The Rock - September 2018

THE ROCK

Follow us for new content

@rbhsbearingnews

For daily stories and the latest on RBHS, visit www.bearingnews.org

The Student Voice of Rock Bridge High School Since 1973 • Vol. 46 Issue 1 • September 27, 2018

Cruising into the world of JUULing: (from left) Seniors Ben Yelton, Johnny Prado-Cox and Dylan Soper carpool to Hy-Vee at their lunch break Thursday, Sept 13. Yelton and Soper take hits from JUULs, the most popular brand of e-cigarettes. These resemble small USB drives. E-cigarette changes are on the horizon, read about it on page 3

FDA invests $60 million in push against e-cigarettes MAYA BELL / THE ROCK

National safety concerns prompt changes Jordyn Thompson, Anna Xu

I SARAH KUHLMANN / THE ROCK

Stiepleman announces new district virtues Ben Kimchi

T

rust. Integrity. Collaboration. Transparency. Empathy. Grace. Dr. Peter Stiepleman said the implementation of these six values will guide the school district's decisions and improve CPS' educational future through a district-wide email Sept. 3.

“Our values guide the way we work together, and they give us a shared image of who we are,” Dr. Stiepleman said. “Values should be established by engaging representatives of every sector of our school district. The long term goal is to have them guide us over the near future.”

Some students, however, said they already receive a similar set of values under the “freedom with responsibility” motto.

Junior Madison Polniak appreciates the gesture but believes having set values limits students.

“Part of high school is finding your own identity, it’s freedom with responsibility,” Polniak said. “We each have our own values. These are our own values that we stick to, [so] trying to make us fit into those six values is not a very good idea.”

The incorporation of virtues into CPS will likely be small or completely nonexistent, Polniak said. But junior Joseph Gard believes the proposed values align perfectly for students.

“Trust is a big thing between teachers and students,” Gard said. “The outlining of these ideals could help some people, and it makes the values clear for CPS.” The values were a product of an Administrative Council meeting July 30, comprised of CPS principals, assistant principals, coordinators, directors, supervisors, administrative assistants, secretaries, custodians, nutrition services, technology technicians and students. A vote by 175 people, the leaders at every level, Dr. Stiepleman said, confirmed the values.

“In 2014 I became the superintendent.

At that time I engaged only my Cabinet in our values. It was good work, but it was the work of just six people,” Dr. Stiepleman said. “They were my goals. They weren’t our goals... This time it was an inclusive process. These six values are truly our values.”

n just 18 years, more people in the United States have been killed or injured by school shootings than in the entire 20th Century, according to an April 2018 report by Science Daily. Responding to school gun violence, Columbia Public Schools (CPS) established hardening entrances as a top priority for the 2019-20 school year.

Though details aren’t complete, RBHS Principal Dr. Jennifer Rukstad said the Board and CPS’ insurance company, Naught-Naught Insurance Agency, aim to rework RBHS to a single entry school.

“Fear is driving a lot of our decisions,” Rukstad said. “When terrible stuff happens to kids, or anyone, everyone's pretty quick to talk about how to make our schools safer.”

The proposed changes will start at Aslin Administration Building in a few months, Rukstad said, and proceed to RBHS and Hickman High School (HHS) in the summer.

Director of Security John White said Aslin will reconfigure the location of the help desk into a single point of entry to buzz guests in.

The reason the Board chose RBHS and HHS first for the program is because members believe those schools will be the most difficult to reconfigure. Newer schools were built with gun violence in mind; therefore, they have a single entry, White said.

“I think they wanted to tackle the hardest ones first [to] make the others a little bit easier [as] we learn through that process,” Rukstad said. “And also to send a mes-

sage that it’s really a priority.”

RBHS has two main student entrances, North and South, with a third in the east for those riding busses. If RBHS adopted a single entry design, Dr. Rukstad said the north entrance is the only feasible option to accommodate students while the south entrance would be staff only.

“Logistically, with all the students we have, it really cannot be south; we don’t have enough parking in the south to have all the students in the south,” Rukstad said.

“Plus students have to go in an out of the north doors to get to the [Columbia Area] Career Center. So if we are going to make a single entry system, the most logical place is in the north.”

Four years ago CPS’ insurance company proposed the single entry

idea. As a compromise, the Board chose, instead, to allow students who enter after 8:55a.m. to buzz into the Attendance Office where RBHS staff monitors entry on an individual basis. The issue of school safety, however, escalated since then, so Dr. Rukstad said the Board is motivated to be consistent with the insurance company's recommendations.

“The idea is that you don’t let a guest just open a door and come into a hallway. That’s your hallway; guests should not be in your hallway,” White said. “Other people who are not students, staff or parents should not have access to the hallways.”

Another plan to harden entrance security is to position a staff member at the entrance behind a glass wall to make direct eye contact

AlLLIE PIGG / THE ROCK

BUZZ IN: Sophomore George Matthes returns from his Alternate Unassigned Time (AUT) and rings into the north commons intercom Sept. 11.

with everyone who enters, not just from a small monitor.

“Wherever there is a point of entry to the building, we want a human being there,” Assistant Principal Dr. Tim Baker said. “Now we don’t know the [finances] yet, but we have got to make it work.”

Feasibility, White said, is the main issue. Built in 1973, RBHS' general layout and parking lots weren’t built for a single entry.

“This is total preliminary. We have no [finalized] plan,” White said. “We had an architect come out and just look at the building to come up with a plan on how we could make this a single entry. The architect has so many ideas; we’ll have to see which one is (a) feasible and (b) fiscally responsible.”

Senior Don Osborn doesn’t believe the updates will make a significant impact on the chances of shooting and said it will only be an inconvenience to students and staff.

“It’s silly because if a person wants to shoot up a school, they’ll do it anyway. That’s the thing,” said Osborn. “I think it will be a severe inconvenience to students because we will be put down to one parking lot. Plus, there are a lot of students who park in south parking lot because it is closer to sports, [and] traffic is going to be terrible.”

White hopes students don’t read to much into the proposed changes because they are still in the planning stages and nothing is completely confirmed.

“Everything keeps changing," White said. "We are trying to figure out the safest and best way to do that and still be good stewards to the taxpayers money.”

AP World to be split next year Ethan Hayes

D

uring the summer the College Board anounced plans to refashion the structure of Advanced Placement (AP) World History. The change, scheduled for the 2019-20 school year, intends to split the curriculum of AP World History in half. Instead of teaching from the Paleolithic Era to present day, two separate courses would divide up the eras into two separate courses. The classes would split into World History: AP World History: Ancient (ending at 1200 CE) and AP World History: Modern (beginning at 1200 CE).

College Board, however, needs approval to create AP World: Ancient, an additional course.

GEORGE FREY/ THE ROCK WORLD OF LEARNING: AP World History Both classes require 15 percent of all high schools teacher Shawna Matteson supervises her that offer AP classes to confirm interest in offering fourth block class Tuesday as they wrap up the two separate world history classes; 15 percent equates to about 2,500 high schools, according the first two units on laptops[0-600 BCE].

Commentaries . . . . . . P6

In-Depths. . . . . . . . P9-12

Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . P17

First generation American: Amanda Kurykulasuria writes about balancing her Sri Lankan heritage while growing up in America.

Worth the weight: Students persist through delayed success, relationships, culture shock and disimpassioned achievement.

Fast pitch: The Bruin softball team will compete in Hickman Tournament tomorrow and Saturday against top ranked teams in state.

to the College Board. Additionally, 100 colleges must indicate to the College Board a specific credit they would give high school students who sufficiently score well on the end of the year AP test in each history course.

Applications for interested high schools and colleges opened Sept. 1, and College Board will update the affirmative count on its website quarterly.

The College Board justified the amendments in a statement on its website saying, “a majority of AP World History teachers have told us that they were teaching too little about too much. Students’ essay scores on the end-of-year AP Exam have reflected that overwhelming challenge.”

RBHS AP World History teacher David Graham, however, disapproves of the proposed changes in fear the new curriculum will be too European centric.

AP WORLD, P3

BEARING NEWS For fast, fresh, daily coverage of RBHS news, sports, and more,

visit www.bearingnews.org

INDEX . . . . . . 1 NEWS. . . . 4 EDITORIALS. . . . . 6 COMMENTARIES. . . . 9 IN-DEPTH . . . . 14 FEATURES . . . . 16 SPORTS . . . . 19 A&E

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

2 | ADS

: @photographybyhai

haileylymanphotography.com

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

NEWS | 3

FDA to campaign against JUULs T Emily Oba

he U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday, Sept.

18 that it will commence a nationwide education campaign directed at 10.7 million adolescents at risk from electronic cigarette use and potential nicotine addiction.

The FDA warned e-cigarette use is becoming an epidemic in minors; therefore, the agency plans to start a movement by informing people through posters in high school bathrooms and on social media.

E-cigarette use raises a concern because of its popularity with teenagers and the dangers of the ingredients in them. The first ever national study published by the Institute for Social Research estimates 19 percent of 12th graders have vaped nicotine as of 2017. The institute also reports this number may be higher as additional students are possibly vaping nicotine but are unaware of it.

There are many types of e-cigarettes and one popular brand is JUUL, a small device that resembles a USB drive.

JUUL has become a fast growing, popular trend. Reported by Vox in 2017, JUULs grew the e-cigarette market by 40 percent, making it a 1.16 billion dollar industry, and as of March 2018, JUULs made up more than half of e-cigarette sales.

RBHS treats JUULing and vaping like a traditional tobacco offense, Assistant Principal Dr. Tim Baker said. He also stated administration would issue a Saturday detention to students who break this rule and confiscate the product.

MAYA BELL / THE ROCK “Yes, I’d say it’s become a major problem, A VAPE BREAK: Senior Dylan Soper blows out a cloud of vape after taking a hit from his JUUL on his lunch break at Subway, Sept. 11. While but I believe it’s much more than just at Rock Soper has owned and smoked a JUUL for almost a year, he says he is not addicted to nicotine and could quit anytime he wants.

Bridge High School,” Dr. Baker said. “We’ve “I know they’re still not good for you. I usunoticed a large increase in students vaping both ability to change the way synapses are formed, vention Plan to stop youth use of and access to, JUUL and other e-cigarettes, the FDA Commisally do it after work or, like, during work to step inside and outside of the building.” which harms the parts of the brain that control sioner, Scott Gottlieb said the “nicotine in these outside and take it like my smoke break but also Despite the potential consequence, high attention and learning. school students don’t view JUULing as a big “Even the e-cigarettes that claim to be ‘nic- products can rewire an adolescent’s brain, lead- at the same time it just looks cool and everyone has one,” Soper said. “They are all over Youdeal especially since JUULs are supposed to be otine-free’ oftentimes contain trace amounts ing to years of addiction.”

Sophomore Zach Gaines describes JUULs Tube, any social media influencer has one in a carcinogen free, unlike cigarettes. of nicotine in them. E-cigarettes, including Although anyone under 21 years old cannot JUULs, also affect the lungs, as the e-cigarette as small and easy to hide, “little nicotine ma- video or posted online, and now all these othlegally purchase a JUUL, teenagers still obtain fluids often contain harmful substances includ- chines that you vape.” He first found out about er companies are making off brand JUULs so and use the product. ing ultrafine particles that can be absorbed into the e-cigarette through memes that joked about they’ve kind of been blowing up.”

Although Soper is under the age require“I walk around the hallway and see everyone the lungs,” Varvaro said. “Other harmful sub- their high addictiveness. “[A JUUL] has higher levels of nicotine ment to buy a JUUL, he said was able to use with a JUUL,” senior Dylan Soper said. “Just stances found in e-cigarette fluids include varsitting in class, maybe one fourth, two fourths ious heavy metals, such as lead, tin and nickel, than regular vaporizers when you smoke it you a prepaid card and order it online. On the other of the class is just hitting their JUUL.” cancer-causing chemicals and flavorings such get a little nicotine high that makes you smi- hand, Gaines said kids get their JUULs from The National Center for Biotechnology In- as diacetyl, a chemical that is linked to a serious ley and dizzy,” Gaines said. “I first tried one older friends who sell it to them. at a friend’s party because I hoped nothing bad The JUUL company’s mission statement is formation conducted a study that showed nic- lung disease.” would happen, nothing bad did happen, but to help tobacco smokers switch to a healthier otine can lower Moreover, some people can get addicted from that.” alternative to cigarettes. effectiveness of an article from Varvaro explains the earlier an individual is JUUL has been under controversy because cancer treatment I know [JUULS are] still not good for you. I usu- Harvard Medical and speed up cell ally do it after work or, like, during work to step School showed exposed to nicotine, the more difficult it is for of its high appeal to teenagers with flavors such growth, includ- outside and take it like my smoke break but also regular exposure them to quit. She encourages individuals who as fruit medley and crème brûlée. To try to ing lung, colon at the same time it just looks cool, and everyone to nicotine can are addicted to get help as soon as possible as prevent more underage teens from purchasing e-cigarettes, on April 6, 2018, the FDA started and breast tumor create insulin addiction is a serious disease. has one.

“Especially in teens and young adults, nicto uncover illegal e-cigarette sales and sent 40 cells. They also resistance and — Dylan Soper, Type 2 diabe- otine is rewiring their brains and affecting how warning letters to illegal retailers. They are also stated nicotine senior tes as well as their brains function, leading to a strong nic- working with eBay to remove JUULs off the may impair brain development in increased heart otine addiction,” Varvaro said. “Students who site, as well as ordering JUUL and other e-cigadolescents, which can lead to poor impulse rate and blood pressure, which can lead to heart are addicted to nicotine and using their JUUL arette companies to produce documents that show the company’s marketing, research and control and attention deficit disorder in the fu- attacks. While evidence points to nicotine be- should seek help from a physician.”

Unconcerned about the possible dangers of design practices to understand why teenagers ture. ing harmful, young adults may overlook these JUULs, Soper states one JUUL pod is equiva- are so attracted to the product.

Furthermore, health educator at Boone negative affects.

“Everyone’s trying to hop on the new trend,” County Public Health and Human Services, The Truth Initiative, a non-profit anti-smok- lent to a pack of cigarettes, regarding nicotine Sarah Varvaro states other long term effects ing organization, reported 63 percent of 15 levels but believes they are healthier because Soper said. “Half the people that use it don’t include increased risk of mood disorder and a to 24-year-olds were unaware of the harmful the lower amount of chemicals. Soper also said know it’s bad for you. They honestly don’t care permanently lowered impulse control. She said nicotine in the device. In a statement on new he knows he isn’t addicted and if desired, he about it; they just want to be cool and are just thinking short term, for a good time.” these negative effects are caused by nicotine’s enforcement actions and a Youth Tobacco Pre- could quit right now.

[SOURCE: TRUTHIINITIATIVE.ORG, WWW.TOBACCOFREEKIDS.ORG, WWW.CASAA.ORG]

SARAH KUHLMANN / THE ROCK

College Board to revamp AP World History offerings next year AP WORLD P1

“I didn’t think it was warranted, nor did I think the decision that they made on when to make the cut off was in the spirit of what AP World was originally intended to do,” Graham said. “The original intent of AP was to place the west in the context of the larger world. . . In other words they didn’t want it to be western centric. They wanted it to be about the west is part of the larger process of civilization around the world during this time.”

