ve put in together over the last three seasons. It has the potential to surpass the previous teams’ accomplishments,” Sherer said.

Looking forward, the Storm hope for a deep playoff run this year. Their undefeated start has been historic, the best start to a season since 2008. They defeated Bayard Rustin for the first time in seven years. Con-

Expectations for the Storm haven’t been this high in years. “If we play like we can, this team can make a very, very deep playoff run this year. I think anything less than two playoff wins would be a disappointment for us,” Sherer said. The Storm have been steadily improving since the inception of this team all the way back in 2020. This year, they have proved their chemistry and strength for five games in a row, with no sign of slowing down.

How’s the Basketball Up There?

By YASHNA PATEL and FREDERIK SCHUTZ

Name: Sloan Ireland Grade: Senior Height: 6’10”

Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Date of Birth: 08/01/2005

Shoe Size: Size 19 Men’s

1. When and how did you start playing basketball? How long have you been on the Storm, the Stuyvesant varsity basketball team?

I started playing basketball around fourth or fifth grade. I’ve always been tall, so I played in the park during recess and in casual leagues. I always took my height for granted, which allowed me to score more points, and carried my basketball games until about sixth or seventh grade. But as everyone started to catch up skill-wise—and I had not necessarily been training my skills—I never made my middle school team [or the team at Stuyvesant during my] freshman year. I was a super uncoordinated person, and I could barely dribble or shoot the ball. I didn’t even make JV as a freshman at Stuyvesant, but then COVID hit, and I really started training and getting better. I ended up going straight to varsity as a sophomore, and from there, I continued on the team [throughout] my junior and senior years.

2. What position do you play? What skills/strengths are involved?

As the tallest guy on the team, I play center. My main job is rebounder and rim protector. If somebody has gotten by, I’m the last line of defense. When we’re playing a zone, I try to move to someone on the opposing team who is driving the ball by blocking their shot because I am so tall, and [I] also use my height to my advantage to get rebounds.

3. Do you have a most memorable/proud moment with the Storm?

As of now, I would say one of the moments I felt the proudest [of] was last year on senior night— our last home game of the season.

Basketball

We were playing against Norman Thomas, and they were playing an extremely strong game, so with just six seconds left on the clock, we were down by two. I made a buzzer-beater to force overtime, where we eventually won. We also made playoffs for the first time in five years that season. But I would say this year, my game is a lot different and the team is so much stronger, so I think my favorite moment with the Storm is coming into this season because we are going to go incredibly far.

4. What is it like being so tall, not just in basketball, but also in your personal life?

For me, it’s almost normal at this point. But every couple of days someone on the subway will

ask, “How tall are you?” I’ve been blessed with this height, and it gives me a presence on the basketball court and when I walk into a room, so I use that to my advantage to benefit others.

5. How do you think the Stuyvesant basketball team has changed you as an athlete/person?

I would say it has shifted my mentality. If you want something, you have to put your mind to it––you can’t just expect things to come to you. My height only carried me so far and it hit me hard when I didn’t make JV as a freshman because I really wanted to play organized basketball at this school. Making the team and being on it has taught me the importance of

hard work and working on yourself to improve. Also, playing at Stuyvesant has really taught me about time management. Stuyvesant is such an academically stressful school, and we practice or play games six days a week for two to three hours after school. Often, I’m not getting home until 8:00 p.m. most nights, and I’ve had to learn to manage my time, so that’s been something that has been really helpful. And as captain, there’s a sense of responsibility for me since I want to lead this team as far as I can, and there’s a degree of sacrifice that I like to think that I make in terms of that.

6. Do you have any plans to continue the sport in the future or in college?

It was only recently that I decided that I wanted to play basketball in college. Because of COVID, colleges are looking for guys who can transfer from other colleges because they would rather have a player with more experience. So getting recruited out of high school at any level—D1, D2, or D3—is very difficult, especially at an academically prestigious college. I do have at least one D3 offer to play basketball—I am just waiting for other college decisions. So, I will be playing basketball in college. I am just not sure where yet.

