LH Magazine by The Little Hawk

April 30, 2015

Feature Magazine

what are you afraid of? Hot dogs? Sand? Spoons? Phobias range from the mundane to the inexplicable. *see page 8

FOOD: PICNICS

THE PRICE OF PROM

MODERN FAMILIES

PREVIEW 6

THE price OF PROM

segregation in science

iowa city underground

modern families

As prom season rolls around, both students and the school will face its expenses. But is the hefty price tag worth one night at the dance?

A look into life as a woman engineer— and as a student—in a field dominated by men.

bacon: A RECIPE FOR CHANGE

Under Iowa City lies a little-known network of Prohibition-era tunnels and caves.

Six years ago gay marriage was legalized. Today, City students with same-sex parents examine the way the ruling has affected their lives.

Meet the man who has helped define City High for the last five years.

OUT(SIDE) Spring has sprung, and what better way to celebrate 4 EATING than with a picnic? A LETTER FROM THE FEATURE EDITORS

Only five issues in and this is the last one we’ll do as feature co-editors. It’s been a good run, from figuring out the basics to trying our hand at Aurasma. We’re happy to finish off our era with a bang: in this issue you’ll find stories about everything from prom to picnics to the

COVER PHOTO BY KIERRA ZAPF

2 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

eyebrow craze that’s sweeping social media — plus more serious topics, like the gender gap in engineering, and the evolution of gay marriage. Across the board, we’ve been hard at work in 2109 to bring you what we hope are the best photos, stories, art, and design of the year. As we prepare for next year, we’re saying farewell to our seniors. This means beginning the transition to a new staff: sophomores Raz Schlutter, Lydia Kaufmann, Nova Meurice, Sarah Smith, Ayla Canin, Mae McDonough, Sofie Lie, Lucy McGehee, and Sadie Hobbs together wrote well over half of the stories in this issue; next year, as juniors, they’ll do even more. Meanwhile, Caroline will be continu-

ing on solo as feature editor, while Sonali will be one of next year’s executive co-editors. We’ve enjoyed our time creating the LH Feature Magazine for you; we hope you’ve enjoyed it too. We’re as ready for the end of the school year as you are, and as it approaches we’d like to offer you one of the most timely (and tasty) stories in the issue: our guide to picnics. Call it a parting gift, courtesy of Ayla and Mae. As the weather warms and summer approaches, we hope you use the lists of picnic foods and places to enjoy the last few weeks of school — we know we will!

TEACHER PROFILES

Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown After the mid-year departure of longtime world history teacher Randy Brown, Eric Brown brings his subbing experience and history expertise to City High. By Sofie Lie & Lucy McGehee The famous world map in the back of his classroom has witnessed the presence of many fresh-faced students throughout its existence at City High. Now the map has seen another transformation: after 25 years at City High, Randy Brown is no longer teaching world history, his map in the backdrop. “[Retirement] doesn’t seem real. I’m sure it will very quickly. I’m not dreading it, but I’m at a loss for what my day is going to look like,” Brown said. “I’m going to try to be positive and think of it as the next stage of my life.” City High’s numerous activities, traditions, staff, and students have made a memorable teaching career for Brown. “City High is a great place. I like a lot of things: the assemblies, the red-and-white Fridays, the camaraderie that the students have. It’s a very positive energy. It’s a good energy to be around. I like a lot of the teachers here that I’ve gotten to know,” Brown said. “I told somebody this afternoon that my social life is basically just City High.” While considering whether to retire due to health-related issues, Brown looked to colleagues and family for their thoughts to aid him in his decision. “There was really a unanimous response. I didn’t clue [my colleagues] in to what [my family] had said, but they said that it may be time to go,” Brown said. “My colleagues left it up to me; whatever I thought I needed to do to take care of my health, that’s what they were for.” Although Brown’s retirement concludes his teaching career,

Brown has no difficulty in looking towards the future. “There’s a lot of positive things about my life that I like a whole lot,” Brown said. “I have two granddaughters, and I have two children of my own.” Brown’s many years in front of a high school class have allowed him to not only teach human history and evolution, but watch the evolution of City High students over the years. “There’s a lot more diversity in the school than there was 25 years ago,” Brown said. “But the heart and school has stayed the same, I think.” With a quarter-century of indepth interaction with both world history and high school students behind him, Brown is reminiscent about his relationships with his world history students. “It certainly is enjoyable to be around people who are willing to take on challenges and who give it their all,” Brown said. “That is the kind of interaction I’m sure I’m going to miss.” Numerous students were accustomed to Brown’s teaching style and presence. Anna Pienta ‘17 had him as a teacher for AP World up until his retirement. “I was really sad when he left, I think that a lot of people were,” Pienta said. “He was just really funny and down to earth.” Brown plans on returning to City High frequently, despite the possibility that he may be moving to Baltimore. “Even if I leave, my son and his two daughters and my daughter and daughter-in-law all live here,” Brown said. “I will be in and out of Iowa City on a long-term basis.”

By Sadie Hobbs & Lucy McGehee Eric Brown strides into an unfamiliar history classroom armed with long-term sub experience, extensive knowledge of world history, and a sense of humor. After the sudden departure of the previous world history teacher, also coincidentally named Mr. Brown, a smooth integration into the City High lifestyle has already begun for the second Mr. Brown. “The first [step] is just establishing a good rapport with the students. Usually, most students will get to know my sense of humor pretty quickly and from there I get to build that trust and respect with everybody,” Brown said. “Plus, I’m interested in just about everything, so I can usually find some type of common ground with just about everybody.” Students have already settled into Brown’s new teaching style. Sami Therme ‘17 takes AP World, and went through the teacher change last month. “It was a hard transition, but I do like the new Mr. Brown,” Therme said. “He has taught me a lot in a different way than the old Mr. Brown could.” Brown feels like he has been welcomed easily into his new substitute job, but he has noticed that kids act differently towards the substitute than their regular teacher in the past. “Very rarely I’ve encountered someone who is a little bitter about having a different teacher for the long-term assignment,” he said. “Typically, if I have any behavior problems, it’s the student that just wants to kind of test the new guy,” With his iconic curly hair and sense of humor, Mr. Brown has acquired (and accepted) the nick-

names of “Will Ferrell” and “Buddy.” “What I’ve always done, and have found great success in, is to try and let the students get to know me as quickly as possible,” Brown said. “I like to tell jokes and try to be funny; that usually works. Plus, most students think I look like Will Ferrell, so that usually gives me a great in.” Brown received his bachelor’s degree at Central College, and later attended the University of Iowa to receive his teaching degree. He is now married to his wife, Lyndsey, with whom he shares a passion for hamsters. Their hamster, Micca, recently passed away. “My wife and I are both allergic to cats and some dog hair, and we fell in love with hamsters,” Brown said. “Sometimes they’re not treated very well, so our philosophy is to provide the best home we can for the little creatures.” Brown plans on applying for the full-time job of the AP World History teacher for the coming years. “This is a great school, great students, great faculty, staff and administration, and I would love to work here on a full-time basis,” Brown said. Brown has been a long-term substitute in the Iowa City School District, Solon, and Cedar Rapids. Brown mostly teaches history. “I’ve loved history since I was a small child. I had the order of the United States Presidents [memorized] since first grade,” Brown said. “Already being a fan of history and government has led me to keep that stuff up there. I’m always reading new things and looking for new information. It’s not just teaching for me, it’s also what I’m interested in and want to know more about.”

