Issue 18

Volume 119 Issue 18

The Record Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

record.horacemann.org February 11th, 2022

Strauss ‘90 discusses sea level rise in second installment of Environmental Speaker Series Naomi Yaeger Staff Writer Chief Scientist and CEO of the organization Climate Central Dr. Benjamin Strauss ‘90, discussed the scientific causes and effects of sea level rise at the second installment of the Environmental Issues Speaker Series on Tuesday night. Lauren B. Kim (11) and Brandon Pae (12) co-moderated the event along with faculty moderators and Upper Division science teachers Camilla Nivison and Oleg Zvezdin.

Strauss’ nonprofit organization pairs journalists and scientists to share research on climate change with the public and with policy makers, according to the speaker series website. Climate Central has two main initiatives: providing data and graphics that illustrate climate change’s effects on weather to US meteorologists and providing maps of sea levels to identify populations at risk of flooding. While Climate Central publishes on all of climate change, the organization’s main focus is sea level rise.

During the event, Strauss spoke about the different factors driving sea level rise. Strauss said that 90% of the world’s excess heat is absorbed by the oceans. Because water expands when it gets warmer, this has been the cause of most of the sea level rise in the 20th century. Additionally, warming temperatures cause ice to melt, he said. As the melting takes time, a lot of the effects of sea level rise have already been put into motion, he said. “Even if we stopped polluting tomorrow, the seas will continue to

rise, probably for centuries,” he said.

In the event, Strauss also discussed the historical evidence for floods 10,000 to 20,000 years ago within the context of flood myths from the Abrahamic religions and the Aborigine peoples. Zvezdin enjoyed hearing about historical examples of changes in climate, he said. “We’ve had periods of low seas and very high seas in the past, and I found it very interesting to tie all of those together, if you will, from mythical, biblical stories of floods to sea level rise and climate change,” he said.

Ashley Coburn (10) also found the historical examples of climate change engaging, she said. “The most interesting part for me was when he connected climate change and sea level rise back to Noah’s Ark and all of these ancestral stories,” she said. A consistent theme running through all of these stories was that the rise in sea levels was meant to punish a community for some wrong-doing, Coburn said.

However, Strauss pointed out that this time humans can stop the seas from rising.

Kim’s favorite part of the event was when Strauss discussed how he addresses climate skeptics, she said.

“I really liked his response of how he does not really pay attention to those who are really skeptical about it, but rather focuses on those who are just midway between wanting to help and not wanting to help,” Kim said. “Those are the people that I think we can most focus on and who we have the best chance of getting to help preserve the environment and fight climate change.”

Another interesting part of the series was when Strauss explained the man-made causes of Hurricane Sandy, Isa Melián (10) said. “15% of the damage from the storm was completely caused by humancaused climate change,” she said.

Strauss went on to illustrate the disproportionate amount of attention that richer neighborhoods get from flooding in proportion to less wealthy communities, Melián said. When a storm hits Miami Beach, everyone pays attention, but when areas such as Atlantic City flood, the media is noticeably absent, she said.

Beyond illustrating the urgent problems that climate change poses, Stauss also discussed potential solutions, Nivison said. “I was struck by his response that, of the problems of the world, climate change would be the easiest to solve,” she said. “He compared it to injustice, where there’s much more nuance. But this is something where we have the science, and we know what needs to be done.”

Zvezdin was also interested in Strauss’ claim that climate change could have already been solved.

“The reality is right, we have the technology to move away from carbon now in a lot of ways,” he said. “I do think that with a surge of funding and capital, we could transition to completely renewable, completely carbon free electricity production.”

Kim chose to moderate the event because she cares about preserving the environment and wanted to help students learn more about climate change, she said. “It’s an

opportunity that I really didn’t get anywhere else, and to be able to serve as a connection between the audience and the speaker was a really valuable opportunity for me,” she said.

To keep the event running smoothly, the moderators had to sort through all of the student questions to figure out which they should ask next, Zvezdin said.

“There’s a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes,” he said. “We’re all in communication, trying to figure out what the next question is going to be, if it’s going to lead to something else or to some other interesting point.”

As a general strategy, the moderators tried to ask more general questions leading into more specific ones, Pae said. To make the large number of questions more manageable, the moderators asked questions that focused around

FTC Team member Morgan Kim (11) said that the teams had less time to prepare since the season started late in mid-December. As a result, the teams made efficient use of their weekly club meetings and robot-building sessions on Saturdays, she said. “The commitment everyone put in was particularly evident,” she said.

Whether or not the event would be in-person was a question until a few days before the event, Gruen said.

“We were hopeful and optimistic that we would be in person, and we’re so fortunate we were able to compete head to head and meet the other teams,” he said.

This competition was an especially fun experience because it was an inperson event, co-team-manager of HM’s FTC Team 4326 Larry Tao (11) said. “The highlight of the competition for me was being able to compete together with all of the other teams in person,” he said.

Having competed in FTC tournaments before, Kim was elated to have the opportunity to attend inperson, she said. “Despite the masks, I recall the passion and fervor of each school,” she said. A highlight of the competition for Kim was the sheer amount of team spirit, she said. “There was so much support between our sister teams,” she said.

Everybody had a lot of nervous excitement because the event was the first in-person competition, Rao said.

“Robotics competitions are really great experiences, but they can also sometimes be a little hectic,” he said. It

took a while for the team to get used to in-person competitions again, he said.

Rao enjoyed competing in person.

“Robotics is great no matter what, even with online competitions, but there’s just something special about being in-person, talking to other teams and competing in matches, that really just can’t be beat,” he said. Rao was also glad that the transition from online competitions to in-person competitions was smooth, he said.

During the competition, teams were competitive on the field, and were frequently finalists in the off-field awards, Gruen said. “We were very excited and proud that team 16568 took top honors by winning “The Inspire Award,”’ he said. According to FIRST, The Inspire Award is given to the team that best embodies the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. Rao was thrilled that team 16568, The Cybernetic Lions, won

Strauss’ work in sea level, which eventually led into questions about how people could be inspired to take action, he said.

Coming away from the event, Nivison hopes that students learned about the logistics of sea level rise, she said. “I hope that students that didn’t know as much about it were able to learn what’s causing sea level rise and where sea level rise is affecting people now,” Nivison said.

“It’s important to think about who’s been contributing to climate change and who’s been affected because it’s often not the same.”

Pae found the event to be very meaningful, he said. “Connecting with someone who’s a professional in this field, like how Strauss was, is the most valuable experience,” Pae said. “I’m definitely feeling more inspired now to start tackling climate change and specifically rising sea level.”

Jorge Orvananos/Staff Photographer

SMILES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT Strauss at the Speaker Series.

Team 16568 places first in FTC Robotics qualifier

Aanya Gupta/Staff Photographer

TECHY TEAMMATES Students test robot before the round.

Joshua Shuster Contributing Writer The school’s FTC 16568 team won first place at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics qualifiers on Sunday and will advance to the state championships. All four of the school’s FTC teams attended the qualifiers, which took place at the High School for Constructions, Trades, Engineering & Technology in Queens on Sunday, faculty co-advisor and coach Sam Gruen said. The qualifiers were the teams’ first in-person competition in two years.

The tournament consisted of building a robot that would have to navigate a field by traversing barriers and racing against time to load and deliver certain items to checkpoints, according to the FIRST website. FIRST organizes youth robotics competitions across the United States.

The school’s FTC Robotics program

consists of four teams, each building smaller-scale robots for tournaments.

Teams began preparing for the competition this December.

The teams were responsible for designing and building their robots, and documenting their process for the competition, Gruen said. Coaches help with logistics, as well as diagnosing and troubleshooting issues with the robots students built, though teams rarely needed feedback from the coaches, he said. While the coaches aided students in their projects, students did a great job of determining the root causes of the problems with their robots, and coming up with workable solutions on their own, Gruen said.

