Volume 120, Issue 3

Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

Dorr picnic returns after two year hiatus

Due to the high number of attendees, lines were long, and food and facepaint ran out fast, Leftt said. “It [was] much more crowded than usual because everyone was looking forward to it after not being able to go for two years.”

Editorial: What would it take for a “culture shift”?

Hannah Becker Contributing Writer

Last Saturday, the school held its annual Dorr Family Picnic at the John Dorr Nature Laboratory for the first time since 2020 with over 1,700 attendees.

The picnic allows families to experience Dorr for themselves and brings the larger school community together, Assistant Director of Dorr Kate Kerrick said. This visit is especially important for new families who missed out on such events during the past few years due to COVID.

Jiya Chatterjee (12) said. Chatterjee attended the picnic this year for the first time since fourth grade and had a blast, she said. “The food was great, there was music, and Dr. Kelly was going around talking to everyone.”

Bella Sepulveda (10) went to the picnic with her family because her older sister, Sofia Sepulveda (12), wanted to experience the picnic one last time as a student, Sepulveda said. “My favorite activity was either the horse carriage ride or the reptile area,” she said. Not being able to attend for two years made Sepulveda appreciate being on the Dorr campus even more, she said. “Prior to COVID, we took it for granted and didn’t have as much fun.”

If you didn’t hear it at the opening assembly, your grade meeting, or senior college night, here’s the deal: Horace Mann has a culture problem. A competitive, cutthroat, “what did you get on the last test” culture problem. And — if you believe what the adults have been telling us — students have the power to change it. But what, exactly, do we mean by school “culture”? Who creates it, who can overhaul it, and what will it take?

At the opening assembly, Dr. Levenstein told the student body: Students often talk about the competitive culture of the school, as if that culture is a preexisting condition, a fact of nature, something in the air. It is none of those things. Cultures are created by the community that lives in them; they are perpetually remade, reshaped, readjusted, and each of you can choose to be part of a culture shift.

HM is challenging: the curriculum is ambitious and the pace is fast. But, each of you can decide which questions you ask your friends when you get assessments back; each of you can decide how you measure your own success; each of you can choose whether you tie your personal value to a grade you earn. The adults at the school do their best to turn the heat down on the sense of competition among students.

The picnic featured a hay ride, pony ride, petting zoo, face painting booth, climbing wall, hikes around Dorr, and more. Dorr Administrative Assistant Amy Moisen, among many others, organized the activities, Kerrick said. Kerrick’s favorite activity to facilitate was the climbing wall because it pushed participants to face their fears and uncertainty, she said. “It’s a great way to explore, stepping a little further into courage, without the risk of bodily harm.”

Dorr Director Nick DePreter’s favorite part of the picnic was seeing how many students participated in the teacher-led hikes around the five and a half miles trails on the Dorr campus, he said. Dorr teachers Samuel Haines, Jackie Ricca, Émilie Wolf, and Kerrick all led naturalist hikes. The picnic would not have been possible without their help, DePreter said.

If there are things we’re doing that turn that heat up, instead, please let us know, so we don’t inadvertently encourage competition among students

We, like many students, were skeptical. To many of us, it sounded like an off-loading of responsibility: here is the school’s reputation that far precedes you; fix it. In follow-up conversations, some placed the blame on parents, while others saw it as built into the school’s reputation. But any argument that shifts the blame around, from students to faculty to parents to the administration, misses the point. Each of us has a hand in the culture of the school; none of us can undo it without radical change to how this institution operates.

“The weather was very good that day — it was nice and warm and sunny, which meant that everyone was in a good mood and the vibes were good. It felt like a return to normalcy,” Malcolm Furman (12) said.

“Everyone was so excited to be there and to talk to one another.”

Dylan Leftt (10) climbed the rock wall, had her face painted, and got balloons, she said. “My favorite activity was the rock wall, as it was something I would never be able to do at home.”

Chatterjee hopes she can return to the picnic next year after graduating, she said. “Having a space like Dorr is an opportunity that other schools just don’t have,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place, and I’ve had some of my best memories there.” Vogue features Mavrides-Calderón’s (12) disability rights activism

Maeve Goldman Staff Writer

“I realized everything I couldn’t do was not because of my body, but because of a lack of access and accommodations,” Isabel MavridesCalderón (12) said. This Monday, in a Teen Vogue article titled “11 Disability Rights Activists on Where the Fight for Justice Stands,” Mavrides-Calderón discussed how the struggle for disabled peoples’ rights has evolved post-Covid.

After seeing Mavrides-Calderón in an NBC segment on ableist language, Teen Vogue reached out to her over the summer, she said. She and 10 other prominent disability activists answered questions about their experience fighting for disabled rights during the pandemic. MavridesCalderón was honored to speak alongside activists who have been crucial to her experience as a disabled person, she said. “Many of these older activists paved the way for me and others to have the rights we have today.”

Mavrides-Calderón became involved in activism at 13, she said. “I had just had my first spinal surgery and I was in bed, so I had a lot of free time to research disability rights.” She has since taken an active

presence in the New York disability rights movement, from consulting on accessibility at Target to leading her own protest for the passage of the Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2021, she said.

Mavrides-Calderón hopes the article will expose younger people to topics about disability rights, she said. “Even though TV shows and news segments are starting to include disability issues, these are normally shows that older people are watching,” she said. Through platforms such as Tiktok, Twitter, and Teen Vogue, Mavrides-Calderón aims to increase awareness among those who might not have learned about ableist issues on their own, she said.

As people move on from COVID and reverse the progress made with increased accessibility during the pandemic, disability activism is as important as ever, MavridesCalderón said. She has worked to preserve accommodations such as remote learning in New York by testifying before the City Council and collaborating with local government.

However, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the national scale, and Mavrides-Calderón hopes the article and the conversation it sparks will encourage states to enact new policies.

In the future, Mavrides-Calderón hopes to continue her work in special education. “It is an act of self love: if I am fighting for access and policies for disabled people, then I am also fighting for myself and my own rights,” she said. “Activism has led me to know what I deserve. For other disabled people, knowing the policies, laws, and rights that they have is how they can also learn to fight back against ableism and discrimination.”

Students, we need to own up to our role. We are not powerless. We do create a culture by comparing our scores, picking apart our peers to place ourselves in a grading landscape flattened by inflation and a college application process that gets more competitive every year.

Unprompted, students announce semester grades, rattle off 400-level classes, declare how we spent X hours and Y cups of coffee and Z amount of lost sleep to finish an assignment.

Behind those comparisons is a nagging insecurity, a need to prove that you are smart enough, that you worked hard enough, that you deserve to be here. Trust the admissions department. You are smart and capable, and you don’t have to broadcast every A to prove it. These are beliefs and behaviors that, if we wanted to, we could change.

Yet, we know that many of you will receive that next assessment, look at the letter and ignore the comments, duck outside the classroom, and ask how your classmates did. Many of us will, as well. There are larger forces at work, ones that cast culture out of our control. Tinkering around the edges will not change our relationship to this academic environment; the school switched APs to 400s and doesn’t show how students rank against their classmates, yet come mid-January and June, we remain hyper-focused on every plus or minus in our transcripts.

