Volume 57 Issue 3

Walt Whitman High School

7100 Whittier Boulevard Bethesda, MD 20817

Volume 57, Issue 3

Monday, January 14, 2019

Whitman earns only average marks on MSDE school report card

by ZARA ALI and ANNA YUAN Whitman earned a 74 percent—equating to four out of five stars—on a report card the Maryland State Department of Education released Dec. 4. The state report card is an annual measure of school performance.

The school earned a C grade after students underperformed on the 2016 English PARCC; low attendance rates were also a factor. Other nearby schools earned higher grades: Winston Churchill scored a 79 percent, Thomas Wootton scored an 82 percent and Walter Johnson scored a 76 percent. All earned five stars; Whitman missed the fivestar cutoff by 1 percent.

The MSDE grades schools based on academic achievement, graduation rate, state tests in English Language Proficiency, readiness for post-secondary success and school quality.

Whitman scored high in three sections but underperformed in Academic Achievement and attendance—a factor in determining points for the School Quality and Student Success category. The results are based on 2016 PARCC results and 2017 attendance figures.

(Clockwise from left): senior Austen Fourkas, senior Aarushi Malhotra and members of women’s chorus perform at the annual winter holiday concert Jan. 4. Bethesda Magazine recognized choral director Jeff Davidson as one of its six Extraordinary Educators in 2018. Photos by LUKAS GATES and KATHERINE LUO

“Report Card” Continued on Page 4

Natan Rosen earns WaPo All-Met Soccer Player of the Year Six other soccer players receive First Team, Second Team, honorable mentions

by SARA AZIMI and ELYSE LOWET Forward Natan Rosen, a senior, won the Washington Post’s Player of the Year award for boys soccer, the first time since 2000 that a Whitman soccer player has earned the title. Four boys soccer players and two girls soccer players also earned All-Met awards for the fall 2018 seasons.

Seniors Sam Nordheimer and Katie Stender-Moore, both goalkeepers, earned First Team;

midfielder Ian Poe, a junior, and defender Morgan Wiese, a senior, took Second Team; while midfielder Thomas Mande and forward Ryan Machado-Jones, both seniors, received Honorable Mentions.

Rosen scored 17 goals and had 11 assists this season—similar stats to last season—but he said what distinguished him from other players was his contribution to the team’s state championship.

“Last year, I really wanted to get All-Met, and I only got honorable mention, so that was one

of my goals this year,” he said. “So it was really nice having it happen.”

Nordheimer only allowed seven goals this season, guiding the team toward its 13 shutout wins, which included an 11-game shutout streak. Stender-Moore only gave up 11 goals this season.

“I’m super excited to end my high school career with this honor,” Stender-Moore said. “But it doesn’t quite feel right that I got it because it truly is a whole team effort to keep the ball out of the net.”

Wiese led the girls’ back line

this year, contributing to the team’s overall defensive success. Her four-year varsity experience and two years as a captain helped to keep her teammates calm in high pressure situations.

“I think the biggest thing for being successful this year was Morgan in the back because of her experience and leadership,” girls soccer coach Greg Herbert said. “She’s obviously a gifted player, but I think on top of that, her leadership allowed us to have confidence in our abilities and

helped us stay organized.”

After deep playoff runs for both teams, the awards highlight the immense talent that brought them to the state finals, Poe said “It’s a big source of pride for our team having so many players being honored.” he said. “I feel like we have a lot of great players who all deserve to be on there. In fact, I think more of our team should have been on there, but it is good to see our players get on the list.”

Junior Olaf Hichwa propels into drone racing, sponsorships

by KATIE HANSON

Junior Olaf Hichwa hates gravity. He can’t remember a time when he wasn’t interested in aviation. As soon as he could talk, he told his parents he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up. So when he was six years old, his parents bought him a remote control helicopter.

He flew it every day until it broke.

The helicopter was too slow for him, so in middle school, he began flying high-speed helicopters he built himself from kits, but even those didn’t satisfy him. So when he saw an advertisement for drones on a poster at the hobby store where he regularly got his helicopters fixed, he knew he had to get his hands on one.

Today, when he looks up at the sky, he

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remembers the euphoria he felt when he rode in an airplane for the first time. But on the ground, he feels the constant “burden” of gravity on his shoulders, pushing him down.

Since he’s started flying drones, he said he’s recaptured that euphoria once again.

“I’ve always looked at the sky and thought, ‘woah.’ I feel like it’s always been something I can’t do: I can’t go up,” Hichwa said. “I hate gravity. Drones let me feel like I’m in the air.”

Hichwa bought his first drone, the Blade 350 QX, one of the first drones available on the consumer market, in 2013. The drone is large and bulky, so it can hover but not fly forward.

Drones are remote-controlled aerial vehicles, with four propellers and complex circuit boards that allow them to fly. More than

670,000 people registered their drones with the federal government in 2016. That number topped one million in 2018, reported the Federal Aviation Association.

In recent years, drone racing has become popular. While consumer drones can only go a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour, some racing drones can exceed 120 miles per hour.

One of four prominent racing leagues in the US, the Multi-GP Drone Racing League, has more than 10,000 registered pilots.

Hichwa has traveled as far as Louisiana and Nevada to compete in races with drones he builds himself.

Racing is divided into two categories: spectator-based and pilot-based. Hichwa races in both. The normally indoor, spectatorbased courses focus on entertainment value by incorporating elements like smoke, rings

of fire and black lights. Meanwhile, competitors in pilot-based courses are focused primarily on winning. These races typically take place in large fields or open outdoor areas where speed trumps theatrics.

When pilots are racing, they wear goggles which display live footage of the drone’s point of view as it flies—or “first person view.” Before he had a camera attached to his drone, he improvised this first person view by manually attaching a camera and antennas to the drone with electrical tape and connecting the drone to a pair of goggles via a video channel.

“Olaf” Continued on Page 10

Students weigh in on the biggest issues of 2018

Mehdi Jamal (‘17) heads West to fight wildfires after spending two years as an EMT

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Whitman parent makes bracelets to spread kindness

Outerspace crossword: Across(word) the galaxy

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briefs

Board approves funding to address overcrowding

by BLAKE LAYMAN

The Montgomery County Board of Education passed amendments Nov. 27 to increase funding for renovations and additions, along with studies into the implications of boundary changes and school capacities.

The money is included in amendments to the Capital Improvement Program, which ensures timely repairs and replacements of aging infrastructure in the county.

“We have a lot of overcrowded schools,” Board member Patricia O’Neill said. “It would require about $800 million to get all of the kids out of portables and about $760 million to catch up on all of our heating and air conditioning and roofs and windows that need to be replaced. What’s approved is probably not even enough money to get everything done that we need.”

Whitman isn’t in dire need of repairs and receives enough money to keep the school maintained at an adequate level, assistant principal Rainer Kulenkampff said. Whitman’s renovation, which is scheduled to start next year, had been previously approved.

The Board appropriated an additional $3 million toward bathroom maintenance and $2 million to install water bottle fillers at all schools.

Character-building programs net positive reviews across MCPS athletic departments

by ALLY NAVARRETE

Athletic departments across MCPS are reporting positive results after introducing programs including “Lead ‘Em Up,” “Three Dimensional Coaching” and “Positive Coaching Alliance,” which are designed to teach athletes and coaches about leadership and healthy relationships.

The varsity and junior varsity football teams at Northwest, Richard Montgomery, Springbrook and Blair High Schools adopted a national program called “Coaching Boys Into Men,” which emphasizes the message “violence does not equal strength.”

In “Coaching Boys into Men,” student-athletes first take a pledge to commit to healthy and respectful relationships. Coaches lead 10- to 15-minute weekly discussions about consent and communication, program coordinator Donna Rismiller said. In a report about the program, an RM football player said he noticed positive changes.

“I’ve noticed the coaches definitely changing their language around this season to be more respectful both towards women and the players,” he said in the report. “I think the players as a whole have a more nuanced view on the issues of domestic violence and relationships with females in general.”

It’s up to specific schools’ athletic departments and individual teams to decide if they want to adopt the programs, but the Montgomery County Council of PTAs is urging all MCPS middle and high school athletic departments to do so.

“We certainly want them supporting our core values of athletics and pushing the message that our student athletes are character-driven and that they’re role models in the school,” MCPS athletic director Jeff Sullivan said. “These programs enhance the message in various ways.”

SGA revives charity month for Children’s National

by ANNA YUAN

Students will raise money for Children’s National Medical Center this spring after the SGA decided to bring back a single charity month. The fundraiser will last six weeks from mid-February to mid-March and include events like spirit week, Vike-a-Thon and other smaller events.

In the 2016-17 school year, four weeks dedicated to four different charities were spread out over second semester. Last year, students dedicated two months to raising money for Pencils for Promise; Jost Van Dyke, a British Virgin island that was hit by two hurricanes; and CNMC. But the SGA found that the approach wasn’t cohesive, and students weren’t as enthusiastic.

“My main concern is to hopefully get to what the height of LLS was like, where everyone was pumped for the month and getting excited to do it,” charity month chair Danielle Hazan said. “Hopefully it will be something that can continue over years to come and the system will work well so we can keep being successful in our fundraising efforts.”

Whitman will compete with Walter Johnson, Churchill, Bethesda Chevy-Chase and Wootton High Schools to see which school can raise the most money for their respective charities, Hazan said.

“Part of what brought so much excitement and so much money in the past was that we had a huge competition,” Hazan said. “That’s something I really wanted to bring back.”

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

News

Addition to be completed by Aug. 2021 Will include common space, three-story building, dance studio

by ZARA ALI Several new features, including a three-story building to replace Whittier Woods, an auxiliary gymnasium and a commons area to link the main building with the new wing, will be added to the building by August 2021. County managers and the RRMM Lukmire Architects announced the final plan at a Nov. 5 public work session. The renovation is scheduled to begin at the end of 2019.

In June, at least eight portables will be installed in the parking lot. This means there will be about 50 fewer parking spots available to students, assistant principal Rainer Kulenkampff said.

The portables will most likely be located in the last row of the parking lot, closest to the auditorium and Whittier Boulevard.

The addition is intended to address overcrowding.

“Whitman and our feeder schools in the area have increasingly grown with the number of students,” principal Robert Dodd said. “It was important for Whitman to have more instructional space to serve what has been a growing population.”

The plan will create 104 parking spots near the former Whittier Woods preschool, as well as “shell space”— space available for future expansion—above the third floor, head project architect Allison Legg said.

The building that will replace Whittier Woods will have around thirty classrooms. The precise number of classrooms won’t be finalized until the design is pre-

A digital rendering illustrates what the common area will look like when Whitman’s renovation is completed in 2021. The completed addition will include a three-story building to replace Whittier Woods, an auxiliary gymnasium and a commons area to link the main building with the new wing. Photo courtesy RRMM LUKMIRE ARCHITECTS

sented to the Board of Education later this month.

The common area will be used as a workspace for the drama, music and art departments, Legg said. It will also include a student dining area. The possibility of a gallery and performance space will be determined during the next phase of the design, project manager Shiho Shibasaki said.

“The location of the common really created a central node for the addition and the existing school,” Legg said. “It’s going to be a shared amenity that brings the two parts of the school together.”

Students are excited for the common space because it’s one part of the addition that’s specifically meant for them, freshman Victoria Steinitz said.

