Issue 1 22-23

The Morrison the merrier

Gaby was obsessed with “Once Upon a Time” when she was younger, having watched every season at least four times. She particularly loved Morrison’s character, even going so far as to write the actress a letter — one that she was too young to actu ally be able to mail — making the announcement of Morrison’s visit come as an extreme surprise to her.

“I literally started crying,” Gaby said. “People were laughing because it was funny, but I was just so shocked that I was going to meet my childhood hero.”

KEVIN LYNCH Editor-in-Chief

Walking

into Prospect as a freshman in the fall of 1993, Jennifer Morrison felt out of place. Though her career as a director, producer and well-known actress in shows such as “This Is Us” and “Once Upon a Time” was still years out of reach, Morrison still felt that she stood out amongst her new classmates.

This was because towards the end of her eighth grade year, Morrison had left her friends and family behind for four months to film her role in the movie “Intersection,” a huge career op portunity for her young self at the time, but a major blow to her social life upon returning home to begin high school.

“All that I had to leave behind me were rumors and people speculating and decid ing whatever they want ed to decide and saying whatever they wanted to say,” Morrison said. “ … Then I started high school, and all people knew was, ‘I was the girl who was in the movie.’”

Fortunately, with effort, Morrison was eventually able to dispel the rumors and soon became heavily involved in the Prospect community. From marching band, theater, soccer, de bate and even math team, Morrison admits that she may have actually joined too many activities during her time at the school.

“I would have done more if there were more hours in the day,” Morrison said. “I was like ‘I want to do everything!’; I was always built like that … And at some point I did have to admit to myself that I was only one person and had to narrow it down and be realistic about it.”

After graduating from Prospect, she still found difficulty in “narrowing it down,” taking on roles as an actress, director and producer in various projects. She eventually became well known for her role as Emma Swan in the 2011-18 TV show “Once Upon a Time,” and more recently she gained praise her role as Cassidy Sharp on the show “This Is Us.”

In 2016 she launched her own production company, Apart ment 3C Productions, with her first project being the 2017 film “Sun Dogs,” which also served as her directorial debut.

It was largely because of Morrison’s varied and successful career that Assistant Principal for Student Activities Frank Mi randola felt she would be a great addition to the school’s 2022 roster of distinguished alumni.

“There’s no doubt when people meet Jennifer, they’re going to be inspired by a powerful woman that has really embraced storytelling and that whole idea of EveryKnight values, that ev eryone has a story,” Mirandola said. “So I think that … really kind of embodies what Prospect is about and who we are as a school.”

Morrison is just one of three distinguished alumni who returned to Prospect to represent these values; she, along with Olympic hurdler Dave Kendziera and 101.9 Morning Mix host Chris Petlak (see below), vis ited the school on Sept. 9. The three alumni took part in the Homecoming assembly, then met with various classes throughout the day where they shared wis dom from their careers as well as from their time at Prospect.

For sophomore Isa Gaby, meeting Morrison during her talk with the cast of the upcoming fall play, “Puffs,” was a dream come true.

Outside of her excitement, however, Gaby says that hearing Morrison’s career and acting advice was ex tra impactful given that she had come from the same school and taken part in many of the same activities as her at Prospect, something that Mirandola hoped would be the case when planning the visit.

“It also provides the aspiration for [students], that they too can achieve whatever their goal might be … based on seeing someone that sat in the same desk, in the same classroom just 10, 15, 20 years earlier,” Mirandola said. “So I think there’s a lot of power with that connectedness, to that shared experience of wearing navy and columbia blue.”

Jennifer’s connection with Prospect began long before she started at the school, however, stemming not from acting but from music: more specifically her father, David Morrison, and his con nection with the Prospect Marching Knights.

David, who taught and directed the band at Prospect for 29 years, had a huge impact on Jennifer growing up, with Jennifer saying some of her strongest memories of Pros pect came from attending band competitions and performances with her family.

The same day as Jen nifer’s visit, Sept. 9, David received the special recogni tion of having the band room dedicated in his honor, with a special plaque bearing his name to be installed outside room 153 in the coming weeks.

David was the director who truly cemented the Marching Knights’ legendary status, according to current band director Chris Barnum, who previously student taught with David in the fall of 2004.

District pilots new app

Asthe Teaching and Learning Facilitator at Prospect, science teach er Katie Page realized that students have been using Schoology for ten years now; because of this, she wanted to make certain that this platform was still the best option for students.

“Things change so quickly … we figured we better see what else is out there,” Page said.

Schoology is a learning man agement system (LMS) that offers teachers and students many re sources to manage school cours es and assignments. In 2019, the company was bought out by PowerSchool, which caused Page to realize that it might be a good idea to begin looking into other options. By April 2022, she, along with Head of District Teaching and Learning Gabriella Stetz-Jackson, discovered Canvas.

Canvas is another LMS; howev er, this platform is more commonly used in colleges and universities. In fact, Canvas is now the leading LMS used in higher education with 31% of colleges and universities using the platform, according to Philoned Tech.

“We thought it might not be a bad idea for students to have [the experience with Canvas] under their belt [when] looking at college preparedness,” Page said.

Canvas has many of the same features that Schoology has; for ex ample, there is an announcements thread, similar to Schoology’s “Up dates” feed. Canvas also has the ability to create discussion boards, assign work and give students tests and quizzes.

Page is piloting the app with ju niors and seniors in her Physics and Advanced Space Science classes. There are 10 other teachers pilot ing Canvas at Prospect, in addition to even more teachers throughout the district.

Most students did not have a strong reaction when they were told they would be using Canvas in class. According to Page, it doesn’t really affect them because it is sim ply a tool used to turn in and com plete course work. There are very few changes for the students; in fact, it is mostly the teachers who have to deal with changes.

Senior Olivia Nellis is in Page’s Space Science class and says she is mostly indifferent to the introduc tion of Canvas. Its functionality is practically the same as Schoology, and most of the issues students have voiced aren’t directly related to the app itself.

“I just don’t like that … I only have to use it for one class,” Nellis said. “I don’t think I would mind if everything was in the same spot, but it’s a hassle to go back and forth between Schoology and Canvas.”

Outside of this inconvenience, Canvas has been easy to navigate, even for students such as Nellis who has never used it before.

“I’ve honestly had less prob lems with Canvas [while] turning stuff in and getting files in and out of it [than Schoology],” Nellis said.

Struggles with glitches and the uncertainty of how to correctly link grades between Infinite Campus and Canvas are among the things Page has had to learn to navigate under the new app.

Page and the other teachers pi loting the service will make sure any concerns and questions are heard by Canvas representatives. Meetings with them take place over

Zoom, and Page will discuss what is and is not working with the app, in addition to any questions or sug gestions.

Page wanted to make sure Pros pect is using the best platform available, having been there when Prospect began using Schoology around ten years ago.

When Schoology was intro duced, it changed the LMS struc ture that teachers would use as a district. While there was some ini tial pushback, most educators were able to adjust quickly, and Schoolo gy became the new standard.

But for right now, students shouldn’t expect any sudden changes to their well-used School ogy accounts. It should be here to stay for the foreseeable future.

“Nothing in education moves that quickly,” Page said. “[Canvas’ potential introduction] would be in at least two years, if not longer.”

MORRISON: Former band director leaves legacy

“The time he was here really defined, in a lot of ways, what our program was and is,” Bar num said. “ … There are hundreds, thousands, of alumni who went through the program while he was here that he had a big effect on, so it’s a pretty great honor … to teach in a room that’s named for him.”

David led the Marching Knights to 24 con secutive victories in Illinois Marching Band Championships from 1983-2006, as well as giv ing them the chance to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2002 and the Rose Parade in 1986 and 2006, the latter being the year he retired. Other notable accomplishments from his career include winning the University of Illinois Superstate Band Competition twice, being a five-time finalist in the Bands of Ameri ca Grand National Competition and performing for both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

One of the things that Barnum admires most about David as a band director is that he nev er stopped providing the best for his students, even at the end of his career.

“Just to see him finishing his career and not stopping, … creating opportunities for students

and doing everything he could, even up through those last years of his career, was really inspir ing,” Barnum said. “He was not a teacher who got to the end of his career [and] just sort of coasted to the end.”

David certainly didn’t coast — even after re tirement — and has presented at various clinics across the country, even writing a book, “The Band Whisperer,” published in 2020. The book concerns David’s own philosophy for leading and directing a band, techniques he was more than happy to pass on.

