Volume 105, Issue 16

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume CV No. 16

June 15, 2015

The 2015 National Merit Scholarship was awarded to 78 Stuyvesant students based on their PSAT scores from 2014.

Ashley Lin / The Spectator

Seniors Gideon Leeper, Andreas Wang, and Wilbur Zhao, juniors Nicholas Beasley, Max Fishelson, Dan Kim, Calvin Lee, Matthew Lerner-Brecher, Brandon Lin, and Amanda Wang, and sophomores Steven LitvackWinkler and Joel Ye represented the New York City team at the American Regions Math League, where the team placed seventh in the nation. Leeper placed eleventh individually.

Seniors Anmolpreet Kandola and George Drimba competed at the International Science and Engineering Fair. Kandola was awarded second place for the Grand Prize Award in Animal Sciences.

Eighty four Stuyvesant students were admitted to the Spanish National Honor Society, and 110 students won an award for the Spanish National Examination.

At the New York State Envirothon Competition, the Stuyvesant team placed first in the city.

WHAT’S INSIDE?

Heads of Programming Office to Retire

FEATURES Arts and Entertainment

By Sharon chao, Sonia Epstein, and Selina Zou “Out with the old and in with the new,” Assistant Principal of Technology Services Edward Wong said. After 18 years of service, both he and Programming Chairperson Sophia Liang are retiring at the end of this school year. Operations analyst Jerry Lin from the Children First Network (CFN) has already been hired as a data specialist and will handle programming starting next fall.

The administration is looking for a new Programming Chairperson and possibly an assistant as well.

The CFN, where Lin currently works, is an organization part of the Department of Education (DOE) that helps schools deal with problems dealing with payroll and budget, technology, and special education in schools.

Lin works in the technology division of the CFN 201 Support Team, which covers 27 high schools, including Stuyvesant.

“I am basically like a customer service representative,” Lin said. “I help the schools in my district with any programming issues.” For example, in the event that a class taught by few teachers is oversubscribed, Lin helps divide students into sections and determine how many will be able to take the class.

Lin will continue his position with the CFN until his contract expires on June 30. However, right now Lin has begun coming to Stuyvesant three times a week to

8

Candidates Lose Points for Bribery in Junior Caucus Election

By Julia Ingram

Student Union candidates Jonathan Aung and Matthew So won the election on June 9th with 480 votes compared to Krzysztof Hochlewicz and Kate Johnston’s 390 votes.

Running on a platform labelled “JAMS”, Aung and So plan to, among other things, open the fifth floor balcony, improve communication with the student body through gaining access to a school-wide mailing list, and create a locker-selling system. Congratulations to Aung and So for winning the election, and to Hochlewicz and Johnston for a thorough campaign!

At the National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL) Tournament, the Stuyvesant Debate Team won first place for the debate sweepstakes.

Seniors Jakob Urda and Ben Kessler won the NCFL National Championship in Public Forum debate.

stuyspec.com

Julie Chan / The Spectator

Jonathan Aung and Matthew So Elected to Student Union

Newsbeat

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

work in the programming office alongside Wong and Liang. “It’s to get some experience before I actually start working here,” Lin said.

Although Lin has been coming to Stuyvesant to gain experience scheduling, he will likely use a different programming system than the one Wong and Liang have been using. Currently, the Stuyvesant programming office uses its own software, much of which they wrote themselves, rather than the DOE system, called the Student Transcript Academic Record System (STARS).

“We found it advantageous to use our own [system],” Wong said.

“We have our own little crazy things here—our linked science classes, seven and a half period classes, singletons galore—so it makes it very difficult... to schedule using the DOE system. [It is] not as flexible as what we need.”

When Lin starts working at Stuyvesant next fall, however, it is likely that the programming office will switch over to the DOE system. “I believe it’s [Zhang]’s intention… to move away from our own system and use the DOE system. I know that [Lin], who’s going to basically take over programming, is going to probably use the DOE system, because he’s very familiar with it, and he’s actually sort of an expert in that system,” Wong said.

According to Wong, STARS is less flexible than the current system that they use. The current system allows several people continued on page 2

“A Cultural Resolution” This issue’s VOICES column — a rumination on what it means to be Chinese, American, and everything in between.

The Stuyvesant Board of Elections (BOE) gave four points to former Junior Caucus candidates Anna Usvitsky and Sachal Malick on Sunday, June 7, on the grounds of bribery.

This followed a report by the opposing and later winning candidates, Namra Zulfiqar and Enver Ramadani, of Malick’s guaranteeing of SU positions to losing candidates in the primary elections as a potential means of gaining their support.

Malick had first reached out to five of the losing candidates from the primary elections: Alec Dai, Jodi Ng, Stephen Nyarko, Lousia Cornelis, and William Khan, on Tuesday, June 2, expressing his need for support.

He then gave them the opportunity to claim one of five positions in the Student Union (SU) that he promised to create if he was elected. “We want to win but more importantly, our grade needs us to win, we need your help showing them that. What’s in it for you: below are five significant positions that we swear we will create,” Malick wrote in a Facebook message to the candidates. “All five of you will be given one of these positions so you can stay in the SU and run next year with experience.” In a later message, Malick wrote that the former candidates would receive the position regardless of whether they grant their support to Usvitsky and Malick.

At the same time, Usvitsky and Malick’s opponents, Namra Zulfiqar and Enver Ramadani, were also reaching out to the losing candidates to find out if they were planning on making an endorsement. “One of the groups, William and Shanjeed, said they would be endorsing us, but Stephan and Louisa wouldn’t. It was a bit weird to us. Stephen and Louisa seemed to be strong supporters of us through the first round, so we assumed they would endorse us through the second round,” Zulfiqar said. Their

18

suspicion led them to speak to Khan again, eventually obtaining screenshots of the original conversation with Malick.

Zulfiqar and Ramadani then reported the issue to the BOE, with the screenshots. “[Their promise] would close off the positions to the rest of the grade, and give them an unfair advantage for getting their endorsements,” Zulfiqar said.

Ramadani also commented on why he and Zulfiqar reported the situation. “It’s not fair to me and Namra, who campaigned cleanly and by the rules, which can be seen by the zero strikes that we got, for them to get away with that,” Ramadani said.

Malick, however, did not see his offer as a bribe. “I made it explicitly clear that regardless of [the former candidate’s] support, they would have these positions. All I did was reach out to members of the Stuyvesant community interested in the Student Union,” he said.

Over the course of the weekend, the BOE remained in contact with all four candidates as they progressed toward making a decision for the appropriate repercussions. The BOE brought the situation to the attention of Coordinator of Student Affairs Matthew Polazzo. Polazzo agreed that Usvitsky and Malick should not be disqualified from the election since they are part of the final round, but that the BOE may give five points to the candidates, as well as post the screenshots to Facebook or state the explanation as bribery.

The BOE ultimately decided to give Usvitsky and Malick four points on the grounds of bribery, with an additional two points for the pair not communicating their plans to guarantee that he would be able amend the SU’s constitution to add the positions. They also allowed Usvitsky and Malick to publish a formal defense on Facebook after 9:00 p.m., on Sunday, June continued on page 2

The Definitive Pixar Movie Rankings That You Definitely Haven’t Been Waiting For The top ten Pixar movies; from “Wall-E”’s artistry to “Finding Nemo”’s hilarity and “Toy Story”’s ultimate brilliance.

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

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News News

p. 1-3

Features

p. 5-8

Opinions

p. 11-13

Arts & Entertainment p.17-22 Humor

p. 24 - 25

Sports

p. 27 - 28

Candidates Lose Points for Bribery in Junior Caucus Election continued from page 1

7, (the night before the election), when online campaigning ended.

Though Malick does not see his offer as bribery, he feels the four points were appropriate. “If they had not taken off those four points, there would have been riots. If the BOE had done nothing, they would have gotten completely bashed,” he said. “Obviously the BOE understands what’s going on, because if it was actually bribery we would have been disqualified from the election.”

The BOE decided not to release the screenshots, and told Zulfiqar and Ramadani that they would lose points if they posted them or asked anyone to post them on their behalf. “We are all about transparency, however we did not see fit to release the screenshots unless individuals asked for the evidence behind the bribery. If anyone had asked for clarification on that point, we would be more than happy to release the screenshots, but no one asked,” BOE Chairman Shazif Shaikh said.

Khan, however, posted the screenshots on his own accord, even after being urged by Zulfiqar and Ramadani not to. “I did not see [the BOE’s actions] fit, because the rulebook itself said someone would be disqualified for that sort of offense, but I don’t

think the announcement they made was clear, and I felt like it was my job to make sure people were aware,” Khan said. He referenced section four, item eight of the BOE’s Official Rules and Regulations, which states that substantial evidence for bribery would result in the banning of the candidates from future elections.

The release of the screenshots led to a number of negative responses on Facebook towards Usvitsky and Malick. “People were not making posts to support the other campaign, they were simply criticizing us,” Usvitsky said. Usvitsky also stated that she was not at all affiliated with the offering of the positions to the losing candidates.

All four candidates involved feel the responses may have been better had the screenshots been released by the BOE. “If the BOE posted the screenshots there would have been less negative comments, because most people assumed it was negative since they were coming from a former candidate, and I think it would have been better if a neutral party had released them,” Zulfiqar said.

The BOE regrets all negative comments that came about as a result of the issue. “We would like to apologize to Anna and Sachal for the personal attacks that came onto them as a result of the controversy,” Shaikh said.

Heads of Programming Office to Retire continued from page 1

to work on it at the same time, whereas with STARS, only about two people can work at once. “It’s cumbersome,” said Wong, referring to STARS. “But it’s doable.”

Principal Jie Zhang, who hired Lin, also plans to hire another Programming Chairperson and an assistant. Applications for those two positions will be released within the next few weeks to both current Stuyvesant teachers and outside applicants.

Librarian Jonathan Cheng, who currently works in the programming office during busy times like before school starts and during programming phases, has confirmed that he does not plan to apply for the position of Programming Chairperson. Instead, Cheng will work in the library and occasionally the programming

office. “Programming is really a lot of work for me,” Cheng said. “[Zhang] and I both think that for me to work as a librarian or a teacher and in the programming office is simply too much.”

Meanwhile, the position of AP of Technology Services will likely be discontinued. This position, currently held by Wong, involves maintaining Smartboards and the Stuyvesant website, controlling the locker system, and more. “These responsibilities will be redistributed among other staff members next year,” Zhang said.

Thus, the future of programming and technology at Stuyvesant is still unclear. “I hope that there’s at least one familiar face in the office next year… so students will feel more comfortable talking to someone who already knows about the school, the programming, and the issues that come up,” Liang said.

2015-2016 ARISTA Executive Council Chosen

By Julia Ingram and Blythe Zadrozny ARISTA is known as one of the most rigorous and exclusive organizations at Stuyvesant, requiring its members to maintain a high average and work many hours of community service. On Thursday, May 7, few were chosen to take on an even larger role as members of the Executive Council. Juniors Ariel Levy, Rebecca You, Caitlin Stanton, Julia Dokko, and Michaela Papallo were announced as the 2015-16 ARISTA President, Executive Vice President, Vice President of Tutoring, Vice President of Events, and Vice President of Communications, respectively.

“Sometimes you will get caught up in ‘oh I need five credits,’ and I think you should do your best, doing it to help others. You have to make sure you’re doing this because you want to be a greater member of this society.”

—Rebecca You, junior and ARISTA Executive Vice President

The application to become a member of the Executive Council includes two essays, one about how the applicant’s previous experiences on ARISTA made him or her qualified, and the other regarding what changes the applicant would implement in ARISTA if he or she were selected. Personality, leadership and communication skills are valued highly. “[We’re looking for] someone who can handle themselves, who’s on top of it,” senior and former ARISTA President Charlie Zhen said, who was involved in the interviewing process. “Things come up and you need to think on your feet, so that’s why we interview [because] in interviews you don’t know what to expect. We want to see how they communicate and how they express themselves.”

The careful selection process seems to have paid off, as all five new members emitted confidence and enthusiasm for the program. Levy, an editor of the News Department of The Spectator, boasts a resume that includes being co-captain of one of the New York City Math Teams and a Big Sib. Her high grades and extracurricular involvement, however, do not limit her enthusiasm about ARISTA, which was

Jusrin King / The Spectator

Table of Contents

evident in the large number of ideas she had for the advancement of the organization. Levy is dedicated to the four pillars of ARISTA: scholarship, service, character, and leadership. “Not a lot of the individual members of the community get to experience leadership, so I want to get each member more involved in leading of activities and leadership in the school,” Levy said.

You, meanwhile, is a member of Stuy Squad and SING!’s Hip-hop crews, an attendee of the Summer Arts Institute, and prides herself on her creativity.

Her aptitude for the more personal aspects of ARISTA is also shown, as she is a Big Sib and a former member of the Tutoring committee within ARISTA. “Sometimes you will get caught up in ‘oh I need five credits,’ and I think you should do your best, doing it to help others. You have to make sure you’re doing this because you want to be a greater member of this society,” You said.

Stanton also displays the more personable side of ARISTA and is a passionate supporter of development in the tutoring area. With interests including softball, reading, writing, and coding, Stanton reflects many of the people ARISTA tries to represent. Although she admits she likes to plan everything out on her own Google Calendar, her ability to dive in and get out of her comfort zone is also admirable, and directly applicable to her role as Vice President of Tutoring. “Junior year is stressful [...] and so this year I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone and go to concerts and events more,” Stanton said.

Dokko is also excited about ARISTA and the benefits it has for both Stuyvesant and the community. Though she enjoys fencing and reading, she felt the need to devote more of her time to volunteering and helping her community. “After my year of just being in ARISTA I wanted to do more and find more events for people, and I kind of fell in love with doing events every weekend, and I wanted to do more and help other people have the same experience I did,” Dokko said.

Though Papallo describes herself as on the quiet side, it is clear to see that doesn’t affect her skills as the Vice President of Communications. Excited to become close with the other Executive Council members, she also hopes to unite the entire organization. “With three committees, I think it would be cool if we had inter-committee activities to bring everyone together more,” Papallo said. “We have a lot of activities within the committee but we don’t come together that often like in a group and do some kind of fun meeting activity. It would be cool if we got to know each other better.”

The new Executive Council

is excited for the coming school year and has planned a number of reforms to the organization.

Levy plans on improving the tutoring system so that tutees can be matched up with a tutor faster, as well as setting up an online forum for tutees to ask questions to ARISTA tutors if they need help very quickly.

Dokko hopes to increase the number of events, especially having more events on the weekdays since most currently occur on weekends. “I want to help people get more involved in their community and also find some events that are really fun but also really helpful for other organizations,” she said.

“Not a lot of the individual members of the community get to experience leadership, so I want to get each member more involved in leading of activities and leadership in the school.” —Ariel Levy, junior and ARISTA President

Many Executive Council members commented on new plans for improving communications between members.

“I think we should talk more amongst each other and understand what everyone’s job is not just what [our own] job is,” You said. Papallo also hopes to improve communications between ARISTA and Stuyvesant by putting out the ARISTA newsletter more frequently.

All five executive council members are appreciative of the opportunities they’ve had in ARISTA thus far and are excited for the coming year, welcoming in the new members. “I have had an incredibly rewarding experience in ARISTA this past year,” Levy said. “I cannot wait to join the new members for another great year of service for Stuyvesant and the greater New York community.”

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

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News Worldbeat World News: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its majority in the parliament after the elections on Sunday, June 7, representing a setback to Erdogan’s plans to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution to increase executive power. While the AKP lost an estimated 69 seats in the parliament, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, which is opposed to Erdogan’s leadership, gained over 10 percent of the vote, a threshold that grants them representation in parliament for the first time.

A Chinese cruise ship, Oriental Star, capsized in the Yangtze River during a storm the night of Monday, June 1. Of the 456 people onboard, only 14 survived, including the captain. Nearly 400 bodies have been recovered and more than 40 are still missing, making this one of China’s most devastating shipwrecks in decades.

National News: Former Attorney General Beau Biden died of brain cancer at the age of 46 on Saturday, May 30. In his eulogy, President Barack Obama described Beau Biden, the eldest son of Vice President Joe Biden, as “a good man, a man of character, a man who loved deeply and was loved in return.”

The US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced the indictment of former speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert on May 28 for allegedly lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and concealing his long-term payment of $3.5 million to an unnamed person in exchange for subduing discussion of Hastert’s past “misconduct.”

Local News: Two inmates at the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximumsecurity state prison in Dannemora, NY, escaped late Friday, June 5 or early next morning, using power tools to drill through the walls of their cells. The State Police and other law-enforcement agencies are currently searching for the escapees, Richard Matt and David Sweat, who are both convicted murderers.

PA Approves Funds for Three Large Renovations

By Grace Cuenca, Joanne Ha, and sharon lin The Parents’ Association (PA) has approved $385,000 in funds for renovations of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in two gyms, the sound system in the auditorium, and the floors in the dance studio.

As of now, no renovations have begun. “We are hopeful that the [dance floors and HVAC systems] can be done this summer,” President of the PA David Venderbush said in an e-mail interview.

“We expect the sound system to be at least started in the summer, but that is a much larger and more complicated project.”

The PA has decided to fund these renovations in response to widespread complaints regarding the condition of these school facilities. Sophomore Emma Vukelj said she wishes that physical education

teachers could “open a window or keep the doors open or at least let some air flow between the two third floor gyms.... [The gym] is so unnecessarily closed off and stifling.”

Students are not alone in their complaints. “Teachers are complaining too, so we decided to fix the condition. They’re not just complaints, [these are] facts. [The HVAC system and dance floors] are lousy. The theater sound is terrible. Everybody understands that,” Principal Jie Zhang said.

These renovations are currently in the designing phase. “Engineering investigation is ongoing to find out exactly what needs to be done, who is going to do the work, and when it will be accomplished,” Venderbush wrote in an e-mail interview.

However, the administration and PA remain optimistic about the renovations. “There will be good changes, if [the renovations] work,” Zhang said. “Better sound, better floors, better temperatures.”

Pilot Student Surveys Administered

By Vanna Mavromatis and Jan Wojcik Students at Stuyvesant High School took teacher evaluation surveys on Wednesday, June 3. This was the pilot year for the surveys, which, if deemed successful by the Department of Education (DOE), would be added to the teacher evaluation system, called the Advance program, which is currently in place in New York City public high schools.

The anonymous survey was administered so that students could help provide educators and the DOE with feedback on their experiences in the classroom, and supply teachers with information that could help them improve. According to a letter sent to parents by the DOE: “Teachers can use the information to focus on specific areas of their practice […] the areas where there is room for improvement.”

The Advance system, which began two years ago, evaluates teachers in two ways: Measures of Teacher Practice (MOTP) and Measures of Student Learning (MOSL). The MOTP are composed of classroom observations and eight “artifacts,” or documents, usually in the form of lesson plans, which are used to assess teacher preparedness. This year, the Advance Student Surveys are being tested as an addition to the MOTP, although they will not weigh on teacher ratings for the 2014-2015 school

year. If they are implemented properly next year, the DOE plans to have them count as five percent of the MOTP.

This year, the Advance Student Surveys are being tested as an addition to the Measure of Teacher Practice, although they will not weigh on teacher ratings for the 2014-2015 school year.

