Latin admissions: more competitiveMore than 1000 applications received for next school year

by ben-Loki Roodman

cLass of ‘17

When Washington Latin’s seniors started their first year, they did not

need to fight for their spot, as the school’s high school was less well-known and the waitlist was shorter. Today it is different for Latin hopefuls, as the school has be-come much more prominent in the public school world, and much more sought-af-ter. “[Washington Latin] opened in 2006, and every single school year we’ve had a wait list for every grade level,” explained Crystal Williams, Latin’s Di-rector of Student Recruitment and Parent Liaison. A lot of charter schools have a budgeted number that they think that they want to get every year, and a lot of them do not reach that number.” However, Latin is different, as the school regularly has more students applying than spots available. Currently, 1053 applications have been received for next year, four hundred more than re-ceived one year ago; eight times as many applications as there are spots.

Even today, with some movement off the wait list, 833 students remain on the wait list from last year. This makes admissions a far less likely prospect than

Latin officially unveils its new campusCutts: “What the students and teachers deserve”

by cuneyt diL

cLass of ‘14

Mayor Vincent Gray and councilwoman Muriel Bowser highlighted the list of attendees at Washington Latin’s official opening ceremony on September 23. During the event, faculty and board members unveiled the brand new 75,000 square foot campus to the community.

Washington Latin board president Chinesom Ejiasa spoke first in the Multipurpose room. He thanked Head of School Martha Cutts and praised the speed at which every-one involved with the cam-pus renovation conducted their duties.

“It was less than 18 months ago that our board voted to take the giant step of developing this campus,”

said Ejiasa. “Since then, the planning, financing, reno-vating, construction moved with lightning speed.”

Cutts provided a hu-morous and fitting analogy saying that “one teacher said to me that being on our new campus was like mov-ing from a studio apartment to a five bedroom house.”

“To all those who have supported us finan-cially, and who have helped

year iii, issue i october 2013 washington latin

Sumus Leones

INSIDE OCTOBER

SUMUSLEONES.COM FOR DAILY NEWSArticles, opinion, sports, features, videos, photos on the web

Latin welcomes 15 new teach-ersnews, page three

The ceremony, hosted in the multipurpose room (photo credit Alistair Andrulis).

cont. page 2 admissions cont. page 3 ceremony

facebook.com/sumusleonessumusleones.com

Should student gov. be a democracy?editorials, page four

Boys Soccer team advances to championshipsports, page five

Comicsstyle & arts, page eight

Environmental club build vege-table gardensnews, page two

October 2013 Sumus Leones 2

More than 1000 applications received for next school year

in years past. “It is one of the most

diverse schools in DC, and we offer a modern, classical education, so people want to come here. It’s sort of a private school style education, which is public and available to anyone who lives in any part of DC,” said Williams.

The process for accepting new students starts with the name of the applicants in a bowl. Next, names are se-lected at random until the open spots are filled. The remaining applicants go on a wait list in the order in which they were drawn.

Usually, a few parents of students already in Latin will notify the school last-min-ute that their children will go to another school. Then, students on the wait list may gain a spot.

With such a slim

chance of getting their children into Latin, parents are becom-ing more desperate.

Joanna Cohen, a Cap-itol Hill resident, says she is already looking at the school for her son, who is in second grade.

“If my child doesn’t get into Latin, we will likely consider other charter schools or maybe even private school, if we can afford it,” said Cohen. “Obviously, I would prefer the odds be in our favor. In the worst case scenario, we

would have to move to the suburbs if he doesn’t get a spot in a decent school and we can’t afford the private school’s tuition.”

Photo credit Emily Hall

cont. from front page

Environmental club growning vegetables outside, inside by maddie GaLvez and niaRa

iman

cLass of ‘15 and ‘16

Washington Latin Pub-lic Charter School’s Environ-mental Club was put to work on September 14th building three garden beds in the front of the building.

This is a part of the club’s plans to make the Latin community more environmen-tally friendly. Club members intend to grow and harvest vegetables such as kale, let-tuce, tomatoes and much more.

“The Environmental club has been planning this project since the end of last year. This was to make Lat-

in’s community more environ-mentally friendly,” said senior Eliana Duran.

“The garden beds allow the community to rally around a common goal, growing produce and growing together,” said teacher advisor Peter Findler.

The club’s next proj-ect is the construction of an edible tower. This idea came from watching a video featur-ing Steve Ritz, who created a business constructing vertical green gardens.

The club plans to create their own vertical garden that is hypotonic, which means that instead of soil the garden requires only

water and oxygen, allowing the plants to grow faster.

