Issue 23

Volume 119 Issue 23

The Record Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

April 8th, 2022

Greene philosophizes on physics at assembly

Courtesy of Emily Salzhauer

Emily Salzhauer Staff Writer

STAR OF THE SHOW Jordan Roth poses with former classmates.

Roth ’93 receives Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement Josh Shuster and Hanzhang Swen Staff Writers

record.horacemann.org

Jordan Roth ’93 was awarded the school’s Award for Distinguished Achievement on Tuesday, April 5. Roth is a six-time Tony award-winning theater producer who manages and oversees five Broadway theaters. The theaters have featured several hit shows, including “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” “Kinky Boots,” and “The Book of Mormon.”

After attending the school, Roth graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University, where he received degrees in philosophy and theater.

He also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia Business School. Roth serves on multiple Boards of Trustees, including The Broadway League, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and the Times Square Alliance.

In 2019, Roth received the Human Rights Campaign Legacy Award at the organization’s gala. His influence and activism in the LGBTQ community earned him The Trevor Project Hero Award in 2016.

The ceremony, which took place at the Tribeca Rooftop + 360º in downtown Manhattan, was the first time the award ceremony was held in person since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President of the Alumni Council Samantha Cooper Brand ’01 P’26 ’29 and Head of School Dr. Thomas Kelly introduced Roth at the awards. “Since my arrival at HM 17 years ago, Jordan has served as a member of the Board of Trustees, passionate about the arts at HM, Student Assistance, diversity and access,” Kelly said.

The alumni council unanimously decided to give Jordan the award because he best represents the highest aspirations and values of the school, Brand said. “He has an illustrious career, he gives selflessly, he mentors students and young people, and is a role model for everyone,” she said.

Roth spoke at career opportunity events for students and made trips to the

theater possible for a plethora of students and classes in the Department of Theater and Dance Studies, Kelly said. Roth has also consulted and supported students on their theater performances at the school. “On top of it all, he has supported multiple campaigns, giving faculty members and students the necessary spaces to grow and thrive,” Kelly said.

Roth was the first candidate to receive the Award for Distinguished Achievement who graduated in the 1990s, Secretary of the Alumni Council and Committee Co-Chair Ephram Lustgarten ’96 P’30 ’33 said. Roth was involved in many different ways in the school, the theater world, and the business community, making a real difference in peoples’ lives, Lustgarten said.

Roth was honored that several of his former teachers came to see him receive the award, he said. “This has been an extraordinary night, and I’m so moved that so many of my friends came back to share this with me, and so many of my teachers.” Roth specifically mentioned former history teacher Mr. DeVito, his fifth grade teacher Ms. Cannon, and his English teacher and the creator of the Independent Studies program, Geraldine Woods.

As a fellow classmate of Roth’s, Dr. Jessica Gordon ’93 P’23 ’25 ’25 was very happy for Roth because the award was such a huge honor and he has achieved so much, she said. “It was exciting to see him with this accomplishment,” she said.

Kelly was humbled and delighted to see Roth accept the award, he said.

“Jordan represents all that is good about the entrepreneurial spirit and, on top of that, he’s an alumnus who has remained consistently involved with the students each year.”

To select a candidate for the Award for Distinguished Achievement, the committee solicits suggestions from the entire school community, looks at the biographies of the nominees, and sits through several committee sessions, Brand said. “The committee is comprised of three alumni from the

council and some volunteers, and we vote on who we believe serves the greater good with their gifts, who embodies the values and the spirit of Horace Mann,” she said.

Roth has been interested in theater since he was in fifth grade. The school was profoundly formative in stoking his love of theater and giving him lots of opportunities to explore theater, music, and performance, he said. “True to Horace Mann form, everything we did, we did with rigor, and commitment, and ambition, and that has absolutely served me in my career, and in my life.”

The committee made the decision to honor Roth with the award in 2020, but they wanted to throw him a proper party in person, Brand said. “That’s what he deserved, and I think he’s the perfect person to reunite our community and bring us back to life,” she said.

Kelly was impressed that the attendees of the event took necessary precautions to keep everybody around them safe, he said. “If not for the joyful and pandemicaware crowd that Jordan brought out, I think I would have been worried.”

Furthermore, all attendees had to show proof of vaccination before entering the venue, he said.

The event was exciting and beautiful, Gordon said. “Everything was really tasteful, and done in a style that befits Jordan.” After many in-person alumni events were postponed due to the pandemic, Gordon said that it was nice to see everybody from her grade at the event. “A lot of individuals from my class came, and so it was like a mini reunion for us,” she said.

Roth has already been back on campus to see shows and talk to students, he said.

One piece of advice he has for students is that the things that make you different are the things to run towards, cultivate, celebrate, and breathe into, he said.

Roth makes the world a better place for those around him and he has the unique ability to do it with permanence, Kelly said. “It’s an honor to know a human being like Jordan Roth ’93.”

We enjoyed putting together last week’s humor issue and are happy that the community seems to have appreciated our silly quips about the school. However, a few articles that we had initially intended to publish in that issue never made it to print. After careful reflection, we regret that we did not publish those pieces.

Specifically, we did not publish a satirical piece poking fun at white savior mentality, nor did we publish a piece mocking student ambassadors’ ultrapositive presentation of the school. Both pieces were cut out of concern for how readers might respond. We worried that

the administration and a small portion of the community may misinterpret the intent of our jokes and take offense.

To be clear: the articles intended to use comedy to criticize the school and to criticize racial stereotypes, not to perpetuate those harmful narratives.

It is unfortunate that we were afraid to make jokes about such important issues as casual racism within our community — even jokes that have positive intentions. Part of our concern was that the administration would hypothetically reprimand us for writing about serious issues in a comedic manner. By extension, we fear that

our self-censorship allows our school’s power structures to protect themselves against potential criticism.

We have offended (or at least irritated) members of the administration before in features and other critical pieces, and they usually take it in stride. An administration should try to be receptive to the criticism it receives — not just reject it out of hand, or potentially censor it. We believe that regardless of the administration’s potential response, we were mistaken to censor ourselves and shy away from angering them.

To be clear, we were not censored outright. We even spoke to the ICIE

“I think that the assembly was one of the best we’ve had this year,” Kat Benton (10) said. “[Greene] was really engaging and got a lot of people’s attention.”

Brian Greene P’23 is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and the director of Columbia’s Center for Theoretical Physics, according to his website.

However, Greene’s work extends far beyond the classroom. He is known for groundbreaking discoveries in the field of superstring theory and is the co-discoverer of mirror symmetry and spatial topology change, the website said.

Greene is also a New York Times

not only because of the topic, Bondor said. “It was interesting to hear from somebody who is at the forefront of these discoveries speak to us in language that was both scientifically accurate and super easy to understand,” she said.

Myra Singh (12) also loved the assembly, she said. “It’s one of my favorite assemblies that we’ve ever had at HM,” she said. “I thought it was so interesting and informative.”

Although Singh herself is fascinated with science and physics, she thought that Greene’s assembly was meant for all students, she said.

“If someone didn’t find the science interesting, the way he presented it would have been super entertaining.”

Diya Chawla (9) learned a lot at the assembly, she said. “I thought it was

“It’s a bit dark, the notion that we’re all going to disintegrate into oblivion, but at the same time, it makes you look at life in a different way. [It makes you] start to notice things that are really beautiful. I thought that was really profound.”

- Clementine Bondor (11) bestselling author of “The Elegant Universe” as well as “Until the End of Time,” “The Fabric of the Cosmos,” “The Hidden Reality,” and “Icarus at the Edge of Time.” All of his books relate to the field of physics.

He has also made many appearances on television including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “Charlie Rose.” Greene has made cameo appearances in many Hollywood films as well, including “Frequency,” “Maze,” and “The Last Mimzy,” the website said.

Greene is the co-founder of the World Science Festival. The Washington Post called him “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today.”

Greene used all of his experience to create an interactive and engaging assembly. “I’m not a “science guy”, but I really enjoyed hearing about his work,” Manager of the Department of Theater and Dance Jonathan Nye said. “I appreciated his presentation and how accessible it was. I know others did too.”

Clementine Bondor (11) was glad to see how engaged the community was with Greene’s assembly, she said.

“I have never seen the student body so enraptured by any assembly in my entire time at Horace Mann. When I went to the talkback with my physics class, I had never seen that many people attend a talkback either.”

Greene’s assembly was unique

Editorial: On the use of humor for critical discourse

to discuss whether the articles could be viewed as genuinely offensive or harmful to members of the student body. We were told that although the article condemned, rather than enforced, harmful stereotypes, there was no way to predict every person’s reaction when using comedy as a means through which to address sensitive issues. Our faculty adviser, Mr. Berenson, seconded ICIE’s advice; thus we were discouraged from addressing the topics through our comedy issue.

Such discouragement operates on an assumption that our average reader cannot think critically about the

a really insightful and educational assembly,” she said. “I thought that Brian Greene did an excellent job of explaining space to us.”

Nye was especially impressed by Greene’s analogy of the Empire State Building, he said. In the analogy, Greene compared the timeline of the universe’s existence to the floors of the Empire State Building, where each building represents a power of ten as well as the future of the universe. “That timeline kind of blew my mind,” Nye said. “It was really fascinating when he was explaining what the universe was potentially going to do.”

