Issue 29

Volume 118 Issue 29

Cycle for Survival raises $5,000 for cancer research

The Record

“The energy is so high because when you’re dealing with something like cancer, you have no choice but to be positive and to walk in with an attitude determined to fight.”

-Becca Rosenzweig (12)

did last year due to the pandemic and its economic impact on families, she said. “We had to keep in mind the fact that COVID has had a lot of financial implications for many many families, and we need to be conscious about that when we are asking the greater Horace Mann community for donations.”

Participants started their day at 11:30 a.m. with an hour-long opening ceremony hosted by Seth Meyers, a past participant in the event, Markman said.

Current patients as well as survivors then shared their stories with the participants, she said. “There was one about a girl who was about my age, and she loved theater,” Markman said. “[Cycle for Survival] surprised her with one of her favorite Broadway stars, and she was really emotional, so that stuck with me.”

Jennifer Goodman Linn founded Cycle for Survival in 2007. After she was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare cancer, Jennifer and her husband, David Linn, started the program to help fund the doctors at MSK who treated her. Jennifer eventually passed away in 2011, after a seven-year long battle with cancer.

During the opening ceremony, Cycle for Survival played a video in which participants shared who they were fighting for. “My favorite part about the opening ceremony was when a bunch of people in the video were talking about their ‘Jen’s’,” Rhea Patel (11), a member of the CAC, said. “It was really see Cycle for Survival on pg. 7

May 21st, 2021

FRC, FTC, FLL teams host joint 2021 Robotics Fair

Courtesy of HM Flickr

Ericka Jiang and Ella Shaham Staff Writer

Naomi Yaeger and Sophia Liu Contributing Writers The Cancer Awareness Club (CAC) organized a team of students that raised approximately $5,000 this past Saturday by biking in Cycle for Survival, a national fundraiser cohosted by Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) and Equinox. All of the money raised throughout this event was donated to MSK, where it will be used to fund research on rare cancers such as sarcoma and leukemia Last year, the event raised around $50,000, Allison Markman (10) said.

While the school raised less money this year, it will still go a long way, she said. “Cancer affects so many people,” Markman said. “Especially rare cancers, as the research for those is the most underfunded because not that many people have them, but they are the most deadly.”

The virtual nature of the event made it less exciting for people to take part, CAC co-president Rebeccca Rosenzweig (12) said. The school raised less money this year than it

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FULL HOUSE Over 100 spectators cheer on tournament finalists.

Champions?

Kirshner (12) and Robinson’s (12) Spikeball win contested Claire Goldberg Staff Writer “This spikeball tournament was the biggest sporting event of the season,” Dean of the Class of 2022 Dr. Glenn Wallach said. On Thursday during I period, Jaden Kirshner (12) and Chris Robinson (12) beat Logan Dracos (11) and Lucas Alexander (11) in the finals of the school-wide spikeball tournament planned by Kirshner. The event was the culmination of a weeklong competition that involved 110 Upper Division (UD) students.

The teams played three games to 21 points: Dracos and Alexander won the first game and Kirshner and Robinson won the last two games.

The second game came down to match point, where Alexander had the serve. After Alexander won the point on the serve, Robinson called a redo because he thought Alexander was too close to the net. Robinson and Kirshner won the redo match, which ultimately led to their win.

However, after watching Jake Federman’s (12) video of the initial play, the junior team believed there should have been no redo and that they should have won the game, Dracos said.

Kirshner coordinated the event because of his love for spikeball, he said. “It’s a way to decompress during

school, so I had no problem organizing it.”

About 90 students and faculty members crowded around the net to watch the game. “The crowd made the whole game so much more intense,” Justin Scherer (11) said. “There was an ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ after every play.”

The event was the “perfect combination” of earth arching competitive sports and supporting the school, Justin Burrell (11) said. “It’s really great having people of all grades come together for the first time in a while.”

Wallach came to support Dracos and Alexander as their dean, he said.

“I don’t know a lot about spikeball, but action and teamwork makes it really entertaining.”

Max Resnick (12), who lost to Dracos and Alexander in the quarterfinals, said spikeball is the perfect game because it’s easy to learn and can be played at an intense level. “Everyone has an inner layer of competitive competitiveness,” Resnick said. “That comes out when you’re playing against people you know and your friends.”

Watching the game helped Sammi Strasser (10) learn new spikeball skills, she said. “It’s way more intense than any of the games I play with my friends.”

The Upper Division’s FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) and FTC (First Tech Challenge) robotics teams and the Middle Division’s FLL (FIRST LEGO League) robotics club hosted a fair in the Lower Gym on Thursday, showcasing work they created over the past two years.

The fair acted as an opportunity for club members to display all of their hard work and for the school community to recognize it, FTC Team Co-Captain Abigail Morse (12) said.

During the fair, students held discussions about the design of the robots and the purpose of every

part of the robots. The FRC team showcased their robot, Roxanne, driving around, shooting balls upwards, and lifting itself up after clasping onto a hanging bar.

Roxanne weighs 130 pounds and took 10 weeks to build, FRC Team Co-Captain Carmel Pe’er (12) said. To build the robot, the team relied on Fusion 360 and Inventor, which are computer aided design softwares, she said. In addition, one of the many FTC teams discussed and presented a robot that could drive, grasp objects, pull them around, and flip them over a short wall.

Ashley Coburn (9) enjoyed watching Roxanne complete a pull-up, she said. As part of her python class, Coburn learned to use virtual sensors to make a see Robotics fair on pg. 3

Jackson Feigin/Photo Director

TECH TAKEOVER Students visit and interact with exhibits at the fair.

School administers on-campus vaccinations School physician Dr. Mirriam Levitt and school nurses will administer doses to students 12 and older on campus today.

Levitt secured 90 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the school.

Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly announced on Thursday morning that the school would vaccinate HM students and invited guardians to complete a sign-up form by midafternoon.

Vaccinations were offered at no cost to families and on a “first-come, first-served basis,” Kelly wrote. Kelly hopes the school can administer more shots in the future.

Asoluka presents the NewComm Project in educators’ TEDTalk Courtesy of Chidi Asoluka

LETS TALK Asoluka reflects on his educational path.

Jade Ciriello Staff Writer On May 15th, English teacher Chidi Asoluka gave a TED Talk on the New Community Project (NewComm), a senior English elective he introduced to the school in which students analyze texts and then compare them to the “living texts’’

of nonprofits. “I believe the NewComm framework continues the tradition of close reading, active discussion and clear writing instruction, but it also opens the door to powerful new possibilities and outcomes,” Asoluka said.

Asoluka was originally nominated to give a TED talk by an executive director at Tree House Books in North Philadelphia, the first organization with which New Community Project partnered. “When I first got this opportunity to do this TED talk experience, my vision was always doing it here at Horace Mann,” he said. “The first TED talk that I filmed was actually at Horace Mann in the recital hall with my students.”

However, the TED team rejected Asoluka’s idea because they believed his presentation was not intimate enough, and they then told him to refilm it in his home just speaking to the camera, he said.

Asoluka began the TED Talk by explaining how he became a teacher. He always envisioned himself as a banker until he was in the middle of a job interview and was asked: “What will make you the happiest: working at a bank or designing a course that could potentially change the world?” After that

moment, Asoluka changed his professional plan and became a teacher.

Throughout his teaching career, Asoluka wondered whether schools were making enough change, he said. “I felt that I could be doing more as a teacher,” he said. “There’s a lot happening in the world, politically, socially, that really captivate the hearts and minds of young people every day. Here I was teaching Hamlet, which I thought had the tools to make sense of what’s happening in the world, but I wanted to create a more direct link.”

In NewComm, students read literature and then apply that knowledge to current issues, Ahaana Shrivastava (12) said. “After we’ve read the books, we can take lessons of partnership, leadership, and equity from those books and apply that to the nonprofit,” she said.

One of the most important lessons the students have learned is how to be an effective and supportive partner to others, Evann Penn Brown (12) said. “Mr. Asoluka has been teaching us about the steps in the process of looking inward and seeing what can [we] see Asoluka TEDTalk on pg. 7

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THE RECORD OPINIONS MAY 21ST, 2021

An introduction to the joy of history

Thomas Grant I love writing the introductions to history papers. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the research component of a given topic, or the grueling search for evidence through the limitless expanse of JSTOR. I like to lose myself in the thousands of papers and scholarly articles that exist on a topic such as the 1973 OPEC Embargo; sifting through pages of irrelevant information for hours on end, I find satisfaction in picking out the relevant facts that help support my thesis.

