Volume 120, Issue 17

FEATURE: Not so “mature behavior”? Covid-19 leaves lasting effects on students’ academic, social skills

Sofia Kim Staff Writer

“We are still catching up, not just academically, but also in social skills,” World Languages Department Chair Pilar Valencia said. “How do I organize my time? How do I behave in the classroom? We have to find a way to adapt again.”

Nearly three years since the start of the pandemic in 2020, students continue to experience negative consequences within the classroom, including disrupted learning, increased social anxiety, and lowered attention spans. In a poll conducted by The Record with 41 responses from Middle

and Upper Division faculty, 98% have seen a decrease in their students’ social/emotional skills and 65% have seen a decrease in their students’ academic abilities.

Recent analyses of 42 studies across 15 countries found that global education losses amounted to about one third of a school year, according to an article in The New York Times. Those deficits were disproportionately borne by lower-income students, though Covid’s effects are visible at this school as well.

On March 9, 2020, Head of School

Dr. Tom Kelly announced that all divisions would begin spring break early due to the rising number of

COVID-19 cases. This was the last “normal” school day for over two years.

That school year finished exclusively online. Teachers modified curriculums to optimize teaching and lesson plans; students adapted to learning entirely in their homes. In the UD, full credit classes met synchronously twice a week and assigned asynchronous work the other days. Despite these abrupt changes, students still received letter grades at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. However, teachers had difficulty administering assessments online due to the risk that students would violate principles of academic integrity, Valencia said. The MD had a different online experience. For the first few weeks, students learned asynchronously, handing in assignments online. Grades in each class transitioned from letter grades to pass/fail. The MD began to incorporate synchronous lessons into the schedule after a few weeks, holding one synchronous class a day. By the 2020-2021 year, students returned to in-person learning for a substantial portion of the school year. Physical Education Department Chair Amy Mojica said that the school’s exceptional resources permitted students to return. “As a school, we were extremely lucky to have resources which brought us together,” she said. “With the barriers, surfaces, masks, and testing, our school went over the top to make sure people were given

Anonymous Upper and Middle Division faculty respond to The Record’s poll:

Students learned avoidance behaviors during zoom school: before the pandemic, when teachers asked students questions, they would try to think about their answer. Now, they’ve learned to give the first wrong answer that comes to mind in the hope that the teacher moves on. Since teachers were feeling burnout during zoom schooling, they didn’t push students to think and elaborate on answers in class as much as they used to, so students’ avoidance actually worked.

It used to be the norm to actually work together with other students on classwork assignments. Breakout rooms really failed to replicate the experience of being at a table with your peers, and so we are now in a place where students default to staring alone at their work and feeling helpless if they can’t immediately do it on their own.

Students overwhelmingly try to “”remember”” rather than understand, leading to far worse performance on any tasks that require more than rote memorization.

Socio-emotionally, students are more avoidant and selfish. Students seem to be less interested in being together for its own sake.

I have seen significant decreases in focus and attention span and diminished ability to regulate emotions and behavior in my classes (especially the younger grades). I also see a decrease in student resilience and a big increase in anxiety about grades and grade-consciousness. Nobody seems to be having fun in classes anymore! It used to be that we were learning AND having fun together, but now I feel like my class is interrupting fun students feel like they could have outside class and causing students stress.

There’s a basic expectation for how a Horace Mann student should be, in terms of behavior in consistency with our core values, that students are having some more trouble meeting than in the pre-Covid years. I’m thinking about students ability to embrace the spirit of inquiry and exploration in class through the love of learning (life of the mind), their ability to focus and do their best consistently on activities with peers in class (mature behavior), and their ability to be kind to each other consistently (mutual respect) all seems more inconsistent than I noticed before at HM.

I have not seen what I would call a decrease in social/emotional skills, but a delay in the development of students’ social/emotional development. 10th grade students grappling are the social and emotional dilemmas I saw in 9th grade students pri-

the opportunity to feel as safe as possible.”

From Thanksgiving until the two weeks following winter break, the

EFFECTS ON ACADEMIC ABILITY

For current sophomores, online school began in seventh grade and rupted their transition to the Upper Division. “A lot of the middle school experience is learning how to prepare for high school and because half of ours was online, we didn’t have as much preparation as anyone would have liked,”

to complete in-person instruction, with the exception of a mask mandate and mandatory COVID testing each week. Students were only permitted to attend classes virtually if they tested positive for COVID-19. Yet, even as Zoom school becomes a thing of the past, the long-term effects of the pandemic remain visible.

or to the pandemic; 11th grade students are grappling with emotional and social dilemmas that brought pre-pandemic 10th grade students into the Counseling office (and so on). All students lost a year or more of in-person social interactions to the pandemic, and with that they lost the lived experiences that feed their social and emotional development. Social and emotional development was delayed for all students as a result of the pandemic.

Students are less adept at handling all types of social situations, unaware of traditional school & social group etiquette, and they are less capable of working in groups or collaborating with others. They interrupt their peers frequently and generally are worse at listening when someone else speaks.

Brianna Wells (10) said. “There were definitely people who didn’t really do their asynchronous work, and I feel like that carried into how we approached our work in high school.”

Tatum Behrens (10) got as much out of the asynchronous work as she put into it, she said. “In the back of my mind, I was thinking about high school the next year, so I knew I still needed to stay on top of my work,” she said.

Despite the unusual learning circumstances, Head of Upper Division Dr. Jessica Levenstein has not observed a large decline in the quality of students’ work as a result of online school, she said. However, especially for underclassmen, writing in-class essays and taking timed tests was more difficult because students were not accustomed to taking in-class assessments while learning asynchronously, she said.

During online instruction, there were several aspects of learning a language that could not be met, Valencia said. “Zoom is not an ideal space to practice a language, and recording is not the same as having a conversation.” After returning in-person, classes covered topics that could not be taught as well online, such as language structure and practicing conversations.

For the English department, virtual teaching was a more natural transition compared to other subjects, English Department Chair Vernon Wilson said. “Compared to chemistry or calculus, English teachers tend not to use

see COVID on page 2

MASK ON, MASK OFF In-person learning evolves from 2021 to 2023.

Courtesy of Barry Mason

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

the board as much. Even though it was not the same, we could still have discussions on Zoom — reading texts and putting ideas in the chat.”

