On Friday, April 19, Cho-ate’s Board of Trustees select-ed Mr. George F. Colony ’72 as its next chair. Mr. Colony will assume his new role on July 1, succeeding Mr. Michael Carr, who has served as Chair of Board of Trustees for the last eight years.

In addition to having served as a Trustee on the Board since 2013, Mr. Colo-ny was also the 2005 recipient of the Choate Alumni Seal Prize. His sig-nificant contributions to the School are partly reflected by the ongoing construction of Ann and George Colony Hall, which is named in his honor.

Beyond Choate, Mr. Colony is the chairman and chief ex-ecutive of Forrester Research,

a market research company based in Cambridge, Mass.

In order to select a new Board Chair, Mr. Carr and a group of trustees considered each of the other Board mem-bers, some twenty individuals.

Head of School Dr. Alex Curtis said, “It’s not really a pro-cess of applying and voting — it doesn’t work like that. The Board establishes what the character-istics and skills they need for the next Board Chair are. Then, there’s careful

conversation, and an unani-mous decision is made."

Throughout the selection process, the Board considered such characteristics as who would run meetings most ef-fectively, handle feedback and new ideas productively, and

Recently, the housing lot-tery process began for third, fourth, and fifth form stu-dents. However, this year, be-cause of a variety of factors, six changes — more than the usual two or three — to housing ar-rangements have been made. Atwater House will become a fourth and fifth form girls’ dorm; Chapel House a sixth form boys’ dorm; Edsall House the all-gender dorm; Quantrell a sixth form boys’ dorm; Lewis House a sixth form girls’ dorm; and Memorial House Garden a fifth form boys’ dorm.

Every February, the Finan-cial Office sets an enrollment target after viewing the budget plan for the upcoming year. According to Mr. Will Morris, Director of Residential Life, this year’s enrollment target was 638 boarding students and 212 day students. The dean’s office then reports the num-ber of spaces available for new students: 190 this year. This

number is divided into eight sections — one for each grade level and gender — and sent to the Admissions Office, whose goal is to offer the appropri-ate number of admissions to ensure that the number of acceptances are close to the target number of students for each section. “There’s a lot of uncertainty around that; it’s a very hard thing to do. Once you make the offer, it’s out there,” Mr. Morris said.

After April 11, when all of-fers are finalized, the resulting yield is reviewed. “Every year, there is an unexpected outcome. We have to make adjustments to accommodate the enrollment that has resulted from both re-turning students and newly ad-mitted students, so that’s one of the factors that would lead us to have to make a change in house program,” Mr. Morris said. For instance, because of a large number of fourth and fifth form girls accepting offers of admis-sion this year, Atwater House is being switched to a fourth and fifth form girls’ dorm.

However, there was some debate behind switching Me-morial House back into the third and fifth form boys’ dorm that it had been three years ago. “A few years ago, we had really tried to make [Memori-al House] a consistent ninth-grade experience, but this year, the enrollment for ninth grade boys came in under,” Mr. Mor-ris said. Memorial House is not the only dorm to be switched into its previous model; At-water House, Lewis House, and Chapel House will all be returning to arrangements the dorms have seen before in pre-vious years.

The second major factor that resulted in changes to this year’s housing arrangements was the all-gender house pilot, which will be located in Edsall House. “We made the decision for a variety of different reasons to site that program in a house that had been a sixth form boys’ house,” Mr. Morris said. As a result, Quantrell House will turn into a sixth form boys’ dorm, and Chapel House, in exchange for the girls at Edsall

House, will also become a sixth form boys’ dorm.

“Our dorms are just barely big enough to meet the capac-ity campus-wide,” Mr. Morris continued. “So it’s not as if I can look at Atwater and say, ‘Well, Atwater’s got sixteen boys in, but I just need to put six boys in there, so I’m going to keep it as a sixth-form boys’ dorm and leave ten beds emp-ty.’ It’s really driven by our tight housing model and the reality that we need to really optimize usage and not leave beds empty.”

To further explain the over-all dorm house selection pro-cess on campus, Mr. Morris added, “Our boarding target was 638 students; the original model had 640 available beds on campus, so we had a two-bed cushion. At present, we’re over-enrolled by a bit, so we’ve had to figure out how we’re go-ing to configure things so that we can actually create a bit more space for students.”

With graduation only weeks away, sixth formers have begun to congregate at the Worthing-ton Johnson Athletic Center (WJAC) each Tuesday night. On the Tartan court, Ms. Amy Foster, Ms. Alex Long, Mr. Georges Chahwan, and oth-er faculty members have been helping sixth formers prepare

for the dance competition at Last Hurrah. The three-decade-long tradition of Senior Dance Lessons is not only a chance for the seniors to improve their dance skills, but also an ex-cellent time to reminisce with their classmates.

For many Choate sixth formers, one of the most an-ticipated events of their high school career is imminent. As senior spring comes to a close,

many students are preparing for the School’s annual sixth form formal: Last Hurrah. Last Hurrah first commenced on May 10, 1980 and has contin-ued to be a major Choate tradi-tion. The Senior Dance Lessons are a key stepping stone for sixth formers in their final days at the School.

“At Last Hurrah, they have a band that plays ’40s and ’50s mu-sic. So, we teach the sixth formers

three different styles of dances: the Fox Trot, the Waltz, and the Swing,” Ms. Foster said. “We had a great turnout. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from stu-dents who went and also faculty members who have spoken to the students.” Because Last Hurrah is more formal, it is recommended for students to learn how to prop-erly ballroom dance.

For Max Patel ’19, the dance lessons have been enjoyable

so far. He said, “Everybody is dancing with each other. It is a lot of fun, but it’s import-ant: otherwise, many seniors wouldn’t know how to [ball-room] dance. Other than that, it is a great time to bond with the senior class.”

The tradition of the Se-nior Dance Lessons at Choate began in the months lead-ing up to the Last Hurrah in 1981. These lessons are taught

on the indoor courts of the Worthington Johnson Athlet-ic Center to accommodate the large number of sixth formers who participate. Ms. Foster said, “I think it’s long lasting because it’s something new, it’s something fun, and it’s a time where you can bond with your classmates. Everybody can learn how to dance.”

VOL. CXII · NO. THECHOATENEWS.CHOATE.EDUFRIDAY, MAY ,

Choate Rosemary Hall333 Christian Street

Wallingford, CT

Visuals by Training Matters Magazine, The Washington

Post, Amitra Hoq, and Jessie Goodwin.

See DORM, Page 2 See BOARD, Page 2

See SENIORS, Page 2

Numerous sixth-form dates perfect their dance routines for the Last Hurrah on the Tartan Court of the Worthington Johnson Athletic Center. Photo by Pinn Chirathivat/The Choate News

By Claire Yuan ’21Copy Editor

By JeeHwan Kim ’21Copy Editor

By Praj Chirathivat ’22Reporter

Bombings in Sri LankaSabahat Rahman ’21 con-demns the Sri Lankan re-

sponse to recent bombings.Opinions N/W • P5

Values of a Good Leader Vincenzo DiNatale '19

provides advice for new leaders on campus.

Opinions Campus • P4

Spot the Tot!Get to know some of the

cutest faces around campus.Features • P6

A Need for SpeedDetermining the first boats for boys' and girls' crew is a

complicated process.Sports • P8

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Read it, then recycle it.

Last Hurrah Preparations Commence with Dance Lessons

DOR M DE SIGNAT IONS A DJ US T TO N E X T Y E A R' S E N ROLL M E N T

GEORGE F. COLON Y '72 TO HEAD BOARD OF TRUSTEES

BREAKFAST SERVED ALL DAY DELIVERY AVAILABLE

(203) 269-9507 WWW.COLONYDINER.COM

It was very important to me that we would

have someone that was supportive of the

direction the School is heading, the kind

of students we are trying to attract at

the School. Dr. Alex Curtis

Head of School

After five days of raising awareness for issues of social justice and encouraging uni-ty in the community, Choate’s first-ever Solidarity Week came to a close last Friday, May 3. Hosted by students who attended the BorderLinks trip, the week of events included several club-hosted discus-sions on the intersectionality of issues relating to the U.S. and Mexico border.

Over spring break, Ms. Melissa Koomson, Mr. Ben Small, Ms. Kolina Koleva, and ten students traveled to Tucson, Arizona and Mexico to a non-profit organization called BorderLinks. They vis-ited various sites, participated in a wide range of activities, engaged in numerous dis-cussions, talked with several speakers, and learned more about immigration and border patrol.

“The goal of the trip itself was to raise students’ aware-ness around the complex is-sues as they relate to the U.S. and Mexico border,” explained Ms. Koomson, who herself par-ticipated in the BorderLinks program for three years in high school. She continued, “Since [we’re] not right there, close geographically, to the site, it is hard to really get a sense of what the climate is like.” The

trip provided students with the opportunity to witness the is-sues of the region themselves.

Solidarity Week gained its inspiration from the trip itself, as a component of the Border-Links program’s expectations was that students would con-tinue their work in their own communities after returning from Arizona and Mexico.

The initial process of plan-ning the events involved for-mulating a general idea of what the students wanted the proj-ect to look like. To start their planning for the event, the stu-dents completed a simulation activity that mimicked the is-sue at the border. Throughout the trip, they discussed their initiatives and listed possible activities that might help raise awareness for the difficulties and problems surrounding the U.S.–Mexico border and trans-late what they learned in Ari-zona to Choate. They discussed different aspects of Solidarity Week and devised a plan be-fore returning to campus. The students’ overarching goal, trip participant Di’Anna Bonomolo ’20 said, was “to maintain sol-idarity within our community in times when there are oppos-ing views.”

“One of the biggest things that struck people while we were on the trip was the inter-sectionality of all the issues,” said Tyler Neri ’21, another participant in the BorderLinks

trip. Neri wanted to find a way to connect people with differ-ent interests to the larger top-ic of immigration and border security.

“I would like people to un-derstand that this is not just an issue for these politicians that are screaming about it on [the] news to get attention for their campaigns, but that it’s something that [is causing] real people to genuinely suf-fer,” Neri added.

Clubs with a focus on mi-nority groups and topics re-lated to diversity, such as the Hispanic Latinx Forum, Cho-ate Diversity Student Associ-ation, Muslim Student Asso-ciation, Choate Afro-Latino Student Alliance, and Asian Student Association, kicked off the week on Monday, April 29 by gathering together for a meeting on “Systems of Op-pression.”

On Tuesday, SPECTRUM hosted a meeting on “Abuse and Asylum,” which examined the issues that LGBTQ+ people face when seeking asylum or when in detention centers.

“We just had a very open and honest discussion about the various issues concerning immigration and the Mexico border,” Nico Campbell ’21, co-president of SPECTRUM, said. “It’s a difficult issue to discuss because nobody can really prove their sexual ori-entation or gender identity. It

is difficult to get asylum when you are in danger because of something you can’t prove.”

On Wednesday, Choate’s Environmental Action Coali-tion, Choate for Clean Water, and Student Advocates for the Environment hosted the “Bor-ders in Nature” meeting, which aimed to connect border issues to the environment. May Zhao ’21 and Victoria Esquibies ’20 delivered a presentation to help students understand the BorderLinks trip and the effect that border security initiatives have had on the ecosystems around it.

