Fiscal Cliff- Government worked to avoid tax in-creases and budget cuts,

unwelcomed by most Ameri-cans.

Toys for Tots- Students volunteer time to partici-

pate in the annual Toys for Tots service trip.

Post-season awards for Summit football stars-

Leaders of the Boys’ Var-sity Football team receive

prestigious awards.

On December 18th, the Summit swim team boarded the buses with high hopes of defeating their long time rival, Scotch Plains.

When arriving at the meet, Summit brought a spectacular amount of spirit, and all throughout the YMCA, everyone could hear it. The meet was predicted to be a difficult one because of the number of participants who swim for a club team; the best of the best. Regardless, Summit was well prepared, and geared up to swim their way to victory.

The boys definitely brought their A game to the meet. Whether it was the screaming fans lining the walls of the pool, or the arrival of alumni SumSwimmers to watch them in their pursuit, the boys would stop at nothing to come out with a win. Junior, Ryan Sebastian, triumphed in butterfly, winning the race by a landslide. Senior captain, Jimmy Currie, said, “The boys are taking it to the hole. Today will be a start to many other years of beating Scotch Plains.” To back Currie’s statement up, senior Will Benn came in 2nd place in a close race for the 100-meter freestyle, following Scotch Plains by less than a second.

Though both teams had great swimmers who graduated last year, the meet was no doubt extremely intense. Both Summit and Scotch Plains put in massive amounts of practice in preparation for the meet, but at the end of the day there could only be one winner. The boys came out with a 97-73 victory, defeating

their long time rival. “We have done something today that no one from Summit has ever seen before. We are making history today,” said an ecstatic boys captain Will Beckett.

Gliding through the water in their stylish Summit swim caps and maroon one-pieces, the girls dominated in the 100-yard butterfly stroke. Sophomore Maddie Simko placed 1st, and was closely followed

by Junior Alex Riba. Seniors Grace Newcomb and Emily Rowe came in 3rd and 4th in the 100 yard freestyle, letting Scotch Plains know that they were in it to win it.

“There have been a lot of hard practices leading up to this meet,” explains girls Coach John Ross, “the girls have pumped each other up all day and the seniors have made it clear how important this meet is.”

January 2013

Summit High School

125 Kent Place Blvd, Summit, NJ

Volume 13 Issue 4

Swimming breaks streak at historic grudge match

By ELLIE SCHAFFER

Dive In! Summit’s Girls’ Swim team begins one of the many events of the day against rival Scotch Plains.

Student council auctions Christmas trees

Before holiday break, the student council trialed a miniature Christmas tree fundraiser. The process started with the student council selling trees to clubs, sports teams, and students who were really into the holiday spirit. Groups decorated trees, which were auctioned off in the concourse during Winter Festival.

Half the proceeds went to help the victims at the Jersey shore to help Hurricane Sandy victims, and the other half was split among those who helped decorate the trees. Some notable trees came from the Key Club, Breast Cancer Awareness Club, Union Hispana, French Club, and the tree from Mr. Akey, Ms. Grimaldi, and Mr. Sears that was covered in fan-folded two dollar bills as well as a gift card to Starbucks.

Student Council President Abby Beier said, “It can be difficult to predict how something will go for the first time, but I am glad that we added this

event, because it was a great way to get a diverse group of students involved in the same activity.”

This clever idea helped the school come together to donate for Sandy relief, and also have a good time decorating holiday trees.

Student Council Secretary Josh Golding said, “I was pleasantly surprised how many people placed bids. All the trees were sold and interest in the trees was pretty evenly distributed. The clubs received some very good publicity and hopefully the auction will benefit everyone in the long run.”

At the end of the auction it turned out every tree was bid on and that even some trees reached a value of over $20! This event worked out well, and many students believe going forward the tree auction should become an annual tradition the day of the Winter Fest. Hopefully the auction will be even more successful next year.

By TOMMY DISIBIO

Summit wins football State Championship

By ALEX ARIAS

Juniors must avert scheduling fiscal cliff

Dr. John Schnedeker, Director of the SHS Guidance department, warns juniors and underclassmen of a looming, unsecured senior obligation. “I’m scared for the juniors right now,” says Schnedeker. Why, you ask?

