The Lodge: Issue 1, Vol. 1 (February 2017)

Issue I, volume I

The

Lodge

Feb. 8, 2017

St. George’s Independent School 1880 Wolf River Blvd. Collierville, TN 38017

th e

S TA F F

Editors-in-Chief Miriam Brown ’17 Annie Vento ’17

Advisor

Dr. Margaret Robertson

Layout Editors

Katie Boyle ’17 Laura McDowell ’17 Carolyn Lane ’18 Faith Huff ’17 Kaitlyn Bowman ’19 William Brown ’19 Katelyn Grisham ’18

Copy Editors Caroline Zummach ’18 Annie Murff ’18

Photographers

Rachel Ducker ’17 Faith Huff ’17 Matthew Blum ’17 Katelyn Grisham ’18

Illustrator

Elle Vaughn ’17

Communications Laura McDowell ’17

News Editor

Merryn Ruthling ’18

In-depth Editor

Caroline Zummach ’18

A&E Editor

Iona Yates ’17

Sports Editor Bayard Anderson ’17

Opinion Editor

Annie Murff ’18

Web Editors

Dawson Smith ’17 Carolyn Lane ’18

Reporters Regine Miller ’17 Lauren Purdy ’18 Bart Mueller ’18 Annika Conlee ’18 Emma Bennett ’19

od

ge

Featured Stories

16 10

12

18

6

About Us

The Lodge is dedicated to serving as an authentic voice for the students of St. George’s Independent School. We at the Lodge strive to be an open forum for student expression, to act in the best interests of the student body and to embody the principles of journalistic excellence. The Lodge is affiliated with the Tennessee High School Press Association and the National Scholatic Press Association. The Lodge is funded by St. George’s Indepedent School and advertisers. The Lodge prints and distributes 300 copies of each issue to 700 students and faculty on St. George’s upper school campus. Bylines indicate the primary writer(s) of each article. Additional contributors are indicated in the shirttail. The Lodge provides free advertising for student clubs, events and activities as well as paid advertising to local businesses. The Lodge welcomes letters to the editor and article submissions. To submit a letter, article or request for advertising, email our staff at thelodge@sgis.org.

St. George’s Independent School, 1880 Wolf River Blvd., Collierville, TN, 38017 Tel. 901-427-2000

A St. George’s Galaxy Photograph by Rachel Ducker

It is an annual St. George’s tradition for each graduating class to gift the school a piece of art handmade by the seniors. Pictured here is the class of 2015’s gift, a hanging display of glass ornaments, each handmade by a member of that senior class. The seniors this year have begun planning for their own senior art project, which will begin production next month. The gift will reflect the diversity of personalities in the senior class, as well as the unifying bond between its members.

A Letter from The Lodge

A

s you may have noticed by now, the Gryphon Gazette is no longer a newspaper, nor is it the “Gryphon Gazette.” Since November, we have been working to produce a new way to deliver you the news, and now, we would like to formally introduce you to the new student-run news publication of St. George’s, the Lodge.

Over the last three years, the Gryphon Gazette has worked to evolve with the world we’re living in. In 2014, we went online, with thegryphongazette.org. In 2015, we became social with Instagram and Twitter (@NewsGryphs). In 2016, we won Best Overall Newspaper in the state of Tennessee from the Tennessee High School Press Association.

Recently, we asked ourselves how we could raise the bar even higher. And when we looked at some of the best high school newspapers across the country, we noticed they all had one thing in common: they weren’t newspapers at all – they were magazines, with more in-depth stories, more complex design and news that was more relevant to their student bodies.

For that reason, the Lodge is a student-run magazine, not a newspaper. As opposed to a typical 16-page newspaper with upwards of 12 stories, our magazine will hold closer to six stories that are more comprehensive. With this, we will be able to pursue the stories you care about and want to read, and we will be able to report on these with more breadth and detail.

Our new name, the Lodge, reflects the kind of magazine we want to be for you. We are for students, by students.

As students, we know our campus as “the Lodge” – it’s the name we use for the school on social media, it’s the name used by alumni when they return to St. George’s and it’s the name that justifies our ski-themed spirit days. It’s a name that represents our sense of community as a student body, a goal we as a magazine have with everything we report. We want the Lodge to be a place where we can gather as a family in the warmth of our shared community. With this magazine, we want you to feel like your voice is being heard in what topics we cover and how we cover on them, so bearing the name of “the Lodge” will be a constant reminder to us of that intent.

We cannot wait for what the future of the Lodge holds, and we hope you are excited as we are!

– Annie Vento and Miriam Brown, Editors-in-Chief

Finish Strong

SHANKS RUNS HIS WAY TO TRACK STARDOM

By Bayard Anderson

W

hen Marshall Shanks came to St. George’s, he just wanted to be remembered for something.

When he graduates this spring, his story is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon.

Shanks had always been fast.

In lacrosse, the team once ran sprints with the coach telling players they would stop only when someone beat Marshall.

After a while, players urged Shanks to stop trying.

Everyone involved with sports at St. George’s knew Shanks was fast. Among these people was former track coach Andre Miller, who asked Shanks to run in a post-track season meet late in Shanks’ eighth-grade year.

At the time, Shanks was focused on playing basketball and lacrosse, but he decided to run anyway, a choice that would completely change the course of his educational experience.

Coach Miller was the first to realize he had definite potential. He encouraged Shanks to run track his freshman year.

“Ninth-grade year, the D2 City championship was when I won my first race,” Shanks said. “That’s when I realized I’m actually good at this.”

Since then, Shanks has run the 100-meter dash in 11.29 seconds and the 200-meter in 23.74 seconds. In indoor competition, Shanks ran the 60-meter in 7.46 seconds and took 7.13 seconds in the 55-meter dash.

When Shanks began to think about college early in his high school career, he came to the realization that academically he was not a strong candidate for admission at schools he was interested in. It was then that Shanks realized he could use his gift to help get him into college.

