February 2026 | The Evergreen, Greenhill School

Beauty Standards

02 News

In the weeks since Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured during a U.S. military raid on Caracas on Jan. 3, Upper School students and faculty have been tracking the momentous events on news sites and apps

Trump has said the U.S. will temporarily control the country. In another surprising twist, he has endorsed Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as the country’s leader. Rodríguez initially condemned the U.S. intervention and backed Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, but U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has

“Trump doesn’t believe in the Pottery Barn Rule that if you go and break a country, you now own it and have to fix it,” Monet said. “He’s not going to do reconstruction efforts in Venezuela because he only took out one person.”

surprised, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen moving forward.”

Upper School students closely tracking developments in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Trump has said that the United States will retain a share of Venezuela’s oil production in exchange for rebuilding the country’s decrepit oil production fields and refineries.

“We’re used to presidents saying, ‘we’re going to do this for the Venezuelan people and we’re going to recognize the opposition and we’re going to try to do a peaceful transfer to the democratically elected government,’” Cotton said. “That’s not really what’s happening here.”

The Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela have received mixed reactions at home. In a Jan. 14 AP-NORC poll, 56% of U.S. adults said intervention

Another sour note for Trump has been reluctance on the part of U.S. oil companies like Exxon to invest in Venezuela, a country where U.S. oil assets have been expropriated by the Venezuela government twice in the

“The oil stuff is probably to justify to MAGA and [Trump’s] populist base how he’s going to fund this because he doesn’t want the same backlash he exploited getting into power,” Monet said. “Trump said Iraq was a bad idea and then said the Ukraine war wouldn’t have happened. He uses critiques of intervention. Then in the first two days of 2026, he decides to do the biggest intervention since [former President Barack] Obama.”

The U.N. Secretary-General, several foreign ambassadors and multiple legal scholars condemned the implications of Trump’s actions for international law and presidential power.

“What will he say if China invades Taiwan because [Chinese Communist Party General Secretary] Xi Jinping doesn’t agree with the way it’s run?” asked senior Iliyan Ali.

Cotton says the Venezuelan developments have also come up in his Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics class discussions on presidential power and war making.

“Should Congress be involved in this or not? Does the U.S. have to recognize international law? Is that part of the Constitution or not? Some of the constitutional, legal aspects have come up,” Cotton said.

Meanwhile, many Venezuelans supported Maduro’s capture, citing opposition to a regime defined by corruption and violent political repression, according to the BBC.

“As a Venezuelan person, my first response was ‘yes he’s gone,’ whereas other people like my friends were talking about political overreach,” junior Ronni Phillips said. “No one who has been kicked out of their country for thinking differently is thinking about how the political theory around this might be wrong.”

Athletic Performance Center Nears Completion

Cindy Chou

Construction of Greenhill’s new Athletic Performance Center is moving into its final stages, with the project expected to be completed in early summer, according to school administrators.

The building is part of Greenhill’s Growing Stronger Together campaign, the goal of which is to expand and improve facilities. The Athletic Performance Center is part of the campaign’s second phase. The first phase focused on the construction of the Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center.

Head of School Lee Hark says pursuing excellence in both student life and athletics was a main factor in creating this project.

“We want to have the best facilities we possibly can for our student-athletes,” Hark said. “It’s going to be an amazing tool for student-athletes, coaches and an amazing recruiting tool for families who don’t even have athletics as a top priority.”

Construction Process

The project consists of three parts: the two-story Athletic Performance Center building, 10 new tennis courts and a regulation-sized turf field. The tennis courts are scheduled to be completed by Feb.17. The building and turf field are scheduled to be finished in early summer, according to Associate Head of School/Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer Kendra Grace.

Grace, who oversees the project, says the initial design process was largely shaped

by feedback from the athletic department.

“We worked with the athletic department and sought advice on equipment needs, programming for wellness classes as well as for sports-specific training gear,” Grace said. “They designed it, and then we worked with the architects to incorporate that feedback into the building’s design.”

Head of Athletics and Physical Education Jarrett Shine says his involvement in the design process included offering input to support athletes in the best way possible.

Although the project is nearing completion, the process has met some challenges.

“The [construction] phasing hasn’t happened in a linear way,” Grace said. “Because of that, we had to push the start date of the construction until much later.”

Hark says another issue that arose involved the lack of space to maneuver equipment.

Despite these challenges, Hark says the schedule adjustments were crucial to protecting student safety.

“It’s representing the school’s interest in making sure that students stay safe, and we continue to operate to the best of our ability,” Hark said.

Reactions

Even though the Athletic Performance Center is one of the largest projects on campus, many students noted a lack of conversation surrounding it.

Seniors Nia Harrison and Zachary Geller say their athletic coaches have rarely

mentioned the topic.

Hark attributes the lack of discussion to the building’s location.

“I think it’s because the building is on the edge of campus and it’s only now begun to take shape,” Hark said. “These things are an abstraction to students until they have a chance to actually be in the space.”

Despite the lack of conversation surrounding the building, students are looking forward to using the new features.

“I think the building will be very beneficial and can help with cross training and weightlifting for [high-performance training],” sophomore Evan Tsai said.

Harrison says the finished building could increase student interest in athletics

and bring more excitement around Greenhill sports.

“I think it will encourage more people to come to High Performance Center [sessions] if they get to work out in a cool building like this,” Harrison said.

Although seniors will graduate and leave campus before the Athletic Performance Center opens, Hark says he hopes the building still becomes part of their connection to Greenhill.

“What I want is for our students, when they graduate, to continue to be really proud of their relationship with [the] school,” Hark said. “My hope is that seniors will come back on this campus with their friends and go, ‘This is the school that I went to’.”

Greenhill Undergoes Accreditation Process

Marleigh Massoud, Vivian White

Greenhill has begun another 10year evaluation cycle with the the Southwest, a formal accreditation process that ensures that member institutions are meeting established standards.

independent schools from six states that compose the membership of the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest, or ISAS.

school’s new accreditation cycle will officially begin with a March 29-April 1 visit from a committee of ISAS educators who will observe Greenhill classes and campus

The ISAS Visiting Committee tour of Greenhill was earlier postponed because of the February ice storm.

gathering during the upcoming visit, the association will produce a report that lays out commendations and recommendations for the school to implement, according to Director of Academics Jason Yaffe. ISAS describes the Visiting Committee report presented to each member and prospective member school as providing “a goal toward which Self Study progresses.”

Study II by ISAS. This option allows schools to conduct more self-directed inquiries. It was utilized by only four ISAS members, including Greenhill, in the last 10-year cycle.

increasing teacher peer observations and clarifying the roles of department chairs, according to Sandler.

The overall objective of the 10-year process is straightforward.

“Accreditation in general is basically this group saying, ‘Are you as a school doing what you say you’re doing?’,” said Associate Head of School/Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer Kendra Grace.

Self Study II

Two sources of feedback will guide Greenhill administrators as they lead the school through the new 10-year cycle. They will draw on recommendations generated by the Visiting Committee’s spring visit as well as recommendations generated by Greenhill employees who spent 2025 studying school challenges and producing a self-study report on how to meet those challenges.

Accreditation in general is basically this group saying, ‘Are you as a school doing what you say you’re doing?’”

This information will be supplemented by annual reports produced by Greenhill, and a more detailed Interim Report due in year 5 that encompasses the school’s response to previous recommendations.

Greenhill’s journey in this new 10year cycle will be heavily influenced by last year’s work by school employees during the structured self study that highlights the final year of the ISAS accreditation process.

Greenhill opted for a more independent version of the self-study year, designated Self

that are more established now can say, ‘Look, we know we’re doing all these things we’re supposed to be doing,’” Grace said. “We have an excellent academic program, and we have the finances in check, but where are the things that we really want to work on and grow as we move forward?”

For Greenhill’s self study, employees were divided into 10 research teams to examine various aspects of campus policy and culture. The aim was to prioritize three main areas of Greenhill life: clarity and consistency, community and belonging, and balance. Within each priority, there were subcommittee research teams focused on specific concerns.

During their work, committee members use quantitative information gathered by administrators from surveys. ISAS requires schools to administer surveys for faculty, students, parents and the Board of Trustees, according to Yaffe.

Greenhill’s Self Study II report to ISAS also included qualitative data compiled by the focus groups, Yaffe said.

Upper School Math Department Chair Darryn Sandler ’95 led a research team with Maggie Parry ’07 under the clarity and consistency umbrella. Their focus was on Greenhill’s curriculum. Through discussion sessions with faculty members and observations of neighboring schools, the research team was able to provide constructive recommendations for improvement.

“The research team kind of threw out some ideas, and then by the end of the meeting, we narrowed it down to focusing on horizontal alignment, which is consistency within each grade or course,” Sandler said.

After conducting the research, each of the subcommittees developed recommendations for the school. Some of the recommendations from the Clarity and Consistency Within Curriculum subcommittee included defining expectations for rigor and teaching practices,

The self-study reports produced by Greenhill employees last year will be a key data set for the ISAS Visiting Committee this

“The self study tells the committee that this is our current reality and areas of growth,” Yaffe said. “So, they come in and take a look to see if the self-identified areas of growth are truly a priority and what recommendations they would make.”

Impact

During their upcoming visit, ISAS representatives will visit classes and observe campus life before preparing their own report. They will leave Greenhill with another set of recommendations for areas of growth.

“We’ve actually given [the Visiting Committee] a roadmap that’s different from anything that I’ve ever seen,”

Head of School Lee Hark said.

“It’s much more directed. It’s much more like ‘you don’t have to come looking for the problem, we’re telling you

In the coming years, Greenhill administrators will continue to implement

some of the recommendations from the school’s 10 research teams, along with feedback from the ISAS Visiting Committee.

“The committee will require us to do some things,” Yaffe said. “Some of those could be low hanging fruit. Others may require more of a systematic broader approach.”

The results and recommendations from this process will play a central role in shaping Greenhill in the years ahead.

Administrators and teachers will utilize constructive criticism to improve the school and make necessary changes, administrators said.

“They don’t just breeze in, send us a little report, and then we never deal with it again,” Hark said. “We’ll be working on some of their suggestions for the next 10 years.”

The challenge of self-evaluations is maintaining the momentum to make changes, according to Sandler.

“People talk about problems, they talk about what we need to do to fix those problems, but there’s not always follow through to do it,” Sandler said. “I feel like [Greenhill] really listens to what comes out of each of the self-studies and is committed to making changes.”

Although this process can be critical, it encourages self-reflection and accountability, according to Hark.

“We expect our students to be constantly self-reflective and growth-oriented, so I want us to model that as an institution,” Hark said. “I want Greenhill students to see that we do this as a school. The reaccreditation process isn’t the only way to do that, but it’s a meaningful one.”

Former Head of School Dies

Aanya Bhoria

PhillipFoote, a Texas native who served as Greenhill’s second head of school from 1976-1992, died Jan. 30 in Connecticut. He was 90.

In an email announcing the death to the Greenhill community, Associate Head of School for Mission, Community and Culture Tom Perryman ’81 described Foote as “my dear friend, hero and mentor.”

“For those of you who never met him, Phil was an absolute extraordinary educator and human being,” Perryman wrote.

Foote joined the Greenhill community in 1969 as Lower School head. He soon took on leadership of the Lower and Middle school divisions before becoming Greenhill’s second head of school in 1976. He held that position until 1992, when he moved to New York City to become head of the Horace Mann School.

Prior to his time at Greenhill, Foote received multiple degrees in linguistics and education. He had an undeniable passion for teaching, according to Perryman.

Above all, Foote’s greatest talent was his way with people, Perryman said.

“Phil had a knack for recognizing other people’s gifts and their talents, and he would empower them in ways that were really like magic,” Perryman said in an interview. “I mean, if Mr. Foote told you, you could do

something, you would believe you could do it.”

At Greenhill, Foote’s legacy lives on in the Phillip G. Foote Lower School Building that his former students gifted in his name. But Foote’s presence is even more deeply embedded in campus life and culture as the embodiment of the phrase, “Greenhill is not buildings, it’s people,” Perryman said.

“He was so warm, and he made everybody feel like he knew their name, whether he did or not,” Perryman said. “He made you feel like he knew you, and that’s a real gift for a leader.”

Evergreen the

Greenhill Robotics Takes On New Challenges

The competitive season of the Upper School robotics team came to an end Jan. 31 at the FiT-North I&S League Tournament in Garland, but the Greenhill competitors concluded on a high note by winning the event’s Connect Award.

The award recognized the team with the most significant community outreach and commitment to learning from mentors, and was based on an initial presentation, an afternoon questioning session and a 15page engineering portfolio documenting the season.

The top four of the 30 teams competing

in the Garland tournament at the Brighter Horizons Academy advanced to the FiT-North Texas Regional Tournament.

Greenhill finished 16th based on total points.

“I am very proud of how they did,” Upper School robotics teacher Joseph Meagher said of his team. “We won an award, which is not something we do every year, so even just the fact that we won an award was a really big achievement.”

Junior Johnny Sewak, a co-captain of the team, says this tournament was a valuable experience.

“Everyone came ready to do their best,” Sewak said.

Much of this year’s success can be

attributed to the team doubling in size, which Meagher says brought new dynamics to the group.

“The team has benefited from new members’ energy and positive contributions to the room,” Meagher said. “While the team has not fully coalesced yet, the new kids are bringing in a lot of good technical and soft skills, and it’s been a pleasure for me to see.”

Gearing Up

Every September, students receive a new problem to solve as part of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Tech Challenge. This season, students were asked to build a robot that accomplishes various goals each match. One of those objectives is to mechanically throw artifacts – 6-inch wiffle balls – into baskets.

Greenhill’s first step was conceptualizing and deciding on a robot direction for the year. The increase of the team’s size from 12 to 24 members resulted in several outcomes, according to Meagher.

“More students meant more ideas, more perspectives and of course more disagreement,” Meagher said.

With more voices, the necessity for clear communication grew.

“If only one person knows everything, then when they’re gone, the rest of the team is helpless,” Sewak said.

In response to the influx of members, Meagher paired experienced students with those less familiar with robotics.

“The dynamics of the team changed a lot,” said junior Kiran Karthik, an experienced member of the team. “I was told to step back and act more as a mentor instead of a doer.”

While initially uncertain, Karthik says the adjustment was impactful.

“I have learned how to be more patient and communicate with less experienced members, which has transferred to other interactions outside of robotics,” Karthik said.

Meagher says his aspiration for the team was to ensure every student felt capable of contributing, technically and verbally.

“Robotics is about more than building,” Meagher said. “It’s about learning how to work with people, explain ideas and adapt when things don’t go as planned.”

That lesson became increasingly clear early on. Ideas were proposed, scrapped and reconstructed, sometimes repeatedly.

Karthik says one of the most debated components was the robot’s shooter.

When it failed to perform early in the season, team members scrapped their original design entirely.

After transitioning to a new design, they noticed that many competitors were still using a more efficient version of their original design.

“Other teams were using something really similar to the original design, and it seemed to be more effective,” Karthik said. “We decided to go back to it.”

Despite bouncing between ideas, Sewak says the team is now on an upward trajectory.

Between competing voices and setbacks, the team has learned to adapt and grow under pressure, much like the robot they built, according to Sewak.

“On the whole, we’ve had a lot of issues dealing with teamwork this year,” Sewak said. “But with this experience under our belt, next year we’ll come back stronger, with a more unified team ready to handle whatever technical challenges are thrown at us.”

