The ReMarker | May 2024

As the school year comes to a close, Upper School students approach the rigorous last month of school which holds final exams. While many schools are moving away from including finals as a necessary component of the end of the year, these tests will remain a key part of the curriculum here.

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PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

COMMENTARY

Rooted in tradition: reflecting on my growth as a marksman

Hilton Sampson Editor-in-Chief

I have always loved trees. In Lower School, during walks around the neighborhood with my dog, I began to appreciate the vast complexity of the living organisms, starting to understand my own infatuation with trees.

From giant red oaks to young cedar elms, a tree would always catch my eye as I stood in awe of its natural beauty.

The idea that a small seed could germinate into something so majestic fascinated me, leaving me eager to ardently monitor a tree’s growth as I attempted to dispel the thought that trees stood perennially frozen in time, restricted in their upright positions.

When two young live oak trees were planted in the front yard of our house during my third-grade year, I finally had the chance to watch them grow into giants.

Yet every day after I returned home from school, inspecting the two trees in the yard, I failed to notice any elongation of the branches, thickening of the trunks or any kind of growth at all.

Weeks of daily check-ins turned into months, and months grew into years. Day-to-day monitoring left me without anything to show for, and my questions regarding the growth of trees remained unanswered.

Now, nearly nine years later, looking back on pictures of the trees from when they were first planted, it’s clear that they have indeed grown, nearly doubling in size.

Through constant monitoring of the trees, I failed to appreciate or even notice the marginal growth of the branches, the budding leaves or the ever-slight widening of the trunks.

I was so infatuated with seeing the growth with my own eyes that I disregarded the initial size of the trees, failing to see how far they had come.

I lacked perspective.

Looking back on my time at St. Mark’s, I think the same holds true.

In the heat of the moment over the last several years, under pressure to perform well on that next math test, to remember all the new vocabulary for a Chinese quiz, I failed to realize how far I had come.

Caught up on the stressful moments, eager to maintain strong grades and classroom engagement, I compared my performance to that of the previous day, and noticing nearly no difference, I failed to see the small growth I was making each and every day.

Now, as we prepare to become seniors, I have had the opportunity to think back on my time here that has all led up to this final year.

Just as I can now appreciate the growth of the two live oaks in our front lawn, I realize just how much the opportunities at St. Mark’s have enabled me to accomplish.

The intense yet supportive environment here has pushed me to become better than I ever thought possible. Just the thought of my first-grade-self going on to learn Chinese is enough to put a smile on my face.

While the next 12 months will undoubtedly be filled with stressful moments, my own once unrecognizable growth has positioned me to have a fulfilling and memorable senior year, specifically the opportunity to be the Editor-in-Chief of The ReMarker.

Rooted in a history of excellence, our school’s paper is a symbol of what it means to be a Marksman, and the chance to lead The ReMarker is more than an honor.

With the 2024 presidential election, five-year anniversary of the tornado that hit our campus and opening of the Marksmen Athletic Complex, we will have an exciting and full year of coverage, and we can’t wait to get started.

Over the course of the next year, with my newfound understanding of the value of perspective, I am prepared to appreciate the little things, the small struggles and slow progress as I strive to truly embody what it means to be a Marksman.

Next career steps

Retiring faculty and staff share parting words.

03 Digital footprint

In the digital era, how do students manage their online footprint?

12 National domination

The school’s Quizbowl team wins yet another National Championship.

IN BRIEF

TRUSTEE DINNER

The Annual Trustee Dinner on April 30 took place at the Hotel Crescent Court in downtown Dallas. The annual event honored retiring Trustees and celebrated the outgoing President of the Board. This year, Robert E. W. Sinclair ‘74 was appointed as the 10th Life Trustee. Qualifications for the Life Trustee status include extensive and exceptional service to the school. The dinner was attended by six Life Trustees, six retiring Trustees, and 41 Emeritus Trustees.

08 An election preview

With the 2024 Presidential Election approaching, community members discuss the importance of voting.

20 Matt

Osborne ‘90 wins award

Recipient of the Lee S. Smith Courage ‘65 Courage & Honor Award disucsses his fascinating career.

BACCALAUREATE A cherished ceremony, the baccalaureate service is on May 28 The service includes prayers, music and parting messages by the senior class, serving as a spiritual send-off for graduates embarking on their next chapter. The final service presents the end and beginning of a new era for the senior students who are embarking on a new chapter of their lives.

FRESHMAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE The Freshman Basketball League nears its end,

09 A new testing practice

The school is using to the digital testing platform Digiexam for the first time this year.

27 Both student and athlete

In a school that prioritizes the whole man, how do students balance sports and academics?

with class officers planning a playoff series. The playoffs will feature a best-of-three series. All six teams will compete, with the top two seeds earning a first-round bye. Team Wilburn currently stands atop the league with a 4-1 record, but the rest of the league remains locked in close competition.

END OF YEAR DATES

Upper School Final ASsembly is on May

Blue Shirt Day is on May 31, the last day of the school year.

COMMUNITY SERVICE The 2024-2025 Community Service Board members were selected last month with 34 students from all four upper school grades selected. Next year’s chair will be junior Andrew Xuan, and juniors Maddox Canham and William Morrow will be the vice chairs.

Upperclassmen in AP classes begin their final exams April 29 and all other Upper School students continue to prepare for their exams which start May 22. Middle School Final Assembly is on May

Friday, May 17, 2024

Impulsive behavior affects digital footprint

Given the integral role of social media, the content that people share on these platforms often garners widespread attraction — exercising caution and being mindful of future consequences can mitigate potential risks.

By Kevin Ho and Holden Purvis

It’s almost midnight, and his last assignment of the night is finally completed. A feeling of fulfillment washes over him as he flops onto his bed with his phone, intending to catch up with his friends on social media and scroll through some feeds to finally take his mind off school.

After a while of immersing himself in his phone, he reposts a sarcastic Instagram post on his public story, hoping to get a laugh out of his friends the next day at school.

People will get the joke — if they get offended, it’s not my fault that they’re too sensitive

After all, it made him laugh, and his friends will probably think that it’s funny too.

However, in those fleeting 10 seconds of impulsivity, he carved a permanent imprint online, with his data being stored indefinitely on social media servers.

Because of 10 seconds, other parents, teachers or even future employers will potentially see what he reposted.

In those 10 seconds, he unconsciously wandered into a labyrinth ensnared with pitfalls.

Situations like this resonate with numerous students across the nation, prompting them to wonder what’s going to happen next. With technology usage on a continual rise, especially with social media platforms continuing to grow, digital responsibility is emerging as a significant concern in the online world.

For computer science instructor Ivann Grande, addressing the effects that online actions can have on future endeavors is a major theme in the early portions of the computer science curriculum, which emphasizes digital citizenship before sixth grade.

“We cover information like plastering social security information and numbers, checking spam emails, opening links you don’t recognize, sharing content on social media, knowing what’s appropriate and not appropriate and making sure that you’re careful,” Grande said. “So, we cover digital citizenship with our students as soon as we can.”

With a basic understanding of proper online etiquette, Grande believes that students also need to realize that with digital corporations like Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok, everything that is posted is available until the end of time. Even when a post on social media is deleted immediately, the data remains permanent even if nobody sees it.

“A majority of people don’t realize that, for example, when you’re looking at a Reel on Instagram, they don’t just track how many likes and comments it

has or how many times it’s been watched,” Grande said. “They also track how long you’ve been watching it and how many times you’ve had it repeat on your end. They track a lot more information than you might realize.”

With so much accessible information, a person’s digital presence can either positively or negatively affect their future. Col lege counselor Josh Shandera understands that whether it be for college or job opportunities lat er in life, digital footprints can serve as quick, shallow background checks.

“In general, with the college process there’s just too much volume, there’s too many applicants,” Shandera said. “There’s not enough time for an admissions review er to go through and read an application and then go dig into this person’s life and look up their Instagram account. There just isn’t really time for that.”

However, while an admissions reviewer may not take a deep dive into someone’s online presence, just one negative interaction online that resurfaces is enough to severely damage a person’s application or nullify one’s chances of being accepted into a college.

“If you’ve put something negative out there and someone finds out that you’ve applied for this school or gotten into this school, and someone else knows about this content that you’ve put out there, they can always bring that to the attention of the school,” Shandera said. “I think that’s what you see in the big headlines about a person’s offer (being) rescinded — it’s because of something that they had (posted) out there.”

In addition to college applications, one’s digital trail, even a post from a decade ago, plays a role in the evaluation of their job application.

“I have known that some of my employers have looked through to see what my digital presence is and if there is anything alarming up front,” Shandera said. “It may not be a super deep dive, but it’s just a quick Google or something to see what are you putting out there.”

As technology continues to integrate with soci ety, the repercussions of harmful online activity become greater.

“It would be good to sweep through your stuff and see what you’ve posted, commented and left on the Internet in general,” Shandera said. “Also, having your parents look through your (digital footprint) with you gives you another perspective on how oth er people might see stuff, and it’s from people who know your life.”

“When you have a space like (the Makerspace) that's dedicated towards engineering and learning and creativity, it basically gives the students a sandbox to play in, where they can take all of their ideas and make them into reality.”

“Dr. Lipin and I work with Middle School’s FIRST LEGO league program. Then, we have BEST robotics program, which has been around at St. Mark’s for over 20 years. For Upper School, we have the NASA HUNCH Program, which is a research and science-fair approach to help solve problems NASA engineers are trying to get a fresh view on.”

Makerspace

Director Stewart Mayer

“The teachers and the students here at St. Mark’s have always been amazing engineers and have run amazing programs. I’m just fortunate enough to have been given the tools to take that talent and allow it to flourish.”

PHOTO / MARSHALL SUDBURY

GRAPHIC / JOSHUA GOFORTH

“A KID WITH AUTISM STILL HAS A HEART AND TRUST ME, THEY CAN STILL FEEL LIKE NO ONE CARES” Tom Rachal

Brightening lives with Rays of Light

Since 2001, Rays of Light has been providing respite care for parents with children on the autism spectrum, and for more than a decade, St. Mark’s students have been volunteering there, helping the organization impact lives.

By Linyang Lee

Christina Puga thought her son was going to die.

We’re going to give him some sedation, Mom. We’re monitoring his blood pressure. He’s fine.

She wasn’t fine though. She was hysteric. Her son had never been in the hospital for his seizures before. Everything was not going to be okay. He was not going to be fine.

Justin is going to die, she thought.

The doctors kept telling her that he would be fine. She didn’t really hear them. She cried and she prayed. She prayed and she cried.

Justin is going to die. God please don’t let him die.

It was finals week, but she never told anyone her son was in the hospital. She started losing weight. Her hair started to fall out.

Formal attire was one of the requirements for her presentation when she defended her senior thesis. She showed up in blue jeans and a sweatshirt.

That took points off her grade, and she ended up pulling a C on the presentation and ended the year with a D in the class.

Her professor pulled her aside after graduation.

Usually I can depend on you to execute very well, but you didn’t. You weren’t even dressed up.

My son was in the ICU, she said.

Why didn’t you say something?

People go to school who are blind, who are deaf, who are homeless. I didn’t have an excuse, she said.

Christina, but every situation is not the same, and you’ve got to speak up. You’ve got to say something so we can help you.

She never forgot what he said. And to this day, Puga still doesn’t know who referred her family to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and helped them get a week’s trip to Disney World.

Maybe it was her professor.

From the moment he was born, Puga knew something was different about Justin.

People told her she was making a big deal out of nothing. They told her that she was just overwhelmed because she was a new mom.

But Justin didn’t walk until he was 4, and she carried him on her hip until then — all 30 pounds of him.

Something was different. She felt it in her heart — in her spirit. Something wasn’t right.

But even so, when Justin was diagnosed with autism, she didn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe it. Doctor after doctor after doctor, she wanted second and third and fourth opinions.

How could this happen? I’m the reason this happened. Did I do everything right when I was pregnant?

Maybe he’ll grow out of it.

But that was a false hope. The reality was Justin was nonverbal and would always be neurologically 18 months old. All she could do was lean on her faith and accept reality — learning to live life according to what worked for him and for herself. And there was a lot of learning to do. She had so many new doctor’s appointments, therapy appointments and testing assessments, all while being mentally and emotionally exhausted.

It was overwhelming sometimes — to the point where she didn’t want to deal with it or talk about it anymore. But she stood tall and adjusted her crown — committed to making sure she knew everything about his condition.

Learning took some time though. When she saw a two-year-old Justin’s body shake and twitch as he was sleeping in his play area, she panicked.

What was that?

His body shook again. She wanted to help, but she was scared of hurting him if she moved him. She had no idea what was happening to him and what she should do. She took him to the hospital. There, they told her he was having a seizure. And it wouldn’t be Justin’s last.

From then on, she timed every seizure, sometimes having to watch her son go through upwards of 15 seizures a day.

ONE FAMILY Puga has two children, Joshua, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, and Justin, who is nonverbal. Joshua is now a freshman at UT Arlington, where he is on a golf scholarship. Justin will graduate W. W. Samuel High School May 18. Whenever Puga needs help or needs to travel, she has her own “small village” of people, her mom, dad and sister, to turn to.

PHOTOS COURTESY / CHRISTINA PUGA

GRAPHIC / JOSHUA GOFORTH

Watching all his seizures, seeing him walk with his gait everyday and hearing his vocalizations because he’s nonverbal, Puga simply can’t stand it when people stare, laugh or are just point blank disrespectful to Justin.

So when Justin would get hurt and bullied in school, it would completely derail her emotionally because there was no way he could tell her what had happened to him. All she could see was her hurt child, and she didn’t know what she could do. She felt hopeless and helpless not being able to find an answer.

Her youngest son Joshua, who was diagnosed with Aspberger’s in kindergarten, was also bullied in school.

In second grade, they called him ugly and stupid, and because of his Aspberger’s, Joshua didn’t know how to respond.

He cried and cried and cried. Whenever a movie had anything to do with bullying, it would trigger his memory and remind him about it.

In fifth grade, it happened again.

Mom, this happened to me before, and I don’t like it.

You called him a what?

Puga was at the counter, holding the receipt, Joshua by her side. They were going over the incident that had happened just moments before with the cashier.

Joshua had ordered two student specials and only got one of them.

Excuse me ma’am, you only gave me one. I ordered two, Joshua had said.

The cashier spat back at him, calling him a liar and a racial slur.

That’s when Joshua went to the car to get his mom.

She showed the cashier the receipt.

Is this how you treat all the kids? How would you feel if you were called a derogatory term?

The cashier didn’t even apologize.

It’s not the first time her children have been discriminated against. Joshua has been treated differently by golf organizations because of his Aspberger’s, and sometimes people don’t invite Puga and tell her that they thought she didn’t want to go.

So you think for me now? You didn’t tell me because you didn’t want my children to go.

Many other children with autism also get left out and treated differently. A lot of times, they don’t get the attention they need.

Tom Rachal, the chairman of Rays of Light, has a son, Sam, with special needs and knows this firsthand. He knows that Sam wants to have the same special moments as anyone else does.

“A kid with autism still has a heart,” Rachal said. “And, trust me, they can feel like no one cares.”

It’s why Rays of Light hosts prom for them every May. It’s why they host birthday parties for children with special needs. It’s why they host the Night Lights program basically every Friday.

The program lets parents drop their special needs child off at Rays of Light, and each child is paired with a volunteer that takes care of and

bonds with them for the entire night. Basketball, art, computers, checkers, reading, piano, movies, boomsticks, face painting, bubbles, therapy dogs — almost any activity they want to do, they can at Rays of Light.

And at the end of every Night Lights programs, volunteers write postcards to the children they were partnered with.

“Sam can’t read or write,” Rachal said. “But we read those notes to him. When they sign it to his name, that is very, very special. It means a lot to the kids when they receive mail.”

And for the volunteers, it’s all the smiles from the kids because they know they’re going to have a good time, all the smiles from the parents, who look so re-energized and almost like different people and all the hugs from the kids that recognize their face that keep them coming back.

It’s the opportunity to interact with a whole load of different people and making personal connections that makes it fun, challenging and exciting.

Rays of Light has the opportunity to to help care for many children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds — who make up about 75 percent of Rays of Light families. Some families can’t afford to pay a babysitter. And for all the parents, babysitting costs can add up to a lot.

For many parents, they choose Rays of Light because they feel so welcomed and safe leaving their kids there with experienced nurses and off-duty police officers.

The original and main location for Rays of Light is at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. Rays of Light started small — three kids and seven volunteers, and they used to have a real problem of getting reliable nurses. But ever since nurse David Arata started volunteering there, Rays of Light has never been short of nurses since.

Arata knows what kind of medical attention most of the kids need. He knows how to deal with seizures, letting it happen and putting them in the recovery position on their left side with their feet crossed. And he knows that caring for the children can be messy sometimes.

It doesn’t matter to him though. For him, he enjoys it, and it’s work that needs to be done for the kids.

For Puga, Rays of Light lets her find balance. When she googled programs for caring for kids with special needs in 2011 and found out about Rays of Light, she didn’t know what a respite program was.

For her, early childhood intervention had been a horror story. They would always have to reschedule or cancel. It was never anything consistent.

A lot of organizations that existed for autism didn’t have good quality of care because there were simply too little people to run it and too many people waiting to get help.

But over the years, she’s found Autism Treatment Center of Dallas, Children’s of Dallas Autism Clinic and Scottish Rite to all be amazing for taking care of medical side of things — for neurology, dental and vision.

But she didn’t have a program to give her an opportunity to have self-care.

A lot of times, she says no when her friends want to go out. She prioritizes her motherhood. She prioritizes her kids.

“Sometimes, things just don’t get done,” Puga said. “Can’t is a real word.”

But with Rays of Light, “can” has become a reality for her. Even before she turns the corner at the Tollway and Northwest Highway, with Justin in his seat excited and ready to get out of the car before his seatbelt is taken off, Puga’s already planned out what she’ll do with her four hours.

Sometimes, she’ll go watch a movie. Other times, she’ll go out for dinner and go shopping for a bit. Whatever she wants to do. Sleep. Nap. Those four hours restore her.

And, ultimately, she’s just glad that she can get those four hours for herself. She’s just glad that her children are in a welcoming environment.

She’s just glad that her children are all happy.

Arjun Poi and William Kozoman contributed to this story.

Editor’s Note: This story is a compilation of the narratives of multiple people and their relationship with Rays of Light (ROL).

Many thanks to ROL nurse David Arata, volunteer Matthew Shen ‘22, volunteer Danielle Ford, Community Service Director Jorge Correa, Christina Puga, ROL Chairman Thomas Rachal, ROL Treasurer Stephen Arata and ROL Program Director Debbie Solomon for their contributions to this story.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Help care for a special needs child at Rays of Light. All events take place at Lovers Lane UMC on 9200 Inwood Rd.

NIGHT LIGHTS

RAYS OF LIGHT PROM Today @ 5:30 p.m. May 24 @ 6:00 p.m.

SUMMER SPLASH June 1 @ 12:30 p.m.

and a piano, too. Also downstairs is the computer lab, where there are also tons of stuffed animals to play with.

READING A volunteer at Rays of Light reads The Cat in the Hat to a child in the Night Lights program. Behind them, the gym is open to play in with therapy dogs just a few feet away in the main lobby.