The MOSL use both state and local standardized assessments taken by students throughout the year to create a teacher rating based on student improvement.

The MOTP make up 60 percent of the teacher’s evaluation score while the MOSL make up 40 percent.

The survey was given to

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students in New York City from grades three through 12, with one form for students in grades three through five and a different one for students in grades six through 12. Students throughout the city took the surveys between May 4 and June 19.

For some, the introduction of the surveys marked a positive shift toard more student input and teacher improvement. “When I was a graduate student, it was a common practice at the end of every semester,” Zhang said. “Our students are mature and will give real input. I’m not speaking on behalf of teachers, I’m speaking for myself as a teacher. I never minded students giving me feedback about my teaching; I think it’s a good thing.”

For others, the survey still appeared as a work-in-progress, displaying noticeable flaws. “The questions seemed reasonable, but also redundant at the same time,” English teacher Rosa Mazzurco said.

“I felt like they were asking the same questions again and again, just in a different format.”

Many students also thought that the survey was unnecessary. “If it’s not going to affect any teachers, I think it is a waste of time and effort,” sophomore Michael Feinberg said.

Thus the future of the student surveys—their content and their influence—remains unclear. The DOE and United Federation ofTeachers will meet at the end of this school year to discuss their continuation.

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The Spectator â—? June 15, 2015

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Features

Jennifer Dikler / The Spectator

Debating into History

By Kevin Li

Seniors Ben Kessler and Jakob Urda sit quietly in a room.

They are miles away from New York City, in Nova High School in Florida. In the room, there are thirty or so other kids, wearing suits and ties, waiting and watching patiently. To Kessler and Urda, they are all strangers.

The room is filled with murmurs as the spectators await the judges’ decisions. In a matter of five minutes, the winner of the 2015 public forum National Catholic Forensics League National Championship will be crowned.

The intense and heated debate is already over. The top two public forum debate teams in the nation just finish their last round of the debate season. It all comes down to the five judges sitting across from the two teams.

The head judge looks up and announces: “Thank you all for waiting. Our vote goes to con for Stuyvesant KU on a 4-1 decision. Congratulations.”

The room erupts in cheer.

In a matter of seconds, the dynamic of the entire classroom changes. People are pumping fists, applauding, and shouting.

Kessler and Urda smile at each other and cheer. Everyone begin to file out of the room, and as Kessler and Urda walk through the doors, a debater approaches Kessler for a selfie.

For a team as significant and historic as Kessler and Urda, selfies with strangers are the norm.

The duo, better known by their debate code “Stuyvesant KU,” are amongst the best debaters to ever compete on the national level. At many tournaments on the national circuit, debaters are given the opportunity to qualify

year. They had each debated with separate partners, elsewhere on the team, but were close friends as teammates.

They were able to talk to each other during debate practices, and they took a first semester

that Kessler feels he, himself, lacks expertise in.

On the flip side, Kessler is, as Urda described, “tactically minded.” He brings to the partnership extremely strategic preparation. He does most of the planning, and he writes out strong arguments to be used in round. Kessler explained, “I do more of the prep. As a speaker too, I’m more logical and simple. My rhetoric is very to the point, while [Urda] speaks very flourish-ey and flowery.”

Kessler and Urda also attribute their success to how they analyze and assess the monthly debate topics in uniquely strategic ways. They are known for their careful preparation outside of rounds. Instead of arguing a topic with many strong but disconnected arguments (as many debaters do), Kessler and Urda find a single, effective argument that they can develop and expand inside of a round. Urda elaborated, “What I find with a lot of people that break down topics, that aren’t me and Ben, is that they break them down in a very hodgepodge, non-linear way. Ben and I are very methodical in how we approach topics.

We always give what we think is

“I’ve just learned so much. [Debate] has been the most important academic experience of my four years of Stuyvesant.”

—Ben Kessler, senior for the Tournament of Champions (TOCs), a tournament at the end of the season, reserved only for the greatest debaters. Debaters compete for “bids,” or results at a tournament that will qualify them for the TOCs. Most debaters are ecstatic to earn even a single bid for the extremely exclusive tournament.

Yet for these two debaters, the standards are a little bit different. This year, Kessler has earned eleven bids, and Urda has earned twelve (the pair debated at one tournament with other partners). Both are new records for the most TOC bids to be awarded in a single year, in any category of debate, and in all of debate history.

Surprisingly, the two of them did not form their partnership until the middle of sophomore

chemistry class together, in which they spent time talking about debate.

Kessler explained why the partnership eventually worked so well: “We’ve worked together for so many, maybe not years, but we’ve been in so many rounds together and talk so much that we’re on a very insync level.” Their synchronicity and teamwork are what the two of them both attribute to their success.

Their strengths play to the other partner’s weaknesses.

Urda is a proficient speaker— in middle school, he was often involved in theater and acting, a rhetoric expertise that he found a way to bring into his debate rounds. He is dramatic, compelling, and spontaneous during rounds; this trait is something

the most important issue and work outwards from that.”

Since both Kessler and Urda graduate this June, the two seniors have reached the end of their high school debate career.

Having won the NCFL Championship, the two of them end on a high note, but having been extremely successful the past year has helped them put their minds at ease and given them a chance to reflect on what the activity gave to each of them.

For Kessler, having reached the top ranking gave him an opportunity to reevaluate why he does debate. “I don’t debate to go against people and win rounds. I do it to learn things about the world and improve my speaking ability and improve my persuasive ability and also work on my writing. I do it

for a bunch of different reasons that are not to win. I focus on that now. Sometimes you forget to take a step back and realize the reasons that you do it,” he explained.

Finally having the success that the duo has aimed and worked towards for so long, the two of them no longer have anything missing, and as Kessler explained, it has given them the distance to understand their debate careers in a less competitive light. They can appreciate the friends they’ve made through debate and the skills that they gained, and they can worry less about which trophies they want to win.

For Urda, having partaken in the activity of debate for four years taught him valuable lessons and skills that would help him outside of school. “Being able to deconstruct arguments is something that’s important no matter where you go. You have to be able to talk to people.

[Public Forum Debate] teaches you to do that in a rhetorically pleasing manner,” he explained.

Many debaters, whether they are highly-successful varsity members like Kessler and Urda, or freshman novices, are likely to agree with Urda.

What most debaters find is that being trained in pressure cookers, like heated debate rounds, and being exposed to sophisticated arguments and philosophy is that it can easily be applied outside of debate.

“I’ve learned so much about the world and about politics that I just wouldn’t know beforehand.

I was a pretty uninformed eighth grader and at least now I like to think that I’m very informed about the world,” Urda said.

As Kessler and Urda move on from high school, they will go down separate paths. Yet, in the short term, both of them plan to commit themselves to debate in the next few months. Kessler is working with the Institute of Speech and Debate (ISD) to mentor younger debaters over the summer, while Urda will be taking on similar tasks at various camps throughout the nation.

Additionally, both of them plan to continue their involvement in debate for the long term, in one way or another. Even though they will no longer research and prep for long hours as a team, both Kessler and Urda will continue to use what they have learned from a historic debate career to apply themselves to their changing lives.

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The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 6

Features So Long, Farewell: A Look at the Other Class of 2015

By Elizabeth Lawrence, Jongyoul Lee, and Maya Mitrasinovic

Adil Kabir / The Spectator

Leaving Stuyvesant High School is a bittersweet experience for both students and teachers. They feel nostalgic as they leave the place they have come to know quite well, yet they are also excited for more freedom, and, of course, more sleep. This year, French teacher Elsie Augustave and drafting teacher Greg Sarutto are among several teachers retiring from Stuyvesant, and they feel excited yet reminiscent as they journey the next phase of their lives

Julie Chan / The Spectator

Greg Sarutto “Click 1...3...center...escape...control Q...control R…” To an outsider, these commands mean hardly more than punching buttons on the key-

board. To Greg Sarutto’s drafting class, however, these series of keys create geometric masterpieces.

Sarutto was a designer and architect in Jersey City, New Jersey for much of his career.

He took part in a variety of projects, including municipal buildings, police stations, firehouses, and parks. “I saw the project go from the drafting board to completion. Seeing the project through fruition, that was total satisfaction,” Sarutto recalled.

But Sarutto soon decided to change the course of his career.

He had occasionally taught senior citizens how to make art using pen and ink, and while doing this he realized he enjoyed helping others. “I decided I wanted to flip and change careers. I just really enjoyed teaching,” Sarutto said.

His first job as a teacher involved working with students on commercial art, architecture, and design at the High School

Elsie Augustave French teacher Elsie Augustave always knew she was destined for teaching. “I think I’ve always been a teacher,” Augustave said, smiling. When she was a young girl, her sister and cousins would all go and spend time during the summer with her grandfather. “I used to annoy all of them because I would take their dolls and sit them in rows and pretend they were students,” she recalled.

Augustave was hired by Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts when she was a senior at Middlebury College.

After working at the school for a year, she decided to travel to France to accompany a group of French students from Northfield Mount Hermon, and she acted as their group leader and taught them French. One of the highlights of her trip was getting to know the famous late American jazz singer Nat King Cole’s twin daughters, Timolin and Casey Cole, who were part of the group. Augustave had the pleasure of meeting their mother, Maria Cole, when she came to visit her daughters. “I remember that I thought she was a very beautiful, elegant, yet humble woman,” Augustave described.

Another highlight of her trip was getting to vacation while still in the context of school.

“That was the first time in my

life where after I taught, we could just go the beach,” Augustave said.

She was with the group for a semester, and when they went back to Massachusetts she re-

“To know that [students] can use what I have taught them is very important to me.”

—Elsie Augustave, French teacher

signed and decided to spend a couple more months in France.

After this she went to graduate school, traveled to Africa, and then decided it was time to settle down. She found her new home at Stuyvesant High School,

of Art and Design on East 56th Street and Second Avenue. He spent ten years there, and he accumulated many fond memories—his favorite ones being when students visited him after they left for college. During this time, Sarutto was visited by a student who had once been

in uniform, couldn’t thank me enough,” Sarutto described.

Sarutto became aware of a teaching position opening at Stuyvesant High School, and his superior at Art and Design advised him to take it; that was ten years ago, and Sarutto has been teaching at Stuyvesant

“I love seeing the students mature and seeing the skills mature throughout high school.”

— Greg Sarutto, drafting teacher a gang member and is now a marine. The student told Sarutto about the influence he has had on his life. “He came back and he was appreciative that I convinced him to get out of being a gang member. Came back

ever since.

Throughout his tenure at Stuyvesant, he has proudly witnessed his students blossom and develop their artistic talents and skills during their high school years. “I love seeing the

where she has been teaching for 31 years.

A part of teaching that Augustave loves is the impact she has on her students. “To know that [students] can use what I have taught them is very important to me,” Augustave said. She has had students contact her after they had graduated and thank her for being a wonderful teacher. A couple years ago, Augustave received a card from a former student with a picture of him and his family. “He said he kept thinking about me, and wanted to reconnect, so he sent me pictures of his family. He told me that out of all of his teachers, I was the one who influenced him the most,” Augustave said.

Ironically, she couldn’t remember his name or face, but nevertheless, she was touched. “It was gratifying to know that I can make a difference in the lives of some students.”

Another fond memory Augustave has is one of a former student approaching her and telling her that he has found a way to utilize the French she taught him in his everyday life.

“He told me that he’s now a professor of archaeology, and uses his French to read his files of research because it seems that most of the archaeologists that have written on that topic are French,” Augustave explained.

She was delighted to know that her lessons had stuck in his head.

However, teaching is not Augustave’s only passion. She published a novel titled “The Roving Tree,” which is a story about a young Haitian girl adopted by a Caucasian family. In fact, Augustave is leaving Stuyvesant to completely devote her time to writing. “I’m leaving so I can be a full time writer and dedicate myself to reading, writing, and traveling,” she said. She plans on traveling to Europe and Africa, but she’s sure she’ll travel to other places as well.

Augustave is excited for this freedom. She won’t miss the rigid schedule that being a teacher at Stuyvesant requires. “I’m not going to miss getting up and

having a set schedule. I don’t mind getting up early, [but] I just don’t like leaving my house.

I do look forward to getting up and sitting at my desk and writing,” she explained.

Augustave became enchant-

“It was gratifying to know that I can make a difference in the lives of some students.”

—Elsie Agustave, French teacher

ed with literature early on, when she was a child growing up in Haiti. She remembers reading a book that was from the point of view of a donkey who described the various people living in his town. “I think that had an impact on me because I realized that literature has no limitation and it can go as far as your imagination allows you to go,” she said.

Augustave was able to combine her love of teaching with her love of literature when she taught the Advanced Placement (AP) French Literature class.

She had strong, enthusiastic students in her classes, and she loved hearing them share their

students mature and seeing the skills mature throughout high school,” Sarutto said.

However, Sarutto isn’t planning on leaving Stuyvesant for good. Like many of the school’s alumni, Sarutto plans to visit the school every now and then, “as long as Ray Wheeler and I go out to eat,” he joked. It is clear he also has a special friendship with his colleagues, as he added with a wink that “Ray Wheeler is number one.”

One aspect of teaching in Stuyvesant Sarutto will not miss at all is his commute; he gets up at 5:30 a.m. every day.

Without such time constraints and deadlines, Sarutto plans to travel, golf, and occasionally teach college painting part time. He wants to travel to Sicily, Italy and Germany to visit his relatives and relax. In his spare time, he plans on painting scenes in watercolor or pen and ink. “Everything’s gonna be at my leisure,” Sarutto said with a grin. ideas about the literature she showed them. “Every year I used to look forward to reading the same book with my students because they would come up with interpretations that I hadn’t thought of,” she recalled.

In her class, the students read, in French, “Candide” by Voltaire, the classic satirical novel of the Enlightenment era.

They also read “Moderato Cantabile” by Marguerite Duras, a novel published in 1958 about a wealthy woman and her varying relationships. Augustave and a colleague who works at the University of Arizona convinced the College Board to add books of the French language from outside of France to the AP French Literature curriculum. “L’Enfant noir” by Camara Laye was one of these books—it is an African novel, and one of Augustave’s favorites. In fact, Augustave and her colleague created a study guide for teachers to help them comprehend L’Enfant noir, “because a lot of teachers were having difficulties understanding African novels as many of them don’t know anything about the culture,” she said.

Unfortunately, the class was discontinued due to budget cuts, but Augustave never grew tired of listening to her students’ ideas and learning from them.

“Even if it’s grammar and you have to present the material, you’re learning different ways of presenting and you understand it better. That’s what I’m going to remember the most about teaching: what I’ve learned,” Augustave said.

We will miss seeing Augustave’s, Sarutto’s, and the other retiring teachers’ (Assistant Principal of Mathematics Maryann Ferrara, Assistant Principal of Technology Edward Wong, Math teacher and Programming Chairperson Sophia Liang, and Technology teacher Elka Gould) familiar faces in Stuyvesant next year, but we thank them for their hard work and wish them happiness in their traveling, artmaking, and golfing endeavors!

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 7

Features In Other Words: Multilingualism at Stuyvesant

By Geena Jung, Kate Sherwin, and Lisa Shi

“Excuse me, but do you know the way to…”

It’s an usual situation in a large city such as New York to get asked this question. On the way to school, back home, or on the subway or bus, students encounter lost tourists trying to find their way through the streets and avenues of the city.

In a moment of despair and inability to communicate in English, tourists turn to the closest person they think might speak their language. Luckily for them, Stuyvesant students and staff on the go are more than willing to help.

The majority of the Stuyvesant population speaks two, three and sometimes as many as four languages—that is, not including dialects. While being multilingual can be cool and exciting, it comes with its own set of challenges.

Sophomore Katya Ghosh’s first language was Russian, and after picking it up from her mother and other sources such as books and movies, she was able to speak Russian conversationally with her family members. By speaking a variety of languages, Ghosh has had the experience of interacting with more people and absorbing more culture than a monolingual speaker. Ghosh’s grandmother, who recently moved in with her and her mother, only speaks Russian, forcing Ghosh to speak the language at home, even though her mother had started to use more English

recently. “That’s why I speak Russian fluently, but German, like when you’re learning a language in school, you’re learning the textbook version,” Ghosh explained.

Amongst American schools, languages often aren’t represented as a crucial part of a school curriculum. “It’s a shame that in America, foreign languages don’t count for much. In Germany, we used to have four majors: three were

everyday words.

Some students who speak a second language attend “weekend” schools to learn yet another language, which can be difficult for them to cram into their already-busy schedules.

The situation is made even more difficult in cases in which the languages being learned do not share grammatical rules or phonetic spellings. Junior Sanbir Rahman is familiar with the process of weekend schooling

English and Chinese fluently, the entire process of learning a new language is difficult. “In general, it’s hard. For example, Spanish is similar to English except a lot of things are reversed.

But when I was learning Chinese, the idea of having a different character for each word and not just combining letters was really hard to memorize,” Wu Leung explained.

Ghosh explained that the act of speaking in a language

“Arabic helps when I have to read Quranic translations outside of the mosque or my house.”

—Sanbir Rahman, junior languages. German, of course, English, French, and I even had Latin, and math,” Spanish and German teacher Gabriele Dehn-Knight explained.

Dehn-Knight grew up in Bad Dürkheim, South Western Germany, where she started to learn English in the fifth grade, and French in the seventh.

“My parents sent me to France four times during my middle and high school years. [For instance], when I was eleven, during the second half of my fifth grade, I flew all by myself to the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea [from Frankfurt, Germany],” she added on. It was from these trips that Dehn-Knight learned to immerse herself into culture and language, cultivating respect for the beauty in

and studying new languages.

Rahman is fluent in English, Spanish, Bengali, and Arabic.

He can also transcribe Latin.

Of those languages, he’s able to speak two dialects of Bengali. “Getting familiar with the new phonetic translations— the new alphabet [is the hardest part of learning]. Especially with Arabic, all the letters are completely different,” Rahman explained. Putting together familiar meanings in new symbols can be a hard thought to process, in which a single change could corrupt the meaning.

Sometimes, spellings, at least alphabetically, do not apply to the language being learned. For junior Sammi Wu Leung, who speaks Spanish,

usually isn’t conscious and that at this point in her life, it is natural. “It’s not like when you’re learning a foreign language in school and you’re translating something for a test,” she said. “It just happens when I’m put in an environment where I will be speaking Russian.” The complexities of language, evidently, run deeper than natural tendencies.

To Rahman, a large factor in the way one thinks in a language comes from frequency of use. “I would sometimes think of [something in Bengali] because my parents told me to but in general I would think of it [in English] if thinking or talking about it,” Rahman said.

Since he primarily uses English in his day-to-day life, he

finds himself thinking in that language. Though speaking is such a large part of day to day life, conversing in several languages can prove to be a challenge that draws deep into one’s mind.

These set of problems come from the variety of languages one can become familiar with.

But with every negative in knowing a new language, there are several more positives— sometimes allowing for strange coincidences. “One time actually in Times Square, some guys were advertising in Spanish and called out to me. One guy was like, ‘She can’t understand you!’ But I did. So, I walked over and talked to them in Spanish and they were really surprised,” Leung laughed.

