April 2023 | The Evergreen, Greenhill School

New Class Round Up

When Upper School students completed their annual course requests in March, there were nearly a dozen new classes among the possible choices.

To be more precise, there are 11 new o erings encompassing four departments in the 2023-2024 course catalog. e revamped Design and Innovation Department leads the list with ve new classes. Close behind is the History Department with four new classes, followed by one new o ering from the English Department and one from the Math Department.

“With all the new classes there’s more opportunity for me to take classes I’m interested in,” said junior Khadija Hussain.

Design and Innovation

With the new Valdes STEM + Innovation Center set to open in fall 2023, the Computer Science and Engineering program has been preparing to expand into the bigger space by adding new classes, teachers and equipment.

e ve new courses that are being added are Advanced Computer Science, Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship, App Development for Everyone, User Experiment Design and Exploration, and Design of Immersive and Interactive Art.

“We want to broaden the scope of courses from just computer science and robotics,” Director of Design and Innovation Matt Abbondanzio said. “I want every student to be able to take a class they’re interested in and have a passion for.”

Formerly named the Computer Science and Engineering Department, the new entity is being renamed the Design and Innovation Department.

“I wanted to bring innovation in as a central part of the department, because that is where human need, technical feasibility and business viability all overlap,” Abbondanzio said. “It is not just coding but also entrepreneurship.”

Aiming to keep the classes accessible to the greatest number of students, the only course with a prerequisite is Advanced Computer Science, which is replacing the Advanced Placement course, said Abbondanzio. In the new advanced course, students will be solving problems through professional code development, something the AP curriculum doesn’t allow for.

In Advanced Computer Science, Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship, and App Development, students will have the chance to work with real companies and real money.

“In the past, the courses have been more basic, skill-focused classes, so I am excited to be able to connect more to the industry and what we will see past high school, and even past college,” junior Aditya Pulipaka said.

In Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship, students will brainstorm, design, create and pitch a product to investors.

e Design of Immersive and Interactive Art course is also part of the Fine Arts Department and can be used as a credit for either department. In this class, students will use technology to create art that viewers can interact with.

“

ese experiences may be embodied in an immersive 2D and 3D art installation, robotics, games or augmented performances using a variety of media and materials,” according to the course catalog.

Alongside the new classes and space, Greenhill is hiring two new teachers, one for User Experience Design and another for lab management, increasing the Design and Innovation Department faculty size to four.

“[Lab management] is extremely important, because [students] are able to come in and work on a project, a class or just tinker and play around,” Abbondanzio said.

Many students look forward to the new opportunities available to them to work in more professional contexts, and to broaden their application of Design and Innovation principles.

“Instead of learning concepts that are abstract and purely academic, we’ll get experience that may help us acquire internships and other opportunities, and prepare us for future challenges,” Pulipaka said.

History

In the History Department, LGBTQ History, Latin America in the 20th Century, and World War I in the Modern World will now be o ered as electives available to upperclassmen, in addition to a new AP European History class.

AP European History will provide another AP class for students to take in the History Department a er AP Economics

Junior Santiago Lopez, a co-president of the Latinx Student Union, says he looks forward to having a class dedicated to Latin American history.

“Even just hearing about Spanish countries is great,” said Lopez. “I know Mexican history exists, but not everyone makes it to those classes.”

Lopez says he can’t wait for the opportunity to learn more about important gures and events in Latin American history that aren’t typically highlighted.

“No one truly ever knows what individuals existed that really impacted not only Mexico but South America, or even how South Americans impacted North America,” Lopez said. “I’m just really excited for it.”

English

e only new course in the English Department is Literature of the American Wild, which Upper School English teacher Trey Colvin will teach. is will allow him to bring his knowledge and love of nature as a certi ed master naturalist into the classroom.

“I think we do a ww, really thorough job in our department of bringing up issues of race and gender,” said Colvin. “I think we do an outstanding job, and those things are very important. I think we have room to do that kind of thing with attitudes about the environment and our place in it.”

roughout the course, students will analyze characterizations of nature in literature throughout time and from di erent cultural perspectives.

“You examine a work of literature, and you see where those intersections are,” said Colvin. “Where the attitudes and beliefs about nature and human beings being either a part of nature or apart from it.”

In addition to studying prose, Colvin hopes to get students interacting with the nature that surrounds Greenhill’s campus.

“My vision is to incorporate a lot of outdoor learning and just observational writing,” said Colvin.

Senior Charlotte Purcell, a leader of the Green Team, says the course could inspire students to be more active and aware of environmental issues.

“Dr. Colvin is incredibly passionate about the environment and is a fantastic English teacher, so I think that his new class will be a valuable addition to the English courses o ered at Greenhill,” Purcell said.

Math

For the Hornets

This Week

April 7 School Holiday

This Month

April 10

Upper School Orchestra Concert

April 11

Upper School Singers Concert

April 13 - 15

ISAS Fine Arts Festival

April 17 - 18

SPC Girls Golf Championships

April 20

Improv End of Year Show

April 21

Upper School Conference Day

April 21 - 22

Alumni Weekend

SPC Boys Lacrosse Championships

April 23

Senior Family Dinner

April 24 - 25

SPC Boys Golf Championships

April 26

was dropped from Greenhill’s curriculum.

According to Upper School History Department Chair Amy Bresie ’96, the new electives will broaden the opportunities students have to explore areas of history that they might not have focused on in their freshman or sophomore year.

“We envision these new classes and the other electives we teach as ways of getting into some of the holes and some of the depth that you don’t do when you’re covering broad swathes of the globe and of time,” said Bresie.

World War I in the Modern World will focus on the cultural e ects of the war, focusing on its in uence on politics, gender roles and art.

“ e premise is that it’s not just a military history class, but World War I as this sort of making of the modern era,” Bresie said.

Upper School history teacher Ron Frankland will teach both LGBTQ History and Latin America in the 20th Century.

Upper School math teacher Jason Zu ranieri will be teaching a new non-AP Statistics class next school year.

“It’s a really good choice for anybody who wants to get into this eld but doesn’t want another AP on their plate, especially as a senior,” Zu ranieri said.

In this class, students will be able to collect data through activities and projects while still gaining a solid understanding of statistics.

“It’ll be more fun,” Zu ranieri said. “You’ll still get the important things without the AP hanging over your head. I’m excited to see what it looks like.”

Overall, the new courses create room for students to further delve into their speci c interests, while also increasing topic coverage in each department.

“I’m glad they’re increasing the variety in courses available to students because we are able to take more classes we are really interested in while still ful lling requirements,” Pulipaka said.

Primer Play

April 27 - 29

SPC Spring Championships

April 28

No Upper School Classes Greenhill Goes Global

Next Month

May 6

Hornet Hustle Family Run/Walk

May 8

Upper School Chamber Concert

May 10

eater Spotlight Showcase

May 12

Preschool/Lower School Conference Day Jazz Band Concert

May 13 Prom

Ria Agarwal, Emma Rikalo

Matt Abbondanzio

Trey Colvin

STEM + Innovation Center Heralds Changes, Large and Small

Ria Agarwal, Rory Liu

The upcoming addition of the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center will set in motion a range of changes for both students and faculty, ranging from revamped course o erings to enhanced collaboration among students.

Among the most dramatic changes will be the fundamental reshaping and expansion of what was previously known as the Computer Science Department and robotics program. e new Design and Innovation Department will cover signi topics, department faculty said.

In addition to this, while the Math and Science departments do not expect sweeping modi cations, they will still be signi cant, department leaders said. Most notable will be the new centralized location a Department’s move to the temporary Science Village at the southern end of campus and the enhanced design of classrooms.

According to Director of Design and Innovation Matthew Abbondanzio, the move into a new cutting-edge facility will be a pivotal move for the Greenhill STEM departments and will change the essence of the school as a whole.

Design and Innovation

Among the biggest changes, the Design and Innovation Department is shi ing its emphasis from “coding” and toward real life applications and impacts while still teaching students programming.

“If we want to have a global, non-local and non-self-focused impact, we need to be thinking about other people,” said Abbondanzio.

e department will be given more physical space, allowing the curriculum to expand to include classes on human technical feasibility and business viability along with the current technology engineering classes.

According to Abbondanzio, human feasibility refers to identifying and solving problems that people may face. ethnographic research, data research and qualitative and qualitative analysis on a larger scale. It attempts to understand why people make decisions, what habits people have and how they get them.

Business viability involves performing work for industry clients and exploring corporate partnerships. Students build robotic and technological solutions for problems but also consider whether their product is self-sustaining and has potential.

For example, the Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship course will delve into developing solutions for potential problems and building functional products. Students will then create business plans and presentations to raise money from venture capitalists.

According to Abbondanzio, the STEM + Innovation Center will increase opportunities for exibility and innovation. e building will include a full machine shop, large electro-mechanical assembly and spaces for automation, robotics and design strategy.

“ e way this is structured is going to provide dedicated space for each of these courses,” said Abbondanzio. “ ere’s going to be more room for folks to spread out and have zones for speci c activities while still having interconnectivity.”

Along with adding new classes, the department will also be removing the Advanced Placement Computer Science

Principles course. e College Board

o ers two AP Computer Science classes, Computer Science Principles and Computer Science A. AP Computer Science A is focused on leveraging programming in Java to solve problems while AP Computer Science Principles explores broader aspects of computing.

Abbondanzio said the two classes are not realistic.

“AP Computer Science Principles was designed to be very simple, so it’s a very low-level course,” he said. “ e reason why er AP Computer Science A is that although it is valuable from a complex standpoint, it’s not realistic. e way they teach isn’t how actual programmers

Rather, the department is incorporating an Advanced Computer Science course. It requires some previous computer science knowledge but focuses on working for real companies and developing real solutions.

Abbondanzio says this broader focus will change misconceptions regarding computer science as a narrow eld of in the innovation department will also be expanding. e department is in the process of hiring a User Experience Design member who will be covering a web app development class, a user experience research class and several Middle School classes. A lab manager will also help oversee di erent rooms in the new STEM + Innovation Center and add resources and mentorship.

Science and Math

In addition to the innovation department’s expansion, both Middle and Upper School science and math classes will also undergo transformations.

In the new space, the atmosphere of scienti c discovery will change due to departmental centralization, said Upper School Science Department Chair Treavor Kendall.

“We want science to be welcoming, inclusive, approachable and exciting,”

With the plans including a co ee shop, Kendall said he hopes that the STEM + Innovation Center will encourage people to socialize and have conversations there. e environment that you’re in ects how you learn, so I feel like it’s going to be a positive and fresh environment,” said junior Khadija t of a centralized location and larger space is the schoolwide ability to pursue larger projects.

“Our next agenda is to start thinking about how to get folks involved in more kinds of authentic scienti c experimentation and projects big and small,”

Kendall says this is another way to minimize barriers for those who are interested in challenging themselves and to utilize the expertise of science faculty who have published research in the past.

ese bene ts are compounded by the in ux of new equipment and tools. ere will also be research spaces in the new building allowing students to start investigative projects from as young as Middle School.

“Just listening and seeing what’s going to happen in a classroom allows di erent areas to start to collaborate, integrate and come together,” said Kendall.

While the Math Department curriculum will not undergo major changes, students will still reap the bene ts of upgraded materials and larger space. e

design of the classrooms o ers increased mobility for furniture and students.

“I think the more active you are in a class, the more likely you are to be engaged,” Upper School Math Department Chair Darryn Sandler said. “I think there’s going to be a lot more opportunities to do that with the design of the new building.”

Collaborative Work

e new building will also build connections between departments, which was previously di cult due to the layout of Greenhill’s campus.

According to Middle School science teacher Susan Eve, the layout of the Science Village is not ideal, because the rooms are all closed o

“You don’t know all the amazing stu that’s happening in there,” she said.

e new building will have big windows so people walking by can see what is going on in classrooms.

Kendall says another advantage is that the younger students are able to see what complex research looks like.

e isolation of di erent teachers has made cross-departmental collaboration di cult. e STEM + Innovation Center will allow teachers to work together in a more consolidated area.

Kendall says faculty collaboration is also bene cial for alignment between curriculums. One example is bringing together information from geometry classes with concepts in freshman physics classes.

“When you’re juxtaposed in the same space, the di erent areas are able to collaborate, integrate and come together,” he said. is also allows teachers to communicate e e ectively.

“ e most productive conversations happen around the copier,” said Eve. “Why? Because we’re all there together and able to see what others are doing.”

Sandler says the ultimate plan is to create new cross-departmental courses.

“In reality, science, engineering, innovation and math are all so closely related that there’s no reason to not have opportunities for students to combine those curriculums as opposed to isolating them,” said Sandler.

One idea has been to combine the current Personal Finance course with the new Design inking to Open Entrepreneurship class, since they both have to do with real world applications of math, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Students are also excited at the thought of not having to make the long walk to the

Science Village.

I think the more active you are in a class, the more likely you are to be engaged. I think there’s going to be a lot more opportunities to do that with the design of the new building.”

e distance can discourage students from meeting with teachers and attending o ce hours.

“For example, the walk for the sixthgraders is especially far,” Eve said. “And they are already scared to meet with a teacher, so this just makes it even harder.”

Many faculty from other departments have never set foot in the Science Village, Eve said.

“To me, that’s one of the biggest things about the new building. People who are not science, math and innovation people will come into that building and have contact with the cool things happening in those classrooms,” Eve said. e meeting spaces and co ee shop will encourage people to wander in.

“In an ideal world, we’re all just hanging out and talking about science,” Kendall said.

Building Community

e new building will also act as a way to build community between students, because it will have both Middle and Upper School students in the same Previously, in the Agnich Science Building, seventh- and eighth-graders shared the space with Upper Schoolers, and that came with both advantages and One issue that arose was that the Middle School students could be quite loud and disruptive. However, being in a space with older, more mature students fostered better behavior, Eve said. “ ey’re only with themselves, so they don’t really realize,” Eve said. “But when they get into a group, they’re like ‘whoa, those older kids are so cool, we’re not like that.’”

Overall, the students are able to learn from each other, bene ting both groups.

If the vision is ful lled, the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center will become a new hub for campus connections and interaction, and Kendall and others see that as another valuable bene t. “ e more people we have in this community, the more ‘cross pollination,’” Kendall said. “Not only between faculty, but between students of di erent experiences and di erent levels.”

Photo by Evie Kwei

IN THE WORKS: The Valdes STEM + Innovation Center will be completed by fall 2023. The additional space will house the new Design and Innovation and STEM classes.

Graphics by Christan Park

School Plans New Uses for Old Spaces

With Middle and Upper School science, math and innovation classes scheduled to move to the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center next August, Greenhill is seeking to repurpose the vacated spaces through a multiyear plan.

“We want to plan for the changes strategically and thoughtfully,” Head of School Lee Hark said. “We want to look at overall campus growth and change over the next ve, 10 or even 20 years.”

Although the plans are in their early stages, administrators have begun to meet with consultants and di erent construction rms for discussions. In particular, school o cials have been working with spatial consultants from Facility Programming.

According to Hark, these spatial consultants collect data on how well the space on Greenhill campus is being used and what can be done to improve it. Using this data, master planners from Perkins + Will, an architectural rm, can begin to design new usages for the extra space.

Upper School Reimagined

Administrators and faculty have prioritized some core objectives. For example, the ongoing e ort to expand school enrollment means that more space will be needed for classrooms and student life.

“ e general theme is that we’re going to use the space in ways that serve our students best,” Hark said. “We want to get even better at providing resources for our students in the years to come.”

In the Upper School, all classes in the current Math Pod and Robotics Room will be moved to the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center. Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester said he hopes that this extra space will provide more room for growth within the student body and the faculty.

“In Upper School South, there’s a lot of space available, so the real question is what do we need?” Worcester said. “We don’t have many de nitive plans yet, but we’re starting to think bigger.”

Since Upper School North hasn’t had any major changes since its construction in 2005, Worcester said he hopes that bigger changes will come to fruition in the next few years. Although small projects have been done in Upper School South, like the restructuring of the Robotics area and Learning Commons, there are still bigger changes that can be made.

“It’s fun to reimagine these spaces and see how things can be improved upon, especially since nothing has really

changed about the buildings since they’ve been built,” Worcester said. “It’s an exciting challenge for the next few years.”

