The Chatterbox - Mar. 12, 2015 - CIX.11

Walnut Hills High School

Volume CIX, Issue 11

Walnut Hills Eagles soar to state

Mock Trial

Jeresa Anderson, ‘18 Track & Field Anderson competes in the long jump, triple jump and 200-meter dash. However, she said that she will do any other event that her coach needs her to participate in. Anderson’s favorite things about competing at state are being able to bond with her teammates and coach and having the opportunity to experience these things as a freshman.

Casey Becker, ‘16 Swimming Becker set a personal goal for herself at the beginning of the swim season: qualify for state. Becker met that goal by going to state for the first time, swimming the 500 freestyle. At state she swam a time of 5:08.47 seconds, but her fastest time was 5:05.40 seconds at districts. Becker said, “I was really excited to go to state. It was a goal of mine to qualify for the meet this year, and it felt great to achieve that goal.”

JULIAN SHOCKLEY/CHATTERBOX

Tasia Kieffer, ‘17 (left) and Kamala Nelson, ‘17, winners of the regional mock trial competition, are in prepation for state on March 12 and 13.

Kieffer and Nelson are accompanied by Ananya Cherukuri, ‘17, Natalie Groeber, ‘17, Swede Moorman, ‘16, Kayla Murrell, ‘17, SENIOR Ashley Robinson, Lia Shapiro, ‘18, Amilcar Torres, ‘18 and English teacher and club advisor Jerome Brady. The team of regional champions will compete at The Ohio State University.

Allie Berding, ‘16 Whitney Bronson, ‘16 Tony Heim, ‘15 Darien Jackson, ‘15 Tara Sales, ‘17 Brad Williams, ‘15 In its first year, the mock trial team has advanced to the state final. In order to advance, members must win the case given to them that they argue at competitions.

Each member is given a role in the court in which they are required to present and argue their case. The roles are plaintiff and defense attorneys, plaintiff and defense witnesses, plaintiff’s bailiff and defense timekeeper. Kamala Nelson, ‘17 and Tasia Kieffer, ‘17 won best plaintiff and best defense, respectively, at the regional competition in Oxford, OH. How are you preparing for state?

KN: We are looking at our score sheets that we get after each competition.

TK: We are working on our weak points and strong points and seeing how we can improve.

What are you most nervous about?

TK: I’m not nervous at this point,.

It’s second nature to me. It’s so rare for a first year team to have come this far in the first place.

KN: We’ve done it so many times.

We got a lot of confidence from regionals. The judge told our at-

torney we were the best team he’s ever seen.

Do you have any pre-competition rituals?

TK: I get my nails done the night before.

KN: I straighten my hair.

As a team, how close are you guys?

KN: We spend so much time together, so we are very close.

TK: The team is so small we have to like each other, but we still argue.

Say you win state, where do you go from there?

TK: To nationals in Washington, D.C. The Mock Trial Association pays for you to go and you also get paid to be there.

KN: You also get an entire new case and you must argue everything onthe-spot.

What motivated you to join mock trial?

TK: We know people who do it at other schools.

KN: “Law and Order: SVU” As sophomores, how does it feel to have gone so far and to be competing against upperclassmen from all around the city?

TK: It’s not intimidating. If you know what your case is you don’t get scared of other people at all.

SENIOR Brookley Garry Swimming

For the last three seasons, Garry has been a fixture at the state swimming meet in Canton, OH. Garry has dominated the 100 breaststroke, capturing the Eastern Cincinnati Conference’s fastest time in all three years of its existence. Each year she has improved, moving from 24th place her sophomore year to 12th place this year. She has committed to The Ohio State University, where she will walk on the swim team.

SENIOR Keira Hassel Swimming

Hassel did numerous workouts and trainings in order to try to qualify for state. She swam every day for the past five months, lifted weights and worked out to have, according to her, “an extra edge over people who swam for training.”

Hassel swam the 100 butterfly with a swim time of 57.08 seconds. This was Hassel’s second time going to state, placing 12th her junior year and 14th this year.

TaiLynn Jones, ‘18 Track & Field TaiLynn Jones, '18 competes in the long jump, triple jump, hurdles and relays. Jones has the sixth longest jump in the state of Ohio at 17.25 feet. Her favorite thing about state was being able to compete in the long jump and also being able to place at states. She has hopes of being able to run track in college.

Cooper Keener, ‘16 Swimming Cooper Keener, '16 reached a career milestone of going to state two years in a row. As a sophomore, Keener qualified for state in the 100 backstroke and came in 15th place. This year he returned and came in 24th. Keener is getting multiple Division One looks from colleges such as The Ohio State University, the University of Florida, University of North Carolina, University of Northern Las Vegas and University of the Pacific.