“The common space seems very cool,” she said.

“Being able to hang out with

your friends between classes or after school in such a large area and have lunch there would be really fun.”

The auxiliary gym will be located near the existing gym, Legg said, and is designed to accommodate a dance studio. It will mostly be used by gym classes, but will offer an open space for Whitman Drama, principal Robert Dodd said.

Once construction begins, all science classrooms will be relocated to the third floor in the main building.

This will make sharing lab equipment easier, and allow students to easily find teachers who share classrooms with other teachers, science teacher Anne Marie O’Donoghue said.

Some science teachers in this wing, like Sherri Gingrich, are unhappy with the renovation because it means demolishing a wing that has been renovated before. With-

in the last 20 years, the remodeling costs of her classroom have totaled around $500,000, Gingrich estimates. She said she doesn’t see any reason she should have to leave.

“As a taxpayer whose money goes towards these types of projects, and as a teacher, there is nothing wrong with the room,” Gingrich said.

The addition will unite both Whittier Woods and the main school, creating a more unified look.

“The focus of the addition is to make the transition from Whitman right now to the new space one and the same,” Dodd said. “Right now, we feel like that artery gets clogged from traveling from one space to another, but that will be relieved and it will feel like one school once the addition is complete.”

MD State Highway Assoc. lowers speed limit on River Road from 45 mph to 35 mph

Long-awaited change follows accidents, community pressure

by ANNA YUAN Some students are frustrated after the State Highway Association changed the speed limit on a three-mile segment of River Road from 45 mph to 35 mph.

The segment includes the Braeburn Parkway intersection and Pyle Road crosswalk behind Whitman.

The SHA reduced the speed limit after community members advocated for decades for a safer Braeburn intersection and Pyle Road crosswalk, former Whitman parent Robert Boltuck said. Located at the back entrance to Whitman, the two locations have been the site of several serious accidents, including a fatal crash involving a Whitman family in February 2016.

Since that crash, community members have intensified their push for stronger safety measures, holding three meetings over the past two and a half years with locally elected leaders to discuss proposals, Boltuck said.

Boltuck polled more than 1,400 residents earlier this year to gather a community consensus on potential changes to the intersection and crosswalk. The poll indicated that over 80 percent of residents would support a speed limit decrease near the Braeburn intersection to increase safety.

After the SHA met with Boltuck, former Whitman principal Alan Goodwin and other community leaders, they developed two proposals: reduce the speed limit to 35 mph or install a traffic light at Braeburn to control lefthand turns into Whitman. There are

currently bollards—posts that protect pedestrians in areas of heavy traffic— at the intersection to guide cars across River Road in both directions.

After evaluating speed limits north and south of the segment, the SHA decided to lower the speed limit to make it consistent with the entire stretch, SHA official Charlie Gischlar said.

Brody Loghman said. “Although this lower speed limit makes things more safe, it has made basic travel along River Road more of a hassle just to get to from point A to point B.” Community members will discuss adding a left turn signal and crosswalk improvements Jan. 15 at Pyle Middle School, when the SHA is sponsoring another community meeting.

Over 80 percent of residents said they would support a speed limit decrease near Whitman’s back entrance -community poll of 1,400 residents “This roadway has a lot of unique characteristics, and the speed limit reduction approach is a key factor in keeping a consistent speed limit throughout the remainder of the corridor,” Gischlar said. “This is also in line with SHA’s initiative to make adjustments for increased pedestrian safety when possible.”

Students aren’t happy with the reduced speed limits, citing increased traffic and travel time.

“The higher speed limit allowed for more ease of movement,” junior

“It’s very important and critical that community members attend the meeting,” Boltuck said. “It’ll be an opportunity to have their questions answered by SHA representatives and engineers about site details.”

Boltuck predicts that as long as the SHA sticks to their commitment to making the stretch of River Road safer and respects the community’s decision, the other two changes should be completed during next school year.

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

News

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Board of Education is all-female for first time ever Karla Silvestre and Brenda Wolff sworn in to Board Dec. 3

by KATIE HANSON

The Montgomery County Board of Education is all-female for the first time ever after Karla Silvestre, the former co-chair of the MCPS Latino Student Achievement Action Group, and Brenda Wolff, a civil rights attorney, were sworn in Dec. 3. They replaced former Board president Michael Durso and member Jill Ortman-Fouse, who stepped down this year.

The all-female Board follows a national and state-wide trend of female representation in government. This year, 60 percent more women ran for office in the midterms than in the 2016 elections, and the number of women on the Maryland legislature increased by four percent when 71 women were elected or reelected.

“I think it’s a teachable moment, helping students understand that for many years there were all-male boards and nobody thought anything about it,” Silvestre said. “Now that we have an all-female board, it’s an opportunity to understand the history of power, leadership and elected office.”

The day after the Dec. 3 swearing-in ceremony, Board members unanimously voted Shebra Evans as the new president.

Evans, who used to work as a credit analyst at PG&E Energy and Trading, lives in a section of the county with many lowincome families. She wanted to be Board president because she thinks her unique perspective will be advantageous in the Board’s efforts toward diminishing the opportunity gap. Evans said she’s excited to be the spokesperson for the Board and work with the diverse members.

“For the first time since I’ve been living in Montgomery County, we have a Board that reflects the diversity of the school system. For me, it was not so much being all female, but it’s that we have African-American women, we have Asian women, we have white women, we have Latina women on the Board,” Evans said. “I feel like all the different perspectives and voices that we have on the Board is

reflective of the student body.”

Silvestre defeated Julie Reiley with 51 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 election for the at-large seat, while Wolff ran unopposed for the District 5 seat.

Silvestre hopes to improve graduation rates across the county by implementing and expanding college preparatory programs like College Tracks, a program that has partnered with four MCPS schools to help students apply to college and understand financial aid packages and Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success, which pairs students at risk of not graduating with mentors to ensure they remain on track academically.

Silvestre began teaching English to non-native adult speakers when she was a student at Florida State University and continued while earning a master’s degree in education at the University of Pennsylvania As co-chair of the MCPS LSAAG, a group that focuses on narrowing the achievement gap for Latino students and other minorities, Silvestre worked alongside the Board to ensure low-income Latino students have the resources they need to succeed.

Silvestre, who immigrated from Guatemala when she was eight years old, wanted to serve on the Board because she thinks the school system should provide more resources for immigrant and low-income families, she said.

“I moved to Maryland and started to feel there needed to be a deeper understanding of families with poverty,” Silvestre said. “I felt like I wanted to do more and be really involved in the process where key decisions are being made.”

Wolff is a member of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee and former acting director of the National Institute on Education of At-Risk Students. She wants to provide universal Pre-K and increase funding for school renovations and additions. She also hopes to improve accountability in public schools, she said.

“I want to ensure that every

New Board members Brenda Wolff (right) and Karla Silvestre (left) were sworn in Dec. 3 for the District 5 and At-Large seats. Both candidates said they were excited to serve in their first elected positions. Photos courtesy BRENDA WOLFF and KARLA SILVESTRE

dollar we invest in programs promotes the successful outcomes for students,” Wolff said. “I want to be sure that whatever we’re doing is actually working.”

Both Wolff and Silvestre centered their campaigns on addressing and decreasing the opportunity gap. The opportunity gap results from factors such as race or socioeconomic status that predict a student’s academic achievement. The new members plan on addressing this through modernizing school buildings so all students have improved or equal resources and providing dual-language programs for English learners, where elementary school classes would be taught in both English and Spanish.

Student Member of the Board Ananya Tadikonda became the first SMOB to become chair of a Board committee when the Board members elected her chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, which focuses on long-term adjustments to schools. Tadikonda won’t serve the entire term from Dec. 4 to Nov. 30 as chair because her SMOB term ends before then, so Silvestre will assume her role as chair when Tadikonda leaves July 1.

Tadikonda has met both Wolff and Silvestre and said she’s excited to work with them because of their differing perspectives that will benefit the Board. She’s also looking forward to the Board being allfemale, she said.

“I think it’s a huge statement to the community about women in leadership and what we can do,” Tadikonda said.

“There’s a lot of stigma against women running for positions and being in leadership that has been instilled in our country generationally, and I think this could really dispel that because we are a body of education and students will see that body and see that it’s all women.”

Patricia O’Neill was elected to her sixth term as the Board’s vice president Dec. 4.

She said she’s excited to work with a “monumental” all-female board. Although the Board is composed entirely of women, she said it won’t change its mission or goals.

“I don’t think our policy decisions are driven by gender.

They are driven by fairness and equity,” O’Neill said. “All of us have to work for all students regardless of gender, regardless of race.”

BOE President Michael Durso retires after 10 years

by KATIE HANSON

After a 44-year career in education, former Board of Education president Michael Durso retired. Former PG&E Energy Trading credit analyst Shebra Evans was elected Board president Dec. 4.

Durso said he’s excited to spend time traveling and reading. His experience on the Board was both demanding and rewarding, and the highlight of his career was getting elected as the Board president and nominating superintendent Jack Smith, he said in an interview.

Durso said the process for finding a new superintendent was especially difficult because the first candidate the Board selected resigned, so they had to restart the entire process with an interim superintendent in office and once more find a candidate that pleased everyone.

Durso is grateful for the opportunity to serve on the Board and will miss interacting with the MCPS community, he said.

“It’s been a good experience, one that I never really sought out or planned on,” he said. “To be able to see the school system from that perspective—to see so many people who work incredibly hard—that’s been pretty special.”

AP exam registration pushed forward to late October Some students, staff express concern over AP process changes

by ANNA YUAN

Starting next year, students will register for Advanced Placement exams beginning in late October and continuing to mid-November, instead of in March. Registration after the deadline will cost an extra $40.

The College Board decided to move up the registration date after last year’s pilot program involving over 40,000 students nationwide. The Board saw an increase in registration and passing scores among underrepresented minorities and low-income students in the pilot program. Board officials attributed the increases to students committing to taking the exams early on in the school year.

Many teachers welcome the change, echoing the Board’s hopes that it will encourage more students to invest themselves in taking AP exams in May early on in the year.

“By having students register in the fall, it will keep people from deciding at the end to not take the exam,” social

studies teacher Andrew Sonnabend said. “I think that will definitely help the numbers go up.”

But AP coordinator William Kapner is frustrated that the new registration deadline will conflict with college recommendation deadlines, he said.

Many coordinators have expressed their concerns to MCPS because of the conflict, Kapner said.

“They think we can organize the AP exam process by November, which is absolutely insane,” Kapner said.

“It’s counterproductive to a school that has a strong AP program. I’m not the only AP coordinator at our school, but I had to write 55 college recommendations before November 1st. It’s not possible.”

Some students who self-study for AP exams are skeptical of the move.

Junior Bobby Xiao said he doesn’t want to have his parents pay in the fall for exams he might not even take in May. “For me, there are some classes I would prefer to self-study for, and reg-

istering in the fall would be too early for me,” Xiao said. “By spring, I’ve had more time to consider, and AP exams are pretty expensive, so more time would actually help. If they move the deadline, a lot of people won’t have decided on what they want to take, so it would be a little chaotic.”

The Board also plans to add online tools and resources for teachers and students. Teachers are encouraged to make an online classroom for their students on the AP website, allowing students to access AP question banks.

Students will be able to filter the questions by topic or type, allowing them to easily find practice questions on a specific topic. Xiao said he’s looking forward to using the service.

