the lantern...voces inocentes and a student asked, “senorita, can we meet chava?” chava is the...

By Sami Hartman On Monday, January 27th, a PNC bank located at 15100 Puritas Ave. in Cleveland was held up at gun point. Brad Phome, lobby manager on duty, was in his usual position to help guests in the bank as Chris Tabor, another PNC employee, asked him to quickly help him with a task at the back corner desk. While at the desk, Tabor and Phome sighted a man covered head to toe in black with a gun in his hand. When the man saw Tabor and Phome, he im-mediately threatened to kill them if they came out from behind the desk or pressed any sort of alarm button. Once the criminal warned them, he then screamed at the 3 tellers on duty, “Give me all your large.” and continued to succeed in his planned robbery. But why didn’t anyone outside question a man covered from head to toe in black walking into a bank? If the polar vortex hadn’t hit so hard this year would the man have been stopped before entering the bank? When a person enters a new environ-ment, studies show that they notice objects or people that are out of the ordinary. Considering the blistering cold temperatures, people outside were less prone to suspect anything in a person bundled head to toe. Perhaps the criminal realized this and purposely planned his robbery according to the conditions outside. Perception is a large part to solving a crime and many have to go off of eye witnesses, but eye witnesses may not always be reliable. Elizabeth Loftus’ Eyewitness Testimony proved that wording of questions, trauma after an event, and many other fac-tors can create false memories in a witness. Therefore changing their story and losing any reliability and credibility they had. Yet, in this generation could it be that society’s use of perception has gone down altogether? Baldwin Wallace University Pro-fessor and Strongsville High School Psychology Teacher, Brian Tumino, stated, “I don’t think that we are as observant as we use to be.” Tumino went on to vividly describe the main entrance of Strongs-ville High School, which was ironic, because he

said that he doesn’t commonly use that particular entrance anymore. To further test if his perception had gotten any worse than before, he continued to recite what was on his own black board behind him. He had forgotten to mention two objects hanging on the board. From this it seemed that Tumino’s use of percep-tion had slightly worsened but did actually or was it that one takes less in when they feel safe in an environ-ment? It seems that when in a comfortable place such as school, work, home, or somewhere a person spends a large amount of time, they take in less of their surround-ings. Compared to when a person enters a public place that they may not go as often like the mall, or a new city, they take more of their surrounding into account be-cause it is human nature to be para-noid or nervous, though maybe only subcon-sciously.

Though it is good to feel safe, there comes a time when it must be realized that crimes can happen anywhere and anytime. Although it is clear that perception is an issue to the safety of the current generation, there are ways that one can improve their perceptional skills. Web design-ers have in-vented ac-

PERCEPTION: A Lost Instinct or an Improvable Art?

tivities and exercises that specialize in the improvement of visual mem-ory, visual closure, figure ground, quick memory, visual discrimination, etc. One website that was found to be very helpful is eyecanlearn.com. It is full of specialty improvement games

that can help improve this skill.

THE LANTERNVoLumE LXXXVIII IssuE IV ApRIL 2014

EdIToRs: ANubHuTI KumAR & JENNIfER LAwHEAd

VoLumE LXXXVIII IssuE IV pAgE 1

By Shannon Smith You are sound asleep in your bed one night. Then, all of a sudden, the phone rings. It’s a call from your best friends’ parents. They tell you that your best friend has just attempted to commit suicide. They didn’t succeed, but they are in critical care at the hospital. You are left stunned; speechless. How could someone so close to you in life make this attempt, and you didn’t even notice all the loud signs they’d been giving off? In high-school, and being a teenager in general, it’s easy to become lost in searching for yourself and your future. You continuously face judgment

from your peers, constant nag-ging from your parents, and peer pressure wherever you go. So suicide is, sad to say, a com-mon topic within this age. The novel, 13 Reasons Why is about just that; a 16 year-old girl in high-school who com-mits suicide and leaves thirteen tapes behind. She sends them out to the thirteen people who caused her to make this deci-sion. “Death and dying has always been a popular theme for kids,” stated Josalyn Moran, Vice President for the children’s books at Barnes & Noble. With the culture amongst teenagers in this generation, it’s easy to become lost in all the constant changes and situa-tions that one falls into. “With its thriller-like pacing and scenes of sexual coercion and teenage backbiting, the novel appeals to young readers, who say the book also gives them insight into peers who might consider suicide,” said Motoko Rich, a writer for the New York Times. This novel was written to inspire and give the reader awareness about the touchy

subject of suicide. At Strongsville High School there is a group called ‘To Write Love on Her Arms’ to help bring awareness to self-harm and let students know they aren’t alone in their bat-tles. Steve Genther, a teacher in our Social Studies depart-ment, is one of the advisors of this group. In an interview, he stated this group was created to let the students know they

aren’t alone in the battle that seems never-ending. “We need to turn silence into spoken word,” said Genther. When asked, “Do you think then topic of suicide is often overlooked or avoided due to the emotions and personal reasons behind it?” and his re-sponse was in agreement, “the topic of suicide is avoided due to the stigma attached.” The month of September was suicide awareness month, yet nothing was said or dedicated to the cause in our high-school. “Having our campaign for ‘Write Love on Your Arms’ brings the topic as a whole to the public eye,” said Genther. In 13 Reasons Why, Hannah Baker, continuously endures bullying, peer pressure, and much more to an extent that no teenager should go through. All of these factors contribute to her deci-sion to commit suicide. She records the story of each reason and person

SUICIDE IN THE SUBURBSconnecting to this monumen-

tal decision that she makes for herself. After her death, these tapes are sent on the journey to each of the thirteen reasons. One of the teenagers who received the tapes is named Clay Jensen.

Clay is Hannah’s love, yet nei-ther of them were able to find the confidence or words to tell each other. As the novel progresses, it is presented through the point of view of Clay. He travels to all the different places the tapes instruct him to visit, and in school he sees all the people Hannah mentions in her tapes. Unable to look at anyone in his school the same way, Clay finally realizes the meaning of life through this harsh journey. These situ-ations are too sim-

ilar to the things that go on in our school today. Endlessly are kids bullied, yet we just sit back and do nothing to stop it. Too often do we hear

teens these days committing suicide. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the

third leading cause of death among 15-24 year-olds. When I mentioned this statistic to Genther, he claimed “the statis-tic is believable.”