CHECKERS There are also board games to play outside the main room in the downstairs area. The main room has coloring books

PHOTO / ARJUN POI

GALA

The Rays of Light Gala is the biggest fundraising event for Rays of Light, and items such as an autographed Patrick Mahomes helmet are auctioned off.

PHOTOS / WILLIAM KOZOMAN

New officers set stage for future

With the Class of 2024 preparing to move on to the next stage of life, upcoming members of the Executive Student Council propose new plans and ideas for the coming year.

By Andrew Ye and Rohan Kakkar

As the school year draws to a close, the seniors move on, leaving behind memories, laughs and hardships for the juniors to pick up as they move up and fill their roles.

The Executive Student Council board is responsible for spearheading the plans behind large events like Homecoming, executing successful assemblies and organizing pep rallies every Friday. Its job is to help create a more enjoyable experience for every student and serve as an intermediary between the student body and administration.

Next year, the newly elected Student Council President, junior Matthew Hofmann, plans on creating an “unforgettable school year.”

Hofmann’s interactions with his classmates progressed into a strong sense of brotherhood.

“St. Mark’s has been a home away from home,” Hofmann said. “I truly love this place, hanging out with my buddies and talking with teachers.”

Gaining experience in leading during his three years of serving, Hofmann successfully planned over 20 events and played a huge role in organizing McDonald’s Week. But for his senior year, he wanted to do something different. Something that would impact more than just 100 people.

“I was considering what I wanted to do for high school and how I could get involved in the community that had given me so much in Middle School,” Hofmann said. “One of the only ways we could get involved at that time was running for student government. So I was like, ‘why not?’ I’ll just run for Executive President.”

Although Hofmann has proven his ability to lead an entire class effectively, it takes the combined effort of all three executive board members and history instructor and Student Council Sponsor Michele Santosuosso to create a successful year for the entire school.

Along with Hofmann, junior An -

drew Jin and sophomore Adam Dalrymple will fill the Student Council Vice President and Executive Secretary roles respectively.

Like Hofmann, incoming Vice President Andrew Jin has also served as the Vice President for the junior class for all three years in the Upper School. His time in the position has helped him learn numerous skills, such as coordinating events and broadcasting information to all grade members.

“As Vice President, I’m usually tasked with executing events after the ideas have been finalized,” Jin said. “I did that for an assembly a while back that was ‘guess the song,’ and I was in charge of all the logistics. I’ve also gotten insight into how to schedule these things with people.”

However, the most rewarding part of Jin’s role is the shared excitement he experiences when around others in football games, assemblies and pep rallies. He hopes to continue creating experiences like these next year and further unite the Upper School community.

“I’m excited about making a year that hopefully combines the best parts of previous years, like the cool assemblies from the rock band assembly to Kahoots,” Jin said. “Now I’m in a position to get those done, and I think that’s cool.”

The third member of next year’s Executive Board, sophomore Adam Dalrymple, is also very experienced in student leadership. He served as the Class of 2026’s President during his first year. Next year, he hopes to use the leadership skills he gained that year to create a meaningful experience for every Upper School student.

“I think I learned better communication skills during my freshman year,” Dalrymple said. “In terms of planning events, it taught me to start early and to be intricate with each detail so things don’t go wrong.”

Although the board members hold a lot of responsibility for planning events, they don’t make decisions on their own.

“Everything we do is for everyone

Summer trips officially return after four years

By Sam Morse

In March 2020, COVID-19 obstructed all in-person school activities. Four years later, class trips remain a rarity despite the school curriculum resuming and adapting properly. But those four years weren’t wasted. After years of patient waiting and careful preparation, class trips are beginning to return to their norm, with several already planned for summer break.

This summer, photography, ceramics and film classes will be taking a Fine Arts trip to Italy, which will be one of the most significant class trips since the pandemic ended.

Photography instructor and Director of Student Travel Scott Hunt believes that class trips are vital to one’s experience of the arts and plans to establish these trips as a new tradition.

at school,” Hofmann said. “That being said, it’s even more important to get new ideas and new perspectives from everybody on how to create relatable and unique events.”

While all three executive board members have their own goals for the year, they ultimately have to come together and create some unifying themes for the whole year. This goal, set by Hofmann, provides the executive board with a common goal to work towards.

“Our goal would be to foster that feeling of ‘home’ here to everyone,” Hofmann said. “The opportunities are endless at the school and you can really capitalize on all those when you feel welcome here, so I think building up Upper School unity is one main focus of mine. Getting everyone involved and engaged is the one-of-akind community that we will build.”

CLASS OFFICERS

SENIOR CLASS

Henry Estes President

Vice President: Eduardo Mousinho

Secretary: Teddy Fleiss

Class Rep: Jack Frary

JUNIOR CLASS

Andrew Zhang President

Vice President: Joshua Goforth

Secretary: Mateen Mostafavipour

Class Rep: Sebastian Gonzalez

SOPHOMORE CLASS

Anderson Lee

President

Vice President: Dylan Bosita

Secretary: Ford Robinson

Class Rep: Reid Smith

FRESHMAN CLASS

Alex Marczewski

President

Vice President: Paxton Allen

Secretary: Graham Smith

Class Rep: Rayhaan Rizvon

“I’ve led photography trips all over the world, and it was one of the things that motivated me to become the director of student travel,” Hunt said. “Those experiential opportunities are critical.”

Before COVID, class trips were regular events as students’ schedules had numerous opportunities for them in nearly every class, including photography, language and history.

“In one summer we had five international trips,” Hunt said. “While that was probably a little too much in retrospect, COVID was a hard restart.”

Hunt had plans for a visual arts trip prior to the pandemic and envisioned it to be in coordination with the choir trip, referring to it as “the arts summer.” For this year, the trip does not include drawing and painting; however, Middle and Upper School art instructor Kate Wood will chaperone this year to again experience and consider the inclusion of her class as well.

“If the trip is successful and popular, then the trip would become a part of the fabric of the St. Mark’s experience, like the choir and Pecos trip,” Hunt said.

The only other international Fine Arts trips following the pandemic have been a choir trip and Middle School trip to Sicily, although neither of them have occurred this past summer. However, Hunt is gearing up for a multitude of trips during the summers of 2024 and 2025.

This year, there will be 24 domestic trips and three international trips, marking the return to the unique experience of international travel for Marksmen.

“In the summer of 2025, we are going to do the D-Day Normandy trip again, and we are also in discussions about the possibility of a language trip during the summer,” Hunt said. “We are getting back.”

PHOTO / NEIL YEPURI

THE FUTURE Sophomore Adam Dalrymple (left), junior Andrew Jin (middle) and junior Matthew Hofmann (right) pose for an Executive Student Council photo.

Students rely on energy drinks for performance

The controversial drinks help many get through their days and all of the work they need to complete, but they also take a toll on students' physical and mental health.

By Lawrence Gardner and Tejas Allada

2 a.m.: He takes a sip and heads to bed.

8:30 a.m.: He takes a sip and begins school.

4:45 p.m.: He takes a sip and begins his workout.

7 p.m.: He takes a sip and begins his school work.

1 a.m.: He takes a sip and continues working.

2 a.m.: He takes a sip and heads to bed.

He just needs the energy.

With every sip, his body can keep moving. With every sip, the work seems more bearable. With every sip, he knows he can make it.

The health consequences don’t matter.

The shallow look in his eyes doesn’t matter.

The loud thump of his heartbeat doesn’t matter.

He just needs the energy.

Energy is at the core of typical Marksman schedule on campus. Every student shares this common necessity, especially when assignments pile up as the school year nears its end in the grueling high school years.

Finishing an essay due at midnight. Rapidly completing homework before the next day of classes. Fighting to stay awake during lectures despite sleeping four hours every night for the past week.

Considering the heavy workload of students through academic, extracurricular and athletic requirements, energy drinks are a helpful, convenient resource to power through a stressful day.

According to Statista, people between the ages of 18 to 29 years old consume 33 percent of all energy drinks in the U.S. However, the unhealthy consequences of energy drink overconsumption have be-

gun to garner the attention of many.

Sophomore Reagan Graeme thinks the sheer volume of assignments and other academic-related responsibilities amplify students’ desires for energy drinks.

“I think (energy drinks) are definitely a way for kids at St. Mark’s to try to get more energy,” Graeme said. “A lot of times we’re running on little sleep with a high workload, and that’s something that can make you be more attentive in class, be more focused during a test, get more homework done – it can give you a leg up.”

Graeme, who involves himself in many activities and commitments around campus, tries to keep his energy drink consumption in moderation. He sees the drinks as a tool to be more productive during stressful times, thus facilitating academic success.

“I think the way I’ve handled using energy drinks is appropriate,” Graeme said. “It seems some students do have a dependence on caffeine and energy drinks, and they will have multiple energy drinks a day.”

In contrast to Graeme’s relatively low energy drink intake, senior Sebastian Kiehn had developed a much larger dependence on them in the past. However, after two to three years of heavy consumption, Kiehn finally decided to stop his caffeine addiction.

“Right now, I drink zero energy drinks a day because I quit a while ago,” Kiehn said. “When I first started to drink them, I had around two to three Red Bulls a day, which looking back seems horrible. I was definitely addicted to them and drank them for quite a while before I stopped.”

The main reason for Kiehn’s eventual decision to quit was his health. From violent headaches to unusual tingling sensations throughout his lower body,

Kiehn realized the negative effects that his caffeine dependence had on his physical health and eventually his mental health as well.

“When I first started drinking energy drinks, I wasn’t bothered by the health risks of them because I didn’t really care about my health as much,” Kiehn said. “But now, I have matured more, and I've become invested in my health by going to the gym and watching what I’m eating, so stopping drinking energy drinks was a result of me becoming more mindful of my health in general.”

In athletics, energy drinks provide athletes with the short-term energy required to complete workouts or compete in games. Athletic trainer Natalie Bumpas has observed an increase in their consumption and is concerned about the high levels of usage among athletes.

“They’re getting their energy because those things are loaded with caffeine and sugar,” Bumpas said. “They are unhealthy because they will make your blood pressure spike. And an optimum performance is if you can keep your blood sugar steady at healthy levels throughout the day.”

While many athletes turn to energy drinks for a quick energy boost, there are healthier, long-term strategies they can begin adopting right away.

“They should pay more attention to their sleep at night, because what’s happening is they’re staying up till two o’clock in the morning doing homework and then they have a game after school,” Bumpas said. “They’re not getting consistent or enough sleep. That's huge for athletic performance — getting a regimented sleep routine and quality sleep and consistent enough sleep. Typically, teenagers need more sleep because they’re growing and changing.”

Families navigate high cost of teen auto insurance

By Diego Armendariz

The rising cost of auto insurance is a major point of contention between teenagers and their parents. On average, it costs $7,436 to fully insure an 18-year-old Texas male per year, while the average 50-year-old pays $2,500. The cost of insurance rates, especially for young adults, has created massive barriers for teenagers to take advantage of the newfound freedom they gain from their driver’s license. These barriers are especially impactful on lower-income families and families with multiple children.

Sophomore Reagan Graeme believes that the current structure of insurance plans requires improvement.

“While most at St. Mark’s are fortunate enough that insurance cost is something they don’t really have to think about, it can really put pressure on families,” Graeme said. “One time, I wasn’t even in my car, and

someone scraped me, but my mom had to pay entirely out of pocket because the only rates worse than male teenagers’ are male teenagers’ after an accident.”

High school students are more likely to experience fatal crashes per mile driven and have a higher propensity for speeding. Because teens pose a greater risk of danger, adding them to a family plan can increase rates up to 150 percent. In addition, as car prices continue to trend higher and higher, even with used cars, families are dissuaded from taking on pricier insurance rates.

“My mom was a little reserved about letting me get my license, so we took a lot of measures to make sure insurance stayed at a reasonable level,” Graeme said. “I drive a 2005 Camry with a lot of miles, so that helps keep prices low. My family is also in the USAA safe driver program. If we all drive safely, our premium can be reduced by 10 percent per person, which makes a difference.”

Safe driving programs, like USAA SafePilot, are one of the more effective methods of reducing insurance costs. Graeme believes that monitoring apps such as Life360 can help ensure that teens continue to practice road safety even when their parents are not in the car with them.

“My mom uses Life360 to check my safe driving,” Graeme said. “At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted her to be able to track me when I was driving, but with the information it gives about harsh braking, speeding and road safety in general, I decided to let her install it on my phone.”

Advancements in technology, education and policy initiatives will allow for a balance between ensuring the safety of roads and making insurance accessible for younger drivers. Graeme believes students should continue to focus on smart, safe driving.

STRUGGLE WITH ENERGY Sophmore Camp Lemkin works late into the night to finish his assignments, with the aid of multiple energy drinks.

PHOTO / DILAN KOGANTI

Voters prepare for 2024 election

After four years, the primary presidential election is once again open. The Voter Registration Drive is planning to start the next school year strong by registering several eligible students to hit the Nov. 5 voting deadline.

By Andrew Ye and Kevin Ho

Less than six months remain for Americans to make a decision. A decision that will directly impact the lives of more than 300 million people. A decision that will determine the course of the country’s future.

As people begin lining up at ballot boxes, the state of the nation for the next four years lies in their hands. Each vote resembles an opinion, a voice that represents ideas and aspirations.

And once the ballots are counted on Election Day, Nov. 5, a new blueprint of the country will be released for the world to see.

“All elections year-round are important, but this one is super important because it is national,” St. Mark’s Parents Association member and current cochair of Marksman voter registration Amy Peck said. “An opportunity to participate in this comes only once every four years.”

Despite this, Texas ranked 41st for voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election, with only 51.3 percent of the population actually casting a vote.

“It’s really all about empowering people to vote,” Peck said. “Unfortunately, in Texas, our voter turnout is pretty terrible. A lot of people who are eligible to vote are not registered, but of those people who are registered, very few people actually participate in our election. People just feel like their vote doesn’t count.”

Although many people know who they want to vote for and understand how to cast a ballot, voting misconceptions like these cause students to stray away from participating.

“Think of it as a sports analogy,” English and history instructor Dr. John Perryman said. “You are never out of a game—every little play matters. We saw that with the Patriots a few years ago, and certainly in recent American elections. Every vote matters. I’m of the mindset that we can move the needle on things if everyone does a little bit every single day, whatever the cause is. I’m a big believer in buying into this incremental understanding.”

The significance of this presidential election provides eligible voters on campus with an even greater reason to register and improve the voter turnout percentages in Texas.

“WHEN THERE ARE SUCH HIGH STAKES FOR OUR FUTURE, WE NEED TO STEP UP AND BE THE ONES TO MAKE THE CHANGE ”

-Amy Peck

“What most people don’t recognize is that since fewer people show up for the smaller elections, those who do show up magnify their impact,” Peck said. “Compared to previous years, the registration effort is going to mostly stay the same, but we intend to push and make the turnout much higher than before

because now it matters a lot more.”

The ability to influence the nation’s government also necessitates responsible voting. To ensure that a solid foundation of political understanding backs votes, the voter drive organization has registered over 51,000 students since its founding in 2015, holding bi-weekly meetings to educate them on what to look out for and pass on relevant information leading up to the elections.

“The worst thing to do is to go in voting while not knowing who is on the entire ballot, and it would be a lost opportunity since there is no do-over,” Peck said. “It’s all about getting students to understand what to look for, and we teach them how in a completely nonpartisan fashion.”

Perryman believes that students can begin expanding their political literacy by sticking to regular routines that involve checking current events and trusted news sources.

“I suggest students read widely, in a variety of sources, for the best information on the American political scene, and that includes quality magazines or newspapers,” Perryman said. “I tend to think the

sources that have gatekeepers (paywalls) are the best sources and that there’s a lot of stuff floating out there on social media that is not accurate.”

Going to the polls with extensive research and acquired knowledge beforehand is the beginning of a person’s electoral journey. Submitting a vote is not only an expression for a desired candidate but also a testament to the strong civic connection between a voter and the society to which they belong.

“Community requires responsibility, involvement and engagement,” Perryman said. “You can’t just be a passive member of a community. You have to be invested. To grow personally, to care for others and to care for a community, you’ve got to be involved. You can’t passively go through life. That’s no way to live.”

Voting is a right after one turns 18, but to Peck, not enough people choose to act on it and influence the development of the world around them.

“At the end of the day, voting in this type of election is a coming-of-age privilege,” Peck said. “A number of juniors and seniors are eligible to vote in this election, and their vote gives them a high level of impact on their community.”

Brendan Court summer program embraces opportunity

By Nicholas Huang

Every summer, local middle school students dedicate three weeks to attend the Brendan Court ‘06 Summer Enrichment Program, expanding their knowledge of multiple academic subjects. The program expands beyond basic academics, providing students with physical education, nutrition and fun opportunities.

Rather than hiring full-time teachers, St. Mark’s student volunteers teach the summer program.

“It’s an opportunity for our boys here at St. Mark’s to serve the Dallas community and establish relationships with new people,” Brendan Court Co-Director Katherine Anson said. “And during these relationships, the students have the opportunity to practice leadership.”

Brendan Court Director Jorge Correa and Anson

visit Uplift schools, a series of 60 charter schools in the DFW area every year, to tell them about this opportunity.

The program’s main selling point is that it is free.

“Lots of the kids that we get are from low-income families,” Anson said. “When they come here, because the program is free, they learn new things. They get exposed to a different part of the city because they never get to come here.”

In this summer camp, students are taught core school subjects, have PE classes and are even educated about nutrition.

“The students would bring money and get a lot of snacks that are not very healthy, and they would eat that for the whole day.” Correa said. “So we said, ‘No, we need to stop that.’ We partnered with Central Market, and what we do is we take them over there and we teach them about good eating habits.”

The students who go to this camp are not only re-

ceiving extra-curricular education, but they are also shown just how many opportunities and connections St. Mark’s can offer.

“We’ve realized that in some of their neighborhoods, they don’t have the resources that we have here,” Correa said. “For example, when we bring them here, we show them the planetarium and the greenhouse. We take them on field trips to museums.”

Last year, the students even had the opportunity to sit in a room with the Dallas mayor, Eric Johnson.

“In a room with just 20 kids, the mayor was sitting down and sharing his experiences here,” Correa said. “That’s what I mean when we’re using the resources of this school.”

The Brendan Court summer program provides students with an experience like no other.

“They offer almost everything, the food, the connections and the even facilities,” Correa said. “This is an opportunity on so many different levels.”

PHOTO COURTESY / SHAY CATHEY

STEPPING UP With the Voter Registration Drive table set up in The Commons, seniors fill out a voter registration forms as they head to class after lunch.

English department introduces new tool

As the issue of AI-aided cheating continues to shift the way teachers administer tests and other assessments, Digiexam has become a powerful asset for the English department.

By Akash Manickam and Tony Lu

In the 1960s, educators gathered to discuss a major development in academics. While some teachers believed that this development would greatly improve students’ ability to perform complex tasks, others feared that students would rely on the new tool as a crutch to do basic operations.

That tool was the handheld calculator.

Now, 60 years later, a new invention is reshaping the learning landscape: generative AI.

And while the calculator changed math classes forever, tools like ChatGPT have the potential to change the entire education system.

