The Black & White Vol. 60 Issue 3

The DeMartino duo pg. 15

the

B&W

the

B&W

Print Editor-in-Chief Kendall Headley

Print Managing Editor Tara Davoodi

Print Managing Editor Alex Schupak

Print Production Head Leah Goldstein

cover photo by HEIDI THALMAN

theblackandwhite.net Online Editor-in-Chief Lily Freeman Online Managing Editors Quentin Corpuel, Caitlin Cowan Online Production Heads Christina Xiong, Greer Vermilye Online Production Assistants Jeremy Kaufman, Nicky Gandolfo, Vassili Prokopenk, Adam Giesecke Print Production Managing Assistant Maya Wiese Print Production Assistants Emma Lin, Grace Adkins, Gaby Hodor, Elizabeth Dorokhina Photo Director Josie Lane Photo Assistants Rohin Dahiya, Charlotte Horn, Maddie Kaltman, Brandon Kim, Katherine Teitelbaum, Heidi Thalman Webmaster Matt Eisner Communications and Social Media Directors Grace Corbett, John McGowan Puzzles Editor Naomi Goldstein Business Managers Quinn Sullivan, Sarah Makl Business Assistants Bertille Aubert, Sean Higgins, Elie Rasevic, Will Vander Wal, Sawyer Makl, Dresden Benke

@wwhsblackandwhite

The Black & White (B&W) is an open forum for student views from Walt Whitman High School, 7100 Whittier Blvd., Bethesda, MD, 20817. The Black & White’s website is www.theblackandwhite.net.

The B&W magazine is published six times a year. Signed opinion pieces reflect the positions of individual staff members and not necessarily the opinion of Walt Whitman High School or Montgomery County Public Schools. Unsigned editorial pieces reflect the opinion of the newspaper.

All content in the paper is reviewed to ensure that it meets the highest level of legal and ethical standards with respect to the material as libelous, obscene or invasive of

2

Print Copy Editor Aleydis Barnes Online Copy Editor Zoe Cantor Traffic Manager Matt Eisner Feature Editors Sasha Blake, Nil Ozdemir News Editors Vishnu Dandi, Claire Lane Opinion Editors Felix Leonhardt, Cate Navarrete Sports Editors Rafe Epstein, Cailey Thalman Feature Writers Jamie Forman, Lauren Heberlee, Simone Meyer, Kiara Pearce, Stephanie Solomon, Samie Travis News Writers Zach Poe, Sonya Rashkovan, Ethan Schenker, Samantha Wang, Alvar Wetzel Opinion Writers William Halward-Driemeier, Eliana Joftus, Norah Rothman, Sophie Hummel Sports Writers Gibson Hirt, David Lewis, Zach Rice, Alex Weinstein, Olivia Sonne Columists Skylar Chasen, Maya Goelman, Iman Ilias, Daniel Miller, Adam Nadifi, Rena Van Leeuwen, Danny Kotelanski Adviser Ryan Derenberger

@bdubbsonline

privacy. All corrections are posted on the website.

Recent awards include the 2019 CSPA Gold Crown, 2018 and 2017 CSPA Hybrid Silver Crowns, 2013 CSPA Gold Medalist and 2012 NSPA Online Pacemaker.

The Black & White encourages readers to submit opinions on relevant topics in the form of letters to the editor, which must be signed to be printed. Anonymity can be granted on request. The Black & White reserves the right to edit letters for content and space. Letters to the editor may be emailed to theblackandwhiteonline@gmail.com.

Annual mail subscriptions cost $35 ($120 for four-year subscription) and can be purchased through the online school store.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS American high school sports are synonymous with Friday night lights, energy-filled gyms and packed stands. Generations of students can recall cheering on their football team or yelling profanities at referees during basketball games. We hold these experiences dear to our identity as a community, which is why the return of sports was so highly anticipated by many students. After COVID-19 stalled athletic pursuits and robbed us of our student section, it’s fair to say that we came to appreciate our fans, teammates and friends just a little bit more.

This cycle, our writers chronicled the vastness of Whitman athletics. Water polo players, for instance, found a warm and inclusive community in a game known for its aggression and difficulty. Student rock climbers scaled 40-foot walls, testing both their physical strength and their trust in each other. A figure skater conquered the ice as a result of unfailing drive and commitment to her craft. Another vital element of Whitman sports — and the leading source of spirit in the stands — is our drumline. Without their famous chants, the energy in the bleachers and on the field simply wouldn’t be the same.

And what would Whitman athletics be without the endless plaques, medals and hardwear? With the DeMartino sisters leading the offensive line this season, the varsity girls soccer team battled all the way through playoffs, winning the state championship. One writer documented the sisters’ journey and their exceptionally athletic family.

We also turned to the larger Montgomery County sports community and interviewed a local Olympic gymnast, Northwest High School senior Kayla DiCello, who qualified as an alternate for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She provided insight about the dedication necessary to become an Olympic athlete, competing at the highest level as a teen.

But dedication is not exclusive to sports.

One writer reflected on his years as a Scout, filled with grueling survival trips and responsibilities to lead younger peers.

Sports are a cornerstone of the high school experience, but as our writers explored activities and dynamics that are often overlooked, it became apparent that so much lies beneath the numerous athletic achievements. Beyond the spiral of a football or the swish of a basket, we

find communal energy that propels us all the same to cheer in unison, achieve unbelievable precision in athletic skill — from the smallest of hand grips to the most powerful of figure skating jumps — and strengthen chemistry between players.

While the B&W isn’t exactly a sport, we are a team. We would like to thank our “coach,” Ryan Derenberger, for always advising us on the next play and constantly providing us with new strategies to overcome our hurdles. We also want to thank our “players,” who deftly navigate the field to produce engaging stories.

Another thanks goes out to our “team-managers” — our amazing production artists — for bringing color to what was once simply Black & White. The final thank-you is dedicated to our “fans,” those of you who sit in our student section and often engage with and aid in our reporting. From our team to yours, we thank you for caring about this vibrant community. #whitmanorbust.

Sincerely, Your editors

Alex Schupak

Managing Editor

Kendall Headley Editor-in-Chief

Tara Davoodi

Managing Editor Photo by JOSIE LANE.

3

Table of

CONTENTS

Drumline performs a choreographed number at the homecoming pep rally.

6 9 10 12 4

Drum roll please... behind the scenes of Whitman’s beloved drumline A writer reflects on his experiences as a Scout Documenting the ice-capade of competitive figure skating An analysis of the Montgomery County “Climate Action Plan”

14 15 18

Students’ experience with rock climbing builds not only strength, but friendships, too A family of D1 athletes: a look into the dynamics of the DeMartinos

Staff editorial: Reduce competition at Whitman

S

Issue 3, January 2022

TOP LEFT: Olympic gymnast Kayla DiCello flies between the uneven bars. TOP RIGHT: Senior Jenny Cook holds a water polo ball over her head as she looks for an open teammate. BOTTOM RIGHT: Junior Vivian Poe, photographed for @whitman_outfits, rocks a leather jacket paired with a graphic tee.

BOTTOM LEFT: Drumline poses outside of Bethesda’s Tastee Diner, donning their classic letterman jackets.

19 20 22 24

A reckoning of the “True Crime” genre Two writers’ evaluation of social media on body image Whitman since 2000: legacies, accomplishments and controversies Water polo makes a splash

26 28 29 30

Q&A with Olympic team gymnast Kayla DiCello

“Dune” review

Is fashion in our jeans?

Highlighting Whitman’s best outfits Crossword 5

A ‘cymbal’ of school spirit:

by SAMIE TRAVIS

“L

et’s break it down now!”

Amid crowded stands, students in black and blue letterman jackets bang on their drums, with the roar of the student section as their backdrop. The lively energy in the mass of students heightens. Soon enough, the sounds get louder — drums boom, cymbals crash, voices ring. Student excitement is palpable; win or lose, spirits are high.

Everyone knows what comes next.

“One, two, three, four — let’s get busy!”

For years, Whitman’s drumline has played an integral role in spreading school spirit. The tight-knit group of 12 student musicians performs to generate enthusiasm; they’re present at football games, basketball games and even the spring talent show.

Senior and co-captain of drumline, Phia Polley-Fisanich, joined the group after becoming instantly mesmerized by their act at her freshman orientation.

“I was so impressed and captivated by the performance that I decided at that moment that had to be me,” Polley-Fisanich said.

Drumline sounds off with cymbals and three different drums: bass, snare and quad drums. The bass drums, due to their size, require percussionists to play them vertically, held in place with a metal shoulder harness. The smaller and sharper snares strap around each drummer’s neck, and they’re hit from the top. The quads — made up of five connected drums — are played in the same fashion as the snare drums, but they’re wide enough to require a shoulder harness, too.

Drumline at Whitman typically consists of four bass players, four snare players, two or three cymbal players and two quad players.

Polley-Fisanich plays a bass drum — an instrument she first began to practice while participating in the marching band during her freshman year.

“I chose the bass because I felt pretty intimidated by the snare and quads, and I knew I could pick bass up pretty quickly,” Polley-Fisanich said. “I fell in love with the nuances of the bass.”

Senior Edward Krauland, Polley-Fisanich’s fellow captain, joined drumline his junior year after failing to make the team his freshman and sophomore years. Following those unsuccessful attempts, Krauland wanted to prove himself to the team. In an effort to achieve his drumline dreams, Krauland worked to improve his technical skills while writing different “cadences” — the short sequences of music that drumline plays.

Krauland’s first exposure to drumline was the 2016 Whitman talent show. At the time, he was a percussionist in his previous school’s band but mainly played at home.

After seeing the performance, he knew he had to join.

“I wasn’t motivated to become a better drummer until I saw drumline perform for the first time,” Krauland said. “A common thing that goes through drumline kids’ heads is that once you see them play, there’s a spark. You don’t even say, ‘I really want to do that.’ You’re like, ‘I have to do that.’”

After a percussionist’s initial request to join drumline, they must prove their skills to the captains. Tryouts consist of “call and response” drills — in which current members play a rhythm and hopeful members play it back — sight reading sheet music, answering questions that require thought and honesty — for instance, why the student wants to be on drumline or their thoughts on a specific part of a song — and freestyle dancing to a randomly chosen song while wearing their drums. The evening after the tryout, captains announce the official lineup via Facebook.

“It’s tradition at tryouts to say, ‘Dance to this song right now — no context, just dance,’” Krauland said. “It’s really embarrassing for the kids, but it shows us that they’re not holding themselves back, and that they’re courageous.”

Drumline has been a celebrated part of the Whitman community since 2007. Over the years, it’s evolved from an intense band to a more freeform, relaxed and theatrical type of group, Polley-Fisanich said. Drumline’s first captain was Danny Ullmann (‘09), who founded the group by proposing the idea to former instrumental music department head Terry Alvey. The goal of drumline was to expand Whitman’s music programs and evoke spirit in the community, which, years later, it continues to uphold.

“Drumline has been around for a long time,” snare drummer Jack Mandell said. “I’ve seen YouTube videos of Whitman drumline from 13 LEFT: Drumline members kneel while performing at a pep rally.

TOP: Drumline members pose for a photo in the band room.

RIGHT: Cymbal players Arvin Kim and Topher Leonard at a football game.

6

Drumline keeps Whitman’s heart beating

“

A common thing that goes through

drumline kids’ heads

is that once you

see them play,

there’s a

spark.

You don’t even say,

or 14 years ago that are grainy and pretty cool — they practiced in the loading dock, the same place we practice today.”

The building services loading dock is positioned right next to the music room and provides drumline with their own space to practice, polish and experiment with their material.

A typical practice for the group includes warming up with stick control exercises — short cadences that include rhythms which prepare percussionists’ hands to play — then fixing weak areas on old pieces or working through new pieces altogether. After warm-ups, the line often splits into sectionals, drumline’s different instrumental subsets, to learn or practice pieces. Near the end of a practice, the line reconvenes to play through their main set of cadences to be performed at upcoming events.

Cadences include “audibles,” which are the chants shouted throughout the set.

At Whitman games, students often join in on the audibles, Polley-Fisanich said.

“When the crowd is really receptive to what we’re doing, it’s a very empowering experience,” Polley-Fisanich said. “You feel both supported by your community, and like you’re supporting your community by bringing the hype and trying to make the games more enjoyable.”

Musicians on the line write the cadences, which are kept in a binder passed down to every drumline generation. The big blue letters “DL” can be found on the cover of this sacred object, while the words “What you are about to read is the ancient scripture of Whitman drumline; be prepared” appear on the inside cover. Due to a recent scare with the binder, drumline now keeps all of their music in a digital folder on Google Drive too.

