1.27 Issue

JAN. 27, 2012 I VOL. 76 I ISSUE 6 CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL I 520 E. MAIN STREET I CARMEL, IN I WWW.HILITE.ORG

Also in this issue...

Carmel Clay Schools seeks “High Performing School District” status - See page 4

* Carmel High School’s student newsmagazine

DISCARDING A STANDARD As standardized testing continues to draw criticism, some colleges choose to make the exam process optional.

Join the conversation.

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PAGE 2 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

Offbeat

Three weeks into 2012, are you already struggling to keep your New Year’s resolution?

JAN 1 2012

Inside this issue news

6

Studies show you’re not alone. The percent of resolutions maintained: • after one week: 75 • after two weeks: 71 • after one month: 64 • after six months: 46 • after one year: 12

sports

CHS adapts to new Gradual Release of Responsibility curriculum model

Women are more successful when they share their resolutions with others or persist even after reverting to old habits.

cover story

16

Gender differences Men are more successful when they set specific goals or focus on the rewards of achieving these goals.

24

feature

8

Despite growth in the breakfast industry, CHS students neglect to eat breakfast

Reporter Jacob Vahle previews women’s basketball Sectional

As colleges reevaluate the practicality of the SAT and ACT, some students are applying to colleges that make submitting the tests optional

Also in this issue Managing editor Monica Cheng comments on the lessons to be learned from protests against SOPA and PIPA / 30

perspectives

28

Students and colleges should rethink value of SAT and ACT scores

Reporter Shayan Ahmad and news editor Andy Yang contend that CHS’s gradual release program only works for certain students / 31

Age matters

20s

50+

Thirty-nine percent of people in their 20s achieve their resolution every year or every other year. Less than 15 percent of those over 50 do the same.

OPINION RESEARCH CORPORATION, JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, QUIRKOLOGY / SOURCES MELINDA SONG / GRAPHICS

entertainment

20

More students turn to mobile gaming to get their video game fix

Corrections and Clarifications In the Dec. 12 story “Got Giraffes?” junior Franklyn “Frankie” Salzman should have been referred to as an avid figurine collector.

The HiLite strives to correct its errors. If you notice any inconsistencies in this issue or past issues, please do not hesitate to contact management@hilite.org.

CONNER GORDON / COVER PHOTO

15 minutes

32

Freshman Ari Brown creates his own musical compositions

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | JUST A MINUTE | PAGE 3

West Street NFL Experience • Where: Indiana Convention Center • What: An interactive theme park offering games, entertainment attractions, kid’s football games and the largest football memorabilia show • When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 4, times vary • Cost: $25

Super Bowl Tours • Where: Lucas Oil Stadium • What: A tour of the football field, both team locker rooms, media workrooms and exterior compounds created for the Super Bowl • When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 4, times vary • Cost: $17.50 via Ticketmaster

Illinois Avenue

Ohio Street

Capitol Avenue

• Where: Media Center at JW Marriott • What: A behind-the-scenes look at the Super Bowl Media Center, with access to NFL interviews and sponsored interactive zones • When: Feb. 1 to 3, times vary • Cost: Free

Pepsi Stage • Where: Intersection of Meridian and Georgia Streets • What: One of two live entertainment venues within Super Bowl Village • When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 5 • Cost: Free

Super Bowl Village • Where: Downtown • What: A 10-day, three-block interactive football festival • When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 5 • Cost: Free

Pennsylvania Street

Super Bowl Media Center Fan Gallery

Washington Street

Maryland Street

Georgia Street

Zipline Launch Tower • Where: 258 S. Capitol Ave. • What: The longest temporary Zipline in the United States • When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 5 • Cost: Tickets sold on-site daily

South Street

Verizon Stage • Where: Intersection of Pennsylvania and Georgia Streets • What: One of two live entertainment venues within Super Bowl Village • When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 5 • Cost: Free

More than just

Super Bowl Sunday As Indianapolis prepares to host Super Bowl XLVI, various festivities will occur throughout the city. Navigate them all with this map.

INDIANAPOLISSUPERBOWL.COM, NFL.COM / SOURCES, MELINDA SONG / GRAPHIC

PAGE 4 | NEWS | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

NEWS

SUBMITNEWS@HILITE.ORG | TWITTER.COM/HILITE_NEWS

Dates to Remember Feb. 1: Black History Month begins Feb. 2: First day of NHS carnation sales Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day Feb. 20: President’s Day

Want more?

Scan this QR code to access the full Senate Bill 236 and learn how it will affect Indiana schools

News Briefs

Updates on clubs, activities and events in the school

The Astronomy Club is set to host a planetarium show today. According to sponsor Keith Turner, the club does not have any events planned for the near future due to the temperature and weather.

Winter guard is currently preparing for a preview for friends and family today and a competition tomorrow at Brownsburg High School.

Today, Student Venture members will meet at the Carmel Ice Skadium at 5 p.m. to have a “broomball” tournament.

According to Kate Shanklin, Student Action Leadership Team (S.A.L.T.) member and senior, this is an outreach event that will include members from this school and other Student Venture members from across Hamilton County.

Orchestra is currently preparing for the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) competition. According to associate orchestra director James Woomert, the ISSMA competition is composed of two parts. Districts, the first competition, will take place tomorrow, while the State competition is Feb. 25.

Auditions for the 2012 spring musical, “Les Misérables,” begin on Monday, starting with vocal auditions, according to choir director Lamonte Kuskye. There will be a movement audition on the following day.

Diversity Focus Group plans to have a meeting the week after winter break to plan a field trip to Oliver Missionary Baptist Church on Feb. 16 to see Jeff Henderson, a chef on the Food Network who spent a month in prison, according to sponsor Joseph Schaller.

Now that it is second semester, the Comedy Sportz team will continue to have its school practices after school on Fridays, but the downtown practices have ended.

The team is using new practice techniques in order to get ready for the first match on Feb. 17.

OMEED MALEKMARZBAN / PHOTO

INDEPENDENT STUDY: Seniors Lyndon Ji and Youkow Homma work with Dr. Roland Roeder, mentor and assistant professor at IUPUI. Ji leaves CHS to do more advanced outside research on his Gold Days.

Level Up Superintendent hopes to gain ‘high performing’ status

BY JASON KLEIN jklein@hilite.org

A

ccording to the Carmel Clay Schools website, Superintendent Jeff Swensson, oversees over 15,000 students. The website also states that CCS has “a history of setting the highest achievement goals for students and maintaining strong links to our families and the community.” Swensson has proposed that the State Board of Education designate CCS as a “High Performing School District.” According to Swensson, as a High Performing School District, CCS would be given automatic waivers for several sections of Indiana Code, including the minimum number of school days students must attend.

Indiana state senator Mike Delph, a 1988 Carmel graduate, represents the 29th District in the State Senate, which includes the west side of Carmel. Delph recently met with a group that included several members of the Carmel Clay School Board and eventually adopted the idea of High Performing Schools, adding it to his Senate Bill 236, according to the IN.gov website.

“That proposal that was brought to me by the Carmel School Board (worked) very nicely with what I was already working on,” Delph said. “We’ve been more focused on trying to fix underperforming schools rather than dealing with the higher-performing schools.”

Despite facing conflict concerning parts of his bill,

Delph said he will remain strong. “Any time the Indiana General Assembly gets involved with education you’re going to have some pushback with this idea that we need local control and that’s what the local school system is for,” he said. “Really anything that deals with education, (the Indiana General Assembly) have a role to play and we choose to exercise that role.”

Delph said he hopes for his bill to move forward through the Indiana State Legislature quickly. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to amend Senate Bill 236 to the liking of the Committee members and that it will pass out of the Senate Education Committee to be considered over the next couple weeks by the full Senate.”

According to Delph, he would like to see Indiana more strongly encourage education beyond the classroom.

“I don’t believe a student should start learning when they walk into a classroom or stop learning when they leave a classroom,” he said. “One of the things that I try to use this process to talk about is the desire that I have to have the state of Indiana promote a culture of lifelong learning.”

Swensson said, “We’re delighted and honored that the Senator would express interest in the High Performing School concept.” Still, he said he plans to continue to push the proposal he has made to the State Board of Education in case Senate Bill 236 is not passed.

“Any bill that goes through the process is not a guarantee,” Swensson said.

CONTINUED Swensson said Tony Bennett, the State ON NEXT PAGE

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | NEWS | PAGE 5 Superintendent of Public Instruction, was supposed to bring up the issue of CCS as a High Performing School District at the October meeting of the Indiana Board of Education. However, nothing about it was brought up at the meeting.

Swensson said he was “very disappointed” that this issue was passed up at the meeting.

“One of the things that I think our school system is very good at is considering ideas,” he said. “We would very much like the privilege to go to the higher level that we think the designation of a High Performing School would permit us (to).”

If Bennett and the Indiana Department of Education do not agree, however, Swensson said he has a different plan.

“I believe our next Plan B step is to go to the State Board of Education and actually appear in front of them and actually be turned down,” Swensson said. “We’ve learned through various sources that the State Board, for reasons I can’t explain, doesn’t believe they have the authority to give us permission (to make CCS a High Performing School District). We disagree with that because we think the law permits them to, but they don’t think it does, so we’re stuck.”

Swensson said he plans on the state legislature granting the State Board the authority to make CCS a High Performing School District. Then, he said, the State Board would grant CCS permission to become a High Performing School District.

Swensson is not the only person who sees the advantage in some of the modifications that being a High Performing CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

School District will result in. Senior Lyndon Ji already has a rather unusual schedule: on Gold Days, he travels to IUPUI to conduct computer science research under a mentor in lieu of attending school. He said he believes that many other students could benefit from education outside the norm. “(Research) is an extension of what I’ve learned at school to a higher level. Since they didn’t offer Comp. Sci. AB anymore, I took Comp. Sci. A,” Ji said. “What I do at IUPUI is more advanced programming while also learning a bit about theoretical programming. It depends on what track (students) want to pursue, but science or math people should at least have some prior experience doing research for college.”

Although Ji does not take as many classes as most students, he said he receives the same amount of education if not more. According to Ji, college based activities like research can help prepare students not only for the difficulty of college, but also for the technical aspects, such as writing research papers. Swensson said he sees many advantages for students from this designation as well.

“Now, some students already do that because they already take 400,000 AP courses and I would say, ‘That’s awesome,’ but I would also say, ‘Let’s provide more avenues for them,’” Swensson said.

The whole concept of new avenues for students may be one of the driving forces behind the proposal. According to the CCS website, learning partnerships with colleges, or “professorships,” would allow CHS seniors to study with Carmel and with a university at the same time, allowing them to earn college credits during their senior year.

If CCS was recognized as a High Performing School District, students would have time during school for their “professorships,” along with other projects proposed by CCS, which include career and community service internships and “Greyhound Senior Semester” scholarships, where CHS seniors would participate in college seminars, labs and applied inquiries according to the CCS website.

Karen Taff, a U.S. history teacher at Carmel since 1984, has been through many curriculum changes and said that she thinks applying to be a High Performing School District is a progressive way of thinking.

She said, “The standards-based movement (the education reform movement taking place in the United States over the past 20 years, according to the National Academy of Education) has been a positive one for all schools, and Carmel has traditionally tried to be a leader, expanding programs in all areas of the building.

“One of the things that is significant is that because of the depth and the breadth of the courses that are offered at Carmel, some of the new requirements handed down by the state, while positive, can be more restrictive for schools that have already proven themselves to be High Performing schools.”

Swensson said “The adventure (of life after high school), the great things professionally and career-wise and in life that Carmel students will do, how great they are at being cool, interesting and positive, is going to depend in larger measure than ever before on what happens when you get your start in K-12, so that’s why to be a High Performing School District, to me, maximizes for every kid what’s best.”

What would a High Performing School District be able to do?

If approved, Carmel Clay Schools will be able to qualify as a High Performing School District and make some serious changes to Carmel. What does this entail?

1

2

To qualify as a High Performing School District, a school would have to meet the 90th percentile of graduation rates, ISTEP+ scores, and other state performance benchmarks. Carmel Clay Schools has had an exemplary grade for the past six recorded years, with a 94.8% passing rate on the ISTEP+.

Schools are given automatic waivers for certain sections of Indiana Code. As long as schools meet 1080 hours of instruction, they can be more flexible with their classroom hours. One possibility is the 10-hour school day.

CARMEL CLAY SCHOOLS, INDYSTAR, INDIANA DOE, JEFF SWENSSON / SOURCES LIANE YUE / GRAPHIC

3

4

5

These changes would allow Carmel to rearrange its schedules because the 180day policy would be lifted. The school year could be shorter or longer, and a three-day school week might even be possible. The goal of this is to provide new benefits to student education.

Carmel hopes to create learning partnerships with colleges called “Professorships”, so students could earn direct college credits during their senior year. A “Greyhound Senior Semester” scholarship program would involve college seminars and labs.

Carmel hopes to ally with educational institutions to offer new, non-traditional programs.

“Seminar style” classes, career and community service internships are only a few of the possibilities.

PAGE 6 | NEWS | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

Release the Responsibility Students and teachers adapt to, integrate Gradual Release of Responsibility

BY TONY TAN ttan@hilite.org

T

o senior Josh Foster, investigating and exploring by himself while learning come naturally. According to Foster, he is able to take full advantage of this trait in his Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) class.

“In my IED class, we’re working with the CAD (computeraided design) software,” Foster said. “We were shown the process of how to use it. We did it once with (the teacher), and we set out on our own.”

Foster is one of the many students here who has experienced the changes in the school curriculum implemented at the beginning of the school year. This new policy, titled the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model, calls for exactly what its name implies: the gradual transfer of responsibilities from the teachers to the students.

However, the GRR model isn’t unique to this school.

According to an article published online by KQED, a Northern California public media group, the trend in relationships between teachers and students across the nation mirror that which the GRR model attempts to foster. The article points to the shift in teachers’ roles from strongholds of knowledge to facilitators of learning, as students and teachers learn from one another.