“I’ve always believed that you have to make yourself vulnerable as a teacher,” David said. “It took a while to get to that point, but when you are that way, then your students are much more open and accepting. It was more like … the stu dents and I are both on the same side trying to accomplish something.”

A placeholder version of the placard that will sit outside room 153 was shown off during a brief open house celebrating David’s achieve ments for an hour after school the same day as the assembly. While David is grateful for the recognition, he also sees the dedication as a way to enshrine the values that made the band what it is today.

“Eventually, in some far distant future time, someone’s going to look at that, see my name

and they’re going to go, ‘Who the heck was that guy?’” David said. “So it’s an opportunity to talk about the history of what we want to be like as teachers and taking the best from the past and then looking to the future.”

And, because of David’s long history with the Marching Knights, Barnum thought it would only be fitting for him to be the one to conduct the marching band during the nation al anthem at that night’s homecoming football game.

“[It’s] deja vu,” David said. “So many hun dreds of thousands of times I’ve conducted bas ketball games and football games and various things … it’s not like I forgot how to do it.”

In spite of the differences between their var ious accomplishments, Mirandola was still hon ored to be able to recognize the two different members of the Morrison family on the same day.

“Their successes are not connected neces sarily, but they’ve each kind of had their own path, and for us to celebrate both on the same weekend; it’s going to be awesome,” Mirandola said. “Because in their own right as individuals they’ve made a huge impact on Prospect and to be able to celebrate it … is going to be fun for the entire [Morrison] family, and it’s going to be fun for the Prospect family.”

JUSTIN PEABODY

The free lunch accessible to students during the pandemic is no longer offered in District 214 schools, including Prospect.

2020 saw the launch of a new national gov ernment food service program that gave all stu dents access to free meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. District 214 participated in this pro gram and was financially reimbursed by the gov ernment for the cost of all the food distributed, according to Frances Reithal-Cira, the PHS Food Services Supervisor.

In March of 2022, the Senate passed a bill that, according to Reithal-Cira, attempted to fur ther extend the government program. However, the bill was vetoed by President Biden, so the program came to an end in May. Consequent ly, students and families must now pay for their meals at school.

Luckily, a few options exist for families who cannot afford this cost. Families whose annual income is below a federally established range qualify for free or reduced price lunch, as stated on the website schoolnutrition.org.

Families that don’t meet this requirement but still desire free food must fill out a meal fee waiver application form, accessible on District 214’s homepage.

While it may be financially unattainable for some, paid lunch still has its benefits for those who can afford it.

Last year’s free lunch only offered two en tree options on any given day, but this year, the cafeteria rotates through a more diverse menu, serving tacos, salads, pizzas, Chinese food, bur ritos and much more.

Noticeable differences can be found in the quality of the food as well. According to junior Natalie Castro, some free lunches that were la beled as “hot” items during last year’s program were cold to the touch. Castro has not noticed this problem in this year’s updated lunch menu.

Many students, such as senior Andrew Kat sogianos, don’t buy school lunches every day.

“I know a lot of friends who think the free lunch was really bad last year, and they’re very happy that the old cafeteria, so to speak, is back,” Katsogianos said.

Though Castro often eats lunch off-campus, she believes universal free lunch would be more beneficial to the school as a whole because if free lunch were re-implemented, students allowed to go off-campus with money to spend could get their own lunches, and students without lunch money would still have access to free meals.

“I definitely think other students deserve… an opportunity to obtain free lunch because you never know what’s going on in their homes or outside of school,” Castro said.

Some students, including Katsogianos, be lieve the meals are unreasonably expensive. According to the District 214 homepage, the average price of a lunch (without additional snacks and beverages) is $4.00. Unlike Castro, Katsogianos finds the current food to be about equal quality to the free lunch.

For this reason, he usually brings his own food. Despite this, he argues that free lunch would be a convenient option that no one should need to apply for to receive.

Castro and Katsogianos both believe it is worth sacrificing the luxuries of paid lunch to ensure all students meet their nutritional needs.

“I feel that it’s kind of the school’s priority to take care of their students and the well-being of the school in general,” Castro said.

CONDUCTING

ENCHANTING KNIGHTIMES

ARMS UP:

Isabel McIn tosh, along with dance team, performs their routine for as sembly. (photo by Mollie Kearns)

KNIGHT FANS: After the Knights’ first touchdown in the Homecoming game, excitement errupts from the”U.” (photo Bella Brouilette)

GAME TIME: Teams, lead by class repre sentative captains, compete in the first annual Prospect Games on Thursday night. (photos by Giselle Velazquez)

LIVE LOVE FRIS: Cowgirls and Zap pies ultimate Frisbee teams huddled together for a team photo between games. Frisbee has continued to grow in popularity and competitiveness, with the teams at Prospect playing every Friday. “Fris is life,” senior Cowgirls player Taylor Linke said. (photos cour tesy of Eric Brouilette & Ella Mitchell)

BLEEDING BLUE: ”U” leaders douse themselves in blue powder before running to the stands to show their school spirit. (photo courtesy of Cambria Myers)

THE “U” IN BLUE: Underground leaders stand in front of the student section, leading the crowd in cheers. Covered in blue powder, they await the start of the Homecoming game against Evanston Township High School. (photo by Bella Brouilette)

FIT CHECK: For Homecoming spirit days like color day and Toga Tuesday, seniors go all out. (photos by Bella Brouilette)

ROYALS: Newly elected Homecoming court members, seniors Will Baysingar, Kevin Lynch, Ivan Liu, Hannah Chung and Lauren Mueller proudly stand on stage following the Homecom ing assembly. (photo courtesy of Lally Coleman)

FINAL MINUTES: The Knights pull through 17-14 for a victory against Evanston. (photo

Reading reward runs out

Staff Editorial

Summer

staff

MISSION STATEMENT

The primary purpose of the Prospect High School Knight Media program is to report news and explain its mean ing and significance to our readers and the community. We, The Pros pector, hope to inform, entertain and provide an unrestricted exchange of ideas and opinions. The Prospector is published by students in Multime dia Communications courses. Some material is courtesy of MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service.

ADVERTISING

For ad rates, call (847) 718 5376 (ask for Jason Block), email or write the Prospector, 801 West Kensing ton Rd., Mount Prospect, IL, 60056, prospectornow@gmail.com.

Assophomore Jack Fitzgerald sat down to write a four-paragraph essay on his summer reading book for his World Studies class, he had a sudden, important, real ization: he didn’t remember anything about his book.

Having read the book during the middle of summer, Fitzgerald had forgotten much of the information that he had read roughly a month before; however, he soon found an easy solution to his problem. He searched the book’s title on YouTube, clicked on the first video, absorbed the basic plot information and continued on with the project.

Fitzgerald — who still received an A on the assignment — is a self-proclaimed non-reader, largely due to his personal difficulty with staying still long enough to finish a book. While he typ ically forces himself to finish the book early on at the beginning of summer, he says that he has often been pressed to search plot summaries at the end of break in the past because of this hab it. While Fitzgerald knows many students with the opposite problem — ones who push off their reading until the last possible minute or simply don’t read the book at all — he thinks neither scenario is particularly conducive to the purpose of the assignment.

“It seems more like you’re trying to get kids to like to do something,” Fitzgerald said. “But then it’s kind of counterintuitive because you’re also making them do something they don’t want to do over summer break.”

That “something,” is reading over summer break; it’s largely agreed upon that summer reading programs found their start in the 1890s, with li braries targeting school children who weren’t needed to work on farms over the summer, hoping to build important reading habits and encourage library patronage, according to professional book blog Book Riot.

Continuing for ward, summer read ing has been a par ticularly popular tool used by schools to combat the so-called “sum mer slump,” a phenomenon that causes students to forget material that they have learned over the school year. While research on the phenomenon varies, it has been found that students can lose up to 30% of their school year learning over the summer, according to Brookings.

Conversely, reading’s benefits, particularly for children and teens, have never been more evident. According to Every Child Reads, stu dents that read for at least 20 minutes per day were found to score better on standardized tests than 90% of their peers who did not read; while

benchmarks and test scores should not be the sole reason to promote reading, they do provide concrete evi dence of its extreme benefits for students’ developing minds.

En glish teacher

Elizabeth Joiner is keenly aware of these statis tics in sum mer reading’s favor and wishes that more students understood the myriad of reasons for their assigned reading beyond merely reinforc ing their reading skills.

