March 2022 by tjTODAY Online

ILLNESS

MIGRAINES

TREMORS MEMORY LOSS

CHEST PAIN

ANXIETY

DIZZY CRYING VOMIT

PANIC

ANXIETY

UNDER STOMACHACHE

YE TWITCHES

SCARED

PAIN

FATIGUE

NAUSEA

SICK

FEAR

INSOMNIA

STRESS

CHILLS COLD

HORMONE SHIFTS

LIGHTHEADED

DISORIENTED TIRED

6560 braddock rd. alexandria, va 22312

BREATHLESS

HEADACHE

thomas jefferson high school for science and technology

SHIVERING

THROW UP

TJTODAY vol 7 issue 5

FAINT

CONFUSED RESTLESS

SHAKING

PRESSURE

With reactions that include vomiting, headaches and shivering, stress is more than just a threat to mental health

PHOTO// E. Lee

BLACKOU

ABSTRACT Capping off her senior night performance with Jefferson’s dance team, senior Faith Wu flashes a crown pose for the audience. Wu has been on dance team since freshman year and currently serves as one of the team’s captains. “Being a senior now feels like I kind of take care of the team in a way. It’s very cool, and even though a lot of things were cancelled because of COVID, I’m really glad I still get this year to be with my team,” Wu said. PHOTO // A. Khemka

STAFF EDITORIAL BOARD

Print & Online Editors-in-Chief Aafreen Ali Annika Duneja Anuj Khemka Rachel Lewis Christina Lu Nathan Mo

Broadcast Executive Producers Team Leaders Sahishnu Hanumansetty Elaine Li

Social Media Manager Yoo-Bin Kwon

Eric Feng Aarya Kumar Sai Mattapalli Robert Stotz

Advisor: Erinn Harris tjTODAY is the official newsmagazine of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The staff is deeply committed to a code of journalistic ethics that demands the exercise of accuracy, good judgment, and impartiality. The content of tjTODAY

is determined by the editorial board. Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the staff of tjTODAY, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

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tjTODAY

CONTENTS tjTODAY vol. 7 issue 5

cover story UNDER THE SURFACE Plagued by headaches, shivers, fatigue and more, Jefferson students experience and overcome physical reactions to stress

features 18

SELF-TAUGHT SPEAKERS

sports 4 12

GOES WRONG, GONE RIGHT

SO YOU DON’T WANT TO BE A DOCTOR?

EQUIPMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT Students measure the strength of their solar car engines and the brainwaves of crayfish with expensive and cutting-edge equipment, but it is often seen as just another part of the lab

TIPS FOR TRYOUTS

opinion 24

Seniors Owen Rollins and Abhiram Srivastava explore beyond the typical fields of study by diving into the unconventional sciences

LI-SANITY

Spring sports captains share advice for aspiring Jefferson athletes ahead of tryouts

Seniors Riya Dev and Joaquim Das teach themselves foreign languages

sci-tech

Senior Steven Li dominates the court in recent games

NOW IS THE TIME Government mask mandates have outlived their usefulness

In a play where everything goes wrong, it’s up to theater techs to make it all go right

4 14

March 2022

THE EARLY PERIOD DISADVANTAGE Students should face stricter consequences for discussing tests outside of class

THE DANCE REVOLUTION Dance deserves to be considered a VHSL sport

HANDS OFF GOVERNOR Governor Youngkin’s actions on education in his first few weeks in office are misguided

entertainment 22

NOT BORED OF BOARD GAMES Board games are fun, entertaining, and relieve the stress that many Jefferson students feel

neakers squeak on the court, the basketball thumps, breaths fall short as senior Steven Li makes a shot. The buzzer sounds. Another two pointer made by Li. Twenty three points in one game. Twenty four in the next. Li’s shots made up half of the team’s points for two consecutive games. This has led to the frenzy known as “Li-sanity.”

Focused on the net, senior and captain Steven Li lines up to take a free throw. Over the last few games of the season, Li has dominated the court. “There’s never a time when Steven’s on the floor, that he’s not giving his best effort,” men’s basketball head coach Mark Grey-Mendes said.

“I just want to go out there and try my best and have fun. And that’s pretty much all there is to it,” Li said. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Li credits his success to consistent practice, developing his skills and mindset. Having a supportive team has also helped immensely. “In my free time I just like to spend a lot of time playing basketball by myself. The other thing is [I have] good teammates, who give me the ball and make good passes to me, which makes it really easy for me to score,” Li said. This love for basketball has helped Li become a better basketball player over the years. He was recently selected Second Team All District for the second time. “It’s pretty cool to be second to our district because all the players on the first and second teams are all

really good, so it’s nice to be with them,” Li said Li has been playing basketball at Jefferson since his freshman year. He started off as a prominent player and has continued to grow in skill. “[Li] was an outstanding player from the start,” head coach Mark Gray-Mendes said. “He wasn’t an exceptionally great shooter when he came to us. [But] he really worked on his game and worked on being able to score from different levels and now he’s one of the best shooters in the region.” Basketball can be a demanding sport as it requires an extensive amount of skill and practice, but Li was up to the challenge. Both Li and the team are constantly training and strategizing even in the offseason in order to make sure they play their best during games. “I put in offseason work so I practiced shooting a lot through pointers all the time. This season, I was able to shoot a lot of deployments at a high percentage. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to work,” Li said. LI IN LEADERSHIP Despite being captain of the varsity team, Li himself has been described as being on the quieter side. This does not keep him from being a good leader and helping out his teammates. He sets an example not only for the players on varsity, but for the JV and freshman teams as well. “Steven is a ‘lead by example’ type of player and he helps the underclassmen