FTC Team member Avi Rao (11) said that the Coaches and Captains did a great job getting the teams to the venue in the first place. “It was actually almost completely normal, besides the masks of course,” he said.

Aanya Gupta/Staff Photographer

BEEP BOOP 16568’s first-place robot.

the Inspire Award, he said. The award denoted team 16568 as the best team at the competition, Rao said. “It was great celebrating with them, and it was just a great win for HM overall,” he said.

For many team members, this event was their first experience with competition in robotics. Rao said that the competition was a great learning experience for all the freshmen and sophomores who never attended a competition before.

The FTC Robotics Team will look to attend at least one post-season event to give new members a chance to build and drive robots, Gruen said.

Tao was surprised that fellow team members were organized and motivated despite the fact that many of them had never gone to a competition before. Tao is sure that the teams will continue to improve, and results will be better with each tournament, he said.

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THE RECORD OPINIONS FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

Photography at our school: A reward, not a requirement

Neeva Patel Taking photography has been the best decision I have ever made at school. At the start of eighth grade, I was required to choose an arts course from an array of options, and at first I was wary. In previous years, I had taken Drawing & Painting, Theater, and Dance but I had not enjoyed any of them. I decided to take a risk and choose an art form I had no experience with: Darkroom Photography. Before the class, I had only ever taken photos using my iPhone, but after a few weeks I became familiar with the process of shooting and developing using a film camera.

Looking back on that experience as a sophomore in Photography 3, the decision to take the course is what allowed me to become the creative and intuitive person I am today. During photography class, I must think about how to use materials and a model to create an original photo. It requires a lot of abstract thinking, which is essential for Horace Mann students. During

a typical school day, we go from class to class and are either analyzing a book, doing math problems, or balancing chemical equations.

However, we rarely make time for creativity.

After a long day, coming down to the photography studio for class gives me time to calm down. If I had a free period during that time, I would have gone on my phone or forced myself to do even more school work. Instead, during class, my friends and I listen to music, roll and develop film, create contact sheets, and make vision boards for digital shoots. Either way, I am given time to artistically relax in the studio and am given a break from my busy school day, which is something that wouldn’t happen if I dropped my arts courses.

Photography has also allowed me to put time aside in my day to think creatively.

Staging a photoshoot requires me to use parts of my brain that I otherwise don’t use during the school day. For example, when preparing for a photoshoot, I have to brainstorm what positions I want my model to be standing in, what they should be wearing, how I should stage the background, what props they should be carrying, and what lighting would best fit the project. Thinking about these creative aspects is a nice change during the school day, where you are mainly thinking about other problems that can easily stress you out.

Aside from alleviating the stress I carry on a daily basis, the course has also allowed me to explore graphic design and Photoshop. When I took Photography 2 last year, I often had to shoot on my DSLR camera for assignments and edit the photos in Photoshop. Knowing how to maneuver through photo editing apps in class also helped me in future projects. I was able to use

what I had learned for a creative project in English class where I designed a Monopoly game about “The Odyssey.” Learning how to use photo editing apps gives students a valuable skill that can be used outside of the classroom, and is extremely beneficial in our largely digital world.

Creating mood boards and carefully planning out each step of my project makes me feel like a professional, and the unique creativity I can use during class is heavily beneficial for those who wish to explore their artistic side more. The photography studio in Fisher has extremely hightech scanners, lights, backdrops, and an elaborate darkroom and developing station.

Students should take photography at our school so that they can take advantage of all the resources offered to them.

However, my favorite part of photography is not being around all the high-tech equipment, but rather it is to be around students who are willing to work in teams, help each other out creatively, and make the class more fun than it already is. Just this Tuesday, one of my classmates was doing a practice photoshoot of another one of my classmates, and the rest of the class was watching her. Everybody watching you pose in different positions is pretty frightening, so to lighten up the mood — and to get our model to smile — we all started telling each other jokes and puns. By the time class ended, we were all giving our classmates advice on what to alter for the real shoot, and at the same time, we were able to share fun moments with each other, something I rarely experience in an academic- class.

Although I am officially allowed to drop any of my arts courses next year, I plan on taking photography until I graduate since the studio has allowed me to grow

creatively. If you are considering dropping your art classes once your requirement is over, I suggest signing up for photography.

Regardless of whether you take it for one year or five, your experience at our school will seem less stressful and will be filled with fun memories and more creativity!

Lauren Kim/Art Director

Go see the Student Written One Acts!

Friday @ 4PM Saturday @ 2PM and 7PM

Volume 119 Editorial Board Head of Design AJ Walker

Editor in Chief Hanna Hornfeld

Managing Editor Liliana Greyf

Features Mia Calzolaio Emma Colacino

News Claire Goldberg Katya Tolunsky

Opinions Devin Allard-Neptune Yin Fei

A&E Purvi Jonnalagadda Arushi Talwar

Middle Division Jade Ciriello

Lions’ Den Lauren Ho

Art Directors Vivian Coraci Lauren Kim Riva Vig

Design Editors Avani Khorana Myra Malik Arin Rosen

Photography Sean Lee Sam Siegel

Online Editor Lucas Glickman

Faculty Adviser David Berenson

Staff

Staff Writers Alex Lautin, Alexandra Yao, Allison Markman, Audrey Carbonell, Audrey Moussazadeh, Ayesha Sen, Cecilia Coughlin, Celine Kiriscioglu, Divya Ponda, Emily Salzhauer, Emily Sun, Hannah Katzke, Jillian Lee, Jiya Chatterjee, Max Chasin, Rachael Baez, Sean Lee, Vidhatrie Keetha, Zack Kurtz, Ariella Frommer, Athena Rem, Ben Rafal, Ella Shaham, Erica Jiang, Etta Singer, Heidi Li, Kate Beckler, Lucy Peck, Maeve Goldman, Naomi Yaeger, Neeva Patel, Nia Huff, Rani Ogden, Samantha Matays, Sophie Rukin Staff Photographers Aanya Gupta, Allyson Wright, Amelia Hirsch, Anna Miller, Aryan Palla, Ben Rafal, Catherine Mong, David Aaron, Dylan Greenberg, Harper Rosenberg, Jiwan Kim, Lynn Egan, Madlyn Yoon, Matthew Jacobson, Nicole Au, Oliver Konopko, Trisha Tran Staff Artists Aashna Hari, Addy Steinberg, Aimee Yang, Amira Dossani, Christian Conner, Dani Brooks, Dylan Leftt, Elena Zhu, Felix Brener, Isabelle Kim, Ishaan Iyengar, Karla Moreira, Kayden Hansong, Kristy Xie, Lauren B. Kim, Sam Gordon, Samantha Strasser, Samuel Stern, Serena Bai, Sophia Liu, Sophie Li

Editorial Policy

About Founded in 1903, The Record is Horace Mann School’s award-winning weekly student newspaper. We publish approximately 30 times during the academic year, offering news, features, opinions, arts, Middle Division and sports coverage relevant to the school community. The Record serves as a public forum to provide the community with information, entertainment, and an outlet for various viewpoints. As a student publication, the contents of The Record are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. Horace Mann School is not responsible for the accuracy and contents of The Record and is not liable for any claims based on the contents or views expressed therein.

Editorials All editorial decisions regarding content, grammar, and layout are made by the senior editorial board. The unsigned editorial represents the opinion of the majority of the board.

Opinions Opinion columns represent the viewpoint of the author and not of The Record or the school. We encourage students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents to submit opinions by emailing record@horacemann.org.