March 13, 2015

Viewpoints

The pros and cons Your Internet Face

Selfie status

Avery Samuels, ‘16

Avery Samuels, ‘16 Coyner Public Relations’ “State of the Selfie Report” has determined that around 85 percent of people post at least one seflie per week onto their social media feeds.

Of the nine percent of people who reported that they did not post selfies, most said that it was because they would simply rather post pictures of other things.

REHME LEANZA/CHATTERBOX

Olivia Garr, ‘20 (left) and Cierra Carter, ‘20 take a selfie together.

A more connected audience Zoe Cheng, ‘15 Along with social media’s ability to create a more global and connected audience comes the opportunity for news and opinions to spread faster than ever before. Familiar Twitter hashtags include #JeSuisCharlie, #Ferguson and #BostonBomberTrial -- hashtags that promote activism and awareness, that connect people with similar opinions and make them aware of opinions unlike their own.

Dr. Janet Johnson said to Jenny Doren of WFAA NBC, “I typed in the hashtag Ferguson just to see what the chatter was this morning.” She described seeing 300 additional tweets each time she refreshed the site. This occurred after a St. Louis grand jury said it would not indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August 2014.

“I get...near all of my breaking news from social media,” math teacher Laurie Cotton said. “[Social media] is instant access to information. [At] any random time, I can see what’s going on in the world, and I can also follow up on previous things...it’s easily digestible information at my fingertips.”

Nevertheless, anyone with any social media account can post about anything. One must always consider the validity of facts one encounters online. “If I see like the New York Times’ tweets then I know it’s legit, but if I see like John Smith [tweet]...I try to take it with a grain of salt, but I know a lot of people don’t, and I think that can be very destructive,” SENIOR Daniel Youkilis said. If he encounters news on Facebook, Youkilis said he’ll “leave Facebook and go to a more reputable source...

But normally it will be like a topic that I’ve read about before and somebody else posted an article about that topic [with] a different perspective about it.”

“I hear local news from TV and the WLWT app, but national and world news I usually hear from Twitter accounts, like CNN’s Twitter,” SENIOR Shelby Gaines said.

Just as breaking news can spread rapidly through social media, so can one’s personal thoughts. For example, in December 2013, Justine Sacco tweeted: “Going to Africa.

Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Within the next 11 hours, Sacco became a Twitter sensation, denounced by users around the world. Though she only had 170 followers and considered her tweet a joke, Sacco lost her job and was derided ubiquitously for the one tweet.

“A close-minded idea you posted two years ago and no longer agree with still has your name attached to it,” Gaines said.

Social media has become a platform for people worldwide. Whether these people speak positively or negatively, social media allows their voices to be noticed. English teacher Kelsey June said, “I think that a lot of times it does...spark your attention about something going on in the world.”

Recently in the news, there have been many articles written and studies conducted that suggest social media has a negative impact on self esteem. For example, Nanyang Technological University, Bradley University and the University of Missouri Columbia recently released findings from a social experiment they jointly conducted that deem Facebook to be a depressant, leaving the user feeling inadequate and inferior compared to the people with whom they interact on social media.

This is understandable, in a way. Facebook, like many other social media outlets, is understood to be a personal broadcasting service.

Usually this means that the only news people post to their social media accounts is positive.

For some, to go on social media and to see what supposedly wonderful lives their friends seem to be leading is depressing.

However, social media never seems to get enough credit for being a way for people, especially adolescents, to boost their self esteem.

Receiving positive feedback in the forms of likes, retweets, notes and kind comments can really make someone feel good about themselves.

The Internet can be “an exciting, yet relatively safe, opportunity to conduct the social psychological task of adolescence -- to construct, experiment and present a reflexive project of the self in a social context,” Sonia Livingstone wrote in her essay “Taking Risky Opportunities in Youthful Content Creation: Teenagers’ Use of Social Networking Sites for Intimacy, Privacy and Self-Expression.” In a study conducted by InStyle, 82 percent of women reported that compliments on social media improve their self-esteem, and 75 percent said that social media has strengthened their personal relationships.

“If people respond to me [on social media], I feel better about myself,” Gillian Gunawan, ‘16, said. After some time online, Alex Gluck, ‘16, said that she, too, feels “more confident than before [because] there’s inspiring ‘treat yourself ’ messages on the Internet.”

When going on social media, it is important to remember that everyone else’s lives might always seem amazing, but social media is a metaphorical rose-colored glass. People do not post about the bad things, about the things that they do not want others to see.

Keep that in mind the next time you are scrolling through your Facebook feed.

Expert sources?

Avery Samuels, ‘16 These days, it seems like everyone is an expert. Question-and-answer forums have allowed people, whether they are a professional or not, to circulate whatever information they deem to be true or acceptable. Due to the fact that people have the ability to communicate and post things with ease, social media has become a way for people to assume different roles or professions. For example, people are turning to Yahoo Answers for medical diagnoses and Twitter has become one of society’s main news sources.

