Volume 106, Issue 5

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume 106 No. 5

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

November 18, 2015

stuyspec.com

Penguins Protest PSAL’s Enforcement of Postseason Eligibility Requirement

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reshman Ben Platt, juniors Asher Lasday and Evan Lieberman, and senior Lucas Weiner won awards for best delegate in the Model United Nations conference at Brown University on Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8.

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uniors Zovinar Khrimian and Kiyan Tavangar won second place in the girls’ and boys’ varsity races in the NYC Cross Country Individual Championship.

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enior Krystal Lara qualified for the 2016 United States Swimming Olympic Trials in the women’s 100-meter backstroke.

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he Stuyvesant Speech and Debate Team won third place sweepstakes at Fordham Preparatory School on Saturday, November 7.

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he Stuyvesant Debate Team competed at the Scarsdale Invitational. In Public Forum Debate, Junior Zachary Ginsberg and Sophomore Daniel Ju were finalists and Inbar Pe’er and Abie Rohrig were semifinalists. In Lincoln Douglas, Senior Shannon Lee was an Octafinalist.

Julia Lee/ The Spectator

unior Yiqing Hu placed third in the Northeastern Council of Teachers of Japanese speech contest.

By Sonia Epstein and Julia Ingram

The Stuyvesant girls’ swimming and diving team, the Penguins, protested the Francis Lewis Lady Patriots’ alleged violation of the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) eligibility requirements for student-athlete participation in postseason meets. The protest was overruled by PSAL Executive Director Donald Douglass, who exempted the divers from the requirement for medical reasons.

The PSAL’s Swimming and Diving rule 23.3 requires studentathletes to participate in at least five regular season dual meets in

order to be eligible to participate in any postseason meets. However, neither of Francis Lewis’s two divers had met this requirement; according to the PSAL website, one diver participated in two meets, and the other participated in three. Contrary to Douglass’s decision, no documentation on the PSAL website states that athletes could be exempt from the postseason eligibility requirements for medical reasons.

Despite this, the two divers continued to participate in playoff meets, including a semifinal meet against Stuyvesant on Tuesday, November 3. Penguin Coach Peter Bologna approached the PSAL

Girls Swimming Commissioner Robert Kolonkowski prior to the meet with a verbal complaint, but he did not take any action to prohibit the divers from participating in the meet.

The two Francis Lewis Divers earned seven points for the Lady Patriots at the meet, contributing to their 53 to 49 win against the Penguins. The next day, the Penguins filed a written complaint to Kolonkowski, the first step in the official PSAL appeals process.

According to this procedure, they would have the opportunity to appeal to Douglass after receiving Kolonkowski’s decision.

However, due to what the PSAL

referred to as the sensitive nature of the charge, the complaint went straight to Douglass, who overruled the protest. “In light of the medical situation, both students are granted a medical exemption,” he wrote in his response to Bologna. Since this notice came from Douglass, the decision was final and the Penguins could not appeal further. Douglass and Kolonkowski did not respond to The Spectator’s requests for interviews.

Following the incident, the Penguins circulated a Change. org petition via Facebook to call attention to the matter. The petition, titled “Protest PSAL’s Lack of Enforcement of Their Own Rules!” expressed dissatisfaction with the alleged failure to follow established protocols and to follow the customary appeals process, as well as the fact that a written medical exemption policy was not made available online.

The petition criticized the PSAL’s response to the alleged foul play rather than Francis Lewis’ actions.

“We want the anger to be directed towards the PSAL, not Francis Lewis,” senior and Penguins’ co-captain Yuxaio Lei said.

The petition further asserted that the PSAL’s behavior is contrary to its central goal. “[The PSAL’s] mission is simple: educating students in physical fitness, character development, and socialization skills through an athletic program that fosters teamwork, discipline, and sportsmanship,” the petition stated. “The manner in which the PSAL has dealt with this situation contradicts their mission statement.”

Sophomores Allowed Outside During Free Periods

By Sharon Chao and Shameek Rakshit The administration granted sophomores the right to leave the building during free periods at the School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting held on October 27. The decision came one day after seniors Kryztsztof Hochlewicz and Ryan Boodram and sophomore Kevin Boodram posted a petition on Facebook to mobilize student support for the approval of the policy. The petition received over 200 signatures.

SU President Ares Aung and Sophomore Caucus President Tahseen Chowdhury originally requested that the privilege apply to sophomores at the SLT meeting in June 2015, when Aung was SU Vice President and Chowdhury was Freshman Caucus President. Principal Jie Zhang agreed with the idea at the meeting. “[In June] I approved of it because it helps re-

WHAT’S INSIDE? FEATURES Arts and Entertainment

duce traffic in the hallways, and it allows students to get some fresh air or food,” Zhang said.

“We already had the procedure in place for seniors and juniors, so it wouldn’t [have been] that difficult to extend it to sophomores.” According to the minutes of the meeting, the SLT approved the SU’s request.

However, the privilege was not extended to sophomores at the beginning of this school year. Hochlewicz, Ryan Boodram, and Kevin Boodram, who had been meeting informally since the end of the last school year to discuss ways to improve the school, noticed that the rule had not changed.

Some sophomores also did not know that they had the right to leave during their free periods.

“I was unaware of our [right] to go outside during free periods before the petition was made public on Facebook,” sophomore Aren Tucker said.

Seeing this issue, Hochle-

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wicz, Ryan Boodram, and Kevin Boodram decided to take matters into their own hands. “[We thought] that the SU had enough time to deal with the issue, so [we decided] to try to do something ourselves,” Ryan Boodram said.

They talked to Zhang, who had forgotten about the proposed sophomore privilege, on October 26, the day before the SLT meeting. “The [topic] had slipped from my mind over the summer break, and it wasn’t brought up at the September SLT meeting,” Zhang said.

Zhang wanted to discuss the matter with the SLT before making a decision. “The fact that [Zhang] wanted to get the SLT’s opinion again despite the decision in June showed that [the privilege] wasn’t set in stone,” Ryan Boodram said.

He, Hochlewicz, and Kevin Boodram decided to circulate the petition to show the members of the SLT, specifically

Into the Wilderness: A Look at Scouting Meet some of Stuyvesant’s very own boy and girl scouts!

those who had been recently elected, the widespread student support of the policy change.

Some students were confused by the purpose of the petition because they thought that sophomores already had the privilege to leave during their free periods. “The majority of us sophomores knew that our right to go out existed, but [...] the faculty wasn’t letting us do so,” sophomore Sammie Paul said in an e-mail interview.

Some of the confusion may have stemmed from the ambiguity of the minutes of the June 2015 SLT meeting. According to the minutes, “Sophomore privileges begin in September.” Junior and former SLT Alternate Hasan Tukhtamishev, who took the minutes for that meeting, clarified what he meant to say.

“What I had written down was supposed to show the privilege was something still being planned [...] and a follow-up was still needed to confirm ev-

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erything.” Tukhtamishev said.

Chowdhury explained that the SU planned to meet with Zhang again to officially grant the privilege later in the school year. “Due to the multiple changes in the Programming Department, the job got lost and people forgot about it,” Chowdhury said. “[The SU was] waiting for things to settle within the administration [before] going to discuss the issue with [Zhang]. Of course, other concerned students assumed that [the privilege] had not passed and brought it up to SLT. Then, they re-passed something that had already been passed.”

Nevertheless, Ryan Boodram presented the petition at the SLT meeting, and it was met with no dissent. Parental consent forms to allow sophomores to go outside during free periods were officially released on October 28, 2015. continued on page 2

We Have a Winner Read A&E Editor Danielle Eisenman’s of the Fall musical, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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News Alarm System Installed Under Avonte’s Law

By Anne George and Vanna Mavromatis After the disappearance of autistic student Avonte Oquendo, who walked out of his school building unnoticed and was later found dead, “Avonte’s Law” went into effect. It requires certain schools in New York State to be equipped with alarms on doors leading outside. In the Spring of 2015, the Department of Education (DOE) supplied and installed alarms at Stuyvesant.

Oquendo was seen on surveillance footage leaving Riverview School on Friday, October 4, 2013. Police found his body by the shoreline of the East River on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. Oquendo’s family sued New York City and Avonte’s Law was passed as a result.

This new security initiative is expected to provide a more effective means of ensuring the

safety of special education students. “Even before Avonte, there were other cases. Unfortunately, it took a tragedy for people to react and become proactive,” SPARK head Angel Colon said.

Stuyvesant hosts School 266, a District 75 Special Education school, within the building. Previously, the school entrances had no existing security alarms.

State law requires that security alarms must be installed on all the entrances of elementary schools and buildings that host District 75 Special Education programs. “[Distict 75 has] several schools that are scattered into mainstream schools,” Colon said. “Being Stuyvesant High School, part of the agreement is in housing special needs schools.”

Throughout the process, Stuyvesant was not responsible for the imple- mentation procedure and budget. “[The

alarms were installed by] a contractor through the DOE,” Moran said. “We had very little to do with it.”

Administrators at Stuyvesant believe that these security alarms could aid in preventing unauthorized people from entering the school as well. “Emergency exits are not [patrolled by security]. Someone could sneak in [...] someone could leave the door propped open,” Moran said. “We just want to make sure that no one who doesn’t belong here can get in.” The alarms prevent unauthorized personnel from entering because only authorized personnel have access to the key to the entrances and practice the correct procedure. “In the building, we have control, we have keys to restrict/ obtain entrance,” Principal Jie Zhang said.

Jensen Foerster/ The Spectator

SU Holds First Stuylloween Carnival

By Vicky Chen and Vincent Jiang The Student Union (SU) held its first Stuylloween Carnival on Friday, October 30. Over 200 students from all grades came to the cafeteria to enjoy the sweet taste of cotton candy, the earthy smell of hay, and a variety of Halloween-themed activities.

The idea for the Stuylloween Carnival originated from an SU meeting held on Friday, October 16, in which the SU brainstormed ideas for celebrating Halloween. “One of the jobs of a healthy Student Union is to have as many bonding events as possible,” Coordinator of Student Affairs (COSA) Matthew Polazzo said.

After Sophomore Caucus President Tahseen Chowdhury and Vice President Pallab Saha and Junior Caucus President Namra Zulfiqar and Vice President Enver Ramadani volunteered to help organize the event, the SU began preparations. Activities and supplies were decided collaboratively.

“If the majority of us thought it would be a cool activity to have, we incorporated it,” Zulfiqar said.

Responsibilities for organizing the event were divided between the SU President Ares Aung, Vice President Matthew So, the Sophomore Caucus, and the Junior Caucus. Aung and So took care of reserving the cafeteria for the event and purchasing the pumpkins. The Sophomore Caucus purchased

food and set up games, and the Junior Caucus set up the photo booth. Both caucuses also organized a team of photographers for the event, which they believed would spread the news of the events at the carnival and attract students in the future. “The whole point of Halloween is for people to show off their creativity through their costumes, and people just love documenting things like that [in] pictures,” Saha said.

“One of the jobs of a healthy Student Union is to have as many bonding events as possible,” —Matthew Polazzo, Coordinator of Student Affairs

Though students had to purchase snacks and pumpkins to paint, the majority of the Halloween activities were free. “We didn’t make money, but that was never the plan.

[What] we did charge for was just to help cover some of our expenses. The plan was just to throw an event that students would enjoy,” Polazzo said.

Aside from some disorganization in the layout of games, the event flowed smoothly on an operational level, which the Sophomore Caucus attributed to good communication between Aung, So, and the two caucuses. It was a lesson they learned from last year’s Spring Fling, when the SU had trouble communicating with one another. “It was getting pretty complicated about where people were, and what people were doing.

So this year we actually used our own money and bought a bunch of walkie-talkies and it really helped us with communication,” Chowdhury said.

The SU took the large turnout as indicative of the event’s success. “We expected maybe 150 people to show up, but then in the end, around 200 people ended up coming, and I’d say that was a success,” Saha said.

Many students who attended enjoyed the event.

“The whole point of it was that people got together with their costumes. […] It was a fun little gathering,” sophomore Anton Solodkov said.

Others, however, felt the overall outcome of the event had been lackluster. “I thought it could have been better. They could have done activities that would make it have the traditional Halloween [scene] […] like apple-bobbing,” sophomore Shiva Vum said.

Though the SU has not yet decided if they will hold the carnival annually, they are determined to take into consideration such student opinions when planning future events.

“A lot of people enjoyed it. Every year, the first [event] is always not as wonderful, but we can add things to it [...] and test out new, different things that we haven’t tried yet that people might enjoy,” Chowdhury said.

Mandarin Program Expanded with New Hire

By Jonathan Buhler, Giselle Garcia, and Selina Zou In September 2015, Mandarin teacher Sophia Zhou was hired to accommodate the increasing demand for Mandarin over the last few years, filling the world languages department vacancy after the retirement of Spanish teacher Milton Diaz in 2014. With the addition of Zhou, Principal Jie Zhang hopes to alleviate size restraints on the Mandarin program at Stuyvesant.

Zhang noticed the lack of space in Mandarin classes from the start of her tenure at Stuyvesant. In the past several years, the world languages department had not been able to meet the high demand for introductory Mandarin classes.

“It came to a point [where] the Mandarin department was really oversubscribed,” Zhang said. “The freshman parents were driving us crazy.”

them correctly,” Assistant Principal of World Languages Arlene Ubieta said. Still, despite these efforts, overcrowding remained a problem.

To relieve this overcrowding, Zhang and her cabinet began to search for a new language teacher. They realized that, even after Diaz’s retirement, Mandarin was still the language with the most unmet demand.

“When I first came in as head of the department, we had 15 classes,” Ubieta said. “Over time, we added one more, but still, I had fold- ers and e-mails full of requests.”

Despite the lack of space in the Mandarin department, Zhang and her cabinet were still reluctant to add a teacher, since this would suddenly introduce five additional classes to the department. Therefore, they first searched for teachers with a dual-license in Mandarin and another subject to avoid overstaffing. “The [Advanced Placement Mandarin]

“I experienced the frustration we go through every year [denying students], for three years in a row.

What we want is to give them a chance to learn something new.

That’s the philosophy of the program.”

—Jie Zhang, Principal One issue that has contributed to the oversubscription of Mandarin classes is the flood of native speakers in the Mandarin program. Although Zhang and the language department have established a policy against allowing students to enroll in a language they are already fluent in, the difficulty in weeding out heritage students has been apparent. This is particularly a problem in the Mandarin department, where many heritage Mandarin speakers sign up for introductory courses.

