The ReMarker | March 2016

MARCH 11, 2016 VOLUME 62 ISSUE 5

R R EMARKER

ARE YOU A WIMP?

With the rise of “snow-plow” parenting, we ask students and parents about their parenting techniques and question how involved a parent should be.

INSIDE

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‘WE HAD TO PULL

TOGETHER TO

KICKING IT AT COFFEEHOUSE

At a recent coffeehouse, Life writers Davis Bailey and Zach Gilstrap share what happened: music, acting — and surprise.

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FINISH

WITH A WIN A G A I N S T

CAS A DY. ’

News Malecall Life Perspectives Buzz Commentary Sports Backpage

DREW BAXLEY PHOTO

ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TX. 75230

- Junior Will Ingram PAGE 29

sex?

2 10 11 16 21 22 25 32

SEXUAL EDUCATION

ARE WE READY FOR It’s going to happen. Sex will be a part of a Marksman’s life. But if you look at our sex ed curriculum — a few weeks in science class — you wouldn’t know it. So when will we learn about — gasp — sex?

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arksmen have sex.

It happens — whether it’s a first-time relationship in high school, a one-night stand during college or as husbands planning a family — Marksmen have sex.

But are they prepared for it?

We asked current student Damon*, one of those Marksmen who is having sex, if the current sexual education has prepared him for a healthy relationship.

“It hasn’t at all,” he said. “I don’t think I remember anything from fifth grade. I don’t even really remember what we covered.

But as far as biology goes, I’m sure we touched on it, but it was more how stuff works more than contraception, how to have safe sex, or what constitutes a healthy relationship. Consent is obviously an issue and something that needs to be addressed very thoroughly.”

Continued, page 16

STORY AVERY POWELL KOBE ROSEMAN PHILIP SMART ADDITIONAL REPORTING WASEEM NABULSI ILLUSTRATION ABHI THUMMALA

*Because of the subject matter, “Damon” will not be identified.

Music agent Jbeau Lewis ’98 named as Commencement speaker

by Waseem Nabulsi

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n alum who has made his name in the music business in Los Angeles has been chosen as the Commencement speaker for the class of 2016.

Jbeau Lewis ‘98, who was recipient of the Headmasters Cup and valedictorian of his class, will address the seniors.

Headmaster David Dini announced the decision last month.

Lewis, who currently works for United Talent Agency and was a Jefferson scholar at the University of Virginia, has represented musicians such as Kanye West, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, DJ Khaled and more.

The graduation ceremony will take place May 20 in the Eugene McDermott Commencement Quadrangle.

Lewis, who entered the school as

a fourth grader, is remembered by his friends and classmates for excelling both in and out of the classroom.

“He wasn’t just a science guy or a math guy or an English guy, he was kind of everything,” The Commencement Development Director speaker has worked with contemporary Jim Bob Womack ’98, artists including Katy a classmate of Lewis’, Perry, Kanya West said. “He also played and Ariana Grande. on the baseball team, was on the basketball team — he really did a lot more than excel in just one area.”

Lewis hopes to inspire the seniors.

“I am beyond honored to return to the place that shaped so much of my youth and talk about how much St. Mark’s has shaped my adulthood, as well,” Lewis said.

Womack, thinks the selection was a

solid choice.

“It could be exciting to see somebody with a really neat past, and I think that’s one of the best parts about Jbeau,” Womack said. “He’s got this really interesting path as he got to where he is. He’s doing something really cool now, but how he got there was really interesting and I think has a lot of relevance to each of the guys sitting on the stage in a different way.”

Lewis was chosen by Dini after numerous meetings with a panel of students and faculty over a one month period.

“The most important aspect of the speech is the underlying message to the audience,” Senior Class Vice President Anvit Reddy said. “I think that this message should be something that is inspiring and poignant, something that will certainly leave an impression on its audience.”

After narrowing the search down to a small list of potential candidates, Lewis was ultimately chosen as the speaker.

“We also watched Mr. Lewis’s valedictory speech during this final meeting, and given the quality of that speech, we were confident that he would deliver a commencement speech of the same caliber or even higher,” Reddy said. “[And] given that Mr. Lewis is an alumnus, we are confident that he will have no trouble grabbing our attention.”

INSIDE Would you buy a person?

• See The ReMarker’s special section that explores the issue of human trafficking, with in-depth details on how people are being sold around the world and right here in Dallas.

Addendum, Pages 1A-4A

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PARTNERS IN CRIME

OWEN BERGER PHOTO

Parents of three St. Mark’s boys, criminal defense lawyers Juan and Debbie Sanchez teach you your legal rights if you ever get stuck in a bad situation.

page 7

THE GAME CHANGER

A new report could change the future of college admissions, and The ReMarker gives the run down.

SCHOOL RANKINGS

St. Mark’s consistently finishes highly in high school rankings, but does it matter?

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Science instructor Dan Northcut has never been shy about his love for the enviroment.

We hear some of his ideas to make the school more conscientious.

DANCE ON!

A new tradition begins this spring with the first annual Spring Fling dance.

4 5 8 9

PAGE 2 FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 I REMARKER

s I’m sure you’re all aware, this year’s been a crazy election season. And it hasn’t gone the way many of us would have hoped it would.

I know I’m not alone in saying that it’s been a disappointment, seeing our presidential candidates throw courtesy, subtlety and substance to the wind in favor of a vain and egotistical taunting match.

During CNN’s Republican Debate in Houston, the three Republican frontrunners, Trump, Rubio and Cruz, were fired up for some good old-fashioned mudslinging.

Some have compared their barbed jabs and catty comments to those of a hormonal eighth-grader, but they strike me as closer to a playground bully. When this trio engages in a slew of personal attacks, all I can hear is “na-na-na-na-boo-boo.”

I’m going to try to not politicize my message here. While it does seem that the Republican field (Mr. Trump in particular) has been especially vitriolic this cycle, this problem runs far deeper than any one party.

As Marksmen, it’s not hard for us to see that our politicians have DAVIS MARSH failed to live up to the ideals we set for ourselves, those of courage and honor. This primary has not been a contest of leadership. It’s been a contest of bullying.

The reason why this election has been hijacked by bullies and bombastic jerks is because that’s the type of politics we as Americans respond to: the politics of personal shaming and attacks.

I’m not writing here to call on politicians to stop. I know that won’t do a lick of good. Because in reality, the only way they will stop this behavior is if we the people stand up to this nonsense and say enough is enough.

As Marksmen, our opposition to bullying is enshrined in our school rules, sitting quietly by the doorway in every classroom on campus. Yet once we leave campus, many of us go home and cheer on those who bully others on the national stage, and it needs to end now.

As we become adults, gaining our right to vote, and as we enter the real world, let us not take with us an idolization of base personal attacks and shameful bullying. Let us dare to set a higher standard for each other.

The past six years I’ve been fortunate enough to spend at St. Mark’s have taught me a lot, most importantly how to be not just a man, but a courageous and honorable man. And as men of courage and honor, we Marksmen are called to show character both on campus and out in the world.

In other words, don’t be like Trump.

• GOODWILL DRIVE TO BEGIN MONDAY The Goodwill Drive, headed by the Lower School annually, begins March 14 and ends March 18. Donations of clothing, books and other items can be placed in the Goodwill truck located in the parking lot from 7:15 a.m. to 4 p.m everyday.

“We really want to teach the boys to be altruistic and philanthropic from a very early age,” Barbara York, head of Lower School said.

stories around campus in brief • UNICEF GOES TO WASHINGTON DC The St. Mark’s UNICEF Club went to Washington D.C. to attend a nationwide conference from Feb. 19-22. The group listened to different speakers to spread awareness on humanitarian issues.

“The UNICEF trip was a great experience,” senior Bradford Beck, UNICEF Club’s vice president, said. “I really bonded with my fellow Marksmen and learned a lot about struggles in other parts of the world.”

• EIGHTH GRADERS VENTURE TO TEXOMA The eighth grade took its annual trip to Lake Texoma from Feb. 24-26. The eighth graders, faculty and student sherpas were greeted with sub-50 degree temperatures during the two-night trip.

“It was cold, but I had a great time being with my friends and getting to be outdoors,” eighth grader Calloway Clark said. “It was also great preparation for the Pecos.”

• THIEU ACCEPTED TO AIR FORCE ACADEMY Senior Albert Thieu was recently accepted to the Air Force Academy, where he will hopefully study engineering next fall.

While Thieu went through months of physical and mental training to be accepted to one of the nation’s best universities, the acceptance means more to him than a call to duty.

“Both my parents came to America as South Vietnamese war refugees in their late

teen years,” Thieu said.

“Their experiences and opinions have shaped my view of America, and all the blessings many of us take for granted, such as freedom of speech.

I’m ecstatic to learn how to be an officer in the United States Air Force and eventually serve the country that gave refuge and a home to my family. But still, even as I look to the future, I want to savor these last few months at St. Mark’s with my classmates. Nothing beats the present day.”

— Zoheb Khan, James Hancock, Reece Rabin and Philip Montgomery

in the

MOMENT events on campus told through photos

TITANS OF STEM Mark Stevens, Dr. Chess Stetson and Dr. Gary Weinstein discuss a question during the third annual STEM conference March 4. Students had the opportunity to ask questions to the panel as well as hear about the speakers’ backgrounds.

Say what?

the

Around corner

comments made by faculty, staff and students around campus

TODAY What Prashe 2016 Fashion Show When 7-10 p.m.

Where One Arts Plaza 1722 Routh St.

WEEKEND

What Spartacus from the Bolshoi Ballet When Sunday 12:55 p.m.

Where 11819 Webb Chapel Rd.

NEXT WEEK What Texas Bound II: Hindsight Book Reading When Monday, 7:30 p.m.

Where Dallas Museum of Art 1717 North Harwood St.

ABHI THUMMALA GRAPHIC

A

QUICKhits

ARNO GOETZ PHOTO

DON’T BE LIKE TRUMP

What “Friday Chill Out” Painting Workshop When 6:30 -8:30 p.m.

Where 17290 Preston Rd.

What Spring Fling When Saturday, 8 p.m.

Where Hick’s Gym

What makes you think I wouldn’t vote for Bernie Sanders?

— Marcus Master Teacher Bruce Westrate Kabeer, stop dabbing. It is becoming obnoxious.

— Green Master Teaching Chair Marsha McFarland Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge is the Godfather 2 of Disney Channel Original movies.— Sophomore Sammy Sanchez.

What Gallery Reception at Northaven Gardens When Friday, 5-7p.m.

Where 7700 Northaven Rd

WHAT A NIGHT The first ever Spring Fling dance will be held tomorrow in Hick’s Gymnasium.

It’s not a mixer. It’s Spring Fling, and it’s going to be the best party of the year. Don’t miss out and make sure you bring a great costume, too (see page 9).

I don’t have to try to get [girls].

They come naturally, like ducks to a warm sunrise.

— Sophomore Blake DeSantis If I call Kristin [Mlakar] my bae, you guys will know what I’m talking about.

— Math instructor Paul Mlakar on the evolution of language I have an 11-year-old daughter to impress.

When she throws out her whip it nae nae, I’ll impress her with my dab.

—English Department Head Michael Morris

PAGE 3 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

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SNOWPLOW PARENTING

ARE YOU A WIMP? FIRST IT WAS ‘TIGER’ PARENTS. THEN ‘HELICOPTER’ PARENTS. NOW, IT’S ‘SNOWPLOW’ PARENTS, FIXING PROBLEMS FOR A CHILD THAT HE OR SHE COULD FIX THEMSELVES. BUT WITH THESE PARENTING STYLES, ARE WE STUNTING THE GROWTH OF OUR KIDS?

With the many academic, extracurricular and social pressures present in a teenager’s life, parents often step into their children’s life in an attempt to help manage and or solve some of these problems.

But when parents take a step too far into their child’s life, they can become over-involved.

Children need help from their parents.

Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie believes an appropriately-involved parent offers help when necessary and supervises the child’s life. With an appropriately involved parent, children develop an ability to solve problems independently and manage adversity without the help of others.

“An appropriately involved parent allows their child to develop independence and autonomy, which then allows them to separate, so that when the time comes, especially when preparing for college, their child can do things on their own,” Van Drie, Director of Counseling said.

Van Drie believes parents become over-involved in their child’s life when they begin carrying out tasks for the child that the child could do on his or her own.

Excessive involvement in a child’s life can often make the child lose his or her independence and ability to separate when the time comes.

CHRISTIAN MCCLAIN Believes parent-child communication is important.

“An over-involved parent does things for their child that the child could do on their own.” Van Drie said. “An over-involved parent creates a child that is either dependent or rejecting. They might create a child that says, ‘I need to get away from you,’ or they might develop a child that is unable to leave.”

Finding the balance of appropriate involvement in a child’s life is difficult,

mainly because some children don’t ask for help. While Van Drie believes parents should monitor their children to see when they need help, she thinks that they should not carry out tasks that the child could easily complete.

“Parents have to pay attention because they need to know whether their child needs assistance or not. A good parent, an appropriately-involved parent, asks, ‘is this something that they should, or can, do on their own, or do I need to step in.’” Van Drie said. “An appropriately involved parent monitors, however, they allow the child to do things on their own that the child can do independently.”

With the rise of ‘snowplow’ parents, a type of parenting style where parents push every obstacle out of their child’s life to help them succeed, Lynn Caldwell, mom of both senior William and John ’14, tries to be involved in her son’s life in a positive and constructive manner.

“I am involved in what boys are doing and am aware of their interests,” Caldwell said. “When they were younger, I tried not to be too intrusive and restrictive, but at times it was warranted forcing rules and boundaries. As they grew and matured, the boundaries were widened.”

As her sons grew older, Caldwell gave them the freedom to make their own independent decisions.

“While they were young and growing, the rules were tight, but as they grew and demonstrated they could make good choices and handle more responsibility, the rules were relaxed,” Caldwell said.

“I’ve raised my boys to be good citizens, to think beyond themselves, to be thankful, respectful, kind and honest. My style was once to lead by example. It’s hard to ask your kids to do something if you aren’t willing to embrace it yourself.” n 2011, Amy Chua, self-proclaimed “Tiger Mom” and author of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, turned the parenting world on its head with her

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strict, hyper-disciplined parenting style.

Caldwell, however, still stresses the importance of freedom and independence in the growth of a child.

“I am still involved in what he is doing, but more often than not, it is from the sidelines,” Caldwell said. “When William was younger we worked on making good choices and decisions. So he is now equipped to tackle more difficult matters on his own. As parents, we have worked hard to give our children strong roots that grounded them and at the same time gave them wings to let them soar.”

Even with the recent emphasis on stricter, more disciplined parenting styles, Caldwell believes her unobtrusive parenting style isn’t difficult.

“It really hasn’t been that hard,” Caldwell said. “As William has grown in maturity and shown he can handle the responsibility that comes with the freedom, it’s been fun to see him grow into a caring and respectful young man.” xamining these many different parenting styles, junior Christian McClain thinks achieving a balance in amount of involvement in a child’s life has become more difficult.

“I think some parents are over-involved because they want the best for their kids,” McClain said. “A lot of parents worry about their child’s future and how they will make it in the real world. Some parents like to control more than others and it’s tough to find the balance between knowing when to stop and being there for your child.”

McClain believes a balance of parental involvement can only be achieved when there is a mutual trust between the child and the parent.

“Personally, I think it’s all about trust,” McClain said. “I think it’s the responsibility of the parent to trust their child but it’s also the responsibility of the kid to make good decisions. It’s hard for a parent to let their child roam free, but it’s up to the kid to be responsible.”

He also stresses the importance of balance in parental involvement.

“I think a mutual respect is important; however, communication is as well, but I think over-communication can sometimes can stress a kid out,” McClain said. “I find that when my mom tells me to do something over and over again, I want to do it less than when she asks me once or twice.”

Taking all of these factors into account, although Caldwell is an unobstructive parent, she believes that how you

E

STORY PHILIP MONTGOMERY, RETT DAUGBJERG, ZOHEB KHAN ILLUSTRATION NAFTAL MAUTIA

parent your child varies.

“I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to parent, but only ‘your way,” Caldwell said. “My boys understand the importance and value of family, and at the end of the day, family will always be there for you.”

The evolution of parenting Tiger parenting The term ‘tiger’ parenting did not exist until the publication of Yale Law professor Amy Chua’s (2011) book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Her daughters are not allowed to watch TV, have sleepovers or get any grade less than an A. Chua claims that these strict policies are the reason why her children have been so successful in school and in their music studies.

Snowplow parenting A ‘snowplow’ parent is defined as a person who constantly forces obstacles out of their kids’ paths.

Snowplow parents want to remove any pain or difficulties from their children’s paths so their kids can succeed. They have their eye on the future success of their child, and anyone or anything that stands in their way has to be removed.

Helicopter parenting The term ‘helicopter’ parent was first used in Dr. Haim Ginott’s book, Between Parents & Teenagers, by teens who said their parents would hover over them like a helicopter.

Helicopter parenting refers to “a style of parents who are over focused on their children,” says Dr. Carolyn Daitch, director of the Center for the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders.

IMAGES CREATIVE COMMONS

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e’ve all experienced it: you want to go out with your friends, but your parents tell you to stay home and study, or maybe your parents check your homework every night, maybe they do things you could easily do on your own.

Over-involvement is an issue, combined with pressure from parents to succeed, the constant involvement in a child’s life can affect the child’s future. Whether that’s ‘helicopter’ parenting by constantly monitoring a child to make sure he stays on track or ‘snowplow’ parenting by removing obstacles from a child’s life to assure his success, these parenting styles have their advantages and disadvantages for children trying to grow up in an ever-changing world.

SOURCES: PARENTING.COM, TODAYSPARENT.COM

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NEWS

PAGE 4 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Turning the tide For years, college admissions have followed the same basic format. For the majority of colleges, grades, extracurriculars and test scores determine who makes the cut. But a new report calls for all of that to change.

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he world of college admissions may soon see a revolution, or at least that is the hope according to a new report. ”Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for others and the Common Good Through College Admissions from Making Caring Common,” a report released by the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Jan. 20, alleges that colleges have become overly focused on test scores and numbers at the expense of other important areas of consideration.

It calls for a variety of changes: eliminating a perceived excess in academic pressure, placing more emphasis on ethical citizenship in addition to numerical measurements and encouraging potential applicants to become more engaged in their communities.

“The hope is that because there’s such a frenzy in college admissions, that if colleges will say, ‘You have to be a great student, but our emphasis is on serving others’,” Associate Director of College Counseling Casey Gendason said. “The hope is that colleges can ‘turn the tide’ on

where this emphasis is when they make decisions about who gets admitted.”

If “Turning the Tide” receives support from universities, the expectations for students to become involved in a sea of extracurriculars would diminish, take a plethora of AP classes and do community service activites until their hands blister.

Instead, universities would shift to a quality-over-quantity approach, encouraging students to focus on a few activities that are particularly meaningful for them.

“When I was first starting to write essays, even though all of these schools said ‘be yourself and don’t game the system’ I really started out thinking ‘I need to tell these people what I think they want to hear.’,” Ryan O’Meara ’14, who attends Harvard, said. “And I really only started to have better luck when I got away from that and said ‘I’m going to tell them what I can offer, and if that’s something they’re interested in, then great.”

To encourage this approach, “Turning the Tide” suggests placing fewer spots on the applications to list accomplishments and achievements, which would send the

message that applicants need to decide which activities in their high school career were the most meaningful to them.

‘

ALMOST ANYTHING THAT TRIES TO BRING CHARACTER EDUCATION INTO THE SYSTEM IS GOING TO BE A GOOD THING.

Ryan O’Meara ‘14

But why hasn’t character been involved more in college admissions?

Shouldn’t that be a key factor already?

While it is, on some level, considered, the report suggests that it isn’t a large enough part of the process. Colleges, however, have their own reasons for focusing on numbers.

“High test scores and GPA averages can be used to calculate rankings and prominence and prestige,” Gendason said.

“Character isn’t something that can be measured. There’s no way to say ‘We have admitted 1,000 students of high character in our freshman class and the college can show this to the public’ There’s this fear that if you don’t have the numbers

STORY AUSTIN MONTGOMERY, DAVIS MARSH ILLUSTRATION ABHI THUMMALA

Debate team wins national tournament

by Blake Daugherty he debate team recently won a nationally competitive tournament in Colleyville, adding to the team’s other first place finishes at tournaments around the country.

“There are over 8,000 teams that participate in the kind of debate that we do. These performances have Ansh (Khullar ’16) and Ammar (Plumber ’16) ranked among the top ten in the country,” debate coach Timothy Mahoney said.

“One of the keys to all of this success is just plain hard work. All three of the seniors have been working hard at debate since they were in the middle school. Striving to continually be not just in the top ten but being the top team provides continuing motivation for them.”

While a top ten ranking may seem like something to celebrate, Plumber has gotten used to the pressure of being ranked.

“To most people it is pretty high pressure,” Plumber said, “but for me I’ve sort of become accustomed to it at this point because over the years of debating I’ve seen other debaters be ranked. Last year my partner and I got to travel the national circuit, and we were nationally ranked.”

Plumber believes this success he has become accustomed to comes from old fashioned hard work.

“That seems overly simplistic but that’s basically what it comes down to,” Plumber said. “The people who have the most evi-

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dence, the people who have the highest quality evidence, the people who think through all of their arguments, the people who have practice debates and are skilled at debate are the ones who are most likely to succeed.”

Of course, Plumber can’t take all of the credit for his success. His teammates and especially his coaches have played a major role as well.

“Because my partner and I have demonstrated a willingness to work hard in previous years our coaches are thus more willing to match our level of effort so if we are highly engaged before every tournament or we’re doing a lot of work during each tournament then our coaches are equally likely to contribute as much work as they can offer,” Plumber said. “So they’ll stay up late at night during tournaments because the debaters are usually really tired. They’ll do whatever work that we think needs to be done for us to be ready for the next day.”

Because of this work ethic, Plumber has been able win some illusive awards, adding to the success of his season.

“St. Mark’s debaters in recent years have not had a huge history of winning a lot of speaker awards,” Plumber said. “The judges we have judging a lot of our debates are more old-school, and they are less likely to grant us huge amounts of speaker points for any given debate so winning the top speaker award for a St. Mark’s debater so for me that was really humbling.”

to report, as great and involved as your freshman class may be, your college will not come across as a really prestigious school.”

Over 80 representatives, including college admissions offices, professors and high school counselors, have endorsed the findings of the report, supporting this “less is more” approach to admissions.

However, it will take time before colleges decide whether to accept the report’s suggestions.

“It’s going to take a number of colleges to take this risk,” Gendason said. “A college could take a hit in prestige by using this approach, and that could be a very hard pill for some colleges to swallow.,” Despite the potential drawbacks of this approach, Gendason hopes that colleges make an effort to change.

“I’m hoping that we can get to a point where character is looked at as critically as test scores, but those numerical measurements are still going to be very important to colleges,” Gendason said. “It will be fascinating to see which, if any, colleges adopt what this report is suggesting.”

PAGE 5 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

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KNOWING YOUR RIGHTS

Fighting for you As more and more adolescents find themselves incarcerated alongside adults, criminal lawyers Juan and Debbie Sanchez are nurturing a local movement towards educating students on the power of their rights and legal voice.

BACK TO BACK Debbie and Juan Sanchez, parents of senior Nico, sophomore Sammy and seventh grader Daniel, work as criminal defense lawyers, respresenting people charged with breaking the law.

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n January of 2012, an undisclosed 17-year-old girl from Detroit is sent to prison at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility for six months after throwing a brick towards a family friend.

Eight months later, Saratoga Springs High School senior Maclaine Matties faces a felony charge and up to four years in state penitentiaries for failure to cooperate during a fake I.D. investigation.

And just last year, 17-year-old Ali Amin was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for running a Twitter page celebrating an Islamic extremist group.

Across the country and around the world, high school students are ending up in adult prisons.

And whatever the circumstances — whatever the reasons for these incarcerations — that is what criminal lawyers Juan and Debbie Sanchez have set out to end.

“People always say, ‘Wow, really? I can get charged for that?’ and yeah, you can get charged with that,” Juan said. “We have clients that come in here, teenagers with their parents, and they’re all, ‘I’m innocent right?’ and I’m saying, ‘Well it’s not looking that way.’”

Five years ago, Juan and Debbie were asked by a concerned group of parents to give a presentation to their sons on the dangers of legal punishment and values of being constitutionally prepared. As parents of three St. Mark’s students themselves — senior Nico Sanchez, sophomore Sammy Sanchez and seventh grader Daniel Sanchez — the pair was eager to educate a group of freshmen for the first time in 2010.

“There were some concerned parents saying, ‘Look, our kids are starting to drive, to go out, some are starting to drink,’ and they asked us to talk to them about the dangers,” Juan said. “Once you’re driving around a community, there’s more opportunity to have contact with the police.”

Since 2010, the ‘Know Your Rights’ presentations have educated four St. Mark’s high school classes, five groups of parents and both the Young Men’s Service League for boys and the National Charity League for girls, helping to prepare them for the complicated legal world around them.

“It’s meant to be a way of communi-

cating to people who are young that there’s so many ways they don’t realize you can put yourself in a situation with criminal liability,” Debbie said. “We were trying to get that message out to the parents and the students: that the things you wouldn’t think are illegal actually are.”

From fighting with close friends to refusing police interviews, seemingly benign actions have criminalized dozens of naïve young adults in the last decade. And the first step against that trend, Juan believes, is to be aware of the often drastic consequences that may arise from these possible situations.

“At 17, you are an adult,” Juan said.

“They treat you the same as a 45-year-old man. They put you in the same cell as a 45-year-old murderer. If you do something wrong, there is no separate jail for people who are 17 to 21, and that’s the first misconception and shock that [parents] have.”