PJ Sethbhakdi ’20 said, “I was surprised to see how con-nected these issues can be. I think that this would be a great experience for not only those who are interested in the border but [also for] those who are interested in how it links to many of our modern global issues.”

On Thursday, Young Dem-ocrats and Young Republicans led a meeting aimed at learn-ing more about the migrant situation on the southern bor-der and the ways in which the situation can be improved for both the United States and the migrants coming in from Cen-tral and South America. Ty-ler McLemore ’22, a member of Young Democrats, said, “I think that in a world where we see so much polarizing rhet-oric coming from politicians

and people in power around the world, it is very important to realize our shared common-ality and focus on what unites us all.”

On Friday, Art Club hosted the “Art of Resistance” meet-ing, where students discussed the unexplored artistic as-pects of issues at the border. For instance, as Mr. Small explained, “On the Mexican side, the border is decorated with artwork, graffiti, flowers, and crosses dedicated to those who lost their lives. But on the United States side, it’s almost like a demilitarized zone.”

As Choate’s first-ever Sol-idarity Week came to a close, Bonomolo hoped that “Choate students will be able to under-stand what it means to live in a world where there are all sorts of unpleasant sights.” Border-Links elicited strong emotions from the students who went on the trip. “I care about peo-ple and want them to be able to live a life free of constant fear,” Bonomolo said.

Ms. Koomson’s greatest wish is for students to not only grasp complex border issues more firmly but also to better understand how each of them fits into a wider global land-scape beyond just their imme-diate community.

work well with Dr. Curtis and other members of Choate's ad-ministration.

Regarding other import-ant qualities of a Board Chair, Dr. Curtis said, “Experience in leadership is very import-ant. Mr. Colony is the C.E.O. of Forrester Research, so he’s run a significant firm. Also, there needs to be a willingness to give up time — it’s quite a time-intensive job.”

As Board Chair, Mr. Colo-ny will have several new roles and responsibilities. While the Head of School and administra-tion run Choate on a daily ba-sis, the Board is responsible for long-term, strategic planning.

The Chair makes certain that the Board stays on task, sets long-term goals for the School, and ensures Choate’s financial sustainability.

As Chair, Mr. Colony will work closely with Dr. Cur-tis to form a bridge between the Board and the School. Dr. Curtis said, “The Board is the ultimate oversight for the School, so, although they give me the responsibility of the day-to-day running of the School, they also have respon-sibility to make sure we’re do-ing it correctly."

Dr. Curtis added that the Chair “is my single most import-ant adviser. He is the person I am checking in with and discussing what we’re doing.”

Dr. Curtis provided input during the selection process for the next chair “It was very im-portant to me,” he said, “that we would have someone that was supportive of the direction the School is heading, the kind of stu-dents we are trying to attract at the School, the faculty and staff that we think can support those students best, [and] the kind of learning that we are doing.”

“Mr. Colony has been a very supportive and strong voice on the Board,” Dr. Curtis said. “He is passionate about the work we’re trying to do to make this school the best it can possibly be.”

As one of the organizers of the Senior Dance Lessons, Ms. Foster has been involved with this event for more than twen-ty years. “When we first start-ed teaching it, there was a very clear boy’s role and girl’s role,” she said. “Now, we don’t associ-ate gender with either of roles, whether you are learning to lead or whether you are learn-ing to be the partner.”

A great effort was made to ensure the lessons run smooth-ly. The faculty volunteers have the responsibility of teaching hundreds of sixth formers in the WJAC. “I think the biggest challenge is being able to get a large group of people to follow

our directions and teachings. We try to break it down and make it as simple as possible,” Ms. Foster said. On the other hand, unlike thirty years ago, speakers and microphones are used during the lessons, mak-ing instruction much easier.

“I felt so good after the dance lessons and my after-school practice. I am absolutely going to be the dancing king. Promise,” Patel said. During Last Hurrah, there is a dance contest in which students per-form their ballroom dance rou-tines on the dance floor. The winner of this competition is crowned the king or queen of Last Hurrah. Hoping to acquire the prestigious crown, many sixth formers are practicing

their dance moves during their free periods along with the time spent attending the lessons.

“Going to the dining hall for lunch, I saw many sixth formers practicing their ballroom dance moves near the benches outside of Steele Hall. It looks really fun, and I’m looking forward to the time when I finally reach senior spring,” Tigo Ponce de Leon ’22 said.

With less than a month until the seniors say their final good-byes, the playful tradition is a well-deserved opportunity for them to celebrate their journey at Choate.

Mr. Morris agreed that switching house arrangements can have a big impact on dorm culture: “We’re [certainly] going to have some new cultures es-tablished in dorms like Edsall, Quantrell, Atwater, and Chap-el, and that’s okay — that hap-pens. The culture changes every year because the lottery shuffles things up, so I think there will be some changes, but that’s a part of our annual cycle.”

Mr. LJ Spinnato, who has been advising in Quantrell for the past four years, said, “I think Quantrell is a smaller four-five dorm that could make a great little fraternity house of a sixth-form house. The one thing that’s different is that all senior hous-es are houses; Quantrell is so clearly built as a dorm. I always like knowing that if you look at buildings on campus — if it’s red brick, then it looks like a dorm. So this will buck the trend. But the reality is that housing needs to be flexible to adapt to enroll-ment. As long as you manage it correctly with students buying into being a part of a good dorm culture, we can be flexible.”

Mr. Carey Kopeikin, Head of Memorial House, said, “Every year

is going to be a different change in culture in a dorm like Memorial House, where you’ve got a major-ity of people who are new to the school. But I think, overall, it will be a positive thing, and I think that the third formers will get to see, ‘Oh wow, this is what junior spring looks like — we better get ready to

start working now, as opposed to senior spring.”

Despite the extra confusion that switched housing arrange-ments may have added to the housing lottery process this year, Mr. Morris said, “Our housing situations are all good places to live. They’re not all

the same, but we [have] found year over year [in] the annual surveys that we do and through talking with students, that stu-dents generally have positive dorm experiences, ranging be-tween very good and excellent. I would just remind students that as much as there is this

kind of uncertainty, that un-certainty is always part of the lottery process. In the end, stu-dents can expect to have a good experience, no matter where they end up.”

Over the last five weeks, the Student Council has passed three proposals and introduced another.

The Student Council unani-mously voted to pass two propos-als presented by Student Body President Vikram Sharma ’20. The first proposal implements new time limits on student coun-cil speeches; the second intro-duces a new process to break ties between two candidates.

Underclassmen Day Student Representative Zayd Gonzalez ’22 introduced a proposal, which passed with twelve votes in favor and one abstention, that aims to ease the inconvenience of group projects by allowing day students in third-form dorms during the first hour of study hours.

Director of Curricular Ini-tiatives and science teacher Mr. Deron Chang joined the Student Council several weeks ago to dis-cuss a proposal by Third-Form Class President Tigo Ponce de Leon ’22 to move conference block before first block on Wednesday.

“These two years have been a kind of pilot period for the new schedule, so there might be some drastic changes to the sched-ule next year,” Mr. Chang said, referring to the new academic week schedule that was imple-mented at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. Voting for Ponce de Leon’s proposal was postponed to allow time for fur-ther edits.

A proposal introduced last week by Student Body Vice Pres-ident Will Robertson ’20 seeks to provide more resources for stu-dents who return to school after a medical leave. Robertson pro-posed a mentorship program for medical-leave students returning to campus.

“The idea is that students who have been through med leave can act as mentors or guides to people who have just returned from med leave,” Robertson said. “It would be good for people to have some-one who has been on med leave for the same reason, whether for physical or mental wellness issues, who they can talk to and be supported by.”

Robertson also plans to in-troduce a proposal in the near future that he hopes will im-prove communication between students and the School during the process of going on a med-ical leave.

Robertson feels that the med-leave process at Cho-ate lacks transparency and, at worst, consent from students. He believes that the process can backfire, aggravating stu-dents’ mental health.

FRIDAY, MAY , PAGE 2 || THE CHOATE NEWS

Continued from Page 1Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

Memorial House is one of five different dorms that will switch their housing arrangements for the next year, affecting the prefect program. Photo courtesy of Meriden Record Journal

Nick Visuthikosol may be reached at

nvisuthikosol22@choate.edu

JeeHwan Kim may be reached at jkim21@choate.edu

SOLIDARITY WEEK SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON INTERSECTIONALITY

Tony Lee may be reached at tlee21@choate.edu

Claire Yuan may be reached at cyuan21@choate.edu

Praj Chirathivat may be reached at

pchirathivat22@choate.edu

By Tony Lee ’21Student Council Correspondent

DORM OVERHAUL TO SHIFT CAMPUS CULTURE

Seniors Dance Tuesdays AwayBoard of Trustees Elects New Chair

By Nick Visuthikosol ’22Reporter

FRIDAY, MAY , THE CHOATE NEWS || PAGE 3

Community Calendar

MAY 11, 9:45 a.m.

Saturday Mornings with PoetryShare self-written poems, discuss the works of poets, and develop poetry-writing skills with a local group that loves poetry.

Wallingford Public LibraryFree admission, no registration required

MAY 11, 10:00 a.m.Mother's Day Cake Decorating Workshop for ChildrenUse icing, sprinkles, candy, and decorations to build the perfect cake for Mom.

Lyman Orchards$20 admission, online registra-tion required, $13 car ride

MAY 12, 10:00 a.m.Mother's Day BrunchShow appreciation for Mom by treating her to brunch at Lyman Orchards.

Lyman Orchards$45 admission for adults, $20 for ages 7-12, $8 for ages 3-6, toddlers 2 and under eat free, call ahead to reserve limited seating, $15 car ride

MAY 12, 1:00 p.m.Stories and Art Family ProgramBring the family for an after-noon of folktales, myths, and exciting stories from cultures around the world.

Yale University Art GalleryFree admission, no registration required, $23 car ride

MAY 11, 9:30 a.m.Spring Bike Tune-UpLocal bike enthusiast Mr. Jared Liu demonstrates simple bike repairs.

Wallingford Public LibraryFree admission, no registration

On April 28, Autism Services & Resources Connecticut (ASRC) hosted its annual Walk for Au-tism at Choate, taking nearly 1,200 participants on a 2.5-mile walk around the Wallingford downtown area and through the Choate campus. A tradition that started more than a decade ago, the walk raised money for ASRC to help provide resources for those affected by autism spec-trum disorder (ASD).

Established in 1997, ASRC is a non-profit organization located in Wallingford dedicated to helping those living with ASD and their families in Connecticut. “We want to embrace the wonders of autism and help families help their chil-dren have every opportunity in life,” said Julie Hipp, Board Presi-dent of ASRC and Chairperson for the Walk for Autism event.

The organization offers a va-riety of workshops, events, and programs to promote involve-ment, advocate for better au-tism-related legislature, and help the ASD community improve skills such as developing inter-personal connections. “We touch over 20,000 families across the state,” said Ms. Hipp. Through-out the year, the organization holds other events, including the Annual Autism Resource Fair at the Oakdale Theater, the Autism Transition Forum co-hosted by Autism Speaks, and the Autism Puzzlethon.