When our parents harp about grades, when we study for months for standardized tests and assess our futures by our scores, when GPA is the deciding factor in college applications, when college counselors say you’re more than a number but everything you do in class adds up to one, how can we not fixate on outcome and hang onto every half-credit? Not asking about someone’s grade on a test will not erase the fact that we are all competing.

Horace Mann is a college preparatory school — competition is inherent in that identity. Our athletics league even calls itself the Ivy Preparatory League (despite no affiliation with the schools). That culture is not a preexisting condition, fact of nature, or something in the air. Nor is it something that we can shift without fundamentally altering how our school measures its prestige. Students come here with a long-term tunnel vision on college. That focus is the driving force behind much of student participation in classes and extracurriculars, much as we would like to pretend otherwise. That’s not to say students don’t have intellectual curiosity and genuine passion, but college always factors into the equation.

Are we even willing to give up on our competitive culture? Is that part of the school’s appeal? Would Horace Mann retain our academic rigor and reputation without it?

What we want is an honest acknowledgment of the school’s identity, one that does not shift blame from one party to another, but examines the culture that we live and breathe. Let’s have that conversation.

FUN IN THE SUN Community members spend a day at Dorr.

ACTIVIM IN ACTION MavridesCalderón poses in front of US Capitol.

Courtesy of Isabel Mavrides Calderon

Courtesy of Barry Mason

Students,

Alvarez and Watts adjust to roles in the

Jackson, Mississippi water crisis is a systemic issue

in the United States — nearly 81% of its residents identify as Black or African American. Mississippi is also the poorest state in America, with 19.6% of residents living in poverty. Jackson’s urban population has declined steadily since schools integrated in 1980, and as white people have fled to the suburbs, the city has had less money to maintain its infrastructure. Decades and decades of deferred water treatment plant maintenance meant that it was only a matter of time before a disaster like this occurred.

by our government and political leaders.

Allyson Wright and Ashleigh Conner

For the last seven weeks, residents in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, have not had access to clean water. In late August, severe thunderstorms and flooding overwhelmed the city’s poorly maintained water treatment plant, leaving nearly 160,000 residents without access to potable water. Schools and businesses shut down and residents survived off of bottled water. Although Jackson’s Boil Water Notice was lifted on Thursday, the problem is far from over. The crisis is nothing new: residents have been dealing with water-related issues for years as a result of systemic racism.

Mississippi is a red state, led for much of its past by racist, white political leaders. As a result, Black majority neighborhoods often lack basic necessities such as water and thus suffer extreme consequences, like those occurring now in Jackson. Jackson is the city with the second largest Black population

Water insecurity in areas populated by minorities is a historical trend. In 1970, a small, predominantly Black town called Rosedale in Mississippi protested the lack of municipal services because their all-white government failed to provide Black areas with the same services as white areas.

It didn’t matter that the people of Rosedale paid the same taxes as neighboring white areas; the services they needed to sustain a healthy lifestyle were not priorities for their government. Born out of the protest, a federal court ruled that cities must equalize funding for public services in Black and white neighborhoods in 1971’s Hawkins v. Shaw decision. Although the case did a lot of good, we can see with Jackson’s crisis and countless others that political leaders and the government can still deprive Black communities of their fundamental human rights. The fact that this court ruling was not effective shows that laws preventing environmental racism need to be better enforced

For the past two years, Jackson residents have not gone a month without a Boil Water Notice and have had low to no water pressure. Drinking contaminated water can cause detrimental health effects, such as gastrointestinal illnesses, nervous system or reproductive defects, and cancer. Citizens have been forced to adapt to these inhumane conditions while those in power use state funds for infrastructure in other towns and cities — but not Jackson — despite the clear need. This is a race issue. In Long Beach, Mississippi, which is 87.15% white, water is safe, available, and plentiful.

It is sickening that the government has done little to resolve the long-term issue because those being affected are poor people of color.

The media is part of the problem. Up until very recently, major news outlets did not broadcast information about the water crisis. How is it that a city depriving nearly 200,000 people of a basic human right was not good enough for front page news? The media too often neglects atrocities that systems of power commit against communities

of color. Make no mistake, the lack of media coverage about the Jackson water crisis is not a fluke. While we cannot say with certainty if it was a result of conscious or unconscious bias, the reality is that most major media outlets in our country tailor themselves towards a white, paying audience. Therefore, they assume that injustices against poor people of color will not resonate with their audience and leave many tragedies unacknowledged.

Since the start of the school year, the lack of water bottles in

not everyone in this country has access to clean drinking water, so complaining about having to use reusable water bottles reeks of privilege and ignorance.

There are ways that we can help, even as students. Donate money to aid the people living in Jackson: The Mississippi Food Network, the Helping Friends and Neighbors Fund (Disaster Relief Fund) at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, and the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition are great organizations that help provide the people of Jackson with clean water. Apart from donations, it is important that we spread awareness about what’s happening in Jackson.

Many people still do not know about the crisis. Educating yourself and others about water insecurity is necessary to eventually resolve this issue, as widespread social awareness and public pressure on issues often lead to long-term behavioral changes, whether that is in our community or in the behavior of the political leaders in Jackson. The state of Mississippi has ignored the cries of people of color

a water bottle. The reality is that

Students should prevent plastic waste by using reusable water bottles

shouldn’t school take action when there is a clear, easy solution?

I have heard a lot of students say that plastic water bottles are not harmful if they recycle them. This statement could not be further from the truth. Not everyone at the school throws their plastic water bottles in the recycling bin because it is less convenient to find recycling bins. When you throw a plastic bottle into the recycling, you probably assume that it will get recycled. Wrong.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, out of the 40 million tons of plastic waste generated by the U.S. in 2021, only five to six percent, or two million tons, was recycled; about 85 percent went to landfills and 10 percent was burned.

paper cups next to the water coolers. While paper is also a single-use material, paper is the easiest material to recycle, according to GreenMatters. Around 68 percent of recycled paper and cardboard is repurposed — an astonishing number compared to the five-percent plastic recycling rate. So, if you forget to bring a reusable water bottle to school, paper cups are a far more sustainable option than plastic water bottles.

Eliminating plastic water bottles in the cafeteria is essential to make the school more eco-friendly.

Prior to eliminating plastic bottles, the cafeteria produced an immense amount of plastic waste. If every person who eats in the cafeteria took one plastic water bottle every day, the school would waste over 1,400 plastic water bottles every day and 250,000 plastic water bottles (or 6,000 pounds of plastic) per year. Our planet is already overrun by plastic. Why

Moreover, plastic can only be recycled so many times. Because the heating process shortens polymer chains, it degrades the plastic quality.

PET plastic, used for water bottles, can only be recycled two to three times before its quality becomes too poor to reuse. Even if you thought that you did not add to the billions of tons of plastic waste by recycling your water bottle, you most likely were.

In place of the plastic Aquafina water bottles, the cafeteria now offers

A common complaint is that students forget their reusable water bottle and are thirsty throughout the day. To this, I don’t know what to say except just don’t forget. The fact that some students want plastic water bottles back because they forget their reusable ones shows just how much privilege they have. Bringing a reusable water bottle to school is not that hard — we all have one laying around our house — and we can make an effort to bring it with our notebooks and folders when we pack our backpacks the night before school. I have no doubt that within a couple of weeks, most students will get used to this change and carry a reusable water bottle around school.