April 30, 2015

eating out(side) By Ayla Canin & Mae McDonough Spring has sprung, and that means picnics galore! The warm weather and fresh air is the perfect excuse to get your picnic on and spend some quality time with friends. You could go to a local park for your picnic, or just stay in your own backyard. We suggest bringing easy-to-pack and simple-tomake foods. Make sure not to forget a picnic blanket!

FRUIT & YOGURT DIP Mix Greek yogurt and a dash of sour cream in a bowl. Add sugar to taste. Serve with fresh fruit.

PITA CHIPS & HUMMUS Rinse one can of chickpeas. blend with a dash of lemon juice, one tablespoon olive oil, a clove of crushed garlic, a half teaspoon salt, and half a teaspoon cumin. Put in a bowl and sprinkle a bit of paprika over the top.

PHOTO BY AYLA CANIN

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TOP 7 I.C. PICNIC SPOTS 1. Upper City Park. Have a picnic in a shelter, then go for a swim! 2. College Green. Quiet and calm, but still close to downtown. 3. The Pentacrest. Peoplewatch while you eat.

DRINKS Glass bottles will keep your drinks from tasting plasticky as they warm up.

4. Old Capitol steps. Nothing will make you feel more powerful than eating a picnic on the steps of our stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s former capitol building. 5. The beach at Lake MacBride. A California experience in the heart of Iowa. 6. Benches on the ped mall. Enjoy an open-air concert with your delicious picnic. 7. Your own backyard.

VEGGIE SANDWICH Cut the other half of the bread lengthwise, and spread with plenty of hummus. Place sliced avocado and tomatoes on bread. Put on top of baguette. Wrap with waxed paper.

TURKEY SANDWICH Slice a baguette in half, then slice lengthwise. Spread one side of the bread with mayo, and the other with mustard. Place sliced tomatoes, turkey, cheese, and arugula on the bottom slice, then place the top half of the baguette on the sandwich. Wrap with waxed paper.

April 30, 2015

the price of prom As prom season rolls around, both students and the school will face its expenses. But is the hefty price tag worth one night at the dance? By Madeline Deninger

6 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

PHOTO BY MADELINE DENINGER

For many students, prom is more than just a rite of passage; it is also a big expense. Between the dress, the shoes, hair, makeup, and the dinner tab that are all expected parts of prom night, the cost can add up quickly. Kaitlyn Sroka ‘17 will be going to prom —and facing its cost — for the first time this year. “I think it’s bigger than just another dance. It’s pretty exciting,” she said. “To me it’s kind of ‘Hey you’re getting older now and you have more freedoms.’ I definitely think it’s more than just a dance.” Sroka says her dress was her biggest prom expense. “My dress itself wasn’t that expensive. My dress was like $150, and it’s beautiful. The real expense comes from alterations because I’m so short,” Sroka said. “It’s a six layer dress, so it cost me an extra $100 just to alter it.” Emma Arp ‘17 will also be going to her first prom this year. She plans to make good use of her expensive prom purchases. “I wanted to make sure I was going to be able to wear [the dress] again. After prom I’m getting it altered for a recital or something like that in case I need it later,” Arp said. “It was expensive, but I made sure everything I got could be used again.” Sroka, like most other girls going to prom this year, will be paying for more than just the dress. “I’m not going to be spending a whole lot on hair and makeup and nails. I’m going to spend a little bit,” she said. “I was planning on doing it by myself, but someone I was talking to in my group decided they wanted to do an actual appointment.” According to a Visa survey last year, the average amount of money spent on prom nationwide was $978. This includes dress or tuxedo, hair and makeup appointments, dinner, and prom tickets, among other expenses. Sroka says that although she wouldn’t personally spend more than $500 on prom, she understands that there are expectations for what prom night should include. “Socially, I think there is some pressure there. I personally am thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, is my dress too poofy? Are people going to judge me? Is it going to stand out or am I going to look weird?’ So I feel like that’s definitely there,” she said. Arp believes students can look good at prom regardless of how

prom by the numbers 14%

decrease in average prom spending from 2013 to 2014 cost break-down

$184

average cost of a tuxedo rental

$231

average cost of a prom dress

44%

$978

average cost of prom per household

56%

average amount spent by students

average amount spent by parents

who's paying?

SOURCE: 2014 VISA SURVEY

much they’ve spent. “I don’t think there’s pressure to spend a lot of money, I think it’s more of a ‘do you think you look nice?’ thing. And if you do, great, you look fantastic,” she said. “I think that if spending a lot of mon-

ey makes you feel good about how you look, then that’s okay. If not, that’s perfectly okay too.” Prom is expensive not just for attendees, but also for the hosting school. Christine Lewers, a junior class advisor, helps prom commit-

tee plan the event and create a budget for things like food, venue, and decorations. “I think that everyone wants to have a nice prom, but I think these days people understand that you can be creative and come up with ways to have the best prom ever, even on the strictest budget,” Lewers said. This year’s prom theme, Music of the Night, allowed the prom committee to be creative and find affordable ways to decorate, according to Lewers. Decorations this year will include masks used by Symphony Orchestra at this year’s Dessert Concert, and old sheet music from past band performances. “It was the students’ ideas that, because the theme is Music of the Night and Mrs. Stucky has the masks from other events, why not use them instead of buying a bunch of masks?” Lewers said. “That’s also kids really thinking about how we can share resources and still have a beautiful prom. And Mrs. Stucky is lending us those masks to help us save money.” Even with these ways of saving money, prom is still costly. Lewers estimates the food alone will cost about $2,100. Other expenses will include the decorations and DJ, which will cost about $1,000 and $800 respectively. The money needed to put on prom is raised by the junior class and parent volunteers. “We plan and find volunteers to staff the home football games during the regular season,” Lewers said. “We do that work, and the volunteers are not paid.” Along with football game concession revenue, ticket sales also help pay the estimated eleven thousand dollars prom will cost this year. “You’ve got the football concessions and the ticket sales,” Lewers said. “Tickets don’t cover that price. We could raise the price [by] five dollars a ticket and it would [cover the price], if we were creative.” With all of the money that goes toward prom, both from students and the school, one has to wonder whether it’s all worth it. “I think it’s definitely a great experience, but I think that in all there’s a little too much pressure with the expenses. There’s always ‘prama’ and things like that,” Arp said. “Sometimes I do think it can be way too hyped up.”

April 30, 2015 7

Amanda Sanderfelt ‘15 is terrified of hot dogs.

The texture of sand and flour frightens Emma Arp ‘17.

