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Sandra Li Managing Editor

In celebration of the Year of the Tiger, the Chinese Culture Connection (CCC) celebrated Lunar New Year with a virtual event over Zoom with a variety of performances and acts to ring in the new year. Prior to the pandemic, the CCC would showcase their performances at Malden High School in the Jenkins auditorium. However, because of restrictions the organization decided to display their event virtually where attendees could RSVP.

Mei Hung, the Executive Director of CCC, explained that there were several setbacks and challenges in midst of the pandemic as the organization had to be creative and think outside the box.

Hung emphasized how there was tremendous time pressure, as well as having to make many changes in order to prepare the celebration. “Having an online event meant we would not provide a stage… so many performers could not participate [which] meant that all the performances would have to be prerecorded and edited,” she said. As a result, not all of the performers had the space to perform or the technical skills needed to produce the recording in a timely manner.

Urban Media Arts (UMA) was able to support the CCC's efforts by offering their equipment and helping to record some of the performances at the J Malden Center. Hung noted that in the virtual world, it takes much more preparation as it required the CCC more than a month of intense production labor during the last two weeks of the event as “we had to hold many rehearsals to make sure that we ironed out the many technical issues and avoid glitches.”

With the CCC having more than a decade of experience in hosting this annual event, Hung stated that “we have attracted many friends and performing groups who appreciated the opportunity to participate and share their cultural heritage and talents with our audience.” And although many recurring performers could not join them this year, there were still benefits to the virtual format. “[It] enabled us to invite performers from China, this would not have been possible if the event was in person.”

During the event, there were various acts of singing and dancing from performers coming from the organization and all across Malden. Hung especially highlighted ZiDe Qin She, a traditional Chinese musical group.

She went on to say how the whole performance introduced not only the unique characteristics of each musical instrument, but also “set the time in the Song dynasty with the performers’ costumes and coupled with their highly creative interpretation and versatile video technique.” The performance was able to establish a fantasy-like visual effect through its performers. “It gave an outlandish and a sense of a surreal experience for the audience.”

In addition, each year the CCC collaborates with the U.S Postal Service to unveil a limited edition Lunar New Year stamp for the Year of the Tiger, with this year being the seventh year.

“It is essential for our Asian immigrant community to retain their cultural heritage and feel a sense of pride, while acculturating into the mainstream American culture,” Hung emphasized. Observing this annual Lunar New Year celebration is “symbolic of embracing their traditional heritage” because it “helps our American-born youth with Asian heritage to preserve and develop a positive bi-cultural identity.”

“We want our youth to feel proud of who they are and leverage their bi-cultural persona as an asset to maximize their potential,” Hung said.

Junior Henry Zhao, who celebrates Lunar New Year annually with his family, stated that the holiday allows for families to “spend time with your family and to welcome yourselves into the new year with good fortune, happiness and love.”

As an immigrant, Hung believes that the celebration served many functions. She added that as human beings, “we have more in common than our differences… but we also have unique aspects of our very own culture.” She elaborated that “the differences are often very small, yet they can set us apart…I hope through the sharing of this event, we educate, enrich and inspire each other.”

Adding on to that thought, senior Katrina Chang, who volunteered for the CCC, explained that through this event, the organization “makes us feel connected with the country of origin, despite being Asian American.” She added that it strengthens the “bond between Asian Americans and allows us to expand more on Chinese culture to others” who are not well-versed in it.

Hung expressed that the mission of the CCC is to “promote intercultural harmony, strengthen the diverse community and build a bridge between the Chinese and American citizens and people from around the world within our reach.”

“Our goal is to help our Asian immigrant community feel a sense of belonging, while connecting to their American neighbors and friends,” Hung said. Moreover, it is to have a cultural center that enables people of “all ethnicities to congregate, share dialogue, exchange ideas, share and learn from one another to celebrate diversity for the benefit of all.”

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thoughts with Craven, desiring a “restorative approach for kids who are having a difficult time getting work done, passing their classes or missing credits.”

As a result, Malden High School submitted a request and was soon awarded the MassGrad Promising Practices Grant in January, a grant delivered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to fund supplementary programs for high school students at risk of not graduating due to absenteeism, course failure, among other factors–exactly what they needed.