The last complaint that I hear is that students are forced to drink

Staff

unhealthier options, namely Snapple,, because they want to carry around a beverage with them for hydration. Again, everyone should bring a reusable water bottle to school. There are plenty of water fountains to keep our bottles filled and keep us hydrated.

The school has tried to eliminate plastic water bottles in the past by switching to aluminum. I thought we were finally moving forward in their sustainable practices during the cannedwater era, but many students, including myself, complained about the water’s horrible metallic taste and the school reinstated plastic. There is no sustainable bottled alternative to plastic that the student body can get on board with — removing them altogether was the only option. While removing the water bottles was an excellent first step, there is more to be done. I urge FLIK and the school to eliminate all single-use plastic in our cafeteria.

Staff Writers Ariella Frommer, Ava Lipsky, Clara Stevanovic, Erica Jiang, Etta Singer, Hanzhang Swen, Harper Rosenberg, Isabella Ciriello, Jorge Orvananos, Joshua Shuster, Kate Beckler, Lucy Peck, Maeve Goldman, Mira Bansal, Naomi Yaeger, Neeva Patel, Samantha Matays, Sofia Kim, Sophia Paley, Sophie Rukin, Spencer Kolker, Audrey O’Mary, Brody Grossman, Emily Wang, Jacqueline Shih, James Zaidman, Malachai Abbott, Nikita Pande, Oliver Konopko, Rena Salsberg

Staff Photographers Nicole Au, Jorge Orvananos, Trish tran, Aanya Gupta, Jiwan Kim, Emily Wang, David Aaron, Harper Rosenberg, Evan Contant

Staff Artists Sam Stern, Dylan Leftt, Sammi Strasser, Kristy Xie, Addy Steinberg, Ishaan Iyengar, Sophie Li, Serena Bai, Kayden Hansong, Aashna Hari, Karla Moreira, Isabelle Kim, Christain Connor, Sam Gordon, Dani Brooks, Aimee Yang

Editorial Policy

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

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

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

Letters Letters to the editor often respond to editorials, articles, and opinions pieces, allowing The Record to uphold its commitment to open discourse within the school community. They too represent the opinion of the author and not of The Record or the school. To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters should be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or email (record@horacemann. org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed.

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

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Vivian Coraci/Art

College admissions officers host infosessions at school

Between September 15 and November 20, college admissions officers from over 70 colleges nationwide visit the school to provide informational sessions to seniors and juniors. “Colleges are trying to get information out to our students about what their colleges are about, what they’re like, what they’re good at,” Executive Director of College Counseling (CoCo) Canh Oxelson said.

While both juniors and seniors are allowed to attend the sessions, only seniors are excused from class with their teacher’s permission, Oxelson said. “Juniors are encouraged to come to sessions during their free periods.” Despite this, not many juniors have attended the sessions so far, Oxelson said.

Unlike sessions on college campuses, sessions at the school were focused on questions specific to Horace Mann students, Coco Trentalancia (12) said. “They knew what HM kids look for, what kind of a community we are, and how well rounded our students are.” The sessions are useful and allow her to express interest in a school, so Trentalancia plans to attend them for every school on her list, she said.

The information presented in each session varies depending on the interests of the students who attend, Lawson Wright (12) said. “In the University of Richmond one, the admissions officer discussed what makes a good application [and] how you can convey character and personality through your application,” Wright said. Some sessions, such as the one for the University of Chicago, were driven entirely by student questions.

To host a session at the school, colleges begin to schedule times in July and continue to communicate throughout the fall, Oxelson said. “We

wait for colleges to reach out to us and when they say they are interested in visiting, we send them a link allowing them to schedule [a session].”

The school tries to schedule a college admissions officer visit with every college that contacts them, Oxelson said. “We want our students exposed to as many different kinds of colleges as possible,” he said. “We don’t say no to any college, whether it’s a college in Italy, or a college in Canada, or a college in the southwestern part of the United States.”

The sessions bring the human aspect of the college process to life, Divya Ponda (12), who attended Northwestern’s session, said. “Meeting the admissions officers helped me realize that at the end of the day, they are just people.”

As more colleges have begun to host virtual sessions due to COVID restrictions, around 10 percent of the sessions this year have been virtual, Oxelson said. “It’s harder to connect with students virtually,” he said. “It’s valuable for a representative to see the school, where it is, what kinds of students go here, what kinds of conversations they have, what kinds of questions they have.”

Hosting in-person sessions allows students to engage with the colleges’

HOT TAKES food

Divya Ponda (12) and Andrew Ogundimu (12):

Tendy Tuesdays NEED to be abolished. Chicken tenders should not be consumed on a weekly basis: they are bad for your health, and should not be an entree.

Peter Yu (12):

Tendy tuesdays are good; the problem is no one knows how to eat it properly. Add some marinara and cheese and it’s amazing.

Sienna Tolani (9):

Tendy Tuesdays work with ketchup and honey mustard.

Nitika Subramanian (12): I like ketchup and Kraft Mac & Cheese.

Maddie Yoon (12):

Mushy, NOT soggy, fries are better than crunchy ones. Mushy fries generally have more potato inside; the crispy ones are mostly just the fried part.

Wi-Fi outage last Tuesday

Blake Bennett Staff Writer

Last Tuesday, the school’s Wi-Fi shut down after the network security service mischaracterized regular website traffic as malware, and blocked all internet traffic.

The school uses Wi-Fi from the Cisco Meraki IT company Wi-Fi and is generally stable, Director of Technology Adam Kenner said. However, the school will migrate soon from Academic and HM Academic to a new network, HM Secure. Students and teachers will log into HM Secure with their Google accounts while guests will use Guest Wifi, which will require a generic password, Kenner said.

traffic.” By 5 p.m., the school restored all internet services using a temporary workaround for the security issue that persisted outside the school’s network.

Wi-Fi outages are a rare occurrence at school, Dean of Faculty Dr. Andrew Fippinger said. “It’s a huge network, so the fact that it goes down so infrequently is quite impressive.”

The Tuesday malfunction kept students and faculty offline for most of the day. “In today’s world, where classes are heavily reliant on WiFi, it really prevents learning when the Wi-Fi doesn’t work,” Matthew Pruzan (10) said. “I commend the tech office for their speed in fixing the problem.”

material more easily, William Chung Park (12) said. “It’s a lot easier to ask questions, and the session is much more interactive when it’s in person.”

While the sessions help students learn more about schools they are interested in, most colleges don’t see attendance as a necessary part of an application, Oxelson said. “The urban legend is that you want to demonstrate that you are interested in a school,” he said. “While that’s true, it’s not as important as going to visit the school yourself or applying early, which would demonstrate a real interest.”

However, a few schools do pay attention to attendance at such sessions, along with campus visits, online events, and interviews, Oxelson said. “There are some schools that don’t see a lot of applicants from Horace Mann, where it might actually help the student’s record to attend a session,” he said. In those cases, the CoCo will point out that school to the students who are thinking about applying, Oxelson said.

