Spring 2016 Global Journal

stories - perspectives - travel - culture - service - experiences - food

Taft

Global Journal

In this issue: The Refugee Crisis - Election 2016 - Aboriginal Women in Canada - K-pop

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CONTENTS Spring 2016

6 8

current events

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Refugee Crisis & Responsibility Explaining the 2016 Election Through a Global Prism Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada

experiences

4 10 12 22 26 28

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Photo OlegD/Shutterstock The Refugee Crisis & Responsibility

Kindness in Turmoil A Semester at High Mountain Institute The Definition of Service Learning Discovery to Cure A Childhood Dream Becomes a Reality “One of Us=All of Us�

perspectives

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Photo by Laura Monti The DR Trip: The Definition of Service Learning

18 Waking Up from the American Dream 20 A Case for Political Engagement

culture

16 Exploring Culture Through Food 24 The Day of the African Child 30 K-Pop: A Modern Musical

Phenomenon

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Photo by Robert Falcetti The Day of the African Child

A MESSAGE FROM

THE EDITORs

The goal of the Global Journal is to share perspectives of the Taft community gained through experience and service. Everyone is unique and has a story to tell that makes them who they are; these stories are what make Taft the diverse global community we are so proud to be. The Global Journal hopes to be an outlet for these stories to be told.

This issue in particular, with its emphasis on the current political climates of both the United States and Canada, seeks to inform the Taft community about the experiences of people around the world outside of our gates. We have an outstanding team of writers, editors, and faculty who made this issue possible, and we are excited to see the Global Journal become an increasing part of the Taft community in the upcoming months and years.

editors- in-chief

writers

Chloe Frelinghuysen ’17 Katie Bontje ’16 Gabriela Gonzalez Carpio ’17 James Lee ’16 Charlie Himmelrich ’17 Sumi Kim ’17 Magda Kisielinska ’18

editors

Zygimantas Jievaltas ’17 Nick Morgoshia ’17 Lauren Fadiman ’17 Marisa Mission ’17 Justė Simanauskaitė ’17

Lanting Lu ’16 Christopher McDermott ’18 Tawanda Mulalu ’16

Cover photo Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock

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Kindness in

Turmoil

by Juan Lones

Story and photos by Chloe Frelinghuysen ’17 I have never experienced the kind of generosity that I discovered last summer in Greece. Coming from Taft, I felt like I had a general understanding and a loyalty to our motto, “Not to be served, but to serve.” I went to Greece thinking that I would serve the Greeks in the midst of their financial crisis, yet I did not anticipate the unimaginable level of gratitude and hospitality that I would receive in return. Living with a Greek host family was one of the most memorable experiences of my life because I created a lasting bond with people who cared for me like a true family does.

On a humid July morning, I looked out at the rosy dawn through my dusty airplane window. I felt like I was about to watch history in the making. There was something exciting and nerve-racking about going to Greece while the country was deciding its future with the European Union. For once, I wouldn’t see Greece printed on a flimsy news article or on the blue glow of my laptop; I would see it through my own lens. When my plane finally landed, I met our group of 21 Americans at the airport in Thessaloniki. All tired and disoriented from travel, we managed to take the first photo of our group with our “Greek Summer” sign. The Greek Summer program with the American Farm School has been going on since the 1950s. In fact, my parents met in 1982 on Greek Summer. The American Farm School in Thessaloniki takes about 20 high school students every summer and gives them the opportunity to explore Greece and to participate in service for low-income villages. After having spent two weeks at the American Farm School learning basic Greek, Greek dance, and other aspects of Greek culture, our group was ready to do service in Portaria, a small village in the north of Greece. On our bus ride to Portaria, I looked out the window at the rolling hills and aqua blue

Mediterranean sky. There was something about Greece, some nostalgic consciousness of its ancient past, that made this country different than any place I had been before.

When we got to Portaria, I was shocked to find the entire village waiting for us. Children stopped playing mini soccer games on the cobbled streets to point and wave at my friends and I as we got off the bus. Even the Greek Orthodox priests, with their gray flowing beards and black ropes, were there to welcome us. As we made our way to the village “taverna,” the village’s one restaurant, countless Greeks came up to me and hugged me. I felt like a celebrity as children and teenagers immediately asked me to take “selfies” with them and asked for my social media user names. That night the 21 of us were paired with our host families and dined with them as a group. My host mother practically jumped into my arms because she was so excited to meet me. I didn’t understand what she was saying until her hand touched her heart. My American friend and I sat with our families awkwardly trying to make conversation in

5 Greek. Somehow, I found a way to communicate with hand gestures and by using the basic Greek sayings that I had picked up. Meanwhile, all throughout the meal, teenagers came up to me asking to be my friend and to dance with me. Although speaking proved to be difficult at first, we found that dance brought us all together in ways that our different languages couldn’t. That night the whole village and our group held hands and hopped around engaging in traditional Greek dances, yelling “opa!” at the top of our lungs.

As I got used to living with my Greek host family, while doing service work during the day, I realized that much of what I expected of the Greeks had not been accurate. I was surprised to find that the people I saw in Greece were even more up to date on American TV shows than I was! During 3-5pm, they would take time to rest and relax, similar to the Spanish “siesta.” During this time my host sister would watch ABC’s popular show “Once Upon A Time” while my host brother would play Pokémon on his Nintendo DS. I would have never guessed that I would be teaching my host brother my Pokémon trainer skills. I was surprised to find that many parts of the Greeks’ lives were parallel to my own life in the U.S. From what I saw, Greek teenagers use Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all day long; they enjoy taking selfies, using Snapchat filters, and social media posts just as much as us, or more. Instantly, I got dozens of friend requests from locals who I wasn’t even sure I had met. Many liked all my profile pictures and even messaged me asking me if I was enjoying my stay. In fact, today the Greeks still like every picture that I am tagged in, which is incredibly sweet, yet somewhat embarrassing! With my host family I got to see Greece’s globally aware and active internet culture that had not been written about by the American media. Most media only covered the financial crisis.

I had expected to see the crisis more blatantly.

Although my host mother was always watching news that reported on the current state of the EU, the crisis was not talked about often. I had to ask my host family and many other Greeks about the crisis in order to hear anything about it. One morning, several days after Greece voted whether to stay in the EU, I asked my host brother, George, what he wanted Greece’s future to be. Luckily, George spoke English extremely well, so he could explain exactly what his family was thinking. I’ll never forget what he said: “We do not know what will happen… our country may go into a civil war. There are many who are unhappy with our system. The future could be very bad for us. But we hope that you can enjoy Greece before any of this.” George and his family had taken me into their home in a time when they thought their country might enter a civil war; they took me in wholeheartedly when their economic future was uncertain, to put it lightly.

I’ll never forget this kindness or George’s statement. After explaining his fears, George said that he wanted me to enjoy my time in Greece before it got worse. I was so touched that they cared so much about the quality of my stay and keeping me happy when they were going through such trying times.

Our Greek host families took us in voluntarily and were not paid for their hospitality. They were motivated by the pride of their country to take us in and show us their culture; they loved and cared for us not because they had to, but because they wished to make a lasting connection with people from a different background than their own.

I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to meet such genuinely caring people and to receive the most selfless generosity in Greece. While their country was and remains in turmoil, the people never lost their kindness.

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Refugee Crisis & Responsibility

by Zygimantas Jievaltas ’17 The year 2015 marked an unprecedented and uncontrollable flood of human migration into the European continent.

According to the International Organization for Migration, over a million desperate, yet hopeful individuals from places including Syria, Sudan, and Afghanistan journeyed in search of security and a better future for themselves and their children, usually undertaking daunting tasks of traversing the Mediterranean in small open refugee rafts. An estimated 3,771 people never reached the glowing lighthouses of Europe, finding permanent resting places in the perilous cold waters of the sea.

Meanwhile, the debate on reevaluating the EU’s Schengen policy gradually gained momentum in the European Parliament. Constituent member states of the EU were disunited in constructing a joint cooperative strategy to resettle the people stationed on the external borders of the Union: pressure continued to mount on the economically strained Southern European nations, which involuntarily became host-states.

While Sweden and, notably, Germany have expressed willingness to absorb the majority of the human influxes and have promised to implement multilateral integration strategies for the refugees, the response of both Swedish and German societies has not been uniform. For

instance, the welcoming Germans were forced to reevaluate the potential consequences of their hospitality, when the first couple of days in 2016 were shaken by multiple rape and sexual assault incidents in the city of Cologne. Admitted refugee groups have been accused. Their name has since been cleared.