“During COVID, the folder went missing, and we had a freak-out, because we thought all of the music for drumline was permanently lost,” Mandell said. “Quads player Bradley Rich and I went looking around the band room and found the binder in a band closet that had papers and things everywhere. We texted a selfie with the binder to our drumline group chat, and everyone was ecstatic.”

Drumline’s main events consist of sports games like football, basketball and soccer, but the crew also play at pep rallies, poms competitions and the talent show.

“At certain events, like pep rally and talent show, Edward and I choreograph routines to incorporate into our musical performance,” Polley-Fisanich said. “We spend a couple weeks in advance rehearsing them over and over with the entire line, figuring out what works and incorporating new things. It’s a very collaborative process.”

‘I really want

to do that.’

You’re like,

‘I have

“

to do that.’

7

Drumline performs at the October pep rally.

Photo courtesy ADAM ERDMAN and EDWARD KRAULAND.

8

As a club, drumline has a staff coordinator and sponsor, music teacher Brendan Kelley, but it’s largely student-led: Polley-Fisanich and Krauland do most of the heavy lifting. The two choreograph performances, run practices, choose which cadences the group will perform, manage tryouts and coordinate the events where they perform. Although Kelley supervises the practices and plays a role in communication between the line and administration, the majority of drumline’s administrative and creative components are in the captains’ hands.

“Phia and I really stepped up this year to bring drumline back to life,” Krauland said. “Once I got to this point, as captain, I established that I’m gonna enjoy it, but I’m also gonna put in the work so that drumline succeeds in the future.”

Although the captains often do the most organizational work, all drumline musicians share a similar passion for the team, Polley-Fisanich said.

“I get in the zone, and everything else goes away; it’s just me and the drum,” said senior snare drummer Adam Erdman. “At the same time though, I feel aware, and like I can notice all of the people around me. It feels surreal when I’m playing in the circle at the end of football games.”

Many special traditions bring the group closer, such as going out for food after games, wearing their unique letterman-jacket uniforms to school on performance days and taping their drumsticks with black and blue tape. Above all, the group is a family — the people that you meet on drumline are the kind of people that you would like to have around you

for life, Polley-Fisanich said.

Drumline’s full game-day uniform includes a white t-shirt, black or blue jeans and the classic letterman jackets. Former captain Joe Wiedemann came up with the idea for jackets in 2014, and the tradition has stuck ever since.

“Joe is one of my biggest inspirations as a captain, because he had the most strict drumline,” Krauland said. “They were so good and sounded so clean, all in sync. His line all had the perfect ‘drumline face,’ a straight stare that set the intimidating tone as they played.”

After a year and a half in quarantine, there have been some setbacks for the crew. The return to Whitman’s stands has challenged the musicians to familiarize themselves with all of their original cadences again, learn new ones and teach the skills necessary to play them, Polley-Fisanich said. Right now, drumline is in a revival period, working to bring back school spirit for students as well as restore their own traditions and musical abilities.

Despite these obstacles, the bond between the members of drumline is stronger than ever. Above all, the team relishes the high of performing, and they’re motivated by their rich passion for music, Erdman said.

“It makes me smile thinking about being in the circle or the stands, when everyone’s jumping up and down,” Erdman said. “I love experiencing the energy of the crowd and how happy drumline makes people.”

From follower follower to leader:

How Scouts transformed me

by WILLIAM HALLWARD-DRIEMEIER

“A

graph ic by LEAH GOLDSTEIN

In many ways, the mental struggle was just as grueling as the physScout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and rever- ical one. In those conditions, there’s no option but to keep pushing, even through rain, hail and extreme temperatures — even when your body is ent.”

Yes, it’s a mouthful, but this 15-word preamble defined my child- screaming at you to stop. Although Philmont was one of the most taxing hood. Whether I’m reciting this pledge during our meetings at Con- experiences I’ve gone through in my life, the ability to disconnect from cord-St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, hiking trails in Shenando- the world for nearly two weeks and learn to live in the wilderness is ah or skiing in West Virginia, my formative experiences as a Scout are something a regular vacation could never offer.

In those brief 12 days, I made lifelong connections with the other an integral part of my identity.

To me and my family, it came as no surprise that I joined Scouting Scouts. Whenever I see them, I’m always reminded of the memories at the age of five. It runs in my blood: My two older brothers, father and we made, the extreme conditions we endured and the inside jokes we grandfather all belonged to Boy Scout Troops, each earning the highest cracked. Bonding with them outside of a school setting — in an enviranking of Eagle Scout. Today, alongside 1.1 million other members, I ronment dependent on close collaboration to survive the wilderness — take part in activities that aim to prepare youth for adult life and shape strengthened our friendships, and now I recognize that the bonds created are the most rewarding aspects of being a Scout. them into responsible, involved citizens.

Most summers, I spend at least one week at a Scouts summer camp My first camping endeavor came during my time in Cub Scouts — the K-5 Scouting program offered by The Boy Scouts of America. When in Virginia. There, I learn an array of practical skills, from swimming to fire-building to cooking. I lead campouts, too: Every I was six, my “pack,” or Cub Scout group, began December, the Scouts BSA goes to the Antietam Civmonthly trips to various campgrounds, including an excursion to a United States battleship. I still The ability to discon- il War battlefield and sets up thousands of “luminary” candles to honor the casualties at the Battle of Antieremember the pure joy I felt while running around and exploring every nook and cranny of the ship, nect from the world tam. I was in charge of everything from organizing cooks, choosing “patrols” — the method that coordibefore exhaustion set in and we camped directly on for nearly two weeks nates where Scouts eat and sleep on campouts — and the deck. even setting up the luminaries themselves.

My fondest memories of Cub Scouts, however, Leadership is an important principle of Scoutare from the Pinewood Derby, an annual miniature and learn to live in the ing, as Scouts BSA is an organization that prides itwood car racing event. My dad and I would spend hours constructing and perfecting our car’s design wilderness is some- self on being Scout-led. Older Scouts run activities for the younger Scouts with minimal support from with the goal of reducing drag, friction and the resulting time it would take for the car to travel down thing a regular vaca- adults. This leadership model has provided me with countless situations where I had to take on major the ramp. For me, it was less about winning the race; the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with my tion could never offer. responsibility — my decisions not only affected me but also my fellow Scouts. During my second trip dad was always the most treasured part.

Even during my time as a Cub Scout, I considered myself an honor- to Philmont, for instance, I was a crew leader, in charge of nearly evary member of Scouts BSA — the coed flagship program of Boy Scouts erything from assigning other Scouts to tasks to drawing up our daily of America. In fourth grade I began attending Scouts BSA trips, meant schedule.

Leading isn’t always easy. There were many days on the trip when I for grades six through 12, tagging along with my brothers, my mom and my dad. The hikes weren’t all fun and games, especially for an elemen- felt like giving up. It’s challenging to try to motivate a group of teens to tary schooler. In one instance, I remember hiking through a foot of snow clean dishes or cook meals after a long day of hiking. But as I grew into my position, my leadership improved: I started learning how to incentivin below freezing temperatures.

I officially joined Scouts BSA in sixth grade. For many Scouts, the ize work and reduce tension between Scouts.

My most substantial leadership role came from my position as Setransition is meaningful and substantial — we even cross a small, woodnior Patrol Leader, or SPL, earlier this year. I planned meetings, decided en bridge in a ceremony to enter the next level of Scouting.

Soon enough, the short camping trips of Cub Scouts turned into what trips the troop should attend and appointed everyone in the patrol the extreme wilderness survival trips of Scouts BSA. Philmont is where leader council to their roles. There was no singular decision that sums my years of accumulated Scouting knowledge were truly put to the test; up my time as SPL. Instead, it was lots of smaller decisions that built during the summers before my freshman and junior years, I hiked for into a larger experience. After spending my school nights, weekends and 12 days in the backcountry of Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico with summers with the Scouts, I earned the distinction of Life Scout, one rung no cell service and no sign of human civilization outside of our camp. below Eagle — which I hope to achieve within a year.

From learning how to cook over a fire to learning how to lead my Along with six other Scouts and three parent chaperones, I’d hike up to 15 miles each day through rugged, mountainous terrain, carrying rough- peers, Scouting has helped prepare me to become a well-rounded comly 40 pounds of food, water and equipment on my back. I began each day munity member. My journey as a Scout may end when I turn 18, but the in the wilderness with a wakeup call at 5:30 a.m. to take down my nylon experiences and friendships I’ve gained over the years certainly won’t disappear. tent — within the hour, we would be back on the trail.

9

S

Vera Zhong jumps ahead of the competition

by Lauren Heberlee

10

enior Vera Zhong gains speed as she glides over slick white ice. With a glance over her left shoulder, she brings her arms together and transfers her weight from the blade to the toe pick of her skates to kick off. As she flies through the air, her body assumes “seatbelt position” — during which a skater tightly crosses their arms over their torso and fully extends their legs — where she remains for two-and-a-half rotations before her toe pick comes back into contact with the ice. While the skill only lasts a few quick seconds, the meticulous steps required to complete it reflect the precision necessary to land this notoriously difficult ice skating skill: the double axel.

Zhong has been a figure skater for the past 11 years. She fell in love with the sport from the moment her blade met the ice at age six, and since then, she’s competed in local, regional, national and even international competitions. Despite injuries and setbacks, something about skating has “always felt right” for Zhong, she said.

“When I was younger, I thought it was fun to skate around and jump,” Zhong said. “I still love the feeling of jumping, skating and spinning, but overall the nice thing is having something to work towards and improve on.”

After Zhong attended Burning Tree Elementary School’s annual skate night in first grade, her parents decided to sign her up for skating lessons at Cabin John Ice Rink, because she enjoyed it so much. There, she participated in group lessons taught by skating coach Nancy Lussi, who would go on to become Zhong’s individual coach for the next five years.

“I remember getting my first pair of skates,” Zhong said. “I was so excited and thought it was the coolest thing.”

After beginning to attend competitions, Zhong noticed that a few of the distinctly talented skaters at the rink trained with the same coach, Andrey Kryukov. Ready to take her skating to the next level, Zhong asked her parents if she could also begin training under Kryukov.

“This was kind of the turning point in her skating journey,” said Josephine Chen, Zhong’s mother. “This coach was actually in Ashburn, Virgina, so Vera and I sat down and had a conversation about if she and I were ready to make this commitment.”

The commitment wasn’t light.

As a freshman, Zhong would wake up at 4:30 in the morning, leave the house by 4:50, get on the ice by 5:40, train for an hour and a half and then drive back to Maryland to get to school by 7:45. When the timing was tight, sometimes she was forced to work on homework during her ride to and from the rink, Zhong said, but over the years, she’s been able to craft a manageable routine. Now, as a senior, Zhong leaves school early to train — having enrolled in a reduced course load — and spends multiple hours at the rink every afternoon. At times, this commitment has been stressful for both Zhong and Chen, but Zhong’s passion for skating has motivated the two to maintain her demanding schedule.

“If your kid has a dream, you always want to support them,” Chen said. “We decided if you really like it, we will help you.”

The intensity of Zhong’s training changes depending on her competition preparation.

In the time leading up to a competition, Zhong practices about six days a week, with each practice lasting around two hours. Otherwise, Zhong practices around three days a week.

Her practices vary in focus; some consist of only conditioning and off-ice jumps — imitating the rotations of an ice jump on regular ground — while other practices focus on learning a specific routine.

“She’s very driven, she’s very determined and she’s a perfectionist,” Kryukov said. “She understands that in order to compete at a certain level, she has to spend a lot of time on jumps and spins to make them look presentable.”

Zhong’s coaches have always been very supportive, she said, but they do expect her to constantly show up and put in maximum effort, which can become tiring. Although balancing skating and school has been difficult, for Zhong, managing that delicate balance has, over the years, simply become routine.

“There’ve been times when I had to miss a friend’s birthday party for practice,” Zhong said. “But when you enjoy doing something, you’ll pretty much do anything to make sure that you’re able to continue doing it.”

A skating competition consists of two performances: the long program, which lasts for around four minutes, and the short program, which lasts for around three minutes. Before a competition, Zhong works with her choreographer and coach to choose the music and skills for her program. Music choice is especially influential in determining the timing of the skills, the tone of the performance — whether somber or upbeat — and even the design of the dress the skater will wear. It’s common in the skating world to reuse music, so Zhong often looks to her favorite skaters like Yuzuru Hanyu and Alexandra Trusova for musical inspiration. Zhong is currently training for a performance that features music from “The Phantom of the Opera,” but she’s performed to a variety of music — including classical, pop and movie soundtracks.