Wright is grateful for the sessions and how they gave him the opportunity to gather information about schools that were difficult to visit, he said. “I wasn’t able to visit the University of Richmond yet, so I think the session helped bring the school to life.”

Kenner received numerous reports of internet outages starting 9 a.m. on Tuesday and acted immediately to locate the source of the problem, he said. When the Technology Department receives complaints, they

It was also a major issue for students who rely on their time at school to complete a large portion of their homework. “I prefer to complete most of my work at school so it was very disruptive and caused issues for me while doing my work.” Lukas Frangenberg (10) said.

occurring,” Kenner said.

Once the problem was identified, Kenner contacted outside resources to help remediate the trouble, he said.

“By noon, we had outside technicians on-site troubleshooting the internet circuit that carries all our wireless

Middle Division Spanish teacher Elizabeth Rosa the materials that she had on Google Drive during the outage, but still engaged her students and met her learning objectives, she said. “Since I am still old school in some ways, I was able to switch plans for my classes, not impacting my teaching or the learning of my students.”

ICIE hosts bystander intervention training

learned how to respond to a situation in a way that benefitted and educated everyone involved.

This Wednesday, the Office for Identity, Culture, and Institutional Equity (ICIE) hosted a bystander intervention training workshop facilitated by Step UP!, a program developed by the University of Arizona and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The goal of the optional Zoom workshop was to teach students how to be proactive bystanders and

Step UP! founder Becky Bell led the training and highlighted how students can intervene in concerning situations, along with common barriers to intervention and reasons why people

is ‘hey, that’s alright,’” Bell said at the workshop. People often do not intervene because they fear social stigma, are unsure if there is really a problem at all, or are uncomfortable, but it is important to take that step and rise to the occasion, she said. “The power of one person cannot be

workshop] feeling better prepared to intervene during potentially difficult

At the end of the meeting, students discussed ways they could have productive conversations with someone who said or did something hurtful. Instead of reprimanding the offender, bystanders should focus on asking them questions and encouraging the offender to examine their thoughts, Bell said.

“It’s really easy to immediately judge someone if they say something that you’re not comfortable with,” Kim said, “But I think it’s important to make room for that change and encourage

and permit,” Bell said. She encouraged students to keep in mind their own values and the values of their community. Bell’s points about culture resonated with her, Kim said. “I’ve definitely noticed that a few people can really change the energy in a room or at an event, so it’s always important for each one of us to always keep our values and our ethics in mind,” she said.

Bell also discussed the 5 Decision Making Steps: Direct, Distract, Delegate, Delay, and Document. These steps are meant to guide people in distressing situations, she said. “Some people are more comfortable or confident intervening directly, [while] some rather intervene she said. She emphasized that there are many ways

The ICIE office discovered Step UP! while searching for a bystander training program that they could offer to Upper Division students, Moloney wrote. “We [ICIE]The great thing about HM is that [many] of these bystander intervention strategies aren’t just discussed when we offer training,” Moloney wrote. The workshop provided a space for students to practice and expand on the skills they learned in Health or the

Audrey O’Mary Staff Writer

LISTEN AND LEARN Seniors attend admissions officer information session.

Courtesy of Cahn Oxelson

Aashna Hari/Staff Artist

Riding, racing, sailing, Students pursue unconventional

Ari Borut (12): Sailing

Clara stevanoviC Staff Writer

This Wednesday afternoon, Ari Borut (12) was out on the Long Island sound, trapezing and cutting through the water on her C-420 racing boat. Borut is a long-time competitive sailing racer. She often gets home from her boating club late at night, but still loves going to sailing practice and pushing herself. “It’s exhausting, but also super fun, and that makes it all worth it,” Borut said.

At the age of nine, Borut began to windsurf near her house at Martha’s Vineyard, where she has been going every summer since she was young. Borut’s house, a few blocks from the ocean, offers a clear view of sailors and windsurfers gliding across the surrounding harbor. Watching the sailors inspired Borut to windsurf and sail herself. “I was like, that looks cool, I really want to try it,” Borut said.

When she turned nine, Borut began taking private windsurfing lessons. She began taking sailing classes a year later, since classes at Martha’s Vineyard were only offered to ten year olds. She was immediately drawn to windsurfing and sailing after beginning lessons. “I just really fell in love with it and started sailing other boats from there,” Borut said.

Initially, windsurfing was difficult for Borut. “I remember just crying on my windsurfing board because it can be so physically intense, but eventually you learn to love it once you start mastering different skills,” she said.

By the age of 12, Borut began to take sailing more seriously. Borut continues to windsurf for fun, but chose to focus on sailing competitively, because the majority of high school and college level competitions involve sailing.

Even during the school year, Borut sails frequently and practices when she gets home from school. She sails three times per week from September to October, March to May, and 20 hours each week during the summer.

“I’m out on the water for six hours with no break. When I do that, it is definitely a lot,” Borut said.

In her off-season, Borut watches Youtube videos of people sailing and reads books about the wind to improve her performance and better understand the mechanics of the sport. “You definitely have to get the physical aspect down, but the tactics that you learn outside of the boat are just as important,” she said.

Even though Borut has been sailing for years, it can sometimes be difficult to manage both schoolwork and sailing. “Sometimes I feel really sore, and I just want to take a nap after practice,” Borut said. “At first I had a hard time, because of the amount of work I got, especially during the spring of 10th grade. But over time, I figured out how to balance [sailing and schoolwork],” she said.

Borut now considers sailing practice to be a break from her school work. When she is on the water, Borut focuses on sailing and does not think of anything else. “I just focus on figuring out how I can be the fastest person on the water,” she said. Borut’s passion for sailing drives her to persevere and practice regularly.

I started getting frustrated at each other,” she said. As a result of their frustration, it became difficult for Borut and her partner to concentrate on sailing and remain focused during their races. “It was something we had to overcome. We realized that if we continued being mad at each other, our boat was not going to be able to

with the spinnaker, a third sail that is set when the boat is going downwind or perpendicular to the wind. “It is a really hard skill,” she said. Borut steers while her crew members counterbalance the tipping boat by leaning off of one side, attached by bungee cords called the trapeze.

Borut compares this skill to roll tacking, where sailors intentionally tip and flatten a boat while turning so it sails much faster. “It is difficult because if you don’t do the timing correctly, you end up actually slowing your boat down,” Borut said.

Each year, starting from the age of 13, Borut participates in an annual all-girls regatta, called the Gill

Clio Rao (12): Horseback riding

Josh shuster Staff Writer

“I was definitely a part of that ‘every little girl wants a pony’ group,” Clio Rao (12) said. “I was obsessed with horses, and I really wanted to try riding.” Rao’s childhood dream has become a reality — she is now a competitive horseback rider.

Rao began horseback riding after her mom suggested it as a pastime activity on weekends and during summers in upstate New York, she said. Rao quickly fell in love with the sport and pursued it at summer camps for several years, eventually making the decision to ride competitively in 2016. Now, Rao rides in Amenia, a town in Dutchess County, New York.

Rao has been riding casually for 11 years, and competitively for six, she said. “I ride every week — Friday, Saturday, Sunday — and anytime I have days off or on vacation.” Rao competes most weeks in the summer but has less time to do it during the school year.