“I feel that sometimes stu dents don’t think it’s important be cause they’re like, ‘I know how to read, why do I have to do this?’ and the point of reading, yeah, is enjoyment, [and] yes, we know you can do it, but critical thought, vocabulary, empathy, all of those things come from reading,” Joiner said.

To Prospect librarian Christie Sylvester, who has a large hand in deciding which books are chosen for the summer reading program each year, summer reading helps students develop and nurture their reading habits for continued use throughout the school year and the rest of their lives.

“It’s a skill just like anything else,” Sylvester said. “For athletes, you don’t show up to a game expecting to make goals … never having attend ed practice before.”

Furthermore, the need for better reading habits in today’s teens is not in dis pute: a 2018 study by Scholastic found that 32% of kids ages 15-17 read no books over the summer, a 10% increase from 2016. But while it’s true that, according to the study, the majority of teenagers do read over the summer, the number that do not read — especially with the widespread existence of summer reading assignments — is telling of a system that is not achieving its full potential.

We, Knight Media, believe that reading is an invaluable skill for students to develop and we appre ciate the efforts of Prospect staff to keep students engaged with reading throughout their high school career. Howev er, students’ visible reluctance to complete said reading cannot be dismissed as merely a lack of motivation on their part; at a certain point, it is worth questioning whether summer reading is truly accomplishing the task it was created for.

Furthermore, summer is meant to be a break for students, and any assignment given to stu dents over that period should not be doled out lightly, nor simply out of tradition. Reading is important, yes, and instilling reading habits in children and teens is arguably one of the most beneficial and long-lasting impacts that teach ers can have on their students; however, having these good intentions is not an excuse for a half hearted system that fails to live up to many of It’s true that sum mer reading can and does have vary ing positive effects on students, but those that it fails to influence, as well as even those it does im pact, would be better served by a system that acknowledges and fully takes into account the pitfalls of the current summer reading program.

SUMMERTIME STRUGGLES: A student grapples with the pressure created by summer reading stress, a product of a half-hearted summer reading program that fails to live up to many of its original goals. (cartoon by Emily Depaz)

The hard work of staff members such as Join er and Sylvester do not go unappreciated, but the fact still remains that their work currently does not have the impact that they themselves wish it did, even in spite of the small successes that it may achieve in its present condition.

The academic landscape has been reinvent ing itself constantly in the past decade: educa tional systems have adapted to include the usage of iPads, the implementation of mental health days, the ever-present distraction of phones and more; the task of retooling one minor reading as signment at the start of the year is not an unrea sonable one, long-standing as it may be.

If educators truly want to commit to the goal of continuing to build students’ reading habits over the summer, perhaps the easiest solution is to simply assign more books: for example, stu dents can check in their read books on a set ba sis to prove that they are building the necessary reading experience over the summer, or they can simply have a set, increased, number of books to be read by the start of school.

Several underclassmen English teachers, in cluding Joiner, currently employ an independent reading (IR) system that engages students with books of their own choosing once or twice a week for 10-15 minutes, a system whose main purpose is not unlike that of summer reading. A similar system in place over the summer — with weekly book check-ins, page-number quotas and more — has the potential to capitalize off of the consistent reading practice afforded by IR while simultaneously softening the hard deadline of the current system.

It’s true that a system such as this would greatly limit the free-form, de-stressing nature of summer break, but this problem is inherent in the very nature of summer reading; administra tors must reflect and decide which they deem is truly more important in the long run: students’ reading habits or their ability to relax over the summer.

Of course, few students would likely advo cate for the first option, but the simple reality is that we, as students, have little control over the assignments that are handed out over our time in high school and have long been conditioned to roll with the punches that come with a rigorous and well-meaning course; if teachers and admin istrators choose to give students assignments over the summer, we at the very least ask that they are assigned purposefully and achieve their desired goal, which the current summer reading program, less taxing as it may be, largely does not.

“Reading one book over a three-month course, even if you do it, isn’t … enough,” Fitz gerald said. “But also with how easy it is to just not do it and mentally want to push it off, it just doesn’t really make it worth it.”

Community found in tragedy

Highland Park shooting memorial serves as creative outlet

ELLA MITCHELL Editor-in-Chief

Walking down the streets of Highland Park, even eight weeks after the tragic shooting at the city’s July Fourth parade, it is impossible to miss the thumbprints of the impact this community has felt: hand-painted messages dis played on local storefronts; teddy bears with rain-soaked fur perched beneath blue hearts to represent the victims; pillars of a covered parkway pavilion displaying tags written by visitors of the memorial. It doesn’t matter where you go — the lingering effects of tragedy are ever present.

In what seems to be in the cen ter of it all stands two memorials for the shooting victims, with each one situated across the street from the other at the intersection of Cen tral and St. Johns. Cutouts of the victims stare at you as you walk by, the tributes of community members

decided to re-boot the page after the events of the July Fourth parade be cause they felt the need for a sense of togetherness that their rocks will bring.

“We relaunched it after July Fourth because we thought it would be a good way for people to take their kids, walk down different streets and find something positive along the way,” Lily said. “[It would allow peo ple to] have a positive community.”

Since July Fourth, this rock com munity has continued to grow and grow, jumping from a couple hundred followers to nearly 650 members in the group. Now, the Wigmores are part nering with corpo rate events and other communities as well as starting a rock garden to be launched at the next City Hall meeting. Additionally, they set up a table within the memori al to allow other people to create rocks as a way of paying their respects.

which is what originally drew her to the banner. She asked one of the oth er artists at the memorial, Nicholas, if she could leave her mark and got to painting straight away.

“We were talking about color and piecing things together and [how] different people think [the banner means] different things,” Lily said. “Someone could think it’s a mess, someone could think it’s a master piece, someone could think it’s the Mona Lisa, someone could think that it’s just a little scribble. We were saying since there’s not one particular image, it takes personal ity to figure out what im age it is.”

Check out a photo album of the memorial

Jessica Hoffen was one of those people who decided to stop by. Cur rently living in Maine but originally from Northbrook, she says she felt the shooting’s impact, even from a distance. Seeing the Wigmore’s table within the memorial, she wanted to write a message on a rock to leave be hind.

Her reasoning to stop by is simple: “To make sure people are remem bered,” Hoffen said. “[To make sure]

Throughout just one day, many people, along side Lily, left their mark on the banner. Someone wrote “Sam Saves Lives” because Sam was one of the first police officers to respond to the call on the day of the shooting. Others wrote messages like “Love,” and “Power,” while some simply drew stars or hearts. Any time a gaze lin gered on the dark paint strokes or a stranger slowed their step for a quick double take, Lily was there to enthu siastically explain her art and recruit more contributors.

Many people, Lily says, started leaving thumbprints. Though she isn’t exactly sure how it started, she loves how many people were able to come together to leave their mark on the banner.

“There’s no rules on it. You’re not following any detail; you can just do whatever you want,” Lily said. “People were doing their thumbprints; I did my hand print. I was tempted to do my

to come together to remember what they lost. This standing trib ute makes it clear that the shock waves of the Highland Park shoot ing — which claimed the lives of seven people— are still being felt throughout the Chicagoland area, the accompanying suburbs as well as across the nation as people unite through different avenues to mourn the loss of that fateful day.

11-year-old Highland Park resi dent Lily Wigmore decided to leave her mark through a movement called Highland Park Rocks along side her mother, Claire Wigmore.

In its earliest days, Highland Park Rocks was meant to be a fun activity to partake in during the COVID-19 lockdown and a way to spread joy throughout the com munity, one fun painted rock at a time. As local businesses and such began to open up once again, the Wigmores decided the need for the rocks had lessened and de-activated the Facebook group.

However, Lily and her mother

årøüñd thë wørld

Travel “trip”-ups, tribulations

travel

KAYLIE PASTERNAK

changed in one simple email.

Toflska is not the only one facing similar travel troubles. In fact, after the pandemic, international travel has become increasingly difcult due to an increase in travel, understafed airlines and COVID-19 outbreaks, according to the LA Times. Additionally, 82% of Prospect students few somewhere this summer, according to a Knight Media survey of 448 students.

mates and the chaperones of the trip arrived at a hostel in Copenhagen.

The trip itself ended up going well. That is, until it came to getting home. There was yet another travel block in the road: the roundtrip fights that were originally booked had to be can celed in order to get a refund, so Tofl ska and her teammates were left with no way home.

them stranded in Europe.