The vegetable in this

garden will be used for food, thus giving it the title “Edible Wall.”

The raised beds (photo credit Emily Hall).

October 2013 Sumus Leones 3

us in ways large and small, I say a heartfelt thank you.”

Gray spoke at length about the benefits of charter schools in the city and the services that Washington Latin provides to students in the District.

“With more than 600 students enrolled in [Washing-ton Latin], more than 800 on the waiting list who want to get into this school, is an affirma-tion of this, and what so many other charter schools are doing, to be able to create an enriched and diverse education,” said Gray.

The two council mem-bers, David Catania--Chairper-son of the Council’s Commit-tee on Education--and Ward 4 representative Muriel Bowser, drew the most applause and at-tention from the crowd during their respective speeches.

Catania highlighted the absence of the planned Washington Latin gymnasium, which costs $4.5 million. The school community has already raised $1.2 million and Catania insisted the city should cover the rest of the gym’s cost.

“We need about 3 million more, and I’m commit-ted to those 3 million dollars,

and now what I’m going to ask is that my colleagues and the Mayor come together and finish this job, and include 3 million dollars in the capital budget,” said Catania, fol-lowed by fervent applause.

Bowser followed Cata-nia and reiterated her support for Washington Latin in Ward 4, and distinguished Latin as a school unique from many other District schools.

“We knew that unlike many other schools that this school attracts kids from both sides of Rock Creek Park,” said Bowser. “We will continue to support you, and push you,

and make sure that everyone around the District of Colum-bia knows about the work that you are doing.”

Some students were also involved in the ceremony, notably Donte Branch, who led the pledge of allegiance and gave a speech towards the end of the event. In addition, Honors choir performed the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “To Sir With Love.” Student ambassadors also gave tours of the school building to members in attendance of the ceremony, including the mayor.

Councilmembers praise school at opening ceremonycont. from front page

Latin welcomes fifteen new teachers

by eLeanoR WRiGht

cLass of ‘16

Washington Latin’s newest teaching recruits have come

from far and wide, and wait-ed years to be able to join the Washington Latin community.

One of our new mem-bers, Kate Lewis, chemistry teacher, has come all the way from Australia to teach at Latin.

Lewis hails from Bris-bane, Australia, where she had worked as a pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and a high school chemistry teacher. Lewis’s journey to Latin began when her boyfriend was offered a job here in Washington, D.C.

Lewis then began the search for a job in Washington.

“I’ve never ever been to anywhere in North Ameri-ca before,” says Lewis. “You actually have to have a job

before you move [to the United States]. There were a lot of emails and phone calls to [Di-ana Smith and Martha Cutts]. My interview was actually via Skype!”

Lewis then recorded a lab lesson and sent it to the principals.

While Lewis has travelled the longest to come and teach at Latin, one of the teachers who waited the longest to to be part of our community is Drury, the 9th and 10th grade world history teacher. John Drury has been waiting two years to join our community.

“Two years ago, I came back home from teaching in Australia, and I attended a charter school fair, where I met [Laurel Seid and Smith]. I wanted to teach at WLPCS ever since!”

And, already, the school is impressing him.

“I am blown away with how beautiful the new build-ing is; I love Latin so far. It’s meeting and exceeding all of my expectations.”

While these new teachers are completely new to students, there are a few faces that some of us may recognize.

There are four returning teachers this year. One being Sereena Hamm, our librar-ian. Hamm had been at the school in its second year, and had interned for the 5th grade classroom. Hamm left us five years ago, while the school was at its Massachusetts Avenue campus. Amid being away for five years, she was very pleased to see many familiar faces.

“I feel like I’ve been welcomed back easily,” she says.

Latin certainly seems to attract some truly amazing teachers, and the school seems

to amaze them as well. “I think WLPCS is the

most unique school in the city,” says Drury, “I really have never been happier to be a teacher than I am today.”

Hamm agrees: “it’s been great so far. I really think this is just a special place. There is a real sense of community here.”

There are 13 other new teachers besides Lewis, Drury and Hamm. A full list is below:

Suzanne BrooksErin Coppola-KleinMike DavisAnna Laura GrantJessica KillingleyLeah KolbChris Ann MatteoLesley NeSmithKathy ReillyAndrew Rodriguez Michele SpittlerJeff Stiff Delicia Vance.

October 2013 Sumus Leones 4

EDITORIALS

Should student council be a democracy?

by tessa toRGovitsky

cLass of ‘15

New building, new schedule, new teach-ers, new students...it

seems like all of Washington Latin is getting a facelift, from technology to curriculum.With all this change occurring, is student government due for an update too, to a more demo-cratic format?

