Volume 105, Issue 6 by The Stuyvesant Spectator

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume CV  No. 6

• The Stuyvesant Junior State of America (JSA) competed at the JSA Fall State Conference in Boston and received 16, the most amount of any high school that participated, best speaker awards.

• From December 6-7 the Stuyvesant Speech and Debate team competed at the George Mason University Tournament and ranked second place overall.

• Juniors Raymond Wu and Haoran Xiao won first place in the novice division at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Classic coding competition on Saturday, December 6. The trip was organized by the Stuyvesant Competitive Computing Club and fifty one Stuyvesant students attended.

• The Stuyvesant Moot Court team ranked 3rd out of 60 high school teams in the 2014 MENTOR Moot Court Competition.

$300,000 Grant Approved for Renovations to Stuyvesant Theater By Julia Ingram

New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer have recently approved a $300,000 grant to go towards renovating the Stuyvesant Murray Khan Theater. The money will be used to replace the upholstery in the seats and to completely redo the flooring. Since the theater has had the same seats for over 20 years, replacing them has been a longtime concern of Principal Jie Zhang. The air pollution from the September 11, 2001 attacks, which may have contaminated the upholstery in the seats, is another reason for the upcoming replacements. “Although I don’t see any direct danger, they were never replaced after that. So that was a little bit of the thought behind it,” Zhang said. The materials for the renovations have already been ordered. The Division of School Facilities, a corporation in partnership with the Department of Education (DOE), will be coming to Stuyvesant over the December holiday break to do the renovations. “My hope is to end when we come back, but it could always run into January. But that’s okay, because the month of January, we’re very light in the theater,” Zhang said. Zhang ensures the work will be done in time for SING! productions in February. Members of the Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC) are very excited about the renovations that will occur to the theater. “Grants are really exciting and give a lot of opportunity for positive change,”

sophomore and STC Actor Lillian Carver said. “I can’t imagine that this grant will lead to anything less than excitement.” While students are glad all the seats and flooring will be replaced, they also hope the sound and lighting systems will soon be replaced. “Anybody who works in the theater has to deal with those outdated systems,” sophomore and STC Producer Winston Venderbush said. “Oftentimes the sound quality is low, and the connection between the stage and the sound booth is just not good enough. If anyone came to see our recent production, RENT, they would know there were some sound issues.” Senior and STC Slate, or executive board, member Thomas Perskin agrees. “One of the biggest problems in RENT was audibility,” he said. “If they upgrade the sound system, everyone will be able to be heard clearly, which would be huge.” Zhang had originally applied for a $750,000 grant so both the upholstery and the sound and lighting systems could be redone, but the $300,000 grant that was approved by Chen Brewer was designated specifically for the seats and flooring. Nevertheless, students and Zhang are pleased that much-needed renovations can now take place. “With all our kids do, it’s unfair that we have to do things in the theater under [this] quality,” she said. “The newer seats and a better floor will definitely make for a better-looking theater.”

Eva I. / The Spectator

MOSL Assessment No Longer To Be Administered at Stuyvesant

By Dhiraj Patel and Vanna Mavromatis

Last year, the mandatory Measures Of Student Learning (MOSL) assessment was distributed throughout New York State public schools as a portion of Advance, a system used for teacher evaluations. This year, however, the MOSL assessment will not be mandatory at Stuyvesant High School and other schools in the state. According to Assistant Principal of English Eric Grossman, Stuyvesant has opted to no

Features

longer distribute the MOSL assessment. The Advance program is the teacher evaluation system currently in place in New York State. It includes the MOSL assessment and the Measures Of Teacher Practice (MOTP). The MOTP counts for 60 percent of a teacer’s evaluation and is derived from student surveys and supervisor’s evaluations. The MOSL assessment counts for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. According to a pamphlet distributed by the NYC Department Article on page 10.

New York Fashion Week: Teacher Edition From college t-shirts to Timberland boots, Stuyvesant teachers explain their fashion choices and sense of style. Check it out on page 10.

of Education and United Teachers Federation, the MOSL assessment will no longer be mandated in schools: “In response to feedback from teachers and school administrators, several changes have been made to the way in which MOSL will be implemented in 2014-15. [...] Since we know that multiple measures offer a more valid, robust picture of teacher performance and provide teachers with multiple sources of feedback, each teacher will have two different Measures of Student Learning: State Measures and Local Measures.” Both State Measures and Local Measures make up 20 percent of the MOSL grade each. State Measures include state assessments. In some cases, principals will be allowed to choose what form of an assessment they wish to give out through a list of allowable assessments and growth measures. Local Measures will be selected by the Schools Local Measures Committee from a list of approved options, and submitted to the principal who may then choose to accept the recommendation or opt for the MOSL assessment. continued on page 2

stuyspec.com

Naviance Raises Privacy Concerns

Justin Strauss / The Spectator

Newsbeat

December 10, 2014

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

By Ariel Levy and Jed Starr Three weeks ago, a Stuyvesant senior approached his guidance counselor with an urgent request. The student wished to apply for a program with an impending deadline that required a letter of recommendation. The guidance counselor accessed the letter of recommendation a teacher had written for the student’s college application on Naviance, an online system of submitting college applications, and gave it to the student in a sealed envelope. The administration declined to state the identities of all parties involved. This incident was particularly controversial because it conflicted with the Family Educational Rights

and Privacy Act (FERPA). This act is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. A part of FERPA states that a school is allowed to release any information from a student’s education record, including teacher recommendations, without a student’s consent. In this way, students essentially have no rights to teacher recommendations and other records. The senior’s actions opened up an opportunity for him to look at the recommendation, which would have breached the fine lines of privacy that FERPA addresses. When the senior’s and guidance counselor’s actions were brought to the attention of the continued on page 3

Student Union Office Transformed into Student Lounge

By Julia Ingram The double doors behind the senior bar that once marked the entrance to the Student Union (SU) office have now been removed, revealing a new space. The old common area of the SU office complex has been transformed into a student lounge, complete with clusters of tables, a colorful blue carpet, and several plush bean bag chairs. Several factors, both extensive matters and urgent issues, have led to the ultimate decision to clean out the SU office and transform it into a student lounge. “The idea to make [the SU office] a student lounge has always been around, but we never really pitched it to the administration because we didn’t know how it would work out logistically,” SU President Keiran Carpen said. One such logistical issue for a student lounge was the lack of a supervisor. Usually, the Coordinator of Student Affairs (COSA) serves as a faculty advisor to the SU and helps oversee school events such as SING! and student dances. Since the winter of 2014, when former COSA and current Article on page 6-7.

health teacher Lisa Weinwurm was injured, the SU has been left without an official supervisor. Now that history teacher Matthew Polazzo plans to take the position of COSA next term, the room will be more accessible to students. Polazzo will help oversee the lounge along with the current supervisors: the deans, Assistant Principal of Security, Student Affairs, Health, and Physical Education Brian Moran, and Assistant Principal of Guidance Casey Pedrick. Inspiration for the creation of a student lounge came in part from Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, who has been advocating for a way for students to relieve stress. Since last year, Pedrick has had a similar vision of creating a wellness room, a place to help alleviate the stress many face at Stuyvesant. “[Creating the student lounge] was a way for me to fulfill my own little vision of having a place for students to relax,” she said. The major driving force behind the refurbishment of the SU continued on page 3

Features The Dauntless Among Us

Seniors Taras Klymkuk and alumnus Samuel Fuchs (‘14) are chasing dreams to join the US military. Read about their unique stories and goals on pages 6-7.

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

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News Guidance Department Institutes New Suicide Prevention Initiatives When current Assistant Principal of Guidance Casey Pedrick assumed her position in the fall of 2013, she noticed that Stuyvesant students were struggling to manage their emotional health. After accompanying several students to Bellevue Hospital for depression treatment, Pedrick realized that the Stuyvesant guidance department needed to take a more formalized approach to suicide prevention. “Once I became an assistant principal, I was in a position to see the whole department,” Pedrick said. “Certain themes started to emerge, and one of those themes was that students were struggling with emotional health and depression.” Pedrick began several initiatives to better prepare Stuyvesant faculty, parents, and students for the emotional impacts of a highstress environment. These initiatives included mandating all Stuyvesant faculty to participate in an on-line training program, encouraging more direct communication between students about emotional well-being, and inviting mental health professionals to speak at Stuyvesant. One such speaker was New York Office of Mental Health Youth Prevention Specialist Patricia Breux. Breux hosted a workshop called “Creating Suicide Safety in School” for all members of the Stuyvesant guidance department on November 4, 2014, a professional development day. “We ask schools to look at suicide prevention as a community health and safety issue,” Breux said. “Everyone in the school community has a role to play: faculty, students, custodians,

secretaries, guidance, nurses, administrators, and parents.” Breux stressed that school environments should encourage all students in need to consistently seek additional support. On that same professional development day, faculty members were also instructed to complete Kognito, an on-line training program. It takes place in a virtual room with avatars of a student and teacher. The user is a teacher and, by choosing what to say, he leads the conversation with the student in one direction or another. Kognito uses artificial intelligence to create a cause-andeffect conversation. It analyzes the user’s behavior, choices, and views throughout the course and provides a dynamic experience and feedback. “That was one of the good parts about the session,” guidance counselor Harvey Blumm said. “It made us aware of Kognito and other helpful resources that we can use in our work.” In addition to assisting faculty, Pedrick also hoped to educate Stuyvesant parents about the importance of emotional well-being. She invited Jasmine Moreno, a social worker from the Bellevue Children’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (C-PEP), to speak at Camp Stuy Part II. C-PEP has partnered with the Stuyvesant guidance department to work with students in need of aid in the past. Pedrick aims to directly increase student access to resources to prevent depression. Currently, freshmen workshops with guidance counselors focus on time management skills. “We hope to add a mental health component to ninth grade workshops,” Pedrick said.

Health Lecture Spreads Knowledge on Breast Cancer

By Giselle Garcia

Today, one in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, a number that has increased from past estimates. With such an omnipresent disease, it is important for the public to be more informed about its risk factors and the ways to prevent it. For that reason, on Friday, November 14, several junior health classes filled Lecture Hall A, where they listened to speaker Kathy Whelan’s lecture on the causes and detection methods of breast cancer. Whelan, a relative of a breast cancer survivor, is one of the breast health educators of the Maurer Foundation, an organization dedicated to education about this subject. Through its website, health teacher Barbara Garber requested the organization’s free educational program. Whelan began the lecture by debunking the myths associated with breast cancer. This included the idea that the disease is only applicable to women. While it is true that 99 percent of breast cancer cases are female, Whelan emphasized that the small percentage of male cases is not to be overlooked. Reducing the chance of acquiring this disease was another emphasis of the lecture. Preventative measures include simple lifestyle changes, like an increase in physical activity or a decrease in the amount of fat in one’s diet. These actions help decrease the body’s levels of estrogen, a hormone that is normally found in the body but can lead to uncontrolled cell division within

the breast if present in excess. The most effective preventative measure introduced was annual breast exams after the age of 18, with particular focus on selfbreast exams. The lecture provided the audience members with an interactive opportunity to provide a clearer image of what a self-exam should be like. Towards the end of her presentation, Whelan and several student volunteers handed out breast models to pairs of students. Despite a few initial giggles from parts of the audience, the students proceeded to attentively follow Whelan as she demonstrated several ways to feel for different sizes and textures of lumps. “While I don’t expect that teens will always remember all of the discussions on risk factors, I do think they will remember the breast models we used to check for lumps and what those lumps feel like,” said Whelan in an email interview. In addition to the demonstration, a “switch list” that provided suggestions for lower fat content in diets was given to the audience, further encouraging students to take an active role in decreasing their risk for breast cancer. Still, the knowledge that the students left the lecture with, according to Whelan, is the most important tool they received. “Share the information with others—knowledge is power,” said Whelan at the conclusion of her interview. She plans to revisit Stuyvesant next semester, giving even more students an opportunity to gain this valuable knowledge.

In addition, Pedrick is creating a new support group for students exhibiting the beginning signs of depression. She and guidance counselor Di Wu are also collaborating on revamping the guidance department portion of the school website to add links to more student resources. Specifically, Pedrick is instituting a more formalized approach for reintroduction to the school for students who are returning from stays in the hospital, including a structured way to inform the students’ teachers of the reason for their absence. During the second semester of the 2013-2014 school year, Pedrick also explored the possibility of creating a student “wellness room” in Room 273 for student relaxation during free periods and potential yoga classes. The room was originally used for P.S. M721, the Manhattan Occupational Training Center (MOTC), which was a special education program housed in Stuyvesant. When enrollment in MOTC dropped, the space became available, and Pedrick planned to repurpose the area. However, enrollment increased for this semester, and plans for the “wellness room” were put on hold. “Should the space ever become available I would love to explore the option of a wellness room again,” Pedrick said. Pedrick plans for staff to participate in role play activities on the next professional development day, February 2, 2015. She hopes to continue training the guidance department in suicide prevention and mental health guidance. “We need extra support systems to deal with emotional wellness,” she said. “It is a huge priority for me.”

continued from page 1 “Last year was the first year the test was administered, and it was mandatory,” Grossman said. “This year, we were given the option not to administer it, and we decided not to. I felt very strongly we [should] not give it.”

“I would remind students that they’re smart and capable and should make their own decisions instead of simply doing what they’re told—especially if they think it’s unethical or inappropriate.” —Jack Cahn (‘14) Grossman explained that the probable idea behind the MOSL assessment was a more objective way of evaluating teachers. “It was the germ of a good idea,” Grossman said. “Before the MOSL, there was a completely different evaluation

model based wholly on the supervisor’s evaluation.” Last year, the MOSL assessment frustrated many students. “The MOSL [assessment] was ineffective for a few reasons,” Jack Cahn (‘14) said in an e-mail interview. “First, because the exam was ungraded, students had no incentive to take it seriously. Second, the exam was used to evaluate non-regents teachers including computer science, music, and art teachers—despite the fact that students writing ability had no correlation to these teachers’ effectiveness.” “I think what was most frustrating about the MOSL was the prospect of being judged on concepts and skills that I never focused on in my classes,” English teacher Eric Ferencz said in an e-mail interview. “I teach my students that writing is a lengthy process that requires days to develop and organize ideas [...] why should I then be judged by an in-class essay, something I would never assign in my class and I feel goes against the very concepts that I teach?” Some students, however, had relatively positive views on the exam. “Compared to the standards of the tests we have, the MOSL was average: not too easy, but not too challenging,” sophomore Shaik Abiden said. Overall, Grossman believes the removal of the MOSL assessment is a step forward in the right direction. “The teacher evaluation system is changing quite a bit every year, so it’s hard to know how things may—or may not—change in the future,” Grossman said. “However, I’m hopeful they won’t make us do something like this again.”

UChicago Awards Go Out to Stuyvesant Faculty Members

Stephanioe Chen / The Spectator

By Ariel Levy and Jonathan Bueller

MOSL Assessment No Longer To Be Administered at Stuyvesant

By Julia Ingram and Greg Huang Three Stuyvesant faculty members were delighted to open their mailboxes early this school year to find a certificate, letter, and plaque from the University of Chicago recognizing them as outstanding educators. Their former students, now freshmen at the University of Chicago, nominated them for this award. The UChicago award is given annually, each fall, to teachers who have “demonstrated exceptional dedication to the education and personal development of their students,” as stated on the university’s website. All incoming freshmen to the University of Chicago are asked

upon acceptance to nominate a teacher who fits this description. This year, Guidance Counselor Undine Guthrie, chemistry teacher Steven O’Malley, and social studies teacher Avram Jezer were nominated by students Delilah Marto (’14), Danielle Polin (’14), and Will Thompson (’14), respectively. These students wrote essays explaining how their nominees impacted their lives, and a committee at the University of Chicago made the final decision of who the winners would be based on these written pieces. Guthrie, Jezer, and O’Malley all commented on how glad they were to be appreciated by former students. “It makes me feel special; it makes me feel appreciated, so all

good thoughts [and] good feelings,” Guthrie said. The award held special meaning for Jezer, who is an alumnus of the university. “I’m a graduate of the University of Chicago, so it was especially nice to get the U[niversity] of Chicago award,” Jezer said. O’Malley also took to heart that his students take with them what they learn in high school to college and beyond. “I think this is a recognition of the hard work that teachers do for their students after the fact. Now that students are in college, it’s nice to know that they still reflect on their high school days, and [...] on the teachers they’ve had from years in the past,” he said.

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

Student Union Office Transformed into Student Lounge continued from page 1 office finally came early in the school year, when Moran walked into the SU office to discover the stench of food rotting in a trash can and, upon further inspection, mice feces. “Ms. Pedrick and I took it upon ourselves to jump start [the refurbishment], and hopefully now the students in the SU and the students in the room during the day will respect it and take care of it,” Moran said. This initiative was taken by the administration with little communication with the SU. “The SU was involved only because a lot of the stuff that was in the main area [of the SU] was theirs, so they were consulted as far as being asked to organize and clean up,” Moran said. For the SU, this lack of communication was a major point of concern. “[It was an issue] that they completely blindsided us,” junior and SU Vice President Jonathan Aung said. “But even with that […] the administration and I have been working pretty well since.” After overcoming these obstacles, the students and SU can now appreciate the new lounge. “It was a great call on the administration’s part to tear down the doors because we have this room that’s dedicated for the students, so why not go use it?” Aung said. Carpen agreed. “We realized that the room had to be cleaned anyway, so we could actually accomplish two things at once. We [could] clean the room and at the same time create an environment in which kids can relax,” he said. As part of the renovation process, extra desks and chairs, which were already in stock, were added to the room, along with school supplies donated by a parent and a carpet and bean bag chairs, which were purchased with money donated by an alumni parent. Fur-

thermore, the doors were removed, which was a point of contention for the SU. “The SU is more in favor of having the doors there, both to reduce noise and so that we can have a clear, distinguishing boundary when we are having meetings,” Carpen said. “That’s the only reason we would want them; otherwise, I am all for having the doors open [periods] one through nine.” According to Moran, the doors will most likely remain open to allow for proper supervision.

“[Creating the student lounge] was a way for me to fulfill my own little vision of having a place for students to relax.” —Casey Pedrick, Assistant Principal of Guidance “As an alternative student area, I found the student lounge to be especially useful,” junior Susan Wu said. “For example, the last time I visited, I had a physics free right before a test. Since I was denied access to the library, the first, half, and second floors are noisy, and the other floors are off limits, the student lounge provided a calm environment.” Despite mostly positive reactions to the opening of the student lounge, students have identified

some areas of disappointment. “[The lounge] is predominantly occupied by juniors and seniors, because underclassmen are a bit hesitant to go behind the senior bar,” Aung said. “I want to change that. I think it should be open to everyone.” Other concerns remain as well. For example, time must be split between using the space as a student lounge and as a place for the four main organizations (the SU, Big Sibs, ARISTA, and The Spectator) to meet. To solve this problem, Carpen decided that the lounge will be open to all students periods one to nine, with period 10 reserved for the organizations unless otherwise announced. Some dissatisfaction remains despite this compromise. According to senior and ARISTA president Charlie Zhen, the ARISTA office, which is located in another room attached to the common space of the SU office, was unlocked and open to ARISTA at the beginning of the school year. Now it remains locked while the student lounge is open during the day. “To use [the ARISTA office], we have to ask the administration to open it for us…. Not having access to the room like before is sad, but it’s not really a big deal and doesn’t affect how ARISTA functions overall,” Zhen said. Overall, the new student lounge has been a success. “Students have been really responsible with using the room; they’ve kept it clean, haven’t brought too much food in, and haven’t made a mess,” Carpen said. “That’s something that the administration really commends.” Pedrick is pleased with the outcome of this development as well. “It’s a nice all-purpose room. It’s usually kids in study groups, or kids relaxing, or playing chess together,” she said. “Now it’s really a union of students: an area where they can come together.”