The Walk for Autism is the largest annual fundraiser for ASRC. For this year’s walk, for-mal planning began during the fall when Choate Manager of Community Relations Brittany Barbaro worked closely with Julie Hipp and ASRC Executive Direc-tor Leslie Simoes to discuss basic logistics and finalize the contract. “[The walk] is always a major un-

dertaking, as it is our key fund-raiser each year,” noted Ms. Hipp.

Closer to the event, Choate coordinated with Community Safety and ABM Industries, the campus facilities management service, to mark the path of the walk. Additionally, the Walk for Autism is always followed by a festival on Wilkin Field, so chairs, tables, and electrical equipment needed to be available for use. A significant concern was the limited parking spaces that the Choate campus offers, especial-ly since more than a thousand participants showed up. Choate was able to use nearby parking lots temporarily.

This year’s walk was the first time in two years that the event was held at Choate, having moved to Lyman Hall High School be-cause of construction at Choate. “The visibility to the town is so much greater with the involve-ment with Choate. At LHHS, the walk was shorter and through wooded areas … just not as engag-ing with the community as it was this year again,” said Ms. Hipp.

Many Choate students volun-teered to help, earning a couple of community service hours. “I had a phenomenal time last year,” said Ula Lucas ’21. “All the teams are so inspiring, and the energy is so positive and upbeat.”

Around 7:00 a.m., ASRC members and Choate student volunteers began setting up, organizing and arranging the vendor booths for the festival. The mid-morning rain showers resulted in lower attendance rates than in previous years, but the walk was able to start smoothly on time at 10:30 a.m. “Although it was wet and muddy, the organizers were in high spirits and everyone was having a good time,” said Will Flamm ’21. “It was a great way to start the morning by helping out the community.”

Many walkers showed up in colorful and creative costumes, a tradition for the event. “Some of our folks on the spectrum have special interests that we want to embrace and help them share what they love,” Ms. Hipp explained. Costume prizes were given for Best Team Spirit, Best Decked-Out Dog, Best Wagon, and Best Artwork for the T-Shirt Design.

Volunteers were set up around the town to act as “cheer ambassa-dors,” cheering on the teams and keeping up the overall energy of the event. “The atmosphere was filled with love and encouragement,” said Linda Phan ’22. “Every time I cheered on a group, I would receive back cheers that were double, even quadruple the volume.”

Wallingford locals also added fun elements through activities during the walk. The Wallingford Fire Station set out a bubble wrap walk, and a juggler performed for passersby at the YMCA.

By 12:30 p.m., most of the group had returned to campus and were enjoying the festival. In the festival, booths were set up for both ASD organizations and local businesses that employ adults on the autism spectrum. Food trucks provided a variety of food, and a sensory obstacle course offered a popular attraction for the young-er participants.

Overall, the event was a huge success, with an estimated $100,000 raised through sponsors and team donations.

Ms. Hipp said, “The extra funds will help us to continue to develop resources — recreation, training, employment assistance, transition support, understanding the edu-cation system and how to advocate for your child, especially with add-ing services that include helping families with navigating social se-curity benefits and adult benefits.”

Choate Hosts Walk for Autism

By Amanda Li ’21Reporter

Amanda Li may be reached at ali21@choate.edu

Bring on the Vendors, Hold the Gluten

On April 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., more than 3,000 people gathered at the Oakdale Theatre for the second annu-al Gluten-Free Expo hosted by Gluten-Free New England, an organization founded by Abby Helman Kelly to con-nect gluten-free customers and gluten-free businesses. The event brought together 78 al-lergy-friendly vendors and four food trucks for a day of semi-nars, food samples, and infor-mative talks.

Most vendors provided sam-ples to attendees from their booths inside the theater, while food trucks showcased their products outside. The vendors at the event offered samples of products that were free of gluten or other common food allergens, such as shellfish and dairy. Mrs. Abby Helman Kelly and her husband Mr. Tom Kelly were the main organizers behind the exhibition. Mrs. Kelly said, “Our main goal of today was to bring local and national brands to-gether so people can sample and discover new products and have a day for themselves.”

Vendors presented a vari-ety of products. Some vendors showcased drinks, fitness pro-grams, and food samples. One organization advertised a chil-dren's summer camp with a gluten-free designated kitchen. Two seminars on gluten-free lifestyles were held. One talk focused on how to heal the gut from gluten sensitivity, while another talk demonstrated how to create gluten-free Play-Doh. The food trucks outside offered a fresh variety of gluten-free food and drinks.

Attending the expo were two “gold” vendors, the largest and most well-known vendors. One was Enjoy Life Foods, an allergy-friendly food company based in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The company sells gluten-free products to retail stores such as CVS, Stop & Shop, and Walmart. All of its products are also free from tree nuts and peanuts. Ms. Dawn Niderno, head of the booth for Enjoy Life

Foods, said, “We’re trying to reach out to our community of consumers who have a sensitiv-ity or allergies. So many people have problems with food sen-sitivity, and we want to make sure everyone has a chance to be familiar with our brand and have access to quality food, re-gardless of limitations. Almost anyone who comes to us has a food allergy or is gluten-free.”

Planning the gluten free expo was no small task. “The entire process was very te-dious. I’m a big detail person — there are just a bunch of details and time. It’s not hard necessarily; there’s just a lot of time and effort that goes into the event,” Mrs. Kelly said. Each of the 78 vendors and 4 food trucks had to arrive at least an hour before the start of the event in order to prepare their booths accordingly.

Ms. Niderno said, “It’s a very long process. We have to order products and everything else we need to set up a booth. We also work with a market-ing team to plan for how many samplings we need. We find out how many consumers [will attend the event] and base it off that. Once we get here in the morning and get the booth number, the products are shipped in on palates.”

Mrs. Kelly began her glu-ten-free endeavors in 2016 when she founded the Glu-ten-Free Connecticut orga-nization. She organized her gluten-free events at a smaller venue in Bristol before mov-ing to the Oakdale Theatre in 2017. In 2018, she decided to expand to the rest of New En-gland and rename her organiza-tion Gluten-Free New England. Mrs. Kelly founded her orga-nization to support everyone who is gluten-free or has some form of sensitivity to food. “We want our community to know that Gluten-Free New England is committed,” she said. “We don’t do it for the money. We live here, and we are doing it for the community. It’s what I like to provide to the world.”

By Peter DiNatale ’21Copy Editor

Peter DiNatale may be reached at pdinatale21@choate.edu

Students from West Hartford's Bristow Middle School participated in ASRC's annual Walk for Autism.Photo courtesy of West Hartford News

Seventy-eight vendors attended the New England Gluten-Free Expo.Photo by Peter DiNatale/The Choate News

Located off Route 5 in Wall-ingford, Ola Restaurant has been serving its modern fusion of traditional Latino dishes for the past four years. The fami-ly-style restaurant provides a unique atmosphere inspired by the cultures of Central America and the Caribbean, which draws customers back again and again. With the aroma of fresh paella and soft Spanish music playing in the background, each cus-

tomer is likely to be transport-ed to Antigua, Guatemala, the small city whose environment Mr. Melvin Lopez and his broth-er, Mr. Wagner Lopez, owners of Ola, aimed to recreate through their restaurant.

The two brothers have opened three family-run Ola restaurants since 2006. After Mr. Wagner Lopez had some success working in the restau-rant business in Connecticut, he wanted his brother and his brother’s wife, Mrs. Cherry Navas, who were living in Gua-

temala, to come to Connecticut to help him bring their home culture and food to the first Ola restaurant, which they estab-lished in Orange, CT in 2006. The family soon branched out to Bridgeport before selling the Bridgeport location and moving to Wallingford in 2015.

Ola may seem like it is miss-ing an “H” at the beginning, and, to be sure, the owners love to say hello. But, as Ms. Navas explained, “Ola means the wave of the ocean, as the menu was mainly seafood at the beginning of the restaurant, and we want-ed to showcase the emphasis on the ocean.” Over time, Ola’s cuisine has evolved to include a variety of different styles. Ac-cording to Ms. Navas, “Our food is from nowhere specific but a fusion of many cultures under Nuevo Latino cuisine.”

Ms. Navas helps the family business by working many dif-ferent roles, from cooking in the kitchen to greeting at the front door. She loves being able to share a taste of her home to the people of Connecticut. In particular, she enjoys serving Ola Restaurant’s unique branzino dish. “We at Ola have a special way of preparing the fish,” she said. “The whole

fish, head and tail, is served with a salad of sweet mango, goat cheese, field green, sweet plantain crou-tons, and cucum-

ber finished off with a mango na-val orange vinaigrette.”

Ms. Navas cherished the op-portunity to connect with cus-tomers through Ola’s food. The restaurant business is quite de-manding with long hours, but ev-ery moment seems to fulfill her.

Ola is best known for its fresh seafood and chorizo pael-

la. The dish is a visual master-piece — two crescent-shaped red tortilla chips placed on the sides of a bountiful bowl of paella that consists of shrimp, mussels, clams, and fish cov-ered in an exquisite sauce with Spanish-style rice and corn. It is a large dish that provides plenty of delicious leftovers for the next couple of days.

Along with their robust appetiz-er and entree menu, the restaurant also offers a number of desserts. “The Exotic Bamba,” for instance, is a mango, passionfruit, and rasp-berry sorbet covered in chocolate — perfect on a warm summer night on Ola’s lantern-lit back porch.

Ola Restaurant 728 N Colony Rd.

Open daily for lunch and dinner

By Bella Capuano ’21Columnist

Bella Capuano may be reached at bcapuano21@choate.edu

Ola serves many seafood dishes, including its signature branzino.Photo by Bella Capuano/The Choate News

MAY 11, 8:00 p.m.

The Phantom of the OperaExperience an updated pro-duction of the classic musical.

Oakdale Theatre$52-$153 admission, online registration required, $9 car ride

FRIDAY, MAY , PAGE 4 || THE CHOATE NEWS

TH MASTHEAD

Grace Y. Zhang ’20 Editor-in-Chief

The ChoaTe NewsVOL. CXIINO. XVII

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By Rachel Pittman ’22Copy Editor

My mom’s eyes reignite with youthful joy each time she pulls out the

scrapbook which tells the stories of her glory days as the running back for the Sheehan High pow-der puff football team. “My name was in the paper as a part of Shee-han’s triple threat. On game day I had an 88-yard run,” she likes to remind me, a smile stretched across her face.

Naturally, I grew up viewing powder puff as a great opportuni-ty for girls to get dirty and prove their physical strength. Over the past couple of weeks, each class of Choate girls has been prepar-ing for the opportunity to crush an opponent on the powder puff field. However, the preparations have triggered an unanticipated controversy on campus: is powder puff empowering for young wom-en, or does it succumb to negative female stereotypes?

Here’s how powder puff began: In 1945, Eastern State Teachers College, in Madison, South Dako-ta, lost many of its male students to World War II. As homecoming came around that year, the school decided to cancel homecoming sporting events because there were not enough men to fill the sports teams. The female students stepped up, deciding to play a game of football themselves.

Unsurprisingly, the idea wasn’t well received. Although the girls were allowed to play, the game proved to be a spectacle — the young women cluelessly ran around the field as their classmates laughed on the sidelines. Instead of a traditional halftime perfor-mance, the girls ran onto the field and applied a fresh face of makeup in front of the crowd. This is the origin of the name “powder puff,” which, of course, stereotypes wom-en as delicate things, and empha-sizes the pressure many of them feel to appeal to men.