PHOTO// E. Lee

y ti

SPORTS 5

n a

i L and everyone else become better players,’’ sophomore Sahil Kapadia said. His readiness to help his team members stems from his own love of basketball. “I just love basketball. I like playing basketball. I like playing outside with my friends. I like playing games. I like watching the NBA. So I just like basketball all around,” Li said. While Li has accomplished much on the Jefferson boys basketball team, it wasn’t always easy, but he kept going. “I would tell my younger self to just keep on practicing. Even [when it] gets hard, just keep on playing through it. It’s going to get better,” Li said.

tes

na mi

o id L s en ev ame t S g in ent a t c p ca in re r nio urt Se co the

PHOTO// E. Lee

BREAKING

THE

by Anuj Khemka, Aafreen Ali, Annika Duneja & Nathan Mo

POINT

Plagued by headaches, shivers, fatigue, and more, Jefferson students experience and overcome physical reactions to stress

ith a math test the next day, along with two presentations and another test soon to come, sophomore Kedar Prasad could almost feel the work weighing on him. After his planned nap had run overlong by multiple hours, Prasad found himself rushing against time and overwhelmed by the urge to fall asleep. And then he threw up. “I’m very almost certain it was caused by stress. Mainly because of the fact I didn’t really feel any symptoms a day after anything,” Prasad said. Stress — the human body’s response to fear — alerts individuals to potentially dangerous situations. In short doses, it serves as a healthy mechanism to protect the human body. “When you’re in a stressful or fearful situation — where you’re expecting something bad to happen — your body reacts. You have a fast heartbeat, sweat-

ing, headache, and dizziness. All kinds of things may happen at that given time,” school psychologist Esther Barkat said. However, in excess, hormones released by stress can have debilitating effects on the body, with harmful impacts on the heart, digestive system, and muscles. “Essentially, we call them psychosomatic symptoms. They have no known physical cause, but that does not mean they aren’t real. They are very real symptoms without a known physical cause,” school social worker Danielle Armstrong said. Many Jefferson students remain in the dark about the potential physical reactions to stress, even as they experience them. For Prasad, it took throwing up to truly realize the consequences of stress. “I knew stress could cause bad mental reactions, but I didn’t know the extent of the physical reactions. I was pretty surprised,” Prasad said.”

COVER STORY 7

Keeling over, freshman Neha Chandran is overcome by a stress-induced stomachache. “Built up anxiety from either big projects, tests, and social stress usually causes stomach aches,” Chandran said. PHOTO// F. Zheng

REACTIONS

Students share their personal experiences with physical manifestations of stress ILLUSTRATION// A. Ali

LOCKJAW Lockjaw, a condition in which students struggle to open their mouths, may also be caused by stress. For senior Simran Sidhu, who has an anxiety disorder, lockjaw sometimes makes it so that she can’t speak in the middle of conversations. “Sometimes I’m unable to talk because I’m so stressed out,” Sidhu said.

TREMORS In nerve-racking situations like testing or presentation environments, students may also begin to feel shivers or shaking sensations through their body. “Sometimes, we get muscle tension, our shoulder hurts, our legs hurt. If you’ve got a presentation, tightness or shakiness may come in your arms and legs,” school psychologist Esther Barkat said.

COVER STORY 9

TENSION HEADACHES Among the most common reactions to stress experienced by Jefferson students are tension headaches. In response to stress, muscles in the scalp and neck contract, creating a sensation of pain. Freshman Neha Chandran has battled stress-induced headaches ever since seventh grade. “If there’s just an insane amount of work done, then the feeling of being overwhelmed gets translated into a headache,” Chandran said.

FATIGUE When students are overwhelmed by stress over an extended period of time, they may experience decreased energy levels. This is because stress both disrupts sleep and depletes nutrients needed to create energy. “I’ve noticed that my fatigue becomes [greater] when I have like a lot of tests, like right now. I have five tests next week, and I’m exhausted right now,” sophomore Mayuka Valluri said.

GASTROINTESTINAL ISSUES The American Psychological Association (APA) notes that environmental stressors like stress negatively influence gut bacteria behavior, leading to gastrointestinal issues like stomachaches, bloating, and nausea. Reactions may be short-term like Prasad’s bout with vomiting, while others may have more long-term implications. “Extreme unhealthy stress can lead to digestive issues. Some people have developed acid reflux disease from stress over a long period of time,” sophomore Cadence Hodge, an officer in Jefferson’s Mind-Body Medicine club, said.

