The ReMarker | March 2026

By Nicholas Huang and Ben Yi

By Michael Chang and Christopher Huang

“No one at St. Mark’s just says, ‘I want to be an

RAISED ON RISK

My new badge of honor

Doan Nguyen Enterprise Editor

A teammate’s wayward pass had me leaping to catch the basketball soaring out of bounds. In an effort to keep the ball in play, I caught the ball in the air and threw it back in, paying no attention to what was behind me. Looking back on it now, that was highly unintelligent.

My epic save led to a not-so-epic, one-sided altercation with a jump rope stand, innocently spectating the game from just outside the field of play.

As I turned around to stop myself from falling, my forehead collided with the outstretched metal arm. Crumpling to the floor, I clutched my forehead and felt my face get hot. Not from the pain. Not from the fresh blood running down my face. From embarrassment.

I took a peek at my new archnemesis through the gaps in my fingers. My scrawny, 5-foot opponent was pushed back mere inches. Unfazed.

I just lost to a piece of equipment.

My mom calls my new scar “something that better disappear.” My friends call say I look like “Harry Potter.”

I picked up the injury during a game with the Choopers, our pickup basketball group. The name began as a portmanteau of “Chinese Hoopers,” but as my Vietnamese last name suggests, the roster has diversified a bit. Our 10-man lineup has since expanded to include half-Asian, Korean and Indian talent.

We play—no—we practice for about three hours a day. Every free period. During lunch. After school. On the weekends. Onlookers passing by one of our heated pickup games usually watch with a confused look on their faces, like they’re trying to figure out whether our airballs are intentional.

If you’re ever on campus, bring some popcorn and stop by Spencer Gym to watch a group of Asian guys try their absolute hardest to make 3-pointers. One at a time. With the goal of everyone hitting one in a row. A lot of tears — mostly from laughter — have been shed in that gym. And despite declaring “one last game,” several times a day, someone always says the three words keep us going: run it back.

More recently, we’ve been taking things more seriously. Coach Freisen, one of our biggest supporters, even spent an entire period walking us through inbound plays. For about a week, we were convinced that we were on the path to greatness. Or at least on the path to a win in the Plano Sports Authority Recreational Basketball League.

Three hours is a lot of time to spend doing something you’re not particularly good at. So why do we keep on playing? It’s the stepback corner 3 that ends up hitting the shot clock on the top of the backboard. Or tripping over shoelaces on a fast break. Or arguing when someone shamelessly travels. And getting food with each other afterwards, like nothing happened.

Mostly, it’s the fact that we’re seniors now. Two months from now, the gym will be empty, and the Choopers will be scattered across different colleges. And different courts.

But the one-inch scar placed right between my eyes is going to be there for the rest of my life. If a couple sprained ankles and eight stitches is the cost of being a Chooper, I’d run it back anytime.

The A-B-C-Ds of a Spring Break on the beach

From the right shades to the sunscreen that keeps you from frying, these are the simple beachside staples every guy needs before stepping onto the sand this spring break.

If you don’t have a pair of sunglasses, how do you expect to look suave in the sun?

This is a musthave, especially for the white-shirt day on the Senior trip to Cancun.

Aviators Coastal BreezyLinen

SPF

Unless peeling shoulders is a part of your Spring Break plan, wear some sunscreen. It’s in the “Beach Big Three,” alongside Sun and Sand.

Getting wet sand in your shoes or crocs is top 10 worst experience of all time.

For these web exclusive stories and more website content, visit smremarker.com and @remarkernewspaper on Instagram.

team competes Here are a few of the stories posted monthly on our website and Instagram.

Business majors dominate career choices

Driven by high salaries and versatility, students continue to flood towards business after graduation.

Young men face growing engagement gap

Reports show boys falling behind in academics and disengaging in civic life over the past few decades.

Discrepencies in forgiveness divide society

Friday, March 13, 2026 PAGE 7

The ReMarker

Alumnus builds career in public service

After years shaping U.S. foreign policy at the CIA and State Department, Ned Price ’01 is now stepping into leadership at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

By Rishik Kapoor

Intelligence Analyst at the CIA. Spokesperson at the National Security Council. Special Assistant to President Obama. Spokesperson for the Department of State. Deputy to the U.S. Representative to the United Nations. Now, he is the Interim Co-President of the Harvard Institute of Politics. In terms of to public service, Ned Price ’01 has done just about everything.

Price’s passion for foreign affairs originated here, long before he started any of his prestigious diplomatic and political work.

In particular, a diverse range of classes and study abroad trips to places such as Peru, Mexico and Spain opened his eyes to the broader global environment.

“St. Mark’s first brought the rest of the world to my attention in many ways,” Price said. “I had teachers at St. Mark’s who brought me a deep familiarity and knowledge of the rest of the world to the classroom. So I left St. Mark’s very confident foreign policy and international affairs would

be my professional calling because of so much of what I had been exposed to at St. Mark’s.”

Price took this passion with him to Georgetown University, where he studied international relations at the School of Foreign Service. There, he immersed himself in courses on diplomacy, forged connections with notable foreign policy figures and gained real-world experience to learn more about global affairs.

However, the truly defining moment of his time in college came when the 9/11 attacks provided an unexpected but immediate context for his studies in international relations.

Public service comes in many different forms, and for me, working with students or serving in government are both deeply rewarding in their own right.

Ned Price ’01

Harvard Institute of Politics Co-President

“It was barely two weeks into my freshman year, and Georgetown is right across the river from the Pentagon,” Price said.“We still have very vivid memories of climbing to the top of a dorm rooftop and watching

the Pentagon burn and smolder. For many of us, our careers and broader lives have been defined by that, and it helped cement the idea that my career would gravitate around foreign policy, international affairs and national security in some way.”

Price’s experiences at Georgetown guided him to working as an intelligence analyst at the CIA, focusing on the detection of terrorist attacks against the United States. In this role, he gained crucial insight into the American international relations system that would help him throughout his later career.

“It gave me a good sense of how the American foreign policy apparatus worked, for better or for worse,” Price said. “From those earliest days, when I was just out of college in the most junior roles at the CIA to much more recent years as a senior policymaker, I’ve had the benefit of seeing how decisions are deliberated and policy is made, and my time at the CIA was crucial to that.”

During his time in the CIA, Price also worked at the White House, serving on the National Security Council. There, he worked with future Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other prominent diplomatic figures that would eventually work with Price in the State Department of President Joe Biden’s cabinet.

See Public Service, Page 6

AI-driven ads reshape digital advertising landscape

By Alex Calder

Day by day, artificial intelligence is becoming a larger part of people’s lives. But recently, artificial intelligence is making a surge in the form of advertising. While there has always been personalized advertising, AI is making ads more individualized and harder to ignore.

“AI-driven ads are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do advertise and draw you in,” computer science teacher Ivann Grande said.

“This has been true for as long as ads have existed… the imagination and what makes the ad unique gets watered down when AI is introduced. They all look the same and function in the same way.”

As with many things AI related, things are changing at an increasingly rapid rate, so it is difficult to picture what the landscape will look like a couple of months or years from now.

“AI can help think of ways to utilize (ad) data in ways that some

companies might not have thought of,” Grande said. “This can all be avoided with the rule of not creating social media accounts or clicking on ads, accidentally or not.”

With this new way of advertising, concerns about privacy have been voiced by adults and students alike.

“It’s crazy how advanced AI is getting,” sophomore Nicholas Petrikas said. “It really makes you wonder how much they know about you. It also makes you stop and re-

While some controversies fade quietly, others face life-changing backlash, reflecting an inconsistent culture of accountability.

Conversation Starters

Interesting news headlines from the month that sparked conversation

TEXAS SENATE PRIMARIES

After voting on March 3, Texas state Rep. James Talarico beat U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate, while U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is heading to a runoff with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the Republican nomination.

IRAN CONFLICT

On Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel launched major airstrikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and targeting nuclear sites. Iran has retaliated with missiles and drone strikes against bases in the Middle East.

KRISTI NOEM FIRED

President Trump fired U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on March 5, replacing her with Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin. The move marks a major shift in the administration’s immigration and border security leadership.

5 MINUTES WITH Fletch Carron

“It’s hard to really balance teaching a science curriculum — making an advanced curriculum while making it creative and fun. We want students doing as close to real science as possible and not cooking their labs out of the box.”

“In 2013, we had one engineering elective class and no engineering lab. So we’ve achieved a lot of our goals with respect to what people would call STEM, but just more engineering: the spaces are heavily utilized. We were worried: are we going to overbuild and have nobody in there? But they’re completely alive with activity.”

“The number one goal was to create a science building that would last 50 years plus, to try to anticipate what the people taking over from us would need.”

alize that the next time you see an advertisement, it was likely put in front of you by AI.”

Along with privacy, the impact on attention spans is clear. Many students understand the risks but remain hooked on apps for longer than they would like.

“I open my phone to watch one video, and suddenly it’s been an hour,” Petrikas said. “It feels like the app already knows what will keep me watching, even when I don’t want to.”

Grande believes that students need to be educated on what is happening in order to break the endless cycle. As a warning to students and faculty across the school, he emphasizes the importance of staying informed.

“We need to keep covering and updating our lessons on digital citizenship,” Grande said. “Teachers have to stay informed so students can be informed too.”

Students flood toward business careers

Driven by high compensation and versatility, around half of students go into finance majors every year, despite the potential tradeoffs.

By Holden Purvis, Nicholas Huang and Emiliano Mayo Mejía

Investment bankers at top firms can earn around $175,000 a year straight out of college. A few years later, private equity associates make upwards of $300,000. Hedge fund managers and successful founders — exponentially more.

Even though most business majors won’t achieve this level of compensation, the numbers alone are powerful. They shape perception. They shape the vision of success and status. They shape the dream.

For students planning their futures, finance promises a level of wealth, upward mobility and versatility that few career paths can match.

And year after year, around half of students at the school flood towards business, drawn by the promise and willing, at least initially, to make the steep climb to the top.

Money is rarely the whole story, but it is almost always the first chapter. For kids envisioning their futures, dream jobs offer excitement — astronauts, athletes, doctors — jobs that are more than what kids would see as a mundane corporate life.

But as they get older, especially for students not interested in pursuing STEM, business becomes the default, safe option that seemingly everyone does.

“No one at St. Mark’s just says, ‘I want to be an investment banker,’” investment banker Andrew Laczkowski ‘20 said. “I don’t think you really hear that. You kind of just go into it.”

After graduating from St. Mark’s, Laczkowski went on to study business at the University of Pennsylvania before landing in investment banking at Texas Capital. For him, the decision was more of a natural current rather than a deliberate choice at one point in time.

And even for students with other passions or interests, choosing business can seem like a necessary long-term sacrifice — trade your passions now to earn the financial freedom to pursue something else later.

“I think it’s very easy to look at salary expectations for jobs and let that kind of warp your mindset of what jobs you should pursue,” economics major Matthew Hofmann ’25 said.

Hofmann, a freshman at Williams College, was never fully set on what he wanted to do in high school and still isn’t to this day. But he knew that the financial ceiling of business was difficult to ignore.

Pursuing majors outside business or STEM can feel as though one is being left behind by everyone else making six figures. As families nationwide increasingly

scrutinize the value of a college education, business majors remain standout choices for high returns on investment.

“Even if a family can afford four years of college, I think they’re still trying to get a sense of return on investment, in terms of is my child going to have a tangible skill that they can be employable after graduation,” Al G. Hill, Jr ‘63 Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido said.

But while money is important, it can’t be the only motivation to survive in the industry.

“From the people I’ve talked to so far, everyone has something else besides just the money that is driving them,” Hofmann said.

While the dream of business can appear glamorous, it comes with a cost. For the most prestigious op -

Matthew Hofmann ‘25 Economics Major

portunities out of college, 90-hour work weeks, rapid, high-stress environments and a job that most would not find overly memorable or rewarding compared to other options is the standard.

“By the end of high school, you can definitely be working really hard nonstop, but it definitely wasn’t close to those 80, 90, 100 hour work weeks,” Hofmann said.

“Now seeing a lot of my teammates, going through the recruiting process, there’s a certain acceptance that if you’re going into this industry, you have to be willing to put up with that.”

The past two summers, he’s worked as a real estate investing analyst and sales intern, working around 50 hours a week. Despite sacrificing time with family, playing lacrosse or other interests, he still

believes the experience was worth it.

“Everything comes with tradeoffs,” Hofmann said. “I think there are points where you have to pick and choose and accept the fact that you can’t have everything.”

Chaplain Stephen Arbogast always knew the world of finance wasn’t what he was looking for long-term. He knew he had a passion for teaching and religion — a passion that he never lost sight of.

But coming out of college, he had to find something and initially forgo his other passions. And after connecting with friends of friends, he landed a job at Goldman Sachs, where he eventually rose to Vice President.

“I loved it, and I was good at it, and they liked me, and I liked them,” Arbogast said. “So what I thought was going to be a one year position before I would go find something else turned out to be something I stayed in for a dozen years. I had not really planned for it to be that long, but I did know right from the start that it was not going to be something I would do for my whole life.”

At Goldman Sachs, he worked in various roles, initially pricing new securities and later becoming a manager trainer. And throughout, the weeks were intensive, exhaustive. Every minute, he’d be assigned a new task.

“We were working 90 hours a week,” Arbogast said. “I mean, people talk about that in the news and kind of make a joke of it, but it’s actually true.”

And yet, he liked it and so did many of his colleagues. Even though the work was tiresome, something about the productivity and hardship motivated them to love the 90-hour weeks. After retiring, some even missed the demanding work.

“I think there are people who love the thrill and the excitement that comes with working in that environment and love to do it from the time they’re 25 until they’re 95,” Arbogast said. “The kind of personality that’s interested in this kind of work is the kind of personality that is not interested in an ordinary life. That’s not what’s going to drive them.”

While the work-life balance is uniquely different for each person, in Arbogast’s view, there doesn’t have to be a distinction between “work” and “life”: work is essential to living, and people have to find a way to be productive in order to find fulfillment.

And more specifically, going into a finance field doesn’t have to be solely for a well-paying job or simply for the love of the field: it can be a nuanced mix of both.

“The idea that you’re going to spend time on something you actually don’t like just for money to allow you the time to do the thing you really pursue — this is a huge luxury,” Arbogast said. “Most people in most countries, in most centuries, don’t have the luxury to choose their passion.”

But even for those with the freedom to choose their own path, the current system, in both high school

and college, pushes students to choose a direction early — before they may have had a chance to explore and discover new opportunities.

“Colleges really stress the fact that they’re asking you, ‘What do you want to study?’, versus in the past, colleges were pretty open to bringing on undecided students. It becomes more important earlier on for a student to have some foundation,” Pulido said.

With business being one of the most competitive majors, students must start early to build their narrative. Because of the pressure to pick a path early, business becomes a natural default for undecided students.

But while finance may promise versatility later on, breaking into the field’s most competitive sectors requires early specialization surrounding that industry.

“Kids are networking so early, and you have to get so far ahead of it,” Laczkowski said. “It’s a little ridiculous, in my opinion, but you really have to have a sense of what you want to do. Unfortunately, there’s no figuring it out as a junior, and it’s kind of a shame because it doesn’t allow kids to figure out what they want to do.”

And for those who do commit early, deeper questions can surface years later. Although well-paying, business jobs can feel boring or as if they aren’t contributing much for society. The issue is that these questions are hard to answer in high school or college. Yet students still have to pick a direction anyway.

“Committing your whole life to investment banking, I don’t know personally if that’s as worthy of a cause as a doctor or engineer,” Laczkowski said.

For Chief Financial Officer Summer Loveland, business once seemed like a lifelong pursuit. She spent 15 years at KPMG, one of the “Big Four” accounting firms that provide audit and tax services. One day, she hoped to rise to the top and retire as a partner in accounting.

“Accounting was going to be very versatile for me, and it was absolutely the case,” Loveland said, “There’s a lot of job opportunities out there and even though you might not want to, some people might just love looking at financial statements, and that’s their job.”

But not all of those opportunities brought the variety she was looking for. In a corporate accounting department, the work repeated itself month after month — different numbers, but same tasks and

responsibilities. Eventually, it became boring.

Still, KPMG swallowed her into the finance world completely. She experienced

You really have to have a sense of what you want to do. Unfortunately, there’s no figuring it out as a junior (in college), and it’s kind of shame because it doesn’t allow kids to figure out what they want to do.

Andrew Laczkowski ‘20 Investment Banker

80-hour work weeks while balancing her family and social life, which eventually became impossible.

“I think a lot of people who work in public accounting, in that environment and stay there, have a lot of workaholic tendencies,” Loveland said, “And you can just get really into it, and you’re just sort of living and breathing work, and it can become a way of life.”

Eventually, such a fiery environment caused her to rethink her career path. While she once aspired to continuously move up the corporate ladder, her goals and perspective shifted. The climb stopped making sense.

And after 15 years, she decided to leave KPMG to spend more time with her family and look for new career opportunities.

“I reached a point where I was like, okay I have a toddler at home, I can’t be doing that. That’s not being a very good mom,” Loveland said “And so that’s when my goals changed. I left, and my goal was no longer to be a partner and retire in public accounting.”

After leaving, she found CFO jobs at the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, the Real Estate Council and now St. Mark’s. In those CFO jobs, she deals with much more than numbers, and her work is no longer repetitive nor boring.

Ultimately, Loveland’s work as an accountant never changed. She did.

And like Arbogast, business gave her the financial freedom to leave on her own terms, and the skills she had built over those 15 years could open many doors

St. Mark’s National

Data from St. Mark’s classes of 2024-2026 for students’ initial major commitments show increased interest in business compared to the national average of undergraduate majors. Because many students transfer into business later in college, the business share at St. Mark’s may be understated. Data aggregated from National Center for Education Statistics.

The

Dream Path

There are many different fields in the broad category of business. Here is an example of a well-known career trajectory popularized by public portrayals and prestigious job titles.

Students at target colleges strive to become analysts at top firms. Investment banking brings name prestige and many future opportunities, but with the downside of long work hours and potentially bland work.

that came next.

Aside from the money, business offers a level of versatility that many students can find just as appealing. For undecided students trying to find direction, the field provides a wide skillset applicable across many industries, making it relatively easy to seamlessly transition into new opportunities.

While priorities do change over time, skills remain permanent, and the skills learned from business majors or jobs allows students to cast a wide net.

“I think the world is just changing so fast right now, so it’s not in my best interest to be fully set on one career, and I’ve kind of had that perspective of trying to learn a lot of different skills that can be transferred to whatever type of career I pursue,” Hofmann said

For students who aren’t necessarily passionate about business, it can still serve as a powerful stepping stone. Even a few years in finance can open doors to new industries or opportunities.

“There’s a whole field open for you once you do investment banking because people see it on your resume and they assume a certain thing when they see it — because it does take a lot of time and effort to do,” Laczkowski said.

For senior Oliver Perez, business was never the plan. He spent years imagining a future in medicine before the possibility of business drew him in.

“With business, it’s interesting because there’s so many avenues you can do with it,” Perez said. “If you’re going to be a doctor going to medicine, there’s kind of only one or very few ways you can go with it, but if you take business, you can kind of apply it to whatever you want.”

Perez largely credits the shift largely to the economics class, which he sees as a fundamental subject that enriched his perspective and felt closely applicable to real-life. Ultimately, the class brought along new questions and challenges.

“It’s like a puzzle, almost,” Perez said. “It makes you change your ideas of where you might want to go to college, or what you might want to do after school. Some of my college applications were based on what schools were good for neuroscience, and while I’ve gotten into other schools for other stuff, I feel like it makes me reconsider.”

Even as neuroscience remains on the table, Perez’s growing interest in the world of business and economics continues to grow. What he once saw as just another major is now a dynamic career path that he believes could take him anywhere.

“I feel like it’s a safe option if you don’t know what to do with your life,” Perez said, “At least you’re going to gain knowledge on how to make money in whatever you do, even if it’s not direct. I feel it’s much more of (how) you apply those skills to whatever you’re really passionate about, if you want to take that risk. Otherwise you’d just go with what your field intends.”

If Perez does enter the business world, he will join the growing wave of St. Mark’s students ready to make the necessary sacrifices to chase the money, the versatility and the promise of a path that can lead anywhere.

Later in life, priorities can shift.

But for now, the dream is enough.

Private Equity

Many people leave investment banking after two years as an analyst, seeking opportunities in private equity. The role often offers higher compensation and more direct involvement in investment decisions.

Like a fish in a bowl

COMMENTARY

Diego Armendariz Staff Writer

Scrolling through the senior college decision pages of past years, … Psychology, Business, Economics, Business, Education, Finance, Biology, Economics. It sometimes feels like the same story is being written over and over in different fonts.

Yet my own college decision post is captioned: Diego Armendariz, Boston College, Business Analytics. A small part of me can’t help but feel like I’m losing myself to an ever-growing rat race. I’ve heard over and over that I’m throwing my life and soul away. Or that my life would be more fulfilling if I found a “better” major. I frequently wonder why so many of us have decided to take this path. Most kids don’t grow up wanting to be a Goldman-Sachs business analyst.

At St. Mark’s, there aren’t many classes relating to business, investing, or entrepreneurship, but something within the culture itself pushes its students towards that path. The intense pressure of assimilation feels convincing when multitudes of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders are highly represented in the community of St. Mark’s alumni, parents, and donors.

Both my parents majored in business, and on some level, I’d like to emulate the success they’ve both worked so hard to achieve. Their choices have given me opportunities they couldn’t have even dreamed of having when they were my age.

Business feels like it promises familiarity, material wealth, and safety. I don’t fully understand what I want my life to be in 10, 20, or 30 years. As a kid, it felt like each day I was able to be something new.

First, I was going to be a paleontologist/monster truck driver, then an astronaut, and for a while, I really wanted to be a writer. Eventually, that got replaced with nothing; I didn’t know what I was going to do, and that didn’t really bother me either. As I kept growing, I saw my mom and dad take business calls, fill in Excel spreadsheets, and manage their day-to-day jobs, and I figured that’s what I’d be doing eventually.