FACEBOOK

TWITTER Twitter hashtags and “@” let you find any person, company or topic the world is talking about. You can be anyone or anything, Twitter famous or imitating a real famous person, and most importantly, your opinion and random thoughts are valued, at least by those who share them.

“There are privacy issues [with social media] like tracking apps, geotags, and people not knowing better when they talk about where they live and what their last name is, which is still more dangerous now than it was 10 years ago when cyberstalking and ‘talking to strangers on the internet’ was a huge lesson taught to kids and teenagers.”

- Gillian Gunawan, ‘16

Founded in 2004, Facebook was one of the first social media sites to connect people around the world. It was a place to make and chat with friends, play games, post, rant and stalk your ex or new crush. A gateway to its current competitors, it is the father of modern social media sites.

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is a scrapbook of you and your friends, but mostly you, as well as places you’ve been and places you hope to be. You are showing the world how cool you are but more importantly how photogenic you are with three or four filters.

TAYLOR DARKS/CHATTERBOX

Morgan Kitchen, ‘17 frequently uses social media sites.

The Chatterbox Policy Statement

The Chatterbox has been guaranteed the right of freedom of the press through the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The administration of Walnut Hills High School is thus bound to support and protect the Chatterbox’s inalienable rights as a free press.

As an integral part of the Walnut Hills High School community, the Chatterbox has the responsibility to report in the most comprehensive and objective manner possible. Students, parents, faculty, and administrators are

encouraged to use this publication as a forum to express any ideas or concerns, whether they be personal or of local, national, or international scope.

Journalists are required to work under established guidelines. Invasion of privacy as a means of news gathering is prohibited. Articles found to be discriminatory, libelous, or unnecessarily obscene (as determined by the editors or the advisor) will not be published. Finally, journalists are granted the right to keep private the name of a source from whom they

received information with the understanding that the source was to remain anonymous. The role of the newspaper advisor will be to provide counsel and criticism pertaining to the newspaper’s content and production. Although both the advisor and the administration hold certain powers regarding the Chatterbox, both must respect the paper’s autonomy. No student shall be prevented from joining the staff on the basis of sex, race, creed or national origin.

SARAH DAVIDOFF, ‘13

The Chatterbox Editorial Board Zoe Cheng and Celeste Kearney, Editors-in-Chief Karinne Hill, Managing Editor Grace Hill, Design Managing Editor Alex Persiani, Photography Editor Neriya Servant, Business Manager Oliver Olberding, Online Manager

Aisling Grueninger, Circulation Manager Tony Heim, Section Editor Representative Allie Berding, News Editor Samantha Gerwe-Perkins, Advisor Dawn Wolfe, Advisor

of connectivity T echnology takeover Helpful apps for school:

Taylor Darks, ‘15 With smartphone technology advancing every day, the uses for a phone are endless.

Besides just texting and calling, there are apps for everything. You have your own personal alarm clock, your own personal GPS, FaceTime and Skype to help you stay connected to family and friends. At first glance you may not be able to tell what a person is doing with their phone.

The possibilities are limitless.

Google drive Google Docs Sheets Genius Scan Sparknotes Quizlet Dictionary Blackboard PowerSchool Gadesaver

TAYLOR DARKS/CHATTERBOX

Jared Beard, ‘18 is distracted by his phone as he walks through the hallway.

Global chatter Zoe Cheng, ‘15 If today’s reign of social media can be defined by one word, perhaps it is this: “share.”

Every day, people pull out their phones to film their friends, snap selfies and tweet their thoughts to an audience that is virtually limitless. “Share” has become almost instinctual in the digital age: we are willing to project our pictures, jokes and ideas to a pool of friends that can widen to include the entire digital world.

Social media connects people to a worldwide audience, yet it can also help people stay in touch with friends and loved ones around the world. SENIOR Daniel Youkilis uses Facebook to stay connected with friends who live in places ranging from Salt Lake

Julia Duell, ‘19

To many, technology has become part of the modern lifestyle. However, there seems to be an issue: people are not communicating as much with one another anymore, or at least not face-to-face. Where once two friends would have been talking together, now similar pairs of friends are seemingly absorbed by what is on their phones.

There is a large problem concerning peoples’ attachment to their screens and social media, particularly when it comes to how distracting screens can be from completing important tasks such as homework. “I think electronic devices are a big interference with grades,” Katie Solinsky, ‘19 said, “because people spend too much time on their social media, and not enough time studying and doing homework.”

