Volume CXXIII, No. 12
Milton’s Admissions
Ian Glick ‘21 News Writer As students return from March break, a time often filled with thoughts about life after Milton, the annual period of revisit days remind us of the other admissions process that many students have experienced. With over 1,600 applicants this year, and an anticipated 1,700 once spring and summer applications have been submitted, prospective students face a challenge that grows more daunting by the year. According to Mr. Natale, an Assistant Director of Admission who has worked in Milton admissions for six years, the amount of applicants to the Milton Upper School has grown “significantly” each year since his arrival. Those 1,700 applicants each hope to earn one of only approximately 180 total spaces in Milton’s rising freshman, sophomore, and junior classes. That ratio of spaces to applicants creates an acceptance rate of approximately 10.6 percent. Milton’s acceptance rate for students entering the upper school is lower than that of 99.6 percent of universities in the United States, according to data posted on Quora.com. According to a post on educationcorner.com, Milton’s acceptance rate is also lower than that of Dartmouth College (11.5%), Cornell University (14.2%), and Duke University (11.5%). To manage and optimize such a competitive environment, the admissions staff works tirelessly throughout the year. In September, October, and November, when most of us are studying and re-adjusting to school, many admissions staff members are travelling the world and interviewing students. According to the Milton Admissions Catalogue, students hail from 27 countries and 28 states. Milton admissions faculty travel to many of these places to raise prospective students’ awareness of Milton. December and January mark the height of interview CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
THIS WEEK’S MEASURE
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Gabriel Gomez Speaks Politics
Idone Rhodes '20 News Writer On Wednesday, April 4th, Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL and Aircraft Carrier Pilot, came to speak to the Upper School at the Conservative Club’s yearly assembly. Gomez attended the United States Naval Academy (USNA) and went on to become a Navy pilot. After four years of flying, Gomez joined the Navy SEALs. Gomez spent the majority of his time on SEAL Team Four, which was deployed in South and Central America. Around five years after starting his service as a Navy SEAL, Gomez left active duty and attended Harvard Business School, where he received a Master of Business Administration. After spending some time in private equity investing, his interest in serving the country was rekindled, and in 2013 he ran for a Massachusetts’ Senate seat in the special election and won the Republican primary, ultimately losing the seat to Ed Markey in the general election. Gomez decided not to run for Senator again in the 2014 election, and instead co-founded 02X, a company which holds special training seminars and education pro-
though they made up just 13 percent of the U.S. population. Week after week, we watch the last few seconds of yet another life, captured on video recordings and body cams. We sit and watch as another police department issues a twitter statement voicing their regret and sorrow, or, as another police officer leaves court free of charge. And over and over again we have to ask ourselves: why does the color of someone’s skin make it 2.5 times more likely that they will get shot? It’s a question whose answer goes back hundreds of years, but it’s one that we must remind ourselves of each time we hear of a new police brutality
“Student Center Divide Raises Controversy” - November 16th, 2012 Shira Golub Traditionally, underclassmen have been the subjects of intimidating stares from upperclassmen peering over the railing in the student center. This year, Class IV students have reported incidents of thrown objects and spitting, causing adults and students alike to take action in an attempt to change upperclassmen ways. Dean of Students Jose Ruiz explained that he has “heard from Class IV Deans... reports from students who have experienced what they perceive to be either spitting of some sort whether it be liquid or actual spit itself or the flicking of items, food and things of that sort.” “There are a few individuals in the upper classes who are throwing things down on the freshman,” and “who for some reason find [it] funny,” Mr. Fitzpatrick, Class IV dean, shared. He conveyed that to his knowledge, “people had spit, [and] tic-tacs, paper, [and] banana peels [were] thrown down.” An anonymous Class IV girl admitted that she witnessed “a junior [throwing] a box of tampons at [her] friends.” Jacob Aronoff, also Class IV, disclosed that he was hit by a bana. “I just looked up and it was on my shoulder.” Ms. Morin, head of counseling at Milton, explained that she has also “been aware of students throwing things down,” as well as “girls feeling judged by students that are over the railing.” Mr. Beauchmin, a Class II dean, echoed this sentiment, expressing how it can be “intimidating to have a large group staring down into the crowd below.” The Class IV deans became aware of this issue when they “decided that [they] wanted to have gender assemblies and at those meetings had specific questions [they] wanted to ask about comfort level,” said Mr.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
A&E
SPORTS
The Boston Globe
Gabriel Gomez, Conservative Club speaker, laments his Senate loss
grams for first responders. Gomez’s background as a first generation American influenced his perspective on service in the United States. Gomez noted that he feels “extremely grateful” that his parents decided to move to the US, and he wanted to join the Navy to pay back the country for the kindness he felt he was extended here. Upon attending the USNA, Gomez felt an overwhelming sense of service, duty, honor, and country. When one of Gomez’s friends suggested that he run for the Senate in 2013, he initially took
the suggestion as a joke, but then realized that campaigning for the seat was his opportunity to serve the United States once again. When Gomez considered running a second time in 2014, the GOP took him in, since, as both a more moderate Republican and a Latino, he could attract a younger and more diverse voting base. Unfortunately, powerful Republican senators like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz did not want another Republican Latino senator attracting their own supporters, so the CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Police Brutality in 2018
The Root
Stephen Clark’s death sparks protests Jana Amin ‘21 cans are 2.5 times as likely as Opinion Writer white Americans to be shot 294 unarmed people and killed by police officers. have been shot and killed by It is clear that the incessant police so far in 2018. 987 were police murders of unarmed shot and killed by police in black men is a very real issue. 2017. As the Washington Post In 2012, black people acnoted in an analysis pub- counted for 31 percent of lished in 2016, black Ameri- police killing victims even
NEWS Meesage From Old and New Head Monitors - Page 3
OPINION
Archives: Class Divide
Phelps-Roper - Page 10
A Capella Night - Page 12
March Madness - Page 14
David Hogg - Page 11
“?” - Page 12
Game Schedule- Page 15
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Page 2
The Milton Measure est. 1894
The CXXIII Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief Alexander Chen ‘18 & Nina Taneja ‘18
Managing Editor Patrick Huang ‘18 Layout Editors Charis Palandjian ‘18 Maya Thakore ‘18 Web Editor Anastasia Sukharevsky ‘18
Senior Editors Edward Sheehan ‘18 Soleil Devonish ‘18 Nina Subkhanberdina ‘18 Olivia Risoleo ‘18
A&E Editors Kalaria Okali ‘18 Jack Delea ‘19
News Editors Desi DeVaul ‘19 Nicholas Taborsky ‘19
Opinion Editors Eva O’Marah ‘19 John Albright ‘19
Sports Editors Caroline McCarthy ‘18 Andrew D’Ambrosio ‘19
Photo Editors Rebecca Karlson ‘18 Leo Jin ‘18
Faculty Advisor Liz Matson
News Leo Jin ‘18 Kailee Silver ‘18 Daming Cui ‘19 Maria Geroukos ‘19 Cameron Hoffman ‘19 Charles Leonetti ‘19 Alexander McEvoy ‘19 Samantha Bateman ‘20 Kiran Biddinger ‘20 Ethan Furdak ‘20 Ainsley Iwanicki ‘20 Leydn McEvoy ‘20 Idone Rhodes ‘20 David Shaw ‘20 Jack Sullivan ‘20 Cece Zinny ‘20 Eliza Dunn ‘21 Ian Glick ‘21 A&E Kelly Han ‘19 Michael George ‘19 Gracie Chiang ‘20 India Claudy ‘20 Katie Conn ‘20 Madeline Fitzgibbon ‘21 Photography Caroline Magann ‘18 Hannah Neri ‘18 Alex Paul ‘18 Lily Reposa ‘18 Arianna Bravo ‘19 Michael George ‘19 Kelly Han ‘19
Opinion Jeffrey Cao ‘18 Catherine Gallori ‘18 Jack Weiler ‘18 Alana Greenaway ‘19 Yunqing (Star) Hu ‘19 Cade Rose ‘19 Alexander Shih ‘19 Dariya Subkhanberdina ‘19 Ugur Gurol ‘20 Sophie Lachenauer ‘20 Andrew Ma ‘20 Pari Palandjian ‘20 Olivia Wang ‘20 Jana Amin ‘21 Shannon Kim ‘21 Sports Jack Pacheco ‘18 Steve Walker ‘18 Will Bucci ‘19 Dylan Hickey ‘19 Lou Barber ‘20 Zane Bookbinder ‘20 Blair Englert ‘20 Ben Monnich ‘20 Kavi Shah ‘20 Colin Baker ‘21 Humor Andriana Velmahos ‘18 Anthony Gallagher ‘18 John Minicus ‘18 Jack Sloane ‘18 Dylan Volman ‘18 Spencer Graham ‘18
THE MILTON MEASURE IS ONLINE Electronic Copies of The Milton Measure
If you would like to begin receiving copies of the Measure via email, please send your email address to Anastasia Sukharevsky at:
anastasia_sukharevsky18@milton.edu Letters to the Editors Please either email our editors or mail to: alexander_chen18@milton.edu & nina_taneja18@milton.edu The Milton Measure 170 Centre Street Milton, MA 02186
Privacy Recently, Facebook has come under fire for breaking the trust of facebook users, with celebrities like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak publicly blasting the company, and deleting their accounts. This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came before the Congress to respond to questions Facebook’s use of consumer data. More specifically, Zuckerberg was grilled on data privacy. The focus on privacy stems from how Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting company, came to be in possession of the private information of 87 million Facebook users — data which it may have used to influence the 2016 presidential election. This specific breach started when a man named Aleksandr Kogan, a Russian-American neuroscientist working at Cambridge University, created a personality quiz app that mined the data of Facebook users who used it. The use of this app resulted not only in the data collection of these users, but also, through a loophole in Facebook’s software, the friends of the people who used this app also had their data stolen. Facebook and other networks are served by algorithms utilizing user data to craft a better experience - in other words, major platforms reasonably find out more about their users in order to present personally relevant content, like advertisements and related posts. In exchange for the convenience for companies and consumers, users sacrifice personal information regarding their interests. Striking a balance between appropriately tailored content and an infringement of privacy has been an ideal to consumers, but, as evidenced by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, companies don’t alway honor this nonpareil. Events of the past few weeks, particularly the Facebook incident, have reignited conversation among Milton students and across the world regarding personal privacy in technology. Many Milton students are consumers of social media. Yet, evidence is increasingly clear that our personal information is constantly being collected, purchased, organized, and sold on a global market. Although not all Milton students use Facebook or various means of social media, we are still members of the Milton community. And as members of the community, we all must sign into the wifi with our own username and password and we all use our milton.edu for anything on chrome (gmail, docs, youtube). And through this, our search history, internet usage, and online habits can be logged and recorded by the school. Just like for any social media, that data stored by Milton is out of our control. Once we log into the Milton wifi, we lose control. Once we log into our google accounts, from home or school, our information is logged. And as dystopian as that may be, we must accept that that is our current reality. We live in a world where information is everywhere, in or control and out of our control. And the answer to private and secure information does not lie in encouraging users to delete their accounts — it lies in the management of that information and acceptance of our reality.