“Within the past ten years, the rules have changed, because before you weren’t allowed to skate to music with lyrics, but now you can skate to pretty much anything,” Zhong said. “It’s really fun skating to lyrics, and sometimes you can skate to really elegant or graceful music for one program and then to a crazy pop song for the next one.”

There are several types of competitions for female skaters at various levels. In regional competitions, Zhong competes in the Southatlantic region, which spans from Pennsylvania down to Florida. Two years ago, Zhong competed in regionals in Philadelphia, placing second overall, and then traveled to compete at sectionals in Hyannis, Massachusetts, placing sixth overall. Last summer, Zhong competed in her first international competition in Boston, Massachusetts, and most recently, she competed in her second international competition, in Gdansk, Poland.

“It was very exciting to travel abroad, because when you go to these competitions you

can see so many skaters that you would never usually compete with locally,” Zhong said.

“I’d never been to Poland before, so it was a really awesome experience.”

Zhong says that some of the skaters she competed against in Poland train approximately seven hours a day. Although Zhong takes skating seriously, she prioritizes school first, along with a healthy balance in her social life.

“It was definitely a really interesting experience for me, because a lot of the skaters from other countries are a lot more intense; their life revolves around skating,” Zhong said.

Even when up against fierce competition, Zhong feels supported by her mother and coach who travel alongside her to competitions, she said. Chen has appreciated the opportunity to

watch her daughter improve and mature as a skater over the years.

“What I really love about her competitions is that every time before she goes on the ice, she gives me a really tight hug,” Chen said.

“That makes me feel really good, and like I have made a difference.”

Zhong’s support system isn’t limited to her mother and coach: Her fan base also includes other skaters from years of practicing together. Maya Zamcho, a sophomore at Independence High School, is a lifelong friend that Zhong made through skating. At competitions, Zamcho and Zhong take turns cheering each other on from the stands. It’s always helpful to have someone who compliments you on the

little details that most non-skaters can’t pick up on, Zamcho said.

“It’s nice to have a senior skater so I can ask her for help on jumps and spins,” she said.

“She’s someone that I can look up to.”

For Zhong, a new performance number — along with a new choreography — means a new dress. It’s common for Zhong to work with a designer to create a dress from scratch, but she also looks online for dresses that fit her body type and compliment the performance.

When she collaborates with a designer, Zhong decides on the colors, the cut of the dress and whether or not to include gems, sleeves and gloves. Then, the designer sends her sketches of the dress before it’s sewn.

“Based on their design sketches, you can say ‘I like this one,’ or ‘I like this, but I want to change something here,’” Zhong said. “You can go back and forth until you have a design that is perfect, and then they make it and ship it.”

After a competition, Zhong typically takes time off from skating to allow her body to recover before she begins training for her next performance. Figure skating often takes a physical toll on skaters as a result of the constant jumping, landing and arching the sport requires.

In her 11-year skating career, Zhong has endured numerous injuries ranging from stress fractures to concussions to chronic bone bruises on her vertebrae — these bruises have been the worst injuries she’s experienced, Zhong said. Taking time off the ice to fully recover from her injuries is challenging, because it’s possible to lose the progress that she worked so hard for, she said.

“I didn’t skate for a long time due to my injuries, so I’ve had to build my way back up to my hardest skills,” Zhong said. “It’s easy to adopt mental blocks for skills when you’re injured, because you procure subconscious fears.”

Zhong is still deciding if she will continue her skating career after high school. The NCAA doesn’t recognize figure skating in any form as one of its collegiate sports, but Zhong will still have the option to represent a skating club if she chooses to do so. Even if she opts out of competitive skating, the sport is something that she plans to always keep in her life.

“You need to have a love for the sport, something I’ve always had for skating, and an appreciation for the art of it and the physical strength that it takes,” Zhong said. “I think skating makes me a better person, because I like trying to improve and seeing what I can do next.”

LEFT: A choreographic moment from Zhong’s short program. Her performance was set to “Blues for Klook.” Photo courtesy of VERA ZHONG. ABOVE: Zhong is performing a hair-cutter variation of a layback spin in her short program. Photo courtesy of VERA ZHONG.

11

County moves to fight climate change through Climate Action Plan

by SONYA RASHKOVAN

M

ontgomery County released its “Climate Action Plan” this June, which aims to eliminate the county’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and mitigate other climate change-related risks within the area. The “Climate Team” leading the plan includes county staff across multiple departments, including the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation.

The plan lays out 86 benchmarks, which include an increase in the energy efficiency of county buildings, a reduction in the use of single-occupancy automobiles and a decrease in overall trash waste.

Montgomery County councilmember Evan Glass, a longtime advocate of climate action, maintains that climate change is at the forefront of many pressing issues that the county must address.

“Climate change is an existential problem that we are facing,” Glass said. “We needed to fix it yesterday — so we are behind the ball, playing catch up, which is why this work is so important.”

12

A Montgomery County press release called the blueprint “one of the most ambitious climate plans in the nation for a local government.” Not all stakeholders agree. While Saatchi Barochia, the MoCo Regional Student Government Association’s Environmental Policy Coordinator, acknowledges that the plan encompasses a wide range of important goals, the ideas are too broad, she said, with too few tangible solutions behind them.

“I would like to see a little more transparency on how those goals are going to be achieved,” Barochia said. “Actions to get there aren’t laid out yet.”

According to Adriana Hochberg, the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer who leads the Climate Action Plan, the proposal is an actionable framework for the county’s long-term trajectory up to 2035. The Climate Team has begun to implement the outline, identifying current, related responsibilities of each county department and deliberate steps the departments can take to be “greener.” During this fiscal year, which began in July, the group has already moved forward to tackle 78 out of the 86 goals in the initial plan.

One of the main priorities for this coming fiscal year is passing the “Building Energy Performance Standard,” a bill that requires building owners “to meet energy or carbon reduction targets” by improving their property’s energy performance. Half of the county’s carbon emissions derive from the residential and commercial building sectors, so reducing these emissions is a top priority for the county.

Another 41% of carbon emissions comes from the transportation sector in Montgomery County. Councilmember Glass has been an avid supporter of reducing single occupancy automobiles and expanding access to public transportation. Through his campaign for the county’s Kids Ride Free initiative, which gives students under 18 free ridership on public transport, Glass has made significant progress in moving away from low-occupant vehicles, he said.

“In the first three months after that policy became law, ridership increased more than 50%,” Glass said. “More students [ride] the bus so that their parents don’t have to drive them, and they don’t have to drive themselves.”

To reduce the carbon emissions resulting from public transportation, the Climate Action Plan lays out a strategy of leasing electric buses and school buses from private companies.

Montgomery County’s goal in reforming the transportation sector is to create a “safe, affordable and sustainable” structure, according to the plan. To decrease the use of cars, the plan calls for building infrastructure for walkers and bikers. The team also intends for all public transit to make the transition to 100% zero emissions by 2035.

Other issues in the county have similarly large ground for officials to cover. Montgomery County alone contributes 174,000 tons of food waste into waste disposal systems each year. As a solution, the plan includes composting in its steps to significantly reduce food waste. It also highlights the importance of incorporating local farmers as crucial stakeholders when it comes to food production and distribution.

To Advika Agarwal, Montgomery County Regional Student Government’s Special Issues Director, the Climate Action Plan is too inaccessible for everyday citizens. It features complex language in a 168 page-long document, creating a gap between policymakers and the rest of the community, she said.

“Anyone who looks at that is still not going to be able to exactly understand what issues and what actions are being laid out there,” Agarwal said. “When there’s such a big information gap, it’s really hard to get involved at all, and even get to that first step of talking to your policymaker.”

Hochberg said that representing and engaging the community and all its stakeholders will be a continuous job, especially when it comes to policy negotiations. To start, the team created the Community Justice Academy, a subcommittee tasked with initiating dialogues among local climate organizations to reach populations most impacted by climate change.

“The intent is that we would be providing resources to community members to co-design

crucial and must be included into that policy.”

The Climate Action Plan includes a chapter on racial equity and social justice. It outlines the county’s history of inequitable infrastructure funding and summarizes the current impact that systematic racism has on transportation, home ownership and energy access within the county. The plan also details the heightened need to enact critical policy points in communities of color.

Along with addressing the community’s response and working on effective steps to mitigate climate change, Hochberg says the county faces another major challenge: tracking the progress of this planned resolution. Keeping an up-to-date log of energy consumption and assessing the plan’s efficacy is extremely difficult due to the lack of real-time data on the county’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“It takes over one year to compile all the data in estimates to figure out how we did a year or two earlier,” Hochberg said. “There’s a really long lag time between all the work that we’re doing, and then knowing if it makes a difference or not.”

Regardless of current concerns, Glass hopes that both state and national leaders recognize Montgomery County’s achievement and follow its lead in implementing versions of the Climate Action Plan.

“We need to lead by example. If we want other levels of government to take action, we have to take action first,” Glass said. “There’s no question about the steps we need to take to protect our environment and to protect ourselves.”

“Climate change is an existential problem that we are facing. We needed to fix it yesterday — so we are behind the ball, playing catch up.” and co-create policies and programs,” Hochberg said. “We’re open to exploring.”

One of the biggest issues officials want the plan to address is “environmental justice” — the intersection of social justice and environmental activism.

“Climate change disproportionately impacts people of color and people from low-income backgrounds,” Barochia said. “Anything related to environmental justice is absolutely

graphic by ELIZABETH DOROKHINA

13

It’s a good day to belay

Students form rock-solid friendship through climbing

A

14

t Earth Treks climbing gym in Rockville, there’s only one way to go: up. With 45-foot tall bouldering walls, endless climbing routes and hundreds of assorted hand and foot holds, it’s a climber’s paradise. But Earth Treks is more than just a climbing haven — for juniors Luke Kullback, Micah Wagner and Hugo Byrne, the gym became a place for developing their friendship, too.

Although Kullback, Byrne and Wagner each had prior climbing experience, they first started frequenting Earth Treks together shortly before the onset of the pandemic. Since then, they’ve become climbing aficionados. The trio was initially attracted to climbing because they thought it would be an enjoyable way to get stronger as an alternative to traditional lifting, Byrne said.

There are three categories of climbing at most gyms: top roping, lead climbing and bouldering. Each type requires unique skill sets, training and knowledge. The first of the three, top roping, uses a harness and a long safety rope along a 35-40 foot wall while a partner monitors the climber from the ground.

“Top roping requires a ton of muscular endurance,” Byrne said. “I usually get really tired by the end of the climb, but when I’m able to get all the way up, the feeling is awesome.”

All three climbers are extremely experiencd in top roping. They trust each other with their lives every time they get on “belay,” which refers to a system of ropes and pulleys that catches climbers if they lose their grip — it only works if the belayer on the ground has properly weighed down the ropes.

The second type of climbing, lead climbing, is also an advanced discipline. More independent than top roping, it requires the climber to clip their rope into a series of supporting loops as they ascend up the wall with no assistance. None of the three have experience in lead climbing, although Kullback hopes to learn in the future.

The last — and most popular — form of

by ALEX WEINSTEIN gym climbing is bouldering, which consists of scaling a wall no more than 15 feet tall. Climbers don’t have harnesses, so if they fail a challenging climb, they fall back onto a protective mat. The bouldering wall stretches across the back wall of Earth Treks and is scattered with colorful hand and foot holds for climbers to use. However, in order to boulder properly, an athlete can’t use just any holds — they have to use those designated for the specific course they’re attempting, indicated by color. “[Bouldering] is so much fun,” Kullback said. “I love taking turns trying to get up a tough climb with the guys, and it’s such an exhilarating feeling to be the first to get all the way up.”

Bouldering difficulty is organized by the “V scale,” a grading system of different bouldering routes. Currently, zero is the easiest level and 17 is the most difficult, but the grading system is subject to increase as harder bouldering routes are established. At Earth Treks, the most advanced route is a V12.

Of the three friends, Kullback is the most decorated at bouldering: His personal record is a V7. Byrne and Wagner follow two levels behind, both with PRs of a V5. A V5 is still impressive, however — Byrne and Wagner have spent months practicing bouldering techniques and strengthening their upper and lower bodies as well as their grip to be able to complete these tougher routes.

“It’s a slow process, but the strength that we’ve built has really shown in our bouldering progress,” Luke said. “But when we go a while without climbing, our grip strength goes way down.”

Climbing has been a longtime passion for Kullback and Wagner; in elementary school, Kullback would climb at Earth Treks with his dad, while Wagner constantly scaled the rock walls at his sleepaway camp. When the two became friends in fifth grade, they started climbing together, eventually introducing Byrne to the sport that year.

