October 2016

THE MAGAZINE

6560 BRADDOCK RD. ALEXANDRIA, VA 22312

CHANGE[MAKERS]

10

How students can make a difference without casting a ballot

ELECTION AFTERMATH

Exploring repercussions of the election

20

CONCUSSIONS IN FOOTBALL Documenting Junior Wonwook Do’s injury

27

LOCAL HALLOWEEN EVENTS Information on popular Halloween attractions

OCT. 27, 2016 || VOL 2 ISSUE 2 || www.tjtoday.org

TJTODAY

IN-DEPTH || 8 HOW STUDENTS CAN GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS

THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL FOR SCIENCE AND TECH || ALEXANDRIA, VA

CONTENTS

NEWS

IN-DEPTH 6 COVER STORY Political activism at TJ 12 FCPS Transgender Policy 15 Large responsibilities for a small custodial Stuff SCI AND TECH 16 Loss of funding for DNA Arabidopsis project SPORTS 19 Marching Band 12 Field Hockey OPINION 24 EDITORIAL Students and politics 25 Political Cartoons ENTERTAINMENT 26 “Hammer of Thor” WHAT I'VE LEARNED 28 Max Pabilonia EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Ankit Agrawal, Katherine Du, Adithi Ramakrishnan, Uzma Rentia TEAM LEADERS Sabria Kazmi, Angel Kim, Avni Singh, Bayliss Wagner, Christine Zhao BROADCAST EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Sharon Kim, Alexa Nguonly BUSINESS MANAGER MiJin Cho STAFF REPORTER Lilia Qian, Nikita Sivakumar, Anna Zhang ADVISER Erinn Harris tjTODAY is the official newsmagazine of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology published by the journalism staff.

The staff is deeply committed to a code of journalistic ethics that demands the exercise of accuracy, good judgment and impartiality. The content of tjTODAY is determined by the editorial board.

Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the staff of tjTODAY, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

SENIOR MICHELLE CAO

DESIGN // Katherine Du

4 Seniors create concussion testing device 5 College and Career Center hosts panel

NewsMAKERS

NEWS

Photos courtesy of Michelle Cao

“Vespertine”, a fantasy novel authored by Cao, was published

QUIZBOWL PARTICIPATES

Photos courtesy of Rohan Hegde

Rohan Hedge, Ruyan Zhang and Grant Li participated in the t show. The Jefferson team It’s Academic team also performs tional competitions, such as the Partnership for Academic Co Excellence (PACE) National Scholastics Championship.

SOPHOMORES PATENT PERSONAL FLOATIE

Photos courtesy of Rohan Arora and Google Patents

The team behind “floodie” worked with experts in various field out the creation as well as patent processes.

3

OCT 27, 2016 Katherine Du || EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DID ANYONE HELP YOU SHAPE THE STORYLINE BEHIND YOUR BOOK? During the outline phase of the process, [my friend Ryan and I] often bounced ideas off of each other.

Technical things, like how magic worked in the world, were often the basis of our discussions. He would read over my outlines, point out plot holes, and I’d do the same for him.

BACKSTORY Senior Michelle Cao recently published her own novel, “Vespertine,” a story detailing the conflict between sorcerers and oppressed mortals on the magical planet of Varcuria. From conceiving the book’s main idea over New Year’s to completing the final draft, crafting “Vespertine” was approximately an eight month long proWHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE “VEScess. Cao’s novel is available on Amazon, PERTINE”? and the book jacket features her own I was inspired to write “Vespertine” organic line drawings of flowers. partly because my other novel was in a

slump and I wanted to do something that had similar concepts (specifically magic), but a different storyline that I could work with. The thing I most wanted to accomplish with “Vespertine” that I failed to in my last novel idea was to create a whole new world of magic and introduce it in a subtle, non-explicit way.

HOW DID THE PUBLISHING PROCESS WORK?

I used a self-publishing platform called Createspace, a sublet of Amazon that allows you to publish your book for free.

as published on Oct. 11.

S

Avni Singh || TEAM LEADER

BACKSTORY >JUNIOR ROHAN HEGDE: Three members from the Jefferson Quizbowl and ‘It’s Academic’ overlap a Quiz Bowl team, senior Ruyan Zhang lot in terms of subject matter, so I usually and juniors Rohan Hedge and Grant Li, rely on the preparation I do for Quizbowl participated in a taping of the show “It’s to prepare me for its academic. I also Academic” on Sept. 17 at the NBC4 watched a few past episodes of the show Studios in Washington DC, which aired to get a feel for the subject matter. on Oct. 15 on NBC4. The team won the first round of the show, and will now go WERE YOU NERVOUS FOR THE TAPING OF THE SHOW? to the playoffs. >JUNIOR GRANT LI:

I did feel a bit of pressure with the camera and audience watching, but I tried

ated in the taping of the so performs well in naAcademic Competition nship.

ts

various fields, through-

HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR “IT’S ACADEMIC”?

Katherine Du || EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BACKSTORY Along with six other friends the students met in middle school, sophomores Rohan Arora and Satya Paruchuri have submitted a patent for “Floodie,” a daily-wear garment that can automatically convert into a personal flotation device.

During the course of the project, Arora and Paruchuri strived to invent a product that would benefit their local community, as well as others throughout the world.

to focus on the questions and just relax and do my best. >HEDGE:

I was nervous at first, but that went away once I got into the rhythm of the game.

HOW DID YOU FEEL AFTER IT WAS OVER?

>HEDGE:

I felt pretty satisfied after the game, because our team worked pretty well together throughout the match. >LI:

I definitely felt more relieved when it was done. It felt nice to win so we were all pretty satisfied and look forward to the next taping.

WHAT INSPIRED YOUR GROUP TO WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO NEXT WITH YOUR PROJECT? CREATE FLOODIE? We loved the response we got from loWe met while participating in a robotics cal search and rescue teams and organizateam during middle school. During our tions such as the National Coast Guard. second year of robotics, we saw the severe calamities of flooding, especially in Our purpose behind inventing the Floodie was to help our local and global the Philippines. We read up on the topic community , so we are currently planning and were astonished to see that most options for leasing our invention to people don’t wear life vests. This put them at a very high risk of injuries during schools that are at high risk for flooding. flooding. We decided to create a better WHO HELPED YOU THROUGHOUT THE and more practical solution for floods, PROCESS? more specifically life vests. We noticed We would certainly not have a patent that life vests are extremely uncomwithout the help of our legal team at fortable and also a hindrance to some Oblon Spivak, who generously donated physical activity. That is why we created their legal assistance pro bono. the Floodie.

4 NEWS Renovation SMALL CHANGES Renovation inches forward Update MiJin Cho || TEAM LEADER

The new performing arts wing, including band, orchestra, and choir rooms, is set to open in early November, according to Assistant Principal Shawn Frank. In mid to late December, the remaining humanities rooms and all math rooms, currently situated in the Weyanoke trailers, are scheduled to open.

The auditorium will also become available later in November for production and performances.

“The new rooms ought to be much better. I feel like they would be more spacious as well. [Concerts] would be a lot more thrilling than in the gym because people can sit down. It would seem more “The transitions [between classes] are like a professional concert,” sophomore longer because sometimes we have to walk Ankita Vadiala said. from Weyanoke down to the school. But With the planetarium scheduled to open it’s manageable for now,” Junior Lulu Lin last in the year in late December, the said. “ I think [the construction] is going renovations are making small but notable well. I can understand why they would changes to complete the construction of take a long time. I’m just hoping it will be our building. done between I leave this place.”

The lecture hall, used for Picture Day, is now open for use.

ON THE RADAR: The auditorium is under construction and will be available in November.

The performing arts wing will be available in early November.

The planetarium should open in December.

Photo courtesy of Jenny Pruitt

WHERE IS CONCUSSION TESTING HEADED?