Max Feng (10) also enjoyed Greene’s analogy to the Empire State Building floors, he said. “It was really interesting that there is an end to the universe,” he said. “I didn’t know the exact process about how everything would die out. I just thought it would be constant expansion, but I learned a lot more about it at the assembly.”

Beyond talking about science, Green spoke about philosophical concepts through a scientific lens.

Braden Queen (11) liked Greene’s presentation, but disagreed with him on free will. Greene believes that people do not have free will, while Queen believes the opposite, he said.

“I do not think that physicists have the authority to definitively say that free will is non-existent,” Queen

see Assembly on pg. 8

pieces we print in our paper. This idea is incorrect — satire can, and should, be thought-provoking. Choosing only to publish writing that cannot be interpreted in more than one way does not give enough credit to our readership.

The members of our school community are intelligent enough to come to their own conclusions, positive or negative, about the content we publish.

We had intended to write humorous pieces that would criticize sincere issues in our community and potentially further positive change. Instead, we were encouraged — and agreed to — stay silent. We believe you deserve better.

2

THE RECORD OPINIONS APRIL 8TH, 2022

The perils of recreational marijuana

Teddy Ganea The student community has a pot problem. Last year, 11 percent of students reported using marijuana in the anonymous Substance Abuse Survey, an annual form that Ms. Mojica sends out for Health. This year, that number surged, more than tripling to 35.5 percent. Worryingly, even as weed use skyrockets, the school community dramatically underestimates the danger of marijuana. Marijuana’s extreme and inherent harm threatens students’ lives and livelihoods.

Whenever I’ve discussed marijuana with friends and classmates, I’m left dismayed at how poor an understanding the community has of the evils of marijuana. “Marijuana has no longterm side effects. It doesn’t harm your brain. It’s nowhere near as dangerous

as tobacco.” A Record editor objected in one draft of this article, claiming that “there’s no way to be chemically addicted to pot,” even as I’d cited four scientific studies to the contrary. Many treat it as a benign indulgence, with temporary side effects no worse than caffeine’s jitters. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

To understand why, let me provide some background information on the inner workings of marijuana. When a student smokes marijuana, a cocktail of 140 chemicals invades the lungs and travels to the brain. There, marijuana overwhelms the endocannabinoid system, temporarily shutting it down and preventing different parts of the brain from communicating. As the National Institute of Drug Addiction explains, this process allows users to feel high, while also maiming their memory, sense of spacetime, capacity to problem-solve, and control of muscle movements. Unfortunately, for teenagers whose developing brains are fragile and rapidly-changing, these effects are permanent. It’s like stepping onto wet concrete - as the concrete dries, weed’s footprint remains, irreversibly etched into the pavement.

This damage takes multiple forms.

Having neutered the brain’s internal communications, marijuana debilitates teenagers’ ability to learn, store, and apply information, affecting their intelligence. Persistent marijuana users on average lose six points of

IQ; in other words, marijuana abuse damages intelligence as much as lead poisoning, as multiple studies from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and the American Psychological Association (APA) have found. In a school famed for its academic rigor and life of the mind, I’m surprised we don’t take this seriously. If over one third of students were drinking lead-poisoned water, we’d be outraged!

Smoking marijuana is choosing a lifetime of lower intelligence, gaining everdwindling understanding and grades.

Moreover, according to the National Institute of Drug Addiction, marijuana causes terrible mental illnesses, inducing half of all psychosis and schizophrenia cases.

Once summoned, these mental illnesses are chronic. In the past year, one small pediatric practice has already seen smoking weed trigger permanent schizophrenia in two teenagers. Per Ms. Mojica’s Substance Abuse Survey, relieving stress is one of the main reasons students use pot; it’s bitterly

ironic that marijuana increases mental illnesses and the workload driving the stress in the first place.

this statistic, which leaves Student Ambassadors, the faces of the school, uneducated and uninformed, and pushes away prospective gendernonconforming students.

Not presenting an accurate reading of who is truly in our student body creates the impression that the school is less welcoming than it actually is.

If a nonbinary student who was looking to apply to Horace Mann asked a Student Ambassador about the gender breakdown of the school, a Student Ambassador who did not know better would simply recite the statistics the school gave them. The perspective nonbinary student would be turned off to the school and HM would lose a potentially great addition to the community.

By using the language “identifies as,” the school claims to know how every student internally identifies, which is not the case and is scientifically inaccurate.

Using “male” and “female” instead of “girl” or “boy” gives the school a more intelligent and professional appearance.

In reality, however, the terms male and female refer to sex assigned at birth, so one does not identify with them as they would with a gender.

Splitting up the statistic by “male” and “female” also erases the 1.7% of the world that is intersex. Intersex means a person was born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit in either the “female” or “male” box.

This percentage may not seem like a lot, but it is actually roughly the same amount of the population as redheads.

Although I have no idea if there are intersex students at the school, the way the statistics are being reported, there is

no space for them to exist in the school at all.

When I read this statistic from my Student Ambassador information sheet last year, I went straight to the Admissions Office in anger. I was saddened to learn that I was the first person to bring this to their attention but appreciated the concern and understanding I was met with. It was at this meeting that I learned that the school does in fact have a system in place in which parents have the option to change their child’s gender to “other” in their annual enrollment contract.

Many parents do not notice this small section on the contracts they routinely sign, and others may make the conscious choice not to identify their child’s gender.

In theory, this option on the contract is a great idea and all of the students who do not fit into the two binary genders would be represented — but obviously the system does not accurately reflect the gender diversity at our school. This is a very small part of the contract that parents often look over. Even my own parents, who have been fighting for transgender students at HM for years, only learned about this option when I told them about it this February. Also, while the school promises to respect every student’s pronouns and name, only a parent can change their gender in the official system. Nonbinary and gender-nonconforming students with unsupportive families cannot be fairly accommodated for in their own homes or at school.

This school year, I walked into Spence Cottage for my first Student Ambassador training of my sophomore

year, forgetting entirely about the information sheet debacle of 2020. I was greeted by another statistic-filled packet. The gender section stated that half of the student population “identifies as male,” half of the student population “identifies as female,” and two students “express a different gender identity.”

Though seemingly a huge step, in a way, by acknowledging the existence of only some gender-nonconforming students, this is a setback. There are far more than two nonbinary students at the school but by only acknowledging those who are “officially” recognized, the school completely erases those who are not, or cannot be accounted for.

I was happy to see this little step forward, but still unsatisfied with the inaccuracy of the statistic. The school has made no major effort to get an actual idea of the true genderbreakdown of the student population; without students pushing them, it is conceivable that nothing will change.

To try to combat this, I met with the admissions office in a much calmer manner in February to discuss ways the school can take tangible and productive steps to be more inclusive and representative of its trans and gendernonconforming students.

In all actuality, the school has actually made outstanding strides in the past 10 years towards appropriate accommodations and representation for trans and gender-nonconforming students, from implementation of gender neutral bathrooms to asking for pronouns on the first day of classes. There is even a clause in every student’s enrollment contract stating that the school will respect and use

Even worse, because marijuana makes the brain reliant on it to function, replacing the body’s natural cannabinoids, people often develop horrible withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit marijuana, locking them into a cycle of pot abuse. As the National Institute on Drug Abuse Karla Moreira/ and National Staff Artist Center for Biotechnology Information find, over 30 percent of all Americans who have ever — even once — used pot become addicted; by comparison, less than 7 percent of drinkers become alcohol addicts. Marijuana is staggeringly addictive, outstripping even tobacco’s addictiveness. This is a nationwide problem. In 2015, four million Americans were addicted to pot; just one year later, that figure grew to six million per the National Institute of Health. By the time many realize the perils of marijuana use, it could be too late.

As an additional side effect of

permanently pulverizing the brain, marijuana promotes dangerous driving.

By distorting sense of time, awareness of reality, and muscle control, marijuana use triples the likelihood of traffic crashes and doubles the likelihood of fatal crashes, according to a systematic review from Frontiers in Psychiatry.

The same seniors who frequently use marijuana are often also student drivers, and drug use puts themselves, their friends (if they carpool), and drivers outside the community at unnecessary risk every day.

Our community’s lackadaisical approach towards this public health crisis may result in a calamity for Horace Mann users, both in the short-term and long-term. We pride ourselves on academic achievement and intellectual collaboration; marijuana, in afflicting mind after mind, will weaken “the life of the mind.” To combat the problem, we must start with properly educating ourselves. Increasing awareness of marijuana’s adverse effects will keep people away, and safe from, the drug.

We can begin with frank discussions of drug use in health class. We can also expand learning on the effects of marijuana use into biology and anatomy, pairing it with lessons on neuroscience to enhance students’ safety. To protect one third of the student body from a toxin as perilous as lead and tobacco, we must take marijuana seriously.

Despite strides, school continues to misrepresent gender-nonconforming students

Etta Singer When I stepped into Spence Cottage at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year for my first Student Ambassador training, I received an information sheet that listed the important statistics that prospective families may ask about — including a section focusing on gender. According to the sheet, half of the student population “identifies as male” and half of the student population “identifies as female.” This immediately stood out to me as not only problematic but also blatantly incorrect.