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News

Naviance Raises Privacy Concerns continued from page 1 administration, specifically Assistant Principal of Guidance Casey Pedrick, it revealed a serious flaw in Naviance’s privacy settings. Each staff member involved with the college application process, including guidance counselors, college counselors, teacher recommenders, and Pedrick herself, has a Naviance account with a different type of profile. Originally, Stuyvesant used the standardized set of profiles that is the default on Naviance. However, these standardized profiles allowed guidance and college Counselors, as well as Pedrick, to access the teacher recommendations of their students. Pedrick immediately contacted Naviance and asked them to change the access permissions for the standardized profiles. However, Naviance was unable to simply reprogram the permissions. Instead, Pedrick created new types of customized profiles, for which she could customize access permissions. As the site administrator, she turned off the ability to view teacher recommendations for college counselors, guidance counselors, and herself. Now only teachers can see their own recommendations on the site. Many faculty members were greatly concerned that members of the guidance department and college office were able to view their recommendations. “The college application should be a confidential process on all fronts. I would not want my letter to be viewed by anyone but the college office of admissions,” mathematics teacher Ashvin Jaishankar said in an e-mail interview. Latin teacher Dr. Susan Brockman agreed. “No one has the right to see my recommendation unless I choose to show it to him or her, student or colleague,” she said. Brockman and mathematics teacher James Cocoros are among

the faculty members who have decided to send future recommendations directly to colleges by paper mail as a result of their privacy concerns. On the other hand, English teacher Eric Grossman does not have any major worries regarding the security of his teacher recommendations on Naviance. “When transitioning to any new system that involves 160 staff members and over 800 students, there are going to be a couple of glitches and bumps,” Grossman said. “I have been able to upload all the recommendations that I have needed to. I don’t have any huge concerns about secrecy and privacy.” Technically, as the site administrator, Pedrick has the ability to turn on access to teacher recommendations. However, she stated that she has absolutely no intention of doing so. “[Writing recommendations] is a completely voluntary process. I completely trust in [teachers’] writing ability. I have no need to read the recommendations,” she said. College counselor Jeaurel Wilson expressed a similar sentiment. “Even if I did have access to teacher recommendations, I [would] not look at them. I do not care to see the recommendation itself. I just care to see that it has been submitted,” Wilson said. The college office remains optimistic about future use of Naviance. “There are so many additional features of Naviance we hope to learn to take advantage of, like résumé building and finding scholarship programs,” said Pedrick. College counselor Jeremy Wang also believes that Naviance will improve the college application process after overcoming initial difficulties with its use. “There is always some getting used to and some uncomfortable feelings in the first year of a new system,” he said. “It is a learning experience for all of us.”

By Sharon Chao and Yuki Chen Even before Mayor Bill de Blasio entered office, he openly stated that his son, Dante de Blasio, violated the city’s current cell phone policy. One of his campaign promises was to overhaul the controversial policy. Yet, as of now, nothing has changed. The rule regarding cell phone usage is the same for all New York City schools: they are not permitted in the school building. Each school, however, can implement the rule in its own way. “[The school rule] on cell phones is how Stuyvesant enforces it: if we are made aware of any evidence of a phone, we will take it,” Principal Jie Zhang said. Other schools have different ways of dealing with the ban—some have metal detectors to ensure no phones are brought in, while others collect and store phones until the end of the day. Assistant Principal of Safety, Security, Student Affairs, Health, and Physical Education Brian Moran defined Stuyvesant’s cell phone policy, which also applies during non-school hours, in simple terms: “If a phone is seen or heard within the building, it will be confiscated,” Moran said. Past incidents have blurred the boundaries of the cell phone ban. In one case, an anonymous sophomore did not put away his phone until he was in the small atrium between the TriBeca Bridge and the school building, an area that is not clearly defined as within school boundaries. When the sophomore entered the building, Spanish teacher and dean Manuel Simon asked for his phone. “As far as the phone was concerned, [Simon’s] argument was that I had my earbuds dangling out a bit [from my pocket], which

was attached to my phone. I also used my phone close enough near school for it to still be in their jurisdiction,” the anonymous sophomore said. Moran agreed with Simon’s decision. “[The student] is really pushing it when he decides to show his phone right outside the doorway,” Moran said. “The atrium is close enough to be considered part of the school, but [the administration] can’t take away phones from students on the [TriBeca] Bridge.” The TriBeca Bridge is considered part of Battery Park, not Stuyvesant. Zhang elaborated on specific cases that could occur. “Theoretically, if I [were] right behind a student who has his phone out on the bridge and I know that he has [a phone], I cannot allow him to enter the school. I would take it or tell him that he cannot go into the building,” Zhang said. Another aspect of the cell phone policy is that phones must be confiscated even if they are not visible. This happened to sophomore Julian Neuman twice, and both times his phone was confiscated: once by mathematics teacher Deborah Goldberg and once by Spanish teacher Abigail Carpenter. As dictated by standard procedure, Neuman’s parents had to go to Stuyvesant in person to retrieve his phone from Moran. “Both of these instances were really inconvenient for my parents and I think the policy should be changed so parents don’t need to go get the phones,” Neuman said. As for his teachers, he understands where they came from. “I don’t blame [them]. [They] had to; I just think the system should change so the consequences aren’t as dire,” Neuman said. Although both of Neuman’s teachers confiscated his phone,

some other teachers do not follow the exact procedure when such situations arise. Junior Keegan Rupp gave an account of a situation in which his teacher did not confiscate his phone when it loudly rang in class. “When I opened my bag and took out my phone to silence it, the teacher just looked away and didn’t say anything,” Rupp said. On certain occasions, physical education teacher Vasken Choubaralian allows his girls’ gymnastics team to use their phones after school hours. The girls use their phones to call their parents if necessary, play music during practices, and search for videos of stunts. “The phones are used in positive and educational ways,” Choubaralian said. Though this technically violates the cell phone policy, Zhang added that teachers can decide when to use phones during nonschool hours. “I understand when it’s not instructional time, some teachers use their discretion to determine whether phones can be used,” Zhang said. Some students justify cell phone usage during school hours by claiming that phones are a useful tool for quickly finding information. “You should be allowed to use [phone] in your [free periods], or when you are in the hallway, just not in class,” junior Vadim Michael Mell said. ”What if I have a test next period, and I forgot what covalent is? I can [use my phone to] look it up, so I know it—just take out my phone and go on Google in between classes, and I can do better on my test.” According to Zhang, the school has abided by the cell phone rule since it was enacted over ten years ago under former New York City School Chancellor Harold Levy. However, Zhang stated that she, personally, has become stricter

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

Investigating Stuyvesant’s Cell Phone Policy

about phone usage since the cheating scandal, in which phones were used to facilitate the process of exchanging answers. “At my old school, [Queens High School for the Sciences at York College], if I saw a student’s phone out, then it would be a first offense. I would take it, but [she] would come at the end of the day to pick it up. Only the second offense would involve a parent meeting,” Zhang said. “I have become tougher because of the newspaper attention and the circumstances we were put in.” Teachers have also become stricter with phones after the cheating scandal. “Before the scandal, I didn’t confiscate phones when they accidentally rang, and even when I saw someone using [a phone], if I knew that they were using it for educational reasons, I would allow it,” an anonymous teacher said. “Now, I have to take away phones no matter what the circumstances are.” English teacher Eric Ferencz enforces the cell phone policy even though he does not support it. Ferencz used to work at Norman Thomas High School, where

students had to stand with their hands against the wall and their legs spread so that security guards could scan their bodies with metal detectors to search for phones. “It’s unfair that students were treated like criminals,” Ferencz said. Despite the voices against the phone policy, there are still people who think that the restriction of cell phone usage is beneficial. Librarian Mary McGregor supported the phone policy due to its positive impact on school culture. “Students are interacting with each other and talking rather than staring at a device, so I think that helps socially,” McGregor said. “We maintain a very social, collaborative culture in our school because people aren’t involved in their devices as much.” Some faculty view cell phones as a tool to enrich students’ experience, but others see them as a tool to violate academic honesty, making it difficult to establish a universal policy. “[We need] students and teachers to share opinions [and] come up with a solution together,” Ferencz said.

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

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News Incorporating Technology in our Schools: A 21st Century Challenge

Andrew Fischer / The Spectator

technology. In 1993, Stuyvesant’s first Internet connection was established. The building was retrofitted with a “Token-Ring” network, an early form of inter-computer communication. In this system, empty frames of information were

By aNDrew FiScHer, BlyTHe ZaDroZNy, and lyDia roBiNSoN with additional reporting by reBecca cHaNg As the standard for technology in schools continues to be raised, New York State has strived to keep up. In an attempt to help students adapt to new technologies, the state has unraveled the Smart Schools Bond Act, which passed by 616,637 votes (61.71 percent of the total) in a referendum during the midterm elections. Part of a larger bill encompassing broader improvements to schools like funding for pre-kindergarten and after school programs, only the Smart Schools Bond Act successfully passed. The act’s purpose is to encourage the advancement of technology in classrooms and to make certain unspecified technological advances in security measures for schools. The idea for the act was first

proposed in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 State of the State Address, in which he discussed the lagging technology in New York schools. He introduced the bill as a solution to this problem. With the passing of the act, he said, “[t]he students get the skills they need to succeed within the 21st century economy, they have access to advanced courses, parents and teachers can communicate and teachers can access the assistance and training they need.” Money for improvements will be allocated to different school districts around the state. The New York City (NYC) school district’s proposed allocation is $783,141,339. The Department Of Education (DOE) has yet to contact Stuyvesant to discuss the specifics and logistics of the act as it directly pertains to the school. Even before this act, however, Stuyvesant was already adapting to rapidly occurring changes in

“Underlying infrastructure will improve… speed might go up.” —Andrew Wong, Assistant Principal of Technology

continually circulated around the building’s computers. In 2006, in an effort to make Internet access wireless, the DOE initiated a program similar to today’s Smart Schools Bond Act, named Project Connect. Project Connect led to wireless access in all New York public schools, many of which used a T3 connection. Stuyvesant continued to upgrade its infrastructure as new technologies became available. In 2012, the school replaced the aging T3 system with a new system using Ethernet Category 5 cabling. This system can now run up to twice as fast, and can handle the hundreds of computers on Stuyvesant’s network. The most recent upgrade to Stuyvesant’s technology will like-

ly come as a result of the Smart Schools Bond Act. Though Stuyvesant’s share of the grant has yet to be disclosed, the improvements this act will help to fund probably include upgraded computers and tablets, faster Internet and advanced security features. Assistant Principal of Technology Andrew Wong believes the act will benefit Stuyvesant slightly, if not in a direct, noticeable way. The “underlying infrastructure will improve… speed might go up,” Wong said. However, he believes the funding actually allocated to Stuyvesant may not be enough to bring about significant change. “Two billion is not a lot,” he said. Principal Jie Zhang argues that every little bit can benefit the school and its students. “Every school, including Stuy[vesant], can integrate more technology. I don’t think we will ever have ‘enough.’ A lot of things have been done and are taking place to improve technology at Stuy[vesant], and this act will help,” she said. The way the money is predicted to be allocated has become a point of dispute within the school system. New York State publications like The Post Standard and Newsday have published pieces expressing concern that the projected “improvements,” like investing in tablets and computers, will not be technologically relevant in a few years. As such, the newspapers argue, taxpayer dollars are not being efficiently spent with the Smart Schools Bond Act. Additionally, no matter how much Stuyvesant receives from the act, Assistant Principal of Computer Science Michael Zamansky thinks that neither money nor new equipment is the greatest issue facing technology-related departments at the school. “CS [Computer Science] is not considered a department; we’re all considered math teachers, and that’s going to be the rea-

son why computer science will not survive at Stuyvesant in the long term. Because we are not our own entity,” Zamansky said. “Yes we have computers, we need computers, we [have] a router and an Internet connection—that’s great. But I have had people in the tech industry say to me: Mike, if you were actually in charge, we could take care of whatever money you need. People want to give us money for technology and computer science, so it’s not the money problem.”

“every school, including Stuy, can integrate more technology. i don’t think we will ever have ‘enough.’ a lot of things have been done and are taking place to improve technology at Stuy, and this act will help.” —jie Zhang, Principal

Tension Mounts in Freshman Caucus Controversy

by Joanne Ha and Raniyan Zaman

The Stuyvesant Student Union held its annual Freshman and Sophomore Caucus President and Vice President elections this October. This election was a golden opportunity for freshmen in particular; it was an incentive to get involved in Stuyvesant and meet new people. “I’ve been in the school elections every year since third grade…school elections are a big part of my life,” runnerup Freshman Caucus President Kevin Boodram said. “Coming to Stuyvesant, I was hoping for something more…I was looking for a real race.” But when Boodram and his vice presidential candidate Oscar Wang lost to freshmen Pallab Saha and Tahseen Chowdhury by 52 votes, Boodram was frustrated by what he thought was an unfair election. “It’s pretty apparent that they broke rules,” Boodram said. “I thought we lost a lot that we shouldn’t have. Seeing all these rules being broken, and the Board of Elections doing nothing—it’s unfair.” As a result, Boodram and Wang filed an official complaint to the Board of Elections (BOE). This Letter of Appeals was written as a Google Document and was made “public,” which gave anyone access to it. One of the main complaints in the letter was about slander. “There are all these third party witnesses who are not part of the election, but they saw this [the slander] going on,” Boodram said. “We had multiple people say-

ing they attacked our campaign directly.” In the Appeals document, a string of redacted social messages between Boodram and third party witnesses are cited. Throughout these messages, some witnesses claim Saha and Chowdhury called Boodram and Wang’s platform “unrealistic.” Concerning Boodram’s claim, newly elected Saha and Chowdhury denied slandering the Boodram-Wang campaign. “We did not say that their platform was unreasonable,” Chowdhury said. “[We] didn’t say anything about their campaign in general.” In addition to slandering his and Oscar’s campaign, Boodram also accused Saha and Chowdhury of campaigning on the wrong days. According to the rules of the election, candidates are not allowed to campaign on voting days. “They [the BOE] told us that we’re not allowed to campaign on voting days, so we followed those rules. They [Saha and Chowdhury] campaigned on voting days, which they’re not allowed to do. So those are extra days,” Boodram said. Boodram did acknowledge being present and active on voting day, but he was not campaigning for Wang and himself. “I will admit that all those days, Oscar and I were there and trying to fight voter apathy, and telling people to go and vote. But never did we go up and say ‘vote for Kevin and Oscar’ and then walk away. That’s not why we were there. We were there to have a fair election,” Boodram said. According to BOE Chairman Shazif Shaikh, because the points

previously given out in response to the violations (of both tickets) in regards to slander and campaigning on incorrect days were not enough to disqualify either of the running tickets, no further action could be taken.

“I’m not just fighting for myself, or for [Wang]…even for my campaign managers, but for all the people who supported us outside of that. All the people who were there when we were campaigning, my parents, my brothers.” —Kevin Boodram, President runner-up

The last main complaint that Boodram had was that Saha and Chowdhury were falsely stating endorsements on their Facebook page. “On their Facebook page, they went and they posted a bunch of people’s names…the former people we ran against but [who] were defeated in the primary election. And they stated that they were endorsing them,” Boodram said. “We had two of the other candidates come forward and say…they did not endorse [Saha and Chowdhury] and [Saha and Chowdhury] lied about it.” On the Appeals document, former candidates who Saha and Chowdhury claimed were endorsing them confirmed that they in fact did not endorse Saha and Chowdhury. The BOE, however, disregarded this argument, saying the endorsement posts were taken down after they told Saha and Chowdhury to. Although Boodram said the post was up long enough to do damage, Shaikh disagrees. “The endorsement had minimal effect on the overall results of the campaign in my opinion. I cannot speak for the entire BOE, however, my reasoning lies in that the endorsements were up for a short period of time,” Shaikh said. This recent controversy has led to both parties to ask for changes in the BOE. “To the BOE, I suggest that they begin to define the terms they use,” Chowdhury said. “Because they don’t define ‘slander,’ that could’ve played an issue in the way Kevin interpreted what we said, if we said anything at all.” In their Appeals letter,

Boodram and Wang proposed further action for the clarification of the other party’s slandering, campaigning on wrong days, and false endorsements on the Class of 2018 Facebook Change, the BOE Facebook page, and the campaign page of Saha and Chowdhury. The runner-up party also suggested a re-vote. The BOE’s response to Boodram and Wang’s Appeals letter was to put the issue to a vote. “The Board of Elections had a vote to either take action on the appeal or not. The vote was in favor of not taking action,” Shaikh said. Shaikh is upset the elections caused so much controversy. “I am sorry to all parties involved that this controversy occurred during their freshman year of high school. The hope is that it did not affect their opinion of Stuy,” he said. Despite seemingly high tensions between the two parties, there seem to be no “hard feelings,” at least on one side of the campaign. “[Wang] has applied for Freshman Advisory Council, so it shows there are no hard feelings between us,” Saha said. However, Boodram is steadfast and unwavering. “I’m not just fighting for myself, or for Oscar… or even for my campaign managers, but for all the people who supported us outside of that,” Boodram said. “Seeing the BOE do nothing is frustrating.”

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The Spectator ● December 9, 2014

Features

UM NROTC / The Spectator

The Dauntless Among Us

By Ariella Kahan Most high school students’ life plans look something like this: graduate from high school, go to college and maybe graduate school, get a job, start a family, and enjoy life. Yet a small percentage of high school students have radically different trajectories in mind— their plans look something like this: graduate from high school, go to a military academy, and join the army. I was lucky enough to speak with two such students: one was Samuel Fuchs (’14), who is currently part of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), a naval training program, at the University of Michigan, and the other was senior Taras Klymkuk, who hopes to attend either West Point or the U.S. Naval Academy next fall. Though they have much in common (most notably, a love for exercise), Fuchs and Klymkuk each had unique stories and aspirations associated with their desires to serve the United States.

The Dream “I always wanted to serve my country; I never saw really a different career for myself,” Fuchs replied when I asked him why he wanted to go to military school. It took us some time to arrive at a more concrete answer—Fuchs seemed to think of joining the army as a basic truth of his life, something that he’d been born with. After exploring possible catalysts for his desire to join the military (his grandfather’s service in the U.S.S.R. was one refuted possibility), Fuchs decided that witnessing the attacks on September 11, 2001 solidified his interesting in joining the American army. “When 9/11 happened, I remember thinking to myself how much I hate the people who want to destroy this country. I thought, I don’t want to sit in an office ever. I don’t want to build things. I want to go out and get rid of bad guys so that people here don’t have another 9/11,” he described. I asked him to further describe his experience on September 11: “I

remember seeing the dust clouds over my school. I was just thinking to myself, ‘How dare they? How could somebody do that to us?’” *** Klymkuk, a tall and brawny dirty-blonde, had a different take on the topic: he traces his desire to join the military to his childhood in Ukraine. “In Ukraine, there is a very military upbringing. By the time the boys reach 18 we all have this subject that is called Defense of the Homeland. We all learn how to assemble AK-47s and how to dig foxholes. It’s a totally different culture than what we have here,” he described. Though Klymkuk left Ukraine when he was seven and never officially took Defense of the Homeland, he thinks that Ukraine’s militaristic atmosphere, exemplified by its military draft, had a big affect on his character. On a similar note, Klymkuk found a love for competition and dangerous circumstances through joining Stuyvesant’s wrestling team as well as a boxing club outside of school. “Being in a wrestling match or a boxing match, it’s the best feeling when you’re done with it and you win. There’s a huge adrenaline rush,” he said. It was Boyd Melson, however, a boxer who trained with the same boxing coach Klymkuk trains with, who added the spark to the kindling. When Melson, who is currently a student at West Point, was a senior and Klymkuk was a freshman, the two boxers often conversed and Melson persuaded Klymkuk to follow in his footsteps. For Klymkuk, this was not a long, drawn out decision, but rather one that seemed very logical. “It is just the way I was raised; I always

liked military stuff,” Klymkuk said. “[And after speaking with Melson,] I decided I wanted to go to military academy.” Klymkuk’s next step was to tell his parents he wants to join the army. Klymkuk explained that initially, “they thought [he] was joking. They laughed it off.” As the years went on, however, Klymkuk’s parents realized he was serious, and had mixed reactions. “Junior year was when they really started freaking out. But they knew I wasn’t going to change my opinion. I’m very stubborn,” he said. “[Now] my mom, obviously, she supports my decision but she would rather I do something else.” Great Expectations When I asked Klymkuk what he would be most excited for if he attends West Point, he smiled to himself and replied guilelessly: “I’m really excited for Airborne school, where we get to jump out of an airplane in a parachute.” This was my first hint that Klymkuk had done quite a large amount of research about potential military academies. My assumption was affirmed in various moments throughout the interview; when I asked about the physical examination that one must pass to get into a military academy, he told me each of the components of the exam as well as last year’s average scores as if he were reading them off a sheet of paper. Klymkuk has also visited both West Point and the Naval Academy, citing pros and cons in each. He likes West Point because its campus is large and the wilderness there reminds him of Ukraine, but isn’t a fan of the fact that West Point is in the “middle of nowhere.” A benefit

of the Naval Academy is that it is near Annapolis, Maryland’s quaint capital city, but Klymkuk didn’t love the formality he found on its green, expansive campus. “Everyone was walking around with their shirts tucked in and in their uniforms, saluting each other. It was bizarre,” he described. In contrast to his disenchantment with the strict atmosphere, Klymkuk is looking forward to the intense exercising one does at a military academy. After I described to him a workout Fuchs had told me about (more specifically, the “slick murph,” which entails a one mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and another one mile run), Klymkuk nonchalantly said, “That sucks, but I also kind of love it.” He went on, “I like being in tough situations, tough places. That’s part of the reason I’m going to the military academy, because I love challenging myself.” Still, Klymkuk has not taken his decision to join the military lightly. He recounted a moment watching the movie “Saving Private Ryan” in history teacher Robert Sandler’s class that lent me some insight into the true magnitude of his choice. “There was this scene of […] Dday, all these guys jumping on the beach and their legs getting blown off and getting hit by artillery. So I was like ‘oh, crap.’ So just the realization of how random it is of who dies and who doesn’t. In wrestling it’s all about skill; there is not a lot of chance. But in the military there is also a large unknown factor, that freaked me out a little bit,” he said. Unsettled by Klymkuk’s description of this scene, I asked him continued on page 7

