Issue 14

Record The Horace Mann

DECEMBER 13TH 2019 || VOLUME 117, ISSUE 14

RECORD.HORACEMANN.ORG

HORACE MANN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1903

ALUMINUM WATER BOTTLES REPLACE PLASTIC IN CAFETERIA Adam Frommer Staff Writer In an effort to improve upon school sustainability, beverages in the Cohen Dining Commons have switched from plastic to more easily recyclable metal containers. The change was not planned to happen until after the New Year, but it developed ahead of schedule due to student and faculty voices, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote in an email.

The change caught climate activist Natalie Sweet (11) by surprise. She was in the process of putting a proposal together for the school to switch to different water containers without any knowledge of the school’s decision. “And then this happened,” she said. “I’m glad this is acknowledging that plastic is a problem, but I really wish they consulted us.” After Sweet and members of Green HM conducted a lot of research, they concluded that paper water cartons might have been a better option, she said. Sweet along with other members of Green HM and the Community Council, has been working on this initiative for years.

For the past few months, Kelly asked students in his office to try out different types of bottled water, and the school began with the brand reported to have the most acceptable taste, he wrote.

The cafeteria switched to Ever & Ever aluminum bottles, a company that first started producing its water bottles in June 2019. According to the website, the cans are made from 70% recycled material, and Ever & Ever partners with the Lonely Whale Foundation to improve ocean quality around the globe.

The school plans to explore other options on the market in the coming months, eventually moving to water fountains or a permanent water dispenser inside the cafeteria, Kelly wrote. For now, the water bottles, which used to cost $1.00 each in their plastic form, sell for $1.25.

“They’re a little bit more expensive, which will hopefully incentivize students to bring their

91% of plastic isn’t recycled. own, which would be a free option,” Belle Beyer (12) said.

The metal solution is far from perfect, Beyer said. It takes an incredible amount of energy to

produce each bottle in a factory. Even though the bottles are made out of recycled material, the factories producing them mostly run on fossil fuels, she said. “Does it really get recycled? It’s kind of sketchy.” Only about 50 percent of aluminum cans and bottles get recycled.

Even so, the aluminum recycling rate is nearly double that of plastic containers. Additionally, aluminum can be recycled infinitely many times.

On the other hand, plastic can only be recycled two to three times before it can no longer be used, according to National Geographic.

Indeed, due to a regulation change in China, a nation that recycles much of America’s products,

solution, Beyer said.

Sweet said the switch to metal water bottles has the potential to make the school complacent.

“Students may say ‘oh, we have this great solution. Now we’re done.’ But I don’t think that’s it,” she said. The climate fight does not just end with water bottles, but students need to be aware of their entire carbon footprint.

Hopefully, the marketing on the bottle will make people more mindful about sustainable choices, Wang said. “I think that this can branch off into other aspects of life and inspire people to do more things.”

Some students have found that the water Jake Shapiro/ Photo Editor

able plates in the library, she said.

Overall, Sweet said that switching simply to

Almost 75% of aluminum produced in 1888 is still in use today. fountain drinks would have been a better option.

The school was even rumored to switch to fountains over this past summer, Beyer said.

The changes would have needed renovations that the school was not yet ready to take on, Kelly wrote.

“The fountain drinks would be probably better, but at the same time, this is a step away from plastic which is good,” Beyer said.

THE NEW WATER BOTTLES No more seas of plastic. more plastic is going directly to landfills, according to an article in the New York Times. In the year prior to the change, China imported 693 million metric tons of plastic and metal recyclables from the United States, but China has since globally only recycled 282 million metric tons, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The effects that the changes could have on the student body are hard to predict, Paul Wang (12) said. It may remind students to bring their own bottles, or students may buy more, he said.

Beyer hopes students don’t see metal water bottles as the fix to climate change and single-use problems but instead a small step forward. Unfortunately, students may just buy even more disposable bottles because they think it’s a guilt-free

doesn’t taste the same anymore, Bennett Neuwirth (10) said.

“When you press your lips on that weird aluminum, it’s like stale water, Oliver Lewis (10) said. “It doesn’t taste as fresh as the Aquafina.”

It is important to focus on sustainability education in the cafeteria as some students do not know much about the topic, Wang said. Even the simple act of teaching students what can be recycled is really important, he said. “There are a lot of simple steps that take education, so that is the next step.”

Having more discussions about why this is not the final solution is crucial, Sweet said. Ways to further the initiative might include taking away plastic utensils or having a place to drop off reus-

Editorial: AN ENVIRONMENTAL CALL TO ACTION FOR PUBLICATION LEADERS Greta Thunberg just won Time’s Person of the Year. It wasn’t Trump that won, it wasn’t Robert Mueller or Nancy Pelosi or anyone else that has power put into their hands in some official sense. It was a 16 year old kid from Sweden who has brought climate change to the forefront of our global conversation. It’s great that the administration decided to do away with plastic water bottles. And while there are of course more steps that could be made on that front, it is not just administrators that need to make systemic changes. All individuals at the school need to reconsider how we go about our daily lives. We are

making a specific call to all publication leaders to drastically cut down on the number of copies that you print each week. The Record has already cut down on the number of copies that we print and will continue to do so until we find an amount that creates the least possible waste while still permitting everyone to read our paper. We are looking to halve the number of papers that we printed from last year and have begun by decreasing the number we’ve printed in the past few weeks by several hundred.

Our call to publication leaders is to assess how many copies of your magazines are left on the racks after every time you print.

Don’t print copies just because you have the money to do so.

Print copies with the intent that each copy will be read, and if that isn’t happening, print less. This mentality applies to all aspects of our life. We need to take stock of our daily ins and outs of life and think about how we can do better. This can’t just be a top down or bottom up effort. It has to come from all of us. This means making both major and minor changes to how we go about our daily lives. As with any change, transition periods are expected, but we are capable of adjusting and soon can embrace a new, better normal.

OPINIONS

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Editor-in-Chief Julia Robbins Managing Editor Mayanka Dhingra Issues Editor Jude Herwitz

THE RECORD OPINIONS DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

Candy Cravings: Addressing Candy in the Cafeteria

Mikail Akbar Every time I entered the cafeteria last year, I saw a wide variety of options.

Grilled chicken and hamburgers to my left, an assortment of drinks to my right.

I took two steps forward and found fried foods, entree meals, and pasta, and I debated what should fill my stomach for the noon meal. However, as I stood in line to pay for my food, my eyes stared directly at the candy area. Nobody could resist

the creamy Hershey’s chocolate bar or the colorful pack of Skittles waiting to be devoured. Whenever I would walk out and find a place to eat, candy always seemed to be in my hand along with my meal.

“Mikail! Why do I always see candy on your lunch bill,” my parents used to ask me when they saw all the candy I ate.

Although I promised my parents to eat more healthy foods, this conversation still occurred every month when my parents got my lunch bill. This is a conversation that also happens in many households across the school because the abundance of candy in the cafeteria has been an issue for a lot of parents since kids can easily get addicted to sugar. According to addictioncenter.com, candy brings a dopamine rush that people enjoy. “Sugar releases endorphins in the body and combines with other chemicals in the body, resulting in a surge of energy. Once someone mentally connects sugar with help providing energy, they may become dependent on it, usually inadvertently,” says Kristyna Murray, the author of an addictioncenter.com article.

