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The Parker Weekly Volume CX, Issue 9
SPRING BREAK!
WELCOME, MS. RUPANI
FWPMUN V
Students Hosted Parker Model UN Conference
Parker Welcomes Priyanka Rupani as New Assistant Principal
By Eden Stranahan
O
By Julia Marks
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tarting Thursday, July 1, 2021, Priyanka Rupani will officially join the Parker community and begin her work as the new Assistant Principal, a position left empty since the end of the 2019-2020 school year. “What draws me to working at Parker is so many pieces, particularly around the progressive identity,” Rupani said. “Parker feels like a school, and I said this throughout my interview process, that feels like a place that truly leans into what it means to be a progressive school. And not just in name or in history or tradition, but in responding to the current needs of society and really being progressive today.” Rupani was informed of this job opening through an email from Parker administrators, and when she first read the job description, she was immediately drawn to the position.“It talked about someone who’s in a position like mine, a director of diversity position, that’s looking for their next career move,” Rupani said. “I love thinking about the things that make a school’s identity come alive in all the different parts of the school. When it comes to education, I love supporting people in figuring out curriculum and being really innovative and strategic and thinking about the future of schools. So the position seemed perfect.” Principal Dr. Dan Frank was first introduced to Rupani through her resume and instantly had a positive impression of her. “She seemed warm, personable, easy to get a conversation going with, very approachable,” Frank said. “And really thoughtful, really well grounded, experienced, and had the ability to understand and navigate the nuances of human experience across differences.” The hiring process began with 46 resumes, and prior to the ultimate selection of Rupani, three finalists came to Parker for interviews in person, some with members of the Student Interview and Recommendation Board (SIRB), a committee that organizes student interviews with prospective faculty members. According to senior and SIRB
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April 2, 2021
Benjamin Kagan has helped hundreds of people receive their COVID-19 vaccination. Photo courtesy of Benjamin Kagan.
VACCINE FRESHM-ANGEL Parker Freshman Benjamin Kagan Goes Viral for Vaccine Help
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By Jacob Boxerman and Tess Wayland
ike most Parker freshmen, Benjamin Kagan juggles a crowded Assignment Center, busy new schedule, and online club life. But before he can study for his biology test, he has to manage an over 50-person team, a multi-tabbed spreadsheet, and dozens of COVID-19 vaccine requests from some of Chicago’s most vulnerable citizens. Kagan is the founder of Chicago Vaccine Angels, a volunteer group working to schedule first dose vaccine appointments in an unfriendly and unforgiving scheduling system. While competing with over 66,000 Floridians on Eventbrite to get his elderly grandparents their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Kagan had one crucial takeaway— for eligible people like his grandfather, who doesn’t even have a cellphone, this system was nearly impossible to navigate. After Parker alumni Charlie De Mar ‘08 inspired Kagan to watch his 6 p.m. report after a Parker Career Week event, Kagan happened to see a segment on the Chicago Vaccine Hunters Facebook group, to which he began to share the tips and tricks he had learned while making vaccine appointments. Following private pleas for his help on the larger Facebook group, Kagan created his own group chat and built a team of what is now over 60 volunteers and growing. Requests to the Angels flow in through a Google Form and are managed on a spreadsheet which aggregates the requester’s submitted information, including age, address, contact information, and vaccine
eligibility, such as occupation or underlying medical condition. Many submissions have a bigger story beyond the information on their forms — Kagan has worked with a diverse group of people, from war veterans to cancer survivors to frontline workers. “It feels incredible to be able to single-handedly eliminate these people’s problems they’ve been having for over a year now, “ Kagan said. “To be able to send them to hug their grandkid and to go back to their normal lives. His story has received national attention and resonated with many, both locally and nationally, which Kagan attributes in part to his age and part to the novelty of his actions. “This self drive, it’s so classically Parker,” Kagan said. “It’s shocking to people that there’s a 15-year-old that’s out there doing this.” Though Kagan hasn’t asked for an extension or turned work in late to date, he is kept busy not just by schoolwork and dozens of vaccine requests a day, but by media interviews. After a Zoom interview with CBS Chicago in late February, Kagan’s story began to garner national attention and praise. Kagan has been featured both in print and on television for the “Chicago Tribune,” “The Washington Post,” “CBS Chicago,” “ABC Chicago,” “The Times of Israel,” “Inside Edition,” “NBC Chicago,” “Good Morning America,” “People,” “Fox,” “Today,” “MSNBC,” “WGN,” and more, with mentions on Twitter from Senator
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n March 20, with the swift click of a Zoom link an assortment of Chicago high schoolers found themselves engaged in Parker student-led debate surrounding various world issues in a Model UN format. This is FWPMUN (Francis W. Parker, Model UN) 2021. For nearly an entire year Parker students have been meticulously planning FWPMUN V in order to best meet the needs of all delegates, while navigating a time when the usual crowds taken in by Parker for this event aren’t able to congregate. Senior Gabe Wrubel served as this year’s FWPMUN Secretary-General, the conference’s most prominent role. “The Secretary-General is a really overarching leadership role that involves planning and coordination,” Wrubel said. “I have a large group of people as well as communication with other schools in order to reach the goal of a successful conference. Students started planning FWPMUN V shortly after the ending of FWPMUN IV in 2020. “When I was thinking to myself the night before, or the day of the conference what my expectations were,” Wrubel said. “I wanted to have a well trained and well prepared staff that was excited about working and having fun on conference day.” Thirty two students opted to go inperson to Parker on conference day and participate and or lead Zoom sessions from Parker classrooms. Sophomore Jack Kahan served as a head chair of a committee on FWPMUN’s staff. “The most impactful part of head chairing for me was probably just recognizing all the work that it took to get this conference where it needed to be,” Kahan said. “It was really a lot over these past six months. A lot of work, writing, collaborating with other people, but it really was a huge payoff. When you did your work, came in, got to run a committee, and watched it go so smoothly.” Freshman Cate O’Connor served as an assistant chair of FWPMUN V for her first ever FWPMUN experience. An assistant chair works alongside the head chair to help run debate. “This was my first year in FWPMUN,” O’Connor said. “I really enjoyed working alongside all the other students in a group. It was a really fun and interactive experience. I looked forward
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The Parker Weekly, Page 2
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T he P arker W eekly
“The Weekly” is supported by an endowment created in memory of Brad Davis ‘98 “Weekly” Staff ‘96-’98, “Weekly” Editor-in-Chief ‘97-’98
In this issue:
staff
Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Online Editor News Editor Features Editor Opinions Editor Photo Editor Political Liaison Culture Critic Culture Critic Columnist Columnist Columnist Columnist Cartoonist Copy Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor
Zach Joseph Julia Marks Nick Skok Tess Wayland Jacob Boxerman Emma Manley Sofia Brown Gabe Wrubel Grace Conrad Leila Sheridan Scarlett Pencak Lilly Satterfield Rosey Limmer Spencer O’Brien Denise Román Grayson Schementi Maddy Leja Samantha Graines Max Keller Alya Satchu Eden Stranahan
The Editorial Board of “The Parker Weekly” consists of the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, News Editor, Features Editor, Opinions Editor, and Online Editor.
Letter From The Editors Hi Parker! Happy Spring Break!! Can you believe we have made it this far already?? We can’t either. After this, we are in the home stretch. Wow. We hope that you enjoy what we have put together, and can’t wait to see you all even more with more in-person days. We are so excited about the content in this issue and so proud of our entire staff! Be sure to read Ben Rachel’s piece on Middle School Parker Partners and Sofia Brown’s piece on the Middle School Musical. Also, make sure to check out our website, parkerweekly.org, for exciting and exclusive content, constantly updated by our amazing Online Editor, Jake Boxerman. As always, stay safe, and enjoy what Issue 9 has to offer! Love, Zach, Julia, and Nick
writers Zach Joseph ‘21 Rosey Limmer ‘21 Julia Marks ‘21 Spencer O’Brien ‘21 Denise Román ‘21 Alex Schapiro ‘21 Nick Skok ‘21 Jacob Boxerman ‘22 Sofia Brown ‘22 Emma Manley ‘22
Tess Wayland ‘22 Ana Franco ‘23 Samantha Graines ‘23 Sophia Jones ‘23 Alya Satchu ‘23 Eden Stranahan ‘23 Benjamin Rachel ‘23 Sophia Rosenkranz ‘23 Lucy Wrubel ‘23 Harry Lowitz ‘24
contributing faculty Faculty Advisor Faculty Advisor
Kate Tabor Eric Rampson
Quote of “The Weekly” “You thought a landslide was very close?” — Jake Boxerman “Yes. It’s by a landslide means really close. They slid to the finish line.” — Tess Wayland
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Playlist of “The Weekly” SPRING BREAK TUNES By Alex Schapiro
The full mix can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/ playlist/6ytC4ld9TUN0XVKpKDyQoF?si=68197e2a76844a0c&nd=1 or by scanning the code below.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY
CLUB CAN’T HANDLE ME
by Pop Smoke
by Flo Rida, David Guetta
UP by Cardi B
NO BYSTANDERS by Travis Scott
JORDAN BELFORT by Wes Walker, Dyl
ANTIDOTE
I KNOW THERE’S GONNA BE (GOOD TIMES)
by Travis Scott
AFTER PARTY by Don Toliver
THROUGH THE LATE NIGHT
REEL IT IN
by Jamie xx, Young Thug, Popcaan
by Aminé
by Travis Scott
NICE FOR WHAT
DIOR
by Drake
by Pop Smoke
ALL NIGHT
BEAUTIFUL GIRLS
by Chance the Rapper, Knox Fortune
by Sean Kingston
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND by JAY-Z, Alicia Keys
Have something to say about what was published in this issue of “The Weekly”? Email our Managing Editor at twayland@fwparker.org and write a Letter to the Editors to be published in our next issue!