Developments of the European refugee crisis and the shifting responses of European societies reflect a consideration that is commonly overlooked in crisis scenarios. Two things are absolutely crucial in crisis management: mechanisms of controlling levels of public alarm, and strategies of shaping public opinion as to avoid chaos and misconception in society. The role of media in the process of shaping public opinion should be to mitigate shock reactions and to promote inclusiveness of the general public in crisis control.

Faced with unprecedented numbers of culturally distinct peoples traversing borders, more homogenous European societies became resistant to implement integration strategies and develop joint initiatives to alleviate the pressure put on Greece, Italy, and other periphery states. Part of the reason was the lack of knowledge about refugees coupled with misleading news reports in these states. Reports, which rather than inciting societies to extend a helping hand to

7 desperate persecuted individuals, labeled these people all as Islamic radicals looking for a chance to destroy the cultural foundations of Europe. Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary have blocked efforts in the European parliament to revise the Dublin Convention and to enact solidarity measures. Other examples of European hostility include British efforts in 2014 to stop implementation of the Mare Nostrum initiative.

The need for increased regulation and rule of law is unquestionable; however, many of the prevalent fears inciting hostile approaches to asylum seekers are unjustified. For example, given the low birthrates and aging societies in Europe, there is concern that the more rapidly growing Muslim minority, might “take over” and start to dominate Europe’s demography. However, even a hypothetical acceptance of all four million displaced Syrians to Europe would only constitute a Muslim population increase of one percent. The media has been tremendously influential in creating a misleading image of the Syrian refugee.

It is worth noting that many of these individuals, fleeing political violence and terrorism, are educated.

They are doctors, engineers, teachers—people that left their home states, their jobs, their middle-class status for the hope of acquiring safety and shelter in Europe. Yet public discourse, shaped by the media, has led to unjustified fears, racial, and ethnic prejudice within societies.

These societal convictions in turn shaped political rhetoric and discourse, thus leading to the lack of cohesion in Europe and the world. What’s necessary to change this? The creation of frameworks, where economically capable societies would voluntarily provide aid and would also create concrete crisis-mitigating plans. For this to happen, governmental agencies, as well as the private media sector, should incite informational campaigns, mitigating fear,and providing accurate information about asylum seekers, or any other crisis scenario demographic group. Bridging the cultural and intellectual gap between refugees and refugee hosts is crucial.

The most effective examples of shock alleviation and support to the Syrian refugees in Europe have come not from governments but from the civilian populations of European nations. Despite active media campaigns to instill fear in societies, a growing demographic has been resilient to this intentional inaccuracy. Private citizens have either volunteered in aid provision or have issued food, clothing, medical supplies, and other life necessities to the refugees. The objective of managing any crisis is to engage and create incentives for the general public to participate, but this can only be done in the absence of public panic and alarm. Informational campaigns

implemented through school curricula, media, and other platforms could mitigate shock reactions and identify concrete step-by-step guidelines of how private citizens can become part of crisis management. For example, by utilizing technology, the general public could aid responsible governmental agencies, NGOs, and other entities coordinate response efforts.

Just like Syrian refugees use smartphones and Facebook to exchange information regarding illegal crossing of borders and movement throughout the continent, the general public could use technology mediums to prevent this from happening. Flexible national legislative frameworks would enable active societal members to organize aid campaigns and plan projects. The speed of planning and implementation of these civil-led campaigns depends on external factors enacted by governments. Thus, our era of technological interconnectivity has created potential for broader civil engagement in crisis management. It is not solely up to specific national agencies to plan and implement crisis-response strategies; it is equally up to the general public.

In conclusion, the most important consideration that should be taken into account in evaluation and response to crisis scenarios is the ability of affected governments to control levels of public alarm and to promote social inclusiveness of the general public in managing these crises. Provision of accurate information about the crisis and creation of flexible, inclusive action plans would result in minimization of panic and effective resolution.

Photo on facing page, Anjo Kan/Shutterstock; above, OlegD/Shutterstock

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Explaining the 2016 Election Through a Global Prism by Nick J. Morgoshia ’17

Following a decisive and unsurprising victory in Indiana, Donald Trump officially became the presumptive Republican nominee. While he has yet to secure the coveted 1,237 delegates needed for nomination, Ted Cruz and John Kasich suspending their campaigns means that Trump is virtually unstoppable in his pursuit to be the Republican standard-bearer in the 2016 election. On the other end of the spectrum, Bernie Sanders – a self-identified democratic socialist from Vermont – continues to win more caucuses and primaries, recently securing a solid 34 delegates in Oregon. While Sanders is on the precipice of losing the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton – his 1,533 delegates pale in comparison to her 2,293 – the very fact that Bernie has come this far in the race speaks volumes about the unconventionality of the 2016 election cycle as well as Americans’ bitter disenchantment with the status quo.

With Trump, a political outsider, setting the tone of the modern-day Republican Party and Bernie alluding to the “political revolution,” it is hard to imagine that American political culture – rhetoric, promises, arguments, and proposals defining past presidential campaigns – will ever come back. While the Trump-Sanders phenomenon appears unique in and of itself, the truth is, the political world has seen its fair share of characters like Trump and Sanders in the last few years.

As unnerving as it sounds, the crux of Donald Trump’s campaign platform is trade, not Muslims or illegal Mexican immigrants. Trump claims that our politicians are succumbing to the “false songs of globalism” by not doing enough to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. American businesses have an easy time moving abroad and hiring cheap foreign

workers in place of US citizens – that is why, in Trump’s view, “we don’t win any more.” Whether Trump’s argument about trade is of any substance is subject to fisticuffs; what is more obvious, however, is that Trump’s strategy of putting trade at the forefront of his campaign has been a staple of the European ultra-right wing politics for quite some time now. In a way, Donald brought to the American political discourse what Marie Le Pen, the president of France’s far right National Front, and her friends in the UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) have been preaching for years.

In 2007, when her father lost the French presidential elections by a landslide, Marie Le Pen realized that the old school conservatism of the 80s had stopped resonating with the public. Bragging about being friends with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher – something that Jean-Marie Le Pen actively did throughout his campaign – excited voters no more. Proposals to lower taxes, promote economic liberalism, and defend traditional values held as little a sway as ever. A new political maneuver was necessary to lure voters.

Marie Le Pen and her fellow right-wingers across Europe responded by gravitating towards trade protectionism. This, in turn, led to claims that international free trade agreements are the root of all evil, for they deprive local entrepreneurs of customers and workers. Unsurprisingly, Le Pen singled out the European Union as her main rival, blaming it for France’s economic demise. While Trump was not fortunate to have as explicit a scapegoat as the European Union, he was quick to identify China and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as the main culprits.

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In what can be called “trickle-down protectionism,” Trump and Le Pen then went on to apply their ideology to socio-cultural issues, implying that immigrants and Muslims threaten the social fabric of their respective countries in the same fashion that foreign corporations and offshoring menace their economic well being.

There are even more “iterations” of Sanders around the globe than those of Trump. “My real adversary has no name, no face, no party. It will never be elected, yet it governs – the adversary is the world of finance.” Who said it?

François Hollande, France’s 24th and current president from the Socialist Party. Hollande’s statement is almost indistinguishable from that of Sanders, one just needs to replace the “world of finance” with the “Wall Street billionaires” and say it with a thick Brooklyn accent. When it comes to illegal immigration, Sanders would find most sympathizers in Greece’s left-wing Syriza, whose leader, Alexis Tsipras, has repeatedly stated that illegal immigrants don’t exist; all immigrants, whether documented or not, are guests and should be treated as such. Sanders’ passion for high and widespread political participation - “millions of people on the streets,” generous social programs, tuition-free public colleges, and greater government spending - is echoed across Europe: from Spain’s left-wing Podemos to the Italian Five Star Movement, and the other leftist parties that have recently come out of the blue to rail against Germany’s calls for fiscal responsibility.

Quick as the far left is to dismiss accusations of resembling the far right, the two sides do, in fact, share important similarities. Trade is one of their common concerns.

