The Roar Vol. 20 No. 5

the

Roar

1801 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. S., College Station, Texas 77840

Thursday, Apr. 2, 2015

MUSLIM IN AMERICA

Vol. 20 No. 5

Muslim students, despite facing widespread cultural ignorance, continue to cherish faith, freedom annie zhang & rachel lamb executive editor and assistant editor It’s been 14 years since 9/11, five years since the New York car bomber and four months since the Charlie Hebdo attack.

It’s also been 14 years since the 9/11 “revenge killer,” six years since the burning death of Ali Abdelhadi Mohd and two months since the shooting at Chapel Hill.

“You have to understand that there are some Muslims who legitimately fear being Muslim,” senior Sibba Al-Khatani said. “They’ll hide it. They believe in it, but they don’t act like it because they

inthisissue

don’t want to be labeled Muslim.”

But what does it really mean to be labeled Muslim in America?

“When you honestly look at Islam, it’s an extremely peaceful religion. It was almost commanded that we treat our neighbors as family, that in our wills, when we died, we have to give something to our neighbors,” AlKhatani said. “We’re never allowed to kill; if someone is hurting our feelings, we have to suck it up. We can’t do anything about it.”

With one in four people worldwide identifying as Muslim, Islam is the world’s second-largest and fastest growing religion.

“Islam, to me, is my way of life. It’s my safe haven, what I go to in times of trouble, what I go to in times of happiness,” sophomore Nooran Riaz said. “To others, it’s just this mysterious religion that some people use as an excuse to

news pages 2-6 @consol page 7 viewpoints pages 8-10

hurt others, which is completely wrong. [Those people] don’t know what to think because the only version of Islam they get to see is the one on the news.”

Today, only 27% of Americans hold Islam in a favorable view, according to a 2014 survey conducted by the Arab American Institute.

“If you look at what the media is saying, they think that [Islam] promotes violence,” senior Lena Ayari said. “There’s a quote in the Quran that says killing one person is killing all of mankind, so what you see in the media isn’t representative of what Islam is actually about.”

“Islam” continued on page 3.

snapshots page 11 people pages 12-18 sports pages 19-21 entertainment pages 22-24

2 | news | the roar

THE ROAR BREAKS DOWN DISTRICT SPENDING vi burgess | assistant editor

$18,666,627.29

BOND: AMOUNT OF MONEY CSISD HAS PROMISED TO PAY BACK TO BOND HOLDERS WHO HAVE INVESTED IN THE DISTRICT

total amount spent on the check register as of January 31, 2015 for the 2014-2015 school year

$278,045,000 total bonds outstanding

AMOUNT SPENT PER STUDENT PER YEAR TEXAS

AMCHS

CSISD

TEA SCHOOL REPORT CARD

PERCENTAGE OF ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS

CSISD WEBSITE

dollars & SENSE

thursday, april 2, 2015

CSHS

21.

4

$8,107

$8,484

$6,831

AVERAGE TEACHER SALARY BY SENIORIT Y 3

0%

% 0.9

TEA SCHOOL REPORT CARD

$8,327

S SH

OL NS

C

ISD CS

CO

“Each campus gets the same amount. CSHS does not have as much non-personnel budget as Consol does, and that was deliberate because there are still a few less students there.”

HIRED

1-5 YEARS

$39,257

$41,588

6-10 YEARS

11-20 YEARS

$45,071

$50,155

AVERAGE

$62,699

$48,885

TEXAS TRIBUNE

.5% 34

“We [zone] based on where students live today. We can’t tell where they’ll live three years from now.”

20+ YEARS

“We need to remind people that we’re a school district. We’re not defined by one high schoool or one elementary school; we’re one school district.

And what we do is work for all students.”

QUOTES from GLYNN WALKER, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT

w h o g a n l s k

If you ever need caring, confidential help, there’s always Hope.

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the roar | news | 3

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

Muslim students hope to change misconceptions, end prejudice

“Islam” cont. from page 1 Indeed, the membership of terrorist organizations makes up merely 0.01% of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.

“It’s kind of obvious that these groups don’t represent all of Islam, because most of their targets are Muslim, which doesn’t make sense if they’re trying to represent Islam,” Ayari said.

As Al-Khatani pointed out, terrorist activities occur predominantly in Muslim countries.

“If you don’t follow their way of thought, then you’re not Muslim,” AlKhatani said. “They have a separate belief, and if we don’t believe in that, then we’re not Muslim to them.”

Yet because of its more foreign nature, Ayari said, Islamic extremism “makes for more interesting news, because since many people don’t know about it, it’s more scary.”

“No one ever says that all Christians are members of the Westboro church; we don’t look at Christians and say that they’re all extremists and horrible people,” Al-Khatani said. “No, because there are extremists of every religion. There are some unfortunate people who made [Islam] have a bad name. It’s ridiculous that people have this idea that every single Muslim that they come into contact with is going to be some extremist baboon.”

Just recently, three Muslim students were shot in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,

by Craig Stephen Hicks in what the police referred to as “a parking dispute.”

“The media said it was not a hate crime, that it was a parking dispute, but it was obviously shown that the victims were targeted specifically because they were Muslim,” Al-Khatani said. “[But] the media barely covered Chapel Hill. The only reason why people knew about it was through Tumblr and Twitter.”

Despite the lack of media coverage, the effects of the shooting rippled through the American Muslim community.

“After the shooting at Chapel Hill, I was not allowed to leave my house,” senior Samira Islam-Mina said. “Usually, my dad will drop me off at the mall for me to window-shop by myself, but this time, he

was like, ‘No. You are not allowed to leave thing and a bad thing. Yeah, it’s more the house.’ He was super freaked-out.” responsibility because everything you do Just as concerning was the media’s can be generalized, but at the same time, application, or, in this case, a lack thereof, it’s awesome, because I get to show that of the word “terrorist.” not all Muslims are bad.”

“A person is only called a terrorist if Although Western views often portray they are Muslim. If they are of any other the hijab as a “symbol of oppression,” faith, [people] usually brush it off as that Razvi, Al-Khatani and Islam-Mina person being psychotic,” Riaz said. strongly object.

But the media is not the only applying “I say this all the time—I don’t have to this double standard: wear a hijab; I get to wear a hijab,” Razvi “We got called terrorists in seventh said. “I can’t brag on it enough. People and eighth grade. There was a guy who, think it’s oppression. Not even close. It’s every time I left lunch, would call me a so freeing.” terrorist,” Islam-Mina said. “I’ve never Undeterred, all hope to fight these talked to him in my life, but just because I common misconceptions with what lies have a hijab over my head, [he’s] going to at the very root of these stereotypes—the call me a terrorist without understanding basic teachings of Islam. my religion at all?”

“Islam teaches us to be the best we The hijab, can be, to be a prominent the best people feature of Muslim we can be—the “I’ve never talked to him in my life, culture, is a head most kind, most covering worn in caring—the but just because I have a hijab over public by some one who helps my head, [he’s] going to call me a Muslim women others,” Riaz terrorist without understanding to emphasize said. “The best my religion at all?” character over way to show appearance. people what senior Samira Islam-Mina “I lost a lot Islam is is to act of friends when like a Muslim, I did begin to and show people wear it; people just stopped talking to me,” what Islam is through your character.”

Islam-Mina said.

Islam itself is divided into two Like Islam itself, the hijab creates a distinct branches: Sunni and Shi’a. While pre-established image for Muslim women. Riaz, Al-Khatani and Islam-Mina belong “It’s a personality. [People] thought to the majority, Sunni Muslims, Razvi and I’d be a nice, calm and quiet person,” Al- seniors Alizain Ali and Ali Kassam are Khatani said. “Lena [Ayari] is the perfect Shi’a Muslims. hijab-personality, and I’m the perfect non“We are a branch of Shi’a Muslims hijab personality—not nice, not calm, and that’s very modern; we have changed definitely not quiet—even though I wear with society. Rather than taking one.” interpretations straight from the Quran, For senior Azra Ravzi, wearing a hijab we have one descendant of Muhammad embodies a conscious choice to represent who interprets it for us, and he gives us Islam and the Muslim community. spiritual guidance on what to do,” Kassam “I’ve never been forced to wear a said. “He understands the modern society hijab. This has always been my decision, and modern world right now, so for that my decision to say that I’m ready to bear reason, we’re able to adapt to American the flag of my religion. Everything I do society. You’ll see a lot of difference reflects upon my religion, which yes, it between our [branch] of Shi’a and the adds a bunch of responsibility, but it’s also majority of Muslims.” a huge honor,” Ravzi said. “People look Shi’a comprise about 10% of all at me differently, but that can be a good Muslims, and are primarily located in

Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.

“Our spiritual leaders tell us to adapt.

We’ve changed a lot— even our places of worship don’t stand out, and they try to blend in with the infrastructure around it,”Ali said. “But I don’t want to say, since we’re such a small minority, that change is good. The Sunnis are still happy with their lifestyles because they live their lives well on their own; they don’t need to change their lifestyles.”

Nonetheless, even with their differences in ideology, Ali and Kassam note that they too focus on improving Islam’s reputation. “[Our religious center] want us to become ambassadors of Islam, to show that Islam is a religion of peace,” senior Ali Kassam said. “On top of that, they teach us other religions, too, and how all the religions intertwine with one another, how they work with each other.”

Thus, the key to alleviating conditions for all Muslim Americans, Kassam said, is “understanding and cooperation.”

“You know, one generation ago, it was the civil rights movement; it’s happening slowly, gradually, and I think our kids won’t be facing the same prejudice that we faced,” Kassam said. “Hopefully, it’ll be our generation who will hopefully eradicate the prejudice and set our children in the right direction for the future.”

And as for now?

“You are also blessed to be in such a place where you’re welcome to express your religion, to be in a place where you have the right to practice your religion,” Riaz said. “As a Muslim in America, I feel lucky to be somewhere where I can show people what Islam truly is. That feeling isn’t always there, but [for] the majority it is, and you realize how lucky you are.”

Compared to countries like Tunisia and France where wearing a hijab is banned, America “is a very diverse and open community,” Ayari said.