News Amelia Feiner Madison Li Sam Keimweiss Simon Yang

Lions’ Den Darius McCullough Mark Fernandez Ranya Sareen Andrew Cassino A&E Nishtha Sharma Eliza Poster Eddie Jin Middle Division Ben Wang Isabella Zhang Design Editors Euwan Kim Reena Ye Chris Ha Art Directors Annabelle Chan Gabrielle Fischberg Katya Arutyunyan Photography Griffin Smith Ahaan Palla Jake Shapiro Faculty Adviser David Berenson

Staff Writers Izzy Abbott, Adrian Arnaboldi, Abby Beckler, Bradley Bennett, Sam Chiang, Sogona Cisse, Jack Crovitz, Adam Frommer, Andie Goldmacher, Julia Goldberg, Andie Goldmacher, Alison Isko, Avi Kapadia, Marina Kazarian, John Mauro, Yesh Nikam, Henry Owens, Oliver Steinman, Emily Shi, Samuel Singer, Natalie Sweet, Sasha Snyder, Vivien Sweet, Joshua Underberg, Talia Winiarsky, Chloe Choi, Emma Colacino, Yin Fei, Lucas Glickman, Claire Goldberg, Liliana Greyf, Lauren Ho, Walker McCarthy, Maya Nornberg, Morgan Smith, Patrick Steinbaug, Katya Tolunsky, Nathan Zelizer Staff Photographers Julia Isko, Daniel Lee, Ava Merker, Kelly Troop, Halley Robbins, Sophie Gordon, Amanda Wein, Maxwell Shopkorn, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas Glickman, Lauren Ho Staff Artists Wilder Harwood, Sarah Sun, Rachel Zhu

Gabby Fishberg/Art Director

students,” said Brenda Cohn, the director of FLIK at the school. As a result, candy was replaced every Tuesday and Thursday with a variety of healthy nutrition bars last year. This school year, Dr. Kelly decided to remove the candy for good. Now, there are healthy Clif Bars and Kind Bars available to students every day. This initiative has worked, as “healthy products have increased overall,” according to Ms. Cohn.

I believe that the idea was a great one, as the intake of sugar from students will decrease heavily, and even better, I won’t have to worry about that conversation with my parents every month.

Addressing pervasive sexism in debate

Features Nelson Gaillard Gabby Kepnes Kiara Royer

Opinions Victor Dimitrov Abigail Salzhauer

Not only do children nibble on candy during lunch, but during frees, kids stop by the cafeteria to grab a snack, and usually, candy is that “snack”.

“People may begin to crave sugar to balance irritability, emotional lows, and other conditions. Eventually, there is little control over avoiding sugary foods, and a sugar addiction has developed,” Murray continues. Some studies suggest the candy is as addictive as cocaine.

Having such a high intake of sugar every day can lead to weight gain, blood sugar problems, cavities, and an increased risk in heart disease. Nobody needs candy; instead, they crave it when they see it in front of the register, a psychological dilemma that students used to face every day. The boxes that hold the candy empties after almost every day, which means that students are evidently addicted.

However, last year, there were initiatives in place created by Dr. Kelly to prevent the consumption of candy from students.

Dr. Kelly was “was not impressed with the amount of candy consumed by MD

Alexa Mark, Emily Shi, and Annabelle Xing Alexa: From the time I joined the debate team in middle school until the end of ninth grade, I was completely unaware of the sexism present in debate. My first partner was (and every partner since has been) female. Within the first month of joining the debate team, two successful female debate partners offered to meet with me outside of our usual clubs period to help me prepare for each tournament. Because of them, I believed that debate was a supportive environment, and I felt confident attending my first tournaments.

However, as I began to attend national tournaments in high school, I saw the extent to which debate is a male-dominated activity. Though at school I still felt included in the team, looking up to the large group of female debaters two years my senior, at tournaments I ran into small clusters of suits everywhere I walked. In one competition a judge even commented that my voice was annoying, and then he proceeded to imitate it using an extremely exaggerated falsetto.

I saw the male members of my team become friends with other male debaters from different schools easily, joining group chats that only included male debaters, while I felt increasingly isolated. Last year, I saw a debate meeting led by three male presidents filled by mainly male freshmen, in sharp contrast to the more balanced makeup of our team the year before.

Because debate is a presentation-based activity in which judges award points for better speaking, judges immediately have a large amount of power with which they can perpetuate negative double standards about female debaters.

Judges will make assumptions about female debaters based or their attire, or claim female debaters’ voices are “annoying”and “too aggressive,” even when they are less aggressive than male debaters in a round..

Annabelle: On a site titled “The Hall of Shame,” female debaters can anonymously post about misogynistic comments made towards them by a judge, a teammate, a team coach, or just random debaters. As I scrolled through this section, a recurring list of the words and phrases popped out at me: shrill voice, skirt too short, too aggressive, be more polite, wear less makeup, be submissive, calm down. Problematically, these degrading comments contribute to a toxic environment that pushes out both new and experienced debaters.

Emily: Since joining debate, I’ve always been a second speaker,

a position in debate that is typically associated with more aggression since it involves speaking without prepared speech and refuting other arguments. Often, when judges and teams see a boy-girl team, they automatically assume that the boy will be the second speaker and don’t bother to ask speaking positions beforehand. Fortunately, I have personally never had to deal with this because I’ve always partnered with another girl. At the same time, however, judges frequently telling me that I’m speaking too aggressively in round, debaters telling me that I don’t understand my own arguments, and others making fun of my “debate voice” have become normalized shared experiences among most, if not all, girls in debate.

Alexa: Debaters also play a role in creating an exclusive community. Many male debaters form prep groups with people like themselves from different schools and believe that when a female tries to join, she is doing so because she is “scheming” someone in the prep group. Many female debaters lack the connections to older debaters at their schools that many Lauren Kim/Staff Artist

males benefit from. As such, they get less help preparing for tournaments and less reassurance after they lose rounds.

Though many debaters choose to quit after their novice year, many more are female than male.

Annabelle: Every year, like in most high school yearbooks, a superlatives list is released on r/debate, a Reddit domain built for debate. The list has everything from best first speaker and smartest Public Forum Debater (PF’er) to the hottest PF’er and most-likely-to-fall-asleep-in-round PF’er. However, it is unsurprising to me that the only superlatives given to girls are ones relating to appearance: most attractive debater, best dressed debater, most datable. Of the sixty superlatives, the only two related to intellect and capability that a girl can receive are best freshman and best girl-girl team.

The Tournament of Champions (TOC), considered the most prestigious debate tournament, requires teams to accumulate wins from a certain amount of elimination rounds at national circuit tournaments, creating a pool of the strongest debaters in the country. At finals in 2017, three out of four debaters were girls. Tournament results reveal the top debaters, but none of these three girls made it to the top in superlatives relating to skill. Evidently, women in debate are talented, but they’re not recognized for their success.

What worries me is that because the voting for the superlative is anonymous and public, it reveals what many in the

debate community truly believe. To some degree, it is because idolization of male debaters is rampant. Superlatives on Reddit are one manifestation of this behavior, but others include fan pages on social media dedicated to praising only male debaters and blog posts made by random strangers apologizing when a girl-girl team “screws” over a boyboy team that clearly deserved the win.

Systematic male idolization not only depicts debate as a male-exclusive event, but discourages young girls from joining debate. When young debaters see the same males at each competition, they become amazed by their circuit “clout” and, subconsciously, those debaters become models for what novices will strive to be for the rest of their high school debate career. Within our own team, the female retention rate visibly declines from the first meeting of the year to each successive meeting. I’m sure that the male debaters under “best second speaker” or “top speaker” do deserve a spot there, but the blatant disparity in recognition is too hard to pass as a coincidence.

Emily: It almost seems as if the rise in recognition of sexism in debate throughout both our school and the wider national community has perfectly overlapped with my time on the team. At the end of my freshmen year, three out of four debaters in the final round of the TOC were women. Soon after, as I also started to get more involved in the debate community, more people around me began acknowledging and calling out sexism on a national level. That same year, an organization called Beyond Resolved was created by two female debaters from Alabama who wanted to push for a more gender inclusive environment, and has since grown to include both female and male debaters around the country.

Now that I’ve become an upperclassman, the lower retention rate of females versus males has become routine year-to-year. When I first joined the debate as one of the only new freshmen on the team, I constantly considered quitting due to fears that I would never “get” debate or that I would never feel like a true part of the team. Obviously, this is not our school team’s fault—in any new environment that involves standing up and being confident in your voice, many people would’ve shared similar sentiments. I also feel incredibly grateful to be a part of the only grade currently on the team that does not have mostly male members. Although the reason for this gender ratio can’t be chalked up to one event, it was definitely helpful that when we were freshmen, we had three female presidents as role models to look up to, as well as older girls on the team who actively reached out to provide us with help. Recently, the team has been striving to be more cognisant of this issue, and to encourage girls to stay on the team.