The Parker Weekly, Page 4
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News
TC TO SPA
Theresa Collins Prepares to Become Upper School Principal After a decade and a half of teaching at Parker, Upper School English teacher Theresa Collins will be leaving after this year to become the next Upper School Principal at St. Paul Academy and Summit School (SPA). SPA is a progressive JK-12 school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Families at SPA received an email with the news on February 25. Collins will begin at SPA on July 1. During her tenure at Parker, Collins has created two English courses: Identity Development in Contemporary Culture and African American Literature and was the English Department Chair from 2013 to 2018. Prior to working at Parker, Collins was an English teacher and staff developer at Evanston Township High School for 13 years. In addition to teaching, Collins served as the President of the Board of Directors for the Progressive Education Network (PEN) from 2015 to 2021. As Upper School Principal, Collins will work with Head of School Bryn Roberts and the two assistant heads. She will lead the Dean of Students and the Dean of Academic Studies as well as work with department chairs and faculty members. “Every aspect of the Upper School comes under her purview and it’s her job to provide
By Emma Manley
Theresa Collins has accepted a new job as Upper School Principal at St. Paul Academy. Photo courtesy of St. Paul Academy.
leadership and to be a mentor to the faculty, provide guidance to the students, and to ensure that the Upper School satisfies their needs and interests,” Roberts said. Additionally, Collins will be working to refresh parts of SPA’s curriculum and to support a three to five year Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plan led by the Director of Intercultural Life and the Head of School. Black Lives Matter protests and other events have taken place in the Twin Cities in the past year following George
Floyd’s murder, which has sparked SPA to update curriculum. “The students have really been at the epicenter of some pretty huge social upheaval, and they want to see that their classes are going to have more relevance to their academic experience and their experience in the world,” Collins said. For about a year, Collins has been searching for a job as an Upper School Principal. Collins focused on progressive schools and schools with progressive practices. “I’ve been teaching in the high
school English classroom for 27 years and over the past, probably decade and a half, I have held a variety of leadership positions, both with a title and without,” Collins said. “I’ve become more and more interested in taking on a greater leadership position within a high school specifically. My time in the classroom has just really come to an end, but I’m not ready to leave high school yet.” Collins chose SPA since the school is in alignment with her philosophy as an educator. She had heard of SPA because her sister lives in St. Paul, and Collins also knows the outgoing lower school principal through the Progressive Education Network. “The other thing that’s really important to me is that I’m going to a place where I’m going to be part of a team that’s really interested in making sure that I am going to be successful,” Collins said. “I’m feeling already really, really well supported. The team up there knows the skills and talents that I’m bringing in, but they also have a lot of ideas about ways that I can grow.” SPA conducted a national search for a new Upper School Principal. Over February
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FALL SPORTS RETURN IN TIME FOR SPRING Spring Sports Return By Ana Franco
Student-athletes line up at 4:30 p.m. each day to get their temperatures taken and to check-in. Some athletes are holding a field hockey stick, others a soccer bag or a volleyball bag, but everyone is ready to start practice. A few athletes are even holding their bags for the basketball practice they have after the first practice of their spring sport. This year, there are multiple sports seasons overlapping with the spring season. Due to COVID-19, sports this year have changed the time when some of the seasons take place and how long they are. The spring season started on March 1 and will end on April 16. It was cut short and also has winter and summer sports overlapping with the end and beginning of the season. The winter sports, such as basketball, ended their season on March 12 which overlapped with the spring season for two weeks. A handful of students have been attending both spring and winter practices in one day. At the end of the spring season, the summer season will overlap with the end of the spring seasons. Sophomore Caroline Skok is a multisport athlete. She participated in basketball in the winter, field hockey in the spring, and will play soccer in the summer with Parker. She has experienced what it’s like to go from
Field hockey team at practice. Photo courtesy of Emily Simon.
one Parker practice to another, both at the end and beginning of the spring season. “It has been hard to balance both sports over the first two weeks of the season,” Skok said. “The coaches of both sports felt that it was important for the players to come to their practice, which left some pressure on the players to make a schedule that has equal time for both sports.” Skok thinks that it would have been more helpful for the athletic department to provide a weekly schedule for the athletes who have overlapping sports. “Some of the coaches
were very understanding of the situation while some didn’t fully understand why we had to devote equal time to both sports,” Skok said. The typical field hockey preseason runs in August and is followed by a long season ending with a postseason. This year, the team didn’t get a preseason or a postseason. This left the coaches with little time to prepare for the games. The season was also cut short by about a month. Lots of field hockey bonding traditions are not allowed to occur this season because of the pandemic.
“I’ve really enjoyed the season so far, and I’m excited about our first game this week,” Skok said, “It’s been nice to have something to look forward to every day after school, and seeing my teammates has been so fun.” This season field hockey has had the opportunity to participate in games. In a typical season, players would pack into the bus to head to the opponent’s field. But, among the many changes the teams face, bus capacity limits is one of them. The team is required to wear masks throughout the whole game and is separated from the other team when they aren’t competing on the field. Field hockey practices begin with players arriving early, so the coaches can ask the coronavirus protocol questions and take their temperatures. Once the player is checked in, they report to the field and get their equipment on. “Practice tends to run smoothly with a warm up at the beginning and ending with a scrimmage,” Skok said. Volleyball player Alex Ostrom is a junior captain on varsity. Ostrom is very excited to be back and playing volleyball for Parker. “It definitely feels a lot different than in previous seasons, but it is nice to be in the gym again with the team,” Ostrom said. The volleyball practices this year have been
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Parker Events
FINDING PIECES OF THE HOUSE Seniors Come on Campus for a Special Grade Event By Samantha Graines
From the outside, on March 6, Parker looked like its normal self. The girls field hockey team and boys soccer team sharing the field, musical practice resumed, and more traditional Parker activities occurred. On the inside, though, it was a different story. Parker was transformed into a treasure hunt/ escape room event for the senior class to participate in. On March 6, around 60 seniors entered Parker’s doors to embark on the ‘treasure hunt.’ Jenny Friedes, senior parent and an involved member of the Parker community, brought the idea of putting together a treasure hunt for the class of 2021. The idea, including the logistics and parameters, was presented to the medical committee and approved. Friedes first had the idea to create an event when talking with her son, senior Bodie Florsheim, who shared how much he wished to go back to school. “My desire was to get the kids in school who really missed the school,” Friedes said. “I wanted to give them time and a forum for them to hang out in school together in small groups because I still wanted it to be COVID safe.” The seniors split themselves into groups of five to eight people and came up with a
A group of senior boys prepare for their escape into parker. Photo courtesy of Nick Skok.
team name. Each group had a staggered arrival, every 30 minutes between 12 pm- 4 pm, so they would not expose themselves to other groups. All seniors had the opportunity to participate in the event. “Everybody was health screened and anyone who had chosen to stay remote was still able to participate if they brought their saliva sample in,” Upper School Dean of Student Life Joe Bruno said. In addition to the differing arrival times, the same COVID-19 precautions and more were taken for this event. “Temperatures were taken before they entered the building,
the saliva samples were given, masks were worn,” Bruno said. Additionally, seniors were also not supposed to stop to talk to members of other groups to avoid further exposure. Senior Amelia Hoerr believes that the precautions put into place were effective. “There was definitely social distancing to a limit,” Hoerr said. “The groups were small and we couldn’t see the other groups.” The objective of the ‘treasure hunt’ was to find pieces of the “Parker House” from the Corinthians MX from around the school
and put it together. “This was an extremely intricate treasure hunt, escape room type event jammed packed full of riddles, clues, and activities,” Bruno said, “It started in the lobby and ended in the auditorium balcony.” Friedes employed many different strategies to create a successful event. “I used escape room techniques and not just treasure hunt techniques, but some ciphers, puzzles, and lockboxes, and black light type of things,” Friedes said. “I utilized the escape room scheme but had them move around the school, so they could also be in the school in various parts.” Parents, the administrators, and the medical subcommittee were all supportive of the event. “We had a lot of enthusiasm for it from the beginning,” Friedes said. “The easiest part was getting people to be on board.” The planning of the event also included parents entering the building, most of which have also not been in Parker for a year. “We forget how much Parker is a part of their [parent’s] lives too. The fact that so many of the parents were eager to help, and also miss being present here, really shows how
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POSTCARDS GALORE
An Overview of Virtual Grandparents and Special Friends Day By Sophia Rosenkranz Lower School Grandparents and Special Friends Day creates the opportunity for students to collaborate, have conversations, and display the projects and passions they have focused on throughout the year. However, the pandemic has made it more challenging for students to present their work to the greater Parker community. On March 5th, an email went out to the Parker community in the “This Week @ Parker” weekly newsletter. The email featured a story titled, “Thanks from the Development and Alumni Office,” that described the Lower School Grandparents and Special Friends Day that took place in February. Like many Parker traditions in the 2020-2021 school year, the event was moved to an online platform due to the coronavirus. However, according to the newsletter, the event hosted “six international family members and nearly 70 living in 26 other states.” Despite the challenges of the pandmeic, traditions like the Lower School Grandparents and Special Friends Day are still able to happen. Connie Molzberger, Parker’s Director of Annual Giving and Engagement, along with Katlyn Jervey, Development Coordinator, planned the Grandparents and Special Friends day event that took place
in February. In 2020, Grandparents and Special Friends day did not take place as it was scheduled near the time school closed due to the beginning of the widespread of COVID-19. “Last year it was cancelled completely, and we didn’t want to do that again,” Jervey said. Grandparents and Special Friends Day would usually take place on a given school day where children are present in the building, however, this year it took place on a conference day which meant teacher involvement was not part of the planning of the event. “The teachers already have so much on their plates with teaching remotely, teaching in person, teaching a hybrid model, and having all of the different students in the different pods especially in the lower grades, we did not want to burden them, so we had it on a conference day which is not typical,” Molzberger said. Junior Kindergarten teacher Tisha
Johnson, who is also a second grade parent and a participant of Grandparents and Special Friends Day at Parker, experienced both sides of Grandparents and Special Friends Day. “Unfortunately this year, we didn’t get to plan a part of that, which made me sad because I really do enjoy having grandparents in and seeing their relationships between the kids and their grandparents,” Johnson said. As a parent however, Johnson did get to experience it. “I thought it was a great idea for the school to host a Zoom Lower School Grandparents and Special Friends Day. One reason is because my dad lives in Portland, Oregon, and he has never been able to make any of the grandparent days for my own children, but this year, he actually got to participate in it virtually,” Johnson said. Jervey described the process of inperson Grandparents and Special Friends Day; “In-person grandparents day is involving I mean the entire Lower School staff,” Jervey said.
“The challenges were definitely figuring out how to make it interactive”
Molzberger then described the planning process of the virtual event. “We tried to think of what different elements that would normally be able to happen in person, but we tried to make them virtually or remote instead,” Molzberger said. Molzberger described how creating different projects and collaborating with a grandparent or a special friend was an important part of the three-hour long event. “Our goal was to recreate the day which is typically a combination of spending time with their grandchild/special friend and learning about Parker. We created a website with information about Parker, to recreate the experience of learning about our school, and used this virtual component to recreate that connection with one another,” Molzberger said over email. To fulfill this goal, they provided activity kits with instructions to both the grandparent or special friend, and the student, as well as provided Zoom links via email. A product of the crafts was a Parker keychain, a magnet, and postcards. Jervey also highlighted some challenges observed throughout the process. “The challenges were definitely figuring out how
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The Parker Weekly, Page 6
Middle School News
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COVID-19 STRIKES AGAIN
Parker Partners Cancelled due to COVID-19 Regulations By Ben Rachel
In past years, middle school students have spent one half-day, once a month, traveling around the city of Chicago, visiting the community, and helping and meeting others. Middle school students visit schools, nursing homes, dog shelters, and many other places around the city. Parker Parkers help middle school students get involved in the community and gain new experiences. However, due to the pandemic and social distancing, the future of Parker Partners is unknown. Seventh grader Victoria Grove had a positive experience in the program last year. “I do like Parker Partners because it’s really nice to get out of school and do activities and it feels good to think you’re helping others and doing good stuff,” Grove said. Her favorite memory of Parker Partners was going to Casa Central. “We went to the Latinx preschool and got to hang out with the kids and paint and play with them. It was really fun getting to know them and they were nice.” Middle school administrators believe Parker Partners are essential for middle
Parker’s Middle School Parker Partners in 2018 when they were able to meet in person. Photo courtesy of Gray Joseph.
schoolers to get involved in the community. “Parker Partners is, indeed, an essential component of the Middle School experience at Parker,” Head of Middle School John Novick said. “It enables students over three years to explore and learn about the breadth of experiences in our city, to get outside the bubble, and to connect with others they wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity to meet and learn about in a school day.” Intermediate and Middle School Dean of
Student Life Traveres White also believes Parker Partners is great for middle schoolers and is essential to the Parker community. “I think it’s great for Middle School students,” White said. “Parker Partners gets middle schoolers out of the school building and out into the community. Our partnerships with various organizations and initiatives allow students to engage in advocacy efforts that expose them to the greater community that have varying lenses, stories, and
perspectives.” Due to COVID-19, Parker Partners has not been happening. Parker Partners wasn’t able to meet the CDC’s or Parker’s health standards. “Sadly, this experience is one of the losses to COVID-19,” Novick said. “It’s just not possible to replicate the experience virtually, and it would be impossible to maintain our vital health and safety protocols during this pandemic in the program. This year, the focus is on helping and supporting and encouraging one another in each pod to continue to be healthy and well during the pandemic. That’s a big job, alone.” Novick is optimistic that Parker Partners will continue in the future and be a big part of middle school. “I am confident that with Ms. Tabor’s leadership and our new Head of Intermediate and Middle School Vahn Phayprasert joining the Parker community this July, Parker Partners will continue to evolve and thrive,” Novick said. “It challenges our students and helps them grow. It is an important program for the school.”