However, the application of makeup during halftime, though criticized, also celebrated the fact

that a woman can wear makeup or a pretty dress and still be a strong competitor on the field. As my mom taught me, powder puff is a display of pure female athleticism.

Most of the criticism of pow-der puff that I’ve heard around campus argue that girls will be made fun of for not knowing what they’re doing on the field or for “throwing like a girl.” But who says that Choate girls won’t know what they’re doing? Why isn't “throwing like a girl” some-thing to celebrate? Choate’s women’s athletic teams have historically been as much a con-tributor to the School’s athletic successes as the men’s teams,

and they can certainly hold their own on the gridiron.

This year, as Choate’s young women throw that pass, make that grab, and go for that 88-yard run, the players and spec-tators alike would do well to re-member the women who came before them — the ones who fought past makeup at halftime to deliver the beautiful display of athleticism in which our young women still participate in today.

Rachel Pittman is a third former from Cheshire, CT.

She may be reached at rpittman22@choate.edu

Choate is once again amid the frenzy of Advanced Placement (AP) tests.

The exams began this week, and continue into the next. I’ve been wondering a lot lately if Choate made the correct decision in getting rid of AP classes. The School hasn’t officially taught an AP course since fall of 2017.

Because the Choate curricu-lum does not always align with the AP curriculum, students are forced to study for AP tests on their own. For me, this meant buy-ing a test prep book and reviewing a term’s worth of material — all of which has added up to dozens of additional hours of studying. But is that extra work really a prob-lem? I don’t think so. The benefits of not having AP classes largely outweigh the costs.

If the end goal of Choate’s cur-riculum was to help students get a good score on as many AP tests as possible, then maintaining the AP curriculum would obviously have been the wiser choice. I be-lieve, however, that high scores on standardized tests shouldn’t be the goal of a good education.

By getting rid of the AP cur-riculum, the School has freed teachers from the restrictions that result from strictly adhering to a standardized curriculum. Teach-ers can choose to teach close to the AP curriculum or create their own lesson plans. Without the weight of the AP curriculum, they possess the power to do what they believe is best for their students, instead of simply preparing them for a test.

The main problem that aris-es here is that many students still wish to take AP tests, as the as-sessments remain an integral part of the college-admissions process. Although I dislike the idea of sim-ply doing something for the sake of getting into college, AP tests are important because they not only allow colleges to compare students from different systems of education, but also give students an opportunity to earn college credits before getting to college. Standardized testing — including not just the AP exams but also

the ACT and SAT — make up an important part of the college-ad-missions process, giving students an opportunity to prove their ac-ademic abilities on a nationally standardized scale.

But that in itself doesn’t give us reason to stick to an AP curricu-lum. Students can achieve high AP scores without necessarily being in AP-designated courses. There are a few ways to ensure this.

All classes that are equivalent to previous AP classes, or those that have a high number of stu-dents who will take an AP test in that subject, should at least offer some form of test prep. I know this is the case for Macro- and Mi-croeconomics, in which students are typically given some practice problems structured similarly to those on the AP test. Teachers should also offer extra help ses-sions that focus specifically on preparing students for AP tests.

While this may seem like ex-tra work for both teachers and students, almost every former AP class is teaching material that is similar to what it taught before AP designation was removed. It’s not as though classes without the AP designation are teaching com-pletely different subjects.

During the past few weeks, as I prepared for the Macroeconomics AP exam, I recognized most of the content in the test prep book. Fur-thermore, I think the Macroeco-nomics class at Choate gave me an even more in-depth understanding of the material — an understanding of a subject that I can apply outside of a standardized test.

Ultimately, the School's choice to get rid of the AP curriculum was a good one. If the only goal of a good education is for students to score well on AP tests, then Cho-ate will be unable to differentiate itself from other schools. It’s the depth and breadth of our educa-tion that matters.

Without a forced AP curricu-lum, Choate’s classes can provide both valuable knowledge and the tools to score well on the standard-ized test. It’s a win-win.

Let the Curriculum Be: We Don't Need AP Classes

By Calvin Walker ’21Opinions Staff Writer

Turn Powder Puff Into Power Puff

As my Choate career nears its end, I am grateful to have played

an active role in the commu-nity. Through my roles as a prefect, Managing Editor of The Choate News, and Chair of the Committee on Student Activities (COSA), I’ve come to understand the importance of effective leadership, especially at a school filled with talented and diverse individuals. In one way or another, every Choate student is a leader. Whether you’re the Chair of the Judicial Committee or simply an up-perclassman who underform-ers look up to, it’s important to understand what it means to be a role model and a mentor.

Listen.Everyone wants to be heard.

You might find yourself hav-ing a casual conversation with your prefectees or planning a club event. In any case, as a leader, it’s your job to ensure that everyone has the chance to speak up and feel valued. It might be tempting to assume that your opinion is better than others, or, worse, to impose your beliefs upon others. Keep in mind, though, that everyone deserves to express his or her ideas. Initially, you may not agree with other people. But just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean that your views take precedence over others. Be willing to make compromis-

es and approach every conver-sation with an open mind.

Being a good listener also means being reliable and trust-worthy. As a leader, you’ll likely be approached at some point by someone struggling with a some kind of dilemma. Your first response might be to share a similar experience of your own or to talk about what you would do in his or her situation. But as much as you might feel like you’re helping that individual, your actions could be doing the opposite. That person just might want to feel like he or she share some-thing personal. It is your job to listen and to hold in confi-dence what’s shared.

Communicate.As much as leadership is

about fulfilling your own re-sponsibilities, more often than not, you will be working along-side other people. It’s easy to forget to keep everyone in the loop, but without proper com-munication, a group can nev-er succeed. Maybe a faculty member replied to your e-mail about planning a club event, or maybe you made progress on a Student Council proposal. Whatever it is, sending a mes-sage to a group chat or writing a brief e-mail to your collabo-rators ensures that everyone stays informed.

Additionally, good com-munication means sharing in-formation in a timely fashion. When you’re delegating tasks or calling a meeting, do so with

advance notice. Waiting until the last minute can precipitate frustration and stress. Oth-ers are counting on you to be mindful of their time.

Stay organized.It’s inevitable that you will

be balancing your leadership positions with coursework, col-lege applications, and other ex-tracurriculars. It might be hard to believe, but it is possible to be both a successful leader and a busy person. To do so, you’ll have to manage your time well. Plan ahead. Know-ing how much work you need to get done and when you need to get it done will set you up for success. Procrastination and bad organization habits don’t set you up for good leadership. Keep in mind that your work as a leader differs from your work in a class or personal endeav-or. What you do directly affects others working alongside you and, more important, the Cho-ate community at large.

Be mindful.Ideally, everyone working

alongside you will contribute ful-ly to the tasks at hand. But — es-pecially at a school like Choate — your peers might have sever-al other commitments to worry about, which you may or may not be aware of. If someone is late to a meeting or has forgotten to do something, know that he or she could have other things going on. If poor behavior starts to repeat it-self, you might need to intervene. You should discourage laziness, but don’t sweat minor mistakes.

Know you’re held to higher expectations.

Members of the community will look up to you. You’re still a teenager, but being a leader means being mature and re-sponsible. Do your best to make good choices. Although we’re all only human, it’s nonetheless disheartening to discover that someone you respect and ad-mire made a bad decision.

Don’t be afraid to fail.As cliché as it may sound,

failure is inevitable. Though your role as a leader will be clearly defined in many cases, take some risks, and try some-thing new. You could start a new initiative or try out a lead-ership style different from your predecessor’s. If you fail, learn from your mistakes and be open to criticism. The most effective leaders are never the ones who wallow in their comfort zones.

Remember your own needs.

There’s no harm in making time for yourself — in fact, it’s important you do so! If you ever feel overwhelmed, don’t hesi-tate to take a break. Postponing something to spend time with your friends or to get some ex-tra sleep will never spell the end of the world. In truth, taking regular breaks ultimately leads to greater productivity. Science has proved it!

By Vincenzo DiNatale ’19Managing Editor, 112th Masthead

Graphic by Chandler Littleford/The Choate News

WA N T TO BE A N EF F EC T I V E LE A DER ? H ER E A R E M Y T I P S

Vincenzo DiNatale is a sixth former from Wallingford.

He may be reached at vdinatale19@choate.edu

Calvin Walker is a fourth former from Rhinebeck, NY. He may be

reached at cwalker21@choate.edu

"The Choate Vote." Responses collected via Instagram. Vote at @choatenews.

CORRECTIONSSchool NewsA School News article last week incorrectly stated that First and Last Hurrah were invented by Mr. Jim Yanelli. The first First Hur-rah was held on January 30, 1982; the first Last Hurrah was held on May 10, 1980. Both were initiated by a committee of parents before Mr. Yanelli arrived at Choate in 1983.

The Choate News regrets this error.To submit a correction, email thechoatenews@choate.edu

Easter Sunday — a day that should have been filled with hap-piness and celebration — was instead marked by bloodshed and terror in Sri Lanka. Across three churches and three up-scale hotels, suicide bombings took the lives of over 300 people and wounded around 500 more. Two days after the attacks, ISIL claimed responsibility, calling Easter an “infidel holiday” and publishing a video of the eight suicide bombers pledging their allegiance to the leader of ISIL.

Following the attacks, the Sri Lankan government immediately set a curfew in place. Social media sites like Facebook and WhatsApp were blocked in order to prevent the spread of rumors. The day after, on April 22, President Mai-thripala Sirisena declared a state of emergency and vowed to search every single house in the nation in order “to ensure no unknown per-sons could live anywhere.” More recently, a ban was declared on face-covering veils, a garment that holds religious significance for many Muslim women.

But this outer facade of bold and substantive action only serves to cover up the ridiculous mistakes the Sri Lankan government has made. Months before the attacks, the Sri Lankan government received detailed intelligence

on possible church shootings. This included knowledge that extremist groups were stock-piling weapons and plotting church attacks. One of the sui-cide bombers had even been arrested a few months prior to the bombings for vandalizing a Buddha statue. The Sri Lank-an government had substan-tial evidence that some attack would possibly occur but did nothing in response.

Political discord between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wick-remesinghe has made matters only worse. Both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe denied knowing about the security threats. Al-though the truth is unclear, there is no doubt that the Sri Lankan government’s political divisions and incompetency allowed for se-rious security threats to go prac-tically unnoticed. Upul Thusha-ra, a citizen of Sri Lanka, shared with The New York Times, “I was shocked at how they behaved in the Parliament the other day, shouting at each other and hoot-ing when the whole country is like a funeral. Even when 300 people die they can’t stop fighting.”

The nature of the Sri Lankan government’s response to these bombings is also an issue. While they have implemented responses to the problem at hand, they have not, by any means, implemented the right ones. The ISIL is a terrorist group, aiming above all else to incite

terror and fear in the communities they attack. Citizens in Sri Lanka have been horrified and shocked by the events on Easter Sunday. Chris-tians have avoided going to church since, fearful that they may be the victims of another bombing. Mus-lim families have fled their neigh-borhoods, worried that they will be the targets of hate and resentment. But by enforcing a curfew, blocking social media sites, and forbidding face veils, the Sri Lankan govern-ment has done little to alleviate the fear plaguing its nation.