“Last year, I was trying to study a specific type of AP Statistics question,” Xiao said. “It took me an hour to find all the questions relevant to that topic in a released multiple choice section. I think that if College Board organized that for you, you would be a lot more prepared and organized for the exam.”

What you should know Registration will begin in late october Late registration will cost an extra $40 College board will offer online ap study tools for Graphic by NOAH GRILL and JANA WARNER

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The Black & White|January 14, 2019

News

Low attendance rates, PARCC scores contribute to rating “Whitman” Continued from Page 1

Whitman students’ low passing rate on the 2016 English PARCC was the main contributor to the low ranking. Only 26 percent of students earned a proficient rating on the English test, compared to 81 percent who were rated proficient on the math PARCC. The 2016 PARCC wasn’t a graduation requirement for Maryland students because it was a trial year, so many students didn’t put in effort.

“Students sat for the PARCC under the direction that it would be a practice,” said Ryan Derenberger, who was the 10th grade English team leader in 2016. “Everything would look and feel official, they would have to work through the sections, the proctors would have to take everything seriously—but students were well aware of the fact that it was not required for graduation.”

Jenan El-Hifnawi (‘18) said if students knew there would be consequenecs, they would have tried harder.

“The general consensus in the school about the PARCC test was that nothing would be affected,” ElHifnawi said. “Everyone thought it was for no reason and it became a joke.”

Attendance also stood out on the report card, Dodd said.

To calculate attendance rates, the MSDE combined the number of unexcused and excused absences, inflating MCPS’ total absences compared to other Maryland counties. Attendance policy in Montgomery County differs from Howard County, where only three days of discretionary excused absences are allowed. The rest are considered unexcused.

“The state analysis is pretty difficult for schools because we actually excuse a fair number of things like college visits,” MCPS spokesperson Derek Turner said.

The report card indicated that approximately one fifth of Whitman students were chronically absent, or missing class at least 18 days in a school year.

“Attendance is a problem,” attendance secretary Tabitha Davis said. “If students and parents understand that there are rules to follow, since this is a public school, we wouldn’t have such a low attendance because people would be held accountable for their actions when they want to skip school whenever they feel like it. Hundreds of kids are involved in this.”

The low rankings are unlikely to have a major effect on how colleges view the school, said Kelly Fraser, a college counselor from Green Apple College Guidance & Education.

“Colleges have a long standing relationship with Whitman and they work hard to understand all high schools,” Fraser said. “It’s just one part of a more complex equation.”

Local schools’ scores on MD report card

Whitman

74%

Wootton

82%

W. Johnson

76% 79%

Churchill

Graphic by JANA WARNER

Junior Alicia Lauwers said the report doesn’t accurately represent Whitman, since it was mainly based on one set of data.

“I’m pretty surprised that it would be so low at 74 percent because Whitman’s a great school,” Lauwers said.

In 2017, PARCC scores were significantly higher, with 91 percent of students passing.

MCPS is conducting an analysis and accountability study for every school. The study will examine PARCC scores, SAT data, district assessments, quarterly assessments and classroom grades; results will be released in January 2019.

County officials also hope to organize focus groups to understand student performance better, Turner said.

Young teachers work multiple jobs to supplement low salaries State commission to recommend $60,000 minimum salary for teachers

by MAX LONDON In addition to the paid hours teachers spend at school and the extra time they spend grading and planning lessons, many teachers also choose to hold a second job outside of the classroom to earn additional income.

Forty-one percent of Maryland public school teachers have held a second job in the last year, according to an Aug. 10 survey sponsored by the Maryland State Education Association. Among educators under 30, that number jumps to 61 percent.

The wage gap between teachers and similar professions can drive college graduates away from teaching at a Maryland public school when they graduate, a spokesman for the MSEA said. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute found that in Maryland, teachers are paid 14 percent less than other professionals with four-year college degrees.

The Kirwan Commission, a coalition of elected state representatives and education advocates from across Maryland, produced a preliminary report in January 2018, finding that Maryland’s education system could better compete with national and global education standards by increasing salaries. The final report is expected to be issued by the end of this year with a list of recommendations to the state legislature.

Among the suggestions, the commission is likely to propose a minimum public school teacher salary of $60,000 a year by 2024 as well as a raise in all teachers’ pay by 10 percent between 2020 and 2022.

Science teacher Mira Chung teaches every day. Along with an extra hour or two per day of grading and lesson planning, Chung also works 15 hours a week at the Bethesda Apple Store. She said she hopes the new minimum salary is realized.

“It would be so great if the report

becomes a reality, and I think it would incentivize more people to come into the career,” Chung said. “If I had more money, I could devote more time to teaching, and I think I would be a lot more happy because I could spend more time with my friends and my family.”

Many new educators have to take on a second job because they’re still paying off student debt, MSEA spokesman Adam Mendelson said. Thirty-seven percent of teachers and support staff in Maryland public schools are still paying off student loans, the study found.

When English teacher Omari James isn’t in the classroom teaching, he coaches Crossfit, a high-intensity fitness program, at a Rockville gym. He trains clients from five to eight p.m. before going home and returning to Whitman at 6:30 a.m. the next day. Working both jobs has added stress to James’ life, he said.

“I’m sleeping a lot less,” James said. “I have to have my calendar planned out for a month to try to keep everything organized, and it can be hard explaining to my friends that I can’t spontaneously meet with them.”

Delegate Anne Kaiser (D-14), a member of the commission who represents Montgomery County, said she hopes the potential increase in pay encourages more teachers to take up the profession and increases productivity and efficiency for current teachers.

“Protecting and promoting our teachers has been a priority of mine since day one,” Kaiser said. “Montgomery County’s teachers are a large part of the reason our schools have been nation-leading for almost a decade. The work of the Kirwan Commission will revolutionize the way we train teachers, the way they work and their access to advancement opportunities.”

BW &

the

Opinion

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

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The Black & White|January 14, 2019

Staff Editorial During the first few weeks of November, students noticed an inconvenient phenomenon: while it had been difficult to access personal Google accounts on Chromebooks in the past, it became completely impossible overnight. Without any notice from administrators or MCPS officials, students who used personal Google accounts to organize club activities and work on college applications were locked out at school.

Unfortunately, this policy seems permanent.

Students use personal emails because MCPS Google accounts are restrictive in such a way that they’re difficult for students to use for anything other than purely classroom purposes. For example, MCPS account users can’t send or receive emails to or from non-MCPS accounts, and Google Drive documents created with an MCPS account can only be shared with other MCPS accounts.

The ban has made it practically impossible to conduct school-related business on personal accounts.

Asked about the latest development, IT specialist Travis Swiger said no student should have used a personal email account on school computers in the first place. But it was the restrictions placed on MCPS accounts—like preventing students from sharing documents with non-MCPS accounts—that forced many students to use personal accounts for school-related work, like research for the debate team. With this ban, MCPS significantly underestimated the scope of the work that students complete in school.

Senior Aubrey Lay, a

MCPS: Unblock our personal email accounts on Chromebooks

Artwork by JENNY LU

member of the Filmmakers Club, and Maeve Hagerty, of Whitman Drama, used their personal accounts to communicate important information to club and community members during school hours. Filmmakers Club now relies on members to bring in laptops because the scriptwriting service they use to write and share scripts is linked through Google Drive.

The Black & White faces similar issues: reporters regularly email sources outside of the MCPS network and the editing process is conducted over Google Drive with personal emails.

Since MCPS implemented the restrictions, much of the staff’s work has to be conducted at home or in the English office. It’s difficult to get work done in class without bringing a laptop to school.

Seniors have also experienced difficulties.

Many work on their college applications at school using personal Google Documents, which

are easily shared with parents and college counselors. By blocking personal accounts, MCPS increases the stress that seniors experience at the worst possible time of year: college application season.

MCPS initially prohibited students from accessing personal emails over a year and a half ago, in December 2017, but students found workarounds, logging into their personal account using Google-affiliated websites like Pinterest. Now, these loopholes no longer work.

County officials provided a number of different explanations for the new restrictions, many of which were contradictory.

The common thread was that MCPS limited personal accounts to protect students from seeing inappropriate content and from having their data collected and tracked by Google.

Chief Technology Officer Pete Cevenini said MCPS officials would like to allow high school students to use personal accounts, he

said, but the school system can’t do that until Google changes its contract with the district to stop data tracking on all Chromebooks, not just on school accounts on Chromebooks.

It’s still possible to access personal accounts on desktop computers, which draws into question any argument about protecting student safety. Even so, students can’t access inappropriate materials on the school WiFi no matter which computer they use.

Instead of arguing that students should never use personal accounts, the county should find a way to protect students while allowing them basic access to the only Google accounts that are truly useful.

MCPS serves 161,460 students, 48,829 of whom are older than 13. They should be able to share a Google document with a non-MCPS account and send an email to their parents on a school computer.

Whitman students are complicit in the climate crisis—that needs to change Why we need to do more than go to climate marches

by CLARA KORITZ HAWKES Sitting behind me in English, two people are sharing Oreos out of a plastic bag, and next to me, a friend is sipping iced coffee through a plastic straw in a plastic cup. When the bell rings, they all toss their plastic into the trash, where it lies with paper rubrics and several cans marked ‘recyclable.’

Their lack of concern for the environment annoys me. I roll my eyes because they didn’t recycle, but secretly, I’m a hypocrite: later that day, I buy a smoothie in a comically large plastic cup, sip it through a plastic straw and throw the cup and a paper flyer left on the kitchen counter into the trash.

This isn’t unusual; every day, students toss paper into the trash and use obscene amounts of plastic without thinking twice.

In an informal Black & White survey of 25 students, 13 said they considered themselves environmentally friendly. But on Dec. 5, I rummaged through 16 trash cans on the first floor and found that 12 of them contained at least two or three items

that could be recycled. Since Whitman’s maintenance staff can’t separate all trash from recycling, it’s up to us to be conscious—as we should.

Our mindless neglect can add up to real consequences.

In 2013, the EPA reported that the U.S. accumulated 230 million tons of trash. That’s 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day, with that number growing. Landfills are overflowing. Biodiversity declined 27 percent in the last 30 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund, because our ecosystems are teeming with toxins.

But you’ve heard this. Since elementary school, we’ve learned to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and our parents constantly remind us to turn off the lights when we leave the room.

If we know how poorly we treat the planet, and we know that our actions have serious consequences, why has little changed in school? The simple answer is that we just don’t care enough.

Disturbing headlines should call us to action, but even when half the planet’s melting, we still think one plastic straw won’t contribute to a growing environmental crisis. That may be true, but if

climate change becomes irreversible by 2030, as a CNN report projects, it won’t be because we were uneducated—it will be because we were apathetic.

You can start small: refuse plastic straws when they’re offered. Bring your own bag when you shop and skip the plastic altogether. Reuse your Ziploc bags, and take time to separate your garbage into appropriate bins.

If we all stayed mindful of our footprint, we could make a small but meaningful difference.

Whitman could do its part too: making labels on the gray recycling bins clearer would be significant, preventing people from using the classroom recycling bin as a second trash can.

And we can do even more. Attend climate marches. Start environmental clubs. Participate in those that already exist and strengthen their events.

