Prospector Issue #9 2010-11

Page 1

Volume 50, Issue 9

Friday, April 29, 2011

TheVoice of Prospect since 1960

ROSPECTOR 801 West Kensington Road, Mount Prospect, Illinois 60056

Breaking the bank

Battle of the smartphones Androids and the iPhone are some of the most popular smartphones in the market today. For a comparison of the two and an opinion on which is better, check out...

Features, page 7

A whole new world Sociology classes host exchange with city school By Gina O’Neill Copy Editor

Graphic by Ian Magnuson, Heather Dove and Alyssa Zediker

With decision day looming, seniors search to answer the $100,000 question: ‘How can I pay for college?’ By Deanna Shilkus and Tallyn Owens Managing Editor and Entertainment Editor Even though Beloit College (Wis.) was the most expensive school senior Meagan Beattie considered attending, her decision to go there was not without good reason. Last December, doctors diagnosed Beattie with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Subsequently, she was forced to write off several of her prospective colleges, including Augustana, which offered her a significant amount of money but lacked the student services Beattie would need to be successful in college. Beattie is the first of three children to go to college, and she noticed the strain her college choice had on both family’s finances and her younger sister’s love for horseback riding. Because horseback riding is expensive, Beattie’s family had to cut back to accommodate Meagan’s college expenses, prompting her to feel guilty about her college choice. The Beatties are only one of the millions of families across the country feeling the pressure of financing their children’s education. With National Decision Day — the deadline to have decided on a college — quickly approaching on May 1, seniors everywhere are grappling with two essential questions: not only where to go to college but also how to afford it. With tuition costs rising, college-bound seniors are on a tight budget, and families are feeling the crunch to find financial aid and

scholarships to help cut down on tuition costs. Students are forced to reconsider their financial options, sometimes leaving their dream schools out of the picture. According to CNN, over the past decade, tuition has risen at an annual rate of 5.6 percent at public schools and 3 percent at private schools. Some seniors look to options other than a four-year university because of tuition expenses. Senior Nicole Muscarello recently decided to attend Harper Community College in the fall. Part of her decision was based on wanting to fulfill her general education requirements first, but she was also thinking about her financial future. Her parents left the college decision up to her, and Muscarello felt it was better to go to Harper over Illinois State University because it would not leave her with thousands of dollars in loans to pay back once she graduates. College and Career Center (CCC) Assistant Kate Moody said Harper is a great option for those students looking to save money. Tuition is only about $3,000 a year. While some students, like Muscarello, decide on Harper, others, like senior Robby Pittman, are left choosing between four-year public universities and comparing financial aid packages before deciding where to attend. Pittman is currently deciding between the

See FINANCES, page 2

On the way to Kelly High School on the South Side of Chicago, senior Caroline Halvorsen was freaking herself out. The more she talked with her friends about walking into a whole new environment on the bus, the more nervous they became about potentially wearing gang colors or how the students would be “sizing them up.” By the end of the bus ride, they were “expecting the worst.” “I thought [the students] would judge us,” Halvorsen said. “When we walked in, people were greeting us [and] talking to the class, and everyone was smiling. Instantly, [I thought], ‘Wow, we were overreacting — times 10.’ I felt guilty.” Sociology teacher Jason Cohen organized Prospect’s first exchange with Kelly High School, a public school, hoping this change in thinking would occur. On April 12, 30 Prospect students from Sociology 1 and 2 spent the day shadowing students at Kelly. On April 15, Kelly students came here to do the same. Cohen had wanted to do an

exchange like this for some time in his sociology classes but never had enough of a response from other schools until this year. When one of his students heard of his desire to do an exchange, she connected Cohen with her boyfriend’s sister, ‘97 Prospect graduate Melissa Sucheki. As a sociology teacher at Kelly, Sucheki wanted to do the same kind of exchange. Stereotyping is one of the issues Cohen and sociology teacher Kristen Ray cover, so he created the trip to see how students’ perceptions of others would change, hopefully reversing some of the negative stereotypes they had. “It really got to a point where I wanted the students to start getting more of a real experience [with] things that we’ve talked about in class,” Cohen said. What Cohen, Halvorsen and the Kelly students found was that even though there was an environmental and ethnic difference between schools, the students were more or less the same. “I wanted the students to see that it wasn’t necessarily that everyone’s different everywhere,” Cohen said. “Even though the community might offer different situations for each group, they’re still teenagers. They’re still going through many of the same issues.” “It really kind of put a lot

!A DAY IN THE LIFE: Thirty students in sociology classes went to Kelly High School in Chicago on April 12 (above) as part of an exchange program organized to expose students to life in a city school. Kelly students then visited Prospect on April 15. (Photo courtesy of Jason Cohen)

Fame, fortune and... charity?

Body art

Movie magic

After the tragedy in Japan, celebrities have used their fame to help those in need. To read more on fame and charity, see...

While some students stick to the more traditional route of piercing their ears, others alter their bodies through tattoos. For more on students and body art, check out...

It’s one thing to watch movies, but it’s an entirely different thing to make them — which is just what Film Club is doing. To learn about the new activity, turn to... Entertainment, page 12

Entertainment, page 11

In­Depth, pages 8­9

See KELLY, page 10


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