Alexa, Emily, and Annabelle: There are countless other gender issues in debate, but the debate community doesn’t need to stay this way. Though the Gender in Debate Conference (GIDC) wasn’t an endsall solution, it did serve as a platform to raise awareness and allow students to feel comfortable sharing their experiences. Only by discussing these solutions together can we change the culture of the debate community. Debate is an incredibly valuable activity that has not only taught us critical research and public speaking skills and connected us with amazing people, but it has truly defined a large part of our high school lives. Nobody should ever have to give up debating because they feel unsupported or excluded.

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HORACE MANN NEWS DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

SDLC attendees engage in conversations surrounding diversity and social identifiers Katya Tolunsky and Emily Salzhauer Staff Writer & Contributing Writer Speakers, experts, and students and faculty from independent schools gathered in Seattle, Washington last week for the annual People of Color Conference (PoCC) and Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) to engage in discussions and activities about cultural identifiers to supplement the dialogue that occurs in affinity groups surrounding such identifiers.

“It allowed me to explore the environment outside of Horace Mann,” Simon Yang (12) said. “It really made me think outside of the community we live in.”

As stated on its website, PoCC is the flagship of the National Association of Independent Schools’ commitment to equity and justice in teaching, learning, and organizational development. PoCC and SDLC, although separate conferences, are run together and have the opening and closing ceremonies combined.

The PoCC conference is made for adults by adults, Co-Director of the Office for Identity, Culture and Institutional Equity John Gentile said.

“In its essence, the PoCC is a space for people and educators of color to come together and engage in community-like activities and team building exercises.” Whereas, SDLC is a multi-racial and multi-gender diversity conference focused on developing students into leaders around issues of equity and inclusion, he said.

“At the SDLC conference, we spent a lot of time talking about our core cultural identifiers— race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, family structure, religion and socioeconomic status, and how they affect us and the way we see and experience the world,” Nshera Tutu (11) said. “It really challenges me by allowing me to see the privilege that I have, and use it to advocate for other people.”

Tutu appreciated how respectful and open the dialogue was, she said. “One issue we discussed was kneeling for the anthem vs. standing, and although we had our differing opinions, no one was ever attacked or made to feel bad about their opinion.”

Yang recalled a specific activity they did at SDLC which involved silent movement and calling out specific identifies such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and religion. People would stand up for what they identified with, he said. “It’s great to see so much diversity and vulnerability in one room.”

Gentile hopes that students ultimately left the conference feeling like they have a purpose and direction, and the tools to operate on some of the ideas and visions on how the school can become more equitable, he said. “I hope they feel reenergized to put some of that leadership back into our institution and want to be leaders in our community around issues about equity.”

This year, SDLC hosted a talent show where people could sign up and perform anything they wanted, Tutu said. “One thing that really struck me was how supportive everyone was throughout the show—every single person was met with

thunderous applause after they finished.”

Middle Division (MD) math teacher Susan Ma learned about the importance of incorporating social justice into the classroom. Ma is also interested in starting an MD affinity group for the Asian community at the school, as well as increasing an understanding of the wealth disparity throughout the school and the difference in experiences that students who receive Financial Aid have, she said.

At the conference, students were able to join the affinity groups that they identified with. Tutu loved for the Black affinity group she was a part of. “I had never been around so many Black teenagers my age who were experiencing the exact same things that I have,” she said. “I felt so comfortable because I knew that my identity was validated and affirmed in that space, and that no one was questioning my Blackness.”

This year marks the 26th year of SDLC and the 32nd year of PoCC. Speakers included Dr. Joy DeGruy, who presented about her book “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,” Tutu said. Yang found Dr. Joy DeGruy’s speech moving, as it discussed about how the history of discrimination is embedded into today’s society, very interesting and moving, he said. “What she had to say was very powerful and she was a very engaging speaker overall.”

Upper Division English teacher Rebecca Bahr said she was surprised to learn the true story behind the Statue of Liberty at PoCC from DeGruy’s talk. The statue was originally made to

symbolize the end of slavery through a torch in one hand and broken chains in the other, but the US instead placed the broken chains under the statue’s foot, she said.

One of Tutu’s most memorable experiences from SDLC was singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the Black National anthem, with her affinity group, she said. “It took me back to my time at my predominantly Black elementary school, and how we would sing that song before every assembly, right after the national anthem,” she said. “It really united the entire room in such a powerful way, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it.”

Students and faculty applied last spring to be considered for the trip. In total, six students and 31 faculty and staff were chosen to attend. To apply, students had to fill out several short answers and underwent an interview process. Gentile expressed the stress around organizing hotel rooms, managing transportation, meals, and other details.

“It takes a lot of behind the scenes,” Gentile said.

“We have been planning since August.”

The conference itself also requires energy and effort put in by the students. “We have full days from about 7 a.m. to midnight for the faculty, Gentile said. “It’s long and wonderful and transformative, and every year, students move away feeling like they came and got what they needed,” he said.

“It was so moving to see students be so openly vulnerable and emotional in a room of almost two thousand strangers,” Tutu said, “I hope to use the knowledge that I gained to replicate the love and support I found at SDLC.” Photos courtesy of Sogona Cisse

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE Members of the school community attended the 26th year of SDLC and the 32nd year of PoCC in Seattle, Washington.

Model Congress blazes through first conference of the year

Yin Fei Staff Writer

This past weekend, the Model Congress team competed at a major conference held at Yale University.

The team departed after school on Thursday and debated for four days before returning home on Sunday evening.

The Yale tournament was the first conference for the club this year, so many of the weeks of preparations beforehand focused on the expected structure of the competition.

“Model Congress is relatively early in the year, so we basically jump right into it,” Co-President Malhaar Agrawal (12) said. Much of their time as a club has been devoted to working one-onone with new students who had to create and learn the format of bills and build good topics, he said.

The two main portions of the conference were the small committee sessions, which were around 20 people each and centered around a specific theme, and the full sessions, which included around 100 to 120 debaters.

“Everyone would go into their committees and the committees could be anything from the judiciary, education, the workforce, and the environment,” Malcolm Furman (9) said. “I was in Energy and Commerce and we gave pro speeches for bills and con speeches because ultimately you want to try and get your bills passed.”

But even with the prior training,

the newer members of the club faced several obstacles, and they were forced to confront them face-to-face.

Having never been to Model Congress competitions before, they could only rely on background information and general knowledge.

“We were assigned our committees beforehand and there were never two people from the same school in the same committee, so you’re with like a bunch of different kids from different schools,” Furman said.

“It is definitely one of the most challenging competitions we can have during the year because Yale draws the best teams from around the country,” Amman Kejela (12) said.

Most of the people that debaters interact with are other schools’ upperclassmen, who have had years of experience and practice with formulating ideas and responses to issues. This was a particular struggle for Furman, who had never attended a conference before, he said.

“It was essentially super intense crash course on public speaking, which is one of the number one skills you need for any type of debate,” Kejela said. “Some of the skills you can really only learn by just going in and doing it, so I think that was definitely a huge educational moment for me,” he said.

The challenges, however, were not limited to underclassmen specifically, as the training and mindset of the seniors were also tested during the process.

“I have one person who is truly

the competition and it always ends up coming down to us two, or two or three people, so I was quite nervous I really didn’t think I was going to win,” Vice President Irati Egorho-Diez (12) said. “I almost went in with a sense of like that’s it you know, it’s already won, but I’m really glad I ended up pushing through and fighting for us, because it worked out in the end,” she said.

Most of this hard work paid off, though, as all of the seniors and presidents on the team won a gavel, the first place prize for a committee member, and many of the other members received “honorable mention,” the second-place prize, amongst the 750 delegates who attended, Allison Markman (9) said.

“There were days in which we were debating for seven hours,” EgorhoDiez said.” By the time you get to your hotel room, it’s midnight, you do the debrief, and you’re completely fried.”