STUDENT TREATMENTS From pillow-clutching to physical exercise, students find various ways to control their physical reactions to stress

When sophomore Cadence Hodge began to feel tension headaches due to stress, she turned to psychology to deal with her reactions. “I started getting really into psychology by applying it to my own life. For whatever reason, I was really pressed and stressed in middle school, so I did research and figured out how to incorporate less stressful things into my life so I could be happier,” Hodge said. Since then, she’s become an officer at Jefferson’s mind-body medicine club, where she encourages students to use physical exercise to alleviate stress, and the physical reactions that come with it. “Exercise releases endorphins, which releases stress-relief hormones and decreases stress hormones like cortisol,” Hodge said. Meanwhile, senior Simran Sidhu — who deals with anxiety-induced lockjaw and shakiness — employs breathing exercises, hand-tapping, and pillow-clutching in order to relieve her own stress. “The first thing I always go to will be breathing. A very common thing you’ll hear is square breaths where you breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, [and do that again] to make the square,” Sidhu said. “If I’m in a super public place and I don’t want to seem stressed out, I tap both hands. Stimulating both sides of your body sends your brain into a resting state similar to when you’re asleep.” Others, like freshman Neha Chandran, find support in the people around them. Chandran tends to feel her reactions subside upon speaking to those close to her. Clutching onto a pillow in Jefferson’s Health and Wellness room, senior Simran Sidhu works through a physical reaction to stress. “I try holding pressure to myself, so often I’ll hug a pillow,” Sidhu said. PHOTO // E. Lee

COVER STORY 11

Surrounded by friends in the planetarium, freshman Neha Chandran engages in conversation during lunch. “Just talking to people who make me feel better, whether that’s my family or my friends, helps me relax,” Chandran said. PHOTO // A. Khemka

“School itself is not really a problem. I feel like it’s a lot calmer at school because there are a lot of people with me who actually are in the exact same boat. That’s kind of helpful, especially when your friends are with you all the time, so I don’t really experience physical reactions in school,” Chandran said. Without a set-in-stone method to address his

stress reactions, Prasad has resorted to preemptive measures, designed to prevent stress from overtaking him in the first place. “I’m starting to sleep a little bit earlier because I think that caused stress in a way,” Prasad said. “I also procrastinated quite a bit before, so things started to snowball. Now, I’m trying to avoid that, and I’m using my weekends to prepare for the week.”

THE EXPERTS’ PROCESS Experts inside and outside of Jefferson describe how they work with students to identify and address physical reactions to stress

ESTHER BARKAT, PSYCHOLOGIST

“The students don’t come here and say, we are having physical risks. They come and we look at their emotional well-being. I am sure that you all have physical reactions. The important part here is recognizing whether it’s a medical issue or an emotional issue, and how we’re going to deal with it.”

DANIELLE ARMSTRONG SOCIAL WORKER

“I have worked for students who go to doctor after doctor after doctor, and there seems to be no underlying cause. To me, that might be an indicator of a psychosomatic symptom. The best place to go at that point is a therapist or someone at the school whom they feel like they can talk to.”

TANYA HOLLOWAY, SCHOOL HEALTH AIDE KACEY MCALEER, COUNSELOR “Identifying stress reactions just comes down to asking a lot of questions, and taking the time to have empathy not make assumptions as to what’s going on. Some people come in and they just stand there and they don’t know how to express whatever is going on. So I tend to ask the questions that get to the right answer. ”

“Students who are under stress come to us all the time. So either it is they’re personally feeling at that moment — sometimes it can feel like a panic attack and its hard to breathe. So they come up to student services, and we as counselors work with them to try to calm them down.”

LINDA THONG, THERAPIST

“There needs to be some education that this could be very much related to stress in terms of what [my patients are] seeing. There’s a lot of mindfulness practice around just being more in tune with your body. It’s about awareness of what’s going on in your body because your body speaks to you.”

weat drips down your forehead, your stomach is in knots, thoughts of humiliation rushes through your mind. The adrenaline charges through your veins as you realize this is your last opportunity to make the spring sports teams. Welcome to tryouts.

Tryouts can be extremely difficult and challenging, so upperclassmen have some advice on how to succeed through the tryout process. To better prepare you, we’ve put together tips that can assist you through the process.

Tips for Tryouts By Asmitha Koneru, Ivadette Haziri, Alyson Granchi

Training for Tennis You launch the ball into the air, pull your tennis racket back, and you can just barely hear that satisfying sound when your racket meets the ball. You made it to the other side. “I think serving is by far the hardest because it’s something that people mess up a lot,” tennis captain Isabel Gan said. It’s not always easy. Tossing the ball, and missing it by just a centimeter can ruin your game. Sometimes it can determine the difference between sitting on the bench and playing to victory for the Jefferson team. “Really focus on consistent serving, and practice strategically placing the ball,” Gan said. As with most things, practice makes perfect. Although serving can be pretty challenging, training the skill enough will make a After throwing the ball into the air, senior Kyra Li focuses her attention on serving the ball big difference over time. over the net. “Focus on yourself and don’t think too much about the win loss ratio.” Gan said.

FEATURE 13

Tips for Track

Erin Tran runs on the track field, increasing her stamina and preparing for tryouts beforehand. “Work up to that point where you feel really comfortable and confident in your skills,” Tran said.

