inside the vibe

The Renaissance TeamPresents

Mr. JohnsonMorgan

SturgeonCarli

HoldenRiley

KleberNikita

Paripati

‘10 ‘11 ‘‘12 ‘‘13

The Students and The Students and The Students and Teacher of the Month Teacher of the Month Teacher of the Month Teacher of the Month Teacher of the Month Teacher of the Month

PHOTO COURTESY OF MR. BILL GAZE (www.bgsportshots.com)

News:News:

Seniors defeat juniors in an intense game at Powderpuff 2009. Page 4

See how South Bruns-wick’s diverse community celebrates the holiday season.Page 8

Sports:Sports:

Read how the Girls Cross Read how the Girls Cross Country dominated throughout their season.throughout their season.Page 10Page 10

SBHS’s Gymnastics team celebrates a record-break-ing season. Page 12

v v kinking g vvibeibev v kinkintthehehe

Volume 11, Issue 3 750 Ridge Road, Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852 December 2009

On November 14, the members of the South Brunswick High School marching band made marching band history by becoming the fi rst and only New Jersey Band to make semi-fi nals in the Bands of America Grand National Championships. The Bands of America (BOA) Grand National Championships is the biggest marching band event in the nation, and the participants are some of the most prestigious bands in the nation. As a result of the SBHS band placing in the top 100 bands out of 500 bands in the regional competition they were invited to this prestigious competition. The South Brunswick marching band departed in the early hours of November 12, to make their 14-hour drive to Lucas Old Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Preparing for this important season had taken “practice, practice, endurance and more practice” said drill designer Mrs. Ginny Kraft. Band members have been rehearsing this year’s show “Reaching for the Light” since mid August. Once the season was underway, the band had to practice countless hours in order to make its changes perfect and it’s steps directly on point. “The practices can be long and tiring and at times frustrating, but they can also be a lot of fun. All the time, and work is worth it,” said junior Melissa Mueller. At the beginning of the season, the band made several goals for themselves. Mrs. Kraft said, “Our goal from day one was to make it to semi-fi nals

because it has never been done in New Jersey before.” In the hours leading up to Grand Nationals anticipation among the students and staff was at a high. Adding to the anticipation of the band members was the show itself. The show’s music, Angels in the Architecture, was an unpublished piece by Frank Tichellie that the staff obtained special permission for to perform the music. The performance at Grand Nationals would be the biggest audience that the music had ever encountered. Before the competition, freshmen Alyssa Kirsch said she was “nervous about going and competing against such great bands, but felt better knowing that upperclassmen were there to support [her].” Upon arriving in Indianapolis, the band fi rst went to the stadium to observe other bands that were competing in the preliminary competition. On November 13, it was time for the band to compete. After a few hours of practice, the band took to the fi eld to perform their show for the thousands of onlookers and most importantly, the judges. At the award ceremony that day, the band found out that they accomplished their goal in making it to semi- fi nals. “When we found out, that we made semi-fi nals everyone in the band was ecstatic!” says Junior Brooke Delgurcio. “Finding out we won was exhilarating! Everyone was screaming, we were defi nitely the loudest band there” she jokes. “We were just so happy that we accomplished our goal and best of all that we made history!” To add to the excitement of the trip, senior band member senior, Kyle Kraft was also awarded the Fred J. Miller Scholarship. Mrs. Kraft said, “Several bands impressed us, including LD Bell from Texas and Avon High School from Indiana.” Besides Grand Nationals, the band has had a very successful season. This years drum majors Eric Siegel, Monica Fung, Kenny Shupak, and David Li, were able to help lead the band to win two Mayor’s Trophies, the Yamaha Cup at Giants stadium, along with plenty of other fi rst place awards. The 2009 South Brunswick High School marching band has had an incredible season. Between the countless prestigious awards, and going down in history as the fi rst New Jersey Band to make BOA semi-fi nals.

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Carli Holden2012, 2013

22 opinionopinionDecember 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe

StaffMaximillian Beckerman, Kyle Berger, Shivani Bhangley, Oleksandr Burnashkin, Alyssa Chrysafi s, Zachary Cohen, Sarah Elzeini, Rachel Finkelstein, Breona Garrison, Carli Holden, William Johnston V, Cassandra Joiner, Melissa Katz, Caitlyn Kovacs, Lauren Lally, Aaron Lassin, Danielle Libassi, Catherine Lordi, Annie Lu, Gregory Madia, Arashdeep Mahal, David Mariano, Rory Monaghan, Victoria Montiero, Michael Muha, Bisma Muhammed, Juan Perdomo Jr., Sanjana Proddutur, Elizabeth Puzio, Nicholas Quaranta, Maria Riegel, Rohini Sengupta, Rebecca Shapiro, Jacob Stern, Morgan Sturgeon, Cindy Tang, Nicole Tyburczy, Carissa Walters, Michael Weber,

Shanel Williams, Katherine Wright, and Keith Zients

2009-2010 Staffthe viking vibe

Co-Editors-in-Chief Samantha Orlan and Roshni Shah

Sports Editor Justin Berger

Layout Editor Ektaa Sanghvi

Editorial StaffSaadia Ahmad and Tajah Ebram

Advisor Andy Loh

welcomes article submissions and letters to the editors, which may be delivered to Mr. Loh or dropped off in his mailbox. Submissions can also be sent to

reserves the right to edit, shorten or comment on any material submitted to the

The opinions expressed on the editorial page do not necessarily represent the views of the advisor, editorial staff, faculty, administrators or the Board of Education. Students interested in journalism are also encouraged to join the Newspaper Club, held every Wednesday in room A204.

Rockefeller Christmas Truly “Green”Cindy Tang

2012

The famous Rockefeller Center tree, which usually reaches a towering height of 75 to 90 feet according to nyc.com, uses a large amount of energy. The gi-gantic tree strings approximately 30,000 holiday bulbs on an electrical wire that measures nearly 5 miles long. Although this provides for a spectacular sight, many have questioned whether or not its beauty was worth the amount of energy it requires. However, according to the article “Rockefeller Christmas Tree Gets Green Makeover” on msnbc.com, a solution

to this concern was reached two years ago around the 2007 holiday season. Keeping up with the modernized times, Rockefeller Center decided to make their famed tree as “green” as technol-ogy permitted while still retaining its original grandeur. Freshman Stephanie Zheng said, “I’ve seen the Rockefeller tree many times before. I love how it manages to conserve energy without losing any of its beauty.” The tree may have seen the greatest change when all 30,000 of its holiday bulbs were changed from incandescent bulbs to new and improved energy sav-ing bulbs. Although it still used up about

1,297 kilowatts a day, that was a con-siderable improvement from the daily 3,510 kilowatts it once consumed. In addition, 363 large solar panels were in-stalled on the rooftop of a Rockefeller Center building. Completely covered by in these glaring panels, the building boasts the largest private owned solar roof in all of Manhattan. The solar roof provides energy for not only the Rockefeller Tree, but also all of New York City. The complex and carefully designed solar roof is attached to the city grid. If needed, it will contrib-ute to the powering of the city. This is particularly useful in the summer when the city energy units struggle to meet the needs of their air conditioner-dependant customers. The city is often near capac-ity on its hottest days, and it is at those times that the sun-powered roof helps. As freshman Hargun Kalsi observed, “I don’t think there are as many power outages. It’s kind of cool how it might be because of the solar panels.” According to the article on msnbc.com, New York City had made and still is making footsteps in American History. In this case, it had practically

renovated a national symbol. The Rock-efeller tree holds its place in the hearts of many, ranging from excited children to stressed-out teens to happy couples. Freshman Danielle Hutchinson has visited the Rockefeller Center before, describing the tree as being “very beau-tiful, especially at night when all of its lights are on. Going to Rockefeller [Center] every year and ice skating at the center and taking pictures by the tree is like a tradition for my family.” New York City had taken the initia-tive to not only make it spectacular in appearance, but in design as well. The owners of Rockefeller Center had hoped that their efforts in turning the tree green would inspire their fellow New York-ers and United States citizens to do so as well. As the mayor of New York City Mi-chael Bloomberg stated, “Now they will see an example of green leadership which may inspire them to make greener choices in their own lives.” That inspiration is as big a holiday gift as the Rockefeller Center could have given.

