The ReMarker | May 2025

Photo Illustration by Joshua Goforth and Winston Lin

INSIDE

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POWERING THE FUTURE

Brannin McBee ‘04, co-founder and Chief Development Officer of CoreWeave provides insight on the company after a very successful 2025.

LEAVING A LEGACY

English instructor, Scott Gonzalez reflects on his time at St. Mark’s as he prepares to bid the community farewell after this year.

INVINCIBLE SHOW REVIEWED

Emiliano Mayo Mejía reviews the third season of Invincible and gives his insght on why the show continues to be successful.

29 A LASTING TRIBUTE

Mark Sullivan, director of experiential education, has recieved the honor of having a new boat named after him.

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AROUND THE CLOCK

Students share their opinions on what drives them to choose their ideal working time, whether that be early mornings or late nights.

MOVING THROUGH CAMPUS

Sophomore, Dylan Bosita shares his experience with injury and how it has affected his ability to move around campus.

WINNING WITH INTEGRITY

With the advent of burner accounts and barstools, Head of Upper School, William Atkinson urges students to compete with class.

MARKSMAN BALL

The senior class came together to celebrate their St. Mark’s career and witness the unveiling of this years yearbook. 14 29 32 15 3 21

Bonding under stress

“Junior year will make you want to rethink every academic decision you’ve ever made,” the juniors warned me as a freshman. They used to compare their homework loads to mine—it was like putting David and Goliath side-by-side. I already thought Mr. Gonzalez’s two vignettes a night were rough, so when they showed off the academic Tetris that was their Blackbaud assignment center, I started dreading every day that put me closer to my penultimate year at St. Mark’s. Eleventh grade would be the end of my social life. My GPA. My will to live. But, though I came close to losing it all, this past year was my favorite year of high school.

The workload definitely jumped. Classes take more time, teachers expect more, and the month of May is a chaotic jumble of finals and AP exams. College counseling

meetings turned the vague “somedays” into a concrete reality with actual deadlines.

Yet, somehow, junior year was fun.

Maybe because this year was when I finally got it. Freshman year, I stressed about potential reading quizzes and expressing interest in at least 15 clubs. Sophomore year wasn’t much better—it was a year spent wrestling with the expectations of my teachers, friends and family.

But junior year is when I figured out what I really wanted. When I realized that spending every waking moment stressing about my future was actually robbing me of the present.

I laughed more this year, I spent late nights not just doing homework but having late-night conversations with my friends. I ended up spending more time in Spencer Gym than anywhere on campus. A close second was the journalism suite, where me and a couple others would slave away until midnight working on the newspaper. It was the best.

Junior year is also the last time you get to be mentored

before actually becoming the mentor—a senior. The best and saddest part of the year is the end of the school year: when juniors become seniors and seniors become strangers. My frocket-less shirts and I won’t miss their obnoxious lunch-line cutting and how much they brag about not turning in a single assignment since last semester. But, as much as I hate to say it, there’s going to be a part of me that’s going to reminisce about the seniors vs. juniors basketball pickup games. The people I can fall back on when the newspaper page I’m designing looks like abstract art.

To fellow juniors: let’s continue to push forward. A ‘golden’ GPA is important, but genuine friendships and memories matter more.

Junior year taught me that balance isn’t about perfectly dividing your time—it’s about recognizing which moments deserve your full attention. If the seniors taught me anything, it’s that high school is as stressful as you make it. And if this is what junior year is, I’d take it every time.

DOAN NGUYEN Enterprise Editor

ISSUES

NEWS IN BRIEF

EVENSONG On Sunday, April 27, the choir was joined by their friends and family in the chapel for the final evensong of the school year. The peaceful, reflective night was a testament to their work throughout the month and year overall. The choir performed “The Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis.” This will be the last evensong for the seniors.

VISUAL ARTS SHOWCASE The St. Mark’s Visual Arts Showcase opening reception took place on April 21, and will remain open until Aug. 31. The showcase serves as a way for the school’s artists to display their work for all to see. Artists whose works are being displayed include Carson Bosita, Amar Kakkar, Luke Lemons, Aiden Moran and Hale Peterson. All works are currently shown in the Bock Gallery in Nearburg Hall.

ICE CREAM SOCIAL On Wednesday, April 23, the Lower School hosted an ice cream social for new families in conjunction with the admission team. Ambassadors from first, second and third grade invited the boys to play on the playground and answer questions. Headmaster David Dini and Associate Headmaster John Ashton also attended to help answer any questions from parents. The boys got a chance to play, hang out and make new friends. They also received T-shirts and summer reading lists.

HEADLINES

Reviewing this month’s news from around the world

WHAT HAPPENED: Harvard files a lawsuit against Trump administration over funding cuts.

WHEN: April 22

RELEVANCE: After Trump cut $2.2 billion in funds over allleged DEI noncompliance, Harvard cited a violation of the First Amendment. The case highlights the growing tension between the government and universities.

WHAT HAPPENED: Trump plans to install a 100 percent tariff on foreign films.

WHEN: May 5

RELEVANCE: The move aims to revive the declining national film industry. Meanwhile, international countries have criticized the decision and threaten retaliation.

FIVE MINUTES WITH

Basketball Coach

Greg Guiler

“Basketball is an amazing platform for learning teamwork, accountability and the joy of hard work alongside brothers who you develop deep bonds with because of the sacrifice you share.”

“I think hardship creates the history that we all tend to recall most vividly. Loss of loved ones, injuries and overcoming difficult tasks are the things I look back on with the greatest gratitude because of how I believe discomfort is the friend that we never desire but always appreciate.”

Alum-led company joins AI gold rush

After guiding CoreWeave through immense growth, co-founder Brannin McBee ‘04 has led the company to the largest IPO of 2025 in the United States.

BY HOLDEN PURVIS AND JAY PANTA

Throughout the past decade, AI has been driving what many consider to be the next industrial revolution—one that requires an entirely new kind of infrastructure.

Beneath the surface of prominent AI platforms, the AI boom is being driven by a race to build the cloud infrastructure to support these large models.

One company at the heart of this revolution is CoreWeave. Since its inception in 2017, CoreWeave initially focused on the cryptocurrency market but pivoted in 2019 to specialize in AI infrastructure. Since then, it has become a major player in this sector. With over 250,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) running today, the company has earned the title of the “AI Hyperscaler.”

The company’s goal is to fill the major gap in the market—traditional cloud systems simply aren’t built to handle AI applications.

“The cloud that was built for hosting websites, storing data lakes and running web apps is not the right engineering solution for the cloud that has to be built for running artificial intelligence—they’re very different types of workloads,” CoreWeave co-founder and Chief Development Officer Brannin McBee ‘04 said.

The massive processing power required for AI has created unprecedented demand for specialized cloud solutions.

“AI takes a lot of processing power,” Computer Science Department Chair Kurt Tholking said. “If you move that to the cloud, which is what CoreWeave was trying to do, then they can scale, share resources, implement those resources at a faster rate than you could if you had to go out and buy a server.”

The company recently secured an $11.9 billion contract with OpenAI and maintains long-standing partnerships with some of the world’s biggest industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Microsoft and IBM.

“Habits define who you are, and habits in a team setting determine the trajectory of the team. I have a saying that I call the 13 T’s of tradition: talent to the third times togetherness times toughness times technique translates to tradition.” Cardinals

BY ALEX CALDER

The wait is over. On May 8, at 6:07 p.m. local time, a billow of white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel in Rome, indicating that the Conclave had selected a new pope. Not long after, the results became clear: the electorate had chosen Pope Leo XIV to succeed Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday, April 21.

An enormous crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, shouting “Viva il papa,” as they awaited the new pope’s emergence on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. After two days and four rounds of voting, the first pope from the United States was elected.

Robert Prevost, now and forever to be known as Pope Leo XIV, was born in Chicago, but he spent many years as a missionary in Peru.

Prevost’s choice for his name is symbolic. Pope Leo XIII was Italian and led the church from 1878 to 1903. Leo XIII was known for his beliefs in social justice and reform. It is believed that Leo XIV will continue championing the concerns of Leo XIII and Pope Francis while forging his own path.

“The pope is the symbolic head of the community, the person that people look to for hope and consolation when things are going badly for them,” St. Mark’s chaplain Rev. Stephen Arbogast said. “He also helps in offering direction and guidance when they’re trying to make decisions. The pope is also responsible for mundane tasks, including budgeting, policies, rules and regulations.”

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, was best known as a man of the people who concentrated on helping the poor and society’s outcasts.

Although the pope serves the 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, his influence extends much further. When elected at the Conclave on March 13, 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was relatively unknown on the global stage. He chose the name Francis and became an ambassador for the Catholic faith.

“He was a very strong advocate that we should take care of the marginalized in society — the people who are not powerful, not famous, not wealthy,” Arbogast said.

While living in the Vatican, Pope Francis chose to live in small quarters, representing his humbleness and desire for a simpler lifestyle. His unassuming lifestyle extended to his death, as he decided to be buried in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major instead of in the Vatican.

“Half the people want someone exactly like what they’ve had in the past, and half the people want somebody who’s anything but what they have in the past,” Arbogast said, “There are Catholic churches, hospitals, schools, universities and social service agencies in almost every country in the world, and the impact of the pope’s death would directly affect all those organizations.”

After deliberations, paper ballots are signed, counted and burned. Smoke wafts above the Sistine Chapel indicate the round of voting is complete. Black smoke means no decision; white smoke indicates a new pope has been elected. Pope Leo XIV marks the beginning of a new era for the Catholic Church and the world.

Co-founder and Chief Development Officer Brannin McBee ‘04 speaks at CoreWeave’s IPO event.

Photo Courtesy Brannin McBee

Diversity of thought defines school culture

In a world increasingly hesitant to speak freely, cultivating an environment where students can willingly express polarizing ideas remains a priority.

BY HOLDEN PURVIS AND EMILIANO MAYO

Two uncles shout across the table, each intent on humiliating the other.

Children stare blankly, not sure what to think. Aunts try to calm the chaos, but nothing works as the family gathering unravels.

Elsewhere, in class, students nod silently in agreement, hesitant to challenge the majority for fear of causing unnecessary conflict.

The ideal setting lies somewhere in between — where thoughtful voices echo, one at a time throughout the room, engaged in lively yet respectful debate on polarizing issues.

In that shared space, diversity of thought fosters an open environment — a rare setting in a world closed off to new ideas. This kind of environment promotes what matters most.

Broadening one’s point of view.

Challenging assumptions.

Cultivating innovation.

These opportunities are only possible through the mutual exchange of fresh perspectives.

Diversity of thought — the integration of different ideas to create the most productive, authentic and innovative environment — is an essential cornerstone of the school community.

But due to self-censorship and narrow-mindedness, achieving genuine diversity of thought in a divided world can be difficult.

Freshman Lucas Herrera believes that in the modern era, the split between opposing sides and opinions has increased dramatically.

“We’re getting more polarized, more separated from each other. We are disagreeing more and more and our opinions are getting more extreme,” Herrera said.

Yet in real life, sophomore Jack Shepro rarely sees people willing to share their unique opinions.

“I don’t think I’ve seen people express any really strong opinions at all,” Shepro said. “They’re more inclined to just say something neutral. No one’s going to judge you for having a neutral opinion.”

Although sharing differing opinions can bring a new perspective, Shepro understands that there is a fine line between sharing an opinion and blatantly attacking someone through ill-mannered beliefs.

“Anything that would offend someone would be the main thing that would stop me from sharing my opinion,” Shepro said.

For St. Mark’s, bringing in new ideas can foster a stronger community. Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini believes that freedom of expression is one of the defining features of the school’s identity.

“It’s important that you create an environment that allows for and facilitates free inquiry and a foundation of academic freedom, where you can develop critical thinking skills,” Dini said.

He believes that critical thinking is developed by helping students formulate their own ideas rather than being pressured to accept someone else’s.

“The goal would be to help students learn how to think and not tell them what to think,” Dini said.

Malcolm K. and Brachman Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller has a similar view, emphasizing that the heart of education lies in the pursuit of truth — something that can

only be achieved when students are exposed to cognitive diversity.

“The goal of a course has to be the students getting to the truth as best they can,” Stegemoeller said. “And to do that, you want the best possible range of views to be discussed.”

However, cultivating that kind of intellectual diversity is easier said than done. External factors such as groupthink, fear of judgment, avoiding confrontation and academic incentives can all suppress creative innovation.

Irving Janis, a Yale professor and psychologist, coined the term groupthink in 1972 to describe the natural tendency to agree with the ideas of others and avoid conflict as a group.

“(Groupthink) narrows your perspective and narrows your potential for wider understanding,” Dini said. “That’s a danger and a risk that limits any person, organization or community, because it means you have less opportunity to engage and learn from other people.”

Graphic by Nicholas Huang

Associate Headmaster John Ashton believes that in an English class, students often feel forced to agree with what the rest of their classmates believe in. When students share ideas that have already been said, it limits the variety of thoughts.

“I think human nature is such that in a group of people, if we want to voice a thought or an idea contrary to the trending ideas within the group we’re in, to some degree, we feel a slight inhibition to share what the rest of the group thinks,” Ashton said.

While humans tend to avoid confrontation, Shepro believes disagreement is a learning opportunity that should be welcomed and not avoided.

“Everyone in the class benefits from hearing everyone else’s respective viewpoints, especially if they’re different,” Shepro said. “If everyone thinks the same thing and everyone’s always in agreement, then I feel like everyone having the same perspective is almost like having no perspective.”

Although Stegmoeller agrees that respectful disagreement is important, he also believes that some people can feel like their opinions are the only right viewpoint.

“There’s plenty of people who are okay with holding an untrue opinion or an untested opinion, because they like their opinion,” Stegemoeller said.

However, many people never pause to consider the possibility that their opinion is wrong — which in turn leads to dismissing other opinions immediately.

“You often hear this — ‘you don’t want to let someone give voice to a contrary view,’” Stegemoeller said. “‘By letting the voice speak that voice, which we have determined is wrong, could seduce an unsuspecting student into taking the wrong view — so it’s best just to block it out entirely, and then you avoid the potential problem.’”

For Shepro, being open to new ideas and exploring unknown boundaries is crucial for having a difficult or vexed conversation with any person.

“The whole point of discussion is to hear what other people think,” Shepro said. “You already know what you think about any given topic, and if you leave the room with the exact same thought of the topic that you entered with, then there was zero point in having that discussion in the first place.”

But in order to share these ideas, there has to be a setting to do so, and many students have struggled to find a safe space on campus.

“I’d say the bigger problem is that there’s just not enough places to discuss them right now, and it needs to be less taboo to discuss a lot of these political or social topics,” Herrera said.

To be able to discuss these divergent

points of view in a respectful manner, teachers have to moderate discussions in class. Yet, if a teacher starts dictating what is right and wrong, students can sense favoritism for certain perspectives, and that could discourage them from sharing their true opinions.

To avoid this conflict, Stegemoeller makes a conscious effort to stay neutral in discussions.

“I am very reluctant to say this is my view, just because there’s kids I know in the room who don’t have that view, and they might immediately feel ‘he’d think I’m stupid if I disagree with him and so I’m going to not talk,’” Stegemoeller said.

For history teacher Andrea Hamilton, implementing multiple views into her class is crucial for both her curriculum and way of thinking. She believes that it showcases a more complex and open way of thinking that offers a greater understanding of how history works.

I

THINK HUMAN NATURE IS SUCH THAT IN A GROUP OF PEOPLE, IF WE WANT TO VOICE A THOUGHT OR AN IDEA CONTRARY TO THE TRENDING IDEAS WITHIN THE GROUP WE’RE IN, TO SOME DEGREE, WE FEEL A SLIGHT INHIBITION TO SHARE WHAT THE REST OF THE GROUP THINKS.”

John Ashton, Associate

Headmaster

“I’m not teaching history as something to which there is one definitive answer,” Hamilton said. “There can be things that are factually wrong or right, but as far as interpretations, I think in most things that I teach, I’m trying to encourage students to think there’s not just one easy, black and white answer and that there’s always nuance.”

To help students feel more comfortable in sharing their genuine thoughts, Ashton believes that creating a supportive environment is crucial for a mutual learning experience. He also stressed that polarizing ideas must be well-thought-out in order to thrive in the classroom.

“(We want to create) a real feeling that in the classrooms, even if it’s a divergent idea, I can express it with my rationale and know I’m going to be listened to,” Ashton said.

Ashton believes St. Mark’s helps students develop the ability to speak their mind confidently while also being able to listen and appreciate others’ ideas.

“I think (one) of the many things you guys take from here after high school and into the world, is the ability to listen with respect and understanding to the views of others, while also feeling confident to share your own as well,” Ashton said.

Conversing around the Harkness table at school

The Harkness table promotes roundtable discussion, enabling students to share their opinions face-to-face in an environment where all voices are heard. Students engage directly with oneanother, and can build and challenge others’ opinions, making it an ideal space for cultivating diversity of thought.

For Hamilton, the genuine cognitive diversity at St. Mark’s helps the school stand out from others. Like Shepro and Ashton, she also believes the ideal environment is one where students are open to different ideas.

“St. Mark’s is at its best when you’re seeing people bringing different things to the table,” Hamilton said. “Whether that’s in a classroom discussion or an assembly, you see these multi-talented people, and you see their peers responding to them and being open to what they’re interested in.”

Beyond psychological issues, Stegemoeller believes that some students’ systemic approach to learning due to the overwhelming emphasis on grades can hurt their ability to meaningfully contribute to a discussion.

Although a lack of multiple opinions being shared due to social pressures is a major problem, Stegemoeller believes a bigger issue is students not being able to form their own opinions in the first place.

“People often think if there’s just one view that’s a lack of diversity, a bigger lack of diversity is zero views…I think that the issue behind the issue is that you have a system of education that leads to short term cramming for grades and leads people unknowledgeable at the end of the process, and being unknowledgeable is the ultimate lack of diversity of opinion,” Stegemoeller said.

Despite these challenges, Dini believes the school’s mission and community strengthens its ability to cultivate true intellectual diversity. When students feel a sense of shared ownership in the community — both in and out of class — he believes they’re more inclined to freely engage in polarizing discussions.

And in environments with true freedom of expression, it becomes even more important to draw the line between civil and disrespectful discussion. Dini emphasizes that although students may differ on opinion, shared values must anchor respectful debate.

“We have core values as a school that transcend ideology, religion, politics or perspective,” Dini said. “They’re common core values of humanity that we can all share. You may disagree on things, have different ideas or different backgrounds, but we can share respect, empathy, responsibility and compassion.”

For Hamilton, living up to these values goes further than simply displaying them at school — it’s about leaving a positive impact in every aspect of life.

“At the end of the day it’s up to the students,” Hamilton said. “Once you go beyond the classroom, how they’re going to react, whether they’re going to carry that out and be respectful and inclusive outside of the classroom when the teachers don’t have that control.”

In today’s world, self-censorship is one of the biggest barriers to diversity of thought. Here are some statistics from the Heterodox Academy’s 2023 Campus Expression Survey, FIRE’s 2024 Faculty Survey Report and the Knight Foundation’s 2024 report on free expression and campus speech views.

79%

Of students were somewhat or very reluctant to discuss at least one controversial topic.

2 in 3

Students believed self-censorship restricts productive discussion.

10%

Of students reported facing or threatened with disciplinary action for their speech.

60%

Of students believed their school culture restricted some speech.

43%

Of students believed freedom of speech in the US is secure.

15%

Of students were somewhat or very reluctant to discuss a typical topic in class.

1 in 4

Students believed online discussion is generally respectful.

27%

Of faculty report self-censoring due to fear of negative backlash.

66%

Of faculty believe colleges and universities should remain neutral on political and social issues.

Students discuss a variety of topics around a Harkness table during class.

Photos by Nicholas Huang

CoreWeave powers AI revolution

Continued from page 3

On March 28, CoreWeave launched its initial public offering (IPO), which raised $1.5 billion, making it the largest IPO of 2025. Currently, it is the only publicly traded company explicitly focused on cloud services for AI.

“Going public was an important step for us to service the demand profile of our clients,” McBee said. “To meet that demand, we needed more scalable ways of financing that demand, and you unlock different financing mechanisms as you move into the public markets.”

After graduating from St. Mark’s and earning a finance degree from the University of Colorado, McBee’s journey began as a proprietary trader in the hedge fund industry. His time as a trader served as a training ground where he sharpened both his technical skills and mentality, learning to confront his failures and grow from those experiences.

After a decade of hard work, he felt that he had achieved both the financial security and the confidence to bet on something bigger.

“Startups are hard when you’re underfunded,” McBee said. “Startups are hard when you don’t have something to fall back on. My startup would not have been successful if I hadn’t had a decade of very successful commodity trading. But I knew I could gamble a couple years on trying to make something work and then fall back on another career.”

Now, eight years after co-founding the company, McBee’s efforts have been pivotal in shaping CoreWeave’s growth. As Chief Development Officer, he’s responsible for raising capital — leading the IPO process,

managing investments and closing major mergers and acquisitions.

Following a $213 million revenue jump from $16 million in 2022 to $229 million in 2023, CoreWeave followed it with over a 730 percent jump from $229 million in 2023 to $1.9 billion in 2024. Now, the company is racing to sustain its rapid expansion, with internal projections estimating that it could reach $8 billion this year.

THE THING THAT HAS BEEN MOST IMPACTFUL FOR ME IS THIS CONCEPT AROUND FAILING FORWARD. IT’S A TOUGH THING TO TEACH, BUT IT’S SOMETHING THAT’S SO IMPORTANT TO GET AN EARLY RECOGNITION OF.”

Brannin McBee ‘04, CoreWeave co-founder

“We’re taking on these massive industrial-age era projects yet again, but in an immensely short time frame,” McBee said. “It’s like saying ‘we need to build this giant railroad network in the next three to five years.’ That’s the scale of what we’re looking at.”

With the rise of more visible and powerful generative tools, the conversation has shifted from quiet integration to global transformation.

“With a technology that’s able to simultaneously disrupt and be integrated into nearly every sector on the planet, we’re talking about massive changes at every level,” McBee said.

has grown from a small startup to a major player in the AI sector. Here are some key stats from its S-1 statement as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Food waste prompts environmental concerns

BY DOMINIC LIAW

Over a thousand pounds of food waste and nearly four tons of CO2 emissions later, society is faced with rising food waste concerns.

The school balances a delicate equation of food supply and environmental impacts: feeding hundreds of students and faculty members five days a week while simultaneously maintaining an environmentally conscious footprint.

Traditionally, the school has taken a conservative approach, prioritizing feeding the community. But as the school receives alarming statistics, former Green Team

sponsor Reily Walker doesn’t want the issue to remain silent forever.

“The amount of food that just gets scraped off of plates and into the trash cans in the cafeteria it’s a pretty telling story in terms of how much food we actually don’t even need to be making for our population,” Walker said.

However, Walker realizes that there are several challenges in reducing food waste.

“It’s hard to predict the palette of a Lower Schooler or a Middle Schooler and an Upper Schooler,” Walker said. “So, being able to anticipate how much food to create (is hard). Obviously, if you’re serving food to a community, being underprepared

As for the future of AI, the potential is limitless, as both students and professionals continue to adapt.

“(The demand for AI infrastructure) is definitely going to keep growing, maybe not at the rate it’s been growing the last couple of years as more and more companies have been adopting it,” Tholking said. “(People) have to look for ways to make themselves relevant and be able to work with AI.”

With CoreWeave at the forefront of the AI revolution, McBee’s ability to embrace failure has become one of his greatest strengths, a mindset that he credits to his time at St. Mark’s, where he first learned the value of critical thinking and resilience in overcoming challenges.

“St. Mark’s offered a unique level of autonomy—an ability to figure stuff out on your own,” McBee said. “For me, that sat less in direct classroom work, and it was actually more in the photography program because it encouraged failure. And that’s a really tough thing to teach in a strictly academic environment.”

Ultimately, he sees this mindset as the foundation of his success, one that will continue to propel CoreWeave to a bright future driving the AI revolution.

“The thing that has been most impactful for me is this concept around failing forward,” McBee said. “It’s a tough thing to teach, but it’s something that’s so important to get an early recognition of. People want to see that failure. They want to see that willingness to try something, to acknowledge that they were wrong, to fix what they were wrong about and to keep going forward. And I think that’s one of the more important fundamental aspects to the way that I’ve approached both my personal life and my public life.”

would be your worst-case scenario.”

Recognizing the inherent surplus of food waste, Walker proposes two solutions to the problem. For the school, she suggests repurposing excess food waste into compost.

“I do think setting up some kind of composting program would be really beneficial,” Walker said. “It’d be extra cool to be able to do it so that it comes back full circle on campus in some way, whether we have it composted into a community garden or something where we can then generate our own food too.”

Alternatively, Walker proposes a different solution donating unneeded

food waste to give back to the community. “I know we’ve done something in the past where we coordinate with shelters or things like pursuit kitchens, where we donate some of that unused food,” Walker said.

Within the community, Walker stresses the importance of educating students and faculty about environmental impacts.

“I think just more community, education and engagement, bringing in people who do this for their living it is pretty important to hear that lesson,” Walker said.

CoreWeave executives celebrate the company’s IPO at Nasdaq.

Photo Courtesy Brannin McBee

Trending social media diets raise concerns

W ith the rise of new health trends like the keto diet, there are also concerns about whether such diets are suitable for the general population. In addition, these diets are being pushed to a younger audience through social media platforms.

BY NICHOLAS HUANG AND EDDIE STEHEL

Through podcasts and other social media outlets, new diets such as the paleo and ketogenic (keto) diets have recently risen in popularity and have been pushed to a large audience, an audience that includes children.

But these diets are founded on shaky scientific foundations, and they likely aren’t suitable for students to try at home unless advised by a medical professional.

The paleo diet, for example, is based on the idea that “things were better back then,” but in this situation, “back then” references a time from over one million years ago. The focus of this diet is to avoid processed foods such as refined grains and dairy, replacing them with the foods that hunter-gatherers would eat. On social media platforms, this idea seems revolutionary, but the diet simply doesn’t fit the modern human’s nutritional needs.