Sophomore AP World student Kierra Pilot said she would take both AP World classes but doesn’t prefer

the split. Currently Pilot is learning about the first civilizations, which under the College Board’s decision, would be taught in AP World History: Ancient.

“I think the changing of the AP curriculum is illogical because the students aren’t getting the full experience of AP World,” Pilot said.

“Starting in the 1200s would not make sense because it’s completely skipping over an important aspect of human life.”

Junior Savannah Cunneen, who took AP World History last year, supports the scheduled changes to prevent rushed instruction as well

as provide a more in depth study of world history. Cunneen said she felt the last couple of periods covered in her AP World History class were hurried and skipped interesting parts of history.

“Yeah, I think that will be helpful, but there’s always more you can learn about a period in time,” Cunneen said. “. . .[It] would have been cool to get a little more time to have a better understanding before the test since it is such a long period of time.”

The College Board furthers its reasoning by stating universities cover world history over multiple courses. AP classes are supposed to model

college courses for college credits, they reason a change in curriculum is validated. The Board also said student essay scores on the end-of-year AP exam reflected educators’ concerns of a surface level study.

“Personally, I felt very overwhelmed while studying for the test, but I just think [the change is a bit ineffective]” Cunneen said, “because the piece they cut out wasn’t a huge percentage of the content that was asked on the test.”

According to the College Board’s student score distribution, a majority of students (56.2 percent) who took the AP World History exam received

a score of three, four or five on the exam. Graham doesn’t think the College Board’s concern about poor AP test scores applies to RBHS and believes his students, on average are hitting the marks.

“When 86 to 90 percent of your students get a three, a four or a five on the test, depending on the year.

The majority of our kids got fours or fives,” Graham said. “AP World [History] at RBHS has an incredible track record versus the rest of the country in preparing kids in what the AP World [History] curriculum was intended to do, which is to get them ready for college at that level.”

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG |SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

4 | EDITORIALS

AP World needs modification, not division

W

ith the College Board’s com- study. Cutting the class in half is not the answer. ing upheaval of the Advanced The very existence of a modern-only AP Placement (AP) World History, World class puts history in an entirely different this year’s freshmen and every context, distinct from the one it actually exists class after may miss out on decades of history in. Educating history from the 1200s means education. teachers can only gloss over the centuries that This past summer, the College Board came before then. shocked many with its coming modification of It does not properly teach everything that the AP World curricuhappened before, evlum. Instead of comerything that allowed prehensively covering the complex governShould the College Board make AP events from the beginmental, social and ecoWorld History two separate classes? ning of the world to its nomic systems of modpresent state, the class ern times to become THE ROCK STAFF VOTED will be split in two: AP what they are. Imagine World: Modern and elementary schoolers AP World: Ancient. learning long division Right now, only AP before subtraction, or World: Modern, with science classes teaching material beginning at only about the second about 1200, has been half of the water cycle. approved. As the 2018-2019 school year proSure, students may gain some information, gresses, teachers will receive more information but a class is only effective because it assumes regarding the material. On its website, the Col- students don’t know the beginnings and teaches lege Board said it received complaints that the from exactly there: the start. current class taught too much information in Starting the class around 1200, ironicaltoo little time, which served as its main motiva- ly, risks what both RBHS AP World teaching tion for their decision. In weighing the pros and teams criticize: Eurocentrism. The majority of cons, however, it made severe errors. AP World the material covers everything after 1450, the is effective because of its extensive course of beginnings of European colonialism. Because

YES — 10 NO — 19

the class will go into more detail about a smaller amount of time, students might learn about other things happening in the world besides that. Colonialism, however, had a major impact on the world once it began. Even if the class teaches about more than colonialism, there’s no doubt the significance of it on the world’s development. AP World: Modern will almost definitely emphasize Europe’s impact on world history as a recurring theme.

Some argue cutting AP World in half allows for a more in-depth teaching. While this may be true, there is little justification for teaching about anything that happened in later history without providing the thousands of years of development in the world that led up to them first.

The truth is, every class could delve further into its material. Civics doesn’t go nearly as far into the U.S. government as it could. In biology classes there could probably be an entire semester on genetics, a concept briefly covered.

A high school class, AP or not, cannot entirely cover its subject area. The solution to that problem is not to take the class apart like a puzzle, hold up one piece and act as if it is complete.

While the College Board claims its decision should help students, it actually presents another hurdle for low-income high schoolers. Splitting up AP World, in reality, only benefits the College Board, who makes a significant chunk

Break up with YouTube romances Atiyah Lane

P

AB IS

eople find kids today different from those of the ‘90s and early 2000s. Weird Internet challenges such as eating Tide Pods, lighting themselves on fire or popping Xanax, as well as the strange famous people who do these things tie into what makes today’s generation of kids so strange.

The list goes on of what kids think is “cool.” Of course, with the increase of technology and social media, you can’t really blame kids for how they act.

According to Fortune.com social media took a big turn in 2017 when Twitter announced it was shutting down the infamous app, Vine. Vine led many to fame, most of those “Viners” like Jay Versace, Mightyduck, Toni Romiti that were famous switched over to Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. On social media, people can gain a large following from entertaining users. There are many ways for people to get famous now with the help of those who will find almost anyone as being “cool,” “lit,” “the G.O.A.T.,” or anything equally ridiculous.

The oddest set of people becom- EL T ing famous today are YouTube couples, HORO creators who blog about their relationships. UGHM A They vlog pranks, answer Q&A’s from fans, do N / THE R OCK boyfriend/girlfriend tags, go shopping or even record themselves doing something as ordinary as eating cereal.

Some of these couples have viewerships ranging from one to almost 12 million views.

An example is De’arra and Ken, or DK4L, and Queen Naija and Chris Sails. There’s nothing wrong with the couples themselves; how they display their relationship to the world is their business, but such Youtube couples are a big piece of the social media world that distracts people from more important things.

For example, Queen Naija and Chris Sails had more than 100k subscribers. They were married and had a child. Just last year people found out that Chris cheated on Queen and the inter-

The Rock Rock Bridge High School 4303 S. Providence Rd., Columbia, Mo. 65203 Vol. 46, Issue 1 September 27, 2018 Population: 2,021 Students, 190 Faculty Circulation: 1,600 Contact information: Phone: (573) 214-3141 Website: bearingnews.org

Advertising: $50 — 1/4 Page $100 — 1/2 Page $150 — Full Page $200 — Backpage The Journalism Newspaper and Honors Seminar classes produce The Rock, Bearing News and Southpaw.

The paper’s purpose is to accurately inform, educate and enlighten readers in an open forum.

The Rock is a member of the National Scholastic

net about burst into flames. Everybody started to hate and bash Chris while lifting up Queen.

Shortly after, Queen found a new man by the name of Clarence. A bit of a feud brewed between the two suitors. Couples break up every day, but this specific couple was surfacing on social media for months.

Our generation has a tendency of making lots of people famous for no reason at all. People like P Diddy, Will Smith and Nicki Minaj never would have gotten famous for making six-second videos or doing dangerous “challenge videos;” they actually had to work hard to create their reputation. Now celebrities such as DK4L simply go on tour to meet and greet, posing with fans for photos along the way.

With fame should come responsibility, including an obligation to leave a positive impact on others. LeBron James just opened a school where kids receive free food and free college tuition. But how would an individual even know of his work?

Viewers are too busy crying over a YouTube couple’s break up.

Instead, people must shift priorities. Of course it can’t happen overnight, but baby steps can lead to a change over time. Kids are more worried about someone else’s life while living their own from behind a phone or computer screen. Instead of watching YouTube couples for hours, try taking 30 minutes to increase knowledge on actual problems in the world or even spend some quality time building stronger relationships with others.

People are shining too much light on less important situations instead of on bigger problems like little kids being separated from their families because they’re being deported or the fact that Flint, Michigan still has no clean water.

Some people are even losing their own personality watching these couples and famous people and are basing their life or relationships off of them. Some of these couples might not even be real. Viewers don’t know what’s actually going on behind closed doors. There are people who post what they want us to see, and some fall for their fairytale life thinking they should be living like them simply because they’re famous and look happy. People need to realize not everything that glitters is gold.

Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association and Quill & Scroll.

The Rock accepts letters to the editors from its readers regarding any possible issues of concern in the publication. If you have a letter to send, email it to contact@bearingnews. org. Limit entries to 400 words. The Rock reserves the right to reject material based

on standards set by the staff.

Staff: Editors-In-Chief: Ann Fitzmaurice Ji-Sung Lee Emily Oba Katie Whaley Business Manager: Ethan Hayes A&E Editor: Ben Kimchi Commentaries Editor: Saly Seye Editorials Editor: Ethan Hayes Features Editor:

of its money from AP courses and exams. The cost of taking two AP tests may limit students who wish to take both classes.

College Board offers a Pre-AP World History and Geography course, but it comes at a financial cost to schools and as a result, may prevent poorer districts from providing at least a full overview of world history.

Additionally, schools may not be able to afford to hire new teachers for these separate courses. If they can, chances are they may hire an under qualified instructor, something particularly unsuited for the first AP course many high schoolers take. Where a school is or how much money it has should not hinder students from receiving the same education as everyone else.

From elementary school, students see history from an overwhelmingly European lens.

AP World provides an opportunity to break free from an incomplete view of the world and see modern events in their proper context.

Cutting AP World in half reinforces the idea that the foundations of modern history don’t matter. Creating another AP course puts a financial burden on those who want to learn about necessary parts of history. Making AP World into two separate courses is not only unreasonable, but also harmful to students’ understanding of the world.

VALERIA VELASQUEZ / THE ROCK

‘The Rock’ lays out editorial protocol and rules for readers

T

he paper’s editorial board, made up of the Editors-In-Chief of The Rock and Bearing News and the Adviser of the Journalism Department will review all opinion pieces for use in the opinion pages only. Opinions expressed in signed works are those of the author and not necessarily of the entire staff.

Letters to the Editor: The paper encourages letters but reserves the right to edit or reject material based on the standards set by members of the journalism staff. Letters with grammatical errors will be printed as received. Letters should be no longer than 400 words. Anyone wishing to submit a letter must sign with a valid signature. The author of the letter will be named.

If a group writes a letter, all members must present a signature.

Content: The Rock staff will write all stories for publication except for letters to the editor, pieces submitted by students of the Journalistic Writing class or guest writers. Every story is reviewed by the editorial board and the editor of the section of the story.

Bylines and Credits: The Rock assigns bylines to each published story. Staff editorials are the only articles in The Rock without a byline. Staff editorials reflect the opinions of the staff on particular issues. For each staff editorial, The Rock staff votes on the issue and the result of the vote is published. The Rock will assign photo and art credits to every photo or piece of artwork that is published. Credits are the responsibility of the editor of the section in which the photo or artwork appears.

Photographers are responsible for the photo and its caption.

Artists are responsible for the artwork.

Death of a student or faculty member: The Rock will handle a student or faculty member’s death as follows: a single news story reading “In Memoriam;” a standard scan of the student or faculty’s current ID or a picture chosen by The Rock staff and a 400-500 word obituary, including the student or faculty member’s date of birth and date of death. All memorials will be published in The Rock or on Bearing News, depending on timing. The Rock welcomes additional submissions in memory of the deceased person to our email: contact@bearingnews.org.

Error: Any noteworthy factual misinformation made in The Rock will be corrected in the succeeding issue and on Bearing News, upon request or detection by staff.

Advertising: The Rock has the right to reject any part of an advertisement on the basis of poor taste, libel or the promotion of illegal substances. The Rock staff recognizes and appreciates the contributions of private citizens and businesses who help support the publications through their advertising, trade of services and/or sponsorship.

Maddie Murphy In-Depth Editor: Bailey Stover News Editor: Anna Xu Sports Editors: Ann Fitzmaurice Ji-Sung Lee Emily Oba Katie Whaley Art & Design Editor: Moy Zhong Photo Editor: Maya Bell Multimedia Editor: Kai Ford Staff Writers: George

Frey, Jared Geyer, Atiyah Lane, Amanda Kurukulasuriya, Isaac Parrish, Will Napier, Jordyn Thompson Artists: Isabel Thoroughman, Valeria Velasquez Photographers: Camryn DeVore, Sophie Eaton, George Frey, Allie Pigg Multimedia: Matthew Burns, Sarah Kuhlmann, Isaac Parrish, Jack Speake, Alyvia Swearingen Adviser: Robin Stover

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG |SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

5 | EDITORIALS

Scoring high Test results continue to shape future Emily Oba

I

ndividuals are responsible for their own lives and can choose to do what they want with them. Whether that means taking school seriously or going with the flow, the decision is one’s own, personal choice.

Nevertheless, students who decide they want to go to a very selective college or get much needed scholarships, grades and standardized tests such as the American College Test (ACT)/ Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) matter.

Unfortunately students have to focus and obsess over grades and test scores, but the hard work to obtain high scores is not for nothing.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) stated the top factors for the Fall 2016 admission cycle decisions were grades in college prep classes, high school grade point average (GPA), admission test scores and strength of curriculum.

Without high grades in honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes, potential students will not be impressive enough to selective colleges for acceptance.

Both grades and ACT/SAT scores can keep students out of the automatic “no” pile in college admissions.

The site collegetransitions.com states standardized test scores have become increased in prominence in college acceptance.

In the 2018 U.S. News’ ranking algorithm, standardized test scores accounted for eight percent of the algorithm, which was more than other factors, such as the amount in the top 10 percent of the high school class.

More than 82 percent of colleges consider ACT/SAT scores important in their admissions decisions.

It makes sense that these tests are a factor in admissions because colleges receive hundreds of thousands of applications, and scores seem to be the easiest way to narrow the pool of students wanting to get in.

Additionally, ACT/SAT scores can determine which and how many scholarships one can get. The difference of one point on a standardized test can sometimes be thousands of dollars of scholarship money.

The pressure to have perfect grades and high test scores is even more prevalent today as highly selective colleges are having a harder time differentiating which students to accept and decline.

In the past 15 years, the two main deciding factors for admission have become more difficult to assess, according to The Atlantic.

The SAT has been redesigned twice in that time, and half of all high schoolers have an A average; therefore, because it has become harder for admissions to pick students, keeping grades up and getting high ACT/SAT test scores are even more important.

Although grades and test scores should not take control of a student’s life, they shouldn’t be dismissed as something that isn’t important. While it is unfortunate that colleges have to decide admissions this way, don’t believe that high school students are becoming crazier by increasing their obsession over grades and standardized test scores. For some individuals, the right college, program or scholarship can set their whole path for the future.

VALERIA VELASQUEZ / THE ROCK

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION OF SENIORS JESS NEWKIRK AND EMILY MA BY SOPHIE EATON / THE ROCK

Math fosters independent minds Anna Xu

M

ath is the most hated on subject, often given harsh connotations from Grade Point Average (GPA) killer to the Math Monster. Suffering students and adults with past horror stories have questioned the purpose of learning math; some even propose to remove the requirement of math out of schools altogether and convert it to an elective.