7. Do you have any pregame superstitions or rituals?

I don’t have superstitions really—I am not that type of guy. I just know what I need. I make sure I always get the same lunch on game day from Cuisine K, a cart past Whole Foods, so I am fueled. I try to get good sleep the day before, so I am not tired. I come ready to play.

8. Do you have a specific free throw routine? What is it?

I spin the ball once in my left hand, bring it back to my right, and then put the ball in a triple-threat position. I do three dribbles and then go into my shooting motion.

9. What is your jersey number? What made you decide on that number?

I joined the team as a sophomore and I was given the number

Way-Too-Early NBA Predictions

By TY ANANT

The NBA season is just over a third of the way through, and teams have played less than 30 games each. By all accounts, it’s way too early to make predictions for the league’s most prestigious awards and titles—not that that’s going to stop me. Two months of basketball is just enough time to let the craziness of the opening month settle while preserving the excitement of a new NBA season. Stars have experienced breakout starts on new teams, championship favorites have nearly fallen out of the playoffs, and teams have risen from years of purgatory to the top of the standings. Without further ado, here are some of my predictions for the 2022-23 NBA awards.

Most Valuable Player (MVP): Giannis Antetokounmpo

There are only three real candidates for the greatest individual

award this year: Jayson Tatum, Luka Dončić, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. I’d like more than anything to give my preemptive award to Dončić of my beloved Dallas Mavericks, but the Mavs are sitting at 14-14 as of December 15, 2022, which is just barely good enough for the 10th seed. I have faith that the Mavs will pick up their pace and finish with a good playoff berth, but right now, I can’t award the MVP to a player on a 0.500 team when the other two candidates boast the top two records in the league.

Tatum is one of these candidates—his Celtics hold the best record in the league at 21-6, and he’s averaging 30 points and eight rebounds per game. He’s certainly on a tear; there’s nothing more impressive than watching Tatum play winning basketball. His defensive play has also elevated, as he’s averaging a steal and a block per game. This play greatly contributed to the massive blowout

losses the Celtics have orchestrated against inferior opponents. Unfortunately, this level of play might not be sustainable. This is by far Tatum’s best start, but it’s coming off his most restful summer ever; this is the only year out of the past three in which Tatum had not participated in a major basketball tournament over the summer. He most recently won gold with the U.S. in the postponed 2020 Olympics. It makes sense that he’d have a strong start with the restful summer. As the season goes on, Tatum will most likely slow down. There’s little doubt that the Celtics will finish as a top-three seed and that they’ll go deep in the playoffs, but this level of production from Tatum is unlikely to be sustained over the course of an eight-month season.

That leaves Antetokounmpo. He already has two MVPs, and he looks to be on pace for another season of that caliber. He’s aver-

aging an extraordinary 31 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists to start, but, unlike Tatum, these averages are similar to his final averages from previous seasons, so I have faith that they aren’t just an outlier caused by a restful summer. The question that should be asked then, is, if his averages are similar to his past seasons, what sets this year apart from the others? and the answer to that question is that nothing has to. He won the MVP in 2019 and 2020, and since then, his consistency has been his greatest strength. With Nikola Jokić, the MVP winner in 2021 and 2022, experiencing a poor start to this season, the path is clear for Antetokounmpo to reclaim his throne.

Rookie Of The Year (ROY):

Paolo Banchero

Here’s a pretty easy one. Paolo Banchero ruled the ROY ladder for the first month of the 202223 NBA season, even dropping

21. I didn’t choose it, but it was my first number for organized sports, so it was special to me. Those jerseys were red and white. But when we switched to the OG colors, blue and white, the 21 jersey was not in my size. The only jersey in my size was 15, so I was forced to switch.

10. What are the best and worst parts of basketball?

Basketball is a fun sport. I wouldn’t trade it for anything since basketball is my life. But it is grueling, and you have to put in a ton of work. We play in a division where even though our team is super skilled, there are so many players who are quicker and more naturally athletically gifted. So we have to do a lot of running [and] staying in shape, and it definitely hurts at times.

