by Will Harmon '20 When asked to define the true St. Albans man, one will receive a variety of responses: “the kind of person who takes the hard right over the easy wrong,” or perhaps “someone with truly good character.” However, more realistically, the St. Albans man is truly a well-rounded person who benefits his society. Through required academic classes, religious studies, and participation on the sports field, this ideal is practiced throughout the school. It goes without saying, then, that if one should be excused from these required points in their education, they cannot truly be a well rounded St. Albans man. The idea of an Independent Practice (known as an IP), consequently, would take away from the school’s ideals, and therefore should not be allowed.
Many St. Albans boys, as with many high school athletes this day and age, are highly specialized in certain sports. This specialization is often the result of the boy’s desire to play his chosen sport in college. This specialization, in turn, leads to elite club teams, which the boys participate in outside of school hours. To secure an exemption from school sports and play solely for their club team, boys will request an IP. While this practice might make sense for some people, it has no place at St. Albans. The experience of a St. Albans athlete competing for his school is unlike any other. The boys are coached under the values that the school holds dearly, as many St. Albans coaches are often teachers or faculty members at the school. Consequently, the coaches are aware of who and what the St. Albans man truly is, and instill the school’s ideals in the boys. However, should the boys be coached outside of school, they are missing out on a part of the St. Albans education. Furthermore, when the boys are playing outside of school, they are missing the opportunity to help St. Albans sports teams to victory. The chance to play for an IAC title in any sport is the goal of every St. Albans athlete. Should the boys in an IP elect to play for the school instead, they would be benefitting St. Albans, and for that matter, their classmates. Lastly, it would be untrue to say that it is impossible to get recruited to play in college if one only plays for St. Albans. For the most part, St. Albans sports are known by many to be strong programs with deep histories. Therefore, any college coach would have a predisposed interest in any St. Albans player simply because of the reputation St. Albans sports has. In the past years, St. Albans has been extremely competitive for the IAC and even the DC area as the best team in many sports, including soccer, hockey, baseball, and lacrosse. This success draws the attention of many college coaches, nullifying the argument that IPs are “necessary for recruiting.” St. Albans is a school that has for over a century been dedicated to the development of well rounded young men. In a school such as this, the practice of an IP is not beneficial to the school or its students.
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by Street Roberts '20 Sea of Blue. Although that may have only been the BEEF club’s theme for Saturday’s matchup against the Severn High School Admirals, the St. Albans football team took it to heart. Swarming, gushing, flying all over the field, the Bulldogs looked like a Sea of Blue, crashing into the opponent on the defensive side like a massive wave and then darting in between opponents on the offensive side like water through rocks. They truly played like a team.
Following a dismantling of Anacostia the week before, the Bulldogs came out with determination in their eyes, quickly jumping out to a 9-0 run that was highlighted by a leaping touchdown grab from sophomore Jaden Coffen. The touchdown sparked a fiery passion from players and fans alike, as ohs-and-shrieks echoed all throughout the Cathedral close. A grueling tug-of-war ensued, which featured dazzling touchdown receptions from senior wide receivers Henry Holliday and Cole Mattheisen. However, the Bulldogs had trouble on the defensive side of the ball matching up against a talented Severn running back who would scored all four of their touchdowns that afternoon. After three-and-a-half intense quarters, the Bulldogs found themselves with a 22-19 lead, courtesy of several dimes from senior quarterback Nick Beatrice. Unfortunately, an unlucky turnover on the St. Albans 20-yard line opened the gates for Severn, who were able to score a lucky touchdown in the final minute to seal the game for Admirals. Although a disappointing loss, the game showcased the St. Albans Bulldogs’ resilient spirit, as they battled hard until the very end. They captured the essence of a “Sea of Blue”, and their effort offers hope for better things to come down the road. Get ready for next week, as Soccer takes on Washington International School on Wednesday at 4:30, and Football looks to rebound versus rivals Potomac on Saturday. Go Dogs. Roll BEEF. by Harry Grigorian '19 The Start