During her years riding, Rao has experienced various ups and downs, she said. “I really stuck with [riding] because I love the horses and the special bond that’s created through riding, but there were definitely times when it felt challenging.”

One especially frustrating moment in her career was when she searched for a new horse. Rao found a horse that was young, mobile, kind, and seemed perfect for her. Unfortunately, the horse did not pass a pre-veterinary exam since it had a medical condition called ‘shivers.’

At that time, Rao had already looked at over ten horses, so the experience was particularly frustrating, she said. “It was definitely really hard in the moment —

getting my hopes up and then getting disappointed.” However, Rao did not quit in her goal of finding a steadfast steed, and eventually, with the help of her trainer, found two horses that she formed unbreakable bonds with.

Rao’s equine dream team currently consists of two Dutch Warmblood horses named Boss and Tessa. “Meeting [Boss] was the best part of my riding career because he has helped me so much, not just with my riding, but also with my patience,” Rao said. “He has been my best friend, my rock; he has been there for me.” Boss is 16 years old and white-ish gray with many small specks scattered over his hide.

she took training lessons in preparation for a division called the Junior Hunters. Hunters the main categories in horseback riding, with courses designed to imitate nature using wooden poles and logs for horses to navigate through. Horses have to know when to jump and how to jump: the hunters course is judged on how well the horse can jump.

about two months ago. “She looks like your stereotypical white, princess horse,” Rao said. In competitions, Tessa performs jumpers, which tests a horse’s speed. “I like it a lot more [than Hunters] because the judging isn’t subjective at all,” she said.

A lot of judges have preferences for horses with certain colors and builds, but jumpers are solely judged on their performance.

Horses are incredibly high maintenance, especially at a horses’ water troughs. The horses also

regularly visit a farrier, who replaces their horseshoes. Horses also need bonding time with their riders, Rao said. “[We give] them treats, cuddle with them, [and] have them know they’re loved because they can tell.”

definitely a quality I think you need to have.” Rao focuses on why she loves the sport — the horses.

One of the largest milestones in Rao’s riding career was winning second place in her favorite riding show, the

skin is also importaant for riding in competitions. “The competitive world is very toxic, and there are people who are in it for the [wrong] reasons, and can be very manipulative,” Rao said. “Having your wits about you is

riding team, but she does want to ride throughout college, and afterwards too.

“A lot of people take a break and come back later to [riding] in life,” Rao said. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay away from the horses for long.”

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Courtesy of Ari Borut

CourtesyofClioRao

sailing, skating: unconventional sports

ava lipsky Staff Writer

Horace Mann students are known for being quick-learners, but Riya Daga (12) is learning at 200 mph — literally.

Daga started racing at 13 years old. By the time she was 14, she was on the racetrack regularly. Daga was inspired by her father, who is a motorsports enthusiast. “When I was 13, he asked me if I wanted to learn how to drive and I said yes.”

“When I started racing, I had no experience driving, so I was learning to train my depth perception for braking and how to smoothly accelerate and decelerate,” she said. Even though Daga was 13, she did not need a license to start racing because it was up to the private property to decide whether or not to let you drive, she said. Daga started taking lessons with an instructor who watched her drive.

That summer, Daga attended the Bertil Ros racing school to learn the basics of the sport. Afterwards, Daga spent many days on the track where she practiced driving laps in her car. This helps the driver learn more about the car and general racing techniques, she said.

In 2020, Daga went to another racing school and became more invested in the sport, she said. “The summer is usually my favorite time to race as I can just focus on racing as opposed to balancing school and racing,” Daga said. The summer before her junior year, Daga interned at the track for a month where she spent her time working and racing on the track.

By the end of the summer, Daga’s car, a Global MX-5 Cup, had two major mechanical issues, primarily due to her height. “My car was built for taller people and I am 4’10”,” she said. Daga tried to make adjustments to the car

like inserting different types of pedal extensions to compensate for her height, but after two years of racing the car, these implementations put

straps onto her helmet to protect her in the case of an accident. Once in the car, she straps herself into a five-point seat belt which tightly secures her.

People are shocked to hear that she is a racecar driver, Daga said. “A lot of people think of race car drivers as tall and toned white men.” The racing

frustrated, but that’s part of the process,” she said. “As I became faster, I started passing cars, which was thrilling.”

To pick up speed and pass other cars, Daga calculates the right radius and angle on the fly. “The calculation that goes into passing cars is rewarding to figure out.”

Through her racing experience, Daga has been inspired by the racing colloquialism, “you should always look three turns ahead” that taught her to think long-term. Racers must look at least one or two corners ahead to see where they want their car to be, and maneuver towards that position. “I’m always thinking ahead, not only about the upcoming turns in front of me, but about the other cars on track.,” she said.

From racing, Daga has also acquired more patience and persistence, she said. “It can be frustrating when you feel that you’re not getting a turn right or you are having a hard time downshifting from fourth to third gear,” she said. “Practice and determination makes you better at those skills at the end of the day, so being patient and trusting yourself and the process is essential.”

other commitments.

When racing, Daga wears a fireproof suit, fireproof thermals, racing gloves, and a fireproof base layer underneath her suit. Her racing shoes have a grip to help her feet move quickly around the different pedals in the car. She also has a helmet with a HANS neck brace that

Daga said. “I visualize a perfect lap of the track and go through the gears once quickly just to make sure I am in the right mindset.”

Because she races, people have often assumed that it is easy for Daga to drive on the road — but there are major differences. “On the street, you will break slowly when you approach a stop sign. In racing, you’re accelerating 100 percent and then you’re breaking 100 percent.”

the track was really thrilling because hearing the car shift well is an amazing sound,” Daga said. Learning stick shift was initially hard for Daga because of her height. “I needed to press harder on the clutch, which exerted more energy on my legs and mentally to make sure the clutch had been fully pressed,” she said.

Daga enjoys passing cars during races, she said. “When you start racing, cars are often passing you and you get

“Racing does have its ups and downs,” Daga said. “On ‘Drive to Survive,’ they say that in racing, the highs are really high and the lows are really low, and that is 100 percent true,” she said. “You learn to manage those feelings after a while but it’s still very intense since you’re giving 100 percent focus on being one with the car the whole day — if the car is having a rough time, you feel like you are having a rough time.”

Regardless, Daga’s passion for the sport has persisted. “I very much love racing and plan to continue pursuing it in the future.”

It was difficult to conquer his fear of being in the air, but it was crucial in

“The sensation of ice skating is unlike anything else,” Max Feng (11) said.

Feng first ice skated at an afterschool program at his elementary school in 2014, he said. A few years later, Feng realized he wanted to pursue figure skating after watching figure skaters compete in the 2018 Olympics, he said. He started taking lessons at the age of 10 at Chelsea Piers to improve his skills.

“[During] my initial experiences with skating, I was nervous, but I was also excited to see where I could go and what other goals I could achieve,” Feng said. He entered his figure skating journey with Olympic dreams, but realized they were unrealistic after he saw other kids who had begun ice skating at a much younger age achieve milestones that remained unattainable for him.