“Even though I’ve been climbing for a while, it’s never been more enjoyable than re-

cently, since we’re all doing it together,” Kullback said.

Sometimes it’s hard to fit climbing into their busy schedule: Both Kullback and Byrne are on the Whitman boys varsity soccer team, which takes up a large portion of their free time in the fall. However, climbing has some transitive benefits to their other sport, Byrne said.

“It has definitely been huge in muscle building, which has paid off on the soccer field,” Byrne said.

Climbing is no easy feat — the sport requires both muscular and mental endurance.

But for the trio, the advantages are worth it.

High school can be an incredibly stressful time, and an outlet to decompress is crucial for students, Byrne said.

“Whenever I’m at Earth Treks, I feel completely relaxed,” Byrne said. “I get to clear my head and have a good time with my friends and accomplish something productive.”

The three agree that the one major downside to climbing at a gym is the hefty price.

A membership at Earth Treks is about $90 a month, which includes access to the weight room, gym and climbing equipment such as harnesses, climbing shoes and, of course, the walls themselves. Byrne, Kullback and Wagner all purchased their own pairs of climbing shoes when they got serious about the sport, tacking on an additional hundred dollars.

“We all made the investment and got our own shoes,” Kullback said. “They’re expensive, but they’re higher quality than the shoes at Earth Treks, and it’s pretty gross to have to use shoes that other people have worn, even if they clean them.”

The boys still consider climbing a hobby rather than a competitive sport, but the bond they’ve developed while scaling walls is something they’ve come to cherish.

“I would definitely recommend trying climbing out to anyone who wants a fun and new way to get fit,” Wagner said. “It’s brought Hugo, Luke and I together in a really awesome way.”

DEMARTINO DUO’S RISE TO THE

WHITMAN SOCCER

STARDOM

S

by STEPHANIE SOLOMON

erena and Venus Williams, Peyton and Eli Manning, Steph and Seth Curry. Over the years, sibling duos in sports have entertained, displayed undeniable chemistry and won championships — both together and individually. Delaney and Riley DeMartino are no different.

The sisters, sophomore Riley and senior Delaney, emerged this year as a dynamic duo for Whitman’s girls soccer — a state champion team as of November. The two youngest siblings in a family of athletes, their dominance on the field came as no surprise to their father, Chris DeMartino.

“They gravitated to sports from a very young age,” he said.

Both girls began playing soccer in 2009 on recreational teams, when Delaney was five and Riley was three. While the two have followed in their parents’ footsteps by participating on lacrosse and swim teams throughout their childhood, as they approached high school they found themselves drawn to soccer in particular.

“I felt a connection to the game, and then I just kind of stuck with it,” Delaney said. Taken under the wing of the upperclassmen during her freshman year, Delaney has been a starting player on Whitman girls varsity soccer for the past four years and now holds a position as captain.

In December, the Washington Post named Delaney the 2021 All-Met girls soccer player of the year, following her dominating performances this season. Even with her accolades, Delaney is someone who leads by example with an attitude that pushes the team to improve, junior teammate Charlotte Shapiro said.

“She’s not necessarily the one that’s yelling at you or telling you where to go but she’s definitely always the hardest worker,” Shapiro said. “The way that she plays is definitely a gritty, intense style, so I think that in that way it kind of rubs off on the team.”

In her freshman year, Delaney scored a tone-setting 15 goals throughout the season, aiding the team on their journey to the state championships in 2018 — a journey that ended in heartbreak.

That season, the team competed in the Class 4A Maryland State Final, held at Loyola University Maryland. Whitman’s student section made the 50-mile trip to the Ridley Athletic Complex to support the team, where they joined a total of 1,500 cheering fans. It was a nail-biter. The girls kept the supporters on the edge of their seats, scoring two goals in a five-minute stretch during the second half to tie up the previously 2-0 game. However, with a final score of 4-2, the team fell to Perry Hall. The loss instilled a drive in the team for a comeback the next year, Delaney said.

15

Delaney and Riley briefly convene during a game to plan the team’s next move. Photo courtesy BILL JAMES.

For the DeMartinos, a family packed with Division I athletes, dominance on the field isn’t anything new. Both parents and their eldest son, Christopher (Good Counsel ‘17), played a varsity sport in college at the Division I level, and their second oldest, Tyler (Whitman ‘20) currently plays at the Division I level as well.

The DeMartino parents both attended Loyola University Maryland, where their mother Erin was on the swim team and their father Chris started out playing both soccer and lacrosse before ultimately landing on baseball. Tyler, a three-year captain of the Whitman baseball team, earned a position on the 2019 First Team All-Met for baseball. He went on to commit to the University of West Virginia for baseball but transferred to Xavier University during his freshman year. Chris believes that the sisters’ other brother, Christopher, who played soccer for the College of Charleston, was the main influence on his daughters’ love for soccer.

“My oldest son and I would always be out in the yard playing soccer,” he said. “The girls would always come up to be around the soccer ball.”

As Delaney got older, her eldest brother’s love for professional soccer translated into her own appreciation for the game. She became an

16

avid fan of the English Premier League after constantly joining Christopher on the couch to watch Saturday morning matches.

“Delaney started falling in love with Liverpool and watching those games with him, so I think a lot of [her love for soccer] was from him,” Chris said.

Although they inspire each other, in a family like the DeMartinos, competition is inevitable.

“We’re very competitive with each other, which motivates us,” Delaney said. “Seeing my older brothers be successful in college kind of pushes me to be better and motivates me.”

This fierce attitude has translated into Delaney’s playing style. In a playoff match this year against Churchill, the team kept the intensity high even when the deficit was too large for Churchill to overcome.

“The game [was] winding down,” Chris said. “It [was] four to one. It’s pretty much finished and they just don’t stop. They never stop.

They go to the bitter end of competition and they love it.”

For the family, soccer is more than just playing games. Chris has found that his childrens’ love for the sport has strengthened their father-daughter relationships, he said.

“Traveling different weekends with them individually gives you a very good opportunity to be in the car, on airplanes, hotels and spending three, four days straight, just the two of you,” he said. “[It’s] a great way to really talk and get to know them better.”

Delaney agrees that soccer’s dominant role in her life has brought her closer to her parents. As a member of the club team Pipeline ECNL, she practices three times a week in Baltimore and plays in two games each weekend — excluding out-of-town tournaments. While the hour-long drive to and from Baltimore five times a week can be time consuming, it’s generated more appreciation for her parents, Delaney said, and she credits them for her many achievements.

In November 2020, Delaney committed to play soccer at Loyola University Maryland, achieving her lifelong aspiration to play in college.

“I love the game, and I want to play for as long as I can,” she said. “Being able to play Division I is a blessing, and I’m really excited.”

For Delaney, committing to Loyola was an obvious choice. Her decision was initially influenced by members of her club team: Two players from the class of 2021 had already

Delaney traps the ball with precise footwork, simultaneously looking for an open teammate to complete a pass. Photo courtesy HEIDI THALMAN.

committed to the college when Delaney began her recruitment process. Delaney and the two commits were noticeably cohesive on the field, Chris said.

The Loyola coaches began showing interest in Delaney the summer before her junior year, and she recalls naturally clicking with them, she said. “[The coaches] had a plan for her, they were very committed to her,” Chris said.

“When we went up to the school it was pretty much ‘This is where I want to go play.’”

Athleticism came naturally to the youngest sister, Riley, too. Despite trying other sports, she has never strayed from a devotion to soccer.

For Riley, the girls soccer team is the backbone of her experience at Whitman. Nervous to begin high school after an online freshman year, the girls soccer team substantially smoothed the transition, she said.

“They’re like a rat pack — you can’t break them up. They’re all together all the time, they’re very supportive of each other and it’s been an awesome season,” Chris said. “Riley absolutely loves it.”

On the Whitman team, Riley is known for her pre-game intensity. While the rest of the team forms a huddle, ready to cheer before a

match, Riley gets into her “zone,” Shapiro said. As the team rushes onto the field with enthusiastic yells, Riley’s straight face remains unchanged — a stark contrast to her cheerful persona off the field.

Once on the turf, Riley’s concentration is exhibited through her skillful navigation of the field and innate chemistry with sister Delaney — Riley plays at right forward and Delaney at center forward.

“They’re more intense with each other because of the blood relationship,” Shapiro said. “You can’t really yell at someone else on the field like you could yell like your sister.

They definitely yell at each other like they’re sisters.”

The sisters are just as supportive of their team as they are of each other. No matter who kicks the ball into the back of the net, the blonde braid of a DeMartino can be seen whipping through the air as they sprint towards the goal, eager to congratulate their teammate.

“Whenever someone scores, Delaney or Riley are always the first to hug them,” Shapiro said. “They’re always as excited for others’ successes as they are for their own success.”

With Delaney and other top seniors like co-captains Grace Li and Emma Giles graduat-

ing, the team is ready to regroup, she said.

“I’m looking forward to hopefully having another two successful seasons at Whitman,” Riley said.

With the DeMartinos in the offensive line and an equally strong force of players behind them, the varsity girls team were a force to be reckoned with in the 2021 state playoffs. The regular season ended with a record of 11–2– 1, and the team then beat Churchill, Walter Johnson and Wootton, coming out as regional champions. Coming into the state playoffs, Whitman held the third seed ranking, but this didn’t stop them from going all the way — first demolishing Parkdale 13-0 in the state quarterfinals, then sealing their place in the state championship game with an 8-0 rout of Sherwood. Three years after Delaney and Whitman suffered a heartbreaking loss, the long-awaited redemption came Nov. 20, where the team beat Broadneck 2-1 on a field the DeMartinos know well: Loyola’s.

Call it a dynasty if you will, but one thing is certain: Riley and Delaney’s soccer careers have only just begun.

17

S TA F F

EDITORIAL

ENDING OUR UNWINNABLE COMPETITION W

e are “The Overachievers.” Nationally, we’re known as the students who don’t sleep, won’t accept a “B” and can’t rest until we’ve pushed ourselves past our limits. Above all else, we’re simply competitors — and it’s not healthy.

The resulting mental health crisis is a hallmark of the “Whitman experience,” and although many of these struggles are rooted in sources outside of our control — factors that include mental illness, for instance — as a community, we must make a conscious effort to reduce the pressure on students to compete and compare.

Alexandria Robbins (‘94) addressed Whitman’s competitive environment in her New York Times bestseller “The Overachievers,” yet this competition isn’t unique to our community. Many other schools across the nation, often in similarly affluent neighborhoods, experience identical issues. In Montgomery County Public Schools, leaders have already taken steps to reduce competitive pressures on students, like designating mental health days as excused absences. But there’s still more that we can do.

A major drawback of attending a topranked school like Whitman is the enormous pressure felt by students to meet the high, specific standards of academic and career achievement that their parents have met, and have subsequently set. We recognize that not all parents fit into this narrative, but our school’s prevailing culture of competition is partially characterized by the ones who do. Often, competitive parents are the start to domino-like effects in the student body — their mentality gets passed along to their child, who then passes it along to their peers.

In this way, all students, regardless of their parents, are affected by this toxic culture.

It’s crucial for parents to emphasize that

their own level of success doesn’t have to be the universal standard, nor is there any one set of criteria for success. Students should be free to forge their own path and thrive in ways unique to them — even if it doesn’t mean a 4.0 GPA or a degree from a top-rated university.

More visibly, many parents pressure students to enroll in highly advanced courses to “stay competitive” with their classmates, placing relatively less weight on their child’s mental health or interest in the content area.

Rejecting the notion that any benefits of rigorous coursework justify pushing students beyond our academic and emotional limits is a necessary element of combating Whitman’s pervading intensity.

In the long run, students may not benefit from the sort of academic rigor that requires substantial social-emotional and mental health sacrifices to succeed. At Whitman, it’s easy to notice that such rigor potentially has damaging, long-term effects on students, such as reduced general well-being and an increased signs of anxiety or depression — overshadowing any benefits of the supposedly “better” college diploma that this intense coursework has a chance of contributing to. A 2019 study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine even placed students in “high achieving schools” on their list of “at risk youth,” which also includes children living in foster care and in poverty. Also, a report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named “excessive pressure to excel” among the top environmental conditions harming teen wellness.

We, as students among students, also play a role, frequently competing with each other in nearly every aspect of learning and often considering quantifiable academic achievements as the end-all-be-all. We consciously make the choice to compare grades and extracurriculars with our peers and subconsciously, we berate ourselves when receiving a lower score on an exam. Every time we make these comparisons, we set a damaging standard of success based on another person’s accolades — not our own. The resulting environment fosters the very lack of self-worth that compounds common mental health struggles.

