The West University Buzz - August 2020

Mia Pliskin and her dad Alex

Teaching Home Ec at Home

In Tune with the Neighbors

From Polio to Coronavirus Chef’s Corner: Charles Clark

by Andria Frankfort

Everybody Loves Mr. Ezell Gap Year Before College A No-Fly Adventure in an RV Travel: From a Journey to a Home The Myth of Certainty Houston, TX Permit No. 2047 PAID

Memories of a Harvey Home

US Postage PRSRT STD

Classes We've Loved

JEFFREY RILEY AND JAMES WATERS

EDITOR’S NOTE August is our back-to-school issue. As of now, who knows what the school year will look like?

This month, we feature families adjusting to the new normal. In Karen Vine Fuller’s story, as two cousins – both incoming college freshmen – faced the cancellation of senior year, they discovered their grandmother went through the same thing during the polio epidemic. In Jennifer Oakley’s story, we hear about parents who are teaching their kids “Home Ec 101” skills like cooking and gardening. Our Travel Buzz columnist, Tracy Barnett, tells us about her rewarding life in quarantined Mexico – and how big journeys sometimes end, and that can be a good thing. Pooja Salhotra digs into the “myth of certainty” and her evolution from Harvard law to Buzz writer to pandemic-pending NYU journalism student to yoga teacher. Tracy and Pooja’s journeys remind me of this quote from Yogi Berra: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.” We may not know where we’re headed this year – but maybe that’s just fine. joni@thebuzzmagazines.com

Live well now and in the future by crafting an actionable plan.

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Joni Hoffman Michael Hoffman Cheryl Laird Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld Pooja Salhotra John Duboise Tracy L. Barnett Deborah Lynn Blumberg Sharon Albert Brier Cindy Burnett Andria Frankfort Angie Frederickson Todd Freed Cindy Gabriel Cathy Gordon Michelle Groogan Dai Huynh Annie Blaylock McQueen Jennifer Oakley Cheryl Ursin Russell Weil Karen Vine Fuller, John Harris Andrea Blitzer, Leslie Little Jo Rogers

On our cover: Mia Pliskin and her dad Alex, both violinists, enjoy practicing on their front porch while the family is spending so much time at home.

Cover photo by Nikky LaWell, lawellphoto.com The Buzz Magazines has made all reasonable attempts to verify the accuracy of all information contained within. Advertising claims are solely the responsibility of the advertiser. Copyright © 2020 Hoffman Marketing & Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of this magazine by any means without written permission is strictly prohibited. Printed on recycled paper. Please remember to recycle.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 4

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 5

MAILBAG

Your letters, thoughts, opinions Yay for Ramon the Rooster I just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the Buzz article on Ramon the Rooster from Sunset Terrace [Ramon the Rooster: The rusty Pied Piper of quarantine, by Pooja Salhotra, July 2020]. Ramon and Steffy Clingan’s efforts lifted our entire community’s spirit day after day during the pandemic. We all bonded together and had some great fun during this scary time of uncertainty, decorating yards, looking for Chicken Little and silly treasures throughout our neighborhood week after week. The article was a great reminder of how important neighbors and friends are!

Michelle Bunch

More on Med Center music plans Thank you, Deborah, for your fantastic article [The Med Center Orchestra, by Deborah Lynn Blumberg, July 2020]! I am so happy you were able to share our story and our latest global collaboration. TMCO is a gem in our community, and I hope those who have yet to hear us will be intrigued to follow us.

In the midst of this pandemic, we are already planning our November concert at Miller Outdoor; the show must go on, and I hope that arts organizations will be able to survive the uncertainty of the pandemic. God bless you for your passion for writing; we all need some inspiration and hope!

Libi Lebel Editor’s note: See tmcorchestra.org for updates. In addition, find this story at thebuzzmagazines.com for a link to the collaborative video the orchestra recently participated in as part of the #ImStandingWithYou project, which featured performances by 170 musicians from across the world and raised more than $5 million for coronavirus relief efforts.

restaurant that was a big ship, like a galleon, and you walked up a ramp into the restaurant. It was on the east side of Main, sort of near Playland Park. Same side of the street, and near that place (that also escapes me as to name) that had a big pool and in the deep end, there was like a metallic mushroom that you could swim down to and come up into the metal “head” and there was no water, so you could have a “secret” conversation....

Also, the LC cafeteria with, I believe, the first escalator that was almost the best ride in town and lunch at Battelstein's, which my older sister loved.

Thanks for the memories. If you remember the restaurants and places I mentioned without a name, I would appreciate a response.

P.S.: I would often stop at Alfred’s on Stella Link and get three of their football-size pickles. Those were the days (sort of).

Lennie Roth Editor’s note: Writer Russell Weil responded: “I believe you are talking about The Ship Ahoy on South Main – but that was a little further north from Playland Park. The pool was the Gateway Pool, which was near the Main Street/OST split where Target is today.” See thebuzzmagazines.com to read this still-popular story from 2014. If you have restaurant memories, share them with us all at info@thebuzzmagazines.com.

Send letters to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address for verification purposes. Letters are subject to editing for clarity and space. Views expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Buzz Magazines, and The Buzz takes no responsibility for the content and opinions expressed in them.

Pepper was lovely Miss July We loved seeing Pepper as "Miss July" in the new edition [Neighborhood Tails, West University Buzz, July 2020]! Thanks for the fun! I've shared it on Facebook and credited our neighborhood Buzz. Pooja [Salhotra], you’re doing a great job for The Buzz!

Susan Peterson Editor’s note: Thanks for sharing Pepper’s “tail” with us! Each month, we feature neighborhood pets in The Buzz. Just submit 150 words from your pet’s perspective and a high-resolution photo to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Featured pets are automatically entered into our popular Pet of the Year Contest in December. Recently, we also kicked off a “Tuesday Takeover” on our Instagram Stories for more behind-the-scenes fun with our featured furry friends.

Do you remember these restaurants?

I am 72 years old and a native Houstonian. I knew and went to all of the restaurants you mentioned in the article [Restaurant Memories: A look back at Houston’s dining past, by Russell Weil, November 2014], but there were also 2Ks in the brand new Galleria and Valian’s near Main and Holcombe. Our family lived at Lee’s Den. But we also went to a seafood WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 6

What’s your story?

We are looking for residents for upcoming articles who: • Have an uplifting story about neighbors during the coronavirus “new normal.”

• Have fun fall traditions.

• Know a Buzzworthy neighbor to profile.

• Have an interesting hobby.

• Play a musical instrument and would like to be part of our “Name That Tune” video series.

If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact us at info@thebuzzmagazines.com or 713.668.4157, ext 12.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 7

NEIGHBORS

by John Harris, contributing writer

In Harvey’s Wake Memories of home, 3 years later

I

miss Harvey. I don’t mean I miss the 2 feet of ugly floodwater in the 2-bedroom, 1-bath postwar house where I grew up that had never flooded since my late parents bought it in 1950.

Nor the destruction Harvey left, forcing us to drag smelly carpet and furniture to a wall of soaked junk lining our Bellaire street. Nor the tears shed when our two grown children saw it.

Nor the loss of the SUV I’d just bought for my wife after she retired from decades of teaching.

And not the inevitable sale of the property we never wanted to lose.

But three years later, it’s clear that Harvey’s aftermath created priceless moments of friendship and unity – goodwill and love stronger than loss and sentiment.

The goodwill started minutes after water sneaked under the front door that Sunday morning of Aug. 27, 2017, and invaded the yellow 1970s carpet that my parents had installed over the original hardwood when I was in high school. (Nancey Harris loved yellow.) Water quickly poured through every wall. I texted my wife Janie, who was in Austin, and called our neighbor Jesse, whose new house next door sat higher and drier. Jesse waded over with brilliant ideas: Put the dining chairs atop the SUV in the garage, carry the two family chairs that probably survived the 1900 Galveston storm to his house, put heirlooms on high closet shelves and shut off the power.

We sloshed to his family’s house. We stacked their furniture and moved stuff upstairs in case water flooded their home, too (it only reached their garage). Later we sat at his front steps, chuckling at the sight of the tiny wake that lapped near our feet as a Red Cross dinghy motored by.

The next morning, the water was gone, my house drained and the front door open. Jesse and I walked silently inside. First we saw the debris line at 26 inches on the wall. Then the ruined piano, ruined couches, ruined beds, ruined cabinets and files, and ruined appliances – all of it scattered out of place in the ruined house that was no longer practical to repair, that in the back of my mind I knew we’d have to sell for lot value, later.

Janie arrived from our home in Austin a few days later. (Austin was home base. I returned WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 8

GOODBYE TO A HOME Siblings Joe and Allison Harris visit the childhood home of their dad, John Harris (at right), for what turned out to be the last time in July 2017. On their next visit, they helped remove ruined belongings after Hurricane Harvey. Today the “H” on the gate hangs near John and wife Janie’s front door at their Austin home.

there for weekends after working weekdays in Houston at my full-time job.) Jesse and his wife Ilene and their two sweet daughters put us up for a week next door.

Cleanup commenced. And everything changed.

People showed up: neighbors I’d never met, friends I hadn’t seen in a while, friends of our children, friends from church and Scouts and work.

They ripped soaked carpet and dragged it out.

They brought pickups and food and took what furniture we salvaged to Austin. Our kids’ friends met them there with strong arms and cold beer.

The next several days it happened repeatedly.

Strangers appeared, with barbecue from grills on their driveways. Janie and I walked the neighborhood and saw people sharing food, pulling Sheetrock from houses they had never before entered, and doing their neighbors’ laundry, on street after street after street.

We moved for Week 2 to a cozy B&B and got to know its young owners. Janie returned to Austin, and I stayed for Week 3 with my cousin Nan, sharing family pictures and telling old stories. Week 4 took me to friends Jeff and Suzy.

I retired to Austin full time. We returned sporadically to go through what was left. We stayed in our friend Sharon’s vacant apartment in

Montrose and strolled its neighborhoods, cheering on the Astros in a different bar each night as they took the World Series.

Three years later, my old neighborhood is back to normal but with subtle differences. Neighbors talk a bit more. They stop and visit. They will help each other again after the next disaster.

The dining room set with those chairs that we moved to the car roof was spiffed up for our daughter Allison’s townhouse. Mom and Dad’s mahogany bedroom suite and their 1948 Magnavox radio cabinet-turned-bar were rebuilt for our son Joe and daughter-in-law Erin’s home.

As more 1950s houses were cleared, ours sat quietly and awaited its turn. Last year I sold it to our helpful neighbors, who cleared the lot to make a huge yard where kids and pets play and run again.

Telling that house goodbye once seemed inconceivable. But now I close my eyes and imagine every inch of the old place. Now we can sleep on my parents’ bed and sit at their table in our children’s homes. We’ll remember the good times in the vanished little Bellaire house and the angels who helped us in the sweet days we miss in Harvey’s wake.

Editor’s note: John Harris is a freelance writer and retired public relations professional.

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by Cindy Gabriel, staff writer

Teacher, Teacher Everybody loves Mr. Ezell

I

’m sorry it took me so long to grade this, Cindy,” said Mr. Ezell, as he handed over a poem I had written 20 years earlier. It appeared from a stack of papers he thumbed through as former students approached. It was the Aldine High School 20th-year reunion, and Mr. Ezell was a major draw.

In the early 1970s, Aldine was a blue-collar, mostly white school made up of kids who took shop, ag and cosmetology. Future Farmers of America defined the culture until suburban neighborhoods like Inwood and Inverness Forest emerged, the “rich kids” in that unreal reality.

I was an Inwood girl, along with Sharon, Debbie, Julie, Mary, Shirley, April and token boy Blair. Our common bond was that we were transplanted into a new instant suburban community in our tweens. Our friendships developed on the long bus ride to school.

We learned a lot on that bus ride that started in the eighth grade at Stovall Junior High. We put on parent-forbidden make-up, kissed our first boys and tried our first cigarettes.

You were either a surfer or a kicker at Aldine.