While politicians often disagree on specific trade practices, their shared belief in an economy where the government insulates local market from foreign competitors by the virtue of import tariffs and legal barriers is well-established. The far left and the far right would rather have their citizens pay five times as much for locally made goods than see local factory

workers lose their jobs to inhumane, albeit extremely cheap and efficient, sweatshops of the developing world.

Given their hard-core populist agendas, the far left and the far right tend to agree on healtchare and other social expenditures. In fact, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were the only candidates in the race to speak in favor of a single-payer healthcare system.

Naturally, their statements sent shivers down the spines of Obamacare-loving Democrats and Republican state rightists.

Last but not least, the far left and the far right share another crucial feature - demographics. They galvanize people who have been left behind by the reigning socio-economic regimes of their countries and are quick to view any unconventional political actor as their messiah.

More so than any country in Europe, the United States has historically revolved around the political center. While one can witness ultra liberal and ultra conservative outbursts every now and then, they tend to be isolated cases that don’t typically make their way to the political mainstream. Is this about to change in November 2016? As of now, the polls show that neither Trump nor Sanders are on their way to becoming America’s next commander-in-chief; yet, in a political climate where one’s political experience and feasibility of policy proposals mean so little, nothing is set in stone.

Photos by Gino Santa Maria/Shutterstock

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A Semester at

High Mountain Institute Story and photos by Charlie Himmelrich ’17 Many people assume that when high school juniors decide to take a semester abroad that they are running away from something. My decision to leave Taft and attend the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado during the first semester of my junior year was exactly the opposite.

I was not running away from Taft; I was running towards adventure. After attending the High Mountain Institute, adventure takes on a whole new meaning in my life. Now, when I hear that word, my mind immediately races back to the three months I spent in Colorado where everyday was filled with a fierce passion for physical, personal, and academic exploration.

The High Mountain Institute, often called HMI, is situated at an altitude of ten thousand feet in the mountains of Colorado. In other words, Leadville is located right where the airplane seat-belt signs turn off, and a passenger can “feel free to roam about the cabin”. Leadville is famous for being the town with the highest elevation in the continental United States. This fact made exercise very

difficult, but these unique conditions simultaneously made my athletic experiences at HMI so adventurous.

My journey began with a morning exercise, which typically meant a half-mile run in the front country of Leadville. Surprisingly, even the most athletic and conditioned students were exhausted after the workout. Initially, many novices were forced to walk because they were not able to adjust to the change in altitude. As the days passed, and the leaves on the trees started changing their colors, our ten-mile “fun run” drew near. Every day more and more students were able to run the five-mile morning runs and enjoy the scenery of the beautiful high alpine lake. Thus, when the “fun run” morning finally came, all forty-eight of us could do it. And even better than that, after we finished the run, we hopped on our bikes and encouraged other students to push through the last miles of the race, as well.

When I first arrived, I never would have that I would be one of those students successfully finishing the ten mile “fun-run.”

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The encouragement and support we gave each other in the “fun run� and during multiple exhausting workouts in the front country continued in our back country expeditions. Throughout my semester at HMI, we embarked on three different wilderness expeditions, On these explorations we hiked, camped and cooked our own food for nearly two weeks in the back country. We carried bags, which often weighed more than 70 pounds, consisting of tents, food rations, frisbees, and other utilities necessary for survival. All of this may sound strenuous; however, it was quite the opposite. The support and teamwork of the HMI students helped me persevere through those challenging moments and filled my experience with remarkable memories that I will never forget.

I will share two of the most significant lessons I learned on my expeditions with HMI. The first is that one should never be scared to lean on others for help. Leaning on others ranged from simple tasks such as reading a map and packing a bag to needing someone to have a meaningful conversation with. Regardless of the subject matter, HMI taught me that asking for help is never something to be ashamed of; it is exactly the opposite. The second lesson is to take the time to appreciate the little things.

On one expedition, we climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and hiked over 200 cumulative miles. These physical trials I faced helped me appreciate the small moments I had with other HMI students: the dinners after long days of travelling, the cold nights while sitting in our sleeping bags with hot chocolate in our hands, having long talks about our lives while on our daily hikes, and many more.

Subsequently, my academic adventure was marked by an emphasis on experiential learning. HMI emphasized that students can learn from their surroundings and nature. At HMI, I found myself sitting in the old mines, writing poetry, testing water quality by catching and identifying macroinvertebrates in rivers, building snow pits to study ice crystals, predicting avalanches, and even writing

grant proposals and presenting them to local governments.

The academic curriculum at HMI reshaped my personal philosophy. It taught me to value the process of learning not just the products of it. Before HMI, a bad grade in school could have ruined my day and lead to a stress-filled conversation with my advisor. However, now I seldom find myself anxious about grades because I learned to value the process of education, to explore new ideas intellectually, and to care more about how my performance in class molds me as an individual, rather than what number I receive as the outcome.

Since my return back to Taft, I must admit, I find myself daydreaming more than ever both inside and outside the classroom. When I peer through the windows, I look beyond Watertown, CT staring back at me and envision the three months I spent in Colorado. I can see my friends and I climbing the tallest mountain of Colorado simultaneously laughing all the way to the top. I can hear the howls of coyotes that we used to listen to while spending our time on the porch. I can still smell the fresh Colorado air and feel the taste of the well-known Wednesday pancakes, which we were rewarded with after our morning runs. I know that these rarified moments do not happen often in a lifetime, and I am grateful for them everyday.

HMI has molded me into a thoughtful and passionate individual always searching for new challenges, opportunities, and adventures to fulfill my life.

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Taft’s Dominican Republic Trip

The Definition of Service Learning

by Magda Kisielinska ’18

The main purpose of Taft’s annual service trip to the Dominican Republic is teaching English in Monte Cristi’s elementary schools. Nonetheless, it also provides students with the unforgettable opportunity to explore the Dominican culture, which is far beyond what any travel agency could offer.

Outreach360 is an organization whose purpose is to teach English through language immersion. This provided an immense challenge, as we were not allowed to use any Spanish when instructing the kids. Instead we could only speak English, using body language, drawings, and pictures to aid communication. This was no small task, which was why we spent about two hours every night preparing the lessons for the next class day. Another challenge we faced was the varying range of English levels of the students and adapting our instruction methods for children in preschool through 6th grade. Our teaching schedule was quite demanding for the students; it was remarkable how quickly the kids soaked up the material. I find it difficult to put into words how rewarding it is to see a child say “red crayon” for the first time or introducing themselves properly after only four 45-minute lessons. Seeing the kids’ progress and the relationships I formed with them during my week in Monte Cristi were a once in a lifetime experiences.

However, there is another side of this story. The education system in the Dominican Republic was formed only in 2011, and since then kids attend school both in the afternoon and in the morning. Nevertheless, their education system, in comparison to Europe and the US, is still in its developing stages. For the children, the ability to communicate in English even on the most basic level opens countless doors, allowing them to work in the tourism sector, and to potentially study abroad on scholarships.

With every passing day of my stay, I realized that we were not just teaching English; we were a part of making profound change in these kids’ lives. Furthermore, I believe

that this experience gave us all, as volunteers, an opportunity to appreciate all the we perhaps take for granted at Taft.

Our stay in the DR not only focused on teaching kids, it also gave us an insight into the Dominican culture, for Outreach360 provided us with the perfect amount of free time to explore Monte Cristi. Every morning a group of Tafties would embark on a run to the pier to watch the sunrise. Towards the end of our stay, we were given an opportunity to hike El Morro, a mountain in Monte Cristi, to see the most breathtaking sunrise. We also toured the salt flats, which produce huge amount of the Dominican Republic’s exports. Outreach360 also organized a dance lesson (merengue and bachata), after we watched a dance show prepared by elementary and middle school kids presenting those same dances. Another interesting part of the show was the “whip fight,” where two boys gave an amusing performance in which they hit each other with whips; it was not as violent as it sounds.

One of my favorite parts of the cultural immersion was the food. Outreach360 gave us ample opportunities to explore Dominican cuisine. Morro (rice with black beans,) sweet potatoes, yuca, pineapples, and bananas were each a part of the everyday menu. Also, 15 feet from the gate to our building, a lovely lady, Mecho, was selling juice for only one dollar. Guava, cherry, passion fruit, mango, and pineapple were compiled into a juice mix called “todos.” It was easily the most amazing juice I have ever had.