“These hate crimes are awful, but in my experience, being a Muslim girl in America is the best place to be a Muslim girl,” Razvi said. “I can play sports, I can be in leadership positions, I can do clubs and organizations—whatever I want.”

Percentages of the United States population who are...

Muslim-0.6%

Unaffiliated-16.6%

Findings from the Pew Research Center

Hindu-0.4%

Christian-46.1%

Other-36.3%

4 | news | the roar

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

Significant interest in game design club leads to formation of class zach kluver | entertainment editor Next year, thanks to computer maintenance teacher Patrick Powell, there will be a game design class to go along with the game design club. Powell had wanted to teach a class about game design, so naturally, when the club was founded, he agreed to be its sponsor.

“I tried for the last two years to get game design as a class, but it wasn’t happening. So, a few of my students created the club so they could at least do something,” Powell said. “But when the administration saw the interest and the work coming out of the club, they decided to give it a shot.”

Twisted Bit

The club will be more of a companion to the class, but students will still be able to join the club and not be in the class.

“Most people will be in the club, but not in the class,” Powell said. “You need to have Algebra II and Programming, and that’s going to limit some of the juniors and seniors who aren’t going to be able to take them before they graduate.”

Whereas the Game Design club was lax in regard to output as long as the game made the deadline, the class will need grades and regular participation from students.

[

]

CHECK OUT THE “COMPANIES”

“I’m coordinating with a professor at Texas A&M who was one of the lead art designers for the Madden games.

So he’s got basically the exact same class at the university,” Powell said. “[The class] will be simulating the industry. It’s definitely going to be more rigorous than the club.”

Read about the student-run game design companies below.

Plebeian Productions

BruteWare

Goat RPG – A top-down 2D RPG that follows the adventures of a... goat. Choose your powers and unleash devastation on the bad guys around you! *Note: Lacks enemies Like a lot of ‘companies’ that were created this year in the club, Twisted Bit had to struggle through lacking knowledge about how to program, which ended up with very serious technical difficulties.

“Our game is just bug after bug after bug,” freshman Colter Vick said. “We had made a lot of progress in our game, and we had a lot of the first level mapped out. But because I put a hashtag in the title of one of the objects, the whole game corrupted and died.”

Goat RPG has also run into a few difficulties with the software they use for their game, the aptly titled ‘Game Maker’.

“We lost the full version of our game, and now we can’t make any progress,” freshman Andrew Howerton said. Because we don’t want to pay $800 for the paid version of ‘Game Maker’, it won’t let us create any new objects.”

Fight, Fight, Go, Go! Super Pro Edition – A fighting game in which you take on your doppelganger in an intense match of ‘skill’!

The members of BruteWare are not especially proud of their first game. It’s easy to see why. The game is really unbalanced, has only one character, and is unlikely to entertain someone for more than a minute.

“Basically, it’s so bad it’s good,” sophomore Takuma Fujiwara said.

However, BruteWare is moving on beyond its “unique” first game, and is now trying to make a zombie shooter.

“Our programmer worked on Pixel Zombies for a few weeks by himself and it’s already better than our first game,” sophomore Conner Button said.

Kustomization is Key – Create your own avatars with tons of krazy kooky clothes and accessories!

Plebeian Productions consists of most of the seniors in the club and most of the founders. Since they’ve been around a lot longer than the other companies, they have a larger game library and are the most experienced.

Despite that, they still have a healthy skepticism about the quality of their games.

“Kustomization is Key I’d give a 10/10 because it was a very intelligent mockery of the customization in games,” senior Logan Reynolds said. “And the fact that it crashed occasionally only added to how broken the game industry is. It’s social commentary.”

Similarly to developers Twisted Bit, Plebeian Productions also had trouble with using hashtags in their assets’ names. When they took Kustomization is Key to SkillsUSA last year, they could not get the game to run because one of the artists had put a bad joke as the title.

the roar | news | 5

thursday, april 2, 2015

District responds to criticism of website filtering, weak connection strength austin coats | sports editor

users/100Mb/sec. With 12,500 students and staff across the district, meeting that standard would mean that CSISD would have to double the amount of bandwidth, Sites and services like Spotify, Netflix, Buzzfeed, causing the monthly payment to skyrocket. So, reaching and Snapchat have been blocked throughout the school those standards could potentially double the cost. year. The students of CSISD hate it, but it isn’t CSISD’s “I would love it if the district could afford more, we fault. just can’t right now,” Derrick said.

“We, by law, have to filter out things of a certain ratAlthough Derrick wants more bandwidth, she acing, and on those sites there’s no way for us to filter their knowledges that the current amount is functional. content. We either allow the service or we don’t allow the “It’s been pretty good the last couple of weeks,” Derservice,” CSISD’s head programmer Kelly Derrick said. rick said. “[The bandwidth] hasn’t peaked.”

“If I allowed Netflix for high school students, in theory, Therefore, what may be the more relevant issue is a kindergartner could be watching ‘The Children of the that schools don’t have enough access points.

Corn.’”

“When you’re using wireless, you’re connecting CSISD implements a filtering service that blocks to one of the access points in the ceilings. It’s like your sites for them in order to keep within federal regulations. router at home that does wireless for you, except we put Streaming services that the district isn’t subscribed to them all in the ceilings,” Derrick said. “Each access point are also blocked, but past that, they don’t block anything. can hold between 40 and 60 clients. If it has too many “[We’re] pretty lenient, a lot of school districts really clients, somebody’s getting bumped.” crack down on ‘that right there When schools are opened, won’t be allowed on our network they have enough access points period end of story,’” CSISD’s so that if every person within the Director of Technology David building was trying to connect, Hutchison said. “[But] we open they would typically be able to. it up and let [the students] have Unfortunately, it doesn’t reach evaccess to it.” eryone.

Blocking isn’t something the “We open the schools with higher-ups ask for. the projected number to make “To my knowledge, we’ve sure that there are enough access never requested that anything be points if every single person was blocked on our campus,” assisconnected at one time,” Derrick tant principal Aaron Hogan said. said, “but we have to scatter them.”

If students need something Because of that, they keep from a blocked website, they can placing more access points in the easily send an exception request. ceilings.

When they go to a blocked web“[We add more] all the time, Kelly Derrick site, they will find a link promptit’s a constant thing,” Derrick said. ing them do so.

In fact, when told about a “If it’s a legitimate request, I poor connection within a school, have no problem exempting it,” Derrick immediately got on the phone to investigate the Derrick said. problem. Hutchison confirmed that efforts to fix reportIf the request is accepted, everyone in the school ed problems would be recognized. district will be permitted access, just as everyone in the “We were made aware of it, so we are adding access school district is subject to the same filter. points,” Hutchison said.

“If it makes [the students] feel any better, we don’t And that’s because the technology department get to stream [Netflix] either,” Derrick said. “Dr. Ealy wants to take care of their customers, operating on a doesn’t get to stream it, no one gets to stream it. Our “students first” belief despite being understaffed. Howboss doesn’t let us sit and stream Netflix while we’re ever, they can only do so much for students without working, either.” their input.

However, students often complain that the internet “I want kids to contact us. Kids aren’t reaching out doesn’t work, that their connection is spotty, and that if there’s a problem, and so I don’t always know,” Derthey therefore can’t reach the resources they need. rick said. “They can email if they have questions or need An obvious reason for a slow connection is that the help.” school district only has so much bandwidth. In the fall, Comments, complaints or questions? Contact Kelly the school district recognized the need for more band- Derrick at tech@csisd.org. width. Now, CSISD spends $16,000 every month in Internet fees, because it upgraded from 500 to 600 megabytes per second.

The Consortium for School Networking sets the bandwidth standard for school districts at 1000

“We don’t get to stream [Netflix] either. Dr. Ealy doesn’t get to stream it, no one gets to stream it.” head programmer

Which CSISD blocked or formerly blocked site do you use or want the most in school?

4.8% of the students want Buzzfeed back

7.7% of the students want Pandora back

12.5% of the students want other sites back

20.2% of the students want Spotify back

25% of the students want Netflix back

29.8% of the students want Snapchat back

*of the 104 students surveyed

CSISD internet will be turned off on the following days due to testing:

April 20 April 21 April 22 May 12 May 13 May 14 May 15

6 | news | the roar

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

Victims of fictitious bullying accusations share stories of confusion, hurt feelings maya girimaji | staff reporter Being bullied is one of the worst feelings a student can experience. Being falsely accused of bullying is just as bad.

“I didn’t know there was a problem until one day I got called into choir,” said sophomore Daphne Dillube*. “Immediately, I sat down and the counselor told me what happened and they brought in the accuser. I was shocked.”

Dillube was first blamed for ignoring her accuser, but the situation expanded when her accuser pulled out a diary with a list of false accusations.

“I didn’t see where [the accusations] were going,” Dillube said. “But then again, I didn’t have the chance to talk.”

Dillube said that she didn’t really get a chance to deal with the situation, but that the counselors handled the problem.

“Generally, when students are accused, we try to get as many opinions in as we can,” counselor Mindy Casper said. “We call the student in and teachers who could

have seen or heard anything.”

Casper further expanded on how they try to gather as much information as they can before they give it to the principals.

“We’ve had a couple of erroneous reports,” Casper said.

“It’s normally easy to tell when someone is being falsely accused.”

Luckily, Dillube had people who knew about the situation and could clear her name.

“I would tell my mom what went on, so she was ready when the counselor called. She cleared up the situation by saying this girl is a liar and a cheater and that she blamed it on me. I just let it go.”

Junior Melody Nguyen* and freshman Mehr Khan faced similar accusations.

“I honestly didn’t really care,” said Nguyen. “But there was a table of adults, and it really got to me, and I started crying. In the

“

end, I knew that the truth would get out anyways, so I wasn’t too worried.”

Each victim approached the problem differently. Sometimes the best solution was to avoid the accuser.

“I tried to ignore the issue and I tried to ignore the person,” Khan said. “I try not to associate with [the accuser] in a way that would make her upset.”

However, ignoring the accuser doesn’t always help and can even make the situation worse.

“The year that this all happened, I was not very social, and I guess by not including her she thought that I was actually being mean to her,” Dillube said. “So I guess that my isolated feelings towards her might have triggered the thought that I was bullying her.”