Letters Letters to the editor often respond to editorials, articles, and opinions pieces, allowing The Record to uphold its commitment to open discourse within the school community. They too represent the opinion of the author and not of The Record or the school. To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters should be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or email (record@horacemann. org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed.

Contact For all tips, comments, queries, story suggestions, complaints and corrections, please contact us by email at record@horacemann.org.

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THE RECORD NEWS AND MIDDLE DIVISION FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

Feiner ‘18 Represents Princeton on “Jeopardy National College Championship” Sophie Rukin and Audrey O’Mary Staff and Contributing Writers Ella Feiner ‘18 appeared on “Jeopardy National College Championship” on Tuesday, representing Princeton University, where she is currently a senior. Feiner competed against two other college students for a chance at a prize of $250,000. After three rounds of competition, Feiner finished the show in last place, taking home $10,000 for participating.

“Jeopardy National College Championship” is a special two-week spinoff of the popular quiz game show “Jeopardy!”. This year’s host is “The Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik.

Episodes air in rounds, with a total of 36 college students attempting to advance to the finals.

In late November, Feiner flew to LA to begin filming the show. It was her first time in LA and she was excited to see what the process of filming a show was like, she said. “I thought the experience would be once in a lifetime for me, since I’m definitely not going to end up with a career in acting or media,” she said.

Over the course of the 30-minute competition, the three contestants vied for the first place spot, answering questions on topics such as DJs, Shakespeare, movie casts, and American history. It was exciting to film the show, Feiner said. “I remember just thinking that the lights were really bright, and that it was really hard to buzz in quickly enough to the little light on the board.” It was so exciting that she barely remembers any of the questions, she said.

“Jeopardy!” consists of three rounds: “Jeopardy!”, “Double Jeopardy!”, and “Final

Jeopardy!”. While Feiner entered the “Double Jeopardy!” round in last place, she briefly pulled into the lead after a string of correct answers. By the end of the round Feiner was in last place with a total of $5,600.

After the first two rounds came “Final Jeopardy!”. In this closing segment of the competition, contestants were required to answer a single question, staking any amount of the money they earned in previous rounds.

The question asked the contestants the name of a plant of the genus Dionaea. Feiner answered incorrectly, “What is rose?” As she had wagered the entirety of her earnings, she ended the game with $0, putting her in last place.

All in all, Feiner was appreciative of the opportunity to be on the show, she said. “I went into it with the mindset of ‘I’m just here to have fun and this is a really cool experience to be selected [for]’, so I don’t think I could’ve been unhappy with [any outcome].”

Outside of the actual filming, Feiner loved exploring LA and making friends with the other 35 college students participating in the show, she said.

One of the biggest differences between the “Jeopardy! National College Championship” and original “Jeopardy!” is that participants cannot continue to win indefinitely, Feiner said. “[The show] was a structure with set prize payouts, where if you win you progress to the semi-finals, and if you win that you go to the finals,” she said.

She first learned that she had been selected for the show in May of 2021. “My first thought was ‘oh my gosh, my friends are going to be so excited,’” she said. “It didn’t feel real that

Sean Lee/Photo Director

JEOPARDY FOR $400 Feiner on the show. after so many years of watching the episodes together that I would be on [the show].”

Feiner first became interested in “Jeopardy!” during her freshman year of college, she said. She and her friends loved to watch the show together and started to play their own “Jeopardy!” style games. In February of 2019, she founded a club called the “Princeton Jeopardy Circuit.”

In 2020, Feiner’s friends encouraged her to try out for the show by taking the online “Jeopardy!” application test. Within a few weeks, she received an email that she had been chosen for a callback. Five months later, Feiner received a call from an unknown number in LA. “Usually I don’t pick up calls from numbers I don’t have in my contacts, but this time I

saw the LA number, and I decided ‘maybe I’ll pick up the call,’” she said. It was a “Jeopardy!” producer telling Feiner she was going to be on the show, she said.

In preparation for the show, Feiner watched a lot of “Jeopardy!” episodes. She specifically watched the episodes featuring Yale University student Matt Amodio, who ended his “Jeopardy!” streak with 38 wins.

Feiner loved representing Princeton on the show, especially before she graduates at the end of the year. “It’s been fun over the last few days to see Princeton putting out advertisements all over social media about me,” she said. She also enjoyed watching all of her friends and family come together to support her on the show, she said.

Understanding grade anxiety among MD students Sophie Rukin Staff Writer

about learning,” Abbamonte said.

Grades were first created as a way of comparing one student to another when in actuality it is just an oversimplification, she said. “I’d much rather have a conversation with a student and talk about their essay, but that’s not as easy a way to convey information.”

One reason so many MD students stress about their grades is because of their parents, Abbamonte said.

“Parents today feel like they shouldn’t be so grade conscious because we know that’s not good parenting, but at the same time parents are worried about things like getting into college,” she said. These parents’ mindsets can rub off on the children, Abbamonte said.

“Even if a parent is not saying you need to get As, many students want to impress their parents and they want to impress themselves,” Sixth Grade

pressure is from her parents. “I want to get good grades so they won’t be mad,” she said.

Maya Chachra (6) feels similarly “Grades are really important, to Brown. “My grades are really because you need good grades to get important because my parents care into a good college, and then you need about them, ” she said. She also feels good grades in college so that you as if her parents are her primary can get a good job and make a living,” motivation to get good grades, she Luca Brown (6) said. Two weeks ago, said.

Middle Division (MD) first-semester However, Amilicia feels that a lot report cards came out, causing stress of the stress surrounding grades and worry for some students. comes just from being at the school, “In my advisory, [the students] really she said. “Everyone has the goal of want to know when report cards are being successful and thinking about going to come out and then when colleges and that is always going to be you tell them, they go, ‘oh no,’” MD a motivating factor for many.”

Dean of Faculty Eva Abbamonte said.

While Julia Lourenco (8) was not Abbamonte said this stress is caused worried about her own grades before by the fact that on some level, students report cards came out, she understands use grades to measure how they feel why others would be. “It’s that variable about themselves. of uncertainty surrounding grades The real problem stems from that make them so stressful,” she students’ tendency to care more about said. A student does not fully know the grade than the actual learning, how much their participation or homework matters until the report cards come out, she said.

Chachra notices general anxiety surrounding both report cards and grades in general, because many people want to talk about their grades. “It’s not good to talk about your grades, but sometimes people get really stressed Nicole Au/Staff Photographer out and they want to know how they STUDIOUS YOUNGSTERS Middle schoolers study diligently in the Academic Center. compare on average Abbamonte said. “As an educator, I Dean Michelle Amilicia said. Students to other people,” she said. It is better wish my students could focus more set high expectations for themselves for students to keep their grades to on what they’ve learned, and be proud and would prefer to stress out than themselves since sharing grades can of that, and be less conscious of what be confident, she said. “If you act like create an awkward environment, they think the grade means and how you’ll never fall, and then you do, that Chachra said.

As a sixth-grader in the first semester the grade can be used to compare is more embarrassing than if you say ‘I’m probably gonna fall. ” of the year, Brown wants to make themselves to someone else.”

While Brown feels as if some of the a good impression, which partly “To me a grade is just a shorthand pressure to perform well comes from contributes to the all-around stress, way of transmitting some information herself, she feels like a lot of that she said.

The MD has worked to minimize grade-related stress as a division, Abbamonte said. For example, the math department has revised the seventh-grade curriculum and the history department has begun to allow revisions and retakes, she said.

However, she does not think these changes have actually done too much to reduce stress, which is something kids will experience whether or not changes are made, she said.

are to other students, she said. For Maurel, a healthy relationship with grades is one where a student can get a bad grade, understand it, and then use it to improve, she said. “An unhealthy relationship is when you stay up for hours and hours to get 100s on everything, but if you don’t get A-pluses you get really sad,” she said.