I must admit it, before I arrived I knew very little about the history of the Dominican Republic; I found it so rewarding that Outreach360 gave us a guided tour through the streets of Monte Cristi, as well as two history talks: one was about the social movement against Trujillo, a dictator ruling in the DR from 1930 to 1961, and the other was about racism between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The true exploration of the spirit of the DR came

13 on our visit to a church in town. As per usual, we were welcomed with smiles, and the priest kindly adjusted the mass songs by adding English so that we could follow along. It was evident from day one that thankfulness and hospitality are characteristic traits of the Dominican people.

The last day before our departure was called “culture day.” We began with a visit to a cemetery in Monte Cristi. An interesting fact about burials in the DR is that the bodies are not buried under ground but rather are placed inside a pedestal above ground. After we left the cemetery, we visited Dajabon market. Dajabon is a border city between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We were immediately advised upon arrival to “try to see it as two nations cooperating to create something together,” which was a big help when watching Haitians and Dominicans scrambling through the busy aisles. The second part of the day included a visit to a Cuban museum, a traditional Dominican lunch, and a stay on the beach.

The Dominican Republic service trip was both an incredible learning experience and the epitome of cultural immersion. I never thought it was possible to feel so connected to a new place after only one week. My work with Outreach360 allowed me not only to appreciate a new culture but also to appreciate Taft so much more. That gratitude is something I take with me everyday, for I am more determined than ever to make the most out of every educational opportunity presented to me.

Photos by: Magda Kisielinska, Laura Monti, and Jeremy Clifford

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Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada...

Will Change Come with Trudeau?

by Katie Bontje ’16

“It isn’t really high on our radar, to be honest,” said former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in December 2014, when asked about the status of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women across Canada.

The statistics are truly horrifying. Between 1980 and 2015, 1,129 Aboriginal women were reported missing or murdered, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Of these, 768 are murder cases and 224 of them remain unsolved. The accuracy of these statistics is almost impossible to gauge because a large number of cases are unreported; furthermore, the potential Aboriginal identity of many victims is often unknown.

Aboriginal people, which include First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, have a homicide rate approximately eight times higher than the rate of non-Aboriginal people in Canada, around 8.8 deaths per 100,000. Just over half of the cases (55%) involve women and girls under the age of 31, with 17% of women and girls 18 years of age or younger. Only 8% of cases involve women over 45. Studies have revealed that women involved in prostitution are the most vulnerable and experience the highest levels of violence. The information gathered speaks to the urgency of missing reports involving women in prostitution, as well as the broader need for greater protections for women in this area. Aboriginal women experience violence by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders, and the vast majority are men. According to Aboriginal communities, treatment of Aboriginal women by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men has steadily deteriorated since the natives first settled on the land centuries ago.

For decades this issue has been essentially ignored by the federal government, resulting in questions from the Aboriginal population such as, “What is

going on? Why aren’t the police doing more?” Nonresponsive local governments have made the Aboriginal population feel unimportant and abandoned. Elder Dan Smoke, when performing a healing ceremony after the suspicious death of his sister-in-law, Deborah Anne Sloss, affirmed, “It is important to honour the missing and murdered women. It is unacceptable to marginalize these

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Photos arindambanerjee/shutterstock

women. The Creator did not create garbage. He created beauty.”

Glenda Morrisseau of the Sagkeeng First Nation is one of the countless unsolved murder cases of Aboriginal women. Glenda, her brother, sister, mother, and stepfather went out to dinner one night, but Glenda never returned home. The siblings drove to a hotel for some beer, and Glenda’s sister Doreen was supposed to drive Glenda home. According to Doreen, Glenda was waiting for her alongside a fence, but when Doreen pulled up, Glenda was gone. “They grabbed her from the fence there and threw her in [the car], then took off with her,” she said. One of the perpetrators was described by Winnipeg Crime Stoppers as a middle aged-man in a black station wagon. Glenda’s body, severely decomposed, was found in a scrapyard in the remote St. Boniface district of Winnipeg with her hands tied behind her back and naked from the waist down. According to police, she died instantly from a hit to the back of her head with a cinder block. Morrisseau’s murder occurred in 1991 and remains unsolved, leaving the family heartbroken and dissatisfied with police efforts. Glenda’s brother Mitchell says the family rarely hears from the police at all. He lamented, “Still today, I feel like she was a native woman and they don’t really care about what’s happening with her.”

Because the gathering of such information and data is a recent development, as bad as these stories and statistics are, they may only be the tip of the iceberg. Many believe that if these events were occurring within the non-Aboriginal community,

action would have been undertaken a long time ago.

The recent victory of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to mark a change in the government’s response to this humanitarian emergency. Trudeau seeks a “total renewal” with the Aboriginal people of Canada. He announced, “The victims deserve justice, their families an opportunity to heal and to be heard…

We must work together to put an end to this ongoing tragedy.” According to the Prime Minister, cases that have gathered dust for years will be reopened, and the government will engage with the victims’ families and the First Nations leaders to get a deeper understanding of these unsolved crimes. Trudeau spoke to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), assuring the Aboriginal community that “constitutionally guaranteed rights are not an inconvenience but a sacred obligation, one based on recognition of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership.” Trudeau has made many promises not only to investigate the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, but also to improve the overall quality of life for Aboriginal peoples. With two newly elected First Nations Members of Parliament, national AFN Chief Perry Bellegarde, is optimistic about the future: “We are hopeful, we are optimistic, let’s get to work.”

On the other hand, Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, cautions, “We can’t see (this inquiry) as just retrying specific cases of crimes. It needs to keep that larger perspective: what are the systemic problems, the racism and sexism that are contributing to the lack of safety that are contributing to the lack of police response that are contributing to the unsafe situations?”

Time will tell if the promises are rhetoric only.

16

Exploring Culture Through food

by Justė Simanauskaitė ’17

With 47 out of 196 countries in the world and 33 out of 50 states represented, there is incredible diversity living and learning within the walls of Taft.

The presence of all these cultures gives students the rarified opportunity to experience multiculturalism first-hand. In addition to the student body’s unified drive to learn and to serve, a common passion that connects us all is our love of food.

It does not matter if one is a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior, it is very apparent that we take our food seriously here at Taft. The excitement of an empty line at the omelet station on an early morning, the dedication to wait in endless anticipation for a burger on Thursday afternoons, or the pleasant surprise of breakfast-for-dinner are very familiar situations for the prototype Taft student.

These are testaments to the fact that, to put it simply, we all love food. Even though we are provided with a gigantic variety of meal options at Taft, there will always be one crucial ingredient missing from any recipe - home. Let’s face it, nothing can replace the unique taste and ambrosial aroma of homemade food. Whether it is a regular pancake, a PB&J sandwich, or chicken soup, home enriches food with a different flavor: a flavor of family, culture, and tradition.

Therefore, in a food-driven community like Taft, an in-depth exploration of national cuisines can open the door to an understanding of the diverse customs present on our campus. To start off our campaign of spreading cultural awareness at Taft, students were more than happy to share some meals that relate to their homes, families, and cultural heritage.

Ivy Salisova ’18 Dish: Kapustnica (Sour Cabbage Soup) Country of Origin: Slovakia Description: Kapustnica is a sour soup composed of cabbage, mushrooms, sausages, and potatoes. The cabbage is prepared using a special conservation technique in order to bring out the sour flavor.

What does this dish mean to you?

“For me it represents the time spent with my family, the process of both cooking and eating together.”

One word that says it all: Unusual

Clara Ye ’19 Dish: Shanghai Fried Noodles Country of Origin: China Description: This is a quick and easy dish, made by stir-frying pork, leafy greens, and noodles together until the noodles get an even and intense brown color.

What does this dish mean to you?

“I cannot stop eating them after just having one little bite. These noodles are very addictive!”

One word that says it all: Shanghai

Andrea Gura ’19 Dish: Empanadas de Verde (green plantain empanadas) Country of Origin: Galicia, Spain Description: An empanada is a relatively thin, circular dough patty that is wrapped into a half moon with stuffing inside. This dough patty is made from green plantain and stuffed with cheese.

It can be pan-fried or deep-fried, and it is typically served with “aji,” a spicy sauce made from cilantro, red peppers, lemon, onion, and “tomate de arbol,” a fruit that directly translates to “tree tomato” with its own unique taste.

What does this dish mean to you?

“It’s just so delicious! This is that kind of dish that a grandma would master.