On the other hand, Nguyen’s counselor was quick to understand

They brought in the accuser. I was shocked.

the

the situation and helped Nguyen solve this problem.

“The counselor told me that you get to choose who you hang out with,” Nguyen said. “If you don’t want to hang out with someone, you have a right to that, and you’re not doing anything wrong. He used a Cheerio and a tissue box as an example. He put [the tissue box] down and said ‘This is you’,” Nguyen said. “He dropped a Cheerio on it and said ‘That is the person that reported you. They can’t damage the tissue box’.”

But sometimes Cheerios do hurt. “[The problem] wasn’t really solved,” Khan said. “I told them the truth and they told me to not really do it again. It did not get very big, but it was big enough to have an effect on me. It made me look at that person differently because I realized that I couldn’t trust her anymore. She wasn’t a true friend.” *names and grades changed to protect identities of students

Report a bully.

A real one.

Reporting a fake bully is a form of bullying, too.

Here’s how to report that.

1) Keep evidence of bullying.

2) Block communications from bully.

3) Report bullying to online server, schools, or law enforcement if needed.

For more information visit stopbullying.gov

Roar O N L I N E for breaking news, student features and photo galleries, check us out at

theroarnews.com

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

the Roar presents a choose-your-own adventure game

RAISE YOUR HAND

YOU’RE IN ENGLISH & YOU REALLY HAVE TO USE THE RESTROOM. DO YOU RAISE YOUR HAND OR JUST RUN OUT?

[ RESTROOM RECON ]

RUN OUT

YOU MEET FIVE SOPHISTICATED PEOPLE & HAVE A LENGTHY DISCUSSION ABOUT IRONY.

MISSION FAILED.

LEFT

YOU CRASH THROUGH THE GLASS WINDOW & FALL ONTO THE GROUND TEN METERS BELOW.

MISSION FAILED.

GO INTO THE WHITE RESTROOM

HE NTORTIA I N U R TE CAFE

ATTEMPT TO LEAVE SCHOOL

YES

YES

GO ON

YOU RUSH INTO THE DOWNSTAIRS SCIENCE HALLWAY & REACH THE MAROON RESTROOM. DO YOU ENTER?

TAKE THE STAIRS

MOVE ALONG

YOU REACH THE RED RESTROOM. DO YOU ENTER?

YOU CONTINUE THROUGH THE SCIENCE HALLWAY UNTIL YOU REACH THE WHITE RESTROOM. AT THIS POINT, YOU’RE REALLY FED UP. WHAT DO YOU DO?

YOUR TEACHER IGNORES YOU.

MISSION FAILED.

THE HALLWAY ENDS. YOU CAN TAKE THE STAIRS OR TAKE A SHARP LEFT. WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE?

the roar | @consol | 7

YOU TAKE A SECOND TO ADMIRE YOURSELF IN THE LARGE MIRROR. WOW, YOU LOOOK GOOD TODAY. YOU ARE SUCKED INTO THE VOID.

MISSION FAILED.

YOU GET CAUGHT IN A 400 PERSON LINE & ARE UNABLE TO EVER USE THE RESTROOM.

MISSION FAILED.

YOU SLIP ON A BANANA PEEL & INJURE YOURSELF.

MISSION FAILED. NO. YOU HEAD BACK UPSTAIRS.

DO YOU WANT TO USE THE RESTROOMS HERE? THEY DON’T HAVE STALL DOORS.

YES

YOU ARE CAPTURED

BY AN ADMINISTRATOR & IMMEDIATELY EXPELLED.

MISSION FAILED.

YOU ENTER THE RESTROOM. NO ONE HAS BEEN HERE IN YEARS.

YOU WIN!

8 | viewpoints | the roar

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

MAKINGA POINT Allergies create unique outlook on the importance of vaccinations

vi burgess assistant editor Boston at 3 a.m. is really pretty. There’s a cool breeze to take the edge off the summer heat, and the streets are silent-silent enough that my wheezing is audible from the end of the dark street. Red eyes, raspy cough, runny nose, barely breathing; it’s just my usual allergic reaction.

My misery is pretty much my own fault, of course, because I expose myself to everything I’m allergic to without taking meds first. Every time I eat or touch tree nuts, peanuts, raw eggs, raw papaya, dogs and cats, I get a horrible new reaction.

From an early age, I was taught to always ask what I was eating, who made it, and what’s in it more like suspicious royalty with poison paranoia than a tiny little girl with terrifying allergies. Yeah, sure, I’ve never tasted Nutella, but my life hasn’t had some kind of fundamental lack of purpose because of my body’s inane reactions.

The one thing that I have missed out on, though, isn’t the PB&Js that I couldn’t eat like the “cool kids” in elementary school—it’s the flu vaccine. More specifically, when I touch raw egg whites, my hands break out in hives, and of course, the scientists’ chosen medium of growth for the most commonly dispensed flu vaccines just happens to be fertilized chicken egg embryos.

I get all of my other standard vaccines like measles, hep A and B, tetanus, the usual stuff. It’s just the fact that every time flu season comes around, I’m inundated with signs and pharmacy commercials reminding me to get my flu shot. Trust me, I would if I could. And after wading through the veritable minefield, I spend the next four months hoping that, with

my teenager-ish predilection for way too little sleep and way too much homework, my immune system will somehow be strong enough for me to stay healthy.

Of course, that never happens. I spent literally all of winter break sick, probably because of stress and sleep deprivation from finals. But flu medicine and Advil can only help me power through so many of my responsibilities. Not getting sick would be really nice.

An almost completely effective way to keep me and the rest of the general public who share the same misfortunes as me (see also: newborns) from getting sick would be if everybody else (who can)

“

Yes, everyone has a personal choice, but it’s society’s mandate to protect those who can’t defend themselves.

got the flu shot. The handy thing is that if nobody I’m close to can get the flu, it can’t get passed on to me; in other words, herd immunity. Recently, not vaccinating children has been less due to legitimate reasons and more due to faddish beliefs.

It’s kind of like a fad diet: it’s bad for you.

The difference is that fad diets don’t harm others.

I’m not the only person who can’t get the flu vaccine or the many other vaccines people are supposed to get before seventh grade and before going to college. Children under two, people with severe allergies to the vaccinations, people who’ve had certain diseases, children with histories of heart conditions and seizures, pregnant and nursing women (for some vaccines)— we are all relying on the majority to take one for the team. Not that vaccines are bad for you in any way. There are side effects for some, like a low-grade fever or a bruise at

the injection site, but for the vast majority of people, these are minor side effects.

When you get your flu shot, for instance, you don’t actually get the flu. Your body produces antibodies so if you do actually get the flu, your body can defend itself significantly faster. In addition, the amount of thimerosal (mercury-based preservative) in vaccines, which is often cited as a reason to avoid vaccines, is so negligible that you’re probably exposed to more mercury naturally than in vaccines.

Probably the worst reason, to me, that people don’t get vaccinated, or vaccinate their kids is because of the thoroughly disproven study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that falsely claimed that vaccinations cause autism. Fun fact: they don’t. But even if you subscribe to that particular piece of misinformation and choose not to get vaccines for this reason (not other legitimate reasons, such as religion and sickness), you’re saying that you—or your child, in whichever case—would rather face possible death and be responsible for others’ deaths and illnesses than have autism.

The reason nobody gets smallpox and polio vaccines anymore is that we had practically eradicated these diseases through relentless vaccinations. And now the diseases could come back, like the Disney Measles Outbreak. That slight incident exposed hundreds upon hundreds of defenseless children too young or too sick to get their vaccines to measles. Yes, everyone has a personal choice, but it’s society’s mandate to protect those who can’t defend themselves.

So while writing this article, I discovered that there is an egg-free vaccination. Next fall, I will be the first in line to get it.

Vi is an assistant editor for The Roar.

Want to discuss your view on vaccinations with her? Contact her at the.roar.burgess@ gmail.com.

MEASLES Measles was considered virtually eliminated in 2000 In early 2015, there was a measles outbreak in Disneyland, California

in order to achieve complete immunity

90-95%

of the population

must be vaccinated

There have been 102 reports of measles since 2015 S O U R C E : T H E WA S H I N G TO N P O S T

the roar | viewpoints| 9

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

Smartphone culture leads to cowardice in face of human interaction

annie zhang executive editor Apple always told us that life was easier with an iPhone… ...and it’s not that far off from the truth.

Indeed, life is easier when instead of having to acknowledge people on the streets or in the stores, all you need is some acting skills. Oh, is that a new text message?

No, but who will know? Better go check it and avoid eye contact with that seventh grade teacher who may or may not remember you. So you pull out your phone and stare at your home screen for a while, swiping back and forth between your pages. Perhaps I should change my wallpaper…

But that’s only if luck is on your side and you remembered to bring your phone, or else your only other two solutions are to hide in an aisle or risk being recognized, or

worse, spoken to.

That’s where your troubles begin. What would you and that seventh grade teacher, much less a stranger, talk about? The weather? Why, you could just check that on The Weather Channel app, and no one really cares about whether the weather is nice or not. Your lives since you last saw each other? Their family? No...that could lead to an excessive amount of face-to-face conversation and awkward silences. Other things that normal people talk about? Do I have to “speak human?”

No, it’s best to employ the powers of invisibility your phone gives you. (If you can’t see them, they can’t see you either, right?) Then, you can continue living behind the walls of technology and maintaining an indifferent yet haughty facade that masks your deliberate attempts at avoiding your fellow human beings.

Plus, expressing your deepest feelings has become so much simpler: all it takes is a semicolon and the right side of a parenthesis. We’ve come a long way, I’d say, from Hawthorne-style sentences that spend a chapter describing a tree; download a few hundred stickers and emoticons, and on your keyboard, you’ve got every emotion and feeling Hawthorne tried to describe.

Progress, we call it. Progress—an advancement toward a higher stage, in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level. But what’s really superior: the ability to aimlessly tap at a black screen

to avoid making eye contact with people, or the ability to laugh and talk your way out of an awkward situation? The ability to remain faceless behind a machine or the ability to show your face?