“We’ve been working diligently to make the idea a reality ever since,” said Craven. And it paid off: after a month or so, introduced to Malden High by a teacher committee of varying content areas led by Craven and Charles was the Saturday School program, run with support of federal funding.

Classes are to commence Saturday, February 19th, 2022, from 9 AM to 12 PM, giving students ample time to catch up. It is scheduled to run until June, and the leaders of the committee are energized by long-term goals for the program.

More specifically, Charles hopes that Saturday School will become “an integral part of school where students have a place where they can make up work, and social-emotional issues can be addressed, [outside of] the actual school day.” With the program providing an ideal, tight-knit environment for student acceleration, he finds it to be “a great addition for students.”

“Education didn’t take a front seat for these students across the entire pandemic, showing us that there was a number of students that had credits they still need–or that they maybe would’ve earned last year–to fulfill,” detailed Craven. “Grades and attendance were perhaps not where they typically are, and we want to give students the opportunity to get the classes, grades and attendance that they were lacking before now.”

Overall, the committee has high hopes, envisioning that Saturday School or a similar program will be established in the following years “depending on the data of this spring” and its success in “benefiting students’ grades and attendance.”

If you are interested in learning more about Saturday School, please contact Principal Mastrangelo or other members in the committee for more details.

Lulu Harding Editor-in-Chief of Web and Mobile Apps

The yearbook is almost here!

The Maldonian class at Malden High is currently putting together the final touches on the senior class’ 2021-2022 yearbook. In the meantime, one of the biggest focuses of the class is raising money.

Senior Mackenzie Brennan, a proofreader for the Maldonian, expressed how important fundraising is for the yearbook. Throughout the year, the class has hosted several fundraising events to raise enough money to keep yearbook prices low, adding, “around picture day, we sold several Malden High lanyards. In the fall, we had a pie and cookie dough sale and most recently we had an online popcorn sale.”

“Fundraising is important for the yearbook because the price that we sell the yearbook at is actually not the price it costs to make the yearbook…it costs more to make it than what we charge,” senior Maldonian member Abby Tang added. “A lot of money has to be made to keep the yearbook at $85.”

After February break, the Maldonian class is planning on starting a pastry fundraiser with the same company that they sold pies and cookie dough with.

In addition to the various fundraisers happening, February is “Maldonian Month.” If students purchase a yearbook in the month of February, they are automatically entered into a raffle. Prizes include Celtics tickets, escape room tickets, a prom ticket, several different gift cards to nearby businesses and more.

Brennan brought up that although fundraising has been going great this year, one of the biggest challenges that the staff has faced is getting people interested in being involved with the yearbook. “With everything digitized, not everyone is interested in having a yearbook nor do they see the importance of it.”

The staff has also realized that one of the reasons that it has been somewhat difficult selling yearbooks at this point in the year is because “many people think they will be able to buy them in June, which is not necessarily guaranteed,” Brennan stated. Tang mentioned that students often believe they can buy the yearbook later when it comes out, although “preordering is the only way that you know you’ll get it for sure.”

Only about ten extra yearbooks are ordered. If there happen to be leftover books, Tang explained, “the cost of those goes on to the next year’s class to make up for [it].” It is strongly encouraged that if students want to buy a yearbook, the best time to order is now.

The yearbook is on track to be finished in early March. Tang says that she is currently working on the pages for the Swim Team and Mock Trial. “A few of the other pages that have been done are Track, Feminism Club, [and] Psychology Club.”

“Currently, most of the staff is finishing winter sports and club pages and beginning spring sports ones,” Brennan said. “It is set to be approximately 200 pages and will be in full color, so it is very exciting.”

Hadjar Yousfi Lead Reporter

The Malden Human Rights and Fair Housing Commission (MHRFHC) is on a mission to “protect the civil rights of renters, owners and landlords,” according to the City of Malden Website.

The commission stands to advocate for people to ensure that all Malden citizens are treated fairly because, as stated on their website, they deserve to have someone there for them no matter their “religious creed, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability, national origin, Veteran or military status, marital, familial or parental status.”

