dec. 18, 2015

Apparently common sense is still stuck in heavy traffic.

Traffic is worse this year. This is not entirely unexpect-ed, however, as Jones took in far more students this year than it graduated. But the massive traf-fic jams between both campuses that have sprung up suddenly are unprecedented and unacceptable.

The most glaring way in which administration could alle-viate congestion is to tweak room assignments. Almost every depart-ment is grouped closely together.

For teachers, stacking a floor with a single department can be convenient, but Sociolo-gy, taught by Frank Fitzpatrick, is held in the former choir room in the north campus. This room was never designed for traditional classes. What’s next? Will teach-ers have to shout to be heard in the auditorium? Good luck to all the students who’ll have to endure finals in the close con-fines of the former band room.

This arrangement means that all students in a certain department during a certain period will be heading to the same location. This means that in the tight corridors of the north building and the in-ter-campus link, near-gridlock en-sues every day. Why not put a less commonly enrolled department in the north campus, or distribute students across the building more evenly during each passing pe-riod, or separate underclassmen from upperclassmen by building?

Despite all these obvious solutions, administration’s current response to the problem seems to be limited to a couple traffic cones, which divide the space in the link into two lanes. But the cones are not placed proportion-ately to the amount of traffic each side receives. The far less-traf-ficked north to south side has the majority of space, squeezing the south to north side into a bottle-neck. Yes, certainly the other side experiences more traffic at certain times of the day, but the security guards can easily adjust the cones to provide more room for the side experiencing the most traffic.

The bottom line is this: Jones’ administration must tweak the classroom assignments and ad-just the structure of traffic lanes in the inter-building link, or else we’ll all have to grow consid-erably more tolerant of tardies.

Friday, December 18, 2015 The Student Newspaper of Jones College Preperatory High School Volume 1, Issue 1

Like sand through the hourglass

“Slowly and patiently,” is how Principal P. Joseph Powers describes Jones students passing between the north and south build-ings as well as the security staff’s attempt to tackle the traffic flow.

“There’s so many people in the hallway and a lot of them are moving slowly,” said Carrie Len-za ‘18. If you’re going from one building to the other, it’s going to be hard to get to a class, es-pecially if it’s on a higher floor.

Concerns about weath-er are also prevalent to stu-dents crossing the link.The “link” refers to the con-nective area between the north and south buildings. This con-nection has created many prob-lems for students and staff.

“I’ve almost been late to class. It’s really annoying because it takes like five minutes just to pass through that small little gap. It’s cold outside right now and peo-ple don’t know how to walk fast so it takes way too [long],” said Austin Smith ‘19.

To fix these issues the staff has im-plemented several new tactics.

“The reason we put that [the caution tape and safety cones] up this year and tried to put staff between the two buildings, is so we can try and facilitate it,” said Powers. “For example, we opened up the bottom of the north stairs, and people have been going up and in that way. [Previously]we didn’t have anyone going down those stairs. Those were intended as emergency stairs.”

The administration and securi-ty staff have even started to notice

trends in when the link is the busiest.“We’ve even looked at the

amount of time that it takes ev-ery day; if there’s 10 minutes of passing, I think that it’s between minute three and seven or eight is when it’s the most congested,” said Assistant Principal Eric Mitchell.

The most probable reason for the increase of traffic in the con-nective link is due to the increase of students at Jones, but Powers also believes that the reorganization of the departments is also responsi-ble for the problems in the link.

“We moved whole depart-ments to the other building, at the teachers’ request. Each department wanted to be in the same building to facilitate communications with-in the department. World language and social science classes are all in the north building, plus part of PE and part of science. That’s where a lot of volume is coming be-cause a lot of students have to go to different floors,” said Powers.

The reorganization has im-pacted many students, especially

people that have to move between higher floors.

“Going from the sixth floor of the old building to the seventh floor of the new building to go from chemistry to gym, that’s a pain. It takes

too much effort and too much time,” said Josh Gerenraich ‘17.

This influx of traffic has also allowed for the questioning of the efficiency of the link’s de-sign. The link was designed by the architecture firm Perkins + Will, who was responsible for the design of the south building.

Perkins + Will senior designer Bryan Schabel said that the reason behind the link’s design is because it “was not planned to be there, so it had to be structured in part by two existing buildings which were not intended to support it.”

During the design process of the south building, it was gen-erally perceived that the north campus would be demolished and that the south campus would be a stand-alone building. According to Powers, the administration was given the green light by the city to keep the north campus about “six months before we were supposed to move [into the south campus].”

“Had we known it was going to be there, we would have designed the new building differently to provide better circulation between the two buildings,” said Schabel.

Schabel says that the link was designed to incorporate other aspects of the building that are located underground.

“It was decided early on that a covered walkway would be the best solution that would provide security and shelter from weather in the short distance between the two buildings while also maintain-ing access to the utilities if some-thing goes wrong,” said Schabel.

Powers states that the link was designed the way it is because a full design was too expensive.

“We had to scale it back. We have the partial covering, the glass on the east side to pro-tect from wind and for securi-

ty... and most of our work was concentrated on remodeling the other building,” Powers said.

According to Powers, the cur-rent layout was not the original plan. “Be grateful that the original design wasn’t included, as it would be more crowded - it was a com-pletely enclosed hallway, in effect.”

As for next year, the ad-ministration believes that the growth of students will be less than the growth level of stu-dents over the past three years, which will affect link traffic.

“We’ll be graduating 280 students, but we’ll basically bring in about, call it 150, may-be fewer than that, freshman students. Our target’s going to be 425, but we’re graduating 280, so it’s a smaller growth [from past years],” said Powers.

To combat traffic, the ad-ministration should “encourage people to walk faster... somehow, people just slow down as soon as they hit the link,” said Lenza.

“Now, I suggested zip lines between the buildings, but CPS has no imagination. I figured if we charged 50 cents per ride, we’d make a fortune,” said Powers. “It may not pass any safety codes, but it’d be a heck of a lot of fun.”

ORLA LEVINS ‘18 Managing Editor, SchoolMAGGIE BEDORE ‘17 Deptuy Editor, School

JOSH ODUM ‘16

As temperatures drop, frustration builds over state of narrow, congested, connection between buildings

Artwork by Ciara Greene ‘17

Traffic jams can be avoided

“I suggest-ed zip lines between the buildings, but CPS has no imagination.”Principal P. Joseph Powers

Troy Hilbrands,Office Clerk

Jeremy Voigt, Director of Finance

Meredith Kramer,Director of Student Services

Michelle Parada,Spanish Teacher

Chris Lin, Science Teacher

Teachers fundraise with holiday sweaters Raising $378 for Save the Children, a charity to aid children in developing countries