That’s why, earlier this year, the English department decided to find a new solution—Digiexam, a brand new educational software designed to cut down on cheating and the use of AI.

“Essentially, Digiexam is a lockdown browser similar to ones used on the SAT and ACT,” English Department Chair Michael Morris said. “Part of the motivation to introduce it came from anticipating the move to all digital AP English and History exams.”

English instructor Lynne Schwartz was a student herself when calculators became commonplace in the classroom.

“When I was in college, my dad worked for Texas Instruments and he got me one of the huge handheld calculators—the first of its kind,” Schwartz said. “And I just thought it was magic. I was just so happy to have it. I mean, all it did was multiply, divide, add and subtract, but it was fantastic.”

Schwartz sees many similarities between the rise of calculator technology and the rise of AI. In particular, many educators worry that AI, like calculators, will serve as a crutch for basic mental tasks that are essential for students. Since she graduated college, she has seen those fears come true in many cases.

“I remember people getting upset that kids wouldn’t learn to add in their heads,” Schwartz said. “And indeed, I’ve gone to stores before, like Subway, and the electronic cash register is broken down, and the kid running the cash register doesn’t know how to give change. I think that the mental activity that it takes to calculate something in your head is a useful exercise for the human brain, just as I think that the mental activity of organizing information in your head to write it in an essay is a good exercise for your brain.”

Schwartz believes that AI is capable of benefiting both students and teachers when used in academically honest ways.

“I SEE THE CHANGE AS A GRADUAL EVOLUTION. TEACHERS HAVE LONG BEEN COMFORTABLE WITH THE HANDWRITING AND TYPING TWOSTEP PROCESS.”

-Michael Morris

“I’ve heard other teachers talk about student comments and using AI to create comments on student work,” Schwartz said, “which I thought was a very interesting idea. It’s not cheating, it’s just a helpful tool that you could use to generate comments about student essays without writing all over the paper.”

While it is a completely brand-new feature, Morris believes that Digiexam works well with the traditional tools of the department.

“Teachers can enable spell check and extra time, and the software has all the normal features of Word, such as italics and font sizes,” Morris said.

Morris believes that the introduction of Digiexam will likely reinforce many existing trends in the English department.

“With the introduction of Digiexam, based on the premise of giving students feedback on their own writing, English teachers will be having more and more in-class writing assignments,” Morris said. “This change is not new: we have been moving in that direction for a few years now.”

Though Digiexam will likely have an impact on in-class writing, the overall policy regarding out-of-class assignments will likely continue.

“While our existing technology of TurnItIn primarily upholds the standard of submitting original work, it is not very good at detecting AI,” Morris said. “I don’t anticipate an immediate change with AI-detection software outside the classroom.”

Despite the issues of mitigating the unsanctioned use of AI outside the classroom, Morris, along with other English teachers, has devised a few ways to overcome the technology’s challenges.

“We try to do a lot of the drafting for longer papers in class,” Morris said. “That way, students’ work will have components that teachers can look at in class with them.”

Though he understands the risks of AI usage by students, Morris believes that AI can have a positive impact in the English classroom.

“For instance, some teachers have embraced AI by giving it a prompt and evaluating the essay it produced,” Morris said. “That allows students to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the composition and possibly make revisions themselves.”

As the school community adapts to the new software, Morris and other English teachers are actively considering the long-term implications of Digiexam.

“In the end, I see the change as a gradual evolution,” Morris said. “Teachers have become comfortable with the handwriting and typing two-step process for in-class writing, and the introduction of Digiexam merely expedites that process.”

The

student perspective:

“What

do you think of Digiexam?”

“Digiexam is a foolproof system that completely prevents cheating. I think it’s good because it allows students to not have to handwrite. It gives us more time to write because we can start with typing, which is much quicker.”

“I understand the purpose of it, and I think it is quite useful for what teachers need it to be. I wish the version we used had spellcheck. That was a bit of an awakening, knowing that I have to spell for essays.”

“We used Digiexam to write LEQs in APUSH, and I thought it was pretty good for me. I think it does what it is supposed to do. I’m happy that Digiexam allows teachers to trust us because of the lockdown browser feature.”

PHOTO / AKASH MANICKAM

AI-PROOF A student opens DigiExam on his computer.

Blaize Schuhmacher Freshman

Henry Roden Junior

Lukas Palys Junior

Piano credits to be removed

Ever since the schedule changed to an eight-day rotation, piano students have seen less opportunities to work with their teachers. Furthermore, because of its unique lesson style, a change in the fine arts credits for piano has taken place.

By Kayden Zhong, Shiv Bhandari and Wyatt Auer

When now-retired Lower School music instructor Mary Ann Livengood stepped onto campus in 1972, one of her first decisions was to start giving private piano lessons to students at school.

And for more than 14 years, her lessons were integrated into the fine arts curriculum, creating what is now the Piano Studies program. Under her careful guidance, the elective course grew into not only an opportunity for young pianists to build their skills but also a unique choice of fine art for students seeking to delve deeper into the musical world.

When Livengood stepped down from leading the program in 2003, the responsibility to continue the highly successful program fell upon piano instructors Sandy Hall and Angela Hendricks. With more than 40 years of combined experience teaching at the school, the pair’s leadership and ability led to an increase in student interest.

“We’ve historically had to turn away between 25 and 30 students every year,” Hendricks said. “We don’t have the teachers necessary to accept every student.”

A typical piano student meets with either Hall or Hendricks for one 45-minute long private lesson out of every eight-day rotation. The curriculum taught follows requirements set by the National College of Musicians and the National Guild of Piano Teachers, and covers pieces from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, contemporary, jazz and popular eras, as well as basic skills such as music theory and sight reading.

Normally, an Upper School piano student will earn a full fine art credit over the course of four years of instruction. But starting next school year, new piano studies students will no longer be able to earn fine arts

credits solely through the program.

For Anthony Vintcent Fine Arts Department Chair Marion Glorioso-Kirby, the decision came about as a result of many other developments, such as the schedule change during the 2021-2022 school year. Since the weekly schedule was changed to an eight-day rotation, total lesson time was heavily reduced.

“At that time, we removed piano studies from the course catalog as a credit for middle school,” Glorioso said. “Because even over the course of one year, the amount of time (a student spent) in a chair wasn’t even remotely close to that of a semester-long fine arts class.”

Despite the time gap, Glorioso and the fine arts department decided then that Upper School students would still continue to earn fine arts credits from the four-year-long program.

But this year, with Hall’s retirement, the program is at a crossroads. Previously, because of the lack of available facilities and instructors, not every student who applied to take the piano studies program could be accepted, though the disparity was workable. Increasing class sizes, however, have changed that.

“Right now in the current model, we can accommodate every Upper School student who wants to take, (for example), ceramics,” Glorioso said, “but we cannot accommodate that for piano.”

Additionally, the uniqueness of the program has contributed to its potential unsustainability.

“The private lessons are outside of the norm of what we do with the fine arts department,” Glorioso said. “Since the 1980s, our campus has changed a lot. The size of our campus and the number of students (have changed), so sometimes the thing that was created 40 years ago no longer fits in the model of this school.”

This change will only apply to new piano students, however; current piano students will be able to continue taking classes for a fine arts credit. Moving for-

ward, Hendricks will continue instructing students and is hopeful that some of the issues with the current program can be resolved.

“Maybe 15 years from now, there’ll be a new fine arts building, which will let us fulfill the needs of all the students,” Hendricks said. “They might hire another person and move us, and then we’ll be incorporated back.”

For some students, the credit changes are disheartening.

“I think the loss of a fine art impacts (school) culture negatively,” freshman Gregory Cunningham said. “And the loss of the piano program is a loss for every student who enjoys the beauty of music.”

Scott Hunt named interim Fine Arts Department Chair

By Holden Purvis

Starting the 2024-2025 school year, Arnold E. Holtberg Master Teaching Chair Scott Hunt will become the new interim Fine Arts Department Chair. Hunt will be appointed once current Anthony Vintcent Fine Arts Department Chair Marion Glorioso-Kirby steps into the Head of Lower School position.

As a faculty member since 1998, Hunt serves as the Middle and Upper School photography instructor as well as the director of the student travel program. His work and accomplishments earned him the Ralph B. Rogers Award in 2023. Now, Hunt is ready to assume the new responsibility as he hopes to enhance and uphold the importance of the fine arts program.

“Moving forward into the future, first and foremost

is that the fine arts continue to be an important and integral part of the St. Mark’s experience,” Hunt said. “My hope is that every boy has the opportunity to find a fine art they enjoy, to pursue it, and to excel at a very high level.”

In the upcoming year, Hunt will oversee the planning of the ISAS Fine Arts Festival, which the school will host in the spring of 2026. The festival, open to more than 3,000 students from 50 schools, is a chance for students to demonstrate their artistic talent and creativity.

“The festival is a huge opportunity to showcase what we do, and how we do things here at St. Mark’s,” Hunt said.

In the future, Hunt hopes the fine arts program can continue to expand its reach and impact on the school community. Additionally, he envisions the chance of

new and improved facilities coming to the school in the next couple of years.

“Down the road, there is the possibility of a building project that could revamp or reimagine the fine arts facilities,” Hunt said. “To be involved with that process would be particularly exciting given that it would impact Marksmen and the fine arts for at least the next 50 years.”

Hunt will go into next year as a one-year interim chair, and after his initial year, he may consider assuming the permanent department chair if things go well.

“My focus next year will be to simply support the boys and faculty in the department,” Hunt said. “I think there will be a number of factors at play, but at the end of the day, if I feel like I can have a positive impact then I may pursue it.”

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Piano instructor Angela Hendricks guides a student through a piano piece.

PHOTO / BRYAN LI

School libraries adjust to student usage

With recreational reading rates across the nation hitting all-time lows, the Lower School Library and the Green Library in recent years have focused on adjusting to new circumstances.

By Kayden Zhong and Joseph Sun

When senior Ben Adams joined the school in first grade, the first place that caught his eye was the Lower School Library. He spent hour after hour lounging about, his face buried in a book.

After the move into Middle School, he received his first computer. He still went by the Green Library, but more often to socialize. Most of the time, it was easier to read online.

When he entered Upper School, he stopped reading for fun. There simply was no time.

Adams’ experience is nearly universal. According to findings from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), the number of 13-yearolds who read for fun every day has gone down from 30 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2023. Similar declines have been observed in younger students as well, and since the pandemic, the trend has not shown any sign of stopping.

According to Director of Libraries and Information Services and current president of the Association of Independent School Libraries (AISL) Tinsley Silcox, some of these changes naturally happen as students get older.

“Recreational reading really sort of drops off when you get more and more involved in your academics,” Silcox said. “Your first grade and second grade students are beginning readers, so they check out less than the third and fourth-graders. The biggest use of the library as far as checking out books to read are the middle schoolers.”

Screen time has also affected checkouts: since the pandemic, students have been gaining access to screens at younger ages, leading to an early turnoff from physical material. This, however, has led to increases in checkouts of e-books and audiobooks.

“As more people become aware of that, they realize that they can check out books from the library and have them on their phone,” Silcox said. “They can listen in the summer while they’re sitting on the beach, or on a walk in the mornings. So we’ll see an increase mostly in electronic checkout by e-books and audiobooks, and I’m making an effort to purchase more for recreational and summer reading.”

Younger students, particularly those between the ages of 8 and 12, prefer fiction books to nonfiction books. Book length also affects the number of

checkouts: books in the Lower School library tend to be shorter, and so Lower School students end up checking out books more often, though they might be consuming the same amount of content as their Middle School counterparts.

Upper School students, however, according to Silcox, typically only check out physical books from the Cecil and Ida Green Library whenever they are assigned a research project, preferring instead e-books and audiobooks when it comes to recreational reading because of ease of access. Convenience also plays a large role in how students approach research.

“The databases that we have here rival those of most small colleges and universities, and I spend a tremendous amount of my budget on just acquiring these databases,” Silcox said. “JSTOR’s probably one of our most expensive subscriptions but it’s also one of our most used resources, because what those databases do is they merge everything. What you can’t get from a print book, you get from a trivial search.”

For history teacher Michele Santosuosso, the resources in the library are essential for her class’ history papers. Since analyzing history entails the need for several sources, students are obligated to find reliable online and physical sources from the library.

Due to the pandemic, however, students were unable to check out books for a long period of time, so Santosuosso cut her physical book requirement. Luckily, students were able to access online assets.

“Part of research is knowing the reliability (of a source),” Santosuosso said. “If you’re actually going to make an argument for a history paper, your argument needs to be based on reliable resources, and we have access to (those kinds of) academic sources.”

Outside of academics, Silcox and the library staff have worked tirelessly since the end of the pandemic to ensure that the library continues to be a popular community destination.

“It’s the place where you can come if you want to play a game of chess, work on a crossword puzzle, or read a magazine on paper,” Silcox said. “It’s where people come for quiet study or to check out a room to have a lively discussion about a topic that you’re working on. And I want to remind people that we’re here, and all you have to do is ask.”

Data collected during 2023 from Sora that includes e-books and audiobooks.

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS Students in instructor William Atkinson’s sixth grade humanities class research the ancient Greeks and Romans for a project.

PHOTO / KAYDEN ZHONG

Quiz Bowl dominates national competition

With a nearly flawless record, the Quiz Bowl A Team demolished the competition and even tripled their opponent’s score in the championship match, dominating the Small School National Championship.

By Doan Nguyen and Ronit Kongara

A16-1 record to finish the season. In the championship match, they tripled the score of the runner-ups.

Such a dominant run is unheard of—especially at a national-level tournament.

The group of four spent countless hours studying key terms, recounting old questions and analyzing potential competitors.

But for the Quiz Bowl team, there wasn’t much competition to begin with.

On April 27, the Quiz Bowl team swept every team they faced at the Small School National Championship Tournament (SSNCT), taking home first place after dealing a crushing defeat to Alabama Cyber Tech A. The team consists of four seniors: captain Aditya Shivaswamy, Vardhan Agnihotri, Ethan Bosita and Sohum Sukhatankar.

Last summer, this same group finished 8th in the High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT)—the best the school has ever done. These past couple of months, they’ve won every local meet. Since the beginning of the season, they knew they were strong, and possibly the best. Morale was high. Expectations were even higher.

“This group of seniors had placed third last year at (SSNCT), so they knew that they had a good chance of winning this event,” Director of Academic Information Systems and club sponsor for the Quiz Bowl program Paul Mlakar said.

On the first day of the tournament, they played a round-robin with 10 other teams. When they went back to the hotel that night, their record was perfect. With some opposing teams getting blown out by over 500 points, the Lions made it known that they had improved since last year’s bronze finish. They were aiming for gold.

“For most of the day, we were basically running over everyone,” Bosita said. “We destroyed any illusion they had about having a shot at winning the championship.”

Sukhatankar was the team’s leader in points, placing 11th overall in individual points.

But even these academic powerhouses needed someone to support them off the scenes, keeping track of statistics and tendencies. A stabilizer. A coach.

“My role is to keep their heads in the game,” Mlakar said. “Call timeout if we need to. Calm them down if we need to. Cheer them up if we need to.”

With the combination of their coach Mlakar and the intellect of the seniors, the team went undefeated in qualifications. The squad bulldozed through the competition in the playoffs and made their way to the finals, where they faced Alabama Cyber Tech. After a rough start, the Lions had lost their first match in the whole tournament to the Alabama team, but the team came back stronger in the second match. The second match was a resounding victory, 660 to 210 in favor of the Lions, and it solidified the

CHAMPIONS The team poses after winning the SSNCT championship.

St. Mark’s Quiz Bowl A team as the clear champion with a 16-1 record.

“We took a tough loss last year,” Sukhatankar said. “This year, we learned not to get overconfident, so it was really nice to go back in there and come out on top.”

“FOR MOST OF THE DAY, WE WERE BASICALLY RUNNING OVER EVERYONE. WE DESTROYED ANY ILLUSIONS THEY HAD ABOUT HAVING A SHOT AT WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP.”

-Ethan Bosita

As the A team battled for first place, the St. Mark’s B team also did exceptionally well, ending up in the battle for third place in the playoffs. The B team came out on top and secured third place, ending with a record of 14-3.

“The B team's expectations weren't as high so they were pretty excited to end up in third place,” Mlakar said. “The B team's only losses on Sunday

(were against) the A team.”

Buoyed by their dominant win at SSNCT, the Quiz Bowl team is preparing for their next national competition, the High School National Championship Tournament. They will travel to Atlanta from May 24 to May 26 to compete among 320 teams from across the United States, aiming to perform better than their eighth place finish last year.

But, the future of the program for next year is uncertain. Having such an experienced group of seniors maximizes the potential of the team, but the end of this season marks an immense loss for the Quiz Bowl program. Seven seniors are graduating, and compared to these seniors, the underclassmen still have many more hours ahead of them just to catch up.

“At St. Mark’s, there are always talented prospects,” Mlakar said. “Yes, we certainly don't have underclassmen yet that are at the same level as their current seniors. But none of these seniors were at the level that they're at when they were freshmen and sophomores either. So the potential is boundless—they've got to have that drive and put in the work.”

Robotics team competes in national championship

By Christopher Huang and Jackson Bailey

In April, the nine-person school FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) team competed with 223 other teams in the world championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for four days. Known as Team 23381 or The Marksmen, they had earned their place after competing at the state FTC competition.

“The whole experience was new to me and it was truly wonderful,” Makerspace Director and robotics coach Stewart Mayer said. “Everything was bigger and better than I had imagined.”

FTC is an international high school robotics competition with thousands of teams competing each

year in a specific themed game. The robots are commonly made out of metal, and are built to achieve two or three specific objectives in the robot game for the season.

Leading up to the competitions, the school team worked in the Makerspace and utilized the laser cutter and 3D printers to make wood and plastic parts, respectively. The robot is programmed in Java. The two captains, Vivek Patel and Arav Rawat, are both seniors with numerous years of combined experience in FTC.

“We design all of our parts in CAD (computer-aided design) beforehand,” Patel said, “and then we'll export those to either the laser cutter for cutting plates, or we’ll export the part to the 3D printer.”

At the world championship, the team had an 8-2

record in their qualification matches, earning them 10th place in the pre-playoff rankings out of 56 teams in their division. The team did not earn themselves a spot in their division playoffs, but they were still content with their performance.

“We did pretty well,” Patel said. “We also got the third highest teleop (period of a robot game match) ever recorded, so we were really happy.”

For many of the team members it was their first year participating in FTC and going to the world championship, so qualifying for the world championship as a rookie team was an impressive accomplishment.

“Do I expect us to go to worlds every year?” Mayer said. “No way. But I do expect us to have fun designing these robots and competing with them.”

PHOTO / COURTESY VARDHAN AGNIHOTRI

Benefits of language reach beyond education

All students are required to study at least three years of the same language to graduate, but many don't understand the point of using any other language aside from English. Alumni and teachers, with decades of experience under their belt, explore the advantages of being bilingual.

By Doan Nguyen, Rohan Kakkar and Emiliano Mayo

Joseph Zopolsky ‘92 knew it was a mistake. The translation didn’t match up. A decade of vocabulary lists and Spanish literary analysis made him familiar with the double-negative the translator misinterpreted.

