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Will iam Penn Charter School • 3000 W. School House Lane, Philadelphia PA 19144 February/March 2013

S i n c e 1 7 7 7

Spring sports preview • Crossword Challenge • more editorials!

Is the penn charter experience ready for change?Aakash Shah, to The Mirror

Seussical: a big hit for all ages!

Photo courtesy of the Class Record

It is not uncommon to hear Penn Charter students utter the phrase “I hate this school.” Admittedly, this statement is often expressed in moments of heated anger or frustration, but the commonality with which students build an adversity toward Penn Charter is uncanny. There are those that love their Penn Charter experience and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but even these optimis-tic members of the community often have endless grievances against the school and its administration. Why are so many students so often disgruntled with their Penn Charter experi-ence? Obviously, there are infinite causes. Many will cite the sheer workload as a com-mon source of stress. According to junior Paul Eberwine, “The homework is often un-productive and lengthy.” Tasked with a stag-gering amount of mostly unproductive work, the student body is bound to be on pins and needles. This workload, in addition to extra-curriculars, gives students hardly any free time. On average, most students do not get to bed until twelve or often times much later than that. Although the Penn Charter administration acknowledged the idea of “busy work” in last year’s strategic vision and vowed to reduce it, students have yet to reap the benefits of this plan. I have per-sonally found that many of the faculty are often astonished by the lack of sleep we as students receive. According to the National Sleep Foundation (yes, it exists), the average 17-year-old needs between 8.5- 9.5 hours of

sleep a night. While asking around, I could not find one student that received the sug-gested amount of sleep, a clear indication that students are overwhelmed. Furthermore, the competitive grading system at Penn Charter provides unnecessary stress. It often feels as though students are more focused on the actual let-ter grade than the pursuit of knowledge. The class conversation topic is too often focused on what will be on the next test instead of intellectual discourse. In the quest for a high percentage grade, many abandon the desire to learn about subjects that interest them

and instead revert to just learning the mate-rial they will be quizzed on. In fact, on a run-ning poll on The Mirror website, 29 students admitted they would rather “cram for an ‘A’ in a class and learn little to nothing” while only 7 said they would rather “get a ‘C’ in a class and learn something.” I for one am most certainly not ex-empt from this phenomenon and too often end up caring more about grades as opposed to enjoying learning. Then again, colleges will care very little about my personal pursuit of knowledge and instead focus on my GPA.

Students at Penn Charter are all too familiar with putting forth their best effort, and be-ing confronted with a grade that they do not believe they deserved. Often times I have observed that students who have the most passion in an area of study may not actually be those who receive the best grades. The pressure that comes along with this “point-hunting” culture is that students will spend countless hours attempting to memorize facts many will forget immediately following the test. The other major obstacle in stu-dents’ lives is the extracurricular require-ment. With a sport and club requirement, many students are forced to study into the late hours of night. Moreover, involvement in extracurriculars often causes much ten-sion amongst students. Many claim that Penn Charter refuses to pay attention to athletics while, on the opposing end of the spectrum, many claim Penn Charter doesn’t support its clubs enough. I’ve heard statements such as “If you like clubs and academics so much, go to GFS” as well as “If you like sports so much, go to Malvern.” What becomes increasingly clear is that both sides are not satisfied. Penn Charter needs to decide within which bas-ket it wishes to place its eggs because the three A’s approach (Academics, Arts, Athlet-ics) does not appear to be working. Instead, it only frustrates and divides the student body while weakening our programs. I also cannot help but ask where the Quaker ideal

continued on page 2

gratitude not attitudeClaudia Stedman and Julia Vahey A few weeks ago, Director of Upper School Travis Larrabee called for students to voice their opinions on issues they felt were prevalent at Penn Charter. He suggested raising these concerns in open discussions, using medi-ums such as The Mirror, Meeting for Worship, and dialogue within clubs. In the previous edition of The Mirror, the editors and staff called upon all students to voice their opinions and perspectives. It is important for students and faculty to offer constructive criticism, but there is a line between insightful advice and complaining. It seems that too often, it is easier for students to see the nega-tive aspects of our school rather than to appreciate the opportunities we are given. In the last few weeks it has appeared as though certain students are tak-ing Meeting for Worship as an opportunity to vilify our society and even school community. While it is important for members of Penn Charter to share their thoughts on personal issues, it seems as though Meeting for Worship has be-come a platform for political debate rather than spiritual thought. In recent Meetings, students have come with speeches prepared to steer discussion, which is inherently against the principles of Quaker Meeting. We are supposed to speak spontaneously when moved by a divine spark, not when there is a lull and your practiced speech fits in. Senior Michael Paolini agrees, remarking, “I believe that Meeting has become a time for people to voice per-sonal opinions on issues, both in the continued on page 2

editorials entertainment

Like all hardworking Penn Charter students, junior Paul Eberwine studies diligently in the library.Photo by Michael Paolini

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

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Editorials Page 2

of community service fits into the three A’s approach. With our limited student body, we can’t possibly expect to have the athletic ca-liber of Malvern yet retain the same thinking style as other Friends schools. The activities requirement also makes people that are uninterested in an activity or sport compete in it. Penn Charter needs to understand that as a small school, it cannot possibly compete athletically and academically with schools that possess larg-er student bodies. If Penn Charter’s funding cannot provide the caliber of clubs and ath-letics it wishes to provide, the school needs to reevaluate its approach to extracurricu-lars. It is important to note that while the extra-curricular requirement may not fulfill its purpose, it may be the only frontier against complete indifference. If there were no requirement, too many of the students would remain apathetic. The extra-curricular requirement does provide benefits that vir-

