The Black & White Vol. 54 Issue 3

volume 54, Issue 3 february 10, 2016

Walt whitman High school

7100 whittier boulevard

Bethesda, maryland 20817

theblackandwhite.net

Year-long search for superintendent finally ends by rachel friedman and norell sherman

The Board of Education announced Feb. 4 that current interim state superintendent Dr. Jack Smith will begin serving as the new MCPS superintendent in July, ending the year-long search for a permanent superintendent.

The BOE, along with press, students, teachers and parents, gathered at the Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville last Thursday, where Smith spoke about his future as superintendent.

Smith emphasized he must first create logical and lasting solutions for pressing challenges in hopes of promoting countywide growth.

“I think there are few superintendents who don’t want to see students do better and have better opportunities,” Smith said. “But I think lots of times it’s in the approach that you take where you get the growth or not. And so my approach is very common sense. It’s very much based on hard work, and working together, and thinking through problems, and then implementing solutions that really can be successful.”

With considerable experience in both administrative and teaching positions, Smith brings a wide range of skills to the job. After beginning his career as a teacher in Washington state, he went on to work as a middle school principal and teacher in Japan and Thailand.

Smith served as Calvert County’s superintendent for seven years and was

named Superintendent of the Year in 2013.

In August of the same year, he began working for the the Maryland State Department of Education as Chief Academic Officer, before becoming Deputy Superintendent.

Smith rose to interim superintendent upon former superintendent Lillian Lowrey’s resignation in the summer of 2015.

Smith also has extensive experience in K-12 education and other classroom positions, Board president Michael Durso said in a letter announcing the appointment.

Among Smith’s top priorities are fostering motivation in the classroom, increasing teacher sensitivity and individualizing education to specific student needs.

“That means that no person in this system should ever say, ‘Well she’s in 7th grade, she should know how to add fractions, or he’s in fourth grade, and he should know how to read,’” Smith said. “Those are not uncommon statements in schools and those are unacceptable. If that fourth grader doesn’t know how to read, it is Montgomery County’s job to teach that fourth grader how to read.”

Smith’s focus on student needs extends beyond classroom sensitivity and into his willingness to talk with students directly.

“Dr. Smith is a renowned educational leader throughout the state of Maryland who knows a lot about education and is very committed to engaging our student body with discussions about the issues that are facing students today,” SMOB Eric Guerci said. “Often, before I would even ask him about engaging students, he was talking about the importance of the

Newly-appointed superintendent Jack Smith speaks at the Board of Education meeting Feb. 4. Starting in July, Smith will become the new MCPS superintendent. Photo by Julia Gilman

student voice and engaging students.”

Principal Alan Goodwin sees potential in Smith’s diverse educational background “What high school principals are always interested in is that they’ve had principal experience and teaching experience because that’s really what we’re

all about,” Goodwin said. “It’s refreshing to hear that our new superintendent has teaching, local school administration and central administration office background.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Snowzilla wallops region, cancels school for five days

by Rachel Friedman

When second quarter’s weather produced more sunny days than snowy ones, little optimism remained for extreme winter weather—until semester break, when the region’s second heaviest ever reported snowfall pummeled Montgomery County with over two feet of snow.

“Snowzilla” arrived Friday, Jan. 22, resulting in almost 30 inches of snow, five snow days and countless messy roads, leaving many students

trapped in their houses and extending semester break.

While five consecutive snow days would usually impact classroom instruction, disruption was relatively minimal since the snow came between semesters.

“The timing is really good since we hadn’t started teaching content yet,” science teacher Janice Barouth said.

However, some courses will have to move faster to fit in the required material.

“The AP exam is the first week in May, no matter what,” APES teacher Kelly Garton said. “We’re just going to have to speed up our pace.”

The storm completely altered the makeup exam schedule and didn’t exempt students from making up any missed exams. Most makeups took place the Tuesday after students returned, principal Alan Goodwin said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Counter-clockwise from top left: In a mix of snow and fog, the Whitman rock stands guard at Jerome Marco stadium. Photo by Ireland Lesley; With the job almost done, sophomore Tiger Bjornlund takes a short break from shoveling snow in his driveway. Photo by Elsa Bjornlund; Seniors Ian Atkinson and Colin Sullivan walk through the parking lot, which was filled with mountains of snow all week long. Photo by Michelle Jarcho; Around 30 inches of snow fell on the region, halting most transportation for a few days and cancelling school for five. Photo by Tessa Klein. To check updates on our blizzard photo contest, check out theblackandwhite.net.

Inside Look

Potentially heavier penalties for parents hosting drinking parties Page 2

Crossword Puzzle Page 4

A head-first look into high school concussions Pages 8 and 9

Q&A with “The Real Housewives of Potomac” star Gizelle Bryant Page 10

Pet therapy provides stress relie to students Page 16

2 news

february 10, 2016

Switch to quarter assessment details still undecided

by Rachel Friedman and Tessa Klein

Starting next year, students will trade in final exams for two more weeks in the classroom and shorter quarterly exams.

The BOE voted Nov. 10 to switch from semester final exams to these quarter assessments, which students will take during 45-minute class periods at the end of every marking period. School officials still haven’t decided how the quarter assessments will factor into marking period grades and how semester grades will be calculated without final exams.

MCPS is hiring teachers to create the assessments this spring and summer, BOE member Patricia O’Neill said.

“A lot of teachers were concerned that what’s done in the classroom is not accurately reflected in MCPS,” SMOB Eric Guerci said. “So what we’re doing is bringing in teachers from throughout the system to write those assessments so that they are accurately reflecting what’s going on in the classroom.”

For AP and IB courses, teachers at each school will create their own quarter assessments, O’Neill said.

One goal of the change is to allow more accurate tracking of student progress across the county.

“I would hope that when everything is finalized and we have a handle on this, we will have a better idea of how students are performing,” BOE president Michael Durso said. “I think that’s going to end up being the big difference.”

Critics charged, however, that eliminating final exams will decrease transparency of the size of achievement gap. The Washington Post wrote an editorial claiming the county’s decision will only cover up struggling math exam scores.

Currently, students have abbreviated schedules and days off during the five-day semester exam schedule because they only have to come to school for classes in which they have an exam. Quarter assessments will increase instructional time because students will continue to attend classes during the testing period over the last weeks of the quarter.

Both teachers and students are frustrated that they’re losing exam week in between semesters because it takes it takes away planning and break time.

“It’s a nice break in the school system,” social studies resource teacher Bob Mathis said. “Also for teachers, it’s a great chance to catch our breaths, so we can plan for second semester.”

Teachers instead will have to strain to quickly grade quarter assessments and finalize overall marking period grades.

“As an English teacher, I already struggle with the week of finals when I have a lot of time to grade essays,” English teacher Melissa Carr said. “So it’s going to be really tough to get all the grading done.”

However, frequent assessments are necessary to help students retain what they learn by forcing them to periodically go back and review, O’Neill said.

The new grading system for quarter exams is not yet finalized. MCPS is still working out the specifics of the assessments’ weight within each quarter.

“What I’m anticipating is that the new assessments will be a separate category that will count for a specific percentage of the marking period grade,” said Scott Murphy, who directs the secondary curriculum for MCPS. An exact percentage weight for the assessments is still being discussed, with possibilities ranging from five to 25 percent, he said.

The tests’ difficulty level should be comparable to other county-made tests, Guerci said. But this similarity presents an issue for some teachers.

“Until I see them I’ll reserve judgment, but I have concerns that county assessments are generally not very rigorous for many of our students,” Mathis said.

Whitman students’ scores on countymade tests generally validate this perception. The average grade on the most recent Honors Physics exam, for example, was around 91 percent, physics teacher Kismet Talaat said. Similarly high averages on county-made tests are seen in other subjects, too.

But aside from the tests’ rigor—or lack

As the county transitions away from semester exams, there are two remaining possibilities for how semester grades will be calculated using only quarter grades.

Both options involve averaged quarter grades—one using exact percentages, the other using quality points based on letter grades.

Option 2 is more generous because the final average is rounded up. For example, students could get A’s in every class first quarter then B’s in every class second quarter and their semester grades would still all be A’s. The

thereof—their overall quality has raised some complaints.

“If they’re anything like the formatives that we have had to give, why even give them in the first place?” math resource teacher Russell Rushton said. “Some of these formatives are so not well-written that I don’t want them.”

But quarterly assessments may be different from past county exams in some ways.

“In some cases, there were still be traditional tests, but there will also be other measures, for example a paper in English or a common task project in biology,” Murphy said. “We also hope to have assessments that are available online that are aligned to new assessments like PARCC.” Others worry that giving assessments in all classes at the end of the quarter while continuing regular classwork and full-day schooling may overwhelm students with work and leave them limited time to study for each test, students and teachers said.

“Students won’t have as much time to prepare because they’ll still have work for all the other classes instead of having time off,” sophomore Brittany Zeldow said.

“They have to deal with studying while still taking and doing homework for those classes.”

same is true for students getting B’s first then A’s second. In the same scenario with Option 1, each grade would come down to the specific percentages from both quarters. “I’m hoping the county goes for Option 2 because I think Option 1 is going to be hard on kids,” principal Alan Goodwin said. “[Option 2] helps kids rather than hurts them, whereas percentage is so cruel.” *3.5 is rounded up to four Graphic by Iris Berendes-Dean.

The timing is still up in the air, but the county will ultimately leave individual schools to schedule the exams in hopes of avoiding such stress surges.

“The principals at the local high schools will be instructed to develop a schedule so that you would not be slammed with seven end-of-quarter assessments all in one day,” O’Neill said. “The instructions to school staffs will be for a schedule to be developed so there is a balance.”

Although exam scheduling hasn’t started at Whitman, the quarterly assessments will likely be spread over the last two weeks of the quarter, principal Alan Goodwin said.

Even with the assessments spread over two weeks, many anticipate difficulties providing students with their appropriate accommodations. In the past, these students had all afternoon for extra time on semester exams but next year, they will have to miss other classes to finish quarter assessments.

“There will be problems, implementation issues at schools, scheduling issues,” Rushton said. “On a scale of one to ten, my concern is about a nine point five.”

New bill to increase penalties for parents hosting students’ underage drinking parties

by Avery Muir

Last June, recent Wootton grads Kevin Li and Alex Murk died in a car crash after they got in a car with a drunk driver. At the party they had just left, parent Kenneth Saltzman had been home and aware of the teens’ drinking.

Hoping to prevent accidents like this, the Maryland General Assembly is processing a new bill

1st offense for parents

$5,000 per underage drinker and up to ONE year in jail

that will double the maximum fine for adults who give alcohol to minors from $2,500 to $5,000 per underaged drinker. The bill includes the possibility of a year in jail for the first offense. Twotime offenders could be fined up to $7,000 per teen and face up to two years’ jail time.

“The parents that allowed the consumption of alcohol to occur walked into court, wrote a check

2nd offense for parents

$7,000 per underage drinker and up to TWO years in jail

The deaths of two Wootton grads in a drunk driving accident in June has prompted the Maryland legislature to consider increasing penalties on parents who host underage drinking parties. Graphic by Ann Morgan Jacobi.

for $5,000, and walked right out of court,” said Del. David FraserHidalgo, who proposed the bill, in a phone interview. “I don’t know that you can put a price on life, let alone on two 18-year olds’ lives. There just seemed to be so much wrong with it, on so many different levels.”

Wootton’s acting principal, Kimberly Boldon, has been very vocal in trying to discourage underage drinking, especially after learning of a parent-student agreement for an upcoming trip to Mexico over spring break didn’t dissuade students from consuming alcohol.

The agreement states, “The legal age to drink in Mexico is 18.

All travelers who choose to drink alcohol agree to do so responsibly....We will be out of the country, subject to the laws of Mexico, not the United States.”

One of the two trip organizers is Tracie Saltzman, Kenneth Saltzman’s wife. Though the trip is not affiliated with Wootton, Boldon sent a letter home to students Feb. 2, expressing her concern about the implicit acceptance of underage drinking.

“It is our collective responsibility to keep our children safe and set firm boundaries,” Boldon wrote. “Allowing underaged drinking here or in another coountry is irresponsible, dangerous, and places our students in harm’s way.”