THE SUN WILL COME OUT, TOMORROW Middle School Musical Proceeds With Online Production By Sofia Brown Forty-three green rectangles and black Annie t-shirts fill the Zoom screen as middle school student performers join rehearsal in costume with their greenscreens hanging up behind them. The production of “Annie Junior”, this year’s Middle School Musical, is still running strong amidst the pandemic. With most rehearsals being online, it was important for the faculty directors to space out rehearsals in order to avoid the students getting “Zoom fatigue” after spending long hours looking at a screen. Instead of holding frequent all-cast rehearsals as done in the past, the schedule has transitioned to a structure that allows for certain groups of the ensemble to meet each day. In addition to spaced out the rehearsal days, the students also get occasional screen breaks during the Zoom meetings. “I personally always look forward to musical rehearsal,” eighth grader Ellis Brown said. Brown plays the lead role of Mr. Warbucks. “It’s one of the things I love, and they’re trying to make it a full experience for me which I enjoy.” He later noted how it’s fun to interact with people who might not be in his assigned pod during in-person school. This new production format came with challenges, but it’s also allowed room for growth and innovation. “We’ve really been stretching what we think we can do and learning about what is actually possible,” Director and Coreographer Dana O’Brien said. “It’s not as robust of a musical as we normally would do, but I think with the
An image of actors in the Middle School Musical. Photo courtesy of Ms. O’Brien.
constraints that we have, I’m really excited.” Due to safety protocols, the ensemble can’t sing together in a large group. Instead, each student submits a recording of themselves singing at home which is then layered with the rest of the group on the program, Soundtrap. The Parker staff also hired video professionals and sound engineers to help make the recordings look and sound more uniformed. In addition to technological advancement, Producer and Music Director Robert Denien touched on the mental development that the students have had to go through. “It’s no small task to ask for the kids to feel comfortable submitting a video or audio of themselves singing,” he said.
Seventh grader Lizzie Park, who plays the lead role of Annie, agrees that having to record herself singing has made the learning process slightly more challenging mostly because of how much time it takes up. “Typically you just rehearse, and then go on,” she said. “Now, it’s so precise that if you’re too close to the mic, you’re going to have to re-record every single space.” While singing takes lots of the spotlight in these productions, choreography and stage presence are also important. Without being able to meet in-person and with shortened rehearsal time, the performers have had to learn the dances by themselves at home. O’Brien helps out by filming herself doing the choreography and then
sending the videos along with a typed out step-by-step instruction sheet in an email. Occasionally, one to three cast members are called into the school building to video a scene or record a song. They utilized the Heller Auditorium’s large space to ensure that everyone involved was distanced more than the required six feet. Students take turns singing, removing their mask only for that short period of time. According to Production Manager Tom Moster, this in-person time is really meant for them to “learn their emotions and their staging.” The video is then layered on top or pre-recorded audio. “It’s very safe,” Brown said. “We’re always six feet apart to limit pod exposure, and when we do have our masks off it’s way more than six feet.” He later noted that he feels “one hundred percent safe” during inperson rehearsals. The Musical production team has taken a creative approach in order to address the lack of indoor space by filming certain scenes outdoors. Parks in Winnetka and the Lincoln Park Zoo’s North Pond are just two of the many public locations they used around the city. With the help of a professional videography team and video splicing programs, they have been able to make it look like the student performers are walking next to each other, when in reality it’s two separate videos merged together.
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The Parker Weekly, Page 7
Community Events WILKERSON ENLIGHTS
The Author of “Caste” Speaks At an Event Co-Sponsored By Parker By Harry Lowitz “Essentially, a caste system is an artificial, arbitrary, graded ranking of human value in a society,” Pulitzer Prizewinning author and journalist Isabel Wilkerson said. “It is what determines one’s standing, respect, benefit of the doubt, access to resources or the denial of access to resources, assumptions of competence and intelligence, beauty and worthiness. On Thursday, March 11, approximately 1400 students, faculty, parents, and other affiliates from 11 schools on different sides of the country logged onto a Zoom webinar. The purpose of the event was to hear from Wilkerson. In August 2020, Wilkerson published her new book, “Caste: The Origins of our Discontents”, which has become a “Number 1 New York Times bestseller”. Wilkerson is a former New York Times journalist and Chicago Bureau Chief. She won the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 1994, at the age of 33, for her individual reporting on Midwestern floods as well as a fourth-grader taking care of his siblings. She
was the first black journalist to win a Pultizer prize for individual reporting and the first black woman to win a Pultizer Prize in any category.. Wilkerson received the National Humanities Medal in 2015. Wilkerson published her first book, “The Warmth of Other Suns,” in 2010, about America’s Great Migration. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was included on President Barack Obama’s 2011 summer reading list. The event on March 11 was titled “Grappling with the Persistence of Systemic Racism and Steps to Advance Equity”, and was part of the New Roads School Critical Conversations Speaker Series in partnership with ten other schools. New Roads School is a private school in Santa Monica, California and all partnered schools are also in California with the exception of Parker in Chicago, Illinois, and Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts. The older brother of Junior Kindergarten teacher Tisha Johnson is a board member and parent at New Roads School and
together they thought that it would be valuable to create a connection between the two institutions. New Roads School has done a lot of work on antiracism curriculum, and Johnson identified that both Parker and New Roads School could benefit from cooperation on projects dealing with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The first of these cooperative projects was the Isabel Wilkerson event. The Parker community can expect more coordinated initiatives and opportunities in the future. Wilkerson began the event by explaining the main ideas of her book. She told the story of Martin Luther King jr. traveling to India in 1959. He had been inspired by Mohandas K. Gandhi’s work in India for civil rights and his use of non-violent protest. In India, he visited a school and was called “a fellow Untouchable from the United States of America.” Untouchables, or Dalits, are the lowest group of the Indian caste system. King was originally uncomfortable and “he bristled,” according to Wilkerson. He didn’t see himself as an Untouchable. He
was in the oppressed race group of the U.S. but had achieved quite a respected status. Wilkerson said that King contemplated the use of the word and began to understand that all of the repressive things that have happened to black people in the U.S. were part of the American caste system. “He said to himself,” Wilkerson said, “I am an Untouchable. And every black person in the United States is an Untouchable too.” Johnson said she has spent the last decade engaging in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work. She has read a variety of books, attended conferences, and joined numerous discussion groups around relevant DEI topics and she identified history as the most compelling part of “Caste.” Johnson also said that she found Wilkerson’s work very approachable. When reflecting on the event with Wilkerson, Johnson said that she appreciated and enjoyed Wilkerson’s insight, and only wished it could have gone on for longer.
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A COMMUNITY CELEBRATION OF POETRY Parker Writers Gather to Acclaim Poetry in the Parker Community By Alya Satchu Poetry plays an emphatic role in the Parker community -- integrated into clubs, Morning Ex’s, and communitywide celebrations. On March 8, Parker community members gathered virtually to recognize and honor the work of Parker poets. Those enrolled logged on Zoom at 7:00 p.m., to read and listen to poems written entirely by those of the Parker community. English department co-chair and poetry club faculty advisor Matt Laufer worked alongside English Department Co-Chair Kate Tabor, and administrators Sarah Butterfield and Dan Frank to arrange the community-wide celebration. Laufer delineated Parker’s focus on poetry as “admirable and wonderful.” He encourages others to share work they are passionate about, regardless of adept poetry expertise. “You don’t have to be a published poet, you don’t even have to be someone who identifies as a poet to take this opportunity to maybe discover something about yourself,” Laufer said. Forty-three members of the Parker community registered to join the Zoom festivity, either to read original work or listen to the work of others. In preceding years, this celebration took place as an in-person occasion, accompanied by refreshments and face to face acclamation for the hard working poets. Now virtual, those listening snap their fingers while muted and send short messages in the chat to bestow their praise.
Senior Julia Polsky opened the event with her original poem, “Weather Meltdown.” “It was about how I feel when it snows and specifically how it was very snowy at the end of January,” Polsky said. “Also, the anxiety of enjoying the weather but then anticipating how ugly it gets when the snow melts.” Being a senior, Polsky only has a definite n u m b e r of months before she leaves the P a r k e r community. Having the majority of her final year at Parker take place in a remote setting implements a feeling of detachment. “I think especially this year it’s felt so disconnected, and I personally have felt a little isolated from the community,” Polsky said. “Sharing poetry which I think is one of the more personal ways of writing and getting to hear other people’s poetry helped me feel like I was still part of the community even though I’m on my way out.” A vast variety of age groups exhibited their work at the event. Third grader Emma Heyman shared an original poem titled “Our Future.” “It was about America’s future and what I envision it being and what it
is now,” Heyman said. “It was describing what I think it should be: a safer place, a more respectful community. Now, it’s not the best place where you would necessarily want to have your kids grow up in.” Heyman was inspired after her class studied National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gordon. Heyman b e c a m e especially familiar with poetry during s e c o n d grade while studying the art of haikus. “I would always figure out my own way to write them,” Heyman said. “I wouldn’t always do it the exact same way the teacher would do it.” Also sharing at the event was sixth grader Julia McDade. McDade shared a poem entitled “A Greater Purpose” that utilized a boating metaphor. “It was about how anyone can steer their ship through any way of life,” McDade said. “You don’t necessarily serve anyone in what your purpose is, but you have your own ship through your own sea.” Sophomore Leena Mehta likewise participated at the event, reading her original work titled “And You Called Her Crazy.” The poem reflected upon the story
“Sharing poetry which I think is one of the more personal ways of writing and getting to hear other people’s poetry helped me feel like I was still part of the community even though I’m on my way out.”
of a young girl and her relationship with an older figure who made a lasting negative impact on her life. “The story of a friend inspired my poem,” Mehta said. “She has been treated horribly in the past, but I trust her soul and spirit to rise above her past and, if she chooses, wreak vengeance on the one that hurt her most.” Although lacking direct contact, online events grant certain forms of connection that would otherwise be difficult to arrange in-person. 2021 is the first year of the annual poetry celebration in which alumni from across the world are able to attend and contribute. “The silver lining about the Zoom event is that we might have alumni participation,” Laufer said. “Typically alumni are often away living their lives in college or working, and now they can Zoom-in across the world and read a poem.” Polsky noted that in the future she could see herself attending the event as an alumnus, but not so much participating in reading her original work. “I’m not sure I would share again, there’s something special about hearing students share,” Polsky said. “I personally think it’s a great way to share students’ work.” Parker alumnus, parent, and Co-Chair of the Parent’s Association Cat Bentivegna Adami shared her original poem entitled, “Donald Sutherland Reminded Me.” “Celebrity and art references, they always inspire my writing,” Adami said.