Head Monitors
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Page 3
Kailee’s Kolumn and Greg’s Grumblings From Greg:
Kailee and Greg smile at you!
Michael George(II)
From Kailee:
Here we are — my very last Kolumn! I spoke at Revisit Day last week and it seems like just yesterday I was sitting where they were. I came to Milton as a new sophomore and never imagined myself being captain of two sports or Head Monitor- but here I am! I thought for my last Kolumn I would share some pieces of advice I’ve learned over my three years at Milton. 1: Stop caring so much! Not everything is the end of the world. I got a 5% on a Megablunder quiz sophomore year and it literally does not matter. What feels like a big deal right now won’t matter in a couple of years. Run for SGA! Ask that person to prom! Laugh loudly! Don’t care what other people think. Be yourself and everything will fall in place around that. 2. Be kind! You never know what the person right next to you is going through. Being kind is a beautiful legacy to leave behind and I’ve found that you never regret being kind. 3. Breathe. Milton can be a lot. Take time to take care of yourself. Sit back, breathe, and think. It’s okay to not feel okay. Allow yourself to feel whatever it is you’re feeling, breathe, and carry on. Blast Taylor Swift and dance around your room during free periods if that’s what you got to do. (Trust me, it works.) 4. Don’t fall for your chemistry teacher’s son. Doesn’t end well. 5. Tell your friends you love ‘em. I’m so grateful for all of my amazing friends, and they’re honestly the reason I can keep going. Give hugs, text your friends, and have girl’s nights! 6. Laugh it off. Don’t take everything too seriously! 7. Do something that makes you scared and excited. For me that’s public speaking or sharing a piece of me with someone else. Perform at Beatnik, make an announcement at assembly, or go say hi to someone new! 8. Ask for help. You don’t have to go through everything alone. Call your friends, your roommate, a teacher, literally anyone is better than dealing with something by yourself. 9. If you’re watching “Vines that keep me from ending it all” at 3 am on a Thursday night, know that it’s okay. We’ve all been there. 10. Smile. I try to spin everything into something positive or a learning lesson, or at the very worst, a fun story to tell later. Milton, thank you so much. It’s been such an honor to be Head Monitor. I’m so happy that I got to share my high school experience with all of you guys! Lots of love, Kailee
It's kind of crazy to think my time at Milton is coming to a close when it seems like just yesterday I got here. So before I go, there are just a few things I’d like to grumble about. 1. It was an honor to be your Head Monitor. Honesty, one of the most valuable experiences of my life. I’ve learned so much from all of you and I can only hope that I made your year just a little bit better. 2. I’m just now realizing how much I’m going to miss you all. Not just all you students but the faculty too. You all have really changed my life and I’m never going to forget you. 3. For all those people I haven’t gotten a chance to meet yet, please come up and talk to me before the year is over. I really think I’m a pretty friendly person (at least I try to be) and I want to get to know you. 4. While I wasn’t able to get everything done that I wanted to this year as Head Monitor, I just want you all to know how thankful I am to have the opportunity to represent you all. I care so much about everyone here and while it wasn’t always smooth sailing, you have made my senior year one that I will never forget. 5. I guess what I’m trying to say is that while I always thought that as Head Monitor I would be the one leading you, but what I realized is you were all really leading me. I’ve learned so much from you all and I will be forever thankful for that. 6. Thank you.
Thank you so much to Kailee and Greg for being such great Head Monitors!
A Message From Your New Head Monitors: Mikey and Asia
First, we want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to be leaders and representatives of our community. Milton is a place that means a lot to both of us and we’re really excited to give back in the upcoming months and following year. To introduce ourselves, I’m Asia, and I’m a boarder in Robbins House from Jamaica. Three facts about me: I take pictures for the yearbook, this will be my 2nd year on the SGA, and my favourite Flik Lunch is Fish Fridays. My favourite building on campus is the AMC (it matches my initials) and I spend a lot of time there working on art projects. I’m Mikey. I’m a day student who moved from Boston to Milton a couple years ago. If I’m not in class, you can find me on campus in the student center or library, more than likely not doing work. I really enjoy spending
Mikey George and Asia Chung are the next head monitors time with my friends, going outside, and watching movies; my favorite has to be Ex Machina. What we both have experienced, as past members of the SGA, is that previous head monitors have been frustrated by how little they were able to accomplish over
the course of a year in comparison to what they’d hoped and anticipated. We’ve seen the leaders of the school set out to achieve some larger goal but find that their power is limited and their goal unattainable. Therefore, we feel as if the best way to have an impact on the school is to
Alex Chen(I)
avoid a few big, far-reaching goals and instead undertake a vast number of smaller-scale ventures. These ventures include, but are not limited to, giving more community days, requiring that teachers alert their students of any major assessments at least one week in advance, increasing
the number of rolling checkins, creating a late system for assembly, extending snackbar hours, and making ourselves, as head monitors, more accessible to the student body. We hope that the smaller acts will accumulate to an increase in the net happiness of our school, while maintaining Milton’s academic intensity. As a continuation of this year, we want one of our main themes to be mental health, and we also want to extend into other issues surrounding academic challenges, stress days (for boarders and day students), international student jet lag and proper treatment of either physically or mentally deterred students. We want to thank you again for electing us as your head monitors and we’re really looking forward to working with you this year :) Mikey and Asia
Friday, April 13th, 2018
News
Page 4
Pandamonium at Facebook: Zuckerberg’s Undoing
Eliza Dunn ‘21 News Writer Facebook is under scrutiny for a data breach affecting millions of users in the U.S. and the U.K. Cambridge Analytica (CA), a private data firm, is being investigated for harvesting data from nearly 50 million Facebook profiles. CA used Facebook’s data to identify trends and create targeted ads in order to influence private businesses and political campaigns. According to NPR, CA “[develops] detailed psychological profiles of every American voter, so that campaigns [could] tailor their pitches from person to person.” During the 2016 election, Ted Cruz’s campaign hired CA. When Cruz won the Iowa caucus, CA CEO Alexander Nix publicly claimed credit: “We did… all the targeting, we ran the digital campaign,... and our data informed the strategy.” CA was also influential in the pro-Brexit and Trump campaigns. The Facebook breach began in 2013 when Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University researcher, developed a personality quiz app with a Facebook login. The app gave Kogan access to millions of user profiles. Kogan used data on friends, likes, and even locations to develop personalized ads. CEO Nix reported that the quiz
NBC
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Facebook conference
was “rolled… out to literally hundreds and… thousands of people across America." Kogan shared this data with CA. In 2015, Facebook learned about Kogan’s harvesting and asked CA to delete its illegally procured data. CA certified that all data was deleted. This March, however, Christopher Wylie, a former CA analyst, revealed that the data was not deleted. Videos of employees “boasting of using manufactured sex scandals, fake news, and dirty tricks to swing elections around the world” were also released. In response, Facebook banned CA from Facebook and initiated an investigation and forensic audit into the firm. Facebook has assured users that no passwords or sensitive information were compromised, but copies of the data may still exist. Facebook issued a statement that: “contrary to the certifications
we were given, not all data was deleted… this is another unacceptable violation of trust and commitments [CA] made.” Facebook is facing backlash for the scandal. In about a month, the company lost billions of dollars in stocks and shares are down more than 8 percent. Ads, Facebook’s primary source of revenue, are being pulled from the app and many websites are removing Facebook login functions. A #DeleteFacebook movement is growing as the company faces questions, lawsuits, and distrust from its users and shareholders. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into violations of privacy agreements, and Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress. In response, Facebook has run ads in U.S. and U.K. newspapers apologizing for
MA Admissions Process, Continued
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
season. Interviews are often a prime source of stress for applicants, but a student who may enter the class of 2022 said that Milton’s admissions staff made him feel “instantly comfortable.” In order to make the process more convenient, the admissions department recently switched from having its own independent application; now, students can apply through “Gateway to Prep Schools” or “the SSAT Application.” After January 15th, admissions faculty read applications. All applications are read three times: first, they are read by the admissions staff member who oversees the geographic area that the applicant is from. Second, students are broken into pools (e.g. “Day student boys”) and applications are read by the admissions staff member responsible for each pool. Finally, Mr. Rebuck, the Dean of Admission, reads every application. Mr. Natale has definitely noticed that, as the amount of applications has increased, applicants have become much more impressive. Stu-
dents who would have been accepted only a few years ago are now often considered “hard wait-lists.” The continuous improvement in the quality of applicants has made decision-making an even more difficult process. The admissions staff, however, has remained consistent in what they look for in applicants: while good grades, SSAT scores, and written applications remain crucial, the most important factor is an applicant’s character. Students can have exceptional scores and grades, but, according to Mr. Natale, they are unlikely to be accepted if they are not “good people.” Specifically, Milton admissions values curious students who are unafraid of asking questions. Passion, both inside and outside the classroom, is another imperative personality trait. Decisions are released to students on March 10th, and the admissions staff spends the next several weeks reaching out to accepted students. Revisit Day is a crucial tool, as accepted students truly get to see what a day in the life of a Milton student is like. Sebastian Park (IV), a stu-
dent who applied to Milton last fall, said that “it was very beneficial to have revisit day [because it offered] a more in depth view of the school.” James Good, a student who may be joining the class of 2022, had similar thoughts, “[Revisit day] was helpful because I got to experience the classes; I got to eat lunch with the students; I got to meet students, and it was just helpful because I basically had an experience with the school, so that was able to help me make a final decision.” Ingrid Krishnan, another student who may join the class of 2022 added, “There were also student panels, which were really helpful. There were upperclassmen, and it was nice to hear what their perspectives were after being at Milton for three or four years.” After revisit day, many admissions staff members begin travelling again, hoping to interest new students who will be applying in the fall.
the breach. Zuckerberg has also issued public apologies: “we have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you.” Zuckerberg outlined Facebook’s remedial plan. The company vowed to ban suspicious apps and reduce the amount of data accessible to apps. To increase transparency, Facebook’s News Feed will feature a tool to help users monitor which apps are accessing data. Zuckerberg has also accepted responsibility: “I started Facebook and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform.” According to an article from the New York Times, “without a strong, engaged user base, [Facebook] will fail, and… face the wrath of its shareholders.” The company’s challenge will be to win back the trust of shareholders, policymakers, and consumers. Many consumers now question the safety of Facebook. Despite this distrust, a poll by NPR found that very few respondents left the site following the scandal. “What we found is a nation still deeply tied to the social network, but increasingly skeptical of its data privacy promises.” At Milton, a similar trend emerges. Only 19% of students’ views were altered by the scandal. Students rea-
soned that by creating a Facebook account, you accept any risks that come with it. “By choosing to use social media, you subject yourself to risks regarding your privacy,” answered Dariya Subkhanberdina (II). Esteban Gutierrez (II) agreed: “It's a choice we all make now when we agree to Terms of Service for any application: that major companies cannot keep users safe from the advancing cybercriminal world.” Responses were varied, however, and some students countered that the scandal “reinforced my opinion that Facebook is not safe for those who want their information to be private,” wrote Toya Ora (I). “Everything can be monitored.” Cece Zinny (IV) now sees Facebook “as an untrustworthy social media platform. Although I do not have an account, I now think I never will.” The Facebook scandal raises questions not only about the safety of our data, but also about the legitimacy of international elections, including the 2016 election. Users are wondering: is Facebook too powerful? It remains to be seen what effect the scandal will have on our dependence on social media platforms and regulatory efforts to control them.
