page 18|april 30, 2018
Features|THELIONsROAR.com|THE LION’S ROAR
Beyond the Focus
THE
APPLICATION
SARAH KIM
features contributor
The Roar follows three remaining seniors with different interests as they navigate the college application process and will reveal their identities and college plans. By Dina Zeldin
Artist Spotlight
EDITOR’S NOTE: Every issue, The Roar publishes a different artist’s perspective of their work. Contact srstaff@thelionsroar.com if you are interested in writing this column. Before high school, I didn’t have a digital camera or know how to use film. I was, nevertheless, interested in photography and signed up for a film photo class at South. I had no idea what to expect, but ever since my first class, I have learned so much. Photography is now a large part of how I express myself. At the time, I didn’t have a film camera either, so I asked my family for one — it turned out that my dad had two cameras and lenses he had received from his parents. I had no idea that my family was interested in photography.It was fitting that my dad was the one who taught me how to use the camera, just as his father had done for him. It means a lot to me that my family and I can connect over photography, especially through the use of film, which is currently becoming less and less common. My favorite project at South was taking portraits, which was something I had never done before. The project guidelines were pretty open-ended, but our teacher wanted us to be a little uncomfortable and try taking portraits of people beyond just our closest friends. Initially, I was expecting this project to be stressful, but found that I really loved it. Having people in my pictures made them seem like they were alive and active, as opposed to the passive, staged pictures of objects, like the pictures we had done in the past. Those portraits of people represent the first time that I was proud of my art because I felt like it really helped display the way I perceive the world. About a year later, I had the opportunity to enter a contest at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. High schoolers from around the country submitted photos that captured America. I wanted to submit something original for this contest, something that one might not automatically think of as American. While visiting some friends in western Massachusetts with my family, we went to a small town for ice cream. As we sat on a bench outside the store, the way my mom’s friend was peacefully admiring the people around her inspired me. I felt that the photo I took, unbeknownst to her, had really captured the theme of America. As I was looking through all my film photographs to find a piece to submit to the contest, that one stood out to me. To me, that photo represented the small bubbles where a person can escape the chaos and the conflicting times that America is currently going through. It was really special to find out that I had been chosen to be part of the exhibit because this was one of the more personal things I’ve done. Sharing a such a personal photo represented my life and my point of view, and it was an amazingly unique experience that I’m not sure I’ll ever have again.
COMMON
J
uliet Cable, previously known as Caroline, committed to Berklee College of Music as a vocal major. “I’m excited to be in Boston and to be around people who are super dedicated and focused and passionate,” she said. “It will be such an inspiring, engaging place to live and to work and to learn.” Although she said Berklee was not her favorite school at the beginning of the application process, she is happy with how everything unfolded. Now, she said, she is walking the line between high school and college. “Part of me feels like I’m not embracing it enough and I’m not living my high school days to their fullest,” she said. “Most of me is just ready to move on to bigger and brighter futures.”
A
photos by Netta Dror
idan Fitzmaurice, previously known as Charlie, committed to Boston College. “With BC, I definitely like the fact that it has a really nice campus and it’s also very close to the city, and the students just seemed like very motivated people,” he said. He added that meeting current and accepted students helped him finalize his decision. “Everyone I talked to, they seemed like people I’d get along with,” he said. His high school career is drawing to an unexpectedly sentimental close, he said. “We have maybe 30 days left, and it’s starting to get a little nostalgic, a little bittersweet. It’s all happening way quicker than I expected.”
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graphics by Celine Yung
nabel* received a conditional admission to the science and engineering schools of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and is excited to be welcomed to its small community. Her admission rests on her completion of an online chemistry course, but she said she’s having trouble staying motivated. “By the time these grades go to the colleges, you’ve already picked which [school] you’re going to,” she said. “But senior year is fun ... Right now it’s college talk, but then in a week it’s going to be prom.” She added that she hopes to pursue a career where she can work with others. “I cannot sit behind a desk,” she said. “That will drive me crazy.” *Names changed to protect students’ identities
March Madness shows inequality Sophie Lewis, Carrie Ryter
F
Sr. Features Editors
or senior basketball captain Robbie Hodin, March Madness, an annual college basketball tournament, is the best time of year, he said. “I’ll just come home and watch March Madness for like eight straight hours, which is kind of embarrassing, but it’s what I like doing,” he said. Although Hodin’s passion for basketball extends beyond the month of March, sophomore Adam Bernhardt said that his engagement with March Madness did not correlate with his interest in basketball. “Even people who don’t know basketball … can make brackets and sometimes they do well [which] makes it more interesting,” Bernhardt said. Hodin added that a community has formed around brackets at South and attributed this community building to the tournament’s element of surprise. “Anything can happen. People like the idea of these small Division I schools going up against the schools with all the recruits [because] it’s a chance to shock everyone,” he said. “The energy and the environment is [something] to be a part of,” senior basketball captain Paige Olivierre said. Sophomore Chris Menz agreed that creating brackets and using them in a friendly competition is a great way to foster community. “It’s really ... hard to actually do well with your bracket because there are ...
many different factors [that] can come into play that you can’t predict,” he said. Senior Lucas Nathanson said he appreciates the tournament because it brings people together to watch the games. “Even graphic by Alice Zilberberg people who are less knowledge-
able with [basketball are] still are able to watch these games and have something to root for,” Nathanson said. “Anything that supports basketball, I’m in support of.” According to senior basketball captain Shannon Laughlin, not all players are equally supported by the hype around the tournament. Laughlin said she was not sure if women’s brackets existed, a disparity which she said reflects a larger divide between men’s and women’s sports. “I think there’s a culture ... that focuses on … male sports,” Laughlin said. “People tend to get more excited [about]
that more than women’s sports.” Laughlin said that this culture is something she witnesses when spectators prioritize going to the boys basketball games despite the girls team’s superior record this season. “It’s a little bit frustrating … when you want people to come out and support you, but they’re mainly focused on the boys games,” she said. Bernhardt said the discrepancy in interest between men’s and women’s basketball is largely due to the games that the media chooses to highlight. “The men’s tournament normally gets a lot more time on TV,” he said. A study conducted by Women’s Sports Foundation in 2009 reveals that men’s NCAA basketball gets 86 times more ESPN SportsCenter coverage than the women’s does during March Madness. According to Kate Hamilton, who founded Girl Fit Physical Therapy in Nonantum to provide support for female athletes, this issue does not have one simple solution, but rather is part of a larger cycle. “There’s not a lot of coverage, thus people don’t get exposed to [women’s games] and aren’t becoming as big of fans,” Hamilton said. “TV stations don’t want to cover [them] if people aren’t watching, [so] there are a lot of different pieces to this puzzle.” Hamilton added that she had trouble even finding the women’s March Madness results to fill out a women’s bracket. According to Olivierre, however, the sports discrepancy has a simple solution. “If more people watched [women’s games], then they would see that it’s not that much different, besides just genders.”