Wilson said he acknowledges teachers’ leniency during online learning. “We had conversations about, hey, we’re in a global pandemic. There are bigger, bigger fish to fry than an A or an Aright now,” he said.

However, Wilson also recognizes the academic effects of these years while transitioning to a post-pandemic environment, he said. “There was that one or two years of pandemic where we did what we needed to and we wanted to be together, have school, whatever that looked like,” Wilson said. “We phase that out, but at the same time what that means is that simultaneously we’re phasing back in the rigor.”

During online school, material was more difficult to learn, which made it difficult to transition back to in-person classes and assessments, Joann Yu (11) said. “Specifically for math, the subject is cumulative, so if you don’t understand one topic, you can’t understand anything else after.” Yu also experienced an increase in class rigor after returning in-person, but she partly attributes it to the natural curriculum. “As time goes on, through the grades, work gets harder in general.”

As a result of online school, teachers have seen deficits in students’ learning that they must now address while teaching in-person, Head of Middle Division Javaid Khan said. Currently, the MD departments meet to discuss the curriculum after every 10 day cycle. Faculty members discuss post-pandemic learning, while department chairs and division heads are tasked with identifying the skills that students should possess upon entering each grade. “From

eighth to ninth grade, what are the skills that we expect students to have, and what are the skills that we expose them to during this year?”

Sixth Grade Dean John McNally sees the pandemic’s effects mostly in classroom group work. Before the pandemic, history and English teachers taught through discussions and activities.

“Now, students are programmed to absorb information through a video or reading as opposed to learning collectively,” he said.

To help MD students’ transition to the UD, the history department is including more in-class writing assessments, McNally said. “We’re moving away from short answer style quizzes, involving a lot of memorization, and toward assessing the writing process.”

EFFECTS ON SOCIAL/ EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Students are delayed in the development of their social and emotional skills, Psychologist Liz Westphal said. “All students lost a year or more of typical in-person social interactions due to the pandemic, and everyday social interactions are crucial for the normal development of social and emotional skills in adolescents and teenagers.”

During the pandemic, stu dents turned to using more technology, which affected their social skills when transitioning back to an in-person format af ter a long period of time.

“We were all growing up and I definitely think peo ple are very different after Covid,” she said. “It was differ ent for people who were already older and had developed personalities

compared to those who were younger and were more impacted by it.”

Sophia Paley (11) believes younger students were affected by the pandemic the most, she said. “A lot of the kids now are struggling to turn off their screens because they are not used to interacting in person.” While high schoolers are also struggling with an increase in in person communication, younger students missed out on vital years of their social development, she said.

Nara Brunink (9) is more introverted nowadays since it was harder to socialize during the pandemic, she said. “As a result of not having in-person connections with others for a long time, I feel that people have shifted more towards social media. I am one of few people I know who does not have TikTok, which goes to show how prevalent social media has become.”

Brunink also feels like her grade is less mature than other grades, she said. “The pandemic definitely took away some of my teenage years, but I am now getting that back in high school.” Computer Science Teacher Avery Feingold has noticed more self-isolation amongst students. “They don’t acknowledge the presence of others to start with and the default has become self-isolation to a little to some degree,” they said. In the classroom, Feingold notices there are fewer interactions between students compared to pre-pandemic, and students have defaulted to working on their own when assigned something, they

Yu has also noticed a decline in stu-

dents’ social skills. “When online, you don’t communicate with any humans, so when going back to in-person, people scream at each other a lot more,” she said.

self-conscious about what they looked like, how they were being perceived, how they were being understood behind a mask,” Westphal said.

Paley has also noticed the negative effects of mask wearing on student anxiety, she said. “For some people, it just concealed what they looked like. But then I think for other people it became a whole other part of their appearance that they had to worry about each day.”

anxiety is more common after the pandemic, she said. “The major difference we saw was a definite rise in anxiety around things that [students] hadn’t done quite so much during the pandemic,” she said. “We saw more intense anxiety responses to things that past generations of students were more used to doing.”

Little has noticed an increase in student anxiety with regard to grades, she said. To adjust the curriculum, she has created a portfolio system where students receive feedback on their essay, but still have an opportunity to create a final portfolio for the official grade, she said.

In addition, there has been an uptick in student anxiety about looks, Westphal said. “Some students were

Based on a Record poll of 41 Upper and Middle Division faculty:

How has Covid affected your students' ACADEMIC ability?

My students' academic ability has decreased — 66% (27 responses)

My students' academic ability has not been affected — 27% (11 responses) Not applicable for my subject — 7% (3 responses)

Volume 120 Editorial Board

Head of Design

Avani Khorana

Features

Vidhatrie Keetha

Ayesha Sen

A&E

Hannah Katzke

Allison Markman

Art Directors

Amira Dossani

Vivian Coraci

Sophia Liu

Editor in Chief

Emily Sun

News

Zachary Kurtz

Middle Division

Celine Kiriscioglu

Rachel Baez

Design Editors

Arin Rosen

Alara Yilmaz

Sophie Pietrzak

Managing Editor

Emily Salzhauer

Opinions

Audrey Carbonell

Sean Lee

Lions’ Den

Max Chasin

Photo Directors

Sam Siegel

Ben Rafal

Aryan Palla

Jorge Orvañanos

How has Covid affected your students’ SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL skills?

My students’ social/emotional skills have decreased — 98% (40 responses)

My students’ social/emotional skills have not been affected — 2% (1 response)

Staff

Staff Writers Ariella Frommer, Ava Lipsky, Clara Stevanovic, Erica Jiang, Harper Rosenberg, Isabella Ciriello, Jorge Orvañanos, Joshua Shuster, Kate Beckler, Lucy Peck, Maeve Godlman, Naomi Yaeger, Neeva Patel, Samantha Matays, Sofia Kim, Sophie Rukin, Audrey O’Mary, Blake Bennett, Brody Grossman, Emily Wang, Gillian Ho, Hannah Becker, Jacqueline Shih, James Zaidman, Julia Bouchut, Malachai Abbott, Nikita Pande, Oliver Konopko, Nora Wildman, Rena Salsber, Diya Chawla, Zach Hornfeld, Julia Lourenco

Staff Photographers Nicole Au, Jorge Orvañanos, Trish Tran, Aanya Gupta, Jiwan Kim, James Zaidman, Emily Wang, David Aaron, Harper Rosenberg, Evan Contant

Staff Artists Sam Stern, Dylan Leftt, Sammi Strasser, Kristy Xie, Addy Steinberg, Ishaan Iyengar, Sophie Li, Serena Bai, Kayden Hansong, Aashna Hari, Karla Moreira, Isabelle Kim, Christain Connor, Sam Gordon, Dani Brooks, Aimee Yang

For students who are in developmental stages of their life, the pandemic definitely impacted their emotional experiences in middle and high school, Mojica said. “We had weird stages where we were in forced isolation and everyone desperately wanted to stay connected,” she said. “And then everybody had different comfort levels when it came to hanging out with a certain number of people.”