With the amount of dedication and work put in, going home with the nice little box and the gavel in it is a nice way to close it out, she said.

The three presidents, Amelia Feiner (12), Charles Simmons (12), and Agrawal each won a gavel in their respective committees, as did EgorhoDiez.

“It was a very strong showing and very promising for moving forward,” Agrawal said. “It’s also a real testament to the strength of our class as well as the mentorship abilities that we can confer to our younger students,” he said.

The guidance of the presidents for all the members was also a huge role in the outcome of the competition as it was their first event in their leadership positions.

“It was definitely a great learning moment for the leadership of managing a team of 15 students, and balancing everything was an unforgettable experience,” Agrawal said. “I’ve done Model Congress for several several years, so this was interewsting because I was spending most of my time mentoring other students and then focusing on myself, which taught me that time is very valuable,” he said.

The Model Congress team’s hopes and goals for the upcoming school year are higher than ever before, in light of the results the members received from

the major conference. Not only did the team bring back multiple awards, they also grew closer as a family because of they social element of the event, said Kejela.

“It was really fun to go out to dinner with everyone, hang out, and play games. I feel like I have made a lot of new friends in my community,” Markman said.

In comparison to other Model Congress conferences, the team was super unified and the dynamic was really incredible; it was one of the most fun overnight conferences at the school, Diez said. “Whether or not you win an award, it pays off. It’s so much fun, so the closing ceremonies that happened for an hour on Sunday really don’t make or break your conference.”

TEAM BONDING MoCo conference members pose for a silly team photo.

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THE RECORD ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

Choral ensembles perform at Tiffany’s & Co. store opening

Yesh Nikam & Aden Soroca Staff Writers

Inside the festively decorated 57th street space, the Concert Glee Club and Treble Choir performed several holiday songs in celebration of the opening of the new Tiffany’s and Co. store.

Over the years, the school developed a relationship with the jewelry store, as Head of School Tom Kelly often buys gifts from Tiffany’s in recognition of tenured faculty, N-12 Music Director Timothy Ho, said. Tiffany’s reached out to Ho when they were interested in having the school’s choir perform at the grand opening of their downtown pop-up store in midtown, he said.

Taussia Boadi (12), who has been part of chorus for four years, said that this concert felt different than the past performances that the chorus held. “This concert is not something for our own benefit, or for our parents, it’s really for complete strangers,” Boadi said.

William Leung (11) said he felt nervous because it was his first time performing for an audience beyond the school community. While parents and school faculty, such as Kelly and Director of Institutional Research Lisa Moreira attended, Tiffany executives and employees also watched their performance, Jackson Feigin (11), said.

“One thing I expressed to the students is that this is not necessarily a program that you are doing for yourself. As paid performers, part of the training and preparation was understanding and following the expectations Tiffany set out for us,” Ho said.

The money Tiffany gave to the school for their performance was donated to VHI Save the Music, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental education programs, Ho said.

Normally at concerts, the chorus performs three or four songs with over a month to learn them.

However for this performance, Tiffany’s expected their performance to last forty-five minutes, which means they had to learn a lot more songs in a five week span, Boadi said.

“We ended up singing eight songs in total, which is way more than what we normally sing,” Leung said.

The chorus rehearsed during their class periods as well as a three period rehearsal G through I

MAESTRO Ho conducts chorus. period on Monday, Yana Gitelman (11) said.

Normal rehearsal periods also became more focused to prepare for the performance. “We’re used to coming in and having a little bit of time to debrief and take our time and ask questions before we start practicing,” Boadi said. “But for this performance, we did none of that.”

Learning eight songs meant that the chorus had to spend more time practicing on their own.

Leung said. “Even though our rehearsals were

good, I felt I needed a little more time to be fully prepared, especially given the special circumstances of this concert,” he said.

Having to learn so many songs in such a short amount of time posed several challenges, Feigin (11) said. The chorus practiced diligently, despite the tight schedule, he said. “We prepared more rigorously for this concert than I have previously in my four years in singing with Mr. Ho.” Merging several separate choral groups also

posed a challenge to ensemble members. Even though the concert was a joint performance from Treble Choir and Glee Club, they had very few practices together. Blending the groups was hard because they both have distinct voices and it is hard to find that perfect balance, Boadi said.

The songs performed were also different from what the chorus normally sings, Boadi said.

“Usually Mr. Ho picks songs that he knows we will be able to sing really well but these are popular songs that you can find on Spotify,” she said.

‘Lo How a Rose,’ ‘What the World Needs Now is Love,’ and ‘Pine Cones and Holly Berries’ were among some of the holiday classics that were performed during the event, Feigin said.

“The songs were really festive and it was a nice break from the songs that we usually perform,” Emily Marks (11) said.

Upon arriving, Leung was struck by the elegance of the pop-up shop. “It was extremely fancy, and nothing like the other places we’ve performed.”

There was an open space in the middle of the store surrounded by five levels of terraces on the sides, Ho said. The performance began around seven, with the tenors and altos on the second floor terrace facing the sopranos and treble choir who were stationed across from them, with Ho conducting them from the lobby, Max Dauer (11) said.

Despite the challenges the chorus faced throughout the weeks leading up to the concert, Leung felt that their hard work and effort paid off, as ultimately the performance was a success. “It was one of our best performances since I’ve been in chorus,” Feigin said.

Ho felt that the song that stood out the most was ‘What the World Needs Now is Love,’ which was the only song that Tiffany’s requested they sing, he said.

Feigin attributes their success to Ho, who helped them prepare for the concert by constantly helping them. “He worked really hard for this and we owe him a lot for this performance,” he said.

Ho praised the chorus for their performance.

“The choirs worked really hard and their efforts paid off; everyone was very professional… I am very proud of the students. They did Horace Mann proud,” he said.

Bands perform holiday jingles at winter all bands concert

Avi Kapadia & Vivien Sweet Staff Writers

Though a typical holiday concert might consist of ensemble classics such as “Jingle Bells,” “The Chanukah Song,” and “Let It Snow,” this year’s Winter Bands Holiday Concert dazzled the audience with a less-than-traditional collection of Caribbean songs, modern pop hits, and even a Spanish Carol, to name a few.

Cheery tunes echoed throughout the cafeteria on December 10th as the Winter Bands Holiday Concert featured performances by the steel drums ensembles, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds group, and Jazz Combo.

The concert kicked off with Jazz Combo’s performance of three groovy pieces: “Tune up”

by Miles Davis, “Don’t Blame Me” by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, and “Doxy” by Sonny Rollins. Each member of the quintet, which consisted of a guitarist, two pianists, a drummer, and a saxophonist, played a solo during the pieces, sparking many rounds of applause from the

audience.

“I think we played very well, so it was good to see all of our practice pay off,” Oliver Steinman (11), a member of Jazz Combo, said. Steinman’s favorite piece was “Doxy,” which he described as “fast and upbeat, [and] it helped set the mood for the rest of the concert.”

Music teacher and director of the steel drum bands Alan Bates planned a similar program for his three groups, in which each class first played a traditional calypso song from the islands, and then a pop song.

Two of the groups requested to play specific songs, including “Passionfruit” by Drake, a suggestion of Teyonce Allison (11). Allison, who in Bates’ advanced B period class, believes that Bates chooses songs that will “fit the vibe of the concert,” she said.

Music teacher and director of Wind Ensemble, Jazz Combo, and Chamber Winds Michael Bomwell arranged the Chamber Winds’ piece, “Molly by the Shore” by Percy Aldridge Grainger.

MOZARTS Chamber Winds play Molly by the Shore.

Though the composer included soprano saxophone in his original arrangement, none of the students learned how to play that particular type of saxophone, so Bomwell stepped in to play the part.

“I wanted to translate that voice into the group,” Bomwell said. “It seemed like a good opportunity for me to get a chance to play with the students, which I always enjoy.”

