Lakota East Spark 2015-6 Issue 2

Spark Lakota East High School lakotaeastspark.com Sept. 30, 2015 $5 Newstand

SHIF T INTO GEAR

THE COLORBLIND GENERATION With passion at the peak of its appeal, motocross racers like East senior Allyson Williams Characterized by implicit biases and subconscious insensitivities, are faced with severe injuries and harsh time commitments in order to reach the top races.

millennials struggle to separate equality from ignorance.

2 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

CONTENTS issue #166

14 20 32 58 62 70

learning outdoors

cool place

plus a little extra

preparatory

east cheerleading

kicking up the dust

East science teacher Mark Folta is continuing the courtyard project to create an outdoor classroom.

Nestled in downtown Hamilton, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum is a neat place to go exploring.

East junior Bradyn Tedesco saves time and money in his future college career by utilizing the College Credit Plus program.

Also known as preppy, this style of clothing is taking over the dainty yet spunky closets of both teenagers and young adults.

East senior Hannah Reardon has enjoyed her four years at East and is excited to continue to pursue competitive cheer.

East sophomore Dustin Horter ran the fifth lowest time of any freshman in the country, and he is continuing to impress this year.

Spark 2015-2016 STAFF

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Nina Brillhart

Brittany Meister

Christine Shi

Maddie Weikel

MANAGING EDITORS Design Christine Shi

News Nina Brillhart

Package Maddie Weikel

Co-Culture Katy Johnson

Broadcast Emma Stiefel Co-Culture Christine Shi

Feature Brittany Meister Sports Aly Thomas

Photography Sydney Rader Opinion Kelly Krajewski

Art Manjot Kalkat Infographics Manjot Kalkat

EDITORS News Vincent Galioto Package Erinn Aulfinger Sports Allie Church

News Emma Stiefel Package Michelle Chu Opinion Cara Satullo

Feature Alyssa Hetterich

Photography Cara Sieber

Package Cristina Francisco

Culture Loryn Flowers

Opinion Victoria Negron

Infographics Cassia Chryssovergis Co-Copy Maddie Weikel

Art Sarah Aftab

Photography Richard Giang Culture Lauren Wilson Art Julia Sanders

Infographics Sophia Chryssovergis Co-Copy Katy Johnson

BUSINESS TEAM Business Director Nina Brillhart

Co-Fundraising Manager Kaily Hauck Business Collaborator Emma Presar

Co-Fundraising Manager Madeline Alsip

Public Relations Dillon Horter

Business Collaborator Sarah Mullins

WEBMASTER Emma Presar

ADVISOR Dean Hume

CONTACT US c/o Lakota East High School 6840 Lakota Lane Liberty Township, OH 45044 (513) 759-8615 ext. 15118 www.lakotaeastspark.com lakotaeastspark16@gmail.com Spark is a publication that is produced at Lakota East High School. The magazine is completely non-profit and student-generated through the efforts of the Journalism I, Journalism II and Journalism III-Honors classes. The publication material may not always reflect the views of the Lakota Local School District or the publication as a whole. Content is controlled and edited by the staff editors. The staff will publish only legally protected speech adhering to the legal definitions of libel, obscenity and invasions of privacy. The publication is produced every five weeks on recycled paper. Production costs are recovered through advertising, subscription sales and fundraisers. The purpose of Spark is to inform the students, faculty, and community members of news, information and issues that may influence or affect them.

4 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

to and from the editor | opinion

JOIN THE CLUB

Spark ED BOARD While entering the 2015-16 school year, it became apparent to students that their level of involvement in school activities would come at a much higher price. Since 2010, club cards at East have risen in price from $10 to $30, and now $50. With this price increase, students are struggling to salvage their resume without emptying out their wallets.

This decision was made under the notion that an increased net price would encourage students to join multiple clubs. With this consideration in mind, the club card seems like a good deal for some students; however, those who are stuck paying the same fee for just one club are suffering. Extracurriculars are known to enhance a student’s high school experience. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports 30.6 percent of seniors who participate in one or more clubs have a GPA of 3.0 or higher compared to only 10.8 percent of seniors who don’t, and this opportunity is being robbed from those who can no longer meet the financial requirements.

While this increase in price has not been shown to reduce club participation, students with less to offer financially are constantly handed the short end of the stick. Whether it be sports or extra study tools, those who have less money are presented with larger barriers in achieving their goals. The increase in club card prices is just another example of this. Schools should work to provide as many programs for

everyone to benefit from instead of creating ones that favor some but limit the opportunities of others.

Other schools, including Lakota West High School, have taken a different approach to funding clubs. Rather than have students purchase a club card, West students have to pay a separate fee for each club that they join. This ensures that students are paying a fair amount that correlates directly with what they get out of the program. Those who wish to join more clubs are expected to pay more money, and those who join fewer are expected to pay less. William Mason High School students pay no fees in order to participate in clubs because they are funded completely by the district.

While the decision to increase the price of club cards could result in a better deal for some students, the most fair approach could be to have separate fees for each club. With a system like this, it is guaranteed that the price will truly reflect the experience that the student is receiving, and also it will help to make clubs an affordable activity for all students.

On its own, $50 doesn’t seem outrageous, but combined with school fees, sports, house payments, taxes and other bills, it can easily become too much. In order to protect the educational experience of all students and provide an equal opportunity for everyone, East is in need of a new system for funding clubs.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR COMMUNITY Dear Spark, As my first semester of college flashes by in a haze of midterm grades and sleepless nights, I’m reminded of my time spent as a staff member of Lakota East High School’s pride and joy: your publication.

While it’s only been approximately five months since I left the cramped newsroom known as the “Spark Lab”, it’s truly awe-inspiring to see the improvements you’ve made to the entire newsmagazine. To be

ON THE COVER Extreme sports are entertaining to watch and unbelievably thrilling for anyone who dares to master the art of the adrenaline-pumping danger. With ultimate highs, however, come devastating lows, and the sport of motocross has altered the course of many teens’ lives, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.

Spark takes a look at one student’s story.

photography sydney rader

Spark SHIF T INTO GEAR

With passion at the peak of its appeal, motocross racers like East senior Allyson Williams are faced with severe injuries and harsh time commitments in order to reach the top races.

quite honest, I am truly jealous that the paper has grown and evolved into such a professional, educational and informative work of art.

This advancement is no doubt the product of your dedicated staff ’s countless days, weeks, months and (for some) years spent working to make the Spark the nationally acclaimed student publication it is.

Thanks for everything you have done for me, and good luck.

— Ellen Kasik, East Alum

Spark ONLINE

Follow more stories at www.lakotaeastspark.com to keep up with the latest school, district and community news and learn more about indepth topics covered by the Spark staff.

The Spark encourages letters to the editor, letters can be sent to the publication at lakotaeastspark16@gmail.com or delivered to room 118 at the Lakota East main campus. Letters must be signed, and the staff reserves the right to edit the letters for length, grammer, invasion of privacy, obscenity or potential libel. The opinion editors will contact writers for confirmation.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS BRITTANY MEISTER

photography colin melick

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s soon as I hit junior high, I realized that my teachers, family members and friends would be continually shoving the idea of applying to, and succeeding in, college down my throat.

Starting with computer-generated tests in eighth grade to show us what “career clusters” we fit into best, I could tell college was something that could make or break my future. But sometimes binary code can’t tell someone their ideal future path.

To this day, I still haven’t decided on where my steps after high school will take me or what I plan on doing for the rest of my life, and I’m not alone. An estimated 20 to 50 percent of students enter college as “undecided,” according to Penn State’s Division of Undergraduate Studies, and an estimated 75 percent of students change their major at least once before graduation.

Colleges often make the mistake of assuming that a 17-yearold will know which career path to choose. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 80 percent of students entering college in the United States are not certain what they want to major in, and even if they have declared a major, they end up changing that major at least once.

Once a high school student reaches that momentous decision of where to attend college or university, the usual course of study for college freshman concentrates on required coursework, taken by everyone, no matter their major. Colleges should lift some of that pressure from the shoulders of freshman, trusting that the first year of college will provide ample opportunities to discover interests, reflect upon available majors, and experience real world learning opportunities.

As the number of students who change their majors during college, student debt has skyrocketed within the past few years as more of the burden of paying for school has shifted from the government to the students. As college graduates of the class of 2015 take on life after college, they can take little comfort in the fact that they will have acquired the largest student debt in history.

On average, the class of 2015 will each graduate with $35,051 in student debt, according to an analysis by Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of Edvisors, a website that provides information to parents and students about college costs and financial aid.

It’s no wonder that more students are choosing to attend community colleges, take a gap year, or not go to college at all, according to Market Watch. Not everyone needs to go to an Ivy League school to be successful, and not everyone wishes to start their career saddled with an astronomical amount of debt that they will struggle for years to repay. It’s important to appreciate that there are many definitions of “success” and many ways in which people can make contributions to society, to industry and to the nation.

So as I am perched upon the precipice of beginning my life in college, I am looking forward to intentionally creating some space around me to affirm who I am. I will take time to value the gifts I possess and to consider how I might use both my heart and mind to make an impact on the world around me—while still putting food on the table and having a roof over my head.

6 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

briefs | news

BRIEFS: NEWS

story vincent galioto | photography meredith walters and lauren boettcher

EAST NATIONAL MERIT FINALISTS Lakota East High School seniors Kaylee Rice and Chris Pitaniello qualified as finalists for the National Merit Scholarship.

This scholarship goes to students scoring in the top one percent on the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) and SAT. The qualifying score for the PSAT in 2015 was 213 according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

“I was encouraged [that] her score was high enough to qualify in past years,” Kaylee’s father Rob Rice said. “But I tried not to get too excited.”

Both Pitaniello and Kaylee scored 223 on the PSAT, enough to qualify as semi-finalists.

Semi-finalists fill out an application in order to become a finalist.

“We had to fill out a bunch of personal information and the counselor had to write a recommendation letter,” Pitaniello said.

“In the school portion I had to fill out my academic information and extracurriculars just like another college application. That was all submitted online.”

The school will also find ways to recognize the achievement. According

that taught me my love of learning.

Lakota Superintendent It has ultimately Karen Mantia reads to been embodied in elementary school students. my decision to be a teacher so I can pass off this education to the next generation.”

Rob is proud that Kaylee wants to be a teacher because she will be using her talents to serve others.

“I know it will sound like a proud father moment, but to East Principal Suzanna Davis, my wife and I have always felt the school typically honors blessed to have two children who finalists at a football game, but if continually make us proud,” Rob that doesn’t happen, the school said. “The fact that she lives her life to glorify God, whether in the will find another venue.

“I am always very proud of classroom, on the track or in how the National Merit semi-finalists,” she serves others says so much Davis said. “We have a history of about her. In the end, doing really people who were semi-finalists well on a test is just icing on the and went on to become finalists cake.” as well. I think we are continuing a tradition of sending very strong academic representatives.”

At a speech to the school board, Kaylee attributed her success to a long line of teachers.

After rumors of her possible “When I was looking back retirement, Superintendent Karen on it, I don’t have a defining Mantia will remain in her role as moment for my education,” the top official in the Lakota Local Kaylee said. “My education School District after the Lakota has been a conglomeration of Board of Education approved a different experiences. It has been one-year, $165,000 extension for the teachers in elementary school her, keeping her at the head of the 16,500-student district until at least July 31, 2017.

“Lakota is the seventh largest district in Ohio, and I like the challenge; it’s exciting,” Mantia said. “The district is mixed with so many businesses and student groups and cultures, and it represents to me more of the real world that a person would see. It makes my job exciting.”

Mantia, who joined the district in 2011 after Interim Superintendent Ron Spurlock East seniors decided not to seek the job, has Chris Pitaniello made numerous changes. She and Kaylee Rice led the district through severe qualified as National Merit cost-cutting measures and semi-finalists. reorganization, which included teachers teaching six classes at the

SUPERINTENDENT DECIDES TO STAY

high school and the institution of a six-period day for students. During her tenure, the district passed a $5.5 million operation levy in 2012 but now faces possible budget cuts with the new state budget.

Mantia has also overseen the implementation of a strategic plan for the district. The plan that was put together to help Lakota grow is designed into four levels: Foundation, Intervention, Exploratory, and Modernization.

“We want students to explore and develop interests and passions not only for now but for the future, and we want them to grow, and that’s what [the administration] is trying to provide them,” Mantia said. “I think putting these strategies together is fun and will help Lakota shine. We are building systems where all these things can happen.”

Lakota Board of Education President Lynda O’Connor, who led the vote for Mantia’s extension, is pleased with Mantia’s extension and is glad she will remain with the district. O’Connor believes Mantia has contributed “quality work” to the district.

“I think she has done a terrific job as our Superintendent,” O’Connor said. “She has provided very clear direction and given us great choices. She cares about student voice, too, and she makes opportunities happen. She makes us a district of choice.”

Julie Shaffer, another Lakota Board of Education member, said that Mantia has put together a “fantastic” administrative team that has encouraged community conversation and has been strategic in communicating things like levy promises. Shaffer would like to see Mantia stay while her projects are being implemented and completed.

“I think things like the innovative council she has put together will be a key committee for us and will allow many people in the community to have input,” Shaffer said. “She enhances our decision making process by creating these type of strategic plans.”

news | state

WEED, THE PEOPLE

On Nov. 3, Ohioans will get the opportunity to cast their votes for or against Issue 3 on the ballot, which discusses the legalization of marijuana. story emma stiefel | infographics manjot kalkat | art sarah aftab

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n Nov. 3, 2015, Ohioans will be able to vote on Issue 3, a proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution that, if passed, would allow for the production and sale of medical and recreational marijuana.

Under the amendment, which is being sponsored by the ResponsibleOhio Political Action Committee, adults 21 years and older would be able to buy and use recreational marijuana, and doctors would be able to prescribe medical marijuana to patients. People over 21 would also be able to have up to four flowering marijuana plants and possess up to eight ounces of homegrown marijuana.

“We’ve been working on the proposal for a couple years now and it’s taken some time to get together,” ResponsibleOhio spokesperson Faith Oltman said. “We wanted to wait until the majority of Ohioans really supported marijuana legalization.”

According to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released in April, 84 percent

8 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

of Ohioans support medical marijuana and 52 percent support recreational marijuana or “small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”

Oltman said the poll results coupled with her organization’s efforts to educate the public about “marijuana legalization and all of its

INTO THE WEEDS 17%

84/488 East students surveyed have used marijuana

RECREATIONALLY

positives” have convinced them that Issue 3 will pass.

“We want to make it clear to people that the war on drugs has failed, people still use marijuana and our state wastes $100 million every year enforcing these failed laws,” Oltman said. “If we bring marijuana out of the shadows our state can better spend our resources, we’ll add jobs, we’ll bring tax revenue to our communities, and we can help sick Ohioans that could be helped by medical marijuana.”

While Oltman and ResponsibleOhio are confident that Issue 3 will pass, Professor Douglas Berman, who teaches the Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform seminar at Ohio State University, is not as sure. He believes that the outcome of the vote will largely depend on turnout.

“The supporters of Issue 3 believe that if they get it in an off-year election, only people who support reform would be likely to turn out to vote,” Berman said. “But because it’s so

state | news

O

controversial, n Nov. 3, 2015 manyOhioans more people will bemay ableturn to vote out thanonthey’re Issue expecting.

3, a proposed I don’t amendment think it’s an toeasy the prediction.”

Ohio constitution that, if passed, would allow If for Issue the3production passes, according and sale to of Oltman, medical marijuana and recreational wouldmarijuana. be available for purchase by September Under the 2016.amendment, If the issue which fails, isBerman being predicts sponsored thatbymarijuana the ResponsibleOhio would be legalized Political “in 2016, Action2018, Committee, or not adults long thereafter” 21 years and because older younger would bevoters able across to buythe andpolitical use recreational spectrum are marijuana, far moreand likelydoctors to support would reform bethan abletheir to older prescribe counterparts. medical marijuana to patients. People overThe 21 amendment would also be would able create to have 10up marijuana to four growth flowering sites marijuana in Ohio,plants one ofandwhich possess would up be to located eight ounces in Butler of homegrown County near marijuana.

Monroe High School “We’ve at been the intersection working on the of proposal Yankee and for Todhunter a couple years roads, now which and would it’s taken sell some their harvests time to to get licensed together,” marijuana ResponsibleOhio product manufacturing spokesperson facilities, Faith Oltman retail said. stores “We and medical wanted dispensaries. to wait until the “Imajority know that of the Ohioans school really board supported isn’t very happy marijuana with legalization.” the building of the marijuana fields According near our school to a because Quinnipiac they don’t University want us Swing to be State influenced Poll released even inmore April,so,” 84 Monroe percent sophomore of Ohioans Ashley supportMcNabb medical said. marijuana “I really and don’t 52 percent think that support it would recreational affect us at marijuana all because or if “small someone amounts tellsof you marijuana not to doforsomething personal use.” then you’re Oltman goingsaid to want the poll to doresults it evencoupled more, but with if it’s herthere organization’s it won’t beefforts as popular to educate and you’re the public going to about have“marijuana to be the legal legalization age to getand it.” all of its positives” Many are have concerned convinced that the them limited that number Issue 3 of will growth pass. sites would result in a marijuana monopoly “We want in Ohio. to make it clear to people that the “There’s war on drugs 10 growth has failed, facilities peoplethat still use are specifically marijuana and set our asidestate for wastes the manufacturers, $100 million and everyallyear theenforcing retailers these have failed to buy laws,” fromOltman those 10 said.growers,” “If we bring Berman marijuana said.out of “Many the shadows people consider our statethat canto better mean it’s spend putting oura monopoly resources, or we’llanadd oligarchy jobs, we’ll or abring carteltaxdirectly revenueinto to our constitution, communities, and andthere’s we cana concern help sickthat Ohioans these investors that couldwould be helped profitbyexcessively medical marijuana.” from getting the While industry Oltman up and and running.”

ResponsibleOhio are confident Ohioansthat Against Issue Marijuana 3 will pass, Monopolies, Professor the Douglas main group Berman, opposing who teaches Issue 3,the could Marijuana not be reached Law, Policy for and comment.

ReformHowever, seminar attheir Ohio website State charges University, thatis “in not the as sure. guise He of believes social reform, that thea private outcomeorganization of the votemade will largely up by depend syndicates on of turnout. wealthy investors is aiming to acquire the exclusive “The supporters rights to of grow, Issuemanufacture 3 believe thatand if sell they marijuana get it in anand off year marijuana-infused election only people edible products who support to reform Ohioanswould for recreational be likely to turn and medical out to vote,” use.”Berman said. “But because it’s so controversial Oltman, ahowever, lot more people assertedmaythat turn out the 10 thangrowth they’re expecting. sites would I don’t compete think it’samongst an easy themselves prediction.”and not constitute a monopoly.

“Limiting If Issue 3the passes, number according of growth to Oltman, sites is what marijuana has been woulddone be available in other for states,” purchase Oltman by said.

September “It allows 2016.the Ifstate thetoissue control fails, theBerman quality of predicts the products that marijuana and thewould safetybeoflegalized marijuana. “in We’ll 2016, 2018, start with or not10long competing thereafter” andbecause wellregulated younger voters growthacross sites, and the ifpolitical those don’t spectrum meet the are far needs more of likely our consumers, to support reform the statethan willtheir add sites olderuntil counterparts. demand is met.”

New The amendment York, for would example, create issued 10 marijuana licenses for growth growing sites inmedical Ohio, one marijuana of which to would only five be organizations. located in Butler County Unlike near Ohio’s Monroe proposed High amendment, School at the however, intersection theofgrowers Yankee were not

THE BURNING ISSUE 17%

out of 428 East students surveyed support medical/recreational use only medical use

37%

46%

neither type

part of the law. “[New York] did a sort of lottery process,” Assistant Professor of Accounting at Ohio Wesleyan University Justin Breidenbach said.

“The growers were not built into the law, they weren’t named. A board was created and then people who wanted to grow had to file an application, and then there was a board that selected the growers.”

Breidenbach also points out that states like Washington that have no limit on the number of growers restrict the size of their marijuana farms instead, with the largest farms operating on one or two acres of land.

“When you look at the growers in Ohio, their land size ranges from 13 acres to 76 acres [the Butler County site would be 40.44 acres],” Breidenbach said. “They have a significant amount of acreage that they’re able to utilize. I think the big unknown though is going to be is

are they going to utilize all that acreage.”

The proposed amendment mandates that in the fourth year after its adoption the Ohio Marijuana Control Commission, charged with regulating the state’s marijuana industry, would develop a system for assessing the demand for marijuana and, if that demand is not being met, provide a license for an additional growth site.

The ten initial sites would be owned by a diverse group of investors, including fashion designer Nanette Lepore, community leader Barbara Gould, her brother and businessman James Gould, knighted lecturer Sir Alan Mooney and former professional basketball player Oscar Robertson.

“These investors have to be willing to pretty much finance or help finance the entire construction and start of this new industry,” Oltman said. “It could cost upwards of $40 million just to start these sites. They are willing to do that, and they’re willing to risk being prosecuted because marijuana is still illegal on a federal level and listed as a Schedule I drug.”

While official federal law still criminalizes marijuana, the Department of Justice released the Cole Memo in 2013 announcing that it will focus on “certain enforcement priorities,” such as the sale of the drug to minors and preventing revenue from marijuana sales from going to gangs, instead of prosecuting businesses operating legally under their state’s laws.

“As long as you operate legally within your state, you really don’t have anything that you need to be worried about,” Breidenbach said.

“However, that was just a memo. This industry is operating in a kind of gray area where they have one memo that says they’re going to be

SLICES OF THE POT PIE recreational and medical marijuana

medical marijuanana

no laws regarding marijuana usage

source governing.gov

news | state

THE BIG BUZZ 23%

116/496 East students surveyed know someone who has a condition that can be treated with marijuana

safe, but when you look at the law it says that it’s an illegal industry. There’s a lot of trust happening right now between the people in this industry and the federal government.”

According to Dr. David Ellison, seizure disorders, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, mood disorders and gastroenterological disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease are all conditions that could potentially be treated with medical marijuana and cannabis extracts. Though marijuana technically refers only to cannabis plants that contain large amounts of the psychoactive molecule THC, it is commonly used to refer to all cannabis plants.

“I would like the community of physicians to be able to use the cannabis plant if they feel it is clinically indicated,” Ellison said, though his own patients don’t often have diseases that could be treated with medical marijuana. “I don’t treat cancer patients, but I want cancer patients to have access to this if needed. I want people with wasting syndromes to have access to this if needed. I want people with neurological disorders where there’s good

impaired judgement from using the drug could cause harmful accidents, and it could have “untoward effects on development” if used improperly by minors.

The risk marijuana poses to children is why six children’s hospitals in Ohio oppose Issue 3.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Poison Control Specialist Patricia Klein cited concerns that marijuana edibles intended for consumption by adults 21 and older would be ingested by children instead.

“Marijuana edibles can be anything from brownies, cookies, cakes and gummy bears to marijuana-infused butter to sodas with marijuana in them,” Klein said. “Basically, if you dream it up, it can exist. It’s almost impossible to tell the difference between a marijuana edible and a regular one.”

While the proposed amendment does include a provision that regulations “ensuring that marijuana-infused products are not manufactured, packaged or advertised in ways that create a substantial risk of attractiveness to children” would be established, Klein worries that the language is too vague.

“When we’re talking about a drug like marijuana, it’s very unclear how this will be regulated in the environment that Issue 3 will create,” Klein said. “It would go a long way if marijuana edibles were packaged in child resistant packaging that was opaque in color so that children couldn’t see what was in there, and it wasn’t like a cookie jar sitting on the counter where they could see the marijuana brownie inside the package and then go for it.”

According to data published in the Children’s Hospitals Today magazine, Children’s Colorado hospital treated eight children for accidental ingestion of marijuana in 2013, the year after Colorado legalized recreational use, and in 2014, the first year

“A lot of states took baby steps to get to where they are now, but we’re just kind of taking one massive leap with this.”

— Justin Breidenbach, Ohio Wesleyan University Assistant Professor of Accounting evidence for its use to be able to use this without the risk of any legal consequence for the patient and physician alike.”

The physical side effects of medical marijuana are “very, very low,” Ellison said, and no deaths have directly resulted from taking medical marijuana. However, he stipulated, it is a psychoactive substance, so people with 10 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

the state allowed legal marijuana retail sales, it admitted 14. Before that, from 2005-2009, the hospital saw no cases.

The children who arrived at the hospital experienced symptoms ranging from sleepiness to difficulty breathing to coma, and about half of them had to go to the intensive care unit.

Klein is concerned that Ohio’s children could

be similarly affected if Issue 3 passes.

As for the potential benefits of medical marijuana, she said that “at a point in at which the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approves the distribution of a medication like medical marijuana, Cincinnati Children’s will provide that medication to the families we serve.”

While the FDA has yet to approve medical marijuana itself, it has approved Marinol, which contains a synthetic version of a compound found in marijuana plants, and Cesamet, which contains a substance that acts similarly to compounds found in the plant.

“What most people don’t understand is that we kind of already use marijuana in medicine,” Ellison said. “We use a form of the psychoactive molecule THC, called Marinol [sometimes used to treat appetite loss in people with wasting syndromes and cancer], and that’s been in use for a very long time. We already use it, it’s already legal, it’s just a synthetic form.”

Ohio would be the first state to go from completely prohibiting marijuana to legalizing both medical and recreational use. Other states, such as Colorado, that have legalized recreational marijuana had a medical industry in place first.

“In Colorado it was established that the medical marijuana facilities that already existed would have the first opportunity to be involved in the recreational industry,” said Berman.

“There are no comparable players in Ohio, and so we would be starting from scratch. A number of public policy advocates think that might facilitate a more orderly and sensible way of creating an industry.”

Oltman admitted that, based off the Quinnipiac Poll, it would be “a lot easier” to legalize medical marijuana first. However, she said, ResponsibleOhio wanted to avoid issues other states have had legalizing recreational marijuana when they already had a medical industry in place.

“What happened in those states is people are really abusing the system,” Oltman said.

“People who don’t really have legitimate medical concerns are getting marijuana recommendations. We wanted to make sure that when we legalized, we legalized fully because folks are so much harder to move from that medical market to the personal use market because of the taxes and lower prices they pay.”

Because Ohio has no laws regulating medical marijuana already in place, Breidenbach predicts that there will be some initial “growing pains” if Issue 3 is passed.

“The first year we have everything up and running, we’ll have to see how it goes,” Breidenbach said. “At that point it’s going to be up to the legislature, state and general public in terms of if they want to change any regulations. A lot of states took baby steps to get to where they are now, but we’re just kind of taking one massive leap with this.”

LAKOTA INTRODUCES THE PARENT PROJECT

The Parent Project’s arrival at Lakota provides parents with the opportunity to navigate child behavior. story kelly krajewski | infographic nina brillhart *denotes name change

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ll Annie Johnson* had to do to help her child was tell him she loves him. As a mother who came from a family that sparsely used the three words who married a military man from a similar background, it was hard for her to say it to her children. Vocalizing her love to her son, and having it reciprocated, stopped his violent outbursts and improved overall communication between herself and her child.

Annie Johnson was one of the parents who participated in The Parent Project curriculum, which is now being offered to Lakota parents as a ten week session specifically for parents with children in grades 7-12. The classes are held on Thursdays on Oct. 8 to Dec. 17 in the Lakota West Freshman library, for the 30 parents who reserved spaces in the program.

The curriculum, while not one-size-fits-all, does offer universal lessons about bettering communication between parents and children.