When polled, 60% of students expressed that they either felt unrepresented by student government, or that student government is simply not working for them. A whop-ping 80% said the students should vote to elect represen-tatives to the council. Many students declined to participate in these polls, citing lack of knowledge about who partici-pates in student government or what even they do. One student was shocked to find out Latin even had a student govern-ment.

Peter Findler, the upper school US history and Media & Citizenship teacher, helped me identify the type of government that our student government most resembles.

It is called an oligarchy, and it consists of a few individ-uals in charge of many people because these few have con-nections to money and power. In our case, the few would be the students in government,

who choose new members on their own through the audition process, the many would be the students not involved in government. The money and power are the school adminis-tration.

Samuel Leonard, English 11 teacher, disagrees with Findler, saying the student government is more of an au-tocracy than anything else. An autocracy is a system of gov-ernment by one person with no external checks on his or her power. In our case, according to Leonard, that person is our head of student government.

“I don’t understand why a committee that is meant to represent the student body to the administration was not voted for by the student body,” said junior Coumba Gueye. “Nobody knows who’s on student government, but some-how they’re always making decisions for us.”

“They just do stuff and don’t ask anyone beforehand,” said Mica Carroll, a sopho-more, who at the time of her interview was considering going through the audition process. Since then, she has subsequently been chosen as a representative. Her goal is to ensure more opinions of students are brought to the attention of the council.

Head of Student Coun-cil Walter Deleon insists his “goal is to lead [the council] to

being much more transparent and to ensure there is a balnce of power among the student government and students.”

Deleon was chosen by assistant principal Laurel Seid as the senior to lead the student council this year.

One of the plans for this year’s council is to hold monthly summit meetings that anyone can attend. The idea, according to Deleon, is that, “all sorts of people will be able to come in and say: Hey, you know, this is what we want [the council] to do.”

However, an address to the student body announcing the new plans for this year was scheduled for September 17, but never happened. At this point, there have been no sum-mit meetings, or changes to the audition process selecting student representatives.

The student govern-ment, like all student run or-ganizations is, “still growning; every year we’re adding and changing things” said Emily Hall, a junior class represen-tative.

“If student government was gone [the school would] soon realize how much we do for them,” said junior represen-tative Grabriella Jones.

Etthan Tate, junior, describes the situation as “ it’s not bad and it’s not good but it would be nice to have some choice.”

Sumus Leones5200 2nd Street NW Publication Lab, Washington, D.C. 20008

sumusleones.com

Cuneyt Dil cdil@sumusleones.comPublisher and Editor-in-chief Alistair Andrulis aandrulis@sumusleones.comManaging Editor and Multimedia Director

founded in 2011 by cuneyt dil and alistair andrulis

Notes from the editor

by cuneyt diL

cLass of ‘14

Every year Sumus Le-ones takes a big step forward in order to expand the publication. Two years ago it was the news-paper itself. Last year we put together a large staff and gave a design facelift to the print pub-lication. We have established the foundation for a stable and organized student-run school newspaper, and we are still working on fine tuning and improving the process of the newspaper.

This year we are ac-complishing a longtime goal of ours, which has been to expand into the web. Thus we are introducing our own website, sumusleones.com.

In addition to our monthly print publications, our website will feature all the articles from our issues, and new articles published between issues. It will also feature ex-clusive videos, photos, edito-rials, sports updates and other school news.

Pretty much, its bigger than the iPhone 5C.

The website was created over the summer by the editors and will be up and running with content by the end of the weekend.

At Sumus Leones we are constantly open for new contributors, and now, even more than ever, we are looking for web editors and contributors to create, write or photograph exclusive content.

Our meetings are Mondays at lunch and Fridays at break. Alternatively, you can submit an op-ed or column any time you want.

Tessa Torgovitsky News EditorAmal Riley Sports EditorEmily Hall Photography EditorKarrin Thompson Features Editor

Teacher advisors:Ms. Rachel BreitmanMr. Ryan BenjaminMr. Howard Alpert

October 2013 Sumus Leones 5

SPORTSBoys soccer to play third consecutive Charter Championship

The Lions kicked off their season at the St. Andrews Tournament where they lost to St. Andrews and St. Anselm’s (above), 6-0 and 2-0 respectively. Left to right: John Akinsanya, Jimmy Blanford, Sam Mader (photo credit Emily Hall ‘15).