“I’m not sure how good the Mandarin teachers are with blocking out heritage kids,” Zhang said. “We keep on telling teachers to be [...] very strict on placement so that kids don’t get a cheap way out.”

During the short time Zhou has been here, she has also noticed this problem, though she notes that the department does try hard to keep heritage speakers out of the program. “For a lot of heritage speakers, if we think they are too advanced for level one, we [try to] push them or strongly recommend them to go to level two,” Zhou said. “I won’t say we can make sure 100 percent, but we try our best.”

Additionally, unlike other languages, which use solely a placement exam to determine the skill level of students, there are other measures taken to ensure proper placement into Mandarin classes. “Besides the [exam], for Chinese, we specifically have one-on-one interviews with the students to make sure that we’re placing

classes are a little overstaffed,” Zhang said. “I wasn’t ready to add a teacher to a department, so I was hoping to find one that could, say, teach three math and two Chinese [classes], or vice versa.” However, no suitable candidates with dual certifications were found.

Eventually, the administration chose to hire Zhou. This brought the total number of Mandarin classes up from 16 to 20. The additional classes provide over 100 additional students the opportunity to take Mandarin, including more incoming freshmen than in any previous year.

Currently, Zhou has taken over the department’s four firstyear classes, as well as one of its seven second-year classes, and is optimistic about working at Stuyvesant. “Here at Stuyvesant, the speed [at which] students absorb knowledge is really impressive,” Zhou said. “And I can teach twice as much as I would in other schools.”

Ubieta hopes that by opening up the space in the Mandarin program to a larger group of incoming students, more students will have to opportunity to take a language they are interested in. “In the past, I [would] have to put [incoming students] in their second or third choice, and sometimes that’s not what they really wanted,” said Ubieta. “I was tired of saying no to 35, 40, 50 students.

With the changes, we’re able to better accommodate students than ever before.”

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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News Health Council Distributes Reusable Water Bottles

By Queenie Xiang and Blythe Zadrozny

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

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ver 120 people were left dead and 300 more have been hospitalized following the series of coordinated attacks that shook Paris on Friday night, November 13. Bombings and gunfire struck six sites around the city, including The Bataclan theater, local restaurants, and the area outside the Stade de France. The Islamic State declared itself responsible for the attacks, but its claim has not been verified. President Francois Hollande has blamed the group for the massacre, calling it an “act of war.”

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Russian charter jet going from Egypt to St. Petersburg was bombed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard. The attack is allegedly the work of the group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which is operating as the Sinai Province of the Islamic State.

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fter seven years of deliberation, President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was intended to bring crude oil from Canada to Texas, on November 6. While the largely Republican group of supporters hoped the plan would create US jobs, critics, most of them Democrats, worried about the environmental issues associated with the project.

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he Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade agreement between 12 countries, excluding China, on the coast of the Pacific—was released on November 5. The proposal set low tariffs to encourage trade with the nations, which produce over half the world’s goods, and also set new environmental and labor standards.

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overnor Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday, November 10 that he would use executive authority to gradually raise the minimum wage for state employees to $15 an hour by 2018, making New York the first state to push for such a comparatively high minimum wage for such a large population of workers.

Collapsible, reusable water bottles were distributed at no cost to most freshmen and sophomores during homeroom on Tuesday, October 27. The issuing of water bottles is a joint project between the Stuyvesant Wellness Council and Environmental Club, with additional help from SPARK. The initiative aims to encourage healthy and environmentally friendly habits amongst Stuyvesant students.

The Wellness Council and Environmental Club purchased 2,500 water bottles through a Department of Education supplier named Winegard Direct.

However, only a portion of these has been delivered. The Wellness Council is not yet sure when the remaining bottles will be delivered.

One of the main goals of distributing these reusable water bottles is to encourage Stuyvesant students to reduce waste.

“What happens right now is that students buy or bring water in plastic bottles […] which [are] then disposed of, usually not [by] recycling. With the water bottles, however, we hope that our community resorts to the [reusable] water bottles and thus reduce[s] the need for plastic bottles,” junior and Wellness Council copresident Hasan Tukhtamishev said in an e-mail interview.

The campaign also aims to promote healthy living. “Bottled water is not really checked; it is only checked by the companies that produce it. So technically, we don’t even know what we are drinking, and we don’t know the quality. We definitely know the

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quality of New York City tap water,” Physical Education Teacher and Wellness Council Faculty Advisor Anna Markova said.

“The water bottles are incentive for [students] to start thinking healthier and more economically.”

—Anna Markova, Physical Education teacher and Stuyvesant Wellness Council Faculty Advisor

Students have mixed opinions on the initiative so far. “It’s good that they’re trying to get more students to drink water every day, but I don’t really know if it’ll work because people don’t seem like they’re using them,” sophomore Clare Babski said.

The Wellness Council and Environmental Club began by separating ideas for projects, and

combining their campaigns later on. The Wellness Council had ordered the bottles and was planning on expanding on an event from the previous school year where they handed out reusable water bottles and granola bars.

At the same time, the Environmental Club was in the process of brainstorming ways to reduce waste. “We found out that the Wellness Council was having their own water bottle initiative, so we [said] let’s join forces. And from then on, we put things together,” senior and Environmental Club secretary Ose Agboneni said.

SPARK was also involved, working on the publicity for the campaign. “They needed to get about 3,500 [posters] done [in] a short period of time, and, at least for my part, I was able to get them 700 out of the 3,500 that were distributed,” SPARK coordinator Angel Colon said.

The funding for the project came from the Stuyvesant Parent Association, with the Environmental Club contributing some of the prize money from a recycling competition to support the campaign.

Club leaders are happy with the outcome so far and hope to develop the campaign in future years, whether or not they continue to be financially supported.

“If we do have consistent funding, then we hope to provide the future freshmen every year with water bottles. If not, we hope that the freshmen this year, when they are in their upperclassmen years, will rise up to promote healthy living,” junior and Wellness Council co-president Nicole Cheng said.

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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FINDING THE RIGHT COLLEGE FOR YOU!

There are over 4,000 colleges in the United States! Most students worry about whether they will be accepted to their dream colleges, given their grades and test scores. But equally important is looking at colleges from your own perspective: How will you find colleges that are the best fit for you?

KNOW YOURSELF The first step is to understand yourself – to identify your strengths, preferences and values. What are you truly passionate about? What do you like to do in your free time? Do you prefer studying in a classroom, or learning from real-world experience?

Self-assessment. There are several tools that can help you identify your preferences and strengths. Take a few assessments, and have them interpreted by a Certified Practitioner. We recommend the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the world’s leading assessment of innate personality type, as well as the Strong Interest Inventory, which assesses interests in academics and careers. Knowing yourself is the most important starting point for discovering your ideal college environment.

RESEARCH & VISIT COLLEGES The next step is to research colleges online before you even visit. Identify colleges that best fit your unique needs and goals.

Size matters. College size is a major factor. Smaller colleges encourage closer relationships with faculty; whereas larger schools offer more choices of classes and activities, and often provide stronger athletic spirit.

Academics. Every college has a unique academic approach. Make sure your colleges offer a major or minor in your field of interest. Are you more interested in a liberal arts environment, or in specialized curricula, such as business, engineering, communications, journalism, education, or music?

Do you want to have the opportunity to conduct research with professors? Also ask how flexible the school’s distribution requirements are – some students prefer freedom to explore, whereas others thrive in more structured environments.

Activities. For many students, extracurricular activities also play a significant role in the college experience. Ask yourself: Do you want to participate in athletics? Are you passionate about creative and performing arts? What about community service? Look into the college’s organizations, and try to imagine yourself taking part.

Culture. Each college has a unique culture and personality. While this can be one of the more difficult aspects of a college to figure out, there a few things to pay attention to as you research – and visit – the schools on your list. For example, how diverse is the student population? Is Greek life a central part of the culture? Do you have access to a city?

DECIDE ON THE BEST PATH FOR YOU! Answering these questions will give you a good idea of whether you’d be happy attending. Reference books and online sources can be extremely helpful to your search, as can local information sessions and college fairs, but there’s no substitute for on-campus college visits. If you’d like further guidance, meet with a professional educational consultant to help develop a best-fit college list.

For expert guidance, contact Julie Raynor Gross, President and Founder of Collegiate Gateway LLC. www.collegiategateway.com.

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Features Into the Wilderness: A Look Into Scouting

By Alice Cheng and Kachun Leung “Good afternoon, my name is Russell and I am a wilderness explorer in Tribe 54. Are you in need of any assistance today sir?”

“No.” And so begins Disney Pixar’s “Up,” a story featuring the zany adventures of the overly optimistic boy scout Russell and the overly pessimistic senior citizen Carl Fredricksen. When Russell first knocks on Fredricksen’s door and presents his endless rows of badges to the senior, save of course, for his Assisting the Elderly Badge, he embodies the image of a boy scout: open to adventure, determined to achieve his goals, and ready to help out anyone in need. “The wilderness must be explored! Caw Caw! Roar!” Russell yells enthusiastically with hand motions of flying birds and animal claws.

For those who have never been in such an organization, however, knowledge of boy scouts and girl scouts goes little beyond this beloved chubbyfaced character. Outside of camping, girl scout cookies, and badges, few students know the various ranks, distinctions, and activities of these scouts. Yet some Stuyvesant students’ and alumni’s experience with scouting is much more substantial than this hackneyed image.

Alumnus Stephanie Lin (’15), for instance, used to be a member of Girl Scouts of USA, the most commonly affiliated organization with girl scouts, since kindergarten. But the loose oversight and subdivisions of smaller troops made Lin’s experience as a scout far from typical. “My troop was different in that my troop was a Buddhist troop,” she said. “We were linked to a temple [...] The temple let us have, for example, the fourth floor to hold [our] meetings.”

This smaller sub-organization of Girl Scouts of USA, called Fo Guang Shan New York (FGSNY), has links to multiple troops. Though this did not limit the Buddhist troops from partaking in any normal girl scout events, they did have to partake in various Buddhist activities. “ I n grat-

Melanie Chow / The Spectator

itude for them letting us hold our meetings at temples, we would have to volunteer to serve food or make food on a Buddha’s birthday festival we had every year. We also had a shifu, who was a monk [who would] come in and hold some meetings about Buddhism and teach us,” Lin said.

Additionally, all scouts in the Girl Scouts of USA are required to memorize a pledge called the Girl Scout Promise. But while most troops begin by reciting “On my honor: I will try to serve God and my country,” Buddhist troops have to recite a different version in which Buddha is replaced for the word God: “On my honor: I will try to serve Buddha and my country.”

The FGSNY, however, is not Buddhist-exclusive. “I knew some people in our troop who were Christian, for example, [...], who joined the Buddhist troop because their parents knew about it and they wanted their girl to join a troop and this was the most local girl scout troop that they knew of,” Lin said. “But they still had to kowtow and

order to become a boy scout.

“They pretty much asked me, ‘What do you expect out of boy scouts? Do you find outdoor activities fun? What are some of you hobbies?’” Sun recalled.

Soon after, Sun was admitted in.

Similar to Sun’s reasoning, senior James Chin joined The Boy Scouts of America, the most commonly affiliated organization with boy scouts, through his Brooklyn-based boy scouts troop. James Chin’s family has been involved in the boy scouts and girl scouts for at least three generations now. “Both of my sisters are in girl scouts, and my brother’s a boy scout,” James Chin said. “My grandfather was a boy scout leader, and our cub scout leader. My father and my uncles were all into boy scouts.

My mother was into girl scouts.”

Surprisingly, though, James Chin was never aware of the boy scouts until his friend’s parent recommended him to join in second grade. “[My dad] didn’t mention it to us,” James Chin explained.

James Chin’s involvement in boy scouts later influenced his

Overall, badges can be divided into two main categories: skill badges and merit badges. Skill badges are the ones that are usually more dedicated to special-

“[The boy scouts] gave me the first sense of leadership.”

—James Chin, senior

ized skills, and can include fun, interesting activities like photography. But merit badges are the ones that are pivotal in advancing a scout’s rank. Through these badges, scouts hope to attain what is considered the holy grail

“There’s a badge for everything, I can assure you.”

—Stephanie Lin (‘15), alumnus

pray because that was what we did after each meeting.” Hence, for many in Lin’s troop, joining the boy scouts or girl scouts had nothing to do with their religious backgrounds.

Boy scout member and freshman Jerry Sun, for example, became part of FGSNY when he was in sixth grade. His mom originally heard about the organization from a family friend and made him go. Because he joined so late, Sun had to pass an interview i n

sister, sophomore Carol Chin, to join the girl scouts. Seeing her brother go off on camping trips and taking part in various scout activities inspired her. “I begged my mother to let me into boy scouts,” Carol Chin said. “I wanted to go camping […] [so] she let me in girl scouts instead.”

In both The Girl Scouts of USA and The Boy Scouts of America, members are given ranks and work based off of fulfilling requirements and badges.

The number of badges available to earn seem virtually endless.

“There’s a badge for everything, I can assure you,” joked Lin, though she remembered one scout who earned enough to defy the very meaning of impossible. “I knew this girl who at her vest, she had three layers of badges all round,” Lin said, and estimated that she gathered a total of a hundred and fifty badges.

These numerous badges can range from basic life skills like first aid, swimming, and cooking to more specialized topics like tracking animals, rock climbing, and leatherworking. Sun recalled that his first badges were from a summer event he went to last year. “The very first badge I got was cooking […]

I took four badges in cooking, archery, first aid, and soil and water conservation,” he said. “At the end of the merit badge training session, I had to take a test [on archery] and I had to score a certain number of points onto the target.”

James Chin recalled getting his first badge in woodcarving to be a rather dramatic affair. “It was the last day, and I finally finished it,” Chin said. “It was pouring out and I sprinted [...] to hand it in.”

“The first hiking trip I went on was a few months in,” said Sun, recalling his trip upstate. “And it was tough [...] There was a lot of uphill, and we were lugging big

of scouting: the Gold Award for girl scouts or the Eagle Award for boy scouts. The Eagle Award, according to Sun and James Chin, which requires twelve merit badges, is deemed extremely appealing to colleges and employers. “If you have Eagle [Award] on your resume apparently […] a lot of employers love it,” James Chin said.

In addition to obtaining merit badges, scouts often do volunteer work or community service, a major part of their duty as scouts. Aside from badges, one of the requirements to achieve the Eagle Award and Gold Award is to create, plan, and complete their own community service project. For James Chin, this project involved fixing up a local park. “When it rains [in the park] a lot of the soil erodes down a hill into the sewage plant below.