“So, I started looking at my options, like football. Can I really do football? You really look at me and you look at football, nah. Basketball, am I really that good? Nah.” Shanks said. “But track, that’s you. That’s you, buddy.”

So, Shanks started running competitive track the summer after his freshman year with teammate and mentor Chazz Simmons, who graduated from St. George’s in 2015.

“He told me, ‘You ain’t the best, so you gotta show everybody why you wanna be the best,’” Shanks said. The two began running more together and pushed each other to be their very best.

“I helped him by giving him advice … He is the runner he is today because of the qualities of his work ethic,” Simmons said. “When we trained together, he inspired me to continue to work hard. On days that I wasn’t feeling like running, he would uplift me, and his mood was contagious.”

In addition to Simmons, Coach Lott and Shanks’ AAU coaches helped Shanks stick with track by encouraging him and motivating him.

“Chazz, he pushed me,” Shanks said. “Coach Lott, he pushed both of us. If it wasn’t for those four people, I promise you I would’ve quit a long time ago, and I would not be doing track in college.”

Fortunately, Shanks stuck with the sport and became more and more involved, dedicating four-and-a-half hours a week to competitive track alone.

A typical week of competitive track is three days. On Tuesdays, the team does yoga or pilates, while on Thursdays, the team might run “pyramids” (600m, 450m, 300m, 150m) and work on starts.

“YOU HAVE

TO WANT IT FOR YOURSELF MORE THAN ANYBODY ELSE WANTS IT FOR YOU.”

Photograph by Katelyn Grisham

the Lodge 7

-2016 STATISTICS-

300M

HURDLES IN 50.18 SECONDS

200M

IN 23.74 SECONDS

100M

IN 11.29 SECONDS

60M

IN 7.46 SECONDS

55M

IN 7.13 SECONDS

8 the Lodge

Saturdays are usually either a meet day or a combination of Tuesday and Thursday workouts with additional weight-lifting. Every practice ends with a mile cool-down run.

“Running takes up all your time,” Shanks said. Shanks runs indoor and outdoor track from October to mid-February, and mid-February to May he focuses on outdoor track. He then runs AAU track from May to August, and he finishes with running cross country in the fall.

“It really helps that he does cross country [and] indoor track and field and brings it over to outdoor,” Coach Lott said, adding, “You have to focus on your strength, your weight, and he does that.”

Challenges on the track have proven to be difficult but manageable for Shanks, who found that his problems coming to the Collierville Campus were tougher to work through.

“It wasn’t hard for me to transition over here. It was just hard to get people to notice who I was,” Shanks said. “All I wanted was just acceptance.”

Instead of becoming frustrated, Shanks pushed himself to be better, taking his frustrations out by working his hardest every time he stepped on the track.

“I just wanted to be remembered by something,” he said. “I tried so hard to fit in with the Germantown people not realizing I was veering off from being my own person. I

spent four years trying to find myself… but then I realized who I wanted to be.”

Just when it seemed Shanks’ troubles were in the past, he was dealt his toughest blow yet.

“The loss of my father last year, that was a big setback, but at the same time, that was a big motivation for me. It actually pushed me to my limit,” Shanks said.

If Shanks had wanted to throw in the towel after this, no one would have questioned him, but instead of using it as an excuse to quit, he used it as inspiration.

In the weeks following the passing of his father, Shanks recorded three personal best times to that point in his career.

“I gotta push myself more because he had high expectations from me,” Shanks said.

Shanks has been blessed in his track career with great teammates. As an underclassman, Shank worked with mentor Simmons, who pushed him. After Simmons graduated, Shanks began to work with junior Bryan Payne.

“If he saw something that I needed improvement in one of my races, he would help me out in practice and tell me what I need to do to fix what I need to fix,” Payne said. Payne was also helping Shanks out, too.

“He personally pushed me last year to be better. Me and him were at the same speed, so it’s like I gotta be better,” Shanks said.

Photograph by Faith Huff

Coach Lott has even noticed the healthy rivalry between the two.

“They always push each other in practice. You have to be competitive. Track is not easy. It’s a real man-slash-woman sport. You can’t just go out there and talk the talk – you have to walk the walk” Coach Lott said.

Shanks started to get serious looks over the summer. He considered Birmingham-Southern College, Tiff University, Berea College, University of St. Mary’s and Methodist University, among others. Shanks ended up committing to run track at Fisk University.

“I wanted to go to a HBCU,” Shanks said. “I just need to be around my people. I’ve been at St. George’s all my life, and I’ve been around every single race and culture, and I really wanna just experience my culture.”

Balancing athletics and academics in a college setting can be tough, but Coach Lott, who played college football, thinks St. George’s has prepared Shanks well.

“Not only do we focus on athletics, we focus on academics first, and being able to focus on time management is huge,” Lott said. “I think he’ll do very well in that.”

Shanks is now starting to get looks from division-one schools, but he is not interested.

He is committed to Fisk and is excited about his opportunity.

Now in his senior year, Shanks will serve not only as a

star runner but also as a team leader. Shanks is dedicated to his track team and knows that, in the past, he could have been a better leader.

“I have to learn self-discipline and when to act like a captain and when to fall back and be a regular teammate,” Shanks said. “Last year, I took advantage of everybody a little too much. I thought I knew everything.”

Shanks, always his own toughest critic, may still have work to do, but Payne is complimentary of the job he has done so far.

“Last year, I really noticed that he’d become a leader,” Payne said. “I know that track is an individual sport, but when he’s running, he’s trying to help other people around him so they can do better running track, too.”

Coach Lott is hoping to see Shanks lead the team to a state championship this year.

“I’m expecting him to run some faster times this year, really push himself to the state championship, so we’ll see how it goes,” Lott said. “He knows I have high expectations for him.’