Knowing several languages lends itself to more practical uses. Rahman’s knowledge of several languages has been helpful in the learning environment. “Arabic helps when I have to read Quranic translations outside of the mosque or my house. Sometimes in school, in history, we had to look at different passages in Quran in freshman year for a project. I could pick out the verse that made sense in general,” Rahman said. But the most important usage of a variety of languages is its ability to connect someone to a new culture and new people.

For all the challenges that one goes through when learning a new language, the benefits are worth the effort. Walking to the train from school, one might be pleased to say when encountering a lost tourist:

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The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 8

Features Cultural Resolution

By Teresa Chen CONFESSION: Like the average American, I first learned how to use chopsticks by following the broken-English instructions printed in size 8 font included with every take-out order.

And I still don’t know how to use them properly: holding the chopsticks like a pencil is apparently the cheating, Americanized way of using them, and this clumsy technique only causes grains of rice to slip through the cracks.

At seven years old, my classmates crowded around me during a trip to a dimsum restaurant in Chinatown, waving splintered wooden chopsticks in my face as they asked me for help. When I shrugged and promptly stabbed a shrimp dumpling with a single chopstick and plopped the wobbling “xia-jiao” into my mouth, I was faced with a cacophony of gasps and stunned expressions.

“But aren’t you CHINESE?!” *** AMERICAN noun 1. a person born, raised, or living in the United States 2. a person that represents ideals of liberty, freedom, individualism 3. a sub-member of the melt ing pot community called America (ie: Asian-American, Russian-American, LatinoAmerican) By all three accounts of the definition above, I am an American— Chinese-American to be exact. I was born and raised in good old New York, New York; I speak English like a native, save for the word “water,” which I’m told is spoken in a muddled Brooklyn accent; and I know all of the words to the “Star Spangled Banner”—if I were to sing the national anthem one day during the Super Bowl, I guarantee you I will not embarrass myself (I still love you, Christina Aguilera!).

I can forgive my first grade classmates for stamping my identity as Chinese because of the blatant ignorance that comes naturally with children, but I don’t forgive and forget easily.

To the boys in my third grade class: No, I will not teach you how to say curse words in Chinese. First of all, I don’t know any in my limited vocabulary. And second of all, you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it anyway. Any person you say it to would not understand what you were saying.

To the girl with the curly brown hair, purple glasses, and pink Jansport backpack: I’m sorry I forgot your name, and how exactly I know you, but I’d just like to say that Chinese cuisine does not include dog meat. The buns you pointed to with a disgusted face? It’s just pork. The rice noodle rolls you claimed were disgusting? Beef, not dog meat.

To the TSA agents who stamped my passport at the security checkpoint: Yes, you guessed my culture right—I am Chinese! Congratulations! However, I don’t appreciate the ethnic greeting as a way to make small talk. I think you mean well, and I think the “Ni hao!” was a casual joke, but it’s a little offensive. I might laugh it off with you, but don’t expect me to say “Ni hao” back to you. By the way, the last passenger you did it to was not Chinese—he was Korean. Please don’t assume things just by our appearances.

“America is different,” the customs officer said to my grandfather as his green card was stamped.

“There you will be accepted, no matter what your race is. In America, you can continue your research—you don’t have to worry about the Cultural Revolution or Chairman Mao anymore. America is exceptional.”

“America is exceptional,” my grandfather repeats to me whenever he launches into a retelling of his immigrant story, except his pronunciation of the word “America” was wonky, swapping the “r” for an “l” because in Shanghai, the “l” sound in the urban dialect accounts for a pronunciation in the middle of these two letters. The “r” simply doesn’t exist.

Indeed, America is exceptional—not the American Exceptionalism that describes this nation as superior to any other nation in the world, but American Exceptionalism in a literal, bitter sense.

While “America” is associated with a melting pot of ethnicities, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty—an immigrant’s safe haven, “American” conjures up images of the all-American boy and the girlnext-door—none of which bring to mind an Asian-American citizen, or any other ethnicity for that matter. “American” is heavily based on the number of generations a family has lived in the country—anybody who falls in the category of “I have no idea what heritage or culture I’m from” is “American.” “American” is an exclusive identity, one that is beyond the reach of the immigrant dream; one that I will never really belong to.

CONFESSION: I stumble through my Chinese, each statement ending in an upwards question mark as I search through faces for confirmation of understanding.

This would be my main method of communication this past summer in China, as I took the initiative to scout directions in the city. I would stammer erratically and gesticulate wildly as I groped for the right words, only to be interrupted by the local’s pitying English. Most of the locals were sympathetic to my embarrassment, giving me a slight smile as they pointed towards the right direction.

I remember one encounter in particular.

I had asked two girls, probably in their twenties, for directions to the bathroom. Leaning against their bicycles as they took a bunch of selfies, they seemed pretty nice, and they kept a cheerful façade as they traced a path on my map to the nearest public bathroom. After a hasty “thank you,” I turned around to hear them gossiping and making fun of my accented Chinese, squabbling loudly and boisterously. Unbeknownst to them, I could understand everything they had said—I may not know how to speak the language fluently, but my level of comprehension is pretty advanced. They spat out the phrase “zuck xing,” an insult to describe Chinese citizens who had become too westernized, who had abandoned their original culture and values. *** The English equivalents of “zuck xing” are “twinkie” and “banana,” defining those who were yellow on the outside and white on the inside. The difference between them is not only the language they hail from, but also the connotations of the words: while “zuck xing” comes off as a stinging insult, “twinkie” and “banana” were badges of pride to me. They were compliments.

When I look back at the day I cried and told my grandpa to stop calling me Sa-Sa, it was out of embarrassment not just because it was silly and childish, but also because it linked me to Chinese culture. Sasa was my grandpa’s nickname for me, taking the last syllable of “Teresa” and pronouncing it twice with the third intonation to sound cute.

It was the way nicknames were created in China, he said—and from then on, it stuck. That day in fifth grade, I wanted to reject the other half of my identity.

I remember sitting in the back-

seat as my grandfather pulled up to a McDonald’s drive-through, struggling to place an order. He tried his best to enunciate, but between his garbled English and the static of the machine, it took a good ten minutes before the receipt was printed and the flag was raised so that our car could drive past. “Dumb chink can’t even speak English properly,” I heard through the microphone.

If my grandpa had heard, he didn’t react, and that was okay, because I suffered for him.

Though this memory, with my legs swinging from the seat, too short to touch the floor, would be my most vivid and earliest memory of embarrassment for my grandfather and Chinese culture, I can easily tick a couple of other instances off with my fingers. For example, there’s the fact that he uses his outside voice when he’s on the phone with someone, practically screaming—pretty much comparable to that group of old Chinese men on the subway who speak loudly and obnoxiously. There’s also his habit of belching loudly at the dinner table, whether it’s in our own private dining room, or in a formal restaurant setting soliciting shocked looks from nearby diners and waiters. These were some of the reasons why I refused to let him come to any school events, why I hesitated before introducing him to my friends, why I shut him out of my life. I wanted to abandon the shameful status of a secondgeneration immigrant, to become the ideal person who gets rid of the traditional [Chinese] habits and attitudes, who frees herself of the pre-American insecurities and the old, constraining obsessions so as to live unapologetically as an equal among equals. And my grandfather, who was unrelenting in giving up his Chinese values, stood in the way of this goal.

So I took matters in my own hand, doing my best to sever myself off from Chinese culture. And this is what led to my deliberate forgetting of the Chinese I apparently jabbered in when I was three years old; the preference of traditional silverware like forks and knives to chopsticks at the dinner table; and my childhood obsession with boy bands and pop stars that my friends seemed to share. In those moments, when I felt temporarily American, I was happy.

ney to America, my grandfather suddenly turned to me, shaking his head as he caught me texting in the middle of his sentence. “You are too distracted on your phone,” he said. “Your generation, the AsianAmericans here—you guys are a second Cultural Revolution. Instead of the Little Red Books your mother used to have, all you have are those smartphones. Too westernized; you are throwing away Chinese culture!”

They say there comes a day when you realize how important your heritage is. That was my defining moment. *** My whole life had revolved around acquiring an identity as an “American,”—or at least, as close as I could get to it, freely giving up Chinese culture. I realize now that my idea of being an “American” is really a dazzling illusion empty of all perception, only vaguely defined by societal culture. Being “American,” was not, in fact, the exclusive identity that I thought it was, and it excluded a significant portion of my identity that was not adequately described. This was why I would never be able to identify as simply “American.”

My focus, instead, should have been on defining an identity as a Chinese-American, striking a balance between the two cultures.

And—CONFESSION—while I am, in some ways, still quite far from the truth of what it means to be Chinese-American, I have developed my own definition thus far:

CONFESSION: It’s not a Cultural Revolution, but a Cultural Resolution.

After a usual retelling of his story about life in China during the Cultural Revolution, and the jour-

CHINESE-AMERICAN noun 1. An American citizen of Chi nese descent 2. Someone who is proud of the Chinese middle name writ ten on his or her birth certifi cate, and who shares it opely, pronouncing it with the cor rect intonations 3. Someone who is not afraid to casually joke about his or her parent’s horrible accent; with love of course 4. Someone who does his or her best to speak and under stand Chinese to some de gree; reading Chinese is al ways a plus 5. Someone who will happily correct others who mistaken his or her identity. (EX: “I’m not Chinese, and I’m not American. I’m Chinese-Amer ican.”)

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Page 9

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The Spectator ● March 23, 2015

Editorials Staff Editorial

The Spectator

Munawar Rahman / The Spectator

Get Rec’d

As summer rolls around, the junior grade is divided into two distinct categories. First are the students with two college recommendations from teachers they trust, who feel secure as they embark on the college applications process.

Second are students with either a single recommendation, or none. These students are left to frantically hunt down teachers who might be willing to write for them.

Presently, Stuyvesant has no policy to help students find college recommendations; everything lies within the teacher’s discretion. This way, teachers can decide whether they would like to write recommendations or not, when they will start taking recommendation requests, and when they will not, under any circumstances, take more requests. Almost every junior year teacher comes up with a unique way to handle the flood of anxious students who might request a recommendation from him or her.

This leads to a wide array of problems. The most glaring one is that it leaves some of the junior grade with just one confirmed teacher recommendation, and a handful with none as recommendation season winds to a close. Another shortcoming of the current system is that it creates an intense source of stress for juniors, who must juggle various teachers’ deadlines with their guesses of who might be willing to write them a recommendation, and their estimations of which teachers “write the best recs”; it turns into a strange experiment in game theory, with juniors trying to get into their teachers’ minds, and thus beat the odds.

Adding to this nervous anxiety is the insistence of college counselors that recommendations must follow the strict formula: they both must come from junior year teachers, and one must come from humanities, and one from science or math.

Moreover, there is an immense burden imposed on a handful of junior year teachers: some of our teachers, by dint of the classes they teach, are called upon to write dozens of recommendations, and some teachers agree to write many

more than others. It would be ideal if this workload could be evened out so that instead of a half dozen teachers writing thirty to fifty recommendations each, we could have a dozen teachers writing only fifteen.

At a school such as Stuyvesant, where such a heavy emphasis is placed on college acceptances, it would be beneficial for the administration to begin to take steps to ease the college recommendation

At a school such as Stuyvesant, where such a heavy emphasis is placed on college acceptances, it would be beneficial for the administration to begin to take steps to ease the college recommendation scouting process. scouting process, which most college admissions officers say is an essential factor in determining whether an applicant is accepted. The Spectator believes that the school ought to implement a number of policies to standardize teachers’ policies and ensure that every student at Stuyvesant is guaranteed to receive at least one recommendation from a teacher in a core subject by the end of junior year, and that most would receive two—with minimal stress.

The simplest of the ways for the administration to take steps towards accomplishing this goal would be to set dates, to be followed by all teachers willing to write recommendations, within which students may begin requesting recommen-

Ph o t o g r a p hy Ed i t o r s

Jensen Foerster* Soham Ghoshal Jin Hee Yoo

The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

dations, and when they can expect to be notified of whether a certain teacher will write their recommendation. This would prevent situations in which, for example, a student’s history teacher requires that everyone who would like a recommendation must ask for one by the end of April, but her English teacher will not speak about recommendations until June, and said student is caught in the middle, not sure which teacher to ask — especially considering that either might say no.

Another easily executable way to fix the problem of students being left without any recommendations would be for the administration to incentivize recommendation writing, by forging rules that could exempt teachers from certain duties, such as “cafeteria duty,” if they write a specific number of recommendations for their students. Currently, there exist no concrete reasons for teachers to take it upon themselves to write recommendations (a roughly two hour task per student), outside of some sense of professional duty—leading many to forgo the task and others to set quotas. Rewarding teachers with time as compensation for the arduous process of writing recommendations would increase the pool of teachers willing to write recommendations, and a larger portion of Stuyvesant’s population would be able to receive two recommendations.

Finally, the best way for the administration to ensure that all students get recommendations would be to create an online system. In such a system, a student could file a request for a recommendation and teachers could rank students according to how much they want to write that student’s recommendation (taking into account the student’s performance in the class, their personal relationship, etc.); a computer algorithm would then match students with the teachers who ranked them the highest.

Given the apparent mandate for a recommendation in the humanities and a recommendation in one of the math/science fields, students could file two recommendation requests, noting whether they want to be ranked by their humanities or math/science teachers. Such a program could allow for personal requests, and it would effectively guarantee that all of Stuyvesant’s students have at least one teacher recommendation upon applying to college — and though it would be difficult to set up, its long-term benefits ensure that the task would be worth it.

Naturally, there would be negative externalities from all these options—unforeseen problems that could arise. But this Editorial Board believes those problems would be minimal, and such kinks could be worked out for future years.

We view a pressing need for a reworking of the college recommendation system; adopting some of our suggested reforms would provide a foundation in fixing the problem at Stuyvesant, and hopefully alleviate the stress and workload of teachers and students alike.

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The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 11

Opinions

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

Letter From the Editor: Last Call

By Daniel Kodsi Three years, up, and out. It is with bittersweet feelings that I pen my last column for the Stuyvesant Spectator: it marks my twenty-fifth, but my only one as Editor-in-Chief (EIC).

This paper has been my primary calling during my time at Stuyvesant and through it, I have had the chance to improve as a writer, thinker and leader.

It is among my biggest regrets that I have had the chance to complete only half my term, but I trust that I leave the paper in good hands, especially those of my co-EIC, Ariella Kahan.

But an analysis of the paper would not be true to form. I have the ability to use the power of the press one last time, and I intend to make it count. This column is a reflection on my time here, within Stuyvesant’s walls, but it was not written with rosetinted glasses. For our school is a deeply flawed institution, and this is my last call to action.

I consider myself lucky: given a year-early admission to university, I am able to opt out of a fourth year at Stuyvesant.

There are things I will miss, of course, The Spectator foremost among them, and there are people I will miss much more.

Some of my closest relationships have been formed and blossomed junior year, and these last few days have been as melancholic as they’ve been blissful.

I am also grateful for the

benefits Stuyvesant has provided me: an engaging intellectual circle, opportunities to further my study of mathematics, and some classes—like Oana Pascu’s BC Calculus and David Hanna’s European History— that have been truly stellar, endowing me with new appreciation for the subject matter.

For our school is a deeply flawed institution, and this is my last call to action.

But those are the highlights of an experience that has been, for the most part, mediocre.

Stuyvesant’s classes are difficult, certainly, but much of the difficulty feels contrived; while many of the administrators are friendly—I have received considerable assistance from Programming Chairperson Sophia Liang, Assistant Principals Maryann Ferrara, Eric Grossman and Casey Pedrick, and Principal Jie Zhang—the school as a whole is largely imper-

sonal and unfriendly; similarly, though many teachers are highly intelligent and approachable, a shocking number are neither particularly impressive at teaching nor seem to care for the actual student herself; and the far-too-competitive atmosphere discourages students from objecting to unfair policies, for fear of risking their grades, allowing complacency to obtain as the prevalent mindset.

Above all, the Stuyvesant environment is not one that makes passion easy to pursue.

Unlike many private schools, perhaps most notably Avenues, which help students develop their interests outside of the classroom, Stuyvesant instead makes such endeavors near impossible. Free time is minimal given vast quantities of homework and studying, and for those aiming to be admitted to a prestigious university—that is, almost the entire student body—there is also the need to balance sports teams, clubs, pubs and leadership positions.

Of course, the latter activities are self-imposed—but likewise should they be encouraged. They represent teenagers engaging in activities they enjoy and cherish: while many of them also involve academic learning, like Speech and Debate or The Spectator, even the ones that don’t are valuable. It is worth remembering that the purpose of high school, like college, is not just education, but self-discovery—these are years for us to mature and grow as both scholars and people.

So the answer to freeing up time lies with reducing Stuyvesant’s notoriously heavy academic burden. Historically, I imagine that this change has come from the students—from the Student Union, whose mandate is ostensibly to be a front against the administration, and from other forms of collective bargaining like petitions and mass emails or even sit-in protests.

But action is not forthcoming. Outside of individualinspired movements, like the

“Bring Back Damesek” movement—which in the end, really only gathered a few dozen supporters—there is little to no self-advocacy at Stuyvesant.

Rather, most of us are unwilling—and perhaps for good reason—to draw negative attention to ourselves in the eyes of our teachers and the faculty, opting to sit down, shut up and get on. Because despite sleepless nights and stress-induced illness and unhappiness, if everyone around you is managing, then the best course of action is also to manage—creating an irremediable tragedy

Above all, the Stuyvesant environment is not one that makes passion easy to pursue.

of the commons.

Therefore, I make a call to teachers, department heads and other administrators. It is, almost tautologically, the mandate of a teacher to teach—but I posit that much of the teaching that is currently done via homework can be done in class, and that yet more homework can be reduced in quantity to the bare essentials.

Because it is too often the case that if a student has a full schedule—a direct result of the hyper-competitive college admissions process and the societal, parental and self-pressure of getting into a top tier university—that she is receiving, on average, more than thirty minutes of homework and studying for each class.

I fully understand that teachers assign the homework they believe is necessary, that

there is in fact, usually consideration of other work that students might have. But the latter ethos needs to be propagated further. Even if teachers cut down on homework by just fifteen minutes of work a night—the equivalent of only asking for textbook questions to be answered in bullet points, rather than full sentences—a student’s overall homework load would be an hour and a half lighter.

Change can start at the individual teacher: just one teacher working to reduce homework in her classes leads to some 150 students with less to do when they get home from school.

And if that teacher persuades just one colleague of the same, then, by dint of a ripple effect, significant progress can be made through the school.

Assistant Principals can also have an effect, either by encouraging their staff to change class policy or by working among themselves to implement a system like having each department give a night off of work a week.

I prepare now to enter a new environment, one that is almost the opposite of Stuyvesant, in everything save rigor. At Oxford, classes are small—some have only two or three students in the room with the tutor— and instead of taking a wide array of courses, you study, or “read”, only a few subjects, ones that you’re passionate about and capable in. I am excited for my adventure abroad and its allure leaves me with few doubts about my choice to leave Stuyvesant a year early.

But I wonder: would a different experience at Stuyvesant, one in which I felt less like a cog grinding away at busywork; one in which I had more time for writing, reading and independent study; and one in which I felt like my teachers were cognizant and understanding of my other pressures, both academic and personal, have made me want to stay the full four years?