Racing to the finish line is important, but so is knowing which race you will be competing in and what you enjoy. “First, try to figure out which distance you want to gear yourself towards,” senior and captain Sean McInnis said. Once you’ve decided what path you want to take, make sure to practice frequently to improve. “Running is about trying to better yourself,” senior captain Erin Tran said. Running is something you can always get better at with repetition, so something to remember about most Jefferson sports is the time commitment.

Success for Soccer Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and a very sought after sport at Jefferson. A big part of soccer is its community. “Soccer is a sport for growth and you have to be able to grow with the other players on the team through the course of the season.” senior Alex Fall said. In tryouts, captains and coaches need players that can help the team work better. “Important concepts in soccer are teamwork, working well with others, being able to distribute, having good ball skills, and choosing players who understand the strategy of the field,” Fall said. Forming close relationships in soccer with your teammates will build friendships for life! Running up and down the soccer field can be tiring. As tired as you might be, showing you’ve still got the motivation and energy to keep going is critical. “You have to be able to show that you can maintain energy on the field,” Fall said.

So you

Don’t Don’t

Want To be A Seniors Owen Rollins and Abhiram Srivastava explore beyond the typical fields of study by diving into unconventional sciences

doctor? doctor? By Ashley Hwang, Anya Raval, and Grace Sharma

Owen Rollins, chaos theory

eterministic chaos. A paradox of unpredictable behavior. Senior Owen Rollins is studying chaos theory for his senior research project. Chaos theory studies unpredictable events determined by deterministic laws. “One of the ideas that I had was a discipline of math about chaos theory to analyze atmospheres,” Rollins said. “Chaos theory is often used for smaller particles like electrons, but for this, I was using it to model an atmosphere.” Rollins did not decide to study chaos theory for his senior research project until recently. “I’ve been interested in meteorology for a really long time, pretty much since I was five or so, but it was only last year that I got the idea to try to take a physics angle with meteorology and forecasting to get a new angle,” Rollins said. Looking Ahead Chaos theory combines meteorology, physics, and mathematics to study unpredictable weather patterns and

create atmospheric models based on that. “It’s a very theoretical science that actually has real world impacts. They can look outside and see the prediction coming true or false,” Rollins said. Senior Owen Rollins works in his research laboratory, the quantum physics and optics lab. He is adjusting a beam splitter and Stern-Gerlach apparatus.

Rollins hopes to be able to make a change in the weather forecasting field. “The angle is to improve forecasting for specific storms, like hurricanes,” Rollins said. “But that’s something that’s way off in the future.”

“It’s a device with lasers that we’re using, to be able to see with our eyes some quantum properties of the light,” Rollins said. PHOTO// G. Sharma

SCI-TECH 15

Abhiram srivastava, paleontology

aleontology, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is the branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants. Senior Abhiram Srivastava is digging his own path by pursuing paleontology. “The way it really started is that childlike obsession with dinosaurs I think a lot of people go through,” Srivastava said. “I just never outgrew that, because it’s matured and now I can appreciate other wildlife as steps in this big evolutionary process.” Digging deeper

Jefferson’s impact

PROS & CONS

The Jefferson community has helped Srivastava dive deeper into his interest in paleontology through taking classes like DNA science, geosystems, and marine biology. “I went straight for Marine Biology because that’s concerned with ecology and evolution and zoology stuff I want to study. Definitely, AP Biology and also Geosystems is sort of the other half in paleontology,” Srivastava said.

Srivastava has experienced less competition, especially during college applications, but there are also cons that come with such a niche field. “There’s a lack of people to talk to about it. It does feel very isolated sometimes. ‘Is it weird that I like this thing? Is it weird that I’m spending so much time on it?’ Again, [paleontology] is such a childlike thing to like, but no, it’s a really advanced field, and I’m glad I do it,” Srivastava said.

Despite it being such a niche field, Srivastava managed to connect with professionals by attending research conferences. He had an internship working with a postdoctoral researcher on the evolution of the mammalian ear at the Field Museum of Chicago, which has one of the biggest fossil collections in the world. “I applied for programs, but the best thing you can do is find [a] researcher and work with them,” Srivastava said. “Because that’s actual hard research and they trust you with so much, it’s really cool.”

Senior Abhiram Srivastava poses with dinosaur bones and a dimetrodon skull at the Field Museum of Chicago. His Field Museum internship involved research on three mammalian middle ear bones: the hammer, anvil and stapes, which transmit vibrations within the ear.

“We have a specific structure made of three bones, that in other animals are in the jaw, but over the course of mammalian evolution moved up and became our middle ear bones. We're trying to find out why it happened the way it did in mammals different from reptiles,” Srivastava said. PHOTOS// A. Srivastava

PHOTO// A. Khemka

PHOTO// R. Lewis

Environmental unit This industrial system is in charge of the cooling that allows sysadmins to run ION, Director, club websites, and Webmail. “A funny thing to say, right? Air conditioning, but we would have moved during the renovation just for that because in the old facility it was always breaking, systems would overheat. It was a total mess,” Computer Systems lab director Shane Torbert said. “So [the environmental unit] is fantastic.”