Earth Month at Milton
Jack Sullivan ‘20 News Writer April 1st, which marked both Easter and April Fools day this year, also marked the start of Earth Month — a month dedicated to our planet. Earth Month lasts all of April, and it culminates on April 22nd, Earth Day. It is a time for people from all over the world to educate themselves about environmental issues such as pollution, climate change, and the depletion of natural resources. At Milton, Earth Month kicked off on Monday, April 2nd, when the Sustainability Board presented in front of the whole school. They, along with FLIK, plan on instituting a week of sustainable eating at Forbes dining hall. Students can also look forward to the Sustainability Board’s “Earth Month Festival,” which offers free food among other environmentally-minded attractions. Milton students can also keep an eye out for Art with a Social Conscience’s pollution-themed exhibition in the Student Center. Milton students also have the option to partici-
pate in Earth Month through several off-campus activities. Two civil protests will happen in Boston: A March for Science on April 21st and the People’s Climate Movement on April 28th. The March for Science is an organized march that takes place in cities all over the world, including Boston. The movement’s website (marchforscience. com) states that its goal is to encourage “evidence-based policy.” The other march, the People’s Climate Movement, was formed to combat President Trump’s stance on environmentalism. These marches both serve to combat his targeting of federal environmental regulations and policies and to raise awareness about the Earth’s environmental predicament. Milton students who cannot get their own rides can take busses into Boston from campus. Another noteworthy environmental event at Milton is the second meeting of the Independent School Sustainability Coalition (ISSC) on April 15th. At this meeting, student representatives from over twenty New England prep schools will come to CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Friday, April 13th, 2018
From The Archives, Continued
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Fitzpatrick. He added that at this assembly, “some young lady, very brave, stood up and said she didn’t appreciate things being thrown on her from up above.” Mr. Fitzpatrick explained that he and Mrs.
me think...what are freshmen thinking about this school.” Mr. Ruiz echoed this discomfort, feeling that “there was a sense from students that it did not feel welcoming.” Information regarding the power structure of the student center and the actions that have occured
“Mr. Ruiz said the administration ‘talked to the class deans and asked them to address the issues with their respective classes. I have sat with SGA and talked with all the class representatives to come up with ideas and ways in which we can address the issue with the students.’”
Steimle, the other Class IV dean, “decided that [they] would talk to the administration about [the issue].” Mr. Ruiz said the administration “talked to the class deans and asked them to address the issues with their respective classes. I have sat with SGA and talked with all the class representatives to come up with ideas and ways in which we can address the issue with the students.” Although he believes “it’s a very small percentage of students that are probably involved in the behavior... it is happening and the fact of the matter is that even if it happens to one student, it needs to be addressed.” This reasoning is crucial to explaining to the Milton Community why these incidents have to be such a big issue. “It does have a strong effect on the kids who say they have been spat on or thrown at or feeling judged by,” Ms. Morin said. The timing of the introduction of this problem was also a factor that added to its magnitude. Mr. Fitzpatrick questioned that, “because it happened so quickly in the school year, [it] made
Page 5 News Steve Sando Speaks About C.Elegans
there this year are being conveyed to the administration “in relation to the beginning of school, [has] decreased,” but this is not to say the problems have disappeared. Ms. Morin stresses how the milton Academy Community needs to reach “a level of awareness and recognition that this is an issue” in order to eliminate the hurt that may be occuring within Class IV. “The best possible outcome for me is that Class II and I hold each other accountable for their behavior and take this into their own heads,” agreed Mr. Fitzpatrick, providing a challenge for upperclassman to take the initials steps to making the student center a comfortable, equally shared environment.
Steve Sando researches C.Elegans at an MIT lab.
Samantha Bateman '20 News Writer For the yearly science assembly on Wednesday, April 4, Steve Sando, MIT biology PhD candidate and Milton alumnus, spoke about his experiences working in science. Steve — the son of Milton’s own Mr. Sando of the science department— has strong roots at Milton. He grew up in Milton’s Hallowell house, just steps away from the FCC where he presented his research. Sando’s parents even sat in the audience as he delivered his talk. Sando started off by posing a question: “What controls animal behavior?” Based off of this question, Sando led the audience through the process of conducting investigative research, which included everything from choosing a sample organism to using trial and error to deepen one’s knowledge about a guiding question. Sando described the stepby-step process of how he and his peers gained insight about how a small worm called a C. elegan feeds and spits out food in response to light. He also explained how his team’s discoveries can be used to supplement a model of which parts of the brain control animal feeding and
MIT
spitting. Although all Milton students conduct labs, the presentation of the work of a PhD candidate was a valuable experience for some students. Will Kim (II) praised Sando’s explanation of his discoveries. Will believes that Sando, “brought a very approachable research topic to explain, and this allowed him to speak on his process in an easily comprehensible way.” Will also described Sando’s slides, which provided helpful visual aids of his discoveries, as “captivating.” Sando also touched on how Milton’s notoriously feared Biology course shaped his interest in science. Sando reflected, “I wouldn’t say that I was that seriously or specifically interested in science until the end… I took biology as a senior and it really sparked a unique interest in science.” Ms. Seplaki, the Science Department Chair, cited Sando’s experience at Milton as one reason why Sando was a great find for this year’s talk. “If you spoke with Steve, you would know that there were many instances, while at Milton, where he found opportunities for intellectual growth — it was during this time that he began to develop an understanding and a pas-
sion for science and to assess and subsequently realize his potential as a scientist,” Ms. Seplaki wrote. Ms. Seplaki explained that one of the goals that she had in mind when choosing a speaker was to “inspire students to realize the tremendous potential that exists in the sciences and the numerous interdisciplinary connections therein.” Indeed, seeing a Milton alum’s career path in science resonated with Allison Reilly (III), who said that she was, “curious to hear from a Milton alum with real-world research experience” as someone with a “strong interest in pursuing a career in the fields of math or science.” Sando also gave some words of encouragement to the aspiring scientists in the midst. For all Milton science students, failing is not just a possibility but, instead, a reality. While, at times, this process of trial and error can be infuriating, Sando instead attributed this path as what makes for good work in science. He advised that “90% of what you will do as a scientist fails, so being a scientist is about encountering failure and bouncing back.” For Leydn McEvoy (III), Sando’s acceptance of failure was somewhat inspiring. She commented, “I admired that opportunities for him to think more critically about his work were created from some moments of panic and frustration when results weren’t going as planned. The challenges that he faced made me realize that the most learning comes from failing and trying different approaches again.” Sando’s engaging research and deep connections to Milton made for another successful science assembly.
Sophomores Go on Annual Class 2 Retreat
Cam Hoffman '19 News Writer Every year, typically the first weekend back from March Break, Class II students brace for what has been described as a “decent weekend, better than expected” by a Class I student. This “decent” weekend is what is known as the Class II Retreat or “C2R” and is either
playing beach volleyball, and conversing with your cabin mates in the wee hours of the morning. Despite what should be a fun and enjoyable weekend, out of those surveyed, nobody referred to the weekend as a great time or as a memorable time in which they formed new bonds and relationships with peers whom they would not know
ous amount of a “Thanksgiving” style meal being shared amongst your group at a large table. A weekend in which the games and activities are supposed to be the highlight, it was actually the dinner that was most memorable to our seniors. With the food being recalled as their favorite part of the Class II Retreat, people must wonder: did anybody “Is it possible that if they were less gung ho enjoy C2R? Another Class I responded by stating about separating you from your friends and student “it actually wasn’t that bad.” forcing bonding upon you with people who With yet another fairly unyou do not know all too well, then you may derwhelming response in regards to the weekend, and no have a good weekend?” sign of positivity pertaining to the Class II Retreat, why looked back at somewhat elsewise. Out of those who enjoyed does the weekend continue? fondly or horribly — nothing To find an answer to this more, nothing less. A typical the weekend, the food was deClass II Retreat consists of scribed as their favorite part question I went directly to dancing around a campfire, of the weekend, with a copi- the source, asking a faculty
member, “Why do we have C2R? What is the point if the purpose is to bond with your peers, but people remember the food more instead of their group?” He responded by saying the “C2R [he] saw a few years ago was a pretty good weekend — except for the weather, and the weekend is what the students make of it.” However, how can students have an optimistic outlook going into the weekend, when all they’ve heard of the weekend makes it sound rather dull? Perhaps there is a solution. Amelia Cleary (I) stated that her weekend “sucked” and that “they split you up from your friends.” Is it possible that if they were less gung ho about sep-
arating you from your friends and forcing bonding upon you with people who you do not know all too well, then you may have a good weekend? After all, you’d think that if you’ve been going to this school for the past three years, that if you wanted to be friends with the person that they involuntarily put you in a cabin with, you would have? Everyone is well aware that Milton loves to push you outside of your comfort zone, but maybe by putting at least one or two friends in your group you would enjoy yourself more and feel more comfortable participating in the activities knowing that you have a friend there with you.
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Earth Month, Cont.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
Milton, listen to a speaker, and collaborate in the creation of environmental initiatives. Open to everyone, the speech will be delivered by the Reverend Mariama White-Hammond. White-Hammond’s speech will relate her experience working with minority youths against environmental racism. The ISSC itself was founded last year by five Milton students: Patrick Huang (‘18), Max Hui (‘18), Ariane DesRosiers (‘19), Jennifer Chen (‘19), and Pierce Wilson (‘19). It now includes students from twenty-two schools. Among other things, the coalition sets specific goals for energy and waste reduction. The group will also plan for the upcoming ISSC Eco-olympics, a contest which will pit seven ISSC schools against each other. The winner will be the school that can reduce their waste the most. The ISSC also publishes Gaia, an inter-scholastic magazine centered around environmental issues. It publishes news articles, opinion pieces, poetry, and stories.