There would be lunchroom stand-offs and parking-lot brawls. But we collectively turned into lambs in Mr. Ezell’s English class, our oasis. We dumped our teenage emotions at the door, freed to ease into Mr. Ezell’s world of words. They ranged from Shakesphere to Dylan. Yes, Bob Dylan. The words arrived into that classroom as if they had been on a long journey from deep inside Mr. Ezell’s soul. “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now” is a Dylan line I am only young enough now to understand.

Mr. Ezell seemed to give the same attention and weight of importance to our words as well.

He read them out loud with no less reverence.

About halfway through the year, he discovered a tall, cartoonish throne abandoned by the drama department. It became a permanent set piece in his classroom. He would move into it for a while, then back to his desk.

It is now 50 years since we first met. Earlier this year, as if no time had passed, Mr. Ezell posted a comment on my Facebook page about something I had written for The Buzz Magazines.

“I am better for having read your words…. So WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 10

Courtesy of Aldine High School 1972-73 Roundup Yearbook

NEIGHBORS

impressed at the good person you grew to become.” – Bobby Ezell.

Wanting more where that came from, I found him, now Dr. Ezell, in his comfortable Conroe home.

Here, he lives retired after 47 years, along with Patricia, his fellow English-teacher wife of 46 years, surrounded by pictures of travel, children and grand- FROM SHAKESPEARE TO BOB DYLAN Forgive the white shoes. It was 1973. children.

The senior class honored Bobby Ezell by dedicating the yearbook to their beloved teacher.

His study holds teaching. Once again, upon her retirement, a cherished notes from students, things they have rare post emerged from Bobby Ezell on her written and miscellaneous mementos. Some troFacebook page. phies were also scattered around. Most, he dis“I’ll share with you a thought that I have missed, but a couple, he said were important to him. about teaching. Teaching is about creating good.

In 1991 he received the Texas Excellence I know that word ‘good’ is vague, but we all have Award for Outstanding High School Teachers a feel regarding what it’s about. Good is about from The University of Texas alumni associamaking a child’s life better, it is about making a tion. He didn’t go to UT. His doctorate came child believe they can do something that they from A&M. “They gave me a thousand dollars didn’t know they could do, good is a potential and a computer. That was a big deal for me you create inside a young person.” then,” he said. Patricia said the computer turned My high school best friend, Sharon Trojan into a bit of an Aggie joke. He had not yet tranHollinger, is amazingly self-effacing despite her sitioned from his manual typewriter. lifelong career as a television director in Los The other award came in his final role as a Angeles. She always thinks of a line Mr. Ezell tenured professor in the Sam Houston State told her: “Pride is the opposite of love.” He said University Department of Education, where in it’s a recurring theme in Greek literature.

2009, he received the Outstanding Teacher He uses the world “learned” where most peoaward from among a faculty of about 100. I’m ple would use “decided.” He said he became a happy to think that thousands of teachers today much “better” teacher after those early years with encountered Dr. Ezell between 2004 and 2012. us. But he “learned” from us that he would teach One of my classmates at Aldine, Janet Jones for the rest of his life.

Spradling, benefited from a curriculum he creat“A teacher is always learning,” he would tell ed for aspiring teachers. Seniors were allowed to his Sam Houston students. He learned that “a spend half of their day working in elementaryteacher can be a magician.” classroom settings. Janet said it confirmed her We will talk more about that next month. See childhood desire to teach. you in September.

She retired in December after 42 years of

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WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 11

TRAVEL

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

A No-Fly Adventure 4538.2 miles in an RV

F

acebook, May 10: Nothing like a serious seatbelt hickey to prove my road warrior status. Momming freshly hatched adults in the time of pandemic – ideally Katie needs her car for her work/study in Maine which starts June 1 – and she has to shelter in place 2 weeks after crossing Maine’s border. Soooo – today we each drove 675 miles of the 2,000 – she in her car and me in the RV – so there would be no indoor public spaces including airports, restaurants and hotels. While I LOVE driving the RV and “camping” – at 53, 500 miles is my preferred limit. Goodnight from Alabama.

So began Christy Craig’s documentation of a 2,100-mile RV/car caravan from Houston to Portland, Maine, with her 22-year-old daughter, Katie.

Christy, who works part-time at the needlepoint shop Needle House, had some experience with RVing in Texas. A few years ago, she converted her 2006 Honda minivan into one.

“Yeah, I know,” she says. “This ‘picking up six kids from River Oaks Elementary’ van turned into a ‘now I’m going to music festivals and sleeping in my RV’ van. There’s no bathrooms or shower, but you have a fold-out cot, and you can fit plastic drawers underneath it. Think dorm room. You can lift up a tailgate. You can put a table outside to cook on. So for my 48th birthday, I spent $128 and converted my Honda minivan into an RV. If you decide that’s interesting to you, you can do it. You just have to be bolder than your West U, River Oaks self.”

When she turned 50, on the day, Christy and a friend drove to a music festival in Austin in her minivan-RV. “I love going to music festivals, and unless you camp you don’t get the full experience. So I put a sign on my windshield that said, ‘Hello, it’s Christy’s birthday. Come say hi!’ And everyone was so friendly. And that’s when I knew I loved this, and I wanted to do more.”

RVs with bathrooms and kitchens called, but Christy’s husband was about to retire, and she had two girls in college, making the cost prohibitive – until a friend in Austin who owned a large RV started talking about downsizing. “My friend said, ‘What if we look for something together and take it for six months each and rent it out when we don’t want it?’”

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 12

So two years ago, Christy and her friend split the cost of a 2008 Winnebago View.

“It’s kind of like a timeshare,” Christy says. “She paid 75 percent, I paid 25 percent, we parked it here in Houston, and I cleaned it out when people rented it.” (They are not renting their TRIPPIN Christy Craig and daughter Claire find a selfie moment during their RV RV during the road trip. pandemic.)

Christy says. “But this took a little more map All the while, Christy was gaining confidence. negotiation. Normally, I would have stayed in “You have to be comfortable knowing that you New Hampshire, but New Hampshire was not don’t know everything right off,” she says. “But I open to people who weren’t there full-time. think you need to know this: All it takes is a When I realized there was nowhere else to stay, screwdriver. Most of the time.” And, Christy I called Walmart and made sure it was okay to says, if you ever need help, there are always park there overnight. They were very nice. friendly travelers nearby willing to help you plug Walmart isn’t my favorite choice, but I knew I into electricity or hook up the sewer hose. was going to have some off-the-grid moments.

“Otherwise it’s really easy,” she adds. “You We had to be Covid-flexible.” have to get used to wide, and you have to get Facebook, May 12: So glad I had 1,700 miles used to long. This is not diving into the Mariana to practice with the RV before taking a wrong turn Trench or something.” off the GWB and driving through the Bronx until Still, until this May, Christy hadn’t taken a Waze directed me onto the Hutchinson Parkway motorhome any farther than the Texas border. where I cleared the bridges with 4 inches to spare But Katie needed her car in Maine, and Christy before being stopped by a NY cop. All while wearing didn’t want to stop at restaurants and hotels durmy Astros baseball hat. ing the pandemic. “So,” she says, “I packed two In Virginia, the RV’s oil change light lit up. weeks’ worth of food, and on Mother’s Day, we While Christy hadn’t planned on driving at peeled away.” night, the maintenance stop put them behind Facebook, May 11, 2:25 a.m.: Christy posts schedule. The next night, they drove to New a new cover photo, a wedding picture to commemYork, by way of Delaware, so that Katie could orate her anniversary. add the state to her list of those she’s visited “The day after we left was my wedding (she’s been to 40). “It was three hours extra,” anniversary,” Christy says. “Mark left me a card Christy says, “but that’s just what we do.” for Mother’s Day and another one for our The darkness made things difficult. “We got anniversary inside the RV. Isn’t that dear?” separated on the New Jersey Turnpike,” Christy The coronavirus quarantines presented some says. “I missed a turn, and Waze had me drive scheduling challenges. “It would have been through Brooklyn and then through the seamless in normal times because I would have Hutchinson Parkway, (continued on page 14) had everything planned out meticulously,”

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 13

GO, BUT SLOW On left: Christy Craig always wanted to camp in a van or an RV, and now she can. She enjoys spending time in nature during her road trips. Top right: Christy co-owns a 2008 Winnebago View with a good friend. Bottom right: Weekend music festivals are even better in an RV with a kitchen. (continued from page 12) which did not have any

signs at the entry saying that it got down to 9feet, 4-inches high. My RV is 9-feet, 2-inches. I am physically ducking, which obviously is not going to help. All of a sudden, flashing lights come up behind me, and a very nice New York cop asked, ‘Ma’am, are you okay?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not!’ He very kindly gave me directions.

“Driving through Brooklyn in an RV was not on my bucket list, and I never need to do it again.”

Facebook, May 15, 10:15 a.m.: Had a great time helping Katie get set up. Just on the road – Portland to a cute campground near Oneonta, NY. Maybe like Joseph Smith, I’ll find some golden tablets!

Christy and Katie caravanned 2,100 miles in 3.5 days. “We were really glad we weren’t in the car together,” Christy says. “We would have hated each other by the end of the drive! This way, by the time we got off the road and made dinner, we were really enjoying each other’s company.”

While space in the RV is tight, Christy has figured out how to maximize comfort. “There’s one big bed over the cab, but it’s like a loft with about 8 inches clearance to the roof. Then there’s a double bed. And the dining room table can make WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 14

into a bed. So officially it will sleep six,” Christy says. “I never want to be in a position that I have to wake someone up when I’m ready for breakfast.

That’s going to piss everyone off, and they hate you all day long. This is supposed to be fun. So even though the manufacturer says it sleeps six, I will never take out more than three.”

In Portland, Christy spent a couple of days settling Katie into her new apartment.

Facebook, May 15, 4:28 p.m.: Parked and plugged in here in Central NY. When the last of the Texas tamales come out of the freezer, the RV points toward home.

The way home included a stop in Chicago, where Christy picked up her younger daughter, Claire, 20. “It was the farthest she could fly to meet me without having to change planes.”

Christy happily drove two days solo to get to Chicago. “I put on a Spotify ‘Best Road Trips’ playlist, and then ‘Best Road Trips of the ’80s.’

It’s so comfortable up there you feel like you’re in a chair instead of driving a long way.”

Facebook, May 17: 2,100 in 5 [days] tandem.

1,100 in 2 solo. Now looking forward to a “pokey” 1,200 in 6 with Claire. So happy the other princess

has joined me in the rolling castle.

“The second I pulled up to Claire, she washed her hands, and then we went to a parking lot, where she stripped and took a shower,” Christy says of her daughter flying during the pandemic. “We double-bagged her clothes and put them in storage under the RV. We were being freakishly cautious.”

Facebook, May 21: And we are home – 4,538.2 miles.

A friend responds: You were kind of insane to do this.

Along the way, Christy met a college friend outside Albany “for a socially distanced lunch at a picnic table.” She and Claire met a friend in Chicago, “where we had lunch in a grocery store parking lot, under the RV’s awning.” They saw her sister in St. Louis, and they spent two nights swimming and relaxing outside Hot Springs, Ark. “I got five great days with Katie, and six great days with Claire,” Christy says, her love of RV travel bubbling over. “I’m here in my RV. I have a down comforter and Egyptian cotton sheets. If this isn’t grand for you, find your own grand. But this is grand for me.”

lawellphoto.com

NEIGHBORS

by Karen Vine Fuller, contributing writer

Pandemic Perspectives From polio to coronavirus

B

ack in March, Lucy Leonard was enjoying breakfast with her 91-year-old mom, Esther “Grandma Essie” Almaraz. The conversation turned to coronavirus. Lucy mentioned how disappointing it would be if schools had to close, especially for two of Esther’s grandchildren, Audrey Leonard and Daniel Irr, both high school seniors.

“If that happens, they’ll be fine,” Esther replied. “The same thing happened to me my senior year because of the poliovirus. Schools shut down in May, and we never went back. My diploma came in the mail. I wasn’t really that upset. It’s just how it was. There wasn’t anything we could do about it.”