“Everyone just wanted to go home,” Toflska said. “It literally didn’t matter how or where. You could have said there was a 12 hour layover somewhere and I would have sat happily at the air port, just to go home.”

whole bunch of fears and uncertain ties,” Schultz said. “The anxiety that goes with [sending] students abroad is always, always there for us.”

As senior Wiktoria Toflska jumped out of the shower at fve a.m., a few hours before her scheduled fight to Copenhagen, a notifcation buzzed on her phone. Her plan was simple: fy to Copenhagen, Denmark, followed by transportation Hamburg, Germany, all for a 10-day trip with her dance team for a folk fes tival.

However, this notifcation changed her next 14 days: “Your fight has been canceled,” the subject line of an email from her planned airline read.

Toflska was shocked that her plans for her well-planned trip could be

As members of Toflska’s group started to wake up, everyone’s phones started blowing up. There were so many unknowns among chaperones and parents, and everyone was scram bling for a solution, according to Tofl ska. After the chaos had worn of, the chaperons ended up fnding fights to Denmark through Iceland.

“I was honestly relieved,” Toflska said. “I just wanted to get on the plane … and get going because we had been preparing for so long. And then the fact that 12 hours before [there was] no fight? I just wanted to get out of [town].”

After the two plane rides and an eight hour layover, Toflska, her team

Where to this summer, PHS?

Luckily, the chaperones were able to fnd a fight out of Copenhagen af ter hours of phone calls, so the dance group boarded a bus for seven hours in order to get back to the airport they were fying out of.

Misfortune struck once again as To flska was on her way to the Copenha gen airport; the bus she was riding on had gotten rear ended.

“It felt unreal … like a movie be cause our fight was canceled on the way [to Copenhagen] and then we had all this trouble like getting back,” Tof liska said. “Everyone was just shocked after the bus ride.”

After the bus was rear ended, Tofls ka and her group ended up missing the fight back home, once again leaving

Toflska’s group ended up stay ing another night in Copenhagen, but found fights back home the next day through some family connections of one of the dance team members.

Although Toflska’s travel troubles have discouraged her from air travel, at least for the near future, Prospect’s abroad program has other plans.

“I would like to stay away from an airport for as long as possible,” Toflska said. “But given that I am going on the Barcelona exchange trip in March, that is not possible for me. I’m hoping that we have better luck.”

Spanish teacher and leader of the Barcelona exchange trip Ryan Schultz is also hoping for the best travel-wise this fall and spring but can’t help feel ing a little worried.

“[The exchange] is back after three years of not doing [it], so there’s a

While the details and dates for the trip remain unclear, Schultz is hoping that the Barcelona exchange students will arrive in Mount Prospect in the frst few weeks of November. Prospect students will travel to Spain during spring break, but Schultz is prepared if anything goes wrong.

“We’re extremely fexible with our approach,” Schultz said. “We’re ready to adapt if necessary; there’s no other way to go at it.”

At the end of the day, both Toflska and Schultz are hopeful for better trav el in the future.

“I really hope that this doesn’t hap pen to anyone [else] and [the airlines] resolve their fight issues as soon as possible, because there’s other peo ple that this could happen to and just shouldn’t happen to … no one deserves this while they travel,” Toflska said.

Clear water, clearer friendships

Under the blanket of midnight dark ness, sophomore Nicolette Gusic jumped right into the clear water. Even under the blackness of the inky night sky, Gusic said you could still see through the clear water, nearly 100 feet down.

While her friends ultimately chickened out of going night swimming, Gusic says that night in Greece was one of her favor ites from her month-long travels this sum mer, calling it a “core memory.”

Gusic travels every year; as a holder of an European passport, she has visited roughly 16 or 17 countries in total. At this point, she says, traveling around Europe has become somewhat of a tradition. This year, Gusic traveled to London, Greece and Poland.

Family friends who live in Poland —

CRYSTAL CLEAR: While in Greece this summer, soph omore Nicolette Gusic swims in clear water. Gusic also traveled to London and Poland on her month-long Euro pean trip. (photo courtesy of Nicolette Gusic)

Berkeley boarding builds bonds

Junior Owen Smith didn’t travel just for pleasure this summer: he stayed at the Uni versity of California, Berke ley, to take a two-week-long pre-college computer science course at the college. Smith, who is planning to study com puter science in college, says that the camp gave him several

new skills that he hopes will prepare him for a career in the feld.

Smith and 60-70 other stu dents at the camp spent most of the day attending classes about various computer sci ence topics, though at night they were given mostly free reign. While they were con

Floored by Florence food

This summer, sophomore Viki Berezowska traveled to three places: Italy, Poland and Finland. Along with her family, she travels to Poland annually to visit extended family while also hitting other European destinations while abroad for a month and a half.

Specifcally, Florence stood out to her due to its beau ty and plethora of designer stores; the overall vibe was very lavish. After that, she ex perienced the Amalf Coast — along with immaculate pasta — and Italy, which stood out of the three countries she vis ited this year.

On the coast, Berezowska was able to try some amaz ing food. While she isn’t a fan of sushi or other types of seafood, Berezowska felt com pelled to at least give some cooked fsh a try, seeing how she was on the coast. Lucki ly, she ended up enjoying her fresh coastal seafood.

What really took the cake food-wise, however, was the margarita pizza.

“This is really basic, but the plain pizza was so good,” Berezowska said. “I’ve never had one that is actually au thentic from Italy; it was just so amazing.”

Florida flatbread flourishes, photos

If sophomore Alex Styka had to choose one highlight from his trip from Florida this summer, he would probably say it involved trying new things. Whether it be exploring diferent beaches and stores — sampling diferent cof fee shops along the way, of course — or perusing landmarks, he was sure to always take a photo of his

new experiences.

Which is probably why his camera roll is full of photos cat aloging the entirety of the trip. Many of which are fatbread.

Styka thinks that fatbreads are a universal menu item, aside from classics like hamburgers and hot dogs, which is why he makes it his mission to try as many new

ones as possible. The fatbread he sampled had a wide assortment of top pings: olive oil and prosciutto; meat lovers; in addition to a fairly complex combination of arugula, ground beef, pepperoni, varia tions of olive oil and feta cheese.

While some were hits and some were misses (notably one that

just was a plain, basic pizza), the presentation and fun eating expe rience was a commonality.

“It’s a big presentation thing, too,” Styka said. “Whenever they bring out food to you, wherever you go, it’s always a big thing that is very Instagrammable, very Snapchat-worthy.”

COASTAL: Sophomore Viki Berezowska travels to Italy, Poland and Finland during summer break. She greatly enjoyed costal Italy. (photo courtesy of Viki Berezowska)

Nebraska trip hits it of the park

Ever since he was a little kid, junior Bobby Riefke had dreamt of going to see the College World Series, located annu ally in Omaha, Neb. He frst remembers falling in love with baseball around age nine when he watched Cubs games with his uncle. His uncle taught him a lot about baseball and even fostered his love for the Cubs, despite the rest of his family being

This has, unsurprisingly, has caused a bit of a friendly rivalry between Riefke and his family, especially because the Cubs have not been at their peak in recent years. Even still, Riefke is an avid college baseball fan at heart.

This summer, his dreams came true when Riefke attended the Series with his mom and brother. Throughout the series, Riefke was rooting for Notre Dame and

Ole Miss. Unfortunately, Notre Dame was knocked out of the competition after the second round, but Riefke still picked a winner as Ole Miss ended up winning the championship.

“It was awesome; I was so excited to go,” Riefke said. “After, I told my mom it was one of my favorite vacations I’ve ever been on, and I’m really excited to go back with her.”

Junior Bobby Riefke (left) poses with his brother (center) and mother (right) at the opening round of the College World Series, Texas v. Notre Dame game. The series ran from Saturday, June 25 to Monday, June 27. (photo courtesy of Bobby Riefke)

SNAPSHOT: Vacation for sophomore Alex Styka means taking lots of pictures, especially of food. Of all the dishes sampled in Florida, Styka likes the fatbreads best. (photos courtesy of Alex Styka)

Rushing for the glitter and glory

TikTok shapes Bama

MOLLIE KEARNS Exec. News Editor

*namechangedforconfidentiality

Sitting in her dorm room at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Prospect alum nus Morgan Topps scrolled through her TikTok “For You” page. Her feed was flooded with videos all stemming from the same mold: girls wearing dresses from Shein, shoes from Golden Goose and jewelry from Ken dra Scott saying, “Hey y’all!

