21 DECEMBER 2017 VOL 41 ISSUE 3 - The Wingspan Lack of Technology 3 Meghan Moore, Editor In Chief...

21 DECEMBER 2017VOL 41 ISSUE 3

the Wingspan Design By: Nova KimCover Photo By: Sydney Beck

A Lack of Technology

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Walking into the class-rooms within Howard Coun-ty, one of the first things that one may see are disordered laptops stacked atop one another, and spaces missing within computer carts. In today’s day of education, especially within HCPSS, the majority of the school infra-structure and lesson plans are made with technology in mind. When a school system is reliant on technology, there are many factors that can deteriorate the hope-ful plans. Without proper planning, when things do not go according to planned, situations can become very serious and threatening to the education of every stu-dent, very quickly. Within one mobile cart of laptops provided by HCPSS, there are around 30 laptops. Of the 30 laptops in these carts, several are typically broken, thus causing a short-age of resources. At Centen-nial High School, some class-es, due to overpopulation, have more than 30 students. If classes are using a mobile cart with all laptops available, the number of resources still may be short, but includ-ing broken laptops, classes can be left with a shortage

of resources. Shortages in resources ultimately result in students falling behind. The problem of a shortage of resources is being worked on, and repairs/replacements occur when needed, but there are still never sufficient amounts of technology re-sources available to students. Superintendent Michael J Martirano at the 2017 HCPSS student journalist press conference admitted, “We don’t have the correct replacement cycle, and we don’t have the correct infra-structure such as a network switching process.” HCPSS is well aware of the ongoing issue, but no no-ticeable changes have come into play. Martirano also expressed, “We have not kept up with the technology needs of the 21-century school system.” Having a budget of $870 million, most would expect more money to go towards technological funding; however, technology is very expensive. Dr. Martirano ex-plained, “When we have such high performing schools and we have technology needs, I find that unconscionable, but it’s a very heavy lift from a financial point of view.” What the board members of the school system do not

realize is that it is not enough to provide neces sary and proper resources to half of the students, or three-fourths of the students, or even ninety-nine percent of students. Every student of the 52,700 in Howard Coun-ty deserves equal education, and no student should be restrained from doing what they are academically ca-pable of doing due to a lack of resources that should be provided for them. Many students gradu-ate high school with their own resources at hand, but other students are not as fourtunate. Dr. Martirano said, “What about the seven percent that didn’t make it. It is probable than one contrib-uting factor to that percent-age is a lack of resources. Dr. Martirano said, “If young people don’t graduate, they have a challenged path ahead of them.” A student needs tools to build upon their skills and become successful in what they strive to do in life, but without sufficient tools avail-able, success is set higher out of reach. At Centennial High School alone, administrators say there are approximate-ly 400 obsolete computers. Within the school district, the computer to student ratio is 1:2, leaving only half of

students with technology re-sources, others being forced to either share, or fall be-hind. Many other schools in the Howard County Public Schools System are in similar situations. Another frequent tech-nological resource problem within HCPSS is the BYOD policy. Because of the policy, some teachers conduct ac-tivities that require students to use smart devices, but some students do not have these resources accessible to them for a variety of rea-sons. Similar to the shortage of in-school technology, if students do not have their own devices, they have the possibility of falling behind, or not being able to learn in ways others are able to. Though in life, others have advantages that others may not, in the Howard County Public Schools System, ev-eryone is seen as equal, and therefore, everyone should be provided equal resources. Dr. Martirano said, “Pro-grams that we offer need to be available to every student.” Though alternative devices may be supplied to students not having their own devices, similar to computer resourc-es, shortages are present. Dr. Martirano said, “It keeps me up late at night because our students don’t

How limited technology access affects studentsEditorial

A Lack of Technology

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Meghan Moore, Editor In Chief

Zach Grossman, Assistant Print Editor

Kieran Senisi, Assistant Online Editor

Caroline Chu, Copy Editor

Zach Grable, Photo Editor

Nova Kim, Designer

Alyssa Conover, Designer

Michelle Lin, Designer

Lisa Kerr, Marketing

Piper Berry, Marketing

Lien Hoang, Writer

Parker Subasic, Writer

Julia Stitley, Staff writer

Maddie Wirebach, Staff writer

Josh Horen, Staff writer

Sarah Kruhm, Staff writer

Eliza Andrew, Staff writer

Reem Hashmi, Staff Writer

Hibah Khan, Staff Writer

Laila Abu-Ghaida, Photographer

Camryin Desai, Photographer

Sydney Beck, Photographer

Advisors:

H. Pasciullo R. VanWestervelt

Cover Photo: Sydney Beck

Senior Sean Taylor shoots the ball as defender closes in against longtime rival Mount Hebron.