Along with ways to better communicate with their child, The Parent Project offers support to facilitate positive changes.

“We keep most of our sessions around 20 parents,” Hurwitz said. “We hope parents keep meeting after the last session to keep offering the support they have during the class.”

In 2013 the Parent Project, a national parenttraining program for parents raising difficult or reckless kids, made its way into Butler County via the Butler County juvenile correctional facility, where it was initially offered to parents of nonviolent juvenile offenders.

“What a lot of parents of juvenile offenders would say is that they just didn’t know what to do with their child anymore,” Lead Facilitator of the Parent Project in Butler County Joylnn Hurwitz said. “Now they can be referred to the Parent Project for advice.”

Soon after its appearance in the court system, it spread into the surrounding schools, starting

district | news

with Hamilton and Talawanda high schools, and now is finally making an appearance in Lakota in partnership with the Butler County Family & Child First Council (BCFCFC).

The BCFCFC was awarded the Strong Families Safe Communities Grant; the money is being used for a variety of programs around the community, including offering The Parent Project to Lakota parents for the first time.

“We have been aware of The Parent Project for a while” Lakota Executive Director of Media and Community Relations Randy Oppenheimer said. “Thanks to the grant, we are able to offer it to Lakota parents at no cost.”

Hurwitz draws the parallel to New Year’s resolutions. By March most people have stopped going to the gym and are just paying the membership fee because they lack the support system to keep them on track to any positive, but difficult, change.

“To make change you need three things,” Hurwitz said. “Desire, skills and support. And I can give parents two of those.”

The goal in bringing the Parent Project to Lakota is to help facilitate a healthier learning environment for students in and out of the classroom.

“It’s very hard to do well in school if things are difficult at home,” Oppenheimer said.

“It’s hard to focus on homework when you’re constantly arguing with other people in the household.”

If the first session of the Parent Project is successful, there is a plan to run another session in the spring, according to Oppenheimer. This session will also be offered at no cost to the parent, as it too will be paid for by the Strong Families Safe Communities Grant.

AMERICA’S TEENAGERS

82% of pregnancies among teens are unplanned pregnancies, and 27% of these pregnancies end in an abortion.

1 in every 10 children and adolescents in the United States experience severe mental illness that causes some level of impairment.

Yet only 1 in every 5 children 13% of teens admitted to have with mental illnesses has had sexual experience by age 15. received treatment. source atriskyouthprograms.com

Before the age of 18, 9 out of 10 high school students start drinking, smoking or using illicit or prescription drugs.

news | district

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB TAKES OVER OLD UNION ELEMENTARY

The new Boys and Girls club facility is replacing the old Union Elementary, which stood as an integral part of Lakota history.

story sarah mullins | art used with permission from patti alderson | infographic cara sieber

T

he Lakota Board of Education has agreed to collaborate with the West Chester/Liberty Boys and Girls Club to build a facility where the previous Union Elementary has stood for almost a century, assuming that they can raise the $6-7 million needed to build it.

According to Lakota Executive Director of Media and Community Relations Randy Oppenheimer, the cost of tearing down the current building is about $500,000, $200,000 of which will be paid by the Boys and Girls Club.

The district had to pay $20,000 a year to keep the building maintained, even though it was not in use. The building stopped being used as an elementary school after the 200809 school year, when students were moved to the new facility on Lesourdsville-West Chester road. East junior Lexi Draginoff was one of the last students to go to school at the old

Top: Back of proposed plan for the Boys and Girls club Below: Front of proposed plan for Boys and Girls club

12 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

building before it was no longer in use.

“Union Elementary is part of my childhood,” Draginoff said. “Even though I only went there two years, that school has a special place in my heart, and if they tear it down, they are going to take away my part of my childhood.“ By entering this agreement, the district will save $200,000 on demolition cost, which will be payed off at $10,000 a year for the first 20 years of the 50-year lease by the Boys and Girls Club. This will benefit Lakota because the district will not have to pay for the upkeep of the building any longer or for almost half of the demolition cost.

“We completely support the work of the Boys and Girls Club,” Oppenheimer said.

“They are doing good things for kids, but it still has to be a good business decision for

the district collaboration agreement, and that’s what we are looking at.”

The current building was deemed unsuitable by a 2008 contractor assessment, mainly due to its lack of handicapped accessibility and not meeting the building requirements established by the state of Ohio. According to the Ohio School Construction Commision (OSCC) report, the classes are undersized, the electrical system is inadequate, the facility is equipped with a non-compliant security system, a noncompliant automatic and manual fire alarm system, and is not compliant with American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements. There is also an issue with asbestos and mold in the building, so the price of demolition was increased because the asbestos has to be removed before the old building can be torn down. Lakota would have

district | news

to spend $10 million to renovate the building in order to be suitable for educational purposes.

“It looked solid from the outside,” Bob Winterberger, Union Principal of 20 years, said. “But there were a lot of things inside that were getting to the point you couldn’t fix them.

I understood there comes a point where you can’t keep it up.”

Before the new facility could be built, the club and district wanted to ensure that the community wanted a new building to replace the old Union. There were a few people in the community who did not want to tear down the building due to its historical significance.

“It had a lot of tradition, and it had been there a long time,” Winterberger said. “Every now and then, someone would just show up, like a person who had went to high school there and was 80 years old, and would want a tour of the school and reminisce. That was always really cool about the school: it’s like an old house and had some cool stuff that you don’t see in new houses.”

According to Oppenheimer, the district held public meetings so that the public could put in their opinions, and the meetings were wellattended. Community members’ opposition to tearing down the old building influenced the decisions of the district to some extent, but the collaboration agreement had already been signed. There were some altered building plans to assuage any public concerns.

“The basement of the building is going to contain the facade of the original building along with other memorabilia,” Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors member Patti Alderson said. “The basement is going to have a retro theme that reflects the ‘50s and ‘60s to honor the building’s history and appease some

of the concerns of the community.”

The West Chester Historical Society did not want the Boys and Girls Club to tear down the old Union Elementary because the building is a historical landmark, although it is not on the National Register of Historic Places. The West Chester Historical Society has chosen not to comment on the new building at this point.

The old building was opened in 1916 and is coming up on its 100th birthday. So many old buildings have been torn down that the society has been trying to save the township’s history.

The building may stand to see its birthday, but not much longer if the Boys and Girls Club is able to reach their goal.

For the deal to go through, the club has to raise $6-7 million by June 1, 2016 according to Alderson, and if their fundraising efforts are not successful, the school district will evaluate its options moving forward. This may include a cancellation or renewal of the agreement.

The Boys and Girls Club is currently under its halfway goal of $3 million but has received multiple donations, including a grant from Attorney General Mike DeWine. The Jacob G. Schmidlapp Trusts and Fifth Third Bank have offered a $150,000 matching grant for a sixmonth period culminating on Dec. 29, 2015 to financially assist the Building Campaign of the Boys & Girls Club of West Chester/Liberty.

If the money is raised in time and the current building is demolished, then the new facility that was designed by SHP Leading Design will be built in 18 months. The new club will be open to all students from second12th grade for families of all incomes, not just impoverished families.

The Boys and Girls Club is a program meant to enrich the lives of young community

UNITING IN A NEW UNION gym

library

storage

reception

lobby

art studio

classroom

clinic

members through a range of educational programs, in which they can learn about many subjects, some of which include fine arts from local artists, martial arts and finance. The new building will have facilities such as a dance studio and a gymnasium along with age specific rooms where kids can play.

“It’s a place where kids come and feel like they belong,” Alderson said. “The same people are there every day, so they can form relationships.”

Alderson said that the club addresses problems brought up by teachers in the community about not being able to spend enough time with their students. Teachers don’t have the time to bond with every kid due to testing, so some might get left behind, and the Boys and Girls Club wants to help these students succeed.

“There’s lot of opportunities that kids wouldn’t get while they go home and sit by themselves for three hours a day.” Alderson said. “It’s a great opportunity for families to know that their kids are going to be well caredfor and have an opportunity to thrive.

The current building out of which the Boys and Girls Club operates is working with 225230 kids, and with the new facility, they are hoping to get around 1000 students, according to Executive Director Michelle Seither. They help about 90 kids each day, and with the new facility, they will be able to work with 400 students a day.

“I think the Boys and Girls Club will eventually build a sense of community for everybody,” Alderson said, “Because you’ll get to know each other [at a] younger [age], and you’ll grow up together and just appreciate each other more.”

Below are future floor plans for the new Boys and Girls club facility that will be replacing the old Union Elementary School.

CAUTION

CAUTION

source Patti Alderson

office

dance room

restroom

concessions

CAUTION

janitorial

control room

rec-room

mechanical

A water stream inhabiting life was added to the courtyard as a supplement to student classroom learning.

EAST COURTYARD BECOMES OUTDOOR CLASSROOM One of East’s courtyards that had previously been renovated in order to be used for instruction is now an on-going project for all Enviromental Science students.

story nina brillhart and lina kaval | photography sydney rader

N

o one said that a classroom had to have four walls, a white board and twenty desks. In an outdoor classroom, pencils, textbooks and Epson machines are replaced with plant life and fresh water.

After working a summer job at Glenwood Gardens, a landscaped park in the Great Parks of Hamilton County, Lakota East Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science teacher Mark Folta was inspired to renovate the courtyard outside his classroom. He wanted to give his students a chance to take advantage of their available resources by divorcing them from traditional classroom technology.

“I wanted Environmental Science to come alive and be a little more practical and more hands on,” Folta said.

In correspondence with the Common Core State Standards that focus on expanding student learning, the outdoor classroom focuses on giving students a real-world experience. They are able to apply lessons such as photosynthesis, cellular respiration and conservation right outside the classroom door.

One of the first steps in the reformation was receiving donations. The courtyard project had support from the Delhi Garden Center, Lowe’s and the WellSpring Community Church, which donated the rain barrels used for the rainwater collection system.

Not only did donations help make the outdoor classroom feasible, but also numerous

14 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

school and community volunteers helped.

Students participated in “Make East Beautiful Day” or with East’s National Honor Society’s project “Lakota East Loves the Environment” to help weed and plant. On Earth Day, all of the environmental science classes divided up responsibilities to clean up the courtyard.

Current Lakota Environmental Advocates Forum (LEAF) Club President Kelly Krajewski also participated in several of these days.

“I didn’t have a hand in writing the plan, but I did have a part in helping create the courtyard,” Krajewski said. “I came two or three times to help dig rocks out of the ground and plant, getting things where they are now.

It was really cool to watch the courtyard go from an unused space to something like a little sanctuary in our school.”

After considering many ideas from students, the final plan included a rainwater collection system and a small fish pond. The rainwater collection system consisted of diverting water from the gutter using pipes and connecting it to a diverter box to keep from overflowing the barrels used to collect the water. This makes it so that plants could be watered using rainwater, which saves money and resources.

Another benefit of the transformation, said Folta, is the opportunity for his students to develop respect for nature and take ownership of their school.

Even with the small pond, garden and a

compost area, all of which were completed last June, the outdoor classroom is not finished. A goal for the LEAF Club this year is to add a vegetable garden to the courtyard. This would involve tilling the soil to prepare it for planting, collecting more compost, and growing seedlings. Most of the planning will take place this winter when it becomes too cold for the club to go outside. The club would like to have a leaf collection week to gather more for the small compost pile in the courtyard. Having compost with which to work in the spring would increase the chance of successful plants.

Folta suggested that the usage of the harvested vegetables be to make organic salsa and potentially sell it at a farmer’s market. If not, according to LEAF club member Debi Kaur, the club would be willing to donate them to the school or the community.

“We have some tomatoes and other vegetables, but we need to plant more so that we can start giving some out or using some to help our community or help the school,” Kaur said. “This courtyard is about East and the community.”

Although the club doesn’t know how much of their plan will be implemented this school year, they hope they can spread the beauty of the school’s nature to their fellow students.

“As far as it goes right now, it’s just a world of possibilities out in this little courtyard.”

Krajewski said.

school | news

CLUB CARD FEES INCREASE East students and parents share their views on the increase in price for club cards from $30-50. story peyton cox | photography joey combs

W

hile in the past five years the price of a club card at Lakota East High School has quintupled from $10 in 2010 to $50 in 2015, the number of students participating in non-athletic after-school activities, which was 232 as of last year, has not changed significantly. Although stats for this year will not be available until the spring, according to Lakota Director of Digital Learning Sandra Lowery, club advisors have noticed little change in participation so far this year.

The decision to increase club card prices was strictly based on the cost of having club advisors and the amount of club cards sold the previous year. According to East secretary Tammy Ransick, with the raised price, East will be able to offer more clubs such as Special Opportunities, Abilities and Relationships.

Because the school receives no funds from the district to cover club costs, East Principal Suzanna Davis said the school had no choice but to increase the cost of the club card.

“An analysis of the costs associated with clubs over the past several years was conducted,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, there has been a gap via club card sales and the administrative costs associated with the clubs, including the supplemental payment for the faculty advisor.”

One of the biggest misunderstandings students have about the price increase of the club cards is that it was connected to the $30 decrease in parking passes. Ransick said that club cards and parking passes are part of separate departments, thus the raise in price for club cards and the lowering of price for parkings passes were in no way related to each other.

Lakota Chief Operations Officer Chris Passarge said that the parking pass fees are collected to offset the costs of providing parking privileges at the school.

“If the district does provide transportation [busing] for high school students, they are able to charge a fee to help administer the parking privileges,” Passarge said. “If the district does not provide transportation for high school students, then the district can still charge a fee to offset administrative costs such as stickers and placards but cannot charge for other items such as improvements to the lot since they do not provide transportation.”

According to principals from other Greater Miami Conference schools such as Lakota West, Oak Hills, William Mason and Hamilton High Schools, they do not have club cards. Instead,

there is either a separate fee for students who join clubs or there is no cost at all because the district funds clubs.

East Junior Statesmen of America (JSA) copresident Isaac Mitchell believes that the cards are “ridiculous and should not be required for someone to participate in something they enjoy.”

“Many people who would be willing to join clubs cannot attend due to card prices.”

— Isaac Mitchell, JSA co-president “I know personally of many people who would be willing to join clubs like JSA or who were even previously in these clubs that cannot attend anymore due to club card prices,” Mitchell said. “Some students who would enjoy JSA are economically disadvantaged, or have other financial priorities, and the burden has been placed on them to pay for things.”

However, East Spanish Club advisor Annie Cantrell said that there are many benefits to having club cards.

“A positive of the club cards being $50 is that you can join as many clubs as you want for that fee,” Cantrell said. “I know they used to have it where you would have to pay separate fees for every club that you joined.”

East parent Sarah Sizemore, who has a freshman and senior involved in many clubs, including yearbook, at the high school, has seen the price increase of club cards affect the number of parents purchasing a club card.

“The students and parents are told it is important for the kids to be involved in many afterschool clubs,” Sizemore said. “The price increase may have kept some parents from having their students participate, and I don’t necessarily blame them. If students play sports or are in marching band, there are even more fees.”

Davis understands the financial strain that the price increase has on parents, but feels that anything she can do to get students to join multiple clubs is a positive thing, especially because of the push for students to expand their experiences and build their résumés for college.

“While we certainly understand the financial strain some families experience, we also know that research supports that students that are involved in activities outside of the school day achieve higher academically,” Davis said. “Our hope is families can find ways to financially support these experiences.”

Sarah Sizemore’s daughter, Molly Sizemore, represents the yearbook at the club fair as a senior editor.

Former East counselor Carolyn Hickman preaches at her pulpit about the worry in the world.

16 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

PASSION

community | feature

FOR

PREACHING

Former East counselor Carolyn Hickman has been on a journey to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a pastor by starting her very own house of worship. story vincent galioto | photography richard giang

I

t’s 9 a.m. on a Sunday as “Jesus is on the Mainline” by Lisa Knowles and The Brown Singers vibrates from the portable keyboard in the small, white church on 930 Buckeye Avenue in Hamilton. Inside the parishioners stand, clap and sing along with the lead singer, who is stomping on the creaky floor with a microphone in hand. The church itself has only been around since January 2007, but the building of God’s Christian Paradigm church was constructed in the 1920s. There is no air conditioning, lighting or bathrooms, and a small tub in the basement serves as a baptismal font.

Standing at the front is the pastor, nowretired, 16-year East guidance counselor Carolyn Hickman. She holds a tambourine and slaps it against her hand as twenty people sway behind her, captivated by the music.

Hickman was a counselor at East beginning in 1997 and retired after the 2013-14 school year. During her time in the guidance department, Hickman was known for being guided by her faith when helping her students.

“Someone once described the job as being the concierge of the school,” says Hickman’s friend and retired East counselor Lauri MacNeel. “I think that there is some truth to that because we get every question imaginable.

Whether it be the most minor thing, like, ‘where do I find this form,’ or something on a personal level like death in the family or a pregnancy.”

MacNeel recalls Hickman always turning

to her faith when helping her students. If she knew a student was religious, she would ask them if they wanted to use their religion to guide them. It did not matter what those beliefs were.

“Her pastoral role and her counselor role went together in a lot of ways,” says MacNeel.

“I think she wants her church to be like that.

She wants her church to be a place where people feel accepted and feel that people are listening to them and caring about them.”

Hickman makes an effort to make people feel accepted wherever they are and walk with them on whatever journey they are taking. She does not judge anyone and doesn’t care who they are. Everyone is God’s creation according to Hickman.

“Our name is God’s Christian Paradigm Center. Paradigm means model—it is a pattern,” says Hickman. “That is what we are forming into. You will notice it is a mixed population. It is not just one ethnic group, and that is what heaven is about. It is not about one people, it is about God’s people who follow His word.”

Hickman’s acceptance of others is what MacNeel believes made her a good counselor.

Hickman was someone that young people could trust. “[Hickman] would often speak to students and tell them that she understood [what they were going through],” says MacNeel. “For me with students that might come in a little

skeptical, she would get through to them and say I would understand. She helped me with a lot of students that would have written me off. I got to experience a lot of different things with students because they trusted me, and they trusted her.”

Hickman’s own journey to being a pastor began when she was growing up in Muskogee, Okla. The small town is famous for the hit song, “Okie from Muskogee” by Merle Haggard.

The lines read, “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don’t take our trips on LSD,” to which Hickman laughs and says wasn’t true for some people living in her community.

Hickman, however, grew up in a strong Christian family and was led into being a pastor early on in her life.

“A series of events led me to where I am today,” says Hickman. “I received my calling through scriptures. When I was in Oklahoma, I remember going to a Bible study when I was in my 30s, and the group pulled me aside and said they wanted to pray for me, that the Holy Spirit had laid his hands on me, and that I should go forth. That was right before I moved here [to Cincinnati]. I have had dreams to help affirm my calling, and I had different ones to see the gifts that God had given me.”

Hickman had a hard time being accepted as a pastor by different parishioners because that role is traditionally for men. She didn’t get her start until she found a mentor, Reverend Greg Ballard, who was willing to give her a chance by

feature | community

—Carolyn Hickman, Pastor of God’s Christian Paradigm church

accepting her as a female pastor. She studied part-time at Payne Theological seminary in Xenia, Ohio from 1998-2007. When Ballard left God’s Christian Paradigm church, which was previously located in Middletown, he handed it over to Hickman. The church had a rough start in the beginning as Hickman had to come to terms with low attendance.

“I remember when we first started the church on Route 4,” says Hickman. “The first Sunday we had 12 people there. The next week we had even fewer people and I was kind of disappointed. The Lord said, ‘You just birthed the church last Sunday,’ and I said, ‘I sure did, Lord.’ He said that it is a baby church, and not everybody likes a baby. I had that dialogue with God, and he was leading me to the church.”

One of the original parishioners was Etta Caver, who is now a professor of Women’s Studies at Miami University and advocates against domestic violence. Caver’s children had already attended God’s Christian Paradigm

Left to right: Ernest Hickman and Etta Caver lead in the litany and sing to the congregation.

18 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

church and were the ones who brought her into worship. Caver had known struggle all her life.

At age 15, her mother was found murdered on her front lawn, she was married to an abusive husband and had been through a divorce. She had come to the church one day looking for help.

“I was saved at that moment,” says Caver. “I had a vision earlier that day. I heard a voice that said ‘I am God, I have a son, he lived and died, he rose again, and he rose for me. You will bear his witness.’ I came into to church that day with a strange urge to learn more about the Bible. I was on my way into the church and [Hickman] was on her way out.”

Hickman also recalls the encounter with Caver when the two crossed paths and found comfort and trust in one another.

“When she was coming out of the church and I saw her, I told her never to let anyone steal her joy,” says Hickman. “The joy of the Lord is our strength, and never let anyone mess

“

“

It is not just one ETHNIC group, and that is what HEAVEN is about. It is not about one people—it is about God’s people who follow His WORD.

with that. When they mess with your joy they mess with your strength.”

Caver decided to go into the ministry herself. She studied to be a pastor and was ordained on the same day as Hickman. They preached together in Middletown for four years until Caver resigned to be a professor in at Miami University. Hickman eventually left to start her own church and asked Caver to help.

The selfless duo now preach together each Sunday. Caver, MacNeel and Hickman all have a genuine interest in the community around them, and both Caver and MacNeel appreciate how Hickman is always there for them as a friend.

“She is a person in my life who will be there, and I appreciate her genuineness,” says MacNeel. “She is genuinely a kind person.

There is no agenda with her. She is what she puts out there. I appreciate that because many people have an agenda that is not clear, but Mrs. Hickman wants peace.”

dart | feature

A NOTE-ABLE

MUSICIAN

Al Vandivier stands in front of his dad’s record collection with his tenor saxophone in hand.

A

s students share first-day-of-school introductions, he can only think of one thing: his driving skills: Adrenaline coursed his veins as his grandfather yells for him to turn around. Nerves are out of control as he turns down the wrong side of the road. Fear overtakes the face of the woman driving down the other side. Panic overtakes him, and though no one is harmed, it is safe to assume that while he may be a rocking musician, East junior Al Vandivier may not be the next winner of the Daytona 500.

Though he is working on getting his license—and distinguishing between the brake and gas pedals—Vandivier’s main passion is music, an art form he has appreciated since he was little.

Among learning new compositions on the flute, fine-tuning his understanding of the saxophone, and the constant stream of tunes from the kitchen stereo system—always playing the best from artists like Prince, Queen or U2— the Vandivier home was always a place where musicality thrived. Every style was represented on the shelves of his dad’s mammoth music collection, which has managed to secure its own room in the basement.

“My dad owns around 50 million records,” says Vandivier. “I really like listening to music across genres. Some hip-hop and a lot of alternative music. I grew up with [alternative music] because my dad likes that stuff from the ‘80s but my mom’s more into Motown and stuff like that.”

The eclectic mix of styles has managed to diversify Vandivier’s taste in music and also

Growing up in a family that is passionate about many generes of music, East junior Al Vandivier took on playing instruments as second nature.

story alyssa hetterich | photography maya wells

allows him to fully immerse himself in a select group of artists akin to one genre, such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In keeping the radio on and not getting stuck in one genre, Vandivier’s mother, Ali Vandivier, hoped to keep her kids’ minds open to all types of music.

“I’m hoping that with the diversity he hears, it was never like, ‘You need to listen to this or this is that kind of person’s music,’” says Ali. “Because it’s everybody’s music.”

Joining the Eastside Jazz Ensemble last year, Al found a love for playing the saxophone.

What started as a favor, because the band needed someone who could play the tenor saxophone, developed into a passion that keeps him practicing and playing continuously throughout the day.

Al’s dedication to jazz music has amplified as he transitioned from the flute to the saxophone.

“Originally I [started playing the flute] as a joke,” says Al. “I thought it’d be funny if I played the flute, but I just never quit.”

Friend and fellow Eastside member Christian Paradiso has seen Vandivier’s development on the sax and recognizes his talent, humor and modesty in terms of his presence in the band.

“He is always open to suggestion and is really teachable and completely humble in his abilities. It’s easy to want him to get better,” says Paradiso. “He’s always a boost of morale

DART

Each issue, Spark throws a dart at a numbered dart board and picks a random East student to feature.

for everyone. There is literally no situation he can’t make someone laugh in.”

Noting his dedication to learning new compositions and practicing for hours on end, Ali thought that Al’s transition from the flute to the saxophone was a funny one. It was the encouragement from his family that really helped set him up for success. His mom played the cello in high school and his dad is an avid concert junkie.

However, even after putting so much effort toward private lessons, it was clear to see that his heart was with his sax.

“He would practice the flute for practice’s sake,” says Ali. “After jazz band, he really got into the sax, and that’s when he caught the bug.”

The bug that reverberated through the family as jazz has now been added to the growing list of Pandora music stations.

Influenced by the music played by Eastside at the annual Swing Dance, which attracts jazz lovers and swing dancers alike, and Al’s practice sessions, jazz music has now become a staple in the Vandivier home.

Despite the influx of alternative-classic influences like the Clash or Motown heroes like Marvin Gaye, Al’s individuality is not questioned. Remaining firm in his resolve to listen to what intrigues him and seek the array of genres his parents introduced to him, Al has been able to find a passion that he can share with his family and also keep close to himself.

“I get my love of music from my parents, definitely,” says Al. “As for playing music, I chose to do that on my own.”

feature | cool place

Sculptures made by famous world artists are displayed throughout the 40 acres of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.

KING OF THE

HILL

20 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

Pyramid Hill combines the best of the natural and artistic worlds into one sprawling sanctuary. story kelly krajewski photography sydney rader

T

hough it sits only five minutes away from the traffic and noise of downtown Hamilton, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum could not feel farther away from reality. Turning onto the tree-lined path takes visitors under the first of 56 outdoor sculptures and down the rabbit hole into a wonderland of natural beauty and artistic expression.

“I really love the park,” says avid visitor and Lakota East senior, Sarah Noe. “It’s like a completely different universe; there’s so much to see you could spend days there and not have a dull moment.”

The park opened in 1996 as the brainchild of landowner Harry T. Wilks. In 1987, Wilks purchased 40 acres of land as he looked for a location to build his home and display his

collection of art. After purchasing more parcels of the land surrounding his original 40 acres, Wilks cleared hiking trails and created small ponds, combining his love of art and appreciation for the natural beauty of the land.

He sought out sculptors and purchased several pieces to be placed in his new park.

After an $8 admission fee, Wilks’s fairytalelike grounds can be traveled by foot or “artcart” and offer endless eye-catchingly beautiful sights from both the natural and manmade world. Sculptures like “Abracadabra” play on hillsides in harmony with trees, a pioneer home lends visitors a look at life in early Hamilton, and trails give hikers a close look of the native trees and plants in southwestern Ohio.

The park is a real place of magic for visitors like Alexa Thompson, who was proposed to by her then-boyfriend, now fiancée, Jim Stinnett, in the park.

“There were lights everywhere, and they highlighted some of the art pieces beautifully,” says Thompson. “I love Christmas, so it was an added bonus to see the lights. The workers there were awesome and helped my fiancée

cool place | feature

plan everything. They even helped to ‘trick’ us into going to the area where Jim proposed. It was great that they were so helpful and willing to make our day special.”

A few lucky visitors may even be greeted by the rafter of turkeys who call the land of Pyramid Hill home. For those seeking a more traditional array of art, an indoor museum displays Ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian works dating back to 1505 B.C. Currently 48 artists from all over the world have their art displayed at Pyramid Hill, and now there is a desire to show off the talent in the immediate area.

“Starting in the fall of this year, we’re going to start temporarily displaying exhibitions by local and regional artists in the museum,” says Director of Programming and Administration Jeni Barton.