Despite that reckoning, Feng stuck with the sport because it had become an important part of his identity in which he invested a lot of time, and his ice skating journey did not feel complete yet. He also feared disappointing his coaches and his parents. “Even during tough days when I was very frustrated and wanted to quit, I always felt like it was something I could never leave.”

The first skill that Feng mastered was the single axel, a jump where a skater does one and a half revolutions.

year. Sometimes he practices before school, from 6 a.m. to 7:20 a.m., while other times it happens after school. Feng makes time for skating outside through the Physical Education

Department’s out-of-school contract, which exempts him from PE classes

after he skates multiple program runthroughs, he said.

One of Feng’s favorite skating experiences came in the 2022 Middle Atlantic Championships. He skated to the song “Memoirs of a Geisha” and scored a clean program, where every aspect of his performance including jumps, spins, and step sequences, was error-free. When Feng found out he scored a clean program, he was ecstatic and celebrated with his coaches. The experience of competing against other male skaters was thrilling since there are not a lot of boys to compete against, both in the competitions he skates and the sport in general, Feng

the end of the season, he will receive entrance into the Eastern Sectionals competition, and after that, entrance into the US Figure Skating Association National Development team. If Feng qualifies for the team, it will grant him more connections to the skating world and allow him to meet many talented skaters.

This past summer, Feng worked at Chelsea Piers Full-Day Ice Skating Camp, where he helped coaches teach kids how to skate. It was very enjoyable, so in the future, Feng aspires to build on his skating skills while applying his experiences by mentoring children and doing more coaching.

For Feng, the skating process includes warming up and being prepared mentally, he said. “In the circumstance of a competition, it’s about giving it my all and being concentrated,” he said. Feng finds it helpful to separate himself from the competitive environment at events by listening to upbeat music.

Although skating is an independent practice, Feng still encounters the collaborative skills that players on team sports learn. “I’ve always argued to [my parents] that even if you are in an individual sport, you can still develop a sense of companionship and union with other people.” The experience of encouraging friends to achieve new goals and do well in competitions is especially very rewarding, Feng said. sammy matays Staff Writer

close to mastering the skill, but there is a mental block that prohibits him from landing. He is also working to develop his stamina under his coaches’ guidance so he is not as tired

As Feng advances through the skating world, he competes at least four times a year in increasingly competitive environments, he said. “Now, I am entering the national qualifying season and competing against other boys my age who might be more skilled than I am.” He hopes that by

Students and teachers evaluate the school’s 64 year old art requirement

“It is important to have a variety of experiences through the school day to engage different parts of one’s mind,” Visual Arts teacher Mirrie Choi said. “From academic, to physical, to creative, each will activate you differently.”

The Upper Division (UD) requires all students to complete two art credits — at least one-half in a studio/performance art and one-half in an appreciation in either music, visual arts, or theater and dance — to graduate.

The school first implemented a requirement of one art credit in 1958. In 1980, it raised the requirement to one-and-a-half credits, according to the Archives. That requirement was raised again to two credits in 2016,

benefit students. Music classes help students form a stronger emotional connection to the music they listen to, which can be very satisfying, he said. “[Art appreciations] directly complement other subjects,” he said. “We show connections to everyday things that students hear that they may not really think about.”

In a world immersed in the moving image, an appreciation of film techniques helps students become more culturally literate, Film/Video and Photography teacher Jordan Rathus said. “It’s easy to become passive viewers, missing out on opportunities to critically assess the biases and assumptions embedded in media.”

Music classes are important because they teach empathy, Music Department Chair Timothy Ho said. “In some subjects, you can have an

effort that goes into creating art, Music teacher Alan Bates said.

“Then, when they see a band, they’ll go ‘wow, these people must have rehearsed forever to be able to play like that’ or ‘this theater group must have put in a lot of time to be able to produce this production,’” he said.

Art classes can also teach perseverance, Choi said. “For example, if a sculpture falls apart, or a print decides to have a life of its own, you can discover an entirely new way of working that you would not have found otherwise.”

The art requirement is necessary, Bates said. Without the requirement, some students might never take an art class at the school, thinking that it is not necessary because it will not help a student get into college, he said. “To be a well-rounded person, everybody should experience all different types of art and theater, dance, and music.”

Likewise, Posner thinks both the appreciation and the studio art requirements are important, he said. For example, some people may not want to be on stage, but can appreciate theater as a spectator, so they can still take part in theater by taking classes such as History of American Musical Theater. “I’m not a painter, but when I see someone drawing something, it’s like alchemy — I love it,” he

While Ho strongly believes in the art requirement, he recognizes some of the drawbacks. “Every Horace Mann student wants to do everything, so the art requirement might limit the ability of someone who isn’t an artist to do something else,” he

Miller Harris (12) enjoys the Orchestra classes he has taken for his seven years in the UD and Middle Division. “I’ve learned to enjoy that part of my day,” he said. “My orchestra class is H period and it’s a

critical thinking, and art is a part of that cohesive goal,” she said. “There appears to be less of a stress for many students in our classes about what grades they achieve, so they might feel they can truly learn for the joy

Art is a critical part of what makes us human, psychologist Dr. Ian Pervil said. “Dedicating a part of your day to understanding and appreciating the artistic aspects of our humanity is essential,” he said. Allowing for creativity, vitality, and feelings is crucial to a student’s education, he said.

Having the capacity to reflect and express oneself, which students cultivate through learning about and making art, is fundamental to

“But, with music […] everybody has to subjugate their ego a bit to make this thing that you are all working towards work.”

Likewise, in addition to singing, chorus teaches students important skills like collaboration, Ho said.

“While we’re honing our individual skills, we’re also figuring out how to listen to each other and blend and how to make music.”

An art education includes

Alara Yilmaz (11) prefers computer science classes to arts classes, but she still sees the value in the arts courses.

“I’ve taken one computer science class each year so it doesn’t interfere with the art requirement,” she said. “My computer science classes focus on how to code and learning new skills, whereas in art classes, I have time to create projects and do handson work.”

Julia Werdiger (11) took contemporary art history in ninth grade both to meet the art appreciation credit and to learn more about a subject she was interested in, she said. “I see art everywhere, so learning the history and learning how to analyze [art] appealed to me.” She has found the information she learned in the class useful when going to museums and analyzing artwork, she said. Werdiger has not taken any appreciation credits since ninth grade, but may in the future.

For Werdiger, the art requirement is important because it helps her explore new topics, she said. “I probably wouldn’t have taken a lot of art classes if it wasn’t a requirement, and now I get to,” she said. “The art classes add a break to the academic aspect of the school and really

Ceramics was Werdiger’s favorite art class she took, she said. “It was a lot of hands-on, actually touching the clay and making different shapes and forms,” she said. “It was really different from the academic classes where you’re sitting at a desk and

Sophie Pietrzak (11), who took Film History 1, believes the class has increased her appreciation for the films she watches outside of school, she said. “When I’m watching movies at home, I notice the small details

requirement.

Because of the requirement, there are students with varying levels of interest in each art class,

Amira Dossani/Art Director

Erica Jiang and Lucy Peck Writers

Sophia Liu/Art Director

SerenaBai/StaffArtist

CCVA’s Watts joins MD faculty as Service Learning Cordinator

Harper Rosenberg Staff Writer

After four years in the the Center for Community Values and Action (CCVA), CCVA Program Associate Conasia Watts took on a new role this year as the Middle Division (MD) Service Learning (SL) Coordinator.

