Little Hawk Feature Magazine

WHIT JURY:

A NEW STAGE

One of the City’s brightest performers reflect on a high school experience spent in the arts, and on what’s next.

PG 4

4-5

Whit Jury Profile

Esther Puderbaugh

6-7

Roblox Feature

Yomi Hemley, Sadie Bodzin, Kate Meis

8-9

New Jeans: The New Standard

Wisdom Konu

10-11

Q&A with Adam Zabner

Tai Caputo

12-13

UCSB: On the Inside

Hattie Conover

14-15 16

Food feature

Lauren Koch

Spring Word Search

Greta Hayek

Letter From the Editors

What’s up, Little Hawks?

Does that sound familiar? It’s probably because your favorite feature editors have been dabbling in the world of meteorology anchoring LH Weather Reports along with putting in our best work in the mag. We decided to do something different for the mag in this issue. We had some of our Little Hawk staff members who would mainly do newspapers, designing some magazine pages. It has been incredible to see the talent of every member of our staff from drafting to final cuts and we are so proud to be able to show you all this issue. Special shout to our opinion/A&E editor Esther Puderbaugh on her incredible feature of

Whit Jury, Wisdom Konu, our culture editor, on his fashion review of New Jeans, Tai Caputo on her great work on a Q&A with Adam Zabner, and finally, Lauren Koch our executive editor on a mouthwatering shrimp and orzo pasta food feature. We want to say thank you to everyone who contributed, and as always, thank you to our readers. And finally, a fun fact, no one knows how eels reproduce and they have no reproductive organs.

Stay safe, Little Hawks

Yomi Hemley (He/him)

Hattie

Conover (She/her)

Avra & Erica Lauer enjoy the second trimester art show.

PHOTO BY ALYSSA MAIERS

Tiffany Jackson speaks to a student audience during author visit.

PHOTO BY DIEGO LORIA-EIVINS

Mamma Mia characters preforming for musical crew.

PHOTO BY ESTHER PUDERBAUGH

Will Ferrell and John Bacon walking City High hallways.

PHOTO BY NATALIE KUHLMANN

Whit Jury: A New Stage

One of City’s brightest performers reflects on a high school in the arts and on what’s next

By Esther Puderbaugh

A notification pops up on my phone. Whit is on his way to our interview. I text him back saying we can meet in the music wing.

Over the past three years, City’s music wing has been, in many ways, a second home for Whit Jury ‘23. Since their freshman year, Jury has been involved in choir, show choir, drama, speech, and recently co-founded CHS SMAC (City High School’s Student Managed Actors and Crew). Jury has also been selected for the Iowa All-State Chorus and was nominated for an award at the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards for his lead role of Edward Bloom in City’s production of Big Fish.

Despite all of these achievements over the

past years, Jury’s high school experience is far from his first exposure to performing arts. They cite their artistic family as fuel for their interest in performance.

“My immediate family is entirely arts, but different facets of it,” Jury said. “Me and my sister, Thomazin (Jury ‘21), are in the performing part of it. My mom [was] an art teacher, and my dad works with film. [He’s] a writer and he’s been a director before and a producer of things. So [that’s] a branch off of the performance Thomazin and I have.”

When he was seven years old, Jury remembers vividly seeing Thomazin in a dance recital and deciding he wanted to perform.

“I saw my sister perform in this dance recital [that] was based on fairy tales,” Jury said. “I thought it was the best thing in the world.”

Jury’s draw to performance was his love of playing pretend as a kid.

“I always liked playing pretend as a kid. Just [to] come up with my own ways of being a character,” Jury said. “I kept with it because I was always having fun. And that’s all I really want when I go to perform: I just want to have fun and entertain the audience. If I’m having fun then the audience will be having fun.”

One of Jury’s favorite memories from their years in performing arts at City is last year’s musical, Big Fish.

“I think that the highest highlight I’ve had here at City has been during Big Fish,” Jury said. “But during that show, I also had some of the lowest lows.”

Jury is particularly grateful for his castmates who helped him during that time.

THE AUDIENCE WILL BE HAVING FUN

with [Big Fish] and the people involved with it,” Jury said. I just felt like I bonded with everyone in the cast like I had never connected with any other cast before. I was able to really open up and be true about how I feel and I’m really glad I was able to have been able to do that with [that] group of people.”