According to Brooke Weekes, assistant principal of curriculum, GRR arose at this school as the result of a districtwide study over the book Better Learning Through Structured

Teaching by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, which led the administration to challenge itself to provide meaningful, professional development for teachers.

Weekes said since the GRR model is relatively new, the school is currently still attempting to fully integrate the ideologies behind the model into classrooms.

“I think with any new things, there are bumps in the road and challenges,” Weekes said. “Just like students in a classroom, every teacher is at a different level of comfort with the Gradual Release program.”

Rise of RISE

While not currently being evaluated based on their performance in accordance with the GRR model, according to Weekes, teachers will eventually be judged under another change in the school policy that will be implemented this fall: the RISE teacher evaluation.

“As a district, we’ve decided to adopt (RISE),” Weekes said. “In the past, basically, when we observed teachers, we have a blank form, and we just record what we see and make comments. Next (school) year, we’ll have a rubric with categories and specific indicators of teachers’ performance.”

This RISE judging criteria will include student achievement and engagement, two aspects that the GRR model has been claimed to bolster. Therefore, according to Weekes, the administration believes the school is in a good position for adopting the RISE rubric. Nevertheless, Weekes said that although the two

OMEED MALEKMARZBAN / PHOTO

LET GO: Senior Josh Foster explores the computer-aided design software in his Introduction to Engineering Design class. Under the new model, students have the opportunity to learn more by themselves.

policies complemented each other, their relationship was purely coincidental; the administration adopted them independently of each other.

In the classroom

Although the GRR model isn’t essentially a sequential process, Weekes said it follows a rough guideline of four steps, progressing from the teacher-led classroom to the student-led classroom. “(At first), it’s the teacher maybe presenting information in what we call a focus lesson, but in a short, 15-minute period of time,” Weekes said. “And then we have a lot of collaborative learning while the teacher is guiding instruction. Then that last piece of it is the independent student application. So, the idea is that students are involved in a lot of class discussion, a lot of small group work and small group activity, leading them to be able to do work on their own.”

But that model takes different forms for each subject.

World History teacher Robert Fellows is one of the many teachers at this school who has been consistently trying to implement this model in his classes.

“It’s a little bit different in a social studies class as opposed to maybe a math class, because a lot of what we discuss in social studies is content-based as opposed to skills-based, so what we’ve done as a department is to look at the necessary skills that are needed in social studies classes: analytical skills, critical thinking skills and causes and effects,” Fellows said.

One may walk into Fellows’ room today to find that the desks in his classroom have been arranged into small clusters of four. Tomorrow, however, Fellows said he might have his room in rows, a circle or perhaps some other creative structure.

“I don’t always have (the desks in groups)–it depends on the lesson,” Fellows said. “For example, today we were looking at chronology. We were kind of doing a recap of some things we’ve learned content-wise in the past and trying to get a good 50,000 feet view of the Middle Ages. So I had them in groups working on putting together a timeline and identifying significant historical events. But if I’ve got something that’s more individual, such as a test, I’m going to have them in rows. So I think a lot of it is trying to identify the objectives that our lessons have and how we can thus meet the needs of our kids through this new model of instruction.”

Foster said he agrees that the GRR model is different in every class.

“There’s some classes that I’m taking where I would definitely put the classes in the category of ‘You do it together’ or ‘You do it alone’ level, but others, it’s just the way the material is taught. There are only so many ways to lecture biology: you can’t really take it from ‘I do it’ to ‘You do it alone.’ You can’t really lecture biology to yourself.”

As a math tutor, Foster said he has noticed the changes in the math department that started last fall through the increase in the number of students asking for help. Overall, Foster said he supports the inquiry and investigative approach that the math curriculum has adopted.

“I think kids are having some trouble adjusting to the new style of teaching and the new textbook, which is understandable,” Foster said. “But I think it’s certainly a good idea to teach math that way. You can learn quadratic equations all you want, but you really need to be able to understand math if you’re going to apply it in a realworld situation, like people will have to CONTINUED in their future careers.”

ON NEXT PAGE

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | NEWS | PAGE 7 CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Gradual gratifications

According to Weekes, while the GRR model supports the changes in the math curriculum, they occurred independently. While the administration looked at a new process for teaching, in the meantime the math department adopted its current curriculum.

Nevertheless, since the GRR model has only been implemented for one semester, Fellows said it would be difficult to accurately gauge the success of the GRR model from a teacher’s perspective.

“I think we’re going to need to give it a little more time to do more of a longitudinal look at how students have performed once this has been implemented,” Fellows

said. “There are lots of variables that go into student performance and student achievement, and this might be affecting that student achievement, but it’s tough to tell right now.”

Check out page 31 to read staff members’ opinions about the Gradual Release model.

Vocational Building Trades class to alter course focus

BY STUART JACKSON sjackson@hilite.org John Coghlan, Vocational Building Trades class instructor, made a difficult decision this past year; one that ultimately, he said, was a result of a downed economy.

“We knew probably back in July that it was getting a little bit close, that if we didn’t sell last year’s home, that we were going to have to make a decision pretty quick.”

Coghlan said, “This is probably the last year for this class.

In its place, we’re going to be offering an internship, jobshadowing opportunity where a student might go out and work for a construction company and really get a feel for what they do.”

Although the house his class built did end up selling in November last year, he decided to stop building a house, due to last year’s house going unsold through July. Coghlan said the decision had to be made by the class’s advisory committee in July because the permitting process for setting up contractors takes at least two weeks to complete.

“Ten years ago, a bank would’ve backed us with that situation. But right now, with the economy, we’re not able to do that,” he said.

The sale of the class’s home coincided with encouraging numbers for the housing industry from the fall. According to Robert Cowan, senior vice president of F.C. Tucker Company, home sales in Carmel were up by 9 percent. In addition, The Indianapolis Star reported that Hamilton County overall saw 6.4 percent growth in

Changes in Construction Over the course of the year, students work collaboratively to build and design a house within the community to sell.

October. However, despite those encouraging numbers, the committee decided to not build a house this year and have the class do smaller, renovation-based projects instead.

Kevin Sheek, Vocational Building Trades student and senior, said, “We finished painting a house of one the neighbors from last year’s house built. We did that painting job, and then we did a dry-wall finishing job in a basement in the same neighborhood.”

The work students have done so far has aimed to improve their skills. Sheek said the work is more skillbased and strategized, with those skills being most applicable later in life. Those long-lasting, skill-based opportunities are what Coghlan said he has been aiming for this year.

“What I’m looking for when we do take on other projects is, what is the value to the students? Any student who buys a home, whether it’s in three years or 20 years, they’re going to deal with maintenance on a home,” Coghlan said.

The most notable project the class has taken on this year is working with Chaucie’s Place. Students are renovating an abandoned house at 106th Street and Gray Road by installing cabinets and dry-wall and painting the interior and exterior of the home. The house currently being worked on by the class will become an office used by the charity.

Cowan said via email that a good time to build for the class would likely be in the fall of 2012. “However, that is dependent on increased job growth and an uptick in the economy, and for the rest of the school year, the class will

This year, students have been working on a house located on 106th Street and Gray Road by painting and adding installations.

Students learn different construction methods to build a house. Students will spend class learning and developing skills for the construction industry.

CONNIE CHU / GRAPHIC JOHN COGHLAN / SOURCE

continue its work on the office for Chaucie’s Place. Despite the course being redefined for the next school year, Sheek said he would still recommend anyone to take it.

“I’d definitely take construction classes because there’s always problems going on in your house,” he said. “It saves money, and it’s a good skill to have.”

HENRY JACKSON / PHOTO

SAW AWAY: Senior Chris Ladd saws wooden boards for the remodeling of an abandoned house for Chaucie’s Place. The house will be used by Chaucie’s Place for office space when finished .

Replacing the Vocational Building Trades class is a different, more internship-focused class.

Students will find their areas of interest in the construction field and work with local businesses outside of CHS.

PAGE 8 | FEATURE | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

FEATURE

Scan this

Fun fact:

To read more about the impact of breakfast on teens

Ninety-three percent of Americans say breakfast is the most important meal, yet only 44 percent eat daily.

FOOD INSIGHT / SOURCE

SUBMITFEATURE@HILITE.ORG | TWITTER.COM/HILITE_NEWS

Mourning the Morning Meal Despite the variety of breakfast items offered here, many students neglect to eat their morning meal which can lead to health problems

CarMilk

All the milk that’s fit to drin

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BY DAVID CHOE dchoe@hilite.org

A

fter waking up and preparing for school, sophomore Spencer Pendergrass heads straight to school, choosing not to stop for a bowl of cereal.

Every weekday, Pendergrass consistently skips what has generally been considered the “most important” meal of the day: breakfast. While he cited time issues in the morning as the reason why he decides to skip breakfast every day, Pendergrass said the main factor that determined his decision was a lack of appetite.

“I’ve never woken up hungry,” Pendergrass said. “(I’ve) never had the urge to eat breakfast. I’d rather sleep in the extra 10 minutes than go downstairs and make breakfast.”

Pendergrass is just one of the 31 million Americans who go without a breakfast each day, according to a study released in October by the NPD Group, a marketing research company.

According to cafeteria manager Anne-Marie Woerner, this school also sees this growing trend, especially in the data is has collected.

“We’re catching about 51 kids (every day) who are eating an actual breakfast,” Woerner said. “And what that means is that they’re buying all the components that we offer in the right combination to make what we call a reimbursable breakfast.

Now, we see a lot of more kids who come through and get other items. Like, they might get two of the entrees and a bottle of water. So it’s not officially a breakfast, but they’re still buying food for breakfast.”

As for the causes of this trend, Woerner said she agreed that time is a major factor as to why the majority of students choose to skip their first meal of the day. The differences in students’ daily commute to school, according to Woerner, also affect their decisions to go without breakfast.

“Especially, I think, the kids who are driving to school are the ones not getting enough time to get breakfast. The kids who are driving and parking down at the stadium might not get enough time to go down the breakfast line on the go,” Woerner said.

While Rachel Miller, assistant director of food and nutrition services, said she agrees with Woerner on the time issue as a major factor, she also said she simply did not like the breakfast served at school when she was a child.

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JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | FEATURE | PAGE 9 interest in (eating breakfast),” Miller said. “I just wasn’t hungry, and I don’t like sweet things in the morning, which is just a personal preference.”

According to senior Michael Wang, Miller’s views match his personal reasons for skipping breakfast. As a swimmer, Wang said his lack of urge to eat breakfast did not significantly affect his morning practices.

“I don’t really have an appetite in the morning,” Wang said.

“Usually I just eat a lot for lunch. For afternoon practices, since I already ate lunch, (skipping breakfast) doesn’t really affect me that much.”

Pendergrass also said the only significant effect on his health or lifestyle from not eating breakfast daily, is that he compensates for his lack of breakfast by eating a large lunch.

“I guess I just eat a lot at lunch, and that’s really about it (regarding the effects of skipping breakfast),” Pendergrass said. “I really don’t think it affects my behavior at all. I think if I started eating breakfast, that’d mess me up. Like, I do fine at school and stuff without (breakfast).”

However, although students like Wang and Pendergrass said they believe there is no profound effect on their lives from not eating breakfast, Woerner said the effects of breakfast on students’ lives are significant.

“I guess the fallout we see here from kids not eating breakfast is in the nurse’s office,” Woerner said. “The nurses treat several kids a day due to headaches and stomachaches CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

because they haven’t eaten anything. So even though they don’t have time to eat (breakfast) in the morning or think that they don’t need it, it catches up to them either in the form of a headache or stomachache.”

Kandyce Hardie, one of the registered nurses at this school, said she sees and treats multiple students every day for breakfast-related problems.

“In general, we definitely see at least a couple (students) every day for hunger reasons. It’s an everyday occurrence,” Hardie said. “By the time kids hit high school, as many as 20 to 30 percent of them are skipping breakfast regularly. Typically their complaints would be headaches. Some of them are nauseated because they have not eaten breakfast. And a lot of kids complain about inability KATHLEEN BERTSCH / PHOTO to concentrate in the classroom.”

NOT HUNGRY: Sophomore Spencer Pendergrass throws In addition to treating the students with away an uneaten bagel. For Pendergrass, breakfast is not a nutritional snacks such as apple juice and crackers, part of his morning routine.

Hardie said she also tries to educate the sick students on the importance of breakfast. “(Breakfast) is important for your cognitive abilities, as well as athletics. With everything you do really can have a bigger impact on their day,” Woerner said. in life, you have to have food to make them work,” “Whether it’s attention in class or feeling a little better just Hardie said. from a physical standpoint such as not having to deal with a Woerner also said students should increase their awareness headache, (eating breakfast) for just ten minutes can make a of the importance of breakfast. big difference on how the rest of your day looks.”

“It’s just sad because just a quick little bite of a few things

Student volunteers set to work Super Bowl

However, high-schoolaged helpers are rare

BY ANDY YANG ayang@hilite.org

On Feb. 5, senior Cameron Melangton will be one of the many people enjoying the first Super Bowl game Indianapolis has hosted. However, unlike most students who will be watching the game, Melangton will be one of the many volunteers the Super Bowl committee has to help out with the game.

“I’m pretty excited. My mom’s going to take me out (of school) the whole week before Super Bowl Sunday. I’ll just be doing volunteer work the entire time,” Melangton said.

In lieu of attending school for the week preceding the game, Melangton said he will be in Indianapolis, helping to prepare for the game from Wednesday to Saturday.

Melangton became involved because of his mother, who works with the Super Bowl committee. As a result, he will be working inside the offices of the committee by helping out in any way, from manual labor to office work.

According to Marshawn Wolley, Director of Emerging Business and Community Outreach, Melangton is one of 13,000 other volunteers the Super Bowl committee will be training and coordinating to make sure the week runs smoothly. However, Melangton is unique because of his age. Wolley said there has not been a real ongoing effort to recruit high school students.

