Volume XVIIIssue 26 November2014Trinity Preparatory School 5700 Trinity Prep Lane, Winter Park, FL 32792 thetrinityvoice.com

IN THIS ISSUE November

UPCOMING CONTENTSnews....................2opinions.............6lifestyles............14focus..................17sports................25etcetera.............30

Visiting authors inspire students

Kobe goes tocollege

Veteran’s DayNovember 11

ThanksgivingNovember 27

NEWS 4 OPINIONS 12 SPORTS 25What to wear for college interviews

LIFESTYLES 14

Ebola in the United States

EllieClaire Gordon

Van Allen and Nix nab king and queen

2 November 2014

Flipped learning, also known as the flipped classroom model, is the latest phenomena to turn Trinity Prep on its heels. On Oct. 1, several teachers took the plunge on National Flipped Day. Instead of orally delivering the content in the classroom, teachers created re-cordings of their lessons ahead of time. Students learn the material at home and further their knowledge of the topic in class. The evolution from a teacher-centered learning environment to a student-cen-tered one marks the difference between a flipped and traditional classrooms. Stu-dents are able to learn at their own pace. Traditional learning has created stu-dents who give standardized responses and memorize information, according to Pre-Algebra teacher Jennifer Baselice. Baselice also says flipped classrooms use class time more efficiently. She utilizes the method frequently in her class. “The flipped classroom is a model where the direct instruction takes place outside of the regularly scheduled face-to-face classroom time,” Baselice said. This allows students to learn the mate-rial at home, and then the teacher can help them with the concepts they did not understand during class time. “This does not mean students don’t have homework,” Baselice said. This method puts the ownership of the learning process into the hands of the students. Flipped classrooms also look different than traditional classrooms. Algebra I teacher Lynn Wilbur, a self-proclaimed ‘dabbler’ in flipped learning, says the difference is that the teacher would not be standing in the front of the room. Rather, she considers her class more of a blended classroom than a tradi-tional classroom because she still applies techniques she used during National Flipped Day. Student reactions to the program are mostly positive. The students enjoy how

the teacher interacts with them and helps them learn. “I enjoy applying what I learned at home to the problems in class. It really helps me understand math,” said 6th grader Maneesh Rajulapati. Teachers are not without their own doubts. Honors Chemistry teacher Car-rie Lopez says the traditional method shines when it comes to a science ori-ented course like Honors Chemistry. “I still think in a class like Honors Chemistry that students need me in front of them teaching so they can ask questions and I can give instant feed-back. I will still continue to use [the flipped model] as a review for tests though,” Lopez said. Popular software used to employ this

Learning takes a flipVikas Bommineni STAFF WRITER

Sylvie Eliscu learns from an instructional video about mathematical formulas created by Mrs.Wilbur during her Algebra I class.EllieClaire Gordon

style of learning include Screencast-o-matic, ThingLink and Kahoot. “It’s very visual and allows me to give [the students] videos, text, links and images in an organized fashion. I have opened up chat rooms using Today’s Meet before tests so the students can ask any last minute questions. Once I flip more often, I will open the chat room the night the students are supposed to be working on the flipped lesson,” said Wilbur. Google Hangout is another effective tool to video chat and discuss classwork and assignments. These programs con-tribute to creating this unique, upside-down learning system. This new way of instruction has peaked student interest. The reinforcement of

knowledge helps students learn. Furthermore, the flipped classroom model takes pressure off of teachers. These flipped classrooms are slowly eclipsing the worn-out traditional meth-ods of teaching. “A flipped model can help reduce (not eliminate) those questions and allow the students to answer their own questions given the fabulous resources provided by their teacher,” Baselice said. “Then, our face-to-face time together is truly valuable and student-centered.” Students are able to participate cre-atively in school without being bored.. “Flipping is not homework in class every day! Flipping is not study hall. It shifts the learning to the students,” said Baselice.

Flipped learning: the latest educational craze occuring on campus

3November 2014

Let’s get quizzicalDaniel SteinNEWS EDITOR

“An oral statement that is false and intended to damage an individual is known as what?” read Kyle McGimsey. After just seconds of thinking, Trin-ity Prep junior Samvit Thakur answers, “slander” as he held up a dry erase board. “Slander is correct,” responds Mc-Gimsey. Five points are awarded to Trinity. This is just an example of the speed required by the Quiz Bowl team. Quiz Bowl is a competition between high schools that is similar to Jeopar-dy but played in teams. Students earn points for providing correct answers in subjects that range from English and so-cial studies to math and science. The teams are separated into groups of four and sit at a round table. As the proctor reads off the question, the Quiz Bowl team must use time sparingly to answer the question before their oppo-nents. One of the teams’ veterans, junior Syl-via Choo, explained some of the specif-ics of the season. “The season typically lasts from late September to early December,” Choo said. “This year, there's a new system of competition, so we're playing six schools twice each. Five students compete per round, but we rotate players in between the 5 point and 10 point round.” She also explained that questions are worth five and ten points. During their first match, the team defeated both Win-ter Park High School and Lake Highland Prep. “The Winter Park match was espe-cially exciting because the difference between the scores was only 15 points,” Choo said. Before the season began, the team practiced once a week. They prepared themselves by quizzing each other on topics they have learned in classes. The questions are considered common

knowledge for the team. Questions vary from the simplest such as solving for the cosine of pi to the trickiest physics problem where one must find the ac-celeration and gravitational force of a single object. The students are not left alone to pre-pare for the matches. With the help of their three coaches, Lynn Burmeister, Kyle McGimsey and Paula Phillips, they are well prepared for each match. Phillips has been a coach for the Quiz Bowl team for eight years. In her last three years of coaching, the team has finished first in the district twice, third once, and Sylvia Choo and Sam Leavitt qualified for the All-County Quiz Bowl team. Like all other Trinity teams, the Quiz Bowl members have routines and rituals

before the matches. “We all try to get a good night's sleep the night before,” Choo said. “Nothing ruins memory like lack of sleep.” Choo also explains one of the stranger rituals of the team. “We like to draw this little figure called the ‘Death Potato,’” Choo said. The Death Potato was coined by Trinity al-ums Nat and Sam Goldberg while they were on the Quiz Bowl team. Students are in school for 35 hours a week. This does not include the count-less hours they spend working on home-work, projects, and studying for quizzes and tests. Some people crave for their knowledge to be tested even more. Students that yearn for success are the reason the Quiz Bowl team is so suc-cessful.

The Quiz Bowl team discusses answer possibilities during its first match against Winter Park High School.Ellie Claire Gordon

Example Questions1. Name this Greek goddess, who was also known as Kore and who was condemned to spend half her life in a certain place after eating a pomegranate. 2. This author of Vanity Fair quar-reled with Charles Dickens, most notably in the “Garrick Club af-fair.”3. The constant 8.99 times 109 newton meters squared per cou-lomb squared appears in a force law. Name that law.

Answers:1. Persephone2. William Makepeace Thackeray3. Coulomb’s Law of Electrostatic Attraction

4 November 2014

In the early morning of a school day, 6th grade English teacher, Lena Bowden, took out a white lab jacket and a pair of tweezers to prepare for her class on dis-secting English sentence structures. Lat-er on that day, AP U.S. History teacher, Darcy Butrimas, asked students to use their computers to prepare for a Lin-coln Douglas debate. Very different and interesting approaches have been taken to deliver the most fundamental infor-mation to our students at Trinity Prep. This is exactly what Patrick Mulloy envi-sioned and planned for us to do when he stepped onto our campus this fall as our new Director of Curriculum. “The strength of Trinity Prep’s cur-rent curriculum is the blend of both tra-ditional and the most progressive con-versations in education today,” Mulloy said. “This is what a great school does. Although there are certain things about technology that we can’t escape, stu-dents still have to be equipped with the skills to think when technology is not ac-cessible.” This is what makes Trinity a top-tier college preparatory school. Fundamen-tal skills such as note taking, creating outlines and organizing essays are en-forced, and these skills have made writ-ers successful for hundreds of years. However, the administration is always open for new discussions about an app or software that might transform the students’ learning experience. “The great schools are always ques-tioning and debating,” Mulloy said. “Be-ing the new guy on campus, asking the right questions is my priority.” In fact, Mulloy views his job as the “chief conversation starter,” and he does not see the need for immediate curriculum changes. However, he enjoys having conversations with the various departments and each grade level. “The most beneficial conversations are with the department chairs,” Mulloy said. “I’m using their expertise to figure out solutions.” Coming from a K-12 school in Ken-tucky, Mulloy recognizes that continuity

in any curriculum is of the utmost impor-tance. Although the independent schools are easily able to enforce that continuity through the grade levels, Mulloy’s main responsibility is to ensure the curricu-lum continuity at Trinity. He considers whether students are struggling in the next grade because they haven’t had this material before or if new students are able to adjust to the workload and system efficiently. “Stair stepping the curriculum through each department is going to be the tough part,” Mulloy said. “I need to be aware of the cumulative knowledge that students are expected to retain over the years.” Mulloy is a firm believer in allowing teachers to have the independence of teaching in their own style. Therefore, he is not planning to adopt the Common Core Curriculum that public schools across the nation have employed. However, Mulloy is aware of the various new changes in the public school system. But as an independent school, Trinity’s programs and curriculums have a certain amount of freedom. To Mulloy, it would not be reasonable for him to bring out a Common Core binder and instruct teach-ers on what and how they teach. When asked about the new SAT that will emerge in the spring of 2016, Mulloy believed that the change will not affect Trinity students’ overall performance. Trinity’s curriculum has always been rein-forcing the importance of critical think-ing, and Mulloy believes that the SAT is actually migrating toward the concepts that our curriculum already values. “Past results have shown that our math and English courses prepare our students well for standardized tests,” Mulloy said. “The critical thinking aspect is what Trin-ity has been doing for a very long time, and this is why our school is so strong in general and our Forensics team has little difficulty in speaking and analyzing.” After sitting in various classes through-out the first few weeks of school, Mulloy can say with confidence that Trinity ex-cels amongst the many independent schools throughout the nation. “Based on what our students produce in class, and how they are engaged with

the material in classes, I can conclude that the students are spectacular here,” Mulloy said. “I know that students love being here, and relationships can be formed.” Impressed by the quality of Trinity students, Mulloy said that the students crave for academic opportunities. They come in with basic knowledge and want to take that knowledge to a higher level before they enter college. “Being in a smaller school, we can pinpoint what you need to do as op-posed to you just being a number in a mass of students. We can help you get where you want to be, or we can be your

Amber YangCOPY EDITOR

Mulloy defines new rigor in academics

Laura ToyeMulloy’s goal is to ensure a smooth transition in the workload between grade levels.

wingman to go above and beyond.” Mulloy advised that the perfect Trinity student is always excited to learn. “There are expectations that students should come in and be ready to roll up their sleeves and work hard and know that the teachers will work alongside them all the way,” Mulloy said. Trinity’s former Director of Curric-ulum Kathy Pinson once said that she would love to see new ideas and new energy to Trinity’s curriculum after she retires. That new energy has arrived. Patrick Mulloy has turned a page on Trinity’s rigorous academics.