Seniors create device for easy concussion detection Avni Singh, Sabria Kazmi|| TEAM LEADERS

After seeing his brother suffer from the adverse effects of a concussion, senior Rohan Suri, along with senior Samuel Damashek, was inspired to create the startup Averia, a device that combines a cardboard headset, an iPhone and an app to inexpensively detect concussions.

“About six months ago, my brother hit his head while playing football with his friends,” Suri said. “About a week later, he was playing soccer and complained of persistent headache and nausea, and we realized that he had originally sustained a concussion and now that he had continued

playing, it was much worse.”

The concussion negatively impacted his brother’s life in many ways, and Suri related his brother’s experience to what students at Jefferson go through when suffering from a concussion.

“His grades dropped, his recovery period increased from two to four weeks, and he struggled academically,” Suri said.

“I firsthand saw the effects of what a concussion can do, and I know at TJ it’s even worse because we have a competitive environment where missing school and not

NEWS

5

OCT 27, 2016 being able to do your work is really difficult, and catching up is also difficult.”

my solution was to bring this expensive technology down to a smartphone.”

In order to create the device, Suri had to research methods of detection and how he could make the device cost-friendly.

Suri aims to raise awareness about concussions using the devices, and urges others to remain aware of symptoms of concussions.

“I researched more accurate ways we can detect concussions, and it turns out you can measure vision impairment, which is when eyes don’t move in coordination, or they can’t accurately follow a target,” Suri said. “The problem is that the equipment to measure it is very expensive, and can cost more than ten thousand dollars. So,

“I think there should be a big push to just be more aware and make sure that coaches are more aware of the symptoms of a concussion,” Suri said.

“I do think there also needs to be more objective measures, because the fact is that if an athlete does not report their symptoms, it’s going to be very difficult to detect them.”

Photo courtesy of Rohan Suri. Suri tests the device, which is made out of cardboard and uses a smartphone app. Suri had the oportunity to pitch the ddevice at a symposium.

DESIGN // Avni Singh

EXPLORING INTERESTS THROUGH LIBERAL ARTS College and Career Center hosts liberal arts panel Avni Singh and Angel Kim || TEAM LEADERS

The College and Career Center (CCC) hosted a liberal arts panel “We think of liberal arts as just the humanities and the arts, and on October 17th, in which representatives from six different with no direction, but that’s not the case at all. These liberal arts colleges, Oberlin, Middlebury, Dickinson, Reed, Wesleyan and schools have excellent science programs,” said Kropf.

Bates, came to discuss aspects of a liberal arts education.

Kropf urges future college students to keep liberal arts colleges Eileen Kropf, director of the CCC, began planning for the panel in mind in their search for the perfect college to attend. toward the end of the past school year, and reached out to colleges “What I’d like TJ kids to think about is the fact that there are that were already near the northern Virginia oarea r seemed 4000 colleges in the united states, and they don’t need to get suitable for Jefferson students. stressed out about getting into one of the big, competitive ones,” “I started asking representatives last spring if they could join,” Kropf said. “This took quite a while to organize. I also picked colleges that I knew would be good representatives of liberal arts education and colleges that I knew had a lot to offer to TJ kids.”

Kropf said. “I would just like our students to start thinking outside of the box, and to think about other alternatives to some of the big research universities.”

Students attended the panel in order to learn more about the benefits of attending liberal arts colleges, and to find out more about the programs in each of the colleges being represented.

“I decided to go to the liberal arts panel because I’m still in the process of educating myself about college opportunities all around, and I want to learn about a broad variety of schools that might fit my interests,” junior Grace Young said.

A misconception about liberal arts colleges is that they are focused solely on subjects that are not included in the acronym STEM, which plays a big role in the structure of academics at Jefferson.

Representatives from different liberal arts college came to Jefferson to talk about how students can explore their interests and possible careers by attending a college for liberal arts.

IN-DEPTH=

Although she had been interested in politics from an early age, sophomore Liana Keesing got her start in politics as a page in the Virginia Senate.

This led her to get involved in local campaigns, such as that of Kathleen Murphy and Barbara Favola.

A friend recruited freshman Timothy to Fairfax Democrats. Since joining a volunteer group, he goes door-todoor promoting Democrat c candidates for office.

L WITHOUT A VOTE ,

BUT NOT WITHOUT A

VOICE

A look at Jefferson students who are politically active despite their age || TEAM LEADERS

iana Keesing remembers sitting in a small room with her fellow volunteers. After having canvassed urgently all day, they watched Va. Delegate Kathleen Murphy’s opponent’s vote tally increase and increase.

“After a couple of key precincts had been called in her favor, and the absentee ballots came in, we realized that she [Murphy] had actually won by about a hundred votes,” Keesing said.

More than 85% of Jefferson students will not be old enough to vote in this year’s controversial election between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Some are glad to be relieved of a choice that many call “the lesser of two evils.”

“This is a crazy election,” said Republican senior Ben Lyons. “I hate both candidates and I don’t want to vote for either one. I’m actually kind of happy that I can’t vote.”

However, many frustrated students feel that they should have a democratic voice in an election that will affect their lives for decades. Teenagers under

IN-DEPTH

7

OCT 27, 2016 18 who volunteer for campaigns and actively participate in politics strive to impact this election.

“If you can’t vote right now, one important thing is to talk to the people around you and make sure the word’s out there,” Young Democrats member junior Camdyn David said. “Just having these conversations will not only help other people form their beliefs, but they’ll also help you become aware of what’s happening in the society that you live in.”

Sophomore Liana Keesing, who volunteers for the Virginia Democratic Committee, says her family encouraged her to engage in politics from a young age.

“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in politics,” sophomore Liana Keesing said.

More recently, concern over Trump’s rhetoric and followers pushed freshman Timmy Vu to volunteer for Fairfax Democrats in hopes of changing local views.

“Around last year, I started watching some of the debates, and following politics and current events in general,” Vu said. “I didn’t really have an opinion until Donald Trump entered the race.”

Volunteering comes in a variety of forms, from directly interacting with potential voters to leading other campaign efforts. As Keesing gained experience and political hours, she met more and more politicians and gained opportunities to do higherlevel work.

“Door-to-door campaigning, phone banking, donor research and handing out flyers were regular weekend activities for me,” Keesing said. “Now, a lot more of the work I do is behind the scenes. I’m the one who designs the flyers, or helps organize campaign events,

or analyzes the candidate’s donor database.”

Though Keesing and Vu both emphasized their strong desire to volunteer, according to Vu, canvassing still challenges him.

“When going around door-to-door and in public places, many people don’t share the same political views as you,” Vu said. “Sometimes, many people are very rude, so you have to keep an open mind and stay polite because that’s what people are going to think about on election day.”

Instead of motivating him to volunteer, America’s current political atmosphere discourages Lyons. He had considered volunteering for the Republican party this year, but refrained because he didn’t want to support Trump.

“I’m not sure if this election is that much about policy. It’s more about which candidate has better character, because both of them don’t really have any character.”

Though disagreements can exist within a group of people who support the same candidate, Vu says fellow campaigners prioritized their passion for civil rights over those other issues.

“Everyone who I volunteered with has different political views, but the thing that unites us is our passion for fighting for equal rights for everyone and equal pay [for women],” Vu said.

Keesing, who had the privilege of seeing the fruit of her work on the last night of Murphy’s 2015 campaign, also believes in the unifying force of activism.

“It was right then when I realized how much of an impact a citizen can have on their democracy, and it’s moments like that when I know that I want to be involved in politics for the rest of my life.”

DESIGN // Uzma Rentia

WHAT IF YOU ARE A PART OF A

THIRD PARTY? Gary Johnson:

Jill Stein:

Libertarian

Green Party

Immigration Deport all undocumented immigrants?

No

No

Extreme vetting of Muslims?

No

No

Gun Control Increased gun-control measures?