ALTHOUGH the Sanchez duo deals primarily with capital offenses and first-degree felonies — such as murder, robbery and sexual assault — punishable by death, they have also had plenty of experiences with youth not unlike the students at 10600 Preston Road.

And even with the growth in legal education and awareness, partly thanks to the ‘Know Your Rights’ presentations, Debbie stresses there is a greater issue of legal ignorance that remains unresolved.

“This discussion started off with parents asking us to address Minor in Consumption, Minor in Possession,” Debbie said, “because parents were worried about

the implications that these tickets were going to have on college applications.”

College applications hold no water, she says, when felony charges and federal incarceration are on the line.

“And we told the parents in advance,” Debbie said, “‘You’re not realizing the bigger picture that frightens us more than anything: Minor in Consumption and Minor in Possession are the least of your concerns when it comes to this spectrum of offenses.’”

These seemingly minor offenses can carry significant charges including loss of driving privileges, hefty fines and even jail time.

From respecting but restricting police officers to realizing the technicalities of laws regarding possession and responsibility, the presentations go a long way in educating students on even the most obscure scenarios.

“There are things that I think the general public and students, young people wouldn’t realize: possession is not ownership,” Debbie said. “‘Oh yes, I was at a party, and I saw it going on, but it wasn’t mine, and I didn’t have it on me.’ That’s a huge misconception.”

Asking for a lawyer. Choosing not to consent to vehicle searches. Being fully aware of the possessions of passengers in a car. The list goes on — countless steps in the right direction of being prepared for the law.

In a world of legal pitfalls, Juan and Debbie know the young are sorely outmatched. So they keep presenting, because every tip helps and every lesson can prove vital. Because a single slip-up can cost a future.

“Something as simple as shoplifting, a crime of moral turpitude, can keep you from getting a license and becoming a lawyer, being in finance, or even being a doctor,” Juan said. “That’s the reason why teenagers need to know the consequences of what they do. They must know the impacts it can have on their future.”

STORY NOAH KOECHER, ANDRE ARSENAULT PHOTO OWEN BERGER

what do you DO... ...when you’re pulled over?

• Be respectful. The more well-mannered you are, the smoother things will go.

• Be compliant. Answer their questions, give them anything they need — both you and the officer will be better off.

• Know you can say no. If the officer asks to search your car, you have a right to decline. If you’re not sure what your passengers may be carrying, it’s best to turn down the search.

...during police interviews?

• Know they don’t need parental consent. At age 17 and sometimes younger, you can be pulled from class or sports by officers and declined contact with your parents.

• Ask for a lawyer. You don’t need a specific name. Once you ask, the interview must stop. A lawyer will make sure things are done right.

...in general?

• Possession is not ownership. If it’s in your car, under your bed or on your table, it’s yours.

• Small things matter. An unlicensed hunting knife or an unlabeled perscription pill bottle can get you charged.

• It only takes an accusation.

The world doesn’t care if you’re convicted. Stay out of the line of legal fire.

— Compiled by Noah Koecher from interviews with Juan and Debbie Sanchez

Senior Choe named Texas finalist in Intel Science Talent Search for cancer research

by Blake Daugherty

S

enior Joshua Choe was named a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS) for his work researching early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer Jan. 20.

As the only finalist representing Texas, Choe has been named one of 40 finalists out of 300 semifinalists, which were selected out of 1,750 applicants to travel to Washington D.C. March 10 for a competition.

Choe will be competing for a slice of a prize pool of more than $1 million in awards from the Intel Foundation, including three top awards of $150,000 each.

“I have to make a poster with my re-

search findings,” Choe said. “There will be about five or so interviews in Washington D.C. Then I have to present to the public at the National Geographic Society.”

While Choe spends most of his time on his research and its demands from him, he still found time to write a research report and prepare adequately for the competition.

“Basically I had to write a research report around 20 pages long containing an abstract introduction, my results and discussion and all of the figures,” Choe said. “I also had to write a couple of essays. It was sort of like a mini college application basically where you submit the

research report, submit a couple of essays, a resume, recommendations from a couple of teachers and things like that.”

According to Choe, this opportunity came as a side benefit of research at the University of Texas at Dallas in the last few months.

“To be honest, it was sort of a side thing,” Choe said. “My main focus was the actual project where I was a core member of a team at UTD. I had the time and to write a report and I decided to submit.”

The main reason Choe submitted his entry was to gain experience in writing a research report.

“I didn’t really research for the

purpose of submitting,” Choe said. “If it worked out it’d be cool. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t mind too much. It was more for the experience of writing that research report.”

Choe put in more than 60 hours over a five-day period on his research and flew to Canada to participate in a conference to present the research.

“Most of my time goes into the actual project because we’re still working on it and [Feb. 21] I will be flying to Canada to present at a conference so I am preparing a lot for that,” Choe said. “For that, I spend about 50 hours a week. This past week I actually spent 60 hours in five days.”

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PAGE 6 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER GABE BANKSTON

Half match, full brother

After his brother Jacob was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, freshman Gabe Bankston wanted to be there every step of the way.

So for Gabe, missing school to accompany his brother from state to state and hospital to hospital was a very easy decision.

MONOPOLY MEN Enjoying some down time, freshman Gabe Bankston hangs out with his older brother, Jacob, who suffers from Aplastic Anemia. Jacob is staying at T. Boone Pickens Cancer Center at Baylor Hospital while he receives treatment.

L

aughter fills the small hospital room as freshman Gabe Bankston and his older brother Jacob play dominoes together. Stacks of board games litter the room.

During the past two weeks, Jacob had been transferred across state borders from a small hospital in Maine to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and finally to the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. He had lost two-thirds of his blood, and doctors had no idea why.

All Gabe wanted to do was help his brother in any way he could.

“I said ‘why don’t we send you back to school,’ because we had been gone a week or so and he was really losing ground at school,” Catherine Bankston, Gabe’s mother said. “And he said ‘I don’t want to be sitting in Latin when my brother dies. It’s more important for me to be here with him because I love him.’”

Weeks earlier, Gabe and Jacob had been visiting their family’s ranch over Thanksgiving break. The two of them and their three other brothers rebuilt a bridge together that was washed out by a flood.

That’s when Jacob first began to notice his symptoms.

“I was getting really lightheaded and I was just kind of like manning up and dealing with it because I didn’t know

Aplastic anemia “Aplastic anemia is a condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells. Aplastic anemia leaves you feeling fatigued and with a higher risk of infections and uncontrolled bleeding. A rare and serious condition, aplastic anemia can develop at any age.

Aplastic anemia may occur suddenly, or it can occur slowly and get worse over a long period of time. Treatment for aplastic anemia may include medications, blood transfusions or a stem cell transplant.”

— Definition from the Mayo Clinic

something was wrong with me,” Jacob said. “I was like ‘aw man, I must be really out of shape or something.’”

The day before finishing the bridge, Jacob describes hitting a “tipping point” where his symptoms became dramatically worse.

“I had trouble staying awake, I was falling asleep sitting down, because I was like bleeding out, basically, but not really,” Jacob said. “Like, not making any more blood, so my blood was getting thinner and thinner. So I felt like if I stood up too quick I was gonna pass out. Gabriel thought I was on drugs, because I was all woozy and having trouble staying awake and slurring my words and stuff like that.”

While they didn’t realize it at the time, if Jacob had been hurt at the ranch, he would have died.

“If he got hurt when he was out there and started bleeding, he probably would have died because there would have been no emergency room to go to and the bleeding wouldn’t stop on its own,” Gabe said.

A week later, Jacob got a bloody nose and tried to stop it with tissues.

“I flew back to where I was living in Maine anyway and I just kept putting tissues up in there,” Jacob said. “And I did that for a total of 27 hours, so like a day.

And it kept bleeding. It wouldn’t stop.”

In a way, Jacob was lucky he had this nosebleed, as otherwise he may not have known something was seriously wrong with him.

“He was within a week of dying untreated so he was really lucky that he got a nosebleed,” Gabe said.

This was when Jacob first contacted his doctor. After doctors at the urgent care facility were unable to stop the bleeding, he was sent to Maine Medical in Portland.

It was then that Gabe and his mother came to be with Jacob in the hospital.

“I went up there the week after he got sick and I was there for four weeks basically just doing anything,” Gabe said.

“Like going to the store to get things for him, basically anything that he wanted that he can’t get in the hospital I would go get. I was just there for him really. I would hang out with him, play board games, play video games. Basically just make it less painful and boring and just take his attention off of the chemo treatment and what not.”

After the staff at Maine Medical decided they were unable to treat him, Jacob was moved to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with Aplastic anemia.

“Aplastic anemia just means that your bone marrow died,” Jacob said. “It’s what killed Marie Curie. It can happen from radiation, certain chemicals and your immune system doing it. And mine in particular was my immune system. And that’s particularly rare, there’s only like 600 to 900 cases a year in the US.”

‘

BASICALLY BEING TRAPPED IN A BUILDING FOR MONTHS ON END WAS JUST THE WORST THING FOR HIM, NO MATTER IF HE’S SICK OR NOT.

GABE BANSKTON

For treatment, Jacob would need a bone marrow transplant. While Gabe was a half match, another of Jacob’s brother’s, Noah Bankston, was a much closer match.

While he was happy Jacob would get the treatment he needed, he was also devastated he couldn’t help Jacob on a deeper level.

“I was just trying to be as encouraging and helpful as possible,” Gabe said. “And I was just disappointed that I couldn’t do any real help except emotionally when I found out that I couldn’t donate. But two brothers and a sister being a match was plenty good.”

Jacob then transferred from Beth Israel to the T. Boon Pickett Cancer Center at Baylor Hospital, where they could use stem cell technology and other more mod-

ern methods to make the transplantation process smoother. However, Jacob still had to go through an arduous preparation process.

“Well I had to go through three days of treatment with something called anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG), which actually isn’t a chemo, it’s a horse serum,” Jacob said. “What they do is they inject horses with human white blood cells, and then the horses develop antibodies to kill human white blood cells, and then they extract those antibodies from the horses and then they concentrate them, and then they stick them in me to kill my immune system.”

Jacob experienced horrible side effects because of the ATG, and again felt his treatment was suboptimal.

“I really fell apart,” Jacob said. “I was living for the minute, I felt for sure I was gonna die because of this stuff.”

Despite this, Jacob feels like he has actually reacted well to this treatment.

“My body’s handled this really well,” Jacob said. “I mean, if you look around the ward, you’ll see other people who have had this exact same treatment, and they’re missing their hair and being pushed around in wheelchairs, and I’m walking around the hospital, exploring when I’m bored. So I’ve been taking this really well I think.”

Jacob feels he will be fine at least for the immediate future. And while there are chances of graft-versus-host-disease or relapse, those chances have been minimized by his treatment.

Gabe feels Jacob’s near death experience, while painful, has helped him grow as a person.

“I think he has become much more faithful,” Gabe said, “and he’s put into perspective that he needs to make some lasting impacts on the world because he could die any day really so he’s decided that once he’s out he wants to make a difference somehow.”

STORY BLAKE DAUGHERTY, AIDAN MAURSTAD PHOTO ARNO GOETZ

Executive Council elections to be held April 6

by Naftal Mautia

E

xecutive Council elections for the Student Council take place April 5 and class officer elections April 26, both a day after candidate speeches.

In order to run for an office, a prospective candidate must fill out a form and recieve approval from the Head of Upper School and a Student Council sponsor. In the weeks before the elections, the candidates make posters that will be displayed on a bulletin board in front of the Green Library.

The purpose of the Student Council

is to plan events for the student body.

For example, the Student Council plans Homecoming, Spring Fling, weekly assemblies and pep rallies in the Fall and works with the Community Service Board for the Gift Drive.

“The Student Council guides, plans and creates fun, unifying and memorable events for students,” Student Council Sponsor Casey Gendason said. “We need enthusiastic, creative and engaging students to help organize, brainstorm, execute, plan, lead and model what the St. mark’s experience is about.”

With the addition of DJ Umer ‘15 to this year’s Homecoming, Gendason thinks this year’s Student Council did a good job of thoroughly planning the events and donation drives.

“I’m really proud of [the Council] for putting together a memorable, fun and exciting Homecoming,” Gendason said. “I think they did a superb job with the Gift Drive considering this year, the month of December was considerably warmer than previous Decembers, and so people weren’t really in the ‘it’s time to give gifts’ mentality. They’re also doing great work

with the Spring Fling that will be coming up in the middle of March.”

But, being a part of the Student Council isn’t just about planning parties and gift drives.

“Student Council leaders should love St. Mark’s. And love creating opportunities for students,” Gendason said.

“They should want to be role models and embody the values of the school. They should view their role as not just for event planning and continuing traditions, but also being someone on campus that others look to.”

PAGE 7 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

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ego position niche honor reputation ego national merit independent lacrossemeaning value goals SCHOOL RANKINGS

elite

RANKINGS elite the best honor ELITE ego rankings value standing standing independent

elite

merit

ELITE

private schools

merit

champs cocky

niche

measures

More than just a number

After ranking as the best school in Texas according to the latest Niche rankings, administrators break their silence on what these consistently high finishes mean to them — and to the school’s image.

A

s Headmaster David Dini opened the email, he read the results of the newest private school rankings by Niche, a higher education website. Reading down further, he saw the products of the hard work he and the other community members hard work and dedication: first in Texas and 16th in the country.

But as he read further, he saw another statistic: second-best Christian school in the country.

“We were ranked the second best Christian school in the United States,” Dini said. “I was like, Christian school? Maybe it was the St. Mark’s. They assumed we were Christian based on that nomenclature.

I think that speaks to the scope of the rankings.”

As nostalgic alumni, happy parents and gratified students shared the latest rankings and took pride in the recognition, the administration did what they had always done when school rankings are published: nothing.

“If there is going to be recognition, it’s certainly nice to be recognized. But we don’t hang our hat on numbers and rankings in any respect,” Dini said. “We’re certainly glad for achievement and believe that’s a certain output for the work but its about the more important, mission oriented lessons that revolve around manhood, character and the things we talk about every day.”

Dini believes school rankings can possibly do more harm than good, using simple information.

“The idea of creating a ranking that suggests that one school is better than the next is not necessarily constructive,” the headmaster said. “If you look at their criteria for ranking, It’s pretty simple. It’s mostly SAT, ACT, college matriculation, some survey that is very limited and stu-

dent teacher ratios.”

Director of Development Jim Bob Womack ‘98 agrees with Dini’s opinion.

“Our school doesn’t look at those rankings for a reason,” Womack said.

“They’re pretty narrow in their focus.

They use whatever data they have access to which are SAT and ACT scores. Those are important, and we care a lot about how our boys are doing from an academic standpoint.”

As the school ventures into a new era of character education in addition to the traditional curriculum, the rankings can put too much emphasis on numbers.

“The studies focus more on achievement,” Dini said. “That starts to crowd out character. We don’t want to send the message that achievement alone matters and that subsistence of character is secondary.”

Student Council President JT Graass agrees while being ranked highly is nice, it does not define the school.

“We shouldn’t let these external rankings define us,” Graass said. “We should continue improving strengths of our school that may not be measurable by a poll, like the true character and leadership of our students.”

Dini hopes St. Mark’s students take away more from their education than just a high SAT score.

“It’s like winning and losing in sports,” Dini said. “Eventually, the winning will fade away. Whether you won or lost is not something you will remember as profoundly as what you learned. Academic experiences are exactly the same way. So, to bundle the whole experience down to a set of numbers doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Graass adds he has seen high school rankings cause a severe drop in motivation among students.

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OUR SCHOOL DOES SO MUCH MORE THAN PREPARE YOU TO TAKE A TEST. WE GO SO FAR BEYOND THOSE COMPONENTS.

JIM BOB WOMACK ‘98

“I see a lot of students who realize from these rankings that their school is one of the best, and they lose some of their drive to continue improving,” Graass said. “I’ve seen it happen in sports and the classroom, and it sort of happened to me

STORY PHILIP MONTGOMERY, REECE RABIN ILLUSTRATION ABHI THUMMALA

for a little. Like it was an excuse for me to let up a little bit.”

However, the school still takes pride in it’s standing.

“We don’t totally dismiss them, we just don’t place a tremendous amount of value,” Dini said. “It doesn’t speak to any of the core things we focus on in terms of our mission. That being said, if their going to be there, it’s certainly nice to be ranked favorably.”

Womack agrees and adds the rankings are more important to the general community as a whole than the school administration.

“From a community standpoint, we like to be high in those rankings,” Womack said. “When they come out, alums and parents are fascinated by it. People are excited to see where we get ranked.

It is interesting to look at for the community. We’re able to take a different stance because we’re in the top 20 percent of the rankings.”

Graass believes that while high rankings can be a source of pride, they also should be taken lightly for lack of true depth in the factors that they use to grade schools.

“The truth is, you can never really, truly compare two schools to each other,” Graass said. “There are just too many factors that can’t be calculated or measured. Do I think that St. Mark’s is the best high school in the country? Yes. Do I think that polls or rankings can detect that? Of course not. There’s just too many variables.”

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PAGE 8 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

ENVIRONMENTAL IDEAS

GREEN GURU

Lower School curriculum: Curriculum wise, one of the biggest things we want to do in the next couple of years, especially when we get the new science building in place, will be to have an actual Lower School science curriculum, which we need.

None of this is set in stone but it’s something we’re looking at, something that could really make a difference.They have a Lower School curriculum because the new building will have a Lower School room.

So one of the things I would like to do environmentally is to help make that curriculum one that will really get the little guys started with a much better awareness of the nature around them and how they fit into nature.

DAN NORTHCUT ‘81 Has ideas how the school can improve

Some of them have an idea of it and some don’t. There are great T.V. specials on that are really good for environmental stuff, but we don’t have an overall approach to our boys’ education like we could have and that’s one of the things we really want to look at. That’s one big vision I have for the school.

Renewable energy on campus: Another one [idea] that I would like to see in the near future at the school is more renewable energy on campus. In other words, either solar panels or wind turbines. I’d like to see one of those or both.

I think over the next few years we will

be taking an actual, serious look at solar panels and the potential of having them here at school and maybe even turbines, which would be like the egg beater type turbines to create clean power for the school.

Director of Environmental Studies Dan Northcut ’81 is the school’s designated treehugger. As part of this duty, he pushes for more sustainable and environmentally friendly options for the school — like its recycling program. Here are some of his bigger ideas for the future.

The windmill idea: There’s one over on the Da Vinci school, that kind of thing would work for us because we couldn’t get the big sweeping kind here with city code and everything else but those turbines, those eggbeater kind, that’s something we could have.

My idea, I float it around all the time hoping it will stick, is to have like four or five of those and they’re about 12 feet high, the kind that we could use, four or five along the edge of Spencer Gym overlooking the football field, lined up right about the bleachers.

That would be awesome. The blades could be painted blue and yellow, and then when they spin, they are green and it’s like eco wonderland all of the sudden.

That’s a new slogan I’d like to see for the school, blue and yellow make green.

Trademark that, yeah!

We’re all that and a bag of chips, we need to step up on our eco-ness, our sustainability issues here on campus and that’s one way we’d be able to do it. It’d be visible. It’d be a huge statement to people that come to see our sports games. Like woah, look at that, they got wind energy going!

a solar array on top of Spencer Gym, for example, and not pay anything upfront because of the way they have it set up business wise.

So the electric company is like, “We will provide the panels and then you pay your electric bill to us.” Then they make their money from the fact that they have guaranteed a monthly income from the electric bill from St. Mark’s and that way we don’t have to pay the couple hundred thousand that it would have cost us if we had bought it.

And then after about 20 years it becomes ours, but we never had to pay upfront for it, we just paid the monthly bills. They are doing this both privately and publicly.

There are at least four facutly members I know of that have done this to their homes, where they just don’t pay anything other than their monthly bills, they don’t pay installation fees, they don’t pay anything and BLAM!, they’ve got solar panels and it cuts their bills from anywhere from a third to in half.

Where as ten years ago it probably would’ve cost you $20,000 to get it on your house where as now it doesn’t cost you anything upfront, and the monthly bill is actually cheaper than it would’ve been.

It’s a no-brainer, so I’m hoping that we will be taking a look at that business model in the next year or two so that we could take advantage of that. We could save a lot of money and be doing the new energy thing.

Economic benefits to solar power: It’s interesting now that the solar companies have gotten this new business model where, basically, we could get

Better lightbulbs: Of course we always have our recycling going. One of the things that is happening behind the scenes is the

lighting around campus, in the last year or two, lights have been slowly replaced with LED bulbs.

When I first brought that up ten years ago as a possibility, they were just too expensive, and we did not want to risk it.

But now we’ve seen that replacing the fluorescent bulbs with the LED’s around campus is more efficient.

They used to be incandescent, but we slowly started to switch those out with the LED bulbs. And again we had the same problem as we are having now because they costed a little more, and we weren’t sure we wanted to take that risk.

But eventually we ended up switching, and we found, just like we are finding again, how efficient a change can be.

Making a difference: I know we have been working to hone our water usage on the field overtime, so I think in the past few years we have cut our water usage significantly.

Every little environmental thing we can do, and usually they will save us money anyway, we have been doing, and slowly but surely we’ve seen a significant change over the last ten years.

We also make sure that all first graders get little reusable gym bags to carry their clothes in instead of reusing plastic bags.

And that is a continual thing we are doing. People see the boys with these bags carrying their dirty clothes home, and I don’t think people realize what we are trying to do.

So many of the projects we are doing here at St. Mark’s are very subtle, but, when stacked on top of each other, we notice a significant change.

STORY BRADFORD BECK, JAMES HANCOCK ILLUSTRATION NAFTAL MAUTIA

TEAMS take second and third place in local competition

by Corday Cruz

T

he Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) B-team placed second in the local competition and the A-team placed third on Feb. 10.

Due to the fact that the essays and building challenges are scored at a later date, the teams do not yet know whether they will advance to the national level.

The TEAMS contest not only places a large emphasis on the fields of math and science through its assessment of conceptual knowledge through realistic situations, but the competition also highlights a team’s writing ability through the essay portion of the competition.

According to A-team member junior Kevin Choi, chemistry and writing skills are two very important strengths for a team. If the B-team qualifies for the national contest, Choi thinks that these skills will be especially important to their success.

“For nationals, team chemistry is a huge part of the process because we have to write a long essay

and create a presentation before the competition,” Choi said. “For next year’s regionals, there are a lot of sophomores who are good at math and writing, so I’m looking forward to a solid team.”

Both the A- and B-teams experienced challenges due to the addition of the design portion of the competition, a section of the competition that was previously only at the national level.

“We were given 20 sheets of paper to build a paper skyscraper, and the height of the skyscraper, the amount of paper used, and the time taken were all accounted for,” Choi said. “The design challenge was challenging partly because it was new [to the local competition].”

Looking into next year, A-team captain senior Tim O’Meara believes that more preparation in the writing and building sections would be beneficial to the team.

“Next year’s teams can improve by working a bit more on the background research and building practice to ensure strong essays and hands-on building,”

O’Meara says.

Regarding the size of next year’s team, Choi says the interest in STEM fields is steadily growing, which means that the size of the team will grow as well in the next couple of years, allowing the team to be even more competetive.

“Aside from the new design challenge, there were tons of people trying out for this competition compared to years before, and at one point, we even had seven full teams until we were notified that only six could go,” Choi said. “I really liked seeing more people who are interested in the STEM field, and I hope this trend continues.”

Overall, Choi sees a strong team rising next year and is optimistic about their chances in the regional tournament.

“For next year’s regionals, there are a lot of sophomores who are good at math and writing,” Choi said, “so I’m looking forward to a solid team.”

PAGE 9 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

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SPRING FLING

PARTY TIME The Spring Fling logo (left) reveals the theme: Dynamic Duos. Dates should dress as a duo of their choice.

The first Fling Student Council will host the first ever Spring Fling tomorrow, a dance designed to bridge the gap between Homecoming and the end of the year and usher the Upper School into the spring season in style. This year’s theme will be ‘Dynamic Duos’ — hoping to encourage collaboration between dates. dress up in a costume as a dynamic duo is another level of creativity and fun. It’s something you can plan with your date, and it’s just something to talk about.”

The introduction of a costume-driven theme is part of an effort to make this dance less formal than Homecoming, says Student Council Sponsor Casey Gendason.

“Homecoming is clearly a dress up, pictures beforehand, pre-party, go to dinner somewhere nice, go to the dance, usually some kind of plan afterwards,” Gendason said. “We are hoping to eliminate almost all of that and have a great event, a fun event, at school, on a Saturday night that people are excited to go to and will show up, enjoy it and the evening will end.” hile Student Council members are attempting to make it more relaxed than Homecoming, they do not want it to come across as a mixer.

“The purpose of having a theme is that having mixers, spirit parties, and Homecoming, there’s not a defined definition of what that middle ground is, so we’re hoping that this helps define it,” Gendason said. “This is not a mixer that is thrown together quickly.

It’s also not a spirit party, but it’s not the formality of Homecoming.

So our hope is that this is the true middle ground between a mixer and Homecoming.”

Before the idea for the dance arose, the extra funds from the Student Council’s budget went to an event called Spring Fun Day, a day where the Student Council

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rented inflatables and food machines for the Upper School.

Although the dance’s theme is couple-oriented, students are not required to bring a date. This is done to make the dance simple enough to where students can go in a group of friends.

“You do not have to bring a date at all,” Gendason said. “We hope that students that want to come to have a good night will come. The price is purposely low to encourage students to attend, and the informal aspect of not having to have a group to go with and dinner beforehand we hope will lend itself to students either coming with a date or with a group of friends and having a great time.”