Spoons freak Kierra Zapf ‘15 out.

Danielle Tang ‘17 is scared of holes in things.

what are you afraid of? PHOTO BY SARAH SMITH

By Caroline Brown & Sonali Durham hot dogs

In the scariest moment of her life, Amanda Sanderfelt ‘15 found herself crying and nauseous, ready to do anything to escape. The situation? Someone had thrown a packet of hot dogs onto her. Sanderfelt suffers from an unusual phobia: the fear of hot dogs. “It started when I was three years old,” she said. “I had watched a video of how they make hot dogs, and after that I’ve just been grossed out about it. I can’t be in the same room as a hot dog. I get freaked out.” What Sanderfelt feels is closer to disgust than fear, but is so extreme that she will avoid interacting with hot dogs if at all possible. “Once, I remember that someone threw a packet of hot dogs on me and I freaked out,” she said. “I started crying. It’s hard to explain because it’s a weird thing to have a phobia of, but I just can’t handle hot dogs.” Though Sanderfelt is more repulsed by hot dogs than actually scared, when she encounters them, she feels the same sense of anxiety and discomfort that is connected to phobias. “They’re gross, in general,” she said. “The taste and the shape and everything and how they’re hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Everything about them. I think they smell bad.” Although Sanderfelt is not alone in disliking hot dogs, her level of disgust elevates the condition to the status of a phobia. “I’ve heard of people who think hot dogs are disgusting, but not anyone who is this extreme about it,” she said. “I feel like the difference between [having] a phobia and just thinking something is gross is that you can’t... I feel sick when I’m around [hot dogs], and if I’m getting close to a hot dog place my stomach is like [cringe noise]. I’d walk around rather than walk through a hot dog place.”

holes

“When I see it, I will feel chills and stuff, and I don’t want to look at it, but then I kind of force myself to in a way,” Danielle Tang ‘17 said. “And then there’s like a seizing in my chest, almost like a tightness. And it’s just uncomfortable, and

then afterwards you just feel sick, not to the point where you want to throw up but just really grossed out.” Tang has a fear of objects with irregular or unusual patterns of holes. Beehives, ant hills, and lotus seed heads are a few examples. Although this phobia has yet to be recognized by the psychological community, it is often referred to by the name trypophobia, from the Greek words for “boring holes” and “fear.” “It’s less of a fear or phobia than it is like you’re just repulsed. You’re grossed out by a lot of little patterns, not just a big thing that is scary,” Tang said. “There are specific patterns that you’ll see in nature and it just grosses you out. That’s more what it is.” Her first memories of her phobia stem from when she was younger. “I first remembered it when I was in fourth grade,” Tang said. “During the summer there would be a bunch of mole holes in the ground, and I would just look at them and for some reason I just think it was the most disgusting thing ever. After that I started noticing it in my life more and more.” After this experience, Tang believes that her trypophobia began to play a more prominent role in her life. She has also found that these small holes bother her more in some cases than others. “I wouldn’t consider myself someone who is easily scared, but the pattern itself is just gross,” she said. “I can kind of deal with honeycomb because it’s more of a normal pattern, but that’s about it.”

spoons

Kierra Zapf ‘15 has been afraid of spoons for almost her whole life. “Ever since I was little, my mom used to feed me with baby spoons,” she said. “But when I started getting older and using spoons on my own, I just started refusing to. I just wouldn’t do it.” As she got older, Zapf figured out ways to avoid the need for a spoon, even if it meant not eating certain foods. “I don’t eat soup,” she said. “I use a fork to eat a cereal or apple sauce. I would rather use my hands than use a spoon.” Like Tang and Sanderfelt, Zapf also experiences a sense of disgust when she comes into contact with the object of her phobia. “[Spoons] really gross me out. I feel gross and the back of my

throat starts to itch,” she said. “The fact that they aren’t straight and that they’re curved — it just really bothers me. I think the bigger the spoon, the more it disgusts me.” Unlike Tang, whose phobia is common enough to have a Facebook page followed by thousands, Zapf is more alone in her fear. “I’ve never heard of anyone else who is afraid of spoons,” she said. “I don’t even know if it’s a real phobia. It might just be me.”

powder

For Emma Arp ‘17, the textures of flour and sand are unpleasant enough to constitute a phobia. For as long as she can remember, she has avoided coming in contact with powdery substances. “When I was younger, I was always really tactile, and dry stuff would really bother me,” Arp said. “I would always be washing my hands, especially if I touched flour or had been at the beach. It just felt so wrong and strange.” Arp, like Zapf, has not found other people who share her fear. Nevertheless, her aversion is strong. “It makes me feel dirty, I guess,” she said. “It’s just not right. It doesn’t feel like it’s okay, or like it should be happening.” For Arp, the textures that she hates can at times be overwhelming “One time when I was younger, we had gone to the beach and I was sliding down sand dunes. I just remember getting sand absolutely everywhere, all in my mouth and my eyes,” she said. “It just felt so wrong. It was terrible.” Trypophobia (the fear of small holes) was first named through an Internet community of sufferers. Since then, the phobia has gained more recognition than it ever had before. Along with that recognition has come an increase in the number of people claiming to have the phobia, which raises a question: Can phobias be contagious? Although there is not definitive research on the subject, phobia sufferers at City have noticed the effect themselves. “I think that if someone is scared of something there’s sort of a bandwagon effect, or maybe it’ll help someone notice it like it did for me,” Tang said. “I didn’t really notice it until I knew what it was called. But after that you see it more around you.” PHOTO BY KIERRA ZAPF

ba M e et

s es

: n o

e p i fo r s c e r u a

Mr . Ba con , the man

he for t y t i C who has helped define

rs. ea y ve t fi s a p

By Rasmus Schlutter & Joe Weideman

Standing tall, John Bacon has a commanding presence over the main foyer. Students mill about, waiting for the first bell. He strikes up friendly conversation with them, addressing them by their names and asking about their weekend activities with genuine interest. “There’s many things that I love about being principal at City High School,” Bacon said. “One thing that stands out is the opportunity to work with young men and women throughout their whole high school career.” Bacon has developed a different relationship with each class of students he has seen come through City, and continues to value the opportunities to contribute to the growth and development of each new and departing class. “I get to watch them have a great education and grow into confident and successful young men and women and go out there and be leaders in our world,” Bacon said. “The moment from incoming freshman to walking across that stage at graduation is pretty special, and you get to feel like you’re part of their lives.” ART BY NOVA MEURICE

10 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

It’s an experience he knows firsthand. Bacon is not only City High’s principal but a proud alumnus. His time at City High has shaped how he conducts himself today. “It really helped me become who I am today. We had all our little groups, but there was a prevailing feeling that we all shared a bond above and beyond that. It was very special to be apart of that. We really bought into that belief that we were the school that leads,” Bacon said. “It made me value the opportunity to bring people together.” Bacon keeps that belief close to his heart. “I have a quote that hangs in my office: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ I love that idea of people coming together, and I think it’s really satisfying to be a part of a group of people working together for a common goal.” Both school policy and the general atmosphere at City High were very different before Bacon became principal. In the five years he’s

been on the job, he has allowed both cellphones and water bottles to be used during school hours, and rescheduled spirit assemblies from the end to the middle of the school day. He also introduced the student advisory center, to help at-risk students stay on track. “I don’t want anyone slipping through the cracks,” he said. “We want all students to be connected to this high school.” It is this kind of passion for education that makes Bacon so concerned about the present condition of the Iowan education system. “The budget situation in the State of Iowa is not where we need it to be right now. We rank 35th in school funding and we continue to worry about what the allowable growth will be for next year,” Bacon said. “We need to lead the nation in public education and we need to fund our schools at a higher level than we do right now.” While Bacon recognizes the difficulties surrounding this issue, he also sees the importance of having a well-funded public school system.