Many students, especially those in the class of 2014, have yet to meet a graduation requirement by taking a state-mandated financial literacy class.

There are three ways to meet this obligation. Commencing with the 2014 graduates and going forward, students can take Financial Literacy and Economics, or the new Financial Literacy and Personal Finance class (a math elective offered beginning in the fall), or a ten-hour online course .

NJ requires this course as a hedge against future insolvency: the trend has been that citizens are going into debt without the financial wherewithal to get out of it. With this course, students learn how to manage their money, bank accounts, and plan for their financial futures.

The guidance department is voicing concern over how some students are lacking motive in getting the coursework completed. Schnedeker continues, “a big percent of students haven’t completed the course, and if they don’t complete it by March, it will affect their senior schedule.”

“The new elective called Financial Literacy and Personal Finance,” continues Dr. Schnedeker. “will go deeper into the concept [of money management] than the online course did,” he says.

Champions! Summit Hilltoppers win second State Championship in three years, led by veteran senior co-captains Mike Badgley, Tyler Carbone, AJ Iarussi, Nick Liberato,

Conor O’Malley, and Andrew Oristanio.

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Juniors should contact their guidance counselors without delay if they would like to register for the online course and complete the requirement independently before the March cycle of course selections begins.

Continued on page 7

Toward the middle of the meet, it became clear that the boys were in the lead, and the girls were in a close second place.

“It’s a really close meet for the

After a night of restless sleep due to my HazMat suit, I woke up to re-alize that no disasters had occurred. It was the sound of my alarm clock that woke me up on December 21st and not the sound of mete-ors crashing into the Earth as predicted. After another failed attempt at the predic-tion of the end of the world has passed, old mother Earth seems to be just fine. It’s too bad people spent many years preparing for Armaged-don. So what happens next?

Well, first of all, my end of the world supplies are worthless now! I spent days at Costco buying Spam in bulk for nothing! Even though Twinkies are no longer in production, it’s ru-mored that they can survive a nuclear war so, I stocked up on them a long time ago. At least now, I can make mad bank when I sell these babies on Ebay. I am not the only one who bought all this junk. Junior, Jake Pay-tas, said, “I bought all these peas. I don’t know what to do. Seriously though, if anyone wants any peas just come to my house.” I feel like all of us normal people who actually pre-pared for the apocalypse are just kind of left out to dry. What am I supposed to believe anymore? This isn’t my fault. Personally, I blame the media.

After movies like 2012 and vari-

ous TV shows on the History Channel, it seems like we are now just left hanging and let down.

I really was expecting to walk out-side my house Friday morning and be able to see a solar flare strike. But alas, my dreams were shattered when

I realized that the end of the world had not begun. There surely has to be someone to blame this whole false prediction on.

The Mayans, an an-cient race of people who ended their calendar on December 21, 2012, are the cause of this whole commotion. It makes a

much more inter-esting story to tell someone the world

will end than it is to tell them that the actual end of the calendar marked the end of a cycle in Mayan culture. The end of the cycle wasn’t really that bad of a thing and was actually cel-ebrated. But hey, if telling people this stuff works then here is my chance.

There were other coincidences hinting at the end of the world. Like Rebecca Black singing about the very day of the week upon which December 21 landed....

But it looks like the so-called end of the world didn’t happen like time and time before. I guess it’s time to try and return of all the frozen pizza I bought. My end of the world pizza party seems like it will have to wait until next time.Second quarter is coming to a close,

and I have mixed feelings on its end-ing. On one hand my senioritis is kicking in and I can’t seem to find any medicine to make it go away. Advil just doesn’t stop my laziness from tak-ing over. While, on the other side of things I will honestly miss some of the experiences and people I’ve met while being in such a great school. Where else would I be able to make pump-kin bread and take a really hard math test all in the same day? Nowhere, that’s what I thought. This school, in all seriousness, always has some-thing fun or exciting going on all the time and that’s what makes it special.

Shout out to the boy’s football team for destroying Palisades Park at Giants Stadium. Although I am not visible in any of the Peter Gangi paparazzi shots I was there, getting showered by pop-corn and loud threats to scream every chant. Congrats to all the boys, but especially the senior boys because they rock! Also, all those who were involved, like the cheerleaders and the band should be extremely proud of themselves. I’m very offended

the band didn’t ask me to perform in their half time show considering I was a back-up dancer for Justin Bieber while I watched the movie in theaters.