The Penn charter experiencecontinued from page 1

tually no one can deny. It makes students more than just attendees; it makes them contributors toward the community. I doubt that many will argue over the necessities of athletics and extra-curriculars, but to what extent are they useful? When does one’s un-motivated involvement become unreason-able? Many students have felt that Penn Charter is too involved in their lives. For most students attending other schools, school is a part of their life, but for PC students, it is their life. A vast majority of us arrive at 7:30am and don’t leave until 6:30pm, some-times even later. Many students can be found at school on Saturdays as well, whether it be for play practice or a track meet. The involve-ment of Penn Charter in a student’s life is a double-edged sword. Many will find that it builds tight communities, teaches valuable leadership skills, and develops a strong work ethic. Nevertheless, it also takes time away

Moving on from Mistakes: a personal reflection

Celia Tow, to The Mirror

When I saw the Mirror article “Stu-dents Respond to Survey: The Undiscussed Issues at PC,” I was a little reluctant to read it at first. I was concerned about what the re-sponses might be. However, when I read it, I was pleasantly surprised. People brought up many issues that I feel have certainly been given less than satisfactory recogni-tion, attention, and discussion. I was happy to see so many people in our own commu-nity speaking out about the issues they tru-ly feel are important and worth discussing. In particular, there was one statement that caught my eye: “People change, but others don’t realize it often.” When I read those words, I immediately started having flashbacks to the beginning of my journey at this school. I visited Penn Charter in the middle of eighth grade, and as soon as I walked through those red doors, I was de-lighted. The environment was so warm and friendly, and after just one day, I felt like I could find my place here. While I knew that this would mean be-ing around tons of people I didn’t know, I felt ready to make a fresh start in a new school. I was ex-tremely excited to come to Penn Charter for high school – I was ready for a change, and this school felt like the right change to make. I had made many mistakes in eighth grade, and I was looking forward to leaving them behind. Once I was finally at school, how-ever, an ugly reality gradually unfolded. I already knew four people in my class, but I also knew that wouldn’t be enough, since I barely had any classes with them. I was faced with a tough challenge: making friends at a school where almost everyone had already known each other for years, and friend groups were long-established. It took me until the end of freshman year to settle into a group of friends. Throughout the year, I had more than my fair share of bumps in the road, but I accepted them, learned from them and eventually moved on. I knew that I changed a lot from the end of eighth grade to the end of ninth grade. Nevertheless, I got the sense from some that they didn’t see that I had changed. I realized that the mistakes that I desperately wanted to put in my past were somehow still following

me around, and it seemed like there was nothing I could do to change that. I stayed hopeful that the rest of high school would be better. Throughout my sophomore and junior years, however, my hopes of putting the past behind me slowly diminished. I am a senior now, and as everyone does throughout high school, I have continued to make mistakes. That’s normal, right? But what I don’t understand is how a mistake I made years ago can still be relevant to-day. I am not the same person I was before I came here. I am not the same person I was my freshman, sophomore and junior

years. More importantly, although this reflects my own personal experienc-es, I know that I am not alone. Every teenager changes in some way throughout high school, whether no-ticeable or not. I think it’s worth getting to know a person for who they are now, rather than never truly knowing them for anything else than who they used to be. I under-stand I need to live with the consequences of my mistakes and learn from them, and I know other people go through this same process. If we accept

that it’s inevitable for ourselves to go through changes, then we should be able to accept that other people will change too. It’s impossible to control someone else’s reaction, but I’m sure that we would love for our mistakes to not only be lessons to ourselves for the future, but to also be forgiven or forgotten by others. The Penn Charter Mission Statement sums it up per-fectly: “We believe that people have the capacity for growth, and we are committed to the patient pursuit and continuous rev-elation of truth.” Therefore, we need to do several different things as a community to help everyone feel welcome and accepted. We need to treat each problem or mistake as its own separate issue until there is a valid reason to believe that it is related to anoth-er past event. We need to be more open-minded towards possibilities we might not normally consider. Above all, we have to forgive ourselves for our own mistakes be-fore others can forgive us.

“It’s worth getting to know a person

for who they are now,

rather than never truly knowing

them for anything else than who they

used to be.”

gratitude not attitude continued from page 1

“ It seems that too often, it is easier

for students to see the negative

aspects of our school rather than to appreciate the opportunities we

are given.”

We hope that these editorials will

inspire you to also share your

opinions with The Mirror. We are still

accepting editorials or

reflections for the next edition. Talk to

Ani Schug or Kidder Erdman if

you are interested.

PC community and in the world, often put-ting down the opposing viewpoint. This isn’t the purpose of meeting. We should never be putting people down in Meeting. Meeting is still a spiritual experience, not a place for po-litical discourse.” Of course, there are going to be is-sues at every institution we attend in our educational lives. However, it is far too easy for us to complain about things that students in our own school district would be lucky to have. Instead, we should recognize the amaz-ing experiences we receive at Penn Charter. For example, thirty seven public schools in Philadelphia are being forced to close this year due to “under-utilization and need for general re-structuring” (6ABC News). Students attending any one of these schools will be bussed forty-five minutes away from their homes and will have to travel through very dangerous neighbor-hoods just to go to school next year. As a member of Penn Charter’s Urban Issues Class, Julia visited and vol-unteered in a variety of in-ner-city Philadelphia schools. She has been shocked at the conditions that students are forced to learn in everyday. She has seen stu-dents face bullying, receive violent threats from teachers, and struggle to focus through class because of the intolerable stench of a free roaming rabbit defecating ten feet from their desks. There are serious issues within these schools yet no outlet for students to voice their concerns. This is important to keep in mind as PC students voice concerns about our school and the issues they believe must be changed. We are fortunate enough to attend one of the top schools in Philadelphia. We are offered a rigorous and well-rounded edu-cation where open thought is encouraged. In recent weeks, much of the student feedback submitted to The Mirror and general student-