With the possibility of jail time, police, state attorneys and judges will have more tools to enforce the law and deter parents from allowing parties with underage drinking.

“In my district, we have a situation where $5,000 is relative, so that might not be a lot of money for some people,” Fraser-Hidalgo said. “In this particular case, it didn’t seem like it was.”

According to Fraser-Hidalgo, the bill has widespread support, including from the two Wootton teenagers’ families, Triple A and practically the entire Montgomery County delegation. That said, the bill still has a lengthy legislative process to go through before it’s set into action. It’s scheduled to enter the House Judiciary Committee in February, but Fraser-Hidalgo predicts that it will take a while to get out

of the committee, which is typical of bills regarding alcohol and drunk driving.

The bill’s main objective is to keep students as safe as possible, but the parents who support underage drinking are often also trying to protect their kids.

“The general excuse has always been that their child is going to drink anyway, so they’d rather create a safe environment for their child, which we all understand,” principal Alan Goodwin said. “But what happens is that they don’t closely monitor the other students that are drinking, and, plus, underaged drinking is illegal.”

Goodwin received national attention for an email he sent earlier this winter, urging parents to stop hosting these same parties.

“When parents condone a drinking party, it just sends the totally wrong kind of message,” Goodwin said. “Are kids still going to drink? Unfortunately, yes.

But with more parent vigilance and more education for kids, we can hopefully stem this tide to some degree.”

february 10, 2016

Feature 3

Money talks: MCPS releases 2017 budget

BY ANNA MCGUIRE

‘Piggy Bank’ icon by Iconoci, from thenounproject.com

ricular programs; all things we value as part of a student body,” SMOB Eric Guerci said. “We need to stand up and continue to push for the budget and for the things we need.”

The Black & White took a look at how the money is allotted over the next year and what Whitman staff and students can expect to change as a result of the new budget plan.

Students often take a wide variety of resources for granted: Among them are textbooks, teachers and technology. But the county has to foot the bill—a recent budget proposal released by acting Superintendent Larry Bowers evaluates the expected total cost per student at $13,750 for the 2017 fiscal year.

Bowers pitched the budget to the Board of Education Dec. 8; it provides a detailed plan for spending in the 2016-2017 school year. The Board has the opportunity to modify the proposal before approving it for review by the Montgomery County Council. The final operating budget will be released in May. The total proposed budget for 2017 was set around $2.45 billion, slightly higher than this year’s $2.4 billion budget.

Changes largely focus on increasing funding for specific programs that could affect teachers and students across the county.

“The budget has real implications for each and every student, from class sizes to technology to after-school and extracur-

Renovations

MCPS will get about 3,000 new students before next year and Whitman is expected to grow from 1,900 to 2,000 students.

“We’re supposed to get a new administrator, new staff and new space when we hit that 2,000 mark,” business manager Elizabeth Hillard said.

As a result of the growing population, the school should get four new portable classrooms next year. Although schools will learn about staffing numbers in March, nothing is guaranteed—and not everyone is optimistic.

“I will be very surprised if they give us

Students catch up on sleep, play during surprise snow week

continued from page

Funding

exactly what is dictated by the formula,” principal Alan Goodwin said.

College Readiness

The proposed budget dedicates $70,000 more towards programs that help students with workforce skills and college preparedness, including the existing Career and Technology Education (CTE) program and Naviance.

The CTE program gives students the opportunity to learn more about certain careers, and in some instances, become certified in specific trades. CTE funding supports programs like Child Development at Whitman and other high schools and occupational classes like carpentry, plumbing and accounting at Edison High School.

The funding also helps increase access to Naviance, an online platform that allows students to learn about different colleges, apply for potential scholarships and submit documents for college admissions.

Right now, Naviance is only available to juniors and seniors, but the increased funding in the proposed budget will make

it accessible to underclassmen.

“Naviance plays a pretty huge role in the college process, and the county hopes to have it serve a bigger role in high schools,” college coordinator Anne Hutchens said.

“MCPS wants to get Naviance working, so that students in the younger grades are thinking about college four years out.”

Achievement Gap

In an attempt to close the achievement gap, MCPS also created four new central office “equity specialist” positions, funded by the new budget.

“We have an equity unit which works with school leadership teams in different offices to help them improve cultural proficiency, cultural competency of school staff,” MCPS chief spokesperson Brian Edwards said. “By adding four equity specialists, it will help us with the caseload of how many schools each specialists serves so they can spend more time with each school.”

Kahoot! gains traction among students and teachers as review tool by naomi meron

1

Since all makeup exams have to take place during the school day, students taking makeups had to miss multiple class periods, Goodwin said.

In the long term, the snowstorm may force MCPS to extend the school year because the cancellations exceeded the four allotted snow days. The county hasn’t commented yet on whether or not the state will waive the fifth day. After the blizzards in 2010, Maryland waived five MCPS snow days and prevented an extended school year. However, last year, the state didn’t dismiss two of the five extra snow days and the county added school on Easter Monday and a day at the end of the year.

Snowzilla also left its mark in the parking lot, where giant snow piles took up about 35 percent of the spaces when students returned and made it difficult to find parking for staff and students, Goodwin said. Last weekend, Whitman hired a private contracting group to clear snow out of the parking lot.

Despite having to navigate through the snowy mountains in the lot, students were generally excited about the record-breaking snow totals.

“The snow was super exciting,” senior Laura Heller said. “I think what made it especially exciting was that it was in between semesters, so there was no homework.”

For students who went on the Breckenridge ski trip, it was nice to come back and have a few days to relax before jumping back into school, sophomore Lauren Lerner said.

Some students were so excited about the snow that they were jumping for joy—in their bathing suits. A few brave students joined in on a national trend of diving into the snow

Senior Julie Hirschfeld dives into 30 inches of snow in only a swimsuit, joining in on the national trend of “snow swimming.” Photo courtesy Julie Hirschfeld.

while dressed for the pool.

“I chose to participate because I saw videos of people doing it and thought it would be something fun to do,” senior Julie Hirschfeld said.

Even a student swimmer took part in the fad.

“I saw two guys on the West Virginia swim team do it on Snapchat and decided I wanted to try it,” senior swim team member Yasha Fotoohi said. “It was fun but really cold.”

Other students were not as enthusiastic about the extreme weather and wanted to cut the break short.

“I was done with it by the end,” junior Emily Golub said. “By day seven, I just got bored.

I need some structure.”

Unfortunately for those students—but fortunately for most others—we might not be done with cancellations just yet.

“I would say that the way the pattern looks in February, it looks like it will give us more opportunities to get snow,” said junior Ari Neugeboren, a student weatherman whose Facebook videos attract thousands of views.

With its aftermath and cancellations, Snowzilla brought a much needed break before the new semester.

“Everybody is ready to do work, everybody is ready to get back to it,” social studies teacher Kirk Shipley said. “I feel like it’s going to make time fly.”

The music can be heard from down the hallway, and the cheering from even farther away. What could be making students so excited?

It’s Kahoot!, an interactive quiz game that allows students to answer multiple choice questions via Chromebooks or phones. In math, foreign language, English and social studies classes, teachers are incorporating Kahoot! quizzes into lessons and review.

“The best part is that I get instant feedback from the entire class on whether they understand a concept,” social studies resource teacher Bob Mathis said.

“So if I have to re-teach or clarify a concept, I can do it right then and there.”

With Kahoot!, students join the teachers’ games online, then choose a nickname and answer timed multiple-choice questions. Teachers and students can view bar graphs on the Promethean board showing the number of students who chose each answer. Students are then ranked after each question based on a combination of speed and accuracy.

Social studies teacher Colin O’Brien prefers the game to other review games like Jeopardy. In Jeopardy, students normally break up into teams and one person on a team ends up answering all the questions, he said. With Kahoot!, however, each student works individually to answer all the questions.

The AP NSL team has agreed to use Kahoot! to review before unit tests.

The sense of competition and mystery adds to the excitement, O’Brien said.

“They’ll come up with nicknames, and you don’t know who is who,” O’Brien said. “Kids get excited about that.”

The anonymity also helps keep students from feeling embarrassed about their scores.

“When you use a nickname, it puts less pressure on the students, and they are able to learn,” junior Shadden Zaki said.

World languages resource teacher Rebecca Leef, who uses Kahoot! to review and introduce new topics, has received lots of positive feedback from her students.

“It’s just like playing a game show,” she said. “Students beg for it, so I think it’s highly effective and fun. What more could you want?”

Students have even incorporated Kahoot! into class presentations. Junior Joy London used Kahoot! to lead a discussion about a novel in English class.

“We could see how the class was divided, and we could base our discussion off that,” London said.

While Kahoot! quizzes are easy to make, they also have some limitations; student phones sometimes get disconnected from the Wi-Fi, and questions and answer choices must be short enough to fit into pre-formatted boxes.

“I wish there were more than four [answer] choices,” Mathis said. “I wish the questions could be longer and the answers could be more complex.”

While the competitive nature of the game can engage the class, it can also limit thoughtful responses.

“Sometimes I think students get so excited about the competition and putting in answers quick that they don’t necessarily think about the answer,” Leef said. “A lot of times they’ll go, ‘Oh, I didn’t read all the choices.’”

Despite the game’s limitations, using Kahoot! in moderation is an engaging way to review, O’Brien said.

“If kids do it all the time in all their classes, I’m sure it’ll get old,” he said.

“But if you do it every now and then, it’s a fun change of pace.”

february 10, 2016

NEWS

Pork Tenderloin

By WillIAM Arnesen

ACROSS 1. Information points 5. Supernatural sense, for short 8. Kookaburra ____ __ an old gum tree 14. Actor Sharif 15. Comedian Margaret 16. Founder of Daoism 17. Called 18. “I don’t want to ____ _____ as rude” 20. Duke basketball coach 22. Gastro-intestinal system 23. Type of alcohol 24. Not friends 27. People-devourers 32. Wood-splitters 33. Giants’ Manning 34. “Girls” lead actress Dunham 35. Prefix for three 36. The Onion’s Vice President nickname 42. World’s largest school assessment org.

43. Singer Guthrie 44. Single helix 45. Lumpy fruit 47. Rise 49. Completely fail, go _____ __ 51. One of Santa’s laborers 52. Age 53. What one says before starting a race 59. Goodbye, goodbye, in Nice 62. Head of a college 63. Only borrowed 64. Lana ___ Rey 65. Gumption 66. Cusses

67. Before, to Shakespeare 68. This, in Spanish, masculine DOWN 1. Awkward person 2. To love, in Spanish 3. Home of Dar el Salaam 4. Diamond pattern, looks great on sweaters 5. Look! to Caesar 6. Advice to writers: ____, don’t tell 7. Whitman dance team 8. Fallen 9. Ask.com owner corp.

10. What the Deep Web is decrypted with, abb.

11. Long cigar 12. Problems 13. Birds’ homes 19. Squeaks out, with out 21. Extremism 25. Malleus, incus and stapes 26. 1012, to Flavius 27. Doc 28. Boxer Muhammad

SGA “ the leaderSHIP never sinks

“

4

announcements:

Movie Night: Feb. 12 at 7:30 Battle of the Beards: Feb. 22 to Feb. 26 GUYS Yard Sale: Feb. 27 at 12 bRAVE: Feb. 29 from 6-1

29. 20, 30, 40, 50 30. Finish 31. Rulers of colonial India 35. Long-distance prefix 37. Dinner or lunch, for example 38. Monster from The Hobbit 39. Wanderers 40. Musician Brian 41. Isn’t numerical, abb.

45. Winner of The Apprentice 2 Kelly 46. Seinfeld character Benes 47. Imitated 48. Kind of hammer 49. Grizzlies 50. Boundary between Europe and Asia 54. Assistant 55. Whitetail, for example 56. Christmas ball 57. Kind of walk 58. Over 60. Predicted moment of appearance, abb.

61. Short-lived union of Syr. and Egy.

Current interim state superintendent Jack Smith will become MCPS superintendent Continued from Page 1 Some students and teachers hope for an increased connection between the superintendent and schools.

“They need to be a good communicator,” spanish teacher Madeline Golding said.