NEWS


Child Soldiers: An Epidemic

By Anubhuti Kumar

A little boy is at school talking to his friends about a girl he likes when suddenly he hears gunshots. There is chaos for a moment as ev-erybody tries to get away from the foreign noise. Then there is complete silence as armed soldiers and the principal of school take center stage. As names are called, the faces be-hind them drop in fear. The children called stand in line with the soldiers. It dawns on everybody, you are 12

years old and you will probably never see these marked friends again. They are now soldiers who will most likely not make it home. Any day now it could be your name that is called. The scene just described is from the movie Voces Inocentes, a Mexican movie about the civil war of El Salva-dor. The events are based on the real-life experiences of Oscar Torres, the writer of the screenplay. Strongsville High School had the unique honor of hosting a presentation by Mr. Torres. The event was organized by Ms. Tonya Barba, currently an art teacher at SHS. The idea came up 2 years ago in a Spanish class of hers. She showed Voces Inocentes and a student asked, “Senorita, can we meet Chava?” Chava is the main character, a 12 year old boy. The character is based on Oscar Torres himself. The idea lay dormant for a cou-ple years until recently. This time, Ms. Barba decided to pursue the idea. After some time and effort she managed to contact Oscar Tor-res and arrange a presentation,

but that was only the beginning. “We had a short amount of time…Other organizing was that we had to ask permission to see if it was ok. Also contacting flights…booking a hotel. What would we have him do while he was here? Students were writing letters and making sketches. Counting how many seats are in the Auditorium, how many don’t work; contacting other schools, St. Joe’s, St. John Neumann’s, COAR; seeing how parking is; tickets and that’s just a little bit of it,” stated Ms. Barba.

Torres arrived at SHS the morning of December 4 and spoke to hun-dreds of people during periods 1, 2, and 3. Torres came across as funny, approachable, entertaining, and in-formative. He gave the audience a more in depth idea of the effects of war on children and what happened to “Chava” after the last scene. Some were silent as others shed tears. One of the major issues Vo-ces Inocentes deals with is the atrocities concerning children as child soldiers. Over 400,000 chil-dren are being used as soldiers in war today, in over 20 countries. Torres has experienced the fear of being recruited as a child first hand. “[My experiences] have motivated me to not let that happen again. Any-where... especially in my country and to the children there. And so I've let the world know what happened there in hopes that the memory of it will keep government leaders from mak-ing the same mistakes again…not for-getting is the key to keeping the peace found alive,” commented Torres.

Torres and the team that made the movie had a hard time introducing it to the American audience. It was eventually released with an “R” rating, though it is considered a family mov-ie in other countries, such as Japan. “I believe we protect children from the wrong things in this country. The more information, the bet-ter. Let them see the world, even if it is through film,” stated Torres In order to spread the message about this atrocity as well as to heal himself from the trauma of war, Torres wrote the screenplay Voces Innocentes. “First to heal. Then to shed light on something many didn't know had happened in my country and even more, that is still happen-ing around the world, like the use of children in wars,” said Torres. Fortunately, Oscar Torres never had to serve as a child soldier. Not every-body is so lucky. From 1979 to 1992 the civil war of El Salvador raged. “It was to fight imbalance,” said Sister Sheila Marie, a COAR volun-teer during the end of the war, from 1992-1996. COAR was started as an orphanage in 1980 by Reverend Ken Myers in reaction to seeing all the chil-dren refugees and orphans due to the war. It was named Comunidad Oscar Arnulfo Romero because of Reverend Myers great admiration for Archbish-op Romero, an outspoken critic of the war, who was killed earlier that year. A current resident of the Cleveland area from El Salvador served in the rebel or guerilla forces. He prefers to remain unnamed in respect to those not lucky enough to live through the war and be here to tell their story. “There were two different sides, the government’s side and the rebel’s side. The government’s side, they were the ones recruiting kids from the countryside. On the other side there were the kids and grownups who decided to join the rebels and fight against the government. I was part of the guerillas, which was pretty much volunteer, because you believe in the cause. I know a lot of kids that were taken by the government. The fighting and the training were pretty much similar, we were still kids and it was pretty much the same impact, on a personal level,” stated the source.

What had started as an upris-ing soon turned into a full-fledged war. The rebels turned into the guerillas and the government army fought to suppress them. “The government was being run by the rich people and the military at this time. There were so many trou-bles in those days, and it started very simple, people would go on the streets and complain about the conditions and the elections that were not fair. Back in those days, during the Rea-gan administration…they were doing anything possible to stop anything that sounded communist or left wing. In that respect, they were involved in the Salvadorian government for 12-14 years, providing guns and train-ing and all that. In those days, groups of students and teachers and union workers decided to join the FMLN, the main forces of the guerillas, and that’s why the war started in the eight-ies. It started very simple; people went on strikes…later on it became more edgy. The government started form-ing groups called death squads, going to people’s houses, taking whoever they could find, and taking them to the street and killing them. There were many different groups and they all had their own areas…eventually the government started going to the countryside and taking the kids to join the military because there were a lot of supporters for the civilian

population,” continued the source. From 1990-1992 negotiations started. The army knew they would be forced to reduce the size of their army soon due to the peace accords, so they re-cruited people to make their numbers larger to make sure they still had a de-cent size military when it was reduced. “Weekly or monthly you would see the trucks rolling into town and you would see them grabbing the kids

off the streets. Since this had been going on for a while…the word got out because the trucks had to come down the main road, somehow they had this network, that all of a sud-den you would see all the young boys disappear, and they would go hide somewhere,” said Sister Sheila Marie. For her part, Sister Shei-la and her co-volunteers did their best to hide the children. “If we had a youth activity going on and we had to take the kids to another parish, we had a jeep and we could squeeze in about 8 kids…and then we had a truck that could carry about 20-25 kids. All the boys would have to come in the jeep with me and my part-ner would drive the truck with all the girls because the boys had to be en-closed. So we had to keep protecting the boys,” commented Sister Sheila. Nevertheless, some boys were still taken by the army. When the mis-sionaries found out about these incidents, they would call the en-campments to find out where the child was, and then complain to the US guide at the base, since child re-cruitment was illegal, and the boys would usually be sent back. Yet this did not guarantee that they would not eventually be taken again. “There was one case though of a young man who was 18 or 19 but had serious mental illness problems and he was recruited a couple times,

and we got him out. And the last time it was the priest I was working with who worked on that case…but we were having a hard time find out what cartel he was in, he was way across the country. By the time we caught up with him, they had given him a gun and he shot himself, “said Sister Sheila. The children saw so much pain and brutality amongst their loved ones, and felt completely power