Rockefeller Tree In New York City/PHOTO COURTESY OF MR. BOB VARANYAKRockefeller Tree In New York City/PHOTO COURTESY OF MR. BOB VARANYAKRockefeller Tree In New York City/

Happy Holidays from the Viking Vibe Staff !

Happy Holidays from the Viking Vibe Staff !

Happy Holidays from the

3opinionopinion the viking vibe he viking vibe December 2009

Katherine Wright2012

Eco-Friendly Water Bottles

In 2008, Poland Spring Water Com-pany launched a campaign to sell a new product, the Half Liter Eco-Shape bot-tle, said to contain 30% less plastic than other carbonated and non-carbonated beverage bottles. But are these “eco-friendly” water bottles actually environ-mental savvy? According to thefreedictionary.com, recyclable is defi ned as “to use again, especially to reprocess.” A common misunderstanding con-cerning plastic recycling is that a plas-tic container, can be recycled back into plastic in the same way that aluminum and glass can, but while plastic is recy-cled it never is the same. Most plastics move down the “re-cyclable food chain” a process dubbed “downcycling”. Downcycling is the term given to products that when recy-cled produce a material of lesser qual-ity. Downcycled products such as white printer paper are often “downcycled into materials such as cardboard and cannot be used to create more premium paper” according to the Presido Gradu-ate School’s Dictionary of Sustainable Management (http://www.sustainabili-tydictionary.com/). When materials are downcycled they become less useful because they are of lesser quality than newly produced ma-terials. While the effort of trying to be “eco-friendly” is appreciated, the water bottles on the shelves of stores are only recyclable, not recycled.

For example, on the Poland Spring photo of their product, the Half Liter Eco-Shape bottle, the only thing marked as 100% recyclable is the cap, which is made of a harder plastic than the bottle itself. The most environmental savvy and economical investment in terms of por-table water carriers is the reusable water bottle. While the ideas behind Eco-Shape bottles have good intentions, the compo-nents needed to create and produce the bottles leaves the environment stripped of resources. One way of saving money while helping the environment is to buy a reusable water bottle. For athletes who need to stay hy-drated such as senior, Alissa Grischuk, reusable water bottles are good because “they are good for the environment and save on plastic.” It’s an old fashioned and simple way to carry water without having to pay about $4.99 every week for a new 24-pack. A stainless steel water bottle costs about ten to thirty dollars depending on the store and while it may seem to cost a lot, it’s worth it in the end. Sophomore, Kirthana Govindaraja drinks from her reusable water bottle because “it helps the environment, you never have to buy water bottles and you can put clean, fi ltered water inside.” When one person invests in a reus-able water bottle and saves plastic and money they will have about fi ve dollars more every week and a smaller carbon footprint. Imagine if all two thousand students at SBHS followed that exam-ple, then three hundred million Ameri-cans did the same. Now imagine six bil-lion people doing it. That is change we That is change we Thatneed.

Jake Stern andKatie Lordi

2011, 2012

Online Shopping and Cyber Monday

Numerous retailers create frenzies every year in an attempt to lure shop-pers into their stores on Black Friday. Although this trend is very much alive, it is rapidly being rivaled with online shopping and the emergence of Cyber Monday. The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday after Thanksgiving when consumers make the most online pur-chases. Originally, the surge in purchas-es made on Cyber Monday was credited to consumers returning to work after the Thanksgiving holiday to peruse the In-ternet with high-speed connections and presumably start making their Christ-mas or Chanukah purchases. This phenomenon is becoming the new standard in consumerism where sitting behind a computer screen yields high amounts of purchases from online consumers. According to an article on English.choas.com titled “Cyber Monday out performs Black Friday” posted on De-cember 3, “US consumers spent 10% more on cyber Monday than on Black Friday.” This statistic conveys the desire for comfort in American society. Many con-sumers would rather sit in the comfort

of their home and shop rather than go out at the wee hours of the morning to catch a bargain. Junior Matt Leopold explained his preference to shop online, “ If I have the option to not leave my house and avoid the crowds and bustle of shopping malls and stores then I will do so.” Many other students and consum-ers share Leopold’s view in the realm of online shopping, and the statistics this year prove it. Ecommerce_guide.com reports that Cyber Monday sales are up 30% from 2008, demonstrating the dras-tic spike. With all these numbers and statistics students may ask, what does this mean to me? The answer may be change. An article written on December 5 on the website 247wallst.com titled “The Re-naissance of E-Commerce” stated,” The death of store shopping drums will be-gin to beat, if they had not already begun to do so.” The article also referenced the fact that Macy’s stock is on the decline while Amazon.com stock is climbing. This means the death of the shopping mall as we know it may be imminent in Ameri-can society. Business teacher John Lolli predict-ed, “ I agree that major retailers will be shutting down stores to lessen the cost to the retailers, it will impact “mom and pop” stores as well due to the fact they

can not compete in the online sales mar-kets.” Some students are troubled with the fact soon major changes may begin in the physical shopping world. Sophomore Pauline Aziz said, “It would be tragic for the American tradition of the mall to end, it is been engrained into Amer-ican culture.” No matter how different it seems, trends such as Cyber Monday are contributing the downfall of “hands on” consumerism. The convenience of online shopping is over-whelming and much more practical busi-ness-wise for the retailer. For a business, having a store involves

much more overhead than a website: rent to pay, store upkeep, insurance and util-ity costs. All of these make for a greater expense to the businesses. Therefore it is more benefi cial to the retailers to take an online approach to sales. Even super markets are taking an online method of business offering consumers the opportunity to have their groceries deliv-ered to them in lieu of visiting a store. In the long run, an online approach to retail looks as if it will catch on quickly replacing the long-standing tradition of American holiday shopping.

SCREENSHOT BY SAADIA AHMAD (‘10)

Courtesy of Courtesy of www.sustainablefootprint.orgwww.sustainablefootprint.org

44 newsDecember 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe

On Friday November 20, the annual Powder Puff tournament took place on the football fi eld at SBHS. The seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen girls came together to play in the annual event for charity. In the fi rst game, the juniors destroyed the freshman as they routed them 42-7. In the fi rst powder puff game for the class of 2013, the freshman looked like the proverbial deer in headlights from the opening kickoff as Rachel Vogel took the ball 67 yards for a touchdown. Junior quarterback Kara Flanders led her team to a complete and utter dismantling of the freshman. Running backs Kristen Cooney, Mariah Brown, and Megan Groholske all scored for the juniors in this fi rst game. On defense, junior Chandler Antzcak provided a pick-six in the closing minutes. The juniors looked promising in this fi rst game. Junior Kristen Cooney said, “We came out strong. The freshman were under matched and we took advantage

of it.” Next, the second game brought tons of drama as the sophomores and the seniors took part in an epic overtime battle. The seniors came out scoring as quarterback Amanda Rehnstead hit run-ning back Lauryn Strebeck from ten yards out. The sophomores came thun-dering back as purple face painted run-ning back BreAnna Woods took the ball into the end zone to tie the game. After a three and out from the se-niors, sophomore quarterback Victo-ria Jackson hit Vanessa Perdomo for a touchdown. The rest of the game was a defensive bout. Seniors Lara Delestovich and Caryn Engle played outstanding as linebackers. Although the seniors were playing well, they were still trailing 14-7. It wasn’t until senior tailback Jamie Thompson scampered into the end zone for the score. The game stayed tied at 14 until over-time. Senior Strebeck fi rst ran it in for a score. Senior Head Coach Joe Myers, mastermind of play-calling, was proven correct as the seniors responded well. Then the seniors played well as they de-

nied four consecutive pass attempts from the sophomores en route to winning the game and getting to the championship. Senior Caryn Engel said, “I had to step up and make plays if we wanted to get to the championship, I just tried hard and with the great support of my team-mates, I made plays.” During halftime, the senior cheerlead-ers performed a more than memorable performance. Ross Robey was lifted up into the night and the performance be-gan. Kenny Shupak, Eric Anthony, Kyle Caverly, Emil Chen, Mohammed Haider and Justin DeAndrea all exceeded ex-pectations throughout this outstanding performance, as they all showed off their muscles and dance moves throughout the entire cheer. The performance ended as all the ladies in the stands went crazy as DeAndrea took off his shirt. Cheerleader Kenny Shupak said, “I was just doing my thing out there. The crowd’s energy really played into my outstanding moves.” After the stellar performance by the senior cheerleaders, the class of 2013 was crowned with the spirit award and the best decorations.

