The Horace Mann Record, Issue 23

The Horace Mann Record HORACE MANN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1903

APRIL 13TH, 2018 || VOLUME 115, ISSUE 23

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Chidi Nwankpa(12) elected valedictorian

Lynne Sipprelle & Emily Shi Staff Writer & Contributing Writer “It was always a dream of mine to be valedictorian,” Chidi Nwankpa (12) said. The Class of 2018 has elected Nwankpa to be their valedictorian and give a commencement speech at Upper Division graduation on June 13.

“I felt like at Horace Mann where the class votes for valedictorian, one, I had a good chance, and two, I have so many good relationships with all my classmates that I’d be honored to be able to represent them at graduation,” Nwankpa said.

Two of Nwankpa’s best friends, James Chang (12) and Arjun Voruganti (12), nominated him, Nwankpa said.

“We all know Chidi for being high-spirited and amiable to everybody,” Voruganti said.

“He has the biggest heart, and I know he’ll be glad to speak during our graduation ceremony.”

Nwankpa found out the senior class had voted him valedictorian after track practice, he said. “I was going crazy,” Nwankpa said.

“My team was hugging me. When my mom heard she went crazy, and my dad did too,” he said.

The fact that the graduating class chooses a valedictorian based on popular opinion instead of selecting the student with the highest GPA is interesting, Zaie Nursey (12) said. “I think it more reflects how our grade was throughout our four years of high school and our legacy at the school,” she said.

“I think he’s a guy that everyone in the grade knows and really respects and likes,” Nursey said.

“Whether it’s a comment in class or a hello in the halls, he finds a way to make everyone think and laugh more,” Honor McCarthy (12) said.

“From running spring track with him, Chidi’s leadership, maturity, poise, and unfailing friendliness have stood out to me since ninth grade,” Joshua Doolan (12) said.

“I could not be more glad for Chidi to speak for and represent our class as valedictorian.”

At commencement, Nwankpa plans to talk about how thankful he is to everyone who has helped him and the Class of 2018 through high school and reflect on the Class of 2018’s time together, he said.

Kannan wins Langfan Competition Becca Siegel Staff Writer Ishaan Kannan (10) won the 16th annual William K. and Marion Langfan American Constitutional Oratorical Competition, judged by last year’s five finalists.

The competition provides sophomores the opportunity to research, write, and speak about a current issue relating to the U.S. Constitution. 16 students participated in the preliminary round, with Arman Kumar (10), Malhaar Agrawal (10), Isabel Mignone (10), Ben Doolan (10), and Kanaan chosen as the finalists by faculty judges.

This year’s question focused on benefits and drawbacks of the growing expansion of the executive branch. The direct question contrasts with those of competitions in the past, where the topic has been more broad, one of last year’s finalists Andrew Wang (11) said.

The finalists from last year’s competition, including Wang, Ben Metzner (11), Karen

Jang (11), and Ethan Kim (11), judged this year’s five finalists. The only exception was 2017 finalist Julia Hornstein (11), who could not attend the event she is currently studying at the Mountain School for a semester.

Kanaan found the event to be fun and educational in terms of public speaking, he said. Kanaan originally entered the competition because of the love of public-speaking he developed from his participation in the school’s speaking club, he said.

Kanaan’s speech focused on the beneficial aspects of allotting more power to the president.

In the end, the competition came down to Agrawal and Kanaan, with Kanaan triumphing because of his delivery, Wang said.

“The purpose of the competition is to have a speech with both a strong constitutional argument and a good delivery, both of these aspects are weighted equally,” coordinator of the competition Dr. Susan Groppi said.

BOOK DAY 2018

Freya Lindvall/Photo Editor

inside

END OF THE WORLD Students perform a dance at opening assembly.

Continuing clubs

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Alumni get involved with their high school clubs in college.

Read more about Book Day workshops on page 3.

GIRL POWER Students ask keynote speakers about feminism in the law.

Gender (In)Equality conference discusses issues of intersectionality

Sadie Schwartz Staff Writer

At the Gender (In)Equality Conference last Saturday, teachers, parents, and roughly 50 students from various grades came together to engage in discussions of intersectionality and ask keynote speaker intersectionality advocate and professor of at the Southern Methodist University Southern Dedman School of Law Dr. Lolita Buckner Inniss questions regarding the topic.

This conference was a continuation of the idea that lead conference organizer Aurora Grutman (12) had at the first Gender (In)Equality Conference she planned during her sophomore year, which was to work with a group of students who wanted to focus on gender inequality, she said.

“The first year was more focused on gender.

This year, we wanted to focus on intersectionality,” Grutman said.

“One of the issues we wanted to deal with was the essential meaning of intersectionality. It is something we live and experience and take for granted. We wanted to spotlight what that means.

We don’t live in a particular identifier only. We live across identifiers,” faculty advisor Dr. Deborah Stanford said. “I also felt the need to focus on the experience of students of color and to hear their voices.”

The day began with an assembly, where Inniss engaged in a Q&A session with a panel of students as well as audience members. After the keynote portion of the program, participants were divided up into student-facilitated workshops where they further engaged in conversation of intersectionality and personal identity.

Before the conference, Jessica Thomas (10) looked forward to listening to their keynote speaker and facilitating a workshop with a lot of her peers in it and hoped to get a new sense of gender inequality and learn a lot more about intersectionality and other people and their feelings about it, she said.

“I think the speaker was very engaging and she used common language to talk about very complicated ideas. Every answer she gave I thought was very thoughtful,” faculty conference organizer Meghan Fergusson said.

Inniss described law as something that tells you what’s good and bad, what a person ought to do, and what a person ought not to do. She summarized her description of law as a “tool of ending oppression.”

Inniss’ research addresses geographic, historic and visual norms of law, especially in the context of comparative constitutionalism, gender and race.

“The way she described law was so simple and in a way I’ve never thought about it before. It was a little abstract because I don’t study law but even knowing my rights from the Constitution, I never perceived laws as being descriptive instead of restricting,” Vivien Sweet (10) said.

Innis’ advice for high school feminists was to

Magic to do!

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A behind-the-scenes into Pippin cast members training on silks.

Stick it to ‘em

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“look at what’s fair and just take that as an example of what ought to be. Look at what good things are happening. Run with them. Use them. [By] embracing your joys, you end up tailoring the things that matter,” she said.

After the Q&A session, students, parents, and faculty went to classrooms for smaller breakout sessions. Student facilitators led the student-only workshops. During the workshops, facilitators prompted participants to contemplate topics such as visible versus invisible traits and their identities.

Natalie Sweet (10) thought the workshop was a really good way for her to take the things she learned from the assembly and apply them, she said. It was “nice” for her to have the opportunity to talk about herself and her identity among the same dialogue that the speaker was talking about, she said.

ICIE Associate Sharina Gordon led the concurrent parent and faculty workshop, where she first gave the history of intersectionality in a nutshell. She then facilitated a conversation about how teachers can apply this to their lesson plans and how parents can apply this to how they interact with their children and how they navigate throughout the world, she said.

Participants watched a talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality,” where she described a legal case where the fact that the plaintiff was a black woman changed the premise of the case, math teacher Nicholas Perry said.

It led the faculty and other adults to question, “What can we do to make sure we can see people full and accept them?”, Perry said.

“After attending the conference, I want to personally reflect on how stereotypes have impacted me and how they have made me negatively force these stereotypes on people based on how they look,” Alexis Fry (9) said.