Three AP Humanities Classes Added

Beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, the Upper School will expand its Advanced Placement offerings in the humanities with three new courses: AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, and AP Comparative Government and Politics.

The additions mark a notable shift for a school long defined by discussion-based, seminar-style learning and a historically limited AP presence in the humanities.

Greenhill administrators say the move reflects an effort to rebalance academic rigor across departments while responding to external pressures that increasingly influence how rigor is perceived by colleges and families.

“We’re not a school that offers every AP under the sun,” Director of Academics Jason Yaffe said. “But over time, it became clear that there was an imbalance between departments.”

While STEM departments have offered multiple AP pathways, humanities students often felt compelled to take AP courses outside their interests to appear academically competitive, Yaffe said.

“If we can offer a more balanced collection of high-level courses,” Yaffe said, “students can pursue rigor in the disciplines they’re actually interested in.”

The expansion more than doubles the number of AP courses now available in the

humanities. Administrators say the change aligns with Greenhill’s identity as a collegepreparatory school while preserving space for electives that have long defined the humanities experience.

English and History

Upper School English and Language Arts Department Chair Karin Thomas said AP Language and AP Literature were viewed as natural extensions of skills already central to Greenhill’s curriculum, including close reading, analytical writing and rhetorical analysis. The goal, she said, was not to replace Greenhill’s approach to English but to offer an additional pathway for students seeking a nationally recognized level of challenge.

At the same time, Thomas acknowledges the tension inherent in AP courses. Built around a standardized framework and culminating in a cumulative exam, AP classes can constrain the open-ended discussion and intellectual exploration that define Greenhill’s English classrooms.

If we can offer a more balanced collection of high-level courses, students can pursue rigor in the disciplines they’re actually interested in.”

“We also don’t want to lose the depth, flexibility and student-led inquiry that are fundamental to how we teach English here,” Thomas said. “The challenge is ensuring that AP courses can complement that approach

rather than narrowing it.”

style classes allow students to move beyond fixed interpretations and engage more deeply with ideas.

and more student-led,” Hemchand said. “That autonomy is better for critical thinking, because instead of learning how the AP curriculum wants us to interpret texts, we get to form our own interpretations.”

that discussions driven by tension, curiosity and differing perspectives have shaped her learning far more than any standardized curriculum.

continues to loom large: What happens to electives?

central to planning discussions, according to Yaffe.

“We have a robust elective set now and spent some time wondering if the new APs and electives can stay balanced,” Yaffe said, “But we think it can be done.”

Greenhill’s College Counseling office echoed that emphasis on balance. Counselors stress that while AP courses are widely recognized by colleges as a national benchmark, taking more APs does not

counselors, teachers and students continue to discuss the meaning of academic rigor, how learning takes place and how AP courses fit in the bigger picture.

“I don’t think learning is just about what looks hardest on a transcript.” Hemchand said. “It’s about what actually teaches you to think.”

Middle School

MS Swimmers Win Metroplex Meet

Excelling in their home waters, the Greenhill Middle School girls swimmers finished as Division I champions in the Metroplex Middle School Swimming Championships held Jan. 31 at the Ginsburg Natatorium.

The Middle School boys team finished in 4th place.

Twenty-eight middle school teams from across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex were on campus to compete in the meet.

Greenhill’s Middle School teams are coached by Gabi Grobler, Upper and Middle School aquatics teacher Collin Baker and Middle School English teacher Melanie Girard.

Grobler says there are many lessons she would like the team to take away from the successful tournament that capped off the Middle School swim season.

“Going into something like this at the end and having so much success shows that all of their hard work pays off,” Grobler said. “Not only they can take away that with swimming, but I think just life in general.”

Preparation

This was the first time that Greenhill hosted the Metroplex event.

“We’ve never hosted a meet this big before so it’s kind of an all hands on deck situation,” Grobler said in the days before the competition. “In terms of meet organization, we’re getting a lot of volunteers to come and help whether that’s parents or our high school swimmers.”

The event was originally scheduled to be held at the Loos Natatorium, a Dallas Independent School District facility in Addison, just west of the Greenhill campus. But three days before the event, Greenhill received word that the event would have to be held elsewhere because of the extreme winter weather.

The Greenhill coaching staff, as well as the Athletics Department, made the decision to host the event on campus.

“We host a lot of our meets here, but not at that capacity,” Grobler said. “With that many swimmers or that many spectators, this was new to us and we had to pivot a lot.”

To ensure the meet ran smoothly, there were two different sessions based on school size, with smaller Division 2 schools competing in the morning and Division 1 in the afternoon. Due to the last-minute change in venues and schedule, Grobler said they faced difficulties finding new volunteers.

“We had to scrap all of the original volunteer times and say ‘these are the new time slots,’” Grobler said. “The problem was that we were relying on our Middle School parent volunteers, but since we were swimming in the second half,

we didn’t have a lot that would want to volunteer in the first half.”

Swim meets require jobs such as timing races, working in hospitality, passing out heat sheets and coordinating heats during the meet.

Two weeks prior to the championship meet, the coaches gave the swimmers practice with longer yardage. This training is designed to build endurance by pushing swimmers to fatigue.

The week before the championship, however, the yardage was significantly reduced..

“The reason we do this is to focus on quality over quantity,” Grobler said as the date of the competition neared. “We are going to focus on a lot of the small details like dives, turns and finishes.”

Eighth grader Aiden Zendeh Del said he prepared for the meet with a focused training routine and a determined mindset.

“I’ve been trying my hardest at swim practice, and I’ve working on breath control so I can accomplish my personal goal of breaking 30 seconds in the [50-yard freestyle],” Zendeh Del said.

Results

The Middle School coaches had high expectations for the meet, with the girls team undefeated heading into the competition.

The Greenhill girls claimed five individual gold medals and won their division by more than 150 points. The boys finished 4th, despite competing with only 10 swimmers - a feat that Grobler described as “really impressive.”

Overall, the team achieved 36 personal best times.

“This year’s team is unforgettable in showing how close the group has become,” said eighth grader Abby Thomas. “The memories we created together on that day [made] the event meaningful, not just for one person, but for the whole team.”

Behind the Scenes of “Finding Nemo Jr.”

Greenhill Middle School theater students performed the musical “Finding Nemo Jr.” on Feb. 4 in two campus performances in the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center.

The story focused on a lost fish, Nemo, who gets separated from his dad.

The Middle School musical is an annual event that allows students to gain experience in a production.

“It’s a great opportunity for [students] to get their feet wet with theater,” said Upper and Middle School technical theater teacher Will Turbyne.

After consistent rehearsals and performances, students said they improved as actors and gained confidence in themselves.

“I think [the musical] personally, for me, has helped me build my confidence and my ability to just get up in front of people and [do] something silly,” eighth grader Zayla Yousuf said.

Rehearsals

Middle and Upper School choir teacher Emmanuel Espiritu, who directed the rehearsals, said that he enjoyed working with the students.

“I enjoy getting to talk to them, getting to talk to all the students before we actually get started with the work,” Espiritu said.

An average day at rehearsal started with vocal warmups, body movements and articulation work.

“We would do physical warmups, and some articulation warmups,” said sixth grader Aisha Sadim. “And then when we moved into the tech space, we would go in the Black Box [Theatre] and warm up, and we would put our costume on and run through the whole show.”

Yousuf, who played Dory, one of the lead roles, said she learned about collaboration in her work on the production.

“[Rehearsal] really teaches you a lot about teamwork and doing your part,” Yousuf said. “You really need to make sure you’re putting in effort in rehearsals all the way to the show.”

In addition to the actors’ preparation, the Middle School Technical Theater class constructed scenery and sets.

“Middle schoolers will be running the spotlights; they’ll be running the light board,” Turbyne said in the days before

the production. “They’ll be running the projections, moving scenery, everything like that.”

Eighth grader Cameron Dawson took on the role of stage manager, where he directed actors and gave cues.

“When it comes to show time, I’ll give cues to the lights people, the sounds people, some cues to the actors,” Dawson said before the performance. “I have a headset and the script.”

Musical Impact

Sixth grader Estella Cantu said that rehearsals and preparation were unique experiences for her.

“Even if you don’t get the main role, that’s okay, and you’ll still have your time to shine,” she said prior to the performance.

Despite the stress of rehearsals, Yousuf says they were still a beneficial experience.

“It’s always a little bit stressful, especially as you get closer,” Yousuf said before the performance. “Overall, it’s a

really good group, and everyone’s been putting in a lot of work in rehearsals.”

After performing “Finding Nemo Jr.,” Sadim said that she’s seen improvement among her castmates.

“A lot of the kids there had never really done a production, but they got so much better,” Sadim said.

After students experience the rehearsal process, Espiritu expressed hope that they learned the importance of determination and effort.

“You don’t have a good show without putting in the work of the process,” Espiritu said. “Getting the kids to understand that the process is as important as the performance is something that is an important lesson for them to learn.”

Dawson said the production highlighted the cast’s hard work and dedication.

After rehearsal and tech week, Espiritu said that he wanted students to gain a passion for musicals.

“My goal is to have the students develop a love for this process, for doing musicals and really loving it,” Espiritu said.

English Enthusiasts

Ella Sadka

Upper School English teacher Andy Mercurio has had only one job in his 29-year professional career: teaching at Greenhill. Macklin Fanning, on the other hand, joined the Upper School English Department this school year after completing his doctorate at Southern Methodist University. Both Irish Bostonians at heart, their shared roots have cemented their friendship. The duo walks us through a typical recent day.

Macklin Fanning Andy Mercurio

6:15 A.M.

My alarm wakes me up. My morning routine varies depending on my mood, but I always eat a toasted English muffin with peanut butter and have a Celsius energy drink to wake me up before my 30 to 45-minute commute to Greenhill from East Dallas. In the car, I either discover new music on my Spotify recommended playlist or listen to a podcast related to what I am teaching.

I have been teaching the first class of the day this entire year, so I take about 30 minutes to myself in the morning to print things off, prepare PowerPoint slides and get in the zone.

I teach Narrative Nonfiction this semester, which is a new class to me, and one that I’m really enjoying getting to know and learning how to teach. I have been taking advice from the masters, [Upper School English teacher Joel] Garza, [Upper School English teacher Alvaro] Cantu ’99 and Mercurio. It’s been fun so far to develop a structure that makes sense for me. It will be a fun experiment.

This is my first time as an advisor, and my ninth graders are definitely keeping me on my toes. All of us are new to Upper School here, so we are learning together. I am grateful for the deans in the background, sort of scaffolding everything with planning, exercises and routines.

Last semester, I had C Block free, so I got accustomed to eating lunch with the Middle School. This semester, I slipped right back into that routine, and luckily Mr. Garza notified me that I was supposed to be teaching. So, I came in a few minutes late to my first Literature and Philosophy class and my tardiness made for a good ice breaker. It just so happens that this semester, I teach 20 seniors. This class is right up my wheelhouse and just fits my temperament and my style really well. Literature and philosophy are two massive subject areas, so we are starting with epistemology, the theory of knowledge.

1:10

I eat lunch late now. Thanks, Literature and Philosophy. I joke about lunch, but it is one of the best perks of working here. I really like to eat, and I love that I get free lunch.

The first thing I do in the morning is put AirPods in, crank some tunes, and get going. I have my usual bowl of cereal and get my daughter rolling so we can make it to school on time. We try to leave at around 7:15 a.m. 6:10 A.M.

I like to call this “Fanning time.” I take a few minutes to impart my wisdom on Dr. Fanning and fix up his shirt, make sure he is presentable. I also have a cup of Irish tea to honor my Ma.

Knowing that I am walking into two back-to-back periods of my senior-filled Social Class in Literature: Class on Class courses fills me with joy. Many years ago, I noticed that we didn’t have much that explicitly addressed socioeconomic status in our curriculum, so I created the course because I believe it is so essential, especially in today’s environment. Right now, we are exploring the impact of socioeconomic status on early childhood development and

I must confess, I am still not exactly sure what Hornet Block is, but I can tell that it is very valuable. You can tell I’m a “noob” at Greenhill, unlike Mr. Mercurio, who is an “old vet.” I like that students take the initiative to meet with me and ask questions. There are so many resources here, and when students really communicate with their teachers, that’s where

Leaving Greenhill to go home is a new skill I have acquired. My trick is to wait for the Greenhill traffic to thin out, but it is imperative that I leave immediately after. Waiting just 10 minutes can transform my commute home from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

I work out once I get home and then make dinner for my wife and me. Lately, we have been really into making bowls. There is a Cava right next to my house, and it is dangerous.

I watch some TV with my wife, and when my stepson is with us, we will try to put on a sports game. I play “Call of Duty” a lot, just to blow off steam and not think too much.

I always reread the texts I’ve assigned to my students, even if I have already read it 100 times before. I have a big stack of books on my bedside table, so I read one of those before going to bed. I am usually asleep by 11 p.m.

After I finish teaching both sections of Social Class in Literature: Class on Class, I run to [Upper School English and Language Arts Department Chair Karin] Thomas to tell her all about it! I consider office hours to be a social time with my students or my friends. During G Block, I try to get some work done before lunch.

1:10 P.M.

The wonderful people of Sage Dining prepare such incredible meals. More often than not, I break bread with one of my students. I feel very lucky to be at a school where students want to eat lunch with their teachers.

After lunch, I check back up in on my “noobie,” Dr. Fanning. Sometimes, Mr. Garza and I have to team up and make sure he is in good shape for his final class. I try to be productive at the end of the day, but sometimes I will just find people to

My daughter ends soccer practice and we drive home. Every day without fail, once I get home, I unwind with this game called “Godzilla Battle Line.” It is a blast – when I am winning. I walk my dog, Logan, while playing music. I have been listening to Celtic punk music to prepare for St. Patrick’s Day. It is my reclamation project. That was a day my mom and I shared, and since her passing, it has been a day I have avoided. So, this year, I am taking it back!

My wife, daughter and I try to have dinner together as often as possible before they head off to Giules’ club soccer practices. It has been an adjustment with my son, Aidan, being in college, but we try to stay in touch. Afterwards, I sit down and grade, make lesson plans and get sorted for the next day.

When my teams are on, like the Boston Bruins or Boston Celtics, my family knows that is my sacred time. Aidan and I text each other about the games in real time.

I wind down for the night with what my kids call “middleaged dad shows.” I love the History Channel and watching any Josh Gates show, like “Expedition X” and “Expedition Unknown,” on the Discovery Channel. I am also excited for the new season of “Expedition Bigfoot.” I shower, read for a bit and usually fall asleep by midnight.

Jin Huang

Advanced Placement European History covers one of the broadest time periods of any history class offered at Greenhill. Most Greenhill students enroll in this course during their senior year, after fulfilling their government graduation requirement as juniors.

The Evergreen interviewed teachers and past and current AP European History students for their advice on how to excel in the class.

Here is what they had to say:

“In the summer, I would say do the required assignments. This course encompasses the content that you need to know and AP History skills. In regard to the reading and writing skills that you need for the course, prior history courses at Greenhill give you a base of that already. We then build on those skills to prepare for the AP exam.”

“The summer work we give to students is a preview of the kinds of things they’re going to do and to give them a

AP European History

starting point because this is a pretty dense class. There’s just a lot of reading, and I think that’s kind of the biggest shock for some kids, is doing this kind of work, seeing if that’s doable for you.”