11. What are your short-term and long-term goals going into the season?

Currently, we are 4-0, and we have had two huge wins against Seward Park and Bayard Rustin, historically ranked second and third in our division. We need at least six wins to make the playoffs, and we are definitely going to get that. So short term, our realistic goal is to go 10-2 this season, only losing to Murry Bergtraum twice, who is the team to beat. It would be great if we do win those games though. Long term, I want to go as far as we can in playoffs. We have a really gifted group of guys this year, and we have multiple underclassmen who can come off the bench and make great contributions on the court, so I think we can really go for it this year.

Funniest Teammates: Adam Sherer and Emerson Gelobter

Favorite Professional Basketball Player: Shaquille O’Neal

Favorite NBA Team: New York Knicks

Playing on Full or Light Stomach: Full Stomach

Favorite Sports Drink: Gatorade Favorite Post-Game Snack: McDonald’s One Dollar Large Fries

Favorite Hobby: Ball is life. If You Could Play One Other Sport: Rugby Basketball Shoe Brand: Adidas

back-to-back 30-point games before he sustained a sprained ankle. He then missed seven games with that injury, which would’ve dropped any normal rookie a few spots in the rankings. Not Banchero. He came roaring right back to the top of the standings and led the Magic to a four-game winning streak, during all of which Banchero has had over 20 points, including a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double against the Raptors.

Defensive Player Of The Year (DPOY):

Brook Lopez

Brook Lopez is putting up a dominant defensive campaign. While his teammate, Antetokounmpo, is putting up a DPOYcaliber season as well, my award goes to Lopez. He’s averaging a league-leading three blocks per

Zifei Zhao / The Spectator

Tennis

The New Era Of Professional Tennis Has Arrived

By KAI RUSSELL

This year was anything but normal for professional tennis. From the shocking retirement of former world champion Ashleigh Barty in March to electrifying performances from fresh faces at the U.S. Open in September, tennis fans witnessed the ascension of the next generation of the sport. Though familiar faces dominated the grand slams early in the season—exemplified by Rafael Nadal’s championships at both the Australian and French Opens— the attention quickly shifted to some of the younger contenders on the tour.

At only 21 years old, Iga Świątek has been heralded as the future of women’s tennis. Świątek first burst onto the scene two years ago, when she claimed the French Open title and became the first Polish player to ever win a singles grand slam. Fans witnessed her potent forehand and incredible court movement during the tournament, where Świątek limited her opponents to a maximum of five games in all of her matches. However, the best was yet to come.

Following Barty’s retirement, Świątek obtained the coveted status of world number one. Shortly afterward, Świątek was the victor of a staggering 37 straight matches, with titles most notably at Indian Wells, Miami, and the French Open, again. She became the eighth woman in Open Era history to have a win streak of such length. Entering the hard court season, one of the biggest sto- rylines was whether Świątek’s expertise would translate onto a surface that she previously had less success on. “I’m trying not to get my expectations too high because I know anything can happen,” Świątek said in an interview after her fourth-round tilt. Despite her own worries, she breezed past her competition and won the U.S. Open title with an emotional 6-2, 7-6 victory over fifth-seeded Ons

World Cup

Jabeur, who had reached the Wimbledon finals only a few months earlier. When asked in the post- match interview, Świątek echoed the thoughts of many tennis fans around the world. “It’s something that I wasn’t expecting for sure,” Świątek said in an interview with the New York Times. “It’s also like a confirmation for me that [the] sky is the limit.” Though she is best known for her clay court prowess, Świątek’s dominance on all surfaces this year demonstrated her versatility. Be careful, tour players. The sky may really be the limit for Świątek.

On the men’s side, there is Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, who turned heads during his performance at last year’s U.S. Open and continued his path to stardom with a strong finish in 2022. Alcaraz kicked off his professional career at 16 years old, and fans immediately took notice. Alcaraz, who had been deemed “The Next Nadal,” was already building up hype before the season.