In addition to the unique theme, the DJ for the dance will be Umer Nadir ‘15. Graass feels that DJ Umer will be an incentive to attend for many students.

“I definitely think that Umer will attract kids to come,” Graass said. “He plays the right kind of music that gets kids going.”

Because this is the first Spring Fling dance, Graass hopes it will leave a lasting impression on students. Because of this, he encourages students to attend so they do not miss out on the new experience.

“I know for a fact everyone will be talking about spring fling for the entire week afterwards,” Graass said. “It’s going to be a ton of fun, so I encourage people to go. It’s going to be the first of its kind, it’s never been done before, so definitely come out and take advantage of that.”

The brains behind it all Student Council President JT Graass tackles a few frequently asked questions.

What day is this all going down?

March 12. Saturday. Night.

Where is this?

Hicks Gym. The same place we wrecked ESD this year.

When should I get there?

Get there at 8 p.m., sharp.

Should I bring a date?

Nine out of ten doctors recommend it. (Yes).

Is there a theme?

Theme is “Dynamic Duos.” Pretty straighforward.

Dress up as any duo you can think of.

When are they shutting down the fun?

Party’s over at 11 so that I can get home before curfew at 11:15.

COURTESY UMER NADIR

S

eniors with little buddies on their shoulders during the Christmas party, students devouring burgers during McDonald’s Week, dates enjoying the Homecoming dance — these are all traditions Marksmen are familiar with.

Now, a new tradition has arrived.

The Spring Fling, a new dance made by the Student Council, will take place tomorrow from 8-11 p.m. in Hicks Gym. The dance will feature the popular DJ Umer, and the theme for the dance will be Dynamic Duos.

Student Council has discussed Spring Fling for a number of years, but this year the idea has come to fruition.

The idea stemmed from the fact that, with the exception of the seniors-only Marksmen Ball, there are no dances in the spring.

Because of the Student Council’s hard work, Student Council Vice-President John Landry hopes that the majority of the Upper School attends and enjoys the event.

“Spring Fling has been years in the making,” Landry said. “This year’s student council has put countless hours into making this idea become a reality, so we hope everyone comes out.”

With the theme, Dynamic Duos, the Student Council encourages couples to come to the dance dressed in coordinated costumes.

“The theme is there as something for people to rally around,” Student Council President JT Graass said. “I think being able to

MASTER OF CEREMONIES Taking in the lights, Umer Nadir ‘15 (above) will be the DJ for Spring Fling. Nadir also served the same role in this year’s homecoming at House of Blues.

STORY CORDAY CRUZ, NAFTAL MAUTIA ILLUSTRATION ABHI THUMMALA

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PAGE 10 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

MALECALL

THIS ISSUE

MARCH MADNESS THE PERFECT OMELETTE SPRING BREAK ATTIRE

Taking you back to the basic fundamentals of all things manly.

MARCH MADNESS

Bracketball Last year, math instructor Amy Pool’s advisory won Greg Guiler’s March Madness Bracket Challenge. This year, Around the Roar will be orchestrating the competition, and advisories are preparing to fill out the perfect bracket.

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epresenting math instructor Paul Mlakar’s advisory is senior Tim Skapek, who feels the race for the championship is wide open.

“Well firstly, there are no standout teams this year, I think everyone knows that,” Skapek said. “We’ve had many, many number one [ranked] teams. No team stands out above everybody else.

There’s going to be a lot of upsets.”

Sophomore Cooper Johnson of film studies instructor Jennifer Gilbert’s advisory has similar feelings about the lack of a clear-cut favorite.

“I agree with that, the top team [in the tournament] always seems to shoot themselves in the foot,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen many top teams get beat [this year]. North Carolina got beat by Texas, and Kentucky got whooped by UCLA.” The Texas Longhorns are an under-the-radar team Skapek cites as a potential championship contender that most people might not be expecting much from.

In addition to the team’s depth, Skapek believes the Longhorns have shown flashes throughout the season that may signal success in the tournament.

TIM SKAPEK Anticipates multiple upsets this year

“While they may be a mid-range seed, in the latest Bracketology they are seeded as a five seed,” Skapek said. “They have filled their resume with big wins over good teams such as North Carolina, West Virginia, Iowa State and they have many top-25 wins.”

Skapek also notes the importance of having individual, talented playmakers and how they can impact a game. Most notably for Skapek are the teams that have

a mid-season Wooden Award finalist such as Providence College’s Kris Dunne.

“Kris Dunne has shown that he has the ability to take over a game, which makes Providence an intriguing candidate for a classic ‘Cinderella Story,’” Skapek said.

Junior Dhruv Prasad of history instructor Bruce Westrate’s advisory believes this year’s tournament is also primed for a somewhat-shocking champion, perhaps Texas, like what the University of Connecticut did two years ago as a seven seed.

“I think it’s going to be a team that’s like UConn [University of Connecticut] from a couple of years ago- a team that’s not really up there but as a decently strong team,” Prasad said.

Science instructor Ken Owens’ advisee freshman Roshan Vemu feels that this year’s tournament is shaping up to be such an uncertainty that there is the potential for things to happen that never have before.

“This is the year a number 16 seed beats a number one seed,” Vemu said.

As for heavy favorites, a general consensus is that experience will play a key role in a year when there is no clear-cut favorite, giving the University of Kansas Jayhawks a key edge.

“People are leaving earlier for the NBA, so teams with seniors and juniors who have lots of experience are rare,” Skapek said. “It’s tough to not go with Kansas because Kansas has Perry Ellis, who’s one of the best seniors in the country. Lots of experience,” Skapek said. “He’s been in the tournament three years in the past.”

Vemu shares similar feelings about the impact Perry-Ellis and the Jayhawks’ experience will have on Kansas’ title

chances.

“They have a lot of experience [in the tournament]. I like Kansas because they have Perry Ellis and are really talented in general,” Vemu

said.

A perennial championship contender, Kansas is never a bad pick to win it all.

However, the Jayhawks haven’t won it all since 2008, opening the door for the consideration of many other teams to take home the national championship trophy.

One of those teams that seems primed for postseason success is the University of North Carolina [UNC] Tar Heels.

“I think UNC really has a good shot,” Skapek said. “If I had to pick a favorite it’s COOPER JOHNSON Predicts that a heavy underdog will win.

a toss-up between UNC and Kansas.”

A third team that may make some noise in the postseason is the defending national champion Duke Blue Devils.

Duke lost many players from its championship team to last summer’s NBA draft, and earlier this season it briefly fell out of the AP poll rankings.

However, despite these challenges, the Blue Devils have started to turn things around and could surprise some people, especially with a budding star like Grayson Allen.

“Allen is a midseason Wooden Award finalist. He’s a young player with experience, and he’s made a massive improvement in points per game this year, from four to 20,” Skapek said. “They [Duke] have the components to make a run in the tournament with a world-class coach,

outstanding playmakers, the most efficient offense in Division I,” Skapek said.

While some of the smarter picks in the cloudy field of teams seems to be Kansas.

The general consensus remains that the tournament will be wide open, and this year has a very good chance to be the year of the underdog.

“I’m going to call a big underdog winning it,” sophomore Cooper Johnson said.

“I don’t know which team, but I think a big underdog will win it.”

ONE IN 9.2 QUINTILLION The odds of accurately predicting the winners of all 63 March Madness games is 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Here are a few things that are more likely to happen to you.

1 in 785,166 Becoming a billionaire in the U.S.

S S S 1 in 23.4 million Winning a gold medal at the summer Olympics

1 in 343 quadrillion Being struck by lightning three times in a year

STORY ZACH NAIDU ILLUSTRATIONS DAVIS MARSH, ZACH NAIDU PHOTOS CREATIVE COMMONS

Dress accordingly

Omelette up

Spring Break starts a week from today. Male Call has some essential attire you can get at an affordable price to enjoy some fun in the sun.

Cooking is a skill all men should be fairly proficient in.

Male Call shows how to make the perfect omelette.

Tank Top: $24

STEP 2 Sauté the meats and vegetables you want in your omelette. Whether you’re in the mood just some bell peppers and onions, or more filling ham and mushrooms, you have to have more than just egg and cheese.

Beat two eggs in a bowl. You can add salt either now or after you have fully cooked the omelette.

STEP 3

STEP 4

Pour the eggs into the pan with your sautéd vegetetables.

Add your choice of cheese once the eggs set.

After folding over and flipping the omelette for the cheese to melt inside, you are ready to serve and eat your culinary masterpiece.

ILLUSTRATIONS ABHI THUMMALA

PHOTOS COURTESY CREATIVE COMMONS

STEP 1

Nothing says spring break like sun’s out, guns out. Get yourself one if you haven’t already from Design By Humans.

Patriotic Swim Trunks: $20 Show off your patriotism with American flag swim trunks. This pair from Gymboree is great for pools and beaches.

Aviators: $18 There’s a seemingly unlimited styles of sunglasses, but you can never go wrong with aviators. This Kenneth Cole brand is an affordable and stylish option for eyewear.

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THE STANDUP KIND OF GUYS

THE GRAND PIANO STAGE

From veteran performers to firsttimers like sophomore Avery Pearson (right), students take the Coffeehouse stage to present their budding talents.

Junior Patrick Magee details his recent selection to the National Youth Orchestra.

GRAPHIC GOOGLER

Adam Brobjorg ’10 presents his photography with Google Cromecast.

BEHIND THE NAMES

A look at the stories, meanings and origins behind students’ names on campus.

PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

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THE WEEKEND OF ART

Fine arts students and faculty look to take their works to the ISAS conference April 7-9.

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PAGE 11 FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 I REMARKER

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the students because they enjoy it, and they learn a lot,” Fray said.

“They get to play in a bigger group than we have here and by and large a better group. It’s an excellent way for the guys who are motivated to do extra work to be rewarded and recognized for that.”

• DADYO PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL MEETING The Upper School Dallas Area Diversity Youth Organization (DADYO) club is hosting an all-inclusive private high school meeting March 9.

The theme of this meeting is how diversity

relates to film and television. DADYO sponsor Marjorie Curry believes these meetings serve as a platform for students to think and speak freely.

“I think it’s a lot of fun for the kids just to have a place to see their friends from other schools,” Curry said. “I think they feel like they can express themselves however they want to at these events.”

• WOOD AND METAL PIECES TO BE JUDGED Two wood and metal students, junior Andrew Chuka and sophomore Perry Naseck, have submitted their pieces

to be judged nationally at the Young American Talent Competition.

Wood and metal instructor John Frost thinks students should always take chances to showcase their art and accomplishments.

“We look for opportunities to showcase the boys’ work,” Frost said. “I always encourage them to do things like this because it’s great to get your work out and receive criticism. It’s good for experience.”

Arts Night March 16.

With artwork spread throughout the Lower School and productions in the Lower School music and drama rooms, the first-graders have been working hard to provide an entertaining performance. Senior buddies are invited to the dress rehearsal March 15.

“They have worked very hard to prepare to present their show,” Barbara York, head of Lower School, said. “I believe it increases their poise on stage and their sense of teamwork. It helps them understand that hard work and success are closely connected.”

• FIRST GRADE FINE ARTS FESTIVAL NIGHT First grade students will present their annual First Grade Fine

THE KIRSTEINS Freshman Duncan Kirstein and senior Graham Kirstein share more than just a last name and a school — they share a sense of humor.

PHOTO ARNO GOETZ

• STUDENTS PLAY AT REGION ORCHESTRA A group of 25 orchestra students performed with the Texas Private School Music Educators Association (TPSMEA) High School and Middle School Region Orchestras Feb. 27 at Bishop Dunne Catholic School.

Orchestra director Dr. David Fray hopes after auditions requiring students to submit three recordings of one-minute pieces, students got an experience that they wouldn’t get playing with the school’s orchestra.

“It’s worthwhile for

HANGING OUT WITH

stories around campus in brief

— Kobe Roseman, Daniel Cope, Zachary Gilstrap and Davis Bailey

in the

MOMENT events on campus told through photos

The journey of men L

How much time do you guys usually spend together on a daily basis?

ead actors Sunny Agrawal and Mathew Dominguez run through the final rehearsal of Of Mice and Men before opening night, March 4. “[Playing George] has shown me that acting gives a whole new dimension and level of depth to the story,” Agrawal said. “Getting to be a character is a nice escape from the monotony of my daily life.”

Duncan Kirstein: On a good day, I probably say good morning to him.

Graham Kirstein: Accurate.

See photostory, page 20

At home, do y’all just split up and do homework?

Graham: Accurate. The past couple nights, he’s come down to my room to ask if I want to play Mortal Kombat.

Did you say yes?

Graham: No. But not for personal reasons — strictly business.

Duncan: I totally understand, we have a pretty cordial relationship. It’s casual, but business casual.

Graham: Accurate.

PHOTO ARNO GOETZ

What hobbies do you share?

Graham: Improv!

Duncan: Yeah.

How did you guys get exposed to Improv?

ArtistsinAction

the Around corner What you need to know in the coming week

THE ARTIST

TODAY What Dallas Symphony Orchestra: A Tribute to the Beatles When 7:30 p.m.

Where Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St.

Shining a spotlight on a student artist at St. Mark’s

What Dallas Theater Center: All the Way When 8 p.m.

Where Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, 2400 Flora St.

Dhruv Prasad

THE ART

Pots and other ceramics pieces made with clay.

HIS WORDS WEEKEND What Sightings: Mai-Thu Perret opening day When 11 a.m., Saturday Where Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St.

What Third Annual Jazz Age Sunday Social When 12 p.m., Sunday Where 1515 S. Harwood St.

What The Quebe Sisters When 7:30 p.m., Saturday Where Charles W. Eisemann Center, 2351 Performance Dr.

What Manon When 7:30 p.m., Saturday Where Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St.

NEXT WEEK What Texas Pinball Festival When 5 p.m., Friday Where Embassy Suites, 7600 John Q. Hammons Dr.

What Easter Egg Hunt When 7:30 a.m., Friday Where The Dallas Arboretum, 8525 Garland Rd.

I continue to pursue ceramics, because I can create anything, regardless of the shape or size, and color and texture.

Duncan: [Graham] would just leave the house, randomly. Like maybe once a week. He’d be gone for around three hours, and improv is only for one hour, so I still don’t know where he went.

Graham: I don’t know what he’s talking about.

Duncan: He’d leave at six and come home around 8:30, and so I was just like, “Whatever he’s doing, I want to do that!”

Graham: That’s inaccurate.

What super power would you want?

Graham: Invisibility. Eh, telekinesis. No, telemarketing.

Tell me about your last name.

Graham: Fun fact! There is a cousin on my dad’s side with the last name “Fish.” So we are pretty sure that he was hard of hearing when he came to America. The [immigration officer] was like, “What’s your name and what do you do?” He thought that the guy was asking him what his profession was, and he said, “I fish!” So that’s how we got the name “Fish” in my family.

Duncan: That’s been debunked. I called my grandma, and she said that’s not true.

Graham: Wow, you just ruined that for me.

Duncan: It’s like Santa, Graham, you have to learn eventually.

Graham: Santa’s real.

L LIFE

PAGE 12 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER COFFEEHOUSE

Bringing down the house Singers, guitar players and stand-up comedians gather Feb. 27, all ready to perform in the pinnacle of student-led entertainment: Coffeehouse.

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ACT, PLAY, SING Sophomore Sammy Sanchez (above left) contributes his line to an improv routine, while seniors Corbin Walp and Graham Kirstein (top left) act out a humorous scene. Junior Andrew Chuka (top center), a part of the band Pink Freud, plays his guitar along with the other band members. Backed by the SMacapella members, including senior Justin Berry and junior Cameron Bossalini, senior Leighton Okada (far right) leads the group in its performance.

he band before him plays its last note.

“And up next, The Neon Eon,” the MC said.

It’s time.

His legs shaking, Conner Youngblood ’08 grabs his banjo and begins to strum.

It is his senior year. It is his first time playing with a band. It is his first time even performing.

But performing on the stage, seeing the reactions of the crowd and feeling the energy of the live music strikes a chord with him.

Soon after, Youngblood starts writing and singing his own original songs. His musical career has begun.

And it all started at Coffeehouse.

As a talent and entertainment show run by the students and faculty on the Fine Arts Board, Coffeehouse serves as an opportunity for student cultural and artistic expression. Fine Arts Board Chair Avery Powell believes participating in Coffeehouse allows students to show their peers a not as readily displayed side of themselves. “[The students] don’t really get a chance to show their friends what they’re good at,” Powell said. “Most of these students come home and practice things like the bass and the drums. No one knows that about them. [Coffeehouse is] an opportunity to open themselves up and share themselves. There’s really no other event that allows them to do that.”

Since Coffeehouse is organized by and features students, Powell believes it offers a unique opportunity for them to put on whatever type of event they want.

According to him, Coffeehouse’s freedom and student-led planning process is what makes it so special.

“It’s one of those things where we

Spotlight Sitting down with a fresh face among the Coffeehouse crowd, freshman guitarist Raymond Jurcak.

as students get a place to have entirely our own culture and express ourselves in our own way,” Powell, who also performs as captain of the Improv Troupe, said. “It really is our community event as students.

It’s not something put on for us, it’s put on by us, in every sense of the show.”

According to Powell, one of the most essential but challenging parts of Coffeehouse’s planning is selecting a variety of performers from a wide range of ages and acts to create the most entertaining show possible.

‘

COFFEEHOUSE IS AN OPEN GROUP WHERE PEOPLE ARE REALLY SUPPORTIVE OF YOU.

HARRISON CHEN

“The most painstaking part of planning Coffeehouse is choosing the acts that will participate,” Powell said. “You don’t know who to prioritize because you have seniors who might be doing this for their last time, but you also have younger students who want to have their first time to shine and showcase their talents.”

Senior Harrison Chen, one of the most frequent performers, got his musical start in Coffeehouse when, after seeing his sister perform with her band, she convinced him to join the event.

“My sister performed a lot in Coffeehouse,” Chen said. “I always saw her performing and it seemed like she enjoyed it a lot. Playing in my sister’s band and at Coffeehouse just taught me to be more comfortable. That’s what got me started.”

During his freshman year, Chen and the band played songs involving more electric instruments, but he gravitated slowly toward acoustic instruments as time passed, now performing frequently with an acoustic guitar. Chen feels Coffeehouse greatly influenced his musical development.

“What I’ve performed over

When was the first time you played the guitar?

I started playing [guitar] when I was nine, but I didn’t start actually really playing until about a year ago.

Sometimes I’ll take a break from homework and play, and I’m like, “I’ll only play for 30 minutes,” but then I’ll play for two hours. I shouldn’t prioritize it above schoolwork, but I do anyway.

What was your first step toward performing in Coffeehouse?

I piggybacked with [Andrew] Chuka

the years has changed,” Chen said. “I’ve learned I like to do the unique things that help you stand out. There’s even this one act I’ve done where I play the ukulele, kazoo and drums at the same time.”

Along with helping him find a new musical direction, Chen also credits Coffeehouse with helping him find more friends and be more open with others. But, moreover, he feels it has helped him break the daunting barriers of stage fright and gain confidence both on and off the stage.

“I have a nervousness problem,” Chen said, “but Coffeehouse helped that.

That’s one of the reasons why I continued.

[Coffeehouse] helped me to learn to not be afraid. I learned I can conquer things like fear.”

Much like Chen, junior and repeat-performer Andrew Chuka chalks up much of his musical development to the benefits of performing at Coffeehouse.

Along with the evolution of his musical style over the years, his ability and comfort as a performer have also increased.

“It has boosted my confidence and made me better as a musician,” Chuka said. “It gave me better motivation and ramped up my musical development.”

He values his performances on stage with others along with the experiences and lessons learned from collaborating and performing with other people.

Chuka credits the sound and environment of the music to the melting pot of personalities and ideas represented in the performances.

“Everyone gets to contribute to the final sound of the music and you can have more personalities expressed in the music than your own,” Chuka said. “[Playing at Coffeehouse] has helped me figure out I have a love for music and performance.”

Chuka also believes the benefits of working with others in a band have translated to other aspects of his life, as the message of teamwork is valuable in any situation.

because he always does something for Coffeehouse, and I was like “Hey, I’ll try this too.”

When did you start preparing for your performance?

We didn’t practice the actual song until 3 p.m. that day. He told me the song we were doing maybe a week in advance.

What was going through your head the first time you played at Coffeehouse?

Don’t mess up. I mean I’m a bit nervous, but other than that I’m pretty

STORY DAVIS BAILEY, ZACHARY GILSTRAP PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS

“The lessons of team dynamics and working together are something I have used and will continue to use,” Chuka said. “I lead the robotics team, and it has taught me to allow everyone to contribute and not let one person dominate the group. It really applies to lots of other places in life.”

According to sophomore member of the Improv Troupe Sammy Sanchez, besides teaching life lessons and helping performers conquer stage fright, Coffeehouse is first and foremost a fun experience and environment.

“I feel like everyone that goes [to Coffeehouse] has fun,” Sanchez said. “It becomes an event. People will plan their night around Coffeehouse. You don’t have to worry about any competition. Everyone is just there to have fun.”

While he acknowledges performing for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience, Sanchez enjoys the one-ofa-kind supportive environment created by the planners, the performers and the audience.

“It’s scary being up there the first time, but Coffeehouse is a really warm environment,” he said. “Artsy people and good times, that would be the slogan.”

CONNER YOUNGBLOOD Considers Coffeehouse as the begining of his musical career.

Coffeehouse does many different things for many different people. The performances may make people laugh or cry, happy or sad, but for Youngblood, a true Coffeehouse alum, it birthed the beginning of a lifelong passion.

“Coffeehouse represents the very beginning of my career,” Youngblood said. “It’s what started it all, and it’s still going on ten years later. It’s basically the beginning of my musical career, and I owe it a lot.”

much fine.

Does the audience help you perform better at Coffeehouse?

When everybody is cheering, it’s a lot better because it’s like, “I’ve got this in the bag.” It’s helped build my confidence.

What has been your favorite moment performing so far?

It’s generally when I am solo-ing, and people get into it because it’s something you’re actually creating, it’s not something created by someone else.

PAGE 13 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

ISAS ARTS FESTIVAL

L LIFE

Artists

on the move

As the ISAS festival approaches, artists such as senior Will Garden from schools around Texas are gathering their best pieces and prepping their artistic props to be critiqued by professionals.

THE VISUAL VIRTUOSO Sitting by several of his paintings and drawing he has created over his four years of high school, senior Will Garden will display his collection at the upcoming ISAS festival at St. Mary Hall in San Antonio, TX.

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he crowd rises to their feet. Nine hundred boys and girls applaud as Jesus is carried off stage and “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” is sung in the background. The St. Mark’s production of Godspell comes to an end but the audience members are still standing. Minutes pass and the auditorium thunders with the joyous applause of fellow performers joining to appreciate the art.

Two. Five. Ten minutes pass. The chatter ceases and a hush finally came over the crowd as they bustle out of the auditorium.

As Fine Arts Department Chair Jacque Gavin’s looks forward to this year’s ISAS conference, which will be held on April 7-9 at St. Mary’s Hall in San Antonio, she can still remember the smiles on her students’ faces 35 years ago when she attended the festival for the first time.

What she appreciated the most was the students’ decision to attend and participate.

“We did a production of Godspell that the entire festival attended,” Gavin said. “No one was required to go. They just chose to. At the time, it was about 800 or 900 people and they gave us this huge standing ovation that went on for ten minutes at the end. It was thoroughly amazing.”

While Gavin recalls countless experiences in which she was in awe of the art surrounding her, one memory that sticks out is her time sitting by her student in the emergency room.

Waiting for lunch by the picnic tables, the students started vaulting over the wooden seats until Gavin heard the thump. Chris Dammert 90’ was laying on his stomach with a gash in his leg. Casady faculty members called for the ambulance and the dazed Dammert was rushed to the nearest hospital in the middle of Oklahoma City. Gavin remembers the fear of seeing her student in pain in the hospital bed.

“He was vaulting over the tables and he didn’t make it,” Gavin said. “He cut his leg open and I had to spend several hours in the emergency room with him in Oklahoma City. It was rather terrifying and just JACQUE GAVIN Fine Arts Department Chair

offset the real joyous vibes of the festival.”

In Gavin’s mind, beautiful artwork and passionate performances go hand-inhand with ISAS. “Mostly what I remember from the many ISAS’s I have done are the fabulous performances and the audiences’ reactions to them,” Gavin said.

These cheerful vibes inspire and invigorate the passion in the artists that attend.

For senior Will Garden, ISAS has been one of his greatest experiences in high school.

As a child, Garden spent every Sunday with his grandparents, either painting or going to museums. Born in an artistic

family, painting and art has always been a big part of Garden’s life.

“It’s been a huge, instrumental part of my work as a person and as an artistic individual,” Garden said. “I always wanted to be an artist, so it shapes my creativity and shapes me into the creative individual that I am now.” assionate about art, Garden has attended ISAS every year since his freshman year. At the art festival, students are able to learn from professional artists.

“Every year art students get critiqued and we get feedback from people who make a career out of being artists,” Garden said. “It’s good to hear from people who are kind of giving an outside perspective.”

Garden believes that beyond being able to display their art, ISAS provides a diverse environment where artistic students can find commonalities and learn from each other.

“It’s so interesting to see such a wide variety of people who are all interested in the arts; a bunch of people at once from different backgrounds and places,” Garden said. “[We] all have different mindsets and ideals, but we all share that one artistic bone that brings us together.”

Of his works that he will be submitting to be critiqued, Garden is most proud of an abstract self-portrait that he is currently working on, painted using only three shades of blue and drapery techniques. Having used a similar technique his freshman year, Garden is looking forward to seeing the progress he has made.

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“It’s funny because in my freshman year, I did a drapery study and it was awful,” Garden said. “So it’s interesting to see my growth as an artist now; I’m excited.”