Wind Ensemble was the concert’s final act, closing out the show with the traditional Spanish carol “Fum, Fum, Fum,” “Harvest Hymn” by Percy Aldridge Grainger, and “In the Forest of the King” by Pierre La Plante.

Bomwell’s three ensembles had been preparing in a similar manner for the concert. Rehearsals take place every other day, and students are generally expected to practice over the weekends, Wind Ensemble member Lucas Alexander (10) said. Bomwell also held one extra rehearsal for the groups the night before the concert, which lasted until about 8 P.M. The steel drums groups learn their songs in small bites, and they began the year by “practicing techniques to get back into playing,” Bates said. Eventually, the steel drummers are able to produce the entire song using a combination of steel drums and other percussion instruments, such as conga drums.

Bates believes that the steel drums groups’ dynamics center around the fact that everyone is there because they want to be, he said. “We are all very friendly and outgoing with each other,” said Hunter Willoughby-Spera (11), a member of the F period steel drums group. “It’s a very open environment, so no one is afraid to make mistakes.”

Similarly, in Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, and Jazz Combo, the ensemble members get along very well and are supportive of one other, which is clearly shown by the groups’ ability to play well together, Bomwell said.

According to Steinman, there is a great sense of teamwork in Jazz Combo. “Everyone is very flexible and unselfish,” he said. “We care more about the group as a whole than us as individuals.”

Though they pulled together strong performances, the ensembles still had to overcome challenges to adequately prepare for the concert.

Bates said the lack of time to practice the pieces

can sometimes hold the steel groups back from playing at their highest potential, he said.

“We meet every other day and then we have holidays and special events that supersede class.

Then some students have to go off and do debate or model congress; there’s always something that comes up,” Bates said.

One of Bomwell’s main struggles when preparing his ensembles’ songs for the concert was translating the pieces into instrumentation that the various groups possess, he said. As the conductor, Bomwell also has to work around the limitations on an individual’s playing range or ability.

However, Wind Ensemble member Rhys Sheperd (11) attributed the “disjointed” nature of Wind Ensemble leading up to the concert to fact that a handful of ensemble members simply aren’t fully comfortable with the pieces, he said. “Individual sections haven’t practiced the music; that’s the overarching struggle of the band.”

Still, some sections, such as the percussionists in Wind Ensemble, and a few seniors in the brass,

DRUMMER BOY Steel Drums strikes the pans. saxophone, flute, and oboe sections are quite experienced and very strong, Bomwell said.

Spera is confident that the steel drum groups possess a variety of strengths that have allowed them to overcome their obstacles and prepare for the concert, he said. “We learn the songs pretty quickly and have a good time doing it,” Suraj Khakee (12), another member of the steel drums ensemble, said.

All photos courtesy of Barry Mason.

5

HORACE MANN FEATURES DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

GENDER POLITICS IN SCHOOL POLITICS Natalie Sweet and Liliana Greyf Staff Writers In April of 1971, seven faculty members and 12 students proposed the The Student Body President (SBP) position to Headmaster R. Inslee Clark, first reported in Volume LXIV of the Record. Outlined in the report, the SBP would “serve on the Steering committee, call Referendums, call the Forum into session, preside at student referendums, [and] represent students at the Board of Trustees and at other organizations.”

In 1971, Director of the Center for Community Values & Action Dr. Jeremy Leeds ‘72 was elected by students as the school’s first SBP. At this time, the position was held by only one student instead of two. He found the description for the role to not be as clear as it should have been, and he spent a large portion of the year exploring the position. “[The] first time in my life I had sleepless nights was as the Student Body President,” he said. “I think it’s always been a hard role to navigate, including addressing the concerns of many constituencies as well as developing and sticking to a vision all at 17 years old.”

Prior to the creation of the SBP position, there was ample discourse among the faculty and the students about how to revamp the failing student government, which was essentially inactive, Archivist Hillary Matlin said. “Everyone had an opinion about something and everyone wanted to be involved, but there was no effective way for people to do that,” she said. “Especially since there was a tide of student involvement in the 70s in national and local politics - from Civil Rights to Vietnam - the [SBP] position allowed interested students to make a difference.”

When Leeds returned to the school as the Director of Counseling and Guidance in 1997, the wider culture of the school had changed considerably, he said. The school was bigger, it had moved beyond the grade seven through 12 school it was when he was a student, and it was no longer an all boys school, Leeds said. The Governing Council had a much different role in this different school environment.

“One of the things that an active student government can do is provide a laboratory for citizenship,” Leeds said. “There are a lot of theories that if you want to prepare people for functioning in a democracy, you can’t just tell them about it, you have to give them the chance to do it.”

The role of the student body president itself has changed considerably since the time she was a student, English Teacher Dr. Deborah Kassel ‘84 said. “Student Body Presidents used to plan and lead almost every assembly. Now, there are fewer SBP assemblies.”

The SBPs also lost the privilege to create a SBP video, after a controversial 2016 SBP video that portryed racist, sexist, and homophobic sterotypes, Olivia Kester ‘19 said.

K a s s e l

believes that the changes made to the role of SBP have affected which students choose to run and which are elected. “The changes made have ensured that the vote for SBP is no longer just a popularity contest,” she said. “It isn’t about who makes the funniest video anymore; it’s about who is most likely to make the greatest changes in the quality of student life.”

However, throughout the school’s history and different governing systems, one aspect of the SBP position remained constant: the paucity of women elected.

The first female SBP was Kimberly Devon Westcott ‘82, who won 347 votes to 267—56 percent to 43 percent—over her classmate Dennis Chatsky, according to Volume LXXIV, Issue 29 of The Record. In an article for that issue, Westcott described her feelings towards the historic election as “ecstatic about blazing a trail.”

However, it would take 31 years for that spark to be ignited again. The co-SBP position was created in 2013 by science teacher Dr. Susan Delanty ‘79, who was the Dean of Students at the time. “One of the motivations, as I understood it, was to open up the historically male dominated student governing space,” Leeds said.

When Charlotte Frankel ‘14 learned that she was elected, she was completely shocked, she said. “I don’t think I knew too much about how few women there had been [elected] until I started running, and then that meaning took on a whole life of its own,” she said. “I know from [my younger sister Jane Frankel ‘18] that there has been a huge growth in progressiveness [at the school], but the fact that we [hadn’t] had a female SBP in 31 years was just crazy.”

Frankel felt that she needed to represent women in student government by being a female voice for them, as the first female to fill the SBP role in over three decades. Aside from this goal, Frankel’s central mission as an SBP was to be as personable and approachable as possible and to create a relaxing school environment, she said. Many female students might not feel comfortable approaching a male counterpart, Frankel said. She wanted female students to feel like they could come up to her so they could know that they had a say in school government.

Sofia Del Gatto (12) said that that the lack of female representation in student government over those 31 years is due to the implicit cultural stigma of what it means to be a leader.

“It’s hard to detach these cultural values that we have about positions of leadership,” Del Gatto said. “It’s not necessarily an explicit decision; it’s a subconscious value we have that tells us that a man would be a better leader.”

In 2014, Michael Scherr ‘15 was elected with Riya Satara ‘15, who became the first woman of color to be elected as SBP. For Satara, Frankel was a large inspiration behind her running for SBP. “Once you see someone that looks like you, someone you can identify with, you become aware of the possibility that you can stand on the stage and be a leader as well,” Satara said.

“I thank Charlotte Frankel for opening that window of opportunity for me and showing me that our community was receptive to having a female SBP.” Satara also ran for SBP as a way for her to advocate for issues that she was passionate about and had explored

Photos courtesy of Natalie Sweet/Staff Writer

through her involvement with the diversity office on a schoolwide level, she said.

“As a woman of color, I was excited for the opportunity to represent the student body and give back to the community that I had called home for 7 years,” she said. “I hoped to make every student feel as if they were fully welcomed and accepted for who they are, and that they could bring their full selves to this school. I had some ideas from the Student Diversity Leadership Conference that I attended for two years on ways to make our community a more inclusive place and had also previously planned various workshops for Book Day that focused on diversity and inclusivity.”