Associate Head of School & Chief Financial O cer/ Chief Operating O cer Kendra Grace also said that a change in the Upper School landscape is overdue.

“Right now, the furniture in the Upper School is very outdated and doesn’t foster a good collaborative environment, which is our goal,” Grace said. “We tried out the new furniture in the Middle School and it seems to work well.”

Campus-Wide Changes

e Upper School isn’t the only place on campus set to change. Montgomery Library, one of the only original buildings le on campus, might be renovated as well.

“It has to work better for all of the students and faculty that come to use our space,” Head Librarian Abby Harrison said. “I think it’s a beautiful building, but now all of the divisions use the space a lot, so it’s time for a change.”

Harrison says that Greenhill has invited a library consultant to plan the upcoming changes. Some prospective changes include shelving on wheels and adding comfortable furniture.

“Overall, I’m just looking for more exibility,” Harrison said. “We want tables for studying, but also comfortable furniture for students who are just here to enjoy their o period or relax with a book.”

Division of space is another issue that Harrison wants to address. Instead of only having individual study rooms, the library is seeking for more collaborative spaces.

“It would be nice if we had study rooms that allowed for more collaborative group work,” Harrison said. “A combination of quiet study spaces and collaborative spaces is really what we’re looking for.”

Even though plans might not be implemented for years, community members expressed excitement.

“I’m really hopeful for what these new changes could bring,” Harrison said. “I hope changes are made and we can do a sort of reboot for the library speci cally.”

With input from faculty and students, Hark said he is eager to see how the school can expand and better accommodate its students.

“ ere have been lots of good ideas, and some of them are really exciting,” Hark said. “We de nitely want to push the design side and be creative and forward-thinking.”

Finding Rhythm

Max Robins still remembers the rst time he picked up a pair of drumsticks. Since then, he has enjoyed his two years in Middle School percussion.

Each semester, Middle School students in grades 5-8 have the option to take part in the Greenhill band and pursue percussion.

“I remember the rst time I tried percussion, giving it a shot,” Robins said. “I thought it was fun and have stuck with it ever since.”

roughout the year long elective, students can learn many instruments. ese include timpani, xylophone, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, gongs and triangle.

Each semester, the Middle School Band holds performances that include percussion students. at includes a year-end concert set for May 4.

“Percussion plays a huge role in these performances,” said Middle School percussion teacher Tony Lopez. “ keep the rhythm for each song and add an aspect of color.”

Middle School percussionists also take part in audition competitions every couple of months where they play their own solo in front of a judge.

“ e excitement each person has before they play their piece is incredible,” Robins said.

Vishaal Gaitonde said his initial percussion experience in the h grade included a concert that didn’t go so well, but he stuck with it because he always loved instruments and just wanted to learn more about them.

“ e rst year with Mr. Lopez was super memorable,” Gaitonde said. “He made our experience fun, and he was a teacher who just wanted to help the students.”

Now, he enjoys the percussion instruments he has learned to play – especially the timpani, his favorite, because it is big and is always heard by the audience.

For Middle School percussion students, months of work

build to a year-end concert.

“Everything the Middle School percussion has learned up to this point will be utilized in the upcoming concert,” Lopez said. e concert is an opportunity for Middle School percussionists to play with more experienced high school performers.

Each grade will play two pieces.

“In the past years, this event has been really fun, and I look forward to preparing for it and for performing it,” Robins said.

Spring Hornet Night

Spring sports teams had their Hornet Night on March 24. Lacrosse, baseball, so ball and tennis competed at Greenhill, and track and eld had a meet at Parish Episcopal School. e night also included a community picnic on the basketball slab, with food and games for students and parents.

Spring Concerts

e Upper School Chamber Orchestra and Upper School Singers will have their spring concerts on April 10-11. e concerts will take place in Rose Hall in the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center.

Greek Play

Fi h-grade students celebrated their annual Greek Day on March 9 with a Greek play and other activities. Leading up to Greek Day, students prepared performances for the play, created sets, planned Olympic activities and learned about Greek mythology in their English classes. e day included festivities such as the Greek Day feast and Greek Olympics.

ISAS

is year’s Independent Schools Association of the Southwest Fine Arts Festival takes place April 13-15 in Fort Worth at All Saints Episcopal School. With over 3,000 students from 40 independent schools, ISAS boasts over 20 performance opportunities and various other art showcases. Greenhill will take place in some of these performances and showcases in the upcoming festival.

2023 Spring Production

“She Kills Monsters,” the 2023 Spring Play production by Upper School theater students, ran from March 30-April 1 in the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center’s Studio eater. “She Kills Monsters” is a drama-comedy play that tells the story of Agnes and the journey she takes to learn more about her late sister, Tilly. A er losing her family in a car accident, Agnes explores a Dungeons & Dragons module written by Tilly, discovering things she had never known about her sister.

Students Shine in Recent Extracurricular Activites

Upper School students have excelled in recent regional and statewide competitions. In February, Middle School and Upper School Latin students earned over 100 ribbons at the annual Junior Classical League area convention, qualifying several students for state in late April this year.

On March 4, Greenhill band and string students earned 72 superior medals at the Texas Private School Music Educators Association North Instrumental Solo and Ensemble Festival. As a result of their performances, 12 Upper School band students and four string members quali ed for the TPSMEA State Solo and Ensemble Contest in May. Finally, a school record 43 debate students competed in the Texas Forensic Association’s State Tournament in Houston onMarch 9-10.

Evie Kwei

Lee Hark

Abby Harrison

Jack Marshall, Brock VanBoven

Photo courtesy of Greenhill Communications HIT THE DRUMS: Middle School percussion performed at the Pops concert last fall with the rest of the band.

Middle School

Greenhill h-graders celebrated the annual Greek Day on March 9 with games, a special lunch, and a play performed by students.

Students participated in the activities in various ways.

Some students performed the role of Greek gods and other characters through monologues, songs, and dances. Others set the scene for these actors through lights, sounds, backgrounds and more. Some designed posters, T-shirts, a playbill, and games inspired by the original Olympics

from Ancient Greece. Fi h-graders described their enthusiasm for Greek Day.

“It’s a chance to work with other people,” said Layla Taiym, who performed as Gaia, goddess of life. “It’s not like schoolwork. It’s a fun thing we do.”

Fi h-grader Leo Garza, who played a Cyclops, memorized his monologue as part of his e orts to convincingly portray the character.

“You need to appear big,” Garza said. “Cyclopes work in forges, so they need to be strong to li hammers.”

Leading up to the performances,

students practiced every B Day on the Middle School calendar under the direction of English teacher Natalie Nihill Ruberto ’00. Nihill played Persephone during the Greek Play of her h-grade year. She said she loved her experience and remembered it as the moment in which she realized how much she loved acting. Nihill oversaw this year’s Greek Day.

“I love how you get to see every kid shine in a way that normally you don’t see in the classroom,” Nihill said.

According to Nihill, Greek Day started sometime around 1990. English classes studied Greek mythology, and history

classes studied Greek civilization. A theaterminded teacher named Janet Cashen wanted to combine the two, and so she started Greek Day. Cashen wrote most of the scripts for monologues, and those scripts are still used today, Nihill said. About 10 years ago, a new aspect of Greek Day was added: the Greek Olympics, a set of games created by students. e actors o en overshadow everyone else,” said Garza. “But none of this would be possible without the Olympic committee, the communications group, the lights and sound group, and everyone else who worked on Greek Day.”

JCL Seeks State, National Honors

When Joan Romanosky arrived on campus in 2005 to teach Middle School Latin, she started a program that she had become familiar with at her previous school. Nearly 20 years later, the Middle School Junior Classical League that Romanosky helped launch at Greenhill is still going strong.

Also known as JCL, the Latin competition is dedicated to growing students’ understanding of the language and giving them lifelong memories.

e activities include academic competitions, vocal and acting, costumes, and performance opportunities.

On Saturday, Feb. 28, 40 of 52 Greenhill Middle School students who competed at the Area C competition at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas quali ed for the state JCL competition on April 14-15. e top nishers at the state competition will qualify for the nationals at Emory University in Atlanta in July.

In the February competition, the Greenhill Middle school team took rst place in Certamen, which is a Latin-themed

quiz bowl competition. Seventh-grade students Tomal Khan, Dylan Shah, Ansh Gandhi, Arman Makhani, and Connor Kim comprise the JCL team for the quiz bowl competition.

Another Latin teacher, Jenna Laurie, has been greatly involved with JCL since she was in high school in 2011 and she judged her rst competition in 2013. She helped lead the Middle School’s rst-place JCL team last year, Romanosky said.

Eighth-grader Carys Diamond said she was drawn to the activity as “a fun way to get better at Latin and to improve my knowledge of ancient Roman culture.”

Eighth-grader Lydia Kerridge described JCL as “a great way to meet new people with similar interests and go on trips with your friends.”

Romanosky views JCL as a place to make memories and learn new things.

“It’s educational but it’s also fun and a way to make friends and do what they enjoy,” Romanosky said. “I think it is a great organization that allows for leadership.”

Laurie said she wants students to experience some of the memories that made JCL special to her as a student.

look

“I hope that they meet students from other schools and even other states and become friends with them and then when they go back to JCL the next year, they can

forward to seeing them again,” Laurie said.

Aanya Krishnakumar, Ellie Tran

Photos courtesy of Greenhill Communications

GREEK PLAY: Fifth-grade students appear as di erent characters from Greek mythology in the annual Greek Play, which brings to life popular myths through student monologues. In the culmination of their studies, the day is also celebrated by Greek-themed foods being served for lunch and Olympic games which are student-organized.

Mariel Salim-Gomez

Photo courtesy of Greenhill Communications JCL: Latin students attended the Area C competition at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas in late February. The state-level competition will take place in April.

Honor Council Rede nes Purpose

is is a phrase all Greenhill students have heard countless times, the foundation of the school’s Honor Code. If a student disobeys this code, then further action is considered by the Upper School Honor Council.

e Honor Council is a group of Upper School students and faculty tasked with reviewing and adjudicating potential violations of the code. All current members of the Honor Council are juniors and seniors, as they have not held elections for underclassmen in recent years.

In the instance of a student being accused of violating the Honor Code, a hearing with the council will be conducted.

“ ere’s a process that faculty should follow,” said Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester. “ ere’s a form they ll out. ere’s obviously a conversation that should be had with the students they feel may have done something to violate the Honor Code.”

e council then determines appropriate repercussions on a case-bycase basis. Consequences can range from zeroes on assignments for mild infractions to suspensions for more serious violations.

Changes Over Time

Upper School Math Department Chair Darryn Sandler ’95 has noticed a di erence in the goals of the Honor Council from his years as a student member to his time as the previous faculty advisor.

According to Sandler, the council primarily served an educational purpose when he was a student member.

“It was signi cantly more about educating the students and trying to get them to understand the importance of integrity,” Sandler said of the council during his student days.

e group would use creative ways to educate students, he said. Council members would demonstrate Honor Code violations in skits and watch movie clips to challenge students to spark conversations about integrity. e members would also seek input from student advisories about how they would respond to infractions.

ere were consequences, and sometimes they were very severe, but there was de nitely more of an educational component than what you would think about,” Sandler said.

Pandemic Implications

e council’s role on campus has continued to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic – including how the Honor Council functioned, what cases they judged and if they even met. e inconvenience of bringing cases to the council virtually over a Microso Teams call or Zoom caused a sharp decrease in cases being heard.

“We have had the biggest change over COVID particularly because how teachers chose to interact with the Honor Council changed,” senior Azal Amer said. “Because suddenly over COVID it became inconvenient to talk to [the council] online instead of just dealing with it yourself, especially when cheating shot up.”

ere was no “meaningful” Honor Council during the pandemic, according to Upper School English teacher and Honor Council faculty advisor Blake Harkey.

“We had all shi ed so much of our work and mindset to independent focus and online classes,” Harkey said. “And as a result, there are a lot of things that before might have been within the purview of the council started to be a little bit more daily practice.”

In particular, being online made creating a “sca olded structure” for class much harder for teachers, Harkey said. Without that strong sense of supervision, the line for what was acceptable conduct became less clear.

According to Harkey, although discussions did happen over Teams, they were not robust. Students would rely more on Googling and end up on sites such as Spark Notes and Cli Notes.

Finding ideas on websites is not plagiarism, but it is also not that sense of community development, Harkey said. at fuzzy understanding was re ected in the cases Honor Council saw that year, senior Vijay Agrawal said.

“A lot of the cases that we had in 10th and 11th grade, things that people did or at least what their testimony was that they didn’t know that what they were doing was an infraction,” he said.

e pandemic also made those resources much more accessible, which made cheating easier, senior Luke Brodsky said.

“With every school, everyone cheats,” Brodsky said. “It’s the truth and the teachers know it, too. With [being] online, it was just so much easier. I think people got used to it, and once you build up a habit, it’s hard to break just like that.”

While school has returned to in-person learning, the Honor Council still operates with limited capacity.

e Honor Council has reviewed only four cases this school year.

“It’s too much work for teachers,” Brodsky said. “ ey have to report to Honor Council and they have to talk with [Dean of Students Jack] Oros and then they have to come to us. Or they could just fail them on the assignment and move on.”

In fact, some members fully support the council’s shi away from being an adjudicating body.

“I actually think it’s better not to go to the Honor Council because getting caught is enough,” Brodsky said. “You get caught, there’s nothing you can do about it. e Honor Council should fully switch away from trials and go to just a [preventive] mode.”

To ful ll a more preventive role, Honor Council members are currently having discussions about what steps to take next. ese steps include informing faculty about new plans, reviewing the current Honor Code and tackling the unclear instances of academic dishonesty.

“We’ve been having these robust conversations about running scenarios and trying to gure out which of the scenarios that we’re discussing actually t in with what’s currently listed in the Honor Code and where are some gaps that we do need to address,” Harkey said.

Future Path

As a result, the Honor Council is now considering dramatic changes to their role on campus. ere would be a fundamental shi that would reduce emphasis on the punitive aspects of cases and pivot to education moving forward.

Honor Council members say they hope to emphasize that cheating is not only against the rules, but ultimately lowers the quality of education students are receiving. Part of this starts with recognizing the root causes of cheating.

“People don’t want to get bad grades,”

Brodsky said. “I think that getting good grades is more important to people than actually doing the work and learning something.” is is an issue that schools, colleges and universities are constantly trying to tackle.

“What we’re trying to do right is solve a problem that every academic institution has faced, and every academic institution has put barriers into trying to repair,” Amer said. While Greenhill does not explicitly boast a competitive culture, Brodsky says that competition is inherently present among the student body.

“Everyone wants to do better than everyone else,” Brodsky said. “Everyone wants to do the best they can and sometimes cheating is not the best way, but the easiest way they can do well.”

As a rst step, members of the Honor Council will speak to Upper School students during class meetings, discussing the disciplinary and practical consequences of

cheating.

“ at’s why we want to go around and have real discussions, probably without teachers,” Brodsky said. “We want students to feel free to say whatever they want without consequence and hopefully change their mindset.”

In the long term, the council hopes to reduce the xation around grades through structural change in the grading system or through a change in mindset among the student body, Amer said.

Harkey says he hopes that the Honor Council can revise Greenhill’s Honor Code and Student Handbook to utilize as guiding documents.

“[ e Honor Code and the Honor Council are] always going to evolve,” Harkey said. “Right now, it seems like what we’re doing is having the conversations but not doing the function. But again, what function is that to be? I think we need to answer that question really, really strongly before we say, ‘okay, now we’re getting back to action.’”

Khushi Chhaya, Emma Nguyen and Noor Zaman

Blake Harkey

Luke Brodsky

Photo Illustration by Khushi Chhaya and Emma Nguyen

Greenhill Partners with Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

or censored in any way, which I think is incredibly important,” Smith said.

On Feb. 7, the voice of Nobel Peace Prize nominee and “grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee echoed through the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. Through her talk, Lee left a deep impact on Greenhill students and faculty.

“I had read a lot about her prior to getting to go see her, and she truly is an inspiration,” said Upper School History Department Chair Amy Bresie ’96. “It was just an incredibly powerful evening that I’m certainly taking with me.”

Lee’s talk was made possible by Greenhill’s recent partnership with the museum, which became official in January this year.