Wilk’s pyramid-shaped former home lends the park its name, as well as another visual point of interest. After the pyramid took shape, many developers started expressing interest in the beautiful land of Pyramid Hill.

“The land of Pyramid Hill was donated by

Harry to his non-profit,” says Barton. “This protects it from commercial development.”

According to Pyramid Hill’s website, today the park continues to have the highest membership of any non-profit in Butler County.

The park’s large body of dedicated patrons and supporters continue to allow it to function as a non-profit. Noe and her father have been visitors of the sprawling park for more than five years.

“My dad took me for the first time when I was 11, and I completely fell in love,” says Noe. “Now we go once a month during the season that it’s open. It’s like a little Sunday tradition.”

Life seems to slow down on the trails and in the gardens of the park. Little pollinator bees dance over flowers that seem to freeze in the most beautiful part of bloom. Metallic butterflies are some of the many smaller sculptures that dot the park, providing a sense of organic movement in the later part of the year when there are fewer animals around the landscape.

Wilks passed away in 2014, leaving the

pyramid house vacant, but the vision and goal of Pyramid Hill lives on. Staff members, no matter how recent their addition to Pyramid Hill, have the same vision in mind that Wilks did in the early stages of the park’s development.

The vision statement of Pyramid Hill says, “[Our goal is] to inspire and educate our diverse visitors in a world-renowned setting of art and nature and to be a catalyst for dialog, collaboration and contemplation.”

Even leaving the dreamscape of the park takes people past the last playful exhibitions of artist’s inner self. Returning to the busy streets of Hamilton reminds visitors that Pyramid Hill is a unique connection to the natural world, allowing visitors to connect to art created by nationally and internationally renowned artists.

The park is a hidden gem, tucked cozily into the corner of a city, but sprawling and welcoming to guests of all walks of life.

“I never remember how much I actually love the park until those monthly trips,” says Noe. “It’s always hard for me to leave, because even though it’s just a park, it’s the home of so many beautiful memories for me.”

SACRIFICE AND

SEXUALIT

22 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

family life | feature

East seniors Isabel and Elliott Leonow learned at a young age that their father, Fred Leonow, was homosexual. This major event has shaped all of the family members into who they are today. story brittany meister photography used with permission by shelley king and fred leonow

EDITOR’S NOTE: STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

G Fred Leonow and his partner, Barton Eberenz, pose after their wedding ceremony in September 2015.

TY

rowing up in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Fred Leonow didn’t know if he would be accepted or rejected. From 3-years-old onward, Fred repressed, denied and engaged in a conscious battle not to show any visible signs of being gay. As a child, there were no role models for him to look to. Now 49, Leonow believes the culture itself has become more open and accepting of those who are gay.

Nobody knew about Leonow being gay, so inevitably he thought it would just go away. Leonow is certain that his family would have been supportive, but still kept his sexuality a secret.

“I just always thought, if I have a girlfriend, my feelings will go away; if I get married, my feelings will go away; if I have a child, my feelings will go away; if I have another child, my feelings will go away; if I relocate with my job, it will go away,” says Leonow. “My thought process was to do whatever it took to make my feelings go away, but they never did.”

After years of internal struggle, Leonow separated from his wife, Susan Allen, in 2002. The cause for the divorce was Leonow’s sexuality. The couple had been married for 13 years and been together for a total of 28 years.

“I was just having a really hard time so I had to tell her,” says Leonow. “I was super depressed, in a very, very, very dark place internally, and the moment I said the two words that ‘I’m gay,’ it was like this huge wave of relief and the weight was erased instantly.”

For Leonow, it was the “first day of the rest of [his] life.” Now he could embrace his own life and his relationships with openness and honesty.

“This changed my relationship with my family and friends, even my co-workers,” says Leonow. “Just being true to me and who I am and not being so repressed and closeted.”

During Leonow’s marriage, he had three children, two of which are East seniors, Isabel and Elliott Leonow. At the time of their parents’ divorce, the twins were 6 years old, neither being able to fully fathom the changes their family was going through.

“I remember my dad with his car in the garage with a mattress on the roof, and he was crying, and I was crying and asking him why there was a mattress on the roof,” says Elliott. “I asked him where he was going, and he said that he was going to his new apartment, and I just didn’t really understand anything.”

Isabel recalls the moment she knew her family would change forever. After a tap dance and ballet practice, their mom shared with her and her brother the news of their impending divorce.

“She said they were getting a divorce because my dad was gay,” says Isabel. “I was so young that I just looked at it as my parents separating and living in different homes. I was too young to understand the reasoning because I had no idea what [being] homosexual was. After the divorce, my parents became really close. They would go out and have a drink together, and then through the years that faded. It really hurt me because it sort of seemed like they were still together, and that’s all I wanted. When I was younger, family meant having two parents, and that’s what I wanted.”

feature | family life

“I was so young that I just looked at it as my parents separating and living in different homes. I had no idea what [being] homosexual was.”

—Isabel Leonow, East senior For most of her life, Isabel and her father had never been close. Isabel confided more in her mother. But as Isabel grew and matured, so did her relationship with her father. With maturity, however, came many questions— questions about homosexuality that she was afraid to ask her father.

“I can remember attending church and hearing that if you’re gay you won’t go to heaven. So I would cry and get upset because I thought my dad was going to hell,” says Isabel.

“Now that I’m older, I am no less confused about whether homosexuality is a sin and what the consequences are in God’s eyes. I just never thought something like this would ever happen.”

Fred’s relationship with his ex-wife has been a “rollercoaster ride.” It started out difficult, and with time, it became easier for the two to communicate and have a better relationship, but then things went sour once again.

“We don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, especially parenting issues,” says Fred, “But we are civil toward one another, and we always do our best to put our children first, no matter what may be happening in our individual lives.”

Seven years and two different partners after the divorce, Fred met his current partner, Barton Eberenz. He is now a lighting specialist, but used to be a bartender at a hotel in Louisville, where Fred would often stay at for work purposes because he was a district manager for public storage.

“Fred frequented the bar and offered to buy us both drinks and treat me to dinner,” says Eberenz. “Initially, I said no, but after Fred persisted, I said yes. It was a couple of months of that type of heavy flirting.”

Eberenz announced his homosexuality at age 13. He didn’t experience the trauma that many gay people do when they’re young.

During his high school years, Eberenz was the only gay person in the two different high schools he attended.

“I got picked on, but I stood up for myself.

If someone hit me, I’d hit them back, and once 24 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

that happened a couple times, it’s like jail; once you beat up the biggest baddest person, no one messes with you,” says Eberenz. “People realized that I wasn’t going to take their sh*t and I didn’t get messed with.”

Fred found Eberenz’s self disclosure at an early age to be very alluring.

“For me, the physical attraction was instant because he’s beautiful and has a funny sense of humor,” says Fred, “But I was really attracted to who he is. He has always been who he is, whereas I wasn’t for such a long time. That’s what drew me in.”

After dating for almost a year and a half, Eberenz decided to move to Cincinnati to live with Fred. Before moving, Eberenz joined Fred to cheer on Isabel at one of her soccer games when she was 12.

“She didn’t have any idea of who I was— she didn’t even know I was coming,” says Eberenz. “When the game was over she was like ‘who’s this?’ and [Fred] introduced me as his boyfriend. She didn’t say a thing. She got into her mom’s car and a few moments later Fred’s ex-wife called him to ask why Isabel was crying. I hadn’t said anything toward Isabel, but, obviously my presence upset her considerably.”

F

red understands how introducing Eberenz to the twins was a touchy subject during that sensitive time because it meant another person was entering into their lives. Fred had been with a different partner for four years prior to Eberenz, then after being single for four months, he introduced them to Eberenz.

Fred could sense that his children were being cautious and that it would take them a while to get used to Eberenz, whose personality is larger than life.

“At first I didn’t want to like [Eberenz], but eventually he was around so often I had to,” says Isabel. “He is a great guy, and he treats us as if we are his own children. He’s very outgoing, funny and fun to be around. I’m definitely more comfortable around him than I was in the past.”

The couple had actually discussed marriage previously. In September 2014 on a trip to San Francisco for a friend’s birthday, Fred asked Eberenz to marry him. A year later, on September 6, Fred and Eberenz were married after being together for five and a half years.

The wedding ceremony took place in Covington, Kentucky, and once it came time for Fred and Eberenz retrieve their marriage license, there was some apprehension because of the problems associated with Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

“Our marriage license took seven minutes at the most, and that’s because the clerk had to retype something,” says Eberenz. “We were kind of taken aback the day we went to go get our license that everyone was all up in arms about two people signing a piece of paper. It just seems so miniscule in the total scheme of things; like, this is what we were fighting for?

It’s more difficult to get a driver’s license than it is to get a marriage license.”

The process of organizing Fred and Eberenz’s wedding was a pleasurable experience for them both. When finding a vendor or booking the venue, nobody even gave the couple a second glance. Rather they received the usual excitement and congratulations that attends any couple’s plans to wed. Fred and Eberenz, however, do know what discrimination feels like.

“Once we were out to dinner at Applebee’s and I could see this girl’s mouth saying, ‘fagg*t this fagg*t that,’” says Eberenz. “I don’t take that sh*t. I’ll throw it down in a minute.”

Overall, the couple agrees that the amount of discrimination they have received has been minimal, and they are grateful for the good friends and family they have. Isabel now finds herself in a position of proactively defending gay people against discrimination simply because she has come to accept her father.

She often wonders how a society that works so vigorously to end racial injustice cannot do the same to end discrimination against the gay

family life | feature

population.

Isabel and Elliott have both overcome many challenges together as siblings. Both thought that their father’s sexuality would be difficult to handle when they were growing up in elementary school because they thought they would be teased, and they would only share their family’s situation with their best friends as secrets. Now almost ten years later, the twins see their father and other gay people just as regular people because they have known no different for over half their lives.

“It’s cliche, but they’re just like everyone else,” says Elliott. “Just because they have a different sexuality doesn’t change the type of person they are and the way they act.”

Isabel and Elliott find themselves to be more accepting of all gay people because of their family life and consider him to be just like any other father.

“We are just good people and we live our lives,” says Fred. “You are who you are, and you live your life. You’re not in anyone’s face, and that’s how we are too.”

Fred believes that people have enough to worry about in their own lives without expressing their bias against homosexuality.

He feels their criticism expresses a discomfort about unresolved issues that are then projected onto others, sometimes referred to as ‘homophobia’.

“They have stuff going on that they should be dealing with or handling better or working out, and they don’t, so they go after somebody else,” says Fred. “As long as no one’s getting hurt or breaking any laws, then it should be fine. I admire Barton because he always was who he is and that’s the way to go.”

Fred’s life path was considerably different than Eberenz’s.

“To struggle like I struggled, I missed out on so much. I did so much internal damage to myself. All that stress and depression was not a good thing,” says Fred. “You’ll hear from many gay people who come out that ‘I should’ve done this years ago’, because it’s easier than one might think. You only have one life to live, and you have to live it the best way you know how.

You have to be who you are and not worry about what anyone else thinks. Support will come, love will come.”

From left to right, Elliott, Ethan, Fred, Barton and Isabel celebrate together at Fred and Barton’s wedding.

According to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, between 1 and 9 million children in the United States have at least one gay parent.

package | college

STRESSIN’ ABOUT COLLEGE?

How badly?

YES

NO Skip to page 48 38

Drowning in APs

32

CCP, Baby!

Eh,stayin’ afloat

BALLIN’ 42

So, what now?

I’m still an underclassman

As the price of college rises, the path to universities grows more complicated.

Today’s economy won’t allow many to turn their backs on the process, so applicants have to try to find their ways.

30

Download the ACT question of the day!!

Enjoy it while it lasts

How’d it go?

Mmm not quite

Killin’ it

Who cares, though? #FEELTHEBERN 39

34

Uh, your wallet????

Your career

Nope, not me

27

Let’s talk Affirmative Action...

Is there even time for that?

44

Nah, hittin’ up that http://

41

Uh huh

It’s been real!

40

Holla atcha tuition remission 43

Do you get it yet?

26 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

Hittin’ that whip

I’ll be home for Christmas! (and laundry)

36

flowchart maddie weikel

OK, what about your family?

MOMMA, I MADE IT 37

Yeah.

CONGRATS! Skip to page 48

Are you kidding me with this?

Maybe you should take a closer look...

THE BUSINESS

OF COLLEGE

IS BUSINESS

College tuition in America has been increasing since the 1970s, and following the Great Recession of 2008, students and their families have begun to notice. story michelle chu | infographic cassia chryssovergis photography illustration christine shi | art sarah aftab

RISE IN SALARIES administrators

2000

2010

39 percent increase

college | package

W

ith his gelled blond hair, button-down shirts and Sperry boat shoes, East senior Mitch Bockhorst looks like he’s stepped out of a college catalogue. But before he does step onto campus as a college freshman next fall, he’s experiencing the struggles of every aspiring college-attendee.

“A lot of the times when I’m looking at colleges, I’m like, ‘I can’t go there,’ Bockhorst says. “I have a college list, and there’s times when [the colleges are] just off the list because I can’t afford them.”

Like many seniors, Bockhorst is applying to college this fall and winter. But rather than focusing on his academic and extracurricular résumé, he and an increasing number of students find limitations because of the cost of tuition.

Universities in the late 20th century combatted the elevated enrollment of students by utilizing the substantial government support to build new facilities. Now faced with the upkeep of these buildings and construction for new ones, in addition to absorbing the federal and state support lost during the Great Recession, universities have turned to students to pay more of their own way.

College costs first started to increase in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. More students applying meant that universities had to compete for the best students, according to the University of Cincinnati chapter president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Greg Loving. Colleges hired more administrators to work with student services, government and other agencies to balance the rate of student enrollment.

Loving adds that university presidents and top administrators are paid similarly to Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and corporate

From 2000 to 2010, the salary for administrators, professors, and presidents has increased.

full-time professors

2000

2010

19 percent increase

university presidents

2000

2010

75 percent increase

package | college

East senior Mitch Bockhorst feels the pressure of a rigorous courseload because it will affect how much he and his family will have to pay for college.

board members. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a news and information publication which includes salary databases, the average public college president earned $428,000 in 2014, which is 3.8 times the salary of an average full-time professor. Former Pennsylvania State University president Rodney A. Erickson was the top-paid public college president in the 2013-14 year with a salary of $1.4 million.

While college president compensation is increasing, professor salaries fail to keep up. Full-time professor salary is “rather flat,”

But in reality, adjunct professor salaries can be difficult to measure. Nevertheless, a 2015 UC Berkeley report found that 25 percent of parttime college faculty rely on public assistance.

Other than student-to-student connections, Loving says that professor-student interaction drives student success. Achieving this relationship can be difficult for academically driven students because, according to the AAUP, three out of four professors are in nontenure track positions and will not necessarily be on campus for a student’s entire college career.

“Professors modeling what it’s like to be in the career and interacting with professors keeps students [in college].”

—Greg Loving, University of Cincinnati Chapter President of the American Association of University Professors Loving says, and more part-time adjunct professors are also being hired. What students don’t realize is that many of their professors are part-time and don’t have offices. This can be difficult for students who wish to meet with them during out-of-class hours.

Bockhorst attributes the quality of education to professors and believes that professor salary is the “most important money to spend on.”

28 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

“Professors modeling what it’s like to be in the career and interacting with professors is also what keeps students [in college],” Loving tell Spark. “[Extra amenities and facilities] doesn’t tend to keep them there.”

In a 2015 Gallup and Purdue University survey, about 50 percent of public and private university students strongly agreed that their education was “worth the cost.”

“If you did that survey 10, 15 or 20 years ago, you would see a very different response,” Executive Director of Ohio Campus Compact Richard Kinsley tells Spark. “You would have a higher response in the positive—that it was worth the expense and the time. For me, that’s a fairly low number. You want the majority of people. That’s a concerning number.”

He credits students’ appreciation of their education to the question recent college graduates ask themselves when they compare their starting income to the monthly payment for loans. Yet, he adds, students want the experience of college and individual growth that they would not get elsewhere.

After decades of competition among colleges, expenses for building the best facilities and providing more amenities to attract incoming freshman has added up and has become apparent to families paying these increased tuition and boarding expenses.

Dormitories and other buildings from the 80s need maintenance or complete reconstruction, Kinsley says. For example, The Ohio State University has five fitness centers and the Recreation and Physical Activity Center completed in 2007 at a cost $140 million itself, according to Best Value Schools.

State and local funds for 621 four-year public institutions dropped $2,730 per student from the 2006-07 school year to 2012-13 school year.

As a result of the decreased financial support from the state and national government, private universities rely on alumni fundraisers. For the colleges that have athletic stadiums built because of wealthy donor funds, Loving adds that there is still the issue of stadium upkeep that the university and eventually the students

college | package

ENROLLMENT RATE

College enrollment has increased by 3.1 million from 2001 to 2011.

COL

LEGE

+3.1 million 2001

2011

COST OF COLLEGE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

AMOUNT OF MONEY IN 2014 DOLLARS

will have to provide.

In addition to these expenses, the Great Recession of 2008 caused prices to jump noticeably for students and their families.

According to Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States federal and state education funds were hit much harder than other developed countries.

“Until the [Great] Recession hit, you didn’t see big cuts [to state and federal education funds],” Kinsley says. “Once the big federal and state cuts started taking place for public institutions, then the natural place for campuses to offset these cuts was to raise tuition and housing fees.”

A decade ago, the average cost of tuition for in-state students at a four-year public university in Ohio was $8,236. For the 2014-15 school year, the average Ohio cost is $10,100, whereas the national average is $9,139.

“Ohio has been following the trend [of the nation],” Kinsley says. “There have been cuts to campuses over the past number of years by state legislatures. That’s pretty much across the country.”

Still, the national and state government have continued to lend some help to these institutions. In Ohio, Governor John Kasich created the Ohio Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency in Higher Education which released a report in early October with reviews and recommended suggestions to statesponsored higher education institutions, such as public four-year universities and two-year community colleges, to provide equal or higher quality education at lower costs.

Inflation has little to do with adding to the cost of tuition and room and board.

Before, increases primarily kept pace with tuition, Kinsley says. But now, according to a Consumer News and Business Channel study, Harvard University’s annual tuition for the 2015-16 school year, not including room and board, is $45,278, which is more than 17 times the price in the 1971-72 school year. If increases had been due to inflation, then tuition would be just $15,189.

In order to overcome these reductions in federal and state support along with building upkeep and construction, colleges pass the financial burden to students. In turn, students and their families, such as Bockhorst’s family, often take out student loans.

East Economics teacher Amy Florence also considers alternative ways to help pay for college for her two children, who are a freshman and a 7th grader in the Lebanon school district. Like Bockhorst, she and her husband will pay partially, but it is up to her kids to find ways to afford the rest of the cost of tuition and boarding.

“One of the things we’ve considered is selling our house and using our profits from the house to help fund their education,” Florence ...continued on page 47

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

1971-72 1980-81 1990-91 2000-01 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

ACADEMIC YEAR

COLLEGE AMENITIES dorm rooms dining facilities classrooms

$6.1 billion 1995

Schools spend money on college amenities that are extremely expensive and contribute to the rising cost of college.

Since 1995, American $10.9 billion colleges have spent 2013 significantly more on construction projects.

GETTING TESTY

package | college

Standardized test scores are significant determining factors of which applicants receive certain merit scholarships, and students feel pressured to prepare, even if services and materials are pricey. story emma stiefel | infographic victoria negron photography illustration cara satullo | art sarah aftab

E

ast senior Kaelyn McDonald first took the American College Test (ACT) her sophomore year. Disappointed with her initial score, she then completed a test prep class, received one-on-one tutoring, and read two Princeton Review books and the Real ACT Prep Guide before taking the test three more times.

“I’ve basically done everything,” McDonald says.

In the end, she raised her score by four points.

McDonald is one of 240 East students that have done some kind of preparation for the ACT or Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), according to an East survey of 604 students.

There are 6,396 test prep businesses in America, according to the most recent data.

One of these, the local Learning Enrichment & Assistance Program serves about 1,000 students a year, according to ACT/

SAT Director Sheri Elmore.

Students pour their time and their parents’ money into studying for these tests because scores have traditionally been a huge factor in how colleges admit and award scholarships to students.

“I think most people have an idea that [preparation] is very important,” Elmore says. “If you talk to college admissions counselors, they will tell you that the number one thing that they look at is grades, and then typically test scores are number two.”

McDonald applied to the honors program at the University of Kentucky, The Ohio

“An ACT score is standardized, so it doesn’t matter where a student took the test—[their score] would mean the same.”

—Ed Colby, ACT Director of Public Relations 30 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

State University, Miami University and the University of Cincinnati and knows that her ACT score will be an important part of her application.

“A lot of schools look at both your grades and your ACT score,” McDonald says, “But some schools look heavily at your ACT score [when deciding if you] get into their honors program. That kind of sucks because my grades are higher than what my ACT score should be, so I’m kind of lacking in one category applying for these programs.”

Most merit scholarships, such as the OHIO Achievement Scholarship at Ohio University and the Maximus Scholarship at The Ohio State University, require a minimum SAT/ACT score, GPA or both. Huntington Learning Center Owner and Executive Director Dan Mathis says that the importance of test scores is “just the way our system works now.”

“Practically every college has a chart,” Mathis says, “And they say ‘if this is your GPA and this is your SAT/ACT score, this is how much money you’re awarded.’ So in that way, [SAT/ACT scores] are very important. You could have a fantastic GPA but a lower test score and not get as high of an award as if those were both high.”

college | package

McDonald, who is one such student whose grades are higher than her test score, believes the emphasis placed on scores in scholarship decisions isn’t fair.

“You could have a kid that’s really good at standardized testing but has a really bad GPA,” McDonald says. “He would get scholarship money because schools would see that. But there’s also other students that have low ACTs but high GPAs, and they’re stuck getting a smaller amount of money because of their ACT score.”

Recently, however, test scores have lost some of their significance, at least at the more than 800 colleges that, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, “do not use the SAT or ACT to admit substantial numbers of bachelor-degree applicants.”

George Washington University, one of these schools, says they made the decision to go testoptional this summer based on the findings of their Task Force on Access and Success, which suggested that “the best predictor of academic success in college is a student’s high school record, especially their high school GPA.” ACT Director of Public Relations Ed Colby believes that despite the trend toward testoptional policies, most colleges will continue to require students to submit ACT scores because they provide valuable information about a student.

“ACT scores really provide the only standardized measure of learning that colleges can consider when they’re looking at individual students,” Colby says. “An ‘A’ in one course at a high school may not mean the same thing as an ‘A’ in the same course at another high school. A lot can impact the meaning of grades, whereas an ACT score is standardized, so it doesn’t matter where a student took the test—[their score] means the same thing.”

Additionally, Colby and the College Board Director of Media Relations Maria Eugenia Alcón-Heraux agree that in making admissions decisions, “it is better to have more, not less, information.”

East alum Justin Meyer, who is currently a second year at the University of Minnesota, agrees with George Washington University on the ability, or lack thereof, of standardized test scores to predict college performance.

“The ACT definitely did not reflect the knowledge I had of the basic stuff it tests on in high school, and I don’t think it tested how well I did in my freshman year [of college] either,” Meyer says. “It measures test-taking ability: if you’re able to work fast, if you’re able to just spit out knowledge quickly.”

Colby, however, asserts that a student’s ACT score and grades, not just grades alone, provide the best prediction of college success, and Heraux also says “research confirms using high school GPA in combination with SAT scores offers the best prediction of college success.”

Colby also defends the ACT as an accurate ...continued on page 56

East senior Kaelyn McDonald studies diligently for standardized tests so that she can score high enough to compete in college admissions.

PLUSEXTRA

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A LITTLE

Credit hours are expensive, so high school students are looking to dual-credit as alternative sources of a college education. story and photography illustration cara satullo infographic victoria negron art julia sanders

T

“[College Credit Plus] is all paid for by the state of Ohio, [so] for those who want to get a jump-start on college, it’s a great option.”

—Michelle Kohler, East guidance counselor 32 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

he bell rings to dismiss fourth period.

Hundreds of students pour into the hallways, rushing to their next class, but East junior Bradyn Tedesco simply walks out the front door and hops in his car. He drives to his house, eats a quick snack, and works on his homework. Finally at 4 p.m., he puts his car keys back in the ignition, and makes the 20-minute trip to the Middletown campus of Miami University. It is there that he completes his school day.

Tedesco is enrolled as a student at East, but he participates in the College Credit Plus (CCP) program, which is an Ohio-based program that is offered for the first time this year. This allows him to attend a psychology and English class at Miami for dual credit, with no cost of tuition, books or fees. The credit earned is transferable to any public university in Ohio and also some private and out-of-state universities, although transfer of credit is not guaranteed.

“It’s really nice that I can take these classes at Miami, get high school credit for them, and get college credit for them too,” Tedesco says.

“I want to be a teacher one day, and psychology is one of the criteria for that. But I’m blowing it out at only sixteen-years-old, and after I take this class, I’m done with it.”

Since the year 2000, the average cost of college has increased by 50 percent, according to the College Board. As a result, many families are searching for ways to save money, and CCP is making its way to the top of this list. Around 30 students are participating at East, and more than 400 are participating at Miami regional campuses. No information is available on how many students are participating statewide because the program was just established this year. “[When] creating this program, the state [wanted to offer] an opportunity for students who are college-ready.” Director of Policy

college | package

Projects in the Ohio Department of Higher Education Lauren McGarity says. “It’s all about the student having a valid and authentic college experience.”

This aspect caught Tedesco’s attention while scanning a brochure at a career night held at East. He immediately set up a meeting with his guidance counselor to learn more about it. After many more meetings and a rigorous application process, Tedesco signed up to take seven credit hours through Miami, where he plans to attend after graduating high school.

“It’s a great way to earn college credit for free,” East guidance counselor Michelle Kohler says. “It’s all paid for by the state of Ohio, [so] for those who want to start college early and get a jump-start, it’s a really great program.”

This idea of getting a head-start, combined with the financial benefits, has attracted East students to take classes at Miami branch campuses, UC Blue Ash, Sinclair and other colleges throughout the state. When a student participates in CCP, the money that would have been provided to pay for high school classes by the statewide Per Pupil Foundation Fund East junior Bradyn Tedesco takes advantage of opportunities to save both time and money before he attends college.

is transferred, McGarity says. By taking CCP, Tedesco has saved up to $1,500 along with the voided cost of textbooks, one of which would have been $200.

“The program appeals to a lot of families because it can reduce the cost of college attendance and speed the time to graduation,” Associate Professor and Faculty Director at Miami Marianne Cotugno says. “Students and families must understand that if the student fails to earn a passing grade, the student’s family might be responsible for the costs of the class.”

With this caveat in mind, CCP is not necessarily in the best interest of every student. Those who finish a CCP class with a failing grade will receive an “F” on their high school and college transcripts, which will also be factored into both their high school and college GPAs. In some cases, the district may seek payment for the funds that were used to support the student’s tuition, if they are not economically disadvantaged. In order to avoid this outcome, colleges work hard to determine if a student is truly ready to take a college course.

134 of 554 East students surveyed are interested in College Credit Plus

“A lot of students have had a bad year in high school, and their GPA is damaged because of it.” McGarity says. “Under CCP, the student’s high school GPA is not the essential component. What’s essential is that they’re deemed to be college-ready, and that’s determined by the college.”

The students who are deemed college-ready still may find the transition overwhelming. There is a heightened expectation of independence that differs from the atmosphere of a high school, and from the beginning, Tedesco was exposed to these high expectations. Even with the rigorous application process, no amount of preparation and information seminars were enough to give Tedesco a full idea of what to expect. On his first day, he walked through the doors of his English class to find himself in a completely unfamiliar classroom setting.

