The ReMarker | September 2020

AGENDA

New Board of Trustees President Kathy Crow comes with a full slate of priorities — everything from diversity and equity to access and affordability.

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Dallas, TX • Volume 67, Number 1 • September 25, 2020 •St. Mark’s School of Texas

The ReMarker

A driven

STORY Robert Pou, Henry McElhaney, Jack Davis PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Collin Katz

Inside

Campus health

School Nurse Julie Doerge’s efforts ensured safe return to campus in the fall. Page 9

A missing presence

In a normal year, parents are constantly milling about campus.

But this year is different. Page 14

SPC?

With Fall SPC canceled, the school plans to continue an independent season. Page 24

Essentials

The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

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Say what?

Comments overheard around campus.

Rahul Banerjee Senior

I have big cheeks.

About smiling behind a mask Shane May Mathematics Department Chair

Pour all your broken tortilla chip crumbs and salsa into a bowl and eat it with a spoon like cereal.

Tim Weigman Senior

I didn’t expect it to explode.

What's INSIDE 3

Issues The ABCs: Adulting, banking and crediting lessons from faculty and alumni. 3

PERSONAL COLUMN

John Muir is my homeboy

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Culture Senior Josh Mysoré’s experiences in language learning. 16

A look into the driven agenda of Board of Trustees President Kathy Crow. 4

Glenn Stroh’s first year as choirmaster and what that position entails this year. 17

Why wear a uniform while you're sitting in front of a screen in your bedroom? 5

A look into sophomore Sall Hussein’s work as a videographer. 18

Four Marksmen’s decisions to take a year off before heading to college. 6

Examining the impacts of COVID-19 on two alumni artists’ careers. 19

Mateo Guevara '19 in Twin Falls, ID

Buzz: Three summer albums, plus one of the few pandemic movie releases. 20

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Discoveries Labs, a staple of the St. Mark’s experience, in an era of social distancing. 7

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10600 New year, new faces: talks with this year’s 19 new faculty and staff. 8 The time and work it took to make our campus safe enough to return. 9 A record breaker: More than 900 Marksmen enroll in the 2020-21 year. 10 The future of school events like Homecoming during changing times. 11

Opinions Editorials: Marksmen voting; Delays in textbook distribution. 21 Editorials: New schedule.

Mahowald: On talking forever and ever. 22 Editorials: Appreciated efforts from faculty & staff.

Pou: The Centipede Dance. 23

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Sports The school's plans to continue with a season after the canceling of SPC. 24-25 Your 2021 Superfanmen: Daniel Sanchez, Will Chance and Colin Bajec. 26 Daniel Sanchez, left Will Chance, center Colin Bajec, right

Three new Marksmen families from around the world. 12 Photostory: Back-to-school scenes from first to twelfth grade. 13

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Centerspread The quiet presence we lose when parents aren’t around campus. 14-15

The long-awaited Stanford commitment from senior Harrison Ingram. 27

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Backpage The show must go on: conducting a full band from the screen. 28

Parents are making an incredible investment, because it’s not the easiest thing to be a parent at St. Mark’s. You can’t outsource your kids to St. Mark’s and show up at graduation.

Paul Geneder ‘87, Alumni Board President and parent — Story on page 14.

While talking about kicking a water bottle

Correction The story on page 28 of the September issue of Focus magazine reported the school's original charter restricted admission to white students.

That is untrue. The original charter establishes the school's religious identity, but does not mention racial discrimination.

The ReMarker regrets the error.

SIGNAGE All across campus, signs like the “Do Not Enter” (above left) and “One Way” (far above right) direct the traffic flow to minimize student traffic during passing periods. The “Notice” sign (above right) reminds students and faculty alike to socially distace while on campus. Kristin and Paul Mlakar spent days over the summer installing traffic guidelines to facilitate social distancing.

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owhere will you see the majestic operations of nature more clearly revealed beside the frailest, most gentle and peaceful things. Nearly all the park is a profound solitude. Yet it is full of charming company, full of God’s thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and eager enthusiastic action.

— John Muir, on Yosemite National Park

When my family was deciding where to travel over the summer, we decided to head to Yosemite.

By car.

Round-trip, the number of hours by car clocked in at around 50 (Yes, we split each drive into two days).

When you’re in a car with your family for 50 hours, it’s easy to focus on the negatives.

My legs hurt. Everyone needs to use the bathroom at different times. Getting snacks is an ordeal, since they’re usually buried under piles of luggage in the trunk. Carsickness, homesickness, all while trying to avoid COVIDsickness.

By the time we arrived at our cabin, we were fatigued, upset and tense. And the park is big — Yosemite Valley was an hour away.

The next morning, we drove an hour through tree-shaded winding roads. Passing few buildings, civilization faded away as we made our way deeper into the park.

And then the valley revealed itself.

One turn, and there was El Cap, Half Dome, Cathedral Rocks. We soon arrived at “Tunnel View,” the place where most photos you’ve seen of Yosemite Valley were probably taken from.

As I was met with this sheer, raw, natural display of grandeur, I was humbled.

I’ve never experienced a natural sight so mesmerizing, so picture perfect as Yosemite Valley. Four straight days in the park didn’t quench my thirst to see the valley again, and again, and again.

I hiked up Yosemite Falls, Sentinel Rock, Maripose Grove, each day more beautiful than the last. It was too Cristian Pereira magnificent to get tired of.

Senior John Muir was right. It Editor truly is “a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and eager enthusiastic action.”

Overall, I’d say my summer was tumultuous.

I’d assume most of my senior classmates can say the same.

Not only did we have to finalize our identity for colleges — internships, online study programs, essay-writing, college counseling (Thank God for Ms. Pulido, Ms. Nute, Mr. Shandera and Ms. Kingsak by the way)— but we also had to face the diverse and ever-changing challenges of COVID-19.

Unpredictability and I are not a good combo. This summer I didn’t have a choice — for multiple reasons, I was forced to face many personal realities about myself. I became more anxious, stressed, angry — all of it. It was really, really easy to focus on the negatives.

But every so often a Yosemite Valley comes around.

Yosemite Valleys aren’t necessarily giant rock formations that yell “You’re small!” at you from a distance. They could be small things like a good book, a project you’re passionate about, they could even be those days that you reflect on and say, “Hey, today was a darn good day!” Anything that you identify as life-enriching, fulfilling—you’ve found one of your Yosemite Valleys.

To preach to everyone about how noticing my Yosemite Valleys in life has made me happy all the time would be a lie.

But sometimes, all you need to get through a tough time is just a little bit of help.

Whenever I’m down, whenever it feels like life’s just hitting me in the face and knocking me down, I picture Yosemite Valley, and I remind myself that I still have the rest of my life to experience more. Whatever’s going on right now, it’ll pass.

We’re in an unprecedented era of human history. We still have to struggle through school while worrying about our family members, limiting our interactions and human contact and reading one negative headline after another.

But we can still find our Yosemite Valleys.

And honestly, as long as I still have those, I’d say life is pretty good.

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Adulting lessons: financial literacy Regardless of what you learn in high school and college, your education isn’t truly complete until you master the intracacies of personal finance. Establishing credit, banking, utilizing financial services and — most importantly — learning to live within a budget are building blocks to success, not just financially, but in options that will come your way. Here’s a look at some of the critical areas a successful adult needs to know how to navigate.

STORY Austin Williams, Toby Barrett PHOTO Adam Lai

“These are places where you can put money that are encouraged by the government,” Martin said. “Two things are important there: that you’re putting money into an account and that it doesn’t count against your salary. So, for taxation reasons, it puts you in a lower tax bracket. Let’s say that I earn $50,000 and I can put 10% of that money into my 401(k). All of a sudden, that money doesn’t count against me for taxation purposes.”

According to Martin, taking advantage of tax breaks is crucial in lowering your amount of taxable income.

“You want, at least on paper, for it to look like you earn as little money as you can because that lowers the amount of taxes you have to pay,” Martin said. “But to do that, you have to take advantage of every tax break available.”

As the parents of Gabe Martin ‘18 and junior Luke Martin, Cory Martin and his wife felt it was important to teach this value of saving early to their sons.

“We tried to teach them about the power of accumulating money so that you have choices,” Martin said. “Certainly, being a math guy helps.”

Turning hundreds into millions s adults get paid, their first priorities in spending money are necessities such as utilities, rent and food.

But how should excess income be handled? Is there a good way to turn spare money into more money?

Upper School Assistant Head Chris Disimile recommends putting income into a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or an employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plan.

In doing so, the money saved will compound as time goes on.

“The best way to think about compounding is probably as a snowball that’s rolling down a hill,” Disimile said. “As that snowball rolls down the hill, it gets larger and larger. Investing is the same way. As you get older and older the numbers get larger.”

Disimile, who also sponsors the Finance Club, believes the earlier you start compounding, the better.

“If you don’t start early enough, you’re not going to really have that power of compounding working for you later in life,” Disimile said. “Put it aside and invest it Maximizing your financial muscles wisely. You don’t even have to perform that nother topic prone to questions as stuwell in terms of your investments. The most dents enter real life is the idea of credit important thing is that you set it aside and and banking. invest it.”

Preston Zapffe ‘99, a certified financial Disimile compares the pattern of this planner who has worked in corporate finance growth to the pattern achieved by doubling and finance effectiveness consulting for over the value of a penny every day for 31 days.

10 years, says there are two important bank “You know what you have at the end of accounts you should open once you start those 31 days?” Disimile said “It’s well over receiving a salary. $10 million. Before day 25 it’s not enough for “To start off, you should open a savings you to retire on. It’s those last five days where account and a checking account,” Zapffe said. your numbers really start to enlarge.”

“When deciding on a savings account, you Despite the importance of saving, Disiwant a good interest rate (which depends on mile stresses spending money on personal the state of the economy), and in a checking interests in his economics class, as well. account, you want good service and a good “You can live a happy, productive life, relationship with the bank. You also don’t which includes spending on yourself and want fees, particularly spending on vacations, as well as saving for Preston monthly “management” the long term,” Disimile said. “The best way Zapffe ‘99 fees and, if you can avoid Financial to think about it is to pay yourself first.”

Planner them, ATM fees.”

Credit score is a Two things are certain: death and taxes number determined ne important requirement of adults is by a variety of factors paying taxes. The amount of taxes you including your ability to pay depends on a variety of factors, such pay off credit cards and loans, your amounts as the amount of income you bring in, your owed, and your length of credit history. marital status or if you have a child. To make Future employers may reference this number matters more complex, federal and state when deciding whether or not to hire you. governments charge separate taxes, and state It also impacts the cost of borrowing money, taxes differ from one another. particularly when buying a house.

With all this in mind, how should a “The difference between three and four young adult start to do his or her taxes? percent interest on a 30-year loan worth $1 Echoing Disimile’s advice, math instrucmillion is over $200,000,” Zapffe said. “Havtor Cory Martin says the process should being a good credit score is the best way to keep gin with putting money in savings accounts, your loan payments to a minimum.” such as a Roth IRA or a 401(k).

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Zapffe’s biggest tip for students in regards to credit score is to start early, and with the right mindset.

“Credit cards are often the first opportunity for a young person to spend more than he or she has,” Zapffe said. “The length of your credit history makes up 15 percent of your score, and getting a By the credit card early can be a great idea if you use it numbers wisely.”

That said, credit cards can be dangerous enablers percent of for students who are irrestudents are sponsible with money. intererested “It’s important to in adding keep in mind that credit real-world oriented card debt is cripplingly exclasses into pensive, with interest rates the school of easily 20 percent-25 curriculum, perfect,” Zapffe said. according “The hole digs itself very to a student quickly if someone makes poll. ‘minimum payments,’ which seem like a good thing at face value.

The only responsible way to have a credit card is to pay the full balance every month.”.

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Living well but within your means reating a personal budget is an excellent way to avoid debt and maintain a comfortable lifestyle on the typically low income that young people have access to.

Victor Calvillo ‘14, an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse, has been living on his own for a number of years. Developing a personal budget came fairly easily to him, but he sees it as essential to maintaining financial stability.

“College is where your trial run should start,” Calvillo said. “It obviously depends on the student, but odds are your parents aren’t going to give you unlimited money to spend. Every month I knew how much I was going to spend on rent, groceries, utilities, gas money for my car, etc. After you do a simple calculation, you can figure out how much money you have free to use on whatever you want.”

Victor Getting a credit card early Calvillo ‘14 Investment is a great way to build credit banking score, but not the best way to analyst start budgeting.

“From what I’ve seen, people just spend what they don’t have,” Calvillo said. “I had personal credit cards throughout college, but I made sure that my spending habits didn’t just change dramatically. Every month, I paid my credit card down in full. Occasionally at the end of the month, I would make a purchase or have an expense that would push me past this artificial threshold that I set for myself, but it meant that next month I would have less money to spend.”

Calvillo sees the decision of what to indulge in and what to save money on as a very personal choice.

“I’m all about having a good time with friends,” Calvillo said. “Whether that’s getting some drinks and food if I have a Friday off, or ordering a bunch of snacks to watch a college football game on Saturdays, that’s what I enjoy. Spending choices definitely vary case by case.”

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Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series on the practicalities of navigating the adult world. Part two will appear in our Oct. 30 issue.

The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

Real life

Issues

IT ALL CHECKS OUT While the act of writing a check is becoming less and less common, students still need to learn the basics of banking eventually.

Leadership

The ambitious agenda of Kathy Crow, the new Board of Trustees President.

Page 4

Uniforms

Why wear a uniform while sitting in front of a screen in your bedroom?

Page 5

Gap years

Four Marksmen’s decisions to take a year off before heading to college.

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In brief INTERNATIONAL WEEK This year’s International Week is scheduled to take place Dec. 7-11.

Committee co-chairs Tristan Doan, Josh Mysore and Shiv Yajnik, all seniors, worked with faculty sponsors Nancy Marmion and Janet Lin. Leaders began planning over the summer and are continuing to prepare for the multicultural celebration.

DEBATE Juniors Sal Abbasi and Maxwell Chuang tied for 16th place among approximately 200 teams this summer at the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Championship tournament. The competition is the longest running and largest speech and debate tournament in the country. Debate competitions will now be done virtually, which means teams will no longer be held back by travel. The topic for debate is reforming the criminal justice system.

ELEVATED COOKING CLUB While involvement in the Elevated Cooking Club is typically in person, the group has been able to function well virtually, having weekly meetings. The club is using its time away from school to grow its presence online, using social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube to create instructional recipe videos. The club plans to host charity sales, an appreciation dinner for the administration, club potlucks and cooking contests.

MARQUE SUBMISSIONS The pandemic will not affect the usual content of the Marque literary magazine, and submissions will be open as usual. Owing to the circumstances, more online and multimedia aspects will be added to the magazine. To submit to the Marque, go to the resources page on the school website and click the link named “Submit!”

VIRTUAL CERAMICS Ceramics students worked on a variety of projects at home during remote learning using tool kits and clay provided by ceramics teacher Scott Ziegler, who set up two cameras to enhance current remote learning.

Ziegler, in anticipation of working with his students in a creative environment, has configured his space to enable socially distanced in-person learning.

A DRIVEN AGENDA Continued from page 1

New face at the top During a year unmatched by any other in recent memory, Kathy Crow takes over as President of the Board of Trustees.

STORY Robert Pou, Henry McElhaney, Jack Davis PHOTO Collin Katz

K

athy Crow never attended St. Mark’s. She’s never been to a class reunion or alumni weekend. Her sons don’t even go to the school anymore. Jack Crow, who attended the school through his junior year, now works in real estate here in Dallas, and his younger brother Rob ’17 is studying at The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.

So why is Kathy Crow, a Board member of 17 years, taking on the role of Board of Trustees president in arguably one of the most chaotic years in the school’s history?

Because it’s “home.”

It’s “literally the first place boys go when they get back for Thanksgiving after their first semester of college.”

It’s a “place where the relationships boys make are one in a million.”

So that’s why Kathy Crow, just the second woman to ever become President of the Board of Trustees, keeps coming back.

September 25, 2020

Issues

The ReMarker

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Crow attended Princeton University in her home state of New Jersey before moving to work at the Trammell Crow company in Texas, where she first met her husband.

“I was there for four years working as a financial analyst,” Crow said. “Then I left there and went to SMU for business school, graduated in ’94 and got married a month later.”

Years later, shortly after her second son, Rob, graduated from the school, Crow was approached by the leaders of the Board. Her first thought: she was going to be politely asked to leave since she no longer had any sons attending the school. But, instead, she was informed that her work on the board had been noticed, and the position of Board president was in her future.

In 2018, Crow became vice president and formed a partnership with then-president Clark Hunt ’83.

“Mr. Hunt and I have a really nice relationship, and I learned a lot from him,” Crow said. “He’s been very professional, very calm-headed. The 2019-2020 school year was a hard year to be Board president.

Obviously there was so much going on, and he was just so optimistic. We worked really well together.”

After working with Hunt for two years, Crow officially stepped into the role of President this past June, and, like every president before her, she has created a list of goals he or she wants to achieve during her two-year term. With the school still recovering from last October’s tornado and currently dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, an emphasis on dealing with risk sits at the top of Crow’s list.

“I am really focused on risk management and risk review this year with two things that hit us this year that we weren’t expecting,” Crow said. “As a Board, it’s really our job to be managing the risk of the school, and so we’re going to get a committee together and then do frequent reviews with outside professionals.”

Crow wants to add this committee to the list of the nine current committees. This structure allows the Board to meet four to five times a year as a whole, then break off into committees and work on their specific areas of focus. The entire Board will tackle broad issues like character and leadership and health and wellness, while still working on their committee-specific goals.

For example, Crow hopes to focus on access and affordability during the next two years. Taylor Wilson ’81, a past Board president, is working with Director of Admission and Financial Aid David Baker to make the school available to more prospective students.

“That’s going to mean increasing financial aid,

Five goals for this year Board of Trustees President Kathy Crow plans to direct her efforts toward improvement in these key areas.

• Access & Affordability • Diversity & Equity • Risk Management • Character & Leadership • Health & Wellness

SURROUNDED BY BOOKS After becoming President of the Board of Trustees in June, Kathy Crow now leads a 52-member board and a 13-member executive committee. The Board is made up of nine committees in total.

but also strategizing about how we move outside to the perimeters and find kids that are going to be great additions to St. Mark’s,” Crow said. “Twice last year, we had a field trip to schools in the Northeast, to boarding schools that have done a really good job with access and affordability.”

Crow will also continue to address the planning of a new athletic center to replace Hicks Gym. “We have to work with the city, and we have to have a master plan.” Crow said. “Those things take time. There’s a lot of energy about an athletic center and the possibility of having a pool put there.

And we have some people who, financially, are interested.”

And in light of the social unrest that rocked the country over the summer, the Board will focus even more on diversity and equity issues this year than they have in the past.

“We’re really going to get involved in the diversity and equity issues this year,” Crow said.

“It’s a priority for us. I think St. Mark’s already does a really good job, but that’s not to say we don’t have changes to make. We just want to do it in a way that’s calculating and the best thing for the school and for everybody.”

Crow sees the Board’s role mainly as strategic, letting the school administration focus on the daily operations.

“Our first job is to make sure that our headmaster is doing what he needs to be doing,” Crow said. “And then for us, we’re focused on strategic issues at the school. Goals for St. Mark’s IV is our Bible. Everything we do, every Board meeting,

Rapid FIRE

we should be focused on [Goals IV].”

Crow believes she’ll have a great partnership with her vice president, David Campbell ’86.

“He’s a great guy,” Crow said. “He runs the most efficient meetings. When his meeting is supposed to be over, whether you’re done or not, he cuts it off. And he keeps us all in stitches because he’s got a very funny, dry wit, which I adore. That’s kind of my sense of humor, and he’s just smart and good-natured. We’re going to work really well together. He tells it like it is, and that’s the way I like it.”

Campbell also looks forward to their partnership.

“Mrs. Crow has served on the Board a long time,” Campbell said. “She has two sons who have attended the school. She loves the school and knows a ton about it, so we’re in very good hands with her leadership.”

Despite not being an alumnus of the school, Crow believes creating relationships between herself, the Board as a whole, the faculty and staff will be crucial to the Board’s success in the upcoming years.