I admit, I’m guilty of all of the above. And it didn’t even register how often I used my own phone for all the wrong reasons--until the day that I accidentally left my own phone on my counter. But you realize that there’s something quite pathetic when you walk for two miles on the streets and no one sees you. Or, they see you but pretend that there’s more importance in checking for text messages and Instagram notifications than saying “Hi.” What does the “increased communication” that technology always brags about even mean when the closest people around you can’t acknowledge you? Sure, we’ve sent more text messages last year than ever before, but perhaps we could trade just a few of those messages for actual human interaction. You know, just to reaffirm that I’m not actually invisible (or too short for people to see) and that we’re still humans, because even Siri can send text messages and emails.

Yes, Apple’s iPhone certainly is not lying when it tells us that it’ll do everything to make our lives easier… ...that is, our lives of social isolation.

Oh, and it’s also pretty good at making phone calls. If you’re into that kind of thing. Whoever uses their phone to make phone calls?

Waitress shares secrets learned on job, tells customers to tip large, have empathy

elizabeth reed

photography editor

“Can we have a few more fortune cookies?”

“Sure!” the customer is always right, right?

I reach into our fortune cookie box and pull out a handful of fortune cookies for the small table of three and drop them into the to-go bag. They’re holding the bag like it’s Halloween and they’re trick or treating.

“No, can we have a few more handfuls?”

“Uhhh I guess, yeah.”

This is a little excessive—but keep the customers happy, that’s my one job. I fill up their bag with four handfuls of fortune cookies: it basically is Halloween for them.

And they close the bag and pull out another one.

“Now do the same to this one.”

Bishwhet? You’ve got to be kidding

me. I pull out even more handfuls of fortune cookies.

“The people at church are going to love this!”

Handing them out at church? Oh God. At least it’s going somewhere good? Yeah, I don’t know about this.

After filling up both bags, my boss pulled me aside, politely chewed me out (those fortune cookies are $20 a box, who knew?), and I ended up feeling like an idiot (which I kind of was for doing that).

So being a waitress sounds like a good job for teenagers, in theory: 1) Instant gratification of tips.

2) I’m not working at a fast food joint, which shouldn’t matter in theory, but everybody gives the look when people say they work there. The look that says “oh you work with greasy big macs, step away.” I’m just being real.

3) You learn a million people skills.

We’ll start with tips. Have a big smile and low expectations. Most servers get paid a whopping $2.25 per hour. I came in with the naïve expectation that everyone was going to act like my family when tipping, 15% at least. If the server is good, they get even more. What a joke that was.

The majority of people who come in under-tip, if they tip at all. I understand this might come across as me just sucking at being a waitress, but if I had to rate myself out of ten I would give me a seven to a seven-and-a-half on a good day.

The tip doesn’t just matter on the overall cost of the meal; it matters to the server about how much work is put in for that table. It could be a really easygoing table that tips low, and I’m perfectly fine with that because it’s not like they were a hassle to deal with. On the other hand, getting a really high tip is great but if it means putting up with an incredibly difficult table, then it doesn’t feel worth it afterwards.

As for being able to say “I’m a waitress,” it’s not that impressive. At this point, I wouldn’t mind saying I worked at Taco Bell, because at least fast food workers have a steady income.

Additionally, being a waitress comes with many of the same “perks” as does working at a fast food joint. I still have to handle food, bus tables and mop bathrooms (including the boys).

And last but definitely not least: the people skills. Being a waitress has taught me many things about people, the majority

of which makes me like them less.

1) Very few couples actually talk to each other anymore.

There have been so many times where I’ve come to up to the table to find a couple, both on their phones, never saying a word unless it’s to me to order.

2) There are tables that want to talk to you. And others that don’t.

I used to think that everybody wanted a talkative server. Wrong again, Elizabeth.

The first step in being a good server to your table is figuring out whether or not they actually care what your name is.

3) You can’t please everybody.

I’m always going to be nice to customers, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get the same in return. As for that, I’m happy to say it’s definitely not the majority of people.

However, it’s important to realize how to respond to those situations. First off, keep smiling and keep your cool. Next, if it’s something you feel is getting out of hand, get the manager or even the owner immediately; they’re more experienced. And it’s better to get them to help than to respond in the wrong way.

And remember, you’re a server, not a servant.

10 | viewpoints | the roar

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

OPPOSING YES

zach kluver

entertainment editor

Nuclear weapons are not necessary to maintain peace.

Diplomacy and concession are.

Although nukes deter war, their very presence suggests that we do not trust each other.

Nukes are ridiculously devastating in scope. The power to take a million lives should never fall to anyone or any organization.

Because of their destruction potential, nukes can quickly escalate any scenario to the point of no return.

NO

alex coopersmith opinions editor

Nuclear weapons ensure that the U.S. has a military and diplomatic advantage in all geopolitical scenarios.

We can’t trust other nations to comply. Russia just invaded Ukraine and denies that it ever did so. Iran chants death to America in the streets. Israel doesn’t even acknowledge they have nuclear weapons.

Impossible to achieve.

Nuclear weapons prevent war.

Though they don’t prevent terrorism, they ensure that there is not military conflict between nuclear armed nations.

Nuclear Disarmament

the roar's consensus Idealistic goal not practical

N

uclear weapons are the closest we have come to killing everyone on the planet. As the first country to develop nuclear weapons, and the only one to have ever used them to kill people, we should take some responsibility for the nuclear age, and any potential problems that might ensue.

The notion of getting rid of all nuclear weapons is simply not feasible in the world we live in. However, all nuclear nations should take efforts to reduce their current stockpiles, while at the same time taking steps to secure current stockpiles, have better oversight and reduce wproliferation around the world.

The only nuclear armed powers in the world are the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Mutual assured destruction is enough to deter these countries from using a nuclear weapon in a conflict, even North Korea.

We no longer do “duck and cover” drills. The threat of an atttck from the Soviet Union is over. But as long as nuclear weapons exist, this is a possible threat to everyone. However, that potential threat is very small and outweighed by the safety of the status quo.

A nuclear weapons free world is nice idea. Sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world, we live in our world.

The Roar 2014-2015 Staff Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Senior Editor Online & Photography Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Entertainment Editor Assistant Editor

Staff Reporters

Faculty Adviser Assistant Adviser

Shilpa Saravanan Rojas Oliva Annie Zhang Stephanie Palazzolo Elizabeth Reed Aaron Ross Alex Coopersmith Austin Coats Zach Kluver Vi Burgess Sydney Garrett Rachel Lamb Haley Mitchell Maya Girimaji Olivia Garrett Darcey Rydl Josh Weimer Jennifer Zhan Michael Williams Chauncey Lindner

The Roar Editorial Board

Shilpa Saravanan • Rojas Oliva • Alex Coopersmith

Should all countries get rid of their nuclear weapons?

“I feel like being able to obliterate everything is sort of a bad idea.

Whether you are going to use them or not, the presence is bad.” senior YUCHEN GAO

“If you tell all countries to get rid of their nukes, what if one country decides to not take out their nukes?

Then they will the only country with nukes. “

senior MICHAEL YANG

“I don’t think there is any ethical reason that can validate the use of them.

I don’t think it will ever be a reality, but it is a nice thought.” junior SIMON KAPLER

The Roar is produced by the Advanced Journalism class at A&M Consolidated High School, 1801 Harvey Mitchell Parkway S., College Station, Texas, 77840. The opinions expressed are those of the writers and are not reflective of the administrators, faculty or staff of the College Station Independent School District.

Submissions to the editors are welcomed but must be signed and should not exceed 300 words. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions in the interest of clarity and length or to not print a letter at all.

Letters containing obscene or libelous material will not be considered. The Editorial Board consists of the editor-in-chief, managing editor and opinions editor.

The Roar is a member of the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC), the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). The Roar is a winner of the CSPA Gold Crown, the 1997, 1998, 2000-2014 ILPC Award of Distinguished Merit, the CSPA Gold Medal Award, the NSPA All-American distinction and 2005 & 2014 ILPC Bronze Star and 2007-2013 Silver Star.

College Station Independent School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex or handicap in providing education services. Glynn Walker, Director of Human Resources, 1812 Welsh, College Station, Texas 77840 (979-764-5412) has been designated to coordinate compliance with the nondiscrimination requirements of Title IX. Catherine George, Director of Special Services, 1812 Welsh, Suite 120, College Station, Texas 77840 (979-764-5433) has been designated to coordinate compliance with the nondiscrimination. requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

work hard, clay hard

the roar | snapshots | 11

Art teacher encourages interest in new sculpting class olivia garrett | staff reporter Sculptors labor over wood, marble, or clay. Educators struggle to mold minds.

Art teacher Robert Houchins does both.

“Getting to know the students and sparking conversations, and just getting them talking about art and getting into the art classroom, is the best part of interacting with students,” Houchins said.

Houchins believes that teaching art is one of the hardest jobs he has ever had.

“I thought everyone was going to be in the art room and they would want to be there and I would give them a lesson and they would do it,” Houchins said.

Unfortunately, many Art I students only enroll in the class in order to obtain the required Fine Arts credit. Despite this, Houchins feels that working as an art teacher is a rewarding experience.

“Art gives you a great way to express yourself and communicate,” Houchins said.

Houchins currently teaches Art I and AP Art History, and next year he will be leading a new sculpture class.

“The idea [for the Sculpture class] was kind of mentioned and I noticed that there wasn’t a sculpture department here,” he said. “It’s something that I really enjoy doing, so I just wanted to get that started and rolling.”

According to Houchins, students interested in the class don’t need to be expert sculptors.

“The class is for everybody, espe-

cially people who don’t like to draw, but like to build things and use their hands,” Houchins said.

Houchins does more with his own hands than just sculpt. While covered in clay at school, at home Houchins dirties his hands with a different type of earth.

Houchins has a garden of around 200 seedlings to which he tends in his free time.

“My garden has tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and all kinds of vegetables,” Houchins said, “I give them away, and I eat a lot, and I also do some freezing and canning.”

Houchins also nurtures about 60 bonsai trees. Connecting his two passions, Houchins recently made clay bowls to house his tiny plants.

“I really like trees and one of my friends bought a bonsai tree last year. I saw how easy it was to do in theory and thought that I’d give it a try,” he said.