“My life is pretty much divided, this is a new life for me, but it could be worse...I think we’re

the lucky ones, we’re still alive,”

FEATURE


“Anything that subjects any human being to suffering is a good enough reason to fight

against that...There’s no such thing as unimport-ant people. We all matter,” ~ Oscar Torres

less. Soon, some began to take things into their own hands. Not only were children ripped away from their families and shed from their innocence, they were put in front lines of battle with a gun and very little training. Some-times they would die and sometimes they would run and later be chas-tised for it. Fear ruled their lives. “A lot of the fighting was kids against kids. Even the older guys were in their twenties, so there were a lot of young people,” said the anonymous source. “From my experiences, brief as they were, I think many of the child soldiers who went to be guerillas had seen such brutality by govern-ment forces, and so many unjust murders of innocent people, espe-cially women and children, and bru-talizing by soldiers, that they took up arms out of rage at the injus-tices done to poor people who hadno way to fight back,” stated Father Bob Sanson, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Strongsville for 20 years, who has visited El Salvador 7 times. The brutalities were endless, and peo-ple did not even have the opportunity to heal for fear of the death squads. “You don’t need to be involved in the war in El Salvador to see what happened, it was so visual. You saw bodies everyday in the streets; it was a lot of horrible things you would see in the streets. You couldn’t say any-thing, the dead squads used to work in a way that if they had some tip that someone who was involved in the left wing movement, they went to their homes looking for him, and if they

couldn’t find him, they would find his sister and take her, rape her, and kill her,” stated the unnamed source. Yet eventually the war ended and the child soldiers were able to go home, but the Salvadorians would soon realize this was not the end of their problems. “The people are still affected in-directly. It affected their economy big-time. I can’t say what it was like before, because I wasn’t there during that time, but there was censorship of what you listened to, what you see, what you say, who you hang out with. Not that much today. The politi-cal parties that are there today, they are the base of the main groups that were fighting against each other in the past. They still use our money. For the effects, you’ll see it with the people when you talk to them, they’ll have the biggest smile, but you wouldn’t know, they’re telling you the saddest story, but they’ re still smiling and its probably the only culture that I’ve seen that. They would give you any-thing and everything that they have, but you don’t really see the hurt, you don’t see them crying. They share the stories with us and we are the ones crying, but for them that’s normal, that’s the way life is,” said Ms. Barba. “I got my days, sometimes, that I don’t feel good about it. I have a great life; I’m not going to complain about it, but I left home when I was very young. My life is pretty much divided, this is a new life for me, but it could be worse. A lot of people were in jail, a lot of people were tor-tured, a lot of people were killed; so I think we’re the lucky ones, we’re still alive,” related the Cleveland man

who served in the war. His words summarize the attitude of a cul-ture and society based on optimism. The war started as an effort to make the country fairer economi-cally, but after 12 years of fighting and atrocities, the Salvadorians did not have it left in them to negoti-ate the peace accords in their favor. “The poor campesinor are stillmostly dirt poor, with no land of their own. More children go to

school, but those who can escape the country get out. Those who have enough money may be able to go legally, but most have to hire a "coy-ote”, who will lead them through the desert, over the "Wall", etc, where many of them die in the pro-cess. But still, so many have escaped to the USA that the largest influx of cash into the country is not from coffee, but from Salvadorians in the USA who sent money back to their family, and hope some day to bring them to the USA. There is a terrible atmosphere of danger and fear - gangs run rampant, like theMS 13, and they rob whole busses, etc. They run protection rackets, etc.

Professional people don't want to live in this atmosphere if they can emi-grate,” commented Father Bob Sanson. Father Bob established the sister-ship between St. Joseph’s and San Jose Villanueva in El Salvador, in order to raise awareness locally of the situation in El Salvador. The sis-tership tries to help the children in

El Salvador achieve an education. They would also soon realize that many of the children coming home and even the ones who hadn’t left weren’t children anymore. Some were hardened and cold, others were vul-nerable and anxious. They had expe-rienced things most adults can’t even imagine and nobody knew what to do. “After the war, when they started to resettle, some of them came back but they didn’t talk about it a lot. We saw

some of them come back…some fam-ilies told us stories of the fact that their children came back and they were able to have them stay with the fam-ily any long because they had become pretty hardened,” said Sister Sheila. Death was not the only distancer of families. Many families were separated due to moving out of the country to escape persecution or make money to send back to their families. Most of the time the entire family couldn’t afford to go together,

and the rest of the family was sent for once the first person had settled. Sometimes family members chose to stay, such as if they were in uni-versity or fighting with the rebels because they believed in the cause. “I came to the States because my fam-ily already lived here for many years. I saw my family after 10-11 years, in California I lost a lot of the closeness with my family because we didn’t see each other for so many years,” com-mented the former guerilla soldier who wished to remain unnamed. Some people continued to be haunted by these memories. “Most of the kids today are my age, and they don’t always know they have

problems, because back then what we used to see wasn’t normal, but it be-came normal for us because we saw it every day. To me, when I came to the States, that’s when it started hit-ting me because I was in a whole dif-ferent culture. Kids here, especially, are able to say “yes”, “no”, “I don’t like it”, things like that. We never had that

in our brain. You go out on the street and you have rights, nobody can say bad things to you. Just to start feel-ing safe and able to speak up, that was something a lot of people didn’t expe-rience before. That creates all kinds of different feeling about friends, and you start to be more emotional about things…A lot of people had prob-lems. They became violent and they don’t know why, but I was lucky to pretty much deal with a lot of things

and be able to look up for help. That helped me a lot,” explained the soldier. The civil war of El Salvador ended over 20 years ago. The practice of us-ing child soldiers ended with it. Right? Wrong. As stated earlier over 400,000 children are being used in war today. One of the most promi-nent and institutionalized use of child soldiers today is in Uganda, by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), under the leadership of Joseph Kony. This conflict started in 1986 when