See their website, gaia-issc. com, for more. Ariane DesRosiers, one of the founders, strongly recommends that people at least make an effort to watch Ms. White-Hammond speak at the conference. “Attending the conference is a great way to learn and educate yourself about environmental issues that affect us here in Massachusetts,” she says. “And it's an awesome chance to meet like-minded environmentalists.” Milton Academy offers no shortage of Earth Month activities. An interested student can participate in sustainable eating days, visit an Earth Month festival, join an activist movement, create political art, listen to a speaker, publish an article, or even compete in a contest. But Earth Month is not the only time for environmental consciousness. Anyone can passively help by doing small things. “Recycling, printing double-sided, and eating less meat are all things that can help in the long run,” reminds Ariane. “Our school, as an incubator for the next generation's leaders, has the responsibility to create and uphold a new standard of sustainable behaviour.”
News/Opinion
Page 6
Gabriel Gomez Speaks Politics, Cont. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
GOP withdrew much of their support for Gomez. During his talk, Gomez emphasized the importance of putting country before party and voting more independent candidates into office. Gomez, who is prochoice and pro-assault weapon bans, actually changed his party association from Republican to independent about three months ago, but said that, initially, he was drawn to the GOP because of its focus on meritocracy. He said that, eventually, the extremism of both Democrats and Republicans made him feel that “the party left [him],” and as a result he changed his party affiliation to Independent. Gomez expressed his dislike for Trump but also feels that, in some ways, the United States is “just getting what it deserves.” Both parties’ unrelenting support for their candidates, regardless of their actual stances and actions, has made American politics an issue of corruption, party, and blind faith, rather than actual discourse and individual opinions. For example, Gomez brought up
that the National Association of Women never diminished their backing for Bill Clinton during his presidency, even after his inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinksy came to light, and likened the situation to Trump supporters who defended Trump despite the sexual assault allegations made against him. Ultimately, the Gabriel Gomez dream for America is that an independent would win the presidency, a situation which, though unlikely, would open the floodgates for a new moderate wave of politics in America. Another big takeaway from the assembly was the dire need for involvement of young people in political discourse. Gomez lauded youth-organized movements like the March for Our Lives, and instilled the idea that young adults need to come together to form their own, less-partied, political stances, so that in the future, the United States can avoid such extreme politicians like Trump. Although Milton’s majority liberal populus was skeptical going into the assembly, it received rave reviews from many attendees, with some
saying that this was their favorite assembly of the year. In a way, these reactions reaffirmed Gomez’s point about the dangers of unrelenting party affiliations, as many students assumed they wouldn’t like the assembly simply because it was labeled as the “Conservative Club Assembly”; Stefan Aleksic (III) noted that “[He] went into the assembly expecting a controversial Republican, but [Gomez] ended up giving a really interesting talk that taught [Aleksic] to open up [his] views and showed the complexities of American politics.” The Conservative Club was aware that Gomez was an independant when they brought him in as the speaker to represent them and clearly made the right choice in doing so; Gomez taught the audience about the power of young people in political settings and the importance of acting in the best interest of the country as a whole, not just one party, because as Gomez says, “our country is much better than its politics.”
Rising Concerns About Autonomous Vehicles Alexander Shih ‘18 Opinion Writer Self-driving cars have been on the rise for the past few years, and recently we have gotten really close to making them work. However, implementing self-driving cars presents a lot of issues that have to be solved in order for them to work safely. Currently, the reliability of self-driving cars is the biggest concern with this new technology. According to a New York Times article from March 19th, 2018, a woman was hit and killed by a self-driving Uber vehicle after Uber started testing self-driving vehicles in Tempe, Arizona, as well as San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto. This was the first death related to self-driving cars and lead to the immediate suspension of testing in those areas. But even if this technology was completely reliable, concerns still loom around self-driving vehicles. One of the biggest concerns about this has to do with ethics. Self-driving cars are run by AI, meaning that a computer in the car is making all the
Uber pilots trials for self-driving cars
runs into a specific scenario. So, then the question of what to do in a situation where a death is unavoidable arises. If someone jumps in front of the car, do I keep going and run them over, or do I veer away and kill the person inside? Would this situation change if there were two people outside and only one inside the car? The concept
“The concept of AI would leave developers making impossible ethical decisions. And in these cases, there really is no way to win.”
decisions for it. The way AI works, is that the computer is programmed to take a certain course of action whenever it
of AI would leave developers making impossible ethical decisions. And in these cases, there really is no way to win.
Another concern is about situations a car may find itself in that is has no control over. For example, if someone decides to try to hit the car, or if someone swerves in front of it on the highway. In this case, it seems like any course of action would lead to disaster. To solve this, self-driving cars would have to be the only cars on the roads. This means that anyone who wanted to drive, or rather be driven, would need to buy a new car. But buying a car is a very big investment, so expecting everyone who already has a car to buy a new one to implement this technology is not realistic because most people can’t afford it. But, many
Medium
car companies are beginning to develop and implement self-driving systems in their cars that are supposed to give the cars the ability to func-
it can also be terrifying. Self-driving cars would need to connect to the internet in order to communicate with each other to manage traffic flow and to know where other cars are. But this creates a massive vulnerability. What if someone managed to gain access to this network for self-driving cars? Well, they could probably cause every car in the world to crash into something at top speed? The casualties of this kind of act of terrorism could probably be at least tens of millions. These kinds of casualties would be comparable to the number of lives lost in World War II, but the difference would be that the self-driving catastrophe would happen in an instant. While done right, implementation of self-driving cars can work wonders, but there are too many risks that
“While the internet has done a lot of great things, it can also be terrifying.” tion like a self-driving car, but still allows the driver to take control when necessary. This is not exactly the goal of self-driving cars, but it shows that we are making progress. But even if do manage to sort this all out, the last, perhaps biggest, concern about self-driving cars is terrorism. While the internet has done a lot of great things,
could lead to a horrifying disaster. Autonomous vehicles are not unrealistic, and they are already within our grasp, but we need to be very careful about implementation when we finally start making the switch from our current world to a world thriving with autonomous vehicles.
Friday, April 13th, 2018
News/Opinion
MAZE
Page 7
Police Brutality, Cont. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
incident. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been a number of police brutality shootings that people have been talking about. Two Fridays ago, the Baton Rouge Police Department released videos of the shooting of Alton Sterling, a thirty-sevenyear-old street vendor who had been selling CDs in front of a local convenience store. The two officers involved in the incident had arrived in response to a call that a man was brandishing a firearm. Within moments in the videos, Officer Blane Salamoni points a gun at Sterling’s head and threatens to shoot him. Sterling is shocked with a taser and, after a flurry of activity that blurs both officers’ body-cam footage, shot six times. The videos do not show Sterling with a gun but a loaded .38 caliber pistol was found in his pocket. We should all be outraged. Not once does the video show Sterling holding the gun. The officers did not, for any reason other than the color of Sterling’s skin, have any reason to believe he was holding a gun. Yet, the very nature of his being, the color of his skin, caused the officers to fire their guns, not once, or twice, but six times. I am sure, in the moments before firing their guns, that the of-
email me if you solve it
ficers did not think six times about firing that gun. And that is the problem. It takes the human brain 100 milliseconds (1/10 of a second) to make its first impression of a person. In the case of a police officer, once a first impression has been formed, then the brain goes into what scientists call “fight or flight” mode. Police officers are trained to fight and leave behind their opposing instinct of flight in order to protect people. The problem arises when that first impression is based off of a preconceived stereotype that leads one to assume danger. Thus, the trained mind doesn't think twice when clicking the trigger. Police officers need to be properly trained to give their brains the extra 10 seconds to identify their human bias, to assess the situation at large, and if and only if they are in immediate danger, to shoot. And, even then, police officers must be trained to shoot to paralyze and destabilize, not to kill. How many more unarmed black men must die until something about the way police officers handle situations changes? Together, we must fight this. We cannot let another 693 innocent people be killed this year by the very people who are supposed to protect them. Nobody deserves to be 2.5 times more likely to be shot because of the color of their skin.
Milton Academy Plans for New Campus Renovations Kiran Biddinger ‘20 News Writer In a recent Monday morning assembly, Mr. Bland announced upcoming construction to Milton Academy’s campus. But how do renovations and improvements to campus come to fruition? Firstly, the board approves a “master plan,” which details all of the needs of the school across campus. This “master plan” takes years to create and incorporates feedback from people all across campus. Included in the plan is an analysis of all of the buildings across campus and the needs of different spaces. The different needs are then prioritized based on which needs are more critical or helpful. Once the needs are prioritized, the school needs funding from donor campaigns. The school is currently in the middle of a seven year donation campaign called the “Dare Campaign” to finance these additions. Though most of the money from this campaign goes towards the endowment, roughly 15-20% of the money has gone towards improving the buildings and facilities on campus. This summer, big changes are coming to campus.
Over the summer, Milton plans to start three major renovations, the first of which is a renovation of Ware Hall. These summer renovations will be focused mainly on electrical work, such as heating and cooling control. These updates will prevent kids from melting and freezing during math and language classes. In addition, the school plans to put an elevator shaft into Ware, which should be completed
lated computer lab.” Nevertheless, perhaps the biggest renovation will be a new turf field on Voses Field. Though the field is primarily used by girls field hockey and girls lacrosse, Mr. Bland describes that the field “will be big enough for all teams to use at some point during the year.” Eva O’Marah (II), a player for the girls’ field hockey team, hopes that the field will help the team “play against teams with turf fields
sion over the summer of 2019. This will include some improvements to offices in the Student Center, but, moreover, student spaces should also see some upgrades. Though the Student Center renovations are still being planned out, current plans for the 3,500 foot expansion to the student center include a new space for the Office of Multiculturalism and Community Development, a new snack bar, three new english
“Over the summer, Milton plans to start three major renovations, the first of which is a renovation of Ware Hall. These summer renovations will be focused mainly on electrical work, such as heating and cooling control. These updates will prevent kids from melting and freezing during math and language classes. In addition, the school plans to put an elevator shaft into Ware, which should be completed within two years as the massive project entails converting a few classrooms.” within two years as the massive project entails converting a few classrooms. We will also see improvements to the AMC, specifically the computer programming spaces. Updates to the AMC will include, according to Milton’s CFO Ms. Vanderbilt-Brown, a new darkroom for photography, three new computer science classrooms, a new robotics lab, and a new “film-re-
and play even during bad weather conditions.” The summer of 2019 will hold even more renovations, starting with additional improvements to Ware Hall. In 2019, middle school students will mostly see the direct effects on these renovations which will occur on the bottom two floors. Upper school students in the Student Center should also see an expan-
classrooms, and an expansion to the student area with couches. Cam Hoffman (II) said that he was “curious to see how it will look.” In addition, Milton also has some long-term plans and hopes for the future. Although there are no set dates, these plans are already being developed. First, in roughly three to five years, the school is going to construct a com-
pletely new library and skills center to replace Cox Library. Ms. Pearle said that she was “really excited” about the new library and that it would be “a whole different experience.” However, this new library will not be the end of Cox: according to Mr. Bland, Cox might be converted into a new building for the math and computer science departments. Thus, in the future, we will have many new renovations and buildings to help improve student life on campus. Ware will become more comfortable and accessible to all, Milton will showcase its first turf field, and the facilities for the computer science department will be greatly improved. Furthermore, Mr. Bland articulated that the next donation campaign, after this one ends, could see a higher percentage of donations go towards facilities at Milton. Though this will unfortunately not help current high schoolers, middle and lower schoolers may see even more new buildings, fields, and renovations come to campus.