Other than painting, however, Garden is looking forward to attending the school’s other performances.

“We always represent and show really good stuff,” Garden said. “Especially [as] seniors, we are a very artistic grade, [so] I’m excited.”

Garden, who considers ISAS to be the artistic highlight of his high school career, looks back fondly at the memories and experiences he’s had at ISAS and looks forward to his last year there.

“At ISAS, it’s a shared experience— everybody is kind of looking for the same artistic freedoms, and we’re given it,” Garden said. “And, it’s a place to make friends—I made a lot of lifelong friends that I wouldn’t have made without ISAS.” A LOOK AT ISAS When: April 7-9 Where: San Antonio Who: Musicians, actors, photographers and artists Why: To display art, share photography, perform music and acting pieces Host school: St. Mary’s Hall

STORY DANIEL COPE, WASEEM NABULSI PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

Two student-produced films earn acceptance into South by Southwest film festival

by John Gunnin

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or the first time in the history of the film studies program, two films created by Marksmen were accepted into the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin.

The festival, an eight-day event in Austin with multiple screenings of new student-made films, began yesterday and ends March 19.

DISTRACTIONS Sitting at his laptop, Matthew Thielman is one of the main actors in the students’ award-winning movie, which will be shown at the SXSW Film Festival.

With opportunities to see films not yet in theaters, Marksmen who produced the winning films will be visiting SXSW for part of their spring break, taking advantage of the unique opportunity to attend the prestigious festival.

“We don’t get in every year,” film studies instructor Jennifer Gilbert said.

“But when we do get in it’s a really great opportunity, because the guys get free badges to go into anything film related at the festival. Last year we were able to see the premier of Boyhood.”

The two films entered by Marksmen and accepted by the organization are titled Art and Distractions.

Art, produced by juniors Rene Reeder, August Graue and Devan Prabhakar, is an exploration of two different painters. With interesting camera angles and expression of art, it was the major project of the film studies class in the spring of 2015.

Distractions, produced by Prabhakar, sophomore Matthew Theilmann, junior Elijah Hubbard and junior Will Ingram, is a narrative of a boy trying to write an

essay, but various distractions like the internet and his electronics prevent him from doing so.

The entries from around the nation are being evaluated, and the overall winner will be announced during the festival March 15, at the height of the film festival.

SXSW is the biggest film festival that film students here have ever been accepted into. This year marks the first time that more than one film from the class has been selected for the prestigious festival.

Gilbert plans to use this selection as a stepping stone to even greater accomplishments in the film world for her future students,

attesting to the boys’ success, work ethic and passion for film.

“I think that the guys who made these films are really passionate about making good film and not just completing an assignment,” Gilbert said. “They really want them to be the best they can be.

They put in a lot of extra time and effort, so it’s not just a class assignment for them, it’s a passion.”

L LIFE

PAGE 14 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER PATRICK MAGEE

The only one of his kind After winning the Grand Prize at the Collin County Young Artist Competition, junior Patrick Magee was chosen as the only pianist to join the National Youth Orchestra.

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“It's a gradual thing. You know, little by little, he’s been striving to grow the entire time I've known him, and I know he was striving to grow before with his previous teachers. I think because of that continued hunger to grow, he's just made a lot of steady progress.”

But Magee’s room hasn’t always been filled with blue ribbons and shiny medals.

In fifth grade at one of SMU’s music camps, Magee stepped up to the piano and prepared himself to perform.

He played Mendelssohn’s “Rondo Capriccioso,” and although he knew it wasn’t his best performance, he didn’t think it was too bad.

His mother disagreed.

“At first I was kind of offended,” Magee said, “but then I realized, 'Wait a minute. She's not going to do me any favors by telling me that I played well. By being honest, she is going to give me the most improvement.’ For example, when I play now, and she says, 'That was really amazing. That was a great and beautiful performance,' I know she is being honest. And the same goes for my teachers.”

Although he’s played in countless recitals and contests in front of judges critiquing every detail about his posture and playing, Magee still feels anxious leading up to his performance with the Plano Symphony Orchestra.

“I get most nervous when I'm playing for my friends or colleagues,” Magee said. “Actually, in the lead up to playing for the Plano Symphony, since there are going to be a bunch of people that I know, I've been getting all of my friends to listen to me play.”

Although the awards serve as inspiring milestones in Magee’s musical career, McDonald stresses that music is not about the trophies or ribbons — it’s about the joy of playing.

“The great thing about music, unlike sports, is that you really can continue doing it your entire life,” McDonald said. “The fact that [Magee] has continued to grow after receiving these prizes, to me, indicates not only have the prizes done what they are supposed to do, but Patrick is a musician with integrity because he's continuing to improve. It's not just about winning. It's about also growing as a musician and exploring this wonderful music.”

unior Patrick Magee calmly takes his seat in front of his jet-black Steinway and Sons grand piano.

His mind tracks each rounded whole-note and winged sixteenth-note with darting eyes, but they don’t stay on the page for very long.

Once he starts playing, he feels like a lost astronaut, drifting through infinite space and time, “seeing galaxies” slip through his fingers.

But on the piano, his fingers don’t slip.

Prokofiev’s “Sonata No. 3” springs back to life.

His hands dance across the beaten black and white keys. In deep concentration, he presses the string he broke by “playing too much” and delves back into another story.

This time, he’s “an alien in his own land,” a hero in his musical story of heartbreak.

For every piece, he crafts a story.

This is how Magee interacts with his music.

And it has paid off.

Magee was recently selected as the Grand Prize Winner in the piano section of the Collin County Young Artist Competition and will perform with the Plano Symphony Orchestra March 19 in the Charles W. Eisemann Center in Richardson, Texas.

He was also chosen as the only pianist from applicants around the country to join the prestigious National Youth Orchestra (NYO) to perform over the summer at Carnegie Hall, Netherlands, Czech Republic, France and Denmark on an expenses-paid trip.

ALEX MCDONALD One of Magee’s piano instructors

But when Magee found out about his accomplishment, he didn’t react like most people would.

“They sent me an email,” Magee said. “It was funny, most people go from seeing it to not believing it to then getting really excited. For me, it was the reverse. I got really, really excited and then I was like, ‘Wait a minute.

That’s not possible.’”

Although Magee has been playing since he was fiveyears-old, he only really fell in love when he changed teachers a couple years ago.

“When I switched over to my new teachers I really started to get into [piano],” Magee said. “They allowed me to look at music in a new way. It wasn’t just playing the notes as the composer wrote it, but really analyzing how you're playing it so you make it as much of your own piece as the composers.”

Dr. Alex McDonald, one of Magee’s teachers, sees the artistic passion in Magee’s playing and encourages a fluid relationship with his pieces.

“He's playing [Rachmaninoff’s “Concerto No. 2”] and the way that he shaped the beautiful passages of that piece are just really fantastic,” McDonald said. “Once he won the [Collin County Young Artist] competition, I think that gave him even more of an encouraging boost to be even more free with the music.”

Soon, McDonald wasn’t merely Magee’s teacher but

The National Youth Orchestra (NYO) DANCING FINGERS A piano player for more than 13 years, Magee averages three hours of practice per weekday and five and a half every Saturday and Sunday.

instead an eager listener and participant in his work.

“I accompanied him, at least for the majority of the performances,” McDonald said, “that's really fun for me because when I hear what his artistic ideas would be and I can respond to that, it's no longer just me coaching him and telling him what to do.”

Beyond attending two private lessons each week, Magee spends hours atop his sleek piano stool, averaging three hours every weekday and five and a half on Saturday and Sunday.

“He's always worked really hard,” McDonald said.

5

countries will host the NYO during its summer tour, including The Netherlands, Czech Republic, France, Denmark and U.S.

1 120

Number of pianists selected for the 2016 NYO

students participated in last year’s NYO and of these, ten were selected from Texas.

STORY GOPAL RAMAN, KOBE ROSEMAN PHOTOS COURTESY PLANO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Five students received Gold Keys from Scholastic Art & Writing Competition

by Mohit Singhal he 2016 Scholastic Art & Writing Competition awarded Gold Key awards to five high schoolers Feb. 10.

Senior Arno Goetz won three awards for photography, senior Michael Mosle won one for sculpture, senior John Landry won one for woodworking, junior Christian McClain also won one for woodworking and junior Gopal Raman was cited for poetry.

“The results that just came are for the regional awards from Texas, Oklahoma and the surrounding areas,” Goetz said. “So if you get a Gold Key in the regional awards, then the Gold Key [recipients] compete against the other Gold Key [recipients] nationally.”

In making his art, the idea for the photo is what matters most.

“All three photos that won are based around this idea of magical

T

realism, which is like this imagination-dream state that you’re in when you’re a child,” he said. “This idea is that you can turn the inane and the banal into something that’s magical.”

For Goetz, the Gold Key awards are an affirmation of the constant work and time he puts into his photography career.

“You do a bunch of work, and it means a lot to be recognized for the work that you do,” he said. “Having a gold key, it’s very exciting. I’m definitely excited to see how the photos play out nationally.”

To make one of his Gold Key winning photos, Goetz first needed to find the perfect location.

“In Plano, there’s this really old kind of rundown airport and it’s public,” he said. “And [at the airport], there are planes just sitting there and you can just walk right up to them. You can just pay to have your

little small two-person plane stashed there.”

After picking the location, Goetz then gets to work on the subject of his art. In this photo, it was senior Tim O’Meara.

“I had him wear khakis and a white shirt, kind of old-fashioned looking clothes,” Goetz said. “I took two suitcases from my grandparents, and then I took Tim out there one afternoon. It was crazy because there were all these thunderstorm warnings going on. It all adds to the magic of the photo.”

Next, Goetz will be working on the Association of Texas Photography Instructors’ Top Program competition.

“It determines the best program in the state,” Goetz said. “We’ve won the last nine years, so we’re hoping for a decade this year. So, we’re working on that.”

PORTFOLIO After building his set of photographs around a common theme of magical realism, Goetz won three Gold Keys from the Scholastic Art & Writing Competition.

PAGE 15 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

L LIFE

ADAM BROBJORG ’10

All about the art With his work now being featured around the globe with Google’s Chromecast technology, millions of people are recognizing photographer Adam Brobjorg ’10.

PICTURESQUE PHOTOGRAPHY Brobjorg has a wide variety of interests in photography. He enjoys taking many portraits, self portraits and nature shots in remote places of the world while altering them using digital art. Many times, Brobjorg uses digital art to make the pictures abstract, adding an interesting dimension to his work.

O

ne streaming device from a global tech giant, equivalent to just the size of a finger.

That’s all it takes to display artwork millions of people across the globe, in more than 23 countries.

The exposure offered by Google’s Chromecast device can be essential to kickstarting the career of artists who are fortunate enough to have their work displayed on the tech gadget.

And lucky enough for Adam Brobjorg ‘10, he is one of the select few photographers who have been able to partner with Google Chromecast, allowing his work to receive unequaled recognition.

“It’s a partnership with Google,” he said. “It’s not like a hired job. I’ve had people hit me up from all over the world asking me about my work because they are showing it in other countries and stuff.”

For Brobjorg, the flexibility provided by the opportunity is one of the major benefits of his existing position.

‘

WHAT’S REALLY FUNNY IS ALL MY FRIENDS FROM ST. MARKS HAVE GOOGLE CHROMECAST AND THEY’LL SEND ME PICTURES OF MY ART ON THERE.

ADAM BROBJORG ’10

“My current job gives me the freedom to pretty much create whatever I want to create,” he said. “So that’s like my main job, creating from my soul, essentially.

Whatever I want to create, sharing it, selling it, show it in galleries.”

The opportunity not only provides worldwide exposure for Brobjorg, but also provides a means of profit and networking for the aspiring artist.

“Sometimes [Google] will share my photography, sometimes they’ll mix my photography with my drawing,” Brobjorg said. “Basically, I can just create what I really want to create and if they like it they’ll show it, and people will see it. Eventually, someone will want to buy my piece, so they’ll call me or find me on Facebook or Twitter. For me, what I want is to create a big following and to show people my and the kind of art that I make. It’s a really good networking pool.” n top of creating artwork for Google Chromecast, Brobjorg hopes that he will increase his involvement with Conscious Alliance, providing financial and artistic support for the non-profit foundation supporting a worldy cause.

“My next step is to create more and more and more detailed and complex works of art,” Brobjorg said. “Up here, I’ve been in Colorado with my manager [Robert Titley ‘73]. He works with Conscious Alliance. Basically, they’re trademark motto is Art That Feeds. I’d love to do some work with them, show my work at events, and take my art and allow it to

help people in need through the nonprofit work.”

When Titley discovered Brobjorg, he was immediately intrigued. Given Brobjorg’s talent, Titley hopes that he can soon begin integrating Brobjorg’s artwork into his non-profit foundation.

“I ran across Adam’s work online and we have a large family of artists and I was just super attracted to his work,” Titley said. “I thought it was extremely unique.

The way he combined photography and painting, digital photography, and music was cool. My background is managing artists in the music business so I’ve been advising and helping him and I think he has a unique vision in terms of how he pulls a variety of images together into one image.”

Titley uses Brobjorg’s art to help the increasingly young and poor population in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and Nebraska.

ROBERT TITLEY ’73 Uses art to help feed the poor in Nebraska.

O

“[Conscious Alliance will] get artists to donate their artwork,” he said. “Those pieces are what we give people in return for donations of either canned goods or cash. [From the donations], we have a full time food pantry and do other projects such as work with youth on the reservation.”

Although Brobjorg has recently begun to accrue recognition, he traces his success all the way back to the photography pro-

gram at 10600 Preston Road.

“The program brought me to where I am today,” Brobjorg said. “Mr. Hunt was just such a great teacher. I was stuck on nature photography and he really pushed me to do some portrait photography and conceptual photography and just other stuff other than nature photography. He also really taught us to have a knack for technical perfection.”

With the help of the school’s photography program, Brobjorg has received several prominent honors throughout his career, including the nationally acclaimed Young Arts contest.

“After becoming a finalist [in the Young Arts competition], HBO got in touch with me,” he said. “They’ve aired me and a couple other artists on show called MasterClass where they paired us up with a master teacher named Bruce Webber. That led to having a group show with some other artists from Young Arts at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami.”

This past month, the young photographer was the master teacher for younger artists participating in the Young Arts competition in California.

With his recent partnership with Chromecast, his involvement in Conscious Alliance and his work as a mentor, Brobjorg is accomplishing his goal of spreading his artwork to millions of people.

“I just want to keep making art, keep connecting with people in the art world, gallery owners, people that own museums,” Brobjorg said. I just want to keep showing my art all over the world and just have more people see it.”

Portfolio Brobjorg’s collection of work extends beyond photography and even includes digital art.

Colorado Mountain Goats

Barfing Beautifully

STORY ANVIT REDDY, MOHIT SINGHAL PHOTOS COURTESY ADAM BROBJORG

The Light Body

P

PERSPECTIVES

PAGE 16-17

sex,

MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

SEXUAL EDUCATION — C

H

With its limited sexual education, is the school preparing us for the future?

it’s more than science.

S

o we took the question to Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie, asking if our current sexual education is sufficient to have healthy relationships, whether they’re heterosexual or homosexual. “[Proper sexual education] is understanding human behavior, understanding yourself and understanding this process of relationships,” Van Drie said, “of understanding what is the difference between friendship and a romantic relationship.

Understanding how powerful romantic relationships are. Understanding how powerful sexuality is. I don't think we provide education on this topic other than in AP psychology.”

BARBARA VAN DRIE Proponent for more sexual education on campus

Then we asked Scott Gonzalez, interim head of Upper School, the same question. His response? “Oh, absolutely not.”

“I’ve always felt that we miss an opportunity as well to talk about sex education,” Gonzalez said.

“When I talk about sex education, it’s not just for pregnancy prevention, but also the kind of STDs and the psychological and physiological welfare of people who are still growing. And if we can talk about drugs and alcohol [with the Freedom From Chemical Dependency organization], we should certainly be able to talk about that.”

Obviously, there’s an issue.

Sex is prevalent in the world we live in. Marksmen have sex — right now in high school, later in life as fathers or whatever the case may be — yet the consensus stands: our sexual education does not prepare students for healthy relationships.

So, why aren’t we learning more?

Ideally, there would be someone in charge to answer this question. But in reality, there’s no one to go to — “Really, nobody’s in charge of it,” Van Drie said.

That’s because there is no health or wellness class here. Van Drie says that if anyone were in

PARENT PERSPECTIVE

U

hopefully k necessarily from just st also kind o misinforma But is t education i There h posed an U the Academ or twice we and human She do bad idea — because of factor hasn off-campus

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PAREN SHOULD JUST HA TALK. TH SHOULD TALKING THE TIM

— Director of C Barbara Va

“Because th to talk with the best im Damon information play a role “Ultim sex whethe that you ne tions about just to have communica and helpfu should pick this stuff.”

‘It is awkward for parents, and if your parents didn’t talk to you, you don’t have that expe

sually, Parents’ Association President Kathy Mallick hears it all.

Her job — as she puts it — is to listen.

She listens when her phone rings with complaints about teachers. She listens when people come to her with suggestions for events. She listens to every opinion parents have when it comes to making decisions.

But this time was different.

When fifth and sixth grade parents raised concerns about the school’s lack of depth in sex education, proposing that the association began to educate parents on how to talk to their kids about sex — Mallick only heard one thing: We need this.

KATHY MALLICK Believes parents should have active role in sexual education

charge of it, it would be the Middle School and the Science Deparment because of the current education.

As far as required academics go, sexual education gets touched on as it pertains to life sciences and biology: the sixth grade learns human reproduction for two weeks, and freshmen in biology learn about anatomy and STDs. “Because it is a science course, it's not designed with the objective of giving advice to students on how to handle their own sexuality, relationships or sexual maturation,” Science Department Chair Fletcher Carron said. “But it is intended to give them information and to arm them with an understanding of how human reproduction works.”

And as far as non-required courses, one class of seniors learn contraception in environmental science and another class of seniors learn about human sexuality during a unit in AP psychology, a total of 37 of the 88 seniors in those two classes this year.

“Psychology teaches a lot about relationships as well, but in general in my class, I add more content in terms of gender because this is an all-boys school,” Van Drie, who teaches AP psychology, said. “I add more in terms of relationships because this isn't addressed in a lot of other areas, and I add a lot more about sexuality because we don't have other education."

While Van Drie, among many others, believes the school should improve the current sexual education, there are many roadblocks in the way. For Gonzalez, improving the curriculum is a scheduling issue — the current daily schedule is packed. It’s not a matter of if we should improve the curriculum, it’s a matter of when.

“There are a number of issues in a complete liberal arts education that we’re not able to address because there’s only so much time,” Gonzalez said.

“I know that people are going to protest the fact that I’m bringing up the daily schedule again, but if you look at the daily schedule, it’s very limiting.”

Because of this, students don’t always receive the proper sexual education. Damon believes this leaves students unprepared.

“If you’re someone who’s in a position about to have sex for the first time,” Damon said, “they will

“When you get a group of people all kind of saying the same thing,” Mallick said, “to be an effective President of the Parents’ Association, I need to listen and then try to make things happen.”

In November, Mallick took the concerns to Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie, who had just been “patiently waiting” for someone to show interest in the topic.

“When I went to [Van Drie], she said, ‘Oh thank goodness you’ve come,’” Mallick said. “She has curriculum. She’s ready, and every class wants her to come and talk to them.”

After telling Van Drie the association’s idea to talk to parents, the two agreed that it was something they needed to do.

They both believe sex education should be based on family values and expectations, and the only place a student can learn that is from his parents.

“They are the best people to have this conversation with their children,” Van Drie said. “Particularly

around thin hopes and e son’s life.” ut despi Van Drie how to have “It is aw your parent experience hungry for a So on J to sixth gra skills they n With ov 114 confere Drie told th kids by now “The in haps even m these conve really all it i

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STORY AVERY POWELL, KOBE ROSEMAN, PHILIP SMART ADDITIONAL REPORTING WA

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

know the basic stuff, but I don’t think that y resulted from St. Mark’s education. More tuff you encounter in the world, which is of dangerous because I think there’s a lot of ation.” there any way to incorporate more sexual into the school’s curriculum? have been efforts. In 2010, Van Drie proUpper School class to the Committee for mic Programs. This class would meet once eek to teach relationships, personal skills n development. oesn’t believe anyone thought it was a — the school’s curriculum stays the same the rigid daily schedule. But, that limiting n’t kept all conversation of sex education s (see sidebar).

And recently, the administration has had meetings NTS discussing this issue, and they DN’T are currently examining AVE A how to incorporate sexual HEY education, along with D BE health and wellness, into G ALL our education.

ME. “Even if we can't do Counseling something in the classroom, an Drie we can certainly talk with parents about how to have these conversations,” Van Drie said. he research says that the very best person h their sons about sex in terms of who has mpact, are parents.” n also sees parents as a good source for n, but he also believes the school should in sexual education. mately, your parents know a lot about er you like it or not,” Damon said. “Not eed to be asking them all kinds of quest it because that is uncomfortable, but e them there as a resource and keep that ation open with them is really healthy ul. Where the parents drop off, the school k up because it is uncomfortable, a lot of

H

For Van Drie, the school could — and should — pick up where both parents and the science curriculum would be limited, covering topics that are better suited for an academic setting.

“Good sex education, good comprehensive sex education — there are different components,” Van Drie said. “There is education regarding human development, such as reproduction and human physiology, relationships and personal skills, such as values clarification. And then, sexual behaviors, sexual health and society and culture. So to me, all of those components come together in terms of comprehensive sex-ed.”

Through a comprehensive education, Damon believes students could benefit from discussion of issues — like correcting misconceptions of consent.

“People don’t have an understanding of it [consent] or as good an understanding of it as possible and as they need to have,” Damon said. “Consent is so important, having an awkward conversation with someone before you have sex is a lot better than a rape charge.”

Despite the risks that come with being uneducated — especially regarding sex — the school does not have a health class as a part of its current curriculum.

Gonzalez thinks the school will have to be creative if they want to change the daily schedule — not necessarily to a “block” schedule — to incorporate more education, sexual or otherwise.

“Sometimes, we just stick to things because it’s more comfortable and easier for us,” Gonzalez said.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good enough reason. I’m a proponent for changing the daily schedule. But the question is, how do we split that time out and redistribute it?”

But ultimately, Van Drie thinks sexual education is just like any education — it should prepare students for life.

“You spend all of this time and resource on an academic education at St. Mark's, so that your sons can have a good life,” she said. “But in the long run of life, what gives his life more meaning? His career or his relationships? Your education is not just about your career. It is to give you a meaningful and full life.”

Past to present 20002008 All sex ed and substance abuse programming overseen by the assistant head of Upper School. Fifth grade curriculum taught by Science Department members, addresses physiology and sexual behavior.

2008

John Ashton, assistant head of Upper School at the time, heads a committee looking at sexual education.

Barbara Van Drie sponsors two parent presentations

by Deborah Roffman, a nationally certified Sexuality and Family Life Educator. Roffman is the author of Sex and Sensibility: The Thinking Parent’s Guide to Talking Sense about Sex.

2011

erience to go on. So that’s why the parents are so hungry for a little bit of help.’ • KATHY MALLICK, PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

ngs like transmitting values, talking about expectations, and what you want for your

ite a parent’s role in educating their kids, e and Mallick realized many don’t know e these conversations. wkward for parents,” Mallick said. “And if ts didn’t talk to you, you don’t have that to go on. So that’s why the parents are so a little bit of help.”

Jan. 26, the two prepared a presentation ade parents, hoping to arm them with the need. over 60 people packed into the Nearburg ence room on that Tuesday morning, Van hem, if they haven’t started talking to their w — they are behind. ntention is simply equipping them, and permore so building their confidence to have ersations,” Van Drie said. “Because that’s is . . . it’s educating them and putting them

at ease with the idea of talking about sex. So parents can be comfortable with a potentially uncomfortable topic, that they can discuss sexuality and here’s how to do it.”

After seeing the success of the presentation to sixth-grade parents, Mallick and Van Drie decided to present again to other grades. Having recently finished one with fifth grade parents and another with tenth grade parents, the two are now working to present to the Lower School.

But beyond educating parents on the topic, Mallick hopes that ultimately the school will bring more of these types of conversations into the curriculum for students whose parents don’t discuss it at home.

“As the mother of four boys, I feel like I can handle it myself, but I do know there are people that don’t handle it,” Mallick said. “And I’m a big supporter of St. Mark’s for a lot of years now and I want us to be perfect. So I would love us — maybe it’s through our character and leadership education — to bring in some of these other conversations.”

ASEEM NABULSI ILLUSTRATION ABHI THUMMALA

2006

2016 Administrators hold meetings with a variety of faculty members including the school’s nurse, Athletic Department, Science Department and counselors.

Barbara Van Drie proposes a onetrimester course to meet twice a week for all ninth or tenth grade students to cover components of sexual education.

Proposed to Committee on the Academic Program (CAP).

L LIFE

PAGE 18 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER KATY RUBARTH

Battling on

After receiving her third diagnosis revealing her cancer had returned, Katy Rubarth continues the uphill battle against cancer — motivated by her three children.

HER WHOLE WORLD Posing with her three children, Andy, Oliver and Charlie, Katy Rubarth looks lovingly over her family. For Rubarth, her main motivation to seek all the possible treatments to battle the returning cancer is her children. She hopes to continue to be a presence in their lives while also continuing to provide care and love for as long as she can.

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series. The first segment appeared in the February 2016 issue of The ReMarker. he beats the odds time and time again.

She had her first battle with cancer in 2005, went through treatment and enjoyed seven years without reoccurrence before it surfaced again.