“I review my notes and do the released AP Classroom quizzes. Sometimes, I use ChatGPT to make a study guide for myself. I would also look back at Short Answer Question quizzes we took in class and rewrite the question and redo it to practice for the writing part of the unit test.”

“I go over my notes that I’ve taken in class, and what I find really helpful are the Heimler’s History videos on YouTube.

I’m not just talking about the end of unit summaries, but I would look at every concept video in the unit, and I will make detailed

notes on all of those. I would also keep my Heimler notes separate from my class notes, so I could compare them to see anything I might’ve missed.”

“I prepare for the unit tests by reading the Barron’s study guide, which I bought off Amazon, and doing the practice problems included in that book. I also frequently watch Heimler’s History and Crash Course videos on YouTube.”

“I studied little by little. I got the Barron’s AP European History book, and it was so helpful. At the end of the year, we got a big paper with all the dates of everything that had happened within the time frame of the class, so I memorized all of that, which was very helpful. I definitely met with my teacher because they’ve always been helpful when I do meet with them.”

“I am planning to continue using these same methods to prepare for the exam in May, along with reviewing all the materials we’ve used in class like handouts, activities, and my lecture notes.”

“I always say students should start studying before the course is done. This course won’t be done until about two weeks before the AP Exam. For review, I’ve asked students to study the newest material first. If you study the new stuff first and move backwards then right before the exam, you’re studying stuff that we covered in September, which could be helpful. You can of course study in chronological order if that makes more sense, especially for understanding cause and effect of events.”

“What really helped is that February exam. The exam that we’re going to give covers the first seven units, and we have nine units in this course. So, the fact that we’re able to do a mock exam already kind of removes a lot of pressure for studying for the AP exam because they’ve already studied and reviewed a significant amount of the material for the February test. We will also host review sessions and things like that.”

The Evergreen Crossword

In her freshman year of high school, senior Valentina Casas-Sayek decided to write her final research paper on a topic she stumbled onto while reading the historical novel: stolen babies in Spain during the 20th-century dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

“It was such a hidden part of history,” Casas-Sayek said.

After a summer of deeper work and a helping hand from Upper School History Department Chair Amy Bresie ’96, CasasSayek submitted her paper to the Curieux Academic Journal, a youth-led nonprofit that publishes outstanding research by high school and middle school students. The journal published Casas-Sayek’s paper in October 2023.

The same persistence and curiosity that CasasSayek demonstrated in publishing a piece about the stolen babies of Franco’s Spain has allowed her to shine in the classroom, according to Bresie.

Evergreen the

“That’s by far the favorite history class I’ve taken, and it’s kind of influenced what I want to do in the future and the other history classes I took,” Casas-Sayek said.

Her love of history gave rise to a passion project: a podcast, “Untold History,” which she began airing on July 7, 2025, after a year of preliminary work.

She says she was largely inspired by the stories of her grandfather, Jorge Casas Mora, growing up Mexican American in El Paso, Texas, and evading the draft for the Vietnam War. She interviewed her grandfather for an episode of “Untold History.”

A three-sport athlete, Honor Council chair, leader of French club, history podcast host, and a board member of the Greenhill Charity Fashion Show, her passion for telling stories and supporting others has made her a prominent figure in the Greenhill community.

“She’s good people,” said Bresie. “She approaches things with curiosity and values learning and integrity and wants to always be better, make the world better.”

Human Rights

Casas-Sayek has been interested in history for as long as she can remember. She says her passion began when she was in middle school.

Since her sophomore year, she has maximized the number of history classes she has taken.

One course in particular, Genocide and Human Rights, stands out for her.

“He’s really good at telling stories, so I’ve always loved listening to what he has to say about his experiences,” Casas-Sayek said.

Casas-Sayek has also mined other family experiences for inspiration and storytelling material.

In 2023, a series of severe earthquakes took the lives of over 55,000 people in Syria and Turkey, the ancestral home of CasasSayek’s mother. Casas-Sayek’s uncle survived by seeking shelter

Casas-Sayek says this story reminded her of the importance of recording history.

“I thought about how as soon as you’re gone, these stories will be gone with you,” Casas-Sayek said.

Her podcast guests have included professors and historians as she explored topics ranging from Mexican American history in Texas to the death penalty.

In January, she talked to author Lois Lowry, a longtime role model whom she first met during an online meeting in Greenhill’s Books Without Borders club.

“What we focused on was how she writes, and then, specifically, banned books, and how she thinks about her books now that she’s writing, now that a few of them have been banned,” Casas-Sayek said.

Going forward, Casas-Sayek says she wants the unheard stories of others to be told.

“I wanted to create a firsthand account for people who might be researching a specific topic to learn more about these events from the people who lived through them,” Casas-Sayek said.

Leadership

Before coming to Greenhill in eighth grade, Casas-Sayek attended the Dallas International School. There, all her classes were in French, except for English.

Now that she doesn’t speak French in school, she finds other ways to keep the language part of her life. She leads the Upper School French Club with juniors Natalia Serrano and Celeste Salanon.

In the club, members eat French food, practice the language together and enjoy French media and games.

“One thing people have really liked is, we’ll give them a word and they have to try to spell it out in French, and it goes horribly wrong, but it’s really fun,” Casas-Sayek said.

Casas-Sayek also serves as cochair of the Honor Council, which she has been part of since her freshman year.

Casas-Sayek says honesty and integrity have shaped how she approaches both Honor Council and her academics.

“Being honest is really important to me,” said Casas-Sayek.

Preparatory Conference championship, she was named an All-SPC athlete for her performance throughout the tournament.

“It was exciting, and it was unexpected too,” said Casas-Sayek. “I feel like it’s pushed me to do better this year.”

But she also sees grace and forgiveness as important elements in the council’s work, and the necessity of “really giving the student support and helping them in whatever way we can.”

Casas-Sayek brings empathy and maturity to Honor Council hearings, according to Upper School Dean of Students George Heinrichs.

“She’s very willing to ask questions, to think through things, to stand up for what she believes, but also to engage in uncertainty with some of the issues that we face,” said Heinrichs. “She’s definitely someone I think that the community should be very proud to have on the Honor Council.”

Sports

Casas-Sayek has played a fall, winter and spring sport throughout her time at Greenhill, competing on the field hockey, diving, soccer and lacrosse teams.

Last year, at the lacrosse Southwest

The lacrosse team organizes families of players with a senior leader for each one. These families compete in games and competitions as a way to build camaraderie.

Casas-Sayek says what she loves most about the tradition is being part of a team and forming

“My teammates have been a really important part in making me keep going with the sport,” said Casas-Sayek. “So, I think I definitely would have quit at some point if it hadn’t been for those

Girls lacrosse Coach Katherine Zarembski describes Casas-Sayek as an integral part of the team due to her hard work and ability.

“If I have to take her off the field, just to give her a break, she’s ready to go back almost immediately,” Zarembski said.

Future Vision

After Greenhill, Casas-Sayek plans to study international relations, history or political science.

“I definitely want to do something that incorporates history, social justice, human rights and languages,” she said.

While Casas-Sayek is not certain what exactly it is that she wants to do, she knows she wants to be able to interact with various languages and cultures. International law is one possibility, she said.

As she charts her path in the world beyond Greenhill, Casas-Sayek is embracing her grandfather’s story as a source of inspiration and motivation.

“I love him so much because no matter what happens he will always find the positive outlook on anything,” Casas-Sayek said. “That’s something I definitely want to carry forward.”

Nostalgia as a Coping Mechanism

Over the past few years, social media has experienced the emergence of the “clean girl” aesthetic: slicked back hair, neutral color palettes and Pilates. The minimalist look doesn’t include room for individuality or a wide range of colors.

“2016 was very big on self-expression, then it kind of went down after that,” senior Hazel Goes-Young said.

Social media has become a highly commercialized environment that many companies use to generate income. In 2016, likes and views were the primary measure of visibility for content creators. Today, sophisticated algorithms use artificial intelligence to analyze user behavior to generate targeted advertising and content.

“There’s a lot of misinformation in the world now, and there’s so many sides to social media, a good and bad side,” junior Ollie Melgarejo said. “But to be honest, the whole world is consumed by social media.”

Social media is now such a fastpaced environment, leaving many users to reminisce about its past simplicity. Often, nostalgia is a common coping mechanism when the world goes through a major change.

There’s a lot of misinformation in the world now, and there’s so many sides to social media, a good and bad side.”

“You can always find these points in time in which people anchor themselves for some sort of guidance,” psychologist Clay Routledge said on BBC News.

Dimas describes 2016 as a high point before a period of political and social decline, making it a peak time to reflect on nostalgically.

“We were freshly coming off of Obama being in office, it was such a hopeful time for America, and all the politics in America, and for a lot of minorities,” Dimas said. “I feel like we’re fully entrenched in the idyllic things.”

We like to hype up memories from when we were younger, and we don’t really remember the bad parts of our life, like a third-grade math test that you did bad on.”

Junior Valentina Rojas attributes this to the tendency to romanticize childhood memories and the contrast with the perception of current times as less vibrant.

“We like to hype up memories from when we were younger, and we don’t really remember the bad parts of our life, like a third-grade math test that you did bad on,” Rojas said. “You remember going to the store with your mom, to get a rainbow bagel and Unicorn Frappuccino.”

The return of 2016 trends in 2026 may not suggest the world is moving backward but instead is attempting to bring the joy of that time forward.

In that sense, 2026 may not fully become the new 2016, but it may adopt some aspects of it in hopes of lightening up, or maybe using a filter on, today’s world.

“Everyone loves ‘nostalgia-bait,’” GoesYoung said. “I personally am a victim of [it], I want simpler times. I think there’s a lot going on in the world right now and I think people want to go back to when things were simpler.”

Evergreen the

AVP Collaborates with Nasher Sculpture Center

Kate Ponnambalam

Upper and Middle School video production teacher Corbin Doyle projected an image onto the screen at the front of the Advanced Video Production classroom: a concrete and wire sculpture without obvious meaning. He let it sit there for a moment before turning back to his students.

“That’s the artist we’re working with,” Doyle said.

The room was quiet.

This spring, Greenhill’s Advanced Video Production class is collaborating with the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas to commemorate the 100th anniversary of sculptor Robert Rauschenberg’s birth. AVP students will create short narrative films responding to his work, with a selection of the films screening at the museum on April 19.

Midway through last year, after nearly three decades of teaching at Greenhill, Doyle felt the need to disrupt patterns he saw forming among even his most advanced students.

“I wasn’t seeing them being motivated by something outside of themselves,” Doyle said. “I didn’t want them just going somewhere to make documentaries or interviews. I wanted a partnership.” Late one night, Doyle wrote what he described as a “nebulous and sprawling” email to North Texas arts and cultural organizations, asking for help building a project that centered on research and narrative filmmaking. He sent the email to 30 organizations and about half never responded. One did.

“The group that really understood what I was asking was the Nasher,” Doyle said.

Doyle attended a welcome event for the Nasher’s new director, Carlos Basualdo, around the same time he sent the email.

Basualdo connected him with Anna Smith, the Nasher’s curator of education, who understood Doyle’s goals for the project.

AVP students were given early access to the Rauschenberg exhibition, encouraged to research the artist’s life and work and asked to integrate that research with their own vision to create original films.

To avoid overwhelming students, Doyle introduced Rauschenberg’s work gradually across multiple class periods and allowed flexibility in how students approached the project.

“If I tried to do one lecture, they would lose their minds,” Doyle said. “Even these creative people don’t buy into it immediately.”

Doyle said part of his motivation for the project was challenging what he sees as the insulated environment many students grow up in.

“A lot of our students are in a bubble,” Doyle said. “Anything that gets them out of that bubble, creatively, culturally or intellectually is a very good thing.”

Senior AVP student Davis Knocke says artistic freedom has defined the project since the beginning. Early on, Doyle told the class only that they would collaborate with the Nasher and that their films would be connected to it, offering little guidance about what the final work would look like.

“He’s been very cryptic about it,” Knocke said. “But that’s the point. There aren’t boundaries yet.”

A lot of our students are in a bubble. Anything that gets them out of that bubble, creatively, culturally or intellectually is a very good thing.”

When an image of Rauschenberg’s abstract sculpture “Three Traps for Medea” was introduced as a starting point to the class, students were intrigued.

“It’s not about explaining the art,” senior Syrus Gupta said. “It’s about taking the feeling you get when you look at it and translating that into film.”

For sophomore Ayaana Joshi, the lack of definition is part of what makes the project compelling. When Doyle first showed images of Rauschenberg’s sculptures without context to the class, she initially assumed the abstract works offered broad inspiration without a specific storytelling prompt.

“In AVP especially, I love getting wildcards and different rules for my films,” Joshi said. “While it limits what you might want to do, it shows you a whole new place of possibilities you might not have explored otherwise.”

Unlike traditional AVP projects that move quickly into festivals and competitions, the Nasher collaboration brings student work into a museum context.

“This is completely different from anything we’ve done before,” Gupta said. “It’s not about awards. It’s about having your work exist in a real space.”

Senior Helen Reed says the partnership feels particularly meaningful for students preparing to leave Greenhill.

“It helps us make connections to the art world in our own city,” Reed said. “It makes museums feel more accessible, like somewhere we belong.”

All AVP students will receive free access to the Nasher throughout the exhibition, an opportunity Doyle hopes encourages continued engagement with the museum.

“I want them to get the bug,” Doyle said. “To realize this is a world they don’t spend enough time in.”

As production begins, much about the final films remains unknown. For Doyle, that uncertainty is not a concern but rather the foundation of the project.

“I have no idea what they’re going to make,” he said. “And I can’t wait to see what connections they find.”

Bryan Enters New Territory with Latest Album

Nora Ahearn

In the past few years, country singer-songwriter Zach Bryan has made a name for himself by disrupting the commercial polish of modern country music, leaning instead into rootsy blends of folk and rock. That approach defines Bryan’s latest album, “With Heaven on Top,” released Jan. 9.

Spanning 25 tracks, the album arrives during a chaotic period in Bryan’s life. Naturally, his writing reflects a desire for normalcy.

In September, Bryan put on the largest ticketed concert in U.S. history, and in November, he publicly discussed his journey with sobriety. In late December, he got married.

Bryan simultaneously continues to face scrutiny over a public feud with ex-girlfriend and internet personality Brianna LaPaglia, who accused him of “narcissistic emotional abuse.” That tension lingers throughout the album, sometimes productively and sometimes not.

The album opens with a spoken word poem entitled “Down, Down, Stream.” From there, the record alternates between subtle experimentation and familiar melancholy.

Bryan starts his third track, “Appetite,” with trumpets, a departure from his sorrowful sound that frankly has become tiresome. While the song explores struggles with fame and pressures to settle down, the musicality feels brighter than much of Bryan’s previous work.

That brassier sound resurfaces in tracks

like “Santa Fe” and “Dry Deserts,” just slightly evoking the heartland rock feel of Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band.

Bryan’s other influences are evident throughout the album. “Slicked Back” channels Tom Petty. As pointed out by reviewer Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker, Bryan singing “You’re so cool,” sounds quite like Petty’s line “Yer so bad.” Later, in “Rivers and Creeks” Bryan emulates Elvis Presley with his delivery of the chorus’s final lines.