The first few months of any school year are tough, but especially senior year. AP courses, college essays, sports—they all really add up. While in other forms, it feels like “getting over the hump” takes place in January’s and February’s cold and short days, for seniors, it feels like “the hump” started September 4th. There are things to look forward to — homecoming dances, good weather, football — but it’s tough. The first 4 months are really a marathon. If we can stay focused and close during this stretch, I’m sure we’ll all benefit. It won’t be easy, but once we make it through here, we’re in the homestretch. College I don’t love talking incessantly or stressing out about college, but I know this is in our collective mind right now. I guess, generally, my hope is that it all works out. We won’t all get into our early choice, we won’t all get into our dream school, so the only thing I can hope for is that everyone is happy in the fall of 2019, no matter where we end up. School School is hard. We have late nights. We have early mornings. I don’t want to speak on behalf of everyone, but we all want to succeed in the classroom. At this point, most of our courses are nearing or are at the college level, yet we are not college students. A Hollywood ending to our final year at STA is unlikely (we won’t all get A+’s in Physics and Euro and Calculus), but an upward trend is perennially sought after and vigorously worked towards. Afterwards Despite us graduating in 9 months, we will always be the St. Albans School Class of 2019. In 50 years, the school will mention us on their Facebook page as Joe Smith ‘19. St. Albans’ goal is to create a bond, and our hope is that the bond is never splintered. We’ve all made our lifelong friends and secured our most lasting relationships here. Time will certainly take its toll on us as we spread out to Houston and Miami and Chicago and Los Angeles, but we’ll always be joined by our years here. by Will Triantis '20 As every STA student has heard about by now, Sam’s Bar has instituted changes they claim were requests from upper level administration. These changes mean that all unhealthy snacks will cost two dollars, as opposed to the previous one dollar, as well as the addition of snacks with nuts and a nut free table. While the latter of those changes has been received positively by the student body, the increase of prices has created chaos. Signs have been posted, prefects of all forms have petitioned, and the brave have even boycotted the infamous monopoly. As students, we often feel powerless against the faculty, but here is how we can rebel. Firstly, we can peacefully petition. I suggest to Sam’s Bar that keeping healthy snacks cheap is okay; however, the only healthy snacks that cost one dollar have nuts, which is not fair to all students. I suggest that the staff add an inventory of one-dollar granola bars and one-dollar iced teas. While some feel justified buying iced tea for two dollars now that nearly all drinks are that expensive, after an extensive cost analysis, we can confirm that in bulk, Arizonas should be a dollar or less. Additionally, the students suggest that Sam’s Bar should stay open full time, because in just the 40 minutes of Flex, Sam’s Bar makes over $100, which, even assuming a steep drop-off in sales during class, is still enough money to hire a full-time employee for the school day. A full-time employee would mitigate the realistic health risk of the malnourishment of students who aren’t able to eat breakfast or forget to bring a snack, a crucial error at this critical time of our growth. In conclusion: stand strong, St. Albans—we will get through this together and hopefully be better on the other side.
by Sophie Horvath '20 Junior year has always carried the legend of being the hardest and most stressful year of them all. As it approached, I felt a growing sense of dread as I faced what was sure to be the most horrific year of my life so far. I vowed to take care of myself in the year to come by not procrastinating, getting all my assignments done as soon as possible, and leaving myself lots of time for fun and sleep. This resolution, of course, is easier said than done. Assignments started rolling in and commitments left even less time for work. Almost immediately, I fell into bad habits; I procrastinated and didn’t do what I knew to be my best on my homework. The perfect, productive ideal I had set for myself was something I had always told myself was possible if I applied myself enough. What I needed to understand, as I do now, is that absolute perfection is not possible, and the constant effort to attain it is miserable. Repeatedly striving for something simply not human, only to be irritated and disappointed when it didn’t work out, was an unhealthy cycle that was the exact opposite of the self-care I had promised myself.