Every grandma has her own special recipe for empanadas, each with an unreplicable and unique twist to their flavor.

My family spends a lot of time near the coast where green plantain commonly grow, so we eat the empanadas all the time.”

One word that says it all: Unexpected

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and to let the food fight it out inside.”

- Mark Twain

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Gaby Gura ’17 Dish: Llapingacho Country of Origin: Ecuador Description: Llapingacho is a fried potato patty stuffed with cheese.

What does this dish mean to you?

“It is such a simple task to make this dish at home, which is my mom often cooks it for dinner. It is something I always look forward to eating when I go back to Ecuador.”

One word that says it all: Cheesy

Hana Kimura ’17 Dish: Oyako-don (“parent-and-child rice bowl”) Country of Origin: Japan Description: This dish is referred to as “parent-and-child” because both chicken and eggs are used in the dish.

It is a rice bowl topped with chunks of chicken and layers of eggs.

What does this dish mean to you?

“Very easy to make and tastes delicious!”

One word that says it all: Yummmmm!

Parinaz Dastoor ’17 Dish: Biryani (Rice Putao) Country of Origin: India Description: Biryani is a rice-based dish, which takes an entire day to make.

The meat used is typically chicken. The rice is mixed with spices and yogurt and then left overnight to marinate. The next morning, basmati rice is cooked in saffron together with the chicken for 2-3 hours on low heat. The dish is served with side of yogurt or slices of lemon.

What does this dish mean to you?

“I have been eating this dish ever since I was a small child. Every time I go back to India, I try to eat Biryani at least 7 or 8 times. The spices and the flavors of the dish remind me of home. The aroma of Biryani is very pleasant and comforting.

Hence, I can definitely call it my soul food!”

One word that says it all: Aromatic

Tomislav Kurtovic ’17 Dish: Ćevapčići Country of Origin: Bosnia and Herzegovina Description: Ćevapčići is a minced meat dish that looks like a small sausage that is grilled. The meat is prepared by hand and then shaped into funnels.

These funnels are served on a flatbread (lepinja or somun) with tons of onions, ajvar, and sour cream.

What does this dish mean to you?

“I can eat this dish at any time of the day, and it always makes me feel better.

I love it so much that it doesn’t even matter if I’m hungry or full; I would eat Ćevapčići under any set of circumstances. Luckily, there isn’t a single person back home who would not love this dish, so it’s very common among my family and friends.”

One word that says it all: Heaven

Raya Petrova ’17 Dish: Шопска салата - Shopska salad (Bulgarian salad) Country of Origin: Bulgaria Description: This dish is a popular Bulgarian salad that consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, sirens (white brine cheese), and parsley.

What does this dish mean to you?

“This is the one salad that unites everyone both in the kitchen and at the table. When you think of Bulgaria, you should think of Shopska salad.

That’s how popular it is in my country!

Besides the fact that it is incredibly delicious, the salad has the capability to unite and represent all Bulgarians.

The stories behind it are numerous and mostly associated with the cooking process and the subsequent enjoyment.

Everyone in my country have a personal story with this salad. For me, when I think of this dish I remember coming home from school, and the first thing I did was make a giant Shopska salad for my little sisters to eat. Hence, Shopska salad reminds me not only of Bulgaria but also of my little sisters.”

One word that says it all: Richness.”

18

Waking up from the American Dream

by Marisa Mission ’17 exhausting our brains instead of our bodies; sleek cars roaring down black highways race up to 600 times faster than even the most light-footed horse could ever hope to achieve on a dirt path; our best friends live on a 2D screen in our pockets rather than next door. Given these monumental differences, one must wonder: how has the American Dream evolved? Does it even still exist?

Donald Trump, a popular candidate for the 2016 presidency, doesn’t think so, and it seems as though much of America agrees. Between the escalation of drug use, the flawed education system, economic fluctuation, and a host of other problems, many feel that the future for them in America looks bleak. They’re not the only ones.

Not only does the younger generation feel like they are slowly losing hope, but immigrants do too.

Immigration, especially illegal immigration, is one of the most highly contested topics of today. In an interview with a Las Vegas social worker, she elaborated on the darker side of the American Dream – the greed that comes with seeking more, better. Having worked with immigrants both illegal and otherwise, and having two legal immigrants as parents, she felt that the American Dream, over time, has created such a high pressure

Karen Roach/Shutterstock

I don’t remember ever being explicitly taught what the American Dream is. I never wrote it down on notebook paper; neither I nor my classmates ever recited it to each other out of a textbook. But we knew it existed, this concept of working hard to achieve happiness and success.

It lay in our minds as a universal truth: hard work meant success. As I grew older, this belief stayed with me, even as I learned about the slaves who were never recompensed for their blood, sweat, and tears; about the immigrants who time and time again were ripped away from their families and deported; about all the minorities who are blocked from reaching the top. Somewhere, in my deepest subconscious, the Dream still evoked pride, determination, and hope.

At its very core, the American Dream is driven by “the idea that individuals have control over the course of their lives.” In the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers determined that “all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,” explicitly establishing citizens’ freedom to pursue personal dreams and goals. Since the late eighteenth century, this revolutionary seedling of an idea has become a motif of national identity, showcasing in one phrase the opportunities and freedoms available only in the United States of America. Simply put, “the dream [is] of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man.” “Better” can be defined in several ways (financially, socially, etc.), but there is no doubt that the Dream embodies the pursuit of happiness explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence.

Except it’s been 240 years since 1776, and it seems as though everything has changed. Nobody toils on a farm from sunup to sundown anymore, most of us sit at a desk for eight hours a day

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Valerie Colameta/Shutterstock

to succeed that many feel they have to “take, take, take, to achieve or maintain [their] dream.” Modernization and advances in every field have redefined success to mean more than just comfortably meeting basic needs. In fact, even basic needs have changed – where once upon a time a person needed only food, water, and shelter, the same person today, even having those basic needs, would struggle to survive without a cell phone, refrigerator, electricity, etc. The current generation has, and future generations will have, so many luxury items that it will be hard to define and achieve success. Already, success is defined not by fulfillment, but by popularity and wealth – a “keeping up with the Joneses” attitude that has led to greed, and in the social worker’s opinion, many of the systemic and economic failures America has seen lately.

She gave the financial trouble in Detroit, the 2008 Las Vegas housing market crash, and the 2009 recession all as examples of the effects of greed. Furthermore, this gluttony leads to an “every man for himself” mentality in where everyone is forced to “make it harder for the next person...and thus creat[e] our own demise.” As a result, the American Dream, for those trying desperately to work their way up from the bottom, is being pushed farther and farther away, corrupt and inaccessible.

So why do floods of immigrants still risk life and limb to come to the U.S.? Just in the second quarter of 2015, the U.S. foreign-born population reached a new record of 42.1 million. Therein lies the disturbing side to the American

Dream: the unacceptability of failure. “Many people [from other countries] equate moving to the United States with success and only success,” the social worker explained, and that belief is perpetuated because “nobody who moved to the U.S. [wants] to admit that they tried and failed.”

Does this mean that the dream is dead? It doesn’t have to be. In a study conducted on Filipino immigrants and their children, one of the last questions asked of the interviewees was, “Did you achieve your American Dream?” The immigrants agreed that they did achieve their dreams, but could still do more to maximize their opportunities for individual freedom and fulfillment. Meanwhile, the youngest interviewees? At twelve to sixteen years old, they didn’t quite have the experience to make a judgement, but they were all optimistic about being able to reach their dreams. Along with the millions of people who risk everything to get to America, children still fiercely believe in the American Dream, specifically the values of freedom and independence. Thus, between the hotly debated reforms currently on the table, the optimism of the next generation and the hard work of both past and present immigrants, maybe the Dream isn’t dead after all. In fact, this idea of hard work resulting in success, in its non-corrupt, purest form, may actually be exactly what America needs to once again become the country of true equality, independence, and hope. Now that’s quite a dream.

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A Case For POliTIcal engagement

by Lauren Fadiman ’17 For much of my life, I desired—more than anything— to fit in. And to fulfill this desire as a new student at Taft, I assumed that there were several ‘requirements’ that I would have to fulfill: I figured I would have to dress in certain clothes, speak with certain language, and use the appropriate sense of humor.