Yes

No

Trade Support TPP? No

Yes

Economy Should the wealthy be taxed more?

Yes

No

Support Keystone XL pipeline?

No

Yes

Information from washingtonpost.com

8 IN-DEPTH “I don’t know who created ‘Pokemon Go,’ but I’ve tried to figure out how we get them to have Pokemon go to the polls”

EVERYTHING ELECTION DESIGN // Uzma Rentia

“We cannot be the policemen of the world. We cannot protect countries all over the world.”

“A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”

-Hillary Clinton

-Donald Trump

“What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense” “Not only is saying he’ll keep us in suspense an inauspicious indicator of how he’d behave as president, but trust in elections is how democracy works and contested results are how civil wars start. He’s responsible for keeping his supporters in line if he loses, and now he’s threatening not to do it.”

-Hillary Clinton

-Donald Trump “Once the border is secured, at a later date, we’ll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here, and we’re going to get them out” “I think that it is completely justified to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in the United States.

As we cannot prosecute them in the United States, we can extradite them to Mexico. Doing so is in the best interest of both countries, as it will help maintain order.”

-Sophomore Madeline Old

-Junior Franklyn Wang

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it.”

-Hillary Clinton

“This quote kind of goes against her “When they go low, we go high” motto, and goes as far as to insult the Trump supporters....she should have rather insulted Trump himself for a better argument.

Honestly, if you know you’re being “grossly generalistic”, why say it?”

-Junior Kelly Cho

“When they go low, we go high.”

-Michelle Obama

“This statement really speaks to the kind of person Michelle Obama is, and to the kind of life that Hillary has had to live for the past 40 years. I hope that one day Michelle follows Hillary’s example and runs for public office herself, because I think this quote, her record, and her personality would make her one of the best public servants this country has ever seen.”

-Senior Giancarlo Valdetaro

IN-DEPTH

9

OCT 27, 2016

A LOOK AT THE

SUPPORTERS

11%

74%

Support Hillary Clinton

Support Donald Trump

3%

Will be eligible to vote in the upcoming election

13% Of Jefferson

students identify as Republicans

65%

Results are based on a survey of 433 students

Of Jefferson students identify as Democrats

6%

Regularly volunteer for the campaign of the party/ candidate they support Information from Time Magazine

Voter [Dis]content

30%

Why so Blue?

In a recent survey

48%

compared to the

of voters were disappointed by the campaign

9%

that were satisfied by it

Top Priorities Economy and jobs

61%

Terrorism and security

58%

Healthcare

38%

Immigration

28%

Believe neither candidate did a good job explaining their platform

Climate Change

15%

10 IN-DEPTH THE CANDIDATES

Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump

DO YOU WANT TO DEPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

NO “I am 100% behind comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship.”

YES “Build a border wall and end sanctuary cities.Send criminal aliens home.”

DO YOU SUPPORT SAME-SEX

YES

NO

“I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy ...”

“I think the institution of marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

DO YOU SUPPORT OBAMA CARE?

YES

NO

“I’ll defend the Affordable Care Act, build on its successes, and go even further to reduce costs.

“Obamacare has failed...

America needs a patient-centered health care system...”

GRAPHIC // NIKITA SIVAKUMAR

http://bit.ly/2eCxhNu

http://bit.ly/2dWzsf1

SUPREME COURT

W

hile adults brace themselves for the next four years, their children prepare for repercussions of this election that will last much longer.

“I know there’s already one [Supreme Court] seat that’s open because Antonin Scalia passed away, and that hasn’t been filled yet,” junior Brandon Kim said. “The next president’s going to be able to choose at least one, probably more [justices]. Whoever wins this election is going to be able to tilt the court in the direction the country heads in for the next few decades.”

Donald Trump has already released a list of individuals he would consider for the Supreme Court Justice seat, all of whom oppose abortion. Trump’s pro-life stance concerns some Jefferson students.

“Conservatives are trying to get Roe v. Wade overturned, so that could possibly be in the supreme court,” junior Andrew Butler said. “I think that people should be able to get abortions if they so choose.”

Notably, the new Supreme Court Justice will have to make decisions on cases concerning transgender people.

“I don’t think Trump has the tolerance to deal with [transgender issues],” Butler said. “I feel like Hillary, being more pro-gay and pro-choice, should definitely be pro-trans and help out the minorities.”

Others who believe that some transgender issues are being exaggerated prefer to prioritize other conflicts.

“The transgender [bathroom] issues are kind of inflated,” Kim said. “Even though they are important for those people directly affected, I think there a lot of other more important issues.”

IN-DEPTH

11

OCT 27, 2016

THE W

RLD

AFTER THE ELECTION

Image courtesy of http://images.clipartpanda.com/globe-clipart-png-earth-md.png

P

IMMIGRATION

eople throughout history have considered America a safe haven for immigrants built upon the success of generations of immigrants of the past.

However, senior Giancarlo Valdetaro believes that Republican nominee Donald Trump could create a hostile environment for immigrants similar to the E.U. after the Brexit vote.

|| TEAM LEADERS DESIGN // Bayliss Wagner

EDUCATION

T

he next president’s education policies could impact our school system in the near future. However, those policies would likely have much more of an impact on education levels outside of the K-12 range.

Valdetaro likened Trump’s strong rhetoric to hidden sentiments about immigrants in the U.S.

“I don’t think there will be any drastic changes at our school specifically,” junior Amitesh Kotwal said. “While I’m glad that both candidates seem to be interested in strengthening the collapsing public school systems throughout the country, it seems that most of the debate about education in politics right now is more about post-secondary education, such as college and entry-level jobs.”

“If he wins, he’d legitimize the feelings that political correctness has suppressed. Although I agree that political correctness [in] the way we have it now isn’t the best thing for our country, it does help with civility.”

While Hillary Clinton’s focuses making college debt-free, Donald Trump looks more towards school choice, a program that allows students to choose among local public schools with busing.

Valdetaro believes that democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would work to resolve current issues in immigration policy through legislation.

“Both the candidates don’t offer specifics on where the funding for their respective education plans would come from, which is disappointing,” Kotwal said. “I’m not a big fan of either of the two main positions that both candidates offer, but I think Hillary does a better job of covering a broader span of education topics and providing appropriate solutions, such as her approach to rebuilding schools.”

“People were telling immigrants to go back to where they were from, whether they were people who had immigrated from the Middle East, Africa or Poland.”

“She would be someone who would get into the nitty gritty policy details, like policies such as what happened when [illegal immigrants] show up at the border,” he said. Also [she would fix] the legal immigration system into the country. ”

12 IN-DEPTH

FCPS BATHROOM POLICY DISAPPOINTS LGBTQ+ STUDENTS School board’s decision to move trans rights off of their 2016 agenda prompts Jefferson students to consider the importance of those regulations Angel Kim and Bayliss Wagner || TEAM LEADERS

“

Even if I’m allowed by FCPS [policy] to use whatever bathroom I feel comfortable in, are the other students in the bathroom going to be accommodating? Is the teacher walking by going to give me a weird look? Are kids going to say something? ” These are the questions that run through the mind of senior Hannah Collins as they think about how transgender students would feel using a bathroom that does not match their assigned gender. Collins’s preferred pronouns are “they/them” and they are nonbinary, which means that they do not identify as male or female. Collins has transgender friends their age who do not use public or school restrooms.

