[Uncaged.]

UNCAGED.

news magazine freedom high school news magazine | freedom volume 1 |high issueschool’s 1

the

STAFF Adviser Kathryn Steele

Editor-in-Chief Mehr Kumar Design Editor Emma Gauthier Photo Editor Billan Omar Managing Editor Sarah Newell Copy Editor Mila Jasper Staff Manager Abby Agi Business Editor Anusha Khan Index Editor Joan Lee News Editors Emily Malacane Serena Thapa Features Editor Mahlet Wondwosen Culture Editor Maeve Dumais Opinions Editor Editorial Board Sports Editors Joe Skinner Micah Natarajan Staff Writers Maryam Azeem Lauryn Forbes Tahia Karim Simar Kohli Hunter McCluer Campbell Niehaus Kieran O’Brien Amanda Peña Jessica Scott Mallory Stokker Photographers Cara Curtin Justin Sheehan Uncaged is the news magazine of Freedom High School. The attitudes, opinions, views, and ideas expressed in Uncaged do not necessarily reflect those of this staff, the faculty adviser, Freedom High School, or the Loudoun County Public School system. Uncaged follows the county and state guidelines established for student high school publications, and disclaims any liability with respect thereto the use or reliance on any such information contained in this publication. The Uncaged staff welcomes contributions and encourages the expression of students, faculty, staff, and members of the Freedom High School community.

Cover photo illustration by Emma Gauthier

2

table of contents

“

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. //excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou

” 4

[news] [features] [culture] [opinions] [sports] [student art]

4 8 14 16 18 24

8 18

CONTENTS

from the editors Hey, friend.

So by now, you have (hopefully) noticed--this isn’t the Freedom Flyer that you’re used to. No newsprint, no black and white, no ink on your fingers. What is this mysterious new publication? What is this glossiness? Could it be? A...a...a newsmagazine? Why, yes! As your friendly FHS news publication staff, we would like to cordially invite you to meet our lovely BRAND NEW news magazine!

Why’d we make the switch? Glad you asked! In light of all of the recent changes hitting FHS, the staff thought that now is as good a time as any to revamp our publication to provide our school with a bolder, better, and brighter publication. So, we hope you enjoy it.

Why Uncaged, you ask? Well, after months and months toiling over the name, the editorial board met one hot summer day to plan for the switch to a magazine this year.

We stumbled upon the name in the place in which the most amazing teenage ideas come to fruition--that’s right, at our neighborhood Panera. We, the nerds that we are, were inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

When we proposed the new name idea to the rest of the staff, everyone got excited. It just made sense. As members of FHS, we are eagles. But, as members of FHS, we do not feel confined. We are not bound by any limitations regarding what we are capable of and what we can achieve. We have ambition, we have drive. And so does this publication.

Freedom, meet Uncaged. Uncaged, meet Freedom. It’s gonna be great, we can feel it. n

[Photo by Hannah Park, 12]

letter from the editors

3

[MADE IN INDIA]

A

fter several preparationfilled months of anticipation, two students at FHS attempted something they had never done before. They put everything into their performances constructing a tangible idea that represented their personalities. They put together beautiful outfits that could stand out among the rest. They participated in the Miss India DC Pageant letting their creativity show while also representing their culture.

Bravely stepping out onto the stage, looking out into a dark auditorium, blinded by a million spotlights, seniors Priyanka Bitra and Aishwarya Jaiswal, competed in the tenth annual Miss India DC Pageant with 15 other hopefuls.

“I thought entering this pageant would be a good way to get outside my comfort zone and meet new people,” Bitra said. “I love being girly and dressing up and embracing my diversity so this pageant was a good way to do both.”

Kicking off with an explosion of color and an immersion of culture, all the contestants danced together with a routine to a song called Lovely. The competition consisted of three parts: the Indian dress walk, the evening gown walk with an escort, and lastly, the talent portion. With points awarded after each portion, five finalists were announced and participated in the question and answer portion.

[Bitra poses on stage at the “Honestly, it didn’t even feel like the day of the pageant until I actually got on stage for the Miss India DC Pageant first portion,” Jaiswal said. “I was so busy getting ready for it all day that it didn’t even hit me that on September 26.

I was going on stage in a few hours. The nerves only really hit me right before they called me up on This is the 21st year stage, [but] I knew that I was prepared and that my family and friends were cheering me on.” the pageant has Bitra first stepped out on stage wearing a purple netted anarkali with red accents and stone embelbeen running.] lishments paired with pants and a thin scarf. Transitioning to the evening gown portion, Bitra changed into an A-line dress embroidered with gold thread, tulle, small orange stones and a mesh back. In a stark contrast with the evening gown, Bitra returned to a more traditional ensemble for her third outfit and changed into a sari that she customized to make her own.

“My mom had sewn a blue velvet blouse with leftover material she got from India,” Bitra said. “I paired it with a flowy, yellow dance skirt I already had from last year’s Bollywood Beats spring pep rally performance. I draped a pink dupatta, which is like big rectangle of fabric with a border and added details, around me and really loved the way the colors worked together.”

With years of training in classical Indian dance, Bitra and Jaiswal were able to take traditional dances and choreograph their unique creativity in order to demonstrate their personalities. As Jaiswal made the classical Indian dance, Kathak, her own, and Bitra combined three Bollywood songs, they were both able to successfully entertain the crowd and fill the stage with their presence.n [Story and Photos by Billan Omar]

4|news

I

Let’s dele|gate this...

t’s hard not to notice all of the campaign signs scattered across the lawns of South Riding residents. “Vote Chuong Nguyen!” or “Vote John Bell!” they flaunt. But for what? There’s another election? Obviously it cannot be anywhere near as important as the 2016 presidential election!

