2.20 Issue

Carmel High School newsmagazine

FEATURE

student section

Dance Marathon head Katie Tortorice shares her story

entertainment

Casual luxury brands are increasing in popularity page 18

page 22

page 32

HiLite staff votes on the best and worst in film

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

GREEN VS. GASOLINE

Recent drop in gas prices illuminates struggle between environmental concerns and modern lifestyles

page 26| KYLE WALKER

02

contents

feb 20, 2015

contact information

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

responding to the hilite

Letters to the editor will be accepted for the March 20 issue no later than March 6. 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 must not contain personal attacks against an individual and may be edited.

Purpose

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.

Credentials

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

advertising

Editor in Chief Helena Ma

Cover Story Aaron Shi

Managing Editors Madison Adzema Matt Del Busto Chrishan Fernando Aster Samuel

Feature Michelle Dai Cynthia Wu

Ads Team Ellen Peng Accountant Patrick Shaffer Acumen Lauren Lu Stephanie Zhang 15 Minutes of Fame Sarah Liu Beats/Calendar Natalia Chaudhry Katie Long Brielle Saggese Selena Qian Melissa Yap Alex Yom Jenny Zhao Creative Director Dennis Yang

Front Page Scott Liu Alex Yu Graphics Haley Bracken Jiva Capulong Olivia Jacko Akshar Patel Tiffany Xie GMN Liaison Arsalan Siddiqui News Christine Fernando Laxmi Palde Perspectives Maham Nadeem Sriya Ravi Photography Nivedha Meyyappan Alice Zhu Sports Emma Love Shakeel Zia

Social Media Sreeti Ravi Ally Russell Entertainment John Chen Lianne Yu Student Section Jessica Tao Web Adit Chandra Miles Dai Kevin Fei Aneesh Luthra Willie Zhu Online Directors Jason Klein Rushi Patel Writing Coaches Kyle Walker Miriam Hu Reporters Lucus Cheng Asim Dhungana Daniel Goldberg Matthew Han Nida Khan Jasmine Lam Katie Long Gabby Perelmuter Naomi Reibold

Grant Smith Katie Summitt Angela Sun Kari Truax Shiva Vallabhaneni Sitha Vallabhaneni Sreya Vemuri Gabriella Wang Annika Wolff Angela Wu Sara Yin Cynthia Yue Anni Zhang Grace Zhang Michael Zhao Matthew Zheng Photographers Divya Annamalai Kyle Crawford Miles Dai Mike Johnson Dara Levy Swetha Nakshatri Jaymee Stout Sara Yung Adviser Jim Streisel Principal John Williams Superintendent Nicholas Wahl

cover photo illustration: Scott liu (photo used with permission)

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/ads-info.

7

4|Just a minute A graphic about fracking

6|news News Briefs 7|news Girls Scouts introduce Digital Cookie program 8|news STEM Club to apply for computer science grant to teach IPS students

10|news Carmel City Council recently voted to build a new parking garage, various infrastructure improvements near the city center 11|news Design for CHS will host the Street Store in partnership with Wheeler Mission and Metropolitan Baptist Center

18

12|feature CHS students find alternative ways to treat their chronic pain 16|feature Students and counselors see little value in requesting admission files 18|feature Students participate in trend of buying casual luxury brands

feb 20, 2015

22|student section Katie Tortorice, Dance Marathon head and Riley kid, prepares for Feb. 21 Dance Marathon 24|student section How to celebrate Be Humble Day 25|student section Speak-ups and tweets about Dance Marathon

contents

26|cover story Students attempt to balance the modern lifestyle with concern for the environment 32|entertainment HiLite staff predicts the 2015 Oscars and Razzies winners 34|entertainment CHS percussion ensemble to hold concert Feb. 26

40

35|entertainment Reporter Lucus Cheng previews upcoming Imagine Dragons album 36|entertainment Fans prepare for Comic Con in Indianapolis in March 38|entertainment Q & A with the cast of “The Duff”

39|entertainment Entertainment Briefs

40|sports A preview of the men’s and women’s track and field seasons 42|sports Meet the new members of the men’s swimming team 44|sports Racism seems to be a nonfactor in sports at CHS

46|sports Senior Drew Greene talks about his attempt at making the perfect March Madness bracket

54

48|perspectives Staff Editorial 49|perspectives Social media editor Ally Russell explores the two-year community college plan

03

50|perspectives Reporter Aaron Seals considers recent New England Patriots controversy

53|perspectives Managing editor Aster Samuel comments on vaccine treatment

51|perspectives Student section editor Jessica Tao talks about Be Humble Day

54|15 minutes of fame

52|perspectives Reporter Brielle Saggese discusses recent ISIS execution of an American journalist

VOL. 79, NO. 7

Junior Amy Hanners eats and hulahoops with fire 56|back cover Members of the Dance Marathon executive council learn t he line dance

04

Just a minute

feb 20, 2015

what the frack?

what the frack?

fracking (n.): short for “hydraulic fracturing,” a process in which a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals (fracking fluid) is forced underground at high pressure to crack open shale and release the oil or gas trapped inside.

As the United States increases oil production and gas prices continue to drop, concerns have been raised about its impact on the economy and environment. Here is a quick breakdown of the process of fracking, its causes and its potential effects.

th e bas i c s barrel breakdown what’s in a barrel of oil?

21% asphalt, plastics, pesticides, machinery, styrofoam, fertilizers, cosmetics, clothing, etc.

44% Gasoline

85

million barrels are used daily

Graphic by Alex Yu

35% other fuels

bottoming out the price level of oil over the last year $120.00 $110.00 $100.00

1

$90.00 $80.00

A wellbore is drilled down to the shale layer, which may be over 5,000 feet underground. The bore is lined with steel to minimize groundwater contamination.

Drilling may take up to a month.

GROUNDWATER 3 2

At the shale layer, the drill turns horizontal and continues drilling for about a mile.

A perforating gun uses explosives to puncture holes in the horizontal section of the casing.

shale LAYER

$70.00 $60.00 $48.98

The price index of Crude Oil Brent, a reliable indicator of global oil prices, has dropped over 60% since the summer to hit a low of about $49 per barrel.

March

May

July

September November

January 2015

feb 20, 2015

what the frack?

just a minute

th e ca u s es

th e effects

supply s i de

winners

profit

how changes in supply have affected prices

parties benefitting from the price drop

how fracking may impact the economy

Domestic production has increased continuously for several years. As a result, imports have decreased, and major exporters have been forced to compete in Asian markets.

Old supply

Price

New supply

Demand

Quantity

As supply increases, price decreases and quantity produced increases.

Low-income families for whom fuel represents a large portion of their expenses are disproportionately benefitting from the price drop of oil.

>$2

$750

Fracking has created jobs in several states nationwide. Furthermore, it has contributed to economic growth, lower gas prices, increase in manufacturing, decrease in oil imports and decreased reliance on coal power.

Motorists can go further for less, with gas prices less than half their price half a year ago in some places such as the Midwest of the United States.

U.S. Job Creation due to Fracking, 2010-2012

Households will have lower heating costs: as much as $750 less per year, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.

Fewer than 1,000 1,001 to 10,000 More than 10,000

demand side

L o se r s

pollution

how changes in demand have affected prices

parties suffering from the price drop

how fracking may impact the environment

Several international economies are weakening, reducing demand for oil.

Furthermore, vehicles have become more energy efficient as companies such as Tesla lead the charge for all-electric vehicles.

Price

Supply

Old demand New demand

Quantity

4

As demand decreases, price decreases and quantity produced decreases.

Fracking fluid, comprised of water, sand and chemicals, is forced into the wellbore at high pressures. The fluid seeps through the perforations to crack the shale. The sand holds the cracks open as the chemicals help natural gas seep out.

Major oil-producing countries will take an economic hit from the falling prices. Some of these countries include Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Brazil, Nigeria and Ecuador. Domestically, states including Alaska, North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana will be affected, as well as smaller oil companies.

Toxic chemicals in the fracking fluid can seep up into the bedrock, where they can contaminate underground aquifers and pollute drinking water supply. In addition, air pollution can occur from escaped natural gases.

5

The fluid flows back up the wellbore as natural gas is released and flows up out of the shale through the well.

IEA.GOV, NYTIMES.COM, VOX.COM, HAMILTON PROJECT, PROPUBLICA, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY / SOURCES

05

NEWS

feb 20, 2015

Jenny zhao

News Briefs

NEWS BRIEFS Tomorrow

The tenth CHS Dance Marathon will take place in the freshman cafeteria.

All proceeds go to Riley Children’s Hospital.

First CHS Dance Marathon:

$35,411.49 CHS Dance Marathon 2014:

$324,597.54 CHS Dance Marathon is the largest high school dance marathon in the nation It was first started in memory of CHS student Ashley Louise Crouse in 2005 FITNESS.GOV / SOURCE

I JUST THINK IT’S REALLY, REALLY INCREDIBLE THAT IN A SCHOOL CLOSE TO 5,000 KIDS YOU CAN HAVE SOMETHING WHERE THE WHOLE SCHOOL COMES TOGETHER FOR SOMETHING THAT’S BIGGER THAN THEMSELVES AND BIGGER THAN THEIR SCHOOL. CABINET MEMBER AND SENIOR, MATTHEW “MATT” KLINEMAN

March

40%

The CHS Percussion Concert will take place in the Studio Theatre at 7 p.m. There is no fee to attend.

Feb. 27 The first TechHOUNDS competition of the year will take place at Lawrence North High School.

Feb. 28 CHS Science Olympiad will compete at Butler University.

march 4

The month of March: National Nutrition Month.

90%

Thursday

90 percent of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) Side-by-Side concert will take place at the Hilbert Circle Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free and can be reserved through the box office.

Empty calories from added sugars and solid fats contribute to 40 percent of total daily calories for 2- to 18-year-olds

TAKE A BOW: Sophomore Samuel Bognanno and junior Sydney Hartwick practice for ISO Sideby-Side. Fifteen CHS students will have the opportunity to share the stage with professional ISO musicians.

RILEYKIDS.ORG / SOURCE

March 5 NHS Application Appeal Deadline: All applications must be turned in by 3:30 p.m. to Room E134.

Sarah liu

March 8

March 13

March 14

March 19 to 20

Daylight-saving time begins.

Make sure to set your clocks an hour behind.

This will be the last day of the third grading period.

SAT Testing will take place on this day.

The Model U.N. conference will take place at IUPUI.

FEB 20, 2015

News

07

Laxmi palde

GIRL SCOUTS

TAKING A BYTE Girl scouts introduce digital cookie program

T

HE GIRL SCOUTS OF USA

has recently implemented a new program called the Digital Cookie, allowing members to complete cookie sales online rather than with traditional face-toface sales methods.

According to Ellen Winking, a director of product sales, although some Girl Scouts groups have been implementing this program, the Central Indiana group has chosen to opt out this year.

Kamna Gupta, senior Girl Scout and junior, said the purpose of the program is to make cookie-selling more efficient.

The basis of the program is that Girl Scouts would use digital tools to sell and promote their businesses rather than doing so face-to-face.

Gupta said, “It does take away from the traditional method of Girl Scouts because it gets rid of the third party—the Girl Scout— needing to distribute. In the past, Girl Scouts would have to learn organizational skills to keep cookie orders delivered on time and to the right customer.”

Gupta also said the traditional selling method teaches vital lessons.

Gupta said, “The traditional sales method is effective in transferring entrepreneurship, responsibility and communication skills. The learning process of actually distributing cookies would be lost.”

Swetha Nakshatri Winking, however, said she does not think Digital Cookie takes away from the tradition.

“I think it keeps girls connected to modern-day technology and business models,” she said via email.

Alex Isler, Girl Scouts Juliette member and junior said she would support the program as long as members also sell face-to-face to learn basic communication skills.

“The (Digital Cookie program) will allow a Girl Scout to reach a much wider sales audience and

BYTE-SIZED COOKIES: Junior Troy Li buys cookies from Girl Scout and junior Alex Isler.

With the new Digital Cookie program, most Girl Scout troops are selling cookies online instead of in person.

learn about Internet marketing,” Isler said. “Ultimately it just makes it easier to sell to friends and family that live far away and will overall help sales.”

Additionally, Isler said she does not believe lessons from the traditional method would be lost through Digital Cookie.

“The tradition of Girl Scouts is to teach girls leadership skills and real world skills to build character. The digital program is just modernizing H this tradition,” Isler said.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIE HISTORY First girl scout cookie sale 1910 1910

Commercial bakers start making cookies

1920

1930

Nationwide sales with homemade cookies

Christine fernando

1940

New vanilla, chocolate, shortbread and chocolate mint flavors 1950

1960

Girl Scouts sell calendars due to WWII shortages

GIRLSCOUTS.ORG / SOURCE

1970

Boxes all feature the same Introduce Digital design and the new logo Cookie program 1980

Boxes use aluminum foil to preserve freshness

1990

2000

2010

Release cookie locator smart phone app

08

News

FEB 20, 2015

S r e ya V e m u r i

STEM CLub

CRACKING THE CODE TO STEM STEM club applies for computer science grant

S

ALEX YOM CIENCE,

TECHNOLOGY,

ENGINEERING

plans to apply for a grant in order to create a program that peer mentors students through teaching them computer science, according to Kimaya Raje, STEM Club president and junior.

“Basically, since we’re STEM Club, we want to expand beyond just helping foster the synergy between different fields; we want to help the community, so there are a lot of grants that are related to STEM specifically that help youth,” Raje said. “The grant that we’re applying for is a Honda STEM grant, and we decided to AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) CLUB

COMPUTER SCIENCE HISTORY CHristine fernando

STEM CLUB: (Left to right) Jackie Hu, Kimaya Raje, Katy Voor and Claudia Shelbourne, STEM Club members and juniors, discuss computer science.

Raje said they will use what they learn to organize youth workshops.

First programmable computer 1950

TIMETOAST.COM, TIOBE.COM / SOURCES

go in the route of computer science because it has a lot to do with logic and problem-solving.”

According to Raje, the club plans to do a series of workshops to peer mentor other students through computer science in early March.

“We’re looking at doing a series of workshops, and the reason (for) doing workshops is that it’s a little better than focusing on one school, and the series of workshops could target a community as a whole, and it could have a larger outreach, essentially,” Raje said.

The program will be in partnership with the IUPUI Computer and Information Science Department,

The IBM 650 becomes world’s first mass-produced computer 1960

Niklaus Wirth creates PASCAL, the first programming language 1970

FEB 20, 2015

News

09

STEM CLUB

First Honda STEM grant is awarded

$3.2 mil.

Amount of money the Honda STEM grant has awarded since 1984

115 mil.

Number of people Honda STEM grants have served

$75,000 Maximum funding awarded by the Honda STEM grant

21

Maximum age of applicants

8-10%

Proportion of applicants selected for site evaluations CORPORATEHONDA. COM / SOURCE

which already has some experience in doing outreach programs like this one, according to Raje.

“We’ll probably use the modules that our mentor has already created for her IPS outreach program,” Raje said.

“At the moment we’re thinking of using her ideas and basically focus on adding a new element of peer mentoring to it, which is shown as a very effective way to help learn and digest information. We’re going to learn the material ourselves and try to connect with the kids and help them have experiences in the problem-solving and the skills and all the benefits with computer science.”

