Volume XIII; Issue 11
Friday, January 30, 2015
cavchronline.com
Too cool for community school?
gled to find something that piqued his interest. “I was the kind of student that would just show up, not pay attention, and pass the class.”
Bridget Giles ‘15, Sarah MacEachen ‘16, Leeanne Mckinnon ‘15, Contributors
Graduation was fast approaching for the class of 2014, and Albertine was unsure if furthering his education was worth it. After most deadlines for college applications had passed, a close friend called him, asking about his plans for the future. That same day, he enrolled in Nashua Community College.
O
ptions...I have options?As high school juniors and seniors begin to think about college plans, many won’t consider community college as an option. The very idea of going to a community college is horrifying to some students, not to mention their parents. The stigmas that surround community colleges are endless. Students tend to believe it will feel like high school, it’s not a real education, only slackers go to community college, et cetera. Students who are averse to attending a community college fear that they’ll still have to live at home, never get a good job, and most importantly, that their peers will see them as incapable of getting into college. “I want to do something new and go someplace that’s not next to where I am now,” said Elizabeth Corsetti ‘15. “I don’t know much about [community college] but all I hear is the stigma behind it.” ComColl1 While there is often a negative stigma around community or trade schools like Nashua Community College, the schools have more potential for students than many give them credit for. Photo Credit: Sarah MacEachen
Months later, Albertine figured out what he wanted to do.
While there is often a negative stigma around community or trade schools like Nashua Community College, the schools have more potential for students than many give them credit for. Photo Credit: Sarah MacEachen ‘16. But community college doesn’t deserve these misrepresentations. “Community college is very similar [to traditional four-year colleges] in terms of the education you receive,” said guidance counselor Julie Sullivan. Students have an advisor, and pick classes from options for a specific degree or certificate. Day and night classes are also available to help fit the needs of students. This option is appealing to students who are anxious and unsure of future plans. According to Sullivan, community college can provide a “gentle tran-
OOOklahoma! Martin Bradshaw ’15, Entertainment Editor
Photo Credit: Martin Bradshaw ‘15
Here at Hollis Brookline, we pride ourselves on the quality of our annual school musicals performed by the high school. Last year’s rendition of “Any-
thing Goes”, for example, was particularly superb. This year, the musical that will be performed in the Hollis Brookline auditorium is going to be Rogers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”. The show will be performed four times, on March 20, 21, 27, and 28. Auditions took place on January 7-9. The cast selection process began with the vocal and dance preparation on January 7 and again on January 8. Auditions then ended with call backs for the HB students who made it through first rounds. “Even though it’s a classic,” said Erin Hattamer ‘15, “it’s really funny and energetic. It will be an exciting show to put on.” Hattamer is one of the the students who received a call back. Her audition landed her the role of Aunt Eller in the play. Rehearsals for the show began on January 12. When asked for her thoughts about the upcoming production, Director Elyse Tomlinson said, “It’s spectacular, it’s exciting, it’s a wonderful cast.”
sition to college.” A community program also offers a less expensive way to receive education for those unsure of a career path and allows students to enter the workforce while still attending college classes. Students can get a feel for the college experience while still living at home, and some use community college as an inexpensive way to acquire their required general education courses before transferring to a traditional four-year college. Ari Moraros ‘15 is attending Nashua Community College (NCC) next year. “[Nashua Community College] is local and close to home, I’m not ready to leave yet,” explains Moraros. “It has a lot to offer and I heard good things about it.”
“I want to be a guidance counselor and help students,” he says. Albertine plans to shadow his middle school counselor, and transfer to the University of New Hampshire at the end of the year. For Albertine, community college helped to find a career path before enrolling in a traditional school. Despite stigmas surrounding the program, community college is a viable option that all students can consider while embarking on the college application journey. Even if community college isn’t your first choice, students have the option to transfer after receiving their general education requirements at a low cost. Instead of crossing community college off the list, students should take the time to learn about the benefits, and to see if a community college is the right fit for them.
