Issue 16, Volume 106 by The Stuyvesant Spectator

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume 106  No. 16

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

June 6, 2016

stuyspec.com

Caucus Endorsements

NEWSBEAT

thletic Director and Physical Education teacher Chris Galano was selected to throw the opening pitch at the New York Mets game at Citi Field on Saturday, May 21.

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

he Envirothon team, consisting of juniors Kaia Waxenberg and Nadia Filanovsky as well as seniors Henry Walker, Mohammed Shium, and Darren Lin, placed fifth in the oral presentation portion and 16th overall at the New York State Envirothon Competition on Wednesday, May 25 and Thursday, May 26 in Geneva, New York.

ophomore Julian Rubinfien has been selected as one of five national finalists in the 2016 “Genes in Space” competition for his work on investigating telomere length and the effects of space travel on chromosomes.

The Spectator’s Editorial Board is proud to endorse Julia Lee and Stephanie Naing for Sophomore Caucus, Pallab Saha and Abie Rohrig for Junior Caucus, and Niels Graham and Paulina Ruta for Senior Caucus. The choice for each endorsement followed an interview with each of the candidates conducted by The Spectator’s Managing Board, as well as a discussion of each ticket’s platform. The final decision was made through vote by secret ballot.

he Chess team won the New York City Mayor’s Cup Tournament on April 30 at the William T. Harris School.

ophomore Matteo Wong and junior Shanjeed Ali placed first and second respectively at the Italian Poetry Recital at New York University. enior Amrit Hingorani has been selected as the male student recipient from New York State to receive the United States Presidential Scholars award.

unior Sharon Lin won a $3,000 grant from AspireIT to hold a computer science camp for middle school girls, as well as a scholarship to present a workshop on technology at HackCon in Colorado.

enior Seo Yeon placed second in the citywide PS Art 2016 contest.

en sophomores representing Stuyvesant placed second in the National Geography Challenge.

enior Nicholas Beasley won a gold medal in the Physics Olympiad and has qualified as one of 20 students selected to take the final exam to determine membership on the national team.

reshman Meredith Silfen won second place in the Association of Orthodox Jewish Teachers Essay Contest.

enior Ruojia Sun earned an Honorable Mention award in the National DNA Day Essay Contest.

04 seniors were named National Merit Scholarship finalists.

WHAT’S INSIDE? Features A&E

Polazzo, So, and Chowdhury Apply to Trademark “Stuyvesant” By Vicky Chen and Raniyan Zaman Social studies teacher and Coordinator of Student Affairs Matthew Polazzo, SU President Matthew So, and SU Vice President Tahseen Chowdhury applied, as individuals, for a trademark on the word “Stuyvesant” with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) on January 25. Chowdhury also stated that they applied to trademark “Stuy” and “Stuylin’” as well. The three filed for the trademark under International Class 25, which pertains to the use of the word on clothing. Their application specifically identifies “apparel for dancers” and “athletic apparel, namely shirts, pants jackets, footwear, hats and caps, [and] athletic uniforms.” However, as of May 10, 2016, they received a letter from the USPTO saying that the trademark for “Stuyvesant” was refused because, according to the USPTO website, it “is merely a drawing or a rendering of the applied-for mark, and thus fails to show the applied-for mark in commerce with the goods and/ or services for each international class.” Though their application is still live, they will need to submit images showing the word “Stuyvesant” used “in commerce”; for example, on a t-shirt. The specimen they submitted was simply the word “Stuyvesant” typed in Times New Roman font. They have six months to submit a new sample,

which Chowdhury feels will be more than enough time. The idea of trademarking “Stuyvesant” was an initiative largely driven by So and Chowdhury after junior and Stuyvesant Investment Club President Alex Serbanescu mentioned the idea to Chowdhury. Chowdury found that a trademark on “Stuyvesant,” which was owned by a horseracing company and a bicycle company, had recently expired. After discussing the idea with So and Polazzo, the three applied for the trademarks through the USPTO. The application for the trademarks cost $300, which Chowdhury and So paid for with their own funds. As a legal process, the application also required approval and advice from legal counsel, and a sworn declaration, under 15 U.S.C. section 105 (a), that they are “the owner[s] of the trademark/service mark sought to be registered.” The three say that they plan to transfer the rights to hold the trademark to the SU, but as of now are unsure if they will be able to. “I am prepared to sign over [the trademark] to the school itself. The only thing we were thinking at the time was that [because] Stuyvesant, the actual school, is part of the entity of the New York City Department of Education, things get very complicated. Whereas, having it registered to individuals seemed like the

Matthew So and Tahseen Chowdhury Elected to Student Union

Elena Sapelyuk / The Spectator

Campaign coverage can be found on pages 5-7.

Junior Matthew So and sophomore Tahseen Chowdhury were elected as Student Union (SU) President and Vice President, respectively, on Friday, May 20. The duo, dubbed “SoCho,” attained 360 votes, while the opposing ticket of junior Austin Tong and sophomore Barnett Zhao earned 338. Highlights of So and Chowd-

hury’s platform include promises to enforce a homework policy, completely restructure the SU budget, create a mass e-mail server, assemble a “Task Force” of students to improve daily life at Stuyvesant, and form an inter-school coalition that will work with the Department of Education.

continued on page 4

The BOE: Where It Came From and Where It’s Going Junior Sharon Chao studies a recent history of BOE blunders, and discusses ways to avoid future ones.

Hamilton Was Here A&E Editor Liana Chow takes you on a walking tour in the footsteps of Alexander Hamilton.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 2

News

Cammy Wong / The Spectator

StuyPulse is Quarterfinalist at World Competition

By Shanjeed Ali, Jarrett Lee and Vanna Mavromatis, Stuyvesant’s robotics team, StuyPulse, progressed to the quarterfinal round of the FIRST Robotics World Championship, held from April 27 to April 30. This is the farthest the Stuyvesant team has ever advanced, and only the second time a team from New York City has reached quarterfinals. Six hundred of the 3,140 teams worldwide made it to the competition, held in St. Louis, Missouri. StuyPulse, also known as Team 694, was placed in the Curie Division, one of eight divisions, all named after notable scientists. “Most of the powerhouse teams, the well-known, god-tier teams, were placed into [the] Newton [division],” junior and Assistant Di-

rector of Strategy Leith Conybeare said. “But there were some amazing teams in our division, and definitely some scary matches.” StuyPulse had a six-week period, beginning in January, to construct its robot. During this “building season,” StuyPulse divides its team to handle a variety of responsibilities: engineering, programming, and marketing for the construction of the robot. “We had some problems getting parts at the beginning of the build season. A lot of the suppliers were swamped by [other] teams,” junior, Operator, and Vice President of Engineering Jonah Sachs-Wetstone said. Once the building season is over, competition begins, and StuyPulse divides itself again into a core team to drive and control the robot (the driver and operator,

respectively), a scouting team to gather data on other teams, and a pit crew to fix the robot. StuyPulse competed in the New York Regional Robotics Competition between March 11 and 13. At this competition, they technically qualified for World Championships twice, once by placing first in the New York regionals and again by winning the Engineering Inspiration award. “[The award] highlights what our team does aside from robotics. That’s outreach, how we connect with our sponsors, and fundraising,” junior and Vice President of Marketing Courtney Chiu said. The team also competed in the Florida Regional, held between March 30 and April 2. The team signed up for two regional competitions in order to have multiple chances to qualify for World Championships. After its win in New York, the team still competed in Florida. “We had the luxury of using the event to test out new ideas and solutions,” senior, driver of the robot, and President of Engineering Jion Fairchild said. At each competition, the robots compete in a predetermined game that changes every year, this year’s being “Stronghold.” “It’s essentially medieval capture the flag,” Conybeare said. In St. Louis, StuyPulse, along with three other teams, won the

Queenie Tang / The Spectator

Lead Discovered in Stuyvesant Drinking Water

By Greg Huang and Julian Rubinfien In a Department of Education (DOE) water quality and safety test, held on March 29, three out of the 146 water samples taken from Stuyvesant were found to have abnormal levels of lead present. The test was carried out in all NYC public schools after the DOE received reports of elevated levels of lead in New Jersey water supplies. Though the results of Stuyvesant’s test have caused some concern among students and faculty, Principal Jie Zhang and Assistant Principal of Security and Student Affairs Brian Moran assure that the school water is safe for consumption. Zhang sent an e-mail to students on May 10, shortly after the water safety test results for Stuyvesant were released, in which she explained that NYC tap water is generally safe to drink. “[Three

samples out of 146] is acceptable because it’s a low percentage,” Zhang said. In the e-mail, she elaborated on the additional procedures used by the Department of Education to promote the water’s cleanliness. The DOE works with city agencies such as the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Department of Environmental Protection to improve the cleanliness of the tap water in NYC public schools. Since 2002, the DOE has completed routine tests on the quality of water in all public schools. At any school that has even one sample of contaminated water, a protocol has been implemented to make the water safer for consumption. The protocol includes replacing pipes and fountains that contain contaminated water and flushing the school’s water pipes after weekends and holidays. Pipes, faucets and fountains that

have tested positive for contaminated are removed from service, and once replaced, are retested. At Stuyvesant, three locations were found to have elevated levels of lead, and the protocol was put into place. It is currently unknown if or when the pipes and fountains at these locations will be replaced, or how much the replacements will cost if they are necessary. Despite assurance that the water at school is safe, some members of the Stuyvesant community are concerned due to the serious effects of lead poisoning. “Lead is known for its neurotoxicity [...] it can cause cognitive issues,” biology teacher Jerry Citron said. For example, several teachers are now bringing their own water, instead of drinking water from the fountains. Another teacher, who regularly used one of the contaminated faucets, is visiting his doctor to be sure he has not consumed an abnormal amount of lead. “There was no indication [in the e-mail] of how much lead they found in the water,” Citron said. “In toxicology, one has to know the true quantity or amount of a particular toxin to know what the ramifications are.” Despite concerns, Zhang and Moran assure that the water at Stuyvesant is safe to drink. “If there was a risk to students and staff, they would shut [the school] down, so I think we’re pretty safe,” Moran said. “The water is safe to drink. There is nothing to be alarmed about. Precautions were just being taken.”

Curie division. Each team in the Curie division played ten qualification matches against other teams, and was ranked based on performance. Then, the teams formed eight alliances of four teams each. StuyPulse was the captain of Alliance 8, made up of teams from Israel, Ohio, and New York State. Once the alliances were formed, they played against each other. Two wins were required to advance through each round. StuyPulse’s alliance won twice in all three rounds, and proceeded to win the Curie Division. “I was in the pit, and the competition fields are about a ten minute walk away. When we did win, everyone from the pit ran on to the stands and to the fields. We were so happy,” Chiu said. StuyPulse then participated in the Einstein eliminations, in which they were sent home. “We were paired up against the Carver division winners. They were actually the world champions this year,” senior and President of Marketing Yubin Kim said. Stuyvesant and the Carver division’s alliances each won a round, but Stuyvesant lost in the tiebreaker match. “One of our alliance partners [was] not able to completely fix their robot after one of the gears in their drivetrain [the part of the robot responsible for movement] cracked, which crippled our alliance,” Kim

said. “Everything moves so quickly, there is no [time] to fix anything. We build robots, they break. It’s in their nature.” Despite the challenges, the team progressed farther than they have in the past. This win was due in large part to a change in the team’s mindset. “I attended a design [team] meeting for the first time, and [...] everyone seemed to doubt ourselves,” Kim said. “I spoke to Jion [Fairchild] and basically told him, ‘Why not us? Why can’t we make it to Einstein? […] It was time to make history.” The win does come with new pressures, however. “This year we proved that we were championship material,” Chiu said. “It definitely makes it harder next year to keep up with the reputation we built for ourselves this year.” Nonetheless, StuyPulse is very proud of its win. “There are very famous teams [to compete against], very strong teams that are partnered with NASA and Boeing and these big companies who have so many resources. We don’t have nearly as many resources or as much money as they do and we managed to get up there and compete with them,” Sachs-Wetstone said. “We did what we have never done before, what people at Stuyvesant have never done before, and we did it kind of against the odds.”

Large Freshman Class Size Necessitates Extra Homeroom By Vicky Chen, Grace Cuenca and Queenie Xiang

An additional homeroom will be created this year to accommodate the unusually large amount of students accepted into the Stuyvesant Class of 2020. 852 freshmen will be attending in the upcoming 2016-2017 school year, in contrast to the usual average, which is between 800 and 830, excluding incoming sophomores. Though Stuyvesant accepts 900 students every year, usually it expects fewer than that number to attend. “Some kids choose to stay at their home school, choose to go to private school, or go to say, LaGuardia,” Assistant Principal of Guidance Casey Pedrick said. “So we always will end up with around about 800, but it definitely has been growing.” In addition to the 852 incoming freshmen, more students are expected to be chosen from the August exam. “In the past, it’s usually between 11 to 20 students we pick up in August,” Pedrick said. The changes to homerooms will be moderate. “Right now we have 24 freshmen homerooms and one [incoming] sophomore homeroom. So this would be 25 freshmen homerooms. The reason for that is […] it’s still supposed to abide by the [Teacher] Union rules of no more than 34 kids in a class,” Pedrick said. As of now, information on how

the homerooms will be split among the current guidance counselors has not been released. However, they have dealt with similar situations in the past. In 2014, two guidance counselors retired, and only one was replaced. This caused a set of eight homerooms, which would have been handled by one guidance counselor, to be distributed amongst the other counselors. If a similar approach is taken, one of the twelve guidance counselors will have three homerooms for the class of 2020, instead of the usual two per grade. Guidance counselor Di Wu currently manages nine homerooms, and does not believe an extra one would be a burden. “I think the only additional physical workload that we will have will be that one particular year when the homeroom is filled with juniors,” he said. “When I am doing the SSR interviews, and writing the letters, I’ll have one extra homeroom. But other than that, everything is [the same].” Wu also does not believe the change will have any major effects on the guidance department. “The administration is doing their best to make sure that our working environment and that our caseload is kept at an optimum so we don’t get overstretched,” he said. “So if there’s an extra homeroom, we most certainly must and will take them in. And I always know that my colleagues will have my back, and the other way around too.”

New History Classes Available for Freshmen By Elijah Karshner and Max Lobel The administration has decided to offer new social studies options for incoming freshmen. Along with Global History and Advanced Topics (AT) Global History, students also have the option of taking Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography or a new course called “The Big History Project.” As a result of changing Global

Regents standards for the 2016-17 school year, Assistant Principal of Social Studies Jennifer Suri decided to make changes to the freshman curriculum. “The incoming freshmen will take a new Regents that only covers 10th grade […] that gives us a little more flexibility with course design for ninth grade,” Suri said. The new test will ask for content identified in the core curriculum as part of “Global History and Geography II,” a period from roughly 1750

to the present, which is generally taught at the 10th grade level at Stuyvesant. The new Regents exam allows the school to teach according to The Big History Project, an initiative sponsored by Bill Gates that provides students and teachers with online resources to learn global history. The course covers global history in a broader sense, intertwining the history of the cosmos since the Big Bang with human history. Instructional vid-

eos, lesson plans, and other resources are provided by Bill Gates, and are aimed at promoting more critical analysis of evidence. The course is heavily technology oriented and is the first of its kind, both at Stuyvesant and across the city. During Assistant Principal of Social Studies Jennifer Suri’s original revisions of the available ninth grade courses, she was contacted by the Department of Education (DOE), which was interested in using Stuyvesant

students to pilot the new course and determine its practicality for teaching in other city schools. While admittance to AT or AP courses will be dependent on an essay sample, admittance to the Big History course will be chosen based on a lottery system. Incoming freshman were given the choice to request the course when they were admitted, and the class will have three sections, all taught by social studies teacher Anthony Valentin.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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News Wall Street Elective Cancelled By Lauren Ng, Sasha Spajic and Selina Zou

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

WORLDBEAT

n response to China’s increased presence in the South China Sea, where it is building islands fortified with airfields, ports and lighthouses, the U.S. has boosted its military presence in the region. The showdown in the South China Sea will be a major point of discussion at next week’s Strategic and Economic Dialogue, when the two sides will sit down to debate claims in the South China Sea.

resident Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima Memorial Park, which honors the city destroyed by an atomic bomb in World War II, on Friday, May 27.

SIS has reportedly seized villages near Syria’s borders with Turkey, trapping tens of thousands of citizens on Friday, May 27. This has forced Doctors Without Borders to evacuate a major hospital outside the city of Azaz.

akistan’s media regulator banned commercials for contraceptives and family planning on Saturday, May 28, after complaints that these commercials prompted “curiosity” in children.

imbabwean President Robert Mugabe pardoned thousands of inmates on Friday, May 27, to make room in the country’s overcrowded, resource-scarce prisons.

Current sophomores and juniors looking forward to enrolling in Wall Street next year will no longer have the opportunity to do so. The cancellation of this elective will take effect in the fall semester of 2016 due to social studies teacher George Kennedy’s retirement. Currently, students are required to take four years of social studies classes, and many sign up for electives to satisfy the requirement. Wall Street, as a oneterm elective, could be taken with another one-term class to do so. However, students who need to enroll in an elective to satisfy their graduation requirements do not need to be worried, because the department is trying to account for this change. As part of their response to this problem, the administration, in conjunction with the social studies department, decided to open sections of AP Human Geography to juniors and seniors. Though the department has not yet finalized the number of sections for every course, the number of sections of other electives will also be adjusted accordingly. The cancellation of Wall Street comes as a disappointment to the

student body, as the elective has historically been one of the most oversubscribed classes. However, despite the high demand for the elective, the administration has not found another teacher to teach the course. “A lot of classes are very specialized, [and] sometimes the teachers we have don’t feel comfortable teaching the material of a certain class,” Principal Jie Zhang said. “I cannot force a teacher to carry a course. If nobody is interested, then we may lose some electives.” Assistant Principal of Social Studies Jennifer Suri confirmed that no teachers have volunteered to take over the class yet. The economics nature of the course has not appealed to some social studies teachers, and with social studies teacher Catherine McRoy-Mendell on maternity leave, the department needs teachers for the year-long core economic courses. However, Suri is looking to reinstate the class as soon as possible. “I know [Wall Street] is a popular elective. Hopefully, with the return of [McRoy-Mendell], we will have someone to teach the elective again,” Suri said. Currently, Wall Street is one of the few classes offered at Stuyvesant that partners with schools or organizations outside of Stuyvesant to offer a unique classroom

With Addition of New Classes, Art Department Undergoes Changes

Massive lines and impatient crowds formed outside the school store on Monday, May 16, as the school store once again opened to Stuyvesant students. Open from periods five to ten every day, the school store sells different styles of Stuyvesant merchandise, ranging from shirts and hoodies to umbrellas and hats. Before the school store was closed, School Secretary Carmen Cintron and her own volunteers ran the store. However, she was no longer able to run the store when her assistant in the attendance office left Stuyvesant, and the store closed. Many students advocated for its reopening and were also given the opportunity to assist the store by volunteering and helping the customers. Efforts to reopen the school store first came from Student Union (SU) Chief Financial Officer Kai Chen, Budget Director Niels Graham, Vice President and former Sophomore Caucus President Tahseen Chowdhury, and Sophomore Caucus Vice President Pallab Saha, with additional help from the Alumni Association. “Throughout the year, we received many complaints about the closing of the student store and thought that it would be in the best interest of the entire school that we work to open the store,” Saha said. “We talked to [Coordinator of Student Affairs Matthew] Polazzo […], who in turn talked to [Principal Jie] Zhang, and this started the partnership between the Alumni Association and the Student Union in order to run the store.” The merchandise was also discounted in hopes of bringing students to the store. “We sold t-shirts for $5, sweatshirts for $10, sweatpants for $5, hoodies for $15, hats [...] and a lot more. Everything was

50 percent cheaper,” freshman and store volunteer Lily Wang said. Many students gathered outside the store during their frees, trying to get in on the action and buy apparel. “There are always long lines during tenth period when [it’s] open,” freshman Kristina Kim said. “Many students are trying to get the merchandise they never got a chance to get.” The sale brought more students than the SU expected, and before the end of the store’s opening day, many sizes and types of apparel were sold out. “Some students were disappointed [that] we didn’t have the sizes they wanted because [we] ran out quickly,” Wang said. “Many students were also looking forward to letterman jackets which were sold out very quickly.” The store restocked to include more types of merchandise, like umbrellas, and more size options for clothing. The sale’s goal was to clear the store’s inventory so that the store could get a fresh start at the beginning of the next school year. The SU aims for apparel with new designs to be sold at the start of the next semester. The store has remained open every other day and has continued to bring more customers. “The school store has been open and closed a lot and I hope this time, it will be able to stay open and keep selling merchandise. I’ve [seen] a lot of positive reactions [when I] volunteered and I hope it continues,” Wang said. The SU has many plans for the school store in the future as well. “A decent amount of work will be done over the summer as well as at the beginning of the year at the start of the semester,” Saha said. “A bulk of these activities will be done throughout the summer with the Alumni Association. The student store should be up and running more organized than ever at the start of the 2016-17 school year.”

Nikita Borisov / The Spectator

School Store Reopens for Business By Nishmi Abeyweera and Jessica Wu

experience. Kennedy has worked with NYU Stern to arrange for NYU students to visit the class on Thursdays to teach mini-lessons. The lessons have covered a wide variety of topics, from how to value companies to SeaWorld’s investment logic to, most recently, job opportunities in the financial world. Students have noted that the unique nature of the class was one of the reasons that encouraged them to enroll in it. “With other core courses [...] it’s the same thing—taking down notes, homework, and having tests and quizzes,” senior Jenny Yang said. “In Kennedy’s class, we read the Wall Street Journal, current events [that occur] in the U.S., international events that affect the stock market, and we use class time to compete in the Stock Market Game [...] Thanks to NYU Stern, we also get to learn from students at NYU.” Suri hopes that the return of McRoy-Mendell will allow for the reinstatement of this elective. “This is not the end of Wall Street. As soon as I find someone as capable as Kennedy was [...] to teach the class, I will make enrollment in this class available,” Suri said. “[I hope] there will be [an] opportunity for more students to enjoy this class as much as previous graduates have.”

By Chloe Hanson, Ryan Kim and Jessica Wu Starting in the 2016-17 school year, Advanced Placement (AP) Art History and Painting will be available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors as new art electives, as well as 3D Art as a new 10-Tech for seniors. Computer Art and Mixed Media are suspended, while Watercolor Painting and Acrylic Painting are discontinued, as their curricula will be fused into the new Painting elective. Art teacher Jane Karp will teach the one section of AP Art History, as well as three classes of Art Appreciation and one Painting class. Karp majored in Art History during college and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history. The change in electives was instigated to offer electives that are more general than the old classes like Watercolor Painting and Acrylic Painting. This is to give students a chance to experiment with various painting materials and mediums, ranging from acrylic to tempera. “The idea that we should have more openly defined electives comes from us, the art teachers,” Karp said. “We’re not a specialized art school, obviously. […] Even though I love teaching watercolor painting, we are not LaGuardia, we can’t have a lot of narrowly defined classes.” The major difference between Art Appreciation and AP Art History is content: while Art Appreciation covers 60 pieces, the AP course covers 250. The AP curriculum also covers a much broader range of topics. “It’s a two semester course

in world art history so that is a significant difference from the Art Appreciation survey, which is mostly Western art,” Karp said. AP Art History would require more written papers, since the AP exam includes a large essay component. There are many pieces that need to be covered for the AP exam, and Karp hopes to make use of the city’s extensive art resources to help explore the material. “We have so many museums, the greatest museums in the world. And I plan that students are going on their own and maybe even doing trips to the museums.” Karp believes the AP Art History course would be appealing to those who are interested in world history, since art history and world history are closely related. She also recommends the course to those who enjoyed the project involving attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art for Art Appreciation, or those who are just interested in learning more about the history of art, and would enjoy exploring more primary source materials. The people behind the addition of the AP Art History elective are Junior Caucus President Namra Zulfiqar and Vice President Enver Ramadani. The process it took to finalize the making of AP Art History an official class at Stuyvesant took one year. “We spoke to Ms. Suri, Dr. Wheeler, Ms. Zhang, and Ms. Pedrick regarding the creation of the class as well as to Mr. Sandler and Dr. Greenwald regarding interest in teaching the class,” Ramadani said. Zulfiqar and Ramadani were met with various obstacles throughout the whole process. “We

then spoke to Dr. Wheeler who told us that the creation of the course would be impossible through the Arts and Technology department because they were already understaffed,” Zulfiqar said. The problem of the lack of teachers in the art department was one of Zulfiqar and Ramadani major hurdles. The administration finally pursued the project after hearing support from students for the class’s creation. Ramadani, who has a genuine love for art, wanted to be able to take an AP Art History elective. “Last year, I noticed that there was no AP Art History course. [Junior] Anna Usvitsky and I decided to change this and petition for the creation of the course,” Ramadani said in an e-mail interview. “Come election time, Anna and I parted ways and decided to include the creation of this course in our individual platforms. When Namra and I won, we were the ones who continued to take on the task of getting the course.” “It will be a work in progress in which the students’ contributions to the course are going to shape the course,” said Karp, reflecting on the new curriculum. In preparation, she’ll be taking an intensive course on teaching an AP of this nature, offered by Rutgers University, and she’ll be spending the summer working on the curriculum. Though anticipated to be difficult, the elective is expected to have a positive effect on the students that decide to take the course. Ramadani believes it will help Stuyvesant become more well-rounded than it has been before. “It’s so crucial that, as a math and science school, Stuyvesant places an emphasis on the importance of being a wellrounded human being,” he said. “I’m happy that the course was made because it allows students who are interested in the material to further study it,” freshman Amanda Piasecki said. Prospective students like Piasecki may be nervous for what’s in store for them in the AP Art History course, but Ramadani assures them that they made the right choice. “Taking the course can only make a student more well-rounded intelligently and socially. I highly encourage students to take the initiative to sign up for this course because it won’t be something they will regret,” Ramadani said.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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News

Xin Italie / The Spectator

New ARISTA Executive Council Takes Charge

(From left to right) Sharon Chao (Vice President of Communication), Evelyn Gotlieb (President), Giselle Garcia (Vice President of Events), Rodda John (Vice President of Tutoring), and Julia Ingram (Executive Vice-President)

By Sonia Epstein The chairs are arranged peculiarly: one row of five in front, and a second row of five directly behind it. Seniors Ariel Levy, Rebecca You, Caitlin Stanton, Julia Dokko, and Michaela Papallo, the women heading the ARISTA Executive Council (EC), file into the first row. Five juniors, largely obscured, fill the seats behind them. The ARISTA Induction Ceremony begins with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by addresses from Levy, the former President of ARISTA, and Principal Jie Zhang. When these have finished, Levy and the junior sitting directly behind her rise and walk across the stage to a table, where they light the first of five small candles. When they return to their seats, they switch places, with Levy taking the seat in the back. You, the former Executive Vice President of ARISTA, and the junior sitting behind her then rise, light the second candle, and switch seats. When the last candle has been

lit, and the seniors have taken the juniors’ place in the back row, before the audience are the faces of five new students: Evelyn Gotlieb, Julia Ingram, Rodda John, Giselle Garcia, and Sharon Chao. These five students are, respectively, ARISTA’s new President, Executive Vice President, and Vice Presidents of Tutoring, Events, and Communications. Together, they comprise the 2016-17 ARISTA EC. With this small game of musical chairs, a tradition at each ARISTA Induction Ceremony, the five students quite literally step forward to take on the responsibility of leading ARISTA’s members in pursuing ARISTA’s ideals: scholarship, character, leadership, and service. The quintet already has thorough plans for its administration. It has decided to make helping underclassmen its primary goal, and will start right away by talking to freshman at Camp Stuy and hopefully, once the school year starts, in their homerooms. The EC hopes to partner with Big Sibs, Red Cross, and Key Club—all organizations that work with underclassmen—to

further encourage underclassmen participation in ARISTA. To maximize the effects ARISTA can have on others, the EC wants to optimize the efficiency with which it runs. One of its biggest logistical projects is creating a new website for ARISTA. Though still in progress, the ultimate goal of the website is to centralize all information pertinent to ARISTA members. Each member will have a login, and different tabs will organize events and tutoring opportunities, links to sign-up forms, and places to check credits. The EC also discussed an online essay-editing program, where students can send their writing through the website to an ARISTA peer editor, though it has not yet proposed the idea to the English Department. The website, spearheaded by John, who has extensive experience coding and worked on a peer tutoring website for ARISTA last year, will also revolutionize the way ARISTA tutoring operates. His most ambitious goal is to use the website to automate some aspects of crediting tutoring sessions. This task has historically required extreme manual labor: members of the Tutoring Committee would go through hundreds of sheets submitted by ARISTA members certifying that they had tutored, and would then credit each member for the amount of time he or she had spent tutoring. “It’s like you’re a robot,” John said. “[Automating crediting] will allow us to dedicate more time to helping everyone, as opposed to sitting in front of a computer and entering data.” Another way John hopes to improve ARISTA tutoring is by making sure everyone who needs a tutor has one. “Currently we have 147 people who want tutors who are not being paired with a tutor,” John said. John hopes that the new website will streamline the process of assigning tutees to tutors, but to

further remedy the problem, the new EC has decided to make oneon-one peer tutoring mandatory for all ARISTA members. “It’s kind of a utilitarian effect,” John said. “We want to help as many people as possible.” Expanding peer tutoring is an important initiative to Ingram, a former member of the Tutoring Committee. “It’s the most personal form of tutoring,” Ingram said. Last year, she set up a Homework Help Center at the Battery Park City Library. “It was really rewarding,” she said, describing the feeling of watching kids come to the center to get one-on-one tutoring. “Once it finally came together and everyone was getting help, the impact we’re having on other people really sunk in.” In terms of the volunteerism aspect of ARISTA, Garcia hopes to promote an environment where students can be as excited about the work they are doing as she was as a member of the Events Committee. “Volunteering gives you a really great picture of what’s out there beyond you and your little bubble,” she said. “I think that’s a great thing about leading events. You’re not only helping others, but also yourself, if you look hard enough.” Gotlieb, who was also a member of the Events Committee, stressed the importance of doing service work while in high school. “We’re constantly faced with exams and assignments that don’t seem to ever end and our school days are monotonous. Being able to go to an event on a weekend and help someone else […] is something that’s really important.” The Communications Committee has traditionally had the responsibility of handling requests to repeal strikes. But with the new website, members of the Tutoring and Events Committees will be able to do these tasks. Though the Communications Committee was considering taking on the respon-

sibility of sending a weekly digest with upcoming tutoring and events opportunities, this will also be automated through the website. “Communications, ironically, doesn’t interact directly with members of ARISTA,” Chao said. This year, she hopes to change that by having a more active Facebook page and working to attract underclassmen. Communications will largely be behind the initiative of sending ARISTA representatives to freshmen homerooms. Toward the end of the year, Chao hopes to release a compilation of photos and videos from events that took place over the school year. “We want to make sure people are being reflective on the work that they’re doing and experiences they’re having, and communications can help with that,” she said. The EC hopes it can encourage members to feel proud of the work they are doing, and grow from their experience on ARISTA. “We say that there are four pillars, but as of right now, they don’t really mean anything besides the fact that they are words on a t-shirt,” Ingram said. “We want to make sure that people are doing things so that they are actually volunteers and scholars and leaders. A lot of our ideas are logistical, but the goal of making things more efficient is to make people […] less stressed out about credits and strikes […] so we can get the real message across.” The five students enter their roles with optimism and excitement. “Being able to figurehead an organization that’s so vital to how underclassmen perceive Stuyvesant is incredibly rewarding,” Gotlieb said. “After we had our first meeting with the old board, new board, and [ARISTA faculty advisor Jo] Mahoney, we all walked out together and I think at that moment I personally understood the weight of this position […] the responsibility that comes with it, and also the gratification that comes with it.”

