The ReMarker | December 2020

The ReMarker

Dallas, TX • Volume 67, Number 3 • December 17, 2020 •St. Mark’s School of Texas

STORY Robert Pou, Luke Piazza PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Ekansh Tambe

Inside

A focus on inclusion

Bringing added focus to inclusion and diversity, Lorre Allen assumes a new role. Page 3

Shifting industries

Is “going to the movies” a thing of the past? The new landscape of the film industry, from people inside it. Page 13

Literary Festival

Sights from guests, winners and organizers of this year’s reimagined Literary Festival. Special Section

Essentials

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

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What's INSIDE Issues Lorre Allen becomes the school’s first Director of Inclusion, Diversity and Human Resourses. 3

Culture Lower schoolers’ favorite holiday traditions and seniors’ campus decoration. 16-17

Department heads’ opinions on the block schedule as the first semester nears its end. 4

Two eighth-graders placed second place in a national debate tournament. 18

While cursive is a central part of the Lower School curriculum, how much benefit do students get? 5

Buzz: Streaming services’ holiday movie selections and Dallas’ pandemic-friendly attractions. 19

Students’ opinions of PresidentElect Joe Biden’s policies and what questions they would ask him. 6

Opinions Editorials: Students should spend time safely serving their communities this winter. 20

Discoveries The school has seen the addition numerous new, science-related clubs. 7 10600 How Christmas events, such as the annual Christmas party, are changing due to COVID-19. 8 The school’s foreign language requrements and the importance of learning a foreign language. 9 After going broke, Preston Zapffe ’99 started a company to help others with their finances. 10

Around the Quad: Lessons learned from the year as a whole.

Piazza: Flowers and Succulents and Cacti! Oh My. 21 Editorials: More consistent guidelines for athletics; COVID safety in the winter.

Davis: When it’s over, we’ve still got the memories. 22 Sports Teachers as athletes: Teachers’ athletic careers through high school and college. 23

Instagram: @remarkernewspaper Podcast: In-depth conversations concerning all sorts of topics Focal Point now on Spotify, Apple Music and Soundcloud Behind the Column Episode 3 airs today:

Three teachers, their favorite video games, how they found them and why they enjoy them. 11

Say what?

Comments overheard around campus.

Tamal Pilla Senior

If we had a dragon protecting a vault of gold coins deep in Nearburg ... that’d be pretty cool.

Bryan Boucher History Instructor

Junior Adam Wang makes an abnormal transition to campus as an upperclassman. 12

The cancellation of the SPC season’s impact on athletes aiming for back to back championships. 24 A review of nearby athletic facilities available to Lions athletes: Cowboys Fit, the YMCA and LA Fitness 25 Two Class of ’20 alums return to coach Lions basketball their first year off the team. 26

Culture The changing impact of COVID-19 on the film industry and the industry’s future. 13

Quick looks at the fall and winter athletic seasons overall performances and statistics. 27

Centerspread An examination of the goals and changes in the modern news industry. 14-15

Backpage Assistant Head of Upper School Jason Lange details his travels around the globe. 28

LitFest Special Section

A preview of this year’s Literary Festival — the visitors, the history of the festival, the prize-winning pieces and their writers ­— and a quick look to the new, virtual presentation. Special Section.

My passion is baking lollipops.

Knobel Hunt Senior

I’m convined I run the paper. I’m like the secret editor.

While talking to Editor-in-chief Robert Pou.

LITTLE BUDDIES Senior Luke Annett has a socially distanced chat with his younger buddy on the field behind the Lower School. All seniors on campus met with their little buddies during community time Dec. 8 for snacks, a photo and to get in some much needed face time.

An increasingly techified world

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ristian, you have to see this.

There’s a Netflix documentary that went viral recently titled The Social Dilemma.

In it, former social media executives detail the seemingly manipulative and invasive ways that social media wires our brain.

After my dad watched it, he couldn’t stop talking about it. I had to see what all the hype was about.

I was floored. A reality that deep down I’d always known sank in. Since the release of the smartphone, our lives — for better or for worse — have changed in drastic ways. The Social Dilemma really highlighted the negative aspects of this technological revolution.

Not only are our brains wired to keep coming back for every notification, every message, every picture, but we’re also seeing massive changes in the way people interact.

See, when humans first evolved, our brains were programmed to strive to stand out among our tribe. If you didn’t have the tribe’s admiration, you received less — your chances of staying alive went down.

But what happens when your tribe becomes the entire planet?

Suddenly, you’re competing with 7 billion people instead of 70. But your brain can’t process that. Every negative comment, every fake influencer bragging about their rented Lamborghini — it gets to your head.

Yet we keep coming back. Like an addiction, we keep our faces glued to the screen — when we wake up, while we eat breakfast, under the desk during class, as soon as we get home, in between homework assignments and right before bed.

Teen depression and anxiety are at an alltime high. Attention spans are at an all-time low. And these apps that claim to connect us? They’re actually pulling us further apart.

If I could spend the next year in any year in the past or future, I’d travel back to 2006.

As a journalist, it’s my job to tell stories.

And as a storyteller, it’s heartbreaking to be at a social gathering, dinner table or anywhere else where instead of talking, possible story subjects are silent, scrolling through Instagram or blocking their exes on Snapchat. But that’s the only world I know.

In 2006 I was three years old. As a threeyear-old I had no idea how Cristian valuable a year it was — Pereira Steve Jobs would unveil the Senior Editor iPhone the next year. And while the iPhone is almost unquestionably the most influential product of the 21st century, I’d love to live — even for just a year — in a world where it didn’t exist.

I’d go people-watching. At a local café, I’d eavesdrop on a conversation that in five years might be taking place on text or over the phone. Maybe a new relationship is starting at the table next to me. How happy I’d be for the novel couple!

On a park bench, I’d start up a conversation with the person sitting next to me. Maybe her dog passed away that day, and she’s taking in some fresh air while she processes her grief. I’d tell her of when my grandfather died, and how I coped with my grief.

Over the weekend, I’d go to a social gathering. Everyone has to talk. Everyone has to experience the awkward silences, stale jokes and made-up stories because they don’t have an entertainment cube in their pocket to shelter behind.

Am I romanticizing 2006? Maybe. But far too often nowadays do we trade a real, personal connection for a series of texts, comments or meaningless photos that disappear in ten seconds. Throughout my 365 days in 2006, I would collect as many stories and make as many connections as I could. I wouldn’t be competing with an aluminum box yet, and that’s something I’d like to take advantage of.

I can’t go back to 2006. But I can try to prioritize meaningful connections over social media. I can put my phone down more often. I can try to read more often.

And maybe if time-travel gets invented, I’ll have enough practice to make it through the whole year.

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the faculty and staff every year, which has been terrific,” Dini said.

“She’s also done things like supporting the Dallas Area Diversity Youth Organization on campus.”

Dini says the decision was made as the school began to have more extensive conversations about the importance of creating a welcoming environment for every Director of Human Resources Lorre Allen student. steps into a new role as director of Incluson, “The timeliness of Diversity and Human Resources and talks our decision was based on the fact that we’ve always about the significance to the community. considered diversity and inclusion to be a schooltornado that ripped through the wide responsibility, much middle of campus. A pandemic like character and leadership,” Dini said. that put students and faculty “This year it became particularly apparent online for months. An unparalleled year in that we wanted somebody to take direct American history. responsibility for guiding that, and we The year 2020 has thrown both had a great colleague that was organically obstacles and changes at the community. growing into the role. It was really a winFortunately, for new Director of win scenario.”

Inclusion, Diversity and Human Resources Lorre Allen, the community is her number Allen sees her new role as a chance to one priority. further influence the campus in a positive “St. Mark’s was built on community,” way.

Allen said. “So that has to be the area of “It’s hard for me to use the term work, focus. Any work we do is based upon the because I don’t see it as work,” Allen said. community. That’s our foundation. That’s “I see it as my passion. And it’s my life’s what we stand on. Every single day.” work. But I think it’s elevated now to the point of saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to do Allen was hired in 2017 as director of this, we’re not just going to place it here.

Human Resources, a new position at the We’re going to lift this up.’ As a community, time. we lift people up. And this work is about “We wanted to hire a professional lifting people up to be their best selves and to help us bring cohesion, organization, do their best work. So, naturally, it just had and greater intentionality to all of our HR to be part of the administrative team.” functions, which basically support all of the Allen believes the new position is here policies and practices of employee relations to stay. at the school,” Headmaster David Dini “I expect this work to go on whether said. it’s me in this role or someone else,” Allen’s initial role included training Allen said. “That’s how you know it’s faculty, managing benefits and adjusting sustainable. I’m honored and grateful that I school policies that affect the hiring of was the first Director of Inclusion, Diversity employees and staff. and Human Resources at St. Mark’s. I don’t “Ms. Allen was a perfect fit from the carry that responsibility lightly. I carry that beginning,” Dini said. “She understood as an honor, as a badge of honor to be in the culture of St. Mark’s right off the bat. such a great institution and be able to do She had worked in higher education at this work with great people.” universities, as well as in the corporate While Allen feels both excited and world.” prepared for the duties of her modified Allen’s role expanded naturally to role, she sees inclusion and diversity as officially include diversity and inclusion the responsibility of all members of the this year. community.

“For example, she has played an “This particular space, while I’m active role in handling both harassment guiding it — and I look at it that way, prevention and implicit bias training for I’m guiding it — this is everyone’s work,

Moving forward together

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every single person that’s on our campus, or is connected to our campus has a responsibility to create an environment that’s supportive, that’s inclusive, that’s diverse,” Allen said. “And so I see it as people creating an environment where each person can bring their gifts, their talents, their cultural experiences and an environment that will support and celebrate the differences.”

Specifically, Allen expects students to be mindful of their roles within the community in promoting diversity and inclusion.

“I can’t be in every place on campus,” Allen said. “As much as I would like to be, I can’t do it. So I depend on the community to share and support each other. We have to have conversations, to weigh in and to learn more.”

Allen likens these conversations to those around the Harkness tables, which classes sit at to engage in academic conversations when on campus.

“I look at the Harkness table,” Allen said. “The table that we have on our campus is more than a table. It’s more than a conversation piece. It is a place where you can sit and everyone is on the same level.

Everyone has a voice at that table.”

In this equal treatment and discussion, Allen hopes the student body can be inclusive independently.

“I think that’s what it ultimately leads to,” Allen said. “Knowing that when adults are not around, we can take comfort in knowing that Marksmen will step up and have that conversation when it needs to happen.”

Any work we do is based upon the community. That’s our foundation. That’s what we stand on. Every single day.

Lorre Allen, Director of Inclusion, Diversity, and Human Resources

Ultimately, Allen encourages students to be open-minded and seek dialogue with their peers.

“I think what I would like to say overall is that we have to meet people where they are and create conversations that will stretch thinking,” Allen said. “It’s the difference that makes us interesting.

And in order to find out what that is, we have to have a conversation first, right?”

STORY Toby Barrett, Austin Williams PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Courtesy Development Office, Jonathan Yin

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

Diversity

Issues

TEACHING TEACHERS Lorre Allen leads staff and faculty training in 2018. Allen focused on implicit bias and harrassment prevention training.

Schedule

With the first semester nearing its end, department heads speak their minds. Page 4

Cursive

Is the ancient form of writing still relevant? The Lower School thinks so.

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Election

Students get the chance to ‘sit down’ with PresidentElect Joe Biden. Page 4

In brief NO SHAVE No Shave November collected over $3700 in support of testicular cancer, selling wristbands and masks around campus. The month-long event also included a competition for best facial hair.

Elliot Chang-Tung ‘10, a testicular cancer survivor, spoke during an Upper School assembly about his experiences and to raise awareness among Marksmen about men’s health.

The Student Council, who organized the event, was encouraged by the widespread participation by boys of all ages, and even some teachers.

MODEL U.N. Senior Aaryan Puri received an Outstanding Delegate Award at the Central Texas Model United Nations (CTMUN) event Nov. 6-8, hosted virtually by the University of Texas. The following weekend, Nov. 13-15, the Model United Nations Club (MUNC) participated in the virtually hosted Appalachian Region Model Arab League (ARMAL), where six Marksmen were honored with awards.

Representing Palestine, juniors Rahul Gunukala and Abhi Jain received Distinguished Delegate Awards, and juniors Tomek Marcewski and Isaac Song received Outstanding Delegate Awards.

Representing Syria, freshman Matthew Chen and junior Ekansh Tambe received Outstanding Delegate Awards. Unlike traditional MUN events, participants at the ARMAL were required to represent Arabian countries and solely discuss issues concerning their represented countries.

As MUN conferences culminate for the year, 14 Marksman delegates are preparing to participate in a virtual Harvard MUN conference in late January.

SHOOTING HOOPS Senior Owen Goldberg’s basketball charity, Nets for Neighbors, has donated over ten used hoops to those who cannot afford them. Goldberg created the charity after realizing that he didn’t need his basketball hoop anymore. Instead of simply throwing it away, he came up with the idea of donating it.

For those who wish to donate an unneeded basketball hoop, head to Goldberg’s charity at netsforneighbors.org.

Students return from Swiss Semester ADJUSTMENTS Both teachers and students have had to rethink the way they approach their work through new study habits and different lesson plans.

NEW SCHEDULE

Another new normal With almost a full semester under the new schedule complete, teachers have seen the effect of their curricular changes on their students and classes. The schedule changes, from rotating classes to the 70-minute period, have had different impacts on each department.

English Department:

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nglish Department Chair Michael Morris believes the new schedule has significantly benefited the English Department.

“We don’t think that we have to sacrifice too much in the new schedule,” Morris said. “In fact, the block period gives us the advantage of having a longer period of time to work on reading and writing in class.”

While some teachers have had difficulty finding a day that all of their classes can take an assessment, English classes tend to assign papers rather than quizzes or tests.

The decrease in class time this year has not had as big an impact on the advanced placement English courses than it has had on other AP courses.

“We’re not concerned — English is not a content-based AP curriculum,” Morris said. “Rather, it’s a skill-based curriculum: there is no set material that we have to teach, we just need to focus on the skills of reading and writing well under timed conditions.”

The possibility of enhanced student health and well-being was a critical factor in the administration’s decision to implement a new schedule. Morris has tried to limit the length of reading assignments to do just that.

“It’s partly because we don’t see students every day now,” Morris said.

“But we try to give manageable reading assignments so that boys have time for extracurriculars, family and sleep.”

Math Department:

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or Thomas B. Walker III ’73 Mathematics Department Chair Shane May, the addition of a longer period has had a positive impact on classes.

“The idea of instructing math is that we try to share as many topics as we can before a student goes home,” May said. “We practice, build a skill and then we come back and build on that skill.

Whenever we see a student for a longer period of time, naturally, we’re going to have to share a few more skills.”

May is confident there will not be a substantial decrease in topics covered.

“Eighty percent of our curriculum is mandated, or core curriculum,” May said.

“Then there’s 20 percent flexibility in a course. Ultimately what I think is going to happen is we’re going to also end up with that core 80 percent, and that extra 20 percent might get trimmed down to like an extra ten percent or 14 percent.”

One of May’s concerns, however, is the toll the new schedule has taken on teachers.

“The new schedule is causing teachers to amend their curriculum and teaching schedules,” May said. “This naturally takes time. The math faculty would never complain, but my concern is

the overall fatigue level — many teachers are tired. They’re spending more time and working harder due to the unfortunate combination of a new schedule, the virus and teaching learners at home. Privately, a couple of teachers have shared with me that they’re working really long hours and on the weekends. It has to be done — if not, the students will suffer, and they won’t let the students suffer. They’re professionals, and they’re wonderful at their job.”

“Of course, there remains room for improvement,” Fisher said. “But I’d argue that the principal challenge to our teaching efficacy hasn’t been the schedule — it’s been the necessary changes we’ve had to make because of COVID-19 restrictions. And even with those, I’m pleasantly surprised that we continue to teach at the top of our game. We haven’t let the challenge overcome us. We adapt, we improvise, and we always do our best.”

Science Department:

Foreign Language Department:

n past years, science classes would meet for an additional lab period once every week. The new schedule eliminated that, with classes now holding their labs during the long period. Thus, science classes lost 27 percent of their time, compared to 11 percent for other subjects.

According to Science Department Chair Fletcher Carron, this decrease has been reflected in the curriculum, too.

“Because the reduction of time is more significant for science than for the other subjects, you’ll see a bigger change in content coverage in Upper School science classes than in other classes,” Carron said.

On the other hand, the new schedule has given middle schoolers a lab period.

For Carron, students have not seen some of the behind-the-scenes effects of the new schedule.

“One of the bigger changes has been the rotation and varying lengths of periods,” Carron said. “The asynchronicity of teachers’ classes is definitely something that’s new to them.”

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History, Social Sciences Department: o History and Social Sciences Department Chair David Fisher, the decrease in class time has not had the negative impact he and his peers expected.

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Teachers have been doing mental gymnastics planning lessons, assigning homework and scheduling tests in order to give students an equivalent to the quality of the past.

Fletcher Carron, Science Department Head

“The cuts have been very minor and — speaking for the economics teachers — we’re actually ahead of last year’s schedule,” Fisher said. “In some ways, we’ve just become more efficient with the time we have available.”

With the new semester system, the department has been able to add new semester-long courses that allow for more course variation and opportunities for juniors and seniors.

Overall, Fisher is pleased with the new schedule’s flexibility and variation.

ast year, all fifth and sixth graders took Spanish three days a week and Chinese two days a week. Under the new schedule, the language department has switched to a system whereby all fifth and sixth graders take one foreign language exclusively. According to Foreign Language Department Chair Zach Erwin, these changes, along with time constraints, have led to curricular adjustments.

“We have made careful cuts to the material we cover in many of our classes,” Erwin said, “and we have redistributed some material across levels.”

The department has changed small details to help improve efficiency.

“For example, in Spanish IV, I have converted many of the grammar-focused worksheets into online assignments so that students can see immediately what they got right or wrong,” Erwin said.

“That way, we can now spend much less class time checking those assignments, freeing that time up for other activities.”

Fine Arts Department:

ine Arts Department Chair Marion Glorioso believes the most significant change brought about by the new schedule was adjusting the curriculum for seventh and eighth grade semester fine arts classes.

“In the previous schedule, seventh and eighth graders had the opportunity to take two trimesters of a fine art, and we had courses offered in both seventh and eighth grade,” Glorioso said. “With the new schedule, that wasn’t possible, so we consolidated the seventh and eighth grade trimester classes into combined ‘7/8 semester courses.’”

To address the decrease in class time, fine arts instructors are offering extra studio time, rehearsal time and online tutoring sessions.

Glorioso commends the addition of the 70-minute class period.

“This is the department’s favorite feature of the schedule,” Glorioso said.

“We have time to cover a lot of material, spend an extra few minutes on a particular moment or skill and reflect on the work.”

STORY Henry McElhaney, Keshav Krishna ARTWORK Cooper Cole

by Arjun Khatti fter spending the first half of the school year in Switzerland through the Swiss Semester program, sophomores Luke Noack, Roome Becker, and Will Grable flew out of Zurich, Switzerland Dec. 10 and returned home later that night.

Upon their arrival to Switzerland Sept. 11, the boys immediately went into a precautionary 10-day quarantine at their new school, located in a hotel in Zermatt, Switzerland.

“During this quarantine period, we wore masks all the time unless we were eating or in our rooms,” Noack said. “After the ten days, we only had to wear our masks when we were going into buildings in town or riding on public transportation. The Swiss government left regulations up to each state, and in our state, all restaurants and bars were closed down, everyone had to wear a mask, and groups were restricted to ten people or less. Compared to my experience in Dallas, I think the social distancing enforcement was definitely more extreme in Switzerland.”

Over the past few months, cases in Switzerland have risen dramatically, with the biggest spike in new cases occurring between late October and early November. The country’s worst day happened Nov. 6 when just over 10,000 new cases were reported.

For the first couple months of the school year, the Swiss Semester program did not receive a single positive COVID-19 case. But during Switzerland’s most devastating couple of weeks, the program reported three new cases all within 12 days of each other.

“It was two teachers and one student who tested positive,” Noack said. “The first case was a teacher [on Oct. 30], and when he first experienced symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, he immediately went into isolation. As a result, we went into quarantine for ten days, but just one day after leaving quarantine, the second teacher and first student both tested positive [on Nov. 10]. So at that point, we had to go back into quarantine, and we had to return to wearing our masks at all times unless we were eating or in our rooms.”

Noack, Becker and Grable returned to Dallas Dec. 10 and quarantined in their homes. They have fulfilled their first semester requirements, so they did not need to attend any online classes. After the holiday break, they will officially return to campus and attend their normal classes starting Jan. 4.

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HANDWRITING

While cursive has decreased in popularity recently, Marksmen continue to learn the writing style in Lower School and benefit from it beyond fourth grade.

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CONNECTIONS Cursive practice sheets are useful tools for lower-schoolers who are learning the new handwriting style in second grade.

Do you use cursive, print or a mix of both?

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Print Cursive Mix of both

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No

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Once students progress into Middle School, they have the option to write how they choose, whether that be with print, cursive, or a mix of both. Senior Class President Aayan Khasgiwala, who matriculated at St. Mark’s in first grade, has ended up using his own blend of cursive and print letters.

“I try to keep it neat,” Khasgiwala said. “Generally, the first and second letters are printed — I don’t connect the first and the second letter — and from there on, it’s sort of a mix. Sometimes I’ll blend together the last bit of an ‘a’ with the first part of the next letter. There are parts that look cursive and parts that look like print.”

Khasgiwala notes that after learning D’Nealian and cursive in Lower School, students can form their own writing style in Middle and Upper School, allowing them to use the method that works best.

“Your writing evolves based on how you like it,” Khasgiwala said. “I was never a huge fan of only cursive because I thought it was a real pain to read. I just evolved to print, but when I write fast, it just ends up meshing together.”

However, Khasgiwala also sees the benefits of teaching students both D’Nealian printing and cursive as they each have unique benefits. “[Cursive] was good for dexterity and building our motor skills,” Khasgiwala said. “I did think D’Nealian was helpful because I think it’s important to have neat handwriting What is D’Nealian? at a young age. It’s the - A writing style that acts as a transition from foundation for your print to cursive. handwriting, - D’Nealian letters and once you look like cursive letters get older, without the connecting strokes, making it easier you grow out of it, and for kids to learn. you come

Senior Ryan Park uses both print and cursive. Unlike Khasgiwala, Park uses both forms separately, and focusing on his handwriting allows him to focus on the content he’s writing down.

“I’ll go from using cursive to using print or to print from using cursive all the time so I can stay focused and pay attention to whatever I’m doing,” Park said.

He also uses each style of writing to differentiate parts of his notes or keep topics separate from each other.

By the “In English, I’ll use numbers print for whatever we’ve discussed in class,” Park said, “And I’ll use cursive for what I write at home percent of whenever I’m annotating a students book.” use the style He’ll also use print that is most natural to when he needs to ensure them that his notes are readable.