“I realize there are difficult choices, and I realize that obviously I’m biased, but we’ve got to find a way to do that,” he said. “What a great thing to be known for, what a great thing to lead in. I really believe that that is important.” The issue hits especially hard for Bacon, as City High is expected to experience significant growth in the next year. “We badly need some staffing here in City High to continue to offer the great programing that we’re accustomed to,” he said. “Our high school is growing, and we need to add staff to keep pace with that growth, so this is an issue I’m very closely following.” And it is not just budget cuts that are worrying Bacon; potential changes in school boundaries are also a continuing concern. “School boundaries are also critical. This, I think, is the number one issue facing this community’s education system, perhaps of my lifetime.” Bacon said, “How we choose to set the boundaries matters a great deal, because we have one opportunity to get it right, and we need to make sure we are setting the stage for all three schools to be thriving, successful places.” As the principal of an incredibly diverse school, Bacon knows the importance of variety in a school body, but also sees the value in having equally empowered schools.

“I think it’s a good thing we’re not going to be cookies cutters of each other, we’re not going to be identical, but I think its a good thing for the enrollment, for the socioeconomic make up, for all three schools to be healthy, vibrant, diverse places,” he said. But through all of issues and difficulties that come with being a principal, Bacon has maintained the same five-point vision about City High’s future. “To me, part of what that means to be a great comprehensive high school is five things. Academic excellence. Students have the opportunity to earn an outstanding education,” Bacon said. “Co-curricular activities that operate at the highest level in this state are a very important part of high school, and we expect to be very competitive in interscholastic activities.” Third on Bacon’s list: connections to City High School. “I want every single student to find their special place here, to find something special that they’re a part of,” he said. Bacon also sees the importance of both a healthy learning environment and strong school spirit. “Number four is a learning environment built on respect and kindness for each other,” he said.

Sophomore Adam Zabner experienced firsthand Bacon’s commitment to creating that environment. “Because of passport contingencies not noticed by the travel agency, I wasn’t able to get on a plane to France when I got to the airport,” Zabner ‘16 said. “Bacon came in to my math class and took me out, angrier than I was. He was yelling about how he was going to call the travel company and make them give me my money back. Bacon was so upset and passionate that my friends thought I was in trouble.” And number five is having strong school spirit. “Its understanding that it is special to be a City High Little Hawk, and that you are part of great tradition,” Bacon Said. Bacon has many quotes and mottos that he lives by, but one truly captures how he leads the school. “‘Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.’ I really believe if you’re going to do something, go all in, bring some enthusiasm,” he said. “That’s contagious. So I ask our students to remember that and put their heart into what they do.”

Visit Cate’s Frozen Yogurt this Friday, May 1st, to support The Little Hawk! The first person to bring a copy of The Little Hawk to Cate’s get froyo on us! April 30, 2015 11

By Sonali Durham & Sarah Smith With the words “eyebrow tutorial” producing 220,000 results on YouTube, #eyebrow generating 854,899 Instagram posts, and dozens of beauty websites calling eyebrows the most important part of the face, one has to wonder just when these two strips of hair were raised to such a surprisingly high status in popular culture. “They’re just eyebrows,” Erin Cox ‘16 said. “But social media really hyped up the brow.” Although eyebrows have always been an important part of the cosmetic world, their popularity has skyrocketed over the past few years. In the Iowa City area alone, there are several stores dedicated to eyebrow threading and care. Yashu Ssrestha works at one of these stores, Style by Sandy, and has seen firsthand both the rising interest in and the changing trends of eyebrows. “We have grown a lot [recently],” she said. “Very high arches [are] very popular these days. Everybody likes high arches.” Yara Moustafa ‘17 first saw bold eyebrows on actress and model Cara Delevingne; since then, the style has gained relatively widespread popularity. “Once everyone saw that this famous model had these really big eyebrows and were pulling them off so well, it started being a trend,” Moustafa said. “I don’t know if it

12 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

was her exactly that started it, but “People have admired my eyeshe was one of the big people that brows before,” she said. “I think it’s got it going.” just because they think I naturally Cox, too, saw the trend that has have thick eyebrows, which I do, spread across social media begin but they don’t naturally look like with celebrities. this. I put in work. They are natu“Teenage girls [have] picked ral enough for people to admire up on actresses like Lily Collins, them, but I’m like, ‘No, honey, this who’ve got that really strong brow,” is makeup.’” she said. “It’s funny, it’s honestly Cox, too, has noticed that her funny, because a lot of the media eyebrows attract attention. surrounding it is funny.” “I get compliments on them a Although Mustafa has noticed lot,” Cox said. “Usually only from the newfound interest in eyebrows girls; guys don’t say anything about on social media, them. Usuher own interest ally girls had other origins. that are “TRENDS COME “Before, I into makeAND GO, AND I just never noup a lot FEEL LIKE THIS IS A ticed them,” she pick up on said. “I never reit more. I TREND. HOPEFULLY I ally noticed it think they DON’T MESS UP MY until I started have a betfilling them in ter eye for EYEBROW SHAPE and people said BEFORE THIS IS OVER.” it.” W h i l e they looked nice. That’s when I interest started doing it in eyeon a regular babrows has sis.” reached For Mustafa, perhaps eyebrow styling is unprecnow a part of her daily routine. edented levels recently, makeup “In the morning, if I mess them and beauty industries have tracked up, then I’m definitely not going to eyebrow trends since ancient times. leave the house,” Moustafa said. “I Across a shorter timespan, Cox just need to fix them before I leave. has seen the influence of eyebrow On average, they’ll probably take trends in her own family. two to five minutes depending on “When both my grandma and their condition. Like bad hair days, my mom were younger, the fashthere are bad eyebrow days.” ion was to have straight, really Moustafa’s interest in maintain- thin eyebrows,” Cox said. “They ing her eyebrows has gained atten- really over-plucked, and now they tion from her peers. basically don’t have eyebrows and

-ERIN COX ‘16

they have to draw theirs on. Trends come and go, and I feel like this is a trend. Hopefully I don’t mess up my eyebrow shape before this is over. Although fashions come and go, Moustafa does not believe that eyebrow care itself it likely to disappear anytime soon. “I think eyebrows will always be in fashion, but I think thick eyebrows are the trend now. I think that’ll go away; it’s just a new trend. Thick eyebrows had their time, and now it’s kind of drifting away,” Moustafa said. “I think keeping your eyebrows in shape will always be popular.” Whatever legions of Internetbased beauty gurus might claim, eyebrows are not, in the end, the windows to the soul. “Eyebrows are not the first thing I notice in people,” Moustafa said. “Everyone has that one feature about them that you notice first; I think that my feature is my eyebrows and that’s why I get a lot of attention for them. If someone has good eyebrows, I admire them; but if they don’t, I’m not stunned.” Like any facial feature, eyebrows vary from person to person; Moustafa does not believe that there is one definition of a “good eyebrow.” “A good eyebrow depends on the person. It should fit you,” she said. “It’d be weird to have really natural makeup and then have really exaggerated eyebrows. If your eyebrows look good on you, and they’re shaped... It just has to fit with the person.”