I

n 1946, Esther Garza was a senior at Sam Houston High School on the outskirts of San Antonio. “I walked nearly three miles to school through some pastures with a group of neighborhood kids,” said Esther. “Our school was so small we didn’t have enough students for a football team. My senior class only had eight people.”

Activities listed under Esther’s smiling yearbook photo include choral singing, dramatics club, volleyball and student council. Esther and her best friend, Betty, loved to take the bus downtown to watch movies, especially ones starring Betty Grable, at the Majestic Theatre a few blocks from the Alamo. They were looking forward to graduation.

The headline on the front page of the May 13, 1946, San Antonio Express read, “All San Antonio Schools Closed – 2 More PolioSuspect Cases Reported.”

In the late 1940s, polio outbreaks disabled an average of more than 35,000 people each year.

Children were the most susceptible. Parents were frightened to let their children go outside, especially in the summer when the virus seemed to peak.

Public swimming pools were closed, and people under 16 were prohibited from attending large gathering places like churches, theaters or camps. Hand washing and social distancing were urged. Neighborhoods were even sprayed with DDT fog to kill mosquitoes and other pests that were believed to carry the poliovirus.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 16

Eventually, scientists discovered polio was not spread by mosquito bites but by human-to-human contact.

“I don’t remember a lot of details,” said Esther. “Our house was out in the country a bit, so we didn’t really know what we were missing, but I do recall that my mom was afraid my SMILES CAN’T BE MASKED Esther “Grandma Essie” Almaraz’s 1940s polio-epidemic experience has helped her college-freshmen grandchildren, Daniel Irr and Audrey three younger sib- Leonard, stay positive during the coronavirus pandemic. lings and I might prom and college orientation. Summer was catch polio, so we stayed home a lot of the spent at home. time.”

Now, 74 years later, the world of Esther’s even decades earlier, during the polio outgrandchildren was about to change because of break, their Grandma Essie moved on after another pandemic. the abrupt cancellation of her own high school With Spring Break on the horizon, in midsenior year and graduation. She was excited to March, Audrey was trying to stay focused on her start her freshman year at Trinity University in schoolwork at St. Agnes Academy, and Daniel San Antonio, majoring in English. was attempting to do the same across town at St. “Trinity started back on time. I don’t rememThomas High School. They had heard of the ber any rules or safety precautions like wearing coronavirus being elsewhere, but weren’t wormasks,” Esther said. “I do remember thinking it ried about it coming near them yet. was so strange that some of our classes were in Before long, however, Houston and Harris military barracks and Quonset huts.”

County officials had declared a health emerAt the time, Trinity University was located gency and closed schools. Residents were asked at its temporary Woodlawn campus while the to social distance six feet from others, wear current campus was being built. Military barmasks and stay home as much as possible. racks and Quonset huts were used for housing Grocery store lines grew, leaving toilet paper and classrooms. and hand-sanitizer shelves empty.

“I lived at home,” said Esther. “I usually took Audrey, Daniel and their fellow Class of 2020 the bus to school but sometimes caught a ride seniors remained hopeful that schools would with my friend. It was so fun when he drove really reopen before the end of May so they could at fast in his mom’s Studebaker. I also got a job least see their classmates and teachers one last working as a switchboard operator for time. Unfortunately in mid-April, the dreaded Southwestern Bell. Some of the supervisors would announcement came that students would not wear roller skates to get around the room faster.” return to campus the remainder of the school “My family’s main source of information was year, and all activities were cancelled. the radio.... The radio station mainly reported The missed milestones piled up: athletic seagood news. Nowadays it (continued on page 18) sons, academic banquets, recitals, concerts,

S

PICTURE PERFECT Left: Grandma Essie, daughter Alma Connor and grandchildren Daniel Irr, Julia Irr and Audrey Leonard (from left) celebrated Mother’s Day at Essie's senior living community. Right: The girl smiling from Esther’s 1946 senior yearbook is ready to go enjoy her life. More than seven decades later, she still is – and continues to inspire those around her to do the same. (continued from page 16) seems like the news wants

to scare you more. I’m tired of hearing people being so negative. People seem more preoccupied with Covid-19 than they did with polio, but I guess we didn’t know every detail of what was going on back then. Life was simpler.”

When she was 23, Esther fell in love with a handsome sailor named Eloy Almaraz, a deepsea diver who had served in the South Pacific during World War II. The couple settled in Corpus Christi and raised their children. Eloy was a firefighter for 28 years, and Esther worked for Southwestern Bell for 21 years.

Retirement relocated them to Alice in South Texas, where they could be closer to their ranch in Hebbronville, Eloy’s hometown.

They were married for 54 years before Eloy passed away in 2003.

Two years ago, Esther’s daughters, Alma Connor (Daniel’s mom) and Lucy (Audrey’s mom), finally persuaded their mom to sell her house and move to Houston to be closer to family, including her other grandchildren, Julia Irr and Nicholas Leonard.

“Leaving my house in Alice was difficult,” Esther said. “It took me a long time to decide, but then I realized the house and all the things WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 18

in it are just material things. Your family is way more important than material things.”

Esther said she has indeed enjoyed more time with her family and her new home at a senior living community. Before the quarantine, she could be found in the dining room laughing with her friends, dancing at her Silver Sneakers exercise class or sipping wine at the sing-along happy hour. She still drove her Cadillac down Beechnut to get her hair and nails done.

“It’s been really hard with all the coronavirus rules, especially social distancing,” said Esther.

“I miss seeing people. I’m 91 years old and only have so long to live. I don’t want to just sit in a room all by myself. Luckily I have my cat, Tina, to keep me company.”

Alma said, “I think one of the reasons Mama has done so well during this pandemic, and for the past 90 years, is that she keeps learning. She pays her bills online, knows how to FaceTime, and can navigate Netflix with the best. She’s all caught up on The Crown, Nurse Jackie and the Spanish show Gran Hotel.”

T

he polio outbreak began in America in 1916 and ended when Dr. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in 1955. Looking back,

1952 was the worst year, with 57,879 cases, 3,145 deaths and 15,000 cases of paralysis.

For coronavirus so far, the numbers are shocking. From January through mid-July 2020, the CDC reported 3,335,457 cases and 135,235 deaths. Researchers are furiously working to produce a successful vaccine.

Even though their summer college orientations and camps were transformed into virtual experiences, Audrey and Daniel remain optimistic that this August they will be able to move away from home and start their first year of college Audrey is supposed to head to College Station to study public health at Texas A&M University, and Daniel is scheduled to go to Lubbock to major in business at Texas Tech. As of press time, many questions remained: Would all their classes be online? Would they be able to live in dorms with roommates? Would there be a college football season?

“I will definitely be devastated if the fall semester changes to all online and we won’t be able to move on campus,” said Audrey.

“If that happens, Grandma Essie will probably tell me something like, ‘Stay positive and keep your head up. You have a long life to live, and this is only a minor setback.’”

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 19

KIDS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Friends Through Music Playing violin together, a street apart

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hat does a bubbly, precocious, 9year-old girl do when the world shuts down? When there’s no more third grade to go to, when playdates in friends’ homes cease to exist, when after-school rock climbing and softball are no more?

Mia Pliskin, a West University Elementary student who will turn 10 on Aug. 12, will tell

you: You take your violin into your front yard and start playing for the neighbors.

“It’s really hard not to be with other people,” says Mia. “I miss school. Before, the boys at my school were like, ‘I wish I didn’t have school,’ but if we didn’t have school, it would be like this!”

And “this” is not cutting it for Mia. So she took matters into her own hands and

took a cue from the musicians she’d see playing on the streets of New York when visiting her parents’ former home.

One afternoon, Mia’s sister (and best friend) Riana, 11, was inside focusing on her virtual Houston Ballet class. Mia and her dad Alex (an investment banker who plays music – he’s a member of the Campanile Orchestra at Rice

IN TUNE During the quarantine, Mia Pliskin, 9, and across-the-street neighbor Irene Pletcher, 12, entertained themselves and their neighbors by playing their violins together ou WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 20

Greta Ravitsky Pliskin, Mia’s attorney mom, says her own mother, Rozalia Ravitsky, who owns a music school in San Antonio, was visiting at the time. “She came in and said to me, ‘You’ve got to come see this.’ It was a fun moment, at dusk, really beautiful. The girls didn’t even have to talk – they just connected through the music. Moments like these, being outside, with the neighbors, these are the sweet moments of the quarantine.”

Mia says quarantining hasn’t been too bad.

“We’ve all been hanging out together and having game nights, movie nights, bike rides. And we’ve been going on runs, and I’ve been working out with my mom. And I want to add to the highlights of the quarantine that we got a dog and her name is Sadie. She’s a Bernedoodle [Bernese mountain dog/poodle].”

Mia’s and Irene’s music has become a salve for the neighborhood. “After the first time, the girls made a date to play together again the next day,” mom Greta says. “Then the neighbors started coming to listen.”

“Now the neighbors come up to me to say thank you,” dad Alex says.

“This is what life is all about,” Greta says.

“Being able to walk outside and enjoy the music.

And an unintended consequence is that playing outside with Irene has energized Mia and motivated her to pick up new pieces.”

Mia and Irene love being able to make the neighbors smile with their music. “One day it was our neighbor’s birthday,” Mia says, “and we went outside and played ‘Happy Birthday’ for him, and I think he had a really good birthday.”

Irene says the quarantine has given her an opportunity to share the unique importance of music with her neighbors. “Music takes people out of their everyday lives to experience something different,” she says.

For now, the girls talk to each other from across the street, socially distanced. Mia says she looks forward to hanging out with Irene in one of their homes.

“I think this is what makes West U so wonderful, neighbors who become friends who become a community,” mom Greta says. “I’ve always loved living here, but I’ve appreciated it more than ever during the quarantine.”

lawellphoto.com

University’s Shepherd School of Music) went out to the front porch to practice together.

Then something unexpected happened.

Irene Pletcher, an 11-year-old girl (now 12) who had moved to the neighborhood only days earlier from New Hampshire so that her mom, Sarah Pletcher, could begin a new position as executive medical director of virtual care at Houston Methodist, brought her violin outside.

Without a word, and without ever having met, the two girls began playing together, across the street from each other.

“I was outside and was playing a song, and I was checking my music,” says Mia. “Irene heard me playing, and she came outside and started playing the same song as me from the same book. When she was done playing the song, we started talking, and I asked her questions like what was her name.”

Irene, who was deeply involved in musical theater, piano and violin in New Hampshire, says, “I heard Mia playing one of the songs from Suzuki Book One, and I had nothing else to do, so I went outside with my violin. It’s really fun to share music even during social distancing.”

utside. Irene is new to the neighborhood, and the two girls had never met until Irene heard Mia playing and joined her.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 21

NEIGHBORS

by Pooja Salhotra, staff writer

The Myth of Certainty Diego Ramirez

From control to corona to yoga

FLOW LIKE WATER At the iconic Gerald D. Hines Water Wall by the Galleria, Pooja Salhotra practices upward-facing-dog, a foundational and powerful yoga posture.

I

f coronavirus has taught me one lesson, it’s that certainty is the biggest myth of all. Just when I had fooled myself into believing that with enough planning and foresight I could control my life, boom: shelter-in-place order. The trip I was planning with my college roommates to Arizona? Cancelled. Friends’ weddings?

Postponed indefinitely. Cousins’ graduations?

Relegated to Zoom. Any semblance of a routine?

Throw that out the window.

The economy was crashing; millions of people were losing their jobs; the news was saturated with devastating stories of individuals dying alone – no loved ones there to say their last goodbyes. Even as one of the lucky ones, who had a job and my health, I struggled to take it WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 22

all in. Dinner table conversations eventually turned to the inevitable question: Will things ever be normal again?

In a way, I had been here before – forced to count my blessings and create a new normal.