“One of the goals of the conference was to reach out to other schools, and that’s hard to do. I think that with every event that you plan, we go over it in our heads and think, ‘Oh, we could’ve done that a little differently.’ Everything is always a dress rehearsal for the next one,”’ Fergusson said.

Grutman believes that she accomplished her goal for the conference to a certain extent, which was to form a community of NYC teens. Although the majority of participants who attended the conference went to the school, that is a sense of community, so in that sense, Grutman does think that she accomplished what she intended, she said.

“My hope is that this conference will continue to be a community building event where students from all over the city can come together to engage and listen,” Grutman said. There were a lot of strong ninth and tenth graders who showed commitment and creativity who Grutman hopes can lead the conference in future years, she said.

Boys and Girls Varsity Lacrosse teams begin their respective seasons.

@hm.record @thehoracemannrecord Horace Mann School 231 W 246th St, Bronx, NY 10471

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THE RECORD OPINIONS APRIL 13TH, 2018

Will Generation Delta save the day? social justice issues are treated.

Natalie Sweet What would you like yourself to be called?

The New York Times posed this question in a survey last January, asking people 22 years old and younger what they think their generation should be named. The data produced a variety of results, ranging from “Generation Z,” “PostMillennials,” and “iGeneration” to “Memelords,” “Memennials,” and “Generation Snap.” Other suggestions included “Generation Fix-It” and “The Cleaner-Uppers.”

Some just wrote “Doomed.”

However, a favorite was Delta, or the Delta Generation. In mathematics, delta most commonly means difference or change.

Similarly, our generation has a lot to change: from terror threats to fixing the economy; the issues left for us by previous generations continue to pile up.

As shown by the studentorganized and led protests, rallies, and walkouts about gun reform following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, our generation has begun to embody the name of change given to it. The eloquence and passion shown by students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Julia Robbins is remarkable as they contact government officials and speak to news outlets, taking action towards gun reform.

What would happen if student activists faced climate change with the same attitude they took on gun reform with?

It is clear that our generation will be the most affected by climate change. Dr. Bruce Krawisz and other public health experts predict that consequences of climate change may be the single greatest world health problem by 2050.

According to NASA, studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that there will be increased droughts and extreme heat waves, and hurricanes will become stronger and more intense in years to come.

So why aren’t we taking action to prevent it? Since the effects of climate change are not noticeably apparent in everyday life, it is not being addressed by student activists the same way gun reform and other

After coming to this realization, I found three ways that students at Horace Mann will be personally affected by climate change.

1. Parts of Manhattan will soon be underwater.

According to NASA, sea levels will rise one to four feet by 2100, and five islands in the Pacific Ocean have already gone underwater. This will effect all boroughs and cost millions of dollars to remedy.

2. Extracurricular activities will be limited.

According to NASA, if climate change continues at its current rate, the length of the frost-free and growing seasons are projected to increase one or more months across most of the U.S. by the end of the century. With winter months taken away, Horace Mann skiers will not have any snow to ski on.

3. There will be major restrictions in dietary options.

Since the late 1900’s, ocean acidification has increased by 30% according to National Geographic.

As species such as shallow water coral, oysters, and clams die out, the entire ocean food web is at risk.

This alteration of the ocean’s food web leads to larger, more common species such as salmon and tuna dying out, stripping humans of a large source of protein.

Clearly, climate change is not just a worldwide problem, but it is an everyday problem that will affect Horace Mann students. So how can we take steps to prevent it?

There are small but important ways for us to individually reduce our carbon footprint by implementing some of the technologies and policies already established at Dorr Nature

Laboratory. Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Do not buy bottled water. Stop using disposable utencils.

But if student activists were to treat climate change the same way they treat gun reform, that means contacting government officials as well. Text RESIST to 504-09 or write a letter to your senator about renewable energy, which, according to a report from the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National (LBNL) Laboratory, provides a wide range of economic, health, and climate benefits. They reported in 2013 that renewable energy saved $1.2 billion through lower natural gas prices and wholesale electric prices. It also estimated that renewables supported about 200,000 jobs, produced $5.2 billion worth of health benefits by improved air quality, and resulted in global climate benefits of $2.2 billion.

Currently, most of the action taken by teenagers towards climate change is “trendy activism.” As Earth Day approaches, social media is filled with posts captioned, “Save the earth! #earthday” while not a lot of concrete action typically follows.

Though student-led climate change rallies exist, they do not get nearly as much publicity as other social justice movements.

I am confident that if student activists treated climate change the same way they treat gun reform, we can reduce the devastating effects that climate change will bring on to our generation. With more attention in the media and increased student awareness about environmental issues, our generation can and must take the next steps towards embodying the name “Generation Delta.”

Last week Dr. Kelly brought to the faculty’s attention the sad news of the passing of Nick Faba, an old friend and colleague to many of us. To the current students of Horace Mann, and to younger or more recently arrived faculty, Nick Faba’s name may not be as well known to you, having moved on as he did from teaching at Horace Mann a decade ago.

For twenty years previous, Nick Faba was a larger than life figure on our campus. Through his teaching, advising, administrative roles and schoolwide initiatives, Nick Faba made his mark in the life of our school. He was razor smart, perceptive, caring, earthy and emotional. No day’s events escaped his wit, critique, or embracing laughter. He could size up any situation with unmatched satirical perspective. Though his home base was the high school computer and technology department that he helped create and develop, he soon became a beloved personage beyond category.

As we go about our activities, let’s all be a little more aware of the state-of-theart technology that is all around us, in all its many forms, integrated almost invisibly into every classroom and teaching space. Remember that it was not always so. From seamless internet access to robotics and computer aided design, Nick Faba (and Mr. Kenner in creative partnership) was instrumental in bringing the information technology age to Horace Mann. With persistence, patience and endless good humor, Nick made the convincing argument that the future of education and computer literacy went hand in hand. That vision has allowed for so many curricular innovations in the intervening years.

If you come up to my studio in Fisher Hall, room 403A, you’ll see a strange, bulky, toy-like contraption sitting heavily on a shelf above my desk. That end table sized object is a “personal computer” circa 1993. When Nick suggested that particular model as the best for me to learn about computer graphics for my art classes, it was one of the most advanced systems a teacher could have at home or in their classroom. Today’s smart phones and iPads have exponentially greater computing power than my old plastic and electron relic, but Nick made a very good selection for me: it still works.

And one day when you find yourself around an old HM yearbook from more than a few years ago, crack it open and flip to the Computer Department pages. If you happen to see a photograph of a big, pirate bearded bear of a man, with a broad, infectious smile and a mischievous gleam in his eye, that gentleman would be our Mr. Faba. You might even catch yourself thinking that he sure looks like a cool guy. Probably a good teacher too. And you’d be exactly right. He was a cool guy, and a great teacher; a unique and pivotal member of this school community. We all benefit from the fruition of his passion and effort to this day, as technology in the service of education continues to evolve and thrive at Horace Mann School.

Respectfully submitted, Ron Logan Visual Arts Instructor Spyri Potamopoulou/Staff Artist

Editor in Chief Gustie Owens

Issues Editor Mahika Hari

Features Tiffany Liu Natasha Poster

News Sam Heller Yeeqin New

Opinions Seiji Murakami Rebecca Salzhauer

A&E Jonathan Katz Joanne Wang

Lions’ Den Peter Borini Ricardo Pinnock

Photography Abigail Kraus Amrita Acharya Freya Lindvall

Middle Division Ella Feiner Sarah Shin

Design Editors Nikki Sheybani Lisa Shi Evan Megibow

Art Director Ariella Greenberg

Courtesy of Mannikin

Great ideas at schools so often come from the spark and drive of unique individuals, teachers and students alike. On any given day here at school, when the technology is running smoothly, when you’re researching for a project on line, or listening to some favorite music while you’re working; when you’re witness to or commenting on an important event through the immediacy of video, or in some way or for some reason connecting digitally with the wider world around you, please remember that Mr. Faba in large measure helped that global access come about.