“I would go to these programs, and I’d just think that this museum is doing some really important work in the city,” said Associate Head of School for Mission, Community, and Culture Tom Perryman. “I’m proud to be a resident of Dallas and have this museum.”

Partnership Roots

Greenhill’s partnership with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum was spearheaded by Perryman, whose involvement with the institution began long before the partnership became official.

“I’m a member,” Perryman said. “I first started going down there in its old location 15 years ago. I know the director of the museum, Mary Pat Higgins, who is a superstar.”

Aware of other community partnerships, Perryman was determined for Greenhill to be among them.

“I would go and sit in these amazing programs and see the names of sponsoring organizations,” Perryman said. “I’m like, ‘we ought to be up there. This is what we do. This is who we are.’”

Due to his personal involvement with the museum and Greenhill’s field trips there, he says that establishing the partnership was a relatively simple process.

“We’ve been taking Middle Schoolers down there for a long time before it even moved into the new building, so we already had a connection with the museum and their curriculum,” Perryman said. “I talked to [Head of School Lee Hark]. I talked to the division heads, and everybody said this makes all the sense in the world.”

Another reason Perryman felt drawn to the idea of a partnership was because of the museum’s mission statement, which closely aligned with Greenhill’s goal to teach and combat injustice.

“Our vision statement part three is ‘we see the world made more hopeful because of the Greenhill community,’ and that’s exactly what the museum is trying to do,” said Perryman.

Bresie agrees with this idea, adding that a critical part of fulfilling Greenhill’s mission statement is extending our services to the broader community.

“With a mission statement like that, you can’t just limit action to 4141 Spring Valley Rd.,” she said. “You have to go out into the community, and you

have to live the mission in a public way. I think the Holocaust and Human Rights Museum is sort of the perfect vehicle for us living our mission.”

Our vision statement part three is ‘we see the world made more hopeful because of the Greenhill community,’ and that’s exactly what the museum is trying to do.”

Greenhill hosts an annual yearend dinner to celebrate employee accomplishments. The dinner has been hosted at various cultural institutions across Dallas, including the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden and the Sixth Floor Museum.

This past year, the school’s Celebrating Teaching Dinner was held at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, which helped further spark the partnership.

“It’s important to take advantage of this special night to add a dimension of education that we’re always learning,” Perryman said.

Greenhill had to consider a variety of factors when deciding where to hold the dinner.

“It was really tricky hosting the celebratory dinner at the Holocaust Museum because this is a museum that is set up to commemorate awful stuff and so we were sort of worried about whether it works to have a celebration at a place that has this as its mission,” Perryman said. “And yet the mission is so closely aligned with our mission of seeing ourselves as change agents in the world that it just felt like the right thing to do.”

Impact

An important part of Greenhill’s partnership with the museum is the Funk Family Upstander Speaker Series, which featured Opal Lee’s story. As a partner of the museum, Greenhill

receives information on details of upcoming events and promotes those events among the community.

“The museum brings in different incredibly courageous people who are trying to change the world, even at the risk of their own lives,” Perryman said. “One of them was Opal Lee.”

Bresie, a long-time reader of Lee’s, says that the courage and perseverance of this iconic activist has served countless people across the city and nation.

“She decided that she was going to walk from Fort Worth to Washington to campaign for Juneteenth,” Bresie said.

With a mission statement like that, you can’t just limit action to 4141 Spring Valley Rd. You have to go out into the community, and you have to live the mission in a public way. I think the Holocaust and Human Rights Museum is sort of the perfect vehicle for us living our mission.”

In addition to Lee being the face of the Juneteenth movement, she is also devoted to philanthropy.

“She has done so much work in Fort Worth communities with soup kitchens and feeding people but also with forming an African American Historical Society in Fort Worth and building up that, giving community pride to her neighborhoods,” Bresie said.

Students who attended her talk reflected on how hearing accounts from a primary source enhanced their learning experience.

“It’s a lot more impactful hearing the person who accomplished these things speak, instead of hearing their story in a class,” senior Leah Smith said.

Smith says that the diversity these speakers bring also enhances the History Department’s curriculum.

“The partnership means that more people, especially minorities, can put their voices out without being filtered

Additionally, Perryman is encouraging campus interaction with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum by giving his students free tickets to the institution’s Upstander Series.

Senior Ellie Thomas-Dietrich says she is appreciative of Greenhill’s partnership because it is facilitating important lessons to younger students.

“It’s important for people to come talk to us because it is important to start learning about these issues from a young age,” Thomas-Dietrich said.

According to Bresie, this partnership becomes especially important at a time when conservatives in some states have sought to ban from classrooms or school libraries the popular Holocaust novel “Maus” because the critics contend it is too graphic for younger students.

“The purpose of teaching hard history is to, one, help people understand how bad things happen in order to prevent them from happening again and also to sort of lift up and affirm the struggles of people who have been historically oppressed,” Bresie said.

Looking Forward

Perryman says he believes the school’s partnership with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum will deepen in the years ahead.

“I’d love more of our classes to go down there and have the experience of [the museum] education department’s workshops,” Perryman said.

Bresie echoes this sentiment.

“I hope that we’re encouraging people to start attending these lectures and to start going more to the museum,” she said. “I know our seventh-grade classes visit the Holocaust Museum, the genocide class visits, and I’m actually trying to get my World War II class to visit.

Like teachers, students say they hope this partnership could advance Holocaust education throughout the History Department.

“I’m on their junior board, and I think being able to take classes to visit the museum would be really powerful,” senior Talia Dauer said. “I definitely think it’s important to integrate Holocaust education in our school and also I know the museum has a human rights aspect to it. I know we cover the Holocaust a little bit in some classes, but definitely not to the depth I think we should.”

The partnership means that more people, especially minorities, can put their voices out without being filtered or censored in any way, which I think is incredibly important.”

Perryman envisions more classes at Greenhill connecting to the museum on a more profound and comprehensive level.

“I think what the museum does is it offers us a way into different important issues, not all of them, but important issues,” Perryman said. “And once we go in and learn about an issue, I think we’re more likely to have our eyes open to the next issue.”

Gabi Appel, Sophia Li

Tom Perryman

Leah Smith

Ellie ThomasDietrich

PARTNERSHIP: Students and faculty will have more educational opportunities due to a Greenhill partnership with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.

Photo illustration by Emily Hu

From Rose Hall to Granada eater Grace Pearson- ompson ’19 Rises to TikTok Music Fame

Chancey Stefanos, Ivy Stitt

Grace Pearson- ompson ’19 is no stranger to the stage.

In her senior year at Greenhill, she graced the Rose Hall stage in the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center, playing the lead role in “ e Drowsy Chaperone.”

Since then, she has moved on from theater and picked up a guitar and her iPhone notes app. Picking from her life experiences to write and produce her own music, she has o cially released six of her own songs on music streaming platforms.

Pearson- ompson has also garnered a dedicated TikTok following and is opening for artists Adam Melchor and Ella Jane as indie folk singer-songwriter Grace Gardner.

“Every day that I do what I’ve been passionate about since I was a kid is a day I can breathe easier,” said Pearson- ompson. “My bucket emotionally is over owing with love; I’m just over the moon.”

Greenhill Roots

A member of the Forever Club, Pearson- ompson spent almost her entire childhood at Greenhill. In her early days as a Hornet, Pearson- ompson considered herself a “perceptive wall ower.”

“I spent Middle School just writing stu down and observing the things around me,” Pearson- ompson said. “I really didn’t talk to anybody.”

roughout her time at Greenhill, Pearson- ompson says she “lived in the [Marshall Family Performing Arts Center].” She joined Advanced Video Production, sang in Greenhill Singers and performed in nine theater productions. Upper School Fine Arts Department Chair Corbin Doyle, who taught her for six years, recalls her unparalleled creativity.

“She had all the stories, she had the vision,” Doyle said. “She was just one of those people that was uber creative. You would de ne Grace as one of those people that you’d see around and say, ‘she’s arts,’ you know?”

Like all juniors, Pearson- omspon took Narrative Non ction, a mandatory English class based on storytelling. Upper School English teacher Andy Mercurio clearly remembers her ability to nd

experiences within herself for her writing assignments.

“It’s remarkable that as a junior she was able to recognize the importance of being able to tell her own story with authenticity,” Mercurio said.

Despite her introverted nature, Pearsonompson considers her experiences at Greenhill as fundamental to breaking her out of her shell. She says she developed an ability to critically analyze her feelings and surroundings, a skill that lies at the heart of songwriting.

“I think that Greenhill made me a good storyteller by giving me a really analytical but also creative and literary mindset,” Pearsonompson said. “ e way my teachers really encouraged creative expression gave me the tools to understand and write about the world while I was really struggling to gain any clear understanding of myself.”

College Days

Pearson- ompson initially dismissed her artistic talents, enrolling in college as a pre-med major. A er graduating from Greenhill in 2019, she began studying at the University of Texas at Austin, and later transferred to Tulane University.

Despite her academic endeavors, Pearson- ompson could never shake her love for singing. She decided to join college acapella groups and show choir.

“It was kind of to ll the void,” said Pearson- ompson. “I really liked when I got to just be on stage and sing. By being in those groups, I got to do that, but I had this dream [of songwriting] that kept coming back.”

She began making music of her own, describing her style as a Venn diagram between pop, indie, rock and folk genres. Her stage name is Grace Gardner, one she settled on by looking up “G” last names on Google to replace her hyphenated last name, which she felt was “too clunky.”

In July 2021, Pearson- ompson started performing at bars and house shows in and around New Orleans. Shortly a er, she released her rst single, “Radio Silence,” a lyrically bitter but pop-infused anthem.

“I thought of ‘Radio Silence’ as a foot in the door and a step towards legitimacy,” Pearson- ompson said. “It ended up

not feeling like either, but it brought me catharsis.”

Just months a er starting these shows, Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans, and Pearsonompson felt stuck. So, she withdrew from Tulane to work full-time and use the money to make more music and produce a sound that felt authentic.

“Essentially, I learned how to be a producer out of stubbornness,” Pearsonompson said. “I didn’t feel like my sonic truth was being told when other folks were producing my songs. I knew how I wanted it to sound in my head, but I didn’t know how to translate it. I basically went into hiding and binge-watched Logic Pro tutorials.”

She continued to write and compose, eventually moving to Austin and enrolling in online classes at Berklee College of Music to nish her degree in music business.

“I’m really excited because that was always kind of my dream when I was younger,” she said. “At some point I hijacked my brain and was like ‘you can’t do music, that’s not realistic.’”

en, in August 2022, everything changed for Pearson- ompson when she posted a TikTok of her then un nished song, “Deny Me.” Nearly eight months later, her TikTok has been viewed over 600,000 times, a success that seemingly came overnight.

“I had just moved [to Austin] and gone through a rough breakup,” she said. “I just had to get it out. I went to bed. When I woke up, life was very di erent.”

Industry Success

e overwhelming support from TikTok launched Pearson- ompson into the spotlight. With this newfound fame, however, came the challenge of navigating the music industry.

“I remember thinking, ‘How do I pull myself up a seat at the table?’” Pearsonompson said. “Trying to strike that balance without having really any exposure to the entertainment industry was de nitely a learning curve.”

Despite her lack of experience, Pearsonompson hit the ground running and released two more singles, “Scorpions Don’t Live Forever,” and “Parcel.” Both unpack her own feelings, from bitterness and frustration to fear of heartbreak.

Her songs were quickly added to several of Spotify’s popular curated playlists, including “sad girl starter pack,” and most notably, “New Music Friday,” which boasts over 4 million likes from Spotify listeners. is placed her songs alongside artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo and even one of her biggest inspirations, Lizzy McAlpine.

Now, Pearson- ompson is on tour for the rst time ever.

“Tour has just been such a dream,” she said. “I love getting to connect with everyone. As an opener, it’s surreal speaking with people a er shows who are like, ‘we came here for you.’ I literally was just a loser for like a hot minute of my life.”

Pearson- ompson made her way back to Dallas to perform at the Granada eater on March 5 with fellow indie folk singersongwriter, Adam Melchor.

“dallas my hometown thank you for the best show ever,” wrote Pearson- ompson in an Instagram post on March 9. “i will never forget it & i will never forget you!!!!”

Pearson- ompson’s Greenhill mentors, Doyle and Mercurio, say they could have seen this coming.

“In the Upper School, she was really beginning to embrace the artist that she was,” Doyle said. “ ere’s a con dence and a storytelling and a voice in there, so obviously people are gonna show up at these shows.”

Future Endeavors

Pearson- ompson’s EP, “Peach,” was released on March 3. She wants to continue writing and touring.

“I have, like, thousands of lyrics in my notes app,” Pearson- ompson said. “I’ve been hunched over my desk, cranking out stu . I hope to release a 12-15 song album this summer. en I’m just trying to get on more tours and just get on the road like I’m doing right now.”

With touring, social media and songwriting, Pearson- ompson’s life has become centered around the creativity that has been present in her since childhood.

“I would tell my younger self to keep homing in on creative expression and art,” Pearson- ompson said. “It doesn’t have to be shared and advertised if you don’t want it to, but if you do, at least one person is going to resonate with it.”

Photos by Chancey Stefanos

STARSTRUCK: Grace Pearson-Thompson ‘19 has found recent success as a musician under the name Grace Gardner. On March 5, Pearson-Thompson performed at the Granada Theater in Dallas with fellow indie folk singer-songwriter Adam Melchor. Her song “Deny Me” became an overnight hit on TikTok, amassing over 600,000 views.

Students Prepare Capstone Projects

articles and then integrated her Greenhill history knowledge into the creation process.

want it to do,” said Bresie.

Over 20 years ago, Greenhill seniors began undertaking Capstone projects, allowing students to explore a field of interest. At the end of each year-long project, the student presents their findings to the Upper School.

This year, there are four seniors creating Capstone projects.

Senior Azal Amer is creating simulations for advanced physics concepts. Senior Ava Iwasko is putting together a program aimed at educating freshmen about misinformation in the digital age. Senior Ella-Rose Levy is crafting a report about a strain of bacteria she discovered. And senior Aakash Vattikuti is creating a model for business pitches.

“[Capstone projects] were designed to create an opportunity for students to pursue independent work on something they are passionate about or where they might not find a current academic program [offered at Greenhill],” Director of Academics Jason Yaffe said.

Although the work is selfpaced and selfguided, seniors work with on-campus and off-campus mentors. The mentors help students solidify a foundation for the research and lend expertise throughout the journey.

Upper School science teacher Barry Ide is Levy’s mentor.

“In a science Capstone Project, a student is often working with a professional scientist who has many years of experience and years of schooling and our seniors involved in a Capstone Project are trying to get up to speed really, really quickly,” said Ide. “They may not always be able to ask some basic questions, or what will be basic in the field of their Capstone mentor, so my job is to kind of try and fill in those gaps and help them understand what scientific research looks like and how scientific research is generally conducted.”

Process

Each student has developed priorities and a process for their research.

Iwasko has focused her research on misinformation. She has looked at online journals, academic sources and news

Vattikuti spends a lot of his time during weekends dedicated to his project.

Levy, on the other hand, has logged a significant amount of lab time to find “a strain of bacteria that comes from dirt that fits the characteristics of [a] good probiotic,” she said. She will consolidate her findings in a final lab report at the end of the year.

The first semester of the project is focused more on narrowing down to a central idea, which Bresie notes, is the hardest part.

Upper School science teacher Michael Haskins has a similar perspective in his mentoring experience with Amer.

“[Amer] had a lot of really good ideas at the beginning and wanted to go a lot of different directions with this project,” said Haskins, “I’ve noticed that he’s started to

by getting this computational stuff out of the way, I’m just having more fun because I enjoyed working with algorithms and stuff,” said Amer.

Iwasko was driven by the contemporary relevance of digital misinformation. She finds it important to educate students who are growing up in today’s social media age and help them distinguish between real and fake news.

Like Amer, she said she also believes the research she is doing will naturally

Since the Capstone project is not offered as a normal class block, students must plan out free periods and time outside of school to complete their research. For Iwasko, she tends to spend most of her time on the weekends using chunks of time to work. During weekdays, she finds herself focusing more on her specific academic classes, Iwasko said.

Collaboration

To ensure that steady progress is made, there are mandatory check-ins with the assigned mentors. Students also attend practice presentations with the other seniors and Yaffe, regular group meetings and oneon-one meetings with Yaffe himself.