The more I’ve thought about it, and now that I know there’s a lot more to it than business calls and Excel spreadsheets, I feel content with my decision; it feels like I’m working towards giving myself and whatever family I have in the future some sense of security.

I’d like to feel like I’ll have an achievable way of giving back to my parents for everything they’ve done to put me through school, and help my sisters through whatever schooling they’d like to pursue. Even though I’m probably not going to be digging for dinosaur bones, walking on Mars, or publishing a New York Times bestseller, I still feel confident that I’ll be able to succeed on the path that I’ve chosen.

Hedge Fund

Some transition into hedge funds, where the focus shifts to actively investing capital over a shorter time period. The work is fast-paced and demanding, and compensation is directly died to performance.

Others leave finance entirely to to launch startups, taking on greater risks. The chance to build something from the ground up and potentially achieve far greater success continues to attract former business majors.

Major companies vacate downtown Dallas

With many lenient income tax laws, Dallas has attracted many major companies to the downtown central business district. Recently, however, companies have been moving out, leaving vacant office spaces.

By Nicholas Huang and Ben Yi

Downtown Dallas has historically been conducive to major business and corporations: AT&T, Texas Instruments and Southwest Airlines, for example, are all headquartered in Dallas’ central business district.

However, in January 2026, downtown Dallas’ largest company in terms of revenue, AT&T, announced that they would be moving their headquarters from downtown Dallas to Plano, Texas by 2028.

This simple, 20-mile move from the central business district to the suburbs reflects a larger trend in Dallas’ downtown – majors companies are moving out and leaving behind large, empty office buildings. According to a December 2025 article by the Wall Street Journal, downtown Dallas’ vacancy rate (the percentage of unoccupied offices) reached a rate of 27.2 percent, meaning that over a quarter of offices in downtown Dallas are empty. The future loss of AT&T headquarters will further exacerbate the vacancy issues.

“AT&T is a major employer in downtown Dallas, so losing them will be difficult to replace,” English and History teacher Dr. John Perryman said. “It creates vacant office space and removes the 5,000 or so AT&T employees from the daily economy of downtown, from buying lunches to paying for parking or DART.”

In terms of vacant office space, AT&T’s 37-story Whitacre Tower will be left vacant, and some other company will have to fill the gap that AT&T will leave. In addition, vacancy not only reduces the liveliness of Dallas’ central business district but also signals that maybe Dallas is losing desirability, whether it be affordability or city infrastructure.

However, Dallas laws and income taxes have been extremely attractive to businesses, a fact that keeps Dallas relevant in the business world.

“Historically, probably the biggest factor (in moving to Dallas) has been the absence of a state level individual or corporate income tax,”

Perryman said. “Texas is a right-towork state, which businesses find attractive. Many cities have offered aggressive tax breaks to attract companies, too.”

Even though many companies are moving out of downtown Dallas, the entire DFW Metropolitan Area is still a major hub for business.

Some prominent companies outside of downtown Dallas include McKesson in Irving, which is actually above AT&T in the Fortune 500 rankings. Other companies include Caterpillar, and American Airlines Group. So, while downtown Dallas may be losing a little bit of desirability among major companies, the metroplex as a whole is still flourishing. In fact, a major reason for students and parents to move to Dallas is its opportunities for jobs and in the metroplex.

“Dallas is really good for business and job opportunities: my parents moved to Dallas because my dad got a job offer at SMU,” sopho -

AT&T is a major employer in downtown Dallas, so losing them will be difficult to replace. It creates vacant office space and removes the 5,000 or so AT&T employees from the daily economy of downtown.

Dr. John Perryman English and history teacher

more Adam Zhang, who moved to Dallas from Phoenix in 2021, said. “And also because Dallas just has better education opportunities.”

However, despite the business opportunities in the Dallas area, the city itself isn’t necessarily seen as a bustling city as much as Chicago or New York is. And this combination also attracts families who are looking for a lifestyle away from the busy, crowded cityscapes. In fact, junior Rahul Subramaniam’s family came to Dallas for this exact reason.

“I used to live in China and Korea, and it was all basically because of my dad’s job,” Subramaniam said. “And after we had just left China, we went to the Bay Area for three years, and then we moved here. My brother was just starting his freshman year of high school, and my parents just wanted a more chill life, a more suburban atmosphere to raise their children.”

DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit), another major aspect of Dallas and its desirability as a city, has

also recently received a portion of its sales tax revenue back through a new six-year agreement. In terms of revenue, DART generated around $850 million during 2024 through sales tax alone.

DART also supports around 220,000 riders every day, and from 2022 to 2024, DART has created 9,422 new jobs. However, from January through October 2025, DART saw a 20 percent decrease in ridership compared to the same time period of 2019; DART also seems to be losing popularity in the city, either due to fewer company employees or due to funding cuts.

Either way, despite slowing growth in DART and companies vacating the downtown Dallas area, the city as a whole still continues to grow. In fact, AT&T moving to Plano will likely stimulate growth in the more suburban areas of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. While Dallas’ central business district may be stagnating, the rest of the city is experiencing steady growth.

Public service career leads alum to Harvard Institute of Politics

ALUMNUS, from Page 3

“In Dec. 2020, then Secretary of State nominee Tony Blinken called me and asked if I’d be interested in serving with him at the State Department, and my answer was a reflexive, enthusiastic, yes,” Price said. “That started a really eventful four years where I served first as the Department of State spokesperson, secretary Blinken’s senior advisor and ultimately as the deputy to the UN ambassador for the last year of the Biden administration.”

When the 2024 presidential

election concluded, Price decided to step away from government service. So, he decided to return to Harvard, where he had earned his masters degree at the Kennedy School of Government.

“I didn’t know exactly what I would do once I left government in January 2025, but one thing I knew I wanted to do was pursue a fellowship at the Institute of Politics,” Price said. “I had seen the role of these fellows up close years before, and I knew I really wanted to pursue that role and be a part of that community.”

Price began his fellowship in the fall of 2025, quickly becoming immersed in student life and faculty collaboration. In that position, Price led a seminar on foreign policy and national security issues, sharing his expertise with students. Ultimately, his experience working with students, faculty and Harvard affiliates only grew Price’s love for the community.

“You’re really integrating yourself across campus life and becoming a part of the campus environment. It was an incredible experience working with students

and faculty across campus,” Price said. “It’s an institution that I admire and one that I really came to love over the course of my fellowship.”

When the president of the Institute of Politics died at the end of the year, Harvard began searching for an interim director to fill his crucial role. After a competitive application process, the dean of the Kennedy School reached out to Price, offering him the role of Interim Co-President.

“I was quite hopeful when I applied, and when I found out the

good news in July, I was extremely happy,” Price said. “It has been an extremely rewarding experience for me.”

Though Price has stepped away from government for now, his commitment to serving the country remains central to his identity. He remains dedicated to public service, but he is unsure if he will return if given the opportunity.

“Public service comes in many different forms, and for me, working with students or serving in government are both deeply rewarding in their own right,” Price said.

Young men face growing engagement gap

Over the past few decades, reports show a trend of men falling behind and disengaging from multiple communities.

By Holden Purvis and Nolan Driesse

There are headlines about it every day “Men are falling behind.”

Female students now make up around 58 percent of undergraduate enrollment, according to the National Center for Education Studies.

There are fewer and fewer fields where young men are more engaged than young women, according to Time Magazine. While recent polls indicate that young men are becoming more conservative, many are simply turning away from politics altogether.

In fact, in every political election since 1984, women have voted at higher rates than men, according to the Pew Research Center.

These gaps have taken shape in the past few decades and only widened since.

Behind the numbers, young men are struggling with isolation, finding purpose and left with an uncertain sense of what it means to be a good man, with many ultimately choosing to disengage and opt out of systems they feel disconnected from.

While men may appear apathyetic towards politics, another possible view would be to instead look at why women have started engaging more in politics recently.

“It may be more driven by women feeling like some of their rights are eroding, and so they want to engage in making and deciding on these policies,” Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair GayMarie Vaughan said. “Whereas before, when it was codified into law, they didn’t feel the need to go out and vote for it every time.”

Nowadays, men may feel less comfortable talking about certain female-driven issues in politics leading to some self-censoring their own voices.

“A lot of people talk about a kind of a male crisis, and maybe they’re disengaging because they don’t feel as included,” Vaughan said. “I can see in terms of young people, the idea of what the future is going to look like is so nebulous. It’s hard to tell where things are going to go, and so they may be feeling a little bit disillusioned.”

Some argue that men feel threatened by feminism, assuming it is an “anti-man” movement. However, others argue that feminism is rather a pursuit in female equality. This

conflict primarily stems from a discrepancy in interpretations.

“Many men feel their masculinity is threatened by capable women, and when they can’t take pride in their own abilities, they fall back on some innate belief that they are superior to women,” sophomore Lucas Herrera said.

To dispel this new belief that feminism is anti-man and promote healthy ideas of masculinity, Vaughan helps boys at the school through ideas from the Character and Leadership curriculum.

“In terms of character and leadership, having a growth mindset and being optimistic and thinking about problem solving and imagining solutions is very important,” Vaughan said. “Things like this encourage people to think about how we can contribute to the world instead of a ‘woe is me’ or ‘the future is bleak’ point of view.”

By encouraging young men to have a more positive outlook on life, Vaughan hopes engagement will be the next step for young men instead of carrying a negative mindset.

This common internal struggle often reflects a broader tension surrounding how masculinity is viewed in modern culture.

In some cases, masculinity car-

A lot of people talk about a kind of a male crisis, and maybe they’re disengaging because they don’t feel as included.

GayMarie Vaughan

Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair

ries a negative stigma. While traditional masculinity can quickly be labeled as toxic, men who exhibit traditionally feminine traits are still depicted as weak, leaving many men disillusioned with societal expectations.

But with more widespread coverage of these issues, people are pushing back to promote more balanced views of healthy masculinity.

And that starts at school. In the classroom, boys are generally more active, physical and visual learners at young ages, while girls usually mature quicker and have an easier time focusing during class. Because of this, the traditional classroom setting often suits girls better than boys, especially during lower and middle school.

Although that cognitive gap shrinks over time, the experiences at a young age can still leave a lasting divide in academics.

For Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini, one significant advantage of an all-boys school is the ability to tailor a curriculum and environment solely focused on the healthy transition of boys into men.

“There are things that a boys’ school can do, including thinking about learning styles and structur-

SAGE feedback app trends among students

By Jay Panta

Every day, the lunch period gives students a chance to rest, refuel and gain the proper nutrition needed before toiling on for several more hours of rigorous studies. However, the lunch menu can often seem inconsistent, with students heavily favoring some lunches over others.

To help students become more involved in choosing the lunch menu, SAGE Dining, the school’s lunch provider, recently activated a review app called Touch of SAGE, allowing students to rate menu items, leave feedback and view nutritional information. The app was introduced to the student body by

Student Council Executive Secretary and junior Ilan Gunawardena. For Gunawardena, increasing transparency and communication around food has always been a long-term goal rather than a spontaneous initiative.

“It’s actually something that I wanted to do since last year in the spring,” Gunawardena said. “I mentioned it in my student council speech for secretary, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to get done for a while.”

The app itself mirrors SAGE’s online menu schedule but adds interactive features designed to make feedback more specific and actionable. Students can view nutrition

facts, favorite items and track meals they want to see more or less often.

Beyond convenience, the app offers a structured alternative to informal complaints that often go unheard.

“(The app) is an easier way than just complaining about it at lunch versus now a tangible way to communicate that to SAGE,” Gunawardena said.

Gunawardena emphasized that while SAGE dining is a privilege, students have limited alternatives and deserve a way to communicate preferences.

“We’re very extremely privileged to have SAGE,” Gunawardena said. “But again, given that we don’t

have the option to bring our own lunch, it would be nice as a person who enjoys food — and I’m sure a lot of other people at St. Mark’s enjoy food — to be able to communicate what I liked and didn’t like about the menu.”

Some students have already begun to notice potential impacts.

Sophomore Nicholas Petrikas, who has used the app several times and has familiarized himself with the feedback process, suggested that the timing of popular menu items shows that feedback may be working.

“I think (the app) is a useful thing to use, assuming (SAGE) listens to criticism,” Petrikas said.

ing our day and the organization of their classroom, the schedule and things like rituals and traditions and mentoring,” Dini said. “We can gear those towards the learning styles of boys in a way that really enhances and paints a picture of what positive masculinity looks like.”

An all-boys’ school is also able to explicitly address philosophical questions surrounding identity and manhood in ways that challenge the two extremes of how society interprets boys’ behavior

“I think that there’s concern that there’s a portrayal of some of the natural inclinations of boys as just bad behaviors when they’re natural instincts,” Dini said. “And now the other extreme of that is ‘also boys will be boys’ and you sort of tolerate bad behavior and that’s not good prescription either.”

Ultimately, the school works to build a distinct culture separate from mainstream views of masculinity — one that works to address the issues of male disengagement.

“What we can promote here is try to create a culture and an environment that embraces and pushes at the idea that you have to fit into a stereotypical set of prescriptive rules about what masculinity looks like,” Dini said.

“As of now, it seems to be working well, as we are about to get chicken alfredo bake for the first time all year in the same week as chicken fried steak, which are number one and number two on our advisory’s lunch leaderboard, respectively.”

While Gunawardena did not create the app himself, he hopes increased usage will allow student preferences to gradually shape the school’s lunch menu over time.

“If we can see a change in the menu to reflect what the students want, it would be awesome,” Gunawardena said. “Again, as a student, there’s only so much we can do. But if this can take steps in the right direction, that’s what would be best.”

Discrepancies in forgiveness divide society

Mass media greatly increases the spread of information, making the culture of forgiveness more decisive.

By Dominic Liaw and Luke Nguyen

One public mistake can spell the end of a career.

One accidental tweet, one wrong action, one misstep – once a mistake spirals out of control, a person’s fate is in the hands of the public.

As standards among the media change between generations, some believe that society is overly accepting of behaviors that would have been considered scandalous in an older generation. On the other hand, many others believe that the media is overly cutthroat.

History teacher Dr. Andrea Hamilton described the last two decades as “inconsistent” in a stance of forgiveness.

“Some politicians can get away with, if you will, what seems like pretty egregious behavior, and they don’t seem to be held accountable to it,” Hamilton said.

With the rise of social media, major issues can become normalized. In addition, public perception of controversies and scandals are minimized to an Instagram story or Facebook post.

“People get away with things that today are made public,” Hamilton said. “I also think that we’ve become desensitized in some ways to the media.”

On the other side of the spectrum, minor mishaps can quickly snowball into the creation of hate trains that threaten one’s career and safety.

“Sometimes I see examples of someone who makes a misstep or becomes an internet sensation or something for a behavior, and they get outed and suffer terrible consequences,” Hamilton said.

Along with a surge in social media presence in daily lives, users can hide behind an anonymous username. One embarrassing post later and the internet could launch an attack.

“We have a culture that, in many ways, tries to hone in on weaknesses and is more likely to try to play up and create negative hostile emotions in other people,” Hamilton said.

When one person seeks the approval of comments and statistics on a social media, hate comments and negativity can spiral. Aggressive attacks accompanying practically uncensored remarks are just one example of this approval-seeking.

“There’s been a lot of name calling from the beginning,” Hamilton

said.“I wouldn’t want to say that in 20 years, there’s been a hard shift. There’s something that is more encompassing about the culture, something about social media, or the way things are working today, that’s egging people on and encouraging them to give in to that kind of hostility that’s the opposite of forgiveness.”

In a modern sense, where the line between forgiveness and ignorance blurs, moral standards propel efforts of forgiveness. Hamilton stressed that forgiveness ties strongly with a humane sense of empathy. But many people struggle to find that empathy.

“When we talk about forgiveness, that seems to be calling on people to draw on more thoughtful, higher human qualities. To recognize and acknowledge weakness and flaws in other people in a way that’s recognizing common humanity, and is still loving the other person,” Hamilton said. “And our culture doesn’t seem to be doing that very much. It seems like there’s a lot more focus on trying to find flaws in people and digging into that instead of forgiveness.”

Public figures have stood in the

limelight for decades and decades in American history. When few events were recorded, mistakes drifted practically unbeknownst to the public entirely. Now with camera capturing moments around the clock, similar instances attract far more attention.

“Across U.S. history, there have always been scandals and personal behaviors,” Hamilton said. “There used to be a culture that, at least in regards to some things, was willing to overlook things. That culture, now with media, feels like it has no boundaries.”

Students like sophomore Grant Bowers who grew up in this shifted era of forgiveness maintain that society should be more forgiving than it is currently.

“Are we too forgiving as a society? No,” Bowers said. “Not forgiving enough? Perhaps.”

Where Hamilton sees society’s view on forgiveness as inconsistent, Bowers believes that it should be more forgiving.

“I really think we should forgive people more easily,” Bowers said. “I think forgiveness is less about saying what someone did was okay and more about deciding that one

Late athletics schedules affect students

By Sebastian Garcia-Toledo

A student exits his car, his body tired, his eyes itchy. The memories of his practice are blurry as he enters his house in the dark, preparing to start his homework and study for the tests ahead.

Late practices and games during athletes’ sports seasons affect how they study, and with new team additions for next year, the struggle is poised to continue.

The school soccer team frequently suffers from delayed and late matches due to their frequent travelling, as well as later practices

given the school’s field scheduling. This forces players into time crunches to finish their homework and study while still getting a viable amount of sleep. For varsity sophomore John Paul Hanks, the time lost from these practices circles through his head throughout the school day, affecting his performance.

“In soccer, we finish practice at around 6:30 p.m. or 6:45 p.m., and that’s pretty late,” Hanks said. “It adds up when you have a lot of homework and especially when you have a game. Varsity soccer games kick off at 7 p.m., which means the final whistle blows at around 8:50

p.m. to 9 p.m., but you’re not getting home until at least 9:30 p.m. because you also have your post game talks.”

The struggle worsens with travel.

“Let’s say you have an away game in Fort Worth that kicks off at 7 p.m., you’re not going to get home until 10 p.m. or 10:30 p.m.”

Not only does the lack of time put stress on these student-athletes, but putting one’s head down after the physical and emotional exhaustion of up to two hours of competition to do homework or study can seem near impossible.

“You’re drained, and you don’t

We have a culture that, in many ways, tries to hone in on weakness and is more likely to try to play up and create negative hostile emotions in other people.

Dr. Andrea Hamilton history teacher

mistake shouldn’t define who they are forever. It’d be inordinately difficult to find someone who forgives too much.”

Bowers also thinks that how a person is judged scales with their credibility. When a person is known to be reliable or skilled, poor performance is criticized more harshly. He compares it to students’ grades.

“Let’s say you’re a good student and you get a poor grade,” Bowers said. “It’s very bad. If you’re a poor student and you get a poor grade, it’s expected. It’s relative to how you were before, not absolutely correlated to what you do.” It may feel, sometimes, as if people are judged differently based on other people’s perceptions. Preconceived beliefs about someone may even affect how they are treated in various situations.

“We shouldn’t force people to like or dislike someone,” Bowers said. “You have to let them decide their opinion on their own. I don’t think that a person’s judgment should change because other people pressure them.”

feel like doing anything,” Hanks said, “You end up getting your stuff done but it’s a struggle. I feel like studying itself is less of a struggle than actually doing homework assignments, because at least studying is self regulatory and you can use your preferred method, but with homework you just have to do it. It’s a grind on match days or after practice.”

The situation is only set to worsen with next season’s schedule to include San Antonio schools. With more time away from school, spending time on the field and losing more class, Hanks worries his

already tight schedule will become unmanageable.

“The problem is next year,” Hanks said. “Soccer is changing because we only play 4A teams, so now there’s going to be days where we’re in San Antonio. There’s going to be days in Houston and Austin on a regular basis. This year we only had one Austin trip and that’s it, but starting next year, we’re going to be out of town half of the match days; we’re going to be in either Austin, Houston or San Antonio.”

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ACADEMICS

PAGES 10-11

Families consider alternatives to public school

With decreasing confidence in public school, alternatives like private school and homeschool are growing more popular.

PAGE 12

Wood and metal instructor explores passion for art

Ryder Richards, the school’s wood and metal teacher, has been pursuing art since his childhood.

Alumni return for STEM Conference

Three alumni founded INVERSA in 2020, aiming to reduce the invasive species problem that they had seen firsthand. INVERSA produces leather from invasive species that damage native ecosystems.

By Christopher Huang and Jay Panta

Turning invasive species into stylish leather and selling it to the fashion industry is a unique way to do business. But it’s one of the sustainable ways that INVERSA deals with invasive species issue.

Two co-founders of INVERSA, Kahan Chavda ’12 and Roland Salatino ’12, visited the school on Friday, Feb. 27, for the annual 2026 STEM Conference. During Upper School Assembly, they spoke about their experiences creating their startup and the lessons they learned. In addition,

PAGE TURNER

HC: A book that I’m reading right now that I’m enjoying is called “Death in the Jungle” by Candace Fleming. She was an author that came to the Literary Festival for Lower School. It’s a creative non-fiction book, and it is about the rise of Jim Jones, Jonestown and the Cult of the People’s Temple. I think it’s super fascinating, because it’s about something I didn’t know a lot about. It also gives perspective to the actual people that were involved and what they may have been going through at the time.

students were able to see and touch products made out of INVERSA leather that were handed out, such as baseballs and footballs with unique patterning.

Based in Florida, INVERSA is an ecosystem restoration company that handles invasive species in various innovative ways. The company interacts with the private sector when they turn the skin of some of the invasive animals they exterminate into leather and sell it to the fashion industry, where there is a demand for items like handbags made out of silverfish leather. They also contract with local and state governments to use their technology to handle invasive species.

“By creating these public-private partnerships with governments at state, federal, local levels, we’re able to remove invasives en masse from where they don’t belong,” Chavda said. “By taking some invasives, turning them into leather and finding a way to commercialize the biomass — in this case, selling the leather to the luxury European fashion (industry) — we take those euros of demand for this luxury product and we funnel it

TECH WATCH

straight into ecosystem and restoration efforts as well as job creation.”