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The Parker Weekly, Page 8
Athletics & Elections
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A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Freshman Gabby Druger Ratified As New Pride Committee Head By Zach Joseph
On January 27, right after first semester finals were done and Upper School students were easing into the pace of their second semester courses, senior and Student Government President Carter Wagner made an announcement in Plenary that a spot had recently been vacated on the Pride committee, and there would be a special election to replace said seat. The opportunity to serve as a Pride head for a semester was open to anyone in the Upper School, so Wagner asked any and all interested parties to stay back on the Zoom call to gauge involvement. Only one participant stayed back: freshman Gabby Druger, who expressed her interest in running for Pride head this year. Two weeks later, Druger was ratified as Pride head for the rest of the year, and became one of the few freshmen serving on Cabinet for the 2020-2021 school year. Because the current Student Government constitution bars incoming freshmen from running for Student Government positions in the spring, only a few freshmen were allowed to hold positions that were reserved specifically for their grade and are appointed in the fall to guarantee all members of the 9th grade class a chance to get involved. Druger was not one of these students, but
was still interested in getting involved more besides participating in Plenary. “I just think I was interested in Student Government,” Druger said. “I was really involved in the Pride group in eighth grade and I decided that I wanted to get back into that.” Despite never running for a committee before, Druger was not worried about the general process of running for a committee head by herself. “I think that it was a bit stressful in that there was a bit of a time crunch,” Druger said. “So it wasn’t so much as running by myself was stressful but just writing it and getting all the signatures.” The special election came about due to th SG constitution and the vacancy of a Pride seat. “Pride had mentioned, the three members who are still on the committee, mentioned that there would be a vacancy, starting in September,” Wagner said. “The standard procedure for that, for someone to resign, is that they have to let their fellow members know, let the DCA know, and then write an official letter announcing their resignation to the president. That doesn’t
have to be sent to anyone else, but it’s just so that way, if you say to someone ‘I’m resigning,’ it can’t happen. You need to write a letter, that way it’s official.” Once Cabinet received the resignation letter, they announced the vacancy to the rest of the student body. “Once that happened we talked in Cabinet, and we had been planning the special election for a little while, but we got back from winter break and started talking about, ‘how are we going to do the special election? How are we going to plan it,’” Wagner said. “I gave my first announcement in Plenary, and was like, ‘if you have any questions, please feel free to stay back.’ And then Gabby stayed back and she was like ‘I would like to run,’ and we were like, ‘fantastic!’” After informing Cabinet that she intended to run, Druger began writing her platform and speech, with minimal help from any experienced member of Student Government. “She really took it from there, and I’m really impressed with the way
“She really took it from there, and I’m really impressed with the way that she really jumped at the opportunity.”
that she really jumped at the opportunity,” Wagner said. “I gave her my platforms when I ran for Pride a couple of years ago and I also forwarded her the Pride platform from last year in case she didn’t have it, and then she wrote her entire platform on her own, which was so impressive, but she was also super responsive if she had any questions.” Since Druger was running unopposed, as she later learned upon turning in her signature sheet, she would have to give a speech during Plenary and would then be ratified by the student body. “It was actually super simple. Because we only got one applicant, we just had her do a speech and everyone ratified her as they should because Gabby is a great candidate!” Executive Advisor and senior Ava Ori said. Druger was elected to the role of Pride committee head with 97% of the vote on February 7, shortly after she gave her speech to the Student Body. From a technical standpoint, this special election was a bit different than previous years thanks to the online format that Plenary is held on. “It was actually really nice over Zoom. Gabby was able to privately chat us questions and stay after
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AN UNCONVENTIONAL SPORTS SEASON My Experience As A Spring Athlete By Lucy Wrubel
I walk up to Parker on my very first day of field hockey preseason. Despite the nerves kicking in for the conditioning that awaits me, I’m excited to hold a stick for the first time in weeks–maybe even months. Walking in through the Webster Avenue lot, I open the double doors. A security guard is the first person I see, and they are holding a thermometer up to my head as an assistant coach recites a series of questions that I have begun to hear an abnormal amount these days. I robotically respond no to each question I’m asked and locate the familiar faces within the crowd of field hockey players. Next I have to check in with yet another coach to make sure that my spit test is submitted and that I’m good to go. I am. Finally, I sit down in the hallway and wait for further instruction before going outside to complete the dreaded conditioning test. A normal season for me would entail excitement, nerves, and dreaded conditioning, but this season is different. Never before has a field hockey season of mine begun with a security guard holding a thermometer up to my head rather than excitedly running out to the turf field on a hot summer morning. With this season, along with the normal first day routine, many typical aspects of
Cartoon by Maddy Leja.
the field hockey season have vanished. The crazy tan I usually get during the season has turned into texting my friends and asking how many layers they are wearing. The post preseason walks to get lunch and an early start to our day has shifted to being picked up to go home, eat dinner, and attempt homework. Almost everything is completely different. Sadly numerous traditions have also vanished. While there are efforts to bring the season back to the usual standard, some aspects of the season just can’t be recovered. If spectators aren’t even allowed,
there is absolutely no way that a team-wide sleepover would be allowed. For me, this season started in a vicious manner. During the first two weeks of the spring season, on some days, I, along with some others that were also participating in both basketball and field hockey, would go to one practice from 4:40 p.m. to 6:10p.m., and then on to the next from 6:40p.m. to 8:10p.m.. Along with this overlap came many challenges: homework management, splitting time between practices, prioritizing practices, and overall exhaustion. On days that the two practices
overlapped, I had to choose which practice to attend. If a game was coming up, intentions of starting off the season on a good note and the intentions of ending the season on a good note were all reasonable factors. It was tough to choose to go to one practice and skip the other because to the coaches it seems like a plain statement, “I like this sport better,” when in reality, there were many contributing factors. While I have mainly mentioned the negative parts of this overlap, there were also various benefits. Having a season overlap gave me a huge wave of things to do in such little time which brought me to push my time management skills. Most of the time I end up getting more work done when I have long commitments like these because I am in the mindset that I have to get my work done sooner/faster. Now I am fully transitioned out of basketball and solely a field hockey player, yet this season still feels very different. Another huge change has been the decrease in practice length. Each practice has been moved from the usual two hours to one and a half. Given that these seasons have already been cut short/compressed, we are missing out on hours upon hours of practice
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Head To Head!
The Parker Weekly, Page 9
ARE THE BAD ONLINE DAYS WITH NO OFFICE HOURS WORTH THE TWO IN-PERSON DAYS A WEEK? Editor’s Note: The writers of these articles are aware that the schedule they are talking about will no longer be in existence following spring break. The school is moving to a schedule of five in-person days a week, leaving the issue of two hard days of online school and two days of in-person school obsolete. Both writers still wanted to share their opinions about the current schedule.
Yes, Of Course They Are!
No, They Aren’t.
By Nick Skok
By Sophia Jones
I want to begin by saying that even though I am writing this piece in favor of the heavily jam-packed remote days, I can’t say I enjoyed them. I saw them as a necessary means to eventually getting the Upper School in-person full time. It’s currently 12:01 am on a Monday night, and I’ve been doing loads of homework for the past few hours. It is easily the worst night of my week, preceded by the worst day of my week. But I have the first period free on Tuesday morning, so consider me lucky I guess. Even though Monday is absolutely brutal in all aspects, Tuesday is much better. On Tuesday I am constantly striving for the finish line, which is to have an afternoon free of homework followed by a late sleep day that has no classes. Do I love Wednesdays? Of course, who doesn’t? And then I have two in-person half days to end the week and then the weekend. I don’t think those half-days would be possible without loading my schedule on Monday and Tuesday or potentially getting rid of the Wednesday schedule. T h e Wednesday schedule seems to benefit everyone, so I don’t know why anyone would want to get rid of it. Although Monday is extremely damaging to my eyes, and it seems like my brain is turning to mush at certain times in the day, I think the reward of getting so much free time away from school later in the week has been really beneficial to me. I’d rather have one day where I focus on school and only school, and the other four days of the week I could focus on hobbies and things I enjoy doing outside of school. On Mondays I barely have a lunch period because of senior seminar, but I willingly accept that knowing that the next four days I can actually take time to cook something or order out for lunch. On Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, I can go
day with only three non academic classes? Wednesday’s are relaxing, and I enjoy them as much as anyone, but they are not worth the long virtual days. The schedule was built to give us a chance to be in person for the first time in almost a year. Going in person to classes is exciting and makes me feel hopeful that we can increase our in person time in the future. However, as fun as those classes may be, they’re still only once a week. Added to this is the fact that several of my classes are still functioning virtually, although some of the students are in the building. Sitting on a computer with headphones in an empty classroom is not what I had hoped for when going in person. Perhaps if all my classes were completely in person, the long days would be more worth it. As it is, I have four classes that are actually in person. Two hundred minutes of in person classes as a tradeoff for two seven-and-a-half-hour days strikes me as odd. One or two full days of in person classes could be worth the long days, but a couple hours in the building are not. An obvious fix to this schedule is Wednesday. On Wednesdays I sleep, bake, play with my dog, and catch up on some homework. The concept of hump day is no longer a problem. But the student body can’t deny that Wednesdays are unnecessary. Why do we have school only four days a week? If it is necessary to have a break in the middle of the week, Wednesdays don’t have to be completely changed, but why not add two or three academic classes? Even shortening the two virtual days by a couple of hours would be beneficial. The last fix I propose to the schedule is changing the two half days to a full day. Going to school for a full day would make it more cohesive, cut down on transportation time, and leave an open day in the week. This new day could take the place of Wednesdays, and Wednesdays could become a full day - allowing the classes to take place over three days rather than two.