“Because of the age requirements and security that surrounds the game, what we’ve been able to do is use the student Ambassadors program along with the Green Corps program to identify students that might be interested in environmental programs,” Wolley said.

The student Ambassadors program consists of 32 seniors who, as eighth grade students, delivered the Indianapolis bid for the 2012 Super Bowl game and are still engaged with

the committee. The Green Corps is a program involving over 160 high school students across Indiana that focuses on environmental education. According to Wolley, these programs are a part of the Super Bowl committee’s efforts to reach out to communities, but they will not be helping out with the actual game itself.

Senior Elizabeth Alexander is one student who is serving as an Ambassador for the Carmel Clay School District in Super Bowl’s 1st & Green Corps program for the past two years. She said that as a part of the program, she will help plan events to improve environmental sustainability in local communities, including conducting recycling surveys at Lucas Oil Stadium and organizing an environmental spirit day at Mary Bryan Elementary School in Indianapolis.

“I think it’s amazing how youth can be a part of these iconic events. It’s inspiring that people our age can make a difference,” Alexander said.

According to Wolley, programs such as the 1st & Green Corps are good ways for young people to experience an event of large magnitude.

“What’s special about these programs is that they attempt to engage young people and youth specifically involved with an event that has international reach. The idea is that you’re not too young to be a part of something that is huge for the city. We want young people to start thinking about being civically engaged, even in high school or at an earlier age,” Wolley said.

For Melangton, the fact that the game will be hosted in Indianapolis is a cause for joy in itself.

“When are we ever going to have another Super Bowl in Indiana?” Melangton said. “From what I’ve heard, it’s been predicted that it’s not going to happen for another ten years, so I’m pretty excited to be working and helping out with the game.”

A SUPER AMBASSADOR: Senior Elizabeth Alexander holds several brochures advertising the 1st & Green Corps program. The organization, which includes 160 high school seniors from around the state, has worked to promote environmental sustainability.

Alexander will conduct recycling surveys at Lucas Oil Stadium.

HENRY ZHU / PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | FEATURE | PAGE 11

Rewritten Curriculum

As more schools remove cursive from their course of study, students reconsider its value

BY OLIVIA WEPRICH oweprich@hilite.org Contrary to many of her peers, junior Nancy Giesel said she sees a need for cursive writing, even in today’s technologybased world.

She said, “I write in cursive for almost every assignment.

It’s faster. It looks better. Computers are important, but (cursive is) just a necessary skill that everyone should have.”

Like all other current high school students in their elementary school years, Giesel learned cursive writing.

But this year, many elementary students nationwide will not learn how to write in cursive.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, the Common Core State Standards no longer require cursive and instead focus more on keyboarding skills, as of this school year. Amy Dudley, assistant superintendent of curriculum in the Carmel Clay Schools district, said via email that Carmel schools have decided to still teach cursive although it is not as much of a priority as it has been in the past.

Giesel said she agrees with this decision to keep cursive but thinks schools should teach cursive writing lessons with as much importance as they did when she learned. She said the reason she uses cursive so much now is because her teachers told her every year that she’d have to use it the next year. According to Giesel, her elementary school teachers said middle school teachers would only accept assignments written in cursive, and although this was not the case, they scared her into writing with it all the time.

According to English teacher Tony Willis, however, Giesel is a rare case. He said that of his 63 English literature and composition students, maybe ten will write in cursive on a timed essay.

Willis said, “I don’t think there’s a need to learn how to write in cursive. Hardly any of the kids who learned it use it, and many of the kids who learned don’t remember how anymore.”

In its memo from April 25, 2011, the Indiana Department of Education mentioned a possibility of online Common Course assessments. Although students would not need to know cursive or any type of writing for these state tests, there is still a cursive statement on the SAT that requires students to copy a statement in cursive.

As a frequent supervisor of the SAT, Willis said many of the students struggle the most not with the actual tests but with the cursive-written statement between two of the sections. He said although students have to copy only a few sentences in cursive, many need more than 15 minutes to write, and some do not even know where to start.

Although many students never use cursive except for the SAT, some school administrators, such as those in Carmel, feel the need to teach it.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, “Schools may decide to continue to teach cursive as a local standard, or they may decide to stop teaching cursive next year to focus the curriculum on more important areas.”

According to Dudley, the teachers in the district spend less time this year than previous years on cursive lessons, but they see an importance in being able to read cursive despite the lack of state requirements. She said if students learn to

write it, they will also be able to read it.

Willis said he thinks learning how to read cursive would be beneficial, but learning how to use computers and technology would be more beneficial.

He said, “In journalism, we used to have to count the characters. If you wanted headlines to be centered or spaced properly, you had to know that an ‘m’ was two characters, and an ‘i’ was half a character and so on. But now all you have to do is type it on the screen, and it does it for you.

That process is outdated, and cursive is too. Students should learn how to read it to be able to read primary documents, but they don’t need to know how to write it.”

Sophomore Christopher Toth said he agrees that cursive is unnecessary. He said that if on the rare occasion he does have to write in cursive, he has to make up most of the capital letters because he doesn’t remember them.

Toth said, “Every year (the teachers) told you, ‘You have to write in cursive next year,’ but then I got to middle school and never used it. I guess there was a time for it at some point, but not anymore. Most of my assignments are typed anyway.”

According to Giesel, although many of her assignments are typed as well, she is glad she was able to learn cursive unlike many students of the next generation or those learning it just to be able to read it.

“It’s not like (cursive is) hieroglyphics or something. If any of those kids want to be historians, all I can say is good luck. If you learn to write cursive, then it’s easier to read other’s writing, no matter how old it is,” Giesel said. “I can type, write in print and write in cursive. The kids who are still learning it are lucky, but it’s too bad for those who aren’t.”

A brief history of writing 3200 B.C. Cuneiform

2160 B.C. Hieroglyphics

The earliest form of writing, cuneiform, evolved from pictographs and is known for its distinct use of wedge shapes.

The Egyptians fused their writing system with relief carving, using symbols to convey different meanings.

12 - 15th c.

Gothic Writing

15th c.

Printing Press

The Gothic writing style was prevalent during the Middle Ages. This style used thick, angular lines with tightly set letters.

In the mid-1400’s, Johannes Gutenberg developed the printing press, using a system of movable type. He modeled his letters off of the handwriting style at the time.

DESIGNHISTORY.ORG, VLETTER.COM / SOURCE

1500 B.C. Phoenician Alphabet

146 B.C. Roman script

One of the first known alphabet systems, the Phoenician alphabet contained 22 symbols and was widely used in other regions.

When they conquered Greece, the Romans adopted the Greek alphabet, which was composed of 23 letters using carved capitals.

19th c.

Zanerian College By the mid-1700’s, schools were established to teach handwriting techniques, also known as penmanship.

Charles Zaner founded the Zanerian College of Penmanship. He later created a company that made materials to be used in penmanship education.

700 A.D. Charlemagne In 700 A.D., Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, appointed a monk to develop a standardized style of writing for his empire.

21st c.

T

O

D

A

Y

The advent of technology has made traditional handwriting almost obsolete, raising concern about whether students should learn to write cursive.

CONNIE CHU / GRAPHIC

PAGE 12 | FEATURE | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

Socially Driven Study shows teenagers are more likely to take risks while among peers

BY HAFSA RAZI hrazi@hilite.org

J

unior Sydne Horton was in high spirits as she drove home with her friends one day after school, laughing and talking about their plans for the day with music blasting from the speakers. Up ahead, a stoplight turned yellow, and in a move that surprises her now, Horton hit the gas.

“I decided, I guess, that I should speed up, so I went 10 miles (per hour) over the speed limit, straight for the stoplight, and turned left,” Horton said. “I lost control of my car and hit the curb, which bounced us into incoming traffic.”

Fortunately, Horton said, approaching cars were able to stop, and she, her friends and her car all escaped unscathed. Now, she said, she is still unsure why she didn’t slow down as she normally does when approaching a yellow light. However, she said she is quite certain it wouldn’t have happened if she had been driving alone.

Horton’s sudden impulse to rush through a yellow light reflects a trend uncovered last year in a study by researchers at Temple University.

The study found that adolescents are more likely than any other age group to engage in risky behavior when observed by their friends. In the study, when teenage participants played a simulated driving-game in the presence of peers, they took more risks, like running through yellow lights, than when they played alone.

According to Judith Bealke, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the IU School of Medicine, this behavior stems from the physical, mental and social changes that accompany adolescence, including brain development in areas that control impulsive behavior. “(Teenagers are) under major construction.

Impulsivity is just part of the package, by virtue of the neurophysiology,” Bealke said.

Horton said she has seen such risky behavior increase as she and her peers have entered adolescence and started driving.

“When I was little, I didn’t do as much crazy stuff as I

One of the places that teenagers form an identity is among peers, so it doesn’t surprise me that you would see this kind of (risky) behavior because peer approval is a strong motivator that would drive a lot of teenage behavior.

Judith Bealke

Assisstant professor of clincal psychiatry at IU School of Medicine

OMEED MALEKMARZBAN / PHOTO

BEEP BEEP: Junior Sydne Horton navigates the streets of downtown Carmel after school. Horton says a car accident she was in shows that teenagers are more likely to take risks around their peers.

do now,” Horton said. “I definitely think (risky behavior) is a teenager thing.”

Another factor that could affect why teenagers are inclined to take risks around friends is the increasing importance of social acceptance, Bealke said.

According to Horton, while her friends don’t actively try to influence her behavior, she has noticed herself becoming more self-conscious as an adolescent.

“You just want to impress other people (and) stay friends with them,” Horton said.

However, this mentality is not universal for all students. According to junior Sam Patterson, he tries not to let the opinions of others influence him, so having friends accompany him as he drives does not encourage him to take risks. Still, he said, he would consider social approval a motivating factor in teenage impulsivity.

“Why would you act ‘riskily’ (among friends) unless it mattered to you what they thought?” Patterson said.

“More importantly, why does acting ‘riskily’ matter to them? It baffles me, personally. I can’t think why.”

Despite the negative connotations attached to teenage risk-taking, Bealke said, teenagers can also influence their friends to take positive risks by introducing them to new experiences.

“Peers can push their friends into different directions that they never would have thought about before,”

Bealke said.

In the end, Bealke said, adults should not try to teach teenagers to refuse all risks but rather help them find an identity without damaging their well-being.

“The most important thing is not to try to teach a (teenager) just to say ‘no’ because that doesn’t work, but to help a kid stay in touch with their internal values,” she said.

Having the mind-set to make safe decisions when entering a potentially risky situation, even such as driving with friends, Bealke said, would help prevent teenagers from impulsively putting themselves and their passengers in danger.

For Patterson, he said the value of keeping his friends safe when he drives with them supersedes any temptation to impress them through risky driving behavior.

“When I’m driving with other people, I’m more responsible for their safety, obviously, so I try to drive more safely. At least consciously, I do,” Patterson said.

For Horton, she said her decision to speed through a yellow light wasn’t conscious. According to her, she’s still not quite sure how it happened. She attributes a large part of her split-second decision to distraction, she said, heightening her excitement and slackening her caution.

“I wasn’t even thinking,” she said. “I think definitely, having friends in the car changes everything.”

PAGE 14 | STUDENT SECTION | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

STUDENT SECTION YouTube Star

What is the ‘Student Section?’

It’s a section that pulls stories from you. For a better explanation, scan this QR code.

STUDENTSECTION@HILITE.ORG | TWITTER.COM/HILITE_NEWS

Tell Us Your Story:

Sophomore Rachel Chen uses social media to promote her interests, particularly singing and playing guitar

For every issue, the HiLite will ask questions on the Facebook page. You can answer and tell us your story, and we will feature you on the next Student Section.

This issue, we are featuring sophomore Rachel Chen, and this is her Facebook response: We asked: HiLite Online How do you use social media to promote your interests? Answer and you may be featured in the next issue of the HiLite.

Oct. 25 at 8:40 p.m.

Want More?

You answered: Rachel Chen I upload covers of songs on youtube and use facebook to promote them Oct. 25 at 9:09 p.m.

BY LINSU HAN lhan@hilite.org

S

ophomore Rachel Chen said she considers herself a musician that utilizes contemporary social media to display musical talents over a vast array of internet consumers across the world.

Rachel said singing has been one of her leisure pursuits for as long as she can remember, but it wasn’t until the beginning of her sophomore year that she finally had the impulse to create her own individual YouTube channel.

“I used to be part of a different channel that I shared with someone, but people wanted me to make my own channel, where it would be just me singing,” she said.

Created on Aug. 22, 2011 with now over 100 subscribers, Rachel’s YouTube channel, rchenmusic, features a variety of song covers of her singing accompanied by one or more musical instruments and often another vocal harmony. She said she consider herself to be a cover artist that can play the viola, guitar and a little bit of the piano as well.

“The reason why I started making covers was because I

Scan this QR code to visit Rachel’s YouTube channel.

CONNER GORDON / PHOTO

MUSICAL TALENT: Sophomore Rachel Chen plays her guitar and sings her favorite songs by different artists.

Chen said she likes to make covers of songs and upload them to her YouTube channel, rchenmusic.

liked a lot of songs by certain artists,” Rachel said. “I thought that if I covered them, it would help increase their popularity.”

Rachel said she actively uploads videos to YouTube from every week to once a month and advertises them via her social networking sites—Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp—that last of which is a site that allows her to post mp3 download links to her songs.

“I usually post (the link) on my Facebook wall right after I upload (a new cover). And if it doesn’t have as many views as I think the video deserves, I post it again. And then, I kind of beg people to watch them and subscribe; it’s effective,” Rachel said. “With social media, it’s like you have to do one thing and then a billion people see it.”

This, however, causes her parents to fear for her safety over the internet. But, according to Rachel, her parents’ opinions of her publicly revealing herself through the aid of social media have changed over time.