In 2020, together with fellow Marksman and eventual CEO Aarav Chavda ’13, Kahan’s younger brother, the three alumni founded their company. Inspired by their experiences as scuba divers and their love for nature, they decided to try to eliminate the issue of invasive species.

“We started because the three of us are scuba divers,” Salatino said. “We’d seen the lionfish; That was the first invasive species that started this whole idea of ‘There’s gotta be some way to defeat these things.’”

Kahan and Salatino both started at St. Mark’s in fourth grade, and they have been lifelong friends ever since. They credit their experiences at the school with shaping their values and providing them with vital connections. After graduating, Kahan and Salatino went to different colleges. Yet, they stayed in touch and reconnected when they became roommates for a few years living in Chicago.

Benjamin Yi: Apple recently announced the new MacBook Neo, a new line of MacBooks starting at just $599 compared to Apple’s other laptops, which typically start around $1,000. To manufacture this new MacBook, Apple used an iPhone chip, the A18, to power the device. While it’s not as powerful as the M-chip, it’s more than strong enough to run basic applications for most people. These new products also come in new colors, including Blush, Citrus and Indigo.

Students pursue academic tutorials

The school offers engaging academic tutorials to students who may have run out of class options in a particular department.

Class rank could put students at disadvantage

By Jay Panta

At most high schools in the U.S., a single number can define a student’s academic standing. However, St. Mark’s does not calculate or report a class rank. Instead, it emphasizes academic context, individual growth and collaboration over a simple numerical comparison.

For Al G. Hill, Jr.’63 Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido, the reasoning behind this decision is rooted in both fairness and practicality.

“The main reason for not (including a class rank) is that the distinction between students would be so minute that it wouldn’t make a lot of sense, and honestly, it would disadvantage students in terms of what a class ranking actually provides to a college,” Pulido said.

For high schools that are relatively small, it makes much more sense not to give a class ranking and to instead give the continuous context of an individual student. This ensures that colleges view the student’s entire application rather than focusing merely on class ranking to determine outcomes.

To make up for the absence of the class ranking system, the school provides colleges with broader academic context, giving admissions offices a clearer picture of who students are and how they have challenged themselves.

“We provide to the colleges the information in terms of who we are, courses available, the rigor of curriculum and then a weighted GPA for the student,” Pulido said. “Our students have found great success: so if it’s not broken, then we’re probably not going to change anything.”

Beyond college admissions, administrators also consider how class rank could affect campus culture. In an already demanding academic environment, adding another metric of comparison could shift students’ motivations in unhealthy ways.

“If we were to put another idea of class ranking, there could be a sense of ‘I need to do something against my fellow classmates’ versus ‘I need to be the best person I am,’” Pulido said. “So that definitely would go beyond or against our mission and vision of the institution.”

Students on campus largely echo that sentiment. Senior Cooper Guiler, who has recently dealt with the lengthy and demanding college admissions process, said the absence of rank reduces pressure while keeping academics competitive in a healthier way.

“I think not having rank, there’s still, of course, a little bit of trauma over, ‘oh, there are a bunch of people applying to this college,’ but that’s about it,” Guiler said. “Overall, it’s a pretty friendly environment, academically.”

Senior Zach Huang added that not ranking students allows them to prioritize experiences in lieu of just grades.

“At most schools with ranking systems, when the ranks are released and you can see where you are in comparison to other people, it often fosters an unhealthy and negative situation,” Huang said. “I think (not including a class rank) allows us to invest more time into things outside of academics.”

Without class rank, success is measured less by a number and more by the person behind it, a philosophy the school has upheld for decades and will continue to uphold for many more.

Public school alternatives grow in popularity

Over the years, enrollment in traditional public schools has decreased, while the popularity of alternatives has increased. This trend has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and school choice legislation.

By Christopher Huang and Michael Chang

Nearly one in every five children is not enrolled in a traditional public school. It hasn’t always been that way, but over the years there has been a notable shift away from public institutions.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, confidence in the public school system dropped. As parents observed the education their children were receiving, some didn’t like what they saw and decided to move away from public schools. This trend has resulted in an increase in enrollments in alternatives to traditional public schools. Additionally, regional movements toward school choice legislation, exemplified by the recent introduction of the Texas Educational Savings Account (ESA) program, have increased in popularity. Many parents view this kind of legislation positively, especially when framed as a push for parents to have more of a say in their children’s educations and more freedom to choose where they go. However, others note that these efforts could be undercutting funding to the public school system, which will also lose money simply by having less students due to the fact that they are funded per pupil.

As a result, while public schools still enroll the majority of students in the United States, alternative forms of education have seen marked increases in enrollment.

“The most common aspect of what’s often been attributed to this decrease in traditional public school enrollments and increase in alternative enrollments is that a lot of parents were not happy with the way that traditional public school systems responded to COVID-19,” said Dr. Daniel Bowen, an associate professor in K-12 Education Leadership and Policy at Texas A&M University. “This specifically refers to the notion that a lot of parents were discontented with some schools taking quite a bit longer to transition back to in-person instruction, as well as some of the (parents) not being very satisfied with the types of instruction that were being provided, for students who were staying home and receiving instruction.”

Despite these developments, St. Mark’s in particular has not seen a significant increase in applicants, with the 2025-26 application season receiving slightly more applications than previous years.

“The school continues to receive increased interest,” Director of Student Recruitment Korey Mack ’00 said. “But I would say that this year saw an increase in the number of applications by maybe 2 to 3 percent.”

The various options parents have turned to include familiar forms of education like private schools and more recent phenomena like “microschooling.” Generally, the most popular options include charter schools, private schools and homeschooling.

Charter schools are institutions that are publicly funded but allowed to operate with more autonomy compared to traditional public schools. This flexibility allows some of these schools to focus more on certain aspects, provided they meet performance requirements stated in their “charter” agreements. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, nearly 4 million students across the United States are enrolled in charter schools. The charter school system has grown significantly since its beginnings over three decades ago.

“Charter schools originated back in the early 1990s,” Bowen said. “They were actually primarily started by teachers unions who wanted more independence and autonomy to run public schools in ways that they saw fit. They slowly developed and spread throughout the early to mid nineties and really took off especially in the early 2000s.”

Perhaps the main reason some parents are enrolling their children in charter schools is the vast diversity of options they provide. Some focus on areas such as the arts, while others focus on STEM or a special teaching methodology, allowing parents to pick and choose what they want for their children. Many schools are part of large networks of schools run under a single brand, while others are standalone schools support-

I think it’s just incredibly difficult for traditional public school systems to provide exactly what different parents are seeking for their students’ education.

Daniel Bowen

Associate Professor in K-12

Education Leadership and Policy at Texas A&M University

ed by local communities. Whatever the case, the diverse charter school landscape can be appealing for many parents.

“I think it’s just incredibly difficult for traditional public school systems to provide exactly what different parents are seeking for their students’ education,” Bowen said. “So charter schools have kind of been able to come in and provide certain wants and needs for particular students whose parents just didn’t see the traditional public school system as fitting their particular sets of needs.”

In Texas, one of the largest charter school networks is the IDEA Public Schools system. According to Texas Public Charter Schools, more than 420,000 students are enrolled in charter schools in Texas out of an estimated total of nearly 6 million students enrolled in the Texas public education system.

Private schools have long been a popular option for parents seeking a different education and willing to handle the price tag. More recently, school choice options offered by local and state governments, exemplified by private school vouchers, have aimed to lower the price barrier and to open more opportunities for parents to enroll their kids in private schools. Private schools continue to see a steady increase in enrollment after the pandemic, currently having around 5 million students nationally.

Traditionally, many private schools were and still are religiously affiliated, seeking to add a spiritual component to education. At the same time, some of the most “competitive” private schools are elite prep schools

that draw parents looking to send their kids to the best universities. All this goes to show that, like charter schools, private schools have a diverse range of goals and can be well-suited to certain types of students.

“Having taught in public schools before, and this is my 10th year here, I can say that I think the school is unique,” Mack said. “Some of those characteristics are by virtue of being a private school, but other characteristics — like the single gender education — is certainly a distinguishing feature with St. Mark’s education.”

All around the nation, school voucher programs have been implemented in certain states to allow more parents to enroll their children in private schools, aiming to increase “school choice”.

The most prominent example is Texas’ ESA program, officially the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program, which will provide recipient families with an average of around $10,000 to go towards education. The program was signed into law in May 2025 and is set to begin starting in the 2026-27 school year.

“The general idea here is that funds are made available to parents who can then use that to ultimately enroll in private schools,” Bowen said. “When that becomes available, you’re providing greater resources, and then that means that private school enrollment is less financially costly. That makes it a much more viable option for those parents.”

Texas’s new program received a record number of applications after opening in early February of this year, with the current number of applicants over 150,000 and increasing. The system is also more flexible than traditional school vouchers, as the money awarded can go towards school materials, tutoring and other forms of academic support instead of only for paying a tuition. Texas’s new program will be the largest school choice experiment in the country, and policymakers around the country will be looking towards Texas in the next few years.

Based on past trends observed in other states with school voucher programs, Bowen believes that Texas’s ESA program will be a boon for private school enrollment after its introduction in the 2026-27 school year, especially considering how it prioritizes certain demographics.

“Similar to what we’ve seen in other states, there is going to be a massive increase in terms of private school enrollments that

ALTERNATIVES

Private schools are able to have smaller class sizes, a greater faculty-student ratio and we’re able to allocate courses to programs in unique ways that not all public schools enjoy. The school is fortunate to have the resources to be able to pay for those auxiliary needs that it requires to operate programs like our sports programs and our wilderness program.

Korey Mack ’00 Director of Student Recruitment

happen, because of the way that (the government) designed the education savings account award system to where it primarily gives first priority to students who are from lower income families and students who are receiving special education services,” Bowen said.

However, like other programs nationally, Texas’ new program has faced some opposition. Common criticisms of school choice legislation take aim at the idea that these programs take away funding from the public school system and don’t help poorer families enough to cover the cost of private education while still benefitting those with more resources. However, Texas’ average award of $10,000 to families is relatively large compared to other states, so it could possibly benefit many more families.

“Texas is setting their savings accounts at a higher level than what other states are, so presumably that will promote more access than what we’ve seen in other parts of the country,” Bowen said. “But the extent to which that actually happens is kind of going to be a determined thing that we won’t actually get to see until this thing gets put into action.”

Overall, private schools have remained a robust alternative to public schools, experiencing a small but steady increase in total enrollments postpandemic.

Recent school choice legislation in certain states, especially Texas, will likely increase enrollment in those regions in the direction of private schools.

“Private schools are able to have smaller class sizes, a greater faculty-to-student ratio and we’re

Recent legislation combined with postpandemic trends will likely increase enrollment in public school alternatives.

CHARTER SCHOOLS

Charter schools are independently operated public schools that grant more freedom to students and teachers.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private schools saw a 7 percent increase in enrollment in the past eight years.

HOMESCHOOL

Homeschooling has grown at a rate outpacing that of both private and charter schools.

able to allocate courses to programs in unique ways that not all public schools enjoy,” Mack said. “The school is fortunate to have the resources to be able to pay for those auxiliary needs that it requires to operate programs like our sports program and our wilderness program.”

Education at home or outside of any sort of physical school has seen a precipitous rise in popularity post-pandemic as well as a diversification of options. Parent-led education is legal across the nation and is generally what people think of when speaking about “homeschooling”, but entirely virtual schools and other options, like micro-schooling, that also involve education at home have gained traction as well. The reasons for pursuing homeschooling have always varied by family, and the prevalence of the practice is different by region, but the overall increasing trend is clear.

“I think some parents maybe took on a little bit more ownership of their students’ learning during (COVID).” Bowen said. “Some parents started to maybe enjoy being a little bit more involved and started weighing the trade-offs of spending less time on or leaving their current jobs altogether to take on the responsibilities of providing education for their kids.”

The introduction of online schooling due to the closure of schools during the pandemic opened the door for parents to analyze the viability of education at home. By demand and necessity, technologies adapted to provide virtual communication tools and online sources for education.

Virtual schools are now a widely available option, with many different and independent programs and structures, though in general they entail less parent involvement.

“The other thing too that was spurred by COVID was a much higher demand and need for alternative means of education, whether virtual or through things such as microschools,” Bowen said. “Resources, opportunities, innovations really grew and seemingly made it a lot more feasible and less daunting for parents to take on more of a role to provide these homeschooling options.”

One unique form of homeschooling education that some parents also pursue is microschooling.

Microschooling is a small-scale form of education where educators provide a specific education to a small group of children in a

community-based location, serving as a mix between traditional schooling and homeschooling. For example, a community center like a church could provide such an option, or a group of parents could come together to provide a tailored education as well, either using certain parents as teachers or hiring outside experts.

“(The parents) band together, and as opposed to each of them providing homeschooling individually.” Bowen said. “They effectively form their own mini-school and they pull their resources to provide a school environment that fits the needs of their kids, which is probably going to be tailored a little bit more precisely to their specific set of needs and wants, as opposed to what a regular public school or even a private school could provide.”

number of applications for Texas’s new program.

“One thing we do know is that typically once school choice legislation or expansions of school choice happen within a state,” Bowen said. “They’re very difficult to wind back. It’s very, very popular with parents.”

Bowen believes that school choice legislation will maintain its steady expansion, as more and more lawmakers begin to push for parental freedom for their constituents to pick and choose what schools their children go to.

“My guess is that school choice will continue to find ways to enter into (systems), especially more so these days,” Bowen said. “School choice has really taken off with the Republican party. So I would say for more Republican-dominated states, school choice, if it hasn’t

In Texas, the new education savings accounts can also be awarded to homeschooled students, granting around $2000 dollars on average for families to use on educational expenses. This serves as an example of school choice legislation also accommodating homeschooling, and could also boost the popularity of homeschooling, which was already rising fast on its own.

As a whole, education at home, whether parent-led, virtual or other variations, has seen the greatest rise in popularity compared to public, charter and private schools. Driven by many factors, this trend of increased homeschooling is likely to continue.

With the school choice movement being expanded across the nation, access to alternatives to public schools will continue to be promoted at state and local levels. Parents in particular find this kind of legislation to be extremely appealing, as shown by the record

already found an entry point, it will find an entry point in the vast majority of those states, and then based on what we’ve seen in other states, I would assume a pretty steady expansion.”

For better or for worse, the variety of factors increasing alternative enrollments will undercut funding to the public school system, which is funded on a per pupil basis in a vast majority of states. However, it will also ostensibly allow parents and students to have more options for education other than traditional public schools.

Continued school choice legislation, together with a general decrease in confidence in the public school system after the pandemic that increased demand for alternative options, has resulted in general increases in enrollment for charter schools, private schools and homeschooling, and this trend seems likely to continue.

As enrollment in public schools continues to decrease, private schools, charter schools and homeschool receive more and more students.

Data Courtesy Washington Post

New woodworking teacher shares his journey

After joining the community this school year as the new 3-D design & woodworking teacher, Ryder Richards tells the story of his artistic journey.

By Benjamin Yi

Growing up in Roswell, New Mexico, a town better known for its UFO lore than its fine arts, taught Ryder Richards that he couldn’t always trust the official story. That he shouldn’t accept a widely held belief without thinking it over himself. Today, that same suspicion of easy narratives rubs off and bleeds into his art and his philosophies.

As a teen, Richards went to Roswell High School, a 4A school with around 5000 students, where he played football, basketball and baseball. Later, in his junior year, he moved to Lubbock, Texas and began attending Lubbock Christian High School, a much smaller school with about 200 students.

“(Sports) definitely did (influence my art),” Richards said. “I think there’s a lot to do with understanding your role within a group and how teams function, also how individuals function within group structures, you could call those societal structures.”

After high school, Richards went to Texas A&M to study architecture, but then ended up attending Texas Tech with an undergraduate degree in painting. For his masters degree, Richards went to TCU, where most of his pieces were painted sculptures.

“(In college) I made several trips to Europe to study things like color theory, drawing and watercolor. My first job in Dallas was running the art galleries for Richland College and after running their galleries for three years, I took a year to go to New Mexico and did nothing but make art for a year at a residency,” Richards said. “After that, I came back and taught college a little bit more, and then went into the corporate world for almost 10 years, where I was a creative director.”

Ryder’s passion for art stemmed from his childhood, long before he reached architecture lectures and painting programs. His mom was also an artist who actively brought drawing into his life, and it quickly became a natural hobby for him.

“I have been drawing since I was 3 years old, as soon as I could pick up something and scribble,” Richards said. “I had a notebook that had all these drawings I had made

during church. So one of the ways my mom kept me quiet during church was by letting me draw.”

I find the longevity of it quite appealing, that you could be an old man woodworker, just like you could be an old man golfer.

Ryder Richards 3-D design & woodworking teacher

While he started off drawing, Richards eventually transitioned more into traditional woodworking, which is primarily what he does at the school. Now he teaches more concepts that are embedded within the work, including skill building and designing unique, functional art.

“My dad always said you had to play a sport or have a job, so during the summers, when I wasn’t playing sports, I had to have a job. I got a job as a carpenter at a cabinet shop,” Richards said. “So it was in my junior year of high school that

I started doing woodworking, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

From his previous endeavors in sports and art, Richards believes that in the workshop, you don’t have to put a ton of pressure on yourself. In his opinion, art can serve as an outlet for relaxation and creativity without significant stress.

“Sports is often all about being in a moment. You can practice forever, but on the day of the tournament or the game, you have to perform at an excellent level. And I think with art it requires a lot more pondering and thinking, rather than just a small moment of execution. Art is a long term execution. You build skills over your lifetime.”

Unlike the high pressure situations that sports place on athletes, art provides a stark contrast that has a far more patient nature. In the workshop, success is often marked through slow refinement and persistence.

“(What) I like about art and woodcraft in general, is that you’re usually doing it alone and you don’t have to show the piece to anybody. No one’s really viewing you or watching you make it. You have this chance to work harder and harder and longer and longer hours to make that thing better and better.”

Richards has leaned more and more into doing woodworking as a form of art, not doing it as a job, but as a type of therapy.

“I find the longevity of it quite appealing, that you could be an old man woodworker, just like you could be an old man golfer,” Richards said.

Richards joined the school as the wood and metal teacher start-

ing in the 2025-26 school year, and his impact on the community has been enormous.

“I think he’s a great teacher and knows a lot about what he does,” Sophomore Jesús Serrato said. “Any problem I face, he helps me solve it but also while helping me learn something new and useful.”

INVERSA realizes alumni’s dreams in ecosystem restoration

“St. Mark’s not only allowed us to build who we are, but it also surrounded us with incredible people who really changed the course of our lives,” Salatino said.

For Eugene McDermott Master Teaching Chair in Science John Mead, who taught Kahan and Salatino in 6th-grade life science, watching his past students blend science with entrepreneurship has been especially rewarding.

“(INVERSA) is a great example of people who are taking what they learned in a science class and applying it in a job that has a great science impact but also goes beyond

science,” Mead said. “It’s really neat to see that you can be successful in the world thanks to your science knowledge, even if you are not a traditional lab coat scientist.”

Mead, who also serves as the faculty sponsor of the STEM Conference, added that INVERSA’s unique initiative extends beyond the science classroom, helping raise overall environmental awareness in everyday life.

“I’m excited that they’re taking this topic and helping make the general public more aware of things through their fashion choices,” Mead said.“It’s a great way to get adults who aren’t necessarily tied into, say, invasive species, to become

more aware of them.”

The two friends had discussed starting a company for many years, even during their time at the school, but they had never really seriously considered pursuing that seemingly implausible idea. In 2020, however, Kahan and Salatino decided to finally give it a shot. The pair recounted taking a month of unpaid leave from their respective jobs to pursue their company. If by the end of the month, it didn’t work out, they would go back to their normal lives.

“We took, at the time, the biggest risk of our lives, the biggest leap of faith,” Kahan said. “It was our confidence in ourselves and each other,

and our ability to not just see the dream, but to execute and to build with it (that helped us survive).”

Fortunately, when the time came, they were happy with their progress, and they continued pursuing their startup ambitions. But even then, they were walking on eggshells every day, fighting to keep their startup dream alive and trying to find the right direction for themselves.

“It was also exhilarating,” Salatino said. “We had no illusions about the idea, the fact that as a startup, especially a young startup, every day could be the last one.”

Now, more than five years after its founding, INVERSA has 10

employees and has expanded its operations across the country, even adding some programs abroad. Recently, the company passed the mark of 2.6 billion animals saved through their efforts in reducing invasive species, and they aim to continue sustainably addressing the issue of invasive species and bettering the environment.

“It truly feels like that for the past five years we’ve been experimenting, we’ve been iterating, and I think we figured out how to make it work,” Kahan said. “And now we’re just trying to scale and build it.”

Students explore personalized academic tutorials

Upper Schoolers who excel through the traditional curriculum receive the opportunity to take an academic tutorial with a faculty member, exploring topics beyond the traditional scope of the curriculum.

By Michael Chang and Dominic Liaw

Students who excel beyond the available courses — who have “maxed out” the curriculum — are hard to come across.

But for those students, there is one special opportunity unique to the school that stretches the boundaries of what’s traditionally taught in the classroom.

An academic tutorial.

Structured in a one-on-one styled learning environment, academic tutorials generally aren’t on the radar of students, let alone a viable choice for the six class “slots” Upper Schoolers are allotted.

But several seniors over the years, including senior Christian Denis, have taken advantage of the somewhat rare opportunity, delving deeper into their respective fields of study, whether it be physics or botany or in Denis’ case, the Spanish language.

“I took AP Spanish Literature once I got to junior year, and I ran out of options after that,” Denis said. “So the only option after that, to fulfill my language requirement, was an academic tutorial with Dr. Erwin. And I think that it’s good for me to keep pursuing language and going beyond the curriculum, because I’ve learned a lot with him. It’s a fun class.”

There’s a reason more people don’t take advantage of academic tutorials. For one, each teacher’s time is limited. That means that only a select few students can enroll in one.

“It’s kind of hard to seek one out for yourself,” Denis said.“Usually it’s because you’ve already done everything that you can. Whether it be math or physics. If you’ve already maxed out the hardest class, then you’ll probably be able to ask for a tutorial, or sometimes the teacher will come to you (to) suggest that you take one.”