As a student body, we must be gentler on ourselves and others. We shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help from teachers and

peers when we need it. Instead of focusing on keeping up with our “competitors,” we should focus on developing our individual potential and strengths — the only things we can definitively control. We can’t control our peers’ course loads and extracurricular activities. Instead, we should strive to grow as individuals and find our own niche.

We also must consider each person’s circumstances. At times, we unintentionally perceive actions meant to level the playing field as “unfair” or “cheating,” particularly in regards to accomodations. There’s a common misconception that all students start from the same position academically; this leads many of us to believe that accommodations, like extended time, give some students an unfair competitive advantage. In reality, these accommodations give many students a fair shot at not only succeeding, but learning. Dissolving the stigma surrounding measures such as mental health days, accommodations and accessibility tools will assist us in making our community a more compassionate place.

Although a change in mindset would undoubtedly aid in relieving stress and competition, concrete actions by administrators, council members and legislators have the greatest capacity for effectiveness. Instead of centering classes around the end goal of a stressful unit test, both teachers and MCPS administration should aim to incorporate more roundtables, discussions and explorations into curriculums.

For classes where regular testing is a necessity to lesson structure, teachers should provide alternative opportunities, like test corrections, to lessen the emphasis currently placed on raw test scores. In addition to changing the nature of assessments, MCPS should revise the curriculum to incorporate more collaborative learning projects. These projects — during which each student works on a specific feature to compose an overall assignment — reduce competition through group accountability, yet maintain a sense of responsibility.

Our school’s decades-long culture of competition isn’t an issue that can be conquered by one tangible action. No individual or group is entirely responsible, and it’s imperative that each of us plays a role in relieving the unbearable pressure we endure each day. Let’s view our peers not as competitors, but as human beings.

R

DO

O YH AB

18 gra

ic ph

G by

E M I R C E U R T H T I W M THE PROBLE REVEALED BY

This June, 22-year-old social media influencer Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laramie, embarked on a cross-country road trip. In Petito’s white Ford van, the two visited various state and national parks across the western United States, heavily documenting their journey on social media. But in late August, the regular communication Petito had maintained with her family suddenly stopped.

On Sept. 11, Petito’s family reported her missing to New York state’s Suffolk County police department. Then, eight days after the initial police report, officials found a body suspected to be Petito’s at the border of Grand Teton National Park on Sept. 19 — two days later, the remains were confirmed to be hers.

By the time police found Petito’s body, the “Gabby Petito” hashtag on TikTok had been viewed 286 million times. A week later, that number had risen to nearly one billion. True crime sleuths on the app quickly propelled the case to virality, creating hundreds of thousands of frenzied videos scrutinizing Petito’s Instagram captions and Spotify playlists in attempts to find clues regarding the influencer’s disappearance. Many TikTok creators pivoted their content to focus solely on Gabby Petito.

One such example was Hayley Toumaian, who went from making videos about food and Disneyland to posting 70 videos about Petito in the span of six days — and gaining 480,000 new followers in the process. Part of what compelled her to produce so much content about Petito was that Toumaian “loves listening to true crime podcasts,” she said.

The fascination with Petito was not limited to TikTok; reporting on the case saturated mainstream news outlets. The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr reported that in the span of one week, Petito had been mentioned 398 times by Fox News, 346 by CNN and 100 by MSNBC. The response to Gabby Petito’s case highlights the largest problems of true crime as a genre: the sensationalization of real people and

THE GABBY PE TITO CASE However, even before the emergence of Netflix specials and podcasts, certain cases — specifically disappearances — would regularly dominate news cycles. Case coverages like those of wealthy Boston socialite Betsy Stevenson in 1897, young Adele Boas in 1909 and New York heiress Dorothy Arnold in 1910 display American news publications’ infatuation with missing upper-class, young, white women. In 2004, Black journalist Gwen Ifill even coined the term “missing white woman syndrome” to describe the phenomenon that propelled cases such as Laci Peterson’s, Natalee Halloway’s and JonBenét Ramsey’s into the limelight while the general public failed to notice the proportionally much higher disappearance rates of women of color. According to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, Black people account for a third of active missing person cases despite making up only 13% of the population. In 22 out of 23 of Wyoming counties over the past 10 years, at least 710 indigenous people have disappeared. Fifty seven percent were women or girls and 85% were juveniles. These cases, however, barely received a fraction of the media coverage given to Gabby Petito.

This is not in any way to say that Petito’s murder doesn’t deserve awareness or justice, or that drawing attention to missing persons cases is a negative thing. But at any given time, there are thousands of missing young adults in the U.S. whose stories don’t go viral. And while the general public’s awareness of missing persons cases can be instrumental in solving them, we need to stay mindful of the real-world implications of virality while honoring the wishes of the victims’ friends and families. The widespread fascination with Gabby Petito’s case is a disturbing illustration of issues associated with the true crime genre. Now more than ever, it’s vital to remember whose stories aren’t being told.

the overwhelming focus on white women as victims.

The true crime craze has pervaded media and entertainment, especially in the United States, for decades. From Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” to CBS’s “Unsolved Mysteries,” a good crime story captivates the American public. In more recent years, true crime television, documentaries and miniseries have shot to the top of trending lists on various streaming services. When the podcast “Serial” was released in 2014, it became the fastest podcast in iTunes history to reach five million downloads and streams. It remains in the top 10 of the most listened to podcasts of all time, along with other true crime series like “Crime Junkie” and “Dr. Death.” While the reasons behind people’s love of morbid murder cases are varied and often complex, the results remain the same: Media small and large continue to turn the violent deaths of real individuals into profit and entertainment.

Insensitive remarks about how following Petito’s case is similar to “living out a true crime documentary,” or how “Netflix should get the rights to the story” fill the comment sections of TikTok videos, and it isn’t difficult to understand what spawns them. When content creators dramatize and package violent crimes as entertainment, it’s easy for followers to forget that the victims aren’t fictional characters but real people with families and friends who mourn them. In 2020, Netflix released season two of the docuseries “I am a Killer”; the first episode focused on the murder of 25-year-old Robert Mast, whose killer strangled him in a Walmart parking lot in 2015. When Netflix asked Mast’s friends and family to participate in the episode, they pleaded with the producers to scrap the project. Nevertheless, a few months later, the show was available to Netflix’s 60 million U.S. subscribers for their viewing pleasure. The dissociation of entertainment from the reality of these tragedies often leads to unethical sensationalism.

c by

hi grap

N A M OEL

G A Y Y MA DOR

B

Y HO GAB

19

Leak reveals that Facebook apps make body image worse.

We aren’t surprised.

One student’s name has been changed for anonymity.

Eliana Joftus, 11th grade: I began to believe there was something wrong with my body in elementary school. Like many other kids, I watched shows on Disney Channel and read Tiger Beat magazine, but these media portrayals didn’t show a lot of bodies that looked like mine. My body simply didn’t fit that standard. The truth is that I was a perfectly average-looking kid, but everyone I considered beautiful was extremely thin and seemingly flawless. The media I consumed was aimed towards children, so young audiences, like myself and my friends, were spoon-fed these damaging expectations before we even hit double digits.

In middle school, my feelings of inadequacy only intensified.

At 12, I downloaded my first social media platforms: Instagram, Snapchat, and Musical.ly, the predecessor to TikTok. Social media began to impact every aspect of my daily life, from my thought processes, to the conversations I had with my peers, to my increasing anxiety levels. When I saw a picture of a girl with thin arms or a small waist, all I could think about were the differences between us. When I watched a video about an influencer’s workout and diet, all I could feel was the need to change my daily routine to replicate, or even surpass, theirs.

My YouTube recommendations quickly changed from innocent videos about Ariana Grande’s fashion choices to content about waist-slimming and tips to “lose weight fast!” I attempted fad diets, started to count the calories I consumed and weighed myself everyday believing it would help me achieve the “perfect” body shape that social media had pounded into my psyche.

20

By Norah Rothman & Eliana Joftus.

This mentality seriously damaged my self-image — something I’m still recovering from to this day. I continuously suffer from disordered eating and behavioral habits, and I often have to remind myself that my destructive thoughts only benefit the corporations that perpetuate and profit off of them.

Norah Rothman, 11th grade: I’ve loved swimming since the second I first stepped onto the block.

I joined the summer team at my local pool at the age of five and my first club team at eight. For the past nine years of my life, I’ve lived in the water.

At the start of my swimming career, I loved wearing my favorite patterned one-pieces — my distinguished “lucky” suit was a race-day necessity. But when I downloaded Instagram in fifth grade, going to practice and wearing my once-cherished uniforms became a source of anxiety for me; while I used to see my suits as a form of self-expression, now, all I could focus on was the way I looked in them.

Online, I was bombarded with images of girls whose bodies looked nothing like mine. Before practices, I would spend hours in the bathroom just staring at myself in the mirror, analyzing what my body looked like from every possible angle, comparing myself to other girls and criticizing all of my “flaws.” At practices, I wanted to hide in the locker room. All of my self-perceived imperfections were visible to everyone and completely out of my control — I couldn’t Facetune my body in real life or constantly pose in a flattering manner. The thought of not looking “beautiful” was unbearable.

Many teens share similar stories to ours. Raised in an age of easy access to social media, it’s often difficult for teens not to compare their bodies to the unattainable standards set online. It’s no coincidence that our generation has higher rates of eating disorders and mental illnesses than any previous generation, according to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Regardless of background or social environment, the impact of social media on one’s self-esteem is simply unavoidable.

A September data leak revealed that Meta (formally known as Facebook) has been holding back research from the public which confirms that one of its apps, Instagram, is detrimental to teenagers’ body image — knowledge that Meta was aware of for years. An internal Meta presentation from 2019 clearly stated that, in regards to Instagram, “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.”

Despite the company’s knowledge of the harmful effects of their products, Meta has continuously downplayed the damage it causes to young adults. In March, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress that social media was more likely to have positive mental health responses than negative ones. Similarly, in May, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri argued to reporters that Instagram’s impact on teenagers’ mental health was “quite small.”

Most teenagers active on social media can attest to how naive and misleading these statements truly are: Social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest constantly perpetuate disastrous ideas of fatphobia and unrealistic beauty expectations to vulnerable youth. The fallout exists at Whitman as much as anywhere else.

“Any platform you’re going on, it doesn’t matter, there’s going to be a picture,” senior Sophie Tarlov said. “It’s going to remind you that you don’t fit the standard. Those constant visual reminders, pictures, quotes, likes, comments — it all becomes ingrained.”

Teenage girls aren’t the sole demographic affected by the online spread of ruinous body image content.

For one male student, Mark, the pressure he feels to achieve a certain body type has affected his eating habits.

“When I started lifting weights, I overate and would track my calories because I wanted to be bigger — it wasn’t healthy,” Mark said.

“Sometimes I would eat five eggs in one meal or tuna straight from the can. Months later, I felt like I got too big, and I tracked my calories again, but in the opposite direction. There were days that I probably only ate 500 calories, nowhere near the numbers I should’ve been eating.”

A 2019 study conducted by Simon Wilksch, a senior research fellow in psychology at Flinders University in Australia, examined nearly 1,000 middle school students and their use of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Tumblr. Roughly 75% of girls and 70% of boys surveyed had opened one or more social media accounts. Over 50% of girls and 45% of boys had begun to show concerning markers for eating disorders, including skipping meals and exercising at unhealthy rates.

Importantly, Wilksch found that those markers intensified the more the students engaged with social media. To make matters worse, according to 2021 research from Harvard’s School of Public Health, eating disorder rates in teens have risen during the pandemic, with researchers specifically citing increased social media time as one possible explanation.

Kate Stephens, a licensed clinical professional counselor who specializes in eating disorder recovery, confirmed the significant power social media has on body image. The increased time teens have spent online during the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem, she said.

“I’ve seen a very significant rise in eating disorders among young adults,” Stephens said. “It’s become this really toxic cycle where teens are looking for control after feeling out of control during the pandemic, and the social media content that they see — like ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos — encourages them to regulate what they eat and how much they work out.”

It’s not only social media influencers who promote these unhealthy expectations. Almost subconsciously, our peers — and often ourselves — promote them as well. On social feeds, it’s common to see posts ranging from edited pictures of friends’ bodies to the unrealistic food they’re consuming.

“It’s definitely difficult to look at something that your friend posts and not compare yourself,” sophomore Eliza Raphael said. “It’s just not a reliable insight into someone’s life.”

The biggest question that tech developers, adults, teachers and adolescents are asking is, “What now?” How do we prevent this type of content from spreading to future generations, and how do we unlearn what has been deeply rooted into our mindsets?