The two major differences between a community college and a traditional four-year college are the lack of residence halls in a community college and the degrees received at both. Most community colleges don’t provide housing, which makes it the student’s responsibility to find an apartment or commute. Many students worry that they won’t feel a sense of community without campus housing. Some community colleges, though, help students find apartments together in order to build relationships.. As for degrees, the highest degree you can receive at a community college is an Associate (2-year) Degree, compared to the traditional Bachelor’s (4-year) Degree acquired at a four-year school. Community colleges also offer a variety of certificate programs. “Sure, it’s community college but it’s still an education,” said Rob Albertine, a current student at NCC. During his high school years at Alvirne High School, Albertine strug-
Photo Credit: Bridget Giles ‘15
Co-ed Sports: Crossing the gender divide I pray to Kevin Bacon at HBHS Julie Christie ‘15, Editor-in-Cheif
Thumping bass, pulsing light, bodies twisting and moving to the beat. Most of that happened on January 16’s homecoming dance. The only thing that the event didn’t have was attendees. Okay I lied. There were around fifteen people. That’s a good six percent of the people invited to the dance via a Facebook event, and around two percent of the entire school population.To say the turnout was discouraging would be an understatement. “Dances just aren’t a big thing at HB,” said Bree Johnson ‘15, who is the Treasurer for the senior class. Johnson said that the goal of the event was to be like the Homecoming Dance in the fall, but for the winter sports teams. Well, it obviously didn’t happen. Niti Suchdev ‘15, co-captain of the Ski Team said that she and her team were planning to go to the event. However, the team attended an all-day ski race that Friday and they got back “late, too tired, and half of [them] weren’t going to go anyways.” So, why is there an almost “Footloose” level of dancing at HB, in other words, none at all? High school dances are often revered as important social gatherings for high schoolers to mingle and spend time with friends in an exciting environment. “Well, I haven’t had good experiences in the past,” said Scott Goldberg ‘15, about HB dances. “They’re too awkward and kind of forced. I’d need to know my friends were going as well if I was going to go.” Others cited midterms as a reason not to go to the dance. But it can’t just be academics and awkwardness that are keeping people off of the dance floor. There’s a lack of school spirit, and no desire to support other graduating classes. As funny and intriguing the announcers try to be to advertise the dance, there isn’t any kind of community to support their efforts. Nobody cares, but nobody is really trying to fix it, either. We need someone or something like Kevin Bacon to roll into town and get people dancing. There doesn’t need to be new music or sweet moves. There just has to be involvement before the dance. Trying to guess what kind of dance people want is a lot harder than simply asking around and hoping to get it right.Even having a theme can make the dances more popular, because everybody can find a way to fit in. The dance won’t just be for seniors or sports teams, but for the underclassmen and awkward many who just want to be a part of something. The more we as a student body do to create a social event for all of us to go to and feel comfortable at will inevitably create a much stronger community for us all. It’ll be harder to feel ostracised because everyone can be included, as well as give us all a chance to bust that move we secretly perfected over the summer. The Cavalier Chronicle is produced by Hollis Brookline High School students. The articles published represent the views of the staff and do not represent Hollis Brookline High School, HBHS faculty, or administration. As this publication is intended to be a tool for learning, please bring any concerns related to the newspaper to the attention Adviser Lin Illingworth. She can be reached at lin.illingworth@sau41.org
from playing next year despite exceptional talent–in New Hampshire, there has been little recent challenge.
Evan Maloney ‘15, Katryn Thibeault ‘15, Jack Sheilds ‘15, Contributors
In the world of high-school sports, there has always been a stark difference between male and female disciplines. As one of the few elements in society today which still separates by gender, student athletes in high school are known to consistently play on same-sex teams. Popular male sports include football, wrestling and ice hockey, while events like volleyball, field hockey and cheer are traditionally female-dominated. The rationale New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) uses to determine and separate gender-exclusive sports is simple. As said in the NHIAA bylaws: “Teams comprised primarily or solely of persons of one gender shall be granted equal instruction, training, coaching, access to available facilities, equipment, opportunities to practice and compete as teams engaged in a similar activity comprised primarily or solely of persons of the opposite gender. When a sport is offered in two different seasons each individual must participate on the team of his/ her gender.” Essentially, sports which are “male-dominant” or “female-dominant” are just that–dominant, not exclusive. A school with enough interested students to start a female football team has every right to do so, much the same as Hollis-Brookline High School created its male volleyball team a few years ago. But if groups like that exist, for the purpose of providing sports to a certain gender, the NHIAA states that interested players must stick to their designated teams. However, the NHIAA also states that,
Photo Credit: Katryn Thibeault ‘15 if there is not enough same-sex interest to create individual teams, girls may cross gender gaps to play with the boys–just not vice-versa. The gender discrepancy itself comes from perceived or actual physical differences between each sex. It is widely expected that boys will be bigger and more densely muscular than girls, with implications suggesting that to have a boy on a girl’s team would be dangerous. The NHIAA states: “Girls shall be eligible to try out in any activity and, upon becoming a member of the team, will be eligible for NHIAA sponsored competition. This policy recognizes past inequities created by the traditional male domination of sports opportunities and the need to encourage and protect the development of girls’ athletic programs.” The same treatment is not given to boys, because as stated, there is a danger in girls playing with a single, physically dominant male player on the field. According to Rhon Rupp, the HBHS Athletic Director, “If a girl comes out for football, they’re taking that on their own as far as the risk”. Essentially, there is thought to be little to no fallout when a girl plays male sports, but a lot of collateral damage when the equation is reversed. While this philosophy is under attack in some other states–for example, a Long Island case of a twelve-year-old male field hockey player being barred
ThePowerofPoetry Molly McAndrews ‘15, Contributor
Teacher Katherine Pine incorporates poetry and economics to engage students in learning.