Here’s my Bama Rush outfit of the day.”

These videos that Topps saw so frequently on TikTok were made by girls attending the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa as they pre pared to partake in the university’s sorority recruitment, also known as rush. As an active member of Alpha Gamma Beta at UMN, Topps noted key differences between her rush ex perience and those she saw from the south via social media.

“[My friends and I] definitely talk about [the TikToks] now because … it’s such a bigger build up,” Topps said. “We all just kind of joke about how we wouldn’t survive rushing in the south because it’s so different.”

One means of survival that is dif ferent is the length of the rushing process; for Topps, the rush lasted four to six days, a sharp contrast to the University of Alabama’s rush that lasted 10 days.

Since Alabama (Bama) Rush had its claim to fame in the late summer of 2021, a handful of girls rushing took to their social media to docu ment their journey throughout pro cess. Videos of potential new mem bers showing off their OOTDs (for all Bama Rush lingo see edge) and the contents in their designated rush bag went viral. #BamaRush became one of the highest trending hashtags on Tik Tok with 2.0B views.

Most notably, the “it girls” of Bama Rush were PNM Kylan Dar nell, who ended up in Zeta Tau Alpha (532.6K followers on TikTok), and Darcy McQueeny, active member of Gamma Phi Beta (642.4K fol

lowers on TikTok).

“I think it’s always been a known thing that [southern rush] is more intense and when people started to post, you kind of get to see more in depth of how far people go, how big the dresses are, how much makeup people are wearing, and what they pack in their rush bag,” Prospect class of 2022 alumnus *Olivia Ross said.

Ross was one of the hundreds who got to experience Bama Rush firsthand. Now a part of the soror ity Gamma Phi Beta, Ross says she sometimes felt pressure during rush because of its heightened popularity, as well as the competitive nature of some PNMs.

Additionally, she says that having girls involved with recruitment who had such a large following on social media impacted the amount of people wanting to get a bid from specific houses.

“I know some girls just wanted to be in [my] sorority solely to say they’re in the same sorority as [Darcy], which affected the whole process a lot,” Ross said.

“You had some girls that really wanted to be in the sorority, whether [it was] because they were a legacy or because they really felt at home there, but you had other girls getting in the way of that just because they wanted to be with someone who was famous on TikTok.”

While Bama Rush is known for the videos promoting it on TikTok, many parts of the process aren’t shown in front of a camera. Ross, who would have normally posted her experience on social media, felt scared to post during the week, fearing it would get her in trouble with any sorority or the Panhellenic Association.

“You really had to be careful on what you posted be cause if you … said some thing bad and it would look bad on the re cruitment pro cess or Alabama in general, ev eryone would see it,” Ross said. “The soror ities put it out there that they didn’t really want anyone posting besides outfits and things like that.”

While there were times during re cruitment that Ross felt on edge, she found a chapter that made her feel like she was a part of a family. Ross says that running home to the house on bid day felt similar to Christmas morning.

Prospect class of 2022 alumnus *Emily Powell also participated in so rority recruitment at the end of

summer. Unlike Ross, Powell rushed at the University of Missouri. Go ing into rush, Powell found herself watching many videos about the do’s and don’ts of sorority rush. Howev er, she believes these kinds of videos may not work for everyone.

“Going through rush is tailored to you and no one else,” Powell said. “So everyone is going to have a different experience whether or not you read what to do during rush or how to get the house you want ... There were girls crying and stuff. Obviously that’s not shown on TikTok; on TikTok it’s very superficial.”

During the six days that Powell endured the Mizzou rush process, she realized how grateful she was for the positive experiences she had when talking to the girls in each house she visited. At first, she was nervous to talk to active members of each chap ter, but found comfort in the idea that they were once in her shoes.

“A big thing people forget about is that they’re also people and a lot of people you talk to are sophomores and they just went through it last year, so they understand what you’re going through,” Powell said.

Now a second-year active member, Topps gets to exprience what recruit ment is like on the flipside. While she doesn’t have to worry about getting a list of houses back, she now has to keep conversations going with PNMs and other organizational responsibil ities.

“Honestly, I think it’s harder to be on the other side … because we have to meet all of these different girls and we have to be in charge of the conversations,” Topps said. “Be ing on the other side is definitely a lot more organization because we have to know who we’re going to talk to [and] where to walk; there’s just a lot more steps.”

All of these steps will be on full display, as HBOMax and Vice Studios have confirmed the making of a documentary following the 2022 recruitment process. While representatives from Vice Studios have claimed that wearing hid den microphones is not in volved in the production, those who were present at recruit ment heard a lot of talk about PNMs who had microphones on their bodies to record interactions in the houses.

When Ross heard about the news, she was confused as to the documen tary’s goals because while the process was intense, every single house was more than welcoming and kind. Ross says she felt more tension and para noia in the air as girls tried to scope out who was equipped with a micro

phone.

“It definitely made everyone on edge which made me feel a little bit uncomfortable because I’d be talking to a girl and be like, ‘What’s your top house right now?’ or, ‘How did you feel about this house?’ and they wouldn’t really want to tell me … One morning they caught five more girls with wires and it was just scary be cause you never knew who you could really talk to truthfully,” Ross said.

Fans of Bama Rush will be able to get more of an insider look of what goes on behind the scenes once this documentary releases. Being able to follow PNMs through their sorority journey fully immerses viewers into the intensity, allowing them to feel like they are really walking down so rority row.

“For people who aren’t going through rush, it’s fun for them to live vicariously through the people who are. You get to see all of their different outfits and what houses they’re going to and their experience and how they

are doing it,” Powell said. “I know I did it and was a part of it, but when I was still in high school and I saw those kinds of videos I watched them because I thought it was really fun to see what was happening.”

Bama Rush lingo

RUSHIN’: PNMs post their rush experience on TikTok, including OOTDs, bids received or other updates from work week. (photo courtesy of Wiki Commons)

Gadson places third, shares story

these activities includes wiping peoples’ genitals as they use the restroom. Gadson needed to get comfortable with being around these body parts, which also meant using correct terminology. Thus, while pondering the topic for her speech, her job was what ultimately inspired it.

“It’s one of the very few things that every single person can relate to, and so I don’t un derstand why we feel so hush hush about it, es pecially when it’s a normal part of life,” Gadson said. “ … We should start treating sex exactly how it is.”

AMANDA FEINBERG Copy Editor

Onthe national stage, speak ing into a microphone in front of thousands of people, more than she’d ever per formed in front of before, senior Elise Gadson delivered the pow erful speech she’d composed concerning sexual wellness. Her opening sentences de scribed a young child ac cidentally walking in on a sex scene between par ents. The crowd gasped. Watching their faces and gauging their reactions felt unreal to Gadson as she realized the impact her words were going to make.

“Knowing that my message was going to be shared with so many people was cra zy to me … standing in front of all those people … it felt so surreal be cause I’m actually going to be making a change,” Gadson said.

Gadson placed third in the Original Oratory category at the National Speech and De bate Tournament, which was held in Louisville, Ky. from June 11-18. The Original Or atory event aims to persuade the audience on a topic of sig nificance; Gadson’s speech was about removing the stigma as sociated with sex. During her speech, she spoke about being open with using the terms “pe nis” and “vagina” instead of changing the language to make others more comfortable.

Gadson assists people with the “activities of daily living” at her nursing assistant job at the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights, where she began working in July. One of

The first few drafts of her speech, which she revised and worked on the entire season, had been written under the Special Occasion Speaking category. Her writing featured a lot of humor, which some judges didn’t appreciate.

Gadson remembers her word choice being called “inappropriate, middle-school hu mor” and that she “wasn’t qualified to be talking about this topic.”

These claims caused the judging on her speech to fluctuate between com petitions. Gadson did extremely well in competitions such as the Down ers Grove South Invitational com petition; there, she advanced to the semi-finals, competing against more people than she ever had before. Con versely, she was the last person to advance to sectionals at the end of the season.

With the help of head coach Michael Piccoli, who has coached at Prospect for eight years, Gadson was able to drastically change her speech for the national competition. Nationals did not in clude Special Occasion Speaking, so Gadson had to change her category to fit Original Oratory.

“Elise is an incredibly hard work er and she’s really receptive to feed back,” Piccoli said.

Piccoli was drawn to speech after competing in group interpretation while he was in high school, which involves completely improvising a scene. This exposure to public speak ing is what prompted him to coach the speech team at Prospect.