To back their argument, they source studies claiming higher math requirements lead to some students failing and dropping out; however, while math may be hard, the benefits of persevering through difficult courses provide valuable assets to the brain.

Another common stereotype of math is it’s only useful for the future engineer, stock broker or some other ‘nerdy’ profession.

Michael Jordan, the wealthiest basketball player of all time, however, majored in mathematics.

Abraham Lincoln was obsessed with mathematics and “he studied and nearly mastered the Six-books of Euclid (geometry) since he was a member of Congress... often studying far into the night, with a candle near his pillow,” according to Lincoln’s 1860 autobiography.

Still, not only the elite can benefit from math. Just as weight training can improve one’s ability in a variety of sports, math functions the same way by developing the brain and harnessing different thinking methods. In math, one adjusts complicated functions to find simple values; to do so, one has to think critically and creatively to find the answer.

As one better understands arithmetic, one adopts quantitative perspectives, systemic methods, makes more rational connections and notices recurring patterns to tackle problems with logic. Logic and deductive reasoning are crucial to individuals as well as society to promote good argumentation and foster an independent mind. Those who undergo rigorous math are more able to pick at logical fallacies, question authority and not be foolish sheep to the mercy of others.

While math enhances the judgment of a person as a whole, it is also helpful to a majority of careers, in contrary to the myth about how higher level math is unconstructive to most employement.

For some careers, the highest levels of math may not be necessary, however, because the world is rapidly becoming more technologically advanced, higher level math is more applicable. For example, to predict the weather, stock market or even a patient’s medicine dosage, one must utilize calculus. A high understanding of math is also paramount to calculate precise measurment in architecture, business, mechanics, carpentry and the list goes on.

Additionally, society rewards those who pursue higher level math beyond high school. Math majors, on average, are the third highest earners, making 37.7 percent more than English majors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers 2005 salary survey.

Math is also transferable to a plethora of career choices includ-

ing business and law.

In the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), students with a math major outperformed every other major, scoring 12.8 percent and 13.3 percent above the average test taker, respectively, according to the National Institute of Education, amassing data of 550,000 college students over a period of 18 years.

Jeff Immelt, the CEO of the Fortune 500 Company GE, said his “most invaluable qualification is not the MBA [Masters of Business] — it’s his undergraduate degree in math.”

The last, most detrimental, misconception is only ‘smart’ people with an extraordinary Intelligent Quantity (IQ) can understand high level math, and everyone else just wasn’t born with it.

Absolutely not.

Everyone can learn and improve mathematical ability, and everyone can take high level math courses. Don’t discount oneself as “not a math person” when other peers receive higher marks because no test is the end all be all.

Students should focus on their own progress, what matters, and not incessantly compare themselves to others.

Don’t let GPA be the excuse to cut short on math because, truly, it is the learning and the lifetime benefits of math that count.

While it’s true not everyone is Albert Einstein, everyone can succeed at math through persistence and hard work.

So go out, take a high level math course, and make friends with the Math Monster.

Coalition Checklist offers meaning, could employ revisions Katie Whaley

W

ith mental health affecting 20 percent of American students, KMIZ reports, it is a crucial issue to address in schools. Columbia Public Schools (CPS) has a system in place to check mental wellness in students.

Students in elementary, middle and high schools across the CPS district take a Coalition Checklist, an online questionnaire designed to assess relationships with peers, emotions and social behavior. CPS distributes the survey to all schools in the district thrice yearly. Only principals see the result, except for a few individual cases.

The purpose of the checklist is meaningful; gathering information about students’ interpersonal relationships and mental well-being is a crucial procedure to better ensure student mental wellness.

The Coalition Checklist, however, falls short in offering the best aid to students.

To start, the medium in which CPS administers the questionnaire allows for a high percentage of inaccurate and dishonest answers.

One can easily fill out the survey without taking it seriously by clicking on any answer without anything holding him or her accountable.

The lack of accountability allows for students who may struggle emotionally to slip by the administrators’ watch.

Though students who lie on the online questions will probably also lie if the survey were given via paper or in a face-to-face interview, it’s safe to say that an online questionnaire does not guarantee truth. Mental wellness is an imperative subject to tackle; yet, if a student does not wish for aid, that student will not answer honestly in any forum of survey.

But if one chooses to answer the questions honestly, there is little substantial information to thoroughly evaluate a student’s mental well-being. Questions such as “Do you have people to sit with at lunch?” And “How often have you experienced sadness in the past month?” do not accurately gauge the emotions

one feels nor accounts for unconventional circumstances. A student may not have friends to sit with at lunch because his or her friends do not share the same lunch, yet he or she can still be socially adept. Conversely, a student may have friends to sit with at lunch but still feel depressed and lonely.

The sadness question, likewise, does not account for unfortunate circumstances, such as an unexpected death in the family or sudden financial instability when a parent loses his or her job. A student can have one terrible month filled with sadness and have an amazing next month, so that student’s answers on the survey will be completely different for those months.

Many of the questions in the Coalition Checklist lack in asking specific questions and over-generalize issues. The only way these questions can be acceptable is if the answer options change.

Currently, the check’s answer choices do not allow for student expression or get accurate results. Most of the questions in the checklist have the options: never, sometimes, often or always. These response choices do not allow students to explain their mental health accurately.

For example, one question asks, “I have a hard time asking for help.” Depending on what type of help the survey is referring to, the answer can easily sway from always to never. A student may have an easy time asking his or her English teacher for personal advice but may be too afraid to approach his or her math teacher for a simple homework question. The fact that students cannot give context to their answers makes their responses too subjective.

There are, however, other factors of the questionnaire that prove useful as CPS and Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition, the organization that created the survey, intended. If principals see a student with alarming answers, they will ask that student to go to the counseling office and have a follow up discussion in person with a counselor about his or her answers. This way, students who do need help and answer honestly in the survey will receive the support they need.

Additionally, an online survey is the easiest forum to quickly assess all students across the district and ensures every student has at least had the opportunity to ask for help.

Yet, both of these perks do not overcome their drawbacks; students cannot articulate their specific concerns or hardships if only given too generalized questions and poor answer choices to choose from.

Even if it’s not the best survey now, CPS and the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition should update the survey and continue its use, as mental health surveys in other schools have results promoting the benefit of the questionnaires. Burbank Unified School District in Burbank, California, distributes a similar mental health checklist. The Hanover Research company collected and published data from the 2017-2018 school year answers to the checklist.

According to the company’s report, twothirds of students said they were “unlikely to seek mental or social economic support from

school staff.” The results show a majority of adolescents may feel uncomfortable or not confident in seeking help from staff members.

Continuing the Coalition Checklist at CPS or elsewhere as an option for students to voice their struggles if they feel apprehensive of approaching school staff is imperative.

Though it’s impossible to stop students from lying or not taking mental wellness seriously, it would be in the best interest of teens to create a more comprehensive and explicit survey to better gather information on and assist student well-being. The Coalition Checklist as it is does not satisfy its purpose; the questions must be more direct and detailed and the answers must allow for more student expression. After making these changes, the checklist would better benefit students.

Until then, students should still take the checklist as seriously as possible, answering honestly on all questions. If a student does need help with his or her mental health, he or she should talk to an adult or friend.

How are you feeling today?

VALERIA VELASQUEZ / THE ROCK

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

6 | COMMENTARIES

‘No, where are you really from?’

Addressing never-ending questions as a first generation American

“

Thanksgivings and Christmases? They are pretty quiet at my house. No drunk uncles here are you from?” is a question I often hear. “I’m from or little cousins causing mayhem. If we time Columbia, Missouri.” This response is sometimes followed it just right, we might be able to catch my Sri by the question first generation Americans tire of hearing: Lankan family for a call, but with the 10 and “But, where are you really from?” “Still Columbia.” I was a half hour time difference even this is a chalborn on May, 29, 2002 at the University of Missouri Hospital. lenge.

But what people really want to know when they ask that question is my ethnic It is difficult being so separated from the peobackground. My parents are Sri Lankan, and they moved to the United States in ple you are supposed to be closest to. They know 1992. To answer the question of their status, which people often accusingly ask me, but I can’t remember the memories we made me about, no, they are not citizens, but yes, they are here legally. visiting Sri Lanka when I was two or when my I am proud to be a first generation American and of how grandma stayed with us hard my parents worked to get to the United States. But the in my kindergarten year. privilege of being American doesn’t come free.

My grandparents also aren’t as I learned to eliminate what made Much of life is spent somewhere in the middle between young as they used to be. euphoria and depression, perfection and failure, awe and me different as quickly as possible.

When I visit, I see them distraction. We shift amidst extremes in a constant search While I worked hard to fit in, there slipping away without fully for balance. were some things I simply couldn’t knowing who they were beMine is spent between cultures; not quite American, but change about myself.” fore. When I talk to my aunts definitely not Sri Lankan. I float somewhere in the middle. and uncles, it is restrained and English is my first language, but I understand and speak a polite, more like the small talk tad bit of Sinhala, one of the three official languages of Sri Lanka. I talk and act you would make with a parent’s co-worker rather like my white peers. But I wonder: is my behavior is just a result of mimicry? than the people they spent their whole childhoods There was a time at which I wasn’t so adept at camouflage, though. I first with. realized I was different in preschool. Up to that point, a Sri Lankan family friend Mine is not a story of despair, though. I love cared for me. At her house her three-year-old son and I spoke Sinhala and ate this country and I love being Sri Lankan. Even rice with our hands. It was only natural; however, on the first day of preschool, though I sometimes feel like a fraud, I still love I sensed danger. wearing my sari and talking about people in the At lunchtime, bowls came around, and everyone served themselves grocery store right in front of them to my mom strange-smelling mush. I sat quietly, unsure what to do and watched the girl who in Sinhala. sat across from me. As she brought her fork up to her mouth, I slowly copied her I love teaching people about the pearl of actions. When she caught me staring, she told me to chew with my mouth closed. the Indian Ocean, the thing they thought was That was enough lunch for me. a smudge of dirt on the map.

I learned to eliminate what made me different as quickly as possible. While I love having the guidance of the virtues I worked hard to fit in, there were some things I simply couldn’t change about my parents have gained through growmyself. My mom told me I had once asked her, “All my friends are yellow. Why ing up in a developing country, seeing aren’t I yellow?” the poorest of the poor and working From a young age, I could tell something was off. I was off. Since then, I have hard everyday to create a life of opbecome thoroughly Americanized. portunity and privilege for their chilThis assertion has been a point of contention between my family and I though, dren. as I have always thought of myself as American. How could my aunts, uncles I love having a worldview that is and grandparents say I was Sri Lankan when I go there for just a few weeks only more expansive than what my little every couple of years?

Midwestern town could ever provide.

No matter where I am in Sri Lanka I feel out of place in spite of my caramel Of course, these advantages skin, fluffy ebony curls, and dark chocolate eyes. I’m scared something will tip don’t come without a trade-off. them off that I’m an imposter, whether it be my clothes or my mannerisms.

Even so, I can’t imagine living Once I talk, it’s all over. I become a strange, exotic attraction, a tourist, a vis- anywhere other than the Unititor in a land I cannot call home. ed States; nor can I imagine Then there’s the fact that I live in a world away from most of my family. coming from anywhere but my

Amanda Kurukulasuriya

W

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GEORGE FREY AND ISABEL THOROUGHMAN

All black stories matter, not just ones in struggle Saly Seye

G

rowing up, I never consciously thought about the media I consumed. The last things on my mind were how one of my favorite characters looked like me, or how my boxed set of international dolls seemed to look almost exclusively European.

Instead, any impact of not being well-represented manifested itself unconsciously.

I hated myself for not looking like my white peers. I imagined a day where I would look more like the eurocentric standard of ‘beauty’ shoved down my throat: my hair would fall to my waist without a single kink or curl; my fair complexion would match that of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, and my eyes would match the sky rather than the ground.

A common misconception among well-meaning adults is children simply do not see race. Not only is that unequivocally false, but it also sets kids up for an identity crisis down the road. When we believe someone never thinks about something, we’re less likely to talk to them about said thing.

I thought about race in ways I couldn’t express as a child, those unexplainable thoughts deeply impacting the way I saw myself. I saw myself not as black but as different.

My heritage wasn’t Senegalese or West African, but inferior.

The first time I learned about others who looked the way I did was

in the context of slavery and civil rights. In elementary school, we learned how Europeans created lives for themselves and ‘discovered’ parts of the world.

Our knowledge of black history started with my race having our freedom taken away. They taught us about white people in a multitude of contexts: as settlers, as royalty, as victims as well as oppressors and just about every role they’ve played throughout history.

Yet, despite Africans literally being some of the first people on Earth, generally, white America sees us only in roles of submission.

The lens society views black people through translates from real life to the

big screen.

Though some believe television and movies influence society, I believe they simply reflect the way we, as people, behave toward one another. I saw this again and again during the summer.

Rather than putting myself through almost-unbreathable humidity by stepping outside, I spent most of my free time watching movies and TV shows if I wasn’t hanging out with my friends.

I watched the entirety of the MCU, cried all three times I watched 13 Going on 30, almost blew my hard-earned money on actual “Parks & Recreation” merch and scoured Netflix for good biopics. There isn’t much I can recall learning from an entire year of physics, but I can most definitely recite “Captain America: The First Avenger” from top to bottom.

One particularly uneventful day, I decided I’d force myself and my painfully low attention span to watch three movies back to back. As I searched through movie after movie, Googled top rated films and asked friends for recommendations, I noticed very few movies I saw had black protagonists. The ones that did almost always centered around race and racism. It highlighted a problem most people leave out in conversations about proper representation: Hollywood seems to have an obsesART BY ISABEL THOROUGHMAN/THE ROCK sion with black suffering.

Quick experiment: without Google, name five movies, released in the last 10 years, with black leading characters besides “The Help,” “Hidden Figures,” “Selma,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Django Unchained” or “Get Out.” I have zero problems with these movies on their own; however, I wish I could see more movies about black people in which their blackness is not the main focus.

I want to sit in a theater and watch a cliche rom-com starring a black woman. I want to go see more overthe-top comedic characters than just Tyler Perry’s Madea.

I want to see more funny black protagonists, more cute little black girls saying the darndest things, more black superheroes and more black scientists.

I want Hollywood to portray more sides to black people than in its current status quo.

The problem with the portrayal of black people existing in only one light bears a striking resemblance to that of our education of black history existing in only one context.

It makes me see myself as inherently political; the pigment of my skin and braided hair feels like a statement rather than the culture and features I was born into.

Of course, exceptions exist.

“Moonlight,” for example, is a gorgeous coming of age story about a little boy navigating life while dealing with a drug-addicted mom, struggling with his sexuality and facing bullying.

“Black Panther,” based off the Marvel Comics hero of the same name, follows the king of the fictional nation Wakanda and his battle to

stay on top when faced with trouble.

Clearly, it’s possible to create stories about black people besides ones where we battle only one type of adversity.

The solution to this problem isn’t, as some assert, to stop talking about race altogether. Hollywood should continue speaking on racism because, frankly, our media should reflect every problem in our society.