5November 2014

Amy SuksermSTAFF WRITER

Lu and Shusterman are unwinding legendsThe Legend Enthusiastic readers of all ages lined up outside B & L Books after school on Friday, Oct. 10 to get autographs and ex-change a few “hellos” with young adult writer, Marie Lu. Despite the chain of people stretching all the way down the plaza, spirits still remained high. The at-mosphere was filled with excited chatter about favorite characters and opinions on various works of literature. Lu greet-ed fans with a bright smile and gratitude for the praise she received for her books. Trinity Prep 8th graders Trent Bangle and seven other students, along with Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Ela were elated to have been given the opportunity to meet one of their favorite authors. “The books are really engaging, and you can’t put it down,” Bangle said. “You have to know what happens next. She writes in a way that every time you read it, the words come off the page. It’s like a pop-up book.” Lu began her journey as a writer when she started her first novel at 13. She traces her inspiration back to Brian Jacques’s Mattimeo, the first fantasy novel

Amy SuksermMarie Lu strikes up a friendly conversation with an enthusiatic reader.

The Jack-of-All-Trades On Monday, Oct. 27, Trinity Prep high schoolers, as well as a couple of faculty members, gathered in the library for lunch and a casual Q&A with visitng author, Neal Shusterman. Shusterman recently re-leased the fourth book of his series, Unwind. The first book in the series received many awards including the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults award, New York Public Li-brary Book for the Teen Age and Bank Street Best Book of the Year. As a child, Shusterman had many career aspira-tions including being a writer, actor, doctor, rock star and architect. However, his passion for writing really began to emerge when his 9th grade English teacher chal-lenged him to write one story every month for extra credit. In desperate need of a grade boost, he took up the challenge, and soon, all his other career paths fizzled out. He channeled all of his emotions into his stories, which soon led to something bigger than just a high

she ever read. Now, she embarks on a new project, releasing the first book of her latest se-ries, The Young Elites. The book kept Lu occupied for a year and a half, as she devoted all her time to creating something she was proud of and wanted her readers to enjoy. She is currently on tour, visiting various book-shops around the country signing copies of her books and meeting her readers in person. Lu admits that The Young Elites is her favorite book she has written so far, since it’s her most recent. The inspiration for the protagonist’s personality comes from Darth Vader, and the world it’s set in is influenced by Assassin’s Creed. “Readers can expect a story about a girl who falls to the dark side,” Lu said. “I hope it’s fun to read about!” Lu wanted to diverge from the com-mon path of telling a story with a hero as the protagonist and tell a story cen-tered around a villain. Lu mainly draws character traits from bits and pieces of personalities she’s met throughout her life. Even though she has received an im-mense amount of success for the Leg-end trilogy, she has not let the fame get

to her head. “It’s incredibly humbling! I’m so thrilled and grateful that readers have enjoyed the series,” Lu said. “I didn’t even think Legend would be accepted by a publisher.” To keep readers involved in her life, Lu regularly blogs on Tumblr. From sketches drawn while waiting for a flight to recorded interviews, fans can walk with Lu on her literary journey ev-ery step of the way. Through her tremendous effort and

commitment to her audience, Lu makes it evident how much love and apprecia-tion she has for her fans. To aspiring writers, she offers her words of wisdom. “Don’t be afraid to write something bad! Only when you get all the ‘bad’ words out of your system can you write something good,” Lu said. The first book in The Young Elites series has just been released, and readers can expect the sequel to be hitting book-stores fall 2015.

school extra credit opportunity. At the age of 16, Shusterman moved from Brooklyn to Mexico City where he finished his junior and senior years of high school. In his college years, he worked as a camp counselor and would tell stories to a group of teenagers each night. His campfire tales are what fueled his decision to write for young adults. Shusterman’s first novels, The Shadow Club and The Eyes of Kid Midas, began as stories that he told to his campers. “I consider myself very lucky to have a career doing what I love,” Shusterman said. Before the reward that comes along with the finished product, he admits that coming up with original and meaningful stories that people will like poses as a chal-lenge. He puts a great amount of effort and emotion into his stories. “I want the readers not just to read the words, but to feel the ideas and questions,” Shusterman said. “I pre-fer to ask questions that will challenge you to think and

see the world in fresh ways. The way I see it, a book should be a powerful experience.”

Shusterman answers questions from curious students.

Aaron Goldstein

6 November 2014

Debunking the millennial myth Reinforcing popular sentiment, Salon Magazine ran an article highlighting the fi nancial crisis and technological dependence to argue that millennials, people born in the early 1980s to the early 2000s, are the worst genera-tion in the U.S. Despite what critics say, we are actu-ally more intellectual and economically productive than other generations. Contrary to the beliefs of older generations, we do not rely on the Internet as the only source of informa-tion. Even though a screen might be in front of us every-day, millennials read more books than everyone older than 30 according to The Pew Research Center. Similarly, the millennial generation--the one using the Internet the most--is the most likely to admit that a plethora of useful information exists outside of the Internet. Because we expose ourselves to information online and in books, we are more literate and intellectual than previous generations. Furthermore, we have access to more information and are taking advantage of these opportunities in the

classroom. As we are generally comfortable with learn-ing online, 6.7 million students are taking at least one online course. As the fi rst generation to access online educational tools, poorer individuals can access education much easier, and everyone can explore fi elds beyond the classroom. Also, our approach to education is more in-tellectually stimulating than in the past. In academic environments, we desire a great deal of feedback on our academic work according to Forbes. Consequently, aligning with the shifting focus of edu-cation, we seek to understand material more than just wanting the right answer. This desire for feedback requires us not to focus sole-ly on the teacher but instead change how we approach education. Moving away from traditional lectures, our demands for discussion-based classrooms are being met. As a NYU study elaborates, discussions have a 50% retention rate compared to 5% for static lectures. In addition, even though older generations believe that we are not motivated enough and will not con-tribute as much as previous generations, the millennials

will signifi cantly help the economy. As the most diverse generation ethnically and racially, we have learned how to value collaboration and teamwork over competition. As The New York Times reports, this ability to adapt and easily resolve disputes in the workplace will help future businesses run more smoothly. Developing the economy, we have invested the most in human capital and are signifi cantly more likely to seek applied fi elds to achieve high paying jobs. Because of our goals, we are 23% more likely than people born before 1984 to earn a master’s degree. Although more millennials are currently unemployed than other generations, this phenomenon is occurring because of the slowly improving state of the economy. As the economy begins to rebound, we will reveal our full potential. Millennials aren’t a bunch of “lazy, callow, freeload-ing” people; we are the intellectual and academic en-gines of the future.

� e lead editorial expresses the opinion of the Trinity Voice editorial sta� . Send comments to voice@trinityprep.org.

Something ticking you o� ? Submit your anger to the Trinity Voice. Email us at voice@trinityprep.org

People who bike and run on the street tick me off. - Samantha Santini, 10th grade

Paying for casual days ticks me off. - Alex Lamar, 7th grade

Stewart’s love affair with Obama ticks me off. - Thomas Kilger, 12th grade

It ticks me off when people go up to bowl without lane courtesy. - Andy Titorenko, 12th grade

The cost of AP exams and rain tick me off. - Mr. Arney, Physics Teacher

Little children with smartphones tick me off. - Andrew Kwa, 8th grade

Meetings about school class shirts that Jack Meeks makes us have tick me off. - Jackson Auer, 12th grade

It ticks me off when teachers don’t realize that you have other classes. - Tyler Covington, 10th grade

It ticks me off when the CTCs are on one side of the campus and my lockers are on the other side. - Emilo Cal, 6th grade

People who think I have a love af-fair with Obama tick me off. - Mr. Stewart, History Teacher

It ticks me off when my cat trips me. - Joe Paloli, 8th grade

It ticks me off when people write what ticks them off. - Varun Patel, 10th grade

Being cheated and questioned tick me off. - Samantha Dimaio, 9th grade

Our position

Kids who know everything in class tick me off. - Lanie Walters, 6th grade

7November 2014

Graphics Editor: Marissa Block

Editors-in-Chief: Alice Beneke and Jessica Kotnour

Copy Editor: Amber Yang

Layout Editor: Alisha Rajan

Faculty Adviser: Erin Miller

News Department: Daniel Stein (editor), Vikas Bommineni, Amy Sukserm, Zach Watson, Amber Yang

Managing Editor: Marissa Block

Lifestyles Department: Eden Smalley (editor), Christian Dantes, Lily Bounds, Allie Stein

Sports Department: Scott Stinson (editor), Ellie Claire Gordon, Bradley Hull Lily Israel, Nick Smith

Photography Department: Ellie Claire Gordon, Aaron Goldstein, Laura Toye

Online Editor: Oliver Trapp

Business Manager: Bradley Hull

The Trinity Voice is produced by the newspaper/journalism class at Trinity Preparatory School of Florida. Editorials represent the opinion of The Trinity Voice writer and are not necessarily the views of the administration, faculty, or Board of Trustees of Trinity. The Voice welcomes letters to the editor and free-lance articles or photography. All submissions become the property of The Voice. Please send all correspondence to 5700 Trinity Prep Lane, FL 32792. The Voice may also be contacted via phone at 407-671-4140 and via e-mail at voice@trinityprep.org. For information regarding the purchase of advertising within The Voice contact us by one of the methods mentioned above. The Voice is a monthly publication during the school year (with the exception of January).

NationalScholasticPressAssociation

Focus Department: Amy Lowndes (editor), Noopur Ranganathan, Shea Perera

Opinions Department: Brian Min (editor), Aavni Gupta, Jack Meeks, Oliver Trapp

The Trinity Voice is a member of the Florida Scholastic Press Association and the National Scholastic Press Association.

Which celebrity would you take to homecoming?

The word on campus

Oprah WinfreyJulian Rodriguez, 10th Grade

Zac EfronMeredith Lilley, 11th GradeNicki Minaj

Kyle Hongamen, 11th Grade

Blake LivelyChloe Chemtob, 11th Grade

Channing TatumDara Begley, 9th Grade

Chief Keef Matteo Kypraios, 10th grade

Michelle ObamaNick Lee, 12th Grade

Ryan ReynoldsTaylor Colore, 12th grade

Dylan O’BrienAdede Appah-Sampong, 8th Grade

Queen LatifahArrington Moses, 9th Grade

The Bite: Kendall Rotar (editor), Elizabeth Fenichel, Taylor John-son, Sarina Sutton

November 20148

Detention demands attention The crux of fi xing our discipline system

Alice Beneke

As the doldrums of boredom rolled on, I sat obediently in Mrs. Burmeister’s room. With a genu-ine smile, Mrs. Burmeister told me to think about what I had done and nothing else. Initially, I did. However, it turns out that forgetting to sign-in to school does not provide much to ponder upon. Since I was not permitted to do anything else, my absolute inability to do anything productive was my punishment. I just sat there. Did I learn anything? No. Well, actually, I became quite profi cient at twiddling my thumbs. Yet, I don’t feel like achieving success in this silly activity was the administration’s intention. However, a week later, I sat down and started writing this article. In a way, detention did provoke me to think. Yet, I didn’t think about my misdeeds, but how much I disliked detention. Naturally, no rational person enjoys detention. It’s not a productive after school activity. Nonetheless, is it the best way to enforce discipline?  Let me be clear, the administration does a fi ne job of keeping our students on the right track. Upper School Dean David Langdon and Middle School Dean Trevor Berryhill oversee a school where discipline infractions are and always have been minimal. “My goal as Dean is to foster an environment where students can be successful in the workforce and life,” Langdon said. Nonetheless, despite the commendable efforts of the administration, the student body regularly breaks our discipline policies with paltry infractions. Customarily, individuals get to school tardy, dress against guidelines and skip detentions.