“A lot of what I’m trying to focus on is just having relationships,” Crow said. “Reaching out to the faculty, reaching out to the leadership team, reaching out to my executive committee and making sure that we stay connected. Especially now with so much happening over Zoom, that’s going to be a pretty big job. An alum, because they have friendships with a lot of people from their time as a student, maybe could do a better job with that, but I’m just going to work harder.”

Board of Trustees President Kathy Crow opens up about some of her favorite things.

Vacation spot

Adirondacks

Pet peeve

Complaining

First car

Volkswagen convertible

Board game

Rummikub

Favorite meal

Fettuccini Alfredo

Pets

Four dogs

UNIFORMS

Dressing for the occasion Although students returned to school in casual wear last spring, all students were required to don their uniforms as they resumed classes this fall. Why? STORY Keshav Krishna, Toby Barrett PHOTO Evan Lai

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David Brown Victor F. White Master Teacher

I don’t notice much difference between last spring and this fall. Perhaps it makes a difference in some teachers’ or students’ minds, since often what you wear can help dictate the attitude that you come to any event for.

Having students wear their uniform shirts adds some normalcy to our routine, at least more so than last year.

Vatsal Vemuri Senior

Even though our surroundings were different, just being in the uniform helped with the mindset of getting work done.

I even wore it right after school when I was trying to finish some work just to stay in that mode.

When I put the uniform on, I mentally prepared for the school day, in contrast to being able to wake up and go into the Zoom without putting anything on.

Cory Martin Math instructor

Roome Becker Sophomore

The ReMarker

How do you feel wearing a uniform as school began online differed from the feel of remote learning last spring?

Issues

In their own words

5 September 25, 2020

erhaps the most striking change students and teachers noticed as they logged into class last spring was the absence of traditional Marksman attire: the iconic white Oxford shirts and gray shorts donned by Marksmen for decades were swapped for pajama pants and t-shirts.

Head of Upper School Colin Igoe remembers the difficulty of adapting to the unfamiliar circumstances at the time.

“Because of the conditions, and just the meteoric change, we had to do a lot of things on the fly,” Igoe said. “We had to adjust and remain nimble to deliver our program as best as possible despite the conditions.”

As school started this fall, however, every student was required to be in uniform, even while virtual. Igoe attributes this change to the administration’s focus on a seamless transition from remote to in-person learning.

“The analogy that we used often throughout the summer was instead of an off ramp, we’re just changing lanes,” Igoe said. “How much normalcy can we maintain in an abnormal situation? That’s why there are things like the schedule that are essentially the same online and in-person. That’s why uniforms are the same online and in-person.”

Even with this initiative of efficient, easy transition implemented, Head of Lower School Sherri Darver believes online schooling for younger kids presents its own unique challenges.

“The younger the children, the harder remote learning is,” Darver said. “They’re not going to be able to be totally independent on an iPad. It’s really hard for them to sit on their device all day, particularly while both of their parents are working.”

During the spring of last school year, Lower School boys had a set time when they would meet with their homeroom teacher once a week, and teachers for their different classes rotated through those slots. Darver found classes were less academically focused than when in person.

“It was not an academic Zoom call at that point,” Darver said. “It was simply making a connection. The boys would show up to those meetings, some of them had plain clothes on, some of them had pajamas, and it was, in some classes, who could be the silliest.”

Over the summer, requiring students to be in uniform when school opened became a point of focus for Darver.

“It was something that we didn’t expect, and it was difficult to tell them to them that they shouldn’t be in their pajamas while people across America were in their pajamas,” Darver said. “That’s why we were so adamant about having uniforms when we started remote this year.”

Darver believes this emphasis on uniformity has paid dividends.

“I absolutely think being in uniform helped get

them into their routine LOGGED IN Classes began online this fall in compliance with social distancing guidlines. and their structure for the school day,” Darver said. “Our schedule vertically rotates, too, so it’s a challenge for all of us to pay attention to that this year. Uniforms have helped the structure at home and alongside having a set place as a workspace, it helps them take school very seriously, which is what we’re after.”

Student Council President Blake Hudspeth also believes in the benefits of starting in uniform.

“This fall really contributed to having that structure and that sense of normalcy,” Hudspeth said. “We replicated campus life, which is really different from last spring. There was a lack of energy, a lack of composure, but to have the uniforms on this fall brings back that unity and structure we’re used to.”

To Hudspeth, however, the community value of uniforms is of greater significance.

“The uniforms do help us with academic focus and efficiency, but they’re ultimately something that’s going to unite us, regardless of background, friend group, or age,” Hudspeth said.

Igoe echoes this to Middle or Lower Schoolers, they’re going to see sentiment. that you’re wearing a blue shirt and immediately “It’s all about community,” Igoe said. “One of have open ears and a strong regard for what you’re the things about our community that I love is that saying.” you are judged by the content of your character.

While Blue Shirt day, the rite of passage for We are an egalitarian community, and one small rising seniors when they first sport their change way that manifests is through a uniform — the in color, was cancelled this year, Hudspeth hopes same expectations, rules and standards in our entire seniors still understand the significance of their community. I love that the first graders wear the standing on campus. same uniform as the ninth graders and the tenth “Hopefully, you realize that you’re wearing graders. To me, it develops culture.” a blue shirt,” Hudspeth said. “You’re now a role As a senior, Hudspeth sees the change from model, you’re now a big brother. You better treat white to blue shirts as a symbol of the seniors’ them like they’re your little brothers. So many increased responsibility. seniors in the past have put me in great positions to “There’s so much associated with wearing a succeed, and we should do the same for the younger blue shirt,” Hudspeth said. “Whether you have a guys.” couple of juniors in your class or you’re reaching out

Counselor sees gap year as 'gift of time'

by Austin Williams irector of College Counselling Veronica Pulido sees a gap year as the gift of time, perfect for any student that wants to refocus and explore their interests before college.

“There are so many different options for students,” Pulido said.

“Whether it’s travel, an internship, service, or just taking some cooking classes, what they choose is a key point in understanding who the student is.”

According to Pulido, any school would typically be delighted to see newfound maturity and thoughtfulness that develops during a gap year.

“As far as drawbacks go, I don’t really see any,” Pulido said. “A student may feel uncomfortable that they’ll graduate one year later, but it’s really an individual decision.”

Seven students out of the senior class of 89 kids are taking a gap year, an uptick from the previous year.

“These new restrictions have definitely thrown us for a loop because of the inability to truly extend oneself while not in college.” Pulido said.

“This year in particular, the student has to have a good plan of attack.

Although Pulido sees the many benefits of a gap year, she rarely suggests one as an option to seniors undergoing the college counseling process.

“A gap year rarely comes up in conversation,” Pulido said. “I think that’s part of St. Mark’s culture in terms of being a college preparatory institution.

Once you graduate from St. Mark’s, a lot of students see the only option as going directly into college.”

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ROAD TRIPPING Mateo Guevara '20 took his year off college as a chance to explore the country with his friends, visiting landmarks in Twin Falls, ID (above), and Sekiu, WA (right), among other breathtaking locations.

GAP YEARS

Customtailored

While high school graduates around the world arrive at college for the beginning of the school year, four students are taking this time to explore their interests, focus on themselves, and gain some experience.

STORY Henry McElhaney, Austin Williams PHOTOS Courtesy Mateo Guevara

W September 25, 2020

Issues

The ReMarker

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ith the threat of COVID-19 persistent throughout the country, colleges and universities have altered their curriculum for the 2020-2021 school year. In light of these changes, alumni like Mateo Guevara ‘19 at New York University and Christian Duessel ‘20, Pablo Arroyo ‘20 and Andres Arroyo ‘20, at MIT have decided to take gap years. We sat down with each of them to find out how they came to their decisions and what they will do with their “year off.”

Henry McElhaney: Tell me about your decision-making process.

Mateo Guevara: So I’m in a very specific program at NYU called ‘Business and Political Economy’. The unique part about it is that we’re required to be abroad for a whole year, so all 60 of us in the major would take a semester at NYU London and then the spring semester at NYU Shanghai.

Very quickly, it became real that maybe the semester abroad wasn’t going to happen. That’s when I started assessing.

Is going online really worth the big tuition for NYU? It came down to me saying, ‘Why did I really want to go to NYU? Why did I choose it? Will I get this experience online?’ And the answer was no.

Pablo Arroyo: Well, one of the most important things for me at least was that MIT has some really great professors. In some fields, I would probably say the best. Unfortunately, because of the new COVID-19 policies, I would be missing out on an opportunity to get to meet them at least for the first semester and maybe for the whole year because some of them are older and at risk.

The other factor in my decision is that Andres [Arroyo, Pablo’s twin brother] and I both want to study mechanical engineering. I wouldn’t want to take the intro class remotely because Pablo it’s your first time, so you Arroyo ‘20 want to get a good start. alumnus Engineering is just better when you can do things in person and get some actual time hands-on, so I decided it wasn’t worth it.

Austin Williams: How do you plan to spend your year off?

Christian Duessel: Ever since I graduated, I’ve had a pretty consistent schedule that I’m going to try to maintain.

I get up at 8:30 every morning to go workout. I’ve been trying to stay fit because I’ll be rowing in college, so I don’t

want to lose everything. Then, I come back to my house and I work on online classes.

MIT offers all of their classes remotely for free, even if you’re not enrolled, so I’m knocking some of my requirements out this year.

That means when I get to MIT, I can use my four years to go deeper into my major. After that, I work on some of my coding and engineering projects. Some of them are at the [Dallas] Makerspace, so I’ve been going there quite a bit, learning how to use all the Christian different machines.

Duessel ‘20 Finally, I work alumnus at Mathnasium, typically for two to three hours. Habitat for Humanity is hopefully going to start up in October, and I really want to start volunteering there and try to become a Core Volunteer.

Andres Arroyo: My job right now is cell phone and computer repair, and hopefully I’ll stay at that job. Later into the gap year, I might start working on some other projects, especially if things can return to normal with a vaccine or good treatment.

I’ve been doing a lot of 3D modeling since I can’t go out and work with other people. I’ve been working on a model for a jet engine, as well as an altitude training mask that reduces how much oxygen you can intake. The only issue is that it uses some of the same materials you use for COVID-19 oxygen treatment. So right now, working Andres on that would be Arroyo ‘20 alumnus really bad because I’d be cutting into the supply for much more essential stuff.

MG: I’m going on a big road trip with Mateo Diaz [‘16] and one of his friends from the University of Chicago.

We’re in Colorado right now, and we have plans to visit Yellowstone, Seattle, the Olympic National Park, the Redwoods, San Francisco and Yosemite. I’ll be with them for about two more weeks, and then I’m going back to New York and Washington D.C. to see my friends since most of them are back.

After that, I’ll be home for a while.

I’m gonna really try to find a job and do something productive. Right now this is all good and fun, but if I don’t do anything with the year, it is kind of wasted. My goal is to find an internship that helps my resume and my career path, or to at least try to get some money built up so that when I do go abroad, I’ll have resources to be a productive student.

HM: What were the discussions like

with your family?

PA: Initially, my dad was sort of surprised. But there definitely wasn’t any arguing, it was just more of explaining my reasoning behind it. Part of what helped is that our track and field coach, as well as the administration at MIT, were super cooperative in pointing out the fact that a gap year could be a great choice.

CD: My mom was honestly very skeptical at first, but after I explained to her that MIT was one of the few schools that wasn’t going to bring freshmen up to campus as the year started, she understood.

As the pandemic situation progresses, a bunch more kids are getting sent home by their colleges, but a lot of schools were at least bringing up freshmen because they didn’t want their students to take a gap year. Luckily, MIT wasn’t concerned about that. When I showed my mom that MIT was doing something different, and that I thought this would be the best option for us, she came around to it. Because I’d be at home either way, right?

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School Life

Social distancing has limited the amount of in-person interaction between students, but how much has it spaced out lab work?

STORY Ethan Borge GRAPHIC Jonathan Yin

Please Don’t Touch divide the space into a ‘classroom side’ and ‘machinery side,’ but we have to spread out to use both sides.”

To follow COVID-19 restrictions, Mayer has reorganized the classroom to maximize the amount of space between students, while allowing full access to tools and machinery.

“For classes, we have spread out to use both sides so every student has their workbench in the classroom side and two students share a very large workbench in the machinery side,” Mayer said. “This allows students to be six feet apart.”

Another problem for Mayer is that the majority of the equipment is challenging to keep sanitized and clean, while also not having enough equipment for each student to have his own independent materials.

“The students used to handle a lot of tools that are not easily cleaned,” Mayer said. “The makerspace is fortunate enough to have multiple sinks to make sure all the students wash their hands when entering in order to keep the equipment clean. Students will be focusing more on microelectronics and students have received their own

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individual kits to work with in class.”

Even though labs are generally being done individually now, group projects are still happening in different ways.

“Some group projects will be introduced that simply divide a large project into pieces,” Mayer said. “So although they are all working on the same project, a student will only be working on a piece of it.”

Regular class labs have changed as well in a large majority of science classes. One example is physics classes for 11th grade.

“Due to [physics instructor] Mr. [Stephen] Houpt staying home, we have been limited to labs online,” junior Tomek Marczewski said. “I appreciate what the online labs are trying to teach us; however, they can become formulaic and boring after a while.”

Above all, keeping everyone safe while still learning is the most important thing.

“There are benefits to convenience,” Marczewski said. “Although maintaining everyone’s health is a top priority, I don’t see online labs having many improvements over in-class labs.”

The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

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ab Day. The long extended periods in which many students spend much of their time in and out of the classroom, working on finding a solution to a problem or question a teacher has presented them with. Now, students are not working in groups. They are not at a lab station next to a partner. Instead, students are using their phones and Logger Pro. But the students aren’t the only ones having lab days. The teachers have been doing lab day for weeks.

With the new changes to school, many science classes have had to make changes to the curriculum to adjust to the new schedule but also innovate new ways to do labs while keeping students socially distanced. These changes can be anything from individual assignments to having groups alternate between labs and other activities.

Makerspace Director Stewart Mayer’s Make it, Break it, Fix it class for seventh grade revolves around student interaction with equipment in the makerspace.

“It is difficult to work in the makerspace with COVID-19 restrictions,” Mayer said.

“The intended layout of the makerspace is to

CAUTION

Discoveries

Hands -off labs

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The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

8

New Faces

Back to S school The school added 19 new faculty and staff this summer with an unorthodox start to their times on campus.

tudents began the school year learning remote. The faculty and staff, however, were given the chance to come on campus.

An unusual start to the year, the new faculty and staff members were not only beginning in a new place, but also without the presence of the student

body on campus.

Nevertheless, each addition has a common goal. To make a positive impact on the community here at 10600 Preston Rd. So we talked to each of them. A little about their past. A little about their future. And a little about themselves.

STORY Will Pechersky, Jack Davis, Nikhil Dattatreya ART Jonathan Yin

new job 8/26/20

Health

REMOTE LEARNING Students and teachers began the year learning virtually.

Microsoft Teams has been the main online tool used by the school.

The time and work put in to making our campus safe enough for return. Page 9

Admissions

Enrollment reaches all time high along with Lower Schoolers’ perspectives of the pandemic. Page 10

Events

Looking ahead at traditional occasions during a changing time. Page 11

Families

New families to the school that moved from around the world. Page 12

In brief BRIDGE COMPETITION Freshman Warner Hartnett will be representing the USA in the worldwide Chinese Bridge Competition. The Chinese Bridge is a large-scale international Chinese proficiency competition.

This year, after advancing through regional and national rounds, Hartnett originally qualified to compete internationally in China against high-schoolers from around the world.

However, due to the pandemic, the event will take place virtually.

The competition consists of three main events: A written examination on various topics, a video that displays the applicant’s Chinese talent and a speech.

LEADERSHIP LOOPS The Middle School will have a new set of leadership loops based on the theme of “thriving.” The loops will focus on competence, relatedness, autonomy and mindfulness.

This will be the third year of leadership loops, which began in the 2018-2019 school year. Loops are a part of the Middle School curriculum, which puts an emphasis on building character and leadership.

COMMUNITY SERVICE Junior Matthew Shen has moved his community service Rays of Light online because of the ongoing pandemic. As of now, it is the only project being offered on x2vol.

Volunteers who sign up for this project will be making month-long commitments to meet with a designated child through weekly one-on-one online video calls.

In the calls, volunteers can tutor, read books to or simply hang out with their assigned child.

DEBATE TOURNAMENT Senior David Yang and junior Max Chuang achieved first place at the MBA Practice Opener virtual debate tournament Aug 29.

Chuang was also ranked first overall speaker, and Yang third overall speaker. The event was a practice tournament organized

by Montgomery Bell Academy in order to raise funds for a family affected by brain cancer. The tournament comprised of 26 teams competing with each other over the course of three rounds.

GRACE ANDERSON MS/US Chinese Favorite Movie Growing Up: Castle in the Sky or any Studio Ghibli movies.

Quaratine Pastimes: Preparing for this crazy school year, attending conferences, snuggling with my cats and watching TV shows with my husband.

KATHERINE ANSON US Spanish Book on Bedside Table: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez and Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Blue Bell Coffee.

GREG BERGERON MS/US math Before St. Mark’s: Thirty years of teaching in public schools including the last 19 years at Highland Park.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavors: Moo-llenium Crunch, Happy Tracks, and Homemade Vanilla.

MARY BONSU US counselor Before St. Mark’s: Children’s Medical Center working as a pediatric psychologist.

Future Goals: I’d like to continue learning all I can about supporting the development of students and being a welcoming presence for Upper School Marksmen.

RYAN BREWER Biology Quarantine Pastimes: I have been walking/ running different trails and parks around Dallas.

I’ve logged over 600 miles.

Future Goals: To visit Cairo, Egypt; Johannesburg, South Africa and the Galápagos Islands.

NATALIE BUMPAS Athletic trainer Before St. Marks: I was an athletic trainer at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, since 2013.

Future Goals: To help make the transition back to sports at St. Mark’s as smooth as possible and find a home to buy here in Dallas next year.

LEAH FRITZ Fourth grade strings Three Items to Bring on an Island: I suppose if I could only choose three things, they would be my violin, a lifetime supply of chocolate and my phone, hopefully with signal.

Favorite Movies Growing Up: Beauty and the Beast and any movie with Jim Carrey!

CAMERON HILLIER ‘13 LEE-ANN GRAHAM Interim fourth grade math US English, Wilderness Program Co-Director Quarantine Pastimes: Before St. Mark’s: I was Running, gardening, teaching at a boarding walking my dog, Bess, school in Asheville, NC. camping — canoe and backpacking — trips with Future Goals: A big goal my family and dreaming will be to continue all about other trips to take! the great stuff St. Mark’s Future Goals: Learning does with the Wilderness how to teach effectively Program and just keep adding to it! in a pandemic and staying positive!

PHOEBE KINGSAK Associate Director of College Counseling Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Strawberry, of course.

Future Goals: I am excited to get to know the St. Mark’s boys and larger community! I can’t wait to be a part of this larger family.

SETH MAGILL MS drama Before St. Mark’s: I worked at Cistercian. I also worked for over ten years as an anime voice actor for Funimation Entertainment.

Favorite Book: Acting Stanislavski: A Practical Guide to Stanislavski’s Approach and Legacy

by John Gillet.

SCOTT MOORE Associate cirector of communications Before St. Mark’s: I was a freelance graphic designer before joining St. Mark’s in April.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Coffee. I do not drink coffee, but it becomes magical and irresistible in ice cream form.

Also joining

The following three faculty and staff members are also joining the community.

JOHN PERRYMAN US English and history, Director of Civic Responsibility Favorite Movies Growing Up: Indiana Jones, The Mission and The Field.

Quarantine Pastimes: Balancing work and quality time with family with lots of reading and writing.

CHRIS RUTHERFORD Eighth grade humanities Before St. Mark’s: Before this, I was teaching ninth and tenth grade English at Colegio Los Nogales in Bogota, Colombia.

Three Items to Bring on an Island: Something to listen to podcasts, my Kindle and a personal water filter.

JOSH SHANDERA Associate director of college counseling Favorite Movie Growing Up: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I’ve probably watched it close to 50 times.

Three Items to Bring on an Island: I’ll take the practical approach: a water purifier, pot and a machete.

REILLY WALKER Seventh grade humanities Before St. Mark’s: I taught English at an allboys high school in San Francisco.

Book on Bedside Table: I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting in the kitchen. Right now I’m reading through Tieghan Gerard’s cookbook, Half Baked Harvest.

