The Gates - the Newspaper of the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur - Winter 2020-2021

thegates@ndapa.org

Volume LV

Issue No. 2

Winter 2021

The Wintry Mix Issue Making Merry, ND Style!

Winter of Our Discontents

Ella Glennon, ’21

Sydney Worrell, ’21

Merry Christmas! From Gates editors Kiera Chambers, Maddie Frank, Sydney Worrell, Jade Bennett, Molly Hughes and Sadie Mordan.

While the holidays hold a very special, unique place in families’ hearts across the world, this year has been quite challenging due to the seemingly never ceasing Coronavirus.

Although the typical holiday celebrations may have been quite different and celebrated with only immediate family this year, Notre Dame families did not refrain from some traditions that mean the most to them. Earlier this month, high-school students had the chance to share what holiday traditions her and her family celebrate. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, or Pancha Ganapati, etc., holiday traditions are exceptionally meaningful to those who celebrate.

After reading the responses describing specific family traditions, I saw that our community has many in common.

Many students mentioned gathering with family for a Christmas Eve feast, attending mass, watching Christmas movies, making cookies and gingerbread houses, going to their grandparents’ house, singing Christmas carols, and spending time with the ones we love the most. While these traditions may seem very common among American families, they are full of joy, warmth, and love. (Continued on p. 2)

A frightening grey cloud shadowed America for several long hours on January 6, 2021. As Congress convened to count the Electoral College votes that would finalize the results of the 2020 election, a group of President Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol building. While the attack on the Capitol has been called many things since it occurred–a riot, a protest, a coup, an act of terrorism–one title cannot be debated: a threat to Democracy. Before the mob breached the building, all eyes were on Vice President Mike Pence, who declared that he did not have the authority to overturn the results of the election at the beginning of the joint Congressional session, despite Trump pressuring him to reject the electoral votes. Angered by the results of the November election, President Trump promoted the conspiracy that the election was stolen from him and that, somehow, it was rigged by the Democrats. His loyal supporters trusted his rhetoric and were quickly as convinced and irate as the President himself.

The match was lit. (Continued on p. 4) Curious about what Mrs. Slattery’s 6th graders and other ND students had to say about the January 6 insurrection in D.C.? See p. 4.

Hark! Advent Angels at Notre Dame!

Kiera Chambers, ’21 With so many restrictions on beloved ND traditions due to the Covid19 pandemic, students were left wondering if/how Advent Angels would operate this year. Luckily, with lots of planning and effort, Student Council was able to plan and run the Christmas event safely.

To ensure a safe week, Student Council required that Advent Angels occur among each individual grade rather than the whole school, so as to limit exposure.

(Continued on p. 2)

Got Snow? For more on our snowy 2021 so far, see p. 8.

Festive Traditions (Continued from p. 1) Several responses included meaningful unique traditions as well. One student describes a traditional Christmas game she and her family play: “On Christmas Eve my family participates in the game called Saran Wrap Ball. My mom compiles a bunch of small items (like stocking stuffers) and makes a GIANT ball and puts the items inside randomly. As you are unrolling the saran wrap, the person to the left of you is rolling a pair of dice. When they roll doubles, you pass the saran wrap ball to them and the dice moves on to the next person where they try to roll doubles. Whatever items fall out of the ball during your turn are yours. It gets super competitive.” Another student answered that she and her family wear matching Christmas PJs every year and wear them when they open gifts.

A freshman tells the story of how she and her family exchange gifts every year: “Every adult in my family buys a present for themselves and puts it in a box identical to the ones everyone else has. They all look the same and no one else knows what you brought. I am in charge of everyone's boxes since I am the oldest child. I don't buy anything for myself, I just assist the adults in packing. They all sit in the living room and I bring up the boxes one by one. The adults have a piece of paper where they write down all the gifts and who they think brought it. At the end we get to see who was able to figure out the most presents.” A few other interesting traditions that were mentioned in the survey included dressing dogs up in Christmas sweaters and photographing them, going to a Chinese restaurant every year on December 25th, and an annual game of family pond hockey.