Frankly, these minor offenses are not an immense issue. Yet, these are solvable issues. As a school, we have two options. First, we can accept this trend and acknowledge the reality that we can’t stop the disregard of our policies. Second, we can attempt to fi nd a solution to this seemingly “unsolvable” situation riddled with these minor offenses. Since I am unrealistic, I prefer to address the latter option. I imagine a school where any infractions of school policy are not viable. To forge this view, it is necessary to analyze our current method. “The way our discipline system functions is

pretty simple. If you do something bad, we will take away your time,” Langdon said. Basically, Langdon is promoting the system of detention. Naturally, this is the administration’s chief deterrent against committing an infraction.

Theoretically, this approach should work. However, the realm of theory is different from that of fact. Refl ecting on this reality, the techniques to make our student’s behave appropriately can not be considered a complete suc-cess. Unequivocally, the number of peo-

ple who are in detention always appears to be high. For example, the last time I was

in detention there were about twelve other “offenders.” In the last couple years, this number has been fairly consistent.

Precalculus teacher Lynn Burmeister, who runs after school detention, agrees with

the reality that the number of students in detention does not change much.

“ The number of people in detention is almost always around

the same,” Burmeister said. Logically, if the number of

individuals in detention is consistent, then the

deterrent is ineffective. Even though we have

the facade of having an advanced

November 2014 9

The crux of fixing our discipline system

         By reflecting on this concept, we see  that    repeated offend-ers could begin to realize

how lucky they are to be in this school.

“ If we sent some of these kids to an inner-city

soup kitchen, I think they would

start acting differently,” Langdon said.

Of course, there is a counterargument to this view. Many believe that if community service was mandatory for those who break our rules, then that would reduce the value of the service. In defense of this view, the concept is that it makes

community service seem like a punishment.           Yet,  this  perception  is  grounded  on  a  false 

interpretation of what discipline is supposed to be. The proponents of this view are stuck in a cycle

of crime and punishment. However, discipline is much more than that. By forcing offenders to help our community,

they wouldn’t be penalized. No, in fact, we would be allowing them to have a

wider realization of the world around them. That’s what discipline should be. Even if some might associate community service with punishment, the argument does not hold. If we are effectively helping people through rehabilitation, then the idea that it might somehow “taint” our relationship with service is irrelevant. We need to do whatever we can to sustain the greater good. To me, the greater good is making the best discipline system possible.

Even in the city of Orlando, you do not have to walk very far to realize that there are families

that don’t even have the security of shelter, clothing, or food. As discipline “offenders” help these people, they will learn to count their blessings. That’s the proper recipe for a better Trinity. By making ourselves a better society, I believe that these “minimal” problems can be eliminated. To be completely honest, the administration will prob-ably not ditch the detention system.

However, at least, I hope that our adminis-trators will consider that there could be more to discipline than a desk and a clock on the wall.

discipline system, it could be improved. If you do something wrong, you go to detention. If you do something very wrong, most of the time you will go to see the administration. Plain. Simple. Basic. However, even t h o u g h

simplicity is good most of the time, it does not hold a place in the discipline of students. Ceaselessly, we are in an unvarying cycle of “crime” and “punishment.” I advocate for reform. Commonly, the biggest dilemma in our school is the disregard of the dress code. Truly, this is not a widespread violation, but rather the same people breaking it over and over again. In its usual philosophy, the school stresses the importance of this etiquette. AP World History teacher William Milsten contends why the dress code matters. “ People will judge you by what you wear,” Milsten said. Milsten is right. Still, these recurring offenders don’t care about this social consequence. Also, these students reflect their cal-lousness through their lack of regard for our tardiness policy. Atten-dance Coordinator Laurel Schmidt firmly believes in the value of  getting to school on time. “Being on time is important, period. It shows that a person is organized and on top of things, can be counted on, values the people and organiza-tion involved, and ultimately values him or herself,” Schmidt said.The usual crowd will not obey. Traditional argumentation will connect this to not caring. However, I think that the root of this dilemma is much more compli-cated. Because our school operates in many ways as a bubble, we are often untouchable from the pain and affliction of  the world around us. Thus, many of us do not see the tangible blessings that surround us. Just being at this school is a blessing. Believe it or not, having a dress code is a blessing. Even having to deal with proper punishment can be perceived as a blessing. We are “burdened” with all these “problems” because people care about us. Perhaps, if we begin to see how minimal our problems actually are, then maybe we have that distinct possibility to improve our society. When you sit in detention, you are not helping anybody. Arguably, you are not even helping yourself since most people don’t think about their infractions. Instead of putting perpetrators in boring detentions, why shouldn’t they serve the community? Even though this might seem logical, Chaplin Kenneth Vinal stated that we have never tried this approach. “To my knowledge, people who violate our policies have never been ordered to do community service,” Vinal said.

November 201410

Food for thought We need variety at the Grille

I rushed into the Grille, hoping to get the last of the pasta before it ran out...but I didn’t make it in time; and I met a blank tray, while my stomach growled. The Grille has a lot of food, but there isn’t a lot of variety for students who have food allergies or people who can’t eat meat. Currently, there are about 7.3 million vegetarians and about 15 million people with food allergies in America. Since more vegetarians and people with food allergies seek balanced meals, we should think about serving them too. The Grille has many meat-based prod-ucts which cannot accommodate veg-etarians and people with food allergies. There should also be a balance between healthy and unhealthy food served. The newly added Saint-Sub station mainly serves meat items and therefore is not usually an option for vegetarians and vegans. They have different choices such as meatball subs, turkey, ham, and more, but not enough vegetarian choices such as a veggie or soybean patties. When the Grille serves tacos, it should have a choice of vegetarian beans in-stead of just serving beef or a different meat item. “I think there’s a decent amount of food sometimes, but a lot of times they run out of vegetarian food, and the only other thing left for me to eat is salad,” freshman Zoe Myers-Bochner said. Most mornings, I don’t have enough time to pack a quick lunch and snack for the day, and I can’t always fi nd some-

thing to eat at school. It would really help if there were a good amount of choices such as pastas or sandwiches everyday for people with food restrictions. “Outside of school, there is a lot of variety especially products with tofu or soy bean which substitutes for a lot of meat-based items. However, at the Grille there is a lack because they don’t serve items with such substitutes,” junior Jyoti Moorjani said. For vegans, there could be soy sub-stitutes such as soymilk. If the Grille is serving burgers, it can have soybean pat-ties instead of meat. Emphasizing the unhealthy foods in the Grille, everyday fries, fried chicken, and ice cream are always options. Along with these foods, a choice of grilled cheese or different soups could be served daily. Foods similar to these are healthier and would serve people with food limi-tations as well. Having frozen yogurt could also be a healthy option to add to the Grille. Not

only is it a popular snack for everyone, but it is also a much healthier alternative to ice cream. The Grille could also add different yo-gurt options for people with food aller-gens such as lactose-free yogurt. This will promote healthy eating as well as give students an enjoyable snack. Another healthy addition can be whole-wheat pasta instead of white pasta, or pizza made with whole-wheat bread in-stead of ordering it from other places. For beverages, if you compare the ra-tio of sodas to natural fruit juices, sodas greatly outnumber juices. The Grille also sells many energy drinks such as Gatorade and Powerade, which contain a lot of sugar. The Grille could add a variety of fruit juices because they contain more nutri-ents than soda or energy drinks. This will help keep a balance between healthy and nonhealthy beverages.

Luckily, the Grille is open to suggestions and often ad-

justs to change. “In one area that was added this year, there is a Saint buffet everyday where you can have many components of

food for just a dollar extra. There will also be a menu board displaying differ-ent specials and offers,” Food Service Manager Greg Himes said. A communication board is available next to the salad bar where you can re-quest certain foods and options. If students use this resource, it can help bring more diversity to Grille food. “We need to get requests for changes in food. If somebody was looking for something specifi c, I would encourage students to request foods on the board. If we know about it, we can address it,” Himes said. In order to resolve the problem with food variety, we need to request foods that will meet our needs. The only way we can get what we are looking for is by taking Himes’s advice to speak up. This will surely help students who need more dietary options.

Shea Perera

Food for thought

I rushed into the Grille, hoping to get

have food allergies or people who can’t

thing to eat at school. It would really help if there

Luckily, the Grille is open to suggestions and often ad-

justs to change.

Shea Perera

November 2014

South Park captured the American Internet addiction in the episode “Over Logging.” The entire nation loses Internet connectivity, and Americans move west on dirt trails and wagons to Sili-con Valley in hopes of fi nding an Internet connection. Americans love the Internet and the freedom it brings, so it’s surprising that there isn’t a large uproar over net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission has net neutrality in place, requiring Internet providers like Bright House and AT&T to load websites and deliver data at the same rate. If the FCC regulations are changed, as the agency proposed in May, then the web will no longer be equal. The FCC supports changing net neutrality to allow providers to load data at unequal speeds. As a result, larger companies like Google and Facebook could pay companies like Bright House and AT&T to load their sites more quickly. Those who don’t pay would be in the slow lane. Service providers love the idea of charging more, but consumers won’t. When websites are pressured into paying more, the companies will pass the costs to the consumer through more obnoxious advertisements or higher fees, de-pending on the site. Your Netfl ix fee could possibly increase from its low eight dollars, and Facebook ads could become more annoying than they already are. Proponents say that less government will mean more freedom for the Internet, but the free market will not solve this issue. Sadly, the solution is not as simple as switching to an Internet provider that treats all website the same. Because the Internet providers are large and have

government approved monopolies, they can do as they please without a threat of losing business. The government allows only one cable company and one telephone company to serve each home. As a re-sult, everyone can choose between two options that want to change the FCC for the worst. The free market cannot work because it doesn’t exist. Either we must open the markets and allow more cables to run under the streets, or we must regulate the monopolies. The Internet is a glorious place, and it needs to stay free. It’s a place of community that allows people around the world to connect. We have seen social issues gain awareness, protests

Don’t nullify net neutrality

Amy Lowndes and Amy Sukserm

Diff erent websites could load at diff erent speeds, messing with the Internet as we know it

11

organized, small start-ups turn into corporations and news come instantly. Shopping has never been easier; games can be played and cat videos are viewed. All of these innovations have come as a result of the lack of regulation. It doesn’t matter how much power someone has; the Internet treats each person the same way and gives him or her a voice. The World Wide Web has had amazing impacts on our lives, and we ought to be as outraged as the citizens of South Park. Liberals, conservatives, libertarians, independents and clueless citizens can all agree. Don’t mess with our Internet.