Cecil H. and Ida Green Master Teaching Chair Mark Adame has sponsored several biology-focused academic tutorials throughout his teaching career, but one of his

most productive experiences has been with alumni Max Yan ’25 and Neil Jain ’25.

es are generally more relaxed and laid back as a result. Students don’t take regular assessments or finals.

I think (tutorials) are fun because when I meet with my tutorial students, we have an interesting oneon-one conversation about literature, which is my favorite thing to do. So I tend to enjoy it.

Zach Erwin ’96 Foreign Language Department Chair

“I’ve done a couple academic tutorials since I’ve been here,” Adame said. “Max Yan and Neil Jain did different experiments with plants that we had found online, and we read various chapters in these botany books that I got. They also maintained the greenhouse and all the prairie restoration stuff.”

Adame believes that the success of an academic tutorial is largely dictated by the student’s personal motivation and goals. After all, anyone who wishes to pursue a tutorial must first fill out a form providing a detailed research plan along with teacher approval.

“It was fun because Max and Neil were able to take care of things by themselves,” Adame said. “I just made sure that they were okay and checked them in before we did stuff together. But they were mature enough and disciplined enough to get everything done.”

Tutorials offer a different experience for both the teacher and the student. Since classes are tailored toward individual students, class-

For Language Department Chair Zach Erwin ’96, his students taking tutorials write essays instead.

“When I have a tutorial, we tend to meet less often, and there is more work that the student has to do independently,” Erwin said.

“Then we come together periodically to talk about what they’ve done or for them to write an essay to discuss the readings that they’ve done. But it’s different than a traditional class in that sense.”

Tutorial options in Spanish include either language or literature.

Most students taking Spanish tutorials choose the literature option, opening a door to a wide selection of readings and texts.

“In the tutorial that I’m currently doing, we’re reading Latin American literature,” Erwin said.

“We have an anthology that we’re reading. And we decide on a week to week basis what we’re going to read next. And then when we reach a point where it makes sense, then I have the student write an essay. And then we move on from there.”

Instructors are usually willing

to support tutorials, but Adame cautions students against piling too much work on themselves during senior year. Although tutorials can often be relaxed at the discretion of the sponsor, they still function as a regular class in the schedule.

“If somebody had a strong argument for doing a tutorial, like Max or Neil, I would absolutely do one in the future,” Adame said.“They’re a lot of work and a lot of time, but they can be a lot of fun too.”

Erwin echoed Adame’s sentiment, emphasizing the personalization that’s available for teachers sponsoring academic tutorials; these classes also allow teachers to explore their own interests in their fields.

“I think (tutorials) are fun because when I meet with my tutorial students, we have an interesting one-on-one conversation about literature, which is my favorite thing to do,” Erwin said. “So I tend to enjoy it. I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoy it more than a regular class, but I do enjoy it as much.”

College Board to add AP business and personal finance class

By Nolan Driesse

The College Board will officially add an AP business and personal finance class in the 2026-27 school year. The course aims to equip students with foundational business knowledge and essential financial literacy through rigorous, project-based curriculum. Much to the excitement and surprise of many St. Mark’s students, the new class could provide fresh perspectives from a business standpoint and broaden possible career paths. The class offers opportunities to high schoolers to get a head start toward business, which is the most

popular college major in the United States.

Founder of the Future Founders Club (FFC), sophomore Clayton Sacha, was ecstatic to hear the news of the possibility of a new AP business class. Sacha’s eyes are already set on a career in business, which he plans to pursue by running his club and taking an economics class during his junior year.

“I think having an AP business class would be really beneficial,” Sacha said. “It would give these guys who use FFC as their main way of learning about business a more official and educational side of business.”

Sacha’s new club focuses on bringing in influential guest speakers to give their first-hand experiences with business to the 25 or so students who attend the club. While most students interested in business take the AP economics: microeconomics and macroeconomics course at the school, an AP business class would showcase a different side of business to students who prefer personal finance over economics.

Unfortunately for students looking forward to this new business opportunity, History and Social Sciences Department Chair David Fisher claims it won’t be so

easy to incorporate the class into the school’s curriculum, despite believing that the premise of the class is well-intentioned.

“I think it’s a great idea for a national school system that it’s an option as a class,” Fisher said. “We just don’t have enough room. I would be making a value judgment because I know a lot of kids would sign up for it, but they certainly shouldn’t sign up for it at the expense of AP economics.”

Fisher points out that sacrificing important classes such as special operations, European history, government or microeconomics and macroeconomics would leave

too large of a hole in the curriculum. Fisher doesn’t want St. Mark’s to prepare kids to go on to be finance bros in college, but instead hopes to expose students to a wide range of social sciences and politics.

“Maybe the kids in economics will go off to a finance and business career, or maybe not,” Fisher said. “We decided to rather go in the direction of AP psychology to broaden out our offerings, rather than to narrow it, since we have two finance and business courses that are available to kids at the school.”

Families consider external college counseling

With college admissions becoming increasingly competitive year after year, many families look towards costly outside counseling options in an attempt to increase their child’s chances of getting into a prestigous university.

By Rishik Kapoor and Sebastian Garcia-Toledo

In 2025, 7.6 million Common Applications were submitted by 1.3 million different students. Both statistics saw more than a 4 percent increase over the prior year, and these numbers have both increased yearly since 2021.

As competition to earn admission to top universities intensifies and acceptance rates continue to shrink, families often feel a mounting pressure to do everything possible to stay ahead. What many families once viewed as a straightforward process of selecting and applying to colleges, has now become a multi-year strategic endeavor. As a result, many believe that the college admissions process now requires looking beyond the school’s counseling office for additional guidance.

“I think with each year, the anxiety about college seems to increase,” Director of College Counseling Veronica Pulido said. “Families and students tend to get a little bit overwhelmed with (the question of), ‘Should I be doing something different?’ So I have seen a little bit of an uptake in terms of students or families that want to use an independent person or an independent counselor.”

For many families, the stress of building a strong application can often lead to an increase in tensions in a household or a strained relationship between parents and their children. As a result, families often look elsewhere to maintain balance in their homes.

“The biggest thing that I hear from families is that they want someone else to take the lead on this because they want to have a good relationship with their child in the college process,” Pulido said. “I definitely think it is a possibility for families if that is something that they choose to do.”

Recently, there has been a major uptrend in investment in college process advancement pro -

grams and systems for students to strengthen their collegiate application profiles. These programs promise admission to “top schools,” sometimes fetching a price up to $30,000 for exclusive, one-on-one or board-style tutoring and counseling to students and families. Foremost among these is Crimson Education, a counseling board driven program with tuition up to $40,000.

For junior Rohan Tare, a Crimson Education user, the institution has been fundamental in making him a more well-rounded candidate for universities.

“My parents discovered it and then they brought it to me,” Tare said “Coming up with a plan of how I’m going to make myself as strong of an applicant for college as possible within three years is something really, really big and very important. So we thought:

‘Okay, if these people have access to all these resources and they have these stats showing that they’re really good at helping these students get into good colleges, then this might be something that worth doing.’”

To some extent, I do think, obviously, the more resources and money you put into something, the more you’ll get back out of it.

Rohan Tare Junior

The program has provided Tare with countless opportunities and

advantages as he has navigated high school, from academic help to an advisor helping him put out a research paper on the biomechanics of rock climbing finger injuries in adolescents. Many critics of expensive college counselors espouse the idea that they encourage the pursuit of extracurriculars for the sake of looking good on an application, rather than having any actual passion for the subject. However, Tare rejects this, as he believes his counselors have helped him discover activities that he is passionate about.

“I definitely know a lot of people who make their goals in high school centered around the fact that something would look good on their resume,” Tare said, “But in terms of actually carrying it out, I think it’s good to flip it and think: ‘These are some things I’m interested in doing; how could I incor-

Jane Goodall added to Lower School Leadership Wall

By Rishik Kapoor

Right next to the school entrance, in the Lower School Lobby, hang portraits of figures such as Nelson Mandela, Jackie Robinson and Mother Teresa, some of the first things a visitor sees upon entering the Lower School.

Since 2008, the Lower School has selected one famous figure every year that embodies the values of character and leadership that are emphasized at St. Mark’s.

“We’re trying to use our Character and Leadership program to think about people in the world that we admire, specifically, who the students admire, to show the importance of the Character and

Leadership qualities that we value here at St. Mark’s,” Lower School Librarian Kaysie Montgomery said.

This year, the Lower School selected Jane Goodall as their newest appointee. At the start of each year, students begin researching potential nominees for the Leadership Wall by reading biographies, searching databases and learning about famous figures in both homeroom and in the library.

Later, students go over their research and have the option to nominate someone by filling out a form, stating why they believe the nominee represents the qualities St. Mark’s emphasizes.

After the Lower School finalizes a list of nominations, all students vote on who they would like to select for the Leadership Wall. This year, the voting required a runoff between Isaac Newton, Amelia Earhart and Goodall, where ultimately, Goodall won.

Upon her selection, the Lower School reviewed the list of students who nominated her and selected one student from each grade to present to the entire Lower School in the Annual Leadership Wall Assembly.

The four students selected to present — first-grader Satya Patel, second-grader Adrian Zhang, third-grader Peter Vachon and fourth-grader Carter Chang —

porate it into my resume?’”

Despite the expensive cost of outside counselors, Tare feels that the money his parents are contributing is worth the price.

“Because I’m spending a bunch of money, I get to have extra assistance,” Tare said. “I think to some extent, the more resources and money you put into something, the more you’ll get back out of it.”

The St. Mark’s College Counseling team realizes that many students do end up using outside counselors, and, often, outside advice conflicts with messages given by the school counselors. Rather than ignore this predicament, St. Mark’s encourages communication between counseling teams to ensure that students are not trapped in the middle.

“In terms of a family wanting an outside perspective, they are more than welcome to have that. However, college counseling at St. Mark’s is all about the student, the individual student, to make sure that we have served the student in the family well,” Pulido said. “So if they are using an outside person, then let’s partner with that person to make sure that everyone’s on the same page and giving the same advice.”

At the same time, Pulido cautions that independent counselors lack the institutional familiarity that successfully shapes St. Mark’s-specific counseling strategies. The understanding of school-specific admissions history, teacher recommendations, and internal processes that the St. Mark’s counseling team possesses often plays a significant role in creating a strong college application.

“I don’t think an independent counselor is going to have that background and knowledge of what has happened specifically at St. Mark’s, which are things that we know as St. Mark’s college counselors,” Pulido said. “We know the nuances of the process for St. Mark’s specifically.”

Ultimately, Pulido believes balance is key for students that want to utilize multiple counselors in the college admissions journey.

“If the student works solely with an outside person, it gives us less time to engage with a student and to get to know them well in addition to writing a strong letter of recommendation,” Pulido said. “It’s important that he maintains a good equilibrium between the counselors he uses.”

spent two weeks preparing a presentation for the assembly, supplemented by a slideshow about Goodall created by Montgomery.

The four students each presented on one-quarter of her life, Patel starting by discussing her childhood and Chang finishing with the end of her life.

“I nominated Jane Goodall because she spent almost her whole life sacrificing things to help chimpanzees,” Zhang said. “She had to go through a lot of hard stuff, but she always survived.”

The selection of Goodall this year is unique because in 1990, Goodall came to St. Mark’s to talk about her life.

“We thought her selection was

extra special this year, because it’s so rare to have somebody on the Leadership Wall, since they’re so global, that has actually been to our school,” Montgomery said. Goodall will join the last 11 appointees on the wall, and Mandela will move to the Lower School Library.

“Along with representing leadership, one of the coolest things about the Leadership Wall is that if a 12-year senior comes to the wall, he will see all of the people appointed during his time at St. Mark’s,” Lower School Administrative Assistant Kathy Mallick said.

LPAGE 20

Theater program sells out “Sweeney Todd” productions

The Upper School put on productions of the Broadway show about the infamous barber of Fleet Street earlier this month.

PAGE 21

School-wide events celebrate culture

Interntional Week, Marksmen Multicultural Night and the Lunar New Year Celebration have given students the opportunity to spread their cultures.

PAGE 22

Student leads Dallas Opera production

Eighth grader Ayden Yang recently starred in the Dallas Opera’s rendition of “The Little Prince.”

Friday, March 13, 2026 LIFE 15

The ReMarker

Devices minimize time for boredom

Boredom used to be where creativity bloomed, identity formed and imagination wandered. Then the smart phone arrived.

By Kiran Parikh and Ronit Kongara

A father holds his young son at the Colorado Springs airport, about to board a returning holiday flight. The baby does what many babies do — looks around at the people nearby, raises a small hand and waits for someone to wave back.

Nobody does. They’re all too busy looking at their phones.

English teacher Cameron Hillier ’13 watches his son’s gaze and waving hand meander around the gate and finds himself having what he can only describe as an out-of-body moment. Hundreds of people, not one of them looking up.

Across the gate, two kindergarten-age girls sit next to their father — eyes glazed staring down at their iPads, headphones covering their ears and their dad scrolling beside them.A family that doesn’t talk to each other. Hillier doesn’t say anything. He just watches his son keep waving at the wall of unresponsive travelers.

It isn’t just the airport. It’s the senior

lounge, the passing period, the dinner table, the waiting room — every moment that used to be empty is now filled.

For Hillier, the phone has quietly colonized the spaces where nothing used to happen. What’s disappearing inside that emptiness is something that hasn’t been named yet.

Not just time. It’s boredom itself.

For history and social sciences teacher Dr. Jerusha Westbury, boredom has a definition most people expect.

“Boredom is not knowing what to do with yourself,” Westbury said. “It’s that feeling of whatever is on the table, whatever lies in front of you, just being completely unappealing.”

That restless, uncomfortable feeling, she argues, is not a problem to be solved.

It’s the point.

“That (moment) is when you start daydreaming,” Westbury said. “It’s when you start picking up stuff to do. It’s when you start figuring out who you are.”

She has watched that process get harder to find. Not just in her students, but in herself too. At home, Westbury juggles mundane housework, class preparations and grading. A single mother, she also has to take care of her son.

There often just isn’t enough time to do it all at the same time — so the TV goes on in the background. Not because she wants her son to watch it but because it gives her

a little bit more time to do everything else.

“I think our ability to handle boredom is dramatically declining,” Westbury said. “Everybody has to be constantly entertained. There’s not a lot of downtime to spend with yourself.”

What worries Westbury most is what might potentially be lost with boredom.

“Boredom tells you who you are,” she said. “Boredom opens doors. Boredom is where creativity happens.”

Dr. Reed Robinson, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern, spends his days treating patients whose relationship with being uncomfortable, being bored, has broken down entirely. What Westbury describes philosophically, he sees in clinical form: people who have spent so long escaping uncomfortable feelings that they’ve lost the ability to navigate them at all.

According to Robinson, nobody has managed to prove Westbury’s connection. However, he’ll say this: the time boredom used to occupy was spent doing something real.

“Having learned experiences with how you can spend time with yourself without these other things can be really helpful in terms of boosting a sense of resiliency and self-sufficiency,” Robinson said.

Tell your friends you

love them

Nobody likes to think that mental illness could hit them or even the people near them. But the truth is, mental health issues are on the rise, and they’re more common than you think.

Growing up with a sister who battled with mental illness, I thought I knew it all; that I was a kid mental-health expert. I scoffed at the thought that I would ever become mentally ill. At the time, I thought that depression and anxiety and all the things I had seen were always going to be someone else’s burden.

And then I proved myself wrong. It started with my temper. If someone asked me a question I just answered I would get unreasonably angry. Frustrated, mostly at myself, I would throw things. Nothing hard at first, just pillows and couch cushions.

Then I started to slam doors. Punch things. I didn’t want to break anything, I just had no idea what else to do. I often think back about what my parents must have thought. Seeing their kid so angry all the time. But in the moment, I had none of that consideration. Things were only getting worse.

So to stop my parents from freaking out even more, I got pretty good at hiding it. The only time I would allow myself to show any sign that I was struggling was when I got home. No outbursts at school: I buried my feelings. I began to have feelings of self-loathing; I felt like I, and everything I did, was a disappointment.

On New Years, roughly four months after I started having these feelings, I experienced waves of panic attacks that lasted from 8 p.m. on New Years Eve and ended early the next morning. My heart felt like it was racing a million miles a minute, my stomach churned, and nothing could stop it. I didn’t sleep at all that night. I was going off a cliff, and I couldn’t see the ground.

That’s when I decided I needed help.

So I told my parents. The guilt I felt for making their lives so hard nearly convinced me not to, but I knew that, if I didn’t approach them, things would only get worse. But, to my surprise, they didn’t judge me or yell at me. They just treated me like their son. And I got the help I needed.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for everybody.

It’s impossible to crawl out of the pit that is depression on your own. The only way out is with someone’s else’s assistance.

The best way to help your friend who may be struggling isn’t to treat them like a patient by walking on eggshells around them. It’s the small things: genuinely asking how they’re doing, offering non-judgmental support or helping them with small tasks.

Students

FESTIVAL BEGINS

The school will host roughly 3,000 students and teachers for the fine arts celebration.

You’re not a bad friend if you can’t magically “fix” all of their problems. From someone who deals with mental illness, some of the most comforting times for me have been when a friend just listens to me vent over a Chipotle bowl.

Just reach out.

In no world are you expected to fight depression yourself. The people who care about you will not think you are a burden if you open up. Tell your friends you love them. They may need to hear it more than you think.

VIDEO GAMES NORMALIZE GAMBLING AMONG YOUTH

What begins as harmless $5 bets or in-game purchases is forming how young people understand risks and rewards. Experts warn that boys as young as 11 are being introduced to the same psychological hooks used in casinos. The result is a growing concern that the next generation is being introduced to gambling long before their brain fully understands consequences.

By Doan Nguyen, Kevin Ho and Christian Warner

IT STARTED

with a small bet. A few dollars here and there, amounts that seemed harmless.

During his freshman year, a student who requested anonymity and his friends would send picks to each other before NFL games, turning sports betting into something like a group chat pastime. Just $10 every weekend. Nothing serious.

He grew up playing Madden Ultimate Team, opening player packs in hopes of getting lucky, and he loved to watch his favorite teams play. The sports betting apps were everywhere on social media, in advertisements, in conversations between friends. Soon,

he realized how easy it was to participate, even underage. All it took was linking a debit card. Looking back, it was a shockingly accessible mistake, one that, according to the World Health Organization, takes tens of thousands of lives each year.

The feeling of winning a bet felt good. Really good. But beyond the money, watching the games was simply more fun, as if every time he turned on his TV his favorite team was playing in the Super Bowl. But most bets didn’t hit. Sometimes a wide receiver fell just short of the yard he needed. Sometimes the final leg of a parlay missed by a single play. Each time, the money seemed to vanish from his account.

Because the losses came in $10 increments, they were easy to ignore. He just assumed he would eventually win it back. By the time his father noticed dozens of small charges on the account, the total had subtly amounted to nearly $400, driven by decisions made on the whim of a “what if?”

The legality of gambling is largely determined by state law, and Texas outlawed most gambling forms in 1903 during a period of moral reform, with some periodic exceptions to the ban every few decades depending on economic and political circumstances. In recent years, attempts to legalize sports betting have been made, yet none have succeeded. Dozens of platforms, using

loopholes to get around legislation, surged in popularity over the past five years. Kalshi is classified as a prediction market and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Instead of placing a bet, users buy event contracts: financial instruments that pay a fixed amount if a specific event occurs. Another prediction market, Polymarket, in particular, operates offshore and uses cryptocurrency markets, making enforcement more complicated for U.S. regulators. Underdog Fantasy and PrizePicks operate as daily fantasy sports (DFS) platforms, which are widely argued to be skill-based contests rather than gambling. These platforms are at the center of ongoing debate and regulatory scrutiny over whether or not sports betting primarily relies on skill or chance. The Texas legislature has no explicit regulation on daily fantasy sports, so they fall into a legal grey area.

In recent years, media outlets have broadcast sports betting sites, prediction markets and DFS platforms at growing rates. Venmo advertises to users to link their account

to Kalshi. Social media users can only often scroll through a few posts before coming across a limited offer that some can’t refuse. For a student who requested anonymity, he first got into sports betting at 15 years old after seeing an advertisement for Fliff, a DFS that grew in popularity for offering users daily claimable money. So he started playing around with those $5. Once he lost, the game would give him more. Over and over again.

“I was able to bring that up to $100 twice, and I lost that $100 twice,” he said.

Since then, he has tried out Sleeper Fantasy, another DFS, and Underdog Fantasy, depositing his own money into them. His betting is comparatively disciplined:

We didn’t grow up with any of this, so it’s not something where I can relate my own experiences. Parents need to be aware of what could happen — screen addiction, wanting to spend money, talking to strangers online. There’s a lot to process.”

A St. Mark’s Parent

only a few small $1-5 bets about once a week, justified by a phrase that echoes in his mind.

“No harm, no foul here,” he said.

Yet while they appear harmless, these small increments often add up to a much larger problem later in life.

According to the Director of Marksman Wellness Center Dr. Gabby Reed, gamblers have the highest suicide rate of all forms and types of addictions. So as this normalization and romanticized advertising of gambling continues to pervade pop culture, younger kids can only become more susceptible.

“They say (someone is) four times more likely — if you’re exposed to gambling before the age of 12 — to develop a gambling problem,” Reed said. According to a re -

cent study done by Common Sense Media, gambling has become an increasingly common activity among boys aged 11 to 17. And the gambling isn’t always sports betting or poker. It’s coming from video games.

Researchers have pointed to a gateway effect: the idea that certain game mechanics, such as randomized rewards and in-game purchases, mimic slot machine psychology and normalize risk-reward spending. The suspense before the reveal, flashy animations and ultra-rare jackpot pulls are engineered to make susceptible children want more.

For her son’s birthday, a mother gifted her sixth-grade Marksman a $20 gift card for the popular platform, Roblox. The gift card

purchase seemed harmless; the son had been begging for Robux, the in-game currency, for months. With the Robux, he’d finally be able to accessorize his avatar or buy exclusive perks for his favorite game.

