IAS Times Issue 37

official newspaper of the international american school of warsaw

DECEMBER 2019

ISSUE 37

FACEBOOK.COM/IASWARSAW

WWW.IAS.EDU.PL

School News

SPORTS DAY:

DAY OF COMMUNITY

Times Editorial

HISTORY OF IAS TIMES:

IS IT OBSOLETE?

Student Profiles

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:

ANTONINA GOWIN AND IVAN VIDOSEVIC

School News

FINDING SOUND IN SILENCE

HISTORY INTEGRATION TRIP

TIMES EDITORIAL

IT’S NOT JUST A SCHOOL;

IT’S A STORY: THE IAS TIMES

by Yossra Madani

The IAS Times has been with us for years and it is one of the oldest traditions here at IAS; yet, is it becoming obsolete? With the easy click of buttons and scroll of social media, is printed words necessary?

IAS Times started many years ago around 2006 with the help of the History teacher at the time, Mr. Brown, who is currently a professional writer. After Mr. Brown left, Principal Krasner took it over in 2008 as faculty advisor, and currently, Miss Kendall Kartaly, the English teacher.

From major events in our school, to world news this magazine shows student success, school community, motivating readers to learn more about the school and the world.

Here, the reporters are expressing themselves and having a real experience interviewing and working in an atmosphere like that of a real mag-

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azine—it might be many students’ calling in life. Today, the IAS Times has more news about the outside world, relatable topics to the students, and creative and artistic engagement, making it feel more like a magazine than it ever has before.

Not only does it create enjoyment for the readers, but it also starts friendships. Hema, our senior editor, read an old issue when she first came to this school. Within that issue was an interview with Reese.

Because of the interview, Hema then got to know Reese and now they are both close friends.

Even though there are strengths in this tradition, some aspects still need improvement. For example, although reading off of a magazine is a whole different experience than just reading off of a screen, it would be beneficial to have it online to have the articles be topical, since it takes

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time to write, edit and print the magazine. While there are still opportunities to improve, you should look forward to this year’s team bringing the best articles to you.

IAS Times is a treasured tradition in IAS, students are excited reading the magazine and the writers are excited to share their work as well.

It’s been with us for almost 14 years.

As for the IAS Times team, working together, working with the designer, the journey of going from nothing to an actual product, seeing their work come to life is very rewarding.

So, to finally answer the question at the beginning of this article, from all the interviews I had and all the ideas that the students of IAS gave me, I think IAS Times is far from becoming obsolete. I think that it might even prove to be a better platform in the future. What do you think the future will hold for IAS Times?

TIMES STAFF Kuba Tywańczuk

Yossra Madani

Hema Pokala

Zofia Owczarek

Bonnie Murphy

Klara Lesman

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE STORY:

THE REPORTERS OF THE 2019-2020 IAS TIMES

Meylis Arshimov

Reese Farrales

Milena Dederko

KUBA TYWANCZUK biggest passions is writing.

He has been writing for over eight years and he’s not planning to stop anytime soon. Kuba hopes to deliver you unique analysis and intriguing stories to you.

YOSSRA MADANI enjoys writing and has always wanted to do something related to that. She is an imaginative writer and loves to write stories and her thoughts.

HEMA POKALA loves anything artistic especially writing fictional stories! She is an ambitious student and is very excited to contribute to the school’s newspaper this year as senior editor.

ZOFIA OWCZAREK hopes to grab your attention with interesting articles and provide you with relevant news from around the world and has played sports for seven years.

BONNIE MURPHY enjoys painting, writing, acting, dancing, and pretty much anything else to do with art!

KLARA LESMAN loves modern art and hopes to grab your attention from the start.

NATASZA OBUCHOWICZ is new to our school and is willing to contribute to the IAS community in as many ways as possible. As she has always been interested in writing and likes to cover many topics.

Marta Szylak

Riccardo Bellini

Natasha Obuchowicz

Bartłomiej Kuś

MEYLIS ARSHMOV, an ordinary teenager, loves hard rock. He likes helping people in need and rarely opens up to people. His dream is to sit on the edge of the cliff with the people he loves and enjoy the beautiful views.

REESE FARRALES loves the artistic world and she is full of imagination. She does digital illustration, plays the piano, and loves writing.

MILENA DEDERKO is excited to shareher ideas and her ambitious writing with you.

MARTA SZYLAK is excited to bring her photography and interviewing skills to the team this year.

RICCARDO BELLINI is a loner who doesn’t speak his mind even when he has many thoughts. His favorite past time is spending time outside in the nature and listen to music.

BARTŁOMIEJ KUŚ is passionate about playing and developing video games, reading books and world-building.