Elsewhere, Bryan returns to his usual ballads. “DeAnn’s Denim” stands out as powerfully poignant. The lyrics play on the homonym of jeans and genes, but not in a Sydney Sweeney eugenics way. Instead, Bryan examines the challenge of breaking generational cycles passed down like genes.

Fan-favorite “Plastic Cigarette” and the titular track “With Heaven on Top” also revisit Bryan’s depressing style, though the familiarity becomes repetitive. In terms of sound, all I can say is … yawn.

“Skin,” however, is the album’s biggest misfire. The song takes an uncomfortable dig at ex-girlfriend LaPaglia, referencing their matching tattoos: “I’m taking a blade to my old tattoos / I’m draining the blood between me and you.” While attempting to appear cathartic, this song instead feels like scorekeeping in a painfully public clash.

Thankfully, Bryan redeems himself with “Bad News,” the album’s most compelling moment and perhaps the most pointed song of his career. The lyrics reflect frustration with the political landscape, most notably in the line: “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door.”

That lyric sparked backlash among conservative fans when Bryan teased the song on Instagram in October, even drawing criticism from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Bryan clarified that the song reflects broad disillusionment with power and polarization.

While that response felt self-preserving, the track remains brilliant. And with two U.S. citizens killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement

rolling / The middle finger’s rising and it won’t stop showing / I got some bad news / The fading of the red, white and blue.”

Beyond the obvious message, the reference to “The Boss” is not only a nod to rock legend Bruce Springsteen, but also a potential reference to Springsteen’s history of criticizing political figures. (Indeed, Springsteen dashed off a protest song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” after ICE agents killed Alex Pretti on Jan. 24.) As someone

New Leadership Positions Foster Community

The Greenhill Upper School debate program has reached its largest size in the past five years, resulting in increased continued success and a focus on team culture, according to coaches and team members.

With 104 Upper School students now participating in the program, Director of Debate Aaron Timmons and coaches Ross Fitzpatrick and Rodrigo Paramo established new leadership positions this year to build a more cohesive environment.

The size and success of the program has resulted in 43 students, as of mid-February, already qualifying for the Texas Forensic Association’s State Tournament in March. With more qualifying tournaments remaining, Timmons said he believes the program will surpass the previous high of 45 qualified students.

Team Culture

The increased participation in debate has amplified the importance of team culture across skill levels and grades, according to Fitzpatrick.

“We’ve always had a culture of older students assisting younger students, but the size of the team has meant that it’s harder to find those moments spontaneously and so we’ve made more of an effort to help create them,” Fitzpatrick said.

As part of their efforts, Greenhill’s debate teachers created new leadership

positions at the start of the year, including captains for each event, novice coordinators and the social team. For each role, interested students filled out an application for the three debate coaches to consider.

We’ve always had a culture of older students assisting younger students, but the size of the team has meant that it’s harder to find those moments spontaneously and so we’ve made more of an effort to help create them.”

Captains oversee logistics and assignments within their event, mentor younger debaters, answer questions, resolve conflicts within the team and meet with coaches, according to senior Sarah Koshy, captain of Lincoln-Douglas.

The two other senior captains responsible for a competitive format are Rory Liu for Policy and Josephina Qiu for World Schools.

As the number of debaters competing in each event has risen, the role of event captains has become essential for supporting communication and problem-solving among peers, according to Koshy.

“One thing that I really want to push is that you can be a leader by supporting and

uplifting your teammates,” Koshy said.

The social team is designed to help plan and organize community events to encourage team bonding. The team consists of four students, including one representative from each debate event, along with a general secretary.

So far this year, the social team has organized activities such as holiday-themed parties that included every member of the Upper School debate program. In addition, social team representatives and captains have led bonding activities, such as scavenger hunts, within each debate event.

“I think these events have really fostered connectivity and have made it so people are comfortable with one another,” said sophomore Samy Santosh, general secretary of the social team.

Novice coordinators are experienced debaters who help less experienced students prepare for tournaments, often during organized office-hour periods.

With the recent increase in new debaters, novice coordinators ensure each student is developed as much as possible.

“It’s been really impactful because a lot of times different classes and their levels didn’t have a chance to work together,”

said sophomore Tim Csallner, a novice coordinator. “But this year, it has been a lot easier to pass knowledge.”

Novice students said they have also noticed the benefits of being guided by more experienced debaters in their event.

“They address our needs and what we want, and I feel like that’s extremely helpful because we get to learn in a way that we feel benefits us,” freshman Lekha Chavala said.

One thing that I really want to push is that you can be a leader by supporting and uplifting your teammates.”

Through these new leadership positions, the debate team has strengthened connections and mentoring across skill levels, according to Timmons.

“I think we’ve had a culture shift that is incredibly healthy,” Timmons said. “We have a really supportive environment where kids in one division will go and watch their classmates in the other divisions.”

Success

By cultivating talent in younger debaters, the Greenhill program has enjoyed success across multiple entries and events rather than just placing a few top competitors, said Timmons.

“We’ve had at least 100 students [compete in] at least one tournament in some way, shape or form,” Timmons said. “Participation is increasing, which I think is exciting because it’s something that everybody benefits from.”

Season highlights thus far include the Policy team finishing first at the 25th Annual Longhorn Classic on Dec. 6-8 and the Worlds School and Lincoln-Douglas teams winning the 63rd Annual John Edie Holiday Debates on Dec. 20-22.

“We are winning in all of the divisions that we are competing in,” Timmons said. “So that’s pretty exciting that there is a group of students across divisions who are not only competing but also excelling.”

Experienced debaters help sustain success by cultivating the talent of younger students, team members said.

“Every senior is like a novice coordinator in their own way, because everyone helps novices and takes care of them, whether that’s at tournaments or just helping them prepare,” senior Iliyan Ali said.

A broader goal for the program is to maximize the number of students qualified for the Tournament of Champions, a national debate tournament held in April in Lexington, Ky. Nineteen students have qualified for that event as of early February.

Even though many debaters have not yet stepped onto the national stage, coaches say they hope to help students achieve their potential.

“Our goal is really for each student to succeed, and I think that looks differently for every student,” Fitzpatrick said. “Some folks have aspirations of winning national or state titles, while others come here for a place where they feel seen and heard, and it’s just really important that students set these goals so we can help them grow.”

The Burden of Beauty

Jordan Arbuckle, Aanya Bhoria, Lillian Smith

Senior Soyam Kelifa stepped up to the Rose Hall podium, determined to use the platform of her senior speech to confront a source of deep discontent in her life: beauty standards.

Facing more than 500 Upper School students and faculty, she spoke about how constant self-scrutiny of her hair, skin, body and face had ruined so many experiences in her life.

“All throughout high school there were countless times where I’d be with my friends or be surrounded by people who I love, and we’re doing something fun or just hanging out and I should be really happy, but I had always thoughts in the back of my mind about what my hair looked like or if I had just made a weird face,” Kelifa said.

Kelifa says she knew these feelings were bigger than her. Indeed, they were part of a school-wide struggle with insecurity and self-consciousness that she and her peers carefully concealed.

With those peers now looking on, Kelifa spoke of the importance of prioritizing genuine happiness and connection over internal worries about appearance.

“Do things for yourself and not for other people,” Kelifa said. “If any societal expectations make you happy, then you should do them. But it shouldn’t be based off of what other people want from you.”

Shifting Standards

Kelifa was touched by the Upper School response to her speech. She received a flood of in-person and online messages of support and gratitude, many from people she barely knew.

The responses revealed something much larger than one student’s experience: the pressure to meet beauty standards is widespread, deeply personal and often left unspoken.

“I think when Soyam talked about [beauty standards] it gave people community and a sense of feeling like they’re not alone and they’re not the only person struggling with some sort of insecurity,” senior Natalie Johnson said.

Beauty standards have defined society for decades, from the voluminous hair of the 1960s to the bright and bold fashion of the 1980s.

While certain traits – body, hair, skin and clothing type, among others – have long influenced perceptions of attractiveness, the specific standards attached to those traits have shifted over time.

Today, social media plays a central role in shaping those beauty standards through the rapid spread of microtrends. These magnify and amplify short-lived, highly specific looks or behaviors that gain popularity online and quickly shape what is considered desirable at any given moment.

her teenage years.

“Magazines came to my house once a month, and so once a month I would read the magazines and got influenced from the tips there,” Bresie said. “But I still had 29 other days in that month without that influence, so comparatively there is something more immediate about telling people 24/7 how they could have a better face.”

The rise of social media has also created more beauty ideals linked to individual passions and interests, according to User Experience Design teacher Luna Kim.

“Social media is algorithm-based,” Kim said. “If someone looks up a certain niche,

Unattainable Looks

Bresie says women face even more demanding standards due to teenage girls being expected to wear more revealing clothing than men.

“There’s nothing you can hide in a pair of leggings,” Bresie said. “There’s nothing you can hide in the length of shorts that people feel pressured to wear.”

One trend for girls and young women is the “clean girl aesthetic,” which emphasizes clear skin and minimalist makeup, along with flawless hairdos and fitted clothing.

repeated physical pressure with tools such as a hammer can alter a person’s jaw structure to be more defined, have also circulated through social media.

The widespread use of social media has substantially increased the desire to meet appearance norms. And that makes standards harder to achieve, according to Upper School History Department Chair Amy Bresie ’96.

“Keeping track and attempting to achieve all the countless universal and local microtrends perpetuated by social media makes current day beauty expectations harder to achieve compared to the past,” Bresie said.

For Bresie, this is a stark contrast with

“More than ever, the students who identify as male are impacted from that fitness culture,” Director of Counseling Kathy Roemer said.

The junior boy who didn’t want to be named says he stays consistent with a workout schedule and spends time thoughtfully picking out an outfit for school primarily to maintain his social image.

“I feel like it’s much easier to make friends being more physically attractive, and you make better connections with people if you’re more physically attractive,” he said.

beauty standards for that area. Beauty standards at Greenhill include athleisure clothes from brands including Lululemon or Vuori and accessories such as water bottles from Stanley or Owala, according to Director of Equity and Inclusion Monsie Muñoz ’05.

“I can think of an image of what beauty standards are in Greenhill kids’ minds, and I also feel like that’s very specific to here,” Muñoz said. “Because if we go somewhere else, it’s going to be very different.”

Although beauty culture is often perpetuated in a negative way on social media, some content creators have created body positivity movements. Influencers such as Spencer Barbosa have gained mass

Beauty Expectations

following by spreading messages of self-love to users.

Through optimistic posts, some can feel comforted by the acknowledgement of unrealistic beauty expectations. However, for others these body positivity movements contradict their purpose.

“I think a lot of times it’s not that effective because it kind of serves as a reminder that you should feel okay about not looking like these [idealistic] people and you shouldn’t compare yourself to them,” sophomore Alice Hall said. “But it actually implies that there are people out there who are better.”

said. “It’s exhausting.”

Extra pressure is added when preparing for school festivities such as Homecoming or Prom, leading students to get professional spray tans, painted nails or hairdos, according to Hall. Further out from an event, some students even change diets or workout routines, all to look their best.

Some students even find that maintaining a composed appearance takes precedence over performance on a test or necessities such as sleep.

“Even if I had stayed up until 3 a.m. studying for math, I would still get up in time to get ready,” Kelifa said.

price. Current beauty trends can require significant financial investments.

“I think [beauty standards] at Greenhill are more [attainable] because we’re in a position [where] a lot of our student body is able to afford it,” Kim said. “But I think if you go to a public school, you see, it’s like, ‘oh, they’re a lot more diverse.’”

Harmful Effects

Striving for constantly shifting beauty standards through obsessive and extreme methods can result in severe health repercussions.

said.

“I think it depends on the motivation behind it,” Muñoz said. “Are you looking a certain way for the right reasons of feeling empowered and strong, or are you just mimicking and copying others just to fit in? I do think the outcome and danger of that could be self-erasure, where that student is going to lose who they are.”

Bresie also says the mental burden of conforming to expectations overshadows the potential benefits of healthy methods, enforcing a harmful cycle.

“If you think about it and you’re like, ‘I should be doing that,’ then you have this cycle of guilt about, ‘well I didn’t exfoliate today, or I skipped abs this morning,’” Bresie

I?’” Esayas said. “I think they’re thinking, ‘I have no excuse not to be able to do this.’ So that kind of puts some pressure on them to live up to expectations.”

This goal of attaining an effortless look can be seen in many aspects of a student’s life, according to Bresie.

“I think that’s the sort of funny thing about this whole athleisure thing, that it’s supposed to look like something you just tossed on,” Bresie said. “The outfit is supposed to look like something that you would just wear to the gym or whatever. But, of course, it takes a tremendous amount of work.”

The effort necessary to uphold a flawless image is often accompanied by a hefty

Extreme dieting and compulsive exercise behaviors, for example, are associated with the development of eating disorders and severe psychological distress, including anxiety and depression, according to a review by the National Library of Medicine.

Interviews with Upper School students revealed that unhealthy relationships with food are affecting numerous Greenhill students, especially girls.

“When I was younger, [beauty standards] affected me a lot because I always felt like I was overweight or ugly,” said a sophomore girl who asked to remain anonymous. “I would starve myself and do things like that because I never really felt like I was enough.”

These disorders are not limited to restrictive eating or anorexia nervosa, but also include other unhealthy illnesses such as bulimia nervosa, which entails episodes of binge eating followed by compensation methods such as purging or overexercising.

Even though the possible effects of beauty culture play a sizeable role in some students’ lives, this toxic culture can generally go unnoticed.

“I think a lot of [influence] is from subtle messaging from places like social media ... or even your friends and family,” Muñoz said. “[Subtle messages] sort of add up and build up inside of us and we don’t really acknowledge it.”

Some students now actively seek to avoid discussions of beauty culture.

“I think people often stay away from topics like appearance because it’s kind of sensitive for a lot of people,” Hall said.

“I guess it’s just kind of become the norm that people don’t always feel good about themselves.”

However, acknowledging, analyzing and conversing about these detrimental norms can help students lessen stigmas and better understand how expectations shape their self-worth.

“A lot of times we place value on certain things, like appearance over more substantive characteristics,” Kelifa said. “But I feel like, as a community if people talked about it more, we’d understand [each other] better.”

For the sophomore girl who asked to remain anonymous, this was pivotal in overcoming a life-consuming eating disorder. When her friends started talking about the impossibility of meeting societal appearance pressures, she realized the universal commonality of these insecurities.

Through this, she found a new sense of personal worth and belonging.

“I was never really enough until I realized that nobody else is ever going to make you comfortable with who you are,” the sophomore said. “And you have to understand you are beautiful in your own way.”

Graphic by Lylah Pouratian

14 Special Report

In today’s digital age, it’s nearly impossible to avoid screens. Classrooms operate through online spaces, and students find research in search engines, not libraries.

But with limitless devices, parents have found it more challenging to protect students from the dangers of the internet. Many choose to leave this responsibility to schools.

Increasingly, school-issued laptops have emerged as the focal point of a debate over student privacy at Greenhill and elsewhere. Over the past five years, expanded monitoring of student devices by school administrators at Greenhill and other schools has been magnified by the use of software that tracks and blocks student activity on school-issued devices. And just last year, Texas banned all cell phone use in public schools.

Many Greenhill students now say they fear how much the school knows about their online lives.