We terraced one side of the hill and we did some gardening and planted grass,” he said.

Scouts also regularly hold meetings to meet with each other. “We first do a flag ceremony, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Scout Oath and Law,” Sun said.

He later explained that oftentimes older, more experienced scouts known as scout leaders will teach skills such as knotmaking to the younger scouts.

Furthermore, boy scouts occasionally attend events outside of their usual meetings. “We can meet in a park and practice skills like fire-starting or compassing. Or we could go to more fun events like going paintballing,” he said.

But what defines scouting from other organizations is of course, their exciting wilderness trips. Scouting enabled some scouts to experience camping and hiking for the first time.

backpacks full of camping gear and food [...] but then I realized being out in nature could be really fun and rewarding.” During the summer, scouts would frequently go to camps, so certain badges centered around Environmental Science or outdoor activities were exclusive to that season.

Even so, for many scouts the earning of badges and the skills that come with them provide valuable experiences later in life. “[The boy scouts] gave me the first sense of leadership. When I came here to Stuyvesant it was the first time I implemented my leadership skills. Before coming here, the boy scouts gave me that base,” James Chin said.

Like many scouts, Carol Chin also cited how being a scout changed her as a person: “I was a really shy kid, and I couldn’t really talk to people. I would always sit in the corner really awkwardly,” she said. “And then some of my friends joined from school and they got me to talk to other people. Then the leaders got me to talk to people not in my troop and outside my group of friends.”

Scouting taught Sun discipline. “If you didn’t bring you neckerchief or necktie, then you had to do ten push-ups for each [...] So if you just came in unprepared you had to do like a hundred push-ups,” he explained.

Depending on the student’s ranking and personal time management skills, each of the scouts handle the juggle their obligations differently. James Chin, who is currently working toward getting the Eagle award, finds his weekly scout meetings manageable. “The last three ranks, Star, Life, Eagle [...] are leadership based.” James Chin explained. “We don’t go to meetings to learn but rather we go to meetings to teach, so it’s not as intensive time-wise.”

On the other hand, when Lin was working on her Gold Award junior year, her work appeared anything but manageable. “Oh my God, I can’t even begin to explain,” Lin said. “I definitely missed a lot of meetings during junior year because I was too tired to go.”

Nevertheless, even when it may be difficult at times for some scouts to juggle commitments and school, many see scouting as a worthwhile experience that teaches good ethics. “A boy scout means you have to be a responsible person. You have to come to every meeting. But you have fun while doing community service, and work hard [toward] your goal,” Sun said.

The Spectator ●November 18, 2015

Page 7

Features Stuy Club Life’s Newest Additions

By Fionna Du and Maya Mitrasinovic One of Stuyvesant’s best attributes is its huge variety of clubs. According to Club/Pub Director and junior Chloé Delfau, there has been around 150 club charters submitted this year alone, with that number expected to rise as the year goes on. With options ranging from Archery Club to Zine Club, students have a diverse pool to choose from. But even if there isn’t, creating a club is easy using the Stuyvesant Student Union website. Anyone can make a club for anything. Here are a few new clubs that you might want to join.

COMEDY CLUB Q: What do you call a belt made out of watches?

A: A waist of time!

Comedy Club, however, is not a waste of time.

President and junior Chelsea Pan and vicepresident and junior Helen Deng started this club not only because of a mutual love for comedy, but also to spend m o re time t o g e t h e r.

T h e y ’ve known each other since elementary school, but can’t see each other as often at Stuyvesant. Deng saw a perfect opportunity. “If we’re going to spend time together, then I want to do something that I

bers to grow, including Pan. She hasn’t performed comedy before, so she was hesitant

not having a nice face,” Pan explained. She associates herself with Amy Schumer, in that “she’s funny as hell, but she knows that she’s not the prettiest girl in the world. But with her comedy, she empowers herself,” Pan said. “I want everyone who joins the club to feel empowered through comedy.”

Activities will be determined

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

about starting a club.

However, she couldn’t see anything negative coming out of it. “The worst thing that could happen is that only all my friends join,” she said.

Whereas Deng finds a stress

“I want everyone who joins the club to feel empowered through comedy.”

—junior Chelsea Pan

like, which is laughing,” Deng said.

This club is a place for mem-

STUY POPILATES

reliever in comedy, Pan finds it a way to increase confidence.

“Comedy compensates for me

by confidence of the members.

Comedy Club is open to any form of comedy. If there are people who want to do stand up, then they may. If members want to do improvisation, then Comedy Club can facilitate that. There isn’t any pressure for members to perform, but they can always approach Pan or Deng to schedule. If no one is comfortable with performing, then everyone can do improv activities or create a skit together. And if members aren’t happy with that, Pan has videos to share.

Stuyvesant Comedy Club meets once every two weeks, each meeting lasting 30 minutes maximum. There aren’t any requirements for membership. Pan put it best when she said, “Just show up and have a good time.”

STUYVESANT YOUTAITE A pun on words, “YouTaite” is a combination of “YouTube” and “utaite,” which is a Japanese word that describes cover singers. Stuyvesant YouTaite records song covers of Japanese music and videos to accompany them.

However, the club isn’t limited to talented singers. “Our club isn’t just for people who are like Ari-

“One of the reasons why we opened this club was to get people that were scared to enter this new world [of YouTaite]” —junior Winnie Chan

ana Grande,” junior and president Elissa Tong said. People of all vocal capabilities are welcome to join.

While singers are important, the club is also looking for artists, anime lovers, and people interested in Japanese culture.

Stuyvesant YouTaite does not require experience in video production, nor does it require knowledge of the Japanese language. Tong and Chan don’t speak Japanese fluently, but they don’t think it’s a big hindrance.

“There’s a lot of Japanese to English translations,” Chan said.

Despite not understanding the language, they do know how to pronounce Japanese words, and will teach members, along with basic audio and video editing skills.

At the beginning of each cycle, the presidents first decide which song to produce with the members. Stuyvesant YouTaite leaders will then assign specific parts to singers, the process called “scripting a song.” Then, singers record using club-provided microphones. Once the recording is done, Stuyvesant YouTaite editors will enhance and correct off-pitch vocals, and time it to the instrumentals. When the audio mix is finished, Stuyvesant YouTaite adds original art and animation as visuals, and they finally upload fin-

ished videos onto their YouTube channel.

This club is an opportunity for people that want to do covers, but are too afraid to do it on their own or lack confidence in their vocal capabilities. “One of the reasons why we opened this club was to get people that were scared to enter this new world [of YouTaite],” Chan said.

This club will meet once a week, but members are expected to work on their covers outside of club meetings. However, “meeting isn’t stressful,” Chan said, “because we enjoy what w e’r e d o ing.”

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

There are exercise videos all over Youtube, each almost a carbon copy of the next. However, when first clicking open a Blogilates video, you are hit by the bright attitude of certified fitness instructor Cassey Ho. Her personality is motivational and makes even the toughest workouts seem manageable. Among Ho’s millions of fans are juniors Nancy Cao and Olive Yie, who love her so much that they decided to make a club dedicated to Ho’s branch of pilates, called POP Pilates. POP Pilates is essentially doing pilates to pop music, which, according to Cao and Yie, makes it a lot more fun, because pop music is perfect for intense workouts.

Through their club Stuy POPilates, they aim to share their passion for exercise through a compilation of Ho’s videos, spending each day working a different part of the body. “Our club is about having fun while exercising, which seems kind of contradictory, but works because it’s motivational,” Cao said. Yie chimed in, saying, “Cassey is really happy, and she talks about her day […] It makes us feel better!” Through their group setting, Cao and Yie hope for their members to gain a better attitude towards exercising.

“We want to get people into being healthy, since a lot of people aren’t into exercise,” Yie said.

The club isn’t just a fan club, though; Stuy POPilates is sponsored by Cassey Ho herself. This past summer, Cao sent Ho an email telling her about her idea for the club. Much to Cao and Yie’s surprise, they actually got a reply from the Youtube star herself. Cao describes the experience as surreal: “I didn’t expect a reply to my email, since she’s a super busy person [...] She was totally supportive and she sounded as nice and friendly as she was in her videos.” Ho connected them to her team, and they have been given endorsement and free merchandise, such as T-shirts for members of the club.

Exercise is an integral part of leading a good life, and even if their members only do pilates at the weekly twenty-minute sessions held by the club, ultimately even that is enough to justify all the food they’ll be craving after finishing one of the invigorating Blogilates workouts. When starting Blogilates, Cassey Ho hoped to build a community, and the club is a prime example of her success. Through the Stuy POPilates club, Yie and Cao aim to make Stuyvesant a healthier place, one Blogilates video at a time.

Adam Wickham / The Spectator

SEWING CLUB In a perfect world, every striped Brandy Melville shirt and fall-themed flannel would fit everyone who wanted them. However, in the real world, that doesn’t happen too often, so sophomores Joyce Wu, Vivien Lee, and Julia Qin decided to start the Sewing Club. All having previous sewing experience, they realized that it was a hobby they truly enjoyed and wanted to share with others.

Both of Lee’s parents work in the fashion industry, which initially sparked her interest. This past summer, she participated in a fashion program at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), where she learned about sewing and clothing. “It’s really cool to work on your own project and see it come together in the end,” she says of her experience. Unlike Lee’s introduction to sewing, Wu was taught how to sew by her mom, and her first sewing machine was a vintage Singer given to her by her uncle. Through sewing, she was able to both bond with her mother and use her creativity, all while having fun. “I was so enchanted by sewing,” Wu said of her first experiences. “You can do whatever you want […] with whatever you want.”

However, the Sewing club engages in more than just sewing for themselves. They are planning to upcycle clothing, which means to “revamp” or alter old things that they wouldn’t necessarily wear anymore. They also

plan on donating some of their works to orphanages in Ethiopia, thanks to the help of parent coordinator and guidance counselor Harvey Blumm, whose friend works at the orphanage. Often compared to the Fashion Club, Lee and Wu made the distinction that the Fashion Club is focused more on creating outfits with both things you make and things you buy, while Wu says that “the Sewing Club is about a lot more than fashion; it’s about designing” and making something that is completely your own. The things that members make don’t have to be trendy. Everything is completely about what the designer wants.

Meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays for sewing lessons and sessions will soon be up and running. Members can show up whenever they want, and anyone who has any interest in sewing should stop by for a look at the inner workings of the Sewing Club.

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 8

Features Kevin Zhang(s)

By Gracy Lin “Kevin?”

Kevin Zhang walked up to the front of the room to grab the scantron for his history test. He immediately looked toward the bottom, anxious to see his grade. He glanced down at the corner where his name was supposed to be and groaned. For about the millionth time, he had received the wrong scantron. It was for a different Kevin. Kevin Zhang raised his hand and said, “Ms. Garcia, this isn’t my test.”

In a school with over 3,000 kids in attendance, there are bound to be some repeated names. There are multiple students with the same first and last names. On attendance sheets and in computer systems, these students can easily be mixed up, or be considered the same person. But beyond their shared name and a few other similarities, they are completely unique. They have found other ways to distinguish themselves than by just their name.

Meet Kevin Zhang, plural.

Kevin Zhang, Sophomore

Kevin Zhang, Junior

If you had any superpower, what would it be and why?

I would like to see the future because it gives me the power to live whatever life I would want. If I use the power and win the lotto or something, I would want to travel the world and spend time with my family.

What are your dreams for the future?

The future feels very far away, even though I’m already a junior who’s soon going to have to do college stuff. I would like to major in computer science. In addition, I do want to eventually publish a novel, although when that’s going to be written is undecided.

What are your life goals? What are things you hope to accomplish?

I hope to go to college and hopefully get a job relating to sports, like working for ESPN or the NFL network. I want to go to every major city in the U.S. and attend any NBA game or NFL games there.

Which teams do you support?

I support the NY Knicks and NY Giants. I’m a Lebron fan, so I’ll support whatever team he plays on.

I try to watch every game, but I’ve yet to go to a game.

What’s your favorite color?

It’s red.

What’s a dream you remember well?

I have a dream about running in a maze every once in awhile. I’m running through a maze with a ball rolling behind me and I’ll just wake up instantly.

What do you think it symbolizes?

Maybe [it symbolizes] trying to run away from life, since it’s complicated like a maze, trying to escape to somewhere peaceful.

What’s on your bucket list?

To go to a Knicks game is on my bucket list. Travel to every continent, and go scuba diving.

What’s a significant moment in your life?

A significant moment in my life is when my fifth grader teacher decided to put me into the honors program for middle school.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Mint chocolate chip.

What are your bad habits. Is there anything you wish to change about yourself?

I have a bad habit of squeezing my nose whenever I sneeze. I also like to procrastinate, although I know I shouldn’t. I don’t really want to change myself. I have the belief that everything I’ve done so far is the result of my choices. So I like to think that if I try to change myself, I will only be harming myself.

What makes you happy?

I don’t know. Happiness just feels spontaneous, it comes and goes. If you call laughter happiness, then I guess comedy makes me happy.

What’s a dream you often have?

Waking up and then falling back asleep dream. There are things I remember seeing in my dream that aren’t there when I wake up.

It happens whenever I get a lot of sleep, or more than my normal amount. I wake up and gaze about the room for a while, open my drawer to look at my phone for the time. It always displays something like 5:05. I decide that it’s too early, so I go back to bed. When I actually wake up, my phone is typically nowhere to be found. The drawer is always closed, even if I don’t remember closing it before I fall asleep. I would say it’s sleepwalking, but I broke my phone recently, and I had the dream this morning again.

Favorite ice cream flavor?

Chocolate chip.

Melanie Chow / The Spectator

What’s your biggest fear?

My biggest fear is being tortured. I’m not scared of the prospect of death, but the prospect of suffering before death is a pretty big fear.

What’s your favorite color?

Red. If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?

I would choose time manipulation/control because time is the number one thing that is restraining my life right now. Also, going back in time to correct a mistake would simply be amazing.

Kevin Zhang, Senior Who is your hero? Why? My father because he always puts the family first, and he still tried to go to work even though he just got out of surgery.

What is your favorite color?

It’s probably red.

What are your plans and dreams for the future?

My dream is to become a successful surgeon, because everybody is trying to go into business and make it to Wall Street. I just want to do something that will allow me to have a successful career that’s [also] interesting.

Are you currently working on that dream?

I have listened to lectures from surgeons.

What’s a significant moment or day for you?

When I joined the Stuy football team. It’s the one thing I’ve been committed to all four years of Stuy. I started out on the bench but I eventually got a starting spot because I had worked hard and also because some of our guys got injured.