“We don’t live in caves anymore, and we don’t go and source our own meat anymore,” school nurse Julie Doerge said. “We know just having one food in our diet is bad. You’re going to have deficiencies in your vitamins: vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin D and all those things are important.”

Another similar diet that appears on social media is the keto diet. For this diet, the focus is to minimize carbohydrate intake and to increase consumption of foods high in fats like avocados. The goal is to reach a state of ketosis, in which the body burns fats for energy instead of carbohydrates.

But yet again, the diet doesn’t provide enough balance and isn’t suitable for most people.

“In nursing, we like to look at it is that there should be no such thing as a diet,” Doerge said. “We stand by a well balanced diet, including fruits, vegetables, starch and protein. We really don’t like when people go down this path of excluding certain foods from their diet, especially young people, because as you grow, so does your brain and your bones.”

These types of diets are extremely difficult to sustain, and dropping the diet can result in regaining all of the weight lost. And even if the diet is sustained long-term, the keto diet currently doesn’t have sufficient studies in place to support them. According to the Harvard Medical School, the keto diet may actually cause negative heart effects after a while, especially since the diet concentrates so much on increasing the amount of saturated fats.

The bottom line is that these diets are completely lacking in major nutrient categories. The foods that these diets propose, like avocados or fruits, are certainly healthy and might promote weight loss, but the diets lack any form of balance. Experts suggest a much better alternative is to simply eat healthier altogether, rather than cutting out foods from the diet.

“It’s more or less about not trying to create a diet of some source, but just eating the natural foods that are given to us and being consistent when eating,” strength and conditioning coach Kevin Dilworth said. “The main thing with dieting is that it’s structured, yes, but every diet that’s out there doesn’t really work for everybody, and eating clean does.”

However, eating in this way provides some challenges towards athletes, especially those who are trying to hit their protein goals. Nevertheless, Dilworth’s philosophy is that there’s no point in

consuming unhealthy proteins; he would rather eat healthy, clean proteins.

“I’m not putting a slow protein into my body,” Dilworth said. “I prefer to eat chicken and fish, and, when I eat certain fish, I’m eating fish that are lean.”

And Dilworth’s extensive track experience serves as evidence that his methodology works, and he still eats clean to this day.

“In order to see success in the weight room or on the field, it (goes back to) what you put on your plate,” Dilworth said. “I was faster, I was stronger

Proposed bill threatens DART funding

BY BEN YI

More than 220,000 people across a 700 mile area depend on Dallas Area Rapid Transport (DART) everyday. Yet, despite its wide reach and continued growth, budget cut enforcements could leave the service crippled and unable to serve North Texas communities. Since the bill’s proposal in late February, DART has been faced with legislation that could drastically impact the entire system’s operations and development, seeking to strip away funding from the program. The bill aims to take away some of DART’s budget and reallocate it elsewhere.

“There are two identical bills that have been filed in the House and the Senate that look to defund DART by $235 million in year one and 25 percent in perpetuity — this will drastically reduce revenue needed for transit investments by $7 billion over a 20-year period,” Anna Kurian, the Vice President of Public Relations for DART, said. “In the first year alone, our operating revenues will drop by 34 percent, resulting in devastating cuts for the entire regional transit system at a time when we are on track to achieve the highest ridership in the history of DART in 2026.”

The bill currently being heard in the Texas House is HB 3187, which has not been voted out of the committee yet.

just because I changed my eating. It’s huge; it’s number one.”

Ultimately, the keto diet and the paleo diet try to provide shortcuts to weight loss, but there’s heated debate on whether or not these diets are healthy or not. But through all of the smoke and fog of these social media diets, one singular, tried and true method always works: the method of simply eating cleaner.

“In order for this bill to become a law it would have to be voted out of the House and the Senate,” Kurian said. “And get signed off by the governor before the end of this year’s legislative session. If these bills were to be signed into law they would go into effect in September of 2025.”

For those in need of the DART system everyday, this could have serious consequences and impacts on their everyday lives, limiting reach and fast mobility. For the future, this could lead to the delay, or even the end of upcoming projects.

“The system was built and voted on by the people. Our riders are students, workers, families and game day riders,”

Kurian said. “We have programs for low income persons to help them with their fares — the system is for the people. The consequences of reduced funding are that we would have to reduce our services — both for bus and rail, and our upcoming Silverline Regional Rail Project.”

While DART has been continually monitoring the bill’s progress, new solutions to the cutbacks have been proposed.

“The alternative solutions to what is being proposed in the legislature is to have these discussions at the city level which DART is actively doing,” Kurian said.

A student eats an unbalanced lunch, consisting of mostly meat, even though healthier food options like salads are available.

Photo by Peter Clark

Falling birth rates spark population crisis

Birth rates are dropping across the globe threatening economies and population stability, but many viable solutions emerge.

BY MARSHALL SUDBURY AND LUCAS PEI

The magic number is 2.1 — the number of births per woman needed for a society to maintain its population, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The United States currently sits at an estimated 1.6 births per woman, ranking 137th in the world. Nine of the 10 countries with the highest birth rates are developing nations in Africa, led by Chad at nearly six children per woman. On the other end of the spectrum sits South Korea at only around 0.75 births per woman.

There’s no single cause behind high or low birth rates, but there are several common factors. According to Tasadduq Shervani, an Associate Professor at Southern Methodist University who specializes in declining birth rates, elements such as industrialization, access to birth control and the cost of raising a child all contribute.

“Above all, birth rates are influenced by the education of women,” Shervani said. “The early years of getting higher education and the first few years in the workforce heavily overlap with the biological clock for having children. There is simply less time for women to have children.”

In many developed nations, men and women participate almost equally in the labor force, which means fewer families will have someone staying home to raise children, often requiring payment for external childcare.

“It’s very expensive to raise children. Therefore, there is a disincentive to having large families,” History and Social Science Department Chair David Fisher said. “I have two kids. I come from a family of four. My mother comes from a family of ten. You can see that the size of the family has been getting smaller with each generation.”

As birth rates decline, modern societies and economies are adjusting to a shrinking workforce for the first time,

which could have adverse effects.

“We are now facing a situation in which we will not have enough workers and consumers in the global economy as a result of declining birth rates,” Shervani said. “It’s bringing about a complete 180 degree change in the way people think about the world’s future.”

A smaller workforce also means that there will be a time where the number of elderly and retired people surpasses the taxes paid by workers.

WE ARE NOW FACING A SITUATION IN WHICH WE WILL NOT HAVE ENOUGH WORKERS AND CONSUMERS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AS A RESULT OF DECLINING BIRTH RATES.”

Tasadduq Shervani, Associate Professor at SMU

“A large number of older people places demands on social services, and there’s no money to support them because the tax base is low,” Fisher said. “That means that the government has to borrow money, but that puts pressure on the financial system by raising interest rates, which makes it difficult for other parts of the economy to grow, and, therefore, the economy stagnates.”

In response, governments across the world have tried various policies to encourage childbirth and ease the burden of raising children. Recently in the United States, President Donald Trump floated the idea of a $5,000 ‘Baby Bonus’ for American mothers in addition to existing child tax credits.

“Those incentives and policies have made a slight difference in increasing birth rates a bit, but, in no country have

California rebuilds after devastating fires

BY LUKE NGUYEN

Following 14 destructive wildfires, Southern California is facing a difficult task: rebuilding both residential and commercial areas. Locals are no strangers to evacuations related to the wildfires, with smoke affecting air quality in cities as far as San Francisco and Reno, Nevada. However, the scale of the fires in January surpass that of any previous fires.

Lauren Logan, Middle School math teacher and community service coordinator, who was born and raised in San Diego, remembers the devastating

effects of fires on neighborhoods.

“In fifth grade, there was a huge one,” Logan said. “We actually had to evacuate, and a lot of my elementary school friends lost their homes. I was fortunate that my home was still standing afterwards.”

Logan has family that was forced to evacuate by the January fires, such as her sister, who now lives in Los Angeles.

“She was fortunate to be able to drive down and evacuate to the house that I grew up in in San Diego,” Logan said. “She was fine, but she did say it brought back a lot of memories from when we grew up.”

To her, the experience was comparable

these policies succeeded to the extent that they have been able to reverse the decline,” Shervani said. “Things like maternity leave, making sure that (parents) have enough time (with their children) encourage more people to have babies because they are going to continue to be paid while they’re on leave.”

Historically in the U.S., the most effective solution has been immigration. An influx of foreign-born workers can supplement the lack of native-born workers.

“We’re not at a crisis point in this economy because of immigration,” Fisher said. “Up until the current administration, immigration was high and the foreign-born population was large, so we don’t have that choke point in the labor supply chain.”

But not all countries are welcoming immigration as a possible solution. Many factors, including cultural reactions, play a role in how open a country’s immigration policy is.

“Japan has historically been against immigration because they want to preserve Japanese culture,” Fisher said. “But there’s a trade off. You can preserve Japanese culture by ensuring that there are few people who immigrate into Japan, but the result will be a stagnant economy. In a place like the US, which is a more open society and our culture is more dynamic, we have less of a culture to preserve.”

Shervani believes that the best solution might be one of the simplest – make life easier for women and families.

“One thing we know will work is to make life easier for women and make it possible for them to have more children,” Shervani said. “I think what policymakers can do is really focus on making the world a better place for women and children.”

to what happened when a tornado hit Dallas in October 2019, leaving many without homes. The Santa Ana winds create unpredictability in the spread of the fires, changing their direction drastically in as little as two hours. In her sophomore year of high school, Logan’s school closed for a week, which students dubbed “fire week.”

“The fires were so bad that the air quality was horrible. We couldn’t go outside, so it wasn’t even that fun to not have school for a week,” Logan said. “You couldn’t go and do anything. You were basically on house arrest for a week because of the air quality.”

According to Logan, California is rebuilding from the January fires in the same way that it rebuilt from the fires of her childhood. Families that evacuate generally stay at hotels or move in with another family until insurance comes in, but with the recent fires affecting more than houses, including structures such as malls, complete recuperation will take even longer.

“People completely have no home. They have no school. They have no grocery store. Everything was burned down, so they’ll have to start over,” Logan said. “That’s going to take a very long time.”

An lone baby stroller rolls on the sidewalk, left completely empty.

Photo Courtesy Creative Commons

ACADEMICS

NEWS IN BRIEF

BRENDAN COURT SUMMER PROGRAM

The Brendan Court Summer Program is an enrichment project organized by teachers Jorge Correa and Dr. Katherine Anson. Students from underprivileged communities around Dallas are invited to participate alongside student volunteers from the school. The program aims to provide a fun experience for both the participants and instructors through community building activities.

QUIZ BOWL Despite a difficult bracket, the Quiz Bowl team won its second consecutive Small School National School Championship. In an impressive performance, the A, B and C teams placed 1st, 17th and 7th respectively. During the second game of the finals, the A team managed to claw back from a deficit in the first half and win the tournament from behind.

THE GALLERY

SINKING FEELING by senior Carson Bosita WHAT INSPIRED THIS CREATION?

CB: “Sinking Feeling represents the downward passage of time. A broken clock plunges into the sea behind a lurking phantom jellyfish, a midnight zone creature that drifts lethargically in the abyss and envelops prey in ribbon-like tentacles. Days sometimes feel like they will stretch on forever, yet the seconds tick by and the assumed eternity gets devoured in slow motion. Our hours will inevitably disappear into the depths if we neglect the significance of every single moment.”

PAGE TURNER

EC: “It’s a novel set during the Battle of Gettysburg, and it follows a lot of real figures on both the Union and the Confederate side. Shaara definitely did a lot of research; a lot of the things that characters say are things that are said in memoirs later. It’s really fascinating, and it’s not too long either. It’s a great book if you’ve just studied this war and you’re interested in it.”

New teaching methods reshape math learning

Elementary and middle school students saw a large decline in mathematics performance after the pandemic, triggering the rise of new teaching methods focused on understanding rather than memorization.

BY CHRISTOPHER HUANG AND RONIT KONGARA

He sits at his desk, hands over his head, a sheet of paper in front of him. On the sheet are math problems unlike anything he’s done in class, leaving him unsure and frustrated on how to continue.

This student isn’t alone. Nationwide, math scores plummeted after the pandemic, dropping 7 percent in 2022. Studies done by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Education Recovery Scorecard show that math continues to stay at lower levels compared to pre-pandemic numbers in the majority of the US. However, they also show that there is progress being made in many districts towards reaching higher math proficiency.

The progress is in large part due to the adoption of different teaching methods — ones that focus on conceptualization rather than memorization. Teachers promote tools such as manipulatives, like multiplication blocks or fake money, to help visualize math and to learn how to solve problems. These new methods are a part of a movement emphasizing understanding in math education that initially spiked in the 90s. However, a key difference between the current movement and the movement that stretched from the 80s to 90s is the research behind it.

“(These methods now) have their own set of research findings on how how to best foster learning for students confronting complex problems, them collaborating with each other, them using authentic kind of modeling meaningful to them, to their communities, to their lives, them creating products that they can showcase and revise,” Chair and Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University Candace Walkington said.

According to Walkington, another difference comes from what the courses aim to prepare the students for. The traditional teaching, focused on memorization and following the basics, is geared towards preparing students to be efficient workers in their future. The methods focused on concept understanding, however, are more poised to be creative thinkers and entrepreneurs.

Though there are many benefits to the new methods, there are also several obstacles in implementing them into existing curriculums, often causing educators to stay away from the unfamiliar.

see TEACHING on page 12

BY LUCAS PEI

Dallas isn’t the first place people think of when the term “prairie” is mentioned.

Nevertheless, Dallas is still an integral part of the Texas Blackland Prairie, and only a fraction of the original prairie remains today. The St. Mark’s Master Naturalists club focuses on restoring the native environment that once flourished in Texas.

“We have a lot of projects,” club president Max Yan said. “Most of them are on the Northaven Trail. Our primary goal is to promote prairie restoration. Only around 0.1 percent of it exists now, so it is important that we keep native plants from going extinct.”

The organization plants many native species along the trail to combat the rapid decline of prairie land in the past century. The decline was primarily driven by urbanization and improper agricultural treatment.

“We have a big stockpile of seeds that the club has collected over the years,” club vice president Neel Jain said. “We go out to remnants and collect seeds, sow the seeds in and out of the greenhouse, and finally we plant them (along the Northaven trail).”

In addition to growing plants, the club uses techniques like transplanting to preserve plants at critical sites. This work allows certain species to continue growing in a different environment.

“We go to remnants that are going to be destroyed soon and dig up plants,” Jain said. “Then we plant them at the Northaven site.”

The club also aims to help bring awareness to the issue of local ecosystems being destroyed. By planning all their projects in public places, they gain visibility in the community.

“This is a very hands-on, active organization,” Yan said. “All of our projects are designed to be a community experience. Sometimes people stop by to ask questions while we’re out there. There is a sense that anybody can see our work.”

The organization is not just about conservation. It aims to help people rediscover a connection to the environment that is often overlooked in their daily lives.

“As a society, we need to reconnect with nature more often and reestablish that as an important part of our lives,” Jain said. “It’s a special experience to step outside of our industrial lives and into nature. We’re a part of nature, not trying to build over it.”

Individual efforts alone aren’t enough to reverse decades of environmental changes. However, their work has a large impact by raising awareness and inspiring others.

“The things that we do probably won’t directly save a species,” Yan said. “One garden won’t directly save the Texas Blackland Prairie. However, through the organization, we’re able to spread awareness and get more people involved. That is what I think is really important.”

Librarian Elise Chevalier recommends The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

A lower schooler, engaged in his studies, works on a math worksheet.

Photo by Terrence Cao

AI tutors revolutionize education

AI has recently found its way into the field of education with the introduction of AI tutors, which are purportedly better than human educators. These bots have the potential to “democratize education” and close the educational gap due to their wide accessibility.

BY MICHAEL CHANG AND CHRISTOPHER HUANG

Alpha High School, a small private school based in Austin, boasts an average SAT score of 1530 for its Class of 2025 seniors.

Students arrive at 8:30 a.m, engage in a motivational activity, and then finish the learning day with only 3 hours of classes. Interestingly enough, the school claims that their methods “ensure mastery of material” twice as fast as “traditional methods.”

And perhaps even more interestingly, at Alpha High School, there are no teachers.

This is because their students learn from Artificial Intelligence (AI) tutoring technology instead of traditional human educators as a part of the 2-Hour Learning program, which claims to use “adaptive AI technology” to help kids learn “2x faster”.

As the flagship campus of the 2-Hour Learning program, Alpha High School is the perfect example of a growing trend that is poised to change the way students learn around the globe: the integration of AI technology into education.

izing in natural language understanding, said. “They’ll know more about you, so they can teach you in a style that you are the most comfortable learning in. And obviously these models have knowledge in a lot of different topics, so they might actually know a lot more about what you’re being taught than your teacher.”

One of the most important aspects of the integration of AI into education is the potential for AI tutors to “democratize” education, closing the educational gap that causes poorer students to receive worse educational outcomes. The creation of AI tutors now makes it possible for anyone with a laptop or phone to have access to a nonhuman teacher. Ironically, however, the “AI-powered” Alpha High School has a tuition of around $40,000.

AI tutor technology has risen to prominence, exemplified by the release of Khan Academy’s Khanmigo

Illustration by Kiran Parikh

One of the most significant applications of AI in the education sector is the AI tutor, a chatbot, like ChatGPT, that can respond to questions from users and serve as a nonhuman tutor. Multiple companies have come out with AI tutors; in particular, Khanmigo, an AI tutor developed by the founder of KhanAcademy, recently gained significant attention for being able to serve as a teaching assistant for teachers and a tutor for students. Khanmigo is now even being integrated into some schools.

“(AI tutors), if they’re personalized, can teach you what you don’t know,” Abhiramon Rajasekharan, a PhD researcher at UTD special-

Dr. Martin Stegemoeller, the Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master English Teacher Chair, has recently made an effort to encourage his students to use AI in productive ways. He views the significant developments in AI tutors as largely positive.

“If you’re curious, you have some minimal knowledge and you have the time and the discipline, you have the most amazing tutor possible 24/7,” Stegemoeller said. “And for most people, that could be a great add-on (to traditional learning).”

AI tutors also have the ability to test knowledge at a significantly deeper level than traditional paper-based tests. Not only are the bots able to develop an understanding about a student’s educational needs, but they can also adapt their

teaching style based on those specific needs.

“If there were AI-based assessments that could really tell if you remembered anything, then you’re in a different situation,” Stegemoeller said. “(Students) could be learning so much from the bot and going faster, because they’re being assessed on retained learning and motivation to learn rather than short-term crammable assessments.”

PEOPLE MIGHT EVEN BE ABLE TO TRAIN (A BOT) TO HAVE ITS OWN VIBRANT PERSONALITY. HOWEVER, WHEN ANOTHER HUMAN BEING CHOOSES TO LOVE YOU, THAT MEANS A LOT, AND AN AI BOT CANNOT CHOOSE TO LOVE YOU. I DON’T THIKN THAT WILL EVER BE REPLACED.”

Stegemoeller believes that AI has already reached a level of sophistication that allows for serious, tangible use. However, it’s mainly up to the students as users to provide good prompts to the bot. While AI tutors have the potential to revolutionize teaching, many rely on the technology to minimize effort rather than learning.

“My own students are not very good at prompting toward independent learning,” Stegemoeller said. “They’ve almost never tried. If a teacher allows it, they ask themselves, ‘How do I use AI to minimize what I put in and get out what I need for my assignment?’ That’s not wrong. People are just much better at using it to cut corners than they are (at using it) to learn.”

These AI tutor bots are built on what are called

Martin Stegomoeller, Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master English Teaching Chair

Martin Stegomoeller Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master English Teaching Chair

large language models, or LLMs for short. LLMs are trained on huge datasets, allowing them to become extremely proficient in natural language processing (NLP) tasks, meaning that they are able to understand prompts and respond to them in human-like ways. LLMs are the basis for most chatbots, the most famous being ChatGPT. In this case, AI tutor bots built on LLMs are specialized toward the purpose of serving as tutors that can effectively respond to questions or prompts by students trying to learn.

“With LLMs, companies can now build applications which can do the whole search process for you,” Rajasekharan said. “It can go through all these articles and go through textbooks and go through lectures on the internet and on YouTube, and it can figure out the information that you’re looking at, and it can teach students exactly the information they want.”

A hybrid between a rigorous in-person school like St. Mark’s and AI tutor technology has the potential to be extremely beneficial for students. Kids who are truly “above and beyond” have the opportunity to explore more advanced classes with their AI tutors while still maintaining human relationships with teachers.

“You can imagine a hybrid between the way St. Mark’s is now and the way the Alpha school is, which might be a great compromise,” Stegemoeller said. “Some kids who are beyond multivariable calculus or already taking physics classes could demonstrate (their proficiency) in other ways.”

AI tutors are already finding uses in classrooms nationwide, with many schools choosing to integrate this new technology as part of certain pilot programs. Khanmigo claims to be used by more than 400 school districts, an impressive number considering it was released for early use in March 2023. The use of such technology seems poised to only increase as the government begins to take interest in the topic of AI in education, as evidenced by the recent executive order “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education For American Youth,” declared on April 23, 2025.

In fact, AI tutors are a viable next step in the field of

of

educational technology and have the potential to solve the infamous Bloom’s 2 sigma problem.

A famous paper published in 1984 by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom found that the average student receiving one-on-one tutoring with mastery learning techniques performed around two standard deviations better than the average student learning in a conventional classroom setting; the tutored students were shown to be above 98 percent of the control students.

This finding, now called Bloom’s 2 sigma problem, established the key idea that a student-teacher ratio of 1:1 was optimal and that mastery learning techniques, which prioritize the mastery of a concept before moving on to harder ones, were the best way to teach. While this revelation has been widely known for many decades now, the traditional classroom learning that Bloom critiqued in his paper has remained the main method

of teaching, as it has been impossible to find a way to widely implement his solution.

Now, as AI is being integrated into education technology, the solution to Bloom’s 2 sigma problem seems closer than ever. AI tutors provide a one-to-one tutoring experience for anyone with a laptop, ensuring “personalized” education. On top of that, these tutors can be designed to instruct with mastery learning techniques, as with the 2 Hour Learning program.

However, AI tutors are not perfect yet, and are sometimes susceptible to an LLM-affecting phenomenon known as “hallucination.” These “hallucinations” are caused by a multitude of issues during training of an LLM, and they can cause AI tutor bots to say wrong answers with complete confidence. At the end of the day, these bots are not human and do not have a complete understanding of the world.

Although human tutors make mistakes as well, the singular thing AI tutor bots lack compared to their human counterparts is the aspect of human connection.

“You come to love the particular angle on life that a person or a teacher has,” Stegemoeller said. “Think of your favorite teacher ever. You probably respect their angle, their humor, their way of talking and their way of using shorthand.”

There is something unique and special about rela-

tionships between humans that simply cannot be replaced by AI. AI tutors do not have personalities or sentient thoughts — their intelligence is, after all, artificial. The simple action of thinking about another human being is what separates humans from AI.

“People might even be able to train (a bot) to have its own vibrant personality,” Stegemoeller said. “However, when another human being chooses to love you, that means a lot, and an AI bot cannot choose to love you. I don’t think that will ever be replaced.”

As the data sets LLMs are trained on become more vast and accurate, hallucinations will occur less frequently; the quality of AI tutors will grow asymptotically close to or perhaps even surpass that of human teachers. Stegomoeller believes that this level of sophistication is closer than most individuals think.

“I think this is going to happen decades before anybody would have guessed just a few years ago,” Stegomoeller said. “In one to two years, you’re going to have AI that is as good as anyone in the world. And then four years, five years out, you’re going to have AI smarter than the entire human race, and that is truly astonishing to think about.”

While it’s impossible to determine whether this “AI revolution” will ultimately be beneficial for students, people can certainly expect artificial intelligence to become more human-like in the near-future. AI tutors may even develop a twisted but convincing persona tailored to each student’s individual taste — and perhaps learn more about individuals than those individuals know about themselves.

“Anybody who wants to learn anything about the world might have an app, and the bot on this app is going to learn more about you,” Rajasekharan said. “It’s going to know more about your life, how you learn, things that you understand, things that you don’t understand, and it’s going to teach you in a style that you’ll understand best. And so you can learn whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. I think that is the most exciting thing about AI tutor bots in the future.”

AI SCHOOLS

GT SCHOOL

K-8 “Gifted and Talented” school based in Georgetown, Texas that uses the 2-Hour Learning model.

UNBOUND ACADEMY

Online, tuition-free, public charter school for Arizona students grades 4-8 that is also a member school of the 2 Hour Learning program.

ALPHA SCHOOL (FORT WORTH)

New location of the Alpha School program opening for the 2025-2026 school year, K-8 school with $40,000 tuition.

AI TUTORS HUMAN TEACHERS

when discussing complex topics

Stegomoeller teaches a student in his class.

Khanmigo, an AI tutor developed by Khan Academy

Photo by Sebastian Gonzalez Courtesy Khan Academy

Courtesy AI Tutor Pro

Lower Schoolers excel in math learning

continued from page 9

“People will try the conceptual understanding approach and get frustrated with it after a short time, and then they fall back to traditional instruction. You know what their memorization, what they’re familiar with, what they perceive has always worked, even though, if you look at the evidence, it hasn’t really always worked,” Walkington said.

In the Dallas Independent School District, a new system of math teaching, called Eureka Math, was implemented in 2023 as a part of a state-wide effort to improve math testing scores. Eureka aims to help students better understand math concepts through collaborative work, exploration of concepts, and modeling problems by connecting to real life.

The goal of math teachers in the Lower School is to give their students a strong education. Like the Eureka math curriculum and other initiatives to improve math proficiency, the lower school teachers focus on getting the students to truly understand mathematical concepts instead of memorizing them, and tools like manipulatives are used in the classroom to help with this understanding.