Volume 115 Editorial Board Managing Editor Eve Kazarian

A Tribute to Nick Faba

Faculty Adviser David Berenson

Columnists Lutie Brown Amir Moazami

Horace Mann Visual Arts Department

Staff Writers Abigail Salzhauer, Betsey Bennett, Caroline Goldenberg, Charlie Silberstein,Connor Morris, Edwin Jin, Jeren Wei, Katie Goldenberg, Lynne Sipprelle, Megha Nelivigi, Noah Phillips, Sadie Schwartz, Sandhya Shyam, Solomon Katz, Surya Gowda, Tenzin Sherpa, Amelia Feiner, Jude Herwitz, Julia Robbins, Becca Siegel, Eliza Poster, Leonora Gogos, William Han, Benjamin Wang, Peri Brooks, Nishtha Sharma, Sam Keimweiss, Victor Dimitrov, Madison Li, Malhaar Agrawal, Robbie Werdiger, Simon Yang, Nelson Gaillard, Abigail Goldberg, Georgi Verdelis, Griffin Smith, Gabby Kepnes, Abigail Goldberg, Kiara Royer, Mayanka Dhingra, Spencer Kahn, Isabella Zhang, Natasha Stange, Brody McGuinn, Gabby Kepnes, Victor Dimitrov Staff Photographers Iliana Dezelic, Eva Fortunato, Miyu Imai, Abigail Kraus, Daniel Lee, Mimi Morris, Benjamin Parker, Tatiana Pavletich Staff Artists Elizabeth Fortunato, Sofia Gonzalez, Surya Gowda, Damali O’Keefe, Spyridoula Potamopoulou, Jackson Roberts, Zoe Vogelsang

Editorial Policy ABOUT The Record is published weekly by the students of Horace Mann School to provide the community with information and entertainment, as well as various viewpoints in the forms of editorials and opinion columns. All editorial decisions regarding content, grammar and layout are made by the editorial board. The Record maintains membership in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and National Scholastic Press Association.

EDITORIALS & OPINIONS Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the majority of the senior editorial board. Opinion columns are the sole opinion of the author and not of The Record or the editorial board.

NOTE 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. The Horace Mann School is not responsible for the accuracy and content of The Record, and is not liable for any claims based on the contents or views expressed therein.

LETTERS To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters to the editor should be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or e-mail (record@horacemann.org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed and should refer to a Record article. Letters may be edited for grammar, style, length and clarity.

CONTACT For all comments, queries, story suggestions, complaints or corrections, or for information about subscribing, please contact us by email at record@horacemann.org.

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HORACE MANN NEWS APRIL 13TH, 2018

Basement Lions compete at NYC regional competition Bradley Bennett & Surya Gowda Staff Writers

Last week, the Horace Mann Basement Lions Robotics team competed at the FIRST New York City Regional Robotics Competition and ranked 24th out of the 51 teams from around the world.

Students built the robot six weeks earlier in the year, when the team was given their challenge and game. They had to create a robot that could shoot milk crates onto raised platforms and climb a pole. During the six weeks, team members spent every day after school working, “which was pretty intense,” Head of Programming and Electronics Michael Truell (12) said.

After finishing their robot, every team participating “bags” it, setting it aside until the competition, he said.

Head of Operations William Golub (11) was thrilled by the way the team came together for the competition, he said.

According to Kristin Yung (9), one of the parts of their robot did not work before going to the competition, so the team had to carry it separately to put in at the site.

“We got everything working in time to be able to get to play matches,” Golub said. “It all came together at the end.”

During the competition, the Basement Lions started off with a qualification round to enter the second stage of the tournament, where teams

are ranked based on their alliances with other participating teams. The Lions matched with two random teams, working together to complete tasks. In total, the competition had ten rounds, each of which paired the Lions with different partners and opponents.

Even though the team was eliminated at the end of the competition, they have another chance to compete with their robot at a competition happening over the weekend. Sarah Sun (9) is hopeful that the team can post an even better result this weekend, she said.

“There’s going to be some of the same teams we just competed against, but there’s also going to be even better teams and we just have to keep working,” Sun said. “It’s nice to go back and work together with the rest of the team and work towards winning.”

For the next competition, the Lions plan make changes to their robot so

it can shoot crates higher, as well as hopefully add a climb mechanism, Truell said.

“I think we handled the pressure of the competition really well,” he said. “A lot of teams can break [under pressure] during a lot of our qualifying match. [A piece of the robot] broke off and we had to fix it between matches and continually repair and fix that. At the end, the competition, the robot was working well,” Truell said.

The driver of the robot, Antonio Anaya (11), thought that the competition was fun and had a great atmosphere, he said. One of his favorite parts was meeting new people and becoming more invested in engineering and robotics, Anaya said.

“We made a lot of improvement coming into this year from last year, and I think the team is working much better together,” Golub said.

Courtesy of Ruthie Yankwitt

MR. ROBOT Members of the Basement Lions build robot at FIRST NYC Regional Competition last weekend.

Students attend Social Entrepreneurship Conference Julia Robbins Staff Writer

Last Friday, a combination of students, administration, and alumni attended this year’s Social Entrepreneurship Conference at the Penn Club in Manhattan to hear speakers such as CEO and founder of GenHERation Katlyn Grasso.

According to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepeneurship, social entrepreneurship is. “applying practical, innovative and sustainable approaches to benefit society in general, with an emphasis on those who are marginalized and poor.”

Conference organizer and moderator, Tyler Jonas (11), planned the event with the help of Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly and Executive Assistant to the Head of School Anne Joao, Jonas said.

“I think it is important for all people, especially young people, to think beyond themselves and their school community and consider the broader community we share,” Jonas

said. “I hope to share my commitment to socially conscious business with my peers and empower them to make a difference.”

The two speakers of the evening were introduced by Jonas and went on to discuss their personal experiences in social entrepreneurship. In her opening speech, Jonas discussed how different companies such as Warby Parker and Greystone Bakery are able to make a positive social impact.

Conference speaker Beth Kobliner, an author, journalist, and advocate for financial literacy, discussed her journey of becoming an advocate for financial literacy and shared tips with the audience on how to take control of your personal finances.

Kobliner showed two videos that she created focusing on financial literacy; one with her teaching the television character Elmo how to sort money into three categrories: savings, spending, and donating. The other video starred the Saturday Night Live actor Kate McKinnon who explained

Courtesy of HM Flickr

HELPING THE WORLD Social Entrepreneur Conference speaker discusses her company.

the more complex aspects of financial literacy to children.

Audience member Andie Goldmacher (9) learned new information from the video with Kate McKinnon and realized that there is a lot more to learn about financial literacy, she said.

The second speaker was Grasso, whose company connects young women with companies and professionals to help the women gain experience in different fields of work.

Grasso spoke about the work her company does and offered advice to the audience on how to move forward with ideas.

The speakers helped reinforce the idea that it is important to take initiative and take risks, audience member Matthew Kaufman (11) said.

