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Swiss miss
The WSS talks to Julia De Martino about the differences between the US and Switzerland.
By jaycie weathers
weathers.jaycie@gmail.com
Photo by//nick deerberg
The pilot of WSS
The first WSS advisor, Betty Tucker, describes the differences of the newspaper, past and present. By Lucy Blair
lucybear12@gmail.com
There, in the corner room of Melrose Meadows Assisted Living, overlooking her beloved school, West High, sits Betty Lou Tucker. She animatedly describes game nights, school days and how she sees the school light up. She was the very first West Side Story adviser in 1968. Even though Tucker only worked as adviser for four years, she is the one behind the newspaper that exists today. She explained that having a newspaper was especially important due to how new the school was. “The paper brought everyone together,” Tucker said. There was the yearbook, but that was only a yearly event and West, as a new high school, needed something to pull everyone together, according to Tucker. Early on, they held a contest to name the new school paper. Utimately, it was named after West Side Story, the musical which first premiered in 1958. While the name remains the same, lots of other things have changed about the paper since Tucker was involved. Transporting the paper was quite different, as they would arrive from the printer unaccompanied on a city bus from West Branch. “It really was quite a commute,”
Tucker said. “Everything started small,” Tucker said. She describes the 1968 version of the paper as basically a “big gossip column” for West High. Now, she said, there’s more opportunity to cover more serious issues. One reason that’s true is because communication has changed over the years. One can connect with someone much more easily since the 60’s, such as through social networking and email. “High school papers are so much more important today; it prepares you for the real world and makes you work together. Everyone is so much more involved today, [too],” she said. Tucker is the mother of West Side Story. Today, she reminisces about the paper, and her knowledge about West High in previous years is as impressive as her ability to remember the first issue. Her parting advice to journalists today? “Keep close to the students, and their interests and even their values,” she said. Tucker felt her own high school experiences helped her transition to West. She grew up in Davenport and went to what she described as a large and quite diverse high school that prepared her for the evergrowing population and diversity of West High.
Julia De Martino, a transfer student, used to live about 5,000 miles from West, in Switzerland, until the 16-year-old packed her things and moved to Iowa City. De Martino is living with Riley Finer ’15 and her family for the rest of the school year. “My godmother lived here when she was younger … she knew that I wanted to go away for a year, so she sent some emails to her friends that lived in America, and the Finer family was the one that answered first and was really excited about having me here,” De Martino said. Adjusting to American life was surreal for De Martino. “There are a lot of things from America that you see in the movies or on the news, and when I arrived [in America] it was like I was in a movie,” she said. “People in Iowa are really nice ... and more open. When they meet someone new, they are going to talk to them.” A little thing that surprised her about America was the perk of free refills at restaurants, because according to her, in Switzerland, restaurants would never offer that. The way the week works at West is something De Martino had to get used to when she went to school as well. “The hard thing is that the week is longer. Each day has the same schedule. In my town we have a
schedule for the week, not the day,” she said. De Martino described that in Switzerland, they would visit only a few classes a day, and every day of the week entails different classes, somewhat like a block schedule. “[On some days] we would finish school early or start later, depending on which day it is. Here, with the same schedule each day, you can’t tell the difference between Monday and Tuesday,” De Martino said. West has many options for elective classes and De Martino is taking full advantage of those opportunities by enrolling in a lot of art classes. “In my town I got two hours a week of [art class], and here, each day, I get three hours of art classes,” she said. De Martino embraces the change that America has brought especially the food. “[My favorite thing about America] is the peanut butter,” she said. “I [don’t know] what the best thing is here yet. For now, it’s that I have a bathroom in my room ... and the driving. It’s cool that you can drive at 16 here... There are so many things, I can’t choose one as my favorite.” Leaving your family and friends for a year to go to an entirely new country is no small feat. De Martino offers this advice to others who wish to live abroad: “Just be involved with what you’re doing.”
Photo by//abby burgess
10 PROFILES NOVEMBER 2013 { ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE ONLY GETS 0.1 MM OF RAIN PER YEAR, THE LOWEST WORLDWIDE.