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April 30, 2015

iowa city

underground By Sofie Lie & Lucy McGehee

14 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

ART BY SOFIE LIE

ollowing a descent down a narrow ladder, a brick arch marks the entrance to the network of dim, compressed tunnels and caves that can be found far underneath oblivious feet walking to their destinations. Built during the 1850s in Iowa City, these historic networks made from stone and brick are not widely known. “No one knows about [the tunnels], which makes them so mysterious,” Esmé Rummelhart ‘17, frequent downtown visitor, said. “They’re under our city. People walk on top of them every day and probably all the time. They’re just down there and nobody knows.” The network, which lies 2030 feet underground, was built in various ways. The tunnels were constructed with five-foot, hand-cut slabs of stone while the beer caves were made using stone arches and brick ceilings. Architectural historian Marlin Ingalls has been excavating the tunnels and caves underneath Iowa City for years, and has led multiple tours. “I have been in tunnels and caves from Greece to China to Central America and numerous towns and cities including Iowa City here,” Ingalls said. “I like that [the network] is underground, so it’s not an easy-access thing.” The network of both tunnels and caves were constructed primarily to be used as part of a sanitary sewage system, but evolved into extra storage room for breweries and restaurants during prohibition-era Iowa, as the caves were the perfect temperature for storing beer, consistently staying 55 degrees throughout the year. Now, there is speculation about the possibility of more public tours of the historic network. “We live in Iowa City; it

“NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT [THE TUNNELS], WHICH MAKES THEM SO MYSTERIOUS. THEY’RE DOWN THERE AND NOBODY KNOWS.” -ESME RUMMELHART

could be pretty educational [to use tunnels to attract tourism],” Rummelhart said. “Potentially, this could be something people will be interested in.” Mark Stevenson is the owner of Decorum, an antique shop just a block away from Brewery Square, where the only accessible entrance to the tunnels resides. Stevenson had the opportunity to tour the tunnels during the October Brew Fest two years ago. “The place was down [underground], and it’s dark all the time. At one time, there was a lot of activity down there,” Stevenson said. “It has a lot of potential.” Ingalls agrees that the tunnels and caves could be an opportunity for Iowa City tourism. “I get asked all the time to do tours of the tunnels,” Ingalls said. “Various institutions and organizations are trying to work that into a cultural, architectural tour of Iowa City.” La James International college located in Brewery Square makes use of the network with an elevator leading to a cellar underground. Ingalls believes that the network could be utilized even further. “This could be linked to historical foods and beer,” he said. “I would suspect that would make a lot of money.” However, opening the tunnels and caves to the public comes with drawbacks. Ingalls has experienced firsthand the danger and fear associated with them. “If you go on the tour of Iowa City’s tunnels, you can’t be afraid of the dark or confined spaces,” Ingalls said. “You have to weigh less than 250 pounds, and be able to ascend and descend a 7 foot ladder.” Ingalls’ experiences with tunnels and caves go beyond Iowa City. When sent to investigate a tunnel in Cedar Rapids, he entered the tunnel through a sink-

hole, equipped with an oxygen sensor and infrared cameras. “I knew I had a 99.9 percent chance of getting out of it, but I will say that I did not like it down [in the tunnel in Cedar Rapids],” Ingalls said. “I felt closed-in and trapped.” Ingalls recalls the feeling when first entering the underground network. “Just going in [one of the tunnels] and you feel the air blasting, you go, ‘Oh, gee, I’m really heading into something,’” Ingalls said. The 160-year existence of these tunnels continues to intrigue and educate residents. Solving minor drawbacks for safety could lead to another cool (literally) place to visit in Iowa City. “It’s cool to know that you could have had relatives that participated in some way in historical events or historic sights that are here,” Rummelhart said. “I think that history is really underrated, and learning about it in ways that are interactive that are around your city is awesome. It’s as good as it gets.”

April 30, 2015

modern

families By Nova Meurice & Sarah Smith

ART BY CORA BERN-KLUG & AYLA CANIN

16 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

Six years ago, gay marriage was legalized in Iowa. Today, City students with same-sex parents examine the way the ruling has affected their lives. It was a spring night when McKinley Barbouroske ‘16 and her family awaited the Iowa Supreme Court outcome. She had sat quietly next to her parents and sleeping sister through previous proceedings, and now it came down to the final verdict. At that time Barbouroske knew that the court’s decision was important, but she didn’t fully comprehend the step Iowa was about to take: becoming the first state in the Midwest to legalize gay marriage. “When I was that age I didn’t completely understand why we had to have the case,” BarbouRoske said. “I thought that it was unnecessary, because my parents loved each other and they should have been allowed to get married no matter what.” April 3, 2015 marks the six-year anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Iowa. For many, this day goes unnoticed, but for others it remains significant. For Eddy Galstad ‘16 and her moms, it was a day to remember. “I think that it was a good day in the Galstad-Schwartz household,” she said. “It felt like it was another step towards equality, which was really important. My parents were really happy with it, and a lot of our friends were pretty happy with it. We were all pretty happy.” Quincey Coghill-Behrends and his parents considered themselves more than happy. “I don’t really remember much about it except for the yelling downstairs, then the party, and then my parents asking to marry each other,” he said. BarbouRoske, who experienced the ruling and its results personally, remembers when she first realized that her moms weren’t legally married. “I got really upset, thinking that they didn’t love each other and wouldn’t stay together,” BarbouRoske said. “Then they explained that they wanted to be married, but it wasn’t allowed—they only thought of themselves as married. That’s when it sort of first came to me that some people have a problem with us.” Other students have also felt homophobia aimed at their par-