According to Katy Voor, STEM Club member and junior, the purpose of this project is to get more people interested in the field of computer science due to its optimistic outlook in the future.

Raje said, “In general, STEM jobs are on the rise and so it’s definitely a very profitable (field). Computer science is one of the fields that is expected to have the largest amount of jobs, but it’s also predicted that there’s not going to be enough college graduates with the skills required to DID YOU KNOW? fulfill those jobs. (We’re) Starting this school trying to get people into it so year, the College that they will have financial Board will introduce security, and skills that are a lab component learned in computer science consisting of at are also very useful in other least 20 hours of disciplines as well.”

In addition, Raje lab experience to the AP Computer said although the STEM Club program focuses Science Exam. on increasing interest in COLLEGEBOARD.COM / computer science in all SOURCE students, there is a focus, in particular, on making girls more aware and interested in the many possible careers associated with computer science.

Raje said, “Obviously, there is a little interest in getting girls into computer science. As a way to relate the entire classroom, we want to help everyone, but then again, it does attest to something that for the most part, most of the STEM club members are girls, and the fact that we’re the ones interested in this and we’re the ones who are teaching computer science to an extent is different and definitely emphasizes that.”

Voor said she agrees with Raje in this respect.

“It’s important to get more girls involved in computer science because the modern world technology is always changing and computer science is going to have huge H growth in the next few years,” Voor said.

Dennis Ritchie develops the programming language C 1980

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is introduced 1990

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND GENDER

AP CS Girls

THE HONDA STEM GRANT 1984

70

0

Year (2006-2013)

=16 people

Only 64 of 440 students who 18.6% took the 2013 of 2013 AP Computer Computer Science Science exam test-takers in the in Indiana United States were female. were female

1.4 mil.

Sun Microsystems introduces Java

The number of computer science related jobs that will be available in 2020.

Times more likely that males will show interest in computer science than females of 2013 AP Computer Science test-takers 81.4% in the United States were male

3

Ellen Peng NCWIT.ORG, TECHBRIDGEGIRLS.ORG, EXPLORINGCS.ORG, EDWEEK.ORG / SOURCES

The College Board will introduce the new AP Computer Science: Principles exam in 2016 2000

10

NEWS

FEB 20, 2015

construction

natalia chaudhry

DOWNTOWN UPGRADE parking garage construction begins

T

Sarah Liu

$20 million

620

Carmel funding for infrastructure

Parking spaces

28,000 square feet

Third Ave. SW

Gradle Drive

W

The Tarkington S

N

Center Green

Park East Garage The Studio Theater

E

The Palladium

City Center Drive

Monon Greenway

Civic Square

Fire Department

Public Parking Lot

Monon Green Boulevard

Civic Square

Gradle Drive

HE CITY OF CARMEL continues construction on a $20 million project that will increase parking around the Center for the Performing Arts.

While the project includes a new four-story parking garage, council member Rick Sharp said other buildings, mainly apartment complexes with retail offices on the lower floors, are also included in this plan. He said this project was proposed a few years ago, but work on it is set to begin this year as it was discussed at a council meeting Dec. 11.

“There’s a half dozen or more buildings that will be built there in addition to the parking structure” Sharp said. “It was initiated a number of years ago as a public private partnership between the city of Carmel and a company called PEDCOR, and they were chosen in kind of like a competition based on the design plan they submitted.”

Sharp said the taxes that the finished project will generate, TIF (tax increment financing), will fund a large amount of the project. Private-sourced funds from PEDCOR will cover the remainder of the expenses. Sharp

Police Department

CARMEL.IN.GOV / SOURCE

REBUILDING DOWNTOWN: Construction takes place in downtown Carmel.

City Council president Rick Sharp said one of the major projects set to begin this year is the four-level parking garage.

Public Parking Lot

Carmel City Center

South Range Line Road

said he does not entirely agree with the project, but understands the goals of the council in approving the project.

“Well they’re not really my goals, in all honesty. They’re the goals of the city administration…and PEDCOR, and their goal is to create a more dense downtown,” Sharp said. “My goal as a member of the council and at that time a member of the redevelopment commission a number of years back…in approving PEDCOR to develop city center was to achieve the grand city spaces that they showed in their original designs for the area, and unfortunately, it’s the reason I didn’t support the bond issue. Those grand civic spaces have gone away in favor of some smaller ones and some wide sidewalks.

To me, it no longer met the design goals that were outlined when they were first awarded the project.”

While Sharp does not completely support the city

Katie Long center development, Abby Amiss, student driver and junior, sees benefits to a new parking garage.

“I’ve driven downtown for the Palladium in the past, and I think parking can be hard to find,” Amiss said. “A new parking garage would make it easier for me to park my car and go around downtown if I wanted. Plus, it might be more convenient for me to park there instead of down the trail.”

Because of construction that will ensue in the tight area, Sharp said traffic patterns might go awry as businesses may also suffer. However, he said the problems would not last for long.

“In the end I would think that the businesses would benefit from the increased population that will be living downtown,” Sharp said.

Amiss said the effects of the construction project would outweigh these negatives in the development process.

Amiss said, “As a student, I don’t think the construction will affect me, but the extra parking space H would definitely help me out.”

FEB 20, 2015

Street store

NEWS

11

Selena qian

START YOUR OWN STREET STORE

STREET STORE SERVICE design for chs plans project

A

TO Vikas Maturi, co-president and junior, Design for CHS will host a Street Store in partnership with Wheeler Mission and the Metro Baptist Center on March 7 from 1 to 5 p.m. This event provides clothes for the homeless in a system more akin to that of a department store than a benefit project.

“Essentially, we call it a dignified shopping experience for the homeless,” Maturi said. “So, instead of the homeless having to go to random places and taking whatever clothes they can find, this provides an actual store experience. We set up racks and tables with all different kinds of clothes, and then we have (about) 30 volunteers there, and they’re all CCORDING

HELPING THE HOMELESS: Vikas Maturi, Design for CHS co-president and junior, talks with sponsor Jan Mitchener.

The club is currently planning a service based project, known internationally as the Street Store.

talking with the homeless and asking them what kind of clothes they would like, if they want to try stuff on.”

To prepare, Design for CHS has started clothing drives around the community and will also work with Key Club to sort the clothes and recruit volunteers. Maturi said students can donate clothes through Key Club or contact either of the two clubs to volunteer.

Vivian Guo, club member and sophomore, said they thought it would be good to bring a branch of the project to Indianapolis.

“We saw the idea and thought it would be a great idea to bring (it) into Indianapolis, where there are also a lot of people who need H help,” Guo said.

How can you start a Street Store of your own to provide the homeless a chance to shop for their own clothes? See below:

Fill out the application form and take the pledge.

This gives you access to open source files to create a Street Store.

Collaborate with an

organization for the homeless and find a suitable location for your Street Store.

Secure the necessary

permissions to use the fence and the public space.

Put up posters the Street Store organization will provide to let people know about the store and ask for donations.

Once clothes are donated, the needy are able to browse through and “shop.”

Laxmi Palde Alice zhu

THESTREETSTORE.ORG/ SOURCE

Feature

feb 20, 2015

grant smith

treating pain

LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES CHS Students Handle Their Chronic Pain, Avoid Overuse of Painkillers

B

ROKEN

SHIN

BONES.

Three torn ligaments. A broken leg. A lacerated spleen. A fall directly on the head.

Sophomore Celia Germann has seen her fair share of injuries.

Participating in gymnastics from the age of three, Germann eventually had to quit because of her injuries.

“I didn’t feel that I had (to quit), but my parents forced me to.

They didn’t want to pay for more hospital bills,” Germann said.

As a result of these injuries, Germann developed chronic pain in the neck and lower back, as well as her knee.

“It doesn’t really go away,” Germann said. “At its worst, on a scale of one to 10, it was a seven or an eight.”

After Germann broke her leg, she was treated by doctors with opioids, or painkillers.

“I was in a cast for six weeks and a brace for another six. At the beginning, (doctors) gave me Oxycontin to deal with the pain, and then a bunch of Tylenol and Ibuprofen,” she said.

Germann’s is not a rare case.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), chronic pain affects an estimated 100 million Americans, and the number of opioid prescriptions in the United States has increased from 76 million in 1991 to 219 million in 2011. A 2015 report by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) warns of an addiction epidemic to Americans from the prevalence of the use of opioids. The NIH report also reveals that chronic pain in the United

ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT: Sophomore Celia Germann performs a leg stretch that helps her deal with her pain.

Germann said she goes to a chiropractor to treat her neck and back pain.

States is not handled well overall, citing mismanagement in the use of painkillers. According to the CDC, 17,000 deaths occurred from opioidrelated overdose in 2011.

While past addiction epidemics affected low-income, inner city

sara yung citizens disproportionately, the outbreak of prescription painkiller abuse is affecting even affluent communities, according to the NIH. In Germann’s case, however, her doctors were careful to avoid any dependency on painkillers.

DID YOU KNOW? Opioid drugs bind to opioid receptors and reduce the sending of pain messages to the brain. An example of one is morphine.

WEBMD.COM / SOURCE

feb 20, 2015

Feature

13

treating pain

“After about three weeks of taking the medication, (the doctors) wouldn’t let me refill my prescription because it was an opioid,” Germann said. “There was always the problem of getting addicted if you take them for too long.”

For some time afterward she stopped taking medication, however, Germann still experienced chronic pain in her neck and back. So, at the advice of her diving coach, she began to make regular visits to a chiropractor.

“The first time I went, it was like night and day,” Germann said.

“I hadn’t really been seeking any kind of that treatment at all but then when I went they fixed up a

whole bunch of things. Even in the first day I could feel a difference; it hurt so much less.”

Athletic trainer Maura Flynn said she has seen many of the CHS athletes she treats utilize alternative treatment such as visiting chiropractors.

“I have lots of kids who go to chiropractors,” Flynn said.

“I think (chiropractors) serve a purpose and they can definitely help them.”

Germann said she much prefers treating her pain with chiropractic care than painkillers.

“With pills, it’s unnatural to be putting all of those chemicals in your body, and it’s easy to get

Between 2007 and 2010, number of hospitalizations for opioid addiction rose four-fold.

TIME.COM / SOURCE

addicted, and there are all sorts of side effects,” Germann said. “With (chiropractic care), it’s simple, it’s easy, it’s natural and time efficient.”

Despite the nationwide trend, at CHS, chronic pain from injuries is not typically treated with heavy doses of painkillers. Flynn does not make use of painkillers in her treatment of CHS athletes, as she is not able to prescribe them herself anyway.

“I have never sent a kid, nor will I ever send a kid, to go get painkillers as a treatment,” Flynn said. “In such a young population, I would rather find out why (the student experiences pain) rather than give them a

Painkillers are helpful to some extent, but they can also be harmful. Here’s the real

TRUTH ABOUT PAINKILLERS THE EFFECTS 80%

increased risk of miscarriage

10 to 30% increased risk of allergic reaction

ALTERNATIVES

THE NUMBERS 25%

In 2012, physicians wrote a total of 259 million prescriptions for painkillers, which in total is enough for every adult in the United States to have a bottle of pills.

60%

The number of Americans filling prescriptions for opioids has declined about 9.2 percent between 2009 and 2013, but both the number of prescriptions and number of days of medication per prescription increased about 8.4 percent.

of 27,000 men receive hearing loss

increased risk of congenital heart failure

WHITE WILLOW BARK Much cheaper and commonly used as an alternative to aspirin.

FRANKINCENSE Commonly used in the treatment of degenerative and inflammatory joint disorders.

matthew han

TURMERIC Not expensive, but is easily comparable with other pharmaceutical, non-steroidal medications in efficacy.

CHILI PEPPER

OMEGA FATTY ACIDS Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are some of the most effective natural anti-inflammatory agents available.

ESSENTIAL OILS

Easily obtainable and very effective. Reduces the pain through various chemicals.

There are many types of essential oils. One of these oils is Roman chamoile, which relaxes and relieves pain.

TIME.COM, TV.GREENMEDINFO.COM, DAILYHEALTHPOST.COM / SOURCES

14

Feature

feb 20, 2015

treating pain

cynthia wu

A LOOK AT PAINKILLERS

NEWHEALTHGUIDE.ORG, WEBMD.COM / SOURCES

Painkillers are drugs that are used for relieving pain. A few common ones include: *potency of drug compared to morphine

aspirin 0.003*

paracetamol 0.008 O O

O

OH

Prescribed for blood clot prevention Used to treat mild to moderate pain, swelling, inflammation or fever

ibuprofen 0.03 OH

O

morphine 1 O

H

N

CII N

N HO

Used to reduce fever and to treat mild to moderate pain, such as headaches, toothaches and backaches

Used to treat knee pain, inflammation, pains from headaches and muscle aches and reduce fever

During the past 15 years, there have been

175,000

deaths due to prescription painkillers.

TIME.COM / SOURCE

Opioid prescriptions have increased

300 percent in the past 10

years.

ELEPHANTJOURNAL. COM / SOURCE

REACHING FOR IMPROVEMENT: Senior Molly Fletchall performs a sit and reach.

Fletchall said she has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and works with a physical therapist to improve her joint strength.

mike johnson

fentanyl 80 to 100

H

OH

N H

medicine that suppresses the pain and might not be taking care of the actually problem.”

Although this process can be difficult, Flynn said she can often find what is causing the pain and treat it accordingly, rather than use painkillers.

“I have had a hard time figuring out what is causing (the pain),” Flynn said. “Sometimes it’s biomechanics.

(The student is) running differently or they’re putting their foot down funny.

If there is a mechanical issue that we can change, like a postural thing or the way that they’re doing something, we try to address that. We are usually successful in find out why they are hurting and taking care of that.”

Flynn said she has never seen a CHS student with an addiction to a pain medication, nor does she see many painkillers regularly prescribed to high school students, although she points out that painkillers do have their purpose.

“Obviously, after surgery they’re going to be in pain,” she said. “If you have an ACL surgery and we have to get you to move your leg and it hurts, pain killers serve a purpose there. But as far as the everyday athlete that is participating in sports, I don’t see a high need for it and I also don’t see a high use of it.”

Flynn makes use of many other forms of treatment for CHS athletes with pain, such as heat and ice.

oxycodone 1.5 O

OH

Used to treat severe pain, intractable pain and shortness of breath

O

O

One of most abused prescription opioids Used to treat moderate to severe pain and post-operative pain

“If they are having a muscle spasm that is causing them pain, we’ll use a hot pack,” Flynn said.

“Sometimes if they hurt after a long practice, we can do ice baths to help them with recovery. That

N

O

O

Used for pain relief during surgical procedures and to treat moderate to severe pain

can help break up lactic acid that can cause soreness and pain. We also do lots of stretches, lots of foam roller activities.”

According to Flynn, this kind of treatment is preferable to use of

feb 20, 2015

15

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treating pain

painkillers for high school students. many (painkillers),” Fletchall said. “I “There is a time for painkillers try, if I’m feeling better, to not take and there is a time not. The majority them just so that I can try not to be of my practice is a time not for so reliant on them. I want to treat (the painkillers,” she said. pain) myself.”