Interested in responding to one of the articles? Have a different opinion? We want to hear it. Tell us what you think! Write a letter to the IAS Times team at IAS Magazine at iasmag@ias.edu.pl

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TEACHER PROFILES

WELCOMING

NEW TEACHERS TO IAS

by Natasza Obuchowicz and Marta Szylak

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MS. CELESTE HINSHAW is functioning - the mix of Ameri- Her hobbies include shopping, Netf- FIRST GRADE TEACHER can and international curriculums, lix and food: “ I am not a teenager, but Ms. Celeste came here from the USA the clubs, the IAS Times. Mr. Ruby most of my hobbies are teenager-like” and is teaching the first grade in the mentioned also that all the staff gets - said Ms. Finch.

Small School. She moved to Poland along really well and that the students three years ago, due to her husband’s are really intelligent, young people MS. MARTA GLASENAPP work - he’s a journalist covering central (for most of the time, at least). In his - TEACHER’S ASSISTANT and eastern Europe. As you probably free time, he likes to play basketball Ms. Martha is a new teacher’s assistant know, she is a teacher, but has taken the and read. He pays a lot of attention working in the Small School. She past two years off in order to raise her to the news, so that later on he can was born in Poland but has also lived two small children. Except for teach- connect what’s going on in the real in other different countries, so her ing and spending time with her family, world to his lesson topics. When experiences transcend our countries’ she really enjoys evenings with a good asked about his feelings towards IAS, borders. What she really appreciates book and homemade food. When he said “It’s a good place to be - I am about IAS is its international setting, asked about her impression of the IAS, happy to be here.” the variety of nationalities among she said, “So far it feels very open, the the teachers as well as the students. teachers are all very friendly and the MS. KARUNA FINCH One of her main hobbies is cycling, 3 students are very diverse, so it makes - CHEMISTRY TEACHER specifically on a road bike, which she the job interesting”.

Ms. Finch is our new chemistry teach- sometimes takes to work. She also er from India. She is fairly new to Po- loves animals (has three dogs) and art.

MR. ETHAN RUBY land - living here since September 2 - GEOGRAPHY TEACHER this year – however, she has lived in MS. KENDALL KARTALY Mr. Ethan is a new geography teacher. Europe for two years. When asked 4 - ENGLISH TEACHER He grew in Massachusetts, in the US, about IAS, she said that our school Ms. Kartaly is from Wisconsin but but has also been teaching in New has this specific vibe, the cosy atmos- has spent the last year in Bydgoszcz.

York and Berlin. He moved to Poland, phere of everyone knowing everyone, While still in the USA, during her because he really liked the way IAS which’s hard to find anywhere else. time as a university student, she fell

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THIS YEAR AT IAS WE ARE HAPPY TO WELCOME MANY NEW TEACHERS. WE ASKED ABOUT THEIR LIVES, HOBBIES AND THEIR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE IAS —EXCITED TO HAVE THEM BE A PART OF OUR STORY!

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in love with Polish poetry. After acknowledging a deep connection between poetry and teaching, and after exploring the art of Polish writers, she decided that hearing only the voices of Polish poets is not enough. “I realized I love teaching and I love languages and words. I don’t just want to hear the voices of poetry; I want to hear voices of people that actually live in Poland.” She says that being in Poland, especially in IAS, gave her the opportunity to realize how her identity is not only American, but that it comes from many different places. She feels like her students have taught her a lot and is excited to be a part of our school. Not surprisingly, reading and writing are some of her main hobbies, but what is surprising is that she is also interested in freestyle rapping.

MS. MAGDALENA BONKOWSKA

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- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND ART TEACHER Ms. Magda is the new global per-

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spectives and art teacher. She also takes care of projects conducted around the school. She was born in a small village near Toruń, but before coming to the IAS, has lived in many different places around the world. For her, IAS is a new challenging experience, but still feels cozy. She has also mentioned that she is vegetarian and likes to experiment with this type of cuisine. Her hobbies are very diverse, including watching movies and reviewing them, dancing, reading books, doing yoga and traveling.

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MS. KATIE BAK - HISTORY, SOCIAL STUDIES AND ESL TEACHER Ms. Bak was born in Minnesota and has lived all around the United States (Hawaii, North Carolina, Utah). At IAS, she’s teaching history, social studies and ESL. She moved to Poland because of a voluntary trip, which she was a part of when she was nineteen. She liked it so

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much that she decided to move here permanently, right after college. She is positively surprised with the IAS students, “I think that the kids are so energetic, and so excited and I wasn’t expecting that, I thought that they will think they are too cool for school, but I haven’t met anyone like that yet.” Poetry is her number one hobby, but she is also passionate about traveling to obscure places and looking for the “hidden gems of the world.”

MS. BURCAK KAPAR - SCHOOL COUNSELOR Ms. Burcak comes from Turkey and is our new school counselor. She has been living in Poland for more than three years now, getting her psychology degree. She’s really happy to be in IAS and likes the school, even though she hasn’t been here long.

Traveling is what she likes doing the most - India, Egypt and Asian Highlands are her favorite places.