Upper School History Department Chair Amy Bresie ’96, Iwasko’s mentor, says that one of the common challenges students face in their Capstone projects is creating a realistic timeline.

“Most of what I do is say, ‘Okay, but let’s cut that down,’ because I think Capstones are, by definition, really big ideas and even when you have a whole year to do something, it’s often still not enough time to do everything that people

be a little bit more realistic with what he’s able to accomplish in one year.”

On top of balancing schoolwork from other classes, Capstone students must carve out time to focus on their extensive research. Ide says it can be tempting to prioritize more immediate deadlines from other classes when working on a longterm project without specific due dates.

“It can be really easy to say I’ve got this AP test coming up, I should work on that instead,” said Ide.

Bresie agrees with this.

“I think it can be difficult to maintain focus sometimes,” she said. “And it can be difficult to keep working on [the project] when you have seven other things that are due.”

As Class of 2023 members prepare for their last weeks at Greenhill, Capstone seniors must remain motivated in their project and research endeavors.

“One of the things that works for me in terms of time management is just making myself understand why I need to do those things,” Amer said.

“I make it sound fun for myself. [This] is the type of skill that took me a while to develop. With no built-in structure in the self-paced course, time-management becomes vital.”

Pursuing Passions

From physics to business entrepreneurship, each student is pursuing a project that relates to their college and career aspirations.

Amer, who plans on majoring in computational physics in college, picked a topic that he will encounter in future studies.

“I don’t get to take a computational physics course in college until my junior year, or in my late sophomore year … so

come up again in her college experience, because she plans to major in philosophy.

“I think not only does my project give me a great foundation and background on this very important, prominent, prevalent issue, but it also has given me the skills I need to pursue research in an individual, independent capacity that I will most likely face in college,” Iwasko said.

Levy, on the other hand, initially started her process as an aspiring history major. Her concentration on biology throughout her research led her to change her college plan.

“After realizing I actually really enjoy biology, I sort of had a change of heart and ended up applying to certain schools that had professors working on similar projects,” said Levy. “I plan to continue this research because what I am doing is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to characterizing strands of bacteria.”

As for Vattikuti, his Capstone project is an extension of an internship he did with consulting firm Highwire Ventures. After being exposed to entrepreneurship in the real world, he says it is a potential path he can see himself go down.

“I’ve been able to spend a lot more time kind of getting into the details of how to create these investment pitches,” Vattikuti said. “Rather than just creating something broad that was effective … it has kind of helped me kind of focus on what I actually want to do in the future. So, this Capstone Project has helped me with that [future career choice].”

Sydney Chien, Helina Tedros and Camila Hanson

EXCHANGING IDEAS: Seniors Aakash Vattikuti and Ella-Rose Levy collaborate to perfect their respective Capstone projects and practice presenting their research.

MEETING CRITERIA: Seniors Ava Iwasko and Azal Amer read the rubric that outlines the requirements and grading scale for their respective Capstone projects.

Ava Iwasko

Jason Ya e

Amy Bresie

Azal Amer

Ella-Rose Levy

Aakash Vattikuti

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

[Capstone projects] were designed to create an opportunity for students to pursue independent work on something they are passionate about or where they might not find an academic program [that is offered at Greenhill].”

Spring Play Review: “She Kills Monsters”

On March 30, Greenhill’s theater department tackled its most complex Spring Play yet: “She Kills Monsters.” With eight battle scenes, a ve-headed dragon and a wisecracking dungeon master, actors, crew and audience members alike believe the play was unique in its dramatic and comedic nature.

Qui Nguyen’s 2011 play follows Agnes Evans, a young woman who goes on a Dungeons and Dragons journey to learn more about her deceased younger sister, Tilly.

Upper School Drama and eater teacher Valerie Hauss-Smith was primarily in charge of choosing the Spring Play. Since the Fall Musical, “Big Fish,” was high-spirited, Hauss-Smith chose “She Kills Monsters” to provide some contrast.

“We would like something that has a little bit more grounding, something that speaks to people’s emotion,” Hauss-Smith said prior to opening night. “We thought that would be something that would really sort of connect with people at Greenhill. And also the fantasy aspect was really exciting because [it] turns out a lot of people are into Dungeons and Dragons.”

Junior Sanjna Kalisetty played Tilly Evans, a 15-yearold, dorky, closeted lesbian. Kalisetty enjoyed portraying Tilly because of how di erent she is from her character.

“It’s really fun to play her because she’s very strong and very con dent,” Kalisetty said. “She’s very bold and daring. It’s not how I would describe myself. So, it’s like a fun challenge to play her.”

Audience Reactions

Although the actors and crew only had around two months to prepare, both students and teachers alike thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

Senior Nolan Crowder says that while the writing of the play was not his style, he found the students’ e orts admirable.

“It had a lot of character to it, with acting performances and tech design that proved very impressive,” said Crowder.

Upper School counselor Kathy Roemer was touched by the emotions of the play and how it made her think of the people in her own life.

“I love when theater does that and it makes you think of people, pulls at your heartstrings but also makes you laugh,” said Roemer. “I love watching students get it all done, put in the hard work and see that pride at the end.”

Upper School English teacher Andy Mercurio was surprised at the show’s content a er the way it had been initially presented to the Greenhill community.

“It belied the emotional depth of that production,” Mercurio said. “ ere was so much more to it. I really thought it was going to be edgy just to be edgy. Instead, it had a tremendous amount of emotion, thoughtfulness and heart.”

Student Leadership

e rehearsal process for “She Kills Monsters” was unique. Part of this stems from students taking on leadership roles that would normally have been reserved for teachers.

“ at was sort of the idea, how we could challenge them with something that they might be really into and then they are taking the play to another level by literally being the designer, which is very rare,” said Hauss-Smith, better known across campus by her initials VHS.

For example, senior Teddy Robertson served as the assistant student director. His duties included collaborating with other actors on their character development.

“My job as a student director is to aid and abet with the trials and tribulations that VHS faces along the way of [assembling] this play,” Robertson said during rehearsals. “Basically, I’m just there to provide VHS assistance whenever she doesn’t have time to be manning four di erent scenes.”

Robertson says his experience directing experience was helpful for what he hopes to accomplish in the future.

“As an actor I’m signing on to a journey that is treacherous and very risky,” Robertson said. “And thus, my secondary backup plan, which is equally as important, and

I’m equally as passionate about, is teaching. And so, learning how to direct and how to facilitate the work of other people, besides myself, is a very important skill.”

e student deputies, chosen for the production by their peers, were Robertson, senior Chancey Stefanos, Kalisetty, and junior Quinn Graves. Hauss-Smith says that deputies served as a bridge between the cast and crew and teachers.

Stefanos was the student stage manager and spent most of her time organizing the technical aspect of the show. By collaborating with other peers, she says that she felt a sense of pride in seeing their designs come to life.

“It’s been really fun to have a lot of that responsibility on us just because it’s something that’s new, and it’s also really cool to see a set that your classmate designed,” Stefanos said. “Knowing that a student designed that and built it is really awesome. Also, I think it’s generally just a good thing to have a say in how things go. Students sometimes have to just kind of give it all up to the director and just go with it.”

have that representation,” Kalisetty said.

Since the show included intense depictions of homophobia, Robertson and other queer theater students went through the script to take out any inappropriate jokes, such as lines that fetishize queer women or promote derogatory language. e intensity and logistics of the show’s eight ght scenes also set it apart from past productions. e last time stage combat was used was with “Romeo + Juliet” in 2019; however, the intensity and number of ghts pale in comparison to those in “She Kills Monsters.”

Although Graves was once unsure whether he liked the script, he says that it grew on him.

“We’re hoping that the audience appreciates the humor the same way we do as a joke,” Graves said. “I think we’ve come to appreciate the silliness of it.”

While students held much of the creative direction for the show, teachers still assisted students in executing the ideas they came up with.

ey’re not totally le on their own,” said Upper School Technical eater teacher Will Turbyne. “We’re here to guide them but we’re all sort of stepping back and just guiding them rather than speci cally telling them what to do, as we sometimes have to in the past.”

Graves, who played Chuck the Dungeon Master, felt that the rehearsal process went smoothly due to the close bonds between the cast and crew.

“[Grade levels are] really split very evenly among the cast,” said Graves. “It works really well to have that division of leadership and have role models and people who all care a lot about it and care a lot about each other in a way that you can’t really get in a lot of other environments.”

A Unique Show

Hauss-Smith thinks “She Kills Monsters” was di erent in the way it openly discussed and represented queerness.

“It shows and sort of displays some of the bullying that somebody can encounter at school, particularly for their sexual orientation,” she said. “I think that’s an important thing, particularly right now in the world to show that because we all thought, ‘hey, we’re all good now. We’re all evolved.’ And now there’s sort of this weird like, ‘oh, you know, there’s parts of this world where it’s not alright to say I’m gay, parts of the school system where that’s not alright.’”

Kalisetty echoes this sentiment.

“I’ve never seen a show at Greenhill that so in detail talks about the LGBTQ+ perspective, and I think that’s something that’s di erent and exciting because it’s good to

For Turbyne, the aspect that made the show special was the group of students putting it on. ere’s a lot of themes in this play that are somewhat heavy hitting, and what I admire about Greenhill theater is that it uses the opportunity of its productions to have those conversations and to encourage those conversations with their audience and with the community at large,” Turbyne said. “In that way, I think what makes it special is this particular group of students coming together to tell this story and to engage with it and to engage with the work.”

“She Kills Monsters” marked Robertson’s and Stefanos’ last production on campus.

As a long-time member of Greenhill tech theater, Stefanos has been teaching two other students how to stage manage. “ at’s been challenging, but also really fun,” Stefanos said. “I love working with them. And I also think that they’re gaining a lot from this, and I can’t wait to see what they do next year.”

Robertson says not performing in his last show “surprisingly feels tting.”

“Many people like to say they like to go out with a boom,” said Robertson. “I like to go out with a putter. I like to slowly drip away. I’ve never gotten to experience something like this before, and so a new experience is always a great way to say goodbye.”

He also saw student directing as a way to give back to the Greenhill theater program.

“I wanted to be able to spend my last semester being involved with Greenhill eater, giving back to the group and the community that li ed me up when I was onstage with them,” Robertson said. “I also just wanted to see and share my knowledge with the people younger than me, and perhaps pass on some kind of legacy.”

Ava Iwasko, Aiden

White

Valerie Hauss-Smith

Learning how to direct and how to facilitate the work of other people, besides myself, is a very important skill.”

In that way, I think what makes it special is this particular group of students coming together to tell this story and to engage with it and to engage with the work.”

Teddy Robertson

Chancey Stefanos

Kathy Roemer

ROLL 20: Junior Quinn Graves, playing the role of Chuck the Dungeon Master, narrates Tilly’s adventure in her Dungeons and Dragons campaign. “She Kills Monsters” follows Tilly’s sister, Agnes, as she learns more about Tilly after her death.

Photo courtesy of Robert Jackson

Debaters Excel at State Tournament

Lyna

Kamgang, Justin Wu

The debate team nished 10th out of 173 schools in the overall sweepstakes category at the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament in Houston on March 9-11.

Greenhill sent a record 42 debaters, competing as 11 teams, to the tournament.

Students compete in one of three debate formats: Policy, Lincoln-Douglas or World Schools. Senior Karrington Barnett participated in the Oral Interpretation speech event.

In last year’s state tournament, Upper School debaters won both the Policy and World Schools division with teams composed of seniors.

In this year’s tournament, two of the ve Greenhill World Schools teams reached the semi nals and two others reached the quarter nals.

e two teams that made the semi nals were Greenhill Gold and Greenhill Diamond. Members of the Gold team are seniors Carcyn Coleman, Sophia Mohammed, Ivy Stitt and sophomore Lily Alston. Diamond team members are juniors Angela Kamgang, Abeera Amer, Reyna Diamond and sophomore Sherry Zhang.

Several Greenhill students also won individual World Schools speaker awards, which are based on points accumulated over several rounds of competition. e students are: sophomore Varun Mukund, third; junior Natalie Stachowiak, fourth; junior Sophia Li, h; and junior Kaden Alibhai, seventh.

In the Policy division, all ve Upper School teams advanced to elimination rounds. e team of senior Madison Rojas and sophomore Gautam Chamarthy continued to the octo nals, the nal 16 teams.

In Lincoln Douglas debate, a one-on-one format in which 160 students were entered, junior Seth Lee made it to double-octo nals – comprising the nal 32 competitors –and junior Adam Kesselman made it to octo nals before losing to the ultimate tournament champion.

Kesselman, who has been a competitive debater since his sophomore year, says this year’s season was one of a kind.

“Last year, because of COVID, I was a bit burnt out and then [I] was having to juggle soccer and debate. I wasn’t really invested [in debate],” said Kesselman. “ en this year, I made the full switch to being fully engaged. So, I was able to make that jump and qualify for the tournament.”

National-Caliber Competition

With several nationally acclaimed teams participating, the Texas state tournament is considered an especially competitive one, said Associate Speech and Debate Coach Allie Chase.

“We take it just as seriously as any national tournaments that we compete in,” said Chase. “In no small part, because schools in the state of Texas are some of the best in the country at debate in all three of the divisions that we compete in.”

Greenhill Debate’s lack of competitors in individual speech events puts the team at a competitive disadvantage. It makes it especially di cult for the team to overtake larger schools in the overall sweepstakes category.

“Grand sweepstakes is a big deal,” said Director of Debate Aaron Timmons. “It’s a big deal because many of the other schools have students competing in a lot of individual events, which rack up points. We do not have that.”

Preparation Phase

Last year, Greenhill debate students won both the Policy and World Schools division. e winning teams comprised seniors, so the mantle passed to another wave of top Greenhill debaters this year.

“We have a [motto] of ‘we don’t really like to rebuild, we reload,’” said Timmons. “ e people that we have now are just as talented but are now in a position where the focus and attention can be on them.”

In the weeks prior to the tournament, competitors in each division prepared for speci c challenges.

For Lincoln-Douglas debaters who compete one-onone, that meant preparing for a new motion.

“Everyone’s going into the tournament blind,” freshman Aaron Kuang said in the days prior to the competition. “ is is the only tournament on this topic. We don’t have any practice and we don’t know what other teams are going to run because we didn’t debate this in previous tournaments.”

On the other hand, policy debaters, who compete in a partner debate in which they must create a plan, continued with the same motion they have had all year. For these students, preparation looked a little di erent.

“We’re trying to navigate not being stressed during the tournament, and trying to have fun, but still doing our best,” said freshman Dhiya Hemchand.

In World Schools, debaters prepped both prepared motions and impromptu motions which they would be debating at the tournament.

“ e second motions dropped, we started writing case and making prep schedules on when we need to complete [cases] by or complete rebuttal,” said Amer. “My team made a

competition list, who we think is going to be the biggest competition and then we are prepping for that.”

Everybody on the team had varying goals heading into the tournament. “We want to win, but probably that’s not realistic for this year, at least,” said Hemchand before the tournament began. “But we still want to be able to get far and have good experiences and debates to learn from.”

Re ections

In the a ermath of the tournament, the competitors and coaches have re ected on the experience.

Twenty-one freshmen and sophomores competed in this year’s state tournament, and many of those were competing in the event for the rst time.

“Our goal is to have all students excel at their own best personal level, and that is di erent for di erent students, because they have di erent levels of experience,” said Timmons.

Chamarthy says that the invaluable opportunities presented at the tournament are what drove many of the debaters to do their best.

“We needed to get as much out of it as we could, because this was one of our best opportunities to perform in front of so many good judges and people,” said Chamarthy.

Along with allowing them to compete against some of the best, the coaches say that the TFA State Tournament always brings people together and makes the program stronger.

We needed to get as much out of it as we could, because this was one of our best opportunities to perform in front of so many good judges and people.”

“ ere are 10 people who had not gone to that tournament before, did not know what to expect and came back hyped about debate and the way they’re going to approach it and moving forward,” said Timmons.

With only national level tournaments le , Amer says the state tournament has prepared her for future competition to come.

“Everybody’s beatable,” said Amer. “ ere’s nothing that you can’t prepare and beat somebody for.”

PARTNERS: Senior Madison Rojas and sophomore Gautam Chamarthy reached the nal 16 in their division.