Centennial High School4300 Centennial Lane

Ellicott City, MD 21042

410-313-2856

www.chs.hcpss.org

All opinions expressed within the Wingspan are those of the individual writers

and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and its entirety, its advisor, or the school.

Follow us on Twitter: @CHSwingspan

www.chswingspan.com

have the tools at the level at which I would expect the op-timal learning environment to occur.” Within the school district, the computer to student ratio being only 1:2, leaving only half of students with technology resources. At the time being, tech-nology is not used at all times in student’s everyday school lives but in years to come, technology will be implemented more and more into the education process, possibly taking the place of paper worksheets and Scantron tests. If a replace-ment were to occur in the future, would a 1:2 computer ratio be enough to sufficient-ly support a population of striving students? The simple answer is no, but Dr. Marti-rano and the school board may be in the works of a new technology plan. The school board is seek-ing a plan that satisfies both the economic technological problem, and the infrastruc-ture problem. Dr. Martirano stated, “I’m looking at some very strong ways of advo-cating through the budget

cycle.” He also confirmed, “I have individuals right now who are overseeing my technology department to begin the development of a strategic plan regarding technology.” In order for students to have the ideal learning environment, changes must be made. Not in the future, but now. Every day, students are experiencing technologi-cal problems that limit them from maximum education, and without change, this problem will be a prolonged still in the school district of Howard County. Martirano explained that, “What I can control is the variable in front of me now.” In regard to every student’s education, technological resources should be a prioritized vari-able and front and center on every board member’s desk.

-Zach Grossman

How limited technology access affects students

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Love, Simon: Based on Simon vs. the Homo Sapi-ens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Love, Simon follows the junior year of Simon Spier. Simon is dealing with accepting himself as gay while he writes emails to another boy to school, nick-named Blue. The book was listed on the Nation-al Book Award Longlist and has been praised as an uplifting novel about accepting yourself and being proud. The movie cast includes Nick Rob-inson as Simon, 13 Reasons Why star, Katherine Langford as one of his best friends, Leah, and Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel as Simon’s parents. The movie is set to release on March 16.

A Wrinkle in Time: It has been 55 years since the release of this childhood classic by Madeleine L’Engle and the timeless story is still being told. After the disappear-ance of her father, protagonist, Meg Murry won-ders where he is. On a dark and stormy night, her brother Charles Wallace, and her friend, Calvin are visited by the three W’s, mythical creatures sent to protect the universe. With the children, they are on the search to find Meg’s father and fight evil. Based on the previews, the movie is predicted to be a visual masterpiece and big name actors like Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling as the three W’s, Chris Pine as Meg’s father and 14 year old, Storm Reid as Meg. The movie comes out March 8.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: Jenny Han’s contemporary novel will come to life in 2018. The book focuses on Lara Jean, who writes letters to boys she likes to forget about. One day, her letters are suddenly sent out to each of the boys without her knowing. Mad-ness ensues due to the letters being exposed. The movie stars Lana Condor as our main heroine, Lara Jean and one of her love interests is played by Noah Centineo from The Fosters. The date is not specific yet, but will have a 2018 release date.

Ready Player One: Following the trend of Stranger Things and IT, more eighties nostalgia is continuing into 2018. Ernest Cline’s futuristic novel, Ready Player One, keeps the nostalgia through a pop culture scaven-ger hunt. Taking place in the year 2045, the Earth is a dump and the only people survive on OASIS, a virtual reality game. After the death of the game’s creator, he leaves his fortune somewhere in the game. To find it, gamers have to find clues and keys to it from different easter eggs from eighties enter-tainment properties. Our teenage hero, Wade Watts, stumbles across one of the keys and is on the race to find the treasure before the evil does. The adap-tation is already generating hype due to the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, the king of the eighties. Book fans hope that Spielberg can bring the same flare as the book. Ready Player One is in theaters on March 30.