to-student discussions are extremely nega-tive and cloaked under a facade of trying to stimulate improvement in the PC commu-nity. While we realize PC is not a utopia and there are many areas that can be improved upon, it is important to be constantly aware of the opportunities and privileges we have as members of the Penn Charter community. Furthermore, simply complaining about an issue and not offering an avenue for improve-ment does nothing to benefit our school or its students. This “bashing” has also created a

growing air of hostility be-tween students who hold different opinions. Penn Charter is preparing us for a world in which we must face the reality that there will be people with whom we do not agree. The world cannot be per-fect. It’s time that the PC community accepts that. Senior Kevin Murphy of-fers insight on this con-flict: “People become extremely hostile with one another if they don’t agree, and seem to go out of their way to either get back or hurt the other in-

dividual. We need to grow up and realize that not everyone is going to agree and get along in life. There are going to be people you will not like and you just have to be mature and deal with it.” Penn Charter promotes itself as a diverse and accepting community. Therefore, we would not truly be diverse if we all agreed and had the same opinions. As a community, we must understand that our diversity is a positive attribute and should be thankful for that aspect of our school. Of course there will be times when everyone will not agree, and at times we will become frustrated with one another. Rather then bashing our community and its members, though, we need to become more aware of the opportunities we have been given and understand that a variety of opinions and perspectives is a positive thing.

from a student’s religious, personal, and fam-ily responsibilities outside of the Penn Char-ter environment. It is important that the Penn Charter administration acknowledges these short-comings and takes initiative. The school is often on the verge of many things but rarely definitive force. The Model UN team teeters on the edge of being good but with-out enough support cannot become good enough to compete with New York private schools. In the past years, our football team has the ability to occasionally beat out other Inter-Ac schools, but cannot beat Malvern. What good are our vast variety of programs if they often never win? And more importantly what good is Penn Charter as an educational institution if so many students are so often displeased with it? Yes, we can show our im-pressive college statistics, but are they worth the physical and emotional toll it places on students? We at Penn Charter (students and

administrators alike) need to come to grips with our small size and must realize that we cannot achieve all that schools with larger student bodies can. We as the student body have a responsibility to ourselves, our par-ents, teachers, and school to utilize the re-sources the school provides. At the same time, the Penn Charter Administration needs to understand that Penn Charter is a small school and its students are spread too thin.

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

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Editorials Page 3

Funding, Bias, and Fairness: The Struggle Between Smaller Sports Teams and the Athletic Department

Quin Crofton, Mirror Staff This past year at Penn Charter our community has experienced many changes in the arts, academics, and athletics. New rules regarding phones, new teachers, and new items in the cafeteria have all been add-ed this school year. While many have happily accepted these changes, others are not so welcoming. This year in the athletic depart-ment there has been a major overhaul in the way sports equipment is funded and sup-plied. Many teams have found the new sys-tem extremely helpful in providing uniforms and materials, while some have found these new changes both less than helpful and ex-tremely biased. These controversial changes regard the payment for uniforms and sports materi-als. Under the new system, the school pays for all sports uniforms and materials under the condition that they are returned at the end of each respective sports season. On the one hand, many teams and players find it in-credibly helpful that the school buys their uniforms, while on the other hand, teams such as squash and tennis have found it in-creasingly frustrating. I recently talked with Erin Lo, cap-tain of the girls tennis team, about her strug-gles with the athletic department this year. “Before this year, the school would always pay for half of our uniform, but this year they told us that we had to either buy the uni-forms ourselves, or return them at the end

of the season.” Lo continues to explain that she believes, “Sharing tennis clothes like that year after year with different girls is not hygienic.” While the problem was eventu-ally solved, it demonstrates that policies that are efficient for larger teams such as football or lacrosse are not always compatible with smaller teams. For another example, the boys squash team also strug-gled with a similar issue this winter. Randy Beck and Luke Angelakis, co-captains of the boys squash team, at first were excited about the prospect of the school buy-ing their uniforms, until they discovered the return policy. “It’s disgusting,” a member of the team said. “It’s differ-ent than a football or lacrosse jersey,” Randy continued, “We need [our uniforms] just as much as those teams. It’s unfair because now we have to buy them and they don’t, just because its harder for us to return them.” After talking to the new athletic director, John Thiel, the boys team finally made a deal that the school would help get the uniforms at a discounted rate, but the boys would still have to pay for them. The captains agreed, but after weeks they still had no uniform. By the time the

team’s uniforms arrived, it was almost half-way through the season, and around the end of the JV season. “We got pushed around so much we didn’t have a set uniform for most of the season, which was embarrassing” an-other player added. Beck commented, “We could have just bought our own uniforms ourselves in the first place, and got them

here much more quickly, but the school insisted we go through them.” The two captains also told me that at one point a member of the athletic department involved in the incident remarked, “I’m not deal-ing with squash.” Whether or not this was a miscom-munication is unclear, but it raises many questions about unfairness in the athletic department. Does the school have some bias against certain sports, or is it just a