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SCHOOL NEWS

POSITIVE ENERGY, POSITIVE OUTLOOK:

NEW PRESIDENTS, AMELIA AND DANIEL, ON LEADERSHIP A 60:40 majority...the race was close between Amelia Kosmider and Daniel McDonough and Natasza Obuchowicz and Meylis Arshimov. Yet, as the votes came in, McDonough and Kosmider won.

Here is a first-look conversation with the new President and Vice President of the International American School of Warsaw.

by Bonnie Murphy Daniel McDonough & Amelia Kosmider

Bonnie: I know that you presented most of your aims in your speeches at the debate, but could you just outline again some of your most important goals that you wish to accomplish this year as Presidents?

Daniel: Mainly I want to make the school events more enticing for older kids, such as Halloween that is coming up and the possibility of a lock-in. We are also planning some winter charity events that older kids will be able to get service for. Then I want to bring something new that the school hasn’t had before, and that is a dance for the younger grades, because that’s something that I got to experience in my old school.

school. I can easily walk up to anybody when they are alone or look like something’s wrong and listen to them.

Bonnie: How can you, and in your opinion other students, contribute to a better atmosphere at school on a daily basis?

Amelia: The main thing we need to do is to integrate and start talking more with one another. I feel like some people in our school aren’t heard because they don’t feel like they get a chance to start anyhow. So I really encourage people to voice their opinions/ideas and to participate in events where they can get to know others better.

Bonnie: What would you say to a student that feels like they are all alone, or who are going through something difficult, which they feel like they can’t share with anybody?

Daniel: I would tell them that a lot people are going through the same thing as them, so they aren’t alone... they are always welcome to come and talk to either me or Amelia and we’ll of course keep it private and try to help them in whatever way we can.

Bonnie: Lastly, what in your opinion, makes a good president?

Daniel: I think what really makes a good president is being willing to take on that leadership role. Also, if they can create new ideas and implement them, as well as really bring the school together, and have the students excited and willing to participate in events.

Amelia: What makes a good president is care mainly. You need to care for the students that surround you and know what’s happening, not disconnect. I try to pay close attention to those things and try to be observant as to what is happening around me.

Bonnie: How will you make sure that every voice in the school is heard?

Amelia: I try to talk with lots of students at our

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SCHOOL NEWS

FINDING

SPIRIT ON SPORTS DAY

by Meylis Arshimov

This year, IAS does not fail to surprise us on our biannual sports day.

We again have the Orienteering and the integrating Mini Olympics, but this time they were held in a much larger neighborhood and park. Just a reminder about how Orienteering works, the house teams must go around the neighborhood looking for checkpoints and using a special chip, they need to mark that they have passed that checkpoint then repeat until all checkpoints have been marked. All students met at a small hill in the park to split into smaller groups for each house.

Once each group was ready, they quickly set off to the first checkpoint on their map. After almost 3 hours of running around, the Orienteering event was over. The winner of the Orienteering were the Red Blood Cells.

After a lunch break, students were gathered back into their respective House and sent to differ-

ent parts of the hill to participate in the Mini Olympics. The Mini Olympics had 4 main games which were Long jump, Relay, Long throw and Ball bounce. After all the houses finished competing in the main games, we all gathered to play the final game, Tug of war. Each house took turns to compete with the other houses. The first round was the Red Blood Cells vs BlueTooth and the Red Blood Cells won, then the Green Ice Tea vs Purple Rain and Green won. After that, Purple Rain went against BlueTooth for an extra round and BlueTooth won.

The final round was the Green Ice Tea house against the Red house, again, but the Red Blood Cells were undefeated for the second time. All the houses were divided into smaller groups and sent out to compete in various disciplines. With teams and Houses we were able to find spirit, leadership, and community as we supported each other.

MINI OLYMPICS

Long Jump

Relay

Long Throw

Ball bounce

Tug of war

Students were challenged to jump as far as they can from a stationary position.

The longest jump was done by Dominik from the Green Ice.

Tea House Students from each house were racing each other; every student got a chance to run.

The winning house was Purple Rain Students had to throw a 5kg ball as far as they could over their shoulders.

Both Rihards and Oskar from the Red Blood Cells house got the longest throws.

The ball bounce required a group of people to juggle a ball (just like in volleyball).

The Green ice tea had the best score.

Every house competed against each together in Tug of war every student tried their best to win, but the Red blood cells were undefeated.

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SCHOOL NEWS

FINDING SOUND IN THE SILENCE:

A HISTORY INTEGRATION TRIP THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

by Hema Pokala

“Look at the soul of humanity Is this what you want it to be Some people just don’t want to see Injustice, Picture this scene!”

this session, we were ready to go out and take a tour of the bunker for the first time.

We learned about the different tasks carried out during the conWhen I stood in front of the tall struction of the bunker, the differBunker Valentin, I was shocked by ent punishments and the different its magnificent height and width it acts of resistance and sabotage. The was like a massive cement block cov- day ended with us standing in a ered in vines and pipes just stand- circle where we would all join our ing in the middle of the town. As we hand and clap in the silence, three moved around, we were able to un- times. The sound reverberated like ravel the answers to more questions. loud whispers and it was satisfying.