“There needs to be more awareness of the small, problematic things that we brush aside,” Tarlov said. “If something is putting off a bad vibe on social media— someone telling you to look a certain way, act a certain way — tell them that it’s wrong. That’s the time to step in, and use your voice, because it matters.”

This generation has the power to do what generations before us didn’t have access to: Use the same online tools that have previously damaged us to make radical changes that help us. For many, posting body-positive content — such as unedited photos with traditionally unflattering angles and messages reminding people of their positive, non-physical traits — has been a source of light in the darkness of the internet. Reexamining the role of social media offers the chance to boost self-esteem, rather than destroy it.

“Platforms should do a better job of returning to their original purpose,” Raphael said. “Take it back to the fun of social media, like dancing to a song on TikTok or sharing something cool on Instagram, not just posting things to induce jealousy or make it seem like you have the perfect life.”

Stephens suggests that all social media users limit their screen time and advises those who struggle with negative body image to curate their feeds in order to consume only healthy forms of media. This is a process she goes through with her clients, she says, in order to remove toxic influences that deepen their struggles with disordered behavior.

The reality is that social media is an integral part of any teenager’s life. It allows us to connect with friends, express ourselves artistically and opens doors to new sources of information. We don’t have to succumb to the cynicism that keeps us sucked into cycles of self-hatred.

Changes at the individual level — like those that Stephens suggests — allow teens to use social media in a constructive way. Changes at a macro-level, however, may be more difficult to achieve. They rely on corporations like Meta taking steps that promote the emotional wellbeing of teens, and acknowledging — not ignoring — their currently significant role in lowering self-esteem.

Regardless of large-scale action, in order to unlearn habitual patterns, we as individuals must do more than simply spread positivity. By actively not liking, following or spreading unhealthy media, we can detract attention from destructive online sources. After all, one damaging post or comment can leave a lasting harmful impact on anyone.

21

Whitman through the years: A look back at our school's history since 2000

by Stephanie Solomon

"As Walt Whitman High School first opened in 1962, the building was fresh and its teachers unknown. For the hundreds of students who occupied the hallways and classrooms of Bethesda's newest school, much uncertainly lay ahead.

Walter Johnson and Bethesda Chevy-Chase High Schools had numerous stereotypes and a deeply instilled culture. Whiman had neither.

The decades ahead would establish Whitman's presence in the community, and both glory and tragedy would leave indelible marks on the school's character. Optimism in the early 1960s and later protests over the war in Vietnam characterized the school's early years; marijuana use and a general indifference to authority consumed much of the 1970s; fading rebelliousness came with increased optimism in the 1980s; and new doubt over the purity of Whitman's suburban paradise plagued the 1990s.

Yet through every superficially defined era, students lived a balance of both good times and bad. For every state championship, there was yet another tragedy. Through it all, the community of Whitman endured; and now 38 years after its opening, the school has come to welcome a culture of its own."

- The Black & White, Volume 38 No. 13, May 2000

A

t the turn of the millenium, The Black & White published an article reflecting on Whitman’s then 38-year history. As the 60th anniversary of the school’s opening nears — taking place next year — we decided to follow in our predecessors’ footsteps, exploring Whitman’s past, present and future.

In 2000, when low-rise jeans and flip phones were all the rage, we wrote about student-led social activism that began in the ‘60s and stretched into the new century, and we covered Whitman’s intense party scene that further established itself as a cornerstone of the “work hard, play hard” culture.

In the two decades since the article’s publication, Whitman has seen the ups and the inevitable downs, the championships won and lost, the changes in staff and shifts of curriculum of any American high school. Tragedies, too, have occured. Our reputation for academic achievement has endured. As we look back, Whitman’s history is a complicated one — but one marked by resilience from every member of its community.

MILESTONES In 2004, Principal Jerome M. Marco an-

22 22

nounced his retirement after a 29-year tenure as principal. The community commemorated Marco’s legacy with a ceremony in the stadium, which, from that point forward, was named Jerome M. Marco Stadium in his honor. Dr. Alan Goodwin — former Pyle Middle School principal and 19-year Assistant Principal at Whitman — took his place.

In 2016, Whitman mirrored many high schools around the country and eliminated the tradition of electing a “Homecoming Court” in an attempt to counter the prominence of gender-identity norms. The transition was relatively smooth, according to reporting from The Black & White, as students at Whitman had already begun to overlook the naming of the school King and Queen.

After serving as principal for 14 years, Goodwin retired in 2018. Dr. Robert Dodd, former lead consulting principal for the Montgomery County Office of Human Resources and Development, was nominated by the Board of Education to take on the role. He began his work at Whitman on July 1, 2018.

After years of debate about whether or not the installation of a turf field in Marco Stadium would increase athletes’ risk of injury, the school ultimately made the million-dollar investment in 2018. Whitman’s then decades-old

grass field underwent construction for five months. Whitman was one of the later schools in the county to do so, following Walter Johnson, Richard Montgomery and Montgomery Blair. The turf field was ready for use in October of 2018, drawing both positive and negative reactions from athletes. Public and private inspectors monitored the field condition in scheduled inspections. Then, on Nov. 4, 2021, Whitman shut down the field for the remainder of the fall athletic season as a precautionary safety measure, as stated in a community email from Principal Dodd.

Following multiple racist incidents, in 2019, administration introduced “OneWhitman,” a biweekly seminar initiative to facilitate classroom discussion on inclusion and diversity. Dodd and then-Assistant-Principal Philip Yarborough developed the program to emphasize that Whitman is “no place for hate” — a slogan and goal the school adopted.

DRUG & ALCOHOL ABUSE Since its opening in the ‘60s, Whitman has carried a reputation for substance abuse, indulgence and a distinctive party culture. Marco made efforts to erase Whitman’s label as “the county’s drinking school” throughout his tenure. The Washington Post published an article

in 1995 on the school’s rampant drinking culture, which followed a car accident involving a student driving while intoxicated. The student and his passenger — a Whitman peer — both passed away. Marco responded by instituting a zero-tolerance disciplinary policy for underage drinking. However, this drinking culture persisted into the 2000s, as students at Whitman — a school nationally known for its academic excellence — continued to engage in high levels of underage drinking.

At a 2000 houseparty, Montgomery County police arrested twelve Whitman students on charges of underage drinking after a neighbor called in a complaint to police. Three of the students were athletes and, along with a mandatory 20 hours of community service, faced three-week suspensions from their practices and games.

In the winter of 2017, Whitman’s long-standing pattern of substance abuse resulted in the death of a student. Following a parent-sanctioned party that police had broken up, the student attempted to walk home while intoxicated and passed away from hypothermia. As diplomats, the parents hosting the party were immune to arrest.

Goodwin set similarly strict consequences for students during his time as principal, emphasizing that illegal activity outside of school would yield punishment. After police broke up a 2011 houseparty — which resulted in three dozen students receiving citations for alcohol possession — Goodwin prohibited the students from attending sports games, student events and after school activities.

E-cigarettes and dab pens — devices that administer tobacco and cannabis — gained popularity in the 2010s, and many students followed the trend of the “on the go” buzz. Administrators found it difficult to manage substance abuse on school property: The electronic devices typically produce odorless vapor. In 2018, administration still attempted to counter the rise in student vaping by placing cautionary posters that advised against vaping in student bathrooms — hotspots for drug use.

In the summer of 2019, reports spread about a “vaping illness,” or more formally “vaping-associated pulmonary injury” that was affecting teens. Including difficulty breathing, fever and gastrointestinal distress, the serious set of complications partially recharacterized vaping’s supposed status of complete harmlessness.

On Oct. 1, 2019, Maryland changed its tobacco sales laws, increasing the legal age of purchase from 18 to 21. However, the change could not fully prevent students from obtaining electronic vaping devices. With the prevalence of fake-ID usage, veiled online purchases and social media advertisements targeted towards teenagers, the issue persists to this day, at Whitman and across the country.

ACADEMIC & ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENT Whitman’s wide array of academic achievements continued into the 2000s, but a growing spotlight on mental health has allowed for a more nuanced examination of the

consequences of “excellence.” In 2006, alumna Alexandra Robbins (‘94) published her novel “The Overachievers,” which followed seven Whitman students through their journey at the school. Robbins highlighted the average SAT scores at Whitman — at the time, 200 points above the national average — and detailed student schedules, often packed with AP classes.

These rigorous course loads, combined with numerous extracurriculars, often caused the featured students frequent panic attacks, anxiety-induced hair loss, and a lack of a social life, she wrote. One of the Whitman students the novel follows is aptly nicknamed “AP Frank” after the nearly unmanageable difficulty of his schedule, which consisted of 17 AP classes in his time at Whitman.

In other ways, however, the demanding environment has paid off: U.S. News named Whitman the best public high school in Maryland in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021.

According to U.S. News, 88% of Whitman students took at least one AP exam and 84% passed at least one AP exam in the 2018-2019 school year, the most recent year reported.

On the College Readiness Index, composed of scores from math and reading state assessments, AP exam scores and graduation rates, Whitman received 85.3% readiness while the MCPS average was 45%. Alums self-reported their college destinations to The Black & White, with 34 students committing to Ivy Leagues in the last two years, and others awarded impressive scholarships to high ranking institutions.

Success reflected not only in the classroom but on the field, too. From 2010 to 2021, Whitman brought home twelve state championships, won by the girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls tennis, boys swim and dive and golf teams. The boys varsity soccer team received four of these titles — including back-to-back state championship wins in 2018 and 2019 — and the girls soccer team received three. Whitman continues to produce many collegiate student athletes, including multiple Division I commits each year, including Gabe Segal (‘19) to Stanford men’s soccer and Abby Meyers (‘18) to Princeton women’s basketball.

SOCIAL ACTIVISM Similar to the widespread student activism in response to the Vietnam war in the early 1960s, the next generation of Whitman students continued to attend and organize protests in Bethesda and Washington, D.C. In 2003, a group of over 200 students organized a walkout during school hours, protesting the initiation of the Iraq War under the Bush administration. To counter this statement, an opposing group of 21 students also arranged an impromptu rally in favor of the war. Following the walkout and its response, students continued to protest against the war, taking part in a Montgomery County Students for Peace and Justice assembly at the Judiciary Square Metro station.

In 2009, the Westboro Baptist Church — a Kansas organization known for their outspoken hate speech — traveled to Whitman to protest the name of the school, claiming that our namesake Walt Whitman was homosexual.

The regular school schedule ensued after the

protesters arrived, despite the 40 police officers and five horses brought to the scene by Montgomery County Police. Administration turned the demonstration into a lesson, teaching students about tolerance.

In 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a former Douglas student opened fire inside the high school, killing 17 students. Exactly one month after the shooting, nearly 600 Whitman students took part in a walkout during the school day. Goodwin planned for the walkout, adjusting the class schedule so the participants would not miss instruction. Only ten days later, on March 24, 2018, the nationally covered March for Our Lives demonstration took place in Washington D.C. Approximately 200,000 people from across the country gathered on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House to advocate for stricter gun control laws. Over 100 Whitman students attended.

Climate change has also emerged as an important issue to Whitman students. On Sept.

20, 2019, instead of heading to class, some Whitman students drove or rode the metro to the Capitol along with thousands of other protesters in a youth-led strike. Multiple Whitman students co-led the U.S. Youth Climate Strike, attempting to achieve political action to mitigate the global climate crisis.

Alongside national and international concerns, Whitman has shown activism for events immediately affecting our community. Over the past two years, a series of incidents brought greater attention to the pervasive issue of racial inequality at Whitman. In 2019, two non-black students posted a picture on social media of themselves in blackface with a caption referring to themselves as “n-words.” A year later, in March 2020, administration discovered graffiti on the school campus containing the term “lynch” followed by the n-word and a depiction of a noose. Then again, in June, a nearly identical incident of vandalism was found on a utility shed on school property. While Montgomery County police eventually arrested the student perpetrators, the racist events coincided with a series of national protests against police brutality, racial inequality and systemic racism — prompting students to take further action.

In the midst of the pandemic, Whitman students, along with students from neighboring schools, organized and attended a protest in downtown Bethesda: A crowd of over 1,000 people gathered outside the Connie Morella Library to speak out on the nation’s racial climate in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. Simultaneously, anonymous Instagram accounts like @blackatwhitman began to report and shed light on the numerous negative experiences minority students had at Whitman over the years.

In this new millennium, we’ve been change-makers, champions and high-achievers; we’ve attempted to learn from our failures and move into the future. We look forward to seeing what we’ll become in the next 20, 30 and 40 years at 7100 Whittier Boulevard.