“We take (the students) through lots of different ways to do the same problem, and I emphasize that we can be flexible in our thinking and we have different methods and I just am building their toolkit so that they can see the math,” fourth grade math teacher Lee-Ann Graham said. “A lot of that is using manipulatives and using models.”

Math teachers in the lower school teach from a set of books called GO Math!, a K-6 math curriculum aligned with Common Core standards. These textbooks were adopted into the lower school math curriculum in 2012, and as they continue to be improved, students at St. Mark’s learn from the most updated ones.

To ensure academic rigor, students are taught from the books marked for one grade level higher. One of the biggest reasons these textbooks are used is because teachers find that they are structured in a way that is very conducive to learning.

“In our GO Math! textbook, each day we start with an essential question (regarding) what they should be able to do by the time that lesson is done, and then we review a tiny bit, then we do a model and draw,” first grade math teacher Teri Broom said. “None of what we do in our lessons ever is rote.”

By combining unique teaching methods with a strong learning structure provided by a rigorous curriculum, the teachers help lower school students build a strong foundation in math that not only helps them perform well now but also prepares them for higher level mathematics later on.

“I would have loved to have been taught this way when I was growing up because when I was growing up, it was just ‘Do this,’” Graham said. “There was no understanding about why you were doing anything. And so now as a teacher teaching the Common Core and the different, deeper ways to get a conceptual understanding, I would have understood this a ton better. It is really wonderful the way that math is taught these days.”

However, not everything is based on the textbook. The math teachers often go beyond the book and enrich the learning experience of the students by offering special activities, like deriving the value of pi on Pi Day, March 14, or an after school “math club” to help students with more specialized instruction. To give the students a challenge, the math teachers sometimes give the students puzzles or tests like the Continental Mathematics League (CML) test.

In order to create an environment conducive to learning, lower school math teachers try to make the classroom a place where students are comfortable with making mistakes. For teachers like Graham, one of the most valuable things students can learn from her class is the lesson of not being afraid to make mistakes.

“I also want (my students) to learn that this is a safe place to take a risk and make a mistake,” Graham said. “That’s the culture that I’m trying to build here because I want their confidence in their math abilities to go sky high and for them to be able to try different things, and sometimes students can be very subdued if they don’t feel like they have a safe place to ask questions.”

Ultimately, the goal of lower school math teachers and the math program as a whole is to help already talented students attain a high level of mathematics mastery based on a strong understanding of fundamental concepts.

Seniors explore passions in fine arts

The fine arts program, spanning visual arts, music, drama, and media, has served Marksmen as a creative outlet for many years.

BY KAYDEN ZHONG AND WYATT AUER

Long after the bell rings in the chapel and students flow to the parking lot, a select few stay behind: in the ceramics studio, in the drawing and painting workshop, in the photography darkroom and in the film studies suite, all working to get projects in before deadlines.

As a graduation requirement, all Upperclassmen must complete at least one year of one of the many fine arts programs offered: debate, film, photography, ceramics, acting, drawing and painting, band, orchestra, wood and metal and choir. While some students choose to complete their one year requirement and focus on other aspects of schooling, some embrace it as a crucial part of their campus life, encompassing all four years of their time here.

From a young age, senior Carson Bosita found joy in drawing alongside his three brothers. These early experiences sparked a lifelong interest in visual storytelling.

Throughout Middle and Upper School, Bosita honed his skills in various mediums. As his schedule became busier with fencing tournaments, he transitioned to digital art for its portability.

“As a kid, it’s always fun to just draw,” Bosita said. “During Middle School and the beginning of Upper School, I was making physical paintings with acrylic, oil, charcoal drawings and stuff like that. I was just trying to hone my skills as an artist in general. I have to learn that on my own because our teacher mostly does physical art.”

Bosita’s digital works try to explore themes of modern life and act as a reflection for our modern existence.

“A few of my paintings focused on, ironically, getting stuck in screen time and stuff, or being stuck in the passage of time and being forgotten,” Bosita said.

Beyond personal expression, he finds fulfillment in collaborative projects with organizations on campus, helping to design the senior shirts.

“It’s the simpler logos and stuff that I’m able to share with other people,” Bosita said. “Take their ideas, put them onto paper or on a shirt, in a way that they really want and they would like, and help them that way. In college, I’m probably going to be designing more clothes and stuff like posters for clubs on campus.”

While Bosita channels his creativity through visual arts, another senior, Cam Hurley, has a passion for a different and more dynamic visual art, film, an interest that was instilled at a very young age.

“I always loved entertainment and eventually that morphed into movies,” Hurley said. “I have always loved going to the movie theater, and that just kind of blossomed from there.”

One film, Lilo and Stitch, struck him at a young age for its impactful message and ability to reach vast audiences. Hurley immersed himself in the Film Studies program, which offers students the opportunity to write, produce, and edit their own projects.

The program encourages students interested in community service through film to join the LionHeart Club, where they create public service announcements for local non-profit organizations.

“I was working with seniors when I was a sophomore, and now I’m a senior working with sophomores and freshmen,” Hurley said. “That’s been the rewarding part,

getting to strengthen those relationships through a mutual goal.”

Hurley is a proponent of the importance of characterdriven narratives, citing filmmakers like Richard Linklater and Alfonso Cuarón as influences.

“Both of them tell stories with really human characters, and I really enjoy that,” Hurley said.

Hurley believes that exposure to diverse film styles enhances a filmmaker’s perspective.

“If a filmmaker really loves Marvel movies, I think they should be exposed to the opposite,” Hurley said. “Getting out of one’s comfort zone is what makes a filmmaker great.”

Highlighting the importance of fundamental storytelling principles, Hurley has some criteria for the truly great film that he strives to achieve and encourages others to achieve through the film program. Most importantly, he believes that a good film needs to have good characters and a good story. And as he prepares for the next chapter, Hurley is set on pursuing a career in filmmaking.

“After high school, I’m planning on going to film school,” Hurley said. “I hope to have a career in filmmaking. That’s kind of the hope. I want to make movies in order to make an impact on others, not necessarily for anything for myself.”

And just across from Hurley in the film studies studio, senior Tiger Yang spends hours editing and perfecting photos in the darkroom and photography suite. Yang always knew that he wanted to become an integral part of the photography program: one of the main reasons he applied to the school in the first place was to be able to work under the guidance of Scott Hunt, Fine Arts Department Chair and Arnold E. Holtberg Master Teaching Chair in photography.

“It was a dream come true to be able to learn from Mr. Hunt and my fellow classmates,” Yang said. “I love the community. It’s just great to do photography with a bunch of guys who also get it.”

An award-winning photographer, Yang has dedicated much of his time and life to the photography program and polishing his art. From planning his journeys and trips to buying necessary equipment, everything is done in careful preparation for the perfect shot. For Yang, his biggest inspirations are Gregory Crewdson and Henri Cartier Bresson, two photographers with seemingly clashing styles: the former preferring elaborate staging and the latter a master of street photography and the “decisive moment.” Both styles are evident in Yang’s work, and for him his favorite memory from photography was one of a challenge.

“I was trying to light a cube with my classmates for an assignment where we had to light three sides of the cube, have them be more or less exactly +1, 0 and -1 stop exposures, and have it float on a pitch-black background,” Yang said. “We were literally and figuratively in the dark and spent hours in the photography studio because Mr. Hunt didn’t give us any tips about how to do it. It was a struggle, and we’re so stressed out because it’s a major grade. But we got it – eventually.”

From his time with the photography program, Yang has taken away four lessons.

“Learn from the masters, aim for greatness, know when something is not ‘good enough’ and learn to collaborate,” Yang said.

Art pieces, photographs and films by seniors Carson Bosita, Tiger Yang and Cam Hurley, respectively, have won numerous awards.

Photos Courtesy Tiger Yang

Lee-Ann Graham Lower School math instructor

Film program impacts local community

BY SEBASTIAN GARCIA-TOLEDO

It’s a bright, shining day as two rescue dogs play with each other in their enclosure. Volunteers and workers feed puppies, and play with kittens.

The film program recently went to Carrollton to film a PSA video for Operation Kindness as part of a larger push to move out into the greater Dallas community and gain professional crew experience.

“This year we did two big group projects, as well as two documentary-style videos for local non-profits,” senior Cam Hurley said. “We did a short for Operation Kindness, the shelter, and that was really fun; getting out there, playing with the dogs, but also doing some good.”

Despite the seemingly carefree nature of filming with puppies, the project served not only as a way for the film students to practice their skills but also as an experience working in an environment where the quality of the project has actual impacts.

“It’s one thing if you let yourself down and maybe don’t get the best grade,” film studies instructor Mark Scheibmeir said. “It’s another thing when you’re letting down children or animals that need homes; the stakes are a little bit higher. So it’s really great to see the guys rally around that, and they’re all really supportive of each other during that process.”

Learning to handle these new environments is part of the film experience — with the increasing importance of the projects, the professionalism of the crew must also increase.

But these students are no strangers to that. With the seniors’ years of experience on set, they can aid the new generation in continuing to produce high-quality work.

“I think the older guys have been on more and more sets, so when you’re walking in as a freshman, it’s a new experience,” Scheibmeir said. “And then whenever they work on more and more projects, they start to understand the differentiation between labor, different categories of what jobs everybody has. And then whenever the older guys come in, they know it’s on them to lead, so that’s where I think the professionalism comes in too. They understand those jobs, and they help everybody grow into those jobs as well.”

The work that the program has put into maintaining a high standard of conduct on set has paid off. The program had filmmakers bring back first place in the ATPI Dramatic category and second place finishes in the Comedy, PSA/Comedy and Documentary categories.

Their success resulted in an overall second place finish for top video after a triple tie-breaker. These awards reflect both their creative talent and the professionalism they’ve cultivated through real-world experience.

Instructors choose careers in teaching instead of research

The path to earning a PhD takes years of research and dedication. At school, some faculty members have taken that route and chosen careers in education over academia.

BY MICHAEL CHANG AND RISHIK KAPOOR

Less than 2 percent of the world’s population possess a doctorate degree. And less than 3 percent of high school teachers have ever taken a PhD program.

While obtaining that coveted title of “Doctor” demands an incredible amount of dedication to one’s craft, St. Mark’s boasts many passionate PhD-possessing instructors.

College graduates who wish to pursue a doctorate typically apply to several PhD programs in hopes of securing an acceptance to one of them.

These graduate school applications, with their own required letters of recommendation and standardized test scores, closely mimic current college applications.

Some programs even enforce qualifying exams to proactively weed out weaker students.

Afterwards, PhD candidates immediately dive into advanced post-graduate classes while simultaneously working on as-yet unsolved problems — this process is aptly known as “research.”

Much of a candidate’s research will eventually become part of his or her dissertation, the culmination of multiple years’ worth of hard work and deep thinking.

Once an individual earns a PhD, he or she have multiple avenues of work that they can pursue.

Some choose to continue researching as a professor — by far the most popular choice — and others choose to go into industry.

But some, like history instructor Bruce Westrate and biology instructor Dan Lipin, decide to impart their knowledge on younger generations by teaching at K-12 schools.

Westrate, who obtained his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1982, explored many different careers after finishing graduate school.

“I’ve always wanted to do something related to the study of history,” Westrate said. “Unfortunately, in the 1970s and 1980s, the job market was very poor, so I did all kinds of other

jobs because I had kids. I also taught part-time; I taught at Lake Michigan University, Purdue and also at Indiana University.”

However, he eventually learned about St. Mark’s at a history seminar in Austin.

Partially driven by his kids approaching college, Westrate made the decision to move down to Dallas and apply for a master teaching position at the school, where he’s taught since then.

“The school contacted me and I flew down,” Westrate said. “They made me a nice offer, so that’s why I came down here. I didn’t have any experience in private schools like this; I didn’t know schools like this really existed, because I was raised in a small public school.”

THERE’S NOTHING MORE FULFILLING THAN HELPING YOUNG MINDS LEARN ABOUT HISTORY. BECAUSE HONESTLY, I DON’T KNOW HOW THEY CAN BECOME GOOD CITIZENS WITHOUT KNOWING A LITTLE ABOUT HISTORY. AND I HOPE I CAN BE THE ONE TO PROVIDE THAT FOR MY STUDENTS.”

Dr. Bruce Westrate, history instructor

One aspect of the school Westrate particularly enjoys is the freedom he gets to teach his students in the way he finds best.

“No one interferes with me,” Westrate said. “St. Mark’s makes its decision on you when you’re hired. Then after that, there’s very little in terms of micromanaging how you teach your class. That kind of freedom is something that you don’t necessarily get in college.”

Lipin, on the other hand, first decided to work at the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca after earning his master’s degree.

His research at AstraZeneca mainly focused on various methods of manufacturing vaccines, but after working there for two years, he decided to leave

and pursue additional higher education.

“After I graduated, it was very challenging to get a job,” Lipin said. “But my parents said, ‘why don’t you go get more education?’ And so I decided to do a PhD at the University of Queensland, Australia.”

Although Lipin originally planned to go into industry with his PhD, a side experience teaching at a summer camp opened his eyes to what he truly wanted.

Research can be hit-or-miss for many people, and some individuals genuinely enjoy the struggle of solving original problems while others find the work mind-numbing.

“I didn’t think I wanted to spend my entire life doing (research),” Lipin said. “I could and had done it, but I just didn’t think it was the thing for me. I actually worked for a summer as a counselor, and when I finished it, I said, ‘I want to become a teacher.’ And when I went for interviews, I found that I wasn’t telling them what they wanted to hear. It was coming from inside, and I knew that I had found something that was worthwhile and that I would enjoy.”

Similar to Lipin, Westrate found teaching students to be much more rewarding than his research experience, despite his success in writing research papers and bestselling books.

“Making a lasting contribution to the lives of young students is something I don’t think I would’ve found in research,” Westrate said. “Research is important, but it can be tedious, and after you publish a book, you’re just sitting around waiting on reviews. Writing these books and papers can be rewarding, but here at St. Mark’s, I get to inspire kids every single day.”

For Westrate, teaching provides him an opportunity to shape the next generation of students in a way that research could not.

“There’s nothing more fulfilling than helping young minds learn about history,” Westrate said. “Because honestly, I don’t know how they can become good citizens without knowing a little about history. And I hope I can be the one to provide that for my students.”

Biology instructor Dan Lipin demonstrates a lab experiment in front of his students.

Photo by Winston Lin

Students balance work and sleep

With increasingly busy schedules, students must navigate sleeping and studying to maximize productivity and performance. Some students elect to study late at night, while others study early in the morning.

BY RISHIK KAPOOR AND DOMINIC LIAW

Sitting down at his desk, he checks his watch. It’s only 9 p.m. “Not too late,” he thinks before going back to work. Just a little bit later, he looks at his watch again. Suddenly, it’s 3 a.m, and he’s still studying.

Students are no strangers to being busy. With countless hours of daily homework, sports and other extracurricular activities, students must quickly develop strong time management skills and identify strategies that work for them.

Most students fall into two groups: night workers and morning workers. While both have their own individual benefits, studying at night tends to be better for memory and information retention.

“The trick here is that sleep is like hitting the save button,” Director of Marksmen Wellness Dr. Gabriela Reed said. “So if you’re studying in the morning before a test that’s later that day, you’re not getting the benefit of all the downloading that your brain does when you sleep. So truthfully, the best thing to do is to study at night and then get some sleep.”

The problem with this strategy is that students often stay up too late studying with the goal of getting all of their studying of the night completed. This often leads to diminished sleep and tiredness the following day.

“For Upper School students, nine hours and 15 minutes is the ideal amount of sleep, and this has been determined by many years of research,” Reed said. “Teenagers are not yet fully grown adults, so their brains are still growing and developing, and they will get to the eight hour mark once the brain is done cooking.”

Students that don’t get optimal sleep are more likely to lose focus in class, forget information or have poorer memory than those that get the recommended nine hours of sleep. They then spend the night catching up on what they missed during the day, prolonging their studying and further reducing their sleep.

“We want more study and free time, so usually the only place that can give for free time is sleep time,” Reed said. “I know that a lot of the Upper Schoolers feel that way. The problem is that the trade-off is bigger than you think. You’re actually really short changing yourself for the rest of the day.”

Reed says the best method to manage time is to plan out a schedule before every day that allots time for sleep, studying and a little bit of fun.

“I would work backwards,” Reed said. “‘If I’m going to have to be up by this time to get to school on time, what time does that mean that my bedtime is?’ Then I would work backwards from there. ‘What time do I get home?’ If I don’t have that much free time because because of my extracurriculars, responsibilities and homework, that’s how I’m

WE WANT MORE STUDY AND FREE TIME, SO USUALLY THE ONLY PLACE THAT CAN GIVE IS SLEEP TIME. THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE TRADE-OFF IS BIGGER THAN YOU THINK.”

Dr. Gabriela Reed, Director of Marksmen Wellness Center

going to best manage my time.”

As long as students find a good time to study while still getting the required amount of sleep, it doesn’t really matter what time of day they choose. In fact, according to Reed, the main problem for students is that they spend too much time on various distractions instead of studying.

“There are so many time robbers out there that steal so much of our time. You sit down and think, ‘What if I watch a few reels.’ And then you look up and it’s

been an hour,” Reed said. “Instead, take that time to review a few days in advance for your tests. Now I’m benefitting from getting a nightly save button for four or five nights before the test. People make the mistake of cramming the night before the test, and then they only get one save. We need to see the material over and over and over again and sleep in between in order to actually be good at it.”

Freshman Bryan Li is one of the many students at St. Mark’s who has to balance many activities at once, as he manages varsity tennis practices with academic work.

“Extracurricular activities take away a lot of time during the day for me to finish my homework,” Li said. “As I am a competitive tennis player, I commit at least two hours a day to practice, and that causes me to sleep later at night.”

The “unlimited time” at night incentivises Li to work at relatively late hours. By completing his homework in the evenings, Li can work faster with a stronger memory retention.

“When I study at night, all the material is fresh in my mind from going to class in the day, and that helps me complete homework faster,” Li said. “Also, I can basically study for as long as I want; there is no specific time that

Students find summer internship opportunities

BY EDDIE STEHEL

Summers are meant to be a period to relax and enjoy time away from school. However, in hopes of supplementing one’s résumé, many students spend countless hours of their summers working at internships or paid jobs. As students mature and progress through high school, they are given more responsibilities to deal with in preparation for college and their professional career. These can include internships, many of which are piled on during the summer before junior year. For sophomore James Dunlap, internships are a chance for him to give back to Alpine, a summer camp that he has attended for the past ten years. He recently

attended his last available summer there as a camper.

“I am really just doing this because it is a community that I want to stay with,” Dunlap said.

Although his internship is mainly to reinforce the bonds he has built with his fellow campers, it is also a great opportunity that allows him to learn how to handle the responsibilities that future jobs will likely entail.

Not all students look at the positive side effects of these new responsibilities; some, including Dunlap, view it as a change in how your summer will play out.

“I think it will be different (than last year),” Dunlap said. “Some parts will be worse, because I hate doing the dishes at home.”

Students tend to prioritize more exclusive intern

I have to stop and go do something else.”

On the other hand, students like freshman Adam Zhang use the morning to study to refresh their memory on information they may have forgotten while they were asleep.

“I like to study in the morning because then I make sure I remember (the material),” Zhang said. “However, if I sleep, I get paranoid (and think to myself), ‘What if I forget material while I’m sleeping?’”

While Li strives to get around eight hours of sleep during the week nights, he often is required to use free time to catch up on sleep.

“I try to make up for the lost time on the weekends when I don’t have any activities in the morning like tennis tournaments,” Li said.

According to Reed, students each have their own time that they work best at, and it is up to them to find it and maximize their efficiency.

“Each student knows when they work best, and that time is different for everybody,” Reed said. “It doesn’t really matter what time you choose to work at, as long as you study strategically and effectively to make the most of your time.”

positions because of the impact they have on college applications.

“I would like to do something that will help a little more (with college),” Dunlap said.

Not all internships are looked at equally, and multiple factors can contribute to how they are perceived by colleges, including what one plans on majoring in, the leadership of the position and the difficulty of getting acceptance to that internship.

However, although some students choose to pursue internships for external reasons like their résumés, others prioritize making the most of their summers. High school internships are merely one way that students can gain valuable experience before entering college.

Students study at various times, but they tend to fall into two categories: morning workers and night workers.

Photo Illustration by Peter Clark

SECTION IN BRIEF

SPRING PLAY On May 2, the drama program, led by Katy Tye and Seth Magill, hosted its last play of the year. The spring play was a chance for aspiring students from both St. Mark’s and Hockaday to display their growth and talents as actors. This year, Tye and Magill chose the play “39 Steps” to perform. Inspired by the book written by John Buchan and movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, “39 Steps” follows a man framed for murder who evades police while trying to stop a spy ring from sending secrets abroad.

ALUMNI WEEKEND From April 24 to 26, the school welcomed former graduates back to campus. The annual reunion aims to strengthen lifelong ties between alumni and the community, honor shared traditions and rekindle cherished memories. The event presented with the opportunity to reconnect with former teachers, current students and fellow classmates. Several awards were presented to honor faculty and alumni, such as the faculty longevity and retiring faculty awards and distinguished alumni recognitions. There were also guest alumni speakers for the Middle and Upper School.

MARKSMEN BALL On May 10, the senior class had their Marksmen Ball. The annual event was attended by seniors, their dates, their parents, invited faculty and admin. The event was held at South Arts District Mansion from 6p.m. to 10:30p.m. The yearbook was revealed, and several seniors gave speeches, including the editor of the Marksmen Teddy Fleiss and senior class president Henry Estes.

OVERHEARD

This cycle we listened to people around campus and took the best quotes. Here is what they said: “WE’RE SMERGING IT.”

LEO HUGHES

“I LIKE IT WHEN IT BURNS.”

LARRY FAN FRESHMAN

DUFF MCKAY JUNIOR

SEBASTIAN BANK

Community bids farewell

After almost 120 combined years of service to the school, five beloved staff and faculty members are retiring.

BY KIRAN PARIKH AND GRAYSON KIRBY

For the past three decades, Scott Gonzalez has tried just about everything on campus.

In 1995, Gonzalez joined the school community as an English instructor and Community Service coordinator, and despite the fact that it isn’t on his official 30 years timeline, he used to help scout and announce for athletic programs.

When the school was in need, Gonzalez stepped in three times to lead as the interim Assistant Head of Upper School and interim Head of Upper School, even assisting as interim chaplain twice—not to mention serving as the Dean of Campus for 11 years.

But throughout all these roles, Gonzalez kept his focus on the classroom. Whether he was teaching eighth-grade humanities or sophomore English, he found his greatest joy in seeing students challenge ideas and bring fresh perspectives.

“One of my mantras was learning is serious fun,” Gonzalez said. “It’s serious, but you’ve got to have fun with it.”

For Gonzalez, seeing his students excel, including the colleagues he’s had the privilege of mentoring, will be what he misses the most.

“It’s been really rewarding to be able to try my best to mentor young teachers and then watch students grow up,” Gonzalez said. “I’ll have them in eighth grade and then junior year, and all of a sudden they’ve exploded into superstars.”

As Gonzalez prepares for retirement, he hopes to be remembered for one thing.

“If anybody remembers me, I hope that they’ll think that I really wanted the best for them,” Gonzalez said. “I hope that they thought that I was trying to be honest and fair while pushing them as hard as I could.”

see RETIREES on page 20

Launching planes with Ms. Pool

BY SHIV BHANDARI

The planes are held pointing up at the sky, ready to pierce through the wispy, white clouds and soar over the baked, brown ground.

The heat seeps into everything it can, turning the open field into a baking tray.

But Amy Pool doesn’t mind. Out on the grass, the worries of the outside world disappear somewhere into the sapphire sky, out of reach of even the highest-flying planes.

Her road to the 2022 Model Aeronautics F3J World Championships wasn’t easy, though, and it almost even seemed like it would never come to be.

Competing in the F3J category, a version of the classic thermal duration class, where pilots all take off simultaneously and must land as close to the target time as possible, Pool was given an opportunity in 2019, when a new rule was introduced to encourage female participation in the sport. It allowed national teams to take a fourth member to the World Championships if they were a female, essentially giving the team a huge safety net since only the top three pilots were judged.

And so, despite what Pool believes wasn’t her best performance, she was chosen for the 2020 World Championships.

The call came in the middle of a storm. Holed up in her closet, Pool got the message that she was chosen in January of 2020, but it didn’t feel right. There was nothing about her being a woman that affected her ability to fly other than physical strength, and she saw no point in just competing against other women.

So she talked with friends, family and colleagues, discussing what she should do. She was unsure of her attendance until a friend supported her, bringing up that she had twice beaten other world champions at events. This reminder convinced her to follow through and attend the competition, but something completely out of her control would soon happen: the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly, the competition was pushed back with no date in sight. She couldn’t fly with friends anymore, leaving her to break planes by herself in the middle of the field.

She slowly lost motivation for the sport she once loved.

Eventually, when 2022 rolled around, it seemed like things were going to really happen this time, but she found herself out of practice and out of any drive to compete.

So she went back to her heart. She packed her boxes and flew back to the Northwest, where she had grown up. Bouncing from home to home in May, she reconnected with her roots—meeting old friends, flying planes and finding that love for the sport she had been competing in for 25 years.

And it worked. She found that passion, that reason to go out and practice, back home. After a month of flying, she competed in the Czech Championships, where she flew decently. After five days of open competitions, she met with the U.S. National Team in Slovakia for the World Championships, where she placed in the finals, was the second-best-placing U.S. team member and took home gold for her country.

Photo courtesy Scott Moore

Retiring English teacher Scott Gonzalez receives award during Alumni Weekend

Amy Pool Genecov Master Teaching Chair

STRESSED STUDENTS

ABUSE STIMULANTS

As exams and finals pervade the minds of students nationwide, stimulant, or so-called study drugs have become more and more commonplace. While these pills increase focus dramatically, they deliver a variety of neurological consequences that few students anticipate.

BY CHRISTIAN WARNER, DOAN NGUYEN AND KEVIN HO

She adjusted her glasses before the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex connected her to her third patient of the morning. She had already looked over the teenager’s symptoms and his parents’ concerns.