“Teachers were handing me assignments that didn’t have as many guidelines,” Tedesco says. “A high school teacher will usually tell you straight up ‘this is how it should look,’ but the assignments I was getting weren’t anything like that. It’s more like ‘write an essay about an argument, pick your topic, and pretty much do whatever you want with it.’”

After the first couple of classes, Tedesco grew accustomed to these new standards. He has had a chance to see what college is like on an academic and a social, level. He shares classes with people in their 20s and 30s and other high school students. This diversity has given him a more complete picture of what college will be like once he enrolls full-time.

“Students who participate in CCP are able to experience not just a college class, but also a college environment,” Cotugno says. “They are able to interact with other college students, faculty, and staff. This is a great opportunity to explore what it’s like to be a college student before they decide to fully matriculate as a student.”

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A MAJOR DECISION

Because students are paying more to enroll in college, choosing a major that will yield appropriate economic benefits becomes more important. story cristina francisco | infographics sophia chryssovergis | art sarah aftab

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rowing up, East senior Bobby Yost dreamed of being a physicist, but he soon developed a unique interest in electronics. He desired to learn the concept of programming, and in eighth grade he began teaching himself the basics of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) with the help of Codecademy, an online program that offers free coding classes. Since then Yost has enrolled in computer science (CS) classes at East and plans to study computer science and artificial intelligence at either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Stanford University.

The majors that students choose to study play a vital role in the economy, according to senior analyst for the Center of Education and Workforce at Georgetown University Andrew Hanson, because employers now prefer to hire

people with college degrees. This is due to the fact that today’s available jobs require a larger variety of both hard and soft skills. Hard skills include creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, and soft skills include communication, teamwork, leadership and professionalism.

Yost has experienced the significance of communication and working with a team during large-scale CS large-scale projects.

“Teams are a necessity, and the more skill an individual has in working with others, the better,” Yost says. “If a team isn’t cohesive or communication is poor, the project will not be able to be completed most of the time.”

Hanson adds that it is important to be informed when choosing a major because five years later, many college students regret their choice. He emphasizes the importance of staying updated on job availability and a major’s

MOST POPULAR MAJORS

projected income.

“Some [students] are influenced by what their peers are doing and what their counselor or parents are telling them,” Hanson says. “[Students] aren’t looking at where the economy is headed, and it’s important for counselors and parents to discuss these decisions with students.”

While Yost is also contemplating studying aerospace engineering, his consideration to study CS is beneficial. According to Director of Research Private Policy and Legislative Affairs at the National Association of College and Employers (NACE) Edwin Koc, CS was one of the degrees popular among the class of 2014. It met both the qualifications of having a high employment rate after graduation and also delivering a good pay ($53,800 on average, according to Payscale). Yet not all majors meet

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education

history

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education

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business

clinical sciences

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engineering

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know their major

do not know their major

education psychology sources u.s. department of education, national center for education statistics, usa today’s college factual, spark survey

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1 petroleum engineering 2 computer science 3 nursing 4 applied mathematics 5 physics

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these qualifications.

“For an education major, the employment levels are really good, but the earnings are relatively low,” Hanson says. “We are talking about $40,000 entry level, and it doesn’t get beyond that. Other Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) majors have an average unemployment rate, but the earnings can be $80,000 coming out of college.”

While the pay can be an incentive, Yost is more influenced by interest. He believes that knowledge of CS can give a person the “ability to do a lot of good in the world with its nearly infinite amount of applications.”

Hanson adds that agriculture and natural resources majors are most likely to yield jobs because many jobs in the oil industry sector were created during the past five years. Because of these new job opportunities, the current unemployment rate is around four percent for recent graduate degree holders between the ages 24-34.

Although Koc believes that, on average, petroleum engineering will be one of the highest-paying majors for the class of 2016 (earning an average of $89,000), he questions its longevity because of the downturn in the oil exploration industry. Hanson also notices that declining demand in the construction industry has resulted in unemployment in both construction laborer and architect sectors, which have a 10 percent unemployment rate.

While many go to college to get a major and find a job after graduation, some may be motivated to go straight into the workforce because of the economy. When students perceive the economy to be weaker, the percentage planning to immediately go to graduate school increases, according to NACE. For the graduating class of 2016, the market is projected to improve.

“We do see a relationship between the state of the economy and the intention of students going into the employment market,” Koc says.

“The percentage of students interested in graduate school escalated to 25 percent during the height of the [2008] Recession in the class of 2010 and then dropped back down to 20 percent.”

Although Yost worries that CS may become automated, he feels that with today’s economy it is “one of the few fields where job security

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isn’t a major issue.” He also thinks more students will study in CS because of how new the field is compared to physics and chemistry.

East senior Lucas Harris has also developed an interest in computer science but is more geared toward computer engineering, which essentially includes computer science and engineering to develop computer hardware and software.

For Harris the pay that comes with CS has “incentivised him to pursue a career in it,” but his proclivity mainly comes from his interest of working with computers. As CS and engineering, specifically petroleum engineering, grow in popular demand, Carly Stockwell, the director of media content at College Factual, notes that these two majors are not among the top ten degrees that have historically been ranked popular. Still she predicts that STEM programs will be one of the top majors studied for the class of 2016.

The degrees that have remained popular include history, English, accounting, psychology, criminal justice and corrections, education, nursing, biology and business, which is the most popular.

Despite the stigma of liberal arts not being a useful major, it is also historically among the most popular majors, which Stockwell attributes to the advantages that come with it.

“Liberal arts majors give [students] a diverse education that can be useful when you are not quite sure what your career is going to look like,” Stockwell says. “Lots of them don’t know what they want to study when they first enter college, which is understandable, but I also think they’re going to do better choosing a specific major. It’s valuable that students figure out what they want to study early on so they can get on the right track.”

Stockwell says that it is common for students to change majors and it’s a contributing factor to why a majority of students don’t graduate in four years. According to College Factual, 50-70 percent of students change their major somewhere between their first or second year of college, and they also find that changing a major in years two or three will add an extra year before graduation. Stockwell also adds that students lose money because that could have spent that year working with an income.

For students who don’t know what they want

1 animal science 2 social work 3 child development/psychology 4 theology/ministerial studies 5 culinary arts

to study aside from possibly a liberal arts major, she also suggests community college or a gap year.

“Students could try [community college] and then transfer to a four-year school, but it would also be better to delay their education rather than take a bunch of classes [that won’t end up as a part of their major],” Stockwell says. “Students who take a gap year do better than their peers and get better grades because they have more life experiences, gain a better perspective, and have that goal in mind.”

While some students may choose to study at institutions rather than community colleges because of prestige, Koc advises that paying

attention to the state of the economy would be the best aid in making decisions. He also suggests going to a career service office for advice on where and what to study. “[Students should] pay attention to what [kinds of employers] are coming to their campus and are willing or interested in hiring,” Koc says. “That gives a strong indication where they as an individual student might do well.”

Yost also encourages people to take an interest in CS because he believes everyone can benefit from it.

“I think there’s a commonly held perception that one has to be a nerdy, white male to succeed in computer science or one of its derivative fields, but that is simply not the case.” Yost says. “Many of the most influential or notable people in the field were females actually, such as Grace Hopper or Margaret Hamilton. Computer science is an empowering field of study, and everyone should have the opportunity to experience that.”

DIGITAL

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DEGREES

Pressed for time, some college students are turning to online courses to make room in their schedules for homework, research, extracurriculars and jobs. story aubree dix | art sarah aftab

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he floorboards of the theater’s stage are black and long-since soiled from the shoes of past actors and actresses. From that dirtied floor, those who have found a passion for bringing stories to life rehearse in front of rows of empty seats—seats that a particular girl hopes become filled when the night of the show arrives. And late at night, after hours of memorizing lines and practicing scenes, she finds herself in her dorm, her computer screen lighting up her face as she completes her online classwork she didn’t have time to do earlier.

East alum Olivia Pannek, who is currently a first year at Bowling Green State University, has been a theater fan since she was sevenyears-old. Having acting since then, the hobby traveled with her to college. There, Pannek is majoring in inclusive early childhood education and plans to obtain an endorsement on her license so she can teach fourth and fifth graders.

Online college courses came into existence more than 28 years ago, but only recently have they become prominent methods of learning in the United States. The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), previously known as The Sloan Consortium, is a database that provides information about online education.

According to a report by OLC, 6.1 million students enrolled in online university courses in 2010, which was almost four times higher than the 1.6 million that enrolled in 2002. Time has caused this shift from traditional to online education.

Aside from theater, Pannek has a passion for teaching. In order to graduate with her major, however, she had to sign up for Intro to Educational Technology, a class solely based online, and she’ll need more of its kind before she can receive her degree. With rehearsals sixseven times per week, online course allows her to juggle schoolwork and her knack for acting.

36 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

“I think that they are easily accessible, and you can complete them from your home instead of going to the campus and taking the class there,” Pannek says. “It’s very easy to work on any type of assignment whenever you are able to.”

In high school, Pannek took four classes online in order to fit others into her schedule and to graduate. Although she doesn’t believe that she’ll ever move to a college schedule that’s done completely online, she says that the classes she took in high school helped her be

by full or part-time jobs, and that online courses allow them to also thrive at school. “[Our students] are juggling a lot of competing responsibilities,” White says.

“Online education offers a number of benefits that are particularly important for students who can’t or don’t want to pursue their education full time. These include flexibility, convenience, access and affordability.”

According to Learn.org, a directory of online degrees, online courses are not always more affordable than traditional courses

“[Online classes make it] very easy to work on any type of assignment whenever you are able to.”

—Olivia Pannek, Bowling Green State University first year more open to Intro to Educational Technology.

According to East counselor Matt Rabold, who is assigned to students with last names beginning with letters D through H, 20 of his seniors are taking at least one online class, excluding Apex Learning courses, which is an online provider used primarily for completely online schooling. He says that the majority of students take health, government and/or economics online with the same intention as Pannek had: freeing up time for other classes.

Vice President of Communications at Kaplan University Stephen White says that many students have schedules that are affected

because sometimes the online courses of a school have the same tuition rate of that school’s on-campus classes.

Major David Woolford of the Dayton Police Department, like others, has his own history with online courses. Upon entering the police force, he originally attended a traditional college, which he says instilled responsibility.

Later on when his career advanced and his family was growing, Woolford desired to return to school in order to receive his master’s degree. With an unpredictable schedule, court cases and kids, he found online ...continued on page 56

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STEPS IN

“Going to college has changed my life, but it changes everyone’s life whether they are a firstgeneration [student] or not.”

—Brittany Keller, East alum and current Kent State University third-year student

ANOTHER

DIRECTION Having parents that chose not to go to college can be a barrier for people trying to pursue higher education, but East alum Brittany Keller now attends Kent State University despite the odds. story erinn aulfinger | art julia sanders

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etting lost on campus: check. Bed Bath & Beyond raids: check. Homesickness: check.

Uncomfortable introductions with new people: check.

Before going to sleep on her first night at Kent State University (KSU), East alum Brittany Keller had one more thing to check off her college to-do list: call her mom. And yet, when Keller called her mom that night, though they could talk about the cute boys she saw at the library or the less-than-edible cafeteria food in Fletcher Hall, her mom still could not relate to her experiences, because Keller was the first of her family to attend college.

“I doubt that any of my friends know that I’m a first-generation college student,” Keller says, remembering the beginning of her first year three years ago. “Going to college has

changed my life, but it changes everyone’s life whether they are a first-generation [student] or not.”

According to a 2005 report by The National Center for Education Statistics, 30 percent of all students entering college are first-generation students, or those whose parents have not completed a bachelor’s degree. Compared with students whose parents attended college, firstgeneration students consistently remained at a disadvantage after entering postsecondary education; they completed fewer credits, took fewer academic courses, earned lower grades, needed more remedial assistance, and were more likely to withdraw from or repeat courses they attempted. Among these students, 11 percent complete a bachelor’s degree.

The College Board, an organization that prepares and administers standardized tests that are used in college admission process, says these disadvantages stem from fear.

“Many times, first-generation students may have misconceptions about college and costs,” the College Board tells Spark. “This is why it is very important for educators to make sure firstgeneration students are aware of the deadlines and requirements [to apply].”

East guidance counselor Matt Rabold says East tries to make sure first-generation students are aware of their opportunities.

The biggest obstacle is lack of guidance from parental figures who are unaware on how to aid their child in the pre-college process because they did not go through it.

Keller’s mother, Teresa Keller, started her own commercial cleaning business, and her father, Dennis Keller, studied tool-making at a trade school to eventually work for General Motors. Because of this, Keller had to participate in the admissions process without the experience of her family.

According to Rabold, East counselors have no way of knowing who is a firstgeneration student, but they try to bridge the communication gap through Naviance, which is a college and career planning tool, and

College Wednesdays, which promote college readiness and help.

Keller says she took advantage of East counselors availability and had many visits with Jill Kelechi, her counselor, to help with the admissions process. She took advantage of KSU’s Get Started Checklist, which kept admitted students updated with actions that needed to be completed and the corresponding due dates in order to be prepared for the first day of classes.

“I did not know which colleges were good for specific majors or what the on-campus life was like,” Keller says. “I was unaware of the scholarship opportunities that I could receive, and I honestly did not know the workload that college was going to entail.”

According to a 2013 College and Career Readiness report by the American College Test (ACT) and the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), 52 percent of firstgeneration students failed to meet the four college readiness benchmarks in English, math, reading and science, compared to the 31 percent of the total number of ACT takers.

These benchmarks include scores that portray a student’s 50 percent chance of receiving a “B” or 75 percent chance of earning a “C.” Although 94 percent of first-generation college students wish to attend a higher learning opportunity, the majority are “not ready to succeed in key courses when they get there.”

As a first-generation college student, Keller, who is an early childhood education major, took extra steps to prepare for her transition into the college environment. She says her parents had always stressed that she would go to college and do well academically. Keller also took post-secondary classes at Miami University to prepare to succeed in the demanding college world.

“I adjusted to college life by jumping in and dealing with everything as it came,” Keller says.

“I had expectations of college [from] movies and hearing what my older friends said. It is ...continued on page 47

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EARLY CHALLENGES

In preparation for challenging college content, more students are investing in Advanced Placement classes so they won’t have to pay for as many credit hours when on campus. story richard giang | art julia sanders

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dvanced Placement (AP) U.S. History teacher Jennifer Reid is often visited by past students who describe times they still utilize the skills she taught them. She compiles the feedback in a list of reasons advocating for the enrollment of AP U.S. History and AP classes.

“By having AP on your transcript,” Reid says, “[you can] develop skills that would give you tremendous advantages in college, earn credit, save money, and boost your chances of getting into the college of your choice.”

As more students across the country take AP tests (1,229 students in 1956 to 2,342,528 in 2014), AP has built a reputation of rigor among advanced and honors classes.

A recent assessment by Third International Mathematics and Science Study showed that AP students who earned scores of three, four or five on AP Examinations in physics and calculus outperformed other physics and advanced math students from both the United States and abroad.

Students can save up to $19,000 in tuition by taking AP classes in high school, according to the College Board. Students such as East sophomore Weston Lindner take AP classes like AP Biology, AP Government and AP U.S. History primarily for the college credit.

“The basic idea is to get as many AP classes in while I’m here so I can graduate college in three years or less,” Lindner says. “I [want to]

have enough money to go to law school, so basically the purpose is get college credit and save money in college.”

In addition to cost, students utilize AP classes to appeal to colleges. Crux Research, which specializes in trends in youth education, found that 31 percent of colleges and universities consider a student’s AP experience when choosing scholarship recipients. In addition, 85 percent of selective colleges and universities

“[AP helps you] develop skills that would give you tremendous advantages in college, earn credit, save money, and boost your chances of getting into college.”

—Jennifer Reid, East AP U.S. History teacher 38 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

report that a student’s AP experience favorably impacts admissions decisions.

Despite the financial benefits and improved reading, writing and communication skills gained through AP, Reid believes that students enroll in these academically challenging classes for an underlying reason.

“I think that students take AP, whether they know it or not, for the higher-level challenge,” Reid says. “They can sharpen their thinking skills in ways that they can’t do in a College Prep [CP] class.”

The way Reid puts it, students looking into AP classes should look at the different class levels in a more basic and fundamental way. She believes that the content itself isn’t different, but that the main differences arise from the areas of emphasis. CP classes spend approximately 75 percent of the time on basiclevel thinking such as factual recall, and only 25 percent on higher-level thinking. AP is the opposite, spending more time on application and creation rather than evaluation and recall.

“In actuality, the AP is again getting people ...comtinued on page 56

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THE POLITICS OF DEBT

As the youngest voting demographic voter turnout remains low and concern for student loan debt remains high, presidential candidates are pushing platforms on the issue to appeal to college-aged millennials. story and infographic loryn flowers | art julia sanders | photography fair use

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fter she signs the student loan contracts, East alum Taylor Simms begins to worry.

A junior at the University of Cincinnati (UC), she is concerned about the amount of money she is spending on her college education. Because of this, Simms says she would definitely support any politicians that aim to lessen the burden of this debt.

“It’s very terrifying,” Simms says. “I see how much money I’m going to owe. If I can’t find a job when I get out, I don’t know what I would do [to pay it back].”

With the rising cost of college from $14,310 in 2004-05 to $18,943 in 2014-15 for four-year public universities according to the College Board, more students are taking out loans as a way to pay for tuition. In addition, borrowing has increased by 36 percent in the past decade among college students, and The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cites that student loan debt has reached a new milestone of more than $1.2 trillion in 2013.

As the cost of college continues to rise, it is becoming a more prevalent problem in American politics. This issue is going to be a larger factor in the 2016 elections than in the past, according to Assistant Professor in Political Science at UC Andrew Lewis.

“There have been some brief mentions [about student debt] in the past,” Lewis says, “but there have certainly been [current] candidates and certain groups that are really

putting emphasis on this issue.”

The root of this student loan debt is the growing cost of higher education, which stems from a shift in government priorities.

Public funding for U.S. universities continues to decline in most states and now makes up a small fraction of public universities’ budgets.

According to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state spending on higher education nationwide has decreased by $2,026 per student, or 23 percent. Families are forced to make up the difference.

“Considering the scale of the student debt crisis, which is undermining young people’s financial futures, we don’t hear enough about it,” Assistant Professor in Political Science at UC Rebecca Sanders says. “Politicians pay lip service, but few seem to want to do the necessary thing and reinvest public resources in public education.”

Sanders says that presidential hopefuls have increased discussion on student loan debt in order to win votes of millennials and their parents. Simms thinks that all of the increased cost of college is harming the future of millennials like her.

“I see that a lot of people don’t want to go to college because it’s too expensive,” Simms says. “That’s just not an option for them.”

As voting rates decline, especially among younger people, politicians are trying to use this issue as a way to persuade millennials to

get involved, Lewis says. According to the United States Census Bureau, 15.9 percent of 18-24 year-olds voted in 2014. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley introduced ideas for colleges and universities to offer free tuition.

“A college degree today is the equivalent of what a high school degree was 50 years ago,” Bernie said during the Cable News Network Democratic Primary Debate on Oct. 13, “and what we said 50 years ago and 100 years ago is that every kid in this country should be able to get a high school education regardless of the income of their family. I think we have to say that is true for everybody going to college.”

Overall, Democrats are concerned with decreasing the burden of student debt on the individual, while Republicans are concerned with reducing the cost of college tuition.

Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie have agreed that student debt is crippling the economic mobility of the population, but they have not laid out any specific plans to combat the issue.

Among each candidate there are many different competing visions on how to address the issue of student loan debt. ”The fundamental question is ‘are they willing to reinvest in public universities as well as need-based grant programs or not?’”

Rebecca says. “Until they do, debt will continue to grow.”

Hillary Clinton

Chris Christie

Former Secretary of State (D) Student debt plan: encourage gradual increase in state spending on public colleges and curb tuition increase through grants.

Govenor of New Jersey (R) Student debt plan: Congress should properly fund and expand student aid programs.

Bernie Sanders Senator of Vermont (D) Student debt plan: make public colleges in the U.S tuition-free and reduce the current student debt interest rates. source thinkprogress.org, sanders.senate.gov

Marco Rubio

Senator of Florida (R) Student debt plan: loosen rules for college accrediation so low-cost competitors can accept college students.

A WORLD

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OF KNOWLEDGE University of Cincinnati student Dana Mayouf sought a college education in America because her home country of Jordan didn’t offer the same opportunities. story noor ghuniem | art julia sanders

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ana Mayouf from Amman, Jordan traveled the distance of 6,214 miles to reside at the University of Cincinnati (UC) in order to get the education she needs to become an actuary scientist.

A survey by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) showed that nearly 45 percent of all incoming first years relocate more than 100 miles away from their home. Test scores, finances, parental influence and location are major factors that go into the distance these students move for college. However, the various students that move the span of oceans for college look to future opportunities despite struggles they may encounter. Mayouf is one of these students.

“My old country did not provide a very high college level education and actually barely had many colleges to begin with,” Mayouf says.

“UC definitely has a higher level of education.

The experience in studying abroad would help me later on in the job process.”

Mayouf maintained decent grades throughout her high school years and exceeded expectations on her “Tawhiji,” which is the General Secondary Certificate Examination in Jordan that qualifies whether she could graduate. Of the 57,141 students who took the exam, 22,974 students passed in 2013, the year Mayouf took the exam, according to the Jordan News Agency. Despite being one of the 22,974, Mayouf found it easier to apply internationally.

“Jordan is in the Middle East, and even though it’s gotten better, guys pretty much hold dominant roles,” Mayouf says. “The education there through high school is pretty good, but the colleges there are not exactly strong. A strong college there is kind of like a community college here, and it isn’t very good for when I want to get a job, whether it is in Jordan or outside of Jordan.”

40 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

In 2013, the World Bank reported that men with higher education are less likely to be unemployed and that unemployment rises with the level of education for women. Therefore, Mayouf applied to a strong college in the United States to carry out the education she needed in order to easily prosper through the job-picking process. She found UC through her mother, Manal Salous, who had lived in Ohio ten years ago.

Despite the benefits that come after getting her education, many challenges arise through Mayouf ’s college experience. The one person who has done everything for Mayouf her entire life is an ocean away, and contacting Salous is not easy. Dana had to learn independence while she was trying to keep good grades. Salous finds it difficult to be away from her daughter and watch her struggle.

“If I lived in the United States, one of the world’s top countries for education, there is no way I would send Dana to another state or anywhere far away to study,” Salous says. “But I don’t [live in America], so I had to do what was best for my daughter and give her good quality education. Even if it is very tough emotionally, I know I am doing what is best for her in the

29 percent of 546 East students surveyed are going to be first-generation college students.

end.”

Salous keeps her daughter’s best interest in mind despite all the challenges that she encounters. As a single parent, she has a close relationship with Mayouf, which makes it notably difficult to have her so far away. Salous sends Mayouf to college with her income and financial input from Mayouf ’s father. Salous has gone through various jobs, and she takes her own history of employment difficulty into account when thinking of Mayouf ’s future.

“I studied at the University of Jordan while my husband studied at a university in Wisconsin,” Salous says. “I can’t choose the jobs I get as freely—I have to take what comes to me.”

Regardless of the challenges, Salous understands how hard it would be on Mayouf to find a career if she studied in Jordan.

Odai Salous, Mayouf ’s uncle who has acted as a father figure throughout her high school years, additionally supports the decision of having Mayouf move to the United States for postsecondary.

“It is hard on Dana and her mom, but this is where she needs to be,” Odai says. “She needs the right education so she can do well in the rest of her life.”

Mayouf ’s future plans include returning to the Middle East, most likely Jordan. She plans on building a career in an area where actuary scientists are not common. Above anything else, her future aspirations are based upon the success she wishes to have for both herself and her mother.

“Go through a bit of a struggle for a short period of time so you can earn the success you need for the rest of your life,” Mayouf says.

“That’s what I always tell myself.”

HITTING CLOSE

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TO HOME

University of Cincinnati second year Haley Harrison chose to attend college in Ohio because of her relationship with her family and because of reduced in-state tuition. story sidney li | art sarah aftab

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rowing up with family members based around Liberty Township, 2014 East alum Haley Harrison held chaotic but lively annual Christmas parties for both her direct and extended relatives. Everyone was ecstatic as they saw each other’s smiles when they received their gifts from one another. Even as years pass by, the Christmas parties’ mood remains the same to Harrison today.

During her senior year, Harrison decided to stay close to the area instead of choosing a college far away. Her strong family ties and the widening gap between in-state and out-ofstate tuition kept her close to home. Opening the acceptance letter from the University of Cincinnati (UC) assured Haley that she would be spending her next couple of years around the area.

According to the College Board, the tuition costs for the 2012-13 school year in a public instate school in the United States is $8,655 and is $21,706 in a public out-of-state school.

Harrison applied to three colleges in the Midwest: Miami University, UC and Murray State University in Kentucky. She had planned to investigate Murray State since she was young because her father, Skip Harrison, went there, but the most important quality the three share is their location.

“I get to see Haley at least once every other week,” Skip says. “Most of the time, she is busy with schoolwork and work but we can always plan something [like hiking] in the future,” Ultimately, Haley chose to go to UC instead of the other two because of the opportunities it presented for her future. Since she was a freshman at East, she fell in love with the Spanish language which led her to pursue this as her major as well as international affairs.

“UC has a really good international program,” Haley says. “Within international and political affairs, there are opportunities for extracurricular and studying abroad.”

Now a second year, Harrison also occupies her time by getting involved with many extracurricular activities such as Amnesty International, Design for America and Model United Nations. Last year, Haley attended one of Amnesty International’s conferences in New York. Sitting next to hundreds of others in front of a panel, and hearing about how it affected people of different races and socioeconomic statuses drove Haley’s perseverance to help alleviate the unequal treatment of humans.

Although it is not a club or extracurricular,

Haley also juggles the adventures that come with roommates. Dana Lentz, one of Haley’s friends, shares a house with her and three other girls that is a 15-20 minute walk to the UC campus downtown. Lentz came to UC anticipating an introspective college experience, but when she and Haley thought to live together with some friends, the familiar faces were comforting.

“I chose UC because it was convenient and a really great school that is close to home,” Lentz says. “It is a lot cheaper because it is instate, and my parents are closer to help out with anything.”

In addition to in-state tuition, they are saving money by rooming in an apartment of five. Lentz says that everything from water to internet bills is split evenly among the five girls.

“In-state tuition is obviously a huge factor as I’m getting further into my college career,” Haley says. “I don’t think people really realize how big of a deal it is.

So many things change, and [I was] not really ready for it.”

package | college

At the end of the school year, East senior Andrew Emrick will have completed four seasons of high school basketball.

After countless hours of hard work, he has committed to play ball for Fairmont University next year. story john ferguson | art julia sanders | photography used with permission from andrew emrick and family

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he sound of the basketball echoing in the empty gym is nothing new to East senior Andrew Emrick. For him, this is his second home, putting in hours upon hours of work in improving his game. He laughs as he says that he consistently puts up about 1,000 shots per week outside of team practice time, hinting at his Kobe Bryant-like work ethic, which he credits to his success.

Playing sports in college and later professionally is a goal desired by many young athletes but achieved by few. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), out of the nearly eight million students that compete in high school athletics nationwide, only 460,000 of them will compete in college, and a fraction of those will compete professionally. But for Emrick, this statistic is no longer a distant reality; he received a fullride scholarship to join the Basketball Team at West Virginia’s Fairmont University.