“At first, (my parents) were really skeptical, because they were worried about my security and safety and thought I was going to get my identity stolen,” Rachel said. “But then, they realized social media is starting to get really big, and that it’s safer to use. Now my parents really support me and my

YouTube career.”

Liying Chen, Rachel’s mother, who is subscribed to her channel, said, “I was happy for her, because she’s a kind of shy person; so when she put herself on YouTube, I thought it was great for her (to) open up a bit. However, I was also quite concerned about her safety. There are a lot of bad people on the internet.”

Though Rachel’s parents were initially worried for her safety, they eventually realized that social media is much safer than before and felt that she was mature enough. They decided to support her interests in her YouTube career and help her with anything she needed.

“She really enjoys videotaping herself and uploading videos to YouTube, so we invested a lot of money for her enjoyment,” her dad, Yaobin Chen, said, via phone. “If she needed something, we (would) just go buy for her.”

With the support of her parents, Rachel said she plans to continue her musical interests beyond college, possibly making it her side career. For now, she said she hopes to reach her goal of 1000 subscribers by the end of 2012.

“I’m not sure what I’m capable of yet,” Rachel said, “but I’m hoping that I’ll start writing songs that I can sell.”

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | STUDENT SECTION | PAGE 15

The Face Behind the Tweets Each issue, we highlight a particularly newsworthy Tweeter from Carmel High School.

This Issue’s Twitter account: @CarmelHSGov

Who runs it: Cabinet member and junior Meredith Baranowski What it is: Get updates about events and happenings within the Carmel High School student government and the school.

Followers: 92 Describe yourself in 140 characters or fewer: I give helpful reminders about happenings within student government in a slightly entertaining format. Questions welcomed. Stay informed!

Tweeting for the People

Junior Meredith Baranowski updates students about CHS events and student government

BY JOHN DU jdu@hilite.org

information out and it is a better way of promoting what we are doing.

What should students know about the student government Twitter page?

It’s #TeamFollowBack, so it won’t hurt your Twitter ratio. It’s a good deal to follow. It’s hard to remember sometimes, and when you have that reminder at 8 at night when you’re not really thinking about it, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I need to bring in my money,” or, “Oh yeah, I need to bring in my Coke cans.” It’s for your benefit. The Twitter is a platform to tell the students of Carmel High School, the community and faculty about what’s going on in student government.

What are the Tweets usually about?

They focus on what Senate, Cabinet and House are doing. It’s focusing on student government events, but if there’s schoolwide information that I think would be helpful to let students know about, then I put that on there as well. It is about getting

What kind of feedback have you gotten from followers?

Up until this point, I’ve been mostly anonymous, so I haven’t really heard a lot back from the people, but I feel it should be a really helpful tool. I had a question tweet once. It’s also a forum for questions, which I hope is known. So if you have any questions about what’s going on at a specific time, anything at all, shoot us a tweet. I’d be more than happy to answer and help you out, because that’s also what it’s for, an interactive sort of forum.

How often do you update the Twitter page?

I update it on the basis of when there’s something to be told, so if there’s an event, if students should bring in money for having Cold Stone ice cream at lunch or if people should bring their coat for the fire drill we’re going to have outside. It’s kind of a basis of what’s going on.

remember to bring $2 tomorrow for coldstone during lunches! or more to buy multiple!

5 Jan.

How did the Twitter page get started?

In Cabinet, we started a Twitter last year, but it wasn’t really given a lot of attention. I think it had three or four tweets on it and not many followers. And so I thought now that Twitter’s gotten so popular, why not bring that back, make it a little bigger and make it a little more informative, kind of give it new life. I thought it would be helpful to the students of Carmel High School. I came up with the idea to redo it, therefore I just headed it up and did it.

Why did you choose to use Twitter as your way of communicating with students?

I think there’s a lot of information. There’s a lot of events that we do. There’s a lot of fundraisers. It can get confusing with times, dates, point values for house and different information. A lot of stuff is being thrown around, so it’s a good way to promote it. People check their Twitter all the time, and it’s right in their faces. It’s a daily thing that people check their Twitters, so I thought it would be an effective way to reach people in a not so abrasive way in their face.

Smoothie Smashdown at 4! Great event.

Stop by and taste some smoothies to the tune of holiday music. Only $2 in Freshman Cafeteria!

10 Dec.

don’t forget chick-fil-a tonight! #eatmorchiken 5 Jan.

winning teams (multiple categories) get smoothie king gift cards and the everlasting pride of winning a high school smoothing making contest 6 Dec.

chick-fil-a fundraiser tomorrow and thursday! tell them you’re there for CDM and 20% goes to riley!

3 Jan.

“I heard everyone’s going to be there.”

Yes, everyone will be at Steak’n’Shake in Westfield 2nite. No voucher, still come, we’ll get u 1 30 Nov.

we’re getting right back into the swing of things with a house meeting tomorrow! be there or be [] 3 Jan.

last house meeting of the SEMESTER tomorrow. time flies, no? you know the drill, freshman cafeteria at 10:30 29 Nov.

just “wrapped” up dropping off care-to-share gifts to some very thankful families! your efforts really count- thank you!

12 Dec.

deliver your care to share items tomorrow or friday during srt to E220! way to brighten people’s lives, guys #holiday spirit 29 Nov.

HENRY ZHU / PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

PAGE 16 | COVER STORY | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

Fall of the College Exam?

By Victor Xu Due to issues of test equality and practicality, many colleges have made the SAT and ACT optional in undergraduate applications and are changing the landscape of college admissions

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | COVER STORY | PAGE 17

I

n 1926, Carl Brigham, a Princeton University psychologist, administered an adaptation of an army IQ test to thousands of college applicants, testing a prototype of what would become the notorious SAT college admission exam. By 1948, the SAT had skyrocketed to a status as the basic entrance exam for universities across the United States.

Half a century later, however, the standardized test and its cousin, the ACT, are facing strife over alleged bias and impracticality as measurements of academic ability—from the very colleges that adopted them.

Senior Connor Dunn said he was attracted to Colorado College’s lengthy distance from his hometown, Carmel, and the school’s block scheduling program, which allows Dunn to focus on one class at any given moment.

Although Dunn said the fact that Colorado does not consider test scores in admission did not sway his decision, some would consider the policy an added bonus. “(Test scores) aren’t required, but I provided the scores on the application anyway in hopes of scholarship money,” Dunn said. “I had a pretty good ACT score, so I should hope that it gave me a competitive edge.”

ION

N / PHOTO ILLUSTRAT

OMEED MALEKMARZBA

PAGE 18 | COVER STORY | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012 When the regular college application season closed on Jan. 1, Colorado College joined an ever growing list of universities in the United States that have changed their longtime policies by making submission of SAT and ACT scores optional in undergraduate admission. According to fairtest.org, an online organization dedicated to fair, open and educationally beneficial testing practices, the number of test-optional colleges now ranks at nearly 850 out of around 3,000 four-year institutions, a substantial increase from previous years.

Among the reformed universities, Wake Forest University is notable for being the first test-optional university that ranks within the top 30 universities of the United States. The conversion to a test-optional policy with the freshman class of 2009 depended largely on Joseph Soares, Wake Forest sociology professor and author of “SAT Wars,” a book that argues for the end of the standardized test as the basis of college admission. According to Soares, Wake Forest’s decision derived in part from the influence of Soares’ published work, which highlights the failure of standardized tests in predicting college success.

“It’s a tragic farce that the world thinks the SAT tells us who’s going to do well in college and who’s going to finish, when it doesn’t,” Soares said. “It’s a business, and it’s deeply entrenched in our lives. It’s a multibillion dollar industry, and they’ve got the wool pulled over everybody’s eyes.”

Measuring What Matters Least

The College Board openly acknowledges that test scores are not the sole indicators of academic ability. According to the website, “the combination of high school grades and SAT scores is the best predictor of your academic success in college.”

However, Soares argued that the only true predictor of college success is performance in high school academics, with no emphasis on standardized tests whatsoever. Representatives of the College Board did not respond to prompts for a statement.

Soares said, “If you take high school grades, the high

school transcript, and you put that on the table, and you want to predict how well someone’s going to do in college— measured as are they going to stay for the second year, are they going to graduate in four or six years, and what will their grades be in the first, second, third or fourth year—the SAT does not add anything to what you already can predict statistically from the high school transcripts. That is, it either adds nothing or it increases your statistical power by on average 2 percentage points.”

Harry Pettibone, counselor at the College and Career Resources Center, said he agrees that standardized tests like the SAT and ACT are poor judges of college success and academic prowess. Yet, he views the tests as necessary evils for now.

“Not everyone is a strong test taker, and what you do in four years in high school can be a better indication of what you’re going to do with the challenges and expectations of a college environment with four hours on a Saturday morning,” Pettibone said. “There are many college officials who agree that they don’t think (students) should take a test. But we are numbers driven. The more selective the school, the more important these standardized tests are.”

Although Indiana State University does not require test scores in admission (but uses scores in class placement eventually), senior Evan Davis submitted his SAT score in his application because he said he felt that it would give him a competitive edge. Nevertheless, Davis said he recognized problems with the test and cited the lack of personal appeal as a possible deficit.

“I mean it’s nice to have at least something that all of us have to take as kind of a baseline, but it’s true that everyone does learn differently and everyone remembers differently, and sometimes to certain people’s learning types, it’s not very conducive,” Davis said. “A lot of people, like me personally, learn with music best, and a lot of people will study with music and not be able use music on the SAT. Silence is actually

It’s a tragic farce that the world thinks the SAT tells us who’s going to do well in college and who’s going to finish, when it doesn’t. It’s a business, and it’s deeply entrenched in our lives.

Joseph Soares

Author of “SAT Wars” and sociology professor at Wake Forest University

kind of distracting to me. Just sitting in a completely silent room with a bunch of people doesn’t seem like a very personal test taking environment.”

Based in Bias

Another complaint from university officials that has influenced many colleges’ becoming test optional is a longstanding history of purported social bias within the SAT and ACT. According to Soares, the argument that the tests discriminate against minorities has existed ever since the inception of the SAT. In the 1920s, the test was originally designed to show that “Nordics,” or white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, were superior to other peoples, but failed to do so.

Elements of the test’s discriminatory past remain.

According to Soares, test administrators discovered by the early 1960s that the

The Racial Divide

Average SAT scores suggest discrimination toward minorities

CONNER GORDON / PHOTOS

SANS SAT: Top and right, senior Connor Dunn stretches before playing tennis; lower left, Dunn, an Eagle Scout, practices the Boy Scouts Flag Ceremony. Dunn said he hopes colleges will value his extracurricular activities more than simply his test scores in college admissions.

African American

1272

Native American

1473

Asian/ Pacific

1640

Latin American

1357

White

1579

Other

1502 00

500 1000 1500 2000 500 1000 1500 2000 Average Score Out of 2400

COLLEGEBOARD.COM / SOURCE

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | COVER STORY | PAGE 19

A Tale of Two Tests

Top Opt-outs

Test your knowledge of SAT and ACT history

1. In 1926, Carl Brigham modifies an IQ test, “Army Alpha,” a precursor to the SAT, by _____. a. increasing trivia questions b. calling it “Army Beta” c. making the questions more difficult d. mixing the questions’ order e. adding a critical reading portion 2. In 1933, Harvard president James Bryant Conant enlists Henry Chauncey to find an exam to recruit students from _____. a. Eastern boarding schools b. England c. Germany d. states not on the Atlantic coast e. American territories 3. In 1942, the College Board’s previous exams are abolished due to war. The SAT _____. a. drops in popularity, only to be revived later b. is adopted as the standard college exam c. spreads worldwide in a frenzy d. becomes obsolete to the ISTEP+ e. becomes a test for military preparedness SAT’s predictive power for grades was still weak but that its correlation with family income was strong. They figured out by 1964 that a certain SAT score cutoff could assure that 60 percent of their students would have families who could write a check for the full class fees and room and board expenses.

In turn, Soares said the test-optional change in policy often results in campuses with greatly increased diversity once the exam requirements are removed.

“It’s socially discriminatory,” he said. “Women score lower than men; blacks and Hispanics score lower than whites and Asians, but we do not get those same kinds of disparities throughout high school grades.”

Test-free at Last

Number of Testoptional Schools

1000

800

843

600

400

200

1998

280

2011

FAIRTEST.ORG / SOURCE VICTOR XU / GRAPHICS

ACT

To see a comprehensive list of schools that do not require the SAT or ACT in admissions, scan the QR code to visit fairtest.org.

4. The _____ Program forms in 1959 to challenge the SAT’s monopoly on college entrance exams. a. Aptitude College Test b. Aptitude College Trivia c. Applied Collegiate Testing d. Advanced Cornell Test e. American College Testing

Rank in Four-year Universities

25 33

5. The ACT was popular in the following places before the 21st century.

Wake Forest University

I. the Midwest II. the East Coast III. the West Coast

New York University

Rank in Liberal Arts Colleges

5

a. I only b. II only c. I and III only d. II and III only e. I, II and III

Middlebury College

Answers: C, D, B, E, A

SAT

Several highly-ranked schools have chosen to become test-optional

6

Bowdoin College FAIRTEST.ORG / SOURCE RANKINGS BY U.S. NEWS

PBS.ORG AND ACT.ORG / SOURCES

While Dunn said he supports more schools adopting a test-optional policy, he expressed feelings of ambivalence toward the debate over the SAT itself.

“I guess having it be optional is better for students who either haven’t taken it or did poorly on it, especially if they did well in school but not as well as they thought they would do on the tests,” Dunn said. “But at the same time, I think that the tests are good indicators of how well you can think.”

assessments.” Some colleges who have abandoned the standardized test have begun adopting these tests to measure what the SAT and ACT could not: creativity.

“Tests like the SAT and ACT don’t tell us anything about (creativity),” Soares said. “Getting students who are more creative makes for a much richer campus experience for everybody than just getting people who are really good at filling in multiple choice boxes.”