On a more serious note, the seniors and juniors had a championship game to settle. The game started out in favor of the juniors as Cooney ran a 19-yard touchdown. The seniors responded well though as wide receiver Julie Rekant had big reception that led to a Lauryn Strebeck rushing touchdown. Senior Strebeck said, “It was thrilling to score in the championship game.” The senior defense was nasty the rest of the game as linebackers Caryn Engel and Lara Delestovich were making big tackles throughout the game. That set the stage for Jamie Thompson to punch the ball into the end zone for the score and give the seniors the lead for good and the 2009 Powder Puff Champion-ship. Head Coach Joe Myers said, “It felt great for us to rise to the occasion like that, after three years of failure, fi nally to get it right senior year, is awesome.” In total, the event raised $7,423 for a number of different charities. The event clearly demonstrated Viking Spirit while keeping a great cause in mind.

Greg Madia2010

ABOVE: The freshmen and junior class Powderpuff teams pause the action as the Referee makes a call.NEAR RIGHT: Sophomores fi ght their hardest against the seniors.FAR RIGHT: Senior Coach strategizes with the quarterback before the championship game.BOTTOM RIGHT: Players of the freshmen team gather around for a huddle.

Seniors are Powderpuff 2009 Champions

5news the viking vibe he viking vibe December 2009

Battle of the BandsRoshni Shah and

Aaron Lassin2011

On Friday December 4, SBHS’ JSA Club held its eleventh annual Battle of the Bands competition. The four judges, science teacher Dr. Roberto DeBari, se-niors Emil Chen and Kenny Shupak and technology entrepreneur Michael Spen-cer watched each band perform and at the end of the night they declared Au-dacity the winner of the night. In every band, at least one member had to be a student at South Brunswick for them to compete. Each band performed either three or four songs, both originals and covers. At the end of each set the judges deter-mined a score based on musical ability, stage presence, technical ability, audi-ence reaction, professionalism, adding up to a 50 point score. Seniors Mike Martino, Dan Clapps, Drew Weinstein, Steve Nieves were the four members of the winning band Au-dacity, receiving a $40 gift card to Guitar Center. The band’s winning songs were, in order, “Edge of Reason”, “Some Say” and “Wings”. If any students are inter-ested in following Audacity, they are performing on January 17th at the Stone Pony for a chance to play at Bamboo-zle. Senior Mike Martino, guitar player for Audacity said, “It felt a lot better than last year when we didn’t even place, and helped us get our name out to students in our school, who may not have known what our band was about. It feels good to have our hard work recognized.” Strychnia followed Audacity, placing in 2nd, winning a $20 gift card to Guitar Center and Mirror Effect came in with a third place victory receiving a $10 gift card to Guitar Center. Senior Gabe Khaselev, bass player in Ignition said, “I had a fantastic time and I think the best part about Battle of the Bands is defi nitely the adrenaline when you are on stage and everyone is yelling across the cafeteria.” Judge and science teacher, Dr. Ro-berto DeBari said, “I had a great experi-ence judging the performances, and was extremely surprised with the talent of all the bands. My time there was grandiose [sic].” Battle of the Bands attendee, junior Andrew Lupo said, “Going to Battle of the Bands year after year is a great expe-rience. I not only see peers of mine from school but hear great quality bands.” Ms. Thom, special education teacher and JSA advisor, said “We had a fabulous turnout, I believe Battle of the Bands is the biggest JSA event. The quality of the bands that performed show the constant hard work that every student puts into their extra-curricular activities.”

PHOTOS BY MORGAN STURGEON (‘10)

The South Brunswick Public Library (SBPL) serves the community as a place for peaceful reading and quiet discus-sion between friends. For the youth es-pecially, there are two rooms dedicated for their own use. Many students use this privilege to complete homework assign-ments, work in group projects, or catch up with friends. Senior Rena Shi, for example, goes to the library to meet up with people, check out study guides for the SATs and AP exams, and to read the New York Times in a comfortable and quiet place. In recent weeks, however, some of the youth have abused these privileges During the past week, a group of young teens have caused damage to the brick wall in the teen computer room. Nearly twenty books were ruined when soda was sprayed across the rooms onto the walls and bookshelves. Graffi ti was also present in some areas. While these youth may fi nd fun or excitement in these acts, the ramifi -cations are real and can be severe. In-creased adult supervision may be neces-sary, have been. Replacing the damaged materials will use up money that could otherwise be spent elsewhere. In an ex-treme case, the rooms may have to be

temporarily closed down. Library Director Mr. Chris Carbone explained, “The library offers a lot to the teens, but they also have a responsibility to behave appropriately. Those few that don’t are taking staff time and funding away from the library’s goal of provid-ing great collections and programs for teens.” Junior Shradha Amin said, “I go to the library to study and do homework, and also just to hang out and relax with friends.” Teen librarian Mrs. Saleena Davidson said, “The greatest deterrent would be for anyone who sees vandalism to report it, and for teens who love the library to spend time in the area to discourage bad behavior with their presence.” Mr. Carbone concluded, “We hope even more teens will get involved and everyone should have a sense of pride for the great library they have here - not all communities are as fortunate.” Anyone with any information is en-couraged to call the SBPL at 732-329-4000 ext. 7287 anonymously. To fi nd out more about the events and blogs for teenagers and the general public, visit www.sbpl.info. Junior Jean-Luc Oliver explained, “The library is useful and accessible to everyone. There are a lot of resources to use for studying, projects and just learn-ing in general.”

Saadia Ahmad 2010

Vandalism at SBPL Proves Expensive

Turnitin.com is a program where teachers can submit students’ papers to see how often a student plagiarized within the paper, in order to discourage plagiarism and promote original writ-ing. This program has been at SBHS since June 2009 and is open to be used by any department in the school. At this time, the departments that are especially uti-lizing this program include English, So-cial Studies and Science. Dr. Ithan Zimmer, a science teacher at SBHS said, “This program is something I would use. I support the site and the concept.” Students’ papers are compared to other print submissions in databases for simi-larities. It checks the papers with over six million submissions from websites, colleges, high schools, books or any other print submissions. It is similar to a fi ngerprint system. According to Ms. Beth McGinley, a psychology teacher at SBHS said, “The issue of plagiarism has been brewing at SBHS and has been a concern for many years, and the librarians introduced this program to the teachers that is essen-tially an originality check amongst stu-dents’ papers to ensure that papers that are written in the students’ words and are not taken from another source. The site will give you an accurate percentage of how much of the paper is plagiarized, and then the teachers must take their professional knowledge to determine how much is too much.” It has been known for all students to plagiarize, but the class level that has been noticed to have a higher percent-

age of plagiarized work is the AP students because of the stress and pressure they are under with their work load according to Ms. McGinley. Students at SBHS also share their views on what they think of this program. Freshman Nimra Muhammed said, “It is wrong for someone else to get the credit for something you worked hard on. I support this program because it shows students that there will be consequences for their actions, and that mistakes will be learned from.” Assistant Principal Ms. Pat Abitabilo fi nds this program incredibly effective for students for two main reasons. It gives the students the opportunity to look at their paper before turning it in and to check it for originality. She also explained that this learning experience needs to begin at a young age. If a student is unable to para-phrase they are, or will be, guilty of pla-giarism. Seniors at SBHS share their views on how they feel about the subject matter. Senior Ali Grischuk said, “It is unfair that some people end up getting away with plagiarism because I am working hard and taking time to do the assignment right.” By the end of the year, the school will hopefully know if this program is effec-tive. “We need to help our students in any way possible so they can become success-ful. This program is just one more tool in our tool box. I am very much in favor of this program,” Ms. Abitabilo concluded. At a recent faculty meeting principal, Mr. Timothy Matheney announced plans for a school wide implementation of tur-nitin.com by the end of second marking period.For more information on this students can visit www.turnitin.com.