Shanks has grown over the years as a person and a runner because of his hard work and mentors, but he is just getting started.

“He’s come a long a way but still has a lot of work to do,” Lott said.

“ I GOTTA PUSH

MYSELF MORE BECAUSE HE HAD HIGH EXPECTATIONS FROM ME.”

Photograph by Katelyn Grisham

the Lodge 9

By Emma Bennett “Having friends” “Being recognized” “How well-known you are” “Having a high social status” “Being kind and funny” “Having lots of people like you” “A social construct” “Non-existent” “Insecurity” “Unfortunate” “A worthless title that means nothing” When asked to define popularity, St. George’s students have a lot of answers.

“I feel like the word popularity has such a bad meaning with it,” senior Megan Umansky said. “When people talk about it, it’s usually in a negative way.”

Junior Winston Margaritis has a different view.

“It can be viewed in a negative light,” Margaritis said, “but I think it’s a good thing to be popular because that means that you have a lot of friends, and you’re very accepting of a lot of people.”

Talking about popularity is difficult since we can’t agree on a definition, but it turns out that’s not our fault. Scientists have found two different definitions of popularity, although both are united by a type of “superpower.”

In 2015, a study published by an Australian paper found

10 the Lodge

that popular kids have one common factor: they all possess something referred to as an “advanced theory of mind,” which gives popular people the ability to better understand other people’s mental states and influence their behavior.

The study suggests that there are two kinds of popularity: “sociometric popularity”

and “perceived popularity.”

Sociometrically-popular people use their skill to be empathetic and better communicate with others.

However, people with perceived popularity use their advanced theory of mind to manipulate their peers and gain higher social status. In other words, popular kids are superhe-

roes who can use their “power” for either good or evil.

In order to better understand what popularity is, the Lodge sent a survey to both the middle and upper school asking about how much certain characteristics contributed to someone’s popularity. What we found was a profoundly negative attitude towards perceived popularity and a growing recognition of sociometric popularity as desirable.

While almost 80 percent of students believed that looks did affect popularity, over 50 percent said they shouldn’t.

On the other hand, 60 percent of students said how you treat others doesn’t affect popularity, but over 95 percent said it should.

Many students recognized the archetype of the stereotypical “mean girl” and responded negatively towards that idea.

“Kids that are partying a lot or doing whatever people are thinking is cool at that moment, they can sometimes be deemed the popular kids,” Ms. Amy Michalak, director of counseling and guidance for middle school, said.

However, high school isn’t the only place where people see this kind of popularity.

Pop culture, including social media, TV shows and movies, also seem to perpetuate “perceived popularity.”

The 2004 film “Mean Girls” is one of the best examples of media depicting “perceived popularity.” The antagonist of the movie, Regina George, is the epitome of negative popularity, since, throughout the movie, she shows that she’s willing to do anything to improve her already high social status, including destroying the reputations of others in the process.

“There is a reality to those perceptions,” Ms. Michalak said. “I think that when you watch a movie like ‘Mean Girls,’ that’s showing the extreme. It’s funny because everybody can feel

ford said.

Several students responded that they felt St. George’s didn’t have the same problems with perceived popularity that are depicted in the media.

“I don’t think that we have that situation, the typical bully situation [where] popular people would pick on the nerds or the unathletic people. We really do not struggle with that. Everybody is nice to each other, and everybody really cares about each other,” Burford said. “We don’t really have any people who are mean about it, but that definitely happens at other schools.”

Some think it’s completely unfair to think of being popular as being a “mean girl.”

In interviews, many students felt that “sociometric popularity” is more prevalent for today’s generation, meaning that the typical understanding of popularity is going out of style. Popular people are no longer the dumb

jocks or “mean girls,” but rather people who strive to be great leaders and are wellliked among their peers.

“You’ve got the popular kids that are all really smart. You have the popular kids that are the athletic ones and the artistic ones, so people are popular in their own sort of way,” Prefect of Student Life Kneeland Gammill

here.”

Is “perceived popularity” a fading trend like bell-bottoms and flip phones? Only time will tell.

said. “Going back to the stereotypical popular kid, I definitely think that’s something that’s outdated, especially in the St. George’s community.

I don’t see kids in that light

Illustrations by Elle Vaughn, Kaitlyn Bowman and Pixabay

little pieces of that, so we laugh. It’s nice to see that being made fun of, in a way.

It’s comforting to everybody who’s been slighted at some point, so we enjoy that for entertainment.”

Media portrayals of perceived popularity can spread into real life, giving all popularity a bad name.

“Everyone automatically assumes that you’re rude, you’re arrogant. Generally speaking, if you think of a popular person, they’re not smart, and they just come across seeming that they’re better than everyone,” sophomore Caroline McDowell said. “People who consider me popular have judged me based on what kind of person they think I am, and they actually don’t know who I am.”

Freshman Reagan Burford agreed.

“The disadvantages of being popular is people around the school who aren’t considered popular look at you a different way, thinking that you’re bad just because you’re known and you’re nice,” Bur-

the Lodge 11

THE POLITICS OF BLACK IDENTITY:

FROM COTTON ROWS TO CORN ROWS

By Regine Miller

W

ash, rinse, repeat. Condition, but make sure your choice of conditioner doesn’t contain any silicones because that’s a recipe for unhealthy buildup. Dry your hair with a cotton t-shirt (because, duh, everyone knows that towels are too rough for your coils). Then, spend at least 40 minutes detangling, but make sure to use a widetoothed comb only, lest your locks fall victim to breakage and split ends.

Oil your scalp to avoid dryness and dandruff, preferably with a growth aid such as black castor oil, or maybe tea tree oil.

Next, move on to moisturizing your hair, using a variety of things from (organic) coconut oil to Cantu twist cream and Shea Moisture raw shea moisturizer (just $12.99 at your local Walgreens). Don’t be afraid to use at least half the jar, because who cares how many times you have to go restock, right?

