The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper
Volume 112 No. 5
November 12, 2021 OPINIONS
SPORTS
“Stuyvesant’s Homecoming Triumph”
At long last, the New York Public Library system has gotten rid of pesky late fees. Opinions writer Kenneth Gao describes the advantages of this new and more equitable system.
Carried by a strong offensive performance, grit, and a fervent crowd, the Stuyvesant Peglegs won their homecoming game against Beach Channel High School with style.
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By VIVIAN LIN and ANNIE HE Vivian Lin (’18) is a senior at Parsons School of Design studying Communication Design and Data Visualization. She is interested in brand identity design, digital product research, and 3D modeling. Annie He (’18) is a senior at Pratt Institute studying 3D Animation and has been exploring incorporating coding languages, such as Python, into her work.
Department of Education Chancellor Porter announced that students will be able to “CR” their grades following the end of the semester. StuyPulse Team 694 won the NYC Roborama competition at Francis Lewis High School, winning 11 out of 12 matches, with one loss due to their robot flipping over.
Tech and Creativity Go Hand in Hand savvy algorithm enthusiasts interested in either software engineering or machine learning. We were wrong. If only we had learned about technology’s need for creative problem-solvers earlier on in our education, we would have had a much easier time navigating our paths in college. Firstly, two points: 1. Technology does not encompass only software, but also anything developed to solve specific problems. Many often think of computers, engineering, and prominent American companies, such as Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Google, when hearing the word technology. However, they fail to acknowledge the designers behind the production of these goods and services—the visual advisors with unique skill sets that allow them to work alongside business managers, developers, engineers, and data scientists. 2. Creativity is the ability to generate ideas and innovate. This concept applies to both art and design, despite many at Stuyvesant equating creativity to simply an aptitude for painting or drawing. Though art and
design are both visual fields, they are also vastly different. While many artists look inward for inspiration, designers look outward. While artists may create based on instinct, designers solve problems and make functional products through methodical, data-driven processes. During our years at Stuyvesant, we were conditioned to think that painting was one of the only creative outlets that existed. Having been fortunate enough to receive formal art training, we fell into the stereotypical persona where being creative means being skilled in fine arts. For us, it only seemed right to participate in art clubs; because we were the “artsy friends” of our friend groups, we spent our four years and countless hours illustrating articles for the Art Department of The Spectator, painting sets for the Stuyvesant Theater Community, and crafting props for SING!. Learning the elements and principles of art early on helped us tremendously as we ventured into more design-focused fields. continued on page 2
Freshman Survey By KAREN ZHANG and MORRIS RASKIN With the first freshman class shaped by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic entering Stuyvesant in-person this year, The Spectator conducted its annual freshman survey to gauge the Class of 2025’s demographics, identity, lifestyle, and more. Here is what we found.
Several of music teacher Harold Stephan’s students were accepted into the AllCity High School Modern Music Project for Chorus, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble, Orchestra, and Modern Music Project. Scott Farber, a co-founder of My Robin, an organization that connects students and teachers with mental health coaches, hosted a social-emotional learning seminar in the Stuyvesant theater. Students discussed mental health and stress-related issues.
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Nothing Rotten About STC’s Return By JAMES KANG, MADISON KIM, JUNI PARK, and EUGENE YOO Take the Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC), a previous year and a half of virtual performances, and the opportunity for a grand return, and what does one get? “Something Rotten,” their first inperson performance since the COVID-19 pandemic. Performed on October 29 and 30, their work was
but find themselves stuck in the shadows of famous playwrights of the Renaissance. With the help from Nostradamus, a soothsayer, who foretells the future of the theater, the brothers turn their efforts to writing the world’s very first musical. This year’s cast consisted of seniors Michael Borczuk and Samuel Espinal Jr. as Nick and Nigel Bottom, respectively; senior and Cast Music Director Elizabeth Stans-
Courtesy of Jenna Mackenroth
We are Stuy alumni (’18) and college seniors studying communication design at Parsons and 3D animation at Pratt Institute. Besides our respective majors, something else we’ve become somewhat skilled at recently is navigating the creative job market. Having spent much time searching for entry-level roles, we’ve realized that the disciplines we are pursuing are at the intersection of design and technology, and that creative problem solving is a skill that is very much in demand. At Stuyvesant, we’ve separated creativity and technology into two distinct categories. We thought that all creative people had to be lovers of fine arts and that tech was exclusive to code-
NEWSBEAT
stuyspec.com
“An Overdue Farewell”
OP-ED
“The Pulse of the Student Body”
a rendition of the 2015 Broadway musical “Something Rotten,” a musical comedy about two brothers struggling to write a hit play. The musical comedy is set in the 1590s where brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom hope to find success through writing a hit play
berry as Bea, Nick’s wife; junior Berry Ongan as narrator Minstrel and soothsayer Nostradamus; senior Cynthia Tan as Portia; sophocontinued on page 2
“The Lafayette Escadrille” Featuring Hanna Airs on National Television By ZIYING JIAN History teacher David Hanna was featured in “The Lafayette Escadrille,” a documentary inspired by his book “Rendezvous with Death,” which showcases the stories of American volunteer soldiers fighting for the French Air Force unit in World War I. The documentary aired nationwide on PBS and is set to continue in the coming weeks. “The Lafayette Escadrille” is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of a unit of U.S. soldiers who volunteered to fight for France during World War I before the U.S. formally entered the war. It is written, directed, and produced by Darroch Greer and Paul Glenshaw. This documentary is the first detailed and accurate film recounting the escadrille, a French squadron of aircraft. “There’s been Hollywood films about
them, but they’re not really accurate. And the documentaries that have been made have generally been low-budget—they haven’t had a wide audience,” Hanna said. Hanna’s role in the documentary is what is known as a talking head, in which he provided additional insight and context about the situation. “The documentary has narration, but we don’t want to tell the entire story through narration, so, we asked David to come in and provide some of his own insight into the story,” Greer said. “We relied on him heavily to contextualize the Belle Epoque era, or ‘the beautiful times.’” Greer and Glenshaw’s production required a fundraising campaign in both the U.S. and France and was filmed in both countries, with shots spanning continued on page 3