Standardized tests have long been a focus of schools, especially the most highly competitive ones, according to Pettibone.

“I would say the more highly selective schools do put too much emphasis on them, whereas the other ones don’t as much,” Pettibone said. “There’s a small number that is truly highly selective that admits less than 50 percent…Those do put a stronger emphasis on (tests) than they should. They’re looking for ways to cut students out because they have so many slots to fill and they have to get down to whether you got a 700 or 650 on SAT math.”

But if colleges shelve test scores, what will the new emphasis be placed on?

Soares said high school performance in difficult courses, interviews and other factors of the application can pick up the slack. He said AP exams, IB exams and SAT subject tests were relatively strong indicators of academic knowledge as well. Yet, college preparedness cannot be measured solely in academic formats; it is a time of exposure, growth and experimentation.

According to the Fall 2011 edition of the Journal of College Admissions, the ability to socially experiment can be measured effectively in tests called “non-cognitive

Currently, almost a third of the colleges in the United States have eliminated submitting standardized test scores as an entrance requirement. Nevertheless, the vast majority of students continue to take the SAT and ACT, according to Pettibone, who still “vehemently” recommends taking both exams despite their alleged flaws.

“The reality is you have to meet what (admissions officers) want,” Pettibone said.

Soares said, “Students are still going to be taking the tests as long as enough of the colleges are still requiring (standardized tests) to make it look like it’s a hurdle that you have to leap, but it’s a terrible thing. It’s a waste of your time and a distraction from real learning.”

According to Soares, the steady rate at which universities are implementing the test-optional policy will surge when a top school like Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford adopts the policy.

Soares said, “Students really should look at the list of institutions that are test-optional and ask themselves whether they want to spend the time, the anxiety, the money and the effort on a test that is a bad test.”

A Shift in Focus

STOP

Slowly but Surely

If you finish before time is called, you may reread this section.

Please feel free to turn to any other section in this paper.

PAGE 20 | ENTERTAINMENT | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

ENTERTAINMENT Grab ‘n’ Go Gaming

Most Popular iTunes Apps: 1. “Words With Friends” 2. “Angry Birds” 3. “Fruit Ninja”

SUBMITENTERTAINMENT@HILITE.ORG | TWITTER.COM/HILITE_NEWS

ITUNES / SOURCE

For the first time in history, revenue generated from mobile ‘app-based’ games surpasses profits from traditional entertainment systems

BY MATT BARNTHOUSE mbarnthouse@hilite.org

in 2011. Martin Giles, U.S. technology correspondent for The Economist, has several reasons for this increase.

Giles said via email, “(The games) are on your phone so you can play them anywhere/anytime. They are simple to learn and play. They are free in basic form and don’t cost much more (if anything) than a cup of Starbucks coffee. They are easy to update when new versions come out; they are addictive.”

S

enior Michael Wang sits in his SRT playing the popular mobile title “Angry Birds” on his cell phone. Like many of the other 500 million people who bought this game on the Apple App Store, Wang said he is addicted to the 99-cent game from Rovio Mobile.

Wang said he likes mobile phone gaming to the point that he will not buy a separate gaming console such as Nintendo’s 3DS, or Sony’s PlayStation Vita, for gaming on the go.

Wang is not the only one. For the first time in the gaming industry’s history, revenue from mobile games on the Android Marketplace and the Apple App Store has surpassed mobile revenue from video game manufacturers Nintendo and Sony.

Scan this Wang said, “I usually have my QR code to phone with me at all times. It’s really check out Matt convenient to just take it out when I Barnthouse’s am bored and play games. It’s nice on blog on all the app store to just buy whatever you things video want when it is just 99 cents or $2.”

Want more?

SHEEN ZHENG / PHOTO

PLAY ON: Michael Wang, mobile video gamer and senior, and junior Nick Shi play a game on Wang’s iPhone. Wang said he likes mobile gaming more than playing with a gaming console.

Big Companies Adapt

Traditional mobile gaming powers Sony and Nintendo have been forced to adapt and add elements from mobile phones and their casual games in order to stay in competition with mobile phones. The adaptation is most evident in Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Vita.

The Nintendo 3DS features an eShop, which sells smaller and cheaper games similar in price to the average iPhone or Android game. The 3DS also features an exclusive Virtual Console, which houses classic Nintendo games, and is unavailable on any other phone or mobile gaming device.

The PlayStation Vita has adapted by adding an app store and 3G edition of the console through AT&T, which allows game-related. access to the web, PlayStation Network A Growing Trend and multiplayer virtually anywhere.

Despite controlling only 11 percent of Despite the rampant rise of mobile the marketplace in 2009, Android and phone gaming, Giles said he does not Apple devices have risen to control 58 believe devices dedicated to percent of the mobile gaming market as of Nov. 9, gaming, such as Nintendo’s 3DS 2011. Gamasutra, a gaming market website, predicts are becoming irrelevant. that in 2012 over 75 percent of people will have played CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE Giles said, “There is still a a game on their mobile devices, up from 55 percent

A History of Gaming 1972 - 1977 Odyssey and Pong

PONG

Three years later, Atari launched “Pong”, which was an electric version of ping pong.

1977 - 1985 Atari and Intellivision ODYSSEY

TIME.COM / SOURCE

ATARI

Originally named Atari VCS, the Atari 2600 experienced popularity with its introduction in 1976.

As a major rival to the Atari 2600, the Intellivision presented better graphics and technology.

SONY

Playstation

1994 - 2000 PlayStation and Nintendo 64 INTELLIVISION

CHANNEL 3000.COM / SOURCE

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | ENTERTAINMENT | PAGE 21 sizeable market for these kinds of dedicated handheld game players and they have features (such as 3D) that phones can’t deliver.”

Nintendo has already felt the pressure of mobile devices. Sagging sales of the 3DS forced the company to cut the system’s price by $80 in August 2011, fewer than five months after the console’s release. However, the price cut led to more sales, as sales CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

of the 3DS increased 260 percent during August alone.

Internationally, the Vita System is doing even worse.

According to Imagine Games Network, the Vita’s firstweek unit sales in Japan were only at 440,000 units.

In perspective, the 3DS outsold PS Vita’s four to one during the same period. If the 3DS is considered a disappointment, and the Vita’s sales are similar when it launches in the United States on Feb. 22, the mobile gaming industry may be heading straight toward the cell phone market entirely. Despite this, some people have not jumped on the mobile phone gaming train.

Barnthouse’s App Reviews

The HiLite’s video game expert passes judgement on three free apps Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Lite: 3/5

Mobile Not for Everyone

Junior Sean Keck still isn’t convinced cell phones can provide the gaming experience he wants, so he bought a 3DS in March 2011. He does not have a smart phone and said he is perfectly fine it with his 3DS’s performance as of now, Ed bers and he does not plan to start using a Messages By the Num smartphone.

Keck said, “I don’t really think it is a better experience or a less experience.

I can’t really decide between the two. s are female I don’t have one of the high-tech cell 53% of mobile gamer e al phones. I do have an iPod, but that m e ar % while 47 really isn’t (much of ) a cellular device.

This (3DS) was worth the money.

Nintendo is definitely maybe getting behind in the industry, but it always rs ne ow stays near the top.” ne ho 37% of iP The skies may be darkening for ily da play games the traditional handheld consoles, as mobile phone gaming continues to rise and produces more money each en downloaded be s year. The same mobile industry that ha s” rd Bi ry “Ang only had $500 million in sales in es m ti n io ill m more than 140 2009, has produced an astounding $1.9 billion revenue in 2011.

The trend does not seem to have any signs of letting down. In fact, it looks like the trend will continue on. wnloads According to CNET, the mobile 70% to 80% of all do are games. gaming industry will make annual revenue over $1l billion by 2015.

Wang seems to be one of the early Send adopters of this new technological medium, as he has decided he will no longer purchase handheld gaming systems.

Wang said, “I don’t think (I will CE buy a 3DS). I am happy with just UR SO / OM .C TOUCHSTONE APHIC casual mobile gaming.”

CONNIE CHU / GR

Nintendo

2000 - Present Xbox, Wii, PS3, and Mobile Gaming Two years later the Nintendo 64 was produced, containing a 64-bit processor.

XBOX

Microsoft made its way into the industry in 2001 with the Xbox, incorporating PC technology.

Sony continued its PlayStation series, launching the Playstation3 in 2006.

PLAYSTATION 3

In 1994, Sony’s PlayStation was launched, boasting a 32- bit processor.

The Good: Great graphics, car models accurate. Captures the essence of the console game, which is unique for an app.

The Bad: Loose controls, awkward crashes, pestering ads. Almost tries to do too much.

NFL Pro 2012: 1.5/5

The Good: Great gameplay, with stellar announcing to add to the fun, including a surprisingly authentic-feeling NBA experience.

The Bad: Mediocre graphics, and the frame rate is occasionally unstable.

NBA 2K12 Lite: 4.5/5

The Good: Full game is free, complete with smooth animation.

The Bad: Every play costs in game currency, the gameplay is mediocre and it’s topped off with some terrible graphics.

Only 8 days later, Nintendo released the Wii, featuring a wireless controller to allow interactive movement.

Today gaming is made more portable through downladable iPhone apps, such as the popular game “Angry Birds”.

CONNIE CHU / GRAPHIC

PAGE 22 | ENTERTAINMENT | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

‘Zombie Prom’ starts Feb. 9

BY KAYLA WALKER kwalker@hilite.org

A

h, February. Black History Month, love and…. zombies? Opening night for the play “Zombie Prom” is on Feb. 9 and continues until Feb. 11 in the Dale E. Graham Auditorium. Tickets are already on sale for $10. Tickets can be bought online at ccs.tix.com or at the school bookstore. Show times for “Zombie Prom” are Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

According to theatre director Maggie Cassidy, “Zombie Prom” is a cheesy romantic comedy that takes place in the 1950s, where young do-gooder Toffee meets and falls in love with bad boy Jonny (spelled without an ‘H’ to show his rebelliousness).

Like many teenage romances, drama arrives soon afterwards. Toffee’s principal, Miss Strict, and both of her parents disapprove of the relationship, so Toffee does what any girl in that time period would do: she breaks up with Jonny. In response, Jonny does the most logical thing any guy would do in this situation: he jumps into a nuclear power plant, causing him to turn into a zombie.

“It’s your classic love story, but with a weird fun subplot,” Cassidy said.

“Zombie Prom” takes place in the 1950s when society greatly focused on nuclear power because of the nuclear age. This is where Jonny jumping into a nuclear plant comes into play. “‘Zombie Prom’ represents the 50s because a lot of the play pokes fun and centers around nuclear power since it was such a big thing back then. Also, we’re working hard on the costumes and the sets so that all the technical elements represent the 50s well,” Cassidy said.

While “Zombie Prom” does not take place until February, there are many preparations that must be completed before then. Rehearsals have already started and take place every day after school except Friday.

According to Cassidy, there is no typical rehearsal day.

Some days they will work on the music or choreography, and others they will focus on just the script.

Cassidy said, “A lot is going into this play. The actors have to learn their lines, learn how to develop their characters while learning music and choreography.

Then there are the sets and costumes that we have to do a lot of research on since it takes place in the 1950s, and we want to make it as accurate as possible.”

“Zombie Prom” consists of a cast of 22 various characters, including sophomore Eric Stockholm who plays Eddie Flagrante, a character who adds an unexpected twist to the plot of “Zombie Prom”.

“I was very excited (for ‘Zombie Prom’) because I

love singing and acting and to be cast my sophomore year I felt honored,” Stockholm said. “I have been preparing for ‘Zombie Prom’ by listening to the original cast recording to learn what the original Eddie sounded like and kind of base my character off that. I have also used ‘Mad Men,’ which is a show that takes place in the 60s. I use it because, even though it takes place in a different time, the styles of life are still somewhat the same. ‘Zombie Prom’ is just a fun play because it’s so funny, and it’s a good escape from reality.”

“I play Toffee and she’s kind of the usual 50s good girl. I love playing her because it’s fun to just be over the top in a kind of weird way,” sophomore Laura Ellsworth said.

The difference between “Zombie Prom” and other plays that the school has put on is that it is very overthe-top and fun, according to Cassidy.

Ellsworth said, “I think students will like Zombie Prom because it’s catchy, funny and wordy and just kind of in-your-face. I definitely think students should come because people have worked really hard on it and just to support fellow students. I’m looking forward to opening night because I want to see what people think of it because it’ll be something different.”

Stockholm said he also agrees that people should come out to see the show, and that he will be trying to get people to come see “Zombie Prom,” not just for a manageable ticket price, but also because he believes it is a great play that people will like.

Cassidy said, “I decided to do ‘Zombie Prom’ because I wanted to do a comedy and thought it would be a fun play that everyone would enjoy, especially teenagers. I think students will enjoy it a lot more since it’s geared towards teens. I think it’s hilarious, because it’s all very cheesy, but it’s fun. Plus, the music is really enjoyable.”

‘Zombie’ Fast Facts: When?

Feb. 9 to Feb. 11.

What time?

The play starts at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 and 10.

On Feb. 11, it shows at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m.

Where?

The Dale E. Graham Auditorium.

Where are tickets sold?

Tickets are sold at the school bookstore or at ccs.tix.com. A ticket costs $10 per person.

MIKAELA GEORGE / PHOTO

DEADLY DANCE MOVES: Laura Ellsworth, or Toffee in “Zombie Prom” and sophomore, freshman Kristen Barnes and senior Lauren “Lo” Odom rehearse after school on Jan. 4. Ellsworth said she enjoys her character, because she can be “over-the-top.”

What’s it about?

The play is a romantic comedy that takes place in the 1950s. A young Toffee, the good girl, falls for Jonny, the bad boy. Jonny jumps into a nuclear power plant and then becomes a zombie.