I believe that, through praise or criticism, we use movies and TV to highlight our strengths and weaknesses. I completely understand and support Hollywood taking on social issues.

What I find problematic, though, is most portrayals of black people depicting us as victims. These limited perspectives strip us of our humanity, of every part of us besides the ones out of our control. Black lives revolve around who we are: our hobbies and our passions, our vices and our virtues, our pain but also our joy, and not only the experiences we share with one another but the experiences that set us apart.

I urge my peers to support all movies made about black people: support the “Moonlight”s and “Girls’ Trip”s of our time. We cannot continue to allow studios to believe we only care about black people when they’re suffering.

I fell in love with movies like “The Edge of Seventeen” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” not because the main characters overcame social limitations, but because they had unique, funny stories about their own lives. I want to see the sides of black people that follow them as people, not just as victims of something or someone else.

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Undecided

COMMENTARIES | 7

does not mean I’m a failure

to a college and were only months away from going away and starting their lives. ll my life I’ve been asked about my future plans.

With the first application deadline of Nov. 1 approaching Things like what kind of job I want to do or how much faster than I would like, the pressure is on now more many kids I want to have always come up in con- than ever to appear that I have it all together. But what I’ve versation for as long as I can remember. started to learn through a lot of thought is this: it is absoluteI would answer with the same response every time: “I ly okay to not have it all together. want to be a doctor and I want seven kids.”

As someone who is newly 17, I have parents and a supI was so sure of myself. port system of adults who are here for guidance in making Of course, it’s easy to feel like you’ve got your life plan these important decisions. Now, I don’t need to be worrying set in stone when the adults around you about this alone. They didn’t ask their hide the harsh realities of what it actualquestions to upset me or discourage me ly looks like to pursue a dream. When I What we need to do is break from pursuing my passions. After all, was a kid, I thought in order to become a the cycle of demanding young they were just repeating what was asked doctor, you just went to college like evof them in their adolescence. adults to feel the pressure of eryone else and then you got to help peoWhat we need to do is break the cycle their parents and guardians to of demanding young adults to feel the ple and get paid to do it. Why wouldn’t everyone want to? know exactly what they want to pressure of their parents and guardians But as I got older, people started to to know exactly what they want at such a do at such a young age.” send my dream down the drain. Their young age. If people don’t know exactly questions began to feel like gut punches. what they want to do, let them go to a “Don’t you know how expensive it is to community college and use their A+ scholarships instead of go to school for that long?” Punch. “Do you know how hard paying $50,000 a year to be somewhere where they are conit is to get into medical school?” Punch. “You won’t be able fused and unhappy. If people aren’t sure of what they want to to be a good mother to your children.” Punch. That one hurt do or where they want to go, don’t ask them everytime you the worst. People began to doubt me, even those who loved see them until they make up their mind. me most, without realizing it. They didn’t know any better; Teenagers have enough on their plates with the pressure of this was normal. trying to make time for school, work, sports, clubs, activities, Every family gathering once I turned 16 was consumed volunteering and potentially taking on an internship. Then at with conversations about where I want to go to school, what I the end of the day, kids try to get at least the couple hours of want to major in, when I plan on graduating, if my Advanced sleep they can so they’ll be able to focus in their first hour Placement (AP) credits transfer, the list goes on. Just because AP class, all to impress college admissions counselors with I started driving alone doesn’t mean I immediately figured out their extensive list of extracurriculars and the rigor of their the rest of my life. How can anyone expect a 16-year-old to course schedule. have their future planned out?

What high schoolers don’t need is another adult demandCollege dominates the conversation of nearly every meal, ing we have the rest of our lives mapped out. One day, the every awkward grocery store side conversation, and decisions will be made and the time will come to my personal favorite, the pre-Prom dinner last announce our plans, but it’s perfectly fine if year when everyone else had committed that day isn’t today.

Maddie Murphy

A

[SO U

RC E: G

EO RG EM

ASO N

UNIV

ERS

I T Y, G

ALLU P

EL T ISAB

H

AN HM UG O OR

/

ER TH

K OC

POLL]

The old 28% up to 50% 50-70% change their seek advice are undecided majors college try about majors on their majors

Make peace with yourself Katie Whaley

S

L BE

A IS RO

O

TH

AN

HM

UG

omehow in the midst of being a nearly perfect daughter, adequately excelling in school and maintaining a super sophisticated meme group chat with my friends, I forgot to love myself.

Or, rather, I realized I had yet to ever truly love myself in my 17 years of living.

I came upon this realization this summer, when I had an abundance of time alone in my car, driving to and from places and singing along to some overhyped boyband’s album. I could think about anything and everything in peace. It was on one of those drives —on a rainy day, nonetheless-— when I thought about my existence and who I really was. I reflected upon my character, motivations and flaws, unpacking and appraising each trait to better gauge who I am.

In those minutes, as raindrops peppered my windshield and some cliche break-up song lulled through the speakers, I cried. I felt so intensely unhappy and dissatisfied with who I was. Every subsequent summer drive since that rainy day, I was bombarded with similar thoughts of self-directed animosity.

The thoughts of self-hatred had always been somewhere in my subconscious, snuggling up with my low self-esteem and courting my self-consciousness. I knew in sixth grade I despised myself for being so shy and introverted. Before then, in elementary school, I detested my body, opting to hide in large sweatshirts.

Just last year, I abhorred how unremarkable I was in comparison to my peers and how unlikely it was that I would obtain any sort of future brimming with suc/T

HE

RO

K C

cess. My self-hate sprouted from many sources: bullying, idolizing those whom I perceived as better than myself and a deficit of reliable friends, as most of my best friends moved away before middle school. It just wasn’t until this past summer when I realized just how resentful I was toward myself.

I knew some of my friends have struggled with similar issues of self-hate; they have confided in me about their depressive thoughts and deep insecurities.

I knew I wasn’t alone in this internal battle, however, I remained frightened because I did not know how to resolve this issue.

So how does one love oneself?

My first instinct to address this dilemma was futile.

I believed if I changed the things about myself I didn’t like, I would be able to unconditionally love myself.

After all, if I were my ideal version of me, I couldn’t be someone I hated.

When I mulled over this notion, I realized how much of myself needed to change. I didn’t like how introverted I was, or how easily I submitted to unhealthy temptations or how dishonest I was to others and myself. There were too many things I felt guilty about and regretted.

I discovered it was arduous to suddenly and dramatically alter my personality and thought processes that I have always acted upon and been identified with for years. It was possible but not probable nor healthy.

While trying to change myself, I lost the essence of who I was.

My internal strife persisted as school began. The first thing I learned this school year was not a lesson plan or a vocabulary term, but that it’s extremely stressful to motivate oneself and to endure challenges optimistically without a self-identity.

This wasn’t a matter of seeking advice either; I’m a very independent and self-reliant person, and there wasn’t anything to ask of anyone. I identified the problem, all I needed was to resolve it. Yet, I found out in just the second week of school how significant another person’s perspective could be.

The story isn’t super dramatic or overly heartwarming. My creative writing teacher was discussing personality traits and his struggles with self-love in his adolescence. I was in shock, listening carefully to how the confident man who stood before us once was just as afraid, self-conscious and depressed as I felt now.

He said something very short and it could have easily gone unnoticed by my classmates, yet to me, it was a powerful, compelling and exhilarating message.

He said, “Make peace with yourself.”

Overwhelming astoundment, awe and tranquility rushed through my body after he said those words.

It was so simple but so profound; I would never have thought of it.

Something clicked inside me as I wrote on a pink sticky note his four words.

Loving myself was not changing myself to a conceptual model but accepting me, flaws and all. Now, it’s strange to think I had never considered this as an option. This mental state that I was consumed by was the problem that needed fixing.

Since that day in creative writing, I’ve practiced making peace with all parts of me I had recently tried to forget or change. I’ve accepted I was once too shy to speak with anyone new, and I’ve accepted the evil inside me that always succumbs to unhealthy temptations like procrastination and indulgence.

There are some parts of me I have yet to face, but, one day, I hope I will make peace with those parts, too.

A teacher, a person I had known for two days, gave me some of the best life advice I could have ever received, and he probably didn’t even know my name yet. Just that concept alone shows how I should have confided in someone about my internal battle and my emotional conflict. His four words have helped me perceive myself in the brightest light I’ve ever seen me.

I hope my peers and friends can practice making peace with themselves as well and take initiative in seeking advice when necessary. So many of us struggle with self-worth and self-love, and I hope this can be a message to those who need a place to begin their path of acceptance.

Now is the time to make peace w i t h yourself.

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

8 | ADS

GRAPHICS.COM ®

CUSTOM SCREEN PRINTING CUSTOM EMBROIDERY GRAPHIC DESIGN SIGNS BANNERS DECALS PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS AND MORE!

YOUR DESIGN HERE

“Think It...Print It...Diggit

Check out our new ONLINE DESIGN STUDIO Easy to use! Instant Quotes!

100’s of Unique Premade Designs!

DESIGN ONLINE OR UPLOAD YOUR ARTWORK DIRECTLY TO OUR WEBSITE!!

www.diggitgraphics.com contact@diggitgraphics.com

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

IN-DEPTH | 9

THE WEIGHT Tested by time

W

Ann Fitzmaurice

ith just fewer than 15 million views, psychologist Angela Duckworth’s TED talk ‘Grit: The power of passion and perseverance,’ carved an idea into each viewer’s brain: hard work grants achievement more than luck, talent or good fortune.

The key, however, is not spurts of motivation from time to time.

Instead, Duckworth found accomplishments come from consistent hard work. In order to establish this rhythm, junior Caleb Dunafon started his path to virtue early.

Dunafon grew older and began to stand out from the rest of his peers. Unlike other children his age who imagined becoming doctors or scientists when they grew up, Dunafon aspired to one day own the Taco Bells his father once did. “[My vision of owning the Taco Bells] was off and on when I was younger,” Dunafon said. “I wanted to be a firefighter, astronaut, all of those, and I wanted to follow my dad’s footsteps, too. All the classic [jobs first,] then the Taco Bells.”

Dunafon could be the third generation Dunafon to own the Taco Bells in Columbia, as well as in North and South Dakota. Originally, Caleb Dunafon’s grandfather, David Dunafon, bought all the Taco Bells in the area when his son, Caleb Dunafon’s father, Cameron Dunafon, was 13 or 14 years old. From there, Cameron Dunafon worked in the stores and also went to business meetings with David Dunafon. Caleb Dunafon began to follow in his father’s footsteps when he was in eighth grade as he attended his first Taco Bell business meeting, though he visited other Taco Bell events before.

“When I was little, I would go to Taco Bell conventions with my family, and they’d put on a big concert and have Bruno Mars or Flo Rida or someone [to perform],” Caleb Dunafon said. “I’d go to Taco Bell conventions, look around, get a bunch of free stuff, I guess. So that was pretty fun.”

The summer before his freshman year, Caleb Dunafon began working at one of the Taco Bell stores in Columbia as a crew member. Caleb Dunafon worked the cash register, washed dishes and made sure the lobby and kitchen were clean. He knew his father would never simply hand down the business, and Caleb Dunafon realized he would have to work his way up to business owner if he wanted to take over some day.

Though Caleb Dunafon has a path already carved for his future career, other workers are not so lucky. While Caleb Dunafon will have to work for his position, Forbes.com found many people can hardly even get their foot in the door. Though the United States’ unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since 1960, there are still more than six million people unemployed and working to find a job.

One of the more common achievements many people work for besides a job, however, is acceptance into college. With 19.6 million students projected to attend college in 2018, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics, college is presumed to be the second biggest landmark after getting a license or graduating high school.

University of Missouri—Columbia Admissions officer Patrick Elmore believes college is a significant milestone because attending is often the first time students move away from their families.

“Being accepted to college [is] a wonderful goal. Attending college will continue to offer students opportunities that they might not have otherwise. It doesn’t matter if it is attending a trade school, community college or a four-year school,” Elmore said. “The reaction to being admitted to college varies greatly from student to student. For some, it is relief of finally accomplishing something that they have worked on for years. Others are thrilled to get into their dream school. It is always a positive impact to open an acceptance letter.”

Just as students have steadily worked to get accepted into college, senior Bradley Snyder has continuously worked toward a goal for over a decade, but more for personal enrichment than for academics.

Snyder’s participation in Boy Scouts of America (BSA), an organization he joined in the first grade, aids his future by supplying him with invaluable life experience.

“I became a Boy Scout because I love hiking, camping and being in nature. I also joined because my dad was a Boy Scout, and he eventually got his [Eagle Scout,]” Snyder said. “I have a lot of friends who’ve stuck with me through scouting as well, and they keep me coming back [to the meetings] every week.”

Earning the Eagle Scout recognition is the highest honor a member of BSA can receive. Scouts travel through seven ranks in order to earn their Eagle. If the member works fast, he can earn the achievement within 17 months as there is no minimum age for Eagle Scout recognition. Despite this, the ranking normally takes more than 10 years to achieve, stated by an article in scouting.org.

While some Boy Scouts start their journey early, others can earn honors much later in life, as Snyder’s father did. The timing in which one travels through the BSA ranking depends on the person and how hard they’re willing to work. Likewise, the admittance to university depends solely on the person applying. While some students know from an early age they are going to college, others don’t make the decision until much later, Elmore said. Either way, there are things that students can do to help prepare themselves.

“Other than those things it is important for students to know that even though college seems a long way off, the things they do in and out of the classroom will have an impact on what they want to do in the future,” Elmore said. “It doesn’t need to be an all-consuming thing in high school but it should be something that they consider.”

Whether a potential student just figured out where they want to go, has known for a long time or just decided when filling out college applications, what a student does throughout his or her life matters. By volunteering, studying or taking standardized tests multiple times, many students work consistently to get accepted into university, Elmore said. Likewise, throughout his life, Snyder kept Scouts a constant throughout everything else he’s had to work on.

“Everybody works for their Eagle, but during the lengthy process of making it through the ranks, I’ve been working on becoming a teacher for younger scouts, on teaching myself the skills to survive each unique camping experience and being open minded about every journey I embark on,” Snyder said.

“By working to be a better scout, you learn to make the most of every situation you come across.”

Snyder’s Boy Scout troop tests themselves through numerous mental and physical activities. Every year, Snyder said, the Troop 707 hikes into the wilderness on a cold night, rain or snow, finds a way to sleep comfortably, builds a fire and cooks their own meals despite the circumstances.

The taxing experience not only put scouting into a new perspective for Snyder but also made him work harder than he would on a regular basis.

During Snyder’s first Super Trip, a high adventure camping trip during the summer, he became truly ambitious about scouting and started thinking seriously about working for his Eagle Scout for the first time.

“It’s kind of the ultimate achievement in scouting. I’ve been involved for so long that it’d be a major let down if I didn’t get it,” Snyder said. “Also it looks incredible for future job applications, college applications and general merit as a human being.”

Just as Snyder recognized his goal to continue scouting and begin his journey into Boy Scouts at a young age, Caleb Dunafon also began his expedition in working towards a big-picture achievement by attending meetings with his father from a young age.