“Print is for things that I want to make pop,” Park said. percent of Although many students use studies have revealed that the style that allows them writing in cursive can help to write fast students retain more of the information they write down, Park has never found that take effect in his percent of writing. students “It’s never really agree that the school worked out that way for should me,” Park said. “I think continue it’s not that different from to teach print.” cursive.

He has found that both cursive and print keep his attention on what he is learning, especially during the longer blocks of class.

“If you’re copying down notes from a 70-minute lecture, you’re not going to be focused the entire time,” Park said.

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STORY Jack Davis, Grant Jackson PHOTO Jack Davis

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to the conclusion that if a teacher can’t read your handwriting, it’s only bad for you.”

He also found that cursive allowed him to write more fluidly and often much more quickly.

“Especially because I don’t like taking notes on my computer, I handwrite all my notes, and it makes it a little more difficult for me to keep up sometimes,” Khasgiwala said.

“But I think I do a lot better than some other kids who handwrite notes because when I Aayan combine rather than Khasgiwala just print, I’m not Senior always taking my pencil off the paper.

Especially on free responses for tests, I’ll try and start off neat, but then I realize I have five minutes left and I’m rushing. That’s when it comes in pretty handy, because I can keep it relatively neat, but I can also work really fast as well.”

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Marksmen have been learning cursive for as long as Head of Lower School Sherri Darver can remember. D’Nealian printing and cursive have been crucial parts of the Lower School curriculum.

“I don’t think we ever stopped teaching it,” Darver said. “We’ve always started it in second grade. We did move to D’Nealian printing in first grade, probably about 10 to 15 years ago, and D’Nealian is the slanted print that first grade teachers teach so that it makes the transition into cursive writing in second grade much easier for the boys.”

Darver also outlined many of the benefits that cursive writing has for young students.

“There’s lots of good research to back it up, too,” Darver said. “The cursive part, first of all, is better for fine motor skills.

The fluidity of cursive helps you retain more of whatever it is you’re writing. So

if you’re taking notes in class, and you’re writing in cursive versus print, your pencil is not lifting off the paper as often.”

An opinion piece in The New York Times written by an occupational therapist at a school district in California detailed that cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres.

“According to the research, you’re retaining more information over time,” Darver said. “It really helps in spelling too, which is unusual, because you wouldn’t think it would make such a difference in spelling, but it really does. It strengthens those memory muscles, if you will — the hand-eye coordination is so much stronger.”

After they learn cursive in second grade, Marksmen are required to write in cursive through third and fourth grade to help reinforce the benefits that cursive brings.

“Theraplay is an organization that offers great cursive writing, and lots of fine motor skill work and so forth,” Darver said, “So [the boys] can take a crash course online to catch up to their peers with cursive writing.”

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Do you remember how to write in cursive?

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ursive: a lost art to some and an eloquent, satisfying form of writing to others. The writing style, once a colossus in the world of literature and penmanship, now struggles to stay relevant in a print-dominated society.

Yet as its significance continues to fade, the antiquated writing style remains important to 10600 Preston Road’s lower school classrooms.

Every Marksman is required to learn cursive in second grade, but many stop using it or only use some of it once they progress to Middle School.

However, cursive does much more than just teach students how to write: it hones students’ fine motor skills and helps them retain more information as they connect their ideas and letters.

POLITICS

Ten minutes with the president-elect?

The Associated Press has declared Democratic candidate Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 United States presidential election, and on Jan. 20, 2021 the former vice president will be inaugurated as the nation’s 46th president. Students from around campus share their views on the election, as well as questions and comments for the change in executive power.

Toby Barrett: If you had ten minutes to talk to presidentelect Joe Biden, what would you ask him?

Student Council President Blake Hudspeth: I’d probably ask him about what his administration is going to do to bridge the economic gap between different races. And he’ll likely answer with welfare acts, similar to Obamacare, and saying he will make sure everyone has government supported medical care.

I’d also want to ask about what he will do to make sure those acts aren’t just handouts. Are you going to systemically, for future generations to come, solve that gap?

I want to see more mental health awareness and support from the government, both financially and through education, making sure the government supports people of all ages to ensure emotional and mental health security.

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Freshman CJ Ness: I would ask him more about his plans with the Green New Deal, which is more about climate change and how he’s going to help with poverty. There’s these problems and then the biggest problem is how he’s going to help with COVID. The US is one of the worst countries in the world right now with COVID cases, so I would ask how he would fix that, or what his plan is.

Junior Tomek Marczewski, who lived in the UK for 6 years: Something that interested me was that he seemed fairly confident going into the election. The polls were within that margin of error and skewed out of his favor. So I guess my question to him would be, ‘how confident were you actually? Because those first results were really, really not ideal.’

But I would like to find out how much he actually believed in. And I guess the other question I’d like to ask is, what did Trump’s presidency look like in the eyes of somebody who’s fighting against him? Because you hear a lot that Trump is a bad person but a good president.

Senior Aaryan Puri: Trump was actually nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for everything he’s done in the Middle East, and I think that that’s huge. Middle East peace deals are something that the media doesn’t really report upon when it comes to Trump, and he’s done a really great job in there kind of facilitating peace deals.

I think foreign policy is a big one.

China trade wars, terrorists, sort of keeping industries within the United States. He should work on keeping industries within the United States, and stopping them from going overseas for cheaper labor.

American-made products are something that America holds dear to its heart, so I think emphasizing keeping companies, and not going overseas for cheap labor is important.

CN: I hope he pushes more for electric companies. Giant corporations just pump out CO2 daily. I hope he keeps encouraging types of companies like Tesla to build more electric vehicles because that’s one of the biggest problems. And also with stuff like trash, to limit the trash that we produce and to somehow try and pick it all up. I’ve seen some sort of machines that go out to the ocean and just basically just pick up trash.

Henry McElhaney: During the days of the election when they were counting votes and beginning to find out that we would have a new president, what were your first thoughts?

AP: During the election , I was really locked in. I would come home from school every day, turn the news on, watch John King on his little board and CNN do simulations and stuff. Originally, it was starting to get really, really close, but then overnight some of the votes shifted towards one side or the other. I just thought that was surprising.

Some states that seemed to be going towards one candidate really started shifting over to the other one, because of the mainland votes. I think that’s huge.

Obviously Joe Biden did a better job of catering to that mainland vote demographic during a pandemic. And I feel like that’s what really sent him over the edge. The American people have spoken. There was no evidence of significant voter fraud that would really shift the tide of the election in a way that would change the results.

Maybe there were some in some states but definitely not enough to sway the election to the other side.

TM: Going into the election, I was definitely on the blue side. As I had the tab open on my laptop, it was pretty overwhelmingly red. I went to sleep kind of thinking, ‘Well, I guess we have another four years of this.’ But then, obviously things changed the next morning, and I had three tabs open with the key states and I just kept refreshing them for three days afterwards, watching the numbers change.

So in that respect, it was a very interesting election.

I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so invested in Washington politics. Because if you look at elections in England, they’re a lot different. It is never quite so close, there is always a clear winner.

HM: Do you see this change in the presidency as a new start for America or a continuation of current American governance?

CN: I feel like Biden will be a new start because they both have very different ideals, because Trump has publicly stated that he doesn’t really believe in science, and climate change is a big problem in our world right now and Trump didn’t really do much to fix that.

Biden stated that he’s been actually trying his best to help out with climate change, and I’m really excited.

AP: There are some policies that I agree with, some that I don’t. One thing I will say is that the American people are very divided right now. I look forward to seeing what President-elect Biden is going to do to sort of fix that division.

It wasn’t really the result I was hoping for personally, but I truly look forward to seeing what he has to offer for the American people and what he will do to pave the road ahead for America. A lot has happened to us, given the pandemic and the economy and everything. I look forward to seeing him rebuild America and uniting us.

TM: Trump was terrible at foreign policy. The way he handled Iran, the way he handled NATO, the way he handled NAFTA and the way he handled Israel was just not the right way to do it. And that comes from one of his main selling points, “I’m not a politician.”

But, in order to handle foreign policy, you have to be a politician. He has his relentless self-confidence that has helped him in some respects, but in a business where you have to be careful considering other people’s opinions and you have to try and find compromises that work for everyone, that old viewpoint is not ideal.

HM: Has this past election given you more hope or more apprehension for the future of America?

How so?

AP: Sometimes it makes me sad when I see people from both parties who refuse to accept presidents. I think that when the results come in, the people have spoken, and it’s time to just move on and look forward with hope because that’s what America is about, in my opinion — ­ just moving on, and looking to the future with hope.

BH: This election was super divisive, and we had record numbers of political participation. I’m sure when we see the voting breakdown, there will probably be larger voting participation numbers from young people. That gives me hope that people have faith in our democratic system.

People believe that their vote matters because it does. And people realize the consequences and the benefits of their vote. So I have hope that our democracy is still intact, and it’s good to see that the allegations that the results were skewed or potentially tampered with were proved false.

Seeing transparency in this election is also another good thing.

STORY Toby Barrett, Henry McElhaney ARTWORK Morgan Chow

Former student body president Hopkin comes back to work for Development Office

by Morgan Chow fter a senior year full of surprises, Taylor Hopkin ‘20 returned to the school this past summer as a Development and Alumni Relations Office intern.

Last year, Hopkin was Student Council President and a varsity athlete for the football and basketball teams.

After graduating, Hopkin interned virtually, reaching out to alumni to encourage donations, keeping

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an alumni database up to date and recording what the Class of ‘20 had accomplished over summer break.

“We primarily worked on fundraising, so we called alumni and asked them to make a donation to the St. Mark’s Fund,” Hopkin said.

“There’s a huge database with all of the information for all the alumni, and we updated it with awards people had and children people had. We also did a lot of stuff for the class of 2020, updating their information, making

sure that their switch from students to alumni, campus achievements and where they were going to college [had been noted]. So, primarily fundraising work and database work as well.”

As he began communicating with alumni, Hopkin and the St. Mark’s Fund ensured personal connections.

“We called [the alumni] individually and let them know what the St. Mark’s Fund was about,” Hopkin said. “Obviously, there was a tornado last year and then

there is a ton of COVID stuff going on, so there were a lot of places that donations could go and be used for.

I think I called around 300 to 400 people.”

Hopkin is excited to stay connected with the school.

“I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to come back,” Hopkin said. “I love St. Mark’s, so getting to work here is fine. I obviously love the team, and if they’re going to have me, then I’m happy to be here.”

7 Science alliance T

he school’s student body has seen a wide variety of brand-new science-related clubs this year.

These include — but are certainly not limited to — the Computer Science and Web Development Club, the Psychology Club and the Financial Technology Club.

To have a fighting chance in the sea of other clubs and extracurricular opportunities on campus, each of these new communities will have to bring something unique to the table. With the year well underway and many clubs only now beginning to kick off, it’s worth asking: What makes these clubs special?

For Jordan Gaines, president of the Computer Science and Web Development Club, starting an organization was just one way for students to get a solid foundation in subjects that might not be covered as extensively in the school curriculum.

“The purpose [of the club] is essentially to help give kids a starting point for actually going into web development and computer science,” Gaines said. “Computer science is most easily learnable in an application because it causes you to use a lot of different skills together and figure out, ‘Okay, it’s one thing to know how to create a list, but it’s another thing to know when you should use one and how you should use it in a practical setting.’”

Although the club is promoted for students who have some experience in computer science, anyone who is interested is welcome to join, even if they have no prior knowledge of computer science.

“I’m looking for anyone to join the club and for people who are maybe new to computer science and just want to learn about it,” Gaines said. “I’m looking for people that are somewhat exposed to computer science but are still learning and getting into it. Really anyone is welcome.”

Gaines stresses the informality of the meetings is what makes them unique and welcoming to newcomers.

“The most average meeting would be

people come in, and then we cover that day’s topic,” Gaines said. “Normally, that’ll be me doing demos. I’ve offered people to come in and talk about a specific topic that they know a lot about.

And again, we also just hang out.”

broad field, as the goal is to innovate and find new ways to include cutting-edge tech in business and finance. We hope to experiment with new concepts like algorithmic trading and automatic fraud detection.”

Wang hopes that the club’s members will become more proficient in what he claims is an increasingly important field.

“In modern business nowadays, Fintech is increasingly significant, and it also offers many opportunities to innovate,” Wang said. “I wanted to create a club where people with a love of finance-related subjects such as investing or tech-related subjects, such as machine learning could come together to work on projects and develop novel ideas.”

Sophomore Ashvin Nair’s interest in starting the Psychology Club grew out of his desire to approach student social issues from a more scientific perspective.

“I started Psychology Club to promote the student body’s interest in the brain and behavior and approach issues like mental health from a scientific angle,” Nair said. “Several students have voiced their interest and pursued psychology extracurricularly.”

The club plans on inviting guest speakers each month to give a short talk on a field of study related to psychology.

“Each month we plan to have a theme and general topic, and the guest speakers will relate to those topics,” Nair said. “We plan to invite individuals from neuropsychology, behavioral neuroscience, and other fields.”

To introduce students to financial technology, freshman Anthony Wang founded the Financial Technology club.

“The purpose of this club is to practice applying the latest technology to financerelated topics,” Wang said. “Financial technology, or Fintech for short, is a really

Five new clubs

$ Wang hopes the members of the club integrate the skills they learn into other aspects of their lives.

“I hope that this club will help its members gain experience in Fintechrelated areas and give them ideas on what they can do in their future. I also hope that by starting this club, we can work with other technology, finance and business-related clubs.”

STORY Han Zhang, Will Spencer GRAPHICS Jonathan Yin

Director of Environmental Studies battles pest infestations

by Nikhil Dattatreya t the start of the school year, the greenhouse in the Winn Science Center faced pest infestations, mainly from wooly aphids and other insects. These insects prey on weaker plants such as young trees and ornamental plants. Over time, plant damage and mold growth can kill plant populations, especially in the closed environment of a greenhouse.

Director of Environmental Studies Dan Northcut used a Neem oil and soap mixture to remedy the infestation issues while keeping the displays organic.

Because he rarely used pesticides, Northcut sacrificed efficiency in

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driving out pests.

“We have only been able to control the pest populations, not eradicate them,” Northcut said.

Both inside and outside the greenhouse, pest control has remained a constant battle. Even in similar circumstances, Northcut notices differences between his situation and agriculture around the world.

“We have only used a chemical pesticide twice,” Northcut said, “and that was for fire ants. Agriculture in the real world is constantly battling pests of all sorts.”

As the issues brought about by monocultures escalate year by year, pest control has become

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

Amid the tumult of an irregular school year, some students seek to bring like-minded boys together through a wide selection of new clubs.

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Discoveries

Clubs

a more salient issue across the country. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, pesticide usage has increased by at least 25 percent in the past decade. Despite increased usage to combat infestations, the higher pesticide levels in crops can backfire, resulting in diminished biodiversity in the long run.

Some of the troubles with pest management are less apparent.

While in the wild natural predators can keep pest populations in check, their presence in a greenhouse is limited. As a result, the natural elimination of pests slows down.

“Inside the greenhouse, we face a twist on the problem because the natural predators for

the pest insects have been much slower to find their way inside,” Northcut said.“We have been seeing jumping spiders and anoles recently, so that’s a start.”

For Northcut, dealing with these issues served as a learning experience for nature as a whole.

He stressed the importance of both preparation and persistence in stimulating change in the environment.

“If you’re going to set up a greenhouse, you have to learn the complexities involved in nature,” Northcut said. “One way or the other, you will have to deal with them, and how successful you are will depend on how good of a student you are willing to be.”

• Computer Science and Web Development Club (Jordan Gaines) • Psychology Club (Ashvin Nair) • Financial Technology Club (Anthony Wang) • AI Club (Matthew Fan) • Mobile App Development Club (Evan Lai)

In brief QUIZ BOWL Capping off a fall full of online tournaments, the Academic Team’s C, D and E teams competed at the virtual Big Tex Bonanza on December 5. This event was the teams’ last tournament of the calendar year.

Even after consistently finishing well in tournaments, team captain Ned Tagtmeier recognized there was still room for improvement.

He aims to work with the team on their science knowledge by developing a study strategy for upcoming tournaments.

GREEN CLUB The Green Mark’s Club volunteered at the Trinity River Audubon Center and cleaned up the river Dec. 5.

Furthermore, they are looking to plan more volunteer opportunities after winter break, if conditions permit. The club has also continued to teach environmental science to lower school students and is planning to reschedule teaching recycling to the fourth graders.

MATH TEAM The Mathematics Department will offer the AMC (American Mathematics Competition) 10B & 12A tests in early February next year. Due to health and safety procedures, the AMC tests will only be offered to students who request to take them.

The AMC 10B test will be offered Feb. 10 to around 80 students, while the 12A test will be offered Feb. 4 to around 45 students.

Students took the AMC 8 in early November.

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

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Money

Financial mistakes in families and helping others avoid them. Page 10

Teachers

Teachers and video games don’t often mix –– what makes some different?

Page 11

New kids

Examining what it’s like to join a new school as a junior. Page 12

In brief FOOD DRIVE Despite the ongoing pandemic, the Food Drive, running Nov. 9-20, received 3132 pounds of donations, a substantial increase from last year’s tally of 2200 pounds. Following local health protocol, Community Service Board members delivered boxes to advisories, whose members brought their respective items and deposited them in their boxes for members of the Board to pick up.

Many members of the school community put more than one food box together, four at most, resulting in the Board receiving 87 boxes, each weighing approximately 36 pounds. Although the Drive, aiding the Salvation Army, has ended, some advisories will bring their boxes after Thanksgiving Break while others will keep collecting food through December.

CLASS RETREATS The status of class retreats is currently undecided owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other annual traditions for Marksmen, such as the Senior Retreat, were put on hold, and it is unknown whether they will take place during this pandemic. The annual Pecos trip for incoming freshmen that usually takes place before the school year was postponed. The school is planning on sending this year’s Freshman Class along with next year’s Freshman Class on the trip in the summer of 2021.

ALUMNI Eric Boyce ‘84 was elected in November as a member of the city council of Cedar Park, Texas. Boyce, who also serves on the school’s Alumni Board, will serve on Place 4 of the city council.

In addition to his work as the CEO of BKA Wealth Consulting, Inc., Boyce has also served as president of the Economic Development Corporation for Cedar Park and chairman of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

VIRTUAL ADMISSIONS The 2021-2022 application process will be significantly different from that of previous years. As a result of current conditions, events such as campus tours and interviews will not be held in-person. Instead, the Admission Office will be conducting admissions events virtually.

However, the Admission Office stresses that the school will be just as accessible and approachable as it would be in any other year.

As a way to facilitate the adapted admissions process for families, the Admission Office is allowing families to fully complete their application virtually.

Events

Tweaking traditions In a holiday season impacted by the pandemic, the school has reimagined staple events of the school year, notably the Christmas party.

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ommencement is the ultimate event that, for some seniors, has been 12 years in the making. It’s one of the most beloved traditions on campus, and a key moment of class unity. Taking place in front of the Path to Manhood statue, it is the culmination of the very journey the statue embodies.

He first thought of it as a second grader sitting on his senior buddy’s shoulders.

Maybe I’ll walk through here one day.

Tristan Doan gazed around the Great Hall, noticing the hundreds of students, faculty, staff and parents seated to his right and left at the annual Christmas party. He was seeing the tradition of the seniors carrying their Lower School buddies on their shoulders as they placed ornaments on the Christmas tree for the first time.

A decade later as a senior himself, after finally reaching this event he’d been looking forward to, Doan isn’t sure if he’ll have this opportunity.

An opportunity that represents the image depicted by the Path to Manhood statue. But this year, it’ll be different.

Head of Upper School Colin Igoe, along with others in the administration, has been trying to maintain annual school events in any possible form. Some school events, however, have had to be canceled given the current circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The approach, the philosophy has been to postpone or reimagine, so canceling has [occurred] only when it’s absolutely necessary,” Igoe said. “Events like Homecoming, we’re postponing and hoping to reimagine. Of course, there are things such as a spirit party, for instance, where it’s just cancelled. We’ll have spirit parties again next year, but it’s not really postponed.”

Assistant Headmaster John Ashton says the thought process behind reimagining events is to make the most out of what health regulations will permit.

“The number one thing that we’ve used to guide our thinking for all aspects of school programs, celebration, academic program, athletics [and] Fine Arts is to maximize what we can do to offer the fullest experience in all of those areas, while acknowledging the cap, or the limitations, that we have to operate by, given COVID,” Ashton said.

Igoe and other administrators hold the community’s safety as the main priority in driving the decisions to make adjustments to school events.

“I’m hopeful of having as many events as we can, without ever having to compromise safety,” Igoe said. “So I would love to have some of the events that we’ve had to delay in the spring. Things like a senior auction, maybe there’s a virtual version, maybe there’s a delayed version — an event similar to a Homecoming perhaps if we could do that safely. But again, all of it depends on the conditions that we’re living in. As much as we may want something, we can’t will it to

CRAMPED TOGETHER At last year’s Christmas party, the community gathered in the Great Hall, with all Marksmen except for seniors and their little buddies sitting on the floor. Various community members delivered speeches, and the Student Council revealed how many gifts the Gift Drive raised.

happen at the expense of safety.”

One of the most highly anticipated events each year is the all-school Christmas party, in which the seniors traditionally carry their little buddies on their shoulders and walk across the Great Hall to place an ornament on the Christmas tree.

With this understanding, administrators have had to reevaluate the planning for this event with the safety of the community as a priority.

“The Christmas party is obviously such a huge and important tradition for the whole school and particularly the seniors and their little buddies,” Igoe said. “So we want to maintain as much of that tradition as we can, with the understanding that conditions dictate what we’re able to do.”

A Marksman since second grade, Doan was looking forward to walking through the Great Hall with his little buddy, second grader Ben McGonigle, on his shoulders.

“Anything we have the ability to do while staying COVID-safe will still be good,” Doan said. “It won’t matter if it’s not in the Great Hall with everyone crammed together. Everything is about what we’re able to do, what we’re able to do together and the kinds of messages it sends.”

I think the Christmas party will be just as important, fulfilling and poignant, but it will be different because we’re in a global pandemic.

Colin Igoe, Head of Upper School

Doan has fond memories about the ten Christmas parties he’s attended.

“Everyone’s always really crammed, and that’s kind of funny,” Doan said. “You always see the seniors processing with their buddies, and you can laugh at different things that seniors are doing. There’s always the Salvation Army person there that sticks in my mind. It feels nostalgic.”

McGonigle also has memories from his first Christmas party last year.

“I remember [sitting] on my senior buddy’s shoulders, seeing all of my friends, putting that ornament on the Christmas tree,” McGonigle said. “That really made me feel good.”

McGonigle hopes to continue this tradition SITTING TALL Seniors in the Class of 2020 line up with their little buddies on their shoulders before they walk down the Great Hall to place ornaments on the Christmas tree, mirroring the Path to Manhood statue in front of Centennial.

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he experienced for the first time last year.

“If I could name one thing that I’d miss the most, it would be being on my senior buddy’s shoulders,” McGonigle said.

Igoe sees the changed plans involving the school traditions and the Senior Class through a positive outlook.