The Spectator ● December 9, 2014

Page 7

Features The Dauntless Among Us continued from page 6

if he’s had any nightmares about joining the military. “Well I have dreams about it, but they’re not nightmares,” he said. “Happy dreams?” I asked. “Yeah, happy dreams,” he replied, smiling. Facing Reality The first eight weeks of Fuchs’s training in the NROTC were nothing short of hell. “We were not really treated as humans at first,” he said. “Sometimes we would be in uniforms, we’d be wearing our cameras, we’d be doing everything from bear crawls to military style workouts to sprints. It was a tough time. It would be dark, you didn’t sleep much; you’re getting yelled at.” These eight weeks, which served as an indoctrination period for the incoming freshmen, contained an abundance of difficult workouts and time-consuming punishments. In addition to the aforementioned “slick murph,” Fuchs described his training for one of the physical exams that he must pass in order to join the navy. “[There’s] a 500-meter swim, pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups and a 1.5-mile run,” he described. “So the swimming kills you and then you’re trying to do pushups, situps, pull-ups, and then run.” Since he is a former member of both the football and baseball teams at Stuyvesant, I asked Fuchs if his experience as a student athlete has benefited him. Fuchs replied, explaining that while his mentality as an athlete to always try his best has “carried over to the military this year” and thus helped

him, training for a game and training for a war are two entirely different experiences. “When you’re here it’s a different purpose, a different goal. It’s no longer just winning a game, now you’re kind of thinking to yourself ‘hey, I need to push harder because, one day, you never know what lives are going to rely on me,’” he said. “It’s life or death here. Obviously not yet, but that’s what they’re training us to do.” Beyond this intense training, it took Fuchs and his 19 classmates some time to get used to the strict discipline demanded by his superiors, which resulted in frequent punishments. “A couple of us left our canteens in the room; they punished us for that. When someone dropped their rifle, we had to write about being accountable for our gear. Someone didn’t say ‘sir’ and they had to write an essay about proper military courtesy,” Fuchs explained. If that doesn’t sound difficult enough, add this: in each of the assigned essays, everything had to be written in capital letters, there was a strict word count, and any word less than four letters didn’t count as a word. It was the funny memories that kept Fuchs going throughout the initial eight weeks. One humorous moment took place on a sunny morning when Fuchs and his classmates were marching around their training area. “Our platoon sergeant said something like ‘Everybody, face right.’ So everyone turns right but one guy turns left by accident; it’s early in the morning, you’re not thinking, your head is somewhere else. So [the guy who turned left] realizes it and our platoon sergeant got pissed so he made him

run. And he’s running, he’s running, and our platoon sergeant said, ‘Go, find some motivation, go touch that tree over there.’ So he is running to touch that tree, and we’re all standing there watching and then he turns around and wipes out and somebody laughs. So our platoon sergeant says, ‘You, touch that fire hydrant.’ So the kid is running to touch the fire hydrant and somebody else laughs. So now everybody is running to touch different things and when we all come back everybody is trying to hold back their laughter,” Fuchs described. Moving beyond the first two months, Fuchs has learned many valuable lessons throughout his time training. The first lesson Fuchs explained to me deals with the saying “mind over matter.” Describing what “mind over matter” means to him, Fuchs said, “You think your legs are going to give out, but you just have to keep on going you have to keep on carrying your body… A lot of people think ‘I can’t do anymore’ and then you drop. And that’s when people die, in combat.” The second lesson was more heartwarming; it dealt with the friendships Fuchs has forged this semester. “My fellow freshmen that went to the program with me—there is nobody I trust more than them. In anything ever, we have each other’s back and that is the most important thing they’ve taught us,” Fuchs said. “They are the best friends I think I have, the ones I made here. The first week we [had only] met a week ago and we were already close buddies; we were willing to do anything for each other.”

Still, joining the naval program of the University of Michigan does not come without sacrifices. Fuchs’s schedule is packed, as he wakes up at 4:45 every morning for morning training sessions, and has to deal with a regular college students’ workload in addition to special classes designed for students in the naval program. On Tuesdays, for example, Fuchs has “drill days” in which he learns about life in the military. “One day we do martial arts, one day we have briefs about life on a ship,” he explained. Partially due to his packed schedule and partially due to the Navy’s strict rules, Fuchs has had to give up both the youthful college lifestyle—partying and drinking are not allowed—and many liberties most college kids take for granted. “You have to have the haircut they want, for example. You want skater-boy hair, you can’t have that. You have to have the short haircut,” he said. Though maintaining the stringent hair requirements is a bit of a hassle (Fuchs shaves once or twice a day, and gets his hair cut every week and a half ), it’s all worth it for Fuchs. “For me it was always a childhood dream, to be in the military. Here, finally that dream comes true,” he said. Looking Forward Military academies require attendants to serve for a minimum of five years after graduating: three in active duty, and two in the reserves. However, neither Klymkuk nor Fuchs plan on leaving after five years. Fuchs explained that after graduating, he hopes to work in the Navy SEAL (Sea, Air, Land, Team),

one of the U.S. Navy’s special forces. He went on to tell me about the aforementioned minimum service requirements. “How about after your five years end?,” I inquired, curious to hear what field Fuchs planned on pursuing once his term ended. He sounded surprised as he answered. “I intend to serve for at least as many years as I can… I don’t intend on actually ever pursuing my major—I am studying for a career in the military.” *** Back at Stuyvesant, Klymkuk had a similar opinion. Though he, too, wants to be a Navy SEAL, he doesn’t know exactly how long he would like to spend in the military. “I’m not one of those people who just wants to serve, and go out. It’s hard to say now, because I’m not in the military; I don’t know exactly what it’s like,” he said. “But right now I’m open to doing it as a career.” Klymkuk also recognized that if he does not want to stay in the Navy for his whole life, there will be many opportunities open to him. “West Point graduates, they’re very highly prized in the world,” he explained. “At twenty-four years old you’ve had a leadership position and responsibilities that very [few] of your peers have had at that age. I don’t think there’s a bigger responsibility of twenty-four year olds [than] leading sixteen men to combat. If you can handle that, you can handle anything else in the civilian field.” Sufficiently inspired, I began to think about applying to a military academy myself.

Courtney Chiu / The Spectator

I Say Sweet Potato, You Say Sweet Po-tah-to

By Danielle Eisenman Thanksgiving seems like a pretty straightforward holiday—it doesn’t have some terribly washedout and confusing biblical history or an exhausting barrage of complicated rituals. You watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade on TV, eat a disgusting amount of food while your extended family bickers relentlessly, and then watch some football. The only room for ambiguity is the choice between white meat and dark meat. However, these kinds of conventions don’t have to apply to everyone. At a school like Stuyvesant, the Thanksgiving traditions are as varied and quirky as the school’s student body. The Thanksgiving Board Game Spectacular “Thanksgiving is the best holiday ever,” junior Maggie Burkhart said, “because there’s food.” At the Burkhart home, the Thanksgiving table is set with all the classic dishes—turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce—with one exception. There is an overabundance of casseroles, Burkhart’s favorite being the sweet “potatah” casserole. Burkhart’s slight Southern accent isn’t usually apparent, but is pretty much un-

deniable when she says “potato.” Burkhart speaks this way because her family is from Alabama and Georgia, meaning that Burkhart celebrates a more intimate Thanksgiving with just her mom and dad. “If I could, I would love to spend Thanksgiving with the rest of my family,” Burkhart said. “But the three of us have a super fun time playing board games.” Every year, the Burkharts hold a board game competition. Each person picks three games to play, and everyone decides on a tiebreaker game, adding up to a total of ten. This sounds like it would take a long time, and it does. “Sometimes,” explained Burkhart, “the competition lasts until the next day.” That being said, “No one chooses anything super long. They’re mostly strategy games, like ‘Settlers of Catan’ or card games, like ‘Dominion.’” When asked who the victor of these board games usually is, Burkhart giggled and stared to the side, letting out a modest, “I do.” At a Cultural Crossroads At sophomore Alec Dai’s home, Thanksgiving doesn’t hold much sentimental value, but instead, is an opportunity to get together with family friends and have a good time. “It’s a meaningless holiday,”

he told me. “Just because we get a few days off and we see white people on TV having family gatherings, we join in on the fun.” However, Dai’s Chinese heritage isn’t totally out of the picture. In fact, his family eats a lot of traditional Chinese food in conjunction with the “the most random food ever.” To give you a taste of the peculiarity of the selection: one year, they had five platters of sushi (“even though, it’s, like, Japanese”); they’ve also had shish kabobs. As Dai put it, Thanksgiving is, “just an excuse to fire up the grill.” Regardless, the traditional Thanksgiving foods aren’t neglected. “We eat turkey because we feel like we have to,” said Dai, with a guffaw, “even though it tastes like [poop].” Jokingly, he added, “Yup, I guess we’re conforming to white culture.” The Melting HotPot On Thanksgiving night at sophomore Emily Lin’s house, no turkey is consumed, as her father doesn’t like it. For dessert, they don’t have pumpkin pie—Lin isn’t too fond of pumpkins, and she doesn’t have an oven. The celebration, if it even deserves this title, may sound underwhelming or even downright wrong. You’re probably wondering how one can gobble up their Thanksgiving dinner if the cooked bird does not even say, “Gobble gobble.” Instead, the Thanksgiving table at the Lin residence consists of one simple dish: HotPot. “Basically,” Lin explained, “you take a soup base, add a bunch of vegetables, and maybe some meat, like slices of beef.” Then, everyone eats out of the pot. The gallon or so of soup is shared by Lin and her parents. “I’m not sure if the rest of my relatives do anything for Thanksgiving,” Lin said. “They all live in China.” While Lin’s parents have always been aware of the existence of the holiday, their current tradition is a relatively new one. “It took a little while for us to get the hang of Thanksgiv-

ing; we used to just make a dinner that was bigger than usual. But, then, one year we decided to eat HotPot, and it sort of stuck,” Lin noted. Where the Lins’ Thanksgiving lacks in convention, it makes up for in significance. “My parents think it’s really important to be thankful,” she remarked. “So the holiday means a whole lot to us.” Tradition and Idiosyncrasy When freshman Mika Simoncelli thinks of Thanksgiving, he said “those hand turkeys that we used to draw in elementary school” come to mind. Also, “orange and brown and fall.” Simoncelli’s experience with Thanksgiving is one of warm, toasty nostalgia and comforting predictability (to some extent). Every year, she gets to see her father’s side of the family together, and they eat a nice and sizeable meal of turkey and the works. The gathering is usually made up of approximately 12 people, which is an amount that is neither underwhelming nor cacophonous. That being said, this wholesome experience is not devoid of its fair share of quirks. One year, the Simoncellis had the responsibility of making the turkey, but not enough room to brine it overnight in their refrigerator. Mr. Simoncelli’s handy solution was to hang it outside their window. “Well, it was super cold outside,” Simoncelli explained, “so my dad just put the turkey in a bucket and tied it to something and hung it out the window.” She said it so nonchalantly, as if it was just another night in the Simoncelli household. The Family Amalgamation “There aren’t too many people on the Vietnamese side of my family,” sophomore Kate Johnston explained, “because they all killed themselves.” Met with a look of horror upon my face, she elaborated. “Well, they lived in Vietnam during a tumultuous time. That’s why my grandma moved to the US, anyway.”

Here is where Johnston’s grandma invited into her life a new husband and great deal of new cultural customs, one of them being the celebration of Thanksgiving. Having grown old together, Johnston’s grandparents retired to the quaint city of Clearwater, Florida. There, the traditions began. Relatives from Vietnam and all throughout the US flew to Florida to celebrate together. Annually, the family would participate in the Turkey Trot, an event held every year that is a run for some and a race for others. “Basically you walk for a really long time while men in kilts play bagpipes,” Johnston said. Afterward, the family would go home and feast on a gargantuan meal prepared by Johnston’s grandmother. It consisted of the usual turkey and cranberry sauce, as well as Vietnamese cuisine—“pho, spring rolls, summer rolls,” Johnston explained. “We don’t really have much to talk about at Thanksgiving dinner because most of my family members don’t know each other too well,” Johnston told me. “The weather is sort of our most frequent discussion topic.” Many of Johnston’s relatives don’t speak English, and many others don’t speak Vietnamese, which adds to the slightly uncomfortable dynamic at the table. However, they do find a way to communicate—through Johnston’s grandmother, who was initially responsible for bringing the families together in the first place, and serves as a unifying force for everyone to this day. Thanksgiving traditions can be comfy and heartwarming, but also don’t jive with every Stuyvesant student. Everyone’s family possesses a certain degree of peculiarity, which makes things interesting and special. There is no right way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Whether you do so with game pieces, shish kabobs, or buckets of turkey in hand, the only thing you’re required to do is enjoy it.

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The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

Features By Philipp Steinmann and Mcvvina Lin

Alisa Su / The Spectator

Interviewing people with synesthesia feels a little like conducting one of the lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) experiments of the 1950s. A middle-aged housewife is seated in a room and given LSD dissolved in a glass of water. Soon, its effects begin to show. “It’s here; can’t you feel it? This whole room. Everything is in color. I can feel the air, I can see it… And the dimensions, and all the prisms and the rays, and everything coming down through you and moving… Can’t you see it?” The researcher admits that he can’t. The woman stares up at the ceiling, her eyes wide open. “I can’t tell you about it. If you can’t see it, then you’ll just never know it. I feel sorry for you.” Synesthesia is so fundamental a phenomenon that those who have it have trouble describing it. Formed from the Greek words “syn” (“together”) and “aisthesis” (“sensation”), it happens when one cognitive phenomenon is strongly associated with another—an individual might associate numbers with colors, or sound with colors, or sound with taste. Some synesthetes, for example, see the number three and immediately think (and see) red. Other synesthetes might hear the word “jail” and taste bacon. Sophomore Liam Elkind has sound-to-color synesthesia, called chromesthesia. “When I hear music, I see colors,” he said. We struggled to make sense of where in his visual field these colors were located. “It doesn’t block your vision; it’s just kind of like you have a memory… If you

think of a school bus, you can see a school bus, but you can also see what’s in front of you. You see it, but not in your eyes.” What exactly he saw, he found difficult to describe; it is not a uniform color, more “like splotches, kind of…It starts off small, and then grows,” he said. A little experimentation proved that just about any sound could produce a color. One of our voices was “darkish brown.” His own? “I never thought about that,” he said, but he settled on a “darkish blue.” Pounding on a table was “lightish brown,” while scratching the table was termed “light blueyellow.” We asked him to recall one of his favorite songs—“Thunder Road,” by Bruce Springsteen. He closed his eyes. “It’s like a light green, harmonica playing[...] It kind of turns into a blue and red, kind of like spirals, circles-things, and then like a green expanse.” Believe it or not, however, Elkind was not aware he had synesthesia until the age of eight when, at a concert, he told his brother, “Close your eyes, it makes the colors so much more vivid,” and his brother, recently having read the popular synesthesia-themed novel “A Mango Shaped Space,” quickly diagnosed him. Though, as Elkind said, “it’s nice to feel unique,” he admitted that his synesthesia does not have many markedly positive effects on his everyday life. In the school chorus, the colors help him detect when a pitch is off—“it looks like a poorly painted drawing.” Academically, his condition provides no advantage. We were interested to hear whether it ever became a disadvantage, whether the colors could

overwhelm him. This is rarely the case, he said. “I’m a New York City kid,” and a noisy environment does not produce sensory overload. His synesthesia can be very distracting, however: he finds it hard to read while listening to music, and a slight intrusion while he’s singing—say, a cough—can be so jarring as to throw him off. Elkind did not know much about the causes of his condition, though his brother told him that “babies are born with it, and then you grow out of it.” Elkind added, with a smirk: “That didn’t happen to me, so he likes to call me immature.” He didn’t seem to mind. *** Junior Samuel Zhang has a more complicated case. Several of his senses get converted to color, sound having the strongest correlation. He compared it to the saying, “All roads lead to Rome”: “Rome is the center we’re changing everything to, like a color system…. But then the easiest and the biggest road is sound,” he said. He also emphasized that the colors are not just cool effects that accompany his everyday life; they are closely related to the way he understands and remembers things. “You get a sensation, and then you change it into a color system to help your brain analyze what that is and to spot the difference…. I think it’s an extension of seeing objects as different from other objects,” Zhang said. At another point, he described what it’s like to look at a tree: “I don’t actually see the tree; I see the colors around the tree. That’s what makes up the tree.” Pounding on a table gave a more concrete illustration of this process. “I would relate that sound to a hollow sensation… So I would hear that sound, but correlate it to emptiness, and emptiness to metal, and then the metal to coldness. And then eventually the coldness to either really blue, because of snow, or something very cold.” How he colored people was similarly fascinating. One of us was dark bluish, “because I originally categorized you as a dark bluish person”—which, it turned out, was because of a dark blue sweater worn upon our first meeting. The other reporter was tagged as “a very light peach,” because Zhang had first perceived her as “energetic” and “carefree.” Like Elkind, Zhang was surprised when we asked him to categorize himself. He said that the best he could come up with was the image of a “a generic guy with a deep voice,” and concluded by saying that, “I can’t really portray myself abstractly.” Zhang’s synesthesia doesn’t

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The Spectator ● December 9, 2014

Page 10

Features New York Fashion Week: Teacher Edition By Hayoung Ahn and Katrina Wong With all the new, state-of-the-art trends going on in the world of fashion, it’s no wonder that students are trying to establish their own wardrobes to set themselves apart from others. But, students aren’t the only fashionistas around—some of Stuyvesant’s very own educators are well known for their iconic senses of style. We decided to interview several of Stuyvesant’s teachers to gain a more comprehensive image of how their tastes in everyday fashion intertwine with their personalities and daily teaching routines.

“I want to look professional but still dress my age, [as well as] put together and comfortable, because teachers do a lot of standing.” —Maura Dwyer, English teacher

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

Samuel Konstantinovich With a massive organized collection of t-shirts and a notable fashion tradition called “dress-down Fridays,” computer science teacher Samuel Konstantinovich is notorious for his quirky graphic tees, which often include gaming references and designs you would not typically see on a high school teacher’s chest. In fact, he has accumulated such a large assortment of t-shirts that he can go a whole semester without wearing any shirt more than twice. Starting this year, Konstantinovich has grouped his t-shirts into distinct “themes-ofthe-week”—categories that usually consist of three or four shirts with something in common. Some of his past themes-of-the-week have been zombie apocalypses and Ghostbusters, and it is not rare to see him flaunting shirts with television references, cats, or even a Domo printed on them. Konstantinovich often finds shirts that appeal to him through online retailers. But he noted that now, since he has amassed such a large number of t-shirts, he is a lot more selective about what he buys. When asked why his wardrobe came to be what it is today, Konstantinovich responded, “I can connect with my students better, I don’t have to pay for dry-cleaning—there’s lots of reasons why.”

“People have commented that I do the extremes very well.” —Samuel Konstantinovich, computer science teacher Ironically, Konstantinovich remarked that a top necessity for everyone’s closet (besides a sufficient amount of physical closet space) is a formal suit and vest. “People have commented that I do the extremes very well,” said Konstantinovich, explaining how flexible he is in dressing up for special events or dressing down when he is spending time with friends. He commented that during his first years of teaching, he dressed more formally to achieve the “teacher” appearance. Konstantinovich’s style preferences evolved six years ago, when he taught at Francis Lewis High School. Changing sporadically from shirt-and-tie cycles to days when he would only wear t-shirts, he noted that his “ideals and the changing administration gave [him] the freedom to do whatever [he] wanted.” Konstantinovich believes that teachers have freedom of personal expression and, at least in Stuyvesant, they do not abuse it. Still, he thinks that young teachers in particular should try to avoid dressing like students, simply because they should be distinguishable from the students in the school. “In other schools, I’ve seen teachers wear shorts and a ratty t-shirt. I’d never wear inappropriate and worn clothing. I don’t want to come to school looking like a homeless person on the subway,” he said.

A proud owner of three plain navy blue ties that go with a myriad of buttondown shirts, history teacher David Hanna epitomizes the style of a classic, professional adult. He believes that his students view him in this respectful manner. Every morning, when Hanna decides what to wear for the school day, it all comes down to four fundamental elements: a shirt, a tie, a pair of khaki pants, and work boots. “Most of my shirts and ties are from Charles Tyrwhitt in London. When a box arrives from England, my wife likes to joke that I’m Jay Gatsby,” Hanna said. He explained that his Timberland work boots may seem “a little incongruous” given the rest of his outfit. To him, however, they are a personal statement, since he grew up wearing them in Maine as a teenager.