Photo courtesy of Rodrigo Paramo

PROUD TO OPPOSE: Greenhill Platinum team members, left to right, Saida Bidiwala, Kaden Alibhai, Varun Mukund, Vivaan Gupta and Aditi Vikram, advanced to the quarter nals at the TFA State Tournament in Houston.

Allie Chase

Aaron Timmons

Adam Kesselman

Photo courtesy of Cindi Timmons

We have a [motto] of we don’t really like to rebuild, we reload.”

Abeera Amer

Dhiya Hemchand

Centerpiece

A New Age In The rise of AI chatbots sparks discussion

Aria Kutty, Varun Mukund and Pooja Sanghvi

at Princeton University that is able to detect if a piece of text contains material from ChatGPT.

“Obviously students take shortcuts in school, partly due to the stressors of life,” Almanza said. “So, with the advancement of AI on one end, we have to be able to create things that can detect cheating and other unethical behavior.”

some challenges.”

Junior Arjun Melwani shares this sentiment. Melwani says he believes that banning ChatGPT completely is doing students an injustice.

e previous paragraph was written with Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, a new Arti cial Intelligence tool developed by OpenAI, a company that is a long-term partner of Microso . ChatGPT is part of a wider range of new AI systems known as conversational chatbots, named for their ability to converse with users.

e new Arti cial Intelligence tool reached almost 100 million users within the rst two months of its launch, and, currently,

Plagiarism is not the only concern with the so ware, Worcester noted.

“ ere are things we need to be careful of that are not in students’ control,” Worcester said. “ ings like privacy and data, because ChatGPT is open source, and depending on what their terms and conditions look like, they may collect data when students put information in.”

However, Worcester says these concerns are not a reason to ban the so ware altogether.

“ e tech o ce is limiting many people to be able to learn how to use these tools at a young age,” Melwani said. “Isolating people from ideas has never been something that works. When it comes to the real world and people are using it, students won’t know how to interact with it.”

Student Reactions

ChatGPT is free for users, allowing students to explore the so ware o the campus on personal devices.

In Technology discussion on educational usage

research. When senior Sophia Mohammed was working on a debate case, she and her team utilized ChatGPT to nd sources.

“When researching we realized we can get super speci c with [ChatGPT],” Mohammed said. “When I asked it to give me ve sources on the innovation of ChatGPT it did just that. I think it is really useful to utilize ChatGPT to nd those sources and use them instead of having to scour the internet for them.”

However, ChatGPT gets its information through thousands of unchecked sources on the internet, including information that can be inaccurate, which is why Mohammed says fact checking is so crucial.

answers and asked students to say what’s right and what’s wrong and why. It saves time.”

While Haskins himself has not brought ChatGPT into his classes yet, Upper School English teacher Alvaro Cantu ’99 has already used ChatGPT to write quizzes and assessments for his class.

“Over and over again, reusing old quiz questions hasn’t been e ective,” Cantu said.

“So, the way I have been using [ChatGPT] is I have found PDF versions of the text that I’ve assigned in class and then used ChatGPT to create questions. As educators, [we] need to talk to students about our expectations around how to use [ChatGPT].”

However, due to ChatGPT’s limited knowledge on the texts assigned in class, the questions that it produces can be vague and even confusing for students.

Arbuckle, a student in Cantu’s English 10 class, has voiced some hesitancy for this

“It writes quizzes for our PoetX unit, but it came up with very ambiguous questions and sometimes got things very wrong,” Arbuckle said. “So, I don’t think that it was the best method to write our quizzes.”

Nevertheless, Cantu says that ChatGPT is a tool that should be recognized and utilized by both teachers and students in di erent ways to bring awareness to its bene ts and e biggest thing for me … is to make students aware of [ChatGPT],” Cantu said. “I think that this leaves room for less surprises and if we, as teachers, can teach students how to best use it, everyone ends up bene ting.”

As ChatGPT continues to re ne its technology and become more powerful, more people across the nation are beginning to use it. OpenAI predicts that ChatGPT will generate $200 million in revenue by the end of 2023 and a whopping $1 billion by the end us, the language model is not going

Accepting this, said Almanza, allows teachers to utilize ChatGPT to the best of

I don’t think that AI is just gonna disappear,” Almanza said. “It’s here to stay ght it, I think that we, as educators, need to sit down and gure out the best way to use [ChatGPT] to our advantage because it is a neat way to create open-ended questions that help drive conversation.”

It has transformed the way I work. When I am struggling to understand something, it really helps to break down concepts and be able to ask ChatGPT really specific questions you can’t really Google.”

According to Almanza, ChatGPT can be used as a resource when students are struggling with homework. However, the potential dangers of ChatGPT are why she supports a student ban on it for now.

“I think it should remain blocked until we, as teachers, get proper training about how to use it so that we can properly implement guidelines for its usage,” Almanza

Worcester says even teacher use of ChatGPT has its limitations. In the same way that a student shouldn’t plagiarize a paper, teachers should not be directly copying comments

and information sent out to students without fact-checking.

“If a teacher takes exactly what the bot provides and uses that, I would argue that is in line with a student doing the same thing and claiming it is their work,” Worcester said.

Uncharted Future

AI conversational chatbots are new to education, meaning there is no evidence on how these chatbots will change the long-term outcome of education. Many students fear that future generations will become complacent and stop using basic learning skills.

“Essay-writing skills hold such value, and if you have this machine that can do it all for you in ve seconds, all the skills and tools that you have learned in all the English classes throughout the years can’t even be put to use anymore,” senior Emily Quinn said. “I don’t think I would want to use it because I think I would get into a bad habit and start to rely on it, especially as it gets stronger.”

Worcester says that due to a di erence in development and foundation of skills, action taken with ChatGPT will di er departmentally to prevent the loss of skills as noted by Quinn.

“Long-term skills and ethical decisions are a little more ingrained in Upper Schoolers,” Worcester said. “ ink of this as a sort of digital translator in a language class. Students aren’t supposed to be using those speci cally in the language department.”

According to Melwani, while ChatGPT poses many bene ts if used correctly, if humans start to rely only on ChatGPT to solve problems, it will create an endless cycle of a lack of innovation in society.

“It has been trained o of us,” Melwani said. “If we always use it to do our daily tasks, future generations will become reliant on it.”

He says he believes this will result in a loss of low-level skills in future generations, such as writing or coding.

“My worry is that if we begin to rely on AI, we are liable to lose lower-level skills such as basic grammar when writing or syntax while coding,” Melwani said.

Furthermore, ChatGPT is trained on a multitude of human-made sources. us, it is only as smart as society is and is not capable of innovating ahead of current human capacity.

Since ChatGPT simply repurposes ideas that other people already have had, its use could negatively impact society as a whole, Melwani said.

“It could lead to a lack of innovation within the elds and a possible convergence between the skills AI can o er us and the data we can give it to be trained on,” Melwani said.

Regardless of how education evolves with AI, Hark says that he hopes students will still nd meaning and value in their academic work.

“When I was a teacher, I worked really hard to help my students see that what they were writing was a work of art,” Hark said. “I don’t want that to change, no matter what tool students are using to help them create.”

According to Hark, learning is not only about the content but also about the discoveries students make about themselves.

“No matter how much of the creative process is aided by AI, learning that your voice matters, and that it’s unique and distinct and has power, is so important,” Hark said. “I taught for a long time, and I’ve seen that light bulb go on over and over and over again: ‘My writing is distinctly my own, and I have thoughts to share.’ at’s what I never want to go away.”

Graphics by Emma Nguyen

There are things we need to

Senior Ahmed Agha used to think that people who abused drugs knew what they were getting into.

“I think that’s kind of the public perception of drug abuse,” Agha said. “But a er going through high school, being older and seeing a lot of my peers abuse drugs, I kind of realized that it’s really just an unfortunate event that happens. It’s more like a disease. A lot of times it just happens.”

In the wake of nine students in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton overdosing on fentanyl, with three dying, Agha is now one of many Upper School students receiving educational programming about substance abuse.

“When I was in middle school, we had no substance abuse programming,” Agha said. “And I think as a result, people were not as aware that it happened, and it kind of caught us by surprise. So I think it’s important that especially all underclassmen get this kind of information.”

By the end of high school, 46.6% of students will have used illegal substances, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. To expand and enhance the wellness curriculum, the Upper School Counseling department is working alongside the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation to educate Greenhill students.

e foundation holds a prevention solutions program that strives to give resources to Greenhill students and fosters open discussion.

“I want [this program] to be for students to make di erent choices and have an e ect on the choices that they make,” Head of School Lee Hark said.

Growing Concerns

e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has labeled youth at a high risk for substance abuse. Since the teenage brain does not fully develop until the age of 25, the use of substances can have a signi cant impact on decision-making, risk-taking and impulse control, according to the National Institutes of Health.

e CDC has found that teenagers are willing to try substances to t in or do better academically.

“Instead of just saying no, we try to caution against the abuse of substances,” said Upper School science teacher Hennah Abubaker. “I have always felt that it’s important to teach science in a way that resonates with kids so they can make better decisions.”

In addition to the direct e ects on the brain, substance use can also have indirect e ects on a teenager’s life, such as poor grades and motivation, according to the NIH.

To prevent the potential risk of substance abuse, Greenhill is providing guidance and support to help teenagers make healthy choices through education by teachers and outside organizations.

Fentanyl Response

Following recent news coverage on the Carrollton overdoses, Director of Student Health Services Katie Trimmer, Upper School counselors Amanda Frederick and Kathy Roemer, and Abubaker have worked to inform the Upper School about the

dangers of substances, especially fentanyl, on a more scienti c level.

“In Middle School, we didn’t learn much about the use of substances, so I was happy to hear that we would have a time to help us learn about the dangers and e ects of them,” said sophomore Vicky Cisneros.

of programming in terms of facilitating, having background and expertise,” said Worcester.

According to the foundation’s website, the Prevention Solutions program strives to enhance the level of education surrounding substance abuse and create more informed environments to prevent potential dangers.

substance abuse it feels very overbearing and stigmatized, but it was really informative,” said Park.

e Prevention Solutions program extends its awareness e orts to entire families.

Trimmer and Roemer held Upper School class meetings to raise awareness on the recent fentanyl crisis.

Abubaker is educating seniors on the neurological harms of substance abuse.

“My delivery is focused on how substance abuse a ects the brain, speci cally the teenage brain,” said Abubaker. “[I am] just providing a little bit of education around what substance abuse actually is.”

Prevention Solutions

Prior to the pandemic,

“ e Betty Ford Foundation will train them about the adolescent brain and answering questions about drugs and alcohol,” said Roemer. “With this information, I want them to make educated decisions.”

e Upper School e orts will primarily target sophomores. e 10th grade is a good time because it’s when [students] start to get some independence [like] driving,” said Worcester. e programming will consist of two hours allotted toward 10th grade, with a prevention specialist engaging students in small groups and collaborative conversations.

“ e specialist will be here and will work with small groups of 10th-graders so every [student] will be assigned a group,” said Roemer.

“They’ll meet a

“We’ll have parent programs, one about responsible decision making [and one where] we will partner with prevention solutions and the same prevention specialist that’s working with the students will be talking with the parents,” said Majefski.

Program Structure

ese sessions were led by a recovering addict and specialist on substance abuse prevention, Eduardo Torres. He opens the sessions by talking about his story of nicotine use at age 14, then went on to discuss his experience of entering rehab at age 19. A erward, Torres opened the oor for questions.

“I really enjoyed how it was structured,” said sophomore Shreya Chhaya. “Instead of it being like a lecture, it was really easy to ask questions making it easy to engage and understand.”

Sophomore Sophie Fiedelman shares this sentiment.

I want [this program] to be for students to make different choices and have an effect on the choices that they make.”

“ e sessions were very engaging and taught me about what the e ects of drugs are when they are used irresponsibly at a young age,” Fiedelman said.

Future Plans

e plan going forward is to add substance abuse programming to the science curriculum and then expand this program to other divisions across campus.

Greenhill held multiple wellness sessions for both students and parents.

“Pre-pandemic we had changed the schedule to [talk about substances] instead of classes for half a day in the past,” Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester said.

Due to the pandemic and a change to block schedules, the Upper School didn’t continue substance abuse programming. Now, Worcester said, discussions are underway to ramp up wellness education.

Students and faculty expressed their support for increased substance abuse education.

is year, Greenhill partnered with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Prevention Solutions program. is partnership was spearheaded by Roemer.

“Ms. Roemer’s strengths [are] this kind

couple of times during that week, and just have the chance to really learn about substances and the brain.”

Not only will the Prevention Solutions program bene t the 10th grade, but they will hold question-and-answer sessions for all other grade levels.

“We are going to have whole grade assemblies for ninth, 11th and 12th grades with the same prevention specialists that’ll be more like a Q-and-A,” said Director of Counseling Shanti Majefski.

Junior Ayne Park says that these sessions were insightful, even with a large group.

“A lot of times when talking about

“My hope and vision would be that we would start in Lower School, with wellness programming, so that as students progress through Greenhill they have the opportunity to build the skills that we know they need as they turn into adults,” said Majefski.

Integrating these sessions into the chemistry curriculum has been Roemer’s main long-term goal.

As a further e ort to safeguard students, Narcan – a medication used in spray and injection form in the treatment of acute opioid overdose incidents – will be made available to Upper School counselors, athletic trainers, the security team and nurses.

“We will have Narcan on our campus,” Hark said. “We already have key personnel trained, and we’re going to train the faculty how to use it too, so that if we ever need it, people know where it is and how to administer it.”

e ultimate goal is to equip students to make informed decisions.

“I think it’s really important that if they understand the way that these drugs interact with each other, then we can help them make better choices,” said Abubaker.

Daniela Hallack, Christan Park

Shanti Majefski

Kathy Roemer

Hennah Abubaker

Graphic by Christan Park

I have always felt that it’s important to teach science in a way that resonates with kids so they can make better decisions.”

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Exceptional Freshman Finds Inspiration in Art

Emily Hu, Irina Li

For freshman Rachel Jiang, art was an aspiration that ran in the family.

“My mom never had the opportunity to learn art,” Jiang said. “Because of that, my mom has encouraged me to draw, so she sent me to art classes at a young age.”

Jiang rst started drawing at the age of ve. Since then, art has become a passion, rather than something her mother has pushed her to pursue.

“In the beginning, it was more my parents encouraging me and I was experimenting with art supplies,” she said. “But as I am getting more advanced in skill, there’s a lot more thought and enjoyment because I understand more of what I’m doing.”

A er almost a decade of dedication to art, Jiang says that now it’s more than just a hobby or pastime. She says being an artist gives her a sense of accomplishment and provides her with an invaluable form of self-expression.

“I’m not a very expressive person through talking, so art is a way to express my feelings without explicitly saying them,” said Jiang. “Putting my emotions on paper helps relieve my stress.”

“Naturally Talented”

Jiang has used various art mediums, including oil paint and graphite pencils. Recently, she has been experimenting with Prismacolor colored pencils and chalk. In the future, she hopes to try watercolor, which she does not have much experience working with.

She currently attends art class outside of Greenhill with her teacher, Minyi Kong, who introduced her to oil painting. She also took weekly classes at Ermitage Art Academy

with Mikhail Dimov.

“Balancing art classes with everything else wasn’t too di cult in the rst semester,” Jiang said. “However, a er starting so ball in February, I haven’t been attending Ermitage Art Academy.”

ough this is Jiang’s rst year at Greenhill, she says that her Drawing II class has helped her grow and improve as an artist.

“ ere’s a lot of encouragement toward creativity,” said Jiang. e advanced art classes at Greenhill are prompt-based, said Upper School Visual Arts teacher Lesley Rucker. For each assignment, students interpret a phrase or word before deciding on the type of paper and mediums

many of the skills wasn’t necessary.”

Achievements

Jiang’s artistry was recently recognized in the 2022 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Her piece titled “Balance” won a National Gold Medal, the highest award.

“Balance”, Jiang said, was heavily inspired by “Alice in Wonderland.” It depicts an hourglass and teapot balancing on a wooden table. Other ornaments such as sh, water, a metal mirror, and teacups dangle in the air to showcase Jiang’s love for detail.