Although this year was done virtually, a personal family tradition of mine involves my extended family and I singing Christmas carols with solos. Our finale is always the 12 Days of Christmas, which never fails to leave us in the holiday spirit and excited to do it again the following year.

Every family’s holiday experiences and traditions are special to the individual family, and this is what makes holidays so enjoyable, meaningful, and full of smiles. No matter what holidays your family celebrates, or how you celebrate them, they are a time for happiness, forgiveness, hugs, and excitement, even in times of complete chaos and dismay like this past year has been.

Advent Angels (Continued from p. 1) Instead of lockers, students used envelopes outside homerooms for gift delivery to prevent congregation in small areas.

As for virtual students, Advent Angels occurred somewhat differently than normal. Each day virtual learners shared their note with a member of 5 Main, who would then send the note to an Advent Child. Senior Grace Quinn shares her thoughts on the virtual Advent Angels experience: “I enjoyed virtual Advent Angels because it was more difficult to figure out who had me. When you do in person Advent Angels, your friends are constantly saying, ‘I know who has you’ and you get an idea of who has you. This year I was shocked to find out who had me! It was really exciting.” Mrs. Burke was again in charge of the logistics of Advent Angels and the sorting of names. She reflects on this year’s experience: “I was really proud because I think we had more people participate than we had the prior year–which was great. Roughly 70-80% of each grade participated… I felt like it was very happy!” She also accounts for the challenges: “Navigating absentees was the hardest thing, but it was just virtual with virtual and in person with in person.” Overall, a perfect way to spread ND cheer….safely.

Suite! Seniors Dig Their New Digs Jade Bennett, ’21 As we piled back into school after a much needed holiday break, seniors were surprised with good news the morning of January 11. While this year has been challenging for many, the seniors have taken a particularly strong hit on their expected senior fun. With that being said, the senior parents and ND teachers and staff were able to make this year much more enjoyable by adding a senior lounge for the class of 2021.

Where the old Bio Lab once was is now a spacious and homey lounge for the Class of 2021 to be able to enjoy their free time at school. The space underwent renovations to allow the grade to have one of the many senior privileges they longed for this year. The lounge includes couches, high-top tables, a coffee maker and the infamous tik tok lights. “I'm so happy we can be closer and spend more time with our class like we hoped to do senior year,” says Abby D’Anjolell ’21. The room can safely accommodate a max of 25 students at a time and allows for the seniors to have a place to reconnect during lunches and studies.

With only half the school year left, the seniors are eager to spend time in their new lounge. The craziness of this year has led to unfortunate circumstances at school and while it wasn't the senior year most of us planned for, we are grateful to gain back such a wonderful senior privilege.

ND Talks Politics with Notting Hill and Ealing

Hannah Jackson, ’21 Early on December 4, Mrs. Turner’s AP Comparative Government (COGO students engaged in a discussion with our Sister School in Ealing, London. Notting Hill and Ealing is an independent day school for girls ages 4-18. The girls from NHEHS that participated in our discussion are sixth form, meaning they are the same age as our seniors. COGO just completed the unit dedicated to learning about the United Kingdom. For this reason, it was a perfect time to get together with our sister school to converse. Over the course of an hour, ND girls chatted with the girls from the UK asking about political parties, Covid-19, and the presidential election.

Hearing the NHEHS girls share their opinions from an outsider’s perspective was fascinating. In this virtually oriented era, it is imperative to take advantage of potential learning opportunities. It might not be as ideal as traveling to the UK, , but it is as close as we can get right now.

Global Scholars Zoom Across the World!