12

Ebola. Just the word creates a sense of panic and concern. Will it spread to Florida? Will animals contract it too? Will we all die? A major problem with Ebola is that so many people are misinformed about the disease, both in America and in West Africa. In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where the disease has claimed more than 4,922 lives according to the World Health Organization (WHO), many people don’t know how Ebola is spread or what basic health precautions can thwart it. Many people are plagued by fear and superstition surrounding the virus, like the idea that ignoring Ebola’s existence will assure immunity from it. In America, however, we face a dif-ferent dilemma. We might not be-lieve in the superstitions, but so many of us are ignorant about basic facts and knowledge about Ebola and are consumed by the media created fear. One of the biggest confusions about Ebola is the way it is spread. Ebola is a virus, which is a non-cellular par-ticle. Viruses are not living, and they operate by essentially hijacking other cells and forcing that cell to repli-cate, therefore spreading the virus. Whereas illnesses like infl uenza are airborne, Ebola can only be transmit-ted through contact with bodily fl uids. When compared to victims of other virulent diseases like Severe Acute Re-spiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola patients are far less likely to spread the virus to others. Accord-ing to the National Public Radio, each

infected Ebola patient infects on aver-age two others, whereas SARS infects four, and the measles infects 18. Ebola also can only be transmitted when an infected person is showing symptoms. Ebola became an epidemic due to the sanitary issues in hospitals in West Africa, where now there aren’t enough beds for the sick, and dying children are left to sleep on the fl oors of the hospitals. The shortage of doc-tors and beds only causes death rates to soar and the virus to spread faster. However, the media has generated a frenzy of concern surrounding Ebo-la. Sure the disease is nothing to scoff at—the mortality rate after catching the disease is upwards of 50% according to WHO—but the likelihood of Ebola be-coming a health crisis in America is slim. Here’s the thing—America has re-sources and health care that countries like Liberia do not. So far, America has been taking careful precautions to pre-vent the further spread of Ebola after Thomas E. Duncan brought the disease to the U.S. The ambulance he was trans-ported in was taken out of use until it had been completely decontaminated, and the family members and health care workers who have interacted with infected patients are being monitored . AP Biology teacher and Science De-partment Chair, Paula Phillips, said that she believes Ebola will not be-come a huge hazard in America. “It doesn’t spread in the way oth-er viruses can be spread,” she said. She believes that unless we throw all our safety protocols out the window, Ebola should not be a major threat. Phillips said that the countries in West Africa currently do not have the means to control the problem, whereas Ameri-ca does, and unless the virus mutates to spread airborne, this country is essential-ly fi ne. Countries in West Africa, where there is talk about the epidemic becoming an endemic, are an entirely different issue. Yet if in America there is such a small chance that Ebola will become a major threat, then why is it garnering such at-tention on the news? The answer lies with public fear and fear-mongering. One of the most famous examples of

fear-mongering in the past was when Senator McCarthy presented a list of “Communists” that were supposedly working in the Department of State. More recently, the media stirred up panic post-911 about terrorist attacks. In the case with Ebola, the media cre-ates panic by focusing on the threats that the disease could pose to our lives, as opposed to the reality of the situ-ation. By creating fear, the news sta-tions are able to attract more viewers. AP Psychology teacher, Donna Walk-er, said that there are multiple causes behind the public fear surrounding the Ebola virus. “One is the fear of the un-known—we don’t know for sure it can be stopped and contained,” she said. Walker also explained that having the disease on American soil only increases mass panic. American interest in the disease peaked when Thomas Duncan

Fear: the most common side effect of EbolaNovember 2014

brought the fi rst case of the virus to Texas, and then concern peaked again when one of his nurses contracted it. People tend to act based on how others around them are acting. Walker said this phenomenon is called plural ignorance. “If groups of people are ob-served to be worried and panicked, that sends us the message we should be similarly panicked,” she said. So how do we conquer this public fear surrounding the Ebola virus? The biggest thing is to be educated and in-formed about the issue. Try not to make decisions until you know all the facts. If you’re still worried about Ebola, just remember the panic surrounding the H1N1 fl u a few years ago. Everyone panicked for a couple months, then the alarm died down. Let’s stop worrying about Ebola and concern ourselves with more important issues.

Marissa Block

13November 2014

“Mommy, I want to be a Princess,” the fi ve year old girl exclaims. Imagining herself as Sleeping Beauty, she wants to wear a pretty pink dress and a beautiful gold tiara. However, she also begins to doubt herself: “Am I thin enough? Why am I not blonde? Why am I not pretty enough?” Pervading American culture, Disney princesses continuously infl uence young girls with values that stick with them throughout their lives so much that this phenomenon has been labeled “the Dis-ney princess effect.” As the best-selling author of Cinder-ella Ate My Daughter, Peggy Orenstein, explains in The New York Times, Disney princesses fl ood young girls with these messages precisely at the moment that they need to prove that they are girls. Because children subconsciously believe that gender identity can shift, children below the age of seven respond to ex-ternal signs to reinforce their gender by adopting “feminine” or “masculine” standards imposed by culture. Conse-quently, nearly every little girl venerates Belle, Jasmine and other Disney prin-cesses. “I think almost every young girl is sus-ceptible to Disney fi lms. I know I was. All the kids I babysit watch them as well,” senior Joy Harlynking said. Although some Disney princes still in-fl uence boys, Disney princes do not af-fect boys to a large extent because male stereotypes are not reinforced according to researcher Dawn England of Arizona State University .

Unfortunately, until the recent Disney fi lms like Tangled and Frozen, most Dis-ney princesses have negatively impacted young girls because they have spread un-healthy body image perceptions and ac-cepted oppressive gender roles. By raising awareness about the nega-tive impacts of Disney princesses, par-ents and young girls can learn what to look out for in earlier Disney fi lms and focus on the later feminist Disney mov-ies. Disney princesses impose unrealistical-ly “perfect” body images on young girls. The six fi rst princesses have unreason-ably slim waists and extremely light skin, which objectifi es beauty and emphasizes the importance of appearance. In Cinderella, reinforcing the mistak-en mindset of “love at fi rst sight,” the Prince only falls in love with Cinderella because of her beauty. Because her ap-pearance saves her from horrible living conditions, Cinderella sends a message to girls that being pretty is all that mat-ters. Similarly, in The Little Mermaid, Ariel objectifi es feminine beauty with an ex-tremely small waist, big blue eyes and long luscious hair. After Ariel makes the deal with Ursula and must court Prince Eric without her voice, Ursula even tells Ariel not to “underestimate the impor-tance of body image.” In addition, often portrayed as a dam-sel in distress, Disney princesses indoc-trinate young girls with extremely anti-feminist mindsets. Ultimately, princesses like Aurora and Jasmine discourage girls

Bravely untangling Disney’s frozen feminism

from becoming strong, independent women. In Sleeping Beauty, Aurora must com-pletely rely on Prince Philip to save her, and she has no goals in life other than to meet and talk to people. With her song “I Wonder,” Aurora even laments that all the female animals are able to fi nd male partners, but she is not. Not only is Aurora demure and naive, which are traditionally negative perspec-tives of women, but she also appears in the movie for only 18 minutes even though she is the protagonist. She is ba-sically depicted as an object as opposed to an inividual. Unable to accomplish anything with her willpower, Aurora dangerously infers that women cannot be free and should rely on men for ev-erything. Furthermore, in Aladdin, although Jas-mine takes action for having no choices in her life, she too stresses that women should not take much action because that is the role of men. When Aladdin and Jasmine are on Car-pet, Jasmine is the passive learner, while Aladdin properly teaches her and en-lightens her. Additionally, Jasmine inac-tively stands around while Aladdin fi ghts Jafar, and she must be saved by Aladdin from her death. Although there are some examples of strong, independent princesses in past Disney fi lms like Pocahontas and Mulan, most of the Disney princesses after Tiana in The Princess and the Frog have reversed this submissive portrayal of women.

“There’s no doubt that most recent Disney fi lms portray women as stronger individuals like Elsa, Merida and Rapun-zel,” Harlynking said. “Disney has real-ized that times are changing, and women are able to save themselves. They don’t need no man!” In Tangled, the song “Mother Knows Best” prompts young girls to fi ght back against societal messages insinuating that they are not pretty for who they are, as Rapunzel overcomes Mother Gothel’s indoctrination. Able to free herself from the tower, to see through Mother Gothel’s lies and to save Flynn Rider’s life, Rapunzel em-powers girls to act independently and achieve their dreams. Additionally, with the fi rst female director for a Disney fi lm, Frozen de-stroys the objectifi cation of women with scenes like when Anna wakes up completely disheveled and actively leads Kristoff to fi nd Elsa. Although Elsa isn’t a princess, she also empowers girls to liberate themselves from constraints and to achieve their full potential as Elsa doesn’t have to “con-ceal” her powers anymore and can “Let It Go.” Although Disney princesses overall aren’t a completely negative infl uence on young girls, they can be harmful to the self-image of young girls who aren’t aware of the anti-feminist messages. Luckily, recent Disney princesses con-tinue to ameliorate the past ones so that the future generations of girls can be self-suffi cient, free and “Brave.”

Amy Lowndes

November 201414

Whether you are walking into a meeting with a col-lege representative or going to a dinner with the leader of your community service group, first impressions are of the utmost importance. Often, your first impression is based on appearance, especially the way you dress. This is why schools like University of Southern Cali-fornia and University of Miami have workshops avail-able to their student bodies which give helpful advice about making a good impression at job and internship interviews. It can be hard to navigate the “Do’s and Don’ts” of dressing for important events. Just a few weeks ago, I walked downstairs ready for a regional meeting for New York University in an outfit that I thought was appropriate. The reaction that I got was not what I was hoping for— both of my parents looked at me with wide eyes before simultaneously saying, “Are you insane?” Apparently my idea of what was acceptable was not correct. I learned that there is a common set of guidelines for most occasions that everyone can follow. The main things to remember are what you wear affects what others think of you and certain wardrobe choices may offend others. Even though you may love your hipster clothes and combat boots, the conservative admissions represen-tative at a small northern private college probably will not. The same goes if you are trying to impress a coach or community service leader. Individuality is great, but it has a limit. To stay on the safe side, one can just stay “preppy.” If you’re a girl that’s more “Bohemian,” you could try a dress or flowy pants and a blouse. For the “edgy” people, keep the darker color scheme going but always think conservatively. Interestingly enough, the colors you wear can also evoke responses from your interviewer. Monster.com, a website that people visit to get advice on anything from how early to arrive at an interview to how to fill out an application, did a study on what the colors you wear say about you. Blue and grey are the most neutral and convey calmness, stability, security and sophistica-tion. You may want to stay away from colors like red and black, as they suggest passion, aggression, power and drama. White is always a safe bet as it simplicity, cleanliness and precision. Whatever you are going to, make sure that you always pay attention to whether the dress is casual or formal and remember to always dress for success.