Since it’s that time of the year again, I’m sure everyone is getting ready for midterms! Who doesn’t love taking a cumulative test that counts for like five billion percent of your grade? I sure know it makes me extremely nervous. Let’s go seniors and get at least an 80 on all of these tests. Also, teachers please feel free to go easy on me so I can enjoy my spring. Please? What’s good bribery? I hope we can all continue to fight on and get good grades despite our urge to give up.

To those who’ve gotten into col-lege, CONGRATS! What a great feeling that is, and to those who are still hearing back I’m sure you all will be fine because we are so well prepared. You ask me how do I know? Well it’s because I am the new Raven Symone and I can see into the future. Remember to keep doing well and I hope everyone enjoys winter. Peace n’ blessin’s, Jemma

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Run like the wind! Junior Nic Lalicato runs away from impending doom.

Lounging. Left to right, seniors, Alexis Spallone , Anthony Fernandes, Margot Pal-miter, and Holly Johnston enjoy their unassigned study in style.

Senioritis creeps in at rapid pace, overtakes minds

Page 2 January 2013OPINE

By NIC LALICATO

By EMMA STANDING

Hey, football team. Way to go. You finally got mentioned in Verve this month. That’s almost as great an ac-complishment as going 44-2 in the last four years. Just amazing. As we say in Vermont, Big ups yo! One dis to Verve, and now one kudos. Love the new layout. It really looks fantastic.

Hey, seniors, you must have felt really proud when Mr. Sears had to make an announcement to clean up the crap you left in the senior lounge or he would close it. I never saw ju-niors run so fast as they hurried to clean it up so they could have it next year. Maybe you should write an ar-ticle next to the one about the holiday field trip and smiles. You could say, “We left our lunch crap on the tables and floors yet again. To see the faces of the custodians cleaning up after us really made me feel good.” This is the behavior I least like about you. Just pathetic. Thank God, YOSO.

Saw Les Misérables over the break and it reminded me of Monica Fla-nagan’s performance as Fantine, the single best moment I’ve seen on the stage at SHS in 33 years. That, cou-

pled with the best and worst lists that are out now gave me an idea.

To start, the best basketball players I’ve seen here: 1. Wellington Smith, class of 05, Big Smoof. Not even close. 2. Jay Green, class of ‘81, amazing speed and a killer outside shot. 3. Kate Martino, class of ‘12. Four-year starter, fearless. 4. Alex Sprinzen, class of ‘03. Smart, unself-ish and a picture perfect shot. 5. Mr. Dietz. Retired math teacher and triple AAA baseball player in Phillies orga-nization was unstoppable in student faculty games.

Peace Love and The Woodstock Nation.

Akey respondsBy ANTHONY AKEY

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Dishing out wisdom. Assistant Prin-cipal Anthony Akey

Civilization evades calamity

You may have noticed a slight change with your beloved Verve and are impressed with our sty-listic efforts. Do you miss our old page titles and the buzzing bees of the infamous Buzz page? Have no fear, a new year is here and we’re making big changes to the Verve.

This year our New Year’s Resolu-tion is to be more original and break away from our outdated design. We are taking the next step forward to make our paper more appealing to our adored readers. We’ve decided to go in a new direction with a more professional layout and aesthetics. Thanks to the support of our ad-ministrators and supporters, espe-cially Mr. Walsh, Mr. Akey, Ms. Grimaldi, Mr. Sears, and Mr. Lica-

tese, our new hijacked computers from the Writing Center don’t hurt either. (Yes, that is where those shiny computers went…#sorrynotsorry.)

Thanks to the Summit Educational Foundation (SEF) we were just awarded a grant for a staff camera, so we’ll be able to publish higher quality images in upcoming issues.

We also want to thank our Board of Education: their financial and philo-sophical support of a student press is so important to the future of our society.

We hope you like our new and im-proved paper and read more than just our favorite column: “Akey responds”.

If you’d like to share your thoughts, about our new design or on any topic drop us a line at: shs le t t e r s2ed i to r@gmai l . com.