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

English teacher Maura Dwyer walks into her classroom on a typical day with a classy dress and smile, greeting her students as they stream in. Wearing a cobalt and blackpatterned dress on the day I spoke to her, she characterizes simple elegance and neatness, giving an impression of professionalism and openness. “I want to look professional but still dress my age, [as well as] put together and comfortable, because teachers do a lot of standing,” Dwyer said. “I wear dresses more often; they’re easy to pick out because it’s only one piece,” she said. For her, not only does her position as a teacher affect her sense of style, but the students she sees every day play a part as well. “I have a lot of stylish students, and I think it’s nice working with teens because they’re more tuned in with trends,” Dwyer said. Though her style is chic and polished, she does have an edgy (and animal-friendly) side—when asked what her favorite article of clothing was, she answered, “I just bought a new leather jacket; it’s vegan!”

David Hanna

“When a box arrives from England, my wife likes to joke that I’m Jay Gatsby.” —David Hanna, history teacher Hanna admits that he did not always maintain such a minimalist, sharp appearance as a teacher. “There was a time, for instance, when I liked to wear polo shirts, even blue jeans, to work. However, over time, as I looked in the mirror and asked myself ‘Is this how I want to be perceived at work?’ the answer was ‘No, it’s not,’” Hanna said. In addition, his earlier days at Stuyvesant directly contradicted his current signature look. “On my first day as a student teacher at Stuyvesant back in September of 1995, I showed up to my first class late, wearing shorts and boat shoes, with a pair of sunglasses on!” Hanna recounted.

James Cocoros It’s hard to imagine mathematics teacher James Cocoros, whose closet is filled to the brim with over 300 college t-shirts, wearing anything but college apparel. Surprisingly enough, though, Cocoros used to wear suits to school, and only stopped because he would “end up every day covered in chalk, so it became a cost-effective move.” Cocoros switched over to the casual look he is associated with today. “At the end of the day, the kids are going to respect or not respect someone based on the substance of that person, not the attire they wear,” he said. The college t-shirts Cocoros wears were all given to him by former students. “Every day, I wear a different shirt from a different student and get to tell a nice little story about the former kids. [It’s] a way of remembering the kiddies of the old and telling the new group about them,” Cocoros said. “So, today I’m wearing a Harvard shirt from Zach Young from the class of 2010.” The t-shirts are not only relics of his former students, but also symbols of future possibilities for current students. “I like showing the kids now what sort of trajectories and different potentials that they have and they can follow. Especially when certain kids have done sort of unusual things,” Cocoros said. “Actually, this kid [Young] is now a minister.” But, out of all the t-shirts Cocoros receives every year, his favorites are the Cornell shirts. “I always have a soft spot in my heart for the Cornell shirts, because that’s where my wife and I met, […] and it always makes me extra happy when I wear one,” he said, gesturing to the gray Cornell fleece he had on. When Cocoros’ daughter, Clio, was born in 2008, rather than giving him t-shirts, some students gave his daughter apparel. “She had a Harvard onesie, a Brown bib, Dartmouth booties, [and] a Stanford knitted hat,” he said excitedly.

“At the end of the day, the kids are going to respect or not respect someone based on the substance of that person, not the attire they wear.” —James Cocoros, mathematics teacher

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

Maura Dwyer

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Page 11

The Spectator ●December 10, 2014

Page 12

Editorials Staff Editorial

Where are We Going? In the daily functioning of a school like Stuyvesant, it can be easy to forget about what is not of immediate concern. Students, teachers and administrators are focused on what is before them and what needs to be submitted, graded, or arranged that day. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, and short-term concerns must be addressed by all parties, it can be beneficial to take a step back from time to time and examine the larger issues that face us. We ask Stuyvesant’s administration to do the same. We attend an elite high school as rigorous as any in the country, with as many challenges and opportunities as some universities. Stuyvesant should be treated as such. Like any private college or university, our school should have a vision— it should develop long-term goals and strive to achieve them. Here, the editorial board puts forth its own vision for the administration to consider. We envision a Stuyvesant down the road that is different from today’s in a few ways. By changing the nature of studentteacher relationships, and winning exemption from certain Department of Education (DOE) guidelines and regulations, Stuyvesant could become a happier and more successful place. And, as with any good vision, there are a number of concrete and tangible steps the administration could take to achieve these ends. Improved Teacher-Student Communication Whether to admonish lack of effort, encourage with specific suggestions, or applaud work well done, frequent and productive communication from teachers is essential to students’ educations. At Stuyvesant, a few logistical matters serve to damage that line of communication. First, teacher comments on progress reports are sparse and largely unconstructive. Progress reports present an excellent opportunity for students to find out how they are doing in class, and how they can improve. Students are unable to take advantage of that opportunity given the current nature of report card comments. If teachers were required to write short, individualized notes in addition to the prescribed DOE comments, students would more clearly know where they stand and how to improve that standing. The timing of parent-teacher conferences is also not ideal for benefiting the students. Parents are extensions of the students, and, especially for kids who are uncomfortable approaching teachers outside of class, parent-teacher conferences can prove extremely informative for students looking to enhance achievement. But, because they occur directly after the first marking period, students and teachers are not yet well acquainted and the body of work students have submitted is not extensive. Conferences would be more helpful if they occurred later in

the second marking period. Teachers cannot, of course, be expected to be accessible at all times during the day. For day-to-day communications, however, teachers should be available in some capacity to students both in person and online. To facilitate this, the administration ought to create an online directory on the school’s website, which would include teachers’ e-mail addresses and free periods. These changes would only bring about any reform if teachers were willing to comply with them. Teachers who do not make the necessary efforts to communicate with students, or are in other ways unqualified or ineffective, have no place at our school. Again following a model used by some universities, students should be given teacher evaluation forms regularly so as to keep the administration attuned to the performance of its faculty. Teachers should also administer their own evaluations, which they themselves can review and from which they can attempt to improve. Another way to effectively evaluate teachers would be based on their students’ performances on departmentwide mid-term exams. For teachers responsible for teaching the same curriculum to different classes of students, there can be no fairer way. Using this method, it will be clear to the administration which teachers most effectively convey the requisite information to their students. Exemptions from DOE Requirements and a More Open School Environment We believe that the Stuyvesant administration should, over the next several years, lobby for exemptions from New York State Department of Education and New York City Department of Education rules that only interfere with the students’ freedom and ability to learn at their own pace. First, Stuyvesant students should be exempted from having to take certain Regents exams; some of Stuyvesant’s peer schools, such as Beacon, have already obtained such exemptions. Many introductory courses, such as chemistry and physics, among others, focus on preparing students for state exams. Obtaining these exemptions would allow all instructors who teach introductory courses to shift their attention from preparing students for a standardized exam to making sure students really understand and care about the material. Secondly, the cell phone ban should be relaxed. At first glance, the cell phone ban makes sense: cell phones can be used to cheat, and they can also serve as a distraction to students who chose to use them in class. The problem with the current policy, however, is that it’s not enforced well—students who use cell phones in class to cheat or to goof around often end up not having to face any consequences, while students who use them in the hallway to text their parents or read a

book end up having their cell phones taken. The intent of the cell phone ban is laudable, but that intent is not being upheld when administrators choose to target students benignly using cell phones in the hallway instead of students maliciously using cell phones in class. As a result, the ban should only apply to the classroom setting, and the administration should make sure that the ban is enforced in a more consistent, fair, and uniform manner by all teachers. More generally, the Stuyvesant administration should reconsider rules that prevent the school from being a more open, stress-free environment. Allowing students access to more floors during free periods is just one example of a stringent rule that, if relaxed, would make students feel more at home upon entering the building. The Stuyvesant administration should also take the time to revise the rules that it has put in place regarding required courses, including the physical education requirement. Currently, athletes are required to take physical education, even though they spend several hours every day practicing or playing a sport. Stuyvesant athletes should, just like student athletes at Bronx Science, be exempted from having to take physical education, as Luke Morales argued in “Faults in the System,” published in Issue 15 of The Spectator last year. In addition, the administration should reduce the number of classes that students are required to take—or, perhaps, consider having distribution requirements in lieu of specific, required classes. It is currently difficult for students to pursue their academic passions and to take classes in subjects in which they’re interested prior to senior year due to core requirements. It’s important for students to be exposed to new fields of study in high school, but it’s also important for students to be able to shape their own high school careers. The administration could reconcile these conflicting ideals by implementing distribution requirements—in other words, allowing students to choose what specific course they take to fulfill a requirement for a specific subject. Doing so would empower students to explore new subjects on their own terms. Our list could go on infinitely. Increasing the use of technology and reducing students’ homework loads are just two more potential long-term goals for the school. Stuyvesant student ingenuity manifests itself more clearly in no area more than it does in the ability to complain without end. But all that we ask is that our broad concerns are heard, and that the school advance in a finite direction with finite aims. To make our teachers teach better, our students learn better, our lives more manageable, and our privileges proportional to our maturity and drive, please, Ms. Zhang, come up with a plan.

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Page 13

Opinions Reactions to Ferguson Unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. On Monday, November 24, a grand jury assigned to the incident announced its decision not to indict Wilson. Below are the responses of several writers for The Spectator Opinions Department. Police Are Not the Problem By Zora Arum The demonstrations across the country protesting the grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson raise a question: if Michael Brown’s death was so unfair, then why did he die in the first place? Many argue that his death was a result of police brutality—the fault of a racist system out to get black people for crimes that they did not commit. I don’t believe that this is the case. Michael Brown didn’t die because of Darren Wilson, institutional corruption of the U.S. police force, or because cops are racists. The primary cause of situations such as the Ferguson case is not the racism of our police departments. Rather, it is a reflection of socioeconomic inequalities that few of us make any legitimate attempt to alter. In 2012, the U.S. Current Population Survey determined that 27.2 percent of black Americans are impoverished by Census standards—a stark contrast to the 9.7 percent of white Americans in poverty. In Ferguson, according to The Washington Post, the poverty rate is “about twice Missouri’s average.” Sixty percent of Ferguson’s population is black. In the case of Michael Brown, he had recently graduated from Normandy High School, a school without

A Lesson on Race By Ramy Mahmoud As I watched prosecutor Bob McCulloch announce that the grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, I felt angry. There is no doubt in my mind that Wilson was guilty. Logically speaking, you don’t stop a person from throwing punches by shooting them. But, regardless of my opinion, the decision on this case is not the issue. The issue is using race as a reason for the injustice served. It is impossible to ignore the role race played in this case, which, like that of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, has further dichotomized our nation into black and white. A predominantly white jury has decided not to indict Wilson, and racial minorities have protested in the streets against this decision. Even though we say that we are united, our actions and our opinions deep within say otherwise. Racial profiling that has risen from this deep division and runs through our nation is an issue that affects minorities every single day. Every single person belonging to a minority has faced some injustice in his or her life, whether because of their race, ethnicity, or religion. The truth is that minorities, especially African-Americans, are usually

state accreditation, and was planning on heading to a local technical college that would teach him how to fix household appliances in the fall. We go to a top high school where only one percent of the student body is black, while other students our age—students like Brown— go to schools that don’t even meet government standards for high schools. It is easy to blame others, including our own United States’ public service workers, for our country’s shortcomings. It’s easy to call Michael Brown’s death purely a result of police brutality, to post it on Facebook, to put it on a political poster and to hold it up in the middle of Union Square. But unless we actively participate in programs to provide AfricanAmericans with the same economic and educational opportunities as other races, we are part of the problem. To say that Michael Brown’s death demonstrates the necessity of fixing the corruption in U.S. law enforcement overlooks the real significance of the incident. Racial disparity in the criminal justice system cannot be fixed unless we first begin working to bridge the socioeconomic gap that keeps racial prejudices alive. We can’t allow the lesser issue of police brutality to divert our attention from having the conversation that truly matters.

targeted as the “wrongdoers” by the police in this country. In Ferguson, 87 percent of those stopped and frisked are minorities. Even in a liberal bastion like NYC, an alarming 81 percent of the NYPD’s searches were conducted on minority races. The worst truths are the ones from which we cannot escape. Racial profiling is commonplace, and it will take great efforts from us all to combat our prejudices and unmerited fears. We must educate ourselves and future generations; a few altercations between people of different races should not define our relationships with people of another color. Nevertheless, we cannot use race as a rationalization for the injustice in Ferguson. This further disrupts the little unity that we still may have within our population. By repeating the fact that Darren Wilson was white and Michael Brown was black, we implement predetermined ideas about race into the future generation’s minds. We must focus on the fact that Michael Brown was unarmed, not that he was a target of racial profiling, even though the latter may very well be true. If we continue to show that we look at circumstances like these through the lens of race, no one will ever look beyond the racial divide in our country.

False Perceptions By Munawar S. Rahman “A five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan” was police officer Darren Wilson’s vivid testimony during the grand jury proceeding in late November concerning his shooting of Michel Brown. Brown was 6’5’’, weighing 290 pounds, and unarmed. Wilson was 6’4’’, weighing 210 pounds, but armed with a gun and a car. The means to kill was in the hands of one man—in no way would Brown have been a sufficient threat to a trained police officer. But our most inert perceptions thwart reality, and to Wilson an unarmed black man seemed a credible threat. A recent NPR report titled “Examining The Myth of the ‘Superhuman’ Black Person” discussed social psychologist Kelly Hoffman’s study on the phenomenon of blacks and other people of color being perceived as stronger, faster and, on the downside, unable to feel pain. Such perceptions go as far back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when physicians characterized blacks as “magical” and “invulnerable.” The current socioeconomic status of minorities in their respective communities only seems to reinforce this age-old perception, Ignoring the Facts By Samy Mahmoud The grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson only seems to reaffirm the notion that being black in America is a crime. First, let’s look at the forensic evidence, which proves that during the time of the shooting, victim Michael Brown didn’t present any threat to the wellbeing of Officer Wilson. When shot, Brown was over 30 feet away from Wilson and, according to 12 of 14 witnesses, had his head down and his hands up. Autopsy reports stating that a bullet travelled from the top of his head into his clavicle support these claims. Let’s also examine the grand jury. To avoid bias, a grand jury has to roughly represent the demographics of the county in which the jury takes place. However, of the twelve jurors present during the court hearings, nine were white and three were black — a stark contrast to Guilty Until Proven Innocent By Asher Lasday When I was a young child, my parents told me that if I were lost, I should look for a police officer. But, over the past few weeks, it’s become clear to me that many people don’t have that privilege. The Ferguson case and similar killings of African-Americans have made one thing clear: if you are black in America, the police are unwilling to be your friend. Regardless of the specifics of Michael Brown’s murder, the public’s response is a result of a much larger issue in America: police brutality against black men. An October report by ProPublica analyzing federally collected data found that, for every white man killed by the police, 21 black men were killed.

as some might rationalize their aggressiveness as desperation for material goods. This is, of course, blatantly ridiculous, and not backed by contemporary scientific research. And yet, using this mindset as a frame of reference, one could see why the NYPD in Staten Island saw fit to utilize four police officers in apprehending Eric Garner. Garner’s last words were “I can’t breathe.” Once the apprehending of a suspect gets to the point where the suspect himself is in peril, it must end. But it didn’t. To the police officers, these words were unheeded, the man they were choking was a superman: 6’3’’, 350 pounds. Whether it’s those involved in the investigation or even some as detached as those watching the news, many individuals have criticized social movements mourning Garner and Brown by taking aim at both victims’ characters. Garner had been arrested on prior counts of selling illegal cigarettes, and Brown was allegedly robbing a convenience store. But such crimes do not warrant a death penalty. Pointing out past infractions to blame the victims takes the responsibility away from well-trained professionals who shouldn’t have resorted to murder to handle the

situation, especially when the victims in question conceded the struggle. But the idea of “well-trained professionals” raises interesting questions. The irrationality and immediate reliance on lethal force by these officers is frightening. Their level of stress was magnified by the perception of their suspect as something inhumanly powerful, a form of dehumanization which makes it easier to justify a show of force. Punishment by death for something for which a member of another race would have received a slap on a wrist is a glaring inequality that people must be aware of before claims such as “this has nothing to do with race” are spurted out. The biggest problem is that our most intrinsic perceptions of certain races and cultures are drilled into us by our predecessors and the ever-present media— it seems that current events always make such perceptions seem more and more true. As educated high school students, we can knock down old power structures and provide a better future for our descendants. Now that we’ve pinned down the specific issue, we can craft our notions of others on something other than superstition.

the fact that, in Ferguson, blacks outnumber whites two to one. How was such a jury able to preside over such a controversial case? Before a grand jury is chosen, each member from a pool of trial jurors is interviewed about their background and beliefs by both the judge and the attorneys. However, an attorney can challenge a juror “for cause” because their background may provide unfair bias or prejudice in the case. Since the pool of trial jurors for the Ferguson case were mostly black, it is certain that the defense attorney challenged most of the pool “for cause” and prevented them from fairly representing Ferguson in this case. Furthermore, a recent exit poll conducted by the Washington showed that whites in Ferguson had a strikingly different view of the Michael Brown shooting than that of blacks. Of those polled, only 14 percent held an unfavorable attitude towards the police force com-

pared to a whopping 63 percent of black respondents. It’s no surprise, therefore, that a jury composed primarily of whites favored the sentiment of the minority: not to indict Wilson. With death after death of black men at the hands of the police, the definition of the use of excessive force must be clarified. In 1989, the United States Supreme Court defined the use of force up to the officer’s discretion, taking into account that in many cases they are forced to make split-second situations. This definition empowers the police—allowing them to use force according to their discretion puts them above the law. America is not a police state. Police, just like any other citizens, should be subject to specific laws. We must learn from experiences such as Ferguson and make concrete changes to ensure sure that police officers killing black men is not a routine.

Psychological studies suggest an inherent racial bias in policing as well. A 2009 study conducted by the American Psychological Association used a video game depicting either African-American men or white men holding a gun or some other object; it allowed police officers to decide whether or not to shoot the suspect. The police officers were consistently faster in shooting the black targets, and often did not shoot the white targets at all. While this doesn’t definitively prove that Brown’s shooting was due to race, it does reveal a disturbing truth. African-Americans are guilty until proven innocent in this country. What can be done to decrease police violence? One solution is the implementation of community policing. The

Community Oriented Policing Services, a part of the United States Department of Justice, explains community policing as having police officers work with their community. The police use outreach and get help from citizens in their districts to address conditions that give rise to public safety issues. While police are still doing their work and reducing crime, their increased time spent with the populace makes them more familiar with the community and vice versa. While this will by no means solve all of our nation’s woes regarding the police, it will help make police forces more attuned to their citizens’ needs and thus less likely to misjudge people.

The Spectator ●December 10, 2014

Page 14

Opinions

Danielle Eisenman/ The Spectator

A Rash Rejection

By Nalanda Sharadjaya Edward Jenner’s discovery of vaccination in 1796 remains one of the most important public health breakthroughs in recent history. By injecting a weakened strain of a particular pathogen—strong enough to trigger the body’s immune system without actually inducing illness—vaccines train our bodies to fight harmful diseases, making them the cornerstone of preventive (as opposed to curative) modern medical care. It’s hard to believe that a significant portion of America’s population is so misinformed about the role of vaccination in public health that many people believe they are actually harmful and can result in long-term damage. What’s scary about this is that the terrible consequences of not using vaccinations

are apparent today in the United States. One example is the 2014 pertussis (whooping cough) outbreak in California, which led to an enormous increase in the number of cases of pertussis and the number of related deaths in California. A recent measles outbreak, also in California, was “driven by unvaccinated people,” director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Anne Schuchat said. According to a late 2009 USA Today/Gallup poll, roughly 20 to 30 percent of Americans had heard claims by anti-vaccination activist Jenny McCarthy and were, as a result, more likely to question the safety of childhood vaccines. A US News survey also reported nearly one-fifth of Americans believe

there is a direct correlation between vaccines and autism, even though more than 100 studies have demonstrated overwhelming evidence that they do not. In fact, the initial report, which claimed to demonstrate a correlation between the two, beginning a public frenzy, was proven false—a deliberate fraud on the part of the researcher. Some people believe that “natural infection” (becoming immune to a disease by being infected by it) is a preferable method of acquiring immunity. The World Health Organization (WHO), however, has established that this is false. Though vaccines and natural infections interact similarly with the body’s immune system, vaccines pose virtually no threat because they do not actually cause the disease—while natural infection does. And some of the long-lasting symptoms of these illnesses can be devastating. Diphtheria, for example, is a disease that kills 20 percent of infected infants—for these children, getting treatment after a diagnosis simply isn’t enough. Other infections can also lead to long-lasting symptoms even after treatment, such as deafness (from rubella), brain damage and mental retardation (from encephalitis due to measles), and liver cancer (from hepatitis B). On the other hand, most of the side effects attributed to vaccines are much less likely to occur. As the CDC says, “vaccines are safe and effective. However, they are neither perfectly safe nor perfectly

Eights Steps to Getting through Junior Year Step 3: For whom are you doing all of this? If the answer isn’t “me,” make it “me.” If you’re going to your Saturday SAT prep classes only because your parents are paying for them, don’t. Pay a visit to Barnes & Noble, buy a study guide, and start from page one.