“They need to not only understand what needs to happen but they need to express it clearly to all people in various ways whether it’s talking to them, talking to people in the community, writing an email or talking to the news.”

Final exams, class sizes and the achievement gap are some of the biggest issues for Smith as he comes into his term, social studies teacher Colin O’Brien said.

“I hope that he’s able to come up with a plan to deal with the achievement gap,” O’Brien said. “The county’s been working on it for years, and it’s hard to do because that’s a multi-faceted issue and problem that the school system can’t solve by itself.

But with some vision, and with some hard work and the correct people in place, maybe we can make some headway with that.”

When asked what they thought are important qualities for a superintendent to have, students expressed concern with

the superintendent’s awareness of their daily school lives.

Many administrators don’t know what it’s like to be a student today, freshman Sydney Johnson said. Johnson thinks that it’s important for the superintendent to put himself in a student’s place to try and understand what students are going through.

Junior Jackson Parker also emphasized the importance of incorporating students’ opinions into the policymaking process.

Parker has been especially frustrated with the lack of student voice in major county decisions like eliminating semester finals.

Smith hopes to remedy these concerns by focusing on directly impacting the student educational experience and being present in schools.

“I’m going to work really, really hard on behalf of the students and adults in this community,” Smith said. “I hope it impacts their daily lives in that they continue to get a very high quality education in this community and if they haven’t got everything they needed that we work together to continue to give them what they need.”

opinion 5

february 10, 2016

Let’s change LLS month

BY NATACHI ONWUAMAEGBU

MCPS should establish clear policy for students returning after concussions

cartoon by SEBI SOLA-SOLE

Bethesda. Contributions by Whitman students could make a huge difference right in our backyard and help open students’ eyes to issues that are a lot closer to home than they might think.

Recognizing that LLS is still an important charity, Leadership should continue to donate the money raised by bRAVE to this organization. However, the rest of the events—Guy Auction, Whitman Idol, G.U.Y.S Club Community Yard Sale, Battle of the Beards, Singing Grams and Movie Night—should be spread over multiple months, with each of these events raising money for a different local charity.

This approach would also raise school spirit.

With every event, students, staff and teachers will get more involved with the school, and planning events throughout the year would help maintain a constant level of excitement in the student body.

Students have the spirit, tools and dedication to raise a lot of money for a lot of worthwhile causes. All this hard work and commitment shouldn’t go to just one.

Senior Ben Rosenblatt was stealing second base when his helmet flew off as he ran into the second baseman. He crashed to the ground, sustaining a concussion and that would make him miss the last three weeks of the school year. He was exempted from all the assignments he missed, as well as from his final exams. In accordance with MCPS exam exemption policy, his grades for second semester were based on the trend grading system: Getting a third quarter B and a fourth quarter A would give him an A in the semester.

Last March, senior Mitch Fenton got a concussion from wrestling.

He was out of school for almost a month and received extensions for assignments he missed, but he was still bogged down with all the catching up he had to do.

The stark contrast between these two stories—one student being entirely exempt from any assignments, tests, quizzes or exams for the rest of the year while the other had to make up work—shows the need for a clear county-wide policy on academic work after a concussion.

When it comes to how students catch up on academics, their workloads are currently being treated on a case-by-case basis. That means that counselors are left to decide what work a student is exempted from and how their grades will be decided. While counselors are qualified to make these decisions, different students receive different treatment. The difference between Rosenblatt’s and Fenton’s cases is a perfect example.

MCPS should adopt a policy that requires students who are out for less than four weeks to make up any missed assignments that teachers deem important. Students who are out of school for more than four weeks should be exempted from assignments, but they should have to learn the core material and concepts on their own time so they don’t fall behind later in future classes.

Under this policy, doctors and other trained experts would still make any and all decisions on how long a student needs to be away from strenuous physical or mental activity, including school.

When students return from concussions, a set protocol should determine what they should make up and how grades will be determined, so that each student knows what to expect when returning, and so that they are treated the same as their friends, classmates and teammates.

A policy that provides uniform treatment to all students returning to school from concussions is crucial to the fair treatment of all MCPS students, and the county should begin formulating a solution.

photo by SPENCER ADAMS

Every February, the school comes together to raise thousands of dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Then in March, our generosity fizzles. For the rest of the year, there are only a few scattered fundraising events for a select few organizations.

The Leadership class focuses too much of its manpower on LLS month, trying to win the Pennies for Patients High School Challenge, a month-long competition.

But the honors aren’t worth focusing all the school’s effort on one charity, even if it’s a noble cause. Although Whitman raised over $60,000 for LLS last year, by only focusing on one charity for one month, students miss opportunities to donate to other meaningful organizations. February events should be spread throughout the year and focus on a range of charities to raise school spirit and spread the community’s generosity.

The school’s success has inspired schools across the country to model their LLS month after our program, according to SGA’s LLS month chair Carolyn Hoover. However, the very same money we raise for LLS could go a long way to benefit local organizations like the Greentree Homeless Shelter and Manna Foodbank.

Compared to national charities, local charities receive less money, have fewer staff members and are rapidly getting shut down. Since 1970, more than 200,000 nonprofits have opened in the U.S., but only 144 of them have reached $50 million in annual revenue, according to the Stanford Social Innovation Review. LLS’s total revenue for 2015 was nearly $300 million. While cancer research is extremely expensive, Whitman’s $60,000 donation might help smaller, local charities even more.

Whitman has been participating at some level in the Pennies for Patients High School Challenge for at least 10 years. Students, teachers and parents have been affected by blood cancers, motivating Leadership students—and the student body—to try their hardest. LLS does important work, but students could have a more direct impact by donating more to local charities.

Local charities make changes that the community can witness every day. For example, the Greentree Homeless Shelter is a transitional home for homeless families located right in

Staff Editorial

Volume 54, Issue 3 2015-2016

The Black & White is published five times a year by the students of Walt Whitman High School, 7100 Whittier Blvd., Bethesda, MD, 20817. The Black & White is an open forum for student views. Students and staff can pick up the paper free of charge. Mail subscriptions cost $35. The newspaper aims to both inform and entertain.

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6 opinion

february 10, 2016

Bring greater diversity to readings in English class by tanusha mishra

English classes used to follow a certain routine. We began reading Steinbeck and Shakespeare in ninth grade, then moved on to Homer, Orwell and Golding and last, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Dickens in twelfth grade.

Notice a pattern? Dead white male authors made up the vast majority of the core literature for each grade.

But exploring diverse perspectives is especially necessary today. The nation is poised to become a minority-majority nation by 2044 and many of our current conflicts—from police brutality against African Americans to Islamophobia—stem from our inability to understand other cultures and schools of thought.

To help remedy these troubling trends, the English department should take steps to lessen the uniformity of the books we read.

Recent changes to the MCPS English curriculum for grades six through 12 have addressed similar concerns by adding 24 books from a wide variety of au-

thors, in terms of both race and gender. Books by Chinua Achebe, Yoshiko Uchida and Luis Alberto Urrea are on the list, bringing in Nigerian, Japanese-American and Mexican-American perspectives.

While increasing author diversity was a “key factor” in the redesigning, the main aim was to “engage students in close reading, authentic writing and meaningful conversations about issues that are important to them,” MCPS English instructional specialist Estelene Boratenski explained.

This is an inspired shift, but it doesn’t mean students will necessarily be reading the new books.

Many county-recommended core texts are the same as previous years so the department already has many of them, English resource teacher Linda Leslie said.

While many of the books are written by women, few are by minority authors.

Until the county gives schools the funds to buy 100-300 copies of a novel, teachers can’t teach it, Leslie said.

Even if the English department can’t buy books, teachers can supplement each unit with the new MCPS-recommended resources available on the internet—short stories, essays, documentaries and poems—so even units centered on mainstream classics incorporate diversity.

Some teachers have tried to add books written by minority and international authors to summer reading lists—the tenth grade honors reading list features autobiographies by Nelson Mandela and Azar Nafisi, along with several other international works. While this is a step in the right direction, summer books are often only discussed during the first week of school; that’s not enough time to teach students the ideas put forth.

Exposing students to a variety of perspectives will get students talking about their personal experiences and beliefs. Exploring and discussing controversial ideas will help craft a more knowledgeable and better informed student body—and better global citizens.

English Teachers on the Issues The merits of diversity

Emily Glass: “Teachers can feel married to classics because they are great pieces of literature, but I think it would be beneficial for students to broaden the perspectives we look at and read stories through lots of different lenses.”

Balancing diversity with tradition Prudence Crewdson: “Tradition at a given school plays a big role in the choice of texts—certain works have been popular with students and rich in linguistic beauty and complexity.

They are in the bookroom. We assign them over and over. Shakespeare's Hamlet is an example.

I do think we favor dead white males and they are great writers—Whitman, Frost, Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoevsky, to name a few. But gosh, I'd hate to toss any of those just because they’re dead white males.”

Danielle Fus: “Literature teaches us humanity. It is how we access the human condition and learn, vicariously, about other people, other worlds, and other lives. By only experiencing one perspective we limit ourselves. Therefore, we must seek out and learn other experiences so we can better understand others and ourselves.”

Solutions executed independently

Ashley Houghton: “I have tried to balance the inequity by giving students a choice of reading House on Mango Street or A Raisin in the Sun in literature circles, or assigning a book swap whereby students share their favorite book with the class and another student reads and critiques it.”

Michelle Quackenbush: “In the past there seemed to be a set expectation to teach certain novels. We had a small list to choose from and the curriculum centered on specific novels, poems, short stories, etc. This began to change a few years ago with research projects and class readings and discussions.

We have so much more to choose from now.”

Nicholas Confino: “In 9th grade, this semester we read Steinbeck (white male), Sherman Alexie (NativeAmerican male), and Eugenia Collier (African-American woman). There's always a conscious push to make sure we're not only reading white male authors; on the other hand, some of the canon of literature is still hinged upon many classics.”

Natachi Onwuamaegbu contributed to the reporting for this story. Photos by Michelle Jarcho Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Marylanders were misled on casinos and table games legalization This election cycle, voters should independently research issues to be better informed

BY Celia Hoffman

When the kid running for class president promises open lunch for everyone, most students know that the candidate won’t be able to deliver. But when businesses and elected government officials make big promises, voters— understandably—expect results.

Between 2008 and 2012, casino corporations spent at least $18 million on advertising in Maryland to convince voters to pass two referenda: The first, which passed in 2008, introduced casinos into the state. The second allowed table games to be played in those casinos.

The wording of both referenda explicitly stated that these casinos would be established for “the primary purpose of raising revenue for education” through an Education Trust Fund.

Ads both supporting and opposing the legalization of casinos in Maryland were almost exclusively funded by casino corporations. Casinos from nearby states

funded opposition ads since they didn’t want Maryland to take away customers, and corporations wanting to build casinos in Maryland spent even more on procasino ads.

At the time, many county and state officials assured voters the passage of this bill would result in extra education money.

However, the bill has not been the big win for education it promised to be.

The money from casinos has only replaced money that was already in the education budget. The Census Bureau reports Maryland per-pupil education spending between 2008 and 2013 actually decreased by 2.4 percent after adjustments for inflation.

“The money in the Education Trust Fund isn’t money over and above what would have been normally funded if there was no Education Trust Fund,” said Rick Tyler, co-chair of the Maryland Education Coalition, an alliance of smaller groups that support Maryland public education.

“They have used money collected through the Education Trust Fund and collected from the casinos to supplant money that previously came from other resources.”

Instead of helping students, these casinos may only be causing problems for Maryland citizens.

A 2009 survey by the state of Maryland found that almost 150,000 residents have a moderate to severe gambling addiction.

Since this study was only conducted one year after the legalization of casinos, there’s no clear evidence of causation.

However, in 2015 the Washington Post reported that 893 Maryland residents had legally banned themselves from entering a casino. Two years before, the number was only 204.

Voters were twice misled into thinking that a vote for casinos would be a vote for education, and casinos have not only failed to help education but also damaged the lives of those with gambling addictions.

As this year’s primary and general

elections approach, voters will have another opportunity to decide who they want to represent them at the national, state and local levels. They will also face new referenda about a variety of issues. Voters should take the time to independently research all the topics they will vote on, so they know the consequences of their votes.