It is, unfortunately, a question that cannot be answered.

Letter to the Editor: Re “How Creative Are Our Art Classes?”

By Jane Karp, Art Teacher I am responding to Olivia Kusio’s piece in the May 12, 2015 Spectator, titled “How Creative Are Our Art Classes?” As a Stuyvesant art teacher, a Studio Art graduate of LaGuardia High School, an art historian, and an artist myself, I believe that despite Ms. Kusio’s good intentions, she has misrepresented the goals and methods of art education and misunderstands the nature of the creative process.

Ms. Kusio criticizes the use of grading in art classes as a means to “incentivize students to mimic art styles that will earn higher grades.” These are really two points of criticism. I really cannot think of any of my own projects or those of my colleagues at Stuyvesant that require students to slavishly copy an artist’s work.

Yes, we do have some projects that are inspired by the art that we study in class, but even

professional artists do not create in an aesthetic bubble or vacuum. They respond to and reflect on their visual world, including the work of other artists from the past as well as that of their contemporaries. The “strict and stifling guidelines” that the author decries are part of the learning process as well. I challenge her to find art professors at even the graduate level who simply tell their students, “Go create!”

Once artists complete their training, they set their own criteria through their choice of materials, techniques, subject matter and style. While these criteria might change over the years or even from project to project, they are part of the process of creating art. One of the most groundbreaking painters of the 20th century, Piet Mondrian, set guidelines for himself that Ms. Kusio would no doubt find “strict and stifling”: no recognizable subject matter; only primary colors and black, white and

grey; only a grid of horizontal and vertical lines. Within these guidelines, Mondrian created an unmistakable, personal style, yet with endless variety; every one of his paintings is unique.

If we are incentivizing art through grades, couldn’t we say the same for any subject taught in school? Don’t we incentivize solving quadratic equations by giving grades in math classes?

I doubt that Ms. Kusio is naive enough to believe that most students write that essay due the next day in English class because of their burning desire to express their views on the poetry of Robert Frost. Sadly, art is considered to be very low on the totem pole of importance in many schools (or, as I say in my more cynical moods, beneath the totem pole).

Has the author considered what the consequences for the level of focus, effort and even attendance rates would be if art were the only class in school that was ungraded?

Another point Ms. Kusio

makes about grading in art is that “effort and thought” need to be rewarded. I agree. I wish she had taken the time to speak with an art teacher or two, because effort is always one of the criteria we consider when grading a project. Ability in art is varied, but I believe all students can improve their work through practice, guidance and effort. I will also add that at least in my own classes, not all studio assignments are graded. Usually we do a series of drawings to practice a certain skill (for example, shading); only the final one in the series, which students spend more time to complete, is then graded.

The kind of open exploration that Ms. Kusio advocates requires one key element that she has not considered: time.

This is because, as the German humorist Karl Valentin once put it: “Kunst ist schön, macht aber viel Arbeit.” Art is lovely, but it’s a lot of work.

Anyone who does art seri-

ously knows what it is like to get so involved in a project that the hours seem to just fly by in an instant. Though I am not a musician or a writer, I am sure it is quite similar for those who practice an instrument, compose songs, or write poetry or novels.

The sustained concentration of creative work requires this time commitment; a forty-minute class period is not the ideal time frame for studio art.

In some schools—and until recently at Stuyvesant as well— studio classes are programmed in double period blocks to allow time for more in depth work on projects and for the extensive set-up and clean-up that some materials and techniques such as acrylic painting and printmaking require. If Ms. Kusio would like to have more opportunities for such exploration, I suggest that she advocate for reinstating block programming of studio electives, a measure that my colleagues and I would welcome.

Page 12

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Opinions Two Is Better Than One

By Olivia Kusio Though I speak English at school, once at home, I begin to communicate in Polish with my family. My parents immigrated from Poland in their twenties, and, when my sister and I were born in America, they decided that we should become fluent in Polish in order to stay in touch with our heritage and our Polish-speaking relatives. In order to have natural exposure to both languages, my family frequently travelled between Poland and America. At first, traveling was just a fun way to visit far away places. However, as I began to stay in Poland for extended periods of time, it became difficult for me to completely settle in either of my two vastly different temporary homes.

Language and culture are inseparable. Fluency is best derived through communication with na-

tive speakers and by forming relationships with people from that country. For example, by meeting other Polish people, I began to adopt many of the key principles of Polish culture into my own personal philosophy.

Before I was fluent in Polish, I never wanted to talk to my relatives; I would often run away when my parents urged me to speak with my relatives on the phone.

I was worried that they would be ashamed of me because of my Polish speaking skills.

I began to find meaning and significance in Catholic preaching that I couldn’t understand when I lived in America. As I learned new things about my religion, I learned new things about myself, as well.

I was able to establish values and understand who I wanted to be by embracing my family’s religion.

Going to mass became something that I looked forward to not only

in order to maintain my relationship with God, but also my relationship with myself. Now, when I am feeling sad or empty inside, I can turn to my religion to feel more grounded. Consequently, I am a more confident and stable person.

However, being bilingual definitely has its disadvantages. I constantly have to slow down when speaking or writing in either language in order to find the right words to use because many words and phrases do not translate well.

For example, it is often hard to find the right words in time to respond to a question posed by my teachers in class, and my responses often lack the rich vocabulary that other students can easily provide.

As a result, other students are often viewed as more academically and intellectually accomplished by teachers and the class.

While I was attending school

in Poland, my teacher often criticized me for my speaking skills in front of all the other students. As the class prepared for the town poem reciting competition, she refused to allow me to take part in it because she believed that my performance would have reflected poorly on the class. I was devastated. However, this experience has made me eager to push myself in order to prove that I am capable of doing things that other people wouldn’t expect.

As I grew up, I always believed my academic success was caused in part by advantages that came with bilingualism. Up until now, research has supported the notion that bilingualism gives people enhanced executive control, which has a positive effect on academic performance.

However, a recent study at University of Edinburgh, by psychology researcher Angela de

Bruin challenges this belief. Her research concludes that bilingualism does not have a positive effect on specific skills and tasks, but rather solely helps resist the effects of dementia in elders.

Though its effect on academic capacity is up for debate, I believe that being fluent in two languages is remarkably culturally enriching.

The disadvantages of bilingualism are something I have to accept as a part of my identity, but they have also helped me grow into a more dedicated human being. Holding a strong connection to my heritage would have been significantly more difficult if I were not bilingual. The importance of bilingualism is not derived from its ability to provide academic superiority, but rather as a tool that can help us become culturally diverse, hardworking individuals. Being bilingual can be a great asset if we recognize its true value.

Oh, the Humanities!

By Zora Arum and Daniel Kodsi In our homes, there are shelves and shelves of books: Steinbeck, Hemmingway and Shakespeare line our walls. Maybe it was our upbringings, but there has always seemed something uniquely special to us about the written word—a kind of magic, floating from the pages, which seems to speak to the very essence of the reader.

Literature is just one of the humanities: history, philosophy, religion and language carry the same beauty. In the examination of the human condition and exploration of our collective experience and psyche, there is something valuable to be gained—even if that knowledge is not directly applicable to one’s career or job search.

The oldest degrees in the world, at Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, are in the Classics: for centuries, it has been the mission of institutions of higher education to not just prepare their pupils for “the real world”, but also enrich their minds through humanistic education. But now, the humanities are in danger.

Recently, undergraduate students have begun to lose interest

in this sort of magic—abandoning it for the more dynamic pull of the immediate job market. According to federal data, though the percentage of college students majoring in the humanities nationally in 1966 was 14 percent, it had dropped to only half that by 2010.

Most believe that this is primarily a result of the recession, which has promoted a more career-oriented college mindset.

As Rosemary Feal, the executive director of the Modern Language Association, claims, “with student debt and increasing tuition, many students who would prefer to declare humanities majors might be challenged or advised to declare a ‘practical major.’”

And, though many professors claim otherwise, arguing that the development of analytical thinking skills is just as valuable as graduating with a mathematics major, there is some truth to the advantage of taking a non-humanities path. For example, the Economist found that almost across the board, students who majored in mathematics, computer science, engineering, economics or business had better returns on their investment in education than those who studied the humanities or the

arts.

However, the decline of the humanities stems less from recent developments than would seem apparent. Though the percentage of students majoring in the humanities decreased to seven percent by 2010, the real drop in enrollments came not during the recession, but during the 1970s, and the percentage of humanities majors has more or less stabilized since around 1985. As research by Ben Schmidt of Northeastern University shows, the decline was caused almost entirely by women’s shifting interests, into, as the Atlantic writes, “preprofessional degrees such as business or communication.”

These women, through taking an interest in mostly the social sciences (like economics and politics)—the middle ground between the humanities and the hard sciences—strived to be more appealing in the eyes of potential employers and subvert gender stereotypes about where women belong in the workforce. But, with the continued emphasis on career paths like law or business for women, the humanities are dying out when there is still an incredible need for their lasting presence.

It is imperative that we make

a concerted effort to keep the humanities alive. This can be achieved through changing the humanities curricula, but also through changing the feminist mindset.

Alterations to the humanities curricula should primarily be centered on the promotion of more modern methods of humanist study. These new fields, such as that of the digital humanities, encourage students to find a balance between the future and the past. As the New York Times illustrates, students use Rap Genius to annotate Virgil and programming software to create 3D replicas of the Globe Theater, or analyze Supreme Court rulings. There is yet more room for improvement: with the world of big data now at our fingertips, there is the capacity for revolution in literary analysis, and recent developments in quantum mechanics can (and are) being harnessed to turn our understanding of metaphysics on its head.

And while gender disparities exist in many professions, it is also important to combat the gender gap in fields like English and history. To list but a few examples of the need to push women back towards the humanities, in 2011, only 20 percent of the op-eds written in

the US were by female reporters; in academic philosophy, women make up less than twenty percent of full-time faculty; and of the ten most cited articles in the American Historical Review, less than a quarter of the authors were female.

In order to ensure the humanities’ revival, we must encourage people of all genders to take an active interest in humanist studies, but, most of all, we must remind women that there is nothing wrong with majoring in English.

English doesn’t have to be a stereotype—the less “practical” option.

And we must convince them that it is worth learning in and of itself: that the purpose of college is not only job-preparation, but also selfdiscovery and the development of new worldviews.

There must also be calls for increased government funding for more modernized humanities research, which is currently dwarfed by funding for fields like science and technology. But if women’s interest in the humanities increases, that will lead to an increase in funding as the number of majors begins to rise. Women were a large part of the reason for the humanities’ decline; they are now the key to its resurgence.

Reservations About the Future

By Annie Feng The United States’s treatment of Native Americans is a black stain on its history. Those events cannot be presented in a positive light, but for most people, history is all it is. After the textbook is closed, little thought is given to the lives of Native Americans, which means that the horribly abject poverty that defines a large portion of the Native American experience is largely overlooked by most Americans. Instead of pushing these problems aside— and the historical discrimination that comes along with thinking about them—we must keep them in sight, and in mind, if we are ever to resolve them.

Native American reservations are plagued by intense poverty, with unemployment levels soaring high above national averages.

Over half of Navajo adults, for example, are out of jobs. Many Native Americans see little hope in a brighter future because poverty has been passed down for several generations. Access to even the

most basic necessities, like food and housing, is limited. Many are homeless or live in mobile homes; those who have houses often lack basic amenities like running water, telephones, electricity, and temperature regulation.

Children are especially impacted by conditions on reservations. Lakota teenagers have a suicide rate three to ten times higher than the national average. Native Americans are twice as likely to die before age 24 than any other race, and have one of the lowest life expectancies in the Western hemisphere.

The education system provides no meaningful way of lifting these children out of poverty. The academics are inadequate and outdated, and the schools themselves are literally falling apart. According to Minnesota Congressman John Kline, the schools on reservations are characterized by “collapsing roofs, leaking roofs, buckling floors, exposed wires, popping circuit breakers, [and] gas leaks.”

Education is harmed by serious underfunding: students are forced

to study from textbooks that are often thirty years old, and the majority of teachers are untrained.

Children often have to travel miles to get to school. The high school dropout rate is staggeringly high and few continue on to college.

Although most other racial subgroups in the United States have seen improvements in their education over the past few decades, Native American children seems to have been left in the dust.

Ted Hamilton, superintendent of the Red Cloud Indian School in South Dakota, said, “To be Lakota in this world is a challenge because they want to maintain their own culture, but they’re being told their culture is not successful.”

In addition to having extremely few successful Native role models from which to draw inspiration, Native children grow up with the burden of believing their culture lacks value, and as such, they try to distance themselves from it.

The state does a great job of helping with that; Native languages and histories are often omitted from reservation classrooms. And

when considering the oppression that Native Americans have faced in our country, that little detail becomes somewhat disturbing.

Between the late eighteenth century and the early twentieth century, Native Americans were forced to follow western customs and abandon their own heritage in an effort to “assimilate” them into American society. By not actively teaching Native history in Native schools, we lose the story of a people integral to our nation.

As a result, many Natives feel that there is no hope and no place in the future for them because their loss of cultural identity in a rapidly changing modern world.

The U.S. government is undoubtedly to blame for the desperate suffering of Native Americans living on reservations. Many problems on reservations can be traced back to historical failures on the part of the state: empty promises to provide Native Americans with adequate housing, education, and healthcare.

Federal intervention is required to change the state of af-

fairs on reservations. It’s clear that much needs to be done to improve the lives of Native Americans, but a good place to start to secure a better future for the next generation is the education system.

Higher standards need to be put in place for quality of education, student outcomes, and teacher efficacy. Schools should also offer native language classes and teach children about cultural traditions to ensure the heritage of a vital people remains alive in future generations.

While tax increases or budget cuts in other sectors may be necessary to fund these changes, it’s important to recognize that the prosperity of the nation was built on the suffering of Native Americans—it’s only fair that we invest in them now. The legacy of the United States with its Native peoples should not be one of cultural destruction. In order to move forward as a nation and demonstrate growth beyond the mistakes of the past, we must recognize them and do our utmost to correct them.

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 13

Opinions

Courtney Chiu / The Spectator

Being Mixed at Stuyvesant

By Dora Gelerinter I am of mixed race. My mother is an immigrant from Hong Kong and my father’s ancestors were European. When I was barely a year old, my mother and father brought me with them on a trip to China, my mother’s homeland.

And although my father is not as in touch with his heritage as my mother is, I still learn about Jewish heritage through classes at school and Passover Seder with some of my mom’s Jewish friends.

For people like me, Stuyvesant is a rare safe haven: I rarely receive any sort of racial discrimination because most of my fellow classmates and teachers are incredibly accepting of many ethnicities,

sexualities, and religions.

However, while my identity tends to be positively received both at home and at Stuyvesant, many other people of mixed race have experiences that are much less welcoming. Until the year 1967, it was illegal in the United States for an African American person to marry a Caucasian person. Racial discrimination continues to be a relevant issue, and mixed people are not excluded from this. To many, they represent an unacceptable mixing of cultures. However, the number of interracial marriages and children is rapidly increasing in the United States. Scientists and demographers agree that the average human face is becoming increas-

ingly multiracial. In an article on “Mic,” an online media outlet, Zak Cheney-Rice references a photography project done by National Geographic. He entertains the delightful idea that “tomorrow’s America lives among us now in every ‘Blackanese,’ ‘Filatino,’ ‘Chicanese’ and ‘Korgentinian’ you meet at the DMV, grocery store or wherever it is you hang out.” Racial identity is changing. Unless we as a nation acquire greater acceptance for mixed-race people, even more will feel alienated.

According to the American Psychological Association, the fastest growing youth group in the country is multiracial children, which has increased almost 50 percent since 2000. Evidently, fostering inclusiveness towards the mixed community is not something that can wait much longer.

In fact, for many, it’s something that needs to happen now.

People of mixed race often face a unique kind of racial discrimination which is predicated on the level of their “belonging” to a single ethnicity—something they lack—rather than particular stereotypes ascribed to a particular ethnicity. When President Barack Obama was first elected, his presidency was seen as a step in the right direction for America.

However, the first African-American president was called out as “not black enough.” Outside the United States, the new part-black Miss Universe Japan has been criticized for being a “hafu,” and therefore not “Japanese enough” to represent Japan in the contest. However, one must consider what the “true face of Japan” or of

America is really supposed to look like: it just doesn’t exist. Racial homogeneity is practically impossible in the modern age, and trying to achieve it has had often violent repercussions. Instead, we need to focus on fostering an environment of acceptance for all backgrounds.

Everyone, mixed race or not, deserves to have pride in their culture.

For example, being mixedrace should not be considered a separate category altogether.

“Multiracial” is not a race by itself, and should not be treated as such on the census: being Caucasian and African-American is simply not the same as being Native American and Latino. If demographic analysis is to be at all useful, it must take into account that all backgrounds, even mixed ones, have an impact on socioeconomic status. Someone who is half-Latino and half-white may benefit from white-passing privilege and thus avoid the full soci-

etal burden of being multiracial, while another person who is halfIndian and half-Chinese cannot.

In order to understand the societal repercussions and benefits of being mixed race, it is crucial that the complexity of multiracialism is fully taken into account.

We are just beginning to come up with solutions to this problem as more and more people are exposed to multiracialism. According to the American Psychological Association, mixed-race youths lack mixed-race role models. The only way to provide these figures is to foster greater encouragement of multiracialism. This should be done through education, whether it comes from the multiracial community to the public or from a parent or guidance counselor to a multiracial student. People of mixed race, particularly children, should be encouraged to feel comfortable in their own skin, and in order for that to happen, the people around them need to demonstrate their respect and compassion whenever possible.

Students should be encouraged to share their cultural experiences with their peers in the hopes of recognizing that all cultures are worthy of respect. Everyone, mixed race or not, deserves to have pride in their heritage.

And no matter what you look like or how you identify yourself, you can be as open and accepting as you choose to be. I am proud to be mixed race, but that doesn’t predetermine the person I can be. Soon, I hope it won’t predetermine how the world accepts people like me.

By Nalanda Sharadjaya Early this May, droves of impoverished men, women, and children clambered into cheap fishing boats in search of asylum from religious persecution in their native country, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Within the next week or so, they were discovered stranded in the ocean, starving and dehydrated. Images depicting bawling children and mothers with weary arms outstretched in desperation flitted across Facebook news feeds and accompanied front-page headlines; the eyes of the world were watching.

The migrants aboard the boats (described as floating coffins) belong to an ethnoreligious minority known as the Rohingyas. The origin of the Rohingya Muslims is somewhat unclear. What is known is that their ethnic identity coupled with their religious affiliation designates them as outsid-

ers in Myanmar. Despite having lived in for several generations in the Rakhine state in western Myanmar, they are viewed as trespassers from Bangladesh, Myanmar’s neighbor. As such, of the country’s 135 legally recognized ethnic groups, the Rohingyas fail to make the list, and are denied citizenship by the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law. Their collective identity is one of statelessness.

They do not have a place to call their home.

But the discrimination against Rohingyas extends far beyond cruel and unusual legislature.