Building good recycling habits requires almost no effort, but it starts from the bottom up. If we don’t want this planet to be fishless by 2050 and climate change to be irreversible by 2030, I’d at least stop putting those plastic water bottles you use every day in the trash can.

6

Opinion

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

Elementary school students should learn local history

To engage students, teachers should make lessons more relevant to students’ lives

by DANA HERRNSTADT From a young age, we learn about the California Gold Rush, the Declaration of Independence and the Abolitionist Movement.

We study Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the Louisiana Purchase, but the history of our own county has mostly escaped the classroom.

Learning about local history connects students to a subject they often view as distant. It’s more relevant to students than national history. While the current elementary school curriculum includes lessons on historical locations in Maryland, like St. Mary’s and Jamestown, teachers aren’t required to teach Montgomery County history.

For students to better understand their hometown and generate an early connection to history, MCPS should include more lessons on local history in elementary school curricula.

Focusing on significant national events has relegated our county’s history to the back burner. But local history contains valuable lessons; it makes an often abstract and overwhelmingly dense subject directly relevant to students. Because events happened where students live, students are more inclined to actively learn.

Glen Echo Amusement Park, located less than two miles from Whitman, was segregated until 1961. For students, studying events surrounding Glen Echo is just as important as studying civil rights era segregation in

Alabama public schools. Segregation often seems confined to the Deep South. But it wasn’t. Segregation and other past atrocities are directly applicable to our own county; the so-called “Bethesda bubble” wasn’t always a liberal’s haven. Learning about local history allows us to realize that even our hometowns have stories and sometimes dark pasts.

Though learning about national history is important, focusing only on wide-ranging events means students miss out on learning how major events affected individual communities. Our own county remained deeply segregated until the 1950s. And in the 1860 presidential election, Montgomery County residents, now classically ultra-liberal, were so against the abolitionist movement that only 50 people voted for Abraham Lincoln, said Matt Logan, director of Montgomery County’s historical society.

Learning stories like these would broaden students’ perspectives and open their eyes to the vast scope of discrimination in America’s history.

Other sites in the area can promote interest in history as well. The Seneca Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse on River Road, gives students a glimpse into the lives of children like them. Woodlawn Manor in Olney, which historians believe was a stop along the Underground Railroad, teaches students the horrors of slavery in a more direct way. The C&O Canal, and even the Bethesda Meetinghouse, a building built in the 1870s which gave the town its name, provide a direct view into the history of a student’s town,

The Glen Echo Park carousel. The Park was segregated until 1961, but local segregation isn’t included in elementary school curricula. Photo by SKYLAR HUEBNER

and, as a result, a deeper connection to their home.

Opponents argue that local history would take time away from learning about national events. But teachers don’t have to make local history the focal point of history class; simply teaching one or two lessons or incorporating a few projects a year would leave time for national history lessons. Plus, many significant national events began on a local level. The 1936 Montgomery County court case Gibbs v. Broom won equal pay for teachers, regard-

less of race, and acted as one of the first precedents for the Brown v. Board decision to desegregate schools 18 years later.

Local history, though seemingly insignificant, increases enthusiasm about learning, enhances students’ understanding of historical events and creates a connection between students and their hometowns. By teaching Montgomery County history in elementary schools, teachers can make a sometimes dry subject not only more relatable to students, but more enjoyable as well.

Alleged sexual assault at Damascus highlights crucial role of coaches

by MAX GERSCH When I heard about the alleged sexual assault at Damascus High School in November, I thought about coaches. As role models for their players, coaches have a more important role than ever to step up and set a good example for their teams.

A coach’s purpose is more than wins and losses. During the season, they’re the primary adult figure in athletes’ lives, and it’s their responsibility to transmit positive values to the team.

As I enter my fourth season of wrestling at Whitman, I find it remarkable just how much time I spend with my coaches. During the season, I spend up to 25 hours a week with my coaches, in classrooms, in the practice room, in dingy high school gyms and silent buses. Coaches also see kids in different circumstances than teachers or parents do.

When I was a freshman on wrestling, the entire 35-person team was punished when a teacher overheard two seniors using lewd language. Any time our coach hears a member of the team curse, push-ups are doled out as penance, not just to the individual offender, but to everyone.

In the annual pre-season meeting with parents, our coach stresses that his primary job is first to teach us how to be better people. Wrestling comes second.

On our informational handout, in bolded letters is the mantra: Family and school come before wrestling.

In ten years, I might forget how to wrestle. But the values my coaches taught me will stick with me for the rest of my life.

My coaches aren’t great coaches because they taught me a few moves. They’re great coaches because they taught me hard work,

discipline, and above all, respect.

Although the alleged perpetrators at Damascus were only 15 years old, four have been charged as adults, with multiple counts of first-degree rape in addition to other charges.

The alleged perpetrators are, of course, responsible for their own actions. That’s indisputable.

And if their actions were as described, they were the antithesis of the camaraderie and brotherhood that sports teams try to form.

The reality of the case is this, though: the accused, the four fifteen year old children, could face life imprisonment for their crimes.

They will face justice and bear the weight of their actions.

I certainly don’t know enough about this particular incident to say if a coach could have prevented it. But I do know that coaches play a vital role in shaping the team’s culture, and I know that kids look to their coaches for more than sports.

Being a good coach is about more than having a good record, training athletes to their full potential, or even winning a state championship. Character matters. Character education matters. Coaches are responsible for their athlete’s success in life, as people, just as much as they are responsible for their success on the field.

To read WTOP’s coverage of the incident, scan this QR code on Snapchat.

January 14, 2019

F

rom Kanye to Kavanaugh, 2018 was a whirlwind of controversy and division.

Robots from Boston Dynamics, an engineering and robotics design company, climbed stairs and opened doors in February, unsettling the public about the increasing physical capabilities of artificial intelligence.

President Trump discussed denuclearization with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in an unprecedented and highly publicized meeting June 12. The decision to meet with Kim caused controversy as to whether the United States should negotiate with authoritarian leaders and states.

President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to counts of conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct justice in August. The President’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in November as Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference of the 2016 presidential election continued.

More than 7,000 Central American migrants journeyed to the U.S., escaping persecution, violence and poverty in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador this year. The migrant caravan became a key midterm election issue, igniting a greater debate about our responsibility to the world’s vulnerable populations.

A wildfire swept across Northern California throughout November, killing at least 85 people and destroying 14,000 homes. Extreme weather events like the wildfire, Hurricane Florence, and the West Coast drought sparked discussions about the growing effects of climate change.

by joseph ferrari and anna yuan

2018 divided the country.

What do Whitman students think about the year’s biggest issues?

What do Whitman students think about these events and how they will affect the future of our world? To find out, the Black & White conducted a schoolwide survey in December 2018.

The survey was distributed to students in all grades through Google Forms and completed during English classes.

Out of approximately 2,100 Whitman students, 801 students completed the survey.

Survey responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Student quotes were taken strictly from survey responses.

X

Nov. 2018

Vote

Artwork by JOEY SOLA-SOLE

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

8

In-D

79

Immigration

What are The most pressing issues facing our nation?

60 76 64 56

foreign Relations Gun violence Equality Division

142

Environment

55 40

Government economy

Note: Responses like ‘I don’t know’ were not included

Do you think climate change will affect you personally before you turn 40?

A U.S. government report released Nov. 23 warned that the effects of climate change are “intensifying across the country,” and that “climate-related threats to Americans’ physical, social, and economic wellbeing are rising.”

“No, climate change has been occurring as long as time. It fluctuates in cycles every few decades.”

-Junior Sam Johnson

“Yes, It’s already affecting everyone! In this area, leaves didn’t change color and fall at their usual time this autumn, only dropping suddenly when the cold front moved in out of nowhere, and several weeks late.

Areas in South Korea and China have so much smog that citizens have to wear masks outside, and light pollution is so bad in D.C. that the sky is constantly light brown at night, instead of dark blue or black.”

“No, I am protected by my wealth. Climate change will wreak havoc on those who lack this protection.”

24% NO 76% YES

-Freshman Fiona Smith

-Senior Taylor Borie

21% NO

29% sometimes

50% YES

Is it the role of the United States to help those in need around the world?

Issues related to immigration, terrorism and war, such as the central American migrant caravan and the Yemen humanitarian crisis, have prompted discussions about whether the U.S. should help those in need and punish those causing harm by acting as an international “police force.”

“No. We need to fix our country before we help others.

Like putting on your oxygen mask before a child’s on a plane.”

-Freshman Evan Solnik “Sometimes. Given how much money we spend on our military, we should be helping to prevent moral atrocities abroad, especially those which we contributed to.

However, I also believe we should prioritize helping governments handle their own problems. I have little faith in the U.S. government not to consistently act in its own self-interest, so we should not put the U.S. in the position to exploit other nations consistently.”

-Senior Daniel Harris “Yes. Because the United States is a developed nation and preaches democracy and humanity, it is their obligation to follow through on these notions and help developing nations in their struggle for success, independence, and freedom.”

-Freshman Isobel Hamilton

PM AM

Depth

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

9

Do you think scientists should be allowed to genetically engineer viable human embryos?

24% Sometimes

36% No

periority into that generation.”

Genetic engineering has been the subject of intense debate ever since scientists discovered CRISPR-Cas9, a relatively simple way to edit genomes.

A Chinese scientist announced that he had successfully altered the DNA of twins using a gene editing tool to make them resistant to HIV Nov. 26, plunging the world into a heated debate over the ethics and legality of gene editing.

“What he did was totally wrong, on many levels,” said Paul Liu, the deputy scientific director of the human genome research institute at the National Institutes of Health. “He crossed that line, but the question is: is this the first of many to come? Or is this just an event that we need to prevent from ever happening again?”

40% yes

“No, humans shouldn’t have a hand in playing God. To me, it’s unnatural and unethical to choose what traits your child has.”

- Freshman Chris Sylvester “No, we also don’t know the repercussions or consequences, and I don’t believe that we should experiment with human life. Nature has a way of taking care of itself, and the less we mess with that the better. If we started genetically engineering people on demand, it would probably only be available to the wealthy, and would this create a deeper class division and bias.”

- Senior Nora O’Prey

“Yes, I have no issue with the reversal of otherwise fatal conditions. But I also think that by creating genetically altered children, we will instate inequality and a need for su-

139 1

Not worried

201 2

279 279

269

125 3

- Sophomore Esme Padgett

4

67

139

5

Extremely worried

how worried are you about the rapid development of ai?

From Amazon’s Alexa to Boston Dynamic’s consumer-friendly Artificial Intelligence robot dog, AI technology quickly made its way into mainstream consumer use in 2018. The growth has sparked fears among scientists and leaders in the tech world, including Elon Musk, who warned that AI could be “far more dangerous than nukes” at a panel in 2017. In February 2018, Bill Gates said that it’s “great for society,” because it will “bring us immense new productivity.”

1

“AI is like any other tool that humans have invented. When machines replaced single artisan workers, products became immensely cheaper, wages rose and general wealth went up. The workers were either hired in the factory or their artisan goods started getting more value.”

- Junior Lorenzo Natal

3

“If we somehow lose control of them, they could easily threaten our civilization. But you cannot deny the fact that AIs have helped us a lot. We just have to make sure we know what we’re doing when allowing them to think and act freely.”