Sirisena and Wickremesing-he, along with their parties and ministers, have shown Sri Lanka and the world that they are fearful men and fearful leaders. Instead, these leaders must show courage and bravery in order to bolster the nation and counteract the extrem-ist bombers. Rather than send-ing officials and troops to search people’s homes, the government should send troops to protect and defend churches and mosques. Rather than blocking social media sites, the government should start an online campaign against hate in the nation. The Sri Lankan gov-ernment has been given a chance to display its strength and vigor in a time of turmoil. I, along with millions around the globe, hope they will take it.

Mozambique Cyclones Expose American ExceptionalismOn April 21, Cyclone Ken-

neth, the largest in Mozam-bique’s history, hit the country, leaving entire towns decimat-ed. Yet this is only the latest in recent Mozambican news. In March, Cyclone Idai, one of the worst tropical cyclones ever re-corded in the Southern Hemi-sphere, struck the country. Mozambique is still struggling to recover, with thousands of displaced persons and new outbreaks of cholera every day from a dire lack of clean drink-ing water.

As horrific as these events are, I saw only one head-line that mentioned these cyclones. Around campus, I hear students discussing oth-er global events, but nothing about Mozambique. This is a problem that often arises with news stories originating in non-western countries, es-pecially African ones; we’re so focused on our Eurocentric sphere that Africa rarely en-ters the discussion.

Why is this the case? The an-swer is simple: because of west-ern-centric viewpoints fed by racism. Eurocentrism has been a rampant issue for centuries, but rarely do we discuss the specific ramifications this has for African countries. Although it is undeniable that they face large-scale racism, countries

such as Brazil, China, and In-dia have long been regarded as worthy trade partners, or even opponents. But most news re-ports fail to discuss the econo-my of Botswana or the military prowess of Egypt; they barely take the time to note the differ-ence between African countries, each of which contains many

distinct languages, cultures, and ethnic groups. When many picture African countries, they don’t picture the ultra-modern skyscrapers of Nairobi or the Inga Falls of the Congo; many see a barren desert and poor black people living in mud huts.

In the case of a natural di-saster, this ignorance takes on

additional meaning. The in-crease in the number and se-verity of natural disasters is di-rectly linked to climate change, and as much as blogs love to suggest going vegan and taking shorter showers, implying the blame lies with individual ac-tion — according to The Guard-ian, almost a third of carbon

emissions are from a single group of one hundred compa-nies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron. Most of these companies are Ameri-can-owned, American-staffed, or American-backed. When a country is slammed back-to-back with some of the worst cy-clones on record, people tend

to ask questions. Is this nor-mal? If not, what is the cause? The answers lead directly to the issue of climate change, to which these 100 companies have contributed to. It’s easier and better for business for no one to report on these events at all, especially considering that developing countries like Mozambique are dispropor-tionately affected by climate change as compared to West-ern nations.

Most of the Eurocentric rationale stems from the idea that Western countries are bet-ter, yet the U.S. became eco-nomically powerful, in part, by stealing resources to ensure it would emerge as a global pow-er. America-centric views are hypocritical; they aren’t truly about “protecting” America, but about upholding the power and influence of white supremacy.

The amount of news cov-erage a situation receives may not seem important, but in re-ality, the media helps shape the minds of past, present, and fu-ture generations. It’s essential that we teach ourselves about the world, not just America. The cyclones in Mozambique serve as a shocking reminder about how biased our coverage has become, feeding into our prejudiced global perspective.

On April 1, President Donald Trump publicly stated on Twit-ter that a United States Census without a citizenship question would be “a waste,” questioning the judgment of the Democratic Party’s stance.

If passed by the Supreme Court, the citizenship question would be the first of its kind since 1950 — when the Census was still done by enumerators that went from household to household. This question plans to ask census-tak-ers whether or not they are citizens of the U.S. However, the Trump administration finds itself in a deadlock with many cities, states, and immigrant rights groups that question the constitutionality of the citizenship question. By June, the Supreme Court is set to make its decision about the 2020 Census.

While many conservatives seem to be in firm approval of the citizenship question, the question could have extreme political ramifi-cations. Like it or not, it is no longer 1950 — times have changed, and the population makeup of the Unit-ed States is vastly different from what it once was 70 years ago. Ac-

cording to Pew Research Center, as of 2017, around eleven million un-documented immigrants now call the U.S. home. Not acknowledging this figure can damage both the integrity and the constitutionality of the Census. Immigrant commu-nities, especially households with non-citizens, will be less willing to participate in a census with the question, which will undoubtedly cause undercounting. This is a cru-cial problem, as the Census is vital to the political landscape of the U.S. Population counts from the Census are used to determine the number of congressional seats and Elec-toral college votes a state receives. They also serve as a guide to the distribution of federal tax dollars to states and local communities for public services. As a result of un-dercounting, federal funding and the political landscape would be altered dramatically.

While the Census Bureau has stated that it is legally bound by the “72-year Rule” from disclos-ing the identities of those that participated in the Census un-til 72 years later, it is clear that many undocumented immi-grants will avoid participation in the Census due to the citizenship question. During a test run of cit-

izenship questions from Febru-ary through September of 2017, survey-takers reportedly gave er-roneous or incomplete informa-tion and were visibly distraught. In one census taker’s account, when the citizenship question was asked, one man got up and left her alone in his apartment.

In 1980, the Census Bureau’s official stance on citizenship ques-tions was that such questions were touchy in immigrant com-munities and could stifle census participation. Why add such a question now? The number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has increased since 1980. Cal-ifornia has already sued Trump over the citizenship question on the 2020 Census, and New York’s state general attorney has also vo-calized plans about a multi-state lawsuit. States with large popu-lations of undocumented immi-grants will be extremely at risk if the question is allowed to be on the Census, which is why many are now retaliating against the Trump administration. The cornerstone of California’s lawsuit was that the question would cause inaccurate population counts and thus would violate the constitutional purpose of the Census. Furthermore, be-cause of undocumented immi-grants’ probable avoidance of the population count in the Census, health and social science research would be compromised.

The citizenship question is outdated. There is a reason it was removed from the Census after 1950. It is an inefficient use of resources; the Census Bureau al-ready collects data about citizen-ship through the American Com-munity Survey. This question, if included, would jeopardize the purpose of the Census, and would cause many states to lose millions of dollars in federal funding and political power. As Judge Richard Seeborg wrote after he ruled that the question was pointless and arbitrary, “The inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census threatens the very foun-dation of our democratic system — and does so based on a self-de-feating rationale.”

FRIDAY, MAY , THE CHOATE NEWS || PAGE 5

As of 2017, there are 10.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Graphic by Chandler Littleford/The Choate News

Cyclone Idai, deemed by the UN as "one of the deadliest storms on record in the southern hemisphere," claimed more than 1,000 lives.Photo courtesy of National Institute of Disaster Management, Mozambique

St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, was one building targeted in an attack that killed nearly 300 people.Photo courtesy of The New Yorker

India Lacey is a fourth former from Washington, D.C. She may be reached at ilacey21@choate.edu

Harry Chen is a third former from Beijing. He may be reached

at hchen22@choate.edu

Sabahat Rahman is a fourth former from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She may be reached at srahman21@choate.edu

By Harry Chen ’22Opinions Writer

By Sabahat Rahman ’21Opinions Writer

By India Lacey ’21Opinions Staff Writer

SR I LANK AN GOV ER NMENT FAILS TO A DDR ESS TERROR IST AT TACK

Don't Ask a Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census

Choate students can al-ways count on SAGE Dining Services to provide them with plenty of meal options to make for a good breakfast, lunch, or dinner. However, some days, students may want to venture beyond the grill. For such days, students have gotten creative and have begun making their own dining hall hacks.

Utilizing the panini press, Anna Bonnem ’21 has found that you can make a grilled cheese sandwich using plain white bread and American cheese. By melting some butter on the top slice of bread, it is almost comparable to a gour-met sandwich. If you want to get even fancier, try adding some bacon from the salad bar or slices of tomato. Charlotte Raine ’21 agreed that the pani-ni grill is a good option and said, “If you use the sandwich wrap tortillas with cheese and put it in the panini press, you can make a quesadilla.”

If students aren’t feeling what the dining hall is offering for lunch or dinner, many stu-dents will turn to the rice from the international section. I’ve seen multiple people get a bowl of rice and put soy sauce on it. Some take it a step further and add some protein like chicken from the salad bar.

As for dessert, placing a brownie in a bowl and eating it with the vanilla soft serve ice cream, as Camille Grant ’21 explained, is always a popu-lar hack. Sarina Kapoor ’21 reached a pinnacle of inno-vation last spring when she began eating her vanilla soft serve with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal as a topping. When SAGE has an ice cream day, another dessert hack is putting toppings such as Ore-os at the bottom of a cone, and

then putting the ice cream on top. Personally, one of my fa-vorite things to do is put va-nilla soft-serve in between two chocolate chip cookies.

On another note, students have also found different ways to clear their utensils and plates. Abby Lu ’22 said, “It’s easier to carry your plate and drink if you carry your utensils in your pockets.” Claire Yuan ’21 noted that it is efficient to use the red cereal bowls for pasta. And if you want a big ice cream sundae, make sure to use the cereal bowls!

It also seems as though stu-dents have truly been creative when making different drinks. A concoction Peter DiNatale ’21 enjoys is an apple juice and lemonade mix, while Grant prefers to mix apple juice and cranberry juice to make a “cra-bapple” juice. Some students also choose to mix the blue or yellow Powerade with pink lemonade, making for a beauti-ful and delicious masterpiece. Lucy McGrath ’21 explains that if you mix any juice with soda water, you can make your own version of soda.

Students have also gotten especially innovative when it comes to getting their caffeine. Making your own iced coffee is a very popular hack. Some-times the coffee in the dining hall is awfully watery, but by simply adding ice cubes and a drizzle of honey, it gets ten times better!

Students get very creative in the dining hall. With repeated meals and Meatless Monday, sometimes you have to use your resources and try something new. By being a little creative and trying different combina-tions of food available in the dining hall, you might just find your new favorite meal!

This week, I had the oppor-tunity to sit down with Mr. Filipe Camarotti, a physics teacher and volleyball coach. Mr. Camarotti is an adviser in Archbold, and he is finishing up his second year as a faculty member here at Choate. He shared what his experience here has been like and some interesting facts about himself. Where are you from?Recife, Brazil. How did you end up working

at Choate?I worked at another boarding

school before — St. George’s School in Rhode Island.

What is your favorite thing

about living in a dorm?Having relaxed conversations. What is your favorite thing

about teaching physics?Sound! What is the last book you

read?The Undoing Project by Mi-

chael Lewis. What is the best purchase

you have ever made?Oh! Pants from Uniqlo. They

are like $4.

If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go?

Greece.

What is your favorite sport to watch?

Soccer.

What is one thing you wish people knew about you?

I need a lot of alone time. What was your first job?I worked for an audio company

wrapping up cables and set-ting up concerts.

What are your favorite movies?

Anchorman and Forrest Gump.

If you taught in the Human-ities Department, what would you teach?

Some sort of reflective writing class.