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Centerfold
Freshman of the Month: Colin Baker Spirit animal for your sibling: Wolf Zodiac Sign: Pisces Hometown: Newton, MA Celebrity crush: Ariana Grande Biggest fear going into high school: Getting cut from freshman tennis Favorite thing about Freshmen year: Mr. Lou’s pet fish Favorite thing to do with your sibling: Distract her while she tries to do homework Upperclassman Crush: Charis Palandjian
What are you doing for Patriots’ Day? College Visits College Tours Professional Yodeling Recolonizing America. I’m British Boston Marathon Fortnite Sleeping Catching up on homework. jk i’m a senior
Page 8
Centerfold
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Senior of the Month: Ellie Baker Spirit animal for your sibling: Owl Zodiac Sign: Aries Hometown: Newton, MA Celebrity crush: Scott Eastwood Favorite thing about Senior year: Senior spring Favorite thing to do with your sibling: Making musicallys Underclassman crush: Ian Glick
Is the earth screwed?
Page 9
Opinion
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Page 10
From Westboro Picketer to Social Activist: Megan Phelps-Roper
Andrew Ma ‘20 Opinion Writer A girl was born into a church and raised to hate; from a young age they taught her that the people around her were doomed to hell and were there to seduce her to evil. She and her family paraded with signs that read “God hates f**s” and “God hates Jews,” messages that they truly believed in and wanted to spread to the world. However, after interacting with the kindness, patience, and humor of others on social platforms, she chose to leave the church and the inhumanity that it represented. This is the amazing story of Milton’s Class of 1952 Religious Understanding Speaker, Megan Phelps-Roper, who shared her speech on why she left the Westboro Baptist Church with upper school students on Wednesday, March 28th.
Megan Phelps-Roper speaks about her life at the Westboro Baptist Church
patience in communication and kidness’s power to break the barrier of closed-minded arguing, using her own story to prove it. During her time as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, Phelps administered
“She focused her talks on the importance of patience in communication and kidness’s power to break the barrier of closed-minded arguing, using her own story to prove it.” Ironically, this year’s Religious Understanding Speaker no longer identifies with any religion. However, Mrs. Phelps-Roper’s connection to religious understanding soon became clear: she represented the perspective of the “other side” in a conversation regarding religious and social beliefs. She focused her talks on the importance of
the group’s Twitter. She stated that Twitter was the “perfect way to reach people. It was easy to find targets and attack them.” As her presence grew on twitter, Megan received serious amounts of hate, which she had been trained for after years of protests. What she wasn’t prepared to defend against was kindness.
As the church’s representative on Twitter, Megan targeted leaders of certain groups, such as David Atibol, writer of the blog Jewlicious. At first, the debate with Atibol included the same accusatory and and sarcastic remarks. But gradually, David communicated differently than others did with her, instead using his kindness and humor to show his understanding and ultimately win Phelps-Roper over. He taught her Hebrew and things about Jewish culture, and soon, through patience, they discovered the humanity in each other through composed, calculated, and attentive discussion. Megan showed us one of the positives of social media: the capacity for deliberate, slow-paced, one-on-one conversation. She explained the
Ted Talks
difference between adrenaline-ridden shouting matches at protests and the slow, calculated discussions. Online communication allows people to take their time
have not accepted her change and tell her she can’t change the damage has already inflicted on the world. Megan understands this, and tries to explain to these people that she is trying to do whatever she can to at least help repair some of this damage. She told us that while patience is key, sometimes, people are just there to oppose and won’t really listen to her perspective. These people, Megan admits, must eventually be ignored. Megan Phelps-Roper’s story gives students an extreme example of the background of someone with beliefs that most people might not agree with. She proves to us that considerate discussions with these people can benefit both sides, even if full a change of his or her position doesn’t occur. Today, Megan is happily
“Megan showed us one of the positives of social media: the capacity for deliberate, slow-paced, one-on-one conversation. She explained the difference between adrenaline-ridden shouting matches at protests and the slow, calculated discussions.” and consider their responses more than in person conversation. Additionally, Megan stressed the importance of patience, something that helped her better understand the other side of her former beliefs. Now, Megan is open to communicating with anyone on Twitter. Many people
married to David. While Megan is forever banned from her church and viewed by her family as another temptation of evil, she still lives happier and more free now than she could have ever been before.
An Overly Competitive Milton: Seek Balance Alana Greenaway ‘19 Opinion Writer Nearly every time I strike up a conversation with someone new on campus, I learn about some of their outstanding talents and accomplishments, whether
plishments to those of their peers. I find that, at Milton, there is a balance between healthy competition and destructive competition; I believe Milton students must understand this balance and engage in a competition that
comparing ourselves to others can causes a competitive climate that can be damaging to our own self esteem and motivation to continue trying. We as students have to make sure that our actions
“Nearly every time I strike up a conversation with someone new on campus, I learn about some of their outstanding talents and accomplishments, whether these are athletic, academic, or artistic achievements. I am hardly surprised when my peers have accomplished something amazing because it has become a regular, almost daily event at Milton.” these are athletic, academic, or artistic achievements. I am hardly surprised when my peers have accomplished something amazing because it has become a regular, almost daily event at Milton. Milton students are extremely impressive, and being surrounded by so many talented people inspires me to become a better student, artist, actor, or athlete. But while I do love being surrounded by so many talented people, the environment can become overly competitive as the year unfolds, as students begin to compare their own accom-
is inspiring, not damaging. Out of context, comparisons between yourself and your peers can easily turn into unhealthy, harmful competition. Most of the time, it is difficult for us to even see the fullness of our own accomplishments, as we can create a warped view of our own talents and achievements in comparison to others. Additionally, we oftentimes forget that no one can be exceptional at everything, and we expect too highly of ourselves at things we simply have not put enough time into to excel at. Constantly
do not further perpetuate a harmful competitive environment by avoiding too much comparison between each other. Rather than comparing ourselves to others, we should recognize the amount of effort it took for our peers to reach those successes instead of comparing them to our own accomplishments. We should also recognize our own achievements far more than we already do, because we oftentimes sell ourselves short and ignore our own amazing qualities, only focusing on where we can improve. We should
never let competition get to the point where it is damaging, and in order to achieve this we must avoid the level of comparison that causes unhealthy competition. Healthy competition comes from our ability to listen to others’ accomplishments and use those strictly as inspiration for ourselves in the future. We should stop comparing ourselves in an unhealthy way and start to work hard for the things we truly want to improve at. It would be wrong for me to say that comparison will never
ourselves credit for our own strengths and commend our peers for their amazing accomplishments as well. In my opinion, there is a healthy amount of competition that students can use as motivation to improve, and an unhealthy amount of competition that can destroy a student’s self-esteem. Unhealthy competition is born out of a place of comparison, and in order for us to improve as a community we should avoid copious amounts of comparison that may be harmful. The abundance of
“In my opinion, there is a healthy amount of competition that students can use as motivation to improve, and an unhealthy amount of competition that can destroy a student’s self-esteem. Unhealthy competition is born out of a place of comparison, and in order for us to improve as a community we should avoid copious amounts of comparison that may be harmful.” happen because to some extent it will always exist, but we should never let comparisons hurt our perception of ourselves. We should work on recognizing and giving
smart and talented people at Milton is something we should cherish and celebrate, and we should never let aggressive competition take over the school atmosphere.
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Opinion
Page 11
The David Hogg Paradox: Why Hate Doesn’t Make Effective Policy John Albright ‘19 Opinion Editor On February 14th, 2018, the United States was devastated by a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which seventeen people were killed and seventeen more were wounded. One of the deadliest school massacres to date, this incident reinvigorated the national conversation surrounding gun reform, and encouraged students from around the country to get involved. On Wednesday, March 14th, thousands of students across the country walked out of class, demanding stringent gun laws in a display of political solidarity that both paid tribute to the Parkland victims and, simultaneously, protested an unresponsive Congress. Since the incident in February occurred, Congress has failed to enact any significant legislation that addresses gun violence. And, frustratingly enough, this congressional gridlock has persisted since the Sandy Hook Shooting in 2012. More than 100 bills advocating for gun control have since been introduced on Capitol Hill. All of them have failed. Along with the majority of students in this country, I concur that the issue of gun control requires immediate congressional action. I concur that we need to beef up the federal background check system. I also
Politifact
David Hogg calls for gun reform at the March For Our Lives.