The Spanish-speaking defendant admitted to being at fault. Months before, her husband, high off PCP and cocaine, stumbled into the path of an Anheuser-Busch truck and was flipped several feet in the air. Zopolsky, hired by the beer company to defend the truck driver, immediately recognized the translation error and capitalized on the translator’s mistake.

“The actual translation was something like, ‘There’s no way he could have seen my husband,’” Zopolsky said. “We won the case on the spot—on the mistranslation.”

From the classroom to the court, Zopolsky has never been able to let go of an integral facet of his life: Spanish. Zopolsky attributes his love for Spanish to the school and the outstanding mentors he had as a student, especially to J.J Connolly Master Teaching Chair Nancy Marmion.

“Marmion was one of the first people who made me love Spanish,” Zopolsky said. “I had some scholars as Spanish professors who were nationally known, even internationally known—Marmion, in my opinion, was better than any of them.”

Over the years, Zopolsky has worked with Spanish-speaking litigants, helping them navigate the difficult and confusing legal system.

“A lot of times that Spanish-speaker will have a lawyer that they can't communicate with,” Zopolsky said. “For me to be able to understand everything that's going on, picking up on speech discrepancies, it gives me the advantage of being able to see everything.”

Gene and Alice Oltrogge Master Teaching Chair and Chinese teacher Janet Lin always knew that she wanted to teach language. Born and raised in Taiwan, she is a lifelong Chinese speaker and uses her skills to educate hundreds of Marksmen in this language. Originally a reporter, Lin moved to the U.S. and began working at Lewisville I.S.D. as a translator for Chinese students who could not keep up with the English coursework. Then, a colleague asked Lin to teach them some Chinese to correspond with students, which sparked Lin’s interest in educating.

“I found that so many people need help and then some teacher asked me ‘Hey, can you teach me some Chinese so I can communicate with their students from China,’” Lin said. “I decided ‘Okay, maybe I should do something for my people.’ And then I started to get a degree and become a teacher. After 16 years as a Chinese teacher, I found that it is not really a job because I love it, and I love connecting with my students.”

After obtaining her education degree, Lin transferred to the school and has worked here for eight years. She is an influential teacher for all students who take Chinese, as she teaches the majority of Upper School students who take the language. In fact, Lin believes that almost one third of her students end up pursuing Chinese to some degree in college, a re-

markably high number.

“Our language department requires three years of learning the same language,” Lin said. “So some students feel like, ‘I need to stay in high school for three years to learn some language.’ I think most students keep learning after high school when they go to college. They found that they climbed the mountain and it was difficult, but when they got to the top, they said, ‘Oh, wow, that's another view.’ So they found it's really useful for them to connect with people and some students use Chinese to help them find jobs.”

“FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING THATS GOING ON, PICKING UP ON SPEECH DISCREPENCIES, IT GIVES ME THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING ABLE TO SEE EVERYTHING.”

-JOSEPH ZOPOLSKY ‘92

Language Department Chair Zachary Erwin ‘96 first developed his language skills at the school. He started learning Spanish in eighth grade, and he was even the student of current teachers such as Nancy Marmion. After Upper School, he got his undergradu-

ate, graduate and masters degree, as well as his Ph.D. in Spanish-related subjects.

After learning a lot of Spanish, Erwin believes that learning a new language is more than just learning new words, but also a new culture. He believes that learning a new language is a way to get closer to different cultures and different views of the world.

When Erwin was still studying Spanish, he traveled to Spain where he was able to see how different cultures and dialects of the language collided with each other.

“I spent a lot of time, particularly in Spain, actually getting to know lots of people, so I was able to connect with those people,” Erwin said. “When I was between my junior and senior year in high school, (Marmion) took a group of boys to Salamanca for about a month.”

Apart from learning cultures and learning the language, Erwin thinks that if you speak the native tongue of other people, you’ll receive a more personal interaction with them. He explains that making the effort to communicate with people in their native tongue, especially when they struggle with English, is a special and important thing to do.

“I think people are always happy when others make an effort to speak to them in their own native tongue,” Erwin said, “especially if they're in an environment in which they're often obligated to speak another language.”

New AP Art History class to be introduced next year

By Marshall Sudbury

Over 15 years since legendary coach and previous art history instructor Tom Adams retired, the class has returned. The new history elective, which will be taught by Dr. Andrea Hamilton, aims to explore human civilizations and cultures through art and architecture.

“It’s a huge, broad class. It covers civilizations from prehistory to modern,” said Hamilton. “Some people think art is about art, but it is also about the historical context.”

When Hamilton first arrived, she had primarily been a US History teacher; however, the school asked her to teach ninth grade Foundations of World Societies. In order to adjust to the challenge of teaching a new curriculum, Hamilton used art as a way to convey core ideas to students. The history

department gives teachers the freedom to choose what they focus on in class, so Hamilton emphasizes culture over military history.

“I asked St. Mark’s a couple of summers ago to send me to a summer training (camp) that was designed for AP Art History,” Hamilton said. “Not so I could teach AP Art History, but so I could learn about the topic in order to incorporate it into my other classes.”

After coming back with her certificate to teach AP Art History, Hamilton pushed to add an art history class to the history department’s electives. It took over a year, however, to build up enough interest for the class. Eventually, there was enough support to add the class as an elective available to juniors and seniors.

“The history department and St. Mark’s have made a commitment to saying ‘we want to try this class’ and give it a chance for people to learn about

it,” Hamilton said.

Despite the class’ name, Hamilton believes that a student doesn’t necessarily need to be artistic to be interested in the class. Hamilton will not have students make drawings or paintings beyond simple sketches of concepts.

“Some people see art history and they think, ‘I’ve got to be an artist to do it,’” Hamilton said. “I’m a historian. It’s really more about understanding cultures.”

While currently there is no formal connection between Hamilton’s class and the fine arts department, Hamilton is hoping to work with the fine arts department if the class has long term success.

“I certainly would be interested in having a conversation and finding a way to collaborate,” Hamilton said.

PHOTO / COURTESY JOSEPH ZOPOLSKY '92

AN INTERLINGUAL LOVE Zopolsky '92 (left) poses with his friends during his study abroad in Spain.

Instances of vandalism around campus damage the expensive property of the school and the traditions put in place by marksmen in the past.

Graffiti defaces Harkness tables Overheard at 10600

By Christian Warner, Joseph Sun and ronit kongara

Across campus, a scratched in “hi,” a penned in “skibidi” or even a vulgar image can be found beneath tables and chairs.

Graffiti is many things: illicit vandalism, a boredom-driven impulse, and even an art form.

Graffiti has been around for centuries. In its simplest form, it is a way to mark where one has been, whether it’s a territorial marking or a personal landmark. Modern adaptations to the art have appeared in galleries, but graffiti is definitionally a form of vandalism. Even in its illicit nature, some artists like Banksy, an anonymous and famous tagger from London, use graffiti to spread awareness or protest changes and reforms. Others tag walls and bridges around the world with vulgar, profane and violent figures and words.

Graffiti comes in many forms on Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown’s Harkness table, a rounded table at which students and teachers sit together to encourage communication and discussion.

“Everything from words to geometric designs to genitalia,” Brown said. “So everything from apparently harmless to vulgarities. That’s what I’ve seen.”

Brown has had various problems with graffiti since he started teaching. Through several years of teaching, his Harkness table has been marked up, vulgar pictures etched deep with pens and pencils – all completely unerasable.

“I can’t imagine (kids) going into their dining room table, which looks like my Harkness table, and just deciding to scratch things into it,” Brown said. “Why would students do that except for their immaturity, their disregard or a form of rebellion?”

Besides immaturity, Brown also believes that it may be a consequence from boredom in class.

“I think there are more constructive ways to confront boredom than by destroying someone else’s property,” Brown said.

According to a study by Arthur Vasquez and Lynne M. Vieraitis, teens often first start graffitiing because of stressors in their life. They use graffiti as a form of expression to find their identity. Eventually, street taggers and vandalistic graffiti artists develop an addiction to the excitement they get. Many of these juveniles strive for more recognition in the tagging community, using sheer quantity of work and social media.

In the past, social media trends have encouraged kids and students around the country to vandalize and steal in bathrooms. One specific trend from 2021 consisted of stealing soap dispensers or signs, called a “devious lick.” But, for history and social science teacher Dr. Jerusha Westbury, the graffiti seen in classrooms does not follow any trends.

“In the case of my classroom, from what I understand of those trends, you need to have them on tape,” Westbury said. “So it would be harder for a student to film that if their phone is out and face down in the center of the table and their computers are put away.”

After all of the wear from the year,

the school, during the summer, repaints and deep cleans the walls, desks and appliances. The Harkness tables, however, have a special treatment every few years. It’s a process that costs a lot of money and effort. The maintenance team has to deconstruct the Harkness tables into its many sections and ship the heavy pieces away to the company who manufactures them for a complete repolishing and cleaning, removing graffiti, scratches and discolorings.

Although there has been a recent resurgence of vandalism and table markings, history instructor Michele Santosuosso believes that the overall amount has decreased since her early years at the school.

Yet during the recent Blue and Gold week, a new and previously unseen form of vandalism occured. Flag stealing was a lighthearted joke at first. It then developed into hiding the flags and later burning one. These flags have been passed down to each new SuperFanMen since Blake Hudspeth ‘21 first created the tradition in his senior year.

“(It’s) just impulse control and taking something really fun and going to an extreme level that is really shocking,” Santosuosso said. "I was sent the picture of the burning flag, and that was pretty horrifying and really disappointing.”

Santosuosso stresses the importance of taking care of our community .

“(The vandalism) really bugs me because those tables are so pretty,” Santosuosso said. “It’s a physical thing, but it’s still a part of our community.”

“I'm

“Sigma is peak brain rot.”

Jonathan Moody Chemistry Teacher

“Science is fake, literature is real.”

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the

“Heimler is my

IN THE CLASSROOM Drawings and engravings of graffiti cover the surface of a Harkness table.

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

Hugh Feferman Sophomore

finna be gone tomorrow gang!”

Cameron Hillier '13 English Teacher

Grayson Redmond Senior

want

Tony Soprano Fortnite skin.”

Ekaksh Bansal Sophomore

goat.”

PHOTO / NOAH CATHEY

PHOTO / NOAH CATHEY

Posture affects student production

Whether it’s in the classroom or on the playing field, something as simple as one’s posture can have massive effects on their productivity, performance, and overall attitude towards life.

By Christian Warner And Christopher Guffey

Head down and shoulders slumped: signs of someone who may seem weak, uncertain and timid. In the classroom, someone who is unproductive and inefficient. On the athletic fields, someone who is bent over, gasping for air and unstable.

Posture plays an important role in one’s productivity and health. Whether it’s carrying a heavy backpack or hunching over at a desk, there are numerous reasons people have developed bad posture and habits. With bad habits, many of the daily tasks in one’s life decrease in efficiency and yield other consequences.

“When we have good posture, (it) puts less strain on the body allowing us to be productive and efficient,” Upper School counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu said. “A body that’s in pain will have a hard time concentrating."

Besides just affecting daily life, Bonsu also believes there is a direct link between good posture and performance in class.

“Sitting up straight with your shoulders back makes it easier to perform on math tests and math problems,” Bonsu said. “And then doing math while slumped over can make the problems seem harder than they are.”

The benefits of good posture are not only relevant in the academic and intellectual spaces. Standing up greatly helps athletes in recovery by hepling them achieve good posture.

Most athletes understand the feeling of being out of breath, panting and, at times, even wincing for air. Coaches will always emphasize standing up straight and not bending over, yet young athletes usually overlook their advice.

“Bending over restricts the airflow,” strength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth said. “You want to be (standing up straight), so you can open up your lung capacity, get all that oxygen in and give out more carbon dioxide… As much as it doesn’t feel like it, it is helping.”

Posture also affects important muscles for athletic performance. Within the spine, muscles that surround the scapula — the shoulder blade bone — and the thoracic vertebrae — the middle section of the spine become internally rotated with bad posture, leaving a concave appearance.

“(This internal rotation) affects the way you do a lot of things from your anterior chain, the front (muscles in your body),” Dilworth said. “This allows everything to be tight. Every young man that I see that has this internal rotation of the shoulders has to take a deep breath (when fixing their posture).”

Moreover, this forward position, in which muscles are fixed, forms a new resting position for one’s shoulders, constricting arm motion.

“We never get it to where that scaption really opens up to feel that true butterfly of the whole scapula, and the way it is shaped (because) it is always enclosed,” Dilworth said.

Because of the underusage in the anterior chain, the posterior chain compensates for it. And by placing

upper scaption.

more stress on the posterior chain, bad posture affects muscles outside of the back and shoulders. The core of an athlete provides stability and power for almost all movements. Maintaining good posture keeps a healthy tension on the core, while poor posture places stress on other areas.

“If (you have bad posture), you put all the pressure on the lower back and upper scaption,” Dilworth said.

To correct these movements, Dilworth recommends walking with a straight back or sitting up straight in chairs.

These actions also affect a student’s image and attentiveness. Dilworth claims that, on first impression, an individual’s confidence can be judged by someone’s posture.

“Posture, when you first are in the presence of anybody, tells a story automatically (by) the way you carry yourself,” Dilworth said. “When you think of bad posture, you think of an individual who is slumped over, (and you may think): ‘Is he sad? Is something bothering him? Is something weighing heavy on him’?”

Whether someone’s posture or their first impression is bad, Dilworth believes that it is all correctable and improvable over time.

Luckily for athletes, professionals and students, reinforcements are more common than ever. New technology like standing desks and stability balls have been growing in popularity in work settings. These reinforcements all promote standing up straight.

Because of these benefits, Bonsu foresees these improvements being added to the academic space sooner rather than later.

“Body positioning alleviates the workload (on your body), and that’s tied to productivity in the workforce,” Bonsu said. “So, to me, if we see (those additions) in the workplace, then we probably would also see them in the classroom.”

16 million Americans experience chronic back pain.

72 percent of adults with back pain report feelings of sadness or depression.

Seniors attend Marksmen Ball, continuing long-standing tradition

By Kiran Parikh and William Kozoman

Graduating seniors gathered for a night of celebration to honor each other and spend time with their families at one of the premiere events of the year, the Marksmen Ball.

The formal dinner also included the unveiling of the 2024 Marksmen yearbook and the dedicatee of the publication.

Security officer Doug Brady was named the dedicatee and the yearbook theme, These Walls, was presented to the senior class.

“(The unveiling of the dedicatee) is a really special moment for a faculty member and other faculty members there,” senior class sponsor GayMarie Vaughan said. “They are always just amazingly excited for the person who gets honored, because it’s fun to see a peer or colleague get recognized in that way. It’s very special.”

But for seniors, Marksman Ball is one of those life-shaping experiences they won’t forget.

“It’s an important event. It’s the last thing they do really before graduation, aside from Baccalaureate,” Vaughan said. “Marksman Ball is more than just about the yearbook. It is a special milestone event for the senior class and a time to remember their years at 10600 Preston Road.”

For the teachers, especially Vaughan and fellow senior class sponsor Bryan Boucher, it’s a special event — in its own unique way.

“I really enjoy seeing the boys all dressed up,” Vaughan said. “They just look like young men. At that moment, I mean, they really have grown up a lot at the end of their senior year. It’s nostalgic to be with them in those final, important events and to see them kind of come full circle at the end.”

Aside from the treasured mother-son dance, Boucher believes that one of the favorite moments

of Marksman Ball is the senior slideshow, in which seniors laugh and tease each other as photos of their classmates appear on the screen, and try to guess who it could be before the person is revealed in their senior photo.

And as the night goes on, emotions and excitement only rise.

“I think there’s an excitement that sort of builds throughout the night for a lot of guys it is sort of that moment of, ‘Wow, I’m leaving this place,’” Boucher said. “It can be a pretty emotional night just because it’s a good chance for them to reflect on their career as a Marksman.”

And when alumni return on alumni weekends to visit their old mentors and meet with their peers, there’s always a special moment when they reminisce about Marksman Ball.

“They have this look on their face like, ‘That was a wonderful memory,’” Vaughan said.

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

SLUMPED Sixth grader Muyi Ajagunna sits at his computer in the library with back slouched forwards, leaning towards his computer. This kind of posture is discouraged, because it puts a lot of pressure on the lower back and

Firm in tradition: school emphasizes continued importance of final exams

The rigorous final exams that span over the last weeks of the school year bring about a frenzy of student anticipation and anxiety. Many schools across the country have moved away from the end-of-year cumulative tests, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, but here, they have remained a staple of the Upper School experience.

By Hilton Sampson, Matthew Hofmann and Linyang Lee

For some students, it’s smooth sailing.

To others, it’s a nightmare.

Hours spent sitting at desks, watching review videos and shuffling through piles of notes all in preparation to face the culmination of their school year.

Final exams.

The time to cap off an impressive year-long academic performance or to learn from mistakes and make a miraculous grade-saving final push.

Whether they are anticipated or feared, enjoyed or loathed, they remain ingrained in the history of academic performance and tradition at the school.

But this yearly juggernaut of cumulative tests is something that many schools are moving away from. However, despite an already jam-packed end of the school year, St. Mark’s continues to keep finals, a decision that elicits a variety of opinions on campus.

Whether in AP, honors or on-level classes, every Upper School student is subjected to a minimum of four cumulative final exams that make up between 10 and 20 percent of his final grade.

Interim Head of Upper School John Ashton believes final exams are a crucial part of the academic experience on campus.

“The philosophy behind it is that students all experience a summative assessment because you all will have those types of exams throughout your education,” Ashton said. “I think an underlying philosophy has always been to provide students with that college prep and beyond experience. There’s real value in the system we have.”

However, final exams, which are carefully crafted here based on the school’s philosophy for teaching students, have become increasingly criticized in high schools across the country.

A few miles away, fellow Southwest Preparatory Conference member the Greenhill School removed final exams from its curriculum in 2020. Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester feels that the benefits of using final exams to prepare for college depend on the type of school and program students

are going into, for many students don’t have final exams in college.

Before their decision to move away from final exams, Greenhill was on a trimester system and would have the first set of exams spread out over the course of five days at the end of February after two trimesters of classes. Then in May, the second set of exams would be held over three days.

“Part of what we agreed as to what was good about exams was their ability to provide feedback for students,” Worcester said. “The end-of-year exam doesn’t allow that because students do their exams and go off for the summer, teachers are furiously trying to grade them and get their grades in and nothing happens with it. (We’re) continually finding better ways to provide that feedback for students to continue to improve.”

“FROM TALKING WITH STUDENTS, THERE’S THIS SPIRIT OF CAMARADERIE AROUND EXAMS. THERE’S A GENERATIVE COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT THERE THAT HAPPENS HERE, SOMETHING ABOUT PULLING TOGETHER STUDY GROUPS. WE’RE ALL LOCKED IN. IT‘S EXAM TIME.”

- Interim Head of Upper School John Ashton

Because of the pandemic, Greenhill chose to cancel the end-of-year finals in 2020 since it didn’t make sense to hold final exams online. In later discussions about the school exam policy with department chairs, learning specialists and college counseling, very few courses and departments wanted to keep exams.

“Not pausing to hold final exams also offers additional instructional time,” said Kerry Shea, Director of Marketing & Communications at Greenhill.