“I don’t think I have any privacy when it comes to Greenhill technology,” junior Celeste Salanon said. “What you’re seeing on your laptop can be seen at any time, which is too far in my opinion.”

As uncomfortable or even offensive as this may be for students, particularly those in their late teens, Greenhill administrators see the issue through the lens of student well-being.

“At Greenhill, our guiding purpose with school-issued devices is student safety and security,” said Head of School Lee Hark. “Because so much learning now happens online, we have a responsibility to use reasonable safeguards like content filtering and safety alerts to help protect students from harmful material, quickly identify serious wellbeing or safety concerns, and maintain fairness during assessments. Because these are school-owned devices and school-managed accounts, students should not have an expectation of privacy in their use; activity on these systems may be monitored or reviewed when there is a legitimate school purpose.”

Monitoring

Greenhill first began requiring incoming freshmen to use school-issued computers in the fall of 2020. That policy allowed the Technology Office to gain simple control over their laptops. By August 2023, all Upper School students were required to use school-issued devices.

Through these devices, an additional level of monitoring was introduced in 2020: a tracking and blocking software known as Linewize on all school devices.

“It allows us to see what students are working on, especially in terms of students getting something flagged or if we need to look at computer history,” Dean of Students George Heinrichs said. “Then, we get a whole thousand column long sheet of internet activity.”

searched,” Roemer said.

While many schools are limited to monitoring activity through Wi-Fi activity, this system additionally sends notifications through keystrokes as well as search history.

Linewize sorts potentially problematic terms into categories, creating flags for profanity, violence, drugs and alcohol.

“I think it allows more safety at the school for us to be sure that what we’re doing isn’t completely up to our control,” senior Lily Marshall said. “As a student, I would want to know if someone was looking up firearms or drugs.”

While some students share Marshall’s perspective, others feel the flagging system can sometimes create unnecessary issues.

“When you try to control what people are doing on their school computers to the extent that they have no privacy, it pushes people to find other solutions and ways to get around the rules,” Salanon said.

In addition to the flags, Linewize also blocks certain categories of websites, preventing students from accessing social media or using sites deemed as dangerous or distracting. The Greenhill Technology Office and division heads have additionally reevaluated certain content filters, altering them to better reflect the school’s concerns.

“A lot of times, you assume that because you can find

specific version of Linewize, allowing teachers to utilize the tool only during a class period. Here, they can monitor their students’ screens, close tabs and message students directly to encourage them to stay on task. It can even record student screens, helping faculty confirm cheating during a test, according to faculty and administrators.

“If I was giving an exam and I walked away to answer another student’s question, and I was concerned about another student [cheating], I could go back and check the recording of what they were doing,” Upper School science teacher Emily Myhre said.

Furthermore, Classwize allows teachers to share activity with administrators and counselors, easing communication during specific situations. No one other than the teacher in the classroom is viewing the students’ activity in real time via Classwize, and only if Classwize is activated by the teacher, according to Heinrichs.

“It’s so much easier if a teacher can just screenshot your screen with you having ChatGPT open in real time than me having to go to tech and go through students’ internet activity,” Heinrichs said. “I respect students’ privacy, so the less I have to look into, the better.”

Heinrichs adds that much of the real power of Classwize lies in the teachers, who

well as this, the new software allows students to be more aware of their activity online and encourages them to stay focused.

“It helps people become more creative in how they think when distracted,” Thomas said. “I like my students to understand what’s going on in their own brains, not just cracking open a website.”

While Myhre does utilize Classwize occasionally while teaching, there is an aspect of constant monitoring which is unappealing to her.

“It’s hard for me sometimes because there is this idea of ‘Big Brother’ monitoring [with Classwize] that I don’t love,” Myhre said. “I want [students] to be given the ability to have choices and make the right choice. Unfortunately, when we give some students that choice, they make the wrong choices.”

Parent Involvement

In addition to Classwize being implemented at the start of the school year, a new software called Qustodio was added, giving parents the ability to sign up for the software where they can add restrictions to their students’ school devices and monitor their activity.

all kinds of things are then blocked by the school.”

Linewize automatically blocks websites through its software, also creating a notification system for key words and phrases. From here, the company sorts through alerts, sharing relevant ones with Director of Technology Scott Rosa and Associate Director of Technology Rachel Estrada.

Flags are seen only by essential administrators, and student activity is protected from all outside parties, according to Rosa.

After reviewing the Linewize alerts, Rosa and Estrada are tasked with sharing information with division heads. Flags are sent to Heinrichs, Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester, Director of Counseling Kathy Roemer or Upper School Counselor Amanda Frederick.

“We just get a screen grab of what they

While these blocked websites occasionally cause annoyances for students seeking information, many of these regulations are to ensure safety, according to Upper School English and Language Arts Department Chair Karin Thomas.

“It’s making sure that students are not exposed to harmful things, because there is some protection that goes in development,” Thomas said. “I think that at first, we didn’t know what technology would do. And now, especially with proliferation of AI, there is potential for good, but also great harm.”

Recent Changes

As students began to find loopholes in Greenhill’s seemingly “secure” software, administrators decided to implement an additional control method for school-issued devices called Classwize.

The software acts as a classroom-

notified about Classwize and asked to implement it over the course of the first semester, students were not made aware of the implementation of the software onto their school devices, according to Worcester.

Senior Chloe LaGrone says that she was surprised to learn that teachers could monitor students’ screens through the new software.

“With Classwize, I was like, ‘Wow, they just never told me about this,’” LaGrone said. “[Upper School math teacher Jason] Zuffranieri was telling us in class, ‘Oh, I can see your computer screens and what you’re doing.’”

While Classwize allows administrators to verify cheating and inappropriate behavior more easily, teachers also find the software useful to monitor student devices during class time. Myhre says she uses Classwize to ensure students are on task and working on assignments.

Similarly, Thomas says she uses Classwize to ensure students are not using unauthorized AI during in-class writings. As

Parents can opt in to receive weekly reports of student activity, including search and video history, filter content and apps their children have access to. The Technology Office and other school administrators are not heavily associated with Qustodio, making it mostly parent controlled, according to Rosa.

Senior Maya Jagsi said she believes this program is unnecessary for Upper School students who are preparing to transition to college. It could even be harmful for some students who may be unaware of the access parents have to their information.

“A lot of queer kids I know use the internet to learn about identity and themselves,” Jagsi said. “If their parents have access to them seeing that stuff, it can be very unsafe [for the student].”

In addition to worries of parent-related privacy concerns, many students have felt that disapproval of the monitoring system has increased. While some fear a total breach of information from administrators having access to screens, Rosa said he limits sharing data to only the most important people.

“Our role is to provide support from a technology perspective,” Rosa said. “We might provide recommendations and suggestions, but all business and educational software are decided by divisions.”

Conversely, LaGrone said she feels as though the lack of communication has eroded trust between students and the Technology Office.

“They should at least tell students when they get their computers, ‘Hey, this is everything that the IT department can do,’” LaGrone said. “The fact that they just don’t outright tell us is strange, and I think a breach of privacy.”

Jagsi expressed concern that the lack of transparency regarding technology on campus could be hazardous for students.

“I think not being aware of how we are being surveilled is unsafe in general, regardless of what has or hasn’t happened or what might happen,” Jagsi said.

While agreeing with the need for better communication with students about monitoring software, Hark says the school is committed to limiting the use of its electronic powers.

“This is not about ‘catching’ students or eroding trust; access to information is intentionally limited and used only when there is a clear need to know,” Hark said. “At the same time, I understand why students value privacy, and if our communication hasn’t been clear enough about what these tools do and when they’re used, we should improve that transparency.”

Students Showcase Pieces at Local Gallery

Every January, Greenhill and other private and public schools across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex select students’ visual art pieces to be displayed in the Dallas Young Artists Exhibition.

This year, the exhibition opened on Jan. 22 with the work of 14 Greenhill students on display at the Blue Print Gallery in Uptown Dallas. Ten Upper School students produced photographs for the exhibition and four created paintings or drawings.

At the event, monetary scholarships were awarded to students decided upon by the gallery administrators, according to the event website. In 2024, $14,500 was distributed to the winners.

No Greenhill students received

a monetary award this year, although sophomore Izzy Kloeber sold her piece. Most importantly, the exhibition provided an opportunity for student growth, according to Upper School 2D Art teacher Kendall Davis.

“It validates them as an artist; they get to see their work framed; they get to see their work against their peers at other schools,” Davis said. “It is above and beyond what an opening is these days, and it’s a very special knot.”

Selection Process

This was the eighth annual exhibition held at Blue Print Gallery, and both Davis and Upper and Middle School Photography

teacher Frank Lopez selected students’ pieces for submission.

Both teachers agreed that choosing between various styles of work was challenging.

“I chose this work on the first of December, so at that point in the year, this was a diverse range of mediums that I considered show-worthy,” Davis said. “It’s a combination of content and technique.”

Lopez says he considers many factors.

“I start to break down and curate the images according to: ‘Are they issues-based? Are they dealing with societal, personal expression, different kinds of issues?’” Lopez said. “Then I break it down even further to who has and who has not done this before.”

Another point that Davis and Lopez agreed on was selecting artists based on the message that was encompassed in their work.

For students like senior Laura Presley, a gallery showing was special.

“It’s hard to get into galleries if you aren’t established, so it’s almost like a next step,” Presley said.

She says this selection has given her more motivation to create additional pieces and continue with art even after she graduates.

Presley’s piece was a painting called “What Makes a House a Home.” The work depicted items scattered outside and surrounding a house in her neighborhood –a flag, a horseshoe and a tennis racket – that might be important to the person who lives in the residence.

“It is supposed to symbolize life and a house being lived in,” Presley said. “The point behind the pieces is to reaffirm the phrase ‘You and your lived experiences,’ rather than how your house looks or things like that.”

Senior Sumedha Rapuri says she also felt satisfaction when she received notification of her selection.

“I am really grateful for the opportunity, because I think being exhibited in the Blue Print Gallery is one of those big moments

Twhere you truly feel like a true artist,” Rapuri said. “It honestly just makes me feel really validated because I feel like my style of photography has changed from last year to now.”

Rapuri’s exhibited piece was inspired by her experience growing up around nature in her parents’ garden, with flowers featuring prominently throughout her photographs.

“The piece is touching on an emotion that I felt where the flowers coming out of my subject’s head are supposed to symbolize her potential,” Rapuri said. “It shows how much you can’t underestimate a woman because she holds so much beauty and power.”

Experience

Rapuri was selected last year to attend the showing and noted that it “opened her horizons” to the various forms of art that are possible.

“There was this one piece that really inspired me to dive deeper into using bright and vibrant colors,” Rapuri said. “The piece was not even in the same medium as me, but it was beautiful, so I kept it on my phone and tucked away.”

Presley says she was interested in hearing what others, whether peers or members of the public, thought of her work.

“It definitely felt different to hear direct feedback on my work rather than emailing an artist,” Presley said. “I think I’d probably view my work more critically than I really would have it had been someone else’s piece.”

Rapuri says that although this was one of her last exhibitions in her high school photography career, it impacted her in a significant way.

“I would encourage everyone to take advantage of this experience because it’s not very often for you to be put into a professional gallery,” Rapuri said. “I wanted to take advantage of being able to view all the other artworks present and talk to other artists present. You never know when something will inspire you.”

Advanced Production Takes Stage

hirteen juniors and seniors are six weeks into a new semester-long Advanced Acting and Performance Class taught by Upper School drama instructor and theater director Valerie Hauss-Smith.

The class is designed to refine and challenge experienced junior and senior

actors’ skills, according to Hauss-Smith. On April 24, the students will stage an off-campus production separate from the established campus Spring Play.

Hauss-Smith designed the course specifically for upperclassman who have already worked together in other productions.

“The concept is we’re sort of pushing the envelope with them in terms of acting,”

Photo courtesy of Samantha Herrmann

Hauss-Smith said.

The class assembles students with a variety of skill sets, including acting, directing and technical designing, according to Hauss-Smith. The goal is to create an almost entirely student-led production.

“I was looking for a play that will have a chance to give something to feature for every single person,” Hauss-Smith said.

For the first production, Hauss-Smith chose a play called “Big Love,” written by Charles L. Mee. The play is based on the ancient Greek tragedy “The Suppliants,” written by Aeschylus.

“Big Love” will be performed at Arts Mission Oak Cliff, a performing arts theater, on April 24, with a campus preview for Greenhill students on April 23.

“I was looking for something interesting, challenging and different than what we’ve done in the past,” Hauss-Smith said.

“Big Love” is about 50 sisters who are attempting to escape forced marriages to 50 men on the west coast of Italy. The play follows three women and three men who have drastically different views towards the opposite gender.

Senior Syrus Gupta has performed in five Greenhill theater productions and will be auditioning for the role of Nikos.

“‘Big Love’ is a satire,” Gupta said. “It’s almost a commentary on gender norms.”

Another reason why this play was chosen was because of the size of the cast, according to Hauss-Smith. The Advanced Acting and Performance class is limited to 13 people, necessitating a play with a smaller cast.

During class, the students are separated into three groups: actors, directors and technical designers. While the actors prepare for their monologues, the technical designers try to visualize what they want the set to look like.

The auditions will be very similar to those for the spring play, with acting portions and monologues, Gupta said.

“I think that’s kind of one of the biggest challenges here is finding a set vision,” Gupta said. “That vision is going to decide how we handle very sensitive topics.”

These include sensitivities regarding violent scenes and graphic props such as fake blood, according to Hauss-Smith.

“We have to figure out how to protect the space with all of the blood that has to happen,” Hauss-Smith said.

Despite these obstacles, the students appreciate the production’s creative potential, according to Hauss-Smith.

“They’re really excited, just this sense of, ‘We’re going to make something really cool to show our families and our friends,’” Hauss-Smith said.

The class is pushing students to explore the play’s deeper themes, from gender dynamics to morality, while still executing the technical and performance aspects of theater, according to Gupta.

“I think it is really important for people to realize at a school like Greenhill where both men and women have to coexist together, it is important for each gender to recognize the perspective of the other,” Gupta said. “I think this is a great play to do just that.”

Evergreen the Arts 16 Bhatia Honored at National YoungArts Week

When senior Isabel Bhatia traveled to Miami for National YoungArts Week in early January, she carried a photography portfolio centered on self-portraiture, experimentation and a critique of beauty standards.

About 170 students who earn the top honor of Winner with Distinction are invited to the YoungArts event in Miami each year. The week marks the culmination of one of the most prestigious competitions for high school artists in the United States.

Bhatia was one of those students invited to the Miami event after earning the coveted Winner with Distinction designation earlier in the judging process.

In her winning work, Bhatia leaned into the pressures girls face today. She specifically examines the burden of beauty standards and how media influences self-perception.

“I have always been drawn to people as subjects,” Bhatia said. “And once I noticed how uncomfortable self-portraits made me, I realized I should dig into that more.”

Artistic Growth

Bhatia’s journey began in eighth grade, when she took photography as an elective. Since then, she has completed Photography I, Photography II and Chemistry of Photography. She is currently taking Honors Photography.

In the honors class, students create a cohesive portfolio of 15-30 images guided by an artist’s statement. Upper and Middle School Photography instructor Frank Lopez encourages his students to engage with personal and social issues in their work.

I have always been drawn to people as subjects. And once I noticed how uncomfortable self-portraits made me, I realized I should dig into that more.”