Having a woman of color run elected SBP was incredibly inspiring to Lisa Shi ‘18, who ultimately ran herself. One of Shi’s goals was to change the mental health culture of the school, she said. While Shi did not get elected, seeing Satara, a woman of color, in a position of power during Shi’s freshman year was really impactful, as it showed Shi that the school community was supportive of women of color as SBPs, she said.

After Satara graduated, four years without females in the role of SBP passed. It wasn’t until Janvi Kukreja ‘19 was elected in 2018 that the school had a woman in the SBP role once again.

In the process of choosing a running mate, gender definitely played a role, Kukreja said.

“It’s unfortunate to say, but I think my chances would have been a lot lower if I hadn’t run with someone who was male,” she said. “That’s just the reality of it.”

Kukreja had never witnessed a female student as SBP during her time in high school, but nevertheless always knew she wanted to run for the position. “If I hadn’t won, our grade would have experienced no female SBPs at all, and I think that was really absurd to me,” she said. “No one even considered that it was odd; it was just the norm.”

Kukreja believes that the new co-SBP method has helped more women to earn the role. There have already been two years in a row of female SBPs, which is very exciting, she said.

“Hopefully, very soon, it’ll be just as common for two girls to win.”

“The outcome of the elections lies in the hands of the student electorate, and the student body simply isn’t willing to elect the women,” Jordan Ferdman (11) said. “I hope that as time goes on, that changes.”

Though Jaden Richards (11) doesn’t believe the SBPs have a large role in changing the school, he would still judge students who are running for the position on what on what they bring to school instead of their gender when casting his vote, he said. “I wouldn’t feel any more inclined to vote for [two female SBPs] based off their [gender] identity for the same reason that I wouldn’t want anyone to pick me just because I’m black.”

Kukreja’s co-SBP was Nader Granmayeh ‘19, who felt that the role of an SBP was to be a role model, he said. It was important for him to have a woman as someone with whom he could fulfill this role. Having a female in this role was necessary to “connect to different people based on different experiences and different issues,” he said.

Claire Yoo ‘19 experienced her first female SBP as a senior. “I think the most explicit positive results of having a female SBP are not exactly tangible or legislative, because anyone at Horace Mann running for SBP has great ideas to implement,” she said.

“The biggest difference for me was having students who could see themselves more accurately represented in their student government.”

Granmayeh also hoped that having a female in the role of SBP could help to end the norm of purely male SBP pairs, he said.

D u e to the lack of female SBPs in the past, Granmayeh felt that some women were discouraged from running. “It was a reinforced cycle, and I thought it would be really good to discontinue that trend and knock down that barrier [to] create a more inclusive environment,” he said.

Isha Agarwal (12) is the current and fifth female SBP. “It’s appalling to me that even before 2014 there had only been one female SBP in history,” she said. “It’s interesting to consider that four of the five female SBPs have been elected from 2014 to 2019, which I think is representative of a shifting culture within the school and nationally.”

During her time running for SBP, Agarwal noticed that she and Roey Nornberg (12) were the only pair that were a male and female team.

“If SBPs are to represent the school, they should represent the diversity of our student body as well,” she said. Although it is hard to encapsulate all the absolute diversity in two people, a place to start can be with gender equity, she said.

“I think it’s incredibly important to have female representation in the student government, which wasn’t there for many years,” Nornberg said. “That’s part of the reason Isha and I decided to run together; to have one boy and one girl as student body president, as opposed to having two boys, which was the norm in the past.”

When Gabby Fischberg (11) entered the ninth grade class-president race, she ran with Liam Futterman (11), and the pair was elected; however, when she ran with a female classmate the following year, they lost. Fischberg attributes this to the predisposition that men are more capable or more suited towards public positions of power, fostered by the lack of female representation in these areas. “[There are] very few women in politics, so when growing up, girls are less enticed to pursue these positions and they have fewer role models to go off of and follow,” she said.

If the community hopes to diversify student government, the school must change its perspective, Del Gatto said. “We have to adapt to a vision of women as leaders that’s different as men as leaders. We can not expect exactly the same from both genders.”

According to the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics, 126 women currently hold seats in the United States Congress, comprising 23.6 percent of the 535 members. “On a national level, there are few women in positions of power and even fewer women of color,” Ferdman said.

“This holds true at [the school] as well.”

When Kassel was a student, there were almost no female candidates running for President of the United States, she said. This was mirrored by the student body; a female SBP had never been elected. However, in the past few years, the norm for female leadership has begun to increase, she said. “In many ways, the school reflects the evolution of society itself.

Recognition of the importance of gender equity at [the school] is, to some extent, a product of a changing zeitgeist that now seems to be more accepting of difference.”

The main reason why female SBPs aren’t elected as much in comparison to their male counterparts is because people have not fully accepted female leadership, Satara said.

Women’s underrepresentation in leadership exists in every facet of society whether it be politics, business, or education. There is no doubt that we are just as capable.

However, there are too many unconscious biases that come in the way, Satara said.

However, in the future, this will change, she said. “In the past seven years we’ve had four female SBPs,” she said. “30 years ago that wouldn’t have been possible. And it’s only going up from here.”

6

THE RECORD MIDDLE DIVISION DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

Spelling bee musical causes buzz around school John Mauro & Zachary Kutz Staff & Contributing Writers With vibrant characters, witty humor, and extensive musical numbers, this year’s Middle Division musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee,” is bringing a new buzz to the classic portrayal of a spelling contest.

The play is set at a middle school spelling bee, in which multiple characters competing in the bee step on stage and spell words in order to move on in the competition. Often, these student contestants have their own unique habits, such as dancing and singing, that help them spell. For instance, Michael Rosenberg’s (7) character, William Barfée, writes the letters out on the ground with his “magic foot” before saying them outloud.

The play was first brought to Director Denise DiRenzo’s attention when she saw it on Broadway 13 years ago, she said. “A few years after that, I saw a local community production and was reminded of the delightfully quirky middle-school characters, and [composer] William Finn’s masterful music.” she said.

Since each character has their own unique attributes, they also have their own struggles. Many issues, such as bullying, competition, stress, and family conflicts, are addressed through the stories of the nine main characters, DiRenzo said.

Vice Principal Douglas Panch, played by Jeffrey Dai (8), and hostess Ronalisa Peretti, played by Aashna Hari (7), guide the progression of the story. They are responsible for calling up contestants and giving them the word and the definition, Hari said.

The two characters are also responsible for eliminating the contestants once they make a mistake.

This year, the cast also included 7th Grade Dean Michelle Amilicia, who was cast as Midge Mahoney, the school’s comfort counselor. A faculty member performing in the play is unusual, but Amilicia was asked to take on the role because she fit the character better than a student could, DiRenzo said. “It’s also enjoyable for the community to see a faculty member perform.”

“I’d never been in a play before, so I had to learn the theatre lingo and other technical factors, such as where to look,” Amilicia said.

The personas of the play’s characters often clashed with the personalities of the actors. Amilicia enjoyed playing her role

because her personality is drastically different than that of her character’s, she said. The assertive, angry, and impatient traits of Mitch challenges her as an actress, but also makes the part more enjoyable, she said.

Likewise, Alex Robertson’s (7) plays Leaf Coneybear, an exuberant young boy. “I’m usually a calm person, so it was difficult to show [this], but another actor in the play was able to coach me so I could express it correctly,” he said.

Although there wasn’t an ensemble in the original production, DiRenzo decided to feature choreographed musical dance numbers, so more students had the opportunity to participate, DiRenzo said. Unlike the lead roles, these students didn’t have numerous amounts of lines, but were still a very integral part on keeping the play together.

Ensemble-member Ella Hecht (6), was in the play for the first time this year. “The smaller roles in the play helped to support the larger roles and remind them of memorizing and practicing their lines so that everyone can be as fully committed as they are,” Hecht said.

The play features several lively musical numbers that were bound to keep the audience hooked, Hecht said. The show asked for audience volunteers during the performance, allowing for the audience to not only watch but also stay involved in the show and the cast, she said.