concur that we need to raise the age limit for purchasing assault rifles. However, some student activists are responding in ways that are entirely counterproductive. Instead of propagating hatred and pointing fingers, we need to transcend our political differences and tackle this issue as one cohesive body. David Hogg is a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and was in class on that fateful day in February. As one of the founding members of “Never Again MSD,” Hogg has since become an ardent gun control advocate and activist against gun violence. Appearing on CNN and Fox News, among other networks, Hogg has
called upon public officials to pass gun control legislation and has adamantly denounced elected officials who accept donations from the NRA. In an interview with Fox News, Hogg explained that he is, in fact, a supporter of the Second Amendment, and that he does support NRA members’ right to legally own guns. He acknowledges that the NRA stands by safe gun ownership; however, his call for gun reform lies in the acquisition process. When asked what new legislative measures he’d like to see pass, he replied: “Raising the federal age of gun ownership and possession to 21; banning all bump stocks; making sure that we have universal back-
ground checks; and making sure that people that have committed acts of domestic violence are no longer able to get a gun.” I wholly applaud Hogg’s resolve and his initiative to enact change; after all, we need Congress to be more responsive. However, according to a March article from The Federalist, Hogg has indulged in the very “mudslinging” that he has denounced. Over the past several weeks, he has referred to the NRA as “child murderers,” assailed Sen. Marco Rubio for being bribed by the NRA, branded Republicans “sick f--kers” for not meeting his standards on gun reform, called Dana Loesch “disgusting” and accused her of neglecting children’s lives, and has launched a boycott campaign against Laura Ingraham. Above all else, this incessant slandering has accomplished two things. Firstly, his demagoguery has affiliated a theoretically powerful gun reform movement with hatred and aggression. In other words, his behavior is reflecting poorly on an otherwise instrumental movement. And, secondly, his rhetoric is both divisive and contradictory; he acts as a beacon of moral authority, yet simultaneously vilifies everyone who disagrees with him. It is—as most things are— the media’s fault. I don’t think that Hogg is, by any means, a crisis actor. Rather, it was the
Dariya’s Take: The Downfalls of Cuffing Dariya Subkhanberdina ‘19 Opinion Writer While the bitter winds of New England winter still struggle to reach a conclusion, the end of cuffing season draws nigh. Not only do April showers bring May flowers, but they also mark the start of new beginnings, as well as the end of things we wish never started in the first place. As our cherished campus quadrangle nears its lush spring awakening and the health center arms itself with potent narcotics such as Benadryl, Zyrtec, and Claritin, there’s no denying that alongside pollen and the flavorsome scent of fertilizer, there’s magic in the air. With warm weather and senior projects on the horizon, the time of the year has finally come when we can once again frolic on the quad, swoon at the sight of the Boys’ Varsity tennis team, and free our ashy knees of the oppressor we call “pants.” While many of us recognize a new season as the time to hunt for a spicy new love affair, there are also a select few of us whose spicy love affairs have withstood the un-
forgiving icy blasts of Mother Nature. It’s come to my attention that when it comes to love and relationships, as a community, we tend to say one thing and then, shockingly, we do the complete opposite. As a community of 700 hormonal teenagers cramped together in an environment of intense stress and loneliness, it comes as no surprise that a significant component of the Milton social scene surrounds hookup culture. In essence, prep boarding schools are just cesspools of tears, academic integrity violations, and dodgy late-night hookups on sports fields — can you blame us? We’re all just trying to survive the harsh Antarctic waters of teenagehood, and if the closest thing to seeking shelter is twenty minutes of awkward fumbling with a special someone on a moist soccer field, then why not distract ourselves from the dark emptiness we feel inside? As someone who has both observed and engaged in such hookup culture, I’ve concluded that, here at Milton, romantic commitment is the
standard. When we pursue someone, we’re expected to pursue that one person, and if you’re talking to someone, it’s considered good etiquette to not be simultaneously talking to every other eligible bachelor you cross paths with. However, while romantic commitment is the expectation, when we choose to adhere to this standard, we’re reprimanded for the very thing we’re encouraged to want. As a community, we do
ful. Although Christian Grey taught us that the occasional consensual cuff and whip can pose as a fun and quirky use of our time, most of us associate these things with the abdication of power and feelings of entrapment. As a community, we complain about the toxic nature of our hookup culture, and yet we denounce healthy public displays of affection. We criticize couples who document happy memories online, and we scoff at those who cele-
“It’s come to my attention that when it comes to love and relationships, as a community, we tend to say one thing and then, shockingly, we do the complete opposite.” not foster a healthy environment for committed couples to explore their relationships, as well as express affection. We continue to use language such as “cuffed” and “whipped” to describe those who choose to commit to a special someone, and while these terms are just words, when we implement them into our language, we set the tone that romantic commitment is something shame-
brate small victories such as three-month anniversaries. Most of us don’t live our lives lusting after the relationships of others being shoved down our throats, but there’s a thin line between envying one’s joy and fostering a shameful culture. I’m the first to admit that as teenagers, we tend to contradict ourselves. In recent months, we’ve had many conversations on the state
media that authorized these Parkland activists to spout hyperbole and attack their ideological counterparts. The media’s absence in this situation has allowed Hogg to do whatever he wants without consequence. His demagoguery has reached the point at which he can launch a successful boycott campaign against someone (and potentially ruin their political career) for simply hurting his feelings. If he wants to be a successful activist, he needs to learn how to find an ideological middle ground with people without completely smearing their existence. The most frustrating part about Hogg’s behavior is that it distracts the public from the real issue at hand: the fact that a nineteen year-old armed shooter was able to walk into a school building and kill seventeen people. In the media, Hogg’s inflammatory comments have eclipsed necessary conversations about gun reform. The cesspool of hostility on Twitter and online has detracted from the important takeaways from the Parkland shooting: we need more gun control, and we need it now. In the case of Hogg, the intentions are there, but the rhetoric needs work.
of our hookup culture, and while the variety of opinion is far-reaching, we never fail to reach the conclusion that it’s toxic. When we foster an environment in which healthy habits are encouraged, we’re able to differentiate between the good and the bad. Right now, there’s a lot of bad. It’s naive to think that hookup culture will be “fixed” overnight; the very definition of culture roots itself in traditions and ideals. However, over time, habits become ideals, and thus the sooner we leave bad habits in the past, the sooner we can all have a blast. Couples are the framework behind hookup culture. Whether you and your partner are simply looking for a good time, a distraction, or someone to commit to, we’re all just trying to figure out who we want and what we want; and for that, we need a community that is tolerable enough to give us room to grow and allows us to express ourselves.
A&E
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Page 12
A Capella Night Brings a Blend of Styles and Ages
Katie Conn ‘20 A&E Writer On April 6th, students gathered in King Auditorium for Milton’s annual A Cappella Night. The twohour event featured a unique blend of student a cappella groups from Milton, as well as many collegiate off-campus groups. The mix of Milton’s new groups with the more reputable college a cappella explored a combination of modern and classic songs, creating a unique and playful atmosphere that blended time through music. The first hour consisted of a few songs from each of Milton’s a cappella groups. The groups performed a range of a cappella classics, such as “My Girl” to songs such as “Sorry Not Sorry” by Demi Lovato, a recent chart-topper and summer hit. The Miltones kicked off the night with a rendition of “My Girl,” a song originally recorded by The Temptations in 1965, and then continued with the newer “Eenie Meenie,” which was released by Sean Kingston and Justin Bieber in 2010. 3FU followed the act, continuing the theme of newer popular songs with
The Miltones vibe with the crowd on a Saturday night.
“Malibu” by Miley Cyrus, and then “Bruises” by Train and Ashley Monroe. Octet also kept the audience intrigued by performing “The Death of a Bachelor” by Panic! At the Disco and “Sorry not Sorry”, two recent chart-toppers. Reson8 then performed the older “Walking in Memphis” in addition to P!nk’s “What about us?”. Milton’s final act, Epic, performed 2000’s hits like “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5 and “Diamonds” by Rihanna. The second half of the night featured an impressive line-up of collegiate a cappel-
la groups. Tufts’ Amalgamates were the first to perform, with the MIT Logarhythms next, and the Brown University Jabberwocks following. MIT’s Chorallaries and BC’s Bostonians closed out the night. The MIT logarhythms quickly established themselves as fan favorites starting from their energetic entrance, where they rolled and jumped onto the stage. Their brightly colored shirts and ties resembled the energy of their performance, in which they performed the pop chart-topper “How
Yearbook
Deep is your Love?”. The performance featured far more than just music, as the Logarhythms turned the 3-song production into an energetic spectacle featuring dancing and audience volunteers, earning much applause and cheering from the audience. Brown’s Jabberwocks and the MIT Chorallaries stood out from the crowd by performing some original songs, as opposed to the covers done by most other a cappella groups. The Jabberwocks sang as they got onto the stage, and then proceeded to sing their self-introduction,
about “the guys [who] like to harmonize under the skies”. The MIT Chorallaries began with a mash-up of many songs ranging from well-known classics to T-Pain’s “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)”. The Chorallaries also turned heads with their song “The Engineers’ Drinking Song” in which they spoke of their engineering abilities and their ability to consume great amounts of alcohol, before which they were sure to add that they do not condone underage drinking. While some students found the song to draw on longer than necessary, many found that the wit of the song and frequent insulting of Harvard was worth the duration of the song. A cappella night featured a blend of the old and the new, both in the music performed --from classics to songs that topped charts as recently as this past year-- and the blend of budding to established a cappella groups. For both the a cappella connoisseur and the every-day music listener, a cappella night was a great spectacle of the musical talents of Milton and of the many nearby colleges.
XXXTentaction Drops “?” Following Attempts to Better Image
India Claudy ‘20 A&E Writer Social media platforms and eye catching headlines constantly surround us, making it difficult to not read about stars and their latest drama. The difficulty that blooms from the ever-present news on the personal lives of celebrities exists in choosing if we want to continue to give them business, even after knowing all of their business. Should we separate the music itself from the artist’s personal life? One artist who caught the spotlight for both his music and personal life is rapper XXXTentacion. XXXTentacion released his first commercial album, 17, in August, 2017, just as several serious allegations against him gained traction. According to Pitchfork, he was accused in 2016 on multiple charges: witness tampering, false imprisonment, domestic battery by strangulation, and aggravated assault of a pregnant women. XXXTentacion pleaded not guilty to every charge. Pitchfork acquired the extensive testimony of the victim (XXXTentacion’s girlfriend), who claims XXXTentacion confiscated her phone, held her against her will, beat her multiple times, strangled her, and threatened to kill her and their unborn child. Throughout much of their relationship, XXXTentacion was in prison for charges of
robbery and assault from 2015. He was soon released on house arrest, during which he allegedly committed most of his crimes; his rage largely grew from his girlfriend’s involvement with another man while he was incarcerated. According to Vulture, XXXTentacion was detained again in October of 2016 for violating his house arrest agreement; however, his arrest did not stop him from continuing to make moves in the music industry. While in prison, XXXTentacion received support from rapper A$AP Rocky, podcaster and influencer Adam22, and the Billboard Top 100; his debut track “Look At Me” entered the the list at number 95. After being released from prison on probation in March, 2017, XXXTentacion gained more popularity, with his song peaking at number 24. With a song produced by Diplo, controversy with Drake, and multiple brawls and fights at his concerts, XXXTentacion made himself difficult to go unrecognized; the same can not be said for the charges placed against him and the horrible abuse his victim endured. Upon the release of 17, he received much support by fans and fellow artists, including Kendrick Lamar. On the contrary, DJ Booth, a blogger, chose not to review the album and stated that “We felt we could no longer stand on the sidelines, watching rap’s ugly embrace
HipHopDX
Studemts Study for Final Exams in Pritzker Science Center
of sexual assault.” For the remainder of 2017, XXXTentacion fell under the spotlight for fights at concerts, controversial Instagram posts, and the pushing back of several tour dates. Despite the rapper’s growing fame, the industry seemed to largely forget about the allegations against him. On some Instagram Stories, XXXTentacion claimed to give money to and support a domestic abuse prevention program, and hold an “anti-rape” event; however, no follow up to these statements has occurred. In January, despite the opposition of several employees, Capitol Records signed a $6 million deal XXXTentacion. The president of Capitol Records
“told executives that [XXXTentacion]’s surging popularity would help the company have a bigger market share in hip-hop.” In March of 2018, XXXTentacion released his second commercial album, ?, with “Sad!,” the first single, reaching number seven on the Billboard 100. He was subsequently let off house arrest so that he could promote his new release on tour. From of the 18 total songs on the album, listeners can certainly detect XXXTentacion’s grappling with negative, self-destructive thoughts and emotions. Many tracks speak of feeling alone, and without comfort or anyone to stay with him through his hardships. The album begins with “Introduc-
tion (instructions),” a spoken explanation of the goal of this project. He stresses his desire for the project to garner “a large amount of passion, and love and appreciation for [himself].” Other songs include verses about a girl (possibly the victim of his crimes), the unrequited love she displayed to him, and the broken heart she left him with. Many may begin to sympathize with the artist; however, once listeners recall the allegations against XXXTentacion, their sympathy may fade. Nevertheless, this change of heart is unlikely, as many listeners, including greats like Kendrick Lamar, often disregard the wrongdoings of an artist. Even after the allegations of his crimes and the victim’s testimony were made very public to his fanbase, XXXTentacion has skyrocketed to fame and success with his new album. He is not the first artist to continue to receive support after facing several ugly charges, and his fans are also not the only ones to continue to support him even in light of his dark personal life. Listeners must decide for themselves if someone’s art if really good enough to compensate for the artist’s awful character. Perhaps weighing the artist’s actions over the art may result in more awareness and advocacy in the industry; as evidenced by XXXTentacion’s rise to fame, this change is quite necessary.