--Kiera Chambers, ’21 As coronavirus continues to plague many communities and countries of the world, Global Scholars are faced with the challenge of exploring a global world virtually. Though the benefits of global exchanges, cross-cultural experiences, and travel experiences cannot be exactly replicated online, the Global Citizen Scholar program has taken advantage of the circumstances by engaging in a series of virtual discussions with the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG) in their Student Dialogue Series.

Mrs. Moffat coordinated with the GEBG Dialogue’s director Chad Detloff, who was able to incorporate Notre Dame into the calls that spanned all areas of the planet. The GEBG Student Dialogue consisted of 3 calls made up of youth from the U.S, China, India, Bhutan, Russia, Romania, France, South Africa, Ghana, Turkey, Belarus, Canada, Chile, England, and Hong Kong. Each call presented a new theme for discussion, the three major themes being “Our Shared Pandemic Experience,” “Global Perspective on Justice,” and “Youth Activism for Change.” The three calls, including more than 200 participants in each, were broken down into multiple breakout rooms in which students were able to freely discuss their viewpoints on the issues from their unique perspectives.

Senior Isabella Langley, a member of the Global Scholar program reflects on her experience: “I really liked being able to hear from people my age about current issues and seeing how many of us shared similar ideas despite being from completely different sides of the planet. It also gave me insight on international issues I hadn’t heard of before.”

The GEBG calls proved an extremely useful tool for Global Scholars to connect with the world in ways they never had before during these unprecedented times. Hearing the experiences of students from so many different areas of the world at once was something that had never been done before.

Middle School Campus Ministry Sadie Mordan, ’23 In a casual conversation with both my ND and biological sister, Kendyl Mordan (‘25), she talked with me about the current status of middle school campus ministry (MSCM), as well as recent events led by the group, and her role during the 2020-21 school year. Kendyl is one of four 8th-grade campus ministers (pictured at right). The others are Leah Mejzak, Ava Digiuseppe, and Temperence England. MSCM meets virtually after school, once a month, to discuss community happenings.

With the pandemic this school year, creative minds have come together to think of safe alternatives to some of our community’s treasured traditions. MSCM joined forces with Ms. Madeleine Post to arrange a “Prayer Partners” program, which Kendyl describes as a more faith-focused version of Advent Angels. Like AA, Prayer Partners operated in a Covid-friendly manner. Both programs were very successful, and kept the spirit of the season. Middle schoolers signed up via a Google Form, and were secretly assigned to a classmate

between sixth and eighth grade, to anonymously pass cheery notes and keep their partner in their prayers during these trying times.

What is Kendyl’s favorite thing about being a member of campus ministry? “Being a leader to people younger than me,” she explains, “especially this year, the number of people who were new exceeded past years, so we did a lot of work with them, and made sure they were comfortable… just so people could always look up to us.” As for the future, MSCM is working towards leading a community prayer service that they are excited to share with the ND community during an upcoming Wednesday.

Discontents (Continued from p. 1)

Your Turn to Comment

Edited by Avery Thomas , ’21 We asked students in every grade their thoughts on the future and about the role of our school in facilitating conversation about the events in D.C. Here are a few of your responses….

“I think removing from the classroom all sense of politics would be irresponsible because that would be shutting people out from political conversation, which has been happening far too long. Also, it is important not to just talk about it in the context of history because science, climate change, globalization, etc.… all of it is inherently political, so we shouldn’t just limit that to social studies classes. I think this is going to further polarize the country and I can honestly see factions being made with the Democratic and Republican parties. I see a split vote on more radical policies rather than a consensus on moderate policies. I am not that hopeful about the immediate future. People still won’t accept the results of the democratic elections, so I am not super optimistic.” (Kat Lanzalotto, ’21) “We should talk about what’s going on, but we shouldn’t offer our personal opinions on it because that’s when things start to get crazy.” (Eliana DeGennaro, ’26) “I think politics should be discussed in school. At home, it can be difficult to have an unbiased conversation. I definitely think this was a big reality check for members of the Republican party because obviously there were a lot of people that would condemn Trump’s actions but also a lot of people who wouldn’t. I think that coming into a new administration there is definitely going to be a lot of positive changes, but I think these people are still out there and their motives haven’t changed. (Jaiden Kennedy, ’21)