Polazzo, So, and Chowdhury Apply to Trademark “Stuyvesant” continued from page 1 easiest way to protect intellectual property,” Polazzo said. Protecting intellectual property was Polazzo’s main concern when he signed on to the trademark registration. “It was brought to my understanding that there were a lot of people out there who were using the name Stuyvesant to make money and these people

weren’t necessarily associated with the school,” he said. “Considering that [So and Chowdury] are members of the SU, it made sense for them to register for [the trademark], which would mean the copyright was within the Student Union’s hands and my name is on it to ensure that it stays within Stuy[vesant].” Though Polazzo’s vision for the purpose of the trademark

was to protect Stuyvesant from third parties, Chowdhury brainstormed ways it could be used to buy Stuyvesant apparel at a lower cost. “People are going to come to us and talk to us about how much apparel they want [and] what they want it for. We’re going to work with our supplier to come up with a deal [for] printing Stuy[vesant] apparel,” he said. “[If successful,] apparel costs [will] go down

so this would mean that all clubs and pub[lication]s would pay less money for apparel, which increases profit margins.” The trio has yet to choose a supplier for Stuyvesant apparel, let alone decide whether it will carry through with the plan. As of now, with the applications for the trademarks still in review, Polazzo, So, and Chowdhury are still discussing how the trademark,

if obtained, will be used. If the trademark is granted, the trio can legally require that any individual or club seeking to place the word “Stuyvesant” on apparel must seek the trio’s permission first. But according to Polazzo, “If you’re a student at Stuy[vesant] and you want to print a shirt for your team or club, I don’t see why that would be a problem.”

Julia Lee / The Spectator

SU Begins Planning for Revised Homework Policy

By Ilona Cherepakhina, Mai Rachlevsky and Pazit Schrecker The School Leadership Team (SLT) began creating a revised homework policy on Tuesday, May 10. Increased concern from parents and students about the amounts of homework students are getting on a nightly basis as well as during vacations and religious holidays led to the formation of a Homework

Committee, which is comprised of parents, teachers, students, and Student Union Vice President Tahseen Chowdhury. Previously, Stuyvesant had a homework policy that employed vague language and restricted only vacation homework. The new policy will be finalized by the end of the school year and go into effect next year. Principal Jie Zhang hopes to have the policy implemented by next year in order to resolve the

concerns of parents and the student body. “The topic of homework has always been a center of discussion at parent meetings, SLT meetings, and the parent breakfasts. [...] They were concerned with the amount of homework given and [whether] it was busy work or meaningful work,” Zhang said. The previous homework policy consisted only of vague guidelines for vacation homework. Therefore, the new policy is to include more detailed boundaries on the amount of daily homework, vacation homework, and homework given on religious holidays. Specifically, the new homework policy allows students who celebrate religious holidays not recognized by the school as vacation days extensions on assignments, so long as the students provide notes from a parent or guardian and tell their teachers in advance. The guidelines also state that teachers are not allowed to require students to submit homework online on either a day school is not in session or the day prior to it. The increased specificity of the new policy is meant to provide increased understanding, both on the part of students and

teachers. The new guidelines will also consist of recommendations for homework and studying methods. Additionally, the new policy includes ways students may deal with a teacher violating this policy, including consultations with their guidance counselor, teacher, Department Chairperson, or Assistant Principal. “[We] also want to make sure we work with teachers so it doesn’t paint them as this enemy that we need to have specific lines of defense to argue against,” junior and SLT Representative Asher Lasday said. Indeed, a major goal of the new policy is to effectively communicate with teachers so the guidelines of the policy are followed. “We wanted to make sure that students and teachers were sort of on the same page of what exactly a homework policy means,” Lasday said. Many students believe that the homework policy will alleviate some of their concerns. “Students already have a lot on their hands, not only regarding their homework but also their extracurricular activities. Teachers fail to notice how much stress students are actually

put under and this policy helps kids [do] both homework and [...] what they love,” freshman Sabrina Xiao said. However, some students believe that the homework policy will not significantly impact the amount of time spent on homework. “For me particularly, the homework policy isn’t going to do much for me because I usually don’t get more than 45 minutes of homework per class,” freshman Ria Gaur said. “It is all based upon the student individually. If they procrastinate and are distracted while doing homework, it could take them three hours when they only really need one.” The Homework Committee hopes the homework policy will take a step towards creating a positive work environment for Stuyvesant students.“[There] are problems and they need to be solved. Although [the policy] might not be something that’s going to work perfectly, it’s a step in the right direction, it shows that we’re moving more progressively, and it shows that we will be in a better place soon,” Chowdhury said.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 5

SU Endorsements: Senior Caucus

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Niels Graham and Paulina Ruta

Midway through their interview, Graham and Ruta said something surprising: they don’t want to put effort into fighting student apathy. “Our grade is abnormally apathetic,” they wrote in their platform. “For the past three years, candidates have run a crusade on apathy in our grade to little fruition.” To Graham and Ruta, continuing to battle stu-

dent apathy by planning flashy events is futile—if students don’t want them, they say, why should we plan them? Some may view this idea as bringing unnecessary negativity to the year of high school that should be the most fun-filled. But Graham and Ruta have witnessed the Class of 2017’s lack of enthusiasm for grade-wide after-

school events (most recently the low turnout for the Junior Caucus’s “Junior Joust” event), and accepted it as a reality. At this point, the Graham-Ruta theory of “circumventing apathy” rather than confronting it head-on is not so much pessimism as it is pragmatism. The duo hopes to bypass students’ indifference by working on measures that can benefit the senior class without requiring effort. For example, major goals include renovating the Student Lounge, acquiring more benches for the senior atrium, and decorating the Senior Bar, thus implementing lasting change for day-to-day senior life, rather than serving their class by planning sporadic events. Graham and Ruta also provided solid explanations for how they would execute these ideas. For funding, they hope to acquire grants from the Alumni Association, an organization Graham has built solid ties with throughout his tenure as a Budget Direc-

tor for the Student Union (SU). (Ruta, as a Clubs and Pubs Director, also has the benefit of experience working within the SU.) The Alumni Association plays a key role in several of their other plans, which could, perhaps be a weakness—if the Alumni Association is unwilling to comply, executing platform promises will be a lot more difficult for Graham and Ruta. Nevertheless, Graham assures that he has a strong connection with the organization, and hopes to use its grants to subsidize senior dues (which are hundreds of dollars) for students from low-income families, providing one of the first financialaid programs within the SU. They also would like to set up after-school workshops led by the Alumni Association to help students learn about prospective colleges, provide job and internship advice, and run mock college interviews with students. College planning, which is not a traditional focus of the Senior Caucus, would be an important

part of the Graham and Ruta’s early leadership, a response to the dissatisfaction students felt toward the Junior Caucus’s college planning this year. Even though Graham and Ruta are less focused on planning events to increase school spirit, they still acknowledge its importance, and described plans for an end-of-school senior picnic, which seems to be a feasible plan and one that would attract students. The role of the Senior Caucus has traditionally been to build grade spirit in the last year of high school. While Zulfiqar and Ramadani have a platform that actively pursues this, The Spectator believes that the clear-mindedness with which Graham and Ruta have assessed their grade’s needs makes them better leaders for the Class of 2017. They understand their grade’s problems, and have refreshingly innovative ideas for how to combat them. Their ticket is the clear choice for The Spectator’s endorsement.

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Namra Zulfiqar and Enver Ramadani

When The Spectator asked current Junior Caucus President Zulfiqar and Vice President Ramadani what they think the responsibilities of the Senior Caucus are, they answered the way you might have expected they would. They talked about prom and graduation, spirit days and senior ap-

parel. Zulfiqar and Ramadani have a truly genuine desire to promote grade-wide unity, doing whatever they can to make sure their class’s last year at Stuyvesant is its most enjoyable. There’s just one problem. The Class of 2017 is notoriously apathetic, as Zulfiqar and Ramadani

have learned well this past year as they tried to plan events like “Junior Joust” and pajama day, both of which had low participation. Despite this, targeting student apathy by holding senior spirit days and a mass Stuyvesant Spirit Week (SSW) are still major plans for Zulfiqar and Ramadani. During SSW, they envision that “students will come in wearing their team colors and uniforms and stands will be set up for team merchandise and baked goods.” On arts spirit days, “the large dance and music community at Stuy[vesant] [will] showcase their talents throughout the school.” It’s a lovely image, but given students’, especially the Class of 2017’s, history of indifference, it seems unrealistic. Fellow Senior Caucus candidates Niels Graham and Paulina Ruta have recognized this fact, and present a more realistic plan in their platform. Of course, spirit is not the sole concern of the incumbents. Their platform outlines worthy endeavors such as creating two new his-

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Jan Wojcik and Shamaul Dilmohamed

Wojcik and Dilmohamed entered the Senior Caucus race disadvantaged, lacking genuine experience in dealing with administration and bureaucracy. An important quality in a student leader is the ability to negotiate effectively with adult leadership at school—something that caucus incumbents Namra Zulfiqar and Enver Ramadani, and SU Budget Director Niels Graham and Director of Clubs and Publications Paulina Ruta, both possess. Despite this, the ticket makes valiant efforts in their platform to discuss methods of finance and communication, which might

have been more feasible with such experience in tow. Their platform includes unique suggestions regarding financial aid for senior dues, which, though they cover a lot of necessities for the senior class—like yearbook and graduation fees—are still rather expensive (this year, they totaled $215). What is missing is not the impression of a genuine desire to reform the school, or an endearing sense of loyalty and responsibility to their grade, but an awareness of feasibility. The biggest problem with the Wojcik-Dilmohamed campaign is that their spirit for reform does not match their un-

derstanding of bureaucracy or substantiation of platform ideas, which range from hosting fundraising events to fighting apathy to expanding the Advanced Placement curriculum in the Art Department. In person, the pair expressed admirable notions about the purpose of student government and the role they thought they might have in the senior caucus, but also revealed some naiveté when it came to their own ideas. They did not appear to recognize, for instance, the complexity of undertaking an endeavor like introducing vending machines in areas in the school where seniors spend leisure time, even if it were for fundraising purposes. This lack of understanding demonstrates that Wojcik and Dilmohamed would be learning on the job, and though they are likely more than capable of doing so, it might be more useful for seniors to elect a ticket without this need for experience. The Spectator firmly believes that Wojcik and Dilmohamed care about their grade and their school, and that their intentions in running are noble, but questions their ability to put their ideas into effect at the scope and level at which they’ve pitched them.

tory electives: Religious Studies and the Birth of Modernism. Given the difficulty they had getting Advanced Placement (AP) Art History this year, getting two new electives in time for the spring may also be difficult. Zulfiqar and Ramadani acknowledge this, but are also optimistic, stating that, in the past year, they have built the requisite connections to get these electives off the ground. Should Zulfiqar and Ramadani be elected, the senior class would be in good hands. Over the past year they have developed strong relationships with integral members of the administration (as Ramadani said in their interview, “Even Mr. Moran loves us”), and have proven to be vigilant grade representatives, fighting tirelessly for more college trips even when the administration told them it would be impossible, and successfully petitioning for AP Art History. They secured a nicer but less expensive boat for Junior Prom this year, and will be able to offer about a dozen free or reduced

price tickets to financially disadvantaged students with the money they have saved. Of course, Zulfiqar and Ramadani were not without their faults this year: they could have communicated more effectively with the students as soon as they knew there would only be one overnight college trip, allowing students expecting more to make other plans. When they say they have learned from their mistakes and will only be better grade representatives next year, The Spectator believes them. Though they are reliable candidates who have proven their commitment this year, their heavy focus on spirit is less appealing when set next to Graham and Ruta’s more pragmatic approach. The Spectator feels that their commitment to fighting apathy by holding more events, while laudable, is impractical, and may waste resources, as was the case this year. Still, should they be elected, we are confident that they would be competent leaders.

Hasan Tukhtamishev and Kenneth Chu Tukhtamishev and Chu focus on school spirit in their four-part campaign platform, which includes promises to address Senior Prom, communication between students and the administration, and gradewide unity and pride. Their platform suggests that they understand the purpose and function of the Senior Caucus, and demonstrates an awareness of the needs and wants of the senior grade. However, most of their ideas come without suggestions for implementation, despite the fact that many are either grandiose (thus requiring some justification) or lackluster (casting doubt over their projected efficacy). For instance, their most specific ideas for fundraising are bake sales and teacher-vsstudent events, and yet they want to significantly reduce the cost of prom. They don’t explain how they intend to acquire “grants and donations” from alumni, nor do they elaborate on their plans to “generate more funds to dedicate towards developing school spirit.” They also have plans to ensure college readiness through reforms that, though highly ambitious and original—they want to reduce the level of homework the senior grade is assigned during the height of the

college application process, and introduce workshops to help seniors develop plans for the future—seem challenging to implement in the coming months, especially because their platform does not include ways to carry them out. In their interview, Tukhtamishev and Chu demonstrated empathy for their classmates’ problems and an earnest desire for reform. They expressed concern for their lack of voice as juniors and, indeed, the section in their platform that deals with communication is the longest. They also intoned a level of pride in their grade that is both admirable and desirable in any Student Union caucus ticket— especially for seniors, who want to leave their mark on the school before they graduate. Their commitment to reform, and to the Class of 2017, is not only important, but believable—The Spectator is certain that, if elected, Tukhtamishev and Chu would work very hard to try to effect their ideas. Unfortunately, their lack of account for practicality and substance in dealing with their platform’s goals indicates that they are less equipped than Niels Graham and Paulina Ruta to deal with the leadership they envision.

Page 6

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

SU Endorsements: Junior Caucus

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Pallab Saha and Abie Rohrig

Sophomores Pallab Saha and Abie Rohrig’s extensive platform and suit-and-tie appearance bore the mark of two years of close collaboration with Student Union (SU) President Matthew So and Vice President Tahseen Chowdhury. Like So and Chowdhury, Saha and Rohrig’s multi-page platform and equally well thought out answers to The Spectator Managing Board’s interview questions not only promised change, but affirmed it with

their plans for initiative, earning The Spectator’s endorsement. What sets Saha and Rohrig apart from their competitors is not only their understanding of the Junior Caucus’s role and their plans to fulfill it, but their thorough explanations of exactly how they plan to execute each one of their plans. With almost every idea they presented, the duo indicated that they had obtained an administrator’s support and discussed with them

the steps needed to implement it. Having already met with Director of College Counseling Jeffrey Makris to confirm the feasibility of holding two overnight college trips next year, Saha and Rohrig demonstrating a crucial understanding of the administration’s role in planning these trips. However, The Spectator is concerned that they may end up travelling down the same road this year’s Junior Caucus did when it attempted to secure more overnight college trips, and was denied. Perhaps Saha and Rohrig realized this too; they came prepared with a number of supplemental “college-readiness” ideas so that college trips aren’t the SU’s only contribution to aiding juniors’ college search. These included inviting speakers involved in the college process (Rohrig, as co-chair of the Speaker Committee for the PreMedical Society, already has experience doing this), as well as an online database of college alumni for students to reach out to. Saha and Rohrig have already spoken to the Alumni Association about this program.

The junior appeal doesn’t stop there. Saha and Rohrig have begun reaching out to Columbia and New York University’s book stores for negotiating wholesale discounts for Advanced Placement preparation books, and have gotten a positive response from both. They plan to sell these books in the school store, something that is both convenient for students and for the SU’s budget. While Saha and Rohrig place their primary focus on academics and college readiness—which is, after all, what juniors want to see from their Caucus—they have also developed plans for fighting apathy and planning events. Saha and Rohrig plan to host pep rallies and increase communication to ensure students attend them. However, their ideas for communication did not seem very innovative outside of their idea for a mid-year update video, which, while helpful, would not be a frequent method of communication. In terms of planning events, Saha’s terms as Freshman and Sophomore Caucus Vice President of his class have been successful ones;

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Asim Kapparova and Kevin Li

Asim Kapparova and Kevin Li’s website is very organized, and focuses its attention on the bulk of their campaign, rather than, like last year, themselves

as candidates. They lay out their platform in six points: spirit, college trips, academics, communication, daily life, and organization. Each section is

color-coded, and contains bullet points with bolded words to indicate the core of their ideas. Yet, some of what they intend to implement still lacks the necessary thought that should be given to feasibility. For instance, their idea to mandate an online presence for teachers through Google Classroom and Engrade comes without an adequate explanation for how they intend to ensure teachers stick to these online tools. In fact, for a reform this controversial (many students do not support grade transparency), their platform gives little voice to the justification for such reforms. Some of their ideas, especially in terms of improving communication, seem both feasible and effective, but others feel less developed. For instance, they want to begin selling iced coffee in the cafeteria, but do

not go further into explaining how this will happen than admitting it’s a “tough job.” In fact, one of the campaign’s biggest flaws is its lack of attention to fundraising. And while Pallab Saha and Abraham Rohrig, too, have campaign ideas that might prove “tough,” they have begun to work on implementing them, while Kapparova and Li have not. Perhaps the most crucial function of the Junior Caucus, however, is to address college readiness, as their grade prepares for the application process the following year. Given this importance, Kapparova and Li’s decision to focus on this year’s Junior Caucus for its shortcomings with respect to the three traditional college trips (this blame was particularly apparent in their interview), despite the fact that their sug-

along with Chowdhury, he planned the first freshmen-only and sophomore-only dances, have improved Soph-frosh semiformal each year, and planned the first Stuylloween Carnival along with the Junior Caucus. Needless to say, The Spectator is confident Saha and Rohrig will be able to plan a successful Junior Prom. While Saha and Rohrig state that they plan to subsidize Junior Prom through fundraising, they failed to identify any specific fundraisers that they will execute, instead relying on the financial success of previous events to speak for their financial capability. This in itself, however, is quite impressive; Saha stated in the interview that every event they planned returned a profit, reassuring The Spectator that they will able to maintain a stable budget. Additionally, Rohrig is a Budget Director for the SU, and has a thorough understanding of how the current budget functions. Saha and Rohrig had a realistic, yet still impressive, vision for the Class of 2018’s junior year, and The Spectator is confident they will be able to accomplish their goals.

gestions for improvement do not greatly differ from current Junior Caucus President and Vice-President Namra Zulfiqar and Enver Ramadani’s attempts this year to ensure the same, is troubling. Kapparova and Li clearly possess organization of thought, and an awareness of the challenges the duo, and their classmates, are about to face as juniors. Their platform’s sprinklings of humor indicate their relatability as leaders. The Spectator believes that the pair is competent to accomplish important tasks for the rising junior class. However, in looking for the most promising caucus ticket—the one that evinces the most potential for change—The Spectator finds that Saha and Rohrig are more qualified for the task.

SU Endorsements: Sophomore Caucus

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Julia Lee and Stephanie Naing

Compared to some other candidates running for Sophomore Caucus, Julia Lee and Stephanie Naing may not have the most experience working with the Student Union (SU). However, The Spectator has decided to endorse Lee and Naing, because they had the most comprehensive, thought-out, and promising platform. Many of their goals are, first off,

When The Spectator interviewed Frederic Minzberg and Kathryn Jano, both candidates were full of energy and enthusiasm. They seemed genuinely passionate about representing the student body, and legitimately excited about the upcoming race. However, when The Specta-

very plausible to achieve. Such initiatives include renovations on the Lost and Found by expanding its size and dividing valuables by size and category, as well as making utilities such as the photo studio and Student Lounge more accessible to students through better advertising. In addition, their goals are not only realistic, but innovative as

well. For instance, by talking to SU officials, Lee and Naing plan to offer an alternative to detention that will better benefit the Stuyvesant community, called “the Cafeteria Duty Detention System.” In this program, students can perform cleanup duties in the cafeteria by cleaning up the amount of litter that is usually left behind at the end of the lunch periods. Lee and Naing also plan for better maintenance of bulletin boards by removing old flyers and updating the boards with new ones. Such ideas go above and beyond the sophomore class to help everyone in all grades. But this does not mean Lee and Naing do not have any plans to promote school spirit within their own grade. They have talked about the redecoration of the Sophomore Bar, and the continuation of afterschool events like movie nights and game nights. Adding on to these events, Lee and Naing also aspire to set up Karaoke nights, a fundraising event that they have already deemed feasible through discus-

sion with other caucus members. But Lee and Naing’s campaign is not without flaws. When interviewed by the Managing Board, Lee and Naing’s potential to create change was more or less the same as the other sophomore candidates. On paper, Lee and Naing were impressively eloquent and knowledgeable about their status and experience as freshman. But, by the interview, Lee and Naing’s plans for change went only as far as a vague mission to fighting apathy and make Stuyvesant a more fun place. Hence, The Spectator is apprehensive about the execution of Lee and Naing’s platform beyond their written word. Additionally, while Lee and Naing’s platform is more realistic than others, The Spectator found their ambitions generally idealistic due to their lack of experience with the SU. Some examples include Lee and Naing’s aspirations to create more Spirit Days specifically for sophomores, a sophomore-only music talent show, and photography, art, and writing tournaments

Frederic Minzberg and Kathryn Jano

tor asked Minzberg and Jano for a summary of their platform, the candidates sent only a link to their website, which was full of vague goals like “to be accessible and accountable when speaking with all Stuyvesant students” and “to keep an efficient school budget with relation to properly planned extra-

curricular and after school events.” When prompted to elaborate during their interview, Minzberg and Jano gave similarly vague responses, with only a few specific goals. And, these goals, like allowing phones in hallways and on the half floor, seemed more difficult

to execute than the duo seemed aware of, further highlighting its lack of understanding for how the caucus operates. The ambiguity and impracticality of Minzberg and Jano’s platform gave The Spectator the impression that the candidates did

within the school as fundraisers. Their ambition to create a better use for homeroom representatives and for councils and committees, and to improve student-caucus relations through a caucus email also sound good in theory, but have similarly been campaigned for by previous sophomore caucuses, only to scarcely be heard of again. In many ways, Lee and Naing followed the format of a traditional, classic Sophomore Caucus platform that tends to bite off more than it can chew. Overall however, as current freshmen with brief introductions to the workings and makings of the SU, Lee and Naing have shown the best judgment even with their limited experience. By being more selfaware of the extent of their power, Lee and Naing pursued ideas that are creative, reasonable, and beneficial for the entire student community. And The Spectator has faith that the duo can execute the less demanding tasks in their platform.

not have the requisite experience and understanding of the Student Union to lead their grade effectively. For that reason, The Spectator has elected to not endorse the Minzberg-Jano ticket in this year’s Sophomore Caucus election.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 7

SU Endorsements: Sophomore Caucus Jason Feng and Astrid Malter

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Jason Feng and Astrid Malter are the Sophomore Caucus candidates with the most Student Union (SU) experience. Feng currently serves as Freshman Caucus Vice-President, alongside Freshman Caucus President Hanah Jun, and Malter is an assistant to the Communications Directors. Feng and Malter had some concrete plans for how to be an effective caucus. Theirs was the only ticket that provided a strict email schedule. They plan to send out mass emails to their grade biweekly, which made The Spectator more confident in the candidates’ ability to follow through. However, in the past, Feng has not followed through. In his

interview, he told The Spectator that he had elected committees to work on event planning in the past, but that, oftentimes, when he told them to do things, “they didn’t do [them] until the end of the year. […], and then they still didn’t do [them].” Though this is not entirely Feng’s fault, it seems to be a trend throughout his administration. Furthermore, much of Feng and Malter’s campaign is centered on helping the Freshman Caucus, rather than supporting their own grade. Under the “seasonal events” section of their platform, the ticket wrote that they would help plan the Freshman Spring Fling, as well as make the Sopho-

more Winter Dance for freshmen, rather than for sophomores. When asked what the most important responsibilities of the Sophomore Caucus were, Feng even said, “While also helping [the sophomore grade], we’re going to help support the Freshman Caucus.” While Malter seemed very competent, and both candidates were willing and excited to represent their grade to the administration and to the SU, Feng’s self-proclaimed inefficacy and the Feng-Malter ticket’s focus on the incoming freshman grade, sometimes at the expense of their own, makes The Spectator question the strength of their candidacy.

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Kenny Wong and Tina Shi

Wong and Shi possessed an energy unrivaled by the other can-

didates. In terms of optimism—a quality that has allowed the likes of

former presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to, at least in some communities, be warmly regarded—this ticket was the strongest. It was practically impossible to listen to them talk, Wong especially, without smiling, or even giggling. He spoke with an infectious excitement that was too elaborate not to be completely, if not alarmingly, genuine. The Spectator wholly values the candidates’ enthusiasm because it believes that their obvious passion would be able to, at least in some way, help to combat student apathy. In terms of their plans, Wong and Shi hope to hold spirit days as competitions between homerooms. For each spirit day, the homeroom with the most participants would win an ice cream party.

Their other ideas include opening the sophomore bar so that sophomores can do homework there during free periods, and allowing students two “free” latenesses per year (i.e. latenesses caused by Long Island Railroad delays will be excused). All of these ideas were fervently thought out by both Wong and Shi, as was made very clear in their interview with The Spectator. But, the main problem with these ideas is that it’s not clear how much the student body actually wants, or needs, these changes. Sophomores overwhelmed by their first AP classes will probably not be super motivated to dress up in silly clothes for the reward of ice cream. Maybe 8th graders, or even freshmen would be. Opening the sophomore bar for students to do

homework would also help a total of, at most, seven students per period. And latenesses don’t count for anything—they don’t go on transcripts—except for your teacher’s perception of you, and most teachers understand that students can’t control delays on the LIRR. That said, Wong and Shi also discussed ideas that were entirely feasible and show great potential in helping the Stuyvesant community, like an increased role for homeroom representatives. However, The Spectator decided not to endorse Wong and Shi because while these kinds of useful and feasible ideas dominated the platform of Julia Lee and Stephanie Naing, they made fewer appearances on Wong and Shi’s.

Cathy Cai and Yiding Yang

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Cathy Cai and Yiding Yang have already proven to be dedicated student leaders: Yang has participated in Freshman Caucus committees and the Freshman Advisory Counsel, and Cai has leadership experience from elementary and middle school, though it is difficult to predict how this would translate to sophomore year. Cai and Yang have a few great ideas for sophomore caucus, like the idea to obtain student discounts at Shake Shack and other local restaurants in exchange for advertisement flyers. This is definitely feasible, as we have seen

Ting Ting Chen / The Spectator

Nicholas Chan and Robin Han

Chan and Han offered interesting ideas, such as a grade-wide trip to increase school spirit and helping students manage homework levels. That said, they occasionally lacked ideas for the implementation of their proposals. For instance, they didn’t specify where the trip could take place or how they would fund it. Similarly, their idea of a “Students vs. Teachers” competition is well-intentioned, but, again, suggested without any substantial plans for its organization.