There is a large number of nonbinary and gender-nonconforming students at the school that are not represented at all in this statistic. Off the top of my head, I can name at least fifteen nonbinary students who are out at school and who, despite being club leaders, student athletes, actors, upstanding classmates, are not represented in any official capacity.

Others at the training probably did not think twice when reading

Volume 119 Editorial Board Head of Design AJ Walker

Editor in Chief Hanna Hornfeld

Managing Editor Liliana Greyf

Features Mia Calzolaio Emma Colacino

News Claire Goldberg Katya Tolunsky

Opinions Devin Allard-Neptune Yin Fei

A&E Purvi Jonnalagadda Arushi Talwar

Middle Division Jade Ciriello

Lions’ Den Lauren Ho

Art Directors Vivian Coraci Lauren Kim Riva Vig

Design Editors Avani Khorana Arin Rosen

Photography Sean Lee Sam Siegel

Online Editor Lucas Glickman

Faculty Adviser David Berenson

Staff

Staff Writers Alex Lautin, Alexandra Yao, Allison Markman, Audrey Carbonell, Audrey Moussazadeh, Ayesha Sen, Cecilia Coughlin, Celine Kiriscioglu, Divya Ponda, Emily Salzhauer, Emily Sun, Hannah Katzke, Jillian Lee, Jiya Chatterjee, Max Chasin, Rachael Baez, Sean Lee, Vidhatrie Keetha, Zack Kurtz, Ariella Frommer, Athena Rem, Ben Rafal, Ella Shaham, Erica Jiang, Etta Singer, Heidi Li, Kate Beckler, Lucy Peck, Maeve Goldman, Naomi Yaeger, Neeva Patel, Nia Huff, Rani Ogden, Samantha Matays, Sophie Rukin Staff Photographers Aanya Gupta, Allyson Wright, Amelia Hirsch, Anna Miller, Aryan Palla, Ben Rafal, Catherine Mong, David Aaron, Dylan Greenberg, Harper Rosenberg, Jiwan Kim, Lynn Egan, Madlyn Yoon, Matthew Jacobson, Nicole Au, Oliver Konopko, Trisha Tran Staff Artists Aashna Hari, Addy Steinberg, Aimee Yang, Amira Dossani, Christian Conner, Dani Brooks, Dylan Leftt, Elena Zhu, Felix Brener, Isabelle Kim, Ishaan Iyengar, Karla Moreira, Kayden Hansong, Kristy Xie, Lauren B. Kim, Sam Gordon, Samantha Strasser, Samuel Stern, Serena Bai, Sophia Liu, Sophie Li

their preferred name and pronouns, no matter their parents’ opinions.

I believe that there is a very straightforward and simple solution to the issue of the statistical inaccuracy; the school needs to send out a survey or Google Form asking students to self-identify their own gender. Though not everyone answers every survey, nonbinary students who want to be represented will surely respond and the school can utilize this data. Moreover, nonbinary students who do not necessarily want to be fully out have the option not to identify themselves with a gender outside of the binary or complete the survey at all. This survey can give the school a better idea of who is truly in the student body. Also, the publication of this information will attract more nonbinary students to the school and make the institution’s outward presentation reflective of the actual acceptance of gendernonconforming students.

When I look to the future of HM, I hope that we can be a place that not only supports but also uplifts trans and gender-nonconforming voices in the community. I hope our school can be a safe space where everyone, even cisgender people, default to asking for pronouns instead of assuming, and make an effort to respect and understand everyone’s gender identities.

I know this will not be the case by next year and probably not even by the time I graduate in 2024. But I do believe that by pushing the Admissions office, ICIE office, and people in power, the school can continue to make progress toward this goal.

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.

3

THE RECORD NEWS APRIL 8TH, 2022

No safe spaces: Project X returns with renewed intensity Emily Wang and Oliver Konopko Staff Writer Screaming and shouting fill the halls, followed by students sprinting away from one another. This week, 258 students in the Upper Division (UD) participated in a game called Project X. Project X is a game where each player is assigned a target who they must tag their target with a biodegradable spoon. After a player tags their target, eliminating them from the game, the player then attempts to kill this person’s target.

The participants who have not been tagged and eliminated the most players by 3:15 on Friday win.

This is the first game of Project X since 2019 due to the pandemic and with 35 participants left, Project X is now as competitive as ever.

“It’s the only thing I’ve been able to think about,” Niki Pande (9) said. Pande first heard of Project X in the Middle Division (MD). “I saw some high schooler playing, and I was like, ‘Man, I can’t wait until I’m in high school and I get to play that game,’” she said.

Gillian Ho (9) also heard about Project X in the MD. Ho first heard about Project X when she was in sixth grade from her sister, who was in ninth grade. “I thought it would be a way to make school a lot more interesting,” she said Pande is still in the game. “I feel surprised I’ve lasted this long,” she said. “Every time I step on the school campus, I grip my spoon tighter. I’ve become so much more aware of my surroundings.”

Students have employed many different methods to get their “kills”. Karla Moreira (9) said, “the person who had me as their target went around asking people in my grade and almost

BROKEN DREAMS, BROKEN SPOONS Leftovers from Project X drama.

fully reconstructed my schedule.” Moreira said she saw her “killer” pacing outside her classroom in anticipation for her arrival.

Many students used the element of surprise to tag their targets. Ho said she waited 20 minutes behind a wall in order to ambush her target after science class.

In a similar fashion, Pande hid in a stairwell and waited for her target to pass by. “In the span of five seconds, I ran out of the staircase and I tagged him,” she said. “It was so satisfying because he did not see it coming at all,” she said.

Another method to get “kills” that students used was the art of deception. Jiwan Kim (9) said, “I had my boyfriend as my target. I went up to him and asked for a hug, while hiding my spoon in my hand, and as he got closer I tagged him.”

“I staged a dramatic fight between me and my friends so the person walking by wouldn’t suspect anything,” Laila Farmer (12) said. After her target had passed without suspicion, Farmer walked up and eliminated her target.

Just as many students went great lengths to get their “kills”, some went even further to avoid getting killed. Farmer’s target shared the same math class as her, Farmer said. “Halfway through the math class she sprinted out and skipped the rest of the class. It was the funniest thing ever,” Farmer said. Her target evaded her multiple times before Farmer was able to tag her. “This was definitely [my] hardest kill, but it was the most fun because it took the most amount of effort.”

Rowan Mally (12), Maya Nornberg (12) and Miles Kuhn (12) planned Project X. Mally said the goal of Project X was to be a stress relief for students as well as a good way to get students all throughout the UD interacting with each other.

“We thought it was an important community-

building activity, but that it would be a fun, lighthearted game for kids to play,” Mally said.

“One of my favorite things about the game is how you’re kind of forced to get to know someone, usually from a different grade,” Nornberg said.

Nornberg said the biggest challenge in planning Project X was finding someone to code it. “We didn’t have all of the coding information so we had to start from scratch,” she said. “We found Jared Contant (11) who was willing and really, really helpful and talented and able to make a whole Google Form system with forms and a whole bunch of code behind it.” Mally said when initially looking for someone to code Project X, he and Nornberg approached one of Mr. Lee’s computer science classes, but the project proved too difficult.

Jared Contant (11) spent the majority of his spring break working on the code. While the actual coding went “perfectly fine,” Contant faced a lot of technical issues involving FirstClass, the school’s email system. “First, the school blocked the emails because they flagged them as suspicious. And then the first class mobile app started giving people the same target that they first had,” he said.

Some people were not able to receive their emails detailing their target, causing them to postpone on the first day, Mally said. “Also, we had to reshuffle the targets because people were starting to get too familiar with who their target had or who the person that was coming after them.”

Despite the problems, Project X received a positive response. “I hope Project X continues in future years because this has definitely been a highlight of my year,” Farmer said. “It definitely brings the HM community together.”

School hosts spring break college tours for juniors Lucy Peck Staff Writer 72 juniors and 10 chaperones embarked on a trip to tour a variety of colleges over spring break. The tour usually happens with each class of junior, although the list of colleges varies. This year’s group toured Boston University, Brandeis University, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston College, Brown University, Providence College, Trinity College, and Yale University.

Students toured 10 different colleges in four days, from Sunday to Wednesday, Head of College Counseling Canh Oxelson said. “We wanted to arrange a tour where it was easy to get to each college,” he said.

“So, we decided to go to the New England and Providence area because there are so many colleges there.”

The students were able to see the colleges all in a few days, Oxelson said. “They got a good sense of

group about their experience at the school, Oxelson said.

“It was very helpful to hear about what life is like directly from current students there,” Amelia Resnick (11) said.

Cassino could not have toured the same amount of colleges in such a short amount of time had she been by herself or with her family, she said.

“It was a really dynamic experience to be able to go to 10 colleges in just four days and learn a lot in such a short amount of time,” Kim said.

The students enjoyed being able to see the schools through different lenses, Cassino said. “Talking to the alumni allowed us to really see what it would be like going there,” she said.