“We should educate ourselves about politics. Wednesday will go down as a day that wasn’t the best and had an influence on our democracy. I am a little scared because our democracy is wrecked and I’m not sure how the Senate is going to work.” (Leah, ’25) “I do think school should be a place where politics is discussed aside from just in Social Studies because school is where we learn everything and it sets us up for the future. Politics is a big issue now and will always be. Schools should teach us about it regardless of people’s opinions. It is important to understand all views. That’s how you build your own.” (Grace Hannah, ’22) “I think a lot of times people are most united by culture, values, and morals because those are what is most deeply rooted in a person. It is something that you can’t easily change about a person, so since you are not going to change it, you are going to bond with other people who have those same core values as you. Now more than ever, those core values are becoming even more important to political affiliations. During the pandemic, we are more divided. You would think people would be more united when you are suffering from something that everyone understands, but even now people are still really divided because it has turned into a political issue. There are also a lot of political issues that are linked to the pandemic and people are responding to it differently. In a way people are more united, because even some Republicans are denouncing the actions of the people on Wednesday. They are agreeing with Democrats, which is a step forward to denounce the more extreme views of the party.” (Claire Chaplin, ’22) “I’m not hopeful for the country’s future because things are out of control. I don’t think it will get better.” (Shelby Parker, ’26)

“I guess I’m slightly hopeful for the immediate future, just with life in general, because the Covid vaccine has come out, and the world is pretty used to the pandemic and knows a lot more about it than we did a year ago. I think there will definitely be more polarization between the two parties because I think that their opinions are becoming even more different. As a united nation, we will have to figure out how to stay connected and together even with all this polarization. With last Wednesday, I feel like more people will begin to believe that something like what happened is more widely accepted when it shouldn’t be, and I feel like people are going to become more comfortable with bad things happening.” (Clare Rivers, ’22) “I am very surprised, because you would think that the capital has better security than that.” (Anonymous, ’27) “It is currently happening and needs to be addressed, so I don’t think it should be avoided in any other subjects. It should not be a topic only in Social Studies.” (Anonymous, ’27) “We are more divided. Half of the people agree with what happened and the other half just don’t.” (Anonymous, ’27) “I don’t think politics should be discussed in other classes if it has nothing to do with the class and I feel like it usually starts arguments because people have different opinions. I think we’re much more divided after last Wednesday, and especially after coronavirus and everything that happened in 2020. I don’t think we are going to get more unified, because there are more strands of the coronavirus, and we just keep getting more divided.” (Anonymous, ’22) “I think it will take time, since we are all always taking sides– especially when it comes to the pandemic, because people don’t follow the rules.” (Anonymous, ’27) “I can’t see things getting any better because I feel like we have been in this divided situation for so long. I think something even bigger would have to happen for everything to get better.”

(Anonymous, ’27) “I think it will take a lot of time. People are going back into the office and some disagree with that. About the vaccine, some people may think it still matters to wear a mask and some do not.” (Anonymous, ’27) “I feel like we should talk about politics, but not to the point where it keeps you from being friends with someone because they have a different opinion than you. If the country keeps going in the direction that it’s going, I don’t think that anything is going to get much better soon. I think it’s gonna take a while for everything to get to closer to where we were at before, but it won’t get back to ‘normal.’” (Maggie Krein, ’22) "It was dystopian. What else is there to say? I never thought I’d see something like that." (Evelyn Stauffer, ’24)

ND Dance Company Goes Big Screen Jaiden Kennedy, ’21 During these troubling times, many teachers and students are getting creative and taking a different approach to school activities. The class in which I was prepared to struggle the most was Dance Company. How could we change the class in order to choreograph and perform while still following Covid-19 restrictions? I needn’t have worried: Dance Company teacher Pam Devenney did not hesitate to take on the challenge, and she had the support of 20 strong dancers who stood right with her. She decided to inaugurate a Dance on Film unit, during which the dancers would split into groups and create their own dance film from scratch.