However, while the media attention may not be there, the importance sure is. Elected delegates meet once a year to discuss issues facing the residents in their districts.

These 100 members impact the overall Virginia General

Q

Assembly, which the House Of Delegates is a part of.

Delegates Chuong Nguyen and John Bell had supporters place these signs throughout the community in order to help persuade potential voters, similar to what the current Delegate, David Ramadan, did in previous years. The winner of this election will ultimately become the representative for the 87th district in the House of Delegates in Richmond.

We spoke to the two delegates and two FHS student interns with each campaign. Here is what they had to say:

Q

JOHN BELL CHUONG NGUYEN

&A

Q: How did your former profession [as an air force officer] impact your decision to run for delegate?

A: I consider this [becoming a delegate] another form of public service. Being in the military was public service. I like public service. I’ve been very blessed in my life and this is a chance that I can serve others and give back.

Q: Why do you believe that you are the best candidate for the position?

A: I’m the only candidate of the three in the race that has ever managed large amounts of money, overcome financial challenges, worked with stakeholders within organizations to determine the priorities of that organization. Also, I am the only one of the candidates who has held a large leadership position in which I have led large groups of people to complete tasks.

Q: If you are elected, what are some of your key ideas that you hope to take with you to Richmond?

A: For Loudoun County, one of the things that I am focusing on is transportation.

We’ve [his campaign team] got a plan to buy back the Dulles Greenway which, as of right now, is a very expensive toll road owned by a private company.

Another idea I have is to make full-day kindergarten standard for all of Northern Virginia. I think that it is important for parents, teachers, and especially students to have this plan in place because three hours of school is not enough to get the most out of early education. n

[ [ “ ”“

“HIS VIEWS ON THE DOMINION POWER LINES, THE DULLES GREENWAY, AND EDUCATION ARE DEFINITELY IMPORTANT TO DISTRICT 87.”

[ [ //junior Myrna Namman

“I’VE LEARNED HOW TO TALK TO PEOPLE, AND INFORM THEM ABOUT THINGS THAT THEY DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE. A LOT OF PEOPLE AREN’T VERY INFORMED [ABOUT STATE POLITICS], AND IT’S OUR JOB TO HELP THEM MAKE THE DECISION ON WHO TO VOTE FOR.” //junior Alison Adams

”

[Story by Micah Natarajan and Anusha Khan] [Photos courtesy of John Bell and Chuong Nguyen]

&A

Q: What led you to pursue becoming a delegate?

A: It’s [becoming a delegate] a service back to the United States of America as a whole for giving my parents, my brothers, and me the opportunity to come live in this country as an American citizen. You always hear people talk about the American dream. Sometimes, it’s cliche, but it’s cliche only because everybody says it. A lot of people want to live it. I’m well on my way to achieving my American dream.

Q: If elected, what ideas do you have in regard to state legislature that would affect high school students?

A: As a former educator, education is such a big focus for me. Getting students, especially in our district, to become better scholars and also to become more pragmatic individuals once they get out of school. We need to break the stigma that there is only one route to success [attending a four-year college] because there is so many opportunities to do other things.

Q: What do you hope that your student interns take from this opportunity?

A: The first thing that I ask all my interns and volunteers is, ‘What would you like to get out of this experience?’ I want you as an intern to make sure you get something out of this [interning with Nguyen]. The intern has to figure out for themself what exactly it is that they want to take from it [their experience], and we will help them to achieve their goal. n

5

STARTING A NONPROFIT

[Senior Vivek Ramakrishnan honors his grandmother] I n the U.S. and most of the developed world, meetings are often called through emails and held in offices or town halls. But in the village of Vayalakkavoor, India, things are still a little old-fashioned.

“They have a head of village basically there; he’s in charge of the day to day happenings,” senior Vivek Ramakrishnan said.

“So it was pretty funny, in the beginning of the day they still do the old-fashioned thing where they have someone who beats on a drum and it kind of like alerts all of the people.”

Ramakrishnan traveled to Vayalakkavoor over the summer for the nonprofit health organization he created called The Peghi Initiative, which was named for his

[Photo by Billan Omar] [Ramakrishnan developed a nonprofit organization to give back to those in need of sufficient healthcare.]

late grandmother. She passed away because of complications from Diabetes that went undertreated due to a lack of access to proper healthcare. For Ramakrishnan, the memory of his grandmother serves as the inspiration for the improvement of healthcare systems worldwide.

The aims of the initiative are to solve healthcare problems in India stemming from a lack of sufficient infrastructure and accessibility through “education, outreach, and promotion,” according to the organization’s website, peghi.org.

“I had the idea probably like after my sophomore year summer, so like beginning of junior year, “Ramakrishnan said.

“I was interning in Malaysia, so I got the idea from there because they have this whole program in place called the Village Health Promoter.”

The Village Health Promoter program consisted of the health department of Malaysia training residents of the villages to deal with minor ailments so that locals

[The logo for the Peghi Initiative is represented by a growing tree.]

can help each other instead of trying to travel to a clinic or hospital, which might be out of reach for those in need given the socio-economic status of the area, according to Ramakrishnan.

“There are huge problems happening in India that are pretty similar, but they don’t have the healthcare infrastructure to deal with it,” Ramakrishnan said.

At the beginning of this past summer, Ramakrishnan started another internship with the American Health Professionals.