But he spent all of it in one sitting. So he asked for more.

There was still so much he needed to buy.

So the mother reluctantly set up a parent account to add money for him, double-checking the account to make sure her child couldn’t spend anything without her permission. She’d heard horror stories about other families who have been in similar situations.

“Once he had money to spend on the game, he couldn’t just enjoy the game without it,” she said. “It turned into a problem so quickly in my mind.”

She already knows that Roblox and many other platforms are designed to keep the player staring at the screen and wanting more. But she also wants her son to enjoy playing games with his friends.

“We didn’t grow up with any of this, so it’s not something where I can relate my own experiences,” she said. “Parents need to be aware of what could happen — screen addiction, wanting to spend money, talking to strangers online. There’s a lot to process.”

Another mother, seeing the influx of Kalshi and DraftKings advertisements on her feed and television, has taken a different approach to how much her child is exposed to. Her fifth grade Marksman doesn’t have access to a phone. Or a computer. Or Xbox. Or any video games at all.

She knows she’s being overprotective by cutting off all access. She lets her son know that the devices and games will be granted in the future, and when they are, she expects him to make smart decisions.

“It’s not easy because a lot of his friends have access to the internet,” she said. “Every family is going to have a different kind of comfort level with exposure and risk.”

The mother stays vigilant and informed, concluding that a majority of the gambling and gaming platforms don’t care for their players’ well-being; she thinks they are purely profit-driven enterprises.

“Candy Crush seems so innocent with its bubbly tiles and pretty colors,” she said. “But after a certain point, even that ‘harmless’ game asks for your dollars.”

Sixth graders Oliver Weil and Carter Reed have noticed that spending money inside video games has become a normal part of how kids their age play.

For Carter Reed, the spending comes with limits set by his parents. Last Christmas, they gave him four $25 gift cards. But if Carter spent the large sum all at once, he might be left wanting even more, so his parents have limited him to one gift card redemption every three months. The restriction keeps him from spending too quickly in a game where purchases instantly change his game performance.

For Weil, the appeal of spending money online is more about

fitting in with the people he plays with.

“On Fortnite, I want to match outfits with my friends,” Weil said, “There’s a lot of cool, new cosmetics that come into the shop.”

Still, the pressure to spend can be strong. Weil recalls a time when he had friends come over to play Fortnite on his Xbox, and without his or his parents’ knowledge, his friends spent $100 worth of ‘V-Bucks’ on his account.

When Weil finds something he wants, but doesn’t have enough money to buy it, he’ll have an internal battle of whether he should buy the item without his parents’ permission. And it’s not entirely his fault. With Fortnite having new items and deals in its rotating shop daily, it’s hard to ignore the temptations.

“In-game purchases are really addictive,” Weil said, “The dopamine when you get better stuff makes you feel good. You start winning. You want to spend more.”

Licensed professional counselor Jeremy Edge points to one underlying principle tying loot boxes, sports betting apps, and other digital avenues into the same behavioral loop: variable reward.

“It’s a mechanism where you’ll get rewarded sometimes, but not all the time,” Edge said.“And that’s one of the most addicting behaviors that a person can engage in.”

Gambling

can be a part of a healthy, purposeful life. It just can’t be the purpose.”

Lester Clowes

executive functioning coach

It’s the same reason a slot machine works. The same reason why someone refreshes their feed. The outcome is uncertain, and that uncertainty is the psychological hook bringing people back for more. For Edge, any platform or activity that uses this randomized reward structure constitutes gambling.

The architecture behind these promotional loops is intentional. And they create a cycle of engagement that’s difficult to break, especially once it sticks.

For executive functioning coach Lester Clowes, the problem is that by the time parents eventually notice the shift in their kids’ behavior, it has usually already taken root. And from his perspective, most parents aren’t even a part of the conversation.

“The majority of parents are completely unaware,” Clowes said. “It’s just not their world.”

His solution isn’t a lockdown. Clowes pushes his parent clients to step into their kids’ digital realms. Learn the games, understand the mechanics and treat them as common grounds. Because he believes shutting everything down erases the opportunity to heighten the decision-making tools they’ll need in the future.

A couple of years ago, Clowes

co-led a virtual conference with Dr. Bobo Blankson of Young Men’s Health and Wellness. Gaming executives attended, including a Vice President of a company with a portfolio built entirely on gacha games. And even she wished for parents to take that step forward to learn what their children were playing.

Clowes’s mission is to make that risk more legible.

“Gambling can be a part of a healthy, purposeful life,” Clowes said. “It just can’t be the purpose.”

Edge takes a similar stance with parents who happen to discover that their children are developing gambling tendencies. For him, it’s to ask questions. To begin building understanding through curiosity instead of control.

“It’s very natural for parents in that situation, like, ‘holy crap, they’re addicted,’ and get really worried and anxious and try to maybe put up a lot of restrictions or come down hard,” Edge said. But that impulse, he argues, backfires. “It robs us from understanding our kiddo, and it also takes away the opportunity to build trust and to guide and to teach.”

From his experience, adolescents who feel shut out won’t be willing to open up but tend to go in the opposite direction. But still, even with the right familial frameworks in place and conversations taking place at home, both Clowes and Edge acknowledge the culture surrounding gambling isn’t making the job any easier.

That being said, Edge has seen early signs of digital literacy among younger generations — teenagers who are beginning to question making another parlay. Another wheel spin. Another impulsive purchase.

It’s just that the gambling industry is still expanding rapidly, and the gateway through which young people reach that point — loot boxes, random packs, ingame microtransactions — are still everywhere and hardly regulated.

“I think it could become problematic before it gets to a healthier place first,” Edge said. “It’s exciting, it’s new. There’s so much out there to bet on and to draw businesses to make money on. So I think that’s going to be where it’s going to be tough to fight against, because businesses and companies are going to be pushing that to make a buck.”

With the continued saturation of gambling, Edge estimates it’ll take half a decade, maybe longer, before the awareness culture catches up.

Clowes sees this change through the lens of financial vocabulary. To teach people what they’re actually risking to lose. To make hundreds of dollars mean something beyond a number on a screen or a parent’s credit card. Because without that fluency, the brain has nothing to flag. The money stays abstract. And abstract money is easier to spend.

“We can’t just tell kids that this is bad to do,” Clowes said. “It doesn’t work. Never worked. But giving kids the tools and language and frameworks for them to realize, ‘Wow, I’ve given my agency away,’ that’s when real behavioral change starts.”

Rising dopamine dependence pushes aside boredom

DEVICES, from Page 15

Without boredom and the opportunity to face discomfort, teens will lose the time to develop either.

Every semester, Hillier’s dystopian literature course opens with the same exercise. Students track their own screen time for a week and report back. The average, across five years of seniors, has never fallen below 35 hours. Some students clock 50.

He doesn’t wag his finger at them. He just wants them to look at the number and ask themselves a question.

“If you’re on your phone seven hours a day for seven straight days, that’s the single most used thing in your life,” Hillier said. “More than sleeping. More than school. More than being with your friends.”

The effect, he argues, isn’t just the hours. It’s what the hours replace. His seniors, according to Hillier, can’t fathom reading for fun.

“On any given day, you walk into the senior lounge, and everybody’s on their phone,” Hillier said. “Ten dudes sitting in there, every single one on his phone.”

Nobody talking. Nobody bored enough to start a conversation.

He asks his students to name three TikToks or reels they can remember from a week of watching. They can usually name only one.

“It’s a black hole,” Hillier said. “Things just disappear.”

Robinson has a theory behind that black hole. The phone, he explains, has been deliberately engineered to deliver dopamine — the same neurological transmitter that makes other things addictive. The difference is availability. The device’s ability to so effectively engage while remaining accesible is what makes is so powerful.

Robinson argues that the consequences of that deliberate engineering run much deeper than lost hours, drawing a comparison that might sound extreme at a surface level. He argues that breaking a phone dependency operates similarly to quitting highly-addictive medications like Xanax.

“The same withdrawal, in a probably less potent form, can happen with people when they try to break themselves off from using their phones,” Robinson said.

The result, for heavy users who try to cut back, is a period of increased discomfort.

“You end up with increased feelings of emptiness, declining self-esteem and reductions in actual productivity,” Robinson said. “There’s no fulfillment typically to be had from that type of dopamine farming.”

In the Centennial building, Hillier has been watching that downward spiral play out for five years. For the first few years that he ran his screen time exercise, his students denied feeling addicted.

Thirty-five, 40, sometimes 50 hours a week on their phones. And students still confidently denied the possibility of an addiction.

Then, about two or three years into teaching the course, the denials stopped. Students started acknowledging the habit, acknowledging what it probably was, but the acknowledgement came with a shrug.

“They would say, ‘Yeah, I’m addicted,’” Hillier said. “‘And I’m good with it. It’s just normal. We all are.’”

Hillier found that more unsettling than the denial. At least denial meant the behavior was still considered a problem. To him, part of what makes it so hard to dislodge is that phone addiction occupies a

category entirely its own.

While every other addiction carries a stigma, having a phone and social media is an obligation.

“If you don’t have Snapchat, if you’re not part of that ‘group snap,’ you’re weird,” Hillier said. “You’re out of the loop.”

And underneath the social pressure is something simpler and harder to argue with — the phone is just accessible. Everything on it is designed to be fun, frictionless, instantly gratifying in a way that almost nothing else in life is.

Even so, what some of his students tell him stays with him.

“I’ve had more than a handful of students say (that they) don’t want to be alone with (their) thoughts,” Hillier said. “(They) want to distract (themselves).”

Every spring, though, Hillier sees the same realization dawn upon seniors.

As April rolls in and graduation gets close, students who have spent four years moving too fast to look up suddenly start looking around. Hillier has watched it happen enough times to expect it — the moment when the number on the digital screen time report starts to connect to real-world consequences.

“A lot of guys get pretty introspective naturally,” Hillier said. “They ask themselves, ‘Man, I really spent this much of my life on my phone. Could I have been doing something else?’”

It’s a question Hillier argues arrives about four years too late.

According to Hillier, nobody ever liked being bored. Kids before smartphones didn’t love having nothing to do either.

“It was more like, okay, how are you going to fill that time?” Hillier said. “And it seemed the ways one filled that time were generally healthier.”

Westbury’s concerns run deeper than habit and delve into development. It’s the question of what gets built — or doesn’t get built — in years of phone-filled moments when boredom once did its quiet work. The moments where she believes we develop identity, creativity and the ability to sit alone in a room without feeling unbearably uncomfortable.

“I’m a little worried about the day when somebody doesn’t know how to be alone with themselves at all,” Westbury said.

If you’re on your phone seven hours a day for seven straight days, that’s the single most used thing in your life.”

teacher

Robinson sees the same thing from a clinical angle.

He traces part of it back to something with good intentions, to what seems like good parenting.

“As parents shield their children from distress, they are moving forward into life with less capacity for resiliency, more vulnerability to depression and anxiety and more vulnerability to having difficulties that they feel underequipped to navigate,” Robinson said.

According to Robinson, this

stance represents the widespread social belief that a child experiencing discomfort means a parent has failed. The result is a generation with a specific and compounding disadvantage.

“The danger is a generation with a lack of experience with navigating discomfort at all,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s answer to the obvious question, what to do with that time, doesn’t start with a solution.

His answer starts with a reframe.

Like Hillier, Robinson believes the goal was never to get good at being bored.

“Boredom is not a destination,” Robinson said. “Boredom is an obstacle.”

Rather, the goal is to stop running away from boredom, to stop turning away from the opportunities boredom provides.

“Very few people just want to pass the time as comfortably as possible,” Robinson said. “Most of us have other things we want — and making progress towards those things means encountering boredom as you challenge yourself.”

Not avoiding it. Engaging through it.

Hillier’s son is still young. He hasn’t learned yet that most people won’t look up.

For now, he’ll just keep waving.

Alumnus reflects on his path to musical success

Jeffrey Swann ’69 has played piano internationally, but his success came with a cost, namely his lowered involvement with the school as a student.

By Kevin Ho and Shiv Bhandari

Starting in eighth grade, Jeffrey Swann ’69 left his host family on Norway Road each morning to reach school before the rest of the campus woke up. Because at 5:30 a.m., the chapel — home to the school’s best Steinway piano — was his.

Then began his daily routine: practice before his first class, sprint between classes to the piano the moment each period ended. On most days, if not all, he skipped the cafeteria entirely. Lunch was practice time. Every free minute he possessed was directecd towards to his obsession with music.

And once his school day ended, he still found himself sitting on the piano bench, hunched over a keyboard. Sleep was scarce, but he wasn’t assigned this schedule. None of it was required by anyone but himself.

“If I had been in New York or Vienna or London or Berlin, there would have been structure,” Swann said. “There would have been other people around me doing the same thing. I would have done this with other people. Whereas, as a kid growing up in Dallas, it was just me. I developed this very monastic, rigorous lifestyle.”

While his methodical discipline toward mastering the keys relied heavily on his own work ethic, it wasn’t without guidance. Outside of school, Swann studied composition and conducting at SMU under Alexander Uninsky, winner of the 1932 Chopin Piano Competition. Uninsky also helped find sponsors for Swann’s room and board in Dallas.

It was Uninsky who taught him how to treat every performance opportunity. Whether it was an in-home concert in front of his patrons or a performance in front of hundreds, it had to be with the same intent.

“There’s no such thing as important and unimportant concerts,” Swann said. “Ultimately, when you play a concert, you’re playing for that one person whose life you might transform or give to. Every single time, you play with all your heart.”

But the hours Swann poured into his mastery of the piano left

If

people were to ask me when I decided to become a musician, it’d be like saying when I decided to have brown hair or brown eyes. Its just who I am.

Swann ’69 Professor of Piano at NYU

little to no room for much else. No other extracurriculars, no relationships — his schedule simply didn’t leave space for either. And without the typical high school experience as his classmates, he was forced to sacrifice the traditional teenage experience to continue his work and passions.

“Because I was so incredibly invested in music, I had very, very few friends in the class,” Swann said. “I was friendly with three or four kids, but not close.”

Still, for Swann, the sacrifice was all necessary to achieve his purpose. Because his mother was a musician, Swann had been surrounded by music his entire life. There wasn’t a moment when it transferred from a hobby to his calling. Becoming a concert pianist always seemed like his natural path.

“If people were to ask me when I decided to become a musician, it’d be like saying when I decided to have brown hair or brown eyes,” Swann said. “It’s just who I am. There was never anything else I had ever considered.”

Even though his music journey seemed inevitable, the extent of what he gave up for it wasn’t. Looking back, he believes the sacrifices were just too great.

“I don’t advise people to give up everything to the extent that I did,” Swann said. “I don’t think it was healthy. It was necessary for me because I had to justify getting up at 4:30 every day and doing all this stuff. I justified it by saying I was an artist. But at the same time, you’re only young once.”

In his eyes, the most important consideration is that for those who wish to focus their life on the fine arts, it has to be because they have such a deep love of it that they can’t imagine life without it.

“I think people decide too soon what they’re going to do with their lives, but in the classical music world, people have to do that,” Swann said. “That’s why there’s such a deep commitment but also a great vulnerability.”

As he’s gained experience and maturity, Swann’s outlook on music has changed. Now, what matters most to him is the love behind every piece, the passion that can’t be communicated through inked notes on a page. It goes beyond the complex polyrhythms and chords that dance across dozens of keys.

“As I’ve gotten older, I, more and more, think that a good

Sophomore class introduces time capsule

By Alex Calder

Countless memories are created during high school, but those memories are oftentimes lost in the time away from school. That is why the sophomore class is creating a time capsule to commemorate the accomplishments of the year, hoping to preserve those moments and to bring back a wave of memories when they visit during reunions years down the line. Throughout the school year, the sophomore class has done many activities to improve their bond as a class, but none of them promise to be as effecive as the

time capsule.

“We as class officers try to create a fun environment for the grade, whether it’s games, movie nights or video game tournaments,” sophomore student council vice president Paxton Allen said. “What makes the capsule unique is that it will go well beyond these ‘in-the-moment’ activities.”

The capsule will be a box with pictures or objects that serve as a gateway to all the memories from the year, allowing students to capture everything from everyday moments to huge milestones.

“One day I am going to want to come back to a reunion and see

all my friends,” Allen said. “Being able to talk about what we did in school will be a lot of fun, in addition to talking about what everyone is doing when we meet up again.”

The response from sophomores across the grade has been largely positive thanks to the longevity of this simple activity, with many students already thinking about what they want to contribute.

“I know that a couple years from now I will really want to remember my time at this school,” sophomore Thomas Zielenski said. “I can’t wait to look back on my high school years with

friends and realize how much of a good time it was.”

The capsule is a new idea put in place by the school to try and keep the magic of school in physical form, especially now that so much is online nowadays. In a digital age, this tangible reminder offers something screens cannot.

“Having something that is real to look back on is a great idea,” Zielenski said. “I want to be able to look back on sophomore year and have memories that extend beyond whatever I have saved digitally. I want something that will truly bring back memories of high school.”

concert is good not because it’s played at such an extremely high professional level but because it’s played with the right spirit of love and enthusiasm,” Swann said. “A technically very flawed performance of the Eroica (symphony) by a youth orchestra might have more in the real spirit of music than a very slick but boring performance by the New York Philharmonic.”

Today, Swann is working on a new Beethoven concert cycle. The repertoire is inexhaustible — in his mind, he could live ten lifetimes and still not scratch the surface.

During his practice times, he still spends hours sitting alone in front of his piano in New York City to figure out the smallest details, but that’s okay with him. Because music has always been a part of who Swann is. Even decades after those early mornings in the chapel, Swann still loves everything music has given him and everything he has given it. And as long as he can, Swann will continue playing, fulfilling the hopes of that same kid chasing his dreams.

Sophomore year can feel like an sort of an in-between year for high schoolers. Freshman year students get the feel of high school. Junior year, they step into leadership. Senior year, they enjoy the last time moments of childhood before they go off to college and live on their own.

“I’m going to remember freshman year because I was new to high school, and I think I will remember the final two years of high school,” Zielenski said. “Having something to remember sophomore year will be great.”

Theater program premieres Broadway production

Stephen Sondheim’s notoriously complex compositions pushed the cast vocally and dramatically across four months of preparation and three sold-out shows.

By Sebastian Garcia Toledo

The school’s theater department premiered “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” on Feb. 19 , with the cast running two more performances during the weekend to great acclaim.

The production, a four-month undertaking by the cast, marked a significant tonal shift from the previous years’ more comedic, happy musicals. Both the Victorian-era setting and the generally darker themes led to a more moody, yet still occasionally lighthearted atmosphere.

“We had just done two comedies in past years, and so it felt like the right time for a dark musical,” Upper School Drama Director Katy Tye said.“In terms of dark musicals, oddly enough, (Sweeney Todd) is on the more appropriate side. It’s kind of a dark comedy; you have moments that you can laugh at, and then it gets dark, but the whole thing doesn’t sit in a depressing place.”

The original “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” production premiered in 1979 on Broadway, directed by Hal Prince with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim is famous within the musical world for his extremely challenging compositions, which the cast saw as a worthy potential challenge.

“I think the students were really itching to do something more challenging vocally,” Tye said. “This is a really difficult piece. The tempos are all over the map, and we dedicated two months solely to music work alone.”

This new musical challenge was met with tenacity by all parts of the cast. For the lead actor, junior Luke Cathey, portraying the titular Sweeney asked him to connect with the character both physically and mentally to play his role to the fullest.

“I think a lot of times we are able to watch something and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s horrible. How could you do that?’” Cathey said. “And we

don’t realize how close we come to being a little bit psychopathic in some of those moments.”

The process of relating to the character and finding ways to emulate the true essence of Sweeney Todd came hand-in-hand with the notorious difficulty of Sondheim’s work. The late composer’s music has been noted through the entirety of the theatrical community for its extreme complexity, from sharp tempo changes to pure song length, which can leave singers struggling to find time to breathe. Cathey highlighted how certain songs truly pushed his limits as both a singer and an actor.

“I would say the hardest part for me would definitely be ‘Epiphany,’” Cathay said. “It’s one of my songs towards the end of the second act, when Sweeney realizes that everybody either is a horrible person who deserves to die or their lives are so bad that death is better for them anyway. That song is very challenging because of how it was

written. You’re watching this guy’s mind crack. And so there is a really fast tempo juxtaposed with cantabile sections where sometimes it’s kind of like rapping, just spitting off things with rapid fire. And then I have to switch immediately into a slower type of song in order to convey all the emotion.”

To Cathey, the best part of the project was trying to show the human part of the character.

“The whole point of the musical is to take this tale about this urban legend about a barber who kills people and give him a background, to humanize him and show he has experienced several injustices in his life,” Cathey said.

In order to more effectively engage with the play, the cast built and used the traditional “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” set, with Sweeney’s infamous barber chair placed on the second floor with a trapdoor setup that would lead it to the first floor’s meat pie shop.

A lot of times we are able to watch something and be like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s horrible.’ And we don’t realize how close we come to being a little bit psychopathic in those moments.

Luke Cathey Junior

“There’s a theater practitioner out there that talks about how a set should be a playground for the actors,” Tye said. “It should add to the play, and it almost needs to be a character of its own. With this play in particular, I went back and watched the original Broadway play, and we stayed fairly true to it. It’s hard imagining something like this until it’s built, but the students did a really good job with that, taking it in stride.”

The cast, a mix of students from private schools around Dallas, delivered performances for three nights, showcasing the hard work and dedication they had put into this project. Tye recalls the most rewarding part of the process being the moments immediately after the show.

“You get off of the stage and feel a rush,” Tye said. “There’s a camaraderie that comes along with that within the cast and seeing everybody bask in that joy was the most rewarding part to me.”

Five students qualify for national ceramics show in Detroit

By Benjamin Yi

Five students qualified for the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) show: senior Mason Bosco, juniors Tyson Diep, Taiting Zhou and James Dunlap as well as eighth grader Atlas Diep. The show is the biggest national show for ceramic students. This year, it is being held in Detroit, Michigan, from March 25 to March 28.