More unbiased sources without agendas should be available to voters, so anyone can learn about issues and understand who and what they are voting for. Pollenize.org, “a nonpartisan, apolitical organization that breaks down elections and provides voters with an organized, unbiased overview of candidate platforms,” is such a source.

The casinos debacle was neither a net loss or gain for Maryland students, but we could do better in the future.

february 10, 2016

Give SMOB voting rights

opinion 7

Student voice is indespensible in key budget decisions

By Rachel Friedman

A wizard without a wand. A balloon without air. Mr. Easton without the PA system. A SMOB without voting rights.

These losses would render their owners powerless, and the SMOB’s deprivation of deserved voting rights is no exception.

SMOB Eric Guerci recently proposed a bill to the Maryland legislature that would lift some constraints. In the interest of MCPS students, the state legislature should vote in favor of the bill.

The SMOB is the students’ megaphone, representing the 63,000 middle and high school students who voted in the last election.

The bill would allow the SMOB to vote on the district’s operating budget, openings and closings of schools, redistricting and collective bargaining with teacher unions. Among these issues, the operating

budget is by and large the most important.

The budget outlines the distribution of funds within the county and is the central component to every board decision, as decisions only matter if there’s money to fund them.

Considering the importance of the budget, the student voice is crucial. The SMOB is the students’ megaphone, representing the 63,000 middle and high school students who voted in the last election.

The county released the 2016-2017 school year budget in December, and Guerci has no vote on where the money will go—money that directly affects students’ academic experience in areas like teacher hirings, portable installation and college readiness programs.

In addition to being the sole representative of the students, Guerci fulfills the duties of a regular Board member. With an abbreviated school schedule, he works about 30 hours a week on SMOB duties which include attending Board meetings, visiting schools, conducting town hall meetings, reading memos and documents (including those on the budget) and going through hundreds of emails daily. He’s extremely informed, yet he’s denied an ulti-

mate say on the most important issues.

Previous SMOBs have repeatedly proposed such a bill, but the state legislature has never passed the measure despite having the full support of state delegates from Montgomery County—the only county it affects. Last year, Frederick County delegate Michael Hough killed the bill with a filibuster in the eleventh hour.

Hough claimed that the SMOB was too young to vote on fiscal issues, specifically asking, “How do you square it that a huge chunk of funding in Montgomery County is being voted on by a sixteen-year-old?” according to mocostudent.org.

While a typical high school junior or senior having a say in the expenditure of money may be questionable, the SMOB definitely isn’t your average sixteen-yearold. A regular high schooler didn’t get the vote of 33,000 students and doesn’t work almost a regular work week to better the county.

The measure has proved successful in Anne Arundel County. Their SMOB is the only one in the nation with full voting rights, and, to date, there haven’t been any raging teenage fits that ruined the county.

In fact, full SMOB voting rights have only

SMOB Eric Guerci currently can’t vote on the operating budget, but he recently proposed a bill to the Maryland legislature that would change that. Photo courtesy Eric Guerci

helped the Board, Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesman Bob Mosier told the Frederick Newspost in December.

This year, with potentially drastic budget changes on the table, Guerci’s representation of the student voice shouldn’t be stifled. Since students are the future, students deserve to have a say in it.

The Black & White also covers the 2016-2017 school year budget on page 3.

Want to be prepared for future jobs? Learn how to code by anna mcGuire

For many of you, Angry Birds—or some other popular app—is a staple for boring car rides or a way to pass a couple minutes between classes. Maybe firing off that succession of flying feathered creatures is part of your daily routine, but I bet you’ve never considered how much time and development went into making even a single bird launch.

Every app you download, website you visit and Angry Bird you fire was created by a coder. A coder develops a series of instructions that tells computers exactly how to act in certain situations.

As the world continues to develop digital technology, it’s even more crucial for students to have a basic understanding of how to code. School districts like Chicago Public Schools have begun to include coding classes as part of the curriculum.

Students can learn how to code in a Computer Programming class offered by Whitman. Coding has also been incor-

porated minimally into existing classes like Principles of Engineering (POE) and Aerospace Engineering, but the instruction is basic, tech teacher Rachel Stender says. MCPS should follow in the footsteps of other school districts and make coding a larger focus of general technology classes, like IED and POE.

According to a Gallup survey, 90 percent of students thought that they were somewhat likely to have a job that required knowledge of computer science in the future.

Every student in the state of Maryland is required to take a tech course in order to graduate, due to the fact that technology

classes introduce students to STEM fields and occupations, says William Reinhard, a Public Information Officer for the Maryland State Department of Education.

MCPS should incorporate coding more prominently into general tech classes to better prepare students to enter the workforce.

Although the skills learned in tech classes can be applicable within STEM fields, coding helps teach students skills that can be applicable in just about any occupation. Tech classes help students learn the basics of digital technology, but coding allows students to learn how to problem-solve complex issues, Stender explains.

Technology is now an integral part of almost every job, and at some point in their career most people will have to create an online presentation or manage information using a computer. According to a Gallup survey, 90 percent of students thought they were somewhat likely to have a job

Take a breather

ning results: 92 percent of students reported reduced stress levels. Almost every participant said they would recommend the program.

In 2013, principal Alan Goodwin and Minds Incorporated, a local non-profit, piloted such a program. At Whitman, sessions took place in English classes with facilitators from Minds Inc. Students reacted positively, though some teachers criticized the program for taking up class time.

Mindfulness sessions should be incorporated into the school day

By Jason Grill

Ask any student about the issues that affect them the most, and stress is bound to be near the top of the list. Students struggle with stress on a daily basis, and the school system needs to respond to the growing problem it poses.

High schools are high pressure environments. Students face a multitude of demands every day—from college applications to the SAT to squeezing out that history project in the eleventh hour. When adolescents are under extreme stress for an extended period of time, they’re more likely to be easily agitated and exhibit anxiety and depression, experts say.

High stress levels often correlate with a weakened immune system and problems with heart function, NIMH psychiatrist Daniel Pine says.

To curb the harmful effects of stress, administrators should build five minutes into the school day for teachers to lead students in a brief mindfulness activity. Mindfulness, an increasingly common practice of awareness and observation, has been proven to reduce stress.

By removing less than one minute from each period and adding that extra time onto fourth period, mindfulness could easily fit into the existing schedule without removing noticeable instructional time from any one class.

Teachers would receive a brief training in leading mindfulness sessions before the school year so they could

that required knowledge of computer science in the future.

Coding can even be added to existing projects to make them more interesting and appealing to more students. Some projects within individual classes already have coding included. In POE, one final project requires students to sort marbles using coding. But, this coding aspect can be added to other technology projects: an assignment designing racecars or bridges can include a coding requirement like controlling the racecar or designing a computer-activated drawbridge. Linking basic education to coding allows students to become more well-versed with technology, which can lead more students to pursue a career in STEM. The past decade has seen an emphasis on STEM education in the U.S. It’s time for MCPS to take the leap and broaden its tech curriculum by incorporating coding into classes.

By removing less than one minute from each period and adding that extra time onto fourth period, mindfulness could easily fit into the existing schedule without removing noticeable instructional time from any one class.

English teacher Prudence Crewdson leads her fifth period class in mindfulness, which has been proven to reduce stress. Photo

by Michelle Jarcho

lead sessions. This way, every day in fourth period, students would get five minutes to practice deep breathing and relaxation. Those teachers who don’t want to lead a mindfulness program can play a mindfulness video on the Promethean board during the time.

Through research, doctors have found that practicing mindfulness lessens the impacts of stress. Every day, new research is coming out, linking the practice to stress relief, Pine said.

One mindfulness program in the Oakland, California school system with almost 1,000 participants had stun-

English teachers Prudence Crewdson and Nick Confino often practice mindfulness with their students during class, even if it’s for just a short moment. Some students in their classes say the sessions help them feel calmer and more prepared for the rest of the day. A relaxed learning environment improves student learning and long-term memory, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Mindfulness may not be a perfect stress reliever for everyone, but there’s no doubt that it’s a potential remedy for some of students’ stress-related issues. Giving students and teachers a chance to practice mindfulness every day will allow them to be more relaxed and engaged throughout the day.

8 february 10, 2016

in-de

Concussions: What the experts have to say by josh millin and ezra pine The number of reported concussions from high school athletics has doubled in the past 10 years, and it’s still rising. With the release of the movie Concussion and a report from Boston University linking football to brain degeneration, the movement to prevent sports-related

brain injuries continues to gain traction.

The Black & White spoke with athletes, coaches, specialists and an NFL representative to hear their perspectives on how to limit concussions in high school athletics. Their responses, printed below, have been edited for length and clarity.

Julie O’Brien

Football has the highest risk of concussion for males, while soccer has the highest risk for females.

Concussion Expert

photo courtesy JULIE O’BRIEN

*statistics from concussiontreatment.com

Michael Singer Michael Singer is the CEO of BrainScope Company, Inc., a Bethesda-based neurotechnology firm that develops products to help detect traumatic brain injuries including concussions. Singer has headed for the company for the past six years, and he’s managed several other tech-based health firms throughout his career. BrainScope has partnered with Whitman in a study to test a device that uses sensors to read brain activity.

B&W: How can technology best be used to combat concussions?

Michael Singer: I think the way technology can help combat concussion in coming years is first and foremost through proper, objective and timely diagnosis of a concussion. At many levels, I know this sounds rather simplistic, but the fact of the matter is that today concussions are assessed subjectively with patient care being heavily influenced by the quality of the care given by the first responder. Today’s first responders have limited tools and capabilities, certainly not objective ones.

Being able to get that initial clinical diagnosis right, and then being able to pass along all of that information for the patient’s benefit in their care cycle will absolutely lead to better outcomes for patients who have been concussed.

B&W: The product you’re testing at Whitman focuses on the need to detect concussions as quickly as possible; why is it important to have that immediacy and how do the effects of concussions worsen during the hours or days they go undiagnosed?

MS: The importance of immediacy is to remove the player from play. [There is] the need to remove the person from additional hits that can expose the player to another concussion and compounding the injury. Many Second Impact Syndrome cases resulting in death occurred before the player fully recovered from their first hit.

As is noted in the clinical literature, the signs of concussion can be subtle. Early on, problems are

photo courtesy BRAINSCOPE

CEO of Brainscope Company

often missed by everyone—including family members and even doctors. People may look fine even though they’re acting or feeling differently. Exertion can exacerbate symptoms and the athlete will not recognize problems until they hit the gym the next day. The concussion worsens based on failure to treat the symptoms and continuing to keep a normal schedule. Not identifying the concussion leads to normal activities of school, work and heavy concentration [which] can be detrimental to the recovery of the brain.

B&W: Having worked with the NFL and collegiate athletics programs, do you think those higher-level organizations have the responsibility to raise awareness about concussion prevention for younger athletes?

MS: The short answer is yes. There is already a substantial body of literature that shows that hitting your head, or worse—getting concussed—can be bad for your short and long-term health. These organizations know that extremely well. Understanding the risks, taking the right precautionary approaches, being properly cared for when injury occurs—these are obvious educational ways that organizations at the professional and collegiate levels need to continue to lead.

At the same time, our society has to be willing to listen, learn and adapt to the science around Traumatic Brain Injury, which is rapidly developing. This can be antithetical to our societal passions, particularly our love—certainly my love—of football. Science and medicine will lead us over time to the answers—we just have to be sure to listen as they come.

Julie O’Brien is a nurse navigator for the Inova healthcare concussion program. She serves as the organizer of the Inova’s concussion-care teams, which include physicists, neuropsychologists and therapists. The Black & White talked to O’Brien to learn more about treatment process for those who sustain concussions.

B&W: How common is it for concussions to be ignored or undiagnosed, and what additional consequences can come from leaving concussions untreated?

Julie O’Brien: The common problem is people will feel better and re-engage in activity without following a plan with a provider or athletic trainer and [then] reinjure with a second concussion and have more severe symptoms. If left untreated, or not evaluated, things such as skull fractures could be missed which could cause brain bleeding. Also if left untreated, a person’s performance in school, work or sports could be severely impacted because of symptoms of insomnia, headache [and] concentration difficulties.