These were minor tragedies that I anticipated and—it pains me to admit—had no problem conforming to; I didn’t have a well-defined sense of self as a fourteenyear-old, hence the thought of following social convention was an attractive solution.

I tried to follow all the trends and standards that I saw around me to the point that I could barely distinguish the things I actually liked from the things I felt compelled to appreciate. However, one phenomenon at Taft has always stood out to me, which is the tension and silence that surrounds political discussion.

Certainly the school has watched, and the students have taken part in, more political conversations this year than in the previous two years; nevertheless, there is a pervading sense of the taboo surrounding current events and public affairs. I, like many others, was taught to believe that proper etiquette came with many rules, including a list of acceptable and unacceptable topics to discuss in a group setting. The most inappropriate topics consisted of money, religion, and, of course, politics.

Because of how I was raised, it makes sense to me that many people stay silent about their beliefs because they fear being perceived as crass or impolite. But I would argue that a school—and especially a school like Taft—is the ideal place to allow oneself to become political. For lack of better

words, high school should be a place where students are allowed to be “scrappy,” to push boundaries, to experiment. Frankly, I don’t think Taft is doing its job if—as students exit the school—they have never once questioned the political beliefs of their parents, and/ or have never once questioned the beliefs that they themselves entered Taft with.

Of course, there are some people at Taft who are openly political. There are people who explicitly support Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders on Facebook. There are people who regularly share articles about injustice and the people and movements working to stop it. There are people who post videos and pictures of current events such as the Syrian refugee crisis. There are people who are willing to—at any time—discuss feminism, climate change, gun violence, the United States debt, and the controversy around the extent to which the First Amendment applies.

But for each of these people, there are others who are unwilling to take part in political debate for fear of answering “incorrectly,” for fear of coming off as ignorant or out-of-touch, for fear of their friends disagreeing with them. And for a long time, I was scared too. I was afraid that people wouldn’t like me if I came off as too serious. I was afraid to express a belief that could seen as controversial. I was afraid that people would interpret any participation in political discussions as an act of aggression on my part.

I’ve since realized that it is incredibly important to discuss politics at any and every age. It is important to be aware of—and to be critical of—the everchanging world we live in. If Taft doesn’t encourage its students to learn about the politics that shape

21 society, how can any Taftie graduate with the holistic education they came here to receive?

The student body is very fortunate, however, for in the past year especially, Taft has done an excellent job of encouraging political discussion by making a tremendous effort to keep its students informed about the world around them. There have been several opportunities to be politically engaged from Morning Meeting speakers, including DeRay McKesson and Dennis Kucinich, to group discussions on topics ranging from white privilege and racism to climate change. On a more concentrated scale, there are teachers like Mr. Hawes who attempt to connect subject material to current events everyday in their classrooms. Yet despite the school’s best efforts, I worry that something is lacking; I believe that fear and apathy both continue to block true political engagement.

This is a tragic phenomenon, for high school is the time when students ought to be allowed to question their beliefs and even redefine themselves. If we can’t be “scrappy” at Taft, where can we be? If we can’t discuss important topics at Taft, where can we discuss them? High school is a space for “messy” learning, so to speak: the kind of learning that isn’t easy, that can lead to big disagreements, but that ultimately allows a student to enter college with a strong senses of self. I would argue that if students never once question their parents’ beliefs—if they are never pressed to look critically at the world around them and reach their own conclusions—they have missed out on a crucial set of life experiences. Furthermore, there will inevitably be a time when they will be forced to figure out their political beliefs, and that time will likely be in a place much less forgiving than Taft’s tight-knit community.

Once in college, students have not been politically unengaged in high school will be at a significant disadvantage. Their classmates, hailing from private and public schools alike, have had no choice but to be engaged with the world around

them. They have seen politics in the news, on billboards, have heard about it from their parents and other adults in their lives. At Taft, however, while it is a diverse school, it is simply not as diverse as the outside world. Within the “Taft bubble,” the only people students consistently see are other students, teachers, and the staff who work on campus. The sad truth is that students really only interact with the two former groups and rarely engage the latter in conversations. This unfortunate phenomenon creates an environment where students simply aren’t hearing about a wide range of experiences unless they go out of their way to do so. While I am acutely aware of the diversity of thought and experiences that do exist within the student and faculty population at Taft, I believe it is necessary to recognize that this diversity does not compare to the diversity that will exist at college, and it certainly won’t compare to the diversity that will exist beyond that.

For these reasons, Taft must over-compensate by strongly encouraging civic engagement so that the institution can prepare students for the future.

In order to make up for the lack of “organic” political experiences—the ones that come from seeing lifestyles that are radically different from one’s own— Taft must foster more regular discussions about politics and the world around us. Taft must emphasize the civic duty we all share: to be well-informed, to think critically, to stand up for our own beliefs. Taft must encourage students to care about the world, to question creeds, dogmas, decisions, wars, laws, cases, and candidates, and to create their own opinions. To put everything more simply: Taft must bring the world to its students, and its students to the world. Students cannot hope to uphold the school’s profound motto, ‘not to be served, but to serve’ if students do not understand the politics behind creating change in society.

Discovery to Cure Story and photos by Lanting Lu ’16 “We will clone a plasmid that consists of the LAP1 luminal domain and TorsinA, then insert this plasmid into heh2…” Feeling lost and confused after my mentor for the Yale Discovery to Cure Internship described my project for the two-month research, I surveyed the lab: boxes of pipette tips were stacked neatly, agarose gels were running, colorful liquid media bottles covered the shelves, and machines were humming in the background. Everything was gleaming with excitement; the myriad of challenges I would face laid hidden beneath the lab’s shining exterior.

For the first couple of weeks, absorbing new information was my sole preoccupation. I felt like I was stumbling around in the dark until the cloth that covered my eyes was lifted, revealing an even foggier world. However, my initial confusion was what pushed me to dive head-first into unknown territory and to explore things that I had never encountered before. I learned about the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using KOD DNA polymerase, traditional cloning, digestion, ligation, bacterial transformation, imaging on microscope. I was plunging into a whole new scientific world; sometimes I had to try desperately just to keep my head above the water. Although

initially my daily routine was filled with errors, like putting the wrong type of media solution into the wrong type of bottle or having trouble balancing the centrifuge, as the days went by, my schedule became increasingly packed with experiments that I could conduct with less and less help from my mentor.

Settling into my corner of the lab on the first day, I remember being impressed by the diversity of the lab. As I was introduced to postgraduate and graduate students working in the lab, I learned many new names that I could not even pronounce. There were five countries represented in only a couple of rows of lab tables. Everyone was buried in work as they walked around with tubes and focused on the task at hand. Their focus inside the lab was paralleled by their enthusiasm outside the lab. Their conversations at lunch, joyful banter at lab meetings, and jokes at snack breaks gave me a glimpse of their true personalities. Being the new kid in the lab, I thought that my social interactions with fellow lab members would be limited to a couple of quick hellos. Instead, I received a full-on family welcome. Everyone was happy to answer my questions no matter how simple they were. The fun and collaborative learning environment made failed experiments and unsuccessful

23 trials a little less distressing. This group of scientists gave me a new understanding of diversity. I now understand that diversity is not merely a statistic that takes into account people’s nationalities; it is a way of thinking that requires us to be tolerant, open, and accepting.

Even though being treated as an adult was flattering, there were times when I had to escape the adult world. At these times, I would gratefully remember that I was not alone in this experience: there was a group of high school interns doing the same program in other labs. We, young high school interns, were united by the fact that we were all utterly clueless in comparison to these experienced scientists, despite our new and fancy vocabulary. Our daily get-togethers happened at lunch in front of the food carts where we had the opportunity to both vent about how “long” our work hours were and to revel in sharing stories of our new discoveries. It was amazing to make so many new friends who shared my love of science but who also had their own passions and quirks that made them unique.

These short moments of free time with fellow interns contrasted with the exhausting yet fulfilling work I did in the lab. When I still had countless images to analyze, a presentation to put together for a lab meeting, and a two-week experiment to repeat for the fifth time, doubts and frustrations flooded my mind. I thought to myself that I couldn’t possibly finish all this work, especially since I was still learning new aspects about my research every day. I soon

realized that this was in fact not the case. Facing countless new challenges everyday increased my knowledge of the scientific process, which was invaluable. With the encouragement of my principal investigator, I scheduled daily review meetings with him, read cell biology books and research papers, and asked questions frequently.