Yoweri Museveni became President of Uganda. Alice Lakwena started the Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) in opposition, with the hope of free-ing northern Uganda from govern-ment oppression. When she was exiled, Kony took power, claiming to be a distant cousin of Lakwena. Kony changed the name and lost some of the support Lakwena had gained. In turn, he started kidnapping children to fill his army, losing all sup-port. This organization itself became the oppressor of northern Uganda. “He often forced children to kill their parents or siblings with machetes or blunt tools…he brainwashed and indoctrinated the children with his

lies and manipulated them with his claim of spiritual powers,” stated the Invisible Children website, the organization the produced Kony 2012, a documentary on the outlin-ing the horrors of Kony’s regime. “Many would sleep at libraries, schools, and parks. Home and night were the places of abduction,” com-

mented Father Don Dunson, who has been working with children in Uganda for over 10 years and has written the book Child, Victim, Sol-dier on the subject of child soldiers. Children were not the only ones fighting for their lives. “Many parents sent their children to boarding schools, when though they could not afford it because there was less of a chance of being abducted from the boarding schools. Some

were forced to kill their parents at the time of abduction so they would not have anything to come back for. Some parents gave their children per-mission to kill them so the children could live,” continued Father Don. The LRA left Uganda in 2006 after the Juba Peace talks, but have contin-ued to stage attacks in Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic. The idea of using children in war is very old, such as drummer boys in battlefields of the past. The word “infantry” can mean a group of foot soldiers or a group of young peo-ple. But in recent years, the use of children as soldiers has increased. The victims of this practice are not only the dead, but it is estimated that about 10 million children have been left psychologically trauma-tized in the past 3 decades due to the recruitment of child soldiers. The trauma has had many long term effects on these children, sometimes changing the course of their lives. “There were physical, emotional, and spiritual scars. Some suffer from extreme malnutrition. They fall into eating disorders because of food and security they end up eat-ing too much or too little. Some lost limbs, some still have bullets in them, making it hard to get jobs. In some PTSD resulted in nightmares. One man can only sleep during the day because of his nightmares. He lives by the verse, ‘Joy cometh in the morning,’” explained Father Don. “It was kill or be killed. Some face extreme guilt because they have been forced to kill those they love. It created

an inability to trust adults. They feel the adult word betrayed them. Their parents weren’t able to protect them, so now they have a hard time trust-ing people,” continued Father Don. After the war people tended to keep quiet about their experi-ences. The war was a horrible time in their lives and most did not want to relive it by discussing it. “I have met people here, for example one lady from El Salvador who is here, she won’t talk about it. Her son was killed. Her neighbor and his, I think, five or seven children were killed. And she says if you think I had it worse, it’s nothing compared to my other son who is living,” related Ms. Barba. “After the 911 attacks, the sense of war came back into my life af-ter not speaking to anyone about what had happened in my coun-try for the past 18 years - it finally caught up to me, as the past always does if not dealt with and so I be-gan to write out the memories that were rushing to me,” commented Oscar Torres on his experiences. The use of child soldiers has been recognized time and time again as an atrocity, yet history keeps repeating itself, and un-til it is learned from, it will never change. Oscar Torres summarized: “Anything that subjects any human being to suffering is a good enough rea-son to fight against that. I see the war as something personal. Something I must help to prevent from happening. It has shown me that sometimes it takes one person raising his/her voice to make a difference. There's no such thing as unimportant people. We all matter.”


SCHO OL


By Megan Wiedenmannott The Strongsville swim and dive team has done remarkably well this season. With returning team-mates, along with some fresh faces, the team has continued its winning streak from past years. “We had a pretty good pre-game season record. We won most or all of our dual meets,” said first-year diver and Strongsville junior Dani-elle Stewart, who placed well in sev-eral meets. “At sectionals we had two divers qualify for districts. One took first and one took fifth,” Stewart said. She also mentioned how the team took second place at the conference meet. The swim team, made up of both girls and boys, must perform a total of 11 races at each meet, including

breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle, all ranging from 50 to 500 yards. The dive team, also con-sisting of girls and boys, dives from a 1-meter diving board and must perform six dives at dual meets and 11 at sectionals and districts. This season has been made up of eight dual swim-dive meets, fol-lowed by the conference, sectional, district, and state meets. The boys

have only two losses, to

Solon and Hudson. One victory was 198-111 against Brecksville, followed by 221-86 against Medina. They also defeated St. Edward’s (107-79), Rocky River (119-66), and Shaker Heights (113-72). The girls have only lost once, to Hudson. One of their victories was 197-115 against Brecksville, followed by 217-98 against Me-

dina. They also defeated St. Joseph Academy (144-42), Rocky River (108-75), Solon (114-71), and Shak-er Heights (133-50). The team even took first in sectionals. “The skill set of the divers has in-creased over the past few years,” said Steve Macsay, a parent of a diver on the team, “which has resulted in the same four divers taking first and second in nearly every meet.” Stewart explained how she noticed an improvement throughout the season in the team’s performance – in both the swimming and diving elements. Stewart said, “Towards the end of the season everyone’s scores started getting higher and the times were lower.” The team seems to be staying strong as they wrap up another season. “I think the team as a whole hopes to make it as far as we can go,” said Stewart.

2014 SEASON

Twelfth grade Assistant Principal Vicki Turner will be moving into the new district-wide position of In-structional Technology Co-ordinator at the end of this school year. The goal of this position is to prepare all students for the new online standardized tests the state has mandated and provide more “blended learning opportunities,” us-ing technology to enhance instruction and adding on-line components to the class-room. It will be Mrs. Turner’s job to help incorporate new in-teractive and collaborative technologies, as well as aid-ing teachers in how to best use them. Mrs. Turner’s technologi-cal background includes instructing an in-class and online course as an Adjunct Instructor at Baldwin Wal-lace University. In addition, she has used software

like Moodle, a learning man-agement system, and Black-board when she was an Eng-lish teacher. She often utilizes social media sites like Twitter. As more and more colleges offer online classes, new on-line programs at the high school will better prepare juniors and seniors for that next step. In addition to her efforts to incorporate new technologies in Strongsville City Schools, Mrs. Turner plans to have English teachers from the

high school and from Bald-win Wallace work together to better understand where high school students need more preparation for college- level writing. This, in turn, will help create a modern, advanced curriculum for Strongsville students. Another way that students can receive help from col-lege professors is through the collaborative capabilities of Google Apps for Education, which is a suite of services that allow students and teachers to

work on shared files and have it all saved onto Google Drive, Google’s cloud device. One of the programs includ-ed is Google Calendar, which allows students and teachers to coordinate their sched-ules and plan events easier. Google Docs creates word documents, power points, and spreadsheets for others to edit in real time. Finally, Google Slides, a clean, clear-cut way to create digital pre-sentations.