Easy-to-access sources of distraction are not the only issues created by social media. Later on in life, what you post can easily be used against you and can possibly prevent you from being hired. “Now, a lot of places, when you get job interviews, they’ll search up through your profiles on social media and stuff, and they could not hire you because you posted something inappropriate or mean,” Solinsky said.

However, some people think that instead of keeping people from socializing in real life, recent technological advances like social media

and modern-day electronics actually increase connectivity between people. Lily Unterhaslberger, ‘19 feels that the Internet actually helps people connect with one another, not the other way around: “There are literal babies now that would not have ever existed if the Internet was not there, so I think that’s just showing how connected we are because of the Internet,” Unterhaslberger said.

Just like many things, regardless of whether someone thinks social media, screens and the Internet in general can be beneficial or detrimental, it is always good to moderate the time during which they are used. “[The Internet] needs to be used in moderation,” Perri Wedlock, ‘19 said. “If you use it to talk to people you can’t see because they don’t have a phone or something like that, that’s understandable, but if you just do it because you’re lazy and you don’t want to get up and walk to somebody and talk to them, that’s bad.” Wedlock, however, has a few good ideas on alternatives to only communicating with others through electronics. “Write a letter. You don’t have to text all the time. Get up and walk to your friend’s house. You don’t have to FaceTime them all the time.” According to her, “Social media’s good to share, but still [you should] talk in regular-day life.”

City to Jordan. “They don’t live here so I’m not texting them every day. We’re not like best friends, but we’re pretty good friends so like... one a month, every few weeks, I’ll just send them a message on Facebook and people talk for a little while,” Youkilis said.

“I can talk to people in Missouri, Canada, Brazil and Australia with ease,” Gillian Gunawan, ‘16 said.

One of the most common complaints against social media, especially the use of social media on mobile phones, is that it distracts people from face-to-face interaction.

Taylor Darks, ‘15 But social media cannot be blamed for human action; sites like Facebook and Twitter The music industry has been allow users to both communicate with people almost entirely digitized. iTunes, Pandora, Rdio and other frequentworldwide and to learn from people unlike ly-used websites are where many themselves. Tweets from or about different get their music fill for the day. Stucountries may be brought to our attention dents can be seen listening to music through just one retweet. Of course, this has at school, tuning out the stress and its negative effects: according to Eric Schmitt perhaps the annoyng noises around for the New York Times, ISIS followers generthem. Teachers struggle to keep the ate up to 90,000 posts on social media each headphones out of their ears, but the day. But the pros of worldwide connectivity buds go right back in at the sound are prominent, too. By interacting with peoof the bell. ple in other social situations, we expand our own minds. Though social media can make us TAYLOR DARKS/CHATTERBOX less aware of our face-to-face relationships, it SENIOR Terrance Sims listens to music during the school day. can also strengthen the relationships we hold Sources: <www.coynepr.com>, <www.ktla.com>, <www.news.instyle.com>, <www.nywith people far away. times.com>, <www.washingtonpost.com>, <www.wfaa.com>, “Taking Risky Opportunities in Youthful Content Creation: Teenagers’ Use of Social Networking Sites for Intimacy, Privacy and Self-Expression” by Sonia Livingstone

MUSIC jUNKIES

MiXED MEDiA = MiXED FAiTH Art as a Spiritual Connection™ is a new kind of creative experience that uses the art medium as a pathway to connect with the Divine in all of us. With a variety of art programs for all ages, Art as a Spiritual Connection™ creates a nurturing environment, and provides tools for art exploration, to foster connections to God, self and others through the creative process. Drawing from a variety of faith traditions, Art as a Spiritual Connection™ affirms that God has no religion, and we are the creative hands through which the Great Spirit blesses this world.

SoulCollage® workshops for adults are here. Summer youth camps are coming!

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Style & Culture

Fearless ‘fros: Girls embrace

Nisa Muhammad, ‘15

1786

SENIOR Hannah Sanders

Afro-Creole women wear a headscarf called a tignon to cover their hair.

In Black culture, “going natural” refers to the process of ditching relaxers and embracing a person’s natural curl pattern. “I just hated getting relaxers and having to straighten my hair all the time. It was really inconvenient to have to basically plan a full day to get my hair done. I had a lot of hair,” SENIOR Hannah Sanders said. “Also, I hated having to avoid water. It just took too much work. Plus, my hair was just really damaged from relaxers and straighteners constantly being used on it.” Relaxers chemically alter curly and coiled hair to make it straight.

In September of 2013, Sanders decided to “big chop,” a term that describes the cutting of relaxed ends. “I feel a lot more comfortable with myself as a whole,” Sanders said.

“Wearing your hair natural counters the idea that Blacks who don’t have ‘good hair’ have to manipulate it in some way to be ‘acceptable.’ It shows that Blacks can wear their hair any way they want and still look put together.”