What’s your favorite holiday? Why? It’s probably Thanksgiving because of the family and food.

What are the most important things in life?

The most important things are success and commitment.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

It’s mint chocolate chip.

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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Page 9

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 10

Editorials Staff Editorial

The Spectator

Racism in College Admissions Recently, students at institutions of higher education around the country, such as Yale University and the University of Missouri, have called for their administrations to address growing racial tensions on campus. At Stuyvesant, where race relations might seem relatively placid, racially charged aggression is not unheard of, and is especially potent among students during the college application season, when stress levels are high.

Last year, after being accepted to Yale, Karen Marks (’15) was greeted with a message on Ask.fm, an anonymous internet platform. “[B]lackie got into an [I]vy [L]eague, how surprising,” the attacker said. “[Y]ou dont (sic) have a great average either, probably.” After letting the person know that her acceptance more likely had to do with scoring above 2300 on the SAT, completing 12 Advanced Placement courses, and dancing three hours of ballet six days a week, the anonymous questioner responded by insulting Marks’s “sassy tone.”

Another recent Stuyvesant graduate, Eddie Joe Antonio (’15), was also met by cold reactions during the college admissions season. During an interview following the Equality Coalition Conference that Antonio put together, he said, “When I was an underclassman and people found out I was Latino, they’d say things like ‘Oh, you’re going to do so well in college.’ And when I did get into college, people were like, ‘Oh, it’s because you’re Latino.’ And maybe it is because I’m Latino, but I’d like to think it’s more than that.”

these students have their accomplishments delegitimized by students who cite affirmative action policies as the reason why they themselves were not accepted to toptier colleges, since minorities must have “stolen” spots from Asian and white students.

Though no standardized policy regarding affirmative action exists for all colleges and universities, students—especially those who feel implicitly disadvantaged by the system—allow their conceptions of the admissions process to color their notions of the students they believe it benefits.

Affirmative action, as we often describe it, allows institutions of higher education to give preferential treatment to applicants who come from groups that have suf-

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

fered historical discrimination.

Though the Supreme Court forbade explicit racial quotas in 1978, race is often accounted for in admissions in an effort to construct a diverse community on campus. In practice, this is

After college acceptances are released, these students have their accomplishments delegitimized by students who cite affirmative action policies as the reason that they themselves were not accepted to top tier colleges because minorities “stole” spots from Asian and white students.

At Stuyvesant, Marks’s and Antonio’s experiences are not uncommon for racial minorities, namely black and Hispanic students. After college acceptances are released,

often similar to the quota system that existed previously.

Affirmative action practices intend to give racial minorities a means for social and economic mobility. However, this system

comes at a cost. Asian Americans, like Jews in earlier eras, bear the brunt of the system’s efforts, especially for admissions into top-tier universities. Studies show that Asian students must perform better on their SATs than their white counterparts, and better still than black and Hispanic students, to be admitted to the same schools. Not surprisingly, according to The New York Times, Asian American enrollment at prestigious universities has decreased with respect to the rate of growth of the college-age Asian population in America.

Thus, frustration directed towards diversity initiatives is understandable, especially at a predominantly Asian American school such as Stuyvesant; a superficial analysis of the system indicates a deck stacked against them.

But this resentment ultimately comes from a flawed line of reasoning.

Though race does play a role in the college process, it only forms a component of the variety of indicators admissions officers take into consideration when evaluating applications.

Preferential treatment often comes to those who contribute to lucrative extracurricular activities, and includes even more dubious practices, like legacy admission. Diversity, as these universities see it, comes not only in color, but also in athletic ability, in musical talent, and in social background.

Thus, the idea that certain minorities are “stealing” seats from more deserving students is deeply misguided. Condemning students of color on the assumption that their success is not derived entirely from merit does nothing to change the systems in place that perpetuate inequality. Instead, it creates a hostile environment at a time when we should be celebrating our peers’ achievements.

In the race to the top, it is our peers who are the most immediately visible to us, and, thus, they are the people we begin to resent when things don’t go our way. It is all too easy, especially in a competitive environment like Stuyvesant, to look around and compare our colleagues’ achievements with our own, to find reasons other than their merit for their success. But the real barriers that students of color face are structural, and harboring animosity toward certain students because of their perceived advantages ignores not only the reality of systemic inequality, but also the multifaceted nature of the college admissions process.

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 11

Opinions

By Alec Dai If you know me, you probably know that I’m loud. In class and at social gatherings, I’m not afraid to say whatever is on my mind. Being lively and vocal is a part of who I am. Until recently, I never imagined that my personal identity would isolate me from my own race and culture.

This summer, I took an SAT prep course and found myself surrounded by quiet people.

Specifically, quiet Asians. No one talked besides one girl in the back of the classroom and me. One day, I walked into class late with a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee, a bright purple shirt, and shoes with pink laces. As I walked in, I started to explain myself: “Hey, sorry I’m late. I was at work and the train stopped working—” The teacher cut me off and responded, “You are so white.”

It is clear that in our society (even at Stuyvesant, where 72.5 percent of the student body is Asian), Asians are perceived as quiet and emotionless. We sit in class, study twenty-four seven, don’t participate, don’t

socialize, and love anime.

Even at our school, the student body refers to a whole group of students as the “quiet Asians.” A class is deemed “boring” if it has too many nameless Asian students. People dread having to work with Asians who don’t participate because they are deemed as lacking in originality and creativity. As someone who embodies everything that these stereotypes are not, I felt impelled to investigate why they exist and how they impact people who are perceived as fulfilling them.

While recounting her experience being called a quiet Asian, junior Winkie Ma said she believes that when the word “quiet” is used to describe her, it’s being used negatively.

According to Ma, “it’s pretty damaging to assume that someone who is quiet is always in need of help.” Ma points out the fallacy that being quiet equates to something bad.

Furthermore, we can feel helpless as this trait is attributed to our race—something immutable. “It makes me question if I’m just another stereotype because of the way I was raised or if it’s just me,” junior Larissa Lam said.

The more people I talked to, the more it seemed to me that quietness has nothing to do with Asian values and culture. Yes, some Asian communities emphasize education and academic success.

But nowhere in our unofficial child-rearing guidelines does it mention teaching our kids not to talk. As Ma stated, “While my mom pushes me to succeed academically, she also encourages me to participate and speak up […] but it’s just a matter of personality […] It doesn’t have anything to do

with my race.” Yes, Asian culture emphasizes studying and hard work, but it certainly does not emphasize submissiveness.

My home and family are a

show is a computer nerd, and his only functional purpose is to hack into secure databases for his boyfriend’s law firm; Raj, a South Asian character on

Yes, some Asian communities emphasize education and academic success. But nowhere in our unofficial child-rearing guidelines does it mention teaching our kids not to talk. picture-perfect example of this idea. Piles of SAT books are stacked next to a huge karaoke machine. The woman who drills the idea of good grades into my mind is the same woman who laughs like a maniac when she scares me at a public beach.

Yes, they teach me to listen to the teacher, but they also tell me that teachers aren’t always right. They teach me how to have fun, how to live, and how to speak up when I think something is wrong. But, that doesn’t make our family any less Asian.

Walk into my house and you are bound to find bright red Asian calendars, porcelain tea kettles, and my parents speaking to me in Chinese. I would say that my parents did a pretty good job implementing Asian values and culture into me, but I am definitely not quiet.

This stereotype is not rooted in actual cultural practices.

Instead, the stereotype stems from the media. For example, in “How to Get Away with Murder,” the only Asian on the

“The Big Bang Theory,” is an awkward and socially inept scientist; the list goes on and on.

While it is true that a large portion of the Asian American diaspora is academically or financially successful, studies show that ascribing these values to Asians as a community leaves those of us who don’t fit that mold struggling to achieve unrealistic expectations. And popular culture only solidifies these standards.

We’re seen as quiet overachievers, awkward techies, and antisocial nerds. And that’s just Asian men; the other half of our community is barely seen at all, unless they’re being sexualized or “exotified” on-screen.

Often, we take the ideas we see on screens and translate them into real life. The National Communication Association explains that college students are less likely to initiate friendships with Asian students because they are perceived as lacking in social and communication skills and obsessing

over grades. Because people see Asians in this light on television, they are less likely to interact with them in real life.

As a result, these unfortunate stereotypes are perpetuated, affecting the daily lives and self-perceptions of a growing racial minority in this country.

Unfortunately, the solution to this issue is far from easy.

Racism doesn’t just go away with a wave of a wand or the snap of a genie’s fingers. Hiring more Asian actors and writing Asian roles beyond the hacker and loner is a start. By broadening roles for Asians, everyone will begin to see Asians as people—not as one-noted robots. Beyond diversifying roles for Asians in popular culture, there are things that we, everyday people, can do. Let’s first stop using quiet as a personality trait. Whether referring to an Asian or not, calling someone quiet comes with implied negativity. Someone can be quiet in class, but it doesn’t mean that he or she lives a life of silence. Finally, to all the “quiet Asians” reading this, I’m sorry society stole your words.

We will not be a silent race. We are not just “quiet.” We have voices, and we will be heard.

Zovinar Khrimian / The Spectator

Soham Ghoshal / The Spectator

Lives of Silence

By Stephen Nyarko Hospitals aren’t the most hoospitals aren’t the most hospitable places. The emergency room chairs are almost as uncomfortable as bus seats, and the mounds of paperwork blend in with the white walls, white panel ceilings and harsh white lights keeping everyone awake.

So, when a wealthy patient is rushed past the waiting room, through the double doors into the hospital proper, the only solace to the anger you may feel is to think that they will soon be stuck in a dimly lit room with the same hospital menu and mattress as yours.

But, recently, this connection between hospital patients of varying socioeconomic classes is being taken away by clear divisions. Many hospitals

in New York, including Beth Israel and New York Presbyterian, have added luxury accommodations—exclusively for the wealthy—to their treatment plans. The newly renovated Eleven West wing at Mount Sinai even offers “Wild Salmon Wrapped in a Yukon Gold Potato Crust served with Oven Roasted Asparagus and Mango Aioli,” in their brochure, among other dishes cultivated by their professional chef Juliet DaSilva-Inniss and her team. But, however unfair it may seem, this emerging system of catering to the wealthy in hospitals is actually a much better way for the rest of the population to receive top-notch medical care.

The moral predicament concerning a two-tiered hospital treatment plan, as outlined in a New York Times article, is the fear that by “[allowing] one of [the] patients to be labeled ‘important,’ [we] implicitly label the others as less important.” However, celebrities and trustees would already be treated differently, even if they didn’t have separate facilities.

According to a New York Times piece earlier this month, some hospitals use “red blankets” as a way to distinguish wealthy patients, instead of private rooms or gourmet food. This serves as a signal to nurses and other hospital employees that deal with patient’s nonmedical concerns in the same way

that a separate wing would.

For example, security guards at Lenox Hill taped over cameras[Elaborate; it’s unclear what this means. ] in order to please Jay-Z and Beyoncé during their stay there after the birth of their daughter. A survey by MSNBC also found that 84 out of 100 polled doctors who work in emergency rooms across the nation

tant, they are receiving them because they are paying for them.

And hospitals desperately need this money. In President Barack Obama’s 2015 budget plan, Medicare reimbursements to hospitals for those that cannot pay their copays or deductibles will be slashed from 65 cents on the dollar to just 25 cents.

Becker’s Hospital Review estimates that “this p r o v i s i o n

Yuchen Jin / The Spectator

Jensen Foerster / The Spectator

The Benefits of a Hospital Poor Door

would g i v e “extra attention” to someone with VIP status at their hospital, such as a large donor or trustee. Clearly, these issues are already arising in systems where wealth is not yet recognized in as official a capacity as a separate wing.

But VIP wings, which seem like simply an extension of these less obvious systems, are actually an improvement. Now, instead of wealthy patients receiving improved amenities simply because they are impor-

would cost hospitals and other [health care] providers $340 million” in 2015. These private rooms and special accommodations are just a new way to close the funding gap, without charging more for the average New Yorker.

It is also unlikely that hospitals will divert their funding to accommodating the wealthy all the time, as they are seen as charitable institutions, with the goal of promoting public good for the benefit of

the people. If this reputation is tarnished by accusations that the hospital is only catering to the wealthy, donors like Morgan Stanley and David Koch will be reluctant to have their names associated with what would be considered an elitist institution, and thus the tens or hundreds of millions they give to the hospital would disappear with them.[This argument is kinda weak because you discussed this and the idea that people will donate large amounts based on their own positive experiences without providing evidence for either. ] The ethical issues with treating the wealthy differently are valid, but they are based upon the flawed principle that everyone will be treated equally without these special wings.

On the contrary, the medical world is imperfect, and there will always be medically irrelevant distinctions between patients. By welcoming twotiered treatment instead of disputing it, patients will open the door for the wealthy to help provide all patients with the care that they need.these special wings. On the contrary, the medical world is imperfect, and there will always be medically irrelevant distinctions between patients. With this new system, at least everyone can enjoy the products of what the few have to offer.

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Opinions

Jessica Wu / The Spectator

Heritage (Speakers) at Stuyvesant

By Matteo Wong When I leave for school, I always make sure to shout out an enthusiastic ‘Ciao!’ to my mom.

Not because it’s stylish or trendy, but because we’re Italian. I’m a typical Stuyvesant ‘halfie’—halfItalian and half-Chinese, and with my mother’s encouragement, I decided to further my study of Italian at Stuyvesant.

This is the story of many students here, though Italian may often be substituted with Mandarin. In fact, the Mandarin program has so many applicants that it is over-subscribed. To help remedy this, Principal Jie Zhang hired a Mandarin teacher, Jia Zhou, to replace Spanish teacher Milton Diaz, who retired in 2014.

Heritage speakers are very prevalent in the Mandarin program. Often, native speakers think they’ll have an easier time in the class. After all, they would have both a head start and a cultural advantage.

When I applied for the Italian program, these thoughts definitely influenced my decision. I knew the workload at Stuyvesant was going to be immense, and thought that taking Italian could help ease it.

That being said, this wasn’t the deciding factor in my choice.

I knew I wasn’t going to breeze through Italian. Many heritage speakers are just that—heritage speakers. They can’t read or write, and learning to do so requires a completely different skill set from conversation.

Coming into Italian, I had almost no ability to transcribe my thoughts, and my grammar was in shambles. The term ‘conjugate’ seemed alien. But after a year and a half of study and effort, I’ve improved tremendously.