B&W: What is the typical protocol for treating a concussion?

JO: Typically modified rest -not a black room but withdrawal and rest for 48 to 72 hours. Most concussions resolve within ten to fourteen days without intervention, however the ten percent that don’t are the reason for the follow up and making sure the injured person has a clear return to work or return to school plan.

B&W: Is there a certain point, perhaps after a particular number of head injuries, that it would be recommended for an athlete to stop participating in sports?

JO: This is one of the hardest questions that a physician will be asked. Many times three is the number that is heard from concussion physicians. However neuropsychology testing is sometimes done to determine the extent of the concussion and give an objective tool to providers in deciding these decisions.

february 10, 2016 9

epth

Miller Aucamp

DeMaurice Smith

Junior Basketball Player

B&W: In comparison to the NFL’s concussion situation, how bad do you think concussions are in high school sports right now?

DeMaurice Smith: I’ve looked over the data for both college and high school players, and the real issue is the lack of uniform standards on how to detect, how to treat, and how to prevent concussions among high school players.

Thankfully, the players in the NFL have a union, and our union employs the best physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers in the world in order to take care of the players. We’ve come up with uniform standards of how to prevent concussions and how to treat those players who suffer from them and most importantly how to decrease exposure to concussions.

High school players don’t have

that on a nationwide level. Until there is a uniform standard to keep high school players safe, I think there’s still a lot of work to be done.

B&W: Do you think there should be a minimum age requirement for athletes to play tackle football?

DS: I don’t know. I know that the studies I’ve read focus on a number of factors to consider about when a kid should start playing tackle football. One is the strength of their necks, and the research revolving around the extent to which a brain can suffer blows to the skull.

Second, a big issue has always been at what age a youth can know that they’re being asked to do something that is dangerous.

The question about what age should a youth play football sort of has an inherent bias in the question. The question doesn’t presume the quality or skill of the coach that he has.

To me, if you have a coach that fully understands the risk and ways to prevent concussions and how to avoid drills and contact that unnecessarily exposes a young athlete to harm, theoretically the age of the player can potentially be lower.

B&W: What do you believe the NFL needs to do in order to prevent or reduce concussions in their game?

DS: One thing that they can continue to do in the future is making sure that everyone who suffers a concussion gets healthcare. The only way players get the medical care for the injuries they suffer is through workers’ compensation.

One would be, why does the league continue to deny players health care for their injuries? Number two, even though we have concrete protocols, the league has yet to agree to a system that would punish teams who are not abiding by the protocols.

For example, we had a quarterback for the Rams, Case Keenum, who suffered a concussion, and the team violated the protocols. We raised the issue with the league, but they refused to punish the team.

Junior Miller Aucamp sustained a concussion during a game of pick-up basketball in October, as well as another blow to the head during basketball tryouts. Aucamp is a member of the Vikings varsity team.

B&W: What symptoms did you experience after sustaining a concussion? Did you know you had a concussion right away?

Miller Aucamp: Immediately after, I experienced some headaches and difficulty reading and focusing on my homework. I wasn’t sure if I had a concussion at first, but after a week or so of painful headaches, I went to a sports doctor, and she determined that I was likely dealing with a concussion.

B&W: What treatment did you undergo and how long did the recovery process take?

MA: There isn’t much you can do to treat a concussion. It comes down to resting. I was out of physical activity for a month or so and once I was allowed to start exercising again, it was only light jogging or exercise biking.

I did take vitamins that help relieve some of the headache pain. It took me a month and a half to recover from my first hit, but at tryouts I got hit in the head again and was out of contact play for a little over another month.

B&W: How did the concussion affect your academics and ability to play basketball? Do you still feel any effects now?

MA: I was on a passive learning schedule, and I didn’t take tests for two weeks after I learned I was concussed. I also had to spread out my homework over a longer period of time and take frequent breaks.

In terms of basketball, I was not able to participate in contact play from October to winter break, due to the second hit I had to the head at tryouts in November. If I hadn’t been hit then, I was on schedule to return to play in midNovember. I had to do ball-handling drills and cardio on the bike or elliptical during practice, which was pretty frustrating. Since I returned to play after winter break, I haven’t felt any lingering effects.

1 in 5 high school athletes will get a concussion during their sports seasons.

photo by MICHELLE JARCHO

DeMaurice Smith is the executive director of the NFL Players Association, the players union that ensures rights for players. He believes that the NFL needs to improve player safety, especially regarding preventing head injuries, and that the NFL needs to do more research on concussions.

photo courtesy DEMAURICE SMITH

Executive Director of the NFL Players Association

*statistics from headcase study

‘Brain’ icon by user, from thenounproject.com ‘Helmet’ icon by Francisco Garcia Gallegos, from thenounproject.com Graphics by Abby Singer

47%

Football accounts for of high school athletes’ concussions. *statistic from headcase study

33% of athletes who have sports concussions report two or more in the same year.

*statistic from headcase study

Some studies suggest that females are

33%

Number of reported concussions has

sustain concussions as males.

of sports concussions happen at practice.

in the past 10 years.

*statistic from concussiontreatment.com

*statistic from headcase study

*statistic from headcase study

twice as likely to

doubled

10 Feature

february 10, 2016

Senior Ben Malmgren takes on stand-up comedy by gabe kahan

It’s 9:00 on a school night, but instead of working on that calculus worksheet, one senior finds himself sitting in the back of a bar, waiting for an MC’s announcement. Rehearsing a string of jokes for the umpteenth time, he suddenly hears a voice call his name into a microphone. He gets up and strides to the front of the room, passing rows of chairs—some filled, some empty. I know what I wrote, he tells himself with a pounding heart, and people are going to laugh.

Welcome to stand-up comedy, senior Ben Malmgren’s new passion. After his first performance last September at Union Jack’s in Bethesda, Malmgren has continued to write and perform stand-up this

year, making a distant dream come true.

“There’s been a slow build towards it,” he says. “I was always like, ‘Oh that’d be awesome to do stand-up comedy,’ and as I got older it turned into more and more of a reality.”

The idea first came to Malmgren in eighth grade, but he didn’t seriously contemplate it until last summer while working at a day camp, he says. It was there that he met Robbie, a fellow counselor and the person who gave him the motivation he needed to start.

“I think I saw a lot of myself in him,” Malmgren says. “We had extremely similar mannerisms—the way we spoke, we played into each other’s sense of humor.

Senior Ben Malmgren entertains seniors Gennie Anderson and Theresa Colston with his comedy. “He’s hilarious and you notice it every time you’re with him,” Ben’s friend Bram Wilson said.

Photo by Gabe Kahan

He was someone I looked up to and still do.”

Just five years older than Malmgren, Robbie was the funniest person he’d ever met, Malmgren says. But when asked if he’d ever considered stand-up, Robbie’s reply was a disappointing “I don’t think I’d be good at it.” Suddenly, Malmgren wanted to prove to himself that he could at least give it a try, he says. Not wanting to have any regrets, he started writing jokes for a set that summer.

“I was always like, ‘Oh that’d be awesome to do stand-up comedy,’ and as I got older it turned into more and more of a reality.”

- senior Ben Malmgren To improve his sets, Malmgren watches many stand-up comedians for their delivery and storytelling abilities. Some of his favorites include Jim Jeffries, Daniel Tosh and Louis C.K. because of their balance between wit, edginess and a natural presence, he says.

His comedic cleverness seeps into everyday conversation with friends and family. It’s like second nature to him, senior Yasha Fotoohi said—constantly laughing just becomes normal when you’re around him.

“He's hilarious, and you notice it everytime you're with him,” senior Bram Wilson said. “He makes everything just a little more enjoyable, especially if it would nor-

mally be a boring situation.”

But there’s always more to a joke than meets the eye. Malmgren keeps a journal where he constructs his punch lines and organizes his sets. Like many other comedians, he derives many of his jokes from his everyday experiences.

“My type of humor is observational,” Malmgren says. “That’s always been what I’ve been good at—I’ve never been a oneliner-joke kind of guy.”

The hardest part isn’t writing the punch lines, he says, it’s getting up on stage and staying composed.

“The light’s in your face and it’s five seconds before you go into a set—that’s the hardest part for me,” he says. “I’m really not a crowd person. They make me really anxious, which is kind of ironic when trying to do stand-up. But it’s something I’ll get over with time.”

Malmgren says there’s no difference between him joking with his friends and with his family.

“He’s wildly entertaining and highly inappropriate,” his mother Stacey says. “[His sense of humor] has grown over the years, so it’s fun to see it all come together for him in a natural way.”

With two Union Jack’s performances behind him, Malmgren plans to write a 30-minute set in the coming months, eventually hoping to go on stage at the Hyatt Hotel in Bethesda for their weekly comedy night. But with college on the horizon, Malmgren sees stand-up as a hobby and nothing more.

“You can't allow yourself to be held back by comfort zones,” he says. “Once you take the leap and put yourself out there it's easy. [If] you're already out there, you might as well give it your best try.”

B&W: What drew you to philanthropy? What projects are you working on now?

GB: I believe if you have the means and ability to help others, then that’s what you should do. I was awarded the opportunity to work with the City of Birmingham.

The city has a lot of revitalization issues, so I’ve been working with the EPA to help areas that have been destroyed by factories or polluted by smoke.

by Jennah Haque In the last month, Potomac has garnered national attention with the hit new Bravo series, “The Real Housewives of Potomac.” The Black & White spoke with cast member Gizelle Bryant about her work as a philanthropist, life as a single mom and new-found celebrity status. Catch “The Real Housewives of Potomac” Sundays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

The Black & White: What was the process like joining “The Real Housewives of Potomac”?

Gizelle Bryant: A good friend of mine contacted me about the show and I initially said no because I was worried about how my kids would be perceived. He convinced me it might be fun and I’m at a great place in my life, so I thought, “Why not?” If my kids and I were going to go through with this, we were going to do it together.

B&W: What can we expect from this season?

GB: We are all at different places in our lives which is interesting. You can expect to see six beautiful women who are intelligent, articulate and opinionated. That part can always cause a little drama.

B&W: What was it like to work with the other women?

GB: Four of the ladies have known each other for years: myself, Robyn, Charisse and Karen. It was nice to be filming with people I consider friends. I would say I’m the closest with Robyn. Katie and Ashley are relatively new to the group, so that was an interesting dynamic as well. Again, everybody is extremely opinionated, and there was always a lot going on, but we always have a good time.

Photo courtesy GIZELLE BRYANT

“Real Housewife” Gizelle Bryant gets real with the B&W about new show

B&W: What does a day in your life look like?

GB: I am 100 percent an all-hands-on-deck mom; I take [my kids] to school, cook their dinner, take them to ballet and all of their activities. We are also doing a lot of promoting for the show, which means a lot of press time.

“We are all at different places in our lives which is interesting. You can expect to see six beautiful women who are intelligent, articulate and opinionated. That part can always cause a little drama.”

- Gizelle Bryant B&W: I understand you’re in the process of launching a new makeup line. Can you tell us more about that?

GB: I’ve realized, for women of color, it’s difficult to match makeup with your skintone. I just wanted to address the problem and also bring a product that is paraben-free, and doesn’t clog your pores or leave you feeling ashy. We want everyone’s skin to be radiant and beautiful.

B&W: Your father [Curtis Graves, the first African American to hold a Texas House of Representatives seat since 1899] has played a prominent role in politics for many years now. Do you think his goals for social justice has shaped your mantra on helping others?

GB: Absolutely. A black man back in the 60s running for a political office and holding a political office was not cool and was not safe at that time. But he did because he wanted better lifestyles for black people.

B&W: Did you watch other “Real Housewives”?

Which housewives in particular do you admire?

GB: I watch a little bit of all of them, but I would say I admire Kyle Richards from Beverly Hills. She’s someone I’m very similar to because she has girls and she seems really fun and funny and cool. And I like to think that I’m fun, funny and cool. And of course, we all love a little Nene [from “Real Housewives of Atlanta”].

B&W: How do you feel about the label of being a housewife?

GB: I don’t think there is anything wrong with being a housewife. If you have children, you are working your behind off 24 hours a day. It’s not a black mark or bad word for me. At all.

B&W: Do you worry about exposing your private life?