Thanks to the Sound in the SiTHROUGH lence is a program held by Europe- UNDERSTANDING an Network of Remembrance and THE EYES OF AN ARTIST Solidarity (ENRS), we got to ex- Learning from Lenz, a graphic novplore the relationship between his- elist, who created a story based on tory and art for seven days with Mr. the bunker helped us make deep Bradley and students, Reese, Meylis, connections between art and the Chadwick, Sardar, and Kuba, as well history. Lenz helped us analyze picas meet other students from around tures and videos in many new ways which also included drawing them! the world.

This was challenging, yet it helped us understand the expressions, gesBREAKING THE ICE Together, we analyzed pictures tures, and hardships of the forced that were shot close to the bunker labor that was experienced. Not and engage in curiosity and ques- only did we get closer to the histotions like “I wonder why?” I found ry through expression, but also each this process very interactive and it other.

My creativity flowed as we wrote helped me understand the bunker from poetry to through different perspectives. After everything

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rap. The poetry brought new ideas and rapping seemed to bring more ferocity and meaning into what students were saying. Our next task was to write a rap in our native language which showed how diverse we were and how rich our cultures were, it was amazing to hear all the different languages and for me rapping in my language was a new experience and something I’ve never done before. For the closing circle, we tried learning new languages and sat with different people instead of with our schoolmates.

When I closed my eyes, I heard some eerie sounds and voices telling us about tall buildings, windowless and with hundreds of stairs. Sadar’s voice created the atmosphere of the misery and forced laborers through story and Chad’s dance moves through shadows made people feel like they were there.

SPOTLIGHT: MOVING PARTS, MOVING ART All of us took our positions as the audience slowly began to gather around all of us and we combined light and darkness, sound and silence, and words and art to create a

final product that required the audience to participate and move with the presenters.

The student-rappers took positions across this passage where we began to perform poems in our native languages, the spectators heard words from many different languages. At the entrance, all of us rappers were huddled up in a group and we began to recite all our poems at once for a couple of minutes before we abruptly stopped to allow the audience in.

The audience was scared as they looked around to see the students with flashlights at their faces while they sing before they disappear into the darkness. This segment was followed by a shadow dance against the tall walls of the bunker. The audience: awestruck.

We took our positions on the stage and started to look at the audience’s confused faces. The beat dropped and we began to rap as a group and individually which created a powerful vibe. From Vedran effortlessly rapping to Meylis rapping in Russin and Kuba creating his own bridge, it was invigorating to move together, speak together, and be together.

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PERSONAL JOURNEYS AND PERSPECTIVES Chadwick says his best experience was spending time with his new friends and learning about the bunker, while Reese says her best experiences was during the final performances and when we would hang out at each other’s room and just have a good chat.

Reese says, “My goal was to meet new people, see a new place and have fun. I have achieved all of them. I have learned to be more open to my thoughts on opinions and I have become a bit more social than before.’’

Meylis describes his best mo-

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ment during the program with his new friends. “The amazing integration between people in the evening near the pool’’ he says. Something he achieved through this program was understanding life through art.

Sardar says his best experience was singing with me and the rest of the people there.

Mr. Bradley says, “The best experience was watching all of you perform and how it was very impressive and moving, it wasn’t only us who achieved goals but also me.”

For example, the teachers also had several extremely useful workshops, looking at the idea of non-formal education, so using

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graphic novels, explainer videos, artistic portfolios as tools in understanding history and encouraging an interest in the topic.

Together we were able to spread the stories of people who were not very known, through art. That is exactly what I am doing right now with this story too.

Now it’s your turn to take on the idea of ‘History Through Art’, in the process make that place a part of your lives and think about why its historically significant to you. Bunker Valentin has definitely become a significant part of our lives and something we will never forget.

STUDENT OPINION

16 YEAR OLD WORLD CHANGER:

GRETA THUNBERG

by Zofia Owczarek

People may see Greta Thunberg and think about her Asperger's Syndrome: the fact that she talks bluntly, and is very focused, and sometimes has a hard time connecting socially; however she is also one of the biggest creators of school strikes for climate change, showing that a 16 year old can do anything on a global scale.

She started her climate change movement in August 2018, when she was only 15 years old, by launching the „Fridays For Future” movement, which encouraged students to skip school and protest in front of the government to demand them to take actions in climate change.

This is how it all began, now she has millions of supporters around the globe supporting her ideas. She started the international school strike for climate. She addressed so many people, that in September 2019, strikes happened in over 150 countries worldwide and gathered 4 milion participants. This is incredible, how just 16-year-old girl created such a huge movement.

While some people think her autism is a setback, her autism seems to help her in these situations. People with this illness very often have normal to above-average intelligence. It also cause lack of social awareness, lack of interest in socializing, inability to infer the thoughts, feelings, or any emotions.