Turnitin.comMaria Riegel

2013

Below: Band Edge Performs at Battle of the Bands

66 newsDecember 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe

SBHS Student Helps Bhutanese Refugees

SBHS Students Commemorate Holocaust Victimslearn more about my past and to in turn better my future.” As a survivor, Mrs. Godin was ea-ger to tell her story and brought some students to tears. She talked excitedly about her family including her children and seven grandchildren. Her two broth-ers survived the Holocaust as well, but have since passed. Mrs. Godin said, “If you leave here only learning one thing, it should be to respect everyone regardless of how they look or where they came from. You don’t get popular by doing bad things. The Lord above will consider you popu-lar by doing good things.” According to its website, www.ushmm.org, the museum was built to “cultivate a sense of moral responsibil-ity among our citizens so that they will respond to the monumental challenges that confront our world. Today we face an alarming rise in Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism —even in the very lands where the Holocaust happened—as well as genocide and threats of genocide in other parts of the world.” When one student asked to see her tattooed number, Mrs. Godin explained that “the Nazis only tattooed the Jews in Auschwitz to abuse and humiliate them, but the rest of the people in the camps wore their numbers on their clothes,” as she gestured her fi ngers as if pinning the number on her shirt. In one section, visitors could search a registry by fi rst name, last name, or country to see if they had documented relatives during the Holocaust. Every area of the museum described the different components of the Holo-caust, including the hereditarily ill, ho-

often ne-glects their promise of paying the rent after a month or two, leaving the refugees in an unsta-ble fi nancial condition. Not only do Bhuta-nese refu-gees face fi nancial troubles, they also face cultural barriers. Without being able to claim a country as their ‘home country’, some refugees feel as if they lack an identity. However, after arriving to America, they have the opportunity to feel at home. “As you know we come from coun-try of almost uni-cultural society, the di-verse culture of US was very diffi cult to get adjusted to. The transformation from refugee camp to an ultra modern world was in itself a diffi culty. Language, lack of skill for getting a job...understanding the whole gamut of leading a life here is different and diffi cult [sic],” said Mr. Lall Basnet, a refugee from Bhutan, residing in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in an exclusive interview with the Viking Vibe. South Brunswick High School stu-dent, junior, Meena Mallela, volunteers her time, to try to make the transition easier. Ranging from collecting clothes to teaching English as a Second Lan-guage (ESL), Mallela helps in any pos-sible way.

American citizens often forget and take for granted the religious freedom they possess. Many people across the world are victims of racial, religious, and gender discrimination. Specifi -cally, in the small country of Bhutan, surrounded by China and India, Hindus do not have the right to practice their re-ligion freely, as the offi cial religion of the country is Buddhism. The discrimi-nation against Hindus of Bhutan led to violence, causing Hindus of Bhutan to fl ee to refugee camps in the neighboring country of Nepal. Many refugees, working through an agency called the International Organi-zation for Migration (IOM), have been able to immigrate to the United States, New Jersey included. The IOM fi nds the refugees through an interview process, and helps those who qualify transition to America and eight other countries. They are then required to repay the airfare cost to the IOM in small installments. After their arrival, they are welcomed by a non-profi t organization called the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC helps the refugees fi nd tempo-rary living arrangements. The arrange-ments are not necessarily cheap; the IRC chooses whatever is available at the time, no matter the cost of rent, and assists the refugees in the moving process. Also, the IRC is supposed to pay for the fi rst four months of rent, until the refugees fi nd a job and are able to suffi ciently pro-vide for themselves. However, the IRC

Ektaa Sanghvi2012

mosexuals and the Sinti Roma (more commonly known by the derogatory term, Gypsies). One section was par-ticularly special; it was a circular room bordered with candles with the names of the camps on the wall, where anyone could light a candle in remembrance or to honor the victims of the genocide. “Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story” was a walk-through exhibit tell-ing the story about what a little boy went through after being taken from his home to the concentration camp and how he and his sister, Erika, coped with the atrocities. Many students found this exhibit was the hardest to hear, yet the easiest to understand. “From Memory to Action” was a sec-tion of the museum dedicated to the cur-rent genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Visitors were able to fi ll out a “pledge” to put inside a giant glass container fi lled with

countless pledges from past visitors. This area hosts the questions that remain about the Nuremburg trials; who is le-gally responsible for genocide? What is justice? How do you prosecute unprec-edented crimes? Berk concluded, “The museum is an amazing memorial that tells the story of innocent people that started out just like you and me. It was diffi cult to grasp the reality of the millions of victims, and the visit will resonate in my mind and heart.”

“The refugees can use all the help they can get. The simple stuff would be donat-ing old things, like winter clothes, shoes, books, kitchen utensils, even small pieces of furniture. On a larger scale, if kids are really interest-ed they can con-

tact me and come with me when I go to work with the refugees. It’s a really fun and eye opening experience. Seeing the problems the refugees have to deal with that most of us never think about makes people really thankful for the lives they have,” said Mallela Almost every weekend, Mallela goes to Trenton or Elizabeth, where there is a fairly large concentration of Bhutanese refugees, to teach ESL. “The most obvious cultural adjust-ment many of them had trouble with was communication. Many spoke bro-ken English and preferred to have some-one translate for them rather than strug-gle through a sentence in English. I also noticed that they did not understand the drive needed to survive in America; that they now lived in a nation that thrives on competition and sitting back wait-ing for help simply would no longer be enough,” Mallela said. “Of course this was not the case for everyone, some of the refugees seemed more worldly and understood that they needed to go out and fi gure out the customs of American

culture for themselves, that they needed to research the endless opportunities available in this country.” Living conditions in the US and in refugee camps are literally a world of a difference. “The situation in any refugee camp is horrible. The houses are made of plas-tics. Poor sanitation limited and low nutrient food and poor health facilities. People live like in slum and there is frequent outbreak of epidemics [sic],” noted Mr. Basnet. Mr. Tulsi Mahrajan, president of an organization called Friends of Ne-pal, also volunteers his time to help the refugees adapt to the American lifestyle. Friends of Nepal is an organization that connects Nepali-Americans to continue to keep their culture alive while living in the United States. “In America they have religious free-dom. They were displaced because of not being able to speak Bhutanese and being Hindu; here they can practice any religion they want, and Friends of Ne-pal tries to show them that. We also help with ESL classes to get licenses, and help them adjust to cultural differences,” Mr. Maharajan said, in an interview with the Viking Vibe. However, with the help of others, a promise of a better tomorrow still lives on for the refugees. Some are able to fi nd jobs and obtain their licenses. Young refugees are able to attend Amer-ican schools and immerse themselves in American culture, without forgetting their roots. As for the adults, they have found that it is never too late to live the American dream.

Samantha Orlan2010

On Wednesday, December 9, mem-bers of the Holocaust & Genocide Stud-ies course left school at 5:30 a.m. to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. After a fi ve hour bus ride, 104 students fi led into the museum. The three-fl oor museum holds rem-nants of the Holocaust in addition to other genocides. Victims’ hairbrushes, toothbrushes, suitcases and shoes are displayed. Behind glass cases there were childrens dolls, jewelry and books. All of these relics evoked powerful respons-es from the SBHS visitors. Mr. Marc Babich said, “No matter how many times I go, there is always something that strikes me. It is as pow-erful as the fi rst time I went when it was built about 16 years ago.” Senior Lauren Pernal said, “The mu-seum was really interesting and emo-tional. It was shocking to really see what millions of people went through and all the objects that were shown all through-out the museum. Going through, I just kept thinking about all those who died and what they suffered through and what a horrible time in history this was.” Mrs. Nesse Godin, survivor of the Siauliai ghetto in Lithuania, the Stuffhof concentration camp, four labor camps and a death march from when she was 13 to 17, was present to tell her story at the museum. Senior Samantha Berk said, “My fa-vorite part of the trip was speaking with Nesse Godin. Her amazing attitude and enlightening story really inspired me to

PHOTO COURTESY OF MEENA MALLELA (‘11)

ents Commemorate Holocaust VictimsPHOTO COURTESY OF MEENA MALLELA (‘11)

ents Commemorate Holocaust Victims

Students pose with Holocaust Survior. PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMANTHA BERK (‘10)