The process feels rewarding to a certain degree, as if I have discovered a shiny diamond lying inside a cavern of coal, as if I have found a key piece of my argument from seemingly useless information. The shine of such a find,

however, pales in comparison to the golden halo that surrounds a wellcrafted introduction.

I never really understood my infatuation with introductions until the first time I took my seat in room 210T. I probably will never forget the details of that Global Environmental History classroom. The open windows ushered in the first day of school, reflecting the sunlight off the wooden barriers and plastic dividers. It refracted as it hit the glass, dissipating to wrap my desk in morning’s embrace, unifying as a single beam upon my sleepy face.

“Good morning, students!” Dr. Bales exclaimed, caking the bright room with her enthusiasm.“Good morning, Dr. Bales!” a few of my peers replied. My teacher’s words were already starting to wash away the classwide I-enjoyedthe-last-night-of-my-summer-break exhaustion. I seized the opportunity to rub the remaining sense of fatigue from my eyes.

“Welcome to Global Environmental History. Today marks the start of our great adventure, one that will carry us all the way from the fire-wielding hunter-gatherers of our past to the present-day concerns of global climate change.”

She let us ponder the basic premise of our next six months. I quickly scratched 9/9/20 on the top right corner of my notebook.

“Now,” she continued, “some of you may be familiar with the discipline of environmental history, while for others, this may be totally new. If you are familiar with it, that’s great! If you aren’t, well, that’s also great!” I could tell that my peers smiled through their masks.

“But, regardless of your previous exposure, we are going to begin with one of the fundamental parts of environmental history — she paused for dramatic effect — “the narrative.”

Oh, shoot. The narrative. The kind of word I thought I understood in context but had no idea as to its meaning. A word like sublime or esoteric or, heaven forbid, propensity, which could easily be defined on a quick search through Merriam Webster, but always seemed to require a few too many keystrokes.

It is in times like these, with my hands rested upon my computer keyboard, that I ask myself if I secretly crave ignorance.

And then came the dreaded followup question: “Well, what is a narrative?

More aptly, what is its significance?”

I nodded my head to convey that I understood her words. I had absolutely no idea.

That Tuesday night, I began my first quest on that long journey through human history. The task was simple: To discover the significance of the narrative. Dr. Bales had generously provided my classmates and me with a

starting point, with William Cronon’s A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative, with the necessary tools to skim its dense paragraphs. I had until Monday morning to search through the vast 31-page sea of text, navigating through quotes, analysis, and images aboard my yellow No.2 pencil.

At the end of two fruitless days of hunting, I finally found my answer. It was nestled in the latter half of Cronon’s conclusion, after his discussion on the difference between a story and a chronology of facts, far beyond his comparison between the different types of stories that make something greater out of an account of change. It lay inside a 17 line paragraph on the 30th page: “...narratives remain our chief moral compass in the world. Because we use them to motivate and explain our actions, the stories we tell change the way we act in the world.”

“Narratives help explain/motivate our actions — change the way we act through narrative we tell,” I typed out, my fingers fluttering over the various squares of my black keyboard.

Hold on. I smashed my delete key until the word “narrative” was no longer visible.

“Stories from a bunch of facts help explain our actions — change the way we act through the story we tell.”

Wait — stories from a bunch of facts — that’s kind of like history. History

isn’t the objective truth, the chronology of facts, or the pure account of every single change that has ever happened over the course of Earth’s existence.

Because we ourselves don’t know all the facts.

What we do know, however, are bits and pieces of the objective truth — physical remnants of change that have survived the test of time. We can try to piece them together to figure out why these changes occurred, exploring how our present became our present, how our past became our past. We can read the word narrative and search for the definition, unsatisfied purely with accepting the fact that something exists in the world, but rather pursuing the reasons behind its existence. We, by piecing together our past, by searching for narrative’s definition, can write the history of our world.

And, like every good story, every history has a beginning. There are a near-infinite number of places to start this beginning, an immeasurable amount of perspectives by which we can analyze a given part of our past.

But where do we choose to begin? How do we decide to best start our history paper? As I learned on that very first day of Global Environmental History, that’s the beauty of introductions: they are entirely up to you.

Ramadan reflections: Why ignorance to Islamic customs is not bliss Rizaa Fazal and Nusaiba Ashraf For the first time in the school’s history, we received a day off for Eid, the celebration of Ramadan’s completion. Although this recognition was a big step in the right direction, we are displeased that it took this long for one of Islam’s few holidays to be recognized by our school. Each year when Ramadan begins we feel a mixture of pride and worry: Will our teachers be understanding? Will our classmates be respectful? Will Ramadan be given the recognition it deserves?

Ramadan occurs during the ninth month of the Lunar Calendar and is one of the most sacred celebrations in Islam. Muslims fast for thirty days to understand the importance of gratitude and privilege, and to form a deeper connection with our religion, especially withGod. As Muslims, we have great pride in our customs, yet the discrimination we face because of our identity holds us back.

Isabelle Kim/Staff Artist

Our whole lives, we have been defined by stereotypes created by nonmuslims that tell us how we should properly practice our religion, what we should wear, and what our religion should mean to us. By the time we first introduce ourselves as Muslims, many have already fostered a perception of us due to stereotypes perpetuated in the media. We are seen by some as dangerous and peculiar people who incite violence. Coming to a prestigious private school like Horace Mann, we hoped that we would finally gain acceptance as Muslims in today’s society, but the reality was different; we have faced our fair share of uncomfortable stares and remarks that have made us feel unwelcome in our primarily white school. As one of us wears a Hijab, we have sometimes been subject to lingering gazes of confusion and disgust on campus. Although most students at Horace Mann are open-minded, many members of the community still lack the proper awareness of Muslim customs and their ignorance shines through.

Horace Mann does not fail to provide us with a loving atmosphere through active community support, but we find that the school does not try its hardest in teaching us about many important holidays. As a result, we sometimes face comments from other students arguing with us on what our religion preaches when, in most cases, they are confused on why we even have a day off on May 13th.

Although we would love to spread knowledge about the details of our religion, questions surrounding

Managing Editor Talia Winiarsky Features Henry Owens Emily Shi Vivien Sweet

News Sam Chiang Yesh Nikam Marina Kazarian

Staff

Opinions Maurice Campbell Avi Kapadia Natalie Sweet

Volume 118 Editorial Board

A&E Izzy Abbott Abby Beckler Oliver Steinman

Staff Writers Devin Allard-Neptune, Mia Calzolaio Chloe Choi, Emma Colacino, Yin Fei, Lucas Glickman, Claire Goldberg, Tuhin Ghosh, Liliana Greyf, Lauren Ho, Hanna Hornfeld, Purvi Jonnalagadda, Oliver Lewis, Rowan Mally, Simon Schackner, Morgan Smith, Arushi Talwar, Katya Tolunsky, Nathan Zelizer, Max Chasin, Alex Lautin, Jillian Lee, Hannah Katzke, Vidhatrie Keetha, Zachary Kurtz, Clio Rao, Ayesha Sen, Emily Salzhauer, Aden Soroca, Emily Sun, Madison Xu Staff Photographers Kelly Troop, Sophie Gordon, Amanda Wein, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas Glickman, Lauren Ho, Sean Lee Staff Artists Eliza Becker, Felix Brenner, Vivian Coraci, Riva Vig

the subject are often posed in a condescending and rude manner.

Once, a non-Muslim student at Horace Mann engaged in a verbal altercation with one of us, claiming that Islam was just a religion that followed only Prophet Muhammad. When we attempted to educate them on our beliefs, they continued to insist that they knew more about Islam than we did because they had studied it previously. That kind of insensitivity should not be tolerated at our school.

The ignorance that manifests in these instances within the Horace Mann community has silenced us, as we are afraid of potential reactions to our practices. However, we have since realized that when people fail to teach others what Islam truly encapsulates, we only allow ignorance to grow in our community.