Alex Behle ‘16Nikolas Merten ‘16

Alicia Wala ‘16Kevin Shannon ‘16

Josh Odum ‘16 Orla Levins ‘18

Maggie Bedore ‘17Jessica Jamaica ‘16

Dawen Mei ‘16Ethan Phipps ‘16

Vanessa Gonzalez ‘17Maeve Harvey ‘17

Mia Prekop ‘17Colleen Mitchell ‘16

Nia Curtis ‘16Cristian Espinoza ‘16

Genna Greblo ‘16Jacob Montalvo ‘16

Gabby Torres ‘16Jacob Naszke ‘17

Ivy Rejman ‘17Elizabeth Goldblatt ‘18

Mikaela Uddfolk ‘17Julia Gaworski ‘17

Juan Cuecha ‘16Nico Moreno ‘16

Jonathan Nunez ‘16Ulisses Regalado ‘17

Kayla Candos ‘16Henry Michaels ‘16Max Segal-Wolk ‘16

Ciara Greene ‘17

John Lund

Editor-in-ChiefAssociate Editor, DesignAssociate Editor, CopyAssociate Editor, PhotoDeputy Editor, OpinionManaging Editor, School Deputy Editor, SchoolSchool StaffSchool StaffSchool StaffSchool StaffSchool StaffSchool StaffManaging Editor, LifestylesDeputy Editor, LifestylesLifestyles StaffLifestyles StaffLifestyles StaffLifestyles StaffLifestyles StaffLifestyles StaffLifestyles StaffManaging Editor, SportsDeputy Editor, SportsSports StaffSports StaffSports StaffSports StaffBusiness ManagerBusiness ManagerDigital ArtistCartoonist

Advisor

PAGE 2

NEW POLICIES, NEW ATTITUDES

In the post Columbine world, security in both private and public spaces has increased from metal detectors, hired security, security camera set ups, and identification attached to lanyards. It is without a doubt that at any given moment a school can turn into the next massacre, a workplace can be the next site of domestic terrorism, and any steps to prevent such an event should be taken.

Jones has implemented a heavier and more strict policy on students wearing their ID’s. Previous consequences for not wear-ing IDs were light or non-existent. But as the school exceeds 1,600 students, there are more students to be accounted for at all times.

In 2014, the school was issued a threat from an anonymous source through the so-cial media app Yik-Yak. Due to Yik-Yak user anonymity, it was unclear who was to blame.

Other violent threats towards the school took place in the 2014-2015 school year. One was of a man wielding an as-sault rifle and firing shots at a Blue Line CTA Train, who was later arrested right next to the school. Easily, the man could have seeked shelter inside our school and put students at risk.The other was a threat placed in the Class of 2018 Face-book page. Granted, the post was from the video game “Hatred,” but it drove the school into lockdown for almost two hours.

The caveat that comes with the ID poli-cy is that there is no ability to decipher who is a threat to the school based off a lanyard. However, in past school shootings, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did not wear ID’s

to Columbine High School. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary school shoot-er, was an outsider who invaded the school and killed children back in 2012, a time when wearing an ID was not required by.

Yes, the ID policy is strict and annoying for everyone: staff enforcing it and students abiding in fear of five detentions. The point is that the school has faced serious threats and anything that can be done to prevent harm, even something as little as wearing a lanyard around your neck, should be em-braced for the safety of our school. Visitors, even recent graduates, must wear an ID sticker. While IDs might not prevent a student from act-ing violently, it helps identi-fy who belongs here.

ETHAN PHIPPS ‘16

As racial tensions and the title of most segregated city in America loom over Chica-go, the students of Chicago Public Schools have joined together in a fight for their ed-ucation. The students have united to protest against devastating budget cuts that could eliminate Advanced Placement and visu-al and performing art classes while poten-tially having even broader impacts. While the immediate goal of the protests is to de-feat the budget cuts, they also present an opportunity for young people in Chicago to address even bigger issues that affect their community like racism and poverty.

This broader focus could be particularly successful if the protests can truly incorporate the voices of students from both neighbor-hood and Selective Enrollment Schools alike. While the Selective Enrollment Schools are in many ways extremely diverse, they are often seen as exclusive establishments compared to neighborhood schools. Through the protests students from both these types of schools will have a chance to interact with and learn about each other’s experiences in a way that they otherwise may not. This will not only make the protests more effective, but will make the students more active citizens of Chicago.

In order to achieve this promise of a broader involvement, the leadership of the

protests needs to reflect the voices of all types of Chicago Public school students. Because the budget cuts will impact neighborhood school students at a far greater rate than Se-

lective Enrollment students, it is essential that neighborhood school students cultivate a sense that their voice matters to the same degree as Selective Enrollment students.

The efforts of Selective Enrollment students leading the protests should be loudly applauded. They are doing more than they should have to do to ensure their schools are properly funded. However, in

order to make the protests as effective as they can be, there needs to be a partner-ship between the two types of schools.

While this may require Selective Enroll-ment students to be more humble and neighborhood students to take initiative for change, Chicago Public Schools and the entire city itself will benefit from the effort.

This, however, is a two-way street. True leadership from neigh-borhood schools must be prepared and willing to wage an efficient campaign. If not, schools will re-sort to fending for themselves as Payton’s principal has taken action to help raise two million dollars for the school from alumni and parent donations. This does not solve the issue. It only promotes the idea that the Selective Enroll-

ment schools are at the forefront of this all and are only invested so much in the protests in order to prevent their own misfortune from the budget cuts. But it is no excuse for neigh-borhood schools to sit and watch Payton do all the work. It is time to for them to unite as the Chicago Public Schools that they are and face this budget crisis as a united front.

Blueprint: A new voice for students Over the past year and a half, students from John Lund’s journalism class picked

up the pieces left by the defunct “Eagle’s Eye” and rebranded into Blueprint. With a new name, Blueprint reflects Jones in a new era: charting a new course, mapping out what our legacy will be, and what additions and changes have yet to be foreseen. The newspa-per is an outlet for all students and a window into the diverse opin-

ions and experiences of the Jones community. On behalf of Lund, we would like to thank Principal P. Joseph Powers, JoAnne Troesch, Gabe Dominguez, and Friends of Jones for their help towards get-ting this printed publication off the ground. We hope that the Blue-print will be a Jones tradition for years to come. While we aim to publish at a bi-monthly frequency for the rest of this school year, please visit jonesblueprint.com for the lastest stories and updates.

Strength in numbers: All CPS schools must unify in budget battle

LettersLetters to the Editor are encouraged and will be screened for libel, irresponsiblity, and obscenity. The Editorial Board may edit or shorten letters as long as the meaning is unchanged. All letters must be signed and include your email for ver-ification. Requests to withold the writer’s name

from publication will be considered. Letters can be sent to [email protected] or

dropped off in Room 201. ALEX BEHLE ‘16 Editor-in-Chief


JONESBLUEPRINT.COM @JONESBLUEPRINT DECEMBER 18, 2015

KEVIN SHANNON ‘16

ID policy necessary for school safety Rule crackdown confusing, inconvienent

@jonesblueprint

Photo by Kevin Shannon ‘16SOLIDARITY Anthony Wagner ‘17 leads a CPS-wide stu-dent protest on Nov. 6 at the Thompson Center, against budget cuts proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

OUR VIEW: How to make homecoming positive, school spirited, environment. See online for more.

A REAL HOMECOMING

Right out of the gate, administra-tion made it a point that many things they used to let slide will no longer be tolerated – most targeted offenses be-ing the lack of an ID around your neck and wearing a hat around the building.

Complaints have stemmed from the fact that wearing ID’s were never a big deal until now, and arguments used to jus-tify the switch are weak at best. Wearing them proves that you are a student that at-tends the school, and Jones does not want to take a chance of having potential threats roaming the halls. While that is valid, it just

serves to be an annoyance for students.Even more perplexing is the im-

plementation of the ban on hats inside the school. As

soon as you step in the

door, administration, security, and even some teachers immediately remind you about tak-ing off your hat. And, if you do not comply, you could face five detentions or risk having your hat confiscated for the rest of the day.