In one of her interviews, she said: „I overthink, some people can just let things go, but I can’t especially if there’s something that worries me, or makes me sad”.

When she was only 14 years old, she felt into deep de-

pression, because world leaders weren’t taking climate change seriously. She almost starved herself to death and quit school, when they presented, during one of her lessons causes of climate change.

It was the moment when she started her action. First of all, she encouraged her parents to think more about climate and change their attitude toward environment and climate. They become vegetarians and stooped traveling by plane. After this, there was only getting louder all around media about this young activist for climate. Although many people criticized her by bringing up her syndrome and her past struggles. She wrote on her twitter profile „I have Asperger's and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And- given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower”.

Thunberg started making speeches all over the world. Many highly learned scientist and politicians supported her. In 2019, she met Barack Obama and Pope Francis, who told her „God bless you, continue to work, continue. Go along, go ahead”.

And go ahead, she did. Earlier this year, Greta was nominated for the Nobel Price. We should all take Greta as an example and do our best to help in this global fight for our planet.

“Of course it’s difficult to think about the climate crisis, but that is not an excuse for doing nothing.

Even if there’s no hope, we have to do everything in our power to stop this,” said Thunberg.

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PHOTO GALLERY

SPORTS DAY 2019 Sports Day 2019 featured a morning of Orienteering and an afternoon “mini-Olympics� where students competed with their Houses in running, long jump, the medicine ball throw, volleyball, and tug of war.

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STUDENT PROFILES

IVAN VIDOSEVIC’S JOURNEY AS A STUDENT AND ATHLETE Ivan Vidosevic, is the 11th grade student. He’s 16 years old. Ivan was born in Croatia is currently living here in Warsaw. Ivan played in the national Croatian team and now currently playing in Legia, and making his dreams come true.

by Klara Lesman

Klara L.: When did you realise that football is what you want to do?

Ivan V.: Football is definitely what I want to make a career out of. In the beginning I wasn’t so sure, it just felt like a hobby but then I started getting more into it and then I started receiving pressure from all sides, coaches, friends and family. And because of that I started to dislike the sport. And I took a break for about a year. I realised that there is no better feeling for me, then walking out of that field, satisfied, knowing that I did my best. Especially knowing that the next day I can do it even better.

Klara L.: How often do you train? And what do you do to be better?

Ivan V: I train six times a week, very intense. And it hurts my heart, I have to miss a little bit of school.

A lot of people don’t know this but when I come home and when I go to training, my mentality changes, and its all about the hard work. I always go for the trainings with positivity. Every day it takes all my concentration. Just like anything else in life, it is not only about the certain thing you’re doing.

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It’s also about the outside, so I try my best to stay at home, but its hard my age, all you want to do is go out with your friends. But I can’t often allow that, my body has to rest. Sleep is the most important.

I don’t have a strict diet yet, I am still young so I don’t really need it. But I still don’t eat any chips, or drink CocaCola.

Klara L.: Who’s your biggest inspiration?

Ivan V.: That’s a hard one… my mom and dad.

Even though there are no relations to them with football. My parents always tried raise me the best they could, and I think they did a perfectly good job.

Even though I am a bit crazy sometimes. I really love them, and they inspire me to work harder everyday.

They worked hard and the made something out of them selves and that inspires me to make someone out of myself too. My family is known to be fighters and that’s what I want to be remembered as. I don’t have to be the most successful man in the world but I want people to know that I tried my best to be what I wanted to be.

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STUDENT PROFILES

IN THE SADDLE

ANTONINA GOWIN

IAS is full of excellent students who come from all around the world. They do not only do a great job at school, but also follow their dreams and passions outside of it—and Antonina Gowin is one of those students!

by Milena Dederko

Antonina Gowin, is our 6th grade student and it is her second year at IAS. Antonina’s after school activity is horse-riding. She started at very young age and is still passionate and ambitious about riding horses since she visits the stable every week. She practices at the Skj Poland Park, dressage on Monday and jumping on Wednesday. In addition to this, she doesn’t only do it for fun, Antonina takes part in the competitions at her stables. She is proud to say she has won four dressage awards!

Antonia shows us that it’s important to learn new things, but it’s important we enjoy it. Antonia chose to start riding on her own; she wasn’t influenced by her parents, she had told me that she just felt passion towards horses when

she was younger and decided to start practicing.

I asked her the following question, “Does it help you with stress?”

Antonia replied, “Yes, it relaxes me--especially with homework--I just let the stress out when I ride.”

Not to mention, the things we learn while activities can be used daily. Next question I had asked was, “Do you think it helps you in school? In general with your learning?”

I got a great answer, “In horse riding, I am independent, so that helps me in school.” Actives shape us, our personality. Either we are more confident, creative or independent. The last question was, “Do you think it’s important to have a afterschool activity?”. The answer was, “Yes, because it’s good

to have a sport or talent. You can work with the sport when you grow up.” As we see, afterschool activities are not just hobbies, they can contribute to our future.

Often children are being forced by their parents to invest their time in afterschool activities.