Horace Mann’s acceptance of our traditions is admirable, but there is still room for improvement. It is imperative that, for the years to come, Muslims feel progressively more comfortable in practicing Ramadan at school without fearing the insensitive questions posed during this special month. Although it is embarrassing to admit as Muslims, an internalized fear of Islamophobia has prevented us from telling our side of the story in the past, but as we matured, our confidence in explaining Islam’s true customs has grown. We encourage others to truly listen to Muslim voices on what Ramadan is and to join us in properly educating others about Islamic beliefs.

Editor-in-Chief Julia Goldberg

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About Founded in 1903, The Record is Horace Mann School’s award-winning weekly student newspaper. We publish approximately 30 times during the academic year, offering news, features, opinions, arts, Middle Division and sports coverage relevant to the school community. The Record serves as a public forum to provide the community with information, entertainment, and an outlet for various viewpoints. As a student publication, the contents of The Record are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. Horace Mann School is not responsible for the

Letter to the Editor

Concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict Last Record’s op-ed on the compatibility of political Zionism and Palestinian rights was, from my perspective, an incredibly distasteful response and simply wrong. I believe one cannot support both Israel and Palestine. Even the founding father of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, described the existence of Israel as the antithesis to Palestinian rights. He called the creation of Israel a “colonial idea” which needed “armed force” to use on “the people already living there.”

The op-ed’s authors did not write anything about the crimes Israel was born from, like the forced expulsion of 700,000+ Palestinians by Zionist terrorist groups (which three Israeli prime ministers took part in) such as Irgun or Haganah. They did not mention ongoing crimes like the ethnic cleansing of Sheik Jarrah, a village made up of Palestinian refugees. I believe the article was written as if Israel was completely faultless until recently, when in fact Israel has always been what we see today.

I understand the need for a Jewish state, but it cannot be a state of freedom if it was gained through persecution. Palestine is Sarah Sun defending itself from the colonialism of Israel and if you don’t “pick a side,” you are complicit in the oppression. from, Karina Iman (12)

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Editorials All editorial decisions regarding content, grammar, and layout are made by the senior editorial board. The unsigned editorial represents the opinion of the majority of the board.

Opinions Opinion columns represent the viewpoint of the author and not of The Record or the school. We encourage students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents to submit opinions by emailing record@horacemann.org.

Letters Letters to the editor often respond to editorials,

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articles, and opinions pieces, allowing The Record to uphold its commitment to open discourse within the school community.

They too represent the opinion of the author and not of The Record or the school. To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters should be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or email (record@ horacemann.org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed.

Contact For all tips, comments, queries, story suggestions, complaints and corrections, please contact us by email at record@horacemann.org.

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HORACE MANN NEWS MAY 21ST, 2021

Asian-American students share experiences at AAPI heritage month assembly

Jackson Feigin/Photo Director

Sapna Palla P’20 P’24 presents on anti-Asian sentiments and xenophobia Sean Lee Staff Writer In honor of Asian Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, Nate Chiang (9) and Louise Kim (10) hosted an assembly last week, giving the community insight into the prevalence of antiAsian racism within the school’s community and spreading awareness about historical antiAsian sentiment in the United States.

The assembly began with Erica Jiang (9), Peter Yu (10), Steve Yang (10), Rizaa Fazal (9), Sylvie Seo (10), Mekhala Mantravadi (11), Trish Tran (10), and Emily Sun (10) speaking about their experiences as AsianAmericans amidst the alarming surge in anti-Asian hate crimes caused by the pandemic. Jiang shared stories of anti-Asian hate crimes that she and her family have experienced, Yu spoke about the differences he noticed between himself and his non-Asian peers from a young age, and Mantravadi talked about her relationship with her hair and its connection to her heritage.

Speaking about her IndianAmerican identity helped Fazal better understand herself as an AAPI individual and the hatred around the world against these groups, she said. “As the Horace Mann community continues to learn about the injustices that are still going on today, we should grow and create accepting environments not only in school but also in our

outside lives.”

Besides the large-scale and violent ways in which antiAsian sentiments can manifest, Megumi Iwai-Louie (10) said the assembly’s focus on smaller, more normalized incidents of racism was important in helping students understand the less-understood implications of racism.

After students shared their experiences, Sapna Palla P ’20 ’24, president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, presented on the xenophobia and anti-Asian sentiments present throughout American history and possible avenues to combat the hate surrounding these groups.

“Ms. Palla’s presentation on the history of anti-Asian hate crimes gave me a new perspective on how we got to where we are today,” Jake Ziman (10) said.

“Even though violence has essentially been happening for centuries throughout the history of the U.S., there are individual and community actions that we can all be aware of and take to ameliorate the consequences of the violence, which is especially important right now,” Kim said.

Raising awareness about anti-Asian racism was an important goal for the assembly, Chiang said. “Some of the key takeaways were greater awareness or transparency about Asian-American racism in the U.S.,” he said. “The recent hate crimes are not something new — it’s been going on for a

Courtesy of Dr Jack Tchen

Courtesy of Dr. Ericka Lee

SPEAKER SERIES Dr. Erika Lee and Dr. Jack Tchen address the UD community about the past and present of Asian America.

long time.”

Miller Harris (10) found Palla’s emphasis on finding solutions important. “Palla outlined several action points that we as a community can take to learn about the history of oppression and recognize the discrimination that AsianAmericans have faced in the past and are facing today,” he said.

The assembly amplified AAPI voices by talking about issues in complex ways, creating discourse around AAPI hate, and helping students feel safer, Kim said. “Hearing diverse experiences and also a very repeated message for more representation, visibility, and accountability — hearing that from fellow students was really moving,” they said.

TEAM HUDDLE FTC members strategize.

from Robotics fair page 1 virtual robot respond, and it was rewarding to see the same lessons from class in action.

The fair was “a prideful moment in a challenging year” for the teams, Computer Science teacher Sam Gruen said.

Because the teams were unable to compete in live competitions as they have in past years, the fair is one of the teams’ few chances this year to exhibit their work, Pe’er said.

Robotics competitions often give out awards, such as the Connect Award, that celebrate outreach within the school’s community, Justin Burrell (11), a member of an FTC team, said. Burrell’s team always works towards that award, which is why they decided to participate in the robotics fair, he said.

Burrell’s FTC team created a robot that can pick up rings and move

them onto different platforms, as well as pull itself up to reach higher levels. Burrell also spoke during the fair about FTC and its value to our school, he said.

As an adviser to the teams, Gruen received support from the Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly, Dean of Students Michael Dalo, Head of Upper Division Dr. Jessica Levenstein, and Director of Athletics, Health & Physical Education Robert Annunziata to garner excitement about the fair.

The students’ energy while working on the fair was “unrivaled,” which was a highlight for Gruen, he said.

“It’s really exciting just knowing I’m contributing to the growth of the robotics and computer science department at the school,” Burrell said.

Professors Lee and Tchen discuss past and present of Asian America UD History Department hosts the final installment of the Speaker Series Yin Fei Staff Writer Guest speakers Professor Erika Lee and Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen discussed the recurring patterns of anti-Asian attacks and the negative connotations of the “model minority” myth in the final installment of the Upper Division (UD) speaker series: “How did we get here?: The Past and Present of Asian America.”

Moderators Samantha Tsai (12), Rachel Zhu (12), and history teachers Dr. Elisa Milkes and Peter Reed facilitated the May 10th event. The dialogue surrounding the “model minority” stereotype — the portrayal of Asian Americans as “success stories” in spite of their ethnicity — particularly stuck with Zhu, as the professors honed in on its paradoxical ability to elevate Asian Americans to a higher standard while also allowing others to use them as a scapegoat, she said.

“It seems at first like a very innocent myth, but it actually has a lot of tangible negative impacts,” Zhu said.

The focus on the term’s reductive quality also gained traction in Milkes’s history classes the following day. “Promoting that kind of stereotype, even if, on the surface, it is considered ‘positive,’ is very confining because it can set one racial or ethnic group against another one,” Milkes said.

“It can also hinder substantial, systemic reform. And I just don’t

think that’s really reflective of American democratic ideals.”

The History Department decided to invite Lee and Tchen because they knew they could both speak effectively from a historical perspective on the current impact of the pandemic, media portrayal, and the “model minority” myth on Asian Americans, Milkes said. Professor Lee is a Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota where she teaches history courses on Asian American Studies, and Professor Tchen is the Professor of Public History & Humanities at Rutgers University, according to the speakers series website.