“They were the ones who were like an incubator; they helped me start up my non-profit, they gave me like initial funding, helped me get connections for it, and just mentored me through it,” Ramakrishnan said.

Ramakrishnan plans to continue working on The Peghi Initiative throughout the school year by using technology to connect underserved people with healthcare information worldwide. n [Story by Mila Jasper]

A GLIMPSE OF EUROPE

S

[Senior Veronica Castro immerses herself in Spanish culture]

enior Veronica Castro spent her summer venturing to Spain through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) program. She participated in the high school summer abroad program of the CIEE, spending a month studying the cultural aspects and linguistics of Spain with 30 other students.

Castro also applied for, and was granted, the Global Navigator scholarship, paying for the majority of her trip.

Castro was given 3,400 dollars to participate in the program through the scholarship, leaving her only 2,000 dollars to pay out of pocket. This included her food, traveling, and schooling for the entire month.

In addition, out of the three levels available- beginner, intermediate and advanced- Castro was put into the advanced class, which she felt was a good

6 |news

fit for her. about what celebrities everyone liked “It was a good level for me and the and what music everyone was listening people who were in it,” Castro said. to. We were learning [about] stuff that While the program did contain classes matters.” n [Story by Abby Agi] with homework assignments and assessments during the six to nine p.m. classes on the weekdays, the trip involved many other experiences for Castro. She traveled to Granada, Cadiz and other parts of southern Spain on the weekends. Her mornings consisted of experiencing landmarks, visiting markets, biking and kayaking.

“We learned about [Castro explores Granada, Spain while participating in the CIEE program.

She was accepted and given a scholarship to study in Europe.] politics [and] popculture,” Castro said. “We talked [Photo courtesy of Veronica Castro]

CALIFORNIA GIRL [Junior Gillian Valli explores science on the west coast] A s the sun was barely cresting the California sky, junior Gillian Valli was coasting down the freeway at 85 miles per hour, bracing the wheel with a tight grip while commuting to her internship in Corona at six a.m.

Valli had always been interested in the Naval Academy as her father was a retrired lieutenant colonel. Her passion led her to apply for a summer internship, where she discovered that the Science Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) would let her experience the tasks that a specific Naval Academy member would complete on a daily basis.

“I learned how to analyze and assess an experiment to see where I could’ve gone wrong and I would have to redo an experiment over 500 times. We were trying to make bubbles from E glass to put in foam because the machines that they have weren’t fitting in the submarines,” Valli said.

O

Valli stayed with her extended family for the entire eight week period that she was interning in California. Despite living with relatives, Valli felt as though she was experiencing a newfound sense of independence due to the multitude of responsibilities that she had recently taken on.

“I definitely felt like an adult because I would have to stop for gas before I would go to work, I would have to go to the grocery store, then I would have to stop to drop off my check at the bank,” Valli said.

It wasn’t until Valli started working with actual doctors and scientists on projects that had a critical impact on her field of study that she began to realize the importance of her acceptance into the SEAP internship program.

“If we messed up on simple algebra, everything would be off and it would all be a waste. Right then, I realized I was doing extremely important stuff,” Valli said.

Throughout her internship, Valli learned

a lot about the complexities of science and becoming more independent. However, the most important thing she took away from her internship experience was learning the value of things that often times go unnoticed.

“It wasn’t until I went to California that I realized the value of my family,” Valli said.

Becoming independent was a major transition she had to endure but it allowed her to acknowledge her sense of self by becoming the individual that she took back to the East Coast. n [Story by Serena Thapa] [Valli explored the Naval Academy through an internship in California. She spent eight weeks at the internship.]

[Photo by Billan Omar]

ne balmy morning last July, junior Ariana Pettis was beginning a new chapter of her life at a familiar place - her uncle’s job at the Virginia Institute for Highway Safety (VIHS) in Alexandria, where she had visited him since she was a little girl.

Last summer, Pettis took an internship at the VIHS, knowing from past visits that many engineers worked alongside her uncle. Pettis knew that she was interest[Pettis found an interest in bioengineering through an internship based at Virginia Institute of Technology.]

[Photo by Billan Omar]

ed in biology and engineering, but she struggled to find a specific profession that matched her general interests. She wanted to discover how her interests could translate into an actual career. Though many of her specific duties were minor, such as taking small measurements and inputting data, she learned a lot about what she wanted her future to look like as a result.

As the only high school intern at VIHS that summer, Pettis was surrounded by a combination of engineering professionals and undergraduate engineering students.

While working with this group, Pettis learned a lot about upcoming technology and the fields of study she is interested in.

Through observing both the engineering

students and the VIHS employees, Pettis got a first-hand look at crash safety testing, self-driving cars, and 3D printing.

More importantly, however, Pettis discovered what she is passionate about. By helping the college interns and professionals at her internship, Pettis discovered that her interest in biology and engineering could be combined into a bioengineering degree.

“It really helps you figure out what you want to do. I got to see people who had degrees in what I wanted to get and what they went into,” Pettis said. “It helped me figure out where I wanted to go, based on knowing how many different engineers there were.” n [Story by Mallory Stokker]

IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY

[Junior Ariana Pettis discovers her passion] 7

B R E AT H E S L E E P DA N C E R E P E AT

These are the faces of two students who train hard every day. These are the faces of two students who work day and night until they bleed.

These are the faces of two students who strive to be the best at what they love. These are the faces of two dancers.

BROOKE HAYMORE is...

en

POINTE “

[ [ AS CLICHE AS THIS SOUNDS, I FEEL LIKE A STAR WHEN I’M ON STAGE. FOR THOSE TWO MINUTES, I GET TO DO MY BEST AND PUSH MYSELF TO THE ULTIMATE LIMIT.