Gradually, I began to see these challenges not as burdens but as rewards that encapsulated the joy of scientific discovery and innovation.

The program ended with my fellow interns and I presenting our research. Although sitting through two full days of presentations felt burdensome at times, everyone agreed that it was a great way to conclude our lab experiences. All my lab members came to see my presentation, even though I had already rehearsed it with them the day before. Mrs. Benedict, my biology teacher at Taft, also came to support me. Without Mrs. Benedict’s and Lusk lab’s support, I would not have been able to learn as much as I did in such a short period of time. On my final day in the lab, I glanced at my lab bench: colonies of successfully cloned plasmids were growing, 100-page research notes were put on shelves, and a photo, capturing the entire lab staff after they had watched my final presentation, laid on the lab table.

These achievements and memories exist only because of the challenges I had to face and because of the people supporting me along my scientific journey. Thanks to the Page Grant, I’ve grown as a curious scientist, a focused researcher, and most importantly, as a lifelong learner.

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The Day of the African

June 16th.

Home is where the heart is but the heart is a broken place.

I hate how loud I must barely scream so that people can see my face:

I am dark and this is a time of shadows.

Child

by Tawanda Mulalu ’16

Sometimes what worries me most about us is not that we are forced to carry guns and rape our own mothers is not that we are pulled from our classrooms back into our homesteads is not that some of our leaders feast while we become skinny UNICEF models is not that if only one molecule of my DNA was different I could have lived without ever knowing how to read even a single word is not even that the smallest of things can wipe out entire villages in an instant mosquitoes, viruses, locusts; slave ships.

Sometimes what worries me most is that my headphones carry more sounds of strange places than my heart will ever know - that not even my brothers and sisters sold off to those strange places ever knew, as their children are hung off the trees of Jim Crow and we call them strange fruit, and that maybe our first president didn’t marry a white lady; the white lady might have married him.1 Sometimes what worries me most is that for just over eighteen years of seeing thinking feeling breathing being I couldn’t have ever told you what Africa meant to me past the occasional ‘dumela’2 to my mother’s mother but never, never did I know or now know or will know my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother because she can’t fit inside the cellular America that I hold in my palm.

And this is why they call us lost.

Because home is where the heart is but the heart is a broken place.

One time, my five year old cousin said matter-of-factly that black is ugly. In my Primary School days everyone said I should stay out of the sun lest I get darker.

But I’m here to tell you that I don’t even bother wearing a sun-hat anymore.

I’m here to tell you that I don’t cut my hair because to do so would feel like oppression.

I’m here to tell you how vivid and lovely and blessed I do feel to have been born in brokenheart home because at least it has soul.

I’m here to tell you that, yes, I do remember that time when the whole world knew what to do about Hitler and Bin Laden but never could get round to talking about Cecil John Rhodes.

I’m here to tell you that Today, that conversation starts with a toppled statue.3 Today, that conversation starts with my voice.

25 Today, this conversation starts with a poem which proclaims child I am, child I am, child I am, child I am, child I am that this is my day. This is my day.

The Day of the African Child.

N.B

The Day of the African Child commemorates the lives of the children who fought for their freedom during The Soweto Uprising on June 16th, 1976, and also calls for the continued attention to the education of the African youth. In response to the repressive Apartheid regime’s attempts to undermine the education of South African children, about ten thousand black students from Soweto protested across the streets. 40 years later, this spoken-word poem commemorates those who fought for South Africa’s freedom: Soweto was and still is an example of the greater struggles of the African Continent.

We march onwards still.

1 The ‘first president’ refers to Sir Seretse Khama, Botswana’s first head of state after it gained independence on the 30th of September 1966. The ‘white lady’ refers to his wife, Ruth Khama. They loved each other dearly and were an important symbol of racial acceptance in the 20th Century. However, even with racial acceptance now being the norm rather than exception, indigenous Setswana culture is becoming increasingly marginalized due to the influence of that of the West: this is an African poem written in English.

2 ‘Dumela’ means ‘Hello’ in Setswana, one of the two official languages of Setswana. The other official language is English.

3 Last year, the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, an infamous colonial leader, was removed from the campus of the University of Cape Town in South Africa following a wave of student protests.

Photo by Robert Falcetti

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Taft in

A Childhood Dream

Becomes a Reality Story and photos by Chris McDermott ’18

From a young age the thought of becoming a doctor had always interested me. Pursuing a career in the medical field offered many economic benefits and allowed me to help those who were ill. My grandfather has over 40 years of medical experience helping patients at a local hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts. During my childhood, he always spoke of how rewarding serving his patients had been, especially when he described his successful surgeries and revived patients. My initial draw towards the medical field was enhanced further by my grandfather’s many intriguing stories. Unfortunately, at the age of ten I was unable to apply for an internship at a local hospital, so my desire for medical experience was halted. Little did I know that just five years later I would be eligible to apply for a grant that would make my dreams reality.

Upon arriving to Taft for my freshman year, I was overwhelmed with the amount of classes, activities, clubs, and facilities that were available to any student.

There were a variety of these opportunities that interested me but the one that I simply could not resist was the Page Grant. I soon learned that the Page Grant was a grant that allowed students to pursue their interests in the medical field. I applied immediately.

Unlike many other applicants, I was very eager to get a real life experience in an actual hospital rather than a college introductory course to medicine, so I decided to get an internship at a local hospital in Hong Kong. To my surprise, I was granted enough money for me to take a two-week internship with Dr. Siu, a general surgeon at The Hong Kong Sanatorium Hospital. A few months later, I walked into the Sanatorium Hospital just as I had many times prior for annual check ups, but this time I was the doctor instead of the patient. I felt the fast-paced,

high-intensity atmosphere of the hospital; there was simply no time to waste when it came to saving lives.

The receptionist directed me to the general surgery wing of the hospital in which I was to meet Dr. Siu. As I waited for Dr. Siu, I noticed the flurry of nurses

rushing in and out of his office to hand him countless documents and folders. After waiting for a while, a nurse came out of his office and instructed me to go in and meet the doctor. Dr. Siu, one of the most well-renowned general surgeons at the Sanatorium, invited me in and introduced himself. We chatted

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for all of a few minutes before he went back into full work mode, instructing me to observe and learn. As each patient came in, I observed how he treated every single patient with great care and reassurance whether they had a serious illness or a minor cold. Most of the time it was difficult for me to understand what he was saying, as I did not have a medical degree. Nonetheless, I really began to understand the importance of how you talk to your patient. Dr. Siu emphasized that in order to gain a patient’s trust you must not only have the medical qualifications, but you also must be able to communicate and comfort distressed patients.

Following his daily morning consultations with postsurgery patients, he would rush upstairs to conduct colonoscopies and endoscopies, which are techniques used to observe the large intestine, colon and digestive tract for any signs of tumors, ulcers, inflammation or bleeding. As my first day came to an end around 5 o’clock, I had learned that the daily life of a medical surgeon was not as easy as I originally had imagined as a child. The sheer pace of his daily routine was crazy. The fact that he rushed from patient to patient without stopping made it even hard for me as an intern to keep up. For my entire

life, I pictured the life of a doctor based off of my grandfather’s many stories and the occasional Grey’s Anatomy episode; I had never truly understood the amount of stress and commitment you must put in to pursue the medical field.

The pace did not let up in the next two weeks.

I arrived at 8:30 every morning and met Dr. Siu in his office at 9:00 for his daily medical consultations with post-op patients. I found it very interesting that there were a wide variety of patients from all genders, ethnicities and backgrounds, making it even more interesting to meet and consult patients from all around the world. In addition to meeting a variety of people, I was able improve my Chinese speaking skills with patients, as most of them were Hong Kong locals. Following my lunch break, I would go to observe him while he performed endoscopies and colonoscopies on his patients. As each day came to an end, I learned more and more about becoming a doctor. By the end of the week I felt as if I was becoming a doctor myself. Although it was very sad to leave the hospital at the end of the second week, the internship with Dr. Siu reaffirmed and strengthened my interest in the medical field.