“ ere’s a kind

Long-term Dedication

Despite having to balance art with a myriad of other activities, including schoolwork and ute training, Jiang has taken on long-term projects to make enough time for a carefully curated nal product. She says that most of her pieces take at least a couple of months to complete. One of her more detailed oil paintings required about six months of work. However, Jiang says she nds enjoyment in the lengthy process of making artwork.

“Drawing is a time-consuming undertaking,” Jiang said. “Whenever I draw, I get really focused and sort of lose myself in the process. In the blink of an eye, an hour or two has already passed.”

As a student in Drawing I, freshman Caitri Zeikus says that occasionally she gets to see Jiang’s work during class because the Drawing II class is next door.

“Her work is very elegant,” Zeikus said. “I hope to achieve her level of artistry.”

LaGrone says that Jiang is not only talented but also extremely modest about her artwork.

“Rachel is very humble about what she does and is very down to earth about her art,” LaGrone said. “She’s really hardworking. I admire that about her.”

use.

e goal for Drawing 2 is for students to start to be able to nd their artistic voice,” said Rucker. “Having exibility and experimentation that provide opportunities to expand what they’re doing is important.”

Most students do not have the opportunity to skip past beginning courses such as Drawing I, especially as freshmen. Jiang was able to do so a er sending in some of her past work to Rucker during the summer.

“I don’t always do that, but in her case, she’s just so amazingly and naturally talented,” said Rucker. “To put her into a beginning course when she already has so

her style,” said freshman Chloe LaGrone, a friend of Jiang’s. “Everything stands out, and nothing is stando sh or appears bleak.”

For this year’s Scholastic Art and Writing awards, Jiang submitted three pieces: “Masquerade,” “Colorful Abstract” and “Sisters.” All three have received recognition. “Masquerade” received a Regional Silver Key while “Colorful Abstract” and “Sisters” won Regional Gold Keys. Both Gold Key pieces are under current consideration for national honors.

Jiang says she hopes that in the next few years, she can improve her own skills both technically and creatively.

“Eventually, I hope to incorporate these skills into my job or just have the time and motivation to draw for fun,” Jiang said.

Rucker has high hopes for the rest of Jiang’s high school art career. Future experimentation with di erent mediums and taking as many visual arts classes as possible will only strengthen Jiang’s nal portfolio, Rucker said.

“I have had other students that have that talent, but it doesn’t happen very o en,” Rucker said. “Especially as a freshman, she’s an exceptional artist.”

Students O to ISAS

On April 13-15, many Upper School Fine Arts students will attend the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest Arts Festival at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth. e festival, o en referred to as ISAS, is a popular artistic showcase. is year’s event marks the rst full-scale version since 2019.

In the spring of 2020 and 2021, ISAS was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Last year, a smaller, one-day version of the festival was held at Greenhill and Parish Episcopal School for private schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Despite the size of the 2022 event, students were still able to see the creativity and talent of their peers.

“It was still just cool, even as an orchestra player, seeing all the other arts and stu that people are a part of whether it was lm, visual arts, or design,” said senior Aaron Johnson. “It’s just really interesting seeing all the talent that’s here at Greenhill and other schools in the area.”

Preparations

Before going to ISAS, all Fine Arts students who will attend the festival must prepare to showcase their talents.

According to senior Lexie Stone, most visual art students don’t do much

preparation as they take pieces they have created throughout the year. However, performing arts such as orchestra, band and choir students perform both new and old pieces.

“ ere’s some people [in orchestra] that are doing solo pieces,” Johnson said. “ ere’s some chamber groups that are going to be performing and then of course, the entire orchestra has a piece or two together.”

Freshman Rachel Jiang describes a similar plan for band students.

“We’re probably going to work on a couple of band pieces and play [those] there,” Jiang said. “We also have the option to perform solo or with a smaller ensemble group.”

In addition to their performance, Greenhill Singers will be collaborating with other schools.

“We’re working on a song that we’ll be singing with all the other choirs that go to ISAS,” said freshman Ruby Garza.

For students involved in theater productions, the cast and crew will perform scenes from the Fall Musical, “Big Fish,” as well as the Spring Play, “She Kills Monsters,” within a one-hour time frame.

e hardest part about getting ready for ISAS is that students have limited time a er nishing “She Kills Monsters” performances to revisit “Big Fish” musical numbers, according to Upper School eater teacher Valerie Hauss-Smith.

Hauss-Smith says it is important for students to maintain their full e ort.

“Don’t drop the energy,” said HaussSmith. “Gear up for ISAS, go to ISAS, come back from ISAS, and then we can nally breathe.”

For Advanced Video Production,

Upper School Fine Arts Chair and Video Production instructor Corbin Doyle creates a 45-minute reel of student lms. Doyle says that many AVP students won’t have their lms screened as they are given a very limited amount of time.

e preparation process for all Greenhill students attending ISAS culminates with a preview performance for Lower and Middle School students. e performance has a meaningful impact on young students, Doyle said.

“People are like, ‘ at was part of why I wanted, by the time I got to seventh grade, to sign up for Video Production,’” Doyle said.

Festival Weekend

Students are unsure what to expect at the festival because none of them have attended a full-scale ISAS due to COVID-19, but the excitement is palpable.

“We are excited,” said freshman Quaid Oza, who is a member of Greenhill Singers. “We kind of like a little bit of a mystery. Even though I am kind of nervous about how it’s going to be because there’s no one to really ask what the experience is going to be like.”

Analytical discussions of one’s artwork are a unique aspect of the festival. Students across visual art disciplines attend critiques and are given feedback by other instructors, and sometimes by professionals.

“ is approach has fostered creativity and experimentation and has proven to be an exceptional opportunity for schools to come together to understand and to appreciate qualities in one another’s programs,” according to the ISAS website.

Students also typically have large

chunks of free time at the festival when they are not performing, participating in critiques, or being featured in showcases. is time allows them to further immerse themselves in the arts.

“I really like art so I’m looking forward to seeing all the art around me,” said junior Honors Photography student Eliana Campbell.

Free time also allows students to build “artistic tribes” with students from other schools, according to Doyle and Head of Fine Arts Terry Martin.

“I always joke about this kid from San Antonio [that Greenhill students] met at ISAS, then they see them at South by Southwest weeks later,” said Doyle. “ at turned into two years of this group of people from Greenhill working on her lms … and vice versa.”

Many seniors can’t wait to experience this for their rst and only time. is is a good way of ending senior year, being able to go to a full ISAS,” Johnson said. “Everybody, at least in the past, said that it’s a very unique experience, so it’s de nitely extremely exciting.”

Eliana Campbell

Nora Ahearn, Emma Rikalo

Rachel Jiang

FESTIVAL FUN: Upper School students attended the last full-scale ISAS in 2019.

Photo courtesy of Terry Martin

Photos courtesy of Rachel Jiang

Faculty Pro le: Corbin Doyle

A Greenhill Legend Unlocks Student Creativity

On his rst day of high school at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas in August 1981, Corbin Doyle walked into his rst-period theology class and took a seat.

e instructor – a loud priest named Father Schnadelbach – handed out slips of paper containing topics for the rst big research project. Doyle drew biblical creation stories.

ree months and one stop-motion animated lm later, Doyle walked into the classroom with a little cassette player, projector and a microphone.

“I never told you to do a lm,” Father Schnadelbach protested. “You’re supposed to write a paper.”

Doyle nervously set up his projector, turned o the lights and began playing the lm.

“I’m literally thinking I’m going to be expelled on this day,” Doyle said. “Like I’m going to fail the class.”

A erward, Doyle was ordered to the head of school’s o ce. Again, he nervously set up his projector and turned o the lights as he narrated his lm in front of ve priests and the head of school.

Doyle wasn’t expelled. When Father Schnadelbach was handing back grades for the research project, he looked at Doyle, handed him a sheet of paper that had A+ written on it.

Doyle never wrote another high school essay; he simply made lms instead.

It was the beginning of Doyle’s lifelong passion for lmmaking, a journey that would eventually lead him to Greenhill and his current “legend” status as a 25-year employee.

“I just made little lms,” Doyle said, looking back on his formative days as a high school lmmaker. “And I felt like the luckiest dang guy in the world.”

Winding Path to Greenhill

A er high school graduation, Doyle followed in his grandfather’s footsteps by enrolling in the pre-medical program at Southern Methodist University. His passion for art manifested itself in scribbling doodles in the margins of his notes. Doyle’s biology teacher recognized his artistic talent and encouraged him to sign up for a drawing class in his sophomore year.

“Immediately I went from feeling like I had no family and community in my life to walking in [SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts] and seeing all the people that were doing all these di erent disciplines,” Doyle said.

A er taking the Medical College Admission Test during his junior year, he started having doubts about going to medical school. Around the same time, he received a letter of acceptance from the distinguished Yale Norfolk Residency, an intensive, 10-week summer program for artists.

Doyle says his Yale residency opened his eyes to the broader East Coast arts scene and was able to frequently travel to New York City as part of the program.

“It was this dream place that I’d always heard about, and I’m there and meeting these art heroes, most of whom I’ve never heard of before,” Doyle said. “It was just perfect.”

By the end of the program, he received an o er to go to

graduate school at Yale a er he completed his undergraduate degree and spent three years cra ing a creative portfolio.

Doyle felt his creativity was constrained by faculty in the Yale graduate program and he and his wife, Trish – his childhood sweetheart – returned to Dallas a er his rst year.

“Begrudgingly, I came back to the place I swore I would never come back to,” Doyle said.

He took lm jobs that lasted a couple of months and then had weeks to work on his personal projects. He and Trish soon welcomed their rst daughter, Kalen.

During lm jobs, Doyle o en woke up early and returned home late. He barely saw his wife and daughter and soon realized he was missing Kalen growing up.

“Something had to give,” Doyle said.

“A Model Teacher”

In the late 1990s, Doyle was an independent lmmaker when he received an award given to artists each year by the Dallas Museum of Art. When he gave his acceptance speech, multiple Greenhill parents were in the audience. ey urged former Head of School Peter Briggs to hire Doyle to teach visual arts.

“I said I’d do it for one year and that was 25 years ago,” Doyle said.

Under his guidance, the video production program expanded from fewer than 10 students to as many as 80 students in Advanced Video Production alone during peak years.

“[Doyle] is the program,” Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester said. “He started it. He’s built it up. It is his baby, and it is going to be his legacy at Greenhill.”

What draws students into his program, both Worcester and Head of Fine Arts Terry Martin said, is Doyle himself.

“He connects with students because of his wit and his passion,” Martin said. “He seems to be able to nd a way to really connect with the students and bring out their passion in lmmaking, plus, he’s a funny guy.”

In addition to his quick-witted humor or passion for video production, Martin says that Doyle’s immense generosity towards his students makes him particularly special as a teacher.

“He’s a model teacher,” Martin said. “Mr. Doyle goes above and beyond for the student.”

Making an Impact

Jonah Goldberg ’17, who took both Doyle’s Advanced Video Production class in high school and his Video Production summer class in Middle School, said that Doyle was “one of the three biggest in uences of my life” and a “true gi to Greenhill.”

“Doyle has sacri ced so much of his own personal time and energy and even his own personal projects he’s put on hold in order to put more into AVP,” Goldberg said. “He knows how to make a good class because he’s aware there’s no right way to do it.”

As a creator himself, Doyle has been able to tailor the course to each student’s creative needs.

“I think the best art teachers are always artists themselves,” Martin said. “Teaching artists like Mr. Doyle are always the best teachers for their artistic discipline because they have such great understanding and a passion for sharing their particular artistic discipline.”

Kate Franklin ’20, who took Doyle’s video production classes in the Middle and Upper School, echoes this sentiment. She says that Doyle’s passion for lmmaking is contagious and “makes me want to be passionate about it as well.”

Many of Doyle’s students have become successful artists within the lm industry.

“I think one of the best things that [Doyle] does with his students is he challenges them and pushes them out of their comfort zone, and I think that was something I’ve found very helpful throughout my career,” said Michael Paraskevas ’10, a lm composer currently based in Los Angeles.

Goldberg, who currently works as a freelance lm editor, says Doyle has continued to be a source of support even a er he graduated.

“At the end of the day, when you tell him something, he is listening to you,” Goldberg said. “He is hearing you, and he is always there for you.”

During high school senior year, it was Doyle who helped Goldberg formulate his plans for a gap semester before college and a future in the lm industry.

“He became more than a professor,” Goldberg said. “He’s family.”

Franklin, who is currently a Film and Television major at the University of Southern California, says she found her passion in video production under Doyle.

“Mr. Doyle’s kind of shaped everything that I do now,” Franklin said, “I have always felt kind of close to him, and I’ve really grown as a lmmaker because of him because he was my start to lmmaking.”

ere was never a point in time in Doyle’s classroom that didn’t include laughter or pure joy, said Goldberg and Franklin.

“I just want joyous makers in the room making things,” Doyle said. “It’s about the process and it’s not about lm festivals. I

just want people having fun helping each other.”

Kate Ponnambalam, Valerie Xu

Terry Martin

POST PRODUCTION: Greenhill Legend Corbin Doyle teaches an Advanced Video Production class about the various techniques involved in editing and placing nishing touches on lms so that students achieve success.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: AVP students watch each other’s lms to give peer feedback and critiques. This is one of many steps taken to ensure that the lms are ready to be submitted to lm festivals later in the spring.

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Sports

Varsity Swim Team Shatters Records

The Upper School varsity swim heads into the oseason a er a 2022-2023 campaign lled with success and shattered records, including two high nishes in the Southwest Preparatory Conference championships. e girls team nished fourth overall in the SPC 4A division, behind St. John’s Episcopal School, Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart and Hockaday School. It was a tight nish, as the top four teams were separated by 11 points, with St. John’s having the winning score of 98 and the Hornets nishing with 87.

Given the small team, Head Swim Coach Patti Monzingo

going to be coming up to ninth grade this year, and so I knew that the girls would do well,” Monzingo said.

Wai and Lonergan have trained under Monzingo’s guidance for several years. During their training time, Monzingo focused on building Greenhill swimmers from the ground up to establish good habits and consistency, she said. Along with an abundance of talent, the girls team members said they had the upper hand with their team morale. rough activities such as designing new merchandise and team clothing, they were able to form close bonds that translated into competitive success.

erence

dynamics, Monzingo says that she is proud of the group’s hard work and “When they’re having fun, then they to work together,” Monzingo said. “Even if we had not had the results that we had, the camaraderie of this at was my favorite thing about

“All those things might seem small, but it really did make a di erence,” Monzingo said.

Arbuckle attributes much of their success to how close the team was able to grow this year.

“It was very upli ing,” Arbuckle said. “Everyone was very excited and there was a lot of energy all around. Everyone had a very positive attitude, a lot of ght, and swam with a lot of heart.”

“The Legends”

Going into the SPC championships, the girls team was coming o an undefeated season. One of the team’s most memorable wins happened at the North Zone race, where the Greenhill girls experienced their rst win against Hockaday in 12 years.

“I knew that the girls were going to do well, but I had no idea that they were going to do that well prior to the start of the season,” Monzingo said.

Other key team members included Wai and Lonergan, who are part of a group already dubbed “ e Legends” by Monzingo.

“I knew that the group that we call ‘ e Legends’ were

200-yard freestyle relay while also placing second in the 3A 200-yard freestyle and winning the 3A 100-yard backstroke individually. Geller won the 100-yard backstroke and competed in the 200yard medley, the 400-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Geller swims for the Dallas Mustangs with both Arbuckle siblings. e three of them have been on the same club team for a couple of years now, and their relationship extends beyond the pool.

“ ey drive me to practice since it’s just down the road, and we have all been friends for awhile now,” Geller said.

J.J. Arbuckle says the boys team came together to li each other up.

“ e team environment, overall, was really nice,” he said. “ ere were a lot of people cheering for each other and outside of the pool. e environment at the SPC dinner was great. I feel like our team this year has bonded a lot better than last year because we got to hang out a lot more outside of school.”

e boys team didn’t have any seniors this year, and their only captain was junior Seth Lee. Younger members like J.J.

Andrew Mann, Payton Blalock

Graphic by Chloe Nguyen

Patti Monzingo

J.J. Arbuckle

Josie Arbuckle

RECORD BREAKERS: Members of the girls varsity swim team celebrate sweeping the SPC competition.

Photo courtesy of Josie Arbuckle

GOLD MEDALISTS: Josie Arbuckle and Avery Lonergan celebrate their record-breaking victories.