ART BY ROSANGEL FLORES-RUBIO

“There were just so many touching moments and I have such a personal connection

Jury feels that the performing arts have changed their life.

“IF I’M HAVING FUN THEN

WHIT JURY

“I think being in theater, I don’t think I would [be] as in tune with myself [and] my identity,” Jury said. “Most of the time with theater it’s a really welcoming community, and I feel like I never got that kind of a community when I did sports. Even if it was cooperative, sometimes it never felt like we were really with one another and I always felt like with performing in theater, it had more of a tight knit feeling. I just felt a lot closer with the individual people and got to have that time to talk and understand them more.”

Jury also feels that performing has helped his mental health.

“A lot of things [have] happened in the

theater and learning how to work through that has helped me a lot with just working through everyday things,” Jury said. “Dealing with how to be on stage has helped me with social anxiety; and strategies cannot only help you on the stage, but also just in daily life.”

Jury is going to take a gap year after this year and has plans to continue performing. They will carry a memory from Matilda the Musical with them past their high school years.

“During the senior speeches [for Matilda], Rachel Meehan (‘21) went up. She said something that really stuck with me [and]

I’ve kept [it] as a personal mantra,” Jury said. “She said ‘life is too short not to say “I love you.”’ And I just really resonated with that and I started connecting with people and talking to people more often. It was a jumping [off] point for me to just be more confident.”

While Meehan’s advice has had a large impact on Jury, his advice for other performers is personal as well.

“Don’t ever apologize for doing the best you can do because the best you can do is the best anyone’s going to get,” Jury said. “Don’t be afraid to be you, and don’t be sorry for being you,”

CLOCKWISE: Jury performs at the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards. He performs as Edward Bloom in Big Fish: The Musical. Jury was nominated for the award because of that performance last spring. PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHIT JURY

Roblox: BEHIND THE SCREEN

By Kate Meis, Sadie Bodzin, and Yomi Hemley

Worldwide Reach

With hundreds of millions of recorded players on the gaming platform of Roblox, the game-developing company has reached an audience in all corners of the world. Roblox’s platform is built in a nontraditional way, with over 40 million games to choose from, many of which have been created by actual players on the platform.

The Developing Dilemma

A concern some have with the company and platform as a whole is the way they are “exploiting” young developers. What the company has done is created a program to play games, Roblox; and a program to create games, Roblox Studio. From there the company is mostly hands-off, having young people create games for other young people to play.

Where there’s trouble is the economic part of the equation. Developers are able to make revenue off of their creations, this revenue is solely in Roblox’s own online currency: Robux. When a player buys something using Robux the creator only takes 30% of the cut, the rest going to the company and distributor or seller. Additionally, a creator or developer needs at least 100,000 Robux to cash it out for real currency, that minimum amount turning into about $1000, so unless a developer’s creation is getting hundreds if not thousands of digital purchases, they likely won’t be able to cash out their earned “money.”

Though Roblox advertises the Creator Program as a way for its developers to generate their own source of income, realistically there’s a minuscule amount of games that get enough traffic and in-game purchases together to be making not just profit but a continuous, sustainable profit.

Marketing to a Young Audience

Many famous brands use Roblox as a way to reach out to a young audience. Recently, Walmart collaborated with Roblox to create a game called Walmart Land, where young players are able to have explore, play obstacle courses, and offers in-game purchases. Walmart Land is almost completely pointless except for the fact that

it introduces Walmart to a young audience. The obstacle courses (obby’s) and other interactive elements found in Walmart Land can be found in hundreds of other obby’s, games, and other creations made by young game developers, and are not exclusively made by big corporations looking for a way to get cash from a young audience. It’s not a game made for fun, but as a way to get more income.

This isn’t the only large corporation that has used Roblox as a way to draw in a young audience. Spotify, Gucci, and Chipotle have all made Roblox games, advertising their company to impressionable players. These games are exhibitions of the product/ company with branded content plastered everywhere.

These large brands targeting easily influenced kids without their own money is a problem. Marketing like this leads to

Source: Roblox

kids making more online purchases with their parents’ money. These kids only serve these corporations as pawns. These private owners continue profiting and leaching off of young children, causing the already wealthy companies to get richer. This is an example of how capitalism is making its way into all corners of most every industry and age group. These marketing strategies can lead to impulse control problems, due to the sheer number of products these companies are advertising simultaneously that children continuously buy.