- Freshman Faraz Merchant

5

“I’m more worried about what can be done with the data collected than the AI itself. I’ve been on the deepest parts of the internet, I’ve seen what people are capable of and to have devices that collect so much data be hacked is a scary thought. I feel we need to—instead of making technology smarter—make technology safer.”

2

1

Negatively

3

125 67 4

5

Positively

How do you view the direction our country is going?

2

“The political parties have become so partisan in the last few decades that there are no real moderates anymore. Gone are the Reagan Republicans and the Clinton Democrats. For actual policy: the U.S. is probably headed toward a recession, is not fighting to combat climate change, is doing nothing about gun control, and the respect that used to govern politics (both internal and external) is gone. It also seems highly dubious to me that any real work can get done/meaningful policies enacted in the current direction both parties are going.”

-Senior Raphael Metz

3

“It’s very interesting to watch the news, and there are a lot of bad things happening recently, but more and more people are fighting for what they believe in and helping out other people. Like when people say that you learn and grow in times of darkness, I believe that’s what the U.S. is doing.”

-Freshman Kendall Headley

5

“I think it’s absurd to think this country is going in any direction but upwards.

The U.S. is the greatest country in the world and U.S. citizens are spoiled by that. They want perfection and for the government to embody their exact beliefs. That is unrealistic and I am more than happy with the current state of the government and its future.”

-Junior Zach Askarinam

- Senior Ryan Gaines

X

Nov. 2

018

Vote

Feature

10

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

(Clockwise from top): Hichwa is sprayed with compressed air before a drone race in California last April; Hichwa at the XDC Clash of Drones, a drone race that includes rings of fire and smoke; Hichwa places 3rd out of nearly 100 competitors at Northeast Regional Finals in New York last August; one of Hichwa’s circuit boards. Photos courtesy OLAF HICHWA

In the drone zone: Hichwa’s aviation interest takes off “Junior” Continued From Page 1

A

fter spending 400 hours flying his first drone, Hichwa now flies, repairs and researches drones every day. He said his interest in drones isn’t a hobby; it’s an “addiction.”

“My addiction is my passion. It’s just natural,” Hichwa said. “Every second that I’m awake, I want to be doing something with drones. Every second I’m doing school work, I just want to get it done—that way I can get to drones.”

He finished building his first drone in 2015. After connecting with other pilots on Facebook and watching livestream videos of them competing, Hichwa decided he wanted to enter a drone race.

He had never competed in anything before. As a kid, he hated every sport he participated in. But drone competitions excited him, he said.

Last year, after two rounds of regional qualifying races, Hichwa competed at his first national tournament, the U.S. National Drone Racing Championship, where he placed 96th out of 117 competitors. Although he was unhappy with his results, he was overwhelmed by how welcoming the drone community was, he said.

So he decided to race again.

When he placed tenth out of nearly 120 people in his next national tournament, he realized drone racing was something he wanted to do for as long as he could.

“I was so surprised that I was flying that well, I was shaking. I had no idea what was going on. I even had a drone catch on fire during the race,” Hichwa said. “That was the moment that I realized racing is for me.”

After placing in a few races and posting often in drone-related Facebook groups, several companies that specialize in drone parts reached out to Hichwa to sponsor him. Now, PiroFlip, which sells nearly every drone part, including frames and motors; China Hobby Line, a battery company; HQ Props, a propeller manufacturer; and Foxeer, which sells

cameras and antennas — all sponsor Hichwa.

Maintaining sponsorships is time consuming. He’s constantly advertising his four sponsors’ products on his Facebook account and has to wear apparel with their logos during competitions. But thanks to his sponsors, Hichwa only has to buy around half the parts he needs for his drones. For competitors without sponsors, maintaining drones for races can cost upwards of $1,000 a month, he said.

“I’m super thankful, but it’s a lot of work,” he said. “It’s not like I get free stuff falling from the sky for doing nothing. I have to do a lot for the stuff I get.”

Hichwa likes to spend his Friday afternoons at Drone Club’s weekly meeting. He started the club to share supplies with other drone enthusiasts and teach anyone willing to learn about drones, he said.

“I have a lot of old gear sitting around, and I love flying with new people,” Hichwa said. “I decided I might as well put it to good use and fly with new pilots.”

Hichwa said he wants the club to be a place where people can make friends but also learn basic mechanics. During one of the first meetings of the year, he gave out handwritten notes to all the members to help them understand the mechanics, engineering and physics of drones.

“I think drones have a tremendous ability to teach people really complex subjects and make it fun,” Hichwa said. “No one wants to learn all these engineering subjects on a whiteboard, but when you have to do it for your drone, it becomes fun.”

Hichwa also competes in relay races.

While in a relay race, up to eight pilots each connect to a video channel that allows them to see the drone’s point of view through their goggles. If a ninth drone turns on, it automatically enters all eight video channels briefly, terminating the connection the pilots have with the camera on their drones.

A common problem among pilots is that they have to crash land their drones to disconnect from a channel. Since crash land-

ing can damage expensive drones and injure observers, Hichwa decided he wanted to address the issue.

So he designed and produced his own circuit board: a switch that allows pilots to turn on and off their video transmitter—or VTX—without turning off their drones. This way, pilots don’t have to risk damaging their drones and relay races are less chaotic.

Pilots will often yell “kill your VTX,” when their video connection is interrupted during a race, so Hichwa named the circuit board the “VTX assassin.”

Hichwa came up with the idea for the circuit board in June. He spent hours each day teaching himself how to design the product using an online program called Circuit Maker.

“I was unbelievably obsessed for the last month of school,” Hichwa said. “I remember just sitting there at lunch every day, hunched over my laptop, clicking buttons.”

Once Hichwa completed his design, he began reaching out to circuit board manufacturers in China. Over the summer, he communicated with his manufacturer every day via Skype. Because of the 11-hour time difference, he often slept during the day and stayed up all night.

Hichwa said the process wasn’t easy, especially because of the language barrier and cultural divide. To better understand China and ensure production went smoothly, Hichwa began researching the country’s history and culture. After watching “China Uncensored,” a YouTube series that incorporates news with satirical humor, his relationship with his manufacturer strengthened, he said.

After months of designing his own drone technology and communicating with the manufacturer in China, Hichwa’s business is up and running. He received his first shipment of circuit boards Nov. 5 and now sells his product to his sponsors, drone parts companies and anyone who reaches out to him with a minimum order of 20 circuit boards.

Hichwa’s company is called OlaFPV —OlaF for his name, and FPV for first per-

son view, the vehicle category that drones fall into.

Olaf’s dad, Michael Hichwa, invested in his son’s company from the start because he wanted Olaf to learn basic business skills.

Michael, who’s a computer programmer, said he’s proud of his son because he reminds him of his younger self.

“My parents were completely unable to help me with my computer programming, but they were supportive,” Michael said.

“The same goes for me: he’s long surpassed any ability I have to provide him guidance or help. I’m very proud that he’s able to be self-sufficient.”

Liam Flanagan is a high school junior from Massachusetts who races drones and started his own business around the same time as Hichwa. They met through mutual friends. Over the summer, they traded advice: Hichwa taught Flanagan how to work with the software to design a circuit board, and Flanagan taught Hichwa how to manage the financial side of his business.

Flanagan admires his friend’s dedication.

“Once he gets an idea, he just starts going for it,” Flanagan said. “He becomes really focused on getting it done and he’s really excited about it the entire time.”

Now, Hichwa has slowed down the pace of his company because he can’t stay up until 4 a.m. on Skype during the school year.

Although he’s taking a break from his business, he said his drone addiction isn’t fading because, for him, “drones are life.”

Hichwa isn’t sure he wants to pursue a career as a pro-drone racer. It can be a lot of pressure to win races and the salary is inconsistent. But he wants to keep working with drones and continue developing products for his business as a career.

“I want OlaFPV to be my job for sure. I will do everything I can to make it my job,” Hichwa said. “I understand that it probably won’t pay for the Bethesda life, but that’s not really what I’m after anyway.”

Feature

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

11

ASMR videos make some students relax, others cringe Students divided over trend that gives ‘goosebumps on your brain’

by ADITI GUJARAN The crisp crunch of potato chips, the soft crackling from a knife cutting through sand and the subtle sound of a quiet voice whispering into a microphone: to some, autonomous sensory meridian response videos— commonly referred to as ASMR videos—are quick stress relievers.

To others, they’re comedic or even cringe-worthy.

The videos often involve soft whispering or simple sounds which, for some, create a distinctive, calming, physical sensation; what’s often misunderstood is that ASMR describes this sensation, not the videos themselves.

“It’s like showers of sparkles,” ASMR artist Maria said in a Washington Post interview. She created the ASMR YouTube channel GentleWhispering in 2009.

“It’s like warm sand being poured all over you, trickling over your head and down into your shoulders.

It’s like goosebumps on your brain.”

But for some, watching people crunch on soppy pickles up close on camera is too awkward or gross to find relaxing, sophomore Chloe Lesser said.

“I have no idea how ASMR is actually supposed to make me feel, so I automatically take it the wrong way,” Lesser said. “It doesn’t feel good to watch. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

Though the videos elicit different reactions, ASMR videos have skyrocketed in popularity; searches for them doubled from

June 2016 to June 2018, Google data shows. Maria now has over 1.5 million subscribers. In her most popular video, she gently taps on the microphone and whispers supportive words to viewers. It has been viewed over 10.9 million times.

Some students are in on the trend, creating their own ASMR videos or watching YouTubers eat honeycomb or tap wood with their long fingernails to destress before a test.

“In ASMR, there might be something that I don’t like but my friends like,” said senior Kiera Jevtich, who makes her own ASMR videos. “ASMR has so many different topics, so everyone can find something that they like.

And when you do find that one thing that you like, it’s the best because it’s so relaxing.”

Researchers found that people who experience ASMR frequently have increased excitement and calmness levels and decreased stress levels, a 2016 University of Sheffield study found.

In a screenshot from her own video, Senior Kiera Jevtich taps her nails on a soda can as part of an ASMR video.

This is because ASMR videos Jevtich makes AMSR videos and posts them on Instagram. Screenshot couresty KIERA JEVTICH distract viewers from everyday them and ignore your thoughts. Ev- in a situation where I sit down and white noise before sleeping. Knapworries, psychology professor watch people eat,” Horn said. “I pertz likes to watch videos where Jonathan Flombaum said. Flom- eryone needs a break.”

Senior Gracie Horn thinks the clicked on it thinking it was ab- ASMR creators cut magnetic sand, baum works at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences videos are “uncomfortable” but has surd and ended the video thinking which has a soft crackling noise, as and teaches an Introduction to Cog- learned to enjoy them. When Horn it was funny. I tell people I listen a stress reliever.

“It’s so simple. It helps me nitive Psychology course at Johns watched YouTube creator Macken- and they’re like, ‘I would never zie Logan’s video of herself mak- want anybody to know I listen to zone out. Everything else around Hopkins University.

“My quick intuition is that the ing a cherry sundae, which has been ASMR.’ But, I don’t think there’s you is so noisy, but when you listen sounds are easy to pay attention viewed over 129,000 times, she a problem to listen to it. People to the video, it’s just that sound,” Knappertz said. “It blocks everyto; they are not too loud or com- couldn’t stop laughing as Logan shouldn’t have to feel ashamed.”

Junior Adrian Knappertz found thing else out.” plicated,” Flombaum said. “They placed cherries on the ice cream the trend in 2016; they often crumchange, but slowly, so they kind of with unmatched concentration.