As Duckworth said in her TED talk, the achievement of goals is completed through endurance and grit, not just spurts of motivation.

As a runner completes a marathon, Duckworth explains, a person completes goals by keeping a steady pace for extended amounts of time. Because of his initiation into the Taco Bell business by attending business meetings at a young age, Caleb Dunafon got a head start to what might someday be his future and was able to keep the steady pace Duckworth advised. “[Owning the Taco Bells] is one of my top two [goals],” Dunafon said. “My other one would be going into the military for a little bit, then go do Taco Bells because my dad told me to go do something and earn something first before coming into a business that I was kind of born into to make me feel accomplished and like I did something.”

MOY ZHON

RO THE G/

CK

10 | IN-DEPTH

MO YZ

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

HO

NG

/T

HE R

OC K

a blissful bond

love present in friends, family

Though McNamee reek mythology paints romantic love as a vital and appealing emotion, while, at the believes strong in same time, presenting stories where romance causes hurtful, deadly and destructive relationships families are crucial, endings. The doomed lovers, Hero and Leander, fell tragic to this plot.

The two fall in love while on opposite sides of the Hellespont strait. One night, they are not as powerful for while swimming across the strait to meet Hero, Leander drowns. Upon hearing of her lover’s her as friendships.

“I’d say [love between friends death, Hero drowns herself in order to be with him. Though the tales of undying love are beautiis] different from love between famful and heart-wrenching, romance was not the only type of love the Greeks idealized.

Around 390 BC, the ancient Greeks developed the idea that love has more than one form. ily because there’s more of a one-sided care In fact, they divided love into eight types: eros, philia, storge, ludus, mania, pragma, philautia system in a family where your parents take care of you, and agape. Only four of these allude to feelings between romantic partners, while the other four but in a friendship you both take care of each other,” McNamee said. “In my experience, friend love is stronger probably because describe forms of love present in other areas of life.

Philia, for example, exists between friends. The ancient Greeks valued philia over the more I see them more than my family and I can be more open and exposed romantic types of love because they believed it was a love shared with equals, such as loyalty with them. . . and openness has a lot to do with the strength of the love.”

Conversely, RBHS receptionist Michele Parker sees storge as an indeamong friends and camaraderie in teammates.

While spending countless hours together in car rides and through show choir, juniors Greta structible type of love. The bond Parker has with her family, consisting of her McNamee and Keegan Adkins have developed philia. The two invite each other almost every- husband, son, daughter-in-law and three biological daughters, she said, is unwhere, from Adkins’ grandparents’ house to watch movies and eat dinner, to a trip to Chicago conditional and so much stronger than the love she shares with friends. She wishes, where they spent a few days with McNamee’s family. They also have a tradition of sleepovers at though, children would tell parents about their issues and keep their parents in touch each other’s houses before every show choir competition. With all the time they’ve shared, the with their lives so they could receive all the love and support their parents can give.

“I definitely feel love for my friends. To me love means putting someone else’s needs two have formed a bond that Adkins says rivals his strong relationship with his sister. and wants before my own. I truly try to put others and their needs before my own in both “We’ve got tons of mutual friends, especially through the [school] musical [Once Upon A my family and in friendships. [But] one of the differences in the love Mattress] two years ago along with musical theatre and show choir last for my family is the depth of the love,” Parker said. “A strong love year. We spend so much time together both voluntarily and involunwith family is important because that is what holds us together. tarily,” McNamee said. “We [joke] around [with] each other most So many things happen in life, both good and bad, and love will of the time and are really comfortable with bringing up honest I see a loving friendship as one with pull us through the tough times and it makes the good times so issues we might have. At this point, we really know a lot about pure comfort with each other, where much sweeter.” each other so it’s just keeping the other updated, telling jokes, Instead of one being more significant or stronger than the sharing memes, generally really fun and positive.” you are genuinely happy to see them other, Gerard James Ritzka, a sociology professor at St. Louis The two’s friendship has grown over the years, gaining more or be with them but you can also Community College, explains both philia and storge love are crutrust and love for each other with each passing day. For McNaspend days apart without worry.” cial for a person to have in terms of proper social development, mee, the philia she shares with Adkins and her other intimate or socialization. He says one experiences love from families and friends improves her life. The ability to be herself around many friends before, during and after romantic love occurs, and, therepeople gives her strength and reassurance.

- Greta McNamee, junior fore, such love plays a larger role in the social life of a person.

“I see a loving friendship as one with pure comfort with each “Family and peers are both agents of socialization. The family is other, where you are genuinely happy to see them or be with them usually the first source of socialization for most people. How parents but you can also spend days apart without worry,” McNamee said. “I define and treat a child is important for the development of the child’s think that trust in the other person is probably the most important thing, self worth. Expectations passed on by families is not uniform between and I definitely have that with my friends, especially the closest ones.” families and often times not uniform within families,” Ritzka said. “Peers In Adkins’ perspective, one of friendship’s most significant components are also agents of socialization, but the individuals act on equal terms with is communication. He said talking out conflicts is imperative and that if two people want to get closer, they need to talk to one another. Additionally, he believes one of the each other. Both of the above two agents of socialization help individuals to become socialized and experience their expectations for their future.” best ways to show love is simply by expressing it verbally.

Ritzka then said how one person’s perception of love differs from another’s based on what his “I definitely have very strong and [loving] relationships with my friends,” Adkins said. “I just tell them [that I love them] all the time. . . It doesn’t have to be all the time but whenever you feel or her past encounters with love looked like. For those who haven’t experienced philia or storge, like you love them just tell them. It really helps them know that you’re still good friends and it’s or for those who were involved in an unhealthy love, he said it could become tough for them to find a healthy love as they don’t know what a healthy type of love looks like. also very good for their mental health so that they don’t feel worthless.”

While Adkins and McNamee define love as more ambiguous and subjective ideas, such as The two see how philia plays a vital role in the everyday quality of life. Adkins believes his friends significantly boost his mental wellness and McNamee confides in her friends with con- trust, satisfaction and, according to Adkins, “whatever one wants it to be,” Parker looks to her faith and in the Bible to give meaning to love. She highlights 1 Corinthians 13, and its message cerns she doesn’t discuss with her family.

Though she may not be as open with her family, McNamee still experiences storge love, or about the qualities of love.

“Love is truly a selfless act… It is wanting the best for someone, even when that means a love occurring betweem a parent and child. The Greeks considered storge a more difficult type of love to maintain than philia; storge is an innate and almost forced love starting a child’s birth, sacrifice on your part,” Parker said. “It may look different in the way it is demonstrated because each individual is different and what is meaningful differs with each person.” while philia allows for friends to choose if they want to form a tight bond.

G

Katie Whaley

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

IN-DEPTH | 11

in the rough ell students overcome cultural barriers Bailey Stover

W

ith 2,021 students, 190 personnel and 423 rooms in one building, it is easy for a former janitorial-closet-turned-classroom to go unnoticed. Tucked in the walls between the studies wing and the main commons resides the English Language Learner (ELL) classroom.

Through its always-open door, passers by catch a glimpse of white walls with photographs of former students posed in front of a paper watering can cut out attached to the pink, green and yellow poster boasting ELL spelled out on the flowers. A timeless fixture in the ever evolving environment it reads, “Sprouting seeds of success.”

An American flag hangs next to the SmartBoard, the Pledge of Allegiance written in black on its faded white stripes. Students sit in a circle of desks facing the center of the classroom, while Lilia Ben Ayed, the ELL 2 and ELL 3 teacher, moves among them answering questions about everything from factoring equations to American College Test (ACT) preparation. Students focus on their studies as charts of past- and present-tense verb conjugations hang from cabinet doors, supporting them through their classes and conversations.

In the 2014-15 school year 4.1 percent of 12th graders in public schools were ELL students with lower grades and kindergarten students reaching as high as 16.7 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). During this same time, the most common home languages ELL students spoke included Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Vietnamese. Ben Ayed experiences teaching “newcomers” English firsthand. For many of these students, her class is their first formal exposure to the language.

In Ben Ayed’s ELL 2 class, there are seven students from six different countries: Rwanda, Iran, Iraq, México, Congo and Myanmar/Burma. With such a diverse array of languages, she depends heavily on Total Physical Response (TPR) to instruct her students. In the beginning of the year, Ben Ayed uses facial gestures, body movements and pointing to objects to interact with her class.

“Usually after [a] few weeks their English will improve,” Ben Ayed said. “And we’ll communicate using short sentences instead of just hand gestures.”

Some of her students who are in what Ben Ayed calls the “silent period” don’t speak at all, so she relies solely on physical communication. The “silent period” can last six weeks or longer depending on the student, according to Colorin Colorado, a site aimed at educating the parents and teachers of ELL students. Ben Ayed said “not wanting to be in the country or not wanting to learn the language” influences how long a student stays in this period. Some of her students, especially those who were displaced from their countries, resist assimilating to and adopting American culture.

Juniors Mina Yoon, a South Korea native, and Haiming Guo, from China, are both part of the ELL program. Since they are non-native English speakers, they understand the struggles of ELL students trying to acclimate to the constant exposure to English in both academic and social settings on a deeply personal level.

“The biggest problem that I’ve faced is like the slangs in English because they don’t teach us English slangs in China,” Guo said. “So my first day at Rock Bridge, let’s say, [a] ‘random dude’ came [up] to me and said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ And I got so confused, and I don’t understand it. So I look up and I said, ‘Nothing’s up there.’ It was so embarrassing. And then I thought that [it] might be a way of saying ‘how are you’ or ‘how are you doing,’ and I said, ‘I’m fine.’ It just was–it’s just hard for me.”

Without consistent, effective access to language instruction for English, ELL students are often unfamiliar with the variety of slangs used in everyday speech. Through exposure to social language by means of conversation with friends and peers, students acquire more extensive vocabularies. Becoming fluent in a foreign language takes years, and even then an a student’s vocabulary may not be complete.

Language is not the only area ELL students are unfamiliar with when they come to the United States, and navigating the tumultuous waters of high school presents a problem for even the most experienced of sailors. Guo’s experience at RBHS has been nothing like what he thought it would be after watching movies about American high schools during the 14 hour plane trip from China to the United States. Guo said he was terrified because he would see nerds being stuffed into lockers and trapped until someone came along to rescue them. Luckily for Guo, this has not been his experience so far.

Still, culture shocks, such as seeing five or six students smoking in the chemistry hall’s men’s bathroom, have become commonplace in his high school experience. Even after almost two years in this country, Guo tries to wrap his head around how students spend time socializing in class instead of doing their assigned work. Even more baffling to him are the ones who vandalize school property. “[Some male students] go to the bathroom with markers, and they write or draw some stupid propaganda like, ‘You will not take my

guns’ [or] ‘South will rise again,’” Guo said. “[It’s] just [so confusing] to me. Like, where do you find the time in the bathroom [to do this]? It’s just so funky.”

While Yoon did not grow up in America, she said this is her third time coming to Columbia, and her older brother was even born here.

The first time her family came to the United States was when her father was working to get his PhD. The second time they returned so Yoon could learn English and experience American culture. When Yoon was in first grade at Fairview Elementary School, she watched “High School Musical” for the first time and became obsessed.

“I thought high schools [were] going to be huge and people can do whatever they want, like freedom, stuff like that,” Yoon said. “But it wasn’t really like what I imagined, what I expected.”

Coming from China to America, Guo romanticized the country and its inhabitants, especially American politics and democracy. His experience with American movies, television and stand-up comedy only fueled his fantasy of the Western world.

“Before I came here, I thought ‘America is paradise,’” Guo said.

“There’s no racism, and people are just nice. They’re the greatest human beings in the world.”

Similar to Guo and countless others before him, Yoon and her family moved to the United States most recently in search of opportunity and a better life. Sadly, in Yoon’s case, Guo’s infatuation with America was short lived when she started school in America last year.

“It was my second day of school I think, [maybe my] first day. I don’t know. But I was walking in the hallway, and a guy came up to me and he said, like, ‘Hey, your accent sucks.’ It was in school, and I was like, ‘Okay…’ and I ignored him, and I walked away,” Yoon said.

“But I felt so, like, [hurt]. I knew that I had a thick accent, and I still have it. But people can understand what I’m talking about, like what I’m saying, so I didn’t care. But is it really that bad? I have no idea.

He just came up to me.”

Because of their limited English skills, Ben Ayed said many of her ELL students are “very self conscious, and most of them do not contribute to any class discussions” because of how they sound. For “newcomers,” she said it takes at least a year to adjust to a classroom setting depending on the student’s personality.

With the language barrier ELL students face, they often struggle to communicate as clearly and as articulate as they would like.

“Sometimes you just feel retarded,” Guo said. “You feel like the teachers in studies class, even ELL teachers, they treat you like [you’re] retarded.”

Guo is not alone in his frustration and embarrassment. Ben Ayed said ELL students sometimes shut down because of these emotions, or they are too afraid to ask a question and instead remain silent. One struggle she notices her students experience is catching transition cues and finishing classwork. Speaking the language and understanding cultural normalities go hand-in-hand to communicate effectively.

As Yoon learned through her time here, waving to a friend is a common gesture, though when she first saw it she thought it was rude.

Part of Ben Ayed’s job is to educate students on social and academic vocabulary to help them engage in the classroom and with their peers. She first became interested in teaching English to ELL students after seeing how translating word problems into Arabic and French, her first languages, as a math teacher improved their scores.

“Social language is language the students use with their friends [and] at home, and the academic language is the language they have to use in their writing,” Ben Ayed said. “We have to focus on that.”

Classrooms can only teach ELL students so much about the English language, so they need social interaction to reinforce their communication skills. In Yoon’s experience she is learning English slang and social vocabulary from speaking with her friends but struggles with the language used in her American history class. Unlike her classmates, Yoon lacks even basic knowledge of U.S. history, topics, words and events that may have been taught to students in elementary and middle school. Along with history, Yoon is taking anatomy and physiology, each of which have their own unique vocabularies.

“I know all those terms, like [the body] systems, in my first language, but I don’t know any of them in English,” Yoon said. “So I have to translate each vocabs, like every single vocabs. There’s like 50 vocabs in a unit, and I have to translate all of them. And it takes [a] long time and I have to memorize all of them.”

The ability to formulate ideas into words quickly and accurately inhibits fast paced communication among native English speakers and ELL students. Both Yoon and Guo said it is important for others to be patient and listen with the intent to understand when they speak in order to comprehend what non-native English speakers mean.

“We’re sometimes afraid of asking questions,” Yoon said. “So I think we have to have more courage to ask [about] what we don’t know.”

Around the first week of school, Ben Ayed said she records a conversation with her students. They are aware they are being recorded but don’t know what it is for. Then, at the end of the semester, she and the student conference, listening to the same recording.

“I get really amazed at the growth in their pronunciation, in their speaking. So many successful [stories]. So many kids came through this room and [started with] no language,” Ben Ayed said. “And then really after a year, or even it takes years to really grow and be and speak [and] read and write as proficient[ly] as a native speaker. It takes time.”