SHERRY GEORGE Interim US math

TIMOTHY HOUSTON Security officer

AIMEE WHITAKER LS computer science

Freshman starts online streaming consulting company

by Morgan Chow reshman Ben Adams began a company called Ben’s Streaming Consulting over the summer to assist people in making the switch from cable television to more accessible media.

Adams’s services include installing various devices or setting up accounts on streaming services for customers.

“We call all the companies and help set the customers up with new internet or new Hulu or YouTube,” Adams said.

“Then, we provide all the information on the services they want to choose. We go to their house and help them set up like a Roku or Fire TV Stick.”

Originally, the organization was led only

by Adams; however, after recruiting some classmates, his business has begun to expand. Adams’s plans to grow his company by reaching out to more people and recruiting even more people.

“By getting more salesmen and therefore more customers, I would like this to turn into a grade project if possible,” Adams said. “I just need to keep getting more people interested in our grade, and then, therefore, more people will get interested in saving that money. We have had a couple of people, like family friends and salesmen in different areas of the country, help their family and some of their family friends. It’s been kind of hard to like meet people during this time, but we’d definitely be looking to expand.”

Adams thinks that streaming services are much more cost-effective and widespread, so he started this company in order to help people switch.

“It actually started with streaming services like Hulu or YouTube TV,” Adams said. “Those are a lot cheaper than cable; plus, you can watch them on a lot more devices. I think the advantages that the streaming services will always have is that you can get it as an app anywhere whereas cable you can only watch from your TV.” Yet Adams fears that the versatility of streaming might not last as long as he hopes. However, he is sure that he can adapt to the change that is to come.

“As long as the streaming services keep their prices where they’re at and everybody doesn’t switch, we can keep doing it,” Adams said. “What’s more concerning is that the cable companies’ prices go down. But I think, just as those services keep evolving, we’ll keep evolving.”

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SAFETY MEASURES

On the front lines

Since the spring, School Nurse Julie Doerge has been working tirelessly BACK IN SCHOOL Doerge stands in front of Centennial Hall, now altered to to prepare the school for teaching promote social distancing by specific traffic patterns. Since campus was closed to students in March, Doerge and other faculty and staff have modified the school’s in the COVID-19 era. hallways and classrooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

STORY Will Spencer, Axel Icazbalceta PHOTOS Ekansh Tambe

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Nurse Julie brings years of experience in health care and great expertise in nursing in school environments.

John Ashton, Associate Headmaster

Despite the countless hours she’s spent reading research papers, meeting at the county health department and discussing with other Dallas nurses, Doerge holds the members of the school community as a vital aspect to the return to inperson school.

“We are so lucky to be in such a great community, and I feel very fortunate to be here at this time in the history of the school and to work with all the amazing people in the school during this crisis. [Chief Financial Officer] Suzanne Townsend, [Headmaster] David Dini, [Associate Headmaster] John Ashton, [Director of the Physical Plant] Mark Webb and all the people that have made it possible for us to be able to come back to school—I just want to hold all of them up and applaud the heavy lifting they’ve done to get us to this place.”

The ReMarker

Many of Doerge’s recommendations took the form of physical changes to the school’s buildings and classrooms, such as upgrading all buildings’ air filtration systems to MERV-13. A key safety feature Doerge mentioned was maintaining a six-foot separation between desks, something she credits entirely to the efforts of Paul and Kristin Mlakar, Director of Academic Information Systems and Assistant to the Chief Financial Officer, respectively.

“We achieved upwards of 65% throughout the campus at six feet of distance in all the classrooms,” Doerge said. “Each teacher has at least a six-foot bubble to teach in. And the reason that’s important is that, when we have a case on campus, if you are in a classroom that has six feet of distance between all the desks, the people sitting next to you, in front of you and behind you don’t have to go home with a close contact.”

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Even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Doerge’s office was a hotspot of foot traffic, to which Lower School Head Sherri Darver — whose office is next to Doerge’s — can attest.

“Nurse Julie’s office was always a busy place with the doors open and boys coming Sherri Darver and going,” Darver Head of said. “When Nurse Lower Julie would be in a School meeting, boys would come to the Lower School office to get help. [Lower School Administrative Assistant Kathy] Mallick was always the person who would help them as she was able to. If we ever needed Nurse Julie for whatever reason, we would simply text her and she would quickly return to her office.”

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Doerge became the school’s health adviser on how to proceed in the rapidly changing environment of the virus’s early months. Since this time, Associate Headmaster John Ashton was more than comfortable with Doerge taking on this momentous task.

“Nurse Julie brings years of experience in health care and great expertise in nursing in school environments,” Ashton said.

“She has real skill in being able to understand and take in all the health guidance we are receiving and then translate that into applications in a

A key contact during Doerge’s summer work at the Dallas County Health Department was Dr. Wendy Chung, the lead epidemiologist.

“I knew Dr. Chung and had known her for many years,” Doerge said. “I knew she was a great scientist and a great physician, and we certainly have depended on her and her group a great deal for all of our guidance. We’re on a call with her twice a week.”

September 25, 2020

n 2009, when H1N1 took the world by storm, infecting millions and killing thousands, healthcare professionals risked their lives to stop the spread of the disease.

In 2014, when the Ebola virus spread at an explosive rate throughout northern Africa, emergency Five safety workers stared death in the face, all for the measures sake of containing the • One-way hallways virus.

• Mandatory masking And now, in • Six feet distance 2020, in the midst between desks of the COVID-19 • Staggered schedule pandemic, we have • Improved air filtration our own healthcare professional, working at a much smaller, yet just as important, scale. Her name is Julie Doerge, and she’s on the front lines, slowing down the spread of the coronavirus — one school policy at a time.

school context. Nurse Julie has been outstanding for the school for years.”

Throughout the summer, Doerge made frequent visits to the Dallas County Health Department offices to get the latest information coming from the WHO, the CDC, Harvard University and various other sources.

“I was honored by the health department and asked to come join the school health team this summer,” Doerge said. “I worked two days a week down at the health department throughout the summer learning about the virus. I took the five-hour Johns Hopkins contact tracing course so I could do contact tracing downtown for the health department.”

Doerge’s early research into COVID-19 consisted mainly of scouring research material from sources all over the world to find the information most pertinent to her work. She would then discuss with other nurses at Dallas’ private schools. Later, the health department compiled the research into a brief informing the nurses of the best practices to take.

“Starting in about June, I’ve met for three hours on Fridays in the morning out by a friend’s pool with several of the big schools in Dallas,” Doerge said. “We worked on what we called our framework for our schools. Whatever the topic was, we all went out and did some work to inform ourselves and then shared so that we weren’t having to read and digest all of it by ourselves.”

Doerge also looked to the various back-to-school plans used across the United States and even across different countries. Seeing other plans gave Doerge another set of ideas to consider when making recommendations on how to return to in-person classes.

“She filters all that data and research and brings that into conversations when we’re going to make decisions around health protocols,” Ashton said. “Julie’s at the table with John us and we’re Ashton Associate saying, ‘Okay, Julie, from your Headmaster understanding of what you’re learning and reading, how should we be thinking about these areas?’ Then, we push and pull, we ask questions and together we arrive at the best practices for managing the safety of boys and faculty and staff as we plan for our return.”

The 2021 school year begins — virtually and on campus

School breaks 900 enrolled W

ith 904 new and returning students, the student body is the largest it has ever been in the history of the school.

“The number of applications to the ninth grade has been growing significantly over the past five to ten years,” Director of Admission and Financial Aid David Baker said.

As a result of the increase in applications, previous admission rates would only admit less than ten percent of applicants, missing out on what Baker considers to be wellqualified students.

“Four years ago, we began to strategically increase the size of the ninth grade – from around 95-97 to around 105-107, an average increase of ten students total,” Baker said.

“The end result is that we now have around 40 more boys in the Upper School than we were averaging four years ago.”

With no current plans to further increase enrollment, this past March was the final year of growing the ninth grade class. Baker expects to average at around 900 students for years to come.

“We wanted to be able to admit a higher percentage of well qualified candidates so we modestly increased the number of ninth grade candidates we admitted,” Baker said.

“The admission of additional well qualified students makes the school stronger in the classrooms, in the art studios and stages, and on the playing fields.”

What do you do during your six month pandemic time at home?

Everything from mac and cheese to fishing in Idaho filled the time for Marksmen in their unexpected break from 10600 Preston Rd. STORY Jonathan Yin, Eric Yoo, Jamie Mahowald PHOTOS Blake Hudspeth

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Students interviewed include fourth grader Austin Wagner, third grader Bowman Ellis, second grader Wilson Wagner and first grader Montgomery Ellis.

September 25, 2020

The ReMarker

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Jamie Mahowald: What (or who) did you miss most during your time away from school?

AW: People.

JM: Anyone in particular?

AW: Nah. Just people.

WW: Friends.

ME: Really miss grandparents, because we can’t really see them that much anymore.

BE: One [of my grandparents] lives in Houston, one lives in New Orleans, and the other lives in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth guy has a ranch, and he has a bee farm too. We can’t really see them when we’re in school, though. We don’t want to accidentally get them sick.

ME: When quarantine is over, we can go a little more often.

JM: How long did you go without a haircut?

WW: Very long. Three good months.

BE: At least two and a half or three months. It got really long at the end.

ME: Yeah, it was kind of fun, actually.

JM: What was your favorite meal you had that wasn’t restaurant take out?

WW: Taziki chicken soup. French toast – my dad made pancakes, which he doesn’t usually do.

AW: Mac-and-cheese. Annie’s shells mac and cheese.

BE: French toast rolls and beignets. We had a lot of dessert breakfasts.

FIRST DAY Lower and middle schoolers returned to school two days before their Upper School counterparts.

Settling back in to the school routine, first grader Peter Dunlap (top) and fifth graders Graham Smith and Jake Cuban get back to their oncampus work

ME: When we made breakfast for dinner, we put a four-person tent in our master bedroom, so we could have a campout, and we got to watch a movie before we went to bed.

JM: What’s one thing that you’ve started doing differently because of the pandemic?

AW: Way more screen time. I play video games, especially Roblox. I also watch Gacha [on Youtube]. We rode bikes a lot.

ME: We started walking our dog every day, but we stopped because there might be too many people, and our dog barks a lot. She’s not very nice, but we started walking her every day again to get out. We wanted to stay in our house a little more, because people might be a bit more active in the morning, and they may get outside in the morning. We just kind of stay inside, but we’d walk her in the afternoon.

BE: We didn’t do it that much in the summer, because it’s so hot, but that’s when we started swimming constantly. I had friends over, and they’d just come through our back gate, and we’d just have swim parties all day.

JM: What’s your favorite thing to do in your free time?

WW: Watch TV and play on my iPad. Mostly Roblox. Sometimes Minecraft.

AW: I read three of the Rick Riordan books series. Haven’t finished the Trials of Apollo one yet, but I’m almost done.

JM: Have you seen the movies?

AW: Yeah. They were okay.

BE: I really like reading. I read the Wings of Fire series, the Warriors books, the Harry Potter books – all of those are good.

ME: I’m really into board games and card games and also whatever games are active.

I really like lacrosse. Bowman tried it out, but he didn’t like it. But I did read. I read the

Rocketry club finishes third in competition over the summer

by Ian Dalrymple he Rocketry Club won third place in the American Rocketry League’s Summer competition.

Team Captain Jacob Bell noted many differences between this year’s competition and last year’s.

“Normally, it’s an actual rocketry competition where you have to build a rocket, and you have to get it up to a certain height and then come back down in a certain amount of time,” Bell said.

“However, because of COVID-19, they made it virtual this year through Kerbal Space Program.”

This virtual alteration to the competition meant that the league had to design a new goal, to get the rocket to the moon and back with as little cost as possible.

“The pandemic definitely affected the competition, which is why they had to do the virtual thing instead,” Bell said. “I would have rather done an

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actual competition, and I think everyone would have wanted that too. We couldn’t, though, so this was the next best thing.”

As the new captain, it was Bell’s responsibility to spearhead the team’s planning.

“I had to organize the meetings and stuff over Zoom and plan that out,” Bell said. “It wasn’t super challenging, but it was still new. I had never had to do that kind of organization before.”

In total, they met for over 25 hours. But, the team’s success was due not only to their planning but also to the rocket itself.

“We were expecting to do well because we looked at the other teams’ Twitter accounts,” Bell said. “We saw who was cheaper than us throughout the competition, and we knew we were going to do pretty well. Still, we didn’t know how well, so getting third place felt really good.”

Narwhal books and Fly Guy, too.

JM: Have you picked up any new hobbies?

AW: Rode a lot more bikes. Wilson got really, really good at his bike. Our friend Tom also learned how to ride his bike. We made pizza one day.

ME: I just like lacrosse, so I picked up a lot of lacrosse lately.

BE: Caring for my turtles because I got two pet turtles. Aquatic turtles. Called Musk turtles.

They’re really small – they can grow up to fffour inches. One pooped on Montgomery’s hand.

ME: Shelby [one of the turtles] bit Bowman.

She’s the one that doesn’t like to be carried, but Bowman picked her up, and she bit him.

JM: Do you like online or in-person school better?

AW: In-person, definitely. You actually get to see people. But online took less time, and we got to sleep late. I started sleeping much later after the pandemic and going to bed later.

I was getting up at eight, but before I was getting up at six. And I was staying up until ten, but before I was going to bed by eight.

Once I stayed up until 12 with reading. You know how that happens.

BE: Last year, for online school, we only had a few pages of work, and then we were done, so we had the rest of the day free, so it was pretty easier than the year before. But I like seeing all my friends, so I like in-person better. Even if it’s more work.

ME: Tomorrow’s going to be my first day at St. Mark’s, so I don’t know, but I think in-person will be better because you can actually see your friends.

BE: My second grade year, it was really fun.

But this year is not the same.

SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Virus forces break in many events

As students get comfortable seeing each other at school, social events have been put on hold for now.

STORY Cristian Pereira, Han Zhang, Ian Dalrymple PHOTOS Evan Lai

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omecoming and pep rallies. Fun Day and football games.

While students are allowed to come back to in-person school, a plethora of events remain uncertain.

To what extent will COVID affect fall activities, and how is the school reacting to a continual need for social distancing?

Colin Igoe Upper School Head

Sherri Darver Lower School Head

DECISIONS The uncertainty of COVID-19 has made divisional administrators make tough decisions on many storied campus events.

Everything from Homecoming and spirit nights to Grandparents Day and McDonald's Week could be affected by the contuing demands for social distancing.

Sophomores Zheng, Kelly help stop tailgating accidents with new license plate startup

by Will Spencer pazen, a startup company created for the purpose of manufacturing and selling anti-tailgating license plates, was founded by sophomores Tommy Zheng and Brendan Kelly to help stop tailgating accidents over the course of summer break.

The idea for the license plate itself began as a potential submission for the Invest National Youth Business Competition, a nationwide competition showcasing the entrepreneurship of youths in the 13

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to 17 year old age range.

“Tommy called me, and then, that night, he said, ‘hey, let's enter this competition,’ Then, we were just brainstorming ideas,” Kelly said, “and then Tommy came up with this idea of how to prevent tailgating accidents with this system on the back [of a car] that’s a little sign that lights up.”

Kelly and Zheng were encouraged to research this idea by thepervasiveness of tailgating accidents.

“There are 950,000 [injuries a year in the United States from] accidents that are caused by tailgating from just following the car in front of you too closely,” Kelly said.

Kelly and Zheng noticed the lack of widespread anti-tailgating technology in the US, so they decided to attempt filling that market niche.

“We did research, and we found out that a forward collision system is only activated when you press the ‘activate’ button,” Zheng said. “Also, it only prevents you from tailgating

others, so it doesn't prevent the car behind you from tailgating you.”

Though Spazen is somewhat small right now, Kelly and Zheng plan on expanding the company from its current size in the future.

“We were trying to learn from the competition, but we're also looking to reinvest that in marketing and customer education,” Zheng said. “It will inform them of the advantages that Spazen has over forward collision systems and other safety features included in cars right now.”

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Jason Lange Middle School Assistant Head

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This is the first year that all Middle School students are required to have a piece of technology for school. While it is preferred that students get laptops, tablets work as well.

Middle School Assistant Head Jason Lange says the pandemic has advanced technology use in the Middle School.

“Mrs. [Kendall] Murphy has done an outstanding job getting them up to speed on things like Google classroom and Blackbaud and email,” Lange said. “I'd say their single biggest struggle is submitting work digitally — the ability to scan a document and submit it is hard for many middle schoolers to learn.”

However, COVID has not been so generous to Middle School events.

“Usually the marquee event that

kids look forward to year after year is Fun Day,” Lange said. “Fun Day will be cancelled — that is a major blow for fifth and sixth graders. Particularly a major blow for the sixth graders, since this was their last year to attend.”

Other events and activities as well are getting cancelled or postponed.

“Middle schoolers will be sad that they don’t get to go to varsity football games,” Lange said. “That’s a big thing in Middle School. And some experiences during the day like playing spikeball in the quad at 4 p.m. can’t happen — you have to go home. And, of course, for seventh and eighth graders, athletic events will be cancelled. It’s probably too early to tell, but the eighth grade Winter Dance will probably be cancelled in December.

[Director of Counseling Gabby Reed] has done a really good job with the counseling department at Hockaday to organize some fifth and sixth grade team building activities where our boys and their girls get together — the one in the fall here will have to be cancelled as well. We want to run our programs as much as possible, but there are some things we can’t offer.”

Because of high risk of certain activities, some Lower School events have had to be cancelled entirely.

“There are events that are still going on, but they’re definitely not in their traditional form at this point,” Lower School Head Sherri Darver said. “Fun Day is probably our biggest fall event.

Grandparents’ Day is a really big deal in the Lower School, but, of course, that’s been cancelled too.”

Others, however, may not be totally off the table.

“Of course, pride night and Lower School spirit night have both been cancelled, maybe postponed until the spring,” Darver said. “We had to postpone our fourth grade drama night, and we postponed the admissions open house for the whole campus. Some of these things we’re hoping to move to virtual, but right now we don’t really know.”

Still, most plans are not set in stone.

“We don’t really have any concrete plans for altering events to fit the pandemic,” Darver said. “We’re just kind of taking everything day by day.”

September 25, 2020

School officials want to take their time when making decisions, especially with such important school events and traditions.

In terms of Homecoming, one of the most anticipated events of the school year, the school has chosen to wait and see if conditions change to allow an in-person event similar to the ones held in the past.

“Current conditions wouldn’t allow us to have Homecoming as we know it, so the way that we’re thinking about it is either postponed or reimagined,” Upper School Head Colin Igoe said, “but we’re still taking as much time as we can so that we can make the best decision for both health and wellbeing, as well as the important strengthening of the community that these kinds of events provide.”

Right now, administrators are concerned for the health and safety of the entire community. Although the preference is to maintain normality as much as possible, Igoe stresses that following safety protocol is a necessity in order to have the events and traditions that students are used to.

“We want to make sure that we’ve mitigated risk as much as possible,” Igoe said, “and to make sure that we’re not losing sight of delivering our program and making sure that students, faculty and families are healthy and safe.”

Above all, the school wants to maintain its mission, which is one of the largest factors in making event-related decisions.

“What’s different about this situation is that all the traditions that we’re so accustomed to having at certain time periods throughout the year are different,” Igoe said, “but that makes it all the more

important for us to focus on our mission and our values, as well as our process.”

Student Council President Blake Hudspeth is certain the school will do everything they can to preserve traditional events, but understands the risks involved in holding many of them.

“They definitely understand the importance stuff like that holds for us,” Hudspeth said. “If they can have something in some capacity later in the year, they'll have it. for example, McDonald's Week was canceled last year because of the tornado. St Mark's made a commitment and we had it later in the year, literally the week before we got out for COVID.” For now, all Student Council-events will have to remain virtual.

But Hudspeth and his team are doing everything they can to make sure Marksmen continue to feel a sense of community at their school — whether that be virtual assemblies, creative Friday night activities or Student Council produced videos.

“One concern I have is about Upper Schoolers feeling a little alienated, something I felt a little bit myself towards the end of virtual learning last spring,” Hudspeth said. “It's hard with social distancing to help everyone remember that they are part of a community where they are welcome, but I'm working with the Council to do whatever we can."

NEW STUDENTS

Moving forward

As families strive to get ready for the new school year, a few are adapting to an entirely new city.