Stephanie Chen\The Spectator

Step 4: Try deactivating your Facebook account. You won’t succeed, which is exactly why I’m telling you to do so. The point of deactivating isn’t succeeding; it’s failing, and by failing, you’ll realize just how dependent you are on pictures of cute kittens, your crush, or both. By the third time you give in to Facebook, you’ll have some sense of just how serious your addiction is.

By Iona Solomon Dear Junior, You think you get it. You lean your elbow against the railing of the 4-6 escalator, feel your bookbag rip from the weight of your AP United States History textbook, and close your eyes for a few seconds before you catch yourself just in time to avoid tripping on your way off the escalator. Your “To Do” list runs longer than the English paper you wrote at midnight, and, as you waste away your Saturdays on hours of SAT prep, you wonder, “Why is life so hard?” The answer? Because you make it so. You could easily get ten hours of sleep every night, watch television, and spend time with friends. You don’t need five AP classes, good SAT scores, or extracurriculars. Here’s an alternate path to life: Take the classes you want, get mid-80s with minimal effort, apply to CUNYs and SUNYs, graduate comfortably, and live with $65,000 a year on a decent government or construction job. However, my guess is that, like most Stuy students, you have higher, more glamorous aspirations. To make your lives just that much easier, here is a bit of what I’ve learned on how to survive this hectic year: Step 1: Stash your Starbucks gift cards somewhere safe for senior year. Things get worse before they get better. Step 2: Save your “sick” days for second term. Read the second sentence of Step 1 again.

Step 5: Strategize. If you’re like me— meaning you’re a mess—and your plan for standardized testing is, “I’ll study, take a bunch of tests, and then retake the ones I did poorly on,” stop. Don’t take the SAT twice, or three times, or four times, unless you want to live in constant misery. Don’t take six SAT subject tests and choose your best two scores. Set a serious goal for yourself: one SAT, two or three subject tests. Take them before senior year. Study, do well, and don’t retake. Step 6: Read the second sentence of step 1. Step 7: Understand the second sentence of step 1. But, at the same time, understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Step 8: Prepare yourself. You’ll face more stress than you’ve ever faced before. You’ll sleep less than you’ve ever slept before. You’ll shiver every time you open e-mails from the schools you’re applying to. You’ll try to find out every bit of information about who else is applying where you’re applying, how qualified they are, and, if you didn’t like them before, you’ll like them even less now. Your daily commute will lengthen by the two minutes required to buy your giant cup of dark coffee. And, almost one year from now, on Senior Pajama Day, you’ll rock your fuzzy sweatpants because you’ll know (1) how ironic it is that you actually haven’t even slept at all and (2) that, at long last, you’ve weathered the storm. Good luck.

effective.” Most side effects to various vaccinations are uncommon and mild. And the more severe the side effect, the rarer it is—some barely occur once in 100,000 doses. Full lists of the potential side effects for specific vaccinations are posted clearly on the CDC website. Doctors are not trying to trick people into doing something that could potentially harm their children, and they certainly aren’t doing it because of some large-scale conspiracy between hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. There’s no hoax going on here. The “big, corrupt Pharma” angle is a meaningless attack on informed experts by people who favor “natural” methods of health care without being fully aware of all the facts. Another, more illogical, argument people use against vaccination is that, if other people’s children get vaccinated, there’s no need to get their child vaccinated as well. Aside from the paradoxical nature of this idea (if everyone thinks someone else will do it, nobody will do it), it’s also dangerous because it doesn’t account for the children who can’t receive vaccines as a result of harmful allergic responses or weak immune systems. Refusing vaccination because “everyone else will do it” leaves healthy children (as well as immunodeficient children, who are unable to get vaccinated) susceptible to illness. Perhaps the fear of vaccination is borne out of the privilege many younger parents have been graced with—never living through a time

when illnesses killed tens of thousands of children every year. Vaccines may seem bad when you’re uninformed, naturally skeptical of establishment, and overly protective of your children. But considering that the measles vaccine, for example, has reduced the incidence of measles by 99 percent, it’s hard to argue against the merits of this preventative measure. Instead of trying to start from scratch where science has already proven tremendously effective and safe, parents should be getting their children vaccinated as soon as possible. The government needs to take an active role in ensuring that this happens. Childhood vaccination needs to be made mandatory nationwide, because even a small percentage of unvaccinated children can put a large community at risk. Parents must no longer be allowed to use “philosophical exemptions” (a clever euphemism for “misinformed skepticism”) to prevent their children from being vaccinated. More importantly, they need to be educated about the dangers of infectious diseases and the undeniable benefits of vaccination. Misinformation perpetuated by the likes of Jenny McCarthy needs to be denounced publicly by prominent public health officials. We must make sure that all children—not just most—are being vaccinated if we want intermittent but dangerous disease outbreaks to no longer be a reality.

A Voting System That Makes Sense By Daniel Kodsi and Asher Lasday Even though it is nowhere in the Constitution, it is a principle we all not just accept, but expect: every adult citizen gets a vote. Lately, though, voting rights have come into question, as some states and municipalities have tightened voter ID laws, often to the detriment of society’s lower class. And we still have the controversial Electoral College, an institution that is undemocratic in its very nature. But discussing those issues is not this column’s purpose; they have been debated time and again, in every arena from local town halls to the Supreme Court. Rather, we would like to draw attention to a third hindrance to American voting, one that often flies under the radar: our system of first-past-the-post voting (FPP), also known as simple plurality voting. On the surface, FPP is simple, even intuitive—whichever candidate gets the most votes wins—but in practice, it is deeply flawed. Key amongst its deficiencies are high susceptibilities to the spoiler effect, which occurs when a minor candidate draws votes from a major one, causing an opponent of both to win, and tactical voting, when voters support a candidate other than their true preference. In its place, we posit, the United States should adopt instant-runoff voting (IRV), a preferential voting system that relies on rankings of candidates rather than just a single mark. First, let us look to the detriments of the spoiler effect. They are certainly well known to any Democrats who were of voting age in 2000, when independent candidate Ralph Nader siphoned votes away from Al Gore in Florida, thereby handing George W. Bush the election. And Republicans eight years older might have similar trauma etched into their brains. As Steven Hill of the New America Foundation points out, in the 1992 election, independent candidate Ross Perot split the conservative vote and thus put Bill Clinton in the Oval Office over the incumbent George H. W. Bush. There is no greater evidence of the impact of the spoiler effect; if not for it, we would not have had two of our last three presidents. Tactical voting is the other side of the coin. In effect, it turns voting into a game of strategy. Instead of honestly answering the question ballots ostensibly pose of, “which candidate do you think is best?”, voters, especially in plurality systems, generally choose one of two frontrunners—one liberal, one conservative. Hence why, every election cycle, Libertarians vote Republican to prevent a Democrat’s ascendancy and supporters of the Green Party vote Democrat to prevent the reverse. This phenomenon, combined with the spoiler effect, results in what has been christened Duverger’s Law, a sociological assertion that plurality electoral systems, like FPP, result in twoparty rule. Witness: American history to date. The harms are clear. In this era of political polarization, only having two parties has resulted in catastrophic governmental inefficiency and

gridlock. There is also a deeper truth besides. Without more platforms, the voices of those who don’t completely align with Democrat or Republican go unheard. IRV solves for both of those issues, albeit not completely. The way instant-runoff voting works, essentially, is that it simulates a series of runoff elections until one candidate has a majority. If no majority exists, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and votes are re-tallied, with the votes of those who had cast their ballots for the eliminated candidate going to their secondchoice. For example, back in 2000, the votes of the Nader supporters who would have supported Gore had not Nader run would have been transferred to Gore after Nader’s elimination. While IRV does not entirely meet the independence of irrelevant alternatives criterion (one of the mathematical standards for the efficacy of a voting rule), which states, “The election outcome remains the same even if a candidate who cannot win decides to run,” it comes much closer than FPP does. Similarly, IRV performs much better in combatting tactical voting. While the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem shows that any non-dictatorial (no one person decides the fate of the election), deterministic (the same winner would result if the exact same election were held again) voting system is susceptible to tactical voting, experts have shown that IRV is among the best of the alternatives. Specifically, there is considerably less incentive for the compromising strategy described above (i.e. when Libertarians vote Republican because their votes won’t “count” otherwise), allowing smaller parties to stand firmer stead in their constituencies. Of course, IRV isn’t perfect. Even given the above, like in any non-proportional voting rule (proportional voting couldn’t work in America’s single-member districts), smaller parties are often marginalized. There are also more algorithmically complicated rules thought up by electoral theorists, like the Schulze method, that fulfill important criteria that IRV does not. It does not, for instance, satisfy the Condorcet winner criterion—a Condorcet winner is one who would beat all the other options given a two-person race—though again, it does much better than FPP. But no voting system can be perfect. By Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, there will always be a set of criteria that the system does not meet. IRV would at least work to fix the worst of our country’s ills, and is, without doubt, a significant improvement over simple plurality rule. Electoral reform is not an easy step for any nation to take, especially not for one as divided as ours. Nor would implementation of IRV be a panacea for America’s woes. But it would move us one step in the right direction, by returning some democratic legitimacy to at least one of our national institutions. Gradually, we must overhaul the defunct elements of our political processes. Critically examining their foundation, voting, is a good place to start.

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The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

Arts and Entertainment

By Jongyoul Lee

We’ve all seen it. Many of us have sat on it. But most of us don’t know how it got there. Like other students, I assumed the “Alice in Wall Streetland” mural on “the Wall” was always there. I never realized that it was painted by Stuyvesant students with the help of the nonprofit organization CITYarts. CITYarts is a public arts and education organization that aims to bring art to the public. It organizes and provides supplies for local artists, youth, and community members to contribute art to their communities. Their works date from 1972, when The Rolling Bench, a mosaic located in Morningside Heights, was painted. Today, CITYarts has expanded internationally to include Germany, London, and Israel as well, but it remains deeply rooted in New York City. The mural in front of Stuyvesant was first painted in 2001 through the collaboration between the Stuyvesant Painting Club and CITYarts. Soon after, however, the events of 9/11 impacted the neighborhood, and CITYarts responded to this tragedy by incorporating it into the design. Because of weather effects, recently Hurricane Sandy, sections of the mural are regularly restored. Senior Samantha Wong, president of the Painting Club, noted with surprise that nobody has yet vandalized the walls, and only nature has taken its toll on the art. During the first repainting session, senior and club secretary Christina Lai said the group cleaned and prepared the mural with white paint, then started repainting the wall. She explained that the most recent session was “much more efficient than many of the others we’ve done,” and hopes for continued progress. In fact, Wong says that she expects a ribbon-cutting in the spring when they resume painting.

Yuchen Jin / The Spectator

Movie

By ariella Kahan Set in Panem, a dystopian society that rose from the rubbles of North America, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1” has all the elements necessary for its success—an attractive heroine, futuristic technologies, and a tragic love triangle. Tack on a couple of exquisitely portrayed comical characters, impressive special effects, and a worldwide fan base, and you’ve got the highest grossing movie that has come out so far this year. The plotline of “Mockingjay Part 1” follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she adjusts to her new life in District 13, a district that lies entirely underground in order to uphold its secrecy— most citizens of Panem do not know District 13 still exists. Katniss

Currently, the old designs on the wall are a bit haphazard: two people walk toward an isolated landmass and a flight of stairs that are the only means of transportation, a scene which resembles something out of Howl’s Moving Castle. In another section, an unexpected giraffe gazes serenely over a cliff, while an unidentifiable woman, perhaps Alice, falls from the sky. Next to a scene of Wonderland, a small Alice perches on the Statue of Liberty’s shoulder and the Cheshire cat purrs on its head. Wong, who designed the sections of the mural to be repainted along with the entire top, plans to connect the events on the mural together, as well as to incorporate modern technology, like an Alice working on a laptop. She explained that, after attending the Mad Hatter’s tea party, Alice will run into a manhole leading to the subway, where a train waits in the station. The train was painted last summer, and the rest of the story will be painted soon. In addition to appealing to the Stuyvesant community, CITYarts and the Painting Club hope to bring the neighborhood together by collaborating with BMCC students and neighboring residents as well. The companies sponsoring this activity, such as Goldman Sachs and American Express, are also from the neighboring area. To make this mural relevant to a larger audience, there are speculative plans to paint a chessboard so that those who play chess on the ledges during warmer days can do so without having to bring their own boards. When the weather is warmer, dozens of students each day will surely sit on the murals, eating their hasty lunches or simply chatting after school. The next time you sit on the wall, take a moment to look at the designs and think about who painted them.

Exhibit Tracing Chinese-American Histories By Tracy Tse

Overshadowed by the Museum of Natural History, the New York Historical Society is not often visited by tourists. However, their latest exhibit, “Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion,” should bring more visitors eager to learn about Chinese-Americans and their impact on their adopted country. The exhibit is laid out as a pathway that travels through the history of Chinese-American relations. From 1783 and into the 1800s, contact between China and the United States was usually through trade. The first part of the exhibit contains mainly artifacts, such as fans and plates, that were carried on trade ships, and is relatively uninteresting, although a display board about a regular day of trading in the port of Guangzhou does spice things up a bit. Amidst all the traditional Chinese ships and stores, there is one building towering over the entire port of Guangzhou with an American flag flying proudly on its peak. Venture further into the exhibit and the topic of Chinese immigration, as well as opposition towards it, begins to increase in prominence. This is what captures the true essence and purpose of the exhibit. Massive immigration to the US began with the need for cheap labor for the Transcontinental Railroad and in the Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. As the Chinese population began to increase in the United States, so did anti-Chinese sentiment. A large interactive board displays information about these famous figures’ opinions on Chinese immigration, giving visitors a more engaging way to learn about antiChinese sentiment than reading from a small placard. One can click on pictures of well-known American writers and lecturers for their opinions and thoughts on this topic. Some of the people displayed on the board include Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist who supported the Chinese immigration into the US and viewed the American government’s refusal to grant citizenship to Chinese immigrants as another act of racial injustice. The other side of the “Chinese question” is shown in the opinion of economist Henry George, who believed that cheap Chinese labor was making the rich even wealthier and that Chinese immigration

should be halted to protect the economic interests of poor Americans. This display of American opinions towards Chinese-Americans shows the division of views over the issue. In response to the increasing anti-Chinese sentiment among Americans in the 1800s, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the immigration of all unskilled Chinese laborers and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming US citizens. Many Chinese people were detained, often for months, at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, until they were able to prove that they weren’t laborers or were already citizens. The crux of the exhibit explores the conditions of the Chinese detainees with a reproduction of the immigration center at Angel Island. Vastly different from the rest of the exhibit, the replica stimulates the detention experience. The cagelike walls convey a sense of entrapment and smallness. Visitors can sit on the stiff, hard beds or go through drawers to look at immigrants’ possessions. On clothing or in embroidery are quotes from many Chinese detainees describing their struggle and frustration. On the walls are replicas of poems that were carved by detainees to describe their hopelessness. One immigrant wrote of the emotional struggle between two countries: “One should know that when the country is weak, the people’s spirit dies. Why else do we come to this place to be imprisoned?” The final part of the exhibit explores the repeal of the Chinese

Exclusion Act after World War II and the modern influence of Chinese-Americans in the United States. After the act’s repeal, Chinatowns across the country swelled in population and became integral parts of American society. A trail of large comic book pages describes the history of the Chins, a real immigrant family. While this method of conveying information isn’t as interactive as the rest of the exhibit, the story of the Chins best captured what being Chinese-American is about. The trail shows the struggles the Chins faced, such as facing persecution from kids who mistook them for a Japanese family after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. However, it also shows their activities as normal New Yorkers, riding the subway on Sundays. The exhibit displays how the Chins embraced both sides of their culture. Through the story of the Chin family, one is able to understand who Chinese-Americans are: people who are neither distinctly Chinese nor distinctly American, but rather are embodiments of both cultures. The “Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion” exhibit gives a mostly intriguing, informative firsthand experience of the anguish and the struggles of Chinese immigrants as they strove to be accepted in their new home. With interactive displays and replicas of real objects, this exhibit not only taught me the history of Chinese peoples in the United States, but also posed a question that has personal meaning for me: What does it mean to be Chinese-American?

Soham Ghoshal / The Spectator

Mural Alice in TriBeCa

One part of the Chinese American Exclusion/Inclusion Exhibit featured in the New York Historical Society.

Rebellion Takes Off in Flight must come to terms with her role as the face of a rebellion against the Capitol, which has been brutally oppressing the districts surrounding it for the past 75 years. Though Katniss is initially reluctant to serve as the so-called Mockingjay for this revolution, she decides to strike a deal with the head of District 13, President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). This agreement affirms that she will be the figurehead of the revolution as long as President Coin agrees to save Katniss’s close friend and co-tribute in the past two Hunger Games competitions Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), as well as two other prisoners in the Capitol. Since the movie primarily takes place within the dull hues of the militaristic District 13, “Mockingjay - Part 1” certainly has darker undertones than its predecessors. The bright, flashy colors of the Capital are gone and replaced with grey jumpsuits, steel staircases, and plastic lunch trays. This situation, coupled with the lack of the action-packed Hunger Games competition itself, might suggest that “Mockingjay - Part 1” is less exciting than the previous installments of the series. However, this film does not fail to keep the audience’s hearts beating audibly over its thrilling soundtrack. Still, it is questionable whether the controversial decision to split the novel “Mockingjay” into two parts was justified—especially considering that many consider “Mockingjay” to be the weakest book in the “Hunger Games” saga.

The movie begins with a close-up scene of Katniss waking up in her small bunker in District 13, and tension builds throughout its twohour running time, but there are few satisfying moments during which this tension explodes. It is almost is if the movie were a rope, with both of its ends being pulled further and further away from each other but the rope itself never snapping. This is effective in setting up for “Mockingjay - Part 2,” which will be released next November, because viewers leave the theater hungry to see what happens next, but it gives “Mockingjay - Part 1” an anticlimactic feel. Lawrence’s stunning depiction of Katniss Everdeen, however, makes up for any places where “Mockingjay - Part 1” falls short. The juxtaposition of Katniss’s nervous hand motions and defeated expression when she is inside District 13 with her sturdy, confident posture and alert eyes when she is allowed to go outside, Lawrence captures Katniss’s roaming spirit perfectly. So convincing is Lawrence’s performance that viewers are met with a sense of relief when Katniss is finally allowed to leave the claustrophobic quarters of District 13 and embark on a hunting expedition with her best friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), who motivates Katniss and provides endless comic relief, is also a key member of the cast. Though her presence in District 13 strays far from what is written in the novel “Mockingjay”—it is never

confirmed that Effie escapes from the Capital—she essentially takes on the role of Katniss’s prep team and fits in well with the plotline. Francis Lawrence, the film’s director, plays up Effie’s obsession with extravagance right from the start, and does not allow the dreary atmosphere of District 13 to hinder her fashion sense—though Effie wears the same grey jumpsuit all the other characters wear, she somehow manages to smuggle in large golden bracelets, a hair-wrap (to replace her endless supply of multicolored wigs), and many “vintage Effie” lines (most notably, “You will be the best dressed rebel in history!”). Effie’s polar opposite, the stringent president of District 13, President Coin, has a carefully put together personality that is epitomized by Coin’s straight silver hair. Francis Lawrence added a lot to Coin’s character, as she is only mentioned sporadically in the novel of “Mockingjay,” and succeeds in giving Coin a three-dimensional personality. He also portrayed Coin in a way similar to how President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is shown in the first Hunger Games movie— just as President Snow stood on a balcony overlooking the Capital citizens and the tributes during the first Tributes Parade, President Coin stands on a similarly structured balcony overlooking the people of District 13. This parallel effectively foreshadows a dark side of Coin we haven’t seen yet, and is only one of the many intricate details that make “Mockingjay - Part

1” so astounding. Another carefully planned out and very “meta” scene occurs when one of Katniss’s promotional videos, or “propos,” is displayed. The video includes an impromptu speech in which Katniss encourages each of Panem’s districts to join the rebellion, a shot of Katniss and Gale striking down two of the Capitol’s planes (Katniss with her signature bow and arrow, Gale with a gun), and it ends with a closing screen very reminiscent of the “Mockingjay - Part 1” trailers—Rue’s now iconic four-note tune and a burning mockingjay are placed in front of a black screen directly before the video ends. Certainly a selfaware move, this selection leaves the viewer pondering the effects of propaganda in wartime, a theme that goes beyond the direct implications of “Mockingjay - Part 1.” This scene, as well as many others dealing with the propaganda videos, makes “Mockingjay - Part 1” much more than just another action film set in a dystopian society. Coming out in an age when rebellion groups around the world are rising up against oppressive leaderships and increasingly using propaganda videos to further their causes, “Mockingjay - Part 1” cannot be more relevant. Perhaps brought to new dimensions when Thai students were arrested on November 19 for holding up the threefingered salute that comes to symbolize rebellion against the Capitol, “Mockingjay - Part 1” is as effective a social commentary as it is an entertaining film.