Difficulty listening to instructions. Does not stay organized.

Cannot focus.

A psychiatrist for more than a decade, Dr. An Dinh is well-experienced in recognizing patterns. She’s seen this very same diagnosis hundreds of times. But lately, it’s become alarmingly frequent.

She saw the signs in a patient she met with last week and again in another one she met yesterday. She double-checked the file on her laptop, making sure it wasn’t the same patient she saw earlier that morning. She felt a strange sense of déjà vu — this patient had the same symptoms, story and condition.

Another patient with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

She would probably be signing another prescription for a stimulant — for a central nervous system stimulant composed of amphetamine salts. Commonly known as Adderall.

Dinh has noticed a subtle increase in patients requesting medication to stay focused and study effectively. But it’s hard to tell if they need it or not.

After all, the patients aren’t physically in front of her; she’s diagnosing them through her 14-inch MacBook Air. It’s difficult to spot the subtle ticks, the darting eyes and the shaking legs that she would instantly catch if she wasn’t looking at the upper half of a forehead.

Dinh has met with patients who were on six psychiatric medications they didn’t even remotely need. She’s observed the overdiagnosis of ADHD. She’s held stacks of stimulant prescriptions.

And she knows what’s going on: exhausted students turning to a small, vibrant pill for salvation — for an easy way out.

What was once a tightly prescribed pill used to combat ADHD is now a common study drug for both the prescribed and the unprescribed. A crutch, passed around like sticks of chewing gum. An addiction prevalent across campuses nationwide.

THE FINALS PILL

It’s May. Finals at the school are on every student’s mind. For some, it’s an opportunity to raise their grade above some threshold. For others, it’s a risk that could knock their GPAs down.

The inherent stress that comes with exams pushes students to their limits — an intended effect of its practice at schools. Late nights spent studying are a seemingly universal experience for Marksmen and students nationwide at varying schools. And, of course, students try to find a shortcut, anything to lighten their workload.

The recent increase in the usage of Adderall,

in a prescribed manner, has brought attention to its effects and even bolstered its appeal. For some students, these seemingly superhuman studying abilities define its illicit usage.

“The first time I used Adderall was for sophomore year exams because I needed an ‘A’ on my chemistry final,” an illicit Adderall user who requested anonymity said. “I thought, ‘I gotta do anything I can to get this.’”

STIMULANTS ARE ONE OF THE MEDICATIONS IN PSYCHIATRY THAT HAVE ROBUST RESULTS — IT ACTUALLY WORKS FOR EVERYBODY. IT IMPROVES COGNITION, WHETHER YOU HAVE ADHD OR NOT.”

Dr. An Dinh, psychiatrist

For him, it worked. Each time he took a pill, he was more focused than ever. He could tell the drug had kicked in when his vision zoomed in, he felt a little nauseous and he became obsessed with studying. He felt like his brain was moving “a million miles an hour.”

This sensation was attractive. Not procrastinating and studying for hours on end wasn’t just easy now, it was fun. While he reported a similar level of memory retention, the quality and quantity of his studying were amplified. When he started something, he couldn’t stop until he finished it. It wasn’t hard for him to see why some people get addicted to it.

Each unprescribed user has a prescribed seller. Some willingly advertise the study drug while others simply ignore this illegal market.

One prescribed user, who requested anonymity, claimed several students have approached him, inquiring about buying the drug from him. And though he doesn’t sell any Adderall, he knows how high assignments can stack up and how stressed students get during the month of finals.

“I’m not ridiculously taken aback — in fact, I completely get it,” the prescribed user said. “We’re busy at St. Mark’s. We don’t get a lot of sleep. We’re always studying. We’re hard pressed to get more done.”

going to perform well,” Dunlap said. “It could potentially cause more problems than benefits, especially if it’s not prescribed to them by their doctor.”

For the anonymous illicit user, he is wary of these consequences — swallowing the pill too late into his study session meant he would be watching the sun rise in the morning. He wouldn’t be able to stop his hands from trembling or his heart from racing.

Dinh recognizes the appeal of stimulants. On the surface, the short-term benefits outweigh the long-term risks.

“Stimulants are one of the medications in psychiatry that have robust results — it actually works for everybody,” Dinh said. “It improves cognition, whether you have ADHD or not.”

COST OF CONCENTRATION

While taking the drug has its user-alleged benefits, experts in the medical industry caution against its unprescribed usage for studied reasons. Dr. Charles Dunlap, a pediatrician of 19 years, shines light on the opposite end of taking adderall in anticipation of finals.

“If a student takes it improperly and he’s unable to sleep at all during finals week, he’s not

Beyond sleep deprivation and harm, improper usage of the drug can also induce unwanted and dangerous mental conditions. Especially concerning, these symptoms that surface are often unpredictable.

“They could become labile or emotional; I’ve even seen some kids almost have depression symptoms and start crying a lot,” Dunlap said. “And that’s in situations where we actually prescribe the medicine for a kid who had ADHD, but they just didn’t tolerate it well. So we can’t predict, especially on patients who don’t have ADHD and take the meds off-label. They’re treating a condition that they don’t even have.”

Adderall, in particular, works by boosting the norepinephrine within the brain, spiking the ability of neurotransmission and thus allowing one to focus and concentrate better. This reaction is thought to be necessary to increase focus levels within a neurodiverse (irregular) brain to be comparable to a neurotypical (regular) brain.

STUDENTS

STIMULANTS

But this chemical edge can come at a psychological cost. These effects may trigger the limbic system: the fight or flight response. In malpractice and extreme cases, the drug can lead to elevated anxiety, paranoia and hallucination. Due to Adderall’s ability to cause euphoria, the user can quickly, in most cases unknowingly, become addicted and dependent on it.

“I think unprescribed users downplay the risks; they may say to themselves, ‘that won’t happen to me,’ or have a belief that they are really in control,” Upper School counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu said.

In contrast, the frequent and, for some users, daily consumption of Adderall turns into a necessity. The adverse psychological effects occasionally seen in addicted unprescribed users are absent. Instead, most implications of the drug appear when it is not taken.

“If somebody tries to interact with me when I was locked in and studying like when my parents would come in my room, I would snap at them and tell them to get them out of my room,” he said. “It’s not something that I would like to do outside of studying, though. When I hung out with my friends after I’d used it to study, it was pretty weird. I felt kind of dissociated from what was going on.”

MIND OVER MEDS

Aside from its legal implications of jail time, fines and a permanent criminal record, the illicit consumption and selling of prescription drugs like Adderall can seriously affect one’s mental stability. Rather than pursuing such measures for academic performance, Bonsu recommends safer alternative methods.

“There will be days when I’ll forget to take it,” the prescribed user said. “I get so lethargic and tired; it’s ridiculous. Within 10 minutes, I’ll feel that difference. My homework, productivity and test results will reflect that difference too.”

He questions if the cause of these effects stem from a formed dependency, tolerance, or if it is rooted in his condition.

“The issue that can arise from taking stimulants is you develop tolerance, and the same amount doesn’t work anymore,” Dinh said. “What happens when you increase the dose, then you get more side effects from it. You won’t be able to sleep, and you won’t be able to eat.”

A final side effect seen in both prescribed and unprescribed users relates to their personality in social settings, even if they don’t feel the difference is especially pronounced.

For the prescribed user, he often doesn’t feel like himself when he is not medicated.

“The social changes are ones that would traditionally be denoted as positive: less impulsive behavior, more in-line and being more attentive,” he said.

And for the illicit user, he feels off when he is on the drug.

“Study strategies like the deep focused practice and management of digital distractions,” Bonsu said. “Keep them as far away as you can when you are prepping, and playing it smart by looking at your grade cushion can also help.”

Caution against even accessible stimulants like caffeine should also be noted. Though students often feel the need to trudge through late nights and early mornings, all-nighters can be more harmful than helpful.

“Sleep does more for the brain than something like an Adderall does,” Bonsu said. “It just does way more because it consolidates your night’s studying and creates smooth pathways between short-term and long-term memory.”

According to Bonsu, the most dangerous part of taking stimulants is the mindset of the user. The user believing that he can’t study without the medicine is a significant indicator of the brain’s increased dependence on it. From her perspective, stimulants are like a spectrum that affects one’s alertness to their activity at hand.

“Alertness doesn’t make you smarter; it doesn’t help your recall,” Bonsu said. “It does help with working memory. That’s probably why students assume that it’s okay to take (Adderall). Executive functioning and working memory are simply the ability to temporarily hold informa tion so that you can operate on it.”

This distinction between enhanced focus and heightened cognitive ability can become easily

blurred. And in some cases, people can begin to associate any lack of concentration with a clinical issue, even though it might be temporary or situational in nature.

“Not being able to focus by itself doesn’t make you have ADHD,” Dinh said. “You really have to look at the lifelong struggles that people with ADHD have. You have to have that longitudinal lens, not just a one-time interview.”

The reliance that some grow to have on substances like Adderall without a prescription can create a false sense of productivity — a facade that masks deeper underlying issues that typically stem from lack of preparation or mounting academic pressures.

These psychological effects, which can go unnoticed, can also increase the risk of students developing a warped relationship with their academic lives, a diminishing of self-worth and capability initiated by unnecessary external substances. The danger isn’t just the pill itself — it’s the potential belief that you’re less without it.

In these situations, jumping on opportunities to take a shortcut during stressful situations can often be appealing and even seemingly irresistible, but the consequences and benefits of one’s actions should be thoroughly considered before taking such measures as participating in illicit Adderall usage.

“An easy solution is usually the most dangerous one,” Dunlap said. “You should never sacrifice convenience over safety.”

And as finals quickly approach, it’s essential to remain wary of the pill’s effects — not every restless mind needs a prescription. The true test may not be on the exam but in how students decide to prepare themselves for it.

Illustrations by Christian Warner and Doan Nguyen Michael Jimenez contributed to this story.

Mothers serve, sacrifice, support

Beyond their parental responsibilities, across campus, mothers volunteer and participate in activities to help marksmen, reminding students of their impact.

BY CHRISTIAN WARNER AND SHIV BHANDARI

For many kids, the daily support shown by their mothers often becomes something taken for granted. The little things and big gestures alike can become somewhat expected as being a mother can be thankless responsibility.

At the school, various volunteering opportunities, from serving in the cafeteria to operating the register in the student store, are available to parents with spots filling up rather rapidly and easily when posted. These jobs that take hours out of their days are just one of the many sacrifices made by mothers to improve the wellbeing of their son.

In the time around Mother’s Day, a greater appreciation of a magnitude typically unseen in different months is often shown towards them. But around this holiday, many around the country try to give back to these seemingly irreplaceable parental figures for all the sacrifices and services they provide with over 84 percent of Americans expected to celebrate, $33.5 billion spent on gifts and 1.75 billion minutes spent on the phone with mothers according to Time Magazine.

For Kim Loftus, mother of junior William Loftus, she often thinks back to her experiences with her own mother, as she reflects on her role. In a lifetime full of gestures both big and small, Loftus remembers her mother’s food – something she now associates with

the warm moments spent with her before her passing before the time Loftus was to be married.

“She was such a great cook, so it’s always been important to me to make the Christmases and the Thanksgivings have all this big, great food,” Loftus said. “(I) have recipes that I can pass down to my kids (representing) how I feel close to her.”

For many students like senior Jaden Ouyang, the role and impact of their mothers has shaped and assisted heavily in their development and maturity today.

“My mom’s also a musician, and she’s taught me music all my life,” Ouyang said. “She’s taught me integrity and discipline, not just in my music, but also everywhere in life. When I think of her, I think of back when I was a little kid with her sitting next to me while I was practicing piano, working through it together.”

But for others, this appreciation may not be as apparent. The seemingly harsh, over-critical and strict moments can have an effect on the way some kids view their parents.

“As I became a mother, I realized that my mom did everything she thought was the best she could do and the best for me,” Dawn Zierk, mother of junior Andrew and freshman Ryan Zierk, said. “Even though at the time I might have thought it was terrible, I realized, ‘wow, she really was trying her best to do what was

she thought was the best for me.’”

In the dreary and hopeless moments, the support shown by mothers gives some Marksmen a needed boost to thrive.

“She’s taught me to never give up,” junior Patrick Zeballos said. “We’ve been through a couple of hard times these past few years, a couple of losses, but she has never given up and that really inspires me. I want her to know I really admire her. Her perseverance is really inspiring.”

With all that mothers do, many people –adults and kids alike – take the time on Mother’s Day to reflect on each little gift, sacrifice and service given to them. Each small gesture has a profound impact on their children as this generational generosity and kindness passes down the lineage.

“I am the mom I am today because of my mom,” Christina Jimenez, mother of junior Michael and 8th-grader Chris Jimenez, said. “She was the first person I called when I was pregnant or when I was going to get married. She was always the first. Sometimes you forget to tell your parents you love them. It’s not that you don’t, but life gets busy. Picking up the phone or sending a quick text is important, and I always tell my boys that if you ever need anything, good or bad, I’m only ever a phone call away.”

MARKSMEN COMMUNITY MOTHERS & SONS

Several faculty & staff members share the unique experience of being on campus with their sons every day. A few shared their favorite things about being at school every day with their children.

“Passing Willie in the hallway always makes me smile! Being on campus together brings us joy and reassurance.”

“I enjoy spotting my son at school events, knowing that we both get to witness the wonderful things happening in our community.”

“Seeing my sons on campus is like watching my heart walk around in hoodies and sneakers, sometimes pretending not to see me.”

“When the days seem so busy, it’s always a heartwarming moment when I spot or run into my son on campus.”

“When I see Ben trotting across campus to lunch or P.E., it makes me smile. Being a working mother who gets to see her child a little extra each day is a great privelege.

I feel so blessed to see Zachary throughout his school day. I love being able to give him a hug or wink at him from across the quad.

or

gives

being their mom and sharing the

experience with them.

Mothers volunteer to work on campus in the student store and cafeteria.

Photos by Dilan Koganti

Julie and Willie Harrison ‘36

Linda Liu and Aiden Guo ‘34

Michele, Jacob ‘29 and Kane Santosuosso ‘32

Sarah Choi and Jeremy ‘25 and Nathan Mau ‘30

Jenny and Benjamin Creech ‘36

Chi-Chi Acho and Zachary Oforeh ‘35

Catching glimpses of him at lunch with friends, during assemblies

athletic events

me a window into the young man he is becoming.

Veronica and Tobias Pulido ‘27

Seeing Michael and Christopher at school every day is a special gift. I love

St. Mark’s

Marion Glorioso- Kirby, Michael ‘32 and Christopher Kirby‘34

Club spreads kindness to communities

Launched by computer science Kendall Murphy, the Random Acts of Kindness Club is inspiring students to serve others through heartfelt projects and simple, meaningful gestures. From writing letters to retired faculty to helping the homeless, the club is making a lasting impact on the school and beyond.

BY BEN YI

What started as a simple idea quickly grew into a club with a huge impact on the school, community and more.

The Random Acts of Kindness Club (RAKC) was first introduced to the school by sixth-grade computer science instructor Kendall Murphy, who learned about the club from a colleague in Australia.

“I heard about (the idea) this summer in London at the International Boys School Coalition Conference, which is a conference that St. Mark’s and 500 educators from all over the world attend,” Murphy said. “I thought it was so neat that I decided to bring it back here.”

To bring the idea to life, Murphy turned to Assistant Director of Admission & Financial Aid and sixth-grade advisor Kerry Schneidewind for support.

Schneidewind immediately saw the potential of the club, not just as a one time project, but as something that could grow and evolve over time.

“I love kindness, and I love that it’s something that’s so different from most of the typical clubs that the boys have access to,” Schneidewind said. “So I thought it would be a great addition, and I would enjoy helping the boys learn about how easy it is to give back.”

Working with sixth graders, Murphy has grown the RAKC from an idea to a fully operating group.

Since the beginning of the year, members of the RAKC have continuously worked hard to serve and support those in their communities.

“The boys and I came up with things that we can do to better our community, and that’s our only goal,” Murphy said. “We asked what we can do to put smiles on faces and better our community behind the scenes. At the beginning of the year, we got a list of all the retired faculty of all time from St. Mark’s, and the boys wrote letters of gratitude to each retired faculty member. It was probably 200 letters. It took the boys forever, and they had to put a whole lot of care into it. It was just really amazing to watch.”

On top of providing for their own community, the RAKC has expanded its reach in order to help those who need it the most outside of the school.

By contributing to a sole project, boys can make a tangible difference in the lives of others, even though their contributions might seem small on their own.

“We cut, tied and made scarves for the wintertime, and we passed those over to Scott Gonzalez’s wife’s charity, ‘Spread the Warmth’, and she handed those out to the homeless,” Murphy said. “For every letter we write or scarf we make, we add a chain link to a chain hanging in my room that represents all the acts that the boys have done.”

Within the club itself, two leaders have emerged: Patrick Lee and Hunter Beasley. Not only have their contributions to the community had huge impacts, but they’ve also stood out, inspiring other boys to do the same.

With other members of the club, they are planning future events and other ambitious projects to send the club’s message to more boys.

“We have a collective brainstorm,” Murphy said. “Next year, we hope to have a Random Acts of Kind -

ness week and do something sort of similar to a leadership loop, where we’re doing a random act of kindness in middle school assembly, then in class meeting and then in advisory.”

Schneidewind also shares similar goals and a vision for the future of RAKC, hoping to expand its opportunities and outreach by utilizing other aspects of the campus community.

WE CUT, TIED AND MADE SCARVES FOR THE WINTERTIME, AND WE PASSED THOSE OVER TO SCOTT GONZALEZ’S WIFE’S CHARITY, ‘SPREAD THE WARMTH’, AND SHE HANDED THOSE OUT TO THE HOMELESS. FOR EVERY LETTER WE WRITE OR SCARY WE MAKE, WE ADD A CHAIN LINK TO A CHAIN HANGING IN MY ROOM THAT REPRESENTS ALL THE ACTS THAT THE BOYS HAVE DONE.

William Atkinson ‘95, Head of Upper School

“I think it could only grow and get bigger,” Schneidewind said. “ I’m looking forward to continued interest, and then maybe including Telos in some way or the older boys mentoring and talking

Film guests provide valuable experiences

BY DOMINIC LIAW

In the vast field of film making, not everything can be learned in the classroom.

Not everything can be learned through a “typical” form of education, and not everything can be taught from one perspective.

To combat this issue, film instructor Mark Scheibmeir has encouraged various alumni to discuss reallife applications of film in a professional setting.

“It’s mostly informal in terms of its structure,” Scheibmeir said. “I think the students have a lot of questions, and the speakers have a lot of experience that they can share.”

When the students aren’t working on projects or assignments, guests can provide an outlook into their experiences that Scheibmeir cannot articulate. With a curriculum focused on building up essential skills, guests offer a view into the culmination of

hard work.

“It’s really nice to get those other people who come in, like Hunter who’s a screenwriter,” Scheibmeir said. “That’s not what I do. I produce.

Then, you get somebody like Tim, he’s doing advertising. So, there’s a lot of different jobs in entertainment, like casting directors. That’s a huge job and really important in the process.”

Josh Einson is no different. The school’s alumnus’s casting career gives students a valuable connection to a growing industry.

Working on highly regarded films such as This is Us, Einson’s accomplishments are one of many examples of the path in industry.

“It’s really important that students understand that the entertainment industry is built on relationships,” Scheibmeir said. “It’s also really important to understand how many different jobs that are out there.”

about random acts of kindness that they’ve done throughout their time at St. Mark’s.”

Through her experience in RAKC, Schneidewind has also felt huge impacts on herself, both professionally and personally.

“I think every day I get to be around the boys, I feel like they teach me something new,” Schneidewind said. “Seeing young boys be dedicated and excited to give back sparks something in me as an adult to want to do that more in so many different ways,” Schneidewind said. “It just reminds me of the fantastic community here and the pure heart of the boys. They’re still learning about what it means to give back, so it’s brought joy to my life just watching them learn about it, but it also sparks in me more ideas of the ways that I can give back outside of the club.”

Ultimately, Murphy hopes that the club inspires boys to continue spreading kindness in everything they do, forming key relationships in doing so.

“I hope that the boys could see how easy it is to come up with things to make their community better and just how one simple act can make such a huge difference,” Murphy said. “I think they want to make a difference in their community.”

While Scheibmeir’s extensive experience in the industry provides students with a foundation and understanding of the field, alumni across the country add different pieces to a puzzle in film making.

These alumni visits do more than just inform— they inspire. For students dreaming of careers in film, hearing firsthand accounts from professionals who once sat in the same classrooms makes their aspirations feel tangible.

“I can speak to that too in my perspective, out I’m only one perspective,” Scheibmeir said. “When a guest comes, they really get to talk about experiences in the industry.”

The conversations offer a glimpse into the evolving landscape of entertainment, from writing and producing to casting and marketing.

Students are encouraged to ask questions, make connections, and think critically about their own creative futures.

Club members huddle around a table while making scarves for the homeless.

Photo Courtesy Development Office

Community bids farewell to long-time faculty members

continued from page 14

Angela Hendricks, Piano Instructor

Walking through the door to piano instructor Angela Hendricks’s office, hundreds of trinkets line the wall. There are some pictures of her family, an array of posters and a large bookcase filled with countless sheets of music.

But what stands out most is a mess of pencil markings next to the doorframe. Each one has a line or a name.

“When boys go into the fifth grade, one day they walk through the door and I can visually see that they grew,” Hendricks said. “At that point, I mark them (on the wall) and then again every few months.”

Since becoming a full-time piano teacher in 2006, she’s mentored hundreds of boys throughout their music careers. Her favorite part of teaching is watching her students grow into young men and growing alongside them on each of their journeys.

But after 20 years of teaching, Hendricks feels ready to take a step back. Between her students, beach home in North Carolina and three grandchildren arriving in the fall, Hendricks looks forward to having her hands soon full with family, travel and the tunes to lighten the mood.

Suzanne Townsend, Chief Financial Officer

In 2003, Suzanne Townsend wasn’t looking for a change, but when she saw the job opportunities, a mechanism in her mind immediately clicked.

In her 22 years working on campus, Townsend helped guide the school toward long-term financial sustainability and expanded accessibility. She’s been with the school through thick and thin, from the centennial celebration, to the tornado, COVID-19 and the building of the Zierk Athletic Center.

But more than just her achievements, she hopes she’ll be remembered for her warm presence and unwavering

belief in the community.

“I hope people feel like I was approachable and helpful,” Townsend said, “and that it came across that I really, really love this place.”

Now, as she enters retirement, Townsend looks forward to traveling with her husband, slowing down and staying close to the school she’s helped shape — a place, she believes is defined by unity.

“We are one St. Mark’s. One community,” Townsend said. “That unity is what makes us ‘St. Mark’s Strong.’”

David Baker, Director of Admission & Financial Aid

After 41 years of shaping young minds at the school, David Baker is retiring.

Over the decades, he’s nearly done everything: coached Upper School tennis, golf and Middle School baseball, led admissions, sponsored eighth grade and helped steer the school in the right direction.

The varying perspectives that each of these positions offered shaped his idea of the school brotherhood — one rooted in connection, diversity and thought.

As he steps away from the school, Baker’s resume is full, but his legacy reaches far beyond trophies or titles.

“We really are trying to save the world — one gradu-

ating class at a time,” Baker said. “That’s always been our mission. Our school is truly a family”

Though he’s done nearly everything, Baker said there are things he wishes he’d experienced — like the iconic Pecos trip.

“I taught summer debate camps at Dartmouth for 16 summers, so I was never able to go on the Pecos trip,” Baker said. “That’s the one thing I wish I had done.”

Despite never making it to the Pecos, Baker’s journey here was more than enough. As for what’s next — he looks forward to giving golf, travel and personal projects his undivided attention.

Thomas Eckel, Chief Technology Officer

When Thomas Eckel came to the school five years ago during the height of COVID-19, he came to revamp the school’s Information Technology (IT) program to create ease and comfort for both students and faculty.

Eckel immediately began working to enhance the technology that was used around campus, whether it be upgrading rooms and projectors or helping with the brand-new technology used in the Zierk Athletic Complex.

“We upgraded five classrooms last summer and are planning to upgrade 12 more this summer,” said Eckel. “Last summer was just a proof of concept to make sure

Ice bucket challenge takes over social media

BY GRAYSON KIRBY

It is inevitable for the majority of teenagers nowadays to witness trends and dances that are taking over their feeds daily. It seems that almost every week, a new trend is dominating Instagram and TikTok. As of late, the USC Ice Bucket Challenge has skyrocketed in popularity across the country.

This is not the first ice bucket challenge to take over the internet. In 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge flooded the Internet, with celebrities such as Lebron James to Beyoncé taking part to raise awareness and funding for the neurodegenerative disorder.

The USC challenge focuses on the issues that arise with mental health awareness and suicide prevention. The University of South Carolina Mental Illness Needs Discussion (MIND) club launched the #SpeakYourMIND

challenge on Instagram, nominating a few of their friends to participate in the trend with the hopes that it would catch on. The trend trickled down through friend groups, families and communities, with hundreds of thousands of participants eventually taking part in the challenge.

Senior Brandon Kim, Co-Founder of the Mindful4Life Club, believes that the challenge is a unique and fun way to spread awareness on the problems that arise from mental health issues.

“It’s a fun and refreshing way to face the challenges of mental health without having to be fully serious about the topic,” said Kim. “It's a good idea to have fun with the idea so that it appeals to a younger audience.”

Many teenagers and young adults in America, especially men, tend to laugh and shy away from talking about mental health, leading them to ignore their feelings and feel isolated in their circumstances. Active Minds, the

our ideas were sound.”

Although Eckel has only been here a short time, his impact on the school and community has been profound. He plans on enjoying all of his free time while still remaining available for the IT team if it needs any assistance.

“I’m going to try and enjoy retirement,” Eckel said. “I’ve got my sixth grandchild due in September, so I’ll spend more time with my grandkids and my wife. We’re pretty active between tennis, pickleball and skiing in the winter.”

non-profit for which the challenge raises money, is the largest nonprofit in the United States that mobilizes youth and young adults to transform mental health norms nationwide.