Of that children are bored and grow dislike towards their activities.. Despite that, if a child finds what he/she likes to do, they will enjoy their new hobby. Antonina is a great example. She deiced at an early age to start horse-riding, and now she is eleven and is continuing her specialty. After school activities shape our personality and skills, but also influence our future.

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SCHOOL NEWS

HALLOWEEN:

A TRADITION WORTH CELEBRATING?

by Reese Farrales

Halloween is a tradition that has been in celebrated in this school for many years, but why do we celebrate this beloved tradition when most of Poland does not partake in the events dedicated to Halloween?

The tradition originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, around 2,000 years ago, when the people would make bonfires and wear costumes to scare away ghosts. This day marked the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter. The Celts believed that on the night of October 31st, the boundary between the living and the dead will become blurred and then the ghosts of the dead can return to earth.

Currently, in Poland, with All Saints’ Day, celebrated

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on November 1st, Halloween is not a popular celebration. While some may think that Halloween is the opportunity to get dressed up, walk around a neighborhood for free candy, and binge watch your favorite scary movies, some older generations may think it is not that big of deal with All Saints’ Day as a more somber day of remembrance for the family members who have died.

However, nowadays, children go out trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods, people enter haunted houses for a good scare and entertain costume parties with friends and family, though it is still not as popular in Poland as in America.

Around the world, in Mexico, instead of Halloween,

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they celebrate “the Day of the Dead” or “Día de los Muertos”. They would decorate their houses and cities or towns with paper decorations and sometimes flower petals, people will dress in skeleton costumes with bright colors and dance around. It’s a big celebration. For them, this is the day when they could honor with their deceased loved ones and ancestors.

In Japan, Halloween is only been introduced in the country recently.

In our school, we used to hold a haunted classroom decoration contest for grades 5 to 10, which lead to students attending Halloween in school. Once this classroom decorating tradition stopped, fewer students showed up on Halloween. That was 3 years ago.

Last year, 2018, was different. Since we started having Houses to compete for points, we had more competitions resulting in students participating and competing with other houses. We had a scarecrow making, homeroom class door decorating, costume, scary story writing, sack race and pumpkin-roll relay. Finally, the day ends with a disco in the cafeteria.

Maybe, even though some cultures celebrate Halloween and some do not, and others may think it is not necessary, or silly, every tradition—even Halloween—brings more community, which can be good, and if you are in a costume...maybe it allows people to be who they really want to be...like some of the teachers at IAS!

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STUDENT FICTION

91 PASSENGERS 91 SECONDS

by Hemka Pokala

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen this is your air hostess speaking and on behalf of the whole crew I welcome you aboard the Oceanic Airways.

We would now like to demonstrate the safety features of this aircraft which will be displayed on your screens”. I step away from the speaker right before I was confronted by Amanda, she seemed pretty chirpy today, she took a step back and said, ”Good morning Chelsea! How are you doing this morning?”

“Oh, I'm doing fine Mrs. Ross!”

“Oh, that’s just lovely have you loaded in the packaged meals?”

I strap the heavy belt and suddenly, the plane begins to gain speed, my ears were filled with the whirring sounds of the cab’s engines. I looked at Jim and he signaled me to look under my seat.

Amanda, Taylor, Jim and I slowly unwrapped the lunch packages for all the 91 passengers and stacked it up on the trolley. We pull the trolley along the alley, I pick up the warm package and hand it to one of the passengers before Jim whispered in my ear, “Hey, Chelsea you ok? You don’t seem fine today, you know we can't afford that!", I look him in the eyes which were now filled with concern, but I lied saying I was fine when I wasn’t something just felt off I could tell something was wrong but what?

When we were done giving out all the packages Jim put his arm around me and said,” Good act you put out there, let's get to work I already put the surveillance camera on loop”. He reached under the seat and pulled out the first aid kit to pull out a syringe.

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I added the ‘utopia’ and like the name suggests it gives you immense happiness enough to kill you in 91 seconds. He handed me the syringe, I felt its cold touch spread through my fingers giving me a chill through my spine, that’s when everything flashed through my head, the man I was going to kill, the seat no., 5000 dollars, Jim and how my life was going to change forever.

I took slow steps like a tiger about to pounce on its prey and that’s when I saw the man sitting there alone just like we planned.

“Good morning Sir! How can I help you?”

"Oh Hello! You must be mistaken I didn’t call for you” “Well then I'll leave”.

Everything from then felt like it was happening in slow motion, I pulled out the syringe filled with the deadly potion, positioned it behind my back just like I practiced and went for it. 91 seconds ticking away as his eyes filled with pleasure just before all of it drained out. Dead. I quickly made my way to the toilet, locked the door hastily and got rid of the purple liquid and the broken syringe. Along with that, I tried draining all the guilt that built inside me, it crept like poison through my veins, No! I can't risk this... I must get the job done. I unlocked the door, but he wasn’t there Jim probably took care of that.