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Page 17

Arts and Entertainment

By Justin Pacquing April 28, 2014, the day that will perhaps be known for a former Hip-Hop hidden gem’s transformation into a crown jewel, marked the release of “Mt. Olympus,” the first promotional single from “Cadillactica.” In this song, Justin Scott, also known as Big K.R.I.T. (King Remembered In Time), displays his sharp and fluid lyricism over a backtrack composed of compelling violin and choral samples. With a distinct edge and composed bite not seen in previous works, Scott expresses his frustration that his rightful place among the hip-hop royalty remains unrecognized. His message is simple: pay attention.

By Arpita Nag

After the release of his sophomore album on November 10, the mainstream will have no choice but to oblige. Scott has always been the selfproclaimed “King of the South,” and this is not out of arrogance. He is more Southern Hip-Hop’s popular monarch than the mainstream’s Louis XVI (aka Kanye West). What shines about Scott’s work is that he doesn’t boast of Gucci products, nightclub promiscuity, or rap with the vulgar narcissism that popular hip-hop can be stigmatized for. Instead, he creates an intimately relatable narrative of a dreamer trying to reach his potential and earn his name. “I told them call me K.R.I.T. They told me change my name,”

Scott says in “Dreamin.’” “Don’t let nobody tell ya, try for yourself. Just know that I was once considered a dreamer but I paid my dues and turned doubters into believers.” Even if Scott’s narrative itself does not break new ground, the unique way he tells it calls for attention. Across four mix tapes and one studio album since 2010, Scott has displayed a certain willingness and even pride to share the personal experiences of his humble Mississippian roots. He is unafraid to open up to his listeners about his deep spirituality, his being raised by his late grandmother, and his feelings toward southern racial disparity. Scott is as much a storyteller and autobiographer as he is an artist. Ultimately, he seeks to connect to his audience, hoping they reciprocate his motto: “If it don’t touch my soul then I can’t listen to it.” Scott hardly reaches the scornful and crowing tone of mainstream rappers, speaking instead with the passion, lyricism, and composure that you would expect out of a slam poet. Scott also selfproduces the majority of his work, perfecting soulful and simple rich backing tracks that complement emotionally-rich narratives. Loops of piano riffs, subtle electric guitar and strings, and isolated acapella samples work in tandem with a strong, driving bass and slow, intense drums. Scott’s exploration of his story and signature sound marks his strength as a specialized artist, but also displays his pitfall. By the release of “King Remembered In Time (2013),” it’s hard to find great deviation between his work and his production. The first two songs of “Cadillactica” set up the ambitious tone of the 15-track album. “Kreation (Intro)” is the start of the album

Disney’s Big Hero 6

Since the premiere of “Tangled” in 2010, Disney has been on a streak of producing one hit after another with “Wreck-It Ralph” in 2012 and the massive win of “Frozen” in 2013. Disney’s newest movie, “Big Hero 6,” is no exception. Set in the futuristic high-tech city of San Fransokyo, “Big Hero 6” tells the story of 14-year-old robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada and the origins of the eponymous superhero team. Hiro meets an inflatable personal healthcare robot named Baymax, created by his older brother Tadashi. After a terrible life-changing disaster strikes, Hiro must team up with Baymax and a group of tech-savvy science nerds to defeat a kabuki-masked villain wreaking havoc over the city with an army of microbots. One of the movie’s highest points is its celebration of nerd culture without using pop-culture stereotypes of fandom-obsessed nerds. The movie instead focuses on the more inventive and scientific side of nerds. Rather than advertising nerd culture and eulogizing how awesome science, superheroes, and technology can be, the movie actually shows the characters applying scientific knowledge to build awe-inspiring gadgets and create their own superpowers. The presence of female scientists was especially great; they were intelligent, adventurous, and strong characters who hit the requirements for the Bechdel test. The relationships between characters were done beautifully. It’s easy to get invested in Hiro and Tadashi’s loving relationship. Tadashi’s calm and fatherly personality plays off Hiro’s wilder one as he guides Hiro through his angst and rebelliousness. This invokes both humorous interactions, like

Tadashi saving Hiro from gang members at an underground robot fighting, as well as heartfelt ones, like Hiro thanking Tadashi for showing him his potential. The group dynamic between Hiro and the rest of Big Hero 6 was also done fairly well, with each character adding contrasting quirks to the team. The bubbly Honey Lemon was balanced by the tough and stoic GoGo Tomago. Her rebelliousness also plays off of the precise and slightly neurotic personality of Wasabi. Lastly there is the laid-back Fred, who offers light humor for the team during even the most dangerous situations (one of his most memorable lines is “How cool is that?! I mean it’s scary, obviously, but how cool!”, bringing humor to the tense scene in which they are chased by the criminal). Despite this, the secondary characters were heavily underdeveloped and fell into unoriginal archetypes. Honey Lemon never went beyond being always sunny, GoGo only knew how to deliver snark, and Wasabi and Fred were mainly present for comic relief. The audience never got to know the characters, so their banding together felt rushed. Much of the plot also borders on unoriginality. In the world of emotional superhero origin stories, “Big Hero 6” does nothing groundbreaking. Within the first half hour of the movie, the overall story arc becomes quite predictable. It’s the typical “disaster befalls protagonist, a bigger conspiracy is uncovered, protagonist and friends get souped up in an overdone training montage, team messes up first battle, and they come back stronger in a big final battle” storyline. Also, some of the dialogue in the more emotional scenes is a bit cliche, such as when Hiro is in great pain and grief after he finds out the identity of the vil-

Movie

lain and cannot stop him. The attempted plot twists toward the end of the movie seem temporary and have minor emotional effect. Baymax, however, is the real showstopper in this film. Baymax is a “personal health care” robot in the form of a giant inflatable, vinyl marshmallow figure. Everything, from his quirky waddle of a walk to his protectiveness and care for Hiro’s happiness, and even his hilariously slurred drunken speech when he’s running low on battery, makes him the most lovable and endearing companion Disney character yet. He’s also full of compassion and humorous naiveté (like the running gag of his attempts at a fist bump). I especially enjoyed how he didn’t view the formation of the team and defeat of the villain as a justice-delivery mission, but as way of helping Hiro cope with emotional pain. The juxtaposition of his gentle personality in suspenseful and dangerous situations when fighting the villain also helps carry the movie and adds a sense of comfort. Another amazing part of the movie was the gorgeous animation of San Fransokyo, a hybrid city blending elements of western culture and Victorian architecture with neon lights, Shibuya skyscrapers, and Japanese cherry blossoms. Overall, “Big Hero 6” was a beautifully animated and actionpacked addition to Disney’s line of new movies. Though the plot is predictable and cliche at times, the characters were likable—especially merchandising device Baymax, who carried the movie on his huge, squishable shoulders. For anyone looking for the next groundbreaking, mind-blowing work of art, this movie does not deliver. But for those looking for a fairly memorable movie that is also fun to watch, this is the movie of choice.

and illustrates the creation of the planet known as Cadillactica. Scott presents the newly-formed fictional planet as a metaphor for his creative mind, named after the symbol of his goal for luxury: the Cadillac. Scott wants to show that he is not just capable of story-telling, but also of world-building. This is reflected in a backing-track of more atmospheric keyboard synth and bass riffs in lieu of his usual string and vocal samples. “Kreation” also establishes his aspiration of creating a flawless album when he sings, “Let’s just take our time, pretend like we started this, pretend like it’s all on us to be perfect. How about, let’s just be perfect.” “Life” continues by expressing his anxiety in creating a new planet of unexplored creative territory. He fears an artistic process full of asteroid-sized roadblocks, a fruitless traversing of the creative void, even crashing into a universe of irrelevancy. Yet, Scott understands the need to overcome the shortcomings of his previous works, saying “I’ve been damaged, but I can manage, I won’t take this for granted, life.” The first half of the album thus presents the evolution of Scott and his creative mind. “Cadillactica” and “Pay Attention,” the former a high-energy banger and the latter a slow tempo club anthem, present what he thought would be the endgame for his artistic career, getting the Cadillac and spending the most money on the floor. “King of the South” and “Soul Food” evaluate Scott’s southern influences, portraying a desire to be the unabashed representative of his heritage, spreading the values and experiences he considers core to himself and the spark to his creative energy. What’s impres-

sive about this section alone is the presentation of the wide range of music styles Scott explores, reaching both more mainstream HipHop and R&B sounds, which are desperately missing in his previous works, while still maintaining the genuineness of his narrative. “Standby (Interlude)” suspends the youthful tone and presents the coming-of-age of Scott’s artistic process, setting the tone for slow reflection. If the first half was a response to the criticism his previous works faced, the second half reminds his audience why they started paying attention in the first place. “Do You Love Me For Real” and “Third Eye” return to Scott’s idea that his goals are defined by cars and clubs, twisting them into an honest desire for love and romance. “Angels” brings about the beloved religious motif, a solemn song contemplating the darkness and turbulence that can interrupt the planet of Cadillactica. “Saturday = Celebration,” with an impressive feature from Jamie N Commons, is Scott’s emphatic promise to defeat his demons and live his life to the fullest without fear of what comes after death. The album ends with “Lost Generation,” a final comment on the departure of Cadillactica combined with the lessons Scott feels should apply to his audience involving destructive behaviors and ideas. “Cadillactica” may not be a perfect piece, as tracks like “My Sub Pt. 3 (Big Bang)” and “Mo Better Cool” fall short of Scott’s vision for the album, but it is the best and most complete work of Scott’s to date. Scott defends his claim as current “King of the South” and, with the growth as an artist he displayed, he makes a case for future “King of Hip Hop.”

Festival Lighting Up The Manhattan Bridge

Rocky Lam / The Spectator

Sunny Chen/ The Spectator

Music “Cadillactica”: The Second Coming of the King of the South

One of the festival’s light shows projected a 3D mapping on the brick arch of the Manhattan Bridge.

By Rocky Lam and Mahfuza Sabiha For decades, DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) has been one of Brooklyn’s most buzz-worthy neighborhoods, widely known for its waterfront park and Grimaldi’s pizzeria. Festivals occur all year, but something especially enlivened its cobblestone streets this November. On the nights of November 6th, 7th, and 8th, the New York Festival of Lights (NYFOL) came to DUMBO. Like other annual lights festivals in London and Berlin, the NYFOL was almost an outdoor nightclub, with thumping music, vibrant laser lights, and a “disco man” dressed in a disco ball suit who slowly danced around on a platform, illuminating the Manhattan Bridge and the buildings with jazzy lights. Although the NYFOL gave off a party vibe, it also included an exhibition of well-crafted art pieces that incorporated light. Some of these pieces included a human figure made up entirely of lights inside a translucent “skin,” a “Heart Filling Station,” – a peaceful tent that

projected comforting animations of rotating roses and sun flares accompanied by soft music– and balloon chains in the sky, as well as featuring light shows throughout the night. All through the night different geometrical patterns and animations played across the Manhattan Bridge archway, making the bridge appear to float as it twisted and bended around into eccentric shapes. The light show was unique and left viewers questioning the solidarity of their surroundings. (Someone in the crowd asked the eternal question, “What if we’re actually looking at this while we’re high?”) On the last night, the light show was unfortunately shut down due to the overwhelming mass of people that started to clog up the streets. Some were trapped within the immense crowd while others were left stranded at the end of the line, which started forming even when the archway could not possibly fit any more people. Everyone was scurrying to catch the last glimpses of the festival, but many left without even witnessing a single light show.

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The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

Arts and Entertainment

By Lev akabas “I’ll come back.” “When?” When Interstellar director Christopher Nolan told Hans Zimmer to compose the theme for the film’s soundtrack in 24 hours, he showed him only those two lines of dialogue and a one-page short story about a father leaving his child to go do an important job. Despite a complex plot about the survival of the human race, at its core, Interstellar is about the personal relationship between a father and his daughter. As expected from the Nolan, the creative director of “Memento,” “Inception,” “The Prestige,” and the “Dark Knight” trilogy, Interstellar is, at least technically, exceptionally well done. Though certainly not without its flaws, the film is visually stunning, suspenseful, and original.

Though certainly not without its flaws, the film is visually stunning, suspenseful, and original. Set in the future, when crop disease has forced human civilization into a deteriorating agrarian society potentially nearing extinction, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a farmer who

Interstellar is, if Nothing Else, Epic lives with his father-in-law and two children. In the opening scenes, his close connection with his daughter, Murphy, is palpable, as they share curiosity and adventurousness. Together, they find a secret NASA station led by Professor John Brand (Michael Caine), who reveals that mysterious aliens have created a wormhole leading to distant planets offering potential hope for human survival. Brand recruits Cooper, a former NASA pilot, to head the mission that will investigate the habitability of these planets. Cooper departs on the spaceship with Brand’s daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), two scientists, and two robots—a decision that leaves Murphy devastated and angry. Perhaps the movie’s greatest strength is its visual effects, as the uncertainty surrounding far away galaxies, wormholes, and black holes allows Nolan to use his creative license. And yet, with the guidance of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, these phenomena are depicted with unprecedented accuracy on the big screen, according to scientists. This combination of imagination and science results in breathtaking sequences in outer space that feel real, nonetheless. As awe-inspiring as the film is visually, the soundtrack is equally impressive and beautiful. Dead silence is used effectively to portray the vastness and emptiness of space. Conversely, tension in key moments is accentuated through dramatic, loud orchestral chords, similar to those in Zimmer’s soundtrack for “Inception.” In addition to an intense score, the movie is captivating due to effective plot twists. With

the exception of a few foreseeable turns in the story, it is largely unpredictable and keeps you on the edge of your seat. You feel like you are taking a brave journey along with the astronauts, as both you and they are kept guessing about what extraordinary spectacles you might find upon landing on an unknown planet. That being said, before the mission actually gets under way, the movie progresses very slowly— you really just want to get into space already. Though not sensational, the acting is strong, particularly the performance of McConaughey, who makes you genuinely feel for his character. In one of many powerful scenes carried by McConaughey’s emotion, Cooper breaks into tears while watching video messages from his children back on Earth, not knowing whether he will make it back alive to see them again. The other leads are not nearly as effective at invoking emotion, but in part due to some cheesy, clunky dialogue. When Hathaway’s character delivers a monologue about how love transcends time and space, the idea is mildly interesting, but because the lines are forced and unauthentic, you don’t truly feel what she’s saying. The movie also presents several undeveloped side characters and relationships. For example, while Cooper’s connection with his daughter is a major focus, Professor Brand’s father-daughter relationship with Amelia is almost entirely disregarded to the point that it’s easy to forget that the two are related. Additionally, the two scientists on the ship don’t have any emotional interactions with the main characters. Similarly, Cooper’s son doesn’t have any

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defining character traits, which is awkward in contrast to the attention given to Murphy. But even the relationship between Cooper and Murphy is not explored deeply. You accept the fact that they’re extremely close until they part on bad terms when Cooper leaves Earth, but beyond that, the intricacies of their relationship is lost in a chaotic jumble of characters and themes. And the themes are there, but much like the film’s treatment of its characters, it simply juggles too many to fully flesh them all out. The most thought-provoking motif is that Cooper has two conflicting motives: his responsibility to save humanity and his desire to return home to his family. This macro-micro dichotomy is well developed and forces you to ponder larger themes about human existence without having them shoved down your throat. But the constant flood of intellectual themes that are touched on, such as the universal nature of love and the notion that humans must reach higher because anything is possible, is overwhelming. And when the signature Nolan “mind-blowing” ending finally arrives, it’s sort of cool, but not all that interesting. The last halfhour is dragged out and leaves you more confused than satisfied, and not in a good way. Think of “Interstellar” as a gymnastics vault in which the gymnast does a record number of somersaults and twists, but does so many of them so quickly that it’s hard for the judge to figure out what exactly is being done, and the gymnast is too off-balance to stick the landing. Overall, Nolan is not fully in control of Interstellar the way his

Annie Sim / The Spectator

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is with his other films. In “Memento,” “The Prestige,” and “Inception,” everything is carefully crafted—every foreshadowing, every subtle reveal to the audience is well thought-out, and the best part is that it all makes complete sense. “Interstellar” feels relatively messy. There aren’t gaping holes in the plot, but there are very rough patches, and you’re forced to make too many stretches in order to make the story believable. The movie tries to be too epic at the expense of clarity and precision. “The Dark Knight Rises,” Nolan’s prior film, faces similar problems to a lesser degree, but its last 15 minutes are so out-ofthis-world awesome that it gets a free pass. The ending of “Interstellar” isn’t good enough to forgive the movie’s mistakes, but the one thing you can’t deny about the film is that, for better or for worse, it is epic. From its extraordinary visual effects to its ambitious intellectual reach, there has never been a movie quite like it.

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

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Arts and Entertainment Holiday Recipes

Courtesy of New York Times

Plum Torte 1/2 cup unsalted butter 3/4 cup plus one tbsp. sugar 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon peel 1/4 tsp. salt 2 large eggs 15 prune plums, pit removed, quartered ~1 tbsp. lemon juice 1/4 tsp. cinnamon Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar at a medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt and mix briefly. Add the eggs and beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the plum quarters on top, pressing them slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the cake with the remaining tablespoon sugar. Squeeze some lemon juice over the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until browned, set and crispy. Let cool. Makes 8 servings.

Mulled Apple Cider 3 pods allspice 3 cloves 1 stick cinnamon (whole or crushed) 1 quart apple cider

Plum Torte is a typical Yom Kippur, break-the-fast dessert. The plums needed for the recipe are in season at about the same time as the Jewish High Holidays. It’s a nice tart dish and comes out beautifully.

Pour apple cider into a large pot. Put allspice and cloves into a large tea strainer. If cinnamon is crushed, add to the strainer. If whole, leave out of the strainer, as it will be easy to remove. Place the spices into the pot and heat on stovetop over low heat for 30 minutes. Remove the spices. A pleasant and easy do-it-yourself project for the holidays. Mulled ciders and wines have a long history, and the spices make for a richer cup of cider. Drink hot or chilled.

Saffron Rice With Barberries 2-3 cups Basmati rice 1/2 cup of barberries 1/2 tsp. crushed saffron oil Heat ~6 cups of water to a boil, then add rice. Cook rice for 7 minutes until soft on the outside and hard on the inside. Drain water through a colander. Mix saffron and berries well with the rice. Prep a dry, clean pot with 1 tablespoon oil on medium heat. Pour rice into the pot, cover, and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

Cynthia Sze/ The Spectator

A traditional Persian dish that uses saffron to change the underlying flavor of the rice. Barberries, most often used in Iran and Patagonia, are the Persian equivalent of cranberries (which tend to turn into a disastrous mush if cooked like this). Their tartness enlivens the dish in sharp bursts. Serves very well with meats of all cuisines, including chicken, turkey, and fish fillets. ADVERTISEMENTS

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The Spectator â&#x2014;? December 10, 2014

Street Art

By The Photo Department

The Spectator â&#x2014;? December 10, 2014

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Street Art

By The Photo Department

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

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

Alicia Chen / The Spectator

Catholic Church Furious Over Seniors’ Nun Costumes

By Fish Milnikiewicz It was the thirty-first of October of the year 2014 A.D. when an act more vile than any other was committed. On this day, the angels wept and the devils laughed; the saints cried and the sinners sang. For on this day, several male Stuyvesant seniors decided to dress as nuns for Stuylloween. The Catholic Church is now furious.