And that’s exactly what I hoped to gain from taking Italian. My Italian culture plays a huge role in my home and identity. My family speaks Italian, eats Italian foods, and occasionally discusses Italian politics. My mother tries to see my ‘nonni,’ who live in Italy, as often as possible, and I speak with them on the phone all the time.

Being able to study Italian in school—and speak and think in the language for nearly an hour every day—has deepened my understanding and appreciation for it. In class, I find myself thinking in Italian, and I can express my thoughts with much more eloquence. Most importantly, I’ve learned many new things about Italian culture, such as the Palio of Siena and the Carnival of Venice, both of which have allowed me to connect with my heritage.

Though many believe that heritage speakers have little to learn, this usually isn’t the case.

When asked why junior Joanne Chui chose to study Mandarin, she said, “I felt that it was sad that I, like many other Chinese Americans, did not know how to speak my own culture’s language fluently and had a bad American accent. It really distanced me from my relatives and from my culture.”

Chui, like many other native Mandarin speakers, felt her control over the language would benefit greatly from studying it at school. Furthermore, she thought speaking Mandarin fluently was an important part of her culture, and she wanted to have a closer relationship with her relatives and heritage.

While a higher grade isn’t the main reason why students study their native language, heritage speakers do have an advantage in language classes. Sophomore

Asim Kapparova, who had never studied Mandarin prior to Stuyvesant, admitted that “no matter how much you study to memorize sentence structures and grammar rules, unless you have a natural familiarity with how the language works, it [is] hard to do as well as a native speaker.” Native speakers have an understanding of Mandarin that comes with speaking the language from a young age, which is nearly impossible to teach.

This difficulty experienced by non-native speakers is compounded by the quantity of native speakers. In Mandarin classes, native speakers make up a large portion of the class. Teachers adapt to the heritage speakers’ standards, making it even more difficult for non-native speakers to catch up. Students speaking the language for the first time have to put in much more effort to earn the same grade.

The first solution that comes

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to mind is to place heritage speakers into the more advanced Mandarin Two. However, this ignores the fact that many heritage speakers can’t write in Mandarin. Being forced into Mandarin Two would put them at an even greater disadvantage than the non-native speakers in Mandarin One. With the expansion of the Mandarin program, a separate language track should be created for native speakers, and having more teachers makes this plausible. Due to the large number of native Mandarin speakers, the school wouldn’t need to add new, smaller classes. Using the same number of classes and teachers, they could just split up native and non-native speakers for first year Mandarin.

In this class—a sort of Mandarin 1.5—heritage speakers could learn at a higher level, with a focus on reading and writing.

Moreover, because they would already know the basics of the language, they could spend more time learning about Chinese culture. Beginners would no longer be at a disadvantage, because they wouldn’t be in the same class as native speakers.

This would level the playing field and allow native speakers to connect with their background.

It’s important to give students the opportunity to study diverse cultures and languages, whether they are part of a student’s identity or simply fascinate them. If heritage speakers are interested in learning more Mandarin, they should be allowed to, as long as it is fair to the non-natives who wish to do the same.

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Arts and Entertainment Your Guide to Jamaica, Queens

By ZARIF MAHMUD This issue’s neighborhood overview will cover Jamaica, Queens. Made up of mainly African Americans and South Asians, it’s one of the most vibrant neighborhoods of the city.

Although a lot of Jamaica is residential, places like Hillside Avenue and Jamaica Avenue are full of shops, from Jackson Heights-style grocery stores to Dominican barber shops.

How it all started

Courtesy of NewYork.com

Jamaica was first settled by the Dutch in 1656, and was named “Rustdorp” (Dutch for, “rest-town”) by our school’s namesake, Peter Stuyvesant. Less than a decade later it was taken and renamed “Jamaica” by the British. Jamaica was not named after the Caribbean island; it was actually derived from “yameco,” the Lenape word for “beaver.”

By 1776, Jamaica had become a farming outpost. Jamaica only truly began to industrialize by 1890, when people started pushing for better roads and electricity-powered trolley cars to replace horses.

From there, it grew as rapidly as the rest of New York, and was the economic and entertainment hub of Queens until the 1950s, when new stores opening up in Nassau County siphoned off customers.

The demographics of Jamaica also experienced drastic changes over the last century. For most of its existence, whites populated Jamaica, but after the 1950s, most the white population moved away, and middle-class African Americans and Latinos moved in. After the opening of the Jamaica Muslim Center, there was a boom of Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan people moving in, allowing Jamaica to become the potpourri of various ethnic minorities that it is today.

Where to eat If you’re ever lost in Queens and you’re looking for a bite to eat, hope that you’re lost in Jamaica. Home of the largest South Asian population in New York outside of Jackson Heights, the number of Indian, Bengali, and Pakistani restaurants is staggering.

An extremely popular restaurant off of Hillside Avenue is Sagar Chinese. Its Indo-Chinese fusion cuisine offers up meals for every palate, serving halal, vegetarian food, and whipped cream-topped mango lassi to simmer down the spice.

If you’re feeling a little fancy and you have money to spend, A Churrasqueira is right up your alley. The Portuguese restaurant’s specialty is its fresh seafood dishes, like the raw clams and grilled lobster. The “steak on a rock” (steak served on a hot granite slab, still in the process of being cooked when it is presented to restaurant patrons) is a crowd favorite.

Finally, there is no end of fast food joints like Popeyes and KFC, so people who just want a quick snack are covered.

notable figures from jamaica • • • • • • •

Rapper 50 Cent Jazz bassist Charles Mingus Ragtime pianist Clarence Williams Real estate developer Donald Trump Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo Rapper Nicki Minaj Rappers Salt-n-Pepa

Courtesy of Glamour Magazine

What to do

Courtesy of Slate Magazine

Because Jamaica was an entertainment hub in the ’50s, a lot of the decade’s popular music took root there. Queens was the considered the “Home of Jazz” at that time because legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong lived there.

A continuation of the neighborhood cultural legacy, the JAMS festival (Jamaica Arts and Music Summer) is the biggest annual festival in Queens.

Started in 1996 to bring back the classic summer festivals that had died out decades earlier, JAMS features jazz and hip-hop performers and brought in over 185,000 people last year. Apart from the live performances, there are also arts and crafts and food available to keep everyone’s hands and mouths busy while they are listening to the performances. Next year is the festival’s 20th anniversary, so it’s predicted to be the biggest yet.

People who are inclined to the arts will find a lot to love about Jamaica. The York College Performing Arts Center regularly features classic and modern musicals, jazz artists, and dances, all for a lower price than you will find in mainstream theaters.

Poetry lovers should visit the Afrikan Poetry Theater, a cultural center whose aim is to teach African culture through poetry readings, lectures, and delicious traditional African dishes.

Visiting the Jamaica Center For Arts & Learning is great for art-inclined children and teens because of its free classes on everything art-related, including sculpting, drawing, ceramics, architecture, dancing, and directing.

For history buffs and foodies, there’s King Manor Museum, a museum made out of Rufus King’s (a prominent politician and signer of the Constitution) house. It regularly features talks, concerts, and even gives out food to celebrate Dutch cuisine.

Sports fans will want to visit the Belmont Park Race Track, one of the three main horse-racing venues of the New York Racing Association. The fall championship meet just ended, but there are still weekly races every Saturday and, as long as you avoid betting, going to Belmont is a pretty cheap way to see one of the most fastest-paced sports today.

There is also a number of parks in Jamaica, like Captain Tilly Park, which is the place to go if you’re in the mood for a game of cricket. Rufus King Park, by the King Manor Museum, is a great place to be if you want a peaceful place to play a game of soccer.

Rapper Nicki Minaj and presidential candidate Donald Trump both grew up in Jamaica.

jamaica In pop culture “Funkin’ For Jamaica (N.Y.)” by Tom Browne, a jazz piece that has been sampled by Mariah Carey, N.W.A., and the Black Eyed Peas, among others.

So, the next time you visit Queens (or if you already live there), visit Jamaica! Apart from being one of the most diverse communities in New York, there are things to do and places to eat for everyone.

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 15

Arts and Entertainment New York Foodie Landmarks

CROSSWORD

Even if we don’t take advantage of it, it’s pretty clear that one of the best parts of living in this city is its food scene. There are so many places to grab a unique bite, but for most of us, there is so little time to explore every one. How familiar are you with all of the food New York City has to offer?

ACROSS

Emily Wu / The Spectator

2. Where Harry met Sally 5. Pair $1 frankfurters with juice of this tropical flavor at a certain iconic hot dog joint 7. ______ Pang Sandwich Shop 8. ______ Shack 12. Russ and ______ 13. Chain that serves beef patties (and buffalo and ostrich patties, among others) that are not clothed, apparently 15. ______ Unicorn 16. Sexuality of Big Ice Cream 17. How many handles?

18. Fast food, the Israeli way 20. Xi’an ______ Foods 21. Jackson ______ 22. The Donut ______

DOWN 1. ______ Plant 3. Only mac ‘n’ cheese 4. Chinatown Ice Cream ______ 5. Only frozen yogurt place that is not self-serve 6. Where to buy food for Sunday brunch on the Upper West Side 9. Most popular ice cream topping at the Momofuku Milk Bar 10. Jamba ______ 11. Bakery named after a flower 14. Sells taters in various forms 19. What is leftover after you have eaten a cupcake from this cupcake shop

1. TWIZZLERS 2. SWEDEN 3. PILLOWCASE 4. SMARTIES 5. STARBURST 6. ROPE 7. JOY 8. PUMPKIN 9. SCREME

By LIANA CHOW Battery Park City has a complicated relationship with water.

The Hudson River is what this neighborhood is built on: literally, because Battery Park City is built on landfill that was added to the river in the 1970s, and figuratively, because the sweeping views of the river are a great source of neighborhood pride.

Yet, the river has also been one of the neighborhood’s greatest sources of destruction. The river surged into Battery Park City during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, ruining construction sites, a train station, and parks.

Ironically, the hurricane dis-

10. KISS 11. PRETZELS 12. PUNCH 13. HERSHEY 14. SNICKERS 15. CRUNCH 16. KAT 17. MARS 18. HUBBA

SeaGlass Carousel: A Fantastical World Born from Disaster

Julie Chan/ The Spectator

Public works

Answers for Issue 4

rupted the construction of a fishthemed carousel that was meant to celebrate Battery Park City’s maritime history. Eight years earlier, the Battery Conservancy had begun work on the SeaGlass Carousel in the Battery (the park that caps the southern end of Manhattan), a bit west of the South Ferry station. The project, partly inspired by the public aquarium that was in the Battery until 1941, aimed to revive Lower Manhattan after 9/11. Building the carousel in the aftermath of 9/11 took ten years and cost $16 million.

I thought I would grow too old for carousels during these long years of construction. But when the SeaGlass Carousel finally

opened in August, it proved me wrong. From the exterior, in the afternoon, the carousel looked and sounded like a thumping circus-disco party spinning around inside an enormous, pearly nautilus shell. Inside the carousel, I climbed into a glowing fish, and the interior of the seashell became the depths of a fantastical, vast ocean. A theatrical rendition of Mozart’s 40th Symphony played with spirited drum clattering and glugging. Disco lights spun. Unlike the horses in a usual carousel, these fish wandered infinitely in indeterminable spirals and parabolas, sliding past and around each other and taking turns rising above all the others.

The view was always changing.

There were speakers in the fish that gurgled in the rider’s ear. The fish changed colors between iridescent pink, yellow, blue-green, and purple. A couple of the fish accommodated wheelchairs.

At night, the fish glowed even brighter pinks and blues, enhancing the party-like effect.

“Dance of the Knights” from “Romeo and Juliet” bubbled in the background, and a flickering suggestion of water danced on the inner walls of the nautilus shell.

The grown-ups riding the carousel looked even more enthralled than the kids had during the day.

At the end of the ride, one of the

adults clapped vigorously.

An additional source of light came from the iPhones that the riders held up. The carousel began construction before most people knew of the word “selfie,” but it opened just in time to be thoroughly documented by about eighty percent of its riders.

the background, glowing like the carousel’s fish. Battery Park City has more than revived itself since 9/11, and it hardly needs more tourist attractions to keep it alive.

But the carousel has managed to bring in even more visitors than usual. For $5, anyone can lose him or herself inside the spin-

The carousel’s fishes wander infinitely in indeterminable spirals and parabolas, sliding past and around each other.

The prevalence of iPhones isn’t the only new development that took place during the carousel’s construction—the new World Trade Center tower can be seen in

ning, surreal sea, which serves as a reminder to Battery Park City— after surviving disasters—to just keep swimming.

Page 18 16

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Arts and Entertainment Calendar

Get a Life: The Cultured Edition

ongoing “Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Art show “Frank Stella: A Retrospective” Whitney Museum of American Art Art show “The Ghosts of Grand Central” Grand Central Walking tour *Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

“How Cats Took Over the Internet” Museum of the Moving Image Museum exhibition “Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions” The Morgan Library and Museum Art show

Through 15

Through 17

“Hasan Minhaj: ‘Homecoming King’” Cherry Lane Theater Comedy

“Le Petit Art” Poe Park Visitor Center Craft making get-together

20-21 “The Hip Hop Nutcracker” United Palace Theater Dance

NOVEMBER 14

Through 16

21

“Treasure Hunt” Icahn Stadium Scavenger hunt

“First Daughter Suite” The Public Theater Play

“Cranksgiving” Hudson Yards Scavenger hunt

“Superheroes in Gotham” New York Historical Society Museum exhibition

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 17

Arts and Entertainment ThinkPiece

By ROCKY LAM

Isn’t it paradoxical to censor a song that espouses self-expression, self-love, and the sort?

is killing us, it’s rotting us, but it makes money.” Cole’s contemporary Kanye West echoed a similar sentiment on his Twitter: “I was recently questioned about the use of the word [expletive] in my music and initially was offended by anyone questioning anything

Playlist

in my music…[But then I realized] Stevie Wonder never had to use the word [expletive] to get his point across.”

But, Kanye, profanity is sometimes needed to get the point across.

Take P!nk’s “Perfect.” The censored chorus is “Don’t you ever ever feel / Like you’re less than / Less than perfect,” where the second “Less than” replaces the original expletive. There’s a reason why P!nk decided to include the swear word in her lyrics (and even in her original title), and rerecording it inevitably takes away from the self-empowerment anthem. Not only does the censored lyric become merely a repeat of the end of the previous line, but it also serves as a contradiction against the whole idea of selfempowerment. Isn’t it paradoxical to censor a song that espouses self-expression, self-love, and the sort? That seems to be an offense in itself, much worse than the socalled offensive word.