Dress for success What to wear to interviews and more

Lily BoundsSTAFF WRITER

Tips to Remember:

Try to keep shorts/skirts/dresses about mid-thigh or longerExtremely low-cut shirts are never a good ideaMake sure that nothing is sheerIf you’re going to wear heels, then please make sure that you can walk in themNatural makeup is better! It’s not good if your makeup reminds an adult of Taylor Momsen

Marissa Block

15November 2014

Every weekend, 7th grader Piper Harris grabs a handlebar, holds on for dear life, and proceeds to ride rails and spin in circles. Just what would make her do such a dangerous activity? The answer is wakeboarding. At nine years old, Harris was invited by a friend’s mom to join the Kid’s Club at the Orlando Waters-ports Complex (OWC). An avid extreme sports fanatic already, Harris was the perfect fit. She started off knee-boarding and moved up to wakeboarding within mere weeks of starting. It quickly became apparent that Har-ris had found her niche. Harris wakeboarded recreationally until she was asked to compete in the Slider Spectacular in 2012. By April of the next year, Harris was already competing in the more advanced boat riding form of wakeboarding. “I had only rode boat a few times and was only able to ride over the wake in my first competition,” Harris said. Nowadays, Harris is an experienced regular at OWC. On wakeboarding days, Harris gets to the complex at 10 a.m. On most summer days, Harris rides for about ten hours. These ten hours include the same routine every time.“I try something new, then I fall; I do this over and over again until I get tired, then I take a break, eat lunch and then go try it again. I keep this up until it’s time to go home,” Harris said. In addition to perfecting her own skills, Harris volunteers with OWC’s summer camp and the Knight’s Club, the University of Central Florida’s own wakeboarding club. During the school year, Harris practices two or three days a week. She takes lessons by boat towing for 30 minutes each week. Since Harris also competes on the Varsity Diving Team, she sometimes limits her boat rides to only a few times per month. “I have been known to ride boat at 6:30 a.m. in the morning before school,” she said. “I love the feeling of the morning rides because you are fresh and ready to ride.” As fun as this extreme sport may seem, it still has an enormous amount of risks. Harris broke her right leg in the summer of 2011 after hitting a specialized ramp. “You have to have no fear because you know you can get hurt, and everything is dangerous,” Harris said. Harris enters numerous competitions, including the National Championships. There are two kinds of com-petitions: cable and boats. In a cable competition, a suspended cable pulls players. In boat competitions, riders are pulled by a boat with a judge on it. Just this summer, Harris showed her ability by finish-

ing as a semifinalist in the World Wakeboard Associa-tion Wakeboarding National Championships. Harris explained that work ethic makes all the difference in executing stunts. “I have to be committed and have no fear to try new tricks. I also have learned to listen to my coach and gut when I am ready to try new tricks,” Harris said. Of course, Harris has some role models that she looks up to. These include Bob Soven, a former member of the Wakeboard Brothers, Amber Wing, an Australian professional and the Shred Sisters, a group started to encourage young girls to try the sport. Amber is small

Shredding to success Student in the Spotlight: Piper Harris

Zach WatsonSTAFF WRITER

Harris has been actively wakeboarding since the age of 9 and is currently an experienced boarder at OWC.

Piper Harris dominates the wakes on a weekly basis

Courtesy of JD Diamond Photography

like me, and she understands how difficult it is to find wakeboard stuff to fit me,” Harris said.Harris has aspirations to compete at the professional level, but right now she is focused on improving her tricks and style. Harris hopes to one day be sponsored in order to get more equipment and the possibility of compensation. Even though she has big hopes and dreams, Harris still loves the little things that originally drew her into wakeboarding. “You get wet, and when you try a new trick and land it, you get a huge adrenaline rush,” Harris said.

November 201416

When one drops a name like J.K. Row-ling, Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen, readers lend their ears and listen. Many, however, are probably either unfamiliar or only scarcely acquainted with names like Alan Moore, J. Michael Straczynski or Frank Miller; such authors are in-volved in the world of graphic novels and comics. Though sometimes dismissed as child-ish or unimaginative—or in extreme cases, stereotyped as “nerdy”—comic books and graphic novels deserve more recognition and respect. It is natural to think of the likes of Spider-Man, Superman, Batman and the Avengers when one mentions the word “comics.” As a result, comics are assumed to trade complexity for very simplistic concepts. The reality is that the medium can do so much more than telling generic stories about caped crusaders and do-gooders in tights. Maus by Art Spiegel-man, for example, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel which recounts an elderly Jew’s experiences before, dur-ing and after the Second World War. It was the fi rst and only graphic novel to win this prestigious award. Even some superhero books are far from elementary, such as Alan Moore’s Watchmen, which was the only graphic novel on Time Magazine’s 2005 Top 100 Novels List and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, a critically acclaimed work that took a fresh spin on the fa-mous DC Comics hero Batman. Both graphic novels explore political, social and philosophical themes—something that those who criticize comics may not realize. “Comics can certainly be as complex as purely written texts, and comics can address a wide array of subjects,” AP English Language and Composition teacher Robert Boerth said. Boerth’s classes spend time learning about comics and graphic novels. There are many aspects that make comic books truly special. For example,

one should address the structure of each page, recognizing that panels, word bubbles and such aren’t just placed around for fun. “Just one example is the imaginative work that has to take place to fi ll in the gutter—that white space which exists between panels. It is fair to say that sig-nifi cant parts of a comic’s narrative take place in that empty space,” Boerth said. Comics are fi lm, literature and art all rolled into one. The art direction, text and arrange-ment of panels on each page of a comic or graphic novel work in tandem with one another to give meaning to a story. Each of these distinguishing charac-teristics help comics and graphic novels stand out in the large sea of modern lit-erature and challenge people to read and interpret material in a different light. 7th grade English teacher Jeff Wilson, whose classes also learn about comic books, said, “Comic book creators can utilize the benefi ts of exposition in their textual storytelling and artistic design in their graphic storytelling. [They] can tell [stories] in ways that neither books nor cinema can do on their own.” Although the study of comics is lim-ited to two courses—AP English Lan-

Judging a (comic) book by its coverChristian DantesSTAFF WRITER

Why comics are more than ink and panels

guage and Composition and English 7—other English classes on campus could easily be complemented by a unit about comics. The addition would ensure that Eng-lish students are exposed to all forms of literature, not just the works of Dick-ens, Lovecraft and so on. “The stories lend themselves to Eng-lish to be sure, but comics can be of use in making complex concepts in science, math and history more easily relatable, too,” Wilson said.

Amy Sukserm

It’s no secret that comics have in re-cent years become more popular. Conventions like the annual San Di-ego Comic Con International have long been a reminder of comics’ prevalence in modern culture, and comic book-based fi lms like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and the recent Guardians of the Galaxy have yielded large box offi ce grosses. Hopefully, more readers of all ages can learn to appreciate comics and graphic novels, and learn to love the ink.

Jessica KotnourEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

November 2014 17

Four years ago, I sat down to fi ll out my four-year plan. Ignor-ing the advice to fi ll it out in pencil, I wrote in ink the classes that I would take before I graduated. I was to spend my high school career taking AP sci-ences and never having a free period. I vowed to fulfi ll my fi ne arts require-ment then never step foot in the Arts Wing ever again. I had my time outside of school planned as well. Set to play soccer until I graduated, I was determined to spend all of my afternoons out on the fi elds and my week-ends traveling to tournaments. The start of freshman year went according to plan. I managed to take all the classes on my four-year plan, and I was the starting goalkeeper on the var-sity soccer team. November of my fresh-man year, things changed. I started getting caught up in making my perfect high school plan work. If something wasn’t in my original plan, there was no way I would do it. I stopped trying new things since they did not fi t into the ideal plan that I had established in 8th grade. I stayed in clubs that I didn’t like. I kept playing soccer despite

wanting to try a new sport. Al-though I wanted to be in differ-ent classes, I didn’t take them because they weren’t part of my plan. I stopped experimenting. I had made a plan, and I had to stick with it.

As I began my sophomore year, I tried to stick with my

plan, but I soon realized that if I was going to enjoy my time in high

school at all, I would need to make a change.

When I signed up for my junior year classes, only two of my classes were on my

four-year plan. I fi nally quit soccer and joined the weightlifting team. These changes were things

that I had always wanted to do, but had neglected to out of fear of the unknown.

When I think of change, I normally think of change that I have no control over. I think of change as

being forced to move away from friends or having to grow up and take on more

responsibility. Change is not always involuntary.

The scariest changes can be the ones we have to make ourselves for our own

happiness. If something isn’t working, I challenge you to make a change. By making a change, you are guaranteed to have a different out-come than what you were getting in the past. Most of the time, this change will lead to a happier life.

Jessica KotnourEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Four years ago, I sat down to fi ll out my four-year plan. Ignor-ing the advice to fi ll it out in pencil, I wrote in ink the classes that I would take before I graduated. I was to spend my high school career taking AP sci-ences and never having a free period. I vowed to fulfi ll my fi ne arts require-ment then never step foot in the Arts Wing ever again. I had my time outside of school planned as well. Set to play soccer until I graduated, I was determined to spend all of my afternoons out on the fi elds and my week-ends traveling to tournaments. The start of freshman year went according to plan. I managed to take all the classes on my four-year plan, and I was the starting goalkeeper on the var-sity soccer team. November of my fresh-man year, things changed. I started getting caught up in making my perfect high school plan work. If something wasn’t in my original plan, there

wanting to try a new sport. Al-though I wanted to be in differ-ent classes, I didn’t take them because they weren’t part of my plan. I stopped experimenting. I had made a plan, and I had to stick with it.

As I began my sophomore year, I tried to stick with my

plan, but I soon realized that if I was going to enjoy my time in high

school at all, I would need to make a change.

When I signed up for my junior year classes, only two of my classes were on my

four-year plan. I fi nally quit soccer and joined the weightlifting team. These changes were things

that I had always wanted to do, but had neglected to out of fear of the unknown.

When I think of change, I normally think of change that I have no control over. I think of change as

being forced to move away from friends or having to grow up and take on more

responsibility. Change is not always involuntary.

The scariest changes can be the ones we have to make ourselves for our own

happiness. If something isn’t working, I challenge you to make a change.

November 201418

We can do it Time has had an impact on women’s rights

Tears rolled down from the audience’s eyes as Emma Watson stood behind the podium voicing her opinion about women’s rights. When Watson attended the recent U.N. conference, she introduced the “HeforShe” campaign, a movement supporting gender equality.

“[Women’s rights] is an important cause that needs attention to ensure that women are treated with basic needs such as safety, dignity and respect,” said Denise Musselwhite, the co-Advisor of Trinity Prep’s PeaceJam Club.

During the early 1900s, the U.S. took action in order to make sure that women are treated equally. Passed in 1911, the 19th amendment allowed women the right to vote. This was one of the fi rst

initiatives in making sure that women are given the same rights as men. Since then, change has occurred as women were given more rights. For example, the pass-

ing of Title IX in 1972 resulted in the ban of gender discrimination in the public schools system.