Though Houchins enjoys gardening, he feels that teaching art is his true passion.

“As a teacher, you get to share everyone’s creativity and help them on their journey when they’re figuring stuff out,” he said, “You can help them develop and be an artist.”

This artistic development does not go unnoticed by Houchins.

“You see them in Art I where they’re kind of figuring things out, and then they advance into the upper levels,” Houchins said, “It makes me really proud.”

This juniper bonsai tree is part of Houchins’ garden. It’s nine years old.

Houchins burned wood, carved it with a chainsaw, then sanded it down to create this sculpture.

Houchins’ bonsai tree garden consists of juniper, apple,oak, elm and olive trees. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ROBERT HOUCHINS

Houchins created the above sculpture as part of a set for his senior thesis show.

ACCEPT SUBSTIT 12 | people | the roar

thursday, a

Experienced substitute teachers more than mere replacements, shar jennifer zhan & darcey rydl | staff reporters They’re the strangers in the classroom. They walk through the halls every day and are never stopped.

Some of them almost seem invisible- their names and faces fading from students’ minds within the next hour.

Others will never be forgotten, because of either their cruelty or their kindness. Regardless, they’re every-

where.

They’re substitute teachers.

Substituting can be dismissed as an unimportant or even menial profession. However, they’re an absolute necessity. Although it may not be immediately obvious, without substitutes the school could not function smoothly.

S

ubstitute Gary previously wor ic designer, can subbing for CATE te Klein and Bart Taylo “It’s great when es that are right for said. “That’s when jects that you enjo who will request you When he’s no those classes, he trie ing in wherever subs

T A

MELISSA KNOX

fter working at local sales and management jobs for a couple years, substitute Melissa Knox decided she wanted to become a certified math teacher. Knox finished up her alternate certification and has been subbing at Consol since fall. Since January, she has been CATE teacher Jessica Gardenhire’s long-term substitute. However, Knox does not plan on subbing being her permanent job.

“I eventually would like to teach high school math in BryanCollege Station or the surrounding area,” Knox said. “I personally prefer teaching high school

students because they’re a little easier to relate to.”

However, students sometimes try to get away with things they normally wouldn’t do when their teacher is there—anything from use of electronics to disrespectful behavior. Knox has had plenty of unpleasant experiences.

For example, at one school the fire alarm brought her out into the rain three times in the space of two hours.

“But it’s worth it when I can help a student understand something in another way,” Knox said.

“Just knowing they appreciate my help is a wonderful feeling.”

KATHLEEN SHEARER

wenty years ago, substitute Kathleen Shearer found it easy to decide which job best matched her lifestyle.

Shearer is involved in several service groups and was one of ten children raised in a family that emphasized volunteering.

“Subbing offers flexibility— you have options on how many days a week you work and which courses to teach,” Shearer said.

“This job allows me to be fulfilled

and have time for work, volunteering, family, and now, grandchildren.”

She has been subbing since her own children were school-age so that she and her children could have the same schedule.

“I consider the substitute profession one of the best ways to be involved in your child’s daily life,” Shearer said. “I believe available adults are what our children need the most.”

HOW A SUB ENTERS THE CLASSROOM

{

A sub receives approval to work in the district.

UTES

the roar | people | 13

apr. 2, 2015

BETHANN BILKE

H

re varied experiences GARY DODSON

y Dodson, who rked as a graphn often be seen eachers Barbara or. n you find classr you,” Dodson you have suboy and teachers u to come back.” ot subbing for es to help by fills are needed.

“At the beginning of the year, I subbed for a secretary in the counselor’s office,” Dodson said. “It was interesting to see how important all the different parts of a school are.”

Although he admits that subbing might not be the ideal job, after six years of subbing at Consol, the profession seems to have grown on him.

“I really like subbing here,” Dodson said. “[Consol is] better than other schools I’ve been at.”

A teacher falls sick or gives three days’ notice for personal leave & receives approval.

W

KATHERINE KUMMERFELD

hen she graduated from A&M and began to search for a job, Katherine Kummerfeld’s mom and sister, who are teachers, persuaded her to try out subbing. Kummerfeld has been subbing at Consol since September and enjoys working with high school-age kids.

She alternates between subbing at College Station High School and subbing at Consol, but Consol has started to grow on her.

“What makes my day good,” Kummerfeld said, “is when the students are happy or don’t not want to be here and have some kind of school spirit. The more I’ve been here, the more I like it [here].”

She has had the opportunity to sub for almost every subject, including German.

The teacher puts in a request for a sub & lists for which day & subject the sub is needed.

“I love Germany and I am half German, so one time I pretended to be from Germany and told the class that in German,” Kummerfeld said, “They all really thought I was being serious, but then I told them that I’m American.”

(The teacher will let a preferred sub know when they’re about to place a request so that the sub can immediately pick up the job.)

ow does one handle a student who threatens to urinate in a garbage can?

“It was very trying. I was there for three days and he did this the first day,” substitute Bethann Bilke said. “The next two days were very tough.”

Retiring from her job as a full-time mom, Bilke decided to become a sub when her kids started high school so that their lives would continue to be on the same schedule. She has been subbing at Consol for nine years.

Although some students can be disrespectful, Bilke has also had the opportunity to experience the rewards of subbing.

“It has to be a passion,” Bilke said. “I really enjoy teaching the kids and helping the kids learn.”

Since Bilke has a horticulture degree, she can often be found subbing in the CATE classes.

The sub responds to the request online (first come, first serve) & arrives at school on the requested day.

COURTESY OF SECRETARY MARY NEAL

14 | people | the roar

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

from

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH REED

russia with LOVE Friendship transcends political tensions, language barrier elizabeth reed online & photography editor Relations between the United States and Russia aren’t usually considered to be good. However, for two friends that notion doesn’t apply.

“I’ve found that Russians are a lot more fun than I thought they would be,” junior Mariah Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot started a friendship with senior Anna Talanova two years ago when Talanova moved to America from Moscow. The two met in Spanish class.

“It’s easier when you have someone,” Talanova said. “I used to miss a lot of people when I was first here, but now I don’t think of my friends of Russia as much.”

Lightfoot was intrigued about the differences in culture.

“It’s very fascinating. It’s nice to see someone else who’s lived a completely different life from me,” Lightfoot said.

“It’s definitely given me a bigger view of the world. I think now I have a more realistic view.”

Talanova, too, has found new outlooks since moving to America.

“Everybody is the same. Everybody

has a right to be equal,” Talanova said.

“For example, it’s very bad for gay rights in Russia. Here it’s O.K. to be gay.”

Talanova appreciates the changes she’s experienced as a result of having moved from Russia to America.

“I think everybody can express [their] own beliefs here,” Talanova said.

“In Russia everybody tries to be the same.”

While Lightfoot and Talanova

“She wants to rule the world. I just want to avoid being destroyed.”

MARIAH LIGHTFOOT spend time discussing things such as politics, they also enjoy talking about more lighthearted things such as their favorite anime, Hetalia, and their plans for the future.

“She wants to rule the world. I just want to avoid being destroyed,” Lightfoot said.

Talanova has ideas on how that

should happen.

“I want to combine Russia with America, because I like both of them.”

Talanova said.

Aside from planning to take over the world, both girls entertain themselves by learning new languages.

Lightfoot has been learning Russian, one out of the four languages Talanova knows (along with English, German and Spanish).

“If you don’t want someone to hear something, speak in another language,” Lightfoot said.

Talanova agrees, and the language barrier turned out to be the language bonder. Stereotypes and ideas about tensions between the two countries didn’t set the girls apart.

“Some people hate America [in Russia]. There’s a lot of hate right now because of Ukraine, but it’s not the majority,” Talanova said. “I’m neutral.”

They say opposites attract, but Lightfoot and Talanova’s prosperous friendship is founded on their similarities.

“I think it’s mostly because we have the same ideas, we get along very well,” Lightfoot said. “I really like her outlook, she’s very positive.”

RUSSIA Russia has the same surface area as Pluto.

Russia has nine contiguous time zones.

Russians drink six times more tea than Americans.

Russians sold Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million in 1867.

The Adler-Krasnaya Polyana road would have cost less to build if it was paved entirely with foie gras.

SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER

μετανάστευση the roar | people | 15

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

Economic crisis in Greece forces student to move, adapt to new life josh weimer | staff reporter The engines roar to life. The plane takes off, and you watch out of the window as the only home you ever knew slowly disappears into a tiny speck. Driven out by economic crisis, the Kravaris family leaves Greece behind to start a new life in America.

“Now days, life in Greece is kind of hard. People don’t have a lot of money, there is a lot of poverty, and I have lived that,” Kravaris said.

Recently, Greece was hit hard by the European debt crisis, and it has started to affect everyone.

“The economy is in big trouble. There has been an economic crisis in the past 5 years, although it’s not really a crisis, it’s an economic disaster,” Costas Kravaris said. “For young people, like Cosmas and his brother, the opportunities are very limited.

To escape these finance problems in Greece, the Kravaris family packed their bags and headed for the U.S. “The U.S. is like a second home to us. We have two homelands, a small one which is Greece, and a large one that is the U.S.,” Costas Kravaris said There are more advantages to living in the

“

U.S. than just the economy.

“The United States is a unique country in terms of its multicultural environment.

There are all different races, all different religions, all different cultures, languages, and all these people living harmoniously together,” Costas Kravaris said.

But, moving to a new country does not come without challenges.

For example, learning to speak English.

“Sometimes my mouth parts are placed differently when I speak English, and it is quite difficult sometimes,” Cosmas Kravaris said. “It depends on the situation I’m in. if I’m with my friends, I can speak really good English. With a person I just met and it’s kind of awkward, I cannot speak that good.”

Also, changing to a different language influences the way Cosmas Kravaris thinks.

“I think in another language. If I’m doing my homework, I’ll think in English. But if I’m doing something else, I’ll think in Greek. It’s sometimes hard to think in another language and I think that the internet has helped me,” Cosmas Kravaris said.

Despite the challenges, Cosmas Kravaris and his family are happy with the move to America.

“Here there aren’t that many finance problems, life is kind of more cheerful,” Kravaris said.

