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VoL ,1'7, No. 3,January 2002 •
aS SIC Townsend Harris -High School at Queens College
149-11 Melbourne Avenue, Flushing, NY 11367
Behindthe music:
SING! highlights grade unity, New York City spirit by Carolina Chang As ninth band comesto an end, you descend down the stairs into the main . lobby. Suddenly, you hear a mix of different songs and see your fellow classmates perfecting various dance moves. All these signs can only point to one thing: the arrival of the third annual SING! SING! will be held in the auditorium from Janua~y 31 to February 2. The first show will be a dress rehearsal where the three groups, the seniors, the juniors, and the sophmen (a combination of freshmen and sophomores) will work out any kinks and ·put final touches on . their self-produced shows. The dress rehearsal will be from 3-6 PM and is free of charge. Co-commissioner Jenna · Sangastiano, senior, warns, however,
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th51t it won't be "as good as the others." to relax and have a laugh: "It's harder The otlier two shows will both begin · to have fun these days, but people are at 6 PM and end at 9 PM. Tickets cost ready to move on and look on the posifour dollars and will be sold at the Stu- tive side of things and show appreciadent Un~on stqre and by SING! cast tion for New YorkCfty and the people members. If ti<;kets still remain, they in it," said Co-commissioner ¥eghan . may be purchased at the door. Gill, senior. · · Across the board, the directors In light of th~ World Trade Center incident, this year's theme is New York. agreed that the highlight of SING! will ~·The top!c was more free form. The probe the dance numbers and the songs. ducers and everyone involved ...weren't "You're going to see some great dance hindered by the theme; instead they numbers, songs·and lines that show our could build on it and expand," said pride and ho~ proud we are to be living . Jenna. in the greatest city in the world," said The directors all stayed away from sophmen director Margo Kakoullis. the actual event; instead they focused SING! is a mini-competition, a battle on the comical aspects ofbeing a New of the. .grades. The directors and cast Yorker. The)' manipulated funny stereo- members are quite secretive about their types that marked a "true New Yorker" . plots and story lines. However, it is not in hopes of giving .the audience a time as cutthroat as it seems. "Everyone
wants to win, you wantto see your grade win, but we try not to take itso personally and try and have fun!" said Margo. Senior co-director ' Stephanie Kujaw.ski also commented on the nature of SING!: "[SING!) defini!ely shows school spirit. You want to support your grade because it's a competition. It shows the talent the people in your grade have. SING! . really brings groups of people together who are usu<_llly in cliques. Drawing from all groups of people from the grade to perform shows everyone what you're ma~e qf." SING! is an event that depends on high participation by all the classes. "It's entirely student tun: done by the students, for the students," said Jenna. Meet the SING! directors (p. 6)
Mars sets high Qoals as Foreign Language AP tiJTial success and then can go to the colby Daniel Bloch "I am verY, excited to be here, even _lege Qf [his or her) choice," s_he contin- . though I have not gotten acclimated ued. "Also, my goal is to help and work yet," said Lisa Mars, the very recently appointed Assistant Principal of Foreign Languages. Replacing Miriam Zambrano, who was just appointed to John Bowne High School and who had ar-rived at the school last September, Ms. Mars received notice of her new job oti January 29, one day before the start of the spring semester. "This · is common, to be appointed [with such Lisa Mars short notice]," Ms. Mars ·explained. "Every teacher in the city is . with the faculty and to listen." encouraged to apply for various posi"I have an open door policy," Ms. tions. It's an open application process." Mars added, urging students t~ visit her _ "It wasn't a hostile takeover," she office in room 437. said, laughing. Prior to arriving at Townsend, Ms . . As well as taking over as AP, -Ms. Mars served as Foreign Language CoMars is teaching one Regents level ordinator for three years atJhe Queens Spanish class. Her goal for that class, Gateway to Health Science Secondary . she said, is to see that "evety student School. "It's a very new school," she gets 100% on the Regents exam." ''I'm said. "It's geared toward preparing stuc here to facilitate whatever the students dents for careers in math and science, need done. My singularly most impor- and it is affiliated with Mount Sinai tant goal is that every student attain op- Medical Center."
Revised Community Service Policy ·. . p. 3 .
SING! Directors
p.6 ·.
Receiving her Mas-ters in Contemporary Latin American Literature from St. John's University, Ms. Mars emphasized tha.t she has always loved languages. Her affinity for teaching emerged early on in her life. "Since I was nine years old, I've wanted to be a teacher and nothing else. I've never known what it's like to want to be something else," she said. Thb start of the spring term saw sev-
era! other ne.W faces and departures throughout the school. Richard Russo, Larin teacher,.and Michael Anze1 , chemistry teacher, are on sabbatical, while Alice · Wolf, English teacher, was excessed (a position was removed due to budgetary restrictions) and appointed to Richmond Hill High SchooL All new teachers will be featured in the next issue of The Classic.
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PBS documentary fe.atures Harris Intel participants by Marlo Dublin they had been doing in preparation, Part one of the Public Broadcastas well as their general thoughts about ing System's three-part miniseries the competition. featuring this _school's Intel Science • John Merrow, Executive Producer Research competition participants of the miniseries, hopes that the segc aired on December 24. ment will re-air some time ai the beThe 13-minute segment, which ginning of February but no definite was shown on The News Hour with date has been scheduled. If you Jim Lehrer, featured personal intermissed the first airing and wish to views with five Townsend Harris seview· it, visit the movie archives of the PBS Online News HourHomepage at niors: Rio May Del Rosario, Akshta Kalla, Marisa Cohen, Linda To, and h.ttp//www.pbs .org/newshour. The Vito De Ienna, as well as several stuvideo can be found under "Young Scidents from Plainview-Old Bethpage entists,'; and other additional informa- · High School. During the interviews, tion regarding the miniseries' prqduccompetitors spoke about their. indition and airdates can be found on this vidual projects, the extensive research website, as wei(
Restaurant Review p. 7 .
Sports p~a