“I never thought I would be ble chips before eating or listen to make it easy to focus your mind on

12

Feature

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

Students use bullet journals for innovation, organization

by HIRARI SATO

Junior Sophia Kotschoubey used train tickets and drawings to decorate her bullet journal (top) when she traveled abroad; junior Eva Ginns’ bullet journal (bottom). Many students have started using bullet journals as a way to organize their ideas. Photos by NATALIE LEWIS and EVA GINNS

Walking through the hot and vibrant streets of Istanbul this past summer, junior Sophia Kotschoubey held her small leather journal close at all times.

She glued train tickets to the unlined pages, wrote descriptions of the Turkish couscous and meze platters she ate and sketched people she saw on the streets and the history-laden city’s colorful buildings. Instead of just simply snapping photos, Kotschoubey used the journal to remember her summer trip with writing and drawings.

Kotschoubey, along with thousands, have turned to bullet journaling—or free-form journaling—as a mindful and creative approach to organize plans and ideas. The most popular type of bullet journals are unlined Moleskine journals, which allow journalers to freely structure their thoughts. Journalers fill their Moleskins with hand-drawn monthly or weekly calendars, sketches, notes, reminders, daily updates and plans to keep themselves organized.

Whitman students’ interest in bullet journaling parallels a national trend. There was an 18 percent increase in unruled notebook sales this year and a 17 percent increase in colored markers, even though general office supply sales have been decreasing over the past several years, the National Purchase Diary Panel found. There are thousands of bullet journal

Instagram posts and YouTube videos about bullet journaling.

Some videos have reached over a million views.

Junior Eva Ginns uses her journal as an art form. She personalizes it with sketches and watercolor paintings, creating a new theme—ranging from galaxies to comic books—each month. She carries her 65-page journal everywhere, jotting down upcoming plans.

“With the bullet journal, there’s no drawn lines, and it gives me a way to completely be my own person in my own contained space,” Ginns said.

“There’s personal discovery and benefits.”

Kotschoubey has bullet journaled for a year. Bullet journaling allows her to organize momentary ideas into a single space, she said. She has lists of potential songs she wants to play for Talent Show, small sketches of possible artwork and even holiday gift ideas for her friends and family.

English teachers Matthew Bruneel and Todd Michaels use free-form journals to visually keep track of their chaotic schedules. Bruneel keeps his journals simple, writing with a plain black pen, and only uses lines to divide his calendars and checklists.

“A bullet journal has a very simple capacity and ability to think about the past and the future,” Bruneel said.“I’m not perfect, but it works for me when I need it. To start, you have to

just buy it—mine was only an eight dollar journal—and don’t be afraid to just fill it out.”

Journaling relieves stress, AP psychology teacher Sheryl Freedman said; writing down thoughts and ideas gives people a dedicated time to worry and think. Junior Anjeli Smith started journaling as a tool for managing stress, she said.

“You can choose to be consistent, or you could choose to write whenever you feel like it, like whenever something major happens,” Smith said. “There’s not a lot of pressure because nobody’s going to read it, and it’s nice to just have something for myself.”

Andie Arbo, a YouTuber who makes videos showcasing her different bullet journal themes and designs, gets over a hundred thousand views on some videos. She likes bullet journaling because it’s a way to keep track of life in a creative, and personalized way, she said in an interview.

Her journals are filled with intricate designs for her monthly themes. Her 2018 December retro and tropical theme includes stickers of small vinyl records in the background and detailed drawings of tropical plants surrounding her weekly calendar.

“The best parts of bullet journaling are the things technology can’t accomplish: painting, gluing, working with your hands,” Arbo said. “Nothing can ever replace the feeling of pen on paper.”

‘This is my family’: Kennedy H.S. NJROTC creates community Student cadets learn naval core values, leadership in specialized program

by ADITI GUJARAN “Attention on Deck! Good afternoon Ma’am!” one cadet yells. He’s the first one to spot Chief Petty Officer Sharon Rogers.

Thirty cadets stand up straight. In unison, they yell, “Attention on deck!

Good afternoon!”

For other students at John F. Kennedy High School, it’s lunchtime.

But for students in the school’s Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, classroom 132 has transformed into a naval base with the highest-ranking officer present on deck. Cadets have to be ready.

They are very close-knit, they learn from each other, guide from each other, they lift each other up.

-Chief Petty Officer Sharon Rogers Kennedy is one of five MCPS high schools that has a JROTC program.

NJROTC, a two-part program, was added in 2001; it has around 125 cadets. The first part of the program is inside the classroom: students learn skills, discipline and information about their branch in the military. The second part is performancebased: cadets present themselves with their peers to appear like a “unit” when they march or drill. Their end goal is to act as one.

Rogers is a driving force for the program. She directs practices with strict discipline and holds students accountable for their actions inside and outside NJROTC. She also teaches Naval Science

1 and 2. Rogers was a part of Air Force JROTC when she was in high school, and said she took the instructor position at Kennedy because she was inspired by prior instructors and wanted to share her experiences after serving in the Navy.

The goal in NJROTC is to make students better citizens and leaders, not just to prepare them for the military, academy coordinator Kevin Jefferson said. Many students are attracted to Kennedy for its NJROTC program, counselor Lexanne Wilson said.

“Students see the ways that they can grow with leadership qualities—abilities that they acknowledge they want to grow before they get to college,” she said.

Julie Vicente chose Kennedy for its NJROTC program over Wheaton, her home school. After being a part of the Kennedy NJROTC program, she feels that she now has a new “family.”

“It’s helped me open up more because I used to be shy and I didn’t have friends because I was bullied,” Vicente said.

“When I came here, I felt like I found my place and could be open to people around me. It hit me: ‘This is my family.’ I felt like I belonged.”

NJROTC has three meetings throughout the day. The first is informal and during fifth period lunch, where students listen to announcements about upcoming meets and talk to their squad leaders. In the second meeting, small groups called “squads” take a required naval class where they learn military team orders, naval core values and ship structures.

The third meeting is after school, when the team goes to the parking lot to practice their competition routines.

There, cadets direct their attention to Cadet Lieutenant Commander Alex Guerra as he loudly calls out orders. There are two groups that form: color guard and drill team.

The color guard is a competition team where two cadets carry drill rifles that no longer can be fired, and the other two cadets carry the American and Navy flags.

After walking 18 counts, the cadets file

Four cadets march forward to the cadence “left, left, left, right, left.” This is the color guard, a competition team in Kennedy’s NJROTC program. Photo by ADITI GUJARAN

into one line and march military-style.

They swing “march left turn” to assume final position so Rogers can check their form.

The second, bigger group is the drill team. Here, Guerra commands a group of 12 cadets. As he starts off with “right face,” each cadet begins: with military precision, they walk down to the end of the lot.

Competitions are often held in other school gyms. On the floor, cadets are judged on the march with their platoon.

They can also be quizzed on military trivia while on the floor. Judges award points for the cohesion of the performance, military bearing and whether cadets adopt a military mindset, Guerra said.

Still, education is the top priority for Rogers. Cadets need a 2.0 GPA to stay in NJROTC. “The second-highest cadet, the

commanding officer, was failing a class,” Rogers said. “She was not setting a standard for other kids. To her, it was all about the position and not taking care about yourself academically. I took the position from her.”

Rogers also encourages the cadets to give back to the community. They march at Housing and Urban Development events and lay wreaths at Arlington cemetery every December.

The team bond in NJROTC is strong.

Students tend to stay at practice after it ends, Rogers said.

“They are very close-knit, they learn from each other, guide from each other; they lift each other up. It creates confidence,” Rogers said. “They grow into these confident people and next thing you know, they’re leading their peers.”

Feature

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

W C R O S S R D

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32

Across(word) the galaxy

by CAM JONES and EVA LILES

ACROSS

1. Common winter garment 5. “O” in the military phonetic alphabet, alternative spelling 10. Surface muscles on the back, common name 14. Fortnite streamer, Dr. _____ 15. “Queen” in Lima 16. A dull pain 17. Frank or Hathaway 18. Hypothetical substance making up most of the universe 20. Solid form of water 21. To be morose because of disappointment 22. To delay an activity 23. What you do with a ruler 25. Slang for parents 26. Adam’s counterpart 27. What you reload with, slangily 30. The toroise’s opponent 33. A rocky body in space in orbit around the sun, larger than a meteoroid 37. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s padawan 41. Relating to a whole system 42. A sea eagle 43. Most commonly grown crop from the Columbian Exchange 44. Justin Timberlake-sponsored drink brand 45. To ruin or do something badly 50. This planet’s orbit is the shortest 54. Concurs 56. A place where one can sit 57. Surname of the general of the Confederate Army 58. Traveling between the earth and moon 60. “Other” in Managua, feminine 61. Female chickens 62. To fix, formally 63. 2019 Lamborghini

64. “This,” in Malabo, masculine 65. To ask God to look favorably upon 66. To monologue in an impassioned way

DOWN

1. To assert 2. There are 16 of this in a pound 3. Temporary halt of breathing, often in your sleep 4. Finger of the foot 5. Dung 6. Huey Newton’s Black Panther party co-founder, Bobby 7. Star Trek captain 8. Completes word beginning with th, November 22, 2018 9. Uphill sloping surface, used as an alternative to stairs 10. Coffee made with espresso and hot steamed milk 11. To behave on a specific impulse 12. Grand _____ Auto

13. Agricultural laborers bound under the feudal system 19. A natural light display in the Earth’s sky 21. Chevy Equinox or Ford Escape 24. The player who catches the snitch in Quidditch _____, verb 27. Requesting an answer, Eye dialect 28. Mountain Top Youth Camp, abbr.

29. Small, pink, Psychic-type Pokémon 30. How laughter is expressed in writing, if repeated 31. Response to a question, abbr.

32. Animal that killed Steve Irwin 33.Kiera Jevtich does this on page 11 34. A naturally occuring fatty acid, _____ acid 35. Popular text abbreviation used to show agreement 36. Where lions sleep 38. When you get a bug bite, it _____ 39. Protagonist in The Matrix 40. Prefix for lief, vive, and turn

44. Many men grow these 45. Creativity often expressed through drawing, painting 46. To wash oneself 47. Man eating giants, in folklore 48. Game Of Thrones character, Meryn 49. Nice scent, smell of burning in_______ 50. The averages of a sequence of numbers 51. Conspiracy theory, MK 52. Song on Quavo’s recent album Ft. Travis Scott 53. What makes bread rise 55. A common structural block made from concrete 56. Former 4 time pro bowl linebacker of the New York Giants, Chris 59. Pictorial language used to make software blueprints, abbr.

60. Belonging to you and someone else

Linus’ comics ed. 2: The history of class struggles

by LINUS GHANADAN

Sports

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

14

Recruitment or rehab? Sport specialization jeopardizes athletes For student-athletes who specialize in a single sport, injuries are the norm

by MATEO GUTIERREZ It started with a sprained ankle.

Then another. And another. By the time senior Caroline Macdonald was 18, she had suffered three sprained ankles, a stress fracture in her foot and a torn ACL. Her injuries were cumulative, painful and season-ending.

But they weren’t surprising.

She has spent 11 years stressing the same muscles, using her ankles to cut quickly and her hamstrings to propel herself down the field. Since she started playing soccer when she was seven, her practice schedule has only intensified: she has team practices three to five times a week, personal training once or twice a week and she occasionally works out by herself.