“Everyone wants to play college basketball as a kid, but when you grow up and realize that you can accomplish just that, it’s an incredible feeling.” Emrick says. “Being in that slight percentage, I like to compliment myself to say that I’ve worked hard for that, and it’s definitely a blessing to have college coaches recognize that and appreciate my game.”

Emrick’s journey started when he was merely five years old, and he has had a passion for the game ever since. He notes that in today’s world, it is now harder than ever to climb to the top in athletics because of how kids specialize in one sport their entire school career. A 2008 survey of Indiana schools revealed that only 28 percent of athletes in schools with more than 1,200 students played more than one sport. In this new era of “one-sport athletes,” students will often focus on just a single sport to outcompete their competition in the pursuit of an athletic scholarship or to succeed at a professional level.

Emrick credits his initial interest in the game to his father, Dave, and older brother, Austin, who both played basketball in high school. His consistent work ethic and attitude toward his

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SLAM DUNK

athletic growth isn’t apparent to just his family but also to the head coach of the East varsity basketball team, Clint Adkins, who has been a East senior Andrew Emrick scores in a victory against Kings High School during the 2014-15 season.

part of the coaching staff for 12 years.

“It’s one of the greatest things to ...continued on page 56

PARENTAL

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PROFESSOR

East junior Sarah Anderson has the potential to receive a free tuition to the Univeristy of Cincinnati because her dad works there as a professor of Trombone History and Pedagogy and as a coach of chamber music. story lexy harrison

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etween marching band, school and thinking about her future, East junior Sarah Anderson keeps herself busy. Despite schoolwork and rehearsals, Anderson says having a father who is a professor at the University of Cincinnati (UC) doesn’t impact her amount of stress.

“He doesn’t really expect exceptional grades from me,” Anderson says. “He has expected effort from me, but not really much more than that and not a lot less than my mom [has expected of me]. I was exposed to music when I went to my dad’s performances with the Dayton philharmonic, sparking my initial interest in music, and I started piano lessons in the second grade.”

At UC, a full-time employee’s spouse, domestic partner and/or dependent is eligible to apply for tuition remission. In return for the employee’s services, the university will pay for instructional fees if the family member is accepted by the UC Human Resource department.

Because Anderson has the advantage of having a discount in tuition, she says she plans on applying for tuition remission and to UC after graduation next year. Because of the potential financial relief at UC, Anderson says she feels more prepared to begin her intended primary school education major at the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services in 2017.

“Unless I get a good scholarship somewhere else, then I’ll probably choose to go to UC,” Anderson says. “Free tuition would mean less debt for me and my family to pay back in the future.”

During her second season of marching band, Anderson became good friends with

current East senior Colton Thomas, who was beginning his college search at the time. Having dated for almost a year, Thomas, who wants to attend the Conservatory of Music at UC, has grown acquainted with the Anderson family. “[Anderson’s dad] doesn’t put too much pressure on her,” Thomas says. “Applying for college is stressful, especially looking for merit scholarships and auditions for a spot in the school of music. [Possible free tuition] makes me happy for Sarah because she won’t have the financial burden and debt hanging over her head for the first part of her adult life.”

Sarah’s father, Timothy Anderson, doesn’t believe he puts an immense amount of pressure on his daughter, either. Because the Trombone History and Pedagogy courses he teaches are musically driven and are not academically rigorous in the same way that Sarah’s current classes are, Timothy’s expectations for his students’ performances do not identically overlap with his expectations for Sarah.

“At UC, I’ve observed many freshmen that struggle with time management, and while Lakota keeps students busy and active, most students still interact with a guardian daily,” Timothy says. “All of her pressure seems to come from within. When Sarah has to make decisions about time management, she’ll see things differently.”

Despite a typical parent-student relationship when managing her grades and extracurricular activities, Sarah has performed above average in her first three years in high school. Being accepted into a respectable university next year would not be an issue, but Timothy is thankful for the opportunity to send his daughter to college with minimal expenses.

“Sarah will be ready to make her own decisions in college, and pursuing a concentrated interest will be exciting,” Timothy says. “There are also many social opportunities, but they will have to be arranged while maintaining the responsibility of class and study and even work. [With free tuition], we would also be able to travel for vacations while still supporting all the additional expenses like rent and groceries.”

Both academically and financially, Sarah and Timothy both feel that UC would be a good fit.

Great minds think alike, and both Sarah and her dad are excited about the possibility to think together on campus in a year or so, in addition to a lifestyle change for the Anderson family that would come from tuition remission.

“Being close to home means I can come home for a weekend if I need to,” Sarah says. “There is a support system of people close by who can always come to help me out if I need something in a pinch. I won’t really see my dad since I won’t take his class, but it would be a big comfort to be that close to home.”

68 percent of 482 East students surveyed would attend an Ivy League school if given the opportunity.

package | college

CONTROVERSY IN THE COURTS Despite the myriad of Supreme Court cases regarding the constitutionality of affirmative action, the issue remains vague to many college applicants. Nevertheless, the question of whether race-based admissions are balanced and fair persists as numerous systemic racial inequalities muddle the issue. story and infographic maddie weikel | art sarah aftab

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he Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in a 7-1 majority in favor of petitioner Abigail Fisher that The University of Texas in Austin’s admission policy too flimsily admitted applicants on the basis of race in June 2013. SCOTUS announced this past June that the case will be heard again early in 2016, and the possibility of affirmative action policies in college admissions will be placed under closer scrutiny and face the possibility of further limitation or termination.

Rooted in historical discrimination and persisting systemic inequalities, affirmative action is strongly supported by people who insist that some form of preferential racebased admissions is necessary to counteract social barriers that minority applicants inherently face. Opponents, however, preach that reverse discrimination (not admitting applicants because they are are not minorities) bars qualified majority applicants from opportunities for no other reason than because they are white. With the value of college degrees growing, the competition to be admitted to prestigious universities is heating up. The national discussion about whether race-based admissions policies align with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment also persists.

East guidance counselors Alicia Roberson, Matt Rabold, Michelle Kohler and Jennifer Millard have not had any conversations with students about affirmative action. Universities deliberately recruit students of all races by publicizing their “commitment to diversity,” so the specific language surrounding affirmative action is rare among students. “[Affirmative action] hasn’t come up in general,” Millard says. “High school students today are generally comfortable with diversity and accepting of differences.”

Since the inception of the policy in the 44 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

1960s, affirmative action has faced opposition from conservative Americans who see the policy as elevating minority students based on criteria outside of those students’ control.

While affirmative action in its early stages often resulted in universities simply instituting racial quotas, after a series of Supreme Court cases (California v. Bakke in 1978 to Gratz v.

Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger in 2002 and 2003 and to Fisher v. University of Texas in Austin in 2013), institutions now consider race as one of many factors that determine acceptance.

Affirmative action is a process that stays behind the doors of admissions offices. To recruit not only racially diverse students but also students who have a keen appreciation for diversity, universities advertise the racial breakdown of their student bodies and construct programs like Miami University Bridges.

Although East juniors Chontevia Lewis and Ekene Azuka and senior Isaac Mitchell have not sought statistics about racial diversity during their college searches, the concept remains important. Lewis supports the concept that diverse ideas come from diverse backgrounds but only if the motivation to specifically admit minority is that simple.

“Using affirmative action to help people who wouldn’t have the chance [to go to college] is good, but I wouldn’t like colleges to using [affirmative action policies] to make their schools look better,” Lewis says. “Diversity in a learning environment is important to see different cultures and see what is unique about people, but if [diversity] is used just to lift up a school higher than another, then that’s not OK.” University of Chicago Sociology Professor Ross Stolzenberg tells Spark that admissions are no longer as simple as a pile for accepted applicants and a pile for declined applicants.

Especially with highly-selective universities,

which typically utilize affirmative action policies more frequently than other schools, it is more difficult to attribute a student’s acceptance to race alone.

“From the perspective of a college’s administrators, a qualified student is one who can complete the school’s academic requirements for graduation and whose presence can both help the school attract more students and enhances the ability of the college to pay its bills,” Stolzenberg says. “Admissions is a product pricing problem comparable to methods used by airlines that charge different prices for different types of customers but still put them on the same plane.”

The criteria for maintaining race as a consideration in undergraduate admissions were elevated with each Supreme Court ruling from 1978 until today. The most recent position from Justice Anthony Kennedy is that universities must demonstrate that “available, workable, race-neutral alternatives do not suffice” before using race in admissions decisions.

Despite this increasingly invasive probing into affirmative action policies, 30 percent fewer white Americans support these policies than black Americans, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center study. Out of the pool of supporters, 24 percent of respondents said they supported affirmative action because it makes up for past discrimination. Mitchell doesn’t support using the term “reverse discrimination” because the word discrimination can be used to communicate bigotry toward any and all racial groups, but he understands the concept.

“There are people like me who don’t

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1978

REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA V. BAKKE

Race-based admission is supported by the 14th Amendment by encouraging diversity in educational environments. Quotas, however, are excessive and unconstitutional.

2002

GRATZ V. BOLLINGER

Race-based admissions derived from point systems are unconstitutional because a comprehensive evaluation of each applicant is the only way to decide admittance.

2003

GRUTTER V. BOLLINGER

Race-based admission does not violate the 14th Amendment if the rationale for considering race as one component is strictly to encourage campus diversity.

2013

FISHER V. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN In order to utilize affirmative action policies, universities must justify in greater detail why race is a necessary component in admissions decisions.

2014

SCHUETTE V. COALITION TO DEFEND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION A state can amend its own constitution to bar affirmative action policies from admission to its own state’s universities.

2015

FISHER V. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

On June 29, the Supreme Court agreed to re-examine the 2013 Fisher v. UT Austin ruling to potentially further limit or ban affirmative action.

necessarily get the best grades, and if I were of a different racial group, affirmative action could get me in over someone with the same grades as me,” Mitchell says. “We live in a racist society, so I understand the need for affirmative action, but this aspect doesn’t necessarily seem fair or balanced.”

Department of Sociology Doctoral Student at the University of Maryland Joey Brown tells Spark that militant adherents to the idea of reverse discrimination, who are far more aggressive than Mitchell, likely do not understand the historical foundation that supports affirmative action policies.

“People tend to see [affirmative action] policies as coming out of thin air without recognizing the social and historical circumstances that surround them,” Brown says. “The timeline outlining progress since discrimination was made illegal may seem long, but compared to the at least 200 years of disadvantage that minority groups have been placed under since American independence, [progress] is really not that substantial.”

Because segregation in both housing and education still persists, Brown says, historical inequality among especially low-income minority applicants creates an obstacle that even low-income whites do not have to hurdle as frequently. He notes that low-income whites tend to live in more affluent areas than their black counterparts and are therefore more likely to live in slightly better school districts.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, on average, black high school students have access to 75 percent of the challenging and college-preparation courses that white students utilize. Furthermore, the Center for American Progress found that with a 10 percentage point increase in minority students in an educational institution accompanied a $75 decrease in per-pupil funding. Even when researchers in the labor market looked to advocate for more classbased than race-based affirmative action, racial disparities tended to surface anyway.

Because the bitterness of reverse discrimination is typically taught in school and because of the claims made in Fisher v.

University of Texas, discovering that a student was admitted to a university with the help of affirmative action could be stigmatizing toward both the policy and toward that student. While Brown has not seen any national data on this specific tension between minority and majority students, he has heard personal anecdotes that demonstrate its prevalence.

University of Chicago Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy Damon Jones tells Spark that this stigma is tricky in context.

“If you frame affirmative action as something a student doesn’t deserve, then it’s very natural to believe that a student who may or may not be benefitting from it to feel selfconscious,” Jones says. “There are students who

are children of faculty members or children of alumni that also get preferential treatment in the application process, but it’s not made clear that they’re to feel undeserving of the benefits they receive.”

Because affirmative action is framed as policies that admit students who would not be admitted otherwise, opponents use the term “mismatch” to describe these students because they are said to be at schools that are not a match academically for them because of the aid from affirmative action. A 2014 study

by Peter Arcidiacono, Esteban Aucejo, Patrick Coate and V. Joseph Hotz analyzed graduation rates at California universities following the implementation of Proposition 209 in 1998, which banned affirmative action policies in the state. Because minority graduation rates increased by 4.35 percent following Proposition 209, the general consensus was that by eliminating affirmative action, minority students were better sorted to schools that complement their academic abilities and prospects. Jones acknowledges this trend, but by adding in the factor of lower enrollment of minority students, higher graduation rates don’t

37 percent of 520 East students surveyed do not support affirmative action necessarily tell the whole story.

While mismatching could be a genuine concern when affirmative action was strictly racial quotas, Stolzenberg says that outside of individual circumstances, that mindset doesn’t make sense in the context of modern admissions.

“There is a lot of exaggeration and fiction in [mismatching], and the statistical research needed to access it is subtle and complex,” Stolzenberg says. “Schools look bad when their students struggle academically, transfer or flunk out, so school admissions policies are generally designed to avoid those failures.”

Friction before students are even admitted, however, is the stem of the debate for and against affirmative action policies in the United States. In a study done by Harvard Professionals Roland Fryer Jr. and Glenn Loury called “Affirmative Action and its Myths,” the men explain how minority applicants who are ...continued on page 47

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THE BUSINESS OF COLLEGE IS BUSINESS continued from page 29... says. “The cost has become so high that we’re not going to be able to pay for it 100 percent, and they’re going to have to either get scholarships and/or take loans.”

According to The Institute for College Access and Success, 69 percent of public and nonprofit college students in the college class of 2013 had student loan debt, with the average amount of debt at $28,400.

Even families with children in middle school, like Florence’s, are looking for when college costs will decrease. Loving predicts that this will not happen until three or four decades from now.

“It took 30 to 40 years to get into this [high college expense],” Loving says. “I am not rosy that it will be less than that [amount of time].”

He points to this because while, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, total institutional enrollment decreased from 19,105,651 in spring 2013 nationally to 18,592,605 in spring 2015, colleges like UC still have a number of students enrolling to keep the campuses running.

“UC has very little motivation to change anything—very little motivation other than the state trying to make them lower tuition,” Loving says, which aligns with the recent report

by Kasich’s Task Force.

Still, the alternative to this 30-to-40 year timeline may be the “next big [economic] crash.” Loving warns that it will be a combined effort of students, colleges and politicians to prevent drastic changes and this so-called crash. Until there is bipartisan support for higher education, there will be effective change in federal support.

In early 2015, President Barack Obama announced his initiative for two years of free community college tuition. Such alternative options, like technical schools or community colleges, can be utilized by students to at least slow down the rapid increases, Kinsley says.

Still, that can be a tough decision for students like Bockhorst, who are looking for the prestige of a four-year university.

Even among four-year universities, he places different schools at different standards.

For Bockhorst, his dream schools are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Stanford University, but he realizes how little aid and scholarships he could receive compared to if he attended The Ohio State University or Miami University next fall. He worries that if he enrolled into a more pricey college such as MIT or Stanford, the debt gap will be greater than the sophistication of his education.

“It comes to a point where it’s not going to be worth it with that much money for education that really isn’t that much higher quality than a cheaper [college],” Bockhorst says. “I keep lying to myself that it should be worth it, but I know it’s not going to be.”

STEPS IN ANOTHER DIRECTION continued from page 39... totally different when you are living on campus [with] many adult responsibilities that you [have] never had before.”

According to 2012 study by the Journal of College Student Retention, firstgeneration students receive far less emotional, informational and financial support from their parents than students whose parents went to college. Keller says although her parents strongly supported her decision to go to college, the distance factor was a difficult adjustment.

“It was hard for my family to understand my decision to go to Kent State because it is four hours from home,” Keller says. “This [distance] put a strain on my relationship with [my family] during my freshman year, [which] made me [wish] I could transfer home.”

Senior Analyst at Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce Artem Gulish says first generation students are more likely to focus on the end goal of college, a career. He recommends forming connections to adapt to the college environment.

“Because [first-generation students’] parents have not gone to college, they don’t have a clear idea or the best approach for balancing out college and work,” Gulish says. “[Forming] connections with faculty and other students and finding a way to participate in some activity helps you become a part of [the] community.”

Keller, who is currently a junior, says although the transition is hard, it would have been more difficult if her family did not support her.

The transition into adulthood could be easier for Keller’s younger sister, East junior Ashley Keller. There will be less anxiety associated with Ashley starting college because of Brittany’s experiences, and Brittany says her parents can draw from their own backgrounds of being successful without a degree. “[My parents not going to college] taught me that you can survive [without a college degree],” Ashley says. “You can succeed in other ways. The knowledge you [learn is what is] important, not a piece of paper saying that you are [educated].”

According to The National Center for Education Statistics, when studying the likelihood of graduating and earning a postsecondary degree, the differences between first-generation college students and their non-first-generation peers is no longer visible.

Brittany’s perseverance allowed her to succeed in the hard college environment.

“Since graduating [high school] in 2013, I have worked hard enough that I am graduating [college] a year early and have received a 4.0 GPA for several semesters,” Brittany says. “I am driven to do well because I want to make my parents proud. All they want for me is to have a better opportunity in life than they had coming out of high school.”

CONTROVERSY IN THE COURTS continued from page 47... admitted with the help of affirmative action are competing against equally qualified white applicants. It is therefore not plausible to say that an inferior minority applicant is taking an acceptance letter away from a majority applicant.

Fryer and Loury compare the situation to a full parking lot with open spots reserved for disabled drivers. As everyone who is ablebodied angrily drives in circles, cursing the handicapped spot for taking a spot away from them, they fail to realize that if the handicapped spots were open, they would already have been filled by one of the parkers.

Jones notes that people overestimate how likely they would be to get a spot if it weren’t for affirmative action. As data shows decrease in minority enrollment as states outlaw affirmative action, it becomes clear that discrimination transcends the college admissions office.

However, because of institutional inequalities and because of the variety of factors that determine an applicant’s admission, it is near impossible to separate race as the sole factor determining acceptance or denial.

“Affirmative action policies are instituted in acknowledgement of general societal barriers across racial groups that aren’t only due to college admissions discrimination,” Jones says. “High residential segregation results in high disparities in income and quality of K-12 education across racial groups. By the time students arrive at the application process, there may be systematic differences in their grades and test scores that surface in the admissions office but did not begin in these offices.”

Considering both the systemic and the inherent inequalities that many minorities endure in many aspects of their lives, determining whether a minority student is admitted to an institution because of race is not a black-and-white issue. Stolzenberg says that universities want students who will ultimately graduate and bring money back to the school, and any blip involving blatant racial discrimination would hinder those two goals.

Persisting and evolving along with society through Supreme Court rulings, affirmative action remains a prevalent topic among college applicants who are informed enough about the issue to have an opinion. Unless America resolves the systemic inequalities that feed the need for affirmative action, the conversation will persist.

“Racial and ethnic prejudice flourish, but it is suicidal for organizations to discriminate in ways that show up in statistical reports on such things,” Stolzenberg says. “It is difficult to measure implicit racial biases, to assess their impact, and to know what might occur if laws changed now. Intergroup hostility seems to always be ready to become manifest on a short notice, so all this can change very quickly and unpredictably.”

culture | music

REVIEWS: MUSIC FIRST TIME’S THE CHARM

Børns’ “Dopamine” storms the indie-pop scene, setting a new and impossibly high, bar for all others in the genre. review kelly krajewski | photography fair use

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ørns debut album, “Dopamine,” is a tidal wave to the pleasure centers of the brain, leaving the listener in a dream-like ecstasy of rolling melody and lyrics.

Garrett Borns came onto the musical scene in 2014 with his single, “10,000 Emerald Pools,” written just weeks after the Michigan native moved from New York to California. Since then, Børns has released two extended plays (EP), “A Dream Between” and “Candy” and has stolen the indie pop spotlight with “Dopamine.”

“Dopamine” is a prime example of millennials starting to find their musical sound. Børns, along with artists like Marina and the Diamonds, Hiam and MGMT, have crafted the soundtracks to play in the background of the twenty-somethings’ coming-of-age stories. Børns is on to something electric, wild and refreshing. Each song touches a different area of pop music from glam to rock, fulfilling the desire of any listener.

“10,000 Emerald Pools” is a slow roll into the album, taking the listener under ocean waves. The melody moves over the listener as if they’re underwater, watching the song unfold above them through foamy tides. The lyrics reveal Borns’ tender heart as he cooes, “You’re the treasure/ Dive down deeper/ Still, all I need is you/ You’re all I need to breathe.”

Because the album is a hybrid of new work coupled with tracks like “Fool” and “Past Lives” from EP “Candy,” it feels as if the tracks are out of order in an attempt to have old songs evenly distributed among new ones. This blending sometimes changes the tempo of the album abruptly, making the listener feel as if they’ve missed a song.

Looking past the awkward transitions, the high point of the album is the timeless ballad “Past Lives.” A romantic proclamation to someone who has been the love of every one of Børns’ lives, it starts slow and smooth but quickly kicks it up a notch with heavy drum-fueled rhythm.

Charming lyrics cast a spell over the listener as they get carried away in the shiny sounds of the song: “Cause girl you know that you’re my destiny/ Swear to the moon, the stars, the sons, and the daughters/ Our love is deeper than the oceans of water.”

Glittering, seductive tracks like “American Money” and “Overnight Sensation” add a level of velvety darkness to the album, flying the listener out of the atmosphere to the sit among the stars as the cosmic music swirls around them. “You were my lover for life,” Børns silky voice sings

48 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

DOPAMINE ARTIST: BØRNS RELEASE DATE: OCT. 16, 2015 ALBUM PRICE: $6.99 (ITUNES)

on “American Money,” “So take me to the paradise in your eyes/ Green like American money.”

Even parents will enjoy the heavy psychedelic feeling and dazzling synths of “Fool” and the title track “Dopamine.” Vintage sounds round out the album, giving it a timeless echo as it finishes.

Taylor Swift was correct in her Twitter proclamation of Børns as an “instant classic.”

Everything about Dopamine takes listeners to a sun-soaked world as deep and blue as the Pacific Ocean and as twinkling as a clear starry sky.

The love-letter lyrics, hypnotizing music and sweet airy quality of Borns’ voice take listeners away from reality, completely submerging them in every song. “Dopamine” isn’t just the can’t-miss album of autumn—it’s earned its place as the can’t-miss album of 2015.

music | culture

SOUNDS GOOD FEELS GOOD 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Although they got their start touring with One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer doesn’t fall into the boy band category, as confirmed by their latest album. “Sounds Good Feels Good” moves away from the weary subjects of relationships and breakup angst as the group starts to find their own voice, showcased by songs like “Jet Black Heart” and “Broken Home.” With lyrics in “Broken Home” like “Who’s right, who’s wrong/ Who really cares?/ The fault, the blame, the pain’s still there,” they talk about the pain of going through parents’ divorce and create a much more heartfelt sound.

However, most of the album is still upbeat and energetic, leading to songs made for yelling out the window on road trips. “Permanent Vacation” and “Castaway” especially speak to this with strong beats and vocals. The constant energy can be tiring after awhile though; the album would’ve done better with more of a balance between the two moods.

The majority of the tracks also subscribe to the same narrative of “boy in love with a girl” or “boy is heartbroken after girl leaving him,” but they manage interesting hooks and varied lyricism that still make for a fun listen overall.

As a group often described as pop punk, 5 Seconds of Summer falls more into the pop category, but is definitely earning itself a name outside of the boy band label. — Katy Johnson

CONFIDENT DEMI LOVATO

Pop-rock artist Demi Lovato has come a long way in her career since her Disney days with her fifth studio album, “Confident.” Her album showcases the empowered pop star’s newfound boldness. From battling depression to bulimia to substance abuse, Lovato openly discusses her struggles through her music.

The contemporary spin on timeless genres like soul-pop and R&B with her powerhouse vocals separates the album from average “pop.”

Her title track, “Confident,” begs the question, “What’s wrong with being confident?” as trumpets blare in the background and leads to her first single in the album, “Cool for the Summer,” which features sensual and saucy lyrics like, “got a taste for the cherry... I’m a little curious, too.”

“Father,” an emotionally wrecked and conflicted piece about the death of Lovato’s father, sticks even after the song ends with raw lyrics that actualize not only her forgiveness for her father but also her pain.

Only female rappers contributed to the “#girlboss” album such as Iggy Azalea in “Kingdom Come” and Sirah in “Waitin’ for You,” but they only distract from Lovato’s independent confidence and force the listener to comprehend rap verses that don’t make sense. “Confident” displays elegance and poise not only with Lovato’s admittance of failures but also through her strong display of true confidence. — Jennave Traore

SUN LEADS ME ON HALF MOON RUN

Half Moon Run’s almost confusing take on indie-rock isn’t half bad but still seems amatuer even after making a name for themselves with their single, “Trust.”

The band’s seemingly awkward mix between rock and indie backtracks in “Consider Yourself ” is an improvement from their debut album, “Dark Eyes,” but it still lacks a sense of foundation which can’t seem to be differentiated between electric or indie-rock.

“Sun Leads Me On” is a continuation of the band’s experiments with acoustic phases, electronic backtracks, backing harmonica, electric guitar and rock. The band does not makes up for its weak music in depth of lyrics and tracks. “I Can’t Figure Out What’s Going On” is a light and almost sweet second track that flows nicely into the much more lively “Consider Yourself ” but just as quickly reverts back to soft and sweet sounds in “Hands In the Garden.” The album provides no other variety except in “Trust” at the end.

“Sun Leads Me On” reflects themes in both darkness and light and celebrates evolution and change nicely in its lyrics but doesn’t reflect much change in the band. Half Moon Run seems to be past their awkward percussion from some of their previous works and have strengthened much as a band from almost more then two years of touring. However, the album remains a classic still in the works. — Christine Shi

LIVE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros’ album, “Live in No Particular Order,” takes the listener on a journey around the globe.

Each song is played live at different arenas ranging from Virginia to Switzerland, and the shows explore the period from 2009-14. Many have heard their biggest hit, “Home,” but not this way—lead singer Alex Elbert asks the audience to tell stories, and each crowd member tells about what is happening in their life at that moment.

The album’s mellow vibe shines through in “Give Me a Sign” with lyrics equally chilling and soothing such as, “If you are near, I want to know/ I see your cold body, but I feel your soul.” Its relaxing tones come through with the album’s easy-going acoustic guitar melodies.

“Live in No Particular Order” is a medley of songs from past albums and tours, showcasing how the group has grown as artists. Each song carries a different catchy beat that fills the album with many rhythms.

And from Elbert’s smooth voice to the screams of the crowd, which don’t overpower his vocals at all, the album is diverse yet put together well like in its tracklist that flows perfectly from “Better Days” to “All Together.” Elbert’s voice is pure, making it hard to remember the album was recorded live. “Live in No Particular Order” is able to create an atmosphere of lively dance with every song. — Morgan Kile

culture | movies

REVIEWS: MOVIES A BACKSTAGE PASS TO STEVE JOBS’ LIFE

“Steve Jobs” takes a concentrated look at the professional and personal life of the CEO of Apple in his most stressful moments. review richard giang | photography fair use

“

Jobs” (2013), ‘Steve Jobs: One Last Thing” (2011) and every other film dedicated to the life of the celebrated co-founder of Apple are all biographical. They focus on Jobs’ career from start to finish, giving brief insights to his short life. Steve Jobs (2015), however, focuses on what no one really asked about. It thoroughly chronicles what occurred behind the scenes of his three most important product launches as well as his personal life.