STORY Luke Piazza, Morgan Chow PHOTOS Courtesy of Adam Wang, Hannah Kim, Sharang Vyas

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hoosing to leave the comfort of home and relocate to a completely different environment is often a difficult decision to make, especially while having to consider a family. That’s particularly true during a pandemic. Despite this, three families decided to move during the summer to start a new chapter in their lives.

From the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea; Nashville, TN; and Fremont, CA; the Hong, Wang and Vyas families, respectively, traveled far this summer to join the community. Especially during this special period, getting adjusted to their new way of life won’t be easy.

September 25, 2020

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Arriving all the way from South Korea, the Hong family made the decision to move to Dallas after their two sons, first grader Ezra Hong and fifth grader Jonah Hong, were accepted into the school. Hannah Kim, their mother, was especially excited at the prospect of moving after hearing of the boys’ acceptance.

“After [receiving the acceptance emails], I think that really settled it for us, because we were already thinking, ‘What if?’” Kim said. “When we got the acceptance emails, we were thrilled. I think at that point we said we should move to Dallas, and we started to explore real possibilities of what we should do and how we could get there.”

Their departure, however, leads to some problems. Without a clear estimate of when their belongings will arrive from Korea, Kim has no idea how long they will be stuck living out of suitcases. Luckily, Kim feels welcomed and already feels comfortable in this new environment.

“We really felt at home quickly,” Kim said. “I think we’re very lucky that way and I can honestly say that we picked the right community and the right school. We’re totally excited for the school year, and it will be, I’m sure, an adventurous chapter of their life. Hopefully, they will carry on, have many memories that they can make and have a lot of stories to tell.”

Moving during a pandemic is already stressful enough, yet freshman Sharang Vyas had already started online school when he was in the process of travelling from California as well.

“After the first three days of online learning, we drove from California,” Vyas said.

“We drove pretty much the entirety of Sunday. We stopped in Albuquerque in New Mexico, and because it was Monday morning, I did my school from the hotel room. Then, I think by that evening, we made it to Dallas.”

Because his family has arrived less than a month ago, Vyas still

has a lot to sort out before his family can comfortably settle here.

“We’re all going out and looking at houses or scheduling appointments to look at a rental or a permanent house. So we still have that to figure out.”

Vyas could only carry so much, and since many of his personal belongings are still in California, he only took what he needed.

“Most of our necessities, like most of the clothes we need and other stuff like my laptop - most of that stuff is here already, but there’s a lot of stuff that still has to come,” Vyas said. “And even if it did, we wouldn’t have a place to keep it until we get a house.”

Even with these difficulties, Vyas isn’t bothered too much by the move.

“It definitely didn’t faze me as much. We knew [the move] was coming for a while. So moving, that wasn’t really the surprising thing. It was more about how much we had to move once we got in the city, always looking at houses, staying at one person’s place and renting an apartment for a couple of days. So that’s been very hectic.”

Where are they from?

• Ezra (1) and Jonah (5) Hong: Seoul, South Korea • Andy (7), Alex (10) and Adam (11) Wang: Nashville, Tennessee • Sharang Vyas (9): Fremont, California

Moving with his two brothers sophomore Alex Wang and seventh grader Andy Wang, junior Adam Wang and his family decided to pursue a job opportunity at UT Southwestern.

Compared to the difficulties the Hongs and Vyases had, the Wangs arrived in Dallas relatively easily just after school ended, following a long-ongoing desire to move.

“Our parents came into the area, and they settled on St. Mark’s because it was most similar to our old school, as it’s all boys and has really good academics,” Adam Wang said. “They were impressed with what they saw, then we visited, and that just sealed it. We were going to stay in Nashville because we were taking a few summer camps there, but when the pandemic started, those were canceled, so we decided to just move.”

And although the pandemic has made it difficult for Adam to get accustomed to the new environment, he appreciates the little bit of good this chaotic time has given him.

“It’s kind of a good thing in a weird way because I’m kind of in the same situation as all of you, with all this craziness,” Adam Wang said. “So I mean that going in, that’s something that helps a lot. I can’t wait till we get back in person when I can actually meet with people and talk with people a lot more, but we’re all kind of figuring it out together.”

NEW YEAR Although their journeys may have been long, the Wangs, the Hongs and the Vyases (top to bottom) are ready for the start of the school year.

ORIENTATION

Coming home to 10600 Preston Road

Who would’ve thought the school year would begin with remote learning? After two weeks of virtual instruction, Marksmen returned to campus via a staggered schedule, beginning Sept. 9 with Lower Schoolers returning, followed by Middle and Upper Schoolers. The consensus? It’s good to be back.

AIRPLANE ARMS Nurse Julie Doerge teaches a instructor Kay Carrio’s Lower School class the technique of “airplane arms.” This position, in which both arms are stretched out in opposite directions, is meant to promote safe social distancing.

BIG PLANS Trustee Master Teaching Chair Lynne Schwartz hosts her advisory on Orientation Day. The school’s instructors use webcams to show their whiteboards to students still in remote learning.

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CARPOOL For the first time in nearly six months, students exit their cars and come onto campus.

Middle and Upper School class start times have been staggered to avoid congestion during student arrival in the mornings.

SCREEN TIME Lower School instructor Catherine Wetzel (above) interacts with her homeroom on Orientation Day. Students still in remote orientation look on from home through an iPad and interact with classes as if they were in the classroom.

PHOTOS Ekansh Tambe

SOCIAL DISTANCING Maintaining six feet distance, lower schoolers prepare to enter their classrooms for orientation (center right). Many of the school’s hallways have been modified with traffic patterns to maintain this reccomended separation.

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September 25, 2020

WELCOME BACK Headmaster David Dini (above) welcomes Lower Schoolers back to campus on Orientation Day. This is Dini’s seventh year at the school’s helm.

A missing

PRESENCE

Year after year, Marksmen parents are a quiet force behind the scenes, from monotony breakers to Homecoming. With parents no longer allowed to volunteer on campus, how will life be different on 10600 Preston Rd? STORY Luke Piazza, Jamie Mahowald PHOTOS Courtesy Dave Carden, Katherine Steinbrueck, Julie Clark, Kathy Mallick, Nancy Goldberg, Paul Genender and Vera Ingram

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ith a campus filled with 200 faculty and staff and 904 students, the return to 10600 Preston Rd. forced the administration to make some sacrifices to enable a safe and swift resumption of the 2020-2021 school year. While some chose to stay at home for personal reasons, others have been asked to not return this year to minimize any possible spread of COVID-19.

From around the table every morning to right before bed, from the lunchroom and the Student Store, from Lion Pride Night to Ice Cream Dads, they find ways to support the community in every building.

Except for this year.

No more monotony breakers. No more Breakfast with Dad’s. No more Spirit Parties, or new family buddy programs, or Fun Day, or holiday decorations, and most importantly: No more parents on campus.

The ongoing pandemic has forced the majority of campus activities –– from school traditions to popular clubs –– to a temporary halt, including most parent involvement on campus.

And although Parents’ Association President Katherine Steinbrueck, mother of freshman Parker, sixth grader Will and fourth grader Cameron, acknowledges that the decision was made in the best interests of students and faculty, she knows this decision’s impact will be strongly felt not only among students, but parents as well.

“That sense of community we bring is probably not gonna feel as strong this year,” Steinbrueck said, “in the sense that it’s going to be harder to bring people that wouldn’t know each other otherwise together.

You might be keeping in touch with families that you already know, but it’s a lot harder to have that surprise when you’re serving in the cafeteria next to a parent I’ve never met, and then I get to know her and now I have this new connection at St. Mark’s.”

The Parents’ Association serves as the primary platform through which most parents choose to get involved with the school. With the same energy that many students go about volunteering at various community service opportunities throughout the year, many parents, ranging from the 101 chairs and leaders on the Parents’ Association, to the mom who brings napkins for a Halloween party, find their own unique ways to make an impact on campus.

“We have levels of volunteering available,” Steinbrueck said. “Some people are like, ‘I can’t be in charge of something, but I’d love to bring brownies.’ And a lot of times that little stuff then becomes a bigger thing. I realized that I loved being in the library, so then when they asked me, ‘Would you consider being the chair of the library and being in charge of all the volunteers?’ I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ Then after that I got to be a grade representative, then Vice President of Communications, then Lower School Coordinator, then I was President Elect last year and President this year. It started and didn’t stop.”

Upper School Coordinator of the Parents’ Association Julie Clark, mother of freshman Charlie Clark and Parker Clark ‘19, has been involved with the Association as long as she’s lived in Dallas. For the past five years, Clark has worked jobs running Homecoming, heading Back to School Night and serving as grade representative.

Her interest in connecting with other students and parents spurred the beginning of her involvement.

“It’s harder for Upper School parents, because Upper School kids are all so independent,” Clark said, “so joining is a nice way to get to know other parents, and you also feel invested in the school.

When you’re involved, you understand.

You trust the school. St. Mark’s doesn’t do anything they haven’t thoroughly researched, and they really take the time and effort to make the right decision. The community they create comes a lot through the Parents’

Association.”

With the year-to-year consistency of the Association comes the responsibility on the part of the parents to keep alive the favorite school traditions –– especially those whose existence students may not attribute to parent involvement. For Clark, taking part in those traditions is among the most rewarding parts of being a parent here, although new circumstances may require them to think in new ways or not even have them at all.

“St. Mark’s tradition is embedded in this school,” Clark said, “and with the Parents’ Association, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year. It’s a well oiled machine, and it’s been done this way for a long time. This year, we do have to be creative because it’s a different situation, but, as always, it’s broken down into a lot of different parts so that lots of parents can be involved, and it gives every parent a feeling of community.”

But the trust between parents and the school is a comforting aspect for Clark, who, at the end of the day, does not find herself needing to manage her children’s education.

“The nuts and bolts of the education is another thing they seem to have figured out,” Clark said. “They know how to get you guys through school and be highly successful. They’re teaching you so many different levels of character and academics, and as a whole, the education and community that they create is so outstanding that I don’t feel like I have to be involved in the education, and I feel like that because of the level of trust between the parents and the school.”

In the end, with the burden of educational worries off of the parents’ soldiers, parents are free to focus on the things tha make their children’s time here worthwhile.

“It’s ultimately our relationships and our connections with each other that make life meaningful,” Steinbrueck said. “I am not trying to be a helicopter parent by any means, but to be involved in each other’s lives is going to knit us closer together as a family.

And even as a family, we are knit closer with other families in our community, and that makes us all stronger. Things are more meaningful when we know other people, when we take care of them. When things go well, we celebrate with them. When they’re hurt, we can hurt with them. We can enjoy what is meaningful in life when we’re doing it together.”

There are, however, a few parents that will remain on campus, namely those who have full-time jobs on campus. Student Store Manager Nancy Goldberg, mother of Henry ‘16 and senior Owen, took over the Student Store following a successful interim period and has strove to improve both its inventory and impression.

“I always knew that there was so much more it could be,” Goldberg said. “I really wanted it to not only carry more options of items, cold drinks and more snacks and make it a more welcoming place, but for it to be a community builder as well. We want everyone to wear the same St. Mark’s sweatshirts and the St. Mark’s t-shirts to add to the pride of being a Marksman. I had the opportunity to start as an interim, and then when I was offered the job, I was excited to be here every day helping everybody get what they need and being with the boys who are all so sweet.”

The Student Store will continue to operate, however, in a limited fashion, as it will not be accepting parent volunteers for the foreseeable future.

“My volunteer moms were the Eight things sweetest, always here to help and do they do anything I asked,” Goldberg said.

• Monotony breakers “They loved seeing their own kids • Homecoming and all the other kids. The moms are • Junior Patrons’ Guild definitely gonna miss it, and the boys • Voter registration will miss having the moms here, but • Faculty / Staff Appreciation it’s in everyone’s best interest, and we • Celebrate St. Mark’s • Student Store certainly know and understand.”

• Spirit Parties Across the quad, Administrative Assistant to the Lower School Kathy Mallick, mother of Sam ‘10, Joe ‘11, Jack ‘14 and Will ‘20, joined the staff to help Lower School Head Sherry Darver during her interim year, and following Darver’s official assumption of the position, she’s stayed ever since, finding new ways of being a mom every day.

“It really is like being the mom,” Mallick said. “I help on the playground if we need that, then I take a bazillion emails and respond to what any parents need, any concerns they have. If somebody goes out to play and they slipped in the mud, I help them get fresh clothes. I’ve pulled teeth. I do band aid work. One time I got a cockroach out of a urinal, another time a snake out of a backpack, and that goes on all day long until it’s time for carpool.

Then I help get the boys safely out and into the cars. When it’s quiet, after the boys are gone, I tend to paperwork and things that are coming up in the next few days or weeks.”

For many students, a parent’s nagging to finish their homework or go to bed on time is a daily struggle. But Mallick has learned to embrace the loose style that the school utilizes rather than harping on every decision her sons make.

“The first thing in parenting is that you are not in charge,” Mallick said. “I always said to my kids, ‘You don’t have a curfew until you do.’ You make suggestions: ‘I think that’s a good idea.

GETTING HUNGRY Student favorite events such as monotony breakers (right) and Ice Cream Dads (below) in the cafeteria will not be possible due to safety concerns.

A CLOSED CLOSET Offering discounted school clothing for students in need, the Lion’s Closet will not be opened this year, as the procedures neccessary to prepare the clothes, including washing them, would not be safe for students and parents.

The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

Perspectives

I think that’s a bad idea,’ but it’s really better to let them be empowered to parent, Genender likens the role of a parent to an investment in his children. make their own decisions. And it’s great teamwork between the faculty and “If you trust your loved ones to spend their time in –– let’s be honest –– parents. There were several times that I could enlist the teacher’s help, and a really hard place,” Genender said, “then you’re really making the ultimate the teachers were always so willing to back me up in the classroom without investment in the school. You’re making it part of your family. And I happen bringing my name into it.’ to think parents –– more than alums –– parents are making an incredible But that freedom doesn’t come with total abandonment, as Goldberg investment, because it’s not the easiest thing to be a parent at St. Mark’s. You is always ready to support both her sons and other students on campus in can’t outsource your kids to St. Mark’s and show up at graduation.” whatever they are facing.

And while Genender finds pride in his role as a parent and an alum, he “[My job is] just supporting him and trying to tell him that, as stressful also has confidence in his investment, knowing that the school’s focus is not as it is here, it’s all okay,” Goldberg said. “Every boy here is smart. It’s a great placed on pleasing the parents. place to be, and my job is to support all the boys, both my boy and all the “It’s on the students,” Genender said. “And that’s not always the case in boys, and to tell them that it’s gonna be okay. But if they need something, I’ll different certain schools. It’s not dismissive of the parents, but the focus is on do everything I can to help them with that, so that when they leave, they’re the kids and students. And I love that because I don’t need the school to be ready.” focusing on me at the expense of my kids.”

Over the course of raising four 12-year Vera Ingram, mother of senior Harrison Here’s what’s difficult. As a parent, you want to Marksmen, Mallick has fostered a special Ingram and Will Ingram ‘17, is currently be there for your child all the time. You want to appreciation for the community the campus serving her ninth and final year on the be there to support them and help them wherever it’s creates for the students, and she hopes to Board of Trustees. After meeting a group of needed, right? The difficult thing is knowing when not help continue that same experience for Marksmen at a fundraiser before Will’s sixth to help them. It’s knowing when to just let them figure future generations of marksmen. grade year, Ingram and her husband toured out something on their own.”

“My kids walked away with so much the school and sent their boys here shortly Vera Ingram, Board of Trustees Member as far as their level of education, their level thereafter. of commitment, the grit, the perseverance,” “As parents, my husband and I both feel Mallick said. “And then throw in all the character and leadership on top of that it’s our responsibility to give our child the best education we can while it, I’m so appreciative of that that I want the other people at school here to we have control of it,” Ingram said, “because when you go to college, you have that same feeling, to have the same pride, to have that community and don’t really have control of the education, on what you give them anymore. family. And these little bitty kids, you just fall in love with them. They’re So we wanted to give them the best education that we could find for them cute. They’re funny. They lose a tooth and they just want to tell you about it. while they’re younger.”

They want to show you what they drew. I want the same things for them that After another parent nominated her for a position on the board, Ingram my kids got to walk away with, and I want our reputation to always be solid. has worked most of her time on the Board’s Audit Committee, reviewing I want us to be rock stars. That’s what my kids walked away with.” records and consulting with independent auditors to discuss accounts with Headmaster David Dini and the rest of the administration.

Paul Genender ‘87 is about as connected with the school as a single person “The Board really exists to support the faculty and staff,” Ingram said, can be. An alum himself, Genender had two older brothers graduate from “It’s an advisory committee. We do handle certain things –– the Audit here before him, and he now has two sons, sophomore George and senior Committee now has a function to review all of the financial reporting Jack, on track to follow the family tradition. processes to make sure that everything is in order, or you have the Facilities Between his return to Dallas from Duke Law School in 1994 and Jack’s Committee that makes sure all of your buildings have the funding they need enrollment, he hosted reunions at his home, worked on the St. Mark’s Fund to maintain them, the football field and all of those different things.” with fellow alums and served on the Ralph B. Rogers Award Committee and But more than serving as a Board member, Ingram takes pride in her role on the Alumni Board, eventually becoming its president. as a parent. Parents of current students, alongside alums, compose the vast But Genender also serves on the Board of Trustees –– an advisory majority of the Board, with only two members not in either category. And for committee for the school’s administration –– through his role as Alumni Ingram, the Board and the school as a whole attract a specific kind of person, Board President. Every Board member, Genender says, shares a common anyway. interest in the betterment of the school and its progression.

“Being a St. Mark’s parent tells you what kind of person you’re dealing “No two parents are alike, and no two alums are alike,” Genender said. with anyway,” Ingram said. “The fact that you chose St. Mark’s for your “People have different backgrounds, different ideas, diversity of thought, child, and your child chose St. Mark’s, already says something about you. It diversity of background, diversity of skin color. But here’s a common thing: says that you are very concerned about their education, and you’re going to everyone buys into that common mission of what’s going to be best for the do whatever it takes to make sure that they get the best education possible. education of the boys.”

That means you’re volunteering when it’s needed. That’s what serving on the With his own experiences guiding his decision to become a St. Mark’s Board is about.”

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Culture

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Choir

Glenn Stroh’s first year as choirmaster and what that position entails. Page 17

Videography A look into sophomore Sal Hussein’s work as a videographer. Page 18

Arts

Examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on two alumni artists’ careers. Page 19

In brief ORGAN REPAIRS The Roosevelt Family Organ, having been damaged by last fall’s tornado, was dismantled and removed from the chapel in June and has been dispatched to Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, for its restoration, a lengthy process that includes rebuilding the organ and replacing its casework. The repair process will carry on through the 2020-2021 school year, with reinstallation planned for next summer.

ALL-STATE AUDITIONS The Upper School Orchestra has been working independently from home, preparing music for its auditions.

The instrumentalists are creating the foundation for pieces by Dvorak and Mozart to commence their year and anticipate relishing the sounds of playing as a group, something which they sincerely miss. The Upper School choir has been preparing for its TPSMEA All-State auditions by working with recordings of voice parts, currently recording parts for a Virtual Evensong this fall.

ENGLISH COURSES The decision to consolidate AP English language and AP English literature will give seniors the opportunity to select two semester-length-courses from a wider list of offerings. In addition, it will allow juniors to take a more comprehensive and skill-based course, as both classes primarily focus on systematic reading and writing. This is the first year the course will be offered.

Furthermore, students will take two AP exams for the class.

FILM STUDIES The changes to the film studies course will result in the removal of film 6 from the curriculum. It will also separate the advanced classes and the advanced honors classes. The honors class will focus solely on producing films while the advanced class will focus on advanced filmmaking techniques, editing and special effects in addition to film productions.

Upper School film is staying the same, and Middle School film studies is a combination of all three of the old Middle School film studies classes.

Languages

Speaking in tongues After a junior year abroad in Zaragoza, Spain, senior Josh Mysoré used his summer to immerse himself in the Hindi language.

STORY Axel Icazbalceta, Will Pechersky PHOTOS Courtesy Josh Mysoré PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Jonathan Yin

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n third grade, senior Josh Mysoré walks into a haji food market just a few hours after a swim and orders his favorite Turkish sandwich like usual.

