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This Month

W O R L D

THE JOHN BURROUGHS SCHOOL VOLUME LXXXVIII ISSUE 4

2Potpourri

3SMVC

4

Tampons

Art and Style 8

DAHLIA HADDADWorld Contributor

The New-man Prize is an il-

lustrious and surreal opportunity unique to this school. It offers one student in the junior class the chance to meet with a living American of their choos-ing, no matter how outrageous their list may seem. In an effort to understand the history of the prize and the selection process, I spoke with Andy Newman ‘62, one of the three-person selection panel. The Newman Prize was conceived by Mark Vittert ‘65, who had the idea to create this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and named it after Eric Newman ‘28, Andy’s father. The selection criteria and process of the Newman Prize is fairly simple; restricted to current juniors, all applicants are interviewed by a panel of interviewers. The interviewers discuss each applicant be-fore deciding on a winner. Newman stated, “Our selection is based more on the individual and how the individual comes across to us than what is written down or who they select. We get excited about the individual and what she or he is like and their enthusiasms and their passions and only then do we say, ‘Now what’s the situation with their list?’. ” The final decision is about the presentation of the individual, not the reasoning behind their list; there is no difference between a list full of famed heroes or local role models. In short, to win the Newman Prize, choose peo-ple whom you are passionate about meeting and show the interviewers how much you care about this opportunity. After speaking with Mr. Newman, I was able to contact two former recipients of the Newman Prize. Both Keaton Wetzel ‘11 and Julia Macias Garcia ‘93 remember their experiences fondly and graciously shared their stories. Keaton Wetzel ‘11 maintained a shifting Newman Prize list from the ninth grade forward. After receiving the award, Wetzel became the only recipient to meet with two Americans from his list. Aim High founder Alec Lee became a principal member of his list after Wetzel’s years of Aim High work. Mr. Lee works to equalize educational opportunity, one of the basic goals of Aim High. Wetzel volunteered at Aim High for his four high school years while at Burroughs and attributes his passion for volun-teering to Aim High. Meeting with Mr. Lee helped shaped Wetzel’s “awareness of the discrepancies in education across the country” was formed. Wetzel connected “les-

sons that [he] was taught in Mr. Wagner’s Urban Issues and Design class to the neighborhoods in which the Aim High students live.” Deeply impacted by his experiences at Aim High, Wetzel, a graduate of Wash. U, has continued to vol-unteer locally and is currently pursuing a masters in city planning at Cornell University’s College of Architecture. The Newman Prize generously allowed Wetzel one more meeting. Wetzel met with Dr. Evan Williams, who at-the-time was the Director and CEO of St. Jude’s Chil-dren’s Research Hospital. St. Jude’s hospital provides all of the necessary funds for a patient’s time in the hospi-tal. Dr. Williams spoke to Wetzel and explained that most of the budget for the hospital comes from donations and government grants. Although Wetzel is not interested in pursuing a medical career, the philanthropic aspects of St. Jude’s interested him. Wetzel’s passion for volunteering and charity is evident in his Newman Prize selections. Julia Macias Garcia ‘93 was the very first recipient of the Newman Prize. Garcia met with Maya Angelou. Many know Ms. Angelou through her writings which include critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and other notable works such as On The Pulse of Morn-ing which she read at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton. Garcia, speaking of Ms. Angelou, wrote, “I loved her writings, but also her amazing life history, the many careers she had, the things she had to overcome.” Garcia was able to sit in on one of Angelou’s classes as well as have dinner with Angelou and talk about Ange-lou’s books and life. Garcia describes the conversations and the experience as a whole as transformational. Her advice to future recipients is simple. She warns not to pick someone who is merely “popular, or well liked by your friends or family” but to “pick someone that you really want to meet”. She also notes the importance of be-ing “authentic and open. Don’t try to be someone you are not; they know they are meeting a high school student.” It is evident that the Newman Prize is a one of a kind opportunity. The experiences of past winners’ cement the idea that the Newman Prize creates unparalleled op-portunities to speak to and learn from an influential fig-ure in your life. Unlike other prizes and awards students can receive, the Newman Prize cannot be prepared for in an orthodox fashion. You can’t study to win the prize. You can’t practice to win the prize. You have to care.

Newman Prize: Who do you care to meet

Drowsy chaperone

5

NIEBERLE

Photo by: NEWMANAbby McCay shows up at the podium in shock after being named the Newman Prize recipient.

Page Two Community April 29, 2016

Twenty five years ago, Lisa Blackburn, an art teacher in Michi-

gan, found herself contemplating ways of combat-ing hunger in her local Michigan community when

she had an idea. Her students created hundreds of decorative bowls every year in ceramics classes, which often ended up unused and collecting dust. So why not donate them to charity? Subsequently, Lisa joined with John Hartom to found Empty Bowls, an event that has since become a national phenom-enon. Diners pay a set fee in exchange for an emp-ty ceramic bowl and admission to a buffet dinner. The event began at Burroughs about nine years ago when John Reck, then a junior, learned about Empty Bowls at Wittenberg College, where his brother was enrolled. Reck approached Susan Dee, then the head of Montgommery Plan, and asked if the club would support him. The first year, Empty Bowls raised approximately $1,100. Traditionally, the cu-linary offerings at the dinner were light, and guests

were supposed to leave without feeling entirely full. Furthermore, the empty bowl serves as a symbolic reminder of those who do not regularly have access to food. “Empty Bowls, for me, was never about fundraising so much as exposing students to the idea that people in the area don’t have food. The whole idea comes from other cultures, where most meals are eaten from a single bowl—often soup or rice,”

remarked Susan Dee.However, the appeal of a low-calorie banquet often failed to persuade students to pay the ten-dollar ad-

mission fee. “There is something paradoxical about going to a dinner in order to leave hungry,” remarked one senior, who has gone to Empty Bowls since 2011.