Hannah Collings (left) laughs with Sofia Boroday about the video, “The Office Homo“I feel comfortable enough in the women’s phobe,” that they has selected for the GSA to watch. restroom because I present mostly feminine,” Collins said. “I don’t get harassed, but I know The FCPS policy Collins cites is the nonplanned working meeting in July that would trans people who avoid bathrooms in public discrimination policy, which includes gender have clarified teacher education on trans places because they’re worried they’re going identity protections. The school board passed rights and added enforcement regulations to either be harassed or hurt.” the policy in May 2015, and one year later, the to counter bullying. Though the debate FCPS policy for the 2015-2016 school Obama administration declared that Title IX concerning bathroom and locker room usage year dictates that, if trans students asks for a protects the rights of nationwide transgender heats up American politics, there are more gender-neutral bathroom, teachers give them and non-binary students to access locker and liberal policies around the globe. access to the single-stall faculty bathroom. restroom facilities that align with their gender “From my recent trips to other countries, I According to Collins, this would pose identities. have learned that other cultures have a little problems for trans students who prefer to “I was very excited that the Obama bit more of a comfort level with this issue, not to discuss their gender identity with their administration was helping support people as in Europe, many men and women go into teachers. who are stigmatized,” gay, cisgender senior the same public restrooms, particularly in

“There are certain teachers that I would feel comfortable asking, ‘Hey, can you unlock the bathroom so I can use it?’ But a lot of teachers would be like, ‘Why? Why do you need to use the bathroom?’”

Sean Tran said. “It just felt great being part of the LGBTQ community, actually witnessing change.”

France,” English teacher Nancy Glover said.

“I feel we can make some more progress on that in this country.”

But FCPS stopped short of advancing its regulations. The school board canceled a

While laws can protect students from blatant discrimination, though, there are

IN-DEPTH

13

OCT 27, 2016

GENDER IDENTITY KEY TERMS LGBTQ+ other aspects that require more of a social change.

these liberal beliefs limit important open exchanges about trans rights.

“[It’s] a general ‘You’re not welcome here,’ even if no one comes out and says it,” Collins said. “That can be very hard in a law sense to go after and that’s something that can’t really be changed with rules and regulations.”

“In some ways [this] can lead to a uniformity of viewpoints and we are afraid to reach beyond that,” Collins said.

In addition, Collins, a committed member of Jefferson’s GayStraight Alliance (GSA), mentioned that greater active participation in the club would brighten the trans community at Jefferson as long as allies help to further advance GSA by researching issues on their own.

From front to back: Seniors Shraddha Pradeep, Neha Khandelwal and Sarah Crossen laugh during a viewing of Key & Peele’s “The Office Homophobe.”

“[GSA is] always happy to be able to talk to more people and to get to know more students, but there’s only so much we can do and you have to do your part,” Collins said. “There’s such a plethora of material out there now.”

Both Tran and Collins acknowledge that Jefferson’s liberal-leaning student body is more accepting of trans students. Tran believes this could provide an opportunity for open discussion that other schools may not have. He would like to see clubs host discussions on trans rights.

Until the FCPS school board takes further action, Collins feels that educating teachers can help improve understanding of trans issues in schools, but they are wary that force-feeding educational videos or training on teachers could hurt their understanding or awareness of trans students.

“If there were, say, a meeting of a large number of students where we could talk about it and where we could have a forum, I think that would be valuable to a lot of students,” Tran said.

“A lot of times the education comes off as being very canned. The teachers are like, ‘Oh, no, I have to go through this again.’ We need to show them that these are real students facing real problems.”

On the other hand, Collins feels that

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning community as well as allies and asexual individuals.

ALLY

A non-LGBT person who stands up for the rights of LGBT people.

CISGENDER A type of gender identity in which an individual identifies as the same gender that they were assigned at birth.

TRANSGENDER A person who identifies a gender that they were not assigned at birth, regardless of whether they have undergone physical or surgical changes to match their gender identity. Also used as an umbrella term for individuals who do not identify as cisgender.

NON-BINARY

(A.K.A. gender non-conforming) A form of gender identity in which an individual rejects the idea of a binary, two-gender system.

DESIGN and GRAPHIC // Bayliss Wagner

14

IN-DEPTH

4

The Woes of Academics after the Highs of Hoco PHOTOS// Christine Zhao and MiJin Cho

3 5

2 1

From left to right, clockwise: 1. Senior Matt Jennings and his friends shout together for the class chant. 2.

The Jefferson football team come together to do a cheer in the beginning of the pep rally. 3, Senior Yadeen Rashid embraces another player when Coach Rechin announces the football players into the gym. Senior 4.

Justin Lee performs as part of MEX. 5. The senior girls dances to the MEX music with balloons as props.

Throughout Homecoming week, students come face-to-face with prioritizing academic responsibilities while displaying fierce TJ spirit. Those participating in Hoco events are required to attend meetings in order to prepare for the five days of school spirit.

HOMEWORK

COLLEGE APPS

“Right before Homecoming, it was really hard to get homework done because I was more focused on that than academics, so after homecoming, I definitely had to catch up on work that I neglected to do on Saturday. I think that it was worth it in the end however, because high school shouldn’t just be about grades and work and tests, but also the memories and happy experiences you have.

-Junior Anna Zhang

SAT/ACT

“This year, I really tried getting involved [in Hoco activities] despite being busy with my apps. Since Hoco week took up so much time, I’m kinda rushing now since I have two applications due Nov. 1. I was caught in mex practices [as well as] pep rallies so that took up so many lunch periods and time. I’m used to doing college apps in the morning and during lunch [but during Hoco week,] instead I did them during eighth periods and forced myself to stay up later and make time for writing essays.”

-Senior Caelan Barranta

“Hoco week has helped me learn to become a part of something greater than myself, whether it be a MEX performance, my class, or TJ. SAT [and ACT] prep, … while individual… has taught me that I can improve in anything if I put in the time and effort into it.”

-Junior Hannah Han

IN-DEPTH

15

OCT 27, 2016

Five Acts, Five Lunches, Five Custodians

Trash left behind in commons, bathrooms, and football games affect the jobs of custodians throughout the school.

MiJin Cho || BUSINESS MANAGER

T

he Act One of the week starts with silence, quickly overwhelmed by footsteps of students rushing towards commons or the cafeteria. Food flies across the commons, sliding on the floor before meeting a foot that effectively crushes and smears its contents on the white floor tiles. For the finale, the students begin their trek towards their upcoming classes, leaving half-eaten foods on lunch trays and bags. They remain unaware of the five custodians waiting nearby to pick up the chaos left behind in every hallway, bathroom, and common.

there is no problem. This whole school, they staff only five people, including myself. It’s one person for corner, two for half the school. Upstairs, downstairs, courtyard, around school, and cafeteria. It would save time if the students pick up their trash; it would save time for me, for us,” Custodian Ming Liu said.

Custodians face the immediate aftermath of the chaos known as lunches every weekday. Prior to the lunch time, they begin their daily job routine by preparing the school, including the setup, for students.

“Most times, the football field has the most trash. Sometimes the activity office stays after to help pick up trash. But sometimes, we need to go into the field to pick trash,” Liu said. “Because it’s so big, you have to do the detail cleaning. Sometimes, we need to sweep. There’s a lot of trash after football game. Only one person cleans up the area.”

“If there is something we need to do before the kids come in the school, we check our email. We go to the field to take the trash and mow the grass then go back to the building. The activity office has helped us by mowing the grass. Every day, we have something different, sometimes emergency situations,” Head Custodian and Building Supervisor Junpei Yuan said.

As the day goes on and the clock approaches noon, custodians deal with the supposedly “easy” task of collecting the bags from trash cans, in which students have placed meals and beverages are to be placed. However, the problem rests in the individual decisions of students, an issue that the administration has made public. Students fail to pick up their trash, leaving behind residues and empty bags and bottles.

“Everywhere. Everywhere, there is trash. If the students finish their lunch and put it in the trash can, if you can lead the students to help us, they will help us a lot. Most times, all the commons have most trouble. Some commons, teachers have class. We have an issue if we do not clean quickly,” Yuan said.

In the afternoon, of the five custodial staff members, two are assigned to the morning clean up after games on the football field. Although not in place today, in previous years, students cleared the bleachers directly after football games with the incentive of gaining community service time.

With their continual work in providing a cleaner and safer place for Jefferson students to invest their time into education, the custodians also find a deeper meaning in their jobs through their support of the students.