1905 Madame CJ Walker was the first female self-made millionaire by creating a line of hair and beauty products.

1913

the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company WAS founded with relaxers as the signature product.

Joy Pickett, ‘16

Just like any haircut, the “big chop” can go wrong. “In ninth grade, I basically cut all my hair, trying to ‘go natural,’ and I just hated it. My hair was so short and shrunk up a lot. People would say it was cute, but I just thought it was horrible,” Joy Pickett,’16 said.

“All my friends’ hair was straight and long or they had weave. So, I felt very insecure with my curly hair.”

Curly and coily hair textures can wear protective styles such as weaves or braids to help with length retention and help fight the feeling of insecurity.“It’s not until this year where I really started liking my natural hair.

Firstly, it grew a lot. I used to wear weaves because I didn’t like my hair,” Pickett said.

“But I learned to really like my hair and embrace my naturalness. I have new people in

my life who encourage me to embrace it.”

“My friends and family really liked my hair.

My sisters even decided to cut their hair and ‘go natural,’” Pickett said. “[Natural hair] promotes the ‘connection to your roots’ and to love yourself regardless of what others feel.”

SENIOR Hadiya Harris Kat Thomas, ‘17

Kylie Thomas, ‘17 has been rocking her hair chemical-free all her life. “My hair symbolizes my Blackness in the way of showing who I am and the fact that I don’t mind it,” Kylie Thomas,’17 said.

“When I was younger, I didn’t have much of a choice [to not get relaxers]. My mom kept my hair braided up because she used to get relaxers, and it broke her hair off,” Thomas said. Relaxers contain chemicals that can cause breakage, scalp burns and permanent hair loss.

“When I did get my hair straightened, I would get it pressed and it would look as if I had a relaxer,” Thomas said. Straightening tools such as flat irons and pressing combs are ways that people with curlier hair can achieve straight hair without the added chemicals and permanence. Heat protectant serums can be used to combat heat damage and protect the curl pattern.

Thomas is an athlete. During basketball season, instead of wearing her hair straight or curly, Thomas wears her natural hair in braids.

From Nigeria to New York, braids are found deep within African roots. In some parts of Africa, the style of the braid pattern was indicative of a person’s tribe, religion, ethnicity or social class. Braids are also a viable way to keep afro-textured hair from tangling and knotting. In this way, braids are a great protective style, which means they are good for length retention because of low manipulation.

“Cornrow braids are an easy protective style for natural hair. I also think that they are unique because few people wear their hair like this,” SENIOR Hadiya Harris said.

“With cornrow braids, you have the versatility, but they aren’t high maintenance which is great for my busy schedule.” Harris has been wearing her hair natural all of her life.

Every two months, she gets protective styles to “let her hair breath.”

“I love my natural hair, and I wouldn’t change it at all,” Harris said.

e their natural curls and coils Chloe Coleman, ‘17

Chloe Coleman, ‘17 went natural during her eighth grade year. “I didn’t see really a point to using chemicals, and I wanted my hair to grow because it had been the same length for years,” Coleman said. “My hair grew more in the past two years than it had grown since I started relaxing it.”

After Coleman went natural, she felt as if she had a lot more versatility with her hair. “I can straighten it. It’s a lot of work, but it can be done. I can wear it curly. I can fluff it out and make it really big. I have a lot of options.”

Though embracing one’s natural hair can be beneficial, it can come with a downside such as negative comments.

“Once in class, our teacher showed us a caricature of a group of slaves and someone said, ‘Oh look, there’s Chloe.’”

Jasmin

1972 Cicely Tyson became one of the first women to wear cornrow braids on television.

Imani Shabazz, ‘17

Imani Shabazz,’17 transitioned from relaxed hair to natural hair. Transitioning is a process in the natural hair movement that involves a person growing out their hair without dramatically chopping off their chemically altered hair.

“When my hair started to grow in, I would see how different the two [textures] were. I started to wonder what it would look like natural, and then I wondered why I kept getting [relaxers] in the first place, because it wasn’t my choice,” Shabazz said. “So, when October of 2013 came, I got my last [relaxer] and grew it out until May of 2014, and cut it four days before my birthday, and I was natural.”

“I will never forget the first day back to school. My mom chopped it, and it was straggly at the top. I wore a hood all day, but people kept pulling it down. I felt so vulnerable,” Shabazz said. “But the next day I did bantu knots, and I strutted everywhere and felt better than I ever have with my old hair.

And since then, I’ve been like that.”

Just like Coleman, Shabazz was subject to negative comments as well. “[Strangers] would say things like, ‘Why would you cut it? You have such good hair.’ or ‘If you cut it, it’s going to be nappy,’ ‘Your edges are so nappy. I want to slap a perm on you,’ stuff like that,” she said.