Message from the editors

Are your required reading as-signments getting you down? If the answer is yes, you have com-pany. High schools have been jam-ming depressing books into the curriculum, to teach us about tragedy.

Sure, sometimes we read an up-lifting and inspiring book every now and again (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, House on Mango Street, and Jane Eyre), but it seems like, overall, if someone isn’t killed, suf-fering or tortured then the book isn’t a top pick in English class.

In my time reading books through middle school and high school, I can’t even count how many times we were assigned tragic, non-fiction books (Maus, Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars, etc.) about the Holocaust. I know and understand the importance of learning about this historical horror in school, but shouldn’t that be for history class? A few books would be enough for English, but when we reach over

six, it starts to get very depressing. It’s not just the Holocaust books

that are getting students down: it’s any book at all. Freshmen year, books like Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, All But My Life, and many others were painful downers, despite the happy classes and upbeat teachers. I don’t want to spoil any endings for students who are reading or will read these books, so I will leave my one-word review for them as follows: sad.

One or two depressing books a year I would be fine with, but the amount we are reading is get-ting very excessive. Is this what post-post-Modernism has wrought?

There’s movement afoot to get more upbeat reading in schools, and I’m ready. A parent in North Caro-lina has begun a campaign called UpLit (Encouraging uplifting litera-ture in high school English classes).

This sounds like a bright and posi-tive idea, to me.

Student bemoans sad readsBy STEPHANIE OLLOM

Verve Editorial Policy: Verve is a publication open to opinions of its readers. Please submit all letters to shsletters2editor@gmail.com. Letters must be signed and will be subject to editing for space, grammar, and factual accuracy. However, all efforts will be made to preserve the writer's intent. Libelous and inappropriate writing will not be published in the Verve.

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Unorthodox Jukebox, the newest album from Grammy award winning artist Bruno Mars, premiers on De-cember 11th 2012. He is known for his tunes like “Just the Way You Are,” “Grenade,” and “The Lazy Song.” Expectations are high for Mars in his next work. His previous album, Doo-Wops and Hooligans, debuted at number three on Billboard’s top 200 album charts upon its release.

Mars, a renowned songwriter, is going in a new direction for this album. He still takes inspiration from the past, but with less doo-wop and more synth pop. However, Bruno Mars is a mas-ter at any genre he tries. The album begins with “Young Girls”, an up-beat, catchy song that utilizes creative background harmonies, like those in his previous album, for a great effect.

“Locked Out of Heaven” was re-leased as a single from the album. It is reminiscent of songs by The Police were released around the 1980s. A closer listen will remind the listener of the hit “Roxanne,” which was written by The Police in 1978. Regardless of the similarities, Mars still puts his own twist on the music that makes it his own. On Wednesday December 12th, “Locked Out of Heaven” reached the number one slot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.Sophomore Emily Chin ex-claims, “He is a great performer who is great with any type of song. I’m so excited to see what he’ll do in the next album!” Unorthodox Jukebox is another hit from Bruno Mars and will surely be topping charts in 2013.

Photo Provided by http://wvgazette.com

Mud! Trucks! And wild fun… The cast for the new reality TV show possess on the back of one of the pick up trucks that can be seen flying through the mud throughout the show.

Photo provided by Drew SchwendimanBehind the scenes! (L-R) at the Maya’s Hope event in New York are (L-R) Drew’s fel-low intern Danielle, matchmaker Amy Laurent (star of Miss Advised on BravoTV), Drew

Schwendiman ‘14, and Drew’s boss and BravoTV blogger, Tara Cushing.

January 2013 Page 3SCREEN AND SOUND

Student blogger meets, greets BravoTV celebs There are children in this world who are lit-erally abandoned by their mothers because of their disabilities

Bruno Mars New Album

By JULIA HECKELMAN

Buckwild replaced the popular Jer-sey Shore which is a reality TV show that shows the lives of 9 friends in the rural town of Sissonville, West Virginia. The show Buckwild pre-miered on January 3, 2013 on MTV. Having their fair share of drunk and wild parties, but the twist is most of them don’t have cell phones or Face-book. You can also see them rolling in mud, rolling down hills in tires, and using a backhoe as a rollercoaster. It’s essentially the Jersey Shore with

MTV’s new reality series “Buckwild” is stirring up controversy before its big debutBy MAX MACPHERSON