Alcaraz started this year ranked 32nd in the world, right off a tournament win in the Next Gen Finals last December. Though many analysts already penciled him in as a breakout star, Alcaraz’s dominance this year has proved that he is much more than that. He claimed titles in Miami, Barcelona, and even Madrid, where he beat Nadal—dubbed the “King of Clay” by many—on his own signature surface. In spite of early round exits at both the French Open and Wimbledon, Alcaraz stayed determined and eventually entered the U.S. Open. He faced an incredibly tough side of the draw, where he was forced to play 15th-seeded Marin Čilić, 11th-seeded Jannik Sinner, and fan favorite Frances Tiafoe Jr., who was fresh off a thrilling win over Nadal in the fourth round.

Alcaraz’s style, characterized by overwhelming speed and endurance, was put to the test in three straight five-set matches against these opponents—a mighty feat

for any tennis player, let alone a teenager. Even if he wasn’t the crowd’s favorite, Alcaraz certainly impressed with his efforts and made the high ticket prices more than worthwhile. Against all odds, Alcaraz proceeded to pull through exhaustion in each match and then won the final over fellow next-generation player Casper Ruud, who had already experienced a heartbreaking defeat in the French Open final. After championship point, he could do little but collapse on the ground in relief and joy.

With the victory, Alcaraz be-

came the youngest player to ever obtain the rank of world number one and ended the season as such.

During the trophy presentation inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, he was emotional when asked what the win meant to him. “It’s something that I dreamed of since I was a kid,” Alcaraz said in the courtside interview following the final. “To be number one in the world, to be the champion of a Grand Slam, is something that I worked really, really hard for.”

Though he experienced a minor setback with an abdominal tear in the waning events of the year,

It’s Called Soccer and Football

By CHRISTOPHER CHOE

The US men’s national soccer team (USMNT) made history on November 29, 2022. With a 1-0 victory over Iran, the Americans confirmed their spot in the Round of 16, with star captain Christian Pulisic scoring the only goal. There were many speculations as to whether this team would advance to the next round because of the strength of the other nations in its group, England, Wales, and Iran.

Despite this doubt, the USMNT proved they belonged with a 0–0 draw against England and a 1-1 draw against Wales. After missing the 2018 World Cup completely, this performance was an excellent showing that the USMNT could compete on the world stage. However, even with the team’s outstanding performance in the 2022 World Cup, there is rising controversy behind the name of the sport they play. Is it soccer or football?

When the USMNT were placed into Group B along with England and Wales, there was an explosion of reactions regarding the sport’s

name, since England and Wales, both located in the UK, call it football, while the United States calls it soccer. Throughout the history of this controversy, the rest of the world has criticized Americans for calling the sport soccer. There was prejudice against the USMNT’s skill due to the sport’s different name, leading to Americans being viewed as inferior in the world of football. To see why this culture is the case, one must look back into the history of the word “soccer.”

“Soccer” is the term colloquially used in the United States and adopted by countries like Canada and Australia. On the other hand, Europeans, Africans, and South Americans use the term football or fútbol. So why do we call it soccer and not football? Surprisingly, the word “soccer” is of British origin. In fact, during the 19th century, the British used the words “soccer” and “football” interchangeably. Because there were two sports in Britain containing the word football (rugby football and association football), scholars renamed association football to soccer, deriving

it from “assoccer,” the combination of “association” and the suffix “er.” Meanwhile, in America, a version of soccer brought over by the Europeans rose in popularity, combining aspects of association football and rugby. To integrate these two sports, Americans adopted the word “soccer” for similar reasons as the British. Though the British later shortened rugby football to just rugby and renamed soccer to football, Americans stuck with soccer, using it as the main term for the sport.

On the game day of USA against England, there were many social media talks from famous influencers that constantly brought up the topic of soccer vs. football. Though this activity was mostly friendly banter, they touched upon the hidden divide that has separated European “football” from American “soccer” for years. In most European nations, football is the sport that everyone plays and that characterizes cities and regions, bringing their people together. In the United States, there is a more diverse array of sports

that leaves soccer struggling for a moment in the spotlight. It falls behind basketball, baseball, American football, and hockey in engagement. Perhaps this situation was the case, but American soccer culture is evolving. This year’s world cup brought in record engagement, with watch parties full of fans, young and old, donning the colors of the flag. The American faithful in Qatar filled the stadiums with their voices. The archaic and frail “I believe that we will win!” has been replaced by the defiant “It’s called soccer!” which showed American defiance throughout their matches, especially that against England.