Two years ago, I left Harvard Law School. I remember weeks of strange muscle soreness and insomnia and futile attempts to control the relentless chatter in my mind before I requested a leave of absence from my dean. Physically worn and mentally drained after battling an episode of severe anxiety, I moved back home with my parents in Bellaire. Never would I have predicted that I’d be unemployed and living in my childhood bedroom at 25 years old. But there I was.

Friends and family tried to comfort me by reasoning that I was taking a “gap year.” I’d been moving non-stop since I was a teenager, from high school to college to a job to law school, and everyone needs a reset, they told me. Inside, I think I always knew this wasn’t about to be a gap year. I was embarking on a new way of life.

Instead of following the worn path, I was forging my own future.

Amid uncertainty about what my so-called gap year would entail, possibilities started to open up. At The Buzz, where I had started working part-time, I soon had stories coming my way left and right. My editors asked me to explore Houston’s vibrant new restaurants and food halls. They challenged me (continued on page 24)

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 23

subjects like suicide and a high school shooting.

They trusted me to tell personal stories about neighbors.

Instead of letting doubt or anxiety take over, I said yes. I said yes to full-time at The Buzz, and I said yes to tackling stories I didn’t know how to write. When you know in your bones that nothing is guaranteed, there is no risk in trying.

The greater risk is in letting the opportunity pass you by.

In most cases, I had little time to think about how I’d approach a story before I found myself jumping into it. It was never a given that a story would pan out. Many of my ideas went nowhere.

But some of them landed somewhere.

It’s been a wild ride. In a year that could have been, at best, a time to learn to better manage mental health and, at worst, a failed experiment of living with my parents as an adult, I discovered self-growth. I’ve become a better writer, listener and collaborator. I’ve covered holidays like Juneteenth and Ramadan. I’ve explored screen addiction and Mutton Bustin’. I’ve profiled a heart-transplant recipient and a 61-year-old marathon runner. I’ve discovered that every person – no matter who they are, where they live or what they have or have not yet accomplished – has a story. You just have to be willing to listen.

At home, I’ve realized that my parents aren’t the worst roommates in the world. They’re actually, in a lot of ways, the best. It’s easy to take for granted the people who give us the space to show up as ourselves.

Viewing uncertainty as an opportunity to create something new is not my natural way. When coronavirus upended our lives, I felt discomfort.

There was no guaranteed end date to the virus.

I craved a return to normalcy – an afternoon at my favorite coffee shop, interviewing people in person, meeting up with old friends. All I wanted was a return to what was. I felt like my life had gotten back on track, and suddenly, everything was a mess.

Yet what saved me from spiraling downwards while in quarantine was giving up the idea that things needed to return to how they were.

Instead, I allowed in what could be – and what could only be – because of quarantine.

Before coronavirus, I had signed up for a 200hour, yoga-teacher training program that would run from April through June. A few months before the program would start, it became clear that an in-person training would be impossible.

I expected the yoga studio to cancel the program. Instead, they decided to offer the program online via Zoom, also giving students the option to cancel and receive a refund or defer to a future program.

“I guarantee you that this is going to be the best thing that we’ve ever done. I can promise you that.” Though BIG Power Yoga cofounder Nancy Perry said these words with the utmost sincerity and conviction, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. How could a yoga program, meant to be taught hands-on and interactively, work online?

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 24

Pooja Salhotra

(continued from page 22) to write about sensitive

IT'’S BEEN A WILD RIDE While working for The Buzz, writer and photographer Pooja Salhotra has covered pretty much everything. She captured this shot while covering Astroworld, the music festival launched by Houston rapper Travis Scott.

Despite my skepticism, I said yes. Maybe deep down, I understood the power of one’s word. As I would soon read in author Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, “Through your word you express your creative power. It is through the word that you manifest everything.”

In other words, when Nancy said the program would be incredible, she was committing to manifesting something extraordinary – even if she didn’t yet know how.

True to her word, the program was a success. I don’t know if Nancy would call the program the best thing her company has ever done. But it certainly was the best gift I’ve ever given to myself.

In the early phases of quarantine, yoga became my saving grace. The people training with me became my friends, support network and guides – all from their tiny Zoom squares.

Instead of getting stuck in my thoughts and anxieties about the future of our planet, my weekends were spent discussing yoga philosophy and self-leadership, having dance parties and singing (yes, we do all of that in yogateacher training).

I honestly did not expect to become a yoga teacher. When I signed up for the training, I figured that only some people who graduated would be capable of teaching. I didn’t see that for myself. I signed up to get better at yoga and to learn something new.

But now, I’m teaching three of my own yoga classes a week on Zoom. I am launching a socially conscious business that offers donation-based yoga classes online, with a portion of proceeds going to non-profit organizations whose missions I support.

I once again discovered that in the face of uncertainty, we can create anything we choose.

If you really think about it, we need some amount of uncertainty for there to exist any possibility of greatness. If everything was certain, life would be a bore.

Today, there is so little that I know about my future and the future of our world. Will there be a vaccine for coronavirus in the foreseeable future? Will the protests unfolding across our country lead to concrete changes and advances in racial justice? Are we going to be able to curb climate change?

I am planning to start a journalism program at NYU in the fall, but as the pandemic presses on, I don’t know if it will be safe to uproot and move to New York. If it’s not, will I still live with my parents, as I’m nearing 27 years old?

With the world constantly changing, what will I be reporting on this fall?

I honestly don’t know the answers to any of these questions. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t uncomfortable being in this state of unknowing.

But, as I learned in yoga, there’s a difference between pain and discomfort. Pain might be a sign to get out of a situation. But discomfort is a sign of growth. It means we’re on the cusp of the next big thing. Moving through discomfort and adversity prepares us to better handle the challenges coming next – and there will be more challenges.

So here I am, discomfort and all, fully aware of just one thing: Quite anything is possible.

Editor’s note: Pooja was born and raised in Houston and is a St. John’s School and Yale University graduate.

See @poojasyoga on social media and, for more of her stories, thebuzzmagazines.com/people/pooja-salhotra.

KIDS

by Jennifer Oakley, staff writer

Home Ec 101 Carrie Turner, carrieturnerphotography.com

Time to learn those life skills

CAST AWAY Will Lane gets a lesson in fly fishing from dad Chip Lane while brother Rob (from left) looks on. Chip taught the boys how to catch, clean and cook trout.

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fter the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools, a meme popped up that struck a chord with a lot of parents: Now that school is closed for a while, my kids will be taking: AP Chores, Honors Yard Work, Dishwashing 101, AP Trash Disposal, Honors Laundry and Home Economics, aka Make Your Own Lunch.

With an abundance of time together, some Buzz parents are teaching their children athome life skills.

Calling it the bright side of the pandemic, these four families say the forced time at home has helped their kids, from 2 to 20, learn needed home economics lessons.

Mom-of-two Sarah Lane remembers that a home ec class was offered when she was a stuWEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 26

dent at Lamar High School. “I wish I had taken it at Lamar,” she says. “For example, I can needlepoint, but I can’t sew. It would be nice to know how to do that. Also, you could learn how to cook for the family. When you think about it, there are only so much ramen or microwave meals you can eat. Home economics teaches practical skills to learn when you graduate high school, like surviving!”

It is with this mindset that Sarah and attorney husband Chip faced the at-home orders that the pandemic brought. With Scouts and sports cancelled and with school online, the family was home 24/7. Why not, she thought, use this time to get sons Rob, 15, and Will, 12, who both attend St. John’s School, to be fully invested in their home life?

“You do need to learn how to clean a bathroom and cook your own food. I went to college not knowing,” says Sarah. “It’s been nice slowing down so we could teach them.” Sarah went all-in. Both boys had to learn how to do everything from laundry to cooking to polishing silver. “They have to make their beds, and once a week have to wash and change the sheets. They also share a bathroom, so they have to take turns cleaning the toilet, sink, shower and bathtub.”

In the kitchen, the boys have been learning how to create decorated sugar cookies and homemade pasta. At their family vacation home in North Carolina, Chip taught the boys how to catch, clean and cook trout. “I learned how to gut the fish with a little knife – and the (continued on page 28)

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 27

= Holly Stephenson

Holly Stephenson

Holly Stephenson

DOWN TO A SCIENCE Left photo: Emma Stephenson releases a ladybug into her family’s garden. Mom Holly ordered the ladybugs off Amazon. Middle: Paige Stephenson picked these carrots, mini corn, cucumbers, green beans and grapefruit by herself at home. Right: JB Stephenson studies pollen in a backyard science class taught by his biology-major mom, Holly. (continued from page 26) fish tasted good,” says Rob.

“It’s a lot more logical to fish for your own food, since all the restaurants are closed.”

T

he scaling back of restaurants was one reason why Holly, an MBA-turned-stay-athome mom, and Jon Stephenson, a criminal defense attorney, expanded their at-home garden with children JB, 11, Emma, 9, and Paige, 7. In a nod to memories of her grandmother’s garden, Holly has always kept a small garden that she tends. But with the extra time at home, she jumped at the chance to teach her kids how to make things grow.

“Together, we planted baby corn, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños and beans,” says Holly. The children water, weed and pick their bounty daily. “I definitely feel like my kids are getting a chance now to do things that they would not have been able to do in their super busy, over-scheduled life. They never would never have gotten to see how things work. For example, we pick our cucumbers, and I have taught them how they can actually make pickles. They don’t just come from the store.”

They also have canned peaches and created a strawberry spread, a carrot relish and rosemary salt. When Jon brought home a 25-pound bag of flour, Holly taught the kids how to bake. “I got to teach them that bread does not come from the store,” says Holly. “We don’t normally have time to make bread, so now we have time and the reason to make it.”

Holly, who was a biology major at The WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 28

University of Texas, also put her science skills to work. “Biology is where it is at with me. Every holiday I give my kids a science-experiment box, but we are always too busy to use them. But during the time at home, I pulled them out, and we would do the experiments, like growing crystals, or we would ride our bikes to the bayou to find all the wildflowers. Then we would take photos, document the flowers, and then also look at flower petals under a microscope.”

The children, who all attend Wilchester Elementary School, enjoy their newfound kitchen skills. Paige brews and froths coffee every morning and delivers it to Holly and Jon before they get out of bed. And, on the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary – and in a testament to all they have learned – the three siblings planned a celebratory dinner.

“Our anniversary was in April, and we could not go out to eat,” says Holly, smiling. “They planned our dinner, set the table, made our plates for us, and dressed up and waited on us, and served our wine. They were so sweet. They even did entertainment: cup stacking, singing and dancing. It was super cute.”

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helly Chandra says the cute factor is on overload when she analyzes the benefits for daughter Layla, 4, and son Kabir, 2, that have come since preschool was turned into an athome experience.

“To me, the greatest gift they have had is time together,” says Shelly, who is a Class Three teacher at St. John’s School. Since both chil-

dren were home all day, Shelly and husband Nitin, a business consultant, decided to look at all the positives to come out of a situation that was out of their control. “I truly believe their relationship will be stronger because of quarantine life. Family time, too. It was the first time with zero social obligations. A lot of wonderful things have come out of this that I will forever be grateful for.”

It also gave Shelly a chance to work with Layla on tasks she might not otherwise had taken the time to teach. “This quarantine time gave us the opportunity to re-fold pajamas 10 times to learn how to do it and wipe a table down after you eat. And bake with me because I have the time for it to be messy. And also learn how to wash our cars since the car wash is closed,” says Shelly. “And we started writing thank you notes.

Whether someone dropped off passed-down clothes or baked goods, we would work on thank you notes. It was a great way for her to work on her letters and also learn that when people do nice things for us, you need to write thank you notes.”

And while Shelly is hoping for school to start again, she is grateful for the lessons learned at home “They are learning life skills in a different way,” she says. “I think that quarantine time has shown us how over-scheduled our kids are.

There are a lot of silver linings.”

J

oy Posoli agrees. At the Posoli household, a series of cancelled summer plans, along with a need to clean up garden (continued on page 30)

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 29

lawellphoto.com

lawellphoto.com

FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR Left photo: Shelly Chandra has spent time at home during the pandemic teaching daughter Layla how to cook and clean. Right: Brothers Michael and Matthew Posoli (from left) have been mulching yards this summer. (continued from page 28) beds, provided an impetus

for many lessons for even their older kids: Matthew, 20, Isabella, 17, and Michael, 16.