Friday, April 13th, 2018
A&E
Page 13
Virgil Abloh Becomes First Black Lead at Louis Vuitton
Madeline Fitzgibbon ‘21 A&E Writer Virgil Abloh, newly appointed men's artistic director at Louis Vuitton, continues to make a name for himself in 2018. His groundbreaking role as the first black artistic director at the company is the newest of a long list of accomplishments, and it offers him the opportunity to meld cultures and break down barriers in terms of fashion trends. From his connection to Kanye West to the founding of his own label Off-White, Abloh is a star in the fashion industry, and with his new job, he acts as one of the most powerful people in the industry. Virgil Abloh has an impressive resume in the fashion industry, from his role as Kanye West's creative director to his creation of his own label. Working as Kanye's protégé, Abloh achieved fame through his art, particularly on the Kanye and Jay-Z collab album "Watch the Throne." In 2011, he received a Grammy nomination for best recording package for his work on the album. In addition,
Billboard
Virgil Abloh: first African American to get a high fashion lead
Abloh founded his own fashion label in 2013, Off-White, a name that represents his hope of breaking down barriers in fashion. He received nominations for several fashion awards, including being one of the top eight finalists for the LVMH award and being nominated for a CFDA award, the highest award in fashion. In March 2018, Louis Vuit-
ton announced Abloh as their men's artistic director, making him the company's first black artistic director. His role marks a shift in the industry, as "streetwear" becomes high-end fashion. As Abloh himself stated, his appointment at Louis Vuitton marks an opportunity for Abloh to bridge gaps between cultures through fashion and to bring his own experiences
and background to the company. According to a New York Times article from March 2018, Abloh said that, "This opportunity to think through what the next chapter of design and luxury will mean at a brand that represents the pinnacle of luxury was always a goal in my wildest dreams," reiterating his hope that he can reimagine the definition of luxury to include different types of fashion. He also discussed the importance of representation in the fashion industry, demonstrating that diversity is important both to create original ideas and to inspire young people. As the first black artistic director at a major fashion company, Abloh bears the responsibility of proving misconceptions incorrect and revolutionizing the industry as many people watch. However, some people disagree with the high-end fashion industries use of streetwear for profit. In response to the same New York Times article that reported on Abloh's appointment at Louis Vuitton, a number of
people criticized the fashion industry for often transforming streetwear into high end fashion and charging steep prices for the clothing in the name of breaking down barriers. However, rather than breaking down barriers, the companies make huge profits while ordinary people cannot afford the now trendy clothes. Another critic worries that, by taking over streetwear, the fashion industry is by extension appropriating street culture and using it for profit. Abloh's groundbreaking appointment as the first black artistic director at a major high-end fashion label brings with it much promise as Abloh looks forward to bringing a unique perspective to the high fashion Louis Vuitton brand. While Abloh strives to revolutionize the concept of luxury to include new and original types of design influenced by his own unique perspective, many are watching to see if Abloh can achieve his goals without cannibalizing the street culture that has played a strong role throughout his career to date.
The Weeknd’s New Album: My Dear Melancholy Gracie Chiang ‘20 A&E Writer On March 27th, The Weeknd posted a picture on Instagram of a screenshotted text message between him and La Mar Taylor, his creative director. Referring to his latest album, the text read: “should we drop Friday? I’m indifferent to be honest.” Then, on Friday, March 30th, The Weeknd released his newest project: My Dear Melancholy,. Born in Toronto, The Weeknd, or Abel Tesfaye, rose to mainstream fame in 2015, and, with hits like “I Feel It Coming” and “Can’t Feel My Face,” he has since evolved into a “pop superstar,” according to Pitchfork. Early in his career, he garnered serious attention for his dark, drugged style of alternative R&B before converting to more commercial synth pop on his newer projects. But My Dear Melancholy, differs greatly than his recent albums. For starters, it isn’t truly an album. Because it only has six songs on it, a total of twenty-one minutes of music, Spotify lists My Dear Melancholy, as an EP; yet, Republic Records, The Weeknd’s record label, refers to it only as a “project”. Whatever you want to call it, the music on My Dear Melancholy, differs greatly from Starboy, The Weeknd’s previous album, which was mainly composed of “upbeat synth-pop” songs according to Pitchfork, whereas My Dear
Melancholy, is extremely similar to the “dark, downtempo R&B” that began his career. However, an article in Vulture places My Dear Melancholy, in between The Weeknd’s upbeat recent work and his dark, mysterious original songs. Nonetheless, the album still possesses all the sadness, darkness, and sexiness that characterize The Weeknd’s songs. All in all, My Dear Melancholy, is a “jarring break up album,” according to Vulture, as every single song on the album is in someway about his relationship with ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez. According to People Magazine, Selena and The Weeknd began dating in January of 2017 and seemed to be a virtually perfect couple. People Magazine even referred to The Weeknd as “the best boyfriend of 2017.” But, by October, the two had called it quits and went their separate ways. Although the break-up was said to be relatively amicable, My Dear Melancholy, lets fans know (or rather speculate) the true depth of The Weeknd’s sadness and bitterness following his breakup with Gomez. In particular, the song “Call Out My Name” quite clearly demonstrates all of The Weeknd’s regrets. He begins the song by saying “We found each other / I helped you out of a broken place.” This lyric alludes to the fact that when Selena and
The Weeknd’s New Ablum Cover
The Weeknd first started dating, she had just come out of her volatile relationship with Justin Bieber. The lyric continues, “You gave me comfort / But falling for you was my mistake,” displaying The Weeknd’s regret over their relationship. Then, later on, The Weeknd sings “I almost cut a piece of myself for your life,” implying that Selena Gomez considered him for a kidney donor when, this past summer, she underwent a kidney transplant as a result of a complication of lupus. This lyric determines that the song is definitely about Gomez, but according to Vulture is also very exagger-
The Fader
ated, as Gomez never even considered The Weeknd to be a donor. Nevertheless, the following line, “I was just another pit stop / ‘Till you made up your mind,” hints at their relationship being slightly one-sided; for Selena, the Weeknd was simply a “pit stop” before she quickly went back to dating Justin Bieber. Altogether, “Call Out My Name” shows The Weeknd’s heartbreak and his anger towards Gomez. Similarly to “Call Out My Name”, “Try Me”, and, “I Was Never There”, both feature depressed lyrics which blame Selena (and, in part, Justin Bieber) for breaking his
heart. However, according to Vulture, on “Wasted Times,” The Weeknd talks about missing his ex-girlfriend Bella Hadid, for he “wasted time” with Gomez since she “wasn’t even half” of Hadid. Yet the song, “Hurt You”, contains the meanest, pettiest lyrics of all, as The Weeknd sings about never getting back together with Gomez and how their relationship is his “enemy”. However, in the final song of the album, “Privilege”, The Weeknd matures by singing: “So, let’s just try to end it with a smile”, a clear sign of his acceptance and closure from his breakup. My Dear Melancholy, details the tragedy in heartbreak and The Weeknd’s own experience with the feelings associated with it. The shortness of the album allows him to be direct and genuine about his true feelings on love and life. According to Pitchfork, The Weeknd stands by his conviction that, “love is real, but it’s also a big fat lie.” This sentiment will truly resonate with the thousands of people who have also gone through break-ups and will predictably help make My Dear Melancholy, just as successful as all of The Weeknd’s other albums.
Sports Villanova Rolls Through Men’s NCAA Tournament
Friday, April 13th, 2018 Ben Monnich ‘20 Sports Writer The 2018 Men’s March Madness Tournament was a thrilling ride. In an easy, 79-62 Villanova Wildcat win over the Michigan Wolverines, Villanova was crowned as National Champions. This year’s tournament featured a historical first, a plethora of upsets, newly-born national idols, and more. Thus, although Villanova fans may argue otherwise, the championship was not even the most exhilarating moment of the tournament. Each year, the NCAA holds the Men’s Division 1 National Championships from late March to early April, hence the name “March Madness.” In this tournament, a committee whose, according to NCAA.com, “opinions — developed through observations, discussions with coaches, directors of athletics and commissioners, and review and comparison of data,” determines the teams in the tournament. Furthermore, March Madness is a seeded tournament in which the same committee seeds the teams from numbers one to sixteen, with sixteen being the lowest and worst seed. The tournament’s bracket is structured around the seeding; the number one seed plays the number sixteen seed, the number two seed plays the fifteenth seed, and so on. Therefore, the number one seeds, with the highest
Villanova Wildcats hoist the 2018 National Championship trophy.
ranking and easiest schedule, are typically favored to win. In fact, Villanova, a number one seed, demolished in the tournament en route to their national championship win. From the first round to the finals, Villanova beat their opponents with ease. In fact, the Wildcats won every game by an average sixteen points! Highly touted teams like West Virginia, Texas Tech, and Kansas hardly posed a threat to the Wildcats. Clearly, Villanova was the best team in the tournament and deserved the national championship. Michigan, on the other hand, was a much weaker team and hardly made it to the finals at all. In fact, Michigan’s tournament was almost cut short in the Sweet Sixteen, or the third round of the tournament, when Michigan beat Houston, a
six-seed, off a buzzer-beater. Michigan barely won against lower seeds like ninth-seed Florida State University and eleventh-seed Loyola-Chicago University. Thus, when the two teams met in the finals, Villanova was the clear favorite. However, Michigan took an early lead as Moritz Wagner, the Wolverine’s star player, consistently provided buckets for Michigan. However, late in the first half, Villanova’s sixth-man, Donte Divincenzo, entered the game and provided an instant spark for the Wildcats. In fact, Divincenzo not only lead Villanova to a first half lead, but also ended up as the most outstanding player of the game with 31 points. After Divincenzo’s initial spark, Villanova continued to pull away and ended up winning 79-62.