After drawing with Wales, many thought the USMNT had no chance at beating football mecca England or even getting a point against them. Despite all this doubt, the Americans performed better than anyone thought they would and drew 0-0. Though the result sounds disappointing, the match itself was characterized by a powerful American defense, silencing the typically rambunctious

Alcaraz is slated to be one of the favorites going into tournaments in the 2023 season—and deservedly so.

The emergence of young tal- ents like Świątek and Alcaraz has left tennis fans with a lot to be excited about. The retirements of greats like Roger Federer and Serena Williams have left the door open for young stars to gain fame in a game that has been long dominated by these few names. Did this year’s season mark the start of a new era for professional tennis? Perhaps, but we will simply have to wait and see.

English offense. The best chance of the game came from Pulisic, who was denied by the crossbar. American goalkeeper Matt Turner kept the sheets clean with a few outstanding saves. This incredible match against England, which many saw as a contender to win the cup, proved to the world of football that American soccer tactics should be respected.

With a great performance in the group stages, the USMNT faced the Netherlands in the Round of 16. The “Stars and Stripes” ended up losing 1-3 and were knocked out of the tournament. Despite this loss, this team proved to the whole world that soccer shouldn’t be overlooked and that the USMNT have a lot of potential for future competitions. The days of quiet Americans supporting a sport that the nation has little interest in are over. This World Cup performance from the USMNT showed the world that there shouldn’t be controversy behind soccer and football. The most important aspect of the sport is to enjoy it together.

Joanna Meng / The Spectator

Football College Football Playoff Preview

By LEO ROSES

This college football season gave fans all they could ask for. The reigning national champions, the Georgia Bulldogs, brought back their sixth-year walk-on quarterback and their best defensive player, even though they lost 15 players to the NFL draft.

The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner, Bryce Young, and the best defensive player in the nation, Will Anderson Jr., headlined an Alabama team that was predicted to dominate. Ohio State University (OSU) brought back Heisman finalist C. J. Stroud, alongside Biletnikoff favorite Jaxon Smith-Njigba and potential Doak Walker Trophy winner TreVeyon Henderson, in a projected star-studded offense. However, this season was truly made great by the University of Southern California’s return (and almost Texas’s), Michigan’s upending of OSU for the second year in a row, and a Tennessee team that gave the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the playoffs a run for their money. These highlights came along with an amazing feat, a backup quarterback and firstyear head coach pulling a small Big 12 school to an undefeated regular season.

After 15 players were drafted, including five in the first round, it was fair to question if Georgia would be as dominant as it was in 2021. Well, maybe it wasn’t fair to question. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs more than settled any doubts after crushing Oregon in the opening game of the season 49-3. Things did not get any more difficult as Georgia went on to easily win their remaining 12 games, including a two-touchdown victory over the formerly number three-ranked Tennessee Volunteers and a 20-point beatdown over the SEC West champion, Louisiana State University Tigers, in the SEC Championship. Now, Georgia is forced into what could be their most difficult game of the year against a talented Ohio

Basketball

State team, in an attempt to repeat as national champion.

Aidan Hutchinson led the 2021 Michigan Wolverines to a magical season last year, capped off by a home victory over Ohio State. However, Hutchinson, along with a significant chunk of their core, left for the NFL after the season. It looked like Coach Jim Harbaugh would have to reload this program, which had just reached its greatest height in over

Texas Christian University (TCU) looked to have a poetic finish to a magical season. Early on, the team’s starting quarterback got injured for the entire year, and Duggan, a backup who had to have heart surgery three weeks before Week One, took over and became a Heisman finalist. Their first-year head coach called a runon field goal with 13 seconds left in the game and no time-outs to keep an undefeated regular sea-

lost at home to their archrival, the University of Michigan, on November 26 by 22 points. On the weekend of December 2, all Ryan Day’s squad could do was sit, watch, and wait. Fortunately for them, a hamstring injury for Caleb Williams allowed Lincoln Riley’s USC squad to lose to Utah for the second time this year in the PAC-12 Championship.