Cartoon by Maddy Leja.
for a walk at any time in the afternoon, and I have more time to go to the gym. That freedom to do activities outside of school could only have been granted to me if we kept this schedule. Dispersing my classes to all days throughout the week would have given me more time to focus on just school work, and less time to get away from my screen and enjoy parts of my day. I want to reiterate that I am glad we are moving forward with a new schedule, but while I was going through this current schedule I understood the reasoning behind its flaws. If we wanted to eventually go in-person five days a week, we couldn’t do it right away. We had to ease into it, and this was the only way. I’m glad I had this experience, and I’m glad it’s over. No more brutal days but also no more half-days. It’s almost like school is normal again.
“Dispersing my classes to all days throughout the week would have given me more time to focus on just school work, and less time to get away from my screen and enjoy parts of my day.”
“I’d rather have one day where I focus on school and only school, and the other four days of the week I could focus on hobbies and things I enjoy doing outside of school.”
On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I barely go to school. I sleep in until 10:00, go to class for a couple hours, do a bit of homework, and go to sleep. “ These days are free from stress and give me time to do other things during the day. If every school day was like this, I would have no problem with the schedule. But that’s not the case. On Thursday and Friday, I have class from 8:10 to 4:00 with few breaks. By the end of the day, my head is spinning and my eyes sting. I find it difficult to concentrate “ in my last classes of t h e d a y, and almost impossible to motivate myself to do homework. I love the first three days of the week, but are they worth the last two? My answer is no. I am lost on why the administration decided that the students would have no academic classes on Wednesday, half of our academic classes on two days, and then slam us with every class on the last two. A full day in person, rather than two half days, would alleviate some of the stress on the virtual days. Putting academic classes on Wednesday would help as well. Do we need an entire
I am lost on why the administration decided that the students would have no academic classes on Wednesday, half of our academic classes on two days, and then slam us with every class on the last two. ”
Sitting on a computer with headphones in an empty classroom is not what I had hoped for when going in person. ”
The Parker Weekly, Page 10
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Colonel Columns
A MICROSCOPE OF THE MODEL HOME In-Person Programming
LET’S GET REAL Air Pollution in Chicago By Denise Román
By Rosey Limmer
Cartoon by Maddy Leja.
Since COVID-19 cases are down and more and more people receive vaccines each day, Parker has been able to increase the amount of in person programming they are able to offer. Upper Schoolers have shifted from going into the building every other week to every week. Winter and spring sports have been able to practice in person and have games. The senior class was even able to have a scavenger hunt event. However, it is important to note that as programming has increased the administration has not increased the amount of feedback they ask the student body for, which is none. I go to school every Thursday and Friday morning. On Thursdays, I start my day with the Civil Rights Movement, my favorite class to have in the building. I enter a room with Mr. Bigelow and four other students where we have been able to have conversations reminiscent of the learning experience we were used to before the pandemic. Since we have no students on Zoom, Mr. Bigelow is able to take advantage of being in person giving us discussion opportunities unlike those we have had this past year. Being together in person and having a feeling of normalcy in that class has not only made me enjoy the class more but also made me more interested in the material. Whereas some of my other classes don’t make going into the building worthwhile. For some of my classes I am in a classroom with either just a teacher or a teacher and other students all just on our own laptops on Zoom. While I understand the difficulty of cross grade classes or even just balancing between in person and online students, having to sit on Zoom takes away the majority of the aspects that make in person learning worth the heavily taxing schedule.
This cannot be enjoyable for remote students either as the hybrid model often causes remote students to be excluded from much of the in class activities. Teachers often forget to let remote kids into class or see if they have anything to say or ask. I have also felt that the location of your classes impacts your ability to socialize and see people before classes begin or during passing periods. On Thursday when my first class is on the fourth floor, I found that before my first class started I was able to talk with a lot of people I haven’t seen or talked to in almost a year. However, on Friday when my first class was on the third floor, I spent the time between when I entered the building and when my class started sitting in a room with my teacher. While it is a privilege to come into the building at all, it is very unfortunate that the in building experiences differ so extremely that it makes in person learning a worse option for a lot of students. I know that if I didn’t have my one or two amazing in person classes that gave me the opportunity to have true discussion, I don’t think I would choose to come into the building no matter how much I thought I would value being back in the classroom. The senior event we had the first weekend in March was probably the best experience I have had back in building. It allowed me to truly interact and catch up with my peers. I also was able to see parts of the building that I don’t get to see due to hybrid learning. In groups of less than eight, we walked around the hallways looking for clues in a manner reminiscent of how we would travel through the building before the pandemic. It was so nice to be able to have a sense of normalcy during a moment that will become one of my last memories of Parker, but I wish in person classes were able to give me the same feeling of fulfillment.
Once in a while I scroll through my Instagram explore page. Some days I scroll out of boredom, and other days to take a break from homework. Identical to all, my Instagram discovery page houses never-ending squares. The further you scroll, the more your eyes get lost in the content. I like to think every post has a story behind it, and sometimes I can choose to ignore it by not clicking on the picture or focus my attention on it. I rarely find myself clicking on posts that spark feelings of disappointment or anger. Subconsciously, I like clicking on posts that make me laugh or happy. One day, I found myself scrolling through my discovery page and clicked on a post by a Pilsen resident named Mateo Zapata. The post was of a young boy holding a sign that said, “Deny the permit. I want clean air near my school and home.” The post was very powerful and struck feelings of anger and curiosity. After reading the two-paragraph caption, I could not believe that Southeast Chicago residents to this day continue to be denied access to clean air. I had seen the ongoing issue of Southeast neighborhoods protesting for clean air growing up on Univision. Isn’t clean air a basic human right and not a commodity? Is clean air too much to ask for? After seeing the post, I started researching the issue more. I learned that since February 4, hunger strikers, residents, activists, Chicago teenagers, and more have been protesting the move of the General-Iron metal-shredding business from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side of Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot refused to fulfill their demand to withhold issuing a permit needed for General Iron to operate. As a result, a hunger strike campaign to override Lightfoot’s decision started. The campaign was composed of ten residents who refused to eat any solid food until Lightfoot completely changed her decision. Currently, the decision to relocate General-Iron has been postponed because of the backlash Lightfoot has been receiving from Southeast residents. As a friend of Back of the Yards residents, the news didn’t surprise me, but it angered me that for years now, Chicago government officials continue denying clean air to black and brown communities. I couldn’t even imagine how frustrating the situation is for parents and students having to deal with polluted air daily. The health effects of air pollution are serious because microscopic pollutants in the air penetrate our respiratory and cir-
culatory systems which can damage our lungs, heart, or brain. This situation made me reflect on my own experience with access to clean air. I don’t have to worry about pollutants from industrial corporations near Parker when going to school. Additionally, I don’t have to worry about pollutants from industrial corporations near my home since I live on the Westside of the city. Despite the issue not affecting me directly, I want to continue being informed about the issue, sign petitions, and figure out ways to get involved in helping the Southeast side community. Parker students, I urge you to be informed, reflect, and enact change about issues that inspire you to improve our city. More than anything, that you may recognize the privilege that many of us hold in having access to clean air around our communities. Maybe a square on your Instagram discovery page might inspire you to advocate for an issue that matters to you. Let’s live up to our Parker mission statement and be students that “think and act with empathy, courage, and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.”
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Colonel Columns
I’M PRETENDING YOU ASKED Broccoli By Spencer O’Brien What is broccoli? It’s the green monster food that EVERY child hates. It’s tart and green and funky looking, and for some reason, it smells even worse when it’s steamed. So why have generations of parents made their kids eat it? Well, it’s insanely good for you. Like, when we call it a superfood, we literally mean it’s the real reason that Superman has his powers. Santa probably eats it, too. And while we’re on the subject, let’s hear some applause for some other foods that are REALLY good for you: spinach and Brussels sprouts and asparagus and green beans and oh wait… all children everywhere despise these foods. So this begs the question: Now that modern science has pills and gummies and substitutes galore, why still eat these green vegetables? Scientifically speaking, no child should like broccoli. Or any other bitter food for that matter. Broccoli, spinach, and coffee are all acquired tastes. The reason for this is that in the wild, bitter meant poison, and poison oftentimes meant dead. Parents’ reasoning for feeding their child bitter things anyways would be to feed them the necessary nutrients for survival. The only problem nowadays is that science is magic and has developed plenty of supplements that will, theoretically, pump the same essential nutrients into your bloodstream. Sure, it’s hard to get a kid to swallow a pill, but it’s harder to chase your child around the dinner table with a forkful of mush shouting, ‘POPEYE EATS HIS GREENS! WHY CAN’T YOU!?!?’ - a problem I’m sure we’ve all experienced. So why not make lives a little easier? Why not move into the modern age? Well, there’s a reason we’ve had supplements since the ‘70s and still choose real vegetables: Whole foods. And no, I don’t mean the store, I mean what the store wants you to think of when you say their name: Fresh produce grown on a farm in the dirt with worms and stiff, a dewdrop about to fall on to the head of a small, smiling, bug. The benefit of eating real foods is slight but noticeable. For lack of wanting to quote a bunch of numbers here, I’ll sum up the research I read: the body has an easier time breaking down and distributing nutrients when it comes from something like a carrot and not a vitamin C tablet. Extra supplements should only be used if you have some sort of difficulty. Often, the pills are too much for your body to ingest and end up just making a really odd urine sample. This is an odd argument I had in my head with myself. It sounds nasty to survive off of mostly pills for nutrients, but in theory, it’s possible if executed properly. Also, sometimes it could be more costeffective. No matter what you decide, I stand
The Parker Weekly, Page 11
EDITORIAL Year In Review
By “The Parker Weekly”
the first version with four G1s per week. Everyone has different stages of comfort by the fact that EVERY child should have to with returning to the building or adjusting go through the pains of having to run around to so much change, so our immediate the table, refusing to eat a forkful of spinach. reaction as a community should be to make all feel welcome by obeying the safety Most years, we divide trips around the protocols in the building. Just because you sun with New Year’s Eve, the first day of feel comfortable taking off your mask in school, birthdays. In 2021, we measure our the presence of others does not mean that year with tragedies, split it into ‘befores’ the person sitting next to you in math class and ‘afters’. More than a year has passed feels the same. T h e since we started remote learning, the first COVID-19 spike in Chicago, Breonna coronavirus Taylor’s murder, and an increased visibility has affected in Asian hate crimes due to “China Virus” each of us in rhetoric. Your snapchat “a year ago today” is the Parker no longer a shot of Mr. Mahany’s classroom community or a #cafcraves memory, but a video of you differently, trying whipped coffee or recommending a n d w h i l e s o m e Tiger King. Now we have four vaccines available students are for use and a full in-person return, but our able to return to school easily, others naiveté about what this year could turn out to cannot. As we move forward with in-person be is gone. And how could it not be -- we’ve events, classes, and extracurriculars, we watched our government and our city and must continue to provide options and our communities fail us and grapple with opportunities for remote learning students racism, the coronavirus misinformation, and as well. We as a school must grapple with over 500,000 deaths. Systemic and social problems can’t be fixed in a year, but have the blatant inequity that exists within our halls. This inequity was evident before we gotten far enough? COVID-deniers and anti-maskers the pandemic, and as we go back into the spread around the world as quickly as the building post-spring we can’t ignore the coronavirus. Some acknowledged the virus fact that we are privileged enough to go but excused it as “just like the flu” and back in-person, complete with spit tests and others knew the risks of the coronavirus but mostly full classes, while others struggle to vaccinate disregarded t h e i r s o c i a l teachers distancing and have guidelines. enough By the fall, spacing some were within the complaining classroom. of “COVID This fatigue” June will and began mark a to abandon year since r i g i d i t y, even though the risk had not gone away. @fwpanonymous began posting, and then in With a spring vaccine and school rollout, August a year without formal administrative we must stay vigilant for the home stretch, response to their demands. Action against continue to observe social distancing, and injustice and racism has exploded across consider the greater impact of our actions social media feeds, but unless reposted infographics about anti-racism are coupled so everyone can move forward. Returning to in person is part of with personal education on how to be restoring normalcy, but just because school a better ally, the point of the post has life may feel semi-normal does not mean disappeared. Activism comes in many forms that the problems that arose from the – not just infographics or protests – and it pandemic have magically disappeared. We must extend beyond Canva pastels or an still have a social contract to uphold both unread copy of “White Fragility.” Trying to inside and out of the classroom, not just be an activist and bring change can be more for our own physical health but the health draining for BIPOC and other oppressed groups who don’t want to be reminded that of others. It’s harder to stay steady in safety people who look just like them are being measures when our routines are constantly murdered every day. In the past year, social media has shifted, with frequent schedule changes since last March, when Mr. Bruno sent out become an echochamber for the same posts
that without action,are almost meaningless, starting with black squares drowning out substantive information online about the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and protests. Now is not the time to be only a nonracist, not when hate crimes against Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are drastically rising, not when the perpetrators and police claim it was “just a bad day.” Educate yourself and call out hate crimes and systemic racism when it exists, not just when it’s trendy to do so. W e n e e d to start fighting against m o r e than one issue at once or activism will continue to come in ebbs and flows. AAPI hate crimes must be stopped but our activism surrounding police brutality, the environment, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, women’s rights, and more must also continue, with full embrace of the intersections. No advocacy can exist in a vacuum, and solidarity between the oppressed is crucial to mobilize change in our communities and in our nation. Each generation seems to live through a particularly significant event, whether it be the Great Depression or a Great War. We have a choice to view these world changing events as not something passively happening to us, but rather an opportunity to impact the world we’re inheriting. The bookends and themes of our year -- March 13 to March 13, full shut-down to full return, protests in Minnesota to protests in Atlanta -- all have one thing in common: they highlight the pre-existing disparity and inequity that has always defined American life. When we’re nostalgic about learning Chemistry in bed or making a three-course meal during Math, we don’t want to say that we simply lived through racism and a global pandemic. We’ll want to say that we fought for what was just, we wore a mask, and did what we could for our community. We’ll want to say we gave ourselves the space to survive, to breathe, and to process. To say that when year two of the pandemic came around, we didn’t pretend it was normal or that anything would be normal ever again. The milestones both small -- the switch from Google Meet to Zoom, your first saliva sample -- and big have blurred together into a year of discomfort and flux. There’s no neat lesson or moral or even end to the past 365 days, but as we reflect on all the bad and good we’ve absorbed and internalized, we should be ready to build a better, ‘new’ normal together.