As 2017 comes to an end, we look forward towards 2018. Lots of anticipated movies are be-ing released next year including some big block-busters. Many are based on bestselling books. As we wait for those movies to come, here are the books they are based on. -Julia Stitely

-Julia StitelyDesign by: Alyssa Conover

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Here at Centennial both students and staff strive for excellence. Nan Collins, one of Centennial’s art teachers, was recently acknowledged for her excellence. Recog-nized by former student, now Philip Merrill Scholar, Anna-Bella Sicilia, Collins received the title of her

most influential teacher from kindergarten through twelfth grade, an unforget-table award for Collins. Before her time at UMCP, Sicilia was a four year student of Collins’, taking both humanities and studio art. She graduated in

2013. Now, Sicilia is a phi-losophy and history major and belongs to the College of Arts and Humanities. As a Philip Merrill scholar, Sicilia was ecstatic to award Collins. “I was so excited for this opportunity to honor Ms. Collins, who has been a ma-

jor influence on my artistic career,” said Sicilia. In her personal state-ment found on the pro-gram’s website, Sicilia admired how students in Collins’ classes learned life-long values. “In Ms. Nan Collins’ classes we were taught to

take pride in both our work and in the creative process itself. She was the driving force behind my interest in art and art history, always ready to supply her students with a creative challenge or a reminder to carry their sketchbooks wherever they

went,” said Sicilia. This title was very meaningful to Collins, as she mentioned it being the most rewarding honor she has ever received after thir-ty-four years of teaching. “Of all the little awards and rewards one receives

EAGLE EXCELLENCE: Art teacher Ms. Collins wins award for her inspirationthroughout a teaching career, I am pretty sure that most teachers would tell you that the best ones are those that come from the students.” While Collins appreciates all of her awards, this one stood out the most. “This award means more to me than any I have re-ceived in my career, because it means I had a positive impact on this young person . . . the fact that she continues to make art and maintain a sketchbook is especially sweet for me,” said Collins. On November 17, Collins, Sicilia, and Polyvia Parara, Sicilia’s designated professor, attended a work-shop about mentorship run by the Philip Merrill Pro-gram. Following the work-shop, the trio along with the other Merrill Scholars and teachers, enjoyed a lovely lunch to honor them. Since Collins was named as Sicilia’s most influential teacher, a $1000 scholar-ship will be given out by the university in June to a Centennial student, under Collins’ name.

-Maddie Wirebach

Design by: Michelle LinPhoto contributed by: Ms. Collins

Collins and Sicilia at Phillip Merrilllunch.

7-Laila Abu-Ghaida, Lien Hoang, Reem Hashmi

SENIORS OF

Claire GabbyPriestley Chausse““I need a nap” -me everyday”

FAVORITE MOVIEThe Minions MovieFAVORITE MEMEBlinking guy memeINTENDED MAJORBusiness MarketingIF YOU WON A MIL-LION DOLLARS WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT? Buy a million dollar Chick-fil-A gift card

“Hi my name is Trey and I have a basketball game

tomorrow”FAVORITE MOVIEThe GooniesNICKNAMEGibbyHEROGavin from VineIF YOU WON A MIL-LION DOLLARS WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT? Buy as many corgis as I could

ToddHendrix“Not a chance” -Ty SamsFAVORITE MOVIETalladega NightsNICKNAMEBulldogINTENDED MAJORSecondary history edu-cationIF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE WHO WOULD PLAY YOU? Glenn Stratton

8

GraceRockefeller

“So silly”FAVORITE MOVIEMonsters Inc.FAVORITE ACTORSpongebob SquarepantsDREAM VACATIONSleeping on any beachFAVORITE SINGERQueen BeeWHICH MEMBER OF THE KARDASHIAN FAMILY DO YOU RE-LATE TO THE MOST?Kim

Photos By: Laila Abu-Ghaida and Zach Grable

THE MONTH

Cameron Jake Martin Horen“Shoot your shot”

FAVORITE MOVIEITIF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE WHO WOULD PLAY YOU?Shaquille O’NeillFAVORITE MEMEKevin Zheng seafood allergies WHAT MEMBER OF THE KARDASHIAN FAMILY DO YOU RE-LATE TO THE MOST? Bruce Jenner

“Chill that’s actually kinda nice”

HEROPo the dragon warriorFAVORITE ACTOR Lavar BallINTENDED MAJORCarpentryFAVORITE MEME KermitDREAM VACATION Dumpster divingIF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHO WOULD PLAY YOU? McLovin

9

10

Players of the Month

Jason Kraisser

Ashley Molz

What sport Jason plays: Varsity Wrestling

Bio: Kraisser, a junior at Centennial, has gone undefeated this month. He has won all four matches with pins and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. He is already committed , as a junior, to Campbell University to wrestle Division 1. Kraisser looks to add to his already impressive resume, seeking his third state title.