Isabella and Michael finished their school year online, at St. Agnes and Strake Jesuit, respectively, as did Matthew, who came home from college to finish his semester. Joy, a stay-athome mom, and husband Paul, former president of Cristo Rey Jesuit high school, considered how to re-channel the summer.

“In March, we personally were having our own spring-enhancement landscape, and we thought: Let’s have our sons do the mulch,” says Joy, noting that their “Honors Yard Work” became a teachable moment.

Matthew and Michael did not shy away from the labor involved in laying down mulch, which turned into an “aha” moment for them. The brothers had summer plans that were cancelled and needed to replace their internships and sports teams with something else. So, while sister Isabella hunkered down on a Spanishimmersion course and college applications, they made flyers, sent texts, and asked if anyone needed their yard mulched.

Turns out, they did, and the brothers say that they have learned so much that will make them better equipped for school and for life. “Michael and I have to make a plan for how to approach each yard, so we are constantly having a lot of WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 30

communication back and forth,” says Matthew, finance major in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. “Learning how to collaborate will go a long way to work with other people when one day we are back in the classroom on group projects.”

“I would say learning real life skills is important,” says Michael. “For most of my life, I have been a shy person, but this is making me talk to adults and letting me get out of my shell and expand myself. The coronavirus has transformed school knowledge to home knowledge, and, prior to Covid, we were just in the classroom learning subjects but now we are at home, learning how to take care of a home.”

Sarah Lane’s “No-Fail” Sugar Cookie Recipe 1 cup unsalted butter 1 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 cups all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to butter mixture. Mix well.

Put a handful of the freshly made dough

between two pieces of parchment paper and roll to desired thickness. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Put the rolled dough, including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. Your dough will be chilled and ready to cut and bake with no wait and no added flour. Repeat with scraps after cutting the cookies. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool. Makes 2 dozen 3-inch cookies.

Cookie Frosting 2 pounds powdered sugar 3 Tablespoons meringue powder ½ cup water 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 Tablespoons white food coloring ¼ cup corn syrup Beat all the ingredients together until icing forms peaks (7 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer). Add water by the tablespoon to thin the icing to desired consistency. (Tip: White food coloring helps to keep the icing colors from bleeding when decorating cookies. The corn syrup gives the icing a softer bite.)

MORE ONLINE See this story at thebuzzmagazines.com for more “Home Ec 101” recipes.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 31

NEIGHBORS

by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

Postponing College The gap-year alternative

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t wasn’t just the pandemic that made this past academic year nontraditional for Luca Cohen and Blake Myers. Both of these Emery/Weiner School graduates had a different kind of education.

They traded lecture halls for experiences: trekking through Nepal, working in a fruit stand at a Bolivian market, learning to play a stringed instrument called a charango, and visiting the birthplace of the Buddha.

It’s called a “gap year,” and while it’s not the norm, more kids are following the trend. The idea is to delay enrolling in college by a semester, or an entire year, to pursue a personal goal. It could be a study-abroad program or an international volunteering opportunity or even an internship.

Some teens need extra time to decide which college program is the best fit, and others want to take the opportunity to do something in the once-in-a-lifetime category and seek out unique experiences before entering college or joining the real world as an employed adult.

Like almost everything else in 2020, Luca and Blake’s gap-year programs were cut short. But they say their experiences were worth it.

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fter Blake graduated, he decided to put his formal education on hold. “I didn’t feel ready to go back to school again,” he said.

Blake’s mom, Lisa, suggested looking into a gap year. She says Blake is an extremely good student and hard worker, but he was worn out and tired of school by the time he graduated. “We would rather buy a year of growing-up time so he can be excited about college than him going and maybe not having a great year,” she said.

He enrolled in a gap year/study abroad program called Where There Be Dragons and traveled to Nepal to live with a local family. “The home stays were my personal favorite part of the trip,” Blake said. “Living with a Nepali family let me really see what their lives were like.”

Lisa is not surprised that Blake chose this adventure. “He loves to travel and has no anxiety about it at all,” she says. “He takes risks, and really would take on just about anything.”

As part of his course itinerary, Blake spent 10 days in a Buddhist monastery, where he lived with WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 32

monks and followed their daily schedule. He also traveled to Mustang, an area high in the mountains that was once part of Tibet, went on a 16-day trek, and visited the birthplace of the Buddha.

“The change in him has been huge. He’s more mature with a broader view and appreciation of things,” Lisa said. “Travel has given him a whole different perspective. Living in CARPE DIEM Luca Cohen and Blake Myers (from left) explore Rome during the spring semester of their gap-year adventures, before the pandemic brought them Nepal piqued his curios- home to Houston. ity to learn more about delayed college to spend time abroad. Their different Eastern religions, and he’s much more mom, Alison Jefferies, says the experience is interesting and worldly.” invaluable. “We were hoping that with a gap year Luca would learn to step out in ways that hile Blake was trekking through Nepal, he hadn’t up until that point,” she said. “You Luca was having his own international don’t need to feel especially brave or confiexperiences in Bolivia and Peru. Also enrolled dent. You just need to want to experience in the Where There Be Dragons program, Luca something different.” spent the fall with a group of 12 students and three instructors in a South American cultural hen the fall semester wrapped up, Luca immersion program. and Blake came home for winter break.

“I lived with a Bolivian family for a month, After spending the holiday season at home with and learned all about their culture and everyday their families, they left for the second half of lives,” Luca said. During his stay in Lajastambo, their gap year. This time, they traveled together Bolivia, Luca lived with a family who made their to Italy to spend the spring semester learning to living selling fruit at the local market. He helped speak Italian, cook Italian food, and take classes load and unload the trucks of watermelon, at the British Institute of Florence. oranges, apples and bananas, and also helped sell Luca’s grandparents live in Italy, and the boys the fruit. moved into an apartment about 20 minutes When he wasn’t at the market, Luca took away. “During my time in Italy, Blake and I Spanish classes and learned to play the charango, would frequently take the bus from Florence up a 10-string Andean instrument similar to a to my grandparents’ house in the country to ukulele. The charango instructor taught some trashare a meal,” Luca said. “It’s an old stone farmditional Bolivian songs, and then Luca and the house surrounded by olive fields that are used to other students decided to blend American culture make olive oil, just outside the town of Fiesole.” with Bolivian music and created their own renHis grandparents, who have written two dition of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon.” cookbooks, showed the boys how to cook Luca is not the first in his family to take a authentic Italian dishes. “We usually visited gap year. His older brother, Alessandro, made them once or twice a week, (continued on page 34) the same decision a couple of years ago, and

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ALTERNATIVE LEARNING Top, left: Luca Cohen treks through the Cusco region of Peru, where Mount Ausangate stands more than 20,000 feet above sea level.

Right: Luca also traveled to Bolivia, where he lived with a local family, selling fruit in the town of Lajastambo. Here, he’s pictured grilling meat for a family birthday celebration. Bottom, left: Blake Myers journeyed to Nepal during his gap year, where he trekked through mountainous, icy regions in an area that was once part of Tibet. (continued from page 32) and when they came into

Florence, they would give us a call to see if we could meet up,” he said.

Their time in Italy was meaningful but brief.

After settling in to their new home, the global pandemic changed everything. “We were going to start cooking classes, and then spend time travelling, but we had to leave,” Luca said. “The virus was spreading and it was really concerning because Italy was one of the first major hot spots.” When countries started closing their borders, the boys decided it was time to go home.

Their journey back to Houston took them on a series of connecting flights from Florence to Rome, then to Berlin and on to Chicago. When they landed at O’Hare Airport, they spent four hours with hundreds of other internationalarriving travelers, going through customs and health screenings with temperature checks and coronavirus-symptom questionnaires. Finally, after missing their connection and spending the night in Chicago, Blake and Luca arrived home in Houston the next day.

Even with the program being cut short, Luca says it was a great experience, and his mom agrees. “When the boys returned from the gap year, they were both so filled with awe about the world,” she said. “As a parent it was joyful to see how confident they are, interested and engaged on a multitude of topics, and comfortable in their own right. They really became independent.”

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 34

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lison says if you are looking into a gap year, take the time to research different programs to find the best fit. International programs can rival the cost of college tuition. “We viewed it as an additional year of education,” she said.

“Education comes in many forms.”

Most international programs, including Where There Be Dragons, are on hold right now, waiting to see what happens with the spread of the virus and travel restrictions.

“While we were discussing the whole idea of a gap year when Alessandro was looking into it, we learned that having a structured program is really important. You don’t want to just send them off. They should be part of an organized group of kids their own age,” Alison said.

Chris Reed, executive director of admissions at Texas A&M University, agrees. “If students are going to defer, then doing a structured program is critical,” he says. “If it’s a really great program that prepares you to be a better student, then that’s a valuable experience.”

A common question among high school students is when to apply for a gap year. The most popular route is to apply and gain acceptance to college first, and then follow the school’s process for requesting deferred enrollment. That way, you have access to your high school counseling department to help you apply, and you won’t spend your gap-year adventure trying to juggle the admissions process.

With uncertainties stemming from the pandemic, Reed says he expected to see a big jump in deferral requests, but it has not happened.

“We assumed more people would hold off, but it’s actually turning out to be the exact opposite,” he said. “Everything feels so uncertain, so the certainty of starting college feels much more stable, and that is appealing for many students.”

Reed suggests planning ahead and researching how time off could affect your college-course track. “Some classes are only offered either in the fall or in the spring, and you need to plan around that,” he says. “For example, if you defer enrollment by one semester and arrive on campus in January, you may miss out on the opportunity to take a fall-semester prerequisite class that you have to complete before taking the next class during the spring semester. In those cases, if you’re not on campus in the fall, you will have to sit out a year to get that prerequisite completed.”

For Blake and Luca, taking a gap year was the perfect beginning to their post-high school lives.

Armed with a year of personal growth and new experiences, Blake plans to attend the University of Toronto this fall and follow a liberal arts curriculum before declaring a major, and Luca is headed to Colorado School of Mines to study engineering. For them, college was always the plan. Just on a different timeline.

“What’s the rush?” Blake asked.

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NEIGHBORS

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by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

Buzz Reads

Five picks for August

Buzz Reads is a column about books by reviewer Cindy Burnett. This month, Cindy recommends five recently released titles.

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he Color of Air by Gail Tsukiyama: Alternating between 1918 and 1935, The Color of Air follows a JapaneseAmerican community living in and around Hilo, Hawaii, and working in the sugar plantations. Daniel Abe left Hawaii years before to work as a doctor in Chicago, but has returned home in 1935 for reasons he doesn't want to disclose to his family. Daniel’s uncle, Uncle Koji, is overjoyed that Daniel has returned but believes the time has come to tell Daniel some long-held family secrets. However, just as Daniel arrives, the formidable volcano, Mauna Loa, reawakens and threatens their lives and unearths family secrets that have been long buried. This is a beautifully told novel that will stay with you for a long time.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis: Set in the beautiful and historic New York Public Library, The Lions of Fifth Avenue is a dual-timeline story about two women living 80 years apart who must deal with the theft of valuable books from the library’s collection. While investigating the missing books, each woman makes discoveries that may alter her life forever.

Readers will eat up the details about the superintendent’s apartment in the library and other little-known tidbits about this iconic and historic building. I am a huge fan of Fiona Davis and her books, which are set at various New York City icons. I believe that this is her best novel yet.

Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel: Bridget and Will’s decades-long relationship seems perfect – except it is platonic, to the amusement and confusion of their friends. The chamber group they formed as students, the Forsyth Trio, is now struggling and without a violinist. Bridget was hoping for a perfect summer with boyfriend Sterling, but her plans are dashed when he breaks up with her and her twins (in their 20s) show up unexpectedly, bringing their own drama with them. To top it off, her father announces he is getting married. Hoping to kill WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 36

WHAT TO READ This month's picks include three works of historical fiction, a book of essays, and a contemporary tale about family.

two birds with one stone, Bridget comes up with a plan to host the wedding that will hopefully also bring attention back to the Forsyth Trio.