“No advocacy can exist in a vacuum, and solidarity between the oppressed is crucial to mobilize change in our communities and in our nation.”
“Just because you feel comfortable taking off your mask in the presence of others does not mean that the person sitting next to you in math class feels the same.”
The Parker Weekly, Page 12
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BENJAMIN KAGAN Continued from page 1
Dick Durbin and the famous “Roomrater” account. The recognition Kagan received has helped more eligible people discover and get help from the group, with doctors Kagan has never been in contact with sending the Angels’ form to patients as a resource for finding a vaccine. Kagan spends many of his nights booking vaccination appointments, communicating with volunteers in his group, and making calls with various contacts to expand his network of vaccine providers, volunteers, and supporters. The Angels have been moving towards partnerships with medical providers to streamline the appointment process. One of Kagan’s first medical partners was Innovative Express Care, a private health clinic that vaccinated almost all Parker’s faculty in February. The two partnered for three events on March 7, 15, and 21. As of March 23, Innovative Express Care is no longer receiving vaccine doses from the City of Chicago after allegedly “misallocating” over 6,000 doses marked for Chicago Public School teachers through a $5 million contract with the city. Now that Innovative cannot supply doses, Kagan is now connected with other providers in Chicago such as Insight Healthcare, Instavaxx, and a doctor at Advocate Health. Direct access to providers’ vaccination appointment databases both simplifies the registration process for Kagan and his volunteers and helps to vaccinate more people. “It’s been much more beneficial to go through and organize these mass vaccination events where I can book 100 people,” Kagan said. “When we’re organizing these mass vaccination events, it makes it much easier on us to not be hunting down these appointments.” After reading about Kagan in the “Chicago Tribune,” Dr. Rahul Khare MD, owner of Innovative Express Care, connected with Kagan’s Angels via a post to the larger Facebook page. “I actually put
a post on there about, ‘Hey, guys, here’s a little bit of the other side of what you guys are dealing with,’” Khare said. “Which got a tremendous amount of views and clicks and questions.” Khare is passionate about prioritizing vaccinating people and communities in need, which he expressed to Kagan. He offered 150 vaccination spots a week to the Angels, with a stipulation: “I want 65 and older, and I want the Black and brown community, Black and brown people to get it,” Khare said. “And most importantly, in certain zip codes … Based on science, those are the ones that are higher risk.” Khare noted especially the difficulty with which e l d e r l y populations h a v e i n obtaining vaccination appointments through online portals such as the one Innovative Express Care utilizes. Khare also admired the work Kagan as been doing to help people find COVID-19 vaccinations. “It’s a selfless act that fills a huge need,” Khare said. “And then when you talk to him, he’s a really nice guy.” Moving forward, Kagan plans to expand his vaccination efforts in the way he expanded working with Innovative Express Care—partnering directly with local organizations and care providers. “We’re always trying to forge these partnerships with community organizations. But, everything’s a work-in-progress,” Kagan said. “Forging big partnerships takes time.” As of now Kagan has partnered with Chicago non-profit “My Block, My Hood, My City,” a community organization
“supporting under-resourced communities,” according to their website, to provide vaccinations to people in heavily affected communities. Kagan hopes that by working with organiztions such as My Block, My Hood, My City, and with hospitals, his group can more quickly and easily provide vaccination appointments to a greater number of people. “We’re always looking to expand these partnerships, because, to a certain extent, we can’t just go in and continue going, one appointment, one appointment, one appointment.” Until then, the Chicago Vaccine Angels will continue to book single appointments as necessary. P a r k e r senior Alex Schapiro got vaccinated in phase 1b as a camp counselor. Schapiro joined Kagan’s team of volunteers to make sure those who most needed the vaccine could also get access. “I felt bad because I’m not totally high risk,” Schapiro said. “I don’t want to steal from people so I’m like, ‘oh, let me reach out to Ben.’” According to Schapiro, the team of volunteers is supportive and focused on helping each other, which Schapiro attributes in part to Kagan’s leadership. “Most of the job is interacting with people way older than him,” Schapiro said. “I think it’s super admirable for him to be able to do that as a 14-year-old kid.” Both Schapiro and Kagan have helped eligible Parker community members get vaccinated through the Vaccine Angels program. “Teachers have reached out to me saying, ‘my mother’s 85 years old, and she’s unvaccinated—go,’” Kagan said. “How
“The key word is gratifying... To go in there and say, ‘here’s your vaccine,’ it just feels incredible.”
is this person not vaccinated? How has someone not already gone and helped you?” An anonymous Parker senior girl was able to get vaccinated with Kagan’s assistance as a 1B camp counselor, like Schapiro and many other Parker seniors. “I worked with Benjamin Kagan who helped me look for appointments and helped me understand my eligibility within the Chicago system,” she said via email. “I didn’t know I was eligible until Benjamin told me I could get a Pfizer. Originally it was hard because I am not 18 yet.” The senior looks forward to the expansion to 1C on March 29. “We are lucky at Parker that so many of our students are so well informed about the vaccination system and are able to help walk others through the process,” she said. “We have so many great resources in the building, teachers and peers, who are helping us navigate the system.” Kagan himself is not eligible to be vaccinated.“Personally, if I was over 16, I know the tricks to camping out at vaccine sites, and I probably would have been vaccinated,” Kagan said. Throughout the vaccine rollout in Illinois, Kagan has believed that if a 15-year-old is doing the government’s job, it’s a failure of leadership. Kagan agrees that Parker taught him how to take action in times of crisis like these. “I saw this thing that was wrong,” Kagan said. “I knew that I had to speak up about it, and so I did, and Parker has played a role in that.” While Schapiro believes Kagan is acting as a ‘global citizen’ in part because of Parker values, it’s also unique to who he is as a person. “The skills he has, to be able to talk to these pharmacies, health care providers, and these elderly people definitely extends from Parker’s ability to instill that within people,” Schapiro said, “but he also has a lot of drive on his own that I don’t know if Parker can teach.” Kagan sums up his whole experience with one word: “The key word is gratifying,” he said. “To go in there and say, ‘here’s your vaccine,’ it just feels incredible.”
ESCAPE ROOM Continued from page 5
much of a community we are,” Friedes said. To Friedes, the purpose of the event was more about the seniors’ ability to be in the building together. “I was shooting for clever, but not frustrating. I was not 100% successful with 100% of the people, but on the whole, I felt pretty good about the balance we were able to strike,” Friedes said, “Ultimately, this wasn’t about the activity itself.” The event took a month of full-time planning from Friedes. She had to think about a variety of ciphers and projects she could enact to help the seniors to best use the space. However, because of the coronavirus, they only had access to the Upper School areas.
“Because of how carefully it was done it went over really well,” Bruno said, “and it was so wonderful seeing the excitement, the comradery, the sportspersonship that exuded from the students.” One of the most challenging parts of planning it was the logistical unknowns. “I did not know if it was difficult, I did not know if it was easy, if it was clever to them, or if it was boring to them,” Friedes said, “so the unknowing of what they would be interested in and what level of difficulty I could put in.” Bruno believes that it was a huge deal to be able to get the seniors into the building.
“I think getting students into the building in such a creative way was a huge success, as I’m sure you can imagine seniors have especially had a tough year knowing that this is their last year at Parker,” Bruno said. Hoerr enjoyed the event and the potential that came with it. “It definitely gives me hope for more in-person events just because it worked out so well,” Hoerr said. The event was perceived well by members of the community and was very successful. “There was a lot of great energy, gratitude, students were really gracious, a lot of thank yous. Everyone listened well, so that was a big success. And they had a lot
of fun while doing it,” Bruno said. The event got a huge positive response from parents and students alike. “It was an outpouring of gratitude from the students and the parents in a way that overwhelmed me,” Friedes said, “I teared up on the day watching how well it was working because I was really moved by how much the students seemed to appreciate it. They thanked me afterwards individually.”