TAKEAWAYS

For Valencia, the most meaningful part of the pandemic was reevaluating the importance of classroom time. “It was a commodity that we never thought anybody was gonna take away,” she said. “The most important takeaway was in the meaning of community, the meaning of friendship, and time spent together.”

The pandemic gives people the opportunity to rebuild culture, Feingold said. “We don’t have to just fall into whatever culture grows out of the bad times. We can intentionally set norms, we can build the space and the world that we want to be in.”

Editorial Policy

About Founded in 1903, The Record is Horace Mann School’s award-winning weekly student newspaper. We publish approximately 30 times during the academic year, offering news, features, opinions, arts, Middle Division and sports coverage relevant to the school community. The Record serves as a public forum to provide the community with information, entertainment, and an outlet for various viewpoints. As a student publication, the contents of The Record are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. Horace Mann School is not responsible for the accuracy and contents of The Record and is not liable for any claims based on the contents or views expressed therein.

Editorials All editorial decisions regarding content, grammar, and layout are made by the senior editorial board. The unsigned editorial represents the opinion of the majority of the board.

Opinions Opinion columns represent the viewpoint of the author and not of The Record or the school. We encourage students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents to submit opinions by emailing record@horacemann.org.

Letters Letters to the editor often respond to editorials, articles, and opinions pieces, allowing The Record to uphold its commitment to open discourse within the school community. They too represent the opinion of the author and not of The Record or the school. To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters should be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or email (record@horacemann.org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed.

Online Editor Emily Grant Faculty Adviser

David Berenson

Contact For all tips, comments, queries, story suggestions, complaints and corrections, please contact us by email at record@horacemann.org.

Sophia Liu/Art Director Sophia Liu/Art Director

Divya Ponda (12) brings new, sustainable menstrual products to Tillinghast

Lexi Lawsky and Helena Zhang Contributing Writers

New pads and tampons replaced the old products and dispensers in Tillinghast’s women’s bathrooms after an initiative led by Divya Ponda (12). Both dispensers and products come from Aunt Flow, a female-founded company that works with businesses and schools in North America to provide accessible and sustainable period products.

Ponda introduced the initiative to Dean of Students Michael Dalo in November, but she had been planning it since last spring. When asking students about changes they wanted to see during her Community Council cam-

paign, Ponda heard complaints about the menstrual products at school. “I’ve heard complaints about the quality of menstrual products at our school because many students feel that the pads are uncomfortable and bulky,” Ponda said. “I know a lot of people who usually bring products from home instead of using the ones offered at school.”

Dalo worked with Director of Facilities Management Gordon Jensen, who communicated with Aunt Flow to bring trial products to the school. “There were no delays,” he said. “The biggest thing was just making sure the product that we were getting was acceptable.”

“I got positive reviews from everyone that used them,” Ponda said. Ponda also chose Aunt Flow because the company is environmentally conscious. “A lot of [period] products on the market contain unknown chemicals that may be toxic,” Ponda said. “I thought it was important that students have access to free, non-toxic products that would not be harmful to health, comfort, and ideally the environment, especially because menstrual products tend to have lots of plastic packaging.”

Jensen ordered the products in bulk and the maintenance staff installed four new dispensers in the Tillinghast women’s bathrooms.

A few days after their installation, someone broke the dispenser’s plastic window in the third-floor bathroom. “Perhaps the dispenser was jammed, but it seemed to be functional. I’m not sure what the intent was behind doing so because the products are free,” Ponda said.

Dalo advised Ponda to send an email calling out the incident. “We’re hoping that this will help people realize that they need to be

more respectful,” he said. “We hope this will not happen again. The machines will not be taken out, but if this happens again, we will need to consider if there is anything else we can do.”

Complaints about the school’s old period products accumulated over the past year and students are pleased with the switch to comfortable, 100% organic cotton prod ucts.“I think they’re very helpful for the HM community and are much easier to use than the dispensers we had before,” Hannah Hunter (10) said.

upgrade from the previous ones, Kyra Stinebaugh (10) said. “It’s a very positive change.”

tions about menstrual products will help destigmatize periods. “There is this stigma about bringing a pad or tampon to the bath room with you,” Ponda said. “I think the idea of being on her period has this concept that’s re to speak about for so really shouldn’t be.”

are noticing a change in the number of con versations concerning periods. “People are beginning to be more comfortable talking about it in less female-dominated spaces,” she said.

Ponda plans to expand her initiative to bathrooms in Fisher, Rose, Phorzeimer, Lutnick, and even the Lower Division, she said. “I just feel happier to have hopefully left a positive legacy.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Nicole Eustace visits Vast Early

Lily Sussman and Emily Park

Contributing

Writers

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Nicole Eustace visited history teacher Barry Bienstock’s Vast Early America class in person this Monday. Eustace discussed her book that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for History: “Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America,” about how a 1722 murder of an Indigenous man by two white men reshaped the American definition of justice.

Bienstock knew Eustace after working with her on his book, and Bienstock’s late wife was on Dr. Eustace’s dissertation committee. Bienstock likes to bring authors into the classroom for books the students have read. “It’s great insight so [students] recognize who these people are who actually write these books, and how they go about doing it,” he said.