The seat belt sign lights up and that’s when I took you my place strapped the heavy belt across my body.

It was like locking up all my feelings within my body, I couldn’t take it but No one's going to know now.

My body felt a shiver as the plane touched the

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ground, I could now run away far from all of this along with Jim but where was he? I stood there and greeted the passengers' goodbye that’s when I felt Amanda’s warm touch on my shoulder, I looked at her as she slowly spoke,” We landed 92 passengers, not 91!”

The police confronted us and all the passengers and throughout the process, all that was running in my mind was what happened to the dead man and how was there another passenger! Jim was nowhere to be found how could he run away leaving me with the police. I felt like a sheep ready for slaughter. One of the officers who went by the name Cloyce asked me to view some of the tapes

What do you think is happening in the comic created by artist, Reese Farrales? Submit your re-

collected and see if I could recognize who the extra passenger was. A man sits there with a computer that was connected to several other televisions all displaying different angles I couldn’t hear any of the instructions the officer was telling me because all I could hear was my heartbeat deafening my ears. ‘'I see him the extra passenger’' my finger shakes as I point at the screen ‘' That’s my friend …... the last time I saw her was in the year 1991, she was drugged with eutopia and died.”

sponses to iasmag@ias.edu.pl and the top 3 most interesting ones will be published in our next issue!

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Have a story idea? Want to join the IAS Times? Contact Miss Kendall Kartaly at kendall.kartaly@ias.edu.pl

19

WORLD NEWS

RIOTS IN HONG KONG IN THE STREETS AND ONLINE

by Bartek Kuś

Tear gas, arrests, police brutality. We all know what is currently happening in Hong Kong. People went out on the streets and are protesting against China’s influence. the riots started on March 31st and have continued since. The citizens of Hong Kong demand to be recognized as a sovereign state, not as a vassal of China, while the Chinese want to take the city under their control.

However, not everyone is aware of the battle that takes place online, right under our noses.

On October 8th, soon after winning a Hearthstone1 tournament together with a $10000 prize, the winner, a player with the nickname of Blitzchung, was invited by Blizzard Entertainment2 to an interview held in Taiwan. During this interview (which was transmitted via Twitch and watched by tens of thousands of people), he openly expressed his support for Hong Kong. The interview was stopped

by Blizzard representatives within minutes; Blitzchung had his prize taken away from him and he was banned from Hearthstone for 12 months.

Gamers quickly linked Blizzard’s actions to its current market expansion into China. In order for that to be successful, Blizzard must have been on friendly terms with the Chinese government, hence its overreaction to Blitzchung’s statement of support. The president of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, denies any connections between the two: “The specific views expressed by Blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made. I want to be clear: Our relationships in China had no influence on our decision.”

The gaming industry has never seen such a tremendous backlash from deleting to uninstalling accounts. Instead of providing an apology, the studio decided to remove the option to delete an account.The response was immediate.

Crowds have gathered by an orc statue in front of Blizzard’s headquarters.

Even inside the company, there were voices that spoke

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against its policies. Many people decided to join the mob outside or even quit the job. An anonymous interview with a Blizzard employee was conducted by Vice.

“The internal silence is deafening,” the Blizzard employee told VICE. “Besides two brief ‘I’m listening’ emails from our president, we’ve heard nothing of substance. No one is helping us process what this means for us as a company, as individuals, or is identifying a path forward. No one has been told what to say or do in the aftermath of a legal yet insupportable decision.”

In order to further condemn Blizzard’s actions, gamers managed to turn one of Overwatch’s 3 characters, Mei, into a symbol of freedom for Hong Kong. It didn’t take long for the game to be banned in China, thus cutting Blizzard off from one of its biggest potential markets.

The ongoing feud also caught the attention of a non-profit organization Fight for the Future, which has spun up a campaign called Gamers for Freedom to put pressure on Blizzard to reevaluate its stances on China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a revolution of our times. If we do not support it, we may soon witness its downfall, which is bound to trigger more such dramatic uprisings all around the world. Liberate Hong Kong!

Hearthstone is an online card game set in the universe of World of Warcraft created by Blizzard Entertainment.

Blizzard Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Its games include Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Overwatch and the Diablo series.

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment.

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WORLD NEWS

DON’T NEED TO SHOUT TO BE HEARD;

OLGA TOKARCZUK, AND THE STORY BEHIND HER NOBEL

by Riccardo Bellini

The last will of a Swedish industrialist and a dynamite inventor Alfred Noble was to create an award “for the greatest benefit to humankind.” Since 1901 this award was given for outstanding contribution in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, medicine or psychology and peace. In total Nobel prize for literature in a hundred and eighteen years of its activity, the Swedish academy awarded a hundred and sixteen literature prizes out of which only fourteen were women.

This year thanks to Olga Tokarczuk the number rose to fifteen (interestingly another woman on this list is also Polish Wisława Szymborska who won her Nobel prize for literature in 1996). Therefore this prize was awarded for Olga Tokarczuk’s literary talent but as a feminine voice in society as well.