Through these rules and the more strict enforcement of them, Jones is creating a relationship between authority figures and students that is unhealthy. This is horrible for Jones moving into the future. We want to create a place where staff and students get along in harmony, not where students feel like there are people always breathing down their neck over arbitrary rule constructs.

As a student, I know that my school is trying its hardest to make this a great environment that fosters learning and a progressive social mindset; but, it is diffi-cult to sit back and allow certain things to be carried out without at least voicing my opinion. Through these rules and the expo-nentially more strict enforcement of them, Jones is creating a relationship between its authority figures and students that is, to say the least, unhealthy. Students see staff more as people they have to watch out for rather than people that are just watch-ing out for them. This is horrible for Jones moving into the future – we want to create a place where staff and students get along in harmony, not where students feel like there are people always breathing down their neck over arbitrary rule constructs.

Michelle ParadaSpanish I, II

Education: B.A., Political Science with minors in Spanish and Public Relations, Marquette Univ.; M.A., Teaching, National Louis Univ.Fun Fact: Has been learning to speak Polish little by little.

Samantha McElroy

Survey of Lit., American Lit.

Education: B.S., English Educa-tion, Temple Univ.; M.S., Teach-ing, Univ. of New HampshireFun Fact: Has three brothers.

Cathleen Martin

World Studies, U.S. History

Education: B.A., History, Univ. of Colorado; M.A., History, Univ. of MichiganFun Fact: Previously taught French.

Nicole LoweryAP Biology,

Biology

Education: B.S., Biology with minor in Secondary Education, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-paignFun fact: Grew up on a dairy farm in Illinois and was an active member of Future Farmers of America (FFA) in high school.

Daniel KovacsWorld Studies,

Economics

Education: B.A., History, Ka-lamazoo College; M.A., History, Univ. of Chicago; M.S., Ed., Northwestern Univ.Fun Fact: Also teaches at Wilbur Wright College and is an active investor.

Caitlin MillerAmerican Lit.,

British Lit.

Education: B.A. and M.A., En-glish, Univ. of Illinois at ChicagoFun Fact: Plays the drums and has performed in several bands across the city.

Al JacquesIntro. to Engi-

neering Design, Digital Elect.

Education: B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; B. Arch, Architecture, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago; Secondary Teaching Certification, NU-Teach at North-western Univ.Fun Fact: Is learning to play ice hockey.

Eric HancockBiology

Education: B.S., Biology, Indi-ana Univ.; M.Ed., Univ. of Illinois at ChicagoFun Fact: Lived on a mountain in South Africa three different sum-mers doing ecology research.

David GilmerSurvey of Lit.,

Black American Lit.

Education: B.A., Creative Writ-ing, Knox College with a minor in Black Studies; M.A., Secondary Education, Accordia Univ.Fun Fact: Is left handed.

Elisa FoshayDance

Education: B.A., Dance, Co-lumbia College Chicago; M.F.A., Univ. of North Carolina at GreensboroFun Fact: “I actually had no interest in teaching when I was an undergrad, and fell into my first teaching job completely by chance. I ended up loving it.”

Fran FeeleyLibrary

Education: B.A., Psychology, Univ. of Notre Dame; M.A., School Psychology, State Uni-versity of New York at Buffalo; M.A., Library and Information Science, Dominican UniversityFun Fact: Jumped out of a plane twice with parachutes.

Natasha FastMath 2B, 3A

Education: B.S., Mathematics, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; M.S., Edu-cation, Northwestern Univ.Fun Fact: Loves Star Trek: The Next Generation and has seen every episode at least twice.

Kyle EckMath 3A

Education: B.S., Mathematics, Theatre, Northwestern Univ.; M.S., Teaching of Mathematics, Univ. of Illinois at ChicagoFun Fact: Rides a motorcycle to and from school every day.

Susan ChongCounselor

Education: B.S., Education, M.A., School Counseling, Univ. of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Fun Fact: Has adult braces and enjoys biking on the 606 trails.

Laura Blackburn

Law I, II

Education: B.A., English, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison; J.D., Univ. of MinnesotaFun Fact: Grew up on a farm.

Brian BastyrSurvey of Lit.,

Creative Writing

Education: B.A., Rhetoric, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; J.D., Univ. of Illinois College of Law; M.A., Education, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Fun Fact: Has two kids from Korea.

No classes will be held from December 21, 2015, to January 4, 2016.

WINTER BREAK


PAGE 3

Fast-growing faculty

Peter PodlipniChemistry, Astronomy

Education: BSEd, Secondary Ed-ucation in Sciences, Northwestern Univ.Fun Fact: Was a Chicago lake-front lifeguard for four years.

Kara ReichertChemistry,

Biology

Education: B.S., Chemistry, Taylor Univ.; M.S., Education, DePaul Univ.Fun Fact: Feminism Club spon-ser

Jonathan SmithAP Gov.,

World Studies

Education: B.A. and M.A., His-tory, Colorado State Univ.Fun Fact: Was an innertube wa-ter polo champion in college.

Ming Chu Pearl Terry

Mandarin I, III

Education: B.S., Commerce/Accounting, Univ. of Santo To-mas (Manila, Philippines); B.S.,

Education/Chinese Literature and History, Chiang Kai Shek College

(Manila, Philippines)Fun Fact: Plays a Chinese musi-

cal instrument called Pipa.

Caitriona TobinMath 3B, 4A

Education: B.S., Mathematics and English, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignFun Fact: Has two screws in her hand from when she broke it playing dodgeball.

Eyal WallenbergMath 1B, 2A

Education: B.A., Economics, Brandeis Univ.Fun Fact: Favorite food is avo-cado.

Eric MitchellAssistant Principal

Education: B.S., History and Sociology, Northwestern Univ.; M.S., Educational Leadership; National Louis Univ.Fun Fact: Still has his trumpet from when he played it in high school.

Advertise with Blueprint!

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HEREContact [email protected] for pricing.

23 new faculty members join more than 30 others who haven’t been at Jones as long as senior class

Briefs compiled by Crisitan Espinoza ‘16, Genna Greblo ‘16, Max Segal-Wolk ‘16, Maggie Bedore ‘17, Vanessa Gonzalez ‘17, Mia Prekop ‘17, Orla Levins ‘18

“My culture is not your costume”Cultural Clash: Explaining cultural appropriationIVY REJMAN ‘17, Lifestyles Staff

Brewing tensions revolving around cultural appropriation on a national level recently have lead to discussions within the Jones community and a debate on what’s offensive and what’s acceptable.

After hosting the VMAs on Aug. 30, Miley Cyrus received a lot of criticism for wearing a dread weave that mimicked locks, being called out on many social medi-as as an example of

c u l t u r a l appropriation. This was the

first time many Americans were hearing the term cul-tural appropriation, and since then many still remain unaware of what it is. In short, cultural appropriation can be defined as, “when some-body adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own.” However, a deeper understanding of cultural appropriation re-fers to, “a power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically op-pressed by that dominant group.”