Currently, this issue is almost unheard of, and the gender gap between women and men has substantially shrunk in the United States.

Women from different countries, especially underprivileged areas, do not have some rights and opportunities that women have in the U.S. “Lack of access to an adequate education and personal safety is an enormous obstacle in developing countries around the world and a barrier to the advance-ment of women’s rights,” Musselwhite said. We should decide on how to change the future by focusing on events that affect others. Recently in Norway, a group launched the Thea Campaign that is raising awareness for underage marriage. Underage marriage is prevalent in coun-tries where poverty exists. Joining the Thea campaign is a step towards prohibiting underaged marriage. There are many campaigns that people can join to make a difference in women’s rights all over the world. Campaigns that focus on peaceful change are the most effective and sucessful. The Thea and Smart Girls

campaign are non-violent campaigns that focus on social issues including women’s rights.

Amy Poehler started the campaign, Smart Girls, which is an inspiring role model for the young. Smart Girls is a fun way of being part of an online community that encourages women to volunteer and to become activists. Here at Trinity Prep, clubs such as PeaceJam focus on social issues including women’s rights. Last year, the club selected the topic of “Untrap Untapped Potential.” The project promoted the rights of women and children globally and supported the Harbor House and Girls Learn International. For change to be achieved for the future, both men and women will have to cooperate together. We should remember that the women’s rights movement does not cause a lack of concern or support for men’s issues. It is important that those who are inter-ested in issues related to women’s rights have signifi cant and inclusive conversations. Both gender’s voices should be considered while doing so.

Shea PereraSTAFF WRITER

Amber Yang

Choose and cherish change

No one can avoid change. It takes us into the unknown. How many of us welcomed the idea of portable classrooms? But they’ve turned out to be well-furnished, air conditioned and spacious. Voluntary changes such as choosing an AP course or something as simple as trying out a new recipe can cause stress because we don’t want to fail. On the other hand, when life throws a curve ball with something as trivial as losing a favorite pencil to something as serious as losing a loved one, it forces a change in our life that causes anxiety and resentment. The best approach is to never fi ght change. Since change is inevitable, it would be prudent on our part to prepare ourselves well in advance. We must begin by understanding the mechanics of change. Neural pathways in our brain are formed as a result of repetitive tasks. For example, every time we press on the brake at a red traffi c light, we rein-force that particular neural pathway, and the task of braking at a red light becomes “hardwired.” Our behavioral response becomes automatic. Mentally speaking, repetitive tasks consume less energy and are comforting. They actually make us feel good. However, any change to these tasks disrupts the well-established neural pathway. Change stimulates the prefrontal cortex that is directly linked to the amygdala, which controls our basic instincts of fear. A change in routine tasks activates the fear circuitry in the brain. As a result, we feel fear and anxiety. Having recently relocated to Orlando from New York, Athletic Director Steven Bluth and his entire family are dealing with a big change in their lives. Bluth’s all-time favorite quote— “Adversity introduces you to yourself ”— is from Coach K at Duke University. Bluth believes change creates adversity whether the change is positive or negative. A supportive environment and open communication can help make the transition easier. He believes sud-den unexpected changes create confusion, while controlled changes are easy to rationalize and fi nd solutions for. He further adds, that if you feel over-whelmed while facing adversity induced by a change, then you need to take a step-by-step approach. The key to managing change is to adapt to it as quickly as possible. From Dr.John Kotter, emeritus professor at Harvard Business School, here are some things we can do to cope with change and embrace it wholeheartedly.

In our constantly changing lives, the evolutionary theory formulated by Charles Darwin in the 1800s still holds true: “It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

In our constantly changing lives, the evolutionary theory formulated by Charles Darwin in the 1800s still holds true: “It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

Recognize that change is inevitable Don’t try to run and hide from change. As our teachers change, we have to adapt to different teaching styles. There is no point getting frustrated over the different expectations of the new teacher.

is no point getting frustrated over the different expectations of the new teacher.

Set smart goalsSet small achievable goals that will help you adapt to the new change effortlessly.

In our constantly changing lives, the evolutionary theory formulated by Charles Darwin in the 1800s still holds true: “It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

Set smart goalsSet small achievable goals that will help you adapt to the new change effortlessly.

Face your feelingsMove beyond the “Why me?” stage. Analyze what factors are causing the negative feelings and eliminate those. For example, instead of fretting over the new braces, it would help to re-mind ourselves that those braces are not permanent fi xtures and will come off in a couple of years leaving be-hind a dazzling, beautiful smile.

Consider change as an op-portunity rather than a challengeFocus on the benefi t every change brings along and make that into an opportunity. The iPhone 6 Plus monstrosity is diffi cult to handle at fi rst. But, hey, thanks to the larger screen size, games, photos and vid-eos look very impressive.

RelaxLearn to relax. Stress is bad while dealing with change. There is no point fi ghting over change that is here to stay.

Adopt a thought process that supportsNegative thoughts block the creative process while positive thoughts con-struct bridges to possibilities. Instead of thinking that portable classrooms are time-out boxes built to alienate stu-dents from the rest of the school, we should focus on the big, swanky new building that will provide extra space for all of us.

Set smart goalsSet small achievable goals that will help you adapt to the new change effortlessly.

Noopur RanganathanSTAFF WRITER

November 2014 19

November 201420

“Climate change will…” “By 2050, global warming…” We are all familiar with headlines that warn us of drastic changes in our global climate (only just in many years.) Consciously or not, these headlines lead us to believe that climate change is a far-away problem. To many, the impacts of climate change are abstract—a couple polar bears dying 6,000 miles away or a fl ood in the Amazon. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 36 per-cent of Americans see climate change as a threat in their lifetime. AP Environmental Science teacher Jonathan Grey warns, however, that we should absolutely be con-cerned about climate change now. “It is affecting human populations in terms of sea level rise. Cities such as Miami are starting to come up with detailed plans on what to do about rising sea levels on the beachfront in places like Miami Beach, where we have huge buildings [at risk],” Grey said. Living in Florida, the state with the most coastline in the continental United States, it is time to accept climate change as a reality. In May, the U.S. government released the most in-depth climate as-sessment it has ever published. The National Climate Assessment highlighted major impacts from climate change felt in our country cur-rently and that will only magnify as time goes on. Beyond sea level rise, our state faces numerous other changes. In Florida, most of our fresh water comes from the natural limestone aquifer underground. As salt water levels rise, it fl ows into the aquifer and contaminates our drinking water. As the ocean warms, it becomes more acidic as well. Consequently, our state’s coral reefs and fi sh, key to the tourism industry, are also harmed. We can no longer afford the luxury of believing climate change to be a partisan issue or a far-fl ung abstraction. Like it or not, climate change is our reality, and procrastination in accepting that will only hurt us.

Climate change needs to sink inAmy LowndesFOCUS EDITOR

Amy Lowndes

21November 2014

Moving to Nashville and becoming a music sensation is something that thousands of little girls dream of. Trinity Prep’s own Emma Shackelford is in the process of making that dream a reality. Since August, Shackelford has been living in Nash-ville pursuing her dream of becoming a well-known country music singer-songwriter under her stage name Rhetta Jane. The name combines that of her grand-mother with Shackelford’s own middle name. Rhetta Jane sung to a crowd of 10,000 people at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at the University of Central Florida on Oct. 12, and that is only one of her numerous musical accomplishments to date. Rhetta Jane has been a singer since the age of four, and she began playing the piano and violin at ages four and six respectively. Over time, she became interested in becoming a songwriter. “I don’t want to be just a voice. I want to have some-thing to say and make connections with people through music,” Jane said. After participating in Berklee College of Music’s summer program the summer before 10th grade, she decided that songwriting was something she wanted to pursue full time. The summer before her junior year, she recorded five original songs at Starlight Studios in Orlando. After that, she sent the songs to an enter-tainment attorney, who decided that he liked what he heard. “A series of meetings turned into me working with this guy as a manager. In this business, timing is re-ally important and talks of going to Nashville at some point started in last October,” she said. Rhetta Jane, then a junior, shocked many of her fellow students when she announced her plans to finish high school through tutoring in order to pursue a career in

music. However, her efforts have already paid off, as she continues to score more and more gigs in both Or-lando and Nashville. “For me, there’s not as many opportunities in Or-lando as there are in Nashville for country music,” she said. Nashville, nicknamed Music City, is the country’s capital of country music. “To make it in Nashville, the first thing to do is be in Nashville,” she said. After deciding that Nashville was the best place for her at this point in her life, Rhetta Jane and her mother made the trek up to Tennessee in August. Since then, she has become involved with large-scale music publishing companies such as the Nashville Songwriters Association and Broadcast Music, Inc. She is developing her musical talents by taking voice and

Sarina SuttonSTAFF WRITER

Rhetta Jane rising to fame

Courtesy of Lechon Kirb

Emma Shackelford has her eyes set on making it in the music industry under her stage name Rhetta Jane.

guitar lessons from renowned Nashville musicians like Renee Grant Williams and Rob Jackson. “I’ve never really had voice lessons before this, so I’ve grown into my voice and started using the right tech-niques as well as honing in on the skills needed to be a musician,” she said. The aspiring songstress has already accomplished sev-eral notable feats. She sang an original song for Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band over Skype, and he complimented her on her songwriting. She also was the Judge’s Choice Winner for an open-mic contest held at Nashville’s 360 Burger. Following her appearance at the Race for the Cure, she is headed back to Nashville to put in more hard work. Before you know it, Rhetta Jane will be gracing the front pages of magazines and news channels worldwide, and it will all have started here at Trinity.

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November 201422

Coral Skies takes over West Palm Beach Kendall Rotar Sarina Sutton THE BITE EDITORSTAFF WRITER

On Sunday, Oct. 26 Coral Skies Music Festival rolled into West Palm Beach for a fun-filled day of music, art, food and heat. Music lovers from all over the state and beyond flooded to the Cruzan Ampitheater to get

City and Colour

In the mid 1960s, The Rolling Stones set out on a trailblazing path of success led by its fearless and iconic leader Mick Jagger. Today, we have Cage the Elephant. “Everyone get on your feet, this is a Rock ‘n’ Roll show,” the lead guitarist shouted as he made his way to his mic when they took the stage at the festival. The crowd roared at this remark, and everyone leaped to their feet. Every member of the band took their place, and a quiet overlay was cast upon the crowd while they waited for the lead singer Matt Shultz. Similarly to Jag-ger, Shultz worked the stage better than any other act at the festival. He walked on with a strong confidence without coming off as arrogant. His gold button-down, skinny jeans and messy hair fit his image perfectly. All the while his high energy and passion for performance bled through his vocals and through the speakers. The band’s performance was one of the best The Bite has ever witnessed, but what made it so exciting and liberating is unique. Shultz did not hold himself above his audience or any of his band members; he even stood on a box that was level to the pit and per-formed for a bit which helped communicate his mes-sage of unity. He was there to delve himself into his art and allow everyone in the amphitheater feel the passion brought on by his work. Playing hits like “Aberdeen” and “Cigarette Day-dreams,” Cage the Elephant corralled a scattered crowd into a unit of people listening to a modern day classic rock band. The band’s music is timeless and iconic. The same energy, passion and drive has proved time and time again to make bands immortal. Expect to hear about Cage the Elephant and its suc-cess soon; this band is one for the ages.