When people display their unhealthy relationship with grades it creates a tense environment, she said.

“I’d much rather somebody be an ‘A plus’ human being, and a ‘B’ history student than an ‘A plus’ history student, and a ‘B’ human being.”

- Eva Abbamonte Some classes, such as eighth grade Honors Math, run on a pass-fail system.

Sachin Buluswar (8) appreciates this system because it allows him to focus on learning math rather than just his grades. Focusing more on content will be good preparation for high school math, he said.

As an eighth-grader, Buluswar now cares more about his grades than he did when he was in sixth grade, he said. “As I’m getting older they are just more important because they give me an idea of how I’m going to do in the future,” he said.

Lourenco also cares more about her grades now that she is an eighthgrader. “I’ve always cared about grades and now, especially going into high school, it’s going to be a lot more pressure because it’s for colleges,” she said.

The pass or fail system allows students to gain a better understanding of the curriculum and not just strive for a good grade, eighth grade Honors Math teacher Ofelia Marquez said.

“I think it [the pass or fail system] pushes more of a sense of learning and a sense of what success looks like.”

While grades are important to Iris Maurel (6), she does not believe they are as important to her as they

For Abbamonte, a healthy relationship with grades is one where an individual views their grades as one means of communication about what they have learned, she said. “[A healthy relationship is] when they’re [grades are] put within a broader context of who you are as a student, let alone as a human being, because being a student is just one part of your identity,” she said. “I’d much rather somebody be an ‘A plus’ human being, and a ‘B’ history student than an ‘A plus’ history student, and a ‘B’ human being.”

Kaitlyn Fan (7) hopes that students in the MD can change their overall mindset. “They [students] should realize one bad grade is not the end of the world.”

As students deal with grades and report cards, Abbamonte hopes they ask themselves why the grades matter to them as a student, or what about the grades make them proud.

“The purpose of middle school is to learn who you are as a learner and then develop the skills to be the best learner you can be,” she said. “In middle school, [grades] really don’t matter. They matter in what they communicate, but they don’t matter in and of themselves.”

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THE RECORD FEATURES FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

Uncovering the archives: Student activism, over the years APARTHEID ACTIVISM (1985-1990)

APRIL, 1989 Students

take to the streets for antiapartheid demonstrations, and a divestment decision is made.

JANUARY, 1989 Volume 82’s

depiction of the student body’s push for divestment.

ANTI-WAR PROTESTS (2003-2005)

HEADLINES, READ ALL ABOUT ‘EM!

From top to bottom, The Record’s coverage of the unfolding events: May 1985, April 1988, January 1989, January 1989

NOVEMBER, 2002 Volume

100’s political cartoon.

NOVEMBER, 2002 Volume 100,

Issue 10 was dedicated to discussing “The Iraq Question.” Students wrote opposing opinions, covered protests, and the board published an editorial.

OCCUPY WALL STREET (2011) SEPTEMBER, 2005 Volume 103’s coverage of the community’s anti-war demostrations.

NOVEMBER, 2011 A front-page exploration — community

members learn about and attend Wall Street Protests.

OCTOBER, 2011 A visual depiction of Occupy Wall Street, from Volume 109.

THE RECORD MIDDLE DIVISION FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

“Own your masters:” A look into Middle Division assemblies Ayesha Sen Staff Writer The Middle Division’s (MD) assembly programming is a testament to the power of assemblies, MD history teacher Emma McFarland said. “[The messages] can stick with you for years,” she said. “Lessons are taught in assemblies — not just classrooms.”

The planning process for assemblies begins as early as the summer, when Head of MD Javaid Khan tries to find a theme for that school year’s assemblies, he said. “Each of the themes all relate back to one idea, though, which is some way of getting people to share their stories, ” Khan said. Khan has been incorporating themes into assemblies as early as 2010, even at the school he previously used to work at. “I really think that that uniting factor can make assembly programming so much more effective.”

This year’s assembly theme is “own your masters,” Khan said.

“I got the idea for this theme when someone sent me an article about a hip hop Ph.D., so this guy got his Ph.D. and wrote his dissertation entirely in verse, with each chapter being a song on an album,” Khan said. “[The artist] talked about the significance of owning your masters, that owning the original recording means that you own the rights to tell your own story.”

While assembly speakers are often decided upon ahead of time, Khan remains in contact with them leading up to their visit, updating them on the year’s theme, for example. “I knew that George Takei was coming to speak, so when I decided on the ‘owning your masters’ theme, I reached out to him and said, ‘George, I really want to focus on how you own your own story,’” Khan said. “George ended up loving the idea, and this is usually what happens — most of our speakers are really excited to play into a larger theme. ” One constant through each of the assemblies is the presence of a Q&A section, which typically takes place at the end of the assembly, Khan said. “This is kind of nonnegotiable because that’s

Ben Rafal/Staff Photographer

WEEKLY TRADITIONS “This or That” results in assembly. later in the Star Trek movies. Fanelli watched every episode of the original Star Trek when she was a child, so Takei’s visit was especially inspiring for her.

During the assembly, Takei spoke about his time in the Japanese internment camps during the Second World War. Following the experience, Takei took control of the narrative and wrote a novel about his personal memory of the camps, Fanelli said. “I was so impressed with Mr. Takei’s kindness and his view of family, social issues, and justice,” she said. “Meeting him was a most memorable experience.”

MD World Languages teacher John Griffin believes that it is beneficial to think about the two assemblies — Takei’s and Levy’s

Courtesy of Drew Samuels

THE BIG SCREEN Khan on stage at MD assembly. the way we get our audiences really into the assemblies,” Khan said. “I usually give the speaker some advice that our students sit by grade level and questions tend to get more abstract as they go from sixth grade to eighth grade, so I tell them to move around, try to ask questions from all over the place.”

Khan tries to be flexible with speakers about the specific structure of the assemblies, he said. “I’m basically comfortable with anything, so it really comes down to what the speaker wants, which I know is always subject to change,” Khan said. “Sometimes as late as the morning of, a speaker will come to me and say ‘can you interview me instead,’ and I say ‘of course, that’s fine,’” he said.

“It’s just really amazing to see it all come together by the end.”

Albert Lee (7) found the assembly about Holocaust survivor Tony Levy’s experience through the Holocaust in Eastern Europe spoke at last Thursday to be particularly moving, he said.

While Lee initially expected to be overcome by grief at the assembly, he appreciated how Levy emphasized other aspects of the tragedy as well, such as the persistence of victims during the Holocaust, he said. “Before the assembly, I was expecting to hear a firsthand account of the Holocaust, and this did happen, but the main theme that stood out to me aside from the sadness were the bravery of the family who was sheltering Toby Levy even though the circumstances were dire.”

Lee believes that in addition to teaching the student body about the tragedy of the Holocaust, the assembly helped him learn about more general life skills, he said. “One thing I found interesting was Toby Levy’s dad’s preparedness for any situation that may come their way,” he said. “ A takeaway from this assembly was that never giving up hope is the key to overcoming challenges.”

The Levy assembly in particular resonated with McFarland because she was able to connect to it on a deeper level, she said.

Specifically, Levy’s visit reminded McFarland of when Holocaust survivor Aranka Siegal visited her middle school, she said. “We read her book, Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944, in English class,” McFarland said. “Even though that assembly took place over a decade ago, I still remember the lessons that were imparted that day.”

MD math teacher Susan Fanelli’s favorite assembly thus far has been when Takei came to the school, she said. Takei was an actor who starred in the original Star Trek episodes and then

5

visits — in combination, he said. “As much as we as a society like to pretend that we have evolved past these types of acts, their stories continue to resonate for a reason,” Griffin said. “We must actively work to ensure that the memories of these experiences are never forgotten so that we remember to ensure that these acts are never repeated.”