Recently, Lee testified before Congress regarding the uptick in Asian American hate crimes — a topic that influenced the direction of the conversation and the questions that panelists posed. One part of the webinar that struck Tsai was the way in which Lee emphasized how society, in general, treats the surge in anti-Asian attacks as a COVID-perpetuated issue instead of one that is acknowledged through past trends, she said.

“Racism and anti-Asian hate will continue onwards afterwards, as it has all throughout history,” Tsai said. “We just haven’t paid attention to it, until now.”

Although these incidents heightened the urgency of the event, the school planned to highlight the intricacies of Asian American history through an

analysis of race and ethnicity long before the violence recently intensified, Milkes said.

“It’s really important that students realize that Asian Americans have been in this country for a very long time and that there’s a very long history here,” she said. “Professor Tchen really made that clear, as his work, in particular, focuses on Asian American history before the arrival of Chinese laborers on the transcontinental railroad.”

Zhu hopes the viewers appreciate that the event was dedicated to Asian American representation because the school curriculum and courses fail to dive in-depth into such themes, she said. “I don’t think it’s fair that this kind of history is really only taught in East Asian history and, even then, it’s a tangential subject.”

Tsai was grateful to learn more context from the specialists because it gave her a better understanding of the historical implications behind her identity, she said. “[The event] made me reflect a lot on my role as an Asian American member of the Horace Mann community and also just as a member of the Asian American community in the US as a whole.”

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THE RECORD FEATURES MAY 21ST, 2021

Liliana Greyf and Mia Calzolaio Staff Writers Thea* (12) smoked marijuana for the first time at a friend’s house during her freshman year, and she felt as if her lungs were burning. Despite this unpleasant — and somewhat frightening — initial experience, Thea continued to smoke marijuana. “I think to myself, ‘Oh, if I just get used to it, or I try it again it’ll be better each time as you go on,’” she said.

Since then, Thea smokes once every few weeks and buys edible marijuana products for her and her friends to use together.

Thea is part of the minority of students who use — or have tried — marijuana. According to an anonymous poll of 189 students conducted

by The Record, 54 students, or approximately 28.6%, have tried some form of marijuana.

Only 9.7% of underclassmen students have used weed in the last three months, according to data collected by Health teacher Amy Mojica.

Marijuana can be used in many different forms: one can smoke mariijuana leaves, use a vape pen, or consume edible marijuana products. Students at the school use marijuana for a variety of reasons — the drug functions as a communal experience in social situations, a stress reliever when used alone, and an experiment for those who are curious. Some students use the drug as an escape from mental health issues and may subsequently develop a dependency on it.

The use of marijuana on school campus can result in serious disciplinary consequences, but the school strives to ensure that users of the drug have the necessary resources to end dependency or mitigate any external factors that caused such usage, Head of Upper Division Dr. Jessica Levenstein said.

SOCIAL ACTIVITY AND PEER INFLUENCE

group pressure, like seeing [drug use] in people I admired.”

Esther* (11) chose to smoke marijuana for the first time because she wanted to have the experience she heard others discussing. “There’s actually this culture around drugs that [is] like, ‘Oh, it’s cool to try them,’ so I wanted to seem cooler and more mature, but I was still genuinely curious about what it was like,” she said.

Individual usage, mental health, and dependency Lilith smokes marijuana with her friends, but also purchases and uses marijuana on her own time — about three times a week. She smokes both because she enjoys the experience and because she believes the drug calms her down.

“I find that smoking helps with my anxiety,” she said. “It helps chill me out.”

Although Lilith notices that being high can help her mental health, she can become more worried while high if she is alone. “I find that I run the risk more frequently of becoming more panicked while I’m by myself, because I get into loops of thought,” she said. “It’s easy to become paranoid if you don’t have a friend checking you, [saying] ‘Dude, you’re okay, you’re not freaking out.’” Because of this feeling, Lilith prefers smoking when she is with her friends more than she does alone.

When Ralph is in a group environment, smoking functions as a natural part of the social event. However, when he is alone, Ralph finds that it is an easy way for him to deal with his emotions.

“

Only 15% of students polled by The Record have ever used marijuana alone. 23.3% of students use marijuana when they are with their friends, and 14.3% use it at weekend parties.

When Lilith* (12) is with her friends, smoking becomes a social activity. “I find that smoking with friends is a good way to facilitate conversation and bond with people,” she said.

On the other hand, Janice (12)*, who smokes with her friends every few months, finds that marijuana does not enhance her social experiences because it usually causes her to grow tired and fall asleep. As a result, Janice often finds that she is the only sober person in a group setting, but she does not feel that her sobriety affects how much she enjoys the gathering.

In Lilith’s friend group, each person decides individually whether they want to smoke. “A lot of my friends in that same circle don’t smoke, and no one pressures them to do so because it’s their own personal decision,” she said.

According to the same Record poll, 59.3% of people have at least one friend who uses marijuana. 32.9% of people have, at some point, been asked by a friend to use marijuana.

Peer influence is often a factor of one’s decision to smoke marijuana, especially since smoking usually occurs in social settings, Janice said.

In retrospect, Ralph* (11) recognizes that his peers may have influenced his decision to smoke marijuana for the first time. “I actively sought [marijuana] out,” he said. “But I wasn’t sure if it was really out of curiosity or an indirect

“Our goal in all of our individual counseling work is to provide students with coping strategies that promote physical and mental health and wellness and to steer them away from maladaptive coping mechanisms like substance use and other forms of self-harm.”

Janice’s friends who were using drugs as a way to escape from mental health issues became dependent on marijuana, and many of them have now relied on it for several years.

Because she had to watch her friends go through dependency, Janice only smokes once every few months and when she is with friends. “I’ve always been really conscious of the fact that I really don’t want that to happen to me,” she said.

According to a 2019 article in Healthline titled “Marijuana Can Be Addictive: Who Gets Hooked and Why,” people who use the drug are at risk for developing a dependency or addiction.

People who are under the age of 18 are four to seven times more likely than adults to develop a dependency on marijuana.

Although it is possible to become dependent on marijuana, this is the case with only about one third of users, according to marijuana research report conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Most users are able to control their intake, especially if the drug is only used in social scenarios.

“Like anything — any drug, any substance — you can become dependent on it,” Lilith said.

“I think for some time over the summer, I was dependent on marijuana. And that was less fun because I was not smoking because I enjoyed it but because I had an itch to.”

“Cutting off something you’re addicted to is a hard thing to do, especially cold turkey. But I think I’m better for it.”

- Ralph*

Like Ralph, many students use marijuana as an escape from mental health issues or the harsher realities of their everyday life. “When I’m alone, I have a tendency to overthink a lot, and basically overthink myself into depression,” Georgia* (11) said. “But I don’t do that [when I am high].”

“If a student does not have the skills or resources they need to manage their feelings of distress or restlessness, or their socialemotional needs are not otherwise being met, they sometimes turn to substances as a form of self-medication,” psychologist Dr. Liz Westphal wrote.

Ciara* (12) has gotten high to avoid her emotions on multiple occasions. “I was sad and didn’t want to be able to think about why I was sad,” she said.

Janice has witnessed her close friends “constantly numbing” themselves with drugs instead of facing their own emotions. “That was very difficult to watch,” she said.

While many students use marijuana as an escape from mental health issues, others believe that the drug will only cause further emotional problems. When Beatrice’s* (10) parents caught her using marijuana, they sent her to therapy, worried that she was going down a dangerous path.

If a student is using drugs as a form of coping with their emotions, a member of Counseling and Guidance can help them, Westphal wrote.

She attributes this dependency to her unhappiness during quarantine and the amount of free time she had. “I remember thinking, ‘If I smoke now I can kill three and a half hours, then take a nap and then kill the rest of the day,” she said.

Once school started in the fall and Lilith had other responsibilities, she was able to ease out of this pattern of smoking. Now, she feels more comfortable with the amount that she smokes.

“I know my limits, I think,” she said. “I have a lot of experience with it, so I know what I like, I know what I don’t like. And I do it because I enjoy it.”

Ralph was dependent on marijuana for over a year, he said. Although he started by smoking only on the weekends, he quickly transitioned into smoking daily as a coping mechanism to escape reality. “I was using it as a way out, and it ended up having a big effect on my personal life,” he said.