Usually, he’d thank the Turkish sandwich makers in English and they’d politely return the favor. But the day before he had gone on Google Translate to find out how to say thank you in Turkish. Çok teşekkür ederim. “Thank you very much” in Turkish.

The sandwich makers’ faces lit up as this familiar face thanked them in their native tongue.

That experience followed Mysoré as he continues to pursue language learning and cultural appreciation during a year abroad in Spain, a Hindi summer scholarship course, and beyond.

Mysoré’s initial interest in Spanish began and flourished while he studied the language on campus.

“Obviously, it started in lower school,” Mysoré said. “I did a lot within Profesora [Emma] Noble’s class, and throughout my whole language-learning experience, I was just exposed to Spanish. And then this past sophomore year with Señora McFarland, who is retired now, she really got me interested in the Spanish culture, food, and politics.”

After this pivotal experience during sophomore year Spanish, Mysoré decided to apply to study a year abroad in Spain through the School Year Abroad (SYA) program.

“I am a spontaneous person, just inherently,” Mysoré said. “I like to do things differently, and no one at St. Mark’s really goes abroad or even does semesters. It’s a pretty uncommon thing on campus, so I wanted to do something different. And I think the best way to learn, in general, is experiential learning, so the chance to live in another country with a host family is just unbeatable.”

The SYA program sends a yearly representative here to encourage students to spend a year abroad. After Mysoré expressed interest in the trip, former Spanish instructor Marsha McFarland encouraged him to pursue the program, seeing how her own year in Spain affected her life.

“I spent a year abroad when I was in college in Madrid,” McFarland said, “and from that experience and also from what I’ve witnessed Marsha with other students that McFarland have done an extended Former Spanish immersion program, I just instructor don’t think there’s any educational experience that can compare with what you get out of a trip like that. I was just thrilled that he was interested in doing it because it’s really a life-changing experience.”

Daily interactions with the language improved Mysoré’s fluency in Spanish, such as learning the meaning of the word acuciante – meaning “urgent” – from a Spanish news broadcast.

“After two months or so, what started happening was, I would learn language based on context,” Mysoré said. “If I heard a word I didn’t know, I would ask my host parents what it meant, or I would try to figure out the context of what it meant.”

Upon his return, Mysoré’s parents

saw the immediate effect of their son’s year abroad from Spain in both his language fluency and WRITING DIFFERENTLY While all three languages have a common Indohis cultural European root, Spanish and English use the Latin alphabet, a symbol of their adaptation.

European heritage. Hindi, on the other hand, uses the Devanagari script.

“His proficiency in “The key thing that we as English conversational speakers tend to do – or when you’re Spanish was amazing,” Harish learning a foreign language in general Mysoré, Josh’s father, said. “It – is try to make sense of the language clearly demonstrates that there is no through our own,” Mysoré said. substitution for full immersion. The “But that’s not how languages work. other interesting development was his Languages work by making sense of the ability to adapt to Spanish lifestyle. He world through language. So instead of had to stay in a small apartment with his trying to take what you already know host family, take public transportation to in English and translate that, the way get to school and had mastered the art to learn is to look at an object — say a of independent travel throughout Spain pencil — understand what it does — it with his classmates.” can write — and learn how to express that through a language and a script.”

Instead of trying to take what you already know in English and translate Another payoff Mysoré gets from that, the way to learn is to look at an learning languages is the feeling of when object — say a pencil — understand he finally starts to truly understand the what it does — it can write — and learn languages. how to express that through a language “I think just learning languages, and a script. and starting to feel the language click Josh Mysoré, senior in your head is such an indescribable feeling,” Mysoré said. “I think during Still in Spain, Mysoré applied for a month three in Spain, one day I dreamt National Security Language Initiative in Spanish over the night. My host mom for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship to study woke me up the next day, I was groggy, Hindi over the summer. and Spanish just came out of my mouth.

“It is a program run by the United I felt like a part of my brain unlocked, to States State Department,” Mysoré said, put it bluntly. It was awesome.” “and they grant full scholarships to While he definitely wants to American high school students who improve his Hindi, Mysoré is currently wish to either study a foreign language focusing on his Spanish to completely during a summer or during a full master the language. academic year.”

While a great deal of motivation to apply for the scholarship came from Mysoré’s passion for foreign languages and cultures, he also considers the practical aspects of being multilingual in an increasingly globalized world.

“I don’t know what I want to study in college for sure, but I know that whatever I do, I want to work with people internationally,” Mysoré said. “I don’t want to be confined to the United States. And the way I see to do that is through language. And if I learn Hindi, ZARAGOZA Mysoré stands next to a sign for Spanish, and, my next language on the the Spanish city of Zaragoza, the city he stayed list is Chinese. That’s South America, in during his year abroad. Zaragoza is the fifth Spain, all of the Indian subcontinent, largest city in Spain by population. which is a billion people, and mainland China, Chinese is the most spoken “I do want to primarily focus on language in the world. So I want to learn developing my Spanish even further to a it because it’s useful and it’s going to literary level,” help with my life and career.”

Mysoré said. “My personal The summer program normally philosophy: I like to know little tidbits sends the applicants to study in the of a lot of languages, but I would much language’s country of origin with a host rather speak three languages fluently family for six weeks. However, due to than speak seven languages, but only the limitations forced by the COVID-19 have real dominance in one.” pandemic, the program became virtual.

Though there is also a practical, While total immersion was still the goal, career aspect to it, Mysoré’s interest in Mysoré noticed a huge difference from learning foreign languages stems from his experience in Spain. his wanting to be able to connect on a “The difference between sitting deep level with people that can only be in my house and looking at a screen achieved through a common tongue. for two hours and living with a host “I believe in my own mind and family in New Delhi, I don’t know if I my own abilities to think as a human,” can express it,” Mysoré said. “I’d say Mysoré said. “Since I was a kid, I’ve almost everything besides the language always been interested in just getting to learning. And that too, the language learning was greatly decelerated because know other people. Whenever I meet other people, I take more of a vested of the change.” interest into getting to know who they Drawing from his experiences with are. And I realized a long time ago, when Spanish and Hindi, Mysoré believes the I was young, that if you meet someone key to learning language is learning it who doesn’t speak your language, you by its own merits, not as a translation can’t do that.” method.

NEW CHOIRMASTER

Directing the choir Organist and choir instructor Glenn Stroh steps into his new position as choirmaster in a year of new challenges.

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Alam Alidina PHOTO Jerry Zhao

G

lenn Stroh has had a lot on his plate.

Last year, he worked with the choir to bounce back from destruction caused by the tornado, include damage to the Roosevelt Family Pipe Organ and the James Livengood Choir Room, and put together an Evensong performance Nov. 3, just two weeks after the tornado. Now, a new obstacle, the COVID-19 pandemic, has disrupted choir practices at the end of this past school year.

Stroh now takes on new duties as choirmaster, leading a total of 70 choristers this year, 21 in Upper School and 49 in Middle School.

For Fine Arts Department Chair Marion Glorioso-Kirby, promoting Stroh to the choirmaster position was a no-brainer given his experience working with the choir as an organist and instructor.

“Mr. Stroh has actually been working with the choir for ten years,” she said. “We hired him to be the organist, then over time, because Mr. Stroh’s skill set is not only in being an organist but also in choral conducting, Mr. Stroh started working with our fourth-grade novice choristers five or six years ago, and two years ago he took on all of the treble voices – fourth, fifth and sixth grade.”

The ice cream picture was the first thing I posted on my Instagram. I called it custard-based blueberry ice cream with jam swirls. I used a combination of The New York Times’s “Only Ice Cream Recipe You Will Ever Need” recipe and a few techniques from Cooks Illustrated.

These techniques include adding a little bit of cornstarch to thicken the base, letting the base age in the fridge overnight, and replacing a small amount of the sugar with corn syrup — corn syrup that isn’t high fructose is actually not any worse for your body than normal sugar. All of these techniques made the base more viscous and reduced the size of the ice crystals, giving the ice cream a creamier texture.

One of my favorite dinners that I have posted on my Instagram was the Nashville hot fried chicken sandwich.

I love spicy foods and fried chicken is always delicious. The combination just seems genius. I used chicken thighs that I marinated in buttermilk spiced with cayenne and other spices.

I then patted them with flour, put them back into the buttermilk, and then floured them again before dropping them into my frying oil.

The part about Nashville hot fried chicken that is special is the sauce.

You take a little bit of the frying oil and whisk a lot of spices into it, typically cayenne, and then brush it on the fried chicken. I served it on a toasted brioche bun and some coleslaw.

Lastly, my favorite baked treat on my Instagram page are the cinnamon rolls that I made for breakfast. It was a fairly simple yeasted dough. I used just one packet of active dry yeast.

After letting the dough rise, I rolled it out into a really large, thin rectangle.

I took very soft butter and spread it all around the surface of the dough and then generously sprinkled a mixture of ground cinnamon and brown sugar. I rolled the entire thing into a log, cut one-inch circles out of it, and then let those cinnamon rolls rise once more in the baking pan. After baking, I drizzled on a vanilla bean cream cheese glaze that I made. The brown sugar caramelizes, creating a delicious chewy caramel on the bottom.

17 The ReMarker

In May, senior Rohan Khatti said he was “dedicating [himself] to baking or cooking at least one new thing” every weekend.

So after a few weeks, Khatti started his own Instagram account — @khatticooking — where he features all the dishes he’s made.

Here are a few.

Stroh will also teach the Middle and Lower School choirs, and while Silcox will continue to instruct the Upper School, Stroh will choose the music and lead the full choir in major events such as Evensong and Lessons & Carols.

“This was an easy division to let Mr. Silcox continue working with the Upper Schoolers, because they’ve already been trained to think [musically],” Glorioso said. “So then it’s just teaching music whereas with fourth through eighth grade, you’re still really training the voice. That falls under the choirmaster.”

Stroh, however, is facing a particularly difficult first year.

“The pandemic has hit the performing arts and choirs especially hard,” Stroh wrote, “and I think it’s important to acknowledge singers are grieving this loss. I really miss the choristers’ singing, getting to help students learn how to use their voice and really listen to each other and making music with friends and colleagues.

Of course, the health and safety of everyone in our community must come first. We will be following a set of guidelines for choir which are set by our medical counsel and informed by the most recent research and data.”

As the community transitions to in-person learning, the choir program has instituted various changes to promote health safety. To ensure social distancing in choir, Marksmen will sing outside and be spaced 12 feet apart.

“Our year will continue the traditions and camaraderie between choristers which have defined the St. Mark’s Choir for decades,” Stroh wrote. “Our fall schedule will include a virtual Choral Evensong as well as a virtual Festival of Lessons & Carols, which will be pre-recorded and then edited into a high-quality production for the wider community.”

Stroh already plans to continue developing the strength of the choral program this year and uphold its international reputation for excellence.

“The boys are already working on new music for upcoming performances,” Stroh wrote, “and I am especially looking forward to highlighting some wonderful new compositions from historically under-represented composers.

Plans are underway for our next tour to England, and I will continually be looking for ways to enrich the chorister experience.”

No matter the circumstances, his goal is to provide the best possible experience for his students.

“That means a world-class choral music education combined with new and old activities which strengthen our bond as a team working toward a shared goal and purpose,” Stroh wrote.

“The St. Mark’s Choir is more than a performing ensemble: it is a family within our larger St. Mark’s family. It is unique as the only program on campus which involves fourth-graders all the way up to seniors working together on the same team.”

Culture

INTERVIEW Siddhartha Sinha

support the myriad logistical needs of the program, and, of course, for the students who work to bring their best to the choir and share their abundant musical gifts with our community. I would also like to express gratitude for [music instructor] Mrs. [Mary Ann] Livengood and the formative musical experience she provides in Lower School.”

Stroh will combine the roles of organist and choirmaster, taking on a traditional role that reflects the history of the choir program not only at St. Mark’s but also at nearby churches such as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and Church of the Incarnation.

“The Choirmaster is responsible for training and directing the Choir of Men & Boys of St. Mark’s School of Texas,” Stroh wrote. “I am fortunate to take on this position having already worked with our talented singers and with the benefit of being well-acquainted with the Choir’s rich history and culture.”

September 25, 2020

When Tinsley Silcox, the former choirmaster, felt that it was time for him to step down and focus on his job as Director of Library and Information Services, Stroh was a natural choice.

“It was a nice transition because they had already been working together for so long,” Glorioso said. “Mr. Stroh knows the program better than anyone else on campus, is such a strong choral conductor, knows the male voice so well and is a phenomenal vocal coach.”

Stroh expresses his Marion gratitude toward Silcox and Glorioso the numerous individuals Fine Arts who have made the choral Department Chair program possible.

“I am thankful to Mr. Silcox for his work at the helm since 2011,” Stroh wrote in an email, “to our administrators for recognizing the importance of the choir and music education and continuing to invest in this vital part of our campus life, the many parents who volunteer their time and energy to

MASKS ON As part of health and safety measures on campus, Choirmaster Glenn Stroh instructs choir students outdoors, wearing masks and spaced apart.

VIDEOGRAPHY

A fondness for film

Film has become more than a hobby for sophpomore Sal Hussain, whose love for the art has opened up new opportunities for him to connect with the school community and beyond.

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Shreyan Daulat PHOTOS Patrick Flanagan

F

ilm. Edit. Repeat.

With a click of his Sony A7iii camera, sophomore Sal Hussain captures exciting moments and riveting videos.

Hussain always has his camera in hand, and his passion for film and editing has given him the reputation of as the go-to man on campus to film videos. His busy schedule has forced him to balance homework and sports with late-night editing and weekend filming.

When Hussain isn’t behind the lens, he applies his ambition and determination in other areas.

Whether he is shooting hoops on the basketball court or excelling in mathematics, his passion and resilience give him many opportunities to display his multifaceted talent.

Even with the pressure of academics, sports and filming, Hussain remains unfazed. He chooses to live in the moment, and that’s how he’s able to capture the most intricate of details in his videos.

September 25, 2020

Culture

The ReMarker

18

Before Hussain became a Marksman in eighth grade, he was homeschooled and would go on lots of family trips. When his mother bought him a new camera when he was 13 years old, Hussain began recording his travels and filming short advertisements for the private school his mother worked at. He would share his videos with family and friends, even though he didn’t consider his videography to be of high quality at the time.

“The things I would capture weren’t too good,” Hussain said, “but most of all, I was learning how to get the most out of a super short experience.

That dynamic really helped me to be there for the action, and develop my craft. Because when I’m in a situation where I’m reading off impulse, things don’t go as planned.”

Hussain’s curiosity drove him to learn more about videography and to teach himself filming and editing skills. He would take an analytical approach to watching YouTube videos, paying attention to the frame rate, shutter speed, lighting and number of takes required to make each video he saw.

“I was so eager to learn,” Hussain said. “I sort of crafted my own narrative. I learned more as I watched, and when I would watch videos, I wouldn’t watch from the perspective of an average viewer. I watched more from a student perspective.”

Even though Hussain hadn’t produced any professional-grade content yet, his mother supported his growing passion for film.

“My mom definitely helped me a lot,” Hussain said. “She was super willing to buy a lot of camera gear. At the time, I wasn’t making any money, but I was enjoying what I was doing. She saw that I loved it, and she wasn’t going to hold me back.”

After one of his friends suggested that he start filming advertisements, Hussain launched his business, Sal’s Media Productions, and began filming birthday parties, weddings, product videos and music videos for clients in his community.

“It never really occurred to me that I could actually get paid for doing something like this — something I actually enjoyed,” Hussain said.

“It never really registered in my mind. The part I enjoyed the most was not necessarily making the film as much as it was meeting new people. Those go hand-in-hand.”

One example of Hussain’s projects is

the portable sink advertisement he filmed for senior Will Chance.

Chance had been working on developing his new product, a portable sink powered by the outlet in any car. The product was hard for many people to conceptualize, so Chance needed someone to show the product in action and in the right setting. Chance drove Hussain to rural Oklahoma — Hussain’s first time out of state to film something.

BEHIND THE LENS Sophomore Sal Hussain spends his free time filming editing “I felt like I his work for others. His filming skills have grown in popularity around the school, dragged him out of his making him a popular choice to do film jobs. comfort zone a little bit, but I was never worried better. They just gave me the confidence to do what about the fact that he would produce a quality I would do — to do me. I’m really looking forward video,” Chance said. “I trusted him the whole time.” to this year for even more fruitful experiences with Over the summer, Hussain filmed his first them as seniors.” music video for the band Fifth Phoenix, which Hussain also worked with Student Council was founded by senior Collin Katz and has since President Blake Hudspeth and Saha to film videos disbanded. for virtual Upper School assemblies during the first “I got home and put a little edit of 59 seconds two remote weeks of the school year. He plans on together. I posted it on Instagram, and it got a lot of working with the Student Council on more films attention.” in the future, depending on what the new Upper On his Instagram, @salsmediaproductions, School assembly format will be.

Hussain posts short highlights of most of his projects “He has the ability to capture things normal as a way to display his work to the community. After people can’t,” Hudspeth said. “He has a vision. releasing Fifth Phoenix’s third song, “Dangerous,” His creations are our perceptions but just from Katz saw Hussain’s Instagram post and decided to a different angle. He puts a lot of time into his reach out to him for a music video. projects. He is really just an upstanding guy that is “We approached him with an idea because we definitely multifaceted, which is really impressive as had already planned the release with our producer,” a sophomore. I’m really a big fan of his confidence in Katz said. “We really just needed someone who himself. He’s not scared to be anybody but himself.” could execute it, and Sal was definitely the guy for To balance all of his obligations, including that. We knew we wanted to include footage from academics, sophomore class vice presidency, films the recent BLM moment because the song we had on campus and at his business outside of school, put out was dedicated to the movement.”

Hussain must make trade-offs with his time.

“If I want to grow, I understand that I have Hussain enjoys the social aspect of producing his I try not to limit myself. I feel like films, especially music videos; he leaving all opportunities open. My appreciates the creative liberty of music videos, as he controls every aspect of the approach overall to film is very altruistic film from start to finish, except for the ­— I don’t expect anything in return. audio.

Sal Hussain, Sophomore “Working with artists, especially music artists, I feel like generally they’re different to sacrifice a lot,” Hussain said. “I sacrifice a lot of people because they’re creative people,” Hussain the things I enjoy. It’s losing something good to get said. “It’s always interesting to work with weird something great. I sacrifice time with my family, but creative people. That part of being weird is the siblings, friends — a lot of time I would otherwise creative part, and it’s nice to know that there are enjoy with other people.” other people who share that same process.”

But despite the sacrifices he has to make, Hussain has also been involved with film on Hussain still has a strong passion for videography campus, having taken film studies since eighth and hopes to expand his business in the future grade. His films “Paradise” and “My Greatest by hiring people to work with him. Although his Critic,” both of which he worked on with senior dream job is to be a Hollywood director, he wants to Sarbik Saha, have been selected by the 2020 leave his future open to new opportunities.

All American High School Film Festival. One “I’ve never really been scared to fail,” Hussain of Hussain’s favorite parts about being in film said. “I’ve just been so curious to know what more I studies is the camaraderie he’s developed with his can do. I’m obsessed with this idea of being the best classmates. person I can be, whether that be on the court, editing “Freshman year, I built a really good or learning in the classroom. With that in mind, I brotherhood with guys like [seniors] Jack Genender, don’t really think about the possibility of failing, Sarbik Saha, Buck Elliott and James Carr,” Hussain and I try to keep that positivity everywhere said. “All of those guys are really open to me. around me.”

Outside of film, we got to know each other a lot

Sophomores Tambe, Philip start podcasts during at-home quarantine

by Arjun Khatti, Myles Lowenberg ver the summer, juniors Ekansh Tambe and Thomas Philip shared their passion for two topics through their own podcasts: “Perspectives” by Tambe and “Before We Leave: Highschool Stories and Advice” by Philip.

In each of his 20 episodes, Philip goes in depth with another classmate about a hobby that he is particularly passionate about. Topics like music, entrepreneurship, sports, photography and more have been covered in the first two seasons of the

O

podcast. For Philip, it was not just about creating this project but also about reconnecting with friends he couldn’t see.

“I started the podcast in quarantine when I couldn’t talk to my friends often, and so I had a lot of spare time,” Philip said. “It was a fun project to work on in the summer that also let me stay in touch with my friends.”

Starting his podcast has given Philip valuable experience in editing, recording and interviewing. He also learned about acting on ideas.