Not all chronic pain arises from Like Germann, Fletchall also injuries, however. At nine months old, undergoes alternative treatment for senior Molly Fletchall was diagnosed her pain, in the form of a physical with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis therapist. With her therapist, Fletchall (JRA). Doctors told her parents there works to improve her joint strength. was only a 50 percent chance she “He knows what my joints can would be able to walk. handle, so he alters condition to “JRA is when your joints get super improve my joint strength so that stiff,” Fletchall said. “In doing little I can be able to do tougher things,” things like holding a pencil or driving, she said. my hands will cramp up and I can’t Fletchall also said, like move them. Or Germann, she prefers sometime when this kind of treatment DID YOU KNOW? I’m walking my to taking painkillers. legs will give out “I think that from the pain.” exercise is the is the annual cost A year-round number one remedy of pain in America tennis player, for (arthritis pain),” PAINMED.ORG / SOURCE Fletchall has Fletchall said. “The to balance her more active I am, the chronic pain with her activity. better I feel and the better my joints “When I’m playing tennis, I just feel. There are those times when I try not to focus on any of the pain,” feel that I am pushing myself too she said. “There will be pain but I try much, but in the long run, it’s just to focus on anything else but the pain going to make me stronger.”

I’m going through. That’s what keeps Germann’s pain is now down to me going.” about a four or a five out of 10, and Along with regular arthritis she has decreased her visits to the medication and blood transfusions chiropractor to only once a month at Riley Children’s Hospital, Fletchall because of improvement. said she has also made some use of She said, “It may not be the painkillers to treat her chronic pain. most scientific of things but it is “When I was little, I was on so certainly effective.”

H

$560 to 635 bil.

Q&A with nurse Rachel Basey grant smith How often do the nurses see chronic pain from students at CHS? Most of the student complaints of pain that I see in the health center are acute complaints.

There are students with chronic pain, but we don’t see that most days.

sara yung

How is the pain treated usually?

In the health center, we have physician orders to administer Tylenol or Ibuprofen. This can be done if there is parental consent, which is given online through the parent’s myCCS. Other pain medication can be administered with a physician order and must be brought to school by a parent in the original prescription bottle. There are occasions where students take opioid pain medication for a short period of time following injury or surgery.

Do you ever recommend or administer any alternative treatments to chronic pain for students?

In the health center, we do not administer any physical therapy or complementary medicine. We do have ice and/or heat packs for students that need them as well as the option to rest when it would help with a student’s pain. If a student needs more than minor management, we recommend that they are evaluated by their primary care physician for further treatment.

Are there often common downsides or side effects of taking pain killers? Have you seen these side effects in any CHS students?

There are not typically side effects that come from taking Tylenol or ibuprofen during the school day. Some students that take prescription pain medication have drowsiness or nausea, but that is not a common problem seen in the health center.

A look at the number of prescribed painkillers per 100 people for 2012 in Indiana in relation to the lowest and highest scoring states.

LOWEST

IN 109

HI 52

AL 143

AVERAGE

HIGHEST TN 143

CA 57

lianne yu CDC.GOV / SOURCE

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FEB 20, 2015

n i v e d h a M e y ya p pa n

ASim Dhungana

FERPA

EXAMINING ARCHIVES Counselors and Students question effect of requesting individual student files

S

ENIOR MICHAELA SZABO

was recently accepted into Stanford University, arguably the most selective school in the nation. She was among the mere 5 percent of applicants to the college that were admitted.

“I was very, very surprised and very, very happy. I actually cried a lot, and I don’t cry very much,” Szabo said. “I didn’t think I would get in at any point in the application process.

I wasn’t even going to apply, but my parents told me I should because I’ve liked Stanford for so long.”

Recently, more students that have been accepted into colleges have been requesting their admission files, including the assessments that admissions officers gave of applicants among other parts of their application. Schools are bound to comply by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects student privacy.

However, this regulation only applies to accepted applicants, so those who are rejected are not obligated to receive information from colleges.

This trend is especially prevalent at highly selective colleges. In fact, the ability to request admission documents was brought to light by the Fountain Hopper, an anonymous newsletter run by Stanford students.

Suzanne Eckes, associate professor at Indiana University’s School of Education, has published numerous academic articles on school law. Especially since the ability to request admission files only applies to accepted students, to whom the privilege is less useful, she said FERPA has distinct limitations.

Eckes said, “It’s an interesting law, and it’s needed to protect documents and educational records, but I think people view it a little more broadly than it is.”

Szabo said she also sees no reason why a student would want to request these files after being accepted.

“I’d rather just go in thinking they just liked me as a whole,” Szabo said.

“It’s kind of just scary, what was going through their minds when they were reading the application, and I don’t really see any advantage to me for doing that.”

If requests for letters of recommendation, which are part of the college application, became common, the integrity of these letters may become diluted in order to not hurt or offend students who happened to see their letters. CHS college counselor Ann Boldt said there are easier ways to deal with issues in the letters.

“I guess the thing that would be

MAMA I MADE IT: Senior Michaela Szabo holds her acceptance letter.

Szabo said she sees no reason why a student would request his or her files after being admitted.

fair for me, of the teacher, would be upfront saying, ‘I don’t think I could write a good letter for you.’ That’s what needs to be done,” Boldt said.

Boldt recommends that students always waive their right to see their letters of recommendation. This allows teachers to be freely honest and

FERPA FACTS Q: What is FERPA?

Q: Why should you comply with it?

Q: What rights do students have?

A: FERPA’s full name is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. It is a provision to protect student record information.

A: FERPA is enforced by the U.S. State Department of Education. Failure to comply could result in the withholding of federal funds like student financial aid.

A: Students can inspect and review their own education records, petition amendments to records and have control over the disclosure of information from their records.

FEB 20, 2015

17

Feature

FERPA

n i v e d h a M e y ya p pa n give a true evaluation of a student.

Eckes said, being a professor, she often has to make admission decisions for people to get into her school’s graduate program. She said she takes into account whether or not students waive their right.

“When I’m on an admissions committee and someone submits their application into a PhD program, if the student doesn’t waive their right to see the letter of recommendation, I hold that against them,” Eckes said. “I don’t

take those letters as seriously.”

While admission documents may be interesting for students to see, Szabo said she does not think that the increasing number of people requesting their admission records will affect the admission process.

Szabo said, “I think what people are looking for is some sort of formula to try and get in, and there really just isn’t one. Even if you followed exactly what I did, and you lived a life exactly like mine, I still don’t think that would guarantee

HERE TO HELP: CHS college counselor Ann Boldt helps a student with college admissions.

Boldt said that students should waive their right to see teacher recommendation letters.

you admission in the future, because it really depends on what other applicants have done, what their application pool is like and what Stanford wants at that point.”

In general, Szabo said she thinks some people just worry too much about admissions.

She said, “I just think it’s really important that people don’t get caught up in trying to figure out what a university wants from you. You should just do what you like to do.”

H Michelle dai REGISTRAR.UTAH.EDU / SOURCE

Q: Who is covered under FERPA?

Q: What information needs to be secured?

A: Students who are or have gone to a post-secondary institution are covered under FERPA, but applicants who are denied admission or who have never attended are not.

A: Registrar forms, grades and transcripts, student information on a computer screen, student schedules, class assignments, class rosters, electronic or paper documents with the student’ s ID or grades on it.

Michelle Dai

CASUALLY CARLEY: Wearing a Kate Spade top, senior Carley Lanham stands in front of a display in the Kate Spade at the Fashion Mall where she works.

Lanham said she has seen more upperclassmen at CHS wearing affordable luxury pieces.

Feb 20, 2015

AFfordable luxury

Feature

Angela Sun

19

Akshar Patel, matthew zheng

CASUALLY COOL affordable luxury brands increase in popularity at CHS

F

LIKE TIME, is something that is constantly changing and doesn’t stop for anybody; among CHS students, fashion tastes are quite diverse, but there is usually one connective thread. Carley Lanham, employee at Kate Spade and senior, said she has noticed that upperclassmen at CHS have been attracted to more “casual luxury” brands such as Michael Kors and Tory Burch, since a lot more have jobs and a need for better-quality clothes with college on the horizon. According to a New York Times article from Dec. 2, 2014, the world is in a generational shift of luxury consumers because the young people have grown up with technology and access to luxury items, so when they are able to purchase more luxurious clothes, they opt to do so.

“The older and more mature we become, the more evolved our fashion taste is,” Lanham said.

“Especially now since brands like Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs are seemingly more approachable to the younger crowd, those who have the money and necessity for something more substantial than just something from H&M tend to gravitate towards more luxurious brands. Personally, I’ve also seen a shift in trends with this rise in luxury for students as well.”

Even though Lanham was referring primarily to seniors in this shift toward more luxurious brands, Mary Caltrider, fashion forecaster on CHTV and junior, she said has seen a similar trend in her grade as well. According ASHION,

to her, the reason for the rise in popularity of brands like Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors is their increasingly simple yet elegant styles, which are very approachable for CHS students.

“To me, a lot of brands revolving around this preppy and classy trend have been on the rise at school. These ‘casual luxury’ brands like Marc Jacobs really allow someone to be both preppy and stylish,” Caltrider said. “People are gravitating toward better brands now because they are looking at quality over quantity. For example, if you get one good shirt from Michael Kors, it’s better than getting a lot of shirts from someplace cheaper like Forever 21. Also, since people are really getting into thrift shopping here at (CHS), you can still get a luxurious brand at a cheap price, which is always nice and in style.”

The same New York Times article points out that, especially in terms of social media, more luxurious brands such as Burberry are reaching out to their customers via social media, and younger crowds, such as CHS students who use social media, will have a more prominent drive and more pressure to gravitate towards more luxurious brands. The Internet has brought a rise in the popularity of more luxurious brands to CHS students, and it is mainly through the presence of social media.

According to Karen Shumway, fashion and textiles teacher, many sophisticated students who have a tuned fashion sense gravitate towards brands like Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors.

“As a fashion teacher, I do get a lot

SIGNATURE PIECES Kate Spade

Michael Kors

Donna Karan

Tory Burch

Marc Jacobs

BY

M A R C J AC O B S FOR

M A R C B Y M A R C J AC O B S

FAST COMPANY / SOURCE

of freshmen in my classes, and I think throughout the course of the year they get more in tune and connected with what the seniors are wearing and making,” Shumway said. “That to me is a daily inspiration of nicer fashion that the seniors give to the freshmen, and the freshmen have brands to look forward to in the future.”

According to Lanham, a preppy look that is based off lots of layering has been popular at CHS recently, and so is a bohemian chic look. With the rise of layering has come a shift into more substantial and nicer oversized sweaters, which Lanham said provides both comfort and the style of a nicer brand to CHS students.

Caltrider said she thinks that the nicer brands have also become simpler and more comfortable, which can easily be translated into a CHS student’s wardrobe.

Lanham said, “I think that freshman year everything is new and most students don’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes, so they go for cheaper places like Target and Kohl’s, but as we (CHS students) get older and closer to college, we want better quality items like Michael Kors and Kate Spade to last through college. Also, since a lot of the older people have jobs and more disposable incomes, they can focus their money on more luxurious items. Fashion tastes and styles are always changing and to me, everyone is always trying to catch up with the latest trend. The easiest way to do that now while still keeping your own preferences is through H more sophisticated brands.”

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student section

Feb 20, 2015

jasmine lam

Dance Marathon Hype

DANCING FOR THE KIDS WHO CAN’T

DANCING FOR JOY: Senior Katie Tortorice points to the crowd of over 1,000 students participating in 2013 CHS Dance Marathon. That year, students raised $294,206.28 for Riley Children’s Foundation.

Dance Marathon Head Katie Tortorice prepares for tomorrow’s Dance Marathon F OR

KATHERINE

“KATIE”

Dance Marathon Head, Riley Kid and senior, the sole purpose of CHS’s Dance Marathon was not about the money earned but instead, it was about the students’ collaboration in helping Riley’s Children Hospital.

TORTORICE,

Tortorice said her connection with

Riley began when she was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when she was 2 years old. She said her arthritis has deepened her bond with Carmel’s Dance Marathon and Riley’s Children Hospital and has encouraged her to continuously participate in the event every year ever since she was a freshman. In

fact, this year, Tortorice will not only participate in the event, but also she is serving as the chairperson of the Dance Marathon Committee.

“Dance Marathon is the best thing that ever happened to Carmel High School in my opinion. But I’m a Riley kid, and I’ve been a Riley kid since I was two. So recently, I

Feb 20, 2015

student section

Dance Marathon Hype

heejung kim

23

jiva capulong

DANCE MARATHON: WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES Tomorrow will mark CHS’s 10th Dance Marathon. How far have we come and what does funding go towards?

Money Raised

350,000

250,000

Clinical research

150,000

Educating patients and their families

Patient support programs

Providing supplies for faculty researching in Africa

50,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Year had this huge flare where I couldn’t walk and was in this wheelchair,” she said.

“But I think it’s really cool this year; being the (chairperson) of dance marathon, I think it’s really close to home. It was (already) before because I was a Riley kid.

But after not being able to walk, and stuck in a wheelchair with all of that medicine and lying in bed not doing anything, I feel like I have this deeper passion for Riley now.”

Tortorice said her connection with dance marathon was first introduced to dance marathon her freshman year when she was asked to speak in middle school marathons.

She said, “I was introduced to the idea (of dance marathons), and I was like this is so cool. That is the hospital that I go to, and that’s such a fun way to serve and give back.”

Similarly, sponsor Sarah Wolff said she has a connection with Riley and established CHS’s Dance Marathon ten years ago in order to respect her former friend’s memory.

As a result, she said she looks forward to the video at the end of the event and collaborating with students to aid children in need. “(The video) is a tribute to my former student and friend Ashley Crouse, who we began this entire

DID YOU KNOW? The current top fundraisers in CHS are: Junior Ashton Grogg Senior Katie Tortorice Freshman JD (James) Dulin

Infection prevention programs

Sharing faculty findings with people around the world

Buying toys for Magic Castle Cart Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease

SARAH WOLFF/ SOURCE

event for a decade ago after she lost her life in a car accident. It is my way to honor her legacy of dance marathon, as she lived for it, and thank her for what she left behind: Carmel Dance Marathon and thousands of students who go on to be selfless givers because of the lessons learned from it,” Wolff said via email. “I hope we can create more people like her in the world through a love of helping others sparked or fostered through the dance marathon program.”

“Dance Marathon is kids at their best. Giving up their time on a Saturday night when they could be doing something else, coming together to help other kids in need,” she said. “And the most important part about the event is the cause.

The kids of Riley Hospital. That is why we are there, why we stand.”

As chairperson of CHS’s dance marathon, Tortorice and Wolff work with members of Cabinet to plan and host the event that will continue to partake in the same activities from last year, including the line dance. However, they will integrate several new changes into this year’s event because Saturday will mark the tenth anniversary of CHS’s dance marathon.

Wolff said, “We have several new things to celebrate that have not

previously been in our program. A few surprises included as well.”

Despite this, Tortorice said the planning and hosting process for the event is extensive and requires dedication ranging from tasks including contacting restaurants and making new fanny packs to creating new T-shirt designs. As chairperson, she works with Wolff in hosting and supervising the event; however each member in Cabinet is assigned a specific task.

“It’s not about the money, but it’s about putting the effort in and be like, ‘I’m going to try so hard to help the kids at Riley,’” she said.

Senior Kunj Patel, who also plans to attend this year’s Dance Marathon, said he agrees. “(The event) is more than just the money.

Just the whole night and the events leading up to (the event) are just great,” he said.