About a month ago, however, Ralph decided to quit using drugs entirely because smoking was having a significant effect on his mental health and personal life. “Cutting off something you’re addicted to is a hard thing to do, especially cold turkey,” he said. “But I think I’m better for it.”

Still, Ralph misses the experience of being high, as it brought him relief from his daily life. “[Sobriety] takes away a lot of the happiness and the promise of life, but I’m better able to accept a lot of things, even if I don’t

How often in the last 12 months have you used marijuana?

12% 88%

64%

36%

necessarily enjoy them,” he said.

SCHOOL RESPONSE

When a student demonstrates a dependence on drugs and the school is made aware of this, the administration works with Counseling and Guidance to ensure that necessary steps are taken to get the student help, Levenstein said.

“The most efficient way to seek help is with your parents,” she said. “If a student does that and a parent wants to partner up with the school to pool our resources, we are very willing to do that.”

The Horace Mann Family Handbook lists “purchasing, using, possessing, or distributing” any drug, as well as “being under the influence of illegal drugs, possessing paraphernalia associated with illegal drug use, and distributing prescription drugs to others” as a major disciplinary offense. However, the school chooses to take disciplinary action against students only if they are found to be using drugs when they are present on campus.

This is because drug use outside of school often does not affect the broader school community, Levenstein said. “I don’t think we have the right to set rules for your lives outside of school. Our general guideline is if it’s on campus or if it is disruptive enough to have an impact on life on campus, then we get involved.”

If a student is intoxicated or in possession of illegal drugs on campus, they will most likely be suspended, Levenstein said. At the same time, the administration will also offer that student help. “If you’re using drugs on campus, to me that’s showing that you have an issue with your relationship with the substance, because you’re doing something that is imperiling your status as a student at the school,” she said.

Although drug use on campus is not tolerated, the school never penalizes a student for using drugs off-campus. “If the school learns about drug use off of our campus, we can be a resource to help students manage addiction or unhealthy behaviors,” Levenstein said. “We not only are happy to do so, but we feel obliged to do so.

Learning about drug use off campus does not put students in a category that would automatically require discipline.”

The administration hears about drug use

Lauren Kim/Art Director

off-campus in a variety of ways. Sometimes, a student puts a moment of drug use in a personal reflection for a class. In other instances, images on social media display students’ usage of drugs.

Often, a concerned friend of a student who is using drugs unsafely will speak to the school to ask for help.

When the administration learns about drug use off-campus, they work with the Department of Counseling and Guidance to ensure that a student is getting the help they need. “Substance abuse always impairs some aspect of functioning,

19% 81%

49% 51%

Have you ever tried marijuana?

Based on 189 student responses to an anonymous UD poll.

5

HORACE MANN FEATURES MAY 21ST, 2021

Examining student marijuana use whether it’s academic, social or emotional,” Westphal wrote. “In the instances where we have become aware of a substance abuse issue, it’s usually come up in the course of getting to know a student who’s seeking support with some other aspect of their life.”

If the Department of Counseling and Guidance learns about a student’s problematic usage of drugs, they ask to speak with the student, Westphal wrote. “We have the student come in and ask them directly about drug use, while reassuring them repeatedly that our role is not disciplinary and that the sole reason for our concern is to ensure that the student gets connected with appropriate supports and treatment outside of school.”

The school always relays information of student drug use to their parents. Still, Levenstein believes that the school is extremely intentional about the way they involve parents in these situations. “We can take steps toward that.

We would work with students to consider the approach that would make a tough conversation go as smoothly as possible,” she said.

In order to counteract drug use before it occurs, the school has an obligation to educate and inform students about marijuana, Levenstein said. Mojica spends several classes discussing substance use with all high school students each year.

Rather than using fear tactics or scaring students with the dangers of drugs, Mojica chooses to provide entirely factual information and statistics to her students. “I tend to focus on the [drugs] that are hot topics, the ones that we know more information about, so students can have all the information and can now risk assess for themselves in their decision making process.”

on that drug.”

Teddy Ganea (11) has not used any drugs because he is aware of the possible repercussions.

“My friends are not people who use drugs, my parents would certainly not tolerate that, [and] I wouldn’t even know where to get them if I wanted to,” he said. “But more importantly, I don’t want to. I don’t feel like impairing my brain.”

Ganea worries about the effects marijuana could have on his mental perception. “I really value being in control over myself,” Ganea said.

“To have another substance in my body telling my body what to do — that thought terrifies me.”

“

PHYSICAL EFFECTS: POSSIBLE DANGERS AND BENEFITS

The use of marijuana is dual in nature: it poses mental risks and physical dangers, as well as possible benefits. Marijuana is often associated with treatment of other illnesses: it can help with chronic pain, ease insomnia, and treat various anxiety disorders, according to a 2017 report titled “Therapeutic Benefits of Cannabis and Cannabinoids” written by the Committee on the Health Effects of Marjuana at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The use of marijuana for medical purposes is legal in 35 states, according to the National

Lauren Kim/Art Director

Conference of State Legislatures. At the same time, marijuana can have negative physical impacts: it can lead to respiratory diseases and change the chemical makeup within one’s brain.

Specifically for underage users, marijuana can impair functions such as attention, memory, and learning, according to a 2014 study conducted by Joanna Jacobus and Susan F. Tapert titled “Effects of Cannabis on the Adolescent Brain.” Because a young person’s brain is not entirely developed, the use of marijuana can be associated with reduced cognitive function in teens.

In addition to long-term physical effects, the use of marijuana can also create unwanted situations, Mojica said. “You’re stepping outside of your typical cognitive thought process, decision making process, and behaviors, where you’re stepping away from control of that, potentially, and so one of the risks is you make a choice that you wouldn’t otherwise if you weren’t

“I really value being in control over myself. To have another substance in my body telling my body what to do — that thought terrifies me.”

-Teddy Ganea (11)

The risk of a bad experience on drugs — what is often referred to as a “bad trip” — is an unwanted possibility. According to the same Record poll, 14 students, or about 7.4%, experienced a “bad trip” while high.

Once, while Beatrice got high alone at home, she had one of these experiences. “My whole brain felt like it was exploding,” Beatrice said. “I thought I wasn’t going to wake up.”

Beatrice believes that the “bad trip” occurred because she ate too much of a chocolate bar infused with marijuana. Now, Beatrice is more careful with her dosage, limiting the amount of the edible she consumes.

The form of marijuana being ingested can also affect the user’s experience. According to an article in Healthline from 2019 titled “Why Experts Consider Vaping to Be ‘Toxic Inhaling,’” smoking marijuana using a ‘cart’ or cartridge that connects to an electronic cigarette prompts possible dangers.

Even in states where marijuana is legal, it is cheaper to buy fake cartridges than licensed and tested products — a vape pen with a half gram cartridge of THC from a dispensary costs upwards of $55, whereas an illegal cartridge from a street dealer might cost $25 or cheaper, according to a 2019 New York Times article titled “Marijuana and Vaping: Shadowy Past, Dangerous Present.” Accessing cartridges through illegal dealers also increases the possibility of receiving and ingesting a substance that is not actually marijuana.

According to the same article, vape oils often contain other additives, like vitamin E acetate, a substance thought to be responsible for a number of lung illnesses. Dangerous additives are always a possibility, but they are particularly prevalent in an illegal market. No matter the substance in them, these cartridges are more harmful to respiratory health than any other consumption of marijuana, according to the article in Healthline.

In general, one of the biggest dangers of using drugs, especially drugs bought on the street, is the potential for an adverse reaction, Mojica said.

“You can’t guarantee you’re getting something that’s not laced with something else, so you’re taking a risk where you’re hoping nothing else is in there, so you could have a really unexpected reaction.”

Because Janice understands these risks, she does not believe that marijuana has any benefits for a user that is under the age of 21. At a young age, a person is not able to reflect on their body and health in the proper ways before using drugs, she said. “I don’t think that at this age you’re able to prevent yourself from using it as a crutch a lot of the time.”

Still, Janice chooses to smoke marijuana every

so often. “Part of it’s because I’m a teenager and I’m stupid,” she said. “And I don’t really know the consequences — they don’t really register in my brain.”