MAGGIE CASSIDY / SOURCE LIANE YUE / GRAPHIC

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | ENTERTAINMENT | PAGE 23

Follow the fashion laws

With new fashion seasons for 2012 right around the corner, students figure out innovative ways to work trends into wardrobes I make, I make for others. My style has a big variety to it, so my closet has to reflect that. No matter what I’m wearing, I always try to look presentable, because you never know who you may meet.”

Senior Jessica Scherb, Fashion and Textiles student who has As the dawn of 2012 breaks, new fashion trends emerge taken Fashion and Textiles class as an elective every semester as well. And with fashion constantly evolving, all serious since her first day of school, could make her way over to the fashionistas, like Scherb, are on the lookout for new trends Fashion and Textiles classroom blindfolded and backwards. and ideas. All that hard work means that Scherb has her Scherb has even spent time outside of class with her teacher finger on the pulse of the fashion industry.

Judy Fisher, who she said she considers a close friend. Now in Fisher, who has been teaching Fashion and Textiles here her eighth semester of designing, cutting and sewing fabric for 16 years, said that as fashion choices change among high together, she is practically an expert on all things fashion. school students, the projects the students choose to design “I’ve made pretty much everything except a plain shirtchange as well. from vests to dresses to shorts,” Scherb said. “A lot of the pieces “The first project we make in Fashion (and Textiles) 1 is always a pair of pajama pants with an elastic waistband. However from there on out, students can design and make whatever they choose to. I think it really allows the kids to express their own style and make things they’ll actually want to wear, rather than what I tell them they have to make. I see students designing and creating everything from their own prom dresses to winter coats to jeggings,” Fisher said.

“What I’m noticing now, style-wise, that is popular among our high school students is definitely boots-- all kinds of boots. Whether they’re Uggs or ankle boots or little scrunched boots, all tucked in to either skinny jeans or leggings,” Fisher said. “We’re also starting to see lots of blocks of brighter colors on pieces, even more so this year than last year.”

Anita Hawkins, assistant apparel manager for the clothing store Anthropologie, weighed in on what fashion trends to be on the lookout for this coming year as well.

“The start of a new year is always exciting because we can start looking forward to new collections from designers and we can also start predicting trends,” Hawkins said. “Spring is actually really the time that we start to see lots of new concepts that will influence the rest of the year. I think for the tops we’ll be seeing lots of feminine, loose, fine-gage or lacy knits in neutral colors.”

Hawkins, whose job duties include merchandising the floor with new products as well as day-to-day business operations, said the best way to get a feel for new fashion trends is by watching designers’ runway shows and browsing retailers’ websites. She said she also foresees wide-legged, cropped pants, shirtdresses and bold prints as being popular during this coming year.

While Hawkins has already broken into the fashion business with her career, Scherb is also interested in pursuing a career in fashion, JULIE XU / PHOTOS but with slightly higher expectations. Scherb’s ‘INDUSTRIOUS’ FASHION: Jessica Scherb, Fashion and main goal? To become famous. She said she Textiles 8 student and senior, sews a dress in class on Jan. 5. believes fashion class here has helped her learn After looking at her design, she modeled her dress. the basics, and she plans to major in apparel

BY LINDSEY WALKER lwalker@hilite.org

JULIE XU / PHOTO

STITCHED UP: Jessica Scherb, Fashion and Textiles 8 student and senior, sews a dress in class on Jan. 5. She has taken the class for four years. design and minor in interior design when she attends college this fall.

“Back in eighth grade I did the walk-through of electives with my dad and was introduced to the fashion program then.

Since day one, I’ve been intrigued by designing, building and creating stuff,” Scherb said.

Despite all of the fashion changes that both Fisher and Hawkins predict are ahead for 2012, Hawkins said she believes that some trends from prior years will continue to prevail this year.

“Maxi dresses and longer skirts have become popular in recent years, and I don’t see that going away anytime soon.

A classic pair of well-fitting jeans is always in style as well.”

Hawkins said. “Styles are always going to be changing but the most important thing is not so much what someone wears, but how they wear it. If you have confidence, I think you can pull off any look.”

Styles are always going to be changing, but the most important thing is not so much what someone wears, but how they wear it. If you have confidence, I think you can pull off any look.

Anita Hawkins

Assistant apparel manager for Anthropologie

PAGE 24 | SPORTS | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

SPORTS Another Shot

Did you know?

SUBMITSPORTS@HILITE.ORG | TWITTER.COM/GMN_SPORTS

The winter sports teams account for 41 of Carmel High School’s 115 athletic State Championships.

Want to stay up-to-date with all of the sports at CHS? For live tweets from CHS sporting events, follow @GMN_Sports on Twitter.

After a regular season that did not meet expectations, the women’s basketball team has a chance to ‘start over’ as postseason approaches

BY JACOB VAHLE jvahle@hilite.org

W

ith the Sectional tournament only days away, the seniors on the women’s basketball team are putting the struggles of the regular season behind them and focusing on bringing their best in the Sectional. Led by senior guards Blaire Langlois and Abby Dean, the team is looking to make a run in the postseason.

“We lost some very tough games in the season, more than we had hoped. But our goal isn’t to finish with a great record,” Dean said.

“Once the tournament starts, the regular season has no bearing whatsoever. The goal now is Sectionals.”

The team is coming off of a year when it made it to the Semistate where it lost an overtime game against Southport.

This year, the team struggled early in the season due to injuries but is now hoping to make a run in the tournament.

Though the regular season did not turn out how the team had wished, Head Coach Scott Bowen said he is optimistic about the postseason if the team Scott Bowen just plays the type of Head Coach basketball it is capable of.

“We’ve been talking all year; we want to head into the postseason and have a chance to win our Sectional,” Bowen said. “If we can improve our rebounding and defensive intensity and continue to take care of the ball, we will put ourselves in position to knock off one of these teams that are deemed the favorites.”

Two players who will be key in determining the

If we can improve our rebounding and defensive intensity and continue to take care of the ball, we will put ourselves in position to knock off one of these teams that are deemed the favorites.

Greyhound’s postseason fate are Langlois and Dean. Both girls are standout players and are considered some of the best in the state. Langlois, a player on the All-Star team last year and a Butler commit, is one of the leading candidates for Miss Basketball, an award given by The Indianapolis Star to the best player in Indiana each year. The award is based on the votes of coaches and athletic directors across the state. Langlois hopes to gain enough attention to come away with the award at the end of the season.

“It’s a huge honor to be Miss Basketball,” Langlois said.

“Hopefully I’ve been playing well enough and hard enough that coaches around the state believe that I deserve the title.”

On the court, both Langlois and Dean have made quite an impact. Langlois scored her 1000th career point in January and remains one of the best in Indiana. Bowen said he views her as a scoring machine who is a great teammate and a hard MARY BROOKE JOHNSON / PHOTO worker. Dean continues to impress on the court, working HARD DRIVE: Abby Dean, guard and forward and senior, drives to the hard in practice and scoring basket in a game earlier in the year against Avon. Dean said the team is points when it counts. It is looking forward to the postseason because after a tough regular season, not beyond question for her they get the chance to “start over.” to attend the top 40 All-Star workout. But it is off the court that Dean, Langlois and the other seniors on the team impress Bowen. needs to as well,” Dean said.

“Our seniors have done a great job of leading. These Encouragement, leadership and a commitment to girls, you couldn’t ask for a better group of senior ladies excellence in practice and games from the seniors on to have the younger girls look up to as we go about the the women’s basketball team drive the entire team to season,” Bowen said. play with greater intensity. As the team gears up for Dean echoed Bowen’s comments, stating that the the Sectional, the seniors are confident that their hard senior ladies best attribute was the example they were work will pay off. to the younger players.

“Sectionals is no doubt going to be very tough,” Dean “I think me, Blaire and all the other seniors bring said. “But our team believes in each other, and we know a lot of positive energy to the team. We all work very how close we were to beating some of these teams. I hard in practice to show that everyone else on the team definitely believe we can win the Sectional.”

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | SPORTS | PAGE 25

Wrestling team looks forward to another postseason opportunity

BY ANDREW WANG awang@hilite.org Head Coach John Kopnisky said he is looking forward to the Sectional tournament, which will be held tomorrow at Zionsville. It is the first qualifier for the individual and team state tournament. The tournament begins at 9:30 a.m.

The team has been Sectional Champions 18 times since 1976, so it is no stranger to success in the postseason.

Sophomore wrestler Drew Deaton, who was in the 195-pound weight class as of Jan. 5, said he was also looking forward to the Sectional tournament.

“We have a lot of talent right now, but the team is still young,” Deaton said. “I think that once we get some more experience, then we will be very good.”

For the past two years, the team has finished second in the Sectional, and Deaton said it hopes to improve on those finishes this year. Although their record is worse this year, the team believes it has a good chance to be successful in the postseason this year.

In order to be successful in the postseason though, every wrestler on the team must make his targeted weight class so that he has the best chance of winning his match.

Although there are 14 weight classes at this school for wrestlers to compete in, many of the athletes try to cut weight to reach a target weight class.

Kopnisky said he believes wrestlers should begin trying to cut weight sometime during the offseason before competition begins.

“Having a proper diet, cutting out junk foods and sodas, staying in shape and eating a balanced meal every time you eat will help a wrestler reduce unnecessary fat,” Kopnisky said via email.

Winter Sports Scoreboard Men’s Basketball Record: 11-2 Upcoming: Tomorrow at Ben Davis (7:30 p.m.)

Women’s Basketball Record: 8-9 Upcoming: Tonight at home against Ben Davis (7:30 p.m.)

KATHLEEN BERTSCH / PHOTO

MAKENZIE CURTIS / PHOTO

MAKE A MOVE: Sophomore Eli Carlson makes a move on a teammate during practice. The team is gearing up for the Sectional, which starts tomorrow.

Because of the work wrestlers put in to cut weight during the offseason and even throughout the season, they are likely to switch weight classes during the season.

“Right now there are two other people in my weight class, but people switch weight classes a lot,” Deaton said.

According to Kopnisky, the wrestling team has been pretty Weight Watchers successful so far this year, but still have important goals CHSwrestlers wrestlers 14 different Take athey look CHS fall fall into into 14 different weight weight classes. classes.

Here’s to accomplish, one of which aat look the most least popularones. ones. theatmost andand least popular includes winning the Sectional Championship this year..

113 “One goal we are working towards is to win the Sectional championship,” Kopnisky said.

According to Deaton, although wrestlers have been trying to cut weight since 145 the offseason, they have also worked hard during the season to accomplish their goals, one of which is winning the Sectional Championship.

“We are working very hard,” 220 Deaton said. “I think the season has been going pretty well so far, and hopefully we can learn more and get more experience MELINDA SONG AND SHEEN ZHENG / GRAPHIC throughout the year.”

MELINDA SONG AND SHEEN ZHENG / GRAPHIC

Weight Watchers

Re

Members of the women’s basketball team huddle around Head Coach Scott Bowen as he gives instructions during a game.

Men’s Swimming and Diving Record: 9-0 Upcoming: Tuesday at home against Ben Davis (6 p.m.)

Women’s Swimming and Diving Record: 9-0 Upcoming: Thursday at home Sectional Prelims (5:30 p.m.)

Wrestling Record: 14-9 Upcoming: Tomorrow at Zionsville Sectional (9:30 a.m.) *All records are accurate as of press deadline on Jan. 24

Scan this QR Code for game previews, up-to-date scores and game recaps from all the winter sports action

PAGE 26 | SPORTS | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

Their Second Season Due to the high demands of high school athletics, multi-sport athletes find the transition difficult MATT WEHNER mwehner@hilite.org

S

enior Shawn Heffern has participated in high levels of competition, playing both basketball and football ever since he was a young boy. As he got older, Heffern faced tougher competition, longer practices and higher expectations of him from coaches. However, Heffern has yet to drop one sport for the other, shifting between the gridiron and court each season.

But that transition from season to season is not always easy.

Despite being conditioned for football, Heffern said he still is “out of basketball shape.” Each sport has unique movements and rhythm, creating a barrier for transferring athletes.

“It’s definitely tough coming into basketball season,” Heffern said.

Heffern played football this fall on the State Championship team with little time to prepare for the basketball season. With the quick turnaround he said he worked carefully to get into basketball shape.

“The transition took about two weeks,” Heffern said.

“The transition was as much of a physical aspect as a mental (one).”

Sophomore Amy Malone, who plays basketball and soccer, has the same problem as Heffern. She has played basketball and soccer all of her life and said she agrees that the transition is tough. However, Malone said she sees a large upside to being a two-sport athlete. Malone said she feels that playing two sports allows her to not get burned out so quickly.

“By playing one sport you want to play the other,” Malone said. “When you come back you feel fresh.”

Men’s basketball Head Coach Scott Heady said he works with football Head Coach Kevin Wright on practice schedules to limit the conflicts between seasons. This collaboration is ideal, for athletes, but it can be uncommon. The date of the football State Championship in late November, for example, ran into basketball season, making Heffern’s transition harder. But with Heady and Wright’s collaboration, it only took two weeks before he was playing basketball.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE Heady said, “We work with guys on

AIM HIGH: Sophomore Amy Malone, who plays soccer and basketball, shoots a three point basket during practice. Malone said that the skills she learns in basketball cross over to soccer, and vice-versa.

MARY BROOKE JOHNSON / PHOTO

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | SPORTS | PAGE 27 an individual basis and try not to put the athlete in the middle and make him choose.”

Different sports have different strategies and skills, and coaches and players who make those transitions said they have found that when players first come back, they have a rough time getting back in the swing of playing the new sport.

“You have to reteach yourself,” Malone said. “I try to do soccer moves during basketball practice, like, sometimes I’ll even kick it when it’s on the ground.”

Junior John Kenny, who plays lacrosse, hockey and football, said he agrees with Malone that the first few practices of a new season can be challenging.