However, all preparation for finals in college is not lost with this new system. Worcester feels that AP exams, subject-specific tests given by CollegeBoard in early May, serve well as practice for the students.

Teachers of a few classes — AP Spanish Language, AP European History and AP Compara -

STUDY SPOTS AROUND CAMPUS

tiveGovernment — who still want to provide practice before AP exams offer optional mock exams on a weekend. Other teachers like Worcester, who teaches AP Latin, will have more cumulative tests and projects at the end of the year.

The decision to move away from finals isn’t permanent, though. Worcester said Greenhill administrators would revisit the topic every year and determine the best course of action.

Here, the system includes finals roughly three weeks out for students in AP classes, a two-week period for the national AP Exam and regular final exam prep, an in-class English final essay the last three days of school and then four days of final exams for honors and on-level core classes.

Like Greenhill, St. Mark’s has also recently transitioned away from a trimester system, moving to a semester grading system, yet final exams have remained in the curriculum.

In fact, the school considered adding additional finals when adjusting the system, considering implementing midterms. After careful consideration, the decision was made to withhold additional testing to maximize valuable in-class learning time and further emphasize the importance of end-of-year final exams.

Ashton has noticed that one of the biggest benefits of the exams is the brotherhood finals time inspires in students.

“From talking with students, there’s this spirit of camaraderie around exams,” Ashton said. “There’s a generative collaborative spirit there that happens here, something about pulling together study groups. We’re all locked in. It’s exam time.”

Despite the fact that the school has dedicated a two-week period at the end of the school year for final exam preparation and testing, many students, specifically those in AP classes, are unable to utilize the time for its intended purpose.

In AP classes at the school, students often take their final exams, worth around 20 percent of their grade, in late April. In the first two weeks of May, these students take AP exams, and finally, at the end of May, after a designated reading day to catch up before testing, they take final exams in their other classes.

Most final exams last 1-2 hours, so for those

PHOTO / HILTON SAMPSON

THE FINAL STRETCH Seniors Nolan Marcus and Holden Brown prepare for their AP AB Calculus final in the Green Library’s study room.

Winn Science Center Lobby Hoffman Center Upstairs Lounge Green Library Study Tables

PHOTOS / MATTHEW HOFMANN

testing in late April, finals span over multiple class periods, lasting several days, all while other classes are still meeting and moving through their own curriculum, homework and assessments.

Since junior year is the first opportunity for students to take AP classes across several disciplines, many juniors enroll in several of the higher-level classes, adding extra rigor to their already busy year.

Upper School Counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu has seen that the final month-long stretch at the end of the year, specifically for juniors, filled with tests, finals and AP exams, is difficult.

“It is an overwhelming year,” Bonsu said. “I can empathize with that.”

So can history instructor Dr. Andrea Hamilton. By teaching AP United States History (APUSH) to upperclassmen, Hamilton can see firsthand the end-of-year stress juniors are subject to, especially before finals that are the weeks before AP exams in late April.

“I think finals are designed to be a time when students can reflect on their entire course without having to deal with the daily assignments and routine of class,” Hamilton said, “so generally finals, as we do at St Mark’s, are set aside at a time period where you don’t have any other assignments. All school activities are over with, so you can just concentrate on taking that test and concluding the class.”

Hamilton knows that end-of-year activities and stress extend far beyond the classroom. It extends

to the playing fields, performance halls, art studios, and throwing finals into the mix before these activities conclude makes a student’s end-of-year schedule difficult.

“It’s really rough on them,” Hamilton said.

Junior David Gershenson is currently enrolled in 4 AP classes. Having already taken final exams in AP Physics 1 with more still to come, Gershenson feels the academic pressure and redundancy of the current final exams model.

While Gershenson does recognize the importance of final exams, in certain instances concerning for AP classes, he doesn’t see the additional benefits.

Since finals in several AP classes are based on the format of AP exams, Gershenson feels as if he is preparing for double the amount of exams in the same span of time.

“It feels really easy to lose a grade that you have (in a class) through finals, and it’s a lot harder to build your grade up with a final, so it always stresses me out,” Gershenson said.

Bonsu recognizes this difficulty, but even with the added stress of junior year, especially with final exams and AP tests taking place from late April to the end of May, she believes final exams are still a valuable assessment of a student’s proficiency in a subject.

Working throughout the year to keep grades within a targeted range, Bonsu knows students can put themselves in a good spot to take finals with a reasonable “grade cushion,” putting students on a path to achieving their ultimate grade goal in each of their classes.

“The GPA is, let’s be honest, it’s a ticket,” Bonsu said, “and you want the shiniest ticket.”

Yet Bonsu cannot negate the school’s emphasis on promoting the principle of learning for the sake of learning, unlocking a student’s inner desire to learn.

“We’ve got to support you guys in being honest with you and letting you know that we give you two competing messages,” Bonsu said. “We tell you guys to learn for the sake of learning. ‘Don’t worry about grades,’ but then you get a GPA.”

However, with constant effort in the classroom and an insatiable love of learning, Bonsu believes it is possible to achieve both goals at the same time.

“You’re not going to have someone honestly achieve the learning goal and not get the grade goal,” Bonsu said, “and you’re not going to get someone who achieved the grade goal if they ha -

reached the learning goal. You can’t have one without the other.”

STUDENT STUDY PERSPECTIVES

“I’m talking and meeting with my teachers and I have been doing my big math review. For the other classes, its more on-your-own studying so I have been doing that.”

“I have been meeting a lot more with my teachers while wrapping up my final tests. I’ve been doing my review packets. I’m trying my best to get ahead on my work.”

“For AP’s, I am watching a lot of videos online, for example, Heimler’s History. For other finals, just reworking my past tests and homework has helped me prepare.”

“I am definitely studying for math because I worked really hard during the first semester to get my math grade the highest its ever been. That’s the only final I have though.”

ven’t

Manning Trubey Freshman

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

BURNT OUT Freshman Alex White during a stressful study sessions in the Green Library.

PHOTO / HILTON SAMPSON BACK TO THE BOOKS In preperation for final exams, students often turn to their textbooks to reacquaint themselves with subject matter.

Matei Oprea Sophomore

Akul Mittal Junior

Hayden Meyers Senior

End of an era: Northcut says goodbye after 37 years

After serving the school in a variety of capacities, Environmental Science Instructor Dan Northcut will step down from teaching at the end of the school year. He plans on going to East Texas to work on family land with his son, who will be graduating from UC Davis this year.

By Lawrence Gardener

If there is one word to describe Dan Northcut ’81, it’s passion.

Whether it’s teaching earth sciences, taking care of the greenhouse or leading the gardening club; Dan Northcut goes all in.

For the past 37 years, Northcut has stood as an example of what it means to not only be a great teacher but a great leader and Marksman.

Though Northcut is retiring at the end of this year, his legacy will continue to live on for years to come.

One testament to Northcut’s extraordinary longevity is his teaching across generations. In fact, this year Northcut is teaching senior Benjamin Erwin, the son of Johnathan Erwin whom Northcut taught in his first year at the school.

“It’s an incredible coincidence,” Northcut said. “When you achieve 30 plus years of teaching you start getting your old students’ kids and it’s fun. It automatically gives you and the student a bit of a bond.”

This bond extends beyond the teacher and student. For Benjamin Erwin, having a teacher who once taught his father has given him and his dad a chance to forge a deeper connection.

“It’s a very cool experience,” Benjamin Erwin said. “It’s a neat way in which (my dad and I) can talk about how St. Mark’s has changed, but also how things have stayed the same. For example, Mr. Northcut — I’ll go home and tell him a Mr. Northcut story, and he would say something like ‘He’s still doing that? That’s awesome.’”

Throughout his time here, Northcut has involved himself in various parts of campus. Even before he began teaching at the school, Northcut had already become an integral part of the community.

“My sophomore year I started working in the clerical office,” Northcut said. “Then, I worked in the janitorial office after school for a long time. In the summer, I also worked different jobs here, and I went on Pecos trips throughout my college years.”

”IT'S A NEAT WAY IN WHICH MY DAD AND I CAN TALK ABOUT HOW ST. MARK'S HAS CHANGED, BUT ALSO HOW THINGS HAVE STAYED THE SAME. FOR EXAMPLE, MR. NORTHCUT — I'LL GO HOME AND TELL HIM A MR. NORTHCUT STORY, AND HE WOULD SAY SOMETHING LIKE, ’HE’S STILL DOING THAT? THAT'S AWESOME.”

- SENIOR BENJAMIN ERWIN

Despite his many years working at the school, Northcut's first hands-on experience with students was just down the road as the fencing coach for Episcopal School of Dallas. While he was grateful to ESD for offering him his first real opportunity, his heart remained with the walls of his alma mater.

“I was already involved in our wilderness program for several years when I was an alum,” Northcut said. “I wanted to come back and it was really a natural fit.”

Although the position seemed to be the perfect fit, Mr. Northcut quickly discovered that it also came with a significant amount of pressure. He soon realized that teaching required much more energy than he had initially anticipated.

“I was busy all the time,” Northcut said. “I was in the classroom, going on Middle School campouts and coaching both Middle and Upper School fencing. I

would come to school in the dark and go home in the dark. It was an all-consuming job.”

In his early years, Northcut quickly came to understand that for nine months of the year, his life was dominated by his job. Teaching became more than just a profession. It became a way of life.

“You have a responsibility to be your very best for the students,” Northcut said. “You have to be prepared and on time every day. There is no leeway. I’ll have friends come in to take over my classes as guest speakers and by the end of the day, they are exhausted.”

While Northcut has continued to put his full effort into teaching and mentoring his students, the mentorship has not been one-sided. Northcut has also learned many valuable lessons from his students as well.

“One thing about teaching at St. Mark’s is that we have very smart kids,” Northcut said. “There are so many different personalities and certain ways that kids will approach their work. Early on, I used to have a set notion of this kid is extra smart and this kid is a certain way. Sometimes you would get students early on and wonder if he’s going to make it. Then you have them three years later and things have clicked and he’s moving. It happened like that more times than not.”

This exchange of lessons is what Northcut cherishes most about his job. As he looks forward to new opportunities, he knows he will deeply miss the daily interactions with his students.

“That is the joy of teaching,” Northcut said. “Part of the joy is really seeing them understand what you are trying to teach and the other part is having daily conversations and learning more about each student that walks these halls.”

A GREEN GREENHOUSE Northcut poses for a photo with Latundan bananas, also known as Apple Bananas, in the greenhouse.

PHOTO / NOAH CATHEY

Johnson to retire after half century of service

After a career full of achievments and the longest tenure at the school, Johnson reminices on her most memorable and cherished memories at the school.

By Eric Yi

Throughout her time at the school, Marietta Johnson has learned thousands of names.

In addition to the 50 years she has spent at the school, the dedication to learn every name truly displays her genuine connection to the school.

“I was a part of the school in a way before (becoming an employee) because I lived close to the school,” Johnson said. “When I was a kid, I would crawl up on the top floor of a two-story house, look across the fields and there would be St. Mark’s and Davis Hall. So from when I was little, I knew where (St. Mark’s) was and what it was.”

Although she has been at the school for half a century, Johnson still remembers her first year of teaching.

“When I first came as an employee, I was a fifth grade math teacher,” Johnson said. “At the time we had three sections of fifth grade and I taught all three of them.”

Even through the hardship that COVID-19 brought to the school, Johnson looks back at those years in a positive light.

“This is going to sound funny, but one of the most memorable moments (in my career) was the year that I took over the study hall for all of Middle School during the year of COVID. I had a study hall every day, and there were other teachers that were there and we as-

signed seats.”

After this school year, Johnson plans on continuing to work hard for her family.

“My real challenge is that my sonin-law has advanced Alzheimer’s and now he has to have someone with him at all times. I work with him a little bit in the mornings, but this year, I will be really mostly taking care of him for the next half year.”

”I LOVE THE SCHOOL. I LOVE ITS GOALS FOR EXCELLENCE. IT'S A PLACE WHERE I'VE ALWAYS FELT LIKE BOTH THE FACULTY AND THE KIDS AND FAMILIES HERE HAD MY BACK."

- MARIETTA JOHNSON

Throughout her time here, Johnson’s view on the school has not changed. If anything, it has only gotten better.

“I love the school,” Johnson said. “I love its goals for excellence, but there's more to St Mark’s than just being good academically," Johnson said. “It’s to work with the entire boy and for us to work within the community and work with each other. It’s a place where I’ve always felt like both the faculty and the kids and families here had my back.”

RETIRING FACULTY & STAFF SHARE FINAL REMARKS

Kay Carrio

Rick Cerovsky Director of Media Services

Carrio has taught for 47 years, and spent 35 years here after spending 10 years teaching at Highland Park High School.

“I have five grandchildren, and I’m going to spend lots of time with them. Maybe after four or five months, I might put my name on the sub list and come back and sub every now and then.”

Cerovsky has been at the school for 15 years. Between high school and college, he served in the military.

“I had already set a goal for myself to retire at 65, so that while I was still in good health, I'm able to do some of the things that I want to do after I retire such as travel and spend more time with my family and grandsons.”

Kinkead has taught for 41 years, six in Dallas ISD and 35 years here.

”I get to work with all of the grades in the Lower School. It’s very different teaching first graders than it is teaching fourth graders and its really enjoyable to me to work with all four of the grades.”

Hall has been teaching piano for 21 years at the school.

“You boys are amazing. Everybody’s perfectly behaved and extremely intelligent, but just good kids and you work hard. There are a lot of days where you could say ‘I’m too sick to go to school today’, even if you aren’t sick. You work so hard.”

After graduating from the school in 1981, Northcut returned just a few short years later and has stayed ever since.

”That is the joy of teaching. Part of the joy is really seeing them understand what you are trying to teach and the other part is having daily conversations and learning more about each student that walks these halls.”

Westbrook has been at the school for 23 years. The first 21 years were spent as the journalism adviser.

”The first thing that comes to my mind is the sense of community here. You feel supported by everyone. The boys are amazing, bright and engaged from an instructional standpoint. I felt like all I did was open the door.”

Johnson has been at the school for 50 years. She has the longest tenure of any teacher in school history.

”I've been through some tough times in these 50 years. Most everybody goes through tough times. But I've always felt the support and love of the St. Mark's faculty.”

First-Grade Teacher

Barbara Kinkead Lower School Librarian

Sandy Hall Piano Teacher

Dan Northcut '81 Director of Environmental Studies

Marietta Johnson Teacher

PHOTO / DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

50 years Johnson sits at a dedication service for all new retirees

Ray Westbrook Director of Communications

Alum receives award for work fighting human trafficking

Matt Osborne ‘90 received the second Lee Smith ‘65 Courage and Honor Award for his work fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation while working with the CIA and his organization, Operation Undergound Railroad.

By Eric Yi and Joshua Goforth

Working across the globe, Operation Underground Railroad has one mission: to lead the fight against child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Its Global Operations Ambassador, Matt Osborne ‘90, is one fighter for the cause.

After receiving his master’s degree in International Policy, Osborne joined the CIA and later the US Department of State from 2002 to 2014. There, he learned about human trafficking from both the policy side and from undercover operations.

After a long tenure with the government, Osborne learned about Operation Underground Railroad in early 2014. Osborne was asked to write a government report grading other countries’ protection of sex trafficking victims, learning of the true magnitude of the trafficking issue.

“My eyes were opened.” Osborne said. “This is trafficking—this isn’t prostitution. These are victims— these aren’t volunteers. I had no idea.”

Through the Underground Railroad, Osborne has helped curb human trafficking worldwide.

“It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made,” Osborne said. “It is an opportunity to have a mission and a calling.”

While working with the organization, Osborne has had the opportunity to travel across the world, engaging with local government and law enforcement to successfully complete operations.

“I worked accounts such as China, Iraq and terrorism, but with Operation Underground Railroad, I’ve led about 27 missions,” Osborne said. “In some, I was boots on the ground doing undercover negotiation across the table with traffickers. In others, I was in the control room or command center.”

Although he has since stepped down from undercover missions at Operation Underground Railroad, Osborne still continues to fight against human trafficking in many ways. He believes spreading awareness is the next best thing.

“I’VE NOTICED THAT MOST OF THE SERIOUS PROBLEMS IN THIS WORLD ARE CAUSED BY MEN. WE NEED GOOD MEN LIKE ST. MARK’S IS PRODUCING. I LOVE WHAT I’M SEEING COMING OUT OF ST. MARK’S.”

- Matt Osborne ‘90

“I don’t see myself ever stopping this fight as long as I’m working in some capacity, because now I want to turn my attention to focusing on demand and reaching young men,” Osborne said. “That’s why I love talking to great schools.”

But, Osborne’s work isn’t just self-fulfilling. He has gained praise and recognition around the country for his bravery in such a dangerous and serious field. Af-

Spring brings plethora of activity to the Quad

By Rishik Kapoor

The Perot Quadrangle, commonly referred to as “the Quad”, is a central area of student activity, whether it is for a quick game of football during lunch or for the annual senior prank.

Spikeball is the main attraction in the Quad, and because games are so fast paced, students can play a few quick rounds during lunch or free periods.

Spikeball’s popularity has increased dramatically since last spring, and junior Wyatt Loehr has started a tournament for Upper School students. He

sent out a Google Form to Upper School students by email, and he got 17 teams of two players to sign up. Loehr believes that Spikeball opens up many opportunities for students to meet new people.

“You get to meet with people that you wouldn’t usually meet,” Loehr said. “When I was younger, I played with juniors and seniors that I had never talked with before.”

These activities are not just limited to the Upper School.

Seventh-grader Pedro Bajon-Falcao can often be seen playing soccer before school, during lunch and

ter more than two decades of working against human trafficking, Osborne was recently chosen to receive the second ever Lee S. Smith ‘65 Courage & Honor Award, which seeks to recognize alumni who elevate humanity through positive impacts in the world. Last year, the recipient was Dr. David Vanderpool ‘78, who administered aid in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

“I’m so grateful to the selection committee for seeing me fit to have this award,” Osborne said. “I pledge to do all I can to raise the bar in my own life to reach Lee Smith and David Vanderpol and what they represent.”

Even though Osborne’s journey in Operation Underground Railroad has not been easy, he believes that his education here was essential to equip him with the fundamental skills he has used so often in his career.

“St. Mark’s gave me such a great education, preparing me on the academic side, the athletic side and social, extracurricular activity side,” Osborne said. “So much so that college was much easier than St. Mark’s, and I was grateful for my St. Mark’s training.”

In recent years, Osborne has returned to the school multiple times to talk with students and alumni alike, as he believes that spreading awareness early is crucial in stopping the spread of human trafficking.

“I’ve noticed that most of the serious problems in this world are caused by men. We need good men like St. Mark’s is producing. We need Marksmen to step up in local, state, federal and international organizations to be those leaders that will help us address some of these most serious problems, and I love what I’m seeing coming out of St. Mark’s.”

on his free periods on the Quad.

“My friends and I play soccer together, and it helps improve our friendship,” Bajon-Falcao said. Loehr feels that the Quad is something that is unique to St. Mark’s, and that it provides students with a unique opportunity to connect with one another.

“The Quad is one of the best things about St. Mark’s,” Loehr said. “Other schools don’t really have a social area like we do. It’s a really important part of St. Mark’s and its culture and community.”