Even with all the growth ELL students go through while in the program, they sacrifice part of their personalities in the process of mastering a new language. Guo said he used to be a trash-talker back in China during middle school, but the language barrier doesn’t allow his true sense of humor to come through when he speaks. Like other ELL students across the country, Guo and Yoon are forced to use their second language so friends and teachers can understand them, watching stand-up comedy, TV shows, films and news programs to improve their social vocabularies.

“It’s like you lost your strength,” Guo said.

Guo and Yoon are not the first students to be overwhelmed by the discrimination and daunting language barriers present in American society, and they will certainly not be the last. Ben Ayed’s wall of former students features children who left their own countries as refugees and immigrants to come to the United States in hope of creating a better life. They struggled to read, write and speak, but they persisted and eventually acclimate to the culture, making friends and becoming independent young adults along the way.

“I just got an email from a student asking me to write him a letter of recommendation because he’s studying to be a teacher,” Ben Ayed said. “It’s awesome to see them successful. A lot of our students pursue a college degree. For some of them it takes longer than a regular student, but a lot of them want to be successful and it’s really awesome to see them successful.”

12 | IN-DEPTH

Finding

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

THE

Fire

Anna Xu

A

t his first competition, junior Henry Huang, at seven-years-old, approached the piano bench unblinking; he wiped his cold hands on his pants feeling the adrenaline course and his legs slightly wobble.

In a dash, Huang’s hands moved deftly to the instrument. After months of practice, the keys bounced naturally and precisely in an intense outpour of energy.

“All I’d be thinking about was, ‘Oh, let me get first place.’” Huang said.

Despite Huang playing longer and harder pieces than his peers, he did not place first, mainly because of his tendency to let his nerves dictate and rush his speed. At one competition, Huang ranked third, but that was no where close to satisfying the ego of a determined seven-year-old. After a string of disappointing results, Huang became consumed by rankings. He wanted to prove his ability to his mother and peers; he aimed for gold and gold alone.

At age 12, he struck his prize. Huang became a dominating pianist in Arkansas and won his first state champion title. From then on, judges presented trophy after trophy to his delight. The shelf became decorated in shiny gold, metal cups and plastic prizes.

By middle school, Huang, once a naive, excited boy, matured into an internationally placing pianist selected for exclusive opportunities such as YoungArts piano camp at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. But after the initial gratification, he realized sparkly trophies and recognitions were all he played for. Standing at the top, Huang was as confused as ever.

“I would be lying if I said [I always loved piano],” Huang said. “I sort of lost [the love for piano] because I only liked it because I was winning stuff. I didn’t like it because I loved playing piano.”

RBHS biology teacher Kerri Graham was at a crossroads leaving high school. Graham loved science but wasn’t sure what career path to pursue. Choosing one only reminded her of the benefits of others.

“I was really struggling between my idealistic side and my practical side,” Graham said. “I loved all things science and medicine, so I thought I was either going to be a doctor or a physical therapist.”

Graham eventually decided to become a physical therapist after her acceptance to Marquette University’s physical therapy program. But the science classes were easy, and another path began to emerge. Theater was Graham’s other love and by her sophomore year, although she was still in the physical therapy program, she became a theater major.

Approaching graduate school fast but with diverging passions, Graham remained uncertain and reluctant about her career trajectory of physical therapy. RBHS crisis counselor Leslie Thalhuber said when one is in a slump, it’s important to reframe his/her thought processes.

“The ways we think that are unhelpful to our life may lead to apathy, depression and anxiety,” Thalhuber said.

“We start by changing the thought, the automatic thought, and once we are able to start changing our thoughts, we change our feelings [and] behaviors. It’s all connected.”

But changing the automatic, habitual thought is hard and takes effort, Thalhuber said. Reflection is especially important when changing a mindset. For Huang, he finally remembered the awards and accolades were not the reason he initially wanted to play piano.

Huang didn’t begin piano a traditional way where parents urge their unwilling toddlers to go to a lesson. Like any typical seven-year-old, Huang surfed channels on the television. He was on the lookout for cartoons when he stumbled across a pianist playing what he called “a lit mixtape,” and the effortlessness of the musician drew him in.

The attraction was instantaneous.

“I told my mom I want to play the piano, and my mom was like,‘This kid is just joking around. I don’t believe him,’” Huang said. “And then the next day I was, like, crying and throwing a temper tantrum. I was like, ‘Mommy, I want to play piano!’”

Huang’s mother warned him learning an instrument would require a hefty input of time and was not a decision he should make on a whim. But even after his mother’s caution, Huang’s fire remained. And so his mother caved and bought him an electric piano.

Huang had a lot of catching up to do, but he was delighted to begin, so every day he practiced for more than an hour. While Huang admits to possess a natural affinity for piano, he believes it was his passion and persistence that elevated him above the competition.

Huang wanted to return to the days where he would play for his own enjoyment, not in stress caused by his upcoming competition. He talked to his mother and realized, contrary to his original belief, she only wanted him to try his best and love playing. At the words of his mother, Huang felt relieved and after middle school his mindset changed.

He focused on satisfying himself, not the judge, because piano, like all art forms, is subjective, Huang said.

“You can’t focus on the results too much,” Huang said.

“No matter how much you worry, the judge isn’t going to go, ‘Oh, my, gosh, [Huang] is so worried. He got a heart attack as soon as he got on stage. I think we should give him first.’”

Now in confidence, Huang approaches the bench with

determined eyes.

He wipes his hands on his pants, but there is no shaking. As he sits, there is a moment of pause to prepare the audience. Then with an unwavering hand and spirit, he pounces perfectly on the first key, captivating his audience. The reverberations settle and he continues unexpectedly in a natural, artful flow. He caresses the notes and sways with the music while the judge smiles.

Huang came to terms with his inability to control the outcomes after seeking help from his mother. Thalhuber said many times people should seek help from others when trying to change their mindset, and there should be no shame in asking for help.

“We need other people to help us,” Thalhuber said.

“If we had all the answers then we wouldn’t be in [a negative] situation.”

Fatefully, in the summer between her junior and senior year of college, Graham received an opportunity to be the resident choreographer for a high school theater workshop. During her time teaching at the camp, she felt even more unsure of continuing down her current career path. She phoned her parents, spoke with the dean of physical therapy and finally decided switching from physical therapy to teaching was the best course of action.

“My passion is people and helping people whatever way I can help them, so initially it wasn’t even that biology was my passion. Medicine was my passion because I wanted to help people, and I was good at science,” Graham said. “I like science, but the pursuit of science was never my passion; it was using it to help people. That was my passion. So teaching became another way I was able to share my passion of helping others but just in a different venue.”

Graham said she values the relationships she builds with students. In her experience, the most profound impact she can make on a student goes far beyond just teaching science. “[The] whole purpose [of being a teacher] is doing my part in helping my students be the best versions of themselves, so that’s number one,” Graham said. “Number two, [is] helping them be critical thinkers, collaborators, communicators and how [to] interact with the world. And the third is by golly there is some really cool science to learn.”

By refocusing, working smarter and just as hard, Graham grew to be more excited and passionate about teaching each year. Graham admitted teaching, like all professions, has moments of stress and difficulty, they are insignificant compared to the joy and fulfillment she finds.

But her self actualization comes from more than just her career, and Graham said to be a well-rounded happy person, vocation doesn’t have to be a person’s entire life.

“It doesn’t have to necessarily always be your one true passion in life that you hit,” Graham said. “I have a lot of passions, and I landed on a job that allows me to do a lot of that. But there would have been a lot of careers that would have allowed me to do that. If I had pursued medicine, I know I would have loved my life, also.”

MO Y ZH

ONG

/ TH E RO

CK

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Giddy-up, Partners!

It’s not too late to buy a senior salute for your graduate.

Forms available in room 329 and on the RBHS homepage.

ADS | 13

Honor your grad with an ad in the yearbook

14 | FEATURES

Eye to eye

“

Ben Kimchi

W

hatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” otherwise known as Murphy’s Law, is a common logical fallacy known as post-hoc. Posthoc is the idea that because X follows Y, X must be caused by Y. In reality, a moment going ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is often not a matter of causation but of perspective, and luck is ultimately just that: perception.

The mindset an individual has is the key to the distinction, former University of Missouri–Columbia Professor of Philosophy Chris Gadsden said.

“Your beliefs will certainly affect how you perceive events,” Gadsden said. “One example is called ‘confirmation bias,’ where you tend to look for and trust evidence that supports the view you hold. But we have all kinds of biases that affect our thinking.”

The right outlook on what is happening is vital for junior Corinne Farid on the tennis court. For her, she believes the point often does come down to luck. Farid uses confirmation bias to turn what may be just a lucky point into a motivational boost to give her the upper hand.

“During practices or for actual

tournaments, you get stuck in a rally where both players are just trying to hit the ball as hard as humanly possible, but the problem is that both players are hitting it right to each other. This is where the luck comes in,” Farid said. “The luck is definitely improved by skill, but it’s not as helpful to consider it luck instead of skill. It boosts your confidence if you force yourself to [believe] that it’s skill.”

Gadsden, like Farid, considers it helpful to choose a mentality that is beneficial to the individual and their personal life. A decision to consciously think about one’s attitude has the potential to allow people to control their own luck.

Sometimes, the choice of psyche can mean more than just the outcome of a match, but life and death itself, where the matter of luck becomes far less trivial and roots itself deep in a person's life and wellbeing.

“If you have cancer, you don't pretend you don't have cancer,” Gadsden said. “But you can tell yourself [you are going to beat it], and try to work yourself into believing that you're going to beat it.”

The argument for a positive or negative outlook, however, is not always as clear as people try to view it. Soph-

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

ISABEL THOR

omore Candace Osborn feels the benefits of pessimism outweigh those of optimism. In social situations, Osborn often feels unlucky, with her personal mindset presenting the solution for her and improving her social life and mental wellbeing.

“I see myself as a pessimist, which is difficult when people get mad at me for expecting the least amount possible of myself,” Osborn said. “But it’s also great since I never really anticipate good things to happen, so if they don’t it’s not a big deal. I don’t wake up with the idea of, ‘I woke up today so I am lucky’, instead, I don’t keep my hopes high, and it helps a lot with disappointment and success.”

While Osborn perceives herself as unlucky in most situations, she attributes this description of herself to her attitude. This role of attitude impacting luck and the nature of luck itself was the focus of a ten-year scientific study by Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. The article was pub-

lished in a journal article titled The Luck Factor. Wiseman writes ‘lucky’ people “create self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.”

Self-fulfilling prophecies like these describe how positive attitudes can translate into positive outcomes for people who make an effort to change the way they think about events regarding themselves. An optimistic philosophy can be observed in medicine to lead to improved medical conditions, Gadsden said.

“Cancer patients who are optimistic about recovery are more likely to recover than others. Having a positive attitude affects your body chemistry,” Gadsden said.

"A positive attitude probably has less impact on the world outside your body. Smiling can cause others to like you more and be more willing to treat you well, but that's not

OUGH MAN /

THE R

OCK

quite as significant.”

Similarly, the idea of luck is an abstraction people use to shape how they feel the world functions.

Both Farid and Osborn use luck differently to suit them, with their own purposes driving their outlooks.

“There is room for intentionally taking a more optimistic view without sacrificing rationality. Think of the glass half full/half empty [scenario],” Gadsden said.

“Rationally, either stance is fine. But one will have benefits. I prefer optimism. There are other health benefits, as well.”

SOPHIE EATON / THE ROCK

BOOK WORM: Librarian Jill Macy pushes a book cart down a quiet aisle of Daniel Boone Regional Library (DBRL). Very few students were present Wednesday night, Sept. 19, at DBRL.

Libraries strive to serve evolving community needs Ji-Sung Lee

T

he hum of the air conditioning. The bustling of paper. The turning wheels of a cart carrying yet-to-be shelved books.

These are the typical sights and sounds of a library, yet with constantly innovated technologies, re-thinking library spaces is certainly in the near future.

Kristy Toplikar, Daniel Boone Regional Library’s (DBRL) Youth Services Librarian, believes its mission effectively addresses the purpose a library serves. The library strives to be a central part of the community, connecting people to opportunities that bring them information.

“Our library serves many, many purposes from teaching early literacy skills to little ones to helping teens and adults find jobs and everything in between,” Toplikar said. “DBRL strives to be the glue that connects our patrons to the information they seek and the community they live in.”

DBRL achieves this goal by lending out much more than books. It offers audiobooks, playaways, magazines, DVDs and CDs. In 2017, Toplikar said there was an average weekly circulation of 28,211. This number only includes physical items; digital checkouts are listed separately, Toplikar said. In addition to materials, employees give their expertise.

“Want help finding out more about your family history? We have classes for that,” Toplikar said. “Need help learning how to sell items online? We have a class for that, too. We host trainings on a variety of different subjects,

according to our community’s needs.”

But in an age of advanced technology, the attention of customers is “constantly divvied among dozens of devices all bearing different distractions,” a Forbes article said. This new trend of digital devices can explain the start up of brands such as Serial Box, which mixes books and podcasts to bring readers a new, convenient form of storytelling. With such advances, Toplikar said the physical library may experience less foot traffic. Toplikar still recognizes there are individuals who come to the library for reasons other than checking out materials through the use of study rooms or labs.

“We also go out to many community events, schools, childcare centers and more,” Toplikar said. “If you can’t make it to the library, we will try our hardest to make it to you.”

Junior Faith Koo, who enjoys reading, often tries to make it to a library. She gravitates to books in replacement of other forms of entertainment such as social media. Koo notices the number of people attending libraries may have already decreased slightly, because people are just not as interested. Despite technology’s effect on active engagement, Koo observes there is still a fairly large amount of people at libraries. She believes if libraries are accessible, they’ll always be used to some extent.

“First, people don’t just go to the library for books,” Koo said. “Second, a lot of people I know that read hate e-books because of the strain at looking at a screen for a really long time. Also, a lot of the time, I think having a physical book feels [like] more of an accomplishment if you finish. Between electronics

and a physical book, there will be always people that want the latter even if there are people that stop going because of the new options.”

Like Koo mentioned, there are people that want the option of a physical book. Media center specialist Dennis Murphy said fiction is still thriving. He noted that he doesn’t really notice fewer students coming in to the library either although it may seem that way just because the library stopped checking out laptops.

“There are some people who truly like to read some things on an iPad or a computer, but most students, we are finding, still like to read a book, and so I do think they are going to come to a library,” Murphy said. “A library is also a place where you just feel good about finding something different; it is different than going out on the internet and trying to find a new book to read. It is just a different feel.”

Senior Laura Scoville agrees with Koo; as a student who frequents the University of Missouri–Columbia’s Ellis Library, libraries serve as more than a hub for accessing reading material. When it comes to how libraries have evolved over time, Scoville doesn’t necessarily blame technology for the decline in popularity.

“In fact, a lot of libraries provide computer and internet access and have modernized in order to accommodate the decline in checking out books,” Scoville said. “I think that many people just don’t have the time to make it out to the library.”

From her perspective behind the service desk, Toplikar believes libraries will both stay the same and change in the future. Core values, especially, tend to stay consistent.