Continued on Page 10

SHS SWIM TEAM’S

NEW DISTRICT POSITION INTRODUCES MORE TECHNOLOGY By Emily Clapper

SCHO OL CONT.


Strongsville High School has the pleasure of having four student teachers this semester: Mr. Cordes, Ms. Hyder, Mr. Zivkovic, and Mr. Campbell. These next generations of teachers were all very excited when finding out about this opportunity. This op-portunity gives them the chance to see first-hand what being a teacher is like. Mr. Cordes, who teaches U.S. Gov-ernment and Civics with Ms. Pap-ish, teaches two of her classes each day. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and this is the final step in order to become certified. I want to get the most realistic experience, as well as try new things and see what stu-dents like as well as how they learn,” said Cordes. He believes this has been a very valuable student-teaching experi-ence thus far and says how Strongs-ville has been a great school to be at. He sees himself traveling for a while after he graduates and will be-

gin looking for a teaching job short-ly after. He hopes to land a job close to home. Ms. Papish had only good things to say about Mr. Cordes. She believes he has been doing an excellent job and is very well qualified. “I think he has great potential,” said Papish, “it’s kind of like a coop-erative teaching for a teacher, I learn from him, about his college and teacher-training, while he learns from me.” Ms. Hyder is teaching with Mr. Eby and has experienced first-hand what it’s like teaching in music, as she watches the band grow each and every day.

When asked what made her want to take up this opportunity, Ms. Hy-der replied, “I really wanted to teach band and student teaching is re-quired for my major. I really like the kids here and get along well with the teachers. I want to learn classroom management and help the kids grow as musicians.”

She recognizes that there have been struggles, but at the same time, recognizes how rewarding of an experience this has been. “She’s been really receptive with

feedback and the kids love her. I think she will do well in whatever path she takes. She already devel-oping her own teaching style,” said Mr. Eby. Mr. Zivkovic teaches with Mr. Tu-mino, and will eventually teach all five of his classes. Mr. Zivkovic is a Strongsville High School alum-ni and was a part of the class of 2007. He wanted to come back to Strongsville for this experience be-cause of the teachers he had that re-ally inspired him. “I’ve learned a lot while I’ve been here, and there’s been a lot of be-hind the scenes things I didn’t ex-pect, it’s a lot more than just teach-ing,” said Zivkovic. Mr. Tumino, who is also a profes-sor at Baldwin Wallace University, has been a teacher here for over twenty years and said how this is a way to give back to the profession.

“It’s hard giving up your classroom and giving them the control, while still maintaining your response and adding the mentoring of another teacher,” said Tumino. Mr. Zivkovic hopes to find a job around the Cleveland area and coach either cross country or track. Mr. Campbell helps teach three Economics classes each day with Mr. Slovick, who has been a teacher here for twelve years. “I believe he’s going to do just fine, he’s already taught Economics and Government classes by himself, it’s just a matter of time,” said Slovick. “I came from a family of teach-ers, my dad taught for thirty-seven years, and my grandpa taught for thirty years,” said Campbell, “it’s been a lot of work on top of college, but it’s all been worth it.” After leaving Strongsville High School, Mr. Campbell plans on sub-bing as he has already received his substitute teacher’s license, and will begin looking for jobs in the sum-mer.

SH S W E L C OM E S F O U R S T U DE N T T E AC H E R S By K r i s te n U l l r i c h

In an article in US News online, based on college en-try exams, 60% of students are not prepared for college by the time they enter. The Manhattan Institute for Pol-icy and Research says that as little as 32% of students are ready for a four-year college right out of high school. John Whitmore, chief ex-ecutive officer of ACT, said in this same article, “The best way to help students prepare for a successful fu-ture is by monitoring their achievement and providing

help wherever they are not on track.” One suggestion made by the Institute of Education Sciences was that schools start making courses and curriculums that prepare students for college-level work as early as the ninth grade. Another suggestion com-ing from College Board online says that really en-couraging extracurricular activities would help as well, considering college has so much more to offer.

Also suggested from Col-lege Board online is that teachers become involved in helping students apply for financial aid to get a head start. College is very different from high school in respect to the work load as well as the style of teaching. In col-lege, classes meet no more than three times a week at most. This gives students an entire day to complete the work that is given and it is a big adjustment for so many. If schools can create a cur-

riculum that sets classes up the same way that they are organized in college and slowly work students up to the same work load year by year, students would en-ter college already knowing what to expect. After speaking with Mi-chael Mallin, marketing professor at University of Toledo, his biggest chal-lenge he faces with college students is not having the proper writing and present-ing skills necessary. “Students rely too heav-

ily on word processors to fix their mistakes instead of themselves,” stated Mallin. When asked about the scheduling differences in college vs. high school, this did not strike him as the problem. He feels the work load is the same, only col-lege spreads the work out over more time due to the scheduling differences. According to Mallin, elec-tives that give an insight to future careers are what is needed for juniors and