They speak in general terms, asserting that their platform would make the school year run more smoothly without explaining how. Their proposals were incomprehensive, and they didn’t address funding, much less concrete planning, for the ideas they did have. While the Chan-Han ticket does pose some fun ideas for the future of the school, The Spectator is unable to endorse it due to its lack of a clear vision for its plans in office.

the Student Union partner with Dos Toros this year. These plans sound refreshing for a stressed student body, and the spirit of enthusiasm they stem from could boost morale. However, their most of their proposals are not revolutionary: several of their “new” suggestions are already in place, such as an Open Mic, a Halloween event, bake sales, and announcements of events through Facebook and posters. Their more creative plans are tempting but improbable. For example, a homeroom-centralized “Penny Challenge” fundraiser seems to

rely on more homeroom spirit than we seem to have (after all, homerooms now meet only once or twice a month), and it’s hard to imagine the administration supporting a game of grade-wide Assassin (which is why when the seniors play this game, they don’t organize it through the Student Union). Cai and Yiding’s desire to make change even outside the school, as shown by a plan to solicit clothing collection for shelters, is admirable. But within school, they presented a less thorough platform than Lee and Naing.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 8

Features

Searching for Myself Among Friends By JULIA HOU Friendship is too much like juggling disparate parts of my life. I’ve never been good at juggling, so it’s a miracle that I’ve stayed standing for this long. Every night is a battle, because I have to delegate my attention wisely, adjust what I say, and make sure to remember the level of friendship I have with each person. Friend #1 wants to know what I think about avocados. Friend #2 wants relationship advice. Friend #3 wants me to video chat with her more. Friend #4 wants help with her math homework. Friend #5 wants to rant to me. I tell Friend #1 that avocados are great in sandwiches, but less so alone. They’re mushy and weird and are only acceptable as a side to something else. I don’t usually enjoy talking about avocados (or other kinds of fruit), but with her it’s fun. Friend #1 is my go-to friend, the filter for my outlandish ideas. Friend #2, with whom I was close a few months ago, has been requesting my counsel for weeks on end, and then doesn’t listen to what I say. If he’s going to hem and haw about moving his relationship forward, why does he bother to ask me about it, when he knows I’m going to tell him to hurry it up with the

intimacy? Friend #2 and I clash on many of our values and principles, and sometimes one of us will launch into a lecture without noticing the disinterest of the other. Before he can fully describe his problem, I interrupt to say “Nothing has changed. Just do what I told you to do before.” With a guilty glance at the time, I open my textbook and take out a piece of loose-leaf. I

problems she doesn’t know how to do. I’m fine with helping people, but why am I doing the entirety of her math homework for her? When was the last time she asked me how I was doing, if there was anything in my life I wanted to talk about? No, it was all about me helping her, through her family issues, through her extracurricular activities, through her homework. I go on invisible. Maybe Friend

I don’t usually enjoy talking about avocados (or other kinds of fruit), but with Friend #1 it’s fun. Friend #1 is my go-to friend, the filter for my outlandish ideas. write my name at the top. I tell Friend #3 what I’ve been telling her for the past couple weeks: “I’m too busy to video chat right now. Let’s talk later.” We were best friends in middle school, so that means she’ll forgive me, right? After all, she can talk to her high school friends. And she has homework, too. I sigh as I watch Friend #4 fill up the chat with homework

#4 isn’t a friend—she certainly doesn’t act like one. Friend #3 hasn’t replied to my excuse, so I close her window. I’ll make up for it tomorrow, I promise. I try to sound interested in Friend #5’s problems—I try to give him as much attention as I would want if I were frustrated and angry, even though I know I don’t fully understand his situation, and

he knows I know I don’t fully understand. I ask questions, which leads to more ranting. I take notes from the textbook as I struggle to keep up with the situation. It sounds like someone is taking advantage of Friend #5. He’s too nice for his own good sometimes. “Just leave,” I tell him, struck by what seems like an obvious solution. “Stop helping them.” Friend #2 has again brushed off my genuine advice for his relationship, like he thinks I say the same thing to him every day just for kicks. Friend #5 is indignant at the selfish nature of my suggestion. Friend #4 starts spamming me. I open Friend #3’s window to see her indifferent reply—she has accepted that I’m busy and stressed and have a lot of work to do, but as I see our spare, lackluster conversation, I feel empty, like I’ve lost something precious. Friendship isn’t something that comes easily to me. I remember freshman year, when I was so desperate to make friends that I would have done or said anything to satisfy the people I talked to. Maybe that was a good way to acquire a set of people to say “hello” to in the hallways, maybe that was enough to make me feel like I had a social life, that I had better things to do in the evenings

than read from my textbook. But as I’ve grown quieter and more introspective, I’ve noticed flaws in myself and in others, flaws I’ve tried to get people to realize on their own. This doesn’t keep me from joshing with my friends, but it holds me back from pouring out my heart to them. Not everyone is deserving; not everyone understands. It makes me wonder how it works. Friendship is like dating—sometimes it just clicks. Sometimes the relationship becomes tired and weary and dull. Sometimes cordiality blossoms into anger and frustration. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it. Sometimes you have to show them a glimpse of the worst part of you and see if they run. “It’s stupid to be selfless all the time,” I tell Friend #5. “Don’t leech off of me,” I tell Friend #4. “I’m sorry,” I tell Friend #3. “Stop being a coward,” I tell Friend #2. “You know what I’m in love with? Grapefruit,” I tell Friend #1.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 9

Features A Rendezvous with Mr. Hanna By VINCENT JIANG and GEORGE PAPASTEFANOU He came out of the history teachers’ lounge to meet us one day in the noisy third floor atrium. He held himself almost regally with his posture firm and his gaze polite. We were meeting history teacher David Hanna to talk about the release of his new book, “Rendezvous with Death: The Americans Who Joined the Foreign Legion in 1914 to Fight for France and for Civilization,” about the experiences of a group of soldiers fighting in France. And, as he plunged into the depths of his story, the floor seemed to grow quiet.

Courtesy of David Hanna

In Search of a New Idea After publishing his first book, “Knights of the Sea” (2012), a book about the War of 1812, Hanna was sure that he was going to write another. But “Rendezvous with Death” wasn’t what he had in mind at first. Initially, his plan was to write about Joe Frazier, the legendary heavyweight boxer. However, some members of Frazier’s family did not cooperate as much as he had hoped, and he had to abandon it. As he summarized, chuckling a bit, “dealing with live people is hard.” But when his publisher got back to him and expressed interest in another book on military history, Hanna went for it. He explored various topics, but, once he got to the experiences of the Lafayette Escadrille air squadron, and, more importantly, the larger group of Americans fighting in France at the start of World War I, he was hooked and was interested enough to delve deeper into their stories. “I thought it was interesting because [the Americans] were ordinary guys [and not classically trained soldiers]. […] Most of them were poets, painters, sculptors,” he said. “They were the kind of people that most people can identify with.”

History teacher David Hanna traveled to Paris to do research for his newest book, “Rendezvous with Death: The Americans Who Joined the Foreign Legion in 1914 to Fight for France and for Civilization.”

Researching for “Rendezvous” What followed was about three and a half years of researching and writing. Hanna often looked through archives of old newspapers, such as The New York Sun, since many of the soldiers were from New York and had written for the papers. He also had the chance to go to France and do research there in April of 2015. Fellow Stuyvesant history teacher Dr. Lisa Greenwald looked for

members of an academic community in French studies that she was part of who were interested in helping him research. Claire Khelfaoui served as Hanna’s guide and translator in France. She took Hanna through the country to see the vibrant fields that were once the site of the various battles in his book, such as Verdun, and also helped pull out old newspapers from the archives to translate for Hanna. “I could have wound up with [a guide] who was not as thorough. She was very thorough. It made a big difference,” he said. But most of the details of the intense experiences the American soldiers had were from journals left behind by both the fighters and their families. One, for example, was from a brother of a soldier who wrote about the experiences. “It’s not the greatest narrative, but it’s really thorough. [...] That was really the core,” Hanna said. Despite the ample amount of information he was getting, and the endless amounts left unexplored, Hanna decided to come back to New York and start writing because of the “60 percent” rule he learned from an interview he had seen of David McCullough, a well-known nonfiction writer. Seeing our slightly confused faces, he explained to us that he knew if he kept researching, he never would have gotten around to writing. But with 60 percent of the research done, he had enough information to construct something meaningful. “[60 percent to me is] when I’m reading something, and I can close my eyes and tell you what I’m going to read over the next three pages, more or less,” he told us. The Process of Writing After researching, the next step was to start writing, and we quickly found that Hanna’s work ethic is one that most Stuyvesant students can only dream of. He spoke to us about how he balances writing and teaching. “We have breaks, so you use the breaks, but you have to be really organized. When you set a deadline for yourself, you have to meet it.” He added, “It also helps that my wife’s really sympathetic and cooperative.” The main hindrance to writing, Hanna said, is overthinking. He described a common writing pitfall: “A lot of times, people will think about it, [...] research it, [...] and they’ll never write anything.” Putting words down on paper, he explained, is of the utmost importance, because, at the very least, it provides something to revise. Unsurprisingly, writer’s block is not a problem for Hanna. “You don’t have writer’s block because [the material]’s there,” he said, drawing a distinction between himself and fiction writers, who have to make their content up. Still, he expressed admiration and respect for fiction writers, noting the challenge of writing dialogue. “I wouldn’t know how to do that.” Publishing “Rendezvous” Hanna also elucidated the process of publishing, from conception to mass-market distribution. Initial research, he said, took about one year. Subsequently, the research got condensed to a proposal which

contained an outline of the structure of the book and included a sample chapter. This is what got pitched to publishers, and if a publisher “bites,” as Hanna put it, the author receives an advance payment, which Hanna used to go to France to do original research. Publishing was where a potential problem presented itself. A conflict with his editor made Hanna’s experience a bit more difficult than he would have liked. “Their hand is a lot more there than people realize. […] I felt that she was doing things a copy editor should do. [...] We were not getting along,” he admitted. The problem, he said, resolved itself over time. Now, he and his editor have synergy, as he put it. “It wound up being a great relationship.” Hanna received a great deal of feedback, though he focused on the reviews from experts in his field, and to a lesser extent, critics. One review he especially enjoyed, and fondly told us about, was from New York Magazine. “Have you ever seen the Highbrow/Brilliant/ Lowbrow matrix? [...] I was in Highbrow/Brilliant, that quadrant. That was a big thing. That felt really good. Even though it’s kind of a cheesy kind of thing,” he said, smiling. The Finished Product In many ways, though, Hanna is a storyteller. His work serves as a chronicle of the diverse group of volunteers for the French Foreign Legion in the First World War. One protagonist of many that greatly resonated with him is the poet Alan Seeger, whose melancholy poem, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” fittingly lent its title to the story. Hanna sought to write something compelling and immersive (in contrast, he said, to the dry academic writing that is so often associated with history), while still being informative and true to historical fact. He cited as influences the Pulitzer Prize winning historians Barbara Tuchman and the previously mentioned McCullough, both elder gods in the pantheon of popular history authors. It was easy to find similarities between the two and Hanna: McCullough shares Hanna’s sedulous work ethic, and Tuchman’s most well-known book, “The Guns of August”, outlines the genesis of the war that the characters of “Rendezvous with Death” devote themselves to fighting in.

There will be a book launch at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, June 13. All students and fac-

ulty are welcome, especially since the launch is located just a few blocks away from Stuyvesant and will take place just 25 minutes after 10th period on the last day of classes. Below is an excerpt from “Rendezvous with Death: The Americans Who Joined the Foreign Legion in 1914 to Fight for France and for Civilization.” By the end of the third week in August, most of the original contingent of Americans was in place. There were fewer than fifty of them, a drop in the bucket of France’s potential military strength, but collectively they possessed great symbolic significance. The foreign volunteers not just Americans but Greeks, Russians, Jews, Armenians, Alsatians, Danes, Colombians, Peruvians, Italians, and Spaniards (many nationalities raised volunteer contingents to join the Légionétrangère) — demonstrated to the wider world that France’s cause was just and universal. The American volunteers in particular carried an added significance in that their home country was an industrial giant and potentially potent military power as well. If their commitment could sway American public opinion, then perhaps the U.S. government could eventually be convinced to abandon its stated policy of strict neutrality. On August 21 the Americans officially signed their enlistment papers and were granted three days to get their affairs in order before embarking. For Alan Seeger this decision sparkled with a clarity rare in life: “I have talked with so many of the young volunteers here. Their case is little known, even by the French, yet altogether interesting and appealing. They are foreigners on whom the outbreak of war laid no formal compulsion. But they had stood on the butte [Montmartre] in springtime perhaps, as Julian and Louise stood, and looked out over the myriad twinkling lights of the great city. Paris— mystic, maternal, personified, to whom they owed the happiest moments of their lives— Paris was in peril. Were they not under a moral obligation, no less binding than [that by which] their comrades were bound legally, to put their breasts between her and destruction? Without renouncing their nationality, they had chosen to make their homes here beyond any other city in the world. Did not the benefits and blessings they had received point them a duty that heart and conscience could not deny?” And on a deeper level, the war was calling Seeger and his comrades to defend one side in an ancient feud, in modern form. According to this historical interpretation the Allied side that they were joining was “a pan-Latin front, a classical civilization united against the German barbarians.” As art historian Kenneth E. Silver has explained, in the larger historical context for those living in Paris in 1914, “The very people who

invaded France are the same ones who sacked Rome.”And they were now coming to sack Paris. The day after the Americans officially enlisted, the French Army met the enemy in the climax of what would come to be known as the “Battle of the Frontiers.” As the name suggests, the fighting was concentrated along the border between the French Republic and the German Empire. From the Ardennes Forest in the north to Mulhouse in the south, French soldiers attacked the Germans, trusting in their élan and their bayonets to sweep their longtime foe before them. In the age of modern warfare, however, rapid-firing machine guns and powerful and accurate artillery fire more than offset these perceived strengths. On this single day—August 22, 1914—the French Army lost approximately 27,000 soldiers killed. This figure does not reflect French soldiers who were wounded or taken prisoner, only those who lost their lives. To place this figure in some historical context: the single deadliest day in U.S. military history was September 17, 1862, when both the Union and Confederate forces combined lost a total of 3,654 killed in the Battle of Antietam. One can’t help but contemplate what France lost on that terrible day. Certainly more than a battle. As Paris reeled under the news of the disaster to the east, it looked anxiously to the north where the German general Alexander von Kluck had pushed through Belgium and now looked to descend on the city. Would the French cause be lost before the Americans volunteers could even fire a shot? This wasn’t as preposterous a question as it might seem. But the ominous news did little to dim the ardor of the Americans. When the day scheduled for their departure arrived, they were buoyant, proud, unafraid. A number of years later Jack Bowe explained how his future comrades-in arms began their journey to war: “Starting from the Palace Royale in the Latin Quarter, that corner of old Paris where, in by-gone days, Camille Desmoulins jumped on a chair and made the speech that started the French Revolution.”Except now it was they who were playing their part in history. Dressed in civilian clothes, the volunteers began their march in the morning sunshine to the Gare Saint-Lazare that Claude Monet had painted, about a half mile away in the 8th arrondissement. Crowds gathered along their route, pitching chocolates and flowers, while pretty girls proffered kisses. René Phelizot and Alan Seeger took turns holding aloft the oversized American flag at the front of the procession, and managed to monopolize the attentions of many of les demoiselles along the route.21 Who could blame them? To be a hero, warranted or not, if only for a few moments in Paris in the late summer, was as close to being a god as any living man was likely to come. And then, at the station, their golden moment already fading into obscurity, the volunteers boarded a train for Rouen—and their new life in the Légion, in the war, in a new age.

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Features

Elena Sapelyuk/ The Spectator

Out of the Closet: Dr. Moore

By ARCHI DAS and RAIBENA RAITA In the past decades, gay rights have been fought over in a constant legislative war between heteronormativity and equality. Considering where we were 10 years ago, there have definitely been many leaps and strides taken to try and obtain equal rights for homosexuals, including the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Act in 2010, the passing of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2013, and the legalization of same-sex marriage just this past year. Yet despite such reforms, life as a queer person can be far from ideal. Today, many teenagers are still scared of embracing their sexualities and have a hard time confronting the topic for fear of judgment and rejection by their families, friends, and/or religious communities. In a society where heteronormativity continues to have a dominant role in society, what life is like after coming to terms with your sexuality is still unclear. Is it worth making your sexuality public? Does it really get better? One teacher agreed to reveal the aspects of life after coming out of the closet. English teacher Emily Moore is a proud gay woman who is happily married to her wife and has a daughter, all while working at a job that she loves. But she didn’t always think that this was a future she could obtain. When she was first introduced to the concept of being gay, it was in the schoolyard and had negative, even fearful, connotations. “I remember, as a child, you internalize these

things whether you want to or not. I remember thinking that that’s the worst thing you can be. You would never want to be a lesbian. You would never want to be gay. Even before I had any idea what that word even meant. It’s like, ‘Well, who would want that?’” Moore said. Around the age of 11, Moore knew that she was gay, though she didn’t have a name for it until high school. When she came to terms with her sexuality, Moore had difficulty making it known. “In high school, I was super stressed about it. [...] I would decide whether or not I was going to mention it. I would be intensely nervous for days,” Moore said. “Now, I think about it as just something that’s a part of my life. The goal is that it’s just one thing about me.” Fortunately, Moore went to a progressive boarding school in Massachusetts, so being gay was not as “wrong” as it would have been elsewhere in the 1990s. “I think there was a lot of emphasis on diversity and inclusion of different voices that made me feel comfortable there,” Moore said. Moore also had a role model, who, funny enough, was a meta-image of who she is today. “When I was in high school, I had a teacher, a Religion and Philosophy teacher, named Diane Moore, and she had a doctorate, so I called her Dr. Moore,” Moore said. “She was gay, and she had a wife, and they had a child together, which was much more radical in the 1990s. There was a profile [in the school newspaper], and it was about faculty families. And [Diane Moore] was one of the faculty families. It’s been 20 years since I was in

high school, and I remember that profile, because it was the first vision I had of what my life could be, and it was a positive vision. Strangely, decades later, I became Dr. Moore.” Years later, Moore came out to her parents in her freshman year of college. Though her parents were very accepting of homosexuality, it definitely came as more of a shock to her family. “They thought that me being gay meant I wouldn’t have a family,” Moore said. “I think they had a lot of negative stereotypes about gay people. They thought my life would be lonely and sad and that I would never have a family. They thought that being gay meant that I would be poor [...] There weren’t images of people who were successful and gay and had families at that time.” At the time, even Moore herself was unsure of what life would be like after opening up her sexuality to the public. “[When I was younger], I could imagine a life in which I could be gay, at that time in my life, but I couldn’t imagine a life in

get thrown out of my home. I knew on some level that those things would not happen, which are things that other gay youth really struggle with.” But there were times when she felt insecure about her sexuality. “There was a lot of negativity around gayness, and I think that I also internalized that,” Moore said. “I thought if I was gay, I would be a social outcast. I had a lot of negative images in my mind. When I was 11, I thought that if was I gay, then I would be ugly. All the images that I saw of gay women were sad and mean-looking.” In college, Moore sometimes experienced stereotyping or nonsensical generalizations by her classmates. “In college, I did a lot of painting and drawing. And I was always painting and drawing women for a lot of reasons, not only sexually. It was something I was really interested in,” Moore recounted an anecdote. “One of my friends in high school [said], ‘That makes total sense. All you paint and draw are women.’” Additionally, Moore often

“There’s something about Stuyvesant that is loving and tolerant of weirdness.” —Emily Moore, English teacher

which I would have a family,” Moore explained. “Now that I have a family, [I find it] amazing that my family has legal status.” When she and her wife got married, it was right around the time gay marriage became legal, “not because gay marriage was finally legal, but because it was about the time in our relationship when you would think about getting married,” Moore said. Now the mother of a young toddler, Moore explained her daughter is the “the light of our lives.” Overall, Moore feels like she has had a rather fulfilling and lucky life. “I was never physically unsafe,” Moore said. “My parents didn’t revoke my college tuition. I didn’t

felt like other people’s perception of her was dominated by her sexuality. “People often tell me about someone gay that they knew. Either a positive or a negative experience. I feel like they were like, ‘Now that we’re talking about gayness, I want to tell you something,’” Moore said. “I never really know exactly how to respond to that.” Stuyvesant also has a ways to go before it becomes a perfect haven for gay students. Moore understands that her “white, only loosely religious, Christian” upbringing in Connecticut in the 1990s is different compared to the “personal, familial, and religious questioning” that goes into any Stuyvesant student experience, she said.

Additionally, the umbrella of heteronormativity she receives as a teacher is still an issue she views as gay suppression. “I think that students are aware of the home lives of their straight teachers, but when I [talk about my life], students are definitely like, ‘What?’” Moore explained. The suppression of homosexuality, Moore speculates, all begins in middle school. “‘Gay’ gets used as a slur, especially in junior high school, because there’s so much anxiety about sexuality at that time in young people’s lives. I think it’s the first time as a child that you look at what your life might be like as an adult in the world,” Moore said. “Because of that, there’s all that anxiety. [...] People then think of ‘That’s gay,’ because they think what is the word that embodies everything that you don’t want to be.” Reflecting on all her decisions, Moore said, “I definitely think my life would be much easier if I were straight. [...] [But] I was stubborn and brave, and I knew that I would be supported.” As for supporting her daughter in the future, Moore refuses to allow her daughter to face the difficulties that come with having two mothers. “I want my daughter to have every opportunity. I don’t want her to have any shame or embarrassment over her family situation. I don’t want her to feel that I’m ashamed, and I don’t want her to be ashamed,” Moore said. And to those who are struggling with their sexuality, Moore advised, “Sometimes the people who are supposed to help you are not the most helpful. So you have to find other people. [...] You definitely all have visions for your life that are slightly different from your parents’ visions of your life.” Students may even be able to find this help in the Stuyvesant community, a place for idiosyncratic individuals who often felt like they didn’t fit in prior to high school. “There’s something about Stuyvesant that is loving and tolerant of weirdness,” Moore said. “I feel that every student at Stuyvesant has experienced some level of teasing in middle school, and there’s a way that you guys are so kind to each other. Stuyvesant has a real sense of acceptance and tolerance.”

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The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 11

Features The Ultimate Question By RACHEL AN and KATE SHERWIN As the school year approaches its end, seniors around the country prepare for one of the biggest events in their high school career: prom. Amidst the dazzling dresses and dashing suits lie commotion and eager students who wish to finish their final high school career with a memorable night. The cool breeze calms the nerves as they enter the glorious venue: the Waldorf Astoria New York. But before this can become a reality, people must prompose to their significant others. Singin’ For My Best Friend Among the chatter and cheers from students in the senior atrium, junior Olivia Yie was pushed into the center of a crowd, which suddenly became quiet. An a cappella group sang “Sunday Candy” by Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, and after a few verses, senior Derrick Lui appeared, snapping his fingers, and he began to sing. With the help of his friend senior Elton Cheung, Lui had changed the lyrics of the song to make it more personal and “more than a generic promposal,” he said. “Something told me that I should take this girl to prom,” Lui exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. He quickly made a smooth transition to the next verse, following the applause from his peers. Snapping again and swiftly moving from side to side, he began to rap, causing those around him to clap and yell in support. Lui and his accompanying friends’ singing slowed down, building up the grand gesture. He then went down on one knee and held a bouquet of flowers, asking Yie to go to prom. Yie, sitting on the bench, stood up and embraced him. One friend asked audibly, “Did she say yes?” and Yie responded, “Yes!”. Her reply was followed by cheers. Yie knew that Lui was going to ask her to prom but did not know when. When asked why Lui decided to prompose to Yie, he said, “She is one of my closest friends, and I thought we would have a really good time at prom together.” The promposal planning had been going on since the middle of the year, after the production of SING!, for about a

month. Lui had known that he wanted to do something with singing and had a desire to rap. “It was a cute song and sounded nice a capella. So I thought it would be a perfect song for her.” College Royalty On a rainy March day, senior Ridwan Meah sat in Columbia University’s Low Library, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his 40-minute late wingman, junior Roadra Mojumder. Once he arrived, he met up with the “date-to-be,” Mahfuza Shovik (‘15). Meah had decided to ask Shovik to prom, not only because she is his best friend, but also because he wanted to give her a chance to go to prom, since she never went to hers. Mojumder signaled to Meah that the coast was clear, and the

pus with her mother, both of whom were extremely confused as to why an oddly-dressed stranger was asking them where to find an “empress.” When Shovik finally found Meah, she was so embarrassed that she took his arm and apologized to the people he was asking. “I just laid everything out at that point, which didn’t turn out as romantic as I’d hoped,” Meah said in an e-mail interview. “But she did give me a really well-appreciated long hug at the end, which signaled ‘mission accomplished.’” Perfectly Imperfect After weeks of planning, senior Advay Sriram anxiously awaited the arrival of his girlfriend, senior Nellie Spektor, at her locker. Sriram had asked Spe-

over with a bouquet of roses shouting, “I couldn’t think of any terrible puns, so I brought some tearable pants!” He quickly tore off his pants, and, holding a bouquet of flowers in the famous promposal kneel, he asked her to prom, to which she responded, “Yes!” His friends quickly surrounded him with the posters, as they all laughed. “[Spektor] thought it was hilarious. I think she enjoyed this year’s promposal more than if it had gone perfectly,” he said. “I have bit of a reputation for screwing up in the funniest and most spectacular ways possible, and, by this point, she’s more or less used to it.” Even though everything didn’t exactly go to plan like Sriram had hoped, he still came out of it with a date and a good story.

Angel Zheng / The Spectator

promposal began. Pretending to be the “Prince of the Hoyas,” a reference to his soon-to-be school, Georgetown University, Meah went on a journey through the campus, searching for the “Empress of Ithaca,” a reference to Shovik’s school, Cornell University. Naturally, he carried a scroll that utilized both his nickname (Riddy) and Mahfuza’s (Mu) to create a punny promposal: “I don’t know if you’re RIDDY for this, but I’ve finally MUstered the strength to ask, PROM?” However, his search didn’t go according to plan, because in his search for the Empress, Meah approached an older Chinese woman who was taking a picture of her son, as well as a girl of about 16 or 17 years who seemed to be exploring the cam-

ktor to junior prom the previous year, and the proposal hadn’t quite gone to plan: “I chickened out of doing the full thing on the day I had planned,” said Sriram in an e-mail. “I meant to do it the next day, but a mutual friend told me that if I waited any longer, she would just ask me out, so I found her after school and asked her out, sans all the cool stuff I had planned.” To make up for last year’s, he aimed to make his senior promposal perfect. “Even though I knew she wouldn’t say no, I still wanted it to go well,” Sriram said. A group of his friends stood behind him, holding signs with jokes on them, such as one that said, “Say no!” Everything was going according to plan, until Spektor walked over five minutes before they were ready. Sriram rushed

He Said Yes Straying away from the stereotypical promposal of a boy asking a girl, senior Joyce Lee excitedly prepared for the entertaining stages leading up the moment she would ask senior Elton Cheung to prom. Having been in Stuyvesant’s A Cappella group together and having both been SING! directors, Lee and Cheung were close friends. Before planning the promposal, she had made sure that he wanted to go with her, so Cheung knew that he was going to be promposed to. The first stage of the promposal involved Lee announcing a “Prom Olympic Trials” in the crowded, boisterous atrium. Lee had recruited her friends to prove that they were

worthy of taking Cheung to prom. The first round, the athletic round, was a promposal kneel, where contestants had to achieve the perfect kneel, consisting of legs bent in a 90 degree angle and a straight back. Laughter aroused as contestants began to kneel, and some failed to meet these qualifications, consequently being eliminated. Next up was the academic round. Lee jokingly remarked that they had to be able to solve an SAT math question, but ultimately chose a spelling question. Contestants had to pick up signs labeled with the letters spelling out the most important word, “prom,” and then had to rearrange them in the correct order. As the remaining contestants frantically handled the signs that spelled “prom,” one held the sign backwards, and another held the “m” upside down. The third and final round was the musical challenge, where they had to sing to Cheung. One of the two remaining contestants boldly volunteered to go first, singing “Best of Both Worlds” by Hannah Montana with all his might. Lee interrupted and eliminated him. The last contestant stated that she could not sing, causing her to be eliminated. As the last contestant was scurried away, Lee remarked, “Let me show you how it’s done.” In the midst of all the cheers, Lee began to create a beat to her arrangement of “I Want You Back” by Jackson 5, along with Stuyvesant’s very own A Cappella group, who stood behind her. “Now I’m thinking that I want to get down to the ground. [...] Oh Elton, will you go to prom?” Lee sang. The crowd screamed and cheered as she got down on one knee with her bouquet of flowers. Cheung, smiling, nodded and said yes. Lee was anxious the day of the promposal, and she had the desire to be a girl promposing to a boy but did not do it to prove a point. “In the end, I wanted to make Elton happy, and I wanted to ask him in a cute way that showed him that our friendship means something to me, which is what I think a promposal should be. Not some big production to show off, but a way to create a memory that both promposer and promposee will remember posthigh school,” Lee explained.