However, for that to work, she and Will need to recruit Gavin, their old violinist, to come back to the trio. This novel has Poeppel’s signature wit and insight into family dynamics.

This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope by Shayla Lawson: Poet Shayla Lawson’s new essay collection highlights black women and girls and their contributions to pop culture, including music, style and language. Weaving in politics, racism, history, mainstream culture and personal stories, she addresses her sense of self in the current world.

Lawson lays bare what she thinks it means to live as a black woman. My favorite essays include “No, My First Name Ain’t Whoopi” and “I Tried to Be Twitter Famous.” Lawson’s pitchperfect humor, balanced with sharp commentary, makes this the perfect summer 2020 read.

Universe of Two by Stephen Kiernan:

Universe of Two is the fictionalized story of Charlie Fisk, a real-life mathematician who designed and constructed the detonator for the atomic bomb. Recruited to work on the topsecret Manhattan Project, Fisk was ordered to create the detonator against his own beliefs, and when he had a crisis of conscience, his wife, not privy to the details of the project, encouraged him to finish his work on the project. Following the detonation of the bombs, he and his wife spend their post-war years attempting to make amends for his contribution to the devastation wreaked on Japan. Kiernan brings Fisk to life in a heartfelt tribute.

Editor’s note: Southside Place resident Cindy Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners column at thebuzzmagazines.com. She hosts the Thoughts from a Page Podcast, is co-creator of the Houston literary event series Conversations from the Page, runs the Instagram account @thoughtsfrompage, and regularly speaks to groups about books.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 37

TRAVEL

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by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer

Travel Buzz

A journey to a home

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t’s madrugada in Guadalajara, that liminal space before dawn, and the church bells across the plaza announce the hour. There’s a rare and perfect stillness that I treasure, before the tumult begins.

My heart grows tender as I think of the two young people asleep in the next room. The path that brought them here was an unusual one, and for that, I must thank Covid, and, in a very roundabout way, The Buzz Magazines.

I was a freshly self-employed travel writer, newly liberated by the newspaper purge of 200809, following a longtime dream of taking a yearlong exploration of the American hemisphere.

My plan was to freelance my way from Mexico to Argentina and back again, writing about my adventures and the people along the way.

Emboldened by one solid gig – a monthly Travel Buzz column – I thought I could make it work.

Eleven years later, I am still making it work.

The Buzz has granted me the privilege of being their sole international correspondent, and this column has provided a base for the freelance career I had dreamed of, after raising a daughter and leaving a 25-year career in the newspaper business, most recently as travel editor of the Houston Chronicle. I’d had the chance to teach journalism at a major university, help launch a pair of startup newspapers, and travel the world.

But back to the kids in the next room…. It began in the waning weeks of 2010, at a transformational gathering called The Vision Council in the mountains above Mexico City. There I met a man who wore a squirrel tail sprouting from a beaded hat – a maraka’ame, or shaman, of the Wixárika or Huichol tradition. Little did I imagine that my life would become so intimately entwined with his and that of his family.

I was closing the chapter on my epic journey, an exploration of the continent’s social movements for a blog I called The Esperanza Project – Esperanza being the Spanish word for hope. And I was making the decision to stay in this amazing country and work for a while alongside the Huichol people, reporting and supporting their fight to save their most sacred site, Wirikuta, from a transnational mining corporation.

Now, a decade later, two of Don José’s beauWEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 38

tiful grandchildren have been sheltering in place with me during the coronavirus, completing their high school studies with the solid internet that their remote mountain community lacks. The pandemic had closed the boarding school where my self-appointed goddaughter Yamina – Don José’s granddaughter – had been A MAGICAL SURPRISE As we were preparing for our big graduation party of three, a surprise message came in from grandfather José Ramirez, a mara'akame (shaman) of the studying. It had Wixárika tradition, who was passing through and asked to join us for our rooftop celebration. also grounded this From left: author Tracy Barnett, Yamina Ramírez, José Ramírez and Bernardo Ramírez. peripatetic roving art supplies at my feet – and the display they’ve scribe in my two-room apartment in the historic created with the sparkly words “Felicidades gradheart of Guadalajara, Mexico’s Houston-sized uados” – I feel a wave of gratitude. To The Buzz, second city. for standing by me during these precarious times.

So it was that on the morning of March 12, I To my readers, who have opened their hearts discovered a message on my WhatsApp – “Voy and their wallets. And to these beautiful chilen camino, Madrina” — I’m on my way, dren, who have gifted me with a lifetime of Godmother. And two hours later Yamina was memories – and who have taught me, from the on my doorstep, together with her cousin, heart of a global pandemic, what it means to be Bernardo. I opened my door to them for what I a “madrina,” a godmother. thought would be a couple of weeks. Three and Meanwhile, Wirikuta was saved, at least tema half months later, venturing out with our face porarily, with a judicial stay. During those years masks and an abundance of caution, we celeI put down roots here in Western Mexico, and brated their graduation. my travel, as well as my writing, has taken a difTo be honest, these three months have had ferent turn. Seeing the impacts of extractive their moments. Housing two teens in a small industries on communities has changed me. My apartment that also serves as my office – in a travel these days is connected with the environpandemic, on a freelance writer’s budget – has mental stories I write, through visits with the been trying at times. I worried that my column people I love – and vicarious, through the conwould disappear with the economic downturn – tinuing adventures of Buzz readers. who wants to read about travel, when boarding an airplane poses an existential threat? But my Editor’s note: Buzz travel columnist Tracy L. editors stood by me, and I continued to write.

Barnett is a Lowell Thomas travel journalism award I launched a Patreon campaign to support winner and longtime travel and environmental The Esperanza Project, which has come pretty writer. Email her at info@thebuzzmagazines.com to close to covering the kids’ expenses. And this share your own travel tales. morning, as I contemplate the pile of scraps and

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 39

Clark Cooper Concepts

DINING

by Dai Huynh, staff writer

Chef’s Corner

Charles Clark

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hef Charles Clark entered the culinary arena during the early 2000s – the era of chef worship, as some culinary historians have dubbed it. Chefs came out of the kitchen and into the dining room, shaking hands and nurturing diners with flattery and farm-to-table ingredients.

Clark was a pro behind the stove and in the dining room, where he made guests feel special not only by remembering their names, but even identifying their perfumes. The chef, who grew up fishing on the Sabine River in Louisiana, memorized the top designer fragrances at Neiman Marcus.

With wind-swept hair and a gregarious personality, the then-30-something Clark could have become a celebrity chef. Instead, he chose a quieter approach, toiling in Ibiza’s kitchen while building a restaurant empire with Clark Cooper Concepts business partner Grant Cooper. Starting with Ibiza in 2001, the duo, who could finish each other's thoughts, created Brasserie 19, Coppa Osteria and Punk’s Simple Southern Food.

Along the way, Clark, an Art Institute of Houston graduate, mentored talents who would rise to fame themselves, including James Beard Award-winning Chris Shepherd and Brandi Key, who is now at Alice Blue in the Heights.

Who else worked for Clark? Kraftsmen Baking owner Scott Tycer, Food and Wine magazine’s Best New Chef in 2003; Fluff Bake Bar owner Rebecca Masson; Jamie Zelko; Antoine Ware; Michael Gaspard; Vital Kitchen owner Veronica Rademacher. The list goes on.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Clark, now 58, talks about the challenges for restaurants and ghost kitchens.

Tell us more about these ghost kitchens.

It’s the big thing right now. Everybody wants to invest in ghost kitchens. Basically, you have a kitchen with no dining room and no restaurant manager, but you might have four or five cooks, making four or five different cuisines. So, you go online, and I’m in the mood for Indian, or I’m in the mood for Italian, and they’re both coming from the same kitchen.

So, this is a commercial kitchen carved up WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 40

into numerous restaurant “brands,” and often, the only way to order meals is through a delivery app like DoorDash or Uber Eats?

Right, and it’s going to change our industry because millennials and Generation Z like to eat at home. They like to be on their phone or computer, looking and chatting online.

It’s a different time.

In retrospect, with Covid-19, was closing Ibiza after its lease ran CHEF CLARK Veteran chef Charles Clark, who has mentored many successful chefs in Houston, says the restaurant industry is changing, in part because young out a lucky thing? adults today like to eat at home.

Very, very lucky. I It’s going to change it big time. It’s already feel like a smart guy, with what’s going on. made a lot of restaurants cleaner, better. Now, Clark Cooper Concepts had planned on sevinstead of just wiping down the tables, you diseral new concepts before Covid-19. What infect them. You have daily checklists. Your about now? busboys now have gloves on, and you must I had three under construction, and I have change the gloves every 12 minutes. You also backed off one – the Mexico City concept. must pick up water glasses dead center or hold We have another Coppa at Westpark them at the bottom. You never ever touch the Tollway and Peek Road…. We can start conlip of the glasses. That’s my pet peeve. These struction in eight months or nine months. things aren’t hard; they’re just going to require Then, we are about to open a small concept training and overtraining until it becomes a called Satisfy in the Nancy and Rich Kinder habit.

Building at The Museum of Fine Arts. It’s a litWhat are places you frequent when you’re tle-bitty boutique café. But it will attract cusoff the clock? tomers from the outside because we’re doing My favorite is a little Vietnamese restaurant healthy Asian and California-inspired dishes. called Nam Giao Restaurant & Bakery (6938 A new concept will replace Punk’s in Rice Wilcrest). I get these rice cakes and anything in Village. What can you tell us about it so far? banana leaves. They make great little shrimp We closed Punk’s when all the restaurants crystal dumplings and grilled pork spring rolls. closed, but we have been talking about re-conI’m single still, and one of my favorite date-night cepting it for the last two years. We don’t have places is Nancy’s Hustle (2704 Polk). I never a name for it yet, but we’re going to try to open look at the menu at Nancy’s. I just tell the server it after Labor Day. You’ll be able to get a nice to serve me something funky. bottle of wine; you can get a cheese plate. There will be kid-friendly food because there is a courtEditor’s note: Buzz dining columnist Dai Huynh yard with plenty of grass for them. is a James Beard food-journalism award winner and Is Covid-19 a reset button for the restaurant longtime Houston-based restaurant writer. industry?

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 41

SPORTS

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by Todd Freed, staff writer

SportzBuzz W

ith the pandemic, local high school sports teams have been forced to make major adjustments and delayed starts to their seasons.

“It’s really unprecedented on how to move forward,” said Memorial Mustangs head volleyball coach Kaddie Platt. “We were anxious and excited to start the year, and all we can do is remain as optimistic as possible.”

Platt has plenty of reason to be optimistic about her team, with an outstanding lineup of returning seniors. Outside hitter Lyla Traylor, who led the team in kills last year, returns along with another three-year starter and District 176A setter MVP, Logan LeRoux. In addition, senior right-side hitter Kingsley Wallace has committed to play volleyball at West Point, senior middle blocker Taylor Odum will play collegiately for New York University, and senior outside hitter Lauren Elie is being recruited by several major universities.

“When you have this heavy of a senior class, you’re especially hopeful that we can move forward with the season even if it gets delayed a bit,” said Platt. “My heart goes out to all the athletes this past spring who didn’t have their seasons because of the cancellations due to the coronavirus. We’re certainly ready for the challenges ahead.”

With the return of 11 players from last year’s TAPPS-6A state volleyball championship team, the St. Agnes Academy Tigers had certainly hoped for an on-time start to the 2020 season.

Unfortunately, the original Aug. 12 start date is not going to happen; TAPPS announced a revised Sept. 21 start-up to the volleyball season.

The new date now shortens the season by approximately six weeks.

“Our motto entering the season is ‘Defend the Den 2020,’” said Tigers head coach Cydryce McMillian. The Tigers, who are coming off their first state volleyball championship in 14 seasons, were originally scheduled to play several UIL powerhouses in non-district but will now adjust to a district and playoff schedule only.