What is one talent you wish you had?

Backflips. What is the best gift you

have ever received?Cards written from my mom. What is your favorite song?“Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. What is the scariest thing

you have ever done?Living alone. If you could meet anyone,

dead or alive, who would it be?

Ellie Goulding.

FRIDAY, MAY , PAGE || THE CHOATE NEWS

One of many symbols around campus that students in Mr. Joe Lampe's American literature course must find for a scavenger hunt.Photo by Victoria Esquibies/The Choate News

Alondra Peza may be reached at apezacamarena21@choate.edu

By Alondra Peza ’21Reporter

By Katherine Lima ’20Reporter

THE SECRET BEHIND THE SYMBOLS

R O C K A B Y E B A B I E S U P O N T H E H I L L S I D E !

Dining Hall Hack s:Sage Advice

for S AGE Food

English teacher Mr. Joe Lampe has strayed from having his stu-dents use traditional methods of literature analysis such as class discussions, thesis-centred essays, or tests. As his junior English class is reading The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, Mr. Lampe has decided to go for something a little more exciting: a scavenger hunt.

The Crying of Lot 49 centers on a woman named Oedipa Maas, a bored housewife from Califor-nia mysteriously named the ex-ecutor of her ex-boyfriend’s will. He was a fabulously rich real es-tate mogul, and as she looks into his affairs, she uncovers a hidden society called the Tristero. As she goes about her everyday life, she starts seeing signs connected with the Tristero. At first, she rec-ognizes the graffiti on the walls of a bathroom and then watches a play written in the 1600s that ref-erences the society. This pattern continues until she sees the signs everywhere, and that is where Mr. Lampe’s idea began.

Mr. Lampe got an iPad grant to develop this unit. He said, “I designed it as a game that [the students] would play where they could earn points to advance through the game, and it involves augmented reality.”

It all began with an encoded email. Mr. Lampe explained that students “had to break the code, which said, ‘There’s a secret group that has hacked the gradebook and if you figure this out, you can get an A.’ The premise was that there’s a secret organisation, the Tristero — ‘We’re here at Choate; we want you, but you have to prove yourself.’”

The game develops from there with a combination of the encoded emails and another technological source. Utilizing an app called HP Reveal, students are able to look at photos hidden around campus through their phone cameras and watch them transform into video clues. Mr. Lampe described an ex-ample of one of the clues: “A little video plays that says: find five quo-tations in the text that are relevant to a theme, and that's worth this many points.”

The scavenger hunt is divided into three levels, which Mr. Lampe compares to the steps of writing an essay. “It was designed as a way to scaffold out the writing process. The first level is all about the pre-writing skills that you would need to start the process of thinking about how to write a paper. [This includes] finding important quota-tions, looking up vocabulary words, or identifying allusions in the text. The second level is all about writ-ing an outline, developing a thesis statement, beginning to craft body

paragraphs. The third level was about revisions. It was a way to gamify the writing process.”

Beyond being a lesson on how to write a paper, the game ties in with a theme of the book. Mr. Lampe articulated on how Oedi-pa’s journey could represent the student’s process: “Throughout the [book] she’s not sure, and neither is the reader about whether she’s just paranoid about this secret organi-zation. It could be that she’s stum-bled upon this counterculture way that people have of communicating in secret. A lot of it ends up being about the nature of communication and how society stifles that.”

He continued, “It’s also pos-sible that this is all a plot that her ex-boyfriend created for her to bring her out of her bored house-wife existence and recognize a wid-er world. And that was the idea, to get the students involved in an al-ternate reality game. The idea with the augmented reality was that it’s these things that you’re walking by every day, but if you open it with the app, it’s a clue or a task.”

Another aspect of the puzzle is the symbols tacked on bulletin boards around campus, which have raised more than a few questions from teachers and students. The symbols are the same ones that Oe-dipa sees around her in the novel — in a ring, a tattoo, on the wall of the shop — representing the Tristero.

In the book, the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis, a family of Ger-man nobility, has a monopoly on the postal service, which is a true historical fact. Their symbol is the post horn, and the Tristeros, their rivals, choose a post horn with a mute in it, which are the symbols posted around campus. Mr. Lampe put the symbols up before the class read the book as a way to help his students experience the symbols in the same way Oedipa does. Many of the symbols contained the first clues: “There is one up on the stairs to the dining hall that if you look at it on the app, it turns into a paint-ing by a painter who’s referenced in the book.”

The game is on week two of at least three and is a raging success so far. Di’Anna Bonomolo ’20, a student in his class, commented, “It's a way to keep the class inter-esting after reading this compli-cated book. The scavenger hunt is pretty cool, especially since he took the time to make everything.” Although Mr. Lampe mentioned both the successes and problems with the game, Bonomolo recom-mends that he does it again, calling the game both "spontaneous and fun.” Based on the current reviews, the game is sure to be popular with Mr. Lampe’s future students.

By India Lacey '21Staff Reporter

India Lacey may be reached at ilacey21@choate.edu

Katherine Lima may be reached at klima20@choate.edu

Teachers and faculty have their own responsibilities and lives apart from teaching, grading, and help-ing students cope with the hustle and bustle of Choate life. Many are raising their own kids who may grow up to be future Choaties! In the past couple of years, multiple faculty babies have become a part of the Choate community. Here are a couple of profiles on some of the little Choaties you may have seen on campus!

Caden Di TieriCaden Di Tieri, son of math-

ematics and computer science teacher Mr. Kyle Di Tieri, is an eight-week-old addition to the Choate community. Caden loves playing with his stuffed animal dragon, going for strolls in the warm weather, and hanging out with Ms. Mb Duckett-Ireland’s new daughter, Livvy. When in distress, Caden is comforted by any sort of motion; he loves be-ing front backpacked or bounced up and down. Caden likes when his parents sing to him. One of Caden’s favorites is the Tiger Song. To make it personalized, Mr. Di Tieri replaces “tiger” with “Caden” when he’s singing it. Ca-den dislikes anything cold, from weather to wet wipes, so he’s very excited for the upcoming summer months. His favorite Choate adult, after his parents, is Ms. Laura Lynn van Mierlo. In fact, Ms. van Mierlo refers to Caden as her own kid sometimes.

Brendan and Bridget Rose-Noonan

Ms. Kathryn Rose-Noonan, a French teacher at Choate, is the mother of a dynamic duo: one-year-old Brendan and three-year-old Bridget. Bridget loves to draw people and playgrounds, mixing and matching colors and adding new details as she goes. The sib-lings both love reading, and the Rose-Noonans read together as a family over dinner. Bridget’s favorite books are collections or series because she enjoys getting to know the characters. Brendan loves to sing, dance, and climb onto things; he is practically des-tined to be on stage. Some of his fa-vorite songs to sing at the moment are “Old MacDonald” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” Whenever Brendan forgets a word mid-conversation or the lyrics to a song, he’ll say, “Sup, Sup.” He loves making people laugh. Ms. Rose-Noonan describes the sib-lings saying, “They’re buddies.”

Lake and Fenn Howland Four-year-old Lake and

two-year-old Fenn are broth-ers, play buddies, and best friends. Their mother, Ms. Amy Howland, is a history teacher. Lake loves digging in the sand, and Fenn will do anything his brother is doing. The two are compassionate and loving towar ds one another, something that Ms. Howland hopes to rein-force throughout the years. For example, Lake, living up to his role as the older sibling, picked out an owl figurine at a craft store for his brother who loves owls. As described by Ms. Howland, “Everyday since Lake gave him the owl, Fenn, at random times, will say ‘Big brother got it for me.’” Inter-estingly, both kids go by their middle names, which are na-ture-related in some way. Their first names are based off of lit-erary references; Lake’s first name is “Atticus,” inspired by

a character in To Kill A Mock-ingbird. When choosing Fenn’s first name, Ms. Howland and her husband went on a date to a massive bookstore in Harvard Square. They combed through every book in the fiction sec-tion, searching for a name that had some meaning to them. The two eventually agreed on “Oli-ver” from Oliver Twist because they liked the character’s inno-cence and optimistic outlook.

Cody and Luke Chin Ms. Kristen Chin, a teach-

er in the Math Department, is the mother of three-year-old Cody and eleven-month-old Luke. Cody loves to color, build Legos, do puzzles, and play sports. Cody can be seen run-ning around with a baseball and playing volleyball with a balloon. Luke loves observing his older brother when he’s not busy learning how to walk. To practice, Luke is always crawl-ing around. Cody is curious and loving: he is Choate’s ray of sun-shine. Like his brother, Luke is incredibly happy and loves being around Cody. Both boys adore the Choate campus; they love going to the dining hall and attending sports games. Cody can also be found scampering around the dorm (the Chins currently live in Bernhard) where he puts up his artwork on the girls’ doors, hoping to bring a smile to their faces.

By Bianca Rosen ’21Reporter

Bianca Rosen may be reached at brosen21@choate.edu

Math teacher Ms. Kristen Chin's sons love eating at the dining hall.Photo by Amitra Hoq/The Choate News

On May 5, Dance Arts Concen-tration seniors Anna Ely ’19, Sadie Jackson ’19, and Heather Shao ’19 took the stage for a final time during their collective senior dance recital.

Conceptualized and choreo-graphed entirely by the three se-niors, these performances carried an additional personal weight for all of the dancers involved. “What’s so special about this recital is that before, like in the dance concert or pep rally, I’ve always been dancing someone else’s choreography, but this is something that I can really make about myself,” said Shao. “It’s my senior recital.”

Containing a whopping 14 piec-es, the recital explored numerous themes and dance styles, ranging from a contemporary piece about body image to a classical ballet trio.

The preparations for the recit-al weren’t easy. Since the dancers were so involved in both the cho-reography and rehearsal process, the recital demanded a significant amount of extra work on top of their classes and other perfor-mances within the dance program. In fact, many of the pieces shown had been in the making for years. Ely said, “Over the last four years as Arts Con students, we’ve been building up a repertoire. For me, the pieces came together in the last few months, but I would say they all started a long time ago.”

The dancers also admitted that there was a bit of procrastination involved, too: “This was definitely my first year of focusing on it. If you ask Kalya, we were really late and procrastinating on it, which is real-ly bad,” Jackson said with a laugh.

Outside of the rehearsal pro-cess, the dancers have also taken charge of nearly all other aspects of the performance. They designed their own posters, made promo-tional announcements at school meeting, and even picked out the music to be played while guests got seated. However, all of this work was done with joy: “I think

it really reignited my passion for dance,” said Shao.

This recital was an opportuni-ty to showcase individual dancers’ work made during their time at Choate in a way not possible during the larger mainstage productions; each piece seemed to carry more personal weight than the last. As this was their last performance, these seniors took this recital as a chance to reflect on their time at Choate. “I really like to draw from my personal experiences [when choreographing],” Shao said.

One of Jackson’s dances fo-cused on her recovery process af-ter a hip surgery during her junior spring. In her piece, a projector plays old footage of her dancing just weeks after her surgery — as such, in the video, she has adequate ex-terior support for her hip. In front of the video, Jackson danced the same dance in sync with the video of her old self, this time, using her body weight for support.

To Jackson, the piece rep-resents her comeback after injury. “That’s kind of been like my story at Choate: I keep getting hurt, but I keep recovering,” she said.