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The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Features Taking Initiative: Seniors on Political Activism and the 2016 Election By RANIYAN ZAMAN Senior year is the most eagerly anticipated year at Stuyvesant, when three years of hard work and sleepless nights come to fruition. Many seniors take the initiative to be more politically active in their communities in a variety of ways. As seniors turn 18 and gain the right to vote, politics become much more relevant in their lives, particularly in light of the 2016 presidential election. Various graduating seniors, part of Stuyvesant’s class of 2016, have unique and colorful ways of participating in politics, political outlooks, and roles that politics play in their lives. A Fervent Sanders Supporter Throughout Stuyvesant’s hallways, “Bernie 2016” stickers can be found everywhere from lockers to bulletin boards. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is widely popular among the younger generations, and senior April Lam is one of Stuyvesant’s most avid Sanders supporters and a frequent volunteer in his political campaigns. How Lam Developed an Interest in Politics Lam considers herself to have formerly been apathetic about politics. “I think, like many other teenagers, I was apolitical at first. When I was younger, I always strayed from politics, because, to me, it was a topic of only ‘intellectualtypes,’ or it was only a topic that would lead to debates and arguments, but I’ve realized that it’s a privilege, in a way, to be able to know enough about politics, to be informed, and to be able to discuss political issues eloquently,” Lam said. “My political apathy probably stemmed from the fact that I didn’t know much about the U.S. government and how it functioned.”

Clinton’s shaky positions on minimum wage and the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Though Lam can vote and intended to vote for Sanders on New York’s April 19 primary, complications arose, and she was unable to do so, which disappointed her greatly. However, she encouraged many of her friends to vote, emphasizing the importance of their voices.

on an almost daily basis working tirelessly to pull together the strings of major Stuyvesant events and clubs. Senior Kai Qiang Chen exemplifies one of these students. As the president of the Speech and Debate Team and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Student Union (SU), he is highly involved in extracurriculars that showcase his interest in politics.

How Lam Is Politically Active One of the ways Lam has volunteered for the Sanders campaign was by canvassing, which was when Sanders’s Brooklyn headquarters first opened up and registered as many New Yorkers to vote as possible before the registration deadline passed. “Canvassing is basically just walking around and knocking on doors to talk with people about whatever cause you’re volunteering for,” Lam described. Lam has attended Sanders’s Brooklyn Headquarters Office Opening Party, which was also a canvassing party, calling the experience “quite cool.” “We try to talk to [potential voters] about Bernie’s platform and leave flyers with them with all his campaign issues,” Lam said. She also participates in phone banking, which is calling homes to confirm the residents will be voting in upcoming elections. Lam also went to Hunter College, City College, and her neighborhood to work with people at booths and try to register people on the streets for voting.

How Chen Developed an Interest in Politics Neither of Chen’s parents are politically inclined, but Chen believes he always has been. Besides always liking

Lam’s Views on Political Apathy Lam has noticed that most people are surprised by her age when they see her working for Sanders, but they greatly appreciate young people being more politically active, something that Lam herself is interested in promoting. When

“Here in New York, you’re more likely to be liberal [...], while in Romania, you’re more likely to be conservative.” —Antonia Stefanescu, senior

How Lam Identifies Politically Spurred into action, Lam registered with the Democratic Party but also supports many of the Green Party’s platforms. However, she does have a particular affinity for Sanders, believing he will “truly transform the country for the better,” in contrast to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who will only maintain the status quo of “our oligarchical, so called ‘Democratic Republic,’ country.” Lam particularly supports Sanders’s stance on environmental protection, campaign financing reform, and universal single-payer healthcare. In contrast, Lam criticizes Clinton’s hypocrisy and “flip-flopping,” claiming that many of Clinton’s views have shifted further left in an effort to overpower Sanders in the race and citing

comparing our generation to the baby boomer generation, she considers ours to be more politically inactive. She attributes this to the Vietnam War going on when baby boomers were adolescents or college students, motivating the youth to create art, music, and slogans to express their displeasure with America’s role in the war. “Today we have wars in Iraq and in the Middle East that the mainstream American media try not to show and remind us about,” Lam said. As a result, young people are much less active in protesting these wars. Political Activeness Beyond Extracurriculars

Extracurricular activities are central to the Stuyvesant experience, and there are students who spend hours after school

the liberal agenda. The idea of political parties is that they group a bunch of topics or concerns that individual people have. You don’t have to completely agree on everything. There’s a difference between being okay with [a movement] and supporting it,” Chen said. How Chen is Politically Active Chen joined the Speech and Debate team as a freshman and immediately enjoyed it. “It’s about learning about political ideas, ideologies, and current events,” he said. Chen absorbs a lot of current events through reading articles and prepping

some solution, but I can’t really imagine one. When it comes to SU elections, the candidates always say, ‘Hey, let’s fight voter apathy.’ But you can’t force people to care about something.” Chen and Politics After High School Chen is unsure of whether he wants to pursue a political career, despite finding education reform particularly interesting. He is, however, considering majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Law (PPL) in college. “Most people are deterred from politics, because they think it’s ineffective and doesn’t

“I might be liberal, but I don’t agree with everything on the liberal agenda. The idea of political parties is that they group a bunch of topics or concerns that individual people have. You don’t have to completely agree on everything.” —Kai Qiang Chen, senior

social studies class, his interest truly developed under the guidance of his U.S. history teacher in 8th grade. “Understanding the policies that were passed during the Great Depression or during the twenties, understanding the behemoth that was the United States [interested me],” Chen said. “I think it’s important to know who your leader is and to understand their policies. Sure, it may not affect me, but it affects a lot of other citizens, and it’s important, because maybe they’re better off or worse off than I am,” Chen said. Taking AP Government with history teacher Kerry Trainor also allowed Chen to explore politics further. “The class is outside the standard curriculum that the College Board tries to make you learn. [Trainor] tries to make it very topical by including current events, and it really helps that it’s this year. Because of the election cycle, there [are] so many interesting things going on,” Chen said. This sparked Chen’s interest in viewing history in a different light and learning about its many aspects. How Chen Identifies Politically Chen identifies politically as left and liberal. Though he would not necessarily call himself a Democrat, he will vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate in November. He had not been able to vote in the primary, because he did not meet the age requirement. “In the primary, I would have voted for Bernie, and in the general election, I’m going to reluctantly vote for Hillary,” Chen explained, since he prefers Sanders’s views over Clinton’s. Chen also chafes against the idea that a label should confine one to a political party or set of ideas. “I might be liberal, but I don’t agree with everything on

for tournaments. As a veteran of Speech and Debate, Chen noted that a majority of his friend group does tend to be politically inclined. He cited several alumni and current juniors as people with whom it was easy to discuss current events with. However, he and his friends don’t always share the same political views. “[We] argue about topics like marijuana and gun control, but since we’re good friends, we don’t really care about what each other thinks,” Chen explained. “The whole point of getting into a debate or discussion is [to realize] maybe it’s fair why the other person thinks that way.” That said, Chen does not typically use a person’s political views to judge them. “That’s not a huge deal breaker. What one person’s political views are isn’t a definition of who they are,” Chen said. Chen considers his experience of working closely with Ioana Solomon (‘15), former Speech and Debate team president, to be what propelled towards him leadership and also what paved the way towards being the Chief Financial Officer of the SU. “After working with Speech and Debate and helping run the logistics of the team with [Solomon], I thought I had a really good idea of how money works, how much [things] cost,” Chen said. Gaining more experience with finance and handling budgets propelled Chen toward becoming more involved with student politics. Chen’s Views on Political Apathy Chen considers political apathy an issue that permeates generations besides ours. “Political apathy is a problem amongst every generation,” he said. However, he is unsure of ways to combat it. “I don’t think it’s possible to fight it,” Chen admitted. “Sure, [there] may be

really do anything, but [...] organizing events and making sure it’s approved takes a lot of time and work,” Chen said. Nevertheless, Chen has put in beyond the required work, completely dedicating himself to actively taking part in student politics. The Confinements of Political Labels Having been born in Romania before moving to the U.S. when she was five years old, senior Antonia Stefanescu considers politics to have always been extremely relevant in her life. “In Romania, politics are a big thing, because after stopping a communist nation, things really picked up,” Stefanescu said dryly. “Everyone’s very implicated. There’s a lot of political parties.” How Stefanescu Developed an Interest in Politics Stefanescu’s father is very politically active. She recounted sitting in on her father’s conference meetings in Romania when he was running for the Minister of Education for his political party. Coming into America, Stefanescu already had an interest in debate and foreign relations. Stefanescu discussed how the political dynamic in Romania is very different than it is in America. “In Romania, political views don’t really have to do with what party you are in, because it’s more about what’s going to be successful and behind-thescenes [work],” she explained. “Your political views change a lot depending on which country you’re in and the mindsets you’re surrounded by. Here in New York, you’re more likely to be liberal [...], while in Romania, you’re more likely to be conservative,” Stefanescu said. How Stefanescu Idencontinued on page 13

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 13

Features Taking Initiative: Seniors on Political Activism and the 2016 Election continued from page 12

How Stefanescu Identifies Politically

Stefanescu agreed that her political ideologies, to some extent, do line up with her father’s. However, when asked how she identifies politically, she responded that she doesn’t. “I’ll sit down and have a debate and pretend that I’m a Republican or a Democrat, but I don’t really identify with either one, and I find that the bipartisanship present here [...] makes it seem like there’s only two places to go, and I just don’t see myself in either,” she said. She feels that this dual-sidedness of the system makes it particularly difficult for people like her who don’t consider themselves a part of either party. “Socially, growing up in New York, I feel very liberal, but I definitely have conservative parts in myself,” she said. Stefanescu also understands the fluidity of her political views and how easily subject they are to change. “I’m not sure if I’m going to stay with the specific mindset I have now for the rest of my life. I’m experimenting with views and seeing how I feel being this or being that,” she said. “Growing up surrounded by many views and so many people, there’s no way you wouldn’t want everyone’s voice to be heard, but that being said, I think every region deserves to be whatever that region is,” Stefanescu said. “That’s why it’s kind of hard for me to label myself, because there’s so much influence that there’s no way I really know what I am.” How Stefanescu is Politically Active Stefanescu utilizes a wide variety of sources to keep up with current events, citing The New York Times, The Economist, and even a few lifestyle magazines that sometimes delve into politics. Her stepfather is also highly invested in the news. In addition, Stefanescu plans to vote in the general election, expecting to vote for a candidate that the Independents choose. “I’m really happy that at least the American electoral system has the

Independent possibility, because that’s probably who I see myself voting for,” she stated. Stefanescu’s Views on Political Apathy Stefanescu’s friends range from being politically active to inactive. “My friends keep up with politics, but I don’t think anyone’s seriously inclined in one way or another,” she said. “The New York City lifestyle puts a stigma on anyone who isn’t liberal, which I don’t especially stand for,” Stefanescu said. Stefanescu also believes this prevents people from voicing their true opinions. Stefanescu and Politics after High School Stefanescu’s passion for foreign affairs has sparked her interest in studying international relations, political science, and philosophy in college. Although she will remain in America for her college years, she plans to move to the United Kingdom afterwards. “I like Britain’s parliamentary system more, and I like the method of debate and speaking style there more. It’s focused on the prime minister most of the time but leaves room for a lot of backlash which is important in political debates,” she said. “The leaders there have a lot more legitimacy and experience.” The Disparity between School Politics and the Real World Senior Advay Sriram is also one of those who immigrated to America from another country at a young age. Although he was not as young as Stefanescu, moving when he was about eight or nine years old from London, politics have always played a major role in his life. How Sriram Developed an Interest in Politics Much of Sriram’s interest in the news and current events stems from his parents, who are also very politically inclined. “My parents would give me The Economist when I was seven [...], and I would read it and get interested in it,” he said. He still reads The Economist frequently to keep up with politics. “The Economist

is pretty unbiased,” he said. Sriram considers The Economist’s neutrality a useful asset. “Rather than reading opinions that are either far-liberal or farconservative, it’s best to read something that’s unbiased as possible,” he explained. “I draw my own opinions from there.” Sriram describes his parents as politically active, particularly back in London, though they’ve also been unable to vote in America due to only gaining citizenship last year. Neither of them hold political careers, as Sriram’s father is a software engineer for a startup company called NIIT and his mother is involved with JPMorgan Chase. “They were mostly left-wing, both socially and economically,” Sriram described. How Sriram Identifies Politically “I’m liberal socially, but economically I think I’m less so,” he said. Sriram identifies politically as liberal, although not strictly as a Democrat. In fact, he believes such labels can be limiting. “They cover a broad variety of people,” he said. Sriram did not meet the age requirement to vote in the New York primary, but intends to vote in the general election and is eager to make his voice heard, and he sees himself voting for Clinton as opposed to Sanders. “With Sanders and Clinton, it’s a much closer divide, but, in general, I don’t see myself as economically left-wing as Sanders is, and I’m not certain about the feasibility of many of his ideas,” he said. Sriram did concede, however, that Sanders has a level of transparency that Clinton lacks. “I do think [Sanders] has a lot more integrity than Clinton does [...] but, given an option, I’d probably end up voting for Clinton,” Sriram said. How Sriram is Politically Active Sriram is part of the Speech and Debate team as a Congressional debater, which he considers it one of the most enjoyable and important aspects of his Stuyvesant career. “I like speaking, I like researching, and I like debate. Congress is a combination of all three,” he said.

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Sriram’s Thoughts on Student Politics Sriram does not see any resemblance between student politics and real-world politics, believing that the SU does not work to its maximum efficiency or have any benefit, but is instead hindered by unnecessary drama without living up to its expectations. “All these candidates will come in at the start of the year, promising all of this stuff that they’re going to do, and maybe some of it they will do, but in general, not really. The way that the elections are run and the way the SU is run isn’t particularly effective,” he said. Sriram thinks these issues are rooted in the lack of autonomy that the SU has and voter apathy or misunderstanding of platforms. “The biggest thing is that with student politics, people don’t necessarily think about the issues, because they don’t see the student government as being able to actually do anything, so they just vote for whoever they like the most,” he said. This contrasts with real world politics, where Sriram believes people should ideally think more about the issues than the candidates themselves. “I think Bernie Sanders is a much better person than Hillary Clinton, but at the same time, [...] that’s not necessarily who I want as president,” he explained. Sriram believes confidence, an open mind, and a willingness to compromise are all essential qualities in a political leader. Sriram on Political Apathy Sriram considers political apathy a problem across all generations but particularly significant in the younger ones. “As time goes on and as we get older, we’re more likely to get interested in politics just because it’s going to affect what we do so much more,” he said. “There’s a significant difference between being a 20-yearold and a 40-year-old. When you’re 20, you don’t really have enough freedom to determine the bounds of how government should work, because you’re [...] trying to determine the way

you should live your own life. Once you’ve established yourself , you become a lot more interested in the way that the entirety of the system works.” Sriram sees no simple solution to combating political apathy, claiming that, later in life, you are in a better position to understand and make your voice heard in politics. “I think you’ll always have a system where the older people tend to be more interested in politics than the younger people,” he said. Sriram and Politics After High School After graduation, Sriram will attend the University of Toronto in Canada. Sriram does intend to follow U.S. politics while in college. “It affects everyone in the world, not just Americans,” he explained. Sriram also plans on returning to the U.S. after college. Although he didn’t look further into the Canadian political scene before applying to college there, he already had a basic understanding of it due to reading The Economist. Sriram does not plan to major in political science in college but is instead planning to study computer science. “There are ways in which you can affect society and have much more of an impact rather than just becoming a politician,” he said. Sriram’s attendance of a college outside of America in September is sure, however, to provide him with an even more global outlook on politics. Despite the variety in political views, the interviewed seniors all have common elements in their stories, such as Trainor’s AP Government class or the restrictions that political correctness and America’s bipartisanship place upon free speech and accurate expression of one’s beliefs. Some are still experimenting with their views while some seem sure of where they stand. But, if anything, the diversity in the roads these seniors took to becoming politically active members of their generation highlights the fact that anyone can develop an interest and contribute to society politically, given the right inspiration.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 14

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Page 16

Editorials Staff Editorial

The Wish Matrix: What We Want to See in the 2016-17 School Year

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

Not in a million years Unlimited SING! budgets To see what teachers post on Facebook

E D I TOR s

Ms. Sheinman and Ms. Hall to become best friends

N ews

Being able to stay after school after 5:00 p.m. without a faculty advisor present

F ea t u r es

Less chaotic programming changes More racially diverse teachers

More ethnic and gender diversity in leadership positions

s p o rts

E di to rs

Nadia Filanovsky Max Onderdonk Dean Steinman h u mo r

E di to rs

Alec Dai Laszlo Sandler Please address all letters to:

Being allowed to use phones in the hallways

Being able to come back from lunch in the middle of the period

E di to rs

Zora Arum* Asher Lasday Nalanda Sharadjaya*

Being allowed to stay on other floors besides 1 and 2 during frees

Arts & en t e r t a i nmen t ed i t o r s

Liana Chow Liam Elkind

345 Chambers Street New York, NY 10282 (212) 312-4800 ext. 2601 letters@stuyspectator.com

a rt

d i r ec t o r s

Yujie Fu Christine Jegarl Vivian Lin L ayo ut

E di to rs

Xinyi Gu Tina La Michelle Lin Co py

E di to rs

Fionna Du Kate Johnston Zoe Orlin B u s i ness

M anage r s

Evelyn Gotlieb* Web

E di to rs

Haley Zeng Sebastain Cain F ac u l t y

A dv i s o r

Lighter workload during AP season and right before college applications are due

Gender-neutral bathrooms

More female students in the SU

AP Studio Art

Equal representation of all genders in APCS and higher level CS courses

Taking health class freshman year, rather than junior year

A legal lockersharing system

Functioning water fountains on all floors

Discounts at nearby eating establishments for Stuyvesant students Bathroom stalls that actually lock

Would be nice

More relevant sex education

A Note to Our Readers:

Permission to bring coffee into the school building without hiding it

Larger desks for AP testing

Necessary

O p i n i o ns

No requirements to take 5techs, 10 techs, or science electives if you’re not going to pursue a career in that field

AP classes without irrelevant prerequisites

E di to rs

Alice Cheng Geena Jung Elizabeth Lawrence

Less crowded hallways, where everyone walks with a purpose A more racially diverse student body

E di to rs

Anne George Julia Ingram* Blythe Zadrozny

Elevator passes for people who have to run from the first floor to the 10th floor every day

Nancy Cao Xin Italie Kaia Waxenberg

C HIEF

Danielle Eisenman* Sonia Epstein*

Free massages during AP season

For everyone to stop complaining for once!

Photo gr aphy E di to rs

The Spectator will now accept unsolicited Op-Ed pieces written by outside students, faculty, and alumni. These columns, if selected, will be published in The Spectator’s Opinions section. Recommended length is 700 words. Articles should address school related topics or items of student interest. Columns can be e-mailed to opinions@stuyspec.com

Do you want to reflect on an article? Or speak your mind? Write a letter to the editor and e-mail it to opinions@stuyspec.com or drop it in The Spectator box in the second-floor mail room.

More reliable availability of pad and tampon dispensers

For students who are not black to stop using the n-word Permitted samesex couples for the Baby Project

People to stop crowding the Bridge Reliable availability of toilet paper

VOICES Better communication between the Board of Elections and the student body

Better vending machine options People to stop posting pictures of found IDs in the Facebook groups and giving them to the deans instead

Bring the pun names for the “lunch teachers” back Vivian Lin / The Spectator

EASY FIX

Would you like to share a personal narrative with the school? Whether it’s an essay you’ve written for class, or a piece you’ve been working on by yourself, if it’s in first-person and it is nonfiction it could get published in The Spectator’s issue-ly Voices column! Send your stories into voices@stuyspec.com, or email us with any questions or concerns you have.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 17

Opinions The BOE: Where It Came From and Where It’s Going By Sharon Chao

June 11-16, 2013

March 24, 2016

The Board of Elections (BOE) declares Eddie Zilberbrand (’14) and Keiran Carpen (’15) the winners of the Student Union (SU) election, even though the Jack Cahn (’14) and Remi Moon (’15) ticket garnered more votes. The BOE later clarifies that it voted 6-0 to disqualify Cahn and Moon for putting up more than three posters on a bulletin board, storing campaign materials in the SU room, and criticizing the other ticket by saying that Zilberbrand “accomplished very little” during his time in the SU.

The BOE releases an application form (due April 1) to be a Board member.

April 14, 2016 Abbas and Cheng select the members of the new Board.

April 15, 2016

June 10, 2014 The BOE mistakenly declares Adam Dehovitz (’15) and Sanam Bhatia (’15) the next Senior Caucus President and Vice President due to a “technical glitch inflating the vote count,” according to a BOE Facebook post. Later that day, the BOE posts the correct results, which declare George Triantafillou (’15) and George Kitsios (’15) the winners of the Senior Caucus election. Two days later it posts an official apology to Dehovitz and Bhatia on its Facebook page.

November 7, 2014

Abbas posts the signup form for the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Caucus elections in the Class of 2019’s and Class of 2018’s Facebook groups. No form is posted in the Class of 2017’s Facebook group. No due date is specified.

April 18, 2016 On behalf of the BOE, Assistant Principal (AP) of Guidance Casey Pedrick e-mails the signup form for the Spring 2016 elections to all students’ Stuyvesant emails. No due date is specified.

Sophomores Kevin Boodram and Oscar Wang file an appeal to the BOE after losing the Freshman Caucus elections to Pallab Saha and Tahseen Chowdhury. They claim that the Saha-Chowdhury ticket was guilty of multiple infractions, such as slandering their campaign, campaigning on voting days, and lying about endorsements. Boodram and Wang suggest a re-vote. Two days later the BOE votes 8-6 against taking any action.

April 21, 2016; 11:58 a.m.

June 2, 2015

Junior Laszlo Sandler posts a complaint about the deadline of the signup form in the Class of 2019 Facebook group. Sandler writes, “Could someone on the BOE please explain to me how it is just to release a submission form without a deadline, and then all of a sudden list a deadline three hours before it is due, at a time before most students get home from school? I am interested in running for caucus but yet I cannot because a 6:00 p.m. due date was announced today at 3:00 p.m.” Twenty minutes later, Abbas extends the deadline for the signup form for the Spring 2016 elections to April 22, 2016, at 3:00 p.m.

Junior Caucus Vice Presidential Candidate Sachal Malick messages the eliminated Junior Caucus candidates about supporting Malick and his partner, junior Anna Usvitsky, in the election. He informs them that if Malick and Usvitsky win, he will create five positions in the SU for them. Malick writes, “This is not a bribe […] all I’m asking for is support.” Malick and Usvitsky lose four points on the charge of miscommunication with other tickets, having failed to notify the BOE of their idea before talking to the other former candidates. However, the BOE cites the reason for the point deduction as “bribery” in the Class of 2017’s Facebook group and in its subsequent interview with The Spectator.

June 20, 2015 The BOE apologizes to Malick and Usvitsky for accusing them of bribery in a Facebook post.

March 20, 2016 The BOE begins the process of choosing new Chairs. Applicants have to write a paragraph about why they want to be BOE Chair and are then interviewed. Sophomore Adam Abbas and junior Joanne Cheng are chosen as the new BOE Chairs 10 days later.

Abbas posts the signup form for Spring 2016 elections in the Class of 2018’s and Class of 2019’s Facebook groups. The due date is specified to be April 21, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. Three hours later, Cheng posts this information in the Class of 2017 Facebook group.

April 21, 2016; 10:10 p.m.

May 18, 2016; 11:49 a.m. The day of the SU primaries, Abbas notifies students via Facebook that the voting booths are by Pedrick’s office instead of by the scanners as usual. Later that evening, he posts an explanation for the change of location in the voter booths, writing that the school’s Wi-Fi blocked the website used for voting, the BOE needed to connect to the computer science department’s Wi-Fi instead, which it could only do by moving the voting booths near Pedrick’s office. Abbas also explains that glitches were caused by the format of the lists of OSIS numbers given to them by the programming office. At 10:07 p.m. he posts on behalf of the BOE and Polazzo, writing that there will be a re-vote the next day, with booths again by Pedrick’s office. The rest of the election proceeds smoothly.

The Board of Elections (BOE) has come under a lot of fire in recent years for making mistakes during the election process. Whether it was incorrectly naming the winners of Senior Caucus in 2014, publicizing a false accusation of “bribery” against Junior Caucus candidates in 2015, or failing to set up the voting system correctly, necessitating a re-vote, in this past Student Union (SU) election of Spring 2016, the BOE clearly has problems with the way it operates. And they all seem to stem from the same fundamental issue: a lack of communication within the BOE itself and between the BOE and the student body. The new BOE Chairs, sophomore Adam Abbas and junior Joanne Cheng, have promised to enact change within the next year, but this change actually needed to start earlier, right from the time the BOE chairs were chosen. The new BOE Chairs are typically selected right before the spring elections. This leaves them little time to select the new Board and prepare for the elections. Though according to Kevin Yoo’s (‘15) Facebook comment, it’s “honestly not that difficult to set up the computers, open up the websites, upload csv files, and set the scanners,” mishaps in running the booth clearly still happen. And that’s to be expected, because the new Chairs cannot possibly be well-acquainted enough with their responsibilities so early on in their tenure. Before becoming BOE Chair, Abbas had never set up the voting system before; he had only manned the booths during his assigned periods. Even if setting up the voting system is so simple, Abbas should still have had at least some experience doing so before becoming Chair. Either the old Chairs should more actively help the new Chairs during the spring elections, or the selection of the BOE Chairs should be earlier in the winter, so that the Chairs can be more experienced by the time elections role around. Better yet, the BOE should do both. If the Chairs feel more comfortable with what they are doing, perhaps they will be more transparent about it. Abbas has recognized this need for better communication and has already written most of a new BOE charter, which he plans to put on a comprehensive BOE website alongside a candidate rulebook and a public strikes sheet. This is an ambitious endeavor, and again, if Abbas had been elected in earlier in the winter, he would have had more time

to do all of this, instead of having to push it on a back-burner while he figures out how to run a voting booth. But once the website is created, the BoE should share it multiple times, through both e-mail and Facebook. By publicizing election news as well as information on how students can join the BOE, the BOE will be more transparent and can be held more accountable for its actions. Finally, the BOE should improve its voting system, switching from the current one, which requires csv files and has already caused complications this year, to Google forms or Naviance. Townsend Harris High School already uses Google forms customized so that students can only vote once, from their school e-mails. Hunter College High School uses students’ Naviance accounts to vote, which is another possibility. Abbas suggested giving out stickers to incentivize students to vote, but e-mailing all students a Google form or giving them access to a form via Naviance will permit them to vote anytime during the day, even at home, and will thus attract more voters. Abbas has already realized the advantages of Google forms and considers it a possibility for next year. Voting booths may even be eliminated then, as they are often inefficient: they are difficult to find, and students sometimes feel uncomfortable using them because of the lack of privacy when voting. An added plus would be having links in the Naviance or Google form to short videos of each ticket explaining its platforms. In a high school election, it seems reasonable that the BOE should have the responsibility of trying to encourage students to informed voters, and having short videos available like the ones The Spectator published this year would provide students with helpful insights into each ticket’s platform goals. Ultimately, the entire election process can be revised to better fit the student community. Communication within the BOE can be maximized so that each year of Chairs is as competent as possible, and communication with the student body could be improved to better the election process. Based on my conversation with Abbas, I do truly think that he will put in the effort to transform the BOE for the better. Only in due time will we see how much is changed and how much remains the same.

Chloé Delfau / The Spectator

Retrieving Sound American Foreign Policy

By Asher Lasday A younger, darker-haired, and more hopeful Barack Obama shocked the nation when he voiced his support for meeting leaders of Iran with no preconditions in 2007. At the time, this statement was considered a political gaffe. Just five years before,

President George W. Bush had placed Iran in the “Axis of Evil,” a genre of rhetoric that had defined U.S.-Iranian relations for some time. But Obama’s remarks began a change, and with the recent Iran deal he has continued it. However, in direct contrast to this shifting relationship, the U.S. Treasury Department (DOT) placed more sanctions on the Iranian ballistic missile program (separate from Iran’s nuclear program) in March. Such sanctions harm relations with Iran, lead to a suppression of Iranian moderates, and limit the U.S.’s ability to negotiate future treaties. When the United States succeeded in closing the nuclear deal with Iran, perhaps the only people happier than those in the White House were those celebrating in the streets of Tehran. It was clear to both the American and Iranian governments that the people of Iran wanted an increasingly open relationship with the United States, especially if it would bring the removal of burdensome sanctions. For most Iranian statesmen, civilians’ desire for westernization is a clear

threat to governmental authority. However, they are aware that in order to prevent wide-scale civil unrest, they need to at least humor the desires of Iranian liberals. It is largely from this ideology that Iran approaches interactions with the West. Considering this delicate balancing act that Tehran plays with westernization, the U.S. must act carefully: any action perceived as defiance of these deals might quickly embitter U.S.-Iranian relations. This was the case with the DOT’s recent sanctions. Because the nuclear deal did not explicitly prohibit the testing of ballistic missiles, Iran believed that its tests were lawful and feels that the subsequent sanctions imposed by the U.S. are a violation of the nuclear deal. Concern about U.S. encroachment has led Iranian politicians, like foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, to say, “[D]efense capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not negotiable.” At such a turning point in U.S.-Iranian relations, the United States cannot afford to push back a longtime enemy. Instead, it should remove

such sanctions and remind Iran that in the future, clearer lines of communication during negotiations will be needed. Iran’s internal political structure also means that U.S. attempts at increased influence on Iran will be quickly met with a clamping down on Iranian moderates. Though the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has taken a clear stand against western actions in Iran, many of Iran’s members of parliament are more open. In an attempt to silence this, Khamenei routinely responds with anti-Western rhetoric. It was shortly after the nuclear deal that the Ayatollah ordered the missile testing that led to the DOT’s sanctions, communicating to moderates that he was unwilling to work with the U.S. Rather than meeting the Ayatollah in aggression, thus prompting him to further threaten moderate factions of the Iranian government, the United States should continue its push toward normalized relations, not giving Khamenei a reason to actively respond. But new sanctions do far worse than worsening ties with

Iran. When the United States is portrayed as a villain by one nation, its reputation among other countries is quickly put in jeopardy. We’ve seen this in the Middle East, where, despite an increased American committal toward a moderate Israel, the U.S. is still seen by many as condoning aggressive actions by the Israeli government. It is in the best interest of the U.S. to maintain a reputation of being a sound negotiator. By doing so, we open the doors to future conflict resolution. The United States has a troubled history with Iran. Between supporting the brutal Shah, sponsoring a coup to kick out a democratically elected leader, and funding Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Iranian civilians in the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah’s wariness at a friendship is understandable. Because of this, it is the responsibility of the United States to lead the slow march toward a closer relationship with Iran. However, if current ballistic missile sanctions remain in place, this process will not only be stalled, but also be pushed back.