Spend a while separating and flat-twisting your hair, but make sure it’s still wet while you do. If necessary, use a spray bottle to re-dampen. Next, use perm rods to curl the ends of your twists, or maybe stretch your hair out (because you so desperately want to show your hair’s true

THE ORNATE BRAIDS, LOCS AND BANTU KNOTS NOT ONLY SERVE AS MARKS OF HONOR, BUT ALSO AS PROTECTION FOR THE KINKY AND COILY PATTERNS OF AFRO HAIR. 12 the Lodge

length). When you finish, spend an hour under the hair dryer.

Senior Essence Davis’s hair regimen, inclusive of all the steps mentioned above and more, can take up to four hours, but it does not always receive the amount of admiration that one would expect.

“In my experience as a Black woman having natural hair, instead of saying, ‘Hey, your hair looks nice,’ people always want to say something like a critique.” Davis said. “‘Why didn’t you straighten your hair? Why didn’t you do your hair today?’”

“Even though I could stay up all night doing a bomb twist out, I could still come

to school and have somebody say, ‘I see the birds aren’t occupying the nest today,’” Davis said. “You know, something just uncalled for and unnecessary, especially if it comes from someone who has the same kind of hair growing out of their head.”

Davis’s experience is by no means unusual. In Black culture, hair has always been a pretty big deal.

Going back to many West African cultures, hair and the way it is styled has always been an expression of cultural and personal pride. The ornate braids, locs and bantu knots not only served as marks of honor, but also as protection for the kinky and coily patterns of Afro hair.

Hair was so important, in fact, that slave masters would often cut off slaves’ hair in order to humiliate them and assert dominance, or force slave women to cover their heads as a mark of their lower social status. In 18th-century Louisiana, slave women were forbidden to show their hair in public. They were required to cover their heads with scarves called tignons in a set of rules known as the Tignon

Laws, and even then, they were accused of attempting to draw the attention of white men away from white women with the allure of their ornate head cloths.

Many African-American women have chosen to change the texture of their hair in order to conform to the Eurocentric beauty standards they have been taught to aspire to. The first known example of this emerged during slavery, when, in response to the fact that lighter-skinned, straight-haired Blacks were treated more favorably, slaves straightened their hair using dangerous methods, including hot knives, lye and axle grease.

Later came straightening combs, flat irons, perms and, eventually, the infamous hair weave. Although there are some women who choose to straighten their hair because it is easier for them, they like the way it looks or because they want to give their natural hair a break, others still hold strong to ideas that their hair is not good enough. Many people still hold fast to the idea that Black hair is inherently “bad hair,” including non-Black

people.

Last year, Malaika Maoh Eyo, a student at The Pretoria School for Girls in South Africa, helped to lead a protest against her school, which did not allow Black students to wear their natural hair.

Tiana Parker, a student in the United States, was also asked to leave school because of her failure to adhere to the administration-ordained dress code, which banned hairstyles such as “dreadlocks, afros, mohawks and other faddish styles.”

Parker, who was 7 years old at the time, was asked to leave school for wearing her locs, due to the fact that her school administration did not find them “presentable” and thought that it might distract from the school environment. Instead of conforming to this rule, her parents chose to dis-enroll Parker from the school, standing firm in their pride for their daughter and their heritage.

This type of criticism is not limited to Black women by any means. Even Black men, who are already generally perceived to be more aggressive and dangerous,

Photo Illustration by Katelyn Grisham

the Lodge

13

are subject to discrimination based on their hair texture.

Sophomore Timber King said that he has experienced this in response to his choice to wear his hair in short locs.

“Everyone has their thing that characterizes them, and mine is my hair,” King said. “People look at my hair and they think it’s bad. People think it’s thuggish. They’re scared of me. But with my hair, I don’t really care what other people think. I just do it to express myself.”

Although King resists changing the way he expresses himself, he does not doubt that it will be an issue in the future as he enters higher education and the work force.

“I don’t think my hair is long enough to be a problem yet, but if it is a problem, and I feel like [eventually] it will be, I’ll still do what I want,” King said.

“No one will tell me to cut my hair.”

Although some people respond to these challenges with confidence, some microaggressions can have a profound effect on self-esteem and self image.

“When people ask how much I wash my hair and I reply ‘once a week,’ they say ‘that’s nasty’ or ‘that’s gross,’” Davis said. “The lovely thing about being in the St. George’s environment that we’re in is that we’re supposed to be a community that is inclusive and ready to accept new perspectives and new cultures, but sadly, sometimes the way we go about accepting those cultures can be a little offensive to the minorities.”

Even within the Black community, there is much debate about what constitutes as “good hair.”

“The difference [between nappy and nat-

Photograph by Carolyn Lane Sophomore Timber King poses for a photo. People have stereotyped King as a ‘thug’ because of his hair.

14 the Lodge

ural hair] is that nappy means you just don’t have good hair. Natural means that you don’t have any chemicals in your hair,” junior Braylyn Little said.

“People perceive [good hair] as curly, you know, that mixed type of hair, but there’s not really a set thing that is good hair or bad hair. It’s a personal opinion, but people perceive it as people with curly-textured hair.”

Although other races might have insecurities about how their hair looks, they are fundamentally different concerns than those that are caused by the world’s ingrained anti-Blackness.

“I don’t like my hair. I think it’s boring,” senior Mimi McCarroll said. Although McCarroll agrees that she has concerns about her straight brown locks, they do not disrupt her school experience or cause anyone to assume any-

thing about her beliefs.

“I usually don’t do anything o v e r t h e top

“PEOPLE THINK IT’S THUGGISH. THEY’RE SCARED OF ME. BUT WITH MY HAIR, I DON’T REALLY CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK.”

with [my hair], but maybe if I did it a certain way, people would think

something about me. But not in its natural state,” McCarroll said. “My mom thinks that I need to get highlights, but I don’t want to. [I get criticism] from my mom, but not from anyone at school, like teachers.”