The movie follows Jobs around as he moves swiftly backstage at his product launches giving orders, arguing with colleagues and dealing with his family. The general atmosphere of the product launches reflect the plot in a metaphorical sense. The first was a risky release of the Macintosh which mirrored the risks he took with the fight with his ex-girlfriend, Chrisann (Katherine Waterston) and encounter with his daughter, Lisa (Mackenzie Moss). The second product launch was the NeXT computer which had an underlying revenge plot for Jobs to come back to Apple as CEO. It paralleled how Jobs got even with his cofounder, Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) and former CEO (John Sculley).

The final product launch was the iMac which was a booming success for Jobs. Jobs’ actions in reconciling with his daughter and former boss reflected the nature of the launch. Structure played a crucial role in the impact of the movie as a whole.

The movie provides insight into the secret behind the genius that was Steve Jobs. Jobs may have seemed great on stage, but there was another side to him. He could even have been perceived as having an entirely different persona and the movie perfectly exploits this rude and snarky personality of his. Fassbender does a perfect job becoming Jobs and stepping into his shoes which was supplemented by his Grade A acting.

Not only was the camera following Jobs, but also his close friend and personal assistant Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet). Joanna followed Jobs everywhere he went, catering to his every need but also advising him simultaneously. More importantly, Joanna provides comic relief to an otherwise serious movie. The two bicker like an old married couple, throwing snide remarks at one another every chance.

In the very last emotional scene of the film, Lisa watches as Jobs takes the stage at his most successful product launch to date. The scene slows down, he puts on a dazzling smile for the crowd and looks back at her. That’s when Lisa, along with the audience, realizes that Jobs was the only man fit to accomplish what he had, the movie does a proficient job of illustrating that.

Throughout the length of the movie, flashbacks are integrated into the structure of the film in order to fill in the holes made with the time jumps. The movie’s effectiveness in leaving the audience in awe owes itself to the structure and setting of the movie. The correlation between

50 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

STEVE JOBS DIRECTOR: DANNY BOYLE RELEASE DATE: OCT. 9, 2015 (USA) RUN TIME: 122 MINUTES the focus of the movie and the setting as well as the sparseness of the movie allows the movie to focus on the personality development of Jobs, thus emphasizing what an amazing man Jobs inarguably was.

Through an accurate portrayal of Jobs, near flawless acting and a unique yet perfect plot structure, “Steve Jobs” did a praiseworthy job of depicting what went on inside Jobs’ head in his most stressful times.

movies | culture

GOOSEBUMPS DIRECTOR: ROB LETTERMAN The Halloween children’s movie “Goosebumps” is a lively comedy that stays true to R.L. Stine’s spooky stories and TV series.

Upset about moving from New York to a small town, Zach (Dylan Minnette), finds a silver lining after meeting his next-door neighbor, Hannah (Odeya Rush). When the teens accidentally unleash all of the monsters from Hannah’s dad’s books, he realizes her dad is R.L. Stine (Jack Black). Although PG-rated, hidden adult humor shines through its exceptional storyline. The movie starts out with Zach, a normal kid, moving into a new home in from New York. When Zach arrives, his new neighbor keeps peeking out through the window adding a bit of comical mystery.

As an A-list actor, Jack Black definitely delivers. His stunning adaptation of R.L. Stine brings his character to life.

One of the only characters recognizable from R.L Stine’s literary work is Slappy, a character from one of his most famous stories about a ventriloquist doll that comes to life. Slappy’s scenes bring a nostalgic edge to the otherwise refurbished story. “Goosebumps” is a humorous adventure fitting for all ages and almost perfectly brings to life childhood memories of R.L. Stine’s most famous scary stories. — Emma Presar

BEASTS OF NO NATION DIRECTOR: CARY FUKUNAGA Vibrant African jungles litter the landscape. Gunfire erupts in the background. Child soldiers follow their commander into the midst of a civil war. “Beasts of No Nation” follows the journey of a young boy, Agu (Abraham Attah), whose family is killed in the war between the rebel faction, National Defence Force (NDF) and the National Reformation Council (NRC). Agu is recruited as a child soldier into the NDF by the Commandant (Idris Elba). The movie blurs the fine line between innocence and corruption as Agu transforms from a child to a true beast. Many of Agu’s atrocities committed during the war often make it hard to remember how young he is.

Many of the movie’s best scenes often feature the strong, charismatic antagonist, Commandant; however, many of the secondary characters also introduced, such as Strika and Preacher, aren’t given time to develop as individuals.

“Beasts of No Nation” offers a compelling story of a real issue happening today: the brutal tragedy of child soldiers. The movie’s raw portrayal of the life of a child soldier provides insight into the use of child soldiers, comparable to Kony 2012. With a great storyline and scenery, Netflix’s first original feature film is surprisingly put together well even with its small budget and new actors. — Brandon Nguyen

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION DIRECTOR: GREGORY PLOTKIN This sixth and final installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise is a disappointing and unsatisfying end to the overly drawn-out series.

Originally, the first film sparked interest by playing on the fear of the unknown, but this concept was tossed aside and replaced with unconvincing computer-generated imagery effects mixed with poorly executed jump scares. This combination creates a dull theater experience that accomplishes little more than tying up a few loose ends and triggering the occasional scream. While the acting is decent and characters likable, the overall plot is weak. It follows a cliché horror movie formula that involves creepy little kids and demons with the only unique factor being the foundfootage format. This movie attempts to take the found-footage in a new direction by using a camera also capable of “spirit photography,” but the ability to see the demon actually makes the movie much less terrifying.

The franchise would have been better off sticking to a smaller budget and minimal special effects. The original movie was successful because it left most of the suspense up to the audience’s imagination, but this newest edition comes off edited and cheesy. With an unspectacular finale, this tired franchise is finally being put to rest. — Cara Satullo

BRIDGE OF SPIES DIRECTOR: STEVEN SPIELBERG Past Spielberg films have created a line of competition among themselves, but his most recent work, “Bridge of Spies,” is at the head. The horrors of global conflict during the Cold War have never been represented so well, and Spielberg couldn’t have picked a better cast to play the film’s roles.

“Bridge of Spies” follows Jim Donovan (Tom Hanks), a lawyer who was given a case to defend Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), who was accused of espionage against the United States. Both the United States and the Soviet Union are keeping the enemy spies from coming home, and it is up to Jim Donovan to save his U.S. men. The viewers are given a fantastic story as Donovan’s ever-increasing conflict is wellexecuted.

The cinematography in “Bridge of Spies” is absolutely gorgeous.

The picture is never too flashy, and each set is beautifully crafted to add a sense of grit to the separation between East and West Berlin. Very few movies are able to capture an essence of lost hope, but Spielberg’s attention to detail made the film feel genuine.

While every aspect of “Bridge of Spies” is truly fantastic, those who really appreciate subtitles will be somewhat annoyed by the lack of them during the German-language-only scenes. Spielberg’s latest film is interesting to watch and definitely deserves its praise.— Andrew Ebding

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A RECORD

ON REPEAT From bell bottoms to suede, 1970s trends are in full revival, bringing back disco fever and Woodstock vibes. story and art lauren wilson photography maya wells models mackenzie robinette, katrina wilson, julia kuhr

culture | through the ages

a series on the impact of fashion trends

THROUGH THE AGES

I

t’s time to break out those John Lennon sunglasses again because “here comes the sun.” With the far out trends of the 1970s making a comeback, it’s like a Beatles record on repeat. Flare, fringe and fab hairstyles are on every corner and down Abbey Lane.

Branching off of the 1960s flower child, the early 1970s trends had a very earthy, free feel. As the ‘70s era progressed, styles became more bright and flamboyant, still carrying undercurrents of the ‘60s. The mesh between old and new styles created a time period of fashion revolution. Voice of America Park officer Joe Dipietrantonio remembers the wild styles he sported in the ‘70s. “[The 70s were all about] making yourself an individual and trying to be that one person that stood out,” says Dipietrantonio. “I had this rust colored, black polka dot shirt with a six-inch long collar and these crazy blue suede pilgrim style shoes with heels. It was so against the grain of how everybody else in the past had dressed.”

This variation in fashion trends also carried

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into the hairstyles of the 1970s. The length and volume was taken to the max. Many girls wore their hair long with a middle part, but others copied Farrah Fawcett’s signature bangs and blown out curls. Ambience Salon and Spa hairstylist Heidi Evans points out that big waves are coming back.

“Long hair has been really in style the past few years,” says Evans. “Now we’re starting to see large, voluminous waves making a comeback. Many girls are also putting flower headbands in their hair like they did in the ‘70s.”

Man buns today are the equivalent of 1970s men’s hair, just tied up in a bun. Basically, the man’s hair was very similar to the woman’s hair: longer and fuller. Also, men usually grew funky facial hair to go with their long locks.

“When I think back to my high school picture,” says Dipietrantonio, “My hair was really long, and a lot of guys [at my school] also had lamb-chop sideburns.”

E

ven though 1970s hair was big, nothing compares to the bell bottoms. These groovy pants are tight until the knee flared out as far as the eye could see. Full-body jumpsuits also hopped on the flared-bottom bandwagon.

Bell bottoms came in numerous materials like cotton, polyester and denim, but what really

made them hip was the assortment of colors and geometric patterns. Sonny and Cher are to thank for popularizing these in the 1970s, but now iconic clothing brands like Abercrombie are bringing them back.

“The flared jeans have made a huge comeback,” says Abercrombie sales associate Carly Hellmann, “Not just at Abercrombie, but throughout many other stores. [Abercrombie] stills has those classic seventies looks, but we’re giving it a more modern taste so it’s not full-on Woodstock.”

N

eato neck lines also evolved in the 1970s.

From the six-inch collars to the traditional turtleneck, the neckline made the shirts.

Some other shirts were topped off with a Peter Pan collar, a ruffle collar or a bow collar. Most of the time, the turtlenecks were tight and ribbed, but most other shirts were loose-fitting with flared sleeves. The variation in collars and fits of shirts made the possibilities to be unique limitless.

“Ruffled peasant tops were really in,” says Kent State Fashion Museum curator Sara Hume. “Also men’s shirts had wide lapels and extremely long collars. Everything was very Halston-inspired.”

Roy Halston Frowick, or Halston, was one

through the ages | culture

of the most iconic designers of the 1970s. He was known mainly for his dresses that women showcased at discos. Beyond this he broke fashion barriers when he introduced the halter dress in 1974. Another famous design was his “Ultrasuede” shirtwaist dress.

S

eventies suede was sure stellar. The soft, neutral material went perfectly with the earth tones and the funk-a-delic fabric. Suede was used in all clothing forms, from overall dresses and skirts to purses and shaws. This fabric can be thinner, so it allows for cutouts and fringe to be incorporated into designs.

“Suede is coming back for sure,” says Hume, “But a lot of the push for the return of 1970s-inspired looks are coming from major fashion magazines like Vogue. The magazines are channeling styles like suede, long hair and bell bottoms strait from the 1970s.”

Beyond suede, the unlimited options for fabric in the ‘70s were righteous, man.

Metallic fabric stole the show at the disco.

On the other hand, simple floral patterns were worn at outdoor concerts, equivalent to today’s Cochella. Now for just being casual, kaleidoscope prints had a true psychedelic vibe.

“When I buy clothes, I don’t really follow a trend,” says East junior Sarah Robinson.

“I just buy what I like. Although, I do have three 1970s-style jumpsuits in my closet. I like vintage pieces, and sometimes I shop at a thrift

shop to find them, or I steal them from my mom’s closet.”

Even though people keep on trucking through history and new styles are constantly evolving, the threads (clothing) from the 70s will continue to have an impact on the modernday trends. Whether it be updated bell bottoms or suede shoes, the flashback to disco dreams will always be right on.

left page: Models showcase famous records like The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and The Doors’ “LA Women.” above: Katrina models modern-day kaleidoscope print bell bottoms and a cream peasant top. below: Mackensie models a ‘70s inspired cream, ribbed turtleneck with a buttondown skirt and faux suede shaw.

EARLY CHALLENGES continued from page 38... to not just think in terms of analysis, evaluation and creating unique ideas but also being able to put those thoughts in writing,” says Reid. “I think AP is boot camp for the brain.”

Similarly, Trevor Packer, Senior Vice President of AP Instruction under the College Board, believes that the AP program allows students to gain a deeper and more critical view of certain subjects.

“AP is not about memorizing facts, but about ‘hands-on’ learning,” Packer tells The Prospect in a 2014 interview. “Students who take AP courses have the opportunity to develop the critical thinking, reasoning and communication skills necessary to succeed in college and careers.”

First year at The Ohio State University and 2015 East valedictorian Sara Liang did not think the presence or lack of an academic challenge mattered when she chose which AP classes to take. Liang knew she wanted to go into either business or engineering, so she enrolled in classes like AP Economics, AP Computer Science, AP Calculus and AP Physics. She wanted the other benefits like the skills they would teach her, however she primarily did it to satisfy her curiosity of different fields of work.

“They were the subjects that were really interesting to me,” Liang says. “I think people should take AP classes if they like the subject and not just for GPA or because they feel like they should.”

Taking these classes also helped her with admission into the integrated business and engineering program at The Ohio State University; however, her full-ride scholarship nullified any use of the financial aid the AP classes would’ve provided. Furthermore, these AP classes only really helped her with credits and not much in terms of preparation for college-level classes.

“AP was honestly still a little bit handholdy,” Liang says. “I think it’s because there was so much more time and busy work, whereas in college you only meet maybe two or three times a week and take on less assignments that are more to the point and more involved.”

Still, both Liang and Lindner agree that many students that sign up for AP classes do it because it’s the next logical step in their lives, and they are the hardest courses available.

“AP classes definitely go a lot more in-depth, which is really cool if you like the subject,” Liang says. “If you end up not liking it, it still helps you decide what to do in the future by realizing what you don’t want to do.”

SLAM DUNK continued from page 42 watch kids grow from the time they are a freshman until their senior year,” Adkins says.

56 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

“You don’t become a full-ride scholarship athlete by waking up. If you looked at him and how his skill set has developed, it’s through hard work and a lot of man-hours to become the basketball player that he is.”

The most daunting challenge associated with playing in college for the majority of prospective athletes is the potential tuition costs, which hold many back. However, according to the NCAA Recruiting Facts sheet, nearly half of all Division II athletes receive some sort of financial aid, whereas threequarters of Division III athletes receive similar benefits. Emrick even has a backup plan if college athletics doesn’t work out. Planning to pursue a career in business, he says that many of the skills that he inherited playing basketball will help him in the business world. Emrick says that basketball has impacted him outside of the gym, strengthening his work ethic, band holding himself and others accountable.

Emrick says that keeping up his rigorous playing schedule drives him to work even harder, but he does admit that sometimes he gets close to burning out. Despite this, he supports his younger sister, East sophomore Raquel Emrick, who plays on the East junior varsity volleyball team.

“If the opportunity [for her to play volleyball in college] ever came up, that would make me even more proud than I was with myself because I would rather see my family succeed than myself,” Andrew says.

The sibling pair has always been supportive of each other, pushing each other both on the court and off. Andrew’s decision to play basketball in college has influenced Raquel to consider her own potential and “pursue her athletic career.”

Raquel has played volleyball since junior high, and she is excited to see where her brother’s talent will take him.

“What I admire most about him is his dedication,” Raquel says. “Andrew’s basketball accomplishments inspire me to work hard in my own sports.”

Andrew is excited to continue his passion for basketball at Fairmont after this year and encourages others to continue pursuing their sports careers.

“If you love the sport,” Andrew says, “go play in college.”

GETTING TESTY continued from page 30... achievement test of what students learned in high school, and says having a good understanding of the high school curriculum is the best way to prepare for the test.

“Tips like making sure that you pace yourself and answer the questions you know

first can be helpful,” Colby says, “But really focusing on the content that you’ve learned in your high school courses, making sure you’re comfortable with what you’ve learned, and maybe refreshing your memory on courses you’ve taken in the past are the best types of test prep activities to prepare for the ACT.” Colby also points out that 18 states used the ACT as their statewide assessment last year as “proof that the ACT is what it says: a test [to] measure learning.” Mathis also emphasizes the importance of learning the high school curriculum in preparation for the ACT or SAT. “Pay close attention to what you’re doing in school,” Mathis says. “Really there’s nothing on these tests that you haven’t seen in high school once you get to your junior year, certainly in the middle of your junior year. These tests are not designed to surprise you, but rather to assess what you’ve learned in high school up to this point and how it’s prepared you for going to college and into a career.”

Being familiar both with the format and the content of the ACT or SAT, however, can’t guarantee that students like McDonald will receive a score that they feel is fair.

“I feel like [the ACT] did an OK, average job [of assessing me],” McDonald says. “I study really hard, and I try really hard, but when it comes to tests I have anxiety about them. I tried my best and I studied a lot for it, and I got a better score, but I feel like if it wasn’t so high pressure, I would’ve gotten a better score.”

DIGITAL DEGREES continued from page 36... courses to be an asset.

“I think the online just gives the officers another avenue because of their busy schedules,” Woolford says. “They’re still going to get a good education. They’re going to be challenged.”

Pannek, although comfortable with learning online, points out that it’s not completely beneficial. She says that having to interpret everything without a professor or classmates in the room with her can be challenging, and people who take only online courses may be missing out on an important experience that involves attending college. On top of that, there’s a concern with the resources available to online course students. She still believes the positive aspects still outweigh the negatives. “[Online classes] are really easy to work with your schedule,” Pannek says. “If you have a busy schedule and you’re worried about not having the time out of your day to attend a three-hour psych class, or if your schedule is so busy that the class you need to take isn’t offered, it’s just an awesome resource to get to take these classes on your own time.”

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culture | photoshoot

PREPARATORY Preparatory, or better-known as “Preppy,” started with a subculture in the United States associated with the old private Northeastern university-preparatory schools. “Preppy” students were seen as rich and classy and were usually students or alumni of private or Ivy League schools. story emma presar photo illustration christine shi models ian depew, sam botkin

Neutral sweaters and jeans make a comfortable, plain outfit; sweater available at Tj-Max for $16.99

Fashion blog, Prep Essentials claims Hunter boots are essential to any preppy outfit. Dress them up with jeans and a sweater or dress them down with leggings and a shirt; available for $150 at us.hunterboots.com

58 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

Clothing retailer Country Club Prep recommends a blazer to dress up any man’s outfit; add a blazer pin to dress it up even more.

photoshoot | culture

Layering is the key to any preppy outfit, says fashion blogger Sarah Vickers. Put a sweater over a button-up, then add a jacket or vest to top it off.

A Globe Staff writer claims that after the 1980s preppy phase, Sperrys are finally back in and are here to stay; available for $95 at www.sperry.com

Vineyard Vines was named the second best preppy brand by fashion designer Dave Infante; Shirt available for $29.99 and hat for $24.99 at vineyardvines.com

L.L. Bean boots are always in high demand for the winter and fall seasons. The navy color compliments almost any outfit; available for $105.00 at llbean.com

60 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

scouting report | sports

OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN story adrienne stolitca photography sydney rader

D

“Jake is strong on the ball and has good technical ability. He is a very good one-on-one defender, and he presented problems for us when he went forward in the game.” — Rick Cooper, Lakota West soccer head coach

uring his first three years playing soccer for East, senior Jake Josselyn could almost always be found playing midfield. So when he was switched to defense in the middle of the 2015 season, he immediately had reservations.

“I was sort of upset at first because I like being a part of the offense and scoring goals,” Josselyn says, “But I know I have a stronger purpose on the team, and I feel like I change the whole game playing defense.”

Switching from midfield to defense came as a surprise to Josselyn, who had six points and two assists for far this season, in addition to his 21 points and seven assists last year.

Nevertheless, Josselyn’s main objective has always been to strengthen the team. According to men’s varsity soccer head coach Jeremy Hilen, Josselyn’s determination has made this transition a simple feat. “[Josselyn] is a player I feel comfortable playing anywhere,” Hilen says. “Defense was an area we were behind in, and I knew I could count on Jake to fill that void we were missing.”

Along with four other seniors, Josselyn has led 14 underclassmen to sixth place in the Greater Miami Conference with an 8-72 overall record. Through hard work and relentless competitiveness, he has set a perfect example for other players, according to East junior and midfielder Jack Harper. “[Josselyn] knows how to motivate people, and I’ve never seen someone work so hard for the ball,” Harper says. “He has so much heart that everyone will follow and work just as hard for him as he does for us.”

According to Hilen, Josselyn’s leadership skills on the field have proved beneficial, and he has been successful in building on expectations set during previous years. “[Josselyn] came in and offered a captain leadership role, which we really needed because he was one of the returning leaders,” Hilen says. “He was easily bridging last year’s success of making it to the Elite Eight and motivating the younger guys. I am very proud of how he has led the team. ”

“Cheer has given Hannah confidence, a sense of accomplishment, and the skills necessary to enter the real world as a young adult. ” — Ray O’Neal, Legacy Extreme coach

Q&A

GIRLS’ GOLF DEVIN KELLEY

interview hanna sylla

Hanna Sylla: How has your senior season been going?

Devin Kelley: Well, I made second team all GMC and qualified for districts as an individual, which were a couple of my many goals. I shot my best round ever at districts, but it was 3 short of making it to state. Now the season is over, but I feel that I did the best I could throughout the season.

HS: Are you playing golf in college?

DK: I’m not sure, it’s been hard to figure out all my college stuff early on, but I would like to play either division 2 or 3.

HS: Do you think the team has improved?

DK: I do think the team has improved. I think our biggest improvement has been becoming closer. As for scores, the majority of the girls’ averages went down. I know the girls will continue to work hard so they can achieve their goals, and I couldn’t be more proud of how far they’ve come already.

HS: How much have you improved since the last season?

DK: I believe one of my biggest improvements was internal. I was able to focus much better and meet most of the goals that I put in place.

I physically improved as well. My average went down from last year, as well as a few improvements on specific parts of my game.

62 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

SPIRITED SIDELINES story kaily hauck | photography sydney rader

E

very Friday night, East senior Hannah Reardon steps out under the lights and onto the sidelines. The school’s student section roars to life and all eyes are on Reardon as they chant for her to tumble. Every Friday they cheer for her, and every Friday she delivers. Although she doesn’t always enjoy the attention, Reardon says it’s nice to hear that her school knows she can perform.

“At games, it’s like I get put on the spot. It was kind of cool at the first game when people were like ‘do a flip!’ and they know that I can do that,” Reardon says. “At competitions I’m used to performing, and it’s not as bad just being in front of my student section.”

Reardon has also cheered competitively with Legacy Extreme for three years. Although she loves cheering for school, her heart will always be with competitive cheer.

“I like competitive better for sure. School cheer is nice, but since I’ve been doing competitive cheer for so long, there’s more concepts than just sidelining,” Reardon says.

“There’s tumbling, stunting, dancing, and jumping, so it’s all combined.”

Because of the coaches and teammates with whom she has connected throughout her career, Reardon’s personality has been strengthened through cheerleading. Through

early season practices and long days involving the repetition of 90 cheers, Reardon and her teammates have grown close. East senior teammate Maddie Alsip has been by Reardon’s side on the East varsity cheerleading squad for two years now. “[Reardon] is an all-around good cheerleader,” Alsip says. “Her jumps are awesome, and her tumbling is crazy. I don’t know anyone else who can whip out a full [twisting flip] for fun.”

Reardon plans to continue her cheer career in college, hoping to attend Western Kentucky to study sports science. East varsity cheer coach Cheryl Davis even recommended Reardon to observed to become a staff member for the Universal Cheerleading Association.

“Her competitive and sideline background allow her to move forward,” Davis says.

“She has the stunting practice needed for the collegiate level.”

Cheering has helped play a role in Reardon’s sense of school spirit. It has gotten her involved within the school to the point where she feels like part of a family.

“We [cheerleaders] try our best to lead the school. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” Reardon says, “But it’s nice being part of that kind of program.”

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS W hen East freshman Mariah Ragsdale finished 81st in her first 3.1-mile varsity cross country race, she didn’t expect to finish 13th overall or make the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) First Team All-Conference.

“Being on the varsity team has been really fun,” Ragsdale says. “I wasn’t expecting this.

My first practice, I was one of the last girls on the team, and I kind of expected I wasn’t going to do well, but it has been a pleasant surprise.”

East coach Kathy Reynolds says Ragsdale has been important to the varsity team this year.

“I think she is doing fantastic, and she has learned a lot being at the next level,” Reynolds says. “She does a great job paying attention and listening to the coaches.”

Ragsdale says that the change from the junior high school 2-mile course to the high

story dillon horter photography sydney rader

school 3.1-mile course has been a positive experience and has forced her to work harder and be more competitive.

“High school cross country is more involved than junior high,” Ragsdale says. “Junior high just consisted of showing up to practice, but high school is more like a lifestyle and is much more time-consuming.”

Ragsdale’s teammate, varsity freshman Ali Neumeier, who is the fourth fastest runner on the team, runs alongside Ragsdale every day. Neumeier says she loves the friendly competition and enjoys joking with Ragsdale about who is better.

“She’s an amazing runner and is very selfmotivating,” Neumeier says. “She motivates me and others to work harder and be better.”

Ragsdale has been setting goals for herself

“She and the East team have come a long way. Both our teams are very competitive, and we enjoy running against people of that type of competitiveness.”

— Chris Drumm, Lakota West varsity head coach

all year and is always looking for ways to improve her times. Her improvements have been obvious, as shown by her improvement from a time of 22:13 in her first race to 19:36 in her latest.

“For me personally, I would love to see myself [running] in the sub-19-minute mark by the end of the season,” Ragsdale says. “But I think for the rest of the team, the goal is to get as many of our varsity runners in the top ten [in the GMC] as possible.”

Reynolds agrees and says that as the team moves into the postseason, the expectations have not changed. She adds that Ragsdale’s goals should not change either.

“We as coaches hope she sets goals to go to state every year, and that’s the expectation,” Reynolds says. “We are looking to try to win, and I think getting a solid summer of training and good races will help her and the rest of the varsity team. For this team and Ragsdale, the sky’s the limit.”

STAT FOCUS LAKOTA EAST ATHLETICS 9

Number of girls’ soccar goals for East senior Rhys Frazier.

19:18.40

Time of east girls cross country runner junior Abby Whayne at the District Championships.

188.91

Average girls golf score per game.

8.1

Average yards per carry by East senior Kaleb Lepper.

22-3

East girls’ volleyball record.

RISKY BU East senior Allyson Williams’ motocross career reaches the biggest amateur race only for her to experience her worst wreck.

story maddie alsip | photos sydney rader | infographic bryn mangold

THE ALTERNATIVE

S

itting in the doctor’s office waiting to hear results from a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan, her mother thinks it’s over. She looks to her daughter and sees passion in her eyes and knows she wants nothing more than to go back out and race motocross. She will let her daughter race again despite the risks.

East senior Allyson Williams has overcome bumps and bruises to make it to the top of motocross by qualifying for the most prestegious ameatur race, Loretta Lynn’s National Championship, only to be faced by her biggest wreck yet.

During her first race at Loretta’s, Williams tore her anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and meniscus and fractured her tibia, fibula and femur this summer.

“I was going up the face of a jump and was completely sideways in the air. There was no way to get my bike back to normal, so I tried to save it by putting my leg straight out into the ground,” Williams says. “I heard it pop and was scared so I let go of the bike and fell.”

Following her crash, the doctor told the Williams’ family the news, and they scheduled surgery that day. She immediately started physical therapy in order to get motion back in her knee and had surgery two weeks later, after which she had to use crutches and a full brace for five and six weeks, respectively.