HUMOR: Tampon Etiquette

Ariela Shuchman

Contributing Humorist

The T word. This might be uncomfortable, but we’ll get through it. Thanks to a new initiative, the girls’ bathrooms now have better quality tampons and pads. A much needed and welcome reform. However, we heard last week that someone vandalized the new dispenser. Should this terrorist strike again, or a bathroom runs out, you might still find yourself needing

Yet even amongst female students, discussing one’s period can feel awkward. Here is how to navigate tampon etiquette at Horace Mann:

Use the following list to know who to ask. If 1 does not have, ask 2, and so on:

A friend-acquaintance (you would wave to them

Someone in your grade you have never spoken to Someone in a younger grade

Someone in an older grade (if they are of lesser so-

Someone in an older grade (of higher social status)

A female teacher (you have an A- or above in their A female teacher (you received a “narrative” on

190,732. A male friend that is “not your type”

190,733. A cute male friend

190,734. A male teacher (biology)

190,735. A male teacher (all others)

….

American History class

Bienstock’s students read Eustace’s book after their unit on French Louisiana and the French and British Caribbean. Heidi Li (11) was impressed with the lecture, she said. “[Eustace’s visit] helped me better understand a historian’s job and their thought process when they write.”

One notable moment from Eustace’s visit was when she spoke about finding conflicting sources for John Cartilage’s death date. “She went back into her sources and pieced together the story of how John Cartilage could have possibly died,” Dana Song (12) said. “It’s very notable of her to do this, since there are often times when you can’t find the piece of evidence that you’re missing and it can be extremely frustrating.”

After speaking about her book, Eustace asked students about the topics they chose for their independent year-long research papers. “We discussed her process of writing rather

than the actual book content itself — how she got her ideas and how that can be useful for our own research on our year-long papers,” Nolan Wallace (11), said.

To help with research on students’ papers, Eustace offered ways to combat biases within sources. She suggested taking the author’s personality, religion, gender, and other identifiers under consideration to

better understand how these factors contribute to bias, Dana Song (12) said. Eustace’s visit left students with a greater understanding of historical perspectives, Song said. “There are so many different narratives within history, and I think Dr. Eustace’s works fill the silences and gaps within our historical record of Indigenous and African groups.”

6,340,587,392: Joe Burrow

∞ + 1: Harvey Weinstein

**Here’s the thing about asking a teacher. If you ask a teacher of an older age, they might be flattered that you still think they have a period. Recall that classic look of flattery when someone asks to see your mom’s ID before buying a drink.

You’re probably going to be in a lot of stomach pain. It might be so severe that you need to miss class. There are some situations where it’s advantageous to be truthful about the nature of your stomach pain: Getting out of P.E.

Immediately bringing a boring conversation with guy friends to a crashing halt

Making relatable small talk with a dull female acquaintance

Sometimes the situation dictates that you lie about why your stomach is killing you. Here are some alternative explanations less embarrassing than the truth:

I was stabbed over the weekend.

I’m pregnant.

It’s just my crippling, all consuming, debilitating anxiety about friends, college, how I look, whether or not I’m skinny enough, and whether or not people are mad at me.

Finally, a few code words to use, objects less embarrassing than a tampon (so you would say: Do you have a *code word*?):

Swiss army knife

Degree in the humanities

Birthing Person Towelette®

Pocket Constitution

And that’s all the advice you should ever need. Happy menustrating!

PERIOD. Ponda (12) with new pads, tampons.

TALKING HISTORY Eustace discusses her Pulitzer-Prize winning book.

Courtesy of Divya Ponda

Sam Siegel/Photo Director

SophiaLiu/ArtDirector

Q&A with Project X mastermind, Jared Contant (12)

THE PROCESS:

Clara Stevanovic Staff Writer

How did you get involved with Project X?

I remember it being super fun in ninth grade, but obviously with COVID we couldn’t do it in 10th grade. By the 21-22 school year, we had lost our contact with the people who were running it in 2020 and they needed someone to either figure out how it worked or to make a new one. So I just made it from scratch, like a quick fix, if you will, over spring break. It took me about two weeks to make it and test it using my knowledge of Python and Google Sheets and all of the API’s (application programming interface) working together.

Have there been times when the program did not work according to plan?

Gmail started — oh sorry, at that time it was First Class. First Class started banning emails from the Project X account because it thought that the account was sending out personal information, so we had a bit of a snafu trying to get a new email address to send out the codes to people who didn’t receive them until late into day one. This year, we actually have our own

Horace Mann email address, which is project-x@horacemann.org. This way, we can avoid the firewall by being within Horace Mann’s system.

Be honest: have students tried to bribe you?

Not directly, but I have been asked on several occasions to see the spreadsheet. We are trying really hard this year to clamp down on the data loss because last year, some of the seniors started sharing information with their friends and some of the seniors who are playing had access to the Google sheet. This year, that is not happening — it’s just me and Dalo on the spreadsheet, and I’m not playing so hopefully the information control this year is tighter. And for the record, I am not planning on accepting any bribes if they come my way.

Have you ever participated in Project X?

No. That’s the funny part — despite being so intimately involved with creating the game, designing it, making the experience good for everyone, I myself have never played the game. I’m sort of upset because it’s a part of my high school experience that I missed out on, but at the same time, I’m reminded

of the good times that I’m helping other people create so that sort of makes up for it.

Speaking of good times - what are your favorite Project X memories?

At HM, everyone seems to be preoccupied with thinking about school, thinking about the next math test that they have. The best memories that I have for Project X are people not thinking about that at all — and instead going insane trying to tag their person and totally letting school slip their mind, even if it’s for five minutes in between periods.

What’s your advice for students who are participating this year?

From a strategy point of view, it’s based on staying alive and getting other people out. That’s how we determine the score. So don’t be too defensive, because then you won’t be able to move higher up on the leaderboard. You have to play it a little bit of both ways, if you’re really looking to win.

Players register for Project X with their name and enter their secret word, which will serve as their “passcode” for the rest of the game. This information is stored in a Google Sheet that contains all the game information during the week — players’ names, secret words, targets, number of eliminations, and whether or not they are alive.

When players eliminate another player, they fill out an elimination slip with their secret word and the secret word of their target. From there, this group of four Python scripts does it all. They copy information from the signup form into the main sheet, send out confirmation emails, and run the entire game remotely during the week. When you submit an elimination slip, the python script automatically detects the slips, verifies the data you input, makes all relevant changes on the Google Sheet, and notifies you on your new target. In normal operation, nobody has to edit the Google Sheet because the scripts take care of the entire game.

Batter up! Students compete in the Great HM Bake Off

Charles Ampah

Contributing Writer

Nicole Au (11) took home the prize in the “Great HM Bake Off,” a new Community Council (CC) initiative that took place during I period this Monday.