Engine dynamometer Electroretinogram An electroretinogram (ERG) uses electrical leads to measure the activity of an organism’s retina when exposed to a light stimulus with electrical leads. Neuroscience students use it to determine how active fruit flies’ eyes are, often in response to their dietary or behavioral treatments. Purchasing a hightech (and costly) instrument like the ERG is an involved process for lab directors. “To purchase something, we must get a purchase order approved. For very expensive pieces of equipment, we need to have bids and find the best ‘deal’,” Neuroscience lab director Laura Locklear said.

The engine dynamometer measures the horsepower of engines — efficiency and how much power it outputs. “The cool thing is we could actually modify the engines and

then see, ‘Do they get more efficient? Will we make more power out of them?’ It tells us how much we’ve actually gained,” Energy Systems lab director Jared Seyler said.

PHOTO// A. Khemka

Seniors measure the strength of their solar car engines and the brainwaves of crayfish with expensive and cutting-edge equipment, but it is often seen as just another part of the lab.

EQUIPMENT IN THE

SPOTLIGHT

by Christina Lu, Abraham Agbota, and Harry Xiao

SCI-TECH 17

SCI-TECH 19

WHERE THE

MONEY FLOWS Jefferson is one of the only high school in the country that has this caliber of lab equipment for multiple reasons, one of which is the high cost of purchasing and maintaining these instruments. This cost is shouldered mostly by Jefferson’s fundraising organization, the TJ Partnership Fund (TJPF), but where do they get the money? Other

Gift in Kind

Alumni Parents

PHOTO // A. Duneja

Next-generation sequencer The next generation sequencer allows students to study microbiomes and compare different types of environmental samples with each other. For the past seven years, the Biotech Lab has been working with the National Park Service to understand the black biofilm growing on the Jefferson Memorial. “We’ve been going out into the field and taking samples of the biofilm from the monuments and bringing them back to the lab and then extracting all the DNA and doing 16S metagenomic sequencing to identify all the

different bacterial and fungal species that are a part of the biofilm,” Biotech and Life Sciences lab director Mary Burnett said. This year, a group of year students is using the sequencer on face masks. “We have a cool project where a group is trying to identify the bacteria that are on our face masks — the outside and the inside of our face masks — using this instrument because this allows us to kind of get an idea of all the different types of microbes that are present in a sample,” Burnett said.

Corporations, Foundations, & Friends of TJ

Annual Income (2019-2020 fiscal year) Fundraising

General & Administration

Alumni Engagement

STEM Education and Outreach

Academic Excellence

Annual Expenses (2019-2020 fiscal year) Source: TJPF FY 2020 Annual Report

Infographic by R. Lewis

efore senior Riya Dev’s family went to France when she was a child, she taught herself French with Duolingo so that she could make simple conversation. “It was one to two weeks before going on that trip. When we got out to France, I was able to translate menus and stuff, get directions, stuff like that,” Dev said. During the pandemic, Dev decided to fill her spare time by acquiring a new language. “I’m a black belt in Taekwondo. So, I had a lot of exposure [to Korean] through the vocabulary that we learned there. All the people that teach us are Korean, and we counted in Korean to count the number of curl ups, push ups, things like that,” Dev said. “I also had exposure through choreography videos that I’ve seen on YouTube [from] a Korean studio in Seoul.” Armed with some numbers and a basic level of familiarity with Korean culture, Dev started learning Korean on Duolingo. “The system of writing is called Hangeul. I memorized the whole thing in like an hour to two hours. Obviously, it took more time to get comfortable with it [and] start reading quickly,” Dev said. But, once she learned the basic alpha-

bet, Dev realized that Duolingo couldn’t take her as far as she wanted to go. She found new, more in-depth websites, and started doing something many Jefferson students wouldn’t do voluntarily — taking notes. “As soon as school let out, I would quickly do all my homework and then I would open up my [note]book. I would just take notes and do it for hours a day. I think I did full-on, dedicated study of Korean for around four to five months — four months at first, and then a month before the [AP language] exam, which was in November,” Dev said. After she figured out the sentence structure and could understand simple conversation, she started watching normal Korean media. “I [tried] to test my knowledge by watching dramas, YouTube videos — [on] various things like ‘Touring Seoul,’” Dev said. “At first I would need various browser extensions to help me learn the language, but later on, I [could] just watch the same videos without captions on.” It’s been over a year since Dev decided to give learning Korean a go. “I keep practicing with it [by] taking in content from videos; I read news articles sometimes. And my phone is now in

Korean, so it’s not like I’ll ever forget,” Dev said. “I do hope to do an exchange program in the future; I think that’d be a great way to take my engagement to another level.” Since learning Korean opened up so many new connections and experiences for Dev, she’s excited to eventually learn another foreign language. “Once I’ve kind of explored Korean and absorbed everything it has to offer for me, I think I would like to learn other languages,” Dev said. “I’ve been interested in Japanese and Chinese but I’d also like to go for something else, maybe a European language, or Arabic even.”