The trend has caught on and has continued to grow throughout the past few weeks because of the style of the challenge; each participant nominates three friends who have to complete the challenge within the 24-hour deadline. However, one problem that Kim sees in the challenge is that few people acknowledge the actual message behind the challenge before participating.

“One thing I think that they could have done better with this challenge was if people had introduced the meaning of the challenge before dumping the ice water on their head,” said Kim. “I still think it was a great idea to keep people engaged and aware of mental health problems.”

Photos Courtesy Scott Moore

Retiring faculty receives awards and recognition during Alumni Weekend.

Students and faculty learn to manage movement disabilities

After a serious hip injury, sophomore Dylan Bosita had to relearn many daily habits of life, including navigating campus life, facilitated by faculty and friends.

BY SHIV BHANDARI, LUKE NGUYEN AND JAKE PINNELL

It began with a small pain in his hip. He got it examined, and although the trainer said it could lead to a fracture, he assumed that two weeks of rest would give it ample time to heal.

But just days after his recovery, sophomore Dylan Bosita felt a pop in his hip, sending him tumbling across the polyurethane track. Someone told him to get up, but he couldn’t. He tried to move his knee, but he couldn’t.

Adrenaline was rushing through his system to drown out the pain, but he could tell something was wrong. After a short stay in the hospital, Bosita was back to moving around campus — but now, in a wheelchair. Because of his pelvic avulsion fracture, he was unable to raise his left leg, forcing him to relearn the way he lived his everyday life.

“You never really think about what goes into everyday life for someone in a wheelchair,” Bosita said. “You can’t wash your hands, you can’t open a door by yourself and you need to ask others for help all the time. I needed more help in pretty much everything I did.”

BEING IN A WHEELCHAIR MAKES IT SO THAT I HAVE TO ASK OTHERS FOR HELP. THAT’S BEEN A BIG LESSON FOR ME TO LEARN, AND IN THAT WAY, BEING IN A WHEELCHAIR HAS GIVEN ME NEW PERSPECTIVE.”

Dylan Bosita, sophomore

Although he was initially frustrated with his newfound struggles, over the coming weeks, he began to see his injury as an opportunity for self-improvement, aided by his supporters in and out of school.

“I usually try to help my friends and do things for myself because I don’t like asking for favors,” Bosita said. “But being in a wheelchair makes it so that I have to ask others for help. That’s been a big lesson for me to learn, and in that way, being in a wheelchair has given me a new perspective.”

With no shortage of activities to manage on campus, Bosita was forced to manage his time differently — paying attention to how long every trip to the next class takes, budgeting time to make room for physical therapy after school and even spending more of his free periods exclusively on homework.

To help get himself back on track, Bosita met with Director of Academic Success Julie Pechersky, who helped him manage his workload.

“Schoolwork was the biggest learning curve,” Bosita said. “I met with Mrs. Pechersky to work out my schedule. I had to move around five tests and an essay, so I didn’t know what to do, but she was super helpful. If I need help, I just need to email her and ask about something, and she’ll respond within the hour.”

School nurse Julie Doerge, who greets Bosita every morning to wheel him to his first classes, has made sure every building is in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 so that boys can feel comfortable and enabled while at school.

“Every building is accessible; it’s all very intentionally designed,” Doerge said. “The only place that you can’t really get to by elevator is Decherd, so boys come down the back entrance that’s only three steps down.”

Even when students aren’t at school, Doerge monitors and checks in with students, working with the athletic trainers to keep updated with the newest information when students may not be sure of their injuries themselves.

“Our healthcare team always lets us know if an injury happens on the weekend so that we’re ready on Monday,” Julie said. “We also ask parents to reach out to us when there’s a situation. Sometimes guys are embarrassed, but we’re just trying to keep you safe.”

Although injuries never come at a good time, Bosita has chosen to see the positive results of his condition instead of dwelling on the negative impacts.

“It showed me that people really care, even if you don’t know them that well,” Bosita said. “There have been lower schoolers who have asked if I needed help being pushed around, and it’s been

really amazing to see how even younger marksmen are just as willing to help me. It’s been a community-building thing for me.”

For others who may find themselves limited in their abilities, Bosita encourages them to try and take advantage of their new opportunities. Although he acknowledges that his injury set him back in numerous areas, he has confidence that he will not only regain his abilities but also gain new perspectives he didn’t have before.

“When you’re not disabled, you take a lot of things for granted,” Bosita said. “When you are, you’re forced to take that step back. That’s an eye-opening experience. Initially, you’re going to have to relearn a lot of things, but you’ll learn new skills and learn to appreciate others in a different way. Don’t beat yourself up in the beginning. Let go a little bit and realize that you’re in a wheelchair and you need to ask for help.”

New StuCo president looks forward to the 2025-26 school year

BY KIRAN PARIKH

As the school’s halls buzz with the energy of the academic year winding to a close — the atmosphere now filled with final projects, farewells and moments of reflection — newly-elected Student Body President Adam Dalrymple is focused on achieving one goal: making the next year unforgettable.

During his time as Student Body Secretary, Dalrymple took the opportunity to learn from his fellow Executive Student Council (STUCO) members, namely Matthew Hoffman and Andrew Jin.

“Being Student Body Secretary has definitely helped me prepare for this role, as I got to see how Matthew and Andrew Jin approached their positions,” Dalrymple said. “I saw how they took on various challenges and got to see the executive side of the student council — that’s really helped prepare me for the upcoming year.”

This isn’t Dalrymple’s first time in a presidential role. During his freshman year, he served as the Class of 2026’s STUCO president, honing his planning and collaboration skills.

In anticipation for the next school year, Dalrymple has established three goals. The first one is centered around opening up more leadership opportunities for students on campus.

“I want everyone to be involved, especially from the senior class as our time is coming to an end,” Dalrymple said. “Everyone should have the opportunity to fill an official leadership or committee role.”

Dalyrmple’s second goal is to continue the Homecoming success from previous years and even improve upon it. He hopes that under his leadership, Homecoming attendance will be higher than ever before.

His third goal is all about endurance — keeping school spirit alive long after the initial excitement of the fall fades away.

Drawing on lessons from football, he sees senior year not as a sprint, but as a steady, intentional effort to keep energy high across all grades.

“Coach Flaherty always said it’s a four-quarter fight, and I carried that with me throughout the school year,” Dalrymple said. “One of my goals is to keep the hype going and keep the school spirit up throughout the entirety of the school year.”

Whether through assemblies, spirit parties or new events, Dalrymple hopes to keep the momentum strong from August to May.

In particular, he looks forward to hosting more events like movie nights on the quad — casual, fun moments where students can unwind, laugh and build memories that could last beyond high school.

But above all, Dalrymple wants to ensure that his last year at school will be one for the ages.

“I want this next year to be great, especially for the seniors,” Dalrymple said. “I want to be able to look back on it, reflect and think ‘we could not have had a better senior year.’”

Dalrymple’s focus isn’t just on planning events — it’s about shaping a meaningful final year for his class. As he looks ahead, his priority is creating moments that bring people together and leave a lasting impact. His mindset is realistic but hopeful, grounded in effort and driven by a shared sense of purpose.

“Nothing can be done perfectly, but we can do it very well,” Dalrymple said. “I know we can make this next year a great year.”

Senior Henry Estes helps sophomore Dylan Bosita out of an elevator on campus.

Photo by Bryan Li

Adam Dalrymple Student Body President

Seniors mentor younger students

For many Marksmen, mentorship isn’t just experienced in the classroom. It’s passed down through carpools, high fives and post-practice meals, each working to form a memorable experience at the school .

BY WYATT AUER AND EUGENE WANG

The engine roars to life; the sun dips below the horizon, and a car packed with members of the crew team streaks across Preston Road. A senior sits behind the wheel. Not because he has to, but because years ago, someone did the same for him.

Long before they led from the front, the school’s seniors first learned by example. Through high fives in the Lower School, shared meals after practice and car rides across town with their fellow brothers, they were always made to feel like they belonged — like they mattered.

Now, the class of 2025 is shaping the school’s culture by guiding the underclassmen, building connections and friendships that last far beyond simply sports or academics.

Senior Henry Estes began his journey in the first grade after attending four schools in four years. The community he was exposed to here gave him stability, a feeling of belonging and the foundation for the person he would grow up to be.

“I came in here as a 7-year-old, and I’m walking out a man,” Estes said. “If I had taken any other path, I wouldn’t be the man I am today.”

His early years were spent in complacency — doing just enough to get by. But all of that shifted around freshman year, when something within him switched. He began going about each day with a sense of direction and a desire to learn.

“Eighth grade, I was going through the motions,” Estes said. “Ninth grade, something changed. I wanted to take advantage of my time at St. Mark’s.”

That transformation started on the football field, where Estes was given the

opportunity to start as a freshman. From there, he developed an appreciation for what real work entails intellectually and athletically.

“Hard work doesn’t come easily, but it pays off,” Estes said. “St. Mark’s taught me that if you work hard and see the fruits of your labor, you’ll want to do it again.“

Even when his work wasn’t in the spotlight, Estes valued quiet consistency, especially through paving the way for the next generation. That attitude was rooted in gratitude. Throughout his 12 years at the school, Estes was always mindful of the ways teachers, coaches and fellow classmates impacted his life and how he impacted theirs.

I REALIZED I HAD LIKE FIVE OR SIX DIFFERENT GUYS TRYING TO GET RIDES TO PRACTICE, THEN IT HIT ME — THEY SEE ME AS SOMEONE THEY CAN RELY ON.

Jack Tholking, Senior

“I hope I’m leading underclassmen in a way that betters the community—even if I don’t know their names yet,” Estes said. “I’m confident that the next leaders are going to feel the impacts of our class. I felt such a strong connection to the community and how much it had given to me, so I really wanted to give back to it.”

One of the year’s most celebrated moments came on the football field when the team ended a 11-year losing streak to ESD — a culmination of hard work, school pride and brotherhood.

“The brotherhood of 101 guys is something I’ll miss most,” Estes said. “I’ve cared for people, not just my friends, but the

community members.”

That care wasn’t one-sided. Estes’s presence left a tangible mark on the people around him, especially younger students who looked up to his example, on and off the field.

“Henry Estes helped me become both a better athlete and person,” freshman Dillon Kennedy said. “He made me care more about all the little things.”

This sense of responsibility and friendship, supported through mentorship, has gradually become a quiet tradition at the school.

Senior Jack Tholking, a core member of the rowing team, is one of these leaders. His leadership style reflects the care he received as a freshman, when Evan McGowan ‘22 went out of his way to make him feel included.

“He was one of those guys who was always smiling and greeting everyone,” Tholking said. “He even drove me to practice, took me out for meals and helped me buy my first set of workout clothes—that had a huge impact on me.”

Now in his final year, Tholking is working to do the same.

“I realized I had like five or six different guys trying to get rides to practice,” Tholking said. “Then it hit me, they see me as someone they can rely on.”

The idea of upperclassmen influencing underclassmen not only changes how Tholking sees himself but also how he views his role and impact on the community. Instead of just showing up, it’s about stepping up.

“I just try to be a friendly face on campus,” Tholking said. “I smile, say hi and remember what it felt like to be in Lower School when older students would give you

School experiences forge a military leader

BY WES JACKSON

The weight of leadership isn’t always measured by medals but by the moments of selfless dedication that uplift entire organizations.

For accomplished Brigade Commander Cedric Lee ‘96, those moments began long before he wore military fatigues. They started in the hallways of the school, where character is learned through challenge.

Here, Lee says values like courage and honor aren’t just engraved on the walls. They are lived experiences on the field, in the classroom and among friends. He recalls the teachers, coaches and team-

mates who led not only by instruction, but by example.

“Whether it was Coach Ortega, Señora Lavi or Ms. Barta in science, they all taught us more than just the curriculum,” Lee said. “They modeled the way you treat people, how you lead and how you carry yourself.”

Down the road, Lee created lifelong friendships. His relationship with fellow Marksman John Myrie ‘96, beginning in the fifth grade, has lasted for years.

“We grew up exploring what it means to be a man,” Lee said. “Choosing the harder right over the easier wrong and making mistakes but growing together.”

With a grandfather who was a general

in the Korean Army and a father who served in the Korean Air Force, service to the nation is in Lee's Blood.

The early lessons in character from his role models became the foundation of Lee’s leadership as a brigade commander. In an environment where lives depend on trust and unity, he believes setting an example starts at the top.

“Everybody within your organization takes on the persona of the culture the leader creates,” Lee said. “If leadership doesn’t live by the virtues we claim to uphold, that absence will permeate through the entire organization."

For future Marksmen considering military service, Lee offers simple yet earnest

a high five. That stuff stays with you.”

For younger students, this sense of belonging truly does matter. This kind of culture doesn’t simply happen by accident. It’s built by example. For Tholking, that example also includes running the senior auction.

“We raised class funds for this year and future years,” Tholking said. “But the best part was that we included our little buddies. Families came, kids came — it felt like one big community.”

Rooted in seemingly small gestures, things like rides, meals and encouragement add up to something far bigger.

“You don’t need to be loud to lead,” Tholking said. “Just be consistent, be kind and make the younger guys feel like they belong.”

With just a month left in the school year, seniors like Thoking are beginning to reflect on what they’ll miss the most and how they hope to be remembered.

“I can’t pick one exact thing I’ll miss most, but I’ll definitely miss the team,” Tholking said. “I’ve been with them since freshman year, and I’ve gone from being the guy who got rides to the guy who gives them. That evolution means a lot.”

And he hopes that the underclassmen will remember that, too.

“Maybe in a few years, I’ll come back and coach will say, ‘This is Jack—remember him?’” Tholking said. “And someone will say, ‘Oh yeah, he took me to practice.’ I want to be remembered as someone who was friendly and outgoing.”

Here, at the school, where the ideas of tradition and community often define the student experience, it’s those simple, informal moments that can create the most meaningful memories for others.

advice.

“Serve with a genuine heart,” Lee said. “If you make it about yourself, your own selfish desires, not only are you doing the organization a disservice, you're doing the nation a disservice.”

While the award may symbolize achievement, Lee sees it as a reminder of something much deeper: the importance of leading with integrity and giving back to the communities that shape us. His message to the younger generation is clear — greatness isn’t about glory or fame. It’s about grit, gratitude and growing into a leader others can trust and create memories with.

A senior watches over an underclassman as he completes on his homework.

Photo by Winston Lin

REVIEWS

Ken Carson underwhelms in new album

For nearly 1 1/2 years, Ken Carson fans waited for Carson’s new album to release. From the date of Carson’s last release on Oct. 13, 2023, to the release of More Chaos on April 11, 2025, Carson fans anticipated something new and special from the enigmatic artist.

Was what the fans received uncreative and repetitive, or was it the continuation of a storyline? After releasing A Great Chaos in October of 2023, fans seemed underwhelmed after seeing the new album name of More Chaos. However, for others, the repetition of music style in the new album served as a parallel to the indirect repetition of the album name.

After signing for Playboi Carti’s record label, OPIUM, in 2019, Carson seems to have taken some inspiration from Carti himself by extending the time in between his album releases. Although Ken Carson originally teased a Halloween 2024 drop for More Chaos, the project was delayed. Instead, he released a standalone single, “Delusional,” on Nov. 1. A few months later, in January 2025, streamer Kai Cenat revealed the official release date, April 11, during a live stream, backed by a text confirmation from Carson himself.

For more than a year, Carson left his fans unaware of what his future album plans were. This mysteriousness adds to Carson’s personality expressed in songs on More Chaos such as “Xposed,” and “Root of All Evil.” The mysterious theme is expressed in these songs by delving into hidden truths and touching on moral decay respectively.

Because Carson maintains his signature energetic, base-heavy, aggressive music-style, he is able to express other themes such as trendsetting and cultish in More Chaos. “Lord of Chaos,” expresses trendsetting vibes through its glitching tone which he definitely helped popularize. “Lord of Chaos,” also expresses cultish vibes as the song paints Carson to be a dark figurehead leading a chaotic movement. A trendsetting theme is also seen in “Going Live,” because the focus on digital clout taps into Carson’s influence digitally. The cultish vibe is again seen in “LiveLeak,” where Carson repeatedly sings the line, “I can’t feel my face, I can’t feel my face.” The repetition of this line continues the vibe of a cult through a chanting-like line.

More Chaos thrives on the energy created through its loudness, and the most hyped tracks sever deeper cuts through the showcasing of Carson’s artistry. The most overrated songs in More Chaos are “Money Spread,” and “Off the Meter.” While “Money Spread” continues to grab millions of listens, its ideas and sound are at best surface-level. Although “Off the Meter” features big names such as Playboi Carti and Destroy Lonely, the abnormal and non-eardrum-rattling beat is not convincing. An underrated song is “Diamonds.” Its haunting production along with its chaotic relationship metaphor is quite thought-provoking.

The album name poorly encapsulates the overall emotion of fans’ reactions to the album’s songs. There seems to be no in between as each track of the album is either very good or mediocre.

Invincible stands apart in era of show mediocrity

As the superhero trope has faded over time, the series adaptation of the comic Invincible has remained faithful to its source, managing to successfully subvert the genre.

Nowadays most shows that succeed in captivating audiences for the first or second season share the same trend: They tend to drop in both quality and entertainment. Either the show runs out of budget or the directors slack off.

The third season of the hit show “Invincible” is one of those few diamonds that are constantly gleaming in a void of mediocrity.

Once again the show stays true to its original comic version and for those that haven’t read it, the show brings an immersive world in which the characters from the second season live and breathe.

“Invincible” improved vastly in its character development. Almost every character that is new or old has some new perspective to bring to the show. These characters bring a new feeling to the whole show in which the world feels alive. From the villains and heroes who erupt chaos to the side characters who become victims of this merciless world, every character has an interesting and meaningful story.

Another huge standout from the past season is the sheer level of dramatic action. I don’t believe I’ve seen a show in which a city gets broken down so many times and in which both heroes and villains bring so much destruction in their wake. The third season is without a doubt the most action-packed season. From the smallest bank robbery to the colossal season finale, every battle holds significance in both an emotional and physical way.

The show displays how the main characters aren’t the only people who suffer from conflict. “Invincible” displays how all of these battles come at the cost of innocent lives.

It wouldn’t be an “Invincible” review if the Invincible himself, Mark Grayson, wasn’t mentioned. In this season, Mark faces multiple hardships, but the show does an amazing job in showing

how so much responsibility and hardship can affect someone as young as Mark. The show never forgets that Mark is still a young guy who has much to learn. It’s a subtle reminder that remains prevalent throughout the whole show. Throughout the whole season, Mark displays emotional and physical vulnerability. His mistakes serve as reminders that although he calls himself “Invincible” he is still a young man trying to figure out his place in the world. His interactions with other characters are anything but robotic. Although they seem insignificant at the time, these interactions are what shape Mark.

The last factor that launches “Invincible” to reach greater heights is its new selection of characters. A fan favorite is Mark’s younger half brother: Oliver. Oliver ends up being such a good character because he brings a silver lining and much needed optimism to a show that can often be dark and gruesome. He isn’t exactly a comedic relief, but a character who hasn’t been with us the first two seasons so he is unaware of just how harsh his world can be.

Of course there are some errors in the show, no show is always perfect. While the fight scenes are filled with drama and magnitude, there are times where the animation decreases in its quality. Either the characters look robotic or the whole scene feels stagnant, which sadly is a constant trend during the season. Thankfully, all other factors of the show are so high in quality that they make up for poor the animation, at least most of the time.

Overall, the third season of “Invincible” is an incredibly entertaining and enjoyable watch. From its characters, to its fights, to its online influence, this season brings a whole new meaning to a superhero show.

SHOWS AND MOVIES TO LOOK OUT FOR

Summer is right around the corner, and that means more time to binge watch shows. Here are some of the most popular shows or new seasons coming to visit streaming services over the summer.

BY ARMAAN NEWASKAR

In 2021, Squid Game took the world by storm with its gripping premise and cultural relevance. In 2024, it returned with a similarly iconic season 2. The big difference though, is that this season ended on a cliffhanger. One which will be followed up on in season 3, six months later. Squid Game season 3 will serve as the last season, and promises to bring an exciting conclusion to the legendary show.

FANTASTIC FOUR - JULY 25

The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel Comics’ best teams. Bringing that team to life is an iconic cast headed by Game of Thrones actor Pedro Pascal. He plays Reed Richards, Marvel’s greatest genius. Other acclaimed actors include action movie star Emma Kirby, Emmy winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Stranger Things actor Joseph Quinn. This elite cast guarantees that Fantastic Four is going to have both great action and acting.

While the MCU has been iconic for the past 15 years, DC hasn’t seen the same success. The DCEU was a catastrophe that ended with a whimper. Renowned director James Gunn wants to make DC relevant again, and he plans to start with a bang. While fans mourn the loss of Henry Cavill as Superman, David Corenswet shows potential to be greater. This movie offers a new spin on the greatest superhero ever.

EVAN YEPURI Guest Writer

EMILIANO MAYO Issues Web Editor REVIEW

Photo Courtesy Netflix SQUID GAME - JUNE 27

Photo Courtesy Disney

Photo Courtesy Warner Brothers

Photo Courtesy Amazon Studios

SUPERMAN - JULY 11

EDITORIAL

Tariffs will hurt at home and abroad

With tariffs on countries around the world taking effect, businesses, consumers and world leaders have been thrown into a whirlwind of conflicting information and uncertainty. Though tariffs carry their benefits, they threaten to do more harm than good to America.

see GLOBAL on page 25

EDITORIAL

Administration's disregard for courts imperils checks and balances

There’s no doubt that the past few months have been one of the quickest flurries of presidential action in American history. With the Trump administration signing one executive order after another, the federal government has moved at breakneck speed to reshape America after last year’s election.

These actions, though, have not lacked pushback. Judges around the country have already ruled that certain actions overstep the bounds of the executive branch, or that the actions altogether are unconstitutional. Only one problem — they’re simply being ignored. And these clashes between court and president aren’t just legal squabbles. They can carry significant consequences for the country’s checks and balances and the future of its citizens.

For example, the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, a lawful resident of the country, drove reactions across the political spectrum. Within days, courts had ordered his return from El Salvador, where he remains held in prison. By April 10, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered his return as well.

But more than a month after these orders, the case remains in litigation, and the administration seems to have changed little to address the situation.

All the while, García remains in a Salvadoran prison infamous for its human rights abuses, while his family in

America anxiously awaits a resolution.

Many others find themselves in the same boat as García: the administration’s orders on immigration and deportation have been among those most contested by courts for the sweeping changes they make to decades of precedent on immigration law.

But this battle between the judiciary and the executive extends beyond just this issue. One of the most drastic changes made to the government has been the rapid and unexpected layoff of over 260,000 federal workers, many of them in critical areas like the Department of Health and Human Services.

This unprecedented change, highlighted by policies such as offering federal workers a buyout, has also attracted significant judicial pushback. Many of the layoffs trace responsibility back to Elon Musk’s DOGE, which lacks the federal authority of a department. As a result, judges have ordered a freeze on many of the layoffs — only, once again, to be largely ignored as in the case of Abrego García.

For tens of thousands of federal workers, these changes mean no longer trusting the federal government with their livelihood. Even for those who want to stay, the time it might take for the deadlock to end means they have to start looking for a new job now. In other words, the damage from these firings could very well be permanent.

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Global tariffs will raise prices, damage America’s reputation

continued from page 24

The sudden imposition of tariffs on nearly half of the countries on the planet has thrown global trade into chaos, highlighted by a 145 percent rate on China that effectively chokes American trade with the country. With almost everyone on their toes about what could come next, it’s important to know the basics of what tariffs actually are and what they could do.

Contrary to President Trump’s messaging and what approximately 42 percent of Americans believe based on a YouGov poll, tariffs are not paid by foreign manufacturers or governments. Instead, they are paid by importers, usually American businesses, to the federal government. For this reason, tariffs tend to raise the prices that Americans have to pay as companies face higher costs to make the same goods or services.

Some consumers have responded to the new tariffs by rapidly buying up anything they may need in the near future — notably, Apple saw a surge in purchases for iPhones and other products, anticipating that their prices would rise after the tariffs on China were imposed. They aren’t entirely wrong for it either — analysts at Rosenblatt Securities estimated that a $1600 iPhone 16 Pro could cost as much as $2300 after tariffs.

er as opposed to looking abroad. In the long run, it could protect American industry, though it would take time to rebuild after decades of decline. The immediate cost increases from tariffs would also mean that many of these companies would have to deal with a myriad of issues until they can remake their supply chains, a process that could easily take years. However, this long-run revival of industry could also fizzle out if the cost of manufacturing still remains too high, or if a future administration decides to reverse course on tariffs altogether.

Generally, tariffs will largely burden American consumers, with only an uncertain potential to assist producers. Economists see the issue as even less two-sided. In a Stanford survey, 93 percent of economists said that even targeted tariffs on imported goods wouldn’t make the country better off.

There’s also the impact on America’s international relations. Tariffs on countries across the globe have already begun to antagonize us as countries increasingly see the US as an unfriendly and unwelcome force. Even more concerning is that many tariffs were imposed on American allies such as the UK and Canada. The treatment of these countries as just like any other, or even as enemies, has thrown our relationships into chaos and made them reconsider whether America is a reliable ally — something that could be devastating as the US tries to maintain its leadership in an unstable world.

Tariffs are certainly one response to problems that the country has dealt with for years — its massive trade deficits and the decades-long gutting of its manufacturing. However, tariffs represent a relatively brute-force solution that fails to address the fundamental issues and raises prices for the everyday American. At the same time, it threatens American leadership and calls our alliances into question.

Executive and judicial clash in battle for control

continued from page 24

These two cases highlight the deadlock that has only continued to grow in just the few early months of the new presidency. With almost four more years still left to go, a number of other issues could eventually come into the limelight as well, further deepening the rift that has already very clearly emerged.