The idea for the competition came from tenth grade CC representatives Andrew Ziman (10) and Oliver Konopko (10). After discussing potential activities for the event, they decided upon baking. “We felt this was logistically the easiest for the bakers and for everyone involved,” Konopko said. Two weeks before the event, Ziman emailed the Upper Di-

vision asking prospective competitors to sign up and prepare a sweet treat that they could bring to school for the bake-off.

Just before the tasting began, 24 bakers placed their chef’s toques on their heads and stood in a semi circle, awaiting the growing crowd of students hungry for an after-school snack. Cookies, cherry-jam filled muffins, and banana bread were just some of the many treats doled out to the attendees. Four judges walked around, identifiable by their red chef hats. Each judge was a random CC representative chosen from each grade.

Au did not expect to win when she entered the competition, she said. “I knew I was going up against really good people who also baked.” Au’s friends may have recognized her macarons by their taste, as she often bakes and shares them for fun, she said. “I made them a lot last year and I would just bring them to school, so I’ve had very positive feedback.”

Au’s mom taught her the family macaron recipe, which she then tweaked for taste after making them several times, Au said. The unique texture of macarons were part of the reason Au chose to bake them, she said. “They’re crunchy but soft on the

inside when you bite into it.”

That flavor wowed the judges, including 11th grade CC representative Nate Chiang (11). “I really liked the texture and the taste, and I thought she did a great job with the presentation,” he said. Although Au was the favorite, choosing the best baked treat was not an easy process. To be crowned champion, a baker had to receive the highest score in three categories: taste, texture, and presentation.

Au’s macaroons earned her a golden chef hat and a 25 dollar gift card to the store of her choosing — Starbucks.

Mock Trial beat the Bronx School of Law and Finance in their first round matchup for the annual New York State Bar Association tournament at the New York City Criminal Court last Thursday.

Mock Trial

Science Olympiad placed eighth out of 24 teams at a Regionals Tournament last weekend. 11 team members won individual awards in the top eight.

Science Olympiad

13 members of the Model United Nations team won Best Small Delegation at Harvard MUN, which took place from January 26 to 29.

Model UN

BAKERS BREAK BREAD Five-star food.

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Courtesy of Alara Yilmaz

Courtesy of Alicia DeMaio Courtesy of Nitika Subramanian Courtesy of Jojo Mignone

Four middle schoolers share their afternoon hobbies

Maeve Goldman Staff Writer

Anisa Javaid - Stage Crew

“It was so cool to see the sets I had spent weeks constructing actually come to life. Watching the mu sical, I kept being like ‘oh, we built that,’” Anisa Javaid (7) said. Using power drills and two-by-four planks, Javaid, a member of Stage Crew, helped create the sets for the Middle Division’s (MD) Decem ber production of “James and the Gi ant Peach.”

Javaid was initially interested in stage crew after members of the Up per Division (UD) crew spoke at an assembly, she said. “The high schoolers made theater look so exciting, so me and my friends decided to signup. The idea of being in a cast with a lot of other people and making new friends seemed fun.”

Leading up to “James and the Giant Peach,” the MD stage crew met once a week to craft sec tions of the set, Javaid said. “We made the frame for the steps that led up to the giant peach.” The MD and UD stage crews even collaborated, the middle schoolers worked on parts of the set that the high schoolers had not yet finished, she said.

As the theater department transitions to MD’s spring play “Much Ado About Nothing,” Javaid will be preparing for her role as a character in the production, she said.

Ethan

D’Souza - Model UN

“It’s really nice being able to threaten other countries,”

Ethan D’Souza (7) said. Every Model United Nations (MUN) session, D’Souza represents a ent country, Dominican Afghanistan, he said. “We get to embody different countries and propose policies that our country would support,” he said.

“It’s a great way to learn background information about different nations and the current events that are going on around the world.” During practices, students from the UD MUN team teach D’Souza strategies to improve his performance at conferences such as hand gestures, strategic pauses, and how to grasp viewers’ attention with specific words. D’Souza has attended two conferences so far: HoMUNC and Avenues MUNC. “Conferences are super fun because you get to make new friends from other schools while watching other competitors to learn how to improve,” he said. At HoMUNC, D’Souza represented Af-

ghanistan and proposed a policy supporting increased freedom of speech, he said. “I collaborated with Ger many and Denmark who support ed my policy,” he said. D’Souza hopes to remain on the MUN team in high school, he said. “Someday, I want to be either the United States or France, because they are both powerful countries with lots of in fluence on food and politics.”

Aideen Kehoe - Harpist

“People usually think of harp music as long and flowy, but Irish music can be surprising — it has a beat to it, it’s really a dance,” Aideen Kehoe (6) said. “The harp is a beautiful instrument, it has lots of range and can play a bunch of different sounds.” Kehoe began playing the harp as an ode to her Irish heritage, she said. “I’m half Irish so my mom thought it would be a good idea for my siblings and I to play an Irish instrument,” she said.

“Before I started playing the harp, all I knew about Irish stuff was the dancing and sausages.” After winning a New Jersey Fleadh Cheoil last year — the Irish term for harp competition — Keheo qualified to compete in a larger Fleadh Cheoil in Ireland. “It was my first year competing so I was really surprised when I won,” she said. ”It was really fun to connect with people who share the same interest as me.”

Keheoe meets with her harp teacher for hour-long lessons two times

each week and practices for approximately 20 minutes every day, she said. “To be a disciplined playneed to build up stamina,” she said. “We get these calluses on our fingers and can’t have long nails, but it gets easier the more you

She can’t wait to continue sharing her love of the Irish harp with the MD community, and Kehoe and her sister recently performed at the sixth grade talent show, she said.

Robert Choi - Robotics

“You just have to try again,” Robert Choi (6) said. “It can get frustrating sometimes when your robot makes a mistake, but you need to push through.” As a member of the MD Robotics team, Choi spends ev ery Wednesday afternoon cod ing and building robots. Choi has been partici pating in robotics since the second grade, he said. “This year my mom asked if I wanted to join the Horace Mann Robotics club — it had food so I decided to try it,” he said. “It’s fun to make a robot and then drive it around.”