Censorship can also completely change the meaning of a song. In rapper CeeLo Green’s airplay-ready “Forget You,” the singer substitutes the original, familiar expletive with “Forget,” changing both the title and the chorus. The tune remains catchy, but “Forget” and what it replaced share nothing in common other than the “f” that these two words begin with. The former feels more melancholic and regretful, while the expletive is more aggressive and perhaps more appropriate for a song that tells off a gold digging ex.

In another instance, singer Sean Kingston changes the line “You’ll have me suicidal” to

“You’ll have me in denial” in the clean version of “Beautiful Girls.”

“Suicidal” isn’t exactly profane language, but radio stations believe that it suggests the taboo of suicide. Once again, the original lyric is twisted into one that is more socially acceptable.

That being said, I am not asking for the “Parental Advisory” labels to be removed from the explicit versions of albums and the clean ones to be wiped out. I am asking for an appreciation of profanity in music, something so stigmatized, especially by older generations. Perhaps it’s difficult to find meaning in songs like Eminem’s “Drips,” which contains nearly 100 lines of explicit language and content, but in others, profanity makes the lyr-

ics more accurate and thus, more relatable.

Those who immediately discredit this sort of lyricism need to consider how music is a verbalization of an artist’s thoughts and emotions. How unfair and disrespectful is it to call a song foul just because the singer expresses his or her pains and turmoil in the form of emphatic four-letter words?

We all swear at some point in our lives. It only makes sense for music, the ultimate form of expression, to translate and reflect this reality. Because I have a habit of describing bad days with fourletter words, it’s instinctive for me to do the same in my songs (and that’s not only because I enjoy profanity).

Yujie Fu/ The Spectator

I am a regular profanity-user for a couple of reasons. The fbomb is applicable to any situation, whether it be stubbing my toe against a chair or spilling coffee over my calculus homework.

No other word better encapsulates a bad day for me than does the one synonymous with fecal matter. In the shower, I enjoy rocking out to angst-ridden pop songs whose choruses are loaded with expletives.

It was during one of my shower jam sessions when I started to ponder the usage of profanity in modern music. As I was belting out the chorus of P!nk’s “Perfect,” I realized that my rendition didn’t quite match up with what was playing; I shouted “[expletive] perfect” while P!nk sang, “Less than perfect.” The censored lyric not only offset my little musical performance but also baffled me.

Why was it censored? I wasn’t as much looking for an answer as bewildered by the fact that censorship had just ruined what was an emotionally charged line.

Censorship of music isn’t a phenomenon exclusive to the past decade, when profanity began to run wild in the lyrics of popular songs. In fact, it dates back to 1927, when the government passed The Radio Act, prohibiting the broadcast of obscene or indecent language. Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, musicians and radio stations acquiesced to the legislation and other restrictions by bleeping out offensive words, releasing a cleaned-up version, or distorting inappropriate lyrics.

The reason behind music

censorship is simple: to enforce morality. Songs about sex and drugs are negative influences on our society, particularly on youth who make up the majority of the listeners to such songs. Even hip-hop artists themselves admit their music is unnecessarily portraying a harmful lifestyle. In an interview with radio host Angie Martinez, hip-hop artist J. Cole described modern music as an agent of capitalism: “This music

The Art of Profanity in Music

Once Upon a Time...

This issue, we decided to use song titles to tell a narrative. Sit back and enjoy our innovative form of storytelling— one that provides both an auditory experience and a literary one.

Off the coast of 1. “California” by Grimes, Synthpop, there once was a small isle by the name of 2. “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock, Jazz. On this island lived a 3. “Blue Monk” by Thelonious Monk, Jazz, who was almost always seen inside his local 4. “Funeral Home” by Daniel Johnston, Lo-fi, though no one was sure why.

Every day, the local townspeople inquired about the monk’s inclination toward spending time in the morbid abode, but he always responded to their questions with the sentence, “I apologize, but I have 5. ‘Nothin’ On My Mind’ by Astronomyy, Alternative.”

In the 6. “Summer of ‘69” by Bryan Adams, Classic rock, the monk died of a 7. “Heart Attack” by Demi Lovato, Pop. The townspeople swiftly sped past the seven stages of 8. “Grief” by Earl Sweatshirt, Rap and then continued on in their quest to discover why the old blue monk spent too much time in the funeral home. In his bedroom, they found all of his journals, where he had documented every aspect of his life.

After hours of flipping, a 9. “Zombie” by Fela Kuti, Afrobeat described the entry in which the old man discovered his reasoning for spending so much time in the funeral home. The townspeople clamored with excitement as they anticipated what was to come, but the zombie could not read with all the noise, so he popped in his earbuds and listened to 10. “White Noise” by Disclosure, Synthpop while he read.

T’was the 11. “Middle of the Night” by What Made Milwaukee Famous, Indie rock. I was 12. “Walking the Dog” by Fun., Indie pop, when all of the sudden, I noticed a 13. “Wildfire” by Michael Murphy, Country. I saw the fire and just thought to myself, “Wow, 14. “Sparks Fly” by Taylor Swift, Country.”

Anyway, what really upset me was the fact that I left 16. “My Adidas” by Run-DMC, Hip-hop right next to the fan mail. I knew that my favorite sneakers were burnt to a rubbery crisp, and I could do nothing but cry.

Since that awful night, I have made an effort to visit the remains of my Adidas in their resting place on a regular basis.

Adidas, if you are listening, I will never stop feeling guilty for 17. “Losing You” by Aquilo, Indie.

“Wow,” the zombie said. “What a 18. “Loser” by Beck, Alternative.”

Yujie Fu/ The Spectator

I then came to the conclusion that the fire must have started because, earlier that morning, I had left all my 15.

“FanMail” by TLC, R&B on an immensely flammable rock in the woods. Being a famous monk can be so difficult sometimes.

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 18

Arts and Entertainment STC

By DANIELLE EISENMAN No one thought Leaf Coneybear (senior Henry Rosenbloom) was qualified to make it to the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He was a stubby, scruffy little kid who wore a skateboard helmet, a ragged red cape, and pants that resembled some kind of preschool art project—a fabric collage, maybe. When he was asked to spell “capybara,” he asked one of the bee’s hosts, Mr. Panch (senior Jeremy Elkayam), “Is that even a word?” Leaf’s adorable, gentle-voiced dejection was not soothed by Mr. Panch’s definition, and he responded to the example sentence with a heartbreaking, “Wow, that didn’t help at all!”

It was clear that Leaf was trying his best, but when he was about to give up, he was suddenly taken over by a powerful trance.

He grabbed his cape, shoved his chest forward, and shouted, “CA-P-Y-B-A-R-A!” He then shrunk back into his normal self to gleefully find out that he had spelled the word correctly.

The juxtaposition of Leaf’s humble reputation with his surprising success reminds me a bit of the Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC). I did not walk into the Murray Kahn Theater thinking the STC’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” performed on the nights of November 4, 6, and 7, would blow me away. I had seen “RENT” last year and heard about the community’s general difficulties with musicals—the singing, the dancing, the acting, and the musical ensemble rarely come together, which, at a math and science school, is forgivable.

But small imperfections were what made “Spelling Bee” so spe-

WEB

By Tracy Tse

was a fiercely entertaining caricature, which was due in part to the excellent casting by the directors, juniors Nadia Filanovsky and Livia Kunins-Berkowitz. Accompanying Leaf were five other lovable tweens, like Chip Toletino (freshman Adam Elsayed), whose struggles with puberty— unwanted erections and peach fuzz mustaches—hit close to home. On the other side of the spectrum was the unnervingly put-together Marcy Park (junior Kate Johnston). Marcy was supposed to be an “overachieving Asian,” but Johnston’s clever and polished portrayal made Marcy

up pursuing a prepubescent romance with another competitor, the unassuming Olive Ostrovsky (senior Fiona Cohen), who was fascinated by anagrams.

Within the cast, there was a range of singing ability. Rosenbloom, for example, did not sound like a classically trained singer. But for a disheveled little kid, it would not have been appropriate for him to sound perfect. He sounded exactly as he should have—his offbeat singing perfectly reflected his offbeat personality. On the other hand, Johnston’s singing was flawless, which made sense, since she was

Each competitor in the bee was a fiercely entertaining caricature, which was due in part to excellent casting by the directors: juniors Nadia Filanovsky and Livia Kunins-Berkowitz. seem more like an excessively dedicated girl than an ethnic stereotype.

Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (senior Kelsey Watts) was one of the most memorable, a Rachel Berry character with a lisp and two wonderful gay dads (juniors Alec Dai and Tariq Khan). Senior Mark Abiskaroon portrayed William Barfée (pronounced “Barfy” by everyone, despite his constant reminders that it is “Barf-AY”), an impossibly hard-to-take dork blessed with a “Magic Foot.” Barfée ended

portraying a character whose life revolved around being perfect at everything. The adults in the show were also more refined singers—Carver had an operatic falsetto, and senior Milo Bernfield-Millman and junior Leith Coneybeare, portraying Olive’s parents, sang an immaculate duet. (Fun fact: Rachel Sheinkin, who wrote “The 25th Annual Spelling Bee,” had a daughter in the same preschool as Coneybeare, and named Leaf Coneybear after her).

While the singing did not al-

ways sound perfect, the musical ensemble, directed by juniors Rodda John and Griffin Strout, did. The most interesting song in the show, “I Love You,” was phenomenal because it featured an unusual phrase played over and over again on the flute.

One of the most special parts of the musical was its inclusion of audience participation. Every night, four audience members, who had no prior knowledge that they would be participating, were called up to the stage to portray middle-school-aged competitors in the bee. Even adults, like math teacher Brian Sterr, were called to the stage.

Junior Arvind Mahankali, the winner of the 86th Scripp’s National Spelling Bee, was called up to the stage on Friday night. He was first asked to spell “knaidel,” the word he won Scripp’s with.

The next round, all of the other audience participants had been eliminated, so it was clear that he, too, was supposed to get off the stage. However, to no one’s surprise, he kept spelling words correctly. Mr. Panch and Ms. Peretti needed to get rid of him, so they finally asked him to spell “floccinaucinihilipilification.”

Mahankali was cut off after “F-LO-C-C” (“Uh...It’s not an ‘F’...It’s a ‘PH!’”) because they needed to get on with the show.

Unlike the STC musicals of the past, “Spelling Bee” was so great because of its endearing realism. It made use of real spelling bee champions and actors whose singing sounded believable. Instead of trying to pass for roughand-tumble gang members or bohemian artists dying of AIDS, the group of awkward teenagers appropriately represented a group of awkward fifth graders.

More Grimm, More Battles, More Anticipation (Arryn Zech), and Yang Xiaolong (Barbara Dunkelman), are huntresses-in-training, and together, these girls make up Team RWBY. The show may appear to consist only of majestic fight scenes—the members of RWBY are able to slash their Grimm opponents into tiny bits with the aid of their quick footwork and expert weapon brandishing— but the series does have realistic elements. While the protagonists are all trained fighters with complex, multifunctional weapons, they still face situations relevant to typical teenagers, like asking people to dances, getting in trouble with teachers, and being bullied. There are many episodes in which the creators focus less on the central conflict of the series and more on themes like teamwork, trust, and leadership.

In addition, humor lessens the seriousness of some scenes, an example being the hilarious way characters fly through the air after being tossed by Grimm creatures during fights.

What stands out in opening animations and trailers of Volume 3 is the introduction of many new characters. The characters in “RWBY” all have very different and unique personalities, from Ruby’s lively, quirky nature to Weiss’s arrogant demeanor. However, it would be ideal for Rooster Teeth not to introduce too many new characters in this volume, since there were too many new characters in the first and second volumes to keep track of. One character, Adam Taurus (Garrett Hunter), whose first appearance was in one of the trailers for Volume 1, did not appear in the series until the very last episode of Volume 2. Every new season

will bring about some new characters, but too many in a short span of time will only confuse the viewers and lead to poor character development.

The first episode of the third season sets up what is to come in the rest of the season. It opens with Ruby visiting her mother’s grave. She tells her mom about Team RWBY and rehashes what happened to her father in a previous season; by doing so, she gives a brief synopsis of what has happened in the show so far and implies that there is more to be learned about Ruby’s parents.

The scene then changes to a tournament battle at the Vytal Festival (a celebration of the alliance between the four kingdoms of Remnant) between Team RWBY and another team from a different school. Refreshingly, the battle is evenly matched, unlike other “RWBY” battles, in which the team was either easily defeated, or easily victorious. In the Vytal Festival battle, however, the girls struggle in the beginning to take down their opponent, but, eventually, their teamwork prevails.

While these epic fight scenes are never realistic, this battle isn’t as unrealistic as the others in the series.

As the team celebrates its victory, Weiss receives a call from her father that she refuses to answer, showing that there is more unknown information about Weiss’s family. In the trailer, there is a character who appears to be Weiss’s sister walking away from Weiss

with a frustrated look on her face.

The fact that Weiss does not have a good relationship with her family, while her teammates, Ruby and Yang, do, might lead to a conflict between the girls if Weiss lets her jealousy get the best of her.

The team also encounters some characters who viewers know are actually enemy spies collecting intelligence on Team RWBY, but are just posing as students participating in the festival.

Team RWBY, however, does not know, and the two groups of students are very friendly with each other.

Betrayal is not a popular

theme in the first and second volumes, and it will be interesting to see how it becomes a part of Volume 3.

Fans have waited a long time for the third volume of “RWBY,” and now that it has finally been released, they have no reason to be disappointed. Though Oum died before the volume was created, it seems as if he clearly informed his successors of his plans for the rest of the series, as the first episode of the third season seamlessly continues from where the story left off. There is no doubt that there will be some changes in the series now that the creator has passed—the character he used to voice, for instance, is now voiced by his brother— but, as long as Ruby still slices monsters in half with dynamic scythe swings and Weiss still makes us burst into laughter with her dry humor, fans can look forward to an excellent third season.

Vivian Ma / The Spectator

A single petal slowly drops from the sky and lands on a lonely rose. The scene changes as a pack of bear-like creatures runs across the screen, trampling the flower to the ground as rock music blares. So begins the opening animation of Volume 3 of the production company Rooster Teeth’s action-packed, animestyle web series “RWBY” (pronounced “ruby”). The animation sets the stage for another exciting, dynamic season in which the eccentric teenaged protagonists encounter more monsters, find themselves in more chaotic, yet epic, fights, and go on even more dangerous adventures.