This has become a large is-sue to some, as Karsyn Terry ‘17 puts it: “When the fashion industry grew, aspects of black culture, along with many minori-ties, were taken and turned into statements suddenly considered beautiful or high couture, while the minorities were judged and deemed unattractive for that same tradition for thousands of years. Cultural appropriation says to us (minorities) that we are unwor-thy, and only dominant cultures can make us adequate” Case in point: When actress Zendaya wore

locks on the red carpet, she was described by E! Fashion Po-lice Giuliana Rancic as smelling like “patchouli oil and weed,” but in the past Cyrus and Ky-lie Jenner’s locks have been deemed by many on social me-dia as “beautiful” and “edgy.”

Cat O’Donahue ‘17 has dread-locks and is a Caucasian girl.

O’Donahue has looked into the history and de

bate surround-ing cultural appro-priation, especially after the incident with Cyrus at the

VMAs and person-ally being criticized for having locks.

“I did research be-cause I hate feeling like I am hurting

o t h e r people with my a p p e a r - ance. I am very aware of the issues with cultur-al appropriation, and how it is offensive. Miley Cyrus is an ex-cellent example of how offensive cultural appropriation can be, but there is a difference between put-ting in a ponytail weave made of dreadlocks, and actually liv-ing with the dreadlocks like I do. I cannot take out my hair when-ever I want, I live with them.”

O ’ D o n o -hue said she is apart of “counter culture,” which rejects social norms, and “is not apart of any par-ticular culture.”

“It stems its roots from Rastafarian culture, which

was not for any specific race. I have spiritual reasons for get-ting my dreads. Also, I just don’t want to brush my hair, it’s easier.” O’Donohue said, “I am in no way

trying to be offensive. I com-pletely recognize that cultur-al appropriation is an issue. White people adopting black culture is an issue, but dread-locks are not a part of that.”

A friend of O’Dono-hue’s, Yori Mohorn ‘17, has locks as an African American girl and is not offended by

O’Donohue’s hair at all.“It’s not that serious,

if dreads were actually redeemed in the black cul-ture it could be serious, but they’re not,” Mohorn said.

There are also feelings of fear that being Caucasian

and wearing locks can give peo-ple an excuse to bully O’Dono-

hue and her friend, Margaux Reifman ‘17, another Cau-casian girl who has cho-

sen to style her hair in locks.O’Donohue said, “I

am afraid to walk around the school. I am con-stantly paranoid, not just in Jones, everywhere I go. I receive stares and com-ments on how ugly and of-fensive my hair is to

t h e m . ”At which

point Reifman spoke up and com-mented, “I am afraid to be here (fourth floor of new building) af-ter the bell rings,” People have commented negative messages on social media in response to her hair previously, making her con-cerned about her safety at school.

Black Student Union pres-ident, Terry, on the other hand pointed out that African American people live with the oppression and disapproving views from so-ciety, and when Caucasian people adopt their culture without doing anything to help change the way African Americans are viewed in society it is “hypocritical.” Adopt-ing black culture, while “saying how bad they (African Amer-

icans) are, doesn’t add up.”“You can’t take the cul-

ture, but continue to dis-criminate the culture’s people. Black people cannot get jobs be-cause they dress a certain way, or

have dreadlocks, but the fashion industry

took it and suddenly it’s okay be-cause of white people,” Terry said.

Terry is “annoyed”, and feels like people who appropriate cul-tures, “don’t understand why peo-ple would be bothered by it”. She wants people to understand that the people who own the cultures you appropriate are being shunned, but those ap-p r o p r i a t i n g the cultures aren’t. Tak-ing their cul-ture makes them feel “even more power less .”

T h e awareness of the issue of cultural ap-propriat ion, or even what it is with-in the Jones community is described by

Ter-r y as, “very limited.”

“Most are uneducated on the topic,” said Terry. “A lot of people walk around ignorant, confusing cultural appropria-tion with cultural appreciation.”

In an anonymous poll col-lected from the Jones student body, 48 out of 74s t u d e n t s answered “No” when asked thequestion,“Do you find it offensive when Caucasians wear dreadlocks?” Additionally, 17 out of the 26 students who answered “Yes” to this question were African American.

ALAS spon-sor, Mr. Ernesto Saldivar, made it clear that cultur-al appropriation is far more than j u s t locks and offending the African American culture.

It spreads across many cul-tures, yoga, for example, has be-come a fad in America. It is a way to relax and stretch, but to Hindu culture, yoga is a sacred practice that is part of their religion and a form of prayer. This attitude and behavior can lead to “an inten-

tional or unintentional mock-ing of the original culture.” Saldivar also pointed out a com-mon form of cultural appropria-tion that occurs during Hallow-een, when people may dress up as the stereotype of a particular

culture.“ Y o u

can take off y o u r

s o m b r e r oand poncho and

be done with it, dissociated from it. But for me, they (these sterereotypes)remain pres-ent after I takethem off.” Saldivar saidThe discon-

nect, a n d

g e n e r a l lack of under-

standing that Jones may have with this issue is a “clear misun-derstanding of culture and stu-dents,” according to Saldivar. It’s the “high school mentality that has lead to a disconnect between what people of color go through and the way white people act.”


PAGE 4

Frustration over cultural, JONESBLUEPRINT.COM @JONESBLUEPRINT DECEMBER 18, 2015

ROAD TO 2016The first votes in the Democratic and Republican nominating process for president will be cast in Iowa’s Caucus on Feb. 1

COLLEEN MITCHELL ‘16

It seems Chicago is in uproar over an October 2014 incident, in which Laquan McDonald, a black Chicago teenager, was shot by white Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, now becoming a nation-al news story. Once the city was or-dered to publicly release the foot-age, Chicago streets were flooded with protesters.

Protesters had their voices heard, as the protests were broadcast all over the country, and succeeded in rais-ing awareness on the issue of police brutality. Howev-er, though most protesting tactics have been peace-ful, I question the effectiveness and purpose of some protesters’ actions.

The tearing down of Christ-mas lights on the tree in Millenni-um Park and blocking of Black Fri-day shoppers from store entrances on the Magnificent Mile does not seem to relate to the issue pertain-ing to McDonald’s death: police brutality. As a method of fighting injustice, protesters are making their point by inconveniencing oth-ers who did no wrong. Shopping

and Christmas lights aren’t the of-fenders in this situation.The true offender was sitting in a jail cell. Van Dyke posted the required ten percent of his $1.5 million bail and faces life in prison if convicted.

These protests would make more sense if Van Dyke had not been arrested at all or if he had been acquitted in court, but in this case, the justice system is in sync with the protesters’ wishes. So what more could they have to protest?

For the most part, Chicago Police were c o m p l i a n t with the pro-testors and r e s p e c t e d their right to p e a c e f u l l y protest. Only five people were arrest-ed during

the Nov. 24 protests, and four on Nov. 25. During the Black Friday protests, officers allowed blocking of the stores; police had already blocked off the stores and ordered them to not let anyone in or out.

Efforts raising further aware-ness for this incident took a vi-olent turn when Jabari Dean, a 21-year-old black male student at University of Illinois at Chicago, posted a threat to the University of Chicago on social media say-

ing, “I will execute approximate-ly 16 white male students and/or staff, which is the same number of times McDonald was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process.” Classes were canceled Nov. 30 while police tracked him down to avoid a potential massacre.