Finally, I would liked to formally thank the Page Grant committee for allowing me to pursue my passion for medicine. I encourage everyone to apply for this great opportunity.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

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“One of us=all of us” Story and photos by Gabriela Gonzalez Carpio ’17

I held my fist up with pride as I walked the halls of the hotel shouting “Poder Latino!” with the Latinx community. Friends that I had made earlier smiled at me, letting me know they were happy that I, too, found a place where my heart felt lighter. I had found a place where I could sing Spanish lyrics and hear someone start to sing along. I had found a place where the word “pernil” (roast pork) bears the weight of the holidays in an Ecuadorian household. I had found a place where others were familiar with the fire in the hearts of aunts and uncles that dance salsa in the living room. For the first time in a long time, I was a part of something bigger.

This past winter I, along with five other Tafties, was selected by the Global Studies and Service Committee to attend the National Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) hosted by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) in Tampa, Florida. I left my first regional SDLC in April of 2015 feeling so empowered that I wanted to re-engage in this experience on a larger scale. The National SDLC was the perfect opportunity to rejoin the community that first taught me that “One of Us = All of Us.” I was one of 1,600 students from all over the United States and abroad who came to listen and learn from one another and discuss difficult topics about identity such as race, religion, gender, and ability. After a long day of absorbing information and processing the stories and experiences we shared, we were instructed to join the affinity group we identified most closely with. These became our “family groups,” which consisted of about 70 people,

including the facilitators.

The Latinx/Hispanic Affinity Group at SDLC challenged me to think critically about what it means to be a Latina in the U.S. Together we considered topics like language, immigration, and stereotypes within the Latinx/Hispanic commu-

nity. I listened carefully to other Latinos’ experiences that were radically different from my own.

One girl was adopted from Mexico into a white family. Another was half Irish. One boy couldn’t dance bachata and asked me, smiling, if I would teach him. Some lived in South America but studied in the U.S. I was elated to see the level of diversity between people who shared a common Latinx identity. When I considered what role this diversity plays in my own life, I realized that for the first time in my life, I identified as multiracial. Latinx heritage is a beautiful mix of many

29 peoples and cultures. I thought, “I can be multiracial without being torn between ethnicities.” Although my mom and dad are from Ecuador and Colombia respectively – two Latin American countries, each with its own cultures and traditions – I have never felt disconnected from one side of my family in comparison to the other. I considered my mom’s honey eyes and fair skin in contrast to my father’s deep dark eyes and brown complexion. They are an example of two people who look very different on the surface but are no more or less Latino on the inside.

At the end of the conference, we had open mics for anyone who wanted to share their revelations.

I sat up front by the mic farthest to the right with Spencer, a friend I had made in my family group. I did not anticipate the range of honest confessions that I witnessed: friends from my family group came out about their gender expression. Peers that I hadn’t talked to shared experiences they said were easier to accept after their experience at SDLC. I was deeply moved by all the people who went up, whether they were in my family group or not. When a young man shared a story about the prejudice he experienced for being Muslim, my eyes blurred with tears as I hugged my knees. Between my reaction to this boy’s painful story and the comfort of Spencer’s arm, I was reminded of the impact and importance of common humanity. I have never experienced empathy so strongly before. I left the National SDLC with more knowledge of my

own identity and a heightened sensitivity to the identities and subsequent truths of the people around me.

This past April, I attended my second regional SDLC, but this time I was a student facilitator. My knowledge and experiences from my last two conferences prepared me to pose the difficult but necessary questions regarding social injustices. It was very interesting to observe the students go through thought processes so similar to the ones I had during my first two SDLC experiences. After reading prompts for a privilege walk, an activity that encourages students to step forward if they identify with a specific societal or economic privilege, my students gained a deeper understanding of the circumstances that surround privilege. I was particularly impressed by one student who realized that “power + prejudice = racism,” an equation used to explain that only white people can be racist in America because of the power they hold in this country. Prior to facilitating, I thought this equation would lead to inflammatory conflict, but instead it opened the floor to productive discussion.

My students’ ability to handle this subject so maturely showed me their potential for making a change in their own communities.

I look forward to serving my community as SDLC has inspired me to: by fostering inclusivity and embracing diversity, especially next year as a monitor in a senior girls dorm and as co-head of the Affinity Group for Black and Hispanic/Latina Women.

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K-pop:

A Modern Musical Phenomenon

by Sumi Kim ’17 Korean culture, similar to other Asian societies, is heavily rooted in tradition. With an emphasis on traditional values, a clear definition of success, and an insistence on carrying out ancient rituals, such as bowing to deceased Korean ancestors on the New Year, it seems unlikely that such a traditional culture would have bred one of the most experimental genres of music today: K-pop. Wildly popular across not only Korea and Asia but also worldwide, this style of music ranges from feminine bubblegum pop to edgy rap. With such variation in the type of music performed, what defines each act as K-pop is not the music; rather, it is the image of the performer(s) itself.

The music videos, dance choreographies, live performances, interviews, and group dynamic all take an equal if not more important role in a group’s popularity than the content of the music they are presenting.

Indeed, K-pop groups and the companies that manufacture them are experts in the consumer industry. The multitalented stars are hand-picked based on their abilities as dancers, singers, or even as models, and are often formed into groups that are then assigned “a concept” to embody; the idea of a unique personality is paramount within the industry. As a result, a group’s music and aesthetic are both perfectly crafted to fit their theme, setting them apart from other groups. However, before a group or an individual can debut, trainees must undergo intensive classes to teach them how to be a K-pop star – dance classes, singing classes, foreign language classes, and public-speaking classes, to name a few. In the meantime, the agencies will actively promote the group through teaser pictures and video clips; thus, when the group finally does debut, they have already garnered a large fan base. All of this preparation, extensive and perhaps unnecessary as it seems, culminates in success: K-pop performers become superstars worldwide over night.

Presenting K-pop as a genre so artificially manufactured might lead one to question how fans of K-Pop can appreciate this genre, even when understanding the extensive work that goes into creating their favorite band. However, the somewhat

Photos by Robert Falcetti

mathematical formula that brings these groups into existence actually plays a large role in fostering a group’s relationship with their fans. K-pop groups arguably interact with their followers the most across the music industry. In fact, it is rare to see such a large number of active and devoted fan bases established within a single genre. K-pop devotees tend to refer to their favorite artists not as celebrities whom they have never met, but as friends, recognizing their quirks and distinctive personalities aside from their stage personas.

Due to the personal nature of this relationship between artist and fan, every new interaction between the two becomes exponentially amplified. The premiere of a new music video from a fan’s favorite rap group can transform into a momentously exciting event. Live performances are incredible because of the amazingly in-sync choreography and perfectly coordinated outfits. The connection between a group and its fans is further strengthened by countless interviews, reality TV show appearances, and behind the scene videos that aid fans in feeling connected not only with the group members but

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also with each other. Major companies behind K-pop groups actively work towards creating this close-knit culture that unites artist and fan, ultimately culminating in an experience unique to K-pop.

Obviously, the structured process that goes into creating and maintaining K-pop groups and their popularity works.

Though not totally apparent, this infatuation is present even in the student subculture at Taft; listen closely on campus, and one can hear the distinct rhythms of Korean rap floating out of a pair of earphones. This year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Multicultural Arts Festival saw a group of five junior students perform a choreographed dance routine to a hit K-pop song. Even in the middle of Watertown, Connecticut, the music of one small east-Asian country is prominent, popular, and accessible.

Beyond Taft, K-pop success is apparent worldwide, especially in Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan, among many other countries. Since the popularity of Korean pop music continues to be a global phenomenon, even being dubbed “The Korean Wave,” the industry has adapted to meet new international demands. Several groups feature international members or perform in different languages, allowing them to appeal to a much larger audience. For example, Exo is an

extremely popular boy band that performs in both Korean and Mandarin Chinese, while GOT7 features members from Korea, the United States, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

The popularity of Korean music worldwide will only keep growing. The internet will continue to promote the existence of these groups and make their work accessible.

More young men and women will flock to training camps every day in hopes of being selected to join this glamorous and highly rigorous career path in Korea. The energetic, concept-centric vibe of K-pop will keep adapting to fit modern demand. And above all, K-pop companies will continue to foster that personal relationship between the fans and the artists, ensuring that there will be no reason for Korean music to fade into irrelevance any time soon.

This is the genius of K-pop. And though it may first appear to be just another trend, when one examines the behind the scenes training, the sense of community within the genre, and the ingenuity within the music itself, it becomes obvious that the experience of Korean pop music is not simply a passing fad – it has earned its label as a modern global phenomenon.

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