After years of being exposed to a culture that praises proximity to whiteness, paired with the rest of the world’s learned aversion to Blackness, it is no small feat for Black people to respond to criticism about their natural hair with defiant self-love. However, it is not uncommon for an assertion of Black identity to be politicized as a display of militancy, often without any real concern as to whether or not this is true.

The suppression of Black identity, for fear that it is symptomatic of some underlying seed of rebellion, is something that is by no means new.

“Me expressing what’s naturally

“INSTEAD OF SAYING, ‘HEY, YOUR HAIR LOOKS NICE,’ PEOPLE ALWAYS WANT TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE A CRITIQUE. ‘WHY DIDN’T YOU STRAIGHTEN YOUR HAIR?’”

mine and what I think is beautiful is always [seen as] me criticizing somebody else’s culture,” Davis said. “[If I] come in with my Afro, [then it’s] ‘Black Panther, this. White-person-hater, that.’ It just can’t be ‘I love myself,’ it has to be, ‘I hate everybody else.’”

Granted, sometimes these assertions of identity are acts of defiance. Because Black people live in a cultural environment that undermines their self esteem, embracing their naturalness is a bold choice within itself.

For Black people who abandon their natural hair to adopt white standards in the name of assimilation, this act is one of self-defense. Identity that is diluted is somehow less intimidating, and the less intimidating Black people are, the more they feel safe from attack. Internalized racism and self-hatred do not dissolve without effort. It has a way of metastasizing, of infiltrating and infecting every part of one’s self-esteem.

To defy this notion is to take one’s identity back into their own hands. It is to take pride in the aspects of oneself which have been pegged as undesirable, to invalidate any labels and assumptions with unabashed dignity.

“If I am able to wear my natural hair, everyone else should be able to wear their natural hair, too. I think God gave everyone the hair that they’re supposed to have, and the fact that they’re saying, ‘No, you can’t do that’ is basically saying what God gave you isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” McCarroll said.

“No one else should be able to tell you how to wear your hair, unless they want to do it for you every morning.”

Photograph by Katelyn Grisham Senior Essence Davis smiles for the camera.

Individuals have critiqued Davis’ natural hair instead of supporting it.

the Lodge 15

UP-TO-DATE

By Iona Yates, Elle Vaughn, Will Brown, Annie Murff and Bart Mueller

We all get to a point where we crave the companionship of another human, but that companionship can come with a lot of costs, especially in the 21st century. Social media, online dating services and applications like Tinder have revolutionized the way we interact with each other. Together let’s explore the ups and downs of modern dating. Whether you are dating your soulmate, broken-hearted or have simply sworn off dating for good, this guide’s for you.

SENIOR BECK SIMS what do you thinK about “haVing a thing?”

Now, let’s say you have a thing. Either you like each other and you become official, or people have a thing. ‘Yeah we’ve been talking for like 6 months now.’ I’m like, ‘Why?’ I don’t understand. It doesn’t make any sense to me why you would waste your time. Just make it official.”

FRESHMAN CALEB LINDOW what do you liKe about dating?

“It’s sort of just a personal feel. You get to know someone else and experience a good connection.”

JUNIOR THEO CARR Is dating in high school worth it?

“No, you should be enjoying yourself, unless you really are into somebody.”

SENIOR MEGAN UMANSKY what would you change about dating?

“I think a lot of people try to make their relationship look better that it actually is in real life on social media through pictures and stuff they say. Maybe that’s not actually how it is in real life.”

DATING THROUGH THE DECADES

MR. PAT MCGRAW: CLASS OF 1966

JUNIOR ANNA HARBERT haS dating changed Since your parentS were teenagerS? “When it comes to dating now, it all comes down to the popularity aspect and social media. All of my sisters’ friends are on Tinder.

They all are dating people on Tinder, and it’s kind of like, ‘Is this really how it works now?’”

SOPHOMORE PRESTON TRUELOVE why do you date?

“It’s nice to have someone to communicate with always and to have that person there. She [my girlfriend] helps me with work, so it’s educational, too. And it’s nice to have an acquaintance of the other sex.”

MRS. LEAH ALLISON: CLASS OF 1988 “My best date was with my high school sweetheart. One Sunday afternoon we sat in his backyard, and he was working on his car, and all I did was hand him tools and worked on his car with him. It was completely fascinating to me. He was really into teaching me what all these things were and what he was doing. To me, that was awesome. That was our best date, better than any prom or any date.”

“My mother got very mad at this girl that called me and asked me out, and she was very upset because that’s not what a ‘good girl’ does. So a lot of pretty girls stayed home because boys never had the guts to ask them out. Guys still don’t have guts to call... We always assume that the really good-looking girls have dates. In reality, sometimes they don’t. Nobody calls.”

MR. CHRIS MILLER: CLASS OF 1987 “An ideal date might be when you went to the mall and hung out with your date because there’s all sorts of things to do at the mall. You can eat there, get ice cream there, you can get your picture made there, you can buy stuff there and you can see people there.”

D

SHIPPING, v. when you are a big fan of an existing relationship or the idea of two people together who aren’t dating

ating

Dictionary

Photo illustrations by Elle Vaughn

ESKIMO BROTHERS AND SISTERS, n. when two friends have kissed the same person, they become eskimo sisters or brothers.

GHOSTING, v. the practice of ending a relationship with someone by withdrawing from all communication suddenly and without explanation

THIRST TRAP, n. you post a divine selfie, and the thirst comes rolling into your DMs

BAE, n. typically stands for “before anything else” but can also be slang for “babe”

MARRIAGE MATERIAL, n. someone that you see yourself being with for the rest of your life SLIDING INTO THE DMS, v. when you “slide” into someone’s direct messages on Twitter, Instagram or other social media, usually for romantic reasons.