Favorite Professional Sports Team: Baltimore Orioles

Favorite Professional Athlete: Cary Kolat

What does it mean to win December player of the Month award?“It is an honor to win the Player of the Month award and it’s exciting. I hope to fufill the title as I compete through-out the season.”

What sport Ashley plays: Varsity girls basketball

Player Bio: Molz, a junior at Centennial, is a three-year varsity basketball player for the lady eagles. This season she has started all three games and was elected captain. In her most recent outing against inner-county rival Mount He-bron, Molz was tied for the lead in team scoring with 15 points. Molz has scored in every game thus far and contin-

ues to improve. Also, this month she just verbally committed to American University to play Division 1 soccer.

Favorite Professional Sports Team: Baltimore Ravens

Favorite Professional Athlete: Alex Morgan

What does it mean to win December player of the Month award? “It means a lot winning player of the month because it’s an award that recognizes you for all of your hard work and gives you confidence going forward in your career as an athlete. I also give credit to my teammates and coaches for

pushing me in practice and helping me get better every day.”

-Josh HorenDesign by: Michelle Lin Photos by: Zach Grable and Delanie Tucker

11

This year the Howard Coun-ty School System may have to remove days from our spring break in order to make up for snow days that we might have. HCPSS is required to have 180 days of school, and due to starting later and ending earlier this year, the county is no longer granted five snow days without penalty. Snow days will now be taken out of the scheduled spring break. The possibility of a shorter spring break may be a concern for students, teachers, and parents, considering spring break is 10 days without cutting it shorter. Many families like to travel during spring break; however, travel plans may be interrupted if there are inclem-ent weather days that need to be made up. Most families plan their trav-eling ahead of time. Sophomore Summer Shen reluctantly admit-ted that she would be forced to skip school if spring break was shorter. “I would have to miss school because we plan our spring break travels ahead of time.” she said, “I wouldn’t being willing to miss school but since we’ve already planned it I probably wouldn’t have a choice,” said Shen.

Although missing school may seem fun, it ends up being a pain for students because the work piles up and makes it almost im-possible to get back up to speed with the class. “I would rather have a short-er summer break.” continued Shen, “because it’s two and a half months long and a couple days isn’t going to affect it that much.” On the other hand, some stu-dents are enthusiastic about the change since it means we would get out of school earlier than if we had to make up snow days in the summer. “I would rather have a shorter spring break because we would still have a break. I would rather have a longer summer and get out of school early and still have a few days off for spring break.” said sophomore Mackenzie Dabbs. Although Dabbs’s family does travel during spring break she is not concerned about missing school. “My family does travel during spring break but I think we would still have time for a short trip,” said Dabbs. Dabbs lived in Germany for a few years and she claims that snow was not an issue there, not

because they didn’t have snow but because the efficiency of the snow plows. “The snow plows are so good there that no matter how much snow there was we would still go to school.” said Dabbs. Both spring and summer break are a significant part of a student’s school year, during March and early June; the days till break are always being count-ed down. The debate on which break is more important can go either way. It all comes down to what you value more, wheth-er it’s traveling or just having the school year end as soon as possible.