And I know I’m not alone. We all want to do well and be successful in all of our work and commitments, athletic, academic, artistic or otherwise. We’re expected to be well-rounded, to have good grades, yet also be social, get exercise, sleep enough, and be interested in fields outside of school. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and even a little lost, and that’s okay. A lot is asked of us, and it’s hard. I decided to take a step back and think about how to be happy in our high-pressure, hectic world. Because to what end is all of this? The stress, the crazy pressure, the comparison to other people on completely different paths? What bright future lies ahead that justifies us not properly living our youth because we tell ourselves that a good college or prestigious job is worth it? I’m hesitant to buy into the narrative that it all gets easier after high school because my hypothesis is this: the pressure never ends. We apply ourselves in high school to get into a respectable university only to find ourselves with more work and under more pressure. We graduate, enter the workforce, become independent and have to take care of ourselves and work at getting promoted. We start families and watch as our children work harder than we had to as they compete against more people for the same number of spots and opportunities. Sure, this path is conventional and what society has told us we should work towards, but will living this cycle of expectation and strain fulfill us? Are we really getting the most out of life by pushing ourselves towards what we’re told will make us happy, what we’re told success should look like? This is my advice to you: go for a walk, laugh with your friends, read the classics, be with who makes you happy, do absolutely nothing but sit on the grass, paint something beautiful, anything you choose, as long as you live. Existence itself is one-in-billions, and I don’t intend to waste mine in a constant cycle of self-deprivation and stress. I want to live the Ferris Bueller way, and make my life vibrant and full of joy. So please, to my fellow juniors and anyone who is stressed to the max, give yourself a break. Do not be afraid to work hard, but don’t hesitate to take the pressure off and take care of yourself. Next time you’re faced with an insurmountable amount of work, take a page out of the Bueller handbook, say carpe diem, and find a way to make something good out of the day. Because the minute you accept your beautiful self and enjoy the world around you, you are doing yourself and the life you have been given justice.
by David Hla '20
STA Block, available on both the App Store for iOS and Google Play Store for Android, is an app that provides the long-term schedule (A-G) and the current block day along with class times. Though originally designed for St. Albans, the iOS app also supports the NCS schedule with the addition of the A and B lunch block blocks (just select “NCS” when prompted).
Henry Schmandt ‘16 and Trevor Van Vleck ‘16 wrote the original iOS STA Block app over the summer of 2015. In 2016-17, William Mullen ‘17, Ryan Friberg ‘17, Ryan Hennessey ‘17, and Zack Gardner ‘17 took over updating the app. They then handed the reins to Henry Liu ‘18 and Luca Gancie ‘18 for the 2017-18 school year. Although updated for the first semester, an understandable case of senioritis resulted in no more updates. Armed with some knowledge of Java and a passion for programming, but limited by a lack of previous experience with mobile app development and Objective C (the programming language the app is written in), I decided to give updating STA Block a go. Twenty hours of confusion later, I finished updating it for the rest of the school year, and a week and a half later, I published the app. Over the past summer, I decided to get my feet wet in Android programming and write STA Block for Android. I spent the first three weeks learning Android and writing the app. I learned XML for laying out screen elements and although the functionality behind the app is written in Java, I had to learn a lot of functions that are never used in the Java in AP Computer Science. Over those three weeks, I spent over 200 hours learning functions, figuring out how mobile app logic works, and writing code. Writing code was the easy part. Learning the new functions and understanding how mobile app logic works, especially without a class and a teacher or a structured learning setting, was incredibly challenging. Many times, my project would combine theory and practice. Theory is when you know everything but nothing works. Practice is when everything works but no one knows why. Sometimes in my project, nothing worked and I didn’t know why. Some issues that would have taken a couple minutes to fix with a teacher took me up to a few hours to solve alone. A couple of days before school, I started work on updating the iOS app for the 2018-19 school year. I decided to put the entire year in to avoid any second-semester laziness. Due to the inefficiency of the code and the fact that I was putting the entire year in, the update took me twenty to thirty hours to finish. After that came the complicated process of publishing an iOS app, which is why the app wasn’t out by the first day of school. To document everything, Apple requires developers to go through a long procedure involving first creating and registering the app’s unique Bundle ID, then making a Provisioning Profile with the development team’s info and setting release version and other metadata, then uploading the project, then filling out info about the app, and finally submitting it for review. This process is interspersed with frustrated Google searches