What comes to mind when hearing about the American government and economics? For many, these topics are overwhelming, especially when discussing how one affects the other. One of the new teachers at Hollis Brookline High School this year is well aware of how daunting discussing a broad subject can be. To give her students a starting point, teacher Katherine Pine had her students think of various questions they had in regards to this combination of subjects. What is economics? How does the government affect the economy? Does government intervention help or hurt the economy? These questions, and many more, were all explored. By having students engage their minds and think, it has pushed students to go a
Photo Credit: Molly McAndrews ‘15 step further. Pine shared that “intellectually elevate the course,” and she had her students create poems based off of their questions to demonstrate this idea. In Pine’s graduate course the class read Content-Area Literacy, a book that included “I wonder” poems. This idea caught her interest, so Pine chose to implement a project utilizing both that style of poetry and the questions students had previously come up with. As Pine said, “It allowed [students] to work on developing questions.” Students were able to see where there was confusion and “[read] with a purpose” when keeping these questions in mind throughout the lesson. This embodies what Pine considers one of the fun-
Hollis-Brookline offers co-ed opportunities in about a dozen sports, including soccer, basketball and track, but other disciplines blur gender lines a bit more. Sports like skiing and swimming hold co-ed practices, and in sports like bowling and Unified Athletics, it is accepted that both genders will be on the playing field at once. Wrestling-1 Suki and Savannah, HBHS’ two female wrestlers. Photo Credit: Katryn Thibeault Insofar as crossover players, two notable Hollis-Brookline athletes are Suki Graham, ‘15 and Savannah Eliza, ‘18. Both girls play for the wrestling team, which is traditionally offered solely for boys. Graham and Eliza wrestle against primarily male athletes both at meets and practices, and both perform well enough to keep pace with the boys. In addition, though they may not attend HBHS, the school’s hockey team integrates girls, and has brought on a few from Deerfield. Hollis-Brookline works with a co-op program with the other town, with both schools fielding a common team. And in the past, there has been a strong precedent for girls playing boys’ teams. The football team had a female kicker years ago, and often there are girls on the golf team. And rare male crossovers do occur, such as when boys decide to take part in Spirit Squad–an event which has happened multiple times in HBHS’ history. “The school does whatever the NHIAA mandates”, said Rupp. HBHS abides closely by the Association’s rules and bylaws, and takes care to not create opportunities for athlete injury. But, should a student know where to look, Hollis-Brookline has a wealth of athletic opportunities for each gender, whether separate or together. damentals of learning “…where [an individual looks] for questions and not just answers.” The poems were not presented, but rather have been posted on a board in room 274 for whoever is curious. Pines’ students have responded well to the outcome of the assignment, as well as those who have stopped to take a peek at the board. There is hope to make future poetry assignments more involved in the future. One way is through a poetry slam. Currently, the sophomore economics classes are beginning a new project. The students will be taking their questions and applying them to the real world. Pine arranged a panel discussion regarding new trends in the global economy which took place Tuesday, January 13, 2015 during CavBlock. Moira Sullivan from the U.S. Department of the Treasury; William Maddocks, the coordinator of the SMDP at the University of New Hampshire; and Hollis Brookline’s Rick Barnes each spoke to the economics students. This panel allowed students to better understand economics in the real world, making for a great close to the semester.