Bhatia started crafting her concentration in Photography II, and it became the foundation of her YoungArts submission.

“I chose my artist statement after struggling to take selfportraits I liked,” Bhatia said.

Some of her work integrates magazine cutouts or other forms of advertising, while others rely on various experimental techniques that physically alter the image.

“Personally, I like the tangible, physical aspect of photography,” Bhatia said. “I like the collaging, the cyanotype, the Polaroid more than I do the digital aspect.”

Bhatia says it can be uncomfortable to open her self-portraits on the large monitors in the photography classroom. But she leans into that discomfort, recognizing why she might feel insecure about an image and turning that into a critique.

One piece she created in her junior year, “Plastic Surgery,” set the tone for the rest of her work. For the image, Bhatia took a self-portrait then turned it into a cyanotype – a

camera-less photographic process that creates a distinctive blueprint. Bhatia then handstitched magazine cutouts onto the image using a suture stitch that is used in medical surgeries.

Other pieces in her collection continue this same exploration through physical manipulation using different techniques in the dark room. The photographs all work individually but were grouped together to create a cohesive portfolio.

“You’ll notice when looking at my work that every image is unique and completely different than the others in everything but the fact that they are self-portraits,” Bhatia said.

Bhatia says much of her artistic growth and creativity is thanks to the classroom environment fostered by Lopez. Since he does experimental work himself, the class is given freedom to explore and try new things, she said.

For Honors Photography students, one of the greatest challenges is developing an idea and allowing that idea to expand into a full body of work, Lopez said.

“Her skill was purely evident in the fact she was chosen as a finalist,” Lopez said. “She had just enough time to develop an incredible body of work.”

When Bhatia was accepted to participate in YoungArts, she was able to share excitement with her classmates.

“We were overjoyed,” senior Sumedha Rapuri said. “Because a win for Honors Photography is genuinely a win for everyone.”

YoungArts Week

YoungArts is a national organization that supports artists across a multitude of disciplines, including visual arts, performance and writing. Students apply through a process and are recognized as a Winner or Winner with Distinction.

Bhatia is the ninth student Lopez has had selected to attend National YoungArts Week during his 20-year teaching career.

At National YoungArts Week, students followed a structured schedule made up of interdisciplinary classes, campus-based workshops, guest lectures and performances. Bhatia attended sessions on accessing YoungArts resources, yoga, goal setting and improv drills.

Guest lectures included professional artists such as Quil Lemons, a photographer known for his editorial and fashion work in magazines such as Elle and Vanity Fair.

Students also participated in workshops led by the panelists who selected them. Through the workshops, the artists shared their work and artistic processes. One workshop was centered on putting cut-outs or mini prints of self-portraits back into the environment.

“Those were some of my favorite photos I took,” Bhatia said. “I am a self-portrait person, but it was a very different way of doing it.”

Another workshop centered on sequencing and critiquing portfolios, allowing students to experiment with the same pieces they submitted to the program.

Beyond the classroom, Bhatia said she was struck by the range of talent across disciplines, including dance, theater, classical music, film and writing.

“The first night, we had a voice performance, and I walked out in a daze,” Bhatia said. “I was like, ‘why am I here?’”

At the end of the week, select photography, visual arts and design works were curated into a professional art exhibition. Three of Bhatia’s photos were displayed.

Beyond what she learned about art, Bhatia says she gained perspective on her privilege. In Bhatia’s 10-person photography cohort, two people didn’t own cameras and three people didn’t own laptops.

“It was uncomfortable at points, because I think the way I naturally present myself speaks to the fact that my parents are very educated, and I go to a very nice private school,” Bhatia said.

Her skill was purely evident in the fact she was chosen as a finalist. She had just enough time to develop an incredible body of work.”

Bhatia says she learned a lot from students whose work was shaped by their environments and lived experiences.

One student who attended YoungArts was from Mali, Bhatia said. She used her art as a way to document daily life as the daughter of a medical professional there. Another student centered his work around his experiences of the sometimes-fatal urban activities of subway “surfing” and skyscraper climbing.

Coming from a private school with a dedicated photography instructor, access to materials and a highquality camera broadened her perspective, according to Bhatia.

“It definitely took me out of my bubble, and it was a good experience,” Bhatia said.

Future

As Bhatia prepares to close out her portfolio this year, she carries the new techniques and experiences she gained from National YoungArts Week.

One lecturer, Anastasia Samoylova, a documentary and studio photographer, went to each individual photographer and gave them customized feedback based on their work. Bhatia showed her 15 physical images, from which Samoylova chose pieces to give feedback on.

“And now as I think of making my final book for Honors Photography, I’ll know what to keep building on and maybe let go,” Bhatia said.

Looking ahead, Bhatia sees photography as a creative outlet rather than a career path.

“I think I’ll do something creative in college, even if it’s not exactly this, because I don’t think I’ll have the same resources I do here,” Bhatia said.

Instead, Bhatia is eager to complete her portfolio and finish her last semester strong.

“For me, photography brings balance in my life,” Bhatia said. “I have my academics, I do long distance running and I have photography. They all provide something different.”

Sports

Junior Photographers Capture Gamedays

On any given night, whether during the week or on weekends, juniors

Javi Johnson and Ahan Jain might be found in a high school basketball arena or a college football stadium with cameras dangling around their necks. Capturing and documenting college and high school athletes in the Dallas area has become the focal point of their lives.

Jain shoots sports videography and photography while Johnson captures gameday photos. They both have created their own brands by shooting athletes while publicizing their work through social media.

The pair started their journeys in different places.

Johnson always enjoyed creating and editing content. When he was younger, he would make YouTube videos featuring clips from games like Fortnite. For Jain, the journey began in Photography I his freshman year.

Now this casual pursuit has turned into a passion and a business for the two.

“I really enjoy photography because it allows me to express my creativity all through the eyes of my lens,” Jain said. “It’s also a really good side hustle and allows something to make money from something that doesn’t even feel like a job.”

Johnson’s Path

In eighth grade, Johnson took his interests to a new level after seeing his uncle take photos on family trips and events. Johnson asked to borrow one of his uncle’s cameras and taught himself all its functions, beginning his photography journey.

He says he decided to start photographing Greenhill sports in eighth grade, since he already had familiarity with the teams.

“Javi was very much self-taught when he came to me and was immediately placed in Photo II because of his ability to create images without a prompt or assignment,” Upper and Middle School photography teacher Frank Lopez said. “It’s a very rare thing to happen.”

In the second semester of his freshman year, Johnson decided to start a business photographing high school and college athletes.

Johnson started cold emailing and

reaching out to athletes and athletic departments at nearby universities to gain access to events. He would look for specific games that would have less attendance and were not photographed by others, so the staff would be more likely to give him field credentials.

At the start, Johnson would shoot players for very low prices, sometimes even for free.

“All of my freshman year, I was just really trying to build up my portfolio, just so I could have something to show potential clients,” Johnson said.

As he grew his portfolio, Johnson also established connections with multiple collegiate athletes, some of whom are now established customers.

One of his steady clients is a Texas Christian University offensive lineman, who reached out to Johnson at the beginning of this season asking for coverage of all the home games.

Every Saturday, Johnson would arrive up to three hours before kickoff to capture the player’s spirit walk to the locker room. He also tries to capture a games’ environment, including the stadium, fans and tailgating.

After that, Johnson photographs warmups and walks to the field. Once the game starts, he sits at one of the end zones and shoots the action. He occasionally walks to the sidelines to capture closeups and team huddles. He also captures post-game celebrations and chats with players.

On average, Johnson says he shoots 1,500-2,000 photos every two hours.

“For sports there’s a lot of things in action, so you want to get as many shots as possible,” Johnson said.

Back home, Johnson edits his photos on Adobe Lightroom, which allows him to apply his own presets to all his photos at once. Then, he chooses and further edits his photos individually.

Once edited, Johnson sends them to his clients through Google Photos.

He also has a website and an Instagram account @javijohnsonphotography, where new clients can reach out and view his work. Johnson posts Instagram stories to showcase updates and behind-the-scenes of his photoshoots.

“Having a website is a more professional way to share your work, but using social media can add a fun twist to it,” Johnson said.

Players use Johnson’s photos for their

social media, recruitment highlights, personal brands and Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL, deals.

“We always beg Javi to come to the games because we know he will get us right with some good photos,” junior Sam Schultz said.

Jain’s Evolution

Jain started getting serious about sports photography and videography a year and a half ago. However, he has been a part of the Greenhill photography program since his freshman year.

Jain started in Photography I and now has progressed to Honors Photography. He won a Scholastic Gold Key Award in the experimental photography category and is now entered for possible national recognition.

“He is an exceptional worker in my class,” Lopez said.

Jain’s first photography session was one of his friend’s games who plays basketball at the Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. He later shot training sessions run by boys basketball varsity Assistant Coach Jake Milkerit.

“A lot of big names come to his trainings, and he asked me to do it because he needed a photographer, so that’s how I gained a little traction and connections,” Jain said.

Jain also used to work with former Greenhill Coach Michael Hill. Through this opportunity, Jain was able to make a mixtape for Micah Robinson, who is currently playing basketball at TCU.

“Coach Hill has been a great mentor for me,” Jain said.

Jain promotes his work through his Instagram account, @visualsbyahan, where he shares work from class and recent games.

Since entering the professional photography space, Jain is in the process of creating a website for clients to view his work.

“Once I realized that I was getting business, to make it more professional, I needed a way for others to reach me,” Jain said.

Now, he has taken his skills to the next level and started photographing college athletes. He recently worked with Ryan Agarwal, a basketball player at Stanford University.

“He’s one of two Indian Division I

basketball players, so it was kind of cool to document that,” Jain said.

Through that experience, he also started collaborating with the Instagram account called @dallashoopscene. It has about 37,400 followers and showcases basketball players throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“Their large platform of followers around the DFW metroplex allows me to gain and leverage more connections,” Jain said.

As he began his work, many athletes asked Jain if he could also make mixtapes, so he decided to try it out.

“I appreciate that Ahan is very collaborative and always asks us for our opinions on his clips,” Schultz said.

Jain now creates them with the help of junior Niseem Bhattacharya.

Together, they collaborated with seniors Davis Knocke and Syrus Gupta to create a video for the Greenhill boys basketball game against St. Mark’s School of Texas on Jan. 16. The video was shown to the Upper School during an assembly.

Zooming Out

Although the two started in very different places, their lives and passions have come together as juniors.

For the future of Jain’s photography and videography career, he wants to grow his account and earn more followers on Instagram. Jain would also like to continue this through college and work with his future school’s athletics department.

“Definitely not for my main major, but I would love to join their creative team,” Jain said.

Johnson says he hopes to apply to his university’s sports media department to obtain passes and take photos.

“I really enjoy the whole game day environment and being behind the scenes rather than just watching the games,” Johnson said.

As to where his photography career will take him in the future, Johnson isn’t sure.

“I do enjoy photography, but it can only get me so far,” Johnson said. “I think I could definitely scale it to a professional level, but I don’t know if that’s really what I want to do at the end of the day. It’s a fun hobby and I definitely will continue it as I get older.”

The Rising Popularity of Distance Running

Distance running has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially among teenagers and young adults. What was once mainly associated with cross country teams and competitive runners has expanded into a common activity.

Finisher data from major marathons adds statistical support to the idea of Gen-Z embracing distance running.

In 2023, 19% of people who finished the New York City Marathon were in their 20s, up from 15% four years earlier, according to the Atlantic.

Social media has played a major role in this surge of popularity. Marathon training content has become increasingly common on TikTok and Instagram, especially among young adults, according to a 2024 article in the Atlantic.

Influencers and other public figures have also presented running as a lifestyle rather than only a competitive sport, according to the Guardian.

“You see a lot of TikTok’s about marathons or people doing day-in-the-life videos where they wake up at 6 a.m. and go run,” senior Isa Tanner said.

High-profile celebrities have added to the trend as well.

In 2025, singer Harry Styles ran both the Tokyo Marathon and the Berlin Marathon. At Tokyo, Styles finished in under three and a half hours – good enough to put him in the top 15% of finishers. Styles shaved 25 minutes off his time in Berlin, finishing just under the elite three-hour mark, putting him in the top 5% of finishers.

Coverage of Styles’ marathon appearances circulated widely on social media, contributing to the growing

popularity of distance running among younger Gen Z-ers. More than 1.1 million people entered the lottery for the 2026 London Marathon, nearly double the number two years earlier.

For Gen Z, running has also become connected to a broader wellness culture that focuses on mental health, according to the Guardian. Online, running is often paired with habits such as waking up early, eating healthy and setting personal goals.

Senior Luke Laben said running helps him reset mentally and feel productive during busy days.

“If I have 30 minutes and I’ve felt unproductive all day, I can go for a really hard run,” said Laben. “It kind of neutralizes how I’m feeling.”

Running’s popularity is also tied to how accessible it is compared to many other sports. The sport requires little equipment and can be done almost anywhere, which makes it easy for people to start and stick with it, according to junior Lillian Smith, who ran the half-marathon event at the 2024 BMW Dallas Marathon.

If I have 30 minutes and I’ve felt unproductive all day, I can go for a really hard run. It kind of neutralizes how I’m feeling.”

“I feel like during COVID, you couldn’t go to workout classes or Pilates studios, so you had to improvise,” Smith said. “Not everyone has a bike at home, so people just started running.”

For students like Smith, the appeal of running has been the ability to exercise without the pressure of a competitive team environment.

After running cross country in seventh and eighth grade, Smith stopped competing when she realized the competitive environment was too overwhelming for her. She took time away from the sport and

returned on her own terms.

“I rarely even wear a watch when I run now,” Smith said. “Not seeing the times helped me get a healthier relationship with running.”

Tanner has found a similar appeal in running.

After stepping away from club soccer, Tanner turned to running to stay active. What began casually, first on a treadmill and later outside, gradually became something more challenging and rewarding.

“I realized I actually liked how running made me feel,” Tanner said.

February 17, 2026

TEvergreen the

From Ski Slope to Ice Rink: What to Watch

he Winter Olympics are back!

This year two cities in northern Italy are hosting: Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The opening ceremony was held Feb. 6 while the closing ceremony will take place Feb. 22. We have already witnessed moments of awe and spectacle, moments of triumph, and moments that were heartcrushing.

Here are just a few of the most notable moments so far, and a few key story lines to follow as the games come to a close.

“Quad God”

American figure skater Ilia Malinin, 21, has taken the world by storm with his gravity-defying moves on the ice. And that’s for a reason.

Nicknamed the “Quad God,” Malinin is the only skater in history to land a quadruple, or quad, axel – a 4 ½ turn jump – in competition.

On Feb. 8, Malinin and his teammates brought home gold for the figure skating team event. While the “Quad God” did not execute his signature move, he did land a backflip, leaving even tennis great Novak Djokovic stunned.

Malinin competed in the men’s individual free skate Feb. 13.

Laila Edwards

Laila Edwards, 22, became the first Black woman to play for the U.S. women’s ice hockey team in the Olympics.

Edwards helped the Wisconsin Badgers win the NCAA Division I championships in 2023 and 2025. In the 2025 season, she led the NCAA in goals. She also played a role in the 2025 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship,

countries. Preliminary rounds started Feb. 11, and the gold medal game will take place Feb. 22.