Using Piccoli’s suggestions, Gad son toned down the humor in her speech and ended up being the sec ond and final person selected to go to the national competition from the district tournament at Prospect.

Going into the tournament, Gad son didn’t know what to expect, and her only goal was to be in the top 60 out of around 230 people in her cat

Once she surpassed her first goal, everything else felt unreal to Gad son. She kept advancing in the competition by

breaking 30, then 15, then top 3: as she placed better and better, her nerves got worse. To com bat her stress, she would walk around the Louisville Expo. Cen ter building, where the competition was held, for 30 minutes before her speech.

Another method she practiced was picking three words to repeat in her head and focus on during her speech. Her words at nationals were “slow, en gaged and present.” She wanted to talk slowly, be engaged with the audience and be present in the moment of delivering her speech.

Piccoli also offered her ad vice and support to alleviate the stress. He would remind her that she deserved to be at nationals and to keep doing exactly as she had in previous rounds. A volun teer coach, Heidi Graham, hyped the entire team up before their turn.

“It was great to see how ex cited they both got when I made the next round; it was so sweet of them,” Gadson said.

Along with the aid of their coaches, team members support each other by watching their friends’ speeches. Senior Maeve Dwyer, who joined speech freshman year with Gadson, watched her deliver the third-placewinning speech.

“It was electrifying watching her up there; she was so in her element,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer, who competes in Informative Speak ing and Radio Speaking, has been friends with

Gadson since first grade at Windsor Elementary School. Dwyer and Gadson en couraged each other to join the speech team as freshmen, even though they didn’t take it seriously until their sophomore year. They both grew tremendously in their three years on the team and have held immense pride in each others’ accomplishments.

“I’m always in awe of how smart she is,” Dwyer said. “… She’s able to con nect a bunch of different aspects of her life in order to make [the] speech what it is.”

Piccoli has also been able to witness Gadson and other stu dents grow throughout their time in speech because he’s been with them since the beginning.

“I got to see them grow over time … they get new experiences and [to] keep building on those communication skills, but also grow as people,” Piccoli said.

Gadson’s goals this season are similar to what they normal ly have been: to make it to state and to write a piece that she’s passionate about. For Gadson, the best part about speech is be ing able to educate people about what she thinks are important topics in the world.

Piccoli shares the same goals; he wants stu dents to speak on important issues, not just ones that could win awards.

“We’re here to either share our message … or tell our story ... and if we’re here to win, we’re here for the wrong reason,” Piccoli said.

Instagram weight loss ads impact students

Features Editor

Social media influencer Katie Bunden berg was scrolling through her Instagram, look ing at her friends’ and family’s pictures, when she came across a dietary advertisement. Grow ing up with a history of disordered eating, she im mediately felt attacked and violated by the intrusive ad.

The more Bundenberg thought about it, the more she felt that it was incred ibly dangerous to have ad vertisements telling peo ple to lose weight without knowing if or how it might trigger them. She saw this as a problem that needed to be solved, decided to take action and launched a pe tition on Change.org.

“I was so annoyed at the increase in weight loss ads that were specifically targeted at young and middle-aged women who are social media users,” Bundenberg said in an interview with Walesonline. “After seeing the responses from my followers, I thought, ‘I’m not alone in this, I’m not the only one that feels so horrendously triggered by all of these diet ads.’”

In order to combat this problem, Budenberg pitched a setting that will directly remove trig gers that impact social media users with disor

dered eating and/or body image issues. [see “How to access filter setting”]

After Budenberg accumulated more than 30,000 signatures, Instagram added a setting to remove all workout and dietary ads on people’s feeds.

Senior Maria Anzolotti was very grateful to hear that someone took action on this issue be cause she too had been violated by dietary adver tisements on her Instagram.

“It is very difficult when you are trying to just scroll through Instagram … all of the sudden you are be ing bombarded with things designed to make you hate yourself,” Anzolotti said. “ … It’s just hugely violating your self-image and it’s super tox ic to consume. It cracks away at your self-image which has real lasting consequences that can be devastating for some people.”

The reason these adver tisements are so harmful and dangerous to so cial media users is because of the promise of fast results and quick fixes as well as the fit bodies portrayed in the images. If consumers are prom ised that they will look similar to a skinny model in two weeks, they are more likely to click on the advertisement and/or buy their products, ac cording to Women’s Health Magazine.

“It’s no secret that the aim of a weight loss ad is to make you feel inadequate in your body so that you are persuaded to pay the company

large amounts of money to help you lose weight,” Bundenberg said in an interview with Women’s Health Magazine.

For some social media users, like Anzalotti, it is clear that the con tent in the ads that they are consuming is harming them, but to others, it may not be as evident.

“Whether or not you are consciously thinking ‘Oh, yes, this Instagram ad said I need to be skinny, so, therefore, I must be skinny,’ you are still internalizing that [message] in some way, shape or form,” Anzolotti said.

Physical education teacher Car rie Black has seen the impact of these types of dietary advertisements on her students.

“Social media presents a lot of quick fixes and portrays unrealis tic expectations of certain diets or timelines for those changes which can negatively impact students’ body image,” Black said.

According to Better Health, the reason com panies are looking to sell health and wellness resources by paying Instagram to display their advertisements is to make users feel inadequate and self-conscious, ultimately convincing peo ple to pay for products or services to facilitate weight loss. The website states that the correct and healthy way to lose weight is different for ev

eryone and can be designed for each person and their personal goals.

[see “How to spot dangerous diets”]

“We can draw a link between the rise of social media usage and the rise of eating disorders, especially among young women, so I think that in itself demon strates how much power ads and filters have over our self-im age and ... how our generation interacts with themselves and their bodies,” Anzo lotti said.

Instagram is not the only outlet that can help to change the way body image is por

Companies such as Aerie, H&M and American Eagle have changed their adver tisements to be more inclusive. They have done this by including more people of color, plus-sized models and disabled models, as well as increasing their sizing ranges to include sizes XXS-XXL. This in itself has helped countless people, such as An zolotti, to feel seen and welcomed.

“At least historically, the fashion space has been super saturated by a single body type, a single color, a single standard of what beauty is. So as a society moving forward, a more inclu sive, liberated space is important for brands to get on top of. Even if society wasn’t there yet, it would still be important,” Anzolotti said.

SENIOR SUPPORT: Elise Gadson (left center) poses with fellow national qualifier seniors Maeve Dwyer (far left), Ella Mitchell (right center) and Juliet Aquino (far right), proudly displaying her thirdplace trophy in Original Oratory. (photo courtesy of Elise Gadson)

SIENNA DEMONTE

Fun, bizarre genie tale rubs right way

KEVIN LYNCH Editor-in-Chief

What would you wish for if grant ed three magic wishes? A billion dollars? World peace? A glittery, flying unicorn? A movie starring Idris Elba with disturbingly pointy ears?

Well, writer/director George Miller’s latest film, “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” is sure to check at least one item off that wishlist, even if it is notably lacking in the unicorn de partment. Coming off of the critically acclaimed “Mad Max: Fury Road” in 2015, Miller’s newest movie serves as a rich deconstruction of popular myths and fairy tales, even in spite of its seem ingly hackneyed premise that could easily belong to one such legend.

The story follows Alithea Binnie (played by Tilda Swinton), a mild-mannered narratologist who predictably chances onto a bottle contain ing a djin, or genie, who has been trapped for read-the-title-of-the-movie years and requires her to make three wishes of her heart’s desire in order to finally set him free. As Binnie puzzles over what she should use her wishes for, the djin (Elba) recounts stories of his captures and vari ous failed attempts at escaping imprisonment in order to satisfy her curiosity and jog her imagi nation.

Swinton and Elba share a natural chemistry that makes all of their scenes together charming and enjoyable, even in spite of the rather uninter esting hotel room setting in which the majority of these conversations take place; however, the vivid flashbacks to the djin’s stories are where the film truly shines creatively.

While “flashbacks” might be a bit of an un derstatement for these often 10-15 minute cut aways, their visual and thematic variety is a treat to behold. Though these stories are, as Alithea often puts it, “cautionary tales” with somewhat cliché setups and outcomes, this does little to

WISH COME TRUE: “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” the latest film by writer/director George Miller, released on Aug. 26. The movie’s unique and heavily stylized take on classic genie tales proves to be conflicted in its themes, even in spite of its entertaining nature. (art courtesy of MGM)

detract from their enjoyably campy nature, and Miller’s use of lighting and elaborate sets creates captivating and refreshing interludes that effec tively flex the creative talent of all involved.