Macdonald’s frequent injuries—caused by overtraining— have become more common among high school athletes.

High school athletes who specialize in one sport are 70 percent more likely to get injured in-season than students who play multiple sports, according to a study by the National Federation of High School Associations. This is because athletes who train for one sport yearround are repeating the same movements, adding more stress to their muscles and increasing the risk of injury and even burnout.

“When these kids come in going at it hard and strong for one sport at a really young age, that

takes a big toll on their body,” nurse practitioner Kelly Goodman said. “We see earlier injury, more joint problems—these kids are developing earlier arthritis.”

But when a young athlete’s goal is to play one sport at a high level, playing many sports can seem counterintuitive to athletes and parents.

Although aware of the risks of sports specialization, Macdonald still has hopes to further her soccer career in college.

When these kids come in going at it hard and strong for one sport at a really young age, that takes a big toll on their body.

-nurse practitioner Kelly Goodman

“I only ‘overtrain’ because of how much I want to succeed,” Macdonald said. “I’ve dedicated my life to it.”

In an informal survery of 30 Whitman athletes, 18 said they specialize in one sport. Of those 18 students, nine have sustained two or more injuries from training or playing their sport over their lives.

Sports specialization has become a growing trend at Whitman,

girls basketball coach Peter Kenah said. But he said the best players to come through the girls basketball program throughout his coaching career have been multi-sport athletes.

“It has exploded in the last 15 years,” Kenah said. “The emphasis is on college scholarships as well as club coaches pushing players at younger ages. They feel they have to do this.”

Wrestler Thomas Santora, a senior, trains every day after school and lifts weights three times a week before school. On Saturdays, he wrestles and lifts. Santora has suffered several torn hamstrings, torn cartilage in his shoulder, a broken ankle, a broken hand, a rupture in a part of his knee and neck spasms.

In contrast, junior Kai Holloway is on the varsity football and basketball teams and has played both sports since he was nine years old. Although he’s played sports competitively for more than a decade, he’s only ever broken one bone.

Goodman attributes the lower rate of injury for multi-sport athletes to the use of accessory muscles—muscles that athletes don’t use when playing their sport.

“All of your accessory muscles are getting used at all times,” Goodman said. “That’s so great, because when you do that, the muscles that are constantly being used with one sport are getting a break.”

Houston Texans defensive

specializeD ATHLETES are 70% more likely to get injureD than MULTI-SPORT ATHLETES

Stat from National Federation of High School Associations Graphic by JANA WARNER

up playing more than one sport.

U.S. Youth Soccer director Sam Snow said in an interview with the organization that multi-sport athletes are an asset to teams.

“If you talk to college coaches today, they’ll all tell you—whether it’s a soccer coach, football coach, basketball coach—they’ll all say, ‘we want multiple sport athletes because those are the ones who perform best at the intercollegiate level,’” Snow said.

end J.J. Watt voiced his opinion about the increase of specialization among young athletes on Twitter in 2017.

“Single-sport specialization is troubling,” Watt said. “Let kids be kids. They’ll become better all-around athletes and have more fun.”

Multi-sport athletes are also more likely to have long-term athletic success. Seventy-one percent of Division I football players were multi-sport athletes growing up, a 2017 NCAA survey reported.

And seven out of 10 Olympic athletes surveyed by the United States Olympic Committee said they grew

Private school transfers bring new talent to boys basketball

by LUKAS TROOST

go to yearbookforever.com to buy one today! choose your color choice --teal, red, or yellow in the “homeroom section” on yearbookforever.com

yearbook ads on sale! yearbook ads are not exclusive to seniors! ads are open to friend groups, clubs, sports teams, etc.

Senior Jason Lewis has always wanted to play basketball in college.

But after having limited playing time as the sixth man for St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, he felt he wasn’t reaching his full potential, he said. He knew he could contribute more, so he decided to transfer to Whitman.

In his fourth game as a Viking, Lewis finished with a team-high 20 points, more than he usually scored with St. Andrew’s. And just four months after transferring to Whitman, Lewis is committed to Case Western Reserve University.

“I wanted a bigger role for my senior year so I could stand out to college coaches more,” Lewis said. “I was only asked to do a couple things, so I think this year I’ll be able to show more people what I can actually do.”

Junior guard Jaden Pierce also transferred to Whitman this year from St. John’s College High School. His strong defense and technical ball handling immediately impressed coach Christopher Lun at winter tryouts, Lun said. Pierce and Lewis both earned spots on the starting lineup.

Lun is excited for what the new players bring to the court.

“I think they’re obviously going to play a big role for us,” Lun said. “Jason gives us good outside scoring, and he’s kind of a sneaky athletic. Jaden’s one of the few guys we have that is going to be able to handle the ball against pressure. They’re definitely a big part of what we want to do.”

Pierce said that at St. John’s, the team was more guard-oriented, focusing on outside shooting. At Whitman, the roster size is more balanced, allowing them to speed up the pace of play.

Like Lewis, Pierce transferred to get more playing time.

“The transition was smooth,” Pierce said. “With Whitman, we’re trying to play fast and up-tempo, and all the guys were nice, so it was an easy

transition.”

Lewis and Pierce will help the Vikes in a competitive 4A South division against tough competitors like Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Winston Churchill. Churchill is off to a flying start with wins over B-CC and Watkins Mill, while B-CC returns nationally ranked guard Elijah Wood. Lewis’ height and elite outside shooting will give Whitman an advantage against zone teams, while Pierce’s ball handling will be vital against full-court press teams, Lun said.

“Jason and Jaden bring new fresh faces and excitement to our program as people will be looking forward to seeing who these kids are and their skills,” guard Josh Weinberg said.

Although the team has a number of returning players, including Weinberg and forwards Michael Bass and Rodrigo Ruiz, Lewis and Pierce will provide the team with additional scorers.

“We felt good with what we had, but we always get excited to see a couple new pieces,” Lun said. “Our team’s going to give us a chance each night, and that’s all we ask for.”

Lewis and Pierce trained with the team over the summer and during the fall league, so by the start of the winter season, the team already had solid chemistry, both players said. Leadership from other players like Weinberg has made the team more cohesive, Lewis said.

“Josh’s energy and leadership got to me,” Lewis said. “He’s always talking on the court and trying to get other people involved.”

As one of only six seniors, Lewis hopes to become a leader on the team, he said.

“We don’t have too many loud voices, so I think someone needs to step up,” he said. “I think I’m capable of doing that.”

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

Sports

15

Rower Alexa Lyman commits to Cornell after a year on crew

by ALLY NAVARRETE

Senior Alexa Lyman is used to change. Since she was four years old, she’s competed in nine sports in two countries and five states. So when she had to switch from paddling on the Pacific Ocean to rowing on the Potomac River, she was prepared to face another adjustment head on.

And change isn’t the only thing she’s good at: after picking up rowing less than a year ago, she’s committed to Cornell University for crew.

“It’s unbelievable how she went from someone who had never been in a boat before to a Division I recruit in less than 365 days,” coxswain Rachel Halliday said. “She has the kind of mentality that a lot of people don’t have to be able to push herself really hard.”

With her dad on active duty in the Army, Lyman lived in Germany as well as four states before she was in fifth grade. When fifth grade started, she moved to Oahu, Hawaii.

There, Lyman transferred schools her freshman year. A state regulation intended to prevent football players from transferring prohibits Hawaiian students from playing the same sports at different schools. This rule prevented Lyman from continuing to play softball, which she had played at her old school. So instead, she picked up Hawaii’s official state team sport: outrigger canoe paddling.

Outrigger canoes, different from racing shells, have one or more lateral support floats attached to the sides. In the canoe, paddlers face forward with their legs underneath them, whereas in the shell they sit facing backwards. Because of the different positioning, the paddling and rowing motions are very different. Crew requires more whole body engagement, Lyman said.

Lyman paddled for her school and a club team, training every day after school. School season was

during the winter, with three- to six-mile open ocean long distance races. The summer was sprint season: her club team competed in half-mile races. During the summer, her team traveled all around the island to race in different regattas, including the state championship, where they placed second.

“I instantly fell in love with paddling and decided that water sports were what I wanted to continue doing,” she said. “Water sports allow me to be outside and stay in touch with nature. You experience some type of serenity that’s hard to find elsewhere.”

But at the end of her sophomore year, Lyman’s family moved again—this time to Bethesda. After only two years of paddling, she had to leave the sport behind.

“It was heartbreaking. I felt like I had an intense emotional connection to it,” she said. “I never felt that with softball or volleyball, partially because I didn’t feel the same connection with my teammates.”

Her parents said this move was particularly hard for her.

“There was always a beautiful backdrop to the sport: the clear blue waves, pretty coastlines, beautiful wildlife. Outrigger canoe paddling was very unique,” her father, Andy Lyman, said. “When we told Alexa we were moving from Hawaii, she was not particularly happy.”

But during the spring before Lyman’s family moved, she visited Whitman and met the coaches and rowers at a crew practice. She started school at the start of her junior year and began the transition from paddling to rowing. Lyman translated some of her paddling skills into the new sport, she said.

“Paddling in Hawaii kind of helped me to understand water dynamics and what it takes to be an endurance athlete,” she said. “It also allowed me to learn what the application of power feels like, so I was able to transfer that concept into rowing.”

During the winter training season—when the team takes a

(Clockwise from top): Lyman competes in outrigger canoe paddling in Hawaii; The senior fist bumps girls varsity crew coach Kirk Shipley; Lyman (third from left) stands with her paddling team after a race in summer 2016.

Photos courtesy ALEXA LYMAN

break from the water—Lyman vastly improved her speed on the erg, an indoor rowing machine.

That improvement made her one of the top eight rowers on the team.

In February, Lyman began to consider college rowing. She thought about walking onto a team or searching for a smaller program.

But when she returned to the water in the spring, she wasn’t as technically advanced as the other rowers.

“I think she was frustrated at the beginning of last spring because throughout the winter she had all of these expectations of what it would be like to be on the water,” Halliday said. “She wasn’t there yet because she didn’t have the experience.”

But the technical setback

didn’t stop Lyman from training hard, girls varsity crew coach Kirk Shipley said.

“It’s not just that she works hard, it’s that she really enjoys work,” he said. “She enjoys learning and she likes a challenge.

She’s very good at listening, feeling and learning.”

Improving throughout the spring, Lyman received offers from more competitive programs.

While her teammates began the recruitment process in the winter of junior year, she started at the end of summer, right before the start of senior year.

“When I started crew, I started with the intention of just playing a sport. I didn’t expect it to lead to this,” she said. “But then the

opportunity presented itself, and I knew I’d always regret it if I didn’t take advantage of it.”

The Ivy League dominates women’s collegiate rowing, so Lyman will row against some of the best rowers in the country next year at Cornell. She feels both nervous and excited, but the program seemed like a good fit, she said.

“My impression was that the team was very close knit and supportive of one another, and I think that’s what I’m most excited to be a part of,” she said. “I’m nervous about the competition, but I’m also nervous about the competition here. Competition just comes with the nature of sports.”

Whitman parent Gil Rosen’s beading passion spreads kindness Rosen makes beaded bracelets for boys varsity soccer team, sports fans

by JOSÉ WRAY When senior Natan Rosen scored the goal that tied the boys soccer state championship game Nov. 16, tiny blue beads went flying.