flaw in the new athletic department’s budg-etary system? In order to get to the bottom of these issues I sat down with John Thiel to get his perspective on the new budget. I asked what the reason for the change was and he said, “What I’ve done with the budget this year was to make it more like every other place I’ve been. Before this year every team

had to pay for their own things, from sixth grade up, so essentially a sixth grader who wanted to play baseball or lacrosse for the first time would have to buy their materials for a sport they might not even stick with. So what we’ve done was make it easier for these kids to get a start at these sports by provid-ing the uniforms and materials, we just need them back at the end of the season.” I then asked Thiel about the return-ing of uniforms, and he responding, with re-gard to the girls tennis team, “Why would we have to buy the uniforms for this team if they are taking it home at the end of the season anyway, it doesn’t seem fair to me. So, if they want to keep the uniforms they should pay for them.” He elaborated, “If I have a bunch of navy skirts here at school, why not just hand them out to the girls instead of having to buy them new ones every year.” Thiel also added that the new system is modeled after the other schools in the InterAc. Hearing both sides of this issue left me to wonder what exactly a solution could be, if any could be made at all. Surely stu-dents should be able to get new uniforms each year after theirs wear out, yet it does seem a bit unfair for the school to buy uni-forms they would get to keep. Furthermore, we are left wondering to what extent is the school biased to one sport or another, be-cause this may be the bigger issue at hand.

“Does the school have some bias against certain

sports, or is it just a flaw in the

new athletic department’s

budgetary system?”

A closer look at grade inflation2011-2012

2006-2007

2001-2002

In response to Aaron Mandelbaum’s January article concerning Penn Char-ter’s grading system, The Mirror with the support of the Director of Upper School, Travis Larrabee, is publishing some data that will shed more light on the subject. This set of graphs displays the percentages of A’s, B’s, and C’s that were given out in the school years 2011-12, 2006-07 and 2001-02 in all classes (in-cluding the five major courses as well as art, religion, etc.). The graphs compare Penn Charter’s percentages with the average percentages given out by de-mographically similar schools all across the country. This data was procured from the Independent School Data Ex-change (INDEX) where Penn Charter is placed in the “Co-educational PK/K-12 day schools enrolling 750+ students” category. There are about 50 schools in this category including Germantown Academy (PA), Episcopal Academy (PA), Sidwell Friends School (DC), the Blake School (MN), Princeton Day School (NJ), Moses Brown School (RI), and La Jolla Country Day School (CA). The gray bar represents the percentage of the letter grade given by Penn Charter and the black bar represents the average per-centage given out by all schools in Penn Charter’s INDEX category. So, for exam-ple, in 2006-2007, 51% of Penn Char-ter’s grades were B’s, but the average for the INDEX schools was 44% B’s. In all three school years, Penn Charter gave out fewer A’s but more B’s and C’s than its national partners. How-ever, the data also reveals that nationally and at Penn Charter, between 2001 and 2012, the percentage of A’s rose while the percentage of B’s and C’s declined.

= national average of INDEX schools

= Penn Charter

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

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Sports SportsPage 4

Winter Sports Finish StrongWrestling trio showcase new and old talent

Seniors Dumas, Berger, and Opaliski finish their wrestling careers

Mark Opaliski. Eric Berger. Etienne Dumas. Three senior wrestlers with com-pletely different backgrounds who just so happen to have led the Quaker Wrestling squad to a 4-4 record and some outstanding performances in tournaments. Dumas has flourished in the 126 weight class this year. His agility on the mat helped him to a 19-10 record and a third place finish at States. He even competed at Nationals, finishing the tournament with a 2-2 record, one-round away from earning All-American. Dumas has wrestled all four years of high school, using his strength to his advantage against his opponents. Dumas’ fa-ther has yet to miss a match, and his presence has helped the entire team produce great re-sults. Berger has been wrestling for years.

He has done well in his high school career, but his 23-4 record (3-2 in the league) this year shows just how good he has become. Berg-er finished out his season with a fourth place finish at States, but didn’t wrestle in the last match because of an injured ankle. Like Dumas, he also wrestled at Nationals with the same result, 2-2, and came within one round of earning All-American. Of the team, Berger says, “I would just like to thank my team for a great year. We’ve work hard all year and it paid off in the

Anna Wills, Mirror Staff

end. Even David Smith has some abs.” Berger has worked with numerous different coaches throughout his high school career, but says coach David Priest has influ-enced his career “dramatically.” He contin-ues, “Our new coach wrestles me everyday, so when I wrestle someone in my actual weight class it’s easy ‘cause I’m used to wres-tling a bear.” On the contrary, this is Mark Opa-liski’s first year wrestling. Wrestling in the 285 lb. weight class, mainly against competi-tors much heavier than himself, Opaliski has flourished. At States, he finished in eighth, but he had to forfeit his last two matches due to an injury. Opaliski’s success is partly due to the tutelage of coach David Priest. He says, “With Priest being our coach, I really regret not wrestling my entire high school career. Just wrestling one year with our coach, I feel like I have been wrestling my entire life be-cause of how much stuff I was able to learn from him.” Both Berger and Dumas will attend Monmouth University next fall, playing la-crosse and running cross country, respective-ly. Berger adds, “I have been wrestling since I was three years old so it will be weird not stepping on the mat next year.” Opaliski will play football at Franklin and Marshall College next fall, but he explains, “I am really going to miss wrestling next year and for the rest of my life.” Berger and Dumas feel the same, and their leadership and prowess will be missed on the wrestling squad next winter.