While these presidential and executive actions have drawn both praise and criticism, the act of ignoring court orders — even final ones — sets a dangerous precedent for America’s future. It could also set up a constitutional crisis as the normal relationship between the executive and judicial branches completely breaks down and fails to operate within the normal system of checks and balances.

For now, though, most companies are holding out and weathering the storm in hopes that tariffs will soon be rescinded or noticeably decreased. However, no guarantees exist as the Trump administration tries to sort out individual trade deals with the countries affected. After a certain point, a sudden price rise could be nearly inevitable if new agreements are not ironed out fast enough.

That’s not to say tariffs are without their benefit. Inherent in their introduction was the goal of protecting American manufacturing and reducing trade deficits. By raising import prices, businesses here are encouraged to work with each oth-

In their current form, the soon-to-be-enforced tariffs have a dangerous potential to reshape the world away from the US. For the sake of the country and the prices that they will have to pay, voters should oppose these policies in any way available to them. In particular, Congress has the final say on any tariffs and trade policy, and concerned citizens can advocate to their Congressmen and senators to break their silence and take a stance. Also, by being aware of the tariffs’ potential impacts, they can show how they will respond to these policies with their own dollars. Those iPhone hoarders didn’t just potentially save a buck for themselves — they showed the government, and the people, what tariffs really mean.

THE GRID

An oversimplified guide to what falls where in our hierarchy of events across campus.

In many cases, appeals are still undergoing, which are both a legal and normal way to challenge court decisions. However, the brazen actions of the administration don’t leave much hope for the future. With over a month since the Supreme Court decision on Abrego García and no substantial actions taken, it seems that even final decisions from the highest court of all won’t make it budge.

Even for those who support the administration, it’s important to remember that federal judges are neither elected nor chosen for their political opinions. They are professionals, many with decades of experience, who have dedicated their lives to understanding the Constitution. While there are those on both sides that stray from the norms, generally, they are apolitical and reliable interpreters of the law. And, if blatantly ignoring them becomes a precedent, another president from the other end of the political spectrum could easily abuse it.

The future of American democracy and its checks and balances could be in the crosshairs with the recent clash between the presidency and courts. If not resolved, it could easily lead to a constitutional crisis which, as of right now, seems to have no clear resolution. It could cause America to fall away from a system that has maintained its existence for nearly 250 years and represented the will of the people.

For ordinary voters and other concerned onlookers, this dilemma may seem like something reserved for the halls of government in Washington. But Americans can and should make their voices heard so that the country’s separation of powers is maintained. Both sides of the political spectrum will ultimately be better for it, and one of the cornerstones of our democracy will continue to last, with a message sent to those who try to encroach on it again: don’t try.

This message can be sent within a variety of ways. Concerned readers can contact the White House, specific and relevant government agencies or their members of Congress in both the House and Senate —the legislative branch has a particularly powerful role to play if the fight between the other two branches of governments continues. If they experience significant pressure, they may step in and check the power of the presidency before things get truly out of hand. It would also be a big win for the independence of all three branches and for voters’ voices.

The impact that voters and citizens can have cannot be underestimated: if they send a clear and strong rebuke, it may lead to a backing off and resolution that doesn’t leave permanent damage. If they don’t, both the current administration and future ones may be further emboldened to blur the line of their limits in pursuit of the policies that they support. For the future of American democracy, we must speak out.

BRILLIANT

WILLIAM KOZOMAN Editorial Editor

A survival guide to tackling your end-of-year tests

Seven. Seven APs, and a whole host of finals for almost all my classes, too. That’s what I had to look forward to this month. Fellow upperclassmen know this feeling all too well. It’s the part of the year that everyone dreads the most, and mastering it is the key to not sinking in the stress that May brings.

To start, there’s what you can do during the school year. My honest advice is this: really pay attention to the AP practice that you do in class. Yes, it can be pretty boring, and most teachers here aren’t incorporating it into your grades, but the knowledge you gain is crucial. At some point, the key to many APs is not really how well you know the subject material: it’s how well you know the test.

Here’s something to illustrate my point. I just took AP Macroeconomics, and one common question asks what the Federal Reserve should do to alleviate a downturn. To anyone with a knowledge of economics, “decrease interest rates” would be a perfectly good answer. But on the AP exam, it’s not. You have to say “decrease administered rates” to get the point. This difference comes down to the semantics of the College Board, and for someone who hasn’t done enough AP-specific practice, it could easily be an important point lost.

Engaging yourself with AP practice, for this reason, is absolutely crucial. If you want an extra head start, you can look online at AP Classroom or ask your teacher for resources. Not only will they provide you good practice for your class, but you’ll slowly become accustomed to the questions and grading style of the AP exam. It’s not too different from the SAT and ACT, where learning the test itself can be just as important as studying the material it covers.

And then there comes the end-of-year grind, where finals and APs converge to make a few weeks of your life truly hell. There’s no cure for it, but preparing early will make it a lot less painful. For the best-prepared, the APs will be more like a confirmation of prior learning than a nerve-wracking experience.

There’s the typical advice: sleep enough the night before, get a good breakfast, and don’t spend too long on one question. These are all true pieces of advice, but APs have more specific quirks to them. The process of elimination is almost more useful than just finding the correct answer for multiple choice sections, with modern exams typically having only one to two answers that could plausibly be correct, given that you know the material.

For free response, the grading system is very rigid. Points are given out for a very specific explanation or equation, and not for any others. While this puts pressure on you to write the answer they want, it means you can also game the system to guarantee yourself a point. If you include the exact equation, or exact phrase — remember "administered rates"? — that they’re looking for, there’s no way they can take credit away from you. Congratulations. You just beat the game.

Balancing this all with exams going on day after day is definitely not easy. But sometimes the best you can do is take it one at a time, and study in advance for the ones you will have a harder time with. There’s no true “hardest” exam, and so each person should study based on their own needs.

Finals will be right around the same too, but luckily, a lot of them will be like mock AP exams, making my previous advice apply to them, too. Try not to get lost in the haze of all these tests. When you’re done taking one, whether it went well or went poorly, just move on to preparing for the next.

For those of you underclassmen who are anxious about APs, don't worry too much. I didn't take my first one until last year, and it was only one relatively easy one. You'll learn as you go, and with the right preparation in advance, the exams should go smoothly and largely follow your expectations.

On the whole, your teachers will prepare you well. You’ll receive opportunities to practice AP material and similar questions, and so how much you need to prepare is really up to what you think is the hardest class.

APs also aren't the end of the world —remember, their value lies in letting you skip courses in college. They're not definitive markers of how good you are at a subject, and colleges won't treat it as such.

As a junior, I get to enjoy a couple more final exams this year, and then I have to do the whole thing all over again next year. I know I've learned a lot, and I hope this guide helped you just a bit, too.

Learning from a bad tournament

GUFFEY Head Writer

In the last eight months, I’ve had the honor of traveling internationally to fence for Team USA. And, after a lot of successs, I wanted to cap off my last year in the under-17 age group with the title of world champion more than anything else.

World Championships this year was held in Wuxi, China. I happened to be one of the three people representing Team USA.

I spent the weeks leading up to April 8 only focused on training and being as prepared as I could for this goliath of a tournament. I stayed late after practice each day, and when there wasn’t practice, I thought about what I would work on next practice. The last thing I wanted was not to do well, and I regret not training hard enough or putting in enough work.

When the day came to actually fight, I couldn’t have been more nervous, but excited at the same time. One of my close friends and mentors once told me to “embrace the discomfort and thrive in it.” I internalized this more than anything else on the day of my event.

That day, I fenced the best I have ever fenced in my life. It felt like I was unstoppable.

After two rounds of prelims, some people are cut, but most make it to the direct elimination table. I was worried about four people in the competition: the other two Americans, an Italian, and a Turk. All four were in the bottom bracket, but I was in the top, meaning that I wouldn’t have to fence any of them until the finals.

Seeing this gave me an incredible boost of confidence, and I knew I had a really good shot at the world championship title.

My round of 32 match was against a Russian I’d never seen or heard of before, which was a really promising sign for me.

That’s when it all came crumbling down.

In fencing, the first person to get 15 points wins. The final score against him was 15-13; I lost.

Defeat swept over my body as I stood there, crushed. The loss took a minute to sink in. It stung when it did.

During the fight, nothing worked in my favor. The whole match felt completely out of my control, and I remember telling my coach after the bout that it felt like I had lost before even stepping on the strip. It seemed like I sucked at the one thing I was supposed to be good at.

Just like that, months of dieting, working out and intense training felt like they had gone down the drain. I had let my coaches, who had put in so much work preparing me for this tournament, down. On top of that, when I returned to school from my week-long hiatus, I had 15 missing assignments and five assessments waiting for me to make up.

There’s a cliché that goes something like, “In your lowest moments, you find out the most about yourself.” I thought there would be no coming back, and my image as a “good” fencer was ruined forever.

But like the cliché says, I was strangely motivated to bounce back in those moments of defeat and disappointment. After returning to Dallas, I resumed training with a new mindset. Not to avoid failure, but to grow from it. It took losing at the biggest competition of my life for me to realize that.

Looking back, I had a phenomenal season. Sure, it sucks I couldn’t end it the way I liked, but this one loss doesn’t overshadow all my other successes. I realize now that life is like an odyssey full of trials like this. It’s easy to define yourself by one bad moment, but that never tells the whole story. One bad tournament doesn’t make a bad season. One bad season doesn’t make a bad career.

Junior Christopher Guffey fences against fellow American Eric Kwalwasser in the leadup to the World Championships.

Photo Courtesy Christopher Guffey

CHRISTOPHER

SECTION IN BRIEF

DALLAS WINGS DRAFT On April 14, the Dallas Wings, with the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft, selected 6-foot guard Paige Bueckers, a five-star recruit from the University of Connecticut who led the Huskies to the national championship this past season. As the draft proceeded, the Wings picked up Aziaha James, Madison Scott, JJ Quinerly and Aaronette Vonleh with the 12, 14, 26 and 30 picks, respectively.

SPC SPRING RECAP During the week of April 27 - May 4, several spring sports competed in SPC tournaments. The golf team won the SPC 4A title with 303 total strokes, overcoming a five-shot deficit. Tennis placed fourth, beating Greenhill 4-1 before narrow 3-2 losses to St. John’s and Kinkaid. Baseball finished sixth with a 1-2 overall record. Track and Field saw topthree finishes from Noah Roby, Mateu Parker and the 4x400 relay, finishing sixth in SPC. At the US Rowing Youth Central Championships, crew’s 2V boat placed second and qualified for nationals. Lacrosse, held April 11-12, finished second after a 12-3 win over St. John’s and a 14-7 loss to ESD.

ALUMNI GOLF TOURNAMENT From April 24 - April 28, thousands of St. Mark’s alumni returned to campus for Alumni Weekend. Among the alumni, a group spent a day of their reunion competing in the Alumni Golf Tournament. Despite the unfortunate drizzly weather, the alumni played in the unique event, recalling memories of their time at the school.

THE SCOREBOARD

VARSITY LACROSSE, 5/10

7 3

St. Mark’s Austin

VARSITY BASEBALL, 5/3

COMMENTARY

SAM MORSE Sports Editor

Luka trade damages city identity

67 days.

That’s how long it’s been since Luka Doncic was shipped to Los Angeles. On April 9, more than two months after the trade, Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers traveled to play the Dallas Mavericks: Luka’s return to Dallas. Although Doncic had played in the American Airlines Center (AAC) hundreds of times, this time was different—he was representing the Lakers’ purple and gold.

I still haven’t gotten used to seeing him in those colors.

The trade sent shockwaves around the Dallas community, especially on April 9.

As I entered the arena, I saw a sea of Doncic jerseys - half Mavericks, half Lakers. The people in the arena weren’t loyal to the Mavericks — they were loyal to Luka Doncic.

The home court advantage was lopsided, almost reversed. The chorus of “boos” for a team at home was not only surprising, but deafening. Every time Doncic scored, the arena would burst into cheers, but when the announcer tried to energize the crowd for Dallas, the enthusiasm wasn’t reciprocated.

The entire arena rallied around one person, someone who was playing for the other team.

Over his seven years as a Maverick, Doncic built an unbreakable connection with the fans, quickly becoming my favorite NBA player. Doncic had become the identity of the team and played a significant role in the city’s culture. So when Doncic left, I felt dissociated from the Mavericks, and I drifted away from the team as quickly as I fell in love with it.

Online anonymity harms sportsmanship

St. Mark’s Greenhill

VARSITY TENNIS, 5/3 3 8 2 3

St. Mark’s Kinkaid

MVP SPOTLIGHT

SPORT: Golf

GAME: SPC Tournament

DATE: April 29-30

PERFORMANCE: Finishing T-1 with a score of 139, McKay won the SPC individual championship after defeating his opponent in a three hole playoff.

Behind a screen, emotions and trash talk seem much more acceptable, harming the value of sportsmanship.

BY SAM MORSE AND WES JACKSON

The bleachers are packed. The SuperFanMen are on their feet, phones in hand, chants echoing through the stands. Livestreaming each second of the game, the SuperFanMen upload their support of school athletics, encouraging positive interactions without disrespecting their opponent an ideal display of sportsmanship.

But only a few scrolls further on Twitter, TikTok or a burner Instaa different kind of atmosphere develops. One not fueled by cheering and school spirit, but by anonymous attacks and online antagonism. An atmosphere that promotes breakout fights and disrespectful jabs at other schools. Social media highlights content that’s entertaining, yet often negative. In an age of viral videos and barstool hype accounts, the biggest challenge to sportsmanship isn’t always on the field; it’s on

Interacting online creates an avenue to cover one’s identity and make comments anonymously, hiding behind a screen to avoid the consequences of one’s actions. In a competitive world with heated rivalries and continuous trash talk, it seems easy to make offensive remarks in hopes of hurting others’ morale.

Head of Upper School William Atkinson expects Marksmen to uphold the same values they do in school when competing in athletics, whether in person or online. As a sports fan himself, Atkinson believes in relentless competition as long as it doesn’t diminish others.

At the game, I felt torn, yet excited. Although I was wearing a Mavericks jersey, I only wanted to cheer when Luka was playing. It was heartbreaking to see my favorite team abandon what they’re known for, having to restart from scratch. Despite returning for the first time in months, having Doncic in the arena felt natural, as if he had never left.

It was even more heartbreaking to see that Doncic felt just as emotional. During his tribute video before tip-off, Doncic’s lip began to quiver and his eyes grew teary, clearly overwhelmed by the city’s support.

It was especially bitter-sweet when Dallas was handed a 15-point loss by the Lakers. To deepen the wound, Doncic led his team to victory while on a mission, determined to prove a point.

45 points, eight rebounds and six assists while shooting 16-28 from the field: impressive numbers to say the least.

Then came April 21. Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison admitted he didn’t fully realize just how much Doncic meant to the fan base.

I find that hard to believe.

Harrison’s responsibility is to understand. It is his job to know the pulse of this city, this team, and its supporters. But what’s done is done.

It took Luka leaving for us to truly recognize everything he gave to Dallas. Now, amidst that heartbreak, the fanbase stands at a crossroads. I’m still figuring out where I stand. Looking forward, I may not know which team I support, but I know who I’ll cheer for.

Illustration by Joshua Goforth

Athletes learn discipline from faculty

It is always easy to do what is expected. An athlete’s real grit shines through when everyone else packs up and leaves practice. Motivation creates passion, but consistency creates greatness.

BY SAM MORSE AND DIEGO ARMENDARIZ

It’s a constant challenge for athletes. The morning practices at the crack of dawn. Staying late after practice to get more reps; it’s exhausting, the extraordinary day-in and day-out grind.

Going the extra mile is what it takes to push any athlete from good to great. For most, it’s easy to put in the effort when they feel motivated. When they are at the top of their game. When they are in good health. When the end goal is right in front of their face.

The real challenge comes when that motivation leaves. The real struggle starts at 6 in the morning, alarm blaring. The bed feels too comfortable, you don’t feel well, you can put off the work for later. When you are feeling lethargic, lazy and unmotivated, discipline is what gets you out of bed. Discipline is what turns hard work into habit. For a hard working athlete, creating this consistent discipline requires them to push themselves past passion, transcending them into success.

This discipline, however, isn’t easily achieved-it’s the result of thoughtful, intentional efforts over time. Upper School Counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu believes if athletes can commit themselves to these efforts, then they can create room for improvement.

“Passion is that initial sort of emotional surge that you feel that allows you to really be motivated and excited about an endeavor,” Bonsu said. “Dedication is the decision that you make to commit to the action. So passion is an emotional process, whereas dedication is more of a thought process.”

Bonsu believes that by starting a difficult task with passion towards the process, anyone can develop a dedicated mindset.

“There’s this idea that your thoughts can lead you and then your emotions follow,” Bonsu said. “Your thought process can be the thing that helps you connect to the reason as to why you’re doing something, and eventually, a reason emerges, you

are doing this because you have a sense of duty.”

This sense of duty could be to teammates, coaches, parents, or even to a commitment of completing a personal goal or task. Bonsu recognizes that while not every athlete is built to perform in the same way, all of them can benefit motivationally from setting both short and long term goals for the future, such as running faster, hitting harder, or just playing better.

“Oftentimes, we’ll set some sort of long term goal, or a short term goal. It might be tied to higher education, or the kind of level of achievements they’re looking for,” Bonsu said. “But, it really is realigning with your goals and then looking at your mindset, readjusting your expectations and having some level of faith in the process.”

I AM 1 PERCENT OF THEIR MOTIVATION. MY 1 PERCENT IS ‘YES, YOU CAN DO IT. I BELIEVE IN YOU. I TRUST IN EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE NOW. THE 99 PERCENT IS WHAT YOU POSSESS.”

Kevin Dilworth, strength and conditioning coach

Bonsu stresses the importance of believing in one’s self and in a sense of commitment towards any goal, even when it may seem mentally or physically impossible. Athletes dealing with motivational issues frequently visit with her to reorient their mindset and reset their expectations.

“I like to really dig down and see what it is that has diminished their motivation,” Bonsu said. “Sometimes they no longer enjoy the mechanical aspects of (the sport), or the limited prospect of being recruited at the collegiate level threatens their motivation.”

Losing motivation is a common struggle for athletes, and as both the strength and conditioning coach and former Olympic athlete Kevin Dilworth fully understands the intense mental toll that constant dedication and practice can take, however, he also knows that getting over a weak mentality is incredibly rewarding for all athletes.

“You are the key to unlock every door of success that you want. You can’t put all your trust in other people or things or elements out there,” Dilworth said. “The main thing you have to do is believe it. The hardest thing for most athletes is to believe that they can do the impossible, but you could do it.”

It might be easy for some athletes to rely on their teammates or coaches to hold them to higher standards than they hold themselves, but Dilworth doesn’t think that should be the case. He prefers to see a self-motivated athlete that, while being supported by their peers, is still able to fully stand and perform on their own.

“I am 1% of their motivation. My 1% is, ‘yes, you can do it. I believe in you, I trust in everything you’ve done now,”’ Dilworth said. “The 99% is what you possess. You have to take hold of that, and you have to do something with it. You can add my 1% to it, but you gotta make sure of the things that you put in it.”

Dilworth’s coaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of personal accountability; forcing his athletes to get disciplined when their motivation may wane. For him, passion might get the ball rolling, but discipline is what carries him to the finish line.

“I see guys motivated. I don’t see guys being disciplined,” Dilworth said. “They’re motivated. They want to, because that’s where we’re at in this society. ‘Now. I want it now. But it can’t come now without the discipline of now later.”

Golf takes first in individual and team SPC

BY EUGENE WANG

After a 13-year title drought, the varsity golf team emerged victorious at the 2025 Spring Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) Championships.

After months of preparation and qualifying marks, the Lions traveled to the Golf Club of Houston on April 29 for the two-day SPC tournament. Rallying from five shots back on the second day of the tournament, the Lions stormed back to a thrilling victory, 608-613, dethroning the 8year defending champion Houston Kinkaid and capturing both the prestigious 4A team and individual

championships.

The Lions’ historic finish encompassed a combination of both grit and mental toughness, resulting in three All-SPC awards and a playoff victory from junior Duff McKay that came down to the wire.

Despite competing as an underdog, the Lions stuck to their game plan, relying on each other and maintaining belief in themselves. While the teams native to the Houston area had practically a home-course advantage, the Lions had only played the course twice.

“They really coached each other up and had a plan going into each round,” varsity golf coach Greg Guiler said. “They also put in good reps

(and) intentional hours. So that was imperative as well.”

When it became apparent that the team had clinched the title on hole 18, the celebration was brief, as McKay still had work to do. Tied for first overall with a score of five-under par, the Indiana commit entered a sudden death playoff that brought back heartbreak from last year, where back-to-back bogeys on the final two holes led to a nail-biting loss.

“The entire group is celebrating, and Duff is having this mental conflict, because he’s like, it’s all about the team, it’s all about the team,” Guiler said. “(But) we’re telling him, no, we want to sweep. We want you to go and win this individually.”

McKay’s mental fortitude was put to the test, but as always, he delivered.

As the playoff began, the Indiana signee hit clutch putts on the first two playoff holes before rolling in a brilliant shot to three feet on the third. From there, McKay’s opponent missed his shot, and he tapped in the winner.

“The team celebrated (Duff’s) win as much as they did the team championship, “ Guiler said. “The individual should be all about the team. Likewise, the team should be all about the individual, and I felt like those guys embodied that.”

Sam Morse contributed to this story

Athlete practices alone on an open soccer field (Left). Athlete shoots extra hoops in the gym on his own agenda (Right).

Photos by Peter Clark

New boat honors Mark Sullivan

After 43 years of service and countless responsibilities at the school, the crew team bestows a new boat in Mark Sullivan’s name, honoring his contributions to the community.

BY DIEGO ARMENDARIZ AND NOLAN DRIESSE

From coaching Middle School water polo and Lower School PE to winning an SPC Championship and even stepping in as assistant head of middle school, Mark Sullivan has seen it all.

Each of the 43 years he’s dedicated to St. Mark’s have shaped him just as much as he’s shaped the school. And now, his legacy of service and commitment to the school is being honored with a brand new boat bearing his name. The boat is the newest edition to a fleet consisting of over 12 boats.

“I’m honored that Coach Yandell and the team have chosen to do something like this,” Sullivan said. “I’m sort of speechless, but it’s such an honor.”

The boat itself is a state-of-the-art Hudson Ultimate Shark Predator, with Sullivan’s name emblazoned in blue at the very front. Its 32 feet of carbon fiber slice through the water with every stroke.

While the boat first set sail less than a month ago, high expectations are already being placed on it.

Junior Mateen Mostafavipour was among the first rowers to test out the new boat, and is scheduled to race with it at the 2025 USRowing Central Youth Championships on May 3-4.

“To be a part of a moment like this, and to be given the opportunity to race in a boat like this,” Mostafavipour said. “It’s going to be really special, even more so if we win a medal.”

While Sullivan wishes the boat success in competitions, his experience in the athletic department has taught him that winning isn’t everything.

“Have fun, just go enjoy what you do, and do it with passion. Keep pushing, keep going and have fun doing it,” Sullivan said.

Even before the boat’s christening on April 17, Sullivan’s name is remembered by decades of community members in St. Mark’s history because of his contributions to the athletics department and the school as a whole.

“I’ve been here a long time, and I remember the program when it was just a handful of kids and one quad,” Sullivan said. “So it’s just been really fun to watch that develop over the years. To me, that makes it even more special.”

At its heart, the school hasn’t changed all that much from when Sullivan first arrived on campus, just with the addition of some different buildings. All of the core values that the school expressed in the past have remained critical points of development in each generation of Marksmen.

“While the school itself, physically, has changed pretty dramatically over the years, interestingly, the kids and the

faculty, not so much,” Sullivan said. “The faces change. But It’s funny because in kids like you guys, kids your age, I still see the faces of kids that I taught in the Lower School way back in the 80s.”

The school is unique in the profound way it shapes both its students and faculty members, something Sullivan had never experienced before coming here.

The school has helped Sullivan become more confident over the years and its environment has propelled him further than he thought was possible.

“No doubt, St. Mark’s has pushed me in many ways. I was a shy, timid individual when I was younger and I didn’t really have a whole lot of self confidence,” Sullivan said. “But people here are pushing each other to be better and bringing it every day. And I wasn’t wired that way when I first came here, but now I’m ready.”

Surprisingly, for something Sullivan has spent the vast majority of his life focused on, athletics weren’t part of his original career path. Out of high school, Sullivan had been planning to try his luck at music. This changed when an opportunity in the North Texas area arose and he hasn’t looked back since.

“I was a music major at the time, but I felt like I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do. I wanted a change, so I applied to the University of North Texas and met a guy who sparked my interest in physical education,” Sullivan said.

I’VE BEEN HERE A LONG TIME, AND I REMEMBER THE PROGRAM WHEN IT WAS JUST A HANDFUL OF KIDS AND ONE QUAD. IT’S JUST BEEN REALLY FUN TO WATCH THAT DEVELOP OVER THE YEARS. TO ME, THAT MAKES IT EVEN MORE SPECIAL.”

Mark Sullivan, director of experiential education

While Sullivan first arrived at St. Mark’s as a specialist in Elementary Physical Education, he quickly broadened his horizons when the Varsity Volleyball team needed a coach on quick notice.

“Speaking of doing something that you’re not that comfortable with, I was asked to coach the varsity volleyball team,” Sullivan said. “I don’t really know that much about volleyball, so I listened

Lacrosse team wins state championship

BY DIEGO ARMENDARIZ

On Sunday, May 11, the lacrosse team competed in the Texas High School Lacrosse League Class A Championship. Starting on May 4, their first game against Strake Jesuit ended with a 5-3 win, followed by a 12-9 win against Memorial High School, and finally a 7-3 victory in the championship game against Austin High School.

Despite this positive close to a successful season, Junior Rocco Renda and the rest of the team began their championship run with a slight feeling of disappointment. They had been placed to compete in the Class A bracket rather than their expected chance at a Class AA championship.