-Hibah Khan

Spring BreakvsSNOW DAYS

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No. Name School Campus Score Subject1 Preet Patel Hillsborough High School Bridgewater 800 SAT Math2 Karman Sandhu Delbarton High School Bridgewater 36 ACT English3 Karman Sandhu Delbarton High School Bridgewater 36 ACT Read4 Sarthak Srivastava Bridgewater High School Bridgewater 800 SAT Math5 Alan Chen Green Hope High School Cary 800 SAT Math6 Allen Shen Enloe High School Cary 800 SAT Math7 Amy Lo Panther Creek High School Cary 800 SAT Math8 Aneesh Purohit Enloe High School Cary 800 SAT Math9 Aravind Ganesan Raleigh Charter High School Cary 800 SAT Math10 Bharadwaj Chintalapati Wake Early College High School Cary 800 SAT Math11 Daniel Cheng East Chapel Hill High School Cary 800 SAT Math12 Emily Chen Lausanne Collegiate School Cary 800 SAT Math13 Hamza Shaikh Athens Drive High School Cary 800 SAT Math14 Julia Wu Lake Highland Prep School Cary 800 SAT Math15 Neil Vakharia Enloe High School Cary 800 SAT Math16 Nikita Reddy Panther Creek High School Cary 800 SAT Math17 Pranav Chockalingnam Green Hope High School Cary 800 SAT Math18 Rithik Sudhini Green Hope High School Cary 800 SAT Math19 Ritvik Bhagawatula Green Hope High School Cary 800 SAT Math20 Sriram Srinivasan Enloe High School Cary 800 SAT Math21 Zachary Zheng Chapel High School Cary 800 SAT Math22 Rishab Ayyapath Morrestown High School Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math23 Jimmy Li Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math24 Sharan Sivakumar Eastern Regional High School Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math25 Rishab Ayyapath Morrestown High School Cherry Hill 400 SAT WR26 Raj Sariaya Washington Township High School Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math27 Shir Goldfinger Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math28 Shivank Joshi Lenape High School Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math29 Palak Jain Cherokee High School Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math30 Andy Zhong Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math31 Apurva Chanda Lenape High School Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math32 Ryan Yan Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math33 Ashley Liu Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 800 SAT Math34 Dion Peng Bernard High School Edison 800 SAT Math35 Kruthik Ravishankar Ridge High School Edison 800 SAT Math36 Dev H Patel Academy of Information Technology Edison 800 SAT Math37 Christina Yang Centennial High School Ellicott City 800 SAT Math38 Andrew Fan North Point High School Ellicott City 800 SAT Math39 Mae Abdullah Atholton High School Ellicott City 800 SAT English40 Maliha Tayeb CSW Hockessin 800 SAT Math41 Sahit Reddi CSW Hockessin 800 SAT Math42 Kyle Truong Aberdeen Hockessin 800 SAT Math43 Vasista Votteti Conrad Hockessin 800 SAT Math44 Jaanvi Mehta Tower Hill Hockessin 800 SAT Math45 Jason Wang Council Rock North Levittown 800 SAT Math46 Billy Chen Masterman Levittown 800 SAT Math47 Abdullah Mahmood Bensalem Levittown 800 SAT Math48 Lea Kang Bensalem Levittown 800 SAT Math49 Kevin Chen Central Levittown 800 SAT Math50 Alex Wee Wissahickon North Wales 800 SAT Math51 Kimberly Hua Germantown Friends North Wales 800 SAT Math52 Vinayak Shankar North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math53 Ankit Patel North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math54 Andrew Feng Germantown Academy North Wales 800 SAT Math55 Angie Kuang Metchacton North Wales 800 SAT Math56 Billy Wang North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math57 Joshua Zhong Methacton North Wales 800 SAT Math58 Niaz Baharudeen North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math59 Eesha Dave North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math60 Daniel Han Great Valley North Wales 800 SAT Math61 Anya Aggarwal Spring Ford North Wales 800 SAT Math62 Andrew Duan Upper Dublin North Wales 800 SAT Math63 Aiden Yi North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math64 David Cai Upper Dublin North Wales 800 SAT Math65 Pushti Desai North Penn North Wales 800 SAT Math66 Neha Maddali Newark Academy Parsippany 36 ACT English67 Neha Maddali Newark Academy Parsippany 36 ACT Read68 Neha Maddali Newark Academy Parsippany 36 ACT Science69 Ishani Trivedi Montville High School Parsippany 800 SAT Math70 Kamal Paspuleti Livingston High School Parsippany 800 SAT Math71 Malong Le New Hope Solebury School Princeton 800 SAT Math72 Rhea Pathak Lawrence High School Princeton 800 SAT Math73 Ritik Amin South Brunswick High School Princeton 800 SAT Math