GB: Of course. But, I know what I signed up for, and I don’t have anything to hide. I own every part of my life and on the show you’ll get to see the good, the bad and the ugly.

B&W: Is it uncomfortable to have cameras following you?

GB: We filmed for three months and the first couple of days were a little weird and difficult for me. There are four cameras and there are 20 people around you and you’re acting like they’re not there. But after week two, [I] almost forgot about them.

B&W: How scripted is the show?

GB: The show is not scripted at all. We just do our thing. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes there’s drama, but you really get to see it all.

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Selfies at the Smithsonian Exposure through social media provides spike in local museums’ attendance

By Sophia Knappertz

You’ve probably seen the colorful, cobweb sculpture on your Instagram feed dozens of times by now. Or maybe you’ve seen the giant word “BELIEVE” covering an entire wall or the ocean of white plastic balls everyone went swimming in over the summer.

Exhibits like these started making their social media debut last year, and the trend hasn’t slowed down since.

D.C. institutions like the Renwick Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Building Museum have capitalized on teenagers’ obsession with social media, generating free press via Instagram, Facebook and VSCO. The Renwick Gallery, a Smithsonian museum that reopened Nov. 2015 after a two-year renovation, encourages visitors to share their experiences online with the hashtag #RENWICKGALLERY. The gallery currently uses the Smithsonian Instagram page, but curator Nick Bell says the museum plans on creating a new account specifically for the Renwick.

Rather than the usual museum sign of a camera with a slash through it, signs reading “Photography Encouraged” are posted throughout the newest exhibit, “WONDER.” “The aesthetic of the exhibit is more conducive to photography than others might be,” Bell said. “We hope we can

change the precedent of not taking pictures within museums. It’s part of our culture now—it’s the world we live in.”

The museum has received largely positive feedback on social media, causing a spike in attendance with almost 200,000 visitors in less than two months, Bell said. In comparison, the National Portrait Gallery, ranked as one of the world’s top museums by National Geographic, had about 20,000 less visitors over the same time period.

“I probably wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t seen pictures of it and heard about it,” sophomore Carly Russell said. “I’m not usually a person who likes to go to galleries, but because of how many people went I feel like I had to go—kind of like the BEACH at the National Building Museum this summer.”

Russell is referring to the widely popular interactive exhibit at the National Building Museum last summer.

When the BEACH was on display, pictures flooded Instagram and Facebook of people neck deep in a pit of recycled plastic balls.

“I saw everyone posting about it on Instagram, and I really wanted to see what it was all about,” senior Ellie Gill said. “I haven’t been back because I haven’t heard about any cool new exhibits there.”

The BEACH may be gone, but the

influx of photos on social media is here to stay.

The Hirshhorn Museum is another gallery with social media fame potential, although it only allows photography in its more permanent collections.

One of the Hirshhorn’s exhibits, Barbara Kruger’s Belief + Doubt, covers every inch of the lower lobby with massive phrases plastered against the walls, ceiling and floor. This massive installation has been on display for three years and lends itself to social media posts.

“It’s not your typical art museum,” junior Michael Azimi said. “Some of the pieces are really photogenic and interactive, and there’s a lot around the museum, so it’s easy to make a day out of it.”

The Hirshhorn commissioned Kruger to create a site-specific display for one of the museum’s most visited public spaces, according to a 2012 press release.

Whether an exhibit is designed to be photographed professionally or by amateur Instagrammers, art museums are experiencing an emerging trend.

“When we re-opened, no one knew there would be such a big following on social media,” Bell said. “Social media lets us reach a whole new audience we Shindig by Patrick Dougherty (top) and Middle Fork by wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.”

8th grader creates gofundme, raises awareness for POTS By camryn dahl

After nine months of countless doctors appointments and uncertainty, 14-yearold Caroline Muir finally found an answer to her worrying symptoms. But it wasn’t a promising one.

In November, Muir, an eighth grader at Pyle, was diagnosed with a condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). POTS, generally thought to be a genetic disorder, causes the heart to race as it tries to get more blood to the head when standing up.

A monrh after her POTS diagnosis, Muir decided to do something about it.

She set up a GoFundMe and created the Caroline Muir Foundation to help combat this condition.

“I hope to raise awareness and overall let people know that POTS is a real thing that needs a cure,” Muir said. “Doctors especially need to be more educated about POTS as well as other chronic diseases. I went on for a long time before being diagnosed and starting the right treatment.”

Senior Caroline Evans, who was diagnosed with POTS in December 2011 after two months of uncertainty, also found the lack of knowledge among doctors frustrating.

“POTS is typically a diagnosis by exclusion. I was losing hope in the two months that I went around to doctors,” Evans said. “Diagnosis by exclusion mean a loss of hope. No thirteen-year-old should feel that hopeless.”

Symptoms of POTS include fainting, extreme fatigue, nausea and vomiting, weakness in the legs and anxiety or depression.

“I start off everyday feeling completely and utterly exhausted,” Muir said. “I have to rest after I take a shower because I have so little energy.”

For Muir, it’s been difficult to accept the reality of having to adjust to her condition, and her situation is both emotionally and physically straining, she said.

“Not many people understand what I’m going through,” Muir said. “I feel like I’m

John Grade (bottom) are both currently on display at the Renwick Gallery in D.C. Photos by Sophia Knappertz

going through this all alone, even though I know people are supporting me. It’s really hard to accept that this is real.”

This all started last February when Muir got sick with a stomach virus and the symptoms never went away. Her mother scheduled appointments with multiple doctors, but she never received an explanation for how horribly she was feeling until her mom’s friend recommended that she get tested for POTS. Muir took a tilt table test, in which she was strapped to a turning table to test her heart rate. If a patient’s heart rate increases by 30 beats per minute or more when tilted to an upright position, then he or she likely has POTS. When Muir failed the test in November, it became clear that she has a severe form of POTS. While it isn’t an uncommon condition—it affects 1-3 million Americans and millions more around the world—many doctors don’t know much about it and treatment options are limited.

“Most people need to increase their salt and fluid intake, participate in low intensity physical therapy and use a combination of different medicines,” Muir said.

“Some may even need heart surgery.”

However, there is one type of treatment available at the Mayo Clinic that worked wonders for Evans.

“Mayo uses holistic methods that include teaching how to work through symptoms to accomplish living a healthy

life along with things usually seen as illegitimate—like deep breathing, meditating and yoga,” Evans said. “I cannot speak enough of how key it was to ensuring I could graduate on time and apply to the colleges I wanted to apply to.”

Despite Mayo’s success, treatment overall is lacking, which is why Muir started the Foundation. In its first 14 days, the Caroline Muir Foundation raised over $2,300 from 27 different donors that will be donated to dysautonomic research centers and the Mayo Clinic’s rehab program for POTS patients.

“I’m so proud of her because she has taken an active role in telling her story and raising awareness for a syndrome that many teens suffer from and that affects her every day,” said Laurie Muir, Caroline’s mom.

For Muir, this experience has helped her understand the reality of living with a chronic disease.

“It has changed my outlook on life because I never realized how naive I was before,” Muir said. “I had never heard of POTS and didn’t understand what a chronic illness was, but now I know almost everything about it. It has made me appreciate what others can do as well as appreciate the other people with diseases or illnesses like mine. It has really opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn’t given a single thought to before.”

Alum launches Amazon T.V. series about New Yorker

by Jennah Haque

After producing “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for 17 years, Whitman alum Kahane Cooperman (‘80) has ditched the political satire scene for a stage that never sleeps: New York City.

Cooperman is now the executive producer and showrunner of the highly-anticipated Amazon T.V.-series, “The New Yorker Presents.” The show plans to bring a new medium to the iconic New Yorker Magazine by transforming the text of a typical New Yorker article into a short film or documentary. Airing weekly beginning Feb. 16, the series is exclusively available to Amazon Prime members.

“Reflecting the magazine, The New Yorker Presents combines documentaries, short scripted narrative films, comedy, poetry, animation and car-

toons,” Cooperman said. “With each episode, we hope to take the viewers on a journey, a visually powerful dive into many different world and experiences.”

With the pilot episode featuring actor Andrew Garfield reciting poetry, an art exhibit without sound and sight and a half naked man in a Speedo and football helmet screaming about the apocalypse, the show candidly captures The New Yorker’s eclectic nature in 30 short minutes.

The structure of the show also parallels a typical edition of the magazine itself.

Episodes begin with a table of contents, so viewers can skip around between stories and watch segments as they please.

In between lengthy pieces, animated cartoons act as transitions.

When beginning the show, Cooperman couldn’t wait to

bring the award-winning magazine to life. She decided to produce the show in hopes of pursuing her passion for making documentaries, she said.

“With each episode, we hope to take the viewers on a journey, a visually powerful dive into many different world and experiences.”

-Kahane Cooperman ‘80 “I truly loved ‘The Daily Show’, but when I got the call for ‘The New Yorker Presents’, I was very much ready to take the leap,” Cooperman said. “There’s really

been nothing quite like it before.”

Cooperman’s typical day on the job rarely takes place in an office.

In addition to managing routine desk work, she bounces between sound mixes, editing rooms and meetings with directors, composers, writers and other producers.

“I’m around lots of creativity,” she said. “It’s very collaborative and I am fortunate to work with an amazingly strong team.”

Her lifestyle gets even more glamorous during awards season. She’s won 11 Emmys and been nominated six more times for her work on “The Daily Show”. Cooperman traveled to Utah for the Sundance Film Festival in January, where “The New Yorker Presents” debuted.

The Whitman community is also excited for the new show.

“The New Yorker is a very high-brow, literary magazine,”

English teacher Nicholas Confino said. “With regards to the T.V. show, I think it’s really smart. I think the idea of trying out a new medium is a really smart branding move and they will appeal to a whole new demographic.”

Cooperman attributes some of her success in show business to her time at Whitman, particularly the Black & White, where she was the first female editor-in-chief of the newspaper.

“In addition to the journalism, I really thrived on the collaborative aspects of it—the idea of all these passionate people working together to create one thing,” Cooperman said. “I’ve continually sought out that type of environment in so many of the things I’ve done since, be it theater, filmmaking or television.”

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‘Milk Bar’, now in D.C., stirs, kneads, and whisks its way to tasty baking success

by Camryn Dahl

Desserts like soft-serve made from cereal milk (top) are causing a splash at the Milk Bar. In addition to soft-serve, the bakery chain also features items like corn cookies, cake truffles and layer cakes. Photos by Camryn Dahl

Soft-serve made from the milk you find at the bottom of a cereal bowl.

A cookie made of pretzels, potato chips, butterscotch chips and chocolate chips. A pie packed full of butter, heavy cream, sugar and a little corn flour. These combinations may seem odd, but at the Milk Bar, they’re all the rage.

Milk Bar, a bakery chain known for its whimsical takes on familiar homestyle desserts, opened in D.C. in October. It’s the sister bakery of the Momofuku restaurant group and has seven locations—five in New York, one in Toronto and now one in D.C. These highly acclaimed creations have amassed a cult-like following, and Milk Bar has also created a successful online platform; many of the products are shipped worldwide.

In addition to cereal milk soft serve, compost cookies and “crack pies,” the bakery features items like corn cookies, cake truffles and layer cakes. Figuring how to make these flavor combinations takes time, award winning pastry chef and founder Christina Tosi said.

“We have plenty of failures in our recipe testing and innovation sessions,” she said. “It’s usually less the flavor combos and more the technique and delivery of the idea. I think my

biggest heartbreak was when I just couldn’t get an American cheesecakepie with a saltine cracker crust and green tomato sorbet to work out in my favor.”

Despite some failures, Milk Bar has recently gained a lot of positive attention through social media—and Whitman students have certainly contributed to its Instagram notoriety.

“The more times I saw people at Milk Bar, the more it made me want to go there,” junior Jessie Lang said. “If I see yummy food on Instagram from a place nearby, then I will want to try and go there.”

“Baked goods should be made with love.

We’re ridiculous about what we do, and like to make that pop, as well.”

- Milk Bar chef and founder Christina Tosi Milk Bar’s Instagram itself has over 130,000 followers and the hashtag #momofukumilkbar has over 17,000 posts. The successful social media platform helped generate anticipation

for the opening last October. The first day it opened, the line was two hours long. Even visiting on a random Saturday in December, the wait was still a good 15-20 minutes.