SELF

TAU G

나는 문을 열 것이다 by Rachel Lewis

Seniors Riya Dev and Joaquim Das teach themselves foreign languages

In her early months of self-studying, senior Riya Dev took neatly handwritten notes after speeding through what Duolingo had to offer. “I went to the internet and I tried to find what websites people used [to learn Korean],” Dev said. “[While] looking at these websites, I took notes in my notebook just to get a feel for words, grammar, conjugations, particles, all sorts of different things that you need for the Korean language.” PHOTO // R. Dev

나는 문을 열 것이다

FEATURE 19

uring spring break in first grade, senior Joaquim Das and his family took their own trip to France. For the average tourist, a normal level of French immersion might include a trip to the Louvre art museum and a croissant at a café. However, Das stayed with a family friend who was French — and most of their host family couldn’t speak English. “I didn’t speak French at the time. Neither did my sister,” Das said. “I don’t know how we communicated, but we managed, and I walked away [from] that trip being able to count — nothing substantial.” A decade later, in May 2021, Das called the host family’s home phone to plan another visit. This call was the result of a year of studying French that began during the first few months of the pandemic. Das was following in the footsteps of his parents, who

다 GHT U

ulary to English, and—more importantly—English and French have the same alphabet, so he didn’t think it would be too hard to learn. “In the beginning, I had this idea that I was [going to] learn a bunch of words,” Das said. “But, I realized that Iasn’t [going to] have much success with that because languages aren’t just grammar; words and sentences are the building blocks of language, but it doesn’t really work like that.” Instead of memorizing nouns and conjugations of verbs, Das stumbled upon the ‘comprehensible input’ method of language-learning, which is similar to the way that babies pick up their first languages. “Babies learn from hearing lots of [words], and lots and lots and lots of time. Then slowly, [they start] recognizing patterns to understand the language—just a lot of exposure,” Das said. Watching content specifically for babies and young children helped Das absorb basic vocabulary and grammar in addition to the cadence and pronunciation of spoken French. “Eventually, I found myself being able to understand actual French con

“I tend to watch things [in French] rather than speak. I think that my [spoken] French is definitely worse than it was before, but that’s just the name of the game,” Das said. As for learning a new language, Das wants to finish the school year before jumping in, and he’s not sure yet which language it will be. “It’s definitely something I’m going to put a lot of effort into, so I want to choose it correctly and not rush into the choice,” Das said. “I’m pretty open to any language.”

In July 2021, senior Joaquim Das traveled solo to Nantes. “I [got] dropped off at Dulles and I [had] to make the rest of the journey on my own. I had to take a connecting flight from Iceland all the way to Paris. Then, I went from Montparnasse to Nantes. I didn’t know the Metro that well, so I asked people for help [in French],” Das said. PHOTO // A. Wiener

vouloir, c’est pouvoir SPEAKERS both speak multiple languages. “My father [is] Indian, and he came to America, so he speaks his native language [Bengali], English, [and] a couple others,” Das said. “My mother grew up here and in England, and she spent some time over the years in some foreign countries, and my mom picked up a few languages. She speaks — to varying degrees of fluency — French, German, Spanish, and then when she married my father, she also learned Bengali.” Das chose French because it has somewhat similar grammar and vocab-

tent for subjects that I was already familiar with, because I [could] fill in the gaps,” Das said. “One thing that can make TV shows harder is that the dialogue is back-and-forth. If I’m saying a whole entire ramble to you, you don’t need to understand every single sentence.” After three monthss, Das set his sights on his family friends in Nantes, a city in northwestern France. While Das’ accent improved by being surrounded with French-speakers, he hasn’t had much opportunity to practice since.

vouloir, c’est pouvoir

Above is the final set - albeit pre-planned-collapse - of the play. PHOTO // Aafreen Ali

By Claire Wilson and Miriam Antony

Goes Wrong

Gone Right In a play where everything goes wrong, it's up to theater techs to make it all go right

oing anything wrong on purpose seems illogical, particularly to theater technicians. After all, the set is supposed to look realistic and function for run after run of the show, while staying safe for the actors and within budget. That can get tricky - especially when the play, The One Act Play That Goes Wrong, as you may have guessed, involves everything going wrong. “The very basic premise is that it's a theater, a troupe of actors, putting on this play. So it's a play within a play. Everything they do basically has something go wrong…It's just all varying levels of incompetence…it ends up being quite a disaster,” junior, set co-designer, and actor Hannah Frieden said.

PLANNING IT OUT AND HIGH SCHOOL SAFETY CODES The play involves a variety of gags both from an acting and a technical standpoint. From props purposefully falling, to the set actually “collapsing,” there is a lot to think about and plan for. “A month ago we basically outlined the props, what to use, and how we would go about making them. The purpose is to get them to be reusable, and to get them to fail consistently,” senior and props co-designer Aiden Zurcher said. The ironic nature of the play gives the tech crew a creative license unlike previous theater performances. For instance, the lighting for “School of Rock”

FEATURE 21

One of my early ideas was trying to create like flame looking things out of the same material and having them sort of float around.

earlier this fall was prescribed by the play itself. However, in a play where everything must go wrong, decisions are more open-ended. “[This show] is a comedy about a play going wrong, so part of the design process is figuring out where we can mess up and make bad lighting decisions. We try to enhance the comedy that way,” senior and light co-director Rachel Kwon said. FINDING SOLUTIONS AND INSPIRATION IN STRANGE PLACES One of the main challenges students faced while working behind the scenes on the play was safety. While stuff has to go wrong and even catch fire, none of the actors should get hurt in the process. Some things just can not be done directly.