The performance incorporates an professional orchestra.

Located in the pit, the orchestra helps the actors stay on cue and keeps them on track, Elizabeth Lam (6) said.

The orchestra is vital to the cast as the musicians energized the cast and allow them to sing out to their full extent, Accompanist Dr. Amir Khosrowpour said. The hired musicians are very important to the show and bring the show together.

The environment of the performance is enjoyable because the students in the cast truly want to be there, Hari said. “I think the cast was really supportive of each other,” Amilicia said. “It’s a very close knit group.”

The cast and crew rehearsed three times a week, including occasional rehearsals on weekends, Amilicia said. The amount of time spent together allowed the cast to have a lot of time to

bond.

“Just like all Middle Division plays, the cast really bonded backstage and made a lot of inside jokes during rehearsals,” Dai said.

Performing in shows such as these helps younger and older students create friendships that would otherwise not be possible, said Bailey Hecht (9), who previously acted in the Middle Division plays. “The Middle Division plays allowed me to begin to build lasting friendships and to know older students once I entered the Upper Division.”

For many performers, working in the play was not only enjoyable, but also an opportunity to learn valuable skills.

“Being in the play taught me focus and memorization skills,” Hari said. “In comparison with last year, I [now have] a larger role and many more lines.”

As a first time performer, the musical taught Rosenberg acting and singing skills. “At the beginning of rehearsals, I would hurt my voice after every practice, but now we went through two dress rehearsals straight and my voice hasn’t been hurt at all,” Rosenberg said.

The script is written in a way that makes you care about each character, DiRenzo said. “There are some very funny scenes, as well as poignant ones, that take you on an emotional ride. I think the audience will have a great time.”

Gabby Fishberg/Art Director

Scenes from the SBP assembly

All photos courtesy of Barry Mason

HORACE MANN LIONS’ DEN DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

Mental preparedness in athletics Julia Goldberg Staff Writer

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Tackling an opponent, speeding down a snowy mountain, and shooting an arrow all require physical preparation, but they also require mental preparedness, which athletes can build through a routine. “Mental strength is super important because you’re being knocked down again, again, and again,” rugby player Catherine Mignone (10) said. “You have to have that mental and physical strength to stand back up and keep going.”

Confidence isn’t explicitly taught in rugby, but rather is learned over the course of an athlete’s career, Mignone said. In order to build trust in herself, Mignone, who plays year-round, has grown to develop traditions for her game days.

“Routine often lends confidence, and in a performance sport, confidence is really important,” she said. “Having that routine, saying ‘okay, this works, it’s going to work again, I’ve got this,’ is incredible to have.”

Because Mignone is slightly iron deficient, prior to competing, she ensures that her iron levels are sufficient and that she is properly hydrated, she said. In fact, she begins her checkups the week before a match, she said.

Mignone has also paid close attention to how her body reacts to certain foods and drinks and developed her game day diet accordingly, she said. As opposed to Gatorade, Mignone feels most energized after having other forms of electrolytes as well as protein shakes and Snickers bars.

In fact, Mini Snickers have b e come a lucky charm for her, she said.

Though skier Emma D j o ganopoulos ( 1 1 ) does not have a n y lucky charms, she has developed a routine for her competitions outside of school: the night prior, she watches videos of pro skiers to ensure she’s thinking about her technique properly and feeling ex-

cited, she said.

The morning of her race, Djoganopoulos drives to the lodge, where she and her team spend time together before competing, she said. “Being with the team is really good because we’re all super supportive of one another,” she said. “It’s nice to have that structure.”

After her race, Djoganopoulos said that she

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it’s just [about] not giving up. You think to yourself, ‘why am I doing this? Why am I here?’ But you can’t give in; you have to keep on going and you have to try to win.”

To prepare himself, Waggoner typically listens to music on the bus ride to meets—his personal favorites are rap and Panic! at the Disco, he said.

Waggoner also watches what he eats; typically,

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stays at the bottom of the hill to cheer for her teammates. Then, to close out the day of racing, she and her father head off to their favorite coffee shop, Coffee Bar, which Djoganopoulos always looks forward to visiting. The time she spends with her father, as well as her teammates, always boosts her spirits, she said.

Ethan Waggoner (10), a three season runner, has also developed his own routine before competitions to prepare himself mentally, which is especially important as a mid-distance runner, he said. “I know before a race if I’m not feeling it, I get inside my head and I can completely tear apart my race, no matter how physically strong I am,” Waggoner said. “For long distance, I think

on meet days during the week, he’ll have pasta at lunch, and before weekend meets, he’ll make a peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwich, he said.

Prior to racing, Waggoner warms up by running laps outside of the Armory. Often, other runners give him strange looks for running in shorts outside during the winter, he said. “But that’s what I do to get as loose as I can. It’s my personal thing,” Waggoner said.

The night before a meet, Waggoner also envisions the race ahead of him. “My coaches help me map out where I need to take it hot and where I need to stick with the pack. Personally, I like to visualize every part of the race and nitpick what I

7

should be doing,” he said.

Similarly to Waggoner, Mignone’s team practices visualization—but of specific plays. This process is especially important for Mignone, who is the fly-half on her team and decides what plays will be made and when. “I always have to visualize ahead of time what I want our plays to look like in order to get the ball down the field in the fastest, most efficient way,” she said.

For archer Louise Kim (9), visualization, often referred to as image training, is also a common practice. The technique is practiced by top archers hundreds of times a day, and Kim herself practices it around once or twice a week, she said.

“You can stand or you can sit down, and you visualize yourself and all five of your senses.” Kim said. “You see and feel your form—how you’re drawing the bow and all of the aspects of the shot process—and then you shoot your arrow, and you visualize it landing into the ten [which is the center]. It grows your confidence of your shot.”

According to a study Kim read by the Korea Institute of Sports Science, archery is around 50 percent a physical sport and 50 percent a mental sport, she said. “Sometimes, if I get one bad arrow, that can mess up a few rounds of shooting just because I’m so nervous about where the arrows are going.”

If Kim misses an arrow, she tries her best to focus on her future shots instead of fixating on the past, she said.

To keep herself calm, Kim also prays during her competitions. In outdoor competitions, there are 12 ends—a group of six arrows—in one round, and before each end, she makes the sign of the cross. “It makes me more confident and more at peace because I have something that keeps me anchored to the entire routine or process, even when I’m feeling nervous,” Kim said. “It also gives me an opportunity to connect to my religious identity and [a belief that] there is a metaphysical identity watching over me.”

As long as she is in control of her own thoughts, she can feel confident, Kim said. “My coaches, my parents, and I just remind myself that all I have to do is focus on the next arrow.”

Snow much fun: Ski team travels to Stratton for training Marina Kazarian Staff Writer While the Varsity Ski Team has not had any races so far, the group has a lot of potential, especially with several kids, including the new freshmen, skiing outside of school, Varsity Ski Team Coach Rawlins Troop said. “I think we can win every race we’re in,” he said.

To gain additional experience, the team went on a trip to Stratton, Vermont this past weekend, from Thursday to Saturday. The purpose of the trip was to get the members on slopes to practice their techniques, while also working on team building, Nelson Gaillard (12), captain of the ski team, said. “It was the first time we spent a solid chunk of time together as a team.”

“This year, the team as a whole has made it a collective goal to become close,” Emma Djoganopoulos (11) said. “So far I think I’ve been successful in both my personal and team goals, through getting on skis for the first time this season during the trip and becoming friends

Gabby Fischberg/Art Director

Courtesy of Catherine Zhang

WINTER WONDERLAND Ski team spends quality time together while training. with other members of the team, including underclassmen who I would not have had the opportunity to bond with had it not been for this trip.”

The team has only been exercising on dry land, which is part of the reason why going on the trip was such a useful experience, Gaillard said.

“Unlike other teams we are unable to actually train on a mountain everyday but I think that we do a great job of supporting one another and maintaining positivity despite our obstacles,” Djoganopoulos said.