“It allowed us to see the school from their perspective.”

Oxelson believed the tours by alumni were especially helpful, he said. “The students could see the college through the eyes of someone who understands what it’s like to

“I also realized through the visit that the college tour was meant not only for students to consider those ten schools, but for all students to act as a springboard for preliminary research, to help us understand the qualities of universities that we appreciated so we could find other schools that shared those qualities.”

- Louise Kim (11) comparison because they were seeing so many colleges in such a short period of time.”

The attendees traveled by bus, Julia Cassino (11) said. At each college, the juniors either joined an information session, went on an official tour, or spoke with school alumni who would take them around the campus.

“There was a lot of diversity in the ways we received information,” Louise Kim (11) said.

For example, at Tufts University, three alumni came to talk to the

go through Horace Mann,” he said.

“The alumni could explain what the workload is like and what the opportunities are like at that college.”

Kim found out more about her college preferences through the tour, they said. “I found out through the tour that I’m more flexible, and I like more universities than I thought I would going into the tour,” she said.

She had originally thought she would like only medium-sized schools near a city like Boston. “But, I realized there were schools outside of [my

original] parameters that I could imagine myself going to,” she said.

Cassino felt like she got a good feel for campus life at each college.

Before the tour, she had a sense of what types of colleges she liked because she had already seen some colleges, she said. “But, because we saw such a variety of colleges, I feel like I definitely figured out more of what I liked and narrowed it down.”

Kim found the trip to be really helpful in getting them started with the preliminary college process, she said. “I also realized through the visit that the college tour was meant not only for students to consider those ten schools, but for all students, to act as a springboard for preliminary research, to help us understand the qualities of universities that we appreciated so we could find other schools that shared those qualities.”

Touring colleges with her friends was a very different experience than seeing them with her parents, Cassino said. “With my parents, it’s all business, but with my friends, it was more laid back.”

Kim’s favorite part of the experience was being with her friends, she said. “It also made it a much more memorable and fun experience,” they said.

Because the students were with their friends and counselors, the trip felt like a communal experience, where they discussed their feelings and opinions, Kim said.

“I felt supported and confident the whole time,” they said. “Specifically, during our debriefing sessions with counselors, I felt very taken care of.”

Barriers among students diminished during the trip, Oxelson said. “While this school can feel competitive at times, especially around college admissions, when students are traveling together in a really informal way, those barriers that can be created by competition tend to come down,” he said.

Kim was originally concerned about competitiveness between students going into the tour; she did not know what to expect, they said.

“However, once we were going on

visits, the student atmosphere felt very supportive and enthusiastic,” she said. “We shared what we liked and disliked about each school with each other with a transparent and easygoing attitude, especially because we were all experiencing the university at the same time, under the same conditions,” they said.

After finishing tours, the college counselors on the tour helped to facilitate conversations between the students, Oxelson said. “We did this because everybody who goes on a campus tour at a particular college has a different experience,” he said. “You may have toured the same college, but you will see different things, you will notice different things, you will understand different things about that college.” Bringing the students together helped them put together the pieces and form a more holistic view of each college, he said.

After tours and debriefing, the juniors had free time during the night, Cassino said. She especially enjoyed going out to dinner with her friends in the college towns each night.

After dinner, the group would return to the hotel, Cassino said.

“When we got back to the hotel, I did some room-hoping. So, I went from hotel room to hotel room and we

could all hang out.”

Kim was originally a bit concerned about safety and navigating around the college towns, but felt safe throughout the trip. “I was a bit nervous when I heard that we were going to have free time after the college tours at night, to go shopping or go out to dinner,” they said. “But, I actually found that it was really fun and I was never concerned for my safety or anything like that,” she said.

One night that stood out to Kim was when the whole group went to the arcade Dave and Busters.

The arcade was a great place for the juniors to have fun and let loose, they said. “I played a lot of Dance-Dance Revolution and Giant Connect-Four with friends,” Kim said.

“During our free time, we felt pretty independent.” Kim said. “For example, during some mornings we were expected to get our own breakfast, so I went to a nearby cafe with my friend.” It was fun for Kim to imagine what life is going to be like as a college student, they said.

Oxelson was disappointed that the previous classes of juniors did not get to go on the trip because of Covid, he said. “It is an impressive experience for kids where they learn a lot about

Courtesy of Louise Kim

BRIGHT FUTURES Scenes from the juniors’ tour.

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THE RECORD FEATURES APRIL 8TH, 2022

Learning to serve: An in-depth look at the CC Zack Kurtz and Sophie Rukin Staff Writers For over two decades, until 2017, the school required all Upper Division students to fulfill a minimum of 80 hours of community service in order to graduate. Today, the school’s only service-related requirement is that every student must participate in an annual grade-wide Service Learning Day (SLD), which is created and coordinated by the Mindich Family Center for Community Values and Action (CCVA).

The current requirement is not appreciated by many in the student body, according to an anonymous poll conducted by The Record.

When asked to rate their experience in SLD from a scale of one to five, nearly 60% of the 125

Daniel Pustilnik (10) believes that the current structure of the CCVA does not emulate Dr. Leeds’ original goal of creating a space for students to explore ethics, he said. “While I don’t think the lack of ethical discussions and teachings have necessarily created an unethical community, they would be useful in creating a community that is more mindful and aware of ethical and moral questions or dilemmas.”

Pustilnik would like there to be more schoolwide interaction with ethics, such as assemblies with people knowledgeable about the subject and discussions in humanities classes about ethical or moral decisions, he said. He thinks it would be a more accurate representation of the CCVA’s goals, since the communication of ethics is part of their mission.

“You’re creating what we’ve called a better life for each of us and a better world for all of us. In community service, you are often donating something important to a program and often never see the people who are receiving it.”

- Dr. Jeremy Leeds students who chose to respond answered either one or two, with an overall respondent average of 2.35. Slightly more than half, or 66 out of 125 students, supported returning to a 20 hour per year minimum requirement rather than continuing with the current system of Service Learning Days.

Though SLD is the only current service graduation requirement, the CCVA leads two popular extracurricular programs — the SL Team (SLT) and HM 246 — for students who wish to volunteer.

The current system is a result of the CCVA’s shift to a model of Service Learning (SL), which intends to provide a more meaningful experience than an hourly-based Community Service model would. “A SL model teaches the students about the community itself, and how those needs are being addressed,” she said.

To former head of the CCVA Dr. Jeremy Leeds, SL differs from community service in three ways: reciprocity and reflection; forming relationships; participation in the wider community and understanding wider contexts.

Reciprocity and reflection is the idea that everyone involved benefits from the project and from linking service and education, Leeds said.

“You’re creating what we’ve called a better life for each of us and a better world for all of us.

In community service, you are often donating something important to a program and often never see the people who are receiving it,” he said.

SL also helps create meaningful relationships that can amount to positive impacts for all participants in the community, Leeds said. “Rather than one-shot activities where everybody leaves at the end and says ‘well who was that person,’ ‘we’re never going to see them again,’ we wanted to create relationships in long lasting ways.”

The CCVA’s website says its mission is “to promote and strengthen the connections between ethics,

education, and action at Horace Mann School and in our wider communities.” They accomplish this goal by “teaching classes, engaging in community action, developing programs, and providing resources.”

THE GRADUATION REQUIREMENT: PURPOSE, HISTORY, AND CONTROVERSY The school changed the SL requirement in the 2019-2020 school year. Two years prior, the CCVA had substituted the hourly based service requirement in favor of a project-based curriculum.

SLDs were designed as days that would help students learn about service in their community directly from community partners. A typical SLD includes a keynote speaker, the presentation of a short film, workshops, or a reflection. For example, April De Simone, an advocate for social innovation, discussed redlining at last year’s senior SLD. Students were then broken up into workshops to learn from the CCVA’s partner organizations about the work that each group does.

According to a Record article published in Volume 117, Issue 19, the change was made due to the overwhelming nature and unmanageability of the former project-based system.

Isabella Ciriello (10) found that the SLDs she has participated in are insufficient, she said. “[SLDs are] too heavy on the discussions about service instead of the actual implementation.”

To plan the SLDs, the CCVA committee comes together approximately once a week during break to discuss potential SLD ideas and decide the best course of action for their objectives, committee member Sadie Katzenstein (10) said. “[Our school] is partnered with a bunch of people, so we usually just reach out to the people we were previously partnered with.”

The CCVA committee helps determine what community partners will speak at SLD, committee member Karolina Fic (10) said. “We have to vet the information to make sure it’s appropriate for the theme of the year.”

Students have mixed reviews of the workshops the committee plans, Katzenstein said. “Enjoyment levels depend on the workshop,” she said. “The more interactive ones I think people enjoy more, but I think the lecture based

workshops people enjoy less.”

For Goldmacher, the 10th grade SLD provided an opportunity to see all her hard work from the committee in action. “The day helped us to recruit some more team members, and I definitely know some people joined after their positive interactions with the community partners,” she said.

Theo Ziehl (10) enjoyed some aspects of the 10th grade SLD, but he thought the time spent doing actual service was too limited, as he only spent 30 to 45 minutes talking to the seniors, he said. “We spent the rest of our time receiving lectures about issues that didn’t even seem to be connected to what seniors were talking about, and so I really felt a disconnect there that I thought could be improved.”