and confusion as to why it’s not working. Finally, a couple days later, an Apple employee goes through the app to search for malware or any guideline violations. On the other hand, Google’s Android app publishing process is beautifully simple. Pay the $25 development fee. Upload project. Submit. Within a few hours, the app is up. Although few STA students have Android devices, I don’t regret the time and effort I spent on the Android version. It was a great learning experience and a productive way to get experience in mobile app development. As for the iOS App, my work was undoubtedly worthwhile, with regards to both learning and usefulness. Last year, over 120 people downloaded my app, which only had the last few months of school. The expected downloads this year (based on previous years’ numbers) is 150–200+. If you have any questions or are interested in mobile app development, feel free to reach out to me. Also, I will need someone to take over updating STA Block when I graduate, so if you are interested in doing that, please contact me. by NM '20 Solvers of last week’s puzzle (in order):
1. Olivia Vella 2. Alex Knapper 3. David Hla & Manu Kini (tie, 9:06 PM 9/10/18) 5. Sherman 6. John Benner 7. Liam Chalk 8. Robert Shekoyan 9. Matthew Bruning 10. Matthew Chalk 11. Yash Somaiya Answer to and commentary on Puzzle #1. Classification: Easy. This puzzle was an adaptation of the famous Monty Hall problem. It was to be expected that many viewers had seen the problem before. The correct answer was switch, because the original probability (i.e. 66%) that $10,000 was behind either Door 2 or Door 3 is conferred upon Door 2 once Door 3 was eliminated. Hence, the probability of the $10,000 being behind Door 2 is 66%, compared to only 33% for Door 1, and Jim should switch. Puzzle #2 NM (email redacted) This week’s puzzle: Mathematics. Find the values of ♤, ☗, and ☖. The answers are all positive integers less than 20. Mr. Rick DuPuy '99 is an almunus of St. Albans and is teaching Latin to the Upper School students at NCS.
How did you know that teaching was a career path that you wanted to pursue? What exactly about the community on the Close inspired you to apply to become a teacher here? Mr. DuPuy: As a student I always loved the subjects we studied in school, and I always enjoyed helping my classmates figure things out. Some of my classmates from high school calculus recently reminded me that they used to phone me up when confused by a question and ask me to help explain it to them – I vaguely recall this happening occasionally, but my friends say that it was a regular occurrence! As for NCS, the first point to mention is that I’m an alumnus of Beauvoir and Saint Albans, and sang in the Cathedral choir while I was here; so I’m very familiar with the Close. I’m also one of the change ringers who ring the peal bells at the Cathedral and have occasionally helped out with the Whitechapel Guild. So I heard about the job opening here both through friends on the Close and from other Latin-teaching friends — the world is often a surprisingly small one! Out of every teacher or mentor that you have encountered in your life, who would you argue had the most meaningful impact on you? I find this question impossible to answer because I have fond memories of so many of my teachers, coaches, theatrical directors, and musical conductors! I know that they have all influenced me, sometimes in ways that I don’t even realize. Certainly I cannot argue that anybody was the most meaningful, but I can think of many who were meaningful in some way — some of whom are still teaching at Saint Albans today and whom it's an honor to now have as colleagues! To pick an example more or less at random, whenever I sing or play piano today I can see the influence of my choirmasters at the Cathedral, Robert Lehman in junior choir and Douglas Major in senior choir — it was from singing in the choir that I learned to take responsibility for myself musically and make entrances bravely without waiting timidly to hear my neighbor sing first. To this day, likewise, whenever I make a musical mistake I automatically raise my hand to let the (now imaginary!) choirmaster know that I’ve caught myself and will take responsibility for fixing it next time — when this occurs in theatrical rehearsals my fellow cast-members are always amused! What kind of student were you in high school? How do you think you would have fit in with students on the close today? Academically, I was a very eager student who was always overworked and didn’t sleep enough. But I was never very concerned about grades or getting into college; I simply was genuinely interested in the coursework and wanted to please my teachers. Unfortunately, I tended to struggle with organization (my bag was always a mess) and with writer’s block (my papers were often late). Apart from academics, I sang in Chorale, acted in plays and musicals, kayaked with Voyageur, and wrote occasionally for the Independent, so I’m pleased to see that all those activities are still going strong! I was lucky to be part of a graduating class which got along really well together. Like all classes we had cliques to some extent, but the boundaries were very fluid and everybody seemed to like and respect one another; and of course we all loved our teachers. We were a very disparate lot, but I believe most of us recall our high school years as happy ones. When you’re not teaching how do you like to spend your free time? Any uncommon talents or hobbies? I am one of the change ringers who ring the peal bells at the Cathedral, which is a wonderful hobby. Unlike the Whitechapel Guild at NCS, Saint Albans students don’t have an opportunity