Due to the new rule that events can only take place on campus every other year, Jonas worked with Kelly to host the event off campus, she said.

“I think the benefit of hosting it off campus was that we were able to invite a lot of alumni, semi-finalists from the HM Impact Investment Club came, and we had other Social Entrepreneurs in the room who might not have otherwise come to the event at HM,” Jonas said.

“Focusing on young alumni this year was something new and wellreceived,” Kelly said. “I also couldn’t have been more appreciative of the inclusive and thoughtful messages delivered by both speakers.”

At the end of the night, every guest received a copy of one of Kobliner’s books : “Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties”.

BOOK DAY

Abi Kraus/ Photo Editor

PAN(DAMN)IC Ari Moscona-Skolnik presents workshop on pandemics.

Will Han & Henry Owens Staff Writer & Contributing Writers

Using A Virtual Simulation To Understand Factors That Affect The Spread Of Pandemics

In a workshop run by members of Dr. Leo’s science research class, students delved deeper into the backdrop of Station Eleven’s post apocalyptic world, and discussed how the spread of the Georgia flu might have occurred.

“In a grab towards getting people interested in the science behind pandemics, we wanted to use the game Plague Inc. as a simulation for how you change different factors and affect the growth rate of a pandemic,” said Govind Menon (12), who helped organize the workshop.

Since the book did not talk much about how the Georgia Flu came to exist its spread, the workshop leaders thought it would be interesting to actually consider about it, Ari Moscona-Skolnik (11) said.

The program shows how different variables affect the the spread of a pathogen, Moscona-Skolnik said.

“For example, we can have [the pathogen] start in different countries, make the pathogen airborne, originate somewhere warm versus cold, or have transfer through animals. All of these will affect the rate of transmission,” Moscona-Skolnik said.

“The program we are using has been lauded by the Center for Disease Control and professionals as accurate representations,” Jake Beckman (12).

The class came up with the idea because they had previously learned about immunization, superbugs, drug resistance bacteria, and it seemed like a logical progression from the papers they had written and ted talks they had listened to, Beckman said.

“Hopefully students who come get an appreciation for how disease spread and then are also made aware of how there is a lack of legislation protecting against pandemics,” Beckman said.

Too Soon?: Finding the Humor in Collective Trauma In the workshop “Too Soon?: Finding the Humor in Collective Trauma,” Dr. Philip Scepanski, an assistant professor at Marist College, explored the role of comedy in the wake of tragedy.

Humor can at times seem insensitive on the surface level, but we need to look deeper and examine types of humor to make a judgement, Scepanski said.

“It was a formal analysis of humor that I found really compelling,” said Yasmin McLamb. “I never really thought about humor in that way, but it was interesting to see types of humor categorized.”

McLamb went on to say that, “One thing that was really interesting was the point about patriotism and humor often evokes it or intends to reinforce it.”

By watching clips of “Family Guy” and a segment from the “David Letterman Show”, students were asked to look at both sides of the effects of humor.

On the one hand, humor can be really insensitive and make light of a very serious issue which is not okay. But on the other hand, it can also bring relief and bring laughter in the midst of a difficult time, Dr. Scepanski said.

“I think the workshop helped people understand that sometimes people laugh because its a type of coping mechanism, and it’s not that they are being insensitive, but it’s almost a reflex,” Dakota Stennett-Neris said (11).

Abi Kraus/ Photo Editor

TRAUMA DRAMA Professor at Marist College holds workshops about humor and trauma.

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THE RECORD FEATURES APRIL 13TH, 2018

Julia Robbins, Staff Writer

Molly Minter ‘15

Courtesy of Molly Minter

BELT IT Molly Minter sings acapella on stage.

Molly Minter ‘15 was the Vice President of the school’s allgirls acapella group, Harmanny, and is now co-President for the acapella group The Poor Richards at Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) after being its Treasurer.

Minter joined Harmanny because she knew she wanted to end up being part of an acapella group in college, she said. “[Acapella] probably isn’t something that I would have done [in college] if I had not done it in high school because I would not have been confident enough.”

“The fact that I did [acapella] at Horace Mann ended up changing my life,” Minter said. “Horace Mann definitely started aiding my passions,” Minter said. “I didn’t really know what they were at the time but I knew that I liked performing.”

In Harmanny, Minter learned more about percussion in relation to acapella and how to arrange music, she said. She appreciated

Jay Rappaport ‘14 Jay Rappaport ‘14 was a Community Council (CC) Representative in ninth, 10th, and 11th grade and served as Secretary of the CC in 11th grade before becoming Student Body President (SBP) in 12th grade.

Now at Columbia University, Rappaport is one of 24 students serving on the University’s Senate, composed of 108 students, faculty members, and administrators. He is now completing the second year of his two-year term as University Senator.

“Like so many activities at HM, student government gave me exposure to service, and it

having a strong group of girls that allowed her to grow as an acapella performer, she said.

While Minter was in Harmanny, she performed ‘Valerie’ by Amy Winehouse, along with other popular songs by artists such as Adele and Lorde, she said. Nobody in Harmanny was a particularly skilled arranger of acapella music, so the arrangements were not complex, she said.

At F&M, the arrangements are incredibly complex, Minter said.

The group started out performing many Indie songs and is now gearing the arrangements to more mainstream music by artists such as Chance the Rapper.

The Poor Richards is F&M’s oldest and only co-ed acapella group on campus.

The Poor Richards is also the most in demand of the several acapella groups at F&M, meaning Minter has plenty of opportunities to perform, she said.

The Poor Richards performs on campus at different events, records music that is released on iTunes and Spotify, holds their own concerts, and tours each year, Minter said.

“We’ve been as far south as D.C., Maryland, and we’ve been as far north as New Hampshire,” Minter said. Each tour takes about five to six days. The group rents two vans and stays at different friends’ college housing, she said.

As Treasurer of The Poor Richards, Minter was in charge of running auditions for prospective members of the organization and running recording sessions, she said. Now as co-President, Minter plans the tours and concerts and helps continue the acapella group’s traditions. instilled in me a desire and a need to want to serve people,” Rappaport said.

“Working on school wide projects as SBP and in the community council showed me that policy and programs can impact diverse people and constituencies and ideally improve their experiences,” Rappaport said.

Some of the initiatives that Rappaport worked on as SBP along with his co-SBP Charlotte Frankel ‘14 were creating a spring Homecoming called Spring Roar and a program that gave Upper Division students the ability to read to Lower Division students during their free periods.

In creating Spring Roar, the

Teo Armus ‘14

Courtesy of Teo Armus

RECORD FAM Teo Armus (left) poses in the Student Publications room.

It took less than two months on The Record to decide that being a journalist was what he wanted to do with his life, Teo Armus ’14 said.

Armus was Editor-InChief of The Record before he graduated and joined Columbia University’s newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator.

At the Spectator, Armus was Deputy News Editor in 2015 before becoming a columnist for the paper.

“I really enjoyed [The] Record especially because I think it was a way for me to engage with the community at Horace Mann and especially with parts of the community that I would never have ended up engaging with otherwise,” Armus said.

Writing for The Record taught Armus what it means to be a journalist, how to write well, ask good questions, and conduct successful interviews, Armus said. “[As EIC], my theme for the SBPs stuck to their timeline and worked with Dean of Student Life Dr. Susan Delanty and Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly to put the event together, Rappaport said.

“Student government at HM taught me how to work with administrations, work with my peers, and work with the people I was trying to serve,” Rappaport said.