Of around 1100 pieces that were submitted for application, 100 were accepted. The seven pieces from the students have already been shipped to Detroit.

“(The show) travels across the country. Last year it was in Salt Lake City,” Ceramics teacher Scott Ziegler said. “There’s a show called K-12 and so there’s 100 pieces in this K-12 show.”

Of these five students, Tyson and Zhou each had two pieces accepted while Bosco, Dunlap and Atlas each had one piece accepted.

“I think this show kind of shows them who is the best of the best. If you get into the show, I think it’s an extremely high honor,” Ziegler said.

“The top ceramic students across the country are competing to get in the show, and then they’re competing for all sorts of awards and scholarships.”

At the show, colleges, artists and ceramics-related companies will pick out their favorite pieces, allowing students to win prizes in the form of scholarships, cash and equipment. The five students who had their work accepted will be travelling to Detroit to see their pieces on display.

“I think there is a little bit of scholarship money involved. It’s not like Harvard’s handing out a full ride,” Dunlap said. “But if a college or a ceramics teacher from a college sees a piece he really likes, I think sometimes you can win a little bit of money.”

To support his students, Ziegler grants his students full access to the

ceramics studio, whether it be before or after school or even on the weekends.

“I think it’s a place that they like to hang out at,” Ziegler said.

“Are they working constantly? No, not necessarily. I think there’s some students, though, that push themselves and strive for excellence”

To complete these projects, Dunlap consistently spends around 12 hours a week in the ceramics studio, with at least an hour to an hour and a half on school days and then two to three hours on the weekends.

“It really is time intensive. In all of junior and senior year, you come out with four pieces, one piece a semester, and so you just invest so

much time and effort into something that can easily fall apart in the kiln,” Dunlap said.”

Dunlap applied with one piece that he had finished at the beginning of this school year as the first major project he had completed.

“I wanted to just see what my chances were. I was fairly surprised I got in,” Dunlap said. “It was very gratifying to be able to send off a huge scale project to be displayed in a national show. It also really excites me for the next few pieces I’m working on now, so it makes me excited for my art in the future.”

IDLC hosts fifth annual Marksmen Multicultural Night

On March 4, the Inclusion and Diversity Council (IDLC) hosted the school’s annual Marksmen Multicultural Night (MMN), celebrating the stories, cultures and traditions of students.

By Dominic Liaw and Nolan Driesse

More than a thousand people gathered in the Great Hall for meals from all around the world. Full of personalized tables celebrating different backgrounds, the school’s community embraces it all. Whether it’s students or faculty members, family or extended relatives, the school joins to cherish its rich diversity, culture and traditions. Marksmen Multicultural Night (MMN) was back, five years after its inaugural event.

Starting in 2021, MMN has become one of the school’s largest events, ingraining itself into students’ calendars annually to celebrate inclusion and diversity. An initial concern of one of MMN’s founders Enoch Ellis ’22 was how long the event could carry on and whether or not it would continue after his graduation. Although there were doubts, MMN has solidified its place at the school.

“It feels like a fundamental tradition and part of St. Mark’s,” IDLC co-chair Reagan Graeme said. “That’s one of the inherent things at St. Mark’s. When you think of big activities, at least for me, you think of graduation, you think of Pecos, you think of character and leadership education and you think of Marksmen Multicultural Night.”

Aside from the food and performances, members of the school community can immerse themselves in several cultures. Where the incredible diversity of the school can hide behind the wall of busy school life, MMN shines a special light on the importance of culture.

“It’s that cultural awareness,” Graeme said. “It’s that togetherness, that sense of unity and mutual respect that MMN fosters, that’s so immeasurable but so impactful in the same community. I know that it’s going to be even stronger this year.”

The IDLC worked alongside Director of Inclusion and Diversity and Human Resources Lorre Allen and Administrative Assitant Jennifer Scott to pull off the annual event. Committees like the Cultural Arts Commitee worked with outside vendors to lead cultural dances and art activities, such as henna tatooing.

“Especially with Mrs. Allen and Miss Scott — they’re doing stuff

that even people on the executive team of the IDLC don’t know (about),” Graeme said. “They’re really, really working hard for that. The administration, Mr. Dini, he’s been incredibly helpful with this and incredibly supportive of the IDLC as a whole.”

It’s that cultural awareness, that togetherness, that sense of unity and mutual respect that MMN fosters that’s so immeasurable but so impactful in the same community.

Reagan Graeme IDLC Co-Chair

For Graeme, this MMN was special. Battling weather issues, adaptations were necessary. Additionally, this year marks his last MMN.

After years of being involved with the event, Graeme will certainly miss it. But he is excited for the future.

“This year’s MMN was truly a night to remember,” Graeme said.

“Despite the weather stifling our plans for food and performances in the quad and amphitheater, we were able to adapt, forming a rich and celebratory atmosphere inside. The engagement from the younger students made this very

special, and it’s so exciting to know that this celebration is a staple in their St. Mark’s career, that they’ll get to see how this tradition grows over their twelve years in a St. Mark’s uniform.”

The event doesn’t spontaneously emerge. In order to make each MMN better than the last, the IDLC surpasses boundaries and expectations.

“Before the end of the school year, we will have already outlined our plans, and the IDLC will have determined which countries that we’re going to specifically highlight through the events and activities that will occur,” Allen said. “And so that is done before school ends in May. It requires weekend work. Evening work. It requires IDLC to meet weekly in mid-January to start outlining and understanding better how Marksmen Multicultural Night will run.”

After the IDLC has put in the necessary work for such an event to take place, it’s up to the community to make MMN as special as possible. When eager boys and parents talk about MMN, the excitement grows and circulates around the campus.

“We start hearing about Marksmen multicultural night from people before we even go on Christmas break,” Allen said. “So I think the enthusiasm just builds. And then when we do our invitations and put up the posters around campus, I think that builds momentum and enthusiasm. I am always excit-

ed about Marksmen Multicultural Night.”

This event is special to more than a thousand people across the community. As the years go on, Graeme is certain that the night will continue to evolve and transform.

“It was a bittersweet feeling knowing that this was my last MMN, but I got to be very involved with and responsible for the outcome of the night,” Graeme said.

“I really enjoyed getting to show my little buddy, Beckham, around all the displays and tables. It was great to see him so engaged with the cultural richness on display. The passion that so many younger students bring to the night reassures me that MMN will remain such an important part of the St. Mark’s community.”

Upper School robotics team competes at regional competition

By Armaan Newaskar

The Upper School robotics team recently finished their season, rebounding after losing many of their senior members.

In the past several weeks, the team dominated its league meet and placed second in robot design at regionals in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) competition.

“Texas has some of the best teams in the world, and often there are teams here that end

up winning worlds,” the newest coach, science teacher Kevin Fine, said. In addition to the competitive atmosphere, the team’s core members are underclassmen. Some of the main contributors include junior Leo Hughes, sophomore Hunter Dorill and freshman Franklin Aguero. In the face of more experienced competition, Fine is proud of these young talents for demonstrating leadership and is confident that their abili-

ties will only continue to grow.

“I think on some teams, there may be more adult involvement, like the coaches or the parents may get more involved,” Fine said. “These kids earned everything themselves.”

Fine believes that the team’s independence and ingenuity will allow them to build a path to success. He acknowledges that the team approaches its craft with a level of dedication and commitment comparable to a sport.

“We’re basically entering our off-season now,” Fine said. “So just like in a sport, if you want to be top level, you probably train, maybe do lifts. You do something to keep strong and actually improve yourself for the next season. The team is already thinking about that.”

Despite its season just recently having come to a close, the team isn’t slowing down. With their eyes set firmly ahead, they are eagerly setting the gears into motion

for the next season.

With a relatively younger squad and a coach new to the school, the team faced no shortage of changes, but it integrated changes and fought at regionals during a reconstructive year. Fine is hopeful for the future, and he hopes that the team will find further success as the team continues to adapt and grow its foundation.

Student leads Dallas Opera theatrical performance

By Kiran Parikh and Luke Nguyen

The rehearsal room is cold when Ayden Yang realizes something is wrong.

It’s January, his first day with the Dallas Opera, and his voice — the one that landed him the title role in “The Little Prince” — isn’t behaving normally. Notes that came easily a month ago sit just out of reach. He makes his way through the session, never singing with his full voice, hoping nobody notices.

By the following week, he can still sing everything. Just an octave lower. But those aren’t his notes.

Those aren’t the notes of the Little Prince.

Yang, an eighth grader, had auditioned the previous fall for the lead role in the Dallas Opera’s production of “The Little Prince.” According to Yang, opera roles for high school students are vanishingly rare, and for him, a Middle Schooler, it was like winning the lottery. He’d performed in musicals before, productions of “Guys and Dolls” and “Into the Woods,” but nothing like this.

He got the role. Then January arrived.

The problem with a changing voice is that it doesn’t wait for convenient moments. It wouldn’t think to check Yang’s calendar. School Choirist and Organist Glenn Stroh echoed this, stating that nature decides the timing and place. What made Yang’s situation particularly severe was the first of the two — it fell weeks before opening night, in the middle of rehearsals and with a major opera company.

Stroh, who was on paternal leave when the crisis unfolded, got a call from a colleague preparing singers for the production. Yang’s voice had been showing signs, even a month prior — but nothing drastic had happened yet. This time, his voice was changing. Fast.

“Each person is unique,” Stroh said. “For some, they can drop an octave in their singing range seemingly overnight. Others have their

range change more gradually, and most often, singing different notes in their range may feel different from day to day.”

For Yang, it felt closer to overnight.

Then a snowstorm hit. Five days, no school, no rehearsals, nothing to do but practice alone in his house.

He found something during those days: his countertenor range.

A countertenor sings high notes, but with a grown, rounded tone rather than a boy’s bright treble. It’s a different instrument entirely. He worked it every day until it started to feel like his own.

When rehearsals resumed, the company listened. They gave him another shot at singing the role.

It wasn’t enough. On Jan. 31, af-

ter the first full orchestra rehearsal, the decision came: another young singer would perform the role vocally while Yang lip-synced onstage. He was excused from the remaining orchestra rehearsals so the other singer could prepare.

“I was kind of sad,” Yang said. “I still kept practicing. I didn’t just give up.”

Senior to host first of citywide speaker series

By Kiran Parikh and Shiv Bhandari

Dallas has spent the last decade becoming a different kind of city. The skyline keeps climbing. Companies keep arriving. People with big dreams keep showing up and deciding to stay. Most high schoolers watch that happen from the outside. Senior Aamir Tinwala decided to do something else.

Sometime in the fall of his senior year, Tinwala started sending emails. He wasn’t sure he would get responses. He wasn’t applying for anything. He wasn’t fulfilling a requirement.

He was just trying to build something — a speaker series that would reach across a coalition of Dallas high schools, an event that didn’t exist yet and no one had asked him to create. The kind of thing that’s not easy to do.

He did it anyway.

The Dallas Entrepreneurial Alliance (DEA) will hold its first event in late March at SMU, a free panel bringing executives and entrepreneurs from across Dallas to speak to

high schoolers about building, failing and starting over. Headlining their panel will be Cowboys Vice President Jerry Jones Jr., and Mandy Ginsburg, former CEO of Match Group, is in discussion to join.

It didn’t start out this big. For four years, Tinwala watched schoolwide events like Lit Fest and STEM Fest bring in speakers — executives, founders, innovators — and noticed the same thing every time. The room paid attention. His friends would walk out engaged and interested, still talking about the presentation. Time flew by because they were just listening intently the entire time.

“Each year after STEM fest, I’d ask friends about it and they’d just exclaim how much they liked hearing those talks,” Tinwala said.

He wanted to recreate that feeling with a room full of people who had taken technical expertise and turned it into something larger, something that actually changed the world around them. That idea became the seed of the DEA.

When Tinwala and co-founder and senior Tarik Syed brought the

idea to campus, the school’s policies required them to house it under their existing club, SM Combinator, rather than let it stand as its own independent event the way STEM Fest does.

They could’ve accepted that ceiling. Instead, they walked out from under it entirely.

“By taking it out of St. Mark’s, we were also able to grow it much faster,” Tinwala said.

What began as a school project became a Dallas one. Tinwala and Syed reached out to business club leaders at nearby schools — ESD, Jesuit, Greenhill, Ursuline and Hockaday — who began spreading the word and collecting RSVPs from their own communities. A partnership with SMU secured the venue. The constraint that was meant to contain the DEA had accidentally given it room to grow.

Tinwala has built things before. His bird conservation project. His clothing brand, Ascynd. Neither started with a complete vision, yet both taught him the same lesson: that the hardest part is simply starting, and that once you do, the

His father showed him a video around that time — an Australian speed skater, dead last through every heat, who won gold when the leaders crashed in the final race. Yang watched it and understood something.

Nothing is over until it’s over.

On Feb. 1, the other singer needed vocal rest. Yang was given the Feb. 4 dress rehearsal — a practice run in front of an invited audience of musicians, supporters and people who knew exactly what they were listening for.

The first act was shaky. The second wasn’t.

“It was amazing,” Yang said. “I think that’s what really kind of shocked them a bit.”

The company came to him afterward with a final condition: reproduce that level of singing in a full run with Maestro Paolo Bressan on Feb. 10, and the Feb. 11 performance was his.

He kept practicing. On the day of the test, the maestro checked him on the hardest notes — the high ones, sung softly.

He hit them.

The night of Feb. 11, something was different from every rehearsal before it. In the past, his voice needed time to settle, cracking through the early notes before finding its footing. This time he walked onstage and snapped right into it — and because he wasn’t stressed about his voice, his acting opened up too.

He only had one performance. The other singer took the remaining shows. But when the curtain came down on his single night, the crowd at the Winspear Opera House rose to their feet.

Stroh, who has coached many St. Mark’s choristers through voice changes and seen several perform with the Dallas Opera, watched his student’s story from a distance and saw something bigger than one performance.

“Perseverance through life’s uphill struggles can bring about beautiful mountaintop experiences,”

Stroh said.“Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t achieve your goal.”

Yang already knew that.

“Never give up,” Yang said. “Do not admit defeat until you’re absolutely defeated.”

He didn’t. And the crowd stood up and cheered for him.

project begins pulling itself forward on its own.

“You don’t really need to know what you wanna do,” Tinwala said.

“You just need to have a small, conceptual idea before you strike something”

Tinwala tries to apply the same logic to the DEA. Though the full speaker panel isn’t confirmed yet and the exact date isn’t locked in, he isn’t worried.

“The event will happen,” Tinwala said. “And it’ll be pretty great.”

There’s an irony to all of this that Tinwala doesn’t shy away from.

At school, Tinwala believes that senior year runs on a particular kind of pressure. College applications. Research programs. Résumé building. A culture that can even make genuine passion feel like it needs a justification beyond itself.

Tinwala built the DEA anyway — not despite that culture, but almost in response to it.

“College admissions stifles creativity and people wanting to pursue their own path,” Tinwala said.

“That’s not really the point of doing things. You should do things be-

cause you have a passion for it or because you want to make an impact.”

The DEA is his proof of concept for that argument. Built in a semester, by a senior who already had his answer.

Even so, Tinwala won’t be here to see most of it.

He built the DEA’s organizing team deliberately, including an even divide of underclassmen and upperclassmen who will still be at the school long after he’s gone. The first event will hopefully generate the content, the awareness and the template. After that, he believes, it will run itself.

But that was always part of the goal.

Not to build something for himself, but to leave something behind for a city and a community he’s about to leave.

“I want to inspire others so that they can start something,” Tinwala said. “I want to create something that will make a difference, and watch it grow into something actually prominent.”

Coming soon:

MARCH 20, 2026

Project Hail Mary

Starring Ryan Gosling, this film is the adaptation of Andy Weir’s acclaimed novel of the same name.

MARCH 20, 2026

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

The sequel to comedy horror movie Ready or Not sees Samara Weaving reprise her role as the target of a global killing game.

APRIL 24, 2026 Your

The ReMarker

GOAT: an inspiring underdog tale

GOAT is a movie that brings to the court vibrant animation, an immersive world and a heartwarming, albeit unoriginal, message. This movie follows an undersized goat named Will trying to realize his dream of being a professional ‘roar-ball’ player, a sport dominated by bigger, stronger and more athletic animals. The plot is that of a classic underdog story, where Will fights off scorn and criticism on the path to realizing his dream.

Will, as a character, is unique in that he rarely ever wallows in self-doubt. He’s confident, focused and determined. Instead, GOAT explores anxiety through his bigger teammates, a refreshing twist which highlights just how universal insecurities can be. An example of this is Lenny the giraffe, voiced by Steph Curry himself, who feels as though all he has going for him is height and his ability to rebound. Another example is Olivia the ostrich, whose constant obsession with social media’s opinions hamper her potential. Arguably the best demonstration of the movie’s themes regarding anxiety is Will’s role model, the panther Jett Filmore. Despite her greatness, Jett struggles with a worn out body and regret over never having won a championship.

Emphasizing the importance of vulnerability, teamwork and perseverance in achieving one’s dreams, GOAT weaves together interesting ideas regarding athletes’ mental health with a classic message about dreaming big.

While some aspects of the film’s story are unique, for the most part it can feel like a cliché sports movie. Many of the story beats feel recycled, and this unoriginality can weaken some of the movie’s key scenes. The movie is also very fast paced, and certain stages of the story feel rushed as a result.

While the movie isn’t without flaws, it compensates for them with high quality animation and worldbuilding. Sony Animation Studios, the same studio which produced the Spiderverse movies and K-Pop Demon Hunters, is at the helm for GOAT, and they deliver a similar level of color and quality. Sony does a wonderful job of bringing the sport of roar-ball to life, and there are plenty of references to real life NBA moments and customs. Tunnel walks, Inside the NBA parallels, and callbacks to iconic sports moments like “I want Iguodala” make the sport of roar-ball feel real and exciting.

All in all, while the movie isn’t special in terms of plot or themes, it’s an entertaining and heartwarming story that is worth the watch.

Other must-watch content:

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

A highly ambitious, well-acted and gripping prequel to Game of Thrones that follows a young knight and his mysterious squire, navigating a world of corrupt politics and schemes. With only six episodes, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms promises to be a quick yet enthralling watch.

Wu Wei Din Food Review

Head Writer Christopher Guffey and guest reviewer Oliver Geheb went to Wu Wei Din Chinese Cuisine, a restaurant based in Plano, to check out the food there! Scan the QR code to watch their full, indepth review or head straight to the @remarkernewspaper Instagram.

American rock band Foo Fighters return with high-energy rock material on their 12th studio album. A +

Friday, March 13, 2026 REVIEWS 23

At the tail end of January, Don Toliver released Octane, an album which arguably cements his status as one of the best artists in modern rap.

Known for his atmospheric trap sound, Toliver’s music has always floated in between moody and hype. In this latest album, Toliver leans mainly into the hype, resulting in a project with relentless momentum and endless replayability.

From the moment it begins, Octane’s production has a sleek and futuristic vibe to it. The beats blend beautifully with Toliver’s voice, enrapturing the listener in a world of addictive sound.

The beats, while all giving off a similar vibe, are all subtly unique and interesting. The production has a polished and almost cinematic feel to it, making the work feel larger than life at times. It’s easy to close your eyes while listening and envision yourself in a high speed car chase.

Where Octane succeeds the most is energy. Even slower tracks are steeped in a layer of of tension, as if an engine is constantly revving in the background. That said, the album occasionally sacrifices emotional depth for vibe. While Toliver hints at introspection, he rarely lingers there long enough to fully unpack it.

Like most of his albums, Toliver’s main goal isn’t quite to make the listener think critically, but rather to thrill and entertain. Toliver turns up that entertainment aspect here, and certain tracks can seem almost indistinguishable in terms of content and message. The themes of the album include a desire for speed, the weight of fame and the pleasure of success, and the album doesn’t deviate from them. This unwavering consistency can, to some, feel repetitive, but it also serves to give the album a cohesive aesthetic, and the hype factor of the project more than makes up for the lack of substance.

Another thing about the album that is consistent is the quality of features. Travis Scott, Yeat and Teezo Touchdown are among the impressive list, and Toliver’s ability to mesh with all of them proves that he is more than capable of versatility.

While nearly all the songs are consistently great, some of the best include Gemstone, E85, Body and Opposite.

All in all, Octane accomplishes what it sets out to do. It solidifies Don Toliver’s status and identity in a crowded rap landscape. He isn’t trying to be the most lyrical or experimental rapper. He excels in immersion, atmosphere, and creative melodies. In that sense, the album carries an air of confidence. It knows its strengths and excels in them. Toliver knows his strengths and it has proven that when it comes to those strengths Toli-

In-class writing changes student dynamic

With AI tools driving a schoolwide shift towards inclass writing, the way students have learned how to do long-form thinking and writing has undergone major changes, with implications for future skills.

Should the Homecoming rules change?

EDITORIAL

Debate over opening Homecoming up poses challenging questions, opportunity for change

In class meetings every September, a call inevitably rolls out to the Upper School, and it goes something like this: “If you haven’t yet, please consider taking a date to Homecoming. There are many girls every year who want the opportunity to attend but can’t.”

And every year, it’s true: each corresponding class of Hockadaisies typically has some 15 to 20 more girls than ours. Because of these girls that are invariably left out, concerns and questions about the current date-required arrangement have long existed. In terms of actually changing it, though, the needle hasn’t moved much.

That is, until this year, when Hockaday announced that Winter Formal would no longer require Marksmen to have a Hockadaisy date to attend. See HOMECOMING, Page 25

EDITORIAL

Only writing in-class hurts learning

With the rise in generative AI tools that can help write deep and persuasive essays on a myriad of topics, our school has seen a rapid shift towards moving English writing towards an in-class format, typically using lockdown tools such as Digiexam to ensure that no academic dishonesty is possible in class, either.

In just the few years since ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, the school has now entirely shifted towards having major essays be written entirely in class. Now, essays that were longer-term projects or overnight assignments have largely become 45 or 70 minute timed writings, with the occasional permission to bring an outline if the prompt or topic is revealed beforehand.