“I don’t think it’s ‘missing out’ on the traditions, I think it’s simply going to be different,” Igoe said. “I think the reality is that perspective through this global pandemic is important, so while there’s certainly things that have had to be reimagined or have to change due to necessity, I applaud the seniors [for looking] at this year through an optimistic lens of ‘How do we make this unique and our own?’”

Conversations about reimagining events often involve various faculty members and administrators. For example, Ashton says planning the presentation of the gifts from the Gift Drive to the Salvation Army at the Christmas party would include input from Community Service Director Jorge Correa, the three division heads and Headmaster David Dini.

“We pull teams together who have direct experience, direct responsibility or longtime experience with whatever program or aspect of the school experience we’re talking through,” Ashton said. “Mr. Dini and I are talking all the time. Every day, including the weekends, we’re always connecting with each other. People are being pulled in to sit around this table and talk through scenarios based on whatever it is we’re looking at together.”

Overall, Ashton characterizes the school’s response to COVID-19 over the past months as a team effort.

“That’s the best description of how we’ve approached this effort, and the faculty and staff have been terrific and essential since we left in March to go remote,” Ashton said. “Fortunately for many, there was a little reprieve in the summer, a well-deserved one. And yet, they returned in August, rolled their sleeves up, put their shoulders to the wheel and have focused on teaching and supporting each other. We’re where we are today because of everyone on this campus, from teachers, to maintenance folks, to our colleagues at SAGE, all our professional staff and trustee support.”

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Will Pechersky PHOTOS Jerry Zhao

All-School Christmas Party plans changed

The 2020 All-School Christmas Party will include only seniors and their Lower School buddies. The event will take place on the Quad Dec. 18 at 11 a.m.

Although students from other grades will not attend the event in person, it will be livestreamed for others in the school community to view at home.

Only parents of seniors and members of school faculty and staff will be allowed to attend the event in person.

Seniors will continue the tradition of carrying their Lower School buddies on their shoulders while using hand sanitizer, wearing masks and socially distancing as best as possible. Upper and Middle School administrators made these announcements Dec. 10.

No classes will be held Dec. 18.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The value of a language With its own indivivdual foreign language requirement, the school seeks to offer students a solid linguistic and cultural education.

TIB talks now available on school’s Resource Board page

by Shreyan Daulat he goal of the This I Believe (TIB) Program is to allow people from all walks of life to share something on a meaningful level to an audience. The talks can be given by anyone who has a passion and wants to share it with others.

To raise awareness about the program, a tab on the resource board of the school website has been created and contains all past TIB talks and other information.

“It has a ton of past talks and it is really cool,” Student Council President Blake Hudspeth said. “I was able to watch a video all the way back from 2015, and it was really cool looking at all the values that have been a part of St. Mark’s for this long, and seeing the history of the program at St. Mark’s. It’s cool to see students that are now in college giving talks.

The tab does a great job explaining what TIB Talks are and how students can give them themselves.”

Hudspeth, Student Council Vice President Sarbik Saha and Daniel Sanchez, coordinator for Student Council Organization Task Force, have been working to raise awareness about the program. The first TIB talk of the year was delivered by junior Elijah Ellis Sept. 11, in commemoration of the day.

“My main message was to raise awareness about what happened on that day and how there was great unity throughout the country on 9/11,” Ellis said.

“I related it to the current situation that we are dealing with with the pandemic and how we have to adjust and make changes in life.

I wanted people to get motivation, understanding and perspective out of that talk. We definitely need to move the program forward and have more students and faculty give talks. ” Hudspeth also approached Elliot ChangTung ‘10 to deliver a speech on No-Shave November.

The goal of the address was to move the focus of the month to cancer awareness.

“Elliot did a really great job delivering the central message of No-Shave November and also another message of what the month and St. Mark’s meant to him regarding support and community,” Hudspeth said.

Hudspeth is happy with what the student council has done thus far to raise TIB Talk popularity, but he would like to see more talks down the road this year.

“The speakers should get some pride out of the fact that they successfully communicated something that they care about to an audience and maybe even improved their public speaking as well,” Hudspeth said.

“The audience has the opportunity to learn about something new and grow from the talk.”

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panish. Latin. Chinese.

A rising fifth grader has a choice: a choice that will influence the rest of his experience here.

Does he want to be able to speak with the large Spanish-speaking population?

Does he want to learn about the Classical World and improve his English?

Or does he want to explore a growing non-Western language with foreign traditions?

STORY Will Pechersky, Eric Yoo PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Jonathan Yin

9 The ReMarker

another language,” Erwin said. “It helps students communicate with a broader range of society, and it gives them new ways of thinking and talking about the world.

Learning the words and structures of another language can also help us expand our knowledge and understanding of English.”

When learning a new language, students gain a new perspective into a culture that may be different from their own.

“In terms of the cultural benefits of language study, I often use the metaphor of the window and the mirror,” Erwin said. “Studying a language is a window into another culture and its individual and collective values and traditions. It’s also a mirror that helps us reflect on our own values and traditions from a different perspective.”

Depending on their long-term desires, students may choose to study a particular language to help them with their future goals.

“Each of the languages we offer is interesting and valuable in its own way and for different reasons,” Erwin said. “For example, if a student wants to be able to communicate better with the large Spanishspeaking population in our city, state and country, he might choose Spanish. If he has a particular interest in the classical world and how it has influenced so much of Western civilization, he might choose Latin,” Erwin said. “Conversely, if he’s excited about exploring a non-Western language and cultural tradition, he might choose Chinese.”

Latin isn’t commonly spoken today, unlike Spanish and Chinese. However, Latin instructor Claire Strange still finds benefits in studying the language.

“Even though Latin is known as a dead language, it is a great language to learn grammar and vocabulary,” Strange said.

“Latin students will always say that they learn so much more grammar from Latin class than they do in other classes, and they find themselves really prepared when it comes to standardized tests.”

Headmaster David Dini finds value for students in gaining knowledge about cultures around the world.

“We believe that not only is it an important academic exercise to stretch and grow and learn a foreign language,” Dini said, “but it’s also the valuable cultural awareness and growth that you have by learning about other cultures from other parts of the world.”

When looking at the varying language requirements in schools throughout the world, Erwin sees an overlying value in the opportunity to learn a foreign language.

“I think it’s always better to learn more languages rather than fewer,” Erwin said.

“While I think studying a language can be really fun and rewarding at any age, it’s certainly easier the younger you start.”

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have a requirement at all.

However, like many schools in the country, the school chooses to form its own specification regarding foreign languages.

The foreign language requirement at the school calls for all students to take the same language for a minimum of three years in the Upper School through at least level III. Middle School students have the choice between Spanish, Chinese and Latin before beginning fifth grade. In the four years of Lower School, all students take Spanish.

Foreign Language Department Chair Zach Erwin ‘96 sees future value for students in the school’s requirement.

“There are lots of benefits to studying

December 17, 2020

While some countries in Europe have foreign language mandates that require students to study at least one foreign language from a young age, the United States doesn’t

CHOICES Whereas students used to choose their preferred foreign language before seventh grade, starting this year, students must make their choice in anticipation of fifth grade.

BACK TO WORK As the main leader of two companies, Family CFO and the Financial Literacy Foundation, Preston Zapffe '99 has found his passion in helping people with their money.

MONEY MATTERS

December 17, 2020

The ReMarker

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Profit vs. purpose

Preston Zapffe '99 details his journey to finding his passion in financial planning, all the way from the Fortune 500 world to the non-profit world to going flat-out broke.

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job is where you trade time for money.

A career is where you do the same thing, but you have the opportunity for growth and advancement.

A calling, however, is where you work harder and longer than anywhere else because you love what you do. Your work aligns with your personal purpose and values, and the paycheck doesn’t matter quite as much anymore.

Preston Zapffe ‘99 had the chance to approach employment with each of these mindsets as he learned and developed, but ultimately, he found himself distracted by a calling.

For others, that calling might have been astrophysics, teaching or being a librarian.

For Zapffe, it was helping people navigate the highly complex world of personal finance.

Zapffe graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in mathematics and engineering before moving to New York City. There, he found a job in financial consulting at a Fortune 500 company but quickly realized that the lifestyle wasn’t for him.

“Consulting can provide a great service, and by no means do I mean to disparage the profession,” Zapffe said. “However, in my decade working in consulting, I had some acute challenges triangulating the needs of the client, the consulting firm and my own incentives. The job was also highly transactional. The world is so big that unless you can figure out how to make it a little bit smaller, people don't really care about the relationship dynamic.”

Zapffe took his distaste for working at a huge firm as a sign that it was time for a change and moved to a company with only 500 employees.

“That's a natural trajectory for people who go into investment banking, for example,” Zappfe said.

“They'll start with banking, move to investment

banking with the intention of getting their MBA, and then go on to work for a hedge fund or in private equity.”

Much to his dismay, the small consulting group was bought by a Big Four accounting company, and he was thrust back into the world of employeemania.

“I grinded that out for another four years because I had a wife, two kids, a mortgage and a lifestyle until I got to a point where I decided, ‘Forget it.’” Zapffe said.

Zapffe’s next venture was into the world of nonprofits.

“I found that I had even more trouble at non-profit organizations than in a corporate environment,” Zapffe said. “My experience was that employees, especially in well-funded nonprofits, were especially interested in being rewarded for serving the hierarchy, which may or may not be correlated with the mission of the organization. It just didn’t sit well with me. Meanwhile, I’m going completely broke.”

Zapffe saw flashing-red warning signs early but didn’t act on them because of the lack of communication between him and his wife.

“We had cash savings, but we were burning them fast,” Zapffe said. “I intuitively and objectively knew our burn rate and runway, but I failed to communicate the urgency of lifestyle adjustment in an effective way to my family. The amount of conflict and stress that my professional change and our financial life brought combined was just remarkable. And what's even more amazing is that, in my experience, it’s completely normal for married couples to go through this in some form or another.”

Born out of the catastrophe was Zapffe’s personal venture that he still runs to this day: “Family CFO.”

“Instead of managing assets or allocating their portfolio, I exclusively act as a chief financial officer for a family,” Zapffe said. “I use the systems that brought my wife and I out of our trouble to help them out.”

In the process, Zapffe has to solve the numerous problems that his clients have, including their disputes.

“Arguments about money are scarily common among couples,” Zapffe said. “When I help families, we have a scheduled time once a month when we talk about money, which sort of removes the blame distribution and the absolutes that come with a money fight. The objectivity of having the data to say, ‘I spent this, you spent that, here’s how we’re doing,’ changes everything.”

One of Zapffe’s favorite recommendations is that each family member writes down everything they want all the time.

“By having them do this, it eliminates the pain of saying no to everything and allows families to personally draw a line in their list, keeping their top three or four items once they know their budget,” Zapffe said. “When you have that built-in accountability, a feedback mechanism, objectivity and a neutral third-party moderator, it virtually eliminates conflict.”

Zapffe’s other project right now is the Financial Literacy Foundation, a non-profit organization that he runs himself.

“What I've found is that everyone knows that everyone else needs help with money,” Zapffe said.

“Everyone except themselves. Through the Financial Literacy Foundation, I’ve been able to provide both education and support to employees or students through companies or schools.”

In Zapffe’s eyes, a relationship with money is one of the most stigmatized and complicated relationships that we all manage.

“Ultimately, how wealthy you are isn’t important,” Zapffe said. “What’s important is having a good relationship with the money that you possess — because most of the time, there's never enough to be enough.”

STORY Austin Williams, Ian Dalrymple PHOTO Evan McGowan

Alumnus Katz addresses mental health issues through therapy company, 'Two Chairs'

by Dillon Wyatt lex Katz ‘08 created a therapy company to help address mental health issues.

Katz founded Two Chairs, a company based around tailoring one-on-one in-person and now virtual therapy to residents in California with the purpose of making a highquality mental health system easily accessible.

From an early age, Katz saw the kind of pain mental health issues can cause. Witnessing many close friends and family members struggle in different ways – and then breakdown when trying to get help – struck a chord with Katz and drove him to

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create Two Chairs.

“What brought me to mental health was really a personal connection to it,” Katz said. “The mental health system in this country has a lot of stigmas associated with it, and on top of that, it is a big complex system. It’s intensely fragmented and the average person has no idea where to start.”

Katz realized the mental health system needed a change, so he decided to create a company that not only treats clients with top priority but also makes it seem effortless for people to get help.

“It is really simple to get started,” Katz said. “We match you with the right therapist for you, and it is very

frequent for people to come and be in care with us and then stay with us to complete the full course of care.

The feedback we get from clients is that they love the experience tell their friends and family about it.”

Katz’s success was aided by the advice of multiple clinical experts and people in the start-up company. He was even able to hire Zach Alden ‘13 to the care coordination team by using the school’s alumni network.

“In the early days of starting the company, a lot of the first people I hired were just great clinicians, therapists and people who had done really interesting research in mental health programs,” Katz said.

“That was really important to our early success. It built a great clinical team and developed an approach to therapy that was really unique and differentiated.

Although Katz’s business currently resides in only five California cities, Katz wishes to expand his company so that people in other states can receive the mental health therapy that Two Chairs provides.

“We started in the Bay Area in San Francisco and grew from there to Oakland, San Jose and Redwood City,” Katz said. “This year, we launched in Los Angeles, and I think in the coming years, the goal is to take the model to even more cities around the country.”

VIDEO GAMES

Graders turned gamers

When they’re not grading papers or teaching, these three faculty members occasionally boot up their PC and enter the gaming world.

They share their experiences and interests in their own words below.

What do you enjoy about video games?

KO: Finishing them. It’s not the boss fight that gets me at the end. It’s the fact that I have played in this story from beginning to end. It’s like reading a book, except you’re in the book. I enjoy being able to beat the game and that I’ve been doing it most of my life.

Geoffrey Stanbury English instructor

GAME NIGHT Leonard M. “Doc” Nelson Master Teaching Chair Paul Hoehn and his wife sometimes play video games together with other players online and, in some instances, became real-life friends with people they met through video games.

How did you get into video games when you were younger?

Paul Hoehn: I got into computer games before there were video games. The first computer game that I was aware of was because my dad worked for Mobil oil. They had an office that had computers. They had this lunar lander, which was not very compelling, but there was a game called Star Trek.

Making a difference Go Lions!

Piers Hurley, CFA® Sr Vice President--Wealth Mgmt 214-965-6128 UBS Financial Services Inc. 100 Crescent Court Dallas, TX 75201-6900 214-220-0400 888-430-5579

ubs.com/fa/piershurley

For designation disclosures visit https://www.ubs.com/us/en/designation-disclosures.html. © UBS 2017. All rights reserved. UBS

What do you enjoy about video games?

GS: The escapism. The element of pretend. That might be part of why the puzzle games that have been most interesting to me were ones where it was either a first-person perspective or a very wellconceived world.

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Eric Yoo PHOTO Hayward Metcalf

History instructor’s article published in magazine

by Ian Dalrymple he National Review published an article by Marcus Master Teacher Dr. Bruce Westrate about the tearing down of Confederate statues on July 17.

When the controversy about confederate monuments arose, Westrate certainly had something to say.

“Over the last few days, I’ve been forced to ask myself what’s going on,” Westrate said.

In order to figure this out, Westrate says that, originally, he wrote the article to just get his thoughts out on paper.

“Everyone was talking about the Confederate statues at the time, and the boys were talking about it too,” Westrate said. “So, rather than just popping off in class, what I’ve always done is sit down and write it out.”

To Westrate, putting pen to paper is different from just talking. For him, it’s more gratifying to write his opinions.

“If you’re talking, just trying to give an opinion in 15 seconds really isn’t very satisfying for them or for me,” Westrate said. “Instead, I can just give them something to read and say ‘well, here are my thoughts.’”

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While this article was originally written for students who were interested, it took off with some help from Andrew Roberts, an author and historian.

“I happened to send it off to Roberts, just to get his impression,” Westrate said.

“And he said that I should send it to the National Review. I didn’t think they wanted it, but he said ‘Well, you send it to them with my endorsement.’ He’s a big deal, and they ended up publishing it.”

Westrate was glad to hear that the article was published.

“I was really gratified that it was in there,” Westrate said. “It’s a different kind of experience for me, publishing an article in something like that.”

Still, the future of Westrate’s publishing career is uncertain.

“I don’t really know if I’ll publish something in the future,” Westrate said.

“I’ve been published repeatedly, but I’m not driven to be. I don’t really need to be published.”

Although his pieces may not be published, Westrate will continue to write.

“Maybe over Christmas break I’ll cobble something together,” Westrate said. “I’ve been pretty busy, so we’ll see.”

The ReMarker

What’s your style of playing video games?

KO: It’s always on the computer. I haven’t played much recently. Usually when I get a new game, and I start playing it, I want to finish it. I like the games with stories, so that’s several days’ worth of playing because I don’t want to leave the story. Some games I can go back and replay, but some games you can’t because you’ve played the story and that’s it.

I usually play solo. If you play with other people, then they have demands on your time.

What’s your style of playing video games?

GS: Before [I had] kids, sometimes I would [play video games] on weekends. Sometimes I would just open up a goofy little web game like Bloons Tower Defense to veg out for 20 minutes.

The only times that I really would immerse myself [was] with a strategy game like Civilization.

If I spent a large chunk of time on it, I would find myself feeling a little regretful about that later on, because while it would have been engaging for the couple hours I might have spent doing it, it wouldn’t have been a memorable couple of hours.

11 10600

What do you enjoy about video games?

PH: We would meet people from other countries.

There was a guy who lives in Brazil. You’d find out interesting things about Brazil. One time he says, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to go to bed — it’s really late.’ It was 10 o’clock. He says, ‘It’s 2 in the morning,’ and I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Brazil — isn’t that just south of us?’ But you look at the map of the world, and Brazil sticks out way farther east than you think. And I’m like, ‘Wow, they’re almost in the British time zone.’

What games do you play the most?

KO: Descent [from 1994] was a big one. I still play it 25 years later, and I’ve played it ever since. I’ve never let go of that. Now it’s all PC games for me. I don’t play any console games anymore. I like the firstperson shooters that are science fiction, and I like the space flight simulators — those are the ones I play the most.

What games did you play the most?

GS: Civilization was a game I saw at a friend’s house that changed everything for me. It’s not that I’d never played strategy games before, but the expansiveness of Civilization was interesting and appealing to me. The games that really occupied my attention, especially senior year of college, were whatever version of Civilization that was out at the time and a strategy RPG first-person shooter called Deus Ex.

December 17, 2020

What’s your style of playing video games?

PH: Warcraft is when you have to start planning your actual life so that you are available. We’re gonna have to free up Tuesday and Thursday night so that we can do these raids. I have a tendency to play healers, because I just think it’s fun to do that.

[My wife and I] tried a whole bunch of roleplaying games. They’re all kind of the same: you get your character screen, you roll up a character, you start out at the low level, figure out how to move around and work your way up to bigger and bigger monsters and stuff.

How did you get into video games when you were younger?

Kenneth Owens: The guy across the street had an Atari 2600 athome video game system. That was the first at-home console system that I ever played on. I convinced my parents to give me one, and they did. Then I had the Atari computer for a couple of years, and then Apple II, and there were games for those. Then in college, it was arcades. When I finally could get a computer, I could start buying games on my own.

Kenneth Owens Chemistry instructor

How did you get into video games when you were younger?

Geoffrey Stanbury: My dad bought a Commodore 64 computer back in 1985 or 1986. There were some video games in the form of cartridges that we plugged into the computer, and he also bought a modem so he could dial up some local bulletin board systems and download games.

My brother and I got a Nintendo for Christmas.

When I saved up and bought my own computer in high school — around 1995 or so — then I started getting into first-person shooters like Duke Nukem 3D.

NEW STUDENT

Adjusting as a junior Most students come back for their penultimate year at the school. But this year, one student arrived for this all-important school year.

STANDING OUT Seeing a new face on such an older student on campus is higly unusual. As the only new junior in the past seven years, Wang stands in a truly unique position.

D

December 17, 2020

The ReMarker

10600

12

ozens of new students are admitted to the school every year, in all grades. Except for junior and senior year.

When junior Adam Wang chose to apply to the school, he was well aware of the new uncertainties that faced him – adjusting to a new social setting, preparing for the rigorous 11th-grade academic environment and familiarizing himself with the deep-rooted culture of the school. And he’s had to do this with no fellow new students in his grade.

However, since his first step on campus, he’s been able to adjust and adapt, bit by bit, as he gets more and more comfortable as the singular new face in a sea of familiar ones.

The school receives an average of ten junior year applicants per year. However, junior admissions average less than one student per year. Students that are admitted in the 11th grade tend to have rigorous academic backgrounds.

“We are assuming that a young man can walk in and not just survive, but be successful with the curriculum and all that came before,” Director of Admission and Financial David Baker Aid David Baker said.

Director of “It is situationally Admission and Financial Aid unique because it doesn’t happen very often. New juniors fit in socially and they fit in academically because those are the kinds of kids who we admit to 11th grade. They do great. If we didn’t think they would, we wouldn’t take them. They are used to working as hard as we work.”

Junior Adam Wang is one of those unique situations. Earlier this year, Wang and his family moved to Dallas. The school’s membership in the International Boys’ Schools Coalition played a big factor in Wang’s decision to come to 10600 Preston Rd., as his old school was also a member.

“We moved to Dallas because my dad has a new job at UT Southwestern,” Wang said. “He came over from Vanderbilt. I applied to St. Mark’s because it was most similar to MBA [Montgomery Bell Academy], my old school in Nashville.”

After getting through the challenges of the first few weeks of school, Wang was able to assimilate

into the school because of the similarities he saw between his old school and his new one.

“St. Mark’s is probably more diverse,” Wang said. “But I’d say St. Mark’s and MBA are similar in academic curriculum and have similar atmospheres. In terms of curriculum, both the schools are college prep schools, so they prepare you for higher level academics. And in terms of atmosphere, it’s the values they stress, like courage and honor.”

Wang’s advisor, English instructor GayMarie Vaughan, has kept up with Wang throughout his transition to the school.

“He said it’s very much like his other school,” Vaughan said. “The ethos of the place feels a lot like where he was. I think GayMarie Vaughan that he was academically English well-prepared where he came instructor from, and it’s just going to take some time for him to feel at home in the social setting.

He’s done a really good job of finding things that he already knows he wants to do and jump right into those, and every time I’ve asked, he says things are going really well.”

Vaughan’s advisory has tried to bring Wang up to speed on the more school-specific parts of campus culture.

“All the boys in my advisory have completely taken him in,” Vaughan said. “I think we’re consciously aware of things that we assume people know and try to make sure that we explain. We talk about McDonald’s Week all the time, and he has no idea what we’re talking about. A lot of times when we use culturally specific language, we try to make sure that we let him know what that is.”

Socially, Wang hasn’t encountered many obstacles in his transition to the school. In fact, he says the school’s atmosphere has worked to counter most of those issues. “[I haven’t faced] any huge ones, just the ones you’d expect, like not knowing anyone to begin with,” Wang said. “But the environment has been pretty conducive to making friends. Everyone’s pretty friendly, so that hasn’t been a problem.”