The U.S. is like a second home for us. We have two homelands, a small one which is Greece, and a large one that is the U.S.

Costas Kravaris

U.S. (during Great Depression) Unemployment

Debt as proportion of GDP

Annual GDP growth

22% 30% 7.1 %

Greece (Now)

vs

Annual GDP Debt as Unemployment proportion of GDP growth

27.6% 30%

8%

source: heritage.com

16 | people | the roar

BLAST PAST

thursday, april 2, 2015

from the

Former students return to Consol as teachers, reflect on changes, strange situations sydney garrett assistant editor The smell of cleaning products in a musty locker room reminds assistant principal Aaron Hogan of his time as a student at Consol.

“Déjà vu is the cross country locker room,” Hogan said. “They must be using the same cleaning stuff that they used in the past, because when I walk through there, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m back.’”

Hogan graduated from Consol in 2003. After attending A&M, he returned to Consol to become an English teacher, and he now walks its halls as an administrator.

“It was a little weird. The first obstacle to get past was that alright, my teachers are still here, and I have to call them by their first names,” Hogan said. “I taught junior English in the same room that I took junior English in.”

Principal Gwen Elder, who attended Consol in the 1980s, was in Debbie Lange’s world geography class.

“I don’t even know if I call her ‘Debbie.’ I just go to her and start talking, mainly

Teachers

because ‘Debbie’ just doesn’t sound right.

And I know that’s her first name, but she is Ms. Lange because she was my world geography teacher,” Elder said. “I’m old school, and as a sign of respect, you always call someone ‘mister’ or ‘missus.’”

‘‘

Once I got into teaching, it was like, ‘Why did I ever entertain ideas of teaching somewhere else when I had such a great experience here?’ It’s a great place to be, and a great place to work, and a great place to raise our kids. aaron hogan

An added quirk of this situation, as physics teacher Michelle Jedlicka points out, is that your coworkers knew you in a phase most adults would rather forget.

“Because I now work with a lot of my former teachers, they’ll say, ‘you were

through the

Year s

photos courtesy of A&M Consolidated yearbook staff

GWEN ELDER principal

AARON HOGAN assistant principal

12

12

th

2003

such a good student,’” Jedlicka said. “I don’t know that that was always true.”

According to Jedlicka, the Consol she attended was smaller, under construction, and there was a courtyard located where the library now is. However, she sees similarities as well.

“I think academically, it wasn’t all that much different. We had good teachers and a supportive community,” Jedlicka said.

Gwen Elder remembers this high academic standard, but offers some criticism of the A&M Consolidated of her high school years.

“In my day, it was the teacher’s way or the highway, and you made it work. You either got it, or you figured out how to get it,” Elder said. “I think now we provide so many different avenues to help our students be successful.”

Elder also acknowledges that there are more teachers with graduate degrees, more women on campusw and more opportunities for students. But she recognizes that the passion the teachers possess has been consistent.

Hogan recalls that he wasn’t the per-

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MICHELLE JEDLICKA physics teacher

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fect candidate for a teacher during his high school years. When he tells his former classmates about his current job, there are some mixed reactions. “[People are] a little bit surprised just because I was so quiet. I started out at A&M as a computer science major,” Hogan said. “If you think of the quietest kid in your class, I was quieter than that kid.”

Hogan remembers the feeling of his first days of being a teacher, and it wasn’t all fun and great.

“It happened all of a sudden. Two weeks [before the beginning of school], I hadn’t set foot on this campus, and now, we’re ready to go,” Hogan said. “[The English department] went a long way towards making it a smooth transition, [my] having never student taught and having never even subbed in a classroom. The first day was bad. It was bad, but it picked up after that.”

Hogan’s job at Consol was the first job he was offered and the first job he accepted.

He regrets nothing.

“Once I got into teaching, it was like, ‘Why did I ever entertain ideas of teaching somewhere else when I had such a great experience here?’” Hogan said. “It’s a great place to be, and a great place to work, and a great place to raise our kids.”

Elder originally left high school with plans to become a business major, but after switching majors to pursue education instead, she, like Hogan, has no regrets.

“I glanced at [my memory book] one day, and at this point in my life, I’m supposed to be working for a Fortune 500 company. That didn’t happen. I was supposed to have a BMW. That didn’t happen.

I don’t have a two-story house. That didn’t happen.” Elder said. “I never saw myself as an educator, but I think that it is my calling.”

Neither Hogan, Jedlicka, nor Elder can imagine going anywhere anytime soon.

“I asked [physics teacher Charlotte] Wiggins, ‘So are you going to make me move out of my classroom again?’ And she said, ‘No, I don’t think so,’” Jedlicka said.

“So I said, ‘I can stay here until I retire?’

She said yes, and so I finally unpacked all of my boxes.”

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

the roar | people |17

NEW LIFE

Gaming forms backbone of student’s new life, forms bonds with community alex coopersmith | opinions editor Few people go to Taco Bell because they love video games. Senior Mason Nasser did.

“A couple friends and I went to Taco Bell, and bought a bunch of five dollar boxes when Taco Bell was giving away PlayStation 4s randomly with the boxes,” Nasser said. “One of those boxes actually happened to be the winning box, and that was mine, so I got the PlayStation 4.”

Ever since he first pressed play, video games have helped define Mason Nasser. In a decade of gaming, Nasser has racked up victories and accomplishments, both on screen and in real life, even competing in the upper echelon of competitive video gaming, Major League Gaming.

“I don’t care to brag too much, but I’ve definitely made a career out of it,” Nasser said. “I’ve made first place in a few [video game tournaments]. Sometimes I’ll place tenth or something, but I’d like to say that 40% of the time I place in the top three.”

Nasser attributes his success to his interest in video games. He totally immerses himself, and that includes far more than just playing the game.

“One of the things I want to do is make video games,” Nasser said. “When you’re in the process of making them, you kind of play them as you go.”

His video game fascination allowed him to find his niche when he moved to College Station in

January, 2014. Nasser joined the school animation class, which provided him with an opportunity to achieve his dream.

“Mrs. Klein has been such a great teacher when it comes to animation,” Nasser said. “ She has provided the tools and opportunities necessary to do what my passion is, animation.”

Video games also helped him get through and rebound from hard times. In 2008, his father passed away, and his mother passed away in late 2013. He had to move into an apartment with his older brother, a college student at Texas A&M. Video games helped him with this transition from the moment he walked into his first class, Communication Application, taught by Roy Rodriguez.

“I looked around the classroom and I saw all these Nintendo related posters,” Nasser said. “He was the first person I really talked to here and we kind of shared that joy of video games, that appreciation of video gaming. It was really a great way to initiate staying here in College Station.”

Rodriguez remembers this fondly as well.

“Pokemon was the big game,” Rodriguez said.

“We both love the game, we battled and went to a Gamestop release together for Pokemon. That was a bonding thing. That was pretty cool.”

Nasser and Rodriguez also cemented their friendship when Nasser joined the school’s speech and debate team.

“On my first tournament, we played Super Smash Bros on our 3Dses on the bus to and from Austin,” Nasser said. “Joining debate was a perfect remedy to the possibility of falling off the social radar while still being able to maintain that video game aspect.”

“Mason had a rocky start. I knew he needed something, something to keep his mind off things,” Rodriguez said, “I felt like speech and debate was a good option for him to have him grow as an individual.”.

Regardless of whether it was animation or speech and debate, or even Game Wars, Nasser has made the best out of a terrible situation, especially because he has found a new home in College Station, after stints in Dallas then Houston.

“College Station was unlike anything I had ever seen,” Nasser said. “[Consol] understands the situation that I am going through. They gave me a helping hand in getting through it. It has been a lot easier to make friends here, and there is a lot more school spirit and also there is just a lot more things you can do.”

Nasser still plays video games, and wins most of the time. But he has a place in the school community that appreciates him.

“He is a special dude,” Rodriguez said. “Now he is succeeding and doing great things, I am really proud of him.”

18 | people | the roar

thursday, april 2, 2015

TO THE

POINTE

Protégé program prepares athletes for life as professional dancers stephanie palazzolo senior editor Sophomore Maddie Miller has a busy schedule.

“I go straight from school to the studio every day except for Thursdays, but I still have dance on Thursdays sometimes,” Miller said. “Then I’ll usually get home at 9:30 every night, [and] on the weekends, we’ll either have conventions where we’ll dance 20-plus hours or we’ll have even more classes. You can’t procrastinate a lot, and you can’t get distracted by your phone or Netflix, but if you’re passionate about the stuff you want to do, then it’s completely worth it.”

Miller, along with sophomores Claire Garner and Tiffany Barrett, are part of Expressions Elite, a pre-professional dance company at Expressions Dance and Music that prepares students for life as professional dancers. Out of the 90 students in the Expressions Dance Company, only five were selected for this team.

“This program is not for the faint of heart,” Expressions artistic director Melissa McDonald said. “My competitive dancers are at the studio usually three days a week and participate in five to eight hours of dance per week. My preprofessional dancers spend ten to fifteen hours per week in the studio. You have

to be extremely dedicated and really love dance to be able to handle the amount of work these girls are doing.”

Members of Expressions Elite participate in extra classes and weekend dance conventions with dancers from all over Texas, led by prestigious teachers from the hubs of the dance world, like L.A. and New York.

“You get to take classes with hundreds of people in a ballroom, sometimes up to 300,” Miller said. “It can get crazy, but it’s awesome.”

Expressions Elite’s core mission, however, is to familiarize students with the audition process. Each dancer is expected to audition for summer dance programs, even if it’s just for the audition experience.

“If you move to L.A. or New York, you’re going to audition as much as you can, even up to one every day.” Barrett said. “We have to audition for summer programs, so we’ll be prepared for when someone tells us no. In the dance world, you’re going to get told no a whole lot more than you’ll be told yes. You need to be mentally prepared for that.”

The audition process is a stressful one and varies depending on the form of dance. For ballet, dancers go through a typical ballet class with barre and center-floor exercises, but most auditions consist of learning a short segment of a dance, practicing it for a few minutes and

then performing it for judges in small groups. Dance colleges add an extra dimension to the challenge with interviews that focus more on personalities and work ethics than dance technique.