“A big part of sports is muscle memory, and not being able to use and practice our positioning and turning everyday does pose as a challenge,” Kelly Troop (11) said.

A typical day on the trip entailed waking up at around 7:30 AM for breakfast, getting on the

hill at 9:00 AM when it opened, skiing for four hours with a couple of breaks, eating lunch at 1:00 PM, and then skiing until 4:00 PM, when the mountain closes, Kelly said. “The weekend of course was for training, but mostly it was just to get on skis again and sort of a little try out to see how good everyone is and what we still need to improve on,” she said. “After we were done skiing, we would hang out in our rooms or with the team.”

Part of what makes the annual trip different each year is the new places and people, Djoganopoulos said. Some key differences this year was that the team stayed at a hotel this year instead of condos since there were fewer people, the snow accumulation this year was perfect for skiing, and they chose to go to Stratton over places such as Killington in Vermont, which is where they have gone in the

past, Rawlins said.

As for the bonding aspect of the trip, the trip helped bring members closer together, a key goal for Gaillard as both captain and a member of the group, he said. “Since freshman year, I’ve always wanted the ski team to be the kind of thing where you could say ‘hi’ to another team member in the hallway no matter what grade they’re in,” he said.

“The ski team seems to be a very close knit team every year, and maybe it’s because you’re on a bus for a long time with the races and things like that,” Rawlins said. The students talk and have a great time together, he said.

Some of the highlights of the trip included playing Cards Against Humanity and laughing a lot with the team, Gaillard said.

“I feel like the team has become a positive influence for everyone and we all support each other on and off the hill,” Djoganopoulos said.

“I have met some of my very best friends on this team,” Kelly said. Going on the trip and spending late nights at the mountain are some of the traditions that make skiing different from any other sport at the school, she said.

Lions’ Den Record Sports

8

DECEMBER 13TH, 2019

Girls’ Swim falls to rival Trinity in close contest

Jackson Feigin/Contributing Photographer

Emily Shi Staff Writer Despite losing to its closest rival, Trinity, with a close score of 87-81 at the first meet, the Girls Varsity Swim team (GVS) hopes to accomplish an undefeated record going into the rest of the season, Ahaana Shrivastava (11) said.

Swim meets are composed of individual events of different strokes and different distances. Points from each event are added up for a team total.

In the 100 yard freestyle sprint, for example, Harmony Li (10), Nina Gaither (11), and Nishtha Sharma (12) came in first, second, and third place respectively, earning 13 points towards the total score with just one event.

Gaither credits her success at the race to a ne practice system. This year, Coach Caroline Shannon and Aquatics Director Thatcher Woodley began splitting swimmers up into groups based on events for practices almost every other day, and holding “dryland,” or workout sessions to improve strength and conditioning at the Fitness Center on Wednesdays.

This new practice system was partly due to the fact that at the beginning of the season, each member of the team filled out a form detailing their goals for the season, which culminated in an overall goal to swim both faster and technically better, Catherine Mignone (10) said.

Since the GVS team practices alongside the Boys Varsity Swim (BVS) team, splitting up the large practice of around 40 people into smaller groups has helped everyone gain individualized attention, Shrivastava said. Though swimmers typically stick to the same set of events, the coaches may occasionally place a swimmer in a different event based on their skill set or as a way to expand their repertoire.

Li, who has participated in multiple types of practices on different days, said that she preferred short distance and fly

OFF THE BLOCK Girls’ Swim members jump into the race. events. These events have an energetic nature since they require the swimmer to go hard for a few laps and then cool down, Li said. Besides this, she also practiced building up endurance in various intervals for middle-distance events.

The increased focus on technique already helped Mignone improve her 500 freestyle event time from last year’s season, she said. “Often times, it’s the same amount of work that you’re putting into a lap, but if you improve your technique, then you’ll swim faster.”

Gaither and Shrivastava both aspire for the team to place first in the Ivy Preparatory League Championships. Po-

tential rivals include Poly Prep Country Day School and Riverdale Country Day School, Gaither said, as those schools performed well in a “relay carnival,” or scrimmage against all of the schools in the league.

This year, the coaches also made every senior a “senior leader” rather than designating senior captains. Gaither noticed that the team dynamic has transitioned to seem more “fun and festive” while still maintaining a hard-working environment.

Mignone feels less fear going into each individual practice and meets because of

the excitement surrounding each event, she said. However, at the same time, Li said that the team felt more disconnected this year between grade levels.

“Last year, the team was a lot closer, at least I felt, with the seniors and stuff,” she said. “This year, it’s kind of more freshmen are split off into one group, and the juniors and sophomores split off into one group and then the seniors.”

Yui Hasegawa (9) said that more interactions between members of the team prior to the season beginning might have helped create a closer team. She now particularly enjoys social

events across grades such as team bonding after practice, and team parties on the weekends.

“I think we all just want to be able to bond and form a good dynamic that will set up the years to come,” Shrivastava said. “We’ve been known around the school as a really close team and we really like to continue being known like that.”

Boys’ Swim tries to learn from mistakes after loss to Trinity Jackson Feigin/Contributing Photographer

SOARING INTO THE DEEP END Boys’ Swim members plunge into the open waters. the first meet of the season, many Sea Vivien Sweet Lions grew tremendously from the Staff Writer match. Team members such as Donny After graduating an arsenal of re- Howard (12), Jack Spencer (12), Vincord-breaking swimmers, the Boys cent Li (10), and John Mauro (11) all Varsity Swim team dove into the sea- surpassed personal best times in their son with a fresh group of “Sea Lions” events against Trinity. to continue the team’s legacy.

The meet also helped build camaThough the team fell to Trinity, the raderie among the team above all else, defending Ivy League Champions, in Boys Varsity Swim team Head Coach

Michael Duffy said. As a coach, his goals for the team are to work hard and have fun, and the results are what they are as long as “everybody’s pulling for each other.”

Though Li had been to many swim meets, the way his teammates encouraged one another against Trinity struck him, he said. “One of the things that really matters during a swim

meet is how the teammates show each other support, and I think that that’s something that really manifested itself during the meet.”

On average, each swimmer swims about two to three miles during practice, which is “difficult as always,” Spencer said. However, Spencer said the whole team improves after a tough practice, as practices serve to build both strength conditioning and specific swimming techniques.

“One of the lines we use is, ‘There’s no magic wand in swimming; you have to work hard to achieve your times,’” Duffy said.

It is the team’s second year using the Jeffrey H. Loria Aquatic Center pool, and the team has readily adjusted to the enlarged breadth of the pool, Duffy said. Now, as opposed to in previous years where ten swimmers had to swim in one lane, only around five swimmers practice in one lane, so that during practice, Duffy often can split the team into their respective speciality strokes such as butterfly and breaststroke.

Teddy Ganea (10) thinks that the new pool is “infinitely” better than the old one, since, in addition to being more sanitary, the expanded space allows for more individualized practice, he said. “[We] have the space to do technique drills and very precise drills as opposed to just grinding out laps mindlessly.”

Moreover, the depth of the pool’s floor can be adjusted, so practicing in an “all-deep” pool can help build endurance, especially during the water polo season, Li said.

This year, due to the new facilities, the team is hosting multiple large meets for teams both in and out of the Ivy League. “The line in Field of Dreams was ‘If you build it, they will come,’ and it’s kind of like that here,” Duffy said.

Compared to last year, Ganea said that this years’ team is more “closeknit,” especially when it comes to including freshmen in team-bonding activities. Ganea’s role on the team, he said, is to focus on becoming a better swimmer and a committed member of the team.

Though the loss of last year’s seniors caused the team to become holistically slower, some team members have stepped up to become faster swimmers, such as Jin, who was not on the team last year. Since Jin is a very versatile swimmer and can essentially participate in any event, he was a “welcomed addition,” Duffy said.

Underclassmen, too, have been filling in roles previously dominated by senior swimmers this year, Duffy said.

“Last year, I was kind of overshadowed by the seniors, and now that they’ve graduated, I get my own time to shine,” said Li, one of the fastest butterfly swimmers.