“We thought the nun costumes were O.D. funny, and we didn’t think the Church would get all sus about the whole thing. How about I make it up by buying everyone Chipotle?” —Chris Kim, senior

The Spectator conducted a short interview with the Vatican seven days and seven nights ago. “The actions taken by thy students art entirely malapropos, and if a formal apology be noth received, the Hudson River shalt be parted into halves, and thy students shalt be crucified,” a spokesperson for the Vatican said. “If a formal apology be received, the water in thy swimming pool shalt be turned into wine. Amen.” Several of the accused students feel that the Church is overreacting. “Yo deadass, we didn’t mean to offend anyone,” senior Chris Kim said. “We thought the nun costumes were O.D. funny, and we didn’t think the Church would get all sus about the whole thing. How about I make it up by buying everyone Chipotle?” While some teachers agree with Kim, including Religion teacher Based God (be sure to read his reviews on ratemyteachers.com), others find his argument unconvincing. “All of the seniors involved in this fiasco need to be exorcised, for they are being possessed by Satan,” a teacher who wishes to remain anonymous said. Indeed, the Church has a reason to be upset. In addition to wearing the costumes, the seniors spent Halloween reciting hymns praising “Kanye Yeezus West” and replacing the school water fountains with holy water, which was admittedly just regular water blessed by history teacher Kerry Trainor. Hallelujah.

dered on sight, and brought him down to the new interrogation room installed behind the student lounge. During the interrogation, details on a potential terrorist plot kept emerging, with particular attention being placed on a tweet last week from Daniel stating “omg, gonna bomb U.S. #IDGF.” So far, The Islamic Domain of Greater Fez (IDGF) has not yet claimed a connection between their organization and Goynatsky’s actions, but a “volunteer” trip to Morocco last summer under the guise of “doing it for college” was extremely suspicious. Further investigation of Goynatsky also found other incriminating evidence, including a long record of participating in subversive movements, including protests such as “Slutty Wednesday” and “Bring Back Damesek.” As a direct result of these events, Goynatsky has been transferred to Guantana-

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

On Friday, November 14, Stuyvesant High School underwent a rapid dismissal. As the entire student body quickly exited the building under the direction of school authorities, senior Daniel Goynatsky was faced with a dilemma. He could follow the authoritarian directions of the administration and enter the sub-zero temperatures of Battery Park, or he could break Stuyvesant’s rigorous security protocol and run to his fourth floor locker for his coat. Goynatsky’s first instinct was to ask the security guards before heading upstairs. As he approached the first floor command center, he spotted junior Lucas Weiner appealing to the guards, no doubt for the same reason. Goynatsky was horrified when two security guards smashed Weiner over the head before dragging him outside and

leaving him in the cold. “Usually, we’re not allowed to touch the students, but if they’re violating the dress code or we’re under a rapid dismissal, we have more leeway,” a security guard commented. Desperately trying to avoid a confrontation, Goynatsky retreated into the stairwell and sprinted up to the second floor to take the escalator. It was while he was on the 2-to-4 that Assistant Principal of Security, Safety, Student Affairs, Rapid Dismissal Protocol, Health, and Physical Education Brian Moran sighted him on the school surveillance system. “The school security was at DEFCON 2, so standard operating procedure dictated to call in SEAL Team Six,” said Moran, who used to serve in the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group as Director of Terrorist Phone Disarmament. The SEALs quickly apprehended Goynatsky, who surren-

A Stuyvesant student is caught at his locker during a rapid dismissal.

mo Bay to be monitored. While many agree that this was a necessary act of public safety, not everyone supports the decision to transfer Goynatsky. “I’ve never heard of anyone go-

ing to Harvard Law after coming from Guantanamo, and they don’t even have a holistic admissions process!” bemoaned his mother.

Struggling Spectator Writer Resorts to Meta-Article

By Jordan Hodder

A writer for The Spectator Humor Department recently claimed that he had the perfect idea for a hilarious article. Junior Jordan Hodder, when asked by his editors to contribute possible ideas for articles, swore that his idea had “a lot of potential,” and that it would be incredibly memorable. He tragically forgot it several hours later and was forced to take desperate measures. According to Hodder, that article would have been the one to make him legendary in the world of satire. “I swear that idea was perfect,” he said. “And I think it would’ve given me the competitive edge that I needed to become an editor. Then I would have been one step away from a full-time job writing for The Onion, and the next thing you know, I would be the next Stephen Colbert.”

Feeling internal pressure to come up with an idea for an article, Hodder resorted to the lowest form of degradation: self-reference. “I hate to stoop this low,” he said. “But irony is really just a low-hanging fruit, and self-reference is the easiest form of irony.

“I honestly doubt I’ll be able to show my face in the Humor Department again.” —Jordan Hodder, junior

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a little damaging to my reputation, but I’ve got to write something, mediocre or not, if I want to rise to the top.” Before he knew it, he had found himself writing an article about himself struggling to remember an idea he had for an article and instead writing an article about himself writing an article about himself writing a meta-article. At this point, Hodder feels he is just “taking up space writing about [himself] taking up space writing about writing a meta-article.” At press time, Hodder severely regretted writing an article about regretting writing about writing a self-referential article. “I honestly doubt I’ll be able to show my face in the Humor Department again,” he said he said he said he said he said.

COMIC

Luna Oiwa/ The Spectator

By Adam DeHovitz

Student Endangers Entire Student Body by Going to Locker during Rapid Dismissal

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

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The Spectator ●December 10, 2014

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Sports Boys’ Basketball

Courtesy of Jimmy Lauchoy

Rebels Come Back for More

Senior Arlex Gole drives to the hoop during the Rebels’ non-league game at Brooklyn Tech.

By Eric Morgenstern Last season’s Rebels squad of 14 players featured nine juniors, all of whom have returned and are ready to utilize their experience this year. “We had a strong season last year, and it was a great learning experience for the first year guys,” senior Roman Szul said. Many of the seniors, however, did not see much playing time last year. Szul played very limited minutes last season but is ready to step up this season and take on a bigger key role. “[I’ll give] everything 100 percent [effort] and [be] the best possible teammate I [can] be,” Szul said. “I also want to make sure I’m doing all the stuff that doesn’t show up in the box score, like communication on defense and hustling.” Senior and co-captain Noah Brook also did not start last season, but did get some experience under his belt. Now, he must step up to

the challenge of being a team leader while also taking on a bigger role on the court. “Last year we had some struggles with communication and consistency. If we want to perform at our highest level on a daily basis, I have to stay vocal with the team and keep the energy up for 32 minutes,” Brook said. Two of the seniors, Henry Luo and Kyler Chase, were starters for the football team that went deep in the playoffs, so they only began attending basketball practices regularly last week. Neither had significant playing time last season, but both are expected to have a major impact on the court this year. Chase, a big-bodied forward, plans to have stronger presence on the court due to his size and tough mindset. “I’m the most aggressive player on the team. Boxing out, setting screens and crashing the boards are how I plan on making my presence felt,” Chase said.

Coach Philip Fisher anticipates the return of the two seniors. In the team’s preseason scrimmages, “Noah [Brook] and [senior] Lev [Akabas] didn’t come off the court, and I would like to get them some rest,” Fisher said. Luo and Chase provide the depth necessary for that to happen, and their return would feel “like a mid-season transaction,” Fisher said. The coach hopes that the transition from football to basketball goes smoothly for the two big men, as the team is in need of more size. Senior guards Arlex Gole and Jeffrey Zheng have big shoes to fill because Matthew Dalton (’14) was the Rebels’ primary ball handler and pace-setter last season. In addition to losing Dalton, the team also lost its leading scorer, Imtiaz Hassan (’14), which will force players to increase their production to make up for those points. Szul, who was the team’s high scorer in their seasonopening loss at Washington Irving with 13 points, believes the team can adjust to the loss of valuable seniors. “It’s a different team, a different system,” Szul said. The Rebels finished with an even record of 8-8 last season, but they are ready to improve on their first round playoff exit with a more experienced roster. In order to do this, however, they must shoot free throws at a higher percentage and run their offense with more precision than they have in their scrimmages. “This team can go far. The primary goal for the team is make the playoffs, but we really want to go further this year,” Brook said. “We have a few more months to give it our all and see if this team can live up to what Coach Fisher thinks it can be.”

Girls’ Basketball

Phoenix Aim to Fly High By Louis Susser

Bringing back three of their five starters from last year, the Phoenix is determined to surpass last season’s 12-2 record, which tied them for first in their division. The Phoenix was unable to advance past the second round of playoffs due to its loss against the second-seeded Port Richmond, which ended its season in a somewhat disappointing fashion. Coach Vincent Miller hopes that juniors Alexis Kushner and Rose Cytryn will be able to replace last season’s seniors Marie Frolich (’14) and Wei Dan Yang (’14) in the starting five and perform at a similar caliber of play. Frolich was a huge team contributor last season, averaging 12 points per game. But the most talented players on the court last year for the Phoenix were not seniors. Last season, current seniors and co-captains Sophie Gershon and Lauren Sobota averaged 17 and 13 points per game, respectively, and are expected to produce just as many points, if not more, in the coming season. “[Gershon] and [Sobota] are the backbone of the team,” Miller said. The Phoenix added four freshmen for this season and is expecting potential talent from them. Miller expressed

his excitement and believes that they can contribute to the team not only in the long run, but also in this season. The Phoenix is certainly putting in the work required to build the foundations of a playoff team. Miller holds daily, highly structured two-hour practices to work on cardio as well as basketball fundamentals. They start out running laps around the gymnasium, then work on layups, jump shots, and foul shots, practice 3-on-2 and 2-on-1 fast-breaks, and finish off with more running. “We aren’t the tallest team,” Miller admitted. Since height cannot be increased with hard work and practice, the team must make up for its lack of height by improving in other areas of the game. “We need to play more aggressively this season and box-out better,” Miller said. “That was one of our weaknesses last season, especially as we started to face bigger teams in the playoffs.” The Phoenix cannot rely on Gershon, who stands over six feet tall and grabbed the fourth most rebounds in the city last season, to get every rebound. The Phoenix needs to play more aggressively if it wants to succeed against stronger opponents come playoffs time.

Girls’ Gymnastics

Felines Climb Up By May Chen Following up one of their best seasons in the past several years, the Felines are approaching the upcoming season confidently. Last winter, the team placed fifth in the city championships, but was only 0.6 points away from placing third. “We were one fall and one bent leg away from third place,” coach Vasken Choubaralian said. Being that each fall is worth half a point, it was small mistakes that kept the Felines from a higher standing. “Hopefully this might give the team motivation to really work on the little things that cost us points so we can place higher this year,” sophomore

Maria Fomitchova said. Under the leadership of Anna Ruta (’14) and Ruihan Zhao (’14), the team made improvements last season. This year, the team is under the leadership of senior and captain Fauna Mahootian. The team suffered the loss of Ruta, an experienced, wellrounded gymnast who competed in all four events: bars, beams, floor, and vault. “She was someone the team really relied on,” Choubaralian said. However, he believes that sophomores Sonia Epstein, Maria Fotmichova, and Grace Stempel are at the former captain’s level. In addition, new freshmen this year have experience in gymnastics and dancing. Freshman Anna

Pacheco is a notable newcomer who is familiar with beams and bars, which allows her to practice more advanced skills outside of school. She will become an important asset for the team as the season progresses. The Felines had a rough start due to their overlap with the volleyball season. Because Choubaralian also coached the girls’ volleyball team, the girls’ gymnastics team had to adjust. Practices were later, shorter, and inconvenient. But with the end of the fall season, Choubaralian can now fully concentrate on the Felines. Lack of space, however, is still a prevalent problem. The girls’ and boys’ gymnastics teams have to set up and share the same

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area, making efficient practice difficult. Not all events are the same for the girls and boys gymnastics team, meaning that they have conflicting equipment. The Felines have more of an issue with bars because they require prior gymnastics experience with the equipment. In addition, bars take longer time to set up, which means they don’t get as much attention as they should. The team has improved not only in standing and scores, but also in unity, which has helped improve morale and dedication. They have team sleepovers and dinners as well as team cheers and dances that help the members bond. Since gymnastics involves

a lot of strength and precision, performing well is only possible if they prepare their bodies during conditioning and pre-season workouts. In addition, the Felines have begun a diet consisting of fruits and a restriction from foods and drinks with no nutritional value, a strategy that the girls’ swimming team has also used in recent years. Despite inconveniences at the beginning of the season, the team has been performing even better than last year in practices. “Doing so well last year really motivates us to do well this year,” junior Jenn Dikler said. “Everyone started strong in practice and even improved.”

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

Page 25

Sports Boys’ Swimming

Pirates Hope to Regain Their Title By Sabrina Huang and Susan Wu Last year, the Pirates went undefeated in the regular season and entered playoffs at the top of their division, but lost to the Brooklyn Tech Engineers in the championship meet. Three years ago, when the current seniors were just freshmen, the Pirates dominated Brooklyn Tech to win the city championship. Since then, the Engineers have strengthened their team, allowing them to turn the rivalry around and defeat Stuyvesant by large margins in the past two seasons. This year, the Pirates seek to regain the upper hand. The renovation of Stuyve-

sant’s swimming pool over the past two years forced the Pirates to hold practices at the Seward Park High School pool. The lack of a home pool was inconvenient, and the additional travel time meant practices had to be shortened by roughly 45 minutes each day. Furthermore, most of the Pirates’ meets were held at opponents’ schools and early morning practices became impossible. Other benefits of practicing in the Stuyvesant pool include having six lanes as opposed to four to swim in, and having pristine diving blocks off of which to practice diving starts. “This year we have a much better pool and practices are much harder thanks to a better facility,” junior Beck Zhu said. “We

are also incorporating more drylands to help build strength and power in the pool.” Last year, the Pirates were led by exceptional seniors who contributed greatly to the team. Cocaptain Brandon Koo (’14) ranked fourth in the city in the 50-yard freestyle, seventh in the 100-yard freestyle, and sixth in the 100yard backstroke. Alexander Gurvets (’14) and Michael Lim (’14) also contributed significantly as divers on the team, ranking fifth and sixth in the city respectively. “The seniors last year were a core group of dedicated kids that worked hard. They brought more than swimming from wall to wall and were also natural leaders,” coach Peter Bologna said. This season, the Pirates re-

cruited sophomore Richard Lee, who is relatively inexperienced compared to Gurvets and Lim, but will still be very valuable as the team’s new diver. Throughout the season, Lee will be able to practice and gain the experience needed to win a few points at every meet, especially now that the team can train in their home pool, which is equipped with a diving board. The Pirates have striven to win the championships against Brooklyn Tech these past two years, and although they have lost exceptional seniors, the Engineers have as well. “We have a great chance of winning this year, and we won’t back down from the fight,” junior Justin Lin said.

Bologna, too, expects the Pirates to push their limits. “I’m hoping that the loss last season will fire up these boys to work hard […] to get faster throughout the season,” Bologna said. While the rookies are not as exceptional as the team would have hoped for to replace the seniors from last year, they have the potential to grow exponentially over the course of the season. After a 54-36 victory over Roosevelt Educational Campus on Tuesday, December 2, to open up the season, the team is off to a strong start. “All in all, our strength is our depth,” Bologna said. “I hope that this comes into play so that we can utilize all the members of the team.”

ed all across Europe for a chance to land a spot in the Euro 2016 finals, was held from November 14 to 16. Here’s what we learned:

Additionally, it may be time to replace veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, as he has gradually been making more and more mistakes with age. Youngsters like Mattia Perin and Francesco Bardi would be more than happy to take up Buffon’s mantle, while current second-choice Italy goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu has proved himself more than capable at the international level on multiple occasions.

the Czech Republic. The Netherlands seemingly got back on track after they drubbed pitiful Latvia 6-0 in Amsterdam. The result, however, is quite misleading. Latvia has never been much of a challenge to score on, and the Netherlands clearly have enough quality to put many goals past Latvia’s keeper. Furthermore, despite the brilliance of both Robin van Persie (1 goal) and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (2 goals), the team has still not resolved which one will be the starting forward. With van Persie out of form for his club, Huntelaar seems the obvious candidate. Hiddink, however, has insisted on playing both up front and moving forward Arjen Robben out wide. Huntelaar and van Persie have a strained relationship, to say the least, and the unwillingness of Hiddink to pick one to partner Robben up front highlights his inability to make tough choices to benefit

the team. 3. Slovakia continues to surprise.

Three Things We Learned from Round 4 of Euro 2016 Qualifying

Soham Ghoshal / The Spectator

1. Italy has work to do.

By Daniel Gutman The fourth round of qualifying matches for the 2016 European Championships, in which national soccer teams from the Faroe Islands to Turkey compet-

Under new manager Antonio Conte, Italy was supposed to bounce back following its disappointing group stage exit from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Italy has not had the smoothest of starts, however, and the team’s 1-1 draw with Croatia showcased its multitude of problems. Conte’s objection to using wing players in their natural positions has been a subject of debate for the Italian faithful, and the squad’s weakness on the wings shows that wingers need to be implemented. Adding them in would not only greatly increase the width of play, but would also prevent the opposition from taking advantage of space available on the flanks of the field.

2. Hiddink might not have been the right choice of manager for the Netherlands. Following the departure of World Cup hero Louis van Gaal to English giants Manchester United, the Dutch national team hired Gus Hiddink as his successor as manager. The results have been less than thrilling. At the moment, the Dutch sit in third place in their Euro 2016 qualifying group, behind Iceland and

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An unlikely candidate to even qualify for the finals, Slovakia has surprised many with four consecutive wins in a row, including victories over group favorites Spain and Ukraine. The most recent match saw a 2-0 victory in Skopje against Macedonia. Goals from Juraj Kucka and Adam Nemec sealed the win for Slovakia before the first half even ended, and the remainder of the game was essentially just a formality before the victory was confirmed. With players like Napoli’s Marek Hamsik and Liverpool FC’s Martin Škrtel putting in star performances for their country, Slovakia could yet cause a huge upset and oust either underperforming Spain or hopeful Ukraine from their seemingly guaranteed Euro 2016 spots.

The Spectator ●December 10, 2014

Page 26

Sports Boys’ Badminton

Girls’ Volleyball

Derrick Lui / The Spectator

Vixens Suffer Early Playoff Exit Against Hunter

The Vixens play against Hunter in their second playoff game.

By JEFFERY SU A loud, raucous crowd was on hand on Tuesday, November 18, as the Vixens lost to undefeated Hunter in the second round of the playoffs. The Vixens were looking to match the postseason success they achieved last year, when they made the third round. “We had the potential to win, but our mental game wasn’t so great, and we made some unforced errors,” senior and co-captain Hannah Yep said. The Vixens were a step slow to start off the game, resulting in missed opportunities early on. “We gave them free points with our missed serves, shanks, and carelessness. It’s hard to come back strong after you mess up,” junior Tammy Liang said. The crowd played a large

role as well, provoking the Vixens into unforced errors. “[They] had a big crowd. The gym was also really small, so it made [the crowd] seem even larger and louder,” Liang said. The Vixens didn’t win many easy points off of serves, as they finished the game with only three aces to Hunter’s nine. Senior and co-captain Julia Gokhberg, who led the team in aces during the regular season with 35, served only one ace in the match. As the first set went on, however, the Vixens rediscovered their strength in a blazing 13-5 run. “Julia was doing so well putting up the ball for the hitters. Hannah was blocking, hitting, and covering well. Veronika [Azzara] had some amazing kills. Mariya [Kulyk] and Georgia [Kamm] were executing their passes well. Chloé

[Delfau] was blocking and hitting great,” Liang said. Although the Vixens made a late push to make things interesting in the first set, they had already dug themselves too deep a hole. They lost the first set 25-23 in a hard-fought, but frustrating, manner. “We missed a total of four serves, whereas Hunter only missed one. We basically gave them three free points, which could have changed the outcome of the first set,” sophomore Chloé Delfau said. The Vixens didn’t fare any better in the second set, as Hunter was the more aggressive team. Hunter’s players achieved game-highs in assists, kills, and digs. The Vixens could not compete talent-wise, losing the second set 25-14 to end their season. “Although we played hard, because of the unforced errors that occurred, it really lowered our morale, and put us in a pit,” Delfau said. This early playoff exit comes as a disappointment. The team did show composure after a rocky start to the first set, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit. Though Gokhberg finished with 12 assists, Kulyk had eight kills, and Liang had 10 digs, it wasn’t enough. Fortunately, the Vixens will only lose three seniors going into next season, giving them an experienced roster. With Delfau, Kulyk, and other key Vixens returning to the court, the girls will have to make improvements in order to push farther into the playoffs.