Since Hannah Rogers (’14) and I took over the dinner in 2012, the modus operendi of the event changed. “Suddenly there was all this food! And not just soup—bread, macaroni, deserts,” remarked Selena Lee, who plans to head the event next year. Some favorites include Andrew Newman’s Taco Soup, Dr. Sandler’s annual vegetarian bean soup, and Dr. Lowe’s beef chili. More recently, St. Louis Bread Co. and Companion have be-gun to donate, drastically increasing the offerings.From its inception at Burroughs, Empty Bowls has struggled to strike a tenuous balance between social awareness and monetary success. The more food present, the more dollars the event brings in to feed the hungry. In 2015, Empty Bowls netted approximately $2,700. However, as the event becomes increasingly opulent, it is easy to forget about its beneficiaries.

JOSHUA KAZDANEditor-in-Chief

Empty Bowls full of food

When I confronted students with the question, “What is the point of Potpour-

ri,” I received a plethora of answers: a well-deserved break from the constant academic stress, a fundraiser for a school that already has enough money, and a fun opportunity to buy cheap, unnecessary stuff. Although great answers, I was not satisfied with these surface level answers and encouraged students to dig deeper. What are the benefits of Potpourri? How does Potpourri, or events like it, benefit our commu-nity? Our world? One answer, which particularly sparked my interest, involved an apparently hot topic around this school - sustainability. A small, shy, somewhat intimidated seventh grader told me, “The reason we have Potpourri is because it saves the environment when we recycle our clothes in-stead of throwing them away.” That was it. That was the real answer. Sure Potpourri is fun, and yes it raises money for the school, but big picture, Potpourri has larger benefits for our community. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, 85% of the 25 billion pounds of textiles (clothing,

footwear, towels, bedding, drapery, etc.) produced in the United States each year goes to waste, add-ing about 21 billion pounds of post-consumer tex-tile waste to landfills. Shockingly, this number is only waste accumulated from cloths. Think of all the other sorts of items people pitch: sports equip-ment, toys, games, and electronics. The list goes on and on, adding to the overall waste of our coun-try. Instead of throwing away these old items that we no longer use, Potpourri encourages us to do-nate them to the sale, helping to reduce waste. The various items donated by our community’s families would have ended up in the trash if not donated to Potpourri. Furthermore, most of the items being donated are in very good shape and not ready to be thrown away before getting one more good use. Imagine the field house on the day of Potpourri, crammed full of random, used items. Now imag-ine Potpourri never existing. Where would all of those items be in the next two or three years? Most likely, further contributing to the billions of pounds of waste already overflowing our landfills. Reselling old items that would otherwise end up in the trash is not the only way Potpourri is sustain-

able. The shoppers at Potpourri also play a big role. Aside from keeping their purchased items away from the landfills, Potpourri shoppers are preventing pur-chases of brand new items. As production consump-tion goes down, there will be a lower need for pro-duction. This results in fewer resources used up and less pollution entering the atmosphere from the trans-portation of those products. Therefore, buying used items already in circulation throughout our commu-nity is preferable to acquiring brand new products. Obviously the Burroughs yard sale in small La-due, Missouri is not going to save the environment. However, Potpourri is one small step that our com-munity takes to do our part in helping the earth. Every action that people or a community takes has a role in shaping our environment whether the ac-tion is as small as having a yard sale or as large as harnessing sunlight to power vehicles. Of course there are many reasons why Burroughs hosts Pot-pourri every April in the field house, but one of the great, wonderful benefits we should focus on is the positive impact on the environment and the en-couragement Potpourri fosters for sustainability.

KAVITHA GNANARAJAHWorld Contributor

Potpourri with a purpose

NEWMAN

THE WORLD

Wouldn’t it be great if you could drive from St. Lou-

is to New York City for $2.32? The John Burroughs Super Mileage Vehicle Club team consists of Nick Bach (‘16), Evie Oglesby (‘16), and R.B. Smith (‘16), Tolu Ogunremi (‘17) Sam Trzecki (‘17), William Barnett (‘18), Alex Smith (‘18), Matthew Williams (‘18), Ed-rick Joe (‘19) and is led by Mr. Dan Barton, Mr. Eric Knispel, and Matt Williams (parent). Together they built a car with the ultimate goal of driving a six mile course on the streets of Detroit us-ing as little gas as possible. The team is headed to Detroit on April 20 to take part in the Shell Eco-mar-athon Americas Competi-tion to face some of the top engineering universities and high school programs in the world. In Detroit they will show off the car they designed and built from scratch, participate first hand in creating the future of fuel, as well as compete against the returning champion’s car that registered at 1,436 miles per gallon (slightly less than the distance between St. Louis and New York.) The club was established nine years ago with interest from Chemistry teacher Knis-pel in Biodiesel fuel, teacher Mr. Brian Con-nor, and a former student who had an inter-est in building a go-cart. Together, in the next two years, with help from other students, the SMVC club was established and the team had successfully built three cars, two of them they took to the state competition. Since then the club has competed in the statewide competi-tion annually, winning The People’s Choice

award and a first place finish almost every year. With their incredible success, Barton says, “Shell Oil Corporation heard about our pro-gram and kept asking me to consider entering their contest, [the Shell Eco-marathon]” and, with increasing interest, ideas and skills, late in the 2014-2015 school year as juniors, “Evie Oglesby and R. B. Smith came to me and asked if we could enter the contest.” After lots of hard

work and countless hours in the I.T. shop, the team has already passed three stages/qualifica-tion dates making sure the car complied with 66 pages of regulations, the last of the stag-es securing them a spot at the Detroit race. The car has recently had a body installed and the final touches are being put on it. R.B. Smith thinks, “There’s a chance we’ll be a little like the Bad News Bears, most of the other teams will be colleges, coming from as far as Argentina, so it’s definitely a higher caliber than anything we’ve been up against before.” This year is the first

year the Burroughs club will be attending this international competition. Barton says one of the reasons they were able to make it this far was be-cause of the skilled mechanics and their dedica-tion, he said, “Thanks to the dedicated effort of Matthew Williams, William Barnett, and Edrick Joe who led the welding of the car frame and in-stalling the mechanics of the car.” In addition to the rest of the team the two drivers, Alex Smith