In addition to more serious matters, the MD assemblies also incorporate bonding activities such as “This or That,” which students enjoy, sixth-grade dean Michelle Amilicia said. As a part of the game, Head of the MD Javaid Khan poses two choices each day for a week — such as S Skittles versus M&M’s, for example.

Then, students vote outside his office throughout the week and Khan reads the final results at the division-wide assembly. “It is great to see how excited the sixth graders are when the winning choice is revealed,” Amilicia said.

Similarly, Emma Filstein (7) enjoyed the MD’s game show assembly in which three students from each grade competed to create a storyline guiding a teacher through their first day of school, she said. “When we play these games as a whole Middle

Division, I think that it’s very fun,” Filstein said.

McFarland appreciates how Khan begins many assemblies with music, as it is always an encouraging start, she said. “We always have the opportunity to request songs which is an awesome platform for students and faculty to share,” she said.

In Griffin’s experience, assemblies vary greatly based on the specific topic that it is covering, he said. For instance, a theatrical performance is received differently than an assembly in which faculty, staff and students are engaged in some sort of competition, Griffin said. Generally speaking, competition-based assemblies are seen by everyone as fun opportunities to show off everyone’s hidden talents, whereas theatrical performances are a time to appreciate an entertaining show, he said.

Khan especially enjoys student-led assemblies because he gets to learn about what his students are passionate about, he said. “I love when students lead sports assemblies and just talk naturally about their sports or other things,” Khan said. “Honestly, the ones I tend to forget are the ones that I lead because for student assemblies, I can really sit back and admire.”

While Griffin believes that students and faculty all appreciate the school’s assemblies, the two groups may differ in the ways that they experience specific assemblies, he said. “Students, for the most part, engage in discovery during assemblies, while faculty and staff generally engage in rediscovery,” Griffin said. “Faculty and staff may have heard about a particular topic before, but we experience it in a new way with a new audience.”

Fanelli believes that there are many factors that contribute to an effective assembly, she said. These factors range from the speaker’s points to the general emotions conveyed through the programming. “I look for interesting and relevant speakers who are able to hold the attention of all of the participants in the assembly, and for people who represent a positive feeling and outlook.”

In the future, Filstein wishes to see more assemblies that engage the audience more, like the game show assemblies did, she said. “I hope to see more interactive [assemblies] because a lot of them are just listening to a person speak for 45 minutes, and I hear from my friends that they’re boring, so interactive activities can help that,” Filstein said.

While the specifics of each of the MD’s future assemblies have not yet been decided upon, Khan is excited by the current plans for the future, he said. “We have some great assemblies coming up like an Indian dance troupe that’s coming in to perform, a storytelling nonprofit, and of course less formal assemblies that I run myself.”

Although Khan does his best to make assemblies as impactful as possible, he understands that each individual has their own interests, he said. “I often share with students my idea of the snowflake theory, which is that, like snowflakes hitting a car, some of [the assemblies] are gonna stick, some of them are just gonna melt away, and that’s totally fine,” Khan said. “At the end of the day, if at least some of these assemblies spoke to you, then I know that I have done my job.”

Courtesy of Drew Samuels

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE Middle Division students attend assembly in Gross Theater.

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THE RECORD ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

XOXO, Safran ‘92: An alum’s journey as Gossip Girl writer and producer

Courtesy of Josh Safran

Emily Salzhauer Staff Writer In season 1 episode 12 of the original Gossip Girl, the characters break into the pool at their school, Constance, for a late-night pool party.

One afternoon in 1992, students at Horace Mann, including Josh Safran ‘92, did the same.

Safran was a writer and executive producer for the 2007 TV series “Gossip Girl,” and is the showrunner for the 2021 reboot. He has also created and run other shows including “Quantico,” “Soundtrack,” and NBC’s Smash (s2), as well as writing the film “Endless Love.”

During his high school career, Safran was very involved in the arts, he said. He was a member of the Glee Club, played the viola in the orchestra, acted, participated in the stage crew, and even directed many of the school’s theater productions.

Barry Siebelt, head of the Department of Theater, Dance, & Film Studies during Safran’s time at the school, encouraged Safran’s love for theater and the arts. Safran was exposed to a variety of shows and was given the opportunity to experiment with different genres of theater and jobs on set, he said.

All of Safran’s high school classes and activities have contributed to his career in some way, he said. “To be a showrunner, you have to excel at math because part of the showrunner’s job is budgeting, scheduling, and making sure there’s enough time in the day for every scene to be shot,” he said. “Because I went to a specialty school [for college], I wasn’t required to take that many courses outside of my passion, but luckily I was well rounded at Horace Mann. I am a better showrunner now because of those [math] classes.”

Beyond his classes, the wide range of books and plays that Safran read in the school’s library also played a big role in his life, he said. “The library at Horace Mann had so many plays, all of Arthur Miller [and] all of Sondheim,” he said.

Despite his love for writing and the arts, Safran originally intended to only be a director

or studio executive, he said. It was not until Safran attended the New York University Tisch School of Arts that he became interested in writing as a career, he said. Though he applied to Tisch as a director, he was required to submit writing with his application. “When I was accepted, [the admission’s counselor] said, ‘you need to be in Dramatic Writing,’ which is their playwriting course because back then they didn’t have television writing classes,” he said.

Safran quickly found that his counselor had been correct about the course. “Dramatic Writing was a great place for me,” he said. The small class size allowed Safran to get to know the 25 other students while refining his own writing skills.

That class sparked Safran’s interest in writing film. He began to write movies right after college, but it wasn’t until six years later that began to write and sell pilots for TV shows, he said.

Safran is proud of all of the shows that he has worked on, but he has a special place in his heart for Gossip Girl because it is so heavily based on his own life, he said.

The most evident connection between the Gossip Girl shows and Safran’s life are the shows’ characters, many of which are based on people Safran knows, he said. “There’s so much of my family in Lily and in Nate and so many other characters.” The character of Lily van der Woodsen is heavily influenced by Safran’s aunt, with parts of her relationship with her daughter, and later on with her sister, Safran’s mother, he said.

The character of Dorota, Blair Waldorf ’s housekeeper, was also inspired by Safran’s life.

“Dorota was actually my aunt’s housekeeper,” he said. “Her real name is Dorota and Vanya is their doorman in real life. I’ll always love the Gossip Girls because it’s my life.”

Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, who created and wrote the pilot and brought Safran onto the original Gossip Girl team when the series went into production, told Safran in December of 2018 that the studio wanted to do a reboot of Gossip Girl. Safran was initially

opposed to the idea.

However, Safran got excited when he realized that a reboot could be an opportunity for viewers to see Gossip Girl gathering information, posting, and watching other characters react, he said. “I thought that the only reason to do a new version is to actually see the toll being Gossip Girl takes on whoever is Gossip Girl. Then, I had this idea to make [Gossip Girl] the teachers, and I was like ‘Okay, that makes it different.’”

Safran did not want the reboot to feel like the same show with different characters, so he made the show even more realistic in terms of his experience at the school, he said. In this version, he wanted to create characters who still have problems but are trying to be better people, he said. “I’m really interested in looking at these characters who beat themselves up as hard, if not harder, than Gossip Girl does.”

One of the problems of the original show in Safran’s view was the lack of diversity, he said.

“Horace Mann in the 90s was more diverse than Constance and Saint Jude’s were in the first show,” he said. Because the characters in the reboot are not based on characters from the books, Safran had the opportunity to show diversity within the cast. “I wanted to represent what I remembered.”

Safran’s wish to more accurately represent demographics within the private schools only became stronger when Instagram accounts such as @hmspeaksout and @blackatchapin appeared during the summer of 2020. The writers room for the reboot had already begun.