In terms of academics, Wang has found his transition rather seamless as there was not much

need to adapt to a new curriculum or academic atmosphere.

“A lot of it’s just been a continuation,” Wang said. “With the classes, the subjects just pick up where I left off. Take Latin or math for example.

That’s not been too bad. There have been a lot of similarities that kind of just run together.”

In terms of his fall sport, cross country, Wang noticed both change and continuity from his old school in Nashville. Being part of the team also helped Wang in his social adjustment.

“Cross country helped a lot because I got familiarized with the whole team dynamic,” Wang said. “In terms of competitiveness, Texas is a lot more competitive than Tennessee in cross country.

The team is amazing here, but in terms of how we run practices, it’s been pretty similar.”

Entering junior year at a new school is challenging enough, especially along with complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as starting the year remotely and lacking social events such as football games. But Wang thinks the pandemic eased a lot of issues in this regard.

“If anything, it might have helped a bit just because when I started out, everyone’s kind of in this unexpected position,” Wang said. “It kind of evens the field a bit, in terms of the transition.”

Wang’s primary advice to any other new There are probably more student-led clubs at St. Mark’s. That can be for better or for worse, it just varies depending on the club. And then there’s also the scattering of small student-led clubs.

Adam Wang, junior

juniors who would find themselves in his unique position is flexibility.

“First of all, come into it with an open mind,” Wang said. “Don’t try to maintain everything – there’s going to be some changes. In terms of a transition period, expect that it’ll take some time to get used to some stuff or maybe adjust to some classes. And during that time, just don’t stress over everything.”

STORY Shreyan Daulat, Axel Icazbalceta GRAPHIC Jonathan Yin

Community service opportunities appear on x2vol as deadline nears

by Will Spencer ommunity service opportunities are currently being updated regularly on x2vol, the school’s website of choice for managing community service opportunities.

Though some opportunities continue to be available for students to participate in, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is limiting the types of opportunities that can be posted. The community service department is working hard to find opportunities that are safe for students.

“I think we have enough opportunities most of the time, but sometimes they don’t match what you’re doing,” Correa said. “We’re

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looking for opportunities that are safe, take place outdoors and don’t congregate a lot of people,” Correa said. “I’m open to everything that fits what we need to be doing to be safe.”

Despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ten community service hours for each student remain tentatively due Jan. 22.

“Maybe two weeks before Jan. 22, we’re going to take a look at what people have done and see if we can come up with an average,” Correa said. “If we see that 90% of the students have more than 15 hours, then we’ll know that it’s possible for people to do it. If it makes

sense to make some changes to that requirement, we will.”

Despite the restrictions caused by the pandemic, the community service department is making an effort to expand the range of opportunities that are available.

“I’m always keeping my eyes and ears open for new possibilities,” Correa said. “I want the students to have a wide variety of places to go and communities that fit what they want to do and that they feel comfortable in.”

“We’re going start building the Habitat [for Humanity] house in January,” Correa said. “There are going to be shifts in the morning and shifts

in the afternoon instead of one group of people the whole day so that we can have more people participating. That’s something I’m looking forward to.”

To keep students and their families safe from COVID-19, the school has limited available opportunities to only those that present a low risk of disease spread.

“I don’t want to risk people working too close to each other until we’re in a different spot, regarding COVID,” Correa said. “Anything that takes place outdoors and where people are wearing masks – that’s what we’re trying to do. If that’s not going to be followed or respected, we’re not taking the students there.”

13 As COVID-19 rocks the movie industry — halting filming and slowing down production — what will the future hold for this iconic part of modern life?

I

t’s a common pastime.

People do it with their families, their friends, their significant others. Either on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons or any other time during the week. No matter when, with whom or why, lots of people go to the movies.

In recent years, however, people have been going to movie theaters less and less. From 2002 to 2018, per capita attendance has gone down 28% in North America. And no one was allowed in theaters for several months in the spring.

Meanwhile, Netflix’s subscriber numbers went up 250 percent from 2010 to 2017.

So what does this mean for the future of movies? And, more interestingly, the people who make them?

Ever since a young age, screenwriter Evan Daugherty ‘00 knew he wanted to study film in college, so he went to NYU, regarded at the time as one of the best film schools.

Once he got out of college, Daugherty didn’t immediately find a job like he wanted.

He spent four years doing various smaller craft jobs – such as editing other people’s films – before becoming a professional writer.

“You have to find your own way into Hollywood,” Daugherty said. “One of the metaphors I use for breaking into Hollywood is that you have to imagine a castle with giant walls around it. There are cracks that you can get through, but they are so small and you have to find them yourself. But the tricky thing is that the crack you went through often disappears behind you. You can’t tell someone exactly what you did because no one can do it the same way you did. Everyone has to find their own way into this weird industry.”

Since that initial job in 2008, Daugherty has worked on several films. For most of the productions, Daugherty has served as a screenwriter. This role is individualistic by nature, so when the COVID-19 pandemic came and wrought havoc through millions of people’s jobs, Daugherty’s work was well insulated from this impact.

“In my field, I’m mostly working alone, so in terms of my day-to-day schedule, it wasn’t that different,” Daugherty said. “I still walked up the stairs to my office, I still wrote.

One of the biggest changes was that three or four days a week, I would have had to go to meetings. And now that’s all on Zoom, so DaughertyEvan ‘00 that’s the most obvious Screenwriter effect. An interesting creative question that I and other writers and filmmakers are dealing with is how much we let a global pandemic seep into what we’re writing. I have no answers, but it will be interesting to watch movies and TV shows for the next three to five years, and see how many of them deal with COVID and how many of

ISOLATED The effect that safety regulations have had on theaters has been staggering, as 70% of small to medium theater may go bankrupt by the start of next year, according to the head of the National Association of Theatre Owners. As progress is made on a COVID-19 vaccine, the future of the movie theater remains in question.

them act like it never even happened.”

Since movie theaters have had to shut down due to safety regulations, consumers have moved their entertainment consumption more and more to online streaming services.

This shift has given Netflix, Amazon and companies like them an even greater market share over the films and TV shows the public consumes.

Currently working on projects for both these companies, Daugherty is grateful for the stability they provide the industry, but still hopeful that movie theaters and the older studios like Warner Brothers and Universal that

Five films Daugherty has worked on • • • • •

2012: Snow White and the Huntsman, screenwriter 2013: Killing Season, screenwriter 2014: Divergent, screenwriter 2014: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, screenwriter 2016: The Huntsman: Winter’s War, characters

release movies there are able to bounce back.

“Of the two of the jobs that I’ve been working on over quarantine,” Daugherty said, “one is a TV series for Amazon and one is a movie for Netflix. And the reason is because Netflix can release its movies on its streaming service at any time. That’s not impacted by COVID – same with Amazon. But for studios that are planning to release their movies in theaters, it’s a real problem and they’re starting to hurt right now because they have nothing to do with their movies. I really hope they can start releasing their movies in theaters soon.”

Even as the entertainment industry continues to regain its footing after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Daugherty still encourages students to study film in college.

He believes that if it’s someone’s passion to go to film school and become a famous director or screenwriter or producer, they should follow that dream and work toward it.

“I think if they want to do it, they should do it,” Daugherty said. “If you want to go to film school, I think it’s a great thing to do. I would look at it as a learning experience, not necessarily a stepping stone. I would encourage people to not have the mentality of saying, ‘I’ve got to go to film school, I’ve got to be successful right after’ because it takes time.

You really have to view it as a long journey of improvement and learning.”

Just as those in the film industry feel mounting pressures, students in college about to head into film and television find themselves entering a job market even more precarious than they had expected.

Still, the industry continues to attract ardent new recruits. Sammy Sanchez ’18, a film and TV student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, has been solidifying this career path for himself since his middle school years. But by the time he began college, he still hadn’t

pinpointed exactly which facet of movie production would draw him.

“NYU does a pretty good job of giving you a good background in everything the first couple years,” Sanchez said. “From there, you can either specialize in something or keep taking a mix of classes, and at that point I felt like I really wanted to go into writing, and recently I’ve shifted more from movie writing toward TV writing.”

At that point, he still felt attached to the same kind of drama to which The Godfather had originally introduced him in his childhood, but he began to gravitate toward dark comedies that blend the levity of comedy with the weight of drama. But then came COVID-19.

“I felt pretty good about job prospects, pre-COVID,” Sanchez said. “Obviously, this is a hard business to make it in, so there’s always some amount of uncertainty. But I’ve had some internships, which have turned into this part time job I’m doing right now with 3Pas Studios.”

But besides small freshman projects that can be delegated to one or two students, Sanchez is seeing zero production at all.

“That’s pretty massive,” Sanchez said. “But I’m not taking any production classes right now, because I wouldn’t want to deal with that, so I’m mostly taking writing classes. And in those, I haven’t seen things change too much.

They’re mostly classes and workshops, and those are pretty easy to do.”

Still, despite the standstill in production, parts of the film industry––screenwriting, story development, pre-production efforts––remain active, anticipating to resume production in the near future.

“Projects are still being bought and sold, they just can’t start shooting now,” Sanchez said. “Production is at a standstill, but stuff at Sammy Sanchez ‘18 development is more Film or less normal. There’s student a bunch of projects that they’re ready to go shoot as soon as possible.. I think we can probably expect a surge in production once we get a vaccine or when restrictions loosen.”

People who frequent movie theaters will likely find themselves disappointed with the lack of a complete rebound to pre-COVID attendance, Sanchez says. But theaters aren’t going away permanently, despite the recent closures of many smaller establishments.

“Things that won’t make billions of dollars – those will probably be shown less,” Sanchez said. “It’ll become more of an event to go to the movie theater, and it might just be reduced to anything you don’t want spoiled and that you have to go see it opening night.

But streamers were already becoming more and more popular, so COVID is just accelerating something that was already going on.”

STORY Axel Icazbalceta, Jamie Mahowald PHOTO Owen Simon

Headliners Movie releases on tap in the coming weeks. Source: IMDb Wonder Woman 1984 Dec. 25

Chaos Walking Jan. 22

Monster Hunter Dec. 18

Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah.

A dystopian world where there are no women and all living creatures can hear each others’ thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called Noise.

When Lt. Artemis and her loyal soldiers are transported to a new world, they engage in a desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers.

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

The future of movies

Culture

Entertainment

Traditions

Conversations with lower schoolers about their holiday traditions. Page 16

Debate

Eighth grade debaters place second in national tournament. Page 18

In brief ALL-STATE AUDITIONS The Upper School Orchestra has been preparing for their Texas Private School Music Educators Association (TPSMEA) All-State and All-Region auditions, both of which are open to all Texas private high school students for a spot in the All-State and All-Region Orchestra. All-State auditions occurred the week of Nov. 30 and results will be disclosed mid-December while All-Region auditions will occur later this year. Marksmen are required to prepare pieces of music and submit a recording of their performance. Students chosen for the All-State Orchestra will not gather to perform in conjunction this year.

SPRING PLAY The spring production of Treasure Island will be performed March 5-7. Because of the pandemic, the production has been modified. Hockaday is not allowed to perform together, so the play will star an all-male cast of 16 characters, with female characters performed by male actors. In addition, the actors will wear masks while on stage, and only a limited number of audience members will be allowed to attend for social distancing precautions.

COFFEEHOUSE The December Coffeehouse event will be happening online, but the date is yet to be determined. The Fine Arts Board is considering either streaming the event live or prerecording it. If it is pre-recorded, they will try to incorporate short films from the film studies class, as well as showcasing projects from the ceramics, industrial arts and art classes. If they stream it live, the performances will likely be in lower video quality, but if they pre-record, they have to rely on the participants to record themselves, which could lead to lower quality videos.

LIBRARY The Green Library is beginning a comprehensive process known as weeding, in which old, outdated and derelict books are removed from the library. Though weeding has already been an ongoing practice for many years, the library is taking a newly intensive approach this year by systematically evaluating every book in the nonfiction sections of the library. The purpose of this process is both to keep the material in the library relevant and to make room for new books.

Perspectives

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

A 14,15

Grant

s the Greater Dallas Press delivery author of Cemetery John, believes objective at any given time. D Moise President and van pulls up just outside Nearburg, truth is paramount in factual reporting.

Magazine President Gillea Publisher several members of The ReMarker “I have to be really careful that I'm Allison believes opinion of Dallas staff gather round. It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Friday, not seeing things just because I want to see pieces should be clearly Morning News and 1,400 copies of the October edition of them in a certain way or in a certain line,” labelled and distinctively The ReMarker have just arrived. Bundle after Zorn said. “This actually gets back to what designed in order to bundle of hot-off-the-press newspapers I learned from a lot of teachers at St. Mark's: draw readers’ attention. are unloaded and hauled off to the Hersh to be intellectually honest. You can't all of And regardless of whether the story is fact- or Journalism Suite. From there, a sudden ignore stuff just because opinion-based, D Magazine also employs a Robert the papers are distributed it doesn't fit your theory or way of group of interns, paid staffers and editors to Decherd ‘69 all over campus — to Winn, thinking.” engage in the rigorous process of fact-checking A.H. Belo Hoffman, Decherd, the Lower Similarly, Patrick Barta ’90, Asia every line of every story.

Corporation chairman, School, and even the student Enterprise Editor for The Wall Street “While a blog post can be deleted from president store. When students emerge Journal, believes that while many may the internet, print is there forever,” Allison and CEO from their classes and head decry the modern news industry as said. “So that’s why we invest a lot of time and to lunch, they pick up a copy ‘fake news,’ his publication continues resources into ensuring accuracy.” of the newspaper on their way, thumbing to approach its coverage “without opinions, So what’s the benefit of opinion if it’s so through it while waiting in line for food, without spin, without any shortcuts that easily misinterpreted? Dallas Morning News perusing it between classes, stashing it in their deprive readers of factual information.”

President and Publisher Grant Moise thinks backpacks to take home and read later. Then “We pursue facts; we don't publish opinion ultimately has the potential to better the conversations start — the casual comments, rumors,” Barta said. society. heated discussions, intense debates.

“We don't publish “We praise the We have always been unique in the And that’s what The ReMarker, what any things that are untrue, people who deserve fact that we are not in the business newspaper, should do — that is, fuel dialogue and if we miss it and constructively of breaking news, we’re in the business of about important topics and issues. Over the someone's name, if we praise the people, explaining why you should think or care years, newspapers and other forms of media get the date wrong, about something or showing an interesting the companies or — television, radio and now social media if something is blue the organizations story you may not have heard of.

Gillea Allison, — have changed, especially with the dawn and we say it's red, we that deserve praise,” D Magazine President and CEO of the digital age. Even today, publications correct that. The people Moise said. “We and news outlets across the country go who say that we are ‘fake news,’ they just don't will constructively criticize the people, the about accomplishing this goal of sparking understand what we do. A lot of times that's companies or the organizations who deserve discussions in totally different ways. just people who don't want to believe that the criticism. If we do those in a healthy According to Robert W. Decherd ’69, we're trying to do our jobs scrupulously and balance, then you're ultimately going to create chairman, president and CEO of the A.H. Belo fairly, and that's not something to worry about. a better Dallas and in turn a better North Corporation, the parent company of the Dallas We just have to keep doing our jobs.”

Texas.”

Morning News, newspapers in the late 19th On the other hand, Decherd believes Barta, who's spent the past 18 years living century “took very specific and often strident that The New York Times serves as an example and working abroad, has primarily focused positions on political and other issues.” Then, of journalism that properly incorporates the his efforts in investigative reporting on Asian during the mid-20th century, they took a more writer’s personal experiences and knowledge countries, many of which do not have similar balanced approach, where opinion remained within its stories. journalistic freedom. In the end, it’s important secondary to the delivery of standard, “It’s the greatest newspaper on Earth,” to remember that the U.S. is one of the few straightforward news.

Decherd said. “It has the most resources of major countries to have an unrestricted press “But more recently, the cycle has gone any newspaper on Earth but has long since and to even be debating what responsibility a back toward opinion being incorporated in the embraced the idea that its reporters are wellfree press has in balancing fact and opinion. news report, and that makes the challenge of informed, insightful men and women who can “American media certainly isn't perfect, maintaining balance even greater,” Decherd essentially report the news in narrative form, and it does make mistakes, but it's part of a said. which by definition means they reveal some of healthy democracy filled with debate based But why is maintaining balance so their own philosophy and views.” on facts,” Barta said. “As much as people important? What’s wrong with opinion That separation of opinion from news complain about the media — that's their right, occasionally slipping into news reports? Well, reporting is important because it allows and they should if they see problems — they Robert Zorn ’75, independent journalist and readers to know what exactly they are getting should also be thankful.”

A look beyond the pages: The ReMarker’s role on campus

I

had absolutely no idea what elective or fine art to choose when I first came to St. Mark’s my freshman year. Part of me leaned towards film studies (who doesn’t like movies, right?), and part of me leaned towards ceramics. But in the end, I went with journalism, and, to be honest, I can’t really remember why I chose it.

Did I want to improve my writing? Did I see a ReMarker laying around and think it was cool?

Either way, it’s been one of my biggest commitments these past four years. All the interviewing, writing, editing and designing, sometimes late into the night, sometimes on Saturdays when I’d rather be watching college football. I’ve

invested a lot of myself into the Hersh Journalism Suite, and I’ve certainly reaped the benefits.

I’ve been fortunate enough to interview NBA stars, the police who watch over our campus every day and even former ReMarker editors.

I’ve covered topics like Robert pharmaceutical drug pricing, Pou Editor social injustice and the new in Chief schedule. I’ve experienced the incredible sense of accomplishment that comes with holding my very own 32-page newspaper.

But what’s the point of it all? Sure, I’ve made memories and gained skills I’ll take with me once I leave St. Mark’s, but is there any greater

significance to what I’m doing? As I work on my fourth-to-last ReMarker ever, I’ve started to reflect on what exactly the role of The ReMarker is on our campus.

Our mission statement states that we aim to produce a “top-quality student newspaper applying the highest standards of writing, editing, coverage and production.” But at the end of the day, I think our job is simpler than that — it’s to provoke meaningful discussion on campus. If just one person picks up a newspaper out of the 4,000 we print each cycle and strikes up a conversation, debate or any other exchange because of it, then our community is better for it.

We, as a ReMarker staff, did our job.

And my decision to pick up journalism freshman year was worth it.

The

Era

With the rise of the internet and social media, how have news companies adapted to shifting standards and expectations of modern readers?

W

Gillea ith age comes change, and journalism is no likely “the most disruptive force Allison exception to the rule. From ink-and-quill in the history of journalism D Magazine president pamphlets in town squares to unlimited and continues to be.” With information in the palm of your hand, the news industry their ability to rapidly spread has morphed and adapted to various developments of the unverifiable or abbreviated modern world. And no innovation has shaped the state information to millions of of journalism more than the ubiquity and convenience of people worldwide, popular the internet — for better or worse. According to Barta, the platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others pace of news has rapidly accelerated over the course of can monumentally shift both public opinion and the very his 23 years with the paper. methodologies of traditional journalism.

“When I started at The Wall Street Journal, we used “The biggest question, which will not be answered to print newspapers only, and we had a roughly 6 p.m. soon,” Decherd said, “is the extent [to] which the core deadline,” Barta said, “so if something happened at 11 principles of journalism in the United States and other in the morning, that gave us until 6 p.m. to figure out countries where free speech exists translate to the digital what happened. Now if something happened at 11 in the world — if they do at all. We're in the early stages of morning, you can get the story up online within minutes that. We're basically seeing the long tail of pre-internet sometimes. There's a great deal more pressure.” journalism being almost continuously reshaped in a While the unparalleled efficiency of online news digital environment. But there is no way to separate the has increased accessibility to changes in journalism and the effect of social media from information at a faster rate and the polarization that exists in the United States today.

Patrick Barta over a broader range of topics, And that is something we collectively need to address in The Wall many news companies feel strained a very intelligent and thorough manner.”

Street Journal to keep up with this higher On top of allowing less reliable information to spread, Asia enterprise demand, shifting towards more social media promotes an environment where the first editor sensationalized coverage to make story is the best story, something Dallas Morning News up for falling profits.

President and Publisher Grant Moise worries crowds out “I showed some students the first three minutes the trustworthy journalism people are searching for. of CNN the first day it started,” Barta said. “It's very “[For Dallas Morning News journalists,] the rules and strange: no opinion, just facts. To a current audience, I the standards of all of the gates of approval and factthink they would be kind of boring. But it was objective, checking that they have to pass through are no different and there was no debate about whether they are inciting on social media,” Moise said, “but it's hard because then your passions and sensationalizing the news. Then I these young journalists especially are watching all of switched to a clip of a recent news program that I won’t these other local news sources or national news sources name, and it was people screaming at each other and beat them to break that story. But that's where we always fighting and like, 'You're terrible! You're so stupid!' It just have to tell them, ‘We're not in the business of being wasn't really insightful journalism. It was sensationalism, first necessarily — we're in the business of being right.’” frankly, and I think that's what people look at. They say But no matter what changes and challenges the news that news media is not healthy, and they don't like that, faces, technological or social, internal or external, global even though that is often what gets traffic online.” or right at home, the media will continue to put out Many publications, reliable and accurate news. however, continue to strive “At the end of the We’ve gone from having significant for high-quality journalism, day, for all the sensational resources to invest across a whole range finding new ways to optimize stuff you see on TV and their coverage to provide as all the shouting, you still of topics and categories, to having to be much information as possible see incredible reporting,” very choiceful about the ones that matter without stretching themselves Barta said. “We've had most to our readers. But you can do fewer budget cuts, yes, and too thin. To D Magazine President Gillea Allison, the it's hard to compete and things in a really excellent way and have ultimate winners are smaller newsgathering is really the impact that’s intended for the press. and more local publications. expensive, but we are still Robert Decherd ‘69, A.H Belo Corporation chairman, president and CEO “If I was going to start a a viable company. Even magazine today, I would not start a national magazine or though people complain about the media and don't like a publication,” Allison said. “Because with us, we're quite it, and there have been changes that are clearly noticeable relevant. We really have very specific content relevancy in the way information is presented, at the end of the and trust as our number one attributes. I'm not going day, I think you will find that good journalists at the to sit here and say that print is going to come roaring Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington back, and we know that. We've built a very diversified Post and Dallas Morning News are still doing their jobs business around our digital presence, events, programs just as well, if not better, than they've ever done.” and branding. But local magazines, or city and regional magazines, are outperforming other peers.”

STORY Robert Pou, Luke Piazza The even more drastic half of the digital shift is GRAPHICS Luke Piazza social media. According to Decherd, social media is PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Ekansh Tambe, Luke Piazza

A one-man publication

With major news companies sporting large staffs and even larger wallets, how can someone like Robert Zorn ‘75 deliver quality investigative reporting all on his own?

Robert Zorn ‘75 Author of Cemetery John

A

s concerns over misinformation and biased reporting rise, the role of the reader grows critical in maintaining truthful and intellectually rigorous discussion.

So how does one tell right from wrong?

For Robert Zorn ‘75, the answer was doing it himself.