“In an audition, everyone has a number, sort of like what people have on American Idol,” Barrett said. “If someone’s talking to you, they call you by your number, not by your name. Dance is very subjective, so if they don’t like the way you look, then you’re done. It’s kind of nerve-wracking, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.”

Even with complicated steps and lots of competitors, dancers often find that their biggest enemy in auditions is themselves.

“I have to tell myself to not psych myself out because you can get in your brain a lot,” Miller said. “For me, I really have to think about why I love to dance. I don’t do it for fame, and if I don’t get the audition, it’s going to be okay. I have to constantly tell myself that.”

Both Miller and Garner experienced this pre-audition anxiety first-hand when they traveled to L.A. in early 2015 to audition for The Movement Talent Agency.

“We learned a dance and performed it in groups of four people,” Garner said.

“Maddie and I got right next to each other, and it was funny because we look and dance exactly the same since we’ve

danced with each other forever. It was really scary, actually, because I’ve never been in a big thing like that, but it was a really good experience, and I had a lot of fun.”

Although neither girl made the agency, they both agree it was a learning experience.

“Now I know how to carry myself in an audition,” Garner said. “I wasn’t expecting to come out of it like, ‘Oh I got signed,’ and I think I can do better in the next audition.”

Garner’s drive for improvement is one reflected in her fellow dancers.

“In dance, you’re never done working,” Barrett said. “When you win, it’s rewarding, but we get critiques back from judges, and there’s always something to fix. You’re never ever done working because you can always do better.”

However, despite the frustration that comes with the constant drive for self-betterment, all agree that the rewards of dance are worth the hours of sweaty work. “[Dancing] isn’t like other art—it doesn’t work through words or through writing but through movement,” Miller said. “It is very releasing, and that’s what I love most about it because it’s my way to get away. There’s a sort of power in dance because you just can’t punch a wall, but you can dance the pain away.”

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE PALAZZOLO

the few, the proud

thursday, april 2, 2015

the roar | sports | 19

Despite shrinking team, athletes bond, continue success haley mitchell assistant editor Head coach Rusty Erwin is sure of his team’s skills.

“Usually I like to carry about 13, but eleven isn’t a bad number,” Erwin said. “My players are very versatile, so I’m comfortable with 11.”

The typicallyoverflowing silver bench in the softball dugout will be substantially less crowded this season. Despite their smaller number, the varsity team remains optimistic and confident in their abilities.

“It helps that we’ve been together all of high

PHOTO BY HALEY MITCHELL

school,” senior Kyndall Foust said.

“We just play for each other and we try to do the best we can in each game.”

All of the seniors on the team are seasoned varsity veterans.

“My freshman year we had 16 or 17 people in varsity and it was

just harder for everybody to get close,” senior Madison Brooks said. “I think it’s better just because it’s a smaller number so we’re a lot closer.”

The small group of girls has played together for years, playing with Erwin for three years, since he joined the coaching staff in 2009.

“We had a coach transition our sophomore year,” Foust said. “But he kind of brought us all together.”

Assistant Coach Megan Kidd has been with the five seniors on the team for the whole ride.

“I’ve been here for four years,” Kidd said. “These seniors are my freshmen babies.”

In addition to the five seniors on the team, there are three juniors, two sophomores and one freshman. The shorter roster has brought the team even closer.

“It’s so much fun when we’re all together. There’s so many different personalities,” senior Rebecca Ragusa said.

“We’re all like a [smaller] happy family.

We all get along; we all love each other with all of our hearts.”

With a short season ahead of them, the underclassmen have to start stepping up to the plate.

“Sometimes it’s hard to because we don’t really have many people to sub in if someone gets hurt,” sophomore Haley Hearne said. “We are going to have big shoes to fill once this year is over.”

Their differences, both in age and personality, have made it easy for the team to bond and have ultimately made it easy for the team to get along and play well together.

“We really want to play for each other and we’re there for

each other,” Brooks said.

“It’s more of like a team effort rather than just like trying to make ourselves look better.”

Their cohesiveness shows in their on-the-field dynamic. So far, the team has a 3-2-0 record.

“We just have a really good lineup,” Foust said. “It would be one thing to have a bad lineup like half of us are good, half of us are bad, but all of us are pretty strong players all around.”

Coach Erwin is also happy with the team’s success so far. The team has an overall record of 6-2 in the district.

“This year’s team is special because we’ve got a good mix,” Erwin said. “The people who are coming back have a lot of varsity experience.”

Erwin would know. This is his fifteenth year coaching softball.

“At this point in my career it keeps me young, keeps me involved with athletes,” Erwin said. “I enjoy watching kids succeed. That’s what makes me happy coaching.”

Seeing the team succeed isn’t the goal of Erwin alone. In 2005, Kidd’s senior softball team at Brenham High School won the state championship.

“The bond that they have is similar to the bond with the teammates I had,” Kidd said. “I’d love nothing more than for these girls to experience that.”

While a state championship is the ultimate goal, both the players and coaches like to take things one game at a time.

“We have to think three outs, three outs, three outs,” Kidd said. “If you can outscore your opponent every single inning you can win the game.”

20 | the roar | sports

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

GIRLS TRACK THE THROWER Tara De LeÓn

DISCUS

“I didn’t have any confidence at all I was just like ‘I can’t throw, I’m tiny compared to these girls,’ but my coaches and the seniors were all like ‘hey you actually have a lot of potential, you’re good, keep going’ and so I had all these people believing in me. Now I want to go to A&M and I want to throw there, and I want to go to the Olympics, and it’s all these ginormous goals, but I mean you’re only going to work as high as your goals are set, so set them high.”

rojas oliva | managing editor

Disparate events come together, form winning combination

THE COACH Shawn Schroeder 4x1, 800m 1600m

HEAD GIRLS TRACK COACH

THE SPRINTER Autumn Green

4X1, 4X2, OPEN ONE & THE OPEN TWO

THE DISTANCE Paris Jones

4X1, 800M 1600M

“I think they just have to appreciate that each person is doing their own thing. I preach that we have to be good at 17 events not ‘we need to win the four by one.’ Let’s try and win everything and let’s try and realize that everyone on this bus has a chance to point. And that’s going to be the key going forward.”

“[Coach Schroeder] is a different type of coach.

He tells you what to do, but he also focuses on you as a person, like if you’re having any issues you can always just go and talk to him.”

“It’s really laid back and just fun. We don’t scare each other or get mad at each other if we do badly. We always lift each other up and encourage each other.”

THE ALL-ROUNDER Jasmyn Steels

HIGH JUMP, LONG JUMP, TRIPLE JUMP, HURDLES & RELAYS

“I don’t want to let people down. I’m a big influence to everybody, even the seniors look towards me because I am a hard worker so they’re like ‘she works hard, I’m going to work hard too.’”

the roar | sports | 21

thursday, april 2, 2015

In Sync

1

Coaches promote unity in individual sport shilpa saravanan | editor-in-chief

T

rack’s an individual sport, but the members of this year’s boys track team have figured out how to form a real team nonetheless.

“It’s not necessarily [a matter of] more teamwork,” assistant coach Corey Scott said.

“But there’s a lot more ‘togetherness’ this year than there was last year.”

Scott cites stretching—trivial as it may seem to an outsider—as the area in which the team’s improved most in terms of this “togetherness” since last year.

“There’s never been a more detailed team stretch,” Scott said. “Last year, it was boring. Nobody wanted to do it. This year, they know all the steps they need to take to get it done, and they do it in a timely manner.”

Head coach Kevin Waters, in his second year at Consol, is, according to his runners, one of the best coaches around. Now that the team’s had a full year to “buy into” his philosophy, as senior long-distance runner Cisco Hurtado puts it, everything’s running smoothly.

“Use your head, that’s a big thing with [Waters],” Hurtado said. “Be smart about how you warm up. Be smart about how you run your race.”

Waters and Scott met with the senior members of the team at the beginning of the year to stress the importance of team leader-

ship.

“We told them that it was their team, and that they needed to take an active role in leading it,” Waters said.

Senior sprinter Ben Thornton recalls Waters’s philosophy of “[using] your head” shining through in that initial meeting: track is as much mental as it is physical.

“Coach [Waters] said that he’d give us the workouts to be where we need to be physically,” Thornton said. “So it comes down to what we do together mentally—because that’s the other aspect of everything that we do.”

In keeping with track’s individual nature, the most important moment in which a runner must be mentally engaged, according to Thornton, is when he steps onto the track for his race.

“You make sure that you’re not worried about anything to the side of you or behind you, that you’re paying attention to where you are on the track,” Thornton said. “It’s easy to lose focus. You pay attention to what you need to do, not what the person next to you needs to do.”

However, Thornton maintains that mutual encouragement is a huge part of what gives team members the mental strength to perform when they’re alone on the track.

“Even though it is individual, it’s really about being there for each other and not bringing each other down,” Thornton said, “especially in the later meets when it really counts.”

TEAM RESULTS

VARSITY

Wildcat Relays (Tomball Memorial HS)

1st

Cougar Relays (Tomball HS)

2nd

Brenham Bluebonnets Relay (BHS)

2nd

2

1. Head coach Kevin Waters speaks with his team about proper technique before a sprint.

2. Junior Christian Hunter leaps over a hurdle during a practice session.

3. Senior Ben Thornton warms up before a sprint.

4. Coach Mauricio Vasquez instructs the athletes on technique in the starting blocks as Thornton prepares to run.

PHOTOS BY SHILPA SARAVANAN

3 4

22 | entertainment | the roar

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

TESTING THE TEST SUCKER PUNCH Zack Snyder is known for his over-the-top, blockbuster movies such as “300” and “Man of Steel.” Both are known for their strong male leads.

Additionally, he has tried, and failed, to make a movie supporting female empowerment.

That movie is “Sucker Punch.”

“Sucker Punch” is about a girl nicknamed “Baby Doll” (Cute. Demeaning. The perfect combo, really.) Baby Doll is sent to an asylum after a horrific incident involving her father. There she is forced to pacify male needs with her exotic dance moves, as the asylum also poses as a brothel. While Baby Doll dances, the other ridiculously named girls gather items they need to escape. They use the only apparent power given to women to get things: seduction. While dancing, Baby Doll is transported to her imagination, where she has even less clothing on and fights all kinds of evil that loosely tie to male

elizabeth reed | online & photography editor

power but really exists just to please teenage boys who love the combination of girls and guns.