The defamation of Chicago Police continues in the streets and on social media. Blaming the entire police department for the despica-ble act of one officer is generaliz-ing the police in the same way that many protesters feel they are being stereotyped by the police. Confront-ing officers monitoring protests, screaming in their faces, or in one case, allegedly punching one offi-cer, is unjust. Those officers were not the ones who killed McDonald; the man who did was rightfully behind bars where he should be.

Similarly, protestors should not blame the entire white race for this event. People who speak out against the need for protests are often attacked on social media and unjustly labeled as “ignorant” or “racist” merely because they don’t see the point in blocking Black Friday shoppers or tearing down Christmas lights. Holding signs that say things like, “White silence = white consent” puts blame on peo-ple who had no involvement in the situation. Most people of all races

are shocked and out-raged by this event, myself included.

There must be a better way for people to respond to this in-cident that does not involve the destruc-tion of city property, harm to the busi-nesses of Chicago, or threats made to col-lege stu-dents. If these pro-tests continue, moving away from peaceful marches to more destructive and vio-lent actions, Chicago is likely to become the next Ferguson or Baltimore, with the national media focus-ing in with a negative light.

Everyone has the right to their own opinion. Protesters have the freedom of speech to have their voic-es heard, as well as those who believe the justice system will do what’s right based on the evi-dence in this case.

In light of the recent racial is-sues at the University of Missouri, students are protesting to bring at-tention to racist acts including yell-ing the N-word at Black students and vandalizing the school with a swastika. With such disgraceful actions, I am put in in a unique position as a Black student who was planning to apply to attend this university that seems to ignore the necessity to enforce respect for my Black cul-ture. I wonder, as a Black student, should I still apply to Mizzou?

As a student attending high school, you are faced with decid-ing what college you want to go to. As a Black college-bound high school student, one could apply to

an all Black college, known as a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), instead of dealing with prejudice and rac-

ism at other colleges. Though some HBCUs rank high, most of the Ivy Leagues and the top one hundred colleges are all Predomi-nantly White Institutions (PWIs). So, when you are like me and are applying to colleges in a day and age when racial discrimination has struck hard at home and in school, it is hard to decide what type of ed-ucational environment you want.

When I was a sophomore, I had fallen in love with University of Missouri. The school, known as Mizzou, when explained to me bustled with school spirit, diversity, and a love for rigorous education. I knew that I wanted to go there. I had the Mizzou t-shirts, pens, hats, and I rooted for the Tigers for every college football game.

Now, as I hear from friends and the portrayal of protest by the media, they make Mizzou, my dream school, a monster. This school, where I saw my-self running to classes and foot-ball games, was now buried un-

der my worries of being safe and comfortable as a Black student.

Anuri Nwagwu, a friend of mine, attended Mizzou her freshman year in 2013, but later transferred to University of Il-linois Champaign-Urbana after an unpleasant experience during her first year. Her experience at the school was shocking to me because I had not seen Miz-zou the way she described it.

“I hated it. I cried every night to my mom on the phone. People were so mean,” said Nwagwu.

I could feel the sunny thoughts of Mizzou diminishing as I saw one of my mentors cry about not fitting in.

Nwagwu continued, say-ing students, “will call you ugly, shout things like ‘Black girls are ugly’ while you’re walking down the street. They won’t let you into frat parties, or other organizations, knowing that they are all-white par-ties.” Her experience and the nation-al media coverage of the protest tru-ly shifted how I felt about Mizzou.

My high school is diverse enough. At my school, I dealt with microaggressions (small verbal, or behavioral actions, whether intentional or unintentional, that relay derogatory or negative ra-cial insults toward people of col-or) and misunderstandings about my Black culture, but never at a level where I felt threatened. If I attended Mizzou, would I spend my four years defending my Blackness and fearing for my life?

While deciding to apply or not, I emailed Jawann Pollard, Miz-zou’s Chicago admissions repre-sentative. Despite my upsetting feelings about Mizzou, Pollard said one thing that stuck out and helped make my decision about applying.

Pollard said, “One of the takeaways from this situation is that this isn’t a Mizzou issue, but a national one.” Here, my heart changed, because Mizzou was not the only PWI that had issues like this. He reassured me, saying, “Our students decided to take a stand and

do something about it. Student protests at Mizzou have been the catalyst to many student bodies on other college campuses to create a more diverse and inclu-sive community at their schools.”

I know that if I attend Miz-zou I would be amongst stu-dents who are “catalysts” to the evolving treatment of Black students at White campuses.

After having these conversa-tions and internal reflection, Miz-zou is not one of my top schools anymore but still made my list as worthy to apply to. Being Black, and especially a Black student dealing with racial issues, is some-thing we are taught to deal with. This racial issue is not a “Mizzou issue,” but a world issue. I will not be a student who will try to duck and dodge racism but take it head on, as the students at Mizzou did.

NIA CURTIS ‘16

With racial unrest, senior faces college application dilemma

Is there a difference between protest and disruption?

Faces in the crowdNIKOLAS MERTEN ‘16JACOB NASKE ‘17

In the wake of the release of year-old video showing Chicago teen-ager Laquan McDonald’s death, Jones students and alumni joined hundreds protesting alleged police brutality on Black Friday, Nov. 27.

CHARLOTTE GEISSLER ‘17Blueprint: Do you think the protest was justified? CG: Of course. A young, innocent boy was brutally murdered by a protector of our city for no rational reason. To make matters worse, the system of city officials managed to silence McDon-ald’s death for an entire year by keeping the video concealed.

NATALIA BRANAS ‘17Blueprint:From your experience, how was the conduct of the po-lice officers on duty at the protest?NB:The police officers were pres-ent at the protest in fairly large numbers, however, they were not interfering in any way.

MAX McKUNE ‘14Blueprint: What was go-ing on during the protest?MK: People had signs and mega-phones while shouting, “black lives matter.” At one point we took over the bridge on Mich-igan Ave. I got arrested before trying to [close] the expressway.

PAGE 5


Frustration over cultural, racial tensions hit home

Photo courtesy Charlotte Geissler ‘17NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

Natalia Branas ‘17 joined hundreds protesting police brutality in

wake of the video of Laquan McDonald’s

death on Black Friday.

@jonesblueprintFollow on Instagram to see pictures from Eagle Games, Budget Protest, and Creed

“Blaming the entire de-partment for the despi-cable act of one officer is generalizing police in the same way many protesters feel they are being stereotyped by police.”

For the first time, Dance is offered to Jones students. Taught by Elisa Foshay, students filled five periods; however, there seems to be an is-sue of class diversity due to low male enrollment.

Jessica Li ‘17 said having guys in her class doesn’t create an awkward atmosphere. Rather, she’s “impressed with the guys who had the courage to take it, but it definitely is inclusive… regardless of gender.”

Reasons for signing up for the class dif-fer for all students. But some students think there is a specific reason why there is a lack of gender diversity in the dance classes.

“I thought dance would be an easy class and good way to be active during the day,” said Hannah Nelson ‘17. Yet, Nelson believes the reasoning for boys not signing up for Dance stems from the class itself. “I feel like dance has always been a very fe-male dominated industry… if they [boys] were inter-ested they might have hesitated to sign up because they feared they may be judged by their peers.”