Zorn’s book Cemetery John analyzes the Lindbergh Kidnapping of 1932 and proposes that there were two additional conspirators, John and Walter Knoll, who had worked with Bruno Hauptmann to kidnap Charles Lindbergh’s son and ransom him for $50,000 — roughly $950,000 today. What makes Zorn’s scenario so unique is that his father, Eugene Zorn, was the only one who witnessed the two brothers planning the kidnapping.

“On my father's deathbed,” Zorn said, “my father was haunted that that two guys that he knew that were neighbors of his had gotten away with the crime and the murder of a child while their

accomplice had gone closed-mouth to the electric chair, taking the penalty for all three of them. My father felt that telling the story could bring a measure of justice to the case, so I made him a promise that I would take up his investigation and tell his story to the world. To my amazement, I found out that he was exactly right.”

Yet despite seeing a clear solution to this hotly-debated case, Zorn opted to start long before the crime, carefully analyzing the Lindbergh family from the perspective of the criminals involved.

“When people have written about this case, what they do is they go to The New York Times the day after the crime, March 2, 1932, and start there,” Zorn said. “I went farther back in time to learn more about Lindbergh and his wife, who was the daughter of the US ambassador to Mexico, and then also when the baby was born. A lot of clues were overlooked.

They were dismissed as irrelevant or un-

By the

numbers Value of opinion in news

59 Present the facts without interpretation Present the facts with some interpretation

430 1

71

35

43

53

Decrease in number of U.S. newsroom employees in thousands in the last ten years

Increase in number of employees in other news-producing industries in thousands in the last ten years

Types of news consumption

41 News website Television Social Media

15

23

Print Radio

13

8

Source: Pew Research Center

decipherable, but if you get all the noise out of the room [and] adopt this ‘closeto-the-ground’ approach, you'll see that these clues will actually talk to you.”

Many may feel like they simply lack the qualifications or prerequisite knowledge to tackle the tricky issues that fill the media, just like how Zorn knew absolutely nothing about forensic science or criminal profiling when he began. But he put in the work to truly understand his subject and was ultimately able to help bring justice to the world.

“I think about how green I was when I started out with just a promise to my dad to try to get to the heart of this thing,” Zorn said, “to figure out if this story was right, to tell a story to the world, but now I've spent countless hours with the greatest criminal profilers in American history who taught me so much, and I've learned a tremendous amount. But I had to acquire that knowledge.”

LOWER SCHOOL

Keeping tradition alive Though holiday traditions will certainly look different this year due to COVID-19, the festivities and celebrations will go on. Lower schoolers William Medland and Garet Tydlaska share their favorite tradition holiday events.

December 17, 2020

Culture

The ReMarker

16

Cooper Ribman: What holidays do you celebrate this time of year?

William Medland ‘31: Well, I am Christian and Jewish, so we celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas and Easter.

On Hanukkah, my mom or dad or someone in my family gives me a book. For Christmas, I’m trying to see if we could do some competitions. For example, on Thanksgiving, we did this kind of Olympics with my family.

CR: What did you do in these Olympics?

WM: We had Pac-Man, a dartboard, air-hockey, a Pop-A-Shot and a basketball mechanic game. Since I’m the youngest in the family, I did not win anything, but my mom or dad won two and my sister won one game.

CR: Do you like to watch Christmas movies?

WM: I really do. My favorite movies are the ones that are sometimes funny.

The other day, we were watching Christmas with the Kranks. It is really funny when you listen to it.

CR: What’s your favorite tradition for Christmas?

WM: My favorite tradition is sitting at the dining table and hearing my dad say the prayers.

CR: And for Hanukkah?

WM: For Hanukkah, I really like when it’s nighttime and we light the menorah, play dreidel and earn chocolate coins or gelt.

CR: What’s your favorite memory from this time of the year?

WM: Probably when I got this little round present. It was so weird, it was just a basketball. Later, my dad told me that we were installing a basketball hoop. And maybe one or two months later, these people in a truck come with this massive pole, and they put concrete in, and I walked over and I’m like, “What is this for?.” And I see that there’s a little square to put the pole. They put the pole in, attached everything, so I took my basketball, pumped it, and shot on the hoop. That happened last year at Christmas. I really liked it. It’s not just the basketball itself, but remembering when my mom and dad surprised me with it.

CR: What’s your favorite holiday food for Christmas?

WM: Probably potatoes. Anything that has to do with potatoes or maybe some chicken.

CR: And Hanukkah?

WM: Well, my favorite Hanukkah food

$500 off *Bring this offer in with you to the first appointment to be eligible.

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isn’t really a food. It’s probably the chocolate coins.

CR: What’s your favorite holiday?

WM: Probably Hannukah, Easter and Christmas. And maybe Rosh Hashanah.

CR: What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

Garet Tydlaka ‘30: We set up a Christmas tree and we also get to build a Lego Star Wars advent calendar in December. And we have cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas.

CR: What are your other favorite holiday foods?

GT: I like spaghetti and Slurpees too.

CR: What’s your favorite memory from this time of year?

GT: Riding on my senior buddy’s back in first grade was my favorite memory.

CR: What’s different this year with COVID-19?

GT: We usually get together with our grandparents for Christmas, but we can’t this year. I hope we get to see them next year.

STORY Cooper Ribman, Morgan Chow PHOTO Charlie Estess

STAYING APART Lower Schoolers carried pool noodles to maintain social distance with their senior buddies.

LET THERE BE LIGHT Seniors Rahul Banerjee and Blake Hudspeth wrap a tree near Centenial Hall with Christmas lights.

“Decorating the campus felt super surreal,” Hudsdpeth said. “A kind of comingof-senior experience, where the entire class worked together to create something pretty spectacular.”

PATH TO CHRISTMAS Seniors decorate the path to manhood statue and the surrounding area.

HOLIDAY DECORATIONS

‘Tis the season Seniors and senior class sponsors returned to campus Sunday Dec. 6 to put up holiday decorations across the school.

17

GREENERY A senior wraps garland around the Centenial balcony

TEAMWORK Three seniors work together to string lights around a tree.

PHOTOS Lars Ochs

The ReMarker

Culture

December17, 2020 TAKING A BREAK Seniors relax with lunch after decorating campus for several hours.

DEBATE

Rookies step up

While the format may be different than they’re used to, two eighth graders prove their early talent to compete.

O

n the other side of eighth graders Devin Pietrzak and JS Hohmann’s screens were debaters from across the country, many of them high schoolers, participating in a tournament over Zoom.

Dozens of teams faced off virtually at the national Meadows Tournament in late Oct. Facing a gauntlet of teams from across the nation, making the finals in the highest bracket would be a challenge, but Pietrzak and Hohmann proved they were ready to face it.

December 17, 2020

Culture

The ReMarker

18

COMPETING VIRTUALLY Due to safety restrictions, the Meadows Tournament took place over Zoom. This gave Pietrzak and Hohmann the rare opportunity to participate with students nationwide as eighth graders.

chances leading up to the first day of the tournament.

“I’m not going to lie; I was pretty doubtful, because in my past debates I hadn’t done that great, and I didn’t think that much was going to happen during this tournament, especially since there were a bunch of high schoolers,” Hohmann said.

The Meadows Tournament began Oct. 31.

Pietrzak and Hohman spent the day debating in three preliminary matches.

“For about five to ten minutes you debate, and then you finish your last speech,” Pietrzak said. “Then the judges take another ten minutes to go through their notes and your speech documents, and then the judges announce the result and why they chose it.”

Pietrzak and Hohmann teamed up for the Meadows Tournament over the phone. The two were not established teammates before the tournament, their first as a duo.

“It was kind of random,” Pietrzak said.

“We’re friends, and we were both wanting to debate at the same tournament, so we just texted each other and it worked out.”

Normally, eight grade debate students wouldn’t get the opportunity to compete at an event like the Meadows Tournament. Debate instructor Timothy Mahoney believes the special circumstances regarding this year’s tournament were beneficial to Pietrzak and Hohmann.

“Online debate makes it so much easier to The topic for the tournament was criminal participate,” Mahoney said. “If we’re limited justice reform, an area in which Mahoney to only being able to debate in Dallas, which believes discussion among students is is normally what our novices do, the types of invaluable. tournaments that they have access to are pretty “Our debate topic couldn’t be more limited. So these eighth graders who normally relevant,” Mahoney said, “and I think that wouldn’t debate against anybody except people it’s not only all over the news which makes in the metroplex all of a sudden are debating it easier to research, but also against teams from all over the country.” something that — as a teacher Hohmann also believes that the virtual Timothy — not just as the debate coach, Mahoney aspect of the tournament helped the team Debate I am worried about what our out in multiple ways. instructor curriculum in the classroom “Debating online is a bit easier, and looks like, what are we it also makes the components of creating teaching.” your speeches and talking to your partner Pietrzak and Hohmann easier,” Hohmann said. ended up winning all three Because of the nature of the tournament, preliminary debates on Saturday, setting the two were forced to face much stiffer them up to face the strongest debaters at the competition than usual. tournament on Sunday.

“The rules said you only had to be within “On our first day, I was nervous, but after one year of starting debate tournaments, so we ended up going undefeated that calmed almost all the kids we were facing were high my nerves,” Hohmann said. “On Sunday, I was schoolers,” Pietrzak said. pretty confident.”

Their inexperience and their competition After winning their final preliminary had made Hohmann pessimistic about their match early on Sunday, the team had the

INTERVIEW Axel Icazbalceta A look at junior Nicolas Gomez’s photography from his Instagram account, @nicolasgomezphoto.

In his own words:

This is one of my favorite photos. I made this for an assignment in my photography class. The assignment was called ‘Composite,’ which means you have to take three or more images and put them together. So I saw a cork board and then some pins and sticky notes, and I just thought, ‘What if my sister were to be pinned to that board with this other stuff?’

And then I did it.

I took the photos, I put them all together and it looked cool. I spent eight hours or something editing this photo, because I had to learn everything to put these images together and make it look good.

opportunity to compete for first place in the highest seeded bracket along with three other teams.

“We were in the gold bracket for the semifinals, and we debated a really good team there, and we won when two of the judges voted for us,” Hohmann said. “So then, we went to the gold finals where, unfortunately, we lost to a senior and sophomore who were really experienced.”

The team finished in second place, a feat that Hohmann believes will further inspire him to pursue his passion of debate.

“This was a huge motivation for me because I don’t really see the point if you’re not winning,” Hohmann said. Once we started winning, it really inspired me to want to do more and more debates.”

Mahoney acknowledged the virtual tournament as a beneficial way to maintain normalcy for students during a global pandemic.

“Students are starting to learn just because we’re not in person,” Mahoney said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t do some of the same things that we would have done before and getting to do that with kids from all over the country is special.”

While Mahoney recognizes Pietrzak and Hohmann’s performance as an achievement for the debate program, he maintains that the two must remain focused in order to continue their success.

“No matter how good you get, there’s almost always somebody else out there that’s going to keep you on your toes,” Mahoney said.

“Especially when you’re exposed to national competition, because there’s somebody else out there that’s working as hard as you are, maybe harder.”

STORY Trevor Crosnoe, Myles Lowenberg ARTWORK Cooper Cole

This one’s kind of weird. It’s my sister having a tea party with her LOL doll. My sister has a bunch of toys and stuff, so I just went through everything and then found what I think would work best for the picture, and I ended up choosing these types of chairs, the table, the cups and teapot.

This was also for the Composite assignment, so I staged all this stuff in a few photos so I could put it together for this shot.

This is a red onion. This is part of the crop. When you cut it in half, this is part of that, pretty much. This is a lens spacer photo. You can get macro lenses for cameras for $200 or $300, but I just went on Amazon and got this thing called a lens spacer for ten bucks. And that’s pretty much what most of my photos are done with.

I have other photos on my Instagram that I’ve taken with the lens spacer.

There’s one I took of broccoli and another one of garlic skin. I also used the lens spacer on some shots of jeans, a doll and a rubber band ball.

EVENT REVIEW

Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden spices things up for Christmas holiday

HOLIDAYS

Christmas movies: who has the best?

In today’s world, there are no shortage of streaming services, so we graded them based on their holiday film selection.

Reviews Trevor Crosnoe

T

Netflix Grade:

C

Hulu Grade:

D+ Also worth a look: • Ice Age: The Meltdown • Bob’s Burgers

than just the Home Alone movies, though.

They have an array of animated holiday movies, including The Nightmare Before Christmas and Disney’s A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge. Don’t ask me why Jim Carrey is obsessed with playing characters that try to ruin Christmas.

Disney+ also has both Frozen and Frozen 2, and while they may not technically be “Christmas” movies, try telling that to the millions of fans who will watch them this holiday season.

The Santa Claus films are another series that Disney+ has.

The first, in which a single dad played by Tim Allen accidentally kills Santa and is forced to take on his role, is an all-time classic Christmas movie.

With the amount of great choices that Disney+ has to offer, everyone in the family will have something to watch during the holidays.

Hulu’s selection of Christmas films is stunningly bad. Looking through their website, I literally could not recognize even one of the movies they were advertising in their holiday section. I honestly hope that Christmas movies are an afterthought to them because if not, they’re doing something seriously wrong in terms of their selection process. An obscenely large percentage of their holiday films seem to be low budget romantic comedies; I’m not really sure who these are supposed to appeal to.

The only redeeming aspect of the section was the variety of children’s holiday movies they offered, especially the animated ones. I’m a huge fan of the Despicable Me series, so I was mildly excited to see that Hulu has a program called Minions Holiday Special. I’m not really even sure what it is, but I could definitely see myself

Disney+ Grade:

A+ Also worth a look: • The Sandlot • Toy Story 4 • The Greatest Showman • Endgame • The Mandalorian • Phineas and Ferb

watching it if I get bored enough over Christmas break.

I had seen in an article that Hulu had Elf, so I searched for it and found out that I would need another subscription to “Starz” in addition to my Hulu subscription to be able to watch it. I was pretty outraged by this. Why should I be charged nine dollars a month just to watch a classic Christmas movie? Why would I need to pay for another subscription if I’m already subscribed to Hulu, and I’m on the Hulu website?

After a long period of searching for a good movie, I finally came across March of the Penguins, a legendary documentary about penguins narrated by Morgan Freeman. While I’m not sure how it constitutes a Christmas movie other than the fact that there’s snow, I was still happy to see that Hulu had at least one decent holiday film in their lineup.

The ReMarker

Disney+ probably has the best lineup of holiday movies ever assorted by a streaming service, or any service for that matter. Their slate of films is led by arguably the best and most iconic Christmas movie of all time: Home Alone. As someone who watches the hilarious story of Kevin McCallister almost annually with my family, this is a huge win for Disney+. Although the fact that they have Home Alone doesn’t mean that people will automatically subscribe to their platform, it’s definitely something that would give Disney+ the edge in a debate with your family about which new streaming service you should join.

They also carry Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, so that after you finish watching the first movie, there’s no reason to leave your spot on the couch. Make another bag of popcorn and get comfortable before you watch Kevin’s parents inexplicably let him get lost again, as if once wasn’t enough. Disney+ has a much deeper selection

19 Buzz

Also worth a look: • Enola Holmes • Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse • Monty Python And The Holy Grail • Back to the Future

the Grinch is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who does an excellent job. Narrated by Pharrell Williams, the movie successfully modernizes certain aspects of itself while simultaneously staying true to its roots for the most part. The soundtrack features a unique rendition of the iconic “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” by the talented Tyler the Creator.

Netflix also has How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), starring Jim Carrey. I’m sure many people love this movie, but personally, I find Carrey’s Grinch too creepy to enjoy.

Other than these three, I could hardly recognize one holiday movie on Netflix. Most of the films they were promoting for the holiday season seemed to be Netflix originals that were recently released, meaning hardly anyone knows anything about them and very few people actually end up watching them.

Fortunately for Netflix, the main reason people use their platform isn’t for watching Christmas movies, or they’d be in deep trouble.

December 17, 2020

by Myles Lowenberg he Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden is one place that can almost seamlessly transition into pandemic protocol. On the sparsely attended Tuesday night I visited the Arboretum, the first things I saw were a few masked visitors and bright spots providing specks of light in an open, dark field.

The main attractions this time of year are the holiday exhibits, and the bright spots I saw were glowing gazebos spread around the Arboretum. There’s one representing each night in the Christmas carol, “The Twelve Nights of Christmas.” Each of the 12 gazebos was over 20 feet high, and they displayed even the most minor details from the famous song, down to even the most obscure bird gifts.

Each gazebo played a different Christmas song, and it was impossible to leave without getting one stuck in my head. It was like a volcano of seasonal earworms dormant for 11 months had erupted again. The song I could not forget was “The Twelve Nights of Christmas,” which played at the first gazebo, the partridge in a pear tree. It got in my head early, and looking at the rest of the gazebos definitely didn’t help my efforts to forget it.

The gazebos of the gifts for the earlier nights of Christmas dotted the open field, and the wide and meandering path between them allowed one to relax and literally stop and smell the flowers along the way. Christmas carols faded in and out as I walked slowly through the field, and the whole place felt peaceful.

Near the grumpy-looking lords a-leaping, the amphitheatre has always provided a spectacular view of White Rock Lake. But during this time of year, the jolly glow of the Christmas lights from the houses surrounding the lake made the view even better, and sitting on top of the amphitheatre is the best way to see it.

There was a snack bar that, despite all the plants surrounding it, thankfully didn’t serve any vegetables. It did, however, have warm foods like pretzels, beer cheese soup and hot chocolate loaded with carbs and Christmas cheer (but mostly carbs).

The last few gazebos were on more crowded paths, and the areas surrounding them had less flowers and other displays.

They were a bit underwhelming, but they led to the other half of the Arboretum’s holiday exhibit.

The secluded second exhibit was the Christmas village, which was modeled after an old-fashioned Victorian town. Miniature houses, which each had a volunteer inside, filled the little town, and there was another carb-heavy place for food and a man playing even more Christmas tunes on a piano.

For some mildly depressing 2020 holiday cheer, a socially distanced Santa Claus waved to kids behind a plexiglass wall. I guess he needed to be extra careful about not bringing the virus back to the North Pole.

There was a nice atmosphere in the Christmas village, but I definitely enjoyed the Twelve Nights of Christmas more. The village was packed into a smaller surface area without many flowers, while the other exhibit was so great because it took advantage of the open spaces and natural beauty of the Arboretum.

At the start of this pandemic, people stayed in their homes, but over time, people learned that it was enjoyable but still safe to be outside and socially distanced. The Arboretum is even more relevant today because of the new need for great spaces outdoors.

With many indoor gatherings being unsafe, the Christmas exhibits at the Arboretum stand out as an excellent way to celebrate the holidays in 2020.

Netflix is probably the most popular streaming service in the world right now, so I was surprised to see that they actually have a relatively weak selection of holiday movies. Maybe people are too busy watching Netflix original series to pay attention to their lackluster roster of Christmas films.

Their most popular, The Christmas Chronicles 2, was released in November. Starring Kurt Russell as Santa and Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus, it isn’t bad by any means, but it certainly must be a challenge for Netflix to get viewers to watch new Christmas movies rather than established classics. The story, about a couple teenagers who end up in the North Pole and befriend Santa, looks appealing to some degree, but it’s nothing special.

The next most popular holiday films on Netflix are two of the Grinch movies, although neither version is the classic original. The Grinch (2018) has to be the best Christmas movie that Netflix offers. The character of

Opinions

The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

20

Stay safe

The rapid rise of COVID-19 cases — both in Dallas and on campus — makes safety imperative.

Page 22

Early end

For Senior Jack Davis, the end of the volleyball season came a game too early — but that wasn't the important thing.

Page 23

Resolved

The Editorial Board discusses the resolutions they're committing to in 2021. Page 26

EDITORIAL

This winter, go out and serve the community.

Restorative Farms Texas has a simple problem: there's not enough local food in areas where it's desperately needed.

They've partnered with local schools and univeristies like Texas A&M to try to bridge the gap between supply and demand. To fund their programs, Restorative Farms sells growboxes, creating programs where volunteers can get involved growing food.

Volunteer or donate at restorativefarms.com

4DWN

Who knew a skatepark could help fight food insecurity? Founded by two former pro skateboarders, 4DWN works with local food insecurity nonprofits to bolster supplies of fresh produce in 'food deserts' — areas without reliable access to healthy groceries. Right now they're rescuing thousands of pounds of food each week and sending it to local families in need. They also use their facilities to run art programs.

10600 Preston Rd. has long been affiliated with Austin Street Center — and with good reason. Austin Street tries to tackle more than just homelessness, with programs for ID services, employment and education, mental health and transportation to help the homless become independent.

Volunteer or donate at 4dwnproject.org

Volunteer or donate at austinstreet.org

As COVID-19 devastates communities, service is needed

the ZEITGEIST

We urge students to take advantage of the upcoming break to serve because they can contribute to the communities around them – not just because there's an upcoming deadline.

4D chess It’s a term used to describe everything from a keen political move to a desparate ploy. But isn't all chess 4D? There's a joke in politics that the more innocuous the move seems, the more strategic it is. How else would the boredom of the traditional legislative process to the cold strategy of House of Cards? Enter “4D Chess,” used to signify the start of a brilliant political play.

The issue is that all chess is 4D. Chess involves all four dimensions: length, width, height and time.

And even in online games that lack height, the fourth dimension, time, still exists. "4D Chess," then, serves as a reminder that political jargon can get ahead of itself in its attempt to insinuate the unknown.

Austin Street Center

O

ne of the greatest tragedies of this pandemic has been its disproportionate impact on those just barely keeping their heads above water.

Frontline workers have faced the impossible choice between an increased chance of catching COVID-19 and an inability to meet next month’s rent.

The City of Dallas can’t count the homeless safely this year, further jeopardizing funding for shelters and affiliated charities.

And, with Congress gridlocked on further stimulus, there won’t be any reprieve for those who lost jobs over the summer and fall—instead, their pain will be further exacerbated by the end of Texas’ eviction moratorium on Dec. 31.

This winter, it’s time for Marksmen to step up and serve. Not because of the rapidly approaching Jan. 22 ten-hour deadline, but because, right now, just miles from 10600 Preston Rd., our service is

desperately needed.

We’re needed at the North Texas Food Bank, where thousands of families line up every weekend for boxes of groceries.

We’re needed at the Austin Street Homeless Shelter, which is facing record highs in requests for shelter without the volunteers needed to process them.

We’re needed at the Salvation Army, because even the thousands of gifts donated in the Gift Drive will only make a small dent in helping the tens of thousands of families they serve.

Below, we’ve profiled a few more terrific community service programs in Dallas. Sign up for shifts at any of them on x2Vol, and bring family and friends to serve along with you.

It’s become cliché to say that the holidays are a “season of giving.” But this year feels like the right time to dig a little deeper—especially when you can make such a big impact so close to home.

For better lunch, take advantage of SAGE's many ways to offer feedback

S

ince the beginning of the in-person school year after two weeks of remote learning, students have been pleased to notice continual and consistent improvements in lunch offerings from SAGE Dining Services. After a rocky start to the year with limited cold-food options, SAGE has made a clear and demonstrated effort to provide to the school the highest quality meals possible amid challenging circumstances.