Unlike other professional leagues in the United States, the NHL is not made up of predominantly Americans. Rather, Canadians make up the largest share of players, followed then by Americans, Swedes, Russians and Finns.

One major absence from the tournament is Russia, which remains banned from international competition due to the invasion of Ukraine. For some

With 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter of the penultimate game of the 2024 season, the Greenhill football team clung to a 9-7 lead. The team was only a few defensive stops away from playing for its first Southwest Preparatory Conference football championship in over a decade.

Greenhill’s opponents, Houston Christian High School, took over at their own 25-yard-line and opened the drive with a speed option play. As the Houston Christian quarterback and running back converged behind their line of scrimmage, the ball popped into the air and landed in the arms of a Hornet defender.

The Greenhill player sprinted toward the endzone unopposed but started high-stepping in celebration just before crossing the goal line. A penalty was assessed, the Greenhill touchdown was erased and the team went on to lose the game 15-12.

Since that game, Greenhill football has had a 1-10 record with a negative 252-point differential, a metric showing how many more points opponents have scored than Greenhill over the past 11 games.

As the Greenhill football program has reverted to its recent history of struggles, the team took another hit this year when SPC officials ruled that the growth in Greenhill’s student enrollment necessitated moving the football team from the 3A Division to 4A. That’s the top division, populated by teams with much bigger teams and bigger and faster players than Greenhill’s.

Rather than accept the two-year promotion to 4A football, with all the competitive disadvantages and injury risks that entails, Greenhill has opted to pull its football program from the SPC to compete as an independent program.

“When I got here, growing the program was a major factor,” Head Football coach KJ Williams said. “We’ve made progress, but jumping up a division without the roster numbers to support it wouldn’t put us in the best position to be successful.”

fanatics, the exclusion of one of hockey’s

On the other hand, one iconic figure returns: Sidney Crosby, once again donning the Team Canada jersey. The three-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist remains one of the sport’s defining figures, and

The competition is expected to be fierce. Last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off between Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Finland served as the first beston-best tournament in roughly a decade, helping stoke the fire of the increasingly competitive Canadian

Women’s Alpine Skiing

The women’s alpine skiing events have

Two of the most accomplished female alpine skiers hail from the United States, and they both came to the Olympics with Mikaela Shiffrin, 30, is the most decorated alpine skier ever, owning the

sport’s greats, Vonn underwent partial knee replacement surgery in 2024. Less than a year later, she came out of retirement and astonishingly qualified for the Olympics.

After tearing her ACL Jan. 30 and fracturing her tibia in the downhill race Feb. 8, though, Vonn’s Olympic return came to a devastating end.

Ultimately, Breezy Johnson, 30, won gold, her first Olympic medal. She became the second American woman to win the downhill event in the Olympics. Vonn was the first in 2010.

Ski Mountaineering

A new sport joins the Olympic program this year: ski mountaineering, also known as “skimo.”

Ski mountaineering is a demanding sport combining uphill climbs and downhill skiing using specialized equipment.

2024, she suffered a brutal crash that took a mental toll.

She has been rebuilding her confidence since, openly discussing her battle with PTSD and the pressure of competing at the highest level. She raced Feb. 10 in the team combined event but did not medal. She also raced Feb. 15 and will race on Feb. 18. Regardless of results, she has shown she is more than her accolades. Lindsey Vonn, 41, turned heads with a remarkable return of her own.

After retiring in 2019 as one of the

While new to the Olympics, ski mountaineering has been growing in popularity over the past few decades, particularly in European countries like Switzerland, France and

The sport features multiple disciplines, though only the sprint and mixed relay will be contested at the Olympic level.

The sprint is a high-intensity race lasting only a few minutes. The mixed relay pairs one male and one female athlete, with each completing

The sprint events will take place Feb. 19, with the mixed relay occurring Feb. 21.

Education Jarrett Shine says the move to an independent status was also about sustaining participation within the program.

We’ve made progress, but jumping up a division without the roster numbers to support it wouldn’t put us in the best position to be successful.”

“Playing at the 4A level, given the makeup of the team and the size of our roster, I didn’t think we were going to be competitive,” Shine said. “There was concern whether kids currently in the program would continue to play football if we were forced into that situation.”

“Football is different,” Perryman said. “It hurts from the first day of practice until weeks after the last game. And if you don’t have a critical mass of people willing to go through that, it’s really hard to sustain that.”

As an independent program, Greenhill will no longer be eligible to compete for the SPC championship or play the traditional slate of conference games. Notably, Greenhill will not play its crosstown rival St. Mark’s School of Texas during the 2026 or 2027 season, ending a 43-year tradition.

Williams says the finalized football schedule for the next two years will feature competitive opponents with similar roster sizes to that of Greenhill.

KJ Williams

Roster size was a central concern throughout the decision-making process to become an independent program, according to Williams. Greenhill is projected to have 41 players next season, well below the depth of many 4A teams that carry rosters of over 80 players.

Head of Athletics and Physical

Despite Greenhill proposing safeguards relating to roster size and safety, those measures were not accepted. That left independence as the only viable option, according to Shine.

While Associate Head of School for Mission, Community and Culture Tom Perryman ’81 was not directly involved in the final decision, he says the move reflects broader challenges the football program has historically faced at Greenhill. Perryman, who coached football at Greenhill at the middle school and high school levels, noted the physical demands of the sport and the commitment needed to make it through an entire season.

It hurts from the first day of practice until weeks after the last game. And if you don’t have a critical mass of people willing to go through that, it’s really hard to sustain that.”

“We’re not trying to avoid competition,” Williams said. “We’re trying to put our kids into positions where they can compete safely and effectively.”

Once roster numbers and program depth align better with 4A standards, the school plans to return to the SPC, according to Shine and Williams.

“Being a part of Greenhill football should mean more than just playing the game,” Williams said.

Patti Monzingo Teaches More Than Times

For a moment on the pool deck, time seemed to slow for swimming Head Coach Patti Monzingo. She stood stunned, absorbing what her team had accomplished. Her dream of winning an SPC title had finally been realized at the 2024 Southwest Preparatory Conference.

“When we won, I wanted to just drop down on my knees,” Monzingo said. “I was like, ‘We did it, we finally did it.’”

For Monzingo, the win reflected years of perseverance and belief in the Greenhill swim program.

“Now the other teams look at Greenhill like, ‘Now we’ve got to worry about them too,’” Monzingo said.

Native Texan

Swimming has been a central element of Monzingo’s life from an early age. She began swimming competitively as around the time she started elementary school and continued through middle school and high school.

“I was a competitive swimmer since age six, making it to the Texas Age Group Swimming Championships multiple times,” Monzingo said.

After high school, she attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in communications with a focus on post-production audio for video. After graduating from college in 1988, Monzingo went to work at CNN in Washington, D.C.

Despite the international profile of CNN and the energy of the nation’s capital, Monzingo found the experience disappointing.

“I was kind of disillusioned by CNN and the whole TV news industry, ‘if it bleeds, it leads,’ and just kind of sensationalistic journalism,” Monzingo said.

A year after starting her job at CNN, Monzingo moved back to Austin, where she became a promotions director for KHFI-FM, Austin’s No. 1 Top 40 Station at the time.

She then became art director of the Austin Apartment Guide before being promoted to art director of the Dallas Apartment Guide, which produced more than 1,000 pages per month.

“I had a totally different career,” Monzingo said. “But then after having babies, I wanted to stay at home.”

And then, swimming reentered Monzingo’s life.

Journey to Greenhill

Monzingo’s coaching career began soon after enrolling her daughter in the KC Sharks Summer Swim Team, a Dallas league team then coached by Jeff Veazey.

“He hired me sight unseen,” Monzingo said. “We got [to] talking about swimming over the phone, and you know, it was kind of a funny thing. He’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to come be my assistant coach?’”

After coaching the KC Sharks for the summer, Monzingo started her own swimming school.

“[Veazey] had me coaching and teaching swimming lessons, and I talked it over with my husband,” Monzingo said. “I'm like, ‘I can do this from home.’ So, we decided to put a pool in our backyard and the very next year, I started School of Fish Swim School.”

This summer will mark the 24th year of her school.

After seeing Monzingo coaching at the KC Sharks and an adult learn-to-swim program, former swimming Head Coach Jim Montgomery asked her to be an assistant coach at Greenhill in 2008. Monzingo had known Montgomery from competitive swimming at Dallas Aquatic Masters.

we've always had swimmers who have gotten swimming scholarships,” Monzingo said. “Winning the SPC championship has always been elusive because we had strong swimmers, but we didn't have the bench.”

In 2016, Monzingo and former Greenhill swimming coach Dan Havrilak decided to start identifying potentially strong swimmers in Lower School and Middle School to train and develop before they reached Upper

“Jim was a 1976 triple Olympic gold medalist,” Monzingo said. “It was a huge deal.”

Chasing a Championship

Monzingo began as an assistant coach and Lower School swimming teacher at Greenhill in 2008. Starting in 2015, she took over as head coach. Up to that point, the Greenhill team had never won a swimming SPC championship but had been runner-up several times.

“It felt like the other SPC teams always looked at Greenhill like, ‘You're never going to win,’” Monzingo said.

At the time, SPC was not split into divisions based on size like it is now, which meant larger teams and schools had an advantage.

“Greenhill has always had excellent swimmers, and

She and Havrilak dubbed this first group of swimmers “The Legends.” These rising stars were sophomores when Greenhill won both the boys and girls SPC swim championships for the first time in 2024.

At the start of that 2023-2024 season, Monzingo says she believed the SPC titles were a shoo-in for the boys and within reach for the girls. After the first day of the competition, Monzingo says she was confident the girls were going to win the

“I was so nervous,” Monzingo said. “After the prelims, and we got all the swimmers that we needed to get into finals, I knew we would win unless something went horribly wrong.”

She adds that the boys team swam hard, despite the prediction of a landslide win.

“It was amazing because the boys showed up,” Monzingo said. “They didn't have to. We would have won by sheer numbers. And they didn't just let that slide. They all went to win. They all went to get best times.”

Coaching Philosophy

Throughout the years leading up to winning the SPC title and beyond, Monzingo says her time as a competitive swimmer has greatly impacted her coaching style and philosophy.

“I had the pleasure and the opportunity of having a lot of swimming mentors as coaches when I was a kid, and I still hear them in my head, you know, motivating me as a swimmer,” Monzingo said. “And then I use some of the things that they would say when I was a kid.”

Junior Benji Lachar has seen how Monzingo instills these values to this day in her swimmers.

“She talks about how getting through a hard set [of laps] is going to teach you how to get through hard things in life or how being responsible and coming into practice on time and communicating with her is a skill that’s really important,” Lachar said.

Assistant Coach Collin Baker adds that Monzingo is willing to accommodate her athletes’ other commitments.

“Monzingo understands that swimming isn’t their whole life,” Baker said. “They have theater, clubs and so many other commitments, so when they ask about missing a practice, most of the time it’s ‘yes.’”

Senior Avery Lonergan says she values the way Monzingo supports her as a swimmer.

“Knowing that she has always believed in me and has always been there for me – not just as a coach, but as someone I can talk to – has been incredibly encouraging,” Lonergan said.

Assistant Coach Gabi Grobler has seen Monzingo’s commitment firsthand.

“I think she's extremely passionate about swimming and about just what she does as a coach in general,” Grobler said. “Pretty much all of her spare time goes towards working on meets, working on practices.”

In the future, Monzingo says she hopes to continue strengthening the pipeline of strong swimmers from Lower and Middle School to Upper School swimming. She’s doing that in partnership what Monzingo praises as her “amazing swimming staff:” Grobler, Baker and Middle School swim coach Melanie Girard, who also teaches Middle School English.

Throughout, Monzingo says her main goal is to continue helping swimmers achieve their own milestones.

“The value I see is in being able to help them in any way possible,” Monzingo said. “The sheer joy on somebody's faces when they do something that they didn't think they could do is worth all the money in the world.”

Aviral YouTube video last December alleging fraud at Somali-run child daycare centers in Minneapolis has unleashed weeks of racial profiling, white nationalism and unforgivable violence in an American city. It has also exposed the Trump administration’s proclivity toward sensationalized media.

The incendiary video was posted by content creator Nick Shirley, whose previous conspiracy-themed posts trafficked in views that critics have condemned as xenophobic and Islamophobic.

In his initial post, Shirley used moments of childcare centers turning him away or appearing to be closed when he asked to see children as evidence of fraud. At one point, Shirley was escorted out of a building by police after reportedly trespassing, CNN reported.

To be clear, social service fraud is a real issue in Minnesota. Prosecutors brought charges against financial abuses in 2022, and 98 people – mostly Somali Americans –have been charged, the New York Times has reported. Prosecutors have also alleged that over $9 billion was stolen across multiple Minnesota social safety net programs.

Shirley’s claims, however, remain unsubstantiated. The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families has said that childcare centers highlighted by Shirley were operating normally when visited by investigators. Ongoing investigations have yet to result in any charges of fraud, much less court convictions.

At most, Shirley’s footage documents possible regulatory violations; at worst, he unfairly manufactures suspicion and outrage. Yet, the video was re-posted on X by Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk. Vance cynically heralded the video as “far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes.”

Never one to miss an opportunity to sow outrage or division for political gain, Trump turned his Truth Social fury on Minnesota’s Somali community. He called Somalis “garbage” and vowed to send them “back to where they came from.”

Despite an ongoing civil war and natural disasters in Somalia, the Trump Administration recently announced that it would end the Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants. This order gives Somali immigrants until March 17 to leave the United States.

Meanwhile, in response to the Minnesota fraud investigations, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a freeze on childcare subsidies and programs to support low-income families with children in five Democraticled states.

A federal judge blocked this action

on Jan. 10, but, if overturned on appeal, the effects could be devastating. In Minnesota, infant care without federal subsidies would comprise nearly 20% of the median family income – a price only affordable to 5.5% of families, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Amid the fraud allegations, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he would not run for re-election, saying “an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis” impeded his efforts to defend the people of Minnesota.

Most deplorably, Somali residents in Minnesota now face heightened enforcement actions by Trump Administration immigrant agents. Trump deployed more than 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis as part of an escalating campaign on illegal immigration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity has occurred near daycare centers and schools, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper.

ICE’s oppressive presence in Minnesota has caused turmoil, trauma and bloodshed. A five-year-old boy with his school backpack still on was detained in one enforcement action. And two American citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – were shot and killed by federal agents.

After Pretti’s death, Trump pledged to deescalate. But within a day, he resumed his inflammatory rhetoric. Since then, the administration has announced that 700 enforcement officers were being withdrawn from Minneapolis.

But the blatant disregard for human decency and constitutional rights continues.

While Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem explained that deploying ICE puts “Americans first,” it has done the opposite.

The irony is unavoidable: While Trump and his allies decry “fake news,” it is their amplification of an inflammatory YouTube video that has produced the most tangible harm. Families face the possibility of losing childcare and Somali residents face the cruel possibility of being expelled from their nation of refuge; and U.S. citizens have been gunned down by federal agents as other protesters filmed the horrific scenes.

While the First Amendment robustly protects free speech, it does not and should not embolden government officials to legitimize misinformation – especially when doing so incites inhumane state action.

What began as a claim of social service fraud has become a Trump administration blueprint for weaponizing misinformation and disinformation to punish the innocent alongside the guilty, all while eroding principles of due process and equal protection.