“It’s just a fun way to serve, and you can work your way to raise the money for dance marathon. I don’t want (students) to just ask their parents for a check because I want them to work for the money, and I want them to fund-raise, and I want them to stand on dance marathon day and say, ‘This is awesome, and this is what I want to do. I’m serving the kids at Riley, and it’s the best of H both worlds,” Tortorice said.

BE HUMBLE DAY FEB. 22: FOR THE KIDS

For another opinion on Be Humble day by Student Section editor Jessica Tao, flip to page 17

This Sunday is Be Humble Day 2015. What is this bizarre special day?

And how can you practice humility at Dance Marathon?

DEFINITIONS:

WHAT IS IT?

hu·mil·i·ty: a modest or low view of one’s own importance

It is reminder for people not to brag about themselves, and listen to other people. Also it is a day to practice selflessness and respect others. On this day everyone is the same. No one is better than anyone else in the world.

hum·ble: not proud; not showing or thinking of yourself as better than other people

HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE BE HUMBLE DAY? Give respect to other’s talents, feelings, and abilities. They are equally as special as you are.

Silently listen, do not just hear, what other people are saying.

No matter what your achievements are, keep your feet on the ground. Keep your pride on a leash as this day calls for selflessness.

On this day, consider yourself a mere speck in the universe and not that the universe seems to move around you.

Educate yourself on humility and try to keep being humble on the top of your mind.

“In the world today, people need to keep their ego in check. With all the bragging, showing off, and putting ourselves above everyone else, the concept of being humble is foreign to most people. This day is a good day for practicing good virtues. It is a day to remember where you came from, and being proud of it.”

-Rachel Hintz

HOW DO YOU TIE IT INTO DANCE MARATHON? Don't think of yourself better than everyone else​. "​ Dance for those who can't" - shows humility by thinking of others, not yourself.

Do it for the children not yourself. Listen to what the people at dance marathon have to say. Listen to stories of the children. deepthi thadasina akshar patel

Do not brag about how much money you have raised for dance marathon. The fundraising should not be a competition.

Check out past CHS HiLite coverage of Dance Marathon!

DAYSOFTHEYEAR.COM / SOURCE

feb 20, 2015

Dance marathon feedback

Student section

angela sun

25

n i v e d h a m e y ya p pa n

STUDENT SPEAK-UPS: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT DANCE MARATHON? Freshman Riya Patel “In terms of Dance Marathon, I’ve heard that the fundraising is all for Riley Children’s Hospital.

I’m excited for it since I am going to be with all of my friends for such a fun event and my goal is to raise $100 for the event in order to get in.”

Sophomore Sean Galligher “I’m really excited about dancing and meeting all these new people, who are all coming together just to have fun for a good cause. Also, since it’s for the kids of Riley Children’s Hospital, having fun is even better since all of the money raised is going towards such a great cause.”

Junior Lily Klootwyk “Dance Marathon is probably my favorite day of the year. It’s really exciting because it supports the children of Riley Hospital, and it’s really special to see 1200 Carmel High School students rising up for such a good cause and getting really into it. It’s cool because everyone is making such a big difference in the lives of these kids.”

Senior Junshen (Bobby) Chen “Dance Marathon is almost an illusion to fund-raise, not (dance). In my 3 years being here at Carmel High School, I hadn’t really found an effective way to fund-raise, but I’ve made more lasting and stronger relationships with my friends and teachers so I’m really excited to have raised enough money. I can finally go to this amazing event that I’ve heard about for so long.”

H

WE ASKED, ‘WHY DO YOU DANCE?’ AND YOU RESPONDED BACK ON TWITTER

Fueling our fears Recent fall in gas prices, though embraced by consumers, has concerned environmentalists who worry American consumption habits may change for the worse.

Kyle Walker Nivedha Meyyappan 2 7

Scott Liu, Aaron Shi

In any given October, as the sweltering summer days cool to crisp autumn and the trees exchange the greens of their foliage for fiery reds, brilliant oranges and regal golds, Elizabeth Baach, copresident of Environmental Action Club and junior, can be found strolling through the woods.

She frequents Cool Creek and Flowing Well

2 8

environment especially in diminishing the priority placed on fuel efficiency.

“With high gasoline prices and efforts for conservation and efficiency, there was—and continues to be, to some extent— quite a bit of development going on with compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, cars, vehicles, trucks and electric cars and electric vehicles,” he said. “There is a big concern now that those vehicles, which are much friendlier to air emissions than standard internal combustion engines of gasoline and diesel, are going to be those research programs and those rollouts (that are) going to be diminished because the price of gasoline is so low.”

Maddie Adkins, co-president of Environmental Action Club and sophomore, said she agrees that currently low gasoline prices will affect American consumption habits, an unfortunate phenomenon in light of their tendency to oscillate.

“As I see it, gas prices fluctuate all the time, and the fact that gas prices are low does not mean that people should start buying gas-guzzling vehicles. It’s really unfortunate that a small fraction of people are thinking that’s a good way to save money if they start,” she said. “What I really see as our dependence on gasoline bothers me so much, and even if oil prices are low right now, they’re going to go back up, and people are going to regret their decisions.”

However, in terms of the gas price discussion, Rupp said, there exists yet much uncertainty as to what the long-term impact will be.

“The United States has quite a bit of effort TIP #1: Turning off your computer going on. There’s a instead of leaving it in sleep mode number of big companies can save 40 watt-hours per day or that are making those about $14 per year. cars, so we’ll have to 50 Ways to Help the Planet / SOURCE watch and see if the sales of those really drops John Rupp, adjunct faculty member at off and the companies are less inclined to Indiana University’s School of Public and think about providing those as an option for Environmental Affairs and senior research people. There are some big policy decisions scientist at the Indiana Geological Survey, that are coming up,” he said. “There will be a said this decrease in the price of gasoline big policy decision in 2017 when the federal can be attributed to an increase in supply level on (tax incentives for electric vehicles) in the United States as well a decrease are possibly embattled with some changes in demand in China, India and Europe. that are happening (in Washington D.C.).

According to him, comparatively cheap There are lots of questions about alternative gasoline has the potential to impact the vehicles in this time of lower gasoline prices.”

Recent falling gas prices (as shown below) have pleased consumers, but what about the environment?

5

DOLLARS PER GALLON

parks, she said, and although she attempts one nature walk every season, her favorite scene is that of fall.

“It’s like an oil painting,” she said. “It really moves you how undisturbed nature is so beautiful.”

As somebody who describes herself as a “passionate environmentalist,” Baach shares in the growing concerns of the scientific community for the planet’s future.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) cited pending environmental catastrophe along with worries about modernized and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals in its Jan. 22 movement of the iconic Doomsday Clock from 11:55 to 11:57 p.m.

Nowhere is the struggle teenagers experience between sustainable living and the typical modern lifestyle more apparent than in gasoline prices, which have dipped in the last part of 2014 and the early months of 2015 to levels unheard of since the recent recession of the 2000s.

While an overwhelming majority of Americans are joyful to purchase gas at under $2 per gallon, there is a segment of the population that worries low prices may not be such a good thing after all, particularly in their environmental implications. According to a Business Insider article “5 Ways A Low Oil Price Affects the Geopolitical Landscape,” low gas prices have a direct effect by increasing consumption, but additionally, they have a secondary impact on policymakers, who are no longer under as much pressure to limit U.S. oil consumption.

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2012

2014

Junior Elizabeth Baach recycles a used item. Baach said she strongly believes recycling is the key to improving the environment.

Pro s

&

Cons

of gas prices on the environment Cheap gas means oil companies are less likely to risk going after oil in remote locations. The most environmentally damaging oil exploration usually occurs in the most expensive areas.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, people drive more when gas is cheaper. Of the $13 million people saved on gas in November and December, $5 million was spent on buying more gas.

Grist, OnEarth / SOURCE

These questions, in a sense, mirror the same ambiguities that exist as to the very future of the environment. The indicators are grim: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Japan Meteorological Agency report 2014 as the warmest year since in the inception of modern recordkeeping in 1880, and according to the Center for Biological Diversity, the current extinction rate is up to 10,000 times the natural one, with the planet permanently losing dozens of species each day.

Adkins said unsustainable practices in the present give her reason to fear for the planet’s future.

“I’m kind of a pessimist because I believe that right now we’re not doing enough, and if we don’t start to do something more and come together and really make it a priority and work together to make it happen, it’s going (to) be really bad,” she said. “I don’t see anything good from continuing our lifestyles the way they are.”

On the other hand, Baach said, a step toward better practices can represent a change in the course of the environment as it stands.

“If we continue with our bad practices of just throwing

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Junior Elizabeth Baach leads Environmental Action Club, of which she is co-president. In the meeting, they discussed ways to further the recycling initiative in various departments.

TIP #2: Recycling just the Sunday paper can save over a half million trees every week. So recycle this one!

50 Ways to Help the Planet / SOURCE

For more information about falling gas prices, flip to Just a Minute on page 4.

away and deforesting and using up all our natural resources, then I don’t think it’s going to be a good (future), but if we move on to a more sustainable way of living, and we find different ways to create energy and reuse what we have, then I think it will turn out to be good,” she said.

According to Rupp, while the current outlook seems bleak, there is reason still to work toward sustainability on an individual basis.

“I would refer you to a text by Paul Sabin, called The Bet. It’s about a bet that was made in 1978 by an environmentalist and an economist at the University of Illinois, and one of them said, ‘You know, we’ve got to stop consuming. We’re not consuming things at a sustainable rate.

We’re overconsuming and we’re overpolluting and we’re overpopulating the

world.’ And the economist rebutted that, ‘Well, (it) doesn’t matter because there’s always an economic driver. If things become more precious, people will become more ingenious and they’ll figure out ways to utilize resources better,’ and that’s kind of what the story behind genetically modified organisms (GMO) is and unconventional oil and gas development, things like that,” he said. “It’s a very tough question; it’s a super tough question. If you think about it on a big scale, it can be a grim prognosis, but there are definitely things that individuals can do if (they) have the resources to act sustainably.”

This is Environmental Action Club’s mission: to promote sustainable living one step at a time, beginning in the very hallways of CHS.

According to Kara House, club sponsor and science teacher, the projects for this year include a recycling program for the school and the maintenance of a garden plot in the community garden.

“The main thing that we are working on right now is the recycling program for the school, which is basically nonexistent.

Our goal in the long term is to flip the whole school to recycling first and trash second. So we’re making up these numbers because we don’t have the actual amounts, but right now we recycle 10 percent of the stuff that we have here and trash 90 percent.

Our goal is to flip that—recycle 90 percent of our stuff and only throw away about 10 percent,” she said. “The other thing that we’ll do in the spring is work on the garden plot in the community garden. The high school has a plot that the former Sustainable Living Club took care of, and now it’ll be the Environmental Action Club. That’s just a good experience to see what it’s like to grow your own food, and the students get to eat that stuff throughout the summer after they take care of their garden and everything.”

While she feels most connected to the environment through her initiative works, Baach said, sustainability is an aspect of her life she carries with her everywhere both at school and home.

“I’m definitely a big recycler at my house and at school,” she said. “I love to reuse things; if I have something that could be trash, I try to reuse it or turn it into something else, kind of like upcycling. At our house, we always try to find different ways to keep energy use down. We use light-emitting diode (LED) lights, compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), and we have very good insulation so that we don’t lose energy that we’re using.”

According to Rupp, while there are steps people can take to help the environment— moving toward a greater level of technology in food production with GMOs and herbicides and pesticides, saving water through most efficient appliances, turning off the lights and keeping the thermostat down, to name a few—the greatest obstacle to sustainable living is the sheer magnitude of the human population.

“There are 8 billion people on the planet, and more than 5 or 6 billion of them are essentially impoverished, and many hundreds of millions of them are

moving up into higher levels of affluence,” “It’s a great feeling to know you did he said. “They’re consuming resources your part, so when you see these stories at rates that are not sustainable, so if we about gas prices or emissions or climate move a billion or two of those people up change, (you know) you’ve already done to middle-class standards or to upper-class some of those things to help reduce standards, as we know them in the United that, to help lower your own impact, to States and Western Europe, the resources lower either your carbon footprint or on the planet will all be expended, and the water footprint or just overall ecological effluent from that expenditure will pollute footprint. I think it’s a pretty good feeling all the water, the land and the air.” to know that you’ve done that and to be For high schoolers specifically, House able to talk about it with other people said, a great challenge to sustainable living and pass it on to other people,” she said. is unawareness.

“I think for teenagers, a lot of it TIP #3: Cutting your shower short by is just that you don’t two minutes can save over 10 gallons know. You don’t have of water. A family of four can save those good ideas; 14,600 gallons per year. those are things you don’t think about. I’m 50 Ways to Help the Planet / SOURCE surrounded all day by students that are in AP Environmental Science, so I know I “If you go so far as to eat sustainably and can tell (them) to think about it, but as far things like that, I think health-wise you’ll as kids that never take a class like that, I feel a lot better. Just the idea that you’re think it’s just something that’s not on their generating less trash and composting minds,” she said. “They’re not thinking and reusing maybe the food you don’t about their electricity use; they’re not eat—I think everybody can feel pretty thinking about carbon dioxide emissions good about all sorts of things. every time they drive. I think that the According to Adkins, the epitome of biggest challenge is just being educated her environmental work, her model for about that stuff.” the work society currently needs to do to However, she said, the rewards preserve the planet, is something rather of this lifestyle make it worth any unassuming: growing tomatoes. inconveniences it poses.

“What was cool about the tomatoes is they would start kind of small and grow up the stake we had set up there,” From August to December she said. “I think what was amazing 2014, the fuel economy because we stuck seeds in the ground of U.S. cars has dropped and watered it, we created life, and life is from so persistent, and it will grow anywhere, and it will overcome all these odds. I think just seeing the strength of nature was pretty cool.”

Cooperation, Adkins said, will ultimately be the key to saving the environment. to “It’s going to be a sort of thing where gardening is almost like you’re working as a team with the plants to have them grow in this environment,” she said.

“We’re all going to have to work together the equivalent of 11 to accomplish this goal. While there million metric tons of are individual things that you can do to greenhouse gases. make impact on the environment, it’s when you all come together that is the Discovery News / SOURCE H most important.”

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entertainment

FEB 20, 2015

ellen peng

AND THE WINNER IS...

The Oscars will take place on Sunday to honor notable achievements in cinema.

The Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, will occur Saturday to recognize the worst in film. Here are the best and worst movie nominees for 2015.

RAZZIES: WORST PICTURE NOMINEES Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas Kirk Cameron has to prevent his brother-inlaw from ruining his sister’s Christmas party by teaching him the importance of Christ.

Left Behind A small group of people who is left behind after the vast majority of people in the world vanish must survive in a world thrown into chaos.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The remake of this classic animated show focuses on the four turtle warriors and their attempt to fight an evil New York kingpin.

Transformers 4: Age of Extinction In the fourth movie of the “Transformers” franchise, the Autobots turn to the help of a car mechanic to escape a bounty hunter and save humanity.

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 0%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 21%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 2%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 18%

How are Rotten Tomatoes reviews decided?

Each movie receives a Tomatometer rating that represents the percentage of positive professional critic reviews for the film.

Rotten: Below 59% Fresh: Above 60%

Certified Fresh: Above 75% with five reviews from Top Critics

The Legend of Hercules The mythical Greek hero, Hercules faces trials to restore his place in the an ancient Greek kingdom.