Director of Communications Katy Rubarth’s second round of cancer posed a far graver danger than the first.

She had been told to go spend time with her family — her future was uncertain.

But Rubarth didn’t give up. She couldn’t. A working single mother of three, Rubarth had responsibilities, and she wouldn’t give in.

“Could I take a leave of absence and sit and wallow in it, wonder about ‘why is this happening to me’, ‘what did I do?’

I guess, but I don't have that option,” Rubarth said. “I've got three boys who are

COURTESY KATY RUBARTH

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GROUP HUG After embracing her children, Rubarth is able to face her obstacles head-on and battle with them for her future.

looking to me to say, ‘gametime.’”

During Rubarth’s trip to Connecticut, in which she planned to tell her kids about her diagnosis, she met with a minister who helped her realize what she needed to know.

“It's not just for you: it's for your boys,” the minister told her.

“You will be okay, your boys will be okay, you'll be healed, and they will be taken care of.”

“It was something in the way he spoke and the way he looked in my eyes.

He saw me. He held my face in his hands, and I felt this warmth that I didn't really understand,” Rubarth said. “It was one of those moments where something awesome is happening, but you just don't really know what it is.”

With the help of the community, Rubarth found a new doctor and underwent extensive treatment.

The original diagnosis that demanded Rubarth spend as much time with her family as possible soon gave way to a second period of remission.

This time, for 18 months.

Seven months ago, Rubarth didn’t feel right. She immediately knew that something was wrong.

“We did another scan and found it had come back,” Rubarth said. “It was in my liver now as well as some soft tissue.”

The diagnosis means that Rubarth has to undergo further treatment, which brings unwelcome side effects.

“I had been taking anti-estrogen therapy, which was making everything wonky,” Rubarth said. “I was having hot flashes

and mood swings. Just miserable. Now I’m going through rounds of chemotherapy with its own special side effects.”

Though the treatment puts extra pressure on Rubarth, she continues to come to work every day. Rubarth is in charge of all external communications for the school, a job requiring an abnormal work schedule.

“My job is 24/7,” Rubarth said. “I'm on the first line of crisis communications, and if there's something going on, I'm likely one of the first to get a call and serve where I can. My colleagues have been incredibly supportive of me working from home on days when I’m too exhausted to get dressed and get into the office.”

Rubarth sacrifices her time and energy to ensure the school runs as efficiently as possible, and in turn, the community continually helps Rubarth as she fights the disease.

“The outpouring of support from this community and the knowledge that there are hundreds of people just thinking about me, that really keeps me going. I don't have the luxury of staying in bed and pulling the covers over my head.” Rubarth said. “But it's easier to come and do what I do because I have those people supporting me.”

Rubarth has learned many lessons from her struggle, including being open to receiving help.

“I was always on the other side. I was the caregiver to friends and family. I love taking care of my boys and you guys, I really view all of you Marksmen as my boys.” Rubarth said. “To realize that you're

not really in a position anymore to do all the things you used to do at 100 percent is unsettling, but it’s really a gift to other people to allow them to help you.”

With countless get-well cards lining the walls in her office and endless casseroles arriving at her house for dinner, it’s clear just how much the community cares about Rubarth.

Even though Rubarth receives help with the small things, she’s not weak — and she’s certainly not going anywhere soon.

“Some common misconceptions people have are that I'm dying. That this disease defines me, that I'm going to be frail, I'm going to be weak and I'm going to be sad,” Rubarth said. “All of these things people think go along with this life-threatening illness that I deal with everyday.

People don't really know how to approach somebody like that.”

Rubarth has fought this disease before, and this time is no different.

Regardless of the diagnosis, there are countless treatment options yet to be tried.

“It’s going to be managed like a chronic disease,” Rubarth said. “We’ve got treatments A through Z, and I’ve got a whole toolbox that we can work from.

Now we are on option B. We haven’t even scratched the surface.”

For Rubarth, cancer is now a part of life. She understands that it’s not going anywhere, but neither is she.

“I don't plan to go anywhere,” Rubarth said. “I'm here and every day is a gift. I've got things to do, and I'm going to do them.”

STORY CRAWFORD MCCRARY PHOTO ARNO GOETZ

Senior ceramicists earn opportunities to display work and earn rewards

by Kobe Roseman

S

enior Greyson Gallagher wasn’t paying attention to the basketball game while he sat in the packed stands of the American Airlines Center.

He was too struck by the colors that the cotton candy vender held on a tall stick as he walked past him.

The calm, sky-blue mixed against the vibrant pink and stood out in the sea of people. The colors — loud and “obnoxious” in just the right way — mixed together in a perfect blend.

His mind was begging to get back in the school’s ceramics room where he could make his award-winning pot: Cotton Candy.

The pot became one of four ceramics works from the school to be selected into the National K12 Ceramic Exhibition starting March 16.

Being selected to the exhibition in Kansas City gives Gallagher and senior Zak Houillion, who both had two pieces selected, the opportunites for scholarships, cash prizes and several other awards.

“The nomination validates that my years of ceramics have been worth something,” Gallagher said. “For me, just getting into the show is an honor too, because not that many people get in.”

The selection process has also given Gallagher the opportunity to see what kinds of pieces he wants to work on in the future based on feedback from the judges.

“I’m for sure going to make more pots like the cotton candy one,” Gallagher said.

“I know what people are looking for in pots now, and I also like that style. I’m not just making it just so someone is like, ‘Oh that’s cool. I want to buy that.’ I’m making it so that I’m happy with what I made.”

One of Houillion’s pieces, a brown and blue pot called Medieval, took him the most time he’s ever spent on a piece. With its large cross carefully embedded into the surface, this selection for him seems more like a tribute to the time he invested in his work.

“Mr. Kysor has really helped give us the opportunity and time so we can put in the hours to get to this level,” Houillion said. “[The exhibition] is special in that not many people get in and to get two pieces selected is not that common. Greyson and I have that to look at and say that we are doing okay in this program.”

Although Houillion and Gallagher have yet to find out if their pieces will receive prizes, Kysor believes they are doing high-level work and they should be honored regardless of whether or not they are given any special awards for their hard

work. “[The pieces] are unique,” Kysor said.

“They are unique in the technique that they are using, and they are unique in the level of craftsmanship that is involved in that technique.”

KILN CRAFTED Selected pieces, Cotton Candy by senior Greyson Gallagher (above left) and Medieval by senior Zak Houillion (above right), will soon be shipped.

PAGE 19 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

L LIFE

NAMES

mispronounced

first day of school

trendy

celebrity

name?

“spelled-wrong”

ethnic

introductions

traditional

unique

what’s in a

“conformist”

beautiful

first impressions

inventive

foreign

uncommon

family name

boring unprofessional

“basic” cultural

1st Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Emre Muharremoglu top-ten most common name Most common name 16% James Hoak

4th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Temi Balogun top-ten most common name Most common name 4% Joseph Day

7th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a most SEMAJ MUSCO top-ten common name Most common name John Hubbard

16%

2nd Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Ailesh Sadruddin top-ten most common name Most common name 14% William Taylor

5th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Sky Park top-ten most common name Most common name 9% James Thomson

8th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Tianming Xie top-ten most common name Most common name 12% Billy Lockhart

10th Grade 11th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Waseem Nabulsi top-ten most common name Most common name 17% Jimmy Rodriguez

Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Devan Prabhakar top-ten most common name Most common name 14% John Crawford

W

hat’s in a name? Here at 10600 Preston Road, it may be a lot more than you think.

In a community of great diversity, we have a rich assortment of unique and interesting names.

For all the James, Johns and Jacksons we have, the community is full of names from other cultures and traditions.

To take a look at the most unique names on campus, ReMarker staff members John Gunnin and Davis Marsh used the website “How Many of Me” to determine the most common — and uncommon — names in each grade, according to national statistics.

3rd Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Shyam Maddukuri top-ten most common name Most common name 11% Charlie Gordy

6th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Fisayo Omonije top-ten most common name Most common name 11% William Fitzpatrick

9th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a Rhys Arana top-ten most common name Most common name 20% James Rogers

12th Grade Hello, my name is...

Most uncommon name Percent w/ a top-ten most Grant Uebele common name Most common name 20% Will Clark

A word from the expert

O

ne go-to resource for all things name-related is Nameberry.com, a website that tracks the most popular, unique and celebrity-influenced names for any given birth year.

With her colleague Linda Rosenkrantz, New York Times bestselling author Pam Satran founded Nameberry.com, and is considered to have had a great influence on the increasing variety in American baby names over the past 20 years. One of the pair’s most impressive abilities is to predict which names will surge in popularity in the near future. ‘’We look at all the lists,’’ Satran said. ‘’We look at movie stars’ names and what they’re naming their children. We look at names that cut across several trends at once.

But after that, it’s just instinct.’’

Although she is all for giving children unique names, ones that might not necessarily make Nameberry’s most-popular lists, Satran understands that many parents feel drawn to more conventional names. ‘’There’s this ideal,’’ Satran said, ‘’not just in names but other things that have to do with style, that you should make a personal statement. But the fact is that most people are not that adventurous. They say they want individual style but they pick their furniture at Pottery Barn. So if you tell them you’re going to name your child Matilda, they’ll say, ‘That’s awful.’ But if you say Sophia or Lily or any of the names that I’m totally sick of, they’ll say, ‘That’s such a beautiful name.’’’

Satran’s philosophy about names, and her embrace of more uncommon and individualistic names, leads her to believe that names are mostly superficial. ‘’There are people who want to sell the idea that your name is your destiny,’’ Satran said. ‘’Names aren’t your destiny any more than your shoes are.’”

KEY • Most common/uncommon name determined by how many US residents share the same first and last name.

• Names in red are the most common/uncommon in the entire school.

• Percentages in red are the highest/lowest in the entire school.

STORY DAVIS MARSH, JOHN GUNNIN INFOGRAPHIC DAVIS MARSH

Junior independently producing electronic music online

by Waseem Nabulsi

T

o most of his friends, junior Isaiah Kazunga is known as Isaiah or simply, Kazunga. But to his fans, he’s known as DJ Squizzo.

Kazunga has been independently producing and releasing electronic dance music — or — EDM, since 2014, under the stage name DJ Squizzo.

Kazunga was first introduced to the genre by his classmates at his last school.

After becoming more familiar with EDM, he decided to take a music production class offered by his school. From there, he was hooked.

“When [the beat] drops, I can feel myself getting goosebumps,” Kazunga said.

“That’s how I know it’s a good song.”

Kazunga was initially drawn to EDM because of its unique sound and the effect the music had on him.

“For me, its always just been a more emotional thing — something about it just makes me happier,” Kazunga said. “I like the power and speed of it; its not really

slow, its not usually sad.”

With a newfound interest in the genre, Kazunga eagerly used up his free time to produce his own EDM, using programs like Garage Band to create his own mixes, and uploading the finished product on platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud for people to hear.

“I wouldn’t consider any of my stuff really really good, but I do like to look at how far I’ve come and how much progress I’ve made just by keeping at it and practicing all the time,” Kazunga said.

“When I started out [on SoundCloud] it took me almost about a year to get to 20 followers and now I’m at 83. So, its just nice to look back and see the progression.”

With his following growing steadily, Kazunga says that he spends more than seven hours a week producing EDM. “When I’m not working on it, I’m usually thinking about it,” Kazunga said.

“I like to try to find inspiration in things I hear around me.”

L LIFE

PAGE 20 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

1

OF MICE AND MEN PLAY

1

THE BEST LAID PLANS With this year’s Of Mice and Men production come and gone, here’s a few looks at what went into making the show come together.

Stapling a doorframe, senior Matthew Lawson puts the finishing touches on the set.

‘It really came together in the last few weeks.

Everyone brought a lot of depth and emotion to their characters, and all the cast and crew worked hard to make this the best show possible.’

— Senior actor Aidan Maurstad

Sophomore Avery Pearson doubles in acting and crew.

Senior Aidan Maurstad aged for his role as Candy.

Leads Sunny Agrawal and Mathew Dominguez relax on stage.

3 Junior Zachary Cole preparing before the show.

4

Lacing up, Dominguez portrays Lenny.

L

PAGE 21 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

BUZZ

LIFE

THIS ISSUE FOOD CHALLENGES KANYE’S ALBUM HEADLINERS

Reviewing the best of the best — and the worst of the worst.

3

1

• Buffalo Wild Wings Let’s start it off spicy.

Taking a trip to Lemmon Ave., my trusty photographer Corbin Walp and I were on a mission: to eat four of the spiciest wings Buffalo Wild Wings makes.

I’ve been to the place a number of times to be a part of history’s best sporting events

PIZZA PARTY Senior William Caldwell shovels a slice of pizza into his mouth.

2

FEASTING Scavenging over the 30-inch pizza, ReMarker staff members devour Serious Pizza’s massive meal.

3 SPICY SNACK The infamous “reformulated

2

blazin’” wings from Buffalo Wild Wings.

Phil vs. food Beginnings: Food challenge musings We all know those people who have pushed their limits to the brink and claimed to have found themselves.

They summited Everest, sailed the Atlantic or hiked the Great Continental Divide, and now have gleamed some sort of wisdom through their journey.

Screw that. If you really want to find out what kind of man, woman or extraterrestrial being you really are, then there’s only one way to find out: food challenges.

There have been many great men who have come before me to conquer some of the metroplex’s best food challenges. I consider myself a novice in this delicious, calorie-loaded pool of greatness with really only one achievement on my food resume: one time I ate an entire box of Samoas Girl Scout Cookies in one sitting.

1

— most notably, for my fantasy football drafts. Usually, I expect a good time to kick back and down some wings with my buds and cheer on Romo and the Cowboys to (probably not) a win.

But not this time. This was official business.

I ordered the so-called “reformulated blazin’” wings, hottest on the hot scale of wings sold there. Our waitress Kristen immediately advised to not get the wings. She said it was a terrible idea.

But I wasn’t scared, and I asked for a cold glass of milk to go with them.

After a few minutes, the wings fly from the kitchen to the table. They’re a dark red-orange — pretty much like a tomato sauce from hell.

I stare at my opponent for a bit. The smell sears my sinuses.

This can’t be too bad, I think to myself and take the first bite.

It is that bad.

I’m instantly sweating.

Sweating a lot. Not just a light sweat but a dripping one. My breaths get faster and faster as I lose feeling around my mouth and spit just drips and escapes

Taking one some of the most sizeable meal offerings in a classic food challenge, editor-in-chief Philip Smart brings his pals to chow down.

out my mouth.

I take a huge swig of the milk, but that doesn’t matter.

I take the second bite and finish the wing and chug the rest of milk. For some reason, I can’t seem to breathe out my nose. It’s just several fast breaths in and out of my mouth.

As I looked at the three wings I had left in front of me, I knew I was defeated.

Only the top spiciest of professionals should attempt this challenge.

I couldn’t handle the heat, and so I therefore left the kitchen.

• Serious Pizza After taking such a serious beating, I knew I couldn’t “take another L,” as they say, like that one again.

So I called up my friends.

With a group of seven other guys, we headed to Serious Pizza in Deep Ellum to try some of the biggest and best pizza in the city.

After trying to park for about 10 minutes (yes, we are naive teenagers trying to navigate around town), we finally strolled up to Serious Pizza in all of its

light-hearted glory: we walked in and there were all sorts of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles murals.

There was a counter made of bottle caps. There were guys spinning huge pizza dough ten feet in the air.

It was pretty awesome.

But when we got through the line to order our massive pizza, a 30-inch extra large pepperoni pizza along with a medium pizza, we got word that it would take 45 minutes.

Thank Dini for no-homework weekends. We decided we had the time to wait a bit and then attempt to devour the massive pizza that could feed a small village of Adam Richmans.

We reminisced for a while, and eventually the pizza came.

It was huge. I could hardly reach all the way across it.

But it didn’t matter. We teamed up and started to conquer the pepperoni-beast of a pizza.

Mainly the size didn’t matter because the pizza was delicious.

Tasty cheese and pepperoni with a perfectly crispy crust mixed to create an exquisite experience.

We ate both pizzas in no

time.

Senior Bradford Beck ate three slices of the extra large pizza and one slice of the medium pizza — he’s a legend that will go down in history for more than just helicopters and no-necks.

His eating capacity is second only to his trolling abilities.

After we were done, we decided that this joint was one of the tastiest spots in Dallas and headed back home — extremely full.

Endings: The last morsels While food challenges probably aren’t very good for my waist-size, I do think we should challenge our food status quo a bit more often. Experiencing the food at new and different restaurants give us unique moments to share.

We too regularly settle for our usual spots as teenagers — the Whataburger and Cane’s on Greenville, Marco’s pizza, Torchy’s Tacos — when we can go out, explore and challenge ourselves by trying new foods.

So in this battle in Phil vs. Food, Food may have beaten me in one of the rounds, but it doesn’t matter — I always win because I can go home and eat another box of Samoas.

REVIEW PHILIP SMART PHOTOS ARNO GOETZ, CORBIN WALP

ALBUM REVIEW

T

The Life of Pablo — a study in Kanye, of Kanye

CREATIVE COMMONS

he main argument I hear way too many times a week while letting the entire world know that Kanye is a musical genius is that “Kanye is a jerk.”

He is. He is not a very likable person.

He is also not punctual, and he is clearly not one hundred percent sane. But I do not care how he presents himself in the public eye because I love his music, and so should you.

Kanye, with his eighth (!) studio album (most artists can’t string together three solid albums) put out one of his best works that further solidifies him as a musical genius.

One of my favorite aspects of the album is that we get a full range of Kanyes, and the album does seem like a life story in that regard. On “Famous” we get (thank you Lord) another Swizz Beats and Kanye collab to produce BUILT TO LAST West’s the most bangeighth studio album ing, head-bobbacked up the talk.

bing beat on the entire album. This is peak “jerk” Kanye, and I absolutely love it. It’s reminiscent of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF) era Kanye. Might be my favorite song.

“Highlights” featuring Young Thug is a fun, bouncy and energetic song where Ye is infectiously pompous, bragging about his wealth, Grammy wins and sexual prowess. This song could fit right in with Graduation and the album’s electric, synthy influence.

This juxtaposed against the soul-searching trifecta of “FML,” “Real Friends” and “Wolves” where he is honest, open and vulnerable, like a better version of 808s and Heartbreak. These songs build into a soundtrack for the human soul that ends with the haunting knock out punch of “Wolves,” the most eerily beautiful song on the album. It’s just bone-chilling. Might be my favorite song.

“No more parties in L.A.” will get any hip-hop head’s heart pumping with a Kendrick Lamar feature and a (!) soul sample from Kanye. This is prime College Dropout Kanye. He also has some of his hardest bars here, probably owing to the lyrical pressure from a Kendrick feature.

Chance the Rapper delayed the album REVIEW CASE LOWRY

release by insisting that “Waves” got on the official release, and I could not be more grateful. It is a flowing masterpiece of a song that just forces a smile on to my face every single time I listen to it. I’m also pretty sure that Chris Brown’s hook plays while you get measured for your halo and wings in heaven. Might be my favorite song.

While “Waves” plays when you are in heaven, it is only reasonable to assume that on the way up there, three angels revolve around you singing the opening track of the album, “Ultralight Beam.”

Then a fourth angel appears with a Chicago White Sox halo and overalls, preaches Chance the Rapper’s featured sermon, and you are absorbed into the clouds with Kirk Franklin blessing you in the background.

Might be my favorite song.

Overall, I would place this album third behind College Dropout at second and MBDTF at first as far as Kanye’s catalogue goes. It just doesn’t have the polished, flawless execution that MBDTF possesses and his lyrics are really pretty weak on the album as a whole.

You can skip “Freestyle 4” though, it’s the only trash song on the album.

I give the album a 4.5 out of 5.

Head iners Concerts Future

March 11 at 8 p.m.

The South Side Music Hall

Mumford and Sons April 4 at 7:30 p.m.

GEXA Energy Pavilion

Justin Bieber

April 10 at 7:30 p.m.

American Airlines Center

Albums Zayn Malik Mind Of Mine March 25

Weezer

The White Album April 1

The Lumineers

Cleopatra April 8

Drake

Views From The 6 April 10

Movies The Divergent Series: Allegiant March 18

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

March 25

The Boss

April 8

The Jungle Book April 15

C

HANDLED WITH CARE

22

BLUE AND GOLD DAY

24

UNSUNG HERO

24

EC OM MO NS

commentary commentary

MY DREAM VACATION IS TO...

Marksmen share their dream locations to chill, relax and enjoy themselves.

TIV EA CR

We applaud the administration’s handling of the juniorsenior assassin game.

page 23

page 3

PAGE 22 FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 I REMARKER

While this day might seem pointless, we believe that it offers rejuvenation before exams.

The staff would like to recognize a student who immensely improved the SPC experience.

EDITORIAL

THE REMARKER EDITOR IN CHIEF PHILIP SMART

A P CA L CU L U S A B

L UN CH

A P E N G L IS H 12

A P P S Y C H O L O GY

W O R L D H IS T O RY

H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S

H O N O R S S T R IN G S

J O U R N A L IS M

MANAGING EDITOR WILL CLARK SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR AVERY POWELL ISSUES EDITOR CAMERON CLARK CREATIVE DIRECTOR ABHI THUMMALA MAGAZINE EDITORS BRADFORD BECK, DAVIS MARSH DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR ZACH NAIDU RESEARCH DIRECTOR NOAH KOECHER HEAD PHOTOGRAPHER ARNO GOETZ

ABHI THUMMALA GRAPHIC

PHOTO EDITOR FRANK THOMAS COMMENTARY EDITORS WILLIAM CALDWELL, JOHN CRAWFORD NEWS EDITORS CORDAY CRUZ, PHILIP MONTGOMERY NEWS WRITERS ANDRE ARSENAULT, RETT DAUGBJERG, BLAKE DAUGHERTY, JAMES HANCOCK, ZOHEB KHAN, NAFTAL MAUTIA, AUSTIN MONTGOMERY, REECE RABIN LIFE EDITORS GOPAL RAMAN, ANVIT REDDY LIFE WRITERS DAVIS BAILEY, DANIEL COPE, ZACHARY GILSTRAP, JOHN GUNNIN, WASEEM NABULSI, KOBE ROSEMAN, MOHIT SINGHAL SPORTS EDITORS RISH BASU, CASE LOWRY SPORTS WRITERS ALEC DEWAR, WILL FORBES, MIKE MAHOWALD, NICK MALVEZZI, MATTHEW PLACIDE, JIMMY RODRIGUEZ, SAM SHANE, SAM SUSSMAN CAMPUS COORDINATOR CRAWFORD MCCRARY REVIEWS SPECIALIST PARKER MCWATTERS BUSINESS MANAGER ROBY MIZE ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGER CARSON CROCKER COPY EDITORS AIDEN BLINN, AIDAN MAURSTAD CARTOONIST ABHI THUMMALA STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS DREW BAXLEY, MATEO DIAZ, SAM EICHENWALD, WILLIAM HALL, WESLEY HIBBS, ALDEN JAMES, REID JOHANNSEN, GRAHAM KIRSTEIN, CAM LAM, CHRIS McELHANEY, CHARLIE O’BRIEN, TIM O’MEARA, TUCKER RIBMAN, NICO SANCHEZ, RILEY SANDERS, KABEER SINGH, OWEN BERGER, CORBIN WALP STAFF ARTISTS DANIEL BYEON, DANIEL GARCIA, JOON PARK, BRAYDON WOMACK ADVISER RAY WESTBROOK ONLINE VIEWING. Each issue of The ReMarker, along with archival copies, can be viewed on the school’s website, www.smtexas. org/remarker.

READER INVOLVEMENT. The ReMarker encourages reader input through letters, guest columns and story ideas. Contact the appropriate editor for submissions.

Suggestions will be given due consideration for future publication.

ADVERTISING. Contact the business staff at 214.346.8145. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Inclusion of an ad in the newspaper’s pages is not an indication of an endorsement by The ReMarker, any of its staff members or faculty or staff members of St. Mark’s School of Texas.

DISTRIBUTION. Press run is 3,800 copies. Copies are provided free of charge to students, faculty and staff at various distribution sites on campus.

More than 2,600 copies are mailed out to alumni courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions.

MEMBERSHIP. The ReMarker maintains membership in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, New York City, NY; National Scholastic Press Association, Minneapolis, MN; and the Interscholastic League Press Conference, Austin.

St. Mark’s School of Texas 10600 Preston Road Dallas, TX 75230.

214.346.8000 www.smtexas.org

Sex education: necessary for the future

A

re we ready for sex?

As Marksmen, we pride ourselves on not only being well-educated in our academic pursuits, but also well-equipped for life as a whole. But, as we wrote our story on the current state of our school’s sex education, we saw that our students aren’t getting the preparation they need to be as prepared as possible to have healthy sexual relationships.

Much of the time, we learn about sex from what they stumble across on the internet or from their friends — who are often just as clueless as they are (especially in Middle School).

If the boys are lucky, they’ve had a talk or two with their parents. And while we believe open conversation with parents about sex is important in developing a healthy knowledge of sex and virtues, parents can’t do everything.

Let’s face it, that sort of talk can be uncomfortable for both the parents and the kids. And, not every parent is prepared to teach their child with the detail and intent that an educator in an academic setting can achieve.

We believe it’s the school’s ability

and responsibility to prepare us for life, and sex is a part of life. If the school wants us to be prepared, a comprehensive sex education program should be implemented as soon as possible.

The solution to this topic-specific neglect may not be straightforward, especially when the ideal is not a “here’s everything you need to know about sex” unit targeted at one specific grade level.

As Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie said: “It would be like saying, it’s seventh grade, now it’s time for math. That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

The second, and perhaps more difficult issue regarding sex-ed on campus is the how rather than the why. As of now, the scheduling system is heavily structured and highly restrictive.