This year boys and girls squash teams were filled with passionate players who showed great improvement over the course of the season. Boys varsity squash ended with a record of 5-8, a statistic that does not re-flect the quality of the season, according to seniors Max Reiff, Luke Angelakis, August Crofton, Scott Marcus, and Randy Beck “The season was successful and everyone played their hearts out,” says Reiff. A highlight of this season was playing at MASA (Mid At-lantic Squash Association), where the team finished first in the consolation round and avenged its early season loss to Harriton Lower Merion with a win. Unfortunately, High School Nation-als were canceled due to a snowstorm in the northeast and the squash team did not get a chance to prove themselves to the rest of the InterAc one last time. Reiff reflects on the season overall, stating, “I think each and eve-ry member of the team had an exceptional season. I would like to give a shout out to our number one Randy, as I think he may have had the best record and he only progressed as the season went on.” Impressively, three of the five sen-iors will continue to play in college. Randy Beck will play for the Naval Academy, Scott Marcus will play at Hobart and William Smith college, and August Crofton will play for Drexel University. Next year, the team will be lead by rising senior captains Quin Crofton and Noah Hollin. Reiff went on to explain, “Being together as a team in general was the highlight of our season and we will all miss

each other. It was a fun ride the past four years and it is a shame that it is done. Over-all we had a great season. YOSO- you only squash once.” While the girls squash team’s re-cord this year was not as impressive as past years, the season helped the team build and improve, preparing for future success. Coach Damon Leedale-Brown worked with all of the girls to strengthen the core group of hard working players. “The highlight of this season was the MASA tournament where varsity beat Harriton Lower Merion with a score of 5-4,” said Senior Ryann Shaffer. She went on to say that it was a season focused around learning and “each player improved immensely.” The varsity team included two na-tionally ranked players, Margaux Losty and Izzy Hirshberg. The seniors guiding the team were Ryann Shaffer, Emma Ebert, Rachael Garnick, and Natalie Badawy. Although none of the senior girls plan to continue playing in college, they all thoroughly enjoyed their time together as a team. The popularity of girls squash continues to grow at PC, as there were not even enough spots this year on Var-sity and JV for all those who wanted to play. It was a fun and constructive season for both returning players and those new to the girls squash team. Overall, the Penn Charter Squash Program had an enjoyable and competitive season, focused on improvement and team building. The program hopes to be strong in future years and continue improving the pro-gram for seasons to come.

YOso (You only Squash Once) ?Ally Stern, Mirror Staff

In her final season, senior Ryann Shaffer helps lead the girls varsity squash team through a rebuilding year.

Photo by Michael Paolini

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

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Sports Page 5

Spring sports in full swing

Dikembe’s Index Finger Claims Basketball Championship

The second season of intramural basketball has come to a close with Dikembe’s Index Finger winning the champi-onship. This second year team added a few new players who fit well in the system and brought the team chemistry to an-other level. This year, the league greatly expanded, especially into the middle school, with Flip and Charlie Brown leading the teacher team. Sam Agre went to new heights in recruiting cafeteria employee Malik and old school Bronx Baller, Bruce McCullough. The league also now has its first female player, Julia Vahey, who became the women’s all time leading scorer. Intramural basketball may be heading in new directions as a search has begun across the Upper School to find a new com-

missioner to continue the new tradition, as I (Bennett Samuel) will hopefully graduate this year. This year, the league will have MVP and All Star voting to be revealed at a later time. Thanks to all the teams who made this year even better than last.

Bennett Samuel, Sports

With the winter sports season officially over, the start of spring athletic competition is highly anticipated. Penn Charter’s baseball, softball, crew, lacrosse, track & field, and boys tennis teams have all started regular practices, preparing for an exciting 2013 season. Beginning on the diamond, the Var-sity baseball team lost seven seniors from last year, including two who are now playing baseball in college, Kenny Koplove (Duke) and Demetrius Jennings (Wofford). They also lost Coach Rick Mellor, a large part of the team’s success for over thirty years. The team is coming off a second place InterAc finish and with only three seniors, Greg Naz-arian, Ted Foley, and Drew Paisley, will have to prove itself again this year. The softball team lost only three seniors and will likely be strong competi-tors in the InterAc this year, after finishing in the middle of the pack last year. The team has four seniors, Molly Mornhinweg, Nicole Weitz, and captains Jessica Drossner and Rachael Garnick. Junior Kristina Kubach be-lieves, “As long as the team works hard and

stays healthy, [we have] a great chance of bringing home the W every game”. Moving onto the track, the boys track & field team comes off back to back second place InterAc finishes behind Mal-vern. Led by senior captains Daryl Worley, Josh Cannon, Mike McGlinchey, and ET Du-mas, the team once again is expected to be at the top of the InterAc with Malvern. Since many important runners, jumpers, and throw-ers will be graduating this year, this season is most likely the last chance at a championship for a few years. The girls track team, captained by seniors Catie Skinner, Ani Schug, Ashleigh Brown, and Katy Decker will focus on creating strength and depth in all events from sprints to field events to distance races. Moving on from a rebuilding year and loaded with new talent, the team has its sights set on compet-ing with the top teams such as Germantown Academy, Springside, and Notre Dame, for a higher place finish at InterAc champs. The boys lacrosse team plays in one of the most competitive high school lacrosse leagues in the country. The team lost several key seniors last year including college ath-letes Jackson Tamasitis (Army), John Moder-ski (Villanova), Shane Carr (Yale), Tom Monzo (Stony Brook), and Ben Krieger (Haverford