and Sam Trzecki who both recently received their driver’s licenses, have been working hard learning tech-niques to save fuel and have been learning the rules of the contest so they can drive safely, correctly, and with the best chance of success. Overall though, every-one who has helped on the car is excited for the Detroit competition. Mat-thew Williams says, “our goal for the team this year is to get through all of the pre-race tests, qualifica-tion stations, track inspec-tions, and to go on and complete the entire race.” Although they aren’t look-ing to win this year they are looking to gain experience. Barton says, “I am look-

ing forward to learning from all the teams there. Looking at car frame designs, engine mechanics, drive systems, steering and brake systems as well as body designs. I am hoping that our students come away with all kinds of great ideas for our next car’s design.” The Burroughs team is the only team from Missouri and as R.B. Smith puts it, who might say it best, “It’s one of the biggest teams we’ve ever had! We have a bunch of kids working on this, and a bunch of different skill sets, and I think it’s really cool how it all comes together into this one project, this one car.”

Page ThreeCOMMUNITYApril 29, 2016

HALLIE WILLIAMSWorld Contributer

SMVC pushes the limit in Detroit

Twists and turns in TennesseeA group of moti-vated students trav-elled with Mont-

gomery Plan on its annual spring break service trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. While in the past the group has travelled within Mis-souri and around the country, this year’s trip marked the first excursion to Chattanooga. Six faculty members and nineteen students (grades 7-12) traveled via bus on Sunday, March 20th to Chattanooga. JBS students volunteered at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, the McKamey Animal Center, and the American Red Cross Tennessee Region along with helping at the Community Kitchen, the YMCA meal prep, and working on yard and housework for the elder-ly residents of East Chattanooga. The students worked hard and accomplished a lot of tasks. But is was not all work; in their free time, most of the group went to Lookout Moun-tain, the Moon Pie General Store (home of moon pies, a treat common in the south east), Chattanooga Choo-Choo, and Chickam-

auga & Chattanooga National Military Park. The service trip was fun learning experience and gave back to the Chattanooga community.

But there were some twists and turns along the way. For example, the bus broke down en route to Tennessee and JBS faculty and students were unable to get to their American

Red Cross destination. However, in a twist of fate, the bus stopped right in front of the Food Bank. “This actually worked out because we were able to get out work down while waiting on the bus,” said Mrs. Barnes, the leader of the Montgomery Club. “The First Baptist Church in Chattanooga let us use their van when we really needed it.” Kayla Taylor a current sophomore added with a smile, “We didn’t really know if the bus would be okay in time for us to get back home. So then two people from JBS came down to Tennessee with vans to pick us up. But by that time the bus was fixed and we were good to go. We didn’t know at the time they had been gotten called [down] but it probably would have been okay without them.” When asked what was the most interesting part of the trip, Mrs. Barnes replied, the youth group. “When we went to Lookout Mountain at the Rock City Gardens we ran into a youth choir group from the Czech Republic. They were sponsored by a church in St. Charles, Missouri. We kept running into them on the trip.” It’s a small world after all.

JOSEPHINE MOTENWorld Contributor

SMVC team places 6th in the Prototype Diesel Division at 218 MPG. Photo by: SHELL

BARNES

Page Four April 29, 2016

Most Burroughs kids strug-gle after missing a day or two of school. Claire Hoffman (’18) spent a majority of this school year in the hospital. “I came to school on Sep-tember 2nd, the third day of school. I came, and left in a wheelchair,” said Claire. A little over a week after her knees gave out on her way to the nurse’s office, Claire was diagnosed with trans-verse myelitis. “Transverse myelitis is inflammation of the spinal cord. It causes nerve sensory dysfunction; I still can’t feel temperature on my legs, but I can feel pres-sure. I couldn’t then. It also causes muscle paralysis. I couldn’t move anything from my waist down except my toes a little bit,” said Claire. Claire returned to school after spring break. She en-dured four months in the hospital undergoing con-stant treatment. “It was crazy. One day I went from starting tenth grade, my friends were beginning to drive and gaining a little more freedom, to not know-ing if I’d ever be able to walk again and being confined to what is basically a prison for sick kids,” said Claire. Despite the circumstances, Claire recognizes that the situation could have been far worse. I was honestly really lucky. A lot of people with transverse myelitis... have full body paralysis. You’re really not sure if you are going to recover at all. I believe about a third of people don’t recov-er at all, a third who partially recover, and a third who re-cover fully. I am supposedly in the third that recovers fully. I was very fortunate to be at Children’s hospital be-cause it’s one of [very few] hospitals in the nation that has a neuro rehab program. Most people there were from far out so their friends couldn’t come visit them but my friends could come ev-ery weekend. That helped a lot—I didn’t feel totally out of the loop,” said Claire.

MAX KRUPNICKOpinions Editor

On opening night of this year’s musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, the cast, comprised of an excited

and talented group of 9th-12th graders, stood in the black box waiting to hear the inspiring words of our director, Mr. Drew Battles. The group’s energy could be felt in the air mixed with a little bit of nervousness and a whole lot of confidence that this show was about to blow everyone’s socks off. Mr. Battles called for our attention and, instead of launching into his speech, held out his iPad, where Beth Leavel’s face smiled down at us and shouted some encouraging words, before showing off her Tonys to our laughing and wildly inspired group. Beth Leavel is the original Drowsy Chaperone, truly creating the role that Camille Lo Bianco(‘16) made her own in our rendition. Because Mr. Battles had become good friends with her when they were dance partners in the Muny production of Oklahoma, he was able to have her come to a rehearsal of ours, and then lead a sort of master class on auditioning for Broadway. The cast, of course, could not believe their luck, and the two days she was with us will not soon be forgotten by anyone in attendance. The first and most important thing about Beth Leavel is that she is one of the coolest people you will ever meet. She’s big and expressive like any star should be, absolutely hilarious, candid, confident, and somehow still very humble. She talked at length about the process of workshopping a brand new mu-sical, and got teary eyed when looking through the script and seeing in print many of the lines that she herself had coined. She worked with the cast members who wanted to “audition” for her, having them sing their chosen songs over and over again, giving them pointers in between. It was a priceless experience for those among us who have big dreams of Broadway and lights, and even for those who just love a good musical. In the end, she stood upon our stage, again teary eyed, telling us how amazing she knew this show was going to be and how much she believed in us. She was so proud, she said, every time she got the opportunity to see the musical that she had invested so much of her life in per-formed, and she knew this one was special. She was not wrong. Camille Lo Bianco(‘16), when asked about how working with the star who had created her role was, said “It was a little scary, of course, because this is truly her character, and I wanted to make sure that she would like how I portrayed Drowsy. When she told me that it was me who had the power to define this role and that she liked how I did, it was a really awesome feeling.” Erin Byrne(‘16), who played Tottendale, even cried a little bit when Mr. Battles held Leavel over our little crowd on opening night. She explained “I’ve loved musicals for as long as I can remember, and Leavel is truly an idol to me. I just can’t explain