It's been really fun to sort of try wildly varying things to replicate fire that's, you know, really actually far off from what you know, the final product is,” Singh said.

Junior Hannah Friednen connects the wiring on the back of the set, parts of which are reused from previous plays. PHOTO // Miriam Antony

“There is supposed to be fire on stage. Of course our stage is wooden, our set is wooden, and we’re a high school and so, you know, having actual fire on stage is not hot,” junior and set co-designer Mira Singh said.

Senior Jason Cline and sophomore Sri Vellikkat work together on part of the collapsing set, made of foam, for the play. PHOTO // Miriam Antony

However, there are some clever workarounds in the works to get aroundthose issues. “I've been through like three different variations of designs… Have you ever seen a jellyfish night lamp?

Another challenge of note is the time constraints, since each prop and set piece should be tested and working well by the time the show starts running. But planning ahead pays off, and it all works out. “Everyone who works on tech is super talented and super knowledgeable and like they come up with really creative things. It's just a matter of making sure we budget enough time,” said senior and props co-designer Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon.

Sophomore Ash Kelly directs light and during the rehearsals of the play. PHOTO // Miriam Antony

GO The game of Go is one with few rules, but it is extremely difficult to master. There are countless ways to respond to an opponent’s move. “Playing Go is a way to practice certain skills without actually being academic,” junior Pi Rogers, a member of the go club, said. Rogers enjoys playing the game in school not only to relax and unwind but also to get better at Go. “One of the people in the club is a national award-winning player,” Rogers said. “We learn a lot from the games.”

T H E G O C L U B

At TJ, chess is a very popular board game and satisfies the entertainment and intellectual needs of many TJ students. During eighth period, the chess

club meets every Friday for casual players to duel with their friends, and competitive players to prepare for their events and competitions.

CHESS CLUB

BO BOARD NOT

ENTERTAINMENT 23

n mi ll Ad ha dy stu

Just

Visiting R U S S I A N

ORED OF D GAMES Board games are fun, entertaining, and relieve the stress that many Jefferson students feel. Board games like chess, Go, Russian Monopoly, and 1000 Blank White Cards are just some of the games that Jefferson students play.

1000 B L A N K W H I T E C A R D S is unique as it’s not just about the game itself, but also about making the cards,” senior Joseph Rother, president of Jefferson’s

1000 Blank White Cards club, said. “TJ, especially, is so STEM focused, you don’t really get a chance to express yourself.”

For Doshi and other Russian students at Jefferson, board games offer a alternative way to have fun with their friends during school. “I guess board games are just a different experience,” Doshi said.

Fre

The card game 1000 Blank White Cards is not only a card game, but a way to express creativity at TJ. “I think that this club

“It definitely relieves stress and since we’re playing Russian monopoly, you learn so many commonly used words because the whole board is in Russian,” freshman and Russian student Aastha Doshi said.

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M O N O P O L Y

The students of Mrs. Sandstrom’s Russian class kick back and relax in a fun and educational way.

HANDS ILLUSTRATION // E. Li

LEAD-ED 25 Governor Youngkin’s actions on education in his first few weeks in office are misguided.

n his first day in office, Governor Glenn Youngkin followed through with many of the promises he made on the campaign trail, signing 11 new executive actions into order. Many of these related to debates surrounding Virginia’s schools, whether it was mask mandates, a teacher ‘tip-line’, or banning the discussion and teaching of critical race theory. These initiatives have drawn scrutiny, from media pundits to parents. While we acknowledge Youngkin’s attempts to be more involved in the classroom, as students who are directly affected by many of the changes, we are concerned with the degree to which Youngkin is exerting his power. One of Youngkin’s most controversial ideas lies in his proposed tip line, a system created to allow students and parents to report teachers for the discussion of inherently divisive topics. While it may be well-intentioned, some of its numerous flaws have already been exposed. For example, calls to action from singers and social media stars alike flooded the tip-line with fake reports and criticisms of the system. However, at a local level, the tip line’s issues are more pronounced. The idea of censoring controversial ideas is controversial by nature — the term is a subjective one, and complicates the line which defines

what topics are off limits. Even more concerning is the lack of consideration for all parties (literally) apparent in some of Youngkin’s actions. Notably, Youngkin’s attempted mask mandate ban in schools has been met with heavy resistance from districts across the state, including a lawsuit involving seven school districts across Northern Virginia. The Washington Post further noted that “division in the state over the issue falls along partisan lines, as almost every district that complied with Youngkin’s order voted for him in the 2021 gubernatorial election.” Any elected official, let alone a governor, should take into account the viewpoints of all those who they are representing. Yet Youngkin continues to do just the opposite, evident from the massive pushback to nearly all of his initiatives. Youngkin hopes to improve the quality of education throughout Virginia, yet he continues to undermine the very school districts who will aid him in that mission. Nobody knows what the future will hold for Virginia schools. Maybe it will come in the form of fired teachers by way of the covert tip line or history curricula that fail to even acknowledge America’s shortcomings. But one thing is certain – if Youngkin is truly passionate about improving Virginia’s schools, this is not the way to do it.