Some male students take the class to fulfill graduation credit requirements.Joey Bergren ‘17 signed up for the class for the credit. But at the time he signed up, he didn’t realize that there would only be a handful of males in his class. He believes that the girls’ flexibility and facilitation to the choreography makes males like Bergren feel “unequal”.

Foshay said low interest in dance from boys stems from a line of reasoning en-

graved into the minds of children. “It’s important to me that we are getting as

many boys in [Dance] as possible, but ballet has affected the way dance is perceived in a contem-porary culture. Many people still believe bal-let is the foundation for all dance forms… that ballet is for girls, ballet is the foundation for all dance- therefore, dance is for girls,” said Foshay.

Foshay hopes that an increase of interest in dance and her efforts to make the class unisex will eventually inspire more boys to enroll next year.

Lord of the Dance: Breaking barriers in dance Combing through criminal minds, motives

Described as “an interesting hybrid between psychology and law,” Criminal Psychology is a new class taught at Jones this year.

Criminal Psychology is the required class for CTE Law III, however, it is also being of-fered as a social science elec-tive for juniors and seniors. All students taking the class have the opportunity to earn college credit from Loyola University.

Emlyn Ricketts modified the curriculum in order to ensure that all students are interested and more likely to succeed in class.

“I adapted the curriculum to make it a little bit more en-gaging for students who have taken psychology, for students who have never taken law be-fore, and for students who have never taken psychology before,” said Ricketts. “Anybody can

take this class and be successful.” The curriculum covers a wide

variety of topics, including the in-sanity defense and juvenile justice.

“It’s interesting to learn about not only the laws and the crimes themselves, but the mo-tives and states of mind that often result in criminal behav-ior,” said Ashley O’Donnell ‘17.

So far, Ricketts has only faced one major struggle with teaching the new course.

“There are so many things happening in the world around us that are really relevant to this class. The challenge is picking and choosing what we are go-ing to cover,” said Ricketts. “For example, the Laquan McDonald shooting. I wanted to make sure we had a chance to talk about that and relate it to the curricu-lum that we have been covering.”

AP “HUG:” Embracing college rigor from an early age

With so much focus on pre-paring students for college, it’s no surprise Jones decided to of-fer a new course for freshmen, AP Human Geography, so they could experience a college course.

Some of the goals of AP Human Geography are to teach students to interpret maps, perform geographical anal-ysis, and recognize regions.

Students have formed opin-ions on the class. Scott Deja ‘19 said that AP Human Geography is “one of my favorite classes be-cause it puts me in situations that help me learn by challenging me with concepts that are new to me.”

Not only does it seem to cov-er topics that students enjoy, the the class format is also appealing.

“The class is student based with many discussions and de-bates,” said Jack Bedore ‘19. “The students understand and learn the

material better than a teacher dic-tating lessons to the students.”

Not only was this class cho-sen to allow the freshmen to gather college experience, the de-cision to offer this course was in-fluenced by a need to “challenge the students who already had the writing and reading skills, as well as the strong interest in So-cial Studies.” explains Bochnak.

Bochnak believes World Studies became a class that fo-cused more on the struggling stu-dents and was “dragging behind” the more advanced ones. Although the new class has fulfilled his ear-ly expectations, Bochnak is aware that there are still areas that need improvement. He wants his stu-dents to remember that “it doesn’t matter what decisions are made... geography will always play a role in that decision, event, or action.”

Bowling in the hallway and creating masterpieces in the classroom; there is never an average day in ACES.

ACES, short for Acceptance, Caring, and Em-powerment, is an honors course available to soph-omores, juniors and seniors as an art or P.E. class. Each special education student is paired with a stu-dent known as their “bud-dy”, and students work with their buddies to play games and create projects. Bud-dies, also known as leaders, run the class with a teacher.

In a P.E. class taught by Robert Heselton, students and their buddies play games such as volleyball and bowl-ing. Classes sometimes visit Roosevelt Park, where they walk around and explore the area. In ACES Art, taught by Laura Boban, the students and their buddies work to-gether to create art to be installed around the school.

Boban said, “The ACEs Art program is a won-derful addition to Jones. It offers students a unique visual arts opportunity in which they collabo-rate on all of their projects and class activities.”

“What many people might not be aware of is how large our population is of students with mod-erate cognitive or severe and profound disabilities,” said special education teacher Andrew Adelmann.

“Because we have 38 students in our cluster program, this requires the same amount of ‘bud-

dies’ from our general ed-ucation program in order to ensure that each student gets the same quality expe-rience from the program on both sides.” says Adelmann.

Carly Klein ‘17, who is a buddy in ACES Art, said that ACES is im-portant to the school be-cause it lets all members of Jones act as a community.

Buddies want to take ACES for a mul-titude of reasons.

Cole Hamilton, a buddy in the ACES P.E. class said that he is taking ACES because his cousin has autism and a similar program helped him.

“ACES is a program that helps bring the entire school together. We need it in or-der to be a whole community,” Hamilton said.


ACES: building an inclusive community

Forensics returns to Jones for the 2015-2016 school year after an eight-year hiatus, and stands out for being a unique environ-ment that comprises science, law, and social awareness. Reception to the class is generally positive.

Nina Gesher ‘16 said that she would be upset if the class got cancelled due to the impending CPS bud-get cuts because “it’s one of [her] favorite classes.”

Teacher Marlita Sand-ers reinforced that homework wasn’t a main focus of the class, and usually was just

complimentary to in-class work. “The homework is prac-ticing more of what they cov-ered in class,” she says. “What-ever we are doing in class in that point in time, that’s what they have to go and practice.”

Sanders established that Forensics “is the application of science to the law. [The students are] applying knowl-edge that they’ve learned from biology, chemistry, [and] physics class to the law. And not only does it encompass biology, chemistry, physics, but all the other disciplines as well, like psychology, mathematics, art and music.”

Blood splatter, finger prints and crime scenes, all in one

Though he may not have observatories, tele-scopes, or even visible stars to aid him, first-year teacher Peter Podlipni endeavors to teach Jones students not only about what lies beyond the hori-zon, but also how to expand their own horizons. The course includes a “general survey” of the history and foundations of astronomy with a focus on influential astronomers, such as Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler.

Podlipni then moves into a sequential study of the characteristics of celestial bod-ies, beginning with “familiar” systems like the sun and the moon, and then “branch[ing] out into the solar system” and beyond.

Podlipni admitted that there were many “wrinkles to be ironed out” with a new class taught by a brand new teacher. He said the class can be confusing to students because of the massive scale and foreign nature of its material.

Reaching for the stars

VANESSA GONZALEZ ‘17, School Staff

MAGGIE BEDORE ‘17, Deputy Editor, School

JUAN CUECHA ‘16, Sports Staff

JOSH ODUM ‘16, Deputy Editor, Opinion

ELIZABETH GOLDBLATT ‘17, Lifestyles Staff

DAWEN MEI ‘16, School Staff

Researching, writing, and comfy library chairs: these are components of AP Capstone, a new class taught this year. AP Capstone is built on two AP courses: AP Seminar and AP Research. AP Seminar began this year, while AP Research will start next year for students who completed AP Seminar.