This movie actually passes the Bechdel test. But it doesn’t really fit the point of the test.

Yes, there are two girls that talk about things other than men, but the dialogue of majority of the girls is whiny, weak, and submissive. The men are the ones giving the commands, and are ultimately in control.

The whole movie is centered on faux-feminism, a common occurrence in modern films, where it may look like it’s about girl power, but is actually just sexist ideals disguised as feminism.

While the Bechdel test can show lack of female presence, it isn’t capable of determining whether the movie is respectable for the female presence it is showcasing. Is there a solution?

I think so. Find a better test and a better movie.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE David Lynch might have pulled of the greatest hoax with “Mulholland Drive”, convincing people he’d made a highbrow masterpiece of deception, when he’d really just made a nonsensical mess.

“Mulholland Drive” follows the-almost-literal-face-of-innocence Betty Elms as she tries to make it in Hollywood while dealing with the woman suffering from amnesia she finds in her apartment. It’s hard to give more details, but rest assured that it’s full of evil forces, mysterious cowboys, fluid identities and surreal creepi-

GRAVITY

TO PASS THE BECHDEL TEST A MOVIE MUST: have two named women who talk about something besides a man. stephanie palazzolo | executive editor

“Gravity”, the 2013 sci-fi flick universally acclaimed for its acting, cinematography and score follows the journey of biomedical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone, played

by Sandra Bullock, as she has to brave the isolation of space after the destruction of her spaceship and death of her fellow astronauts.

It’s been praised for its feminist undertones, strong female lead and multidimensional characterization of women. And it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test.

The movie itself is a cinematic masterpiece, having won seven out of its ten Academy Award nominations in 2013 and having exceeded its predictions of a $10 million dollar opening after earning an astounding $17.5 million within two days. It’s no cheap space horror flick, but rather, pretentious as it might sound, an honest look at the human nature and how humans deal with complete isolation and loneliness. The sweeping panoramas of Earth contrast with the emotionally charged, personal

moments with Stone, allowing the audience to share Stone’s sense of insignificance. “Gravity” brings both a sense of wonder and of fear to a generation who grew up in an age where space travel seems more like our parents’ dream than our own.

Now, there’s no doubt that “Gravity” is an innately feminist film; Stone’s grit, intelligence and courage are admirable, and Cuarón’s choice in making Stone a woman is a fresh breath in an industry so often overruled by men. The only reason, in fact, that “Gravity” doesn’t pass the Bechdel test is because there are only two characters in the entire film, one woman and one man, making it impossible for a conversation between two women to even occur.

This demonstrates the futility of the test—just because a movie passes the test doesn’t suddenly make it a shining beacon of feminism, and just because a movie fails doesn’t mean it’s the work of sexist pigs in the movie industry.

rojas oliva | managing editor

ness the way only Lynch does it. I love this movie. I could freak out about it for years, but this is about its portrayal of women, which, apparently, is relatively great. But it’s not feminist because it consciously features ‘multi-dimensional female characters’ or whatever buzzwords get thrown around when discussing Bechdel test movies. In fact, it’s probably all of those things because Lynch doesn’t care at all who is represented in what way in his movie.

He’s not shoehorning in any strong female voice for its own sake, he just made a truly David Lynch-y

movie with characters who happen to be female. Which brings me to my complaint: There’s no Mexican-who-canspeak-English-without-an-accent test or homosexual-characterw ho-isn’t-entirely-d ef ine d-byhis-sexuality test because people understand that issues with the representation of these groups are just links to concrete legislations, phobias and prejudices in our larger culture. Movies lacking strong female characters just represent a film industry that lacks women, which in turn reflects a culture

that’s been dominated by men for a long time. And yet, even within it’s own logic, the Bechdel test reeks of generalized politics. How does having such an embarrassingly, comically low standard for female representation make a film any less repressive or supportive of a patriarchy? Movies do affect how we think in subtle ways, but how does having two female characters ask each other to pass the salt empower anyone? If a group wants better representation, they shouldn’t ask for petty victories in art, they must ask for a voice that matters.

the roar | entertainment | 23

thursday, apr. 2, 2015

CHOCOLATE the

gallery

sydney garrett & rachel lamb | assistant editors

T

he Chocolate Gallery’s inventory is true to its name.

Upon entering, one sees rows and rows of artfullymade truffles and other chocolate confections— from the traditional (pecan praline) to the avant-garde (Dr. Pepper truffles).

As one might additionally expect with a chocolate boutique, the store’s contents are quite expensive (considering the average high school student’s budget, that is). If money was no object, the experience at this confectionery would have been quite good.

Contained inside the Chocolate Gallery is the bakery Ciana’s Cakes (run by a Consol grad), which produces both cupcakes and full-size, custommade cakes. The vanilla bean cupcake (chosen after several moments of indecision regarding the many gorgeous flavors available), was true to its name as well, jam-packed with vanilla flavor in a delicious way. The icing was stacked sky-high and flecked with vanilla bean specks.

The gelato, while a little pricey, was served

in cute plastic cups (those classic gelato cups, with those classic gelato spoons) that made it all worth it. The milk chocolate flavor is stronger than that of most “chocolate” gelato flavors. Also, this fancy foreign dairy good gave us an opportunity to judge other customers who called it “ice cream,” as ice cream and gelato are distinctly different foods.

However, after the delicious gelato and cupcake, the truffles failed to compare. The truffles cost three dollars apiece, but most of them are only the size of a quarter. Assistant editor Rachel Lamb described their taste as “nothing special,” maybe because they were too small to taste properly. But all the truffles looked really pretty, which was a plus.

Despite its rather expensive prices, the Chocolate Gallery, nestled in adorable downtown Bryan, is appealing in a multitude of ways. Mostly, it sells tons of chocolate, and who can complain about that?

clockwise from top: coffee cream truffle sliced open, vanilla bean cupcake, birthday cake truffle, coffee cream truffle, milk chocolate gelato. photos by shilpa saravanan

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Students discuss reasons, inspirations for wearing unique outfits aaron ross | news editor

You are what you wear.

In a world where most high school students prefer to avoid being called on in class, having potentially awkward conversation with others and really doing anything that may cause them to be judged, we talked to three students who visually stick out.

senior

Savannah Barrera

Senior Barrera dresses… rather eccentrically.

“I’ve always had a love of costumes, mixing different types of styles with different eras,” Barrera said. “People ask me, ‘how do you come up with what you wear?’ but I don’t ever plan my outfits. It expresses my emotions for how I feel that day. I just wear clothes that made me happy and made me happy to be wearing clothes.”

Barrera’s manner of dressing is an expression of selfworth.

“I used to really try to fit in and try my hardest to make friends [thinking], if I act like everyone else maybe they will like me,” Barrera said. “Being the new kid over and over again, I realized that’s not how you make friends, and even if you make friends, they’re not real friends, so I decided one day in the fifth grade that I’m going to be myself unapologetically.”

Continuing to dress this way has attracted some notoriety.

“I’ll be walking in the hallways and people I don’t even know will be like, ‘hey, are you a character today?

What are you going to be this week?’ Not all of it is positive, some of it is like, ‘OMG, what are you wearing?’”

Barrera chalks up her ability to pull off such outlandish outfits to her confidence.

“I get a ‘wow, you can pull off almost anything’.

I don’t think it’s that I can pull off anything, I feel like people are just too scared to try,” Barrera said. “You have to try it, and you have to be confident with your decision.

It’s about owning it.”

passion for fashion Junior Juan Ordoñez aims to not only be different than the norm, but better than it.

“I dress differently every day. A lot of people in this school dress the same: Colombian vest or collared shirt, those BKE jeans, and it all seems the same. I don’t want to be the same,” Ordoñez said.

“My favorite quote is ‘you look good, you feel good, you do good.’ When I look good, I probably do the best in school; if I don’t look good, I probably will be very moody. I have to look nice when I fall asleep, too. I don’t know why; I just have to.”

Such an intense need to dress nicely attracts some attention from some students.

“I get a lot of looks. I guess in school, you’re supposed to dress normally, not how I dress,” Ordoñez said. “Two weeks ago, I wore this big coat with dress pants and a shirt, and people thought I looked like a celebrity or something.”

sophomore

Weston Thibodeaux

junior

Juan Ordoñez Regularly sporting a green trench coat and long straightened brown hair, sophomore Weston Thibodeaux’s style of dress is inspired and influenced by the punk rock and grunge scenes of the 80s and 90s.

“I’m really into 80s cyberpunk,” said sophomore Thibodeaux. “Freshman year, I was kind of hippie, but over the summer, I made friends with new people and got into new stuff, and it just kind of happened. My tastes changed. I got different world views and dressed to reflect it.”

Dressing this way makes meeting others who share similar views easier for Thibodeaux.

“The way I dress is kind of a way to attract people,” Thibodeaux said. “If somebody likes the way you dress, especially if you dress in a way that directly represents your own personality and not so much goes with the fads, then it’s a lot easier to befriend people who connect with you.”

Is it okay to judge people for what they wear?

“You dress to get judged. Somebody wouldn’t wear Nike and Adidas and Jordans if they were offended that someone thought they were a jock,” Thibodeaux said. “I feel like you shouldn’t make statements that determine the worth of a person. You dress so people can identify you as certain things, so you should be able to judge someone for it, but not identify their self-worth.”

Barrera concurs, having had to deal with this idea.

“I judge people based off their clothing all the time. I think you should,” Barrera said. “When I say ‘judge,’ I don’t mean it in a negative way. I classify people, especially in the lunch room. It’s really fun when people go against what they’re actually wearing.”

Ordoñez has his own way of overcoming haters.

“Sometimes, I don’t want to wear the outfits I want to wear because I think people are going to judge me,” Ordoñez said. “I don’t want to feel bad about myself all day, because a lot of people do judge you, especially good and bad. I ignore it, because I know I’m better dressed than them.”