Photo courtesy of Josie Arbuckle

Track and Field Team Expands Coaching

Track and field competitions encompass an array of events, ranging from sprints and longdistance running to jumping and throwing. This variety necessitates a large coaching staff to provide individualized training for athletes.

This year, Greenhill has increased the coaching staff to accommodate each individual athlete.

The coaching staff includes full-time coaches, returning adjunct coaches, new adjunct coaches and returning volunteer coaches.

Full-time coaches are Head Track and Field Coach Stacey Johnson, jumping and sprinting coach David Henderson and distance coach Jason Yaffe.

Returning adjunct coaches include pole vault coach Bailey Blunt who competed at Texas Tech University and Steve Kinkead, a former multi-event athlete at Middlebury College.

New hires this year include sprint and hurdler coach Joi Stephenson ’07, sprint and relay coach Reginald MacArthur and throwing coach Salvatore Guli.

Stephenson competed at the University of Colorado, MacArthur competed at the University of North Texas and Guli was an all-conference thrower at Southern Arkansas University.

Volunteer coaches returning from past seasons include sprint and hurdles coach Candida Coulson-Francois, jumping coach Tyron Stewart and high jump coach Randy James.

CoulsonFrancois was an All-American during her time at Arizona State University, Stewart was a Texas A&M AllAmerican jumper, and James coaches at Major Impact Track Club.

Stephenson has aided senior Jaden Watt with sprinting, stretching and hydration. Watt, a team captain, says that Stephenson’s advice has made a significant impact on the athletes.

“It’s been really helpful to see how she’s not only doing that with me, but

she’s also giving each kid [individualized] help,” Watt said.

Senior captain Celina Prieur echoes this view of Stephenson.

“She’s been a really great mentor for the female athletes because she ran at Greenhill and was a really incredible collegiate runner,” Prieur said. “She’s been a really good resource for us in terms of improving form and atmosphere, but also how we approach our mentality.”

The assistants and volunteer coaches have also earned the admiration of Johnson in his role as head coach.

“When they volunteer, they bring a lot of energy and excitement with great knowledge of teaching the developmental aspects of jumping and throwing to our kids,” Johnson said. “Each of them brings a lot of new ideas to work with our athletes.”

Rebuilding

Practices this track season are more structured, with a greater emphasis on accountability.

“The track program is more rigid this year, and there is an expectation that you are at practice at all times,” Watt said. “You can’t just pop in and out. That being said, it can sometimes be difficult to hold someone accountable for their attendance and preparation.”

To continue promoting an environment of accountability, Johnson created a council of student representatives from all grade levels. These representatives allow student-athletes to voice concerns or feedback.

“It’s about him getting a sense of how things are going from the athlete’s

rebuilding the team.

“Track changes pretty dramatically each year, with the loss of seniors and people having to take new leadership positions,” Prieur said. “This year, it’s especially difficult because we lost some really great athletes.”

For Prieur, it took time to fully embody a leadership role. It was a shock to be the one leading warmups, taking charge at meets and organizing the team.

“The younger kids are looking up to me like, what’s next?” she said. “It’s taken a bit of getting used to, but I realized that, oh, this is where I need to step up and lead.”

Developing Skills

perspective,” Watt said. “It also holds people accountable for practice, because we have this close method of communication.”

Amid these changes, senior leaders have emerged to aid in regrouping and

One benefit of the new coaching staff and structure is greater unity among athletes.

parts, but we have a lot of quality people who work with our kids throughout the year,” Johnson said. Developing the athletes means using meets as training and an opportunity to grow competition skills and habits, said Johnson.

“We want to qualify as many kids as possible for the Southwest Preparatory Conference championships each year,” Johnson said. “We want to be a wellbalanced team with strong relays teams and a well-balanced group of individual event athletes. We use our early season meets as extensions of practice in many ways.”

Another aspect of developing the program includes emphasizing exploration and attempting a variety of events.

“There’s a lot of times where there’s kids who don’t know they can do things, until they have the opportunity to get out and work with some of our quality coaches to develop their skills,” Johnson said.

“We’re becoming a more cohesive unit,” Watt said. “And I think that we’re going to build a stronger bond this year than we had before, just because of how closely the coaches are working with us and the smaller aspect of the team.”

Johnson believes that adaptability is one of the cornerstones of a successful program.

“This year we are focusing on a lot more developmental aspects in training,” he said. “[We are] really focusing on the fundamentals that our kids need to stay healthy and be successful.”

Johnson steps in as needed to help with jumping and throwing, but spends most of his time working with sprinters, jumpers and relay teams due to the concentration of athletes in those areas.

“It’s about 1,000 working and moving

With athletes pursuing multiple events, structuring their training requires intensive planning and preparation. To achieve this balance, early training focuses on building fundamentals then adding intensity later.

“How do we balance out the training for our kids to where they can be successful in all these areas and get enough work in those areas, but also not overtrain to the point of injury?” Johnson said. “We call this ‘the right dose;’ how much of this specific thing is perfect?”

Although the track and field team continues to undergo changes, athletes expressed high hopes for the season.

“It’s all about learning,” Prieur said. “Everything will sort itself out as we mesh more as a team and continue emphasizing accountability. I’m excited to see how it all plays out with the influx of the new younger

athletes.”

Josie Arbuckle

Stacey Johnson

Photo by Laird Burke SPRINT SPEED: Joi Stephenson ’07, back left, is a member of the newly expanded coaching sta working with Greenhill track and eld athletes this spring season.

Jaden Watt

Celina Prieur

POLE VAULT: Coach Stacey Johnson watches as freshman pole vaulter Iliyan Ali sprints to the mat during practice in preparation for the track team’s next meet.

Photo by Laird Burke

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

When they volunteer, they bring a lot of energy and excitement with great knowledge of teaching the developmental aspects of jumping and throwing to our kids. Each of them brings a lot of new ideas to work with our athletes.”

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Senior Spotlight: Jaden Watt

Whether it’s being a sports team captain, top debater, class o cer or campus leader, senior Jaden Watt does it all.

He is a two-sport athlete, serving as a football captain last fall and a track team captain this spring. He is an accomplished debater. And he currently is vice president of the Black Student Union and vice president of the senior class.

Despite his extracurricular activities being so di erent, Watt has achieved success in multiple areas. Watt says that he has had to learn how to make sacri ces and manage his time e ectively to make his schedule work. “ ere are times where I can’t go to a track meet because I have a debate tournament,” Watt said. “For the football season, I wasn’t able to go to any debate tournaments. It’s always been a lot, even [Black Student Union], balancing that with school. ere are always tradeo s.”

Still, Watt takes pleasure in his various extracurricular pursuits.

“Even if it does seem like a lot, I enjoy doing it,” Watt said. “I really enjoy the Greenhill community and that’s why I do it.”

Debate

Watt says he discovered his passion for debate in sixth grade.

“As a kid, I felt like I enjoyed a variety of things,” Watt said. “And I was always very argumentative, so I actually discovered my love for debate a lot earlier than I did for my love of football.”

Watt participates in Lincoln-Douglas debate, a one-on-one format that focuses on con icting societal and philosophical issues.

ough he has participated in debate for several years, Watt says that he has placed extra emphasis on it this year. He set a goal for himself: to become the LincolnDouglas debater with the most qualifying points for the Texas Forensic Association’s State Tournament.

participated in during the competitive season that began in October.

Rodrigo Paramo, who teaches and coaches Middle and Upper School debate, says he is proud of Watt’s achievements.

“Having a concrete competitive goal really helped him because he knew very clearly that there was a benchmark that he needed to hit and it meant that he had to do a lot to get there,” Paramo said. “He is the only kid on the team who has made it to elimination rounds of every tournament he attended this year.”

Paramo says that Watt has also been very diligent in managing his other extracurricular commitments with debate.

When Watt was playing football in the fall, he was unable to participate in any debate tournaments or practices until November. However, Watt would meet with Paramo during his free periods to prepare.

“[Watt] and I worked out a system where he’d commit his o block to debate and he’d come in and I’d have an assignment or reading for him or we would watch a debate, something that would allow him to prepare for the season while he was playing football,” Paramo said.

A er football season ended, Watt participated in seven consecutive tournaments.

Junior Adam Kesselman, who also does Lincoln-Douglas debate, says Watt has signi cantly improved over the years.

“Jaden has gotten a lot better in telling the judge how to evaluate his arguments and speci cally what they should vote on,” Kesselman said. “And then this year, he went super in-depth on the last topic, which was about environmental protections in China.”

Watt has also served as a helpful guide and resource for younger debaters, serving as a coach and mentor before tournaments, Kesselman said.

Football

Watt primarily played wide receiver and defensive back and was elected a captain of the football team for his senior season. e bonds he created with his teammates through football were stronger than any other activity.

is explosiveness has enabled Watt to make his mark on the Greenhill track team as well.

Watt quali ed for the state competition a er winning three of 10 tournaments he

Among his many attributes is his wide range of interests and knowledge. During a recent tournament, Paramo recalls an instance when he bonded with Watt over a conversation about rapper Playboi Carti and his music. “ at was one of the coolest moments at a tournament, just to hear a kid talk about a totally unrelated debate interest, and he had a bunch of other younger teammates looking at him,” said Paramo. “You can see that he is 100% passionate about whatever it is, be it football, track, debate, music, he will give

“I’m close with the people in football because we spend the entire summer together, we go on retreats together, we spend a lot of time together and it really builds that bond,” he said.

You can see that he is 100% passionate about whatever it is, be it football, track, debate, music, he will give 100%.”

Senior Josh Titens, also a football captain last fall, says Watt’s leadership helped alleviate pressure and made the team run smoothly.

“He took a lot of responsibility o my shoulders in terms of handling his position group and trying to handle how to run the team,” Titens said. “Him doing all he did helped me and everyone else.”

Despite frustrations with losses during a winless season, Watt says that “the thing that kept me going back to football was the group of people.”

In addition to his commitment to Greenhill and its teams, Watt also mentors his younger brothers outside of school practices.

“A lot of the time we are not together, it is hard sometimes because we have con icting schedules, but I try to give them advice and counsel,” said Watt. “I think the biggest thing that I give them is that if they think about doing something, do it, because they are only in high school once.”

Track

Stacey Johnson, who serves as the defensive coordinator of the football team and head coach of the track and eld team, says Watt is a “talented athlete with speed and explosiveness.”

Since Watt joined track in his sophomore year, he has achieved a variety of competitive successes, including being a member of the team that broke the school record in the 4x100-meter relay last year. e other members of the record-breaking team were senior Aaron Johnson, Jason Estrada ’22 and Brodrick Houston ’22. “ e most memorable moment in my Greenhill career was breaking the 4x100 record,” Watt said. “With a ton of people from school at the meet, it was really fun to see.”

Stacey Johnson says that some of Watt’s best qualities are his work ethic and natural talent.

“He has a lot of natural ability, and he has done a lot of hard work over the years to become an even better athlete and develop his talents,” the track and eld coach said.

During the rst track meet of the season, Watt competed and placed well in several events. His 4x400-meter relay team of Aaron Johnson, junior Alex Wetzler, and junior Jack Bovard placed second with a time of 3:38.61. He also placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.32 seconds, and second in the 4x100 relay with a time of 43.67 seconds.

He took a lot of responsibility off my shoulders in terms of handling his position group and trying to handle how to run the team.”

Watt recently ran a 10.84-second 100-meter dash, his personal record. rough debate and athletics, Watt has been able to build a variety of connections with students and faculty across campus.

Watt encourages other students to take a risk and try a variety of activities like he did to get the most out of their years at Greenhill.

“If I had to give a senior speech, the one thing I would tell the entirety of Greenhill is if you have an urge, if you think maybe I might like this, pursue it,” Watt said. “At least try it because there will be a time where you simply can’t do it anymore.”

Riya Kommineni, John Hurley

KICK RETURN: Senior Jaden Watt hustles back to the sideline after the opening kicko . Watt played both wide receiver and defensive back for the team this year.

Photo by Helen Jackson

Photo courtesy of Jaden Watt

Rodrigo Paramo

I was always very argumentative so I actually discovered my love for debate a lot earlier than I did for my love of football.”

IN THIS SPEECH: Senior Jaden Watt, right, competes in Lincoln-Douglas debate, alongside junior Ayne Park. The Creekview tournament led him to qualify for state.

New JV Teams Develop Upper School Athletes

The Upper School tennis, so ball and boys lacrosse teams have all added junior varsity teams this spring season.

With an over ow of participants, JV teams allow more students to participate in the sport of their choosing.

For tennis, the program introduced a JV team to develop students and allow them to compete in a sport, according to Head of Athletics and Physical Education Jarrett Shine. ose who attended tennis tryouts either made the JV or varsity team.

“ e purpose of athletics is to make sure that all of our kids are healthy and are competitive,” Shine said. “If we cut some of these kids, they don’t have an option to participate in sports [and] we’re doing a disservice to our athletes and our students.”

e boys lacrosse program added a JV team due to the increase in turnout, which included many students new to lacrosse.

“We have a lot more players than last year,” sophomore Rhett Mulder said. “I think the addition of JV teams will help the program in the long run because more players will be able to develop.”

Many of these sports programs have either never had a JV team or have not had one in the last couple of years.

“Two years ago, [the girls so ball team] could not ll our Upper School team, but our Middle School numbers were strong,” Varsity Girls So ball Head Coach Monica Stephens said. “ at year, those ve kids would show up every week and they stuck with it, knowing that Middle School was coming up.”

e learning curve between a JV and varsity player varies depending on the sport. For some, it may come easily, while others require very speci c skills.

Varsity Boys Lacrosse Head Coach Jack Fisher says varsity players tend to be more comfortable with the lacrosse stick.

“ e big di erentiator in lacrosse is typically stick skills for our newer players,” Fisher said. “We have some brand-new players who are outstanding athletes, but still, there’s that learning curve.”

Along with JV and varsity, the boys lacrosse program also has a “swing” group of players. e swing group consists of around eight players who will play in both JV and varsity games. e JV team will also play in all the varsity home games.

“We are dressing all of our players for our varsity home games,” Fisher said. “We feel it’s important for everyone to be a part of the game at the varsity level.”

Sophomore Rhett Mulder says he likes the concept of being a swing player, as he can learn from older players.

“I’m pretty happy being a swing player, because even though I may not play as much I still get to go to all the games and learn a

lot by watching the varsity players,” Mulder said.

Adding Skills

Junior Varsity Tennis Head Coach Vivek Kuppurajan says that both JV and varsity players have a good feel for the game. However, there are impactful di erences between the teams.

“Both levels know how to hit a ball and play the game,” Kuppurajan said. “Instead, there are di erences in the minor details. Some examples include players’ footwork, how they use their energy [and] how they carry themselves on the court during practices.”

e main di erence in the so ball program is that a few members of the JV team have never played so ball before.

“If you know anything about so ball, you can’t just pick it up in a couple of weeks,” Stephens said.

Freshman Maya Jagsi is on the JV girls so ball team and says that players are eager to learn the game, despite being new to the sport.

“Everyone is doing really well and learning quickly, considering people have barely played,” Jagsi said.

Two years ago, [the girls softball team] could not ll our Upper School team, but our Middle School numbers were strong. That year, those ve kids would show up every week and they stuck with it, knowing that Middle School was coming up.”

With the increase in size of each of the programs, obstacles are present for each team to work their way around.

Heading into the season, Boys Varsity Tennis Coach Scott Cotton says he thought court space would be an issue with the addition of JV tennis teams. So far, however, he says that hasn’t been the case as the team has been able to schedule practices in a way where everyone always has an opportunity to play.

“Usually [JV] practices are in the a ernoon when the girls team is either practicing in the morning or doing [High Performance Center workouts], so the court space is not an issue,” Cotton said. e JV boys lacrosse team has been scheduling practices when the varsity team has games as the teams have to share the same coaching sta

“We’re at a point where when the varsity is playing and the JV isn’t, we want to make sure that we’re having practice to continue to develop skills,” Fisher said. “Since both teams share the same coaching sta , we’re trying to make sure that our coaches can be there for all of our players.”

Future Growth

Kuppurajan says he hopes that the new JV teams will help underclassmen develop and eventually be able to contribute to the varsity teams.