From high school to his last year at Columbia, Rappaport has also developed an “increased ability to delegate,” he said. “I learned as SBP that I can’t do everything on my own, nor was I expected to.”

In college, Rappaport has a Senate staff that he can farm out

year was to try and implement as many lasting changes as I could for better or worse,” Armus said.

He converted the headlines into “sentence case,” rewrote the editorial policy, and created a new masthead.

Along with the more technical changes he made, Armus also had the paper publish more “splashy investigative features” in order to increase readership and tried to increase the publication’s presence on social media, he said.

Armus has yet to feel as invested with another publication as with the Record because of how immediate the community he served was with the Record, he said.

As a writer, Armus’s interest has always been focused on student life, and as Deputy News Editor for the Spectator, he was in charge of student life news, he said. He covere–d everything from student council elections to students’ anger at how the

Columbia administration handles allegations of sexual assault on campus.

On May 23, 2015, Armus covered the graduation of Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University student that he wrote “garnered national attention for her senior visual arts thesis, ‘Carry That Weight.’”

It was exciting for Armus, as a college freshman, to be sitting next to a New York Times reporter in a press box covering a graduation ceremony that received so much media attention, he said.

On Spectator, Armus was part of the reporting team that broke results of the nationwide survey which confirmed that one in four women are sexually assaulted on college campuses.

Armus interned with NBC this year, and he will be interning as a Metro reporter for the Washington Post postgraduation.

Courtesy of Teo Armus

SPECTATING Teo Armus working on the Columbia University Daily Spectator.

research to, in addition to having other trusted allies and advisors that he can count on for support, Rappaport said.

Delegating tasks yields a stronger product because more time can be spent on specific tasks and there is a broader range of perspectives on the issue, he said.

Rappaport is looking to go into a government career of some capacity, whether that is in a think tank, a government agency, or the legislature, he said.

Policy motivates and interests Rappaport from professional, academic, and personal levels, he said. He appreciates “the opportunity to impact a lot of people positively and to serve them.”

Courtesy of Jay Rappaport

COMMUNITY Jay Rappaport representing the Community Council.

Alumni bridge interests from high school to college

5

HORACE MANN FEATURES APRIL 13TH, 2018

Maddie Bender ‘16

Courtesy of Maddie Bender

MARCHING ALONG Maddie Bender in the Yale Precision Marching Band.

Maddie Bender ‘16 was coPresident of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble (SWE) in high school and is now part of four different musical groups at Yale University.

Bender started participating in the school band in fourth grade, she said. She was first clarinet in the SWE for all four years of high school.

Courtesy of Jonathan Edelstein

CANCER AWARENESS Jonathan Edelstein, founder of Cancer Circle, at his high school prom in 2017

Jonathan Edelstein ’17 was the co-President of the Cancer Awareness Club (CAC) as a senior at the school and is also the founder of the organization Cancer Circle. Edelstein is now a freshman at the Stern School of Business at New York University (NYU).

As co-President of the CAC, Edelstein was very involved with Relay for Life, an event that raises money for the American Cancer Society. Edelstein used the platform that CAC provided to help raise awareness about Relay for Life, he said.

Being part of the CAC helped teach Edelstein how to connect

“Band in high school offered me a 45-minute break every other day where I could just turn off my brain and focus on playing music and being part of something larger than my instrument alone,” Bender said.

“Over the years, I began to think of music as a way to relax and de-stress, and I’ve found practicing scales or sightreading to be a cathartic break from studying,” Bender said.

“Since playing music helps me de-stress, and since my parents spent so much money on private lessons, I figured I’d try my luck auditioning for a few musical groups [in college],” she said.

Now at Yale, Bender is in the Yale Concert Band (YCB), Timothy Dwight College Community Orchestra (TDCCO), Yale Klezmer Band, and Yale Precision Marching Band (YPMB). TDCCO is the orchestra for her residential college at Yale.

“The YPMB is much less serious than even HM’s middle school band”, Bender said. “We have an entire section full of

people who don’t even know how to play instruments and who instead “play” things like pots, pans and couches,” she said.

Unlike performances in high school, in the YPMB, Bender moves with the rest of her group in different choreographed formations during performances and often plays during rowdy football games, she said.

Through the YPMB, Bender went to every football game this year, spent time with members of the football team and learned the rules of football, she said.

“The [YCB] is a more focused and advanced group than the band at HM”, Bender said. “In high school, it wasn’t uncommon for us to go over a passage in a piece to make sure we had the notes correct, but if you showed up to YCB rehearsal not knowing the notes in your part, you would get kicked out of rehearsal.”

This summer, unlike in high school where she traveled to a different part of the United States each year with the SWE, Bender will be going to Australia to perform with the YCB, she said.

with people in order to build community outreach within an organization, he said. “It was a really powerful thing to see how when you try and connect to people in the community, you can really make a difference.”

Edelstein conceived the idea for Cancer Circle in 10th grade and brought in fellow cancer survivor William Scherr ’17 to help create the organization, Edelstein said.

According to the organization’s website, “Cancer Circle is an online 1:1 pediatric cancer support organization that pairs patient with a survivor who is around the same age, has similar interests, has had the same experiences, and lives in the same geographic area.”

The Cancer Circle website was released on February 28, and is in communication with three hospitals, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NYU Langone, and Weill Cornell Medicine, to introduce Cancer Circle to patients, Edelstein said.

Cancer Circle won the Alexander Capelluto Award in 2015. “It was really helpful for us to have an organization through the school, who could provide us mentorship and also the funding and the overall support,” Edelstein said.

The Capellutos helped Edelstein and Scherr manage their time between Cancer Circle, school work, and the

college process, Edelstein said.

Computer Science and Robotics Department Chair Jason Torres was also helpful in the early stages of Cancer Circle and gave Edelstein feedback on the technological side of the organization, Edelstein said.

Now at NYU, Edelstein is using the recourses of the University and its hospital to further the mission of Cancer Circle, he said.

Students at NYU have a number of entrepreneurial resources available to them which Edelstein has been looking into this year, he said. Edelstein has also been in contact with NYU’s hospital in efforts to bring Cancer Circle to the hospital’s pediatric cancer patients, he said.

Edelstein was also able to raise money for his organization through an NYU hockey game, he said.

For every ice hockey game at NYU, the proceeds of the game are donated to a different charity. Edelstein, who was manager of the NYU’s men’s ice hockey team this year, asked the coach if Cancer Circle could be the charity for one game, and the coach was happy to say yes, Edelstein said.

Edelstein hopes that Cancer Circle keeps expanding to connect as many pediatric cancer patients and survivors as possible, he said.

Ellis Soodak ‘16

Ellis Soodak ‘16 was the Head of the Middle Division (MD) Debate Program during his senior year at the school and is now a member of the University of Chicago’s Parliamentary Debate team.

High school debate was a “formative experience of my upbringing”, Soodak said.

Debate offered an outlet for Soodak, who had a naturally argumentative side, he said.

Debate also helped fix speech problems that Soodak had as a child, he said.

“I find the story behind these niche activities that people become obsessed with incredibly compelling,” Soodak said. There was an entire social culture to high school debate that Soodak found fascinating: the drama and the friend groups that debate created, he said.

As head of the MD Debate Program, Soodak worked with middle schoolers on how to stall without using filler words and taught them how to project their voices without yelling, he said.

In high school, Soodak spent 20 hours per week on debate activities, whereas now, he only goes to one practice a week in college and spends less time overall on the activity, he said.