OVERNOR

ILLUSTRATION // C. Tran

PHOTO // A. Duneja

Now Is the Time

Government mask mandates have outlived their usefulness

Elliott Lee Staff Writer As school boards across Virginia ditch mask mandates to comply with state law, many Virginians are freaking out at the prospect of some students going maskless in the middle of a pandemic. However, if there was ever a time to get rid of these man-

dates, it is now. For one, easy access to vaccines means a majority of Virginians now have a high degree of protection against serious illness as a result of COVID-19. In fact, 84.2% of 12-17 year olds and 85.6% of adults in Fairfax County are fully vaccinated, well above both the state and national averages. And for better or for worse, widespread exposure to mild variants like omicron means that even unvaccinated individuals have some degree of immunity to the virus. Scientists also point to rapidly

declining hospitalization and case rates as indicators that it’s time to do away with government mandates, which were always meant to be temporary. It’s impossible to ignore the heavy costs these long term restrictions have had on students. Mask mandates have negatively impacted the education of ESOL learners, those with learning disabilities, and people with hearing impairments like myself. Not to mention the untold effects they may have had on the language and emotional

development of elementary schoolers or the student mental health crisis it triggered. The cost-benefit analysis of universal masking has shifted, and policymakers, both Democrat and Republican, are taking note. None of this means students shouldn’t mask up. Wearing a high-quality N95 or KN95 respirator remains one of the most effective methods of protection from COVID-19. But these responsibilities should fall on the individual, not the government.

OPINION 27

The Dance Revolution

Dance deserves to be considered a VHSL sport

ILLUSTRATION // S. Choi

The Early Period Disadvantage Students should face stricter consequences for discussing tests outside of class

As a part of students’ educational experience, they are Ayesha Khan required to Staff Writer complete exams. At Jefferson, exams are scheduled within a short period of time, with only a few days at most between different periods of classes taking the same tests. Scheduling of exams may be an important factor in determining the students’ performance. Performance is positively correlated with having the opportunity to take exams in a later period than others. Statistics have shown that students who take tests in later periods generally do better than those who take it before them. At Jefferson, between the 10 minute break when everyone is switching classes, friends ask one another questions about what exactly was on the test. Information starts spreading, and soon enough, everyone hears key points about the test. Additionally, teachers have observed that later periods that take the test

have a drastically higher average than the class periods that took it before. However, some disagree and believe that taking assessments at a later period gives them a disadvantage. They get tired at the end of the day, and as a result, can’t concentrate. I think it is unfair for students to take tests before others. Most of the time, taking tests later has positive effects on the outcome of the results, so there shouldn’t be a time gap between different class periods taking the same test. Everyone could take tests at the same time, so that people won’t be able to discuss anything about the test. However, a more reasonable and possibly only solution would be to simply not allow students to discuss the test, and have teachers enforce the honor code more strictly by giving students consequences for not following it. Students are taking the honor code lightly because teachers don’t give them consequences for discussing the test outside of class.

Alyson Granchi Staff Writer Ivadette Haziri Staff Writer

As hard as you look, you won’t find dance under the “Athletics” tab on the Jefferson sports website. Instead, it’s with the activities and other clubs, next to debate and forensics. After all, what’s the difference between debate and dance,

right? Activities that are universally recognized as sports, such as football, swimming, basketball, and soccer, are accessible on the Jefferson sports website under “Athletics” across all three sports seasons. However, the list isn’t complete. Dance is a world-renowned sport and accurately fits into the definition for a sport, yet many people argue that it’s a form of art. But why can’t a sport be an art? Yes, dance is an art. It conveys emotion, tells a story, and can express culture. Sports, on the other hand, are defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill,” according to the Oxford Dictionary. This leaves dance torn between two accurate descriptions. The expressive movements involved in dance tell a story and inspire emotions in the audience. At the same time, sports don’t only have to involve kicking or tossing a ball. Take diving and gymnastics. Divers are judged on the difficulty and elevated prestige of their jump, just like dancers are. Gymnastics requires flexibility and coordination, as does dance. Diving and gymnastics are both considered sports, so it would make sense to have dance join them. This problem stretches farther than the Jefferson sports website. Other middle, high school, and professional dancers across the globe often feel undervalued and ignored because their hard work isn’t recognized by sports fans. Taking small steps like moving dance to the “Athletics” tab of the Jefferson sports website can help get dancers the appreciation they deserve.

“It is tremendously rewarding to be married and work together. This is a job that we are both passionate about. Both us love our jobs, and we love talking about jobs, and to have somebody else in our life who knows all the characters in every story that we tell makes it so much more rewarding.” Auerbach

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

Love Air is in the

“I think our relationship makes us more aware teachers. I’m more understanding of the pressures that students are under sometimes because I have a sense of what the issues are in more than one division in a really up close and personal way.” - Castaldo “If I had some regular office job, and I didn’t care about the job the next day, it would be so much more difficult for me to understand why my wife was grading papers on a weekend. It just wouldn’t make sense to me. But because we both work in this world, we totally understand the time and commitment that it takes to be good at the job.” Auerbach

PHOTO by Anuj Khemka REPORTING by Anuj Khemka

Michael Auerbach & Denise Castaldo