While issues may still arise, students must be aware that SAGE is eager to listen to their constructive complaints to improve its services going forward. The lunch team is not separate from the greater school community; rather, students should

be cognizant that the team actively seeks to work and establish relationships with students and faculty.

For example, SAGE staff members have reached out to upper school students during lunch hours to note requests or complaints directly from the student body, and students have found that these requests have been implemented within days, assuring that they are, in fact, listening to us.

Beyond these requests, students have several ways to submit their recommendations: 1. The Touch of SAGE app, available on iOS and Android, allows students, parents and faculty to view upcoming menus and

to submit feedback directly.

2. The sagedining.com website, accessed through the same account as the app, also includes an option to send specific feedback.

3. The lunch team members themselves often ask students for feedback and recommendations directly, so students should use these opportunities to voice their requests.

SAGE will not know what improvements it should work to implement if students do not bring them up, so concerned or dissatisfied students should use these opportunities to improve the experience of themselves and their peers.

EDITORIAL

Flowers, Succulents and Cacti!

Oh my!

As cases rise, it's vital to remain committed to safety

B

etween the first day of in-person classes and the end of Thanksgiving break, our community has recorded 25 COVID-19-postive cases, and in every instance, the transmission of the virus has occurred off campus.

Administrators have taken numerous measures to make in-person school as safe as possible, but the transition to the colder winter months may pose added challenges because of holiday travels and increased time spent indoors.

As families may choose to travel over the holiday break, we caution our community to remain cognizant of the pandemic’s dire status.

Group gatherings, frequent departures from home and the loosening of social distancing protocols are all characteristics of the break that can cause a surge in positive cases. Furthermore, once students return from break, colder weather may force faculty, staff and students to spend more time maskless indoors, especially during lunch.

To address these concerns, we stress that all community members make choices that reduce the risk of transmission. Through our actions over the holidays and on campus, we can limit our community’s cases and weeks of online school.

We commend community members for sheltering in place and learning remotely when requested to, and we hope our community will STUDENTS AND FACULTY

continue to uphold safety measures.

While we understand many will travel, we urge them to take the following precautions: 1) avoid nonessential activities one week before traveling, 2) get tested one to three days before leaving and three to five days after returning, 3) if possible, drive to your destination instead of flying and 4) avoid large group gatherings, especially indoors.

Regarding students’ on-campus precautions, we urge Marksmen to eat lunch in their third period classrooms or in their advisor’s classroom in inclement weather. Try to eat in 10 minutes to limit maskless time indoors. Wear appropriate winter clothing to ensure that eating outdoors can remain a possibility.

Ultimately, remain cognizant of your symptoms and continue filling out the daily SchoolPass Wellness Check.

According to School Nurse Julie Doerge, the most common symptom among cases in our community has been a simple runny nose. It’s understandable to be suffering from “pandemic fatigue,” but we must continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that our community remains safe.

Around the Quad

ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS

Q: Given all the challenges of 2020, what are you taking away from the year?

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There's something special about actually being with someone that can't be replicated virtually.

I miss being able to hang out and talk with my friends at sports events.

Timothy Mahoney Debate Instructor

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Aaryan Puri Senior

Fox Gottlich 8th grade

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A lot of the things I took for granted pre-pandemic have dissapeared.

Akash Manickam 8th grade

CARTOON Cooper Cole

Enjoy the little things and don't plan life too far in advance.

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My wife lives on another continent, so I've really grown to appreciate the power of virtual comminication.

Chris Rutherford Humanities

There was still one way we could meet: Outside. My key to the front door turned into a key to the back gate, where every day after school I would rush past the plumbago and lavender, only stopping to toss my bag down outside the range of the hose, and joined my mom, ripping out the ever-persistent clover and raking the leaves away from the ferns.

But there were days where my mom wasn’t there, and I had only the blue jays nesting above and the occasional hummingbird to keep me company.

Once again, there was no one there to tell me that the flowers I thought were hydrangeas were plumbago, or to remind me that I had watered the lamb’sear more than enough or even to laugh as I walked outside still in my ruby red, Christmas-themed pajamas in the middle of July, confused as to why we had to plant at six in the morning.

Yet somehow, despite my sleepy eyes and poor sense of fashion, I learned to tell the difference between that esperanza and lantana — although it took me a few tries — and to dig deep as I yanked out weed after weed, dirt lining the undersides of my fingernails, forgetting my gloves for the umpteenth time.

And instead of dreading my alarm clock, I grew to love the sunrise every morning and appreciate what I had missed for so many years: spending time with my family. I had forgotten how eagerly I used to sprint to the back yard so many years ago, but these past nine months have given me a chance to relive old memories and reignite old passions.

And most importantly, gardening helped me learn to be creator, someone who, with nothing but a shovel, a few bags of dirt, and a few flowers barely larger than the palm of my hand, could make something truly beautiful.

21 December 17, 2020

‘

A greater appreciation for things like the health of my family.

Luke Piazza Perspectives Editor

Opinions

Ned Tagtmeier Senior

‘

O

n a sweltering day nine years ago, armed with nothing but a shovel twice my size and passionate hatred for the rock-hard dirt that made up my backyard, I had my first real experience with gardening: Not gazing at flowers or playing with the different settings on the hose, but carving away at the mess of grass and rocks to make room for a new planting bed.

Back then I was probably more of a hindrance than a help to my mother, but when we eventually trudged back inside after a grueling hour or so of digging, she still made me a glass of lemonade, telling me how proud she was of me.

Fast forward to early March, many long years since I’d last hung up a hammock and lazed away in the yard, much less asked myself whether the plant I was admiring was esperanza or lantana — even though they look nothing alike.

At that time, a far more pressing matter than gardening was on our minds: the budding pandemic and how our family, specifically my mother, an internal medicine doctor at Baylor Medical Center, was going to handle it. With the severity of the disease still not certain, we decided it would be best to split the house in two for everyone’s safety.

But that meant no more goodbye hugs in the morning. No more making snickerdoodle cookies together. No more gentle knocking on my door to ask me how my day was. I would go days without even seeing her, relying on agonizingly slow texts and a rare phone call to stay in touch.

EDITORIAL

Safety precautions should be consistent across all sports

S

ports are inherently dangerous and will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission, but sports need to be treated equally and fairly.

Although basketball does provide some relief as players move up and down the court, basketball — an indoor, contact sport that involves a relatively large number of individuals having close contact with each other — has been allowed to practice with little to no social distancing implemented on the court.

At the same time, wrestling, another indoor, contact sport, has been completely barred from contact and required to maintain social distance at all times, even though wrestling only requires one on one contact.

We understand that all precautions should be taken to stop the spread of COVID-19, such as wearing masks when safe and social distancing as much as possible.

However, it is inconsistent to allow some athletes to risk personal exposure to the virus, and, in turn, potentially increase risk to others on campus, while other athletes are barred from contact entirely but still at increased risk of exposure from other contact sport athletes. If some sports are allowed to take risks, all sports should be allowed to take those risks.

We do commend School Nurse Julie Doerge school administrators for taking all the data in account before

making decisions with respect to sports. Consulting CDC guidelines, Dallas County Health and Human Services, the medical advisory at school and peer institutions, is an absolute necessity in order to keep our campus safe and minimize community spread during classes and athletics.

It is crucial that they continue to ensure the safety of our athletes and students across campus.

However, we also see locker rooms as a necessity if we are going to have athletics on campus.

While we understand lockers can’t be available to store athletic clothes and gear due to COVID-19, students still need to use locker rooms as a place to change. As a result of not having access to the locker rooms, many upperclassmen with cars on campus have used their cars as a substitute since the rest of the student body is often occupying the restrooms to change before athletics.

Worse, athletes without cars have been forced to change in the Commons.

We believe seniors should be able to attend athletic games hosted on campus with adequate COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Attending sporting events is a crucial part of the senior-year experience, and with proper social distancing and other precautions, it would entail no more risk than eating lunch on the Perot Quadrangle.

The 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

It’s been a long year, and we’re looking forward to the next one.

Here are our resolutions for 2021:

“

Opinions

I’m planning on waking up earlier over the summer and reading at least one book a month.

“

“

I’m going to read more books, watch more movies, and try to stay away from anything school-related.

“

Sai Thirunagari, Assignments Editor

“

Now that I’ve got the hang of them, I’m going to follow COVID-19 protocols a bit better. And I’m trying to be more disciplined in wrestling practice.

Cooper Ribman, Brand Editor

“

After a few false starts and an irritating number of lost games, I’m going to start learning chess.

Alam Alidina, Opinions Editor

“

Finally finishing a crossword, and dyeing my hair — but after I leave for college.

Jamie Mahowald, Managing Editor

I want to learn a new song — from Morgan Wallen’s new double album, Dangerous — on the guitar.

Robert Pou, Editor-in-Chief

Jack Davis, Executive Page Editor

December 17, 2020

The ReMarker

22

“ “ “

Learning Muay Thai has always been a goal for me, so I’m going to give that a go. I’m also going to try learning sign language.

Luke Piazza, Perspectives Editor

I’m going to try to get an earlier start to the day, mainly so I can get a head start on my goal of learning to sing and play the piano at the same time.

Sid Sinha, Managing Editor

I’m going to get better at cooking, learn how to do a backflip and learn a new song ­— from Morgan Wallen’s new double album, Dangerous — on the piano.

Henry McElhaney, Managing Editor

Focus more on what I want instead of what other people want for me, especially if those people don’t have my best interest at heart.

Cristian Pereira, Senior Editor

All we have left are the memories

I

always expected that I would walk off the court after my last volleyball game, knowing that it was my last time playing with my team. I was wrong.

We never got to play Greenhill for our last game because someone on their team tested positive.

And just like that our season ended. No last moment high-fiving my teammates as I walk off the court for the last time. Just Coach Friesen telling us the game was cancelled. Some part of me really Jack Davis wanted me to be angry, but I couldn’t Execuitive be.

Page Editor All I could think was “at least we had a season.”

I know I’m never going to play Lions volleyball again.

I don’t want to believe it, but it’s true. And those five years of volleyball have gone by in a flash.

But just because it’s over doesn’t mean it’s gone. We’ll still talk about the eighth-grade team with Mr. Evans that went undefeated — with Sid Sinha serving with a closed hand no matter how many times Mr. Evans would tell him to open his hand to serve.

We’ll reminisce about the week after the tornado hit campus last year and we had some of the most memorable practices and games at Hockaday and a practice facility. And how we had Benny Wang warming up with us before practices since he’d been staying with me that week.

And of course we’ll always have that moment right after the 2018 SPC championship where the entire team and most of the Upper School paused our celebrations to sing the Alma Mater.

And we got to add new memories this year. Playing twos and threes on the outdoor courts in the blazing August heat before we were allowed to play inside. We’ll remember our Senior Night blurbs everyone wrote for each other.

So overall, I’m not entirely sad that we missed that last game. Because even though I didn’t realize it at the time, I did get to go out how I imagined. I got subbed out for Samir, stepped off the court on our last home game, high-fived our coaches, sat down on the bench with my teammates and cheered on the team for the last few points of the game.

And my time with Lions volleyball may be over now, but I’ve still got the best parts: the memories.

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.

23

Before the classroom

SPC decision Announcement to cancel the SPC tournament, but move forward with conference play. Page 24

Prior to becoming instructors, some teachers on campus had success in athletics, with a few winning state championships and division titles.

SOCCER Michael Morris

E

nglish Department Chair Michael Morris has always loved athletics. In elementary school, Morris tried various sports, like baseball and football, but he soon realized soccer was the one for him.

Attending Cherry Creek High School in Denver, CO, Morris found his competitive nature and knew he wanted to play soccer for as long as he could.

“From playing on my club team as a kid, to playing on the high school squad to playing collegiate soccer at Williams [College], I’ve competed for many years,” Morris said. “I even played in a men’s league every weekend in my early forties until I was too old to keep up with the younger guys without pulling my hamstrings.”

With his experience playing midfielder in high school, Morris hoped to continue playing into his collegiate years.

“After high school, I couldn’t give up on my love for the game,” Morris said. “During my junior year visit at Williams, I stayed with the players, so I was able to learn what it would be like to play on the collegiate level. I met with the coaches there, and I knew it’d be a great fit for me.”

During his high school and college athletic career, Morris won two state championships, three divisional titles and was a four year Letterman at Williams College.

“In a box somewhere, I have many of my youth trophies and medals,” Morris said.

“In high school, we won two Colorado state championships –– in 1980 and 1981. When I was at Williams, we won three divisional titles. I was able to enjoy a good amount of success during my playing days, but soccer is not a game of stats.”

Soccer helped Morris grow off the field as well.

“Sports have really shaped my life for the better,” Morris said. “The sense of teamwork, the increasing interest in fitness and health and the connections that I feel with fans from across the globe. Soccer even helped me get my first job at Goldman Sachs: employers want team players.”

TENNIS David Dini

A

s a member of an ultra-competitive family, Headmaster David Dini was encouraged to play sports like tennis, hockey, baseball, basketball and football from a young age by his father and brother. At ten years old, Dini began taking tennis more and more seriously, and by 14, he was competing in tournaments across Texas.

“When I was in 12’s [12 and under division], I didn’t make it to Champs, but then when I got to 14’s, I finally did,” Dini said. “For me, that was a big milestone because that allowed me to play the highest level tournaments in the state

–– major zone tournaments with all the best players.”

CLASSROOM COMPETITORS Michael Morris, top left, leaps for a header during his college During his soccer game over 30 years ago. David Dini, top middle, finishes up practice on the tennis court years at Strake with rackets and balls in hand. Mark Adame, top right, takes his senior football picture at Bishop Jesuit in Houston, TK Gorman High School. Above, Chris Disimile returns a punt for a 67-yard touchdown.

Dini’s high school “My senior year, I never came off the field, tennis team was stacked with top-ranked talent so I enjoyed the intensity and the amount of in the state. energy that was expended,” Adame said. “I was “My high school team at Jesuit probably captain my senior year too, so because all my had two or three players that were in the top 50 teammates looked up to me, I had to set a good in the state,” Dini said. “Everyone on the roster example.” was practically ranked. We had a really good As an all-state tight end and defensive end, team, so I was at the lower end of the strength of Adame learned many lessons from his time as a our team.” football player that he still implements in his life Although he downplays his own successes today. on the court, Dini and Strake Jesuit brought “I learned the sense of responsibility and home multiple state championships to Houston. commitment from football,” Adame said. “That “I think we won two or three state idea of self-reliance, self-motivation and selfchampionships while I was there,” Dini said. discipline carried on with me through college “We had a strong class that came through together, so it might have been all four years that and as a teacher.”

I was there. I think our top player won state all four years in singles.”

LACROSSE & FOOTBALL Chris Disimile Dini says he learned many valuable lessons rowing up on Long Island, Assistant Head through sports, like teamwork, discipline, of Upper School Chris Disimile took after sacrifice, dedication and sportsmanship, among his father’s passion for lacrosse, who was an Allothers.

American himself in college.

“I learned a lot from the disappointment In high school, Disimile was an and the failure, which I had a lot more of than accomplished player, voted captain by his I would have preferred,” Dini said. “It was teammates in his senior year. As an all-league helpful to learn to deal with adversity at a young and all-county midfielder and attackmen, age and to navigate disappointment when Disimile was one of the main contributors to his you put a lot of time, effort and energy into team’s success. something, and it doesn’t go as well as you’d “I liked to pass, obviously. I liked to score like.” too, but I always wanted to do what I could to help the team win,” Disimile said. “Everyone has a role to play, and if everyone does their job, FOOTBALL Mark Adame things are going to run smoothly, and you are fter moving to Texas in seventh grade, going to win.” science instructor Mark Adame was forced In college, Disimile was a varsity lacrosse to play football for his middle school team by his team captain and named All-Ivy League and Allmother. Adame struggled with the sport at first, New England at one of the top programs in the but as he grew older, the game of football grew country, Yale University. on him.

On top of lacrosse, Disimile’s talents carried “We just moved to Texas, and I thought I over onto the football field, where he led his want to try football,” Adame said. “I hated it, team as a running back, cornerback, and punt but my mom wouldn’t let me quit. But then, I kind of realized that I was actually good at it and returner in high school. After suffering an injury before his senior season, Disimile’s football began to really enjoy it.” career ended prematurely.

At Bishop TK Gorman High School, a Because of his time as an athlete, Dismile Catholic school in Tyler, Adame played four not only remains passionate about football and years of football as a center, defensive lineman lacrosse, but he also learned many lessons that and tight end and was named all-state his senior he implements in his life today. year. Although he also ran track for a portion of “I think one of the most important things his high school career, Adame suffered an injury about being an athlete is it’s not about the during his sophomore year that kept him out of goals,” Disimile said. “Everyone wants to win, the sport until his senior year. but more important than that are the habits that On the football field, Adame was one of a it takes to achieve those goals.” few players on the team who played on both sides of the ball. Although it was tiring, Adame STORY Peter Orsak, Luke Nayfa believes the value of hard work and dedication PHOTOS Courtesy of pictured faculty pushed him to be a better player.

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The ReMarker • December 17, 2020

Sports

Teachers

Gym review

With limited capacity in the weight room, students look to other facilities to excercise. Page 25

Sports junkie

Looking deeper into the stats from fall sports. Page 27

In brief

NEW HIRE Trenton Calder will serve as the new head coach for the varsity swimming and water polo teams. Calder was an AllAmerican water polo athlete at the University of California while also winning back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007.

Calder was also a member of the Team USA Water Polo squad from 2003 to 2010.

Most recently, Calder served as an assistant water polo coach at the University of California and Brown University while also being a director of operations and recruiting coordinator for the team at Brown.

COLLEGE DECISION Senior Mark Motlow committed Oct. 22 to The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee to continue his tennis career. Motlow was attracted to other schools, but after visiting the campus, meeting with the coaches and touring through the athletic facilities, Motlow fell in love with Sewanee. Motlow, a fouryear member of the tennis team, will serve as captain this year on the varsity team and is ranked 29th in Texas and 341st nationally after finishing a one-game season for the Lions beating ESD 4-1.

Senior Trevor Gicheru also committed Nov. 11 to play collegiate football at Oberlin College in Ohio. Gicheru has received over ten offers from the likes of Sewanee University, St. Mary’s University, Hendrix College and many more. Gicheru, whose senior season was cut short due to COVID-19, said on twitter that he is thankful to have the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream and continue his football career.

THANKSGIVING HOOPS To adhere to the school’s safety guidelines, the varsity basketball team cancelled participation in this year’s Thanksgiving Hoopfest at the American Airlines Center Nov. 28.

The Thanksgiving Hoopfest was one of the more significant events that the varsity team hoped to play in this year. The Lions played in this showcase last year but fell short to Prolific Prep (California) 57-44. This year, the Lions were supposed to face John Paul II High School in a double header featuring two other top teams, Duncanville High School and YPSI Prep Academy (Michigan). Lancaster High School stepped in our place to play John Paul II but ended up losing 61-56.

WINTER DECISION

SPC championships canceled With ongoing concerns about COVID-19, SPC announced to move forward with conference play but withhold from hosting a championship tournament between the North and South Zones.

CHAMPS Surrounded

by Lions fans, the soccer and basketball teams celebrate their SPC titles last winter. The soccer team defeated Kinkaid 3-1, and the basketball team beat Houston Christian 85-57 in the finals.

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December 17, 2020

Sports

The ReMarker

24

oisting up their first trophy since 2007, the basketball team was stampeded by the hundreds of Lions fans waiting for the buzzer to sound.

A moshpit of students gleefully sang the alma mater with the team, soaking up this once in a lifetime experience.

Not 30 minutes later, those very fans relocated to the soccer pitch.

Yet again, the clock stopped, and the soccer team was crowned SPC champions, for the first time since 2013, surrounded by their classmates.

“Everyone who won last year can say that it was one of the greatest moments of our lives,” junior midfielder Lars Ochs said.

With strong returning classes, these teams, along with swimming, were the presumptive favorites by many to win the title again this year –– to replicate this indescribable feeling.

But not this year. There would be no ‘back-to-back.’

SPC cancels conference championships.

SPC announced Dec. 4 to move forward with conference play in basketball and soccer, but withhold from an SPC tournament. The conference will allow individual schools to schedule dual meets in swimming and wrestling in hopes of scheduling two culminating meets for swimming –– one in each zone –– and one final wrestling meet prior to state and national tournaments.

“The tournament itself is something that’s hard to make sound like a good idea because that’s 18 schools coming together in one city,” SPC commissioner Bob Windham said. “With the transportation, the overnight stay and the large number of people together in a single venue, it just doesn’t feel very sensible. It would’ve been really hard to keep social distancing and all the things that we say we want to do while staying overnight and traveling.”

Despite SPC’s decision to cancel fall sports, Windham feels given the current circumstances, it is safe to move forward with conference play this winter.

“A lot of folks are already playing some preseason games, and we feel right now there’s enough medical evidence that we can do this safely using the protocols that we have,” Windham said. “If conditions change or results show that’s not the case, we’d obviously make

adjustments. But, if we can do individual games where out on their final chance to win a title and plans to two teams come together, either with very limited reevaluate the situation next meeting in early January. crowds or no crowds, we feel comfortable with that “The only thing I think all of us on the [SPC] Board right now.” of Directors agree on is that we are disappointed we In order to decide the protocols and guidelines, can’t have a championship right now,” Windham said. all 18 schools voted on various topics. In the end, SPC “We feel like the best thing we could substitute for decided to leave fan protocol up to the home team and that is to play as many games as we possibly can get masks up to both competing squads. in and allow them to at least have a full season. The “All 18 schools either have a medical committee seniors are the ones that are really getting beat up on or individual medical professionals that are advising this. There’s all sorts of things you have to look at when them,” Windham said. “Some folks have different you’re naming champions. I think that’s something opinions about masks than others and about how that we’ll take a look at in January and see if it makes helpful they are in athletic competition. If one school any more sense than it does now.” wants to wear masks, we’ve agreed that both schools will wear masks, so we can have the competition and STORY Peter Orsak, SeMaj Musco move forward in the spirit of cooperation.”

PHOTOS Daniel Sanchez, Ekansh Tambe In the announcement, SPC stated that all schools will attempt to broadcast all competitions to allow for SPC CHAMPIONS more viewers with limited crowds.

First SPC title since 2007 “At the moment, we are not allowing spectators for any of our games,” Assistant Athletic Director Joshua Friesen said. “However, that policy could be adjusted as the season progresses based on the status ST. MARK'S LOGO of pandemic in our region. For now, we will live stream Front and center in all games on YouTube and LocalLive instead.” navy and silver Junior forward Tate Laczkowski, a member of the championship basketball team last year, feels like they were the favorites to repeat.

BASKETBALL EMBLEM “It’s tough to hear, but we have to keep our hopes Includes player's name on the side up and just keep on playing the games that we can play because at the end of the day, I think everyone in SPC knows that we would’ve repeated,” Laczkowski said. “It would’ve been nice to at least claim our title, "SLUNG 'EM" but I think in our hearts we know that we would’ve Team motto engraved inside the ring been SPC champions.”