CUFFING SEASON n. the season in which you seek out someone to help you stay warm during the cold winter months and accompany you to holiday celebrations. Or, according to Theo Carr, “It’s cuffing. It’s chilling. It’s important to me.”

NETFLIX AND CHILL, n. inviting someone over under the guise of watching Netflix, but with more nefarious intentions.

MR. BARRY BRUNETTI: CLASS OF 2010 “Dating has tremendously changed even with me graduating six, seven years ago.

We didn’t have Instagram. We had Facebook, but we didn’t have the Instagram or Snapchat. Now I can be in Memphis dating someone from New York.”

MS. KALYN UNDERWOOD: CLASS OF 2002 “There wasn’t texting. That started when I was a junior, and I thought it was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard of, and now it’s like the only way you talk to people. When I was in high school, you had to have the really awkward moment of ‘hey, so what are you doing on Friday?’ You had to do that, and you had to do it face-to-face.”

“WE HAVE A THING”, n. y’all snapchat, y’all text and y’all talk a lot in person, but you DEFINITELY are NOT dating. But you aren’t dating anybody else either.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT YOUR TEACHERS LISTENED TO WHEN THEY WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL?

1966: “Ballad of the Green Berets” by Sgt. Barry Sadler.

1975: “Love Will Keep Us Together” Captain & Tennille 1987: “Walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles 1988: “Faith” by George Michael 1990: “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips 2001: “How You Remind Me” by Nickelback 2009: “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha FOR A FULL PLAYLIST, VISIT GRYPHONLODGE.COM

the Lodge

17

How the rising cost of higher education is changing the college search

By Carolyn Lane 18 the Lodge

J

unior Fe Novoa has spent hours looking at the Berklee College of Music’s official website over the past two months.

She has researched their performance opportunities, admired their student life and examined every major they offer.

Novoa loves everything about Berklee except the price. Tuition at Berklee is $61,000 a year.

“I would like to apply and audition,” Novoa said, “but the chances of me going there are really small.”

As an aspiring contemporary musician, Berklee is her dream college, and with good reason.

According to College Magazine, Berklee College of Music was ranked the fourth best college for aspiring musicians in 2016 and had the most innovative undergraduate study of contemporary music, according to the The Best Colleges’ website.

Novoa entered the music scene in fifth grade when she began playing the drums. Two years ago, she joined Germantown School of Rock, a local music school that offers student musicians the ability to perform in public, and began playing in two or three shows per year.

With an admission rate of 32 percent, Novoa believes she has a good chance of being accepted but is worried about the role finances would play in her ability to attend.

“If I get into my dream school, I know I’m good enough to get in, but financials are not something that I can control, which is something that stresses me out even more,” Novoa said. “There’s nothing I can do to fix it and to make it better. I can work on my grades and get good test scores – that’s something in my control – so I’m definitely going to be more worried about affording it.”

“I know that my mother went to college a very long time ago, and she only recently paid off her student loans. I know that loans are not something that just goes away,” Stovall said. “I heard that if you let them get out-of-hand or if you ask for too much, they can become a burden in the future.”

According to CNBC, 71 percent of individuals with student debt believe the cost of their monthly loan payments prevents them from buying a home, while 40 percent are forced to live with family members since they struggle to afford monthly rent payments and student loan payments simultaneously.

While taking out loans to pay for college puts some students in a bind, for some, it may be worth it since a college education has never been more important than it is in today’s society. The U.S. Department of Education determined that twothirds of jobs available in the 2020 job market “will require postsecondary education or training” while college graduates today already “earn 66 percent more than those with only a high school diploma.”

With the rising importance of a college education as well as tuition prices, many students across the nation are caught between a rock and a hard place as they try to figure out how to afford college.

“Financials are not something that I can control, which is something that stresses me out even more.”

Feeling the Pinch Since the 1990-1991 school year, the net price of a college education has risen 194 percent for private universities and 274 percent for public universities, according to the College Board, making situations like Novoa’s more and more common.

Due to rising prices, there has also been an increase in the number of students who take out loans in order to pay for their education. The Institute for College Access and Success determined that 68 percent of college seniors in the Class of 2015 were in debt and that the average student with debt owed $30,100.

This is a situation senior Alton Stovall wants to avoid.

the Lodge

19

Closing the Gap While some students try applying to universities where they have a higher chance of receiving scholarship money, Director of College Guidance Mr. Timothy Gibson encourages students to apply to universities they could see themselves attending for four years rather than because of scholarship opportunities.

“I am a firm believer that any school to which you submit an application you need to be prepared to enroll. You never apply for fun because it’s not that fun. We also know that students have some reach schools, either academically or financially, and it is important to keep those in consideration,” Mr. Gibson said. “I don’t ever call a school a back-up school but, for lack of a better word, a safety school. A safety school is where we know, based on our historical data, that you are clearly admissible and they will look at the application and say, ‘Great fit, and here’s a scholarship.’”

For senior Kai Taylor that school is definitely not Vanderbilt University, a school she would love to attend but whose tuition is $62,000. Because of the high tuition, Taylor has already prepared herself should she fail to receive the $20,000 Coca-Cola

20 the Lodge

scholarship, which is offered to 150 students per year.

“Vanderbilt is my dream school. It’s all about money, though,” Taylor said. “If I got in, that would be cool, but if I can’t afford it and I’m going to be in debt later on, I don’t want to do that.

I would probably just suck it up and go to one of the schools here.”

Even though some scholarships are not awarded directly from universities, there are two main ways to receive them, either through merit-based scholarships, which are rewarded based on academics or extracurriculars, or through need-based aid, which is given based on a family’s income.

No matter what students will apply for, Mr. Gibson always stresses the importance of financial awareness during the college process.