Looking to the semifinal round of the CFP, Michigan vs. TCU is not expected to be a close game. TCU is an incredible story, but it seems unrealistic for them to actually win the National Championship. The talent difference is too great. However, it is guaranteed that Sonny Dykes will have his team prepared and focused. Duggan and star receiver Quentin Johnston should be able to hit on a couple of big plays down the field to keep the game close. For Michigan, it’s a shame that star running back Corum will not be able to play. However, offensively, not much should change, with running back Donovan Edwards filling the spot comfortably. As long as the Michigan offensive line does not collapse, the Wolverines should be able to pull away in this one. Prediction: Michigan: 31, TCU: 20.

high-powered passing game, it would be Georgia, with their secondary full of five-star talents Kelee Ringo, Christopher Smith II, and freshman Malaki Starks. Their pass-rush, led by potential first overall pick defensive tackle Jalen Carter, should also give Stroud trouble. Expect Georgia to gain a lead early on with a defensive or special teams touchdown, and expect Ohio State to fail to make it close, despite hitting on a few big plays downfield. Prediction: Georgia: 38, Ohio State: 27.

game, which is incredible for a 35-year-old in his 15th season.

Lopez adds to the “twin tower” defense that the Bucks have leaned on to rise to second in the Eastern Conference, and his defensive game definitely stands out in a season, that, as of right now, has no clear defensive favorite.

Most Improved Player (MIP): Shai

Gilgeous-Alexander

I might look like a hypocrite for giving Shai Gilgeous-Alexander my MIP award when I didn’t consider Dončić’s dominant season because of his team’s poor record. Though OKC sits at just the 13th seed in the Western Conference, Gilgeous-Alexander’s impact has been undeniable. He improved by a whopping six points per game, going from 24.5 points per game last year to being a leading scorer in the league this

a decade. The one upside he had returning was his starting quarterback, which didn’t last long. Three weeks into the season, Harbaugh replaced redshirt junior quarterback Cade McNamara with talented, former five-star sophomore J. J. McCarthy. The star backfield of McCarthy and running back Blake Corum led Michigan to a 13-0 record and a highly anticipated rivalry match against Ohio State. After a slow start, Michigan turned up to a third gear, demolishing the Buckeyes in the fourth quarter.

Max Duggan took the snap for a two-point conversion and nearly fell over. After running for 95 yards on an end-of-game drive to lead his team to overtime in the Big 12 Championship game,

son intact. However, after losing to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship, TCU found themselves at the discretion of the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee, which allowed the team to make the playoffs over a two-loss Alabama team that played five one-score games. Luckily for TCU, they were left in (and placed over Ohio State, perhaps due to an undesired rematch).

All year, Ohio State University was within the top three favorites to win the National Championship. Their quarterback, Stroud, was the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy for nearly the entire season. So it was disappointing for Buckeye fans, to say the least, when they

Ohio State should leave everything on the table for Georgia. Star running back Henderson should be back, adding a muchneeded boost to their running game. In order to win, Ohio State will need this running game to be effective on first down, and they will need receivers Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming to step up alongside Marvin Harrison Jr. and make plays for Stroud. Georgia will look to beat Ohio State in the same way Michigan did: more physicality, a stronger running game, and connecting on the plays down the field. The one thing that Georgia might have over Ohio State (which Michigan didn’t have) is more talent. If there were any team in the country that did not fear Ohio State’s

A Georgia vs. Michigan championship game seems likely. This matchup occurred last year in the semifinals, when Michigan seemed outmatched. This year, they look to have more offensive firepower with the emergence of McCarthy. However, looking at how dominant Georgia has been all year, it does not seem likely that Smart will let a team that feels a lot like his own, with less talent, beat the Bulldogs. In fact, it’s more likely that Ohio State will beat Georgia simply because their quarterback and receiving core will be playing at a high level on Sundays. Georgia should be able to pace ahead of Michigan, with slightly more resistance than last year. Smart, Ringo, Carter, Stetson Bennett IV, and the Bulldogs should hoist the national championship trophy for a second year in a row. Prediction: Georgia: 35, Michigan: 21.