His dad, Gil Rosen, had been making bracelets—hundreds of beads were attached to his hip in a small container—when his son scored, and he couldn’t help but jump with excitement. Most parents wouldn’t be making crafts during the biggest game of their child’s soccer career, but for Rosen, making bracelets is just part of his mission to “impact the world through kindness.”

Four years ago, Rosen was working in a hospice facility through the Jewish Social Service agency when he noticed a woman making bracelets to calm herself. He recognized the meditative power of beading: bracelet-making reminded him of his grandmother’s knitting. So he decided to start making bracelets himself. Since then, he estimates he has made and given out 10,000 beaded bracelets over the last four years.

He gives bracelets to anyone—as long as they agree to “pay it forward” with their own acts of kindness, he said.

“I call them healing bracelets, and I’ve also given them out to lots of players and friends and sick friends in the hope that they get better,” Rosen said. “But I always tell

them that these healing bracelets are not necessarily a healing for themselves, but are an invitation to heal other people.”

Rosen uses small blue beads to make the bracelets because blue represents hope.

I always tell them that these healing bracelets are not necessarily a healing for themselves, but are an invitation to heal other people.

-Gil Rosen

Rosen also used beading as a form of self-care after his brother took his own life five years ago. For him, making bracelets started as a mindfulness practice, but has evolved into “an introspective spiritual journey,” he said.

“I use beading as a kind of mindful meditation,” Rosen said. “That’s kind of how I deal with anxiety and depression. For me, it’s a very calming thing.”

At soccer games, he presented a challenge to students in the stands: pick up 18 pieces of trash and earn a bracelet in return.

“Trash is a big issue for me,” Rosen said.

“I think as a society we are very negligent about the resources that we consume.”

Natan admires his dad’s passion.

“He’s doing something that embodies a positive message, so I’m happy with him doing it,” Natan said.

This year, Rosen made bracelets for all of the players on the boys varsity soccer team. Many of the players wore the small, blue bracelets every day of the season and still wear them. Rosen calls these “family bracelets.”

Rosen wanted to create that sense of family among teammates to reduce the hypercompetitiveness of youth sports, which he calls the “professionalization of youth soccer.”

“Most of us decided it was going to be a family bracelet because we feel like we’re a family,” defender Abe Hoogeveen said. “But it’s also a championship bracelet, so it can be whatever we want it to be.”

The soccer team was the perfect place to spread his message, Rosen said, and he’s glad his bracelets could bring the community closer.

Those who have received the brace-

lets have said they felt compelled to spread Rosen’s message of kindness.

“This bracelet has inspired me to go out of my way to help others whenever I can,” goalkeeper Sam Nordheimer said. “Knowing how many hours Gil spent beading these so that we could wear them reminds me that I need to give back.”

Rosen also gave bracelets to some of his son’s friends in the stands during games: sometimes they were a reward for cheering the loudest or most creatively; other times they were simply a token to spread love.

Rosen doesn’t follow up with his bracelet recipients to make sure they’ve done the acts of kindness they promised, and he doesn’t give long lectures about the bracelets’ meaning either.

“I think of myself as just trying to impart a little bit of love. Where that love goes, I have no idea. I’m curious, but I also think it’s nice that I don’t,” Rosen said. “It makes it a little more pure. It’s kind of like the butterfly effect, where you do some kind thing and you let it go.”

Mateo Gutierrez also contributed to this story.

Feature

The Black & White|January 14, 2019

16

Q&A Mehdi Jamal (‘17) fights forest fires out West

by CLARA KORITZ HAWKES Mehdi Jamal (‘17) has spent the last five months stationed in Loman, Idaho, with the U.S. Forest Service fighting wildfires in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.

Jamal’s assignments lasted 14 to 21 days, with 16-hour shifts every day. Jamal previously spent two years volunteering as an Emergency Medical Technician at the Bethesda Chevy-Chase Rescue Squad. He’ll return to the Rescue Squad when he starts school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County this winter, but he plans to continue fighting forest fires out West this summer.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

The Black & White: How did your friends and family react to your decision?

Mehdi Jamal: My family wasn’t the happiest, especially when they found out there’d be times when I wouldn’t have cell service for two weeks. But I went anyway because I wanted to try something different. At the end of the day my parents were happy I went because I enjoyed it and it helped me figure out what I want to do.

It was hard on my friends. At first they were a bit upset, because we couldn’t spend the summer together. But they were really supportive and would send me packages while I was there.

B&W: What was your longest shift like?

MJ: My longest shift was 40 hours. We were sent to a fire late at night. It was just myself and seven other people. We had to use a special technique where you set fire to more forest areas preemptively to try to control the fire; it’s fighting fire with fire.

The fire was moving towards houses, so we had to work quickly.

Everyone evacuated on time, and we managed to extinguish it before it got to the houses, but it still took a huge effort. I remember finishing my 40-hour shift, taking a two-hour nap, and then going back to work.

I was the most medically qualified as an EMT, which was really unexpected. It was an extra responsibility, and I had to carry extra weight in the form of the med kit.

We all respected one another, so even though I was the youngest, they would treat me like everyone else.

B&W: What was the most severe fire you fought?

MJ: One of our assignments was a fire in Wyoming, which was really destructive. It started from an abandoned campfire and grew to 50,000 acres. It destroyed a ton of homes, but no people were hurt.

When we were there, it was the biggest fire in the U.S., and there were more than 500 other people fighting it, which is why we came from Idaho. Putting it all out took a month,

but my crew’s assignment was just two weeks.

B&W: What was the scariest experience you had?

MJ: One time, we were hiking in a line on a cliffside and the ground between my friend, who was walking in front of me, broke, so I could only catch him by the strap of his pack.

Another time, during a longer shift, the fire we were fighting grew almost 100 feet tall. At one point, the wind shifted and it almost fell over my crew. We had hoses, so we pointed them straight up, and all we got were a few embers on our clothes and our skin.

We all did what was asked of us, which would sometimes put us in scary situations. But it’s part of the job.

B&W: Was the experience what you expected?

MJ: Not at all. It was completely unexpected. Being a volunteer at home, the environment is super controlled; fires are usually five to ten minutes away from the hospital, and with most fires you can usually just hose them down.

Out there, the closest hospital could be hours away and you have to fight fires differently. Usually you have to dig or even fight fire with fire, instead of just spraying water.

B&W: What was the most important lesson you learned?

MJ: I learned how important

(Top) Jamal carries several tools and a medical kit in Loman, Idaho.

(Bottom) Jamal extinguishes a fire while on assignment with an eightperson engine. Photos courtesy MEHDI JAMAL

it is to keep a positive attitude, even in the worst situations. We’d be in frustrating situations, suffering in the cold or heat, and if you let yourself get negative, it would make everything worse. Just stay-

ing positive, you can get through it all, and that’s something that being out West made me realize more than anything. I always tried not to be in a bad mood. That made the biggest difference.

All sketched out: senior creates abstract art Sydney Maggin’s life shaped by imagination, fashion

by ALEX ROBINSON As senior Sydney Maggin explains her passion for art, her hands are in constant motion, moving fluidly with a flick of her wrist or an open-palmed gesture. Sometimes mimicking a gentle brushstroke or a sharp stroke of a pencil, her movements are effortless and expressive—and becomingly artistic. Interestingly enough, the topic she’s speaking about is her love for drawing hands.

“They’re really hard to draw, and a lot of time they come out really messed up, but we learn so much from how people hold their hands,” Maggin said. “It just expresses so much of your body language.”

Just like her hands, Maggin is expressive and illustrative in her everyday life. She draws when she gets home from school, before she goes to bed and when she can’t fall asleep in the middle of the night. Leaving her

house without her sketchbook is like leaving without her wallet, she said. As a hostess at Wild Tomato, she even sketches portraits of customers eating dinner.

Since she started taking art classes as a freshman, Maggin has expanded her love of sketching and painting to digital art. Some years, Maggin has sold every piece of art from her flat at Festival of the Arts. She also recently designed the logo for the Oath of Wellness, the mental health pledge slip distributed to students during the Signs of Suicide presentations this November.

Her mom, Lori Maggin, first noticed her daughter’s interest in art when Maggin was only two years old. After a trip to Disney World, she was overstimulated by the park and inconsolable in the car ride home. But when her dad climbed into the back seat, pulled out a pad of paper and started drawing, Maggin quieted down almost immediately.

Senior Sydney Maggin started taking digital art her freshman year. She created this illustration about time management this past October. Artwork by SYDNEY MAGGIN

From then on, Lori was always on the lookout for art materials to keep her daughter entertained, taking leftover materials from Bannockburn Crafts Night and saving corks from wine bottles for homemade projects.

“Everything she could get her hands on, she made into some kind of art project,” Lori said. “Art is the backbone of her ability to do anything in life. It gives her structure.”

In pre-school, when the other kids were taking their afternoon naps, Maggin would stay at the easel, drawing or finger painting for hours. She continued art in elementary school, winning an art competition in first grade for an abstract self-portrait.

But throughout middle school, she stopped drawing completely.

“It seemed kind of pointless,” Maggin said. “I thought, ‘Why just draw if no one’s going to see it?’”

One of her friends, who was a talented artist, inspired her to take up art again in eighth grade. When Maggin started drawing again, it helped her cope with stress and anxiety. Now, when the pressures of applying to college overwhelm her, Maggin sets time frames for herself to draw after school. After she draws, she’s able to dive into her work, she said.

“It helps me focus on something productive instead of TV, so I don’t think about the other things I’m stressed about,” Maggin said. “It’s like how exercise is for some people.”

Art is influential in other areas of her life as well. From a pair of dark green overalls to an oversized corduroy jacket with blue checkers, Maggin always dresses boldly; what she wears is an extension of her art, she said. Art also helps her appreciate the small details in everyday life, she said.

“I see things differently because I’m used to looking at things in terms of what looks good to people,” Maggin said. “It makes me appreciate colors more and lighting and small details. I see how intricate things are.”

Last year, Maggin designed a set of T-shirts with the Make-A-Wish club to raise money for the foundation and created a recycling poster for a countywide competition. Digital Art teacher Kristi McAleese required all her digital art students

Hands are Maggin’s favorite thing to draw.

She painted them on a thrifted pair of jeans last year. Photo courtesy SYDNEY MAGGIN

to enter posters in the recycling competition, and now Maggin’s and senior Alisha Dhir’s winning pieces hang in schools across the county.

Dhir said that her own poster was a typical design for a county competition: a simple, colorful recycling bin with the slogan “recycling is powerful, save the world” across the front. Maggin’s piece, Dhir said, was much more of a story. The piece displays a figure with a tree blossoming from his head, with the caption “save us, save Earth.”

“Her style is very natural, and her pieces always have a lot of emotion.” Dhir said.

“She’s one of the most creative people I’ve ever met.”

Now, Maggin is considering art school, even though she’s worried that the cost might not make it worthwhile. As a compromise, she plans to double major in art and a field like political science. That way, she can scout for a strong art program that also has wellrounded academics, she said. She hopes to widen her repertoire during college and experiment with other media, like printmaking and metal work.

“It seems like the right thing to do. If you feel really passionate about something, you should follow it,” Maggin said. “And for me, art is that thing that makes me really happy.”