“It’s hard to find motivation to start something,” Philip said. “But

once you start a project that might seem daunting or hard, you’ll be able to find fun things about it. I think the hardest part is getting started.”

One of his favorite guests was Ekansh Tambe, whose own podcast focuses on the impact of COVID-19 from several points of view.

In his ten episode series, Tambe stresses the importance of viewing an issue from more than just one perspective, allowing his listeners to see the pandemic differently through a variety of stories from doctors, photojournalists, survivors and many others.

“I believe that the only way

to thread your way through and cultivate your own beliefs is to listen to the stories and understand the perspectives of the people who have been affected most by a given issue – in this case, COVID-19,” Tambe said.

Tambe is planning more episodes in the future, and he believes that both his and Philip’s podcasts’ subjects are critical right now.

“Although our podcasts handle different topics of different weights,” Tambe said, “I think, in essence, they have similar objectives: to help connect us during these difficult times.”

DALLAS ARTS SCENE

Adjusting outside the lines With exhibitions cancelled, supply chains slowed and sales diminished, artists and curators around the Metroplex are adapting to the times.

STORY Siddhartha Sinha, Myles Lowenberg PHOTO Courtesy Jed Morse

P

aul Schneider ’02 has had his own ceramics business since 2009. He’s been through ups. He’s been through downs.

But he’s never been through this.

Schneider’s business — based in Dallas, but with retailers around the country — has relied on in-person purchases, sales to interior designers and the occasional online buyers.

It’s the standard way to do it. Except for now. Except for in a global pandemic.

Blink of an eye. Schneider lost his inperson sales. His suppliers couldn’t get him his materials. His delivery schedule was thrown off course.

He had to adapt. Quickly.

So has the entire art industry.

649

Headliners

From album drops to movie releases and everything in between, here’s what’s on tap in the coming weeks.

Videogames

Movies

Albums

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Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Oct. 2

Watch Dogs: Legion Oct. 29 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Nov. 10

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Nov. 13

Greenland

Sept. 25

Nectar, Joji

Sept. 25

2067

Oct. 2

Sept. 25

A Call to Spy

Oct. 2

So Help Me God, 2Chainz

Honest Thief

Oct. 9

Tickets To My Downfall, Machine Gun Kelly

Sept. 25

Blackpink: The Album, Blackpink

Oct. 2

19 The ReMarker

33

In the exhibition realm of the art industry, Nasher Sculpture Center Chief Curator Jed Morse ’90 has continually been adapting to new situations since the county shut down. Every day, Morse — reminded of his early days at the center — was in a meeting, deciding how the center should react to new developments.

“Those kinds of challenges are a little bit like when I started at the Nasher,” Morse said.

“It was under construction, and it was very much a struggling business. You are essentially inventing the institution, its voice, the way that you imagine how you want to interact with the public.”

Morse and the Nasher weren’t alone, though. Around the Metroplex, 51 arts organizations engaged in conversation, discussing reopening procedures, public safety measures and the state of the organizations involved.

“That kind of collaboration was really great,” Morse said, “and hopefully it really is one of the positives that continues as we slowly get back to the new normal.”

At the Nasher specifically, one of the things instituted to aid the Dallas arts scene was an adjustment to its Nasher Artist Grant.

Originally meant to fund only art-related expenses, the grant now also applies to “expenses related to hardships caused by COVID-19” according to its website.

“With the pandemic,” Morse said, “we recognized there was going to be greater need, and we expanded not only the number of grants we gave this year, but also how they could be used. We knew there were basic needs artists needed help with. Their art projects might be put on hold just so they could meet those basic needs of paying rent, buying food and making sure they’re safe.”

But while the Nasher is aiding artists

around the city, Morse said the center itself is also projecting noticeable losses.

Although the center was early to apply for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act — allowing it to keep all its employees — Morse said the Nasher has “been trying to take an approach that is very conservative in terms of financial outlook.”

“Initially, people wanted to help,” Morse said, “and there is a group of philanthropists who are dedicated to the arts in this city and will continue to help no matter what.

We definitely expect decreased revenues, though, because we can’t safely have big events and host as many people. People might be financially strapped and can’t purchase, continue or buy a membership.”

Jed Morse ‘90 Morse added that other Nasher local institutions that were not Sculpture as quick to the PPP and CARES Center Chief Curator Act applications have suffered, furloughing staff and cutting back spending drastically.

“We were one of the first in line to apply for the PPP and CARES Act funding,” Morse said, “and so far, we’ve been able to keep all our staff through the pandemic.

Other institutions in Dallas and around the country have had to really cut, but we’ve been very fortunate that we haven’t had to do that so far.”

Regardless, Morse said this shock to the art system hasn’t necessarily taken artists out of the industry. Instead, it’s highlighted the resiliency many artists have as they pursue their passion.

“Things going on now are making artists more insistent,” Morse said. “First of all, as an artist, how can you not respond to what’s going on in the world in terms of the pandemic, in terms of the social justice movement? These are the things that drive artists to make art.

It’s been really inspiring to see how they’ve reacted. That’s why people are drawn to seeing works of art. It makes us think and helps us feel, it provides a way for people to process the world around us.”

Culture

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help me. I do think, however, that the brick and mortar sales will suffer. We’ll have to innovate and adjust so that people who would otherwise have seen my work in a store can now be confronted with it online.”

September 25, 2020

Schneider’s biggest struggle has been the supply chain. Relying on his suppliers, which were considerably slowed at the onset of the pandemic, Schneider’s seen his deliveries delayed. However, regardless of the supply chain, sales through his retailers in six different states have also changed. “[Our retailers] are By the mostly brick and mortars,” numbers Schneider said. “Depending on the state, they were closed for a considerable amount of time. Some have a nice online cancelled or presence, but a lot of their deferred local business is driven via foot performances traffic.”

While Schneider has seen a dropoff in his in-person sales, million other media have picked up the dollars lost slack. by nonprofit “A lot of our business Dallas arts and cultural is working directly with community residential interior designers all over the country,” Schneider said. “That has picked up quite combined a bit. Our business has also artist and staff seen an uptick in online sales — furloughs or some of our lower priced point, layoffs in the shoppable items.”

Metroplex With all these different Source: The Arts Community Alliance sources in flux, Schneider also hopes more people at home leads to more sales, further alleviating his inperson losses.

“My hope is that as people are home more,” Schneider said, “they’ll want to make that a comfortable place to be. That can only

INSIDE LOOK As the Nasher Sculpture Center closed for a large part of the summer, Chief Curator Jed Morse ‘90 and his team unveiled the Windows series. “We thought this could be a really great way to provide opportunities for artists and to engage audiences who are craving experiences with art in person,” Morse said. “Our Windows series featured emerging North Texas artists and invited them to do installations in the entrance space. People can see as they walk by the sculpture center.”

MOVIE REVIEW

Tenet confuses, captivates in return to theaters Grade:

B-

Director Christopher Nolan Genre Spy-fi Running time 2 hours, 30 minutes Released Sept. 3, 2020

by Darren Xi hristopher Nolan’s new blockbuster Tenet might just be the most complicated and confusing movie I have ever seen. Even though he is known for action-packed movies that have a sci-fi twist, Tenet takes it all to another level.

The main gimmick of the film is the concept of “inversion,” a technology developed by a future civilization.

“Inverted” objects have had their entropy reversed, which leads to their traveling backward through time instead of forwards like everything else. And when you add in the fact that humans can also become “inverted,” fully understanding the plot and how it works becomes almost impossible.

The film thrusts us into the life of the unnamed protagonist, played by John David Washington, and we watch as he completes a CIA mission: retrieving a stolen cache of plutonium in the midst of a concert. The plutonium is found to be fake, and the protagonist is saved by a masked man.

The protagonist is then abducted and left to die, tied to a chair sitting on train tracks. To escape, he bites on a mysterious pill and goes unconscious.

When he awakens, he is admitted into a secret society, and is immediately thrusted into a world of inversion and has to find the origins of this unexplainable technology to prevent world-wide disaster.

John David Washington plays the role of the protagonist quite well, captivating the audience with grand fistfights and duels with inverted bullets. However, despite this enthralling physical performance, the protagonist and the other main characters have little depth, leaving me with little emotional attachment to the personas. As a result, I was drawn into this movie not because I genuinely cared about the outcome of the cast and the resolution of the conflict, but rather because the action and intrigue were too good to pass up.

Additionally, I was completely unable to fully comprehend the plot of the movie with just one viewing. After the two hours and thirty minutes of constant action, my mind was blown, and while that can be a satisfying feeling, it shouldn’t be accompanied by confusion. And ultimately, all I could think about is how this one viewing left me baffled with the complexity of the story.

But the first thing that comes to mind for me when I think of the film is not the plot nor the action but rather the fact that it is one of the first major blockbusters since the onset of COVID-19, marking the return of movies in movie theaters. To be honest, with COVID-19 at an all-time high, I did not feel completely safe when I went to watch the movie, and considering the fact that there were about two or three other people in the 200-seat theaters, many others felt the same way as me.

Christopher Nolan honestly did a fine job of providing the public with an entertaining and captivating film in Tenet. However, as Tenet paves the way for the release of more blockbusters like Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow, potential viewers have to ask themselves: Is it worth the risk? And honestly, for Tenet, I cannot say it is.

C

September 25, 2020

Buzz

The ReMarker

20

NEW MUSIC

Summer tunes: a mixed bag

While COVID-19 held the country at a standstill for most of the summer, musicians continued pumping out albums.

Reviews Trevor Crosnoe

Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon Pop Smoke

Grade:

A

Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon is a posthumous release. Pop Smoke was killed in February of this year, and with his death the music industry lost another young star to gun violence. At the time, many people didn’t even know who Pop Smoke was, but over the next few months Pop’s iconic voice would sweep the nation, garnering millions of new listeners after his passing.

His sound, uniquely deep and growling, was instrumental in attracting new fans before the release of his album.

Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon is filled with features, as 10 of the 19 songs have additional artists. I think Pop’s team was trying to increase his mainstream appeal with the amount of household names on this album.

“For the Night,” featuring Lil Baby and DaBaby, is undeniably the most popular song on the album, charting

When Juice WRLD passed away in December 2019, news of his death sent shockwaves through the music community. Only 21 years old, Juice had already experienced massive commercial success on the biggest scene and was poised to continue his role as an international superstar.

In April, Juice posthumously released “Righteous,” the first of the album’s singles. The song takes heavy inspiration from Juice’s emo influences: he speaks candidly about his own death, almost foreshadowing it. It’s an angsty piece that sheds a light on Juice’s personal struggles.

The next single released from the album was “Tell Me U Luv Me,” a collaboration between Juice and Trippie Redd. Trippie delivers a melodic hook, “Tell me you love me / Tell me everything gon’ be ok,” that’s incredibly catchy. Juice’s first verse isn’t anything special, just his usual style of casually delivering bars, but his second verse is much

folklore Taylor Swift

Grade:

B

at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and exploding on Tik Tok after its release. The song’s hook, sung by Pop, is unusually melodic for a Pop Smoke song but still very catchy. This is a theme of the entire album: instead of his usual rapping about dark topics on drill beats, Pop diversifies his content, singing about lighter topics in what I think is an attempt to expand his audience.

Another hit from the album, “The Woo” features 50 Cent and Roddy Ricch. Both hailing from New York, 50 was a mentor to Pop for the short time they knew each other. 50’s influence on Pop is most clear when Pop adds a line from 50’s iconic “Candy Shop” at the end of “The Woo.” In Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, Pop Smoke successfully reinvents his sound in one of the most catchy, hitfilled albums of the summer.

But it will be his last.

deeper and more lyrical, as he discusses the darkest aspects of his life.

The third and fourth singles were “Life’s a Mess” with Halsey and “Come and Go” featuring Marshmello. These songs were released days before the release of the album, and I have a feeling they were meant to appeal to a more mainstream audience.

“Life’s a Mess” is one of the most cliché songs on the album.

Juice flows melodically over a sad beat, repeating average bars we’ve heard before. I thought “Come and Go” would be the same, but a minute in, the guitar and drums kick in, and becomes surprisingly infectious, with Juice’s signature line: “I don’t wanna ruin this one / This type of love don’t come and go.”

Legends Never Die is sometimes depressing, sometimes celebratory and sometimes mournful, but the album is a great expression of who Juice WRLD was.

Moving 864,000 copies in its first week, folklore is the highest selling album of 2020 so far. A surprise drop, Swift announced the album on Twitter on the date of its release. folklore isn’t your typical Taylor Swift album; it’s more focused on storytelling than catchiness. Swift took an indie approach to folklore, evident in the minimalist production and lyrical emphasis.

Swift brings past memories to life on many songs, like “The Last Great American Dynasty,” Swift’s homage to Rebekah Harkness, an eccentric 20th century widow from Rhode Island. The song gains its name from the commonly purported idea that Harkness ruined her family’s dynasty, when in fact it was her husband’s own careless decisions that caused it to end.

Legends Never Die Juice WRLD

Grade:

A-

This theme of blaming women for people’s problems is explored throughout folklore by Swift. folklore is also filled with fictional love stories. “betty” is a song from the perspective of a high school boy named James, who is trying to win back his girlfriend Betty after he cheated on her. Swift’s choice to write the lyrics from James’s perspective gives the song a unique feminist dynamic. Swift exposes his hypocrisy, creating a situation in which Betty no longer needs James. Infidelity is a major theme of the album: “august” depicts a summer romance ruined by cheating.

While it isn’t her most exciting album, Swift’s insightful storytelling on folklore solidifies it as a lyrical masterpiece.

21

EDITORIAL

START HERE

SEARCH

1

Early voting locations closest to 10600 Preston Rd find more voting locations at dallascountyvotes.org

Visit www.sos.state.tx.us Our Redeemer Lutherean Church 7611 Park Ln Suite B, Dallas, TX 75225 8 minutes away

PRINT

2

Print and fill out an application

MAIL

3

43% voting-age population to vote in Texas in the 2016 elections

Mail your form to your Voter Registrar

Texas has the 5thworst voter turnout rate in the nation.

VOTE

4

Huffington Post

Important Deadlines:

Make a difference!

We urge the administration to consider a late-start day for students and faculty planning to vote. In long lines, those crucial hours may make all the difference.

source: Office of the Texas Secretary of State

S

register

early voting

election day

Oct 4

Oct 13 - 30

Nov 3 GRAPHIC Jonathan Yin

tudents turning 18 this year have a lot to look forward to. They can open bank accounts, buy pets, register to be organ donors or even get married — all without parental supervision.

But with those new rights come new responsibilities.

Eighteen-year-olds can be drafted into the army or be tried as adults in courts of law. They must serve on juries when called for.

And, every two years in November, they must vote.

To be clear, there’s no rule or regulation that says 18 year-olds have to vote. But it’s incredibly

important they do. Not only is it the greatest way to participate in democracy — to say ‘I have elected someone’ — but it is also the greatest way of demonstrating maturity — by acting, and then taking responsibility for those actions.

And for faculty not wanting to get up early or stand in line after work on Nov 3: every part of our curriculum emphasizes citizenship. By choosing to vote you are putting that curriculum into practice, and exhibiting the values that you teach us to hold dear.

Above, we’ve included a guide on how to register before the deadline of Oct. 5 and on how to vote from there.

For the second year in a row, late textbooks cause inconvenience, delay

T

wo years ago, the school transitioned to a new shipping-focused textbook distribution system. Previously, when Marksmen came to campus to take their yearbook photos in Nearburg Hall, they would receive their year’s worth of purchased textbooks as well. This process did involve students having to wait in a line, so the school understandably sought a more efficient method. The school partnered with a well-known educational provider in Follett to send textbooks directly to students. While this move did have potential, the last two years show that the new distribution system has created many more problems than it has solved.

Last year, many students started their year without some or all of their textbooks. Students were told Follett was ill-equipped to handle the distribution of

the school’s orders. This led to frustration in the classrooms during the first weeks of school, forcing teachers to change their lesson plans and compensate for the lack of textbooks. The school decided to continue its partnership with Follett after the company offered to use a different division of their company to handle the school’s order in a quicker and more efficient manner, and Follett assured the school that this problem would never be repeated.

This year, with the added complication of COVID-19, we understand that an in-person textbook distribution system would not be ideal, and that the pandemic negatively impacted Follett’s employment and efficiency. Yet, we once again find ourselves multiple weeks into school, with the vast majority of students still without some or all of their textbooks.

While it is possible to adjust for a short time using other sources, it has become difficult to continue reading-based classes without our central texts.

Could Follett, at the end of the 20192020 scool year, have notified the school of the obvious and imminent delays that would occur? Did the school have the ability to contact Follett and develop an alternative distribution strategy that could avoid the delays of the past? One reality is certain: for the second consecutive year, students have waited weeks into the school year before receiving their required readings and essential textbooks.

We urge the school to revert to the previous system of combining our yearbook pictures and textbook pickup to ensure that the coming years can begin with every student having full access to their purchased resources.

The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

University Park United Methodist Church 4024 Caruth Blvd, Dallas, TX 75225 8 minutes away

Opinions

Students and faculty should vote on Nov 3rd.

Schedule

The Editorial Board praises the new schedule — and offers some feedback.

Page 22

Bingo

Editor-in-chief Robert Pou reflects on his viral dance hit. Page 23

the ZEITGEIST

critical race theory What is it? And why has it been causing so much controversy?

Critical race theory (CRT) uses storytelling and revisionism to examine the impact unconscious racial bias has on American society.

Started after students at Harvard Law School wanted a way to frame legal problems in a racial lens, CRT takes a more activist approach than other social sciences – mapping out paths to real institutional change rather than documenting or analyzing data.

For example, one of the discipline’s initial architects, Derrick Bell, wrote in the 1960s that the NCAAP’s efforts towards desegregation should occur in tandem with efforts to increase the quality of education for Black students. More recently, initiatives such as the 1619 project have helped popularize CRT, even as it has drawn fire from President Trump, who has committed to banning it from federalrun training programs. source: The Bridge at cyber.harvard.edu

EDITORIAL

New schedule a step in the right direction T he new schedule, despite inevitable setbacks from COVID-19, has made commendable strides towards improving student life here on campus.

The spread-out classes have overall lowered student daily workloads across the board –– as long as teachers adhere to the one assignment per class day policy –– and students have both more time to complete assignments as well as more flexibility in that time to do them and meet with teachers. The unnecessarily large daily workload of the previous schedule negatively impacted students’ mental health, and we commend the administration for tackling that problem head-on this year.

On top of the homework changes, the new 70 minute classes, despite their daunting appearance, pass surprisingly fast, and teachers are utilizing these longer time periods to have more productive and efficient classes that would have never been possible in 45 minutes. We understand that overall class time has decreased across the board, but we believe that this schedule will be more efficient and yield an overall better learning experience — especially as everyone becomes more accustomed to it in the future.

September 25, 2020

The ReMarker

Opinions

22

Jamie Mahowald Managing Editor

After conquering the challenges of online learning, teachers have been tossed into the ring with a fierce challenger: a brand new schedule. With its staggered arrangement and eight-day loop of classes, changes were drastic.

However, teachers have made the jump without any major disruptions to student life. From experimenting with new teaching and class styles to simply having in-class work days, teachers have taken advantage of the new schedule, rewriting their lesson plans and bringing unique and enjoyable experiences to their students — efforts that we certainly have noticed.

We understand the difficulties that teachers face having to adapt their entire curriculums from daily,

In BRIEF

1.

Longer breaks mean higherquality free time

45-minute lessons to a mix of 45-minute and 70-minute lessons, skipping days in between. However, the faculty has done a fantastic job of taking advantage of the perks of this new schedule — 70 minute classes are highly productive, homework load is more manageable and quality of education has increased.

While we would like to remind teachers to remember to only assign homework to be due on class days, overall the faculty have done an outstanding job adapting to the new schedule, making the transition a relatively easy one for students.

While overall changes made to the new schedule are yielding net positive results, the current Upper School lunch time slot needs tweaking.

The current lunch time of 11 a.m. is too early, especially considering that school now starts 30 minutes later. Upper School students get about three hours between breakfast and lunch. That’s not enough time, and students are left too full to eat a whole meal at 11 a.m.

Not only does this lead to food waste, but it also leaves students hungry midway through their afternoon.

We acknowledge that early lunches are better than late lunches. Adjusted for the later start time, sixth period lunch last year would have started at 1:10 p.m. this year, a time that would leave students starving well before they were able to eat. However, 11 a.m. is too early — especially considering that while Lower School starts at 8:00 a.m., they eat lunch at 11:40, effectively 70 minutes later.