Large artists have also gone on Roblox and have advertised new music through concerts. Famous artists such as Lil Nas X and NCT 127 promoting on an incredibly accessible gaming platform is an incredibly smart marketing move, but when corporations do the same thing, it can negatively affect kids. The advertised music played at these concerts is free, while the corporation’s products are not.

The Wild, Wild Web

More than half of the players that use Roblox are 12 and under, which draws concern because of not only the exploitation of the young audience, but also the content

that young children can easily stumble upon on the platform.

While Roblox may seem harmless, cyberbullying runs rampant with older children, especially taking advantage of the younger

team is likely well aware. Blocking swear words is one of the only initiatives that has been taken against the cyberbullying that is so prevalent on the platform, and this has only caused people to become more creative in their ways of insulting others.

So What?

and more impressionable kids on the app. Older players often scam and manipulate the younger children on the app, taking Robux and consequently real money from the children and their families. They often play these types of things off as a joke, but what seems like a joke can quickly turn into something serious for young children who use Roblox.

While parents may not know what their children are doing on the app, the Roblox

When looking at Roblox as a corporation, with a disenchanted perspective, the problems and negative attributes are glaringly obvious. Behind many of the colorful thumbnails on each of the platform’s games is a kid getting little to no pay from the income they create through their coding and creations. Behind “experiences” with a brand’s name slapped on them are already large corporations reaching a new, large audience ready to be influenced. Behind parents’ backs are children being cyberbullied by mostly anonymous players the same age or older. Still, Roblox uses the thrill of new games uploaded daily, new interesting technology like voice chat, and the already large population of players to continue growing. While this continued growth is inevitable, knowing what the company is doing behind the scenes and its overall motives can keep you from being ignorant as you continue observing or playing on the platform.

“5% of Roblox players publish something of their own”

ART BY KATE MEIS

-Roblox Studio

New Jeans: The New Standard

By Wisdom Konu

In these past years, revivals of fashion have taken place. From Y2K to McBling, older styles have emerged from the dead and have taken over fashion industries as we know it. But as well as the fashion industry, it has also appeared in other forms of industries. With K-Pop girl group, New Jeans, under HYBE Labels and Ador, the world of fashion and makeup in the K-Pop industry is beginning to change as we know it.

Hanni, Danielle, Hyein, Minji, Haerin. These 5 teenage girls who make up New Jeans came out of nowhere with their surprise music video release with their song, “Attention.” Released in July of last year, the group quickly attracted attention as no prior information about the 5 girls was known. The song’s bustling beat and nostalgic 2000’s R&B inspired sound piqued interest to K-Pop fans and propelled the quintet up to the top of multiple global music charts. After the release, the group’s debut self-titled extended play followed swiftly, which contained four tracks. The music video was inspired specifically by Japanese girl group, SPEED, with Attention’s MV being inspired by SPEED’s Body and Soul.

New Jean’s aesthetic is something unique and fresh to the 4th generation of K-Pop. Their aesthetic is confused with Y2K futurism while their aesthetic is more teen Y2K, which is a part of their youthful image and concept as a group. The group has a communication app named “Phoning” and

the vibes scream frutiger aero as well as the social network site, MySpace. To introduce the members, they released animated digital art which gave off the nostalgic vibe their previous release had and further set the type of image they were going to have as a group. Another thing to look at to dive into their aesthetic is the packaging of their albums. The creative choice for their album packaging was a 3d type album, with one of the albums, which was a limited edition, being a wearable bag. The reminiscent vibes of the 2000’s that New Jeans gave off at the beginning sparked a flame of nostalgia in fans, which helped boost their fame as a group with this generation’s interest with revival of past eras, specifically the 2000’s.

The 2000’s are obviously a major inspiration for the group but the things that influence their concept is a needed thing to be discussed. Black culture is embedded

in everything as well as K-Pop. From music to styling, Black culture can be found in it. Earlier generations of K-Pop were heavily inspired by R&B and it is still significant to this day. New Jeans is another example of a group influenced by Black culture. Their music, which is a mixture of 2000’s R&B and modern pop, is dripping in black culture as well as their style.