Colette* (11), who is anonymous because she is worried about judgement from her peers for her stance on drugs, understands the possible risks of smoking, which is why she has never before used marijuana. Her family has a history of asthma, so she is weary of potentially harmful substances. She also does not like the reputation that marijuna carries. “Honestly, I think weed is trashy,” she said. “I think smoking looks bad; I don’t like it.”

However, the stigma that those who smoke marijuana are “lazy and stupid” is not accurate, Lilith said. “I do smoke a lot of weed,” she said. “I also do well in school. I’m a really good student.”

On the other hand, Thea feels that the stigma can protect students. “If [smoking marijuana] was accepted — like really encouraged — when I was in ninth grade, I think that would have been a lot worse for me,” she said. “I definitely would be dependent on it now.”

Another possible risk of using marijuana is the drug’s possible connection to addiction to more dangerous substances, according to an article titled “Is marijuana a gateway drug?” published in 2020 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Early exposure to cannabinoids decreases the reactivity of brain dopamine reward centers later in adulthood, increasing a user’s vulnerability to addiction later in life.

if marijuana is widely available and marketed in different forms.” However, it is possible that legalization will increase availability of the drug, therefore causing an uptick in adolescent usage, according to the study.

Because the illegality of drugs mostly affects underprivileged communities, students at the school are not entirely aware of the legal implications of their actions, Janice said. “There is this part of it as well where they feel, maybe more so than people who are less privileged, like they can’t be touched, and it’s not actually really going to hurt them.”

Attending a private school has shown Ralph the privilege associated with drug use — spending money on marijuana is not a factor to a lot of people at the school, he said. According to the same Record poll, only five of the 189 students cited having money problems as a result of their drug use.

Often, Ralph would stop using marijuana simply because he did not have enough money to continue. “I would say I’m taking a tolerance break, but in truth I just couldn’t afford to keep on doing it,” he said.

Georgia is also aware of the financial burden of using drugs: she smokes marijuana almost every day, but only when she has enough money to do so. Whenever Georgia does not have enough money to buy marijuana, she does not smoke — it is just too expensive to keep going, she said.

*Any name with an asterisk represents a student granted anonymity.

However, these results are not conclusive, as other factors besides biological mechanisms are responsible for addiction, the article stated.

LEGALIZATION

Because of the various risks associated with marijuana use, the drug is illegal in all but 17 states. On March 30 of this year New York state legalized the use of recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21, according to a New York Times article titled “New York Legalizes Recreational Marijuana, Tying Move to Racial Equity.”

This change makes it legal for those over 21 to possess up to three ounces of marijuana leaves or 24 grams of concentrated forms of marijuana. However, it is still illegal for minors to use any drugs.

A 2014 study titled Implications of Marijuana Legalization for Adolescent Substance Use conducted by Dr. Christian Hopfer produced unclear conclusions — “it is unknown what adolescent consumption patterns will be

Gabby Fischberg/Art Director

If you think you may have a problem with substance abuse, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services National Helpine at 1-800-622-HELP.

6

HORACE MANN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MAY 21ST, 2020

Willful Women: HMTC presents the women of Shakespeare in a new light Courtesy of Sam Siegel

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT Actors in character for Pyramus and Thisbe.

Purvi Jonnalagadda Staff Writer The Horace Mann Theatre Company (HMTC) will give a voice to Shakespeares’ underrepresented female characters and examine their strength in “Willful Women,” which will premiere virtually tomorrow at 7 p.m. The performance will feature a collection of monologues written for female characters from Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and more, to be performed by students and teachers.

The show focuses on the empowerment of women, Bailey Hecht (10) said. “Despite often being underwritten, many of the women of Shakespeare’s plays feature strong characters whose lessons are still relevant today.”

Jacob Shaw (11) composed music for many of the monologues based on the Shakespearian text. He said that the message also included further developing underdeveloped stories.

“The production tells us a lot about the world we live in and the stories of several ‘willful’ — and sometimes rule-breaking — women who do not usually get the airtime that they deserve.”

Shakespeare remains relevant throughout time, Administrative Assistant to the Grade Deans Ennis Smith said. “The female characters he wrote have as much to say about the modern state of womanhood

as today’s headlines,” he said. “His version of the human condition never dates.”

The show does not follow a conventional progression of a single story; instead, it uses an assortment of monologues and musical interludes, which further the point of female empowerment, said Sam Siegel (10), who was in charge of cinematography and managed the show’s filming and editing.

In the show, Oscar Shah (9) plays Lady Macbeth from Macbeth and Hermia from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The scene with Hermia captures two women fighting over men, depicting women as solely focused on romance, Shah said.

The cast switched the genders of characters, so that Shah would play a man, and eventually decided on changing the pronouns in Shakespeare’s text as well. “By reversing the pronouns and having men arguing about women, the unequal literary treatment of men and women is made obvious,” Shah said.

In Shah’s scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the roles played by women in Shakespeare’s version are all played by male actors.

Hecht (10), who plays Goneril from King Lear and Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra, enjoyed participating in the show because of its fluidity, especially since her monologues are applicable to her own life. “It was a great experience

to see how easily a monologue about a seemingly specific situation could be turned into a commentary on the misogynistic double standards of school dress codes,” she said. “We were able to keep the strength of these powerful women and see how they might act in modern day.”

The biggest challenge Hecht faced was the “archaic language” of Shakespeare’s plays. “But we got through it after small group readthroughs,” she said.

Since Shakespearean language differs from modern language, memorizing lines was difficult, Shah said. “We had to translate each line in order to actually understand what we were saying,” he said.

Smith also acted in the show as Peter Quince from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Smith prepares for performing any sort of Shakespeare text by making sure he understands it, usually through rewriting the dialogue in his own words, he said.

He does so by using a lexicon, a dictionary of Shakespeare’s words that can define older terms such as “hight” and “twain,” which aren’t used frequently anymore, he said.

The short scenes meant actors only had one rehearsal to read, interpret, and stage monologues and another day to film, Hecht said. As a result, the play was missing some of the cast bonding that Hecht usually looks forward to with weekly rehearsals, she said.

The time in which the show needed to be produced was demanding, but Seigel was glad to have been able to participate in a rewarding project.

“For me, it is a story of exploring the true strength behind some of Shakespeare’s female characters who appear to be weak on the surface but are really strong behind the veil,” he said. “There is power in everybody, no matter what they look like or how they act.”

The biggest challenge Shaw faced was writing accompanying music for some of the most powerful scenes from Willful Women. “I spent hours

Courtesy of Sam Siegel

TOIL AND TROUBLE Cast perform an original song inspired by witches. tweaking harmonies and melodies to make the soundtrack sound how the action feels,” he said. “Like any form of interpretation, musical interpretation forces you to make tough choices about what point you want to get across and how you want to do that.”

English teacher Dr. Jonathan Kotchian enjoyed rehearsing and shooting his scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the cast, he said. “I got to interact with both students and my fellow teachers

in ways that I don’t usually get to, and Ms. VanHentenryck’s encouragement helped us relax into our roles so we could come up with improvised moments of humor.”

Despite the short timeline, Siegel’s favorite part of the show was the connections he formed with his fellow students. “We really became a family when we were working together,” he said. “It was amazing to work with such awesome people who are so dedicated to the idea of making an awesome play.”

Courtesy of the HMTC

Music For Change advocates for social justice through the arts

Rowan Mally Staff Writer

“Music is a universal language,” Devika Gehlaut (10) said. “It can speak louder than words and influence people of all different backgrounds.”

During the height of the COVID pandemic, Gehlaut and her friend, Rosanna Gao, a junior at Great Neck South High School, founded the Music for Change (MFC) organization to spread positivity and awareness about social issues, such as Black Lives Matters, LGBTQ+ rights, and Anti-Asian violence, through music,

dance, and theatre, Gehlaut said. She noticed performers were feeling lost and isolated during quarantine, so she wanted to use music to unite individuals in a time of isolation.

Gehlaut and Gao decided to create a YouTube channel where they posted singing videos to spread joy and to fill the void in performance, Gehlaut said. “When the channel gained traction, we started posting other people’s videos, and Music for Change came to be,” she said.

MFC has already completed various projects that utilize music to spread awareness regarding social justice issues. “We created the opening and closing performance for National High School

Music-for-change.org

THE GOAL Music For Change’s mission statement.