At meetings, Choi and his teammates prepare for the NYC

First Lego League competition, he said. “I love the competitive aspect of robotics and getting to collaborate in a team.”

This Saturday, the team will compete in the qualifying round of the competition. Their robot will be tested on criteria such as physical abilities, designing, and programming, Choi said. “The robot scores points by pushing around these pieces called energy units,” he said. “The maximum amount of points we can score is 410 points.”

In the weeks leading up to qualifications, Choi is working extra hard to perfect his robot’s performance, he said. “I’ve done at least 100 practice runs,” he said. “Right now, the robot’s at 210 points but I’m trying to get it to 295.”

Choi balances his time by taking advantage of study hall periods, he said. “This week I’m staying after school three out of five days to work on the robot,” he said. “I get home at 7pm so I’ll stay up an extra hour later finishing my homework.”

Choi is both excited and nervous for the competition, he said. “It’s fun to see how your creation does in a contest. I just hope my robot doesn’t do something

Calc and Comedy: Thompson performs in stand-up festival

Sophie Rukin Staff Writer

“My comedy comes from whatever bizarre thing pops into my head. From sharks to cooking, if I think I can get a laugh out of it, I’ll call it a bit,” Upper Division math teacher Aaron Thompson said. Last weekend, Thompson put on his stand-up comedian hat at the New York Queer Comedy Festival, the largest annual queer comedy event in the world with over 200 contestants last year.

The festival has several stages, including preliminary rounds, a semifinal round, and a final round, Thompson said. While he will not know if he progressed to the semi finals for a few months, he performed well, he

For this specific show, at the Broadway Come was packed, he said. Ev was very responsive to full of laughs. Thompson got some audience en gagement when he asked people to call out their favorite football teams during a bit about Ala bama football.

The joke that received the most laughs was about Thompson’s recent “health scare,” he said. “I visited a new doctor, she opened my chart and immediately

said, ‘Nurse, we need to run lots of tests.’ I panicked. ‘What do I have?’ She said, ‘excellent insurance.’” While audiences originally gasped, after hearing the joke everyone was laughing, Thompson said.

Thompson has been passionate about comedy and performance for a long time. He started to dabble in high school while MCing for school talent shows and making announcements over the school intercom. “I would often take advantage of those opportunities and slide in little jokes,” he said.

His passion for comedy took off in college when he started his own comedy troupe called The Laughingstock, he said. “We would do Saturday Night Live-like sketch comedy where we would find a place and do comedy for an

While Thompson often experimented with other performing arts such as theater, his true passion has always been comedy, he said. There is something far more unique to it, he said. “Anyone can get a laugh from Neil Simon, but it’s special when it’s something you

Some of Thomp-

son’s bits come to him on the spot, others he circles back to frequently. “I have one joke about my husband, who always tells me that I treat him like a student,” he said. “I have to correct him and tell him that, if I treated him like a student, he would’ve learned by now.”

Most of Thompson’s bits are “silly,” he said. “I make jokes about whatever pops into my mind and rarely anything pointed or political.” He hopes that this tactic will help him stand out amongst the competition from this weekend’s tournament, he said. “I was the odd person out in that I didn’t have a lot of jokes about being homosexual, which everyone else was talking about since it was the theme of the competition.”

Unlike some comedians, Thompson does not really have a distinct joke-writing process, he said. “Sometimes I will sit down and write 20 really bad jokes.” The hope is that every so often, he will come across one good joke, he said. “If out of every 20 you get one that you can turn into something, that’s a pretty good batting average.”

Thompson is inspired by everyday things he finds interesting or funny, as well as other comedians like Emo Phillips and George Carlin. “It’s really hard to pick favorites because everyone’s got a little something that I appreciate.”

Standing up on a stage and performing is cathartic for Thompson, he said. “I have an itch for performing and making jokes. Standup is a great way to satisfy that.”

There is immense power in comedy, Thompson said. “It holds up a mirror so that we can laugh at ourselves and the situations we are in,” he said. Comedy can push boundaries, change perspectives, or simply lighten up the mood. “I don’t feel that comedy has to have a deeper meaning and that every comedian who gets on stage has to have a deeper point.” In the end, all Thompson wants is to make people smile through comedy.

Courtesy of Aaron Thompson

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

SophiaLiu/ArtDirector

Sophia Liu/Art Director

STANDING UP Thompson cracks sum jokes!

Courtesy of Aaron Thompson

How Bailey Hecht (12) ‘derived’ production of “Proof”

James Zaidman Staff Writer

“Proof” by David Auburn is not a traditional school production: rather, it is the focus of Bailey Hecht’s (12) Independent Study project. The play, which centers on Catherine, the daughter of a genius math professor, only has four actors — Celia Stafford (11), Noah Benson (9), Athena Spencer (12), and Loewy Miller (9). Since students do not typically direct shows at the school, Hecht was excited for the opportunity to make not only creative decisions but also logistic ones, she said.

Bringing “Proof” to life began last spring when Hecht applied to the Independent Study course. She initially planned to pursue her other interests like computer science, until she had a conversation with theater teacher Benjamin Posner in the middle of last year.

Throughout her time at the school, Hecht has acted in 24 productions and worked backstage on 28, becoming the first person to serve concurrently as both Horace Mann Theatre Company (HMTC) President and Student Technical Director.

Although she began with acting, Hecht has drifted towards the technical and behind the scene aspects of theatre, she said. “I’m really drawn to stage management, because I love the ability to work on as many aspects of the show as possible, working as the liaison between all the different designers.”

Restrictions on timing, audience appropriateness, and budget that Hecht set with her Independent Study mentor and technical director Caitie Miller, guided her towards “Proof,” she said. Because this was Hecht’s first time directing, she did not want to bite off more than she could chew, so she decided to make the process easier with

a small cast. She was also drawn to “Proof” as the play bridges many of her interests, such as math, feminism, and psychology.

Miller helped Hecht with both the play selection and designing process, but guided her to other faculty members to advise her on directing since Miller does not have directing experience, she said. “This process in particular has forced her to be in a bit more of a holistic role. Taking the step back to be a director and producer means that you don’t just focus on the ‘nitty gritty’ of how to do it — you have to focus on both the artistic vision and the nuts and bolts,” she said.