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No. Name School Campus Scores1 Rithik Sudhini Green Hope High School Cary 15902 Jennifer Guo Council Rock South Levittown 15803 Astha Shah School Lane Charter Levittown 15804 Sriram Srinivasan Enloe High School Cary 15805 Pushti Desai North Penn North Wales 15806 Sarthak Srivastava Bridgewater High School Bridgewater 15707 Anya Aggarwal Spring Ford North Wales 15708 Rhea Jayaswal Enloe High School Cary 15709 Jaanvi Mehta Tower Hill Hockessin 157010 Jimmy Li Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 156011 Shivank Joshi Lenape High School Cherry Hill 156012 Dion Peng Bernard High School Edison 156013 Bhavana Ambatipudi Council Rock North Levittown 156014 Zilian Gong Garnet Valley Hockessin 156015 Rishab Ayyapath Morrestown High School Cherry Hill 155016 Palak Jain Cherokee High School Cherry Hill 155017 Alex Wee Wissahickon North Wales 155018 Arsh Shah WWP High School North Princeton 155019 Shir Goldfinger Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 155020 Jainit Patel Eastern High School Cherry Hill 155021 Bharadwaj Ambatipudi Wake Early High School Cary 155022 Daniel Han Great Valley North Wales 155023 Andy Zhong Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 154024 Kimberly Hua Germantown Friends North Wales 154025 Joshua Hong Upper Dublin North Wales 154026 Andrew Duan Upper Dublin North Wales 154027 Andrew Feng Germantown Academy North Wales 154028 David Cai Upper Dublin North Wales 154029 Sudheshna V Middlesex County Academy Princeton 154030 Abdullah Mahmood Bensalem Levittown 154031 Angie Kuang Metacton North Wales 154032 Julia Wu Lake Highlan Prep School Cary 154033 Pranav Chockalingam Green Hope High School Cary 154034 Snigdhasree Avatapally Green Hope High School Cary 154035 Niaz Baharudeen North Penn North Wales 154036 Eesha Dave North Penn North Wales 154037 Aiden Yi North Penn North Wales 154038 Frank Kim Council Rock North Levittown 153039 Kacy Liang Council Rock North Levittown 153040 Kellen Shao Council Rock South Levittown 153041 Ankit Patel North Penn North Wales 153042 Apurva Chanda Lenape High School Cherry Hill 153043 Jhilmil Pandit Wilmington Charter School Cherry Hill 153044 Christina Yang Centennial High School Ellicott City 153045 Prem Polamreddy North Penn North Wales 153046 Kimberly Yang Great Valley North Wales 153047 Abhyan Jaikishen Montgomery High School Princeton 153048 Kyle Truong Aberdeen Hockessin 153049 Vasista Votteti Conrad Hockessin 153050 Anna Boykis Council Rock South Levittown 152051 Shakti Ramnath Council Rock North Levittown 152052 Shivanand Peri Council Rock North Levittown 152053 Aaron Liao The Shipley School North Wales 152054 Anthony Lee Wissahickon North Wales 152055 Archit Redy Rutgers Prepratory School Bridgewater 152056 Amy Lo Panther Creek High School Cary 152057 Aneesh Purohit Enloe High School Cary 152058 Aravind Ganesan Raleigh Charter High School Cary 152059 Emily Chen Lausanne Collegiate School Cary 152060 Andrew Fan North Point High School Ellicott City 152061 Evan Wang Montgomery High School Princeton 152062 Sahit Reddi CSW Hockessin 152063 William Ting JR Masterman Cherry Hill 151064 Raj Saraiya Washington Township High School Cherry Hill 151065 Mae Abdullah Atholton High School Ellicott City 151066 Chaitanya Murali Centennial High School Ellicott City 151067 Brigit Joseph North Penn North Wales 151068 Malong Le New Hope Solebury School Princeton 151069 Aryan Chakrabarti South Brunswick High School Princeton 151070 Angel Chaudhary Hockessin 151071 Aayush Jha AIT Bridgewater 150072 Steven Zhao Cherry Hill High School East Cherry Hill 150073 Zachary Zheng Chapel Hill High School Cary 150074 Chaerin Jung Atholton High School Ellicott City 150075 Puja Samant North Penn North Wales 150076 Andrew Tran Wissahickon North Wales 150077 Vrushabh Khot High School South Princeton 150078 Billy Chen Masterman Levittown 150079 Maliha Tayeb CSW Hockessin 1500