New Jeans’ style is often mislabeled as futuristic Y2K but their style is a mixture and is shaped by 90’s black fashion and Japanese street fashion. Oversized clothing, layering, as well as a plethora of accessories make up their styling. Some obvious determining factors are butterfly clips, hair tendrils and highlights, side braids, and colorful rubber bands. The 5 girls also gained attention for their long black healthy-looking hair, which gained them attention and contributed to their youthful image. Their makeup consists of a minimal base with blush shades that match the soft, nude, muted hues on their lips, giving them even more of a youthful look. The members are also involved in the fashion world, with all the members being ambassadors of major fashion brands—with Minji recently announced as Chanel’s global ambassador.

Fans and professionals in the industry alike have admitted that they have felt a shift in the K-Pop world with New Jeans’ debut. The group continue to make records, becoming one of the most successful fourth generation girl groups of their time. Y2K is becoming more prominent in the K-Pop scene and New Jeans are certainly one of the leaders behind it.

New K-Pop girl group, New Jeans are currently already making strides in the K-Pop and fashion world.

Brands you can find New Jeans in are Hysteric Glamour, Heaven by Marc Jacobs, Melted Potato, CFierce, Bape, and Onkalo Jewelry.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NME

Q&A With Adam Zabner

By Tai Caputo

QUESTION: You serve on the Environmental Protection and National Resources Committees. How did you become interested in the environment? Did you have exposure to it at City?

Even when I was at City–it’s definitely grown since, and I’ve been impressed by the student actions–there was a lot of conversations and activism among the student body around environmental issues, for sure, and those were some of the issues I’m interested in working on in the legislature. It’s sort of difficult, it’s something that the majority party often does not take seriously. And if you sit through some of those Environmental Protection Committee meetings, there’s a lot of denialism about what is happening both in terms of water quality in our state, and in terms of the border international issues with climate change. But I think one of the things that’s really cool about representing Iowa City is that at the University, we have experts in these fields, and so I’ve really had the opportunity to learn a lot from those folks. And then on those communities even being in the minority, I’ve had opportunities to bring in some experts. We’ve had opportunities to hear from the University of Iowa that come from this district presenting about some of these issues, which has been a really cool thing planning to help organize those help of conversations going forward, too.

What did you learn from running other people’s campaigns?

I think the coolest thing I learned work-

ing on campaigns–well, two things really: number one just how powerful a group of passionate people coming together can be. And you know when I started to work for Pete Butigeg, literally no one knew who he was, I would stand at the farmers market holding my sign, and people would ask me if I was Pete. Getting to see the group of activist volunteers and him really being launched into a successful Iowa caucus night was a powerful experience in how quickly things can change when you have a good group working really hard. I think the second thing I learned [while] talking to voters, listening to people, it’s just really special especially here in Iowa, when you’re knocking doors, talking to voters, folks are really willing to share with you some deeply personal things about the way they think about politics, the way they think about the world and which issues are important to them. And that to me is just really wonderful and I learned so much through conversations with voters not just here in Iowa City, but in some of my work all over the state and [in] some more rural areas. That really still impacts how I think about Iowa and Iowans.

Can you explain what your job is like? Was it what you expected to serve in the General Assembly as a representative?

It’s very exciting, getting to work at the Capitol every day, especially the first week, there’s a lot of pomp and circumstance, and it’s hard to believe you’re actually there, it’s been really wonderful getting to meet colleagues. We have a very large freshman class, 39 out of 100 of us, and there’s a couple that I’ve become very close with that I think are

wonderful, and I’ve learned a lot from folks already on both sides of the aisle. I also think there’s been a lot of disappointment in the last five weeks. . . . Public education, for me, is one of the most important issues, and so to see these attacks on public education, to see the passage of the vouchers bill on partisan vote, to see some of these attacks on our most vulnerable students in terms of the don’t-say-gay, don’t-say-trans type of legislation that’s moving to our body is really, really disappointing. What does your day-to-day job look like?

I think one thing that surprises people sometimes is that we don’t have offices, we sit on the floor of the House, in chairs. . . I usually arrive between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning and have opportunity to meet with different groups to talk to, legislators, about whatever issue there is to talk about, and it really changes day to day, but I serve on several committees, and so there are committee meetings, for the bills we have to sign.

This is a tough time to be a Democrat in the Iowa House of Representatives.

Continue reading on the Little Hawk

City High alum Adam Zabner signs his oath of office inside the capital building in Des Moines

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAM ZABNER

UCSB: On the Inside

By Hattie Conover

Jasmin Hirth ‘24 at the University of California Santa Barbara begins her day by longboarding to check the surf. Her foot propelling the longboard toward the ocean, still in sight from the Isla Vista apartment she shares with a roommate.