Continued on Page 10

HOW CAN THE COLLEGE TRANSITION BE EASIER?By Samantha Mallin

family and how to serve it!” Certain stalls have even been na-tionally recognized, such as the J&J Czuchraj Meats stand, which has had the honor of being featured in Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” for their beef jerky. As a whole, the West Side Mar-ket has been recognized as one of the “10 Great Public Spaces” by the American Planning Associa-tion in 2008, a major competition with other national landmarks such

as Central Park in New York City. Ken Silliman, the Chief of Staff for Cleveland, stated, “The West Side Market has received both local ap-preciation and national acclaim be-cause the City of Cleveland has stayed true to the origin of the market.” Additionally, it’s won Fox 8’s “BEST Gourmet Grocery Store” award for the last two years, run-ning against other specialty stores like Miles Farmer’s Market in Solon and Gallucci’s in Hough. Silliman proudly said, “We’re sim-ply stating that we view the West Side Market as one of the most im-portant City of Cleveland assets.” The West Side Market attracts ap-p r o x i m a t e l y

one million shoppers and tour-ists each year to enjoy the spe-cial atmosphere of the bazaar. Though the market draws in many hungry stomachs, the West Side Market’s need for maintenance has been overlooked. Big problems have been ignored over the years because they were still functional. The scene hasn’t changed much since the opening in 1912, the structure is still the same and the technology isn’t up to date. Michelle Jarboe McFee, a writer for the Plain Dealer, explained the mar-ket flaws, “Vintage pipes back up, sloshing dirty water across the mar-ket floor. Freight elevators break. Cooler doors won’t close. The roofs leak in the main market building and the L-shaped produce arcade.” Some of the plans for renew-al include the critical spaces, like the public restrooms and the coolers for the food, while the more upscale renovations are being brainstormed for new spaces, such as an event room. The West Side Market recently

celebrated its 100th year of service, bringing many events and prom-ises of renewal to the building. World-renowned chefs, including Andrew Zimmern and Michael Sy-mon, were brought onto the scene as chefs for the Centennial Gala, held in benefit of the historical market. The base goal of the fund-raiser was $2 million, a meager start to the numerous repairs that the century old building is in need of. The city-owned building was gathering funds from both

private and public donors for the vast repairs to the century building. GE Lighting donated $80,000 worth of energy efficient lights for the hall. From the customer’s point of view, the West Side Market can be a spectacular place to visit. Tiffany Goff, mentioned earlier, is a Florida native turned Clevelander who tries to stop at the West Side Market whenever she has the time. “I’ve enjoyed the market with friends, family visiting from Florida, and my girlfriend,” said Goff, “its always pleasant walk-ing the aisles with company.” The friendly atmosphere of the West Side Market makes Goff comfortable to stop and chat with her favorite vendors, even if she doesn’t intend on buy-ing their products that day. Besides visiting, Goff also has fond memories of cooking with the ingredients she brings home. Directions and recipe sugges-tions from vendors makes Goff ’s meals even more unforgettable. “I have a friend who bought a house on the west side just so that she would be within walking dis-tance of the market,” said Goff,

“it’s that impor-tant to her.”

Customers who have grown up shopping at the West Side Market have brought alongg e n e r a t i o n s with them. O t h e r s , t h o u g h ,

Custom and quality have always been the foundations of the West Side Market, with vendors sell-ing local produce and fresh op-tions; it’s hard to miss the exem-plary standard that is upheld there. Most importantly, the West Side Market is rooted in tradi-tion; it’s a vintage market where you can buy old-school butchered meats and newly baked breads. The West Side Market also brings something sweeter to the minds of its loyal customers: fond memories of days gone by spent with fam-ily members wandering the twists and turns of the countless stalls. Every shopper has their favorite stand; the one that they can count on to carry the most unique products. Tiffany Goff, a Cleveland Institute of Music graduate, said, “There are [stands] that are always very friend-ly with me, and I make a point of seeing them even if I don’t intend to buy their wares that day. Chris-

tine Zuniga-Eadie, a working partner of t he market, pro-claims, “People love

the old-fashioned counter service and the fact that the market vendors have an intimate knowledge of what you’ll be serving your

“The West Side Market has received both local

appreciation and national acclaim because the City of Cleveland has stayed true to the origin of the

market.”

“People love the old-fashioned counter service and the fact that the market vendors have an in-timate knowledge of what you’ll be serving your

family and how to serve it!”

T H E W E S T S I D E M A R K E T: M O R E T HA N J U S T F O O D B y J e n n i f e r L a w h e a d

FEATURE


ended up becoming a part of the scene itself. Jill Chucray, from the J&JCzuchraj Meats stall, has been shop-ping at the West Side Market since she was kid and working for J&J Meat since she was 17 years old. During the time Chucray has been there, she has seen many customers come and go. “I don’t want to have a favorite cus-tomer, because once I do… what if something happens,” Jill describes, “you get attached, you know their kids, you know what they do.” Over the years, Chucray has ob-served a changing tide with the tastes of her costumers, who are craving healthier options. Also, it has become trendier to go down to the market for lunch with friends, rather than just to buy groceries. “It’s a dying art,” said Chucray; the traditional way they prepare the meats has faded within the com-peting businesses, instead, turning to a more commercialized process. Her husband, Jerry, learned the trade from his father, who in turn had learned from the previous genera-tion. Since then, he has added 15 new sausages and many other products.

The West Side Market has been extremely successful for J&J Meats, but branching out was too much. Instead, they remain in one local spot for the ease and tradition that the market brings. Shoppers and stall owners alike remain a part of the scene throughout the generations. Rick Calabrese, the cur-rent owner of the Calabrese

fruit stand, grew up working at his family-owned business. “I started probably about seven or eight years old, as soon as I could see over the stand. I used to sell lemons, ten cents apiece,” said Calabrese. To Calabrese, the market was his playground. The fruit coolers were a place of trouble and mischief, where the young kids needed to be chaperoned until they were old enough to handle themselves. He began with upstairs busi-ness, where his parents could

keep an eye on him, then moved into the heavy-duty work of haul-ing the fruit up from the coolers when he was about 13 years old. The Calabrese fruit stall started with the idea from their old-world grand-mother. Back in Italy, she would have to buy her produce every day because the refrigerators were too small, but she enjoyed the open-air markets. “When she came to Cleve-land,” Calabrese explained, “she said, ‘why not?’ and went ahead with it.” Tony Pinzone, a meat vendor at the market, said, “At the time, it [the West Side Market] was and old-world kind of place… it made people feel at home here.” Families like the Wiencek-Stumpf ’s or the Leu’s have been at the West Side Market since the founding in 1912. Four generations of family members have owned and operated their stands, a true family calling. On the other hand, some stalls are started up by first time own-ers, like Frickaccio’s Pizza Market, which has been running for the past

“It reminds me of whatCleveland is; what built the tradition

of Cleveland, and what Cleveland still stands for.”