Sports Illustrated
This year's tournament featured a multitude of special moments, especially the story of Loyola-Chicago and University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s upset of number-one seed Virginia University. As a number-eleven seed, Loyola-Chicago was the Cinderella story of the tournament as they made it to the Final Four. To make it to the Final Four, the team had to upset highly-ranked teams like three-seeded University of Tennessee and six-seeded Miami University. While Cinderella stories are always likeable, the presence of Sister Jean, a 98 year-old nun at Loyola-Chicago University who has been the team’s chaplain for “over nearly a quarter of a century” according to CNN. Sister Jean’s unfailing support for the Ramblers, along with her
Page 14
funny witticisms, made her a nationally-beloved figure in this year’s March Madness tournament. Along with Loyola-Chicago and Sister Jean, the story of University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s historical upset of Virginia was a very large headline in the tournament. UMBC, a sixteen-seed, was the first team to ever beat a number-one seed. UMBC, riding their new fame, was unable to win in the next round and lost to Kansas State. However, the team will go down forever in history for their incredible feat of beating a daunted, number-one seed in UVA. Aside from these highlights, the tournament featured many other crazy moments and games. Arizona University, a team favored to win by many, lost in the first round to thirteen-seeded Buffalo. Other highly-ranked teams struggled as well number one-ranked Xavier lost to ninth-seeded Florida State in just the second round and second-seeded University of North Carolina lost to Texas A&M in the second round. Overall, although the tournament final, Villanova vs Michigan, was quite traditional, this year’s tournament featured a variety of unique highlights. From national darlings to historical firsts, 2018’s March Madness had it all. Let's hop to similar tournaments in the future!
Thrilling Shot Ignites Notre Dame to Women’s Championship
Blair Englert ‘20 Sports Writer On March 16th, 2018, sixty-four division one women’s basketball teams entered into this year’s NCAA Women’s National Championship Tournament. These sixty-four teams came from all over the country, but each shared the same goal: to become national champions. Four brackets were separated by region, and in each bracket the teams were ranked from one to sixteen. There was the Albany regional, the Spokane regional, the Lexington regional, and the Kansas City regional. The number one seed in each region respectively was UConn, Notre Dame, Louisville, and Mississippi State. Mr. Beauchemin noted the incredible build-up to the championship, stating that “this year’s tournament was particularly special because all of the number one seeds from each of the brackets made it into the final four.” UConn battled Notre Dame in the semis, while Mississippi State faced Louisville. The UConn vs. Notre Dame game was especially intriguing as the underdog No-
Notre Dame defender guards against Uconn’s penetration.
tre Dame Irish continued to fight against majority favorite UConn. UConn entered the final four with a season record of 36-0 and had appeared in the final four every year for the last 10 years. Alternatively, Notre Dame had a record of 33-3 and had lost their regular season game against UConn. Notre Dame also lost four players during the season due to knee injuries. Despite their setbacks, Notre Dame clinched the win in overtime when junior Arike Ogunbowale hit a clutch three in the final seconds. The final score was 9189, Notre Dame.
Louisville battled Mississippi State in the other semi final game. In the end, Mississippi state was able to advance to the championship. According to ESPN, “The season also produced the greatest Final Four in the history of the sport, with two overtime games in the semifinals and a championship game decided on a shot with onetenth of a second left.” Louisville took Mississippi State to overtime, but Mississippi state ended up winning with a final score of 73-63. Mississippi State and Notre Dame entered the championship knowing that at the
ESPN
end of the night, one of them would be the best basketball team in the country. Notre Dame had a slow start, entering the second half trailing Mississippi State 30-17. With three seconds left in the game, the score was tied up at 58-58. The ball was passed to Arike Ogunbowale who quickly dribbled to the edge of the three-point line, and with one second to go, she drained a three point shot, winning the title for the Irish. Arike Ogunbowale scored 18 points in the championship game and won the Most Outstanding Player. One of the Notre Dame grad-
uates of 2001, Ruth Riley, had previously held the record for most points scored in the NCAA tournament. Arike Ogunbowale passed Riley’s record with 145 points in the tournament. Notre Dame’s title win on April 1st was the second time Notre Dame had become National Champions. The Irish also won in 2001, where just as Arike Ogunbowale was this year, Ruth Riley was named Most Outstanding Player. After seeing Riley go on to the WNBA and dominate for the Atlanta Dream, this same kind of phenomenal performance can be expected from Arike Ogunbowale as she follows in Riley’s footsteps and even surpasses Riley’s records. All of this year’s final four finalists are expected to return to the semis next year. The 2019 Women’s Basketball Championship will be held in Tampa, Florida, where Notre Dame will be looking to defend their title. All of the teams in the final four will be strong competition for next season, and as Notre Dame has proved in this year’s tournament, no team is to be counted out.
Sports
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Page 15
Spring Sports Start Following Successful Spring Break Trips
Zane Bookbinder ‘20 Sports Writer Spring sports at Milton have gotten off to a great start! Several teams enjoyed bonding with teammates over spring break trips while preparing for the season ahead. This Spring looks to be another fantastic athletic season! The Varsity Baseball Spring Trip to Orlando served as a great chance for the team to “play some good competition” and “enjoy the parks at Universal,” according to head coach Matt Petherick. The team scrimmaged several other schools and had practices daily, allowing them to get back into the flow of the season. The Baseball team had a very good senior class last year, with three of the six seniors playing college baseball this year. Additionally, the team lost their star pitcher Matt Tabor, who was drafted 82nd overall in the 2017 MLB Draft, and is now in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Farm System. These players, especially Tabor, will be very missed, although the team gained many skiller players this season. Coach Petherick says that the team “works hard and plays well defensively,” also adding that the “league is very strong again this year,” meaning that the team will have to play hard to win.
Girls Lacrosse Team in Nevada for Spring Break Trip
Varsity Softball also traveled to Universal Orlando over Spring Break, a trip that balanced practices and scrimmages similarly to the baseball trip. The team was able to play teams from all over the country, which prepared the team for the season very well. Varsity Softball added five freshmen this year who will make “an immediate impact, particularly as pitchers,” according to Coach Amy Hickey. The team is very young this year, and they will rely on captains Claire Dudley and Rachel Handler to “set the bar high” for the younger players. New assistant coaches Amy Macdonald and Elizabeth Mulready will help lead and develop the team this year as well. Coach Hickey
also said that “fans can expect close games and exciting young players this year,” as the team works towards the Big East Invitational Tournament at Phillips Andover in mid-May. Girls lacrosse had a great start to their season with a Spring Break trip to Nevada. They were 2-1 overall in their scrimmages, the highlight being a win over Newark Academy. The team will be very young this year, with eight new members added, including three freshmen and three sophomores. Coach Lyons, the head girls basketball coach, has also joined the team, bringing a “wealth of knowledge as a competitive athlete,” according to Head Coach Molly
Girls Lacrosse
Swain. In addition, the team added Coach Kelly Munroe, a Boston University and Team USA athlete, who most recently coached at Princeton. The team started the season with a shutout against Dana Hall, a rare occurrence in lacrosse. This year’s team is an exciting and cohesive group and is lined up to have a great season. The track team did not go on a Spring Break trip (as the team is too large for a trip), but over the past few weeks they have been working very hard to prepare themselves for the season. In track, every team goes to the ISL championships, so the regular season meets, while competitive, are largely just preparation for ISLs. “The team doesn’t have
many star athletes, but they do have a lot of good ones” according to Max Litvak (III), and as the points are added up to one score in track, consistency is very important. Jailen Branch (I) and Kalel Mullings (III) are star 100 meter sprinters for the team and Ellie Mraz (IV) is a very good distance runner, but overall, the team needs all of its members to do well in order to win ISLs. The sailing team went to St. Petersburg, Florida over spring break, a trip which was meant to help them adjust to sailing and brush off the rust from time spent away from the sport. The team had an excellent senior class last year, including three of the best four skippers (people who steer the boat), who all went on to sail in college including Henry and Eli Burnes who now sail at Harvard and Christina Sakellaris who continues to sail at Stanford. Because of these major losses, the team is “rebuilding a little bit” says Ben Monich (III), but is still expecting to have a strong season. Charlie Hibben, a co-captain and fouryear team member will play a major role in the success of the team, which hopes to qualify for nationals in both team racing and fleet racing again.
This Weekend’s Game Schedule Friday, April 13 1st Softball vs. Rivers - 4:30 pm 1st Boys’ Lacrosse vs. Phillips Andover - 5:30 pm
Saturday, April 14 1st Baseball vs. Brooks - 3:30 pm 1st Boys’ Tennis vs. Brooks - 3:30 pm 1st Boys’ & Girls’ Track vs. Thayer, Marianapolis, Middlesex & Lawrence - 3:30 pm
1st Girls’ Lacrosse vs. Brooks - 3:30 pm 2nd Baseball vs. Brooks - 3:30 pm 2nd Boys’ Tennis vs. Brooks - 3:30 pm 2nd Girls’ Lacrosse vs. Brooks - 3:30 pm
Friday, April 13th, 2018
Humor
Page 16
Best Ideas Never Proposed by Head Monitors 1. Fortnite IRL (Freshmen Get Bushes, Seniors Get Guided Missiles) 2. Capital Punishment instead of DCs 3. Weed Day - Everyone trims weeds on the quad. 4. A School Wide Yodeling Contest Lead by Mr. Whalen 5. Distribute Tide Pods for School Spirit Day 6. A Revisit Day for Rejected Students Where We Throw Microwaved Burritos at Them 7. Weekly Inspirational Speeches by Ian Glick (IV) at Monday Assembly :) 8. A Last Supper at Mr. Bland’s House Before Graduation 9. Providing more communication and transparency from the administration 10. The Purge