At the University of Chicago, Soodak debates in the American Parliamentary Debate Association as a member of The Chicago Debate Society. Unlike in Public Forum debate, which Soodak participated in in high school, in the APDA, the government side chooses any case they want to

debate at the onset of the round.

Due to this style of debate, “the activity has a ton more potential than really anything else,” Soodak said. “You can talk about anything and have incredible debates about things you would never have even thought of questioning.”

A drawback of college debate is that because everyone is debating different topics at any given moment, there is less unity among debaters than in high school debate, Soodak said.

In college, Soodak has also switched from having one consistent partner in high school, Kenneth Shinozuka ‘16, to changing partners for each tournament. He now goes to tournaments with whichever friend wants to visit the college that a tournament is being held at, Soodak said.

All of the students debating on the team receive free flights to and from the tournaments, which is one of the biggest upsides of being on the team, Soodak said.

Courtesy of Ellis Soodak

DEBATE CHAMP Ellis Soodak (right) poses with Adi Ram ‘16 in classroom.

Courtesy of Jerem Wei & Katie Goldenberg

6

THE RECORD ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 13TH, 2018

Silks and swords: special skills training in Pippin Ben Wang Staff Writer Three aerial silks descend onto the stage of Gross Theater as the chords to Pippin’s opening number build. Dancers wrap their feet in the silks and climb, hang upside down, and spin around in graceful, balletic poses.

In preparation for the Horace Mann Theatre Company’s spring musical, Pippin, select members of the cast have trained with outside professionals in aerial silks and sword fighting.

The show tells the story of the adventures of a young prince yearning to find fulfillment in his life, Chair of the Department of Theatre, Dance and Film Studies and the show’s choreographer Alison Kolinski said.

Six dancers have been learning how to do silks with Hillary Sweeney from Westchester Circus Arts, while six other members of the ensemble learned stagecombat with Caitlyn Herzlinger.

Lauren Smith (12), who has been taking part in Horace Mann’s theatre productions since her freshman year, is one of the silks dancers.

Training on the silks “was one of the most exhausting things I’ve done,” Smith said, “I haven’t been this sore in a long time.”

Aerial silks performers need to have incredible control over their

entire body and be extremely flexible. Sometimes, they need to hang in air while doing splits or drop multiple feet down and make it seem natural and fluid.

“There’s definitely a learning curve. Everybody is aware that they’re stronger at this aspect or they’re stronger at that aspect,” Smith said. “It’s really amazing because there were certain things that when we saw Hillary do them, we were like ‘I have no idea how I’m going to do this’ and it’s amazing being able to see the progress that we’ve made.”

“It can be challenging to get everybody together and while we may have to go back on certain things more times than other aspects, I think that in the long run, it will be really good,” Smith said.

According to Denise DiRenzo, the show’s director, the training for aerial silks was extremely grueling.

Delanty (11), who is a part of the ensemble, learned swordfighting from Herzlinger. In the past, he hasn’t taken part in any musicals, and he won’t have time next year, so he decided to fulfill his dream this year, he said.

Josh Tom (11) is an experienced performer, acting in a musical every year since the age of eight is also learning stage-combat training.

“We started out with long swords, similar to fencing swords.

FLIPPIN’ INTO PIPPIN Kolinski talks to actors during a silks rehearsal We would practice going right shoulder, left shoulder, right leg, left leg. We’ve changed that, we’re using smaller swords. They’re smaller wooden swords,” Delanty said.

“It’s hard to get one down because you have to learn the movements and there’s the safety part too,” Delanty said.

“In stage fighting, you have to emphasize all the movements and put on a show for the audience,”

Tom said, “It’s hard to make it believable. You have to sometimes slow it down or not get too excited in the heat of the moment.”

“They had to learn how to move the sword, how to move the sword.

Then they had to do their moves on counts to the music,” Kolinski said. “To make it theatrical, it can’t just be stage fighting it has to be choreographed.

There were obstacles that needed to be faced for aerial silks as well.

Mieu Imai/Staff Photographer

The performers “learned some incredible tricks, that were difficult and exciting. However, when you do silks, you have to wrap your hands and feet, but doing that in tempo was the hardest thing.

They had to learn to manipulate the silks in time with the music,” Kolinski said.

“It was a pleasure working with Hillary Sweeney and Caitlyn Herzlinger. They both did a fantastic job,” DiRenzo said.

Arts take center stage in Book Day workshops Megha Nelivigi Staff Writer

From discussing the merits of graphic novels to acting out a TV episode from memory to creating clay figurines that represent the current generation, a number of arts related workshops were hosted this Book Day in relation to Station Eleven.

Julia Roth (11) and Kyra Kwok (11) hosted a workshop entitled “Time Capsule of Clay,” in which students were able to create any object out of clay that they believed represents our generation, Roth said. Since Roth and Kwok both take ceramics classes at school, they thought this would be a great way to tie into the concept of a museum of civilization, an integral aspect of Station Eleven.

Juliana Moreira (11) who attended the workshop, made a dancer, since the idea was to create things that you don’t want to be lost after an apocalypse, and she would not want dancing to be lost, she said.

“I feel like that arts based workshops are in some ways more engaging and interactive,” Moreira said.

The two read a list of ideas of objects for students to consider, ranging from iPhones to Yeezys to electric toothbrushes, but students could choose any object that they wanted.

When sculpting their creations, students could not look at pictures or the actual object for reference.

“We really keyed into the factor of having to do things from memory-- the idea of not preparing or thinking of ways to preserve things.

Everything in the novel happened without people knowing it was going to happen,” Roth said.

Spyridoula Potamopoulou (12) was intrigued by the idea of graphic novels in Station Eleven, especially because her independent study project was to write and illustrate a graphic novel.

During her workshop, Potamopoulou discussed “the merits of art based storytelling as opposed to text, examining what you can

do with illustration and why it’s a valid mode for a narrative,” she said. Her goal for those who attended the workshop was for them to appreciate art based storytelling, especially because graphic novels aren’t always considered the equal of other written works, she said.

Created just for this year’s Book Day, the Nostalgic Theatre Company, made up of members of the English Department and Theatre Teacher Benjamin Posner, hosted a workshop that created a theatre piece based off of the memory of a childhood TV episode.

The inspiration for this workshop, which consisted of three parts, was off of the play Mr. Burns by Anne Washburn, in which a group of apocalyptic survivors attempt to remember an episode of the Simpsons, and eventually recreate it in a completely different way, Posner said.

“This play shares similarities with the Book Day book because they both deal with some kind of apocalyptic event, and in both the play and the book, for some reason people think it’s important or find joy in the recreation and performance of stories from our collective history,” he said. In the first part of the workshop, students attempted to remember the episode and work out a script, which was then used in the second part where students rehearsed it.

This recreation was performed in the closing assembly.

Darius McCollough (10) attended both the first and second parts, returning the second because other workshops had been filled.

However, once he began reliving his childhood experience watching Spongebob, participating in activities, and recreating commercials, he

Jackson Roberts/Staff Artist

found the workshop very interesting.

On the other hand, Mathematics Teacher Benjamin Kafoglis hosted a workshop titled “Amy, Kanye, and the Power of Paparazzi,” in which students analyzed and discussed paparazzi, fame, and privacy, all topics brought up in Station Eleven. Students watched clips from Amy, a documentary about Amy Winehouse, and looked at Kanye West’s reputation and why he has received so much hate, as well as reading passages concerning the idea of fame and celebrities, Kafoglis said.