”

[HOW SHE STARTED[ A

t three years old, nobody really knows what they want to do with their lives. It’s mostly up to our parents to expose us to the different activities and sports that many of us have still chosen to continue with since that initial parental push almost a decade ago.

For senior Brooke Haymore, it was her mom who signed her up for dance classes when she was three years old, and she has stuck with it ever since.

“This is my fourteenth year [dancing],” Haymore said. “My mom just put me in dance, [and] I fell in love with it.”

Haymore has not only continued with dancing, but has also continued to improve. She is now the captain of the FHS Dance Team and has participated in numerous national competitions through the South Riding Dance Academy (SRDA).

“I work really hard,” Haymore said. “That’s the thing with dance, you’re never done. There’s always room to improve.” n

10|features

T

[ WHY SHE DANCES [

raditions are a part of life, a part of history. When you find something you love and stick with it, it’s hard to even think about letting go. Brooke Haymore found something she loved and stuck with it. Dance has become a recurring tradition in her life.

Why does anyone do anything? To have a goal. To have a dream. To strive for something. Through dance, Haymore has not only formed a goal, but has become a storyteller.

“I dance because I can tell a story through movements, and show the audience how beautiful dance is,” Haymore said. “It’s a way to express myself.”

In the eighth grade, Haymore’s hard work paid off. She won a grand champion, and it served as a wake up call. “[Winning grand champions] pushed me to work even harder for the next years,” Haymore said.

Dance has been engraved into her life and schedule. Everyday after school, she heads straight to her dance studio to practice as a soloist. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, she gets out of bed and heads straight for school to practice as a teammate.

As all that hard work pays off in the end, any dancer’s favorite part about being a dancer is getting the chance to be up on stage and tell a story in front of an audience.

“As cliché as this sounds, I feel like a star when I am on stage,” Haymore said.

“For those two minutes, I get to do my best and push myself to [the] ultimate limit. When I get off stage, the feeling is indescribable.”

For her 14 years at SRDA, Haymore has trained in many different types of dance ranging from jazz to ballet throughout her career. There are stark differences between the two which affects how hard she has to work at them.

“I like jazz, [and] I like pointe,” Haymore said. “Jazz is more laid-back. With pointe, everything [has] set rules, and it’s really hard.”

However, during times when dance seemed difficult, she didn’t give up; instead, she thought about why she loved dance in the first place.

“At many times, dance can make me frustrated [when] I am not understanding a move or turn, but whenever I do feel like giving up, I always think about the hard work I put in,” Haymore said. “I imagine myself doing the dance move, and if you are in the right mindset, you can accomplish anything. It feels so awesome finally getting a dance move that you have struggled with for the longest time. There [are] always goals to work towards in dance and the feeling of [accomplishment] is so rewarding.”

With the constant encouragement of her family members, coaches and friends, Haymore has had strong support whatever her challenge may be.

“My teammates create a healthy competition because when you see someone around become better, it makes you want to become better,” Haymore said.

“My coaches have taught me for a long time and they teach me lessons in life that I will never forget. I have known some of them for 14 years, and these relationships, bonds, and trust that we have in each other will last a lifetime.”

Her ring of support has pushed her to continue with something that she loves, and the lessons she learns through sticking with dance will translate and help her with any future situation that she stumbles upon in life. Just like how she has to focus only on “[her] facials, the counts to the music, and the dance” while on stage performing, Haymore has focused on dance since she was three years old, and what started as a hobby, soon turned into a lifestyle.n [Story by Billan Omar and Jessica Scott]

AARTHI IYER is...

CHANDRAKAL

FIRE

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on irl or Bird

KAPITHAM , G

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Flo AN ,

M PATH A L A

12|features

E

[WHY SHE DANCES[

ven though the temperature in India was nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Aarthi Iyer was the one who really brought the heat with her solo performance in Bharatanatyam (pronounced BAH-RAHT-A-NAH-TI-UM), a classical South Indian dance that shows fire through hand gestures and poses.

However, more than the logistics, the dance emulates the passion of the dancer and their belief in the Indian culture and the Hindu religion.

“I can feel my heart beating [when I dance],” Iyer said.

For Iyer, dancing was not even a conscious decision. It was a natural progression from watching her mother dance.

“I remember my first performance [when] I was four years old,” Iyer said.

“I wobbled up on stage [and] I just remember [feeling a] surge of awesomeness [and] it was exciting,” Iyer said.

Throughout the years, she has accumulated many injuries she has chosen to learn from instead of allowing them to bog her down.

“My knees [have] gotten progressively worse,” Iyer said. “My ankles are not placed at my foot properly either. I’ve gotten shoulder problems [including] rotational cuff problems [and] I sprained [my left wrist].”

When it came time for her to plan her dance graduation, called arangetram, Iyer was ready for the comprehensive process.

“Dancing has actually made me really patient,” Iyer said. “I’m used to sitting and working with stuff over and over again. It has also made me really determined because I know that I can do something if I put my mind to it and [work] really hard.”

Her actual graduation drew in nearly 530 friends and family members.

At the event, she performed a solo three-hour performance, which included nine songs that were broken up in to pieces to show her journey.

“You start off with a beginning piece and then you do the set of nine pieces you’re suppose to learn throughout your dancing career,” Iyer said.

“It’s like a nine song performance that only I dance to. It’s basically just a day all about me.”