the feeling of having your idol tell you you’re going to kill it.” Back to that Thursday night, opening night, after seeing Beth on Mr. Battles’ iPad screen, there were tears, cheers, and the universal feeling that we were about to kick some major booty. And we did. The show that night was great. The crowd could feel the love between Janet and Robert, played by Alie Hobler (‘16) and RB Smith (‘16), the latter of whom exhibited tapping and blind roller blading skills that would make a grown man cry while the former tore the house down with her huge voice and drawn out falsettos. Humza Agha’s Aldolpho had the crowd in literal tears throughout the entire show, stumbling about in his cape and donning a heavy false accent. Camille Lo Bianco as Beth Leavel’s Drowsy certainly did rouse and stupefy the crowd with her belted anthems as Jeremy Pinson’s Underling and Erin Byrne’s Tottendale shuttled the story along with their cheery songs and spectacular spit takes. The chorus was perfectly in tune and truly brought the whole show together. Nick Kime, of course, absolutely stole the show, narrating the whole story and creating an ambiance that the audience just couldn’t possibly not feel at home with. Sure, backstage we had our fair share of mis-haps that we’ll never speak about, but the audience didn’t have a clue. The cast was too talented and the show too strong for anything to stop it, and many audience members even said that it was the best show that they had seen thus far at Burroughs. It was an excellent show for our JBS Player seniors to take their final, teary bow in. Griffin Kenard, our cigar-smok-ing, suit-donning bossman Mr. Feldzeig, whose performance was brightened by the presence of his ditsy shadow portrayed by the talented Margy McCallum, said on behalf of his fellow seniors, “It was a great show for us seniors and we were hap-py to share it with everyone we’ve worked alongside with for the last six years.” After the final curtain dropped, on stage the audience left behind a crowd of exhausted students, proud of their work and ready for a long nap, some crying and some baffled by the fact that we had made it through with an excel-lent show. Alie Hobler truly summed up the experience, saying “The musical this year was one of my favorite experiences of my JBS career. There is nothing that compares to stepping onto the stage of Haerter Hall and performing for the community. To anyone who has ever considered participating in theatre I highly recommend it. I promise you will not regret it and you may even make some of your best friends through an experi-ence of dedication, hard work, laughs, and lots of memories.” We can’t wait to see what this talented school will create next year.

Claire fights for her freedom

MADDIE SWANSONManaging Editor

Drowsy Chaperone keeps audience awake

features

Senior Alie Hobler, as Janet, “shows off ” in a big finish. Photo by: NIEBERLE

Page FiveCOMMUNITYApril 29, 2016

Tackling the Tampon TabooPeriods. A term that is usually uttered quietly under our breaths or

avoided discussing altogether in society. The very concept of periods is often viewed with the same level of disgust as that rotting banana in your friend’s lock-er or KBJ’s notoriously scarring STD pictures. But why is it that periods, as well as every woman’s ne-cessity of buying tampons, are such taboo subjects? When asked this question, Nick Kime (‘18) coun-tered with a much simpler, yet effective statement: are tampons really “absorbent sticks of death” or just a commodity that half our population depends on? This year, the Gender Equity Organization (GEO) sought to expose the Burroughs community to the ev-eryday woman’s need for menstrual products through a tampon drive before spring break. The club’s lead-ers kicked the campaign off by enlisting guys to buy tampons at their local drugstores. Schroedter Kin-man (‘17) said that though he felt awkward buying tampons, it was more from the fact that he was being filmed than from buying the tampons themselves. “You never see a guy buying a box of tampons, but shouldn’t it be the guy who isn’t bleeding out of his uterus buying the products?” he insightfully asked. Nick Kime (‘18) commented that he didn’t get any weird stares or funny looks while he bought tampons, instead saying that it felt like “just a normal thing all women needed to do.” The drive resulted in a tremen-dous success, with the Burroughs community raising 1,545 tampons and 306 pads, a grand total of 1,851 menstrual products for the Women’s Safe House in St. Louis. GEO Leader Phoebe Sklansky (‘18) remarked

that the drive surpassed the club’s initial goal of 1,500 products and that she and the club’s leaders were “ex-tremely proud of the way the community responded.” The success of the tampon drive gives hope to the idea that societal stigma towards periods and tam-pons could be eradicated in the future. As a society,

however, we still have a long journey ahead to improve women’s health. A major problem women face is the expense of tampons, as the average box of tampons will cost at least five dollars. As Alex Tischler (‘21) commented after buying tampons, menstrual products are inelastic goods, so companies can overcharge for their tampons because they know women will always buy them. Over the course of a woman’s life, she will spend a total of about $1,800 on tampons, an especially substantial cost for the over 25 million women living in poverty in the U.S., accord-ing to the 2013 American Community Survey. Ad-ditionally, many governmental aid programs such as

Food Stamps do not cover the purchase of tampons or pads. For impoverished women across the coun-try, this means that they may have to sacrifice buy-ing tampons in order to pay rent or utility bills. With tampons being such a vital and financially draining commodity for women, why do policymakers ex-clude these products from their aid programs? For starters, our country has always had a small repre-sentation of women in politics, and even our current Congress, the most diverse group in our history, is eighty-percent male. Thus, a vast majority of the most influential group in shaping women’s health policies will never experience having a period or fully appreci-ate the financial strain of buying menstrual products. How can we spread awareness of important women’s issues that pertain to half of our population? GEO’s tampon drive is definitely a good way to start. Other methods to get the message out include petitioning politicians to protest the tax on hygiene products and the exclusion of menstrual products in government aid programs, as well as staying informed on current women’s issues policies. Schroedter Kinman (‘17) re-marked that one of the most helpful things we can do to truly understand women’s issues is to have platonic friendships with women. Having honest conversa-tions with women about things they deal with on a daily basis such as periods and sexism can lead to less stigmatization and a better understanding of these is-sues for all. We can hope that one day, women will be viewed as people equal to men. Though there is still a long road to gender equity, everyone can play a role in its full realization. The health and well being of our mothers, daughters, family, and friends depend on it.