“I didn’t want it to turn into a music video,” Devenney says. “I wanted them to discover a deeper meaning in their choreography and create a piece of art.” And thus, our weeks-long project began. We created storyboards, planning out each second of our film, and watched many videos to understand the impact of varying camera angles. Before filming, we participated in a Zoom meeting with Professors Sandra Parks and Britt Fishel from the Drexel University Dance Department, who gave us an introductory lesson to creating a dance film. We were even lucky enough to be joined by a Drexel student, and we watched her own original dance film.

Once our ideas were mapped out, it was no challenge to find a good area to film. “With a campus as beautiful as Notre Dame’s and a strong group of technical dancers, it was a perfect storm,” said Mrs. Devenney. It was a tedious process, but we were all able to film our pieces with all of our newfound camera techniques. The editing process was long and hard, but we are lucky to be as tech savvy as we are! Our finished results were something that we were all so proud of. It was a challenging outlet for dance that we had never been offered before, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to expand my definition of dance.

We arranged a second Zoom meeting with the Drexel professors to receive professional feedback, and at press time we are planning a trip to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute to watch our films on the big screen. From start to finish, I was challenged every step of the way. Once my group had decided on a meaning for our work, we thought the hard part was over.

Little did we know how difficult it would be to translate our idea into movement and choreography. However, as we started to work, the ideas came more and more quickly, and soon we were talking so fast that we had to record voice memos of our conversations to make sure we didn’t skip a beat. In the end, the creativity and passion was palpable throughout the room, and I realized that I had put my whole heart into this project. What a wonderful experience.

SPORTS Winter Sports are (Sort of) Back!

Madison Frank, ’22

Notre Dame basketball and swimming started training early in December, but team practices were put on pause following Governor Wolf’s directive that cancelled all indoor sports until January 4th. Now that indoor sports are allowed again in Pennsylvania, winter sports are back at Notre Dame! The Inter-Academic League has announced a season of league only play starting the week of February 1st.

Basketball ND high-school basketball started with small group workouts prior to the cancellation of indoor sports, but are now ready to officially start the season.

Tryouts started January 11th, giving the team time to practice for the start of the season. Both JV and Varsity basketball teams will have league games beginning the week of February 1st and ending on February 28th. Good luck to ND high-school basketball in the team’s shortened competition season!

Swimming

High-school swimming is back for another season! The team is still swimming at Suburban Seahawks Club, but now have four people assigned to the lane to stay properly distanced. While the Inter-Ac has not yet released a schedule, the Notre Dame swim team is getting ready to swim at the Eastern Interscholastic Championship in a virtual format. The teams will compete from their own practice pools and send in times to determine the winner. Good luck to the swim team at Easterns and in the Inter-Ac season!

Track Over Christmas break, the track team met over Zoom in their specific categories, mid distance, distance, or sprints, to discuss workouts. Track practices began January 11th and will take place three times a week. In order to remain safe during the season, only a limited number of athletes are attending each practice. The Inter-Ac does not have a schedule released yet for the track team, but the league’s announcement to move forward with a winter sport season means a meet schedule may be released soon.

Crew The crew team has now resumed practice! Crew is meeting six times a week outside for practices and workouts. The team has not been back on the water since Notre Dame went online for COVID-19 last school year. The team hopes to practice on the river later this winter or in early spring. There is no information yet if the crew team will participate in any regattas this year, but the team is still practicing together and having fun.

Practice makes perfect! Members of high-school basketball, swimming, track and crew show their spirit and their skills.

Snow Days…

With our first semester barely finished, record-breaking snowfall totals are already making 2021 a year to remember (as if that were not already true!). On the up-side..

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