For such a great and dramatic season, it may seem boring that three of the four playoff teams are Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio State. However, TCU’s representation, even with a loss in the Big 12 Championship game, highlights the chaos that college football went through this season. Hopefully, the College Football Playoff will be just as exciting, dramatic, and surprising as the regular season was. The only question left is: will 2023 usher in a new national champion, or will Georgia repeat as champion after a 41-year drought?

year with 30.8 points per game. The other candidate for this award would be Tyrese Haliburton, who went up from 17/9 last year to 20/11 averages, leading the league in assists and holding the Pacers at the ninth seed in the East, but Gilgeous-Alexander has just been filling the stat sheet too much for there to be a real chance of Haliburton winning.

NBA Champions: Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks have appeared no less than three times in five awards, which is a testament to their strength as a team. As I’ve mentioned, they have the secondbest record in the league at 19-7. Their strength comes from their terrifying tandem of impenetrable defense and overpowering offense. On their side of the court, Jrue Holiday is one of the best defensive wings in the league, averaging 1.5 steals a game and generally locking down the opposing

team’s best perimeter players. In the paint, almost nothing can get past the starting frontcourt of Lopez and Antetokounmpo, who are averaging a combined four blocks per game. For the tired perimeter player who manages to get past the unforgiving hands of Holiday, the pressure of two athletic seven-footers in the paint is often too much. On the offensive side of the court, Antetokounmpo continues to be dominant in transition and off the dribble. Every week, another otherworldly clip of him dunking through or on four opposing players at once surfaces. When Antetokounmpo isn’t throwing around his 250-pound frame, both Holiday and Lopez can pick up the slack, as each of them is averaging 20 points through the first 30 games. All in all, the Bucks’ defense, ranked second in the league, and their blitzing offense make them the team to beat next June.

TCU’s representation even with a loss in the Big 12 Championship game highlights the chaos that College Football went through this season.

THESPECTATORSPORTS

Boys’ Basketball

A Stuyvesant Storm Is Sweeping Through the League

By TY ANANT

Almost two years ago, the Stuyvesant boys’ varsity basketball team made a return to in-person play. That team was disproportionately young, with 15 underclassmen, and they finished a distorted season just 2-5. Now, after two seasons and an entire team rebranding in the 2022-2023 season, eight of those 15 players are still on the team. The chemistry developed over years together is a huge part of why the Stuyvesant Storm have continuously improved. Last year, they made the playoffs with a 9-7 record and finished their season with a valiant effort against Thomas Edison. This year has seemed even stronger, with an undefeated 5-0 start (9-1 including non-league games). The current team is one of the best in the last decade, and their strength comes from the totality of their game.

The Storm’s game starts with defense, and their defense starts with senior and co-captain Sloan Ireland, PSAL Athlete of the Week for the week of December 5. At 6’10”, he towers above most of the PSAL. The Storm run a 2-3 defense, with Ireland in the middle, nearly to

perfection. “Our 2-3 defense works very well,” senior and co-captain Adam Sherer said. “We have been running it for so long, and it caters to everyone’s strengths. It allows me to jump passing lanes and get off ball steals. It lets our guards put a lot of pressure up top, and [Ireland] can stay in the paint

and doesn’t have to do much except rebound and block shots.” Sherer, who suffered a devastating ACL tear last year, has been having a thoroughly impactful return this season, averaging a 10-11 double-double through four league games.

TUESDAY

Boys JV Basketball vs. Baruch HOME 4:30 p.m.

CALENDAR 3 JANUARY 4

WEDNESDAY

Boys Table Tennis vs. Graphics Campus HOME 4:30 p.m.

World Cup

The World Cup Is Not The Pinnacle of Football

By KAEDEN RUPAREL and FARZAD HOQUE

Football unites the world.

At least, FIFA thinks so. The goal of the 2022 World Cup, according to the organization, was to have international football fans cast aside political resentments and come together to celebrate the beautiful game. FIFA’s goal shouldn’t be a stretch: football is more of a lingua franca than even English, and historically, the World Cup has been a source of international unity.