Her fire did not dim just because she successfully completed her training. Even after graduating, Iyer is still looking forward to bringing her own individuality into her dance moves.

“You just need to have a strong foundation and then you get to integrate the parts of you into the dance so your personality shows through,” Iyer said. “[When] you get further into dance you notice that two people [who are] doing the same exact move will look completely different.”

Iyer is planning on studying dance in college as well. She wants to continue to learn and grown."n

[”[ “

I DON’T THINK I COULD EVER STOP DANCING UNTIL SOMETHING BREAKS.

I

[BOLLYWOOD BEATS[

yer is a classical Bharatanatyam dancer, but she is also one of the co-founders of the club, “Bollywood Beats”. “‘Bollywood Beats’ is Bollywood dancing, but we also intertwine classical and hip-hop and everything,” Iyer said. “Because that’s what Bollywood is. Bollywood isn’t just one type of dance. It’s a huge integration.”

That is why it is easy for her to incorporate the skills she learned in her classical training. Even though it is harder to teach, she feels like it diversifies the club’s performances.

“Anyone can watch [Bharatanatyam] but the thing is, it is really, really hard to teach a person that has never done it before,” Iyer said. ”Bollywood dance is better received, for lack of better word, it’s more ‘hype’.”

This allows the club to be unrestrictive in terms of who they allow to join it.

“We don’t have auditions or anything,” Iyer said. “Come join and we’ll have fun; that’s the whole point.”

She and her friend, Aishwarya Jaiswal, began the club their sophomore year and it has grown since.

“I have been dancing all my life and my co-founder has been dancing all her life and we just wanted to show what dance is to Freedom. That was the main reason,” Iyer said.

Iyer enjoys the amount of creativity she can share with the rest of her classmates. “[I wanted to show] what Bollywood dance is to Freedom because it’s our passion, we love to do it and we would never want to stop. It is our expression.”n [Story by Anusha Khan and Tahia Karim]

STUDENT LOUNGE

[ETSY QUEEN[

If you haven’t stopped by the new student lounge in room 400, you’re missing out. The lounge has many resources to offer and all you need is a pass from a teacher to access them.

S

enior Dani Kiblin never imagined she’d get so much traffic when she first opened her monogram shop on Etsy this past January.

Etsy is an online marketplace where people make handmade goods and speciality items, like monograms, and sell them to customers on the site. Kiblin had been a customer on Etsy for years and decided to get on the other side of the retail exchange and become the producer.

“I kind of got into it by accident,” Kiblin said. “I had been buying monograms from Etsy for a while and then I had talked about it with my parents and I was like ‘You know what? I kind of want to buy the machine to make them.’”

Although she started the shop, Go Crazy With Monograms, on a whim, it took off during the first month she opened it.

The very first night, she received her first order from a girl living in Centreville, Va. Now an Etsy veteran, Kiblin has sold over 1,200 monograms to 1,000 customers. But in spite of all this success, Kiblin still has to compete with hundreds of other Etsy shop owners for customers, including a shop owner just like her.

“There’s this one shop that I compete with... [that the owner] does a lot of sales,” Kiblin said. “I would love to...head in her direction.”

Kiblin’s shop has not only kept her busy, but it has also served as a valuable learning experience for her. She has learned more about both business and what she wants to do in the future.

“I learned that I actually have a real desire and passion for business,” Kiblin said, “And that’s what I plan on majoring in in college now… a few years ago I never would have thought that would be the major I would go into.”

Through Etsy, Kiblin has been able to experience what it is like to be her own boss, run a small business, and gain realworld experience. Kiblin hopes to continue her Etsy shop during and after college, and is optimistic that it will only grow from here.

Kiblin’s Etsy shop is called Go Crazy With Monograms, which she promotes through various social media sites including Twitter (@DaniKiblin) and Instagram (@GoCrazyWithMonograms). n

34.62%

google music

34.62%

14|culture

soundcloud

pandora

Pedal on the exercise bike while placing your binder or homework on the attached desk to workout your body while your workout your mind.

Print out work by connecting to one of the three printers which all are labelled Room 400

EAT YOUR HEART OUT

MUSIC APPS AT FREEDOM

A total of 260 FHS students were polled from September 22 to September 27.

7.69%

itunes radio

Find one of many outlets located along the outer walls of the room to charge your phone, BYOT device, or anything else that you need to plug in.

[Story by Maeve Dumais]

15.38% 7.69%

EXERCISE YOUR MIND

spotify

[Information compiled

by Kieran O’Brien. ]

Use the drink and snack vending machines ALL DAY as long as the student lounge is open.

Drinks cost $1.35 while snacks vary from just under one dollar to $1.50.

Refill your water bottles at the cooler in the corner.

[Information compiled by Campbell Niehaus]

[A TALE OF TWO BLOGGERS[ O

ne passion. One dream.

Junior Aayesha Poudel started her blog because she wanted to share her sense of style online with the rest of the world.

Poudel found a love for reading fashion blogs and decided she would like to inspire others with her sense of fashion, but she found herself struggling to overcome her shy personality. “[When you’re shy] you don’t express yourself as much as you can, Poudel said, “I want to show others that it is possible [to overcome their shyness].”

Over the summer, Poudel attended a pre-college program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, Ny. Poudel walked away from the experience

with more than she could have ever hoped for a greater sense of self-confidence.

“The people I met were very confident and they told me you don’t really have to be worried about what others think of you,” Poudel said.

To her, that is what the fashion industry is really about: not being afraid of being who you are, expressing yourself unapologetically through your sense of style, and sharing it with the world.