The Spectator â&#x2014;? June 6, 2016

Page 18

Art Summer Bummer

Alisa Chen / The Spectator Jarett Lee / The Spectator

Yu Xin Zheng / The Spectator

Angel Zheng / The Spectator Joyce Gao / The Spectator

Anika Hashem / The Spectator

Lynne Wang / The Spectator Cien Huang / The Spectator

Rina Lubit / The Spectator

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, COSTA RICA, CUBA, ECUADOR & THE GALAPAGOS

sustainablesummer.org

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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Page 20

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Arts and Entertainment

Mika Simoncelli / The Spectator

Thinkpiece

By Nadia Filanovsky As with many of the various health drinks I’ve brought into my house—cold pressed juices, matcha, and just about every other fad—the first time I brought a bottle of kombucha into my house, my dad shook his head and asked how much of his money I had spent this time. It wasn’t until a few months (and many bottles and brands and flavors of kombucha) later that my dad told me how wonderful my effervescent beverage of choice was. This change in attitude came because my dad had heard about kombucha from a reliable source, and had also found a way to make it, which involved me spending a lot less of his money. My parents had just visited a friend who brewed kombucha at his house,

and sold them on its wonders. My dad came home with his very own Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY) in air-tight packaging that his friend had given him, and decided that kombucha was going to be his thing. Kombucha is essentially fermented tea, made from a SCOBY, which is a huge chunk of bacteria that consumes the tea and ferments it in the process. It’s a little bit daunting the first time you see it, since it looks a bit like a flattened chicken breast. But once you put it in a jar of tea, it just sits on the top like a flat disk, getting bigger as you brew the kombucha. The fermentation causes the drink to become bubbly, but all of the sugar is consumed as well, so it’s a very low calorie drink. The fermentation process makes it a probiotic drink, which means

Kombucha: The Bubbly Hippie Drink You Can Make At Home drinking kombucha helps your gut and digestive system by introducing beneficial bacteria, which helps restore the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut. After acquiring the SCOBY, my father bought bottles and jars to grow the SCOBY in. From there, the process is actually really simple: you make some sweet tea (black or green instead of floral or fruity), put the SCOBY on the top, and wait two weeks. The fermentation takes about two weeks, and produces another SCOBY in the process (which is why his friend could give him one: he had plenty extra from his brewing adventures). The SCOBY prefers temperatures in the high 70s or low 80s to grow at maximum speed, as well as very limited light, so your bottles have to be wrapped for best results. Within two weeks, we had our first batch. We bottled it and put flavorings in. We used dried fruits—like plum and tart cherry—and put them in the smaller bottles as we poured in kombucha from the gallon-brewing jar. From there, we took our extra SCOBY and bought a bigger container for it to brew in (three gallons), so we could have kombucha all the time. Every day, I wake up and have a glass. We’ve even made SCOBYs from taking the bacteria out of the bottom of commercial bottles of kombucha and feeding it sweet tea. Kombucha is a drink worth talking about, especially as the

fad becomes more and more popular. It’s incredibly easy and cheap to make at home—the cost of making an entire gallon is only that of a tea bag—and has a myriad of health benefits. Part of what I think makes it so appealing is that it isn’t a replacement for anything; the intention is not to limit your consumption in any way. Instead, it helps your health by aiding your digestive system (though there may be other benefits, like preventing colds and helping your immune system, though there isn’t sufficient evidence to say something definitively) through the addition of beneficial bacteria to your diet. The first time I tried kombucha, I was a little bit overwhelmed. I picked up a “Cayenne cleanse” flavor from Health-Ade, chosen mostly because its bottle was prettier than other brands’ (and honestly because it was the brand on sale that week). It was super bubbly, and also super spicy, though I should have probably have figured that out since cayenne was in the name. The next week I tried a bunch of the kinds of Synergy Kombucha (this was the brand on sale that week), which is the one most people have seen, because it’s sold in many delis. I wasn’t as fond of this brand, mostly because the kombucha wasn’t as bubbly as the other brand, and the flavors were much subtler, and usually either floral or fruity. I shared the lavender flavor with a friend,

and they said it tasted like floral beer, but that’s probably because they’re both fermented drinks. The Synergy brand floral kombuchas seemed more fermented; they had more of an alcoholic smell even though the drink only contains trace amounts of alcohol from the fermenting process. Since then, I’ve had a bunch of different brands and flavors of kombucha, but my favorite is still the Cayenne cleanse, the first one I had. Their original kombucha is a great first kombucha in my opinion, because it’s very mild, but if you want something less carbonated, try the Synergy Cosmic Cranberry, because unlike some of the floral flavors, it’s less carbonated, and almost a little sweet. The Synergy brand is also about a buck or so cheaper than Health-Ade, which is always nice. You’re probably going to walk through Whole Foods sometime soon, and there will definitely be one brand of kombucha on sale, since they rotate which is on sale depending on the week. I don’t think you can go wrong picking up a bottle of kombucha, what with all of its benefits. Perhaps next time you see a bottle, you should try it, and see what you (and your stomach) think, and if you don’t like it, try again; I didn’t like the cayenne at first much either. If you do like it, you can become your own kombucha brewer now, and have your own jar 24/7.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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Arts and Entertainment Interview with Robert Creighton: Broadway Star of Cagney

TheatER

born to do or meant to do, then you don’t let the fear stop you.

Christine Jegarl / The Spectator

SZ: What are some of your proudest achievements as an actor? RC: The show that I’m doing now, “Cagney,” started as just an idea in my head. I started writing it by myself and then collaborated with some folks and [...] now I’m getting to perform it here OffBroadway, and people are responding nicely to it. I’ve been very lucky to do certain Broadway shows. Broadway was always my dream, and when I got out of acting school, it took me ten years to get my first Broadway show. And that show closed very quickly, as some shows do. [...] It never even got going. But it didn’t matter. For me, that was the achievement. And I’ve gone on from there. I’ve gotten to play a lot of great roles. It never gets old. I love what I do, so I’m always looking forward to what’s next. By Sunny Zhao

Have you ever dreamed about performing in a Broadway show? Robert Creighton, a Broadway actor, offers some insight into the theatre world. Creighton stars in the ongoing hit off-Broadway musical, “Cagney,” which tells the story of James Cagney, one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors and a graduate of the Stuyvesant class of 1917. The musical follows Cagney’s career from a small-time performer to a major movie star. Creighton plays the eponymous lead role of Cagney. For his performance in the musical, Creighton was awarded the Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer in an Off-Broadway Show on May 16, 2016. The musical has also received multiple Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle nominations. “Cagney” finds its home at the Westside Theatre, nestled near the heart of the theater district. Creighton has a very busy schedule with a total of eight performances every week. It was by good fortune that when I asked him about the possibility of an interview, he was more than happy to help. We spoke the day after he was given the Astaire Award. Creighton took time out of his schedule and we talked about his own personal experiences in the world of acting. He also has special advice for any Stuyvesant student that has dreams of being on stage.

Sunny Zhao At what age did you decide to pursue theatre? Robert Creighton When I was seven, I started singing in a boys’ choir, and I was very into music. I took piano lessons, singing lessons, and performed in little things at school. But when I was 15, I played the Artful Dodger in a community theater production of “Oliver!” in a small town near where I lived in Canada. That was when I really knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life. SZ: Who would you say was your inspiration at that time? RC: I had an older sister who was possibly pursuing [a career in the performing arts]. She was primarily a singer but also played a lot of wonderful roles in a community theatre in a big city. Even back then, I was really into old movies. Funnily enough, I got the Fred Astaire Award last night, but as a kid I was always like, “I want to be Fred Astaire.” I liked the song and dance stuff. At the time, however, I was also into a lot of things, sports and whatnot, so I wasn’t totally consumed by it. SZ: Did you ever think about if pursuing music and theatre was a risky path? RC: For sure. There’s no question that it doesn’t lend itself to a secure, regular paycheck. However, if it’s what you feel like you were

Vivian Lin / The Spectator

ThinkPiece

By Zovinar Khrimian As much fun as it is to mock fancily photographed meals on a well-curated Instagram feed, there is no denying how satisfying it is to see perfectly parallel lines of buttery asparagus or a delicate swirl of steamed milk atop a frothy cup of coffee on your high-resolution smartphone screen. Thematic elements, such as recurring cotton candy colors or tropical motifs, capture the

essence of the newest social media craze, known simply as “aesthetic,” where carefully cropped, high-resolution images capture the ideal of a put-together lifestyle. It’s easy to scoff at the effort some put into something as trivial as photo-sharing, but the crisp, clean perfection of a design-focused Instagram account is often the subject of a small degree of envy. Aesthetic, in the conventional sense, is the guiding principle behind the production of art and objects of beauty. Aesthetics permeate much of the visual and artistic material that we confront regularly. From architecture to ornamentation, and even mathematics, beauty is idealized. The movement of Aestheticism in nineteenth century Europe and the principles of aesthetics, which often emphasize simplicity and nature as in traditional Japanese art, are just several examples of the way the concept of aesthetics influences formal art forms in a more traditional setting. By a certain degree of contrast, having an

SZ: So, “Cagney” is your creation? RC: Yes, I’m the one who started it. It was an idea in acting school when a guy said, “You remind me of Jimmy Cagney,” and I started going over his films. I started [the project] and then brought other people on board to help me create it. SZ: I doubt there was any competition, then. RC: Nope. It’s the one time in my life where I didn’t have to audition for the part. Now I’d love to find other people to play the role so it can keep going. I’m not going to do it forever, and it’d be great to find other guys who have a similar skill set. And they are out there. We just have to find them. Cagney was a short guy— he could tap dance—and [the replacement actor] has to be able to do all those things, and look a bit like the part. I’m lucky: people say I look quite a bit like him. SZ: Do you have any goals after your run with “Cagney”? RC: I want “Cagney” to have a nice, long life [...]. I’ve done a little bit of television work and that’s something that I definitely want to do more of. I’d like to have that be a more regular part of my career. So far it’s been sort of once in a while, but that’s certainly something that I really want to do more of. And I’d like to keep creating things like I created

“Cagney.” I had to write some of the music and lyrics and I’d like to continue to do that more in different ways, [to] create new pieces. SZ: You said that you had to wait ten years until you got your first Broadway role. RC: Yup, I was doing a lot of other things [during that time]. I did teachings in New York City Opera. I would go out of town every summer to do summer stuff at various places. Worked at a great theatre in New Jersey called the Paper Mill Playhouse several times, which is like doing a Broadway show. So I had lots of opportunities. I just didn’t actually do a Broadway show for ten years. But I hung in there. I did the “Lion King” production in Toronto and then I did it on Broadway later. But at that point it was exactly like doing a Broadway show, just in Toronto. And then, finally, I got one in New York and now I’ve gotten several since then, so I’ve been lucky. SZ: Who did you play in Lion King? RC: I played Timon, the meerkat. “Hakuna Matata,” he sings. Yeah, it was fun. SZ: How does the theatre business work? RC: Well, that’s an awfully big question. From the actor’s side of things, most often, especially if you’re just starting out, you have to audition. If you don’t have an agent, you go to open calls. I have an agent, so, whenever I go to an audition, it’s not an open call. My agent sets up an appointment so that the people casting are making the decision. That’s just a benefit of having experience and people know who you are. Then, once you get the part, [...] you have to do your research and learn your role and go to rehearsal and do all that. And on the production side of things, in New York, in professional theatre, in what they call commercial theatre, you have to raise money. You have to have money to put on a show so you can advertise, build sets, build costumes, hire designers to design the set and do the lights and do the costumes, and run the set, and run the sound. It’s an enormous operation and then you have to hire a company to advertise. To build a website, to put posters all around town, to

make a TV commercial, it’s a big process. It takes a village to put on a show, that’s for sure. SZ: What’s show business like for you? Is it tiring, fun, exciting? RC: It’s great. I feel very grateful that this is my business and that I’m part of the Broadway community. And nights like last night, with all these interesting people and artists and famous people and whatnot. So that part of it is fun. As I said, it’s not a secure path in life so sometimes you’re relying on other people to hire you. Although in the “Cagney” case I created it for myself to play that role, so I think that’s something I want to do more of. But I love it. It is very exciting and it’s what I feel like I was supposed to do in the world. I’m very lucky to get to do that for a living. SZ: Would you have considered yourself, after acting school, a starving artist? RC: I think at times the answer to that question was probably yes. I had very supportive parents, and if it got too dark I always had a bit of a safety net until I sort of got my own seat under me. There were definitely times where, you know, you’re eating ramen noodles and a bagel. But if I needed a job, I went and got a job. Early on I did other things. I did temp work, I did catering work, I did other little jobs here and there. But I didn’t have to do a lot of that overall and the last time I had any other job other than acting was fifteen years ago. SZ: Nice, you’re doing what you love. Do you have any advice for Stuyvesant students that may also be interested in going into theatre and music? RC: My main advice is just to get great training. Do whatever you can. Any experience you have in that world is good for building your foundation. And if you want to have a career in it, it’s not going to just happen. You have to train, you have to learn technique. If you’re a singer, you have to take singing lessons. You have to build your foundation with training and that’s how people get a career. And then you have to want it. It’s not going to just come to you. There are too many people in this town who want to be in the business, that are hungry for it. You have to train yourself and then go after it really hard.

I Like Your Aesthetic “aesthetic” in today’s youth culture signifies maintaining good taste and an effortful approach to your appearance, whether that be online or in real life. Aesthetic is captured in the execution of appealing and stylistic imagery, often in social media, and tends to serve as something of a status symbol. Having an aesthetic is synonymous with being a creative, thoughtful, and organized person; someone who can float through life effortlessly and look good doing it. Of course, the put-together aura exuded by Tumblr-esque imagery is not reserved solely for the world of social media. Trying to pull off overalls, packing lunches in cute Tupperware, and wearing brightly colored eyeglasses have all found their way into the bucket description of my “aesthetic.” Ironically, these same elements have been received as the product of trying too hard. The reality is a marriage of the two. Although it is somewhat superficial, the concept of a curated image for the world to feast on is

quite intriguing, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shop and dress myself without this in mind. I wear my floral knee-length shorts because they’re fun but also give off an appropriate “I shop vintage” image. Like wearing sunglasses indoors, dressing to an aesthetic is quite contrived but feels really darn cool. In the whirling chaos of being a student in an academically demanding setting, the simple pleasures of maintaining a visually appealing and organized space for life and work are difficult. Glimpses of this ideal come from the satisfaction of fresh stationery and colorful pens, or even a page or two of perfectly executed class notes. Famous YouTubers and Instagrammers, who are required to produce content and keep up appearances to maintain a following and a livelihood, often need to polish the imagery and visuals that accompany their work. However, a student trying to navigate his or her way through exams, the college application process, and a hefty load

of academic and extracurricular work is not required to be attentive to a carefully executed aesthetic. And, despite this, many of us seek to find best hour to photograph the sunset over Tribeca or sweets from SoHo. Most of us won’t be adopting the aesthetic principles that underlie the ancient ideals of Japanese design, nor will we be decorating our rooms entirely with the overpriced interior pieces from Urban Outfitters to establish the perfect setting in our workspace. Similarly, most of us aren’t looking for sponsorships or advertising work via Instagram and have little necessity to uphold the perfect aesthetic online. Looking a certain way has influence over first impressions and has a degree of significance when it comes to formulating an identity. However, buying into trends and seeking out imagery for the sake of online popularity is less of a means of creative expression and more of a way to conform to what the mass of people identify as having taste.

Page 22

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Arts and Entertainment Your Guide to the West Village By Crystal Ku and Winnie Kong

Courtesy of nycgo.com

Courtesy of Washington Square Park Blog

From its romantic winding streets to its charming brownstones, the West Village is an iconic neighborhood in New York City with centuries of preserved history. Its quaintness gives an impression of a small European town accidentally planted in the middle of a metropolis. It carries a rustic and bohemian charm that adds to its modern day trendiness. The West Village is actually the epicenter for counter culture and culinary adventures.

What to Do As a creative oasis, the West Village welcomes both locals and tourists with its easilyaccessible culture from charming greens to contemporary arts. The beloved Washington Square Park is a gathering spot for artists, musicians, families, and tourists. It is filled with jazz musicians playing for the crowd, tired pedestrians on the benches, residents walking their pets, and children playing by the ornate fountain. Tourists take pictures with the Washington Square Arch, which is modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in honor for the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration as president. Washington Square Park is not just a historical landsite, but also the location of many innovative and fun events in New York. This includes hosting the International Pillow Fight Day, Dachshund Spring Fiesta, and the Washington Square Music Festivals. A cozy vintage bookstore filled with unpretentious vibes, Three Lives & Company represents the past of the West Village. It continues to thrive because of the vibrant souls of those who work there, as they take into account of every customer who walks inside. More often than not, intriguing book recommendations are given. Readings are also occasionally given by authors and poets. To those who would like to meet their next favorite artist, White Columns is the place to go. Since 1970, it has served as a gallery exhibiting the works of emerging artists. It is nonprofit, so all you have to do is just walk in and enjoy the art. As New York’s oldest alternative art space, it has supported some of the most influential artists today: Alice Aycock, Gordan Matta-Clark, and Barry La Va. The West Village has one of the best art houses ever, one that will immediately cure a case of nostalgia—the IFC Center. Once home to the beloved Waverly theater, it is now modernized but still as strange (a good strange) as ever. Whether it be a new-release indie film or an old foreign classic that you’re interested in, they have it all. Treat yourself and join them on one of their “Weekend Classics” or “Waverly Midnights.”

Courtesy of sogoodmagazine.com

How It All Started The first residents in the West Village appeared during the late 1600s and early 1700s. At this time, it was a marshland the Native Americans referred to as the Sapokanican. As Europeans migrated here, it became the center of commercial activity. Population also increased from it being a sanctuary for New Yorkers fleeing from outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever. Merchants built neat rows of Federal styled houses that can still be seen today. A Federalstyle house is typically just a simple two to three story-high rectangular prism with a porch. These red-bricked buildings housed many literary heroes: Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. Interestingly, at 14 West 10th St, Twain’s house is now notoriously known as the “House of Death” after continuous reports of paranormal activities. There have been claims of sightings of Twain near the staircases and on the first floor. In the 1930s, a mother and child claimed to have seen Twain’s ghost. He told them, “My name is Clemens and I has a problem here—I gotta settle.” During the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, there was a wave of immigration of groups including the French, Irish, and Italian. With the influx of immigrants and the upper class moving uptown, many older houses began to be demolished for cheaper lodging hotels and tenements. By the twentieth century, the West Village became greatly known for its acceptance of nonconformity and ethnic diversity. It was a haven for unconventional artists and writers with progressive ideas, because areas outside of West Village still carried a traditional mindset. Here, they were given a chance to freely express themselves, as art galleries would exhibit their avant-garde work and small presses would publish their books and writings. The West Village was the heart of the “Beat Movement” that started in the 1950s. Beat culture rejected standard narrative values and focused on explicit portrayals of human life and sexual exploration. It was the ideal scene for contemporary art galleries on 8th St, coffeehouses on MacDougal St, and music theaters on Bleecker St. The Village also became the birthplace of modern gay rights movements. In the 1960s, a homosexual community formed around the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street. On June 28, 1969, the police raided the gay bar for serving alcohol without a license. But when they also arrested the drag queens and gay customers, the community finally snapped from the countless occasions of police harassment. The violent confrontation between the police and patrons at Stonewall Inn became a catalyst that triggered the LGBTQ+ community’s fight for social equality. Since the 1940s, the West Village has started historical preservation movement that’s still going on today. They have been striving to retain its nineteenth and twentieth century’s physical character and vibe. Many buildings, roads, and iconic sites have been carefully restored and preserved, including the Stonewall Inn. The West Village’s intimate and narrow streets from the 1800s were well established and retained before Manhattan’s implementation of the gridded system. This haphazard arrangement causes even New Yorkers to easily get lost. But this unconventional organization also gives you the chance to explore and discover the nooks and crannies of the West Village.

Courtesy of villagealliance.org

Where to Eat

Notable Figures from the West Village • • • • • •

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio Fashion designer Marc Jacobs Poet Edgar Allen Poe Painter Jackson Pollock Actress Emma Stone Editor-in-chief of “Vogue Magazine”Anna Wintour

The West Village in Pop Culture • • • • • •

The characters in “Friends” live in the West Village. Journalist Jann Wenner conducted an interview with musician John Lennon here. The “Wizards of Waverly Place” takes place in the West Village. An episode of “Sex and the City” was shot in Jefferson Market Garden. The Huxtable House from “The Cosby Show” is located in the West Village. Audrey Hepburn lives in the West Village in “Wait Until Dark.”

Whether you’re looking for a little pick-me-up or a full blown meal, the West Village is your gal for aesthetically-pleasing cafes and restaurants. You’ve probably heard of the cronuts at Dominique Ansel Bakery, but what you probably didn’t know was that there is also a Dominique Ansel Kitchen. In this French restaurant, time is of the essence—the chef doesn’t start making your food until after you’ve already ordered. In this self-seating cafe, the choices are less limited as the menu consists of even more awe-inspiring eats developed by the pastry chef, Ansel, himself. A favorite of Ansel’s is his XL Croque Monsieur, an iconic French grilled cheese and ham sandwich. Inspired by the coffee culture of Australia, Bluestone Lane is easily one of the most popular cafes in the West Village. This cafe collective stresses the importance of drinking coffee alongside every bite of food you eat, as it offers complements ranging from pastries to brunch eats. While it has Instagram-famous avocado toast, there is also the traditional lamington and balthazar toast with vegemite. Food prices may be a bit high for the quantity, but the quality is definitely extraordinary. For those who fancy matcha and green tea more, there is Chalait. It is a neighborhood cafe that offers a twist with matcha, presenting it in a way coffee drinks are served. They replaced espresso with matcha after experimenting it with different kinds of coffee—americano, cortado, flat white, and latte. Their bestselling drink is the matcha latte, consisting of a shot of matcha and steamed milk. Just like good ol’ regular lattes, the matcha latte also comes with latte art. Among the eats are sandwiches and tartines that are simply impossible to resist. Chalait’s seating is limited, but if you do happen to have time and want to take a photo, their sleek marble-top tables are worth waiting for. With appealing culinary and natural lighting, Chalait is indeed a food photographer’s paradise. And of course, it is always a good idea to eat at The Spotted Pig if you are ever feeling spontaneous. This British and Italian gastro-pub is a spot adored by many celebrities, even co-owned by some, like rapper Jay-Z and singer Bono. With April Bloomfield as head chef, the pub’s menu consists of killer burgers and mouthwatering fries that are a must-have. It is open for brunch, lunch, and dinner—though the place is extremely busy, the food will make up for it. Despite being extremely successful, The Spotted Pig remains a humble abode for its customers and is one of the lower-priced celeb restaurants.

How to Get There The West Village constitutes the western section of Greenwich Village. It’s bound by West 14th St on the north, Houston Street on the south, Broadway on the east, and the Hudson River on the west. You can take the 1 or 2 train to 14th St or the A, B, C, D, E, F, or M trains to West Fourth Street - Washington Square to get to the West Village.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 23

Arts and Entertainment “Misadventures” Is Waiting

Christine Jegarl / The Spectator

Music

By Emily Xu Pierce the Veil doesn’t know how to keep promises. After their 2012 album, “Collide with the Sky,” earned #12 on the Billboard 200, they reassured their fans that a next album would come in January 2015. But January 2015 came and inched away with no sign of the much-anticipated album, not even another potential release date. So, fans, including myself, were elated to hear that the longawaited album number four, “Misadventures,” was set to come out on May 13, 2016. Nearly every person interviewing Pierce the Veil, whether it was for a magazine or radio station, brought up the fact that the gap between their third and fourth albums is the largest one in their history. Clearly, there is an issue with the album being delayed for so long, but lead vocalist and guitarist Vic Fuentes told Rolling Stone Magazine, “We ended up doing a world tour right

smack in the middle of recording the album.” And, as Vic elaborates, that’s the story behind the album title – the album’s actual making was a twisty, unpredictable journey. There is an understandable fear shared by musicians everywhere that an anticipated work of art will not live up to fans’ expectations. But as their history has proven, Pierce the Veil never lets their fans down, despite the lapse in between album releases. The band has mastered in the ability to incorporate past influences and styles with more avant-garde, progressive ones. And this is exemplified in “Misadventures,” which includes the perfect medley of electrifying punk and soulfulness. “The Divine Zero,” the first single off the new album, dropped in June 2015. The syllables of Vic Fuentes’s opening lines are in sync with the rapid beats drummed out by his brother, Mike Fuentes. In typical Pierce the Veil fash-

Christine Jegarl / The Spectator

World War I-era mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan Iyengar’s tale is infinitely more powerful because it is real. Matthew Brown’s film “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” which tells Ramanujan’s story, romanticizes numbers without using overwhelming

ryline and Vic Fuentes’s slight voice cracks add a sense of emotional rawness. The most moving part of the song, the one that will make listeners want to dig out the Kleenex tissues, is when Vic, partnered with a slower drum beat and stripped-down guitar, croons, “And I said, ‘Hey, what’s on your mind?’/I think about my life without you and I start to cry/ And I said, ‘Hey, it’s all right,’ we’ll make it/I love you and I’ll never leave your side.” “Gold Medal Ribbon,” my favorite track, is the point where the album begins to slow down and soften in tone. In the past, “Southern Constellations” from “Selfish Machines” would always be my go-to song to make me feel better and give me hope. Now, “Gold Medal Ribbon” may get the honors. Much like its secondalbum counterpart, this track doesn’t have a lot of lyrics, but they are romantic and charming. It is one of the few songs by Pierce the Veil that are about real, give-and-take relationships, so it is already standout. Vic Fuentes sings, “I swear I can hear you in the wind/You’re singing to me and dancing in the halls outside again/I’m always listening.” The drums are kept at a simple tempo and Vic Fuentes’s voice is soft, an obvious difference from faster punk songs on the album such as “Dive In.” For this song especially, the music is not as important the passion and emotion in Vic Fuentes’s voice. Pierce the Veil has always been able to fuse their post-hardcore music with Hispanic influences of their hometown of San Diego, California. This is what makes them unique from every other band in their genre; they seamlessly incorporate pieces of their culture into our culture. The most notable track by the group involving this is “Bulls in the Bronx” from their third album, which features the Spanish guitar and a flamenco dance in the music video. But the band’s home influences sneaking into their progressive

style is what “Misadventures” lacks. There are no tidbits of the music of their roots anywhere on the album. But it may be for the best that the Hispanic touches are left out, as Vic Fuentes revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. He said, “We had a Spanish intro for the new record, but it just didn’t seem to work–it was sort of just whatever the song needs, you bring it out. If it needs to have some screaming, I get angry on it; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Even with the lyrics, I want each one to be its own personality.” This is one of the things I love so much about Pierce the Veil. The way they look at music is so incredibly unique from many other artists and bands. They want each song to stand individually and tell a story of Vic Fuentes’s life at a particular time. Pierce the Veil’s music is much more than just songs on a soundtrack; they are snapshots of points in time. “Song for Isabelle” is the final song on “Misadventures.” Showing that the band can take their best traits and innovate them, the main melody has similarities with the main melody from a past song, “Stained Glass Eyes and Colorful Tears.” Perhaps the technique of soft, repeating lyrics and gentle guitar closing the song is something that Pierce the Veil is trying to incorporate into their music more, as nearly all the songs on the album have this, and “Song for Isabelle” is no exception. The album draws to a close with words that resonate inside everyone: “But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again.” Throughout the years, Pierce the Veil’s sound has radically changed, from slow and lyrical to post-hardcore, to something situated in the middle. This fall marks the ten-year anniversary of the formation of the band, and it is without a doubt that they can easily celebrate the milestone with the success of “Misadventures.”