VICTORIA SANSONEWorld Contributor

The New Blue, Yale’s oldest female organiza-tion, is one of the most

successful college A cappella groups in the country. Founded in 1969, The New Blue has worked hard to get where they are today. In the beginning, they had difficulty making an impact in the A cappella world, but as they grew as a group, they focused on producing arrangements with a stronger and more empowering theme. All their hard work shined through when their CD, “Can’t Stop”, received the award for Best Female Collegiate Album from the Contemporary A cappella Society. The judges’ cri-tique said it all: “the flawless intonation and heart-felt delivery signify this: no, we can’t stop New Blue from taking over the collegiate a cappella world”. The New Blue strives to be more than just a group of tal-ented singers. Unlike many other performing groups, The New Blue selects individual members based sole-

ly and entirely on their singing ability. It is their intent to support women through honoring their talents instead of looks or other qualities. Burroughs was honored to have The New Blue along with Bur-roughs alum, Ginna Doyle (‘11), perform at a recent assembly. Students loved the performance, commenting, “The New Blue group was very talented!” said Marion Chesterton (‘20). Maya Shetty (’19) said, “for the 4 or 5 songs they sang, the voices were so unique and beautiful, just like the women”. Dahlia Haddad (‘18) even noted, “It is so fun to see for-mer students come back to school and share their passion with the student body”. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to ask Gin-

na a little more about her experience at Burroughs and beyond that helped her get where she is. Ginna

described how “[she] joined the New Blue for opportunities to sing and to make friends”. She also spoke of her time at Burroughs, the power of Burroughs’ philosophy, and how it helped shape where she is today. “JBS taught me how to work hard at the things I love. JBS instilled the confidence that I really can try out all the things I might want to do, and that if I love something enough, I can make it fit”. Ginna is now plan-ning on taking her singing and act-ing career to the next level in hopes “to go to Broadway, [but] it’s kind of

scary-- not knowing what the future holds”. In the end, Ginna says, “It’s what I love, so I’ve got to do it”.

When students apply to college, there are several

options for applying earlier that provide a decision earlier as well. Early action is a non-binding plan wherein you get your decision in mid-December and don’t have to choose a school until May 1st. Re-strictive early action is the same as early action, but you can apply to only one school early. Early deci-sion, the most restrictive of them all, entails choos-ing your top school early, submitting an application in mid-November, and promising to withdraw all other applications and attend that school if admitted. Early decision actually hasn’t been around that long- it’s only existed since the early 1990s- but it’s ubiquitous in elite schools across the country. Al-most everyone is assumed to be applying some-where early, and it does offer a tangible advantage for students. According to Ms. Tarbouni, “there are some occasions where [a school is] a really strong

choice for the student, and strategically it might also serve them well because almost always you get a little bump for the binding.” That little bump, ac-cording to a study done in 2000, could be worth as much as 100 SAT points, the same number the Princeton Review guarantees to students who use its programs for the new SAT. That’s far from nothing. It’s easy to see how early decision works out for colleg-es. Some colleges admit up to half their students from early decision pools, and some go even higher. That means they can skew their selectivity, the percentage of students admitted compared to the number apply-ing, and their yield, the number of accepted students who take a spot: the two factors weighed most heav-ily by U.S. News and World Report in their infamous college rankings. Early decision also gives an advan-tage to legacy students, who can demonstrate their commitment by applying early, students with better college counseling departments, which help them navigate the complex system, and wealthy students

with good credentials, who look often look better in terms of test scores and grades going into senior year. There is, then, another pitfall of early decision- using it as a strategy to get into a college for which your statistics are on the borderline of admitted stu-dents. For schools that don’t have non-binding early action programs, the only way to gain the advantages of early application is early decision, which is bind-ing, meaning that some students are pushed into early decision for a school they don’t know if they love. ED students are more likely to transfer after their first year, which is unfortunate for a system that provides so many advantages to students who use it. Many think it adds pressure to an already high-pressure time of year, and thinking about whether or not to apply strategically doesn’t help. Early de-cision works perfectly for students who know their first choice really is their first choice, but for any-one else, the advantage lies firmly with the college.

E.D. is A-OK?

ELLA SCHACTMANWorld Contributor

From Burroughs To New Blue

MADELEINE JOHNSONWorld Contributor

DOYLE

SANSONE

Page Six POLITICS April 29, 2016

For the first time, Democratic socialism is on the minds of many Americans. When Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont decided to run for president, he

wasn’t sure whether he would run as an Independent or Democrat. Hesitant to run as the latter, he believed, “the Democratic Party in general remains far too depen-dent on big-money interests, that it is not fighting vigorously for working class families, and that there are some members of the Democratic Party whose views are not terribly different from some of the Republicans.” As we know now, he decided to run as a Democrat. Yet, as we know, he eventually elected to run as a Democratic, explaining his decision by saying that the media coverage given to Democrats far outdoes that given to Indepen-dents. Washington Post reporter Philip Bump described Sanders decision as using the path of the Democratic party cut through the thicket to gain easier access to the White House. Sanders’ opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, is an established democrat and was in consideration for the party’s front-running presidential can-didate for a while before officially announcing her campaign. Most expected her to easily defeat the radical - as some would say kooky - Vermont senator. But enough of the past, things have changed just a bit. As of April 8th (prior to the Wyoming caucus on the 9th), Bernie Sanders had 1,030 pledged delegates (not counting superdelegates, whose votes can easily change like they did when Clinton ran against President Obama) to Clinton’s