“To me, my hair symbolizes who I truly am. No matter who I go out with, what I listen to, or who my friends are, my hair is there to remind those around me that I am not submissive, nor will I ever be,” Shabazz said. “My hair naturally stands tall and so will I. All the curls and kinks are just as feminine as my fellow women who have looser textures.”

Coleman does not let those comments affect her. “Some people are just stupid and don’t realize this is how my hair is supposed to grow, and there’s nothing wrong with it,” she said. “If the relaxer wasn’t invented, every Black person’s hair would look like mine. People don’t understand that yet, but I know that that’s not my problem, issue or concern, and it definitely doesn’t mess with my self-esteem.”

“A lot of Black people alter their texture with chemicals or hide it under weaves because the standard of beauty is heavily based on European looks. They think their hair should be straight and silky because of years of conditioning, and the women that they put on magazines, TV shows, movies, anything you can think of. They all look the same,” Coleman said. “It can be hard to accept that just because you don’t look like that doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful.”

Richardson, ’20

Known as dreads, locs or dreadlocks, this style of matted coils has been seen on celebrities like Bob Marley, Lil Wayne and Whoopi Goldberg. Actress Zendaya Coleman has also even been seen sporting faux locs. However, Giuliana Rancic’s comment saying that Zendaya probably smelled like “patchouli oil and weed” proved that the hairstyle is still controversial, misunderstood and highly stigmatized. Locs, just like loose natural hair, are extremely versatile. They can be curly, skinny, thick, straight, wavy, long, short or freeform.

In many cultures of African descent, locs are seen as an identity opposed to just a hairstyle. While in others, they are a way of wearing natural hair without the extra hassle of worrying about each individual curl or coil. “I don’t have to comb [my hair] everyday. It’s such a relief,” said Jasmin Richardson,’20.

“I tried weaves, braids, twist, and afros, but they would become all nappy and crazy looking. My parents say, and I agree, that I have a different kind of hair, or ’can’t-ya, don’t ya’ hair,” Richardson said.

Richardson has been wearing her hair in locs since she was ten. “Because I wear natural hair, some girls with weaves have asked some questions like, ‘Are you from Africa?’”

“It would irritate me so much! And I would say, ‘Why would you ask that question? I am the same as you, its just au naturale.’”

2006 Singer India Arie released a song entitled, “I Am Not My Hair.”

Duafe

(doo-ah-fey) Duafe translates into “wooden comb”, an Adinkra symbol of the Ashanti people, that symbolizes care, love and femininity, the duafe was used by the Akan women of Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY NISA MUHAMMAD

Fine Arts

6

Breaking Down the Barriers Showcase “We know that Walnut has a lot of talent...we want for everyone to come out [to the talent show] and show us their talent.”

SWEDE MOORMAN/CHATTERBOX

SENIORS Anaya Murdock (left), Tyler Adams, Tyela Segar and Leah Johnson, ‘16 step in the hallway. Both Murdock and Adams will be performing in the Black Culture Club Breaking Down the Barriers Showcase.

Swede Moorman, ‘16 For four years, the Walnut Hills Black Culture Club has organized and orchestrated a student-run talent show called the Breaking Down the Barriers Showcase. The talent show features solely student acts that have ranged from solo voice

performances to fashions shows by student designers.

Chairperson of the event, SENIOR Tyela Segar, describes the showcase as a way for Walnut Hills to display to the world the different talents that students possess. “We know that Walnut has a lot of talent...we want for everyone to come

- SENIOR Tyela Segar

out [to the talent show] and show us their talent,” Segar said.

This year the showcase suffered many setbacks because of snow days. The audition dates were pushed back a week, but the date of the show has not changed according to Segar. “It’s been crazy,” Segar said. “So much stuff has been

thrown off.”

Even though the majority of the operations of the showcase are student-run, the auditions are not.

The auditions are judged and proctored by four Walnut Hills teachers: counselor Adrian Cabrera, assistant principal John Chambers, music teacher Charles Ferrara and science teacher Jerron Gray. Both of the club’s presidents:, ENIORS Rachel Hollins andTori Russell, judged as well.

This year there were over 55 auditions and only 25 available slots for acts. The club presidents make the final decisions during the auditions, and the teachers “being judges is just from an adult standpoint...their opinion is a factor, however, not the ultimate decision,” Segar said.

The showcase will be held on March 19th at 6:30 p.m. in the Walnut Hills Auditorium.

Schools gather to Sing for a Cause

With Aurasma

Maddy Fixler, ‘16 Over an hour of music. Professional soloists. Three schools. On March 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Walnut Hills auditorium, the Walnut Hills Senior Ensemble, the Taylor High School Senior Choir and the Winton Woods Varsity Ensemble will be coming together to perform “Carmina Burana” in the fourth Sing for a Cause.

