Anushree De

NEWS THE SIDEKICK

2022 APRIL

Anjali Krishna

Executive Editor-in-Chief

@anjalikrishna_

Saying thank you in India is one of those odd behaviors that cement you as American in your foreign relatives’ minds, like putting on your seatbelt in the rare car ride. The average response to your thank you is an off-putting look, one that says: “Stop being weird. We’re family, aren’t we? Don’t be so formal.”

I don’t think I even know how to say thank you in Telugu, the language I try to speak with my relatives at home. Still, it’s one of those things instilled in every kid in American elementary schools, saying thank you to just about everything.

One of the things my parents brought over from India is the idea that a thank you is meant for more important things for people you aren’t close to - less a symbol of politeness and gratitude than one of formality. My brother is better able to surpass the cultural gap when we take the occasional visit overseas or at home with my parents, turning off his thanks, but for me, it’s a knee jerk reaction to being handed anything. My parents got over it quickly, or perhaps it quietly irks them and they remain silent about it.

Recently, however, they’ve started to thank me for things as well, or I’ve only just noticed them now, and they were right: it’s awkward - I got their wallet from the counter and they’re thanking me? Isn’t it obvious, isn’t it implicit in the relationship we’ve had for my entire life that I would do one of the very few simple tasks my parents ask of me, in comparison to everything they’ve handed to me with no expectations? Isn’t that gratitude something we know and accept already?

I never know exactly how to

The Sidekick executive editor-in-chief Anjali Krishna, her brother Abhiram, father Sreekanth Krishnavajjala and her mother Indira Asuri visit Italy in their tour around Europe in 2005. Krishna expresses what the words ‘thank you’ mean to her in relation to her parents. Photo

courtesy Anjali Krishna

respond. The correct answer isn’t you’re welcome; that’s far too accepting of the message I feel in that thank you, the pressure that this simple act is one of a few or I am someone distant, needing to be thanked for something, rather than the action of giving living inherently in our relationship. It doesn’t feel like a ‘no problem’ or ‘no worries’ either. The correct answer is maybe ‘of course’ or ‘anytime.’

But even those feel like too much of an acknowledgement, acknowledgement that gratitude is necessary for me to bring a glass of water to the living room. So I often walk away awkwardly, unsure of how to finish the interaction. Because how inconsequential is this one action, this one action needing thanks, in comparison to everything my parents did for me as a child and now? In comparison to my dad waiting outside my room before I fell asleep because I was afraid of half-headed zombies in

@iniya_v

After a day of taking notes, actively listening and participating in group activities, Coppell ISD juniors leave another iLead session with more in depth knowledge on topics such as leadership and communication.

“I applied because service is a really big part of my life,” Coppell High School junior Shraavya Pydisetti said. “I thought this program would be a good way to really learn more about how I can better those skills and get a chance to connect with people and know how to be a better leader.”

Coppell ISD started the iLead program this year to replace a program called Teen Leadership Coppell (TLC), which was funded by the Coppell Chamber of Commerce. Teen Leadership Coppell was unable to continue due to COVID-19. The iLead program focuses on goals similar to TLC.

The iLead program offers Coppell ISD juniors a chance to develop their leadership skills. The program has three facilitators: executive director of communications and community engagement Angela Brown, Superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt and CISD Place One trustee Leigh Walker.

“It’s a great program to learn very specific skills about leadership, but also concepts of leadership and most importantly, to determine what are your leadership qualities,” Brown said.

The program has six sessions, with the most recent session on March 10. Each daily session focuses on a different topic, such as leadership, community business leaders and service organizations.

Each session has guest speakers and activities. Applications were open for juniors at CHS and New Tech @ Coppell, with the district selecting 54 members.

“[Guest speakers] teach you about good leadership skills based on their experience and that’s been really useful for me and I met a lot of really good people who have helped me advance,” Pydisetti said. “I’ve learned a lot from them about how to be a good leader.”

While the program’s goal is to develop leadership skills in juniors, there are also other benefits of the program.

“Students feel like they’re developing relationships with students that they don’t always come into contact with,” Brown said. “Because we looked at a wide variety of students, they are developing some pretty extensive relationships with people that maybe aren’t in their classes. That has been a benefit of iLead.”

While students miss school to attend the sessions for iLead, members think the sessions offer perspectives that school may not touch on.

“During school we usually just sit and watch the teacher or hear lectures and take notes,” CHS junior Neha Darimadugu said. “But at iLead we’re able to interact and engage with other students who think alike to us.”

They also are able to immediately apply the skills they learn in iLead in their daily lives.

“I run a nonprofit organization called Project Querencia,” Pydisetti said. “iLead has helped me meet people who have been able to help me and give me advice on how to strategically plan with funding and how to get more people to notice the work we’re doing and how to make a bigger impact.”