Williams is no stranger to injuries. She has broken her heel, eight bones in her right foot and a finger and has had multiple concussions.

One of her most serious wrecks was when she was run over by a bike, one of which usually weighs around 200 lbs. Some of the most

64 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

dangerous injuries from motocross wrecks include paralyzation and even death.

“We’ve had a few kids pass away this year in the sport,” Allyson’s father, Tim Williams, says.

“It seems like every year you hear of a young person passing away because of racing.”

Despite all the risks, Allyson doesn’t let injuries keep her from what she loves.

“Everyones like ‘that’s so stupid to keep riding after getting hurt so much,’ but the feeling I have on the bike—I can’t explain it,” Allyson says. “When I’m racing, my adrenaline rushes. I crave that feeling of being on the line.

Adrenaline is pumping so hard that I don’t care if I get hurt. When you win, it’s all you.”

Continuing with physical therapy, Allyson plans on having full strength in her leg by March so that she can race at the same ability prior to the crash. However, she doesn’t plan on competing as seriously as she did before.

“I’ve lost sleep deciding what to do. It’s a

“When I’m racing, my adrenaline rushes. I crave that feeling of being on the line. My adrenaline is pumping so hard that you don’t care if I get hurt. When you win, it’s all you.”

— Allyson Williams, East senior

USINESS East senior Allyson Williams sits on her motocross bike.

really hard decision,” Allyson says. “I won’t be trying for Loretta’s again, I’ve had my fair share. I’ve made it once, and I know I’m good.”

Allyson grew up at the motocross tracks, getting her first bike at the age of three. Her father grew up riding with friends before taking it more seriously and competing in his 20s, eventually passing the sport down to his two children, Allyson and Brandon.

“Because I’ve grown up around [motocross], it’s become second nature,” Allyson says.

“When I’m bored or upset, I just want to ride.

When I’m on the bike, I don’t think about anything else.”

In middle school, Allyson looked up to the experienced riders and was inspired by the intense competition. Allyson’s mother, Rhonda Williams, let her get her first advanced bike a few years before she turned 12 years old, and her father began coaching her.

In her first race, Allyson placed fourth at Earlywines Indoor Racing in Maysville, KY. In the beginning of her motocross career, she 66 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

raced on the indoor supercross tracks, which were “well groomed” compared to the outdoor tracks. Rhonda has noted that her daughter has always been ready to win.

“I told her to be careful, and she looked at me and said ‘this is a race!’” Rhonda says. “I thought she was just playing, but she was ready to win. That’s where it all started.”

Motocross races take place outside on an open space with different jumps, straightaways and corners. Each race is made up of two smaller races, called moto one and moto two.

The timing for the overall race is an average of both motos, and if there’s a tie, the winner is determined by the faster time in second moto.

“It’s not like the ‘X-Games’ where I do flips,” Allyson says. “I line up on a starting gate and race until I can’t breathe anymore.”

With all the risks of motocross, riders wear protective gear from head to toe. Allyson wears a helmet, goggles, neck brace, chest protector, knee braces, a jersey, pants, boots and gloves.

The pants have leather built on the inside by the knees to protect from getting burnt by the engine heat. In the rain, she wears tear-offs, clear pieces that go over the goggles and are torn off so mud won’t block her vision.

Once she reached a certain skill level, Tim needed help coaching, so they got personal trainers, who could not be reached to comment.

“It’s hard being the dad and the coach because the coach would say, ‘No, you screwed up. Go back out and do it again,’” Tim says.

“When dad says it, the kid’s looking at you like a dad and not a coach.”

During motocross season, which starts in

left: East senior Allyson Williams poses with her motocross bike. middle: Williams’ jersey hangs on her bike. right: Williams’ bike has the number 73 painted on it for the Loretta’s race. the right page: Williams writes motivational words on spring her handlebars.

and ends in the winter, Allyson trains four days a week. Because motocross uses the entire body, three of the days she works in the gym with a personal trainer building up her leg, arm and back strength. She also works on cardio to build endurance to keep up with the bike. The remaining day, she is training with a professional racer on her bike.

“You have to be in good shape if you’re going to be good,” Rhonda says. “I can’t even pick Ally’s bike up.”

Tim acts as her mechanic or “motodad.” This consists of working on the bike, getting Allyson to different tracks to train on during the week, scouting out the next big races to attend and handling all of the traveling. During motocross season, the Williams family will travel to places like Ala., Miss., Fla. and Mich. for races. His most important role is making sure the bike is good condition, because winning depends on more than Allyson’s skill set. “[Winning] is not just her riding ability, it’s an awful lot on the bikes,” Tim says. “A bike problem like a flat tire could knock you completely out [of the rankings].”

The overall cost of a motocross race can be

ANATOMY OF A MOTOCROSS BIKE SEAT $50

although riders are typically standing, the seat is filled with padding.

REAR SHOCK ABSORBERS $150

softens the bounces that riders feel

FUEL TANK $250

holds the fuel and is designed to not break during a crash

Motocross bikes are designed to be lightweight and easily pull the rider through the mud and over steep hills.

THROTTLE $50

used to control the power of the engine

FRONT SHOCK ABSORBERS $150

located in the forks that frame the bike to the front wheel

TIRES $50 for trail riding, the tires have larger knobs to bite into loose surfaces

EXHAUST PIPES $400

releases the waste gases after the fuel burns

CHAIN $25

transfers the power from the engine to the rear wheel

ENGINE $200

powerhouse of the bike sources mx bikes, motosport.com

broken down into each individual paying to enter the race, park, travel, use equipment, practice and purchase permits for pit vehicles. Every rider also has to pay annually for membership with the American Motocross Association (AMA) to be eligible to race.

One thing that Allyson and Tim still do to train together is work on starts. Tim built a fake starting gate out of tubing and wood so Allyson could practice in the back yard. If a rider doesn’t get a good start, it is difficult for them to pass up the riders who are already ahead of them.

“The start is half of the race,” Allyson says.

“Your reaction time to when the gate hits the ground is probably the biggest factor.”

Keys to having a good start are body position, reaction time and picking the actual gate. There are about 40 gates for the riders to line up on, the first race is random for which gate a racer gets. In the second race, whoever won gets to pick his or her gate first. When choosing a gate, Allyson will look for compact dirt to set up on, how the gate sits, and if the rut in front of the gate is straight. ...continued on page 78

INTERMEDIATE TERRAIN

SOFT TERRAIN

intermediate tread is closer than soft terrain tread because the track condition gives a natural stick and durability to prevent the dirt from packing in the tire.

FUELING THE THRILL Motocross is the most popular form of motorcycle racing. The extreme sport attracts riders, coaches and spectators who are looking for an adrenaline rush. story kathryn creehan | photography sydney rader

A

nticipation and suspense build as the rider approaches the gate. Nervously, the rider waits for the official to cue that the race is about to begin. The gates go down, adrenaline kicks in, and the motocross race begins.

The thrill of racing at top speeds on motorcycles and performing death-defying flips is a popular sport that originated in England.

According to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), motocross is the most popular form of motorcycle racing. Riders race over dirt or mud courses that contain hills, sharp turns and jumps, making it extremely dangerous.

There are several colored flags used in the race representing different precautions bikers should be aware of. A yellow flag means there is a problem on the course, but passing is still allowed. A red flag means that riders should slow down to 5 miles per hour, and passing is

68 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

not allowed. The red flag indicates that there is trouble on the course or another rider is receiving some type of assistance.

Many people flock to race because of the high thrills and excitement. Children as young as four-years-old can compete in motocross.

Amateurs, along with professionals, race in different competitions in order to win titles and points. The AMA National Motocross Championship is the biggest motocross race for amateur riders, and a good performance at this race can potentially put a rider into the professional level. To be eligible to race for the amateur championship, riders must be a high finisher in their area qualifier and regional qualifier.

Points are also important when becoming a pro-motocross rider. AMA will not consider any motocross rider until they have earned at least 75 advancement points in a year. Points

are earned based on overall finishes in certain AMA races.

In order to score points, riders must be in control of their bikes at all times. The bikes used for motocross range from 50 to 450 cubic centimeters (cc), which refers to the size of the bike’s engine. The amount of cc a biker uses depends on their age and type of race. There are also two-stroke bikes and four-stroke bikes, which refer to the piston’s movement in the engine. The bikes are made with light metals such as aluminum to make them lighter than the standard road motorcycle.

Motocross racing requires multiple hours of practice and preparation, making it such a time commitment that racers at the high school level will often get homeschooled so that way they can get more training. According to former motocross world champions, motocross is not a lifestyle, it is a life.

A close-up of Williams’ bike shows the inner workings of the machine.

DIGGING THE NEW TECH East volleyball spent their athletic boosters budget on iPads for the varsity and junior varisty programs, which has made a drastic change in keeping statistics. story allie church

A

fter the final point is scored, the last whistle is blown, and echoes from the cheers of encouraging fans fade away, East girls’ varsity volleyball assistant coach Amy Rogers gathers the exhausted girls together into a huddle. She then proceeds to pull out her Apple iPad Air 2 and begins to review statistics and reviews from the game completed just minutes earlier.

Going into the 2015 season, the East girls’ varsity volleyball team experienced a multitude of changes, mostly due to an entirely new varsity coaching staff.

With the new staff came different perspectives on coaching styles, training procedures and game formations, says Rogers.

Therefore, this season was the perfect opportunity to introduce technology they had never utilized before, says Rogers. Every year, the Athletic Boosters Club provides each sport with an allocated amount of money that coaches can use for athletic equipment or anything they find necessary to benefit their teams.

According to Athletic Boosters Club President Mike Goldman, he and other members approved of the volleyball team’s request to purchase iPads with the money provided to them for the 2015 season.

“In today’s world, to compete against other schools, you have to use technology,” Goldman says. “[Technology] only benefits teams. It provides coaches with better tools that they can use to give our athletes more of an edge.”

With $1,200, two iPads were bought, one for each member of the varsity and junior varsity coaching staff. The varsity iPad is currently being used to record statistics on the app iStat, while the junior varsity one was used to film and review practices and games.

By keeping track of rotations, individual players can see their errors, kills, digs, serves and assists, and coaches are able to provide players with a clear understanding of what their weaknesses and strengths are immediately after games are played, according to Rogers. The players, including junior and starting varsity outside hitter Alexis Adleta, can then take this understanding and use it as a way to improve their

skills through drills at practices.

“With the iPads, I can reflect on myself after games and see how I am doing,” Adleta says. “Whenever I want to see how I did during a certain game or see what my hitting percentage was, I can just look at the stats that the coaches took and use that in practice.”

The East volleyball program not only uses this technology to keep up on individual player and team statistics, but also they gather statistics on opponents during games. According to Rogers, this gives them the ability to prepare strategies against particular teams and to form player line-ups they deem necessary.

“Instead of just watching film or going to watching opponents play, we will have the ability to actually track them and see which players they use most often,” Rogers says. “Next year, we will use [the iPads] to forecast opponents, and we will be more ready for them.”

According to East Athletic Director Richard Bryant, technology is crucial to the development and improvement of individual sports. As technology and competition grows, approaches to coaching have grown as well, he says.

“Coaching styles are evolving,” Bryant says.

“Capturing statistical information on teams and players is valuable in preparation and improvement.

It is much more beneficial than old-school ways of keeping stats—it’s another way to gain an advantage.”

The East girls’ varsity volleyball team won the Greater Miami Conference this season with a record of 20-3. While Rogers attributes the better part of this accomplishment to the players, she says having statistics recorded and ready for review immediately upon the completion of games plays a part in the success of the team.

“In the past we’ve used stats just based on keeping a tally on a piece of paper,” says Rogers. “Now, there is no lack of time, and everyone can see their stats as soon as the game is over. The coaches can make better and more informed decisions, and the players can immediately work on their skills. So far, I think [using iPads] has worked out really well.”

East sophomore runner Dustin Horter has already made an impact with his running career by being one of the top runners in the nation for his class. story tyler bennett infographic andrew ebding photography sydney rader 70 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

East sophomore Dustin Horter wins first place in the GMC Championship 5K race at Voice of America Park.

“My brother has a hard work ethic that not only pushes himself to be better, but it pushes others around him to be better.”

— Dillon Horter, East senior

I

t’s the morning of the St. Xavier Cross Country Invitational, and the course is muddy from the night’s rain. East sophomore cross country runner Dustin Horter knew he would not be running for a personal record, but he realized that he would have to go against Highland senior Ethan Shuley, the fastesttimed high school runner in Kentucky. Though Horter started quickly, Shuley was on his hip.

In the final mile, Horter found the strength to pull away to win the race.

Horter shared this experience on his weekly blog for MileSplit, a high school cross country and track news website, where he comments about races and daily practices. Horter is one of four cross country athletes in the country that writes for MileSplit. Here, Horter reveals that competition, sportsmanship, teammate relationships, and his relationship with God are important to him. This mindset has helped him become the fastest-timed runner on the team and the top-ranked sophomore in the Midwest with a 15:11.00 5K record.

It’s Horter’s second year on the team, but he blends in with the upperclassmen. Horter says in his two years on the team, he’s built a great deal of trust with his teammates, and

they help build confidence. The collaboration and social aspect of the team is unlike anything he experienced when he played middle school football for Liberty Junior School. “[Cross country is] not just about the running,” Horter says. “It’s about coming together as a team and having trust.”

After practices, the team either goes out to eat or hangs at someone’s house. East cross country head coach Adam Thomas believes the camaraderie within his team is special.

“I can’t imagine that there’s another team that’s more like a family than this team,” Thomas says. “I hear from parents and alumni that this is a special group to be around.”

Though he didn’t compete cross country in middle school, Horter was recruited by Thomas and the upperclassmen to join the team because of his impressive track time.

“Walking away from a lifetime of football was difficult for him,” Dustin’s older brother and East senior runner Dillon Horter says, “You have to make sacrifices to be successful.”

Dustin says the team needed him to boost them to the state championship that year. East senior cross country runner Vincent Galioto recruited Dustin, and Galioto was confident in

SORRY, GOTTA RUN East sophomore Dustin Horter has consistently run 3.1 mile runs with expectional times, winning every race.

sources gmcsports.com

72 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

Dustin’s abilities.

“The distance guys got together during track when Dustin came to visit us, and we said we wanted him,” First Team All-Greater Miami Conference (GMC) runner Galioto says. “Dustin is affectionately called ‘the child prodigy.’ We knew he was going to be no. 1. He was one of the reasons we went to state.”

Dillon also made the decision to leave football and join the cross country team for his senior year. Dustin says that Dillon decided to “jump on the cross country bandwagon” after the state championship last season.

“Since [Dustin and I] were little kids, we always dreamed and talked about being on the same sports team,” Dillon says. “I couldn’t be more honored to have the opportunity that I was given with the cross country team.

A

ccording to Dustin, his goal is to always improve, but this year he wants to help his teammates. After five senior distance runners graduated last season, Dustin says the team lost depth and must work diligently to return to the state championship. Dillon and Galioto think he is a good motivator.

“My brother has work ethic that pushes himself and others to be better,” Dillon says. “His small traits, like determination, perseverance and competitiveness, make him the person he is today.”

Galioto calls Dustin a once-in-a-lifetime teammate and says he likes having Dustin as a leader of the team.

“I prefer running on a team with guys like Dustin,” Galioto says. “Even though you aren’t no. 1, you are competing at a higher level, and that is what makes you faster.”

Thomas says that with Dustin’s talent, he quickly made the transition to distance running.

Dustin developed a style where he explodes out of the starting line, gains an early lead, and maintains his lead before finishing. Thomas

1st Place GMC Championships

15:11.00

1st Place District Division 1 Race B

15:11.30

admires Dustin’s ability to strategically put himself out in front and push himself to his limit during any given race.

“It takes guts for someone to run at the front all the time,” Thomas says. “He doesn’t care who’s in the race with him—every time he goes out there, he runs to run as fast as he can.”

I

n just his freshman year, Dustin quickly found success as he finished second behind Mason senior Nick Grismer in last season’s GMC championship. Dustin’s 15:38.35 time helped the Thunderhawks become GMC champions, and he was named First Team All-GMC. Dustin then went on to compete at the state championship. He finished 14th, scoring the lowest time of any Division 1 freshman in Ohio, earning him a spot on the podium.

“Just getting 14th out of the 16 on the podium was bigger than I thought it would be,” Dustin says. “I had a lot of competition, and mid-race I was worried that I wouldn’t make the podium as people passed me, but as I stood on the podium, it showed me that all the work I did that season paid off.”

Last season, Dustin ran the fifth-lowest time of any freshman in the country. Dillon knew his brother would be successful, but Dustin exceeded all his family’s expectations. “[Dustin’s freshman season] was a surprise for our family,” Dillon says. “Ohio is a runner’s state, and it’s extremely difficult to do well. To see Dustin make it as far as he went shows how much he has invested into the sport.”

Dustin says that his success was the confidence booster he needed. After the offseason, Dustin returned to the team for his sophomore year with the goal of improving his time even more.

At the Queen City Invitational in September, Dustin achieved that goal. Despite the hilly course, he ran the second-fastest 5K time in East history at 15:21.40, shattering his ...continued on page 78

1st Place 2015 Queen City Invitational

15:21.40

East sophomore Dustin Horter takes the lead in the GMC Championship 5K race in Voice of America Park on Oct. 17.

74 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

East junior Daniel Posmik prepares to tackle in a 14-7 victory against Colerain on Oct. 17.

FROM

TO THE

GRIDIRON Foreign exchange student and East junior Daniel Posmik is taking his past football experience in Germany to adjust to the Thunderhawks football team. story aly thomas photography maya wells

W

hen Lakota East varsity football head coach Rick Haynes heard about the foreign exchange student who played football in Germany, he assumed that it meant he played soccer because soccer is the most popular sport in Europe. But when Haynes met the 5’ 8’’ junior linebacker Daniel Posmik, he was surprised to find he had experience with American football.

Posmik arrived in America on Aug. 1, 2015, and two days after coming to West Chester from his hometown in Munich, Germany, he began attending football practices with his house brother East senior Logan Shreve. Posmik is one of two foreign exchange students at East this year, being a part of the first group of foreign exchange students allowed to attend Lakota since the 2009-10 school year. Lakota had not enrolled foreign exchange students in seven years due to the maxed out number of students already in the district combined with the financial crisis, according to Lakota Assistant Superintendent Robb Vogelmann as told to Journal News.

Posmik’s house mother and Regional Director for International Cultural Exchange Services (ICES) Kim Shreve has hosted 14 foreign exchange students since 2003, and during Lakota’s hiatus from foreign exchange students, her host students would have to go to private schools. Lakota opened enrollment back up to foreign exchange students due to the levy passing and because enrollment is currently below 18,000 students. Kim is excited for the

change because it will be a new experience for Lakota students because they have not been around foreign exchange students.

“I think [Posmik] has adjusted well,” Kim says. “Having him come in and play football and get plugged in so early has helped. It gives you a stepping stone to know people, and I think he has made friends within his individual classes as well.”

Posmik will attend East for a full school year on a scholarship for a semester and will pay an approximated $8,000-10,000 dollars for his second semester. Posmik also has to repeat his junior year when he goes back to Germany.

He applied for the scholarship last year and was one out of 2,000 applicants to receive the opportunity.

“Two weeks after my final interview [for the scholarship] in Bonn, Germany, I got out of my classes for the day and saw I had a missed call from my dad,” Posmik says. “I called him back and he told me ‘congrats you got the scholarship.’ It was the best feeling ever.”

P

osmik says he likes the United States even more than Germany. According to Posmik, the football experience is more organized and enjoyable. Posmik says he “enjoys getting playing time and pancaking people during the games.”

Though Posmik overall has enjoyed playing football at East, he has experienced trouble understanding the idioms that Americans use in their everyday language. For example, for

practice, Haynes instructed the team to dress in “shoulder pads and shorts.”

“I took that saying literally and walked on the field without a helmet,” Posmik says.

“Coach Haynes was like ‘Daniel, where is your helmet? Why would you warm up without a helmet?’ so all of that was a little bit difficult.”

P

osmik started playing football two years ago in Germany. He didn’t play on turf, but instead played on a grass field with lines painted on it. Field goal posts were attached to the top of soccer goals, and the only people who came to football games were the players’ families. Even though soccer is the popular sport in Germany, Posmik prefers playing football.

“I mean look at football, it’s great,” Posmik says. “I was about to cry my first football game here because I have always wanted to come to America and play in a high school game.”

When Posmik played in Germany, there were only 20 people on his team, but East’s football team has 104 players on the roster.

Posmik says there is a large difference in the players when comparing the two countries.

Posmik went from playing offense and defense on special teams in Germany to being second string in America, but according to Posmik, he expected it because the American requirements are harder. East assistant varsity coach Ed Brady says that Posmik has learned a lot in the short amount of time that he has been on the team.

“I mean, look at football—it’s great. I was about to cry my first football game here because I have always wanted to come to America and play in a high school game.”

— Daniel Posmik, East junior varsity football player “He is a very raw player, but he’s also definitely improving,” Brady says. “If he goes back in Germany and plays, he is going to be really good.”

L

ogan says he believes Posmik is a good example of how American football is becoming more global in other parts of the world. The 6’ 1” linebacker says he actually picked Posmik to be the Shreve’s foreign exchange student because Posmik played football, so they had a common interest.

According to Logan, Posmik has experienced success this season so far.

“He is getting varsity reps as a foreign exchange student, which is really good,” Logan says. “He is taking other people’s spots and

76 lakotaeastspark.com November 2015

pushing them down to the reserve team, which is really good. That is a success within itself.”

Brady says that Posmik has learned a lot this season regarding the different styles of blocking and believes he has adjusted well to the team. He added that Posmik has proved that American football is growing in other parts of the world.

“He can spread anything anywhere he goes,” Brady says. “If he wants to make football a bigger sport in Germany, he will do that. That is just his personality.”

The growth of American football appears promising, especially in Germany with the birth of the German Football League (GFL) in 1979 that has 15 teams in the league. The National Football League (NFL) currently has

two German-born starters, Bjoern Werner for the Indianapolis Colts and Sebastian Vollmer for the New England Patriots. There are around 500 teams in Germany playing American football from the youth level to the semi-professional level.

E

ven with football growing in Germany, soccer still remains the popular sport throughout the world, attracting an estimated 3.5 billion viewers, according to quora.com. According to the International Business Times, the 2014 Super Bowl reached 198 countries, and the broadcast was translated in 25 languages.

“I do think football is becoming more global,” Posmik says. “It is because people are realizing it is the best sport.”

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RISKY BUSINESS continued from page 72...

“If the rut is squiggly, that’s not a good gate.

You want a nice constant speed because you’re racing to that first corner as fast as you can,” Tim says “[The first corner] is where a lot of the bad wrecks happen. So, you want to get that corner first so you can bypass all of the carnage that’s going to happen behind you.”

Allyson finds herself being one of few girls at local races, where there are only four to five other girls racing. Leading up to Loretta’s, about 25 girls qualify for regionals from each of the eight regions. From there, the top 30 girls who competed at regionals will advance to Loretta’s. “She’s good, and it’s fun to watch her when she rides,” Tim says. “She was one of the top 30 girls in the county this year. When she’s on it, you can tell, because she’s beaten a lot of the boys.”

Many times, Allyson races with the boys and dominates. Tim says that winning a trophy is always a goal, but he and Allyson get really excited when one of the boys’ dads gets mad because she beat his son.

“There’s been times she’s smoked these boys, and their dads would get so mad. That was our excitement for the weekend. There was this one time she beat a boy so badly that his dad packed everything up and they didn’t even finish the day,” Tim says. “We liked that.”

As a female competitor, Allyson has had more success getting sponsors. According to Tim, sponsors typically “gobble up” the top female riders. Recently, Allyson was loaned two bikes built specifically for Loretta’s from R.L. Vuckson Excavating. Riders can get sponsors if the company reaches out to them, or the riders can send their résumés to the companies.

An easy way to do this is through a Hookit account. “[Hookit] has a point system for how much you travel, how many races you attend, your qualifications and placements,” Tim says.

“We’ve got a lot of interest on Ally from that.

The big thing is that we hit a lot of the big races, so her name is always out there.”

Loretta Lynn’s National Championship in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. is the largest amateur motocross race, drawing in the top racers from around the globe. Qualifying for Loretta’s is a six-month process starting in February and ending in mid-June. The United States is broken up into eight regions: Northeast, Southeast, Mid-East, North Central, South Central, Northwest, Midwest and Southwest.

International riders are allowed to pick the regions in which they want to compete.

“Each area has 8-10 qualifying races, and you have to place in the top eight to go to the Regional Championship. There, you have to place in the top five to advance to Loretta’s,” Tim explains. “Most of the kids who take it seriously go to multiple regions.”

This year is the first time Allyson has

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qualified for Loretta’s after trying for three years. Every year she has gone to three regions, including Mid-East, South Central and Northeast, in an attempt to qualify. The advantage of going to more than one region is that it gives her more than one chance.

“Say I screwed up and I got sixth,” Allyson says. “Then I have two more regions to back me up.”

The local races in which Allyson competes act as practice for Loretta’s. When preparing, she not only trains in the gym and on her familiar track, but also she goes to as many different tracks as she can. As opposed to a smaller race where she would usually practice on site the day before, the contestants at Loretta’s are only allowed 15 minutes to practice on the course. With such a short amount of time, it is important to have good technique.

“It’s the little things that the really good kids pick up on and excel at,” Tim says. “It’s all those little things that add up to seconds on the track.”

Other than racing, Allyson has been cheerleading all of her life. Currently a varsity cheerleader, she says she gets the best of both worlds. She laughs as she tells a story about when somebody asked her at a race if she were wearing mascara.

“I love being girly, and I also love putting on boots and getting on a dirt bike,” Allyson says. “A lot of people don’t believe me when I tell them I race motocross. I have to show them pictures.”

On top of the demanding schedule, Allyson has stayed in public school, unlike many of the other serious races, who are homeschooled so they have more time to train, which helps them rank higher. Her parents decided to keep her in public school so she could have a normal high school experience and to keep racing for fun rather than a strict lifestyle.

For Allyson and her family, motocross has always been and will continue to be something that keeps them together.

“Ally is balls-to-walls. It’s fun to watch her lean the bike over and stay on it. It’s exciting,” Tim says. “She’s so much better than me, it’s fun for all of us to watch her go.”

KICKING UP THE DUST continued from page 78... previous personal record by 17 seconds. His performance was the second best in Ohio and put him in first place in the GMC for the remainder of the season.

“Getting that finish and topping the rankings reiterated the fact that I am reaching my goals,” Dustin says. “I can keep on improving no matter the circumstances.”

Dustin kept improving as he ran a 15:11.00 at his second GMC championship, making him this season’s GMC Runner of the Year and the individual conference champion. Dustin

defeated the runner-up, Fairfield junior Zach Birdsall, by over 25 seconds. The East team finished third overall, and Dustin’s time makes him the fourth-ranked sophomore runner in the nation.

“I’m really proud of that race,” Dustin says. “After going through hell week, which is the hardest week of the season, all that hard training is finally paying off, and I’m rising in the ranks, both in the state and in the nation.”

Dustin says that this season he is pushing himself more at practice.

In addition to practice with the team every day after school, Dustin says that on some Sundays he will put in a long run. Thomas says Dustin is unlike anyone else he’s ever coached and never ceases to amaze him. “[Dustin is] an extremely talented distance runner, but he also has one of the best work ethics,” Thomas says. “I’ve probably had kids run for me in the past who had that kind of talent but hadn’t had the kind of work ethic that he has. It’s not out of the question to say that he’s a once in a lifetime athlete.”