The Man Who Loved Infinity

Film By Shruthi Venkata

ion, the lyrics are unconventionally gorgeous. At first glance, they seem abstract and disconnected, but under closer analysis, they reveal incredible amounts of emotion and meaning. Favorite lines of mine from this song include “A million waves in the ocean crash at once to make you smile,” and “Been counting the stars and scars/How I’m becoming a work of art.” The song gradually fades away into silence, making the ending much slower and more peaceful than the beginning. “Texas Is Forever,” is reminiscent of “The First Punch” from “Collide with the Sky,” tempowise. This song is extremely fast, the fastest song Pierce the Veil has ever done, and it is drenched in punk, from Jaime Preciado’s thumping bass that begs for head-banging to Vic Fuentes’s confrontational lyrics. A personally important track for Vic Fuentes, the song is his way of saying he is over the relationship he has been writing about ever since their first album in 2007, “A Flair for the Dramatic.” Several songs from “Misadventures” have amazing backstories. This is not unfamiliar to the band, as Vic Fuentes has written songs about his ex-girlfriend battling cancer and a fan’s suicide in the past. One such song on their current album is “Circles.” Vic Fuentes wrote the lyrics in four hours after hearing the news of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed over 100 lives. The song follows the narrator and a friend both trying to save each other from death. Though the song was written quickly, it doesn’t mean it isn’t impactful. In fact, it is one of the most heartfelt tracks on “Misadventures.” After playing the song for its worldwide premiere on BBC Radio 1, DJ Annie Mac said, “I was actually crying and screaming at the same time. Guys, that’s what [Pierce the Veil does. They] make people cry and scream at the same time.” And she’s not wrong. The heart-tearing sto-

mathematical theory, instead remarking about their intricacies and rendering them beautiful. It isn’t imperative that you understand the characters’ mathematical ponderings to relate— the film allows you to follow their emotional experience as they solve them. Math is the art that draws together the consonant yet dissonant minds of Ramanujan and mentor G. H. Hardy, who, like Picasso and Matisse, understand and complement each other while challenging each other like no one else can—no one else understands them, while the clash of their personalities brings them together but apart. Ramanujan, played by Dev Patel (known for his role as Jamal Malik in “Slumdog Millionaire”), begins as an unemployed jobseeker on the streets of Madras, India—the name Madras originates from “Manda Rajya,” the

“Realm of the Stupid.” He has no degree or achievement behind him, only faith in his abilities and in God for the present, and uncertainty for the future. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) begins as a fellow in Cambridge University, and is the only hope that the poor and unknown Ramanujan has to be recognized. Irons effectively impersonates the goodwilled, pensive character, while maintaining a distance from his peers, creating an unapproachable aura. Ramanujan’s is yet another story of ambition—the Andrew Carnegie seeking the American Dream, the Alexander Hamilton who studied hard and became first Secretary of the Treasury. Yet Ramanujan’s cause distinguishes him: he writes two books full of ingenious theorems, gets published in England, and becomes a Royal Fellow—just to go back home knowing he had become someone. This is his personal version of self-actualization. Oftentimes, there is a disconnect between where a protagonist comes from and where they are going, because they want to physically end in a different home or social or workplace position, but with Ramanujan, it is a full circle. His purpose is in achieving an internal sense of accomplishment and being conscious of his contribution to the world and future mathematics, instead of

long-term fame, recognition, or wealth. It took Hardy, a commendably unbiased and perceptive man, to recognize that there is no formula for feeding excellence, nor a certain society where it can develop, although there are communities in which it can flourish. The professor of probability at Cambridge University thinks that there is no method of finding how many partitions are in a number, and if there is, it could not be discovered by the likes of him. What was Hardy thinking bringing an Indian over the sea? One without an education? An accountant in a small Madrasi business? Soldiers beat him up— he doesn’t deserve to be defended by British soldiers while he lives outside the warzone, in their homeland. The film’s sudden contrast of violent, uncomfortable scenes like these with the intense academic workspace Ramanujan has with his mentor Hardy help understand the solace he finds in mathematics, again showing its beauty. He cannot even prove his own theorems; he only says they are right, and God placed them in his mind, or at the tip of his pen. The discrimination Ramanujan faces on a daily basis makes the audience suffer, knowing how much he knows, and how little they know of him. The film was successful in conveying the emotional experience of entering a society that considers itself su-

perior to one’s own—Ramanujan can’t find vegetarian food or be left alone without being told to wipe the kumkum off his forehead. Despite this, he knows what he wants: to publish his work, so that others can read it, and to have become someone. Meanwhile, although it is for all the wrong reasons, he learns what it means for a place to be home. Patel does an excellent job of communicating this emotional stress and inspiring sympathy through unnerving scenes of Ramanujan’s outbursts alone at home. “The Man Who Knew Infinity” doesn’t teach you math, but teaches you who to strive to be– most importantly, an asset to society. Every scene contributed to a distinguished theme of working for honest fulfillment, despite hardships—ones that made me cry during the movie. We know that his work will be the resource and inspiration he wants it to be, by seeing what became of the first person to have read it, Hardy. Hardy was a friend, but more importantly, someone who was willing to learn—he didn’t reject knowledge because it came from someone unlike him. And though the detached, atheistic fellow never quite understood the devout, social figure Ramanujan was, he was amazed by him, as infinitely many others will continue to be.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 24

Arts and Entertainment Get a Life: The Cultured Edition

calendar

Play “Shakespeare in the Park” @ The Delacorte Theater in Central Park until 8/14

Film Screening “The Lower East Side Film Festival” @ 143 E Houston St, New York, NY until 6/16

ONGOING

Play “An Act of God” @ The Booth Theatre until 9/3

Friday

WedNesday

Film Screening “New York Asian Film Festival” @ Lincoln Center and SVA Theatre

Festival “Lincoln Center Out of Doors” @ The Plazas of the Lincoln Center

Concert “Twenty One Pilots Concert” @ Madison Square Garden

Saturday

Tuesday

Parade “The Coney Island Mermaid Parade” @ Surf Avenue and W 21st Street to Steeplechase Plaza

JUNE

3 WedNesday

Musical “Motown the Musical” @ Nederlander Theatre

JULY 25

Live Show “Amateur Night Honors at the Apollo” @ The Apollo Theater

August 13

Friday

Saturday

Thursday

Sunday

Friday

Film Release “Finding Dory” @ Select Theaters

Concert “New York Hot Jazz Festival” @ SummerStage

Musical “Broadway in Bryant Park” @ Bryant Park

Festival “Jamaican Jerk Festival” @ Roy Wilkins Park

Film Release “Suicide Squad Premiere” @ Select Theaters

Chicago Hip-hop, as he gloats in “Blessings (Reprise),” “Kanye’s best prodigy / He ain’t signed me but he proud of me.” If “Acid Rap” told a relatable tale of the highs and lows that brought Chance The Rapper before rap royalty, “Coloring Book” documents his rapid and surreal ascension to Hip-hop heaven, so far above his humble beginnings. “Coloring Book” remains distinctively “Chance,” but it also showcases the evolution of his artistry since “Acid Rap.” While at its core, it’s light-hearted, Chance’s previous mixtape explored a multitude of critical emotions: depression, anxiety over failure, and doubt over faith. This latest mixtape shows the acceptance of these emotions, the positivity that triumphs them, and the feeling of thankfulness for the things that allow him to not worry about the depression, anxiety, and doubt. Chance is able to create a feelgood atmosphere with instrumentals that combine elements like colorful synths, impactful and hypnotic drums, and live instrumentation that evokes old-fashioned, familial feelings. The album’s opener, “All We Got,” hits us right away with the whirlwind of positivity, triumphantly declaring, “Man, I swear my life is perfect” over headbopping claps and flourishing trumpets. In the track, Chance openly shares his love for music and the appreciation he has for what it has done for his life. Chance illustrates this by featuring on the track the artist of the first record he had ever owned, Kanye West, a notable influence of the mixtape’s “feel good” energy, unsurprisingly reminiscent of West’s “College Dropout” (2004) and “Graduation” (2007). Chance also alludes to his other current influences, especially his family, explaining in the same song, “Man, my daughter couldn’t have a better mother.”

“Coloring Book” conveys a message of assurance without the bravado, confidence without the braggadocio, and positive strength without the machismo that brings a new perspective to the overall message of Hip-hop that’s been represented, perhaps unfairly, as harmful. On top of that, the message itself is represented diversely, with Chance expanding his artistry i n t o

Emily Lee / The Spectator

If you’re Chance The Rapper, how can you not be happy at the moment? How can you not be happy if you’re Chancelor Bennett, surfing the wave of hype from your critically acclaimed, sophomore mixtape “Acid Rap” (2013) and having the Hip-hop world holding their breath in anticipation of your next move? How can you not be thankful if you’re Lil Chano from the 79th, the first independent artist to be a featured performer on Saturday Night Live, the Chicago-rap worshiper who “met Kanye West [and is] never going to hell,” and the newly initiated father? Chance’s resounding answer in his latest mixtape, “Coloring Book” (2016), shows that he is certainly all of those things—especially positive, happy, and thankful. Although he released his debut tape “#10Day” to great local praise in 2011, Chance has exploded into the Hip-hop world’s stratosphere with “Acid Rap,” a tape that has been downloaded over a million times on the music distribution site DatPiff. The rapper struck a “je ne sais quoi” chord with his distinctive, almost-dichotomous style. Perhaps it was his lazily energetic rapping brandishing an effortless flow that can define a party or a break from it. Or maybe listeners fell in love with his unique voice, both high and raspy, and his signature “IGH” ad-lib sound bite that he uses to announce his presence. Or maybe they fell in love with his wordplay, as he was not afraid to be clever or silly or, quite often, both. Whatever it was, for the past three years, the Chicago-born artist has used it to capture the attention of the Hip-hop underground and mainstream alike, including Chicago-legend and rapper Kanye West. Chance was featured prominently in Kanye’s latest release, “The Life of Pablo” (2016), lending his characteristic style both as a rapper on “Ultralight Beam” and a writer on “Waves.” He is thought to be West’s unofficial apprentice, the new leader of the new wave of

Saturday

Festival “Jazz Age Lawn Party” @ Colonels Row, Governors Island

Positivity, The Rapper

Music By Justin Pacquing

sounds a listener would not normally associate with him. For example, Chance demonstrates his chops in the trap genre, adapting its more lethargic and hazy style to great effect in songs like “Mixtape” and “Smoke Break.” At the same time, Chance still indulges listeners with the styles and themes he had quite resoundingly already made his bread and butter, in particular nostalgia, as a title like “Coloring

Book” would suggest. “Summer Friends” is a slow-paced, sorrowful look at childhood summers, ones where friendships saw their unfortunate end because of Chicago street violence; as Chance says in “Acid Rap,” “Everybody’s dying in the summer, so pray to god for a little more spring.” But ultimately, this nostalgia transforms into one without a heavy sense of melancholy. Chance’s brand of nostalgia in “Coloring Book” replaces the sadness of being incapable of reliving the past with the gratification of having lived those memories, of being able to reflect on them and have a much more promising present and future for them. In the more upbeat “Same Drugs,” Chance is accepting of being incompatible with an ex and is glad to see that he could realize and work out differences with her, singing, “You were always perfect, I was only practice.” “Juke Jam,” a molasses-sweet and soul-soothing slow jam about roller rink dates featuring Justin Bieber rounds out the set of prominently nostalgic tracks. But perhaps the most notable influence of the mixtape is the gospel element, primarily because it is so unorthodox for a release this prominent. Kanye West had already primed the Hiphop world with religious motifs in “The Life of Pablo.” However, “Coloring Book” is much more consistent in exploring Christian styles and messaging and is much more deserving of the “a gospel album with a whole lot of cursing” label that West pinned on “Pablo.” To be so outwardly religious risks satisfying only a niche and alienating the rest of listeners, but Chance makes it work by using religion as a tool to express universal values and emotions rather than making it the message itself.

The hymnal hook and whimsical riffs of the piano and trumpet of “Blessings” express Chance’s thanks and appreciation for his success in a homely and familiar lens, playfully saying, “These blessings, keep falling in my lap.” “How Great” use of samples of a church choir and a pastor’s homily, followed with Chance’s unhurried, hard-hitting words about his growth as a person over a distorted church organ makes for a compelling song about appreciating one’s life. In great continuity with “Acid Rap,” “Coloring Book” is ultimately about self-liberation and the celebration of oneself. As Chance says in “Blessings,” “I don’t sing songs for free, I sing songs for freedom.” “No Problem” is a grandiose statement of self-confidence and feeling invincible, singing over samples of high-pitched, praising choruses and vibrant synths, “You don’t want no problems with me.” He uses the funky-house feel of “All Night” to show his desire to unwind and feel unburdened. “Finish Line / Drown,” with an instrumental of an old-fashioned organ playing jovial and staccato riffs and vocalized “do-do-do’s” reminiscent of Chance’s previous single “Wonderful Everyday,” presents a celebration of a fulfilling life and the desire to keep living; this, even after the roughest of times, is further highlighted by rapper Noname’s guest verse, “I know my God seen his breaks and his edges / Are jagged for giving that pain to his city in gold… / Like all them days he prayed with me / Like emptiness was tamed in me / And all that was left was his love.” Chance The Rapper knew he had immense expectations to fill after his breakthrough mixtape “Acid Rap.” He responded with “Coloring Book,” a mixtape that reminded us why we all fell in love with his music and what more we can look to fall in love with. What we love is an artist that does not want us to experience his happiness and positivity vicariously, but one that wants us to make it part of our own.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 25

Arts and Entertainment Hamilton Was Here By Liana Chow

Every few minutes, people hurrying to Wall Street stop in their tracks when they spot a large white triangular monument engraved with the words “Alexander Hamilton” through the fence of the Trinity Church cemetery. “Is this for real?” they ask. For real. Hamilton is buried in the Financial District, but before he died, he walked its streets famished, attended college, dropped knowledge, fought, settled his family, and practiced law downtown. Here are many of the real-life settings of “Hamilton: An American Musical,” as well as history beyond the musical, a walk away from Stuyvesant.

Fraunces Tavern

Trinity Church

75 Broadway at Wall St. Daily, 8 am – sunset My love, take your time. I’ll see you on the other side. Free Admission

Raise a glass to freedom

Liana Chow / The Spectator

Site of Thomas Jefferson’s Rented House

Thinking past tomorrow

57-59 Maiden Lane (between Nassau and William)

ton’s inauguration is exhibited at Federal Hall.

48 Wall St. at William St. Tue-Sat, 10 am – 4 pm $5 students, $8 adults

E Hamilton wrote 51 of the 85 Federalist

Papers, on view at the Museum of American Finance.

Bowling Green

Broadway and Whitehall Streets

Actually, sweet and submissive are not the right words. In 1776, after a public reading of the Declaration of Independence in City Hall Park (also the site of Kings College, which Hamilton and his son attended), patriots headed down Broadway to Bowling Green, tore down the statue of King George, and ripped the royal crowns from the fence posts. The original fence still surrounds Bowling Green park, and you can feel the rough tops of the posts. A fiery and iconic painting of this moment and the horse’s tail from the demolished statue are on view at the New-York Historical Society. (To geek out even more over Hamilton, visit the New-York Historical Society’s “Summer of Hamilton” exhibit, opening July 4th with family Hamilton activities.)

Liana Chow / The Spectator

My sweet submissive subject

Hamilton and Burr got their client acquitted here in the first murder trial of the brand-new nation. The current Greek revival building wasn’t built until 1842, but the grounds it stands on have seen plenty of Hamiltonian history. The white and red structure previously here adapted as the nation developed: it served as City Hall under British rule, the seat of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and the Capitol under the Constitution. George Washington was inaugurated on its balcony.

Liana Chow / The Spectator

Here comes the general

26 Wall St. at Nassau St. Mon-Fri, 9 am – 5 pm, closed weekends Free Admission

G A balcony railing from Washing-

The quaint Alexander Hamilton Room in the Museum of American Finance is packed with artifacts from every part of Hamilton’s life, from a $1,000 bill with his image to the Federalist Papers. It tells the story of his youth in Nevis (a forgotten spot in the Caribbean) as an orphan who wrote his way out of destitution. It’s not only this room that honors Hamilton. Look around the museum and his thoughtful eyes appear everywhere, reminding us of his importance as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.

Liana Chow / The Spectator

Federal Hall

At 57 Maiden Lane, Thomas Jefferson rented a simple house as Secretary of State, and here he arranged the menu, the venue, and the seating for the secretive Compromise of 1790. Jefferson and James Madison got the capital moved from New York to Philadelphia; Hamilton got the federal government to assume state debts. Today a stern office building rises into the sky at this site, with a plaque at the base commemorating Jefferson’s stay. Jefferson didn’t find New York to be the greatest city in the world. He called it “a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature.” Just across Maiden Lane is the imposing Federal Reserve Bank. Alexander Hamilton boosted America’s economy by establishing a national bank (the Federal Reserve Bank’s forerunner) and a new line of credit.

Liana Chow / The Spectator

Museum of American Finance

Fraunces Tavern is the inspiration for the wooden “Hamilton” set and its chandeliers, but before that, it was the location of defining moments in revolutionary history. In the musical, Fraunces Tavern is where Alexander and Burr encounter John Laurens, Marquis de Lafayette, and Hercules Mulligan drunkenly rapping their revolutionary rhymes. In real life, following an incident involving Hamilton dismantling British cannons, British ships on the harbor famously shot a cannon into the Tavern. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote “Hamilton the Musical,” did some of his writing here, and the comforting colonial aura makes for great inspiration. Up a flight of delightfully creaky stairs from the Tavern is a two-story museum. The wood-paneled Long Room, where Washington had a final party with his officers after they won the war, can only be observed, but it seems to come alive with the smells wafting from the bar downstairs. The museum did not forget Lafayette, featuring a bust, his calling card, and his general’s sash in a special exhibition.

Liana Chow / The Spectator

We don’t know if Alexander Hamilton aimed his pistol at the sky, but we know he was buried here after Aaron Burr killed him in their duel in July 1804. Hamilton’s massive monument stands out from the disintegrating graves around it. His wife, Eliza, a devout member of Trinity Church, made sure her husband’s story was told and established an orphanage in the city. She was buried next to him 50 years later. Her sister Angelica is buried on the other side of the church in the Livingston family vault; some speculate an affair between Hamilton and Angelica motivated Eliza to have her sister buried away from Hamilton. His son Philip Hamilton and his friend Hercules Mulligan, a patriot spy, also lie in the cemetery. Now, the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society––whose fan base has recently exploded––holds memorials at the gravesite every January on Hamilton’s birthday and July on his death anniversary.

The Room Where It Happened

54 Pearl St. at Broad St. Mon-Fri, noon – 5 pm Sat-Sun, 11 am – 5 pm $4 students; $7 adults

Across the street from Bowling Green is 26 Broadway, the address where Alexander, Eliza, and the children lived before moving to the quiet uptown. Just south of Bowling Green is the monumental Alexander Hamilton Custom House, a masterpiece of the Beaux Arts architectural style that now houses the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. Finally, just to the west of the Custom House is The Battery (not to be confused with Rockefeller Park near Stuyvesant), a waterfront public park with sweeping views of New York Harbor, where British Admiral Howe commanded 32,000 troops in 1776.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 26

Arts and Entertainment A Truly “High School” Musical

Xin Italie/ The Spectator

STC

By Alec Dai and Liam Elkind

sion made his role as the show’s narrator very clear. It also enhanced the idiosyncratic nature of his character, an adorable and socially impaired nerd with an unquenchable thirst for high school drama that he’d never be a part of. Jack, wearing big headphones, shook his way to the stage, hoping to stand out. However, he was ultimately swallowed by the bright lights and the huge personalities, like those of Ms. Darbus, along with theater fanatic and popular girl Sharpay Evans (junior Kate Johnston). Johnston brought her usual demanding aura and pizzazz to her characterization of Sharpay. Her lines, delivered with harshness and cruelty, easily made the audience hate her pomposity yet want to see more of her throughout the musical. Freshman William Lohier brought to Sharpay’s pushover brother, Ryan Evans, an overt vulnerability, creating an interesting dynamic between the siblings. Johnston better fit the stage, delivering stronger humor and occasionally overpowering Lohier. However, Lohier’s character as Sharpay’s pathetic sidekick was meant to be overpowered. In

Dodin and Rachel Zeide, along with junior Pazit Schrecker, was incredible, featuring each social clique dancing around their own respective tables. The tables were cleverly situated on the stage, two downstage and one upstage center. Each group had its own quirks that were ingeniously incorporated into the dance. The set was well utilized in large group numbers such as these, but did seem a bit amateur. The art crew, directed by sophomores Jasmine Zhang and Vivian Lin, seemed to lack the finesse desired in a musical production, though it did effectively evoke a high school setting, especially since, most of the time, it consisted of Stuyvesant’s own tables and chairs. The crooked windows were truly representative of the show—they were as high school as it gets.

addition, Lohier had more of an empathic connection with the audience, one that Johnston had to a lesser extent. That said, both Johnston and Lohier are clearly very talented actors in their own ways and were able to present a complex relationship in a creative and invigorating way. Sharpay and Ryan’s meltdown at the end of Act I was a big success, leading into a memorable performance of “Stick to the Status Quo.” The large group numbers were complicated but cleverly devised to maintain the energy and specificity required by such songs. The choreography of “Status Quo,” by seniors Frances

“High School Musical” was at its strongest when the actors seemed like they were having fun. Scenes such as Ms. Darbus’ detention, during which students in detention were asked to act like animals as a theater exercise—actors clumsily slithered across the floor and monkeyed around—were not moments of highbrow comedy, but high school comedy. Though not a flawless production, the directors and actors worked together well to create something that wasn’t very high quality, but was a whole lot of fun to watch—not too different from the original “High School Musical.”

The show ended with the infamous “We’re All in This Together.” As all the actors flooded the stage for one last hoorah, the high school energy shined through. While the specificity of the dancing may have been lacking, the energy and excitement of the cast members more than made up for it.

Xin Italie/ The Spectator

The Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC), long known for its members’ passion and energy, yet also for its technical difficulties, embraced these flaws and used them to its advantage in this year’s spring comedy, a production of “High School Musical,” which occurred on the nights of May 11, 13, and 14. “High School Musical” tells the story of the adorably adolescent romance between Troy Bolton (senior Mark Abiskaroon) and Gabriella Montez (junior Nadia Filanovsky), a jock and a nerd respectively, as they discover their mutual passion for singing. However, at their high school, like at most American high schools, jocks and nerds are not supposed to sing. And so, Troy and Gabriella, along with the rest of East High School, are forced to challenge the status quo. That last paragraph of plot summary probably sounds very familiar, since most of us grew up watching “High School Musical,” hoping, throughout our tween years, that our own high school experiences would resemble the cult television movie in some way. While Stuyvesant is nothing like East High, it’s safe to say that “High School Musical” has sentimental value for many of us. That’s probably why so many of us blew off studying for APs for a night to come out and see the show. But did STC’s “High School Musical” live up to our nostalgia? In many ways, yes. In others, not so much. The show started off with the classic, if not iconic, “Wildcat Cheer.” It showed off perhaps one of the best parts of the musical: the band. Directed by juniors Katya Ghosh, Rodda John, and Griffin Strout, the band was tight

and well utilized throughout the show. While it lacked the computerized synths and beats so prevalent in the original “High School Musical,” the band effectively set the mood for various scenes, enhancing intimate moments between lovers and infusing group numbers with energy. “Wildcat Cheer” was imbued with excitement, as the actors and chorus members were able to match the band’s energy. Actors playing archetypal cheerleaders, nerds, geeks, jocks, and skaters flooded the stage, naturally splintering off into groups, the “nerds” tripping and dropping their clumsily organized papers at the feet of the bigger jocks. The early establishment of such cliques set the tone early for the musical’s central themes of identity and friendship. Yet, at the same time, the slapstick comedy was messy, and the actors were often slow at responding to each other’s lines, which made the beginning rather awkward and ultimately drew away from the comedy. A notable exception to the show’s somewhat unfocused energy was junior Jessica Sparacio’s portrayal of the students’ melodramatic drama teacher, Ms. Darbus. Her hilariously histrionic performance was reminiscent of her earlier role as the Main Player in last year’s spring comedy, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” Sparacio captured the original Darbus’s over-thetop energy and elaborate monologues, making the high school students (both in the audience and onstage) groan with appreciation. The cast directors, seniors Jeremy Elkayam and Henry Rosenbloom, maintained the audience’s interest in the complex web of high school relationships by giving each student distinct characteristics that occasionally

made them seem caricaturized, but worked well to simplify the story and streamline the main ideas of the show. The characterizations of Gabriella and Troy, on the other hand, were somewhat lackluster. Filanovsky played a shy Gabriella, but perhaps too shy to successfully play off of Abiskaroon’s rather mellow take of Troy. Though both individually talented, Abiskaroon and Filanovsky lacked the chemistry to perform well as an onstage couple. However, the relative blandness of Troy and Gabriella was somewhat appropriate, since their TV movie counterparts, played by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, also weren’t particularly interesting. In most stories with large and vibrant casts like “High School Musical,” the romantic leads are usually less colorful than the supporting characters. Filanovsky and Abiskaroon’s duets, however, were anything but boring. Both possessed strong vocals that allowed their romance to come alive through their shared love of music. But when Troy and Gabriella were alone onstage talking, their energy and authenticity simply didn’t seem to match that of other actors. The introduction of the relationship between Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton (David Rothblatt), on the other hand, was refreshing. For a first time actor, Rothblatt was able to harbor his anger in a way that fit a high school show. While he wasn’t a conventionally skillful actor, Rothblatt’s charismatic energy made him a crowd pleaser. Even though he occasionally broke character, laughing on stage at Sparacio’s ingeniously eccentric outbursts, it was hard not to laugh with him. The chemistry between Darbus and Bolton was so strong that it inspired SING!-esque cheers from the student-dominated audience at the Friday showing (though not from the more civilized, parent-dominated audience on Saturday). Their passionate rivalry frequently overshadowed the dynamic between Troy and Gabriella. Another noteworthy performance was delivered by freshman Adam Elsayed, in the role of Jack Scott, the delightfully geeky P.A. announcer. His character was hilariously awkward, exhibiting peculiar body movements and tentative gestures. Every time Jack gave announcements, he stood alone on a darkened stage with a single spotlight on him. This unique staging deci-

Caption Contest Each issue, we provide an ambiguous cartoon or image in need of a caption. You, the reader, can submit your caption to the Stuyvesant Spectator website (www.stuyspec.com). We choose one finalist and his/her caption will appear in the following issue along with its respective image.

Minseo Kim / The Spectator

Jarett Lee / The Spectator

“How about we avoca-DON’T attack Earth? Huh? Sound like a plan?” (Junior Sharon Lin)

“Sweetie, it’s too early to be summoning Daddy.” (Junior Vahn Williams)

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 27

Arts and Entertainment “Hamilton” is Non-Stop

Alisa Chen / The Spectator

THINKPIECE

By Nusheen Ghaemi “Hamilton,” the critically acclaimed, insanely popular Broadway rap musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton, written by Broadway veteran Lin-Manuel Miranda, made headlines yet again this April by winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. “Hamilton” joins the ranks of only eight other musicals to have attained this recognition, though Miranda’s musical “In the Heights” had previously made it to the Pulitzer finalists. For “Hamilton,” in many ways a novelty musical, to win such a prestigious, traditional award as the Pulitzer says something about the musical’s impact and popularity: “Hamilton,” not your typical musical, has been making huge waves in theatre, pop culture, and history. The Pulitzer Prize Winner in Drama is defined as, “A dis-

tinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.” “Hamilton” fits this definition almost perfectly. The musical has been hailed as a love letter to America, showcasing the birth of America’s independence movement and Hamilton’s rise to power, which is basically a representation of the American immigrant dream. The musical’s win also comes as the prize celebrates its centennial. The popularity of “Hamilton” came at an opportune mo-

plans to replace Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman. The announcement happened to coincide with the musical’s popularity rise. Now, it has been made official that Hamilton will stay on the $10, and, instead, Harriet Tubman will be put on the $20, replacing President Andrew Jackson. In March, Miranda travelled to Washington where he met with Lew, and according to a tweet of his, was told by Lew, “You’re going to be very happy [with the decision].” According to a statement from a Treasury department spokes-

Hamilton’s lasting impact on America. Secretary Lew felt that “Hamilton” had helped spark a renewed interest in Hamilton. “Hamilton”’s booming popularity helped fuel the movement to keep Hamilton on the $10 note. The musical has cast a spotlight on a little-known founding father, at least compared to Washington, Jefferson, or Adams. The $10 bill will still be redesigned to have Hamilton featured on the front and various leaders of the women’s suffrage movement on the back. However, some are upset over

Hamilton supporters argue that the displacement of Andrew Jackson on the $20 note is more logical than replacing Hamilton, who was —the country’s first Treasury Secretary, and who helped build the American economy.

ment, as Hamilton’s historical significance has recently come into question. In June, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced

man, Lew gave Miranda a brief tour of Hamilton’s possessions on view in the Treasury Department, and they discussed

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Lew’s decision to go back on his word, saying that this is yet another instance of women taking the backseat to men, though

they do acknowledge that having a woman on the $20 bill is still a big deal. They also point out that since it was the ten dollar bill that was next scheduled for redesign, and redesign already takes a long time—nearly a decade for it to finall ybe produced as a new currency—a redesign of the 20 dollar bill will take even longer. Meanwhile, Hamilton supporters argue that the displacement of Andrew Jackson on the $20 note is more logical than replacing Hamilton, who was the country’s first Treasury Secretary, and who helped build the American economy. “Hamilton” has already been praised for how it has revolutionized Broadway by pushing boundaries. The musical features an unprecedentedly diverse cast of almost all AfricanAmerican and Hispanic actors. Miranda also integrated rap and hip-hop into his songs while still maintaining that characteristic “show tune” sound of all Broadway musicals. This allows the musical to appeal to all types of audiences, from conservatives to liberals. Though this is how “Hamilton” first garnered praise and popularity, just as the ladies say about the resemblance between Hamilton and his son, “that’s not where [it] stops.” “Hamilton” may have won the Pulitzer for now, but it will soon dominate in the Tony Awards in June.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 28

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

Christine Jegarl / The Spectator

Go Ask Alec!