Late Surge to Third Place By Joshua Zhu As sophomore Jeffrey Wang delivered a final smash, a massive cheer arose from the bleachers. It seemed like a complete overreaction, as Stuyvesant’s boys’ badminton team only won the consolation bronze medal match against Brooklyn Tech, placing third in the playoffs. However, looking back at a season filled with faltering at uncanny moments, the celebration becomes understandable. Stuyvesant began the season with championship aspirations. The team hoped to bounce back from their heartbreaking semifinal exit the previous year. With a largely unchanged roster and experience gained from the previous season, Stuyvesant had high hopes going into the 2014 season. In September, Stuyvesant lived up to their expectations with a 4-0 record. The team began to regress, however, when they lost their next three games and ended the regular season with a 6-4 record. “The way we started this season fueled our self esteem, but also made us too confident,” senior and captain Kevin Liang said. “Our overconfidence and some other issues led us to break down toward the end of the season.” The team’s biggest issue was overdependence on its star players: sophomores Jeffrey Wang and Charles Sang, playing first and second singles, respectively. Stuyvesant regularly gained a 2-0 lead in matches, leading to the unhealthy mindset that the team only needed to win one more match to emerge victorious from the best-of-five format, which they did not often achieve. “I was honored to be such a big part of the team’s success, but I definitely think there is a problem when you only rely on me and Jeffrey [Wang],” Sang said. “Basically, our team does not even have a shot at winning games unless me and [Wang] win our games, and that puts a lot of pressure on us to perform well.” Despite overreliance on their star players, Stuyvesant still managed to sneak into the playoffs with the last

wild card spot. Entering the postseason as the eighth seed, Stuyvesant was matched up against undefeated, firstseeded, New Utrecht. “We were definitely impressed by [New Utrecht’s] record, but we didn’t let that intimidate us because they play in a [weaker] division,” Liang said. The team’s mental focus helped them compete as they pulled off massive upset over New Utrecht 3-2 and advanced to the semi-finals. In the semifinals, Stuyvesant was matched up with fourth-seeded Bronx Science. Entering with a similar mindset to their first round game, Stuyvesant hoped to continue their Cinderella story, but they lost 3-2 to Bronx Science. “We had a lot of luck near the end of the season—sneaking into the playoffs and beating the number one ranked team,” senior Daniel Goynatsky said. “Nevertheless, our luck ran out in the end, and we only have ourselves to blame for that.” Stuyvesant’s hopes for a championship were gone, but they had one last chance against Brooklyn Tech to claim third place. There was a surprisingly large turnout for the team’s last game. Motivated by the support of their fans, Stuyvesant came out with a 3-2 victory and a third-place finish in the playoffs. “We already lost to Bronx Science and just wanted to go out there and redeem ourselves. The season was frustrating for a lot of us, and we just wanted to channel that into one final game,” said Liang. “The crowd was motivational, and we didn’t want to let them down, so we went out there and won for them.” Although there was a lot that could be improved, the team managed to turn around a deteriorating season into a third place finish in the playoffs. The team gained valuable experience that will not go to waste, as 15 of the team’s 18 players will be returning next season. Hopefully, the team will not have to rely as much on its top players, but with Wang and Sang both back next season, their team will be a force to be reckoned with.

The Spectator ● December 10, 2014

Page 27

Sports Boys’ Wrestling

Spartans Start Off Viciously By Jeffrey Zheng Finishing last year with a mediocre 4-3 record, the Spartans were hungry and worked overtime during the offseason in order to improve. “We held a long, hard pre-season, and this first month or so of official season has been nothing short of brutal,” senior Paul Dzhugostran said. Led by quick pins from senior and co-captain Tony Chung in the 145-pound weight class and junior and co-captain Neil Meepagala in the 120-pound weight class, The Spartans easily took down the Queens High School Complex Eagles 57-18 on Tuesday, November 2. The Eagles had no chance against the Spartans in their non-league season opener. “All the veterans were prepared. I was a little worried for the people who never started before, but the majority of them came out on top,” said Meepagala, who pinned his freshman opponent in a mere 33 seconds. The new starters this year include senior Ishmam Choudhury, junior Arvin Azam, junior David Veller, and freshman Terence Wong. With captains Chung and Meepagala leading, the Spartans started their training early in Sep-

tember. “Our captains Tony and Neil are doing a really good job of leading by example. As a result, our conditioning is much better. We would run in the park, and do pushups, jumps, and other conditioning drills. We really put in work,” Choudhury said. Veterans Choudhury and junior Timon Luo, who did not wrestle much last year, stepped up in their first matches and won. In the 160-pound weight class, Choudhury, in two minutes and 42 seconds, was able to battle through his match. There was a stoppage midway through the match when Choudhury saw blood on his hand. Fortunately, it was just a reopening of a small cut, and the match continued after he wrapped it up. “I got the initial takedown, and I had trouble keeping the guy on bottom, but I wasn’t letting him escape. I kept returning him to the mat,” Choudhury said. Although being physically strong is important for wrestling, being mentally strong is just as important. “The hardest part about wrestling is not the physical, but rather the mental aspect of the sport, and I think we were all mentally prepared for the match,” Chung said. Choudhury agreed that the

Spartans were successful due to their confidence. “Being mentally prepared means not being intimidated, believing that you’re going to go out there and win that match. If you don’t feel that way, it really affects your wrestling— you’ll be afraid to shoot for takedowns, you won’t tie up as well,” Choudhury said. Despite an easy victory against the Eagles, the Spartans can certainly improve. “It could’ve been an even easier victory. None of us wrestled perfectly, but that’s the nature of these first matches. We have the entire season ahead of us to look through the video and work on improving technical flaws,” Dzhugostran said. The Spartans will definitely need to be as close to perfect as they can against tougher teams like the Brooklyn Technical Engineers and the Wingate Education Campus Generals. The Engineers finished a perfect 7-0, won the PSAL championship, and shut out the Spartans 72-0 in the final regular season match. “It’s going to get a lot harder,” senior Calvin Cheung said. “[The Eagles] didn’t have their full roster, and teams like the two-time defending champs Brooklyn Tech will be extremely challenging.”

“Colette helped guide me through the admissions process while also advising me on what would help and hurt my chances. As a ﬁrst-generation Asian-American I was at an extreme disadvantage during the college application process. Neither of my parents attended college so everything I learned came from school. In the end, her advice and aid helped me attain a full scholarship, something I wouldn’t have dreamed possible.”

Stanley Chen, Class of 2013

Colette Brown taught in the English Department of Stuyvesant High School for over a decade and in that time she advised thousands of her Stuyvesant students through the college admissions process. She recently left Stuyvesant to begin independently advising students full time. Call or email Colette Brown for an appointment to begin personalized individual college admissions advisement. Her strong belief is that it is not enough to get it into the right school, but also ﬁt into the right school for you. 646 467-0265 thecollegeadmissionsmaven@gmail.com THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS MAVEN is on Facebook

Boys’ Football

continued from page 28

Bronx, the Peglegs squared off against KIPP NYC College Prep in the second round of the playoffs. The game, on Sunday, November 23, was as intense as it gets, with constant lead changes and explosive offenses. The Peglegs persevered and beat KIPP 35-34 with an unrelenting offense and a defense that came up clutch in big moments. “It was focus. Playoffs are a whole new ballgame, and after our humiliating loss to [George Washington], we were a more focused and driven team,” senior and co-captain Akira Taniguchi said. “We knew that every game we played wasn’t to be taken for granted and that if we lost, our season was over. We had to play as if it was our last time playing football.” Both teams came out in the first half firing. Defense felt nonexistent for both teams, as the first half saw 47 combined points, with the Peglegs trailing 26-21 at halftime. Early in the first quarter, KIPP running back Isiah Guishard drew first blood with a 30-yard rushing touchdown down the middle of the field. However, the high-flying Peglegs offense that defined this extraordinary season didn’t hesitate to strike back. They marched down the field and controlled the pace with runs by junior Henry Takizawa and senior Zachary Walters. Takizawa scored a welldeserved touchdown to cap off the drive on an inside trap, and after converting a two-point conversion, the Peglegs led 8-6. This lead was short-lived, as KIPP quickly put the ball in the end-zone again. In another dominant rush-based drive, KIPP took the lead and managed to maintain it for the rest of the first half. The Peglegs knew that they had to adjust their defense in the second half to stop KIPP and their powerful running game. But it was the Peglegs’ powerhouse offense that continued to reap success in the start of the second half. Senior and quarterback Eric Morgenstern soared a pass over the middle of the field

to the tight end for an easy touchdown. Again, the Peglegs chose to go for the two point conversion, but fell short, hanging onto a narrow 27-26 advantage. The rest of the third quarter, however, was bleak for the team. KIPP scored a touchdown on the first play of the next drive and converted the two-point conversion. On the ensuing Peglegs’ possession, Morgenstern threw a costly interception. At this point, with the score 3427 and KIPP possessing the ball, the game seemed to be spiraling out of control for Stuyvesant. This time, however, the defensive line delivered, preventing KIPP from entering field goal range with a big sack. Despite the defensive effort, Morgenstern threw another interception on the offensive end— this time on KIPP’s one-yard line. But for the second time in a row, the Peglegs’ defensive line saved the day, as they sacked the KIPP quarterback in the end-zone for a safety, picking up two points. Finally, the Peglegs were able to capitalize and score a touchdown on the next drive. A quick screen to senior and co-captain Kyler Chase, who muscled his way into the red-zone, put the team in position for Walters run it in for a touchdown. The Peglegs had garnered a 35-34 lead, and this time, the defense intended to keep it that way. The defense continued to pressure KIPP’s quarterback multiple times and keep their opponents out of field goal range, preventing any possible comeback. On the ensuing possession, the Peglegs held the ball to ice the game, advancing to the division championship game on a final score of 35-34. “Back in the beginning of the season we talked about getting here,” coach Mark Strasser said. “I’m absolutely amazed at how far our team has come.” Peglegs Fall Short in Finals By Anthony Cheang The crowd roared in anticipation as both Peglegs and Eagles players were announced one by one. The atmosphere was electric,

fitting of a championship showdown. The Peglegs entered the game with a 9-1 regular season record, tied with Eagle Academy. Both teams had barely squeaked out wins in the semi-finals. The Peglegs, however, came into the finals handicapped, with injuries to senior running back Cooper Weaver and players on the defensive line. “Our mindset was to play the way we were playing throughout the playoffs until that point. It was no different than usual,” senior Brian Ryu said. The Eagles led the league in sacks this season, and they showed their defensive prowess early in the game. Their pressure on senior quarterback Eric Morgenstern forced a quick threeand-out, and the subsequent punt was blocked. The Eagles took advantage of great field position by scoring a rushing touchdown. Without a kicker for the extra point, the Eagles tried for a two-point conversion, and successfully converted to take an 8-0 lead. Stuyvesant quickly responded after a poor 20-yard kickoff by the Eagles, and senior running back Henry Takizawa ran a 15-yard touchdown into the end-zone to cut the lead to 8-6 by the end of the first quarter. Several minutes into the second quarter, a short punt benefited the Peglegs, but their drive was cut short when senior quarterback Eric Morgenstern fumbled the ball. But when the Peglegs got the ball back after the Eagles’ offense sputtered, they advanced down to the Eagles’ 20-yard line, and Takizawa kicked a field goal to claim a 9-8 lead. With only 2:45 to go in the second period, however, the Peglegs’ safeties allowed an Eagles running back to blow past them, scoring a 65-yard touchdown to go back on top 14-9. ”If everybody had filled their assigned gaps and attacked the ball-carrier, they wouldn’t have been able to burst those big runs,” Morgenstern said. In the second half, turnovers and an inability to defend properly continued to hurt the Peglegs. With 9:35 left in the third quarter, the Peglegs fumbled the ball yet again. However, due the Eagles’

Yi Zhu / The Spectator

Peglegs Reach Championship Game for the Second Time in Three Years

inability to convert first downs reliably, three minutes later, the Peglegs were able to drive down the field and convert a passing touchdown to go up 16-14. The lead was not to last. Toward the end of the period, the Eagles took advantage of their offensive line’s power and forced their way down the field by consistently running the ball. Their running back broke through the Peglegs’ secondary and scored a touchdown to give his team a 2216 lead. With the game still hanging in the balance, the fourth quarter was disastrous for the Peglegs. “There isn’t much more to be said other than the fact that we should have taken better care of the ball,” senior Kyler Chase said. The Peglegs fumbled with only 4:01 remaining in the game, and the Eagles capitalized by continuing to run the ball, eventually breaking free and scoring a touchdown. Down 28-16, Stuyvesant was able to get a quick passing touchdown via a long bomb from Morgenstern, making it a one possession game, but the effort was futile. The Eagles ran clock down by converting first downs, and, with 1:19 to go, capped off their 34-23 victory with a touchdown.

Throughout the game, the Eagles converted runs of over five yards. They were a relatively onedimensional team, only attempting five passes, but their offensive line demolished the Peglegs’ defensive line. This, along with four lost fumbles, was why the Peglegs lost. Next season, 19 Peglegs will be graduating, including their starting quarterback, runningback, and wide receivers. But several standout players will return. “Next year’s team will have a lot of talent. Henry Takizawa and Luke [Ogunnaike] are two essential starters from this past season. They’ll also hopefully have Tahji [Lyons] back: another power back and linebacker,” Morgenstern said. This year’s journey to the finals will provide next year’s team with experience and a championship loss to avenge. “Every year there are always worries about the next season looking ahead as seniors graduate, but there are always guys coming up to fill the empty positions,” Chase said. “Having had a taste of championships the past few years, the base has been laid for any of the future Pegleg teams to finally bring the title home.”

December 10, 2014

Page 28

The Spectator SpoRts Girls’ Swimming

Sports Wrapup

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PENGUINS FOR WINNING THEIR SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE CITY CHAMPIONSHIP!

Paulina Ruta / The Spectator

A Pen-grin for the Penguins

Senior Sappha O’Meara, the second swimmer from the bottom right, dives in to swim the 500-yard freestyle event.

By Chris Kim Last season was the first time in six years that the Penguins were equally matched by a formidable opponent, tying with Francis Lewis for their sixth consecutive city championship. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you—the Penguins have an exceptional legacy to back up. While last year’s Penguins relented their firm grasp on the championship by sharing their podium, this year’s team topped off another 8-0 season with their seventh consecutive city championship. After coaching changes the previous two summers, the Penguins were finally able to experience some routine entering the season, as coach Peter Bologna returned for a second year. Unlike most other coaches, Bologna’s primary goal wasn’t only to win. “Every year it feels good to win, and it is one of our goals, but the most important goal is that every girl gets better and faster from the beginning of every season,” Bologna said. The Penguins sported a much more experienced roster this year. Compared to the nine upperclassmen the Penguins had last season, the team came in with double that number this year. The opening of the Stuyvesant pool also contributed to the team’s improvement. Due to pool renovations last year, the girls were forced to travel for team practices. “We definitely put in more work this year due to the

fact we have a pool more,” Bologna said. The regular season was a smooth ride for the Penguins, as they cruised through their eight matches with relative ease. But the greatness of the Penguins was undoubtedly showcased during the A Division Swimming and Diving Open Championships on Sunday, November 9. Contrary to last year’s slight 10 point lead over Francis Lewis, the team was far more dominant this time around, finishing with 335 points, far ahead of second place Brooklyn Tech’s 262 points. The Penguins were led by junior Krystal “The Pistol” Lara, who finished first by nearly three seconds in both the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke, qualifying for the state championships in both events. But for Lara, fellow junior Gabriela Almeida’s making States in the 100-yard butterfly was equally exciting. “She had been trying to get to States, and she finally did it next to me,” Lara said. “It was amazing to know that someone from my team would be joining me this year.” Almeida qualified for states by 0.2 seconds through her preliminary performance and placed fourth. Almeida’s 59.8 finish was a huge improvement from her previous personal best of 1:02.00. “I had this goal of making States since the beginning of the season. At my club team practice, I literally spent every second thinking about [the

100-yard butterfly]. When I made the cut, all of my work finally paid off,” said Almeida, who also finished second in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.77. Several Penguins made it into the record books, as Almeida, Lara, senior Grace Lu, and junior Carol Wang broke the PSAL record for the 400-yard freestyle relay by almost a second and a half during their preliminary run. Wang further contributed to the team, placing third in the 500-yard freestyle and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle. With a dominating performance at Opens, the Penguins entered Lehman College on Thursday, November 13, confident in their ability to outperform the slower Brooklyn Tech swimmers in the final meet of the season. The Penguins initially anticipated a finals rematch against Francis Lewis, the seemingly stronger team, and a few swimmers even thought they would lose to Francis Lewis. With Brooklyn Tech’s semi-finals upset over Francis Lewis, the Penguins were shocked but pleased. “We knew what we were capable of and that it was possible to take home the title for the seventh year in a row,” senior and co-captain Kimberly Wong said. The girls didn’t disappoint, as Stuyvesant secured first place in every event excluding the 200yard freestyle relay, in which the Penguins lost by less than one second. Although Brooklyn Tech came close in the relays, the blatant skill gap between the two teams showed in the individual events. In the 200-yard individual medley, for example, freshman Madeline Wong’s 2:21.99 first-place finish was a whopping 12 seconds faster than Brooklyn Tech’s fastest time. With an evidently more talented roster, Stuyvesant secured a 57-42 lead and their seventh consecutive city championship. The outcome of the season was not a shocker to anyone on the team, and with a sizable group of 13 juniors returning for next year, the thirst for yet another championship has already begun, and rightfully so. “I’m really confident about next season,” Almeida said. “We’re losing a lot of seniors, and they’re really good, but I feel, as a team, we will keep improving our freshmen and sophomores.”

SPORTS CALENDAR Wednesday, December 10 BASKETBALL GIRLS’ VARSITY Vs. Seward Park Campus @ Stuyvesant High School: Gym TABLE TENNIS GIRLS’ VARSITY Vs. McKee/Staten Island Tech @ Stuyvesant HS Table Tennis

Friday, December 12

INDOOR TRACK BOYS’ and GIRLS’ A Night at the Sprints @ Armory Track

Tuesday, December 16

Wednesday, December 17

BOYS’ BASKETBALL vs. Murry Bergtraum @ Stuyvesant

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL vs. HS Fashion Industries @ Stuyvesant

BOYS’ TABLE TENNIS vs. McKee/Staten Island Tech @ Stuyvesant

BOYS’ WRESTLING vs. Baruch College Campus @ Stuyvesant

• The Penguins, Stuyvesant’s girls’ swimming team, won the A Division city championships against Brooklyn Tech. • The Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s football team, lost to Eagle Academy 34-23 in the C Division city championships after a 9-1 regular season and two playoff wins. • Stuyvesant’s girls’ table tennis team is 3-0 to start off the season. • Congratulations to senior Sophie Gershon for winning New York 1’s Scholar Athlete of the Week Award.

Boys’ Football

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PEGLEGS FOR ADVANCING TO THE FINALS!

Peglegs Reach Championship Game for the Second Time in Three Years

Peglegs Power through Owls, Advance to Semis By Anthony Cheang

Last year, the Peglegs ended the season 6-3, 4th in their division, and fizzled out in the first round of the playoffs. This year, however, the script has flipped. Armed with a roster stacked with seniors and a 9-1 record, tying them for second in the division, the Peglegs looked to make a statement in their first playoff game against the William C. Bryant Owls. Though the Peglegs did not play the Owls in the regular season, both teams came into the game prepared. “We had film on them before; we saw how they played. They had film on us. There were no surprises,” coach Mark Strasser said. The game started off with both teams playing stingy defense. The Peglegs struck the first blow in the first quarter, as junior Henry Takizawa broke through the first line of defense and outran everybody to the end-zone for a 60-yard touchdown run. The Peglegs led 6-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Owls responded with a rushing touchdown of their own early in the second quarter. They were determined to run the ball, as their quarterback finished the game with zero passing yards and only two passing attempts. The Peglegs started to mount an aerial attack in the second quarter. Four minutes into the period, they managed to pass the ball down field with the help of a fake punt on one fourth-down play before being stopped when senior quarterback Eric Morgenstern threw an interception. At halftime, the teams were tied at 6-6 with the Peglegs on pace to score well below their season average. But Stuyvesant came out as the aggressor in the third quarter, again pushing deep into Owls’ territory before throwing an interception late into the drive. “Both interceptions were 100 percent my fault, but I think the rest of the team and I did a good job picking us back up and driving the ball anyway,” Morgenstern said. The Owls continued to be one-dimensional offensively, and the Peglegs secured a quick threeand-out stop. Finding themselves near midfield after receiving a short punt, the Peglegs turned to a ground-and-pound tactic, which drove the ball to the Owls

one-yard line. Takizawa ran the ball in for a touchdown that, followed by the extra point, gave the Peglegs a 13-6 lead. The team recovered the ball after the subsequent kickoff was muffed, and Takizawa scored his third touchdown of the game, extending the lead to 19-6. “We really came out flat at the beginning of the game,” senior and co-captain Kyler Chase said. “At halftime we realized that we weren’t playing at the level we are capable of and came into the third quarter with a new mindset.” After the lopsided third quarter, the game was essentially over. The Owls’ offense sputtered, culminating in an interception by Chase. Soon after, Chase tacked on another touchdown by catching a pass from Morgenstern, and the lead was 26-6. Ultimately, the Owls were foiled by their unwillingness to pass the football. When they needed a large amount of yards to come back at the end of the game, the Owls were unwilling to stray from their ground game. Their running was effective to an extent, at four yards per carry, but they were never able to convert when they got close to the endzone, where the Peglegs’ secondary defenders had less area to cover. Fatigue also played a huge factor, as the Peglegs came out of halftime looking fresh, contrary to the Owls. “We take pride in being one of the best-conditioned teams in the league, as well as being mentally tough when we get tired,” Chase said. With this victory, the Peglegs advanced to the semifinals. Though they blew out the Owls, the Peglegs only made one touchdown during the first half. Morgenstern had an unusual off week, throwing for only 112 yards, less than his average of 140 yards per game, and although he completed more than half of his passes, he threw two interceptions. “Two plays I didn’t take my presnap reads correctly, and I threw two picks. That can’t happen if we want to win a championship,” Morgenstern said. Clutch Play Clinches a Finals Spot for the Peglegs By Ari Hatzimemos On a brisk day in uptown continued on page 27