1,280. The race is turning out to be much closer than most anticipated. Accord-ing to the Huffington Post, as of April 1st if Sanders can win 57% of the remain-ing delegates, he could pull ahead and convince the superdelegates to vote for

him as the party’s nominee. How-ever, there is some small question as to whether the superdelegates will comply. For example, a recently leaked argument be-tween Alaska’s superdelegate Kim Metcalfe and an Alaskan resident revealed some conflict of inter-ests between superdelegates and pledged delegates. Sanders won 81.6% of the vote in Alaska, and thus democratically speaking, should also win the superdel-egate. However, in the argument Metcalfe claims she will for for Clinton no matter what, and doesn’t care what Alaska’s popu-lation thinks. Sanders won 7/8 most recent caucuses, and this combined with the campaign’s rallying leaves many supporters to believe a reversal is about to occur. As Sander’s campaign acceler-ates, both candidates are starting to feel the pressure. On Wednes-day April 6 they launched attacks at each other, with Clinton claim-ing that Sanders isn’t a real demo-crat, doesn’t fully understand how to implement his ideas, and had not done his “homework”

when it came to Wall Street reform. Sanders lashed out at her for being funded by super PAC’s. He also attacked her past support for the Iraq war and various free trade agreements. The brawl seems like it may continue, as Sanders said, “I’m not going to get beaten up. I’m not going to get lied about. We will fight back.”

NATHAN TUNGWorld Contributor

Presidential Elections

In the next few months, candidates will be se-lected and the final stretch in the race towards the White House will begin. As many of you know, in

the Republican field especially, the elections have been exceptionally inter-esting since they involve the most diverse candidates in Republican history. The primaries to select each party’s candidate will end in early June. Republicans have a higher caucus to general-election ratio than the Democrats, and in Repub-lican elections, the states are left to decide whether to have winner-take-all or pro-portional delegate assignment. A caucus occurs when more elite party-members gather in a public space in order to decide how to allot the delegates. In some states, the winner (with the most votes) takes all the delegates. These states are Florida, Ohio, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, Arizona, Nebraska and Delaware. If a candidate reaches 1,237 delegates, they are selected as the Re-publican nominee to run against the Democratic nominee for the Presi-dency in the current election cycle. However, if a candidate doesn’t achieve the required delegates, the decision moves to a GOP convention. Here is the current delegate count as of publication time: (Underlined candidates have dropped out of the elections)

Donald Trump: 736 Ted Cruz: 463 Marco Rubio: 171 John Kasich: 143Ben Carson: 9 Jeb Bush: 4 Carly Fiorina: 1 Mike Huckabee: 1Rand Paul: 1 The Republican debates this year have been filled with name-calling, and a they sometimes take on a demeaning tone. Some candidates recently joined to-gether in a last stand to deny Donald Trump the necessary delegates to secure the nomination and force a convention that gives Ted Cruz and John Kasich an advantage. Their campaigns now challenge the sanity of several of Trump’s core ideas. Of the nation’s illegal immigrants, John Kasich stated, “The idea that we’re going to deport all these people is ludicrous, and everybody knows it.” Several Republican senators and governors endorsed Trump even while fac-

ing ridicule. Chris Christie told shocked reporters, “I will lend my support be-tween now and November in any way for Donald.” This was a very risky deci-sion, considering Christie is the Governor of New Jersey, a strongly liberal state. Trump has recently lost ground over controversial comments on abortion and immigration. His inflammatory comments came at a perfect time for the “Stop Trump Movement.” However, even with the changing environment and attitude toward Trump, at least 77% of his supporters will not consider supporting another candidate, no matter what happens in the GOP field. Even if Ted Cruz and John Ka-sich succeed in limiting Trump to fewer than 1,237 delegates, either would have to make a convincing stand against Trump at the convention in order to become the nominee. If Trump fails to win a majority, the party leaders at the convention will choose the nominee, which in past years has often led to the nomination of a third-place candidate when two front runners fail to conceed (see Warren G. Harding). Trump poses a unique threat to the Republicans because he does not af-filiate strongly with the party. In 2008, he generously donated to the Clinton campaign, and praised her potential for leadership. Trump’s lust for power prompts him to oscillate between the parties, looking for openings to exert his influence. For the first time this year, the relative lack of appeal amongst Re-publican candidates gave Trump a dangerous opportunity. Ever since, he has furiously hung onto his lead, threatening to run a third-party candida-cy if he does not recieve the nomination. That would sap support away from the Republican base, effectively handing the race to the Democratic nominee. Regardless of who wins the GOP nomination, he will still have to face Hill-ary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in a general election, both of which currently topple all of the Republican candidates in a one-on-one match by double digits.

THOMAS DOBBSWorld Contributor

Democratic Campaign

Republican Campaign

Page SevenSportsApril 29, 2016

Former Burroughs Graduate Set the Cardinals Up for the Long Haul

Michael Wacha, Ste-phen Piscotty and Marco Gonzales. What

do those three names have in common? They, along with many other players were drafted by a John Burroughs graduate. Cardinals fans are smart. Many other fans of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams don’t always know all the players, who their top front office guy is, or transactions they’ve made. Not many names slip under the ra-dar in St. Louis baseball, but one name did while he was here, Dan Kantrovitz. He led the Cardi-nals in crucial drafts and helped them to develop a system of scouting that allowed them to stay competitive. Kantrovitz now works in Oakland, but his mark on the Cardinals is still existent. Baseball seems simple on the forefront. People think that it’s three things, catch the ball, throw the ball and hit the ball. However, it’s so much more than that. All thirty MLB teams have vary-ing payrolls and budgets that they can spend on players. People work in the “front office” where they analyze players using tons of num-bers telling them how cost effective those play-ers are for their team and how talented those players really are. One of the most important positions in these front offices is the scouting director. He combines reports on hundreds of players at the MLB and amateur level. Every June comes the MLB amateur draft. This draft is highly important, because if teams can get good young talent, they can succeed for longer with their younger players and younger play-ers are also cheaper. The scouting director di-rects their corresponding teams draft, and this is one of the things Kantrovitz did in St. Louis.