“I tell parents that it’s important that they have a dollar amount in mind that they’re prepared to spend,” Mr. Gibson said.

“I don’t care what that amount is, whether it’s a dollar a year or a million dollars a year, but it’s great for a family to be able to say this is how much our family is able to comfortably afford.”

Mr. Gibson and Ms. Jessica Hardy, Associate Director of College Guidance, work with families to help students either find colleges that provide scholarship money or scholarships from additional sources in order to cover the gap between what families are able to afford and what the price of the college is.

Junior Chloe Boggan is working with Ms. Hardy

to find scholarships that will help her attend college. Having seen what her older brother went through after graduating from Germantown High School last year, she knows finding money for college will be important. Kaz Boggan signed up for the United States Navy’s Delayed Entry Program and entered boot camp shortly after graduating.

“He’s doing his school through the Navy, so they would pay for his education,” Chloe Boggan said. “If he wants to go further with it, they would pay for that, too.”

Although Kaz Boggan’s plan solved the issue of paying for college, it is not the path his sister wants to take.

“I’ve thought about doing the military and going to Navy or Air Force, but I honestly don’t think I could do that. He’s in boot camp now and is basically dying all the time,” Chloe Boggan said.

“His letters home are basically, ‘Please get me out of this hell hole. I don’t want to be here.’”

Boggan will be applying for scholarships at every college to which she will submit an application.

“I am African-American, and my parents didn’t get that far into their schooling,” Boggan said.

“There’s things of that nature that I can get because I’m on financial-aid at St. George’s.”

As much as Boggan fears her impending college search, she is also worried for her two younger brothers, who will face the same dilemma in a couple years.

“I am worried for my brothers mostly because, what if I take up all the money for college and my parents don’t have enough to pay for theirs?” Boggan said. “I’m also worried for them just about having to search for a college and do financial aid and stuff like that.”

Boggan’s fears have become realities for senior Chloe Booth, whose decision has been altered by the availability of scholarships.

Booth visited Boston last summer, where she fell in love with Boston University. Despite Boston University’s tuition of $50,000, Booth elected to apply in hopes of receiving scholarships in order to counteract the high tuition.

After hearing about the scholarships she would receive, Booth had to remove it from her college list.

“I couldn’t afford to go,” Booth said. “Boston is pretty good with need-based [aid], but I still probably couldn’t go for it because my dad is not really into loans.”

Even though the college search and subsequent final decision can be stressful, Ms. Hardy strongly believes every student will end up where they belong.

“Everyone finds a place they are supposed to be, and that’s the biggest thing to know,” Ms. Hardy said. “With everyone going through the emotional rollercoaster of the application process, that’s hard to see sometimes.”

Average Net Tuiton Price Of Universities Average Net Tuiton Prices

Data Source: U.S. News

Private Tuition Public Out-of-State Tuition Public In-State Tuition

Photograph by Faith Huff Illustrations by Elle Vaughn Infographic by Carolyn Lane

Year the Lodge

21

Opinion

Make college affordable for everyone Staff Editorial

Staff editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board. The following count represents our editorial board’s stance on this editorial. As always, letters to the editor in response to the editorial are encouraged.

Agree: 10/12 Abstain: 1/12 Disagree: 1/12

S

enator Bernie Sanders received a lot of attention and support this past year for his stance that public colleges and universities should be free. In fact, it was a key reason he was particularly successful among millennials. The cost of college is something that is on every student and parent’s mind, and they start worrying about it much earlier than senior year.

Mr. Timothy Gibson, director of college guidance and student life, begins to talk to students about college in fourth grade, and students start meeting with him individually as early as freshman year.

It’s no surprise that students and families have begun preparing so early – college has become necessary for almost anyone who would like to be successful in the work career. On av-

erage, the yearly earnings of a worker with a college degree are about double the yearly earnings of someone with only a high school degree, according to a 2005 report by the Census Bureau.

At the same time, the cost of college tuition and fees has increased by 439 percent since 1982, according to a 2008 report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. According to the College Board, the average cost of a private school this past year was $33,480, and the average cost for an out-of-state student attending a public university was $24,930. And the costs are only getting higher.

Colleges raise their tuition for many reasons, some of which are unavoidable, but we at the Lodge are concerned by the rise of the “country-club culture,” where students receive

special services such as dry cleaning, gym memberships, facility upgrades and even tanning beds on campus. These sorts of services are nice luxuries, but they raise costs while doing nothing to raise the quality of education.

Louisiana State University is building a lazy river in the shape of its initials.

Michigan Tech University has its own private ski resort. High Point University has a private steakhouse, a free movie theater and televisions in dorm rooms.

College has one primary purpose: to provide a higher education. Instead, college luxuries are getting out of hand, turning schools into private resorts.

Instead of building lazy rivers and movie theaters, maybe it’s time to scale back and use these funds in financial aid packages for students instead.

Some might argue that

“country-club culture’ isn’t the primary cause for the rise of college costs, but it’s certainly not helping.

Instead of putting time, money and energy into the amenities arms race, colleges should be worrying about how they can lower their tuition and fees.

Colleges fear that if they lower their tuition, they will not have enough money to operate with, but that is not the case. According to Forbes Magazine, schools that have reduced their price over the last few years have witnessed an increase in enrollment and income.

It’s a win-win.

If college is such a necessity for success, then colleges and universities need to plan accordingly and make them available to everyone. Sanders started the conversation – it’s time for us to finish it.

OPINION POLICY: The Lodge opinion section is a venue for the free expression of student views at St. George’s Independent School. The opinions represented in this section are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large. The Lodge strives to be an open forum for the thoughtful and deliberate exchange of comment and criticism, and therefore welcomes letters to the editor. Letters to the editor will be printed in the opinion section of the newspaper, should not exceed 300 words and must be signed and accompanied by a verifiable email address. These letters will not be printed if the content is judged obscene, violates the privacy of others or encourages physical disruption of school activites.