Model UN,” Gehlaut said. “The performance celebrated the uniqueness of various cultures and was able to spread awareness regarding representation of Black and Indigenious People of Color in the arts.”

Gehlaut said the organization has also hosted community events such as weekly classes with St. Cecilia’s Orphanage in Zambia, AsianAmerican representation webinars, and citizen artistry workshops at International Thespian Society.

The pair has since spent the past year expanding MFC into an international program.

“The Music For Change team has grown to over 30 people and we have MFC chapters in different countries such as India, China, Nigeria, and Canada,” Gehlaut said. “We’re only continuing to expand.”

Piper Wallace (11) serves as MFC’s Head of Marketing. Wallace was drawn to MFC because she believes music is an outlet of expression, and, especially during the volatile social climate of 2020, she saw music as a way of connecting people from different backgrounds.

Wallace attributes MFC’s rapid expansion to the number of interviews early team members conducted with local news outlets. “We must have sent hundreds of emails stating our mission statement and intentions to news outlets within the first fews months of launching,” she said.

Aside from spreading awareness, MFC also leads direct advocacy and fundraising efforts. “We have partnered with numerous organizations and raised over $10,000 last year

alone,” Gehlaut said. Wallace said the majority of these donations went to COVID relief funds and campaigns for performance organizations.

MFC will be hosting a concert at Carnegie Hall this October to raise money for social inclusion. It has also spoken directly with the New York City Council regarding budget cuts towards arts programs in schools and on Broadway, a reminder that the fight for increased accessibility to music and the arts is ongoing, Gehlaut said.

Additionally, with Wallace’s help, MFC has partnered with the organization “Be An Arts Hero” to push for the passing of the DAWN (Defend Arts Workers Now) Act, which would help compensate performers during COVID due to their inability to perform. Wallace also hosted an open mic night for children with disabilities at Daniel’s Music, she said.

The organization has been featured in numerous outlets, including Interlochen, Dramatics.org, MyLondon, and National Public Radio. Wallace has also been interviewed by local newspapers and was featured on the “Happy Singer” podcast to spread MFC’s message, she said.

While MFC has a head start with their initiatives outside of school, they also hope to create a club at school, Gehlaut said. “The club can serve as a space where we can focus on creating community projects through music to benefit our school and give back to the community.”

HORACE MANN MIDDLE DIVISION AND NEWS MAY 21ST, 2019

MD Mentoring program implements changes for the upcoming school year

schoolers for high school with a mini clubs’ fair or a “go to class with a high schooler’’ day, she said. Shuchman chose to apply for a leadership position with the hopes of improving the program with her contributions, she said.

Shuchman also wants to increase diversity among mentors.

“It’s super important that middle schoolers have people they can relate to in their experiences at HM and in the world,” she said. One way Shuchman hopes to do this is by recruiting students who are involved in affinity groups, she said.

Giselle Paulson (10), another recently elected junior leader,

Arushi Talwar Staff Writer

“The mentor program is unique in that it is one of the very few programs that bridges the Middle and Upper Divisions,” co-leader of the Middle Division Mentoring (MDM) program Leyli Granmayeh (12) said. “As a middle schooler, having a high school mentor that I could look up to, ask questions, and even just say ‘hi’ to in the hallway made a big difference in easing my transition and making me comfortable in the community.”

The MDM program has undergone several changes over the course of this year. For example, training for new mentors Courtesy of Sam Siegel

BUDDY SYSTEM MD Mentors meet over Zoom. will be held on campus in June for one day instead of at Dorr for three days or on Zoom in August, co-leader of the MDM program Ria Chowdhry (11) said.

The training in June will inform mentors of their responsibilities and tasks for the coming year, Chowdhry said.

Chowdhry is excited that the training will be held on campus because it allows mentors from each grade to get to know each other through in-person activities, she said.

In addition to the training in June, a “booster session” will be held in August exclusively for 10th grade mentors and will

7

Courtesy of Sam Siegel

be aimed towards preparing them to meet their sixth grade mentees for the first time, Chowdhry said.

Another aspect of the MDM program that has changed this year is the program’s tutoring component. The tutoring program provides middle schoolers with accessible and individualized assistance from high schoolers who understand what it is like to be a student at the school, tutoring coordinator Isabella Colacino (11) said. “It is [also] meant to forge and strengthen relationships between mentors and mentees,” she said.

During the school year, Colacino has worked to reinvent the existing tutoring program to make it stronger. “The other tutoring coordinator and I pretty much started from the drawing board,” Colacino wrote. “We thought of the best ways that the program could flourish under the abnormal circumstances of this year. We also did a lot with marketing the program because no one really knew what the program had to offer.”

One of the changes Colacino made was adding a hybrid component to the program so that mentees could choose whether to meet online or in-person. Next year, Colacino hopes to expand the program by involving more mentors and offering more in-person tutoring, she said.

The biggest changes to the program will be spearheaded by the new leadership, Granmayeh said.

Ariela Shuchman (10), one of the newly elected junior leaders for the program, would like to prepare middle

EXTRA HELP MD Mentors discuss tutoring responsibilities. wants to increase the amount of time that mentees spend with their mentors by giving mentors the ability to visit full-period advisory sessions. “By increasing the amount of time, you strengthen the relationship,” Paulson said.

Paulson applied for a leadership position because she enjoyed her experience as a mentor this year and wanted to help improve the program.

Granmayeh is proud of how the MDM program has adapted to the challenges posed by the pandemic and is optimistic for next year, she said. “All the mentors have had to work extra hard to support their mentees in this unconventional year and to work around all the barriers,” she said. “I’m most excited to see how the program evolves and what changes the new leadership makes to really make the program their own.”

from Asoluka TEDTalk page 1

You can purchase merch from the NewComm class’ collaboration with Start:Empowerment.

All proceeds go towards empowering local BIPOC children through enironmental justice education.

Rachel Zhu/Art Director

newcomm.creator-spring.com

from Cycle for Survival page 1 empowering.”

After the opening ceremony, participants split up into different workout classes hosted by Equinox, Markman said. Although some classes were related to cycling, others involved running, yoga, or strength training, she said. All of the participants from the school had access to a chat on Cycle for Survival’s platform where they could communicate during the event, Markman said.

To raise awareness about the event, the CAC used Instagram to encourage people to donate, Rosenzweig said.

Through multiple Instagram stories, people could donate to Cycle for Survival and tag their friends to encourage them to donate as well, she said.

The CAC also printed QR codes, which they hung all over the school, that sent people directly to the Cycle for Survival donation page.

Dalia Pustilnik (11) said while this year’s event was not as much fun as last year’s due to its virtual setting, it was still exciting to be involved with all of Cycle for Survival at once. Last year, the school’s first year participating in Cycle for Survival, the CAC set up stationary bikes in the lower gym, where people physically biked together to raise money. People sat with their friends, and there was a strong community feel, Pustilnik

said.

Maurice Campbell (12), another CAC co-president, also said the event was less enjoyable than last year’s. “The event definitely wasn’t the same since it was online,” he said.

However, it was easier for people to access the event, Rosenzweig said. “All you had to do was register, you didn’t have to pay, you didn’t have to show up, you didn’t have to bike, so you could do it from the comfort of your own home,” she said.

This event was particularly important to Patel because she lost grandparents to cancer, she said. “I would really encourage everyone to come, even if they’re not a part of the Cancer Awareness Club,” she said. “It was really inspiring to see everyone come together.”

“Aside from the very important fact that you’re contributing to an absolutely incredible and literally life saving cause, it’s just fun,” Rosenzweig said. “The energy is so high because when you’re dealing with something like cancer, you have no choice but to be positive and to walk in with an attitude determined to fight.”

do for others.”

Shrivastava was impressed with Asoluka’s TED Talk. “It was interesting to hear about [his] personal struggles, which are very similar in terms of career changes and aspirational goals that many seniors have and are starting to have to reckon with,” she said.

Penn Brown is inspired by NewComm, she said. “The way he teaches is about the students as people and not about the information we’re learning,” she said. “Yes, we do write papers but it’s more about our experiences, and how we can grow as people.”