Nikhil Krishnan, Mirror StaffCollege). This year it is again led by many seniors including captains Eric Berger (Mon-mouth) , Kevin Murphy (Monmouth), Ray Van-dergrift (St. Joseph’s), and Charles Giunta (St. Joseph’s). Berger is not phased by the loss of several seniors, stating “Our team this year has a lot more depth than in recent years. We lost some key guys last year that played sig-nificant minutes over their four year careers, but we feel that we have the talent as well as the dedication to be better than last year.” The team returns with only two All-InterAc honorable mentions, Berger and Junior Drew Murray. However, as the All-InterAc team was made of mostly seniors, it is likely that sev-eral will join the list this year. The girls lacrosse team returns to InterAc play this year led by captains Kelly Kubach (Michigan) and Emma Ebert along with four other seniors, Katherine O’Donnell, Molly Pighini, Anna Wills and Allison Rogers. Kubach states, “Last year we did pretty well. We made a lot of progress from the beginning to the end of the year.” Building on this pro-gress, the lacrosse girls are aiming for higher goals this year. The team returns one All In-terAc player, Sophomore Avery Shoemaker, an underclassman who has already commit-ted to play for the University of Virginia, and two honorable mentions, Ebert and Wills.

Dodgeball enthusiast Rick Mellor watches over members of the baseball team play in the intramural dodge-ball tournament. Mellor coached Penn Charter baseball for over two decades.

Photo by Ben Szuhaj

Across the street, the boys tennis team starts the season in good condition. Captain Matt Brown explains, “Our team is better than last year. We only lost 2 seniors and added 3 new additions to the team.” The three top single players are juniors DreShaun Jarmon, Ben Richards, and Geoffrey Zlobin-sky. Boys Tennis is returning most players and will fight as a team, as well as individu-ally, for places at the InterAc champs. On the river, crew is looking for a big push in the program this year. With a new coach and a large number of seniors, the team will try to continue its past success. Senior captain, Kevin Kelly stated, “the 16 members of the senior class will demonstrate the growth of the five-year-old program in their final year and show that we are a force to be reckoned with on a very competitive river.” The team has the most seniors out of all of the spring teams and, although they are a coed squad, the team competes sepa-rately between genders. Girls captain Heidi Zisselman stated that the girls goal for this year is “to make boats move fast, specifically faster than all other boats on the river, and if that is not possible, faster than we have ever moved before.”

Intramural CompetitionsPhoto by Ben Szuhaj

Sophomore Nicole DiGio-vanni (left) and senior Maria

Georgiou (right) help the varsity swimming and diving

team wrap up a successful season.

Photos by Michael Paolini

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

6

News and Community Page 6

Jordyn Schwartz, Mirror StaffMLK service day reflects service successes

Quaker Youth Leadership Conference: A Personal Account

Legends of the Bell Tower revealedAndy Nguyen, Mirror Staff

Sophie Sepel, To The MirrorOn February 7-9, 2013 sophomore Sophie Sepel, junior Sasha Gorski, and seniors Aaron Mandelbaum and Heidi Zisselman, along with 11-12 Grade Dean Ben Dziedzic, represented Penn Charter at the Quaker Youth Leadership Conference at Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. Sophie Sepel describes her experience for The Mirror:

The theme of the 2013 Quaker Youth Leadership Conference was “Creating a Climate of Change,” an appropriate topic for the current personal, school-wide, and global examination of and movement for justice. The conference gave us the opportu-nity to meet and learn from other teens in-volved in the religious lives of their schools (all Friends schools spanning from Rhode Is-land to North Carolina). The experience was immersive: community service, discussion groups, open mic performances, and lots of Meeting for Worship!

We pass it everyday. We hear it every hour. But, do we have ever hear the legends and stories about it? In a recent interview, Stephen Bonnie, Director of Stewardship, spilled never-before-heard legends about the Penn Charter Bell Tower. For example, did you know that in the 1980s, the bell tower’s existence was in jeopardy? Termites, another insect, or perhaps moisture, damaged the wooden tower, prompting former headmaster Earl Ball to consider taking it down. Bonnie shares that he remembers urging Ball not to take the tower down as it is an integral part of Penn Charter. It was decided that the bell tower was to be treated and renovated with new wood, which fixed the problem. Bonnie explains that PC has a bell tower because when Penn Charter’s current campus was being built, the school wanted to pay tribute to William Penn’s 2nd street house and its slate roof. Penn, “being hyster-ical about slate roofs,” as opposed to wood roofs, was adamant about his house having a slate roof. Wood roofs, often used in England, caused the Great Fire of 1666, when houses in England burned down like dominoes as the fire jumped from roof to roof. When Penn arrived in Philadelphia, he tried to avoid a similar catastrophe by creating grid like streets and houses with slate roofs. The PC bell tower’s slate roof pays tribute to his inventive city planning. The bell tower also gives PC a ‘Philadelphia flavor’ by emulating the design of City Hall. Bonnie adds that according to an-other legend, former headmaster Richard Mott Jones wanted to have a bell so the stu-dents knew when to come to school. How-

ever, most PC students did not live in the immediate neigh-borhood, which renders his idea pointless. Nevertheless, the bell was and still is used for its original purpose: time-keeping. Bonnie also revealed one mid-20th century legend that states a maintenance worker went up on the hour to ring the bell using a rope. However, we now use an au-tomatic mechanism to ring the bell. Throughout the cen-tury, though primarily in the 1920’s to 1940’s, it was con-sidered a rite of passage for seniors to go up into the bell tower and carve their names. Now, since the ladders up to the top of the bell tower are still the original ladders from 1925, students are ill-advised to try carving their names. For students today, going up to the tower is a very very rare event. The majority of Penn Charter students nev-er climb the bell tower, unless special permission is granted by the Head of School. It is said that only 1 to 3 people go up the bell tower per year and it is only allowed in the most special circumstances.