“I cannot say that some kids do not respect the job, my job. But kids are kids. We need to be there to make sure the bathroom and building is clean,” Yuan said. “No school is perfect. If the students help out by putting their trash away properly during lunch, we’ll have more time to clean some of the restrooms.

And not just in the cafeteria, in classrooms too. Teachers should remind students to throw away their trash if they plan on eating in the classroom.”

Yuan mentions the factor of time, of not having enough time to clean up after the students. This issue came into play recently with the increase in the size and rooms of the school. Ongoing renovation has effectively created the courtyard and additional rooms and commons throughout the school.

Within 15 to 20 minutes, five custodians are expected not only to sweep and clean the floors, but also set up the space for meetings and classes.

“Sometimes, it’s too much. If it was just the cafeteria, then

Headshots: Custodians Ming Liu, Quang Du, and Blanca Chavez.

Headshot of Custodian Head, Junpei Yuan.

Design // Christine Zhao and MiJin Cho

SCI

TECH

CONTINUING THE ARABIDOPSIS PROJECT DNA project continues despite change in funding Avni Singh || TEAM LEADER

A

s students of an intense STEM school, we have all had our fair share of experience with stress, whether it be from academic or extracurricular activities. That being said, stress is not always a bad thing; such is the case in the DNA Arabidopsis project, in which students place stress on the plant to WU\ DQG ÀQG WKH IXQFWLRQ RI D VSHFLÀF JHQH +RZHYHU this year there is one major difference in the project: a luck of funding.

Despite the change, Dr. Mary Burnett, who presides over the project, has decided to continue with it. Previously, scientists at Virginia Tech guided the project while a grant from the Partnership for Research and Education of Plants (PREP) Program funded it.

plants that we can order from them which they’ll then send to us.�

Students participating in this project have the opportunity to submit ideas for possible projects. This semester, Dr. Burnett’s two DNA classes are experimenting with acid fog and magnetism. “I let my students decide what kind of proposal they have for what stress they want to induce in their plants,� Burnett said. “Then we vote as a class on which proposal we want to go with, and since it’s important to have a large enough sample size, each group can’t do their own project.

Once we pick the project we want to do, we then go ahead and plant the seeds and start subjecting the plants to the chosen stress.�

The DNA classes In Dr. Burnett’s second and third period classes have already planted the seeds for their Arabidsopsis plants.

These plants will be used to study the VAL1 gene.

“Unfortunately, they ran out of funding, but because we’ve been doing the project for so many years, we know what we need to do to setup the experiments,â€? Burnett said. “We’re also able to get seeds from the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center, which supplies VHHGV IRU IUHH 6R ZH KDYH PXWDQW VHHGV IURP VSHFLĂ€F NQRFNRXW

Being able to design the experiment is an appealing factor to students participating in the project.

´,¡P GHÀQLWHO\ ORRNLQJ IRUZDUG WKH SURMHFW because we got to design the lab as a class,�

MXQLRU 1LUD +DULNULVKQDQ VDLG ´*HQHUDOO\ DOO WKH ODEV ZH GR DUH DVVLJQHG DQG VSHFLÀF UHVXOWV DUH H[SHFWHG VR HYHU\WKLQJ LV FOHDU FXW %XW IRU WKLV ZH GRQ¡W UHDOO\ NQRZ ZKDW WR H[SHFW ZKLFK LV GHÀQLWHO\ D new experience and pretty exciting.�

Why Arabidopsis?

Short lifecyle - about six weeks from germination to seed

115 Mb of the 125 Mb genome has been sequenced

Extensive genetic and physical maps of all ͤYH FKURPRVRPHV DESIGN // Avni Singh

17

ADS

OCT 27, 2016

Exceptional Tu Exceptional Tut Tutoring utoring and and Test T Prep by Prep by Tri Tr

i Lear

ment Center

1360 Beverly Rd, Ste 100, McLean, VA ______________________________________________

Small Group & One to One Help for Test Prep & Academic Enrichment ______________________________________________

Top Scores on PSAT/ SAT/ACT/SAT Subject Tests &TJ Test

Subject Tutoring

Algebra-Calculus, Statistics, Chem, Physics, etc.

Home/Lab-based Mentoring for Regeneron STS ________________________________________________

“Dr. Tripathi can’t ne beat. He’s the best there is for TJ prep, SAT prep and general math/science tutoring. Plus, the kids absolutely love him.” (N.M., TJ ‘09 & ’16 parent) “Dr. Tripathi’s patience, encouragement and enthusiasm as well as his teaching skills made him an invaluable resource for our daughter and gave her the confidence and knowledge necessary to achieve her goals.”

(A.K., mother of T.K, Langley 1994) “Your help was a Game Changer!” (S.M., a TJ 2015 parent)

Dr. Tripathi received a PhD from Stanford. He has been teaching since 1983.

(703) 893-6222 learn@tripathi.com * www.Optimalsatprep.com google.com/+tripathilearningenrichmentcentermclean/about facebook.com/tripathilearningandenrichmentcenter

ATTENTION STUDENTS AND STAFF “How can we better embrace failure with the TJ community and use it as an opportunity for learning and growth?”

The purpose of the One Question Grant is to support creativity and enthusiasm for exploring the themes of the 2016-2017 One Question.

The grant can be used to support classroom activities, student club initiatives, service activities, and special events (including speakers) during our 8th period sessions. Grant awards can be used to pay for almost any expense that support this year’s One Question. Examples of expenses can include, but are not limited to: student research project materials, books for lessons, supplies for an out-reach project, transportation costs, food for an event, a banner for the school, etc.

Individual student, faculty member or a group of students may request up to $250 for expenses.. All grant recipients must be willing to give a presentation or demonstration at this year’s TJ STAR on June 6, 2017.

Art graphic by Sydney Miller, class of 2016

DO YOU HAVE NEW CREATIVE PROJECTS WITH THIS QUESTION IN MIND? CHECK OUT THE GRANT AWARDS. @ www.tjhsst.edu/onequestion

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

Deadline to submit grant proposal: Tuesday, November 8, 2016.

Questions? Email Mr. Davis at tadavis2@fcps.edu and/or Ms. Gravitte.

Thank you TJ partnership for the donation.

Thanks to Jami Park and Adarsh Kulkarni for this year’s question.

SPORTS MARCH TO THE MOON Marching band performs “Ad Astra“

The marching band goes into a rocket ship formation while performing their show “Ad Astra.”

Photo courtesy of Joe Berger

Sabria Kazmi || TEAM LEADER

R

ed and black band uniforms cover the football field and tall black hats wave in the wind. The color guard, dressed in shiny spacesuits and twirling blue flags that twinkle in the stadium lights, also takes the field. As the conductor waves the baton, the students begin playing the instruments strapped to their outfits, and the music echoes across the stadium. Some of the audience members encouraging their friends cheer them on, but then quiet down to watch the performance of the Jefferson Marching Band.

Marching band requires more than just musical ability. Band members must also memorize marching sequences, be able to move in sync with the rest of the band, and express the music they are performing.

is titled “Ad Astra,” which means “to the stars” in Latin. The show focuses on space travel and in the show the band attempts to go to the moon, eventually succeeding in their space expedition.

“Our show is basically showing America’s process of going to space,” junior Tamun Hanjra said. “It shows the downhills and the uphills, and eventually the fact that we got up from after the crash. After the explosion of the spaceship we still rose up… we prevailed, we got there.”

Often times the theme of the show depicts a certain mood which can be gleaned from the music that the band plays. This year the show is more happy and upbeat than it has been in previous years.

“The point of having a theme to your show is to tell a story,” sophomore Laura Gersony said. “Our music choice can indicate the mood of the story, it can make it exciting. Last year the theme was Every year, marching band performs a kind of sad or melancholy, but this year show for competition. This year the show it’s happier. Although there are some “In marching band you’re performing with your instrument, but you’re also performing as an actor,” senior Nick Yoon said.

sad parts, like when we explain the failed attempts to get to the moon, for the most part it’s a more upbeat show.”