7

Packages for the Troops Successful for Fifth Year

Each year during the early winter months, Social Studies teacher Mrs. Co-rie Gaylord and her Vietnam Era class students organize and collect packages for the troops. This year, they collected and shipped 423 packages, the most ever, bringing the total since the outset to over 1300. The Vietnam Era classes focus on how the troops in Vietnam weren’t supported by the American public, unlike during World War II, because of a general lack of support for the war. When the U.S. troops entered Iraq in early 2003, Mrs. Gaylord and her students came up with the idea of sending packages. Mrs. Gaylord said, “We realized that our troops might be there for a while.” She commented that it’s important to “show our support for those who are representing our country in a very dif-fi cult situation. They are doing their job, and we want them to know that we ap-preciate their service and the risks they are taking.” Since then, the classes continued to organize this fundraiser and send pack-ages. The process of the project itself is extensive. Students begin by making posters, coming up with advertisements for VTN, and communicating with other teachers to inform their classes of the project and its purpose. As donations come in, students sort them by catego-ries such as food, personal care prod-ucts, and “fun items,” to make the ac-tual packing of individual boxes easier. Many of the boxes themselves are also donations. In addition to the packages, for the fi rst time this year, the classes sold yel-low ribbons for one dollar during the lunches. Students and staff purchased them and put their names up on the col-umns in the cafeteria. Two students, seniors David Inzano and Chris Palumbo who are also in the VTN Broadcast Journalism Technology, documented all the stages of the exten-sive process for the Making the Grade video.

Inzano said, “The troops are fi ghting really hard overseas, and it’s the most we can do to support them.” “We still care about them. They’re not forgotten,” added senior Benjamin Mulvey. Towards the end of the drive, they pack individual shoe box-sized pack-ages with assortments of goodies, each containing a hand-written letter from a student that conveys their support. Each letter is addressed to an individual sol-dier in Iraq or Afghanistan. This year, all the soldiers had a personal connec-tion to someone at SBHS. So far, the classes have received about 20 letters and emails of gratitude for thinking of them and supporting their efforts. There are also some SBHS alumni now serv-ing overseas, and the classes ensure to send them packages. Mrs. Gaylord said that this makes it much more personal. The boxes stack up towards the end of the drive and they “start to take over the room -- in a good way,” she com-mented, “I made fi ve total trips to the post offi ce.” This year’s shipment included snack food, personal care products, CD’s and DVD’s, and “fun items” such as frisbees and Beanie Babies. The Beanie Babies are especially popular because soldiers give them out to children and also serve as good packing material. As a result of this project, the stu-dents increase their awareness of the sit-uations in Iraq and Afghanistan and feel good about reaching out to the soldiers stationed there. Mrs. Gaylord thanked the students, their parents, and the staff for their tre-mendous support over the years, during which the project has become a tradition at SBHS. “This is important because it’s self-less,” said senior Johneattea Seay, “It teaches you to care about how others are feeling.” Mrs. Gaylord concluded, “The stu-dents wanted to convey to our troops in Iraq that they are supported, whether or not we agree with the troops being there.”

Saadia Ahmad2010

Students package yet another box for the drive.

CPR for Seniors Could Save Lives

During the winter of each year, se-niors taking gym train and practice for six hours to prepare for a test on their ability to perform Cardiopulmonary re-suscitation (CPR). This training began at SBHS during the 2007-2008 school year. Physical Education and Health teach-er Ms. Bobbi Thomas said, “Each year more and more people want to get certi-fi ed.” Another teacher of physical educa-tion and health, Mrs. Mindy Verderami, commented, “A lot of students like it be-cause it helps with their part time jobs, plus it’s a break from gym.” The American Heart Association, the organization through which seniors are certifi ed, defi nes CPR as “a combination of rescue breathing and chest compres-sions delivered to victims thought to be in cardiac arrest,” which occurs when the heart stops pumping blood. Although professional help should be sought im-mediately upon a victim’s sudden col-lapse and failure to response, CPR can support blood fl ow to the heart and brain to “‘buy time’ until normal heart func-tion is restored” or until an ambulance arrives. Mrs. Verderami said, “If, God-forbid, someone ever does need CPR performed at least our students can keep in mind the basic knowledge even if they panic a little.” One cycle of CPR includes 30 chest

compressions and two breaths. There are distinct differences in how CPR is per-formed for adults, children, and infants. Amy Kuan said, “I think CPR should be mandatory for all seniors because it is a life skill we can use even after we graduate.” An article on the American Heart Association’s website noted that people can identify others in need of CPR by “sudden cardiac arrest, the victim col-lapses, becomes unresponsive to gentle shaking, stops normal breathing and af-ter two rescue breaths, still isn’t breath-ing normally, coughing or moving.” The same article cited that “the per-centage of subjects who assessed unre-sponsiveness, called the emergency tele-phone number 911, provided adequate ventilation, proper hand placement, and adequate compression depth was signifi cantly better for the video-based self-instruction (VSI) groups than for untrained controls. VSI subjects tended to have better overall performance and better ventilation performance than did Heartsaver subjects.” During the six hours of instruction, seniors alternate between watching vid-eos and teacher demonstrations while practicing along on mannequins. Ms. Thomas said, “It’s critical that seniors take CPR because it is so impor-tant to be prepared. I’ve gotten a couple stories where someone in their family was choking and students were confi -dent in handling the situation.” Darlene Braithwaite and Tushan Simms agreed that “CPR is awesome. Saving lives is fun and it only costs $2.00!”

Saadia Ahmad andSamantha Orlan

2010

Food Pantry Serves NeedyFood Pantry

Serves NeedyFood Pantry

Caitlyn Kovacs2013

South Brunswick is a very fortunate town compared to others during these harsh economic times. Although our town is generally well off, there are still many families who worry if they can feed their children and provide suffi cient shelter and clothing. To help with this dilemma, the South Brunswick Food Pantry supplies food and other necessi-ties to families throughout the town. Mrs. LouAnne Wolf is the Social Service Director for the township, and is heavily involved with the pantry. She has been working with the food pantry since 2003 and on average helps about 25 families per month. But when the holidays come around, families not only need food, but assistance with presents for Christmas and Chanukah. Freshman Jehanzeb Nadeem said, “The people of South Brunswick can’t feed their families now because of the problems with the economy and the ex-cessive amount of job loss.” During Thanksgiving of 2009, Ms. Wolf and her numerous volunteers sent out 196 baskets, full of goods such as stuffi ng, gravy, cranberry sauce and other food items donated to the pantry. Families were also given a gift card to

purchase food, such as turkey for Thanks-giving. This year’s demand for Thanksgiv-ing assistance has gone up 34 more fami-lies compared to 2008. “For South Brunswick, I think a little less than half of residents rely on the pantry to provide for their families. The recession is causing people to look for more ways to save money, and some people just don’t have the money to save” said senior Alison Noll. Ms. Wolf stated that the same people who sign up for the Thanksgiving drive also signed up for Christmas and Cha-nukah. These families are “adopted” by schools, groups, business, clubs and even individuals, which are set up by the “Adopt a Family” program of South Brunswick. Ms. Wolf anticipates that about 200 fami-lies will be seeking help this holiday sea-son. During the winter holiday, the pantry not only supplies families with food, but also presents for families with children. Sophomore Jay Gandhi explained, “People want to celebrate holidays and of course feed their families, but they can’t always afford it so it’s a great that the food pantry is here to help.” “We in South Brunswick are fortunate to have a support system where we do our best not to let those in need go without dur-ing the holiday season and throughout the year” said Mrs. Wolf.

news the viking vibe he viking vibe December 2009

holiday featuresDecember 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Saadia Ahmad2010