In the back of a strip mall in downtown Minneapolis, a vibrant sign over a blacked-out glass door read “Quality Learing Center,” the word “learning” misspelled in block lettering.

Two men recording a video approached the building to see if anyone was inside. The only person they met was an angry woman, warning any occupants that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was outside. The center, which was licensed for 99 children and received $1.9 million in federal Child Care Assistance Program funding in the 2025 fiscal year, appeared desolate.

The suspicions of fraud were reinforced in the video by a nearby resident who said he had lived in the area since 2018 without ever seeing kids at the daycare.

The content creator was 23-year-old Nick Shirley, working with David Hoch, who acted as an individual investigator. The pair published several videos on YouTube and X alleging $110 million in fraud through misuse of Child Care and Development Funds.

To many fed-up viewers, Shirley’s exposé of the “Learing Center” became a symbol of the brazen fraud taking place through the state’s social services. Within days, a media frenzy engulfed Minnesota and its elected officials in a firestorm of accountability.

What the Minnesota video tapped into was not a one-off scandal, but the tip of an iceberg of fraud. Shirley continued to document at least six other apparently empty daycare centers and assistance facilities that received federal funding.

Vice President JD Vance retweeted the footage on X, stating “this dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @ pulitzercenter prizes.” FBI Director Kash Patel and other Trump administration officials piled on remarks on X, amplifying allegations of scams at Minnesota daycare centers.

On Dec. 29, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that ICE agents were “knocking on doors” in Minneapolis as a part of the fraud investigation. The very next day, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill announced that all federal childcare payments to Minnesota were frozen, pending review.

Even prior to the allegations raised in the videos, federal prosecutors have spent years uncovering the massive fraud in Minnesota’s safety-net programs. Over 90 individuals, roughly 85 of them Somali American, have been indicted on schemes involving food aid, housing support and other services. In the largest case, prosecutors allege that a network

of nonprofits and businesses stole over $250 million in federal funds intended to feed low-income children.

Much of this looting dates back to the Somali diaspora, resulting in a Somali community that numbers about 100,000 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The extent of the alleged fraud is unclear, but criminals are nonetheless exploiting the state’s generous welfare programs.

The North Star State is being billed for meals never served, children never cared for and services never provided. Even worse, a Manhattan Institute investigation alleges that some of the stolen money was funneled overseas to the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.

Minnesota’s leaders must be held responsible for failing to address the problem.

“There is a perception that forcefully tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc for Democrats,” Kayseh Magan, a Somali American who previously worked as a fraud investigator in Minnesota’s attorney general’s office, told the New York Times. In essence, the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has put politics over fiscal responsibility, and the American taxpayer has paid the price.

The Trump administration is justified in vigorously prosecuting the social services fraud. But the ICE crackdown ordered by Noem – ostensibly to apprehend undocumented immigrants and assist the fraud investigations – have tarnished this effort. Two Minneapolis protesters have been shot and killed by ICE officers, and such violence is unequivocally unjustified.

Operation Metro Surge, as the ICE operation in Minneapolis was codenamed, has been marred by heavy-handed tactics that have raised serious questions about federal misconduct. The deaths of Minneapolis residents and overly aggressive tactics by federal agents have eroded public trust and overshadowed the legitimate aims of the mission.

Far too often, ICE’s actions have fueled fear rather than confidence. The violence and controversy have undermined the agency’s credibility, making it nearly impossible to build community cooperation with law enforcement.

If ICE and other federal agencies are to carry out their duties effectively, they must pair decisive action with transparency and accountability. That includes stricter discipline regarding the use of force. Without clear standards to adhere to, legitimate enforcement operations risk not only harming innocent civilians but bringing down the very mission the agents seek to uphold.

Lawful, controlled practices are necessities for restoring public trust and ensuring that legitimate efforts to combat fraud do not further divide communities.

Sumedha Rapuri

SumedhaRapuriisaseniorwhoispassionate aboutphotographyandgardeningwithher family.

Watching my teachers’ interests within their fields come to life has made some of my favorite classes at Greenhill my elective courses. In electives, teachers have the space to explore the topics they care about most, and that enthusiasm carries into the classroom.

I have always wondered what it would be like to have taught a semester-long elective course of my own. What would I teach about? What would actually be interesting? How could I teach something that could connect to the broader interests of Greenhill students?

The answer became clear through a subject I’ve returned to again and again: floriography, the secret language of flowers.

Widely used during the Victorian era in England, floriography offered a discreet form of expression in a society shaped by strict social conventions. Entire messages could be conveyed through a single bouquet. The arrangement, number, color and even the way flowers were arranged all carried meaning, turning ordinary bouquets into coded conversations. Through floriography, Victorians relied on flowers to express emotions that could not be openly spoken.

Floriography has been practiced long before Victorian England. After starting our class on the Victorian England unit, we would transition outward, looking at how flowers acquire meaning far beyond a singular time or place. Students would immediately begin to notice that a flower’s symbolism is never universal.

Petals as Pedagogy

around the globe, yet in Ancient Greece they were linked to fertility. Even marigolds, which appear across many cultures, are associated with remembrance in Mexico but power and strength in India.

These differences reveal how floral symbolism is often shaped by the history, religion or cultural tradition of a region rather than by the flowers themselves.

Floriography can be a murky language, shifting across time and place, so to better understand these differences, students would engage with both literature and art. Readings from Kate Greenaway’s beautifully illustrated anthology, “The Language of Flowers,” would offer insight into how symbolism has been recorded,

students’ own cultural backgrounds. Floriography is not only shaped by culture but also by the land itself. To understand the meanings we assign to flowers, it is also important to consider the environments that allow them to grow. The course would introduce students to how geography, climate and human intervention influence which flowers are given the ability to thrive and which disappear.

Through focused lessons, students would learn how patterns of trade have moved plants far from their native landscapes, how modern farming has altered ecosystems and how changing climates affect pollinators. When the land changes, so does the language of flowers. Appreciating floriography therefore requires an awareness of the environments that sustain it, and a recognition that preserving these landscapes also preserves the cultural meanings tied to

Morning glories, for example, can represent fleeting beauty in Korea while symbolizing death in the United States. Orchids are often associated with elegance

It’s the fall of your senior year, and you feel like your future hangs in the balance. You constantly wonder: “What will others think about me based on the college I attend?”

You look online on Instagram and YouTube to get a better understanding of the college process, and you get flashbanged by perfect grade point averages, perfect test scores, life-saving nonprofits and academic research.

How will you ever beat these people for a spot at your dream school?

Well, you just might not.

The college process is toxic and predatory in society. At Greenhill, this environment of competition and judgement based on the schools people attend is pervasive.

It starts from a young age, when you see Disney Channel characters at schools like Harvard or Yale. It continues when your parents promise that good grades lead to attendance at a hyper-prestigious school.

Sometimes, they’ll even buy college merch before you can even understand the reality of college admissions.

In the classroom, students across grades whine about A-minuses and their thoughts become consumed by the looming possibility of getting rejected from schools with low single-digit acceptance rates. It’s no longer about learning, just a number.

When looking at yourself, you constantly question if you are good enough.

When others at Greenhill feel the pressure to get better from their parents or

while studying Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings would invite students to consider how artists reinterpret nature through emotion and perspective. Writing would play a central role as well, whether through research papers into global floral traditions or creative reflections connecting flowers to

To give students a chance to connect the course material to the world around them, we would take a field trip to the Dallas Arboretum or the Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park, allowing students to observe how the flowers of Dallas reflect our city’s history and community. We would also make regular trips to the gardens and flora across Greenhill’s campus to examine how flowers shape the spaces we learn in every day.

As much as I’d love to teach this course, there is a major issue. I am not entirely sure which department this class would belong to! In many ways, it is less about flowers themselves and more about how people across the world assign meaning to them. At its core, this class is a study of world cultures and the ways humans use nature to communicate, remember and make sense of our world.

Prestige Problem

just themselves, you look at them and think you’ll be left behind. Students work harder. But in the end, by trying to craft a “perfect” narrative, they forget what they truly enjoy and instead become a list of things they think colleges and other students will admire.

The mindset of the scarcity around good colleges has driven the rat race of competition that has led to grade obsession at Greenhill and in schools around the country.

Yet the mindset needs a fundamental change. The fact of the matter is that college is not the determining factor of your future, and greater happiness comes from finding something you love rather than forcing yourself into things to look good on paper.

As found in a Purdue University survey of 29,560 college graduates, “The schools these college graduates attended – public or private, small or large, very selective or less selective – hardly mattered at all to their workplace engagement and current wellbeing.”

The takeaway is clear: No matter where you end up, it matters more how you take advantage of all the opportunities given. Trust your own abilities and be willing to accept the fruits of your hard work.

Additionally, college admissions are incredibly subjective, and taking any rejection as an evaluation of self-worth is harmful. It should always be their loss in your mind.

Idolizing anything begets disappointment. Holding colleges on

the Evergreen Sta�

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Nora Ahearn

Kate Ponnambalam

Sasha Wai

John Hurley

EXECUTIVE EDITORS

Rory Liu

Lylah Pouratian

Ella Sadka

Vedant Subramanian

Justin Wu

DEPUTY EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Noor Zaman

MANAGING EDITORS - PRINT

Vivian White

Kaitlyn Yoo

MANAGING EDITORS - ONLINE

Jin Huang

Scarlett Song

Penelope Stone

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Aanya Bhoria

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Sadie Werner

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Lillian Smith

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Vivian White and Kaitlyn Yoo

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Cindy Chou and Khushi Punnam

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Victoria Gonchar and Sadie Werner

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Jordan Arbuckle and Aanya Bhoria

VIEWS EDITORS

Talia Sidikaro and Cate Simpson

STAFF WRITERS

Adrienne Akintola

Ela Battikhi

Nirvan Bhattacharya

Julia Bella Frankfurt

Evan Huang

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Natalie Ledyard

Meenakshi Mandalapu

Marleigh Massoud

Willa Oza

Noa Pouratian

Aashi Punnam

Nithya Rao

Noah Stinchcomb

Naomi Wien

pedestals instead of analyzing places that will give you the happiest learning and social experience is very important.

The question of changing our views on competition and the college process ties into the kind of society we envision. Do we want to live in a society where we value learning and self-discovery? If your answer is yes, we must make high school about learning again, not competition.

Given the nature of Greenhill’s selectivity, toxicity around matriculation will always be a part of the school’s culture. To what degree? Well, that depends on how much we glorify these hyper-selective institutions.

Change starts with a few small shifts. Let’s stop asking “Where are you applying?” and start asking “What are your excited to study?” Resist mentally ranking students based on acceptances and instead celebrate each other.

Students should make the decision not to turn stats and extracurriculars into social currency. And as a community, we should be more mindful of how we talk about college, especially around younger students who are still forming their sense of self.

Most importantly, we should give ourselves permission to be human. It’s imperative to recognize that college is not the finish line; it is merely the beginning. The sooner we stop treating it like one, the sooner Greenhill can become a place where ambition does not come at the expense of well-being.

Let’s redefine success.

ADVISOR

Gregg Jones

Response? Opinion? Original Idea?

Email the Editors-in-Chief: ahearnn26@greenhill.org ponnambalamk26@greenhill.org wais26@greenhill.org

EDITORIAL POLICY

The Evergreen is an independent, studentled newspaper serving the Greenhill School community. It is printed six times during the school year. Print circulation is 900 copies. Past issues are archived at issuu.com/ghevergreen.

Our staff upholds a code of ethics that values honesty, integrity, accuracy and responsibility. Our mission is to help our community interpret campus, local, state and national events through content written and edited by students.

The Evergreen welcomes letters and emails from readers. We reserve the right to edit submissions for accuracy, grammar and length. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Evergreen staff, not necessarily that of Greenhill School.

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& Rants Raves

A RAVENT to the ice storm that gave us three days off and the mountain of work waiting when we got back. We swapped classes for blankets and hot chocolate, then returned to back-to-back quizzes and tests, desperately trying to catch up.

A RANT to parking options for Upper School students. To secure a spot close to your first class, you must arrive at school extra early. If not, you risk parking on Hornet Road or next to the carpool line, becoming stuck after school for what feels like hours.

A RAVENT to the end of our winter athletics season. While we are sad to see winter sports end, we hope all the athletes had fun and everyone is prepared for the spring season!

A RAVE to the upgraded Hornet Road. Finally, we have a smooth, paved road. No more driving into school as we dodge potholes the entire way!

A RANT to exams coming up. Reviewing all the material to date from every yearlong class is exhausting, and recalling information that you learned in the first week of school is challenging. But we’ve made it this far, and we can make it through exams too.

A RAVENT to the recent student concerts and performances. Our Fine Arts students have had schedules packed with rehearsals upon rehearsals, but it’s all worth it to see their work shine on stage!

The Trouble With First Impressions

Kate Ponnambalam

In high school, we live at the dangerous crossroads of passionate judgement and limited wisdom. As a fan of both Maya Angelou’s writing and snap judgments that make my life easier, I have long embraced these words: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Yet, senior year refuses to leave my shallow thinking alone, so now I find myself questioning whether Angelou’s admonition is flawed or perhaps my interpretation of her words is problematic. This is Maya Angelou, so obviously I have some rethinking to do. Let me start at the beginning.

A few weeks ago, I had coffee with a friend I had barely spoken to since middle school. There had been no dramatic falling out, just the typical drift that occurs when two friends belong to incompatible social groups with different values (my grownup description of the insecurity-based carnage that often fuels teenage social interactions).

During coffee, we caught up on the important things, shared our current struggles and quietly remembered the like-mindedness we had once

known. Why did I miss out on years of friendship with this amazing person? Because her friend group showed me who she was, and I believed my own harsh appraisal the first time.

But in listening to her, I realized, like most of us, her friend group was just a social life raft kept afloat with mutual acceptance and belonging to survive the shark-infested

As much as my self-righteous mind wanted to make her group a singular flawed moral entity and assign them a tidy label, I had to admit neither the group nor my friend was that simple. Perhaps the “showing” Angelou intended would require me to cast aside quick, usually withering, judgments

my senior year epiphany matter? Angelou’s words about when shows you who you are” me down this path, her about knowing and being known will lead us on.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,” said Angelou, who suffered muteness for years as a child after a sexual trauma and the subsequent murder of the

perpetrator. She understood the profound pain of an untold story and the lifelong healing of finding your voice.

There are over 500 student stories in Greenhill Upper School, and for most of us, the vast majority of those stories will remain untold.

Often, we are just limited by time and opportunity, but sometimes we have a moment where our curiosity tugs, our intuition senses loneliness or our memory whispers about a longago connection. We have easy excuses about our social discomfort or unspoken boundaries between cliques or the unkind story our mind has already created for this person, but we also stand at the edge of an untold story whose telling could change both our lives.

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” Angelou knew courage lives at the root of all the hard, beautiful things we do. When she poured out her heart to the world in memoirs and poetry, she risked scorn and rejection, but she knew her bravery would build connections and bring healing to others who shared her wounds.

After renewing my old friendship and recognizing the judgments and fears that have stolen so many meaningful interactions from me, I wish I could say I am bravely seeking out new people every day at school. I am trying, but my courage is still catching up to my conviction. But if you see me, know that I would love to hear your untold story.

Perhaps each of us can find the courage to put aside our fears and judgments and ask to hear someone’s story. They might show you who they truly are, and you can believe them this time.