In the book, “the contrast between pre and post - epidemic America really invites criticism of our current society, and how much celebrity life was used to represent the ‘time before’,” Kafoglis said, which is what he tried to incorporate into his workshop.

During the workshop, Taussia Boadi (10) was interested by “the connection Mr. Kafoglis made between pop culture and paparazzi with the book, because I didn’t think that was something that would come up,” and was especially intrigued that Kafoglis, a math teacher, was the one to bring it up, she said.

Visual Arts Department Chair Kim Do hosted “Designing a Perfect World, a PostApocalyptic Reboot,” where students were given the opportunity to draw what would exist in a perfect world, thinking about what kinds of things would be needed to support humans, he said.

“Students will be doing wishful thinking drawings, and including writing and maybe even working with other people in the workshop to come up with ideas and thoughts on how to create that perfect society that many of us kind of aspire to,” Do said.

Bartels was amazed by the variety of workshops that were held. “I really wanted the day to be so a kid could go through and really follow their passion,” she said, whether that is art, science, theater, or anything else. “I just really think it’s important that we get enough variety so that whoever you are as a student here, you find workshops that you want to attend.”

HORACE MANN MIDDLE DIVISION APRIL 13TH, 2018

Students give back through carnival, field trips Simon Yang Staff Writer Middle Division students had a week full of service learning activities, with two eighth grade groups visiting Dyckman Farm and Kingsbridge Heights Community Center. Sixth grade students engaged in the service learning, hosting the annual Mercy Center Carnival at the school on Thursday.

The sixth graders have a set service learning program where they partner with the Mercy Center, Middle Division service learning coordinator Caitlin Hickerson, said.

The grade partners with and provides activities and materials for the center every year, and hosts a carnival at the school, she said.

“Although they already have a prepared program for their service learning experience, the sixth graders have flexibility in their activities in that they get to plan and run their own booths at the carnival,” Hickerson said.

Madison Kim (6), who helped organize a basketball game booth for the carnival with her advisory, expressed excitement about meeting the children at the carnival.

“I think this event is important

for our grade because not only are we helping those in need, but we are also reminded of how we should appreciate and use the privileges we have to help others,” Kim (6) said.

The majority of the event took place in the Atrium, as sixth graders divided into their advisories and

prepared their booths. Aamri Sareen (6) and Chase Forbes (6) organized a cookie decorating booth with their advisory.

“We thought it’d be a great idea to put together a booth for all the sweettoothed children,” Forbes said. “They would be happy to see such diversity

STACKING THEM UP Sixth graders volunteer at Mercy Center Carnival.

UD students perform, showcase clubs in assembly Gabby Kepnes Staff Writer This Thursday, Student Body President Daniel Posner (12) and the administration organized an assembly for the middle school showcasing the wide array of opportunities available in the Upper Division. Posner wanted to help give middle school students a better sense of the options available in high school, he said.

“Although we share the same campus, rarely do the middle schoolers and upper schoolers participate in shared events and activities,” Posner said.

During the assembly, multiple groups performed or informed the audience about their clubs. “I saw a large variety of clubs, many more than I had known of before,” Julian Kepnes (8) said. “I also wasn’t aware of the hard-core dedication the robotics team has with the off-season,” he said.

UD classes also showcased their achievements, including English teacher Dr. Adam Casdin’s Eleventh grade class, which performed a skit from Hamlet. The juniors in the class were sitting in the audience, with a spotlight focused on them once it was their turn to speak. Casdin, along with theatre arts teacher Alexis Dahl, discussed the upcoming Shakespeare week, when Shakespeare will be celebrated all around campus. Aamri Sareen (6) said that the experience taught her more about the role Shakespeare plays in the UD, she said.

Next up in the assembly was a performance by the Horace Mann Dance Company, where four dancers took the stage to Stan Smith’s “Longing.” Afterwards, Will Golub (11) and Ben Spector (12) talked about one of the school’s fastest growing programs in high school: the robotics team. During their showcase of Spot,

the new robot, and their reveal video of 5806, the students learned how PR and marketing has lots to do with the team. Golub and Spector encouraged students interested in joining the UD team to get involved with the MD team in order to learn the basics.

Spencer Kahn (10) gave a “serious announcement” which included jokes, stories, and laughs from the entire audience. “I thought Spencer Kahn was funny, and I didn’t know his comedy skits were so known in the upper school.” Kepnes said.

Middle schoolers also experienced a “mash-up” of the three largest teams in the UD: Debate, Model Congress, and Model UN. Two students from each of the three groups sat down for a debate on this question: On net, do the benefits of social media outweigh the harms?

The mock debate allowed students to learn about the various speech and debate opportunities. Audrey Moussazadeh (7) explained how she is aware of what the middle school has to offer on a certain level. “I know the

middle school has a model UN team, but don’t know any friends who are on the team,” Audrey Moussazadeh (7) said. “It sounded like it was a much bigger idea in upper school since we haven’t been talked to about it that much.”

Thanks to the assembly, Moussazadeh is considering joining debate, she said. “After watching the live debate on stage from the upper schoolers, I found it even more interesting.” she said.

Binah Schatsky (12) and James Arcieri (12) ended the assembly with their duet of “Let it Be” by the Beatles.

“The reactions from both students and teachers were overwhelmingly positive.” Posner (12) said.

J.T. Thomas (8) loved the idea of joining and learning about new clubs.

“I am aiming for new experiences since I don’t do a lot of clubs already,” he said. The assembly prepared Thomas to expand his horizons when walking in to the UD on his first day of high school, he said.

Surya Gowda / Staff Artist

of choices,” he said.

The students were especially excited to interact with the children from Mercy Center, Sareen said.

“I think we are lucky to engage in activities like this because we are really able to give what we have to the community, and that’s something we

Halle Robbins / Contributing Photographer

7

all need to do regardless of our age,” Sareen said.

The eighth grade service learning program requires the students participate in two service learning activities, with one of them being off-campus. Compared to the sixth grade service learning requirement, the eighth grade students have more freedom in deciding how they wish to contribute to their community. The trip to Dyckman Farm focused on the students engaging in gardening activities such as tending the grounds, Hickerson said.

The Kingsbridge Heights Community Center offers two opportunities for the eighth graders: participation in the community garden and going to the after-care center to interact with the two to four-year-old children, she said.

“It’s spring time, so I believe that it’s perfect that the students get to go either to Kingsbridge or Dyckman Farm to help and learn more about gardening,” Hickerson said.

“I hope the students have fun with their activities,” Hickerson said. “I think the trips provide an environment for the students to get closer with one another while also having the privilege of contributing to the community,” she said.

Seventh graders explore NY Botanical Garden Leonora Gogos Staff Writer For the past two years, the seventh grade has gone on a field trip to the NY Botanical Gardens to solidify their inclass knowledge about plants. “It was suggested last year because the kids are learning about plants,” science teacher Dora Barlaz said, “and we have this amazing institution, the NY Botanical Gardens, so close by that we thought it would be so nice to go there.”

Barlaz said that the trip fits right in with the seventh grade curriculum, because although the students will learn about rainforests, they have been learning mostly about plants and flowers, which the botanical garden has many of.

“Here you have all these different types of plants in two different environments – they have a whole rainforest section and a whole desert section,” Barlaz said. “Kids can compare them and look at different adaptations of leaves and flowers.