One of the stairways that leads up to the bell tower.

Photo by Andy Nguyen

Since Penn Charter’s founding, ser-vice has been an integral part of its values and curriculum. Therefore, it is no surprise that on January 21, 2013, over 350 mem-bers of the Penn Charter community volun-teered in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Penn Charter’s philosophy is that Martin Luther King Jr. day is “a day on, not a day off,” when students, faculty, and friends are encouraged to give back to their communities in the memory of the late civil rights leader. According to James Ballengee, Penn Charter’s Director of Service Learning, this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. day of ser-vice “was one of the best ever. We had great participation in all three divisions of the school.” Ballengee explains that the holiday allows many students who do not participate in after-school service projects due to other commitments to participate. Penn Charter provided several ser-

vice opportunities on January 21st. Lower School worked with the Police Athletic League’s new Lighthouse center in North Philadelphia, collecting sports equipment, books, and school supplies in the weeks be-fore the day of service. Then, on Martin Lu-ther King Day a group of parents and students from the lower school set out to paint at the Lighthouse and help build a library. The Up-per and Middle school students cleaned the grounds at the St. James School in East Falls, a regular site for after school volunteers. They also worked to clean the Manayunk Tow Path, design social justice graphics, and pre-pare food in the Penn Charter cafeteria for St. Vincent’s Soup Kitchen. The centerpiece of the day of service at Penn Charter is the annual four-day Matt Miller Basketball Tournament, which benefits the Matthew T. Miller OPC ’86 Memorial Scholarship Fund. This year’s

tournament attracted thirty teams and approximately 320 elementary and middle school players from the greater Philadelphia area. According to Tate Miller, PC freshman and son of Matt Miller, “the success of this tournament was entirely dependent on the volunteers.” Miller explained, “This tournament was very successful since many people could relax because of the overflow of volunteers. Everyone who helped out was great, which made the tournament a success.” In total, the tournament raised $8,238. Mr. Ballengee best defined the spirit of the day, when he stated “just watching our Upper School Students watching the Obama swearing in with the St. James students is proof positive of what a great day it was!”

Penn Charter students let their inner lights shine at the Quaker Youth Leadership Conference. Here, they learn how to be true Friends with new friends.

Photo contributed by Sasha Gorski

It was exciting to hear students out-side of the Penn Charter community reflect on how Quakerism influences their lives and schools. Most students who attended the conference were not Quaker, but the at-mosphere was one of the Quaker values of respect, open-mindedness, and simplicity (we slept on a gym floor, you can’t get any less luxurious). Since the theme was change, specifically how to be a catalyst of positive change, many student discussions and the keynote speaker focused on what it means to be a leader. One of my favorite activities was a powerful student lead discussion on moral-ity. Also, the Meeting for Worships provoked deep reflection and were very enjoyable be-cause of the huge amount of student speak-ers. Mostly, though, I enjoyed the atmos-phere of complete acceptance and value of each person for his or her individuality.

The Mirror Staff2012-2013

Editors-in-Chief Ani Schug

Kidder Erdman

News & CommunityHeidi Zisselman

Aaron Mandelbaum

SportsBennett SamuelLeigh Steinberg

Online SportsTed Foley

EditorialsGlynis Braun

Greg Nazarian

EntertainmentIzzy Hirshberg

Lauren Matt

Photography Anna WillsJulia Vahey

Online EditorRachael Garnick

Faculty AdvisorsFred HuntingtonLiz Spagnoletti

Check out our website at www.pcmirror.org!

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

7

Entertainment

Pop Culture GridBryan Shipon, Mirror Staff

What was your pick for “Best Picture” at the Oscars?

Best Super Bowl Commerical

Favorite U.S. President from before you were born

What animal would you choose to be on your football team?

Corey Kilbane, Teacher

Peter Ciarrocchi,Sophomore

Sarah Brody-Bizar,Sophomore

Page 7

Doritos

Leon Sandcastle

Oreos

Woodrow Wilson

Martin Van Buren

JFK

Cheetah

Alex Schwartz, Junior

Go Daddy JFK Elephant

Matt Swiman,Junior

Ronald Reagan Gorilla

Monkey

Monkey

Skyfall

Argo

Argo

Django

Argo

What could be better than playing Manhunt at school? On Friday, February 15, 2013, the junior class participated in the sec-ond annual Junior Lock-In overnight at Penn Charter. The event began at 6:30 p.m. with pizza in the cafeteria and ended late Satur-day morning with the juniors making their own version of a Harlem Shake video. Over the course of the 18 hour event, the juniors participated in a series of bonding activities which gave them a special opportunity to grow closer together as a class. The main reason for having the Junior Lock-In was to provide members of the class with an opportunity to get to know each other better in a fun, supervised envi-ronment before their final year at Penn Char-ter. The Lock-In gave juniors a chance to talk to and socialize with classmates that they might not interact with on a normal school day, and might never really get to know. Jun-ior Evan Beere remarked: “I liked [the Lock In] because I was able to talk to people I usually do not get to talk to. I really enjoyed having many activities with different people because it brought us closer as one grade.” When juniors showed up on Friday night, they were presented with an activity-filled evening planned by junior Class Presi-dent Lauren Matt, and Vice President Glynis Braun. One game idea that they planned was Manhunt, a game that involves two teams where one team hides and tries to reach “base” without being tagged and sent to “jail” by a member of the other team, and the other team protects the “base.” Manhunt