Kendall Rotar

Cage the Elephant

After a heated day of fast paced music, City and Colour was a cool drink of water to all fans in at-tendance. The performance was simple but effective. Dal-las Green, the lead vocalist, came on stage with a simple hat and outfit and his brown acoustic guitar. There are gigs where a viewer is supposed to stand up, dance and sing at the top of his lungs. Then, there are those gigs where the audience can sit down, enjoy and reflect on the music being played. City and Colour is just that. A band that can completely change an atmosphere has something special central to its values. City and Colour holds a key aspect that makes

a taste of what Coral Skies had to offer, and they were left satisfied. From sultry bands City and Colour to rock and roll heros Cage the Elephant, Coral Skies provided for a rare and unique music expierence. The Bite traveled down south to inhale mac and cheese grilled cheese and the best homemade popsicles this side of the Mississippi.

Kendall Rotar

it so remarkable and effective: contemplation. Its music doesn’t have much going on, with simple guitar chords and soft tamborine chimes, but the band really focuses their lyrics and how to convey the message of a song to listeners. In “The Grand Optimist,” Green strung meta-phors, similes, syntax and emotion in such a way that the message of the song was easily understood. City and Colour uses a different approach to entertainment and that is what makes it successful, essential and interesting to the audience. Talented and bold, City and Colour slowed things down a bit at the festival while still leaving the audience fully engaged.

November 2014 23

Bleachers The festival really began to heat up when Bleach-ers took the stage. Bleachers, which is a new project headed by Fun.’s Jack Antonoff, just recently hit it big when its debut single “I Wanna Get Better” topped the radio charts as this summer’s go-to dance jam. The band provided a breath of fresh air to an audience that

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz Julian Casablancas + The Voidz provided one of the most confusing performances of the festi-val. The crowd was left puzzled when Casablancas’ unmistakably audacious voice pumped through the speakers, but not in the way to which today’s rock fans are accustomed. Casablancas, known primarily for his role as front-man to The Strokes, one of the biggest rock bands in America, has branched out with The Voidz as a “side project.” However, it’s almost disorienting to

hear his unique voice in any other place than with The Strokes. Casablancas strutted onstage with the indifferent air archetypal of rockers—but not in a good way. Don’t get me wrong—the performance wasn’t baad. The musical performance, a mish-mash of 80s beats and synth sounds, was nothing short of experimental, which just wasn’t appropri-ate for the feel-good alternative vibe of the festi-val. While the performance left the amphitheatre with a little to be desired, don’t write off Julian Casablancas just yet, because his cool-guy rock at-titude is certainly here to stay.

was beginning to feel a little stuffy. The jazzy saxophone paired with pure pop beats al-lowed for an 80’s-esque feel-good set that had the am-phitheatre moving and grooving. The band also catered to new fans by covering The Cranberries’ “Dreams”. Bleachers’ fi rst performance in the sunshine state left

the crowd thirsting for more—and Antonoff promised the band would deliver in the near future. All in all, Bleachers’ set provided the festival with a much-need-ed pick-me-up, performing at the same level as some of the more well-known acts hitting the Sunset Stage later Sunday night.

Kendall Rotar

Kendall Rotar

November 201424

Killer clubs conquer campusTrinity Prep students have oodles of extracurricular

activities at their disposal. In addition to sports, forensics, theater and student council, students have more than 50 clubs from which to choose. The list of clubs is endless; from math to art to fi sh-ing and everything in between. In fact, many clubs are student-created based on in-dividual interests. While we all know about Base Camp and Key Club, there are some lesser-known clubs that are equally as interesting and worth signing up for.

Allie SteinSTAFF WRITER

Save a Life ClubLeaders: Lorenzo Guani and Emily VuType of club: B ClubTeacher Sponsor: Mrs. Davidson Save a Life Club is a new club this year at Trinity and the club is named after the shelter where the members volunteer. If you like helping animals, you should def-initely sign up for this club. Save a Life Club wants to get a lot of volunteers to help animals at animal shel-ters. They help set up the medicine for the dogs and make sure the animals always have plenty of food and water. The club has been trying to fi nd more people to volunteer at the organization. One member, Zach-ary Watson, raised $600 for the Save a Life Club to help buy new supplies for the animals.

Coffee ClubLeader: Rachel WardType of club: A ClubTeacher Sponsor: Mrs. Massey-Burmeister

The main purpose of Coffee Club is for students to come together, drink a cup of coffee and talk about various things going on in their lives or events hap-pening here at Trinity. Coffee Club has been around for a long time and has had many sponsors. For the fi rst time ever, Coffee Club is going to have a service project. The club is going to collect supplies for the Zion Children’s Hospital in the Bahamas. If you want a relaxing club where you can drink coffee while doing community service, then Coffee Club is for you.

Girls in STEM ClubLeaders: Amber Yang Type of club: B ClubTeacher Sponsor: Mrs. Wehr Girls in STEM is a club aimed to encourage girls who are afraid of joining the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fi elds. They help promote under-privileged girls in the Orlando area with science and math. So far, members have tutored children in the local area who are in the Girls and Boys Club. STEM Club is also partnered with the Girl Scouts of Florida and plan to have a convention later this year. If you want to help promote science education, then you should sign up for STEM Club.

Environmental ClubLeader: Alexa HarrisType of club: A ClubTeacher Sponsor: Mr. Gray The main purpose of Environmental Club is to get involved in more environmental happenings on Trinity campus and outside of school. So far, leader Alexa Har-ris has properly labeled recycling bins like what should go into the trash, recycling and compost. She wants to post these signs all around school so students know where their trash should go. Later this year, Mr. Gray is attending a conference to green certify the campus. If you want to help make our campus more environmen-tally friendly and green, then you should sign up for en-vironmental club.

Courtesy of Emily Vu

Courtesy of Amber Yang

November 2014

Trinity Prep’s senior shooting guard, Kobe Eichel-berger, has been playing basketball since the age of three— and he doesn’t plan on stopping now. Eichel-berger has been contacted by dozens of college coach-es, received a multitude of recruitment letters and made official visits to three universities. “I have always dreamed about playing basketball in college,” Eichelberger said. “I am very fortunate that these dreams are actually coming true for me.” Letters of recruitment continue to flow in for Eichel-berger, with a pile currently at 20 letters. Appalachian State, Mercer, Air Force, Navy, Sewanee, Rhodes, Wheaton and Denison— to name a few— have all reached out to Eichelberger. About 100 college coach-es have contacted him via email, phone call and text message. Coaches from Bucknell and Rhodes have al-ready come to watch Eichelberger’s practices. The NESCAC, which stands for New England Small College Athletic Conference, includes Wesleyan University, where Eichelberger made one of his official visits to in August. Wesleyan is located in Middletown, Connecticut, less than two hours from both New York City and Boston. Eichelberger also went on official visits to Wheaton College and Denison University in September. He said his favorite was Wheaton College, located just 40 minutes outside of Chicago, where he was able to stay in a dorm with the Wheaton basketball players. When asked where he would play if he could play anywhere, Eichelberger didn’t have to think twice be-fore saying the University of Florida. As a lifelong Florida Gators fan, he mentioned that it would be a tough decision between playing basketball for a Divi-sion II or III team and going to UF as a non-athlete. “If I don’t play Division I, I think Division III is the way to go because it has really good academics,” Eichelberger said. “I’m also looking for a university next to a big city.” Co-captain and fellow senior Ben French has been playing basketball with Eichelberger for all four years of high school and has seen a recent increase in his focus. “As for Kobe’s work ethic, he has really stepped it up in the past year,” French said. “He shoots hundreds of shots before and after school.” Eichelberger has lofty goals for his team and him-self this year. He was on the All-District team last year with former teammates Roger Holler and TJ Amalbert, both of whom graduated last year. If he plays well throughout the entire season, Eichelberger is confident that he will have a good chance at becoming District Player of the Year.

Eichelberger also wants the team to win Districts this year, which would be his second district championship title; the team won previously in the 2012-2013 season when Eichelberger was a sophomore. The Saints’ new head basketball coach Irwin Hudson is sure to have a good year with a team full of talent and perseverance. When asked how he came upon the new head coach-ing job for the Saints, Hudson remarked that he “just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” Hudson is excited to coach Eichelberger for his se-nior year and said that Kobe has a lot more strengths than weaknesses, which will surely show this season. “Kobe is getting better and better everyday. I am so impressed with his progress as a player, teammate and leader,” Hudson said. “He’s right on pace to take us where we need to go.” Hudson is the owner and founder of Orlando Hoops, a training facility located down the road from Trinity Prep. He began training players in 1995 and officially opened “OHoops” in 1999. Hudson’s passion for basketball has led him to the opportunity of personally training NBA players such as Chandler Parsons, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard.

Eichelberger explained that Coach Hudson wants a faster paced offense than former head coach David Davis. Such an offense will fit the Saints better this year with the addition of juniors Will Miles and Blake Garfinkel, both from Lake Highland Preparatory School, who are accustomed to a faster paced game. French added that Coach Hudson is giving his players a lot of freedom to push the ball in transition and to create plays for themselves. Eichelberger’s versatility as a player will allow him opportunity to utilize more of his skills. “I’ve known Coach Hudson since 3rd grade so he really knows how I play. He has helped me through the recruiting process as well,” Eichelberger said. “Coach Hudson has reached out to a couple of coaches and will continue to do so during the season so that will help me a lot.” Eichelberger looks to make a lasting mark on Trinity Prep’s basketball program during his senior season. He continues to embrace the positive changes and ad-ditions that the varsity team faces this season and said that he expects his team to be one of the best that the school has seen in years.

Eichelberger slam dunks into college recruitingEllieClaire GordonPHOTO EDITOR

EllieClaire Gordon

Kobe Eichelberger continues to receive letters of recruitment for basketball from more than 20 different colleges.