Nitika Subramanian (11) said there are more effective and beneficial ways for the school to teach service. “[Students are] learning about community organizations, which are super important, but we’re not doing anything tangible to help them with their work,” she said. “It’s just not the most effective use of their organization’s resources.”

When organizations present to students on SLDs they are taking time out of their days to present to students who are, for the most part, not listening to them, Subramanian said.

“There’s no way to really guarantee that the organization gets something back for giving up their time.”

Even if students wanted to get involved with these organizations after SLD, it is entirely up to them to create the connection, Subramanian said. “The CCVA should instead send out an email during the next week, where they say ‘this is how you can help this organization and get involved.’” According to the poll, only 11 of 125 students have become involved in a service activity because of their experience on service learning day.

them to do it, she said. “I think that the best way to learn about service is by actually doing it,” she said. “You are not making any tangible change unless you are actually involved in the service aspect of SL.” Freddie Zises (9) does community service outside of school, which she feels has a tangible impact on the people she works with, she said.

She works with a program called Friendship Circle that serves kids with special needs, many of whom are on the autism spectrum, she said. She volunteers for three hours each Sunday, which would easily fulfill an 80 hour requirement over the course of four years.

It would benefit the CCVA and their mission to put a larger emphasis on SL beyond just SLD, Coco Trentalancia (11) said. She would prefer an SL week structured similarly to Unity Week held annually at the school, she said. “A day is just not that useful and I wish that we could spread it out throughout the entire week and then focus on more individual issues throughout our community.”

During Unity Week, students and faculty run workshops to educate and make others aware of meaningful topics related to unity. Trentalancia said this model could also apply to SL and would involve the whole school community in a more wholesome way.

The purpose of the CCVA should be to bring service to the students at the school and to provide them with opportunities to give back to the wider community, Steve Yang (11) said.

While SL Days are a good starting point, this goal would be more effectively accomplished by having students participate in the SLT and other in-person service activities so that every student can experience service in some capacity, he said.

Leeds shaped the current SL requirement, but when he was a student at the school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were no requirements, he said.

Harper Rosenberg/Staff Photographer

SERVICE LEARNERS Doellman talks with the team.

The CCVA is attempting to reframe the meaning of “service,” Joyce-Bernard said. “I want to go back to [students] realizing that there’s different parts of [service]. There’s direct, indirect, advocacy, and there’s research, and all of them are important.”

Jaden Piccirillo (12) said it would be more beneficial to have hands-on community service where students go to places such as soup kitchens and community centers. “In a typical school, you’d have your community service hours which is more hands on, and more engaging.” A student can have a more personal connection with physical community service because they can choose when and where they help out, he said.

Piccirillo said the current requirement is not a large enough part of the curriculum. “[SLD] is just this one day that you check off where you don’t have class.” The school’s curriculum should revolve more around SL and the requirement should be more than just a day without classes, he said.

Similarly, Subramanian said the school should have students work on actual community service that has a direct impact on those in need. “The reason we got rid of service in the first place was because people were only doing it to meet the requirement, and did not actually want to do service,” she said. “The point of service is not for us.” The point of service is to make a change for others and not necessarily for students to feel passion about it, she said.

Emily Grant (10) finds it surprising that the CCVA’s goal is to help students think about the purpose of service, rather than actually getting

According to an article published in Volume 81, Issue 3 of The Record two years before the requirement was established, students and faculty thought service was a good idea that should be encouraged but not required, since forcing it would “detract from its moral value as well as from the good of the society.” The requirement was proposed to the Governing Council, a former iteration of the current Community Council, in 1985, but they decided it was not the right time to establish a requirement.

In 1989, the school set a 40 hour total service requirement for the Upper Division (UD), Leeds said. The only guidelines were that at least 60 percent of community service hours must be completed outside of school, he said. During the 1990s, the UD requirement was doubled to 80 hours, with 40 hours required to be fulfilled during freshmen and sophomore years and 40 total hours required during junior and senior years. “[The requirement] was met with some people who really liked it and then it was also met with some resistance,” Ken Grouf ‘89 said. He tried talking to his peers to help them understand the purpose of the requirement and its importance in their lives.

According to an article published in Volume 114, Issue 28 of The Record, many students were conflicted when the requirement changed a second time in 2017 to be project-based, since they thought it allowed students to put in very little effort while still meeting their requirement.

The hour-based requirement did not provide students with enough structure or supervision.

5

THE RECORD FEATURES APRIL 8TH, 2022

CVA’s graduation requirement

“It created s i t u at i o n s where students did 45 minutes here and three hours there and were left with hours to do at the end,” he said.

The Class of 2018 was the first group of students to complete these long-term projects, which ranged from volunteering at a soup kitchen to creating an impactful club at the school. “The requirement is based on completing SL projects rather than simply acquiring community service hours, the system that was previously in place,” Leeds said in an article published in Volume 114 Issue 28 of The Record. “We are looking at impact and learning rather than focusing on the amount of time a person is putting in to whatever their project is.”

At the time, the CCVA stressed that the change provided a requirement with a tangible outcome that students could look forward to and share with the school community, Zarina Iman ’18 said. “It gave me the leeway to understand what I was interested in, in terms of helping the community, and how I could best help the community.”

Before the CCVA’s founding in 2006, there was no SL program but instead a community service department that was smaller than the CCVA. Former Director of Community Service John McIvor ran the department. The school required students to complete 80 hours of community service — 40 hours during ninth and 10th grade and 40 hours during 11th and 12th grade.

The Saturday Morning Tutoring Project (now the Saturday Morning Tutoring Program, a club unaffiliated with the CCVA) also existed as an extracurricular opportunity for community service.

After nine years as the Director of Guidance and Counseling, Leeds founded the CCVA in 2006. “We didn’t have a name for it yet, but the story that I always tell is that during [Dr. Kelly’s] first weeks as Head of School, I’d put together a proposal, sat down with him and started talking to him about the proposal, and just a couple of sentences into it he said ‘that’s exactly what I was thinking too,’” Leeds said.

When Leeds founded the CCVA there was virtually no student demand for it, he said. However, Leeds noticed a consensus amongst the school that the community service requirement was insufficient. “There’s always a question with high school students and with Horace Mann students as to ‘what is the point?’ and ‘how’s this going to impact my life?’” he said.

Once students became involved in the CCVA, they learned how to have a better understanding of the benefits of helping others, and the positive impacts of service on themselves and their education, Leeds said.

our fellows speak with those older adults and we’ve been assembling care packages for them as well.”

Liam Kisling (10) works on the creative writing branch of the SLT where students partner with the KHCC to run virtual lessons. Kisling feels that the program has a major benefit on the kids as the writing skills they teach could help for English classes in the future, he said. “I don’t think they necessarily realize they’re learning and they kind of just start to have fun.”

Trentalancia is a member of both the SLT as well as HM 246, she said. Both of the programs have a similar mission and goals, but they are run on different days of the week in part to ensure that anyone who wants to participate in SL at the school can do so, she said.

The SLT and HM 246 have had a much larger impact on Trentalancia than her grade’s SLDs throughout highschool, she said. The SLT is also a group that she stays with over an entire trimester instead of a single day on SLD, she said.

According to The Record poll, 61.6% of students participate in some form of extracurricular service work.

The CCVA makes the SLT and HM 246 seem like too heavy of a commitment which can prevent students from joining, Trentalancia said. When you are actually on the team and doing service, it does not feel like that much of a commitment and is very enjoyable, she said. By not advertising it as a large commitment, more students will join the team, she said.

The SLT is a very important part of student development as it allows students an insight into new perspectives and helps them develop empathy and learn to create places for people to be seen and accepted, Doellman said. “One of the greatest things about SLT is that it’s a reciprocal relationship. It’s not just us giving something to someone, we are getting so much back from it.”

All art by Vivian Coraci, Lauren Kim, and Riva Vig/Art Directors

Student responses from anonymous poll: “Service learning day is not awful by any means, at least in a vacuum. In fact, I actually enjoyed one of the workshops that I went to this year, and I definitely learned a fair bit. However, in my opinion, sitting on a Zoom for 4 hours, half of which is a movie, and listening to people yap about some topic is absolutely useless in the perspective of community service, which is what the day is all about.”

“I think the program was interesting and enlightening but because it was for one day and on Zoom rather than an interactive experience, it was pretty easy to notice how many people were not paying close attention.”

“I’m not sure how much use learning on Zoom was for the actual community besides just learning about it. The information was given to us, but what made us invested in actually learning the information? I’d much more rather them tell us why this actually affects us or even if it doesn’t, why we should care about it, and actually DO something. I understand that it was harder to do this year because of COVID, but I’d like to see some change next year.”

“Horace Mann has turned service-learning here into a joke. Not a single student is actively engaged, and even the days we have dedicated to it are when the student body pays the least attention. I understand times have been weird because of covid, but I do not believe this is the best we could be doing at all.”