Communal violence perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims by Rakhine Buddhists is ignored by the state, and may even be encouraged, as seen in the laws that target Rohingyas punitively. And when it comes to mediating the conflict, Myanmar’s government has done relatively little to aid the victims or attempt to stop the violence. Because of their lack of

citizenship, the Rohingya are shut out from receiving basic governmental aid; the situation is so appalling that it has been described as a state-sanctioned genocide by the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

Many Rohingyas have already fled, or attempted to flee, the oppressive situation in Myanmar.

More than a hundred thousand have been forced into refugee camps within the country, where authorities prohibit them from leaving. Some hundred thousand more live in ghettos and camps in Bangladesh and Thailand.

But although these camps may be considered a safe haven from the treatment Rohingyas face in Myanmar, they are far from a meaningful option for stable and safe rehabilitation.

While the world may have been watching with sympathy, the combined efforts of smaller, less wealthy nations in the region have simply been inadequate to match the needs of the crisis. Thailand and the Philippines have offered humanitarian assistance to the refugees, but it is unlikely that these two nations alone will be able to provide enough resources to aid the more than one million people struggling back in Myanmar. Malaysia and Indonesia, on the other hand, had to be shamed into providing temporary aid to the starving refugees. In addition, the (notably poor) government of The Gambia expressed its desire to help relocate for the Rohingyas as an act of solidarity with fellow Muslims.

By contrast, the western response to the crisis has largely been dismal. Although the United States has pledged to involve

itself in the resettlement of the Rohingyas, it’s somewhat unclear what exactly that entails, and other members of the western world have been even less vocal in their support. Australian prime minister Tony Abbott made it perfectly clear that his country would “do absolutely nothing” to help the Rohingyas, and European nations have remained relatively silent about the issue.

The Rohingya refugee crisis thus reveals itself to be a twopronged dilemma: first, that the oppression of ethnic minorities in developing countries is all too common; second, that it is all too overlooked by western mediators and ostensible advocates of peace.

The game of international politics being driven by self-interest needs to stop—western nations need to move beyond selfish po-

litical interests and instead focus on the good of the global community. The government of Myanmar needs more than a scolding from the White House for its crimes against the Rohingyas.

The west enjoys promoting ideals like freedom, justice, and equality. But unless that freedom extends to the release of the Rohingyas from the de facto internment camps within Myanmar, unless that justice includes reforming the country’s government to enforce greater tolerance, unless that equality applies to the promotion of the Rohingyas to complete citizen status, those ideals are meaningless. It is time for the west to offer more than just its sympathy and liberal rhetoric to the struggling developing world.

It is time for the advocacy and oversight of real, tangible change.

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

Danielle Eisenman / The Spectator

Where in the World Will the Boat People Go?

Page 14

The Spectator â&#x2014;? May 12, 2015

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The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 17

Arts and Entertainment Playlist

Awesome Playlist (AP) of Places and Perspectives If you’re traveling this summer, well, good for you.

Those of us that will be melting into our couches will be sure to “like” your bikini pictures on Facebook. But, of course we’ll find other ways to procrastinate studying for the SATs—we’ll figure out how to have exponentially more fun than you even if we don’t leave the city, let alone our own apartments.

Like, is it really so fantastic to get stuck in an airport, get painful vaccines, and have to worry about drinking dirty water? We think not. Here’s a playlist for all of the practical people at this school—enjoy every tantalizing exotic flavor without having to go anywhere! Because, really, who needs to go out and seek authentic international experiences when you can have musicians do all the work for you?

sco anci ear r)” n Fr W “Sa ure to ur Hai o S (Be ers in Y nzie e Flow t McK t , CA Sco isco Pop Franc San

lin” Dub d to a o R s cky ner “Ro Dubli The Folk land e h Iris lin, Ir b Du

“Concerning the UF O Sighting Near Highland, Illo nois” Sufjan Stevens Indie Folk Highland, IL

“E Ja mp Po y-Z ire S fea tat p N t. A e of ew lic Mi Yo ia nd rk Ke ” ,N ys Y

“Goodbye Copen hagen” New Politics Alternative Ro ck Copenhagen , Denmar

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“Lucid Dreams” Franz Ferdinand Alternative Rock Istanbul, Turke y

gier” “Tan van k o Roc Don edelic rocco h Psyc ier, Mo g Tan

“Stra ig “H N.W.A ht Outta C Su ouse ompto n” n” Hipof T ho the h Com p / Rap R& e An Ris pton “Santa Fe” ing im B N , CA als ew RENT O rle Soundtrack an NM s, Santa Fe, LA “Pu eblo Bue “Tijuana Gift Shop” Nu Lat na Vis evo” Charles Mingus in ta S Ma ocia Jazz tan l Cl zas ub Tijuana, Mexico ,C uba

” hai ang inaj “Sh ki M ina Ch Nic ai, p Ra ngh a Sh

“Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)” The Wombats Indie Rock Tokyo, Japan

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Play Stuyvesant Students Put On a Collection of One-Minute Plays for Asian-American Literature Class

By Yasmeen Roumie

After watching professional actor Moses Villarama perform some of their monologues in late March, students in the junior Asian-American Literature class were amazed at how much live acting could transform their writing. Their teacher, Sophie Oberfield, met with Artistic Director Victor Maog of Second Generation Productions (abbreviated as “2g”) and brainstormed ways to build a connection between her students and the theatre community. Oberfield led her class through the process of writing and revising one-minute plays, and Maog and Gladys Chen (’91) of 2g compiled twenty-five mini-scripts for their actors to present.

Ten actors hailing from all over the country came to Stuyvesant on the morning

of the performance to choose roles, memorize scripts, and rehearse the performances to stay within the time limit. Genders were equally represented and ages ranged from young to old, but the varied group of actors was able to play roles that did not match their exteriors.

Before the performance began, the audience was asked not to photograph or film because, as Oberfield said, “In theater, there is no screen between you and the actors.”

The student playwrights were still able to accurately cover intense issues including immigration, sexuality, suicide, family, and social class regardless of having such a short time allowance. Despite the weight of these topics, the overall presentation had an air of humor that kept the audience members on the edge of their seats to see what would happen in

the next minute-long play.

In “Lost for Words” by junior David Zhou, a frustrated father (Les Mau) asks his son to translate his mail into Chinese.

The Americanized son, Matthew Park, refuses because he has not been to Chinese school in a decade. The play escalates quickly; the father scolds Park for getting 98s on tests rather than 100s, and Park retaliates by telling his father to go learn English. The audience was quite amused by how relatable the situation was, but their laughter ended after they saw the shame the father felt.

Junior Sorato Doken’s “Being Basic” displayed a covert meet-up between two friends who were discussing “the thing” one of them brought.

Whispered voices and long, tiptoed strides made the situation seem incredibly suspicious.

In the end, the friend realized

he had lost “the thing,” which turned out to be a Starbucks Gold Card.

“Betrayal of a Partnership” by junior Rowena Fang followed a similar theme of mystery but included an adventurous aspect. Two Korean spies went on a mission, backed up by the rest of the actors humming the “Mission Impossible” theme song. Neither of the plays had much to do with being Asian, other than having Asian characters, but were a fun addition to balance out the seriousness of the others.

A recurring theme exhibited was the Asian parents’ dream for their kids to become doctors.

Junior Hing Li brought to light a young girl’s struggle between being happy and respecting her parents’ wishes in his play, “Clipped Wings.” Her brother accuses her of being selfish, but she knows that “the chains of

the past shackle [her] into the present.” Eugene Oh, one of the versatile actors, is a Stuyvesant alumnus, proving that not all of us need to become doctors to be successful.

The standout actors brought a whole new dimension to the students’ one-minute plays.

Interesting sound effects, such as Imran Sheikh’s saxophone playing in “On a Train” and his cracking voice in “I Met a Girl,” filled in the gap left by the lack of props and costumes. Les Mau’s elderly grandmother voice and addition of Chinese words (“aiyah”), as well as Lipica Shah’s Indian accent in “Seeking Acceptance” gave a cultural feel to the plays. The culmination of clever writing and phenomenal acting led to both hilarious and poignant scenes and, ultimately, the success of the partnership between Stuyvesant and 2g.

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 18

Arts and Entertainment The Definitive Pixar Movie Rankings That You Definitely Haven’t Been Waiting For

By Lev Akabas The only things that have been as consistently good as Pixar Animation Studios over the last few decades are the San Antonio Spurs, Google stock, and math teacher Sebastian Stoenescu’s handwriting. I have seen most of the films multiple times, and some of them way too many times to count. They have cute animation and laughs for young kids and sophisticated references and deep messages for older audiences. They can be watched at any age, in any setting, at any time. (For the purposes of this article, we will pretend that “Cars 2” never happened. Yuck, what a disaster.)

After taking a one-year hiatus from movie-making that single-handedly ruined my 2014 summer, Pixar will be releasing its new film, “Inside Out,” on June 19, 2015. Picture how excited Speaker of the House John Boehner was at President Obama’s State of the Union Address this year. Then picture the opposite of that. That’s how excited I am for this movie. It’s about emotions inside a little girl’s head, and it’s going to be awesome. In preparation for what will hopefully be Pixar’s latest stroke of genius, I am counting down the Top 10 Pixar movies.

10

Cars

It’s not Pixar’s most out-of-the-box concept, but the idea of cars themselves being avid fans of car racing is amusing and was executed well enough to spawn a sequel as well as a rip-off (Disney’s “Planes”). Owen Wilson’s voiceover of Lightning McQueen, a hot-shot celebrity who is a legitimately dislikeable main character at times, gives the movie some depth and wit to go along with its top-notch animation.

9

Ratatouille

8

Up

7

It’s hard to find anything wrong with this one. The movie follows an ambitious rat who secretly becomes a chef at a top restaurant in Paris by hiding in a human’s clothes; the fact that nobody found this completely gross is a testament to the likeability of both the human and animal characters and the well-paced (albeit clichéd) story.

You rarely see cartoon movies focus on elderly people, which is just one reason that “Up” is unique. It’s also an emotional rollercoaster—you laugh, you cheer, and you cry… but mostly cry. If the first ten minutes don’t at least make you teary, then you might be a robot. I’m crying just thinking about it.

Wall-E

The first half-hour of this movie is sheer artistic brilliance. There isn’t a single line of dialogue, and yet you’re laughing non-stop. It’s basically an animated Charlie Chaplin silent film. Also, Wall-E is just the coolest. He collects stuff, he plays video games, he can solve a Rubik’s cube, he’s caring, he’s an environmentalist, and he does that awesome thing with his eyes.

6

Toy Story 2

5

It’s not just unique because it’s an animated superhero movie. It’s a superhero movie in which the biggest struggle is raising a family. It’s a superhero movie in which heroes have to hide from society because of a series of lawsuits against them. It’s a superhero movie in which the biggest hero is out of shape. With “The Incredibles,” Pixar could have settled for simply making a cartoon superhero movie and it probably would have been fine, but instead they put in the extra thought to make an excellent spoof of live-action comic book flicks.

4

The best aspect of the “Toy Story” trilogy is that each installment builds on the previous one but is also a classic in its own right. The third movie established the franchise as one of the most consistent in movie history by introducing gems like Buzz Lightyear’s Spanish setting and Ken’s relationship with Barbie.

The first half-hour of this movie is sheer artistic brilliance. There isn’t a single line of dialogue, and yet you’re laughing non-stop. It’s basically an animated Charlie Chaplin silent film. Also, Wall-E is just the coolest. He collects stuff, he plays video games, he can solve a Rubik’s cube, he’s caring, he’s an environmentalist, and he does that awesome thing with his eyes.

The Incredibles

Toy Story 3

Finding Nemo

3

This is, in my opinion, the funniest Pixar movie, in large part due to Ellen DeGeneres’s voiceover of Dory, a fish with short term memory loss. (Can we please find whoever came up with this character and give him/her a Nobel Prize?

Thank you.) Pixar also cleverly plays with the audience’s expectations for every kind of fish: for example, clownfish aren’t funny and sharks are trying hard to become vegetarians. When it comes to portraying the mannerisms of each species, they absolutely nail every fish.

2

Everyone, at some point, is scared of monsters coming out of their closet, so the film is incredibly relatable. But Pixar takes this universal idea and runs with it, producing one of the most imaginative, creative movies ever. The notion that monsters need human scream for power is a perfect explanation for why they come to the human world, and the idea that the monsters are actually terrified of little human kids is a great twist. The last ten minutes of this movie are also every bit as touching as the first ten minutes of “Up,” if not more so.

1

Much like “Monsters Inc,” Pixar develops on something that all kids do: pretend that their toys are real. But despite a seemingly silly premise, this movie is about everything. It’s about friendship. It’s about loyalty. It’s about group dynamics. It’s about the need to be loved. It’s about the struggle to get attention. It’s about being self-aware. Forget best Pixar movie. “Toy Story” may very well be one of the best movies of all time.

Monsters Inc. Toy Story

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 19

Arts and Entertainment

By Kofi Lee-Berman The tracks of “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” the longawaited third album from British band Florence and the Machine, are as wide-ranging as they are moving. From the dark sensuality of “What Kind of Man” to the sweet romanticism of “Delilah,” each song inspires a unique mix of emotions—the only constant being a sense of awe at the unwavering power of the voice of the band’s lead singer and songwriter, Florence Welch.

“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” comes as a surprise in light of the band’s past records, which were more instrumentally complex. With a new sound that is cleaner, simpler, and more centered on vocals, the album represents a musical turning point in Florence’s career and an exciting new direction for the band.

Florence and the Machine, first formed by the teenage collaboration between Welch and Isabella “Machine” Summers, remains largely the project of the two original members. The band rose to fame with the release of “Lungs” in 2009. The tracks comprising “Lungs,” such as the hit “Dog Days Are Over,” are an exploration of numerous musical influences, such as rock songs, spirituals, and hymns, the last of which Florence got into trouble as a child for singing too loudly. The album focuses largely on vocals, percussion, and harp music, which creates a magnetic, minimal, and sometimes primitive sound.

With the release of “Ceremonials” (2011), Florence and the Machine created a sound that was wholly more mature, possessing an instrumental texture and depth that contrasted strongly with the simplicity of “Lungs.” The tracks on “Ceremonials,” such as “Spectrum” and “No Light, No Light,” feature bombastic orchestration and an extravagance not heard in “Lungs.”

“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” released on June 2, is a clean break from the grandiose complexity of “Ceremonials.” The wistfulness of Welch’s soft vocals in “Long and Lost” accentuates the melancholy atmosphere of the song. With lyrics such as “Is

it too late to come on home? / Can the city forgive? / I hear its sad song,” Florence reflects on a sense of emptiness and alienation. In contrast to the quiet minimalism of “Long and Lost,” “Ship to Wreck,” the first track on the album, is decidedly rocky, with a catchy beat centered on the acoustic guitar. The video, claustrophobically restricted to the various rooms of a house, portrays an unstable relationship and an unstable Florence who is trapped in a conflict between her good and bad sides. “Hiding” finds itself somewhere between the frenetic excitement of “Ship to Wreck” and the slowness of “Long and Lost,” combining Florence’s compelling vocals with a

By Jasmine Tang

“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” represents a turning point in Florence’s career and an exciting new direction for the band.

spotlight forced her to face herself. Using songwriting as her catharsis, Welch continued to create music throughout her year off. By the time producer Marcus Dravs brought her back into the studio, she had already created a collection of songs that were profoundly personal, written not for an audience but as a means of exploring her own identity. In a press statement, Welch reflected on the theme of “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” saying, “‘Ceremonials’ was so fixated on death and water, and the idea of escape or transcenZovinar Khrimian / The Spectator dence through death, but the new album became about trying modern folk sound reminiscent to learn how to live, and how to of the band Of Monsters and love in the world rather than tryMen. ing to escape from it.”

The disparate tracks of “How In a word, “How Big, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” Blue, How Beautiful” represents a demonstrate the band’s versatil- journey: both Florence’s journey ity. Despite their variation in tone of self-discovery and the band’s and tempo, many of the songs journey to fame and musical mashare a unifying theme: the story turity. Florence and the Machine of Florence’s inter-record period masterfully integrates an overafter “Ceremonials.” In light of arching narrative with dynamic what Welch described as “a bit and exhilarating music to create of a nervous breakdown,” she a multifaceted album that is not decided to take a one-year break only alluring but immensely exfrom touring. “It was [...] a crash pressive and a true representalanding, in a sense,” Welch said tion of Welch’s identity. Without a in an interview with BBC Radio’s doubt, “How Big, How Blue, How Zane Lowe. “I was spiraling a lit- Beautiful” is quintessentially tle bit.”

Florence: intense, energetic, and Florence’s time away out of mesmerizing.

Despite all the rage that arose from Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction, going solo can be a beautiful thing. Take The Killers’ frontman, Brandon Flowers. On May 15, 2015, Flowers released his sophomore solo album, “The Desired Effect.” He dares you to expect the unexpected as he ditches the alternative rock style associated with The Killers to produce a fun, vintage-sounding pop album.

The album starts off with the track “Dreams Come True,” a bold, upbeat tune featuring booming horns and drums that make the song sound almost theatrical. Female vocals are cleverly used to complement Flowers’ voice. He sings of remaining hopeful in fulfilling his dreams, even with the struggles and senses of frustration that accompany his journey. The lyrics, though a tad corny, exhibit his inclination to use vivid descriptions and figurative language in his songs; he writes flowery lines like: “On the corner of this dirty street / A decade in the making / Just a loser on two tender feet / Saying dreams come true.” The epic, yet radio-friendly rock style of the song gives it a feeling that resembles that of other songs by The Killers.

The rest of the album, however, deviates from The Killers’ rock music and goes straight to pop. The second song is “Can’t Deny My Love,” in which Flowers goes on about loving someone, no matter how bad the relationship gets. The track distinguishes itself from other pop songs of today, utilizing ‘80s-style synthesizers and wooden pan flutes. It evokes mystery with its layered chorus, yet can still be a club jam with its catchy beat and fast pace, as you gravitate towards your dancing shoes.

“Still Want You” is another song that touches upon everlasting love. In the chorus, Brandon Flowers mentions global issues and sings, “I still want

you,” as a demonstration of his undying feelings for someone, in spite of seemingly hopeless circumstances. “Climate change and debt / I still want you / Nuclear distress / I still want you,” he sings. It’s a cutesy love song with an infectiously catchy chorus sung by Flowers’ silky, mellow voice, and a cheery melody, thanks to an upbeat infusion of synths, strings, and drums.

Darker themes are also expressed in a few songs on the album. “Lonely Town” is about a sinister, stalking ex who breaks into his ex-lover’s house (“Do you hear the crack when I break?”) and stabs her (“Did you see the knife when it cut? / Do you keep your ear to the ground?”). The lyrics are a stream of consciousness, similar to those of “Mr. Brightside.” Though the song does convey a climactic story, the song itself does not seem to do the songwriting justice. Unfortunately, “Lonely Town” bears the sound of a generic ‘80s pop song.

A good pop album released by a rock singer is quite rare, but “The Desired Effect” proves that it’s not impossible. The retro sounds of the album will be surprisingly pleasing to contemporary ears. Listeners may cringe a bit at his super cheesy lyrics at times, which are influenced by his Mormon ways and his focus on his family. Nevertheless, the messages and complex story lines in his songs act as another reason to give “The Desired Effect” a listen.

If the album’s desired effect is to create a well-thought-out pop album, then it does just that.