25

November 201426

Celebr ities infl uence people in differ-ent ways. Disney princesses infl uence preschool girls; superheroes infl uence elementary school boys. As students outgrow superheroes and Disney princesses, they begin to look to professional athletes, who may have a bigger impact on high school students than they may realize. With the recent arrests in the NFL surrounding big name players like Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Ray McDonald and Greg Hardy, professional athletes may not be infl uencing high school athletes in a positive manner anymore. When he was younger, senior basketball player Kobe Eichelberger looked up to the former Orlando Magic player, Grant Hill. His modesty on and off the court reminded Eichelberger of himself and how he plays. Also like Hill, Eichelberg-er wears the number 33. Senior football player, Rory Costello idolizes NFL players Peyton Manning and Jeff Saturday. Costello thinks that they are simply two stand-up guys. He says they had never done anything to hurt their reputation, so they were perfect role models. Although Costello does not play either of their positions, he says he tries to emulate professional athletes from different sports in his style of play. “I’m sure generations of kids were infl uenced by Allen Iverson and tried to perfect their crossovers,” Costello said. This high regard for athletes has changed over the years, but drastically so in the past two months, as big name players have been arrested and charged on counts of domestic violence and abuse. Ray Rice, former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, and his then fi anceé, Janay Palmer, got into an aggressive fi ght in an elevator. Days later a video of Rice was released by TMZ showing Rice carrying Palmer out of the eleva-tor. One month later, Rice was indicted for 3rd degree aggravated assault and

the very next day, Rice and Palmer got married. Originally, the NFL suspended Rice for the fi rst two games of the season, but after many fans thought he deserved a harsher punishment for his actions, the NFL suspended him from the league indefi nitely. He was released by the Baltimore Ravens. This was only the beginning of the bad press surrounding the NFL. Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings running back, harshly disciplined his four year old son. After playing in the fi rst week, Peterson has since been indicted for reckless injury to a child. The Vikings deactivated him for their second game. He has been placed on the exempt list and is waiting a further decision on his verdict in trial. Although his chances may be slim, Peterson is arguing for an earlier trial date in order to return for the remainder of the 2014 season. San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald was arrested for domestic violence and sexual assault to his pregnant girlfriend. Although the arrest came days after the NFL updated their policy on domestic violence, McDonald has not been suspended for any games this season. Although the discipline was much less, Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was deactivated for their Week 2 game. Hardy was found guilty of domestic assault against his girlfriend after supposedly threatening and choking her. No other action has been taken place besides for the one game deactivation and supposedly no other suspension is coming. “They are set up perfectly in life: money, doing what they love and having people who cheer for them. Some people just waste this amazing opportunity by doing stupid stuff,” Eichelberger said. “My view on the NFL hadn’t changed until I heard about a few of these [offenses] in a row in these past months span,” Costello said. “It changes my perspective on the player(s).” These players have an infl uence on high school athletes on and off the

fi eld. Touchdown dances, such as fl ips into the endzone and big spikes, are replicated on the high school fi eld. This replication suggests that high school athletes pay attention to these athletes. Although professional athletes infl uence high school players with their on fi eld heroics, perhaps their off fi eld incidents have a bigger impact on the athletes. Professional athletes need to remember who they are infl uencing with their ev-eryday actions. These off fi eld antics are nothing new to professional sports. In the 1900s there were 140 reported cases of domestic violence among professional and college football players. The most notable case during this time was the O.J. Simpson case. The fact that Simpson got away with suspected murder sent a precedent for other athletes, such as Ray Lewis and Kobe Bryant, who were both involved in court cases earlier in the 2000s. Both Lewis’ and Bryant’s cases have been merely grazed over. Time has healed these wounds excellently. Neither of these athletes will be remembered as criminals, but rather as future hall of famers. “If you are famous enough or a big enough celebrity time will heal the wounds,” Costello said. However, these situations are unlike

Bad behavior bashes influenceLily IsraelSTAFF WRITER

Aavni Gupta

anything the NFL, or any other professional sports league, has seen. People will not look specifi cally at the players who were accused, but rather at the placement of them and how incredibly close together they were. Although time has healed previous wounds, Costello believes that time will not heal these consecutive wounds. Much of the discussions surround-ing these four notable cases are whether the NFL and its fans think these type of actions are acceptable in today’s society. “Of course the NFL has to step up and have heavier punishments, which they now do,” Costello said. “I feel until there is an actual culture change, none of this will be acceptable.” So far, these off fi eld incidents have not affected viewership of the NFL. People continue to watch the game simply because they love to. Fans will fi nd a way around all of these incidents to watch what they love. If fans want to see a change happen in the near future, they need to start resending their viewership and not giving their money anymore. Athletes will also continue to play the sport.“I just want to play my game,” Costello said, who has recently committed to play football at the college of Holy Cross.

November 2014

Thankful for Thanksgiving Day footballBradley HullBUSINESS MANAGER

Three hundred and fourteen years passed between the time that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and the fi rst NFL game was played on Thanksgiv-ing. For more than three centuries, families were forced to make small talk over a Thanksgiving dinner until the National Football League arrived to fi ll the empty void in households on every 4th Thu. of November. Thanksgiving football has become a time honored tradition in American households. It all began in 1934 when the Portsmouth Spar-tans moved to Detroit and were renamed the Li-ons. The only problem in Detroit was that baseball was the main sport and was attracting more attention than the dreadful Lions. That’s why the Lions orga-nized a game on Thanksgiving against the Chicago Bears. The Lions made sure that the game was broad-cast nationally on the radio. Even though the Lions lost the game, it was a win for the franchise. The game attracted 11,000 more fans than a typical game. The tradition of football on Turkey Day was born, as well as the tradition of the Lions losing. The Lions have since lost ten straight games on Thanks-giving. When TV viewership skyrocketed in the sixties, the NFL wanted to add another game on Thanks-

giving. The Dallas Cowboys were 25-53 since their arrival in the NFL in 1960, and the Cowboys realized that they needed something good going for them. In 1966, they took the opportunity of playing on Thanksgiving in front of a record-setting crowd. This game could have changed the Cowboys’ luck as they went on to have 20 straight winning seasons after that. The games on Thanksgiving do not just affect

families that normally watch football. In a recent poll, over 70% of Trinity Prep high school students said that the games on Turkey Day somehow affect their families. To some families, the games may just be on in the background during dinner, while to some fami-lies, it can be all that their day revolves around. For instance, my family plays a fl ag-football game every year and schedules our dinner around the games.

Alice Beneke

Students take on Thanksgiving Day football

27

Football is a huge part of our family’s Thanksgiving Day. It’s on in every room of the house.- Kobe Eichelberger, 12th Grade

Our whole family loves the Cowboys so we always watch them on Thanksgiving.- Zach Thomas, 8th Grade

My family loves football on Thanks-giving. We even get out a ball and play sometimes.- Patrick Salas, 10th Grade

My brothers and I usually watch the games together every year.- Alec Holler, 9th Grade

My family is from Michigan, so we are big Lions fans and love being able to watch them every Thanksgiving.- Zach Ahrens, 11th Grade

The games are usually on in my house on Thanksgiving.- Ally Nash, 12th Grade

I like the Cowboys so it’s fun to get to watch them on Thanksgiving every year.- Taylor Kienle, 10th Grade

I’m an Eagles fan so I hate watching the Cowboys on Thanksgiving every year, unless they’re playing the Eagles.- Ryan Schaeffer, 11th Grade

I’m a Cowboys fan and play fan-tasy football so I always watch the games. - Chris Schuttler, 11th Grade

I watch the games with my brothers and family.- Rose Millson, 9th Grade

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Defeat— the scariest word in an ath-lete’s dictionary. Defeat means humilia-tion and embarrassment. Defeat sucks athletes up in a cycle of insecurity and refuses to spit them up. Defeat is the dystopia to winning’s utopia. Needless to say, athletes do not like to lose. However, losing is a part of playing sports, and thus athletes have to learn to deal with their personal failures. Each athlete has his or her own defense mechanism against the grief that accompanies loss: some get frustrated, some isolate themselves and others laugh it off. Senior pole vaulter and varsity basket-ball player Ben French erases his feelings of loss by immediately working to cor-rect mistakes. “After a bad game, it’s diffi cult to sleep,” French said. “What I want is to fi nd a ball and a basket and work on fi x-ing whatever I did wrong.” Spectators might ask why athletes have such diffi culty with defeat. They might wonder why losing is a personal failure to most athletes. The correlation between the work ethic of the athlete and how his or her accep-tance of failure can answer these ques-tions. Varsity basketball player Kobe Eichel-berger sees this correlation as an exten-sion of the competitive spirit an athlete has. “I am super competitive. I take every-thing on like it is a competition,” Eichel-berger said. “Losing really does make me want ‘it’ more. I will spend extra time in the gym after a loss. Losing is bad, but it does help me to be a better basketball player.” Ally Coyne, senior varsity swimmer shares Eichelberger’s sentiment. “If you’re not that competitive, then you don’t put as much pressure on yourself to win,” Coyne said. “If you set high goals, you expect yourself to achieve them; if you don’t, it’s even worse because you were working towards a goal.” Although all athletes know losing is a

part of sports, the sting of a loss is still felt by every athlete. The more competi-tive an athlete is, the more he or she will care and the more the loss will hurt. As a result, athletes learn from an early age about how to manipulate the pain of a loss into something positive. Junior and varsity soccer player Claire Callan realizes how important it is for a loss to be made positive. “Right after a bad game, I feel pretty down, but I pick myself up for the next game,” Callan said. “Learning from mis-takes and bad performances is crucial in order for a team and/or an individual to improve.” Eichelberger agrees.

“Sometimes teams just have bad games, but these games do make a team better,” he said. Contrary to popular belief, competitors are not born, they are taught. Society, parents, coaches or whatever means the athlete has of learning about competing shape the way that people play sports Coaches are the most infl uential in this category, French believes. “My parents never played basketball and still don’t really know what’s going on when they watch my games, so they never really pushed me to become good at the sport,” French said. “It was my coaches who pushed me to work hard and become a better player.”

Winning isn’t everything Athletes learn that there is more to sports than simply winning or losing.

Losing cannot be avoided in sports. This fact must be understood early on in an athlete’s career. The defense mechanisms an athlete uses to block out the pain of defeat differs from person to person, however there is one common theme among athletes when it pertains to loss: resilience. Callan does her best to fi ght the inevitable and stay resilient in the face of defeat. “I have come to terms with the fact that in certain situations, there are some things that are beyond my control, some-thing that correlates with the non-sports related world,” Callan said. “I have real-ized that giving my best is the only thing I can do.”

Scott Stinson SPORTS EDITOR

Aavni Gupta

November 2014

Claire MaioccoGirls Varsity Swimming

Blake Garfinkel Boys Varsity Basketball

Taylor LaPeters Girls Varsity Weightlifting

Jamie MalugenBoys Varsity Soccer

Trinity Prep’s newest point guard and junior Blake Garfinkel comes from Lake Highland Prep in hopes of help-ing his new team win a state champi-onship. Garfinkel explained that the biggest difference with Trinity’s bas-ketball team is the coaches’ willingness to help him succeed.

Taylor LaPeters has been on the girls weightlifting team since its inaugural season in 2012. She has been able to help the team grow from eight lifters to almost 30 and believes that the team is positioned to have its most competitive year yet.

Sophomore swimmer Claire Maiocco broke the Trinity Prep school record in the 100 but-terfly with a time of 54.83 sec-onds at the Tampa Bay Classic Meet on October 11. Maiocco currently holds the fastest fly time in the USA. She achieved All-American recognition for her fly time as well as 200 med-ley relay with teammates Allie Parent, Ally Coyne and Caro-line White.

Senior soccer player Jamie Malu-gen is a four-year veteran on the varsity boys soccer team. He looks to help lead the boys team deep into the District tourna-ment and hopefully the State tournament.

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EllieClaire Gordon

EllieClaire Gordon

EllieClaire Gordon

EllieClaire Gordon

Homecoming 2014

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Preston Copenhaver

Bo Cherry