“I am on the CCVA, and I have heard a lot of negative pushback. Some people think it’s too whitewashed and, while raising awareness, propagates harmful messages about certain communities. I think its online format is difficult for many, and the day can be a bit tedious while online.”

Lutie Brown ’18 was in the SL committee, a group of students who brainstormed this new requirement and spearheaded the transition from a community service hours-based model to a SL projectbased one, she said.

“I was excited by the chance to take part in crafting a new definition and standard for service that I was passionate about,” Brown said.

“I was also still a bit confused about our hours requirement at the time, so I wanted to do the best I could to share information about the new requirement to my peers.” The transition was complete by the time Brown graduated.

Brown started a club called Sunshine Mail, where students wrote letters, cards, and books for children with cancer, she said. “I first discovered Sunshine Mail in middle school, when my math teacher had encouraged us to write cards for the daughter of one of her college friends,” Brown said.

Students were excited to join their peers’ projects, Brown said. “The fact that many projects were student-created made students all the more excited to participate and engage, and it seemed to have kept them accountable in continuing their engagement and reflection over their time at HM.” HISTORY OF THE CCVA

“Sometimes it’s not that there’s no demand for it,” he said. “It’s that people don’t necessarily know yet that something like [the CCVA] could happen, and once it’s there, people jump on it.”

Leeds worked as the Director of the CCVA until his retirement at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.

Since his retirement, the CCVA has continued to change under the leadership of Joyce-Bernard.

The department currently runs grade-wide and school-wide SLD, the SLT, HM 246, and helps guide the CCVA committee student group.

The CCVA welcomes opportunities to grow and enhance the program in meaningful ways, Joyce-Bernard said.

SERVICE AS AN EXTRACURRICULAR The SLT and HM 246 partners with the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center (KHCC) to offer after-school electives for the kids in their after school program, Program Coordinator for the CCVA Melissa Doellman said. The students in SLT and HM 246 design the elective activities including creative writing, STEAM, leadership for teens, and yoga, she said.

The CCVA also works with Riverdale Senior Services to call seniors on Tuesdays, Doellman said. “Most of them have been at home throughout the entire pandemic, so we call and

“Everyone serves their community in a different way, and students should not be forced to limit their choice of activity around a 20-hour graduation requirement.”

In the past, the school has required a 20 hour per year community service graduation requirement - either through school programs or completed independently. Would you prefer this to the current service learning day requirement?

Based on 125 student responses to an anonymous UD poll

How would you rate your service learning day experience this year on a scale of one to five?

6

THE RECORD LIONS’ DEN APRIL 8TH, 2022

Spring Sports Update

Reporting by Maeve Goldman, Anya Mirza, Naina Mehrotra

Baseball

Baseball Coach Matt Russo’s advice for a winning season: “Making sacrifices for your team is key for the team to win.”

Although the baseball team has not had much practice, their season is off to a great start. “The energy is really amazing during our games. We all have a common goal, and that’s to make it far in the playoffs,” Aden Soroca (11) said.

So far, the baseball team has had three games, Soroca said. Their first game against Hackley was cut short because it got dark, and despite losing to Poly Prep 2-16, they beat Collegiate 7-2, he said. “We are looking great as a team for the amount of practice we’ve had.”

During practice, the team starts off with a team stretch led by Coach Russo followed by fly

Staff and Contributing Writers Ari Palla/Staff Artist

ball and ground ball drills before taking some swings in the batting cage; Soroca finds field drills particularly helpful for improving the team’s footwork and communication.

“When participating in drills, the team is motivated to stay on track and complete the workout to the best of their ability,” Russo said.

We try to put a focus on putting the team above ourselves.”

The team aims to steadily increase their skill as the season goes on, Soroca said. “We haven’t had as many practices as we would have liked [for weather reasons] and only had one scrimmage during break,” he said.

Matthew Baumann (12) has seen a lot of improvement in the team’s performance as

they’ve practiced mechanics and fundamentals.

Soroca said the team is progressing as they become more comfortable playing together.

“Coach Russo is really motivated to make us better players and keep us on a straight line in terms of what we need to improve,” he said.

The team has developed a supportive and high-energy spirit which is crucial to the team’s performance, Baumann said. “Anytime one of us goes up to bat we’ll all try to cheer the person on as much as possible,” he said. “It’s really about making people feel confident.”

Soroca looks forward to a great season in which he can grow closer with his team and have a winning season, he said.

BASEBALL

Crew

CREW

Golf

The Golf team was “all smiles” as they mounted the greens to win their first match of the season, Girls Varsity Golf Coach Surhoff said. “The team has camaraderie, confidence, and good vibes.”

On Wednesday, the team emerged victorious after beating Holy Child with a score of 3-2, Sofia Filardo (10) said. “Although we were all a little rusty, it felt good to shake off our nerves and get back out there,” she said. They won the match in the last seconds via a tiebreaker from a new freshmen player Julia Eizenstat, Filardo said.

“I was super impressed with how she pulled it together under pressure.”

Prior to their first match, the team began their season at the driving range, re-familiarizing

Ari Palla/Staff Artist

LAX

For the first time in two years the Crew team will row on a boat instead of a stationary erg, Crew Coach Matthew Boller said. “We are all really excited to get on the water,” he said.

Before the team can row on the water, rowers first had to master their skills on land, Boller said. Most of the indoor practice is spent using rowing machines and simulating rowing motions to build endurance and technique on the erg, he said.

“We are training athletes to be able to row on the water for long periods of time.”

Even though the team has only been

already know to the new environment,” he said.

The team’s seniors- Mekhala Mantravadi and Lauren Ho have stepped up to demonstrate what being a rower means, Boller said. They bring a lot of necessary leadership to the team, he said. “They demonstrate to underclassmen both rowing strokes and the strokes’ correct form.”

The crew team is excited for their first regada on May 1st, Boller said. “Everyone can’t wait to try something new!”

Courtesy of Audrey Carbonell

returning players and teaching new ones the basics of golf, Surhoff said. “We went through the different types of golf clubs such as wedges and got comfortable with swinging,” she said.

After the first week of practice, players transitioned to playing at the Sunningdale Country Club and around Van Cortlandt Park, Surhan said.

“We have been getting familiar with the holes and working on shots such as T shots, fairway shots, and pro shots.”

Although the team has started playing, it is not yet at optimal conditions, Surhan said. March and February had rainy conditions, she said. It is still pretty early in terms of coarse readiness, she said.

The conditions will soon improve to around

mid-70s by the end of the school year, Filardo said.

In spite of weather challenges, the team has persevered, Filardo said. “The team’s energy is immaculate,” she said. “If practice is canceled we are so upset [that] we rally outside our coach’s office.”

Physically, the team is swiftly progressing in time for their first few games, Surhan said. “The team is strong and playing well,” she said. Even less consistent players are learning from others to gradually improve, she said.

Filardo can’t wait to see the golf team continue their success, she said. “I’m excited for an undefeated season,” she said. “I know we have what it takes to win.”

GOLF

The Boys Varsity Lacrosse team is excited to improve every day and for their first win, Boys Varsity Lacrosse coach Joe Del Visco said. “We are working really hard and everyday playing faster, stronger, and more technically.”

So far both the Boys and Girls team have each played two games, Del Visco said. Although the games were pretty tough on the teams, they are continuing to practice hard and with good energy, he said. “I could never be mad at the team when I know they are running and training as hard as possible,” he said.

“We’ve gotten the two hardest games of the year over with first,” Girls Lacrosse co-captain Rachel Kuhn (12) said. As the team settles into the season and gains a better understanding of both offensive

and defensive strategies their playing will improve, Kuhn said.

The Boys team started the season at the beginning by focusing on fundamentals, Del Visco said. “We have a pretty young team,” he said. Half of the players are underclassmen and a quarter are new to the sport, he said.

Practices are centered around a theme to guide players, Del Visco said. Drills center around basic techniques such as stick, ground, and ball work,” he said. The team runs exercises such as odd man situations where one team of players has more players than the other and then see how the skills they learned apply to actual games, he said.

The Girls team begins practices with running and dynamic stretches and then transitions

into basic skills such as catching, running, and throwing ground balls, Kuhn said. The team then runs mini scrimmages so they can practice running transitions going up the field, she said.

The Girls team is overcoming obstacles, Kuhn said. “The majority of the team is not 100% comfortable playing defense,” she said. Defense requires a lot of contact without protection, which many of the new players are not used to. The team comes into practice with the mindset of working as hard as possible and because of this we are getting much better at marking players and defending, she said.

In the end, Del Visco can’t wait to see the team improve and hopefully win their first game, he said.

Outdoor Track After a successful first meet, the Boys and Girls Varsity Track Teams can’t wait to continue leaving everything they have out on the track, Girls Track Coach Taylor Quilty said.

On Tuesday the team competed in their first Ivy League Developmental Meet of the season, Christine Tao (10) said.

The meet was a great marker of where everyone is at the start of the season, Quilty said. It allowed runners to reflect on where they are, where they can get, and how they can get there, she said.

Prior to the season, the coaches pre-prepped workouts, Quilty said. The workouts specialize depending on whether they target sprints, mid-

practicing for a few weeks they are rapidly advancing, Boller said. “Students went from not knowing anything about the sport to being able to row good pieces on land,” he said.