Since starting her blog, Poudel has learned to be more open with others by letting herself go and driving her passion in a perfect reflection of what she calls “the crazed simplicity.” n [Story by Amanda Peña]

M

[

Melanie Edwards

SunsAnthem.weebly.com

]

Instagram: @MelMelEdwards Twitter: @MelMelEd

eet Melanie.

Her love for God became so empowering that she decided to share it with the rest of the world.

“My life is good only because I have that love for Jesus,” Edwards said.

Junior Melanie Edwards was essenntially born into a love of Christ.

Her father is a pastor of Counterpoint Pentecostal Church, in which she is an active member. She is also a part of her church’s band, involved in youth group, and volunteers in the kids’ ministry.

Her first post was inspired by a discussion of John Winthrop’s idea of “a city upon a hill” in Mr. Gibson’s U.S. History class. Recognizing it as a verse from the

[

Aayesha Poudel

]

TheCrazedSimplicity.blogspot.com

Instagram: @AayeshaPoudel Twitter: @AayeshaPoudel

Bible, Edwards wrote her first blog post as a reponse to that discussion.

“I’ve gotten feedback from people that I know that don’t follow Christ and that makes me feel empowered to keep doing it,” Edwards said. “[They] still see what I believe in so strongly,” As a result of her blog, her love for God has become more concrete and an even bigger part of her.

As she says on her blog, “When we surrender ourselves to the love of the Lord, it gives us life. A life filled with satisfying peace and contentment.” n [Story by Amanda Peña]

[All photos by Billan Omar]

15

let’s talk about...

[CULTURE]

[SLEEP]

[

We all know that we need sleep. The importance is constantly relayed, and yet we have made no adjustments to our sleep schedules.

The National Sleep Foundation has long advertised that teenagers require between eight and ten hours of sleep each night in order to function at the highest level of efficiency- but how many students actually receive that amount?

Science News reports only about eight percent of teenagers in the U.S. fall into this category. Because of this, our daily lives are starting to take a robotic form.

We spend night after night on auto pilot trying to cram for that big test or memorizing all of those vocabulary words or meeting that word count on our essays that are due at midnight. But we can only continue this for so long. Just like robots, we need some sort of power source.

In order to function properly, our bodies need to rest- end of story. Because of this, we are experiencing a wide range of technical difficulties from daytime sleepiness, which is extremely dangerous at this age considering that most of us are drivers, to getting sick because our immune systems just can not take it.

So what can we do to optimize efficiency and achieve the perfect social life, stellar grades, and still wake up feeling refreshed with a sense of optimism? Well for starters, understanding that you cannot have it all is something to contemplate.

As shown by the project management triangle, you can only pick two. So take your pick, but be warned: when you start to get overworked, you will experience glitches if you choose to omit a decent amount of sleep from your day. n

[

WE ALL KNOW THAT WE NEED SLEEP.

[ [ I’M NOT SAYING CULTURAL APPROPRIATION DOESN’T EXIST.

[editorial by Sarah Newell]

16|opinions

I’m not saying cultural appropriation doesn’t exist. I’m not advocating for apathy towards the issue as a whole. I’m not telling you to disregard the effects of assumptions of different cultures.

All I’m saying is that cultural appropriation has morphed into the adoption of non-white cultures.

If I ask someone to describe cultural appropriation, it would go something like this, “Cultural appropriation is the adoption and use of aspects of one ethnicity by another.” This is not wrong, but how people interpret this statement is wrong.

Being ethnic has translated into being non-white. That’s completely wrong.

America has no universal culture; it is the accumulation of multiple cultures.

When there is no universal culture, people draw from the majority.

The majority of America is white. Sixty-two percent of the population is white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Because the majority of the American population is white, cultural appropriation has become the adoption of non-white cultures.

People completely disregard white cultures as being ethnic or cultural. This shouldn’t be happening. The acknowledgement of all cultures as cultures is needed for people to understand that cultural appropriation doesn’t directly relate to oppression of minorities.

Wearing clogs is cultural appropriation.

Wearing kilts is cultural appropriation.

Cultural appropriation doesn’t always extend to racism, but it is definitely not excluding it. n [editorial by Billan Omar]

.

[PANDAS] Each one costs 2.6 million dollars to sustain. Each one spends an average of 16 hours a day chewing on bamboo.

But, man, are they cute.

The giant panda is a conservation-reliant endangered species native to south central China. The species, threatened by habitat loss, is now confined to a few mountain ranges. In the 1970s, the People’s Republic of China launched a diplomacy campaign, providing giant pandas to zoos in Japan and the United States for conservation, leaving less than 1,864 pandas in the wild and around 300 in captivity. The Smithsonian National Zoo received its first two giant pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, in 1972.

But with the birth of the pair’s second cub, Bei Bei, some have questioned the value of conserving the species. Giant pandas are classified as carnivores, yet 99 percent of their diet consists of bamboo, which is exceptionally low in nutritional value. Additionally, it seems as though the species has no intrinsic sense of self-preservation: they have dangerously low birth rates and the animals do not breed well in captivity.

So why spend millions of dollars annually to keep them in zoos at all? Why try to save a species that does not want to be saved? To some, the effort seems futile. To others, the species represents a shining beacon of hope for the animal conservation community. The panda represents the fight for animal conservation globally, and keeping them in zoos raises awareness and public interest on that idea. Habitat depletion is largely to the fault of our human race and it is our duty to make amends. We share the planet with other species, and it is our responsibility as the human race to coexist. n

[HUMOR] “How do you make an egg laugh? Tell it a yolk.” Horrible joke maybe, but amusing nonetheless. We all have our select few icebreaker jokes lined up for every new person we meet. And although they might be terrible (as exemplified above), they provide an effective form of potent communication.