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 3%

ROTTENTOMATOES.COM / SOURCE

HILITE STAFF PREDICTIONS (53 STAFF MEMBERS SURVEYED)

KIRK CAMERON’S SAVING CHRISTMAS (5.7%)

LEFT BEHIND (1.9%)

TRANSFORMERS 4: AGE OF EXTINCTION (18.9%) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (9.3%)

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (64.2%)

RAZZIES & OSCARS

FEB 20, 2015

RAZZIES & OSCARS

Entertainment

lianne yu

33

creative commons

OSCARS: BEST PICTURE NOMINEES Whiplash A teacher who is ruthless in his methods to allow students to realize their potentials mentors a talented, young drummer.

The Imitation Game Mathematician Alan Turing attempts to crack the enigma code with help from others during the pressure of World War II.

American Sniper Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle attempts to transition back into daily life with his family. However, when he returns, he cannot escape his time on the battlefield.

Selma Black rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. leads a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL in 1965.

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 73%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 98%

Birdman A has-been actor fights his former days as a star.

He attempts to patch together his family, career and self.

The Theory of Everything This film captures the relationship between physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife as they go through ups, downs and his ALS.

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 95%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 89%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 92%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 80%

The Grand Budapest Hotel Concierge Gustave H. and his friend Zero, the lobby boy, go on adventures in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka.

Boyhood A boy named Mason grows up from the age of 5 to 18. The film follows the actors as they grow in 12 years of filming.

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 98%

Rotten Tomatoes Review: 92%

HILITE STAFF PREDICTIONS (65 STAFF MEMBERS SURVEYED)

SELMA (4.6%) BIRDMAN (4.6%) BOYHOOD (9.2%) THE IMITATION GAME (12.3%) AMERICAN SNIPER (15.4%)

WHIPLASH (3.1%) THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (32.3%) THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (18.5%)

34

entertainment

FEB 20, 2015

asim dhungana

percussion concert

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE

CHS PERCUSSION to hold annual concert

T

KYLE CRAWFORD

CHS many interesting pieces, including concert will “Afta-stuba!,” played by a marimba take place next Thursday trio on one marimba, “Ballet for at 7 p.m. Featuring percussion Bouncing Balls,” a percussive piece students from all the various band with basketballs, and an arrangement classes, the concert will showcase a of music from “The Legend of variety of musical and percussion Zelda.” Hardy said the song that he is instruments. looking forward to the most is “Eine This will be the second Kleine Nachtmusik,” simply Featured year that sophomore because many people play Instruments: the same part in a loud and Duncan Hardy will perform Marimba in the concert. While he exciting atmosphere. played mainly the marimba CHS percussion director last year, he will also be Jeff Queen organized the playing other instruments concert both this year and this year, such as the last year.

Xylophone xylophone and crotales.

“We tried my first year, Hardy said, “(The and it just logistically didn’t concert last year) went fine. work out. Implementing There were some things students to practice on their Crotales that weren’t as good as own and things like that, it expected because it was our just didn’t really happen as first year doing it. Setting well as I would have liked,” up was really tough. We Queen said. “Last year it weren’t sure what we were went great. Everybody doing, but it was fun.” practiced, everybody lianne yu The concert will feature learned what they needed to HE

ANNUAL

PERCUSSION

DO THE MARIMBA: Freshman Aaron McGhiey plays the marimba. He and other percussionists will play in the annual CHS percussion concert next Thursday.

learn, and it worked out really well.”

Queen made several changes in preparation for this year’s concert.

The concert is being conducted in February, as opposed to last year’s that occurred in May. Additionally, he communicated plans and passed out music earlier to students this year. They received their music two to three weeks into school and have been rehearsing together during their band classes ever since.

Queen said, “Any time you’re shoving a new event into everybody’s already busy schedule, it’s always a challenge, and it really came off really well (this year).”

According to Queen, the purpose of the concert is not only to showcase percussion students, but also to give them more of a challenge outside of band class.

He said, “Percussion ensemble gives the students a chance to dig into some different material. Hopefully, it’ll be a bit more fun and be a little bit more of a challenge than maybe some of the band music would.”

Queen said he hopes people attending the concert will appreciate the percussive elements of the music and will also enjoy the product of the students’ practice.

“It’s just a fun way to hear music in a different light,” Queen said. “It’s very visual, and I think a lot of people understand that. I think that’s the cool part about percussion. It’s pretty upbeat music for the most part, so there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of energy going on, so hopefully people get a little bit excited and uplifted by listening to the music.”

Hardy said he also hopes people will have a great time at the concert and understand percussion more by the end.

Hardy said, “Maybe they will learn something about percussion that they H didn’t know before.”

FEB 20, 2015

IMAGINE DRAGONS ALBUM

entertainment

35

LUCUS CHENG

IT’S TIME (FOR A NEW ALBUM) imagine dragon’s ‘smoke + mirrors’ expected to be tremendous success L AST TUESDAY, Imagine Dragons released its second album titled “Smoke + Mirrors.”

The band also released three preview songs leading up to the album. All three songs brought promises of an album that will retain the original sound of Imagine Dragons, while bringing something new as well.

On Oct. 27, 2014, Imagine Dragons released the lead single of their new album. It was titled “I Bet My Life” and identified as an alternative and rock song. Listening to it, fans of Imagine Dragons will recognize a similar style to the songs from the band’s previous album, “Night Visions.” Since its release, the song has garnered much success, ranking in the top five of the Alternative and Rock Songs Charts. Additionally, the band performed the song live at the American Music Awards.

Next, the band went on a promotional rampage, releasing album art and a list of tracks that would appear on the album.

Following that, Imagine Dragons released “Gold,” one of the final songs that was written for “Smoke + Mirrors.” It harkens to the same style as “Radioactive” from “Night Visions” while still maintaining a new gypsylike style that is unique to this album.

However, it still contains the same folk

genre that Imagine Dragon fans grew been generated around “Smoke + to love in “Night Visions.” Although I Mirrors.” Imagine Dragons sent their am not a fan of the genre of music this fans on a kind of scavenger hunt, song was based off of, I can certainly sending a wide variety of fans one appreciate the smooth, cool of 13 puzzle pieces, each introduction that flows well “(THE ALBUM) APPEALS representing a part of the into very solid verses. new album cover. Once TO BOTH OLD FANS OF The third and final fans combined all 13 parts, preview song the band IMAGINE DRAGONS AND the new album cover was released was “Shots.” This POSSIBLE NEW FANS revealed along with the song strays away from the WHO MIGHT STUMBLE album title. booming sound of “I Bet My Personally, I believe Life” and the mystical sound UPON IT.” that this album will be of “Gold.” Instead, listeners a smashing success. It are treated to a style of music that appeals to both old fans of Imagine brings in flavor from the 1980s, Dragons and potential new fans utilizing a synthetic tone. This song who might stumble upon it. It touts demonstrates the band’s ability to play the classic Imagine Dragons folk music that still keeps a light flavor. and alternative style, in addition While the music in itself is clearly to providing uplifting tracks that uplifting, the lyrics still contain the provide a warm balance to the same Imagine Dragons “darkness,” album as a whole. Also, the amount focusing on personal adversity, much of promotion that the band has like the previous two songs. I have done with “Smoke + Mirrors” is always been a fan of the style of the tremendous, which has given its fans 1980s and “Shots” brings a refreshing much to look forward to. Although pitch to the genre from start to finish. this album may not be as successful With all the advertising that as some of 2014’s biggest albums, it is the band has done, it is not hard sure to win the band many new fans. to imagine how much hype has It seems that Imagine Dragons has not wavered on its desire to achieve more in the music industry. The band has experimented with some new styles of music in addition to their style that has already attracted many music lovers.

Track Listing Regardless of your music taste, 8. It Comes 1. Shots I suggest that you give at least a few Back To You 2. Gold songs from “Smoke + Mirrors” a 9. Dream 3. Smoke + Mirrors listen. There is bound to be something 10.

Summer 4. I’m So Sorry H that you will enjoy.

11. Trouble 5. I Bet My Life 12. Hopeless Opus 6. Polaroid The views in this column do not necessarily 13. The Fall 7. Friction

EAT YOUR HEART OUT

IMAGINEDRAGONSMUSIC.COM / SOURCE

reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Lucus Cheng at lcheng@hilite.org.

36

entertainment

feb 20, 2015

sitha vallabhaneni

comic con

n r o t u f e r t h t e hee h t

con

Indianapolis Comic Con comes back in march, chs students reflect on past experiences F ROM MARCH 13 TO 15,

the second Indiana Comic Con will take place at the Indiana Convention Center. Many comic fans are preparing to go to the Comic Con to cosplay and buy memorabilia, while also seeing the various panels located at the convention.

Last year was the first year that Indiana had its own Comic Con. Lauren Searl, youth cosplay award winner and senior, said that having a Comic Con was good for comic fans in Indiana, but there were also some problems with it.

“Last year, it was amazing because it was the first year. There was a lot of overcrowding problems, but it

was cool,” she said. “(The conference organizers) did not understand how many people were going to show up.

They thought (the convention) was just going to be small, but it was not.

It was kind of bad because they had to turn people away, but they have twice the amount of space this year so it should be good.”

Comic Con was so popular last year that it helped encourage the reopening of the comic book shop “The Foolery.” According to Jana Cosler, comic fan, Comic Club sponsor and teacher, the organizers were not expecting too many people to attend. She said when she went to Comic Con last year, the line to get

BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVER

The Game Cave: 36,000 square feet of board games, card games and more

The Indianapolis Comic Con has expanded its venue to the Indianapolis Convention Center. See the new space here. john chen

2014 Hall

D Hall

E FACEBOOK / SOURCE

2015

Hall

F Hall

G

Find an interview with Lauren Searl, Comic Con attendee and senior, about her hobby of cosplaying online at www.hilite. org/?p=40081

Hall

Hall

Dealer Room: Where fans can buy merchandise

Hall of Fame: Place to get autographs of or photos with celebrities

Cosplay Lounge: Where cosplayers can show off their work

H

I

Hall

J Hall

K

in was wrapped up and down the corridor of the convention center about four times.

“It was neat, but it was overwhelming. There were other conventions going on at the same time as Comic Con, so the space allotted for Comic Con was relatively small compared to the attendance. I think if I heard correctly, they were expecting somewhere around 2,000 people and they had 10,000 or something.”

This year the space for the convention will be triple the size that it was last year, having the ability to hold more panels and events in Comic Con. Some of the panels include meet and greets with various celebrities, including Carrie Fisher, Jenna Coleman, Jason Momoa, Linda Larkin and Paige O’Hara. Searl said she was excited to see the celebrities, especially Carrie Fisher, because they are very interesting this year. Last year, she got the chance to meet actors Jenna Coleman and Evan Peters.

Searl said, “It was amazing. We were kind of stalking (Evan Peters and Jenna Coleman) the whole weekend because they were really wonderful.

We actually bumped into them in the hallway instead of paying to see them in the meet and greet like a lot of people did. I was just fixing my

feb 20, 2015

entertainment

37

comic con

courtney glait / submitted photo

belt that broke, and we ran into Evan Peters and we took pictures with him.

That was really cool.”

Most Comic Con attendees cosplay, which means they dress up as a character in a book, comic, movie or video game. Searl, along with her friends, won the Youth Cosplay Contest for dressing up as the Teen Titans. Searl said they just did it for fun not expecting to win.

She said, “It was really weird because it was our first group cosplay.

I’d only done a few others before that, so we were like, ‘Why not do a contest, we’ve got cool costumes.’ And then we won, which was weird. So we won money, and that was surprising and awesome. Now we take it more seriously because we really enjoy doing it. Hopefully we’ll win again.

This year we are actually doing a steam punk Adventure Time (theme), as well as our Teen Titans costumes

and something from an anime.”

Other than cosplaying, Searl hopes to buy some memorabilia.

Jordan “JD” Arland, superhero comic fan and sophomore, said he plans on doing the same thing this year as he did last year, which is to buy memorabilia such as comics and posters. He hopes that he doesn’t have to wait too long in a line, although he is fine with it.

“I think I had to wait 30 minutes in line to just get one poster. But you know, you meet people in line and you meet people around that share similar interests, so it doesn’t really feel that bad when you’re in the moment,” Arland said. “This year I think I’ll just go with my friends, and support the things like ‘Spiderman’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ and whatever I can get my hands on like posters.”

Cosler said she is going to strategize everything she plans to do

COSPLAYIN’ IT UP: Cosplayer and senior Lauren Searl , cosplaying as Raven from DC comics, poses next to fellow cosplayer and junior Rachel Glait, dressed as Terra from DC Comics, at last year’s Indianapolis Comic Con. Searl said that her experiences there opened her up to new people and opportunities.

during the convention. Searl agreed and advised people to buy tickets in advance, just in case Comic Con becomes too crowded again.

Searl said, “I didn’t read comics my first few conventions I went to, but there really is something for everyone. Even if you’re not that dorky, to just experience that atmosphere of just so many people who are really out there, and people watching, is super fun. They have so much TV stuff and movie stuff.

And just seeing all the costumes, and there normally is a gaming hall so there’s something for everyone really.

Comic Con is a comic convention.

But it’s basically just a bunch of nerdy people getting together and seeing fun nerdy things and doing activities and buying things. The people that you see are just different from anyone you would see off the H street, so it’s really cool.”

an interview with the cast of the movie Find our review of this movie on the HiLite’s movie blog, Reel Talk at www. hilite.org/?p=40087

ABOUT ‘THE DUFF’ AND OUR INTERVIEW

Set in a fictional high school, the movie “The DUFF” revolves around senior Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman) and her struggle with her perception of herself as a “DUFF” (Designated Ugly Fat Friend). The HiLite staff got the chance to interview some of its cast members and find out their thoughts on working in this film.

Mae Whitman

Bella Thorne

Plays Bianca Piper, the movie’s main protagonist

Plays Madison Morgan, the movie’s antagonist

The film is scheduled to be released today.

Robbie Arnell Plays Wesley Rush, Bianca’s friend

What thing did you find that made this movie stand out?

Who inspired you in your portrayal of this character?

How do you feel this movie will connect with audiences?

Well, I will say one thing that I thought was really cool about this movie from the beginning is that she doesn’t change who she is ... And I think that’s what’s really cool because oftentimes it’s like, oh the big makeover, or the (thing). And it’s not, the big reveal here is her being like I don’t need this, I don’t need to feel that way. It’s more illuminating the process of what makes people feel like they need to change rather than actually anybody changing.

And just more about like realizing that people usually try to make other people feel like they don’t fit in because they’re threatened or they’re insecure.

I think Jawbreaker was one of the that I really pulled from, Rose McGowan, am I saying her name right? OK. I loved her, I thought she was not only amazing and beautiful but so interesting to watch. And even though she’s a really evil character, somehow you still like her. We’re not playing ditzy blonde here.

What I think will it make (the movie) transcend generations ... is that these are problems that people will have decades from now. I think that it feels you know like an exaggerated version of most people’s high school life. We just tell it in a funny way.

How do you feel about being casted as high school stereotypes?

I don’t feel like being casted stereotype for a mean girl. That makes me really angry.

I hope that I’m not doing any mean girl roles any time soon. It’s not really what I’m best at.