Since 2011, Sing for a Cause has been raising money through ticket sales and donations for the Alzheimer’s Association of Cincinnati. “We started doing this about four years ago, where we combine our top choirs, and we invite one other choir from around Cincinnati to perform a large choral-orchestral work,” Walnut Hills choir director Anthony Nims said. Originally, the event was organized for students from different schools to have a chance to perform with each other, and has since transformed into a concert for charity that has raised over $22,000 collectively in years past.

This year, the three schools are

“It’s a great cause, and people should totally come out and support [it].”

-SENIOR Miles White performing “Carmina Burana,” a choral-orchestral work by Carl Orff, a German composer. The piece has 25 movements total, all of which will be performed by the combined high school choirs (as well as a few junior chior boys), professional soloists and the Walnut Hills Percussion Ensemble

AISLING GRUENINGER/CHATTERBOX

Preparing for Sing for a Cause which is on March 21, Senior Ensemble practices “Carmina Burana” in the choir room during second bell. They have been working with this music since the first semester. brought in for the charity concert. “‘Carmina Burana’ is one of the most famous choral-orchestral works ever written,” Nims said.

“For our first Sing for a Cause here at Walnut Hills I wanted to do a piece that the students would enjoy, [and that] the audience would enjoy.”

The proceeds from this year’s Sing for a Cause will go to the Alzheimer’s Association of Cincinnati. The first year that Sing for a Cause went to charity, the money raised was split between the Alzheimer’s Association and a group associated with breast cancer, but in the following years, the proceeds have strictly been in support of Alzheimer’s. “It’s a great cause, and people should totally come out and support [it],” SENIOR Miles White, President of Senior Ensemble, said.

“Sing for a Cause is the brainchild of a friend of mine named

“‘Carmina Burana’ is one of the most famous choral-orchestral works ever written.”

-Choir director Anthony Nims

Bret Albright,” Nims said. Albright is the choral director at Taylor High School, one of the three schools performing for Sing for a Cause. At the time of the event’s inception, Nims was teaching at Lakota West High School.

Though Nims and Albright had organized Sing for a Cause to give kids the opportunity to sing with choirs from other schools, “I thought this would be a way that our students could not only have

the experience of singing a great, large choral-orchestral work that many kids don’t get a chance to do, but also to learn the lesson of giving,” Nims said.

Though this is the first year that Walnut Hills is involved in the event, already over $4,000 has been raised for the Alzheimer’s Association of Cincinnati and students are working to raise more.

To contribute to Sing for a Cause, students, teachers and parents can purchase event tickets at <seatyourself.biz> or send checks payable to the Alzheimer’s Association of Cincinnati to Anthony Nims at Walnut Hills High School.

Access a preview of the concert on Aurasma by following the Chatterbox channel at “WHHS Cbox” on the Aurasma App.

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Features

New testing: A walk in the PARCC? text, and expressing mathematical reasoning and modeling real-world problems.

In the second testing period, End-of-Year Assessment (EOY) exams are given, and that is typically after 90% of the course is completed.

These exams will be held in late April, and focus on reading comp re h e n s i o n , and will “call on students to demonstrate further conceptual understanding of the major content and additional and supporting content of the course.”

“I don’t think we should have to take it twice. It is a little ridiculous and is kind of weird to expect teachers to teach the test and not the regular curriculum,” said Maya Highsmith, ‘19, a PARCC test taker. Robertson agrees with Highsmith on this issue, “There isn’t enough time between the two... could have been planned a little better. I am not impressed,” said Robertson.

What many people do not know however, is that there is an opt out program with the PARCC tests.

On the website <OhioAnsagainstCommonCore.com>, there is a entry process to opt out of these new PARCC exams. Each state has its own individualized opt out program, and many are taking advantage of it.

Many students across the country have stood against these PARCC exams. From hundreds of walkouts in New Mexico to almost a 70 percent opt out at some schools in New Jersey, these new common core tests are certainly a thing that many people are fighting against.

“I don’t really like it, I feel really [unconfident] about myself,” said Anna Ika, ‘19, “Even our teachers disagreed with some of the answers.”

While many student share this view, there are many other students with a different view of the

7

PARCC exams. Some students prefer them to the alternative, the OAA tests. The PARCC tests now are in place of the OAA tests, and at least at Walnut Hills, some students say they prefer the PARCC tests to the OAA tests.

“I don’t think the questions were above the level we have been taught.

Overall, my teachers have done a good job going over it, although I guess I could call it stracting, it takes away from what we are supposed to learn,” said Highsmith.

Auggy Corder, ‘18 said that PARCC testing may not be the worst thing in the world. “They aren’t particularly difficult, they just drain you and suck your time away.” When asked about the PARCC testing in relationship with OAA testing, Corder said, “OAA’s were pretty awful too, but the PARCCs are a little different. I respect that they are training students to think outside the box a little bit, while the OAAs we would be mindlessly spewing information onto the paper.”