The idea of a “White Christmas” fi rst appeared in the song of the same name written in 1940 by Irving Berlin and sung in the movie, “Holiday Inn.” The more famous version of Bing Crosby from the movie with the same title pre-vails the shopping malls and stores of America during the season. Although snow itself is defi ned as “water vapor in the atmosphere that has frozen into ice crystals and falls to the ground in the form of fl akes,” according to MSN Encarta’s dictionary, it carries a high sense of signifi cance and tradition. An article from The Boston Globe entitled “Why Do We Dream of a White Christmas, Anyway?” explains that our expectation of a fall of snow on Christ-mas Day is actually a “blame of the me-dia.” A number of Christmas classics, such as A Christmas Carol and more recent hits like Elf and How The Grinch Stole Christmas feature an already pres-

ent accumulation of snow, switching between a gentle fall and furious storms depending on the scene’s mood. However, others argue that these ice crystal fl akes signify much more. Senior Kritika Aswani commented, “It should snow because Christmas is all about red and green and snow.” The same article recommends that snow-seekers head to northern New England, the Rockies, the Cascades, and the Upper Midwest to improve their chances for the crystal ice fl akes, while the grinches of Christmas should travel to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Port-land, where there has consistently been less than one-percent chance. “It would be really nice if it snowed, we haven’t had a White Christmas for a long time. It would make people a lot happier,” said senior Deviya Patel. The Associated Press predicted a 10-percent chance of snow this December 25, so the people of South Brunswick probably have to look elsewhere to ful-fi ll their snowy desires.

and family, and the remaining for the family. Eid-ul-Adha also ends the period of Hajj, which is a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where nearly 3 million Muslims gather to pray together each year. They pray in the mosque Musjid al-Haram, facing the Kabah, known as the most sacred site in Islam. All Mus-lims pray facing towards the Kabah, re-gardless of their location. Many Muslims in South Brunswick began their day with a religious prayer at local mosques, such as the Islamic So-ciety of Central Jersey and the Muslim Center of Middlesex County. Following the prayer, friends and family members greeted each other and children ex-changed gifts. Junior Jadila Majid spent her day with her cousin and family in Boston, where she attended prayer at a local mosque and then had dinner. She commented, “Every person should be aware of other cultures and religions because there are so many dif-ferent cultures within and outside our school. Knowing what a person believes in just strengthens relationships with people, so they should defi nitely try to gain a better understanding.”

Saadia Ahmad 2010

Each year, Muslims celebrate Eid twice (translated into English as “Feast”) according to the lunar calendar. The fi rst Eid of 2009, called Eid-ul-Fitr, fell on August 20, a celebration that follows the 30-day fast from food and drink during the month of Ramadan. According to an article on www.is-lamicfi nder.org, the more recent holiday, Eid-ul-Adha, is celebrated for two rea-sons. The fi rst is to remember the spirit of Prophet Ibrahim, known in English as Abraham peace be upon him (p.b.u.h.), and his willingness to sacrifi ce his son, Ismail (p.b.u.h.), and obey God’s com-mand. He did not hesitate upon being given this command, and instead trusted God; this story also appears in the He-brew scriptures In following God’s command with-out question, he was rewarded at the last minute when a lamb replaced his sin and was sacrifi ced instead. For this reason, many families sacrifi ce an animal, usu-ally a goat or lamb, and donate one third to the needy, another third for friends

SBHS Muslims Celebrate Eid al Adha

Students Celebrate Hannukah and Christmas

Nowadays, Christmas traditions are not just for students who celebrate Christmas. Jewish students and their families are making their own Christmas memories as a majority of stores and at-tractions are closed for the holiday. “On Christmas Day my family and I go skiing, because no one is on the slopes and nothing else that we enjoy is open,” Sophomore Adam Dickert said. Some traditions that Jewish students in SBHS have are out of the ordinary. “I go in to Atlantic City with my fam-ily. It’s a nice day, because the city is not crowded,” Junior Mike Katcher said. Other students stay closer to home. “My family and I go to the movies and then we go home for a home cooked meal of spaghetti and meatballs,” Junior Jeffery Rosenthal said. The most common tradition seems to be going to the movies and then out to eat for Chinese food, since both places always seem to be open no matter what day of the year it is. “The best is when my family and I go to the movies and then for Chinese food. The theater is never crowded and we don’t have to wait for a table at the

restaurant,” Junior Spencer Alexander said. Whether they are staying home or taking a trip Christmas traditions for Jewish students are the highlight of their holiday season. Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday also known as the “festival of lights” that takes place in the winter months of the year. According to the History Channel website, “Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees, a Jewish rebel army, over the Syrians in 165 B.C.E., as well as the subsequent rededication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem. Jews around the world celebrate with eight nights of merriment. Traditions include lighting the menorah, exchanging gifts and enjoying treats cooked in oil.” Though Hanukkah is not as important of a holiday as Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur to the Jewish religion, many fi nd it to be the most enjoyable. “I love Hanukkah, between the pres-ents, food, and time you get to spend with your family, it’s just great,” Junior Courtney Cohen said. Similarly to Chirstmas Hanukkah brings families together during a merry time of the year.

Melissa Katz andSaadia Ahmad

2011, 2010

88

PHOTO BY MELISSA KATZ (‘11)

A snowy Christmas in South Brunswick

PHOTO BY ROSHNISHAH (‘11)

Dressed up in Eid clothing, a student and her friend enjoy each other’s company at a party after prayer at the Islamic Society of Central New Jersey

PHOTO BY SAADIA AHMAD (‘10)

features December 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe 9

Rachel Finkelstein and Morgan Sturgeon

2010

Author Says Flu Can Be Prevented with Diet

Author Says Flu Can Be Prevented with Diet

Author Says Flu Can Be

Winter is coming near, and every-one knows what that means; potentially lurking on every doorknob, keyboard, and water fountain is the fl u. It haunts us in classrooms, in homes, and on tele-visions. People make themselves crazy avoiding every cough, sneeze, and snif-fl e to ensure our health during the fl u season, but there is an easier, less-pains-taking way to avoid this years number one bug: food. According to Dr. Matthew Hoffman on www.webmd.com, an unknown fact to many students, eating certain immu-nity-enhancing foods can dramatically decrease chances of catching the fl u. It’s important to look for locally grown meats, poultry, dairy, fruits, and veg-etables that are raised organically and chemical free. People should eat foods that contain phytochemicals, which are key to fi ghting off this virus. “Phyto means plants, and the natural chemicals in plants supercharge the vitamins in food.” His advice is to put away the vita-min pills, and eat colorful foods, such as dark green, red, and yellow fruits and vegetables, that are enriched with im-munity-boosting vitamins. Dave Grotto, author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life also suggests these top ten foods to defend against the fl u this season. School nurses Ms. Rena Eng and Ms. Jeniffer Cochran concur with this advice.

Tea It is said that fi ve cups of black or green tea a day, after just two weeks can strengthen the immune sys-tem up to four times.

Not a fan of any of these foods? Red bell peppers, lamb, sunfl ower seeds, and spinach are all good substitutes, and full of the same immunity-enhancing vita-mins and minerals. Dave Grotto is the President and Founder of Nutrition Housecall, LLC, Spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, and Nutrition Advisor for Fitness Magazine. His book 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life can be found in stores, and online at http://www.nu-tritionhousecall.com, along with more helpful tips on staying healthy this sea-son. School Nurse Mrs. Caryl Treiber re-ported that an average of 1-5 students are called out [of school] every day with fl u or fl u-like symptoms. “Keeping the immune system healthy is key,” she said. Along with healthy dietary habits students should “get a lot of sleep and rest, take their vitamins, keep good hy-giene, and avoid big crowds and touch-ing things that people come into contact with every day, such as door knobs.” She also suggests students should stay home if they feel they might be sick, constantly wash their hands, and cover their mouth while sneezing or coughing. Ms. Treiber adds that the reason the dis-trict has been able to keep this disease so contained, is because the cleaning staff does such a phenomenal job in keeping our school extremely sanitary.

MushroomsFilled with the element Se-lenium, which helps white blood cells to produce sickness clearing cytokines as well as beta glucan, they are an antimicrobial fi ber that helps activate strong cells that fi nd and destroy infection.

Fresh GarlicFilled with antimicrobial com-pound, which attacks bacteria growth, two cloves a day are suggested.

Wild-caught SalmonFull of vitamin D which enforces calcium fl ow in the blood stream, and in bones. Sweet Potatoes Load-ed with beta-carotene, foods such as sweet potatoes, car-rots, squash. pumpkin, egg yolks, and cantaloupe improve the im-mune system, and neutralize harmful toxins in the body.