23 23

Students find close-knit community in

wa t e r p o l o

by Samie Travis

24

Senior Jenny Cook swims rapidly down the pool, dodging a defender with ease. She raises her hand high above the water, the signal for her teammate to pass the yellow nylon ball to her through the air, then expertly catches it with one hand. She forcefully swings her arm forwards, propelling the ball straight past the opposing team’s goalie and into the back of the net. Cook’s teammates erupt in cheers, splashing the pool water in celebration — for Cook, playing alongside her team during an intense match is one of the most rewarding aspects of playing water polo for Whitman.

While the water polo team has only existed since 2011, it’s garnered a passionate community of players throughout its ten-year existence. Whitman is the only Montgomery County public school to offer water polo — a testament to the strength of its circle.

Cook, one of two captains alongside senior Nathan Hackel, joined the team as a freshman.

Her initial decision to attend a Whitman water polo clinic came simply from her love for recreational swimming, but she was soon drawn to the game by the fun of the contest and the team’s general kindness, Cook said.

“I knew that Whitman had walk-on teams, and I wanted to play a fall sport to immerse myself in the Whitman community right away,” Cook said. “I went to the clinic, because I wanted to play a sport, but I ended up thinking, ‘Wow, these people are so nice.’”

Water polo functions as a mixture of multiple sports, incorporating aspects of handball, basketball and swimming. Players aim to score in one of two goals at opposite ends of the pool by throwing the ball amongst teammates with one hand — two handed throws aren’t permitted in any form, pass or shot. There are seven players on each team during a game. This includes the goalkeeper, left wing, left driver, point, right driver, right wing and center forward.

Water polo matches take place in 12foot deep pools, so players must tread water throughout the entire game. To make this easier, they employ a special form of treading called the “eggbeater.” This style requires the swimmer to alternate one-legged breaststroke kicks between their feet, helping the player stay steady at the surface, Cook said.

Like basketball and soccer, all team members play defense and offense, navigating tough shots and guarding opponents closely.

“Learning the different rules, regulations and strategies was a challenge because there’s

so much out there,” Cook said. “Getting physically in shape required a lot of effort too, because water polo is a serious workout. I think that anyone’s capable of doing it, though, if they’re ready to work.”

To get in shape and improve their speed, players complete various swim conditioning workouts before the start of the season. Sufficiency in fundamental swimming skills is a crucial aspect to success, as swimming is to water polo what running is to any field sport.

Water polo practices typically begin with a swimming warm-up, the sport’s equivalent to jogging.

“The faster you are, the better plays you can make,” Cook said. “You can catch up with someone who’s on a breakaway, or you can be the person on the breakaway getting in a competitive position for scoring.”

Hackel, Cook’s co-captain, also joined the team his freshman year. For years, Hackel swam competitively — that’s why as a seventh grader, his interest was initially piqued by the alternative aquatic sport. Interest quickly turned into passion, and he now finds himself attached to the game, he said.

In Hackel and Cook’s four years on the team, the dynamic has shifted greatly, Cook

said. When the current captains joined the water polo team during their freshman year, the team employed a professional coach, which made practices, games and other team events more intense and competitive. The team also had an arduous practice schedule and competed in high-level tournaments at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. The environment was geared towards experienced players and less so towards beginners, Cook said.

Since then, the water polo team has adjusted to value adaptability, using every player in specific ways to formulate the strongest team possible. The coaches and captains focus on improving all players’ skills by establishing a growth-based environment in practices and giving all players valuable game time.

“What I’ve experienced this season is the importance of flexibility in positions and being able to try new things,” Cook said. “We have a very developmental team, meaning players go where they can learn and go where they’re needed.”

This year, the entire coaching staff is new: It includes Whitman water polo alumnus Luke Winer (‘14), former Whitman water polo coach Heather Olsen (2013-2014) and water polo player-turned-coach Mac Schoen, who mas-

tered the sport as a university student in London.

“Whitman water polo has one of the best team vibes out of any team I’ve been a part of,” Olsen said. “The players are there to win, but they’re also there to have a lot of fun. This team is so supportive, and they just want each other to thrive in the pool, which I really love seeing.”

For Olsen, building relationships with the athletes and watching them improve their skills is highly gratifying. Seeing the expressions of pride and accomplishment on players’ faces when they finally grasp a concept or score points using newfound techniques provides an unbeatable feeling as a coach, she said.

Hackel supports the easygoing and cooperative style of coaching that Olsen, Winer and Schoen have implemented this year.

“Before this year, I hadn’t met any of them, but they’re all great and a ton of fun to be around,” Hackel said. “They’re great for new people who are learning the sport. They know that we just want to have fun; they’re here for that.”

As a result of the 2020 season’s cancellation due to COVID-19, the team couldn’t recruit players, so this year, a large portion of the team is composed of freshmen and sophomores, Hackel said. This vitality is something Cook and Hackel appreciate after a year off.

“It’s great because there’s still that seriousness and passion for learning the sport and getting really good, but there’s also this culture of it being okay to make mistakes, and take it slow in order to learn how to do things,” Cook said. “Water polo is a very intense sport, so having that guide to help you is definitely something I wish was in place more when I started playing.”

Junior Davis Moore, who joined the team his freshman year, also enjoys the inclusive community water polo provides.

“It’s pretty laid back and a lot of fun,” Moore said. “Everyone is focused on becoming a better teammate and better player. The team still focuses on the competitive aspect, but it’s a really healthy environment.”

After warm-ups, a typical practice for Whitman’s water polo team consists of an array of different drills: Shooting and blocking drills

make regular appearances, but so do “three on two” and “kick out” drills. Like hockey, water polo “kicks out” players for penalties, triggering 20-second “power plays,” during which the other team has a one-man advantage. Scrimmages offer the best opportunities to work on these specific gameplay mechanics, Cook said.

“Game awareness is an important skill we work on in scrimmages,” Moore said. “In water polo, when the whistle blows the game doesn’t stop, so training to look up at the referee, see what call they made and immediately resume play is crucial.”

There’s a unique intensity that comes with the sports’ utilization of close physical contact; rules regulating bodily proximity and physical aggressiveness are necessary, Hackel said, given the fierce nature of water polo. Scratching, kicking, smacking and biting are not uncommon methods of gameplay — while not apparent on the surface, below the water, these actions are frequent during matches.

“Referees normally check players’ nails to make sure they aren’t too long and can’t do much damage,” Hackel said. “It’s a violent sport, but with Whitman right now, no one’s quite at the level where they’re being overly aggressive on purpose.”

Red cards — given for overt aggressive actions like punching other players — remove a player for the rest of the game. Yellow cards are for less violent infractions: Cursing at a referee, for instance, is among the listed fouls.

Some fouls are used in a strategic way to help advance play; a player can stop the opposing team from scoring by fouling the player holding the ball inside the five meter line, forcing them to pass, Hackel said.

Although water polo is a male-dominated sport and most of the team’s opponents are allboys prep schools from the surrounding area — Landon, Gonzaga, Georgetown Prep and Gilman are all frequent adversaries — Cook feels the Whitman water polo environment promotes a positive culture. She’s never experienced sexism while playing on the team, she said. The eight girls on the 23-player team roster have developed a close-knit friendship, and they routinely spend time together outside of practice, Cook said.

Although the Whitman water polo team is

cherished by its athletes, the Whitman community largely has yet to recognize the sport in the same regard as other athletic programs at the school.

“It’s been at the school for around 10 years, so I wish it was a more highly acknowledged sport,” Hackel said. “It’s a great sport and it’s a lot of fun to play, but the school doesn’t always advertise it as much as some other sports because it’s a club sport.”

Water polo’s status as a club sport is not its only differentiating factor from other sports at Whitman: Whitman doesn’t have an aquatic facility, so the team practices and plays games at other schools or public pools, while other Whitman varsity sports have the opportunity for home games. As a result, producing school spirit in the stands is a much greater challenge.

Hackel hopes the team can gain more recognition in the next few years in order to generate interest in the sport and recruit prospective players, he said.

Cook, Hackel and Moore all hope to continue their water polo careers in the future, they said. Cook wishes to continue playing on a club or intramural team in college. Similarly, Moore wants to continue competing post-graduation, ideally on a recreational or club team, while Hackel hopes to continue his water polo journey on a club or a Division III team after high school, he said.

For now, the team’s focus is solely on developing the sport at Whitman. While water polo can be strenuous, the team community and support is what players value most.

“The Whitman water polo team is more collaborative than competitive,” Hackel said.

“There isn’t pressure to win every game — it’s about trying to help the team improve and lifting each other up. This commitment and dedication to growth is what I love most about the team.”

LEFT: The Whitman team poses for a group photo with their coaches after beating Landon 10-4.

TOP LEFT: Jenny Cook demonstrates the scrappy nature of water polo, aiming to obtain control of the ball. TOP RIGHT: Whitman player has a shot on goal. Photos courtesy JENNY COOK and DAVIS MOORE.

25

QA &

with Kayla DiCello

by SKYLAR CHASEN

T

he Black & White sat down with Tokyo Olympic gymnast alternate Kayla DiCello to learn more about her dedication, athletic training and progression as a gymnast. DiCello began her journey at two years old, taking mommy-and-me classes while waiting for her older brother’s gymnastics practices to finish. This summer, she travelled to Tokyo alongside other Olympic teams after placing sixth in the Olympic trials all-around. Prior to the Olympics, DiCello won silver in the 2018 U.S. National Championships all-around, and then gold in the same event a year later. Most recently, in October, she won bronze in the all-around final at the 2021 World Championships in Japan. DiCello is currently a senior at Northwest High School in Montgomery County and has committed to the University of Florida’s gymnastics program post-graduation.

Responses have been edited for clarity.

B&W: TELL US ABOUT YOUR GYMNASTICS JOURNEY.

DiCello: I started doing elite gymnastics when I was 13. In my first competition, I came in second to last, but the next year at that same meet I ended up second. It showed that all the work I had done before was paying off, and the next year I won the last meet of the season. The year after that I was a senior elite, not junior, which was a lot more fun because bigger crowds came to competitions. Coronavirus was really hard on everyone, because we couldn’t go to gyms and work on keeping the skills we need.

But honestly for me that extra year was beneficial because I used it to work hard and gain skills that I needed to be part of the Olympic selection.

B&W: WHAT HAS KEPT YOU INVOLVED IN GYMNASTICS?

DiCello: I stuck with it because I’ve always loved it, even when I was little. As I got older, I started working towards my goal of competing in the Olympics for my country. After watching the Olympics, I started to develop that goal but always thought it was more of a dream than a reality, then around 2018 it started becoming more of a reality for me.

26

B&W: WHAT HAS BEEN THE COOLEST EXPERIENCE YOU’VE HAD AS A GYMNAST?

DiCello: Definitely traveling and seeing other countries while competing for the U.S. And all the friends I’ve made with people I didn’t know before. We go to these national gymnast camps for four days and become best friends.

B&W: WHAT HAS BEEN THE HARDEST PART OF DOING ELITE GYMNASTICS?

DiCello: It’s tough on your body because there are so many hours.

Also, sometimes you just don’t always want to get up and go to practice. I think getting myself to go and staying motivated some days is the hardest part. But at the end of the day I want to go, and I know any skipped time will just make the next practice even harder.

B&W: WHAT DOES YOUR SCHEDULE LOOK LIKE, AND HOW DO YOU FIND A BALANCE?

DiCello: I’ve always done 30-32 hours a week. I go to the gym six days a week. Four of those days I practice once a day, and the other two days I practice twice for two hours each. I try to get all my homework done during the school day when I have free time, and then after school I focus on practices, and I leave the weekends free to hang out with my friends. My school is also pretty flexible; they understand if I need extra time when I’m traveling and give me a lot of support if I need to catch up.

B&W: DESCRIBE YOUR COLLEGE APPLICATION PROCESS. WHAT IS IT LIKE FOR A GYMNAST?

DiCello: A lot of college coaches would come to our meets, so it was very easy to get in contact with [them]. I decided to commit to the University of Florida gymnastics program because I’ve always wanted to go to the school; it’s always been my dream school and when I visited it just felt like home. The gym and coaches were amazing.

“IT’S ALWAYS BEEN MY DREAM SCHOOL AND WHEN I VISITED IT JUST FELT LIKE HOME. THE GYM AND COACHES WERE AMAZING.”

B&W: WHO ARE YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCES?

DiCello: Dominique Dawes, Courtney Kupets, Corrie Lothrop and Elise Ray. All of them were in the Olympics, came from my gym and had the same coach as me.