The team was extremely excited to start actually rowing, Bowler said. “Every day students would ask about the boathouse and the water,” he said.

On Tuesday, the team entered the boathouse for the first time since 2019. “It’s a lot of students’ first time on a boat,” Boller said. “We focus on instruction and technique before students can start to apply what they

distance, or long distance, she said. “We try to cater to the wide variety of athletes on the team so that every runner will experience success.”

Whether the team is practicing at Van Cortlandt Park or training in the fitness center, they work on conditioning long distances and repeating shorter ones, Tao said. “We start off with a half-mile warmup then branch off into three groups based on what events we run.

It can be hard to stay motivated during practice, Tao said. “Training can feel like you’re running around a hamster wheel, making no progress,” she said.

Luckily, the team has developed close bonds to motivate each other during runs, Tao said.

Lacrosse

Rizaa Fazal/Staff Artist

“For example, one time we were doing dynamic warmups, and this kid started doing his high knees in a hilarious manner,” Tao said. “After that, everyone laughed and felt rejuvenated to run more.”

The team is progressing in large strides, Tao said. Tao has enjoyed observing the growth of her teammates, she said. “Everyone is becoming more accustomed to our workouts and has beaten their previous times by at least one second.”

The team is enthusiastic about the remainder of the season, Quilty said. “We are a very vibrant, lively, and active team,” she said. “Every student actually wants to be here and get better.”

OUTDOOR TRACK

7

THE RECORD LIONS’ DEN APRIL 8TH, 2022

Lions spring into a new season of sports

Niki Pande/Staff Artist

RUGBY

Softball

After some relearning and practicing often, softball coach Ray Barile sees major development in the softball team. “From day one, when we started throwing, fielding, and catching, to now, we’re significantly better,” Barile said.

The team had a rough start losing their first game against poly prep 11-1. “I think that was just our nerves,” Barile said. After the first five innings, when the team got less nervous, they began playing a lot better, he said.

“It was a really difficult game to start the season with,” Pakar said. “But we played alright and I think we’ll be a competitive

Rugby

While many of the team’s rugby players are new to the sport, the Girls Rugby team has had a fantastic start to their season. “The environment is so supportive and driven at the same time,” Clementine Bondor (11) said.

Practices are divided by days of the week so that players can focus on preparing physically for the sport and mentally learning the rules of rugby, Bondor said. “The majority of the team is people who have never played rugby before so we are all working towards the same goal to learn to play the game and win.”

On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays the team focuses on conditioning drills, Bondor said. “We spend the whole practice running around and playing simple games such as tag or dodge ball,” she said. “We get

used to thinking under pressure and making decisions on the fly.”

On Thursdays, the team practices tackling, marking the first season since 2019 the team will play full-contact games, Bondor said. The team then played an hour long full contact game, she said.

“Last week we had a brilliant scrimmage during practice,” Catherine Mignone (12) said. “All of our training sessions are filled with fun.”

The team has used their shared experience of learning a new sport to grow close bonds, Bondor said. “We have this understanding of each other and support of each other so we get along on and off the field,” she said. The closeness the team establishes during practice

team this season.”

The softball team uses practices to strengthen their foundation, Barille said.

“We work on our fundamentals: how we field the ball, and how we throw the ball,” Barile said. Improving the players’ forms is essential to playing better during games, he said.

Practices include a combination of indoor and outdoor training sessions, Zeba Pakar (10) said. “When we’re indoors, we’ll hit against the pitching machines in the batting cages,” Pakar said. “When we’re outdoors on the field, we work on our fielding by practicing different situations and going

over our cut-offs.”

The team’s energy helps keep players motivated during games, Pakar said. “We are constantly cheering and supporting each other even when we make a mistake on the field or strike out,” she said. “Its realy nice to have a team focused on lifting each other up.”

Barile looks forward to gradually improving from each game, by reducing the amount of mistakes team members make.

“Physical mistakes are going to happen, but mental mistakes, that’s something I would hope that we could keep on getting rid of,” SOFTBALL he said.

Ari Palla/Staff Artist

will be critical to their communication at games, Bondor said.

The team is progressing immensely, Bondor said. “This is the fastest we have progressed in the three years I’ve been on the team,” she said. “We are all driven to win.”

The growth of the team reflects the growth of the schools’ rugby program, Mignone said.

“All of the team [members are] now true rugby players,” Mignone said. “Rugby started out as a new sport in 2019, and now we have a full squad of excellent players.”

The team can’t wait for their first match on April 27, Mignone said. “Everyone has picked up the sport, and as we develop our tackling technique, our progress makes me very excited.”

Boys Tennis “This year every match will be a battle,” Boys Varsity Tennis coach Patrick Westoo said.

The season started off with some close games, with the team losing against Hackley 3-2, but winning against Poly Prep 3-2, Westoo said. The coaches analyzed the game and addressed the team’s weaknesses.

Training includes drilling techniques, challenge matches, and conditioning, Westoo said. “Assistant Coach Ken Burton and I assess the strengths and weaknesses

of players then assign them the appropriate drills,” he said.

A supportive team is always a benefit of team sports like tennis, but it is even more important in the neck-to-neck games that HM has played in this season, Westoo said. In their game against Poly Prep, team members were “cheering for every point,” he said. This helped improve the bond between team members and keep the team motivated during games, he said.

Although the tennis team had a strong

reputation for several years, they have recently struggled as the league increases its competitiveness, Westoo said. “Early in the season, doubles matches didn’t do that well,” Westoo said. The team is working to address challenges by testing out new combinations of doubles partners to find the perfect matchups, he said.

Overall, Westoo is proud of how the tennis team has improved by stepping up and confronting the challenges they face, he said.

BOYS TENNIS

Ultimate Frisbee Win or lose, the Ultimate Frisbee Team is excited to come together and put their hearts out on the field, Tuhin Ghosh (12) said. “We are amped up to do better.”

The team played their first game on Monday against the Joshua Abraham Heschel School, and although the team lost, it was a good game for their first time playing together as a team this season, Ghosh said. “Even though we are still adjusting, we all played really really well,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we bounce back in future games.”

During practice, the team focuses on building frisbee skills and team bonds to physically and mentally excel on and off the field, Ghosh said.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

“Our drills tie together a fun and competitive spirit,” he said.

Drills target essential ultimate frisbee skills such as marking, running, and catching, Ghosh said. One of the team’s favorite drills is a drill called Big Dog, where one person throws the frisbee and two people compete to see who can catch it, he said. The team also works on oneon-one marking drills attempting to block a teammate so they can’t move or throw the frisbee to someone else, he said.

Drills have been very beneficial in allowing the team to focus on and grow their skills, Sareena Parikh (12) said. “We have definitely improved on our throws so far this season.”

“Every match feels electric,” Patrick Stinebaugh (12) said. The Boys Volleyball team has had a promising start to the season, with every player willing to put in the necessary work, he said.

The team started the season on a high, beating the High School of Math and Science during a pre-season scrimmage 3-2, Dylan Montbach (9) said.

After their early victory, the team had a motivating first official game, closely losing to the defending State Champions Calhoun 3-1, Stinebaugh said. The team exemplified mental and physical strength by fighting to the very end and refusing to let the ball drop, Stinebaugh said.

Practices have been slightly difficult as Van Cortlandt Park, where the team practices, is infamous for its wind, Ghosh said. “Throwing a 200-gram piece of plastic in the wind is a struggle but ultimately benefits the team,” he said. “Being able to throw in the wind gives us an advantage when playing home games at the park and an advantage if there are difficult conditions at away games.”

Practices end with a communal chant to rally up team sentiment, Ghosh said. Sometimes we recite a famous chant such as the Empire Insurance jingle or stand in a circle cheering “Intensity,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what we are saying, it just matters that we are saying it together.”

ULTIMATE FRISBEE

Boys Volleyball

To prepare for games, the team warms up with hitting and serving drills then transitions to scrimmages or splits into practice groups, Stinebaugh said. “We practice the various aspects of the game such as blocking, receiving serves, and setting.”

Seniors have played an essential role in the team on and off the court, Torres said. “Our seniors — Stephen Chien, Rowan Mally, Elias Romero- have great skills such as spiking and serving,” Torres said. The seniors have stood out as mentors bridging the gap between new and returning players, he said.

With the seniors’ leadership, the team has adopted a growth-driven mindset. “The other captains and I have worked hard to instill in

everyone’s minds that we can be the best team in the league if we work for it,” Stinebaugh said.

The team is quickly improving, Montbach said. “At the beginning of the year a lot of us were rusty in our volleyball skills since we hadn’t played in so long,” he said. “We are now getting used to our positions and opening up to the team environment.”

Overall, the team hopes to bounce off of their early momentum and make it all the way to playoffs on May 13, Stinebaugh said.

“If there’s any team that can go all the way to the state championship, it’s the one we have right now,” he said. “I fully believe we can and will do it.”

8

THE RECORD ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 8TH, 2022

from Assembly on page 1 can hypothesize that free will does not exist, but it is misleading to say so certainly that it is non-existent.”