Doritos

Go Daddy Ulysses S. Grant LigerSilver Linings Playbook

Alexa Herskowitz,Freshman

Junior class “locked in” FriendshipDanielle Reisley, Mirror Staff

was fun because the juniors were able to run all around the campus at night, screaming, laughing and having a good time without dis-turbing anyone. It was the favorite activity of the night for many students including junior Cherie Doan, who remarked: “I wish we could have played more of it.” Running around on campus at night gave the juniors a whole new perspective of the school. When looking for hiding spots during the game, students were able to no-tice things that they normally overlooked during their busy school days such as the bushes behind the Kurtz center, and the se-cret passages behind the trees. The juniors had free time just to hang out with each other in an informal way, but also engaged in a variety of struc-tured team building projects. Some students claimed that they preferred the free time ac-tivities of swimming in the pool and hanging out in the gym with friends, more than the planned activities. Junior Daniel Post-Jacobs remarked that his favorite activity was “just shooting around during our free time. The structured activities were fun, but I more en-joyed the chance just to mess around with the guys.” On the other hand, Hailey Ben-net’s favorite activity was the bonding activ-ity where everyone anonymously wrote the qualities that they liked most about each per-son in their group. She observed: “The com-pliments were extremely caring and thought

February Showcases “seussical” talent

continued on page 8

February was a busy month for Penn Charter arts. Valentine’s day brought a special Showcase filled with love songs and lots of Joni Mitchell. Many students like Quin-ton Laurencio, Kendall Fletcher, and Nic Hanson even composed origi-nal songs for the occasion. Junior DreShaun Jarmon made his Show-case debut and left the audience begging for more.

At the end of the month, the all school musical, Seussical, enter-tained students, parents, and alumni of all ages. The production ended with a bang on Sunday afternoon in front of a sold out audience!

Showcase photos by Ben Szuhaj

Seussical photos courtesy of the Class Record

NEWSPAPER • APRIL2012

8

Ani Schug, Mirror Staff

Are you interested in writing, taking photos, or making videos for The Mirror ?

If so, talk to Ani Schug or Kidder Erdman... there are still spots available!

CrossWord Challenge!Entertainment

Across1) Tattered cloth4) British Representatives (abbr.)7) Units of electrical resistance8) Fable writer10) _____ Messi13) Canadian Capital14) Saturated hydrocarbon suffix15) ____ Moines17) Spigot18) Zodiac lion19) ___ and flow21) Copenhagen’s country25) Dentist degree26) Chimpanzee, Gorilla, or Orangutan28) From Cardiff29) Mainline all-girls InterAc school30) Ginger ____32) Baseball stat.33) Preteen boy’s choice of deodorant34) Praise36) Bullets, shells, etc.38) Race, sex, individual suffix39) Saudi Arabian export40) First name of Looney Tunes skunk42) Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso neighbor43) English class for non-native speakers44) Number after 15 to the Romans46) No prescription necessary48) Grow older49) More boring51) Lass’ partner53) Drug of choice for dopers54) Hunter and gatherer quality56) Marley, Dylan, Dole, or Saget58) Rejected women’s rights bill59) Brother from Arrested Development60) Dispensed candy62) Ah, there’s the _____.64) Get ready to kiss66) Less difficult68) Small insect pest69) Accra’s country 70) Number of commandments71) Music producer Brian ______

Down1) German river2) Single-celled protozoa3) TV channel for Family Feud and Lingo reruns4) NY art museum5) Prayer songs6) Scattered seeds7) Hello for a Brazilian8) Chemical source of energy9) Kung ____ Chicken11) British singer-songwriter: _____ Sheeran12) Escorted13) Acorns’ tree16) Stitch fabric together17) Thyroid-stimulating hormone20) Water bottle contaminant22) Geeky kid23) Phillies’ league24) China, Mongolia, Vietnam location25) “Live and Let _____”27) Orbital shape29) Aquatic Mexican salamander31) Canvass support33) Friend in Santiago, Madrid, or Lima

The first person to hand in a correctly completed crossword to Ani Schug will receive some delicious

baked goods!35) Baseball ref37) Cow sound41) What students prepare for in June42) Grouplove’s “Tongue ____”43) I in the Roman Empire45) MTV award47) Taxi48) Native tribes of the Southwest49) Hit a tennis ball high into the air50) Tear fabric52) The Picture of _____ Gray53) Volcano action54) Either, or; Neither, ___55) ____ Lo Green57) Good for a Spaniard58) Government group in charge of air pollution59) High School degree61) Zig ___63) Woman’s undergarment65) Family67) He’s partner

out, and it showed me that you never really know how other people view you. I liked the activity the most, because I felt, in that moment in time, very connected to every person in my group no matter how close we are in actuality.” The Lock-In gave juniors the chance to learn about their class-mates, before it was too late. At the Lock In, the junior class was able to find out that Micah Holloway is an excellent whistler, that Hans Sted-man and Drew Peirce can do standing back flips, and other interesting facts that they might not have learned about their classmates had it not been for the get together. In reviewing the Lock In, two common criticisms the juniors shared were that the gym floor was uncomfortable to sleep on, and they wished that a greater number of their classmates could have attended the event. Overall, it seems that most, if not all, of the juniors who par-ticipated had a great time and would recommend that the Junior Lock-In tradition continue for future classes!

Junior Lock incontinued from page 7

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