Let’s be honest here: most Americans, myself included, are significantly more likely to watch an episode of Saturday Night Live than a presidential debatecrazy right? However, these TV comedy shows can thus be an effective outlet for the presidential candidates, allowing them to reach a much larger audience of voters.

Humor is an American’s best friend, and can therefore potentially have a great deal of influence over its victims. Sure it may not be the most formal medium, but it provides a forum that no other medium can replicate.

On Saturday Night Live, presidential candidate Carly Fiorina went on and on about how she sings “Rock Around the Clock” to her two dogs, Snickers and Max, evoking pathos and an aspect of relatability to dog-owning viewers.

Likewise, it allows politicians to reach and influence the politically ignorant in this country: Fiorina has dogs. I own a dog. Ergo, I should vote for Fiorina. Or maybe something like: Fiorina’s dog is named Snickers. I like Snickers. Ergo, Fiorina should be our next president. Okay, maybe that one is slightly exaggerated, but you get the point. Believe it or not, this form of inductive reasoning does indeed occur in our country. Scary, right?

Shoutout to my favorite AP Government teacher, Calvin Adams, for the idea. n [editorial by Abby Agi]

[ [ HOW DO YOU MAKE AN EGG LAUGH? TELL IT A YOLK.

[ [ BUT, MAN, ARE THEY CUTE.

[editorial by Mehr Kumar]

17

A PLAYER TO WATCH O ffense, defense, penalties, touchdowns … football. Freshman Grace Pelletier has learned a lot in the past few months about the game and, as FHS’s developmental kicker, she is eager to continue practicing and improving.

“It’s not just a man’s sport,” Pelletier said. “Girls can play too.”

Starting off her first year of high school a position on the team has taken a huge toll on the rest of Pelletier’s life, largely because she has to balance football, basketball, and homework. But through it all, she’s stayed committed by reminding herself of how much fun it is, and how important playing football is to her.

“I feel like its really changed me,” Pelletier said. “I’m with all boys and they respect me for who I am. They’re not like, ‘Oh she’s a girl, so she can’t play.’”

Her teammates and coaches have been very encouraging, so adapting to playing football with only girls to playing with all boys hasn’t been too difficult.

Despite the ease in which she’s transitioned, being a player wasn’t her original game plan. Before joining the team in early August, she decided that she wanted to be involved with the sport in some way, without knowing at the time that she would eventually end up being on the team.

“My mom said I could play as long as I was the kicker, but I thought they already had a kicker, and I didn’t think I was that good, so I decided to be a manager,” Pelletier said.

Evidently she wasn’t as bad as she thought. When some fellow developmental players conveniently mentioned needing a kicker, she talked to the coach and was granted permission to try the position out. Now, after having played for a couple of months, her perspective on the game has changed.

“I feel like I have a bigger respect for [the players], because they do get hurt, and they suck it up and they keep playing,” Pelletier said. “I sort of thought that football was just fun, but it’s a serious game.” n [Story by Jessica Scott]

18|sports

[Pelletier warms up her leg prior to a game against Heritage High School. The tight game ended with a gridlocked 7-7 finish.]

[Photo by Justin Sheehan]

[Diving for a dig, senior Skylar Talley hustles to help her

team to a victory. Talley has helped the team achieve an 1-2 record since moving from Dallas, TX. ]

RUNNING BACK TO LOUDOUN

T

he quintessential northern Virginia high school track runner’s dream: varsity in high school, run in college, maybe even coach?

Meet Brian Markley, the new FHS cross country coach.

“Mr. Miller and Coach Richardson asked me if I was interested in coaching and I just jumped at the opportunity and dove in and I haven’t looked back,” Markley said.

When Markley became a top runner on his high school team, he realized he had a lot of potential. He started focusing on running, and his 4x800m relay team finished all-state as a junior.

“Having that additional four years of running and receiving coaching gives

you a bigger library of workouts that [I have] been exposed to,” Markley said.

Because of his success at Loudoun Valley High School, he attempted to join the Hokies as a walk-on.

“I think pretty early on in high school I set that goal of wanting to run in college, and I didn’t realize how far away I was from running the times that I would need [to be successful] in college,” Markley said.

When both a teaching posistion oppurtunity, and a cross country coach job presented themselves in South Riding, Markley knew he had to take advantage of the opportunity that was only 40 minutes from his hometown. n [Story by Joe Skinner]

[Photo by Justin Sheehan]

[ FROM THE 214 TO THE 703 [ T

rying out for a new team is hard enough. Balancing uneasy nerves with tryouts, while simultaneously joining a new high school 1,000 miles away in a completely different school environment, was even harder for senior Skylar Talley.

Talley moved to South Riding this summer from her former home in Dallas, Texas. She attended Highland Park High School and played volleyball during her freshman and sophomore years.

When she arrived at tryouts, Talley had no clue as to what the FHS volleyball team was going to be comprised of.

While still in Texas, she had looked at the statistics of the team’s wins and losses and found herself in disbelief over the scores.

“The best part about coming to tryouts and seeing everyone was realizing

that, no they do not suck, they are really good,” Talley said. “It’s a very competitive team.”

Talley recalls being welcomed with open arms after officially making the varsity volleyball team.

“After the first night of tryouts, Claire [Ko] texted me a big welcome to South Riding message.” Talley said.