Additionally, some dancers used their dances to speak on so-cial issues. One of Shao’s pieces tackled body image. The group danced to a spoken word poem by Mary Lambert: “Body Love.” “When I listened to the poem, it was just really beautiful. Honestly, choreographing this dance really helped with myself struggling with these issues,” she said.

The topic of body positivity is close to home for many dancers. “Dance is something where a lot of girls are really aware of their body image, and it can get very toxic. I think combating such is-sues using the medium itself can be very powerful.”

Shao’s dance elicited strong emotions from the audience, too. Jenny Guo ’21, a dancer in Shao’s piece, said, “The first time Kalya saw the piece, she cried a little. I think that shows how moving the dance is.”

The final piece was a tribute to the three dancers’ camaraderie. “Me, Anna, and Heather decid-ed pretty recently that we should probably do a dance together. We’re doing a trio accompanied by

Whims, so that’s going to be really fun,” Jackson said before the per-formance. The Whimawehs, one of Choate’s all-female a cappella groups, sang “House of the Rising Sun,” by The Animals in the back-ground while Ely, Jackson, and Shao danced together.

Unlike past recitals, where the focus has been on the dance com-pany as a whole, these recitals put the spotlight on the seniors as indi-viduals. “For me, one of the joys of this moment is really having them have the chance to take stock of what they’ve learned in their time here — how they’ve grown, what inspires them, what they want to say in this moment,” said Ms. Ka-lya Yannatos, Director of the Arts and adviser to Dance Arts Concen-tration students. “It’s really theirs. They’re owning it.” Shao echoed this sentiment, saying, “It’s really about us, and I feel like that’s what makes this final one really special.”

Though the focus may be on just three dancers, each was sure to emphasize the support of their “dance families.” Shao said, “I’ve just been super, super grateful. I think that this whole process made

me even closer to my dance family, which is really awesome.” Guo add-ed, “We are a very lively group, and sometimes too much so. A lot of times, 60-minute rehearsals would end up being 30-minute ones, be-cause we would be joking around for most of the time!”

The performance itself took place in the dance studio, which is located in the Worthington Johnson Athletic Center (WJAC). The small-er setting allowed for a more inti-mate connection between the danc-ers and audience. “The dance studio is very vulnerable, because people are right there on the floor with you,” Ely said. On the other hand, though, she noted that “having a studio showing invites the audience into the choreographic process and how we’re creating the pieces, rath-er than them just receiving it.” Ms. Yannatos added, “It creates the po-tential for a more immediate energy flow — it’s right there.”

The recital also marked a bit-tersweet transition point in the dancers’ lives, as it was their last performance at Choate.

On one hand, the seniors are sad to leave the tight-knit dance

program. “The dance family has been such a huge part of my life and I’m so close with a lot them.” Jackson said. However, each danc-er is excited for the new experienc-es that lie ahead. Ely said, “I’m very excited to move on. As much as I’ve loved being a part of the program here, I think more than anything I’m ready for something new — new styles, new ideas.”

Ms. Yannatos said that she was sad to see the seniors go, but that she’ll be happy to see them thrive outside of Choate. “I’m excited that they’re flying off to new broader, bigger horizons. I’ll miss them all, but I’m so happy that I’ve had the chance to work with them.”

This recital served as a conclu-sion to the three seniors’ lives at Choate, representing four years of growth. Each dancer emphasized how they’d branched out stylistical-ly since freshman year. When Jack-son first came to Choate, she’d only ever danced classical ballet. “Ever since I was two ... only ballet. That was it, my whole entire life,” she said. Now, though, she’s expand-ed to contemporary, modern, and jazz. Similarly, Ely had never tried hip-hop before Choate. During her freshman year, she auditioned for the hip-hop club on a whim — by senior year, she was co-president of the group. “That’s the biggest way my dance vocabulary has changed,” she said. “Hip-hop has influenced the way I dance now.”

Though Ely, Jackson, and Shao may be graduating, they will leave behind a group of exceptionally talented dancers, currently under-classmen. Dance Arts Concentra-tion will continue to grow as the dance program as a whole gains a stronger foothold in the Choate community. Ms. Yannatos said, “We went from one Arts Con se-nior last year to suddenly four, with more seniors wanting to be part of it as well. It’s just exciting to see the momentum.”

On May 5, Hangarak, Yale University’s K-pop a cappella group, came to Choate and per-formed in the dining hall. They sang a mixture of traditional and contemporary Korean music, in-cluding a nursery rhyme called “Spring in My Hometown,” “Love Scenario” by iKON, “Spring Day” by BTS, “Dream” by Suzy and Baekhyun, “Blue Orangeade” by TXT, and a traditional Korean song called “Arirang Alone.” It was a great opportunity for the Choate community to be immersed in K-pop culture and learn a little bit about Yale a cappella.

Hangarak, which means a song or melody in Korean, consists of seven members: Nicole Park, Chloe Hong, Jenny Chang, Caleb Kim, Sebastian Chang ’18, Josh Gonzalez, and Jason Wu. The a capella group was founded in the winter of 2017. Its original purpose was to serve as a casual platform for students to sing Korean music. However, the group soon began establishing its presence on Yale’s campus, and this year they were officially recognized by the univer-sity. According to Kim, “I wanted to make a group that sang Korean songs because, at Yale, there are a lot of a cappella groups, but I think there isn’t a space for Asian or East Asian music. A lot of it is very Eu-rocentric, etc. I wanted to change that.” Yale also has an a capella group celebrating the sounds of the African diaspora called Shades of Yales, which started in 1988.

Hangarak, one of the newest additions to the a capella com-munity, is an incredibly tight-knit group, which makes it a particular-ly special experience. “My favorite

thing about Hangarak is the peo-ple. We are a pretty small group and we are really close with each other. A lot of a cappella groups on campus don’t have that commu-nity because there are a lot more members,” said Kim.

Because of its small size, Hangarak offers many opportu-nities for new members to join. According to Sebastian Chang ’18, “The group is really fun. I got to do a lot of arranging even though I’m a freshman. A lot of the members are new, so we get to collaborate and create a re-ally friendly atmosphere that’s not as professional and is more chill. It’s been really cool to see the group come together.”

Unlike other a cappella groups at Yale, Hangarak acts as a collec-tive, thus creating a greater sense of collaboration. New members have more chances to solo, ar-range, and provide their own in-put because the group is smaller and doesn’t have the same struc-ture as a traditional collegiate a cappella group.

Hangarak practices twice a week and each rehearsal is two hours long. In addition to this, they put on events to broadcast the group at Yale. “When I was applying to colleges and touring Yale, I went to an event that Han-garak hosted. They were holding a karaoke night, so I went and I sang,” said Chang.

Hangarak is an important addition to the current Yale a cappella groups. It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to share pieces of Asian culture with not only the Yale campus but also with communities beyond.

FRIDAY, MAY , THE CHOATE NEWS || PAGE 7

Heather Shao '19 performed her choreography in the WJAC dance studio on May 5. Photo by Praj Chirathivat/The Choate News

Kate Bailey may be reached at kbailey21@choate.edu

By Kate Bailey ’21Copy Editor

O ne F i n a l Tw i r l A t C ho a te Fo r He a t he r S h a o ’ 19, S a d ie J a c k s on ’ 19, & A n n a E l y ’ 19

On Friday, May 3, Choate’s Chamber and Festival Chorus gave a stunning final concert in the Seymour St. John Chapel. Both choirs have been rehears-ing since the beginning of the year, proving their tremendous commitment. Their dedication and sincerity showed through the great repertoire, which in-cluded an extensive variety of song styles.

Every singer in choir has their own motivation for sing-ing. Naturally, the groups con-sist of singers with diverse musical backgrounds and pref-erences. Edison Wang ’21 said, “I had already been quite inter-ested in singing before coming to Choate, but I only started tak-ing private voice lessons almost two years ago, when I enrolled as a freshman. I love many kinds of songs, such as Italian operas and pop songs, so at Choate I mainly learn to sing classical music. I also sing pop and Chi-nese folk songs in my free time.”

Ana Jonke ’19 said, “I wanted to join choir because my old school had one, and I have been singing in choirs since sixth grade. I thought that a choir where it wasn’t just all girls was pretty cool because I went to an all-girls school. There are many more sections I can be a part of in Festival Chorus.”

There are also those who jumped courageously into the new experience of singing in a choir. Serena Sandweiss ’20 said, “I have always been in-volved in music, as my parents encouraged me to begin playing piano at a young age. However, I only really began to sing here

at Choate. I joined Festival Cho-rus my freshman year, and Ms. Kegel then encouraged me to audition for Chamber.” Joining chorus is a rewarding decision for many students, and each finds their own place and pur-pose within the groups.

Each singer gains something different from the experience, whether it’s the time dedicated to singing outside of school or the opportunity to cooperate with others. Briannagh Dennehy ’20 said, “I enjoy being around oth-er singers. Music is a great way of connecting with others. Just being able to sing with different voice types allows you to develop listening skills, which I think is very useful for chorus and music outside of chorus as well.”

Preparing for the concert required hard work and great attention to detail, and some parts of the process did not go entirely as expected. Both cho-rus groups have had to work with different directors during rehearsals, which ultimately

resulted in a cancellation of their winter concert in collab-oration with the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra.

Wang said, “This is why the upcoming concert will include both the repertoire we had in winter and the new songs we learned in spring. Although we sometimes seemed to have a little trouble getting used to new rehearsal schedules and differ-ent conducting styles, I believe that this concert will be an awesome one and that both the choir and the audience will enjoy it very much.”

Due to holidays and special schedules, rehearsals through-out the year have been inconsis-tent, so the groups also needed to focus on honing the particular pieces that will make the audi-ence’s experience the best it can be. Wang said, “We took a lot of time fixing problems with tuning, rhythms, [and] dynamics, as well as musical expression. However, the two new conductors, Ms. Oc-tavia McAloon and Dr. Carolina Flores, are extremely passionate and professional, and we are

thankful for their help with han-dling those challenges.”

Maria Ma ’19 said she felt pre-pared and loved the variety of se-lections.“There’s this one piece we all love with a lot of movement and clap rhythm called ‘Turn the World Around,’” she added.

After the concert, Laryssa Gazda ’20 said, “Despite the time crunch we had, the concert sound-ed really good in the end, so we were proud.”

Chamber and Festival Chorus are small communities in which students who are passionate about singing are able to con-nect with one another and overcome challenges together to perform masterworks as a group. The riveting final con-cert of the year was a wonder-ful success, and the audience left the performance that night feeling inspired and touched by the earnesty of every singer on stage.

Yolanda Wang may be reached at yowang20@choate.edu

By Yolanda Wang ’20Staff Reporter

Diverse Set of Voices Rise for Festival, Chamber Chorus Concerts

Bianca Rosen may be reached at brosen21@choate.edu

By Bianca Rosen ’21Staff Reporter

Yale's K-Pop A Capella Group Brings Flavor To Sunday Brunch

Choral ensembles performed an expanded repertoire in the Chapel last Friday.Photo by Praj Chirathivat/The Choate News

THE CHOATE NEWS

FRIDAY, MAY , VOL. CXII • NO. XVII

FIELD REPORT

With the interscholastic spring season nearing its end, Choate teams are working to perfect strategies and lineups in order to succeed in season end-ing competitions or potentially in the Founders League or New En-gland Championships. Girls’ and Boys’ Varsity Crew are no excep-tion as rigorous training and on the water racing have determined the best possible lineups for the teams. In particular, the first boat on both teams highlights talent-ed rowers who have bonded with each other to finish strong at up-coming championship regattas.