While the show can be fun and exciting to members once they get into the middle of the marching band season, practices can be tough at the start of the season, especially for those who are new to marching band. One of the experienced members of the band believes that pushing through the first couple of weeks is worth it once you get further along in the year.

“The first couple weeks of marching band are not fun at all,” Yoon said.

“You’re out in the sun, you’re standing there… you’re doing the same thing, over and over again for several hours. It can be kind of disheartening. So, the biggest thing is don’t get discouraged early. You’ll see the benefits of your hard work as the season progresses. When performances and competitions start to get into our schedule, it becomes so much more interesting.”

SPORTS

19

October 27, 2016

DANCING QUEENS From lyrical to hip-hop, dance team does it all Sabria Kazmi and Christine Zhao || TEAM LEADERS

Twenty girls stand at attention clad in red and white attire. As if an invisible thread in each is pulling the girls into the ceiling, all 20 heads raise in unison to the beat of “Sing” by Pentatonix transmitting through the gym. This phenomenon is the work of the coaches and dancers that make up the dance team at our school.

Photo courtesy of Ankit Agrawal

Peppy and upbeat, the music and choreography for the hip-hop song Sing lives up to what the dance team sets out to accomplish through its routines.

“For football games, half time shows and stuff like that, we do jazz and pom and hip hop because we try to keep it upbeat, but sometimes for competitions we try to go more lyrical,” junior Rae Moar said.

When preparing for competition, the team incorporates elements of lyrical music in order to highlight expressiveness, emotion, and technique.

“For lyrical, we tend to go for more angsty songs that have a lot of emotion that you can express through movement, but then for something like jazz, maybe it’s a little more sexy,” senior Emma Zhang said. “Lyrical is more flowy movements, it’s more expressive and it’s definitely the one where you can interpret the music and have it be more emotional so the movements are a lot of extensions, so like your leg goes up or your arm goes out.”

In addition, competition routines incorporate styles of dance such as leaps, kicks, jumps, and turns, to showcase the team’s variety of talents and abilities.

“We do jazz routines which are usually also for competition but it’s sharp and it incorporates a lot of jumps and turns, and it usually showcases our talents a lot,” sophomore Katherine Hughes said. “We do a bunch of leaps that Simone Biles has done; we also do a bunch of things that [require your] back [to] arch a lot, like when you roll over on your collar bones and neck, and your legs go over your head and you do splits.

Dance team members wait in position to begin their routine at the last homecoming pep rally.

“If you can’t do all of the turn combo then you stop at whatever point you can do the turn combo, then you do other things for the rest of the turn combo,” Hughes said. “But everybody in the dance does at least some of turn combo, or does as much as they can.”

For Hughes, this supportive atmosphere that the dance team offers helps her accomplish the difficult moves and turn combos that are incorporated in competition choreographies.

“The fact that we’re really supportive of each other, it makes doing and trying difficult moves easy,” Hughes said. “Even if you try a difficult move and you’re not good at it, people aren’t like ‘Oh man, you shouldn’t do that anymore.’ They’re like, ‘Ok, here is something The dances also provide leeway for those who can’t complete some that you might try to do to improve that.’ But they’re not criticizing of the difficult moves entirely. While everyone must at least do part you harshly, they’re criticizing you in a supportive way. And it makes it of a sequence, members are able to stop once they have done all they a lot easier to try difficult moves and to put yourself out there. And I are able to. think that makes our team really special. ”

20 SPORTS

CONCUSSION, CONCUSSED, and I Christine Zhao and MiJin Cho || TEAM LEADER, BUSINESS MANAGER

Butterflies in the stomach. Adrenaline through the veins. And above all, excitement in the air. Junior Wonwook Do was excited for the first game of the season, excited for his first opportunity to play on the varsity football team.

“Everyone had high expectations coming in,” Do said. “We had new coaches. People had a positive outlook on what was to come.

I thought I put a lot of work into the offseason, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform in the first game. It was the home opener, so I knew it was going to be one of the biggest games of the year.”

Full of nerves and full of energy, Do sat down in utter silence two hours before the game to clear his mind of everything but football.

His thoughts filled with the strategies, the play, and the team.

Photo courtesy of Frank Ding

“I was about to make a move on a defender, and that was the only thing I was thinking about,” Do said. “ I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, what if there’s some guy [behind me].’ You don’t think about that during a game. You think about the plays you’re going to make, things that are going to happen to you. I was running up the field, another player put the crown of his helmet down; he hit me right here, hit me right here on my blind side. My head got turned to the right, and then some guy got me from behind, on my right ear hold.”

For the next 30 seconds, the crowd and the players on the field held their breath in anticipation for a sign of movement from Do. The dread was almost palpable; the possibility of a concussion increased with every passing second.

“I blacked out, and then woke up in 30 seconds,” Do said.

“Initially I had no memory from right then to two to three hours before the game. The first thing I said to Ms. Murphy when I woke Do shakes hands with his teammates during the homecoming pep rally. up was ‘Am I in a football game?’

“Coach Auerbach We had a team meal before the tried to talk some nerves out of me,” Do said. “[He said,] ‘It’s your game, so Ms. Murphy [also asked], ‘What color Gatorade did we have first varsity start. It’s okay to be nervous. We’re not asking you to do before the game?’

And I asked, ‘We had team meal?’” anything you haven’t done before, so just go up and do you.’”

Unfortunately for Do, the consistency that came back during his game came not in the form of plays or throws, but rather in the form of an injury that proved to be consistent in his three years of Jefferson football. Within six plays, in the midst of looking for the first down, Do attempted to execute a quarterback sweep when the moment of impact occurred.

“When a student gets a concussion, the next month of their life flashes before my eyes and I know all of the struggles they will have to go through before they can play again,” athletic trainer Heather Murphy said.

The next two weeks for Do passed in nausea, headaches, and sickness. It was only at the start of his third week that he was well

SPORTS

21

OCT 27, 2016

THE HOME(COMING) STRETCH

W

Angel Kim and Lilia Qian || TEAM LEADER, STAFF WRITER

hile many students were preparing for the homecoming football game, the cross country team was preparing for their own competition. On Oct. 14, 50 runners from the cross country team embarked on their annual overnight trip to compete at the Milestat.com Invitational Meet at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville VA. Runners had been training through the weeks leading up to the meet in preparation for the five-kilometer course.

The Freshman Boys team came away from the meet triumphant, winning first place team in their race. Other members of the team who did not get the results they were hoping for reflect on their race and make plans to improve.

“I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped, because there wasn’t anybody [directly] in front of me so I didn’t have that much motivation,” freshman Hana Wong said. “I could have improved on sprinting more in the last mile and also kicking in the end. [In the future], “We do a combination of long, easy runs to keep our endurance I’ll do a lot more endurance running, and run more races so I can up and we do shorter, faster workouts to get the speed going,” improve my race strategy.” head cross country coach Todd Withington said. “I feel like [the With just a few weeks left in the season, the cross country team work has] paid off. People ran pretty well.” plans to continue working on endurance workouts in hopes of

The runners were divided into six different races: Varsity Girls, improving overall team results. They look forward to competing in Varsity Boys, Junior Varsity Girls, Junior Varsity Boys, Freshman conference championships.

Girls and Freshman Boys. Athletes expected a flat course with few “[Next time, I hope] that we can finish a little bit better, placehills, and many were hopeful to beat their personal-best times. wise, team-wise. [We will] continue to work hard but we’ll work “Just knowing the course [from previous years], knowing that it’d in a little more rest and hopefully we’ll be able to finish a little be a fast course definitely helped out [in terms of] how we trained bit better down the road, when we start championship season,” for it,” Withington said. “[My main goal] was that everybody Withington said. would have close to a season best, if not a season best time.”