The series debuted in July of 2013 and almost instantly became Rooster Teeth’s most popular web series. Unfortunately, the future of the series became uncertain after its creator, Monty Oum, died suddenly after the second season (or, “Volume”) was made. Fans, however, were relieved when it was announced at Rooster Teeth’s annual RTX Convention that the show would continue with the production of a third volume.

“RWBY” takes place in Remnant, a fictional world that was overrun by vicious, soulless creatures called Grimm years ago. To prevent the Grimm from destroying the four kingdoms that managed to survive their invasion, and to protect the kingdoms from the White Fang (a cult of people with animal features), skilled teenagers from around the world are trained to become Hunters and Huntresses. Four girls, Ruby Rose (Lindsay Jones), Weiss Schnee (Kara Eberle), Blake Belladonna

cial. It was goofy and ridiculous, with light-up bubble guns and a Jesus character riding a Razor scooter decorated with cotton balls. What could be more appropriate for a show about goofy and ridiculous 12-year-olds?

“Spelling Bee” took place in the gymnasium of Putnam County Middle School (its abbreviation, “PMS,” emblazoned the frumpy uniforms of the school’s motley crew of cheerleaders who serve as a written-in chorus for the show) gymnasium where the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee took place. The set was simple, hand-painted by the art crew directed by seniors Michaela Papallo, Jensen Foerster, and Carmen Wu. The set felt very homemade, but in a way that added to the show, since it was not supposed to be inherently showoff-ish.

At first glance the show may not have much of a plot, as it exclusively deals the events of a—albeit, eventful—spelling bee.

With that said, watching it doesn’t feel like sitting through a spelling bee due to the show’s energy and hilarity.

While the musical is traditionally performed without an intermission, the STC decided to divide it in two with a “Snack Break.” The first half was funny, but plotless—the two faculty hosts of the event, Rona Lisa Peretti (junior Lillian Carver, playing yet another maternal old lady) and Mr. Panch introduced us to the contestants, and then we watched as they spelled words and occasionally exploded into song. However, the second half of “Spelling Bee” was very plotheavy as it featured a forced coming-of-age moment for each of the contestants.

Each competitor in the bee

We Have A Winner

The Spectator â—? November 18, 2015

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Arts and Entertainment 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

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The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

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Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

NEWSBEET

I

aedalus, or Student Tools, shut down its operations on Thursday, October 22. English teachers across the city were heartbroken.

S

tudent Union President and senior Ares Aung distributed a petition to petition senior Krzysztof Hochlewicz’s petition to re-allow sophomores to go outside during their free periods. “I won the election, so I get to do the petitions,” Aung said.

A

s part of an initiative to improve administration to student communication, Principal Jie Zhang is learning how to insert a hyperlink to the biweekly parent newsletter.

S

tarting with the class of 2017, all students will be required to create at least one club by the time they graduate in order to receive a Stuyvesant diploma.

T

he Sophomore and Junior Caucuses were able to make the first ever Stuylloween Carnival was a success with the advent of Assistant Principal of Safety and Student Affairs Brian Moran’s walkie-talkies.

D

ue to recent discontent with the removal of the Algebra-Geometry double period, Zhang will allow those placed in Algebra this year to take Calculus in their first year of college, in order to ensure all students are equally educated.

An Administrative E-mail About Student Tools

Yuchen Jin/ The Spectator

ately, before your friends discover that we use the same password for everyone. Your username is your OSIS, followed by your four-digit ID, your birthday, your horoscope, your favorite gang sign, and the time you went to sleep last night.

By Shaina Peters Dear |StudentFirstName| |StudentLastName|, We have recently decided that the old student tools site has been too functional and needs to be shut down. While we understand that many of you liked or at least tolerated the old student tools, the lack of complaints caused our tech department to be threatened by job loss. Faced with the prospect of doing nothing, they have instead decided to make things harder for all of you. We thank you for your understanding.

First, we should give you the general information. The features of the old student tools have been scattered across thirteen different sites. Each of these has its own address, log-in information, ease of access, and blood sacrifice required to enter it. All of these sites will have features, which, while absolutely essential, will be dispersed and have differences between them. Differences will include color, size, mobile compatibility, state of existence, and legality.

The first site you should enter is called eraCtnoDeWoN. The administrative staff has specifically asked us to tell you not to read that backwards for security reasons. Please log in immedi-

On Saturday, November 7, I attended the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Really. I did.

I definitely went to Stuyvesant and watched the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee like the Editors-in-Chief told me to, and then wrote this article, which I was

“At one point there was a word that I wasn’t sure if I could spell but then I spelled it correctly. And I was like, ‘Alright, go [name redacted].’”

—[name redacted] assigned, about the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Yep. When I entered the auditorium, I noticed many specific details that prove that I was indeed present for the 25th Annual Putnam County

We hope you realize we’re all as dead inside as you are, Stuyvesant High School

Spelling Bee. For example, the seats were pretty comfortable and made of plush. There were three rows of seats, and a balcony area. Entering the auditorium, there was an atmosphere. This atmosphere was one of many emotions, emotions that the audience felt as they waited for the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee to occur. I too, being present at the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, felt these emotions.

Eventually, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee began. Words were spelled.

Then, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ended.

Afterwards, I had the opportunity to speak to some members of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, since I was there and took the initiative to talk to the participants. The participants felt

a wide variety of feelings. These included but were not limited to: happiness and sadness. One participant of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee who wished to remain anonymous said, “At one point there was a word that I wasn’t sure if I could spell but then I spelled it correctly. And I was like, ‘Alright, go [name redacted].’”

Overall, I would say that the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was a great success for all involved. Spellers were able to spell words, and the audience was able to be an audience.

When the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ended, I was proud. Proud to be a member of Putnam County, but even more proud that I had spent $10 to see the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (which I attended).

Stuyvesant Penguins’ Playoff Loss Attributed to Waterborne Cheating Contracted by Opposition

By Laszlo Sandler with additional reporting by Winton Yee

Stuyvesant’s Your username is girls’TheswimPenguins, team, were knocked out of the playoffs in a defeat to your OSIS, Francis Lewis High School on November 3. The loss followed by your Tuesday, was attributed to Cheating—a disease that is refour-digit ID, your waterborne portedly present in up to 90 percent of the Stuyvesant student birthday, your star sign, your favorite gang sign, and the time you went to sleep “[Two divers who attend Francis last night.

Lewis] competed for them, and in The second site is called (guys, can you please remind me what a competition to this is called before you send the e-mail out? Thanks). We distribsee which school uted a paper on it a little while ago. If you want to find this pahas the best per, check the recycling bin you threw it in right after getting it. swimmers, that Otherwise, we won’t tell you what this site contains until it’s too late.

Also, it is very essential. Have fun. clearly should not The rest of the sites will be have been coming out shortly. They will be replacing things you already allowed.” have, or simply exist for no purpose at all. We hope this e-mail —Dina Re, junior was somewhat useful, because everyone knows these sites aren’t.

Xin Italie/ The Spectator

D

By Winton Yee

Jennifer Dikler/ The Spectator

n an effort to conserve paper, the Stuyvesant Wellness Council and Stuyvesant Environmental Club distributed inflatable report cards to all students during homeroom on Tuesday, October 27. Unfortunately, the inflatable grades were only distributed to the homerooms of certain teachers.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Occurs

body—and was apparently passed to the Francis Lewis swimmers through the water in the Stuyvesant pool. It is alleged that this disease caused Francis Lewis to field two ineligible divers, ultimately leading to the Penguins’ demise.

“I had no idea that Cheating was contagious,” said coach and Physical Education teacher Peter Bologna. “However, the participation of two allegedly ineligible swimmers in what is, in all essence, a competition to see which school has better swimmers, is both immoral and deplorable.”

Some members of the team, such as junior Dina Re, agreed with Bologna. “It just isn’t fair,” Re said. “[Two divers who attend Francis Lewis but reportedly had participated in two meets too few to be able to participate in the playoffs] competed for them, and in a competition to see which school has the best swimmers, that clearly should not have been allowed.”

Despite Bologna and Re’s disgruntled remarks, other students, many of whom have had to suffer through a semester of Swim Gym, have lauded Francis Lewis’s antics.

“It’s about time we got a taste of our own medicine,” said freshman Sebastian Goodwin-Groen, who claims he heard that there was, indeed, at least one cheating scandal in Stuyvesant’s illustrious history.

When asked what she planned to do in the unexpected free time she now possesses, Penguin and senior Jennifer Dikler said, “I’ll probably [cheat on some tests and pass on the disease to as many other students as possible so they can reap the benefits and then] volunteer.”

When questioned on whether the pool would be cleaned following the water’s contamination, principal Jie Zhang said it was unlikely that any work would be done. “Why do you think we make the freshmen take Swim Gym in the first place?” Zhang asked.

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Sports Me and the Mets: Miserable No More continued from page 28

when they lost, my emotions aligned with the team and its fans. I was let down, sad and disillusioned, but still didn’t understand the basic rules of baseball, such as what a “stolen base” or “balk” were. Eventually, I learned—I began to watch the Mets religiously during the summers of the next six seasons. Every time they would play, I would prepare a toasted bagel with cream cheese for me to eat on the couch I watched them from. I learned the ins and outs of baseball, but did so aimlessly since the Mets failed to make the playoffs every year that I watched them. In fact, I have a mark on my right wrist, one left by the burns and re-burns from the toaster oven I prepared bagels with (I touched my wrist to the hot, orange rods three times).

I came to accept the inconsistencies of skin color on my wrist as a symbol of the Mets’ woes.

Admittedly, once high school started, I turned my attention away from baseball.

The Mets never gave me the opportunity to watch baseball in October and so, I decided that watching the Mets play every night wasn’t worth the bagels or the time. Well, at least until this season, when the situation reversed itself.

At the beginning of this season, the Mets were not expected to win their division, even with their quality starting pitching in their young aces—former All Star Game starter Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard—and a familiar face in 40-year-old Bartolo Colón. By the All Star break, the Mets were average at best with a record of 47-42 and in second place in the East standings behind the Washington Nationals.

The season changed course o n Ju l y 29

when Wilmer Flores, the shortstop, started crying on field when he learned that he had been “traded.” The trade eventually fell through, but Mets fans, myself included, learned that a player actually wanted to be a part of our organization. A week later,

Flores hit a walk-off home run for the team and Yoenis Céspedes, an offensive powerhouse, was traded to the Mets from the Detroit Tigers. David Wr i g h t , our fran-

Kasey Boyle / The Spectator

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chise third baseman, came back from his spinal injury rehabilitation the next month and hit a home run in his first at-bat. The Mets swept the Nationals two times in a twomonth period and propelled themselves to the top of the N.L. East standings. A wild yellow parakeet showed up to a Mets game once, and the Mets rallied around its eerie presence to clinch a playoff berth, the first in nine years. Mets fans were reinvigorated. People shamelessly brushed the dust off their Mets caps. I was given reason to eat bagels again, even in the autumn months.

Led by Daniel Murphy, the second baseman, and his homerun-hitting prowess, the Mets defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers and their tough pitching staff.

They then swept the Chicago Cubs in the subsequent round to make it to the World Series, their first appearance since 2000. In the first game against the Kansas City Royals, the Mets let go of their lead in the ninth inning and allowed a walk-off home run in the 14th inning. The

Royals dominated in Game 2, but the Mets came back and won Game 3 with a large margin of defeat. Fielding errors by the Mets in Games 4 and 5 cost them their leads and eventually the games.

The Royals emerged victorious in the Series, but I was not mad or disappointed (in fact, to my shame, I was surprised that the Mets had even made it that far). For the first time in a long time, the Mets gave their fans something to believe in.

They played with the effort absent in the past six years. Players proved their loyalty to the desperate franchise. “Ya gotta believe,” a rallying cry for the 1973 Mets, became the mantra the Mets lived by in 2015.

And that was all I could ask for.

This season was merely a glimpse of the Mets’ future.

The promising young pitching staff will invite free agents and players with expiring contracts to sign with the team.

Outfielder rookie Michael Conforto proved that he can shine bright on the big stage.

The front office, led by Sandy Alderson, and the manager, Terry Collins, asserted that they can lead a team with low expectations to the playoffs.

The Mets and their fans are miserable no more. So get ready to buy those bagels, Mom.

The Spectator ● November 18, 2015

Page 27

Sports Girls’ Swimming

Jennifer Dikler / The Spectator

Jennifer Dikler / The Spectator

Penguins Break Champion Streak in Semi-Finals

By Justin Lin Following a 58-39 win against the Staten Island Tech Seagulls in the quarterfinals, the Stuyvesant Penguins entered their semifinals meet with a mix of anticipation and anxiousness.

Their next opponent would be the Francis Lewis Lady Patriots—a team that had troubled the Penguins in the past. The Lady Patriots’ combination of strong swimmers and divers made them one of the few lineups that matched the powerful Penguins. Needless to say, the air had a finals-like feel as the two swimming powerhouses faced off against each other in their meet on November 3.

It was not going to just be a tough task for the swimmers, but also for Penguins coach Peter Bologna. Not only did Francis Lewis have many strong swimmers, they also had two divers. These divers would put the Penguins behind by a few points. A perfect lineup with the right placement of each swimmer was a significant factor in winning the meet.

Fitted in their new blue and black LZR elite tech swimsuits, the Penguins started strong immediately following the first horn. In the 200-medley relay, the Stuyvesant A relay, consisting of seniors Sabrina Huang and Clara Zheng, junior Britney Cheng, and freshman Mandy Chan, was neck to neck with Francis Lewis’ A relay until the breaststroke leg, in which Lewis’ junior Grace Miou pulled ahead. The race ended with the Patriots placing first and third, and leaving Stuyvesant

with a slim deficit of two points.

The meet continued with many close races. Though the Lady Patriots placed first in several events, the Penguins took second and third, which tallied four points to both teams. In the 50-yard freestyle, freshman Laura Saliy, who came in third, swam a new personal best of 26.29. Junior Paulina Ruta, who came in second, also made strides, surpassing her old personal best of 27.33 with a new time of 25.94, a stunning one and a half second decrease.

“Even though I placed second to Grace [Miou], having her in the lane next to me really pushed me to give it my absolute best,” Ruta said. “Coach always told us that if we leave it all in the pool we can have no regrets and I knew that I gave it my all.”