What does this movie remind you of?

Very John Hughes in “(The) Breakfast Club.” At the beginning, everybody has got their stereotype and then you get to watch them go on this journey, and it’s fun to see what they you know what they turn into at the end of the movie.

feb 20, 2015

entertainment briefs

39

entertainment

john chen

creative commons

Entertainment Briefs the resurgence of divergence “One choice can transform you, or it can destroy you.” When Insurgent hits theaters March 20, viewers won’t be seeing the long-haired Tris (Shailene Woodley) they came to know in 2014’s Divergent. As unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris must continue trying to save those she loves - and herself - while grappling with haunting questions of grief, forgiveness, identity, loyalty, politics and love. Fans were confused by the “mystery box” in the trailer with the factions’ symbols (an element not present in the book).

IMBD / SOURCE

upcoming music M O O E N N E O March 3

“PIECE BY PIECE” KELLY CLARKSON Kelly Clarkson’s first album of original material since 2011’s Stronger, Piece by Piece, comes out March 3.

March 10

Feb. 24

The newest Bluetooth invention is the Om One. It levitates thanks to a magnetic base and spins while blasting music. In the air. It functions as a portable charger, has a microphone to conduct phone activities and has an impressive battery life of 15 hours. The levitation eliminates vibrations of the speaker, creating a cleaner sound.

It will cost $199 and ship pre-orders during February or March.

Lianne yu OMONE.COM / SOURCE

“KID ROCK” FIRST KISS

“FAN OF A FAN: “DARK SKY THE ALBUM” PARADISE” “REBEL HEART” MADONNA CHRIS BROWN BIG SEAN AND TYGA

IBTIMES / SOURCE

“WE WANT TO TELL A STORY THAT IS WORTHY OF OTHER MEDIAS, FILMS, LITERATURE, THAT SORT OF THING. AND THAT WAS OUR STARTING POINT.” MARC TURNDORF, DEVELOPER OF THE GAME “THE ORDER: 1886” GAMESPOT / SOURCE

Sports

feb 20, 2015

kari truax

men’s track and field

TRACKING THEIR PROGRESS chs Men’s track and field team moves outside, prepares for a successful spring season

A

that taste of State in their mouth and they know what work is required to get there and win it,” Browner said.

Although the team is younger this year, James and Browner said they are not worried about the age of the team because they have strong leaders and teammates to teach them. When it comes to motivating the younger teammates, James said you have to prove to them they have a lot of potential.

“Based off of my past experience on the team, I am able to help motivate the younger guys. I know why I am here at track everyday and I help teammates realize their potentials. If you attack everything with the right mindset you can help motivate yourself and your teammates to do better,” James said.

Browner said he is excited for this upcoming season.

“We just need to be tougher. I’ve been telling my guys we just need to be tougher this year. If we do that and keep working hard, we can win State this year.”

H

FTER SPENDING THE WINTER TRAINING

the men’s track and field team moved their practices outside this week, getting themselves one step closer to their first IHSAA meet at the University of Indianapolis on March 6.

Senior Isaac James said he has high hopes for the team this year and is excited for the season.

He said, “We have a lot of potential this season. We don’t have as many seniors as we used to have, but I think we will be good this year because we have specific people that can win their events.”

Despite last year’s loss at State, head coach Kenneth Browner said the team is hungry for the State title this year.

He said the boys know the feeling of second place and now know what it takes to win the whole thing. James agreed with Browner that the team is more aggressive this year.

“We lost some good kids. We had a good senior class, but I think these guys are hungrier because they have had INDOORS,

Pace per mile* Impact on pace

THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON PACE The temperature will continue to rise throughout the men’s and women’s track and field season.

As it warms up, how can runners expect to be impacted?

9:31 min/mi

18 to 20% increase

80° F H

9:06 min/mi

12 to 15% increase

70° F

8:31 min/mi

6 to 7% increase

60° F

8:12 min/mi

2 to 3% increase

50° F

8:00 min/mi

0% increase

32° F

8:07 min/mi

1 to 2% increase

8:17 min/mi

3 to 4% increase

8:26 min/mi

5 to 6% increase

8:41 min/mi

8 to 9% increase

85° F

20° F

10° F

* Example runner at 8:00 min/mi pace

0° F

RUNNER ACADEMY / SOURCE

a l ly r u s s e l l

MIKE JOHNSON SPRINTING AHEAD: Members of the men’s track and field team run through the second-floor E Hallways during winter training. Head Coach Kenneth Browner said the team’s loss at State last year is motivating them this year.

feb 20, 2015

Sports

women’s track and field

kari truax

women’s track and field team works towards stronger team unity

T

HE

GIRL’S

TRACK

AND

has wrapped up their indoor training and are preparing for a strong season.

According to junior Rachel Dixon, the team has worked hard this winter and will continue to this spring.

“A lot of girls have been encouraging others throughout practice, including myself, which helps to motivate the girls who may be struggling that day,” Dixon said.

Head Coach Aaron McRill also said he has high expectations for the team this year.

“Most of all we hope to have a strong team atmosphere this year.

Things always run smoother when you work together as a team. As coaches, we expect that everyone contributes in a positive way. It FIELD TEAM

doesn’t necessarily have to be on the track. One or two people should not carry the weight of the entire team,” McRill said.

According to McRill, team bonding is very important. He said if the girls know each other well it will only bring the team closer.

Dixon said the team is doing a lot more team bonding and that it has helped them become much closer. Both said that by focusing on bonding, they will be able to compete at a higher level.

“The girls are doing a great job motivating each other,” McRill said.

“We think they see the changes that are going on and that they are positive. As long as they work hard, trust in each other, they really can’t H go wrong.”

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD: Junior Rachel Dixon trains inside during the winter season with a smile on her face. Dixon said that she has very high hopes for the team this season, both on and off the track.

MIKE JOHNSON

41

42

sports

feb 20, 2015

shiva vallabhaneni

men’s swimming

a l ly r u s s e l l / p h o t o i l l u s t r at i o n

PULLING THEIR WEIGHT

new additions to the men’s swim team only add to its success S OPHOMORE CHARLES VAUGHAN MOVED

from West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School to CHS this year and joined the CHS swim team. According to Adrian Jarling, men’s swim team captain and senior , there were many new faces and people who joined the men’s swimming team this year. Some of these new swimmers include Vaughan, senior Gabriel “Gabe” Whitaker and senior Nathaniel Bledsoe. Moving from his old school to CHS wasn’t very difficult, Vaughan said. “(When I joined), everyone was just so welcoming.

We got right to work, and it went pretty well. I found my place on the team. I enjoy that everyone’s usually in a good mood ,and everyday everyone is in the same mood. We always just get up and race at one point, which is a lot of fun,” Vaughan said.

Bledsoe said he agrees. Coming from Westfield High School, Bledsoe said he sees the differences between CHS and Westfield. According to Bledsoe, Westfield’s team cohesiveness was very different.

“There are a lot of differences (between Westfield STICKING and Carmel); one of the key differences was the team TOGETHER: The men’s orientation of how much more group focus, team focus swimming there is. At Westfield, it seemed more individual-based, and diving and I remember that there was just me and another team huddles person, and that was our group among other ‘groups’ on together. the (Westfield) swim team, but at Carmel, it is one whole They will host team,” Bledsoe said. tomorrow’s According to Chris Plumb, Head Coach of the men’s Sectional championship. swimming and diving team, the growth in the team also gave many members the opportunity to grow as individuals “ONE OF THE BIG while still helping the team grow.

PHRASES THAT WE “I think it’s important to look at the quality of the individual, rather than USE IS FTT, ‘FOR THE the quantity, and we’ve certainly picked TEAM.’“ up some quality individuals and young SENIOR SWIMMER men who have enhanced our culture and our team, and that is exciting. It’s NATHANIEL BLEDSOE not about doing different stuff; it’s about

feb 20, 2015

sports

43

men’s swimming

PLAYER PROFILE Charles Vaughan, new CHS swimmer and student discusses his swimming career.

Name: Charles Vaughan Grade: 10 Transferred from: West Lafayette High School Events: 200 Meter Individual Medley, 100 Meter Breaststroke Goals for postseason: To do as well as I can individually, but our biggest goal is to win state, without a question.

Biggest difference about swimming for CHS: The amount of work we do and the team atmosphere. Everyone is supporting each other and everyone is so good at what they do.

College Plans: I will definitely try to swim in college. emma love making sure that each athlete’s individual needs are met and that they are going to be the best they can be in the design of helping the team,” Plumb said.

Although Plumb argued that the quality of the individual makes a team better, Jarding said he did not fully agree.

“Having more swimmers is great when it comes to the load of swimming. I can swim and focus on my main events because there are guys coming in with specialties in other events,” Jarding said. “For example, last year I swam the 50-freestyle at Sectionals, and I’m not a 50-freestyler. I can’t sprint.

I’m more of a mid-distance guy, like a 200 or a 500, but since Gabe (Whitaker) came in, he sprints the 50, that’s his main focus, I’m now able to focus on my main event more.”

Like Jarding, Bledsoe also said that having more swimmers allows him to focus on his main event.

However, he still said that in the end, it’s about the team effort.

“Even though there are individual events, it’s about the team effort, because even though there is someone in a individual event, I’m still cheering for them, hoping that they do well,” Bledsoe said. “Even when I do my

individual event, I try to score as highly as I can for the team. One of the big phrases that we use is FTT, or ‘For the Team.’”

In swimming, points from each individual’s performances are added together to get the team score. This team score ultimately decides the result of a meet. This allows room for individual growth, but still makes the team “part of the design,” Plumb said.

With all the new changes this year, Jarding said, “Last year we had a lot of guys who were a lot more vocal in terms of getting guys ready for meets and stuff. Now there is a lot less tension in the air; (the seniors) would build a lot of tension coming in to some of our meets, but this year it’s a lot more relaxed.”

Expanding on the new members, Jarding said, “I think that has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of our seniors have different backgrounds, and we blend well together, and I really like it. In the last past few years, what I’ve heard is tradition, but this year the tradition is changing, and I think it has.”

According to Plumb, taking the athletes he is given and molding them into a team is the best part about being a coach.

Plumb said, “We’re given a team and we do the best we can with it. The thing that I most enjoy is to shape, direct young people’s future and using swimming as a vehicle for that, teaching them what it is to be a team, to have high goals, to have standards. These are powerful tools that they can take into their future.” H

LISTEN UP: Assistant coach Ian Murray instructs the men’s swim team during practice. The team has won the past seven Sectional competitions.

a l ly r u s s e l l

44

sports

feb 20, 2015

matthew del busto

stereotypes

E-RACE-ING STEREOTYPES Racism has minimal impact at Carmel, though stereotypes still remain locally

A

S

JONNATHAN

ROBINSON,

TRACK

THE RACE

AGAINST prepares after school RACISM: for his track practice, he’s in the minority, an Jonnathon African-American playing a sport in a predominantly Robinson, white school. Living in Carmel his whole life, he always senior and has been the minority due to his race. track athlete, According to factfinder.census.gov, in the 2010 takes part in his track census Carmel was 87.1 percent white, and 3.5 percent practice.

African-American.

Robinson said As such, Robinson said there are certain stereotypes sometimes revolving around his athletic performance, such as stereotypes running fast and jumping high. set him up for “It kind of belittles your ability sometimes when failure. someone’s like, ‘Oh, you’re five (feet,) six (inches) but you can touch rim. Well, you’re black,’ and then they’re just kind of like, ‘That just makes total sense, put two and two together,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, ok,’” Robinson said.

However, Robinson said the stereotypes sometimes set him up for failure “because if I know “IT’S NOT A GOOD I’m not going to win a race or something like that, then it’s not FEELING TO KNOW I’M a good feeling to know I’m held HELD UP TO SUCH HIGH up to such high expectations just EXPECTATIONS JUST because I’m black.”

According to history.com, BECAUSE I’M BLACK.” since 1976, every U.S. president JONNATHAN has officially designated the ROBINSON, TRACK month of February as Black History Month. The ongoing ATHLETE AND SENIOR short biographies about impactful African-Americans over the announcements by African-American students here represent CHS’s involvement in Black History Month.

Tyron Dixson, varsity football assistant coach and men’s track and field assistant coach, said there are certain so-called “black positions” in football, such as the positions that are apart of the defensive secondary.

“Those skilled positions are at times kind of deemed, ‘black positions.’ There is still the, at times, the whole concept of ‘can an African-American play quarterback?’ You know things of that nature because that’s supposed to be (a position with) more of a cerebral connotation,” Dixson said.

ATHLETE AND SENIOR,

mike johnson

feb 20, 2015

sports

45

stereotypes

He said, however, the quarterback viewpoint may actually be changing. He cited the NCAA football national championship game between Oregon and Ohio State, in which the starting quarterbacks on each team were Hawaiian and African-American, respectively.

Despite these perceptions, as far as racism is concerned, Robinson said he could never think of a specific race-related incident regarding sports.

Robinson said CHS’s general mindset is that every kind of student and player will be helped as long as he or she is willing to put in the effort, regardless of their race.

But while Robinson said he has not experienced racism in his life, David J. Leonard, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies at Washington State University, said via email racism is still alive in sports.

“I think racism is most prevalent within the power structure and institutions. The focus on locker rooms is a way to misdirect the conversation away from systemic racism, the impact of history, laws and institutional racism, and instead focus on prejudice,” Leonard said. “It is (a) way to turn attention outward rather than put a mirror onto the face of sports and society as a whole.”

Dixson said he has heard coaches from other schools say they will plan man-coverage, a defensive scheme in football, because “it’s easier for” him (the African-American football player in question) instead of trying to learn zone concepts.”

“Well, that leads you to ask questions, is it the player or is it the player’s ethnicity?” Dixson said, clarifying that statements like these are not said at Carmel but by other coaches from other schools.

racism By the numbers 35%

disagree that AfricanAmerican athletes face an uphill battle to be considered equal to their white peers.

43%

disagree that some positions in sports are better suited for AfricanAmerican athletes than whites, or vice versa.

SURVELLUM.COM / SOURCE

total number of people - 80,741 african american White asian native american other

2,757 68,938 7,838 441 757

0.1% 1.4% 3.5%

key: White asian other

9.9%

african american native indian/pacific islander

Carmel Consensus

demographics for carmel in 2010

87.1% FACTFINDER.CENSUS. a t/ tSOURCE hew han m a t t h e w h a n mGOV

FACTFINDER.CENSUS.GOV / SOURCE

“Sports mirror the rest of society and its institutions, so race matters,” Leonard said. “For example, if you look at the number of high school sports teams offered in suburban communities, which are disproportionately white, you often see 20-plus sports. Compare that to urban schools that (are) overwhelming(ly) black and Latino. There might be three or four sports. This impact can be seen on several levels, but, yes, think how this will impact athletic scholarships. Race matters.”

Dixson echoed the fact that exposure to fewer sports has an impact on “your Warren Centrals and your Pikes and the (Lawrence Centrals) of the world” where there is a significantly larger African-American population than Carmel. He said he believes that some racism is still involved, but exposure and opportunities have more of an influence than racism.

Though Robinson’s teammates may be predominantly white, Kenneth Browner, men’s track and field head coach and history teacher, is also African American.