to learn to ring while they’re here, so I started to learn later, as an adult. My first few years learning to ring were magical: childhood is full of the feeling of satisfaction that comes from learning and growing and making progress and often as adults we don’t get enough opportunities to experience that — so it was really exciting as a new bellringer to feel that thrill again as I attended practice each week and wrestled with new challenges. Now, much of the pleasure of ringing comes from helping pass that along to the next generation of ringers. I also still perform theatrically from time to time, mainly in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, comic light operas — the ancestors of today’s musicals — which they wrote in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s. The most well-known are probably HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance, but they wrote fourteen altogether and I’ve now appeared in them all, most recently playing Reginald Bunthorne in a production of Patience last June. (Some of my students from the school I substitute-taught at last year came to see the show, which I found very touching!) Finally, I’m an active social dancer, regularly attending our local contradance and occasionally going swing or blues dancing too. (Contradancing is the old east-coast folk dance of the United States, and it’s a little like the English dancing you can see in Jane Austen movies – but much faster and more breathless.) We dance to live music every week, in a range of musical styles, and with a wonderfully friendly community of dancers. Dr. Amanda Licato is currently teaching American Literature at STA.
How did you know that teaching was a career path that you wanted to pursue? What exactly about the community on the Close inspired you to apply to become a teacher here? Dr. Licato: I've always loved to share ideas and transmit knowledge through the processes of teaching. The best part of being an English teacher is not just the fact that I'm involved with knowledge production but that I get to talk to other people — my students — about the things that I feel matter most for our lives and the world. I often think of myself as a guide; as someone who can model a way of thinking that is both compassionate and skeptical. I want my students to know it's okay to be curious, and even resistant! STA and NCS, more so than any school I've ever taught at (and I've taught at both the high school and university levels), have amazing students who are so eager to join me in those conversations. Out of every teacher or mentor that you have encountered in your life, who would you argue had the most meaningful impact on you? Dr. Licato: I'm going to be really honest here and say that my biggest mentor was not a teacher in the conventional sense but my mother. Part of the reason I was so inspired to become a teacher, actually, was that I often felt that the teachers I had lacked a strong sense of passion for their subjects, and I wanted to model for my students the kind of passion for literature that I thought was missing from the classroom. My mother was the person I used to have — and continue to have — the most exciting and passionate conversations with about literature, philosophy, history, justice, and just life in general. She grew up in a tiny Kurdish village in Iraq and escaped the Iran-Iraq war as a refugee, and has seen a huge amount of both chaos and beauty in her life. She has a way of seeing the world that always gives me new eyes. What kind of student were you in high school? How do you think you would have fit in with students on the close today? Dr. Licato: I was quite studious and artsy in high school. I loved to read and became a bit obsessed with Emily Dickinson and Albert Camus, soaking up a lot of literature that was depressing and moody, since I felt this connection to texts that lingered on the meaning of life and death. I was fascinated with questions about the meaning of life at the time, and also wanted to imagine myself in other places and identities that I couldn't experience in a suburban place at such a huge public high school. I'm not sure how I would have fit in with the students at the Close but I think I would have soaked up the opportunity to have smaller classes with more discussion, and with that, the possibility to actually get to know other students on a more personal level. I probably would have loved the intellectual rigor and sense of community. When you’re not teaching how do you like to spend your free time? Any uncommon talents or hobbies? Dr. Licato: I'm absolutely crazy about food and am always looking to try new spots to eat at in my spare time! My favorite cuisines are probably Indian, Middle Eastern (Persian, Afghani, etc.), Italian, Thai, Korean, and Japanese. I've even traveled to specific countries like Morocco and Colombia because I wanted to eat particular dishes or local produce that you can't find here. I brag too much about my cooking skills if you meet me, and try to make everything from scratch when I can. I've recently perfected making my own tortellini, almond milk, coconut yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi, so if you want a recipe, let me know! by Abby Panayi '20 The most exciting time of the year is just around the corner, so get your glitter ready, iron your tube top, and be prepared for perpetual disappointment after every school event following this one: it’s NCS Homecoming week! For all of the freshmen and new students who don’t know what to expect, I’ve prepared the ultimate survival guide to help you have the best time possible while also remaining safe and in the loop about our school’s customs.