Dustin’s father, Byron Horter, says that Dustin’s competitive nature has allowed him to make the most of his God-given talents.

“Dustin is extremely blessed,” Byron says. “He knows exactly where he gets his talents, and all he did was build on them. His work ethic is incredible. He is driven by the hatred of losing.”

Outside of Ohio, Dustin’s success as a runner hasn’t gone unnoticed. Thomas says that he’s already gotten the attention of several Division I colleges and believes that, as long he stays healthy, Dustin can compete at the collegiate level. Dustin says he would love to go on to compete in and beyond college.

“I love running,” says Dustin. “It’s a time where you can take out your anger or any stress that you have. It takes all your energy away so you can’t even think about what worries you.”

Byron says that he wants Dustin to put his education first when selecting a college but says the decision to run in college is up to Dustin.

Byron says that his only expectation for Dustin is that he continues to be the person he is now.

For now, Dustin is working toward the state championship in November. Thomas says he hopes to see multiple state championships in Dustin’s career. He says he would be impressed by a top-five finish from Dustin but wouldn’t be surprised if he has a good day and becomes the next state champion.

“He amazes me just about every time he runs,” Thomas says. “So you never know what could happen.”

Dustin says he isn’t worried about how he finishes at the state championship and strives to just keep on getting better this post-season.

“I just want to keep rising in the ranks,” Dustin says. “Even if it’s not first this year, or even if it’s not top five this year, I just want to keep on improving, lowering my time and becoming a better runner.”

column | opinion

HYSTERECTOMY: SEPARATING HYSTERIA AND ANXIETY VIVIAN KOLKS art julia sanders

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routine check-up at the doctor’s office turned into a boatload of surprises and soul searching—the first of many being the fact that it was no ordinary check-up.

Instead, I was marched into a quiet room and handed a list of questions and a pen. These questions weren’t about if I played any sports or did well in school. They got straight to the point with interrogative precision that inquired about my mental health. There wasn’t even an easy introduction. It started with a hard hitting question. Right at the top of the page, it asked, “In the past two weeks have you 1) never, 2) seldom or 3) often, had trouble participating in social situations?”

I ended up staring at the blank piece of paper, mentally reliving the past two weeks, trying to figure out if I fell under the “never,” “seldom” or “often” category. I was puzzled that I, an honors student with an affinity for rapidly completing tests, could be so stumped as to how I felt in social situations. I was curious and more than slightly alarmed enough to chase after my doctor after my appointment, searching for answers. The answer was not just that I, a high school sophomore in southwestern Ohio, but also a solid 8 percent of them in fact, according to the National Institute Of Mental Health (NIMH), display symptoms of social anxiety. It’s a rapidly growing field of study and an incredibly recent one as well. Anxiety, or “hysteria” as it was called in Ancient Greece, was once considered a predominantly female disease, which was believed to be caused by the uterus. That sneaky uterus “wandered around

the body, blocking passageways, obstructing breathing and causing disease,” according to Plato, a famous Greek philosopher.

This notion that anxiety was purely a female disease continued to linger even after basic anatomy studies revealed that it wasn’t caused by rogue reproductive organs. Still far away from discovering that it was indeed a mental disorder, many people during the Renaissance associated “twitchiness” and “excessive nervousness” with characteristics of black magic or witchcraft. Much later in the 1980s, it became an official mental disorder, thousands of years after it was first noticed. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a massive encyclopedia and reference book used by doctors and published by the American Psychiatric Association, finally separated its original term “anxiety neurosis” into Panic and General Anxiety Disorders in its 1980 and 1987 editions.

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n the past, it was wrong to be shy, awkward and nervous. Only over the last century has the world moved on from its old-fashioned and discriminating manner of using gender as a way to describe the feeling of dissatisfaction in social situations. Unfortunately, society hasn’t moved on to treating it similarly to an actual physical disease, either. Phrases that mock both social and other types of anxieties are dropped in everyday conversation. “I’m so OCD,” or, “You just gave me a panic attack,” are used for trivial purposes in light-hearted conversation.

“You are essentially assuming that you

This notion that anxiety was purely a female disease continued to linger even after basic anatomy studies revealed that it wasn’t caused by rogue reproductive organs.

know the subtleties that diagnosis constitutes.” said Dr. Srini Phillay in his Psychology Today article “The Dangers Of Self Diagnosis.”

Generalizing a legitimate mental disorder like this can lead to massive discrepancies between those with a mental disorder like anxiety and those seeking diagnosis and treatment.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) reports that, unfortunately, “anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only about one-third of those suffering receive treatment.”

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nxiety, both social and general, is indeed very easy to resolve with a non-medicated solution. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), or interactive therapy sessions, takes a look at the relationships between selfdestructive thoughts and ideas. Then in a manner that is different than conventional methods of therapy, the patient and the therapist work together to reform the unhealthy patterns of thinking.

With progressive methods of therapy such as CBT, the world is rapidly becoming more prepared to handle those eight percent of teens and their needs as growing young adults with complex mental disorders. Supporting these types of therapy is the first step in recognizing their anxiety as a legitimate problem instead of as a fluctuating personality trait. After all, those 8 percent of teens will soon be members of mature society, and preparing them for the real world should start during their formative years, when the impact of such help will be felt the most.

Providing capable help to those who suffer from anxiety doesn’t start at the national level. It starts in the local doctor’s office, with an average teenager, maybe even a high school sophomore in southwestern Ohio. A high school sophomore with a pen and an ambiguous set of questions who now knows that whatever she puts down and whatever she chooses to say will be noted and used to get her the best help possible, no matter what Plato says about the uterus.

opinion | column

TATTOOS ARE NOT TABOO KAILY HAUCK I

remember holding onto my father’s leg when I was very young, peering up at the mystery ink hidden under his left shirt sleeve.

His hidden Maltese cross is a symbol of the fire service and symbolizes how much being a fire chief means to him. The one thing that never fails to intrigue me is the one thing from which the world tells me to turn away.

When I was twelve, I made a deal with my parents that when I turned 18, I would be in complete control of my body, and for me that meant tattoos. I set out to find the perfect designs, and many Pinterest boards later, I had finally decided on my ink.

As my eighteenth birthday crept closer, people kept telling me how unprofessional I would look with tattoos. I have never understood why companies see tattoos as a deterrent for hiring personnel. To me, tattoos are a form of self-expression, a way for the world to get a peek of individual values and beliefs. Visible tattoos still carry a negative connotation among employers and could be hurting the chances of getting hired, according to a new study by Andrew Timming of St. Andrew’s University School of Management in Scotland. He found that 76 percent of employees feel that tattoos and piercings hurt your job interview chances, but 73 percent of people also say they would hire staff that had visible tattoos.

“There was more prejudice toward [tattoos] twenty years ago,” says a Vermont social worker, Richard Bailey. “Now there’s really none of that here in Vermont. Today, half the people in the department have tattoos.”

According to Statistic Brain, nearly one in five adults have at least one tattoo. Tattoos do not define professionalism. Companies seek uniformness and socially acceptable conventions in the workplace, even if it means limiting the individuality of the employees.

However, that rationale is foolish and outdated; employers should embrace the unique, freespirited art form.

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Every tattoo means something to its owner and deserves to be judged as its own. The meaning behind the ink should be presented before any decision is to be made on whether it is acceptable for the workplace. Forty-three percent of all tattooed people think that the significance is the most important factor in the tattooing process, according to Statistic Brain.

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attoos in America are a form of expression that are protected from criminal law by the Constitution; however, they are not federally protected in the workplace. Children’s Hospital in St. Louis allows tattoos to go uncovered as long as designs are not considered offensive or unprofessional. This company, along with PetSmart and Wal-Mart, are among the

are younger or older, according to a new Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey.

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he shift in desire for tattoos between the millennial generation and baby boomers is very large. Tattoo statistics from a campaign titled “My Body is Not My Résumé” shows that tattoo popularity has grown 13 percent since 2007. The baby boomers present the idea that all tattoos are negative and that they represent hoodlum life. This outdated belief that every person with ink on their body is a threat to security is completely absurd.

Tattoos, to millennials, represent a sense of freedom through a blank canvas. Today’s youth need different ways to represent themselves,

Tattoos can give a sense of control through knowing that whatever is put on their body is their own decision. growing list that allow alternative dress codes in the workplace. More companies need to look to these businesses because they are the pioneers of tattoo acceptance.

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enerations, like people, have personalities.

Millennials—the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium—have begun to forge theirs: confident, self-expressive, upbeat and opento-change. America’s baby boomers are in a collective funk. Members of the large generation born from 1946 to 1964 are more downbeat about their lives than adults who

and one of the best ways is with tattoos.

Tattoos can give a sense of control through knowing that whatever is put on their body is their own decision.

People should refrain from judging others based on their appearance. Tattoos have become a tool of expression and individuality.

They should be accepted in the workplace as a way to value diversity and strengthen the company and its relations. Whether an individual should get tattoos should not be determined by their future job. When I choose to ink myself, I will no longer be fascinated by the idea of forbidden ink, but the idea that I am the sole owner of my body and its markings.

column | opinion

DAS AUTO: DAS MÖRDER CHARIS WILLIAMS A

Cree proverb says, “Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Volkswagen’s (VW) “diesel dupe” technology, which cheated the standardized emissions test by entering an under-the-radar test mode, has hidden the fact that their nitrous oxide emission is 40 times above the legal limit in their diesel cars.

Former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn was “deeply sorry,” and Michael Horn, VW’s North American CEO, said VW had “totally screwed up.” While it was good that they apologized, they’ve exacerbated the worsening condition of the ecosystem.

Although both unleaded gas cars and diesel cars emit pollutants called secondary organic aerosol (SOA) that are harmful to the environment, diesel cars also produce cancercausing substances and soot. Diesel emissions cause serious health issues like increased risk of stroke, inflammation of the lungs that triggers bronchitis and asthma, damage of lung tissue, increased susceptibility to respiratory infection, increased risk of cancer, and increased risk of heart attack. Nationwide, it’s also responsible for 53,000 premature deaths each year, according to a study done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013. Unleaded gas cars only produce nitrogen dioxide (NO2) instead of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and NO2 as diesel cars do. A 2012 study on gas and diesel emissions done by UC Berkeley researchers shows diesel emits 15 times more SOAs than gas emits.

Previous advertisements claimed that VW’s diesel cars were environmentally friendly, getting a record 42 miles per gallon (mpg) fuel economy.

“I was shocked to find that Volkswagen has brought new diesel engines to the United States that more than doubled the fuel economy I was used to getting,” said the Volunteer Environment Division Content Coordinator for the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, Heather

McCorkle, in 2013. “But, I wondered, would double the fuel economy make up for how bad diesel was for the environment?”

The discovery of the VW technology prompted the recall of 482,000 cars from America alone. VW is expected to pay up to $37,500 for each car, which means up to $18 billion total to the United States Environmental Protection Agency for emitting over forty times the legal limit.

to unsuspecting consumers, who in turn take in the chemicals unknowingly.

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olkswagen’s illegal diesel cars also break down the stratospheric ozone, which is part of earth’s atmosphere. The earth’s atmosphere protects its inhabitants from the harsh rays of the sun and allows them to maintain air that they can breathe. If the atmosphere becomes too diminished, the sun

Not only has VW proved that they care more about money than the environment, but also they put future generations in danger.

Emissions that high can utterly destroy the world in which people live and thrive. Diesel cars, even emitting under the legal limit, spew noxious NOx and NO2) fumes that contribute to ozone depletion or smog formation; acid rain, which has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure; global climate change; haze, which restricts our ability to see long distance; and pollution of the air, water and soil.

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ollution of the water and soil can lead to increased health risks when consumers eat the tainted fruits, vegetables and meat that had been affected by the growth of contaminated water and soil. When the car emits noxious chemicals into the air, they settle into water and soil. Fish swim and breathe in the contaminated water, while plants grow in the tarnished soil and drink the unhealthy water. These contaminated foods are then sold

would get too hot and the air would get too thin for life to survive. To put into perspective the amount of ozone already expended and the impact that 40 times the usual depletion rate will have on the atmosphere, an Australian ad that was commissioned by the Victoria State Government demonstrated atmospheric depletion by showing tiny black balloons trailing out of all the household items that cause greenhouse gases.

Not only has VW proved that they care more about money than the environment, but also they put future generations in danger by degrading the air quality, thinning the ozone layer, and polluting the water and soil. So, when the last river has been contaminated with noxious chemicals, the atmosphere has gotten too thin to breathe, and too many people have severe health complications or premature deaths, VW will discover that having money won’t help them anymore.

opinion | column

COLLEGE OVERLOAD ALEXIS SALIBA T

he list of tasks I needed to accomplish before my college applications could be sent gnawed at me. The sinking feeling in my chest was caused from the amount of stress I was under to get everything done as soon as possible. Request letters of recommendation, request transcripts, volunteer, write essays— the list was never-ending. It started to sit on me like a weight, and all of this work still neglected to settle the ease of my anxiousness for the security of my acceptance.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), enrollment in degree-giving postsecondary establishments increased 46 percent between 1990 and 2013, rising from 12 million to 17.5 million students.

By 2024, NCES estimates that around 19.6 million will be enrolled, showing the constant incline in the need for higher education.

Outside influences on kids fail to see the emotional effect all of this pressure has put on students. GPA), volunteering, the American College Test (ACT), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and extracurricular activities are all aspects colleges look at for acceptance and scholarships. Juggling all of these things along with sports and a job makes stress a huge factor, while also hindering socialization for many teens.

“Teenage patients of mine will complain, ‘My parents are putting so much pressure on me to get into a good college that I can’t even have fun as a sophomore in high school,’” says Dr. Coleman of Duke University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

He explains that the stress is derived from two places, one being a now high-tech economy where more is required from new workers, which is “self-imposed” stress, and the other main place being parents.

Parents have become seemingly overaware that job competitiveness has drastically changed since they were in school and therefore overcompensate when pushing their kids to go to college. What they fail to understand is many

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kids do not feel college is the path for them, and the strain their parents have put on them sets them up for a type of future they do not wish to pursue. Other times, students who do want to go to college feel pressure from their parents to shuffle multiple things at once to get into the best school, causing a mental overload.

“Chronic stress can cause a sense of panic and paralysis,” says Mary Alvord, a clinical psychologist and American Psychological Association public education coordinator. “A little stress is a good thing, it can motivate students to be organized. But too much stress can backfire.”

Alvord notes that when kids get into a “what if ” way of thinking, it can put the student in distress, and parents should not continue to push the child.

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lthough parents are factors in the pressure students are facing, it is nothing compared to the pressure students put on themselves to succeed in testing and grades. The ACT and SAT have become essential parts of college admissions, meaning students put an excessive amount of pressure on themselves to achieve a high score on the ACT and SAT. According to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) study, looking at 33 public and private universities and about 123,000 students across more than 20 states revealed that the test scores didn’t correspond with how well students did in college. It showed that students with higher GPAs and lower scores did better in college than students with lower GPAs and higher scores. There are now around 850 schools in the U.S. where test scores are optional, and according to the study, the trend is growing based on the fact that the scores don’t measure

students’ abilities to succeed.

On top of the stress to get into college students are facing trouble securing a job. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York looked into college graduates and found in 2012 that 44 percent of them were working in jobs that were not in their field of study. On top of going to college, and, for many, swimming in debt, they can’t even find a job in their specialized field.

This begs a question: was all the time, stress and money worth it in the first place?

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s college admissions become more difficult and the line in the job market breeds thinner, the pressure grows heavier. This society pushes more strenuously to get the highest education possible to grasp the opportunities left in the diminishing area of job availability.

It’s a perpetual cycle of unbroken stress.

Society has engraved the mindset into students that they must succeed in high school to get into the right college, and then work in the right field with the highest degree possible. None of that should be true for kids. Society needs to transition the way of thinking to where money and career is not success, but rather is about the mental stability and happiness of the student.

As I finally complete my applications and wait for my answers, I will try to help myself.

Stress is almost unavoidable, but there are ways to minimize it, and this will be one way I will do so. When I tear open each letter and get my final answers, I will not obsess over the possible outcome of rejection. Instead I will tear open the letter, not with the shaking fear of failure, but with shaking hands of excitement, because no matter the outcome, those letters hold my future. Rejection or acceptance, either way there will always be a way to succeed in life.

Outside influences fail to see the emotional effect all of this pressure has put on students.

column | opinion

HIP-HOP GETS A BAD RAP JOEY COMBS “

And we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the street fo’ sho.”

The not-so-subtle layer of sarcasm that came from Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera while reading this excerpt from Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” after the BET Music Video Awards showcased the common misconception that hip-hop promotes violence. The blatant lack of context paired with his hateful tone exemplifies the negative sentiments toward this genre of music. Civil rights protests in various cities around the nation, including the recent Million Man March, have begun using the simple hook “We Gon’ Be Alright” from the same song that Geraldo Rivera labeled as violent. This hook has become a chant reminiscent of the civil rights chant of the 50s and 60s, “We Shall Overcome.”

Hip-hop as a genre is shown in media only at its most superficial level. The typically perceived message of violence and police hatred portrayed by Rivera in this segment is not only incorrect, but it also is the antithesis of the true meaning behind Lamar’s “Alright.”

Lyrics are poetry, not the portrayal of objective information. Attempting to read Lamar’s lyrics at their surface level disregards the wealth of emotion and information between the lines. An analysis of the lyrics in “Alright” obliterates the negative claim that it is a song that promotes violence. If Rivera would have read the line directly before his cherry-picked excerpt, viewers would have heard, “When our pride was low, lookin’ at the world like, ‘Where do we go?’” The irony behind omitting this line is startling. In Lamar’s words, the black community has no clue where to go after the oppression and hatred that they have weathered, but they will be alright in the end. Lamar’s claim isn’t that violence is the answer—it’s that violence is a product of the root issues, such as poor inner city education, higher unemployment and police brutality.

In his song “The Blacker the Berry,” Lamar condemns gang violence, comparing the Crip and Piru gangs in his hometown of Compton

to the Zulu and Xhosa tribes in Africa, where he says “only death settles the score.”

Rivera later in the same segment labeled hip-hop as the “real oppressor of black people.” Labeling the entire genre as violent and oppressive toward black people is vitriolic.

This undermines the knowledge, social commentary and artistic value behind hiphop that will progress the black community.

The way the media portrays hip-hop removes the possibility that the average person can understand the true issues experienced in the inner city. The conditions of the inner city would be a complete mystery to anyone who hasn’t lived there without the influence and information from hip-hop. The fact that violence is a common topic in hip-hop alone shows how violent the inner cities are. Hiphop has always been a voice for the voiceless.

Tupac Shakur’s song “Changes” is the perfect example of a hip-hop song created with the intent to advance black culture: “Instead of war on poverty/they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me/and I ain’t never did a crime I ain’t have to do/but now I’m back with the facts givin’ ‘em back to you.”

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his excerpt perfectly sums up what it means to use hip-hop in a positive manner. Shakur claims that the government doesn’t help with poverty in the inner city that leads to violence and instead calls out the war on drugs as an excuse to harass people in the inner city.

Shakur went on to say that any crime he had to commit was out of necessity, and he pleads for help by giving the public the facts.

When hip-hop isn’t being demonized, it is being satirized. Cultural appropriation doesn’t have to be direct or malicious, but acting as if the struggles experienced by the inner-city culture are not serious enough to deserve respect is abhorrent. Hip-hop and inner-city cultural appropriation is now so common that people have become desensitized toward these two oppressed groups, joking about the culture and its hardships instead of attempting to rectify the issues in the same way issues in other cultures are rectified. Since the release of the N.W.A. biopic, “Straight Outta Compton,” it has become common to replace “Compton” with other places or things, like “Straight Outta Lakota East.” The 1988 album “Straight Outta Compton” was a prime example of hiphop being used as a way to reach the masses, showing people for the first time the conditions of Compton. This title is now being used as a joke, completely devaluing the original message of the album. Hip-hop is either portrayed as violent and obscene, or as a joke so people who live in better conditions can laugh.

The current views of hip-hop in the media show this genre as ignorant, violent and detrimental to social progress—a blemish on the black community. Rivera’s disdain toward hip-hop and street culture is a scapegoat to shift blame for issues in this facet of the black community right back onto the community itself. What has gone from a correlation between the hip-hop culture and violence has solidified in the public eye as causation, making actual change impossible. Hip-hop doesn’t cause violence; violence causes hip-hop.

Hip-hop is either portrayed as violent and obscene or as a joke so people who live in better conditions can laugh.

opinion | guest column

FIND YOUR ETHIOPIA BEMNI AMSALU W

hile playing dress up or make-believe, the Disney princess I always chose was Jasmine. During my preschool days, there was no black princess for me. There wasn’t much black girl anything in the strict amount of pop culture I was exposed to. The black girl heroes that I could latch onto, like Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Alicia Keys, didn’t look at all like me in the weight or skin category, and the ones that did look like me were always the loyal sidekick. So that’s what I viewed myself as, the slightly larger, loyal black sidekick with the frizzy hair who always made mistakes and never got the boy. I accepted this position reluctantly but dutifully, feeling that this is where girls like me belonged: a background character in my own life.

I was used to this secondary character mentality, and it hadn’t occurred to me to change the position my in life. Then my grandpa died, followed by my uncle. My family was constantly throwing funerals. Life had become a blur in which I had been unfortunately placed.

Naturally, my parents tried to do what they could to shelter me. But in natural sidekick fashion, I screwed up. All I could think about was dying exactly how I was at that moment.

Hating the person in the mirror, from the length of my toes to the coils on my head, there was no perfectly put-together main character to fix me. This time the sidekick would have to go on her own coming-of-age journey. My life had to go completely off the rails, take me somewhere that would force me to change for better or for worse. Fate took the wheel forcefully and veered me off the map to a small country that sat squarely in the armpit of Africa: Ethiopia.

The plan was originally conjured by my dad.

I think he felt guilty that we hadn’t been able

GUEST COLUMN to see our family in so long, and he thought that we needed a break from a very trying time.

Considering that I hadn’t been there since I was little, a mind-boggling amount of variables occupied my mind. I was worried that I didn’t know enough of Amharic, the native language, to speak to my relatives; preoccupied by the thought that my shorts were short enough to make my conservative Ethiopian aunties cover their mouths in heart-failing shock; anxious my

without embarrassing myself, and dealing with very little Wi-fi.

However, at some point everything just started to click. I realized that people’s comments about my weight weren’t meant to be mean, just a normal observation. My Amharic improved incredibly, so much that I didn’t have to look at my parents for help anymore. I actually communicated and bonded with family I hadn’t seen in years, and I realized Wi-fi is nice, but going to an internet café every once in awhile was all I really needed.

I began walking tall in the streets, faking confidence in order to avoid muggers, and I think some of that confidence stuck. Instead of turning to others for constant reassurance and approval, I began trusting myself and doing things I never thought I could do, like roaming the small streets of a foreign city on my own.

By the end of the trip, the sidekick had somehow crashed through all literary rules and became her own main character. The girl who stepped back into America was not the same one that had stepped out. I realize now if I had more black girls like me in the media that were falling in love, saving the world or just being happy, maybe I would’ve had this confidence from the very beginning. Ethiopia taught me to fight for my confidence and prove that society’s limitations don’t actually define who I am, because at the end of the day, I am the main character of my own story.

My life had to go completely off the rails, take me somewhere that would force me to change for better or for worse.

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cousins would laugh at my weight and strange American accent; most importantly, terrified there wouldn’t be any Wi-fi, cutting me off from my lifeline of social media. My parents and siblings were really happy about going, but I didn’t know whether I had butterflies or tiny Usain Bolts running around in my stomach.

E

ventually the mystical day finally came.

One moment I was stepping on a plane to Ethiopia crowded with emayays and abbas, the next, stepping off into the capital, Addis Ababa. There it was, and visually, it was beautiful. But in the beginning, the trip didn’t feel beautiful. I had to worry about so much, like being mugged on the street for looking like a foreigner, hearing people’s comments about my weight, communicating with my relatives

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EDITORIAL CARTOONS

“College Economics” — Goldena Bristow

“World War Bee” — Tyler Bonawitz

“Guns in Control” — Sarah Aftab

opinion | from the editor

FREE SPIRIT MADDIE WEIKEL photography richard giang

I

was stepping away from my favorite place on earth when I boarded the plane for Washington, D.C. on June 20. Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI) in Zionsville, Indiana has shaped me from an introverted young girl into the increasingly confident person who was chosen as the Ohio scholar for the 2015 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference. As I traded in my camp-counselor uniform of white v-neck T-shirts and running shorts for blouses and blazers, I was uncharacteristically excited.

Sitting in my cabin during an off-hour and browsing through the itinerary for the five-day conference with 50 extraordinary rising high school seniors from around the country, rather than secretly hoping that I wouldn’t have to face such a daunting opportunity, I was itching to begin.

Typically, picturing myself attending a live NBC taping of “Meet the Press” and deciding to raise my hand and actually ask Chuck Todd a question would conjure feelings of doubt and alienation among this group of accomplished and truly passionate young journalists. The nature of the program instead inspired an eagerness to meet people. Despite being one of the editors-in-chief of a nationally-acclaimed publication with legacies like the students who were chosen as the 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 Ohio Free Spirit representatives, I often feel out of place under the label “journalist.” During most of the moments that count, I’m

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proactive, aggressive and passionate like a journalist needs to be, but I can’t help but think of all of the other times that define me as passive, indifferent and tired.

GUCI reveals my favorite version of myself, and upon arrival in D.C., I saw that Founder of USA Today Al Neuharth’s namesake program united me with 50 other reminders of who and what I want to be.

We came into the conference as a bunch of people with questions and a knack for writing, and we left truly caring for an entity bigger than ourselves, whether it was the journalism field, the five freedoms of the First Amendment, or simply the amazingly dynamic relationships we discovered with each other.

I sometimes find myself looking at situations with a false sense of selfimportance in the monotony of my schedule during the school year in my little bubble of West Chester. Seeing the pure thirst for the future that radiated from each free spirit as we toured USA Today and spoke with PBS NewsHour co-anchors Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff revealed the transparency in my seemingly “impressive” list of activities and accolades and assured me that there’s more to life and to myself than a suburb of Ohio, but only if I make it happen.

While falling in love with the Newseum and participating in a mock trial with U.S. Court Senior Judge Royce C. Lamberth made the conference an unforgettable experience, I was possibly most intrigued by

just watching us. Our itineraries said in bolded, highlighted and occasionally underlined all caps that “business attire” was required, but even though we were dressed like adults didn’t mean we weren’t still a squad of teenagers.

We were given the honor of participating in the conference because of our journalistic accomplishments and open-minded, hungry outlooks on life, and everyone was stellar and professional at every program and for every speaker. We also were all fabulous singers on the bus that transported us between sessions and exquisite dancers on the boat that floated us down the Potomac River.

While most of the scholars returned from the conference to prepare for upcoming classes of new journalism students, intern at their local news outlets, or cover issues for their own publications, I rolled out of Dulles airport and back onto the grounds of GUCI. Despite the stark contrast between singing Hebrew songs with middle schoolers and touring the journalism field in the nation’s capital, the transition was seamless because of the uncanny similarities in my relationships with the free spirits and with my camp friends. As young adults, we’re still fresh, optimistic and loving life, and, after meeting an impressive line-up of adults with careers in journalism from NPR to Politico to a publication all about dogs, I know that I can preserve this youthful energy if I challenge myself to find what makes me thrive. The answer may not be as simple as “journalism,” but it’s an invigorating place to start.

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