“I think not getting into the AA bracket put a chip on our shoulders and,

as a team, we really wanted to make a statement and win the whole thing to show what we can do.” Renda said.

The frustration the team felt after not being slotted in the AA bracket was palpable; however, the Lions wanted to make these last few games count. After the championship game, not only would they be saying goodbye to the graduating seniors on the team, but also to head lacrosse coach Trey Whitty, as this season marks his final year at the school.

“I’m really happy we got one final win with Coach Whitty, it was definitely something that motivated us,” Renda said. “Also for the seniors, it was their final high school game so I felt like there was a little more drive and a little more push to play as hard as we could and eventually win the game.”

While their first game was played

at Darrell Tully Stadium in Houston, a change in venue for both the semi-finals and finals brought the Lions much closer to home. They were given the opportunity to play their final two games in Dallas at Highland Park High School’s Highlander Stadium, a much more accessible distance for fellow students and other fans to come and spectate.

“It’s always fun playing in front of your friends at school, and seeing them get hype when we score, I think it’s a boosting factor having that home field and home crowd advantage,” Renda said. “And, when we won, we ran to the stands and sang the alma mater; that was awesome.”

With the season now behind them, focus is shifting towards the future of the program. The championship game serves as a fitting farewell to the seniors

to my athletes. They knew more about volleyball, frankly, than I did, so I was fully willing to sit back and let them take control.”

Unexpectedly, the team made a deep run in the SPC tournament at the end of the season. They made it to the finals but a weak start against Fort Worth Country Day almost shattered their hopes of a championship.

“We weren’t really supposed to win it,” Sullivan said. “But those kids were just great. We were down 14 to one, and the kids came back and won the game.”

Helping Sullivan gain confidence as a young coach, this memory became an important milestone in his career. Sullivan fondly remembers the love and passion his players displayed for Volleyball and hopes that he has been able to cement a similar positive attitude towards improvement in each student he’s met.

“You always hope you pass on a love for what you do. I like to have a fun, lighthearted approach to a very serious thing,” Sullivan said. “It all boils down to the statue out front, the courage and honor, the helping young men become better students, athletes and adults.”

and Coach Whitty, but it also marks an opportunity for the rest of the team to elevate their game.

“We are going to lose a few key seniors, so losing those guys is gonna sting but we have a strong returning team,” Renda said. “I think a lot of the guys, especially in the current junior and sophomore classes, have really bought into the idea of stepping up and leading the team.

As the Lions are preparing the foundation of next year’s season, they hope to build off of this season and make a return to the AA bracket next year.

“The goals we kinda wanna hone in on are getting in the class AA bracket and making a run there, dominating the regular season and working hard in the off season to prepare ourselves for the regular season,” Renda said.

Mark Sullivan and Pitts Yandell pose infront of the new boat at its christening ceremony.

Photo Courtesy Dave Carden

Stepping up to the mound

Seniors Lucas Petrikas and Deven Pietrzak have taken up leading roles in pitching for the team, working together as both best friends and teammates.

BY RONIT KONGARA AND NOLAN DRIESSE

Standing on the mound, two pitchers toe the line between throwing a strike or giving up a hit. First meeting through baseball, seniors Lucas Petrikas and Deven Pietrzak have grown both as close friends and as two of the best pitchers in SPC. Now team leaders, they’ve come a long way from their early days tossing balls in elementary school.

With fellow senior Jackson Williams out for the season due to injury, Petrikas and Pietrzak have shouldered most of the workload this season, starting nearly every single game. Over 90 innings, both pitchers have a combined 106 strikeouts. In terms of earned run average (ERA), the average number of runs given up by a pitcher, Petrikas has a 2.5 while Pietrzak has a 3.7. On top of low ERAs, batters struggle when facing Petrikas and Pietrzak, with the batting average against (BAA) being .230 and .275, respectively.

Petrikas’s journey began when he was ten. Growing up surrounded by baseball, with his father and brothers all playing, the sport was an obvious first choice. But within sport, pitching especially caught his attention, drawn to it by the power it has over the game.

“Pitching just entices me because it’s like the game is fully in your control, like you determine the pace of the game, the outcome,” Petrikas said. “I really liked having the ball in my court.”

Starting with the fundamental skills his father taught him, Petrikas steadily adapted his arsenal of pitches: fastball, cutter, change-up and his favorite, curveball. As he began to take the sport and his health more seriously, his pitching advanced further and further.

“After sophomore year, I started taking baseball and pitching specifically way more seriously. Developing into my body really helped me advance as a pitcher. I probably put on 20 pounds during my training,” Petrikas said.

Petrikas joined the Texas Baseball Ranch in the outskirts of Houston to train during the summer, the same place Pietrzak joined to help his pitching really take off.

Starting at nine, Pietrzak’s pitching journey also began very early on. But according to Pietrzak, his pitching really started to develop after his freshman year when he joined the Texas Baseball Ranch.

“At the start of ninth grade, I topped out at 65 miles an hour. That’s

when I really started training a lot and focusing, and it’s just been on a straight upward journey from there. Texas Baseball Ranch in Houston really helped me take off. From there, I’ve put on over 20 miles an hour. I’ve gotten up to 88 now,” Pietrzak said.

PITCHING JUST ENTICES ME BECAUSE IT’S LIKE THE GAME IS FULLY IN YOUR CONTROL, LIKE YOU DETERMINE THE PACE OF THE GAME, THE OUTCOME. I REALLY LIKED HAVING THE BALL IN MY COURT.”

Lucas Petrikas, senior

Petrikas and Pietrzak’s paths came together due to baseball, and now, in their senior year, the friends have stepped up to lead the pitching together. Working as a two-man rotation, the duo has enjoyed their season pitching together.

“Luke and I are super close friends. We’ve been training together at the place in Houston and another place in Mansfield for a couple of years now, and so we

kind of imagined it would be a lot like this,” Pietrzak said. “(As the two main pitchers) we’ve been discussing things like who wants to pitch when, what’s the best thing for the team and just managing everything. Both of us have been getting lots of opportunities. It’s been great to do this with one of my best friends.”

Sharing the field together, the two strike out batters with a wide variety of pitches, spanning from curveballs to sliders. According to Petrikas, they even complement each other even in terms of personality, with Pietrzak being more cool and calm and Petrikas being more amped up and emotional. But knowing they’ll be gone next year, they’ve made sure to help the younger pitchers as their seniors on the team.

“Everybody realizes that next year is going to be very different. We’re not going to be here next year, and the next person on the team has nine innings while we each have like 40 innings. So, we’ve been trying to help them out, organizing what’s going to happen and helping them out if they need anything,” Petrikas said.

But while the season has ended,

the journey has been valuable for both pitchers. For Petrikas, he has been able to gain valuable memories through his pitching, making it all worth it in the end.

“One (of my favorite moments) was probably when I was able to throw to my brother, who’s a freshman, catching me on senior night. I thought that was really cool, being able to throw to him once in my career before I’m off to college,” Petrikas said.

For Pietrzak, baseball has taught him many valuable lessons. According to him, baseball and his journey through it have changed him for the better.

“I would say the biggest (lesson has been in) mindset, things like having a growth mindset and being focused toward the future getting better,” Pietrzak said. “One of my favorite stats is that in my entire career, since I was 11 years old, I’ve given up 13 home runs, and after those home runs, I have had seven or eight strikeouts. It’s getting even when you have a bad result, which will inevitably happen with pitching. It’s moving on from that.”

Social media brings sportsmanship concerns

continued from page 26

“I expect them to be fierce competitors, absolutely fierce competitors. When other teams line up against the Lions, they should know they’re going to have a tough day,” Atkinson said. “But the way the boys express that, and the athletes express that, is through their actions and efforts between the whistles. You know, it’s not through words, it’s through our actions.”

Atkinson also expects students to realize the difference between positive and negative interactions, as well as identifying the line between harmless banter and disrespectful comments. For Atkinson, it is ultimately up to the student to make decisions based on their morals.

“If a boy feels the need to create a fake account, he’s acknowledging,in that moment, that he does not want his actions to reflect on him as an individual,” Atkinson said. “So that should be a warning sign that you are not doing something that is aligned with our core values as a school or as an individual.”

Social media’s influence on sports isn’t always negative. When used with the right intentions, it can raise school spirit, increase attendance at games, and create a shared excitement among students and athletes. Many

Marksmen have seen firsthand how online energy can lead to real-world enthusiasm.

Senior Mateu Parker, a captain of the varsity track team and member of the SuperFanMen, sees both sides of the issue. He understands the power social media can have to energize a crowd and build momentum.

“I think barstool makes the anticipation of games more fun,” Parker said. “It creates bigger crowds and builds excitement. But in terms of sportsmanship? It doesn’t really help.”

By being aware of social media’s impact on sportsmanship, Parker and the rest of the SuperFanMen try to solely focus on Marksmen success rather than the opponents’ loss. Atkinson admires the SuperFanMen’s effort to maintain good relationships with their rivals, and encourages others to follow their path.

“I think they [SuperFanMen] do a wonderful job, and I’m so proud of what they do for the school,” Atkinson said. “They not only unify the school, but support our teams and represent our school, our teams, themselves and our community in a positive manner. I think that’s a good example of using a platform in a positive way to unify, instead of as a vehicle to hurt feelings or cause dissent with other people.”

Parker has experienced the powerful effect social media can have when it’s used to spread positive energy around the campus. He believes there’s a balance to be made between healthy hype and harmful criticism.

“There’s a line,” Parker said. “As long as you don’t cross that line, where it gets personal and goes beyond sports, you can still be competitive and have fun.”

The challenge lies in recognizing where that line is. Atkinson believes that starts with consistency.

“I want the boys to behave the same no matter who they’re playing,” he said. “Rivalries are healthy, and they should be intense. But like in any relationship, a rivalry comes with responsibilities. There should always be mutual respect.”

Ultimately, Marksmen athletes are taught to lead with honor, win with humility and lose with grace. That same code applies when the jersey comes off and the phone comes out.

In a time where a post can reach more people than a pep rally and a caption can hurt more than a chant, the responsibility of sportsmanship has increased. The question for every Marksmen is no longer how will you play, but also how will you post.

Deven Pietrzak fires a pitch (Right). Lukas Petrikas prepares to throw a pitch (Left). Photos Courtesy Lukas Petrikas and Deven Pietrzak

Turner serves school with pride

Award-winning equipment manager Ron Turner has served the school for 37 years. Along the way, he has fulfilled a myriad of important roles around campus and beyond.

BY WESTON CHANCE

Thirty-seven years. Twice the time the members of the senior class have been alive. That’s how long Equipment Manager Ron Turner has served the school. In those nearly four decades on campus, Turner has remained a constant beacon of wisdom and dedication as he continues to guide thousands of young Marksmen in their journey from adolescence to manhood.

Turner began his time at the school not as the equipment manager but as the printer. Before long, he became involved in a multitude of roles around campus. From mailroom operator to textbook distributor to clerical supervisor to student store associate, Turner brought his same devout work ethic to all of these jobs, often going unnoticed by the community.

“I had those four jobs and I was coaching JV basketball, so I did that until the year 2000 when they created an equipment manager position,” Turner said. “I love sports and love athletics. The rest is history.”

As the equipment manager, Turner possesses numerous responsibilities: manage the uniforms for every almost every sport, keep a tight inventory of all the athletic equipment and make sure that all helmets and school issued pads are up to date and safe for players, among many other unseen tasks. Turner also appreciates other aspects of the position.

“As equipment manager, it allows me to interact with

Robert “Doc”

BY ALEX CALDER

students,” Turner said. “In the earlier positions, I was more or less interacting with faculty and staff only, not able to see a lot of the guys.”

Turner’s effect on the school has certainly been felt, so much so that in 2022, he was presented with the prestigious Booker Kilgore Award by the Athletic Equipment Manager Association (AEMA). Every year, the AEMA recognizes an equipment manager who best exemplifies the character and service of the late Booker Kilgore, who, like Turner, dedicated more than three decades of his life to the passionate service of his school.

Through his recognition and advocacy, Turner has helped high school equipment managers to gain a closer relationship with the AEMA. Another one of Turner’s greatest accomplishments came during the pandemic.

“Back in March of 2020 during COVID, I coordinated with all of the high school equipment managers via Zoom to to keep our attitudes up and keep motivated because we weren’t on campus,” Turner said. “Some people were losing their jobs, and we were just trying to figure out what we could do on the side for our schools to keep our jobs and just keep going.”

Because of Turner’s efforts, he and other equipment managers around the nation have met on Zoom every Tuesday for the last five years, forging deep and lasting friendships along the way.

“We’ve cried together and we’ve laughed together,” Turner said. “And we’ve all grown to be a big family,”

Currently, besides his duties as equipment manager, Turner also coaches Middle School tennis where he strives to instill positive character traits in his players on and off the court.

“Tennis gives me an opportunity to interact with seventh and eighth graders, and I can kind of work and learn from them, and they can learn from me,” Turner said. “A lot of guys that play tennis have never played team tennis, so I’m there to help them be a team player, show them their role, and help them support each other.”

As a tennis coach, Turner works hard to promote achievement among his players on and off the court. This effort certainly does not go unnoticed.

Juniors Aryaman Lahoti and Andrew Zierk recall Turner’s tremendous leadership skills during their 8th grade season, in which the team went undefeated.

“Coach Turner pushed us to our limits and brought out the best in us,” Lahoti said. “He really inspired me to seek my full potential in all aspects of life,” Zierk added.

Thirty-seven years is a staggering amount of time. And reflecting on all his days here, Turner feels nothing but immense gratitude and honor to help foster generations of men he believes truly embody the school’s motto of courage and honor.

“St. Mark’s is great, and I love what I do,” Turner said. “I love working with the guys. I love seeing the guys develop into strong young men, so I just want to continue to do what I can to help.”

Browning awarded for 40 years of service

When Robert “Doc” Browning arrived on campus 40 years ago, he couldn’t imagine the influence he would have on the generations of students that met him.

“I’m grateful,” Browning said. “It’s been such a satisfying experience – over half my life here, so it’s pretty special.”

During his tenure as athletic trainer, Browning has played various roles in the community, including Pecos campout leader, Lower School PE teacher and sports announcer. On top of this, he has also attended every SPC tournament to date.

For the last four decades, many Marksmen, especially those that came in Lower School, share countless fond memories with Browning. Remebering moments

spent playing frisbee on the Quad or dodgeball in the gym give him a sense of pride as he looks across the sea of graduating faces he’s watched grow into men.

“I love feeling like I’m part of their very first experience,” Browning said, “watching my first graders grow from that guy to that senior that walks across the stage and being able to watch that progression, maturation and matriculation through this school. I’ve got that bond with them, because I’ve known them since the very first day they stepped foot on this campus.”

The veteran teacher wants each boy to grow up to be a kind and respectful man who knows how to both jump rope and properly shake someone’s hand.

“If we don’t get them off to a good start and make them happy and make them

love this place that first year, then, you know, I’ve kind of failed,” Browning said.

Doc has mentored thousands of boys during his career, but he also credits those who mentored him, such as fellow teacher and coach Tom Adams.

“Adams was just such a remarkable teacher and remarkable man and a legend at this school,” Browning said. “People from this school who will tell you Tom Adams was the best teacher that ever walked the face of the earth.”

On March 6, 2025, former NFL Linebacker Samuel Acho ‘07 and former Grizzlies Head Coach Taylor Jenkins ‘03 met with Athletic Director Sean Lissemore in the Science Lecture Hall to discuss the lasting impact the school has had on them and their sports legacy.

During the panel, Acho reminisced

on the long standing lessons Browning taught him in lower school, specifically during a game of handball in Spencer Gym.

“I was the biggest kid,” Acho said. “There were little kids hanging on my back. Doc wouldn’t call a foul, and I was so frustrated. Browning said, ‘Sam, this is what your life is going to be like, so get used to it.’”

Doc uses three words to describe his legendary tenure at St. Mark’s: grateful, rewarding and joyful.

“I love saying that I retired from this school and I never moved out of my office,” Doc said. “I’m going to celebrate 40 years, four years after I retired. But I never retired.”

Turner poses next to the school logo in the Albert G. Hill, Sr. family tennis courts (Left). Turner makes sure his players are ready for a JV football game (Top Right). Turner poses with his 2019 eigth-grade basketball team (Bottom Right).

Photos by Bryan Li

Seniors celebrate at Marksmen Ball

Last Saturday, the senior class celebrated their accomplishments as a class at the annual Marksmen Ball. Accompanied by their parents and dates, all guests were able to witness the unveiling of this years yearbook.

4 3 5 2

Photos Courtesy Dave Carden

|1| Seniors Teddy Fleiss and Henry Estes pose for a picture with Journalism Advisor Jenny Creech. |2| Seniors get a first glance of the yearbook. |3| Senior Owen Ackerman dances with his mom. |4| Senior Class President Henry Estes gives a speech at the Marksman Ball. |5| Seniors Zachary Yang, Jack Frary, Hilton Sampson and Luke Laczkowski stand together for a photo during their dinner.

Wrapped

PAGE 2: Recounting the songs of the year, ranking the best parts of campus life.

PAGE 3: What we will and won’t miss from our time here, faculty idioms

PAGE 4-5: C lass of ‘25 photos, 12 years of memories, timeline of senior year

PAGE 6: The legacy of the senior class, a faculty perspective

PAGE 7: ReMarker seniors say their final goodbyes to the staff

PAGE 8: Mapping out what lies ahead in the future for the class of ‘25

102 seniors. 27 12-year Marksmen. 29 National Merit Semifinalists. 12 signed collegiate athletes. 1,106 hours of senior year classes. One final year at 10600 Preston Rd.

Soundtrack of the year

We asked the seniors to describe this past year through music and express their thoughts on the year with something more than just words. These songs capture all our highs, lows and unforgettable times here. This is the essence of senior year.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY

Looking back, our year in review...

From our favorite school lunches to the hardest tests we’ve ever had, we polled the senior class about the moments that defined our time here and compiled our collective top fives from the time we’ve spent here. This is our year in review.

Moments Top 5

Lunch Top 5

Chef

Hard Tests Top 5

School Trip Top 5

Final thoughts, the good and bad

The moments, mindsets and memories that shaped my time at St. Mark’s—what I’m leaving behind, what I’m taking with me, and what I’ll never forget.

A farewell to Jenny’s office

As I prepare to leave this school, the first thing that comes to mind is my friends. I’ll deeply miss all the people and traditions that make this place so special.

Yet there’s one unexpected space that encompasses all of these memories: Jenny’s office. By this point in my senior year, it’s practically become my second home. Every lunch period and free hour finds me there, working or simply relaxing. Sometimes Jenny isn’t even there, but the room is uniquely comforting.

This place represents far more than just four walls. It holds countless memories—from talks amongst friends about school events to stressing over production deadlines.

Even beyond just academics, it’s a space where I can have meaningful conversations or voice my troubles. It can even be free therapy, where I complain to Jenny about dumb issues like trying to ship a package from Mexico.

Every item in the room carries its own symbolism. The oversized green beanbag is a place to rest, while the three chairs facing her desk offer conversation. The gold Ben Adams nameplate above the middle chair somehow motivates me to complete my work. The hidden stash of Trader Joe’s chocolate peanut butter cups in her cabinet always provide sweet relief. Through the large window overlooking the quad, I watch younger students playing soccer or spikeball—a reminder of my own journey through these formative years.

And I know I’m not alone; for many others, this office represents the same haven of comfort and remembrance. When I come back to campus as an alum, before I catch up with my past teachers, I know Jenny’s office will be the first place I visit.

What I will miss

Saying goodbye to copious homework

While this place holds a special place in my heart, there are some things that I definitely won’t miss. Most of all, I won’t miss the relentless nightly homework that consumed so many of my evenings.

Could I have been more productive during free periods instead of playing kickball on the quad or FIFA in the senior lounge? Probably. Should I have spent less time on my phone, talking to my friends or doomscrolling through TikTok? Perhaps.

But any student here would agree: the workload could be overwhelming. I won’t miss starting six-hour homework sessions at 9 p.m. after exhausting soccer practices. I won’t miss sacrificing weekends locked in my room instead of making memories with my friends. I won’t miss dragging myself into school feeling half-awake. I won’t miss skipping Friday night football games to finish newspaper deadlines. The homework often felt crushing, creating stress and anxiety.

Yet, my time here offered valuable lessons in perseverance. Rather than just complaining about the workload, I learned to manage it effectively, developing skills that will serve me well in college. I learned to not procrastinate (too much) and how to balance competing priorities when time feels impossibly scarce. The friendships deepened during late night study sessions and through shared academic struggles created bonds unlike any other.

I’m grateful for how this experience shaped me into someone more resilient, more disciplined and better prepared for life’s challenges. When I walk across the stage at graduation, I’ll carry with me not just a diploma, but the grit and determination that has prepared me for whatever comes next.

What I won’t miss

How intentionality became my greatest lesson

I laughed to myself. Becoming intentional about leadership? That’s some fancy Path to Manhood talk that’s just outright fake. But freshman me kept listening to the conversation anyway. It was the only conversation going on at the team dinner after all.

Evan was the main one talking. Mostly about how he took the time to sit down and reflect about what actions he could take to best lead the rowing team as captain.

But I didn’t believe it. Yeah, you can do all the Leadership Loops and reflection you want. But, at the end of the day, leadership is a term people like to throw around and can’t really act on.

Right?

I want you all to get in their heads.

Evan was talking to us from the launch as we pushed off the dock for practice a few weeks before Rowing Nationals. Get in their heads on the warmup. Warm up like a Nats-winning quad.

We started with our usual arms-only warmup. Intentionality. Sharpen those catches. But just as soon as we were about to move on from arms-only, Evan stopped us.

We’re staying here until we get it down right. Be intentional.

What we would’ve made a minute-long warmup— Evan made it into what felt like an hour-long warmup. I want V-Splash. Show me V-Splash. By the end of that lap though, our blades were sharp. Our timing was together.

The boat run was smooth.

We were intentional.

That intentionality I’ve gained could’ve only come from being at a place like St. Mark’s.

A place where the culture of programs like rowing expect your best and a serious purpose behind everything—even on something as simple as a warm-up.

It’s one of my most invaluable skills. Because—instead of floating down the lazy river of high school—intentionality allows me to swim against the current and choose the direction I want myself and my community to move in.

It allows me to make sure I create progress instead of hoping that it’ll drop from the sky.

So when I’m confused in math class or math team— my reaction is not to hope for it all to magically make sense. I get out a few sheets of scratch paper and spend time challenging myself to understand it fully.

So when I see that nasty, mushy package of saltine crackers lying in a puddle—I pick it up. I don’t talk about making the community better but I act on what I can control.

So when I became captain of the rowing team—I was already leading intentionally. And through that intentionality—the role didn’t raise me. I’m raising the role to a higher standard.

St. Mark’s—you’ve led me down the Path to Manhood. You’ve taught me the importance of reflection. You’ve taught me to live and lead with intention.

I’m not laughing anymore.

FACULTY IDIOMS

From daily reminders to oddly specific rules and repeated one-liners, the sayings teachers used all year became part of the classroom routine.

“I LIKE FISHING, GRANDPA!”

“BOYS, BOYS, BOYS.”

“GO AWAY LEAVE ME ALONE, TURN IN YOUR HOMEWORK, PICK UP YOUR PHONE.” “WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY EDITION OF AP MICROECONOMICS.”

LINYANG LEE Managing Editor

COMMENTARY

OLIVER PECK Editorial Director

BRYAN BOUCHER History & Social Sciences Teacher

AMY POOL Genecov Master Teaching Chair

MARTIN STEGEMOELLER Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair

CORY MARTIN Upper School Math Instructor

Members of class of 2025

pose for a photo during McDonald’s Week (Top Left). Seniors wait in line for smash burgers during the annual luncheon (Top-Middle Left). Seniors lounging during prank day (Bottom-Middle Left). Class photo of second grade (Bottom left).

12 YEARS LATER

Twelve years ago we stepped onto campus with oversized backpacks and uncertain smiles. Since then, we’ve grown through classrooms, chapel talks, sports teams and finals — milestones that defined our time here.

THROUGH THE YEAR

A look back at some of the unforgettable moments and memories that helped define an incredible year.

HOMECOMING

October 5, 2024

BEATING ESD

November 1, 2024

To cap off a strong football season, the Lions ended a decade-long losing streak against rival ESD, coming back from a 21-0 deficit to win 28-27.

This year’s early homecoming weekend featured a gritty game against Kinkaid, a “Kingsman” theme and senior Lawrence Gardner winning homecoming king.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

December 20, 2024

Seniors paraded their little buddies into the Great Hall to hang their ornaments on the Christmas tree before leaving campus for the last time in 2024.

MCDONALD’S WEEK

November 16, 2024

A Lego-themed McDonald’s Week saw the Class of 2026 coordinate fun activities, games and nightly dinners.

ZIERK OPENING

January 21, 2025

Over five years after the 2019 tornado, the Zierk Athletic Center, with its state-ofthe-art locker room, expanded pool, and basketball court, opened its doors.

Class photo from first grade (Bottom Left). their

of the 29 seniors named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist (Top Right). Senior Owen Park and his little buddy place an ornament on the Christmas Tree (Middle Right). The ReMarker staff seniors posing for a photo (Middle).

12 YEARS OF MEMORIES

Seniors recount their favorite memories from each year along their journey at 10600 Preston Rd., from first through 12th grade.

LACZKOWSKI

2K RECORD

January 22, 2025

After making his mark on the Zierk’s opening with a signature slam dunk, senior Luke Laczkowski passed the 2000-point mark to cap off his high school career.

SPC SWIMMING

February 15, 2025

SENIOR PRANK

April 7, 2025

Marksmen returning to campus after the weekend were greeted by inflatable pools, beach balls and many “seagulls” across campus as part of the luau-themed prank.

Continuing the long-standing school tradition of aquatic dominance, the swim team won an SPC title for the third consecutive year.

LACROSSE TAKES STATE

May 11, 2025

In the last sports event of the 2024-2025 school year, the lacrosse team defeated Austin High School to secure a state championship.