One aspect of the idea that humans do not have free will that is especially problematic to Queen relates to people who commit crimes, he said. “Saying that free will does not exist is also very dangerous on a philosophical level because then someone who has

committed atrocities, or really any crime, can say that it wasn’t their choice,” Queen said.

Feng was also intrigued by Greene’s point about free will, he said. “The one question about free will and how we’re all technically just particles is really crazy and how he thinks everything is predetermined,” he said. “At first, I kind of disagreed with how

we’re all technically just particles that respond to stimuli. It made me reconsider what I previously thought. It really made me think about what life is.”

After the assembly, Nye is interested in learning more about Greene’s work and the ideas he discussed at the assembly, he said.

“I look forward to reading his book now.”

Because of Greene’s assembly, Rhea Patel (12) learned that complex topics like physics and cosmology can be engaging for people with all levels of understanding, she said.

“The way he explained everything made it clear that physics and high level math don’t have to be super intimidating.” She believes that Greene’s simple language and boiled-down definitions made the

assembly easy to understand.

Bondor enjoyed learning about cosmic perspective, she said. “It’s a bit dark, the notion that we’re all going to disintegrate into oblivion, but at the same time, it makes you look at life in a different way. [It makes you] start to notice things that are really beautiful,” Bondor said. “I thought that was really profound.”

Students showcase artwork in MD gallery James Zaidman Staff Writer

A vibrant selection of Middle Division (MD) artwork went on display this week in the Fisher Gallery. Visual Arts Studio Manager Emily Lombardo curated the show, which displayed various creative mediums, and worked to include a vibrant and thoughtful selection of art, they said.

Each year around the beginning of April, the gallery highlights all mediums of artwork from MD students, Lombardo said. “It’s really jumping off of the projects the teachers assigned — we like to gather projects from every teacher and the art show forms itself based on that.”

Lombardo usually breaks up Upper Division shows to highlight a specific medium of artwork, they said. “The thing that’s really unique about the MD show is that you get everything. You get film, you get photography, you get sculpture, you get some printmaking, you get painting, you get drawing.”

Due to the broad portfolio of work created

by MD students, Lombardo spent time looking through the range of student artwork and finding Ben Rafal/Staff Photographer

BRANCHING OUT MD Artwork.

connections between pieces. “I picked out the work that stood out the most to me,” they said.

“For each student I went in and sometimes I picked work that seemed to be a conversation with each other.”

To avoid assigning extra work, art teachers use previously made work, Lombardo said. “I reach out to the teachers and tell them this is when we’re going to be doing the show, so they set work aside for the show, work that stands out, and specific projects.” Art teachers inform students that their work may be exhibited, but Lombardo and the teachers ultimately choose which pieces to exhibit.

After selecting the artwork, Lombardo’s prioritizes organizing the display in order to provide an engaging experience for the viewer.

To do this, they attempted to ensure that all of the artwork is able to tell the viewer a story showing what each art class is working on, they said.

While curating the show, Lombardo’s was interested by scratchboard animals. These pieces, created by Visual Art Teacher Natasha Rubirosa’s, allow the artist to scratch off black ink, to reveal a white layer. Although Lombardo received the pieces later in the curation process, they were impressed by the detail and texture expressed in the sketchings of the animals.

One of Rubirosa’s students, Kate Komaroff (8), created a defined and highly textured scratchboard piece of a tiger. Students were instructed to search for a detailed image of an animal online for inspiration, Komaroff said. “I came across this picture I found of a tiger that I thought would be really cool to recreate.”

To capture the most detail possible while creating their pieces, students sketched on pieces of paper and transferred the images onto carbon paper. Komaroff and her classmates focused on what parts of the image to fill in with white details and what parts to leave black and blend into the background, she said.

Komaroff ’s favorite part of the artistic process was using unique metal tools, usually used for sculpture, to texture the carbon paper. “I thought it was really cool and interesting to see how the different tools would create these different textures, because that was what this project was mostly all about,” she said.

Before the show, Rubirosa told her class that some of the scratchboard pieces were going to be featured in the upcoming show, but Komaroff was unaware that her specific artwork was being featured until one of her classmates pointed out

piece to be displayed in the show. “It motivates me to keep going forward,” she said.

Since she lives in the suburbs, Gay enjoys visiting a pond near her house where she can practice her drawing skills. On one of her visits to the pond, she saw a frog, sitting next to the pond, that she decided to take a picture of and sketch, she said.

When her teacher said the class would be creating watercolor paintings, Gay remembered the photo and decided to base her painting off of the picture, she said. She began by sketching the

Ben Rafal/Staff Photographer

GORGEOUS GALLERY Student contribution on display for community to appreciate. to her that it was on display, Komaroff said.

Since this is her first year at the school and her art has never been showcased before, Komaroff was excited and gratified to hear that her piece had been selected to be displayed in the gallery for the school to see, she said.

Lombardo also noted Dolan Gay’s (7) beautifully-colored frog as an impressive example of the artwork that MD students are capable of creating. Although this was not the first time that Gay’s artwork was showcased in the gallery, Gay felt proud of the fact that her art teacher chose her

frog into her sketchbook and then transferring her sketch to watercolor paper. “My sketchbook is not really watercolor friendly, so then I penned it, I watercolored it, then I painted it over again and added more details onto that.”

Although she enjoyed the whole process of painting the frog, Gay’s favorite part of the process was the watercolor, she said. Since she doesn’t work with the medium often, she is excited by the opportunity to work with it whenever she can. “It helps me go a little loose on artwork, so not to be too stiff and cautious of where I’m lining.”

All press, no stress: printmaking students get creative Nia Huff Staff Writer “I enjoy the very regimented process of printmaking: you have to set up your station, wet your paper, and mix your ink,” Mekhala Mantravadi (12) said. “It’s such a versatile and accessible art form — you can use crayons or the pressure of your hands or even leaves from outside.”

Printmaking provides a space for students to unleash their creativity without the stress or pressure from other subjects, Aamri Sareen (10) said.

“Printmaking is not a direct medium where you are marking directly on a surface to create your image,” visual arts teacher Mirrie Choi said. “You are putting something through the press David Aaron/Staff Photographer

PRINTED FACES Students in action.

or pushing ink through the screen orr using a plate to create a print form.”

Ava Westreich (10) enjoys printmaking because even if she is not the best artist, in this class, she is able to outline and trace and still produce beautiful art.

“The great thing about printmaking is that it’s a class where you can mess up, and then all you have to do is wipe off the ink and start again,” Chase Forbes (10) said.

At the start of a new printmaking unit and project, students learn about the artists who have created the certain technique, Catherine Mignone (12) said. Then, they determine how they will execute this technique in their own work. “Accomplished artists have unique takes on printmaking, and these styles and topics enrich our experience with the medium,” she said.

Choi also demonstrates the technique and lets the class practice the approach, Oliver Konopko (9) said. When the class carved prints into rubber plates, Choi demonstrated to the class the proper technique to follow on the material, Konopko said.

“Right now, Printmaking I is making collagraphs where you make a matrix by adding textures on a plate, and then we are going to combine them to make a contemporary landscape,” Choi said. This contemporary landscape will incorporate students’ unique vision of what 2022 looks like to them and hang in Fisher Gallery, she said.

Meanwhile, the Printmaking II classes are working on a collaborative project inspired

by Kevork Mourad, Mignone said. This project entails making monotype prints in Mourad’s

style, she said.

Once Printmaking II’s project is done, the installation will hang in the corner of Fisher Gallery, Charles Seo (11) said. He enjoyed seeing how everyone’s prints will fit together and how his classmates’ styles intersect.

Over the year, the projects become increasingly challenging, Choi said. Classes start with simpler methods such as painting something on a place and printing it with a press. Towards the end, the class combines multiple techniques, she said.

“The environment in the printmaking studio is so welcoming and warm,” Mantravadi said.

Konopko shares a similar feeling as he enjoys how peaceful and creative the class is and the amount of flexibility and creativity Choi offers to her students, he said.

Seo attributes his positive experience in the class to Choi, he said. “Ms. Choi is a great teacher who equally helps all her students at different paces and creates a very welcoming classroom environment.”

Through the various projects the class has done, Mignone enjoyed learning about modern artists, practicing new methods, and seeing everyone’s unique creations.

Forbes particularly enjoyed the monoprint where they painted ink onto glass and used it to print images that are highly realistic and accurate, he said.

The collaborative aspect of the class has been impactful to Sareen, who has enjoyed getting to know people from different grades and collaborating on the collagraph project. She liked seeing how all her classmates thought through the project, and how they came together in the end.

Despite all her success in the class, one difficulty Westreich has encountered is the time limit as she always finds more to do during the projects.“During printmaking, being very methodical lengthens the day-day process of producing a final print,” she said.

The process of starting new projects is the most challenging part for Seo since it takes time for him to think through ideas, but Choi helps him brainstorm and figure it out, he said.

Choi’s favorite part of her printmaking classes is when the students pull their print from the presses and see what they have created, she said. “The ink has a life of its own,” she said. “There is a special moment where you pull the plate or print from the press and you see it appear — sometimes it flips, the colors mesh together. Every year they have a gasp where they are so amazed.”