“We want to serve our communities in the best possible way, providing resources and services to assist with lifelong learning and education,” Toplikar said. “However, I see a lot of changes ahead in the future of libraries. As the world changes, libraries change to keep up.”

These changes are often based off of recent interests. For instance, Toplikar said she has seen a lot of attention in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics).

“Before the end of the year, we will be rolling out STEAM kits for checkout, which will include tech that will help youth explore subjects like engineering, coding and robotics,” Toplikar said. “We’re always on the lookout for nontraditional items to check out to help our community grow and thrive.”

Librarians dedicate the vast majority of their time figuring out how to give library patrons the best possible experience, Toplikar said. Whether this means identifying the right book on the shelf or simply going to find a quiet space, it may be safe to say that despite the way technology is changing the future, libraries will stick around.

“Libraries should be valued because your library values you,” Toplikar said. “People come [to the library] when they find themselves suddenly homeless or in a hard situation, and we provide them with a safe space to be while giving them community contacts to help them. Or people come in simply because they are bored and want a suggestion from a librarian for their next great read. Whatever the reason, we’re here to help.”

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

www.southernrosemonograms.com

your

RBHS ID gets you

10% off!

Expires 10/31/18

503 E Nifong Blvd, Ste B right next to Hy-Vee

ADS | 15

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

16 | SPORTS

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CAMRYN DEVORE / THE ROCK

Egan: the face behind RBHS athletics Maddie Murphy

F

or RBHS Athletic Director David Egan, who is also an assistant principal, spontaneity and rolling with the punches are necessary skills to succeed in his job.

There is no typical to-do list for Egan, and on any given day he could be putting out hundreds of little problematic flames in order to prevent a big fire. It is rare to not see Egan in his office by 8 a.m. each school day; however, on the rare occasion he is running a little behind schedule, it’s because his son has to be dropped off at daycare, which just happens to be located 50 minutes round trip from RBHS. On any given day, Egan said he experiences things that are always “different and unpredictable.” While there are broader themes that tend to stay consistent throughout the day, every day is a surprise. In order to be successful in his role, Egan said communication is crucial and a definite constant. “[Communication] can be engaging in conflict resolution and trying to tackle a problem,” Egan said. “I wasn’t really planning on it, but I spent the first two hours of my day engaged in [an] issue and trying to communicate with the representative parties to figure out what we’re going to do.”

In the digital age, Egan does a lot of his work through his computer and cell phone. Since a lot of his work can be done through emails and phone calls, he has mastered the art of multi-

tasking.

“I get, and this is not an exaggeration, hundreds of emails a day, and so as I just look at my inbox right now, I’ve got an email from MSHSAA because they have chosen me to be the person who coordinates the selection of the sectional golf tournament and we haven’t been able to find any schools or courses willing to host, so I’ve got a dialogue there going on,” Egan said. “I’ve got an email from my secretary regarding the eligibility of a kid that we’re still working on. Our track coach sent me an email because we’re discussing how we could renovate the shot put area. I mean I’m just going down the list here. I’ve got an email from an official confirming tonight’s soccer game. These are just the ones I haven’t even opened yet.”

Before she became a principal, Dr. Jennifer Rukstad spent six years in Egan’s position as athletic director at RBHS. Understanding the complexity of the job, she has nothing but respect for him and did all she could to help him transition into his role.

“When I moved from athletic director to principal, my phone calls and emails went down dramatically,” Rukstad said. “So, having lived that, and having an understanding of the job, I think I was able to give him some kind of preparation for it, certainly in the early years, but even now, [I’m] trying to offer assistance when I [can].”

Email makes things convenient for being onthe-go, but also creates a feeling of never truly

being off duty. Part of Egan’s responsibility is to supervise events three to four days a week.

What some students may not know, though, is that he logs more than 12,000 miles each year in his own vehicle.

“Actually, a lot of people view [traveling] as one of the challenges of the job and that you’re on the road so much, but that’s actually one of the things I enjoy most about the job,” Egan said. “One, because that time in the car is a time that I can really collect my thoughts and engage in a lot of reflection, [and] two, because it’s safe not to have my device out while I’m driving so I try my best to put my cell phone away.”

Other than self-reflection, travel also provides Egan with the opportunity to enjoy some of his favorite parts of his job. Egan has a heart for kids and sports, making away games such a good incentive to push through more challenging situations.

“At home events, there are so many other things I’m responsible for that it makes watching the game itself less enjoyable because I don’t really get to sit there and enjoy it,” Egan said.

In the last six years, Egan has been impacting the lives of athletes and it does not go unnoticed. For 2017 RBHS graduate Luke Bley, Egan taught him how to be genuine and dedicated to service.

“He really cares about his kids,” Bley said.

“You go to any Rock Bridge athlete’s signing, [and] he’s there. Whether or not he has a rela-

tionship with that athlete, he’s there, and more often than not he has something to say. He’s there because he cares about his kids and he wants them to know how proud he is of them.”

Bley’s relationship with Egan goes deeper than athletics. Though Bley played varsity football as a student, their friendship began in elementary school. This closeness stayed throughout Bley’s time at RBHS when he served on the Bruin Cup student board, a group of individuals Egan heads for months to plan a night to celebrate athletic achievement.

“We spent a lot of time together and he was always someone I could go to, to just hang out or to have a real talk about how to make Rock Bridge a better place for all of us,” Bley said.

Before Egan took the position he has now, he was a social studies teacher here. While this opportunity felt like a dream for him and filled him with joy, it was “anything but easy.” Feeling called to service, he stepped into the teaching role with a servant mindset and though he now serves in a different way, he has a desire for those personal interactions where he feels he is making the biggest difference.

“I want to serve kids, and I want to give my heart to kids and all that kind of stuff,” Egan said. “So, to leave the classroom where the vast majority of my interactions in a day are with kids to this role where the vast majority of my interactions in a day are with adults has been, and still is, the most difficult part of the transition.”

Football prepares to snare Jays Isaac Parrish

I

SOPHIE EATON / THE ROCK

FAST PITCH: Sophomore pitcher and outfielder Ella Schouten pitches to Holt High School Sept. 22. The Bruins lost the home game (0-5). They will play again in the Hickman Tournament tomorrow and Saturday.

Softball to play in Hickman tournament

Emily Oba

T

omorrow and Saturday, the softball team will play in the Hickman Tournament. Starting its season with a [13-7] record, the athletes will continue to strive toward success.

Junior infielder and catcher Chloe Simon said the team will keep working hard on its skills as usual to prepare for the tournament.

“Teams compete and as they win and lose they go in the winners’ and losers’ bracket, each winner moving on competing against a different winner until only the top two are left for the championship game,” Simon said. “The winner of that is the winner of the whole tournament.”

The team’s attention will soon be focused on the tournament and its first opponent, Bowling Green,

head coach Janel Twehous said.

“We will look at their record, see if we have any similar opponents, see if we can get any info on the team and prepare from that,” Twehous said.

Junior outfielder Maddie Marrero is confident for the game because, besides the freshmen, it will not be the team’s first time at this particular competition.

“I think this tournament brings out a more competitive drive in us because most of the teams are ones close to home, like Hickman obviously,” Marrero said. “We want to win not only for ourselves but to show the teams we play that we are willing to put in the effort to win.”

When Twehous looks at her athletes she said she sees the team’s bond as a major strength, which can be used to its advantage during

games.

“Defensively, they are sound when they are communicating. Offensively, they have powerful bats but are working to become stronger in the short game,” Twehous said.

“When we face a stronger pitcher, it is important to challenge ourselves and the pitcher; put the ball in play and utilize our speed.”

With the team’s strong communication, Marrero said the amount of games and good competition has helped the Bruins in their ability to work well as a unit rather than just individually.

“I hope and I think this year will bring out the best in all of us at this tournament,” Marrero said. “I know that everyone has their own personal weaknesses, and our coach always says if we didn’t have stuff to work on it wouldn’t be fun.”

n the midst of a rollercoaster [3-2] record, the game tomorrow at Jefferson City (JCHS) may be the opportunity the Bruins need to pull together.

“We’ve done well; however, I don’t believe we have been as good as we wanted to be,” wide-receiver senior Wyatt Towe said. “We’ve won some big games and lost some big games.”

Center senior DJ Baker agrees with Towe and said there have been moments of greatness as well as moments where the team has questioned what it was even doing.

“As a team we need to improve on consistency and discipline,” Baker said. “We have gotten better with those two things, but we still need to have it at a higher level.”

To beat the Jays, senior left guard Mason Boussad said the Bruins should keep doing what they are best at: giving the playmakers their opportunities, thanks to the rest of the team’s support. “[There’s] a lot of just making sure me and [junior quarterback] Grant [Hajicek] are on the same page and that when he throws me the ball, he knows I’ll catch it and go make a play for

him,” Towe said. “None of that happens without the offensive line. They are what gives him the chance to throw the ball to me. As a team, we gotta play for each other and not for ourselves.”

The Bruins’ hard effort has been apparent in the eyes of Head Coach Van Vanatta. Although, he doesn’t deny that players have made mistakes attempting to follow the team’s routine.

“In the first four games we’ve shot ourselves in the foot,” Vanatta said. “[We’ve moved] the ball, driven the ball, completed some passes, set some touchdown passes and some big touchdown runs, but if you look at [the game against Lee’s Summit West] for example, I think we had three holding calls, killed tries [and] three turnovers, so you know, you don’t do those things, it could’ve been a different outcome.”

Boussad said none of the seniors have beaten JCHS in the capitol city for as long as they’ve attended RBHS. This serves as a motivator to do differently this time.

“We beat them last year while we were at home,” Boussad said. “But there’s a different feeling when you go somewhere and beat them [on their home field].”

MAYA BELL / THE ROCK

HOLD TIGHT: Junior linebacker David Gysber battles the Lee’s Summit West Titans to keep possession of the ball at the Sept. 14 RBHS home game.

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

SPORTS | 17

Boys’ swim, dive team shapes up for KC Classic Bailey Stover

T

CAMRYN DEVORE/ THE ROCK

POUND IT: Senior Wyatt Towe knuckles senior captain Nate Peat during the Providence Bowl Sept. 21. Under the control of Peat and junior captains Will Norris, Jalen Logan-Redding and senior captain Martez Manuel, the Bruins beat the Kewpies 31-0.

Camaraderie roots in captains Bailey Stover

E

ach year senior athletes graduate, leaving rising upperclassmen to fill the empty leadership positions.

Team captains feel a level of responsibility to their teammates to carry on the legacies.

After the 2017-2018 boys’ swim and dive team captain Liam Stanley graduated, senior Connor Jokerst stepped into the position. Jokerst admired and respected Stanley’s team spirit, his pride in the school and his desire for consistent progress as a team.

While Jokerst said the 2018-2019 season is his third competing at state and his second scoring points for the team, he remains humble about his role as team captain because of his personal connection with many of his teammates. As a leader in the program, Jokerst enjoys pushing himself and others to surpass their own expectations.

“I want to see how far I can get, how much faster I can get, see where we can place as a team even though we’ve lost a good margin of fast swimmers,” Jokerst said. “I just want to see if we can still be a driving force that shouldn’t be underrated.”

Like Stanley before him, Jokerst said he has the mindset that he needs to push them to improve, so they will have a chance of earning another state title.

Football, much like boys’ swim and dive, relies on senior leaders to step up each year and push the team at practices and during games. While senior Mason Boussad said he is not the most vocal athlete on the field, he works to be a silent leader people can respect and follow.

“I think a leader is a person that isn’t necessarily the loudest guy out there,” Boussad said. “But he’s someone that people can look up to to know that he’s going to do the right thing.”

Each year the football team’s goal is to win the state championship, Boussad said, so it is the responsibility of the various leaders and coaches to unify players as a family to build a cohesive team and program.

“Everyone else is getting better, and every day that we come to practice, and we come to running [practice], and we don’t get better we’re not getting worse, but everyone else is getting better,” Boussad said. “So it’s kind of like we’re sinking back in a race basically. And so I feel like we use that energy and that mentality to keep pushing ourselves

whenever we’re faced with adversity.” attitude and you’re not coachable then After breaking his foot in the team’s first you’re going to struggle to go on and play game of the season against Rockhurst, se- [after high school].” nior football player Kyjuan Collins could Although there is little ceremony surmiss anywhere from six weeks of play up rounding becoming a team captain, Jokerst to the entire season. Since Collins’ position said he did receive the “Legacy Parka,” is a pivotal role in the defense, Boussad said an old parka passed down from one seaseniors have to encourage and believe in son to the next and worn at meets. While younger players to step up and play posi- he takes his role seriously and expects his tions reserved for more experienced team teammates to work hard, he still makes members. Similarly, during his own sopho- sure there is time to blow off steam during more year, Boussad said another player got practices. hurt, requiring Boussad to start for the Bru“We goof around a lot. We pride ourins, an easy transition because of the sup- selves on having fun at practice and making port he received from senior players. sure that we get better but also have a lot of “A lot of people believed in me, and it fun while doing it,” Jokerst said. “Myself really enabled me to play to the best of my as a leader, and others, know where that ability that line is between season,” when it’s time Boussad to go for pracsaid.

“It You could be the best athlete out there. If you tice and get the was really don’t have a good attitude, and you’re not coach- work done and just a posalso when it’s itive envi- able, then you’re going to struggle to go on and time to goof off r o n m e n t play [after high school].” and have fun.” for me, It’s the re- Janel Twehous, s p o n s i b i l i t y and I feel like that’s head softball coach of upperclass what we leaders to walk need to try the line beto replicate with the younger guys now.” tween work and play while setting examAs a positive coaching school, RBHS ples for their underclass teammates who players and coaches promote hard work will take over as leaders in their respective and demand effort without breaking athletes programs. While the freshman and JV footdown to achieve their goals. Before becom- ball game against Rockhurst Monday, Aug. ing RBHS’ head softball coach nine years 27 was going on, senior players, as well as ago, Janel Twehous worked as an assistant a few juniors, were left to do conditioning coach at HHS for 11 years. after watching game tapes at practice.

Around the start of her career, Twehous “Of course we were messing around said the work ethic of her players resembled for a little bit,” Boussad said. “But I feel a “hardnose, get down, get dirty, take that like [senior team captains] Nate [Peat] and chewing and move forward” attitude. Now, Martez [Manuel] really got us back in line however, she said her aspiration is to focus to get done [with] what we had to do.” more this season on “getting to know every For Twehous, the legacy of her prosingle athlete on an individual basis.” Twe- gram is to be both a winning program and hous wants to push her athletes in a positive a family that can come together to work way so they are able to achieve their goals. and support each other as a team. Having “You don’t tear an athlete down anymore a leader who can balance hard work with at all. You can’t,” Twehous said. “That’s just team building is vital for the success of any not something you do.” team.

Twehous said teams need to have a play“Every single team has to have an ather who can “step up and be a leader, who lete that is a leader on the team for them to can get mad and hold her ground,” to be be a great team. If you don’t have an athsuccessful. lete or athletes that step up and play that “I don’t care what type of athlete [you role, there’s no room for greatness for your are],” Twehous said. “You could be the best team,” Twehous said. “A coach can only do athlete out there. If you don’t have a good so much.”