As a director, Hecht read the play many times, and highlighted beats in longer scenes when there were changes in energy, she said. This preparation made the rehearsal process much easier, as she could hone in on those five-minute increments with the actors. She also read the play two more times in the scenic designer mindset, to gather more information on the setting and limitations that the script puts on the set design.

Usually, directors work with scenic, lighting, and costume designs; Hecht streamlined the process by directing and set designing. She delegated the jobs of costume and lighting designer to Giselle Paulson (12) and Gwendolyn Simon (11), drawing on the “people skills” side of directing.

The lights come up: an audience member sees the back porch of Catherine’s house, filled with post-its and scattered with notebooks thanks to the deteriorating mental health of her father. The set is framed by two pillars and a door, portraying the dimensions of the room, with a central platform as the floor. The set is well-lit from multiple angles, with minimal spillover onto unused space.

Once it was time to begin auditions, Hecht met with all members of the theatre faculty at the school to learn how to run them. “There wasn’t a single audition that I did not like, so I viewed auditions instead as, ‘what combinations did I like?’ For everyone, I could see at least one reading of the play where I would like them as a character.”

Rehearsals began in November with a table read. Then, Hecht led a conversation with the actors about their characters and the play. The bulk of rehearsals were spent blocking scenes, where Hecht would let the actors move around and experiment freely, then guided them using questions like “if you know that you feel this way about this person, would you want to be standing that close to them?”

During rehearsals, Hecht realized that her best guiding questions came to her naturally, compared to spending time preparing many questions beforehand. She also led them through new movements and vocal warmups that Spencer had never seen before to help them with two key aspects of acting, Spencer said.

Spencer, who has known Hecht for years, appreciated her ability to have fun but also draw a line between working versus hanging out at rehearsals,

she said. As an actor, she was happy that instead of simply instructing an actor to do something a certain way, Hecht would ask the actors questions and allow for their own interpretations of the scene. As a friend, she has also seen Hecht grow thanks to the logistical challenges she faced leading up to the show and how she was able to quickly find solutions.

Benson enjoyed the rehearsal process with Hecht at the helm, especially because this is only his second production at the school, he said. “Bailey has been very, very helpful in making me feel comfortable with how I say things or asking questions about theatre terms that I’m not familiar with.”

Throughout directing her own play, Hecht has had to grapple with many ups and downs, especially major changes late in the process. One thing

that helped her was sticking with her gut, she said. When she thought of an idea, she tried to stay with it for as long as possible, because even if she may not have liked it all the time, Hecht liked it enough to think of it in the first place.

Miller was ecstatic to see Hecht grow over the process since she has known Hecht since she first came to the school three years ago, she said. Over the process, Hecht has significantly grown her knowledge about how theatre in the real world works while in school, which is not something that students often have the opportunity to do, Miller said.

Miller’s favorite part of the project is how much Hecht has enjoyed the process. “Every time she came back to our weekly meetings and said, ‘oh my goodness, we just did this great thing,’ and she would tell me all about it, her joy is what has brought me joy.”

Coming up next week: The Record’s Valentine’s Day issue

Courtesy of Trish Tran Actors Celia Stafford (11), Noah Benson (9), Athena Spencer (12), and Loewy Miller (9) and Assistant Stage Manager Charles Ampah (11) strike a pose.

Hecht’s set design

Costume sketches by Giselle Paulson (12)

Fashion

Clara Medeiros Contributing Writer

Bop or flop: Grammys Review

Music

Steve Lacy

Nominated for four Grammys, the “Bad Habit,” singer Steve Lacy took to the red carpet rocking a double-breasted tuxedo with a silk pocket square. While male celebrities are often criticized for their underwhelming red carpet getups, Lacy pulled off his unique twist on the suited look and was one of the most stylish guests of the night. He offset the masculine energy of the suit with a pearl pendant, suspended from a rhinestone brooch that matched the white tips of his pointed shoes. Black shades hugging the sides of his face and tat

toos peeking from his blazer offered a rock-and-roll element, while his book-like clutch gave it a “ready for business” vibe. With individual flair and a dash of pizzazz, Lacy proved that a classic never goes out of style.

Adele

Adele set fire to the rain with her Grammys’ red carpet getup after a six-year absence from the event. The 16-time Grammy winner rocked the red carpet with a custom burgundy Louis Vuitton velvet gown, all tied together with lavish silk matelassé and organic her dark eyeshadow

Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves chose not to go unnoticed, dressed in a Valentino bubblegum pink catsuit. The bubblegum theme continued

pulled the entire look together. That moody palette allowed her Tiffany & Co. flower diamond earrings to stand out. Adele completed the look with an attention-grabbing neckline flared up from her shoulder. The look exudes the elegance that Adele so effortlessly represents through her

ders. While she took a fashion risk with a Barbie-style look, the cotton candy-esque cloak looks too Pepto Bismol-ly for my taste. She might have been able to pull off the feathers if she did not drown them in her look or wore something underneath that complimented them, but the catsuit was not up for the

Shania Twain

with reminded me of the man in “Curious George.” Twain topped off her Harris Reed glittering getup with flaming red hair, as if the clothing was not eye-catching enough. Although her daringness is admirable, I can’t help but think it belongs more in a Dr. Seuss story than on the Grammys’ red carpet.

Has Sam Smith sold their soul?

The Grammys shocked audiences when they diverged from their traditionally conservative views and awarded non-binary artist Sam Smith and transgender female artist Kim Petras with Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their performance of “Unholy,” and their devilish rendition of the hit which left viewers in

Love him or hate him, the Internet is intoxicated with Harry Styles. From the moment he arrived (in what looked like an upscale farmer’s outfit), his fans, known as “harries,” went crazy. In his acceptance speech for Album of the Year, Styles shared a vulnerable line that made fans swoon: “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” commenting on his huge win against music industry giants Beyoncé and Adele. In response, an audience member shouted, “Beyoncé should’ve won. Get off the stage.” This exchange was reminiscent of the 2009 MTV Awards incident when Kanye West interrupted Swift’s

a frenzy. Christian conservatives declared the performance “satanic,” while haters accused them of selling their souls for their unexpected victory against favored artists like ABBA and Coldplay. Although there is a certain peculiarity in the performance’s theme, the two artists unquestionably deserved the award. Regardless of the backlash, we should celebrate the historic nature of this moment as the two became the first genderqueer duo to take home the award.

speech claim ing Beyoncé should have won. Some think that Styles’ com ment came from a place of privilege as a white man, con sidering a Black wom an has not won the award since 1999. Needless to say, this year’s Grammys was a Style-ish show.