30 years, operated by Terry Frick. “There was an ad for an open stall in the West Side Market, and my husband said I should take a look… I was the first caller,” said Frick. Since she opened her stall, busi-ness has blown up, expanding into another off-site store. Also, Fric-kaccio’s now offers catering for parties, take-and-bake items, and ready to eat meals, all popularity due in part to the West Side Market. For most shoppers, the atmo-sphere makes the difference be-

tween the West Side Market and the ordinary grocery store. “It’s not a grocery store mentality… there’s young people and old people, and people that can barely speak English… because that’s what it’s like, why I like it,” Bizub explained in an excited manner, “It reminds me of what Cleveland is; what built the tradition of Cleveland and what Cleveland still stands for.” Anyone who has experienced it has taken a piece of the West Side Market home with them, food, memories, and smiles. Whether you’re only stopping by Cleveland or were born and raised here, the West Side Market is a place of refuge from the bleak fluorescent lights found in grocery stores. It is a place where the young and the old come together, where even the pickiest of eaters can dis-cover something delicious and the biggest appetites can be satisfied. Just one visit to the West Side Mar-ket will have you craving for more.

T H E W E S T S I D E M A R K E T: M O R E T HA N J U S T F O O D C o n t . B y J e n n i f e r L a w h e a d


By Jacob Oblak Many people attend col-lege all over the world. Many of those people that are attending college believe they need to get a degree so they can succeed in life. People think that it won’t be possible to get a job or go anywhere in life without a college degree. That isn’t necessarily true. There are many jobs pay well if you don’t have col-lege degrees. Unemploy-ment rate for people that only have a high school diploma in 2012 was 8.3 percent and for those with college degrees it was 7.7 percent. Jobs like insurance sales agents, manufacturing sales representatives, plumbers, electricians and brick ma-sons, require no degree and pay well, just necessitating a certificate of on the training to qualify for the job. Your degree can tell oth-ers that you’re qualified for a job, but if you lack the people skills necessary to interact with others, actu-ally landing a job can be quite difficult. For example look at Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, those men are just a few that are really successful in life and didn’t finish college and look where they are right now. In fact there is someone like Zuckerberg and Gates in our own community: Joe Quirnio. Quirino attended Baldwin Wallace Univer-sity for three years in their broadcasting program and then dropped out. “College is not for every-one,” said Quirino Quirino has gotten 13 Emmys, a national IRIS

award for “Outstanding Achievement in Editing and Graphic Ability” and a proclamation from the state of Ohio for achievements in the Television Industry. After Quirino left college he wanted to start his own broadcasting company. He managed to get some help from his dad and started up his company: Lake Affect Productions. At the begin-ning it did not look to good for him and his company. It started to look like his dream of owning his own company was going to fail.

Quiri-no did not have many or even no cli-ents to work with at times. No clients equals no in-come. Quirino quickly had to think of another idea. He decided to go into DJ-ing. It got him money to put back into the company, so it could pay off loans for his equipment and rent he had to pay for his previous building. Years went by and the company picked up it. After 12 years of owning his business, Quirino decided that he did not need to be working out of his office in Middle Burg Heights. He moved the company to his house. Lake Affect Produc-tions has been working out of his house for three years now. Quirnio says it has been more convenient for

him and his clients. Quirnio has two kids Joey, age 4, and Isabella, age 2, and working out of his house makes it easier for him to be around them and “watch them grow up,” ac-cording to Quirnio. Most of Quirnio’s business comes from referrals and word of mouth. Quirnio easily works with hundreds of people a year and many of them keep coming back. “I have gone as far to do

work with people from Dubai to Costa Rica,” Quir-nio responded when asked where have he has gone to do work for clients Quirino has interviewed some famous people, but one stands out he said, “In-terviewing with LeBron was a once in a life opportunity for me to experience.” One big client that Quir-nio works with on a daily basis is the grocery store Marc’s. Owning your own busi-ness comes with many advantages: getting to work around your schedule, working at your own pace but finishing your work on time, and taking vacations when you want. This past month Quirnio

took his family on a vaca-tion while two of his em-ployees worked on a project for the business. It done without Joe having to worry about a thing. Despite this, broadcasting is not easy at all because many people just see the people filming and not what goes on when there all done filming. The edit-ing is the hardest part of what all broadcasters face. Just a simple 30 second TV advertisement can take anywhere from an hour to

as long as nine months

just

so you can

get every per-fect sound affect, contrast,

angle, pitch, and animation in some cases. When asked how he be-came so successful in the broadcasting field Quirnio said, “One thing lead to another, it took off!” Many reasons contributed to Quirnio’s desire to get involved in this business, but “technology played a big role, that is what stuck out to me, and it is a way I can make a living,” said Quirnio. Quirnio knew college wasn’t for him when he started interning at Chan-nel 5 News, while he was a student at Baldwin Wallace. While he was attending col-lege, professors told Quir-nio to do everything the way the professors they did,

but he quickly learned that in the field these methods did not necessarily make sense. Those methods were sometimes outdated. New technology was available so why wouldn’t you want to use it. At Channel 5 the broad-casters were telling him to do it the modern way. “I felt like I wasn’t learn-ing what I needed to learn,” said Qurinio “Without my internship at Channel 5, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am today.” One thing led another and that’s when Joe knew he didn’t need to finish college. He was already ahead of the game for his field. When asked do you need a four year degree in broad-casting Quirnio said, “Now days you need one but at the time when I was in col-lege no.” He also said, “It’s one of those jobs you learn as you go.” Quirnio does not regret dropping out of college stating, “It’s not something I lose sleep over.” When asked what it is like owning your own business, “It’s a roller coaster ride but you have to make the busi-ness work for you so you can do stuff.” Quirnio describes broad-casting as “Crazy.” Mark Durdak is another guy just like Quirnio, but with some differences; he did not attend college at all and doesn’t own his own business. Mark works for Channel 5 and with Quir-nio sometimes. Instead of going to college Durdak joined the military