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14

ChangingTheWORLD

Empowering teens in this day and age can be a challenging task consider-ing how stubborn they can be. However, Salma Touni, a sophomore here at Cen-tennial, has managed to create a platform that does exactly that: empower teens around the world. She co-founded an organization called Redefy, which is an organization co-founded by Touni and Ziad Ahmed, a freshman at Yale, that is composed of teens who have come together to support a cause they all believe in. Touni is also currently in the process of creating a new platform that will be a collaboration between Redefy and her yet-to-be-named new orga-nization, which both target teens across the globe, pro-viding a platform for teens to speak up about their con-cerns pertaining to issues they care about. Touni has found a way to juggle her academics, extracurriculars, and social life along with these teen empowerment organizations. Her secret: passion for the cause.

“We have teens from all over the United States and now the world and we talk with each other. They write posts for us and we talk to other teens; we also have summits every year and some of our teens do Ted Talks to spread the word,” said Touni. Redefy is a community; regardless of the job of each individual, the ultimate goal is to work cohesively to spread awareness about the lack of teen empower-ment while simultaneously empowering as many teens as possible. “We empower teens by using social media and we’ve contacted teens from all over the world now. We make sure to meet up and that each person has their own thing to do,” said Touni. “We got a DM from this girl who was saying she was suicidal. She was talking about how we helped her have faith in humanity in a way and how she thought about how teens bully each other and how there is no empowerment,” stated Touni. The society we live in

today creates an “every man for himself ” type of world for teens. Teens naturally want to be better than their colleagues and this infor-mal competition can reach levels that creates a negative community between teens especially on social media. Touni continued by pas-sionately explaining the lack of teamwork between teens. “In this day and age, be-cause of social media, there is no empowerment and we’re teens. This is the most important part of of our lives because we’re learning and finding our passions. So I feel like we need to em-power people and so [the girl who previously DMed us] told us we empowered her a lot and she now has her own art website,” said Touni. However, Touni’s pas-sion to create a united community for teens didn’t come out of thin air; she has witnessed tragedies in Egypt. “I actually went to school in Egypt for a year and I saw a lot of things that were really crazy to me,” said Touni. Living in such a wealthy

community can shield a lot of the horrific things around the world. That’s why when Touni lived outside America, she was shocked by the drastic change in living conditions. “I’ve seen kids walking the streets with no parents asking for food and they’re two years old. I saw this one girl, she was six, opening a book and reading it on the side of the road. She didn’t have a family and yet she wanted to learn and she wanted to speak and there-fore she deserves an educa-tion,” said Touni. Witnessing the types of hardships young people around the world face is what truly made Touni re-alize that something needed to be done to change the world. She compared her life to those in Egypt and other places around the world. Howard County is a very sheltered commu-nity in some ways; Touni realizes that those living in Howard County are fortu-nate to be in such a wealthy community, while having an infinite number of op-portunities. Touni realized that due to her unlimited

SALMA Featuring...

TOUNI

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opportunities she had the capability to change the world. Over the past few months Touni has grown as an individual and is now creating her own orga-nization independent of Ahmed. Touni’s new orga-nization will raise money to fund the education of chil-dren and teens in develop-ing countries such as those in the Middle East. “The main thing is I wanted to make sure it was something I actually valued. I had to make sure it was something I actually wanted to do,” said Touni. However, no matter how much someone loves something, stress always becomes a factor because there are only so many hours in a day. Regardless, Touni has found a way to remedy the stress that piles up when she has so much

on her plate at one time. “I didn’t want to stress myself out. So it started out as a daily schedule: just one hour a day, looking over my website, contacting people, sending emails and then I started two hours,” said Touni. Baby steps were key in the early stages of Touni’s work. Going too big too fast would have overwhelmed her, which could have re-sulted in poor performance. “I made sure I had time for myself. Some days I take off because I’m too stressed with school; I think it’s important to take care of yourself because it really shows. Just put yourself first and see what you value, and if you actually value some-thing you’ll find time for it.” -Hibah Khan

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21 DECEMBER 2017 VOL 41 ISSUE 3 - The Wingspan Lack of Technology 3 Meghan Moore, Editor In Chief...

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Transcript of 21 DECEMBER 2017 VOL 41 ISSUE 3 - The Wingspan Lack of Technology 3 Meghan Moore, Editor In Chief...