Following the 50-yard freestyle, the two teams entered the diving portion of the meet, with Francis Lewis holding a small lead of two points, 18-16. Senior Jennifer Dikler and junior Maria Fomitchova each performed six dives against Lewis’ sophomores Acacia Chai and Rinoa Wong. After the spectacular performance from both teams, the judge awarded seven points to Francis Lewis and one to Stuyvesant, changing the score to 25-17 in favor of Lewis.

When the 100-yard freestyle came around, the Penguins huddled close to the edge of the pool to watch as both Ruta and senior Krystal Lara, who was looking to get a new best time, stepped on their blocks. Cheers and screams filled the entire pool as Ruta was

Boys’ Badminton

Last Minute Falters continued from page 28

one of the best because it was against Brooklyn Tech, [and] most of us have friends on the team,” junior Chris Ye said.

The first round playoff game had quite a large turnout, with many Stuyvesant supporters cheering on their home team.

Notably, when junior Zicheng Zhen and sophomore Steve Wong played the final tiebreaking set, they accidentally broke their rackets after striking them against each other.

This forced Zhen and Wong to use replacements. Nonetheless, they managed to win the close set, winning the meet for the team.

“A player’s racket is a big deal, so they had to borrow some other player’s rackets and

continue play with an unfamiliar racket.” manager Mickey Yu said.

With the victory over Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant moved into the second round of the playoffs against Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately this game was not as successful as the team lost the meet 4-1 and ended the season in third place. Stuyvesant had faced struggles when playing FDR in the past; however, they had hoped this season would prove to be different because of roster changes.

“We thought we could bring home our banner this year because FDR lost their best player, but we should had known that FDR would [find] some [new] good players.” senior and co-captain Carey Li said.

on the same pace as Lewis’ senior Caroline Wu-Silvera. In the end, Ruta came in second place by a slim second, but managed to swim a new best time of 56.70 in the process. On the other hand, Lara, who finished with a strong lead, broke the Stuyvesant record with a 51.41, two seconds faster than her old record from last year.

“It was a new best time. I was really happy with the result because I wanted to get the lead for the Penguins.” Lara said. “It was exciting because I saw that my hard work paid off from the season.”

The meet continued to the 200-freestyle relay, a must-win for the Penguins. The A relay consisted of Lara, Saliy, Ruta, and senior Gabriela Almeida. The A relay swimmers quickly pulled ahead, immediately following the horn. However, the B relay, consisting of Chan, Huang, Zheng, and junior Dina Re, also showed a strong performance, as they inched ahead of Lewis’ A relay.

The A relay finished with a sizeable lead of 1:42.43, a new school and PSAL record. But the excitement did not die down as the B relay from the Penguins and the A relay from the Lady Patriots were close by a small margin. The race ended with the Lady Patriots finishing with a slim lead over the Penguins, 1:46.23, to the Stuyvesant B relay’s 1:47.80. The win in first and third, however, gave the Penguins a total of seven points while the Lady Patriots tallied four points. This would bring the Penguins, who had a score of 37, close to the Lady Patriots, who

had 39.

With the meet extremely close, the 100-yard backstroke was won by Lara, who came in first with a time of 56.99, and Wong, who came in third with a time of 1:03.02, a new season best. Winning first and third would tie the Penguins’ and Lady Patriots’ score. Saliy, with a season best of 1:12.52, and sophomore Annie Wu, with a season best of 1:13.02, won second and third in the 100-yard breaststroke respectively, keeping both teams tied at a score of 46.

Swimmers and spectators in the stands grew quiet as the door-die event approached—the 400-freestyle relay. This event has historically been tightly contested between Stuyvesant and Francis Lewis, and this meet would be no different, as a win here would determine who would move onto the PSAL championship game.

The relayers from Stuyvesant and Francis Lewis grouped at their appropriate blocks. Both Stuyvesant’s A and B relays consisted of swimmers who could go under 59, a difficult feat.

When the horn sounded, the room exploded with the cheers from the crowd as Almeida in the A relay and Yu in the B relay sliced through the water. The Stuyvesant A relay quickly pulled ahead of the group and looked strong throughout the race. As Lara swam the last leg for the A relay, holding a comfortable lead over the rest of the groups, the Penguins gathered on the pool deck awaiting their victory. As Lara touched, the relay did not only pull off a great time, but a

new school record. However, a whisper quickly arose through the crowd—the A relay may have committed a false start. The pool went quiet as both teams awaited the final score to be announced by the referees. When the referees finally announced the end score, shock rippled throughout the faces of the Penguins. The A relay did indeed commit a false start, disqualifying them from the race, and allowing Francis Lewis to win the meet 53-49.

Following the meet, another problem came up. After close inspection, it was discovered that the divers from Francis Lewis did not qualify to dive in the meet.

PSAL rules require divers to participate in a minimum of five meets before they are allowed to dive in the playoffs.

However, the Francis Lewis divers had only participated in three meets, and should not have been allowed to dive per PSAL guidelines, according to the Penguins. Without the seven points scored by the divers, Stuyvesant would advance to the championship game, regardless of their disqualification in the 400-freestyle relay. The Penguins look to petition against this violation, and further investigation will be performed. If the semifinals result stands, the Stuyvesant Penguins will not make it to the PSAL Girls Swimming and Diving finals, breaking their championship streak at seven consecutive. Nevertheless, with defeat in the past, the Penguins held their heads high at the PSAL Girls Swimming and Diving Opens.

Boys’ Soccer

The Centaurs Fall Short in Playoffs

By John Park Everything seemed to be going well when junior Noah Fichter scored a goal just thirty seconds into the Centaurs’ first playoff game on Sunday, October 25. The team celebrated, believing they would be able to blowout their opponent, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and move on to the second round of the playoffs. However, immediately after Fichter’s goal, FDR began to up their defense, revealing their true game. Right before the end of the first half, one of FDR’s strikers forced a handball, leading to a penalty shot and eventually a tying goal. FDR sealed the game in the second half when they scored a goal off of a rebound

from a free shot. The Centaurs were not able to respond with a goal of their own in time, thus leading to a disappointing end to the season.

“It was a truly tough loss and a season ender. We had a great season, including a victory against Frederick Douglas Academy,” Fichter said. “We proved to other teams in the city that we were definitely contenders, [but] it’s really disappointing to have to end like this.”

Looking forward, the Centaurs are still a young team, and are hoping to improve next year. Though they are losing their star player senior Paolo Fossati, as well as seniors Jared Beh, Sorato Doken, and Pranav Lowe, they have

a plethora number of skilled younger players. Juniors Felix Rieg, Nikolas Cruz-Marsted, and Laszlo Sandler scored a total of 11 goals and four assists between the three of them.

They will certainly play a larger role with the Centaurs next season as they become more of a focal point in the offense.

Sophomore Sunny Levitis will also factor greatly into the upcoming season, as he contributed three goals and three assists this season.

“We will [definitely] be a dominant team. We have a great number of young talent on our team, and I believe that will play a critical role for next year,” Cruz-Marsted said. “We will be the team to watch.”

November 18, 2015

Page 28

The Spectator SpoRts Cross Country

CALENDAR

Greyducks Win City Championship

Courtesy of Annabelle Gary

Victoria Huang / The Spectator

NOVEMBER & DeCEMBER

The boys’ varsity cross country team placed first in the city, and will be moving on to the state championships (left); Junior Zovinar Khrimian placed second in the Cross Country City Championships girls’ varsity race (right).

By Max Onderdonk November 8 was a special day for the Greyducks, the Stuyvesant boys’ cross country team, as they were able to achieve the goals they set at the beginning of the year by bringing home the city championship. The Greyducks were led by junior Kiyan Tavangar and senior and captain Sam Greenberg, who finished second and fourth overall, respectively. To Tavangar, Greenberg, and the rest of the team, a city championship was a result of their efforts from the beginning of the season.

“At the beginning of the season we thought the team was done for; we’d graduated most of our varsity team the previous year and our third best junior had been sick over the summer,” Greenberg said. “Because of that, we knew that if we wanted to win, we would have to train hard. And that’s what we did.”

From the start of the season, it was clear that this team was thirsting for a championship.

After falling short last season with a third place finish, the Greyducks were determined to put in all of the hard work that it would take to win cities; the last time the team won was in 2011.

After a strong performance during the midseason Mayor’s Cup, several Greyducks were optimistic about their odds of coming out on top of the city championship.

Sophomore Matt Fairbanks was one such runner who at-

tributed their season’s success to the depth of their team. “I would say what allowed us to win was not just having good first and second men, but having a deep team,” Fairbanks said. “The top athletes basically get the same place, relative to another, every race, but it is the later spots [that] really [are] variable.“ This depth was clear as the Greyducks’ third, fourth and fifth runners—junior Harvey Ng, freshman Tobias Zinner, and Fairbanks—finished 20th, 35th and 37th respectively, all very good times for the back end of the top five.

While the fall season is over for the Greyducks, they still have the indoor and outdoor track to look forward to. In these seasons, sprinters will hope to perform at the level which the distance runners have performed in this season.

“I am confident that in terms of my fellow distance runners, we can keep up this level of performance compared to the other teams, but our performance at the past cities is not indicative of how our entire team will do in the coming seasons,” Fairbanks said. “Regardless, I am still confident that all of our team, sprinters and distance runners, will perform excellently in indoor and outdoor track.”

The girls’ Greyducks, on the other hand, placed in seventh behind Brooklyn Tech, led by junior Zovinar Khrimian. Despite a second overall finish by

Khrimian and a fifteenth place finish by junior Catie Breen, it wasn’t enough to place the team as high as they hoped. However, the team is keeping their spirits high and looking at the bright side of things.

“I think that a lot of my teammates really pulled through this weekend with great times and personal records. It was unfortunate that we didn’t place as a team but two of our varsity members were unable to attend the city championships so we were already at a loss,” Khrimian said.

Khrimian is not dwelling on this loss at all, as she is looking forward to the winter and spring seasons for track. “ We’re hoping for more borough titles, continuing the trend from last year,” she said.

Both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams performed quite well. The boys’ team hopes to replicate their championship in the upcoming indoor season, while the girls’ team hopes to improve upon a respectable seventh place finish. It is also important to note that both the boys’ and girls’ JV Greyducks placed second in their divisions this season. The younger members of the Greyducks have been exceptional, which will be important as they will become an increasingly significant factor in upcoming years. As for now, we can congratulate the boys’ team for their championship and wish both them and the girls’ team luck in the fast approaching indoor track season.

Boys’ Badminton

Last Minute Falters

By Nadia Filanovsky Few people are familiar with badminton, the fastest racket sport. Badminton is, in fact, very similar to tennis. It has both singles and doubles rounds, with the borders of the court only slightly adjusted. In the PSAL’s modified format, athletes play five sets, each with three rounds to 21. A set is won with two games, while the meet is won with three of the five sets. In addition to being high speed, there are always three games going at a time, so there is always a lot of action occurring simultaneously.

The Stuyvesant boys’ badminton team started the season off strong, winning their

first nine games, including sweeping 5-0 victories in seven games. Their sole loss came in their last game of the regular season, in which they lost 3-2 to Seward Park. The team’s final 9-1 record was a clear improvement from previous records of 7-3 (2013-2014) and 6-4 (20142015). This may be attributed to the change in divisions, which put more first-year Manhattan teams in Stuyvesant’s division. In addition, many weaker schools were matched up with Stuyvesant in the beginning of the season, allowing players build up confidence and experience early on. However, this also proved to have a negative aspect, as Stuyvesant struggled when facing stronger teams.

“I think the league change made us feel too comfortable, making it harder for us when we got to the playoffs, because the teams got much harder relative to the teams we were playing against during the [regular] season,” junior Charles Sang said.

Following their regular season loss to Seward Park, the team managed to score a victory against Brooklyn Tech, 3-2, in the first round of playoffs. The game brought out the competitive side of the team, and was one of the closest games the team played all season.

“The first playoff game was continued on page 27

23 MONDAY

Boys’ Fencing vs.

Beacon HS

Townsend Harris HS Boys’ Table Tennis vs. John Bowne Stuyvesant H.S. Boys’ Basketball vs.

Washington TUESDAY Irving HS Washington Irving HS

24

Boys’ Wrestling vs.

Beacon HS

1

TUESDAY

Beacon HS

WRAPUP November 2, the boys’ varsity badminton team lost OninMonday, the second round of the playoffs against FDR 4-1.

Friday, November 6, the boys’ varsity bowling team, the SparOntans, lost to the High School of Arts and Design 2-0.

Tuesday, November 3, the girls’ varsity swimming team, the OnPenguins, lost to Francis Lewis High School, 53-49. n Sunday, November 8, the varsity football team, the Peglegs, O got shutout by Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, 21-0. The Peglegs will play Fredrick Douglass Academy in the playoffs on the November 15.

Me and the Mets: Miserable No More

By Johnathan Rafailov Being a New York Mets fan is a miserable experience and every New Yorker knows it—especially myself. For the entire time I have been a Mets fan, it has been hard not to expect a loss when the Philadelphia Phillies or Atlanta Braves are in town. I’ve grown accustomed to watching the Mets’ mediocre bullpen and injuryprone players cause them to miss the playoffs year after year. As I watched them play from my couch, I witnessed wasted seasons and players like Carlos Beltran and José Reyes being traded away to more fortunate teams. Soon enough, I accepted that all the Mets could consistently provide me with were false hopes of winning and making the postseason.

I first became a Mets fan in 2006, during the season in which they won the N.L. East and progressed to the playoffs. It was October and my third-grade class had recess outside: I was “it” in the game of tag my friends and I were playing. I successfully tagged Peter, one of my classmates, who wore a Mets replica jersey with the name “Reyes” printed on the back (for the shortstop José Reyes);

the Mets were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers that night in the Divisional series.

“Rays is it!” I exclaimed, mispronouncing the name. “It’s pronounced ray-es,” Peter responded. Of course, I was a third-grader and liked the way Reyes’s name was pronounced. And so, I decided to pledge my allegiance to the Mets. Anyway, I had been to both a Mets game and a Yankees game before with my cousins from Cleveland, where baseball was a unifying sport (the entire city played it). The Mets game was loose and lighthearted, but the Yankees game was uptight and dull; to me, the Yankees experience felt insincere and fabricated by the fans, who were perhaps too accustomed to winning. I grew sick and tired of hearing Thomas, another one of my classmates, preach that the Yankees were better because of their 26-championship history. I fell for the underdog: the Mets’ un-storied franchise that had few championships to its name.

I didn’t really understand the game of baseball in 2006.

I watched the Mets move on to the Championship series against the St. Louis Cardinals; continued on page 26