Volume 57 Issue 3

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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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