They will be ready to go behind a lineup that features the return of senior middle blocker Toyosi Onabanja and junior outside hitter

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 42

KNIGHTS TO REMEMBER Episcopal Knights libero Alison Krieg proudly raises up last season’s SPC championship trophy while her teammates celebrate the title. The Knights enter the upcoming season as favorites.

Sophia Agee, who were both All-State selections last year. In addition, the Tigers feature a trio of outstanding setters in junior Grace Webber, junior Nicole Dworaczyk and incoming freshman Ariel Francis. Plus, four-year varsity player Brooke Middleton, who missed the last part of last season due to injury, returns at full strength for her senior year.

Defending SPC volleyball champion Episcopal will be the favorite to defend its SPC title once the season is up and running. The SPC has delayed the start of its fall sports season to Sept. 8, about four weeks later than the original start date for volleyball. “Most of our girls play club volleyball 12 months a year, so they’re used to keeping their bodies in shape and are definitely ready to go,” said Knights volleyball coach Amanda Watts. “The team is hungry to defend its title and excited to get on the court.”

On the court, the Knights bring back an extremely talented crop of players from a team that posted a lofty 35-4 record last season.

Leading the way is Greater Houston Volleyball

Coaches Association preseason Private School Player of the Year Bria Woodard, as well as her twin sister Cimone Woodard. The 6-foot, threeinch sisters have both committed to play college volleyball at Texas A&M. Plus, the Knights also return a pair of standout senior setters in Camille Hanna and Hailey Black. Black has committed to play at the next level for Cal State Fullerton.

If all that weren’t enough, returning attacker Sania Petties has committed to Mississippi State while senior Morgan Perkins will play college volleyball for the Oklahoma Sooners. Perkins missed much of last season with an injury, so her return at full strength certainly provides additional firepower to the Knights’ lineup. “We were pretty deep in talent last year,” said Watts.

“The girls have matured and gotten even better, not just in technique but also from a mental perspective. It’s exciting to see as a coach.”

Editor’s note: To submit high school sports news for possible inclusion in SportzBuzz, please email todd@thebuzzmagazines.com.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 43

SPORTS

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by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

SportzBuzz Jr. W

elcome to SportzBuzz Jr., a column spotlighting neighborhood athletes in elementary and middle school.

Brothers on the field After a baseball victory, Maddux El-Hakam (top photo) celebrates with his biggest fan and good-luck charm, baby brother Jimmie.

Maddux was one of only four seventh graders selected to the Lanier Middle School 2020 baseball team. Before the season was canceled, he started two of the three games and hit a homerun in their 17-7 win over Pershing Middle School. While Maddux waits to return to Lanier baseball, he recently started playing baseball with the Houston Angels, a 13U tournament team coached by James Madrid. During an elimination game at a recent tournament, Maddux hit a walk-off grand slam home run that led the team to the championship game, which they ultimately won.

Driveway basketball Joanna (“JoJo”) Pastore (middle photo), 14, takes a shot on the driveway during an at-home basketball practice. After playing basketball and soccer for Lanier Middle School, she has found ways to stay active, work on her skills and have fun this summer. As the second of 5 children, JoJo is surrounded by siblings trying to entertain themselves during the summer months. The other Pastore kids, Sophie, Richie, Eva and Raquel, have all enjoyed driveway basketball, jumping rope and playing badminton. When athletic seasons resume, the Pastores will be busy playing a variety of sports: basketball, soccer, lacrosse, cheer, dance and gymnastics. JoJo has recently started playing with her Dash club-soccer team, and she can’t wait for a fresh start with sports this coming school year.

Ready to swing Teddy Martin (bottom photo) is baseball ready, waiting for his pitch in the front yard. The second grader at St. Thomas More Parish School had begun playing with Westbury Little League, on the Pee Wee 7U Bulldogs team, and managed to play a few games during the shortened season. Teddy has been on the ball field since he was 4 years old, but this was his first season in an older age group with draft team formation, and he enjoyed meeting new teammates. He really misses playing baseball, seeing his team, and enjoying candy from the concession stand.

During the summer, he has played some tournaments with his select team and recruits his parents for family baseball in the evenings to get some extra practice.

Editor’s note: Send your best high-resolution photos and behind-the-scenes stories about young local athletes, in both team and individual sports, to SportzBuzz, Jr. at info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Include all contact info, names, ages, grades and schools. Featured athletes must live in Buzz-circulation neighborhoods. Items will be published on a space-available basis.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 44

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Estate planning for immigrants Estate planning for immigrants is largely the same as for natives; immigrants just have to unlearn different things.

Texas is a community property jurisdiction. On death, everything you owned is presumed community property. Each spouse has a one-half interest in the community property. Absent clear and convincing evidence of separate property, the surviving spouse retains one-half the house, one-half of his car, one-half of her car, one-half the dog, etc. Federal law may preempt this, e.g., for ERISA plans, but otherwise liquid assets follow the same scheme.

If you die without a will, the State of Texas has written one for you: it’s known as intestacy, also called the laws of descent and distribution. Your estate is not forfeit without a will. Instead, it’s split among family. Texas does not force heirship, and you may make a will that favors different beneficiaries.

Both wills and the laws of intestacy are preempted by beneficiary designations, which, in turn, are preempted by rights of survivorship among joint owners. Banks and brokers use both to keep client accounts out of probate.

A death certificate is enough to collect nonprobate assets, e.g., IRAs, life insurance, annuities, and bank and brokerage accounts with a designated beneficiary or an owner with a right of survivorship. The rest requires probate, where the judge validates the will or declares the heirs and appoints an executor of the will or administrator of the estate. The personal representative, not the beneficiaries, are liable for debts, which are resolved during estate administration.

In civil law jurisdictions, forced heirship means family automatically takes most of the estate, and the will is of less importance. Beneficiaries, not the

executor, are responsible for debts, and formal estate administration is relatively rare.

Immigrants are often surprised to learn that they can disinherit children, name someone outside the family to administer the estate, create a testamentary trust to protect a child’s inheritance from divorce, or create a living trust to avoid probate.

Speaking of immigrants, attorney Danuta M. “Danka” Villarreal has associated with Russell W. Hall & Associates, P.C. She is board certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Danka is a Houstonian by choice. She immigrated from Poland in 1997, taught English As a Second Language at Sharpstown Middle School, and graduated from the University of Houston Law Center, where she served as articles editor for the Houston Journal of International Law. We write wills and go to probate court. We offer no-obligation initial interviews for estate planning and administration, so it costs nothing to hear specific recommendations that suit your needs. Foreign nationals and international families welcome.

Russell W. Hall, J.D., LL.M. (Tax), Board Certified – Estate Planning and Probate Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 6750 West Loop South, Suite 920, Bellaire, Texas 77401, 713.662.3853, bellaireprobate.com/blog

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 45

TODAY IN POETRY Jaya Lal, an incoming sixth grader at St. John’s School, writes poetry about what is happening around her, including the coronavirus quarantine.

KIDS

by Jaya Lal, age 11

Buzz Kidz

Rhymes that mean something

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uring this tough time in quarantine, I have been very bored. I have been trying lots of new things like stop motion and cooking. I have been doing piano and origami for a long time, but during quarantine I have really gotten to focus on them and get better.

I have been writing poetry for a while. Poetry helps me relax, and it's fun to come up with rhymes that mean something. Also, in poetry, there are not really any grammar rules, which works out pretty good for me. When I write a poem, I have to be experiencing it at the very time that I write it. For example, at the doctor's office, I wrote a poem about the doctor's office. Each one of my poems is a different memory.

Something that has been especially weird during quarantine is how everything is virtual. For example, my choir met online, which is prob-

lematic because sometimes the audio gets choppy. During quarantine, I am trying to make the best of what I can and have fun and occupy myself. I hope that when people read this poem they will remember that we are all going through the same struggles and we are all in this together.

Quarantine No school / This has got to rule Well I guess not / That was just what I thought Stuck at home / Not allowed to roam.

Everyone outside walking / 6 feet talking.

Masks are being sewed / No one driving on the road.

Learning how to cook / Finally some time to read a book Cutting your own hair / I can't find toilet

paper anywhere.

So bored / Hey, I learned how to play B chord!

No classes / Life passes Lots of people are doing exercise / And of course learning to sanitize In this hard time we have to be each other's light / We will stand tall and put up a fight.

We will be strong / No matter how long.

It will take grit / But we will beat it.

If we stay as a community / Soon we will have immunity!

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Alpha gal – an exceptional allergy It is uncommon for individuals to develop a food allergy in the adult years of life, especially if that allergy is to red meat or pork. As we know, however, the world of medicine is full of exceptions. Alpha gal sounds like a strong female leader, but it’s actually one example of an exception in the field of allergy. Folks with food allergies generally react to certain proteins in food.

However, alpha gal is not a protein, but rather a carbohydrate called galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, which is found in non-primate, mammalian meat.

In other words, alpha gal can be found in four legged hoofed animals – cows, goats, pig, lamb, etc.

Even more odd is that this allergy develops after a tick bite, although the exact mechanism is not yet fully understood. Tick bites rarely lead to an alpha gal allergy, but the ones that do tend to occur in the eastern United States. After being bitten, individuals, who may have enjoyed meats containing alpha gal for years, will be at risk for delayed anaphylaxis if they consume such meat, even if it is only a small amount. Since anaphylaxis can be life threatening, people with an alpha gal allergy should avoid all red meats and pork, and carry an epinephrine auto-injector in case there is a reaction after an accidental ingestion. For some, an avoidance to dairy is also recommended. Since this reaction is delayed, it takes longer for symptoms to develop than a regular food allergy, about 3 to 4 hours. The most common symptom is a red, blotchy, itchy rash, known as hives.

Interestingly, the allergist who discovered alpha gal is Dr. Tom PlattsMills at UVA Charlottesville med school. He also put dust mite allergy on the map many years ago by identifying them as the active allergen in

house dust.

How do you know who has an allergy to alpha gal? Since alpha gal is a carbohydrate rather than a protein, the typical skin and blood tests to meat proteins are not reliable for diagnosis. A blood test that specifically looks for a reaction to the alpha gal carbohydrate should be used in conjunction with a clinical history.

How long does the allergy last? I want my steak and bacon! The immune response to alpha gal typically declines slowly over time. An allergist will look at a combination of regular blood tests and clinical history to decide when it is time to possibly reintroduce non-primate mammalian meats into your diet.

No one nose allergies like we do.™ Note: Information contained in this article should not be considered a substitute for consultation with a board-certified allergist to address individual medical needs.

David B. Engler, M.D., The Allergy Clinic, 7707 Fannin, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77054, 713.797.0993, *1200 Binz, Suite 180, Houston, Texas 77004, 713.522.9911, www.allergyclinic.com, *Operating as Houston Allergy and Asthma Clinic

Co-educational school for grades 1st through 8th

The mission of Thrive Academy is to create a joyful environment where children love to learn, teachers are passionate about student success, and parents are confident that their children will excel.

We serve students who present with different learning profiles and often have a specific learning disability such as dyslexia, specific language-based learning differences, receptive and/or expressive language deficits, deficits in executive function, attention deficit disorders, disorders of written expression, dysgraphia, speech and language needs, sensory processing disorder.

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WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 47

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They give me food, treats, water, love, food, treats – and also food. They even took me to Dr. Dev to fix my sore teeth. He had to remove 10 of them, so now my tongue sticks out a bit. Don’t worry – I still have 32. Dad says Dr. Dev must have pulled all my wisdom teeth.

(Dad jokes are the worst.)

My hobbies are sleeping, barking at frenemies, locking myself in my brother’s room, and crying while deciding where to eat treats.

(I just can’t with anyone watching.) My sister likes to pick me up and hold me like a baby. It’s not my favorite, but I know she loves me. I sleep in her room – Mom says it’s kind of like having a husband because I snore almost as loud as Dad. If I see you around, I will be so happy to meet you!

Got a cute critter? Email a picture of your pet with approximately 150 words to info@thebuzzmagazines.com or mail it to The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401.