Students analyze text from multiple perspectives and construct evidence-based arguments. Students who complete AP Seminar will take AP Research the next school year, involving a year long independent study.

“We added AP Seminar to give some of our high-est performing students another outlet to explore and to give them another thing on their transcript for col-lege,” said AP Capstone teacher Brady Gunnink.

The course was developed two years ago, which has led to challenges for Gunnink and the other AP Capstone teacher Ryan Maggid.

“Another challenge is creating a class that doesn’t re-ally have any content. It has skills built into it, but there is really no specific content we have to teach,” said Maggid.

Capstone, the culminating AP experienceMAGGIE BEDORE ‘17, Deputy Editor, School

February 4, 2016, marks the halfway point of the 2015-2016 school year.

SEMESTER ENDS

FUN AND GAMES P.E. teacher Robert Heselton looks on as students play games in the gym during ACES.

Photo courtesey of Dawen Mei ‘16

FEELIN’ THE BEAT Allie Kells and Noah Kaiden both ‘17 dance on stage in the first annual dance showcase.

Photo by Kevin Shannon ‘16

Recycling gets the green lightNIKOLAS MERTEN ‘16, Associate Editor, Design

After an outburst of surprise and com-plaints from students last school year, the Green Team is taking on the responsibil-ity to ensure that the recyclable materials we purposely place in our blue bins are not being thrown into a trash compactor. Envi-ronmental science teacher Katherine Merva heads the small army of members that com-prise the after school recycling workforce.

Once classes are dismissed for the day, a group of Green Team members venture around the build-ings collecting plastic, glass, and anything else that can be recycled.

“We take the recyclable things that are in the blue bins in class-rooms and dump them into a big re-cycling bin and then take that and put it into the recy-cling bins in the alley,” said Alexis Soto ‘17.

Without this new system of student volun-teers, Jones would continue to discard the valuable recyclable resources into the trash dumpsters.

“People sign up for different days each week,” said Jacob Gold ‘16. “We try to get a substantial amount of kids each day of the week so recycling gets done because CPS does not have enough money to give our school the funds to do recycling themselves.”

Although Jones has always had the

recycling bins in classrooms and recy-cling dumpsters in the alley, there has been no connection between the two.

“We needed some way to get stuff from Point A to Point B,” said Merva. “It was going to be too much to ask our maintenance staff to just add to their list of things to do, so we had students volunteering to actually do this collection.”

Despite the Green Team’s efforts, there are still many hur-dles that they face at Jones, namely the lack of communica-tion and education. Merva has had to relay information to the head custodi-an and maintenance staff to not throw away recyclables anymore. A potential backing from admin-istration could create a an enviormentally frienddly and re-sponsible school.

“I feel like there could be

more support,” said Merva. “One obsta-cle we have is communicating now with maintenance staff that the blue bins’ [con-tents] should no longer be thrown out.”

In light of the current threat to the CPS budget and chance for 22 percent of Jones faculty to be laid-off, recycling is an envi-ronmentally and economically-responsible way of waste management. This is one way that CPS can conserve money, but it requires action from all schools, reports the Inter-

nal Communication branch of CPS.“It costs CPS more than twice

as much to send garbage to a land-fill as it does to recycle, thus it is important that all schools par-ticipate in this program,” CPS said in an email to schools’ administrators.

According to CPS Sustainability Coor-dinator Meredith McDermott, Jones has only been using around 23 percent of the capacity that we have available per week. The rest of CPS averages out to a minimal usage of 27 percent.

The Green Team plans to ex-pand the recycling to include a collection in the lunch-room. The south building cafeteria is already supplied with designated spots for dif-ferent recyclable materials, but they have never been used.

“Our next step is to get [recycling] into the caf-eteria because that is where a lot of it is produced,” said Merva.

Ultimately, the contin-ued success of the recy-cling program revolves around the education of the Jones community.

“We have to work on getting people to not put certain things that can-not be recycled in there, but also encouraging the right things to go in,” said Merva.

The next day off of school after Winter Break is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Mon., Jan. 15

NO SCHOOL


Combing through criminal minds, motives

Blooming onto the scene, Roots Garden Club, started just last year, has been grow-ing like a weed and is now ready to kick off their holiday fundraiser. Co-presidents Katie Treskow ‘17 and Emma Wilson ‘17 started the club for their love of gardening, and sci-ence teacher Nichole Lowery started spon-soring the club just this year. Despite being such a new club, it still has ambitious plans.

“Our goal is to beautify the school,” said Wilson. “We want to get more plants around school and in the courtyard.”

Their goals are not only based on plants, however, as the club also wants to collaborate with Green Team, the school’s environmental club.

“We want to start composting, so we want to work with the Green Team,” said Wilson. “We feel bad that we [in the school] don’t do that already.”

To achieve these goals and more, Roots Garden Club knows fundraising is nec-essary. For the upcoming holiday season, they have prepared a fundraiser to raise money for their composting efforts and to buy more seedlings and tools they need.

“The fundraiser is awesome and ador-able,” said Lowery. “We are selling lit-tle holiday-themed jars with succulent plants in them, and it is such a cute idea.”

The succulent plants, which have parts that are fleshy and thickened more than usu-al, like cacti, will be on sale in December. The timing of the sale makes them a good

idea for a Christmas gift, which was the intention of the Garden Club. They will cost around ten dollars, but the price may change depending on the size of the plant. A similar fundraiser took place at the end of the last school year that went very well, earning the club around $100 and allowing the Garden Club to purchase seedlings and

bulbs to plant for the upcoming season.

“I’m ex-cited for them [the fundrais-ers],” said Jack Harris ‘17, a member of Roots. “I hope people enjoy our hours of long work and toil.”

Garden club is still planning on growing from the seedling it is now. In addition to working with Green Team and their up-coming fundraisers, they have oth-er hopes for what the club can bloom into.

“I hope it’ll grow into a more diverse organization and define its responsibil-ities more clearly,” said Lowery. “The club just started, and the members learned from last year. It will get even better.”

Garden Club meets every Mon-day at 7:15 a.m. in room 5005 and is open to new members.. They have many big plans that will soon take root.

“Join Garden Club,” said Harris. “I learned how to weed, what a succulent is, and what a co-leus looks like. Being a part of this club is a good choice.”

Photo by Kevin Shannon ‘16

Photo by KEVIN SHANNON ‘16

ALICIA WALA ‘16, Associate Editor, Copy

Garden club blooms with plans to grow further

DUMPSTER DIVING Green team member Hannah Rachlis ‘16 and Molly Bryson ‘16 sort through recycle bins daily. Their efforts have led to an increased recy-cling volume.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING Fundraising for future club expenses, garden club sells succulents as a holi-day stocking stuffer.

Green Team behind a more environmentally-friendly Jones


Boys Basketball plays in the Luther North Christmas Tourney, December 26-30

HOLIDAY BASKETBALL

JULIA GAWORSKI ‘17, Deputy Editor, Sports

BRINGING IT IN The baseball team talks about their agenda for fall practice at temporary home Wash-ington Park.