Senior captain Clare Connally competes at the Milestat Invitational Meet

FIELD HOCKEY SENIOR NIGHT

REPORTING // BAYLISS WAGNER PHOTO // MIJIN CHO

During penalty shots, the entire crowd moved to the far end of the stands to cheer on the team. They held their hands up silently during Jefferson shots and sung a different children’s tune during each Stuart shot, from “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

They roared when sophomore Yukta Chidanandan scored during Jefferson’s last turn, but Stuart scored immediately afterward, winning the game.

“I’m going to miss this bright spot on TJ life.”

-Senior Sofia Kruszka

Senior captain Stephanie Zablocki defends the ball against a J.E.B. Stuart player as she prepares to cross the open field.

enough to begin catching up with his classes, though the recovery process went smoothly for Do.

coursework, pushing aside thoughts about homework and school, Do was, above all, zealous about returning to play, rejoining the varsity team on Oct. 6 to compete against the J.E.B. Stuart Raiders.

“After a week and a half, you start making stuff up, and it doesn’t go as badly as some people think,” Do said. “I never left the “I wasn’t really worried about staying out of school; I can spend all classroom when I had a concussion, so it’s not like I was completely day working on football, but spend half an hour doing schoolwork,” oblivious to [academics]. You stay up late inevitably a couple nights, Do said. “But I really wanted to go back in and play. I am so excited and you just find the time in lunch or eighth periods to make the tests [to play again].” and quizzes up. ” After recuperating from a concussion and catching up on his

DESIGN // Christine Zhao

OPINION LEAD EDITORIAL

F ?

I T ’ T N A A H C W U T O U Y B . ..

oto

Ph

cou

sy rte

ob of r

“

com

. rob

sk ert

Y

ou’re disgusting.”

“A basket of deplorables.”

“Sadly, she’s no longer a ten.”

Our 2016 presidential candidates — soonto-be most powerful people in the United States government — voiced these insults, although they may as well have come from angsty, rowdy teenagers.

This election, just like in years past, the Democratic and Republican candidates have gone back and forth undermining each other’s credibility and chances for running the country for the next four years. However, the mudslinging, bad blood and division among voters has never been more pronounced.

The sharp contrast in the nature of this presidential election, compared to others, has led to an increased interest in the election and

candidates discuss, but also to a variety of different viewpoints on each subject. Taking to social media in the aftermath of debates or candidates, recent news is key to informing the public, as particularly from well as potential voters. the youth. We’re more In this vitriolic election season, it’s easy to likely to stay politically active, be it by watching the debates or staying tuned for the get swept up in the heat of the moment and miss the nuances that characterize politics. next exchange between the two candidates.

We then develop a tendency to generalize But despite all of this, the majority of us, people. For instance, it’s very easy to voice particularly at Jefferson, are unable to vote. support for the “banning” of Muslims, but is This quickly leads to the assumption that our it really so simple to consider this happening age prevents us from being “responsible” to a classmate or friend? In addition, those for the outcome of the election -- that our who believe in one political candidate can inability to cast a ballot keeps us from having often stereotype supporters of the other an influence on its result. candidate; the media and even Hillary Clinton This line of thinking couldn’t be more frequently dehumanize Trump supporters wrong. without much basis in evidence. The best way to change this is through a shift in There are a myriad of ways that younger perspective. Politics is a concept, but it people can and do impact elections - be it through an action itself or simply a change in involves people, too, and it’s important to consider the faces behind a candidate or a perspective. policy decision.

Social media plays a critical role in the The bottom line? We have more power election season. At times, social media can than we might think in this election. Stay be crucial for someone to fully grasp what informed, but be kind. At the end of the has happened, and allows someone to do so day, we’re human, and that doesn’t change-in a very small timeframe compared to other regardless of who ends up in the Oval methods. Social media exposes users to not Office. only factual information that presidential

STAYING POLITICALLY ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA Tweet your responses to debates, electionrelated news - be heard.

DON’T GENERALIZE Don’t make assumptions about members of other parties without having the facts.

STAY INFORMED Keep updated not just with the headlines, but with candidates’ platforms and debates.

DESIGN // Adithi Ramakrishnan

OPINION

23

OCT 27, 2016

DIPLOMATIC DIFFERENCES

Hear what Jefferson has to say about the environment - from all sides of the spectrum The 2016 election is now less than a month away, and one of the most controversial, substantive issues of the campaign has been the environment. Global warming worries 64 percent of voters overall, and concern among all parties is mounting. Hillary Clinton’s ideas for solving the issues of climate change look to entrepreneurship and innovation, while Donald Trump refuses to even admit that climate change is real and caused by humans.

Within ten years, Clinton aims to power every home in America with renewable energy and reduce oil consumption through cleaner fuel production Niharika Vattikonda || GUEST WRITER and greater

efficiency of cars, ships and trucks.

Unlike her opponent, Clinton has a strong plan to achieve her goals. For example, she plans to launch the Clean Energy Challenge, which will entail market-based incentives for states to encourage clean energy development. Clinton also recognizes how important it is that all people have access to clean energy, which is why her plan also includes an expansion of the Rural Utilities Service and tax incentives to make clean energy more cost effective in terms of both production and consumption.

The Democratic clean energy plan also includes initiatives to work with communities that depend on fossil fuels. In order to revitalize coal communities, Clinton plans to retain the health and retirement security for coal mining employees and provide opportunities to help them retrain in renewable energy jobs. In a time when the people of Flint still don’t have access to clean water, Hillary Clinton aims to eliminate lead poisoning in five years and expand energy efficiency in low-income communities, a plan which will involve the creation of the Environmental and Climate Justice Task Force.

While Donald Trump continues to deny the existence of the problem, Clinton’s proposals take us further to a solution for climate change.

Gary Johnson, Bill Weld, and the scientific community are in agreement; the earth is undoubtedly getting warmer, and humans are most likely causing the increase in temperature. Yet, engineering the economy and tax code with expensive government programs to pick winners and losers has consistently proved to be an unsuccessful strategy to protect the environment.

Our current energy policy, which purports to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, actually rewards special business interests and the wealthy with subsidized loans and tax cuts. The solar panel company Solyndra received a $535 million clean energy grant in 2009, then went bankrupt two years later. Our tax code gives massive tax breaks to wealthy individuals who purchase $100,000 Teslas or $20,000 solar panels. Libertarians want to empower the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to preserve American resources for future generations, and keep our air and water safe without wasting tax dollars on economic engineering.

Ultimately, the solution for climate change will not come from the government but from the people. Cap-and-trade and ethanol subsidies have done nothing but limit free market enterprise and

are not effective long term solutions for climate change. Alternative energy is the path forward, but the directive should not come from the federal government.

Voluntary partnerships and incentive from within business can transition us from coal and fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources such as nuclear without unnecessary government interference.

DEMOCRATIC

For extended versions of these opinions, visit tjTODAY.org.

LIBERTARIAN

Ahad Rizvi || GUEST WRITER

24 OPINION

CARE ABOUT CULTURE, CUT THE APPROPRIATION Why culturally appropriative costumes continue to be an issue Angel Kim || TEAM LEADER

H

alloween. It’s spooky, scary and fun all at once. It’s the time of the year where we visit haunted houses, watch horror films, eat tons of candy and dress up as who or whatever we want. But, there are costumes that we have the responsibility to avoid.

Cultural (mis)appropriation occurs when a person or group of people incorporate elements from a certain culture into an outfit, style or behavior. This appropriation can indirectly perpetuate stereotypes that the original culture is harassed for. We commonly observe cultural appropriation when outfits claim to be “inspired” by Asia or when people wear Native American headdresses to seem trendy. Though instances of appropriation can happen yearround, they are especially important to address during Halloween, when many people are looking into costumes and props.