For those who don’t know where the dance is located, picture the most spacious and logical location for a dance on the close that you can think of. Of course you are picturing one of the Athletic Center gyms. Now, make sure to picture it completely empty because obviously the dance is in Hearst Auditorium, which is small and has questionable ventilation. Although you may not think this makes perfect sense, it actually does, and you’re wrong. The dense population plus the lack of breathable air creates the thrill of not knowing whether you are going to collapse at any moment, adding another layer of adrenaline to an already exhilarating night. Secondly, the condensed body heat in the room will make you feel comfortable and toasty, almost as if you are bundled in blankets, roasting marshmallows on an already warm summer night on the Sun. If you happen to arrive early enough where people are still having conversations on the dance floor, you may find yourself chatting with another student you don’t know very well or even an STA boy. If you don’t know how to keep the chat going, try bringing up how long the entry line was or mentioning that you had known the senior theme days in advance. To really come prepared, draft your complaints about the DJ ahead of time so you can be the first of all of your friends to make a witty comment about the out-of-date song selection. As the dance quickens pace, you’ll find that everybody is concentrated in the center of the room, feverishly jumping up and down and slamming into each other. You may be thinking, what kind of foreign ritual has just taken shape before my very eyes? Or, how can a single human being possibly produce that much sweat? If you are thinking either of those things, you clearly don’t know how to party like a winner and I’m a little bit embarrassed on your behalf. If you came with the intent of “dancing”, you might as well just hop in an Uber and get out of town because this isn’t the time or place. If you want to be cool, you better march right into that blob of people and start flailing your body around like a champ. You get 10 points for every person you slam into whilst jumping, 20 points for every wrong lyric you scream, and 30 points for absolutely obliterating someone's ankles. If you see an STA student being tossed around in the air like a rag doll, please do not panic. This is a game we like to call, “Let’s See if We Can Get the Lightest Kid in Our Class to Fly Through The Ceiling." This game doesn’t have any winners. I know all of this may seem overwhelming, so here’s a special tip for freshmen: the center of the mosh pit acts as the eye of the storm in the midst of all the craziness, so if you and your friends are looking for a place to just sit down, drink a cup of tea, and discuss literature, try pushing your way to the very center of the crowd while "Everytime We Touch" is playing. If you’re in the mood to get a little bit rowdy, try inviting all of your teachers to come throw it down on the dance floor with you. Studies suggest that even your most terrifying teachers will be responsive to this offer 100% of the time and even do the worm on the floor if you ask nicely. If you ever need a change of scenery, I’ll let you in on some insider information: there’s actually a secret party in the teacher’s lounge on the third floor. If you and your friends just step over the “Do not enter” sign blocking the stairs and follow the beat of the trap music, you won’t be able to miss it. A teacher may stop you and say something like, “You can’t go up there”. That’s just their special little way of asking for the secret party password, which is obviously, “It’s party time”. Once you announce it with confidence, you should be good to go. Now that you are armed with all of this valuable information, you are ready to storm right into the auditorium and make some memories. So stay safe, have fun, and don’t forget to say a prayer in the Cathedral beforehand — you’ll need all the help you can get. |