Barlaz said that the trip has received almost all positive feedback, and the only negative feedback has been concerning more logistical things like the specificity of the questions in the packet and the pacing of the trip.

Malcolm Furman (7) left the trip with a positive impression. “I thought it was a lot of fun and pretty interesting because we had just learned about flowers and plants in science class, and then we get to utilize all the knowledge that we learned out in real world situations,” Furman said.

Jack Komaroff (7) also enjoyed the trip, especially considering how local the Botanical Gardens are. Komaroff said the most important thing he learned from the trip was more about desert plants. “We didn’t learn a lot about desert plants in class, so I think it was interesting to learn about that,” he said.

Audrey Moussazadeh (7) thought

this was a very nice trip because it was educational and the flowers were pretty, too. She said the seventh grade learned all about flowers just like they spoken about in the classroom throughout the year.

“I think the most important thing I learned from the trip was to connect my studies to the real world,” Moussazadeh said. “It was very cool to see what we’ve been talking about in real life examples.”

Moussazadeh particularly enjoyed the orchid room, as it smelled really nice.

Emily Salzhauer (7) said she also really liked the trip and seeing the colorful flowers. She said the most important thing she learned was about plants adapting to where they lived, and she was especially interested in seeing how small the Venus Flytrap was in real life, because it appeared much larger to her in the videos her class watched.

Furman said the most important thing he gained from the trip was just looking at flowers and seeing what flowers actually look like, rather than just looking at photos in a textbook.

Barlaz said that she hoped the students gained exactly that from the trip – an appreciation for the diversity of plants.

“I think it’s very important for kids to get out of the classroom,” Barlaz said.

“The world outside the classroom I think has a lot to teach them.” Barlaz said that she always aims to have her students thinking outside the classroom, not just think that they are learning about plants because it’s in the textbook or on the upcoming test. “They’re much more than that,” she said. “They’re important for the world, and they’re beautiful.”

Furman said he thought the trip was educational, especially due to the question packet the students were given with questions to answer during and after the trip. The packets set up the trip in a somewhat scavenger-hunt style, with questions along the lines of “Find a carnivorous plant and list the adaptations it used to survive,” Komaroff said.

Lions’ Den Record Sports

8

APRIL 13TH, 2018

Mixed results as Lax teams kick off spring season Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse gets off to a rocky start against Hackley and Fieldston

Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse splits the first two games of the season against Hackley and Fieldston

The Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse team started their season with tough losses against Hackley and Fieldston.

Arguably, the biggest challenge of both of these games was numbers, Julian Rabkin (10) said. The team is currently short three members due to injuries, Rabkin said.

This was difficult “especially for the

The Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse team learned from their season opening loss to Hackley and beat Fieldston to even up their record at 1-1.

The team played well in its second game of the season, beating Fieldston 12-9 at home.

The Lions capitalized off of its speed in the midfield, and doing so helped them in their transition play, co-Captain Nikki Sheybani said.

The Lions adapted to Fieldston’s height by using their speed and strength, especially when it came to the initial draw for control, Sheybani said.

The win against Fieldston came after a 6-17 loss to Hackley a few days prior.

Freya Lindvall / Photo Editor Hackley, being one of the best teams in the GO HARD GO HOME Lions defend home turf. league, made for a tough opponent, but the team fought through and “was determined Coach Keri Panarelli said. “Sophia Fikke (12) to keep fighting” co-Captain Isa Watson (12) and Sheybani controlled the midfield,” and on the other side of the field “Maya Scholnick said.

The team worked hard in the practices (12) led the defense,” Panarelli said.

Isa Watson scored her 100th goal in the leading up to the game and focused on game against Hackley, Panarelli said. running a tight pressure defense, Watson Looking at the whole season, the team said. “wants to have a winning record, play well “Hackley players can catch and throw phenomenally and the only way we would as a team, and improve everyday and every be able to get a turnover would be if we put game,” Panarelli said. Their next game is on the most amount of pressure we could,” today at home against Staten Island Academy at 4:00 PM. Watson said.

The team struggled in the first half but “played much better during the second half,”

Peri Brooks Staff Writer

Courtesy of Mannikin

midfielders, because they’re running back and forth the whole game,” co-Captain Josh Taub (11) said. “When they can’t get a break, it’s pretty tough for them to keep playing,” Taub said.

Despite these difficulties, the highlight of each game was that the team played with the “same level of intensity” from the beginning to the end of the game, Taub said.

Parzick scored one goal against the Hackley defense, and Koby Ginder (10) scored two, Parzick said.

Against Fieldston, Parzick found the back of the net four time, while Marc Murphy (12) did so once, totalling five goals, Parzick said.

The team played good defense against Fieldston, Rabkin said.

“Hackley and Fieldston are two of the toughest competitors in the league, and because it’s very early in the season, we haven’t established that many plays,” coCaptain Davis Parzick said. “There are some aspects of our game that we need to tune up in order to really compete,” he said.

“I have very high expectations for the rest of the season,” Taub said. “We have a lot of talented players and a really good season ahead of us,” he said. “We have a good chance of beating both Hackley and Fieldston in our rematches.”

IN THE ZONE Lions set up the attack.

Brody McGuinn Staff Writer

Golf team exceeds expectations, starts season off strong Sam Keimweiss Staff Writer The Varsity Golf Team is off to a strong start, winning its first three matches against Collegiate, Grace Church, and Fieldston, respectively. The team started off with modest expectations, but has since become more competitive, Shant Amerkanian (11) said.

According to Amerkanian, this year was meant to be a rebuilding year after losing so many senior members last year. However, after the team’s first victory, its goals have evolved.

“The big goal of the year is, by the end of the year, to beat Hackley,” Amerkanian said. In addition, Amerkanian hopes “to come out with a winning record and to get at least two people to qualify for NYSAIS,” he said.

The team played its first game against Hackley on Wednesday but lost 1-8. The teams will face off once more, on May 21st, according to the school’s website.

As a personal goal, Amerkanian wants to shoot even par this year, while Jackson Stinebaugh (11) wants to get his strokes down

Courtesy of Robert Annunziata

SWINGIN’ FOR THE FENCES Arul Kapoor (11) competiting against Grace Church at the Marine Park Golf Course.

before tournaments start this summer.

The six starters this year are Amerkanian, Stinebaugh, Jonathan Oshrin (11), Jack Blackman (10), David Shen (11), and Arul Kapoor (11). Each starter plays against the opposing

team’s starters, with the best score getting a point. An additional two points are awarded for the best average score, and a final point is awarded for the best personal score. The team won its first match 8-1, with Amerkanian having the best score, he said.

Amerkanian has been playing golf since he was a child and loves the intensity of the game. “It requires so much concentration and control and patience,” he said.

The team is incredibly close knit, considering themselves more of a club than a team, Stinebaugh

said. They go out to dinner after every match just to hang out, Amerkanian said.

“There’s some good banter, good jokes, but also a good competitive spirit in which we push each other to better our game,” Shen said Over spring break, the team traveled to Florida to prep for the upcoming season. The lions played practice matches, bonded as a team, and got in shape for the upcoming season, Stinebaugh said. “I really feel like we’ve come together in a lot of ways over the past few weeks, and it has really helped us get out there and win our matches,” he said.

The team, comprised mostly of juniors, is also focusing on teaching freshman, Shen said.

“It’s good to have some new freshman on the team because they’re the future of the team,” he said. There are two new freshmen this year, Garo Amerikanian (9) and Alexander Cox (9).

The freshmen are learning how golf works as a team game, Amerkanian said.