“Those accounts just showed even more that we needed to make sure that we were representing the world that actually exists,” Safran said.

“They echoed conversations we were having about diversity in private schools, which made us feel we were on the right track.”

Safran hopes these accounts have sparked some adjustments within the community. “I hope that those Instagram accounts have started some conversations and change,” he said. “I also hope the scandals of the past have forced conversation. We can always do better.”

The reboot of Gossip Girl has a similar role,

“Especially when I don’t have a mask on, I don’t have to worry about my lips or my nose or my cheeks, even,” she said.

For Kaitlyn Chang (10), however, masks only affected her routine slightly. Kaitlyn does not wear lip gloss anymore, but that was the only change to her routine, she said.

Kaitlyn’s daily makeup routine takes less than ten minutes. “I do a very light foundation, a little bit of concealer because the foundation is kind of light, some blush, I have a brown eyeliner that’s not very noticeable, and also mascara,” she said. “Sometimes I have to rush it because I have to leave because I live pretty far away.” Kaitlyn will occasionally do makeup in the car if she does not have time to do it at home, but it is easy, she said.

Kim’s makeup routine is more infrequent.

Mornings can be busy or rushed, making it difficult to wear makeup every day, Kim said. “It’s more of a ‘whenever you do it’ thing,” Kim said. Like Kaitlyn, Kim’s makeup routine also takes less than ten minutes on days when they do wear makeup.

Similar to Kaitlyn, Au wears makeup every day, although her routine is shorter. “I like it to be a quick, two-minute thing in the morning,” she said.

Au starts off by curling her eyelashes three to four times using an eyelash curler and then applying primer and mascara. “That works really well for me because my eyelashes are just so short so that even with adding mascara, you can’t see it,” she said.

Au experimented with multiple styles and types of makeup before finding her preferred style. Au prefers a more natural, discreet look, she said. “I’ve tried eyeliner before, but I feel like it just doesn’t work for me.” She tried various types of eye makeup before coming to the conclusion that she does not like bold makeup, she said.

Kaitlyn also prefers natural makeup that is less noticeable, she said. “I don’t really use a lot of bright colors, or anything really obvious,” she said.

“I usually like more neutral colors or solid colors, even in clothing.” However, for special occasions, Kaitlyn usually wears less natural makeup such as a black winged eyeliner or a gold highlighter near her eyes, she said.

Kim, on the other hand, leans towards bolder makeup. “I was never afraid to use strong colors or vibrant colors,” they said. “Even now, I pretty often go for more vivid or strong colors

which wasn’t the norm in the last few years.” While Kim acknowledges that natural makeup is more commonly seen in school environments, they never felt held back from using colorful makeup.

Addy Steinberg/ Staff Artist Bailey Hecht (11), who describes her makeup routine as dark, wears makeup every day and prefers bold makeup. “I typically do thick eyeliner and either a bright or dark color underneath,” she said.

Hida uses a nude palette of drugstore makeup. “I just smear a bunch of brown and black all over my eyelids,” she said. “Then, I follow that eyelash curve with a Stila eyeliner from Sephora.” To top it off, she likes to intensify her eyes with a winged eyeliner.

Hida took inspiration from the rock band Kiss in her sophomore year, she said. She used to wear a subdued version of Kiss’s intense eye makeup during tenth grade. “It looks really cool and alternative.”

In order to find inspiration for her makeup looks, Au turns to social media. “I’m like, ‘oh, that looks cool’ — tried it — sometimes I’m like ‘oh, this looks nice,’ other times I’m like ‘this does not work for me, at all,’” Au said. She takes inspiration from Pinterest and Tiktok.

Outside of their normal makeup routine, Kim has used makeup to create art in her Drawing and Painting 4 class, Kim said. “[The prompt] was ambiguous on purpose, and I chose to use my face as the canvas,” Kim said. “I tried to go more avantgarde, non-natural.” Kim’s look consisted of a half turquoise, half yellow eyelid with black eyeliner that swooped downwards in an elegant curl from the lower lashline.

Kim also stenciled hearts in various shades of red and pink on their cheekbones and nose. They sported a black lip and two lipstick kiss marks on either side of their cheeks. “I had a lot of fun and exaggerated different trends,” Kim said.

Although students like Kim wear makeup for artistic self-expression, others have had experiences of being pressured to wear it. “There definitely is this expectation among us women to wear makeup rather than men because it stems from this sexist expectation for women to present themselves more beautifully,” Emma Chang (9) said. “I’ve experienced that with none of my brothers having been pressured into wearing makeup outside of the corporate setting. There shouldn’t really be a

ESTEEMED ALUM Safran ‘92 he said. “We are providing the opportunities for people to talk to one another and have those conversations.”

Despite the similarities between Safran’s experiences at the school and Gossip Girl shows, there are still some clear differences between the two, he said. For example, the fictional Constance and Saint Jude’s schools were separated by gender and the students wore uniforms.

The social aspect was also slightly different on the show, he said. “The first time around, Blair and Serena thought ‘we can be mean to anyone we want and we can get away with it just because we’re Blair and Serena.’” None of those experiences are reflective of Safran’s time at the school, he said. “We also didn’t have that Queen Bee social stuff. There were places where you sat and you could tell some people were cooler than others, but none of the things I put in the show.”

Furthermore, Safran hopes that current UD students recognize how lucky they are to go to the school, he said. “Horace Mann really does prepare you to have a great life,” he said. “If you already know what you want to do in your life, there are actually people there who will help you on that path already. You don’t have to wait until college.” He also hopes that students value the arts as much as he did during his time at the school and appreciate the wide variety of classes, topics, and authors students are exposed to, he said.

Mar velous maquillage: Student makeup routines Emily Wang Contributing Writer

For Louise Kim (11), makeup has been a form of liberation since middle school. “It felt like I had a new canvas on which to experiment and express myself,” they said.

Kim began wearing makeup in the summer of seventh grade. She thought of makeup as a form of visual art on an expressive part of their body.

“I started with some colorful eyeshadow as a way to express myself and get to know the world of makeup,” they said.

Kim is not the only student who wears makeup to express themselves. Nicole Au (9) started using makeup at the beginning of this school year.

Wearing masks hindered her ability to express herself, so she turned to makeup, Au said. “I kind of wanted to express myself in a way that was not just my whole face being hidden.”

Wearing a mask also affected Kim’s makeup routine. Now, they do not use makeup on the lower half of their face that is covered by a mask. “I usually wear some kind of colorful eyeshadow or eyeliner, or just a black eyeliner and I do my brows a bit, and that’s essentially it,” she said. “It would have looked very different if not for COVID.” Tomoko Hida (12) was able to shorten her routine from five minutes to two, thanks to masks.

Nicole Au/Staff Photographer

TOUCH UP Pande applies mascara.

pressure for girls to wear makeup if they don’t want to because makeup is all about self-expression.”

Makeup is supposed to enhance who someone is, not make them into a different person or cover them up, Emma said.

Kira Lewis (9) shares similar sentiments.

“Makeup is a double-edged sword,” Lewis said.

“You can use it to be more like yourself or you can use it to hide behind it,” she said.

Lewis also feels the societal pressure to wear makeup. “There’s an expectation to look like everybody else and have these specific beauty standards and when makeup goes beyond those, I have respect for that,” she said. “But when it comes to people thinking that I should look a specific way and telling me that I should do it, I’m not really interested.”

Courtesy of Louise Kim

FACIAL ART Kim’s (11) makeup.

Hecht does not believe that anyone should feel dependent on wearing makeup. “If it makes someone more confident, by all means, they should wear it,” she said. “I don’t like makeup when people start to be like, ‘Oh no, I’m not wearing foundation, I look ugly,’ because that’s likely not the case.”