ents. Galstad first encountered a negative reaction towards her moms at a summer camp: she met and befriended someone who later avoided her after finding out that Galstad had two moms. “I had never experienced that before. There had been cases of people saying something but then quickly catching it,” Galstad said. “This was the first time that it felt real. There are people out there that don’t believe same-sex marriage is okay. Growing up in a place like Iowa City—very liberal and supporting of marriage equality—it was completely foreign to me.” Even after attempts to reconcile, the girl told Galstad never to speak to her again. “It was pretty upsetting, because I was just never used to it,” Galstad said. “I never felt different, but in that moment I felt completely shut out from someone that I genuinely liked hanging out with. It was kind of a wake-up call.” Galstad believes that the opinions this girl had were due to the way she was raised. This seemed to counter what Galstad herself had been taught. “Growing up in a household with two moms, I think that was a big value of mine: let other people be themselves and do your best to not infringe upon what they believe,” Galstad said. “I think people should realize it’s not a decision to be gay or lesbian. I think everyone deserves love, and no matter who you are, love is something that everyone needs. If they find it in someone who is the same gender as them, I think they should go for it.” The incident at camp was also one of the first times that Galstad was confronted with someone who took issue with her family. Usually, her parents’ gender feels more like a fact of life than a defining feature of her family, but others don’t always agree. “I’ve always known that my family was different,” Galstad said. “Not anything drastic, but I’ve always know that these friends have a mom and a dad and I have two moms. It wasn’t anything like ‘I have two moms. I am really different.’ It was more just a fact I ac-

“I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD REALIZE IT’S NOT A DECISION TO BE GAY OR LESBIAN. I THINK EVERYONE DESERVES LOVE, AND NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, LOVE IS SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE NEEDS. IF THEY FIND IT IN SOMEONE WHO IS THE SAME GENDER AS THEM, I THINK THEY SHOULD GO FOR IT.” -EDDY GALSTAD ‘16

cepted.” Anna Norman-Wikner ‘17 had a few misconceptions about sexuality before she realized that not all families were like hers. “It just kind of came gradually,” she said. “I remember asking my friend to marry me. I was in kindergarten like, ‘Oh we’re really good friends, so just marry me?’ It was just an innocent thing; I wasn’t actually in love with her.” While it was never a problem for Norman-Wikner at school, the issue of same-sex marriage resulted in some tension between her family and her church. When Norman-Wikner’s parents wanted to get married, their church refused to perform the service. “It was awful,” she said. “My parents like to go to church. They like to be involved in that, so having the entire ‘loving’ community of the church tell them that they weren’t allowed to get married was really hard.” Later, the Norman-Wikners did manage to find a church that would recognize their marriage, but they still faced other groups who were unwilling to accept it: Norman-Wikner’s family was discouraged from attending a reunion at a church-based camp where her mom used to be a counselor. “It was really upsetting, especially for my mom,” NormanWikner said. “She really liked the camp and wanted to go back there, so having them tell us that they didn’t want us there was really sad. They refused to acknowledge the fact that my parents are married. They kept saying they were not married.” This dispute hurt not only Norman-Wikner’s parents, but for the family as a whole. “It was upsetting for the entire family, because as kids we want to believe that our parents are accepted in the community,” Norman-Wikner said. “We try to be as normal as possible, but I don’t know how people would describe ‘normal.’” Galstad, however, feels that her church is very accepting and supportive of her family. While she hasn’t personally felt opposition

April 30, 2015 17

from religious groups, she empathizes with people who have. “In situations where people get kicked out of churches, that’s just not fair,” Galstad said. “[For] something that is a church-a community for people who have the same faith and want to worship God-it’s wrong to kick people out... for doing something that they can’t control, for loving someone. I think that’s just wrong.” Although her family is involved in church activities, Galstad finds it difficult to connect to people who use their religion to fight LGBTQA+ rights. “For a very long time, and even to this day, we have struggled with people using the Bible for support against gay marriage,” Galstad said. “That makes it harder for me to participate in the church community—where some testament makes it okay to squash other people’s lifestyles. I don’t think that is how I would like to live, nor is it something I’d like to worship or follow.” The clash between religious groups and the LGBTQA+ community has escalated in recent years, especially given the current controversy surrounding Indiana’s

recently-passed Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was created to protect the free exercise of religion. Opponents of the law say that it allows citizens to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation by refusing them service at privately-owned businesses. One of these opponents is 2009 West High graduate Zach Wahls. Wahls rose to national prominence after a video of his passionate 2011 speech in defense of LGBTQA+ rights to the Iowa House Judiciary Committee went viral. From there, Wahls went on to speak at more than 200 engagements, ranging from The Ellen DeGeneres Show , to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Wahls is currently working as an advocate for rights and equality for the LGBTQA+ community, and he feels that some of the issues for which is he working in favor could have been undermined by the Indiana law. “I think that people should absolutely have the right to worship and to have their beliefs honored,” Wahls said. “It needs to be the case that people are not experiencing government-sanctioned discrimination because of what somebody believes. I think that the protection

of religious beliefs needs to be a shield, not a sword, so to speak.” While Iowa was one of the first states to legalize gay marriage, issues of LGBTQA rights are still causing controversy. Most recently, students at Dowling Catholic High School in Des Moines organized a walkout in protest of the school’s refusal to hire an openly gay teacher. “This [situation] is precisely why we need these kinds of employment protections,” Wahls said “We’re talking about people’s livelihoods here. Gay marriage is great, but if you can’t put food on the table or make rent, you’ve got bigger problems. So I think that employment discrimination is absolutely a big part of what’s going to happen once we have marriage equality nationwide.” Wahls, as a member of a generation who grew up in a time before same-sex marriage was legal anywhere in the U.S., was initially nervous about how people would react when he told them that he had two moms. For years, he didn’t talk about it much with his classmates. Eventually, he decided to run a column in The West Side Story about his parents.

“That column was one of the best things I ever did, simply be cause I found out that people supported me and that they didn’t judge me or have anything nasty to say,” Wahls said. “It was overwhelmingly supportive, which is very lucky.” Continuing his writing, Wahls was still covering gay rights when same-sex marriage was legalized in the state of Iowa. “At that point I was the columns editor at The West Side Story, and that was the easiest column that I had ever written,” Wahls said. “I was just so happy.” While Wahls continues to advocate for LGBTQA+ rights, he also believes that public opinion has shifted since the Iowa ruling in 2009. “I think that a lot of folks who were on the fence realized that the sky didn’t fall,” Wahls said. “I think that a lot of people who were opposed to gay marriage saw that their lives didn’t change, and the difference that makes is that it shifts the conversation out of the hypothetical and into reality. And once people stop demagoguing and fear mongering, they can actually talk with their gay neighbor, who is

same-sex marriage is legal in 37 states firing employees for being lgbtqa+ is legal in 32 states States where same-sex marriage is legal