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COLLINS
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Break, Collins had the opportunity to visit St. Paul for final round interviews at SPA. “From the very beginning she soared to the top of the pool,” Roberts said. “There was a vibrance and an energy to her application. She has a subtle understanding of the rhythm of schools and what a teacher does and how students learn that just leapt off the page. To me, we were clearly dealing with a master teacher.” Upper School English teacher Mike Mahany helped to hire Collins in 2006 and has worked alongside her. “She, more than anyone else, has pushed the English department in terms of teaching a variety of voices, not just having white authors and white protagonists,” Mahany said. “She has made us challenge ourselves, and urged us to evaluate our book choices and she has worked hard to come up with different and creative ways to look at literature.” “I am really happy that my mom is going to be a principal, the title definitely suits her,” senior and daughter Ada Collins said. “I know that she can thrive in any environment and while this change may present some problems, she will embrace and enjoy the experience.”
RUPANI
Continued from page 1 head Olivia Hanley, after interviewing the candidates, the committee members gave feedback through a form. “She was definitely my favorite,” Hanley said regarding Rupani in the interview process. “She’s involved in a lot of DEI work, which I think is something that is valuable, coming into the position, and she was super honest throughout the interview.” At the end of Rupani’s interview, she was given the opportunity to ask questions to the students, and asked about @fwpanonymous -- an Instagram account created over the summer which posted anonymously submitted stories and experiences of discrimination at Parker, specifically racism, sexism, classism, harassment, homophobia, and xenophobia. “It wasn’t what I was expecting,” Hanley said. “They usually ask ‘what’s your favorite thing about Parker,’ but I admired that she was willing to ask those questions that normally aren’t asked.” Hanley also noted the specificity of Rupani’s answers to questions that normally receive general and broad replies. “The hiring process was wonderful,” Rupani said. “It felt purposeful, it felt efficient, but not too fast.” Through Rupani’s hiring process, she was able to gain insight on the school. “I felt like I got a really good sense of the diversity work that happens to Parker, the curricular work, the whole 360 view of the school,” Rupani said. “I remember walking around during my interview process on a tour, and just feeling
a sense of home already.” According to Frank, Rupani’s role in the school “touches all different kind of groups,” and some of her responsibilities will be joining the Corinthian Council, Educational Council, the Teaching and Learning Council, working with DEI facilitators, as well as working with Frank, the chairs of the parents association, and the faculty association. “We feel extremely fortunate that her personal dispositions and her intellectual a n d professional interests, and training and education, are all coming to P a r k e r, a n d in a role that will allow her to have an expanded reach across all grade levels,” Frank said. Among her many responsibilities, Rupani hopes to continue her DEI work at Parker, building on her previous experiences. “No matter what role I have, I will be a diversity practitioner,” Rupani said. “I hope to just continue to support and build upon the diversity work that’s happening and to be thinking about how some of the things that I was able to steward at Lab I can transfer over to Parker in ways that feel authentic to Parker as a community.” Hanley also noted Rupani’s previous experience in DEI and how that will aid her work a t P a r k e r. “I think her background in DEI is going to be huge for Parker,” Hanley said. “I think she’s going to place a big emphasis on highlighting voices that might be underrepresented... I’m excited to see what she does.” Prior to being hired by Parker, Rupani previously served as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools since 2018. Rupani attended the University of Chicago Laboratory’s High School and believed that her “career path was really instilled” in her while in high school. In high school, she attended the National Association of Independent School’s Student Diversity Leadership Conference that was influential on her discovering her career goals. “That was one of the most impactful experiences I’ve ever had,” Rupani said. “It was a conference that
allowed me to better understand myself and my own identity and really got me on the path of thinking about doing diversity work in schools.” Rupani received her B.A. from Northwestern University, and as a sophomore in college, Rupani reconnected with the Student Diversity Leadership Conference and joined the faculty in 2007. She then moved to Philadelphia and j o i n e d Te a c h for America Philadelphia Corps, teaching mathematics at Mastery Charter Thomas Campus, while simultaneously earning her M.S.Ed from the University of Pennsylvania. She then taught African-American History at the same school. From there, Rupani served as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Social Justice at the Friends School of Baltimore, in her first administration position. “That was super powerful, too,” Rupani said. “It was my first administrative position getting to do what I’d wanted to do full time. And at a school that had a deep connection to social justice.” At Parker, another goal of Rupani is to get to know and connect with the students. “The reason I work in schools is to work with students,” Rupani said. “I know this role might be more adult facing, and I’m excited about that too. But definitely excited to support young people... student voice can be really prioritized in everything.” Rupani’s desire to connect with the community was evident to both Hanley and Frank. “It’s always great to have someone who’s eager and enthusiastic to do that,” Frank said. “So I really look forward to that. That kind of Parker spirit.” “I’m ready for the next professional experience, ready to be at Parker,” Rupani said. “I’m ready for the next professional career move and to influence schools from this role.”
“I remember walking around during my interview process on a tour, and just feeling a sense of home already.”
“I think she’s going to place a big emphasis on highlighting voices that might be underrepresented... I’m excited to see what she does.”
The Parker Weekly, Page 13
FWPMUN Continued from page 1
to being able to go into the building as an assistant chair and interact in a more normal way with students.” The conference was open to schools across the city of Chicago including Lane Tech and St Ignatius. “I wanted there to be rich and lively debate in all the committees,” Wrubel said. “I really wanted an emphasis on hosting as many schools as possible because I really wanted FWPMUN to continue to grow as a conference year over year. I hope to see a progression and to see Parker host even more delegates in years to come, and I wanted to continue that trend of growth.” FWPMUN was on Saturday, March 20 with opening ceremonies starting at 9 a.m. and closing ceremonies ending at 3:30 p.m.. Students serving on FWPMUN staff arrived at 8:30 a.m. for set up and left before 4 p.m. after clean up. “Most importantly I wanted everyone to leave without the feeling as if they had wasted a day and that they enjoyed their conference,” Wrubel said. O’Connor went in person for FWPMUN V and felt that choice was rewarding. “I think this was a good first step for Parker to host something in person,” O’Connor said. “I think in the future other clubs could work and try to make more events like it because it went really successfully as well as being safe and well planned out.” This year, the team faced some challenges involving the new online format of FWPMUN, but they found some things were made easier by this adaptation. “We were on pace to increase the size of the conference by 25% from last year,” Wrubel said. “Just because of the online format it was a little bit difficult to retain the same number of delegates, but we realized there was a hidden benefit in changing to an online format. We found we could reach a broader range of delegates and schools.” With the switch to the conference online, they were able to include students from schools who otherwise may not have made a drive to the conference on Parker’s campus but this year could easily join on Zoom. Other minor challenges happened on the conference day itself. In Crisis Committees like Kahan’s, delegates are able to reach out to head chairs with crisis notes about debate. “At times it was overwhelming to receive these Crisis notes on email,” Kahan said. “I would receive five in a row, but once I started to take some time and respond when I had a moment, everything went smoothly.” “My biggest takeaway from the day was seeing just how excited you can get people about Model UN,” Kahan said. “When we were doing “fun mun” at the end of our conference, I heard a lot of people say they were first time crisis delegates and that they really had a great time, would absolutely do it again, and that some of them would even consider chairing. I really love crisis committees, I love Model UN, and was happy we could inspire people to be interested in it and have fun.”
The Parker Weekly, Page 14
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Even More Continuations FALL/SPRING SPORTS Continued from page 4
shortened by 30 minutes to limit exposure since the team practices in the gym and not outside like the rest of the spring sports. When the team splits up into either JV or varsity, the team will be in pods. To limit exposure when the team travels, there will be multiple buses for the team to limit how many people are on the bus at once. Another precaution the athletic department is taking to keep the volleyball team safe are only playing schools with the same coronavirus measures as Parker. “The schools we play have to have split testing,” Ostrom said. “Another precaution I can think of are electronic whistles, which are extremely loud and kinda annoying. They definitely hurt your ears a lot.” The volleyball team’s first game was Wednesday, March 17. “It definitely seems a little rushed considering we have only had a little more than a week of practice, and we have yet to go over a lot of the important information,” Ostrom said, “but
GRANDPARENTS AND SPECIAL FRIENDS Continued from page 5 to make it interactive,” Jervey said. “The basic format was we sent every participant a packet of crafting type things, and I think the one that had a longer lasting effect was the postcards. We sent them all blank postcards with a little drawing activity, and then they got to send the postcards to their grandparent or grandchild. So the morning happened, and they’re drawing and interacting with each other, and then the idea was a few days later everyone would get a postcard in the mail from their family members,” Jervey said. Many of the products of Grandparents and Special Friends day are connected, such as mailing the postcard that was created and using the magnet for the postcard. Jervey mentioned the connection as well. “It was a cute way to extend the day if you will,” Jervey said. Jervey described how providing a time for people to connect was important. “I think offering, even just a virtual space, virtual zoom links, for people who are international or just not in the Chicago area and can’t travel to come to this, would be a really great addition
I am extremely optimistic about it.” Ostrom is not only a volleyball captain, but she is also a softball captain, and she will have to split her time equally between the two teams. “I wish I would be able to dedicate my time entirely to either team, but I am sure we will figure out a way to work through it. I am also nervous that I may have games scheduled for both sports on the same day which would definitely be a problem” Ostrom said, “Luckily, I think the two seasons only overlap for two or three weeks, but for those weeks it will definitely be a challenge.” This year, the volleyball team has many new players. “I am super excited for the rest of the season! I have been looking forward to getting on the court again for such a long time. I also think this is going to be a great building year for the team,” Ostrom said. Wells Gjerlow is one of the many freshmen playing soccer this spring. As a freshman he has never experienced what a
season without the coronavirus looks like. It has also been harder for him to adjust to high school since he has had minimal interactions with other high school students. The soccer team started off the season with a member testing positive for the coronavirus resulting in eight players having to quarantine for 10 days. That set the team back a couple days, but “they are continuing to improve as a team,” Gjerlow said. To keep the team healthy, the coaches and team are frequently asked to socially distance and sanitize. Additionally, student-athletes’ temperatures are taken upon arrival and they are asked an array of questions to make sure they have no symptoms. “There are a lot of players that will have overlapping sports, and they have had their practices after soccer which can be very tiring,” Gjerlow said. The soccer practices consist of mostly drills, scrimmages, and running as of now. The 2021 season is Gjerlow’s first year playing high school
soccer. “Teams are fewer people and drills are split up among multiple groups,” Gjerlow said, comparing his middle school experience to high school. “But I am very excited about the coming season and playing more in general.” As a freshman, it can be stressful, but Gjerlow expresses that everyone on the team is very helpful and nice. So far Gjerlow has had a very enjoyable and positive season. “The coaches have been optimistic and repeating the idea of making the most of the time we have for this season,” Gjerlow said. Though the coronavirus altered and cancelled many things at Parker, with the help of the administration, the coaches, and the athletic department, Parker was able to have all of the sports this year. Even if seasons were cut short or moved, the student-athletes will continue to play Parker sports this year. The student-athletes have adjusted to their routine in order to keep everyone on the team safe and healthy.