The aesthetics of the restaurant also contribute to its online popularity: Bright neon signs and a colorful chalkboard line the walls. Creating such a warm and inviting environment was part of Tosi’s mission when she opened the first Milk Bar in 2008.

“Baked goods should be made with love,” Tosi said. “We’re ridiculous about what we do, and like to make that pop, as well. Our neon signs have a quirk but warmth to them, like the neon ice cream store signs of our childhood. Our chalkboards have a fun playful, creative yet humanizing side to them. Warmth and care with a giggle, I suppose.”

Tosi never anticipated the restaurant’s mass following when she opened up the first Milk Bar in New York in 2008.

“When I first opened Milk Bar, I was quite adamant about making sure the bakery was a true, honest reflection of life and food through my eyes,” Tosi said. “I had no real vision or intention beyond that. I credit everything else to the masses that received it so enthusiastically.”

Bethesda restaurant offers “soup”er healthy option

by Justin Baker

Fast food in Bethesda usually means Chipotle burritos or Five Guys burgers, but maybe it’s time to start thinking about soup.

SoupUp, which opened three months ago on Wilson Lane in Bethesda, provides a menu of six to seven freshly made soups selected weekly from a list of dozens of options.

“You can try something new every week,” employee Selim Koyen said.

The restaurant has a classic bistro atmosphere, with a hand drawn menu above the register and several large black pots of soup behind the counter. The soups are made at the beginning of the day, and a friendly wait staff brings your order right to the table. The soup comes with pita bread, but the menu also includes spring rolls, salads, corn breads, ice cream and a wide array of juices and teas. Soups range from about $8 for a small to about $12 for a large.

SoupUp aims to provide a fast yet healthy meal by offering a variety of soups made with organic ingredients. The restaurant also donates cups of soup to the homeless every month.

Donna Henry founded SoupUp after discovering a love of flavorful soups while living in Jamaica as a child.

“People are amazed when we tell them

we don’t add oils or fats,” manager Damon Drumming said. “Our ingredients are all natural and from local farms. Health nuts love the combination of a healthy yet tasty option.”

“Our ingredients are all natural and from local farms. Health nuts love the combination of a healthy yet tasty option.”

- SoupUp manager Damon Drumming The soup-centric restaurant’s originality has been a factor in turning local residents into loyal customers.

“I drove by it, and I was interested,” customer Rebecca Christoff said. “I liked that they have a lot of healthy options.”

I visited SoupUp on a Friday afternoon, and the first thing I noticed was the cheerful atmosphere.

An upbeat funk playlist was on as I walked inside the building, and I was greeted by smiling employees who were excited to answer my questions. The soups smelled delicious, and the heat from

Employee Selim Koyen explains SoupUp’s menu options, which range from meat to vegetarian and vegan selections. The restauraunt aims to serve a fast yet healthy meal using organic ingredients. Photo by Justin Baker

the pots cut through the cold outside. I was impressed by the variety of soups that they had on display, such as “Breakfast in Bed,” a soup featuring turkey bacon and vegetables.

For $12.50, I got a small herb-roasted chicken soup with pita bread and a berry flavored iced tea. The soup was flavorful with a diverse blend of ingredients, and it was complemented nicely by the refreshing iced tea.

For those wanting a meatless option, SoupUp presents other choices.

“We always include vegetarian and vegan options on the menu,” Koyen said.

SoupUp provides a quick option that’s different from the usual Bethesda fare, so if you’re looking for some variety, consider stopping by for some delicious soup.

“The food is fast, but it’s really good,” Christoff said. “Plus, they have great music.”

Junior Nathan Haddon earns perfect score on AP Exam

By Emily Schweitzer

While just under 50 percent of students taking the AP Japanese Language and Culture exam last May received a five, only seven students in the world earned a perfect score—including junior Nathan Haddon.

Haddon was one of about 300 students worldwide who earned perfect scores on at least one AP exam this past school year.

This particular AP exam is comprised of two categories: a 70 question multiple choice section and a freeresponse section including two oral responses and two written responses. Haddon answered every question correctly with ease.

“I was a little surprised,” Haddon said. “But I’m fluent in Japanese, and the test score reflected that.”

Haddon, who speaks Japanese at home, is constantly immersed in the language outside of school. On Saturdays, he attends a class run by the Japanese Department of Education at Stone Ridge High School, called Washington Japanese Language School, to keep his mind fresh. This program is designed to help students maintain fluency in

their native language while living in America. Many of his classmates are children of diplomats or kids whose families relocated because of work.

Unlike most students in the class, who have been through all five levels leading up to AP, Haddon jumped right into AP as a sophomore last year. Although it’s not his favorite subject, Haddon said he enrolled in the class after hearing from friends that the workload was reasonable and the class was entertaining.

“He is a very motivated student and knows exactly what he has to do in order to get the best outcome possible,” - Japanese teacher Yukiyo Moorman

After almost a year of preparation and help from Japanese teacher Yukiyo Moorman, Haddon felt more confident about his fluency, he said. Moorman spends most of

the school year preparing her AP students for the exam, giving extra guidance on sections she thought required more attention and practice in class, she said.

“Most of what I used on the exam came from my daily conversations with my mom and from being in class every day,” Haddon said.

Moorman even designed lessons for individual students according to their level of proficiency in the language. A big portion of the exam is writing, so Moorman said she wanted to make sure that all of the students were comfortable with writing properly.

“I focused on how to write short essays quickly,” Moorman said. “Nathan took that direction very seriously and thoughtfully. His proficiency is very strong.”

Moorman recognized that it’s Haddon’s diligent work ethic that has helped him exceed expectations and do exceptionally well on the exam.

“He is a very motivated student and knows exactly what he has to do in order to get the best outcome possible,” Moorman said. “He studied very consciously for this.”

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february 10, 2016

Cheer tirelessly jumps and twirls its way to success

by Carolyn Price

They practice over two hours a day and attend every football game, basketball game and pep rally. They take part in competitions where they’re graded on a strict rubric, and suffer injuries ranging from sprained ankles to major concussions.

The cheer teams, led by varsity coach Kristi McAleese and JV coach Kristina Smyrk, work tirelessly throughout the fall and winter seasons to perfect their competition routines. They also balance performances at the football and basketball games, yet— despite their constant dedication to their team and to others—the cheerleaders’ hard work sometimes goes unnoticed.

“I still think there are students who have a bit of a stigma towards [cheerleading] and don’t necessarily appreciate it,” Smyrk said.

During the fall season, the cheerleaders practice for about 11 hours a week and are expected

to come to every home and away football game with around 40 individual cheers memorized.

“You don’t think about anything else but practice while you’re at practice—you’re not focused on your social life while you’re throwing people up in the air” - junior Megan McMorran At fall practices, which run Monday through Saturday, the team warms up, stretches, goes through basic stunts and then slowly pieces together a competition routine. Cheerleaders often use the games as a way to practice select parts of their routine.

Lisa Cebula celebrating at a varsity football game. The squad cheers at every home and and away football game. Photo by Tomas Castro

“We’ll do bits and pieces of what we do at competition,” McAleese said. “Obviously it’s not a full blown out routine, and the stunts that we do at games are more crowd-involved.”

The varsity team attends around three competitions each year, with the county competition in November holding the most weight. This past fall, the squad won first place in Division III at counties. If they win next year as well, they can move up a division.

“The Whitman cheer team has never won a county competition at all before this year,” junior Megan McMorran said. “The team this year has really good chemistry, so it feels like we all worked together. It just feels really great.”

Each two-and-a-half-minute routine consists of stunts, a dance portion, jumps and a cheer.

The judges look at the facial expressions, the cheer itself, the execution of stunting and tumbling and overall performance.

The winter season, when the cheerleaders only cheer at basketball games, provides the team with much more freedom to try more complicated stunts and jumps.

“The summer and fall are about building the routine and nailing it for perfection, whereas the winter is more about experimentation,” McAleese said.

In terms of commitment, all cheerleaders are expected to be at every practice. The stunts require a flyer to go up with the help of two bases holding their feet, and a backspot standing behind, leaving no room for absences.

“We use everybody—we don’t have a bench,” McAleese said. “If an injury does come, it is a big loss for us because then the

Cheerleaders perform a kick full pyramid at the pep rally in October. The team is has more time to try difficult stunts in the winter season because they don’t have to attend competitions. Photo by Michelle Jarcho

whole pyramid might not be able to function because of that one person.”

Although the sport requires extreme dedication, the cheerleaders appreciate that cheer can distract them from the stress of their daily lives, they said.

“You don’t think about anything else but practice while you’re at practice—you’re not focused on your social life while you’re throwing people up in the air,” McMorran said.

The cheerleaders have noticed an increase in student enthusiasm since their counties win. Because there isn’t a team that can cheer for the cheerleaders, they encourage more students to come and show support for their hard work at games and competitions.

“It’s nice to have some honor-

ary cheerleaders out there in the crowd,” junior Grace Hering said.

“People should definitely come to our competitions to cheer us on—it’s something that we look forward to all year.”

Scan with a QR code app for a video of the cheerleading team on www.theblackandwhite.net

14 sports

february 10, 2016

Kenah: ‘Once in a career-type group to coach’ Strongest girls basketball team in years features three college-bound players and is “hungry” for a state title by ezra pine

In varsity girls basketball coach Peter Kenah’s 13 years coaching at Whitman, only one player has gone on to play at a Division I college: Erin Brown (‘08), who played at UMBC. This year, however, the star-studded squad has three players set to play Division I. Next fall, guards Marie Hatch and Hannah Niles will play at Cornell and Loyola Universities, respectively. Forward Betsy Knox has also committed to play Division III at Middlebury College. Leading scorer Abby Meyers, a junior, has a surplus of offers from power conference schools.

The girls basketball team holds a strong 12–3 record this season, and is currently ranked 17th in the state by the Washington Post. According to Kenah, this is the most skilled group that he’s ever coached.

“Their natural talent is just higher,” Kenah said. “Combine that with a superior work ethic and they’re ultra competitive.”

Scrimmaging and running drills at prac-

tice every day with other talented players has forced each player to improve.

“Playing with multiple college level players in games and practices has really helped me become the player I am today,” Niles said.

This year, the squad has placed a major focus on defense. In conference play, the Vikes have held opponents to under 40 points in every single game with their gap defense, a tight man scheme that closes off the paint. Their defense is bolstered by the team’s height, with four players at least six feet tall, leading to many blocked shots and steals.

On offense, Meyers leads the team with 20.3 points per game. Hatch, Knox and Niles are also top scorers on a night-tonight basis. Guards Jenna Hosker and Livy Meyers make a splash off the bench, with Hosker sinking 14 three-pointers in the season so far, and Livy Meyers accumulating the third most field goals on the team.

For Kenah, recruiting this type of tal-

ent to Whitman wasn’t easy. Many factors had to come together at the right time for this team to succeed, Kenah said.

Hatch was the first on Kenah’s radar.

Hatch received multiple offers from private high schools including Good Counsel and Georgetown Visitation. When Hatch was in middle school, Kenah started talking with her and introduced her to the Whitman basketball program.

“Their natural talent is just higher. Combine that with a superior work ethic and they’re ultra competitive.”

- Coach Peter Kenah “I decided Whitman would suit me best because it’s free, has the same level of talent [as a private school] and has a very passionate coach,” Hatch said.

Next was Niles, who came from Green Acres, a private middle school. Niles’ former gym teacher taught at Green Acres and coached JV basketball at Whitman.

He persuaded her to come play for the Vikings after helping Niles develop her game.

Finally, there was Abby Meyers, whose two sisters on the team, Emily and Livy, influenced her decision to play. The trio of sisters have averaged over 30 points per game combined so far this season.

Unlike her counterparts, Abby didn’t play in competitive club leagues growing up.

“She has to be the most talented kid who’s never done that,” Kenah said.

While many of the players’ basketball careers may extend beyond this season, all the girls still remain united under one common goal for this year.

“We are hungry for a state title,” Hatch said.

The stats reported are as of Monday, Feb. 8.