OPERATION Osborne works with local police during one of his missions.

PHOTOS / COURTESY MATT OSBORNE

PATRIOT Osborne holds his certifcate after graduating from his CIA course.

LEADING THE WAY Osborne greets President Joseph Biden during his tenure at the CIA.

Seniors and buddies to visit Dallas Zoo May 20

Senior class sponsor Bryan Boucher explains the value of the longstanding tradition of seniors visiting the Dallas Zoo with their senior buddies, while 12-year Marksman Preston Ghafar recounts his own experience visiting zoo as a first-grader.

By Shiv Bandhari

It’s been 12 years since senior Preston Ghafar went to the Dallas Zoo with his senior buddy. 12 years since his senior buddy bought him a blue snake plushie from the gift shop. And 12 years since his grandmother, terrified by the stuffed animal, threw it in the trash.

On May 20, nearly 12 years later, Ghafar will find himself back at the Dallas Zoo for the annual senior and first grader zoo trip. Held every year since before Ghafar can remember, the trip is a school tradition that will continue long after he is gone.

But for many, the trip is more than just a tradition. The trip isn’t just another random excursion on a humid May afternoon done for the sake of tradition; instead, it’s the last chance for first-graders and seniors to connect with and say goodbye to their buddies before they leave.

“The one thing I remember with my senior buddy was that zoo trip with him,” Ghafar said. “This year has been something special. You used to be that buddy that went on (a senior’s) shoulders, but now you’re the one carrying him.”

Having first-hand experience, Head of Lower School Marion Glorioso-Kirby understands the importance of the senior buddy program, and she believes that its value stretches beyond just St. Mark’s.

“I’ve got two Lower School boys myself, and their relationship with their senior buddy matters so much,” Glorioso-Kirby said. “It helps (the lower schoolers) feel like they’ve got a friendwho they can not only look up to but can also trust, and (the

seniors) get a lot out of having a connection with someone younger. That’s a life skill for a senior, and it’s a relationship that matters for both the little guy and the big guy.”

Moreover, senior class sponsor Bryan Boucher believes that the close relationships enables the seniors to leave a legacy that will last long after they’re gone.

“This is that opportunity for the seniors to really have a tangible effect on someone that’s going to be here for a long time,” Boucher said. “You can talk to many seniors who have been here since first grade, and they can tell you who their senior buddy was when they were in the first grade twelve years ago so that clearly had some impact on them.”

Seniors often go out of their way to spend time with their little buddies and make an effort to connect with them during their busy schedules, a notion that Boucher believes highlights the unique connection that is formed.

“These seniors have been really excited to see and engage in activities with their lower school buddies, which doesn’t happen every year,” Boucher said. “We’ve had a lot of seniors this year that have individually spent time with the lower school buddies, and that means the world to a second grader. I’ll watch the seniors interact with their lower buddies and talk to them after, and they’ll have a great, big smile on their face. I think it’s a really important part of being a blue shirt, regardless of whether you went to Lower School here.”

Ghafar has spent a portion of his hard-to-find downtime with his little buddy, and he’s come to find that his little buddy has become more than

SENIORS ANTICIPATE TIME WITH THEIR BUDDIES

“The opportunity to go to the zoo, in and of itself, is cool. It’s just another one of those traditions where it’s really cool when it comes full circle. You really get to hang out with your buddies and spend more quality time with them.”

“I just remember being there with all my buddies too. And all his buddies were there as well. It was a really fun time. I specifically remember him getting me a stuffed animal of a lion when we were in the gift shop. That was really cool.”

just another kid at St. Mark’s: he’s become like family.

“We made the trip to go see (my buddy’s) championship baseball game,” Ghafar said. “Even though they lost, we were just glad to be there with them and cheer them on, and you could just see their faces smile. He feels like a little brother, and it just felt like the right thing to do — to be there for him and cheer him on.”

Boucher believes that through engaging with and caring for a Lower School buddy, seniors learn what it’s like to truly embody manhood, a virtue that’s often praised at St. Mark’s.

“When seniors can’t be at an event, the level that they’ll go to to make sure their buddy is cared for is really great to see,” Boucher said. “The line we often say around here is that boys are cared for and men care for others, and that’s a great example of boys becoming men.”

In what will seem like an instant, Ghafar, along with his 95 peers who make up the class of 2024, will hang up their blue shirts in exchange for white tuxedos for Commencement.

And, although they may no longer play football on the quad or lead pep rallies, they will live on through those they cared about and those they led as good men.

“It’s a whole brotherhood here,” Ghafar said. “Twelve years seems like so long ago, but it feels like yesterday. My time here is almost over, so being able to pass on a little experience to (my buddy) and help him on his way makes me feel good.”

“For me, it’s about completing the cycle. I got to go on this trip as a little buddy, and now I get to take my little buddy on it. It’s like a culminating event, where we come together one last time before we leave.”

A TRIP TO REMEMBER Seniors from the class of 2023 eat lunch alongside their first grade senior buddies at the Dalas Zoo.

PHOTO / COURTESY DAVE CARDEN

Grayson Redmond Senior

Raja Mehendale Senior

Henry Hoak Senior

Stunt-ing success: “The Fall Guy” lands in theaters May 3

Cam Hurley Guest Writer

Stunt workers have never quite gotten their time to shine. All too often relegated to an afterthought, their contributions to film as a whole are too commonly overlooked and underappreciated. “The Fall Guy”, directed by David Leitch (“Bullet Train”, “Deadpool 2”) and starring Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”, “La La Land”) and Emily Blunt (“A Quiet Place”, “Oppenheimer”), attempts to finally shine a spotlight on these workers by centering an action-mystery movie around them, largely to successful results. As a whole, the film places fun on a pedestal, sometimes to its own detriment, not attempting to have any (if at all) grand social commentary, but rather just two hours of pure, albeit sometimes convoluted, escapism.

The film follows down-on-his luck stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling), who must return to the world of stunting he once left behind when the star of his crush Jodie (Blunt)’s film goes missing. Technically a reboot of the 1981 TV Series of the same name, the film strikes out on its own, establishing a relatively fresh story riddled with familiar beats. The script, written by screenwriter Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3”), is largely fun-focused, staying light and airy until, in true David Leitch fashion, it needlessly overcomplicates itself only to end with a knockout final action sequence. The convoluted nature of the climax strains to keep up with the stunts; sometimes less plot is more. In the end, there are just too many moving pieces for Leitch to satisfyingly keep up with. But luckily, the main attraction of the stunts does not disappoint at all. The film has numerous over-the-top sequences of nonstop action; one scene even sets the world record for most car cannon rolls on camera. The action comes frequently enough to ease concerns over the story, as it's just so much fun to watch. One standout sequence, in which Gosling is dragged behind a car through the streets of Sydney, intercut with Blunt in a karaoke bar, is the kind of energetic fun that I haven’t seen in movie theaters for a while.

Leitch’s directing is likely his career best. Starting out in the industry as Brad Pitt’s stuntman before scaling his way up the ladder to be a director on movies like John Wick (which he co-directed) and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Leitch has come into his own, establishing an energetic style that is engaging enough to keep his audience entertained. The movie is paced well, never really dragging and a testament to his direction.

Gosling is fun in the role, enjoying his post-Barbie boost with effortless charm, but it is anytime he and Blunt are on screen together when the film truly soars. The chemistry between the pair is electric from the first scene, and every time they are separated the film can’t help but

feel it. Blunt gives a great performance, showing off her great comedic timing especially in one stand-out scene in which she attempts to publicly solve her and Gosling’s relationship troubles on-set. The supporting cast does an admirable job; Aaron Taylor Johnson (“Bullet Train”) is clearly having a lot of fun in his role as the missing movie star Gosling must search for. On the other hand, Winston Duke (“Black Panther”) and Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”), feel criminally under-utilized, especially Hsu, who is never quite given anything substantial to do.

Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”) plays a shadier character than in the show, chewing her scenery as much as she can. Her wig, likely there to differentiate her from her Lasso character, would not be missed if it disappeared, as it can end up being needlessly distracting from an otherwise good performance.

Ultimately, the movie accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: escapism. The jokes are funny, the stunts are great, and it’s not a bad way to spend two hours. As long as you don’t go in expecting the next best picture winner, you’ll have fun.

SUMMER 2024'S MOST ANTICIPATED MOVIES

Taylor Swift’s new album provides solid follow up

Vikram

Singh Reviews Writer

Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” takes listeners on a profound journey through emotional turmoil, showcasing her evolution as a songwriter. Each track immerses the audience in Swift’s inner world, where pain and introspection reign supreme, weaving a tapestry of raw vulnerability and poignant storytelling.

Something to note about this album, is typically Swift releases her music about two years apart, however she broke the long standing tradition she has kept up for much of her career with this album. Her most recent release before this album was “1989 Taylor’s version”, however that was released less than a year prior to this new piece of work.

Many fans speculate this is the result of much media attention and developments in her romantic life, more specifically involvement with her newest partner Travis Kelce.

Kicking off with the vibrant tones of “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, the album establishes a dynamic atmosphere for delving into themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. Swift’s lyrics vividly portray shattered dreams and wistful longing, resonating deeply with her audience. Tracks like “Albatross” and “So Long London” explore the complexities of fractured relationships, with Swift’s emotive vocals imbuing every word with authenticity.

Standout ballad “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” showcases Swift’s mastery in capturing the subtleties of human emotion. Her vocals, accompanied by understated instrumentation, gracefully navigate themes of yearning and solitude.

However, amidst its lyrical depth, “The Tortured Poets Department” occasionally falters in its production, feeling somewhat formulaic and lacking the inventive spark of Swift’s earlier works. Tracks like “I Can Fix Him” lean into clichéd musical motifs, failing to leave a lasting impression and contributing to a sense of repetition throughout the album.

Furthermore, despite its extensive tracklist, the album falls short in delivering a diverse sonic experience, making a complete listen-through somewhat monotonous.

Nonetheless, the album remains a notable addition to Swift’s repertoire, showcasing her growth as both a storyteller and musician. While it may not reach the heights of her previous releases, its emotional resonance will undoubtedly attract new listeners, while longtime fans will appreciate its introspective themes and impassioned lyricism.

In summary, “The Tortured Poets Department” earns a commendable 7.5 rating overall, thanks to its genuine performances and heartfelt lyrics. Despite its shortcomings, it offers a compelling listening experience for those seeking authentic storytelling and memorable melodies.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

ReMarker staff members pick must-see upcoming films students should look for this summer

Release date: July 19

Synopsis: Serving as a sequel to the 1996 movie Twister, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell star in this storm-chasing thriller.

Release date: July 26

Synopsis: Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool character leaps headfirst into the Marvel universe, joined on-screen by Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.

Release date: May 24

Synopsis: Anya Taylor-Joy takes on the role of Imperator Furiosa in this prequel to the Mad Max series. Chris Hemsworth also joins her on screen.

Student Newspaper of

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Editor-in-Chief Hilton Sampson

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Focus Editors

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SECTION EDITORS

Issues

Kevin Ho, Andrew Ye

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Doan Nguyen, Kayden Zhong

Life

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Adviser Jenny Dial Creech

Headmaster David Dini

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The ReMarker is intended for the students, faculty, staff and alumni community of St. Mark’s School of Texas. Press run is 4,000 copies, with more than 2,600 of those mailed out to alumni, courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions.

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Editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board and are not necessarily those of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff. All personal opinion columns, bylined with the writer’s name and photo, represent the views of that writer only and not necessarily those of the ReMarker, Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff.

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STAFF EDITORIAL

How campus protests are transforming college decisions

As universities across the country deal with raging protests, many face controversy, raising questions for future college applicants.

Rows of tents line the lawn of Columbia University as the dim flicker of camping lanterns cast shadows on the ground. Late at night, the city noise of Manhattan is drowned out by the voices of hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters both students and outsiders alike.

At first daylight, frustration is palpable amongst the group as people wearing masks hold up signs and chant in protest. For protesters, this is a fight for multiple goals. For bystanders, this is an alarming presence that raises safety concerns and questions about the school’s leadership.

Campus protests aren’t going away. As colleges across the country attempt to manage increasing tensions between competing ideologies, students face the heightened challenge of choosing their best-fit college against this new backdrop.

Last fall, as high school seniors began choosing colleges, factors such as size, location, academics and extracurriculars were key components of the decision process. Now, as current juniors begin the same application process next fall, the widespread protests beg the question are campus protests becoming part of the new criteria for choosing a college?

For many applicants, constant protests are a factor that can make a school less appealing. Schools such as University of Southern California canceled their schoolwide commencement ceremonies due to safety measures. At Columbia, students were forced to move out of their dorms due to vandalism during the

protests. At UT Austin, police in riot gear lined the streets as protesters marched, arresting more than 100 people and highlighting the ambiguity between the boundaries of civil disobedience, university policy and free speech.

By trying to appeal to both sides through failing to clarify campus policies around public protest, universities have unintentionally alienated everyone. This lack of clarity by many colleges, along with political motives from state officials, creates an unhealthy environment for everyone protesters and non-protesters alike.

And while measures are being taken to keep protests under control, right now, whether certain protests should or should not be allowed feels like an open question.

These protests are happening across a wide variety of schools small and large, public and private regardless of geopolitical landscape. Although protests may be small in size, with social media, all it takes is one viral TikTok video to have the same impact as having an entire news crew present. This increased attention raises conflicts on college campuses across the U.S. for current and future students.

So, how do these protest affect how students decide where they go to college?

This conflict will not be resolved when current high school seniors start their fall semesters. Observing how colleges manage student protests now could be a proxy for students deciding whether to attend a school. College prospects have to decide if they are okay with a school

where protests are a central part of the student experience or even encouraged by faculty. They need to choose whether they wish to participate either actively or passively in these kinds of protests. College is a place where your point of view should be challenged, but the looming concern is what that looks like conversations in the classroom, casual conversations outside of the classroom, or even protests.

Everyone imagines their dream college on an ideal, picturesque day, but never on its worst day. Could students see themselves there even if it is not the picture they imagined?

With protests ensuing during learning times, students may feel annoyed by the conflict or encouraged to join.

For a student to determine if they truly want to be on a campus in the future, they need to first visualize themselves being there right now.

The best way to facilitate that answer is for students to ask themselves what matters to them. As colleges handle the situations differently, it reflects the values of the school and what they prioritize for their students.

How a college administration engages with its student protesters can affect how freedom of expression and even campus safety are viewed. Finally, students need to truly understand what is happening on a campus and what they are actually protesting.

All these factors could attract or repel students from a certain school, adding a dimension to the way we look at the college application process and higher education.

CAMPUS CONFLICT Pro-Palestine banners hang from clothesline surrounding the protesters’ encampment on the Columbia University lawn.

PHOTO / CREATIVE COMMONS

Friday, May 17, 2024

R e M a R ke R

Thank you, seniors

Matthew Hofmann Managing Editor

I barely heard the final whistle of the State Quarter Finals as it screeched out across the field. In a close-fought match versus Southern Preparatory Conference opponent St. John’s, we lost 6-5.

Our season was done.

But the emotions of the loss didn’t fully hit me until after taking my gear off. When we sat down at the end of the track as the next game’s teams warmed up on the field, I looked around at the faces of my teammates.

Our coaches stood in front of us enveloping us with encouragement and praise for our efforts. They highlighted good plays. They highlighted the intensity. They thanked us for a great season. And they repeated one thing at the end of each of their speeches:

Thank you, Seniors.

As I reflect on our season, and even broader, my time at the school, the impact that senior leadership has had on me cannot be understated. Time and time again, seniors have demonstrated what it means to be a Marksman.

“I LEARNED SPEECH SKILLS FROM SENIORS. I LEARNED HOW TO RUN ASSEMBIES. I LEARNED HOW TO TACKLE UNFAMILIAR ISSUES WITH TENACITY. I LEARNED TO LISTEN TO HEAR, NOT TO RESPOND.”

-Matthew Hofmann

In Middle School, I would walk across the quad and see seniors playing frisbee games together. Before I knew it, I was included in the games, my friends and I joining sides and playing with the Upperclassmen.

I remember each senior “prank” — glorified carnival days — where seniors would be all over campus playing games with the younger kids. Seniors would sit in the dunk tank chair while everyone else tried to hit the target to dunk them, or would be handing out the cotton candy to the younger students.

In all of these moments, I felt includ-

ed in a large community, and for that I am grateful.

When I think back on my athletic career at the school, specifically the lacrosse team, senior leadership is evident again. Every day, seniors would set the tone for practice, hyping us in a pregame huddle, or encouraging us after a loss.

In these practices, these games, in good or bad times, the seniors demonstrated the importance of grit and determination, inspiring the rest of the team. And this encouragement and leadership is not unique to one school team.

The importance of continuing to grind and work hard when things are bad or even when things are good is something that seniors have instilled within me, and for that I am grateful.

When I reflect on my time on the Student Council or the Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Council, again, senior leadership is everywhere. As a freshman on the Student Council, the seniors took me under their wing to teach me the basics of planning grade events. As a sophomore, it turned to a more community-wide approach. As a junior, even wider with McDonald’s week.

I learned public speaking skills from seniors. I learned how to run assemblies. I learned how to tackle unfamiliar issues with tenacity. I learned to listen to hear, not to respond. I learned how to effectively coordinate many relay races.

All of these little examples are things taught by seniors. So for this leadership and guidance, know that I am grateful.

Seniors, as you take your next steps in your life, wherever that may be, know that you have demonstrated an incredible example of what it means to be a Marksman and have left big shoes to fill for every person on campus.

I feel confident in speaking for most students in saying that seniors have left a mark on them somehow, whether through a simple conversation or a deep friendship that formed. These experiences are a testament to the leadership the school wants us to embody.

And to the Class of 2025, it is finally our turn. We have roughly one year until we hear our names called out as we cross the graduation stage. Just one year. That one year will go by quickly.

So my mission for us is that we fulfill a legacy similar to the seniors that have come before us. Our time to directly impact the school community is finite. The opportunity to inspire the next generations of Marksmen is finite. So take charge of it now.

Because before we know it, it will be too late.

Report Card

End of School Festivities

From seniors playing kickball games in the quad to freshmen playing Spikeball, energy is high.

Chapel Talks

As the year comes to a close, many seniors are giving their final remarks and advice to younger students during chapel time.

Blue and Gold Week

Though there was plenty of school spirit and fun competitions, the energy was possibly a bit too high as a unknown group of students burned the blue team flag.

Littering and vandalism are defacing our campus and school image

Arjun Poi Focus Editor

Seemingly innocent drawings and shapes etched into the wood of Harkness tables. Stepped-on Cheez-It crumbs left all over the floor in the Commons after snacks are given out after school. Photos of a burning blue flag meant to promote school spirit, circulated across school-wide group chats.

Students should have the basic decency to realize that if they wouldn’t burn a tablecloth in their house or draw on their dining table, they shouldn’t do something similar at school. Most students understand this. When photos of the burning blue team flag were spread during Blue and Gold Week, it was clear that several Marksmen didn’t find the misguided attempt of a joke funny. Students acknowledged that burning the flag was reckless and hurt the spirit of pride that the Student Council had worked hard to foster.