Ochs feels terrible for seniors losing out on their final opportunity to compete for an SPC championship and the ability to win back-to-back titles.

SPC CHAMPIONS “I think the seniors are devastated, honestly,” First SPC title since 2013 Ochs said. “I feel really bad right now, and I still have another chance next year. It’s their last year ever playing high school soccer and for some of them, their last year ever playing competitive soccer, so they really wanted to compete for an actual title.”

Windham says it would be difficult to crown a BLUE CRYSTALS champion without a tournament. Playing high school Inside the silver outlining sports himself, Windham feels for seniors missing

Travel opportunities abandoned for basketball, soccer squads in light of COVID pandemic

by Arjun Khatti arly in the winter season, the varsity basketball and soccer teams cancelled all overnight tournaments in response to the rising climate of COVID-19.

The varsity soccer team, led by head coach Cory Martin, was looking forward to several travel games, including a much anticipated trip to Austin on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12.

“We had a three-game set of friendly matches, and we planned to leave early Friday morning [Dec. 11],” Martin said.

“We were going to play St. Andrew’sSt. Stephen’s SPC team and the St. Stephen’s academy team. The academy team is separate from the SPC, but they’ve got a really good program.

The goal was to have games Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon.”

The varsity basketball team, led

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by head coach Greg Guiler, was also looking forward to several overnight tournaments. They were invited to some of the most well-known high school tournaments from all across the country in places like Oregon, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey.

“The biggest one that we were excited about was the HoopHall Classic in New Jersey [featuring teams like Montverde Academy, IMG Academy, Sierra Canyon School, Prolific Prep and Oak Hill Academy] ,” Guiler said.

“It’s a big time event during the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and normally they put it on TV every year. That was going to be a marquee event for us, and the only other school from Texas to ever have gone up there was Prime Prep Academy, and they closed down [five years ago]. So it would have been cool to say that we’re currently the only Texas high school that’s ever gone up

there and played.”

The other notable tournaments were the Battle at the Rock in South Carolina and the City of Palms Classic in Florida.

Other top teams that would have been competing in those tournaments are St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, Lake Norman Christian, Dorman High School and Combine Academy.

Although most of these tournaments have already been cancelled due to COVID-19, Guiler understands how unique this opportunity would have been.

“For most of these events, the organizers wanted us to be that unique out of town team,” Guiler said, “so they would have paid for our lodgings, our flights, and our meals. It really would have felt special to be there.”

Since no overnight stays are allowed, both coaches understand that any travel outside of the DFW area will likely be

too hard to plan for.

“We could do it [travel to Houston or Austin], but it’s just unreasonable,” Martin said. “The driving alone would be three hours down, three hours back, so you really can’t do it without an overnight stay.”

Despite the unfortunate circumstances, there is still a hope for some sort of competition this winter. Guiler believes that local SPC competition is the best option going forward.

“I think our hands are tied right now,” Guiler said, “and we're not really given a whole lot of freedom to add in extra games because after the break, we're hot and heavy into the SPC schedule. We don’t want to have three or four games in a given week, so it’s disappointing, but it looks like the schedule is just going to consist of local teams.”

GYMS

Quarantine lifting

While gyms continue to reopen their resources, each one has established its own set of rules and regulations in hopes of creating the most enjoyable experience for its current members and, potentially, Marksmen. Here are three gyms worth trying: Reviews William Aniol, Rajan Joshi

Cowboys Fit

A Grade:

4817 W Park Blvd, Plano, TX 75093 Hours: Monday-Thursday: 5 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Friday: 5 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sunday: 7 a.m.– 7 p.m.

Membership cost (one person): Initiation Fee: $0, Monthly: $93

While the association with the hometown NFL team alone will certainly draw a number of Dallas Cowboys fans, Cowboys Fit in Plano is an easy sell for a gymseeking teenager regardless of its name.

Opened in 2019, the 45,000-square-foot facility has numerous offerings in addition to its weightlifting equipment, including a state-of-the-art recovery lounge, steam room and 40-yard turf area.

The gym floor is spacious and contains almost every type of workout equipment imaginable, with everything ranging from a free weight area to squat racks to specialized cable machines to indoor cycling.

Additionally, you will rarely find yourself waiting to use equipment, as the gym has at

4332 Northaven Rd, Dallas, TX 75229 Hours: Monday - Friday: 5 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Saturday: 7 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sunday: Closed Membership cost: Initiation fee: $30, Monthly: $30

S

Also, LA Fitness has placed wipes everywhere so that members can wipe down equipment after use.

The Preston Rd. location is roughly ten minutes away from school, which is an easy drive for anyone looking to find a new place to workout.

In terms of pricing, a membership is $30 a month, with a $75 initiation fee. For the amount of resources you get out of this membership, this is a great deal for anyone who would like to workout on a daily basis.

The Semones family YMCA is less than ten minutes away from 10600 Preston Rd., making it a very convenient place for students to work out.

Due to COVID-19, everyone must wear a mask upon entering the building, and masks can only be taken off if you are six feet apart from everyone else and in the middle of working out.

LA Fitness

B

Grade:

13130 Preston Rd, Lyndon B Johnson Fwy Near, Dallas, TX 7524 Hours: Monday - Thursday: 5:00 a.m.

- 9:00 p.m.

Friday: 5:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday: 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Sunday: 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Membership cost (one person): Initiation Fee: $125, Monthly: $19.99

In addition, there are wipes everywhere to ensure that everyone is staying safe. In the weight room, all the equipment is spaced out so members can workout at the same time, and there are plenty of machines and free weights for use.

The YMCA is also home to a basketball gym with six surrounding hoops where masks are required. People are allowed to play basketball with each other as long as masks are on, and they are not required to be socially distant, a concern regarding COVID saftey.

The price of a membership here includes a $30 joining fee and a monthly fee that varies by age, making it a relatively affordable option for Marksmen looking to find another place to workout close to the school.

25 The ReMarker

B+ Grade:

by SeMaj Musco ophomore Christian Youst, a reigning Ninja Warrior national champion, won the Texas Ninja League Championship for the second time on Oct. 20.

“Ninja warrior is an obstacle course racing tournament,” Youst said. “It’s like the TV show, but it’s stemmed off from that as more of a sport.”

Youst described his mindset towards his recent success in the sport.

“Being a back-to-back state champion feels pretty good,” Youst said. “Just doing it once, it’s easy to think I just got lucky that one time, but having done it twice makes it seem more legitimate. It feels like the hard work is paying off, that I can repeat it in back-to-back years.”

Youst became interested in the sport years before his family moved to DFW. “I’ve been involved for about eight years,” Youst said. “I was trying to find sports that I liked, and one day my dad was watching TV and saw this show. He called me into his room and said, ‘Hey, you might like this,’ and it was American Ninja Warrior. There was a ninja gym near our house, so we checked it out one time, and I had fun so we kept going back. Eventually, it turned into something that was less of a hobby and more something I wanted to do.”

COVID-19 has affected Youst’s quest for a second national championship, but like so many this year, he adapted.

“During the summer we built a ninja course in my backyard so I could keep up with training,” Youst said. “I would go work out a few times a week and stick to the schedule I had previously. I trained with a guy who’s on the show and competes regularly. I’ve already been doing the obstacles, so it was cool to learn more about them. Understanding how obstacles work helps with being able to do them too.”

Youst also had advice for younger Marksmen interested in competing in ninja warrior.

“Just go for it,” Youst said. “If this is something that you want to do, then you need to get that training schedule down.

Even if you can’t do certain training right now, put the effort in. It takes time, but if this is something you want to do you should put in that time.”

Sports

YMCA

Sophomore becomes Texas’s first two-time male Ninja Warrior state champion

December 17, 2020

Inside the massive LA Fitness complex on Preston Road, you see rows upon rows of weight machines right as you walk in.

There are at least three of every single type of machine, making it easy to workout with minimal wait time.

As you walk further inside, there are four squash courts to the right and multiple free weights. As you approach the back of the complex, you will find a full size basketball court.

Upstairs, there are plenty of treadmills and ellipticals as well.

The corporate COVID-19 rules for all LA Fitness locations in Dallas state that masks are required, but you may take them off while working out as long as nobody is within six feet of you.

The basketball court is currently only allowed to have a capacity of five people at a time, and nobody is allowed to play against anyone else.

least two sets of each machine.

Cowboys Fit and the Dallas Cowboys invite potential members to “train like one of us,” selling people on the prospect of training like a Dallas Cowboy, using the exact same weightlifting equipment that the team uses.

You are constantly reminded that you are in Cowboys territory as the gym’s walls are Cowboys-decorated and display inspirational quotes from current and past Cowboys players.

Concerning COVID-19 guidelines, masks are required for all, each member’s temperature is taken upon entry, sanitization stations are placed nearly everywhere you look, and you are asked to wipe down equipment before and after use, creating an extremely safe environment for members.

The franchise also has locations at The Star in Frisco, which includes a rooftop pool, as well as in downtown Dallas. Simply put, for the price, Cowboys Fit is as quality as it gets for a public gym in the DFW metroplex.

STAYING ON TOP Over quarantine, Youst was able to continue honing his skills by constructing several pieces of equipement in his backyard. In addition to the monkey bars pictured, he also made a salmon ladder, which he used to acheive a world-record manuever back in August.

Middle School sports change

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ALUMNI COACHES

Reversed roles

BACK WHERE IT STARTED Andrew Laczkowski ’20 directs Lions players at a practice this season.

Laczkowski finished his career at 10600 Preston Rd. as the school’s alltime leading scorer.

Class of 2020 graduates Taylor Hopkin and Andrew Laczkowski are back with the Lions basketball program –– but this time as coaches.

T

December 17, 2020

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he final buzzer went off as the 2020 Lions basketball squad was crowned SPC Champions.

The seniors of the team walked off the court thinking their time as Lions had officially come to an end; however, given the frequent complications of COVID-19, former players Taylor Hopkin ‘20 and Andrew Laczkowski ‘20 were given an opportunity to return back to the school as coaches.

Laczkowski, a basketball signee for the University of Pennsylvania, amassed over 2,000 points throughout his career with the Lions. As a captain last year, Laczkowski was a leader on the court, in the locker room and in the classroom. In early November, his plans to play college basketball for the University of Pennsylvania were canceled by the Ivy League in response to COVID-19, but his knowledge as a player influenced head coach Greg Guiler to bring him back on the team as an

assistant.

“He knows the system very well,” Guiler said. “He’s been very capable of communicating a lot of teaching points and bringing guys up to speed very quickly.”

Head basketball coach Greg Guiler spoke on the unique opportunity for Laczkowski to coach his younger brother Tate, a junior on the team.

“Those two guys are brothers so they’re obviously going to go after each other, but there is a sweet friendship between them that is really special,” Guiler said. “It’s the type of friendship I hope my kids have one day.”

The adjustment from being a player to a coach has forced Laczkowski to change the ways he approaches the players on the team.

“There’s a big difference between being a team captain and being an assistant coach,” Laczkowski said.

“You’re making more constructive criticism and helping guide the team more so than you would as a player.”

As a captain last year, Laczkowski was a primary vocal leader of the team. Now, as a coach, the biggest struggle for Laczkowski has been understanding when he should and shouldn’t offer input to the rest of the team.

“The balance of what to say and when to say it is an important thing that I have not yet grasped,” Laczkowski said. “That’s definitely something that’s going to be difficult to adjust to and figure out as the season goes on.”

The team has responded well so far PLAYER TO to his input, mostly due COACH Taylor Hopkin to his role as assistant ’20 is back coach. with the Lions “As an assistant basketball coach, Andrew gets to squad one be in more of a good year after his graduation cop role, so Andrew helping lead has been more of a the squad as cheerleader for those a coach from guys than anything the sideline. else,” Guiler said. “He knows the system very well, and he’s been very capable of communicating a lot of teaching

by Arjun Khatti iddle school winter sports have replaced their typical season with intramural leagues for both basketball and soccer in order to further combat the rise of COVID cases.

This decision was made prior to the start of the winter season, and both sports participated in their first series of games Nov. 19.

Since Spencer Gym is the only indoor basketball court on campus, varsity basketball head coach Greg Guiler, who has organized most of the league, had to get creative with his resources.

“Each day we have three teams inside and three teams outside,” Guiler said, “For the first week [Nov. 9-13], we didn’t have a gym because volleyball was still participating in their practices. So, we had to stay out of their way by using the one outdoor court by the pool and a couple of portable hoops in a corner by the track.”

Because of the uniqueness of the situation, no middle school athlete was cut from the basketball team, and since Guiler is occupied with the varsity team, more coaches were needed to accommodate the number of athletes.

“I ended up starting the whole process, but once I got them going, the other coaches were the ones driving the action,” Guiler said. “We’ve even asked Greg Bergeron to help out as much as his schedule allows. I’m also really lucky this year to have three alumni come back to coach — Andrew Laczkowksi [‘20], Taylor Hopkin [‘20] and Jack Gordon [‘15].”

Creating intramural leagues for the winter season was the school’s decision, not an SPC board decision.

But, Guiler knows that in the end, this decision is for the better.

“I was disappointed to have to call up the coaches from all the schools we had on our schedule,” Guiler said, “and I just had to let them know that we would have to pull the plug on these middle school games.

But, people are understanding, and they realize that we are all in a unique chapter right now.”

points and bringing guys up to speed very quickly.”

Hopkin began coaching as the head coach for one of the six middle school basketball teams in the intramural league that the school set up. While he didn’t always think he’d be coaching a middle school basketball team the year after graduating from high school, he has enjoyed the opportunity so far.

While he wants to focus on getting wins on the court, Hopkin is putting equal effort into getting to know his players off the court.

“I hope I can be a leader and role model for them, and I can care about more than just basketball with them,” Hopkin said. “I want to make sure they’re doing well in school and with their friends. I want this to be a nice place for them to hang out and get some energy out during the day.

I’m trying to orchestrate fun practices for them so that they can have a fun environment to be in.”

When speaking on his former player, Guiler has high praise for Taylor both as a person and as a coach.

“We all got to see Taylor last year in a very visible role on campus. He is such a great, energetic person who just wants to see everyone thrive, and he has carried that same demeanor over to his coaching life,” Guiler said.

“I wish I could sign him to a lifetime contract as a coach for the program moving forward because he’s been great.”

For Guiler, seeing both of these alumns step up from a player role to a coaching role has been incredible.

“Any time players want to be around the game and want to be around the program, that’s a testament to what we’re fortunate enough to have, which is guys enjoying the experience and hopefully paying it forward,” Guiler said. “Those are guys that were terrific leaders while they were students, so it warms my soul to see them continue to be leaders and ambassadors.”

STORY Luke Nayfa, Rajan Joshi PHOTOS Sal Hussain

PRESS BOX

How will you replicate last year’s success?

“Exemplary preparation and fitness, timely goal scoring and stingy defense, execution of skill and application of tactics, confidence and chemistry in the face of adversity, and good fortune against overwhelming odds.”

Corindo Martin, varsity soccer soach

Jeffrey S. Genecov, ‘77, DDS, MSD

Diplomate, American Board of Orthodonotics Member, AmericanAssociation of Orthodontists

“The toughness piece will be the factor that defines whether this team is satisfied with being called a 2020 champion or the very best team in SPC basketball history.”

Greg Guiler, varsity basketball coach

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972-387-9770 genecovorthodontics.com

Wrestling returns three All-SPC wrestlers 2019 SPC FINISH 3rd NOTABLE Junior Elijah Ellis earned 1st place in Prep State last year

BREATHING IN Senior Aayan Khasgiwala breaks the surface of the water as he participates in the 100m butterfly during last year's SPC tournament.

Swim team prepares with new coaching hire

2019 SPC FINISH 2nd 2020 RECORD 1-0

NOTABLE Trenton Calder, who coached and played at the University of California, was hired as the new varsity swimming and water polo coach in place of former coach, Mihai Oprea.

NOTABLE With an event time of 4:53, senior Ryan Park looks to break his long distance 500m freestyle record this year. Additionally, last year, senior Leo Ohannesian swam his 100m freestyle in 47 seconds.

THEY SAID IT “We had a slow start due to COVID, but over the break we bought into the process, and I think we have one of the best teams the school has ever seen. " — senior Leo Ohannessian

NOTABLE The 2019-2020 team had three All-SPC wrestlers: freshman Hayward Metcalf, junior Elijah Ellis and senior Jackson Fair.

THEY SAID IT “Since our season does not start until January, we are preparing for the end of the season and we hope to improve from last year and potentially beat St. John's for the first time in a while. We are all just really happy to even have an opportunity to play a season.”

— senior captain Drew Woodward

TALKING IT OUT Senior captain Cooper Ribman and head varsity wrestling coach Reynold Arredondo strategize just seconds before the match.

Soccer starts new season with wins

27

2019 SPC FINISH 1st 2019 RECORD 17-6

FEELING GOOD Senior captain Henry McElhaney walks off the field after helping lead the Lions to a 2-0 victory vs.

Prestonwood Christian Academy.

Sports junkie Volleyball

Cross Country

Advanced stats:

Advanced stats:

Advanced stats:

This offseason, junior Alex Nadalini and sophomore Asher Wilburn will compete for next year’s starting quarterback job.

Next year, the Lions will fill the roles of seven graduating seniors from the Class of 2021.

Junior Sahil Dodda broke the schools 5k record last November after clocking in at 15:04

Since 1977, the volleyball program has won twelve SPC championships.

Four of the five cross country meets were run at the Athletic Performance Ranch in Fort Worth.

The Lions defense has shut out the opposing team at least once in each of the last three seasons

Season Finish: 1-1 Last two results: 21-7 loss vs ESD 14-0 win @ Greenhill

Hot start for Guiler's basketball squad

2019 SPC FINISH 1st 2019 RECORD 29-4 2020 RECORD 2-0

NOTABLE According to 247Sports, senior Harrison Ingram is ranked as the 11th overall player in the 2021 class.

NOTABLE With the latest addition of junior Miller Trubey, the Lions now have four players over 6'5".

THEY SAID IT “With everything going on around the world, and everyone going through hardships, I am just blessed to go out there and compete with my brothers and win every single time we step on the floor. As we all have experienced throughout the last months, you never know when something can be taken away from you.”

— senior captain Harrison Ingram

EYES ON THE BALL Senior volleyball captain Daniel Sanchez sets the volleyball during the Lions 1-3 loss vs. the Trinity Valley Trojans.

A deeper dive into Lions sports.

Statistics and records reflect games for the fall season.

Football

WALKING OUT Senior captain Harrison Ingram takes the court for the first time of the 2020-2021 basketball season, surrounded by coaches and teammates.

Season Finish: 3-2 Last three results: 3-2 Win vs. Greenhill 1-3 Loss vs. Trinity Valley 3-1 Win @ Trinity Valley

COMPILATIONS Luke Nayfa, Peter Orsak PHOTOS Sal Hussain, Luke Voorheis

Season Finish: 5-0 Last three results: 1st place at North Zone Run-Off on 11/14: 1st place at SPC North Meet #3 on 11/7 1st place at SPC North Meet #2 on 10/31

Word from the captains Senior football captain Drew Woodward

Senior volleyball captain Daniel Sanchez

“It’s tough we only got to play two games but after thinking we might not even play any games at the beginning of the year, I am really thankful for what we were able to accomplish."

“Although our season was cut short, I am really thankful to have worn the blue and gold one last time on the volleyball court.

This program has meant everything to me over the last three years.”

Junior fencing captain Tomek Marczewski

“We had one interschool tournament earlier in the fall that was a lot fun to play in. I wish we could have had more competition but I think we definitely made the most of what we had to work with.”

Senior cross country captain Julian Ivarra

“I didn’t expect to have a season in August but i’m grateful for the dedication of the coaches and athletic department for giving us opportunities to race. I’m also proud of our team for training through the uncertainty of the summer."

The ReMarker

NOTABLE Head coach Corindo Martin is entering his 25th season coacing varsity soccer at the school.

THEY SAID IT “I think our team chemistry has been better than it's ever been. Having only played three games, we are looking very strong with promising underclassmen already making a big impact. As a team, we cherish each opportunity we get to go out on the field and play together and us seniors can finish our careers on a positive note.”

— senior captain Eric Yoo

December 17, 2020

NOTABLE Senior Henry Mcelhaney leads the team with two goals.

Sports

2020 RECORD 3-0

PORTRAIT As Lange has traversed the globe, he has begun to shift his focus from the sights to the local people.

While in Kathmandu, Nepal, Lange visited with the local residents, learning their stories.

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

TRAVEL

Globetrotter Despite the pandemic, Assistant Middle School Head Jason Lange continues to pursue his passion for travel.

Here, he shares some of his favorite memories.

December 17, 2020

Backpage

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Jonathan Yin: What first got you into traveling around the world?

Jason Lange: The first time I ever left the country was as a junior in high school with my Latin class. I went to Rome and Athens.

That was the first time that I had ever left the continent and experienced another culture, and I just fell in love with the idea of seeing things that were different, unique, culturally rich, all those things.

I didn’t travel again until my senior year of college, when I went to Russia for a while and took a few classes at Moscow State University and took up residence in Moscow. I learned to speak some Russian and just fell in love with Russian culture. Growing up, Russia was the other superpower, and it felt out of place yet exhilarating and exciting to spend time in the capital of Russia. That kind of triggered my travel bug. When I graduated college, my two college roommates and I convinced our parents to finance a one year around-the-world trip. We backpacked around the world for nine months.

The more I traveled the more I fell in love with the world and particularly the people.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve visited 98 countries on earth, and I would like to get to 100 before I turn 50. I’m hoping that 2021 is the year that I hit 100.

HAPPY NEW YEAR Fireworks bloom over the Kremlin as the clock strikes midnight, welcoming the arrival of 2012.

JY: Obviously, travel is limited because of COVID-19. What are you doing instead, and what do you have planned for the future?

JL: I haven’t let COVID deter my travel bug. I’ve turned my sights to places that are accessible to me over the past nine months.

I’ve lived in Texas for seven years, and the only place I’ve ever seen is Dallas and Fort Worth. I finally made it a point in June of 2020 to take a road trip to West Texas, and it was as exciting and as exotic as any international destination that I’ve been. Then in July, I took a trip to the Pacific Northwest, and I took ten days and drove the west coast from Portland, Oregon down through the redwood forests, all the way

to San Francisco and got to walk amongst 1500-year-old trees and just connect with nature and be away from people.

As the pandemic eases in the future, I’m looking at places like the former Yugoslavia. I am very well aware that an American traveling from a COVID hotspot to a place that has less COVID may be perceived as irresponsible, but I would like to think at the same time it is no more irresponsible than staying here in Dallas and interacting with people here. When I travel, I do my best to keep my distance and enjoy that as a solitary experience.

On a longer term scale, I do have a bucket list of places I’d like to visit and things I’d like to see. At the top of the list are things like climb Kilimanjaro, go on a gorilla Safari in Uganda and to return to Antarctica. As I get older, once I’ve seen the uncharted corners of the world, I would like to get to know a few places much better than I already do. I’d like to go back and just spend a few months being a resident of Moscow again. I’d like to do that in Paris, too.