Earlier this fall, Disney discontinued a costume based on Maui, a character from the highly anticipated animated film “Moana.”

One of Maui’s more noticeable characteristics is tattoos covering

his arms, torso and legs, and the costume’s top and pants were made to look like tattooed skin.

However, they were colored brown.

Yes, “Moana” is about characters from Oceana, but incorporating skin color into a costume is unwarranted. Many people took to social media to criticize the costume’s display of cultural appropriation, noting that Polynesian culture is not a costume, in addition to addressing the disturbing thought of being able to wear another racial identity. This was disappointing because there are numerous other ways for Disney to produce costumes based on ethnic cultures in a respectful manner. For Maui, there always is the option for temporary tattoos or transparent tattoo sleeves, and replacing his bare chest with another top.

“Moana”, which will hit theaters on Nov. 23, has already been lauded for giving representation to different cultures.

With other recent Disney releases starring characters of color such as “Queen of Katwe” and “Big Hero 6”, many people still have faith that the production company is headed in the right direction.

As Halloween approaches, having fun with your costume is essential. However, being respectful is, too.

The Maui costume sold on Disney’s webstore; the character Maui drawing his fish hook in “Moana”. “Moana” will be released in the U.S. on Nov. 23.

The costume, which Disney has discontinued selling, was criticized for being culturally appropriative.

Photo courtesy of disney.com DESIGN // Avni Singh

OPINION

25

OCT 27, 2016

EXPRESSING OPINIONS THROUGH CARTOONS Anna Zhang || GUEST CARTOONIST

ENTERTAINMENT “HAMMER OF THOR”

DESIGN // Angel Kim

The second “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” book falls flat Adithi Ramikrishnan || EDITOR IN CHIEF

A

traditional school year tends to fall into a basic pattern. On the first day, everything is new, teeming with possibility. The second and third days are still exciting, but with some of that initial anticipation lost. By the second or third week, the days have fallen into a predictable pattern. Rick Riordan’s book series over the years have descended into the same formula: intriguing and enticing at first, now painfully repetitive.

Riordan’s “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” series follows protagonist Magnus Chase on his journey through the halls of Valhalla. Magnus has died, but the heroic nature of his death led to his being saved by a Valkyrie. Magnus embarks on adventures in his un-dead state, and in this second installment, he seeks the location of Thor’s missing hammer, Mjolnir, to prevent a global attack. Along the way, he comes into contact with a myriad of faces from Norse mythology.

I was willing to overlook Riordan’s now-monotonous style if the content was laudable – but even that was not up to par. Riordan’s books are frequently centered around some kind of countdown – the heroes must finish a certain quest or retrieve an item in a given amount of days to prevent some kind of otherworldly crisis. In “The Lightning Thief,” this organization of the story offered for suspense, but the ninth or tenth time around, it has lost its charm.

The fact of the matter is, while reading this, I didn’t feel any kind of connection to the characters or genuine interest in their story. Having read all of Riordan’s past books, I knew how the story would end before I even got there.

One commendable aspect of Rick Riordan’s books, despite their plots, is his inclusion of diverse characters in his narrative.

Book characters are rarely very diverse, and this often The traditional issue with Rick Riordan’s books is their classic plot arc: goes unnoticed since the characters don’t permeate beyond introduce a new evil, go on an adventhe page into, say, a television ture, eliminate threat, rinse, repeat. screen. However, the Magnus Along the way, the heroes smart-talk their way out of situations, crack a few Chase series features a Muslim girl wearing a hijab as one of its pop-culture references and have some main characters, and newly-introclassic character-bonding experiences. duced Alex Fierro is a transgenThis formula, though inventive the der demigod who is currently first time around, is cringe-worthy in “Hammer of Thor.” Admittedly, I did exploring her gender identity and chuckle once or twice at Magnus’ talking pronouns. While I am not qualsword belting Selena Gomez or the god ified enough to say whether or not Riordan’s portrayal of these Heimdall being obsessed with taking selfies, but the majority of the book was characters is accurate and doesn’t perpetuate stereotypes, his decihard to get through. sion to write diverse characters

in itself is significant. Television is certainly becoming more diverse, but this shift is not as prominent in literature.

Rick Riordan’s initiative in this scenario is a step in the right direction.

I’ve stuck with Rick Riordan’s books for enough years that I’ll probably end up picking up the third installment in this series - but not out of any intense desire to do so. Unfortunately, the spark that first got me hooked seems to have burnt out.

Magnus Chase carries his sword on the cover of “Hammer of Thor”.

Photo courtesy of Disney Hyperion

ENTERTAINMENT

27

OCT 27, 2016

HORROR-SCOPES: Local Halloween events you’ll want to attend Bayliss Wagner and Lilia Qian || TEAM LEADER, STAFF WRITER

Fields of Fear

What: Fields of Fear is an annual event at Cox Farms where visitors partake in Halloween-themed activities like “Dark Side Hayride,” “The Forest: Back 40,” the “Cornightmare haunted cornfield walk” and “The Firegrounds.” Visitors enjoy food, “Fear games”, and bonfires.

When: Fields are open every Friday and Saturday night in October from 7:30 to 11:00 PM. Where: Centreville, VA

Photo courtesy of Fields of Fear

Field of Screams

Why: “My friends and I wanted to go to an event that was Halloween related as it was getting closer to October 31st, and we wanted to make new memories,” sophomore Joyce Liu said. “I liked the hayride the best.

Hayrides are just something I’ve loved doing, and it was great to experience it again with two of my best friends.”

What: Field of Screams offers four haunted attractions: a trail deep in the forest with 13 terrifying stations, a haunted hayride, a 3D-painted haunted house for which you receive glasses that distort the experience and new this year, a “Camp Fear” themed haunted trail. The nighttime activities feature bonfires around which visitors can eat s’mores, funnel cakes and fried oreos and Twinkies.

When: Open every Friday and Saturday night in October Where: Olney, MD

Photo courtesy of The Washington Times

Escape the Room DC

Why: “We chose field of screams because both of us had been to Cox Farms and it’s not as interesting,” said senior Nick Yoon, who visited all four Field of Screams attractions this fall. “My favorite moment was definitely when we were walking through this rotating tunnel thing at the end and Dana [my girlfriend] was getting super dizzy. So the clown saw that she was struggling and just gave up on scaring her and let her through. It was so funny.”

Who: Teams of up to 10 players.

What: Teams are locked together in a room. Players have sixty minutes to use clues in the room to escape. The challenge is used for team-building as well as for fun with friends.

When: Open every day, times vary based on booking schedules.

Where: Washington, DC 20004

Photo courtesy of The Jefferson Dance Team Facebook page

Why: “We went to Escape the Room to celebrate homecoming. The best part was probably the last fifteen minutes because [it] gets really stressful where you can see the timer counting down,” junior Rae Moar said. “I really enjoyed both times I had been there and I would definitely recommend it.”

tell people what your needs are, then “ Ifyouryouneeds will get met. PEOPLE WILL FIND

PHOTO // Alexa Nguonly REPORTING // Alexa Nguonly

SOMEWAY, SOMEHOW. If they care about you they will find a way.

I’m very proactive about creating friendships because I know that if I want friends, I HAVE TO BE A GOOD FRIEND. Even when you feel like you are running out of time, THERE’S STILL HOPE. There’s still a solution somewhere out there for you and you have to go find your solution.

When you die, you don’t want people to say “Oh they were successful; they got good grades in school.” You don’t want people to remember you by that. You want people to remember you by WHAT YOU DID FOR THEM AND HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

With Lyme, there is no cure. There is only a hope of remission and not many people achieve it. But I always just like to tell people that YOUR REMISSION IS OUT THERE SOMEWHERE AND YOU WILL FIND YOUR REMISSION SOMEDAY.

SENIOR

”

MAX PABILONIA || WHAT I VE LEARNED