Rearranging the order of divisional lunches may help with this problem — Lower School starts first, they should eat first.

The lunch situation notwithstanding, adminstrators are to be commended for their efforts in devising a creative new schedule which provides flexibility and "breathing room" for students and faculty alike.

2.

Faculty have done a great job preparing

3.

‘I still talk at Mach 5’

C

harlie's a bit of a stinker. He lacks spatial awareness, he wastes away the day farting and floating around the floor until his legs give in and he falls, claiming a spot on the floor as his napping circle, and his brain seems to exist for little reason more than to direct the rest of his body from room to room.

But he's a pug, and he has no discernable recognition of the complexities of social structure, customs and expectations, so we let him off the hook.

And as a greedy little pug, he exhibits the fascinating canine tendency never to stop wolfing down the somehow infinite amount of food that my aunt (his owner) places in front of him. That this metabolism has kept him from bursting is solid disproof of the law of conservation of matter.

But in my opinion, that strange bent of Charlie's –– the ability to do the same thing on and on and on without end–– is worth examining in the framing of social behavior.

We all have this one thing that we can seem to do forever, and we often define ourselves by the thing we can do the most. That's why we have teachers and engineers and musicians and writers and lawyers, and why some people (obviously taking after Charlie) are, in fact, eaters––though that's a different column for a different person at a different time.

But unlike how Charlie was genetically modified to eat forever –– in the same way that he was genetically modified to wheeze over every other step and to sleep 14 hours a day –– I have no evidence that humans were born with any innate desire to do one thing, as much as dystopian Young Adult novels would like us to believe.

And my case study for this theory was myself.

I used to be painfully shy, bordering on agoraphobic. My social toolbox contained one rusty old hammer that I called "Be Depressing Enough And Maybe They'll Feel Sorry And Want to Be Your Friend." I spoke only when spoken to, and my words and phrases consisted of sorrowful grunts and further retreats back into a gray, holey hoodie I'd wear everywhere. Humor was an unattainable rainbow off in the distance, so I bore a stoic, stolid demeanor and a slouched-over

Lunch too early for Upper School

stature for most of middle school.

Were I to go the Charlie route, my One Forever Thing would probably be writing, because I spent many of my free days trying to put together a horror novel that was just eerie enough to be interesting but not deranged enough to arouse suspicion. (Tarface never surfaced. I read over the 30,000 word manuscript recently, and four years later, it upset me as much as it confused me, so I relish now that it never reached the light of day.)

I still don't know how I morphed from that person into the one writing this column today, nor do I have enough words left to go into that psychoanalytical endeavor, but suffice to say I did change so much that my present lack of shyness has actually developed a few of its own problems.

Some vestiges still remain, though: I still talk at Mach 5, a remnant from my desire not to take up too much time with my speech. I still wear sweatshirts, but mostly to try to convince my mind that it's actually winter and not the blazing September summer that my body is experiencing. And I still like writing, though I'm not a fan of how solitary of an activity it is.

But today, when given the opportunity to talk at length, I feel like a pug gazing down at a bottomless food bowl. I can do it forever.

I'm not a Talker, even though many of my future plans rely on speaking. I don't have a proverbial Silver Tongue, and I stumble over my words, and I ramble, and I sometimes stop myself in the middle of an anecdote, say out loud, "Have you ever told a story, but halfway through, you realize that you have no idea how you're going to finish the story?" and move onto another topic altogether.

But I love it. Talking at length about something you love talking about is one of the great joys of life–– almost as much as listening to somebody else talk about something they love talking about.

My speaking skills have doubtlessly devolved over quarantine, as I imagine many of yours have. But if you'd ever like to talk for hours about whatever to somebody who truly understands the childish giddiness of standing over that endless bowl of word-food, I am always available.

Just make sure you don't explode.

REMARKER student newspaper of ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TEXAS 75230 214.346.8000 Editorial Board editor in chief ROBERT POU assignments editor SAI THIRUNAGARI brand editor COOPER RIBMAN endzone editor WILLIAM ANIOL executive page editor JACK DAVIS head photographer COLLIN KATZ managing editors JAMIE MAHOWALD HENRY MCELHANEY SID SINHA opinions editor ALAM ALIDINA perspectives editor LUKE PIAZZA senior editor CRISTIAN PEREIRA

Section Editors 10600, culture AXEL ICAZBALCETA WILL PECHERSKY discoveries ETHAN BORGE deputy endzone SEMAJ MUSCO deputy focus ERIC YOO HAN ZHANG issues TOBY BARRETT AUSTIN WILLIAMS reviews specialist TREVOR CROSNOE sports LUKE NAYFA PETER ORSAK

Creative graphics director JONATHAN YIN artist COOPER COLE

Advertising business manager IAN MIZE

Writers

MORGAN CHOW, IAN DALRYMPLE, NIKHIL DATTATREYA, SHREYAN DAULAT, GRANT JACKSON, RAJAN JOSHI, ARJUN KHATTI, KESHAV KRISHNA, MYLES LOWENBERG, MATTHEW REED, WILL SPENCER, DILLON WYATT, DARREN XI

Photographers

BLAKE BROOM, ABE ECHT, PATRICK FLANAGAN, LUIS GARCIA, EVAN LAI, EVAN MCGOWAN, HAYWARD METCALF, LARS OCHS, SKY PARK, HENRY PICCAGILI, DANIEL SANCHEZ, OWEN SIMON, EKANSH TAMBE, LUKE VOORHEIS, JERRY ZHAO

Adviser

RAY WESTBROOK

Headmaster DAVID W. DINI

audience The ReMarker is intended for the students, faculty, staff and alumni community of St. Mark’s School of Texas. Press run is 4,000 copies, with more than 2,600 of those mailed out to alumni around the world, courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions. opinions and editorials Editorials represent the viewpoints of the newspaper’s Editorial Board and are not necessarily those of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff. All personal opinion columns, bylined with the writer’s name and photo, represent the views of that writer only and not necessarily those of The ReMarker, Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff. online viewing www.smtexas.org/remarker. reader involvement The ReMarker encourages reader input through guest columns and story ideas. Contact the appropriate editor for suggestions. letters to the editor Letters to the editor are welcome and encouraged. They must be typed, signed and not exceed 300 words. E-mail submissions are not accepted. advertising Contact the business staff at 214.346.8145. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement.

Inclusion of an ad does not represent an endorsement by the school’s administration, faculty, or staff or ReMarker staff members. 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.

COMMENDATIONS

Invaluable dedication from college counseling In a spring and summer with more collegeadmission uncertainty than usual, virtual visits and cancelled SATs and ACTs became a regular part of Marksmen’s lives. Seniors facing application deadlines found themselves stressing over the prospects of applying to schools they’d never toured, the inability to improve or even establish standardized test scores and the effects of an unorthodox application process.

In all of this chaos, college counselors rolled with the punches and continued to provide seniors with sensational support and guidance. Through frequent emails and the occasional webinar, the college counselors kept seniors informed, addressing topics such as essay-writing, the insand-outs of studying business and the process of filling out CommonApp and ApplyTexas

platforms.

The office also created “drop-in hours” early in the summer, where seniors could book personal Zoom meetings with college counselors anytime from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays to ask questions, read essays or address any other concerns that arose. But perhaps the cherry on top is the fact that the office has organized in-house ACT and SAT testing for seniors on campus on October 6 and October 14, respectively. The facilitation of these testing opportunities has alleviated testing worries for many.

All these operations have not only calmed but also assured the Class of 2021 as smooth of a college application process as possible. We appreciate college counselors' continued efforts to do so.

We commend administrators' exceptional efforts throughout the summer and into the start of the school year to prepare for students’ return to campus. In particular, we commend Headmaster David Dini, Associate Headmaster John Ashton and school nurse Julie Doerge’s initiative to maintain continual contact with the Dallas Department of Health and Human Services and the Medical Advisory Board.

We also applaud all the faculty and staff members, including Paul and Kristen Mlakar, who contributed to instituting foot traffic patterns, social distancing in classrooms, more secure ventilation systems and the other numerous safety measures that have been taken on campus.

But these safety measures can only do so

much. We understand there will be a learning curve in adjusting to an unfamiliar campus environment and recognize that it’s ultimately our responsibility as students to adhere to all the new safety policies designed to minimize the risk of an outbreak on campus.

We urge students to uphold six-feet-apart social distancing indoors and outdoors and defer to staying outdoors whenever possible during their lunch and free periods. Students should follow the foot traffic patterns indoors and outdoors, adhere to the staggered class release times, only bring necessary and permitted belongings to campus and, most importantly, stay home when they feel sick, especially those who may not have done so in the past.

Tireless work by administrators keeps us safe

STUDENTS AND FACULTY

Around the Quad

ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS

Q: How do you feel about the new schedule?

‘

Everything is constantly rotating so I have to check Blackbaud several times a day.

‘

Max Vafa Junior

Arjun Badi Sophomore

‘

We get much bigger breaks between classes. I can get more work done.

Nathan Meyer Freshman

CARTOON Cooper Cole

I have much less homework— and more free time.

‘

The new schedule adds variety to the day that we didn't have before.

Jacob Bell Senior

Later that week, I got my shot at redemption, a chance to reclaim my dignity on the dance floor. But this time instead of busting a move I just invented my own.

With my cabin responsible for putting on a performance at the flag-raising ceremony one morning – again, in front of the whole camp – I had the perfect idea. Normally, whenever it was a cabin’s turn to entertain everyone at flag, they would perform a lip sync or even create camp-themed lyrics to go with a popular song’s melody.

But I wanted to introduce a new dance move of my own creation to accompany a funny song I had heard earlier that summer: “The Centipede.” The song starts with a cheesy 30 seconds of monologue about centipedes, slowly builds in volume and then at the massive bass drop we would cross our legs, cross our arms above our heads and jump up and down, simulating, to the best of our ability, the dance of a centipede.

And it went viral! As soon as we started dancing at flag the next morning, everyone in the crowd began to join in. Campers. Counselors. Staff. Everyone.

At lunch that day, someone requested it to be played on the speakers, and everyone got up from their tables to dance. Pretty soon, it was being played at every meal, at every party. Everyone wanted a piece of the newest craze – the Centipede Dance.

And it didn’t stop there. Even after I left camp, I heard from some friends that the Centipede Dance continued to surge the rest of the summer.

And it still astounds me to this day, but, the next summer, a full year after I had invented the Centipede Dance, it was still a staple at that camp. Even this past summer, despite the complications caused

by COVID-19, one can still find a bunch of teenagers doing the Centipede Dance in Branson, Missouri.

So, all goofiness aside, I learned that summer, that no matter my circumstances, regardless of whether or not I just humiliated myself in a dance-off, I can always leave a mark, leave a legacy.

This coming year, I know that the circumstances aren’t ideal. Because of COVID-19, daily life on campus looks very different. We have to wear masks, social distance and juggle between remote and on-campus learning, but that doesn’t have to stop us from leaving a mark.

Just like how I invented the Centipede Dance, silly as it was, I am challenging myself to leave a mark on the St. Mark’s community this year, and I encourage my fellow seniors and all Marksmen to do the same . . . even if it takes another game of bingo.

23 The ReMarker

‘

Jennifer Gilbert Film Instructor

Robert Pou Editor in Chief

September 25, 2020

Quina Perkinson Freshman

‘

It's a little confusing, but I do like having the 70 minute period to show films and lecture.

I

n July of 2016 my worst nightmare came to life ­— dancing.

Not just any dancing but dancing in front of 200 of my peers on top of a table in the dining hall of a summer camp in Missouri.

And how I got there? I won bingo. Actually, I tied bingo.

On a rainy day in Branson, Missouri, when we were forced to play bingo in the dining hall instead of wake-surfing on Table Rock Lake, I yelled bingo at the same time as another girl a few tables down from me.

And of course the tie-breaker was a dance-off.

With the entire camp watching, the girl — her name was Macy — and I stepped up on our respective tables as Katy Perry started blaring from the speakers.

Now I don’t know if Macy was as nervous as I was, but she sure didn’t look like it. She definitely knew what she was doing, busting out all kinds of moves and even doing the worm to cap off her performance.

Me, on the other hand, well, I stuck to what I knew, and the only two dance moves I really knew were the sprinkler and flossing. So, with 400 eyeballs staring straight at me, I spent the longest 60 seconds of my life switching between half-hearted, embarrassed attempts at the sprinkler and flossing.

Eventually, my face a bright, tomato-red, I stopped dancing and just watched Macy as the crowd began chanting her name.

When the music finally stopped, I hopped down off that table as fast as I possibly could and tried laughing off my total and complete embarrassment.

My cabin mates did their best to encourage me, and the double-stuffed oreos I received as my second-place prize were delicious, but my friends’ words were empty to me in that moment. I was humiliated and wished right then that I was anywhere but in that dining hall in Branson, Missouri.

Opinions

I like it better than the old one. Even with longer periods.

The centipede dance

The ReMarker • September 25, 2020

Sports

24

Superfanmen Introducing the new Super Fan Men, Daniel Sanchez, Will Chance and Colin Bajec. Page 26

Decision Day Looking into the reasoning behind Harrison Ingram’s top six schools. Page 27

Protests

SeMaj Musco examines the history and debate behind politics and protesting in sports. Page 27

In brief ALUM MAKES CHANGE Over the past few months, Emmanuel Acho ‘08 has been filming videos on social media titled, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” addressing racial issues we struggle with in America. Acho recently interviewed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on his opinions regarding athletes using their platforms to address issues like these.

In addition to social media, Acho plans to work alongside American talk show host Oprah Winfrey to turn his videos into books. Acho was also named cohost of Fox Sports 1’s talk show, Speak For Yourself.

ROOKIE COACH Taylor Jenkins ‘03, Head Coach for the Memphis Grizzlies, earned 29 points in the NBA Coach of the Year ballot, the NBA announced on Aug. 22.

This ranked Jenkins sixth out of the eleven coaches who received votes. Despite being a first-year head coach, Jenkins was able to lead the Grizzlies to the Western Conference play-in game, where they lost to the Portland Trailblazers.

BACKYARD BASKETBALL Junior Tate Laczkowski and Andrew Laczkowski ‘20 held a basketball camp in their backyard over the summer for kids in their neighborhood to practice. This camp, from Monday to Thursday, lasted 6 weeks, from mid-June till the end of July with morning sessions from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and afternoon sessions from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The Laczkowski brothers had around eight players come to train per session, ranging from ages six to 11. These atheletes practiced shooting, dribbling, and passing alongside varsity forward Tate Laczkowski and University of Pennsylvania basketball player Andrew Laczkowski. In their backyard, they set up two portable goals to accompany their normal basketball half-court, allowing the players to spread out.

MS SPORTS All activities and sports for Middle School teams have been postponed indefinitely following the decision made by SPC to cancel the fall season. This decision attempts to preserve competition on the varsity level, allowing for more field and weight room time for Upper School athletes.

SPC cancels fall sports

Due to the ongoing safety hazards involving COVID-19, SPC has decided to opt out of all fall sports.

Canceled This decision left uncertainty among fall athletes and coaches as to whether there will be competition.

Editor’s note: The original story was written before the school’s announcement to move forward with fall sports. For more updated information, please view the sidebar on page 25.

STORY Peter Orsak, Luke Nayfa PHOTOS Evan McGowan, Evan Lai

I

t was November 2019.

The ball thudded against the Lion’s side of the court. There was no time for the team to react. At that very moment, their season had come to an end.

The volleyball squad was looking to complete a back-to-back feat by defeating Trinity Valley in the SPC championship, but after five long sets, the Lions fell just short.

The team gathered around the beloved seniors and reminisced on all of the special moments they shared together throughout the season.

Tears were shed, and hugs were given, but the juniors and sophomores were determined to redeem themselves next year. This loss wasn’t the end for them, and in some ways, they were more motivated than ever before because of it.

Many juniors wasted no time in preparation for their senior year and began individual practices the very next week. Eventually, these individual sessions led to team practices throughout the winter and early spring. Their spirits were high and hopeful for what they could accomplish with a new season ahead.

Then, March 12 at 5:20 p.m., everything changed. Members of the community were asked not to return to school the next day as a safety precaution for the rapidly growing COVID-19. What once was believed to be a week-by-week postponement resulted in the rest of the school year being finished online with nobody allowed on campus until further notice.

These safety measures continued through the spring and into the summer, leaving the future of fall athletics in 2020 uncertain.

Before the team knew it, their redemption tour was cut short.

Conference play is canceled.

For seniors, this meant devastation.

After years and years of training for their final shot at a championship, they received this heartbreaking news through

Five Athletes to Watch

Charles Wilson, Senior Defensive End Conor Duffy, Junior Wide Receiver Tristan Doan, Senior Outside Hitter Daniel Sanchez, Senior Opposite Hitter Julian Ivarra, Senior XC Runner

an email. They waited their whole lives to be the ‘big dogs’ on the court and on campus, but that wouldn’t be possible this year.

No practice. No games. No championship.

SPC fall sports will be canceled until further notice, as announced by league commissioner Bob Windham Aug. 21. The SPC Operations Committee and Board of Directors came to this decision after meeting together during the spring and summer.

“When we met in August to make this decision,” Windham said, “there were some schools that just didn’t see a way to move forward, and there were some schools that felt pretty comfortable moving forward. So, we made the decision not to do the fall SPC season this year.

We’re still planning on moving forward with winter and spring, as scheduled.

We just came to the conclusion that as a conference we would give schools the independence to schedule games if they wanted to.”

While other leagues like UIL and TAPPS are moving forward with their fall season, Windham said SPC must operate independently because of its size.

“One of the differences is in TAPPS and UIL, they plan a district schedule, and that district is made up of schools that are in a fairly close geographic area,” Windham said. “It doesn’t require a lot of travel, and it certainly doesn’t require anything overnight. Then, if you look at how we’re set up, we’ve got schools in Oklahoma, Dallas Fort-Worth, Austin and Houston. That, of course, means a lot more travel.”

Although Windham hoped to be able to allow athletes on the field this fall, health and safety came first.

“I think there are things that you can definitely do to make it safer,” Windham said, “but in the end, when you’re in full competition, it doesn’t appear to be something I wouldn’t be worried about. If you watch those high school games on TV, you saw people playing football; people in contact rolling around on the ground. You saw a lot of things that would probably shock you if you saw people that close together and touching like that.”

Headmaster David Dini, a member of the SPC Operations Committee, helped to make this decision with the goal of finding a safe way to compete independently from the conference.

“We’ve certainly had an active dialogue among the schools in Dallas in SPC amongst St. Mark’s, Hockaday, Greenhill and ESD,” Dini said. “I think there has been a very similar perspective about our thinking around sports and the potential for competition. So, that’s been our goal all along.”

While Dini is trying to keep the

school’s options open, he understands the health concerns that come with playing sports during a global pandemic.

“Obviously health and safety are fundamentally important, and we don’t ever want to do anything that would unjustly put increased risk into any activity that we have at the school,” Dini said. “Our goal was to get school back in session first and foremost. And then, as activities are able to be layered on top of that, we would do that at an everincreasing rate.”

With SPC canceling fall sports, the volleyball, cross country, fencing and football teams are unsure whether they will have a season at all. Head volleyball coach Darren Teicher hopes his squad will be able to see the court in some way or another.

“It’s a downer for all the guys that are graduating this year,” Teicher said.

“I have a lot of guys that are really good players and were hoping to win the [SPC] championship this year. On top of that, I have a couple of guys that are Division I talents that were hoping to progress their games and prepare themselves for hopefully playing in college. All of those I feel terrible for anyone that’s missing a season. I played high school sports myself, and if my senior season got taken away, I’d be heartbroken.

Bob Windham, SPC Commissioner

things are now question marks.”

Senior captain Tristan Doan remains hopeful that there will be a season in some capacity.

“There were plans to set up grass courts outside and play four on four after school with the coaches there,” Doan said, “but there haven’t been many developments towards playing other schools or playing indoors.”

Teicher says the team was devastated after hearing the news about the season’s cancelation.

“We lost in the finals last year and have a lot of returning players,” Teicher said. “I had pretty high hopes that we would get back to the finals and take the championship this year, but obviously that’s out of the question now. This school has a lot of competitive kids here.