These changes have definitely made

it harder to use AI in essays, but the dynamic shift in English classes has drastically changed how Marksmen think, communicate, and elaborate on their ideas, with both positive and negative implications. In particular, the exclusiveness of writing toward being inclass has left a potential for Marksmen to lose the full ability to write in a broad variety of contexts.

Beyond preventing circumvention of writing essays honestly, in-class writing has provided the major benefit of helping Marksmen to think faster and be more adaptable when communicating their ideas. When under time pressure to quickly synthesize their thoughts and write about them, students have been able to better hone their ability to adapt to different

With Winter Formal now allowing any Marksmen to attend, debate has reignited over whether Homecoming should similarly allow Hockadaisies to attend without the requirement to have a date. See SCHOOL, Page 25

situations and respond accordingly. This carries clear benefits in the real world, where thinking fast and adapting to new situations are among the most important skills in any domain.

But there’s also natural drawbacks: some students are simply not ideally equipped to perform under that time pressure, whether it’s due to needing extra time and/or having some form of test anxiety that makes it difficult to perform in these high-pressure, low-time environments. By making these students conform to the same rules as everyone else with minimal adjustments, the focus on in-class writing can fail to serve as an ideal learning experience.

What war really means

COMMENTARY

William Kozoman Editorial Director

When going to war with a place like Iran, it’s easy to think of it as some glorious mission: going down to the bad guys, beating them up, kicking them out, and saving the day. Another win for freedom.

Unfortunately, that’s a trap we’ve fallen down too many times already, and one that could cause all kinds of unforeseen problems down the line.

Making lasting change in a country has always been more complicated than just bombing the place, killing the leaders, and hoping things magically materialize and work out. Even with troops on the ground, which we don’t have, there’s no guarantee of success. But right now, that seems like our plan: just bomb Iran into subjugation.

While it’s had devastating effects on their government and military, it’s also had the effects that wars and mass bombings usually have: tragic civilian deaths. On just the first day of this war, an American missile missed an Iranian military installation and struck a girls’ elementary school, killing at least 168 people, mostly schoolgirls.

Their deaths could and should have been prevented, but it’s also the reality of going to war: mistakes will be made, and those mistakes will kill innocent people. Again, this war, and no war, is not as simple as the glorious takedown of the enemy.

Maybe even more important is our lack of a vision of what truly comes next for the country. Actually effecting long-term change in a place requires commitment and a stomach for expense and death. If our past experience has told us anything, engaging in premature invasions and unsteady, halfhearted occupations where we don’t understand their people, like we attempted in Iraq and Afghanistan, are bound for disaster.

Even more terrifying is what happened to those countries afterward: Iraq, destabilized after our intervention, fell for years into the hands of ISIS, one of the most evil and repulsive organizations in history. Afghanistan, after 20 years of instability, suffering, and death, ended up falling right back into the hands of an emboldened Taliban that tramples human rights, especially women’s, with impunity.

It seems that now, for better or for worse, we are already at war. But we need to decide, as a country, what route we’re going to take, and what level of commitment we are able to put forward.

Are we going to choose to view this war as a great crusade to bring freedom to a poor, subjugated country, all without shedding innocent blood? Because if we fall into that trap, we’ll be dead wrong.

Are we going to view it as an easy chance to weaken our nemesis and then get out of there as soon as it’s convenient, without considering what comes next? If we do that, we could truly ruin Iran.

Are we actually doing what it seems we’re doing with Venezuela: leaving a repressive dictatorship in place since it’s convenient for us, and extracting a tribute for our own benefit?

Or are we going to see this for what it really is: a complicated and nuanced situation we may have just sleepwalked into, one that will require effort, time, sacrifice, expense, and a lasting commitment to the Iranian people and their betterment?

Now that we’re at war, we have to see it for what it really is. And we have to decide what we want to come next. Do we want to make Iran better? Then we actually have to commit to that, and everything that implies. Or do we want to just blow up our enemy and laugh at them? In that case, both our peoples will suffer for it.

School writing should incorporate both in-class and long-form works

WRITING from Page 23

And while in-class writing promotes a quicker mind in the real world, it’s also true that students will rarely be called upon in their future to finish any kind of project in timeframes as short as the ones expected on the school’s English essays. Because of the complete focus on writing in class, many Marksmen have lost experience and skills working on long-term writing projects that better mirror the kind of work they’ll probably be doing in their future.

Plus, with an emphasis on writing in-class, students are getting less time than ever to truly think about their ideas deeply, make significant changes midway through, and edit and revise their essays after they’ve finished.

Nowadays, almost every piece of writing Marksmen submit is like a first draft, with opportunities for reflection and revision sometimes coming later after writing conferences. While they do help students, having teachers spoonfeed students their mistakes instead of letting them figure them out on their own while writing is holding back some potential for their learning and growth.

So, while in class writing clearly has its benefits and drawbacks, it’s a much harder question to tackle how to ideally set up our writing to maximally contribute to Marksmen and their learning. After all, abuse of AI tools represents one of the most significant obstacles of modern learning not just here, but around the country.

Luckily, good solutions actually aren’t terribly hard to find. In fact, a few examples already exist with our own curriculum that would serve

Plus, with an emphasis on writing in-class, students are getting less time than ever to truly think about their ideas deeply, make significant changes midway through, and edit and revise their essays after they’ve finished.

as great models for future changes.

Take the Family History Paper from English 10, for example. The FHP remains the archetype of a take-home, long-term writing project in our English classes. It also happens to be largely immune to AI. That’s because one of AI’s largest weaknesses remains writing true, personal reflection pieces as opposed to simple expository or analytical essays on popular books that exist plentifully on the Internet.

When it comes to actually reflecting on one’s own life and unique experiences, AI simply cannot come close to replicating what a human would actually write. That’s especially true for a project like the FHP, where the information and story within is truly unique to each individual person and where independent research is a significant component of the project.

The school has also experimented with other writing forms that emphasize personal reflection, such as Leadership Loops. By incorporating more of these, it would allow Marksmen to once again practice their skills in long-term thinking and reflection while also fitting in perfectly with Upper School English’s stress on Character & Leadership development.

In-class writing should still remain a cornerstone of Upper School writing, as it helps eliminate questions about AI for many forms of writing and promotes adaptability and sharpness. But the curriculum should be adjusted to better balance in-class work with more independent projects that emphasize reflection, creativity, depth of thought, and polishing. With those changes, Marksmen will be better prepared for the full breadth of thinking and writing styles they’ll need in their future.

Report Card

Student Musicians Honored

A-

B+

Once again, countless Marksmen in band and orchestra received recognition by the Texas Private School Music Educators Association.

Despite not having the same level of headliners as Lit Fest, STEM Conference once again continued improving this year. STEM Conference

A

Sweeney Todd

A

A+

The cast and crew did a great job bringing the Broadway classic to Preston Road.

Everett Jin was named a 2026 Regeneron STS scholar, a first for St. Mark’s in many years. Marskman named Regeneron scholar

C

Marksmen Multicultural Night

Despite needing to move indoors, this MMN had the more to do than any prior year.

Thunderstorms returning

Though it’s nice to have warmer weather and rain again, pouring rain making the campus muddy and preventing sports practices isn’t great.

A

Lions claim SPC 4-peat in swim

While we’ve grown accustomed to it now, swimming again continues its SPC dominance.

Lunar New Year

A+

From performances by students and world-class musicians to dancing robots, the program was stellar.

Homecoming should allow senior Hockadaisies to freely attend

Service is exactly what it means

One of the best such compromises would be to preserve would be to preserve Hoco as it is for freshmen through juniors, while allowing seniors to attend regardless of whether they have a date or not. HOMECOMING from Page 24

While one would be pointing out that Winfo has always tended to be much less exclusive and difficult for Marksmen to attend than Hoco is for Hockadaisies, this change still represents an important and symbolic extension of the olive branch and a step in the direction of moving away from requiring dates to attend our respective dances.

As a result, the debate has now been reignited: is it finally time for our school to do away with requiring girls to have a Marksman date in order to attend Homecoming?

Proponents would argue that the current system is an archaic and outdated one that forces students from the two schools together without truly considering their preferences, particularly if they don’t find the idea of going with a date easy or comfortable.

They would also argue that date-todate connections are often weak anyway for pairs that only joined together for the purpose of attending a dance together; it’s already unfortunately common practice among Marksmen to take a date and then largely forget about her as the night goes on as both just stick with their own friend groups through the night.

Plus, now that Winfo has already made its change, it would be the right move symbolically to return the favor to Hockaday and allow it the same grace that they’ve shown us.

And most of all, they would argue for the sake of the 15-20 girls every class, and 70 or so girls a year, who will inevitably miss out on Hoco. Many of these girls never get a chance to attend again, or maybe only get to attend one or two across their entire time in Upper School. They argue that by guaranteeing some girls are left out every year, the current system fails them.

Overall, they would contend that such a shift would be the right step in a

more modern direction and would have little negative effect anyway, as most of the connections lost would be false or temporary pairings made just for the purposes of going to the event.

On the other hand, opponents of changing how things are would point out that it would weaken perhaps the most important of the few links still truly connecting St. Mark’s and Hockaday together: these dances. With fewer Marksmen feeling any obligation to bring a date to Homecoming, many of them simply won’t anymore, and a major opportunity for connection between Marksmen and Hockadaisies, even if it often goes unused, would be lost.

Many would also say that the dances are hosted by each respective school, and that inviting members outside of our community who have little to no connection to it would fundamentally differ from the original intent of these dances and what it would mean to attend major events here .

Tradition has also long marked St. Mark’s, and Homecoming has been the way it is for quite a long time now. It would be uncharacteristic of our school to change our policy around the dance now.

Both sides make solid points, and members of the school community lie on both sides of the debate. With no clear consensus as to what would be the right decision, it’s arguably best to find compromise between both sides as to make some reform to Homecoming in response to Hockaday’s changes, while also preserving the core significance of the event.

One of the best such compromises would be to preserve Hoco as it is for freshmen through juniors, while allowing seniors to attend regardless of whether they have a date or not. This change would ensure that, going forward, no more Hockadaises will go all four years of their time in Upper School unable to attend Hoco.

The idea would largely leave the current tradition intact, while also making sure that the biggest concern, the exclusion of some Hockaday girls from Hoco, is limited and that every Hockadaisy can have the opportunity to attend at least once if they would like to.

Making this change would probably attract some controversy, some on the side that it shouldn’t have been made, others who’d believe it won’t have gone far enough. But it would mean that we respond to Hockaday’s generosity and one that, ultimately, most of the St. Mark’s community could get behind. Hockadaisies would also surely be grateful, especially those who have been left out from Hoco thus far.

This debate is still one that has no clear answer, with there being strong reasons to both keeping Hoco and the way it is and to opening it up. Having a limited change to the event would be a middle ground that would address concerns from both sides and include left-out Hockadaisies while also providing something of a limited trial run to see what possible side effects result, providing better grounds for future changes to be considered upon.

No matter what happens, the debate around Hoco’s future is sure to continue. But allowing senior Hockaisies admission to the event will help promote inclusion and allow as many people to enjoy the event as posssible, while also giving us more evidence to examine when thinking about further reshaping the dance.

One of the best things about this school, and one of its main sources of pride, has long been how much community service we engage in.

Beyond our 15 required yearly hours, it’s been commonplace for Marksmen to go above and beyond in serving those around them, sometimes putting forth dozens if not hundreds of hours a year for the benefit of others. It truly is a sign that we are a great school full of genuinely good and charitable people.

But is it really?

As most people probably know by now, the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA), the main source of recognition in the U.S for extraordinary community service by students, has been shuttered indefinitely in another bizarre and unfortunate change from the Trump administration. Students have now lost their premier incentive to engage with their communities and with it a way to bolster their college applications.

With this has come a noticeable reduction in interest by students to go out and volunteer. Now faced with the loss of a major incentive that also served to boost college admissions chances, many students are simply no longer finding it in their heart to go help those around them.

Unfortunately, we are not innocent in this respect.

Here, there’s also been a noticeable decrease in volunteering. More opportunities than ever on MobileServe have gone eerily quiet with less and less Marksmen signing up. Now no longer being able to receive the glory of an award and an ovation at Upper School Final Assembly, many Marksmen have descended back into doing the bare minimum of hours that the school requires.

Of course, there’s people who have gotten busier from last year to this one. I’ll be honest; I’m one of them. My hours are definitely less than what they could be, but that’s also partly because I’m a senior who was grappling with the busiest semester of his life not long ago. However, it seems difficult to reconcile the idea that everyone in the Upper School has suddenly and collectively become busier and now doesn’t have the time for community service.

I don’t mean to suggest we’re evil, that we only care about awards and glory, or that we don’t care about those around us. Far from it, really. Still, it’s a disappointing sign from a school and student body that so often prides itself on being leaders who truly care about their communities.

While it was probably never going to happen, we ideally would have kept volunteering at a similar level, with or without recognition. Sadly, it just hasn’t turned out that way.

All I can hope now is that we move forward as a school and show the same dedication as we had before towards helping improve the lives of those around us, and that starts with the individual Marksman.

If you’re reading this, I urge you, please don’t forget about the importance and impact of community service, and get others onboard with you.

Even for those of you concerned about such a significant time commitment absent recognition, it’s important to remember that the most important aspect of service in college applications is not the number of hours or awards, but the depth of experiences, meaning, and reflection that come from it.

Let’s live up to the reputation of our school, one that serves for the benefit of the world around us, not out of selfish incentives or chasing for glory. Let’s serve the right away.

PAGE 28

SCrew team navigates Bachman Lake environment

Over the past few years, the crew team have had encounters with the abundant crimes and pollution in the Bachman Lake area.

Recognizing my fandom deja vu

COMMENTARY

More than a year has passed since Luka Doncic was traded, and somehow I’m still standing in the same spot I was when I saw the ESPN notification. I remember exactly where I was when the news broke. It felt surreal — like a glitch in the timeline.

Now a year later, instead of obsessing over lineup management and team chemistry, I have moved on from the fandom, forgetting any loyalty I had to the Mavs. With each new seemingly pointless trade, my attachment dwindles. I’ve essentially disconnected myself from the franchise, keeping up with their mediocre trades through the occasional ESPN notifications saying: another key, reliable player traded for younger players with potential; another cornerstone to the team’s identity dealt away for draft capital and upside. All of these deals to rebuild the team around our new young superstar — this time, Cooper Flagg.

I’ve heard this narrative before.

Seven years ago, I remember hearing about a young prodigy from Slovenia who had won the EuroLeague MVP and could transcend our team into greatness. Luka Doncic, that promising rookie, roped me into the team’s culture and made me invested in their success. For me, he wasn’t just an addition to the roster — he was the team. With him, a championship run felt possible.

Seeing that success unfold in the 2024 playoffs was the highlight of my sports fan career. When the Mavericks reached the Finals with Luka at the spearhead, I realized that my fandom coincided with Luka’s progression — and that this championship run was the peak.

Seeing that 2024 roster being deconstructed, my connection to the team crumbled with it. Now instead of seeing the Cooper Flagg rebuild as a bright future, I see it as deja vu.

Even the Anthony Davis trade was familiar. I’ve seen the Mavericks ship away a talented, yet injury-prone, big man due his lack of availability. But it wasn’t Anthony Davis; it was a lanky Latvian named Kristaps Porzingis.

To add insult to injury, I actually agree with the Anthony Davis trade. I couldn’t stand seeing our team flounder with an All-NBA talent sitting on the bench in street clothes.

The justification of “Defense wins championships” still rings in my ears. Although the saying is true, I know one thing is sure: defense wins championships, but availability matters more.

It hurts to watch my city’s team ignorantly repeating history while hoping to get a different result. It feels like the team gave up on Luka Doncic, and we will never get to know how his story would’ve played out in Dallas. As a fan, I’m not sure if I will feel the same passion as I did in 2024. For now, I’m stuck in the cycle of mediocrity.

Streaming services collaborate with specific sports teams and leagues which increase prices for avid fans.

SMU photographer connects with basketball team

Despite no prior connection to the school, SMU freshman Matthew Suk has improved the basketball team’s social media exposure.

Lacrosse commits beat recruitment odds

To players, Lacrosse recruitment seems like a game of chance: a single game can potentially alter your collegiate future. For three Lions, the recruitment journey has presented each player with different obstacles and triumphs.

By Sam Morse

Lacrosse players wait patiently for Sep 1. of their junior year, anticipating a call, a text or anything that gives them the satisfaction of receiving a collegiate offer. For some, that relief is instantaneous, hearing from their desired school right from the jump. For others, the process takes painful patience, waiting years and delaying the gratification until the stars align in their favor.

For seniors Rocco Renda and Weston Chance, that unsettling doubt lasted for months, itching for an eye-catching performance that made the scouts turn their way. Junior Matthew Weir’s experience was quite the contrary.

For Weir, his early offer from Marquette University was simply an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Only two months after he could be contacted by coaches, Weir announced his verbal commitment to the

HOT TAKES

university on social media. When visiting the school, he fell in love with the school’s culture, the city of Milwaukee and, most importantly, the coaching staff. After Marquette Lacrosse Head Coach Jake Richard gave Weir a month-long window for a decision, Weir knew it was time to pull the trigger. On a Tuesday night, three days after visiting campus, Weir decided to give him a call.

“I called him in my room and it was a really cool experience,” Weir said. “I was like, ‘I have good news for you. I would like to announce my commitment to play at Marquette University.’ It was a very genuine interaction.”

Originally, lacrosse was simply a sport to play during the spring, and with the assistance of a teammate’s dad Ralph Saye, Weir signed up. However, the sport quickly became more than a pastime, as Weir began waking up early to practice on the school’s field, rapidly improving.

With impressive performances over the summer with his club team, ADVNC, and good connections through his coaches, Weir soon realized that lacrosse was an avenue for his collegiate future.

While Weir’s recruitment journey was fast paced, Chance’s and Renda’s paths had more meanders. Despite their longer decision process, both Renda and Chance began playing lacrosse much earlier, being introduced to the sport in Lower and Middle School.

Renda first heard about lacrosse through his friend Michael Jimenez then

joined the school team and a club team. After joining the Texas Nationals and rising to the third-ranked team in the nation, Renda knew lacrosse was what he wanted to do.

When offers opened in September, Renda was tempted to commit to a college that he didn’t see himself attending, but through the guidance of his previous coach Aiden Herman, Renda waited for better opportunities to come. That wait went from months to over a year, watching other players get the relief he desperately wanted.

“I was one of the latest guys to get recruited,” Renda said. “I was ready to fire off a commitment on September 1st and my coaches thought I could get something better. I’m super thankful that I did, but, looking back, that was the hardest part, not just getting that weight lifted, but going somewhere that I actually deserved.”

After improving his ball-handling skills over the school season, Renda went into his senior summer with a point to prove. During the Grade 8 Lacrosse Tournament, his first of the summer, Renda proved his skill, gaining attention and being called the best overall player in the tournament, committed or uncommitted. With one stellar performance, Renda’s recruitment swayed completely.

Lacrosse, Page 30

Bachman Lake safety hinders crew practice

Due to a mix of natural challenges and abundant crime around the area, the crew team has navigated unusual challanges.

By Sam Morse and Wyatt Auer

According to WFAA, a driveby shooting near Bachman Lake on July 23, 2023 left one person dead and three others injured. Less than a year later, on March 9, 2024, a local FOX affiliate reported that a body was recovered from the lake.

These incidents are not isolated. Over the past 25 years, numerous crime-related events and police investigations have been reported in the Bachman Lake area, contributing to its reputation as a high-crime location.

Despite these concerns, Bachman Lake also serves as a regular practice site for the Lions crew team and several other local rowing programs.

When the crew team prepared their boats for practice in the spring of 2024, they were not aware of the body floating near the shore. Originally, the practice went on as normal, and because it was an intense practice, people’s eyes were looking straight ahead.

“If you turn your head, it actually really messes up the boat’s direction,” team captain Hewes Lance said. “And that day was a practice that required a lot of focus, so we weren’t really prying our heads out and looking.”

Their focus was halted abruptly when a coach stopped the team and ushered them back to the dock, cancelling practice entirely. As the team left practice, they realized something was wrong.

“We saw the cop cars, we saw the flashing lights, and we wondered, ‘what’s going on there?” Lance said. “As we passed, we saw the cops pull up something, but we couldn’t really tell what it was.”

In the following days, a news article was sent to the team group chat explaining how a body floating near the shore was found and pulled from the lake. Furthermore, while the team was on spring break, another body was found in the lake.

These hindrances to practice, although concerning, are not surprising. In addition to the bodies,

the team has to deal with other natural hurdles from the lake that make the team’s procedure hectic. Along the shore, piles of trash, litter and pollution contaminate the lake.

“There’s a lot of stuff, especially near the dock because the water is pretty still there,” Lance said. “So there’s not only a lot of trash, but also just broken branches and piles of mulch floating on the surface.”

Massive mounds of mud, large sticks and low water levels present dangers for damaging their boats, especially the skegs: the stabalizing fin that runs along the bottom of the boat.

“We lose a lot of skegs,” Lance said. “And when you lose the skeg, it’s really hard.”

That damage can derail a practice almost immediately. Sometimes the boat can still function well enough to finish a piece, but other times the crew has no choice but to head back in. Because a replacement skeg has to

be glued back on while the boat is dry, repairs cannot be made on the water. A broken part can mean switching to another shell or cutting practice short altogether.

“Sometimes, when we lose a skeg, it’s fine and it’s manageable,” Lance said. “But other times, when we lose a skeg, we have to go in and either take out a different boat or that’s it for practice.”

Those problems worsen in the more difficult sections of the lake. A narrow waterway that feeds into Bachman Lake is where teams can get extra distance in. On days when the water is high enough, it increases the chances of hitting branches or other submerged objects just below the surface.

“There’s a little river that feeds into it, and you can go pretty far down there on good days, especially after it’s rained,” Lance said. “But sometimes you’ll still hit something.”

Conditions also shift from day to day. Construction near the dam began in 2023, significantly drop -

We saw the cop cars, we saw the flashing lights, and we wondered, ‘what’s going on there?’”