Yogurt Filled with pro-biotics and prebiotics, one serving a day helps to keep out disease causing germs.

Dark ChocolateDark chocolate has higher doses of cocoa than milk, and boosts immunity by supporting t-cells.

Oysters One medium sized oyster is stocked with enough zinc for one days worth of the bacteria and virus-fi ghting element.

Almonds Chock full of vitamin E, these nuts highly reduce chances of catching colds and developing respi-ratory infections.

Strawberries Packed with antioxidants, strawber-ries should be eaten prior to, and during illness, be-cause they reduce the in-tensity and duration of cold and fl u symptoms.

New Club Promotes International Issues

This year, International Awareness club made its debut as a new club that aims to promote awareness of interna-tional issues. According to the club historian, ju-nior Aditi Bhogal, “We raise awareness about different problems throughout the world by raising funds for different countries. We try to choose charities in less known areas. This way, we spread awareness while helping others that don’t get enough attention.” One of the advisors of the club, Mr. Justin Negraval, said, “We want to bring awareness to neglected regions in the world such as central Africa. There are hundreds of charities that focus on re-gions like Sudan and Somalia.” This club was petitioned for and eventually brought to the attention of the Student Activities offi ce by seniors and co-presidents Aisha Jabbar and Amanda Castillo. Jabbar said she was motivated to initiate this club because of what she had learned in her global studies class. Mr. Negraval showed a video during his class called The Invisible Children.This documentary followed the stories of suffering people, especially children, all throughout Uganda and the obstacles they faced. Jabbar said, “After watching the fi lm, I wanted to make a positive difference and help others. I thought this was my chance to do something benefi cial. So I contacted Mr. Negraval and he seemed interested as well, and then we went ahead with it.”

Co-President Amanda Castillo was motivated to start this club for a similar reason as Jabbar. She too had watched The Invisible Children and was sad-dened by the circumstances the people of Uganda faced, so she contacted Dr. Murphy and asked her to be one of the club’s advisors. Castillo said, “I felt selfi sh because they have much more of a hard time than we do and everyone, including my-self, takes what we have for granted. I wanted to help a cause and think about others instead of myself. I would love to see people come together and help other human beings.” This club has launched one of its main projects and plans for future projects too. Recently, at the Powderpuff Game, International Awareness club set up a ta-ble in which they sold earrings ordered from India. All the sales will benefi t a undecided charity in Africa, that is cur-rently undecided. Mr. Negraval said, “The sales from Powderpuff didn’t exactly fi t out expec-tations but it’s hard to fundraise during the holiday season. It was a good start and we’re looking ahead to future proj-ects.” One of the projects that this club has been preparing is a concert on January 8. Bands from all over South Brunswick High will come together for a night full of music and friends all the while help-ing bring attention to neglected people all over the world. As Jabbar put it, “It’s the easiest thing in the world to make a difference and if everyone just put in a little effort, the impact would be massive.”

Bisma Muhammed2010

10 sportsDecember 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe

After last year’s lackluster season the 2009-2010 Vikings Boys Basketball team is looking to rebound with fresh young faces on the fl oor. The Vikings fi nished last season with an 8-16 record overall and a 4-12 record in conference. It was a drama-fi lled season for last year’s team and they are hoping to put it behind them. They are losing their starting fi ve from last year and a handful of seniors. The program is coming back this season with few players with varsity experi-ence. The team has but one senior, Dan Martinez, returning to the program. Ex-pected returner Jared Kling has decided to hang up his sneakers and pursue other interests. Even though on paper the season may not be optimal the team still has ad-vantages. “Half of our varsity squad is com-posed of freshman and sophomores, many of which will see quality min-utes this year,” Head Coach Mr. Joseph Hoehman said. One strength the boys will enjoy

is their speed. However, they are really lacking in size. “I feel like the teams aren’t going to be prepared for us and our speed,” Sophomore Jevon Tyree explained when asked how he thinks they would match up to opponents. The team is fi lled with juniors like returning varsity player Kory Sanders, the top returning scorer, as well as sea-soned-sophomores Jevon Tyree, Nick Muha, and Mike Green. They will rely on hard work and effort to get to their goals. Prospective Captain Martinez said, “In order for us to be successful we need to play every game like it’s our last. We don’t want what happened last year to happen this year. We have a lot of good guards and it will be hard for other teams to defend us.” The Vikings need a good attitude and mental focus to advance deep this season. “Surprising.” Is the prediction junior Josh Varughese made for this upcoming year. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the future will be bright for the Vi-kings boys’ basketball program.

Boys Basketball Preview Kyle Berger

2010

Predictions are in for Recreation Basketball

The Junior and Senior Recreation bas-ketball season is underway and the sea-son looks promising for a number of teams. These teams will all battle it out for bragging rights supremacy. The fol-lowing are the Pre-Season Predictions for the 2009-2010 winter Recreation Season:

12) Mash Men – Led by Senior Rohan Mashabe the Mash Men could have a rough season. The season does not look very promising for them just due to skill and effort.

11) KashMoney – Team KashMoney is led by Devas Modi. He is a decent play-er that can puzzle opposing defenses with his inside game and outside shoot-ing ability.

10) NUI A – This here is the Muslim Team. They are a school team from the

Islamic Society Center of New Jersey. We’ll see how they do against the studs from SBHS.

9) ChengBangers – Senior Ramon Jac-quel Pinto-Brick House is the most underrated player in the league by far. Senior Alec Mora’s silent but deadly personality is killer from the outside. The downfall could be the lack of size considering all of their guards are under 5’8.

8) Bromars – Kyle Parlow’s swagger alone entering the Crossroads Gymna-sium gives his team the energy to stay competitive in the league. Afro-thunder Drew Hill is ridiculous. 7) Flint Tropics – Junior Derek Fort-hun uses his high jumping tack ability to dunk. He is the only player in the league that can dunk. Also, Zach Gildenberg’s physical presence helps the team defen-sively.

6) G.S.E. – Is fi lled with a number of underclassmen. Junior Class Presi-

Greg Madia and Juan Perdomo, Jr.

2010

The 09-10 season is a season for re-demption for our Lady Vikings. Fol-lowing a losing campaign, the team is looking for their new senior leadership to guide them to success. Last year the Vikings got off to a slow start leading to a 9-11 record. This sea-son, the Lady Vikings look to start the season with a swish and stay consistent throughout the year, earning a spot in the state tournament. The Vikings lost three seniors, in-cluding captain Shannon O’Brien, but captain Katie Jansson is returning along with co-captain Bianca Celi to lead the squad to a victorious season. “Last year’s slow start didn’t help to-wards the rest of the season, but the mo-mentum we built at the end of the year hopefully carries over into this winter,” said Jansson. The Vikings have three returning let-ter winners in Bianca Celi, Katie Jans-son, and Jill Holzhiemer. These three

look to be the role models for the incom-ing varsity players. Although they lost guards to gradu-ation and transfer, the new Vikings feel that they can rise to the challenge and fi ll the holes left in the team. Stepping into these voids are going to be an as-sortment of different talents, including Kiya Strickland, Caryn Engel, and Kelly O’Brien. “I can’t wait for the upcoming season and contributing in a bigger role. Last year I received limited varsity playing time and I hope to increase my amount of playing time and be more produc-tive,” said Strickland. Not only is the team excited for the season, but the fans are getting rowdy. Dedicated fan Nicholas Chong went to every game last year and is expecting big plays from our girls this season. “As I watched the team last year, I couldn’t help but get excited for this upcoming season and the winning it should bring. I will continue supporting this team through wins and losses,” said Chong.

David Mariano and Juan Perdomo Jr.

2010

Girls Basketball Previewirls Basketball Previewirls

dent Toto Felli and Vice President Jus-tin Berger are the leaders of this team. While they are leading with their hearts, sophomore Bryan Stonkus; brother of NJIT basketball standout Dan Stonkus, leads the team with his basketball pedi-gree.

5) IqY AnD ThE sTicKs – As captain Kyle Cavorley leads his squad this team could be a sleeper. Senior Mike Rosario and Steve Nieves probably is the best backcourt in all of recreation. Also, Joe Myers has a demanding defensive pres-ence as big bodies down low.