Not-so-Secret weaponsFrom past to present, the greatest ath-

letes have had their own unique pre-game rituals and routines. Lebron James throws chalk in the air, Michael Jordan wears his

North Carolina college basketball shorts under his Bulls uniform every game, Serena Williams wears the same socks all through-out her tournament. Cristiano Ronaldo cuts his hair before every game. The greatest athletes, past and present, have their own

unique pre-game rituals, they trust alone.Athletes and teams at Jones have

their own exclusive pre-game rituals that help them to focus and perform their best. From the boys and girls basketball team to the girls and guys soccer team and almost ev-ery sport in between, to make sure they are fully prepared to play their opponents, these teams have devised strategic habits and cus-toms that aid their performance.

Varsity baseball player, Eric Robledo ‘16 said he al-ways eats a banana in the pas-senger seat of his car on the way to games and eats a fourth of a

bag of sunflower seeds while warming up. “We always run in a V formation

to the center field fence and back, we get hyped and do a chant in a huddle, (baseball coach Mike) Strok ’05 reads us a motivational line from a poem or something he makes up,” Robledo said.

Varsity soccer player Fernando Or-tiz ‘17, said he eats a piece of gum to calm anxiety and pre-game nerves.

Junior Varsity Soccer coach Paul Zubb said he makes sure to tell his team the same key points of emphasis for every game . He believes these points will lead the team to victory if they do them all.

“High level of intensity, hold-ing positions, communicating on the field and most of all never giving up re-gardless of what goes on or happens,”

Varsity soccer and basketball player Dani Schulgasser ‘17 has a very peculiar way of preparing. She gets dressed in the same distinct distinct fashion before ev-ery single game. She pays extra attention to putting on her clothing and shoes; this differentiates her from many other athletes.

“I put my right sock on then my left sock then my right shoe then my left shoe,” she said.Varsity softball player Nicole Zapotoczny ‘17 expressed the way softball girls share in-spiring words among one another so that the players feel united and a vital part of the team.

“As a team, we are all supposed to bring in a motivational quote for everyone. Be-fore the game, we read it, then we put it in our sock to have a little luck. It’s a good way to boost confidence,” Zapotoczny said.Varsity basketball player Keith Ferguson ‘16 recently started a pre-game ritual for him-self that is significantly important to him.“I pat the number 12 that I wear on my chest a couple of times before each game in honor of my father who passed August 12, 2014. This reminds me I’m playing for us,” Ferguson said.Sandra Fortoso ‘16 and the water polo team have a super unique chant which they took from the movie Finding Nemo. They get in the zone by using the part of the movie where the characters chant “shark bait oo ah ah.”Cheerleader and tennis player Luisa Brayan ‘17 combats her nerves before a match or cheerleading performance in a scientifically clever approach. She feels this also helps her perform at her best. She said, “ I stand with my fist over my head because that releases con-fident endorphin’s in your brain.”These pre-game rituals and routines, al-though very unique and special to each indi-vidual or team, have the same goal in mind. They are meant to calm athletic nerves or aid them in performing at their highest level.

NICO MORENO ‘16, Sports Staff

Getting in shape during the winter is a struggle. The freezing temperatures discontinue peo-ple’s routines. However, there are now alternatives at Jones for students to get in shape.

This fall, Serafin Herrera ‘16 and Manuel Ledesma ‘16 took the initiative to start the “Team Swole” club where student can work-out out at their own satisfaction.“It kind of started last year as we would go individually to condition for sports,” said Herrera. “I would go after school with my friends two to three days and then decid-ed to make it official this year.”

Team Swole runs Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:50 in room 213 by art teacher Jake Myers.

When there aren’t any options in Jones, some stu-dents walk across the street to XSport fitness to workout.

“Although it [XSport gym] gets crowded, I am still able to get a great workout in. I high-ly recommend it for students at Jones who can’t make it to workout club. The only obstacle is paying $40 a month. But it’s totally worth it.” said Herrera.Though exercise is an important

factor to keeping fit, diet is an-other factor that ties in with it. Varsity Soccer Coach Juan Espi-noza encourages his athletes to eat healthy and avoid junk food.

“An athlete’s diet should consist of the right amount of carbohydrates, protein, fat, and hydration,” said Espinoza. “I encourage my players to drink lots of water before the game.”However, students don’t re-ally find themselves chang-ing their diet, but instead avoid certain unhealthy foods.

“I should diet better but I really don’t,” said Herrera. “I can’t say I eat healthy, but I definitely don’t eat unhealthy.”

Huerta also doesn’t change his diet. “I don’t find it neces-sary to change my diet. I’m going to burn it off regardless, so I eat whatever.” Huerta does believe, though, that a healthy diet will payoff in the long run for athletes.

Jones is becoming more engaged with helping stu-dents in working out and eat-ing healthy. With Team Swole, students now have a place to condition and workout for free.

CRISTIAN ESPINOZA ‘16, Sports Staff

Jones athletes share pre-game rituals, traditions

Homeless! The end of a sixteen year deal with the Chicago Hous-ing Authority, the organization that controls the ball field at Near North, has left the baseball team field less for the upcoming 2015-2016 season. The varsity coach, Dave Rosene, has been hard at work alongside athletic director, Frank Griseto, to find new fields for both the short and long term.

Walter Payton, Northside College Prep and Lincoln Park High School are all expected to have access to Near North now that Jones been kicked out de-spite the fact that Lincoln Park has a field at their school. The rea-son being that these schools are closer to the field than Jones is.

“We’ve been hanging on by a thread at Near North for the last ten years” said Griseto, “We’re making arrangements to find as many fields as possible for our varsity team”

The threat of losing Near North was present for years leading up to the official departure, but for baseball player, Rolando Alvarado

‘16, the reality of the loss hit hard. “A lot of memories have

happened on that field, so los-

ing it is just like losing a part of yourself” said Alvarado.

Despite how surreal the loss of Near North is, Rosene believes that what makes the team suc-cessful is not the location, rather, the character that the players car-ry with them wherever they go.

“As far as our guys go, we’re

pretty resilient” said Rosene “We’re going to use it as a rally-ing point rather than a negative”

This lack of available space for baseball is a problem that affects not only Jones, but the majority of Chicago Public School teams.

“It’s just really sad that a lot of city teams don’t have a place to play” said Rosene, “They’re at the mercy of the park district and the park district doesn’t allow peo-ple on the field anywhere between April 1st and April 15th and that’s already a month into our season.”

Baseball fields at UIC, ITT and Washington Park are avail-able in the meantime, however, it is evident that finding a permanent field will continue to be a chal-lenge. Though the baseball team has been flexible, Near North will always hold a place in their hearts.

“It’s really bizarre just be-cause they’ve told us each year that we might lose the field,” said Alvarado, “but to actual-ly lose it this time is surreal”.

Varsity Boys Basketball

Record: 6-1Last Game: W @ Englewood

74-60Upcoming Game: 01/5 Lindblom

@ Jones

Varsity Girls Basketball

Record: 6-3Last Game: W @ John Hope 58-31

Upcoming Game: 01/6 Jones @ Phillips

Boys Swim and Dive

Past Meet: W @ Lincoln Park 66-19

Next Meet: 01/7 Von Steuben @ Jones

Baseball team strikes out: Near North no longer an option

Work hard, eat good

Photo by Julia Gaworski ‘17

FAMILY FIRST Keith Ferguson ‘16 pats his number 12 jersey in honor of his late father before each bas-

ketball game. Photo by KEVIN SHANNON ‘16

dec. 18, 2015

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