to grandparents day,” Jervey said. Jervey described how in future years, maybe a virtual component can be included in the program as well. Jervey also expressed what one of the main focuses was throughout the planning. “Our message to everybody this year was a whole lot of fingers crossed we can do this in-person next year, thanks for being flexible, and so many people were just so appreciative that we were able to do something for them,” Jervey said. There were different formats considered as a way to approach the event. “We were going to do a 10 a.m. session too, with Kids Science Labs to do a project,” said Molzberger. “We decided not to do the science lab because it one, wasn’t displaying Parker, and two, it was not consistent with what Parker was doing for remote days. We wanted to take into consideration what students in lower grades could manage and not overburden parents. Students in the lower grades do better with shorter time on screens and more breaks. If we had held a session with Kids Science Labs it would have meant three straight hours on Zoom,” Molzberger said via Email. Since the event took place in a virtual format, it ensured more space and flexibility for grandparents and special friends to join. Some people participating in the Zoom event even made connections. “But sometimes we had a couple of people meet before the breakout rooms and they knew each other,” Molzberger said. The pandemic has compromised
the ability to communicate in-person and technology has helped connect and bridge different aspects of life such as communication with a family member or a friend. “Another silver lining is that several grandparents logged in and said they hadn’t seen their grandkid since the pandemic started.” Molzberger described the challenges of multigenerational connection especially in a pandemic. “I think it’s so hard for grandparents and grandchildren at those ages to connect and have something to talk about. Younger kids just aren’t as articulate or know how to keep the conversation going, so I think having the crafts projects also give you an activity or way for them to bond via Zoom,” Molzberger said. Similarly to the development office, Johnson believes that including more people through a virtual format was successful and a positive experience. “It was great for grandparents who live far away, aren’t very mobile, wouldn’t feel safe coming into an environment that they can’t get around in easily, or if a grandparent is sick, they could still attend the virtual event, and they wouldn’t have to miss out on this special opportunity with their grandchild,” Johnson said. As Grandparents and Special Friends Dayday also serves as an opportunity to share classwork and projects that students have been focusing on throughout the year, teachers have helped fill that void of communication the pandemic has created through many different platforms. Some
means of communication include, blogs, newsletters, and padlet, all expressing classroom activities. “The teachers have various ways of sharing the growth and learning that takes place in the classroom. We send out a weekly newsletter,” Johnson said. Johnson further explained the importance of communication during the pandemic. “The communications are even more important since parents can’t come into the school this year. We want them to have a glimpse into the classrooms, and we can do this through photos and stories. Another form of communication is the weekly email “This Week @ Parker.” The JK team has shared a few grade wide projects through this format.” Johnson said. “I was grateful for the virtual Grandparents and Special Friends Day both as a parent and a teacher because it truly is a special time for grandparents and their grandchildren,” Johnson said. As grandparents and special friends day was widely appreciated, the development office is looking to have another interactive event. “Possibly another event we usually do with grandparents in the spring time is dinner and a movie,” Jervey said. Another possibility that was discussed was also a drive-in movie theatre type-event. “I would love to see the Development office host both a virtual and an in-person event for the grandparents and special friends and their grandchildren every year,” Johnson said.
“zoom links, for people who are international or just not in the Chicago area and can’t travel to come to this, would be a really great addition to grandparents day.”
“I was grateful for the virtual Grandparents and Special Friends Day both as a parent and a teacher because it truly is a special time for grandparents and their grandchildren,”
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WILKERSON
Wow! Even More??
“She was very thorough, and very invested, and very engaged,” Johnson said. Science Department Co-Chair and Seventh-Grade Science teacher, Angela Miklavcic Brandon said that Isabel Wilkerson has offered a “new framework for thinking about what’s on many people’s minds right now, as we talk about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, White Supremacy, racism,” and she was hopeful that the new framework would help more people start to understand those topics in a more meaningful way. Miklavcic read “The Warmth of Other Suns,” years ago and she regards it as one of her favorite books. She was excited to read Wilkerson’s new book and after hearing about a chance to hear her speak, Miklavcic “knew [she] wanted to participate.” Junior Tara Cochrane and her classmates were required to go to the Isabel Wilkerson
event by their history teacher, Jeanne Barr. Cochrane said that Wilkerson had been “really interesting to listen to.” As a halfIndian student, she appreciated Wilkerson’s illustration of the connection between the treatment of BIPOC in US history and the treatment of lower castes in the caste system of India. Cochrane brought up the value of hearing different perspectives, especially of people who have become experts in a certain topic. This educational luxury is partially provided by articles and books but in order to really engage with a new perspective, Cochrane thought that a live event was necessary. “I know no one likes to go to something that’s required,” she said, “but just sometimes it is a good thing to do because we do host some interesting people.” One week after the event, there was a chance for reflective discussion and deeper dialogue between attendees of the first event. Roughly 70 or 80 educators, parents, students, and others showed up to be split
into breakout rooms of about five people each. Attendees had in-depth discussions framed around the questions that Wilkerson had been asked at the event a week before. Johnson explained that in the breakout rooms, it had initially been “awkward” trying to have a deep conversation with strangers, but after settling in and identifying everyone’s perspectives, she was able to have a productive and meaningful discussion. “It’s kind of scary,” Johnson said, “but I think it’s important and it’s always great to hear other people’s stories and experiences around DEI work both personally and professionally.” Miklavicic said that although she would be leaving Parker after this year, she hopes to use the ideas from “Caste,” and have them inform future discussions at Parker. She and Seventh-Grade history teacher, Anthony Shaker, annually teach an identity unit that discusses many different facets of identity including race, gender, age, and ability. Miklavcic plans on talking to Shaker about how “Caste” and/or its teachings can be
POETRY
MS MUSICAL
DRUGER
The poem is set in New York City in the 1970s, specifically centered around the 1971 thriller, “Klute.” “The poem was really about imagination and being inspired about something you see or hear. In this case, inspired by an actor in a movie,” Adami said. The Community Celebration of Poetry is an occasion not directed towards a specific age group. All members of the Parker community were welcome, which makes it vital for participants to recognize the need for censorship within their work. “I definitely felt like I should share something more friendly to the entire community,” Polsky said. “I think the event being open to the entire community affected what I was choosing to share. But, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.” Adami enjoyed the wide variance in age and poetry writing experience. “It ran the gamut of ages and backgrounds, from amateurs to more seasoned poets,” Adami said. “It was a really nice mix, and everyone brought great work.” “I enjoyed the event. There was a vast variety of people in attendance and the readers ranged from lower schoolers to frequently published writers,” Mehta said. “I loved to hear the different perspectives and to measure the similarities between them.” Laufer conveyed his appreciation for the poetry writing style, “I think that these days, especially, it’s hard to find time to smile and to explore one’s imagination, humor, and empathy in ways that aren’t crushingly nerve wracking. I think it’s a chance to kind of slow down and enjoy each other’s company, enjoy our own playfulness for a change, and to connect,” Laufer said. “Parker’s done a pretty good job of bringing us together in creative ways and this is another chance for that.”
As Denien puts it, the new format has “stretched all of us creatively to figure out how everything can work and fit together.” Park shares a similar perspective. “The fact that they’ve been able to do this with all the people who are virtual is astounding,” Park said. On top of her lead role, Park also brought with her an additional cast member: her goldendoodle, Rosie, who plays the role of Annie’s dog, Sandy. The hard work put in by the production team and student performers will come to fruition with a final video of the show. It will be shared with the Parker community on a Vimeo platform on opening night in late April, and remain available for viewing the following week. “One thing that keeps us going is knowing that this is something that the kids are actually enjoying, and in the end, they’ll have this final product,” O’Brien said. “We know how privileged we are to be doing something that most people cannot do right now due to the pandemic and we are grateful for this.”
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in SG to get more info about the role,” Ori said. “The communication aspect of online learning made help super accessible for those interested. Just a private chat away! No more gaining up the courage to stop a senior in the hallways in front of everyone or anything like that.” Since Druger has been ratified by the student body, she is already working with her fellow heads to run Pride committee for the remainder of second semester. “We are working a little bit on having more people speak,” Druger said. “One of the really big things I was trying to get introduced was getting more speakers and hosting speaker events. I also think, coming forward from COVID, maybe getting some in-person events might be nice.” Members of Cabinet were delighted when Druger ran for Pride head, especially since she was a freshman brand new to the Student Government system. “I as well as the rest of Cabinet feel it’s important and amazing when freshmen get involved, although getting involved doesn’t mean
The Parker Weekly, Page 15
incorporated into the unit. Miklavcic said that “Caste” could also be a good addition to Parker’s efforts to give more parent offerings. Like other independent schools, Parker’s student population is predominantly white and underrepresents BIPOC, which creates the need for a greater focus on teaching antiracism and other subjects that help students and community members be more aware. Another school partnered with New Roads will host an event at some point in the future with Bettina Love, who recently authored the book, “We Want to Do More Than Survive.” Johnson noted that some groups at Parker will be reading the book, somewhat coincidentally. “Everyone needs to know the true history of what each group has contributed to this country,” Wilkerson said as the final note of the event. “We’re not getting the full picture and therefore we don’t know how to process people as we come across them because we don’t know the full history.” having a position, but at this point in the year, having a freshman run, we were all just thrilled and excited,” Wagner said. “I would always stress the fact that being involved in Student Government doesn’t mean having a position, but also that positions can mean stuff if it’s inequitable.” Ori hopes that Druger’s ratification will also encourage members of the freshman class to try to get involved in Student Government in the future. “I hope her initiative and confidence sets precedent for all other freshmen who want to pursue the leadership roles they are excited about,” Ori said. Now that the special election is over, Druger is excited to serve in her new role as Pride head. “I definitely think this has been a really cool and positive experience and I would be interested in running again in the spring as a Pride head,” Druger said. “I definitely think that when you see an opportunity in Student Government, whether that be applying for non-elected positions as a freshman, you should take that experience because you can learn so much from it.”
OPINION FROM AN ATHLETE Continued from page 8 we would usually have. These missing hours of practicemeanwe are missing time to incorporate enough of the things vital to our success: conditioning, getting used to playing together again, getting into real game scenarios at practice, and so much more. The odds are stacked against us this year, but these less than ideal situations have been placed upon everyone throughout this past year, and now we have to show up and deal with it as best as we can. This season is prompting the same question from all of us: what does this all
mean for next year? My belief is that good things are to come. The biggest difference that comes to mind in terms of next season is we usually will start our season after not playing for an entire year, but next season, the break between one season to another will be significantly shorter than usual, leaving less time to lose skills and good habits. In addition to this, things can only go up from here. Our seasons this year have been significantly shorter than average. Hopefully next year we should be back to full seasons. An entire season to grow to the
extent that we usually have the opportunity to will be infinitely beneficial. While this year was challenging, frustrating, and unpredictable, I would do it all again because the good parts have outweighed the bad. In the end, growth, good relationships, and of course a good time is all that I need from my season, and I feel that I have already gotten all of those things.
The Parker Weekly, Page 16
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