The World Cup is undoubtedly the largest international single-sport event. It has captivated football fans across the world every four years since 1930 and has often succeeded in uniting the world for the short month that seems to last an eternity. The tournament, in many ways, is the climax of football––the world’s superstars facing off for the most glorious prize of all. Yet even with the end goal in mind, the tournament has proved to be a host of political cohesion. At the 2022 World Cup, England and Germany, often tense rivals, stood together in defiance of FIFA’s ban on the One Love armband, as both teams sought to support the LGBTQ+ community. England has also taken a knee prior to every match in protest of racism and injustice, highlighting just how much the tournament can be a host for international cohesion and healing.

However, the World Cup can be quite divisive, evoking an un-

paralleled sense of national pride in fans. Though only 32 countries are competing, almost every football fan shares the excitement and heightened tensions, even when their respective nations aren’t involved. These tensions are only intensified by the infrequency of the tournament and its focus on one sport. One of the world’s biggest sporting events, the Olympics, draws talent from a much larger host of nations and showcases a multitude of sports, allowing fans to allocate their attention to different competitions. The World Cup, on the other hand, solely focuses on football, allowing supporters to channel all of their national pride into one match. The success of a nation in the World Cup is solely dependent on their performance on the pitch, and since there’s no other sport to turn to after a loss, every game is that much more intense.

The supporters’ passion is only embellished by the players’ hunger for the honor of becoming the World Cup champions. Because of the intense emotions flaring, some matches have seen tensions between teams brew over, which would’ve occurred regardless of the fans. The quarterfinal match between Argentina and Netherlands displayed how heightened emotions and national pride causes issues, even between nations that don’t have a history of bad blood. Toward the end of the game, Argentina’s Leandro Paredes put in two particularly aggressive tackles, which alone would have been egregious, but

not unexpected when defending a win. However, chaos ensued when Paredes struck the ball at the opposition bench after the whistle, which prompted Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk to bodycheck Paredes. This led to the largest altercation in this year’s World Cup, as both teams’ benches were involved, resulting in multiple yellow cards being handed out. These tensions carried into the later stages of the game, after the Netherlands forced overtime in the 101st minute. Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez motioned obscene gestures toward the Dutch team after heroic back-to-back penalty saves during the shootout, prompting further arguments between the two sides. After the match, Argentina captain Lionel Messi called Dutch manager Louis van Gaal “a fool” in a postgame interview. Messi is normally a calm and collected leader, but the intensity of the World Cup got the best of him after a hot-tempered match.

Though a team’s progression in the tournament is solely up to the players, fans have all the power outside of those stadiums to flaunt their national pride. In many cases, this can be a beautiful sight—a host of different cultures celebrating a game that unites the world, in whatever way represents their culture best. However, many fans have turned to violence following a disappointing loss or elimination. The plethora of up-

THURSDAY

5 9

Girls Basketball vs. Washington Irving HOME 4:30 p.m.

10

TUESDAY

FRIDAY

Girls Table Tennis vs. Wagner HOME 4:30 p.m.

Boys Swim vs. Hunter HOME 4:30 p.m. 12

13

THURSDAY

Boys JV Basketball vs. HS for Health Professions & Human Services HOME 4:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY

Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Washington Irving HOME 4:30 p.m.

SPORTSBEAT

In a historic FIFA World Cup finals game, Lionel Messi led Argentina to beat France on penalties. The game was tied 3-3 at the end of extra time, and the game of comebacks has been called the greatest World Cup final ever.

The College Football Playoff bracket was set, with the semifinal games of Michigan vs. TCU and Ohio State vs. Georgia scheduled for December 31.

The boys’ varsity basketball team, the Storm, are off to their best start since 2008.

Slugger Aaron Judge re-signed with the New York Yankees on a record-breaking nine-year, $360 million contract.

The NBA announced the new name and design of several trophies, including the renamed MVP trophy, The Michael Jordan Trophy

WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was released from Russian prison in a prisoner swap