Currently, the NewComm class is working with a nonprofit organization called Start Empowerment that advocates for education about climate

Courtesy of Liam Futterman

SHAMELESS PLUG HM students sport NewComm x S:E apparel.

justice, Mabel Runyon (12) said. Start Empowerment lends their focus to how climate change affects communities of color and gives students in NewComm the knowledge and information on how to better help these communities, she said.

Students have broken into three different groups: collaboration, storytelling, and curriculum, where they all work towards specific goals, Lauren Gay (12) said. Gay, who is a member of the curriculum group, is currently working on issues of food justice, she said.

“Right now we’re editing the [organization’s] food justice curriculum and trying to outreach to different schools,” she said. “That involves emailing teachers, HM alumni, and

trying to get the curriculum from our nonprofit organization integrated into different schools.”

Some of their current projects include working towards developing a curriculum for the nonprofit and helping merch sales by selling products with their logo to encourage people to think and talk about environmental activism outside of the classroom, Shrivastava said.

Gay is grateful for the insight Asoluka has given his students. “It’s really inspiring that somebody who is an adult, who’s been through college, has been through high school, can have a job that they enjoy, while having a positive impact on their community,” she said.

COME SEE THE

MD SHENANIGAN SHOW Skits written, directed, acted, and edited by Middle Division students

Friday, May 21st 7:00 PM https://zoom.us/j/93056705253

Lions’ Den Record Sports

MAY 21ST, 2021

Girls Rugby team goes undefeated against Harvey Claire Goldberg Staff Writer

The Girls Rugby team went undefeated in a three-game series against The Harvey School on Wednesday, in which five out of the eight team members scored. Due to the 90-degree weather, the team played three seven-minute games with five minute breaks in between each one as opposed to playing a traditional 80-minute game. All three of the games were “touch” games as opposed to tackle games due to COVID guidelines.

Between each game, the team reflected on what they had done well and what they wanted to work on for the next game, captain Catherine Mignone (11) said. “We created our feedback and then responded to it in the next game,” she said. “It was really effective because our score actually went up each game.”

Despite the weather, the team was able to keep up their energy, Mignone said. “In practice we talked about having an ‘energy tap’ and turning it on when you’re in a game and switching it off when you get to rest,” she said.

“

part of the game, so playing without it was definitely an obstacle,” she said. “It means we have to dodge people a lot more on the field.”

Playing touch rugby pushed the team to hone in on their strategy and technical skills, Mignone said. “In tackle rugby, if you’re really strong you can just create space by pushing someone aside, and you can’t do that in touch,” she said. “You have to be smarter about the way you play.”

During the game, the team had to adjust to new spacing, Bondor said. “The field was much wider than the field on which we had practiced, so it took time to get used to utilizing that width.” However, the team was using the space to their advantage by the end of the game, she said.

To prepare for the series, the team spent the first part of the season learning the game, Jojo Mignone (9) said. “We’ve been doing a lot of basic strategy and just feeling our way around the game so that everyone [was] comfortable,” she said. “Being comfortable and confident in your abilities is the most important thing for rugby games, and it improves the team’s performance.”

“Because we’re all so close, we never got frustrated with each other when we made mistakes and we celebrated our successes. This is something I’m not just going to carry over next year, but also into my social life in general.”

- Stella Shah (11)

“Everyone really accessed that at the game, so we didn’t drop our focus. Everyone was giving it 100% in the game.”

Because six of the eight team members had never played rugby before this season, playing touch rugby made the game less intimidating, Irene Argenti (11) said.

Clementine Bondor (10), however, was disappointed that the game did not involve tackling, she said. “Tackling is such an innate

Practices have been centered around team bonding because many players are unfamiliar with the game, Argenti said. “We also spent a lot of time making the team a safe space because almost all of us are new to the sport,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that people weren’t afraid of messing up.”

Coach Ryszard Chadwick also designed practices that capitalized on the team’s existing

knowledge, he said. For example, every player has played soccer, so one practice consisted of playing a soccer game to practice the importance of applying pressure, which is a key principle of rugby, he said.

To ensure that all of the girls felt prepared for the game, the team devoted all of Tuesday’s practice to sharing lessons each member learned throughout the season and

8

with the coach has helped me improve a lot more than I would have on a larger team,” she said.

The game was Stella Shah’s (11) first time participating in a team sport, she said. “It was really great to be working with a group of girls where I didn’t feel like I would be holding them back,” she said. “Because we’re all so close, we never got frustrated with each other Courtesy of HM Flickr

TURNOVER Girls Rugby gets possession against Harvey. to complimenting each other, Argenti said.

“It was really nice to realize that everyone was nervous for the game,” she said. “I’m really scared about making a fool of myself during the game, but the conversation made me realize that we’re all here to learn from mistakes.”

Because there are only eight girls in the program, the team had never had a full scrimmage prior to Wednesday’s game, Bondor said. “We’ve been scrimmaging with four on four, which makes this game more difficult because the whole team aspect of the game is still very foreign,” she said.

However, having a smaller team has helped each member have more one-on-one time with Chadwick, Jojo said. “I prefer our smaller team because having one-on-one time

when we made mistakes and we celebrated our successes. This is something I’m not just going to carry over to next year, but also into my social life in general.”

Chadwick’s favorite part of the game was when team member Jhanae Ottey (11) scored the first point of the game, he said.

“The team’s celebration kind of epitomized the whole season,” he said. “They were so happy to get out there, be successful, and play the game that they’ve been working so hard to learn for the past few months.”

Bondor watched the team learn during the game, she said. “The whole thing felt like a coming-of-age movie,” she said. “We all grew so much as people, and it was really amazing to watch and all the more incredible to experience.”

Boys Volleyball defeats defending state champions 3-2 in final game of the season Maeve Goldman and Sammy Matays Staff and Contributing Writers

Jackson Feigin/Photo Director

Courtesy of James Thomas

TEAM SHOT Boys Volleyball smiles for the camera after their victory.

After losing against state champions Calhoun three days prior, the Boys Varsity Volleyball team beat the team 3-2 in a rematch on May 17th.

The team entered the court feeling confident, Nate Chiang (9) said. “I expected us to do well because we worked together well and practiced really hard,” he said. “I honestly thought we might win.”

However, the team struggled at the start of the game. “We went through rough patches where certain servers would catch us off guard or we would have trouble getting past a certain player,” Mehraz Karim (12) said.

The team overcame their challenges by adapting to their opponents, Karim said. “One thing we tried was to be really critical when studying individual players on Calhoun’s team,” he said. “We’d pick up certain tendencies that some players liked to do and our playing reflected that.”

Noticing who on the other team served well and where specifically they liked to serve helped the team adapt to Calhoun, Jonas Jacobson

(12) said. “For example, if we noticed a server that sent balls deeper into the court, our teammates in the back and middle would back up while our teammates on the sides in the front row would move inwards to catch balls if they were short.”

To prepare for the game, the team practiced serving, receiving, and scrimaging. Scrimaging helped the team figure out their positioning while playing the game, Karim said.

The team won its first two sets, Boys Varsity Volleyball Coach Jason Torres said. “I wanted to play the seniors early in the game since it was their one and only home game,” he said.

The freshmen and sophomore team members played afterwards, Torres said. “The third and fourth sets were primarily just substitutes,” he said. “I really wanted to make sure everyone got the opportunity to be on the floor and have some varsity experience.”

The upperclassmen encouraged the freshmen and sophomores as they played, Karim said. A highlight of the game for the juniors and seniors was watching the freshmen and sophomores on the team play, especially when they went on serving streaks and kept the game close, he said.

“It felt good to get a chance to play because of all of the hard work and effort everyone on the team had put in,” Chiang said.

Although the school won the initial two sets, Calhoun’s team recovered and won the third and fourth sets, so the game was tied when the players headed into their fifth and final set, Torres said.

“In the fifth set, I put the seniors and juniors back on the court to finish the game,” Torres said. “Of course, being able to win made that moment more fruitful, as they really enjoyed having the opportunity to beat Calhoun.”

The team is thrilled with this season not just because of their victory, but because of the bonds they formed, Karim said. “A lot of us on the team are friends with each other so it’s easy to crack jokes and uplift each other,” he said. “Whenever we make a mistake, everyone else on the court will come and alleviate the person of any stress they had and keep their head up.”

The game was a great end to the Volleyball season, Karim said. “[Monday’s game] definitely exceeded expectations.”