Lions defeat Paul PCS 2-1 in semifinal, in extra time

by cuneyt diL

cLass of ‘14

A devastatingly poor start marked the beginning of Latin’s 2013 boys

varsity soccer campaign . At the end of September, the Li-ons had not won a single game and had only two points from a possible six in the Charter School League.

However, on the first day of October the team put it right. The Lions went on a four game winning streak and beat Cesar Chavez 3-1 in the final game of the regular season.

The team entered

the playoffs at the top of the league, as the first seed.

The semi final round of the Charter Cup beckoned the Lions, where they faced Paul PCS, a team they had defeated 4-1 during the regular season. It was a rematch of last year’s semi final playoff match; a match in which Latin was pushed to the brink and only narrowly won 2-1 after having a man sent off.

This year, red card aside, it was much the same affair.

Freshmen left winger Matthew Davis scored in the first half to give Latin the

opening lead. The rest of the match dragged on in a hotly contested match, with both sides creating goal scoring opportunities.

Near the end of the match, Paul PCS scored to equalize, much to the disap-pointment of the home team and fans.

When regulation time ended both teams were level at 1-1, and a ten minute period of golden goal extra time began -- the first team to score would win the match and advance to the championship.

The Lions were riled up due to conceding a late goal

and due to poor refereeing, so they came out the intensely motivated to score.

And score they did, when sophomore forward Heber Argueta snatched the winning goal for Latin half way through the extra time period, winning the game, and booking Latin’s spot in their third consecutive Charter Cup Championship.

The Lions are playing Capital City PCS in the cham-pionship game the third year in a row, on October 29. Latin drew against City 4-4 in the regular season.

Sumus Leones 6

SPORTSOctober 2013

Co-ed Flag Football

Flag football debuts at Washington Latin

The field of our dreams is now here, finallyby theodoRe shoaG

cLass of ‘17

Washington Latin now has its own playing field for practices and breaks, and it is in the process of getting a gym as well. Richard Bettencourt, Ath-letic Director, has been working hard to get the field ready for sports.

After school there are practices on the field, as five sports use the field consistently. Any student in the middle and upper school can use our new field during break and recess.

“We don’t have to go anywhere. Now high schoolers don’t have to run 1.5 miles to and from practice,” says Bet-tencourt. Having a field makes sports much less of an hassle.

Now having a home

field means Latin hosts home games, the first of which was on September 20 for girls varsity soccer. This also means having a homecoming game, at home.

Students and coaches love the field space, but also say that the surfance is very hard. Some coaches have suggested turf shoes to ease pain on knees from running.

This field is hard as rock,” said Boys Varsity Soccer coach Tyler Burke.

The administrators are still working out details on the new field and gym as the school has raised $1,000,000 out of the $4,000,0000 needed

for the gym. The school has a contract for the field, which means Latin won’t have a turf field soon, as it costs an addi-tional $850,000.

“The field is important and beneficial to us and to the Athletics Department, although

there are a few changes that need to be made. Nonetheless, we are thankful for this field,” said freshmen Aaron Figueroa.

by amaL RiLey

cLass of ‘14

Over the summer Richard Bettencourt, Latin’s athletics director, decided to add Flag Football to the variety of sports that Latin has to offer its athletes. The team practices four days a week.

The football team is generally coed and consists of all boys but one exception, junior Emily Hall.

“I thought it would be a fun sport and I thought Mr. Vanterpool would be a cool coach,” said Hall, when asked why she wanted to join the team. “I like being the only girl because I am able to make

friends with people I wouldn’t normally be friends with, and all the guys are very inclusive.”

The team was originally meant to be coached by Peter Findler, an upper school his-tory teacher who played wide receiver for Ithaca College. However, Findler was too busy.

“I had too much on my plate. My daughter is asleep when I leave in the morning, and she would be in bed by the time I would get home from practice so I wouldn’t be able to see her. I hope to coach something in [the] future here at Latin.”

As a result, Richard Bettencourt resorted to Jason Vanterpool. Vanterpool played

football throughout highschool and college. He played inside linebacker for the University of Delaware.

“I was an all-star foot-ball player, four star recruit, and 2001 New Jersey Prep. Defensive Player of the year.” Vanterpool shows no hesitance to boast his accomplishments. “Mr. Bettencourt wanted the best, so he got the best.”

Courtney Farrell, a seventh grade Latin teacher, is the assistant coach of the team. With her high football IQ, she is the woman for the job. Her nickname on the field is “Coach Bones.”

“They call her “Coach Bones” because of her hard-

nosed approach to athletics” says Jason Vanterpool.