Robinson said, “(It’s like an) unspoken relationship in a sense just like being of the same ethnicity…it’s a good view of a role model too as well like a good coach and he’s always pushing you for your best.”

Dixson, who graduated from Warren Central in 2004, came to CHS in 2010. When Dixson arrived at Carmel, he said that he was the first AfricanAmerican varsity assistant coach that CHS ever had in its football program. “(I try to) be a voice and an ear of relatability. If anybody ever hears me pull up to practice, I’m bumpin’ my Drake or Jay-Z or whoever, and I think that what that does it that creates a level playing field for, you know, one, kids have to be able to trust you to make them play for you and there’s gotta be a respect level there, but there also has to be a level of relatability,” Dixson said.

“I try to be somebody kids can talk to because a lot of people are not on the other side of the coin.”

Robinson said, “Just like the awareness like Black History Month does, like, puts an awareness on the contributions that African-Americans have contributed to America and if more people are aware of that as well as other minorities but as long as other people are aware of that they can just see how everyone’s on the same playing field and how everyone’s contributing to our society.”

Dixson spoke similarly.

“The most important thing about Carmel athletics is winning. I don’t care if you’ve got eight purple people out there. If the purple people are going to get you wins on the board, and do it the right way, (then they’ll play,)” Dixson said. “And so I think that’s a great representation of America, the microcosm that we’re supposed to be this great county where everybody, regardless of ‘fill in the blank’ has an opportunity to do better for themselves and so I see that H embodied here at Carmel, I really do.”

46

sports

feb 20, 2015

kyle crawford

arsalan siddiqui

against the odds

AGAINST THE ODDS Chs students attempt to make perfect brackets despite low odds

A

CCORDING

TO

A

USA

TODAY

ARTICLE

published on March 17, 2014, the odds of making a perfect bracket for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament are one in 9.2 quintillion. The article also says that one has a better chance of winning the Powerball lottery, whose odds are one in 125 million, three times in a row than creating a perfect bracket.

The phenomenon of creating a perfect bracket became publicized last year during the 2014 tournament when Warren Buffett, the world’s second-most richest man according to Forbes. com, announced that he will give a billion dollars to whoever creates a perfect bracket. Despite the fact that the odds of predicting a perfect bracket are incredibly low, some students such as senior Drew Greene still attempt to fill out a perfect bracket.

Some would fill out their brackets by looking at the match ups of each game while others would simply guess or even flip a coin to help fill out their brackets.

Greene, on the other hand, took it one step further by making a formula to help him fill out his bracket.

“I did it because I hadn’t done very well with my brackets for a couple years and I had a lot of time just sitting around from missing school so I figured I’d come up with a better way to try and pick games,” Greene said.

Greene said during the first year of using his formula to pick games, he did really well and ended up around the 98th percentile compared to those DID YOU who filled out their brackets on KNOW? ESPN.com. Greene said statistics such as rebounding and efficiency The lowest seed on offense and defense are used to ever make a in his formula. Greene said these statistics help rank teams on Final Four is 11. offense and defense no matter The most recent what place those teams play at. being Virginia “A better way to (pick games) Commonwealth is just to look at stats of teams and University in 2011. factor them in, specifically when you haven’t watched them play a CBSSPORTS / SOURCE lot,” Greene said.

While his formula helped him in making predictions for the tournament, Greene said he admits that it’s borderline impossible to predict every single game right since there are so many. AP Statistics teacher Matthew Wernke shares the same sentiment.

“There are so many combinations of possible winners among the 65 games and who wins the games is often determined by chance,” Wernke said. “By chance, I’m not saying the winner is determined by a coin flip or die roll. Instead consider taking any two teams that are equally matched. If they play 10 times, the outcome is not going to be the same. Differences in which player is playing well, who’s feeling good, where the game is played, et cetera will all affect the outcome.”

In addition, upsets play a large role in complicating the process of making a perfect bracket. According to Wernke, there are numerous different possibilities in how the bracket can ultimately end up and that there is no guaranteed way to choose when upsets will occur. However, Wernke did say upsets are bound to be predicted correctly due to the fact that so many people are filling out brackets.

“I believe most people like to choose upsets because they seem to occur so often in the tournament and it makes you look knowledgeable to say you ‘predicted’ the upset like you are smarter than everyone else,” Wernke said. “The problem is that if you decide to choose three out of the 20 teams seeded 11 to 15 to win in round one, then that is 1140 different possibilities alone. With so many options it is unlikely to pick all the upsets.”

Although both Greene and Wernke said making a perfect bracket is really difficult, there are steps that one can take to increase his or her chances to create a strong bracket.

“It’s nearly impossible to predict all those games right,” Greene said. “The numbers can tell you a lot H for the tournament.”

BUSTING THE BRACKET: Senior Drew Greene has filled out his March Madness bracket using formulas. Greene said he has ended up around the 98th percentile previously.

GAME OF NUMBERS akshar patel

USATODAY / SOURCE

Creating a bracket for the NCAA March Madness tournament has become a widespread tradition.

Many people, however, are ill-informed about the bracketing process. This infographic seeks to explore the math behind the bracket as you try to improve your chances of winning your bracket challenges.

Roughly 1 in 10 americans fill out a march madness bracket every year.

southwest

west

southeast

The annual selection process of making the bracket.

Committee Selection prepare

east

Rankings are decided by:

NCAA basketball committee members gather information about teams and individual players such as records, rankings and performances.

select

The 34 “at large” bids are chosen. These teams are allowed participation in the tournament through invitations, not right as the other teams are.

seed

Teams are ranked from 1-64 (1 being the “best” team in the nation).

bracket

Members pair teams based on the results from the seeding process and seasonal divisions (East, West, Southwest, Southeast).

9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible bracket outcomes

BILLION

Strength of schedule: the difficulty of a team’s opponent compared to other teams

Ratings percentage index (RPI): the quantity used to rank teams based on overall data such as wins and losses A team’s performances in recent games Other factors such as travel limitations and player injuries Assuming that each team has a 50/50 chance of winning per game, you have a one in 9.2 quintillion chance of choosing a perfect bracket.

there are

$7

Conference and non-conference records

If all the possible brackets were on paper and stacked on top of each other, the stack would reach from the Earth’s surface to the Sun 6000 times!

estimated amount of money Americans wager on brackets during the tournament each year

x6000

Compare this to the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot: one in 125 million.

Strategic Bracketing: How to win your bracket challenge strategy

Choose the No. 1 seed to win their first rounds.

reason

In tournament history no 16th seed has ever made it past the first round.

Use Vegas betting odds to pick the remaining favorites in the first round, but leave the eighth and ninth seeded games blank for now.

Pick the champion before filling in the middle rounds. Pick a mild upset for the champion. (No. 3, 4, 5 or 6 ranked team in the nation).

Finish the rest of the bracket, but steer clear of favorites and be wary of choosing winner based only on seed rankings.

Seeds are a significant factor in the first round, however the eighth and ninth seeded teams have similar odds of winning.

No. 1 seeds only account for only 55% of NCAA champions while a fourth seed or lower rarely wins it all.

Seeding become less significant as the tournament progresses until the elite eight, after which seed hardly effects winning odds.

perspectives

feb 20, 2015

too little, too late

The environment is too far gone for little fixes, but we should still take political action against corporations.

Global Industrial Emissions Since 1751

6

Top 7 Corporate Polluters in the World

7 U.S. Steel

Koch Industries

5 Rio Tinto

4 Dow Chemical

3 General Electric

2 Northrop Grumman

Williams Energy

1,450 gigatonnes

1

30%

25%

2x Pollution level will double by 2030

THAT MEANS OUR ONLY REAL HOPE IS FOR CORPORATIONS TO START CUTTING FOSSIL FUEL USE AND IMPLEMENTING TIGHTER ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES.

pollution of freshwater. However, the study also found that if those companies were to be held financially accountable for these damages, they would lose more than one-third of their profits.

In a world where money is king and politicians can be bought with lobbyists, it seems unlikely that a big business will ever take responsibility and change their ways.

As citizens, though, we can and should still take political action when it comes to putting tougher regulations on a corporation’s ability to wreak havoc on the environment. A Jan. 30, 2014 article by the Indianapolis Business Journal stated the Indiana Senate would soon vote on a bill. If the bill were passed, Indiana legislators would be unable to make state environmental standards more stringent than federal standards. Republican State Rep. David Wolkins tried to justify the bill by saying he didn’t want environmental regulations to curtail Indiana industries. Luckily, in a Feb. 24 update, the Senate denied the bill despite lobbyists from businesses and agriculture speaking in favor of it. However, Wolkins said he wishes to pursue discussion about the bill.

Next time a bill (maybe this particular bill) concerning the environment comes up, take a stand. Call or email your state legislators (Sen. Dan Coats and Joe Donnelly, as well as Rep. Susan Brooks). Make your voice heard.

Finally, vote with your pocket by not supporting corporations that unabashedly pollute and destroy without consequences.

For example, according to Yale Environment 360, Unilever, a food corporation that owns brands like Ben & Jerry’s, is the world’s largest consumer of palm oil. The oil is popular in food and cleaning agents but is hugely unsustainable and causes massive rainforest deforestation. There are numerous other corporations—like Fiji Water, which depletes Fiji’s aquifers at the expense of natives who still struggle with poverty—that profit from environmental destruction. Through well-placed boycotts of unapologetic companies, our actions will mean more for the H environment than turning off the TV ever would.

Amount of world’s natural resources the U.S. uses

W

ITH GAS PRICES BELOW $2 FOR the first time in years, we are less likely to conserve gas and more likely to drive more. However, with increased gas use, there’s an increase in external costs—that is, cost in environmental damage—that is separate from the actual monetary cost of the gasoline. And because of the problem with climate change, we’re meant to keep our external costs down.

You’ve heard all the tips. Take shorter showers. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Unplug your appliances when you’re not using them. Do all these actions save on the energy bill? Absolutely. But if you’re looking to have a positive impact on the environment, they probably won’t make a difference.

According to an Aug. 27, 2014 article by The New Republic, The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report stating that we will soon no longer be able to keep global warming at bay. World leaders have pledged to limit the warming to 3.6 degrees, but that no longer looks plausible with greenhouse gas emissions growing at 2.2 percent each year. According to the IPCC, we would need to cut emissions drastically, by 40 to 70 percent worldwide by 2050, in order not to go over 3.6 degrees.

That means our only real hope is for corporations to start cutting fossil fuel use and implementing tighter environmental policies. The small, do-it-yourself actions we take, like walking rather than driving, can add up, but they will never be able to outweigh big business.

According to an unpublished 2010 study by the United Nations, the combined environmental damage of the world’s 3,000 biggest corporations was worth $2.2 trillion, coming from greenhouse gas emissions, local air pollutants and overuse and

Amount of world’s waste the U.S. produces

STAFF EDITORIAL

staff editorial

DOSOMETHING.ORG / SOURCE

feb 20, 2015

Perspectives

community college

49

a l ly r u s s e l l

community college for a cohesive communtiy

A

Free community college will benefit American people as a whole.

TEAM IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS weakest player.

In other words, a team cannot be great with only a few skilled players; only a team made entirely of talented athletes can be successful. This sports cliché is often overused and even preached, as if it were a verse from the Bible. Despite its overuse, this saying is not applicable only to the athletic world.

Moreover, America can be thought of as a team; a team that strives to be the best in the world, a team that strives to have economic prosperity and a team that endorses equality for all of its members. However, according to The New York Times, only 65.9 percent of 2013’s high school graduating class attended college.

Of CHS’s 2014 graduating class, 8 percent of last year’s graduating class at Carmel enrolled in a two-year college or trade school. This begs the question, what about the other 34.1 percent, the 34.1 percent of our American “team” that didn’t attend college? How are these players contributing to the American “team”? Well, if any sports coach were asked how our “team” could become great once again, they would respond by saying, “train the unskilled players.” Clearly, America is a team that is comprised of only 65.9 percent skilled players. In other words, 65.9 percent of Americans cannot carry our entire “team.” We must focus our attention on the increasingly important minority, the other 34.1 percent of our “team.”

This is exactly what President Barack Obama proposed in his State of the Union address on Jan. 28. In the address, Obama announced his plan to allow high school graduates the option of attending two years of community college free of charge, as long as they have at least a 50 percent attendance rate and maintain a GPA of 2.5. This means the federal government would cover three-fourths of the cost of the students’ education and states that choose to participate in the program would provide the remaining funds. Coach Obama is making an attempt to train his unskilled players and better his team, but first, he has to get Americans to agree to his plan.

Pell Grants, money the government provides for students who need it to pay for college that does not have to be repaid, do exist to allow underprivileged students the opportunity to attend college, but these awards simply do not account for all Americans. For example, many middle class families that do not qualify for these awards, still do not have the money to send their children to college, leaving higher education is simply out of reach. Obama’s program would give every student the opportunity to further his or her education, not just the wealthy or underprivileged

50% attendance rate and maintain 2.5 GPA Requirements to get community college for free

Family income greater than $200,000 Students not eligible for free tuition

2.7%

of dependent community college students have parents who earn $200,000 or more

students. This could even the playing field and allow all members of the American “team” to better their skills.

However, another important question still looms ominously over Americans’ heads and wallets: Where will the government obtain the funds to send millions of students to community college? Most citizens believe the funding will come through an increase in taxes. For some, the thought of tax increases to pay for other people’s children to go to college is horrifying. Carmel is a fortunate community in which 87 percent of graduates last year were able to attend a four-year college. However, this is not the case for all American communities. Obviously an increase in taxes is no reason to celebrate, but Americans and Carmel residents alike must realize that this would not be a burdensome tax to pay for college; rather, it would be a tax to create a better America.

The economic strength of America is entirely dependent upon the education and skills of its workers. In fact, in the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as those requiring no college experience. If Americans vote to proceed with Obama’s community college plan, 9 million young Americans with associate degrees could potentially fill these jobs and subsequently increase the strength of America’s economy and the success of the “team” as a whole.

It is imperative that Americans realize the effects a program like this could have on the nation. Not only will it benefit the millions of students, who will have access to higher education, but also it will allow the cultivation of a more productive, successful and educated American “team.” The vote to put Obama’s plan into action must be seen not as a vote specifically for Democrats, or for a few students, but as a vote for the future H success of the American team.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff.

Reach Ally Russell at arussell@hilite.org.

$60.3 billion Cost of the Obama plan over 10 years SLATE.COM / SOURCE

SICKER THAN YOUR AVERAGE

50

perspectives

FEB 20, 2015

AARON SEALS

IT’S NOT OKAY TO CHEAT

IT’S NOT OKAY TO CHEAT

People who break the rules should face the consequences.

O

N FEB. 1, UNDER THE GAZE OF MILLIONS OF fans nationwide, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were named the Super Bowl Champions, with Brady winning the Super Bowl MVP. However, it’s a result which many at this school dislike.

A friend of mine, junior Kelly Harris, said prior to the Super Bowl, “I don’t want to see the Patriots win, especially after what happened on Jan. 18.”

On Jan. 18, the Indianapolis Colts played the New England Patriots in the American Football Conference (AFC) championship. After Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson nabbed an interception, which would lead to the Colts’ only points of the game, he took the ball to the Colts sideline, intending to “keep it as a souvenir.” When the Colts equipment staff got a hold of the ball, the equipment staff thought the ball felt . . . “weird.” So the equipment staff contacted Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano, who called the guys upstairs who called the NFL, who called the referees and told them to weigh the balls at halftime.