Yet, the select group of students who lack the consideration to respect things that are not theirs are a blight on the student population, doing nothing more than purporting the negative stereotype that Marksmen are spoiled. Being who we are, there will always be organizations that look to tarnish the school’s reputation. As responsible Marksmen, it’s our job to prove these groups wrong.

Even if drawings on tables are done with no malicious intent, they display a lack of accountability among Marksmen. Before the school hosted the International Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC) conference in the summer of 2022, the wooden surfaces of certain Harkness tables had to be completely scraped off in an attempt to hide the extensive damage done by students, costing the school thousands of dollars. Damaging school property and a general

disregard for overall cleanliness has become a collective issue that diminishes the school’s reputation.

Students should keep in mind that when they drop something and fail to pick it up, someone else has to take time out of their day to pick it up for them. Fulfilling the path to manhood consists of accomplishing the little things; notably, looking beyond oneself and considering the impact of their actions on their community and involvement.

As Marksmen, when we see others leave their plate behind on the lunch table or draw on property that isn’t theirs, we should hold them accountable for their actions by informing them of the consequences and discouraging such behavior. It’s due time that Marksmen hold themselves to a greater standard and form a culture of responsibility and accountability.

A REMARKABLE BOND Hofmann and fellow junior Hilton Sampson pose with seniors for an all-ReMarker photo.

PHOTOS / COURTESY MATTHEW HOFMANN

CAMARADERIE Hofmann enjoys a meal with the lacrosse team after a game.

EDITORIAL

Wash hands, wear mask, prevent illness

As the pressure to get good grades mounts during the spring and early summer months, many students sacrifice their personal health and go to school sick.

Every few months, a wave of sickness seems to pass through the school. Full classes of 15 students are cut in half, decreasing class productivity. Even worse, if the teacher gets sick, it can give rise to a chaotic class depending on the substitute, leading to students falling behind schedule and not sufficiently learning the material.

These schoolwide bugs are common after superspreader events like Homecoming, where hundreds of kids are packed together, face-to-face, in a space only twice as large as a classroom. Two days later, everyone is back at school with runny noses and bad coughs, saying, “Oh yeah, I’m sick” while spewing their germs all over each other. A few weeks later, kids who are still experiencing symptoms feel pressure to come to school for fear of getting behind on schoolwork or due to pressure from parents.

Without everyone healthy, our community cannot thrive. Homecomings and Winter Formals are simply the seeds that plant the sickness – the problem germinates when students inside the school spread their sickness to one another. By not staying cleanly, students not only get everyone around them sick but also subject others to long, tiring days of falling asleep in classes from having no energy.

While it’s uncommon to skip school because of a simple cold (and students definitely cannot afford to miss an entire week of classes), coming to school sick spreads the virus throughout the school and hurts the whole community. This creates a dilemma where students prioritize themselves and their work over others, often getting those around them sick at

EDITORIAL

the expense of continuing their daily lives. But to be honest, it is not much of a choice. Catching up from even a few days of work is like trying to dig yourself out of quicksand.

But what if there was a way to simply come to school and learn, all while keeping others safe? Though this problem is not unique to just our school, it can be easily prevented here with a few basic safety measures.

First, students need to wash their hands. If you take away one thing from this story, let it be this. The easiest way to limit the spread of germs is keeping yourself clean. The simple task might take 20 seconds out of your day but will go a long way to save you or others weeks of suffering from illness.

Secondly, students need to keep their areas clean. Not long ago, it was required to wipe down tables, desks and other surfaces after each class to prevent the spread of germs. However, nowadays, there appears to be a lack of concern for keeping one’s area clean. Many students tend to leave their workspaces dirtier than they found them, whether that be simply leaving a mess or sneezing on a table without wiping it off afterwards. This lack of cleanliness facilitates the spread of viruses, often leading to large groups of students getting sick. By wiping down surfaces and maintaining a clean environment, we can limit the spread of germs.

This responsibility does not lie solely on students, however. Just like students, teachers try not to miss days of teaching so that they do not fall behind, even if they’re sick.

Finally, the spread of sickness can be prevented

No prom necessary for Marksmen

In almost every high school movie or TV show, there’s a prom scene. It’s the one thing everyone looks forward to throughout the year. But we don’t have prom. We have Marksmen Ball, and that’s a good thing.

Earlier this year, I went to Ursuline Prom. It felt like I was reliving freshman year homecoming again. We went to our picture party, went to the venue, everyone ate dinner at the dance and then we “danced,” or as I would call it, stood around just listening to the DJ. It wasn’t unique. Honestly, it was a letdown.

That’s why the Marksmen Ball is such a good idea. Who cares about having, essentially, another homecoming at the end of your senior year. If you want to go to a prom and experience it, try to go to another school’s prom like Hockaday or Highland Park. There, you can see for yourself how it is just another dance.

As our school is such a unique place, we should have unique traditions. And we do —

with a simple, household item: the mask. Although it is reminiscent of a time when COVID was rampant and conversations could only be had five feet apart, it is necessary to keep our community safe.

Part of the problem is the stigma around the mask. People associate masks with sickness and will go to great lengths to stay as far away from a person with a mask. But when someone without a mask tells another person that they are sick to their face, they just shrug it off like it is nothing. People seem so unthreatened by the simple notion of being healthy, that they completely miss the whole point of a mask – a barrier made to protect everybody.

Sometimes, however, masks do not even represent sickness. People often jump to conclusions, assuming that an individual wearing a mask has to be sick. Many times, that individual is simply wearing a mask to protect themselves or others. Maybe, they are susceptible to sickness. Or, they have a family member who is susceptible to it. We often think so narrow-mindedly that we disregard the possibility that this individual is merely trying to preserve the health of the community.

Washing hands may seem like a waste of time for some. Wiping down surfaces is often seen as an excess step in one’s busy life. Masks are not necessarily viewed as being “cool,” and peers might even tease you about wearing one. However, all these things are crucial in ensuring the safety of everyone around us. If the main goal is to maintain a healthy, thriving community, let’s take the initiative to make these changes.

the Blue Shirt Day, senior buddies, and many more. Marksmen Ball is one of these traditions. No other school, at least that I know of, can say they have a dance like this. It’s like Pecos. Not everyone necessarily wants to go on the Pecos trip, but it’s an experience that all Marksmen and only Marksmen can relate to.

From my understanding of it, Marksmen Ball is where the yearbook is presented, the yearbook dedicatee is announced, families and dates of the seniors get together, eat food and just have fun. Because the families also come with the seniors it adds an aspect into it that I think the parents really appreciate.

I know parents want to spend time with their kids before they leave for college, but because so many other Marksmen and I are busy, we don’t always spend a lot of time with them. Marksman Ball is a great way for seniors to hang out with their parents amidst a busy school year and make some final memories of the school.

Not only is it a unique event for the students and a way for parents to hang out with their kids before they leave for college, but Marksmen Ball is also important to the yearbook dedicatee. In a recent interview with Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown, he told me his favorite honor that he has received at the school was the yearbook dedicatee. It was his favorite because the students picked it, and having an event where the dedicatee is honored in front of the seniors that picked them is truly special.

Now, some people might say they just want the normal high school experience, so they think we should have a prom. Well, I hate to break it to those people, but we aren’t a normal high school and we don’t need a normal high school experience.

Asher Babilla Guest Columnist

MASK AT SCHOOL When students are sick, they need to wear a mask in order to maintain the health and safety of the school.

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN STAFF

COMMENTARY

The expansion of women’s sport

Neil Yepuri Assignments Editor

What does excellence mean in sports?

To me, excellence commands attention.

It can turn an otherwise-entertaining spectacle into must-watch TV.

For the first time, there is true, widespread excellence on display in women’s basketball. It’s the reason I had to keep that national championship game on, even on a Sunday when I was behind on my work.

Now, to say that the players who came before this new generation were not great is incorrect and disrespectful to their contributions to the growth of the game. Pioneers like Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes, as well as generational superstars like Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, all deserve their praise.

But, it’s also perfectly fine to say that no single female basketball player has commanded the eye of the sports world like Caitlin Clark.

The newfound excellence that was created by consistent strong investment at youth levels is finally being realized in the rapidly growing popularity of the game.

This era of women’s basketball has the potential to be similar to the late 1970s and early 1980s in the men’s game. It has the role model. It has the fan hype, slowly building and surrounding the game, and even pulling in those who otherwise wouldn’t be watching sports. It’s engaging the seasoned fans and newcomers to the game alike.

That’s why Clark had unreal sums thrown at her for advertising and apparel rights - notably, millions more than she’ll likely ever make just playing the game of basketball.

ESPN Vice President of Production Patricia Lowry presented the phenomenon in women’s basketball not as a fluke, but as the start of a massive progression into the mainstream for the sport.

So far, she’s been proven right.

The best part is, it’s not just in basketball. Women’s soccer is reaching its highest level around the globe. The Olympics this summer will showcase the individual dominance of swimming stars like Katie Ledecky and new generational track phenoms from across the country.

At an all-boys school, we don’t often interact with these sports. However, I’d encourage us to sit back, grab our popcorn, and support these women who are reshaping the game.

It’s the changing face of sports and it’s happening right in front of our eyes.

A goal of giving

Through his 14-year soccer career, junior Dylan Taylor realized that not every youth athlete has the same means to compete. In an effort to close this inquiety, Taylor created PELOTA.

By Weston Chance and Emiliano Mayo

Lacing up his cleats, he felt thankful. Thankful to play the sport he loves. Thankful for his family and for his teammates. But looking around the bustling tournament grounds, he realized not everyone was so lucky.

Junior Dylan Taylor has played soccer all his life, and like many other Marksmen, he has never had to worry about being provided with the proper equipment to play. But through his many experiences in different leagues with different teams, Taylor realized that many players were lacking the proper equipment like cleats and shin guards. Seeking to help players like these, Taylor created PELOTA.

“PELOTA, which stands for Positively Enriching Lives of Tomorrow’s Athletes, is dedicated to furnishing sports gear and educational supplies to economically disadvantaged children,” Taylor said. “Named after the Spanish word for “ball”, PELOTA operates on the principle that fostering youth engagement in sports cultivates essential character traits such as leadership and teamwork.”

PELOTA tackles these objectives through three main methods: paid youth soccer camps, free youth soccer camps and charity drives.

“The paid camps use fees paid by participants to buy sports gear and school supplies for donation to charity,” Taylor said.

The paid camps were the first step for Taylor in kick starting PELOTA, as he needed to gain revenue to develop other branches of the organization. In Spring of 2023, Taylor began going door to door in an effort to locate potential clients for the paid camps. While it required some serious effort, Taylor eventually found a number of

interested parties, including multiple St. Mark’s Lower Schoolers. With the revenue from the paid camps, Taylor was able to begin running free camps.

“The free camps are run for kids who cannot afford to pay, and the participants are provided with equipment collected by PELOTA,” Taylor said.

While the camps are great for the personal interaction and coaching they provide, the charity drives play a huge role in collecting equipment to donate.

“I am currently on my second charity drive at my old middle school,” Taylor said. “We ask for any gently used sports euipment and any school supplies.”

“PELOTA WILL CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF THEIR LIVES BY OPENING THEIR EYES TO SPORT. SOCCER IS NOT ONLY INDIVIDUAL TALENT BUT TEAMWORK. ” Elizabeth Hill, Casaview PE Teacher

The items collected at drives and camps go to communities like Casaview Elementary School, a main beneficiary of PELOTA. Donations of soccer equipment, clothes and school supplies help to make students feel more comfortable and well-equipped for school. PELOTA has also provided items like toothbrushes and Christmas books. Casaview PE teacher Elizabeth Hill has witnessed first hand the joy the donations bring to her students.

“My students love getting the donations Dylan has delivered,” Hill said. “These things seem like a given in life, but to some of my students, this was a means to clean clothes and a way to feel proud of their appearance.”

Not only does PELOTA work to simply provide material goods for children,

but it also strives to promote positive character development.

“PELOTA will change the trajectory of their life by opening their eyes to sports,” Hill said. “Soccer is not only individual talent, but teamwork.”

Hill, like Taylor, believes that the impact of PELOTA could be what these kids need to bring a brighter future to their lives.

“He is out there making a difference and as long as he continues this journey, PELOTA will continue to change lives,” Hill said.

Aside from schools like Casaview Elementary, PELOTA has also worked with charities like the Chosen Children Village Foundation and St. Vincent de Paul.

Because of his Filipino heritage, Taylor is especially passionate about his work with the Chosen Children Village Foundation, an organization in the Philippines that provides mentally or physically disabled children who were abandoned with a home for life. PELOTA has shipped school supplies and various other items to the village to benefit its schooling system.

While PELOTA is already involved with a lot of different communities and organizations, Taylor believes he is just getting started.

“I hope to increase the number of free camps we offer to needy children in the DFW area, and I am considering expanding into different sports like football or basketball,” Taylor said.

Taylor hopes to increase the number of paid camps and charity drives he runs by familiarizing the St. Mark’s community with PELOTA.

“When I go to college, I hope to eventually pass on this organization to someone who’s really dedicated to it,” Taylor said, “and I think there is nobody better than a fellow Marksman.”

IN ACTION Junior Dylan Taylor runs one of his first PELOTA camps at Northridge Church Field.

PHOTO / COURTESY SAM LIGHT

Best of both worlds

It isn’t easy to excel in the classroom. It isn’t easy to excel on the field or court. Yet, some kids do both and do both well. With this amount of work, how do these student athletes manage their mental health?

The life of a student-athlete requires an even balance from tests of intelligence and memory to those of grit and determination, a student-athlete is tasked with rising to new sets of challenges and obstacles every day.

And, at a school like this one, that challenge is elevated, even to the point where it might be overwhelming.

Senior Lucas Blumenthal has been playing sports throughout his time here. A major part of the school’s varsity football and basketball teams, Blumenthal has had his fair share balancing his academic workload with various sports practices, but with that balancing act came an important lesson. Blumenthal has learned to be very intentional with what he did with his time to ensure success in completing his work.

“If you’re in a sport, you’re not gonna be starting your homework till eight, nine o’clock at night sometimes and especially when you become an upperclassman, the workload is increased,” Blumenthal said, “so finding a little time to make sure I’m not wasting time throughout the day is something I learned.”

For Blumenthal, the workload can become a little strenuous and overwhelming at times, with too many tasks piling up at one time. But, his method of breaking up his work has helped him take on the lists of tasks.

“It does get a little strenuous sometimes, especially when you have like a whole list of assignments you have to get to and you’ve got a game that night,” Blumenthal said. “I feel like when that happens, it’s just like taking it one thing at a time, not thinking about all the work as a whole but just breaking it up.”

For other student athletes, though, the pursuit of the dream is worth sacrifice and change. Rhett O’Rear, a former member of the class of 2025, left the school his sophomore year to pursue an aspiring golf career.

“My dream has always been to play on the PGA

Tour,” O’Rear said. “That’s the highest level. It’s near impossible to get to, but I felt like the work I needed to put in took a lot more time than just a couple hours after school. I also play a very challenging schedule, about 27 to 29 weeks of the year.”

Due to the loaded schedule and rigorous academic requirements of St. Mark’s, O’Rear did not have ample time to work on improving his game after school.

“At St. Mark’s, I’d get out of school at 3:30, and then I could maybe have an hour-long lesson, go practice for a little bit or go workout - I’d only get to do one of those,” O’Rear said. “I didn't get to really do multiple activities on those days.”

“MY DREAM HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO PLAY ON THE PGA TOUR. THAT’S THE HIGHEST LEVEL. IT’S NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO, BUT I FELT LIKE THE WORK I NEEDED TO PUT IN TOOK A LOT MORE TIME THAN JUST A COUPLE HOURS AFTER SCHOOL. ” -Rhett O’Rear

So, O’Rear and his family decided to make the switch to a different school, with a vastly different schedule to that offered at the school.

“When I was making the decision to switch over, it wasn’t something that I started thinking about that month,” O’Rear said. “I saw a lot of the players I’d play tournaments with – in these higher tournaments, it's probably somewhere around 50 percent – getting out of school before 1 p.m. It’s something that I’ve kind of seen happening, and I felt like it was something that I could definitely take advantage of. Around six months into my 1oth grade year, I realized that the best place for me would be to switch over to the new school.”

O’Rear’s new schedule, which lets students out of school at noon, has allowed him to significantly increase the amount of time he spends each day on golf. The structure of assignments and scheduling at his new school has also given O’Rear more freedom in travel times, which is crucial for a nationally competitive golfer like himself.

“I still work with tutors and do a lot of work to keep myself on level to what I was doing before when I was at St. Mark’s, so it’s not really sacrificing much in terms of learning,” O’Rear said. “It's just kind of condensing it down into a couple hours a day. And,

the students I’m going to class are all very motivated to just get in there and do the work.”

However, O’Rear has been able to reap the benefits of this switch, as his abilities have seen a massive improvement in the year since he made the change.

But, perhaps more significantly, O’Rear has also gained significant time management skills, which have made him a better golfer, student, and future college student-athlete.

“I’ve definitely gotten a lot better with my game over the past year and a half,” O’Rear said. “But in that first month or two, when I was at this new school, I learned a lot about time management. I had too much time to myself.”

Strength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth observes that student-athletes do have to balance a lot, but he also believes that many of the student-athletes at the school spread themselves too far.

“You have to balance family,” Dilworth said. “You have to balance personal time. You have to balance academics and sports. Those are the things of this reality, of life. Now you add on robotics, debate, all these other things that come in. Do you have enough time? Are you spreading yourself out too much to where you don’t get the full benefit?”

To Dilworth, the amount student athletes are balancing at St. Mark’s is already massive, but it comes at the cost of the dedication and commitment for some.

“I think about myself, could I do half the load on these young men and give my full effort every single day in training in practice?” Dilworth said. “Y’all are in high school doing this, I was getting spread like this in college. It’s tough. It’s tough, but you have to go back to the commitment state because you have to understand that if it’s something that you truly want to do, will you be able to commit? You can’t say ‘well, I'm just gonna show up half the time and half the time I gotta do this other thing.’”

Dilworth believes that when a student-athlete stretches themselves too far by committing themselves to too many things, the student athlete is no longer truly committed to each of those things. For Dilworth, seeing a student balancing so much, all at once, prompts the question of how they are handling it all.

“I always ask the question: “how are you really doing?” Dilworth said. “Because that is the important piece: the mental breakdown of the body.”

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD Senior football and basketball player Lucas Blumenthal studies to keep up with his rigorous courseload offered at St. Mark’s.

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

Rhett O'Rear Former student

By Neil Yepuri and Ronit Kongara

Spring season performances

Baseball

Record: 7-12

Best game: 8-6 win vs. Bishop Lynch

“Overall, we made significant improvements this year from the past several seasons. Seven of our losses were by three runs or less.”

- Coach Johnny Hunter

Tennis

Record: 6-4

Best game: 4-1 win vs. Trinity Valley

“We played really well all things considered, that said we had a young team and still have a young team, so we’re excited to see what the next guys bring.”

- Coach Cameron Hillier

Lacrosse

Record: 6-13

Best game: 14-5 win vs. Houston Christian

“The last few weeks of the year, we understood the extra effort and the things you’ve got to do here and there, so we were able to produce on the field.”