Their record is 2-3-0. Their win was against New Hope Academy. Vanterpool says that areas of improvement for the team are blocking and intensity.

He says the team prac-tices hard and shows dedica-tion. The team is familiar with putting in hard work, a prom-ising attribute for any sports team.

“We have a lot to learn to learn but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel”, says Vanterpool.

Photo credit Emily Hall

October 2013 Sumus Leones 7

STYLE & ARTSHonors Choir performs national anthem at Nationals Park

by oLivia boyd

cLass of ‘15

Washington Latin Public Charter School’s Honors Choir performed the National Anthem at Nationals Park for DC Char-ter School Night on September 13.

“I was so nervous, in the beginning ” said Niya Senn, Honors Choir member, when walking to her choir class. “I

didn’t want to mess up. But when we all finished singing and got the applause, I realized my choir rocks.”

Audience members agreed, and so did Ward 4 councilmember Muriel Bowser.

At Latin’s opening ceremony, days after the choir performance, Bowser singled out the Honors Choir for their performance.

“They made us very

proud the other night at the Nationals Stadium, where they represented all the children of the District of Columbia,” said Bowser. “I’ve had a lot of people sing the national anthem at the stadium, and I literally could hear people around me remarking about how excellent you were, so be proud of your-selves today and every day.”

One woman at the game exclaimed that “the choir is so

young, and so good at what they do. Singing at the Nats game is an awesome opportuni-ty. If I could sing, I would want to be in their shoes.”

“It’s all thanks to [Me-lissa]. Nevola that the choir got this great opportunity,” said Senn. “She makes sure we have the right dynamics and anything else that will make our choir succeed; she works so hard for us.”

Honors choir practicing the national anthem at school before their performance (photo credit Emily Hall).

by tyRik dedRick cLass of ‘14

I’m not the biggest fan of flying; the wait time, the rude people hogging the space and the annoying but perky flight attendants. But after watching Baggage Claim, I will say that it has made the whole experience a little bit more bearable.

Baggage Claim is a

romantic comedy starring Paula Patton as Montana Moore, a flight attendant who is trying to find love through revisiting/stalking her exes to avoid being the only woman in her family who is unmarried, in 30 days.

We get an insight into the modern woman of the 2010’s and see that a woman can be strong and beautiful while also not reducing herself for a man.

This movie features an all-star cast of black Holly-wood actors such as Taye Diggs (How Stella got her groove back, Private Practice), Boris Kodjoe (Love & Basketball, Madea’s Family Reunion, Real Husbands of Hollywood), Tia Mowry (Sister Sister), La La Anthony, Affion Crocket, and Trey Songz.

This is a very entertain-ing film that while doesn’t set

any new bars in the Rom-Com (Romantic Comedy) genre, still holds its on and brings yourself laughing at the clichés abound in this film.

The Bottom line is that if you want to see some of your favorite actors, singers, and en-tertainment personalities abound in this film than check this out. Just don’t go in expecting them to reinvent the wheel because you will be greatly disappoint-ed.

This week’s movie review Baggage Claim: Holding on to the clichés

October 2013 Sumus Leones 8

STYLE & ARTSMarvel’s Agent of Shields premieres to positive praise

by samantha andeRson

cLass of ‘17

On September 27, the eagerly awaited pilot episode of Marvel’s Agents of Shield aired, treating audiences to forty-five minutes of high-tech action peppered with snarky one-liners (a choice one being “she’s worse than those sweaty cosplay girls hanging around Stark tower!”) and sort-of-plau-sible science.

The pilot introduced

established characters from The Avengers (2012), to a handful of new characters, who work together to track down leftover alien technology from Loki’s failed Chitauri invasion, which has fallen into the wrong hands. The technology was used to create superhumans, which the Agents must stop before some-body gets hurt.

Agents of Shield has similar elements to BBC’s Torchwood, a Doctor Who spinoff. In Torchwood, a char-

acter from Doctor Who joins a team of specialists who protect London from aliens. Although Torchwood is darker and more mature, both have a more personal and down-to-earth feel than their precursors.

The attitude of the pilot was serious yet light-hearted, dealing with issues of morality and society while successfully delivering a punch line. The visual effects are stunning and the plot complex.

The end of the episode

ties off many loose ends, while leaving the big questions un-answered for the next episode, which aired October 1.

In conclusion, Agents of Shield is off to an excellent start, promising to satisfy view-ers while leaving them hunger-ing for more. Should the people reading this review watch it? Yes, if they like science-fiction action, and want to know what really happened when Agent Coulson ‘died’. Is this writer biased? Maybe.

Comics