Contrarily, Maya Sheth, ‘18, expresses her views on the PARCC testing in relation to the OAA. “I think the OAAs were easier, but the PARCCs were shorter. However, I think that the PARCCs are more relevant than the OAAs,” One thing to note about the PARCC exams at Walnut are the students. The students at Walnut Hills are notorious to be advanced test takers, and as a result, the interviews conducted need to be reviewed while keeping that in mind.

“They were pretty easy, but shorter than the OAAs,” Ander Weyand-Geise, ‘19 said. “I think teachers were expecting a lot of us to fail, but at the end of the day, it’s just another test.”

“At the end of the day, it’s just another test.”

- Ander Weyand-Geise, ‘19

ISAAC STEPHANI/CHATTERBOX

8th grade English PARCC exams are set out in the morning before school. It is one of the many standardized test that these 8th graders will be taking over the enxt few months.

Isaac Stephani, ‘16 A topic of many sighs, disgruntled moans and eye rolls, the highly debated PARCC tests have finally arrived at Walnut Hills.

Much to the dismay of many students, the PARCC tests began February 26th, and will end March 12th, and throughout the time that the tests are being administered, Walnut Hills will be on an every-other-day flipped bell schedule to accommodate the testing hours and the classes the test takers are missing.

For those who are not familiar with the organization, The Partnership for Assessment for College and Careers (PARCC) is a group of states whose mission is to “Work together to develop a set of assessments that measure whether the students are on track to be successful in college and in their careers.”

While this is an ambitious and broad goal, one must question the methods used such as: will the PARCC tests in the younger grades - ie. kindergarten through fourth grade - support the mission

of the PARCC. When asked about this issue, Nick Robertson, ’19, said: “The tests for the little kids are probably too challenging...and probably a little too overwhelming.”

The PARCC exams consist of assessments in Mathematics and Language Arts/ Literacy. These are strictly the PARCC exams.

Any other exams given during this time are legislated and s t a n d a rd i ze d by the state of Ohio and the Department of Ohio Education.

In Ohio, it is mandatory that all seventh through ninth graders (and tenth graders who are not in AP United States History) take the PARCC exams or the corresponding state-mandated exams

in Science and History.

Many do not know the extent to which the PARCC is offered. Each state legislation either chose to be included in these PARCC exams and 11 states and the District of Columbia opted to join. In each of these states, the grades required to take the PARCC is different.

What many people do not know is that there are actually two testing periods for the PARCC exam.

In the first testing period, the Pe r f o r m a n c e Based Assessments (PBA) are administered.

They are typically administered 75% of the way through the school year, and is what Walnut Hills students are currently finishing up. These exams focus on writing effectively and analyzing

“THey aren’t particularly difficult, they just drain you and suck your time away.”

- Auggy Corder, ‘18

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Comprehensive Psychological and Vocational Services

8 CIX.11

Arcade

Sean Wood, ‘15

Keep up-to-date with the Chatterbox online: Like us on Facebook: Walnut Hills High School Chatterbox Follow us on Twitter: @ChatterboxWHHS Follow us on Instagram: @walnuthillschatterbox Email <cboxwalnut@gmail.com> to enter for a chance to have one of your photos featured in the Chatterbox!

SARAH DAVIDOFF, ‘13

CIX.11 Sudoku

Rules: The answers to these clues exist in the word search. Solve the clues to find the hidden words. The answers are listed below backward.

Sean Wood, ‘15

Clues: 1. This team won Superbowl XLVIII 2. The most downloaded PC game ever made 3. The capital city of Peru 4. The style of English most used in scholastic settings 5. A composer most famous for a series of nine symphonies 6. The third most popular search engine 7. The 1970 horror film credited with popularizing the slasher genre 8. An ancient Assyrian city recently destroyed by ISIS 9. The Former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, murdered in February 10. This country’s last known ebola patient was recently released from a hospital Answers: 1. skwahaeS 2. sdnegeL fo eugaeL 3. amiL 4. ALM 5. nevohteeB 6. gniB 7. neewollaH 8. durmiN 9. vostmeN siroB 10. airebiL

Perspectives

“What is one interesting aspect that people don’t know about you?”

“I don’t actually like football.”

“I can draw.”

“I am part of the communist Party.”

“I like to write lyrics.”

“I won’t be 18 ‘till after my first month of college.”

-Terts Verhaak ‘20

-Lauren Goss, ‘18

-Jessica Kavinsky, ‘17

-Ryan Sennett, ‘16

-Moziba Maloba, ‘15

Photographs and prompt by Oliver Olberding, ‘15