In 2018 Olga won a Booker prize for her sixth novel “Flights” since then she became a much better known and acclaimed writer internationally.

Anders Olsson, one of Nobles committees said that her work was “full of wit and cunning” as well as that “her narrative imagination that with

encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”.

In most of her books, she tries to discover and understand the sense of life, reality, and the human spirit.

For Poles, her books are not always easy to read as for many of them she uses historical background to find the Polish identity which at times is very confusing and not always glorious.

For this reason, it is very difficult for some of the Polish society to accept her work. Her views represented in writing are therefore criticized by the ruling political party in Poland. She always challenged the social and cultural paradigm and that’s why she is considered a very a feminine voice in a very masculine world. Today we are all being bombarded with different opinions, truths, dogmas, and so-called political correctness. It’s very difficult for individuals and society to find their voice through all this noise.

People like Olga Tokarczuk is an example not only of modern writing as well as how to be human. This dreadlocked activist always knew international american school of warsaw

that the most important thing that we do in our lives is to fight for justice. Justice in the name of the weakest, justice in the name of women’s rights, justice in the name of animals and justice of all those lacking for the courage to speak up. That’s why this is not a literature price it’s a price for humanity in today’s world.

It looks like it’s not just my opinion since Olga Tokarczuk was given a Nobel prize for literature and her books broke sale records selling twelve thousand copies in less than ten hours. She truly became the voice of a nation and proved that literature is far from dead. Therefore, it looks like you don’t need to shout to be heard but winning the Noble prize comes in handy.

OLGA TOKARCZUK’S BOOKS: “Podróż ludzi księgi” (1993) „E.E” (1995) „Prawiek i inne czasy”(1996) „Dom dzienny dom nocny”(1998) „Anna In w grobowcach świata”(2006) „Bieguni”(2007)” „Prowadż swój pług przez kości umarłych”(2009) „Księgi jakubowe”(2014)

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FILM REVIEW

PUT A SMILE ON:

THE JOKER REVIEWED

by Kuba Tywanczuk

Comic adaptations are a common genre in cinematography with movies like the Avengers or X-men reaching huge popularity. The character, the Joker, is an iconic villain, therefore putting so much pressure on the new Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix that revisited the origins of Joker.

Joaquin Phoenix is an extremely dedicated and talented actor that can give everything up to perfectly portray his character. After watching the movie multiple times, I can say that Phoenix’s performance is one of the best in movie history. The way that he shows the troubled mind of a person like the Joker is breathtaking. However, the movie itself isn’t as good as people think. Without Joaquin Phoenix’s performance and the gloomy music that perfectly fits all the scenes, the movie would have flopped. Its writing was disappointing at times and the exposition was lacking.

Unlike previous Joker movies this one is not about a pure killer or a greedy villain. Rather, a person that struggles with mental health like almost every other person. He was forced to put on a smile, pretend like he was okay. When he needed help, everyone pushed him away like trash. We actually are not much different from the Joker here.

Believable characters are what also make this movie so realistic. Zazie Beetz’s character was one of the

22

most interesting plot points of the whole movie. Every time that we saw Artur and Sophie together all his symptoms stopped. When he spent time with her, he acted like a completely normal person that joked around with great comedic timing. However, I also think that her being a part of the movie made the viewers sympathizes with a monster like Joker. The few moments that they were together it seemed like Artur might live a normal life like everyone else.

Watching the Joker, you cannot be sure what is real.

This combined with the fact that there is no way you can predict Joker’s move is what makes the movie so disturbing. Scenes like the interview on the Murray Show can give you chills up your spine. Together with the eerie music Joker might be a difficult movie to sit through for some audience members.

If you walk into the cinema and expect Joker to be a classic superhero movie then you are completely wrong. It’s not trying to be like the previous movies and that’s what makes it so special. It’s full of details that bring the seemingly soulless Artur to life.

I would recommend this movie to everyone, because it’s a different experience than all the blockbuster movies that have been coming out what seems like every week. However, if you can’t handle the way that the movie shows the twisted mind of the Joker, then you should probably stick to the comics.

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december

2019

ISSUE 37

JOIN THE IAS EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY AS WE STRIDE INTO THE FUTURE! • • • • • •

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Accredited by the world’s leading educational institutions: IBO, AdvancED, MENiS. Average classroom size of 16 students.

Diverse student body representing over 40 nations.

Career counseling and university placement expertise available.

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Strong disciplinary policy conducted in a positive and collegiate atmosphere.

An IB world school commited to excellence in education THE IAS TIMES TEAM Staff Writers

Kuba Tywańczuk

Yossra Madani

Meylis Arshimov

Hema Pokala

Reese Farrales

Zofia Owczarek

Milena Dederko

Bonnie Murphy

Marta Szylak

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Klara Lesman

Riccardo Bellini

Natasha Obuchowicz

Bartłomiej Kuś

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