SOURCES: GOVERNING DATA & THE HUFFINGTON POST

18 Little Hawk Feature Magazine

States where firing employees for their sexual orientation or gender identity is legal

now married, and see that his life is not so different.” Wahls finds that humor is an important tool for getting through to people and making them feel comfortable discussing LGBTQA+ issues. “I think that being able to laugh is really important,” Wahls said. “Once you start joking and you can be a little bit humorous, people will get less defensive and they’re willing to be a little bit more honest.” However, Wahls believes that the line between humorous and hurtful is worth noting. “The humor has to be good,” Wahls said. “Just saying, ‘that’s so gay,’ or, ‘what a f*ggot,’ that’s not funny, it’s offensive. I think that you just have to be willing to laugh at yourself and your own family, but laughing at other people is just not going to be productive.” Galstad finds that while people don’t always think before making rude or distasteful jokes, they often realize quickly that their comment has crossed the line. “There’s always the thing where people make homophobic jokes, but I think that they quickly realize that that’s very offensive,” Galstad said. “I catch people at that a lot, but I hardly ever say anything because they know that they’ve offended me.” While BarbouRoske also thinks that humor is a valuable way to connect with people and talk about serious issues, she tries to correct people who make offensive jokes. “Sometimes in the LGBT community, we joke about stereotypes,” BarbouRoske said. “But if it’s being done in a negative way, I try and teach and correct, like, ‘You know, that’s not a really correct statement. That’s more of a stereotype. and we can learn if we work.’” In the past decade, television and film have also used humor to portray realistic gay characters in shows or movies. This expanding demographic is important to Galstad, who believes that gay celebrities open viewers’ eyes. “I think it’s a generational thing; I think we’ve kind of grown up in a society where there are celebrities who are gay,” Galstad said. “I think

“THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR A CHILD IS NOT ABOUT THE SEXUAL ORIENTATION OR THE GENDER IDENTITY OF THAT CHILD’S PARENT OR PARENTS. IT IS ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT . . .THAT KID’S PARENT OR PARENTS CAN PUT IN THE BLOOD, SWEAT, TOIL, AND TEARS IT TAKES TO SCULPT LITTLE HELLIONS INTO WELLADJUSTED YOUNG ADULTS.” -ZACH WAHLS

that’s when a lot of people started accepting it.” Because he grew up before LGBTQA+ celebrities became widely accepted, Wahls wishes he could have had that experience. “I would have loved to watch Modern Family growing up. It would have been awesome,” Wahls said. “I’m so happy that kids growing up today with two moms or two dads can see families like theirs on television, and know that they’re not alone.” Despite this recent increase in representation, Galstad believes the LGBTQA+ community still needs more representation in media. “Being raised by two moms and being the first generation to be a product of same sex-parents, there aren’t very many role models to look up to,” Galstad said. “They’re all pretty much around my age. I think that’s pretty different than how a lot of people would perceive it to be.” Like role models, respect and support from loved ones is also influential for those coming out as LGBTQA+. This can be complicated when families battle with differing internal politics. Although Galstad’s family initially faced that kind of conflict, they have grown to accept her parents’ relationship. “I don’t think it was awesome when my grandparents got the news that my mom was dating Wanda, or that Wanda was dating my mom,” Galstad said. “It was something that they were not comfortable with, originally, but now that they’ve grown to see our family and that we really do love each other, I think they’re okay with it.” Norman-Wikner’s extended family has also come to recognize her parents’ relationship. “Since my parents have started more of a family, the one side of my grandparents have become more open with it,” Norman-Wikner said. “They’ve just accepted that it’s not going to go away, and that’s it’s a real thing. It’s okay. They’re working on coming to an acceptance with it.” Even in the case that friends or family are homophobic, LGBTQA+ families find support and connect with people in the community.

“We’re just a big group,” BarbouRoske said. “We work together and we can laugh about things. We’ll sometimes make jokes and laugh about the situations we’ve gone through with less-understanding people.” Galstad also feels a special connection with friends who also have same-sex parents. “Sometimes I make the joke that we’re in the ‘two moms club’ together,” Galstad said. “I think it’s because they get it—growing up with two women in the household, instead of just a husband and a wife. I think that is something that is to be shared among myself and kids with two moms.” Although Galstad and her family are friends with several other gay families, that doesn’t mean that she is exclusively friends with them. “[There’s] just this bonding over understanding what people are trying to understand, and trying to understand how people with opposite-gender parents live,” Galstad said. “It is a community, but not exclusive.” While Wahls also found support growing up in the LGBTQA+ community, he believes that his parents’ sexual orientation was not an important factor in his upbringing. “The most important factor for a child is not about the sexual orientation or the gender identity of that child’s parent or parents,” Wahls said. “It is about whether or not that child is loved, is cared for, and whether or not that kid’s parent or parents can put in the blood, sweat, toil, and tears that it takes to sculpt little hellions into welladjusted young adults.” Norman-Wikner agrees, and finds little difference between kids brought up by heterosexual and LGBTQA+ parents. “We’re all just normal kids,” Norman-Wikner said. “I’ve grown up with good parents, I’m disciplined, and for the most part I’m a good person. I haven’t met anyone that hasn’t been brought up right because they have two moms or two dads. There isn’t really a big difference.”

April 30, 2015 19

from tanzania

PHOTO BY CORA BERN-KLUG

to america

20 Little Hawk

By Becca Meyer

Raheema Jack ‘18 and her family have moved from country to country across the globe to escape conflict. Now, they’ve made a home in Iowa City.

o running water. No electricity. For miles and miles, trees were the only view surrounding the village. Built on dirt and grass, she lived in a house created by her parents using only brick. The family of Raheema Jack ‘18 fled their home country of Congo before she was even born. As a child, she lived in a camp for refugees in Dar Salam, Tanzania, before making her journey to America with her family. With only two rooms in the house, and an outdoor kitchen and bathroom, most of Jack’s time was spent outside. Each morning, she woke up and went to school in a one-room schoolhouse. As an adolescent, she had to get water from a river, had to do chores each day, and helped tend to her parents’ farm, which was their only source of food, except for the occasional meal provided by the refugee camp. After she finished her work, Jack played games with her friends. Without access to electronics or advanced toys, the children entertained themselves with monkey-in-the-middle, tag, jump rope, and the occasional soccer game. “All the children in my village were friends,” Jack said. “There was a sense of family, and if someone left the village everyone would know about it so everyone could say good-bye.”

Although Jack was living in what she considered to be a nicer village compared to most, there were some downsides to the camp. The biggest issue: there were no doctors, and disease spread like wildfire. “When I was very young I had 11 siblings,” Jack said. “But four of them died from sickness. I don’t remember knowing what had happened, I just remember they were gone. There were lots of people dying in the village, because once one got sick, there was no way to stop the sickness from spreading.” In 2007, Jack’s family packed up, said their farewells, and left their home. From Dar Salam, they were temporarily moved to yet another refugee camp in order to be interviewed about coming to America. “One of my brothers is handicapped and his legs don’t work,” Jack said. “There was a program where people with disabilities were given the opportunity to come to America and receive help. My brother first got to go to America and a few months later, our whole family got to leave Africa and come to Syracuse, New York.” From the cold weather, to the language, to apartments, everything in New York was new to Jack and her family. “I had no idea where we were going or why we left,” Jack said. “I was so young I didn’t know what was going on. When we got to New York I was even more confused. The weather was so cold, and I was only used to warmth. The houses and apartments were much bigger and the people were very different-looking. Everything was new; I even saw snow for the first time, ate my first apple, and learned how to use a toilet.” At nine years old, Jack was thrown into a public school where the only language spoken was English. Used to a one-room