Soccer looks to improve against MHS Saly Seye

W

ith a 7-4-0 record, boys’ soccer will travel to take on Marquette High School tonight.

Head coach Scott Wittenborn hopes to use tonight as well as the rest of the season to show what the Bruins are made of.

“We’ve won several games

fairly convincingly, but are still looking for a signature win against a top opponent in the state,” Wittenborn said. Last season, the team made districts but lost 3-1 to Smith-Cotton.

“We are learning with every game and becoming a more complete team,” Wittenborn said.

In preparation for each game,

ALLIE PIGG / THE ROCK

GET AWAY: Senior Freddy Nene takes the ball down the field against HHS Sept. 18. The Bruins fell to the Kewpies 1-0.

the athletes practice everything from strategy to mindful thinking. Senior goalie Carson Linder said the team even reads about staying driven.

“We have been focused on the process this year,” Linder said. “Our coach has had us read a motivational book that talks about enjoying the process, and we focus on one game at a time.”

Additionally, senior forward Nate Durdle said the team focuses on spots which need improvement.

“We prepare for games by running over sequences that are game-like,” Durdle said. “And getting into a mindset of what each individual is going to do to help the team in the game.”

Keeping up a high morale is important, Durdle said.

The team also keeps the bigger picture in mind with every game.

“As an end goal, we want to become a team with urgency,” Durdle said. “But [also] calm

and not forcing anything right away. [We want to] start to capitalize more and more on goal scoring opportunities.”

Unlike other divided teams, junior midfielder Preston Fancher said the players have bonded well and as a result, play well with each other.

“Lots of boys on the team have played together all throughout middle school,” Fancher said. “So we get along together well and [it] makes playing on the team easier.”

The team plans on using a variety of methods, like keeping control of the ball and taking advantage of their forwards, to improve its record.

The players already have a full grasp and intend to keep working on these strategies. “[We plan on] using our ability to pass the ball around to keep possession throughout the game,” Fancher said. “And then [we plan to] capitalize on the opportunities we have on goal with our speed up top.”

he KC Classic tomorrow and Saturday, Sept. 28 and 29, will be the boys’ swim and dive team’s first competition to have preliminary and final competitions on separate days this season. The KC Classic will be an important meet, acting as preparation for future two-day competitions such as the COMO Invitational Oct. 6 and state Nov. 8 and 9.

While the team lost several high scoring seniors last year, Head Coach Taylor Birsa said the Bruins’ spirit is still high. Older team members have stepped up to work with younger swimmers, doing “big bear little bear” activities to break down the specifics of swimming and competition such as turns, stroke mechanics, starts and general strategy. She said her program and players create a familial atmosphere through their positivity, hard work and dedication, qualities that will carry through practices and into competition.

“The boys have been putting in work in the pool and challenging themselves and pushing each other to get the most out of the workout,” Birsa said. “We started the season with simple sets and a lot of team bonding activities such as water polo or ultimate frisbee. It allowed the boys to get to know each other and it has been fantastic to see a lot of returning boys who were shy last year along with the new boys to really come out of their shells and have fun.”

Practices, however, are not all fun and games. Athletes will not start tapering, a process of reducing the amount of work they do at practice in order to retain more energy during competition, until meets such as the COMO Invitational. Junior Jack Koller said team members have devoted workouts and practices to reducing their competition times so they can score more points during their upcoming meets.

“Every Monday and Friday we go and lift in the weight room at Hickman, so [that has] prepared us a lot, [and] gotten us a lot stronger,” Koller said. “And then we’ve also been doing some sprints at practice and a lot of racing to help us prepare.”

After the loss of three influential senior athletes who graduated this past season, younger members must rise up to fill these empty spaces for the team to have a chance at qualifying for state.

“It’s kind of hard to tell right now what the team is going to be because it’s still the beginning of the season and we’re all sort of getting back into it,” sophomore swimmer Turner DeArmond said. “We’re sort of entering the phase where it’s becoming clear, but just right now we don’t really know exactly what the team is going to be.”

This year’s swimmers must work on their speed and endurance in order to hold their own against their larger competition this season, Birsa said. She wants to create a fun atmosphere during practice while still having the swimmers think about their stroke and race strategy during every part of the set. To prepare her athletes for individual and team events and teach them how to swim fast even when they are tired, Birsa said she has increased the intensity of weight room workouts and in pool practice over the past few weeks. “[The KC Classic is a] very similar set up to the state meet, which is a great experience for the boys,” Birsa said. “They are able to see how their body handles all of that racing over two days.”

The team has already competed in four smaller meets this season, but the KC Classic will be its first competition against larger, faster teams. Each swimmer has his own areas of strength and weakness, and it is Birsa’s job to recognize and improve them to ensure individual and team success.

“Coach Taylor is trying to get me to push faster in the second half of all of my races and it’s starting to shave some time off of my PR [personal record], which is really helpful,” Koller said. “But as a team, she’ll just give some good little pieces of advice that really helps all of us.”

Although the KC Classic allows the athletes to experience what a two-day competition is like, Birsa said the team’s main focus right now is on the COMO Invitational and then state. At the meet Sept. 28 and 29, Birsa hopes many of her athletes will get “second swims” at the finals on Saturday. She wants her athletes to “put it all out there and see what happens” even when they are tired, but at the same time to enjoy the experience and have fun.

“I’m expecting a lot of success from us since we’ve put a lot of work in and so far we’ve seen some hope that we’ll do real well,” Koller said. “And I just hope that all the hard work we put in will pay off.”

MAYA BELL / THE ROCK

BREATHE IN AND OUT: Freshman swimmer Nick Clervi propels through the water during practice Sept. 18. The Bruins will compete in the KC Classic tomorrow and Saturday.

18 | ADS

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Asian media portrayal Ann Fitzmaurice

I

n 2017, controversy broke out when directors cast Scarlett Johansson, a white actress, as Motoko Kusanagi, a character in the popular Japanese Manga series “Ghost in the Shell.”

This was not the first instance of whitewashing characters, and it wasn’t just the United States that was doing it.

In 2012, television gained its first ever series starring a South-Asian as its lead. Fox launched “The Mindy Project” starring Mindy Kaling.

While Kaling was born in the United States, her parents are from India, and Kaling’s representation sparked a conversation about the racial representation in American shows and movies.

Decades earlier, in the ‘90s, ABC aired “All-American Girl,” a sitcom with Margaret Cho playing the lead. Even with other shows casting Asian characters such as “Star Trek” and “Mr. T and Tina,” the United States was still not ready to represent foreign cultures based on the public reaction.

“All-American Girl” met its end a year after airing with only one season. Later Cho reflected back on her pain as she filmed the show.

Cho was ‘too Asian’ and ‘not Asian enough’ at the same time.

In 1951, American television sported its first show with an Asian lead starring Anna May Wong. Wong was an activist against the whitewashing of television and the racial stereotypes that plague American media. She took the lead in “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong,” a series following the life of Wong in a role as a detective written specifically for her. “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong” aired on DuMont Network for 10 episodes before it was abruptly canceled.

Halfway across the world, senior Anusha Mishra noticed the disregard of the color and culture of people in her own country.

“In Nepal, American people were regarded as prettier, so that was the beauty standard. I just saw that more around me [when I came to the U.S.]. It’s America, so there’s more white people,” Mishra said. “[In Nepal lots of white people were] on TV and in ads, and they usually photoshopped your skin to look whiter, and skin bleaching products were pretty much everywhere, and they wouldn’t even tell you sometimes.”

The growing market of skin bleaching products in India earns the industry more than $400 million annually according to an article by The Huffington Post. Despite the obvious favoritism for light colored skin in her home country, Mishra gained influence from television shows in which a girl that looked more like her was fawned over by men. Bollywood showed Mishra that Asians are beautiful as well, she said.

Even with this step

forward, the actors and actresses were still much whiter than the average Indian citizen, and these eurocentric values guided viewers to see which Asians were considered pretty. In 2006, however, Mishra moved from the whitewashing of television in her own country to the reality of the white United States, with 77 percent of the total population being Caucasian, reported the United States Census.

“When I was [in Nepal], I’m actually like a pretty light-skinned Nepali person,

MOY ZHONG / THE ROCK

so people used to compliment me a lot on that. That was something I actually took a lot of pride in,” Mishra said. “[When I came to the United States] I was obviously a lot darker than everyone else. All the pretty girls were the ones with blonde hair and light skin. And I wasn’t that, so I tried to hide the fact that I was Asian.”

For years, Mishra pushed against her own culture. She wouldn’t talk about her home country and didn’t correct people when they assumed she was native Indian.

Media, journalism and film professor Dr. Timothy White at Missouri State University recognized Mishra’s feelings of exclusion based on the cultural norm. When people don’t ‘fit in’ with everyone else, he said, they feel a strong need to minimize those differences.

“Outside of the U.S., in many of the nations that are former colonies of Western powers, there has been a feeling among some that the dominant culture is ‘better’,” Dr. White said. “The fact that teachers in these nations have often been trained in schools run by, or at least influenced by, the colonizers has tended to perpetuate this belief; however, ethnic pride has been growing both here and abroad, and these cultures are beginning to value their own traditions and cultures.”

Before Mishra came to take pride in her own culture, she believed people thinking she was Indian was better than letting them know where she was actually from. Likewise, junior Sarvika Mahto felt shocked when she arrived at

A&E | 19

Representation affects self-image

preschool and realized just how different she was from her peers.

Mahto immigrated to the United States from Nepal when she was just nine months old, and she grew up in a classic Nepali, Indian household.

Mahto’s parents prohibited her from having sleepovers and didn’t watch the same things other kids did, stringing her as an outcast.

“As a child, even bringing lunch from my own culture kind of like, terrified me because I was so afraid of people judging me because I didn’t have like, Mac and Cheese or PB&J,” Mahto said. “I had different food, and I was embarrassed by it. A lot of it at first was quite embarrassing like I didn’t want people to think I was different, then as I grew older I realized there’s nothing really wrong with me being from somewhere else and experiencing different things.”

Growing up, however, Mahto realized there was something different about her. Instead of watching classic children’s TV shows like Caillou, Mahto watched PBS and other educational channels, as well as Nepali movies and songs.

“As I grew older, I did realize that as I started watching shows, something about them was different and I was too little to really hold a grasp on that,” Mahto said. “I think as I grew up I realized it was just because they had a different background and their parents were raised a different way than my parents were raised so [we had] different ideals.”

While Mahto was more sheltered from the mainstream press, the whitewashing of television was prominent in media. Dr. White cites the cause as the audience, who was primarily white, wanting to see wellknown actors and actresses who more often than not turn out to be

white. In more recent years, Dr. White said, the commentary on movies such as “Crazy Rich Asians” indicates the film was very empowering for its own audience.

“I’m sure it is the same for African-Americans, women, LGBTQ and other groups who have traditionally either not been represented at all, or represented as marginal characters, and often the source of ridicule [or comic relief] when they see positive representations of themselves in the media,” Dr. White said.

“It is not the same, however, for Asians who actually live in Asia, as they don’t really see themselves as being that similar to these characters in Hollywood films, and are already accustomed to seeing Asians in their own films. For example, my Singaporean friends and relatives just wish they lived like the characters of Crazy Rich Asians.”

As both Mishra and Mahto grew older and became more comfortable with who they are and who represents them in the media, they began to share their cultures more.

Mishra made several friends who were also from Nepal and by the seventh grade began sharing more and more about her home country.

Just as Mishra grew more comfortable with mentioning Nepal over time, American media also settled in to representing people of Asian descent though TV shows. ABC’s series “Fresh off the Boat” in 2015 starring Constance Wu, Randall Park and Eddie Huang introduced Americans to the lives of an immigrant family starting a business in Orlando and Master of None with Aziz Ansari as lead actor.

“I think [showing more cultures] is a really big step. I know for me and my friends, the other Nepali people that I know, we’re not East Asian but we were still really excited to see the movies and stuff because it’s still a really big step for representation,” Mishra said. “Even when there’s more African Americans on screen I get really excited because that’s a really big step, even though I’m not African American.”

The release of “Crazy Rich Asians” with an all-Asian cast and “To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before” with an Asian lead sparked gratitude with praises of finally bringing more Asian representation to the big screen. Though Mishra is not East Asian, she still gets excited because of the similarities between East and South Asian culture.

“It might seem unimportant for an Asian character to be in a movie since they’re not even real, but movies and other forms of entertainment have a huge impact on our lives,” Mishra said. “We look for ourselves in our friends and our family which is exactly what we do in movies. Without representation, you just feel like you’re being ignored. Representation has been getting better for Asians over the years but there is still a long way to go.”

STEP TO THE BEAT:

The Emerald Regiment marching band files into the stadium before the home football game against Lee’s Summit West Sept. 14. During halftime, the band performed two movements of the 2018-2019 show, “When the Clock Strikes Twelve.” The repertoire included Camille SaintSaëns’ classically haunting Danse Macabre.

MAYA BELL / THE ROCK

THE ROCK | WWW.BEARINGNEWS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

20 | A&E

Roots N Blues N BBQ

3 days of festival, art and food captured in 11 frames

Ann Fitzmaurice, story / Valeria Velasquez, art

first starting back in 2007, roots n blues now has more than 30 featured artists that take stage. performers play a wide range of genres including roots, blues, gospel, country folk, bluegrass, rock and soul.

friday 4-10, saturday noon-10 and sunday noon-8 Attendees can enjoy music, BBQ meals from local and regional cooks, and a 10K on Saturday. guests can also attend a gospel celebration on sunday.

"Roots n Blues has a great atmosphere and great music. plus, I'm going to support my brother, who is performing there since he won the COMO battle of the bands."

- Audrey Snyder, junior

"I'm attending mainly to see the Avett Brothers.

They've been one of my favorite bands since I was really young, and I've only seen them live once, also at Roots n Blues a few years ago."

- Brenna Cornelison, Senior

"I love the fact that Roots n Blues involves so much of the community with music as a whole as well as blues and rock music specifically."

- Seth Hodder, senior

"The festival was started by central bank of boone county to celebrate their 150 birthday in Boone County. It was their gift to the entire area. I was brought in to take care of production which includes hiring bands sound company. We like to think we attract music lovers of all ages, colors, religions.

Unique to actually the state for sure. It is all about the music. We don't want to be like everyone else. I thought the music was perfect for Columbia there was lots of support."

-Richard king, co-founder of Roots n blues

Trombone Shorty

The Avett Brothers

Seth

Lake Street Dive

Scott

two brothers, Seth and Scott Avett, founded the group that includes Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon. Their music genres include Folk, Folk Rock, Bluegrass and Americana.

Troy Andrews is known for his talents on the trombone. He is an American musician, actor and producer from New Orleans.

Genres include Southern rock, indie pop, blueeyed soul and folk rock. They performed at Roots n Blues for the first time in 2014.

the festival has a jam-packed schedule to fill Sept. 28-30. the event will be at Stephens' Lake Park in Columbia. American Blues Scene Magazine called it One of the most prominent festivals in the country. The festival is a fun, true and unique celebration of music, food and culture, according to the Roots N Blues Website.