By ALEC DAI and DANIELLE EISENMAN

Dear concerned friend, I’m going to be completely honest here: you are pretty weird. The way you vividly describe your armpits is rather concerning. And this is coming from a guy that has

Martin Xu / The Spectator

Dear Alec, So, my best friend—let’s call her Nangela—and I have been having a lot of problems lately. We either get into fights about the smallest things, or we have absolutely nothing to talk about. I don’t even know if I should wave to her when we pass by each other on the six-to-eight escalator anymore, so I usually attempt to avoid the awkwardness by pretending not to notice her. This week, I have resorted to occupying myself in other nonchalant-seeming tasks, such as smelling various parts of my body frequently prone to copious perspiration as if to make sure I remembered to apply deodorant in the morning. The source of this strain on our relationship is the fact that she gets lower grades than me. Technically, our GPAs are in a similar ballpark. However, you shan’t be fooled: she went to a relatively rigorous middle school and was well-prepared for her freshman year at Stuy, and therefore received very high grades during her first year here. I, on the other hand, went to some random school in Queens (don’t ask—you

haven’t heard of it) and struggled to keep up with the workload at the beginning of my high school career. However, even as I have begun to take APs and devote my time to extracurriculars, my grades have seen an upward trend. Nangela, on the other hand, is getting dumber. I tried everything, even getting her Adderall. But, nothing has worked! Nangela is still stupider than a mountain goat with a pulverized brain. I really value Nangela as a friend, and all I want is the best for us, but, more importantly, the best for her. I just don’t know how I can be there for her if we have absolutely nothing in common. Is it possible for me to be acquainted with someone who doesn’t even qualify to take the same number of APs as me? What are we even supposed to talk about? Thanks, A concerned friend

plucked his own armpit hair in the middle of physics class before (true story). Also, who names their kid Nangela? Ok, whatever. Grades are only numbers. Dates are also only numbers. Time is a construct of the mind—it is almost just a series of numbers. This is why you shouldn’t worry about numbers. You shouldn’t worry about grades and neither should she. If she worries about numbers, she’ll worry about her age when she’s older, the number of fingers she’ll lose, the number of pregnancy scares she’ll have, etc. If she worried so much about numbers, she would go crazy, which means she’s probably not worth your time anyway. On Adderall, you should only use it if you have been prescribed it, which I am assuming you have. If not, e-mail me. Ultimately, how I feel is that if you have friends who are dumber than you, then you should act dumb to get on their level. Talk about dumb things like physics or make dumb jokes about interrupting cows. Gossip about random people and their MOOOOOOOOOO love lives. Talk about your privates, or even your armpits, as you seem to have that going on for you. Finally, I think you might have a crush on Nangela. I know, nobody wants to date a dumb person. But the way you “value her” and think about her like a “goat,” are clear signs to me that you want to have sexual relations with this woman. Love is weird, I know, but who buys Adderall for other people? I know the only number you care about is the size of her heart, so ask her out. Good Luck and Good Love, Alec Dai

AP Exams to be Taken on the Floor Due to Lack of Small Desks

By Karen Chen For those returning to the AP battlefield like junior Yujie Fu, last year’s AP experience was extremely stressful. “I took the AP World [History] exam last year,” she recalled, “and there was less privacy than there was in the SU voting booths.” As many students remember, last year’s AP World [History] exam was particularly bad, because the students started an hour later than the time they were supposed to. “I knew Stuyvesant’s testing administration was poor and that kids are generally incapable of listening to instructions about opening shrink wrap, but I didn’t count on finishing the exam at 8 p.m,” Fu said. Imagine Fu’s surprise when

Barnes and Noble to Check for IDs During Finals Week

Courtesy of BarnesAndNobles.com

Tall Student Inexplicably Uses Short Urinal

By Kenny Lin and Michael Xu

Chloe Delfau / The Spectator

she walked into her AP U.S. History (APUSH) exam and saw nothing but exam booklets on the wooden floors, without even a tiny desk in sight. “We’re trying something new this year,” AP proctor Asher Lack said. “Since so many juniors were ranting on Facebook about how small their desks for AP testing were, we’ve decided to do away with them completely.” The APUSH students were the first to take their exams on the gymnasium floor as a test trial. To say the juniors were displeased was an understatement. “I’m sick of being a guinea pig for the College Board,” Fu complained. “Why can’t the administration just mess with the sophomores instead?”

Citing the large swarms of Stuyvesant students that cramp up their tables during finals week, the Barnes and Noble on Warren Street has set an age restriction for customers visiting their location. Specifically, it bars all individuals under the age of 65 from entering the bookstore. They are placing surly men near their entrances to check for IDs and, therefore, make sure no one is lying about their age. Barnes and Noble feels this will prevent Stuyvesant students from entering, while allowing their most popular customer demographic to enjoy those stacks of bound paper popular with the older generations, apparently referred to as “books,” without

being irked by teenagers doing rowdy and teenager-like things, such as studying. Stuyvesant students face immense pressure during finals week, and this age restriction has been seen as a civil rights violation. “We only screamed in stress-induced agony occasionally,” sophomore Jenny Han said. “While studying for my Global final, I learned that my natural rights as a human being are life, liberty, property, and the right to loiter in Barnes and Noble.” Recently, a new petition started by sophomore Kevin Boodram demanding the right to “Go to Barnes and Noble During AP Week” has gained significant traction. More radical student protesters have boycotted the store, which has been proven very effective at capturing the at-

tention of the bookseller. Students claim that they sponsored the educational environment of Barnes and Noble. “I studied for my English final by using the many swear words of our fine language,” junior Adam Belkebir said. “As the test draws nearer, I am studying harder. I finally remember the most vulgar words and am using them loudly and proudly.” Prep books are read aloud to the benefit of all in the bookstore. Shoppers appeared thoroughly amused by the bonding rules of halogens and the types of missiles used at Pearl Harbor. One sector of the store that protested the age limit was the Starbucks franchise. Students bought vast amounts of coffee. One example is sophomore Steve Wong, who once bought 27 drinks in a day. Students have found many alternatives to Barnes and Noble. Among the more popular study locations are Starbucks and the 11th floor pool. In the Hudson staircase, there have been group “review sessions,” where students have been looking over their “review books.” It increasingly appears that Barnes and Noble is a despotic force that will go as far as infringing upon the rights of the majority to maintain order. But, if history has taught us anything, it is that the ends do not justify the means.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 29

Humor Bingo: Stuyvesant Election Edition By Michael Espinosa

Candidate decides to take a “bathroom break” from campaigning, only to never be seen again

No one can find the voting booths (again)

Maszlo supporter hospitalized after being suckerpunched by a Peter-Serbanescu fanatic

Former head of the Cafeteria staff SU IT department break their silence posts another rant/ and endorse a endorsement on ticket for each Facebook before caucus resigning (again)

Ticket resorts to camping out on the tennis court to ensure they don’t miss the people who arrive at 7 a.m.

Candidate cries over Spectator endorsement

You have more handouts from a campaign than you have for English class

Campaigns resort Posters get used as to new tactics, such toilet paper since as sliding posters it always runs out under occupied after third period bathroom stalls

Free Space

#DropOutAsher

Caucus election won by a Big Sib

JaPan isn’t on the ballot, but wins election anyway

Ticket is disqualified because all its campaign managers “forgot” to wear a name tag

Sophomore Caucus debate includes comments about a candidate’s “hands”

Enver and Namra install a TV in the cafeteria, only to show campaign commercials

A thorough study conducted by the Bureau of High School Investigation (BHSI) has reported that scanty school supplies account for 95 percent of high school dissatisfaction and stress. Only nine percent of the freshman class of 2019 and incoming class of 2020 believe that they will find the pencil of their dreams in high school, while 82 percent believe that their Significant Pencil awaits them in undergraduate or graduate years. When the BHSI asked sophomore Kevin Lam for his opinion on the perfect pencil, he immediately answered, “It has to be delicately hand-made from the finest tree wood in the world! I guess

Candidates fight for FProm

After four consecutive votes Cute girl promises Speaking of cute for Senior Caucus free date to JProm people and JProm: Lucas Weiner, end in a tie, the for votes would you like to Board of Elections go with me? chooses the winner

sequoia wood will suffice. It also has to be polished with the shiniest oil in the world.” Junior Samuel Tang had a different opinion. “All stubs are beautiful, I guess,” Tang said. “What the College Board, the Common Core, the Regents board, and teachers don’t understand is that #2 pencils are not #1, so they’re no good. And mechanical pencils are just so basic.” To help deal with the pencil crisis, the BHSI has invested $2 billion to launch a Tinderesque app called “Find Your Penmate.” Much like the dating app that helps you find

your perfect lover, Find Your Penmate helps match students with their perfect pencil. Find Your Penmate promises all users, “It’s simple. All the student has to do is swipe right on the pencil image that catches their eye at first sight. We take care of the rest.” Despite some slight skepticism about the new app, many students, especially seniors, are active users on Find Your Penmate. Senior David Yang said, “Look, I don’t care what my mom says. These are my last moments of high school. I need to find my soul penmate.” After wiping away a tear, Yang said, “I’m afraid that if I don’t at least try, I’ll regret it forever.”

Amber Yang / The Spectator

Distraught Humor Writer Struggling to Crank Out Last Spectator Article Ever By Jacob Faber-Rico Wiping a tear from his eye as he opened Microsoft Word for the last time as a member of the Spectator Humor Department, senior Jacob Faber-Rico reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown at around 9:43 p.m. on May 18, 2016 while attempting to write the last article of his career. “I’ve got to do something profound and comprehensive. I’ve got to figure out how to sum up the entire last four years for myself and all the rest of you in a meaningful way while delivering a message about the importance of humor in our lives, expressing my deepest insecurities, and subtly proposing a solution to every issue facing policymakers worldwide, all at the same time,” stressed Faber-Rico, vio-

Student Runs Out of AP Labels By Michael Espinosa

Sophomore Caucus ends in a four-way Effigy of a candidate burned tie, and candidates in the cafeteria bet on Super Smash games to decide the winner

Annual Report Shows High Pencil Dissatisfaction, Mild Panic Ensues By Brenda Lu and Wendy You

Courtesy of Getty Images

You scroll down Board of Elections your feed for a full adds an “Other” three seconds and option. #MaWeiner only see campaign wins by a landslide advertisements

Mr. Mott Appointed to the Supreme Court

lently jamming the “backspace” key against a large portion of text on his computer screen. “Oh, and I’ve got to make you morons laugh,” he added. As the taste of salt began to stream down his upper lip, Faber-Rico slammed down the top of his laptop and, in a desperate attempt to regain composure, went to pee. “OK, Jacob, let’s think things through. Just get something down here. No one really cares that much whether or not you produce a masterpiece here anyway, so just enjoy yourself,” Faber-Rico told himself, futilely attempting to suppress the arrogant sense that his humor career meant too much to just fizzle out with a lame, cliché 300+ word meta-article. Nonetheless, at approximate-

ly 10:58 p.m., Faber-Rico copypasted his lazy, half-assed piece of meaningless garbage into a Google Doc, tediously filled out the Slug, and dejectedly prepared to send it in to the editors. “Gosh, I can’t believe this is how it’s ending,” lamented Faber-Rico, realizing with a slightly fluttering, sinking stomach that the folder on his computer named “Spectator” would cease growing forever. He would never again name a Google Doc “Issue#_Humor_[Description],” or send a desperate “please excuse my late article” email to humor@stuyspec.com, and worst of all, after two and a half long years, he still would have never memorized the Slug. “Damn,” added Faber-Rico just before pressing “send.” “I think I have to use the bathroom again.”

As junior Celine Yan sleepily sat down to take her sixth AP exam, AP United States History, she was jolted awake by a startling sight. As the proctor instructed the students to “open [their] Student Pack[s] and remove an AP label to place on [their] answer sheet[s],” she noticed that she had used up all of her labels. “I felt so nervous,” she said. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe, which meant that my oxygen levels dropped by the second integral of the inflation rate under Jimmy Carter. In order to maintain homeostasis, my body had to instantiate a new airway object to act as a catalyst for the diffusion of oxygen molecules across the semipermeable membrane of my lungs.” “Anyway,” she continued, “the proctor continued with his speech about how we shouldn’t discuss the contents of the AP United States History Exam, or our scores would be cancelled, and I continued hyperventilating.” Luckily, a proctor spotted Yan

during her nervous breakdown, but as soon as he understood the problem, he began to cry as well. A brief panic ensued among the other proctors in the room. Apparently, no one had gotten up to the part of the instructions that explained what to do in the event that a student ran out of AP labels. Yan carried on. “Eventually, someone had the guts to call the office and Madame RodriguezTabonne venu au gymnase du sixième étage, y cuando llegó, estaba muy enojada,” she said. After being debriefed on the problem, Rodriguez-Tabonne said plainly, “Just write your AP number where you would put the sticker.” “But how do we know our AP number if we ran out of labels?” Yan asked. “That’s why you’re supposed to put your first label on the cover of your Student Pack.” Yan turned around and walked back to her desk with her head hung low. “And you wonder why we put a cap on APs,” Rodriguez-Tabonne said.

An Overconfident Junior Admits Himself to Harvard By Kai Hin Lui Dear Harvard University Admissions, In recent years, more than 30,000 students have applied for the 2,000 open seats in your freshman class. Faced with many more talented and highly qualified candidates than you have room to admit, you must find a way to thoroughly and objectively review all of your candidates. In an attempt to promote greater transparency and fairness in the admissions process, I have decided to be the judge of my own college application. After carefully reviewing my qualifications, I have made the decision to admit myself into the Class of 2020. You will probably want to extend your hearty congratulations to me, so I have taken the liberty to extend them for you. I do not consider it a small feat for me to admit myself. I have taken great care in making this decision. I have demonstrated stupendous academic achievements. I took 33 Advanced Placement courses (including AP Weight Training and AP Calculus CD, where students talk about derivatives while listening to compact discs) and hold a perfect 4.0 GPA. I also hold perfect scores for all my SATs and all the APs. Unfortunately, I cannot send my transcript for you to verify my accomplishments, so instead I will ask you to take my word for it, as I feel that it is important for me as a future student to establish trust between us. It may also surprise you to learn that I have a very wide range of interests. In fact, my interests cover over 1,000 fields of study, from chocolate beer-tasting to the history of pornography, from teenage exorcism to cat behavior analysis, from being a Rasputin impersonator to animal husbandry. I also play over 30 sports, such as curling and chess boxing. I have even won every Nobel Prize and have received many other international accolades. (Now, you are probably looking for some sort of verification or recommendation letter from my teachers or trusted mentors, but, like I said before, trust is important.) I urge you to carefully consider and prepare for my admission. You may not know this, but I am a very selective student. I am so selective that I will only choose ONE of the thousands of accredited universities in the world to attend. It will be an honor for you to have me amongst the other students on the campus. Prepare the grounds! I shall see you in the fall. Sincerely, Kai Hin Lui

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The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Humor The Class of 2016’s Four Years in Review By Jacob Faber-Rico, with additional reporting by Ariella Kahan, Yicheng Wang, and Lucas Weiner 2012-2013: Freshman Year Flash back to the summer of 2012. Longtime Principal Stanley Teitel had just stepped down in the face of a cheating scandal, the “Slutty Wednesday” protest had illuminated disturbing issues with the administration’s enforcement of the dress code, and, worst of all, Jeremy Lin had just left the New York Knicks. Students were devastated. That September, the Class of 2016 arrived. Mounted atop majestic, imaginary horses and the proud, convulsion-inducing drums of “Gangnam Style” beating in the background, we rode in to restore glory to Stuyvesant. Four years later, we leave unsaddled, reduced to shaking, uncoordinated running men. We definitely haven’t restored any glory. But hey, we tried, and, to honor of our efforts, I’ll try one last time to unravel our stupidity. So, here we go: the last four darn years in review! The first test of our mettle came in finding our classes. We were hopelessly confused: room 615E is somehow right next to room 601, room 382 exists, and where the hell do “Jimmy Chunka” and “Ah See Argo” teach, anyway? Right from the start, our mind-boggling idiocy was obvi-

ous: many of us actually managed to “take a wrong turn,” despite the fact that this school is literally a straight line. In political news, President Barack Obama was reelected. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, celebrating from her already-built 2020 election headquarters, emailed Obama the word “congrats” and, in a move she would forever regret, accidentally CC’ed the entire Senate. Finally, 2012 came to a close, and the entire student body breathed a sigh of relief when, by some stroke of miraculous luck, the world didn’t actually end. Shocking. In 2013, we got our first taste of the most treasured Stuyvesant traditions: finals, registration for the next year’s classes, SING!, and of course, long-winded Facebook posts about SU elections. Jack Cahn (‘14) and Remi Moon (‘15), running on the profound promise of more paper towels, were disqualified for, and I swear I am not making this up, placing four posters on a single billboard. Amazingly, this groundbreaking story made it all the way to The New York Times. Wow. 2013-2014: Sophomore Year And so we headed into sophomore year, when Assistant Principal Randi Damesek was forced to leave the school. Angry students started a “Free Damesek” movement on Facebook, but were pacified after newly appointed

Assistant Principal Brian Moran produced a hastily scrawled note reading, “Please don’t worry about me. I am perfectly safe. Really, I am.” In more political news, Democrat Bill DeBlasio defeated Republican Joe Lhota in the New York City Mayoral race after Lhota was disqualified for putting up four campaign posters on a single lamppost. In the closing days of 2013, I published my first article in The Spectator, and the paper immediately lost half its readership. 2014 began with festivities, as we, sophomores, celebrated defeating Junior SING! for the first time in over a decade; we rejoice in the knowledge that this victory was entirely due to our hard work and superior talent. No, really. As SING! controversy died down, New York Post writer Gary Buiso became one of the most feared names in investigative journalism after he unearthed shocking scandals with the articles “‘Uranus’ Jokes, Pot Pipes too Racy for Prestigious High School’s Musical,” “Insiders: Drug Abuse Soaring at Stuyvesant High School,” and, most eye-opening of all, “Unbelievable! Teenagers Like Drugs, Innuendo.” As sophomore year came to end, longtime Athletic Director and Assistant Principal of Physical Education Larry Barth “retired,” allowing Moran to consolidate power as Assistant Principal of Security, Student Affairs, Health,

Physical Education, Cellphones, Titles, Exhausted Spec Humor Jokes, the Principal, etc., etc. To further complicate matters, Assistant Principal of Organization Sadia Rodriguez-Tabone found a note in her mailbox reading only, “You’re next.” The other big change over the summer of 2014 was a dramatic shift in the schedule. In response to a DOE audit, the administration made an extremely controversial decision to “increase instructional time” by, and again, I am not making this up, making third period one minute shorter. 2014-2015: Junior Year And so began the feared junior year, during which we were too busy to write any jokes. 2015-2016: Senior Year Eventually, we limped into first term senior year, our minds filled with nothing but reflections on a time we challenged a belief or idea. On December 31, we desperately submitted essays and $8,000 in cash to strangers, who would spend the next three months meeting in dark rooms to flip coins to decide our futures. Finally, after three and half years of waiting, we stumbled into second term senior year. We breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing that, at long last, nothing was preventing us from cutting class or swiping each other with Sharpies, or not doing our homework so that we could post about

not doing our homework on Facebook. We marvel at how much we’ve matured. As second term rolled on, we got our last taste of Stuyvesant’s most treasured traditions. Most notably, we triumphed in SING!, despite an impressively strong challenge from the juniors, who dazzled with hilarious and totally unexpected puns about Santa’s butt. We also relished our final SU election season, in which senior Lucas Weiner and junior Sosonia Ma launched the highly successful #MaWeiner campaign, revealing that no one can truly represent the interests of the student body, as well as a campaign that promises nothing but penis jokes. Moreover, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus immediately asked Weiner to run for President of the United States. And so we come to the end of our time at Stuyvesant. In a few weeks, we’ll walk across the stage at Carnegie Hall, receive little “Participant” ribbons, and leave Stuyvesant forever. We’ll walk down Chambers Street for the last time ever as students, take one final bite of Ferry’s popcorn chicken, hang out in the senior atrium, sign yearbooks, realize most of us will never see each other ever again, and cry a little bit because, no matter how much we hate to admit it, we still haven’t found the 11th floor pool. It’s time to leave.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Sports Boys’ Lacrosse

Bittersweet Ending for the Peglegs By TAHSIN ALI and MUHIB KHAN It can be said with a good deal of confidence that the boys’ lacrosse team, the Peglegs, is one of the most closeknit teams at Stuyvesant. It was, after all, this group of boys that came to school clad in short lacrosse skirts after losing a bet to the girls’ lacrosse team. The incident is a classic example of their team dynamic: intimate, but jovial and humorous. Their bond is

regular season at 11th seed in their league, out of a total of 16 teams in playoffs. They started the season strong with a 6-1 record, but slipped in their performance when several starters were unable to play, ultimately finished with a 10-7 record. The Peglegs were led by a strong group of experienced players, such as senior and cocaptain Laolu Ogunnaike and senior Christian Chae, who both had the best statistical seasons in their Public School

“We had one of the best seasons in Stuyvesant lacrosse history this year.” —Michael Joh, junior

probably a significant factor contributing to their success this season. “This season has statistically been the best season Stuyvesant has [had] in lacrosse history,” senior and co-captain Dante Del Priore said. The boys finished the

Athletic League careers. However, many of the underclassmen also enjoyed stellar seasons: sophomore and goalie Sam Brimberg had a record 144 saves and only allowed 11 goals to be scored on him. In addition to that, many new additions proved to be

big help for the team. “A lot of people stepped up this year. [Sophomore Giorgio Vidali] and [senior Henry Takizawa] had never picked up a stick before, [but] ended up being integral members of our team. They both learned the fundamentals and improved their foundation, helping the team play better during games,” Ogunnaike said. After enjoying a successful season, the boys’ varsity lacrosse team had high hopes heading into the playoffs. The team strode onto enemy turf at Benjamin N. Cardozo on Wednesday, May 18, hungry for a victory. But at the end of the first quarter, Stuyvesant trailed 2-1. “Our offense rushed too much, and as a result we lost a lot of plays. Their defense was extremely strong,” senior and midfielder Jake Brimberg said. Most of the game was played in their defensive zone, which was taxing and nerve-racking for the Peglegs’ defenders. Regardless, the defense did well to keep their opponents from scoring. Lacrosse games often end with scores at around 10 to 12 points, but this one ended 5-3. The Peglegs lost, and were scratched off the playoffs. The team did well throughout the season, but still has

room for improvement. It often lacked the communication skills necessary to play together and coordinate properly.

happy and proud of what we were able to accomplish this year,” Chae said. “We had the best record since the inception

“Most importantly, we meshed as a unit, and became a band of brothers.” —Christian Chae, senior

This year’s team was made up of one-third seniors, many of whom were strong starters. Th e young core of the team will look to continue the team’s success, but it won’t be easy. “We had one of the best seasons in Stuyvesant lacrosse history this year,” junior Michael Joh said. “The seniors helped pave a road for the underclassmen to follow. With the loss of so many key starters, it is critical we all work our hardest during practice and take it very seriously.” Yet the feelings about this season are still overwhelmingly positive from the team. “I’m

of Stuyvesant lacrosse, and we are better than the 10-6 we had. But most importantly, we meshed as a unit, and became a band of brothers.” As for the future, next year may be rough for the Peglegs. For the upcoming season, the team needs to go back to the basics, and work on things such as shooting, passing, cradling and picking up ground balls. “The most important thing I can say to everyone on the team next year is just continuing to love lacrosse,” Ogunnaike said. “With that, the team can hopefully be successful next year.”

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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Sports Taking Talent To The Next Level Before anything else, Stuyvesant is usually considered a place for academic rigor. What is less well-known is that it is also home to several prolific athletes. As seniors are preparing for college, a select few students are also preparing for the beginning of their collegiate sports careers. After years of hard work, seniors Krystal Lara, Nathan Chandler, and Aaron Glas have all been recruited to college sports teams.

Krystal Lara By DEAN STEINMAN Krystal Lara, one of the most prolific athletes in Stuyvesant history, signed a national letter of intent to Northwestern University on November 11, 2015. During her time as a Stuyvesant Penguin, Lara has broken the school record for nearly every event, including the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, and the 100-yard backstroke. Lara’s accolades stretch further than the realm of Stuyvesant, as she has claimed the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) record in the 200yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, and the 100-yard freestyle. Lara has been dominating the PSAL since the start of her time at Stuyvesant, as she has held fastest time for multiple events since her freshman year. Lara will compete in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials this summer in Omaha, Nebraska.

Her qualifying time of 1:03:28 in the 100-meter backstroke was good for 158th overall and 86th among those aged 18 or under, but it was also faster than the times of 10 swimmers in the 2012 London Olympics. Lara hopes to qualify for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships and train for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics during her four-year stint at Northwestern. Lara’s training schedule won’t change drastically at Northwestern, and her practice time will only increase from 18.5 hours per week to 20 hours per week. Lara noted the rigor of the program at Northwestern as a key factor in choosing the school. “Out of the schools that I was looking into, Northwestern was the best swimming school by far, “ Lara said. “It’s also in the Big 10 Conference, which is a pretty good conference.” The process of Lara’s recruitment started in her junior year, when she started looking into colleges by e-mail-

is like. Lara attributes some of her success to her training at Stuyvesant and the close-knit swim team that made her time in high school more enjoyable. “I’m just grateful that I was able to meet so many students here who had the same passion for swimming as me,” Lara said. “Krystal inspires and motivates everyone in and outside of the swimming pool. Her smile is contagious and regardless of the fact that she holds multiple PSAL records, she never puts herself above any member of the team,” junior and 2017 co-captain Paulina Ruta said. “She is always one of the loudest people on the sidelines cheering the other girls on during meets. It’s a complete honor to have been on the same team as Krystal and her absence will be greatly felt, but we’ll all be waiting to see what amazing things she accomplishes in her future.”

Aaron Glas

Paulina Ruta / The Spectator

Mary Jo Messito / The Spectator

Nathan Chandler

ing coaches and filling out questionnaires that asked for her times, GPA, SAT scores, and other performancerelated inquiries. Once July 1 came around, Lara received several weekly calls from coaches representing Division 1 swimming programs, including several Ivy League schools. “What they do is that they get to know you and they ask you questions like ‘what makes you so interested in our school and our program’ and they see if you would be a good fit for the team.” Toward the end of July, Lara received offers to go on recruiting trips to Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and the University of Pennsylvania. Lara’s recruiting trips usually lasted three days and had all of her expenses paid for by the school. Upon arriving to the school she was paired with a swimmer on the team and became the student’s “shadow” by going to her classes, eating meals with her, watching practices, and seeing what being a student at the university

By RAY JONES Senior Nathan Chandler started playing little league baseball when he was just eight years old, and immediately fell in love with the game. At the age of 12, he started playing more competitively, on a team that traveled throughout the east coast for games. When he got to Stuyvesant, Chandler spent just one year on the junior varsity baseball team before he was called up to varsity in the 2013-14 season. Throughout his tenure as a member of the Peglegs (formerly the Hitmen), Chandler has proven to be a dominant pitcher. With a fastball topping out at around 85-86 miles per hour, and a curveball and change-up both near 70 miles per hour, he has recorded some impressive statistics. Chandler pitched 20.1 innings as a freshman on the junior varsity team, and only gave up 2 earned runs. During his sophomore year, he proved himself as the team’s ace. In six games, he threw 35.1 innings total, striking out 47 batters and only walking 11. Excluding the last game of the season, his Earned Run Average was 2.4. He also threw two complete-game two-hitters during that season. Chandler attributes a lot of his success on the Peglegs to guidance from Coach John Carlesi. “He’s always willing to take me out to his house and spend time working on hitting, pitching, or whatever needs help. He’s the one who encourages me to work harder. He really cares a lot about what he does, and that’s pretty inspiring,”

Chandler said. Though his primary position is pitcher, Chandler has had a memorable season as a hitter thus far. In the AAA Western League, Chandler is regarded as one of the league’s top hitters, as he consistently ranks in the top 10 in various hitting categories such as batting average, hits, doubles, and home runs. Chandler will be attending Kenyon College in the fall. Though he was recruited by top-tier Division 1 baseball programs, he elected to attend Kenyon, where he could balance baseball and academics more easily. “They have a really open curriculum. So for someone like me who didn’t really know what they wanted to do, it gave me a lot of freedom to try out and pursue anything I wanted,” Chandler said. However, due to an injury, Chandler will not be able to play his freshman year at Kenyon. An elbow injury that resulted from pitching will require Tommy John surgery. This procedure, which requires replacing a ligament in the elbow with a tendon from elsewhere in the body, is not uncommon for young pitchers. When Tommy John, the man who it’s named for, was first given the surgery, he was told he had a one in 100 chance of recovery. Today between 80 and 90 percent recover completely. Chandler’s surgery was scheduled for late May, and will take a full year to recover to his full potential. Chandler hopes he can bounce back to his former self, and be back on the mound stronger than ever for his sophomore year in college.