As fun as these flashbacks are, especially with Elba’s entertaining narration, their elon gated nature creates something of a disconnect between the splashy and artistic stories the djin tells to Alithea and the slower, more understated scenes back in the hotel that develop the rela tionship between the two.

This is especially noticeable in the last act of the movie, which, while not entirely discon nected from what came before, doesn’t have the emotional and structural foundation it requires

to back up its long string of thoughtful, slow er-paced scenes. This leads to many poignant moments that feel less earned than they deserv edly should when compared to the directing and acting talent that was poured into them; this is sue is little helped by the movie’s abundance of themes and messages, none of which seem to rise to the top as being the natural purpose of the film.

On one hand, it’s a movie about the relevance of stories and myths in modern culture; on the other, it’s about the nature of love and the purpose of relationships. While both themes are ade quately explored and developed through out, the movie frus tratingly never seems to claim one as its reason for being.

And while story for the sake of story is certainly enough to car ry a movie, especially one of this caliber, one can’t help but wish the filmmakers had stuck more clearly to one particular vision rather than choosing to dip their toes into too many pools

at once.

In many ways, “Three Thousand Years of Longing” is a frustrating movie: its best and most entertaining bits are unfortunately those that have the least to do with the main plot, while that same plot is simultaneously harmed by the detractions from its overall cohesiveness.

While its effectiveness as an overall product may vary from viewer to viewer, the movie still makes for a fun viewing experience, with plenty of emo tional twists and turns throughout to keep things constantly en gaging.

In spite of its faults, it largely suc ceeds at pro viding the sur real, intriguing narrative one might expect, and it still makes for one of the best and most expressive theater experiences of the sum mer.

That is, of course, if the theater is already out of complimentary unicorns.

Thousand Years of Longing” movie provides artful, fresh viewing

BEST AND MOST ENTERTAINING BITS ARE UNFORTUNATELY THOSE THAT HAVE THE LEAST TO DO WITH THE MAIN PLOT.”

Transforming into the B1G

ZACH MORETH

Historyteacher and former head foot ball coach Mike Sebestyen loves ev erything about football, including the Big Ten. For a while now, he has collected mini college football helmets, but as he tries to orga nize them, he’s never able to keep them in the same spot.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to organize them by conferences,” Sebestyen said. “I have to change them like every five years be cause the conferences all shift around.”

On June 30, Sebastyen’s mini-helmet con ference arrangement changed once again. The University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) made a massive announcement: they would be leaving the Pac-12 after over 80 years to join the Big Ten, starting in August of 2024.

Sebestyen worked for the University of Il linois football team during his time at Illinois, which he graduated from in 1998. He was an on-field personnel manager, specifically working with the offensive line. His time in this position makes him passionate about the conference.

Although Sebestyen was caught off-guard by the move, he understands the reasoning behind USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten.

“I was surprised at first; it was very much out of nowhere,” Sebestyen said. “But when you take a second to think about the direction college athletics is going, it makes all the sense in the world.”

Even though the conference change may

seem drastic, the truth is that the Big Ten has been changing ever since Penn State joined in 1993. Decades later in 2011, Nebraska joined the Big Ten, adding the conference’s 12 team. The addition of Penn State and Nebraska is the start of an something that is slowly taking over college athletics: mega conferences.

“When Penn State came in during the early ‘90s it was like, ‘OK. … That’s not really the true Big Ten but sure, fine,’” Sebestyen said. “When Nebraska came in during the early 2000’s after leaving the Big 12, it was like, ‘Well, this regional thing doesn’t exist anymore.’”

Since the addition of Nebraska, the Big Ten has added Rutgers University and the Universi ty of Maryland. Most recently, they’ve gathered USC and UCLA as well.

In terms of recruiting, senior wrestler and U of I commit Will Baysingar believes this move could end up benefiting the Big Ten wrestlers.

“If anything, I think it will help the Big Ten get exposure to some of the west coast kids and recruit them here,” Baysingar said.

Luckily for Baysingar, with all of his tourna ment experience throughout high school, he has

wrestled with many different styles and would be well prepared to compete against a wider variety of skills and styles.

“I am all for finding the best competition pos sible and getting an opportunity to wrestle guys from different areas of the nation,” Baysingar said.

As conference expansion continues to become more popular, one might want to step back and recognize the Supreme Court case that changed the history of college sports: The National Colle giate Athletic Association v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma in 1984.

The outcome of the case determined that the conferences were in charge of broadcasting games, instead of the NCAA. This allowed con ferences to make more money by negotiating with sports stations.

Most recently, the Big Ten signed a seven-year seven billion dollar TV contract with Fox, CBS and NBC. Similarly, the Southeastern conference is looking to negotiate with ESPN for another billion dollar deal.

With the expansion of teams, the markets for these conferences are able to grow across

the United States to draw in more money, which then leads them to be able to sign multi-billion dollar TV deals. On top of conferences becom ing richer, NCAA players now have the ability to make money themselves, through name, image and likeness (NIL).

Through NIL, the players have the same rights as the conference to expand their rela tionships with corporations to make money. For example, Myles Brennan, the former starting quarterback at Louisiana State University, signed a deal with brands such as Raising Canes and Smoothie King. Without playing a single snap of football due to injury, Brennan took the money he earned and walked away from college athlet ics.

Although the rules are very unclear and can appear to be unfair at times, Sebestyen complete ly understands this upward direction of player empowerment.

“The quiet part is now being said out loud, which is: college sports have always been a busi ness. Now that the players are finally getting a piece, like they should’ve 40 years ago, they ar en’t afraid to say it out loud,” Sebestyen said.

Western Intercollegiate Confer ence created with seven teams: the Universities of Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwest ern, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Indiana University and the University of Iowa offi cially join the conference, creating the Big Nine

The University of Chicago is removed. Michigan State Univer sity and Ohio State University are admitted, forming the Big Ten.

Pennsylvania State University joins the Big Ten.

The University of Nebraska joins the Big Ten.

D214 changes to full-time Athletic Director

ELLA MITCHELL

It was a typical school day for senior Ola Su laimon. He had just finished zero hour when he ran into Omar Alebiosu. As they began talking, Sulaimon discovered Alebiosu’s Nigerian heri tage.

Among other things, they were able to con nect over similar tastes in music; they both listen to Nigerian musicians Burna Boy and Fela, the latter of which Alebiosu has a tattoo in honor of.

“I just want to keep getting tighter,” Sulai mon said. “I look up to him as far as I can go. I talk to him all the time. He’s just a super cool person, really fun to be around [with] great en ergy as well.”

These interactions with Sulaimon are one of the factors that gave Alebiosu confidence that Prospect’s was the place for him.

“You always find comfort in similarity,” Alebiosu said. “Obviously, I’m here for all the kids, but that was like a homefield [advantage] and made me think, ‘Alright, this is a good fit.’ If I can find one Nigerian here — and he’s the man too with football — it makes me feel even more connected.”

Alebiosu joins Prospect staff as the first fulltime Athletic Director in school history, con solidating the boys’ and girls’ athletic director positions into one. This change follows all six District 214 schools, with similar hires seen across the board for the 2022-23 school year. In stark contrast to previous athletic directors Re becca Schilz and Dan DeBoeuf, Alebiosu does not teach during the day.

This extra time throughout the day truly al lows Alebiosu to connect with students, which works out seeing how connection is what Alebio su is all about.

His origins lie in elementary education, which he taught while also coaching football in Evanston. Soon after, he had the opportuni ty to work at Evanston Township High School, which had great culture and

community, according to Alebiosu.

From there stemmed the chance to return to his alma mater, Niles Township High School, as an assistant athletic director before mov ing to Niles West High School as the Director of Physical Welfare. It was only when Principal Greg Minter reached out to him, saying Alebio su possessed skills that would align closely with the direction of the school, that Alebiosu began looking into PHS.

“From what I had seen, coming in, observing students and the culture, it was something that

The University of Maryland and Rutgers University join the Big Ten.

The University of Southern California and The University of California, Los Angeles will join the Big Ten. Adding team numbers 15 and 16 to the conference.

to BigTen.org

love your shoes.’ And I’m like, ‘Thank you,’ Alebiosu said. “It’s an expensive collecting habit, but worth it for the kids.”