From left to right: Junior Abby Meyers and seniors Betsy Knox, Marie Hatch and Hannah Niles are all slated to play basketball in college. Hatch and Niles will play at Cornell and Loyola Universities in the fall, Knox will play D-III at Middlebury College and Meyers is currently being recruited by many colleges. Coach Peter Kenah started recruiting the players in middle school to create the star-studded team, whose goal this year is to bring home a state championship for the Vikings. Photos courtesy Tom Knox

Seniors head over heels for aerial yoga

By Carolyn Price

Five senior girls are taking yoga to new heights—literally.

Seniors Theresa Colston, Sonali Gupta, Gemma London, Ivori Liu and Anna Marcus have taken up aerial yoga, attending a weekly class at Level Fitness in Cabin John.

Led by instructor Debra O’Reagan, the class combines yoga and aerial acrobatics, creating a form of exercise in which participants use “hammocks” made of circus-grade

Senior Theresa Colston practices an angel pose with the silks.

Colston is one of five seniors who have taken up aerial yoga this year. Photo by Carolyn Price

polyester that hang from the ceiling. Motions include normal yoga poses modified to include the silks, such as a downward dog with the silk under the person’s hips, and positions where the participant hovers above the ground in the hammock.

“Some of the movements translate from yoga, but it has a very different feel because the hammock can be used to sit on, stand on, swing from, etc.,” O’Reagan said. “The floor in yoga provides a very firm base, whereas the fabric moves a lot so it has a very different feel to it.”

Each 75-minute session is held in one of the club’s yoga and pilates studios, equipped with hardware for the ceiling attachments so the hammocks can be easily connected.

The class’ format is similar to that of O’Reagan’s regular yoga classes, so it includes inversions—movements that place the heart above the head—and meditation.

“First we do stretches using the silks; usually there are some yoga poses incorporated, and then as we get warmed up we do inverses,” Liu said. “At the end we do shavasana in the silks.”

Shavasana is a form of meditation in which participants fashion their hammocks into a cocoon-like shape and rest inside it.

“It’s a nice way to unwind after the hour and a half of lifting up your own body weight,” Gupta said.

After suffering a serious shoulder injury in 2011, O’Reagan started aerial yoga as an exercise to do while Aerial yoga instructor Debra O’Reagan demonstrates a supshe was recovering, and then joined Level Fitness in 2012. ported inversion in front of the mirror. Photo by Carolyn Price When she began teaching, O’Reagan’s students were all adults, but she opened the class to teens when Gup- fer that her students have previous experience with yoga, ta contacted her last year and found four other students she said. for the class. There’s a noticeable difference between the Though none of the girls started aerial yoga hoping to adult and teen classes because of their physical ability, advance their yoga technique, they do appreciate how visO’Reagan said. ible the improvements in their skills are. “[Teenagers] are less fearful to try upside down moves “We will work on a certain position or series of posior flips and learn them much sooner,” O’Reagan said. “I tions for a while, slowly building up to it by not only atcan move the teen class along much more quickly than the tempting them over and over again, but also doing other adult class, which is one of the reasons I like to teach them exercises to make the position or series easier,” Gupta separately.” said. “The best part is realizing that now I can do it.”

Although using the silks is a whole-body workout, there’s no particular amount of strength or ability needed Anna Marcus is a sports editor for the Black & White. to be able to take the class. However, O’Reagan does pre-

Sports 15

february 10, 2016

Whitman athletes talk about their role models by carolyn price

Swim and dive

photo by TOMAS CASTRO

Track and field

photo courtesy WILLIAM RYBA

Whitman athlete: Caroline Rhodes Professional role model: Olympic freestyle swimmer Katie Ledecky “I train with Katie Ledecky and she’s definitely someone I look up to in the swimming community just because I

get to see all the hard work she puts in firsthand. She also stays incredibly humble, which is really impressive considering she’s considered by many to be the best female swimmer in the entire world right now.”

Whitman athlete: middledistance runner and captain William Ryba Professional role model: Kenyan 800m runner David Rudisha “He is simply the greatest runner to ever walk on the face of the earth. His performance at Berlin in 2010

when he broke the world record for the 800m was amazing, and then he only goes and breaks it again two weeks later in Rieti, which in professional running is completely unheard of—and even more unbelievable for a person who was only 21.”

Hockey

photo by TOMAS CASTRO

Girls basketball

Boys basketball

Whitman athlete: power forward Max Oppenheim Professional role model: Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol “Gasol isn’t like most NBA players; he’s not the most athletic, the fastest, or the player with the longest wingspan. But, whenever he takes the floor he’s always the smartest player on the floor.”

photo by MICHELLE JARCHO

Whitman athlete: center and captain Ben Barrett Professional role model: Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson “He’s an American, unlike most players on the Caps, and he’s always very consistent—up until about a week ago he had played over 400 consecutive games. He always picks the right moment to switch from defense to offense, and he scores a fair amount of goals without sacrificing defense.”

photo by ANNABELLE GORDON

photo by ANNABELLE GORDON

Wrestling

Whitman athlete: captain Mitch Fenton Professional role model: Olympic gold medalist wrestler Jordan Burroughs “I admire his commitment to doing things with a purpose: to get better everyday. His work ethic is comparable to none, and I've learned that hard work pays off from watching him.”

Whitman athlete: guard Abby Meyers Professional role model: Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings “Tamika is a leader and is the best player on the offensive and defensive end, despite being one of the oldest players in the league. I have learned plenty of slick moves from her as well as how to be a strong and vocal leader on and off the court.”

Opinion: It’s time to give college athletes the pay they deserve by caleb friedman

In my eyes, college football boosters and athletics directors run their programs like sweatshops—they exploit young men and women. The very athletes who earn millions upon millions of dollars for these boosters and programs aren’t compensated for their work.

As voices of many former players and analysts ring louder and louder, most notably from ESPN’s Jay Bilas, it seems as though paying college players isn’t just speculation; it looks inevitable.

The old-school view is that the athletes get scholarships that can be worth over $240,000, which is enough compensation.

But this isn’t money that the student-

athletes can use to support their families, to deposit into a bank account, or pocket.

Though the NCAA refers to the players as “student-athletes,” this term is outdated. The players are no longer students first. College sports are riddled with academic fraud and scandal, and a majority of top-tier athletes compromise their education because of the intense, year-round time commitment they have for their sport. Most high-major college football and basketball players aren’t committing to a school on national signing day.

They’re committing to an athletics program.

These athletes provide a valuable service to their athletics departments. This service allows schools to sign lucrative

sponsorship deals and to bring in as much as $30 million in some cases. Yet, these people don’t keep any of the money they earn.

Creating a system where college athletes would be paid could be complicated, but definitely possible. Because there are conflicting viewpoints within the NCAA regarding a pay-for-play system, the NCAA should gather a panel of former players, ADs and boosters and vote to choose a method to do it.

At the very minimum, athletes should be able to market themselves. If Johnny Manziel wants to go sign autographs for money, let him. College sports are really the only field where a person is not allowed to truly earn what they can on

a free market. Think about it: Any other college student is allowed to earn what he or she can for doing a job. Though most pro sports also have a fixed ceiling on what players can make because of salary caps, this cap is close to $96 million for a five-year contract, not nothing.

It’s time for a system where athletes sign contracts with schools. Let the athletes make whatever they are truly worth on an open market. If all they can negotiate is an academic scholarship, so be it.

It’s simple and it’s right: pay the players what they’re worth.

Visit theblackandwhite.net to see this article online. Comments regarding the issue of paying college athletes are welcomed and encouraged.

16 Feature

february 10, 2016

The power of puppy love Therapy dogs work with everybody from veterans to students to lower stress and raise spirits

by Norell Sherman

Meet Molly: a 14-pound bijon poodle who is much more than your average house pet. For nine years, Molly has been a certified therapy dog. She and her owner Kay Leget have worked with veterans, hospital patients and the elderly.

Molly is one of many animals reinforcing that there’s more than just medicine to ease individual pain. Many organizations are using the power of pet therapy in order to reduce emotional and physical pain, lower anxiety and increase self confidence for individuals everywhere, according to PAWS for People, a nonprofit specializing in therapeutic pet visits.

“What is so remarkable are the smiles across the patient’s faces after spending time with Molly,” Leget said. “I feel extremely proud. My dog brings more smiles and more moments of diversion and stress relief.”

Hoping to reduce student stress during exam week, the leadership class worked with Pet Connect, a nonprofit that seeks to help animals in need, to bring dogs into

the school. On Jan. 19, the third day of exams, the small gym was full of excited students surrounded by a handful of rescue dogs.

“When the first group of students came in, one kid said, ‘At last, Whitman has done something good for the students,’” Pet Connect treasurer Liz Purcell said.

Even as the fourth period exam got closer, stress seemed non-existent for the students who spent the break surrounded by dogs darting around the gym.

“Dogs are basically walking stress relievers,” junior Niko Granados said.

For one student, however, this wasn’t the first time experiencing pet therapy. Junior Jaiwen Hsu interacted with animals during his cancer recovery at Children’s Hospital in 2012. Playing with animals made his and other children’s recoveries much more bearable, he said.

“When they brought the dogs, it really added a brighten factor to the entire atmosphere,” Hsu said. “It allowed us to take our mind off the constant stress

Seniors Ariel Plotnick and Leah Gordon pet a dog in between exam periods. The leadership class partnered with Pet Connect to bring dogs into school during exam week to lower student stress. Photo by Michelle Jarcho.

Students surround Molly, a certified therapy dog. Moly and her owner, Kay Leget, have worked with veterans, hospital patients and the eldery for nine years. Photo by Michelle Jarcho.

and really just have fun. And sometimes, having fun was all we needed.”

Brigit Hynes, clinical supervisor of the acute pain management service at George Washington Hospital in D.C., has also witnessed the power of pet therapy.

Anna* was 20 years old and had come to the hospital for surgery to help fight her breast cancer. Hynes noticed extremely high pain levels in her patient, and Anna continuously labeled l her discomfort as a 10 on a scale from one to 10. The doctors were frustrated and confused because they had been doing all they could to ease Anna’s pain within a healthy limitation of medication, Hynes said.

“We found out that she had a dog that was living with her parents during the surgery, and we asked her if she would enjoy a dog coming to visit,” Hynes said.

Hynes sent in a request to have a puppy come visit Anna, and the results were remarkable.

“She had a smile on her face from ear to ear and we had never seen her so alive,” Hynes said. “It allowed her to forget about her treatment during the visit. After the visit, she seemed more motivated to leave and progress with her post surgical recovery.”

This dramatic patient transformation shows the power of the human-animal relationship.

“I think the patient-animal bond is just as strong as the doctor-patient bond,” Leget said.

Just as animals are on-call for doc-

tors in hospitals, they can also work as teacher’s assistants.

People.Animals.Love. (PAL), a local nonprofit, works with students in lowincome areas around Southeast D.C. The organization holds PAL Club, a yearround after school enrichment program.

The nonprofit brings in all types of animals for students to interact with, including chickens, guinea pigs, dogs and hermit crabs.

Dogs sit with students while they read, creating a comfortable and nonjudgmental learning environment for children. Reading levels have gone up with the use of the dogs, deputy director of PAL Lillian Knudsen said.

Working with animals in schools also fosters emotional growth for the students.

“We’re teaching them how to be interested in animals and to learn how to cope with their socio-economic tendencies and de-stress them because a lot of our children are very violent,” Knudsen said. “[After working with the animals,] you can really see change within the students. It teaches them to be sensitive.”

Whether it be for companionship, a diversion from a hard time or a way to enrich academic performance, pet therapy shows the power of a human-animal connection.

As Pet Connect Executive director Catherine Edwards said, “Who doesn’t love puppy love?” *The real name of this patient was withheld to protect her privacy.

Curing cancer, one note at a time

Junior Stefanie Abramowitz (top left) won Whitman Idol Wed. Feb. 3, and freshman Cami Stillwell (bottom row, third from left) was runnerup. The event raised about $2,300 for LLS. Two days later, junior band The Monopoly (bottom left) won Battle of the Bands, which raised about $1,800. Photos by Tomas Castro, Annabelle Gordon and Matt Farr