By RAY JONES Senior Aaron Glas first learned to swim when he was two years old. Like most new swimmers, he absolutely hated it. “The first time I wouldn’t get in the water and I was kicking and screaming,” he said. When he started swimming on a team just a few years later, Glas saw results that were barely above average. He says that to him it was less about the competition and more about being with friends. Glas didn’t really start excelling until he was about 14 or 15. He attributes this to a new coach who pushed him to train much harder. During this time, Glas says he would swim faster times about once a week in practice. When he came to Stuyvesant, he quickly became an important part of the Pirates, the boys’ swimming team. During each of his four years, Glas helped the Pirates to an undefeated regular season, culminating in a huge senior season. As one of the team captains, he placed first in every 500-yard freestyle race he swam, and finished in first place in both that event and the 200-yard freestyle at the Public School Athletic League championships. But Glas affirms that the most important part of being on the Pirates has been learning the value of being on a team. “Club swimming is different because you do it for yourself,” he said. “In high school swimming you’re doing it for you and the 27 other kids behind you, and that’s a great experience.” Glas has also enjoyed his time at Stuyvesant because of the support he’s received from his coach, Peter Bologna. He’s especially thankful for the help

Bologna has provided with balancing school, club swimming, and the Pirates, and for teaching Glas the importance of staying committed. “I don’t know what the last four years would’ve been like without Coach Bologna,” he said. When the college recruitment process started, Glas found it unlikely that he would be able to go to a Divison 1 school because his times weren’t good enough. He had his sights set on a good Division 3 school: two examples he gave were MIT and Johns Hopkins. Division 1 still remained his goal though, because Division 3 programs had restrictions on coaches and pool time. He continued to train hard the summer after his junior year, and ended up having a very successful year. “I made my first Winter Junior National cut, and then I went on to make two more for a total of three after not even being close to one in the spring,” Glas said. Recruitment suddenly became a different picture: instead of e-mailing coaches to express interest, coaches started calling him. Division 1 schools were now within reach. Glas would eventually decide on Princeton University, both because of the prestige of the school and because he felt like he really connected with the team. He said that he doesn’t plan to be a professional swimmer, so he chose a place where he could prioritize academics as well as swimming, in order to set himself up for the future. “I could’ve gone elsewhere and gotten an athletic scholarship, but the quality of my education would’ve suffered. So I sacrificed money for my academics and in the end, I think it will pay off.”

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

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Sports Track

Greyducks Sweep Third Borough Championships This Year By RONIN BERZINS and SIMON CARMODY The last track season of the year, the outdoor season, is the season that poses the most challenging test of a team’s versatility. More sprinting events, the steeplechase, longer running events, and new field events are all added. For a team to be successful, it has to have a variety of athletes who are strong in different areas. The Stuyvesant boys’ and girls’ track teams, the Greyducks, proved to have just that: both teams won the May 21 Manhattan Borough Championship after strong seasons. With this victory, the Greyducks have secured their third and final Borough Championship this year, having won in the fall and winter as well. “[It wasn’t] really a surprise,” sophomore Matthew Fairbanks said. The boys have long established themselves as Manhattan’s strongest track team, and this win only reaffirmed that title. Still, the win was no less exciting. “Most of us got PRs

[personal records],” Fairbanks said. Coach Jeff Teta noted junior Noah Fichter’s 1st place finish in the 400-meter and sophomore John Choi’s 1st place win in the triple jump as highlights from the meet. Fichter is one of the athletes who has qualified to compete in the City Championship on Sunday, May 29. In preparation for this larger championship, the boys will continue to train hard. “Same as always: long run Monday, Icahn workout Tuesday, easy five miler Wednesday, Icahn workout Thursday, and an easy five Friday,” Fairbanks, a distance runner, said. This full week of practice may seem daunting, but the boys view it as the key to their success. The girls were equally successful. “We improved significantly as a team during this season, and during boroughs, I think our improvement really showed,” sophomore Victoria Huang said. There were many notable performances during this meet. For the sprinters, ju-

Boys’ Volleyball

nior Kamila Radjabova placed eighth in the 400-meter dash, and freshman Vivian Cribb and sophomore Anya Wang placed third and fourth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, respectively. In the field events, sophomore Daria Shifrina placed second in the triple jump, second in the high jump, and seventh in the long jump, and junior Lucia Liu placed third in the pole vault. Stuyvesant racewalkers swept the competition, with junior and captain Sharon Hu placing first. The girls’ distance team is also consistently strong, and this meet was no different. Junior Catie Breen placed first in the 2000-meter steeplechase, with freshman Tiffany Zhong, junior Gracy Lin, and senior Margaret Burkart placing third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. Junior Zovinar Khrimian took first in the 3000-meter run with an impressive time of 10:46 (almost a two-minute lead over the second-place finisher) and freshman Stacey Xue followed in third. Khrimian also took first

in the 1500-meter with a time of 5:03, with Breen following with a very close 5:09. The 4x800 Stuyvesant team also took first. “Almost everyone ran two events, with numerous athletes running three, and I think our ability to stay tough through the end of the meet and score points even when we were tired from earlier events was crucial this year,” Breen said. Their success was the result of year-long hard work. “During cross country, the girls do long distance training, running about six to seven miles daily,” sophomore Susan He said. On top of this, they do weight training to strengthen their cores. Their hard work paid off in the borough championships. “Many of us placed 1st to 6th in our events,” Huang said. With the city championships coming up, the girls are planning for another big win. “We have many strong field eventers, runners, and racewalkers, and with their combined efforts we will gain many points and hopefully win,” Huang said.

Updates The city championship meet was held on May 29. The boys’ came in 12th overall and the girls came in fourth. While they may not have swept first at cities, there were some very impressive performances: Junior Zovinar Khrimian finished first in the 3000-meter race and fourth in the 1500-meter race, while junior Catie Breen took fourth in the steeplechase. Sophomore Ziqi Guo finished first in the 1500-meter racewalk. The girls’ 4x800m relay team (Khrimian, Breen, Amy Ren and Vivian Cribb) also finished fifth and set a new school record of 10:01. For the boys, junior Kiyan Tavangar finished second in the 1600-meter race, senior Galen Ng took first in the pole vault, junior Eric Cao finished sixth in the 100-meter hurdles, and senior Sam Greenberg finished sixth in the steeplechase.

Girls’ Fencing

A Disappointing Finish to an Outstanding Season

After Falling Just Short, Vipers Ready for Next Year

By LUCY WANG The Beasts were jittery as they began their third set against Richmond Hill in their first round of playoffs. Seeing that volleyball matches are decided by a best-of-three matchup, the Beasts were uncomfortable with their situation. They were already exhausted from the first two intense sets, and this third one would decide the game. “The first set was close, with both teams making virtually no mistakes, and I was extremely happy to come out on top,” senior and co-captain Sam Kotlyar said. The Beasts managed a narrow victory of 25-22 in the first set and a marginal loss of 21-25 in the second. “I think that we came into the game a little overconfident because we played Richmond Hill before and did pretty well without two of our starting players,” Kotlyar said. They were unable to feed off of their momentum, however, and anxiety spread as they entered the third set. After a flurry of aces and mishandled serves, Richmond Hill gained a slim lead over the Beasts. Stuyvesant continued to struggle to get out of the rotation they were stuck in. “Things took a turn for the worse when our libero [defensive specialist], [senior] Victor Hoang began to cramp up and

could not continue playing,” Kotylar said. In the end, Richmond Hill managed to stage an upset against Stuyvesant, ending the Beasts’ dreams of a championship run with a 25-13 win in the final set. This loss, however, was not indicative of the Beasts’ entire season, as they tied last year’s record of 8-2 “I’ve been playing with these boys all season and I could see how much soul and heart they put into this sport. We fought hard to be 8-2 and I couldn’t be prouder,” Hoang said. Their only competition this year was High School for Environmental Studies, which defeated them twice. The Beasts were able to win almost every other match in two sets. “The players on the court definitely had more chemistry [this year] and it showed through the level of trust we had in each other in every play,” Kotlyar said. Carried by four starting seniors this season— Kotlyar, Hoang, co-captain Tae Kyong Kong, and Dimitar Novakov—the rest of the team will need to step up next year. Next season’s starting libero, junior Isfar Patwary said, “I’m nervous of filling in the shoes of Victor [Hoang], but I think the chemistry that the new team has will drive us to play better and follow in the footsteps of our graduating seniors.”

This year’s Girls’ Fencing Team Championships, in which the top 14 teams from the city compete for the city title, took some surprising turns. Stuyvesant’s team, the Vipers, was seeded first; however, after all of the matches, the top three teams— Hunter High School, Brooklyn Tech, and Stuyvesant—were all tied. After much confusion and complaints from the Hunter coach, the judge decided to do a series of “sudden death” tiebreaker games. Unfortunately, this caused the Vipers to lose to Brooklyn Tech in the last round. However, the Vipers completely swept their regular season; for the fifth year in a row, they won their division, this

“The Vipers have been my family since I joined freshman year and seeing the team grow as fencers and as a family brings me so much happiness.” —Kristen Chang, senior time with an impressive record of 8-0. All but two matches were won with a perfect score of 90 (and those scores were hardly worse; 88 against NEST+M and 87 against Information Tech-

Courtesty of Lelia Storkamp

Shun Bitar / The Spectator

By RAY JONES

nology High School). Their closest match in their regular season was against NEST+M on May 4, and even in their closest match, they won by a twentypoint margin. Their success was due in part to the eight seniors on the team, but also because of the skill of team members with fencing experience outside of school, like junior Sosonia Ma and freshman Anna Lanzman, who have qualified for Summer Nationals. In addition to a talented core, new members brought new personality to the team, which contributed to its cohesiveness and success. “The newbies this year definitely brought out the best spirit for the team,” Ma said. The team’s practices had many light-spirited moments to go along with regular training. This helped the Vipers to develop into a closely-knit family throughout the course of the season. “Always having time to talk to each other about our days and just gossip or rant builds a bond that you can’t get from just a regular rigorous practice,” Ma said. The two captains of the team, seniors Kristen Chang and Serena Chan, were both huge influences, both personally and as fencing mentors. Both

have been fencing for Stuyvesant since their freshman year, and Chang says that for her entire high school experience, the Vipers have been like a second family to her. “I love knowing that even after I graduate, this cycle of love and support will continue and guide another freshman through her high school years,” Chang said. Of the team’s six starters (Chan, Lanzman, seniors Aparna Nair-Kanneganti, Hannah Contreras, and Julia Dokko, and junior Stephanie Yoon), four are graduating seniors, so the Vipers will look to the fifteen returning fencers to step up and carry the team next year. “A goal that we had since the beginning of the season was to expand the opportunities all members had to fence,” Chang said. Despite the team being very large this year, almost every member was able to fence at least two bouts. The Vipers have enough trust in every member to compete, a good sign for the team’s future. Coming short in the final match this year has been a motivator for the Vipers, and next year they hope to not only win their division, but bring home the first place banner for Stuyvesant. “Our newbies have phenomenal potential and spirit and our veterans have the skill to carry it through,” Chang said.

The Spectator ● June 6, 2016

Page 35

Sports Boys’ Ultimate Frisbee

David Dong/ The Spectator

My Time on the Sticky Fingers

By JACOB GRUNEBAUM “Joining the Sticky Fingers was one of the best decisions I made at Stuy,” Daniel Teehan (’13) said. This was the final sentence in an email he sent to me three years ago in August, before I actually started attending Stuyvesant. I had emailed him to inquire about the ultimate team, and express my interest. When I read this I glossed over it– people say things like this all the time. Three years later, I am saying those words to anyone

who asks me about my experience at Stuyvesant, with a slight difference: it was not one of the best decisions, it was the best decision. Ultimate frisbee isn’t a Public School Athletic League (PSAL) sport; therefore, the team at Stuyvesant is a club team. This means that we get some funding from the school (but most of it comes from alumni) and we cannot use spaces in the school to practice and do not get permits for fields (unless paid for by members). Our two current

Boys’ Tennis

Stefan Engquist / The Spectator

By SEAN STANTON Stuyvesant’s boys’ tennis team, the Hitmen, had an inconsistent regular season, with upsand-downs throughout. They finished 5-5, giving them the fifth seed in the playoffs out of 16 teams. Despite the fact that the record may represent a mediocre season, the team was very satisfied with their finish, as it gave them a decent seed in the playoffs. “The season went surprisingly well. We managed to make it further than we ever have in my four years at Stuy. Everyone really stepped up their game from last season and it really paid off,” senior and co-captain Kevin Yang said. This year they made it to the semifinals, while last year they only got through the first round. “We were the underdogs of the city, with a mainly underclassmen-heavy lineup. We managed to let our younger players’ talent shine through to prove ourselves as serious competitors,” junior and co-captain Zachary Wakefield said. Throughout the season, many underclassmen stepped up. Sophomore Nicholas Pustil-

to a close, as we face Bard High School on Thursday, May 19 in the city semifinals. After that comes the city finals and then the last games of the season will be played in Albany over memorial day weekend at the New York State Championships. Our team’s current record is 5-3, which is slightly disappointing. considering we went undefeated in the city league last year. Nine seniors graduated at the end of last year, leaving the team with young, raw, but talented members. At the beginning of this season, there was some anxiety floating around as to how well we would do, especially in comparison to the last two years. Hence, we had six sophomores brought up from “B” team, more than any had been in the last couple of years. Having never played with “A” team members before, the chemistry was rocky at the beginning of the season, and we needed practice time to build a strong bond. As time went on, the teammates and the coaches began to work better together, and we all noticed the vast potential of the team. We played to that potential in a game at YULA against a Virginian team, HB Woodlawn,

where we went to universe point (next pit wins). We lost, however we played extremely well against an opponent who would go on to beat Carolina Friends (known as one of the best high school teams) and come second overall in the tournament. This game was a turning point for the team, and it showed all the players that we could play as a top-tier team when we worked cohesively. Still, it was a rough season, and we lost crucial games to teams like Fieldston, Bard, and Heschel because of self-made mistakes. As the season reaches its end, the most important games approach. These last few weeks will be tough for the Sticky Fingers, but that is why, unlike most PSAL teams, we work all year round: see us practicing before school starts, waking up early every Saturday, running by the river through the cold winter air, continuing on until the weather gets warm, and starting all over again next year. UPDATE: The Stuyvesant Sticky Fingers “A” team won the New York State High School Ultimate Championships for the third year in a row on Sunday, May 29 in Schenectady, New York.

Boys’ Baseball

Hitmen Stumble, Ending Season in Semifinals

Kevin Yan sets up for a forehand in the 1st doubles match.

coaches, Devon (Dvo) and Allen, are volunteers. They are not associated with the school in any way save that they both attended Stuyvesant and played on the team (Dvo also coached Allen). That being said, Dvo has been coaching for more than six years and has won two Coach of the Year awards in the United States Youth Ultimate League. Our team has won the New York State Championships in 2002, 2009, 2010, 2014, and 2015. We compete in a multitude of tournaments throughout the year, most notably the Youth Ultimate League of Arlington (YULA), Fall Brawl, and the Northeastern High School Regional Championships, where we placed 7th last year and 9th the year before. The team has a storied history—the origin of our team name is unknown, but some think it has to do with the rolling stones album titled “Sticky Fingers”—and any member of the team will tell you that a conversation with Dvo about the Sticky Fingers could go on for days. Needless to say, the Sticky Fingers are a deeply rooted part of Stuyvesant and have played a major role in the lives of many students in the last 30 years. The current season is coming

nik won his matches in six out of the tennis team’s seven wins, including the playoffs, playing in the singles position. “[Pustilnik] always pulls through and grinds through the match. We call him Nick ‘finesse kid’ Pustilnik.” The doubles players have also been playing very well this season. Junior Julian Neuman and Wakefield have been undefeated when the team wins, and junior Brandon Huang, in the other doubles pair, is six for seven in wins. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the team stepped up their performance. They won both of their games, winning four out of the five matches in each game, while having the individual players dominate their opponents. “We’ve done amazingly. I’m so proud of every player on my team for their amazing efforts in making it to the semifinals. We have become much more serious, all our players are practicing everyday that we don’t have a match and making tennis their main focus,” Wakefield said. Yan agreed with how the team has buckled down for the playoffs and have worked much harder to win those important games. “I think we just changed our attitude because some regular matches just didn’t matter very much whereas every single playoff match is extremely important and we all put more effort into it,” Yan said. However, their run in the playoffs ended in the finals with a close and grueling loss to Brooklyn Tech, 3-2. Both of the doubles pairs lost their matches, but two of the three singles players pulled through, including sophomore Michael Kaydin, whose match stretched four hours long. “We all put a great effort in, but didn’t manage to come out on top. It was an amazing season and I know next year we will be able to get to finals,” Kaydin said.

Peglegs Lose Playoff Game 8-7 in Extra Innings By WILSON WONG After concluding the regular season with a respectable 7-9 record, the Peglegs entered the first round of the playoffs in a rematch against John Bowne High School, to which they had lost in one of the final games of the regular season. The first game was characterized by low-scoring offense and dominant pitching, and John Bowne edged out Stuyvesant, ultimately beating them by a score of 2-1. The rematch game was a whole different story, as John Bowne quickly took advantage of timely hitting in the second inning and scored five runs. The Peglegs instantaneously responded by putting up four of their own in the following inning. They remained behind until the top of the seventh, when senior Daniel Wohl hit a clutch single to drive in a run and tie the game at seven. John Bowne failed to score in the subsequent half-inning, forcing the game into extra innings. After the Peglegs failed to score, John Bowne managed to get a man on base in the bottom half of the eighth inning. They ultimately scored on a Stuyvesant error, winning the game and putting an abrupt ending to the Peglegs’ playoff run. Despite a disappointing ending, the Peglegs are satisfied with what they’ve accomplished. “We lost the game but I am super proud of the team. I have never seen as much fight in a single game [than] in that [one],” junior and co-captain Jack Archer said. “This team had so much heart,” senior and co-captain Max Schneider said. “Every time it looked like we were

down and out we fought back. This was a fantastic game and we had a fantastic season and I’m so glad to be a part of it. I love these guys.” Though it was a heartbreaking way to end the season, what the Peglegs achieved this year was quite notable. After a historically bad 2015 campaign in which the Peglegs went 3-13 and were crushed 12-2 by George Washington in the first round of the playoffs, they managed to win seven games, and lost to John Bowne by only one run, even with several key players out due to injury. “Obviously, every coach wants to do better, but compared to last year this year was

on but we never gave up and fought back. No matter what happened we gave 100 percent and left it all on the field,” Lange said. Though becoming city champions at Yankee Stadium would have been an ideal send-off for this year’s graduating seniors, this season was nonetheless quite memorable. For senior Jared Lang, it was a great way to conclude his high school career. “In my four years of Stuyvesant baseball, this season had the greatest amount of team spirit and unity,” he said. The Peglegs will seek to build off on this year’s success and continue to improve. “I believe next year’s team could

“Every coach wants to do better, but compared to last year this year was a huge success.” —John Carlesi, coach

a huge success,” coach John Carlesi said. One of the highlights of the season was a longcoveted defeat of Beacon High School, one of the powerhouses of the league, as junior Tobias Lange led the Peglegs to a 9-4 victory. But the most significant aspect of this year’s team transcended any outcome or statistic. “We really came together as a team, and we fought through a ton of adversity this season, especially in the playoff game where we didn’t have our best players. We were down early

match and perhaps eclipse the success of the 2016 team. With our pitching core still intact, it’s not hard to see us hold teams to a few runs per game. Having only the need to replace three positions in the field gives us the chance to keep the highcaliber talent and work on making [fewer] errors, which proved to be our Achilles’ heel this season,” junior Dean Steinman said. With this, we should not be surprised to see the Peglegs make a deep playoff run next year.

June 6, 2016

Page 36

THE SPECTATOR SPORTS WRAPUP

Softball

Sophomore Frankie Michielli bats for the Renegades. This season, the Renegades advanced to the second round of playoffs for the first time in 11 years.

By SAM MERRICK and MICHAEL GILLOW After a busy season, the Stuyvesant softball team, the Renegades, finished third in the Manhattan A-division, behind Lab Museum United and High School for Environmental Studies. Satisfied with a record of 11-5, they headed full-force into playoffs. Ending the regular season on a high note, the team hoped to continue to enjoy success in the playoffs. They did just that by beating Forest Hills 8-4 in their first playoff game, making it the first time in 11 years that the Renegades have advanced past the first round. But in the second round, their momentum was halted. Outmatched by Curtis High School’s pitching, the Renegades only had one hit all game, ultimately losing 3-0. Still, the regular season and the first playoff win were satisfying for the team. In the early season, the Renegades, who had lost 13 players at the end of last year, suffered from a lack of team

unity. They lost their first three games before the season picked up. “Once the season started to ramp up, with games or practices happening almost every day, we became familiar with each other and started to look like the Renegades that we are [now],” senior and co-captain Caitlin Stanton said. The camaraderie described by Stanton is appreciated by the freshmen of the team, who make up one half of the 18-person roster. “Knowing that your team believes in you really makes a huge difference,” said freshman Talia Kirshenbaum, who finished the season with four home runs and was the Athlete of the Month for May. Leadership from upperclassmen was especially important this season, as the success of the team depended on the younger players’ ability to rise to the occasion. “We started six to seven underclassmen,” coach Vincent Miller said. Miller had faith in the underclassmen going into this season, and it paid off. With a strong freshman and sophomore class, the team is not only enjoying its current success, but is also excited for future prospects. Indeed, the new players are extremely promising. Freshman Ally Archer was top 10 in batting average for the league (.457), and freshman Alexandra Lennard, with 28 runs-batted-in (RBI) was tied for second with senior and co-captain Georgia Kamm. Freshman Lili Boenigk was top 10 in hits for the division, with a total of 21, and sophomore Charlotte Ruhl, who was a returning starter, lead the league in runs and finished top 10 in both stolen bases and RBIs, along with Kirshenbaum. Though the Renegades had a good year at the plate, they also improved defensively. Sophomore and pitcher Frankie Michi-

elli, who was also named Athlete of the Month for May, racked up just over 87 innings with 78 strikeouts, proving herself the team’s ace. Michielli pitched in 10 of Stuyvesant’s 11 wins. In addition to their offensive efforts, Lennard, Boenigk, and freshman Ruby Gary defensively solidified the infield, at first base, second base, and third base, respectively. At the beginning of the season, the defense was not as strong, but the errors became less frequent as time progressed. “We became strong as the season went on,” Miller said. While the underclassmen contributed enormously to the Renegades victories, returning upperclassmen were an important core of the team. Kamm, Stanton, and co-captain Taylor Joines played a big part in helping the younger players develop. “The upperclassmen have taught me that what wins games isn’t skill, it’s effort,” Kirshenbaum said. Coach Miller was also a major influence on how the team developed. After some tough losses earlier in the season, the Renegades bounced back and fought from behind to get some comeback wins. Miller teaches his players not to try to get the lead back all at once, but to just keep fighting. Miller said that his team is a “take one inning at a time type of team.” Not only did the upperclassmen provide leadership for the team, they made some key offensive contributions. Kamm, for example, was a strong leader in almost every category: batting average (.635), home runs (4), RBIs (28), and stolen bases (20). Despite their playoff exit, the future still looks bright for the team, with so many players on the team’s roster returning next year. “The only place we have to go is up,” Kirshenbaum said.

Girls’ Badminton

Sarah Chen / The Spectator

Peglegs Enjoy Unprecedented Success

Freshman Tracy Chang practices hitting the shuttlecock for the girls’ badminton team, which advanced to the semifinals in playoffs this year.

By NIKKI DANIELS With June having just begun, the girls’ badminton team says a final goodbye to the season as it basks in unprecedented success. Badminton is not a wellknown sport at Stuyvesant, but it is a fun and complex game.

Resembling a modified form of tennis, each game is composed of five sets, which in turn are composed of three rounds, each of which is played to 21 points. The Peglegs performed phenomenally this season, with ten wins and only two losses, placing them fourth in their division. They advanced all the way to the semifinals in the playoffs, where they were defeated by Brooklyn Technical High School, the reigning champion with nationally ranked players on its team. It was a bittersweet end, for despite their loss, the Peglegs had enjoyed a successful regular season. In their first game of the regular season, for example, they had to play Seward Park Campus, a school which had dominated the Peglegs last year in two 5-0 sweeps. The Peglegs knew that they had to win, and they did just that, turning the tables with a 4-1 win. Despite losing a subsequent battle against Seward Park, with a final score of 2-3, the momentum from their first win of the season set the precedent for

the rest of the season. The girls had the confidence to continue performing well, and swept games against the High School of Fashion Industries, Murray Bergtraum, and Marta Valle High School, all with 5-0 victories. The Peglegs only other loss came in their last game of the season against the undefeated Brooklyn Tech team, in which they suffered a 5-0 defeat. Incredibly, just two years ago the Peglegs finished their season with only four wins and six losses. Since then, they have improved every year, finishing last year with six wins and six losses, and jumping to an historic 10-2 record this year. The future looks bright as well: with only three seniors graduating this year, skilled singles players like sophomores Sion Kim and Stephanie Zhang and junior Courtney Chiu and doubles players sophomores Ida Wang, Mickey Yu, Janie Huang, and junior Yiqing Hu will all step up next year, hopeful to lead the team to new heights.

n May 8, Stuyvesant’s Stunt team won their first match against O Port Richmond HS. This win is very significant because they were placed in the highest division, the A division, and were up against the best in the city. Their season ended on May 14 with a lose to Susan E. Wagner HS, as unfortunately, the team did not qualify for playoffs.

n Wednesday, May 18, the Dragons, the Stuyvesant boys’ handO ball team, were knocked out of the playoffs by Benjamin Cardozo High School after winning two playoff matchups before that game.

Boys’ Cricket

Tigers Leap Into Playoffs, Marking Best Season in Eight Years

Courtesy of Joydeep Baidya

Courtesy of Annabelle Gary

Buoyed by a Young Team, Renegades Finish Historic Season

The Tigers, Stuyvesant’s boys’ cricket team, made it to the playoffs following a six-game winning streak.

By NADIA FILANOVSKY ”In the other seasons I’ve played, we’ve won about three games, and maybe one or two more with forfeits. In 2008, the team made it to playoffs with almost all forfeit wins,” senior and vice-captain Karan Sheth said of the Tigers, Stuyvesant’s cricket team. This year, Sheth was proud to report a different outcome. “We’ve won eight games with only two forfeits and made it to playoffs. […] [It’s] a huge improvement.” Cricket is one of the lesserknown sports teams at Stuyvesant, even though the sport is the second most popular in the world. Many Stuy students say cricket is just another version of baseball, and in some ways it is—it is played with runs, and has a pitcher (a “bowler”) and a batsman (a “striker”). The pitcher attempts to hit a set of wooden stumps behind the batsman, who uses his bat to prevent that from happening. Whereas cricket can be traced back to 16th century England, baseball was invented in America hundreds of years later, in 1839. Predominantly a European sport, cricket is less familiar to most Stuyvesant students than baseball is. Nevertheless, it is still a Public School Athletic League (PSAL) sport with over 30 participating schools, and Stuyvesant’s team has been prominent in the league this year. It took the Tigers some time to come into their element, and in the beginning of the season they lost several of their games. They won their first game of the season 57-55, lost their second with a heartbreaking 81-82 and their third with a disappointing 100-156. Their fourth was another close loss, 45-46 against DeWitt Clinton. “The accumulation of all the L’s […] really motivated us to get it together,” senior and co-captain Danyaal Ain said. And they did. Six games from the end of the season, they began a winning streak, first beating the Bronx High School of Science in a close 84-87 game, and then taking

out York Early College Academy with an incredible 141-95. The team had come together, and was making better plays. “Shoutouts to Rohan Shetty, Karan Sheth, Shankha Chakravorty, Farhan Haque, and Rajon Das for taking outstanding catches the last couple of games,” senior and co-captain Joydeep Baidya said. The team was also scoring higher, breaking 100 in several games, and by the time they got to their last game, the Beasts were one win away from qualifying for playoffs. They were playing Dewitt Clinton, one of the best teams in the league, but managed to pull off a convincing 111-100 win, landing themselves in the playoffs. “It really [was] a rags to riches story if you look at the team’s history,” Ain said. Part of the team’s success can be attributed to their bond. “This year we’ve had a great season and I’ve seen a certain level of team spirit and morale that I’ve never witnessed in the past four years,” Ain said. The team has also been very successful individually. The four captains and vice-captains, Ain, Sheth, and Baidya and junior Vijay Deopersaud, have scored a total of 536 runs, and are all ranked in the top 10 batsmen of the division. The Beasts hope to do well in the playoffs. “The team has been collaborating a lot more than before, and morale is high from a six win streak,” Baidya said. “I couldn’t be more proud as a graduating senior to see my team go to the playoffs in my last year.” However, next year may be difficult because of the 25 players on the team; 10 are strong seniors, and the team will feel their absence. “They’re going to have a hard time adjusting, but if they work hard, I think they can regain their strength,” Sheth said. The team is commemorating this historic season by retiring the numbers of the three graduating seniors. “Coach said we’re the best class he had,” Baidya said. “[He] thought this would be a good way to remember that and this season.”