Both Girls’ and Boys’ Varsity Crew teams enjoy tremendous depth this year, with each team’s seven boats consistently being strong contenders.

Max O’Connor ’21, who, with Brendan Sullivan ’20, Devin Seli ’20, Fenn Suter ’20, and coxswain Shade Mazer ’19, is a member of the boys’ first boat, described how boats were de-termined. “Boats are initially set based on the rowers’ erg scores and performance on the water.”

Occasionally, one rower will be swapped out with another from a different boat, and the two boats “seat race” in order to see which combination of row-ers performs best. “As the sea-son progresses,” O’Connor said, “some seat racing may occur

between boats in order to find the best boat combinations that will produce the fastest boats.”

After comparing erg times and undergoing seat racing, the Boys’ Varsity Crew first boat was formed, and the rowers en-joyed the opportunity to race as a group in early season regattas. At those races, the boat learned what it needed to practice in or-der to be successful at the end of the season. “As a boat, one thing we need to improve upon is mak-ing sure that we are all together on the same stroke rate, so our oars are all entering the water on time and moving the boat togeth-er in unison,” Sullivan said.

Girls’ Varsity Crew followed a similar process in order to deter-mine boats. This year’s first boat is comprised of Sasha Bocek ’19, Lizzie Quinn ’20, Bella Deluca ’19, Allison Opuszynski ’20, and coxswain Grace Lawrie ’19. How-ever, this year’s team is especial-ly strong and has the depth to change lineups even in the final weeks of the season.

The supportive dynamic within the first boats, and the crew team as a whole, is crucial for the teams to have success at the end of the season. “I think everyone has a great mentality in terms of workouts and race day,” said Lawrie. “Crew naturally has a reputation of being almost cult-like, and this is somewhat true. I feel we are extremely close-knit, almost like a second family.”

This camaraderie is clearly demonstrated in Girls’ Varsity Crew’s first boat in their pre-race tradition. “Before a major race or before the last piece of practice, Sasha, who’s in the stroke seat, passes a fist bump through the boat,” Quinn said. “I’m in the three-seat behind Sasha, and I first-bump Bel-la behind me in the two-seat, and she passes it back to Alli in the bow seat, and it ends with Grace in the coxswain cranny. I don’t know where this tradi-tion began, but it never fails to hype me up.”

In the coming few weeks, both teams have their goals set high as they prepare for the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Champi-onships (NEIRAs) in late May. “The dream every year is to do well and win [the] points tro-phy at NEIRAs, as well as the point trophy at the Lower Boats Regatta, which we did in the past few years,” Lawrie said. “We have a deep team this year, so it is extremely exciting.”

O’Connor agreed. “My big-gest goal for the end of the season,” he said, “is to make the boat I’m in go as fast as it possibly can and do as best as possible at NEIRAs, the regat-ta that determines which boats will advance to nationals.”

Going into Wednesday’s game against Kent on May 1, Girls’ Var-sity Lacrosse looked to continue its winning streak after beating Ethel Walker, 12-9, the week before. Both Choate and Kent seemed unfazed by the temperatures that dipped to 44 degrees Fahrenheit as they each played to their fullest. After an all-around effort by the team, Choate soundly defeated Kent, 9-2.

The game got off to a slow start as both teams slowly settled into the game. From the onset, howev-er, the difference in skill between the two teams was apparent, as Choate proceeded to maintain possession and execute controlled plays whenever the team entered the offensive zone.

Choate finally broke the tie af-ter seven minutes into the first half after several clean passes lead to a quality shot from Dylan Allen ’22. The first goal gave Choate the mo-mentum of the game, leading to two consecutive goals by co-cap-tain Julia MacKenzie ’19, both from fast breaks. Kent faltered as the team’s few moments of pos-session ended with unsuccessful shots. With forty seconds left, however, Kent snuck one past the goalie to end the first half.

The solid first half boosted Choate’s morale and confidence as the lead continued into the sec-ond. Five minutes into the second half, MacKenzie came up big again, scoring her third goal. Not more than thirty seconds later, a penalty against Kent gave Allen the oppor-tunity to score her second goal.

Choate’s offense was not the only factor in its dominance as Choate’s stalwart defense thwarted numerous Kent drives. One partic-ular odd-player rush by Kent was foiled by an exceptional mid-air steal by Nicola Sommers ’19, who also put up a strong performance throughout the entire game with three assists.

As the score difference wid-ened, Choate seemed to dominate the game all the more, sustaining control whenever they were on of-fense and only losing possession after a missed shot. This controlled offense led to two consecutive goals from Miya Imaeda ’22.

Although foul trouble seemed to plague both teams, only Cho-ate was able to capitalize on the

opportunities, scoring three of its nine goals from penalties. Kent fi-nally managed to score a second goal with three minutes left in the second half, but Choate responded with a remarkable cross-field pass from Sommers to MacKenzie for her fourth goal of the game.

Head Coach Ms. Courtney Destefano was proud of the fo-cus the team showed after a slow first half. “We had a slowish start — not a bad start, but a slower tempo,” Ms. Destefano said. “But as the game went on it got a lit-tle more aggressive, a little more intense. We definitely maintained possession of the game both halves. I’m really happy with the team’s effort.”

As a whole, the team has expe-rienced both successes and defeats. However, this year’s team is espe-cially young, and every game pro-vides opportunities for the younger players to improve. “It’s sort of a re-building year, though not in the tra-ditional sense, because I think we have a lot of talent in the team,” Ms. Destefano said. “We just have a lot of young people and they’re getting their feet under them. We have a very large freshman class who have never played at the varsity level and against varsity teams, so, in that sense, I think we are building. Our future prospects look really good.”

Throughout the term, the Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse team has devel-oped a close bond, contributing to the players’ ability to trust each oth-er on the field. “There’s something to say for coming into the locker room half an hour before we even have to get on the field and having a dance party,” said co-captain Lizzy Mitchell ’19. “Every practice, peo-ple seem to want to be there.”

Ms. Destefano added, “This is probably the most bonded team we’ve ever had in the six years I have coached at Choate. It doesn’t matter if they’re young or old — they get along really well and there is a great camaraderie on the team. In addition to leadership and depth, that kind of bond really helps the team pull together.”

As the end of the season approaches, Girls’ Varsity La-crosse is looking to win a few more regular season games be-fore making a run at the New England Championships.

By Derek Son ’20Reporter

Derek Son may be reached at dson20@choate.edu

Allen Zheng may be reached at azheng21@choate.edu

By Allen Zheng ’21Staff Reporter

Inside the Process of Determining Crew First Boats

GIR LS' VARSIT Y LACROSSE DEFEATS KENT, 9-2

On the mound and at the plate, Varsity Baseball player Sean Dennehy ’19 uses his versatility to make himself a unique and critical component of the team. During his final term at Choate, he hopes to lead the team to postseason suc-cess. Recently, staff reporter Greer Goergen ’21 sat down with Denne-hy to talk about baseball at Choate and his plans to pursue the sport after high school. Greer Goergen: How long have

you been playing baseball?Sean Dennehy: I've been on a

team since I was five, but I've been throwing a ball since I was two or three years old.

GG: How did you start playing?SD: My dad just put a glove and a

ball in my hand, and it started from there.

GG: What is your favorite thing about baseball and playing on the Choate team?

SD: My favorite thing about baseball is definitely the at-mosphere. I guess playing for Choate, my favorite part is how close everyone is on the team. I think we really bond well. The coach and the attention to de-

tail really brings everyone to-gether, and we all just want to get better.

GG: What is the most difficult thing for you about baseball?

SD: As a pitcher, it’s staying consistent because pitching is definitely one of the hard-est things to do in sports. You have to be one hundred percent focused at all times, and always prepared for everything, no matter what the circumstance.

GG: What is your favorite mo-ment from Choate baseball?

SD: During my sophomore year, we were playing Taft at home. It was the first season that I started, and I was in outfield. It was the top of the seventh inning, and Taft was up. They had their best hitter step up to the plate, and he hit a ball that was going to go over the fence. However, I caught it over the fence, and we won the game.

GG: You’ve also played football and hockey in your time at Choate. What’s it like playing three sports at Choate?

SD: Playing three varsity sports is definitely tough, especially with getting your work done. You don't have enough time as other people [do] — that’s the big thing. But it’s also very helpful because you get to meet a lot of new people. Every year, new kids come in, and you get familiar with them. Just being around them is really fun.

GG: What are the differences in team dynamics and coaching among your sports?

SD: I think every coach has a very different style. With football

we’d just grind everyday; it was non-stop — trying to be perfect on every play, making sure ev-erything is wired tight before the weekend game. For hockey, I guess it’s similar to football, where we just work hard and do the best we can and focus on not only doing the right thing, but also on having fun at the same time. I think that’s a big thing, especially when the hockey team isn’t as good as lot of other teams in the league. We just try to do the best we can and have fun while we’re doing it. The baseball team I definitely think is a little more laid back in terms of coaching, and our big thing is just attention to detail, making sure we do everything right every day and get one per-cent better each day.

GG: What are your plans for this summer and the next school year?

SD: I’m doing a [postgraduate] year at Loomis, and I’ll play only baseball there. This sum-mer, I’m going to play only baseball, and, yes, I’m definite-ly looking forward to it.

ON THE FIELD W ITH SEAN DENNEHY '19PLAYER PROFILE

By Greer Goergen ’21Staff Reporter

The boys' first boat rowed acoss Lake Waramaug during the Founders Day Regatta on May 5.Photo courtesy ofJillian Backus Sullivan

Sean Dennehy ’19 waits for a fly ball in the outfield during a practice. Photo by Jessie Goodwin/The Choate News

Greer Goergen may be reached at ggoergen21@choate.edu

Varsity Saturday Games

Girls’ Lacrosse (6-6)falls to Williston, 4-14

Baseball (6-4-1)beats Kent, 19-8

Girls’ Track (6-5)beats Deerfield, 66-34

Boys’ Tennis (7-3)falls to Deerfield, 2-5

Girls’ Tennis (1-6)falls to Exeter, 1-8

Boys’ Track (5-5)falls to Deefield, 58-91

Girls’ Golf (8-1-1)beats Williston, 5-0

Boys' Volleyball (2-5)falls to Exeter, 0-3

Girls’ Lacrosse (4-3)beats Williston, 7-5

Boys’ Lacrosse (5-4)falls to Eaglebrook, 7-11

Girls’ Tennis (4-3)falls to Exeter, 0-9

Softball (1-2)falls to Ethel Walker, 8-15

Boys’ Golf (4-6)places 3rd out of 4

Boys’ Track (5-5)beats St. Paul's, 58-91

Girls’ Track (6-5)falls to St. Pauls, 66-76

Girls’ Water Polo (8-3)beats Loomis, 11-4

Girls’ Water Polo (8-3)beats Andover, 16-9

JV Saturday Games