“Everything is super laid back, I surf in high tide and then I work my class schedule around it. That is definitely one of the best things about UCSB, everyone is super chill,” Hirth said.

UCSB is a college in Santa Barbara, California. It is a part of the UC system including UC Los Angeles, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley. UCSB is best known for its incredible geography residing on the Pacific coast of California. With a 29% acceptance rate, it is one of the more difficult schools to get accepted into within the UC system, but UCSB students have attested that it is well worth it.

“In high school, I took as many honors and AP classes as I could. I also passed all of my AP exams with a three or higher. Additionally, I did track and cross country and took summer classes at

our local community college,” Jasmin explained. “Originally, I came in as a biology major but ended up switching to economics and accounting. Because of my biology area, I was able to get a research internship for two summers in a row. Lastly, I was a part of our campus’ Academic Decathlon club,” Hirth said.

According to Jasmin, UCSB has a party school reputation. Although she wants people to know that many students prefer not to party, and spend most of their Saturday nights inside watching a movie with friends, which she herself has even become more fond of.

“I’ve heard a lot of stereotypes about the college. For example, if you want to live a more laid-back lifestyle– then you come to UCSB. And if you want a more focused and driven lifestyle, you go to Berkeley. But what I have learned is that you’re going to choose what you’re passionate about and take steps to do what you want to do in life,” Hirth said.

While UCSB is known relatively for its relaxed way of living, there are certain majors that require more work and are known across campus as more difficult majors.

“I’ve heard some

A look inside UCSB from surfing, to academics, to housing, to night life.

PHOTO BY JASMIN HIRTH

“I SURF IN HIGH TIDE AND THEN I WORK MY CLASS SCHEDULE AROUND IT.”

Jasmin Hirth UCSB ‘24

complaints about biology majors and how busy they are, but students still emphasize that they enjoy what their major teaches them,” Hirth said.

The main form of transportation at UCSB is biking, and there are designated bike parking lots and paths to make it easier for students to get to their classes, dorms, etc. While the majority of students prefer to bike, there are still of course some students who prefer to walk or drive, according to Hirth.

“Biking is really convenient because the college town is right next to the school. Because of this, I live about a three-minute bike ride away from campus, but like a five-minute ride to my actual classes,” Hirth said.

Although biking is preferred by most, there are differences between on-campus biking and biking in towns.

“No one really wears helmets here, I will see maybe one person every now and then. Another thing is that the campus police can impound bikes like a car if you park it on blocks that aren’t allowed,” Hirth said.

Since the pandemic, housing has become even more of an issue in Isla Vista, the town directly next to UCSB’s

campus. Typically, housing isn’t a problem for freshmen, as you would be staying in the dorms, but when you have to begin searching for your own housing, it gets more complicated.

“Personally, I signed my lease for next year in November just because housing is really unpredictable,” Hirth explained.

The main attraction when students come to UCSB is the astounding geography of Southern California and the Pacific Ocean. According to Hirth, you can find students relaxing on the beach at any time of year.

“A lot of people go out and watch a sunset on the bluffs over the ocean, especially in the winter. But how often you visit the beach depends on your lifestyle. If you surf, you may go to the ocean daily, but if you are more into Greek life you might not visit as much,” Jasmin said.

According to the Princeton Review, UCSB students are the happiest campus in California, and Jasmin Hirth feels overjoyed to attest to that.

“There are so many cool things about UCSB, anyone would love it here,” Hirth said.

CAPTION HEADLINE: UCSB student Jasmin Hirth longboarding on Isla Vista streets and paths PHOTO BY JASMIN HIRTH

PHOTO BY JASMIN HIRTH

SHRIMP AND ORZO PASTA

By Lauren Koch

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of orzo pasta

Kosher salt and black pepper

4 cloves garlic, chopped

4 scallions, chopped

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 15.5 ounce can white cannellini beans, rinsed

1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parlsey

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1) In a saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Stir in orzo and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover and let sit off heat for minutes.

2) Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and scallions and cook for 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until they begin to turn pink, about 3 minutes.

3)Stir in the beans, parsley, lemon juice, the reamining butter, 1 teaspoon salt, adn 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook until heated through. 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with the orzo.

LH GAMES

Greta Hayek