schoolhouse where she was surrounded by friends, being in a big school with no one she knew was quite a change. “I wasn’t sure what to do,” Jack said. “I couldn’t communicate with anyone, and so I just told myself, ‘The most important thing to do is to listen to people and try to learn English.’ I remember thinking how everything in Africa was so much easier, but I forced myself to learn the language.” Although Jack learned English during the time she lived in New York, her parents were unable to. They couldn’t find work because of the language barrier, and so her family packed up and moved to Iowa City. “Other people from my village have somehow all ended up in Iowa City,” Jack said. “We had friends who told us about the great job opportunities in Iowa, and so my parents drove our family to Iowa City last March, and this is where we live now.” Now a freshman at City, Jack is once again adjusting to a new school and a new environment. “I love City because it’s like all the teachers want to teach, and everybody wants to learn,” Jack said. “In Africa they would beat you if you spoke at the wrong time, and in New York there were lots of fights and no one cared about school, but here people do.” Throughout all the changes Jack has experienced, soccer has remained a constant. “I played soccer with my friends in Africa whenever I could,” Jack said. “I love to watch it, play it, and I just love it so much.” In Jack’s first JV game she scored two goals against Des Moines, and she is hoping to continue to contribute to the team throughout the season as she continues to adjust to life in yet another new place.

April 30, 2015 21

at city high

segregation in science

By Lydia Kaufmann

Grace Williamson ‘17 works on a project for her Digital Electronics class. PHOTO BY CAROLINE BROWN

Building bridges and designing cookie-topping machines, the students in room 1507 are learning firsthand what it means to be an engineer. Grace Williamson ‘17, one of three female students in her engineering class, spends the first hour of each day fighting the gender inequality within the field as she learns. “People think [engineering] is really nerdy and hard, and mostly for guys, but it’s not, and it’s really fun,” Williamson said. Gender imbalance reaches just about every level of engineering, from college to the work force, and even at City. “There are definitely a lot more guys [in my class], but it’s never really an issue,” PLTW student Elena Lyons-Macatee ‘17 said. Boys outnumber girls in high school engineering electives six to one, but engineering teacher Victoria Pedersen and her students are working to change that. “I think if girls try it, they’ll like it, and be surprised by how much they like it,” Pedersen said. Pedersen is one of the engineering teachers at City High, working with the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) effort by trying to encourage girls to take engineering electives. Engineering electives at City have an average of three or four female students in each class of about 30. “[City High] thought maybe with a woman teaching that you might get more girls to sign up,” Pedersen said. “But it’s still hard to get them to try it in high school.” City High offers five PLTW classes, also known as pre-engineering courses. “There are so many different fields in engineering, and we just barely touch on them in my classes,” Pedersen said. “There just aren’t enough periods in a day to teach [the students] everything.” While science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes are in a category of their own, they share some aspects with other courses offered at City High. Williamson finds that engineering incorporates aspects of her other

classes. “It combines math and science, which are two subjects that I really like, she said. “But it can also be hard.”. Math and science classes generally take a bad rap for being difficult, but STEM classes have the potential to help make those classes easier. “[Engineering classes] made chemistry and math easier for me, because [Mrs. Pedersen] is really great at explaining everything,” Williamson said. Despite the huge number of fields included under the heading of ‘engineering’, many people aren’t aware of the range of possibilities. “People think that being an engineer means being an electrical or mechanical engineer most of the time, but it goes way beyond that.” Williamson said. “You can be involved in chemical engineering and biomedical engineering —things people generally don’t consider as engineering.” Men hugely outnumber women in STEM jobs: according to the National Girls Collaborative project, only 4.5 percent of mechanical engineers and 8.8 percent of electrical engineers are women. However, the fight to get women in engineering begins in high school with PLTW, and broadens in college with the WISE project, both of which are working to counter this imbalance. “If students want to know more, they should talk to other girls in it. Talk to me, talk to anyone,’’ Pedersen said. “Ask questions, we’d love to have them.”

after high school Two floors in the Stanley Hall dormitories at the University of Iowa are designated for the participants in the University of Iowa’s Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) program. The WISE program is a worldwide college program that works with female engineering students at the University of Iowa. “People don’t understand the power of stereotypes. They plug into expectations. If people keep telling you that you can’t do it, it makes it so you can’t do it,” WISE

women in s.t.e.m. overall workplace demographics

53% men 47% women

women make up...

13.4% of civil engineers

4.5% 44.2%

of mechanical of chemists engineers and material scientists

INFOGRAPHIC BY SONALI DURHAM & NOVA MEURICE

director Christine Brus said. “It happens to women most often in engineering, and we call it ‘Death by a Thousand Papercuts.’” One of the WISE program beneficiaries is civil engineer Andrea Rogers, who stayed with the program for two years. “[WISE does] a lot of outreach in the community to support women. Women in new environments react differently than men,” Rogers said. “Men don’t really need that sense of community that WISE tries very hard to create for the women in science and engineering.”

SOURCE: NCGPROJECT.ORG

The WISE program has its own dorm floors, where a tight-knit community of WISE program participants lives. Participants are offered free tutoring and mentoring. Bonding activities are scheduled weekly, and include Sunday night dinners and movie nights. “I don’t know anyone who survived engineering school without a support group,” Rogers said. “I don’t know that I would still be in engineering without the connections I made through WISE my freshman year of college.” Although WISE supports female engineers in the short-term,

its long-term goals are widerreaching. “How we treat people who are underrepresented is based on assumption and stereotypes,” Brus said. “So our mission, our job, is to support women where they are historically or currently underrepresented.” Rogers is not the only engineering student who has benefitted from the WISE program; she is one among many young women who credit their success to the program. “Many of [the students] really credit WISE, especially with getting them through the first year,” Brus said. “I see some of these women trying their hardest, and they give up and leave. And it isn’t because they can’t do it, and it isn’t because of a lack of intellect.” However, the gender imbalance can also have hidden benefits for those women who do choose to pursue careers in engineering. “Being a woman in engineering makes you a sought-after candidate for employment,” Rogers said. “There are not many women engineers, so it can be a differentiating factor.” Despite the efforts made to promote balance in the engineering community, these efforts sometimes focus on fixing the gender imbalance at the expense of recognizing ability. “The engineering community is really trying to do more things to promote women in leadership positions, but I would like to get advancements in my job due to my ability and not my gender,” Rogers said. The atmosphere created by gender stereotypes can be intimidating to women, creating an environment where they feel inferior to men. As the WISE and STEM programs continue to promote gender equality, engineering presents women with an opportunity. “Engineering is awesome. All students should start in their engineering career now! If you can get your undergraduate degree in engineering, you can be a working professional right out of undergrad,” Brus said. “[That] isn’t all that common to be able to do.”

April 30, 2015

LITTLE HAWK FEATURE MAGAZINE