22 the Lodge

Opinion

Take off the mask

College admissions counselors want to know you

By Caroline Zummach

T

oday, high-schoolers are put under so much pressure to get into college that the college application process turns into a sales meeting to pitch their latest product: themselves.

Students across the nation are given expectations that can only be met by overloading themselves with extracurricular activities and as many advanced classes as possible, regardless of what suffers, including their sleep or family commitments. This pressure is applied by parents, teachers, other students and the students themselves. This pressure causes students to join as many clubs as they can without considering what they truly love to do and where they can invest their time wholeheartedly.

Instead of focusing on many things, students should discover what their passions are and join clubs and classes that pique their interests.

When beginning the ap-

plication process, it is best to focus not solely on what you are involved in, but why you wanted to participate in those activities in the first place. It is also important to look for ways to become a leader and devote more time to those activities than once every few months.

According to Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz of the Huffington Post, “it is better to be consistently involved in one, two, or three activities and/or sports over a number of years, than superficially involved in eight, 10 or 12 for shorter periods of time.”

Joseph Berger of the New York Times spoke with Chioma Isiadinso, the founder of Expartus, a college coaching firm in the city.

She gives advice on how students approach activities by saying, “Think not just what you’ve done, but why you’ve done what you’ve done…

What [colleges] care about is the passion, commitment and

consistency.”

If students think this way, they will be met with less stress and can take the time to be allin with their passions. They can take part in clubs and classes that they enjoy and challenge themselves.

In short, don’t be me. During my freshman and sophomore year, there weren’t any clubs I devoted my time to because I thought that nothing would interest me or be an efficient use of my time. Now, I find myself a junior scrambling to find a club that I’m interested in to put on a college application. I like the clubs that I participate in now, and I chose just a few clubs that I wanted to devote my time to, but I am not a leader of any of them because I did not get involved early in my high school career.

I believe that it is productive to be in a multitude of clubs in middle school and your freshman year in order to find out what you like, but as you

continue through high school, the amount of clubs you’re involved with should become smaller as you find your niche.

It is all about finding a balance and being true to what you enjoy. As high school students, our time is precious, and we should be spending it doing something we love, not something that will supposedly get us into college.

As students approach the application process, they should think of themselves not as a product to sell, but instead as a piece of art that has been shaped and molded throughout high school that can now be displayed for its viewers to see the hard work that brought it to this point.

$6.39 lunch specials that include one of 20 entrees, rice, and a egg roll or soup

the Lodge

23

sports in brief

By Bart Mueller

Varsity Girls’ Basketball

Varsity Boys’ Basketball

The girls’ varsity basketball is trying to find their groove this year. A highlight for the team was a thrilling 40-39 win over Evangelical Christian School after junior Grace Kenley scored a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

The team is making strides towards the regional tournament, which would take place on Monday, Feb. 13, at Northpoint Christian School.

The varsity boys’ basketball team has found success thus far with high scoring games, including a big 64-37 win over the Evangelical Christian School Eagles this past December and a 68-53 victory over the St. Benedict Academy Eagles in early January. Senior Chase Hayden continues to be a scoring machine, averaging over 20 points per game.

“We’re excited to keep working hard and hopefully win a state championship,” junior Hagan Imorde said.

Photo: Alex Middleton ‘17 Junior Miaya Smith defends a St. Benedict player. One of the team’s biggest wins this season was against Evangelical Christian School.

varsity Cheer

Photo: Mrs. Lane Franklin The competition cheer team poses for a photo. The cheer team placed second at regionals.

Winter Cheer The winter cheerleaders have been effective in improving spirit at boys and girls basketball games. Their famous “Miss It” cheer during free throws and the popular “My Friends (We Get Turnt Up)” cheer performed after victories have significantly enhanced the atmosphere in the gym.

“We’re proud to cheer on our Gryphons’ basketball teams. We’ve worked really hard this year, and it has paid off,” junior Eve Arick said.

The Varsity Competitive Cheer team is heading to nationals on Thursday, Feb. 9.

They will be competing at Walt Disney World on Saturday, Feb. 11., and hope to compete in and win the finals on Sunday.

“We have been preparing all year for nationals,” senior Hayes Franklin said. “I am so excited to compete one last time on the blue mat with such an amazing team.”

Photo: Megan Umansky ‘17 Senior Noah Pope goes up for a shot against St. Benedict Academy. The 68-53 win against St. Benedict was one of the team’s highest scoring games of the season.

Swimming

Photo: Bayard Anderson ’17 Senior Kneeland Gammill swims in a meet. Several swimmers qualified for the state tournament this year.

Seniors Kneeland Gammill, John Barton, Lauren Marotta and Sarah Thompson, juniors Gabby Acker and Julia Fogel, sophomores Alexis Bourdeau, Mary Miller Goldberg and William Irby and freshmen Claire Epperson, Luke Stevens and John David Wright will be competing in the state competition in Knoxville on Feb. 9, 10 and 11.

“We’ve been hitting it hard at practice and focusing on perfecting the little things. I’m truly thrilled to see what we can do as a team,” Gammill said. “We have big shoes to fill after placing ninth overall as a team last year with only nine swimmers.”

Varsity Wrestling

Photo: Megan Umansky ‘17 Sophomore Alexis Turner and junior Braylyn Little cheer on the boys varsity basketball team. Their “Miss It” was a new addition to their line-up this year.

The wrestling team has had a solid year in Coach Brendan Gorham’s first year at the helm. At the Dawg Fights invitational on January 21, all three varsity wrestlers placed in their weight class.

Sophomore Jaylen Spears took second, junior Matthew Doucette placed third and sophomore David Fisk dominated his class to capture first.

Photo: Paige Marotta Junior Matthew Doucette prepares to wrestle an opposing player. The three varsity wrestlers placed in Dawg Fights invitational.