- Coach Trey Whitty

Track & Field

Best meet: SPC Tournament

“When we decided that we were going to compete, those were the meets where we were really good.”

- Coach Ryan Hershner

Crew

Best regatta: U.S. Rowing Central Youth Championship

“I’m very proud of how much work the team has put in and the culture we’ve built. Nearly every morning, three to seven guys erged for 60 to 90 minutes straight on top of going to practice in the afternoon, and the work showed with our erg times and medals at regionals.”

- Captain Zack Goforth

Golf takes third at SPC

By Michael Jimenez and Weston Chance

While the golf team ultimately fell short of gold in the Southern Preparatory Conference, (SPC), tournament, they displayed incredible improvement throughout the season and earned a solid third place.

Led by head coach Greg Guiler, this year’s team prided themselves on selflessness and togetherness. The emphasis provided on these concepts fostered a cohesive team dynamic and paved the way for several players to have break out seasons.

“The need for camaraderie is imperative in an individual sport,” Guiler said. “These guys do their own thing on various weekends throughout the bout, but when the team comes together wearing St Mark’s colors, with St. Mark’s golf bags and St. Mark’s hats on, players realize that they are no longer just on an island, but that they get to do this as a part of a group.”

The veteran leadership of senior captains Hudson Brown, Charlie Hill and Henry Hoak as well as junior captain Mateo Ubinas served as a critical component to the team’s success and togetherness.With a predominantly younger team, this season was a chance for some of the younger, less experienced players to prove themselves worthy of a varsity spot. The development of the underclassmen proved to be strongly aided by the mentorship of the seniors throughout the entire season.

“Charlie Hill proved himself a sensational leader for the team,” Guiler said. “Henry Hoak had a stellar

day 2 at SPC and both freshmen, James Hoak and Sam Merryman, showed extraordinary maturity by overcoming tough starts on either day of the SPC tournament to post scores in the 70s. Also, Jonathan Lobel had a breakout season.”

With many young players proving themselves this season, one stood out above the rest. Sophomore Duff McKay was one of the top golfers in the entire SPC this season, claiming wins as well as countless rounds in under par. McKay’s season was emphasized by his individual win at the St. John’s tournament at Lost Pines and his runner-up finish in the SPC tournament, where he finished two shots over par.

“Duff McKay, for being a sophomore, was lights out all year,” Guiler said. “He deserves all the recruiting attention he has been receiving, but his growth as a leader will make us the team to beat for the next two years.”

Ultimately, this season was one to remember for the team. Throughout the course of the season, they earned team victories at four of the seven tournaments they participated in as well as earning individual victories at three with Brown’s victory at the Eustace Tournament as well as Freshman Peter Clark’s victory at the Prestonwood Tournament.

“They’re ultimately on an island when it comes to training and preparing,” Guiler said. “Getting to do that with friends from St. Mark’s multiple times a week throughout the season, I think not only gives them a sense of companionship, but it also helps them develop people skills.”

NEXT UP, NATIONALS

VICTORIOUS The Lions golf team poses with their trophy after their win at the All Saints Tournament.

PHOTO / COURTESY DUFF MCKAY

Varsity 4x Ian McGowan

Elijah Kraus Hewes Lance Linyang Lee

The Varsity 4x placed 2nd in the Central Region, securing a spot for Youth Rowing Nationals.

PHOTO COURTESY / LINYANG LEE

Sophomore wrestler aims high

Sophomore Beau Bacon recalls the highs and lows of his wrestling career and his winning formula that has kept him ahead of the competition throughout this season. Recently, Bacon has earned a spot at the Super 32 tournament this summer.

By Michael Jimenez and Sam Morse

With a calm and collected mind, Sophomore Beau Bacon walks onto the mat with only one thing on his mind: winning.

A long season, full of early mornings and late nights, has all led to this one moment.

A two-time state champion as a freshman and sophomore, Bacon aspires to continue his wrestling career into college, and he is taking the necessary steps to achieve his goal.

Beginning his journey in just the fourth grade, Bacon was introduced to wrestling by his dad, William Bacon. Although wrestling wasn’t easy in the beginning, Bacon was persistent in becoming one of the top wrestlers in the country.

“My dad was the one who really wanted me to start wrestling, but I didn’t really like it at first because the kids would beat up on me all the time,” Bacon said.

Determined to become one of the best, Bacon stopped wrestling competitively for a year, in an effort to hone in on his skills with his current private coach, Melvin Lofton.

“He’s always training outside of school. He’s been working with Coach Melvin for a long time, year round, even during the season,” head wrestling coach Reyno Arredondo said.

The year of hard, intense personal training finally came to fruition when he won the highly touted Texas Novice State wrestling competition as a fifth grader, followed by another win at the Junior Open Championship tournament in Oklahoma.

“It meant a lot to me to actually be able to win tournaments now,” Bacon said. “From getting beat at practice to winning my first novice tournament made me feel confident in my abilities.”

Bacon began his St. Mark’s wrestling career in the eighth grade following the cancellation of the previous season due to COVID-19. In his first year on the team, Bacon cemented himself as one of the top wrestlers, winning the middle school state tournament.

“When Beau first joined St. Mark’s wrestling, he was a focused and driven young man. You could tell that from the very beginning,” Arredondo said.

Beginning his high school career on a high note, Bacon looked to accomplish even more than he had before. In just his freshman year alone, he earned a state championship victory as well as an all-SPC award.

“When you’re a two-time state champion as a freshman and sophomore, you have already exhibited some incredible characteristics,” Arredondo said. “If we can add leadership, that could lead to an amazing person that could impact not only St. Mark’s, but his future.”

Entering his sophomore season, building on his freshman year success was important for Bacon.

“I won state again my sophomore year and got all SPC again, but I didn’t place as well as I could have in the SPC tournament,” Bacon said.

Not only has Bacon dominated at local tournaments, but he has also taken his success to out of state tournaments, going 7-1 in Shreveport, LA and 5-2 in Atlanta.

“Having a good showing in the out of state tournaments was really big for me,” Bacon said. “It shows the college coaches I can compete with anyone in America.”

Although the season is over, Bacon makes the most of his time by continuing to meet with private coaches and being mentored by older Marksmen and other college wrestlers.

“During the season my coach has practices that a lot of high schoolers go to,” Bacon said. “I usually go to those about three times a week and in the summer he does camps that I go to every day.”

This unparalleled work ethic has proved to be the critical factor in the success that Bacon has seen throughout his wrestling career.

“During the season, we have old college wrestlers come in, and Beau is always getting after it, extra time, especially over Thanksgiving and Christmas to take advantage of those college wrestlers coming back to town,” Arredondo said.

This summer, Bacon looks to continue to prove himself at the national level by attending many wrestling camps as well as participating in a variety of tournaments.

“I’m going to a lot of camps this summer, but I’m also going to this big national tournament called Super 32 in North Carolina,” Bacon said. “Placing at a tournament like that would help a lot with my recruitment because I’m meeting with a lot of college coaches soon.”

As the recruitment process inches closer and closer, Arredondo believes that Bacon’s dedication to wrestling will lead to him earning offers from some of the top wrestling programs in the country.

“His main ingredient that keeps him on top is his love for training and his disdain for losing,” Arredondo said.

What started as just a childhood hobby that he almost quit has turned Bacon’s life into something he could have never imagined.

“I almost quit after a year,” Bacon said. “I stuck with it though and got really good. I never really liked team sports and it just feels good to beat someone and win a gold medal.”

Hydration plays key role in on-field performance

By Christopher Guffey

You feel a sudden loss of senses and your mind becomes numb. As you gradually lose vision, one can feel their legs collapsing and their brain shutting off.

You knew you hadn’t been hydrating well enough the past week, so you drank extra water that morning to compensate. It wasn’t enough.

“If you’re dehydrated and then you just decide to drink a bunch of water right before you compete, it doesn’t really stay in your system,”Athletic trainer Matthew Hjertstedt said. “But what you do three or four days prior to your competition also affects your hydration status during the game.”

The importance of hydration before a workout is commonly overlooked. Athletes need to be paying particularly close attention to their fluid intake if they want to maximize their performance.

“If you aren’t hydrated, it can definitely lead to a

decrease in performance, whether that’s cramping or not being able to perform it at your best,” Hjertstedt said. “I would be well hydrated going into a game. You should have plenty of food going into the room and you should be well trained.”

Besides just cramps, in extreme cases, dehydration can lead to heat stroke in environments known for their hot and dry climates, such as Texas during most of the year.

“Sweating is the main way that your body is going to cool down,” Hjertstedt said. “If you don’t have enough hydration or enough water in your system, you won’t be able to sweat.”

Although water is extremely important to staying hydrated and staying cool, for Hjertstedt, water alone doesn’t always suffice. Without a steady influx of electrolytes, water will pass straight through your system.

“I would say that water really should be your primary source for hydration unless you need more electrolytes,” Hjertstedt said. “In that case, you can get more

electrolytes by salting your food more or an electrolyte drink like Gatorade.”

Gatorade and other sports drinks are helpful during sporting events because of how effectively they replenish lost electrolytes from workouts. However, for shorter durations of exercise, your body doesn’t need external sources of electrolytes to work efficiently.

“If athletes are doing a short event, even if it’s exhausting, Gatorade doesn’t really provide them a benefit,” Hjertstedt said. “If you’re in a big tournament that might last six to eight hours and you’re playing multiple events during that day, that’s when Gatorade is extremely useful.”

Off the field, Hjertstedt believes sports drinks aren’t that good for you, and that water is more than enough to stay hydrated. Too much of a sports drink can spike your blood sugar levels, causing an intense crash later that day and they can even cause nausea and vomiting in extreme cases.

CHAMPION Sophomore Beau Bacon celebrates after a victory in his wrestling match

PHOTO / COURTESY BEAU BACON

Baseball’s injury epidemic

As baseball becomes increasingly competitive, pitchers of all ages are experiencing more arm injuries than ever. The cause a combination of growing internal and external pressure for young pitchers to throw harder and at a higher rate.

By Joshua Goforth and Rohan Kakkar

Wind up. “61!” Just short.

Wind up again.

“63!”

12-year old Alex Dahlander just tied his PR.

As a sixth grade pitcher, all Dahlander cared about was being the best. To Dahlander, the road to improvement was paved with more commitment, more reps, higher speed—paved with a coach’s favorite saying: ”practice makes perfect.”

Dahlander, hitting personal best after personal best, became attached to the number on the radar gun. He raced after velocity and spin-rate, throwing hundreds of pitches per week, a seemingly normal action to take to have any chance at going pro.

Normal, until his UCL tore clean off the bone.

After days of uncertainty, X-rays and MRI scans, Dahlander finally landed in a spotless doctor’s office, a poster of elbow anatomy on the wall. He sat in the

room’s vinyl medical chair, tearing the disposable paper, and waited for the news.

Staring at the drawings on the wall, Dahlander only had one thought.

“How could this happen to me?”

Dahlander’s future was unclear; although the doctors assured his recovery, he doubted himself, wondering if he would ever pitch again. Dahlander’s arm spent months in a sling and cast and replacing his practices were hours of physical therapy and band work. Only in the spring of his eighth grade year, after nearly two years of rest and recovery, would Dahlander return to play; this time, though, only as a catcher.

Dahlander’s story is not so different from that of a growing number of other young baseball players to recently undergo reconstructive arm surgery. The most common procedure, named after the pitcher Tommy John, aims to completely repair the UCL, an injury-prone elbow ligament. According to a study by Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, kids whose arms have not yet fully developed now account for a staggering 57 percent of all Tommy John surgeries in the country.

Dr. Karim Meijer, an orthopedic specialist at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, has dedicated his life to treatment of sports-related injuries, from those in elementary-age athletes, all the way to those in Major League Baseball. As both a father and a regular performer of Tommy John surgery, Meijer has noticed these injuries occurring more frequently in younger athletes than ever before.

“I see them every weekend during baseball season,” Meijer said. “We have three or four of them right now on my 12 year old son’s travel baseball team. They're just increasing in regularity.”

UCL tears in preteen pitchers have always been a rarity, as they predominantly occur at the high-school level; but as the rate of injury increases, the risk of serious injury becomes a hard reality for even younger athletes.

“I’ve had as young as a 10-year old have a Tommy John injury,” Meijer said. “They literally tore their ligament at 10-years old. That's the youngest I've seen.”

Taking the time required to sufficiently repair torn elbow ligaments can counteract years of training and can ruin a prospect’s chances to play at the next level—exactly the opposite of what any coach wants to

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

ADAPTING Sophomore Alex Dahlander holds his bat while showing off his elbow scar from Tommy John surgery. Dahlander has since given up pitching for batting and hitting.

SCARRING Dahlander's foray with Tommy John surgery, although not completely taking away his ability to throw, has left a lasting physical impact.

HOME STRETCH Junior Deven Pietrzak uses a resistance band to properly stretch out the muscles in his pitching arm. These stretches allow the muscles to stay healthy.

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

PHOTO / DILAN KOGANTI

hear. But still, with the pretense of improvement and a hope to make it big, young athletes are recruited more and more to play in an unhealthy amount of practices and games in both school and club baseball.

“I took one of my younger sons out of travel baseball because they played 13 tournaments in the fall,” Meijer said. “They played 39 games.”

Although the SPC has taken measures to provide as much rest as possible, school and club pitchers who are expected to play all nine innings can still throw up to and even exceed a hundred pitches per game.

“I was on a club team and I was on a rec team,” Dahlander, now a sophomore, said. “I pitched every weekend for both teams, and pitched weekdays practicing for the rec team. There was just so much pitching.”

To add on to what’s already required of pitchers, pitching is inherently self-competitive. In a world where success equates to constant performance and improvement, pitchers can’t stay away from the numbers.

“You always just want to hit a new PR,” Dahlander said. “You want to pitch faster, because that's what you want to see. That's what coaches want to see.”

This amount of stress on a pitcher’s elbow quickly becomes noticeable, and from there, pitching only gets more uncomfortable. But to many, playing through pain is part of the game, despite the risks involved.

“I wanted to be the hero and push through the pain, so I kept on throwing even though my elbow was hurting,” Dahlander said. “One game, I threw a pitch and I just knew my arm was done.”

To be the athlete that beats the odds, avoiding injury, succeeding in college and making it big, is the ultimate goal for many high school pitchers. However, as speed, money and expectations are elevated in professional baseball, so is the risk of playing. Recently, Major League Baseball has seen a spike in the amount of players undergoing Tommy John, and among the fastest-throwing pitchers in the league, 30 of 64 have undergone reconstructive surgery, according to USA Today.

“The rate of Tommy John injuries in Major League Baseball is just out of control,” Meijer said. “They’ve got a real problem. There are multi-millions of dollars spent on pitchers who are sitting on the IL, with almost a third of Major League pitchers now having Tommy John. The number used to be, I think, 25 percent…it's not going in the right direction.”

To remain competitive in a growing pool of talent, pitchers are forced to throw harder and to put their elbow further at risk. Many scouts today expect high school pitchers to throw upwards of 90 mph, just to have a chance at playing in college—with even slimmer odds of pitching professionally.

As these younger players are drafted into the MLB, the league’s priorities have shifted; accuracy has become secondary to speed. According to Sports Illustrated, there has been a 31 percent increase in the number of pitchers throwing over 100 mph.

“Scouts would rather have a guy throw 95 mph and can barely throw a strike than a kid throwing 60 who can put it wherever he wants, because that's just how the game is now,” Dahlander said.

It’s unnatural for a human to throw anything at such high speeds, especially on a daily basis. But the game of baseball requires that pitchers do it, through monetary incentive, day in and day out. The physical limitations of the UCL are being pushed, and at a certain point, it can’t handle the stress.

“A lot of these major leaguers, I think they just don't care,” Meijer said. “They look at it like, ‘I'm gonna pitch until the wheels fall off, at as high velocity as possible, to get paid as much money as possible. And if I tear it, I’ll just get Tommy John.’”

Many younger pitchers have worn down their arms before even setting foot on an MLB diamond; as higher and higher expectations are placed on young children to succeed, many have taken the idea that mastery is a product of thou-

sands of hours of repetitions and applied it to physically demanding sports.

“If you work on the piano for 10,000 hours, you're going to get good at it,” Meijer said. “But you can't throw baseballs for 10,000 hours and think you're going to be just great at baseball with no possibility that you're going to injure your elbow or shoulder.”

These long hours leave no time for other sports in a child’s schedule, and well-roundedness soon becomes an impossibility. But specialization in any sport, especially with high-speed pitching, leads to years of muscular imbalance, damaged growth plates and overuse, only hurting the player in the long run.

“This combination that you're seeing now with wear and tear on the ligament and velocities going up,” Meijer said, “it's just a perfect storm.”

Although arm injuries seem to be becoming more prevalent and almost unavoidable for pitchers young and old, every wrong step can be countered by taking proper precautions.

Junior Deven Pietrzak has pitched all his life and has never had an injury. He mainly attributes his lack of injury to an extremely thorough stretching routine before any time he pitches.

"I get to the field like an hour and 15 to an hour and 20 minutes early, and then I'll do some soft tissue work with a massage gun,” Pietrzak said. “I'll do a dynamic

Statistics from FanGraphs Baseball, John Roegele

warmup for like 20 minutes, and get my whole body ready. Then, I do some stretching and mobility work, and I do arm care which is for the shoulder. And then after all that, I'll start throwing lighter and then build up.”

Another aspect of proper arm care is in its usage—to prevent the effects of specialization in his own children, Meijer has them rotate between baseball and four other sports throughout the year. By playing multiple sports, athletes can improve their mobility and learn to use all of their muscles properly.

But according to Meijer, pitchers, most importantly, under-appreciate the value of rest.

“At the youth level, you can’t throw year-round,” Meijer said. “There's a lot of recommendations that you should rest four months out of the year. For example, if you pitch in the spring, don't pitch in the fall. I know batting is a year round thing and there aren’t many batting injuries, but you can't throw year round all the time. You're just gonna get hurt.”

Instead, Meijer believes pitchers should treat rest as a way to improve their game—and that sometimes, practice doesn’t always make perfect.

“I see value in reps, and I see value in putting the work in, but there's value in rest,” Meijer said. “When you rest, you can still become a better baseball player without ever throwing a baseball.”

AT RISK

Junior Deven Pietrzak fires a ball toward home plate; despite attempting to rest and manage his pitching arm, Pietrzak can still throw upward of 90 pitches in any Lions' baseball game, exposing him to the possibilty of injury.

Senior prank captures campus attention

On April 29, the Senior Class suprised the school with a pirate-themed senior prank. The festitvities on campus included a treasure hunt for gold, bounties for gold dubloons, lots of candy and beach and pirate decorations for common areas.

AT THE HELM Two Middle School students use the large ship wheel at the end of the quad, one of the many pirate decorations that adorned the campus.

Shane May in a inflatable sword fight. 2 - Senior Preston Ghafar stands atop a lunch table during the lunchtime pirate takeover. 3 - The Path to Manhood statue was decorated in pirate attire for the day. 4 - Senior Preston Ghafar engages in more combat versus fellow senior Tyler Tang during a lunchtime duel.

PHOTO / HAYDEN MEYERS

PHOTO / HAYDEN MEYERS

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN

PHOTO / HAYDEN MEYERS

PHOTO / WINSTON LIN