“It’s up to them for what makes them happy, but [makeup] is to make people feel better. It shouldn’t make anyone feel any lesser about themselves,” Hecht said.

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THE RECORD MIDDLE DIVISION AND LIONS’ DEN FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

Mason’s paintings featured in Black History Month art show Ceci Coughlin Staff Writer Campus photographer Barry Mason’s work went on display in an art show hosted by the Alvin and Friends restaurant in New Rochelle this week. The Alvin and Friends show will continue until February 26 and Mason will participate in a livestreamed artist talk on February 19.

Co-owner of Alvin and Friends, model, and artist Alvin Clayton is the featured artist in the show, along with 12 other artists, Mason said. Clayton’s restaurant is also known for its soulful paintings.

Curator of the event Kicki Storm saw the artwork at Alvin and Friends and asked Clayton about having a show during 2022 Black History Month, Mason said. Mason was then approached by Katori Walker — one of the other artists whose work is on display — who knew Storm, Mason said.

Walker told Storm about Mason then M a s o n s e n t Storm his work. “ T h e r e’s been everything in the show: photography, paintings, collage, and so on by various artists,” Mason said. The show is sponsored by Morgan Stanley.

Mason has two paintings in the exhibit, he said. One is “Take a Knee Two–Standup” and the other is “Stand Up,” he said. Mason’s pieces are medium oil, spray paint, and charcoal on large shape paintings that Mason designs and constructs in his Mt. Vernon studio.

The inspiration behind “Take a Knee Two” is especially interesting, Mason said. “[The painting] was from when Colin Kaepernick took a knee about four or five years ago against police brutality on the football field,” Mason said.

When painting, Mason looked at all the times people have taken a stand for different causes, he said.

“You see Dr. Martin Luther King taking a knee. During the first bus boycott, people took a knee. You also may have relatives that have taken a knee for a particular cause.”

This was Mason’s starting point, he said. “People have been taking a knee for centuries for various causes: for women’s rights, for Black Lives Matter, for civil rights, or for voting rights,” he said. “By taking a knee you’re standing up to the oppressor, the court system, or whatever it is that’s trying to hold you down. In terms of doing any painting, it’s like the Spirit is speaking to me.”

Mason uses this inspiration to create his shape paintings. “Whatever you do, whether it be making a shape, or the colors, or the forms, get inspiration from it,” he said. This could be a song or something from the news, Mason said. So much is going on that even the pandemic can find its way into Mason’s work, he said.

Inspiration for paintings can be conscious

or unconscious, Mason said. “The conscious part is of the here and the now; it is what I see or hear,” he said. “The unconscious part goes beyond your knowledge and your comprehension at the time.”

The first step in creating Mason’s paintings is to start from scratch, he said. He begins with drawing and/or laying out various pieces of lumber on his studio floor to form various shapes. Then he comes up with shapes and forms out of very little, he said. “Just let your spirit guide you with what you’re trying to accomplish.”

These works, however, can take quite a long time to complete. Some pieces might come to him right away while others may fester; it can be two, three, or six months, or even a few years until a piece is completed, Mason said. Although one piece may take a few years to complete, Mason works on other pieces simultaneously, he said.

For example, when photographing sports at the school, Mason starts out by taking over 1000 pictures, he said.

The editing process consists of picking out the action and picking out energy of that particular game, he said. “I try to get angles that you wouldn’t otherwise think of, like getting as close as possible to action.”

Without art, whether it be Broadway plays, music, or something else, there would be no entertainment or to anything to lighten up one’s day, Mason said. For any artist, any time someone calls to exhibit or purchase one’s work, it is an honor, he said.

This is not the first time that Mason has showcased his work, he said. In fact, when the Alvin and Friends show started, the Pelham Art Center faculty exhibition, which Mason is part of every year, had just ended, he said. His work is also currently featured on a mural at a construction site in Pelham he said.

“There were times where I was exhibiting two, three, four, six times a year in various locations,” Mason said. “Sometimes it is simultaneously and sometimes I may be exhibiting in four locations almost at the same time.”

“Hopefully people will get a chance to come and check it out,” Mason said.

Courtesy of Barry Mason

Varsity Wrestling secures four-year winning streak with Ivy Invitational victory Brody Grossman and Harper Rosenberg Contributing Writers “We were all fighting for the hoodies that the Ivy League winners receive, and for champion title of course,” wrestler Jovanny Nazario (10) said. Despite competing against many strong teams, The Varsity Wrestling team won the Ivy Invitational against all eight Ivy Preparatory League schools last Saturday, with twelve of the team’s fifteen wrestlers placing in the top four of their respective weight classes. “We were actually tied with Collegiate entering the final round then we pulled out a narrow victory,” wrestling coach Gregg Quilty, who has led athletes to 14 Ivy Preparatory League tournament wins, said.

The team came into the tournament with a nearly undefeated season. “The energy was quite spectacular, it had been years since most of us has wrestled an actual tournament.

Everyone there was just really excited to be wrestling again and to put into practice all of the hard work we had put in,” Alex Rosenblatt

said.

“We all compete for the most team points but also to be the best wrestler in each certain weight class,” Nazario (10) said.

Co-captain Elias Romero (12) knew the team had to come in strong and they did exactly that, since they were motivated by the chance to win the invitational for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

Each team match was full of energy and we brought even more energy than the athletes at play, Nazario said. “We cheered each other on the best we could so that our throats were sore by the end of the tournament,” he said.

The invitational lasts multiple hours and there are many participants and viewers, Theo Katzenstein (9) said.

Meets are usually only against one other school, but the Ivy Invitational is against 8 different schools, Nazario said.

“Two years ago, before COVID-19, we won the Ivy Preparatory League tournament which was awesome,” Romero said. “We were hoping to repeat that success and we did, so I’m happy about that.”

“Throughout the tournament we were often head to head with Collegiate as we were behind most of the time until the end when we had a comeback,” Romero said. “A lot of our guys in a fourth place match step up and pin their way into 3rd place which helped them get a lot of team points in,” he said. All the athletes who participated in the 3rd and 4th place matches did not give up and battled back hard, he said.

One wrestler that stood out during the meet was JT Thomas (12), Nazario said. “JT Thomas was a star,” he said. Despite injuring his wrist earlier in the season, he was able to win all of his matches, which helped carry the team to success, he said.

Nazario has been a stand out wrestler this

of all the discipline, dedication, and hard work that Carlos has displayed over the years, that he could almost beat someone who has likely been wrestling for far longer than him,” Rosenblatt said.

Despite some people excelling in the tournament, the general consensus was that every single athlete was involved in this win.

“At this tournament I learned to never count anybody out, specifically the athletes who lost [matches earlier in the tournament] yet battled back and fought hard,” Romero said.

“I’m really happy with the strength that we showed physically and mentally from all of our guys on the team. I’m very proud of them for giving it their all,” Romero said.

The team suspected that Collegiate or

“I learned to never count anybody out, specifically the athletes who lost [matches earlier in the tournament] yet battled back and fought hard. I’m really happy with the strength that we showed physically and mentally,” - Elias Romero (12)

Courtesy of Carson Eisner

DUBS Wrestling champions don their medals.

season, Romero said, “He just put the icing on the cake with his continuous victories and high level of play.”

“Miles Schamroth was quite impressive because he had the most pins in the shortest amount of time,” Theo Katzenstein (9) said.

Rossenblatt particularly enjoyed watching Krish Gandhi’s match. In the match, Gandhi was losing by a fair amount in terms of points but pinned the opponent in a beautiful cradle.

“That match was a perfect example of the element of the pin which makes wrestling such a unique sport. In wrestling, a match is truly not over until the final whistle is blown, no matter how many points you’re down, [you can] come back and win on the spot.” Because of that aspect of the sport, Quilty focuses heavily on pinning moves.