Christine Jegarl / The Spectator

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Music The Flowers of Tomorrow

Sylvia Yu / The Spectator

My Name’s Blurryface and I Care What You Think

By Sophie Feng The label given to TwentyOne Pilots’ unique sound is “schizophrenic pop,” and one they wholly seem to embrace.

This categorization is used to describe the amalgamation of their many musical influences, including electronic music, indie rock, and electro-pop, all accompanied by lead Tyler Joseph’s unique rapping, singing, or both.

And schizophrenic pop—setting aside the negative connotations of describing a genre as a mental illness—is precisely the description that is exemplified by Twen-

ty-One Pilots’ newest album, “Blurryface.” “This is not rap, this is not hip-hop,” Joseph concisely declares in the first track, “Heavydirtysoul.” “Just another attempt to make the voices stop.”

“Blurryface” is a loud, disorienting album, at some points providing only a cacophony of noise, yet at other points reversing gears and drifting back into simple melodies. This dichotomy is especially present in “Heavydirtysoul,” which shifts each minute from a heavy rapping verse to a piano-backed, crooning chorus. Many of the songs are a far cry from those present in the band’s previous albums, “Vessel” and their self-titled EP. Those who preferred the band’s more subdued, previous work, may be in for more of a shock. “Blurryface” presents a primarily industrial, electronic sound, lacking most of the simple drumming or ukulele that characterizes their earlier work. Yet the emotional, thoughtprovoking lyrics that appealed to so many fans are still present in the songs of “Blurryface,” and the complex backing melodies add depth to the sharpness of

Joseph’s voice. And there is no denying that many of the songs are extremely catchy (“Tear In My Heart” and “Polarize,” to name a few).

The subject matter also differs tremendously from that of the band’s older work. Many of the previous songs by TwentyOne Pilots focus extensively on depression, a topic Joseph often speaks about in interviews. While “Blurryface”’s lyrics and melodies are no less dark, they focus on different elements of one’s character, namely, insecurity.

Much like the band’s previous work, a great deal of the content, be it in song lyrics or album art, carries a much deeper meaning.

The album draws its title from a character envisioned by Joseph, representing negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and deceptiveness present in all of us.

One song that particularly exemplifies these is “Goner.” Its soft, emotional words present quite a contrast to the rest of the album.

“I’ve got two faces / Blurry’s the one I’m not / I need your help to take him out,” Joseph sings, urging us to help release him from

the darkest parts of his soul.

Still, the subjects present in “Blurryface” are varied and often vague. “Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit,” croons Tyler Joseph on one of the tracks, a phrase with a meaning that is not made entirely clear by the song, and perhaps open to interpretation by its listeners. Yet a great deal of what he says still manages to be charming and witty, such as the lyric in “Stressed Out”: “Out of student loans and treehouse homes we all would take the latter.” His emotions are clearly displayed and articulated through all of the music. Though some phrases are bluntly stated and may come off almost casual and devoid of feeling, Joseph’s words occasionally become frenzied, as if trying to keep up with the rapid beats. Yet the album still possesses an intimate feeling. In many of the songs, Joseph’s words serve as an aside, spoken directly to their listeners, such as when he remarks to us:“Listen, I know, this one’s a contradiction because of how happy it sounds, but the lyrics are so down” in “Not Today.”

Twenty-One Pilots embarks

on a tour in support of “Blurryface” in September. One challenge posed by the album is the matter of how well the songs will translate onto stage. Whereas much of the previous work required little instrumental accompaniment except for a piano, ukulele, or drums, the heavily layered work on “Blurryface” may not have quite as much of an intimate vibe. Though the sound translates well coming out of a pair of speakers, it may not be as easy to replicate on a stage.

And being that the band is only a two-piece, composed of Joseph and his longtime best friend Josh Dun, one wonders if more members will have to be added to the lineup.

Truly, “Blurryface” is a revolution for the sound of Twenty-One Pilots. Its drastic shift in sound may represent a completely new beginning in their work, and it has already been proven to appeal to many new audiences.

And looking past its differences, the core of Twenty-One Pilots, that is, its complex melodies and meaningful lyrics, is still there, and stronger than ever.

Page 20

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Arts and Entertainment STC

By Danielle Eisenman More than anything, I think it’s safe to say that existentialism is a whole lot of fun to laugh at. I mean, we’re jaded teenagers; we’ve programmed our brains to believe that what we detect to be high and mighty esotericism is nothing but a conspiracy written by our weird uncles that forces us to question our own comprehension skills. We crave the need to point fingers and accuse “artists” of being under the influence of hallucinogens. You have got to know by now that we’re just always looking for excuses turn up our noses, especially if there’s Shakespeare involved. What more is theater than an empty and decadent mess of, as the Main Player in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” calls it, “love, blood, and rhetoric”?

And, although the Stuyvesant Theater Community’s (STC) production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” inspired many disgruntled sighs from most of its adolescent theatergoers, it was wickedly impressive—not just for a high school play, but as a work of art worth its own salt.

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” is an absurdist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard that was first staged in 1966. It zeroes in on miniscule characters in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” mashing up Elizabethan-style dialogue with Stoppard’s own casual and occasionally goofy words. It’s hard to say exactly what the play is about—sure, there’s a death sentence that serves as

something of a buttress for what appears to be the plot, but what’s really compelling is Stoppard’s examination of the fuzzy relationships that exist between life and death, theater and reality, and even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

From the very beginning of the play, it was clear that Rosencrantz (sophomore Liam Elkind) and Guildenstern (senior Maks Bondarenko) were supposed to be foils of one another. What really gave this away was the obvious difference in size—Elkind is a good foot shorter than Bondarenko. But then, there were the more subtle differences—thanks to the directors, senior Emma McIntonsh, junior Henry Rosenbloom, and sophomore Alec Dai—that brought their relationship alive. Rosencrantz sat on the edge of the stage speaking in short, nonchalant phrases (I’m pretty sure his first 17 lines were simply “heads”) while Guildenstern paced the length of the stage, violently muttering overly technical soliloquies. Their costumes, which Costumes Director sophomore Angela Yu was in charge of, reflected this well, as Elkind was outfitted in an elegant emerald green bubble of a suit jacket, while Bondarenko was dressed much more simply, in a rickety old red cape, with tighter fitting pants and a tee shirt. The decision to dress the actors in complementary colors—and to illuminate each side of the stage with red and green lights, embellished with even more glitter-like laser speckles of red and green—was a brilliant way to emphasize the way the two char-

acters complemented one another.

Elkind seemed to capture the delicate myopia and blatant stupidity of his character with ease, which worked well alongside to the omnipresence of exasperated breathiness that characterized many of Bondarenko’s lines. And, though I’ve been so adamant about the opposing traits possessed by the two characters, there were many instances, certainly enhanced by the huge amount of chemistry that existed between the two, that showed how connected they really were— so much so, that Rosencrantz says, “My name is Guildenstern and this is Rosencrantz,” as he introduces himself and Guildenstern to the Prince of Denmark.

While Rosencrantz’s general idiocy was a fun thigh-slapper, the most laughs seem to have been inspired by the band of tragedians indulged by their “inexorable, transvestite melodrama,” and led by the dazzling Main Player (sophomore Jessica Sporacio), whose speeches about the division of art and life into separate spheres were as disconcerting as they were eloquent.

Albert (sophomore Enver Ramadani), the pathetic, wordless, and comically effeminate tragedian, was a crowd favorite. His ungraceful crawling in and out of a massive hoop skirt—which resembled a disfigured amniotic egg that was the color of dirty bubblegum— never ceased to create a storm of thunderous laughter.

Many of the senior veterans of the STC, despite their usual prominence, made brief appearances

Kaia Waxenberg / The Spectator

Beyond Love, Blood, and Rhetoric

as the well-known celebrities of “Hamlet.” Seeing and recognizing Hamlet (senior Thomas Perskin), Ophelia (senior Harmehar Kohil), and Gertrude (senior Jasmine Thomas) felt adorably appropriate.

Everyone was expecting to see Perkin, Kohil, and Thomas, the usual stars of STC productions, in the same way everyone was expecting to see the significant characters of “Hamlet”—but both groups of people/characters made surprisingly small appearances.

The fact that STC is so saturated with people that will be graduating in less than a month begs the question—is the STC, well, dead? I’m going to say that it isn’t. Like, with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” we know of the inevitability of their deaths before we even start watching the show. In a sense,

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern already are dead, although their presence for most of the play begs to differ, making them, essentially, immortal. It seems that the STC possesses a similar immortality— even though they were very much aware of their imminent departure, about a dozen seniors made the decision to put together one last amazing show.

That being said, there is a significant difference between the end of the play and the end of this year’s STC season. There is not a single person left standing on the stage when “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” is over. However, the excessively talented underclassmen that starred in the show are just beginning their careers in Stuyvesant’s theater community.

Film

They’re On Pitch Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past three years has heard “The Cup Song.”

Whether you’ve seen the copycat videos on Youtube or you’ve heard a classmate singing the catchy tune under his or her breath or you’ve actually watched it being sung by Anna Kendrick in “Pitch Perfect” (2012), there is very little doubt you are familiar with the tune. It’s rare that a new film can inspire a cult following, and it’s even rarer that a sequel can be good. However, the “Pitch Perfect” franchise has managed this with graceful ease.

“Pitch Perfect 2” was released on May 15, 2015, and is directed and produced by Elizabeth Banks (who reprises her role as Gail, an a cappella competition commentator).

It starts out with the Barden Bellas performing for President Obama at the Kennedy Center. They are finally seniors at Barden College and, as usual, at the top of their game— they’re feeling confident with three consecutive national championship wins under their belt. However, all goes tumbling down when Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) has a wardrobe malfunction while swinging up in the air, exposing her derriere to the world. Like in the first movie, the Bellas are thrown back to the bottom, a laughingstock and a disgrace to the a cappella world. They are suspended from competing and recruiting any new members—unless they win the World Championships, in which case their privileges will be reinstated; if not, the Bellas will still be unable to compete and recruit new members, making them irrelevant to the world of a cappella.

One of the most well-received aspects of the first film is definitely the music, and there are even more performances to enjoy in the sequel. There’s an overabundance of songs, to the point where they can seem excessive, but they are nevertheless enjoyable. And while

the Treblemakers, the male counterpart to the Bellas, perform a few times in this movie, their performance of “Lollipop” is a gulp of fresh air. A rival German group, Das Sound Machine, has performances that are soul-wrenching and exciting to watch and listen to. Even their modern, edgy outfits do not fail to amaze—their biceps pop out of their black, leather vests and fishnet sleeves. Their choreography dazzles with perfect synchronization in all of their movements; they collapse during the drop in their first performance and march around in their black combat boots.

The actors are adept at both acting and singing. Flula Borg and Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, who play the leaders of Das Sound Machine, have powerful voices—ones that can cut through glass—and, even better, they’re not afraid to emphasize their German accents. Anna Kendrick, too, has a beautiful voice, and although it may sometimes sound a bit quiet, it fits with Beca’s shyness. Wilson’s powerful vocals are comparable to a wrecking ball (pun intended). She is not afraid to sing at the top of her lungs, which creates some beautiful music.

Beca, an aspiring music producer, keeps her role as the main protagonist, thinking about her future and starting an internship at a recording studio, not telling any-

one except for her boyfriend, Jesse (Skylar Astin). Like in the last movie, her talents are expressed with her humbly impetuous actions, like when she helps her boss (KeeganMichael Key) change Snoop Dogg’s boring cover of “Winter Wonderland” into something fun to listen to. She does this by singing “Here Comes Santa Claus” alongside his “Winter Wonderland,” and adding a techno, electropop texture. We see that even though Beca led the Bellas to stardom, she is still a bit insecure about herself—she secondguesses her mixing skills, and when she tries to insult the two leaders of Das Sound Machine, she fails miserably (and hilariously) due to her being intimidated by their perfection. Beca’s character prefers to be discovered than shown off, which allows her to continue being likeable.

Fat Amy, memorable due to her hilarious one-liners in “Pitch Perfect,” has a bigger role in “Pitch Perfect 2.” She is as hysterical as ever, and as always, her confidence captivates the audience. She develops a romantic relationship with Bumper (Adam Devine), which first starts out as casual sex, but Bumper ends up falling in love with her. She denies his love at first, telling him she can’t be tied down. However, it turns out she’s in love with him as well, and all of this results

in an extravagant duet cover with Fat Amy and Bumper of Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” (because, let’s be honest, everything Fat Amy does must be elaborate and ostentatious). What truly makes Fat Amy a favorite among fans is the amazing slapstick comedy bestowed on her by the film’s writer Kay Cannon.

Wilson’s delivery is totally nonchalant, which gives Fat Amy her beautiful charm.

Another character that has a larger role in this movie is newbie Emily Junk (Hailee Steinfeld), a freshman at Barden College who is allowed into the Bellas due to her singing skills and being a legacy (this grants her the nickname “Legacy”). However, she is uninteresting to watch on-screen. She is the typical shy new girl who has a talent: writing songs. She seems to be unable to let go of her original songs; during the Riff Off (an unofficial a capella competition), when prompted to sing a “‘90s Hip Hop Jam,” she disqualifies the Bellas from winning by singing her only original song. And to make her even more clichéd, she has an acaawkward but adorable relationship with a Treblemaker named Benji (Ben Platt). Her presence makes her seem like the dull set-up for introducing a new protagonist to be focused on in future “Pitch Perfect”

Christine Jegarl / The Spectator

By Tiffany Chen

films.

The rest of the comedy in the movie is not up to par with Fat Amy’s, but it suffices. Gail and John (John Michael Higgins), the two a cappella competition commentators, feed upon each other’s energy as they deliver gratuitously politically incorrect one-liners. For example, during the initial performance in which everything goes haywire, when Flo (Chrissie Fit), the only Latina in the Bellas, flips across the stage, they say, “This is like how she jumped the border to get to America.” It seems that their sole purpose is to represent the type of people who actually believe those stereotypes, although this can be slightly overdone.

Speaking of stereotypes, “Pitch Perfect 2” seems to run off of them in a way that feels exaggerated. Flo speaks in broken English and hints at her being an illegal immigrant, and Cynthia-Rose (Ester Dean), the only lesbian in the movie, is portrayed to be unable to control herself at all-girl sleepovers. Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), the only Asian, is quiet, sexless, and awkward. Stacie (Alexis Knapp), a “slut” donning a new ombré, is shown sexually dancing on a car. They are likeable characters, funny and quirky in their own way, but the stereotypes being propagated by this movie send a toxic message to teenagers watching.

“Pitch Perfect 2,” however, is still a sequel, and this means that everything about it will be more elaborate than the original. This is made annoyingly obvious with the presence of celebrity cameos— President Obama, Snoop Dogg, and the Green Bay Packers—and the ubiquitous product placement (Beats and Apple are two examples). Despite all of this, the sequel is still a solid watch with its heartfelt moments and accomplishes what the series is known for: good comedy and rocking musical performances.

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 21

Arts and Entertainment Tony Noms We know that by the time this issue comes out, the Tony Awards ceremony will have happened. Because we honestly don’t care who walks away with a brass medallion and who doesn’t.

Our goal in putting this spread together, of course, is to properly represent our favorite Tony NOMinees—with special foods that will make you go “om nom (Tony) nom!” So, smack your lips together while you still can! God forbid you ever did that in a Broadway theater...

GENERAL Best Play

Best Musical

JiaQi Gao / The Spectator

Alicia Kwok / The Spectator

“Hand to God” - A Communicant Hand Puppet with Wine Stains on its Puppet Body and Wafer Crumbs in its Puppet Hair

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” - Mysteriously Half-eaten Lincolnshire Sausage Hot Dog at Lunch Time

Vahn Williams / The Spectator

Vivian Ma / The Spectator

“An American in Paris” - Hamburger on a Fresh Baguette With a Side of French Fries

“Fun Home” - Hybrid Gingerbread/Bouncy House That’s Home to a Local LGBTQA Group

REVIVALS Best Revival of a Play

Rui Ling / The Spectator

“This Is Our Youth” - Artisanal Ice Cream Cone That Has Been Dropped on the Floor By an Affluent, Yet Angsty Teenage Boy Attempting to Reconcile Himself With His Battered Childhood

Best Revival of a Musical

Luna Oiwa / The Spectator

Rachel Zhang / The Spectator

“The Elephant Man” - Testosterone-infused Circus Peanuts

“On the Twentieth Century” - A Glass of Champagne

Minseo Kim / The Spectator

“The King and I” - The King Cone in I

MISCELLANEOUS Best Orchestration

Melanie Chow / The Spectator

Vivian Lin / The Spectator

“You Can’t Take It With You” - You Can Take It With You in a Doggie Bag

“Airline Highway” - Airplane Food That Came From a Highway Gas Station

Best Costume Design in a Play

Melanie Chow / The Spectator

“The Last Ship” - The Last Chip

The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 22

Arts and Entertainment Fine Arts

Courtesy of MoMA.org

Painting the Movement North

By Liana Chow Jacob Lawrence (September 7, 1917—June 9, 2000) was criticized for not speaking out about the civil rights issues that he so passionately painted. In his silence, however, his paintings vocalized—and cried and shouted and sang—the very messages that eluded his lips.

The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North” brings together his crucial set of raw depictions of the Great Migration from 1941. The exhibit title, “One-Way Ticket,” comes from a Langston Hughes poem that embodies the same weary determination seen in the characters that Lawrence paints: “I pick up my life / And take it away / On a one-way ticket—/

Gone up North / Gone out West / Gone.”

Lawrence was born in New Jersey on September 7, 1917 to parents who had migrated from the South. After they moved to Harlem, he was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance; his art became acclaimed not only among African Americans but also among white people, which was unusual for a black artist of his time.

After painting tributes to Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass—abolitionists who were Lawrence’s heroes—Lawrence created the Migration series.

The collection comprises 60 images of African Americans on their exhausting journey from Southern farms to Northern cities to escape lynching, abusive sharecropping, and hunger, as well as to find opportunity. Six

million blacks took this journey between 1916 and 1970. Like the families split up during the Great Migration, some paintings in the series were sent to the MoMA while others to the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C. At the MoMA, all 60 paintings are rejoined in one solemn row, and will remain there until September.

Lawrence completed this series of paintings when he was 24 years old. His shapes are simplistic, like a child’s collage, and the brushwork resembles marker strokes. The accompanying words (written by Lawrence and his wife), while educational, are also simply stated.

“They were very poor,” says the caption of a painting of two people with empty dishes. The combination of an unadorned art style and blunt captions makes the series resemble a children’s book. The story is cut down to shape, color, and emotion. It reaches into the viewer’s mind to pull out innocent, unbiased sympathy, making the viewer even more worried for the characters and vulnerable to be haunted by their troubles.

All of the Migration paintings are arranged in a single main room. One must walk continuously along the main room’s four walls to view the paintings in order. The last painting, captioned, “And the migrants kept coming,” leads right back to the first, calling for the next wave of families to struggle through the cycle. Like the paintings, the room is sparse. In the center are

tables with tablets with interactive information displays about the paintings. Contradicting the misery of the characters depicted, light-hearted jazz plays softly in this room.