B&W: WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FOUND OUT YOU WERE GOING TO THE OLYMPICS? HOW DID YOU FEEL?

DiCello: After the Olympic trials, the judges brought us back into a room while they waited to tell us who made the team and who were going to be alternates. Everyone was sitting there in silence holding hands — it was so quiet in there. As they walked in, we all just stared at them. When they announced I was going to be an alternate, I was a little disappointed I wasn’t on the team, but I was so happy to be part of the experience and be there in case someone got hurt or couldn’t perform.

B&W: DESCRIBE YOUR OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE.

DiCello: I was gone for about a week and a half this summer. But we couldn’t leave the hotel while we were in Tokyo — we were either in the hotel or the gym. We did a COVID spit test every morning, and we had the same schedule of practicing while we were there. Socially, we got to talk to the Ireland team who trained in the gym right before us. We quickly became friends with them. The Olympics usually hosts a banquet at the end of the games, but unfortunately they didn’t this year because of Coronavirus.

B&W: WHAT’S ONE LESSON YOU WOULD GIVE PEOPLE BASED ON YOUR EXPERIENCES?

DiCello: Even when things get hard you can’t give up. When you have your mind set on something you want, achieving it is not going to be easy, but the outcome will be worth it knowing that you worked for it, and it wasn’t handed to you.

Both photos picture DiCello performing on the beam. Photos courtesy of KAYLA DICELLO.

photo collage by GABY HODOR

27

We dream of better book-to-movie adaptations, and in the latest iteration of “Dune” we get one.

by ALVAR WETZEL

“D

reams are messages from the deep.”

So begins director Denis Villenueve’s highly anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” — the blockbuster released in theaters and HBO Max this October. These words, spoken in low, guttural “Sardaukar” language, are a simple way to open the film, and yet, somehow, they work to set up a movie so large in scale that it dwarfs even the most expansive sci-fi films of the last decade. This is a movie about dreams, indeed, the power of prophecy and the perils of messiahs.

With a cast led by Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa and Zendaya, “Dune” tells the tale of Paul Atreides, a gifted young man who is born into a carefully crafted destiny and must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe — Arrakis — in order to ensure a prosperous future for his people and family. This story occurs within the context of political and military conflict surrounding the universe’s most precious resource: spice, known as “melange,” which is only found on the threatening desert planet.

“Dune” doesn’t waste much time on this exposition — in its opening minutes, Chani, played by Zendaya, narrates a shortened version of the worldbuilding necessary to understand the political, religious and geographical elements of the film. In contrast to David Lynch’s 1984 attempt to adapt the book into a movie — an infamous, overambitious failure — Villenueve drops the viewer directly into the story but provides enough background to substitute for the original text’s slow buildup.

Simply put, “Dune” is a beautiful movie.

The shots are composed delicately in a largely successful attempt to bring the book’s epic landscapes to life. From the outset, the movie

graphic by ELIZABETH DOROKHINA

28

precisely immerses the viewer in the world of the characters. Every frame provides an accurate sense of scale by juxtaposing enormous planets, spaceships and sandworms against familiar, human characters to emphasize the awesome natural characteristics of Arrakis. Shot on location in the deserts of Jordan, Villenueve finds a perfect setting to bring the exotic, and extraterrestrial, worlds of Dune to life.

The movie’s scale expands even more when combined with a brilliant soundtrack scored by legendary composer Hans Zimmer — arguably, one of the finest scores of his illustrious career. Drawing on Middle Eastern influ-

This is a movie about dreams, indeed, the power of prophecy and the perils of messiahs. ences along with retro-futuristic ones, Zimmer creates a completely new, otherworldly sound, one punctuated by whispers of feminine voices but also prickling, granular cascades of sand and arrthymic drums. It had been a dream of his, he told Villenueve, to score a Dune film, ever since he had first read the novel.

Often, however, the score drowns out important dialogue or subtle sound design elements, leading at times to a frustrating viewing experience. And in some instances, scenes could have benefitted from no music; it would make moments where the audio swells significantly more memorable.

Make no mistake: Even with a star-studded cast, eye-catching cinematography and unique soundtrack, the motif of dreams is the driving force of this film. Scattered throughout at pivotal moments, prescient dream scenes provide glimpses of multiple alternate futures

which Paul must consider on his journey as the “Kwisatz Haderach,” or messiah. These visions bring to light the film’s deeper themes, such as religion, that other blockbuster sci-fi movies may not even attempt to incorporate.

Villenueve relies on the original book to draw parallels between Paul’s story and biblical references, and does an effective job at highlighting the internal conflicts Paul faces.

Despite the high filmmaking quality, some viewers might leave the theater questioning if they got what they paid for. “Dune” isn’t a typical three-act movie, and the pacing is noticeably slow to accomodate more of the book’s plot than Lynch attempted. Villenueve’s “Dune” is a prerequisite setup to “Dune: Part 2”, rather than a standalone. That expectation wasn’t clear in its marketing, however, and fans reported confusing experiences while watching, wondering if Villenueve had chosen to chop out not just scenes, but entire chunks of the original story. Warner Brothers later clarified by changing the opening credits to confirm that this was in fact “Dune: Part 1.” Zendaya’s highly anticipated performance as Chani, for example, receives barely any screen time; her story will take place in the 2023 sequel instead, which Warner Brothers only greenlit after confirming the success of the franchise opener.

Whether you’ve read the book 10 times over, or this is your first dive into the “Duniverse,” “Dune” is a wonderfully unique and entertaining viewing. As long as the viewer approaches this film fully aware of its inconclusive nature, they’ll experience a beautifully rich story. In Chani’s words: “This is only the beginning.”

Someone grab an umbrella! @whitman_outfits chronicles student drip

by KENDALL HEADLEY

photo collage by ELIZABETH DOROKHINA

F

ishnets, bunny ears and Air Jordans. While these three items off their outfit and showing how seem like stylistically incompatible articles of clothing, they they dress. So I feel like people share one thing in common: Whitman’s own fashion-for- started to think about changing ward Instagram account, @whitman_outfits, features all their styles, because when you’re three. The page, run by se- in quarantine, people always try nior Grace Kouaho, highlights to find themselves and reflect on unique fashion at Whitman by their life.”

Kouaho added that she posting multiple “flicks” of stufinds joy in looking for the dents’ outfits daily.

Kouaho created the ac- most expressive outfits at Whitcount at the end of October. In- man during her free periods and spired by other Whitman-spe- during lunch. She appreciates the cific Instagram pages that have opportunity to explore trends in recently grown popular on the student fashion and to see all of platform, Kuaho wanted to add the outfits that don’t necessarily her own niche to the pile. A big make it to her Instagram page, she said. fan of all things Juniors Samantha Wang and “It’s really style related, Valerie Nunez pose for a interesting for me she often spends picture in their anime themed to capture the pictime browsing halloween costumes. tures for everyone trends and outto see,” Kouaho fit compositions Senior Amir Khan pictured in said. “My favorite on Instagram, front of Whitman. Commenters to see is baggy jeans and Nike sneakers. If you look at Pinterest and complimented the outfit, callmy account, you see a lot of baggy pants, on boys and TikTok, she ing Khan “the color coordinagirls. They really bring us back to the 90s.” said. Howevtion GOAT.” Kouaho will graduate this spring and plans to er, the goal of hand the account down to one of her junior friends. the Whitman However, before the school year comes to a close, account goes she has aspirations to broaden her content past solely beyond documenting vintage leather jackets and Junior Jekka Baclao pairs photos. lace-up Doc Martens — Kouaho wants the page to zebra-print converse “I’m planning on doing interviews on Fridays develop community among students. with wide-leg jeans for about people’s outfits to make it more interactive, and “I wanted more interaction [between] students an outdoor shot.

I want to make ‘edit’ videos about all the students’ and the chance to get to know people at school,” outfits,” she said. “I want to make it more interesting Kouaho said. “A lot of people are on @whitman_outand more fun for the student body.” fits, so everyone gets to see the outfits. People get to know people’s styles, people get to see people’s styles and maybe get inspired by them.”

The pictures on the account boast a wide variety of fashion, ranging from streetwear and monochrome outfits to more feminine pieces. Kouaho believes this diversity stems from the assorted cultural backgrounds and large population of international students at Whitman. Whitman’s style hasn’t always been as on display as it is today, she said.

Kouaho cites social media as a substantial influence on the increase in self-expression through Freshman Emma Schneiclothing, especially after quaranSenior Ben Rabley poses in derman dons a hippie-estine. the parking lot. His inspiraque look with a yellow “There was a boom in peoJunior Sebastian Charles models tion for the Elmo sweatshirt, top, flare jeans and Doc ple posting about their style,” his blue themed outfit for the as quoted in the Instagram Martens. she said. “There’s so many vidInstagram page. caption, is, “i like sesame eos on TikTok of people showing street.”

Photos courtesy of GRACE KOUAHO.

29

CROSSWORD: High school life

by Naomi Goldstein

Across

1. COVID-19 variant 6. Popular mastermind-like word game 11. Little ones 14. Silk-like synthetic material 15. Home of the Hoosiers, abbreviated 16. What Pacman wants to do to the ghosts 18. Upper respiratory infection, for short 19. The one that 7 ate 21. Norse goddess of healing 23. The time one may have lunch 25. What a waiter takes 28. School leadership 30. Movie song, “Greased ______” 34. What you send out before a party 35. Online version of SMS 36. Maker of frozen pound cake 38. Online school connectivity issue 40. Home to “Live free or die,” abbreviated 41. Most uncomfortable after poison ivy outbreak 43. Vehicle to take to visit 15 across, 40 across, 60 across, 9 down, 24 down, 47 down, 63 down 44. Zendaya TV drama 46. Frequent science class ingredient and water purifier 48. Cow carpet?

49. 2-6-1: 2 wins, 6 losses, and _____ 30

50. Not a pair, but _____ 52. Over the top, ironic style of clothing and entertainment 53. Enlarged, as a plant cell 56. Part of the body with brain and spinal cord, for short 57. What a baby does when you steal its toy 58. On the rocks 60. Home of college football national champs 62. What 10-down wants to reach home 63. It’s left on your plate after a summer picnic 64. Keeps you cool

Down

1. Greatest contributor to hearing loss at Whitman 2. What Van Gogh lacked 3. Not telling the truth 4. Opposite of from 5. One who makes notes 6. Something Whitman’s football team never does 7. Famous U2 song from Achtung Baby 8. How to address someone in a letter 9. Home of Cajun country 10. Heartwarming Spielberg film 11. “I wish you hadn’t told me that!”

12. We have no one to blame but _____ 13. Can you spare a square? (for short)

1

2

3

4

6

5

14

8

19

23

25

32

35

11

28

37

43

47

49

48

57

39

38

46

56

29

34

45

53

13

22

27

42

52

12

17

26

33

36

44

10

21

24

41

9

20

31

40

8

16

15

18

30

7

50

51

59

60

55

54

58

62

61

63

64

17. Spooky 20. A place to stay on vacation 22. Expression of amusement or triumph 24. They lost to MI 25. Shrek species 26. Where you get your vaccine 27. The night before 29. School club similar to Pride Alliance 31. Are you a homosapien? Yes, ___ 32. Author of “Klara and the Sun” 33. NCAA for small colleges 37. Don’t change anything, leave it ____ 39. Federal abbreviation used often in NSL 41. Chain destination for late night or early morning eats

42. Something to rely on 43. Basic content of Pfizer vaccine 45. Whitman’s favorite dancers 47. First state to ratify the constitution, for short 49. Famous author of “A Death in the Family” 51. Eleven from Stranger Things’ favorite food 52. Send someone a copy of an email 54. Can be heard from a phone and seen on a finger 55. More sensitive than a rapid test 58. A charged atom 59. Opposite of beginning 61. One component of a 6-pack 63. Home of wildfires and warm weather

31

Bethesda Scholars is a student-owned tutoring company at Whitman whose services are tailored to each students academic and mental-emotional needs.

Rates

$35/hr general tutoring, $40/hr SAT/ACT Tutoring, and $50/hr for sports, music, special skills coaching, etc.

Email services@bethesdascholars.com or visit Bethesdascholars.com for more information!

Add Georgetown University to your high school resume.

Hoya Summer High School Sessions is your chance to get a head start on university life. Dive into subjects that most interest you while learning from brilliant faculty and studying alongside motivated students from around the world.

Want to live on campus? Our dorms are open. Want to commute from home? That works, too. You can even take online classes without leaving your living room.

With 50+ courses and programs spanning one to six weeks, your options are wide open—and the experience is unmatched.

Apply now at summer.georgetown.edu/vikings

Georgetown University