Hewes Lance Crew Team Captain

ping the water level and leaving branches protruding above the surface in spots that were previously clear. The lake is fed by Bachman Branch, a medium sized tributary of the Trinity River which runs north for ten miles collecting runoff and debris from much of central Dallas. Rain can also wash logs, dirt and debris from houses and construction sites along Bachman Branch into the lake, making the water even murkier and harder to navigate.

“They’re also doing construction at the dam, so the water level will be low sometimes,” Lance said. “Then there’ll be branches sticking up.”

That instability adds to the sense that practice on Bachman demands more than normal athletic focus. Rowers are not only trying to maintain timing, technique, and endurance. They are also constantly adjusting to a course that can change with the weather, the water level or whatever has drifted in overnight.

Faculty member transitions from lacrosse dreams to teaching

By Benjamin Yi

After nearly 40 years of playing lacrosse, former Division II starter Ken Howell now finds his greatest joy not in actively being on the field, but in helping lead and guide his varsity and JV players into discovering theirs.

Howell’s lacrosse journey started in the second grade, when he moved to Maryland and, after watching a friend play, he decided that it was something he wanted to pursue as well. Growing up, Howell also played football, soccer, baseball, basketball and wrestled. For Howell, sports had always had a huge impact on his life. His life was centered around sports

with school and friends revolving around sports. Playing a sport every season and then getting into college and having lacrosse all season long, meant that Howell never really had any downtime.

“(Sports) really kept me focused, organized and on the ball,” Howell said. “I always wanted to go to college for sports. It kept a drive to do that.”

While still living in Maryland, Howell was being recruited by several Division I schools as just a Sophomore. During his junior year, Howell moved to Alabama, which had no lacrosse, making it much harder for them to find him at games, forced to go to camps in order to start getting recruited

and noticed.

“(I went) to high school for two years at Severna Park High School in Maryland, and the last two years was called Chelsea High School,” Howell said. “The school in Maryland was much bigger with over 1000 students in just the High School. When I moved to Alabama, I think we had a graduating class with 100 students, so a much smaller school.”

After High School, Howell got recruited by a few Division III and Division II schools such as Limestone and Western Maryland Catawba. Howell then coached lacrosse at Jesuit Preperatory School for about eight years, when he stopped coaching and went to

graduate school to get his Masters degree.

“I was originally wanting to be a coach when I got out of college,” Howell said. “But eight years into my career of coaching, I was still teaching at the time. I enjoyed being in the classroom, and I saw more of a vision of me being a teacher, being able to improve myself more as a teacher than as a coach. So my goals changed, and so that’s when I stopped coaching lacrosse.”

After getting his masters and returning to Jesuit, Howell decided he didn’t want to coach lacrosse anymore and, instead, switched to bowling which he coached at Jesuit for 10 years.

“The bowling coach had left, and we were friends,” Howell said. “She was the one who talked me into doing a bowling league with her, and so I was doing a bowling league just on the side for two years. And when she left, the owner of the bowling alley asked for me to be the coach, because he knew me and he knew I could bowl, and wanted me to start coaching after she left.”

For Howell, his love for coaching enables him to give back to other players, helping them develop even further.

Streaming services limit access to variety

Viewers often have to pay for a multitude of streaming services to watch their favorite teams. Although streaming opens new ways to watch sports, the price of subcriptions add up quickly.

By Grayson Kirby and Marshall Sudbury

For decades, sports media was dominated by a few huge companies that controlled almost every game available for fans to consume. Large national networks such as CBS, NBC and ESPN ruled the cable television era of sports broadcasting, working with regional providers to bring local teams’ games to viewers. Then, about a decade ago, streaming services such as Hulu, ESPN+, Amazon Prime and Peacock started offering live sports and changing the way fans view games.

Over her career as a sports journalist and editor for the Los Angeles Times, Iliana Limón Romero has seen how streaming platforms have created new opportunities for consumers. While fans used to be limited to just a few options chosen for them by broadcasters, they can now view almost every major sports event on the planet.

“Let’s say you’ve become obsessed with LaLiga in Spain. This current era is best for you,” Romero said. “You don’t have to find an obscure satellite television network or try to follow audio versions or seek obscure areas, because one of the streaming services will carry this now. You’ll be able to follow every single game without obstruction.”

While streaming has helped some fans, sophomore and avid sports fan Dillon Kennedy is concerned about what the future of sports media holds. Each year teams become more and more difficult to follow and costs continue to rise as more media deals are inked and the sports entertainment landscape gets more complicated.

“Right now I pay for around eight subscriptions, and that number has gone up with the recent exclusive streaming rights that sports teams and leagues have signed,” Kennedy said. “If I ever want to watch a Premier League game I’d go to Peacock, but then not all NFL games are on Peacock so I’d have to get more and more streaming platforms.”

With all the different providers and places to view games, fans looking for certain events or who want to see a wider variety of offerings have struggled recently.

“If you have diverse interests, it can be really frustrating because it can be expensive and hard to understand where everything is,” Romero said. “One of the most searched and engaged things that we provide is our TV listings that include streaming, because then people will know what’s on each day. In some cases, there are flexibilities in contracts that allow networks to pick a more favorable matchup and switch at the last minute what is airing in what window.”

I missed an entire football game trying to get (a service to watch it) and wondering how much money I would end up spending.”

Dillon Kennedy Sophomore

The rise of exclusive deals between streaming services and teams has added another layer of difficulty for fans who wish to follow one team exclusively.

“I think it is very difficult, especially with sports like baseball, hockey or basketball because of the amount of games that they play,” Kennedy said. “If I ever wanted to watch a big time Mavs game I might not be able to get it because of the different streaming services, and if I want to watch it I end up paying more money.”

Many of the issues with following local teams is due to the death of regional broadcasters.

Bally Sports Southwest was the main broadcaster of the Stars, Rangers and Mavericks games to the metroplex area until the company filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Teams then struggled to find new partners or broadcast the game themselves.

“The rights to (broadcast) and the expenses are tricky. It’s easier when you’re doing an entire package for a whole league,” Romero said. “But when you have a mix of local and national cov-

erage, that’s when you get into individual agreements and start to run into issues where some regional networks have difficulty with a sustainable model.”

Often this complex web of streaming services and deals creates last-minute panic when fans want to watch a game without spending more money on exclusives.

“I was trying to watch an Ohio State football game this year that was exclusive to BIG 10+, but I don’t have that,” Kennedy said. “I missed an entire football game trying to figure out how to get it and wondering how much money I would end up spending.”

While consumers have been frustrated by some parts of the streaming experience, their feedback can actually help improve broadcast quality as services try to keep viewership and consumer

loyalty.

“If sports fans aren’t happy with the quality of the products, they say it loudly, and they let the networks know. They voice their opinions and can push back by turning things off or looking for alternatives,” Romero said. “The feedback is instant because the audience is highly engaged. I do think that as much as people are really committed to live sports, there’s a reason teams, leagues and businesses go out of their way to court audiences.”

While it’s impossible to predict the future, Romero believes that future consolidation of media could help consumers.

“We’re looking at an era of media consolidation where some of the different streaming platforms and networks are starting to get bundled together,” Romero said.

“Thus, some of those platforms

Spring sports embrace morning practices

By Marshall Sudbury

Before the sun rises, the Hunt Family Stadium is already filled with commotion. Lacrosse coaches shout orders at rotating defenders. Rowers blast music through speakers while erging in unison. Baseball players laugh as they head towards the fieldhouse for batting practice. While most students sleep, spring athletes are already hard at work.

Lacrosse’s early morning practices developed out of necessity. During the preseason, when in-season sports have priority over the fields in the afternoon,

the team sometimes had to practice before school or after all other sports were done. For senior lacrosse captain Rocco Renda, the morning practices changed his entire schedule.

“It’s a totally different feeling to the week,” Renda said. “It changes when I go to bed, when I wake up. I’m happy about it because it gives me more time to do work during the evening.”

The baseball team often utilizes the new Ralph B. Rogers Fieldhouse in the morning. Since Ruff Field doesn’t have lights, players were unable to do batting practice before school. With the new

retractable batting cages, baseball players have been able to maximize their potential.

“Coach (Dennis) Kelly has been up there every morning helping guys get whatever work they need,” captain Jake DeBoever said. “It’s been huge for team morale and individual development during the offseason.”

One of the main benefits to morning workouts is the energy boost it gives to students during morning classes. The physical benefits are debated by scientists because early workouts are also associated with less sleep time; however, athletes have enjoyed

the psychological effects of work outs.

“It makes you feel better to start the day, you don’t feel so draggy in first period,” DeBoever said. “But sometimes towards the latter half of the day you feel it because you lost an hour of sleep.”

A common gripe about afternoon practice is how late students get home. Because in-season high school practices go until 6:30 p.m., many athletes have to stay up late to finish their work. With early practices, players get home one to two hours earlier than they normally would.

“Going home at 3:30 is the

will be available under one umbrella and make it a little bit better. There is a limit to what the American consumer can afford and is willing to pay, but we haven’t hit it yet.”

Despite the drawbacks, the variety of services encourages collaboration among friends to watch the games together.

“It is not fun to have to switch apps to try to find the game that you want to watch and you just end up spending more time trying to find the game than actually watching,” Kennedy said. “But it also allows you to be with friends and watch the games together because if you don’t have a certain platform then you all go over to the friends house that does and watch the game.”

best feeling,” Renda said. “Being able to start my homework at 3:45 and then have the rest of the night off and go to bed early is a great feeling.”

While morning workouts have received mixed reviews, players agree that there is something special about these practices.

“It’s more rewarding,” Renda said. “Especially when we have time to shower and go get breakfast as a team. I did something productive before my day even started.”

Friendships propel sports photographer’s early career

Rising sports photographer Matthew Suk has formed many lasting friendships that have ultimately guided his work from high school bleachers all the way to the private workouts for NBA players.

By Nolan Driesse

As junior Asher Collins finishes a dunk in the third quarter against Episcopal High School, his friend Matthew Suk could be seen just to the right of the basket, camera in hand.

The video will go on to get thousands of views on social media and Collins will receive more exposure around the basketball world.

Suk is shooting photos for NBA players now, but his close friendships with Marksmen are what took him to the next level.

A familiar face behind the camera, Suk didn’t stumble into sports photography by accident. It was his longtime friend and Lions’ basketball player Collins who gave him an invitation to shoot a preseason game, kicking off a journey that has taken him from high school gyms to NBA workouts in just over a year.

Suk, a freshman at SMU, can be seen on the sidelines of Lions’ basketball games. His worksports photos and videos - can be found on Instagram by the handle: @mattshotitt.

His career at St. Mark’s didn’t start with basketball though.

He started shooting for St. Mark’s when his friend, junior Reid Smith, heard he was into sports photography and asked him to come out and take photos for the football team.

“I played basketball with Matthew during the summer of my sophomore year,” Smith said. “He was a really nice kid and I knew he was into photography so when football season started, I asked if he wanted to take some pictures. That was the first time he took photos for St. Mark’s.”

Suk didn’t stop there.

Longtime friends with Collins, dating all the way back to elementary school, Suk started taking photos for Collins at some preseason basketball games. Friendships, like his decade-long friendship with Collins, are what made Suk’s photography what it is today.

“He’s a great guy and is really cool,” Collins said. “He comes to most of our games and even a few team meals. We all love him.”

After taking photos and videos for Asher at a few preseason games, Suk made some new friends in Luke Laczkowski, Dawson Battie, Wes Jackson and a few of the other basketball players on the team. His bonds with players on the team have kept him shooting for St. Mark’s even when his talent has taken him way farther than just high school basketball.

I started out shooting only high school sports and began shooting for college games, then to NBA offseason workouts in such a short time.”

Matthew Suk Sports Photographer

After his business started gaining traction, Suk began getting requests from lots of coaches and players. Working for several NBA teams and even a few NBA players, he began to realize that sports photography was more than just a hobby.

It was a true passion.

“I realized how many people loved my work, which led to many high schoolers and other people, outside of basketball, inviting me to come take photos and videos,” Suk said. “I started out shooting only high school sports and began shooting for college games, then to NBA offseason workouts in such a short time, it made me realize how this isn’t a hobby, but it’s a fun job, and that a lot of people love my work.”

Basketball is one of the fastest

paced games in all of sports, full of excitement from tip-off to the last second buzzer. People don’t watch basketball games and highlights to see people make layups and shoot mid-range shots though – fans are there to see the explosive, momentum-changing fast break dunks from the big stars on the court.

While there aren’t many bad seats at basketball games, Suk gets to witness these adrenaline inducing moments from as close as possible, helping him create amazing content for his videos and adding to his love for the game.

His love for the electric environment of players and fans during a big dunk have taught him to look for more meaning in videos. Instead of searching for moments that would make good highlight reels, Suk captures the whole moment of exciting plays, not just the highlight itself. He doesn’t go through the motions, instead, he captures a moment and stays in it.

“My favorite moment to capture during games is when someone dunks,” Suk said. “There’s so much to capture during a dunk: the dunk itself, the emotion of the dunker afterwards, and the emotion of the fans after.”

Suk’s basketball interest doesn’t stem from simply watching the sport – he has played it all his life and his love of the sport has grown through his photography opportunities.

“Shooting basketball has always been a huge part of my life,” Suk said. “I’ve played it all my life, all throughout elementary, middle and high school and it’s my favorite sport. That’s what draws me to shoot basketball the most.”

He doesn’t plan on stopping.

Only a freshman in college, Suk has his sights set on great things, hoping to be a full-time NBA photographer. If all goes well, he dreams of branching out into the realm of sports agency along with photography.

“In five years, I think I see myself either working as a professional photographer for an NBA team or player,” Suk said. “If I want to do something even more serious, my life dream is to become a sports agent full time.”

Lacrosse team experiences volatile recruiting process

“Recruiting is very on and off,” Renda said. “It’s almost lucky. If you have a great game and coaches see you, they’ll say, ‘Okay, this could be our guy.’One game can change the outcome of your college decision.”

One school that took note of Renda was Dartmouth. For Renda, Dartmouth was everything he had been looking for: Ivy League academics, other four and fivestar recruits from his class and newly-hired head coach Sean Kirwan from University of Virginia.

When Kirwan called Renda and asked if he’d like to join the Dartmouth lacrosse program, Renda said yes on the spot.

“Right when I hung up that

phone, a weight lifted off my shoulders,” Renda said. “All the time I spent just paid off right at that moment, and it felt like a high, like I was the king of the world.”

Like Renda, Chance’s summer club performances presented him with the opportunities he wanted.

Chance’s love for lacrosse stemmed from his brother, Will Chance ’21, who started playing in fifth grade.

“I have good and bad memories of playing in the front yard against my brother,” Chance said. “Sometimes I emerged victorious. Other times I found myself submerged in the bushes. Starting my lacrosse career playing someone who was older, bigger, and

stronger than me helped me to be a more aggressive and confident player.”

Chance began traveling for club lacrosse elementary school, realizing he wanted to play collegiate lacrosse only in 7th grade while also playing for the Texas Nationals. Although he loved lacrosse, Chance had another passion: basketball, which presented him with a challenge.

“There’s definitely pressure to just do one sport,” Chance said. “Looking back, I actually wish I could have stayed with basketball as well as lacrosse, even though I do think quitting allowed me to spend more time on lacrosse, especially for a sport where you have to travel all year.”

Like Renda, Chance also felt

the fickle nature of the lacrosse recruiting process, recognizing the importance of summer tournaments and club play. In fact, Chance was prepared to apply to colleges through the regular application process until one tournament changed the playing field.

“I played really well at a local tournament called the Texas brawl,” Chance said. “The Williams College lacrosse coach was there. He texted me, we had a good call, and I went up to visit.”

Chance was drawn to Williams College because of its similarities to St. Mark’s and their balance of academics, sports, and student life. After talking to former teammate and Williams fresh-

man Matthew Hoffman, Chance’s mind was made up.

Although their journeys varied, all three players felt the immediate happiness of announcing their commitment to their family, friends, and community.

“That was the most exciting part,” Renda said. “I could not sleep the night before I posted my commitment post. The feedback really excited me, seeing how many likes I got on my commitment post. All the comments congratulating me and all the parent texts made me look back at the journey, and how I was supported by so many people.”

Pole vaulters reach new heights

Through one of track and field’s most distinctive events, a few Marksmen have learned to soar over their fears.

By Marshall Sudbury and Alex Calder

Hugh Feferman and Leo Hughes approach a unique sport, pole vaulting, from very different backgrounds. Hughes, a former gymnast, brings grace and dexterity when approaching the bar. Meanwhile, Feferman uses his upper body strength and weightroom training to generate the power required to lift a vaulter off the ground.

Although they view the event from opposite sides, the two vaulters share a common goal: striving to go higher every time they compete.

Feferman first joined the Lions’ track team in his junior year as a runner, specialzing in the 400-meter dash. While he enjoyed the team, he was still looking for an event he could truly excel at. Then, just before the winter break, Feferman found a video about pole vaulting while scrolling through social media.

“I saw a TikTok saying that pole vaulting required a lot of upper body strength,” Feferman said. “I thought that was really interesting, and it looked cool.”

Hughes started doing the event even before high school. As a gymnast, he developed body control, core strength and flexibility, all critical parts of vaulting.

“I first got into pole vault the summer before ninth grade because of my gymnastics background,” Hughes said. “I talked to Coach John Turek and practiced with him over the summer, that’s where I first enjoyed it and decided to stick with it.”

Hughes learned the technique from Coach Turek and Winston Lee, a former Lions’ pole vaulter and current junior at Stanford University. Aside from their coaches, Hughes, Feferman and freshman Pete DeVoss learn by coaching each other.

“Leo has been doing it for a lot longer than both Pete and I, but Pete is also on a club team,” Feferman said. “They’ve really helped me get better and taught me the technique.”

Because Feferman only started just a few months before the season, he had to learn the techniques quickly. But before he could start actually vaulting, Feferman first began by practicing his approach.

“First, I was doing what Coach Turek calls a pole run, then I moved to the long jump pit, but when I first started actually vaulting, it took probably a week before I was able to invert,” Feferman said. “It was scary to start. You’re running so fast and then stick the pole, and hopefully you did it right and don’t go flying. You really have to trust yourself.”

One way Feferman built confidence in his technique was by using his lifting background to teach himself the movements of the event.

“I’ve been into weight lifting for a couple of years now. Some of the movements in actual vaulting I’ve been able to equate to certain lifts,” Feferman said. “For example, you’re doing a shoulder press when you go to plant, then doing a row when you swing up the pole.”

As a team, the vaulters practice twice a week. When not doing their event-specific work, the athletes still have to do their track training and conditioning.

“We vault on Mondays and Wednesdays, then go to the weight room afterwards,” Hughes said. “Besides that, we do the exact same workout as the sprinters and are expected to run their intervals as well.”

Although other events take time away from vaulting practice, the team has found benefits from doing other forms of training.

“You can train for both track and pole vault without sacrificing either,” Feferman said. “To vault, you need to be able to run fast on your approach. I build that when I train for my 400s.”

While the vaulters do everything they can to stay safe, the event is hard to do outside of a competitive environment because of the risks. Due to the potential danger, it’s difficult to practice alone or as a recreational sport.

“I’ll certainly consider vaulting after high school, but I doubt

that I actually will because of the amount of time it requires,” Hughes said. “It’s easy to get hurt if you don’t practice enough.”

While the training and technique of the event might be arduous, the exhilaration of being in the air keeps Hughes passionate about the event.

“My favorite part is the feeling when I get over a bar and set a personal best or when I’m in the air and have to throw the pole away to keep it from hitting me,” Hughes said. “It’s a really thrilling experience because it can also be scary at times.”

For Feferman, the joy of vaulting comes from seeing his improvements. Over three months, he’s gone from being scared to even jump to smashing his personal best on a regular basis.

“I’m on an upward trajectory right now… it’s really fun seeing that bar go up every time,” Feferman said. “That feeling of getting over and you don’t hit the bar and then on the floor, you’re just like ‘Yes!’”

Middle Schooler starts basketball mopping club

By Jake Pinnell

Finding ways to get involved meaningfully can be hard for Middle Schoolers, so when Liam Calder ’30, founder of the basketball moppers club, noticed an inconvenience that was being handled inefficiently, he jumped to find a fix.

“I got inspired from watching varsity basketball games and seeing all the stoppages in play that were slowing the game down,” Calder said. “When I would watch the NBA, seeing all the high school kids run on the court and mop the

court always seemed like a fun thing to do, so I tried to translate that to the high school level.”

The moppers help keep players safe and the game moving fast, but there’s so much more meaning than that. Head basketball coach Greg Guiler explains that the importance of this club is in their dedication to serving the community.

“Good community members look for needs that can be met and then meet them with joy,” Guiler said. “(The moppers) identified a need, took pride in getting the mops branded and everything

set up, and rallied their friends to join… I smile ear to ear thinking about a Middle Schooler taking that kind of initiative to serve.”

Taking initiative and creating something in the community as a Middle Schooler can feel intimidating. With little interaction with the upperclassmen, stricter rules and less free time, contributing can be difficult. Calder encourages other middle schoolers to work with coaches and faculty to inspire change.

“As a Middle Schooler I think that it’s harder to get involved on campus than high school, but it’s

not overly difficult. If you have an idea that you really want to start, all the coaches and everyone in the Middle School office can help make it much easier” Calder said.

The team quickly rallied around the moppers, feeling an increased sense of pride, professionalism, and connection to the community.

“Something as public and prominent as having moppers that I don’t see at any other school causes our guys to have a little more pride and causes them to play with just a little more fire,” Guiler said.

Seeing kids who enjoy the game and willingly take time out of their day to be around the team and help keep the players safe encourages the team to play hard and makes them feel like their brothers are supporting them. Calder plans on running the club through high school and then passing it down to a younger marksman. Calder sees his club as something that goes beyond himself, eventually making a long-lasting impact.

Students gather for STEM Conference

At this years STEM Conference, Dr. Sachin Kukreja ’96, Roland Salatino ’12, Kahan Chavda ’12 and Dr. Scott Solomon came to campus to present to students across all grade levels. The topics ranged from the future of human evolution, fashion and invasive species and robotic surgery techniques.