FEATURE


and served four years. When asked why he joined the military Durdak said,

Continued on next page “That was the only thing to do at the time, and I didn’t think college was for me.” When asked was it popular to go to college Durdak said, “You only had three options when graduating col-lege, you ether went to college got a job or joined the military, most of my friends worked.” Durdak had a different path that got him started with the world of broadcasting. Through the military he would take pictures and that led to his interest with broadcasting. The military did not tell Mark to take pictures he did that in his own time. The pictures he took he would give the military. From there a local newspaper saw what he was doing and offered him a job. After 2 years with being a reporter for his local newspaper Durdak was laid off for some time. “I looked around for jobs for about a month,” said Durdak He went to Channel 5 and they were pleased to have him and he got offered a job. Mark would not go back to college today saying, “There are so many avenues to learn than go to college.” Brian Oblak is just like the other two men mentioned above. He is a manager of his apartment complex in

Studio City, California. Oblak went to Kent State University, played football for three years, and then decided to drop out. When asked why he left college when he only had one more year to go Oblak said, “I needed a fresh start to my life.” “My parents were not going to give me a cent; luckily Kent gave me a football scholarship,” Oblak said, “It was either get a job or play football for Kent.” Being an actor was Oblak’s dream through childhood and college. “I wanted to become an actor, so I packed my jeep up and left.” Oblak had no acting experience so it was difficult for him to make the cut and his agent helped him out, but not enough. Oblak ended up in Los Angeles, California. While he looked for acting jobs he had some side jobs. “I had many bar tending options while looking for try outs for movies or commercials,” commented Oblak. Time went on and while Oblak was living in his apartment, the manager retired and asked Oblak if he would want the position. “I was speechless” said, Oblak Oblak has been in California for 30 years and has been the manager of his apartment complex for 25 years. After reading these about these suc-cessful men, just ask think about this: “How much benefit does a college education provide?”

COLLEGE CONT.


seniors to really get an idea on the truth behind possible careers. Jenna Vonderau, a college student at Cleveland State University, was asked what she felt teachers could have done that would have better prepared her for college. “I don’t feel that the different types

“I like that my students can share work without having to get together. You don’t need a flash drive for this free program and it’s super user-friendly,” said Mr. Davenport, a spe-cial-education and history teacher who uses Google Docs. Mrs. Turner will be responsible for ensuring that the schools’ programs and accounts are functioning prop-erly and making sure the faculty know how to use them. The whole aim of incorporating Google Apps is to connect students, teachers, and parents to make learn-ing more efficient and enriching. To complement the new Google Apps will be the 30 new Chrome Book laptops that the high school has already purchased . Chrome Books differ from other

GOOGLE CHROME CONT.

COLLEGE TRANSITION CONT.

laptops because the google-based in-ternet browser, Chrome, is also the operating system. They also have built-in anti-virus software, run ef-ficiently, are automatically updated because the system is managed by Google, and have an offline setting so work can be done from anywhere. In order to operate these new pro-grams, teachers will have to take Google Training classes. A few teach-ers have already attended classes, and there will be more classes over the summer. Schools can also find new technolo-gies to use in the classroom through conferences. The most recent confer-ence is the annual Ohio Educational Technology Conference. Mrs. Turn-er, Mr. Smithberger, Mrs. Hoslar, Mrs. Harrison, Mr. Sack, Mr. Felton, and Mrs. Ribblett were in attendance this past January. After the conference, the teachers created a Google presentation in or-der to show other teachers what they learned. These teachers worked to-gether to train their coworkers. At the heart of all the new techno-logical developments and training is the enhancement of student success. “It is crucial to be utilizing the tech-nology to improve our instruction, which ultimately is to help student achievement,” said Mrs. Turner. Embracing the new digital age can bring education into a clearer per-spective for students, and will better prepare them for their future.

of schedule in high school vs. college feel that affected me at all, I had no problem adjusting,” stated Vonderau Her response was to give students more independence. “Teachers in high school spoon feed you everything. In college professors don’t even remind you when things

are due,” Vonderau stated. Teachers are definitely seen as re-sponsible for the future success of all their students, and with a little re-search and feedback they can create the perfect skills and curriculum to ensure their students will go on to be successful in college.

By Maddie Winget During high school is when every-thing starts to seem real. In elemen-tary and middle school, we take school seriously, but we are always told that school does not really count until high school starts. One of the most stressful times during high school can be preparing for the ACT test. The ACT is a test that can determine your fu-ture. It is a three and half hour standardized test that has five parts to it; English, Math, Reading, Science and Writing. Each part tests your cognitive ability in those subjects. Many people believe that one standardized test is an unfair measure to determine what kind of student you will be in the next four years. Many colleges agree that this test shouldn’t be the primary reason you get accepted into a school. When one of Kent States admissions counselors was asked how much importance they place on the ACT for freshman admissions, they said, “We take many things into consideration, grade trends, rigorous schedule, and what you are involved in. Although we do take the ACT as being a very important factor as well, and our average ACT score is a 23.” On Ohio State University’s under-graduated admissions criteria website, they state, “Ohio State has a competitive admission process in which students are considered for admission based largely on their aca-demic performance and credentials.”

T H E S TA N DA R D I Z E D T E S T TA K I N G E R A

Of OSU’s freshman class of 2013, 54% were in the top 10% of their class and 89% of the students were in the top 25% of their class. Ohio State’s average ACT score ranged be-tween 26-30. Based on these statistics Ohio State seems to take the students that have extremely competitive

and impressive grades into the most consider-

ation. Valerie Strauss from the Washing-ton post states, “At schools that are deluged with tens of thousands of applications, numbers matter, so these scores can play an outsized role in admission decisions. That means these scores can affect where indi-

vidual students get to go to school.” This seems to be the case with Ohio State considering they receive a high number of applicants each year. Statistics show that this year’s aver-age ACT score actually lowered. The

high school class of 2013’s composite ACT average was down 0.2 points from 21.1 last year and English and reading scores (averaging 20.2 and 21.1) were down 0.3 and 0.2 points, respectively. This is unfortunate seeing that the re-quirements are going up as the test scores lower. Although students test scores are lower-ing over the past four years, the question that we may ask ourselves is whether or not this test is a complete overview of how we are as students. Strauss said this may not be completely true, “Significant research shows that SAT and ACT scores don’t re-ally tell us anything meaningful about a

student’s future, either academically or in the work world.” Even though some say that the ACT may not be a great judgment of how the students will perform in real life, it is still a huge part of our high school and college career. Seeing how important the ACT is becoming, many high schools are holding ACT tutoring sessions to help prepare students.

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