It’s time for the administration to rethink the schedule. If students are to ever take advantage of the full potential of our educational community; we are in dire need of a schedule that allows for a higher variation of classes, one where a mandatory course on comprehensive sex education wouldn’t

comes to

mind?

There are different things we wish we had on campus. Here are some examples of those things.

“Go to Tokyo.” ­— Sixth grader James Singhal

“Go to outer space.”

— Junior Ben Budner

Here’s a topic that will hopefully provoke real thought and insight.

With such valuable information regarding human sexual behavior taught to the 37 students lucky enough to take either AP psychology or AP environmental science, we understand what the school is capable of regarding sex education.

From here on out, it’s a matter of achieving actual progress rather than resultless discussion. Sexual education at the school has been stagnant for long enough.

My dream vacation is to...

what

next month

be so farfetched.

Such a course wouldn’t have to meet every day of the week, just often enough to cover the components of sex education, including but not limited to human development, relationships, personal skills, problem solving and sexual behavior. This course would not be limited to the science of human sexuality, but teach about healthy sexual relationships in our society as a whole.

However, if the current limitations of our schedule provide absolutely no opportunity for a class, we feel that if the school can provide time in the year for a program like FCD, a similarly organized program may be beneficial.

“Live in Greece.”

— Sophomore Henry Kistler

My dream job is...

email submissions to 16caldwellw@smtexas.org

“Santorini, Greece.”

— Seventh grade humanities instructor Ryan Parker

“Have a birthday on Mars.”

— Senior Niegel Stevens

“Cuba.”

—Sixth grader Thomas Philip

PAGE 23 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

C

COMMENTARY

editorial

Making the best of a bad situation T

he administration’s handling of the junior-senior “Assassin” game was professional, thoughtful and effective, and we would like to praise Headmaster David Dini and his administrative team for their actions.

To the Junior and Senior Classes, the Assassin game was meant to be a method of keeping students connected and entertained outside of school.

The creators of the game worked to ensure all precautions were taken.

No playing on campus, period.

No assassinations at school events or during school hours. No use of cars for chasing or escaping.

So when juniors and seniors were notified of an impending class meeting for their two grades alone, the Facebook group sprang into uproar, with threats of taking the game underground or transitioning to a full-on, juniors vs. seniors battle.

Everyone thought a shutdown

was imminent.

Instead, the administration surprised us with an extremely understanding and moderated reaction.

We applaud the effort of school leaders in their decision to effectively give a green light on the game, while still urging the priority of safety and mature decisionmaking in the process.

The grim but effective tone of the “Have fun, but be careful” message interested and engaged students enough to take the speech to heart.

We also want to recognize the responsibility of the administration for looking out for our safety — even after school hours.

By recognizing our positive achievements of the last few months before this discussion, Dini set the mood not for chastisement, but for guidance.

It made his whole speech and warning much easier to listen to and to accept because of his easing

into the matter at hand.

On the whole, we encourage the administration to employ this same level of respect for student intentions in the future.

We understand that at times it might be hard to keep the same respect, but we feel as if this type of assembly made the entire message clearer and more effective.

Although students here may sometimes forget caution in the interest of enjoyment, the ability of the administration to recognize this and simply push us in the right direction rather than eliminating that enjoyment altogether is a tenant that will serve us all well in the future.

So thank you, Mr. Dini and your team for your continued work to improve both the quality and safety of student lives on campus, and we look forward to seeing the growth of a two-way relationship of understanding and respect between administration and students in the future.

THE

MATRIX

Our musings of happenings around campus condensed into single boxes

SIGNIFICANT No baseball locker room

Website update

CONFUSING

The website experienced a minor update that changed its web address, causing many students and parents to be unable to access it.

STEM Conference

Please designate a location for baseball players to change so that they are not spotted putting on their garb in the parking lot, Decherd and elsewhere.

Carl Zimmer highlighted the very qualified field of scientists and scienceenthusiasts that blew our minds while teaching us about them.

Snack bar

Spring Fling

We haven’t forgotten about you, snack bar. A spot to order food during ninth period to get students from the school day to athletic practice is crucial.

While there have been some holes in communication, Spring Fling has the opportunity to be a new school tradition and a staple of the third trimester.

Soup deception

Disappearing clubs

Tutorial inconsistency

Many students were excited to see a new soup apparatus in the cafeteria, discovering to their horror that it is actually just a new picture holding the same soup pots.

As the year wears on, the number of clubs deteriorates rapidly. If you have a stand at the club fair, you should commit to holding it all year.

While the rules for applying for a single tutorial are lenient, the bar on applying for two tutorials holds firm, but for no discernable reason.

Computer lab With classes frequently occupying the computers in the library, it is time to open the computer lab to students. What’s the point of having a computer lab otherwise?

The eighth grade me

“

Goetz column W headline

hat’s it like to know that the four years spent in Upper School decide the rest of your life?”

The question from one of my eighth grade Telos advisees caught me off guard. ”Not because I believed it was a fundamental misunderstanding of the point of a St. Mark’s education, although I do, but because I realized it sounded exactly like something I would’ve said in the eighth grade.

As my St. Mark’s career winds down, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why things worked out the way they did. Looking PHILIP MONTGOMERY at the person I was only four years ago, I feel like a totally different person.

Back then, I was shy, unconfident and pessimistic to a much greater extent than I am now and as a consequence, much less successful in terms of grades and, more importantly, overall happiness. Now, as I thought of a response to my advisee, the only thing that I could think about was what had changed me.

In Shawn Achor’s TED Talk, “The Happy Secret to Better Work,” he says that too often students and people in general work so that at some later point in life we’ll be happy. Once we hit our goal of the grades we wanted or the salary we wanted, we set another, more ambitious goal instead of enjoying the success we achieved.

While that’s a mindset drilled into the American psyche, Achor believes that not letting yourself enjoy the moment hurts you more than it helps you.

According to a Harvard study, 80 percent of children say their parents prioritize acheivement over happiness.

Yet, this idea that we shouldn’t enjoy our work, that we should keep Studies show that pushing ourselves harder many parents prefer and harder to be happy acheivement in school over the general somewhere down the happiness of their road, not only prevents us children. from being happy in the moment but makes us perform worse. Humans simply don’t perform as well when they put that burden on themselves.

A positive brain is 31 percent more productive than one at a negative, neutral or stressed level.

So, when I asked myself what changed, I realized I was simply happier than I was before.

Whether it was the different teams, clubs and other organizations I was welcomed into, having faculty members that not only wanted me to be a successful student but a happy student as well, or some combination of the two, my attitude changed and everything else in my life got better because of it.

But, just as I learned through my own experience what it meant for me to be a Marksman, I knew I had to let them find out for themselves. Either way, I couldn’t put the most important things I learned over my four years in the Upper School into words.

Even if I could, I know eighth grade me wouldn’t have understood anyway.

INCOG-TREE-TO | CARTOON GRAHAM KIRSTEIN, ABHI THUMMALA

Oh god.

Wait do you hear people coming?

*sigh* Yeah put it up.

Ah, I love the outdoors.

MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

EDITORIAL

Bus sizes provide safety issues W

ith spring sports in full swing, we would like to draw attention to the safety of transportation for our athletes.

The buses in the fleet the school carries now are too small to comfortably sit all of the large varisty athletes on the teams.

It is a regular sight to see our athletes jammed pack in the seats of our buses with limbs regularly overflowing into the aisle.

Because of the sheer size of our athletes along with the gear they have to carry in the buses, which is even more prevalent during the spring seasons with sports like baseball and lacrosse, requiring extra baggage, athletes cannot safely fit into the buses.

Needless to say, our buses are in a dire need of an upgrade.

In addition to the issue of safety, students often attempt to take advantage of the time on bus rides by studying and doing their homework.

With the current buses, it is nearly impossible to do work because our athletes are constantly bumping each other because the seating arrangments are too tight and packed.

Our oldest bus now is from 1997, and this also poses serious questions about durability.

There is a noticeable difference between our newest bus­­— 2010 — and the bus from 1997.

The bus from 2010 holds significantly more room in the back in order to store gear and hold bags, and this allows for there to be more room for students to sit easily and safely.

One way to allow athletes to have more room to sit would be to require coaches who drive buses to hold their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).

A CDL is required to drive buses that carry more than 14 people.

Only two varsity coaches hold their CDLs. However, if the school required coaches to have a CDL, then more teams would be able to utilize the bigger buses on campus, and this would allow for athletes to travel at ease.

Another recommendation we have is to make more use of the school-supplied Suburbans.

Even though some coaches utilize the system of driving a bus and a school-supplied Suburban, we think even more should. Then, our athletes would be able to ride more comfortably and safer.

While Suburbans are issued based upon the sizes of the teams, it seems as if the respective teams’ gear is often left out of the equation.

For sports teams that require a lot of gear to transport to away games, the buses can get too full for players to sit comfortably, and we think if there was a suburban to carry some of the players then this would solve that issue.

We believe any of these solutions we have offered would undoubtedly help improve the safety of our buses.

Also, we think with a new and improved bus fleet or busing system, students would become much more efficient and effective during bus rides.

We have no doubt the administration will properly upgrade our bus fleet.

“

H

Unsung hero

EDITORIAL

Blue and Gold day deserves more attention and respect

E

very May, the annual Blue and Gold day comes around, and each year, it is reconfigured.

Some years, with enough snow days, it is canceled entirely. However, students wonder, why is it so difficult to arrange a field day?

We believe that students deserve a single day towards the end of the year where they can bond as a grade and enjoy themselves with recreational sports and a push-popsicle.

However, in our listless effort to gain more information about this year’s Blue and Gold day, administrators and parent association members alike pointed their fingers in a circle, exemplifying the disorganized nature of the day.

With mounds of exams, AP tests, papers, projects and presentations at the end of the year, May tends to be the most stressful time in a Marksman’s year.

For that reason, we believe all students deserve a field day towards the end of the year; that means a multi-hour affair, not a half-hour pick-up basketball game like in some years past.

We think this day would give students a needed break.

We appreciate the work that goes into planning Blue and Gold, but we believe the day should be given higher regard, rather than being reconfigured to fit what the calendar calls for that particular year.

DREW BAXLEY SENIOR SPC TRIP ORGANIZER Senior Drew Baxley organized a trip to support the SPC teams.

A

fter making an announcement to different classes, senior Drew Baxley was able to organize a very successful fan-trip down to Houston to support the winter sports teams.

Not only did this road trip prove to be fun for everybody involved but also provided a momentous support to the teams competing on Saturday morning, which proved to be helpful to the teams playing.

This took serious dedication, considering the roadtrip caravan left at around 6 a.m. that Saturday morning and drove five hours to provide Lion athletic teams with support.

Their safety is also commendable, making sure that they accounted for every single problem that could arise and knowing how to react had one arose.

Thank you, Drew.

We appreciate your dedication.

hot or not?

30-word thoughts on some recent events at 10600 Preston Road.

Hot | Conspiracy-house With the first Coffeehouse ever held in the Decherd Auditorium, a record crowd of more than 400 students — rather than the usual 180-200 showed up to cheer on 22 amazing performances.

Warm | Cafeteria options Who doesn’t love plenty of options? The wing-bar, mac ‘n cheese bar and yogurt bar are just a few examples of how the cafeteria has been knocking it out of the park.

Cool | Upper School assemblies Even though it must be tough to think of ideas for assemblies every week, we think the recent string of activity-less assemblies is becoming a monotonous.

PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

C

COMMENTARY

PAGE 24

Icy | Alexis de Tocque-fail The Alexis de Tocqueville writing competition failed to receive enough entries to occur. When given the opportunity to apply to a competition, take advantage of that chance. What have you got to lose?

The man beneath the bridge: my friendship with DaVinci

ey, who are you?”

It was an unusual thing to hear from a stranger, let alone from a man sitting on the underpass of a bridge. As my boat drifted between the rows of columns supporting the highway above, I saw him — his plaid shirt and blue jeans caked with dirt, bearing an overturned cardboard sign.

"I'm the bowman," I replied carefully.

"Leonardo," came his response.

"As in DiCaprio?"

"As in DaVinci."

From then on, he was there. Every other crew practice he NOAH KOECHER stood to greet me, to interchange a few words as I passed under the bridge, like a parent yelling to a child passing by on a carousel at the State Fair. Our conversations were mapped into four-line intervals every twenty minutes, three times a day, three times a week, as I journeyed around the lake.

Yet as days turned into weeks and

then into months, I discovered that my fleeting contact with DaVinci was growing into a curious bond.

I learned we weren't alike just in our blond hair and blue eyes, but in deeper things as well: we both believed that suffering built wisdom and character.

We had distinct goals for our lives.

We valued family above all else.

But while my suffering was the sting of learning I'd never be the best rower, his was the cruelty of losing a wife to cancer.

His goals were rising above the poverty line and getting reemployed — mine were becoming a great author, journalist, coder. While I spent my Sundays at church and brunch with my family, he spent his visiting his son at the Sterrett North Tower Jail.

We shared things I couldn't share with my closest friends. We knew our relationship was an impossible, once-ina-lifetime alignment of planets, and anything we said or did would be left only to memory when our inevitable orbit pulled us apart.

The one thing that went unspoken was our greatest and most apparent

difference.

Until one day, I finally found him by chance on the streets near the lake, eight months after we’d first met. His toothy grin was unmistakable.

Yet when I called out a greeting, sure he'd be happy to see me, he froze. He saw me in the car. Saw himself, on the curb, with his sign.

He dropped his gaze, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, snatched his backpack off the ground, and walked swiftly in the opposite direction.

I realized immediately what I'd done.

His plea for help didn't apply to me — I cared about him beyond the change in my pocket.

I was different.

But I'd breached the barrier between us, toppled the elephant in the room that neither of us had dared to approach.

And he was gone.

Every day I searched in vain for him below the bridge.

Each week I passed by his exit.

Yet I knew I had failed our tenuous friendship, and I knew he would never return.

I'd never see that sign again.

But one day, as I passed under the bridge, I saw a different sort of sign.

On the walls of the underpass, scrawled roughly in black spray paint, were two words.

Goodbye, Leonardo.

Someone else was out there, giving up the search. Maybe his son. Maybe a homeless friend. I'll never know.

But when I saw the words, I knew I might have failed DaVinci, but I hadn’t failed myself. Despite my volunteer work, I'd never believed I could communicate meaningfully with a stranger of the streets.

I knew we were intrinsically the same but had felt we would always be separated by the window of a car.

I'd proven myself wrong. I'd learned to care unconditionally. I'd done what so many fail to do.

Because whoever left the words, they didn't know him as well as I. They didn't know him at all. They didn't even know his name.

He wasn't Leonardo.

He was DaVinci.

S sports

COACH LEE

Take a look into the life of a renaissance man.

A SPECIAL RETURN

PRESEASON

Is there an unfair advantage with preseason sports?

The return of Todd Oakes ‘88 helps swimming team and senior Li excel near end of season.

SPORTS ETHICS

The ethical implications of running up the scoreboard.

PREVIEWS

Spring sports teams are in full swing looking ahead to their season.

page 26

27 28 29 31

PAGE 25 FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 I REMARKER

F

• JV SPORTS START SEASON STRONG Both junior varsity baseball and lacrosse have gotten off to strong starts in their respective seasons.

A solid 7-6 win against Flower Mound has given the lacrosse team a 1-1 record, while baseball won the silver division of the Homeschool Athletic Association Tournament including a comefrom-behind victory over Prestonwood in the final.

“The team was very excited to come back

stories around campus in brief and win the Championship game and the bracket,” junior Andrew Whigham said.

Lacrosse takes on ESD tonight while baseball faces All Saints on Wednesday.

themselves against much more competitive teams on the West Coast.

“Our guys are really excited to get back out to San Diego and compete,” Sadlowski said.

• VARSITY LACROSSE HEADS TO CALIFORNIA For the second straight year, the varsity lacrosse team is traveling to San Diego, CA this spring break.

Head coach Francis Donald and senior Max Sadlowski are looking forward to the trip and hoping to prove

• MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS BEGIN The spring sports season for the Middle School teams have just begun. Both the seventh and eighth grade baseball teams played their first game Feb. 29 against Trinity Valley.

The lacrosse gold team’s next game is

against Rockwall March 17, while both the seventh and eighth grade baseball teams play March 15 against ESD. Tennis has a match next Tuesday against All Saints, and track and field’s next meet is March 18.

“I’m excited for this upcoming season,” eighth grade lacrosse player Paxton Scott said. “I think we will have a lot of success due to our effort.”

team was represented at Prep Nationals the weekend of Feb. 26 by sophomore Tucker Ribman and junior Ivan Day. Facing fierce competition from lots of schools, the two wrestlers did not see much success. Ribman won one match and gave the team three points, which was their total for the weekend.

“It was a little rough,” Ribman said.

“We did get points on the board though, so we beat some good schools.”

• WRESTLING GOES TO NATIONALS The wrestling

— Nick Malvezzi, Mike Mahowald, Sam Sussman, Sam Shane

in the

MOMENT events on campus told through photos

BREAKING DOWN Preparing to throw a check against a Flower Mound attacker, freshman Grayson Feick plays defense in a district match Feb. 20. The Lions won the match 6-5 for their home opener against a district team. Also, the Lions beat Coppell March 1 to bring their district record to 2-0.

The Lions take on the ESD Eagles tonight for another conference game at 7 p.m.

Michael Jordan plays at homecoming game

the Around corner

what you need to know in the coming week

TODAY What Varsity lacrosse vs. ESD When 7 p.m.

Where Norma and Lamar Hunt Family Stadium

The playmaker For one of his last games as a senior, senior Jalen Lynch crashed the boards in helping the Lions to a 58-55 win against Kinkaid Feb. 12. Lynch was the starting center for coach Greg Guiler’s squad.

12

What Varsity baseball vs.

ESD When 4:30 p.m.

Where Arthur P. Ruff Field

WEEKEND What Greenhill Track Meet When 9 a.m.

Where Greenhill

NUMBER OF REBOUNDS RECORDED BY SENIOR JALEN LYNCH IN THE QUARTERFINAL SPC PLAYOFF GAME AGAINST KINKAID

What Southlake Water Polo Tournament When 9 a.m.

Where Caroll ISD Aquatic Center

JALEN LYNCH

NEXT WEEK What B.V.U. Invitational When Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m.

Where Norma and Lamar Hunt Family Stadium

What Varsity lacrosse vs.

Plano West When Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

Where Norma and Lamar Hunt Family Stadium

What Varsity Tennis vs. Parish When Thursday, 4:30 p.m.

Where University of Texas at Dallas

What Varsity baseball vs.

DASCHE When Thursday, 4:30 p.m.

Where Arthur P. Ruff Field

DREW BAXLEY PHOTO

I

can tell you the last five college lacrosse teams that won the national championship.

I can also tell you the best players on each of those teams all while giving you the rundown of which ACC or Big 10 lacrosse games are on this weekend on ESPNU. But, to be honest, I can tell you — but I never would.

And I wouldn’t because of the fear of those two words: lax rat.

The term “lax rat” is a name that has followed me around ever since I picked up a lacrosse stick. During my freshman year, lacrosse was an entirely new sport to me. The speed of the game along with the required coordination made me instantly fall in love.

I started watching college games every weekend and learned the play styles of the top players in the country. By my sophomore year, I was obsessed with lacrosse, or as I say, a lax rat.

And that title stuck.

Proud of my knowledge of the lacrosse world, I realized it was almost impossible to share the same passion with my fellow teammates. For some reason, it was odd to be enamored with lacrosse, hence the name lax rat. After asking many questions, I got the same answer: It’s just different with lacrosse.

Why? How is it different? Completely confused, I RISH BASU noticed a culture and a presence of guilt that needed to be changed.

Every time I asked someone whether or not he watched the Duke-Syracuse lacrosse game or saw Lyle Thompson’s recent behind-the-back goal, I was met with the same hesitation and reluctance to say yes.

You can’t love a sport too much. The fear of becoming “a rat” can only hurt team chemistry in the long run. And even though lacrosse may be “different,” this consequence applies to all sports. or this reason, I was completely confused as a freshman picking up a lacrosse stick for the first time. A simple “I love lacrosse” statement was met with scorn and laughter. Wouldn’t a team full of lax rats play better than a team full of players not able to admit they love the game?

The only way to answer this question was being different.

For the next two years, I carried a lacrosse stick with me around the house, pounded the pocket maybe 600 times a day and watched highlights until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

And I wouldn’t be anywhere as a lacrosse player without it.

So now, I take pride in the lax rat status. I have 46 college lacrosse games on my DVR, and my YouTube recommendations are filled with videos on how to string a high pocket.

But more importantly, I am not afraid to say, as should nobody, that I love lacrosse.

And I know for a fact that I’m not the only one.

So to all the sports fanatics out there, don’t be afraid to share what you care about.

Don’t be afraid to be a rat.

QUICKhits

TUCKER RIBMAN PHOTO

YOU CAN CALL ME A LAX RAT

“The SPC tournament was overall a success. Even though we didn’t get the outcome that we wanted against St. Stephen’s, we really came together as a team in order to grind out the win against Kinkaid.

That’s something I would remember the most during the tournament.”

S

PAGE 26

SPORTS

MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER ERIC LI AND TODD OAKES

Where it all began Todd Oakes ‘86, the best statistical swimmer in school history, returned to school for the first time since graduation to watch the varsity swim team compete — and watch senior Eric Li break one of his 30 year-old pool records.

H

e’s lost — the best swimmer in St. Mark’s history can’t find the natatorium.

Why? Because he hasn’t been back to school in 30 years.

Despite a successful high school career, Todd Oakes ‘86 — who set countless school records and finished with 215 points, more than any swimmer in school history — hadn’t returned to the school since graduation.

He set state records and earned a scholarship to become a member of Stanford’s swim team, one of the premier college teams in the country.

But following his senior season, Oakes, one of the most recognizable people on campus during his time as a student, was never seen again by anyone on campus.

For 30 years, Oakes never returned to the school, spending time in Dallas with family and friends while neglecting his alma mater.

And 30 years later, Oakes finally returns.

••• This year, the swim team was led by another one of the best swimmers in program history: senior captain Eric Li. Li looked up to Oakes as a mythical figure, someone who could be talked about but never messed with. However, with successful freshman, sophomore and junior years under his belt, Li saw that a record-setting season was within his reach.

Early in the season, after a relay team that Li was part of broke a record for a relay that Oakes was part of, Director of Alumni Relationships Alex Eshelbrenner ‘04 sent Oakes and his teammates an email letting them know their record had been broken.

MIHAI OPREA Proud of the swimming program’s continued success

Intrigued by the news of his record falling, and wanting to check out the progress of the program he was once a part of, Oakes decided to check out an upcoming swim meet.

And so Jan. 21 at a dual meet against Greenhill, Todd Oakes came back to St. Mark’s for the first time in 30 years.

“I got there a little early, and the team’s much bigger now than it was when I was

GLORY DAYS Oakes (above) stands below the boards displaying his records. Next year, Oakes’s name will be replaced with Li’s on some of the records (left). After meeting for the first time, Li and Oakes (above left) have become close friends.

a swimmer,” Oakes said. “I was pretty shocked to see how big the team was sitting in the room waiting for me.”

After introducing himself to the team, Oakes finally met Li, the first swimmer in a long time who was within a second of Oakes’s records. When head swimming coach Mihai Oprea introduced Oakes to the team, he also informed Oakes that Li would be going for a record that night.

“Coach Oprea told me, ‘We have a swimmer who is going to go for your pool record in the 100 free tonight,’” Oakes said. “So I got to meet Eric and shake his hand at that point.”

Once the meet started, Oakes was awestruck at the atmosphere of the pool and the spirit of the team.

“When the meet started, I was really surprised at how enthusiastic and how much energy the swimmers have.” Oakes said. “When their teammates are swimming they’re behind the lanes cheering and it was just great to see.”

Being back as a part of the program was an opportunity Oakes relished.

“He was a part of the team,” Oprea said. “Just a great thing for the guys and a testament to the swim team. A guy comes back after 30 years and still enjoys it. He was so impressed. He had so much fun.”

After taking in the atmosphere and reminiscing on his swimming career, Oakes realized it was time for Li to go for the record.

“I can tell by watching swimmers when they have a lot of adrenaline going,” Oakes said, “they’re ready to go, and I could tell [Li] was, and I was watching him swim. I watched what his split was on the first 50 and how fast he went that first 50. I said, ‘He’s gonna break it, and he’s gonna break it significantly.’”

And Li did, smashing Oakes’s thirty year old record by nearly a second.

“In a way, the fact that he broke it by almost a full second is almost easier to deal with than if he had broken it by say one hundredth of a second,” Oakes said.

“The fact that he smashed it, that is now his record, and it might stand a while too.

It was a beautiful swim, I was impressed.”

Oprea was also astounded by the record-breaking swim.

“For a guy to swim that time in this pool, it’s pretty amazing.” Oprea said.

“It takes everything, it has to be a perfect race.”

From Li’s perspective, breaking the record wasn’t his main goal, but he’s quite glad that he did.

“It was great,” Li said. “The whole team was there and they were cheering me on. I felt like I accomplished something not just for myself, but for the whole team.”

Li has been a team player his entire high school swimming career. That’s why he finished his career with his team winning the SPC Championship all four years, pulling off the capstone win in dominant fashion this year in Houston. Additionally, this year’s win was the eighth consecutive SPC Championship for St. Mark’s swimming

‘

I KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO SWIM THAT FAST WHEN YOU’VE GOT SO MUCH WORK. TO DO THAT IS IMPRESSIVE.