In adjacent rooms of the exhibit, music is the centerpiece. Billie Holiday on film sings “Strange Fruit,” a terrifying song that draws images of lynchings in the South without ever mentioning the actual atrocity. Then comes a flood of historical context: cases displaying hopeful poems by Langston Hughes, photographs of field hands and travelers by Dorothea Lange, the novels “Native Son” and “Black Boy”

by Richard Wright, and political cartoons by Romare Bearden, all testaments to race struggles.

The back rooms of the exhibit feel like a black-and-white history lesson in the back pages of a picture book—informative and filled with culture, but not as emotionally invigorating as the main display.

Every few paintings of the Migration series show a crowd of migrants that threatens to spill out of the frame. No statistics are needed—these paintings show the vastness of the movement. Other paintings are more specific snapshots: a hungry little boy and dried-out farms in the South, a ragged couple, and crowded tenement houses in the North. The North is better than the South, but it is not glorified.

The temperament of the paintings alternates between

hope and despair. Sloping lines of families migrating with the birds contrast with jagged lines of race riots in the streets.

Wherever the black characters go, they hide. The white people in Lawrence’s paintings have gaping faces with fishlike eyes, but the black people tend to not have faces. Certain scenes in the Migrations series explain why blacks in real life wouldn’t have wanted to show their faces. One is a desolate Southern landscape with a lone person hunched near a noose; another is a portrait of migrants “arrested on the slightest provocation.” These images are disturbing enough to make the viewer fear for the few black characters in the series who dare to show their eyes. Where Lawrence had not painted faces, pain comes across clearly in the broken, hunched shapes he uses for the bodies.

There are no specific characters whose stories are followed. Still, the story is visually cohesive—the line that weaves through all the panels is consistent color. Lawrence’s method of painting was similar to a color-by-numbers, painting each color in all 60 panels before moving on to the next color.

As a result, the mustard-yellow handcuffs in one painting lead the eye to the mustard-yellow hat in the next, as if the colors are threads of a story. The colors are just bright enough to show life, but dark enough to make the figures suffer.

By Nusheen Ghaemi

“China: Through the Looking Glass” is the title of the Costume Institute’s 2015 annual exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. If one is familiar with Lewis Carroll, one will recognize the name from his book, titled correspondingly, “Through the Looking Glass.”

In Carroll’s book, the heroine climbs through a mirror in her house, in which she finds a parallel universe where everything in her home is topsy-turvy and backwards. The curators of the exhibit chose to allude to this book because the pieces shown in the exhibit are meant to reflect a lesser-seen side of China that is imaginative and inventive.

The show does not only take place in the Costume Center— the wing of the museum set aside specifically for the Costume Institutes’ exhibitions— but also parts of the museum’s Chinese galleries. The exhibit is set up in a multitude of interconnected rooms—up to 15 of them—each housing fashion pieces by brands like Alexander McQueen and Chanel.

Each piece is influenced by a different aspect of iconic Chinese culture: blue and white porcelain, opium, perfumes and more. While exploring the evolution of Chinese culture from ancient times to modern day, the exhibit delves into the impact of cinema on Chinese culture and its representation in the West. From the era of the Silk Road when Western design-

ers were obsessed with Chinese silk, the West has always been influenced by the exoticism of Chinese culture.

Reflective glass walls, TV screen walls playing vibrant scenes from Chinese films, traditional Chinese music blasting are some of the theatrics implemented in the exhibit to create an immersive experience.

In the first room, the focus is the Manchu robes. On display are authentic Manchu robes from Ancient China worn by emperors and other members of the imperial court, and next to them is their high fashion counterpart. Alongside a traditional yellow embroidered Manchu Robe stands a mannequin wearing a floor-length yellow dress by Tom Ford. Covered in yellow sequins and decorated with embroidery, parallels between the two pieces can be easily drawn.

The next room focuses on the iconic qipao dress associated with the cinematic glamour of China. Made out of silk, the qipao has a high neck, with a button-down collar, and generally short sleeves and a short hem. Along with the high fashion qipao dresses in the back of the room, there are scenes from classic Chinese films featuring main female characters wearing the qipao. The exhibit is curated such that each room gives an extensive view of the history and culture surrounding the element of Chinese culture that the room focuses on. In both the qipao and Manchu robe rooms, films where the actors

Julie Chan / The Spectator

Moon in the Water: A Representation of China

wear these costumes and music common to that time period play in the background. The small biographies give a brief history of not only the type of clothing on display, but also how it came to become incorporated in Western culture and fashion In another room, a forest of clear plastic pillars representing a bamboo forest surround mannequins dressed in light black and white silk organza, with designs influenced by Imperial Chinese fashion. Against one wall are scenes from Chi-

nese martial arts movies while against other lies a huge old, chipped, and awe-inspiring fresco.

Since cinema is often a designer’s first interaction with Chinese culture, films are incorporated into the exhibit to represent the exchange between Western and Eastern cultures.

A noteworthy element is the room inspired by Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American actress who played a defining role in shaping Chinese identity in the Western world. Scenes from her movies play alongside the

dresses she wore in her most memorable works. One such dress is a beautiful, tight-fitting black silk gown, similar to a qipao, with a gold, sequined dragon down the middle - luxuriously exemplifying the essential aspects of Chinese culture.

“China: Through the Looking Glass” is truly a masterpiece in and of itself, exploring the history, culture and representation of China. Although it can be overwhelming at times, with all the art, fashion, movies, sounds, the exhibit is a gratifying and educating experience.

The Spectator â&#x2014;? June 15, 2015

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The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 24

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

Senior Cannot Believe He Won’t Get to Face Stuyvesant’s Horrible, Crushing, Soul-Shattering Monotony One More Time

By Scott Ma

Senior Kevin Lee joined me as we strolled down the third floor corridor, surrounded by waves of underclassmen bustling to the next class of their exhausting ten-period schedules. “I remember freshman world history,” Lee reminisced with a laugh, pointing towards a classroom full of studious sheep staring blankly at a chalkboard. “I had so much difficulty adjusting to the harsh reality that I was no longer as intelligent as my ego thought I was,” Lee remarked, referring to the many brushes with failure that stained his freshman year record.

“It never got better from there,” Lee continued, staring blankly into the distance with the faintest hint of a smile curving the edges of a face marred by years of stress-induced skin problems. “All of my friends from middle school met other people and moved on and left me in the dust.

“By sophomore year, I could barely lift my head up in the morning. I would wake up, go to class, fall asleep, go home, and stay up all night making up the work I slept through in class,” Lee said, picking up the pace as we climbed up the staircase to the fifth floor. “Ah, that’s where I hid in a stall and bawled my eyes out for three periods,” he interjected, pointing towards the restrooms. “Depression does that to you.”

“Junior year was the worst. My grades were awful and nobody cared about me.

Sometimes I like to think that through Stuyvesant, my best friends were all one hundred-proof. Between academic difficulty with mandatory subjects I had zero interest in, no emotional support from friends or family, and hours of daily

Spectator Endorsements Deemed Inaccurate by Everyone Who Didn’t Receive an Endorsement

By Shaina Peters and Laszlo Sandler The release of Issue 15 of The Spectator—which featured endorsements for the Student Union (SU) and freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior caucuses—has been met with considerable backlash from candidates who did not receive favorable endorsements or did not receive endorsements at all. Some candidates went as far as calling the endorsements “highly inaccurate,” while others deemed them “a greater injustice than when I was kicked off the seventh floor benches during my chem free.”

“They didn’t even include the number of profile picture likes I have in their endorsement.”

—Abie Rohrig, freshman “These endorsements totally disrupted the popularity contest basis of the elections,” freshman Abie Rohrig said, who was running for Sophomore Caucus with freshman Inbar

Pe’er. “I mean, they didn’t even include the number of profile picture likes I have in their endorsement.”

Junior Caucus candidate Jack Schluger agreed with Rohrig. “The endorsements were totally inaccurate.” Schluger said.

“I don’t understand how Dina Re and Judy Li got an endorsement and we didn’t. They don’t even have that many friends.”

“How could they be wrong when they chose me?” —Kevin Boodram, freshman

On the other hand, candidates who received a favorable endorsement, such as freshman Kevin Boodram, say they don’t quite know what all the fuss is about. “This is the fairest it’s ever been. How could they be wrong when they chose me?” Boodram said.

Other students are simply confused about how the elections work. “These endorsements are totally wack,” sophomore Niko Cruz-Marsted said. “[Sophomores] Justin Chae and Dylan Manuele should have gotten the endorsement. Who cares if they weren’t running?”

Vahn Williams / The Spectator

transportation to and from my distant home, you just begin to wonder why you deal with it at all.”

“Somewhere between then and senior year I realized that I had given up all of my hobbies, all of my interests, for the sake of... academics?

Really, I’m not sure what I gave up. Did I give up myself somewhere in the process?”

“And here I am today. I was always told senior year would be a breeze, would be full of fun, games, and college applications, but really, in the end, it’s not. I’m not lying, it doesn’t get any better,” Lee said with a chuckle. “And that’s been really comforting to me.”

“Really, I’m serious,” he assured me when I responded with incredulity. “You’d think I’m crazy, but I’ve really come to love this place.”

“After four years, I just can’t believe it’s all finally over,” Lee said pensively. “Four years of this crazy, stupid mess. And I just can’t believe that looking back, I’m going to miss it.

I’m going to miss waking up at six in the morning, stumbling onto the train, talking to people more intelligent than I am who care more about themselves than they do about me, learning things I’m never going to use ever again, because for the past four years, it’s been, well, me.”

“It’s so absurd how you can just get used to how constraining everything is that when it finally lets you go, you feel freer than you’ve ever felt before. And I feel so powerful, so strong, so happy, even…”

We paused our stride. “Are you okay?” I asked, tentatively.

“I’m fine,” Lee answered with a sudden burst of sentiment. “Good, even.”

What Are Juniors Behind on Now

By Randolph Higgins

STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL — With only eight months left until college applications are due, what are our juniors doing to give themselves a competitive edge?

28%: Sacrificing a goat to the malevolent gods who control the admissions process.

16%: Writing the college essay to end all college essays.

13%: Getting their average above room temperature.

14%: Allowing their soul to slowly become corrupted by hate.

19%: Discovering the academic aid and learning opportunities available at the Univeristy of Delaware.

10%: Asking their parents to finance The Princeton University International Space Station

��� 10%

19%

28%

14% 16% 13%

The Spectator ● june 15, 2015

Page 25

Humor 2014-2015 Year in Review By jacob faber-rico

The 2012-2013 school year began with uncertainty, as Principal Jie Zhang began her first year here. The 2013-2014 school year began equally as chaotically, with students lining up outside with megaphones on the very first day, terrorizing new freshmen in their protest.

So students were understandably glad to see the 2014-2015 year start in a more relaxed manner. Without further ado, I present to you the highlights (and low-lights) of this past year.

We started in the fall, when students entered school wellrefreshed from pouring buckets of ice water on their head in order to raise awareness for their ABS. However, the funfilled mood quickly died away because HOLY***OHMYGODOHMYGOD THAT GUY WHO GOT EBOLA LIVES ON MY STEPDAD’S MOM’S BEST FRIEND’S DOG’S BLOCK WHAT DO I DO!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

EBOLA EBOLA EBOLA AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Pretty much nothing else happened until December, when Mayor Bill DiBlasio pro-

posed to change the way in which a disproportionate number of African American and Latino students are rejected from the city’s top schools, and senior Mohammed Islam revealed that he made $72 million by selling his senior bar locker.

The year of 2014 was capped off when the SU released the results of an investigation into the Stuyvesant Administration’s use of “enhanced learning techniques,” including, but not limited to, sleep deprivation.

And so, we headed into 2015, when Ferry’s raised its prices, pleasing students who claimed that they’re not imitating Terry’s if they’re not overcharging everything by at least $5.

Debate over the Specialized High School Admissions Test intensified as politicians threatened to take away our most prized possession, our sole source of pride, our beloved SHSAT. Despite our hatred for the exam during the weeks, months, and even years that we spent tediously studying for it, many students took the issue to social media to defend the exam. In our definitely unbiased opinions, the exam is

a completely accurate measure of how smart people are, and of course the people who score the highest on that are just the most intelligent kids. Totally. We know because we scored the highest.

January continued to go downhill as The New York Post broke its seven-month streak of not publishing a stupid article about Stuyvesant. After just two students were named Intel semifinalists, Gary Buiso (who else?) asked the eloquently phrased question—and I swear I am not making this up—“Is Stuyvesant losing its mojo?”

To make matters worse, finals arrived. The atmosphere around school grew colder both metaphorically and literally, leading us into February, when, in a groundbreaking scientific discovery, students attained absolute zero on Chambers Street.

In response, The New York Post ran what may be its most intelligent headline ever: “Thermodynamics May Be Losing Its Mojo at Elite High School.”

The stupidity of the world continued to amaze the student body as we questioned the decision of the Oklahoma House Committee to ban AP

SOPHFROSH SEMIFORMAL!!!!!1!

By Jordan Hodder In a shocking development, freshmen and sophomores are beginning to express feelings of “WOOOO SEMIFORMAL!!”

The underclassmen, many of whom had never been to a party or dance before, are touting the idea that IT WAS SO LIT #turnup. This shift in character has already catalyzed several important changes. “SEMIFORMAL 2K15 WE OUTT,” sophomore Dina Re said on the matter. This offers a stark

contrast to the mood last year, which seemed generally centered around the idea of “SEMIFORMAL 2K14 WE OUTT.” Rather than presenting a unified front against the challenges of “AHHHHH JPROM,” the underclassmen are split regarding policy. While many believe that “WOOOO SOPHOMORES!!!!” presents a clearly defined and achievable objective, some students disagree. “[A few of the more leadership-inclined freshmen find] WOOOOO FRESHMEN!!1! [to

SENIOR PORTRAIT

be a much more all-encompassing and relevant aim],” freshman Kevin Boodram said.

All things considered, the underclassmen are generally in agreement that SEMMMMIIIIIFORMMAALLL!!!!! With the metaphorical Judgment Day in the student body’s rearview mirror, “Yeah uh it was pretty cool, glad you all could make it,” Sophomore Caucus President and Student Union Vice President-Elect Matthew So said.

Physics C, which the House claimed “fails to promote American Exceptionalism.”

In March, the story is all about SING!. The seniors won with a touching story of love between two fairies (Harmehar Kohli and Jasmine Thomas) who are about to get married when the evil Fairy Godfather (Marco Rubio) interrupts to prohibit same-sex marriage, forcing the fairies to embark on a wild adventure throughout the enchanted U.S. legal system in order to undo the curse. The highlight of the show came after homosexuality is denounced by a local priest, prompting Kohli into a beautiful rendition of “Take Me the Hell Away From Church.”

The show is expected to reach a sentimental climax sometime in the next 10 years, when the Supreme Court votes 5-4 in the fairies’ favor. How romantic!

Pretty much nothing happened throughout most of April and May, as students went into hibernation to study for APs. Things got interesting again when SU election season began, which is Stuyvesant speak for “all hell breaks loose.” Many

Typo Turned Scandal

By Miki Steele

Spring is an exciting time for Stuyvesant seniors. More and more afternoons are spent (smoking?) in the park, students begin to finally relax, and gossip of college decisions fills the hallways.

Yet for senior Noah Brook, discussion over his choice for colleges took an unfortunate turn.

“I cannot believe he is going to North Dakota,” whispered fellow senior Jane Jeong, according to a witness who overheard.

“Yeah, I did not even know they had colleges there,” junior Nicole Rosengurt replied.

The conversation was not limited to just these two girls, however. Everywhere Brook went, he could hear people mumbling and see people staring.

“I thought I had like killed someone or something. I had no idea what was going on.” —Noah Brook, senior

Daniel Goynatsky / The Spectator

accused The Spectator of being overly biased after they endorsed Editors-In-Chief Daniel Kodsi and Ariella Kahan for General Election, Senior Caucus, Junior Caucus, and Sophomore Caucus.

Election season also began on the national level, as senior Keiran Carpen announced his candidacy for President of the United States. The Spectator had chosen to endorse Carpen as the Republican nominee, noting that his position as SU President gave him significantly more experience than candidates such as Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina.

And so we arrived in June, when a certain humor writer wrote a fabulous, emotional article forcing you to reminisce of days gone by. Hundreds of readers wept upon the memory that, in a simpler time, videos of our freezing, soaking, shirtless classmates were readily available all over Facebook, absolute zero was unattainable, and popcorn chicken costed less than $72 million.

Who knows what changes next year will bring?

“I thought I had like killed someone or something. I had no idea what was going on,” the victimized Brook explained.

However, it only took a couple hours for Noah Brook to figure out what was really going on.

As he walked by the senior bar, en route to his locker, he saw hoards of students looking at his Facebook profile on cell phones.

Brook quickly pulled up his account and realized the issue.

“U.N.D. 2019,” his status read.

“I have never been more embarrassed. It was all a typo.

The ‘D’ is just far too close to the ‘C’ on the keyboard. At least this explains why I didn’t hit 200 likes,” Brook confessed.

It was an honest mistake.

Noah Brook, recently admitted to the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), had accidentally informed his entire list of friends that he would be attending university in North Dakota.

Brook did his best to fix the situation and quickly updated his status to the correct spelling, yet in some ways it was already too late.

“No way that was a typo. The kid is probably just ashamed, and I don’t know why. North Dakota is a great place,” said senior Matthew Cook. Cook failed to elaborate on his reasons for this opinion, yet he is not the first to express a positive sentiment in regards to the Dakotas. According to a recent report, North Dakota is ranked the seventh best state for camping in the entire upper-Midwest.

Perhaps what is most worrying is that the discussion regarding this one senior’s life decision extends far beyond light-hearted gossip.

Rosengurt was overheard in the hallway saying, “Is that school even considered a hidden Ivy? This is a sign. The kid is going nowhere. All we can do is hope he stays out of prison or does not end up homeless.”

There has, however, been a slight bit of positive response in contrast to all the backlash.

Brook’s friends felt bad for all the bad publicity he was getting, and bought Mr. Brook a brand new U.N.D. sweatshirt. Over the next couple of days, Noah Brook was seen throughout the school wearing the green and white hoodie.

“It is just very comfortable.

I am even starting to feel some pride as I put it on. Who knows, if I hate it down south, this might be the first place I apply to transfer to,” Brook explained.

Though all this misunderstanding caused the boy much strife, the tides seem to have turned, and it was all for the best.

Page 26

The Spectator â&#x2014;? June 15, 2015

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The Spectator ● June 15, 2015

Page 27

Sports Basketball

Boys’ Baseball

Xin Italie / The Spectator

A Disappointment? Think Again

By Dean Steinman The Stuyvesant Boys Varsity Baseball Team, the Hitmen, faced the George Washington Trojans on Wednesday, May 20. Entering the playoffs as the 30th seed in the city, the Hitmen were simply outmatched by the third seeded Trojans and their talented lineup.

Considered to be one of the greatest players in New York City since Manny Ramirez, Wesley Rodriguez lived up to his reputation by hitting for the cycle; he hit a single, double, triple, and a home run all in the same game. “It’s difficult to go into a game knowing that your opponent has players being drafted to the MLB [but] we played a decent game with no errors,” senior and co-captain Demos Sfakianakis said. Stuyvesant’s performance was also hindered by a late running AP World History exam, which prohibited several starting sophomores

from making the game on time.