Alebiosu has always loved shoes but only be gan to seriously collect as an adult, as soon as he was able to afford them on his own.

“They tell you that whatever you were denied as a kid, you want to do,” Alebiosu said. “My mom got to the point where she was like, ‘I’m not buying Jordans any more for you because they’re too expensive,’ and I respected that. But every Jordan that I’ve missed out on as a kid, I

UNC Off Whites are probably his most ex pensive pair and one of Alebiosu’s favorites — the real talking pieces of his collection. His Travis Scott Mochas are another of his most popular and high profile shoes as well. While forming community is one of Alebiosu’s top priorities at PHS, he says he is most excited about the sports. Citing the scrimmage night, Alebiosu was able to see the culmination of passion for sports and school spirit in ac tion. Despite running on little more than three hours of sleep and tirelessly working to make the logistics of that day run smoothly, he says that seeing everything come together was

“Man, this is the juice. This is what [the preparation] was all about,” Alebiosu said. “I was not tired by any means; I was just ex cited for this moment … to be a part of it with the great student section, the amazing kids, I mean, everything was on point from start

The energy the student section brings, as well as the

KICKIN’ IT: Athletic Director Omar Alebiosu collects shoes to connect with students. He stores them in a wall-to-wall Container Store storage system. (photos courtesy of Omar Alebiosu)

community in general, is what makes PHS stand out to Alebiosu.

“You guys have something really special here,” Alebiosu said. “I don’t think anyone should take it for granted, going to school here, [because] you don’t see it at any other school. I’ve never seen anything like this … We have the best student section. Period.”

CONFERENCE CHAOS: University of Illinois graduate and history teacher Mike Sebestyen shows his passion for college football by keeping a mini-helmet collection. (photo courtesy of Mike Sebestyen)

Listen to another episode of Prospect Sports Weekly. Sports reporters Dylan Heber and Kenny Munao talk to boys soccer head coach Michael Andrews, football Defensive Coordina tor Brock Collins and senior safety Jack Berman.

Boys' soccer looks to turn season around

PJ O'GRADY

Last year, against the Schaumburg Sax ons, junior center back Nick Casaletto passed a long sweeping ball over the top to his brother, freshman striker/right for ward Michael Casaletto. Michael proceeded to volley the ball from far out to score his second goal of the season. They ended up winning that conference game 2-0.

Michael explained that it was the best mo ment of the year for him.

“Once I scored, hearing the crowd and my teammates getting all excited for me, running at me, after I scored to celebrate [it] was pretty surreal,” Michael said.

This year Michael is a sophomore while Nick is a senior. The brothers hope to help lead the team to a noteworthy season.

After getting knocked out by Hersey last year in the regional semifinals, the boys’ soccer team has lots of potential coming into this year’s sea son. Although the varsity group includes lots of seniors, the group also contains five sopho mores as well as four juniors, which makes

the dismay of the team, the boys’ are off to a slow start this season.

One factor in the team’s disappointing start to the season is their youth. Hutnyk has explained that it’s a positive thing to get the younger players varsity experience early on in the season for developmental purposes, but the team will consequently have some players still making some early mistakes as a result of their lack of experience.

According to Michael, this young team needs to work even harder so they can be prepared for the playoffs.

“I think we’re just gonna have to play with 100% energy, because I know people, including me, are gonna be nervous,” Michael said. “Ev eryone’s gonna make mistakes, but we got to work hard … put a 100% effort forward so we can compete.”

As previously stated, Michael played on var sity last year.

To be on varsity as a freshman, Andrews says an athlete needs to be a complete player. The particular player needs to be fast, athletic and coordinated; they need to know their position well enough to excel in the varsity atmosphere.

“The varsity game is … incredibly fast and physical and if you haven’t experienced that, you realize it very quickly,” Andrews said.

Nick thinks Michael can do a lot for the team’s offense in particular.

“Michael is a major offensive threat; he has really good skill moves, … his passing is next level and … even though he’s one of the younger guys on the team, he knows what he’s doing,”

While on the field together, the Casaletto brothers have a great connection going. Ac cording to Michael, this connection led to Michael’s goal last year against

“We communicate well, we lead to gether on the field, we help our teammates

To add to that, Hutnyk enjoys playing

“He’s a pretty shifty player … he’s pretty good at shooting too,” Hutnyk said.

“He’s a pretty funny kid, he’s pretty easy going [and] he doesn’t really let a lot of

The importance of having the right mental state is a shared value among both Hutnyk and Andrews. Andrews hopes to maintain a culture of positivity on the team so when it comes down to high pressure environments, the players' en ergy and happiness will further strengthen the team’s potential.

“I keep emphasizing that I

think they play best when they have a smile on their face, when they’re having fun, when they’re not letting frustration and negativity take over,” Andrews said.

To help cultivate this culture, the team has two captains: Senior midfielder Chris Morys and Nick.

Andrews looks for captains that know how to communicate well; he looks for players that can stay calm under the pressure of the game. Both Morys and Nick fit that bill.

Nick said he communicates a lot with the players in particular. When issues arise, some team members don’t feel comfortable express ing themselves to other players, so that’s when Nick often speaks up. He helps the players work through any troubles they may be facing with each other.

While Nick tries to build up the morale on the team, Morys’ role as a captain is to maintain order among the guys.

“Chris, he’s kind of more strict,” Nick said. “He’s really good at putting people in their place if someone’s out of their position. He doesn’t

Strong start for football, promise for upcoming games

the team is organized and in sync even when they’re not playing on Friday night.

talk as much, he’s not the loudest person, but his actions speak louder than words.”

According to Nick, in order for this team to put up a noteworthy season, the Knights need to change their mental state. They’ve been hav ing trouble sparking their offense in particular; in the last eight games, they have only scored 12 goals, while all of their opponents combined have outscored them with 15 goals total.

“One of the main things we’re lacking right now is motivation,” Nick said. “We’re just get ting too comfortable [when winning] … once we get that first goal we just stop playing with as much energy, and then we [only] bring back the energy once we are down in the game.”

With the first season victory against Bar rington (2-0), the team will try to turn around the season. The captains are working hard to help change the dynamic of the team, and al though they have great chemistry together, they need a different attitude.

“Some guys aren’t taking it as serious as oth ers, and so we just need to get everyone in the same mindset to win,” Nick said.

The Knights have start ed out their 2022-23 sea son with three consecutive, promising wins. This isn’t exactly new, as the Knights have consistently been ranked as a top 15 team throughout the season, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Not only have they been ranked highly, but they have also scored a to tal of 125 points, averaging almost 42 points per game.

Senior quarterback Brad Vierneisel has played a huge part in the domination of this offense. In week one against Sandburg, Viernei sel set a school record by throwing for 452 yards and six touchdowns.

The next week against Barrington, Vierneisel threw for 376 yards and five touchdowns. Although the Knights’ week three win wasn’t as lopsided, Vier neisel played a key role in it by throwing for two touch

downs in a 17-14 victory against Evanston.

“I wasn’t thrilled with how we played throughout the game, but I’m glad we went through that experi ence now,” Head Coach Dan

DeBoeuf said.

Evanston limited the Knights to only two touch downs and forced more than a few penalty flags against Prospect.

“It makes you tighten up

the little details that don’t have to do with football,” DeBoeuf said.

He says these “little de tails” include keeping the equipment shed and locker room clean to make sure

“All those little details always tie into being able to play disciplined football, so I’m glad we had that happen so we can re-focus,” De Boeuf said.

As the Knights schedule continues to get harder with opponents like Maine South (who they played Thursday night after The Prospector went to press) and rival Hersey (who they host Sept. 23), they will be adding a key part to their team, se nior wide receiver Sean Konieczka who has been re covering from a wrist injury. DeBoeuf says it is beneficial to the team to have yet an other returning starter join the roster.

“I think it’s definitely go ing to bring some energy to us,” DeBoeuf said. “Sean’s a senior, he’s worked real ly hard and I’m really hap py for him to be back out there.”

Golf teams swing into successful seasons

Degan)

ZACH MORETH

Find out the keys to the boys' early victories

Learn about the girls' strong varsity core

WHAM: Senior center back Sam Heintz clears the ball. The Knights ended up winning their first game of the season 2-0 against Bar rington on Friday, Sept. 9. (photo by Alyssa Degan)

LOCKED IN: Senior linebacker Connor Mitchell hunts down an Evanston player. The Knights ended up winning their Homecoming game 17-14. (photo by Mollie Kearns)