The MLB draft has a total of 1215 picks in it, or around forty per team. Anything can hap-pen, and the odds of succeeding are very low. According to Kantrovitz, “The chances of draft-ing a major league player, let alone a good major league player, after about the 10th overall pick, quickly decreases to less than a “coin¬flip”. Kan-trovitz said that scouting these players was a combination of looking “at historical drafts and based on which players succeeded or not, we built models that were informed by the optimal weighting of things like statistics, scouting re-ports and even medical assessments of players.” Picking the players on a roster goes far deeper than just watching the players play their games. Kantrovitz’s most famous pick has been Michael Wacha. On him he said that, “In the later part of the 1st round (he was the 19th overall selec-tion) the chance of drafting a player that turns out to be of his caliber are very slim. Likewise, the chance of drafting a hitter with the ability of Stephen Piscotty beyond the 30th pick is equally slim.” Kantrovitz gave the Cardinals a lot, even though he faced very low odds of drafting a ma-jor leaguer. He said that “In the 3 drafts I lead in St. Louis, we actually never had a draft pick higher than 19th overall. However, we tried to be opportunistic and efficient with the bonus mon-ey we were allocated. And, even though we never had a high draft position in that 3 year span, I’m very proud of the fact that we managed to be either 1st or 2nd in all of baseball in both the quantity of major league players drafted as well as the quality in terms of those players contribu-tion to wins, using the wins above replacement metric.” This metric gives a numerical value to a

player’s season to see how many wins they con-tributed to their team. The Cardinal’s drafted players under Kantrovitz have so far been very successful in contributing to the MLB team. Scouting all these players is long and hard work, and getting into the scouting director po-sition isn’t easy. Kantrovitz says he learned his hard work from Burroughs, where he also got playing experience. One of his earliest winning experiences came on a Burroughs field, where he won state in his senior year. He says he’ll always cherish the memories of “The van ride down to Columbia, MO with the other seniors, having to taking final exams from our hotel, going out to dinner with my teammates the night before the game.” Kantrovitz said the best advice he ever received was from Coach Lemon. He told him “choose my college as if baseball was not going to be there.” Kantrovitz says, “It forced me to look at schools from an academic and social perspec-tive. And, that if I was good enough to play pro-fessionally, it was going to happen regardless of where I went to school.” This decision led Kan-trovitz to have other career paths, once he got injured playing in the Cardinals minor leagues. What Burroughs taught Kantrovitz was some-thing that stayed with him his whole life. He says “I ended¬up getting a master’s degree in statis-tics and though I never took a stats or computer science class at Burroughs, the confidence to take such classes in college was definitely a product of my experience at Burroughs.” Burroughs taught him how to work hard and to work for his role. Even though Kantrovitz has left the Cardinals, his mark on the team will remain for many years.

KAIVON STEINLEWorld Contributor

Many of us know the players, the coaches, and, even, the mascots of our favorite teams.

Many of us worship them as heroes or geniuses of their sport. Many of us line up for hours for their autographs or just a Nike shoe they wore. Many of us dissect every cryptic tweet or am-biguous press conference. Professional sports have become a multi-billion dollar industry on the backs of the superstars, like LeBron James, Sidney Crosby, Derek Jeter, or Peyton Manning. Yet, for all the exhaustive coverage of sports, we fail to recognize and applaud the efforts of the most important people in sports: the officials. After years in the spotlight of competition, I stepped into the shadows and became a rec-reational basketball official this past winter. And I realized just how crazy youth sports re-ally are. I worked in a rec league at the Cen-ter of Clayton, a low-stress environment. The league had no standings, no league winners, and stopped keeping score if the opposing team was ahead by 15 -- all precautions to the outra-geous landscape of modern youth sports -- yet nothing stopped coaches, players, and, most especially, parents from harassing the officials. I, like many other officials, am a high schooler. I have never officiated basketball before. I viewed my position as one meant to keep the games

safe and to promote fun. These games were not the NBA Finals; it was the Clayton Rec League. However, I feel the need to clear my name as a youth official. After being approached by a mother after a game and accused of bias, I would just like to state that I have no stake in a third grade boys’ game between Meramec and Maryland Rich-mond Heights. Despite popular belief, I really don’t care who wins. You, as I did, would probably expect that parents wanted their kids to only have fun and learn about the game. This is entire-ly false. Parents want to WIN, even if it’s just a third grade boys’ rec league game. So, obviously, when Lil Timmy air balls a shot and then trips over his own feet, “IT WAS A FOUL, REF!” Of course, this is not to say that youth sports are all bad, and every parent and coach just wants to ruthlessly taste the sweet victory. Plenty of parents only wanted to see their team run off the court in smiles and learn the basics of basketball. Many of coaches taught the values of sportsman-ship and hard work no matter what the score was.

I had plenty of people approach me after games to compliment my efforts to teach the players the rules. My favorite times were reefing the first grad-ers. Every time somebody would score, a team-mate or opponent, these players would jump up

and down, cheering, and give the shooter a high five. THAT is what youth sports should be about. From my expe-rience, I learned a few things. While it may not be right for adults to constantly berate and criticize a teen-aged worker, take the upper road. When a

parent or coach comes and wishes to complain, just listen and nod and explain that you are doing your best. Frankly, there’s no use in trying to argue; you’ll only make it worse. Professionalism is key. Always exhibit concern for the players. Not only do the parents and coaches trust you more, but the players enjoy it more. The players look to the officials as role models. I’m there to teach the play-ers about respect and sportsmanship and healthy competitiveness along with the rules of basketball. And, lastly, always be nice to the ref.