TODD OAKES

Those SPC wins and all the team wins he was part of are more important to Li than any record he could have set. It’s all about what he could contribute to the team, and rather than focus on all the records he broke, Li chooses to focus on the amazing year his team had.

“I could say that the 2015-2016 swim team broke the 30-year record.” Li said.

“I was a part of that team. My teammates can say that they were a part of this record breaking year.”

Additionally, Li’s hard work over the course of his high school career was rewarded when he was named captain this year. Although he earned a new title, being a captain didn’t impact the way Li led.

“Even when he wasn’t a captain, he was a leader,” Oprea said. “I’ve known him a long time, and that’s just who he is.

He tried to do more as captain, but he had already been doing everything. Always on time, always works hard, always an example. Not a very vocal guy. More of a, ‘I’ll show you how it’s done’ type of guy.”

The team feels an extremely tight sense of brotherhood. As a captain, Li is one of the ones who strengthens the bond, but he knows the entire team feels it too.

“We really love each other,” Li said.

“We all really love the team. Everyday we are willing to sacrifice and work really hard not only for ourselves but to make the team better as a whole. That really

STORY WILL FORBES, SAM SHANE PHOTOS ALDEN JAMES, ARNO GOETZ

came together at SPC.” s Eric finishes his high school career and gets ready for the next step, his future might be very similar to Oakes’s: move on to swim for a premier university.

Li was accepted early to Yale, where he plans to walk onto the swim team. According to Oakes, Li would immediately be one of the fastest freestyle swimmers on the team.

For Oprea, it’s easy to see the abundant similarities between Oakes and Li. Successful high school swimmers. Disciplined, hardworking student athletes.

“They both have a tremendous work ethic.” Oprea said. “I think they’re both very humble. They aren’t show-offs. Very modest, very humble. Both very talented.”

But for Li, comparing his legacy to Oakes’s is not what’s important. For Li, just being mentioned in the same sentence as Oakes is amazing.

“It’s great to be compared to Todd Oakes,” Li said, “because, honestly, he’s a legend.”

A

MAKING WAVES Here are some of the records that belong to Eric and Todd:

Records Eric owns:

•

• 191 total points

• Second all time

•

• 46.15 seconds

• Pool record for the 100 free

•

• 1 minute 28.00 seconds

•

Pool record for the 200 free relay

•

• 3 minutes 13.15 seconds

•

Pool record for the 400 free relay

•

• 1 minute 37.37 seconds

•

Pool record for the 200 medley relay

Records Todd owns:

•

• 215 total points

•

First all time

•

• 51.68 seconds

•

Pool record for the 100 fly

PAGE 27 HAYWARD LEE

A jack of all trades

H

ayward Lee’s old orange racket slices through the air and smacks a fuzzy green ball into an arc above the rubbery, grey floor of Spencer Gym. The tennis ball rebounds and Lee repeats. Again and again. Day after day.

He’s always working — training.

Practicing. Preparing to help coach tennis only two years after winning the Texas State championship as the head coach of the lacrosse team, and only seven years after winning the SPC championship with the football team.

Now it’s tennis, and who knows what it will be the year after. First he coached football and lacrosse in 2003, his first year here, then coached our first state championship team as the head coach of lacrosse and retired from lacrosse that same year, assistant coached golf. Now, he’s the head coach of tennis while still coaching the eighth grade and varsity football teams.

But if you ask Lee if he’s some kind of renaissance athlete, he’ll simply say coaching multiple sports is a way to stay interested.

“I would just burn out if I did one sport and only one sport,” Lee said.

“Coaching multiple sports, and coaching different kinds of kids and athletes and trying to be the best that I can be in different disciplines really energizes me. I had an opportunity to just do one sport at the college level. It was interesting to me, but I passed on it to stay at the high school level.”

Lee has coached a total of five sports: football, lacrosse, soccer, golf and now tennis. But sports have always been a major part of his life, even since he was a kid.

“I played every sport you can imagine growing up,” Lee said. “I grew up in a community where that’s pretty

Hayward Lee — who has been head coach in football, lacrosse and now tennis — has proven himself to be the Athletic Department’s go-to guy much all we did. So, whatever sport was in season and probably what was out of season we were playing all the time. It wasn’t uncommon to come from soccer practice and pick up a tennis racket and then find a pick-up basketball game. That was just the typical childhood experience for me.”

Senior captain Graham Gillespie has played and developed under Lee’s guidance in lacrosse, soccer and football, and cites Lee as a main reason he has evolved into the star three-sport athlete he is today.

“Coach Lee really helped me early on,” Gillespie said. “He was the lacrosse coach who guided me through the fundamentals in the middle school years and laid the foundation to even make it possible to be where I am at today. One of the best coaches I have ever had.” unior quarterback Hyer Thomas cites Lee’s infectiously positive and personal coaching style as a reason for his success at the position.

“He makes every kid feel like he is the center of attention,” Thomas said.

“He makes you feel like he wants you to succeed, and he just knows how to bring a team together through all his

J

NICK SBERNA Works with Lee coaching the eighth grade football team

positivity.”

In addition to coaching sports at the high school level, Lee coaches the eighth grade football team, where he’s been coaching alongside defensive coordinator and eighth grade teacher

Nick Sberna for six years.

“I think the reason he gets so much respect is not just his commanding knowledge, but he really cares about the individual,” Sberna said. “I mean, he wants to win, he wants the team to do well, but he really does recognize you’re going to get the most out of somebody if there’s a strong relationship there.”

Sberna truly believes Lee has the football brains and IQ of a college coach, but he also understands Lee has the unique ability to get through to high school players on a much more personal level.

“You’ll have a kid who makes a mistake and he’ll be right in his face,” Sberna said, “but then the second the kid corrects that mistake and does something well, Coach Lee is the first person to have that arm around him and say ‘I told you you could do it.’”

Sberna says Lee understands the real purpose of coaches.

“To balance constructive criticism with appropriate praise—I think he understands as well as anybody the idea that, yeah, we’re out there to teach these guys some skills pertaining to the game,” Sberna said, “but that what we’re really out there to do — the thing that’s really underneath all of that — is trying to help boys become men.“ Lee’s decision to coach tennis this season was not necessarily one that came out of the blue. He’s been involved with the sport ever since he was a six year old.

“I had a tennis background as a kid growing up,” Lee said. “Ultimately, when team sports started to kick in seriously, I was pulled to that, so I sort

MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

S

SPORTS

of put tennis aside as a teenager to get locked and loaded in team sports, and I don’t regret that because that’s helped me to get to college and to get through college. But, I’ve always loved and respected the sport. When the position came open it seemed like it would be a natural fit. Our athletic director talked with me about it, and I was excited to do it and help out.” hile some believe the team’s record determines a coach’s success, Lee sees the long-term impact on a player as the most valuable influence a coach can have on a team and its athletes.

“My favorite moments are when boys that have played for me come back after they’ve graduated and sit down and visit and talk about their experiences or the impact that we were able to have on them,” Lee said. “That’s really the single most rewarding thing.

And ultimately I think that’s why we all get into this profession. It’s an opportunity to connect with kids and make a difference in a positive way.

The sport, the games, the wins, the losses — those all have a certain importance at the time, but at the end of the day, those aspects are just vehicles to a bigger impact.”

Players’ characters are shaped alongside their athletic skill on the field, and Lee sees no better venue than a sports field for the development of a complete man.

“I know that I’m biased, but I feel like the work that we do as coaches is so instrumental in our mission as a school to grow boys into good men,” Lee said. “I know of no better place to do that — I know we do a lot of great things here comprehensively — but I know of no better place to do that than on the playing fields or on the courts.”

W

STORY CASE LOWRY, MIKE MAHOWALD PHOTOS WILLIAM HALL

Tennis looks to build on strong underclassman foundation

by Alec Dewar

A

s the tennis team gets going this season, expectations are high throughout the program. After knocking on the door for the past few years, team leaders feel this is the year they can finally take that next step and win an SPC championship.

Of these leaders are senior and last year’s captain Anvit Reddy and senior Albert Thieu. Both focus on the upcoming season by setting a goal for the team.

“To end the 14 year SPC drought,” Reddy said. “This year’s team is driven, experienced and hungry for that title.”

While Thieu agrees with Reddy that the goal is to end the long drought without an SPC title, he also emphasizes

a second goal for the individual players.

“I think a major goal is helping every team member to fulfill their full potential in the season,” Thieu said. “Both in terms of skill and in terms of being a great team member and learning life skills from the trials of competing on court alone.”

Sophomore Davis Bailey agrees with the goal that Reddy has set for the team, and points out there are a few habits the team must acquire in order to succeed the way they wish.

“We need to come together as a team and build each other up to the best we can be,” Bailey said. “If we do that, I think there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to have a very successful season.”

Reddy puts emphasis on the fact that

in order to have a completely successful season, they must build a brotherhood to succeed.

“Tennis is such an individualized sport, but we are trying to make it more team-centric by trying to build strong connections between all the players,” Reddy said. “By doing this, we can create a competitive yet friendly atmosphere that will inspire our players to improve in practice while also maintaining a close rapport.”

With many young and upcoming players on the tennis team, Reddy points out a major focus for the team should be to improve each players’ strength from a mental perspective.

“I hope to see all of our players

improve in terms of their mental strength while they are on the court,” Reddy, who was captain as a junior last year, said.

“Last year, I think we somewhat wavered in this aspect of the game, and it led to breakdowns in some critical moments.”

Reddy ensures the talented squad will succeed this season. He points out now their experience has grown, they can be as dangerous as ever.

“From top to bottom, this is the best team I have been a part of,” Reddy said.

“And it just might be one of the greatest tennis teams that St. Mark’s has ever fielded. This team is hungry like no other. We’ve experience crushing losses over the past few years, but those losses have only made us that more unstoppable.”

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SPORTS

MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER PRESEASON WORKOUTS

LOCKED OUT? As spring sports teams start their seasons, they are preceded by preseason — those two weeks in which aspiring athletes can impress coaches with their athletic skills. But does preseason give an unfair advantage to the athletes who can go over those who can’t?

S

ophomore Calvin Hosler goes to the locker room after his eighth period chemistry class. He’s excited. He’s nervous.

Today is the first day of baseball tryouts.

As he puts on the pants he hasn’t worn since the summer, his heart skips every couple of beats.

He goes through the tryout and does as well as he can with the minor pain feels in his arm, which keeps him from throwing.

He’s only able to hit once.

The next day, he repeats the routine. As he heads to the field, he wonders what the day has in store for him.

When he shows up, head coach Johnny Hunter tells him something he was not expecting to hear on his first day on the diamond.

“You’re going to head to the backfield with the freshmen today, Calvin.”

Hosler is going to continue tryouts with the athletes going out for junior varsity.

Hosler is one of many athletes to have gotten no preseason and a limited tryout due to his winter sport. While the coaches observed many players for weeks during preseason and got to know these players’ strengths and weaknesses, Hosler believes he hardly got the chance to even make an impression.

“I honestly didn’t even get a chance to try out because they already made up their minds and teams were already stacked,” Hosler said. “I basically didn’t even get a day to try out.”

Do preseason workouts give those aspiring varsity athletes an advantage over those still playing another sport?

Hosler, who had a strong batting average on the junior varsity team last year at .273, wanted a little more time to show the coaches what he is capable of doing.

“They should probably give us at least enough time to look at us and see if we have the athleticism and skill set,” Hosler said.

Athletic Director Mark Sullivan believes although some athletes may have more time to work with the coaches, the coaches always find the right players for the team.

“If you’re one of the better athletes, there isn’t a coach around who’s not going to welcome you in,” Sullivan said. “That’s just kind of the fact of life in a sport.”

Sullivan believes it might be a little

bit harder for the more general athlete, who might not be a star, but who holds his own.

“But, honestly, I think our coaches do a good job of being fair in the way they make the teams,” Sullivan said. ead varsity basketball coach Greg Guiler believes preseason before sports could, instead, give players who have to miss preseason because of another sport an advantage over those who don’t have to miss.

“You see guys who go to preseason for two weeks, and then tryouts begin, and they play at a whole other level,” Guiler said. “And I think, ‘well, I’m sorry, but I saw you the last two weeks in practice, I know that’s how you’re going to practice.’ So, to some degree, that kind of hurts you, the fact you were here in preseason.”

H

CALVIN HOSLER Feels he did not receive enough time to impress the coaches.

Since Sullivan believes many players coming from other sports are often some of the most athletic people in the school, he says these athletes will still be able to distinguish themselves from the rest.

“The bottom line is, the best athletes get on the field more than the other athletes, and the best athletes and the best kids on that team kind of surface to the top so to speak,” Sullivan said. “Often times those kids are kids who, quite frankly, play multiple

sports, so when they get out of their sport, they’ll rise to the right spot in that talent pecking order.”

Guiler believes preseason doesn’t affect his chief decisions, but rather his decisions for the last couple of spots on the roster, for which he also looks to reviews by teammates as well as work ethic.

“I’ll pull a captain aside and say, ‘Tell me about this kid. Is he going to be a good citizen, or has he been a hard kids play with another sports or other settings.’ So, it’s not just my eyes I rely on, it’s the body of work [they’ve built over the course of their career here].”

Hosler believes in order to make the selection process more fair for athletes coming out of sports, those players should get to make up some of the time the other athletes had during preseason, evening out the playing field among all players.

“The people who didn’t get a chance to try out should have at least half the time of the preseason kids,” Hosler said.

Although Hosler was disappointed with the coaches’ decision to put him on junior varsity, it has driven him to work harder between this season and the next.

“Even though I feel like I didn’t get as good of a chance to prove myself, I’ll just have to work extra hard this season and this offseason, so next year, it’ll be clear I should be on varsity, even if I don’t get as much time to show them what I can do,” Hosler said.

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PAGE 29 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

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SPORTS

SPORTS ETHICS

Taking it too far

PLAYOFF FINAL HOME

TIME

AWAY

86

7:01

07

With many uneven matches in SPC play, a question has been raised — how should a team compete when it has a steady lead?

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he score is 77-21 with ten seconds remaining. The game is practically over.

Bringing the ball up the court for the final seconds of the game, a Trinity Valley guard in a game against Hockaday pulls up and drains a three to make the final score 80-21.

There weren’t any cheers. Or claps.

Just shock.

In what was a major SPC counter game for the girls’ basketball standings, a margin of 59 points well surpassed the point differential for a potential tiebreaker to affect the standings.

So at what point is the line crossed?

In non-conference games, running up the scoreboard can likely prevent a team from scheduling another game the next year. Or even worse, schools and their athletic programs can lose their reputation by dismantling another team.

In addition, the question on whether or not to empty your bench, start running the ball or taking fewer shots is up in the air when it comes to different coaches around SPC. This aspect of sports ethics is not only about showing respect to your opponent but also making decisions for the representation for a school’s athletic program.

JOHN HUNTER Believes that the run differential is key.

When blowing out an opponent, Assistant Athletic Director Josh Friesen believes it is up to the coach to manage the game; balancing the integrity of the game while still trying to get something positive from the matchup.

“It is up to the coach to teach the players why we are doing certain things,” Friesen said. “When we are ahead, we help our student-athletes understand what the other team may be feeling and hopefully instill some empa-

thy so they are not just trying to run the score up and embarrass their opponent.”

But when it comes to counter games, point differential is a potential tie breaker in conference standings, and ultimately playoff seeding. In certain situations, Friesen finds it acceptable to push the envelope on running up the score.

“It’s important, especially if you are REECE RABIN Thinks lopsided games give more players a chance to play.

in the thick of a playoff race or looking for good seeding at the SPC tournament to maximize your tie breaking ability,” Friesen said. “If you think the team you are playing is a team that could potentially be in a tie with you later on, you are still playing to score and you really only shut it down when you get it past the barrier.”

Head varsity baseball coach Johnny Hunter was in a similar situation a couple of years ago. In an effort to maintain the comfortable lead, he made a common sense play that was frowned upon by the opposing coach.

“We had a 7-run lead against a counter opponent in the 6th inning,” Hunter said. “In order to stay out of a double play, I sent our runner from 1st to 2nd with a 3-2 count with two outs.

For some reason, the other team took exception to this and their coaches accused me of trying to “run up the score”.

This was not the case or my intent, and I think that they were just frustrated with how they were playing that day.”

Hunter has been on the other side of the spectrum too. Despite the 15-0 loss against All Saints, Hunter had nothing but praise for the way All Saints handled the situation.

“We came out flat, and they were a very solid team with a dominant start-

QTR

FOULS

4

3

ing pitcher,” Hunter said. “Once they got a 10-run lead, they stopped stealing bases and did not try to run up the score on us. I appreciated the way their coach handled the game, and we tried to erase this game from our memories as quickly as we could.”

However, throughout the game, Hunter still pushed his players to give it their all.

“We were completely overmatched that day, but we did not give up,” Hunter said. “I pressed my guys to stay in the game and keep fighting, and they did so despite the lop-sided score. Especially in counter games, every run matters.”

Sophomore basketball player Reece Rabin finds blowout games as great opportunities to gain playing time and experience for younger players like himself.

‘

THE LOPSIDED GAMES some of the biggest win margins this year.

Lacrosse Win vs. Fort Worth County Day

6-44

22-1

Football Loss vs. All Saints Episcopal School

WE ALWAYS ENCOURAGE OUR BOYS TO GIVE MAXIMUM EFFORT UNTIL THE END OF THE GAME NO MATTER WHAT END OF THE SCORE.

JOSH FRIESEN

“When you are blowing a team out, it gives a good chance for bench players to get good minutes and opportunities,” Rabin said. “In my opinion, it does not go against any ethics or conduct of sports for bench players to play as hard as they can in a game that is not close.

For some, speaking from experience, it is the only time you get on the court, and you want to enjoy it.”

For Rabin, however, there are certain things that do go against sports ethics in a lopsided encounter.

“I think it would be more unethical if a coach left his starters in and hounded the other team in something like a full-court press the whole game,” Rabin said. “That would be more of a lack of morality situation that calls for some restraint.”

Soccer

Win vs. Home School Athletic Associaton

50-81

6-0

Basketball

Loss vs. Highland Park High School

STORY RISH BASU, NICK MALVEZZI, ALEC DEWAR ILLUSTRATION ABHI THUMMALA

by Nick Malvezzi hree straight. This wouldn’t be any three peat, but the first one in the school’s history. Three straight state championships is the team’s goal, and it would a be monumental victory for the program according to captain Andrew Lin. “Winning a 3rd straight state championship would honestly be the most meaningful accomplishment of my high school career,” Lin said. “To go in and solidify our place as the best in the state for the third year in a row would prove St. Mark’s as a water polo dynasty here to stay.”

In addition to Lin, the team is led by captains Philip Montgomery and Easton Honaker. Lin looks forward to the tough competition posed by the large public schools.

“The larger public school teams we play usually have bigger players,” Lin said. “We usually beat them because of our technique, heart, and aggressiveness.”

After losing three players to

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college polo last season (Mason Smith ’15, Tim Simenc ’15, Nathan Ondracek ’15), the team as a whole will need to step up to fill the void, according to Head Coach Mihai Oprea.

“As a team we will make up for them,” Oprea said. “I think in a way we replaced [the three seniors] with a better, closer team.”

Oprea also sees their departure as something of a relief for the squad.

“In a way it was great to have three strong seniors, but it was also kind of a burden too because everyone expected them to do something,” Oprea said. “So if they had a bad day or bad game, we kind of struggled because everyone relied on them. Everyone has a little more freedom; they feel like they can do more.”

While the team didn’t have much of a preseason, the majority of the team was a part of the SPC champion swimming squad. Oprea

hopes the closeness of team will carry over into the spring.

“It’s a pretty close-knit team,” Oprea said. “No prima donnas on the team. No one is way better or thinks they are way better than anyone else.”

Oprea is also welcoming a wave of fresh blood into the program.

“We have 11 or 12 freshman,” Oprea said. “So it is a big freshman class, but it’s a good class. They all have been playing and their strong, and pretty much all of them did swimming so they kind of know what is expected of them.”

Oprea doesn’t have specific goals for the team, but he knows the players will strive to be the best they can be.

“What I’m expecting is nothing new or different: just hard work,” Oprea said. “I think that [expectation] is kind of there since we have been in the top three teams at the public school level in the last 6 years.”

PHOTO ARNO GOETZ

Water polo shoots for third consecutive state championship

TAKING AIM Looking to shoot past the defender, junior Andrew Lin sprawls from the water.

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SPORTS

PAGE 30 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

SPC WRAP-UP

Houston heroes

With the SPC tournament in Houston closing the winter season, swimming claims its eighth straight title while the basketball, soccer and wrestling teams all fight hard for spots on the podium.

Swimming team wins eighth straight title with dominating performance at SPC

by Alec Dewar

B

ang!

The gunshot tears through the air, and senior Eric Li’s ears fill with the deafening noise of explosions and a roaring crowd. Then he hits the cold water.

Complete silence below the surface.

He stays under the peaceful water until his dive is complete and then emerges above the water line. The noise returns and a surge of adrenaline shoots through him.

His arms slash through the water furiously, all while maintaining his form.

He sees the opposite wall through his water-filled, clouded goggles, reaches out and feels the smooth tile.

He looks up at his time — 45.75 seconds — a school record.

Li’s stellar performance highlighted an extremely successful SPC weekend for the swimming team, resulting in their eighth straight SPC championship and

continued dominance over rival schools.

“Many aspects about this year’s swimming team contributed to our dominance at SPC championships,” Li said.

“First and foremost are our attitude and our discipline.”

Head coach Mihai Oprea attributes the success to two emphasized habits of success.

“A culture of winning instilled in our athletes from seventh grade up,” Oprea said. “Coach Janis Oprea helps install team unity and strength from an early age to ensure success.”

With yet another SPC championship under its belt, the swimming team looks to the future to continue its streak of consecutive titles.

“I am confident that next year will be a great year for swimming as well,” Li said. “I know they will be able to maintain great team chemistry and have a fulfilling season.”

When asked what he wanted his players to take from this year of swimming, Oprea put it simply.

“Brotherhood, friendship and priceless memories,” he said. “That is what any sport is really about.”

Li pointed out swimming has given him much more than just success, a friend group and an area of discipline. He emphasized he does it for more than just the win.

“I swim for the life lessons it teaches me, for the character and discipline it has instilled within me,” Li said. “I swim for all my varsity brothers; swimming for them pushes me to work harder everyday.”

After his last swim meet, his team members prepared for their ritual after every victory. For Li, it was his last time.

He locked arms with his teammates, smiled and jumped into the pool one final time.

“I swim for the intense competitive atmosphere, for the rush of adrenaline through my veins before and during the race, and for the neck and neck races where my fate is determined by my fingertips,” Li said. “Finally, I swim for the incredible test of heart and will that is required in each and every race.”

DONNING THE GOLD Led by senior Eric Li, the swimming team takes home first in SPC competition for the eight straight year.

WINTER WARRIORS Junior Will Ingram goes up to snatch a rebound, the wrestling team hoists their new hardware and senior Graham Gillespie fends off a defender as he races up the field

Basketball gets third

by Nick Malvezzi p two with less than a minute left, senior William Caldwell is at the line — a chance to bring the lead to three.

The shot bangs off the rim, but all is not lost. Caldwell recovers the rebound and while diving out of bounds, throws it against an opponent and out of bounds, retaining possession and ultimately clinching a birth in the semi-finals. Head coach Greg Guiler says plays like this define the team’s season.

Senior leadership propelled the basketball team to a third place finish at SPC weekend, concluding with a 5954 win over Casady.

“To win the third place game against Casady, that was a good feeling,” Guiler said. “Being the only team [Casady] that beat us during conference play, it just felt like the only team that proved they were better than us was the team that won it all, so you can’t feel too bad about that.”

Despite the 48-60 loss to St. Stephens in the semifinal, Guiler believes the result could’ve been different.

“I don’t think we played as well as we could have played,” Guiler said. “And maybe that was amplified by the fact that they had a guy that was averaging 4 points a game who scored 25.”

According both Guiler and senior William Caldwell, the Dec. 18 game against Highland Park was a turning point in the season. According to Caldwell, the humiliating 31-point defeat brought the team back down to reality.

“After that game, we had a new focus,” Caldwell said.

“We knew we needed to get a lot better, and that blow out loss really helped us get re-focused and ready for counter season.”

The team played the Scots again two weeks later, and the result was much different.

“When we made or renewed those commitments at our tournament up in Allen,” Guiler said. “We had a 14 point lead at halftime [against Highland Park]. It was really a turning point in the season.”

Guiler was quick to point out this was truly a group effort, one that made it fun for him to coach.

“This group of guys was so tight knit,” Guiler said.

“They were fun, they worked hard, they made each other better, I mean I wish I could have this team another 30 seasons. They were so fun to coach.”

U

Soccer places third

Wrestling takes second

by Sam Sussman he wrestling team wrapped up their season, finishing second in SPC, while three wrestlers, sophomore Tucker Ribman, sophomore Will Wood and junior Ivan Day, qualified for nationals.

Although the team was not able to repeat as SPC champions, head coach Justin Turner was more than pleased with the job his guys did, considering the youth on the team.

“Overall the team exceeded my expectations,” Turner said. “At the end of the year we started eight sophomores, one freshman and three juniors, so to get second in conference and have two state finalists, it takes a pretty good year.”

While Turner may be pleased with the results of this season, he knows that the team has some work to do if they want to win SPC next year. Turner hopes that the wrestlers will devote their time into making themselves the best wrestlers they can be.

“They need to invest a lot of time,” Turner said. “Wrestling is something where it is really hard to just show up and wrestle without the investment. I mean you can be a great athlete and be successful in other sports, but in wrestling that is not going to work.”

The team’s two captains, sophomore Tucker Ribman and junior Eli Ware, are two of the youngest captains ever in the program, but Turner feels they did their job to unite and lead the team to victory.