Grammy’s artists celebrated the evolution of a soaring tribute to the genre’s past five decades. The celebration featured performances from icons like LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, and Questlove. The collective ensemble of 26 hiphop artists made the crowd go wild as each artist took the stage, singing iconic songs

from their respective discographies. The order in which the tribute was performed was especially significant — each new artist represented a different time period of hip hop. Grandmaster Flash opened the 13-minute performance with “Flash to the Beat” and “The Message”; Lil Uzi Vert brought the tribute home with “Just Wanna Rock.” The performance was a powerful ode to the multi-generational successes of hip hop, recognizing how far the genre has come and where it will go in the future.

Lizzo’s Record of the Year win for “About Damn Time” was nothing short of amazing. Finally, it appears the Grammys are stepping away from awarding the same few artists every year. Like many pop hits, “About Damn Time” is either loved or hated. Depending on the side of TikTok you are on, users will either celebrate Lizzo or make comments about her weight.

Many Lizzo haters also believe the award was snubbed from artist Steve Lacy and his catchy record, “Bad Habit.” Despite the Internet debate, there’s no denying that the song’s uplifting tune and addictive lyrics captured the spirit of 2022. When an artist like Lizzo, who takes every opportunity to spread kindness and self-love, wins a Grammy, celebrations should take place. After all, it’s about damn time.

Harry Styles

Hip Hop Tribute Lizzo

Sam Smith and Kim Petras

Avery Vukhac Contributing Writer

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

Amira Dossani/Art Director

Amira Dossani/Art Director

Lions’ Den Record Sports

Class of 2023 recruited Lions leave The Den

Ava Lipsky Staff Writer

Aden Soroca (12) was recruited to Hamilton College for baseball. Soroca has been playing baseball for almost as long as he can remember, he said. He was given his first glove at around one or two years old, and started playing t-ball when he was three or

ball and never looked back, approaching schools at the end of sophomore year, he said. “The recruitment process is really complicated and difficult. It requires patience and grit and determination,” he said. Soroca was in contact with Hamilton for a while,

Recruited to sail at Yale University, Ariana Borut (12) has been sailing since she was ten years old. “When I was younger, I just loved being out on the water and the community of friends I built through sailing. As I started to compete in regattas as I got older, I really liked the competitive aspect of it.”

Borut entered the recruitment

nior spring, and heard from Yale early in the summer. “I was really drawn to Yale’s emphasis on community and how highly academics are valued alongside athletics,” Borut said. There, she looks forward to learning from the coaches and other sailors who come from different sailing backgrounds.

Nate Wildman

Nate Wildman (12) is set to play football at Hamilton College this fall. Wildman was a member of the school’s Varsity Football team throughout his time in the Upper Division and has been playing the sport since fourth grade, he said. Wildman decided to un dergo the recruiting process because he loves football and wanted to continue playing it in college, he said. “I love the physicality that’s required to excel and the team aspect of the sport.” He began reaching out to dif ferent schools during junior year and got responses a couple months later, he said. “I sent my film to coaches and if they liked it, they would invite me to their campus and potentially give me

an offer.”

He decided to commit to Hamilton College and is excited to be a part of their football team, he said. “I’m looking forward to playing my sport at a higher level and hope to excel in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.”

Girls and Boys Varsity Fencing continue winning record with 6-0 victory

Anoushka Parakh Contributing Writer

The Girls and Boys Varsity Fencing Teams defeated Mamaroneck 6-0 this Monday. It was a friendly match, Coach Alejandra Teran-Eligio said, as the Mamaroneck team was new to the sport and are not a part of the school’s league.

Team energy was high during the match, as those who weren’t actively fencing cheered on their teammates, team member Harry Cottrell (12) said.

Zhong was nervous for her first bout but gained started to build confidence during the second because her teammates such as Madison Xu (12) helped her feel more comfortable,

she said. “I get scared when I don’t get points, which make my hands get very shaky, which hurts my performance as I can’t get my blade to touch in the target area,” Zhong said. “I know I can be fast, but sometimes I shy away from the attack because I don’t believe I can.”

During the match, Calvin Huber (10), typically on saber, competed on epee. “[Huber] had scored a point called a ‘flick,’ where one whips the blade at someone and pulls it back at the last second, bending the blade in the air so that it bounces back and hits them,” Cottrell said. This was an especially impressive move to execute, as Huber is new to epee.

Fencers’ tactics differ depending

on their individual style, Teran-Eligio said. “Every person is different –– some people like to attack and some people like to defend. At this point, we are trying to help the fencers grow up into their own style.“

Up until mid-January, the team’s practices were centered around technique, conditioning, adjusting, and learning the fencing style, Teran-Eligio said. “Now, it is just fence, fence, fence.” They have also developed and familiarized themselves with their own styles and improved dramatically since November, Teran-Eligio said. Cottrel said that the team must improve further in order to advance in the upcoming Independent School Fencing

League Championships (ISFL). “I keep attacking someone even if I am winning, which gives them more chances to get points off me rather than me just standing still,” he said. “So, I have been working on staying on my side of the fencing court and playing defense rather than just attack, attack, attack.”

Specifically in saber, it is important to start with a preparation move that allows the fencer to assess what is going on and then accordingly play defense or attack, Andrew Ogundimu (12) said. “I want to get more comfortable with keeping things simple and going for open attacks more frequently.”

Director of Athletics

Robert Anunziata to retire at end of 2022-23 year

After 35 years at the school, Director of Athletics, Health and Physical Education Robert Anunziata will retire at the end of the 202223 academic year. Anunziata has overseen the development of the K-12 Physical Education Department, the doubling of Middle and Upper Division Athletics programs from 44 to 86 teams, the renovation and construction of four Athletic facilities, and the implementation of comprehensive athletic safety protocols. He has also been involved in the school’s Summer on the Hill and Habitat for Humanity programs, along with coaching Varsity Football, Varsity Golf, Girls Varsity Basketball, and numerous MD

teams over the years. The Record will cover his time at the school in-depth in our class day issue.

HOKEY POKEY Madison Xu (12) searches for the touch

Aden Soroca Ariana Borut