Michaels customer marketing tech Sachin Shrey discusses loyalty and engagement with members of the iLead Student program on March 10 at Coppell Middle School West. iLead Student exposes selected Coppell juniors to leadership and volunteering services. Varshitha Korrapolu

New ethnic courses to be offered at Coppell High School

Anushree De

Staff Writer

@anushree_night

Coppell High School is adding to its history course options in 2022-23 in an effort to provide a more detailed view of history through the lens of minorities.

“One of the things that marks modern history from other eras is that there is a lot of discussion about not just teaching the stereotypical winner’s version of history,” CHS social studies teacher Shawn Hudson said. “You know that thing everybody always says: that history is written by the victors. But, we do not have to settle for that in the modern world.”

The new courses, commencing in the 2022-23 school year, were implemented to increase inclusion.

“As a district, we felt it was important to offer these courses to our learners as it aligns with our goals of promoting respect and understanding of diverse cultures and expanding opportunities for our students to see themselves in history,” Coppell ISD director of social studies Maria McCoy said in an email.

CHS head counselor Ann Cinelli was also quick to share her excitement.

“I love it,” said Cinelli, with a chuckle. “Like why have we not done this already, finally.”

Texas’s new Texas Educational Knowledge Standards (TEKS) for the courses helped structure the classes.

“From a behind-the-scenes standpoint, we can’t just create a course out of nothing,” Cinelli said. “The state of Texas has to have TEKS for it. We had to wait for the state to get there too, which was unfortunate. But we were like, maybe it will be coming. Maybe it will be happening.”

CHS social studies teacher and debate coach SunHee Simon took African-American studies at Stanford University and thinks it was essential in learning the full history of the United States.

“Going into [the class at Stanford], I wanted to make sure that I had an open mind,” Simon said. “Knowledge is power and learning more about how the world works and how different people at different points of history were denied, had access, or created resistance was really interesting for me to learn about.”

The new ethnic courses also the movie he told me not to watch? In comparison to my mom waking up from the few precious hours of sleep she got to drive me to early to school every day since kindergarten?

To say I love you in Telugu, you say ‘prēmistunnānu’ and to me, love translates directly into gratitude. This splits into ‘prēm,’ the Hindi word for love and ‘istunnānu’ which means to give: literally, it translates to ‘I’m giving you my love.’ I don’t think I’ve ever said the words before. But I hope that with every one of the (few) drying racks I bring inside or (even fewer) trash cans I take out, my own thanks is intertwined in the rare chore I do, for everything you two have done for me.

circumvent problems teachers face in other history courses, particularly the limited time frame.

“I can’t teach you all of world history since 1200 in 30 weeks,” Hudson said. “So, getting to be in one of those classes as a student would be really valuable to get a different side of the story that you cannot get from a mainstream survey course.”

According to Hudson, the highlight of being a history teacher is teaching all of history, the good and the bad, and it is those conversations that enable students to analyze current events and controversies.

“The ethnic studies courses are really cool because it allows you to drill into a part of history that is not taught because these are ethnic minorities within the United States,” Hudson said. “This means they are very rarely that top level of what we are teaching. But, the minority experience is deeply interesting to our character because how we have treated those groups contextualizes who we are, not just who we say we are. It gives a fuller picture.”

Cinelli thinks the uncomfortable conversations the course will enable are necessary for CHS learners to understand race.

“It will totally help kids to see another side of history because they might be like ‘I learned this is United States history, but I didn’t know this side of it,’” Cinelli said. “Like, what actually happened? It uncovers a lot and is a great opportunity to have uncomfortable conversations about how our country has not handled race in the best way.”

Especially in Coppell, where a majority of students are people of color, courses like these reflect the students themselves.

“We are a very diverse population,” Hudson said. “And while there is no AsianAmerican studies course, I still think you can get a lot out of seeing African-American studies and Mexican-American studies because they are going to share that minority experience.”

Because the classes are Level III Honors, they are intellectually engaging in terms of content. In fact, the course curriculums target various aspects of history such as geography, economics, citizenship, culture and science.

It is currently not confirmed if both courses will be taught, given the lack of enrollment. Although there are enough students for an African-American studies course, Mexican-American studies still requires more students.

There is hope though.

“We ask that every class has 15 students in order to make the class,” Cinelli informs. “Once we start making those changes for dual credit, we will get to see if enough students move to Mexican-American studies.”

African-American Studies

• roots of African-American culture • cultural identities through time • U.S. Supreme Court cases

Mexican-American Studies

• Mexico’s relationship with the U.S. • geographic events • civil rights movements • pre-colonial settlements