They found that 11 of the 12 balls the Patriots were using as “primary balls” were “deflated significantly.” And because of that, the Patriots suddenly became national news, and not in a good way.

On Jan. 20, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick denied any knowledge of “Deflategate,” as the incident came to be called, and blamed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, essentially throwing him under the bus.

After it was officially confirmed that 11 of the 12 balls were deflated, according to CBSSports.com, everyone started thinking about the repercussions of Deflategate.

A lot of people here at CHS have voiced their opinions.

Some said the Patriots should be fined. Others said the Patriots should be instantly disqualified. Still others said if the Patriots won the Super Bowl (which they did) they should have an asterisk next to their team name. There are still more punishments others said the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell should incur against the Patriots.

Regardless of what the punishment is, there should be one — and it should be significant. After all, there have been multiple instances of cheating by the Patriots, such as “Spygate,” in which they used technology illegally.

The Patriots have been known for their pre-game shenanigans. The punishment should be severe because

DID YOU KNOW?

11

of the 12 Patriots’ balls were found to be under the legal inflation range.

4

number of Super Bowls won by the New England Patriots, 3 with Brady and Belichick on the team.

2007

year the Patriots were accused of taping the New York Jets’ signals.

ESPN.GO.COM / SOURCE

the message the NFL sends resonates beyond the NFL. Here in Carmel, we have a lot of youth playing football, from Carmel Dad’s Club to the middle schools to the CHS football team. And I guarantee you that most, if not all, of those young athletes watched the AFC championship and the Super Bowl. However, after Deflategate, the NFL has preferred to take its time, despite mountains of evidence that the team cheated.

Every second the NFL fails to punish the Patriots strongly is another second the NFL is saying to its young fans, “It’s okay to cheat.”

Even if they decide to punish the Patriots, one must consider the long-term effects that the punishment would have. Think about it: Fining the Patriots will not do anything. Since players in the NFL make so much money, a fine will be just pennies out of the pocketbook.

A loss of draft picks is not severe enough, because that is too light (loss of draft picks vs. a trip to the big game?

Really?). Besides, these punishments don’t do anything to deter young athletes from understanding that it’s not okay to cheat.

Right now, by not punishing the Patriots, the NFL is sending a message to its young fans that you can cheat to your heart’s content and not be punished. If that happens, imagine how many teams would cheat on Friday nights in the next season. The NFL needs to reshape that message into, “It’s not okay to cheat.” Not just to the Patriots, but to all youth, whether here in Carmel or anywhere in the nation.

And by the way, Mr. Goodell, can the Colts player get his H souvenir football back?

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Aaron Seals at aseals@hilite.org.

ACCEPT OR BE DEFEATED

FEB 20, 2015

EMBRACE YOURSELF

perspectives

51

JESSICA TAO

EMBRACE YOURSELF

We should take pride in what makes us unique.

I AM MY OWN UNIQUE PERSON. As a millennial, I have grown up in a generation that embraces self-appreciation. We teenagers and young adults have even been (oh so appropriately) dubbed the “Me Me Me Generation” for our narcissist ways. So why should we celebrate worldwide Be Humble Day on Sunday?

We should not celebrate with humbleness. And more importantly, we really cannot.

According to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center, millennials embrace multiple modes of selfexpression, one of the most popular being social media. Seventy five percent of millennials have created a profile on a social networking site, and the majority of us don’t stop at just one. I have multiple, including Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr exclusively dedicated to myself. Is that narcissistic?

No; in fact, it’s normal. If you aren’t “narcissistic” enough to create online accounts, you are at a disadvantage because you lose opportunities to network and showcase the type of person you are.

This is most applicable to professional social media networks, such as LinkedIn, where it can only help your career to “not-so-humbly” present your achievements.

The same goes for Facebook, the largest social media outlet in the world. Users have access to millions of other people and organizations. Although Facebook profiles are typically not for self-advertisement, the act of creating and personalizing your own website can only help you.

It is important to recognize the myriad of advantages that come with presenting yourself as a unique individual. If you don’t consider yourself unique, then why will companies, teachers or peers see you that way? How else will you set yourself apart? In order to succeed, we must self-advertise an admittedly excessive amount.

We flock to social media not to be humble of our achievements or to downplay important events in our lives, but rather to celebrate ourselves. And that’s okay.

Our generation has the unique opportunity to express ourselves in an endless amount of ways—and there’s nothing wrong with taking that opportunity.

Millennials are on track to becoming the most welleducated generation in American history. Common adjectives people use to describe our generation include confident, self-expressive and open to change. However, our dynamic youthfulness is being

DID YOU KNOW?

89

percent of millennials say a reward should be given for a job well done.

56

percent of millennials say they would not accept jobs from companies that ban social media.

MINDTICKLE.COM / SOURCE

overshadowed by negative connotations, such as narcissism and self-aggrandizement. This trend of dubbing millennials as self-centered rather than unique is dangerous, for it causes young people to have a lower self-esteem.

We shame people for “showing off ” their accomplishments rather than admiring them, and gossip about strangers more often than we defend them. Nowadays, people with high self-esteem tend to come off as snobbish rather than healthy. We should be able to acknowledge our own worth without worrying about seeming too self-centered. To fight this mentality, we must love ourselves before we may love others.

However, with a healthy self-esteem must come some tact. It is not socially acceptable to blatantly declare to the world you are better than others. We should aim to balance our pride with modesty as to not offend others. Nobody likes a jerk who’s only in love with themselves: spread the wealth.

My advice to you for this Be Humble Day is to embrace the special person you are. Don’t undermine the achievements and idiosyncrasies that make you so special: flaunt them instead. It’s your life. Nothing and nobody will ever be worth putting yourself down, and there are definitely worse things in life than being called vain.

So, my fellow millennials, take selfies. Tweet your thoughts. Live for yourself. And have no shame.

Remember, you’re one in seven billion, and you deserve to show it. H The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff.

Reach Jessica Tao at jtao@ hilite.org.

EVERYONE DESERVES THE WORLD

52

perspectives

feb 20, 2015

MAHAM NADEEM

Aster Samuel

Vaccines

A Social Responsibility

I 83 percent of the public says vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) are safe for healthy children.

9 percent of the public thinks such vaccines are not safe.

PEW RESEARCH/ SOURCE

N 2000, measles was eliminated in the United States. However, last year the number of cases skyrocketed, nearly tripling the highest number seen in the preceding 13 years. Outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable illnesses such as mumps have also been on the rise. While illness rates in the United States are still marginally lower than those in other nations, the escalating number of cases is unacceptable, and, in most situations, begins with children.

People choose not to get vaccinated, despite being healthy enough for immunization, because of fears regarding the safety of vaccines. This is not a valid concern. Study after study supports the safety of Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vaccinations. However, many still hold vaccinations responsible for childhood autism, a groundless accusation.

Independent expert reviews have found no good evidence to link vaccines and autism. The study that insinuated vaccines were unsafe was retracted by the academic journal Lancet in 2010 and the researcher who published the study, Andrew Wakefield, was stripped of his medical license in Britain. Not only are vaccines safe, but they are also increasingly effective. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics show that the percent decrease in U.S. cases of deadly diseases range up to one hundred percent and average out in the high nineties.

Central to the issue of vaccination is a misunderstanding of the purpose of a vaccine. As a regular volunteer at the IU Health North hospital, I was give the opportunity to speak

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

Why you need to get vaccinated.

with some of the physicians responsible for delivering vaccines, who all encouraged people to get immunized.

Vaccines are not limited to disease prevention; they are also responsible for stopping the spread of disease. For example, while measles was declared eradicated in 2000, vaccinations are necessary to prevent a resurgence from WHILE WE MUST cases introduced from overseas. Many CONTINUE TO experts believe the recent outbreak in RELY ON HEALTH Disneyland was the product of a single visitor from abroad carrying the disease.

PROFESSIONALS Furthermore, the act of getting a TO EDUCATE vaccine has an impact far beyond the THE GENERAL individual alone. A significant portion of the population’s well-being depends PUBLIC ON THE on “herd immunity.” Herd immunity BENEFITS OF describes a form of resistance to diseases IMMUNIZATION that occurs when the vaccination of a significant portion of the population WE MUST provides a measure of protection for ALSO ACT AS individuals who have not developed INDIVIDUALS immunity. This protection is vital to those with compromised immune systems, like TO ENCOURAGE infants, the elderly and pregnant women THOSE AROUND and those suffering from certain types of US TO GET cancers and autoimmune diseases. Herd VACCINATED. immunity also relies entirely on high levels of vaccinations.

We make dozens of decisions on a daily basis that relate directly to our health such as choosing to wear a seatbelt or deciding not to put on a helmet. These choices affect us individually and directly, and we accept the risks of our own decisions. Deciding whether or not to get immunized is not among these decisions. The decision to get immunized could affect hundreds, possibly thousands of other people.

Choosing to get vaccinated is not a personal choice; it is a social responsibility. Studies have that the incredibly deadly diseases that are on the rise like the measles, mumps and whooping cough are entirely preventable. While we must continue to rely on health professionals to educate the general public on the benefits of immunization, we must also act as individuals to encourage those around us to get vaccinated.

H The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Aster Samuel at asamuel@hilite.org.

Feb 20, 2015

terrorism

perspectives

Brielle Saggese

MAHAM NADEEM

stay strong

Take the fear out of terrorism.

O

most numbers on their side.

N AUG. 19, 2014, journalist But terrorism’s wrath cannot be measured by the James Foley knelt before an statistical constraints of a war as its form of fear is only ISIS knife and the eyes of a present in a subjective state of being. Here there are video camera that recorded his last no numbers to follow, nor treaties to abide; therefore, four and a half minutes. In a matter success can be an obtainable goal of five months, English for a party of any size. In this way, 25 percent of humanitarians, Lebanese Americans extremist groups of small numbers soldiers, French hikers, are very ISIS MAY HOLD can rattle a country of millions.

In Syrian reporters and worried about this way, one ISIS leader pressing Japanese militants alike have HOSTAGE a domestic a knife to a hostage can broadcast been murdered by the same MEMBERS OF terrorist fear to anyone with a laptop. But hands and broadcasted to an attack OUR SOCIETY, while fear’s subjectivity allows audience of 7 billion. And happening the smallest numbers to control while videos that behead the BUT IT CANNOT “soon.” the largest, it does not make that innocent may already seem TRAP THE control omnipotent. to have reached the highest COURAGE WE The fear of terrorism lies in the levels of barbarity, ISIS hands of the victim and their choice CHOOSE TO has gone one step further to either accept or reject that fear. with their newest video in SHOW IN THEIR An individual must choose to fear February, which displays the PLACE. a group of radicals for terrorism to burning of a Jordanian pilot. succeed, a community must choose Although the horror 51 percent of to give up a belief or custom in fear and despair of such acts Americans of another’s and a country must will never be dismissed, the frequency say torture choose to give in to a terrorist’s demands in fear of and tenacity of modern terrorism is of terror their threats. With subjectivity, fear is no longer a too quickly becoming an expected suspects compulsory force, but a matter of choice. reality. With this era comes a new Is at least The threats and brutality of ISIS activists are unlikely sometimes type of warfare with car bombs and to end in the near future, posing an important question suicide missions, each weapon crafted justified. for political leaders to make around the world: How will to target mankind’s greatest weakness: PEW RESEARCH/ they choose to let the fear of terrorism control their SOURCE fear. But how the modern era can bring country? As ISIS’s wrath increases in barbarity, terrorism to its own knees is by taking this decision may become more complicated but advantage of that weakness, because the correct answer remains clear. As for your just as fear it is terrorism’s greatest beliefs, continue to voice them without fear target, it also peace’s greatest weapon. of silence. As for your words, choose them In the days of standard warfare, without fear of censorship. As for your fear was ever present, but only as an country, be proud of the heritage before objective concept and only endorsed you without fear of the future. ISIS may by logistics. A victim’s fear was invoked hold hostage members of our society, but it by the numbers of armies with more cannot trap the courage we choose to show men and countries with more capital, in their place.

H facts that saw no gray and could not be argued out of truth. Progress was tracked, casualties tallied and a crisp treaty signed that distinguished the victorious from the defeated. Fear was an imminent reality that chose its outcome by granting success to whoever had the

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff.

Reach Brielle Saggese at bsaggese@hilite.org.

WHAT THIS WORLD NEEDS IS A HUG

53

How do you perform these stunts?

With the (fire) eating, it’s not as scary as most people would think once you get over it being close to your face, and then you extinguish it in your mouth. It sounds frightening, but it’s not as scary once you’re used to it. I use campfire fuel and dip Kevlar wicks in it so that the flame burns on the wick with the fuel.

So I don’t keep it in my mouth or anything like some other people that blow fire; it just stays on the wick.

Sometimes you can taste it whenever you extinguish the fire, but that’s about it.

What is doing these stunts like?

With the fire eating, that one’s fun, and it’s not as scary.

But with the hula hoop, it’s moving really fast, and it gets really close to you (as it’s) constantly moving, so that one makes me nervous sometimes.

Why do you like doing fire stunts?

It’s really fun, and it’s not even so much for entertaining people, but it’s just really fun to do for myself sometimes. It’s one of those things you can kind of get lost in because especially whenever I hula-hoop with fire, (I) can kind of dance with it. ... And then the fire just kind of adds another fun, cool element to it.

How did you become interested in fire?

Well, I’ve always hula-hooped, and then the person that I took lessons from used to perform with a circus group. So I guess that’s how I learned; I just got into it from her.

Hanners will be performing hula hoop tricks (without fire) in the Behind the Scenes Club Talent Show this year.

Consider watching her there on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Dale E. Graham Auditorium.

What’s your favorite stunt and why?

The fire eating and being able to extinguish the flame with my mouth (is my favorite). I think I like it because it’s a lot harder of the tricks that I can do, so it’s just kind of a feeling of accomplishment whenever I’m able to do it, I guess.

How dangerous do you think some of them are?

They can be pretty dangerous if you don’t know the right way to go about doing it, so it’s a good idea to be trained by somebody instead of just experimenting with it, because a lot of people ask how I got into it, and they’re like, “Oh, could I do that?” and I’m just like, “No, you really need to be trained by somebody.” You just have to be careful.

With the hoop, (it’s) making sure it’s moving fast around you so that it doesn’t stay in one place too long to catch your clothes or anything else on fire, and you want to practice a lot without the fire on the wicks so you can kind of know how it moves, and make sure you don’t hit yourself with it. And with the torches, it’s just very important whenever you’re breathing, depending on how close or far away it is from your face, like how you breathe that in.

Kyle Crawford

Sarah Liu

Visit hilite.org/archives/40026 to read the rest of the Q&A, see more photos and interactively learn how to breathe fire. Also, visit the HiLite YouTube channel (www.youtube. com/user/HiLiteOnline) to see her perform some of these stunts.

feb 20, 2015

Kyle crawford

56

BACK COVER

LiteBox Dance craze

Visit hilite.org/dancemarathon/?p=357 for more pictures of the executive council learning the line dance. On hilite.org/dancemarathon, you can find photos, videos and stories before and after the event.

Members of the Dance Marathon executive council learn the line dance in the community room in preparation for Dance Marathon. They will teach it to other participants at Dance Marathon tomorrow.