According to Paul Weston, Chair of the MHRFHC, as well as a representative of the National Assonot informed about who to talk to. That is where the MHRFHC will then do their best to help, or link the person to someone who could help them even more, such as the “police department, fire department, the building commissioner.”

Some issues they have handled include tenant to tenant issues, conflict with a neighbor, landlords not responding as well as noise complaints. At the moment Weston mentioned they were working on an issue with water submetering in one of the big apartment buildings.

Recently the Commission began trying to establish a new logo. They then decided to open a google form where they let people vote for their favorite logo of the three options at choice. The logo is said to be used for the city website, written materials, and at events sponsored up with the idea to make the logo voting public. He expressed that “sometimes I don't think people know we exist,” so he hopes the voting will help generate more traction for the Commission and what it is they do. As for the logos themselves, Weston hopes that they are interpreted in a positive way.

As simple as some of the designs are, Weston hopes they will generate a comfort for those in Malden as well, a sort of statement saying that “we try to help resolve the conflicts and bring everybody together.”

Maria Luise who is a part of the Commission as well as working in the Mayor’s Office, and an ADA Officer, was incredibly helpful in this process. According to Weston she got the form up and running, she “does a lot of the outreach.” Luise helps a lot with communication, between the Commission and the many city departments that they work alongside.

Next time if you have any worries about anything relating to anything on the spectrum of things the Commission handles, make sure to reach out. Because as Weston said, “at the end of the day, sometimes you just want somebody to talk to, to help resolve work for your issues.”

ciation of Realtors, the most recent iteration of the commission was from 2016. Prior to 2016, there had been a “separate Human Rights Commission, and that was a separate Fair Housing Commission.” Eventually, both commissions seemed to have been forgotten, most likely due to no one really paying attention to them.

The Commission itself covers broad topics with many spots of expertise. However, Weston feels that his personal goal would be to help people. They receive lots of calls about many issues related to housing, such as people being stressed out, as well as tenant and landlord conflicts.

Weston feels that many people reach out because they do not know who to turn to within the city. Some people have issues that they may not know how to handle and are

by the Commission.

The logos themself were designed by Commission member Meghan Volcy who is the Secretary and a City Council Resident Member. They started off with around six or seven designs, and they ended up rounding down the number to the three shown in the google form.

Weston originally came

Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter

The daily life of the concert choir is a fun but work-heavy schedule that revolves around many students, ranging from their sophomore year to their senior year. Each student holds a passion for singing, as they learn from chorus teacher Todd Cole, who has been teaching at Malden High School for 19 years and teaching in general for 27.

The 90-minute classes have made schedules across the high school somewhat different, affecting the concert choir. Cole remarked that “I'm kind of reworking the way that I break up the class because you can't have them singing the entire period, their voices wouldn't last.” Rather than doing that, Cole begins with a warmup for his concert choir and mixed choir classes. This could be either working on pieces that students are reviewing or dealing with measures of new notes. Cole explained that afterwards, he allows students to “sit for a little bit while we do some music theory… I teach them how to sight-read and how to read rhythm… Then we stand back up and jump into two or three more pieces at the end of the period.”

For some students, this was a different experience, especially with the schedule. Senior Natalia Matos commented that “he teaches us something new [every day to] work on with the specific parts.” She believes that during that time it is very productive, and "it's not a lot of slack time" because they work really hard, "so we get a lot done.”

When there is not enough time in the period, the students immediately go home to study, and Matos continued that “when I'm struggling on a piece, I go home and kind of practice it myself. We have a lot of time in choirs so it's not too hard for us.” “I listen to the audio recordings as I'm doing my homework,” Senior Yasmine Alayan added.

At the end of the day, Cole enjoys every class with the concert choir, as he gratefully mentioned that “even after 19 years of being here at Malden High School, I walk into the building, and I get excited when I get here first thing in the morning and I'm planning the day knowing full well that the students that come into my room are here because they love singing.” He stated that “I know ahead of time that those are the students that I'll be teaching. And I'm not sure every teacher gets the luxury of that.” Cole explained that there tends to be “a lot of teachers that have students only because the students have to be there. Some students don't like math, but they still have to sit in a math class and that teacher still has to access them.” “My students have chosen to be here. And that's what makes my job and concert chorus such a pleasure,” Cole expressed.