Watts will help develop SL programming for sixth through eighth grade students. MD students will explore a new service-learning model and have the opportunity to interact with some of the CCVA’s community partners such as Riverdale Senior Service, Riverdale Neighborhood House, and Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, Watts wrote in an email.

Watts worked with MD students at the school before taking on the new position

MD program also hosted a carnival with the school’s community partners, an extension of the MD end-of-year carnival, so Watts had some experience working with MD students through that program.

Currently there is no MD SL team, but eighth grade students will have the opportunity to join one of the Upper Division Service Learning Teams (HM246) this fall, Watts wrote. “Eighth grade students will work with UD Fellows to help facilitate electives with our Community Partners.”

In both sixth and seventh grade, MD students will partake in SL initiatives within their advisory groups, Watts wrote. For example, sixth grade students will explore the Bronx by working with the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, while seventh grade students learn about food sovereignty by working with

initiatives, Watts wrote. “During the week of October 3, I will be hosting a pop-up in the Atrium where students (in all grades) can stop by to create bookmarks, help sort books, and create hygiene kits and craft kits that will be donated to the Friendly Fridge — a grassroots community fridge located right down the hill next to the one train,” she wrote. Events like this will fulfill the eighth grade service requirement, Watts wrote. Similar pop-up events occur the first two weeks of every month during D, E, and I periods.

Watts will send out a survey in the coming weeks to gauge student interest to be part of the SL curriculum. She will send another iteration of the survey to MD faculty and staff to collaborate with teachers who engage in SL outside of school. “I am excited to hear about other faculty members’ takes on service-learning and look forward to potentially introducing new community partners,” Watts wrote.

Ms. Watts would be responsible for the MD, Khan wrote. Moreover, the biggest hope for MD’s CCVA this year is to reconnect with many of their partner

when she coached the MD Field Hockey team last year and helped previous SL Coordinator Caitlin Hickerson with her HM Lead’s Service Elective. Last year, the CCVA and

an array of local Bronx Community Fridges, she wrote.

Additionally, eighth grade students will be required to complete two service learning

Since he arrived to the school in 2019, Head of MD Javaid Khan has been involved in a number of discussions regarding how CCVA could be more directly involved with the MD, Khan wrote. After Hickerson left the school, he met with the CCVA to figure out next steps. Those in charge of the committee quickly came to the conclusion that it was time for the CCVA to oversee both divisions,

programs in person, Khan wrote. It has been a challenge during COVID, as many of their guidelines were restrictive to visitors, he wrote.

Khan believes Watts will bring fresh ideas and positive energy to the MD, he wrote. “We will continue to create an impact on the HM and greater Bronx community by building off of the great work done by so many HM educators before her arrival,” Khan wrote.

“We could not be happier — she is dynamo!”

Alvarez takes over for Norma Rodriguez as MD Advisory Coordinator

Sofia Kim Staff Writer

After three years as the Middle Division (MD) Advisory Coordinator, Norma Rodriguez retired last year and passed the role to MD Spanish teacher Arni Alvarez.

when they volunteered at the Bronx Common Pantry. “Observing them show kindness and connect with the larger community was a reflection of what our Advisory Program is.”

A new program Alvarez will help implement in advisories is “#WinAtSocial” by The Social Institute, he said. This program

Sarah Korff (8) feels comfortable with her advisory after two years together, she said. For students, advisory is a place to check-in, play games, and discuss more serious topics, Korff said. She is also excited for her advisory to start practicing meditation together once a week.

To plan advisories, Alvarez works alongside Kahn. They use previous years of advisory activities as reference, but tailor each lesson to the needs of the current students, Alvarez said. If he notices a positive trend or issues about friendships, he will plan a conversation about it for the next advisory, he said. Additionally, the necessity of advisory everyday for the MD comes from the developmental needs of middle schoolers. “They need a place where they get daily reminders, news, and guidance,” he said.

Alvarez and Rodriguez shared an advisory for the past two years. She served as a mentor and a good friend, Alvarez said. This relationship prompted Alvarez to consider taking on the Advisory Coordinator position, he said. “It wasn’t a role I anticipated or saw myself in the past, but when I saw the opportunity, I decided to apply.”

Alvarez was interviewed by the Head of the MD Javaid Kahn, where he discussed his ideas to continue strengthening the advisory program. A few weeks after his interview, Kahn informed Alvarez that he was selected for the role.

The MD advisory program differs from the Upper Division advisory program because it serves a larger role in the student’s day.

Each advisory, consisting of 10 to 12 students with one to two advisors, meets everyday from 10 to 10:15 a.m. to discuss day to day agendas, grade-wide issues, or current events. Advisories meet for a full period each week to build deeper connections with peers and advisors. Establishing comfortable communication within a small group is important as each advisory remains the same three years of MD, Alvarez said. “The goal is to become a better Horace Mann citizen at large.”

Advisory should convey citizenship values of the community to students, from learning how to respectfully address their teachers over email to being mindful of the community, Alvarez said. He saw his advisees’ enthusiasm

consists of eight to 10 interactive lessons that educate students on how to wisely navigate social media. “Nowadays, everybody has a smartphone, and most of our students have access to applications of social media,” Alvarez said. Kahn heard about the program through the advisory programs of other schools around the nation, he said. The program will cover specific topics of social media, including TikTok and mental health.

Advisory is a place to establish connections, sixth grade Dean John McNally said. “The purpose of the advisory program is for advisors to build camaraderie with the students and provide a space that’s non academic, where they can make connections, develop their social-emotional learning, and just more empathy and connections with other students.”

Olivia Choi (8) enjoys meeting with her advisory everyday as it is a break from academics, she said.

McNally sees the role of an advisor as someone who will advocate for students and help them navigate the highs and lows of middle school. “An advisor should be someone the students can reach out to if they’re having trouble in a subject or an issue in the class so no one falls through the cracks.” Because an advisory is a small group, one advisor can focus on the well-being of all of their students, he said.

Eventually, math teacher and advisor Quentin Brooks would like to see activities that bridge different grades in advisory to establish connections and mentorship between the older and younger students, he said. This week the advisors are combining

reading groups the MD summer reading book, Rolling Warrior,

While Korff enjoys seeing her advisory everyday, she would also like to

see flexibility in the schedule. “Sometimes we have a lot of work, so having a 15 minute period to study would be helpful similar to how high-schoolers have break during this time,” she said.

HOMEROOM FUN Señor Aguilar’s advisory spends time together.

"I am excited to hear about other faculty members’ takes on service-learning and look forward to potentially introducing new community partners.”

- Conasia Watts

AWESOME ADVISEES

Students listen attentively to advisor.

James Zaidman/Staff Photographer

James Zaidman/Staff Photographer

Sarah Aaron/Staff Artist

Lions’ Den

Varsity Cross Country’s hard work pays off at Regis

James Zaidman Staff Writer

Last Saturday, 10 runners from the Boys and seven runners from the Girls Varsity Cross Country teams competed in the Regis Invitational, a cross country race at Van Cortlandt Park. The events consisted of 1.5mile races for freshmen and 2.5mile races for sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Coach Jonathan Eshoo was happy with the results since two of his runners placed highly in their respective races: Spencer Kim (11) won first in the junior race and Sebastian Baxter (9) won second in the freshmen race.