Drawing the biggest foulALLISON GILLWorld Contributor

Artwork by: MOTEN

Page Eight ART/STYLE April 29, 2016

We’ve all had those morn-ings when the

alarm clock goes off and you remember you still haven’t done half of your homework or crammed for that first period quiz and actu-ally getting out of bed and making yourself look halfway decent seems like the legiti-mate worst thing to ever happen to anyone. If you’re one of those people who pick your outfit out the night before, I sincerely applaud you. For me, sprinting into assembly at exact-ly 8:14, large coffee in hand, vaguely resem-bling a character from The Walking Dead has become the norm. Even on good days, com-fort is a major factor in our everyday apparel at Burroughs. When you add a loose dress code to the stress of everyday life, the result is a whole lot of yoga pants and hoodies. Nearly all of our current trends revolve around com-fort. You can’t turn a corner without seeing someone clad in a tee shirt decorated with the infamous smiling whale or a pair of the popu-lar Adidas Superstars, which my mom says make me look like the only blonde member of the 80’s rap group Run-D.M.C. Freshman Tyler Palan comments on the shoes, “I wear them almost everyday. They go with pretty much everything, and they are super comfy. They are just a really convenient, easy shoe to have.” It’s not just Burroughs. In fact, we dress better than students at most other schools. In my personal opinion, we are the most fashion forward school in St. Louis, but that’s prob-ably biased. It’s just that as a society, we’ve come to accept and embrace essentially wear-

ing pajamas around as normal. But what does fact that these comfortable clothes have worked their way into our everyday fashion say about us? Do our sweatpants and old tee shirts reflect who we’ve really become? Are we truly transforming into a degenerate and lazy society fueled by Doritos and binge watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians as Mr. Wagner may claim? Aidan Taylor (‘19), arguably one of the most consistently well-dressed people at this school agrees, “I believe that people should dress appropriately at a school that costs a lot of money to be at. Whether that be clothes from Plaza Frontenac or from Walmart, that should be presentable and look like you’re not a hobo.” I don’t want to criticize the comfort and convenience of our beloved blue and gold sweatpants and fuzzy Patagonia pullovers. Nor am I saying that you need to be uncomfortable to be deemed “fashionable”. Believe me, I know that spending an entire day in skin-ny jeans is easier said than done. All I’m saying is that maybe on some x-day in the future when you feel like your life is rela-tively under control, ditch the Lululemon leggings and throw on that cool, over-priced shirt you got at Urban Outfitters that you’ve never worn, or your new Vine-yard Vines button up. Not to turn this into an advice column in a gossip magazine, but you’ll just feel better about yourself. It is the year of the explorer after all, isn’t it?

LUCY BLOOMSTRANStaff Writer

Casual Friday Everyday

What would you do if your best friend decided to blow a very large sum of money

on a piece of abstract art? Imagine looking at his $200,000 purchase, a five-by-four-foot stretch of canvas painted completely white by some obscure guy by the name of Antrios. For a sense of pricing, $200,000 could buy you an Audi R8 V10 Plus, an expensive, avant-garde luxury sports car, with some change to spare. As you can imagine, you might start to question your friend’s sanity. This very painting becomes the catalyst for heated conflict amongst three old friends in Yasmina Reza’s play Art. At first glance the arguments between Serge, Marc, and Yvan seem to center around whether or not the canvas can be defined as art. Upon closer inspection, the viewer finds that the core of the dispute stems from a rethinking of friendship. Both funny and profoundly tragic, Art explores the intricacies and limits of friendship beneath a playful commentary on modern art. From May 6th to May 8th, Art will be performed at Burroughs in the Black Box Theater, but with a twist. There will be two productions of the same play, one with the typical all-male cast and the other with an all-female cast. “Why I was interested in pursuing the dual casting with the dual gen-ders is the idea that it’s this play about three male friends written by a wom-

an, so I’m curious about how that ‘translates.’ That is amplified by the fact that it is also a translated play written by an Iranian-born French woman, and due to our inevitable American view, may be interpreted as a fundamen-tally European discussion,” says Mr. Pierson, who will be directing both plays. The play was conceived from the moment when a friend of Reza’s purchased a piece of artwork similar to that in the play. Upon seeing the painting, Reza laughed. Unlike Serge’s reaction to Marc’s laugh, however, Reza’s friend took no offense at her reaction. Interestingly, Reza has stated that she specifically wrote Art as an exploration of male friendship, further stating that she does not believe friendship between women would be affected in the same way. It will certainly be fascinat-ing to see what differences manifest between the two productions, particularly how the female cast maneuvers these differences within the constraints of having the same dialogue as the male cast. Erin Byrne ‘16, who will be playing Marc’s female counterpart Margo, said, “It’s not just about art, even though that’s the title. It’s more about long-lasting friendships and how dynamics change over time.” In regards to the idea of attending both productions, Mr. Pier-son said, “You mean, buy twice as many tickets? Absolutely I’d recom-mend that! No, I do! I think it will be a really interesting experience.”

Playing with ARTSELENA LEE and MAX KRUPNICKStaff Writers

Tennis:Who doesn’t love listening to people make primal grunts every two seconds.The best part is knowing everyone who plays tennis will never be able to beat a wall.MICDS is way too good at this sport.Wii tennis may or may not be better than real life tennis.

Golf:Wii golf is almost certainly better than real golf.Golf on TV is amazing. The drama and the intensity of the situation is overpow-ering.The most physical effort that is put into golf is the walking to the ball.How is MICDS good at this too?

Lacrosse:Minimum flow length for varsity: 8 inches.I think MICDS won this round again.The lacrosse hangar’s smell can kill a fully grown sea pig. This is confirmed.

Water polo:It’s like watching a bunch of people pretend they are ducksIf you’re too lazy to watch European football and volleyball, just watch water polo.They wear less than Kim Kardashian in her selfies.

Baseball:One of the best parts about baseball is the overpriced concession stand food.99% of the sunflower seed industry is baseball-relatedAn average of 11.42 metric pounds of saliva is expelled during a normal-length baseball game.The World Series, exclusively for America.

MATTHEW FAN and ETHAN WANGStaff Writers

The Inside Scoop on Sports

BLOOMSTRAN