4) Team Dunleavy – Coming off a stunning loss, Team Dunleavy will still be tough to beat. With QB-One, Mike Muha, on the low block and Seniors Da-vid Harry, Jeff Dunleavy and Mike Hey-er the team is fi lled with SBHS athletes. The reason they lost in their fi rst game is still unknown.

3) The yeah No’s – Junior Zack Melchisky runs the point as big man senior Brandon “Beezy” James and his

6’3 wingspan is just unstoppable. Also, senior Tyler Melchisky can light it up from outside. This team has a physical presence that will shut down everyone on defense.

2) Eat Shotz – This team is on the rise as they upset Team Dunleavy. Senior Mike Bobev makes it rain with his jump shooting ability, while Ed Kovach is vi-cious in the low post. They may not look like the best team on paper, but they play one solid unit, that demands victories.

AND THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IS:

1) The Dream Team – Led by former varsity superstar, Jared Kling the dream looks like the team to beat. With a combination of size and athletism they look strong. Seniors Christian Baros and Keith Zients should be able to play above their ability.

The Recreation season is always fun. It’ll be great to see the way things play out on the hardwood this year.

Above: Snapshots of Varsity Girls and Boys Basketball from the 2008-2009 seaon. PHOTO COURTESY OF MR. BILL GAZE (www.bgsportshots.com)

sports December 2009 the viking vibehe viking vibe 11

sunday thursdaywednesdaytuesdaymonday friday saturday

NO SCHOOLWINTER BREAK

Justin Berger2011

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SPIRIT WEEK

Winter Play Winter PlayWinter PlayPep Rally

Board Meeting

UDA Dance Competition

PTO MeetingMrtin Luther King,

Jr.’s BirthdayNO SCHOOL

Incoming Grade 9

Parent Night

Dead Presidents

Society Inaugural Ball

22Board Meeting School Planning

EARLY RELEASE

International Awareness

Club’s Concert

Girls Cross Country Celebrates Outstanding Season

For the girls’ cross-country team, 2009 was a season to remember. The team fi nished 7th at the Meet of Champions (state championship), 4th at the Central Jersey Group 4 meet, 3rd at State Group 4 meet, and 1st in the GMC meet. However, many individuals were still disappointed with their results. Senior Captain Sophia Ginez said, “Personally, I was disappointed with how I performed. However, I think that the team still had a very successful sea-son.” On top of the successful playoff sea-son, the team went undefeated, 6-0, in GMC Red Division dual meets. Head Coach Wilfredo Rivera said, “We fi nished higher this year at Meet of

Champions; we improved on every race from last year except for sectionals.” The team still resonated disappoint-ment despite all of the success, “At the Meet of Champs, we wanted to be Top 6, so seventh was disappointing,” Ginez said. “Our team slogan was Blazin’ Trails, and we weren’t really able to do that this year,” Rivera continued. The team’s fi nishes in big meets tell a very different story, however. The team was plagued by injuries throughout the year, and only started with 11 girls to begin the season. The boys’ cross-country team had 29 mem-bers who were all still available to run at the GMC Championship. “We were really struck by injuries this season. Carly [Trill] and Cayla [Del Piano] both had stress fractures; Jenni [Smilgis] had tendonitis in her knee.

And then a lot of other people were banged up as well,” Ginez said. Ginez also battled breathing issues all season. With some of their teammates down, Ginez and senior Lyndsey Sample con-sistently led the girls down the stretch, both fi nishing in the top three for the Vikings in all four of the post-season meets. Ginez even broke 19 minutes once, running an 18:58 on the 3.1-mile course at the Central Jersey Group IV Sectional Meet on November 7th. Graduating this year will be one of the most successful classes in girls’ cross-country history. The class of 2010 won the GMC’s all four years, was part of the fi rst South Brunswick team ever to make it to the Meet of Champions last year, and then repeated that trip this season. This class includes Ginez, Sample, Captain Jenni Smilgis, her sister Aman-

da, and Jamie Samper, who ran cross-country for the fi rst time this season. Rivera said, “They’ve raised the bar as to what successful season is for our program.” Ginez agreed, “I think our senior class raised the bar for the future and left our mark on the program. I’m very proud of everyone.” Although somewhat disappointed with their last season, this graduating cross-country class left a mark on the South Brunswick athletic program that won’t be forgotten for a long time.

Above: Girls Cross Country Team poses after their GMC win/PHOTOS COURTESY OFAbove: Girls Cross Country Team poses after their GMC win/PHOTOS COURTESY OF MR. BILL GAZE (www.bgsportshots.com) MR. BILL GAZE (www.bgsportshots.com)

Math Midterms

PEER Dinner

Group Competition

Math Midterms

PHOTOS COURTESY OFPHOTOS COURTESY OF MR. BILL GAZE (www.bgsportshots.com) MR. BILL GAZE (www.bgsportshots.com)

Gymnastics Team Has Historic Season

Gymnastics Team Has Historic Season

Gymnastics Team Has

Liz Puzio andMelissa Katz2010, 2011

The South Brunswick Gym-nastics team’s successful season ended with a near perfect record of 8-2, and a fourth place fi n-ish in the New Jersey state high school gymnastics competition. In the Central Jersey II Sectional competition, they fi nished third with a score of 112.025. This is the highest sectional score a team has received in SBHS gymnastics history. The team was also the Greater Middlesex Conference runner up, fi nishing right behind Bishop Ahr, the team’s main competitor. Senior gymnast Jessica Macay and sophomore Lindsay Carbone placed second and fourth in the state’s all around competition, respectively. These incredible ac-complishments pretty much sum up the unbelievable season these up the unbelievable season these

girls had. Coach Ms. Mindy Verderami stated, “I am very proud of the girls. We have had a very strong program the past four years, and we have taken it to the next level each year. I know we will only continue to improve, and overall the girls are the reason our team is so strong”. The teams fourth place fi nish in the State competition is some-thing they are particularly proud of since they went into the com-petition as the fi fth seed team, and came out as the fourth seed, above their rival, Bishop Ahr. “ At the beginning of the sea-son we were forced to overcome adversity, as we had our fair share of injuries, but we prevailed. The rest of the team really stepped up and came through for us,” senior Shannon Martin said, Throughout each competition, Senior Jessica Macay, Sopho-more Lindsay Carbone, and Se-more Lindsay Carbone, and Se-

nior Shannon Martin racked up nu-merous awards and recognitions. Jessica Macay had an amazing season, winning the title Central Jersey II gymnast of the year and GMC all area gymnast of the year. The senior gymnast won the GMC all-around championship for the second consecutive season. Ma-cay also received the highest beam score in the state this season, as she and Carbone were named fi rst team all state (NJSIAA). “Winning back-to-back GMC all-around titles was so exciting. It was a great accomplishment for me and a fantastic way to close out my high school career,” Macay said. Teammates Carbone and Martin had similar success this season. Car-bone earned the titles of Central Jer-sey II beam champion, and placed third in the state on the beam. Both Carbone and Martin were named to the GMC all area team, and were state qualifi ers for the individual state competition. state competition.

“It was a memorable season, “It was a memorable season, the best memory was at the GMC the best memory was at the GMC competition when Jess (Macay) competition when Jess (Macay) scored a 9.9 out of 10,” Senior scored a 9.9 out of 10,” Senior Rebekah Calvin said. With the team now recognized With the team now recognized as one of the top teams in the as one of the top teams in the state, the girls only hope to go up state, the girls only hope to go up from there and aim for a repeat from there and aim for a repeat performance. “The team is graduating a strong “The team is graduating a strong senior class this year, but I have senior class this year, but I have faith in the team. They stepped up faith in the team. They stepped up at the beginning of the year, and I at the beginning of the year, and I expect them to do the same next expect them to do the same next year,” Coach Verderami said. The girls were not the only The girls were not the only ones who were able to baskin ones who were able to baskin their golry this season; Coach their golry this season; Coach Verderami was named to Home Verderami was named to Home News Tribune gumnastics coach News Tribune gumnastics coach of the year. In the three years as of the year. In the three years as head coach, Coach Verderami has head coach, Coach Verderami has a record of 22 wins and seven a record of 22 wins and seven loses.