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West U/Southside real estate A suppressed market is rising. Postponed demand is recovering. The Covid-19 safety measures, coupled with the crude oil price drop, significantly slowed residential real estate activity late February through mid-April. Some homes were pulled off the market, open houses went virtual, and job concerns constrained home-purchase plans.

Then – after two months of homeschooling, home officing, home cooking and home confinement – that changed. As restrictions went into Phase 2, people came out of their homes and, in many cases, came out searching for new homes and lifestyle modifications. The marker WTI crude price crept over $40/barrel, and there are commercial flights over my home again. Additional strength and buying power are gained from very low mortgage rates.

While we haven’t caught the robust first-half 2019 market indicators, the 2020 numbers are gaining on them despite the 2-month activity drought.

Sales are about 35 percent below first-half 2019, but reflective of a tightening market. Active listings are 14 percent below the same time in 2019. This shortfall is showing up in prices, with the average sales price for the first-half 2020 going to $1,559,896 vs. the 2019 price of $1,390,000 for the same period, an increase of $169,896, or 12 percent higher, at this point.

My hopes expressed in my last report – stock market recovery and crude oil price recovery – are happily realized. Now we just need to get this coronavirus under control and find a vaccine – we will! Please wear your mask, wash your hands, and safe distance, for all our sakes. Thank you, neighbor.

George Sutherland, Greenwood King Properties, 832.435.7942, george@greenwoodking.com

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WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 48

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Parenting in a pandemic – tips from a professional This is a difficult period for all of us, grown-ups and kids alike.

Historically, we’ve thoughtfully outsourced at least some duties, but since the pandemic began, it’s all been shuffled back into one bucket. When you feel like you’re doing it wrong, know that you’re not designed to do it all.

Give yourself a break and take care of yourself, like in an airplane – put your own mask on before assisting others.

Be transparent: In order to support our children through this time, it is important that we don’t ignore what’s happening, but talk about it with them and deliver information in a developmentally appropriate way. Don’t pretend that, as an adult, you aren’t scared at all. Instead, be honest and straightforward, and reassure children with what we do know: We’re in this together, and there are lots of resources available for our safety.

Provide structure: Children do better with stability and routine.

Keeping a Monday-through-Friday schedule can be helpful in keeping some division between weekdays and weekends. We tend to feel a lot of stress relief from the rhythmic differences rolling into the weekend, and it’s important to retain those days of rest. Allowing children to cocreate their routines can be beneficial as well, helping to develop personal agency.

Practice mindfulness: For stress relief, concentrate on the present moment rather than future-focused worry by practicing breathing exercises.

Remember that the present moment is all we can control, and it’s all we have. Exercises like meditation and yoga are also great for practicing mind-

fulness, and there are many virtual resources out there to help you get started. Kids can benefit from these activities as much as adults.

Exercise: Exercise and physical activity are vital to the whole family’s physical and mental health. Physical activity can reduce anxiety and release endorphins, which help us regulate our emotions and feel happier.

Plan social interactions: Social interaction is important for children’s development, and it can help maintain normalcy. We have many avenues available to us that allow us to continue being social despite physical distance. Video platforms are great – children can continue learning and practicing non-verbal clues and communication.

Above all, remember to be gentle with your children. We can catch up on school work or chores, but holding a safe space, encouraging kids, and letting them feel a sense of comfort are most important.

Ceci Hudson Torn, Clinician and Chief Operating Officer, Ethos Behavioral Health Group, 900 Lovett Blvd., 713.497.1556, www.ethoshealing.com

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 49

NEIGHBORS

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by Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld, staff writer

Buzz About Town Birthday love for Lucy

photos for everyone to see. Winning photos were picked for various categories, including best yard, best ride (vehicles), best group costume and best bike. The Spaulding sisters (pictured, from left), Savannah, 8, Scarlett, 6, and Sadie, 4, won best group costume. It was particularly special as the Spaulding family had just moved into the neighborhood the week before the Fourth.

An engaging hike

Lucy Keeper celebrated her 75th birthday in style. She had a parking-lot, drive-by party in the Skeeter’s parking lot in West U, complete with decorations and live music by the Dynamic Duo. Neighbors enjoyed listening to rock classics as they sipped on Skeeter’s margaritas. Lucy (pictured, with neighbors) danced and blew kisses to friends as they drove by to share their birthday wishes.

Jennifer Spaulding

Costumed up for the Fourth

Typically, families in Sunset Terrace/Montclair celebrate Fourth of July with a parade in which people dress up and decorate cars, bikes and pets. This wasn’t a typical Fourth of July, but neighbors still got in the spirit of the holiday.

They still dressed up for the occasion and, using their neighborhood Facebook group, shared WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 50

While on a hike in Austin, Catherine Dawson was surprised and happy when Matt Gore proposed. Catherine thought the hike was an outing to celebrate her belated birthday. After experiencing a few moments of shock, she remembered to say yes. The couple then sat and read letters Matt had collected from family and friends. Catherine, who graduated from St. John’s School and Stanford University, first met Matt through a close friend who had worked

with Matt post-college. The couple met in Austin, where Catherine moved to begin her medical training at Dell Medical School, and they hit it off quickly.

In solidarity In response to the killing of George Floyd, Allison Zapata, Neha Agrawal, Lystra McCoy and Christina Propst organized West University residents to participate in a community-solidarity march for justice. Though the march was put on hold due to the surge in coronavirus cases, they showed their commitment to anti-racism with yard signs designed by Anne Galbraith. West U resident Michele Barth Still coordinated getting the signs to dozens of residents. Pictured with their (continued on page 52)

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Julia Smith

left) Kylie, 10, Kameron, 5, and Lianna Chap, 11. The signs are $15, and excess raised will be donated to a community garden and grocery store in northeast Houston. To order, contact Michele at michelestill@comcast.net.

Houston Furniture Bank

Art and furniture for all

The nonprofit Houston Furniture Bank celebrated the opening of the Houston Furniture Bank Art Gallery. Families receiving furniture assistance were able to select original art donated by local artists. The program took place via Facebook Live and included a juried art show and a virtual tour of Houston Furniture Bank. Featured artists, including Emily Dingmann (pictured), Barbara Rubenstein and Carol Simon, were selected by leaders in art and interior design. Each artist provided one work to be selected by a family in need and a second work for auction. Proceeds from the auction will support the No Kids on the Floor initiative. See houstonfurniturebank.org.

Front-yard concerts Since the pandemic hit, Ryan Rongone (pictured, on left) and Russell Haehl (on right) have been performing free outdoor concerts in neighborhoods. Russell and Ryan are both members of the Houston Brass Quintet and WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ AUGUST 2020 52

have been playing the trombone and trumpet twice a week in various locations to bring some fun and energy to neighbors during this time.

Recently, they played in Hedy Lee’s front yard in West U. They are family friends of the Lee’s.

Russell went to Parker Elementary, where Hedy’s daughter Sandy taught. Keep up-to-date with the quintet at HoustonBrassQuintet.org.

Passing the gavel The Junior League of Houston announced its 2020-21 executive committee. In light of the pandemic, the traditional President’s Tea was not able to take place; however, the gavel was passed with a small, in-person celebration. An announcement was sent to past presidents, members, family and friends asking for words of encouragement for incoming president Rachel Podsednik Regan (pictured, on right), and a

surprise video tribute was created for the day.

The 2019-20 board honored outgoing president Jayne Sheehy Johnston (on left) with meaningful gifts. Incoming president Regan’s theme for the upcoming year is “Imagine” – chosen prior to current events, even more significant now.

The incoming executive committee also includes president-elect Jennifer Scheifley Roberts, community vice president Marie Teixeira Newton, development vice president Lauren Rae Brown, financial vice president Wendy Lewis Armstrong, membership vice president Helyna Betancourt Bledsoe and recording secretary Laura Silva Carter.

Be seen in Buzz About Town. Send your high-res photos and community news to info@thebuzzmagazines.com.

Items are published on a space-available basis. Also share your upcoming-event listings on thebuzzmagazines.com.

Courtesy of The Junior League of Houston

(continued from page 50) sign are siblings (from

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by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Back Porch

yardpeeps.com

NEIGHBORS

Classes we’ve loved

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his back-to-school season has us feeling nostalgic. Like everything else in the world, it’s not quite the same old, same old. And that made us think about what we love the most about school, and what classes we’ve loved most over the years. Here, a few families chime in to share their favorites. Happy backto-school, whatever that looks like this year!

Josh Rassin, graduate of Lamar High School and freshman at Washington and Lee University: “Biology, but that was because of the teacher [Dr. Dang]. That was the hardest class I’ve ever taken. I had the same teacher twice for upper-level biology classes. He was a storyteller and got everyone involved and was funny.”

Sophia Rassin, sophomore at Lamar High School: “Lunch,” to which her mother says, “Lunch does not count as a subject.” “Then physics, because I like that everything was math-based and there were reasons behind everything. It all made sense because there’s always a right answer.”

Ilse Rassin, graduate of Mazapán School in La Ceiba, Honduras, Baylor University and the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston: “Physics is not my fave – we’ll leave it at that. I had a wonderful English professor [Dr. Wortman] when I was at Baylor.

He was like a grandpa, with amazing stories that he would tell to help us relate to the books and the authors. He was very passionate about it, which made us passionate and made you want to read the stories.”

Keith Rassin, graduate of Ball High School, Tulane University and the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston: “It’s always the good teachers, right? It didn’t matter the subject, it was the teacher. My favorite class was finance because the professor [Peter Ricchiuti] was a great storyteller. He would tell great stories about Louisiana politics.”

Robyn Rosenblatt, graduate of Sharpstown High School, The University of Texas at Austin and George Washington University: “English and reading, because I have always loved to read. I like reading to understand the stories and the characters.”

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School: “Math. I’m not sure why.”

Talia Rosenblatt, fourth grader at St. John’s School: “Reading and creative writing because I like to read and write. Those are my favorite things in the world!”

Molly Holub, graduate of Ball High School, The University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech University School of Law: “Spanish, because it’s what I kept going with in high school and college, and it’s the reason I went to the University of Salamanca [Spain] for LOVING SCHOOL For many students, an all-time favorite class was defined by its a summer course. What teacher.

I’ve enjoyed, and what’s kids were happy and being challenged, I was been helpful, is that Spanish is the subject I feel happy with it.”

I can help my kids with the most at home. I Jordan Loev, graduate of Bellaire High promise they will not tell you they have enjoyed School, sophomore at Carnegie Mellon that. But that was only until Caroline started University: “Finance, because I like the quantalking about the subjunctive. Over my head.” titative aspect of business. It’s the most relevant Chanse Holub, senior at Memorial High to what I’m trying to do as a profession, which School: “History, because I’m good at it and it’s is investment banking. I thought it was really interesting.” interesting to learn how to value a company.”

Charlie Holub, eighth grader at Memorial Marisa Loev, senior at Bellaire High School: Middle School: “Language arts, just because my “English because I’ve always really liked to write, teacher [Ms. Handy] was the best.”

I like being creative, and I’ve connected with Caroline Holub, sophomore at Memorial those teachers.”

High School: “Biology, because I want to be Charlotte Krasner, pre-kindergartener at some sort of doctor when I grow up, and I kind First Steps: “I love my teachers because I like of am naturally good at it. I don’t have to try real to go to school. I like to work on necklaces and hard, which makes it easy, so it’s fun. We were sandpaper letters.” supposed to dissect a pig fetus last year. We were Amy Krasner, graduate of St. John’s School, like two weeks away from doing it, but it got George Washington University and University cancelled because of Covid.” of Houston Law Center: “The drive to [my Hannah Loev, graduate of Hillcrest High daughter] Charlotte’s school, past Lamar and St. School in Dallas and Southern Methodist John’s, makes me nostalgic. Seeing the red door University: “From a parent’s standpoint, it’s of the chapel, I love going with Charlotte now. whatever class my kids least complain about, It’s the same chapel I went to.” that wasn’t making their life a living hell. If my