The Hitmen’s 3-13 record was not indicative of their performance this season. Playing in the newly formed, highly competitive, AAA division, the Hitmen were able to hold their ground with six losses decided by only three runs or less.

“Overall I think we had an up and down season. We played in a tough division with a historically young team and for the most part held our own,” junior Max Schneider said.

“But without our best pitcher, we were still able to hit well and pitch well too.” Junior and co-captain Nathan Chandler had been instrumental in Stuyvesant’s success last season, pitching 36 total innings in 2014, but was sidelined this year with an elbow injury. Senior Matthew Cook and sophomore Jack Archer filled in for Chandler very well, sporting a combined 78 strikeouts.

Archer also had a solid season at the plate, leading the team in bat-

ting average (.292), hits (14), and RBIs (9).

The team had been practicing all year round, and there was a strong sense of camaraderie among the players. Stuyvesant’s annual trip to Florida certainly contributed to the community and togetherness of the group. Cook noted that “[we] were a lot closer this year… even more so the underclassmen than the upperclassmen.” According to coach John Carlesi, however, “Not winning many games brought morale down not just with the team, but with me as well.” He added, “Yes, the fact that we only won three games the entire league season was disappointing, but our goal was to make the playoffs and we did, despite our record.” The only reason the Hitmen were able to make the playoffs with a measly 3-13 record was because of how the AAA division was organized. There were 8 divisions of 5 teams each, and the first four teams from each division made the playoffs.

However, The Hitmen are optimistic about next year and have reached a consensus that next season will yield success and a return to the playoffs. “I think we are going to come out as an entirely different team next year. We are only losing 4 seniors and with one more year of experience we are going to be a team to be reckoned with,” Chandler said. The competition is fierce, but the Hitmen are going to practice hard and work on the fundamentals that they lacked this year. With an extra dosage of fielding practice and simple soft toss against a fence in progressive and healthy offseason could give Stuyvesant just the boost they need to become championship contenders again.

Track

Outstanding Performances From Both Greyducks at Cities

By Nadia Filanovsky and John Park

Under pressure from a roaring and ecstatic crowd, running in Icahn Stadium with the perfect running weather, sunny but not humid, the Greyducks, Stuyvesant’s boys’ and girls’ track teams, competed at the PSAL 2015 City Outdoor Championship on May 31. Individually, there were several notable performances; however, as a team, results were not as good. The boys team placed eighth with 20 points, while the girls team placed 10th with 25 points.

The highlights of the day were first place finishes by sophomore Zovinar Khrimian and senior Eric Chen in the 1500-meter and 1600meter races. Khrimian placed first in the 1500-meter with a time of 4:55.73 seconds, a new personal record. This marked her first city title, and first state qualification— coming in first at Cities is an automatic qualification—in the outdoor season. This will be her second time competing at states, first time being during the cross country season for the 5000-meter race. Khrimian completely blew away her competition, finishing five seconds before the secondplace winner.

“Like every other athlete on my team, I’ve been training hard even as the weather became increasingly hotter. The girls heading to the city championship all had their heads in the game. We were really eager to score points for Stuyvesant,” Khrimian said.

Senior Eric Chen, meanwhile, placed first in the 1600-meter race with a time of 4:29.93 seconds.

During the race, Chen was able to pass his opponents, who were in the lead, in the last 200 meters, securing his victory and first city title. Chen’s title was long overdue,

as he was ranked one of the top coming into cross country season last year as a junior. But then he had suffered several misfortunes over the year: losing a shoe in the middle of a race at Cities last year after being sick the whole month prior. Considering it was his first time running at Cities and he was able to get first place, Chen was excited. “Now I’m fully allowed to say: I’m best in the city,” he said.

As a whole, the boys distance team did well. Finishing behind Chen, sophomore Kiyan Traven placed fourth in the 1600-meter with a time of 4:38.85 seconds.

This marked a personal record for Traven, who is currently experiencing his first season as a Greyduck.

“I’m very happy about my finish at this year’s city championship and I’m looking forward to following our Cross Country captain Samuel Greenberg next year.

I hope that I can be on our varsity team and get some points for Stuyvesant,” Traven said.

Junior Samuel Greenberg and sophomore Harvey Ng placed third and 10th respectively in the 3000meter steeplechase, an event that involves long distance running over obstacles. In a tightly contested race, Greenberg finished with a time of 10:28.44 seconds, while Ng finished with a time of 10:48.87 seconds. In addition, junior Jacob Hoffman placed 10th in the 400meter, a particularly competitive event in New York City which is full of nationally ranked sprinters, with a time of 51.69 seconds. On the girls’ team, junior Annabelle Gary placed second in the javelin, with a throw of 84 feet, 11 inches.

However, this was not a personal record (PR) for Gary, who was upset considering her PR was farther than what first place threw.

“Right before I was supposed to

compete, one of the officials called me over and told me that I might be disqualified due to a problem with one of the other events I qualified in. I still hadn’t calmed down enough to compete at the level I had hoped,” said Gary. Nonetheless, Gary took home silver, and plans to take gold next year.

Another notable performance came from freshman Ziqi Guo, who placed fourth in the race walk with her time of 7:56.08 seconds. Her performance was especially noteworthy considering that this is Guo’s first season with the Greyducks. Behind Guo in the same race, sophomore Sharon Hu placed seventh with a time of 8:02.76 seconds.

Boys’ coach Jeff Teta was particularly excited that Chen qualified for States. Regarding next year, Teta already has a training regimen set. He anticipates a great 4x400 relay team, and a freshman interest in field events, which he says will “help [the team’s] chances in developing a well rounded program and score point in Cities next year and the coming years.”

Overall, while the Greyducks were not extraordinary as a team, they did have some excellent individual performances, many breaking personal records. That being said, it’s impressive that so many runners placed, as qualifying for cities is very competitive, and having the whole team take first is near impossible. The team is still developing, and Teta will became head coach starting this fall. Though he is the boys’ coach, he also partially trains the girls’ team, and hopes to continue working with them. Teta looks forward to seeing how strong the incoming freshman grade is, and to see his current runners’ progress even further. Best of luck to Khrimian and Chen at States this Friday!

Dark Horse Takes The Three Point Competition; The Legend of Jeff Curry Lives On continued from page 28 tured gritty opening rounds. The first round featured major upsets as favorites If You Aint First You Last—comprised of seniors Roman Szul and Johnathan Yan, junior Jeffrey Chen, and sophomore Jackie Huang—and BOFA—comprised of seniors Arlex Gole, Brian Lee, and Kenneth Li—were defeated in the first round. The Eastern Conference Finals eventually featured The Fighting Merils and Deez Nuts.

The Fighting Merils, comprised of seniors Noah Brook, Demos Sfakianakis, Sean Fitzgerald, Isaac Gluck, and Lauren Sobota, had a huge size advantage with two players over 6’4’’ in Brook and Fitzgerald. Deez Nuts, comprising of seniors Jeffrey Zheng, Vincent Feng, Kenny Zhang, and Devin Lee, did a great job of making up for their size disadvantage through their shooting. Zheng, in particular, was stellar, as he drained shot after shot to lead Deez Nuts to a Finals berth.

“Devin and Vincent really boxed out really well and got a lot of rebounds against taller guys,” Zheng said. “I also got pretty lucky that my jump-shot was going in so my team just set a lot of screens for me to shoot.”

Despite several upsets in the opening rounds of the tournament, there was a widespread sense of anticipation as the Cookies and Deez Nuts prepared to play each other.

As the game began, it was immediately clear that it would be a long and hard fought game between the two teams. The teams traded baskets throughout the opening minutes, and the score difference never exceeded three points. As the end of the game approached, Zheng ironically made several three pointers over Akabas to win the game for Deez Nuts 13-16. “[The team] just entered for fun

… [and] we didn’t think we were going to make it past the second round,” said Zheng. “It was a great tournament and it’ll be one of my most memorable Stuy moments.”

As dozens of students enjoyed watching friends compete against each other, Stuyvesant’s Three Point Competition and 3 on 3 Competition were held to raise money for relief organizations in Nepal, which recently suffered disastrous earthquake. Organizers Akabas, Brook, Szul, and senior Daniel Kanter, were pleased at the attendance of the event.

“We raised $300 to $400 from participants alone, which was way more than I expected,” Akabas said.

“The money will go a long way in helping those who have had their lives changed in the earthquake.”

With such a large turnout, the student body has clearly demonstrated its interest in this competition. Future organizers of the competition may be looking into expanding the competition to meet the demand of spectators.

“The large turnout shows that there are many people in Stuyvesant who are willing to watch their peers watch basketball, so they could add more events,” Akabas said. “ They could add a one on one tournament or more shooting events. I think there are enough people who like basketball in Stuyvesant that would make it into a popular event.”

While organizers of next year’s competition take these considerations into account, Akabas and Deez Nuts celebrate their victories.

Defeating crowd favorite Yan will certainly be a memorable finish to Akabas’ years in Stuyvesant as he heads off to college next year. Deez Nuts’ victory will also be affectionately remembered as a stretch when Zheng, fondly named “Jeff Curry” by his peers, led his team to a victory.

Boys’ Ultimate

Ultimate Frisbee Team Grabs Second Consecutive State Title continued from page 28 elapsed, and the match was still deadlocked. “It was heart-wrenching, with a lot of close throws and turnovers, but we were finally able to get it down the field and score the winning point,” said Cook, describing how senior Eric Wong made the grab, clinching a semifinals birth for the Sticky Fingers.

They followed this up with a 3-3 record and seventh place at the Northeastern tournament on May 16, but the Sticky Fingers, just welcoming Kharakh back to the field, had to overcome another huge blow, as Carpen tore his hamstring, causing him to miss the rest of the season. Carpen clearly remained a strong presence from the sidelines, as the team swept the City tournament, defeating Fieldston’s team in the finals.

They then set their sights on a second straight state championship on May 23, and came out strong, defeating Bronx Science 12-5, and following it up with a 13-2 massacre of Bard to lead them to the finals against Brighton High School.

With impressive performances from their captains and other seniors, Terrence Koo, Dave Butsko,

Nathan Mannes, Wong, Cook, Tan, and Shamay Osipov, the Sticky Fingers took home the coveted title, marking a dynasty in Stuyvesant athletics.

Although nine seniors depart next season, the brotherhood this team has fostered certainly won’t be ephemeral. “The seniors helped push the younger guys, and our success was a culmination of our hard work over the past few years,” Carpen said. “Lastly, our two phenomenal coaches, two Stuy alumni, are two of the largest reasons why we were so successful as a team.”

Looking forward to next season, Kharakh said, “The team will probably regress, but I still think that we have a great chance of winning city and state championships again. Our juniors and sophomores who are staying are really good and there were players on the B team who looked ready for the A team already, so I think we can really step it up big time.”

Unfortunately for the seniors, they won’t be able to compete for a third straight title, but this season won’t be forgotten. “It’s something I’ll keep close to my heart for the rest of my life,” Chen said.

June 15, 2015

Page 28

The Spectator SpoRts Boys’ Ultimate

Courtesy of George Mannes

Ultimate Frisbee Team Grabs Second Consecutive State Title

By Max Schneider Up 14 to 7, one point away from their second straight state championship, the Stuyvesant Sticky Fingers substituted in all of their seniors to score the last point and cap off what has been an incredible run. On the line, while waiting for the pull, senior William Tan told his team, “Let’s just keep on turning it over until we can get Eric [Chen] to score.” Senior Eric Chen was a strong leader for this team and had played throughout all four years.

He was one of the team’s best players and a captain for both his junior and senior seasons. Sure enough, shortly after the team’s huddle, Tan tossed the winning point to Chen, and the championship was clinched. As voiced by many of the players themselves, the end “was

only fitting,” and the Sticky Fingers showed their appreciation by lifting him onto their shoulders after the win. Realizing that the season was over, and for the team’s nine seniors, their Ultimate tenure at Stuy, many of the players couldn’t help but cry. These tears were undoubtedly a combination of this and the fact that the team had accomplished so much over the past few years, helping to establish Ultimate as a leading sport at Stuyvesant.

“We kind of jokingly call ourselves the redeem team,” senior handler Matthew Cook said. “In 2009 and 2010 we won the state championship, but hadn’t won since. They were the dream team.

And now this year, we won again, hence the redeem team.” This really spoke to the nature of this team as a whole.

The first thing one notices about the Stuyvesant ultimate team is the bond among the players. “I was on this team for four years and the team definitely has a different culture than my first two years,” Chen said. “There is a lot more goofing around and silliness and a tighter bond between the entire team from the upperclassmen to under, which as a captain I’m proud of. It’s always a pleasure to be with these guys on and off the field.”

The Sticky Fingers started out the year with a goal: to defend their state championship from last year.

The training started in the winter, as the team went through its conditioning and running. “The preparation season is always physically grueling,” senior and Student Union (SU) President Keiran Carpen said.

“Even if it was 10 to 20 degrees out

Ashley Lin / The Spectator

Beast Mode

The Stuyvesant boys’ volleyball team, the Beasts, had an extremely successful season, finishing 8-2 and losing in the second round of the playoffs to the Staten Island Tech Seagulls. The Beasts worked hard to prepare for this season and came in with high hopes. “We did a lot of physical conditioning, which in addition to helping physically helped bring the team closer together,” Captain Eric Lee said. It was clear from the work the Beasts put in in this winter, that they had a chip on their shoulders after a disappointing 4-6 record in the 2014 season. They moved the ball around significantly better and lasted longer in all games.

During the season, the team was lead by senior captains Vincent Huang and Eric Lee, both of whom were returning four-year varsity players. The team was especially close this season as they spent tons of time together in and out of practice. Volleyball became a community as much

The team followed up their stellar regular season with two invitational tournaments. The first was the YULA tournament in Virginia on March 21, where the team took fifth place with a 4-2 record, and the second was Born to Dive in Pennsylvania on April 18 where they also went 4-2, this time taking third place. In perhaps the season’s most defining moment, the Sticky Fingers were tied with Westfield High School in the quarterfinals of Born to Dive. The game went to a universe point—in other words, sudden death. The Sticky Fingers were throwing into heavy wind, which was an enormous obstacle.

A typical point is scored around every three minutes, but 15 minutes continued on page 27

Basketball

Boys’ Volleyball

By Daniel Wohl

or snowing, which has happened, we would drag ourselves to East River Park and work out. In regular season play, they went undefeated, not allowing another team to score more than seven points in the process. The captains, Chen, Carpen, and junior Mark Kharakh, all had outstanding seasons. Kharakh suffered a torn labrum in October, and was sidelined until May, but that didn’t stop him from making a huge impact in the finals, including a diving catch to score a point, part of the team’s extremely strong start to the match. Carpen played cutter (the position at which players usually cut around to try to get open) for the team, and, according to junior Jake Waksbaum, “would sky anyone,” meaning he would jump up and make a catch over another player.

as it was a team. Both captains talked about how the team has affected their lives and four years at Stuyvesant. “The amount of support we have for each other is amazing and I appreciate having everyone come together and bond over the sport,” Lee said.

“Volleyball is an extremely teamoriented sport so having guys who you are close with around you is definitely helpful,” Huang said.

One high point of the season for the Beasts was when they defeated High School for Environmental Studies, giving Environmental their only loss of the year. According to sophomore Jackson Deysine, the game against Environmental was the defining moment for the Beasts.

Environmental was the top team in the division and had bested the Beasts in years past. The team truly molded together in that game, as they compiled sixteen assists as well as twenty-one kills. “We really improved as the season went on and proved that we were a force in our division,”

junior Dimitar Novakov said.

In addition to beating the High School for Environmental Studies, the Beasts also had another important milestone this season. The Beasts won their first playoff game in the past three years, defeating Walton Campus by two sets. Juniors Victor Hoang and Dimitar Novakov passed beautifully and senior Eric Lee was on fire, grabbing nine kills on the day. “We had complete control early on and we never really let go,” Hoang said. The Beasts continued their playoff run, but were unfortunately stopped short in the second round against the Staten Island Tech Seagulls. An extremely dangerous team, the Beasts were able to stick with them and keep the sets close. The final score for both sets was 25-22. Even though the Beasts lost, it was one of their greatest showings all year. “I recall seeing the Staten Island Tech coach saying he was worried, because [they] might actually lose,” Hoang said.

Unfortunately, the Beasts will have to say goodbye to three seniors this year: Eric Lee, Cardy Wei, and Vincent Huang. But they are not without hope as they return Several starters including juniors Victor Hoang, Samuel Kotlyar, Dimitar Novakov, and Tae Kyung Kong, as well as sophomore Jackson Deysine. When asked about the talent of these underclassmen, Huang said, “They have all the ability in the world to repeat last years feats, and try and drive even further into the playoffs in 2016.” They may be young, but the 2016 Beasts have high expectations as they look to build off of a successful 2015 campaign.

Dark Horse Takes The Three Point Competition; The Legend of Jeff Curry Lives On

By Joshua Zhu

If one were to pass by the third floor on Monday, June 1, it would be impossible to miss the thunderous roar of “Jimmy Yan!” echoing from the gym. A glance inside the gymnasium would reveal a hysteric crowd, cheering for the sensational senior Jimmy Yan in Stuyvesant’s Annual Three Point Competition.

The crowd’s hysteria would only increase as Yan converted shot after shot, going on to make an impressive eight three-pointers out of the total sixteen. As Yan walked back to the bench, confident in a victory, he would be bewildered to see dark horse candidate, senior (and former Spectator Editor-in-Chief ) Lev Akabas, go on a shooting spree and eventually upset him for the victory.

“Lev deserved it; he won fair and square,” Yan said. “I do wish I made a couple more threes but it’s like that sometimes. Overall, it was the experience which I will carry with me.”

Making 11 three-pointers in the final round, Akabas not only upset crowd favorite Yan, but also two Varsity Basketball players, sophomore Michael Feinberg and senior Roman Szul. During the regular season, Feinberg and Szul converted on the most and second-most three-point field goals respectively, and were widely considered the favorites to win.

“I was very worried going into [the competition]; there were fourteen people in the competition, all great shooters,” Akabas said. “Jim-

my Yan was very close to beating me. I would have been very happy for him if he won, but it was pretty exciting to win.”

Akabas had very little time to celebrate his victory, as the 3 on 3 tournament began immediately after. Hoping to compliment his three-point victory with a tournament victory, Akabas’s team, the Cookies, quickly sped through the opening rounds to reach the “Western Conference” finals. The Cookies, comprised of Akabas, seniors Christopher Kim and Alan Cao and junior John To, systematically defeated opponents through a combination of lethal shooting and overwhelming energy. Their stellar play earned them a Western Conference finals matchup with the Titans, comprised of seniors Brian Quang, Austin Lee, and James Zhu. Similar to the Cookies, the Titans also cruised through the opening rounds. However, due to their lack of substitutes, the Titans quickly became exhausted during the course of the long “Western Conference” Finals game. In contrast, the Cookies had the luxury of rotating players, allowing them to defeat the Titans and earn themselves a Finals berth.

“The Titans had a really strong team but since we were able to make substitutions we were able to stay fresh,” To said.

In a stark contrast from the Cookies and Titans cruising to their finals, the Eastern Conference feacontinued on page 27