Kenny said, “It’s tough to get back into it because you miss the preseason workouts. But once you get the hang of (the new sport) it’s all good.”

Coach Heady and Wright said they have also found that the players manage to come back on their own, and pushing them into the sport too early will only stress them out.

“You don’t want to rush them. (You) make sure they are ready to play and get them into condition.

The base conditioning should take about two weeks,” Heady said.

While some coaches do not prefer two-sport CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

I believe that the more areas of athletics (an athlete) participates in, the greater versatility the athlete has in all sports.

Football Head Coach Kevin Wright CONNER GORDON / PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

athletes because the second sport takes personal attention from “main” coaches, at Carmel, coaches such as Heady said they welcome multiple-sport athletes.

“I absolutely welcome (two-sport athletes). They come in with a winning attitude and confidence,” Heady said.

According to Heffern, there is no punishment for missing practice because of other sports. Despite the transition time, the coaches agreed that playing multiple sports can be beneficial.

Kenny added that the coaches are happy to have him back once the season’s over. However, Malone said her travel soccer coach would force her to make up practices she misses because of basketball.

Despite the challenges playing two sports brings, the three athletes all said they believe it is worth continuing.

“Physically, (playing multiple sports) allows your body to work on different muscles,” Heffern said, “mentally it prevents athletes from getting burnt out of a sport.”

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BOBBY

BROWNING

Sports reporter / bbrowning@hilite.org

Victory in defeat. Love him or hate him, Tebow is good news for sports and we could all learn a little from him Tim Tebow, quarterback for the Denver Broncos, is quickly becoming a household name throughout the country. Whether it is his unorthodox throwing motion, his devout Christian faith or anything between the two, he has grabbed the attention of a nation in need of something positive to look toward.

Tebow represents the positives that are still left in sports.

While the sports world is full of scandals and violations, Tebow continues to prove to us that there is a reason why so many kids look up to athletes as role models. While many criticize him for not being a “traditional” quarterback, you will be hard pressed to find another athlete like him.

As prominent ESPN columnist Rick Reilly tweeted, “Tim Tebow walks the walk.”

Reilly wrote this because he was once one of many critics of Tebow. To attempt to prove his point, he hired a lip reader to try to catch Tebow saying something that Reilly would be able to use against him. The worst thing Tebow said all game? “Let’s go!”

Good luck finding another athlete like that.

Tebow reminds us why sports are so captivating to our nation and to the world. This season, the Green Bay Packers started the season 13-0, yet every time that I turned on ESPN, the analysts were talking about one thing: Tebow.

I was never a fan of Tebow when he played at the University of Florida, but for some reason I could never resist watching him play. His attitude toward the game

of football is unlike anything I have ever seen. In the Broncos game against the Chicago Bears, one of Denver’s receivers, Demaryius Thomas, dropped an open pass in the end zone. While most quarterbacks would stomp away furiously, Tebow went over to Thomas, sat down next to him, and said, “You’re going to go out and catch the game-winner.”

Sure enough, led by Tebow throwing a touchdown pass to Thomas, the Broncos came back and won the game.

Good luck finding another athlete like that.

It seems like every day when I wake up, turn on “SportsCenter” and hear about another professional athlete getting arrested or suspended. However, when I wake up on a Monday morning, I can always count on one thing: Analysts will be talking about Tim Tebow, but not for getting suspended.

The worst thing that I’ve heard about Tebow is that “he is too expressive about his religion (Christianity).” Think about it, can you name another athlete where the worst thing you can say about their character is that they are too religious? I sure can’t.

Whether we like to admit it or not, the sports world is spiraling downhill. Colleges are being caught in sex scandals and cheating in recruiting. Athletes are being arrested for driving under the influence and being caught with unlicensed hand guns. Are these the people we want to aspire to be? No. If you had to list the characteristics of a role model, what would they be? Mine would be as follows: leadership, perseverance, humility and compassion. Let’s see, what athlete comes to mind when you hear those qualities? Tim Tebow. Hate him or love him, Tebow is becoming much more than just a football player. He has become the solid rock that we are able to hold onto as everything else in sports seems to fall apart.

With all of the negative events happening in sports right now, we are all looking for something positive to latch onto. Tim Tebow represents the positive things that can still be found in sports. Some people hate him, some people love him. Either way, when I walk into school on a Monday after the Broncos have played on Sunday, I hear people talking about the same thing: Tebow.

I was never a fan of Tebow when he played at UF, but for some reason I could never resist watching him play

PAGE 28 | PERSPECTIVES | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

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Speak Up!

STAFF PERSPECTIVE

As some colleges drop the need for SATs and ACTs, benefits for students increase As students from across the country prepare to take the SAT this Saturday, some colleges are reconsidering its traditional level of importance in the application process. In fact, a few universities, local and national alike, no longer require applicants to submit or take the SATs or ACTs with their application.

Recently, Indiana State University in Terre Haute became the first college in Indiana to do away with the traditional standardized test requirement. ISU follows in the path of prominent schools like Wake Forest University, the first prestigious college to stop making test scores a requirement for potential students. In fact, according to an article from the New York Times, Wake Forest and other schools have adopted admissions programs that eliminate or reduce the emphasis on students’ standardized test scores.

For years tests like the SAT have been the main factor in decisions that colleges and universities across the country make about their potential students, but it’s a good idea to challenge the norm. More colleges should follow in ISU and Wake Forest’s footsteps and consider decreasing the value placed on SAT or ACT scores.

It is often used as one of the only accurate ways to compare very different students to each other. Grading scales differ across schools, and this was seen as the one measurement that was equivalent for every student taking the test.

Making it optional for students to take the SAT has many benefits. Some students are simply bad test takers, and no matter how much they study or how many diligent notes they take, they are bound to receive a low score on tests. And it is inevitable that stress accompanies the college admission process. As standardized tests are often the first step in the college process, this increases stress levels in test takers. While the student may have a high GPA and be a dream applicant for many universities, stress relating to college may cause lower scores on the tests.

Additionally, the negative aspects of the SAT and similar standardized tests seem to outweigh, or at least challenge, the benefits of the tests. It does cost money to take the tests, which is a limited resource to some.

Because it is possible to “super score,” or take the highest scores received in the SAT section, as your final score; this gives an unfair advantage to students that are able to take the test multiple times.

Some future college students simply cannot afford to take the SAT on multiple occasions, especially with the growing cost of a further education. While it should reflect and judge the academic ability of the test taker, monetary funds often determine the chances students have to raise their scores.

Not all standardized tests are useless; some serve their purpose quite well. AP and IB exams should be taken, even with their cost. Because students work hard in high school, they should be able to receive the college credit hours they have earned. This is a fair trade-off for students. In February 2010, Indiana’s House of Representatives passed House Bill 1135, which makes it necessary for all public colleges to give students credit hours for scores of 3 or higher received on AP tests. This is required unless the class is required for that student’s major.

Because of credit received from AP testing, it is not unheard of for college to be cut down by a semester, as some mandatory classes are cut out of the schedule. Ultimately, this saves students money.

Tests the state regulates, like the ISTEP+, a requirement for all students until they reach sophomore year, also serve a purpose. This test allows for the state to see what school districts or students are falling behind in school. As it is made clear which students need extra help or have problems grasping concepts that should be possible for them to achieve, they can be helped.

At this school, standardized tests are considered beneficial. However, the administration cannot disregard the importance of these tests. To say that students should stop taking the SAT would be irresponsible, as it is still a necessary step to reserve a spot in most universities. It is the responsibility of CHS and high schools across the country, and recently the world, to provide education to students and to make an outstanding standardized test score a possibility.

To more accurately judge the potential of each student during the admissions process, colleges should follow in Wake Forest University and ISU’s footsteps and make standardized tests optional. The value on one test is not a fair representation of complete academic potential, and therefore it should be of less importance.

Colleges should realize that there are better ways to admit students, and the focus should be on the grades and extracurricular activities in students’ control.

COMPILED BY OMEED MALEKMARZBAN

How important do you think SAT and ACT scores are in reflecting college readiness?

The scores help students understand better what types of colleges they should aim for.

FRESHMAN TAYLOR ASH

OUR STAND: Standardized tests do serve a purpose.

However, making SAT and ACT scores optional offers many benefits.

Things like critical reading and math are good evaluators of how qualified a student is to attend a specific college.

SOPHOMORE ANDREW TANG

Someone could easily be misrepresented by a poor test score.

SENIOR ALEX KATSAROPOULOS

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | PERSPECTIVES | PAGE 29

YAMEEN

HAMEED

managing editor / yhameed@hilite.org

Too school for cool “As president, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion. And I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.”

Republican candidate Rick Perry made this statement in his campaign video “Strong” (now beating Rebecca Black’s “Friday” as the most disliked video on YouTube). If you have working knowledge of the Constitution, you should understand why this is alarming to hear from a candidate with over 10 percent of the Iowa Caucus votes.

For over 200 years, the United States has kept freedom of religion a constitutional guarantee, through the First Amendment’s statement that the government may declare no law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet current Republican candidates continue to advocate a government with more laws based on Christianity while simultaneously claiming their own religious freedom is waning.

Let’s make one point clear: Christians are not being actively persecuted for their beliefs. Republican candidate Newt Gingrich rhetorically asked if the Catholic Church should be forced to close its adoption services in Massachussets for not accepting gay couples in order to show an example of

There is no “war on religion.” For a nation to remain religiously tolerant, secularization is necessary. the Obama administration’s “secular bigotry.” In actuality, the government would only be cutting its funding to such services, expressing a want for equality of gay and straight couples. This is not necessarily an opposition to religion, but a separation of religion from law, indicating the need for tolerance to take precedence.

Similarly, Perry cited the Obama administration’s lack of support for the Defense of Marriage Act as evidence of the “War on Religion.” The act is a federal prohibition of samesex marriage. While many Christians may interpret the Bible as restricting marriage to an act between a man and a woman, it’s a book to be followed by its adherents. If others choose to believe otherwise, it should be tolerated under the First Amendment.

Current policies do not constitute bigotry. Secularization is ultimately meant for a level of tolerance in order to allow people of multiple belief systems to live peacefully within one nation. For America to threaten religious liberties, it would need to go further. In April last year, France banned the wearing of face veils, a practice some Muslim women find key to their religion in order to express modesty. An action along those lines does not promote national equality

and instead targets a single group of people.

To remain fair to all citizens, the government should approach religion with neutrality, promoting tolerance through its actions. Yet Republican candidate Rick Santorum stated in November, “Our civil laws have to comport with a higher law: God’s law.” By mixing together church and state, Santorum would directly violate the Constitution itself.

I have enough faith in America to remain confident that Santorum (or any of the aforementioned candidates) will never become president. But if he were to, the nation’s conversion to a theocracy would be a travesty. Aside from the fact that the inalienable rights of citizens would be trampled upon, examples illustrate how detrimental religion’s inclusion in politics can be. Sharia law, governing much of the Middle East, is the Islamic law which has led to the backwards thinking with which we associate the region. Islam, like Christianity, is not inherently bad. Under the American law, both are to be regarded as equally valid personal belief systems. However, to allow Christianity to dominate politics would bring us down a similarly unjust path socially. The nation has every reason to keep politics separate from religion and should not be chastised for doing so.

ARUNI

RANAWEERA reporter / aranaweera@hilite.org

The best is yet to come There’s no bigger sport in the United States than football, and there’s no bigger day in football than Super Bowl Sunday.

I’ll admit that I’m not much of a football fan most days of the year, but when it comes to the Super Bowl, even I take an interest in the action. To me, the Super Bowl isn’t just about football, it’s about the spirit- the food, the parties, the tailgating, the halftime show, even the commercials- all the elements of the occasion that make it a day worth celebrating. Especially this year with Indianapolis hosting the game, there will be dozens of activities and free concerts that should make the Super Bowl even better. The only problem, however, is Monday.

Yes, Super Bowl Monday, the tragic day after the Super Bowl that makes football fans of all ages think twice before going all-out for the festivities the day before. Year after year, Super Bowl Monday is a damper on the spirit of the Super Bowl; the Grinch of football. In order for the Super Bowl to be fully celebrated, not just for football but for the culture and traditions in represents, Super Bowl Monday needs to become a national holiday and a day off of school and work.

We need a Superbowl Monday. The day after the Super Bowl should be a holiday.

Football is the most popular sport in the United States, and the Super Bowl is the most watched televised event in American with 111 million people watching it last year, according to Time Magazine. That’s over one third of the American population taking an interest in the Super Bowl.

With that many people watching the game, you’d expect there to be parades going down the streets, people giving gifts, decorating their houses, having family togetherness.

But there isnt, and there’s a reason why. Imagine celebrating Christmas with the prospect of having school the next day. Or imagine following Thanksgiving with a nice math test. These holidays wouldn’t be celebrated the same way if there weren’t a day afterwards to recover from the celebrations or spend more time with the family. The Super Bowl is no exception. The Super Bowl is just as important to American culture as any other holiday. All it needs is more time to be celebrated, and it can finally grow to be as big as the culture behind it.

Society has shown frustration against Super Bowl Monday in past years. In 2007, after the Colts won the Super Bowl, over 50 percent of bus drivers in the IPS school area called in sick on Monday. As a result,

school had to be postponed with a 2 hour delay. In 2010, when the Colts went to the Super Bowl again, IPS schools scheduled a 2-hour day in advance to prepare for another round of “sick” bus drivers. There are even multiple Facebook pages in favor of the holiday with multiple thousands of likes in total.

Many other large sports events have sanctioned holidays from work and school. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa, for example, students in the area were given five extra days of vacations to allow more time to celebrate the biggest sport in their country. Even right here in central Indiana, Fishers High School has conveniently placed a “flex day” for Super Bowl Monday. Carmel Clay Schools could easily make the same minor change in their annual schedules. Making Super Bowl Monday a holiday would be a way to promote not only the most popular sport in America, but the culture and tradition that surround it.