“I thought they did a great job,” Turner said. “I thought they were two of the better captains I’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Ribman believes the success of this season is due to the bond between wrestlers and the coaches.

“One of the best things we did and one of my favorite things we did this year was we really focused on making a familial atmosphere in the room,” Ribman said. “Making guys really excited to come to wrestling each day. That was a big deal. I think that really helped our overall chemistry on the team.”

Ribman is very confident the team will build off their achievements next year due to their young and raw talent.

“We will have a good shot at winning SPC next year,” Ribman said. “I think having such a young team means we have a lot to look forward to in the future, so I think it was a successful season.”

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HOUSTON HEROES PHOTOS BY ALDEN JAMES AND DREW BAXLEY

by Mike Mahowald ined up hand-in-hand at midfield, the varsity soccer team cringed as Kinkaid lined up for their first free kick. But riding the momentum from their comeback in regulation time, the team rebounded with a 3-0 victory in penalty kicks.

Led by seven seniors and head coach Cory Martin, the varsity soccer team’s season ended with a third place finish over Kinkaid. Even though he feels they were cheated of their bid as champions, Martin is very proud of his team.

“The biggest highlight was certainly the way we finished—I thought that was important,” Martin said. “The boys superseded our expectations—which is always great.”

With eleven guys gone from last year alone, the team had lower expectations than normal. However, people didn’t anticipate the impact Charlie O’Brien and other seniors would make on the team.

“After we lost so many seniors last year, I think the seniors this year did a really good job of stepping up and filling key roles on and off the field,” O’Brien said.

The team was at one point on pace for allowing the fewest goals in Martin’s 20 years of coaching. However, a loss to Cistercian and a tie against ESD left the team in fifth place heading into the tournament.

“By Friday night, we were tapped, but they were valiant,” Martin said. “Coming back and winning that third place game I thought was real important so if the boys are going to stake the claim that we should be champions, at least they can say that the only game we lost was the one heavily influenced by the officiating.”

EHS had been trailing by one goal until the 76th minute when the referee awarded them a penalty kick. In overtime, they scored again off of a corner kick in the second minute of stoppage time.

“Nobody gave us any chance to win the EHS game, and we really were robbed, but so be it,” Martin said. “You still leave the season feeling good about yourself. I believe a lot of that has to do with our seniors.”

Ultimately, Martin, O’Brien and the rest of the team were happy and proud of the way they finished.

“I thought that was a great way to end the season,” O’Brien said. “Although we would obviously rather be competing for first place rather than third, it was a great way to end my soccer career by rallying back from a two goal deficit and getting the job done in penalties.”

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PAGE 31 MARCH 11, 2016 REMARKER

PREVIEWS

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SPORTS

SPRINGIN’ INTO ACTION

After early victories during the beginning of the season, spring athletic teams look to continue their successes until the end of the season.

Sophomore Clay Morris

Junior Scott Smythe

Crew looks to leadership for success during season

by Nick Malvezzi

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he powerful whirl of the rowing machines fills the air as senior Alden James bellows out the amount of time they have left.

“One minute, push it!”

As a senior leader to this squad he is pushing himself to the limits every practice session. He is focused, straining and sweaty.

But as he looks up at the end of the session and belts out “time!” everyone is sweaty, everyone is panting and everyone is preparing for the grueling season ahead.

“This year in preseason,” James said, “I knew we had a special squad because of the dedication. Coach Dilworth provided us with great sets and direction, and the group worked to stay connected. We worked together, we stretched together, we erged together. In my years on the team, I have never seen a more dedicated and tight-knit group of rowers.”

Junior Jonathan Libby looks at the offseason work as major factor in improving the conditioning of the team.

“We have put in a lot of work during winter P.E and now during preseason to get stronger for when we finally get out on the water,” Libby said.

The crew team enters the season with the glittering image of a championship as the goal of the season. James is hoping their season-long efforts will be well worth it by the end of the season.

“My goal this year, very basically, has been to bring home a trophy,” James said. “While we have gone to nationals in the past years, we have not finished first in a race at the state level since 2013. Of course we want to proceed past state and get to nationals, but I want to bring home a tangible record of our efforts this year.”

Baseball turns to seniors for SPC run

by Sam Shane

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Senior Will Hardage

Sophomore Davis Bailey

Sophomore Canyon Kyle Senior William Caldwell

Junior Nehemiah McGowan

Senior Graham Gillespie

FOCUSED Track, tennis, lacrosse and baseball athletes are well into their season as they work towards a championship.

Golf hopes to swing into fullest potential

by Nick Malvezzi

en returning seniors, a deep roster and a strong pitching rotation are expected to lead the baseball team to success.

However, after losing their most vocal leader, Carrington Kyle ’15, and other strong seniors from last year, the team needs the seniors to step up and take on more leadership roles.

Senior Brannon Rouse believes the seniors and the whole team in general has the talent to fill the shoes of the new alums.

“We lost Carrington and Corson [Purnell ’15] and all the other guys and of course that hurt,” Rouse said, “but we’re bringing in so many guys like [sophomores] Jimmy [Rodriguez], Canyon [Kyle] and Zach [Landry], so I think we’ll be okay.”

With the influx of talent coming in, there are a lot of positions on the diamond that are still up for grabs, something Rouse thinks will make for an interesting season.

“There’s a ton of position battles going on right now,” Rouse said, “and that’s an amazing thing.”

Although Rouse sees the team as a strong contender for the SPC title, he knows there will be fierce competition.

“The Houston schools, man, they’re always good,” Rouse said. “Trinity Valley as well, they’ll be decent this year.

We lost a lot, but they all did too. It should be interesting to see.”

Rouse sees a lot of strengths on the team in their rotation, their depth and their fraternity, but he also sees one glaring weakness.

“Last year, we were just not very good at fielding at all,” Rouse said. “So far this year, we’ve really been focusing on it to strengthen the team some more.”

An x-factor Rouse thinks will be important for the team is their camaraderie. With the team playing together for so long, everyone knows everyone.

“Whenever someone is on fire or gets a huge hit,” Rouse said, “we all feel it. I really think our brotherhood and camaraderie will set us apart from the other teams.”

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o-captains Sam Clayman and Cameron Clark look to lead the youthful golf team to a championship.

Despite the lack of ability to play over the winter, Clayman believes the team will be ready to hit the ground running.

“I am confident the team used the winter to prepare themselves mentally and physically for our

season,” Clayman said.

Early on, Clayman liked what he saw from the squad even before the season started.

“We all got together and played one weekend” Clayman said, “and I just realized what a great team dynamic we have.”

With a squad similar to last year’s, junior Nick Chaiken points to the fact the team has had a lot of time to come together.

“We have another year of tournaments under our belts with our team being essentially the same,” Chaiken said.

Clayman feels he is in a great position to lead the team towards SPC glory.

“I would love to help my teammates feel as confident as possible in order for our team to grow together in a common direction toward success,” Clayman said.

Lacrosse roster filled with talent

by Sam Sussman

A

fter finishing third in SPC and suffering a quick first-round exit during the first round of the Texas High School Lacrosse League Championships, the lacrosse team is looking for a bounce back season.

Head coach Francis Donald believes this veteran team possesses all of the necessary skills to give the

team their first state championship since 2013.

“We are as talented or skilled a team as we’ve been in the last three years since I’ve been here,” Donald said.

Led by senior captains Max Sadlowski, Graham Gillespie and Roby Mize, these veterans believe the team has a certain ferocity that

will carry them to the top.

“Currently, I would say our strength lies in the heart and hustle we bring to practice every day and also in our persistence,” Sadlowski said. “At practice no one gives up.

The freshmen are not afraid to go out and scrap against the seniors, and this is a good mentality to have on our team.”

Track and field looks for a strong year

by Nick Malvezzi

A

mix of veterans and young stars will look to lead track and field to its first SPC championship in four years. The team had a good start in the Greenhill relays, finishing second despite the absence of some key athletes.

Co-captain Bradford Beck is impressed with the way the season has started.

“The strong performance at Greenhill shows we can be a lot better than last year,” Beck said.

“The young guys looked especially strong. I like the way we started the season.”

Beck believes the team is really strong across the board, not just in one or two events.

“We should be very competitive in a lot of areas,” Beck said.

“We have great depth in the throw-

PHOTOS KABEER SINGH, CHRIS MCELHANEY, ALDEN JAMES, ARNO GOETZ

ing and short-distance events, not to mention distance. We should do well in lots of events.”

Co-captain Abhi Thummala believes despite tough opposition, the sprinters have a great chance at success this season “Sprints are always tough with tough competition especially in the south,” Thummala said. “But we’ve got a lot of new blood this year who can really contribute.”

KING OF THE CLEAR Junior Teddy Koudelka leans in to pass a Coppell middie on a clear March 1 day at Norma and Lamar Hunt stadium.

The Lions went on to win the game 8-7.

R R EMARKER

ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS

ARNO GOETZ PHOTO

10600 PRESTON ROAD, DALLAS, TX. 75230

1 Y

THE BACK SPORTS PAGE THE REMARKER FRIDAY March 11, 2016 PAGE 32

This year marks the 100th anniversary of pep rallies at St. Mark’s, dating back to 1916 with the football team pictured above. According to The Terrill School yearbook, “This year there has been more interest in the cheer, more student support and more football fever manifest than in any other year.”

ou might see a slightly tattered navy-blue jersey fitted over a shirt and tie walking towards you.

Or a herd of lower-schoolers shuffling by, wearing spirit ribbons and gold football stickers like war medals.

Or a viable stampede of white shirts and excited voices rumbling through the commons.

Regardless of the indicator, you know there is a pep rally today.

And based on the sheer amount of school spirit that floods out of Hicks Gym and toward the lunch line at 11:00 most Fridays, it’s not hard to see why this is a tradition that has been going on for 100 years.

“I think pep rallies are really important not only as a unique break from the monotony of classes,” Student Council President JT Graass said, “but also a good way to raise school spirit and encourage kids to come to the football games, a hallmark of St. Mark’s tradition.”

The responsibility for planning one of these 100-year-old events falls squarely on the shoulders of the student council, where they plan how to entertain the Upper School student body for 30 minutes on Fridays where there is a home football game.

“The Student Council brainstorms ideas for fun Pep Rally games,” Graass said, “and once we decide on one, we reach out to kids from each grade who are high-spirited and who we know will get really into the games. But generally, we follow the standard pep rally model of cheerleaders, captain announcements, bringing out the football team, etc.”

This procedure has been the standard model for most high schools in Texas, where the pep rally originated, since 1916. However, the rally didn’t always used to follow this model, and 39-year English instructor Curtis Smith remembers some notable variations to

this system.

“Once there was a pep rally in which there were Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders,” Smith said. “One student had a sister who was a cheerleader so they came out and performed on what used to be Bailey Field but is now Hunt stadium. They had that one outside owing to the fact that this certain Pep rally might attract a few more visitors than others. In fact I remember thinking that there were boys standing around the fences and, it’s not accurate to say this, but they were so glued to watching them that they left their eyeballs in the chainlinks.”

G

raass sees the pep rally as an important cog in the school spirit machine but something that could use improvement.

“We need to keep Pep rallies, but I think we should change them. I think that they’re too structured and limited in what we can do. It’s the cold, hard truth that Upper School students like what’s crazy and what breaks the rules a little bit, so I think having longer pep rallies is something that we should look into further.

We’ve tried to make them longer before, but there’s really not any time to do that.”

Overall, Graass sees the rallies as fun events that have withstood the test of time and brought the school together physically and mentally before a big game.

“I’ve really enjoyed planning Pep Rallies,” Graass said. “It’s always a lot of fun to see the entire upper school go crazy about Joshua Kang hitting the whip 20 times in a row—and it never getting old. Those kinds of moments are what we live for. It’s something so organic and in-the-moment that couldn’t have been planned, but it embodies the true, high Marksmen spirit that the student council tries to evoke through Pep rallies.”

STORY CASE LOWRY PHOTOS ALDEN JAMES

GOING WILD The highlights from this year’s pep rallies featuring senior Harrison Kampf, senior JT Graass, the junior class and senior Superfan Men Graham Kirstein and Philip Smart.

A A DDENDUM

There are more people held in captivity today than there ever were during the transatlantic slave trade.

It’s a criminal enterprise that is worth an estimated $150 billion worldwide.

So few know these people live in servitude, but it affects people in your neighborhood.

M

att Osborne ’90 sits at a table in a restaurant in Mexico with Mario. They’re talking business.

Negotiating prices, numbers and logistics — just a typical meeting with a client for Mario.

But Mario isn’t selling a product or a service.

He’s selling people.

A ReMarker special section March 11, 2016

Story continues, next page

HUMAN TRA

Because there are peopl

W

Continued from page one.

People are being sold across the world. It happens in sweat shops in Cambodia — and right in front of us. Texas has the second highest human trafficking rate in the country.

But no one talks about it. It’s the silent issue that most people think died out generations ago, but children today are still at risk of becoming victims.

Human trafficking cuts across all demographics and classes, and with the rise of the internet, the traffickers truly have no boundaries.

hat Mario doesn’t know is that Osborne is an undercover agent for Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), which saves women and children who have endured years of

sex trafficking.

Back at a vacation home in Acapulco, Mario snaps his fingers and parades the girls out in a row. Their outfits barely cover their bodies. Some wear dark sunglasses to hide the mix of fear and the haze of the drugs they’ve had pumped into them.

Some are 19 and have been in the business for years. But Osborne has seen girls as young as 12.

Despite the disgusting scene in front of him, Osborne has to maintain his cover as an American “sex tourist” — he has to pretend like he’s interested in the “merchandise” for his “boss.”

“I simultaneously wanted to throw up, I wanted to punch the guy,” Osborne said. “But I had to stay in character and say, ‘Oh yeah, the big boss man’s gonna like that.’”

Little does Mario know, a team of Mexican police are hidden everywhere throughout the house, ready to make the arrests the instant Osborne gives them a signal.

MATT OSBORNE ’90 Rescues victims of human trafficking

“Never in a million years do these guys think we’re coming after them. Because no one has,” Osborne said.

Finally, these girls are going to be saved. But for some of them, human trafficking has become too much a part of their life. For some of them, it’s too late.

F

or the vast majority of girls in the sex trade, it is not a choice to sell her body. Behind most victims is a deep history of abuse and abandonment.

The average age a girl enters the sex trade is just 13 years old. It’s not any child’s choice to be a sex slave.

In fact, according to O.U.R., two million children worldwide live as sex slaves. Texas ranks 2nd in the country for the most human trafficking. In Dallas alone, about 400 trafficked teens are on the streets every night.

But human trafficking does not discriminate, crossing boundaries of class, gender and age and generating an estimated $150 billion in yearly profits.

So why don’t we talk about human trafficking?

Perhaps the lack of conversations is due to the misconceptions, or the simple lack of knowledge of what actually happens to the victims.

Perhaps it’s the perception that all sex workers sell themselves by choice. But the reality is that the controlling arm of a trafficker has forced many women into the sex trade.

From child to sex slave

Sergeant Alfred Nuñez supervises the vice unit of the Dallas Police Department and works to pursue human traffickers.

“What we try to do is to try and find out if [sex workers] are doing this on their own, or who’s behind them,” Nuñez said. “A lot of times they make an outcry for us, and will tell us that there’s somebody behind them that’s putting them up to this, and at that time we consider them victims, and we treat them as such, and we start trying to obtain additional information so that we can make a case on a trafficker.”

TRAFFICKING — WHETHER FOR PURPOSES OF FORCED LABOR OR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION — IS NOT JUST A PROBLEM THAT HAPPENS “OVER THERE,” IN PLACES SUCH AS ASIA, AFRICA, OR LATIN AMERICA, IT HAPPENS IN THE U.S. AND NORTH TEXAS AS WELL. MATT OSBORNE ’90

George Lynch, CEO of Traffick911, an organization that works to rescue and rehabilitate minors who are victims of sex trafficking, clarifies that children are not simply swept off the streets by the perpetrators.

Instead, underprivileged children with often difficult home lives are identified by traffickers and coaxed in over time with lavish gifts and promises of love and a better life, only to find something much more terrifying.

“When you’re really dependent on [the trafficker] for your feeding, your care — he tells you he loves you — then he starts to flip on you and say, ‘You know what, if you love me, you’ll go do this. It’s just one time,’” Lynch said. “And then it’s, ‘Do it again tonight.’

And then before you know it, they are then required to deliver a thousand dollars in revenue every night — ten, 20 men or women come in and say, ‘This is what I want you to do.’ They show them pornography on their telephone and they say, ‘This is the act I want done and I want it done like this.’”

Between the overt sexualization of women in the media, the ready access to pornography and “adults only” outlets on sites such as Craig’s List, there is far more access to and tolerance of the sex trade.

At the New Friends New Life educational forum at the George Bush Library Feb. 22, FBI Special Agent Deborah Michaels, who oversees the Child Exploitation Task Force in North Texas, emphasized the difficulty investigators face when pursuing online predators and traffickers, especially when their targets are children.

“The internet gives predators a larger pool of clients,” Michaels said. “And a lot of times victims don’t even know they’re victims.”

Technology and social media also enable traffickers to market their victims and maximize their profits.

“For the most part, you don’t see minors walk-

ing the streets selli arranged online, b keting of this perso deal is made, and for them. Frankly, most of the transac Another misco tims are shipped o Thailand — which right here in Dalla parties.

And these chil — sometimes it’s a price tag on them.

“High school students,” Lynch s high school studen cocaine or whatev does not mean tha the country.”

M

any people places they reality, it’s It’s even at pla Four, many big ev ple will come to ha “Now, where go to adults? Do y who are choosing are trafficking vict ways see at these S they have these big Dallas Executi Miles, who has cal ficking, spoke abo at the educational

“It affects peo as much as anywh across all demogra Sex trafficking side of the industr businessmen.

“They’ve done adventures left bec business, they’ve g networks,” Osborn risk? A lot of it is t weekends, purcha hooked on pornog

A timeline of a victim’s life on the path into the sex trade.

87%

93%

80%

have been abandoned by

have been sexually or physically abused by

have run away from home by

age 4

age 11

age 12

The average age a girl enters the sex trade

age 13

SOURCE: NEW FRIENDS NEW LIFE

STORY CAMERON CLARK, WILL CLARK ADDITIONAL REPORTING RETT DAUG BJERG, JIMMY RODRIGUEZ, BLAKE DAUG HERTY PHOTOS ARNO

REMARKER ADDENDUM MARCH 11, 2016 PAGE 2A, 3A

AFFICKING

le for sale.

ing themselves,” Lynch said. “It is by text message, advertising and maron as if they were a product. And the that’s how they get their jobs lined up a cell-phone-enabled world is how ctions happen.” onception is that all of these vicoverseas to places like Cambodia or h some are — but in reality, many stay as, trapped in hotel rooms or sold at

ldren aren’t always sold by a predator a friend or family member putting the . students are selling other high school said, “and moms are selling their nts or junior high kids to get meth or ver their need is, and so [trafficking] at they are going out of state or out of

e think trafficking only happens in y’d never visit in their lifetime, but in all around us. aces like the Super Bowl, the Final vents around the country, where peoave a wild weekend and purchase sex. do you go?” Osborne asks. “Do you you go to kids? Do you go to those to work or do you go to those who tims? That we don’t know, but we alSuper Bowls and other big events that g busts and trafficking stings.” ive Assistant City Attorney Melissa lled for new attitudes against sex trafout the widespread nature of this issue forum Feb. 22 as well.

MELISSA MILES Calls for new attitudes against sex trafficking and prostitution

ople all over the city, in North Dallas here else,” Miles said. “The issue cuts aphics.” g can be expensive, so the demand ry sometimes consists of wealthy

e everything — they have no more cause they’re at the top of their got their families, they’ve got their ne said. “And it’s what is their next traveling overseas to have these crazy ase sex. And for those who have gotten graphy, they get to a point where it’s

not a rush anymore unless it’s something truly illegal, truly out there. And that’s where we see a lot of kids being exploited.” urviving life as a slave doesn’t necessarily end the pain the victim endured.

It’s often a lifelong burden that carries poverty, a criminal history and mental health disorders.

And all of that can be retriggered at any moment. “[You] can’t just get a Band-Aid on it and say, ‘there you go, you’re all fixed up,’” Lynch said, “because if a woman or a young girl is trafficked at 14, let’s say she’s successful and she becomes a mom and her daughter reaches the age of 14; she has all these flashbacks to the horrors that she endured, and it retriggers that trauma in her until she becomes almost paralyzed with concern for her own child.”

Before the long road to recovery can begin, however, the victims first have to escape their life of slavery.

Through O.U.R., Osborne has been able to fight for a cause he believes in: rescuing victims of human trafficking.

“What we are trying to do is first and foremost to rescue victims — to pull them out of the hell that they’re living in,” Osborne said. “We realize that the Operation Underground Railroad is not the long term solution to this problem of human trafficking because you can’t arrest your way out of this problem or rescue your way out of this problem. You need to have a societal change.”

Even after the victim gets rescued and is able to live freely, sometimes life after sex trafficking isn’t worth living. They’re often too far gone.

Osborne has seen it happen. Even after the police carry Mario and the other traffickers away in cuffs and offer protection to the girls, the problem is not automatically resolved.

One of Mario’s slaves, 16-year-old Alicia, had only been in the sex trade for a few months and was overjoyed at the thought of being free. But Linda, the 19-year-old, tells Osborne she doesn’t think she can escape safely. Criminals are threatening her and her family, and she doesn’t think she can live any other way.

I’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve been told that all I’m good for is to service these guys.

As hard as it was for Linda to walk into a place where she thought she would be sold, her pimps and traffickers had distorted her world so much that she couldn’t walk out a free woman.

Her life belonged to Mario, and even after he was out of the picture, she was still not out of captivity.

I’m going to go back into it.

What our leaders are doing Some prominent leaders in the fight against human trafficking give insight into the next steps we can take to tackle this issue.

S

‘ Bill Morse Men’s Advocacy Board member at New Friends, New Life organization

‘ Jay McAuley ’81 Men’s Advocacy Board member at New Friends New Life, former head football coach and administrator here

‘ Florence Shapiro

Efforts made by the Men’s Advocacy group begin to clear the way to eliminate the ease with which people can be trafficked.

Education and legislation against sexual predators is the key to breaking the cycle of human trafficking.

Former state senator and one of the state’s leading education policymakers for more than 30 years

Forced labor today 21 MILLION people are victims of forced labor

It’s not just a woman’s issue, it’s human rights issue. Our job is to bring men into the fight.

2.2 MILLION

are forced to work by the state or by rebel military groups

5.5 MILLION forced laborers are under 18 years old SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION

O GOETZ, COURTESY MATT OSBORNE, NEW FRIENDS NEW LIFE SOURCES NEW FRIENDS NEW LIFE, OPERATION UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY Most trafficking survivors face a long recovery process, especially if a parent or trusted family member sold them into servitude. Often the survivors have experienced severe physical or emotional abuse or are addicted to drugs, and they have a fear that their traffickers will find them again and hurt them or their family.

REMARKER ADDENDUM MARCH 11, 2016 PAGE 4A RESCUE OPERATION

Straight from the raid These photos are stills from a video taken by small hidden cameras similar to the ones Osborne used in the CIA. While low in quality, they were used to successfully take down known human traffickers and free the victims.

1

Face to face with known human traffickers, Matt Osborne ‘90 and his fellow rescuers went undercover as American sex tourists in Acapulco, Mexico.

1. Osborne (left) meets with Mario (right) early in the process to discuss the basic logistics of the deal.

2

2. Mario is checked for weapons along with the others in attendance so that there cannot be any threats of violence.

3. Mario tells Linda, a 19-year-old victim he has held in captivity, what he wants her to do for the (undercover) “clients” in exchange for money. Fortunately, this time she doesn’t end up having to do anything.

4. Osborne, Mario and other men from both sides discuss the final details of the deal.

Once Osborne gives a signal as simple as lifting his beer can, the police will move in.

3

5. The police enter and prepare to raid the scene the instant they get Osborne’s signal.

6. Mario is taken down by the local police immediately; since he was checked for weapons at the door, he did not stand much of a chance against the armed police.

7. The local police “arrest” Osborne and his teammates as well. They did this so that Mario never had any idea that they were undercover agents out to get him.

5

4 7

6

Operation Underground Railroad

M

att Osborne ’90 worked for the CIA for 12 years, covering everything from chemical and biological weapons to the war in Iraq.

He had a government pension and reported to President Bush and his staff.

But then he was assigned to write a section of the trafficking persons report and the problem of human trafficking presented itself to him.

He joined Operation Un-

derground Railroad, abandoning his stable paycheck and going undercover to free victims and arrest their traffickers.

“This was something that was completely eye-opening to me,” Osborne said. “‘Wait a second, they’re not prostitutes, they’re not choosing to sell themselves — they’re actually being forced into this.’

I had a deep feeling that this was something that needed to be attacked, needed to be

confronted — modern day slavery.”

At the start of his missions, Osborne usually travels to a popular resort and sits on the beach.

Within minutes, a local will come up to him and first offer him a drink. Then they’ll offer to take him kayaking.

Then they’ll offer him drugs.

Then they’ll offer him girls.

That’s when the surveillance comes in.

Using tiny cameras,

sometimes small enough to fit in a watch or water bottle, Osborne and his team capture evidence to convict the traffickers.

“We had better technology than we did when I was in the CIA because we travel with an independent Hollywood film crew and the reason is to keep us transparent, they film everything good, bad, ugly to make sure none of us are tempted to do anything bad.”

STORY CAMERON CLARK, BLAKE DAUGHERTY PHOTOS COURTESY MATT OSBORNE