As the season started to progress and her teammates became more like family, the uneasy nerves and tension started to get the best of Talley. She didn’t play volleyball her junior year, so she was coming back from a year without beingconstantly on the court.

“The very first time I went back to serving I almost threw up,” Talley said. “I was terrified. I don’t know if it was because of the new school or new people; I

didn’t know anybody.”

Despite all the anxiety Talley was experiencing during the game, her teammates were able to relate to her situation and made sure that she knew her feelings were normal.

“We made sure to encourage her, even during the game,” junior Alina Orentas said. ”We told her to relax, that everything was going to be okay. Being relaxed is very important because volleyball is such a mental game.”

Talley soon realized that joining a new team couple with moving to a new state wasn’t quite as bad as she imagined.

The encouraging members of the FHS volleyball team helped Talley not only by welcoming her as an athlete, but also as a member of their family. n [Story by Serena Thapa]

19

INSIDE TH

“I WOULDN’T SAY ONE POSITION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANOTHER BECAUSE WE’RE 11 PLAYERS PLAYING AS ONE UNIT.”

//quarterback Jack Fitzgergald [Photos by Billan Omar]

“WE GOT SEVEN NEW COACHES WHO’VE ALL WON THEIR OWN CHAMPIONSHIPS AND THIS YEAR WILL DEFINITELY BE FREEDOM’S BEST EVER.” //cornerback Josh Heman-Ackah

[ The “Points” of Football] W hen trying to learn football, the first and most important step is making sure you understand scoring. Junior linebacker Morgan Monayong describes a touchdown as, “When you have possession of the ball and you run it all the way into the endzone without being tackled.” As junior running back Brett Dineen adds, the touchdown puts, “six points on the board.”

When a team scores a touchdown, and gets six points, they can either attempt to convert an extra point or try a two-point conversion.

20|sports

Senior wide receiver Kabir Singh says that, “An extra point would be the kick that comes after scoring a touchdown.”

If the kick goes through the uprights, the team literally gets one extra point. Alternately, the team could earn two more points instead of one if the they can run a play from the two-yard line and get into the endzone.

Another scoring play is the field goal.

As junior cornerback Josh Heman-Ackah defines it, “A field goal is...if you’re on fourth down and you can’t make it to the

[ introduction]

The snap was perfect, sliding right

into the quarterback’s hands. He gripped the ball tight, scanning the secondary, looking for an open receiver. As the blitz penetrated the protection, time started to slow down. In a smooth arc, the ball left the passer’s hand and found it’s way to the receiver streaking down the sideline. The crowd exploded as he high-stepped into the endzone for the game-winning touchdown.

What a great play! Unfortunately, half the crowd did not have the slightest idea what just happened. One group of fans, who understood the game, started cheering about a score and the rest just joined in. If you are someone who just joins in the cheering without knowing what is happening on the field, that’s about to change. This article will be your all-purpose guide

endzone, you kick the ball through the uprights...which is worth three points.”

The rarest scoring play is actually achieved by the defense. As senior lineman Enes Karaaslan says, “A safety is when the team on offense gets pushed back so far that they get pushed back into their own goal line.” Essentially, if the offense gets tackled in the wrong endzone, the defense gets two points.

All five of these methods of scoring are crucial for any new football fan to learn. n

HE GAME to the game. So sit back, forget about conjugations and annotations, and learn the basics of football. It’s simpler than you would think.

Football is a hard-hitting game where eleven players line up on offense and defense for each play. When the player with the ball is tackled - meaning their knee, bottom, elbow, or back touches the ground - each play ends.

Every drive consists of an undetermined number of plays, which are also called downs. When a new drive starts, the team is given a first down. If the team runs four downs without gaining ten total yards, the other team gains possession of the ball. Grasping these fundamental aspects of the game is an essential step to understanding the complexity of the sport. n [Story by Campbell Niehaus]

W

ith a little help, anyone can understand the roles of the different positions.

Leading the offense, is sophomore quarterback Jack Fitzgerald who says, “[The quarterback] calls all the plays and he’s the guy who gets the ball first.” During a play, the quarterback may either throw the ball to a teammate, hand the ball to a teammate, or run with the ball, himself.

Wide receiver Kabir Singh explains, “Primarily, the role of the receiver is to catch the ball or just block [if someone else has the ball].” Running back Brett

“SCORING A TOUCHDOWN IS A REALLY GOOD FEELING BECAUSE...EVERYONE WORKED TOGETHER TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE.” //running back Brett Dineen [Photos by Billan Omar]

“THE PRESSURE IS USUALLY OUT ON THE RECEIVERS...

AND I REALLY LIKE THAT KIND OF PRESSURE.” //wide receiver Kabir Singh

[Unlocking the Key Positions ]

Dineen explains why he fits his position’s role, saying, “I’m fast and I like getting the ball...and I basically put my head down and run.”

Often the bulkiest and strongest on the team are the linemen. Lineman Karaaslan says they are the most important players because “Without a good line you can’t get anywhere.”

As linebacker, Morgan Monayong says, “I talk a lot because you have to communicate, it’s really important.” Being in the middle of the field, linebackers are tasked

with communicating with and leading the defense. One of the trickiest positions to master is cornerback, which is also called defensive back. Josh Heman-Ackah says that “He’ll stay on the receiver if [the receiver] is making a route or he’ll cut in and try to make a tackle if he sees a running back is coming.”

Congratulations! That’s it! So head out there, watch the game, support your fellow Eagles, and you too can lead the cheers. GO FREEDOM! n

21

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mom, Haley, ~ Dad, Katy, + Grace

LINDSEY NYSTROM

10/12

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