“ e constant goal I hope for the JV players to have is to become varsity players next year,” Kuppurajan said. “Every single person on the JV team has the potential and drive to become capable of playing full challenging matches.”

Jagsi says that playing at the junior varsity level has allowed her to contribute to the team, improve her so ball skills and prepare her to play on the varsity level.

“Playing on JV now will help me down the road because I’ll be able to focus on developing more advanced skills because I’ll already have the foundations mastered,” Jagsi said. “Especially because JV focuses a lot more on that.”

Aman Jaleel

Photo by Christan Park

BREAK POINT: Junior varsity tennis players work on their serves during practice. The addition of JV teams in several spring sports allows younger athletes the opportunity to participate and sharpen their skills before joining varsity teams later on.

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

Views

Common Ground: On U.S.-China Relations

Payton:

Hi, Val. e relationship between the United States and China has been unstable recently, and the issue of the Chinese spy balloon that ew over U.S. sovereign territory for a week has undeniably increased the unease of the American government and its citizens. What are your thoughts?

Valerie:

Well, Payton, U.S.-China tensions are de nitely high. e Department of State reported that the balloon contained surveillance technology, and in light of this, Secretary Anthony Blinken canceled a state trip to China. And Republicans, as usual, bashed President Biden for being too slow and too so on China. Do you agree with that?

Payton:

I want to lead by saying that this is an extremely di cult situation, and I appreciate that Biden considered the sensitivity of the problem at hand. at being said, I do not think that he operated at a fast enough speed to deter China and cease their e orts to encroach on our territorial sovereignty. His administration had a defense for their reaction time, but the need to act quickly should’ve been more of a priority than trying to understand the technology. As Florida Senator Marco Rubio said, “What’s embedded here is a clear message.” China was not trying to hide the balloon from us, they ew over America’s mainland with the knowledge that we would discover it.

Valerie:

What would have been the optimal time to have shot down the balloon? I think it is important to take into consideration that this was a foreign object. At the time, there was limited knowledge about the level of danger the balloon posed to national security. I know the administration has come out and said that they waited until the balloon had dri ed into open waters before shooting it down, which seems like the safest option to me.

Payton:

Right. As I mentioned, there was no perfect way to address this issue. Unfortunately, the balloon made the front cover of almost every single prominent news platform. By waiting to shoot it down, our government looked complacent and somewhat lethargic. I recognize that there were other factors to consider, but at some point, the highestranking o cials of our military and government must be able to assess situations

at a faster pace and make a decision that actively combats the problem at hand.

Valerie:

is is not the rst time that there have been concerns in the intelligence community about Chinese spy balloons. During the Trump administration we had senior Pentagon o cials brie ng the administration about incursions by spy balloons. e Pentagon sounded these alarms years in advance, but they were obviously le unanswered by the Trump administration. I don’t think it’s productive or accurate to characterize this as a partisan problem. Rather, it is representative of a holistic issue regarding how we combat China’s breach in our national security.

Payton:

I agree with you fully that Trump did a poor job of combating the issue of spy balloons. My criticism of Biden is not because of the side of the political aisle he falls on, and I don’t think that Biden deserves more blame

than Trump did a few years back. ere needs to be more emphasis on transparency and active leadership on both sides of the aisle. Democrat or Republican, I think that the government should be more aggressive in its e orts to deter China and reassure worried Americans.

Valerie:

I totally agree with you on this. It took the public almost two weeks a er the balloons were shot down to nd out whether the other balloons were also Chinese spy balloons. While they weren’t, that information should’ve been accessible to ordinary Americans. is starts with better tracking technology. When the information that o cials are using to track these unidenti ed objects is dated, the government can’t provide the public with timely or accurate information. ere needs to be a larger conversation about investing in tracking technology so that we are cognizant, in the future, about any potential national security threats.

Payton:

Absolutely. It became an unnecessary political problem because of an initial lack of adept technology. e public still lacks many details, and I think that a further explanation is owed. e Biden administration could’ve been more active, but I’m ultimately understanding and relieved that the balloon eventually was shot down. If nothing else, I hope that this opens our eyes to the imminent threat of Chinese surveillance.

The Evergreen Crossword

ACROSS:

2. Last name of student who portrayed Cyclops in the 5th grade Greek Play; Upper School English teacher

5. All _____ Episcopal School; location of ISAS

7. ChatGPT’s favorite food: ______-sized snacks

8. Style of debate done by senior Jaden Watt: ______-Douglas

9. Museum dedicated to teaching the history of the Holocaust and human rights, abbreviated.

11. Name of the new STEM + Innovation Center

15. Alma mater of Upper School Fine Arts Department Chair Corbin Doyle

16. Greenhill alumna Grace ______ ‘19

17. Topic of senior Ava Iwasko’s Capstone project

18. Junior who broke multiple SPC swimming record

DOWN:

1. Title of freshman Rachel Jiang’s award-winning art piece

3. Winner of Munch Madness

4. One of the senior captains of the track and eld

6. Targeted grade level of substance abuse programming

10. Honor Council faculty advisor, Upper School English teacher

12. “She Kills Monsters” setting, ______ & Dragons

13. ______ + Will, architectural rm working with Greenhill

14. New English course: Literature of the ______ Wild

Crossword by Evie Kwei and Christan Park

Evergreen the 22 Evergreen Sta the

Views

Editorial: Upper School Library Days

One of the best parts of being a Greenhill Lower and Middle School student is going to the library once a week. It was so easy to get lost among the shelves, discovering new stories and learning about ideas that broaden your worldview.

Librarians would nd us in the stacks, always willing to help us nd speci c books or suggest the perfect story if we were having trouble nding one that interested us.

Curling up next to the re Mr. Ivery so carefully stoked and exploring the magical worlds the Montgomery Library book collection o ered is truly a formative experience at Greenhill.

As Lower and Middle Schoolers, we peered down the staircase at all the “big kid” books. We wondered what else we might learn or discover about ourselves when we ventured down into that new world.

But now that we can go downstairs to the Young Adult ction, many of us don’t. Why? Independent reading is truly a gi of time that many students simply are unable to nd while navigating the hectic life of being an Upper Schooler.

A majority of Upper School students don’t read for fun. Simply put, it is not seen as a priority.

Amid the demanding life of a student, reading becomes a chore and a burden. It is something that many students don’t want

technology is so readily accessible as a way to unwind.

is is easily demonstrated in the reasons why most students visit the library. It is not for checking out books or reading by the re. For the most part, students are studying and doing research. It is easy for many of us to lose sight of why we read, as it has become nearly analogous with schoolwork.

Of all Upper School grades, the ninthgraders are the only ones guaranteed to have library days in their English classes.

“

ey're always really excited because they realize they miss those dedicated library times,” Head Librarian Abby Harrison said. “Being a lifelong reader is a skill that you take with you for the rest of your life. And sometimes when you lose that it's really di cult to get it back.”

e solution to this problem is to simply just dedicate time during school to reading. We imagine this in the form of library days – a return to the time where it was easy to get lost in a world di erent from ours, written on the pages of a book.

Allowing students to enjoy and explore the library once more has multiple bene ts. For one, it encourages increased usage of our campus facilities, allowing their original purpose to be ful lled. It’s especially important to take advantage of this space since our library holds a number of books that have been pulled from shelves or placed under restricted access

in other public or school libraries across the country.

A robust schedule of library days also promotes better informational and digital literacy. e ability to quickly navigate through the number of resources a library o ers is critical for future success in college and later years. Students would also be aware of what resources the library has, ranging from graphic novels to databases to practice Advanced Placement exam textbooks.

But more importantly, it would motivate us to read not just for school, but also for personal pleasure. Our library at Greenhill is phenomenal; there are so many resources and books available for us to peruse. ere is something in there for everyone to enjoy – but we need the time and space to nd it.

Evergreen Print

Editors-in-Chief

Khushi Chhaya and Ivy Stitt

Executive Editors

Ava Iwasko and Emma Nguyen

Managing Editors - Content

Sophia Li

Emma Rikalo

Pooja Sanghvi

Valerie Xu

Managing Editor - Design

Emily Hu

Creative Director

Helina Tedros

Associate Editor

Ria Agarwal

News Editors

Evie Kwei and Christan Park

Views Editors

Gabi Appel and Aria Kutty

Features Editors

Sydney Chien and Riya Kommineni

Arts Editors

Daniela Hallack and Varun Mukund

Sports Editors

Aman Jaleel and Chloe Nguyen

Sta Writers

Nora Ahearn

Syrus Gupta

Alfred Hoak

Lyna Kamgang

Varun Mukund

Ella Sadka

Sasha Wai

Noor Zaman

Justin Wu

Our Editorial Policy

e Evergreen is an independent, student-run newspaper serving the community of Greenhill School. It is printed six times during the school year. Print circulation is 900 copies. Past issues are archived at issuu.com/ghevergreen.

e Evergreen sta upholds a code of ethics that values honesty, integrity, accuracy and responsibility. Our mission is to help the local community interpret campus, local,

national and international events through articles and editorials written and edited by students.

e Evergreen welcomes letters and emails from readers. We reserve the right to edit submissions for accuracy, grammar and length. e Evergreen will not publish material that we judge to be libelous, obscene, invades privacy or constitutes hate speech. Anonymous letters will not be published.

e sta editorial represents the opinion of e Evergreen sta , not necessarily that of Greenhill School.

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The Evergreen welcomes advertisements, but we reserve the right to refuse an ad.

Business inquiries should be directed to Kaden Alibhai: alibhaik24@greenhill.org

Camila Hanson

John Hurley

Irina Li

Rory Liu

Kate Ponnambalam

Vedant Subramanian

Benjamin Weinstein

Aidan White

Cross Platform

Chief Sta Photographer

Chloe Nguyen

Sta Photographers

Aman Jaleel

Evie Kwei

Christan Park

Jin Huang

Nora Ahearn

Jacquelyn Dishman

Eitan Hahn

Helen Jackson

Social Media Editors

Ethan Vicknair

Business Manager

Kaden Alibhai

Assistant Advisor

Amy Bresie

Cole Feldman Advisor

Gregg Jones

Have a response?

Opinion? Original Idea? Email the Editors-in-Chief chhayak23@greenhill.org stitti23@greenhill.org

Corrections and Clari cations

We pledge to correct our errors. To request a correction or clari cation, please email Khushi Chhaya:

chhayak23@greenhill.org

Photo by Aria Kutty

& Rants Raves

A RANT to the upcoming Advanced Placement exams. It feels like just yesterday that we were studying for last year’s AP exams. From countless hours of watching AP classroom videos, to working through “5 Steps to a 5” books, we are ready to get this over with! Isn’t it enough that we are passing the class?

A RAVENT to chess. Suddenly the entire world is playing chess. Whether it is people playing chess.com during class or sitting outside in the courtyard constantly consumed by chess boards, no one seems to get enough of it. We can’t deny that chess is a good hobby, but aren’t there other things to talk about?!

A RAVE to the baby wall. Each year the arrival of the baby-picture wall brings a sense of excitement to the Upper School. We love taking a trip down memory lane with our peers and getting to see more about their childhood. Although, it can be surprisingly di cult to guess who is who!

A RAVENT to college decisions coming out. e stress is nally coming to an end as our seniors begin to decide where they are going to spend their next four years! We know this time of year comes with mixed feelings, but we are so proud of our seniors, and we know you will end up where you are meant to be. However, we will miss you all, and Greenhill will not be the same without you!

A RAVE to the Eras Tour! A er Lover Fest got canceled, it has been four years since Taylor Swi has been on tour, and that is too long! Not to our surprise, she did not disappoint with this tour. It has been so fun getting to look back, revisiting all her old famous hits from past eras. We will de nitely be following her tour as she travels across the country.

A RANT to our schedule changing again for the third time in three years. Right when we’re nally getting the hang of an eight-day rotation, it has to change again. It’s understandable that new teachers and courses warrant a new schedule, but when will we ever have the same schedule for two consecutive years?

MadLibs!

It was a ______ (adjective)

April day, and I was walking around campus when I saw a ______ (animal) outside of the _______ (place at Greenhill). I felt so ____ (emotion) at this sight that I wanted to show all my friends. When I told them about the ______ (same animal), they ______ (past-tense verb) and decided they wanted to make an announcement about the sighting at the next assembly. I emailed Mr. Oros, and he said it was a ______ (adjective) idea to share this.

How to Be Successful in... Human Reproductive Biology

Alfred Hoak

Human Reproductive Biology is a semester course that has been o ered for three years at Greenhill. It is only o ered to seniors who have at least a corequisite of biology.

e course was rst started to give students another opportunity to learn more about human development as well as sexual activity and reproduction.

“It was formed a er repeated feedback from students about how they had questions that went unanswered about sex and sexuality,” said Upper School science teacher Barry Ide. e class is broken up into several units, with the overarching goal of increasing students’ comfort and knowledge on topics related to sexual reproduction and activity.

“We start the semester o with identities and identi ers,” said Ide. “We then move to the evolution of both asexual and sexual reproduction. We talk about how multi-cellular bodies regulate themselves with hormones. is sets the stage for talking about puberty and typical human reproductive anatomy, how bodies generally develop, but also ways in which a body might develop in a way that is not o en seen. is then leads to relationships and people, sexual activity, and childbirth.”

We asked some students in Human Reproductive Biology – commonly known as HRB – about the class. Here is what they said:

“I was looking for a class to ll the spot of Econ, and I did some research in the course catalog and found HRB.

I read more about it and thought back to my unanswered questions about sex and thought this class would be a huge help to me. I can now make more informed decisions about my body and its health.” – senior Kailash Lele

“ e homework is mainly writing about our feelings about the content, rather than taking notes on the subject. is helps us apply the information and make deeper connections to our personal lives so that we can revisit what we learned if needed.” – senior Izabella Faber

“ e work we do in class is quite fun and interactive. It is super engaging and relevant. e work we do in class can actually relate to the real world, which I do not always feel applies to every class.” – senior Kailash Lele

“I would 100% recommend this class to others. e class teaches so much about reproductive health and maintaining healthy, consensual relationships. e course material is informative and taking it in the senior year is extremely bene cial because much of this knowledge will be useful in college and throughout our lives. e coursework isn’t necessarily light, but it’s not overwhelmingly di cult because you lead the re ections with your personal experience.”

– senior Izabella Faber

“Yeah, de nitely. is is one of my favorite classes this year. I look forward to every

meeting. Not only is it informative, but it is engaging. I feel like not many teachers are able to [make] every class entertaining and productive.” – senior Kailash Lele

“Mr. Ide does a good job of keeping us accountable and making sure we are mature with the material. I know that some of the things we talk about could be found funny to many high schoolers, but he keeps us in line because the topics are far from funny and actually quite serious.” – senior Kailash

Lele

“I am de nitely embarrassed on some level to ask my questions, but I force myself to ask them because I know that they are important. ere is also a good chance that someone in the class has that very same question, as well. Even if no one thought of my question, it is still helpful to ask because we are better o knowing than being ignorant.”

– senior Aakash Vattikuti

“ is class will help me in college because it is teaching me the necessary skills with relationships and knowledge of sexual health, as well as helping me understand other individuals with their personal experiences and sexualities.”

– senior Izabella Faber

Barry Ide

Kailash Lele

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

MUNCH MADNESS

Every March, the NCAA holds its annual bracket-style men’s and women’s basketball championships, known as “March Madness.” Millions of people around the country create brackets trying to predict the results of each game.

Following this tradition, the Evergreen sta presents “Munch Madness,” a similar tournament where popular snacks battle for the title of the Upper School’s favorite. e sta created a bracket of 32 snacks of all sorts and let Upper School students decide the winner. e snacks were seeded based on their projected popularity, and then pitted against each other in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament.

A er four contentious rounds of voting and debate, students decided on a nal round of DaBomb Brownies vs. Buzz Cookies.

Ultimately, the winner emerged a er receiving a narrow 54% of more than 267 votes from Upper School students and faculty.

Congratulations to our 2023 Munch Madness champion, DaBomb Brownies!

Kaden Alibhai

Graphics by Khushi Chhaya and Emma Nguyen

DaBomb Brownies

DaBomb Brownies

DaBomb Brownies

DaBomb Brownies

Cookies

Cookies

Cookies Hot Cheetos

Deep River Chips Oreos

Oreos

Pocky

Dibs

Dibs