Carlos Garcia (12)’s finals were also exciting to watch, Rosenblatt said. “He went toe-to-toe with a captain from Hackley up until the last second. This is truly symbolic

Poly Prep would win the tournament, as they seemed to have strong teams, Rosenblatt said. Collegiate had a lead early on in the tournament, with the school in second and Poly Prep in third. “This was really testament to how much we care about this sport and how we are more than just a team, we are a family,” he said. “We wanted it more than they did; for ourselves, for our coaches, and for each other.”

The team is currently preparing for the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) Championships on Saturday, where they hope to win the tournament for the third year in a row, Quilty said. “This week we are focusing more on mental preparation, and less physical conditioning, while refining our wrestling techniques, so we will be rested and confident on Saturday,” he said.

Lions’ Den Record Sports

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FEBRUARY 11TH, 2022

Ski team chases victory down the slopes Rena Salsberg and Nora Wildman Contributing Writers

The Varsity Ski team had their second meet of the season on Wednesday. Although the Lions have not received their times yet, the team is confident that they won and are proud of their overall performance, Lucca Correia (12) sa id.

During ski races, each skier completes two runs and whichever run is faster is counted. If the skier

misses a gate their run doesn’t count, so they must rely on their second run. If the skier doesn’t miss a gate, they can focus on going faster on the next run.

Despite this being only her second time racing, Eden Riebling (9) is proud of her performance at yesterday’s meet, she said. She finds the upperclassmen on the team are extremely helpful to everyone on the team because they offer a lot of help to the skiers who are new to ski racing, Riebling said.

The upperclassmen also help

Courtesy of __________

CRAZY KICKS Skiiers having fun on the mountain.

underclassmen with simple tasks, like trouble with their ski poles and even race anxiety, she said.

Before the meet started, the upperclassmen guided younger skiers through the course in order to help them scan the ski course, said Alexa Turteltaub (11). This process helps the skiers understand the condition of the course and how to get through it, Turteltaub said.

The captains work hard to create a team dynamic that not only encourages victories but also creates a fun space where everyone feels welcomed, Correia said. Like other skiers on the team, Correia skis outside of school, and he enjoys being able to get on the slopes with his friends, he said.

During their meet on Wednesday, the team was even more motivated because one of its best skiers, Lynn Egan (10), was out due to an injury, Riebling said.

Alec Jackson (10) stood out at the meet because he has improved tremendously since the beginning of the season, Botts said. With dedication and motivation, Jackson placed third out of around 50 people in the first race. This result

Courtesy of ski team

THUMBS UP FOR SKI Team members on the slopes. was extremely impressive to Botts because Jackson does not have much experience with skiing gates, Botts said.

The team only practices on the mountain one to two times per week, since the mountain is around two hours away, Tommy Botts (12) said. Therefore, it is important for the team to continue to prepare for the meets even on the days where there is no practice by utilizing the bikes and other equipment in the fitness center, he said.

Although having few practices

does not affect experienced skiers, for people who are not, having fewer practices has greatly decreased their ability to improve, ski team coach Rawlins Troop said.

Although this may have not been the season that the skiers expected, the Lions have worked extremely hard this season, Troop said. Many skiers continued to succeed despite the circumstances this season, Troop said.

Two buckets: Girls Varsity Basketball team wins two games this week against Friends Seminary and Trinity Nikita Pande Contributing Writer Girls Varsity Basketball won their game by a margin of 20 points against Friends Seminary on Monday, with a final score of 48-28. They also won their game against Trinity with a final score of 60-34 on Wednesday.

During Monday’s game against Friends Seminary, the team successfully executed the specific tactics that they had been practicing, forward Cecilia Coughlin (11) said. The Lions frequently gained possession of the ball, made their lay-ups and three pointers, dribbled into the defense towards the hoop, swung the ball Aryan Palla/Staff Photographer

SHOOT Allard-Neptune (12) scores.

— passed the ball around the arc to the other sideline — and took fast break opportunities, she said.

The team has been using the same tactics for years – successful plays that Girls Varsity Basketball coach Ray Barile came up with, Coughlin said.

“We were able to push the ball and make easy buckets that way,” guard Audrey Goldberg (10) said.

“That’s why we had such a big lead in third quarter and started to really pull away.” Overall, transitions — when the team switched from offense to defense, and vice versa — were the team’s best strength during Monday’s game, she said.

Leading up to the game, the team’s coaches found out each of the opposing player’s weaknesses and strengths, co-captain and guard Sareena Parikh (12) said.

In order to prepare for more difficult games, the team watches videos of their opponents at past games to gain a better understanding of their playing style, Coughlin said. However, since they were fairly confident that they would beat Friends Seminary, the team didn’t watch any videos of them leading up to Monday’s game, she said. The team only prepares in this way against teams that they feel may be tougher competition.

While the Lions were ahead the entire game, one weakness they had

while playing was overconfidence, Coughlin said. The team wasn’t trying their hardest towards the end of the game, because of their large lead, she said. “We should be playing one hundred percent even against [teams] that aren’t as high competition for us,” she said.

While on offense, the team could’ve communicated better and made more aggressive cuts to the basket, Parikh said. Overall, their defense also could have been stronger, she said. Coughlin is hopeful that the team will continue to improve since they still have several games left in the winter season, she said.

One lesson Coughlin took away from Monday’s game was the importance of control of the pace of the game, she said. The team has a specific pace they like to play at: not too fast, where they tire themselves out running up and down the court, but not too slow, so that they can set up their offense and move the ball effectively, Coughlin said. “In this game, it went a little bit slowly and I think that’s just reflective of the team we were playing, but it’s important that we set the pace,” she said.

Although there were a few unnecessary fouls from both sides, overall the Lions had fewer fouls than they usually do, Coughlin said. “That was because we weren’t

Aryan Palla/Staff Photographer

DRIBBLE DRIBBLE Parikh (12) runs with the ball. attacking the gaps as much, and also the girls weren’t as tall as we usually play, so you don’t draw as many fouls,” Parikh said.

One player that stood out during Monday’s game was forward Devin Allard-Neptune (12), Barile said.

“Devin does everything for us: she leads us in rebounding, she leads us in steals, and she’s a very good passer too,” he said.

Allard-Neptune was a great team player, because she scoped out the court and passed the ball to players who were open, Coughlin said.

Another player that was important to the game was guard Mia Calzolaio (12). Calzolaio was instrumental in making sure teammates didn’t become frustrated if they missed a few shots, Barile said. “Mia scored

the least on the team but she does maybe the most for the team,” he said. “She’s like my floor general, she runs the team.”

Although these players stood out in Monday’s game, the team does not have a single “star player,” Goldberg said. “Some people score more, some people assist more, some people rebound more – we all work together and we’re not really competing for whoever scores the most.”

Coughlin said that every player is significant and contributes their own unique thing to the team.

“We are a team team, we’re not an individual player team.”

LIONS’ BOX: Results from This Week’s games 2/7 - Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Trevor Day -- LOSS 36-71 2/7 - Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Friends -- WIN 48-28 2/7 - Varsity Table Tennis vs. Browning -- WIN 4-1 2/7 - Boys Varsity Swimming vs. Poly Prep -- WIN 91-43 2/7 - Girls Varsity Swimming vs. Poly Prep -- WIN 92-72 2/7 - Girls Varsity Squash vs. Riverdale -- WIN 6-1

2/8 - Boys Varsity Squash vs. Friends -- WIN 7-0 2/9 - Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Trinity --LOSS 65-71 2/9 - Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Trinity -- WIN 60-34 2/9 - Varsity Wrestling vs. Poly Prep -- WIN 42-27 2/9 - Girls Varsity Squash vs. Rye -- LOSS 1-6