I would love to live there for a few months and just do nothing more than eat well, take long walks, talk to the people and live the good life as the French do. There’s always another part of the world to see, but instead of making it a quick in-and-out experience, I’d like to make it more prolonged and in-depth.

JY: What drove you to pursue photography during your travels?

JL: When I was in college, I hated photography.

I did not want to be photographed. I thought people who were taking photos were wasting their time. That all changed during my senior year of college when I took a photography class for the first time and learned to make prints in a darkroom with a standard film camera. As I started traveling, I started to bring my camera along, and I realized I could bring a place back with me by capturing a nice photograph of the place. And it was a much more meaningful souvenir of a place than anything I could buy.

I slowly just started upgrading the camera and adding technique. Travel and photography go together hand in hand, especially as cameras and gear have gotten smaller and lighter. I make sure that I set aside dawn and dusk as times when I want to take photographs, and I go do the touristy stuff or meet people during the middle of the day or during the evening.

JY: What are your favorite places you’ve been so far?

JL: My favorite continent on earth is Antarctica, because I believe it’s the closest I’ll ever get to going to another planet. It is a destination unlike any other. It will reframe any visitor’s perspective on planet Earth, on climate change, on biodiversity. My favorite country in the world is a tie between Nepal and New Zealand.

Both are culturally rich and visually stunning regions of the world. And my favorite city in the world is Moscow, Russia, but at the same time, there really is no place like home. After a few weeks on the road, there’s no place I’d rather be than Dallas.

ICE COLD After years of traveling around the globe, Lange has set foot in 98 countries and all 7 continents, even Antarctica.

JY: How have your travels changed you as a person?

JL: I used to travel to see things and places, but as I have grown as a traveler I now travel to meet people. It’s the unplanned conversations in a cafe in Madrid or the unexpected friendships that developed from a weekend camping trip in Tibet that are the most valuable memories of my travel experience. It’s always people that I come back to. When I travel, I’m very cognizant that I’m a representative of my country and maybe I have an opportunity to show something that others don’t see on TV by sitting down and talking with them about similarities we all have in common.

STORY Jonathan Yin PHOTOS Courtesy Jason Lange FANTASY Cathedral Cove in New Zealand, one of Lange’s favorite destinations, was the set for many scenes in the film Narnia.

Lange publishes all his photos online as creative commons, as a means to preserve his works.

You can view photos from his travels around the world at www. moonbaseoperations.com

FISHERMAN “This is probably my own personal favorite photo,” Lange said. “It was taken on Bali, Indonesia, on Thanksgiving Day 2018.”

ABOVE THE CLOUDS From the centers of the world’s most populated cities to rural communities, Lange’s travels have taken him around the globe, allowing him to interact with people from every background.

The ReMarker

Dallas, TX • LitFest Special Section • December 17, 2020 •St. Mark’s School of Texas

Back to his

roots Working to make his dreams a reality, Rhett Miller ’89 is exploring new

frontiers of the creativity that has fueled his career. Page 2

STORY Siddhartha Sinha PHOTO Courtesy Rhett Miller

Inside

Meet the visitors

Get to know the five visiting authors, journalists, artists and professors. Page 2

Flashback

A complete history of the festival’s origins told by founder Jake McAuley ’08. Page 3

And the winners are...

Sitting down with each contest winner to discover the story behind their pieces. Page 4

Guests

Dreams fulfilled After finding fame in his teens, singersongwriter and children’s book author Rhett Miller ’89 is returning to campus with a new perspective on happiness.

AUTHOR Having published children’s book No More Poems and written his book The Baby Changing Station, Rhett Miller ’89 has found solace in the creative process. “I’m realizing that a few months from now,” Miller said, “this will be a book, and a few months later, it’ll be in bookstores, and parents will be buying it and reading it to their kids. It brings tears to my eyes.”

December 17, 2020

The ReMarker

LitFest

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hirty-year-old Rhett Miller ’89 is laying in his Los Angeles bed as the California moon hangs over the palm trees.

Eyes wide open.

It’s been 11 years since he graduated from 10600 Preston Rd. Eleven years since he went to Sarah Lawrence College on a full scholarship. Eleven years since he dropped out after a semester.

And he’s wondering.

Wondering if he made the wrong choice. Wondering if giving up the most expensive college education in the country was the right thing to do. Wondering if pursuing a music career, if living for the $20,000 he earned this year — the most in his life — was worth it.

Two decades later, he has his answer.

With long brown hair flowing just past his shoulders, multiple performances a week and a tendency to sleep through first-period biology, Miller wasn’t your typical Marksman.

He “didn’t conform to what the middle linebackers of the world thought a teenage boy should be,” so he got picked on every now and then, but Miller credits specific teachers for helping him find his way.

“The main outlet I had was choir,” Miller said. “[Former Choirmaster Jim] Livengood’s still one of the most important figures in my musical upbringing.

The hours — the hundreds of hours — I spent in Mr. Livengood’s choir really made me who I am.”

Parlaying his musical passion into gigs around the Metroplex, Miller started straying away from academic pursuits in Upper School, but he says the leeway administration afforded to him was amazing.

“I was living a lifestyle made for 20-somethings as a 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kid,” Miller said. “Trying to do both was tough, but St. Mark’s actually ended up being really flexible, understanding I was bringing something to the table that was going to make up for how poorly I was doing in some of my classes. I could have easily been kicked out in my junior year. Algebra, biology and things like that just didn’t speak to me at that time.”

What did speak to Miller, though, was the pursuit of another gig, another club, another business connection, and as he grew into a household name in the Dallas arts scene, he started dealing with the idea of fame.

“As I got written about in the press, as I got on the cover of the Dallas Observer and all these kinds of things, I couldn’t think too much,” Miller said. “If I really stopped and thought about the idea of fame — even on a local level — it would have freaked me out. But because I got caught up in the logistics of doing the job — writing the songs, performing the shows, booking the shows — that wound up being manageable.”

But there’s a moment that stands out to Miller. One that really put his fame into perspective.

“When Billboard magazine wrote about me, it was the first national publication to write about me,” he said.

“I saw the way my mom teared up when she read it, and I thought, ‘Oh, okay. This is a big deal.’”

From there, the only way was up. The gigs, the articles, the Hey-you’re-Rhett-Millers were rolling in, and by the time Miller was a senior, he had to make a decision about

his future.

Realizing the traditional college route — even the liberal arts college route — was “too square and confining,” Miller only applied to Bennington College in Vermont and Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

But even after copying and pasting one essay for both applications, even after receiving a full scholarship to both, even after a semester at Sarah Lawrence, Miller felt out of place.

“I thought if I gave myself a college degree and the safety net of a good-paying job, I’d never commit to music in the way that I’d have to for it to work,” Miller said.

“I’d never be hungry enough to make it and to succeed in music. I could have done any number of things, but the thing that appealed to me was this thing that meant not following the rules.”

Miller rode that not-following-the-rules mentality to the top of the mountain. He did exactly what he had set out to do and then some, but there was still a void — some empty feeling — nagging him.

“All my dreams had come true,” Miller said. “I was playing in big venues. I was selling lots of records. I was doing all the things I’d ever dreamed I might do. And that in itself didn’t give me happiness. That was a shock. Since I was 13 years old, all I wanted to do was be a successful songwriter and have people buy my records and applaud wildly. I had all of that, and it wasn’t fulfilling me.”

What I do isn’t curing cancer.

It’s not rocket science. I’m not rushing into burning biuldings and saving babies. But I do take pride in the nobility of creativity, in making the world a better place, in adding a tiny bit of beauty. One book, one podcast, one song at a time.

Rhett Miller ’89

Until that shock, Miller had lived his life as a peoplepleaser — a traveling show, obsessed with making everybody around him content, fulfilled, even happy. But seeing the view from the top forced him to reconsider his motives.

Now, with a second book on the way, a regular podcast and a settled life, Miller says those 11 years of scraping by under the palm trees, the random Sarah Lawrence semester and the abrupt dropout were all worth it.

“The route that I chose doesn’t offer the same kind of security,” Miller said, “but I’ve never regretted it. I live in a sweet little house on three acres just north of Manhattan.

Somehow, I’m able to keep paying my mortgage. My son wears Supreme box logo sweatshirts. Apparently, it’s not that bad.”

STORY Siddhartha Sinha PHOTOS Courtesy Rhett Miller

Also visiting...

Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff has authored several novels, including The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia.

Her novel Fates and Furies was a New York Times bestseller, earned finalist status for the National Book Award in Fiction and was Amazon’s 2015 number one book. She’s also the author of two bestselling short story collections. Groff is the first Brent P. Johnson ’89 Writer, an endowment established by Gwen Johnson and her late husband, Paul, in memory of their son.

Calvin Watkins

Calvin Watkins is a Dallas-based sports journalist.

He has worked for ESPN, covering the Houston Rockets and other NBA subjects. He now works with the Dallas Morning News covering the Dallas Cowboys.

Masi Asare

Masi Asare works as a playwright, composer and Assistant professor of Theatre at Northwestern University. She has authored several plays, including The Family Resemblance, Sympathy Jones and Rishvor. She is a past Dramatists Guild Fellow and won the inaugural Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for a female composer of musicals.

Bob Hass

A professor at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, Bob Hass authored Going by Contraries: Robert Frost’s Conflict with Science and the Couting Thunder poetry collection. He’s won the Academy of American Poets Prize.

History

A storied history The Literary Festival has offered opportunities to students for 14 years. Though this year’s events will be adjusted for COVID safety, here’s a look at years past — and the beginnings of the festival to remember how much the festival has brought to campus.

3

CELEBRATING LITERATURE At the 13th annual Literary Festival, sophomore vice-chairs led a panel discussion with Victor White Master Teaching Chair David Brown and acclaimed novelist and poet Sandra Cisneros, who was one of the four writers visiting campus for the Jan. 2020 event. The other three distinguished writers were award-winning poet Frederick Turner, acclaimed memoirist Dawn Davies and associate editor of The New Yorker Sharan Shetty ’09.

Jake McAuley ’08

With a $2,600 budget, McAuley invited several notable writers, the Old School idea in mind. Most were alums who would not need major expenses.

The first year, the school hosted journalists Sam Dealey and Kurt Eichenwald ’79, screenwriter Taylor Hamra ’95, biographer Edward McPherson ’95, and poet Farid Matuk.

“It was a low budget movie, but it exceeded all of our expectations,” McAuley said. “I expected any number of things to go wrong –– somebody’s flight gets canceled or someone drops out at the last minute. But for the first year, it was terrific. It was fun for the visitors we had that year, because they were alums, to see what the campus was like.

I remember just being delighted with how it turned out.”

With prior experience running a similar festival at Highland Park High School, Victor F. White

From the student chairs Director: Junior Henry Schechter Co-chairs: Juniors Alex Geng and Ekansh Tambe Assistants: Sophomores Keshav Krishna, Aadi Khasgiwala and Bijaan Noormohamed

“A benefit that’s coming out of this online experience is that we can bring our writers forum to a bigger group of people. We’re going to try to include the whole North Dallas community instead of just the St. Mark’s community.”

Henry Schechter

STORY Jamie Mahowald, Dillon Wyatt PHOTOS Collin Katz

“With the Literary Festival, you’re really hands-on with five really distinguished authors. You have the opportunity to read their work, ask them questions and appreciate the craft of writing. Writing is so important in life.”

Alex Geng

“These authors’ writing is a lot more heavy and tackles more themes than students see going through their English careers at St. Mark’s. These authors have lots of real-life experiences that students can learn a lot from.”

Ekansh Tambe

The ReMarker

Besides The ReMarker and the yearbook, there weren’t at the time a lot of outlets for creative writing in a more informal, lively fashion outside the classroom.

Master Teaching Chair in English David Brown was asked by then-English Department Chair Bobbi Mailer to take over the Literary Festival in 2010.

“Before I came to St. Mark’s in 1999, I was the English Department chair at Highland Park, and I had started at Highland Park, the literary festival over there,” Brown said. “So, when I came to St. Mark’s, I was surprised that St. Mark’s didn’t have a literary festival because it was a big success at Highland Park and a number of schools did that sort of thing. I was so busy as a first-year teacher at St. Mark’s that I didn’t have time to do one more thing at the start. A few years after that, Jake [McAuley] was able to start it.”

Brown understood the main purpose of inviting writers was to teach and emphasize the importance of language arts. But he loved to pick their brain.

Sometimes, Brown would even try to connect with the guests to know them on a more personal level.

“We invited Billy Collins, who had been America’s poet laureate and one of my favorite poets,” Brown said. “We had to join budgets with the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program and the LitFest to bring someone of his stature to campus.

He was not cheap, but he was well worth it. The night before Billy Collins was to leave, he came over to my house, sat on my back patio with my wife and me and talked late into the night. That was a real treat for me to be able to get to know him better and have a correspondence with him.”

Brown spotlighted the lasting impact that McAuley and the Literary Festival made on the school when he invited McAuley back to the festival as a guest ten years after creating it.

“We had Jake come back as one of our guest writers,” Brown said. “We also surprised Jake by having Tobias Wolfe come to campus too. It was great to have those two together. Jake, of course, was thrilled to meet the one who had inspired him so much.”

LitFest

campus,” McAuley said, “and an important part of the idea was not only to have great writers or playwrights or screenwriters come to Preston Road but also to have a writing contest for students to enter and to have their writing evaluated by people, to invest in a conversation that they could continue even after they left St. Mark’s.”

McAuley then wrote a proposal and met with then-Headmaster Arnold Holtberg to flesh out the idea, bringing up Old School and his plans for visiting guests.

“And [Holtberg] said, ‘Great, go for it,’” McAuley said. “That honestly is one of the great things about St. Mark’s: if you had an idea like that, you always have the resources to do it. It’s a really great thing to have at 17 years old.”

December 17, 2020

E

very sophomore here reads Old School by Tobias Wolff. The novel follows a boy at an elite all-boys preparatory school in the 1960s, and obvious parallels between their school and ours in mind, one of the great conflicts of the novel arises from a school literary contest “whose winner,” according to the novel’s blurb, “will be awarded an audience with the most legendary writer of his time.”

Ambition and frenzy occupy the protagonist and his peers, testing friendships and relationships.

Strife ensues.

And for Jake McAuley ’08, that idea stuck.

But this school has no such contest here, largely because of, in McAuley’s view, a lack of opportunities for literature to take the spotlight.

“The legacy of St Mark’s historically has been an emphasis on math and science,” McAuley said.

“I was always terrible at math and science, and I never saw myself in that line of analysis, and I was always interested in writing and reading –– at the time I aspired to be a novelist –– and I really loved writing and English and everything therein, and I did everything possible to immerse myself in that world.”

But McAuley struggled to find creative writing outlets outside of the classroom, and those that did exist did not serve the imaginative expression that high-school-McAuley was looking for.

“The quantity and the quality of the writing instruction in the classroom is sterling, and they gave really excellent training,” McAuley said. “But we had The ReMarker and the yearbook, and those are nonfiction, by definition, so no creative outlets really existed. That’s the big distinction.”

So McAuley joined every existing outlet the school had. His senior year, he edited The Marque literary magazine with Alex Katz ’08 and produced the 10600 magazine that featured figures around campus, but the gulf between literature and nonfiction existed still.

“The Literary Festival was an attempt to create more venues for that kind of conversation on

LIT-FEST WINNERS

Winning writers

M

arksmen had the chance to submit their own work to a writing contest judged by the visiting writers. Here are excerpts from each category’s winning submissions, accompanied by the stories behind the recognized pieces.

Darren Xi: Why did you choose to submit in the category you chose?

Senior Josh Mysoré: Funnily enough, I actually almost submitted for poetry because I had been writing poetry in my free time. I talked about it with [English instructor Geoffrey] Stanbury, and I came to the conclusion that I was going to go with poetry. I don’t know what it was, but last minute, I just switched to fiction. One of those gut feelings. I think short stories are a very riveting form of art. You get to pack in a lot of themes into a small concerted piece. That’s the fun of it. Trying to jam so much content into a small time frame.

Junior Thomas Philip: I was inspired by my family history paper project last year, so I took elements of that story and flipped it around.

I figured I could use elements of that story to make a new story that would work well for the category, so I chose it. I took stories that happened this summer and used background information that I got from the family history paper to make it a completely new story.

Senior Blake Broom: I really like poetry in the first place, but I had written a poem in [Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair in English David] Brown’s class earlier this year. He was really encouraging the class to submit to the contest, so I chose to submit the poem I had written.

December 17, 2020

The ReMarker

LitFest

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DX: What do you think you did well, and what do you think you did not do well?

JM: I think I did a really fine job editing and refining the paper. The drafting process was definitely rigorous, and I was proud of my vocabulary and prose. My wording was far more sophisticated than before. I also wrote with dialogue, which I find to be my strong suit because I think I have a natural instinct for what dialogue sounds like and how to make it interesting. I think those are my strong points.

My weaknesses would probably be adding a little bit more character development and looking more into delivering a punch for the writing, though that’s a little bit difficult. When you’ve read something and you look at it a lot of

INSPIRATION With his family history paper from sophomore year in his back pocket, junior Thomas Philip drew from past work – telling stories from the years 1950, 1980 and 2020 – to write his nonfiction piece, “Somewhere In Between.”

times, at a certain point you’ve seen it too many times and you need fresh eyes to tell you if your story really works.

TP: I really liked how different stories fit together in one narrative and how I could take elements from these stories to make a completely new one.

I think the hard part for me was the sharing of those experiences, and I think that is something I can work on being more comfortable with.

BB: I think the best part of the poem is that the story is perfectly put out there, so the audience can really connect with it. However, I feel like I could have incorporated the reader’s feelings much better, which was my greatest flaw in this poem.

DX: How did you go about the whole process of finding or writing a piece, choosing to submit it, then waiting for the results?

JM: Mr. Brown is my advisor, so obviously he’s been encouraging me to submit something. I took my paper from class, edited a bit, put it in a Word document, got it all together, formatted and turned it in. It really honestly was not a super rigorous process to get that done.

TP: I really enjoyed the family history project.

Having conversations with my grandparents is something that I really appreciated. I valued those conversations a lot. When it came down to writing, I thought this project was something I wanted to expand, and the contest just gave me a chance to do that. I started off by taking the stories from my family history paper and seeing how I could condense them to get the best part of each one. Then, drawing from

recent conversations with my parents, I tried to make them all fit together and find the overall message, wrap it up at the end and convey that message to the reader.

BB: I actually didn’t submit my poem until around the second-to-last day. Mr. Brown sent me an email really encouraging me to submit that poem to the contest, so I did. Mr. Brown’s push was the largest factor in my submitting the poem.

DX: How did you react when you found out you won?

JM: I was pretty surprised. I thought my story was good. I wasn’t sure how to react. It was during Thanksgiving Break. I was just chilling, and I saw an email from Mr. Brown that said, ‘Congrats, your story was chosen, so you get to meet visiting author Mrs. Lauren Groff.’ It was a cool feeling, but I really wasn’t expecting anything, so it was just surprising.

TP: I was very happy to see that I had won the LitFest contest, and I’m also excited to see who the other winners were.

BB: I was really excited, especially because Rhett Miller chose my poem and I’ve been listening to him for a very long time. At least for me, this type of success is really validating. Sometimes at St. Mark’s, you might not get as much validation because there are so many amazing people, but to get that validation just really made me happy.

INTERVIEW Darren Xi PHOTO Courtesy Thomas Philip

Sneak Peek

Here are excerpts from the winning submissions of the 2020 Literary Festival In the categories of nonfiction, fiction and poetry.

NONFICTION Junior Thomas Philip

J

uly, 1950. India.

Torrential rain beat down on long rows of crops that stretched out to the horizon. Monsoon season had begun. My grandfather returned home in the evening, drenched from working in his family’s fields. He was nine years old at the time; his father had died six months earlier.

After his father’s death, my grandpa’s family had to sell some of their land because they could not manage it all anymore. A man came along and offered them a price. My grandfather pleaded with the adults in his house not to take it. He knew the price was unfair. He knew the man was trying to scam them. But his mother, his aunts, and his uncles all refused to listen to him. They thought it was a good deal. How could a little kid know

FICTION Senior Josh Mysoré

T

he car in question was quaint. Wise, in all honesty. One look at its complexion saw its characteristics liven.

Though rusty, the chassis spewed a homely mustard from its loose frame. Though cheap, fresh oil danced through engine tubes, grumbling the garbled motors onward. Daffodil-hued doors, in spite of shoddy construction, quivered as the vehicle found its footing, and fine rubber tires emitted an earthy smell as if dandelions in a spring field. And finally, toward the apex of the vehicle and lopsided in a coyish, inviting way, a cheap taxi sign stood proud and cemented the car’s aesthetic: nearly playful and rustic in its demeanor, almost whimsical and powerful in nature.

The man inside served his community as his

more than them? Helpless, my grandpa resigned, and his family sold the land. Decades later, he still remembers that feeling. My grandfather carries an ambience of humility with him wherever he goes.

He makes everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, feel heard and understood.

He never lets his own knowledge get in the way of someone else’s ideas. I think it’s hard to walk that fine line and show that grace while still commanding respect.

Back then, however, there was nothing my grandpa could do. In his family eyes, he was just a naïve child. My grandpa’s mother called out for him to dry off and get ready for dinner. He stared out the window and watched the wind howl and the rain pour.

vehicle did. During long car rides, families secretly found solace in his dulcet accent, rugged mien, and bona fide hospitality; the politicians lent a silent, jaundiced eye to his full beard and scoffed at empty pockets. In his entirety, however, his persona hewed to intrigue. Tousled peppered hair made him devilish, but full lips made him feminine. A roundish jaw dotted with stubble gave him might, but green eyes, filled with kindness, softened sight. A small crook in his protruding nose displayed imperfection; yet somehow, that shortcoming made him human. A real person. Someone with whom no one knew his exact origins but made do with guesses as sufficient; the citizens of Eastum did not belabor the questions.

He was the only menial laborer in town, and so, he became the Outsider.

POETRY Senior Blake Broom

H

e cowered to the ground as his father Raised his hand to swing a punch, The power behind the hand Deeply rooted in the lonesome History that brought his pain to the front.

Hoping to help his son grow some He fought for a secure life, Riding the interstates late at night Through the wicked valleys that drove a wedge Between his son and himself.

Too much time apart for far too many days, They lost each other in the valley’s rising fog.

The father drank to numb his rodeo pains But the boy began to think To replace the missing man.

He thought for long until that night When it was late and dad felt far away, Yet for some reason he still missed him.

The boy went to bed but suddenly awoke When a crashing thud made him choke on his breath.

The boy could feel something wicked And had finally seen the truth, Life had ripped the youth right out of him.

The real world crashed in with so much power, Enough to make him cower at the fear of the future He saw the man behind the façade, A man weak at the knees And reliant on his lonesome drink.

The cowboy who created him Was now a shattered whiskey glass.

Waiting for the sorrow to fill his soul, The boy sat there on the porch swing Listening to the angels sing, Listening to the angels sing.