“FAVORITE MEMORY IS DEFINITELY THE FIRST GRADE CHRISTMAS PARTY. WE DRANK HOT CHOCOLATE, WATCHED POLAR EXPRESS, AND THE WHOLE CLASSROOM WAS LIKE A CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND.” From first grade, Sam Light

“WALKING DOWN THE GREAT HALL ON MY BUDDY’S SHOULDERS DURING THE CHRISTMAS PARTY WAS AWESOME.”

From second grade, Amar Kakkar

“A GOOD MEMORY WAS WHEN MR. JORDAN GAVE ME A JERSEY CARD OF SYDNEY CROSBY.”

From third grade, Henry Sun

“I REALLY ENJOYED THE SKY RANCH TRIP WITH EVERYONE.”

From fourth grade, Fox Gottlich

“GOING THROUGH THE DIFFERENT PE ROTATIONS EVERY TWO WEEKS WAS FUN. IT WAS REALLY COOL LEARNING ALL THOSE NEW SPORTS.”

From fifth grade, Matthew Freeman

“THE SIXTH GRADE CAMPOUT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR US, ESPECIALLY SINCE IT WAS THE LAST TIME WE DID ANYTHING CAMPING-RELATED UNTIL PECOS.”

From sixth grade, Andrew Xuan

“WE HAD AN INTENSE COMEBACK WIN AGAINST GREENHILL IN THE FINAL SET AFTER BEING DOWN 6-12 IN VOLLEYBALL. EVERYONE STORMED THE COURT AFTER WE WON. IT WAS AN AWESOME MOMENT.”

From seventh grade, Owen Ackerman

“I LOVED EATING OUTSIDE ON THE BLEACHERS DURING COVID. IT FELT FREER THAN SITTING AT OUR USUAL TABLES, AND IT WAS EASIER TO TALK TO MY FRIENDS.”

From eighth grade, Ethan Zhang

“BEATING ESD IN LACROSSE MY FRESHMAN YEAR WAS INSANE. THE GAME HAD A GREAT ATMOSPHERE AND WAS A GREAT TIME.”

From ninth grade, Owen Park

“GOING TO FOOTBALL GAMES AND BEING WITH MY FRIENDS AT THOSE GAMES.”

From 10th grade, Roman Childress

“HOMECOMING WAS MY FAVORITE PART OF JUNIOR YEAR. I LIKE EVENTS LIKE THAT- IT WAS REALLY NICE TO SEE THOSE (CLASS OF 2024) SENIORS THERE.”

From 11th grade, John Householder

“WINNING SPC IN WRESTLING WAS A REALLY, REALLY MEANINGFUL MOMENT TO ME, AND I REMEMBER CRYING IN THE WRESTLING ROOM AFTER.”

From 12th grade, Wyatt Loehr

Left). Class of 2025 right after finishing Pecos (Bottom Right). Seniors and their little buddies with homemade Mardi Gras masks (Bottom Far Right). Photos Courtesy Development Office

Photo

Remembering the class of ‘25

As the year comes to a close, faculty members recall their favorite memories with the Class of 2025 and reflect on the legacy that the seniors will leave behind.

BROOM

In the summer of 2013, the head of lower school, Barb York, called me while I was at one of my son’s baseball games and asked me if I’d like to move to first grade since one of the teachers was leaving. I was excited about the idea because after twenty-one years of teaching, I had only taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade but had mentioned to her once that I’d like to be considered for first if there was ever an opening. After a split second, I excitedly accepted the challenge! Immediately afterward, I began going up to school to decorate my new room and get ready for the Class of 2025’s arrival. We were all going to be “Happy Campers” that year since that was our theme in first grade! At that point, the boys were just names on a roster, but they soon became a group of boys that holds a special place in my heart! We started off the year by learning D’Nealian handwriting, which was new to many of you. By our monster unit, the

handwriting that was on our classroom walls was beautiful! There were so many fun units of study in first grade: fairy tales, monsters, scarecrows, and the Grandparents’ Day play in front of our giant tepee tent! We wrote about the monsters we created and then tried to re-create that monster just by looking at the words. In math, we participated in The Oreo Challenge by stacking (and eating) Oreos. Then, we read The Polar Express and had our final party where the room transformed into magical train cars with tickets to ride that had been punched by the conductor. We had candy canes, hot chocolate, candy galore, and more! The boys laid on the floor and watched the movie in their pajamas. It was so fun! We then moved on to polar bear research, and then on to “knights and castles” where each boy had to become a knight by accomplishing certain tasks. The rooms were transformed into castles, and the boys designed shields and had an official dubbing ceremony by the queen. He took home a belt and a sword after the ceremony! We then studied about shamrocks, leprechauns that caused a bit of mischief in the classroom, and frogs and toads. We even had live aquatic frogs in tanks on our

In the Exploring Asia class, you started off wild, full of laughter, energy, and maybe just a bit too much confidence in your Chinese. I’ll never forget those very convenient bathroom trips (with the door perfectly aligned with mine), the mysteriously missing homework supposedly eaten by your pets, and the endless inside jokes, Chinese-language-related or not, most of which flew right over my head, even after my belly-deep laugh. Still, I suspect a few will resurface at your future class reunions or weddings. Ah, who could forget those post-lunch classes, where holding in natural gas became a dail test of willpower? Let’s just say, my perfume never stood a chance.

My class was your testing ground, a space for mistakes, bursts of laughter, and a time to figure out who you were and, just as importantly, who you weren’t. As the years went on, I closely watched (some of) you transform. You became more thoughtful and more open to hard-to-hear advice, often delivered in three languages: English, Chinese, and Chinglish.

Now, you’ve grown into leaders in your own ways, thinkers across languages, and know how to genuinely care for others. You may not have it all figured out (trust me, none of us do!), but look at how far you’ve come. I hope you all find moments of calm whenever needed, just like the peace you found while doing Chinese character handwriting homework.

It had a sort of therapeutic quality to it, didn’t it? Keep striving to be kind, honest, and always your best self. Oh, a special request: some of you, please stop growing taller. My neck occasionally hurts when I have to look up to talk to you. In Chinese, “goodbye (zài jiàn)” literally means “again see.” So, I know we’ll see each other again. Graduating from St. Mark’s is just the beginning of your next adventure. Best of luck, seniors!

table groups that volunteers got to take home at the end of the unit. That was always special! Finally, we studied flight and The Wright Brothers and then the animals of the savanna before our annual trip to the Dallas Zoo with our senior buddies. It was such a fun time!

Most of all, I remember what nice boys you were! We welcomed Reagan Brower into the class during the second week of school. I remember Akul bringing his birds in for show-n-tell, and Burke bringing his dog, Jax. I remember Maddox realizing that he was not only the youngest boy in our grade, but also in the school. Perry moved away at the end of the year. Andrew’s chair fell in math class, and he hurt his head. Many of you were already great football and soccer players at recess, singers, mathematicians, writers, scientists, and artists. Some of you had fun creating games on the playground or building things in our huge, super-cool sand box or playing on the zipline. It has been such fun watching you grow up from afar and knowing that you are becoming exactly the person that you were meant to be, full of talent, goodness, smart brains, and kindness.

MARTIN STEGEMOELLER

Malcolm K. and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair

My top eight tips for a great school experience

MATTHEW HOFMANN

Managing Editor

When I came to St. Mark’s in fifth grade, I had no clue how much this place would mean to me by the time I was a senior. But day after day, the place in my heart that these grounds hold has grown.

And now, as I look back on my time as a Marksman, I couldn’t be more proud.

I leave with no regrets and with a confidence that this school instilled within me as it does in every student.

So as I prepare to say goodbye, I want to leave my top eight (not in order of importance) tips for a great St. Mark’s experience so students who follow after me can fulfill their path to manhood the best they can:

1: Use a calendar. Like, actually use one. My friends and those around me know I have a robust, multicolored calendar. Block out time for work, for school, for responsibilities, but also for fun and friends. By having your time organized, you don’t have to spend time wondering what to do; you already know what you should be doing.

2: Say hi. When you see a kid in your grade, greet him by name. When you see a younger student, give them a high five. When you see a teacher, smile and say hello. People are what make St. Mark’s so special, and that is only possible with the connections we share. So foster them daily.

3: It’s a great day to have a day. Mindset is key, and it’s easy to get slogged down in the tough workload, especially in upper school. Look for the joy in each day, though, and appreciate the moments that make you grow and the moments you spend with your classmates.

4: Work Hard, Play Hard (David Guetta reference). While your school work should be a priority, make sure to find time to enjoy life outside of the books. Dive into a sport you love. Spend time with people you love. Further develop hobbies you love.

RYAN BREWER Biology & Life Science Teacher

“I THINK YOU ALL DID A REALLY GOOD JOB OF MAKING SURE YOU’RE CONNECTED TO EVERY CLASS ON THIS CAMPUS. I THINK Y’ALL LEGACY IS THAT YOU Y’ALL DIDN’T PUT YOURSELVES BEFORE THE BIGGER COMMUNITY.

SCOTT GONZALEZ

English 9 and Humanities 8 teacher

“I WILL REMEMBER THE CLASS OF 2025 AS THE GUYS I GOT THROUGH COVID WITH, MY 8TH GRADERS FINDING WAYS TO LAUGH THROUGH IT – LOVING PLAYING AMONG US AND RUNNING AROUND OUTSIDE.” For expanded coverage, visit smremarker.com

“MANY LABOR JOYFULLY AND WILLINGLY BEHIND THE SCENES TO ENSURE SUCCESS; UNDOUBTEDLY, THE WORK IS COLLECTIVE AND CUMULATIVE: THAT WHICH THIS CLASS LEAVES AS A LEGACY WILL BE MULTIPLIED IN THE FUTURE.”

5: Go outside. When you have a free period and you can take a minute to walk somewhere on campus, do that. Take a minute to appreciate the campus that we enjoy every day. Look at the trees, the pond, the quad. Appreciate it.

6: Listen to music. Music makes doing work and life so much more fun. Whether it’s bonding with my lax friends over house music, discussing best studying music playlists, or preparing playlists for homecoming, music keeps things fun.

7: Go to sports games. Try and go to as many as you can in as many different sports as you can. It is great to see your classmates in all of their athletic pursuits, and it is a great way to see new parts of the community.

8: Involve yourself. The more you can involve yourself in the St. Mark’s community, the more you and those around you will grow. When everyone buys in, the collective gets so much better.

As I say “Let’s get started” to a new chapter in my life, I encourage each student to consider these tips as they continue on their journey as a Marksman.

The class of ‘25 poses for a photo during Blue Shirt Day on the final day of their junior year.

Photo Courtesy Development Office

CHIA-JUNG CHIANG Chinese Language Instructor

TERI

Ackerman Family Master Teaching Chair in Lower School

Final ReMarks

Hilton Sampson

Position: Editor-in-Chief

Actor who’d play them in a movie: David Harbour

To the staff: Twelve years at St. Mark’s. Three in this newsroom. Yet somehow, I’m only begining to understand what this place has truly given me. The ReMarker taught me to ask questions—but more importantly, to listen. To sources, to classmates, to faculty. To stories unfolding in unexpected ways. To my own voice emerging through every article. Whether designing pages at midnight or reworking ledes early on Work Saturday, I’ve discovered this paper isn’t about bylines or awards—it’s about people. I’ve laughed with Linyang and Joseph in the Editor’s Office, I’ve fully exhausted my country playlists on late nights during production week with Michael and Doan. And I’ve spent more hours than I can count in Jenny’s Office, refining every detail of the paper till our heads explode. To the seniors, and underclassmen, we couldn’t have gotten through this year without every single one of ya’ll, and I feel super lucky to have been apart of this staff. For those of ya’ll who will still be around next year, make the ReMarker you’re own. Leave your mark. Embrace those late nights that blur into early mornings. Trust each other when deadlines loom. I’ll miss this room more than words can capture, but I leave it knowing it’s in capable hands. This isn’t just a publication—it’s a second home. Now make it yours.

Linyang Lee

Position: Managing Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie: Bruce Lee

To the staff: This program basically moulded me from a lumpy ball of clay into the absolute sigma I am today!!! But real talk though—four years ago, you wouldn’t have heard more than a sentence come out of my mouth. Interviewing? Writing? Design? Nah. But, in the four years since, ReMarker has taught me how to connect with people. It’s let me learn stories from all over our community and find joy in telling it to others. The work isn’t the best part about ReMarker, though. It’s the people. And I’ll miss them all. People like Jenny—unequivocally the best journalism adviser in the country. Through all the tough, perhaps impossible, stories you’ve helped me through—you taught me how to make the most out of what I’ve got.

People from the past like Dawson Yao—who taught me to love writing but also the fun in working together with someone else on a passion project. Or Zack Goforth—who taught me how to be a strong leader while being goofy and affable at the same time. People today—like Eric and Joseph. Man, we highkey live in the journalism suite. Or Asher—who I start every morning off. Staff of the future—y’all got this. Except, I guess, we set the bar for the paper pretty darn high. Good luck y’all. I’ll miss this.

Matthew Hofmann

Position: Managing Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie:

Matt Damon

To the staff: When I think back to my favorite memories at St. Mark’s, the journalism program is in many of them. There is something so special about this community, so appreciate it and embrace spending time with the guys on staff. I hope I brought a fun attitude to the work, and I hope y’all continue that (I know Wes and Mike will). When you have a light but serious environment, the best work is done, and I think that is why we were so successful this year. Always ask questions to the older guys and to Jenny. I swear most questions people asked me on staff were about scheduling, so I guess I’ll go down as the “guy with the calendar,” but ask questions about anything. I remember staying on campus until 1:40 a.m. on a Thursday for production week as a junior, and I wouldn’t trade nights like those doing pages (that were usually “extended”) because the bonds I made with my fellow seniors and with underclassmen were amazing. These bonds are what make the school special, so foster them in our “home away from home.

Oliver Peck

Position: Editorial Director

Actor who’d play them in a movie: Jackie Chan

To the staff: My sophomore and junior year, during the late production nights I often found myself asking, “Why did I choose ReMarker?” “Why didn’t I just do yearbook since it’s so much easier (definitely no shade)?” But, I’m so glad I stuck with it. Across my four years as a member of the

Closing thoughts from the ReMarker staff seniors

amazing ReMarker newspaper, I learned and gained a few very important things. First, I learned how to actually write. I became comfortable with sending countless emails and learned how to not be scared of confrontation. I learned the significance of deadlines, and that you definitely do NOT want to miss them. I learned to listen to your advisor because she might actually know better than you. I grew closer with so many classmates and befriended others across different grades. To the upcoming ReMarker leadership, take this years’ paper and elevate it even further (which is pretty easy considering the group of guys who led it this year, especially Hilton). And to William Kozoman in particular, don’t disappoint. I’m expecting the best editorials I’ve ever read.

Lawrence Gardner

Position: Enterprise Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie:

Michael B. Jordan

To the staff: The journalism suite became my second home these past years, with some of my best memories being those late nights. I remember sprinting to my car with Matthew and Oliver at around 2 a.m. across campus. We had many incredible journalism trips where we truly bonded. From late-night conversations in hotel rooms to exploring new cities together, we created memories I’ll cherish forever. One of the greatest honors has been interviewing so many amazing people and telling their stories. These people trust us with their experiences, their vulnerabilities, their triumphs. Never take that privilege lightly. To the staff, cherish every moment in that journalism room. The process itself, not just the finished product, is what makes this experience so rewarding. When it’s midnight and you’re still working on that perfect headline or struggling with a page, look around at the people beside you and just enjoy it. Those late nights surrounded by fellow journalists.

Neil Yepuri

Position: Assignments Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie:

Dev Patel

To the staff: I’m not sure I can think of a high school experience without journalism. It’s brought me so much joy, both in responsibility and creativity. It’s helped me develop friendships, strengthening existing ones into lifelong bonds. But, most importantly, it’s helped me find my voice on campus. The coolest part about journalism, to me, was the amount of connections I got to make. People I wouldn’t normally talk to were suddenly folks to connect with. Groups of people with stories to tell. Also, I’ve used journalism to platform into other areas of interest, like Graphic Design and the Marque. Learning graphic design from Jenny catapulted me into a place where I could manage an entire publication to an award-winning level, instead of just following in the footsteps of others. Put simply, journalism has taught me that what I have to say and how I choose to tell a story matters, especially now in a day and age where the truth is of the utmost importance. I’ll always appreciate this program for helping shape my high school years, and I’ll always consider the Pub suite a second home.

Will Clifford

Position: Digital Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie:

John Mulaney

To the staff: I’ve practically lived in the journalism suite for the past four years. I don’t know what I’ll do without being able to wander into Jenny’s office and talk away my free periods or how I’ll adjust to life without the Harkness table, where I ate lunch with my friends on staff every Tuesday. It seems like just yesterday, I was pitching my ideas for digital content as a rookie, creating the website with Ben. Seeing our online presence grow has been one of the most rewarding parts of my time here, and I know the website is in safe hands with Rohan and Tejas in charge. Remember that on staff, you represent more than just yourselves, you represent the entire campus. With each story, we uphold the responsibility that comes with an independent student-run publication, knowing that our words have the power to ignite change. My fellow seniors, thank you for making this newsroom feel like home. It’s been an honor to grow alongside you as journalists, leaders and actors.

Akash Manikam

Position: Digital Managing Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie: Keanu Reeves

To the staff: When Jenny asked me to become the Digital Managing Editor of smremarker.com, for a fleeting second, I was unsure about the role. After all, I’d always envisioned myself playing an important part on the print paper as a senior. Once that second passed, I quickly realized that this appointment was a great opportunity. I could start a leadership role basically from scratch and raise the website’s profile to match the paper’s prestige. I also had the privilege of working alongside “Mr. Website” Will Clifford, to whom I never lost a handshake. To next year’s staff, the best advice I can give you is to “swing easy” as life gets hard. At this stage in high school, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the mounting pressure of the future. The more relaxed you are and the less you worry about the challenges in front of you, the easier it will be to overcome them. I’m going to miss the journalism suite next year, from the quiet study sessions with Matthew and Linyang to the deep discussions with Arjun and Lawrence to Eric’s constant requests for “grub.” Hopefully, if you haven’t already, you all will come to love this space as much as I do.

Joseph Sun Position: Focus Editor Actor who’d play them in a movie: Ken Jeong To the staff: I can’t imagine who I’d be without the past four years in journalism — probably an unemployed senior hanging out in the college counseling area instead of the journalism suite, and definitely someone who doesn’t use the em dash. I remember the good times back in the day with the past seniors, like Aaron blasting that awful EDM music or shadow boxing Darwin, and it’s wild to think our time has come. This past year has been special, whether it’d be watching the work Saturday assembly line, or publishing TWO amazing issues of Focus. If I have any advice, it’s to keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t take the time you have left here for granted. Have fun — even though the deadlines were stressful, it’s nice to know we all grow closer when we push through adversity. Don’t hesitate to ask questions; Jenny (the goat) and the upper classmen will always be willing to help. I’ll be forever grateful for everyone on the staff, and my mailbox is always open for the next batch of ReMarker writers.

Arjun Poi

Position: Focus Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie: Adam Sandler

To the staff: I can’t remember why I chose to do journalism, but it was the best decision I’ve made in my time at school. When I think about the memories I’ve made here, my mind immediately goes toward our adventures on journalism trips. I’ll never forget exploring the Philly museum with Akash and Oliver, visiting the Golden Gate Bridge with Charlie and Lawrence, or exploring so many different corners of New York with Hilton, Hof, and Neil. Learning to interview someone has taught me to learn to make genuine connections with people and learn who they are. Jenny, from teaching me to look at the bigger picture to your tip on putting sugar on grapefruit to make it taste much better, the lessons you’ve taught me have been life-changing. I’m incredibly grateful to have gotten to know you as a friend and mentor. I look forward to seeing The ReMarker grow next year, and I hope to read some mind blowing Focus magazines.

Eric Yi

Position: Life Section Editor

Actor who’d play them in a movie:

Miles Teller

To the staff: If you told me sophomore year that I’d be sad to leave the ReMarker staff, I would’ve laughed. It’s been the most time-consuming activity ever, but now, I realize I might actually miss it. This program has taught me so much that I never expected to learn, like how to talk to people. What really made this experience special, though, were the people. Jenny, you’re the goat. Thank you for pushing me to be a better writer and being someone I can always talk to. Hilton, I just want to thank lord that I don’t need to work for your goofy ahh anymore. Linyang and Joseph, thanks for the gold circle. Seriously though, I really appreciate you two for being my best friends. I never thought this day would come, but I’m grateful for everything I’ve learned and the people I’ve met along the way. I’ll miss this program more than I expected, but I’m thankful for all the memories and growth it gave me.

Beyond the world limit

COMMENTARY

Journalists learn quickly that every story has a word count. Features are 1,200 words, columns are 400 and captions 25. But when it comes time to quantify 12 years of growth, friendship, failure and triumph, these limits dissolve into meaninglessness, like trying to measure the ocean with a teaspoon or capture a symphony with a single note.

In the ReMarker style guide, we have precise formulas for everything. Headlines should be clear, concise and always with a subject and a verb. Numbers 10 and over are presented in numerical form, those under are written out. Attributions for quotations come before a person’s name, not after. We interview, we write, we condense, we edit on such a routine basis it has become ingrained into each and every one of us.

Yet as I prepare to leave St. Mark’s after 12 years, I find myself struggling with the limitations of this repeated routine. Nowhere in our style guide is the language of goodbye.

When I started here as a first-grader, my vocabulary consisted of perhaps 2,500 words. Now, as I graduate, linguistics research suggests I know approximately 30,000. Yet even with this expanded lexicon, words feel insufficient. They stack up like building blocks that never quite reach high enough to see the full landscape of what this school has meant.

Yet AP English Literature taught me that constraints breed creativity— that sonnets excel precisely because they must fit 14 lines, that haikus distill entire worlds into seventeen syllables. Maybe the impossibility of saying everything is the point.

The stories that found me at St. Mark’s weren’t just the ones I reported. They were the friendships I forged with classmates at every turn—in new classes, on new teams. The mentors who saw potential I couldn’t yet recognize. The injuries, the setbacks, the failures that taught more than successes ever could.

These narratives don’t fit neatly into columns. They spill over margins, ignore deadlines, and refuse to be summarized in snappy headlines. They’re not written on laptops and displayed in newsprint, not edited for style errors, but grown and molded by time and reflection.

With every story we write for the paper, we seek to answer the most essential question at the heart of every topic, issue and experience. Perhaps the question I find myself answering here is simple: How do you say goodbye to a place that has shaped nearly every aspect of who you are?

The answer might be even simpler. You don’t. Maybe you recognize that some stories continue beyond their final paragraph—that the influences of this community, these people, this education will reverberate through chapters still unwritten.

If I’ve learned anything from 12 years at St. Mark’s and the three I have spent on the ReMarker, it’s that the most profound truths often emerge from what’s left unsaid—from the white space between paragraphs, the silence between quotes, the moments between milestones.

So as I reach my self-imposed word limit for this final column, I find myself realizing that some stories simply refuse to end.

The newspaper teaches us to work within constraints. Life teaches us to recognize when to break them.

HILTON SAMPSON Editor-in-Chief

That’s a wrap

The Class of 2025's time here is wrapping up. They're preparing to head out into the world and open the next chapter of their lives. Here's a look at where these 102 Marksmen will be headed next year.

Alex Abel

Owen Ackerman

Zach Andrews

Duncan Ardis

Asher Babilla

Jack Baker

Kai Belvin

Carson Bosita

Gavin Bowles

Reagan Brower

Matthew Bybee

Maddox Canham

Benjamin Chen

Roman Childress

Will Clifford

Nico Costa

Daniel Deng

Nicholas Dickason

Surya Dinesh

Austin Dunbar

Maddox Dunbar

Henry Estes

William Everitt

Teddy Fleiss

Gage Fojtasek

Jack Frary

Matthew Freeman

Lawrence Gardner

David Gershenson

Burke Gordon

Charlie Gordy

Fox Gottlich

Noah Grant

Chris Han

Hanse Hesse

Russell Higgins

Matthew Hofmann

JS Hohmann

John Householder

George Hoverman

Cam Hurley

Sebastian Illum

Neel Jain

Andrew Jin

Matthew Jordan

Amar Kakkar

Brandon Kim

Luke Laczkowski

Aidan Lannen

Linyang Lee

Luke Lemons

Sam Light

*List subject to change. Waitlist decisions not included. Key abbreviations:

Colby College Duke Penn State

Boston College

Texas A&M

Texas Tech NYU

Johns Hopkins

Navy

College

Andrews

Jacob Lobdell

Wyatt Loehr

Shyam Maddukuri

Akash Manickam

Jeremy Mau

Akul Mittal

Aidan Moran

William Morrow

Eduardo Mousinho

Adithya Munshi

Jaden Ouyang

Lukas Palys

Rahil Panchbhaya

Owen Park

Mateu Parker

Oliver Peck

Hale Peterson

Lucas Petrikas

Deven Pietrzak

State

Louis

A&M Texas

Stevens

Jediel Sarfo

Leo Scheiner

Aaron Schildkraut

Vikram Singh

Aydin Sumer

Daniel Sun

Henry Sun

Joseph Sun

Robbie Tate

Dylan Taylor

Jack Tholking

Mateo Ubinas

Luke Vennerberg

Ace Wilburn

Cornell

Boston College

Grinnell

Arjun Poi

Samuel Posten

Alden Reagins

Noah Roby

Henry Roden

Oliver Rubarth

Hilton Sampson

Texas A&M W

Texas A&M

Texas

Jackson Williams

Noah Williams

Andrew Xuan

Max Yan

Tiger Yang

Zachary Yang

Calvin Yates

Neil Yepuri

Eric Yi

Ethan Zhang

Rochester Bucknell

Texas

SMU

CWRU

Emory

Penn State

Brown

SMU

Notre Dame

UC Irvine

Vanderbilt Undecided

Boston College

WashU

CMC

Stanford

Columbia

UChicago

Brown

SF Austin

Texas

Boston College

Rice