The Super Bowl should be a huge event, but every year, the prospect of school or work the next day’s stops a full on celebration of the day. With Super Bowl Monday as a national holiday, the Super Bowl can finally become the event it deserves to be.

PAGE 30 | PERSPECTIVES | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

BEN

ANDERSON reporter / banderson@hilite.org

We got the beat Think about the great music legends of the 1900s: The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Sinatra. Each of these individuals is a great artist, but each had something more. Michael Jackson had his fashion and his dance. The Beatles were hip and rebellious.

And Frank Sinatra was the classical cool guy.

Each of these musicians pushed their art to the next level.

They became the archetypes of their genre. For instance, Michael Jackson was the “King of Pop.” We see hints and influences of these kings and queens of music all across music.

Elvis is a great example. Before he got on the scene, shook his hips and wooed the ladies, popular music was nothing like today. Ladies were called handsome before Elvis came along. It was truly a dark time.

So now you know that music legends expand their art and redefine a genre, and I know what you are going to say. “But Ben, wouldn’t your standards make Britney Spears a great musician?” And here is your answer: no, no they do not. There is another prerequisite that I have yet to mention: you need to have musical talent. If that did not apply, think about what would happen. Rebecca Black could be placed at the same level as Michael Jackson.

Speaking of our current top artists, even in our age of autotune and lip-syncing, we still have some promising artists.

What makes greatness? Do current artists have the “it” factor that could propel them to a legendary status?

Lady Gaga has certainly furthered her art with stunts like her “incubation” before her Born This Way performance at the VMAs (I think it was; I don’t pay attention to award shows).

She has been a big impact on pop culture since her music video for “Bad Romance” came out on to the scene. Her weird fringe style and fashion has certainly made an impact on pop culture and has opened the way for other non-traditional artists to come on to the pop scene.

Adele is an odd exception. She has not really redefined a genre or pushed any kind of borders, but her popularity is rooted in raw, undiluted musical talent. She has an amazing voice and, man, does she know how to use it. However, I think the true power in her songs is her songwriting. The lyrics are very personal yet at the same relatable to a majority of young women. So she has the musically-oriented audience and nonmusically oriented female audience, which really is the bulk of pop culture consumers.

Now let’s break away from the pop divas for something a bit more manly and a bit less mainstream: Nirvana. They are certainly recognizable and are like the flagship of the grunge scene. The problem with Nirvana is that they were a very temporary phase. In the first half of the 90s, they were the new fad, harvesting the seething teenage angst of that time. Their

message will always appeal to any teenage generation, but that is the extent of it. Anyone over a certain age will be immune to them. What happened with Nirvana was a fortunate opportunity; pop culture was in a dark brooding phase after the 80s; think “rage against the establishment.” When the culture came out of its depression, Nirvana’s rebellious image was old news. So then their executives and producers tried to twist their image to make them popular again. This did not go over well with Nirvana, and the flagship crashed and burned, hence the tragic suicide of Kurt Cobain.

Now we get to one of my favorites: Beyonce. She has partially defined the pop scene over the past several years, kind of like Britney Spears did, but Beyonce is, you know, better. She is a great dancer and lyricist. What she brings to the table is her raw feminine power, showing up thickheaded guys who try to bring her down. I also like to think of her as more “real” than other pop divas. She doesn’t take her fame too seriously and doesn’t really flaunt her fame.

Well maybe the “renting an entire floor of a hospital” kinda contradicts this, but I think all women would do this if they had the resources. I mean I would if I was a famous person and my wife was pregnant. I don’t want no paparazzi showing up in the maternity ward.

MONICA

CHENG

managing editor / mcheng@hilite.org

Live life on the edge Justin Bieber’s current success has humble roots, beginning with posting YouTube videos of himself singing R&B songs, in violation of copyright. PIPA and SOPA, in the Senate and House, respectively, are the latest legislative efforts to make posting a video containing any copyrighted work a felony.

Together, according to Fight for the Future, the bills attempt to address online copyright and trademark infringement and, if passed, would result in the imprisonment of violators (like Bieber) for five years. Good thing that in light of recent criticism, as of Jan. 20, Rep. Lamar Smith has shelved SOPA while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed the Jan. 24 vote on PIPA. Given birth in 2011, SOPA and PIPA are relatively new legislations, but the concepts they embody are not unheard of.

Copyright and trademark infringement have been an ongoing problem on the web, and SOPA and PIPA represent the attempt to control online trafficking of copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods by giving the arbitrary power to remove content and block any site on the global Internet for one infringing link. The power to break the Internet is

Power of protest. SOPA and PIPA are dead, for now. And we have ourselves to thank for it. an unprecedented “solution,” which, unsurprisingly, aroused vehement opposition.

According to Fight for the Future, SOPA and PIPA would put ordinary users into jail without trial for posting anything that violated copyright laws, whether it be background music in videos or footages of people dancing. Popular sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook would become liable for all of their users’ posts, so they would be forced to practice censorship or get shut down.

Since Dec. 17, the day Reid made the last-minute push for a vote on PIPA to take place (after this publication’s press deadline) on Jan. 24, opposition has only continued to build with each passing day. According to CNET, nearly 90,000 Tumblr users telephoned Congress to register their disagreement, and another 10,000 did by using Engine Advocacy’s website. More than one million people have signed a petition posted Avaaz.org advocacy group; over 700,000 people chose to “like” Americancensorship. org, an anti-SOPA site through Facebook.

Unprecedented laws inspire unprecedented action. According to Avaaz.org, on Jan. 18, Wikipedia led a blackout protest to give

everyone a taste of what the whole Internet could look like if SOPA and PIPA were to become law. Interestingly, on the same day, federal shutdown of Megaupload prompted “hacktivists” under the group Anonymous to retaliate by breaking the websites of the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America and Warner Music Group. Anonymous operative Barrett Brown said the ultimate purpose was to “damage campaign-raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.” In the past year, from the Arab Spring to the global Occupy Movement, we have seen how the web can galvanize, unify and change society. SOPA and PIPA are just more tests; from them, we can learn to more effectively flex our muscles of protest and prevail against future attacks on our rights and freedoms. The steps are simple: sign petitions, put pressure on congressional members and stay informed. Things could change in a moment’s notice. But if we protest, we can stop it.

Scan this QR code for the story “SOPA and Protect IP threaten to censor internet” online.

JAN. 27, 2012 | HILITE.ORG | HILITE | PERSPECTIVES | PAGE 31

ANDY

YANG AHMAD SHAYAN

You’ve got to risk it to win the biscuit

news editor ayang@hilite.org

reporter sahmad@hilite.org

Pros and cons of a new program. Student-guided education is optimal, but only under the right conditions. appears that all students grasp the concepts, so the teacher, without further scrutiny, moves on. The other problem is one that can be easily expected: the lack of student motivation. The model relies on students to take the initiative to acknowledge where they are weak and seek out help in these areas.

Unfortunately, many students simply would not do so. Many of us fail to take advantage of learning resources when they are not pushed upon us.

The key to addressing these problems in a successful classroom involves greater teacher moderation of the classroom. It is inevitable that some students will attempt to work around the system to avoid putting forth effort. Therefore, TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY it is critical that teachers seek out these types of Focus Lesson “I do it.” behavior to ensure the comprehension of the Guided subject at hand. Especially “We do it.”

Instruction during group work, teachers should monitor the class, coming to the “You do it together.”

Collaborative aid of struggling students.

Furthermore, they should always be on the lookout Independent “You do it alone.” for groups dependent on a single workhorse STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY and break them up when necessary.

ASCD.ORG / SOURCE As for lack of student ADELE ZHOU/GRAPHIC motivation, there are two solutions which must occur in order to dispel the problem. The first will be then finally “you do it together” to “you do it alone.” Ideally, achieved naturally, because the problem will be magnified the students will become self-sufficient in their learning and in early years of the program by the effects of change on actively teach themselves with the teacher as a adviser rather students. As of now, many students haven’t yet adjusted to than leader. developing their learning skills alone. The transition may According to Weekes, the school has begun implementing be rough, but after a full scale implementation of the policy this program by taking advantage of faculty meetings to a shift in culture across the board will counter this previous instruct teachers in proper methods of this model. This ranges lack of experience. from asking teachers to involve students in greater group work This too requires the help of teachers. For students who to discover concepts by teaching one another rather than accept their low grades and fail to make the effort to improve, relying on lectures. teachers must intervene and return to the “we do it together” While we agree with the concept of the theory and think step of the model. This allows students to get the necessary it will function in the best interest of students, there are two help they need, without a retreat back to the lecture model. main issues with the application of this model that teachers Although these dilemmas currently exist, we still see the must address to ensure its success. program as the most effective way to teach. This will better The first deals with the actual interactions between students prepare students, not only for their future education, but also in a realistic group settings. The ideal situation would be a every future endeavor they undertake. As long as the school collaborative effort in which students who understand the proceeds with caution, the program is sure to be a success. concepts could teach them to their peers. In actuality, however, we often see how students who do understand the concept, rather than aiding their fellow students, simply do the entire Check out page 6 to read the news article “Release the workload themselves. This is counter-productive because it Responsibility” about the student-guided program.

Contact information Mailing Address: 520 E. Main St., Carmel, IN 46032 Phone: (317) 846-7721, Ext. 7143 Website: www.hilite.org E-mail: Staff members of the HiLite may be contacted by using their first initial and their last name appending @hilite.org. For example, Laura Peng will receive mail sent to lpeng@hilite.org.

Responding to the HiLite Letters to the editor will be accepted for the Feb. 23 issue no later than Feb. 9. Letters may be submitted to Room C147, placed in the mailbox of Jim Streisel, emailed to letters@hilite.org or mailed to school. All letters must be signed. Names will be published. (Letters sent via email will be taken to a student’s SRT for him to sign.) Letters may not contain personal attacks against an individual and may be edited.

Although the model for a gradual release of responsibility in teaching has existed since 1983, developed by psychologists Pearson and Gallagher, CHS has recently begun to adopt this program. According to assistant principal Brooke Weekes, the school is piloting this program this year and is looking to move forward with it in the next few years.

The Gradual Release of Responsibility model is a teaching method that, as its name suggests, attempts to slowly shift the responsibility of education from the teachers to the students.

For teachers, the idea is to progress from “I do” to “we do” and

Purpose

How the model works:

Credentials

The HiLite is a student publication distributed to students, faculty and staff of Carmel High School, with a press run of 4,500. Copies are distributed to every school in the Carmel Clay district as well as the Chamber of Commerce, city hall and the Carmel Clay Public Library. The paper serves as a public forum and two-way communication for both the school and the community. Opinions expressed in the newspaper are not necessarily those of CHS nor the Carmel Clay system faculty, staff or administration.

The HiLite belongs to the Indiana High School Press Association, Quill & Scroll and the National Scholastic Press Association.

Advertising

Businesses may advertise in the HiLite if their ads adhere to guidelines. The advertising policy is available in Room C147 or at www.hilite.org.

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Adviser Jim Streisel Principal John Williams Superintendent Jeff Swensson

PAGE 32 | 15 MINUTES OF FAME | HILITE | HILITE.ORG | JAN. 27, 2012

15 MINUTES OF FAME 15MINUTES@HILITE.ORG | TWITTER.COM/HILITE_NEWS

Noteworthy Talents Freshman Ari Brown composes his own music.

BY JULIE XU jxu@hilite.org How did you discover your passion for music?

I kind of just figured I liked playing the piano when I was about eight, and then I started lessons. Then I took off from there.

What do you like about writing music and playing the piano?

I just love music in general and the feelings in it. In my writing, I like to figure out the structures of chord and figure out the technical/mathematical part of it, but writing is more for learning. I feel like I learn when I write.

When did you start writing music?

I only occasionally write. It’s usually just for my enjoyment. It goes off and on, so basically when I feel like it.

I first started with simple chord, and one melody and kind of liked it all. I just write classical musical. I’ll usually just write a few lines of a melody, and then I usually don’t finish anything. I just usually write it and then don’t do anything with it. I just usually make a melody up, and I’ve only finished a few. I just write whenever.

Is there an artist or a piece of music that inspires you?

Want More?

I like Andre Watts. He’s probably my favorite classical pianist. I also really enjoy Lang Lang. He actually played the piece I’m working on with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra a month ago.

Scan this QR code to read more and see a video of Brown playing his music.

CONNER GORDON / PHOTO

Performing arts prepare students for further study in music According to Director of Bands Richard Saucedo, the CHS performing arts department offers a wide range of opportunities for those students interested in studying music or performance beyond the high school level.

“All the CHS groups practice and perform at such high levels that it sets up a lot of kids for success if they decide to go on to pursue music at the professional level,” Saucedo said.

Pianist and freshman Ari Brown, who participates in multiple ensembles here, said he agrees. Brown said he wants to minor in some type of piano in college and thinks that CHS prepares students for further study in music well.

“I am satisfied with the music level CHS offers. There’s

always a place for every level of musician. CHS has a lot of opportunities if you choose to get involved,” Brown said.

Saucedo said this school helps musically oriented students by providing a wide range of groups to take part in. According to the 2012-2013 program of studies, CHS currently offers over 15 different ensembles between the band, orchestra, and choral departments.

As for Brown, he said he takes advantage of the diverse groups CHS offers by playing the piano in the jazz band and playing the violin in the concert orchestra. “(Jazz band) is really helping me with chords that I actually have not learned before. Jazz is a completely different genre,

and there are new techniques for me that are also helping me.” Brown said. “I’m also learning more about the orchestra, which can help me with my concerto because I perform it with the orchestra, and I can understand more about the different parts in the concerto.”

As for Saucedo, he said he believes the high level at which the groups perform gives students an advantage in terms of preparation for future careers.

“The kids perform so well, and our conductors are so good.

I’ve heard a lot of college orchestras,” Saucedo said. “When I listen to the Symphony Orchestra play, and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the two.” By Julie Xu