They want to compete, and that’s been taken away from them. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Junior Sahil Dodda, who was named All-SPC last year for cross country as a sophomore, feels devastated after putting in 65-mile weeks all summer.

“It’s a little disappointing; I’m not gonna lie,” Dodda said. “When you’re putting in all the work over the summer expecting to have a season, then they just cancel it without really trying to make a season happen, it’s frustrating.”

For runners like Dodda, losing an important junior or senior season could be

BREAKING AWAY Junior Conor Duffy, far left, fights off the the Cistercian tackle in the Lions’ first home game of the 2019 season.

SLAMMED Senior Captain Tristan Doan, left, spikes the ball over the net to give the Lions momentum against Greenhill last fall.

FIRST PLACE The cross country team, below, hoists their SPC championship trophy after finishing runner-up the year prior.

leaving athletes unsure

Football

•2019 Record: 3-5 •2019 SPC Finish: 5th •Three players from last year went to play football in the Ivy League in 2020

Volleyball •2018 SPC Finish: 1st

•2019 SPC Finish: 2nd

•Senior Tristan Doan has a max vertical reach of 10’11” Cross Country

•2019 SPC Champions •Returning two of the top five runners this year •Coach Turek returns for his 17th year coaching the Lions

25 The ReMarker

At a Glance

of safety and the community guidelines,” Gardner said, “but of course it’s annoying for everyone because we all just wish we had a season to compete against other schools and show all the hard work we’ve been doing. I think a lot of boys are disappointed, but we understand why they had to do it.”

Seventh grade football coach Greg Guiler is missing out on his only opportunity to coach his son, seventh-grader Cooper Guiler, until high school.

“Coaching varsity sports in both winter and spring, it’s a reality Update: Lions move forward that I won’t despite SPC cancelation. get to watch him compete,” As of now, sports are moving forward Guiler said. in hopes of finalizing an independent “This was schedule for the fall season. The current potentially the timeline, depending on any possible one season outbreaks or breakthroughs with during his COVID-19, will most likely consist of ever middle school increasing rates of activity and contact all career where abiding by the current safety guidelines.

I would get to The football, volleyball and cross be an observer country teams began their training for pretty sessions Sep. 14 in hopes to gradually much all of progress until the first week of October, his games, so when normal practices are scheduled to I was excited begin. This progression is all in hopes to about that.” finalize a non conference schedule for all Dini, three sports. who was a For the football team, non-contact competitive unpadded training sessions began, tennis player consisting of four position groups that in high school, rotate between on field workouts and understands weight room sessions. The team hopes to the importance be wearing helmets by Sep. 28 and be in of sports full pads by Oct. 5. for young For the volleyball team, distanced men and the training sessions began on grass courts on community. the northwest corner of campus. These “It was sessions consist of two-on-two and threeterribly on-three scrimmages, focusing mostly on disappointing skill training. and frustrating For the cross country team, runners in the spring have been training by doing full campus when we had loops and by using the track. These our season runners have trained entirely on campus, cut short,” in hopes to return to a more normal Dini said, practice schedule with runs off campus. “and it’s really disappointing not to be in full steam ahead mode right now.

I have a tremendous amount of empathy and compassion for those guys that are seniors for whom this is their capstone experiences as Marksmen, and I want them to be able to compete, and I want them to be able to play.”

Sports

For head football coach Hayward Lee, sports are one of the things in life that unite people the most.

“I think there are two things that bring people together,” Lee said. “One is music and the other is sports. How many times have you seen two people who have nothing in common hugging and high-fiving because there’s something about their love for sports that brought them together? I think more than ever we need things that bring people together during this crazy time.”

Lee believes football can not only bring the community here together, but that it also plays a fundamental role in Marksmen’s growth.

“I think the football program at St. Mark’s has huge value to the school,” Lee said. “It has deep value to the lives of kids and their development as great young men.

I am a believer to my bone marrow in the unbelievable power of difficult team sports in the lives of people, and what being part of a team can do in the life of a young man.”

Junior wide receiver Conor Duffy says the team is terribly devastated after working out all year for the season.

“It’s definitely sad because we’ve been working so hard, and it’s not something we have control over,” Duffy said. “It’s an event that my entire year is circled around. But, we also have hope that we’ll eventually figure something out; even if it means just playing one game.”

For seniors like Trevor Gicheru, who has multiple offers to play in college, SPC being canceled could mean he won’t have an entire year of film for his recruitment.

“If it remains that we’re one of the only schools in Texas that doesn’t play, it would definitely hurt a lot,” Gicheru said. “I don’t think I would lose any offers, but there were a lot of schools looking forward to my senior film. It would definitely be a major setback.”

Even with no season currently in sight, Junior quarterback Alex Nadalini and the rest of the team continue to train as they did all summer.

“Since we didn’t have access to St. Mark’s,” Nadalini said, “one of the players gave us the opportunity to use the Cooper Fitness Center, which has a very nice weight room. They graciously gave us a place to work out for strength and conditioning. We’ve also been throwing routes on any open field we can find, trying to stay on top of our game and stay ready for whenever the season does roll around.”

Without a football season, the cheerleaders have also been left unable to preform.

“It is very disheartening to think that I may miss out on my senior year of cheering on the Lions,” Hockaday Senior Sasha Schwimmer said. “ I would have never thought the ESD game last year would be my last game to cheer, so I hope our football players can get a season.”

The football team not having a season would also result in no Homecoming game or any Homecoming celebrations. Student Council President Blake Hudspeth says the Student Council has been planning Homecoming since May. “We figured it’s better to have a plan and not need it than need a plan and not have it,” Hudspeth said. “We decided on a theme. We decided on decorations. We had our king nominations down in the books. We had everything in line to start ordering stuff and start making bookings. But now that it’s looking like it may not happen, all we can do is wait.”

Above any events that may be canceled, several coaches here would be without work, including TJ Millweard and Carl Jackson.

Since these coaches are not employed by the school, a canceled season would result in an absence of their coaching jobs.

Often overlooked, Middle School sports were canceled even before any official announcement from SPC. Eighth-grader Lawrence Gardner, who started at quarterback last year, feels just as devastated as anyone else.

“I understand why they did it because

September 25, 2020

detrimental to one’s recruitment process.

“For me, in particular, I didn’t have a great sophomore year for cross country, so not having a cross country season my junior year is going to make track season so much more important,” Dodda said. “If I have a few bad races during track season, it could really hurt my chances of running in college.”

Head cross country coach John Turek wants to see his athletes have a season.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to put together a couple of cross country meets within our schools in the SPC North Zone,” Turek said. “These would be very small meets, obviously very distanced and following the guidelines for COVID-19. We have been in talks with Greenhill, ESD, Cistercian, Fort Worth Country Day, Trinity Valley and Hockaday, and hopefully, we will be able to put something together.”

SUPER FAN MEN

Leaders of the pack September 25, 2020

The ReMarker

Sports

26

With a revised fall sports season in the works, this year’s Super Fan Men trio — Colin Bajec, Will Chance and Daniel Sanchez — is ready to cheer the Lions to victory.

STORY William Aniol PHOTOS Sal Hussain William Aniol: What specific changes are you preparing for this year due to COVID-19?

Will Chance: I think especially in the fall season we’re going to have to emphasize pretty much everything that’s going on in the athletic community because we’re not going to have sports. Anybody that’s playing with a club sport or has college offers coming in, that’s gonna have to be a big highlight for us, especially in terms of social media. Jack [Trahan ‘20] and Luke [Evangelist ‘20] did a good job of emphasizing the importance of clubs and other things going on around campus. So, I think that’s gonna have to be a big part of what we’re trying to support and post about especially in the fall.

Daniel Sanchez: I know for the volleyball team, we’re possibly thinking about playing Greenhill, Trinity Valley and a couple games. So even if it’s not through SPC, we still would just want to highlight literally anything we can do.

WA: Overall, what would you say your biggest goals for this upcoming year are?

DS: I think this year, since there’s just so much uncertainty, I think we just want to take it one day at a time. We don’t really have the ability to plan ahead for posts and events going into the spring. We just don’t know what’s going to happen yet. I think as long as we take it one day at a time and stay active within the community, that’s all we can really ask for.

WC: We’re trying to support the community, and obviously there’s not a lot going on. Just take it one day at a time and whatever happens, we’re going to have to jump on it and do our best to support whatever’s going on and get people excited about it.

WA: Jack Trahan and Luke Evangelist obviously had a strong presence on social media last year, as they revolutionized that aspect of the Super Fan Men. Especially in a year where you won’t be able to have pep rallies or assemblies to start he year, how important is social media this year to spread information to the community?

WC: We’re still gonna be able to speak at assembly along with [Student Council President] Blake [Hudspeth ‘21], but it’s just going to be so different with the online assemblies.

DS: Every post since June has been made by us.

There hasn’t been much, but we’re trying along with sending out tweets too.

WA: How do you aim to fill the shoes of Jack and Luke since they took the position of Super Fan Men to another level? They received a lot of recognition for their efforts, so how do you look to live up to the standards they set last year?

Colin Bajec: Back in June when we got the account

TRIPLE THREAT Sporting their blue shirts, the Super Fan Men for the 2020-2021 school year spend time bonding at McDonald’s in anticipation of their year ahead. The trio will look to lead the Lions’ student section at sporting events, when permissable, but for now, the three seniors hope to do so via social media.

Hype Men The new Super Fan Men, (from left to right) seniors Daniel Sanchez, Will Chance and Colin Bajec, don blue and gold paint to exhibit their unmatched spirit and enthusiasm for Lions sports.

and officially took over, we met with Luke and Jack at Torchy’s for an hour and a half just talking about Super Fan Men stuff, how they ran the page, stuff to keep in mind. They even created a bullet point spreadsheet for us to look at. They gave us a pretty laid out plan of what they were doing, so if we can try and follow that, it’d be superb.

WA: Are you all still in contact with them?

DS: I do some of the Super Fan Men’s Twitter, but I’ve gotten multiple texts from Luke, saying check out this person’s page or check out this tweet and maybe retweet it.

DS: I think in terms of following Luke and Jack, it’s obviously tough. It’s no secret, It’s no mystery. They were really good at what they did. But I’m glad we’re following in their footsteps because if anything it holds us to a higher standard. Kind of like, ‘Hey, let’s see how they do this year.’ Jack and Luke were really good last year. It kind of makes us be like, ‘Hey, we got to get a post out, we got to get some stuff done.’

WA: Did you all discuss teaming up together as the Super Fan Men? DS: I know personally, I just applied. People told me, ‘Hey, I think you should apply. You would be a pretty good Super Fan Man.’ And, I knew Colin and Will were applying, and I knew I would like to be with them just because I’d seen them at pretty much any sporting event I went to.

CB: Yeah, it was the same for me. I knew a bunch of people who were applying. We just kind of were talking about it. They would ask me if I was applying. Blake texted me at one point and asked me if I was applying. But, I don’t think I had this planned out to the science.

WC: The student council had a better idea of what they wanted than we did. I think they might have been ready to put us all together there, but Jack and Luke definitely planned to apply together for sure. I mean, hardly anybody in their grade really applied besides them.

DS: I’m just hopeful that eventually later in the year, in the winter or maybe the spring, we’ll have some game nights. I can just already tell. Those first couple of games; kids are just itching to get back out there. I think it’s going to be just a really great environment for everyone.

CB: I think that is a super big thing as well. But another thing for me is being a role model for the younger kids; for the freshmen and then the middle schoolers. Jack and Luke had that kind of unique position where they were looked up to by the whole school, and I admired that a lot.

WA: If you were able to choose one professional athlete to come to a pep rally, who would you pick?

DS: I would pick [Dallas Mavericks center] Boban [Marjonovic]. That’d be sick. I think we could make it happen. It would be a good time. He would have fun with it.

WC: No way. That’s what I was gonna say. I think our general consensus is Boban. I think Boban’s just such a classy man. I mean, you could just look at him, and it would be funny. He wouldn’t even have to say anything.

CB: Where’s Luka? I want [Dallas Mavericks guard] Luka Doncic.

Making a difference Go Lions!

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WA: What part of being the Super Fan Men are you all most looking forward to?

WC: For me, it’s whenever we can get back to the games. I was super excited for Friday Night Lights, but we don’t know what’s going to happen there.

Whenever we can get back to pep rallies and games and getting to see students in person; that’s what I’m most excited for.

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COLLEGE RECRUITMENT

From six to one

After reaching his commitment date, senior Harrison Ingram narrowed down his top six schools to his final choice.

STORY Rajan Joshi, Luke Nayfa PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Courtesy Tipton Edits GRAPHICS Creative Commons

S

enior basketball captain Harrison Ingram narrowed down his college list of some 35 schools to a final six over the summer and finally chose Stanford University Sept. 18.

As a top-15 prospect nationally, Ingram’s recruiting process has escalated immensely since his freshman year leading up to this much-anticipated commitment.

Although it was difficult for him to narrow it down to his final choice, Ingram is excited to attend Stanford.

“It was the best of both worlds — education and athletics,” Ingram said.

“I get a premier education at Stanford.

On the court, I have the opportunity to start right away, showcase my talents to the world and potentially go to the NBA as fast as I can with the Stanford brand behind me.”

READY TO PLAY Wearing his basketball gear, senior basketball captain Harrison Ingram. who helped lead the Lions to an SPC basketball championship last year, prepares to play basketball for Stanford University as a five-star recruited freshman next year.

Michigan “I love the NBA pedigree coach. He was in the NBA, so he could give me advice since he's been there. They have two coaches that have been in the NBA. The head coach [Juwan Howard] was a big help, and an assistant coach [Howard Eisley] was a guard, so they can help me in both facets of the game. Also, they play the top competition, and every game they play is a big time game.”

SPORTS COLUMN

Social justice protests in sports, historically and in the era of Black Lives Matter

A

ug. 26, 2020 will be known as the day major sports stopped.

In response to the shooting of Jacob Blake the NBA, WNBA, MLB, MLS, and UTSA all refused to take their respective fields of play or had games postponed. Although a protest of this magnitude is unprecedented in American sports history, social justice and sports have long been intertwined.

In 1883, responding to an opposing manager’s demanding that the Toledo Blue Stockings not play African-American catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker, Blue Stockings manager Charlie Morton started Walker in right field. In 1961, Bill Russel and the Boston Celtics boycotted a game after the black athletes were refused service at a Kentucky restaurant.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali had his titles and boxing licenses stripped for three years for refusing to enlist in the Vietnam War owing to his religious beliefs and opposition to the war. In 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos appeared on the podium barefoot and with one black-gloved fist in the air during the playing of the U.S. national anthem at the Mexico City Olympics to protest poverty and racial

inequality.

In sports, protests have always held importance.

In addition to reminding the fans that these people are conscious members of society, protesting and stopping play has made citizens look at the societal problems they’re objecting to without distraction.

As Milwaukee Bucks point guard George Hill told ESPN, “I think there’s bigger issues and bigger things to tackle in life right now than a basketball game, but that’s just my personal opinion.”

Politics and sports have never been separate.

Just as pop culture reflects the world that we live in, sports does the same. In the 50s and 60s, sports desegregated along with the public. Title IX has helped ensure that girls have the same accessibility to sports as their male counterparts. Internationally, soccer has had a long and problematic history of racism towards its athletes of African descent. In 2017, outfielder Adam Jones was bombarded with racial slurs and projectiles by a Boston Red Sox fan.

Discrimination has been as much a part of sports as it has society as a whole. Professionals don’t have the option to stick to sports, because these problems affect them on and off the field.

In the St. Mark’s community, we should be no different. Our voices are important, and to not use them for worthy causes would be a waste. Staying silent out of complacency is wrong when we have the opportunity to stand for something bigger than ourselves. Whether or not SeMaj certain issues pertain to us, our Musco voices are our most important Deputy tools to stand up for ourselves Endzone Editor and others in our community.

It’s our responsibility to stand up for what’s right. For those who are able to, register to vote. Write to local, state, and federal government leaders to campaign for policies and legislation. Donate time and/or money to organizations that support causes you believe in.

These are simple and effective ways to make our voices heard.

It’s our responsibility not only to ourselves, but to others and future generations to create a better world for everyone. As celebrated activist and boxer Muhammad Ali once said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

27 The ReMarker

Harvard “Harvard is probably the best school in the nation from an education standpoint, and I’d be the first top 10 recruit to go there. The media attention I could gain from that, the people I could meet and the connections I could build in the future from having that Harvard tailwind behind me would be amazing.”

North Carolina “It’s a legendary school. My dream was to go to a big-time school like North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, etc., so to have the opportunity to play there for Coach Roy Williams would just be amazing.”

Sports

Howard “Howard is an HBCU (Historically Black College and University), and both of my parents went to HBCU schools, so to be able to continue that legacy would be huge for me. At Howard, I’d be able to go and play right away and make an impact. They already have a five-star big man in the class above me who may or may not be a one-and-done, but we could definitely make something special there.”

Purdue “At Purdue, I have the opportunity to come in and play right away in the Big 10, which I would say is the toughest conference from top to bottom, so even if we play the worst team, it would still be a tough game. I love how much the coaches have shown interest in me.

They’ve shown that they not only want me, but they need me, so I’d love to play for them.”

September 25, 2020

Stanford “Education has always been important to my family — clearly, I go to St. Mark’s — and Stanford would give me a great education. The style of offense they play fits the way I play basketball really welI, and if I go there, I’d be able to come in right away and be the man.”

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

KEEPING TIME Using an electronic pad, Band Director Timothy Hicks leads his Upper School band through a simple exercise.

MUSIC & TECHNOLOGY

The show must go on

With everything from tuning ukeleles to foregoing wind instruments which cannot be played with masks on, band director Tim Hicks has made considerable modifications to his instrumental instruction.

STORY Jonathan Yin PHOTOS Hayward Metcalf

E

September 25, 2020

The ReMarker

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xcuse me, you’re on mute…

As if his Music 6 classes weren’t chaotic enough, band director Timothy Hicks began to realize that online classes would bring forth a myriad of new problems.

One of the biggest challenges for Hicks at first was coming up with a curriculum that would actually work under these new conditions. Teaching music, an art so dependent on time and coordination, was practically impossible with unstable internet connections and laggy servers.

“For the music classes, we can’t really effectively use the Teams platform for playing together,” Hicks said. “There are limitations because of network variances, and it’s way too difficult to synchronize.”

Even for the Upper School band, what were once simple exercises have now turned into monumental tasks.

“Back in March, the Upper School band attempted to play a B-flat scale over Zoom,” Hicks said. “This is something they learned in fifth grade and is pretty easy, but, because of lag issues, it was a complete mess.”

As a result of distance learning, Hicks has drastically changed his classes. While all groups continue to study music theory, wind instruments are completely out of the question.

“Since wind instruments cannot be played while wearing a mask, and because of the deep inhalation required to effectively produce a characteristic tone on wind instruments, combined with the limited

RHYTHM Tapping out a standard exercise, Hicks ensures his distance learners are moving along with the rest of the class.

rehearsal space in the band hall, it has been decided that for safety reasons we will not play wind instruments inside for the foreseeable future,” Hicks said. “For my Music 6 class, I play through songs, and the boys play along with me on mute with their own ukuleles.”

This solution, however, was not so simple at first, especially with the inconveniences of online classes. Tuning these ukuleles took 70 minutes.

“The ukuleles are shipped, like all string instruments, with much lower string tension so the instruments will not warp or break due to stress on the neck,” Hicks said. “We had to bring the tension up and tune from scratch for 13 boys.”

For the Middle and Upper school bands, Hicks has developed a different strategy to stay safe during the pandemic.

“Drums seemed like a reasonable alternative,” Hicks said.

“They can be played while everyone wears masks, and everyone enjoys playing drums.

Before coming to St. Mark’s, I taught field percussion for my marching bands and had worked several summer drum camps teaching melodic percussion.”

At his previous position, Hicks had a successful drumline in which only half of the students had percussion as their primary instrument. In addition, drums allow distance learners to continue to develop their technique with the in-

class students.

“I am confident we can move this project forward,” Hicks said. “In the event that performances are allowed, I am hopeful that we can incorporate drumline into those performances.”

Despite these improvements, however, Hicks believes that there’s still a while before things can return to normal.

“At this point, we are not planning on any public performances,” Hicks said.

“Hopefully, as conditions improve, those plans can be altered. I’m really enjoying having in-person classes again and looking forward to having a drumline on campus.”