The teams prepared in the week leading up to the race so they felt confident and ready, Jake Ziman (12) said. They work in interval training in the Van Cortlandt Park flats, hill repeats, and weight training. On Friday, they did a long, relaxed run at practice to loosen up before the meet.

All of the athletes made their own way to the park on Saturday and warmed up with dynamic stretches, which they do before every practice and meet, Clementine Bondor (12) said. To help the teams warm up in an orderly fashion, the seniors organize runners into lines, she said.

Then, they talked about strategies to “PR” the race, meaning to run a new personal record, Bonder said. “We always want this race to be the PR — at the same time, even if it’s not our best race, we’re in it together,,” she said. “We all made it out here first thing Saturday morning, which

I count as an accomplishment.”

After warming up together, the athletes waited until it was time for their races. The teams had an encouraging level of morale during the whole event, Coach Meredith Cullen said. Her main goal was for everyone to do their best and feel happy with their results, so their positive attitudes added to her already high confidence in the team. Saturday’s nice weather and family and friends who cheered on the runners helped to boost morale even more, Cullen said.

The boys races began first, so the girls team watched and supported them from the sidelines, Bondor said. She was excited to see them cross the finish line, since girls races usually start before the boys in other races, she said.

A few minutes before the races started, runners walked to the starting line, lined up, and did lastminute warm-ups so that they were fully ready, Cullen said.

Once the starting gun is fired, Ziman focuses on his pacing, he said. He considers many factors — if he is running too quickly, too slowly, or at the right speed.

Another challenge team members face is ensuring they run as fast as possible while keeping up their pace until the finish line, he said.

Bondor blocks out all distractions while she runs and focuses on keeping her feet moving, she said. Before the race begins, she might think about making it to the finish line, setting a personal best, or beating last race’s time, but those thoughts are not priorities once she starts running.

Kim paid especially close attention to his surroundings after taking the lead, he said. Frequent team training on the uphill sections of the race allowed him to overtake three runners ahead of him during that stretch. Although at the end of the race the runner in second place almost caught up, Kim maintained his lead to the finish line.

Since runners are not allowed to use watches or people to pace them during the race, Bondor relies on her internal clock and rate of exertion, meaning how much effort she puts in, ranging from 0 to 100 percent, she said. “I’m trying to exert 75 percent of what I can possibly do, and then towards the end of the race, I’ll start cranking that dial up towards my maximum effort.”

Team members often run with each other during a meet, Ziman said. Since runners pace by how they are feeling, having another

team member there helps them pace each other, he said. “I ran with Alex Ment [(12)] at Regis, and we pushed each other to run a time that we both felt good about.”

Kim was excited to have won his race at the meet, however he made sure to not get too caught up in the win, he said. Since this was his first time winning a race, he was happy to see that his training has paid off but still plans to continue working hard throughout the season, Kim said. He also enjoyed watching the Seniors finish their race after he had just won and being able to cheer them on through the finish line, he said.

Cullen was very happy with the results after the race, she said. All of her runners performed well and she was excited to see an improvement from the last race, and for the rest of the season.

Bondor said that just finishing this

race was a huge success. Since the team does not have many races on Saturdays, they enjoyed hanging out after the race. Spirits were also very high since the Regis Invitational is one of the biggest meets of the season with runners from many different schools around the city, she said.

Up next, the cross country teams have two Ivy Preparatory League Developmental meets. Until homecoming, the team plans to run their races at a “tempo” pace, around 80 percent exertion, which will allow runners to recover fast, Ziman said. Their goal is to conserve their energy to perform exceptionally well at the last two races of the season: the Ivy Preparatory League and NYSAIS championships.

Boys Varsity Soccer loses tight game to Hackley

Jaqcueline Shih Staff Writer

The Horace Mann Boys Varsity Soccer team lost 1-3 to Hackley at the hornet’s homecoming game last friday. Heading into the match, the Lions were aware of the energy and pressure that Hackley fans would bring to the game, Logan Scharlatt (10) said.

The team prepared for the game knowing that Hackley is a very strong team — possibly the best in the Ivy Prep League, Alexandre Saint Sauveur (11) said. “The student section at the Hackley game definitely resembled ours during Homecoming.”

The student section had confetti, and was chanting and screaming the team’s names, Edelman said. “It honestly was like nothing I had ever seen before.”The fans weren’t the only factor that made it a tough game — there were a lot of yellow cards . The game was

definitely aggressively played,” Edelman said.”

The day before the game, the team had a “short lazy practice,” Matthew Edelman (12) said. On Friday, they warmed up seriously and played a tense game, mainly as a result of the energy of the Hackley fans, Edelman said.

Hackley’s reputation in our league definitely created tension leading up to the game.‘“Hackley’s team was definitely fast. In fact, they were probably the fastest-paced team BVS played this season, ” Menya Obia (10) said.

Before the game, Max Ting (12) and Edelman gave inspiring speeches to motivate and hype up the team, Owen Stafford (12) said..

In the first half, the team was disorganized in their play, which led to a great disadvantage in the first half, Scharlatt said. Hackley used their momentum against us to really push their team to score, Scharlatt explained.

Hackley scored the first goal and put pressure on the Lions. “The energy of the stands put a

lot of pressure on Hackley’s team, but it did affect us as well,” Scharlatt added.

The Lions made their first goal with Leo Courbe (12). “It was one of the coolest shots I’ve ever seen — the ball went top right into the goal,” Edelman said.

The Horace Mann Boys Varsity soccer team managed to keep up with Hackley’s fast pace. In fact, at the last minute of the hist half, the HM lions followed with only one goal. We all thought that it could be a close game and that we were still in a good position to win,” Sauveur said. “However, we lost our energy after the third goal at the very end of the first half.”

In the second half, the team dynamic started to change. “We got kind of sloppy and Hackley dominated play,” Stafford said. “We definitely could have beaten them.”

Hackley’s gaping lead discouraged the HM Lions, however the team’s coach, Coach

Quilty successfully motivated the team and kept the energy up for the players. During the game, Quilty reminded the players of the opportunity to play under the field lights, explaining that he never got to play soccer under the lights when he was younger so the team should appreciate that opportunity, Edelman said.

One major factor that contributed to the Lion’s loss was how Hackley created and took advantage of numerous chances to score, Stafford said. “We did not have as many chances to score, and on the chances we did have, we did not capitalize on them,” Stafford said. “We gave it our all, but they were just the better team that day.”

The team was disappointed because it was their first loss and the game ended late at night, but they are not demoralized, Sauveur said. “It’s still the very beginning of the season and one loss is not going to mess it up.”

IN THE HORNET’S NEST Lions compete at Hackley’s homecoming.

BVS BROMANCE Players rock whiteout team spirit.

ALL SMILES Girls Varsity Cross Country team poses before meet.

Courtesy of @horacemannbvs

Courtesy of Clementine Bondor

Courtesy of Matthew Edelman