World wants to put coins in Bruno Mars’ Jukebox

Buckwild Repulses WV Governor

less sand and more mud. When the Jer-sey Shore was about to air back on De-cember 3, 2009, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie voiced his criticism of the show and the bad rep that it would give New Jersey. The same thing hap-pened in West Virginia with Senator and former Governor Jo Manchin III. He says that the show is taking advan-tage of inaccurate stereotypes about the people of West Virginia. He also said in a letter that he wrote to MTV “as a U.S. senator, I am repulsed at

this business venture, where some Americans are making money off of the poor decisions of our youth.” Will this new reality tv show be as suc-cessful as the Jersey Shore? Probably not, but it may grasp the attention of Jer-sey Shore fans still not over the fact that the show is done and people that want to get a good laugh from recent col-lege graduates making a fool of them-selves. As these 9 friends like to put it they are “Young, free, and Buckwild”.

On November 28, I attended the Ma-ya’s Hope Commit to Hope cocktail party, on assignment for my new job as a blogger for Bravo TV. Not only did I stick out for being the young-est one at the event, I was one of only a handful of men in black suits. The Maya’s Hope’s charity mission is to “… help disadvantaged children living in extreme poverty by send-

ing aid to orphanages through the world; initially focusing on the Phil-ippines and Ukraine…” Today, when I think of poverty-stricken regions, I think of Africa, parts of India, and even some cities in New Jersey. Un-til this night, I had never thought that there were thousands of children in other countries who were left in the dark. There are children in this world

who are literally abandoned by their mothers because of their disabilities. It’s hard to comprehend, but it is the reality many children in the Ukraine and Philippines face. Following is an excerpt from my night’s adventure: I arrived at the Soigné K Boutique on Madison Avenue in NYC around 6:15, and before I could even take off my coat I was being checked off the guest list, a true VIP feeling. Wait-resses passed around hors d’oeuvres, but I preferred the celery (I burn calories while eating it- perfect!) My boss Tara arrived fashionably late with Amy Laurent, a cast member on Bravo TV’s show Miss Advised. I clung to the two of them, plus Amy’s intern and friend, for the duration of the event. This gave me the op-portunity to speak with the executive producer of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and New York City about the series. It was truly incredible learn-ing the process of filming the House-wives and manipulating stories from the men who create the episodes! After that I made my way to my fa-vorite girl on Gallery Girls, Liz Mar-gulies, and had a nice conversation

with her. Sonja Morgan stopped by the event for a few minutes, but she was too dizzy to stay for the night. I wonder what happened to her… Despite all the fun I had socializing with people I had seen on TV, the highlight of my night was listening to the found-er of Maya’s Hope appeal to the crowd. Maya Rowencak had just flown from the Ukraine, where she visited disabled orphans abandoned by their mothers. This Maya’s Hope fundraiser raised $13,387.11! To know that my dona-tions were a part of this sum is an in-credible feeling. Now that it’s a new year, I think that every student should focus on assisting people of any back-ground who are in need of help. For more information on Maya’s Hope, vis-it mayashope.org. Happy New Year!

By DREW SCHWENDIMAN

Page 4 January 2013Year in ReviewJanuary

March

JUNE

On January 9th Alabama State University’s football team crushed Louisiana State Univer-sity in the Bowl Championship Series 21-0.

Summit High School’s Men’s Hockey team made history, defeating Tenafly 2-1 in the final round of the NJ-SIAA tournament. Becoming the first ever NJSIAA Public B Summit Men’s Ice Hockey victors.

Respected R&B legend Whitney Houston was pronounced dead on February 11th due

to a drug overdose.

Six time grammy winning country super star, Taylor Swift, won the coveted entertainer of the year award at the Country Music Awards.

The world’s largest social networking site, Facebook, had its IPO on May 18th.

On June 28th Obamacare was

deemed constitu-tional and created much controversy.

February

APRIL

MAY

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January 2013 Page 5 Year in Review

JULY

September

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AUGUST

November

24-year-old murderer James Holmes, opened fire on a audience at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado,

killing twelve viewers.

The United States took home the gold at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, overshad-owing every country with 46 gold medals,

29 silver, and 29 bronze.

Apple created a thinner, light, faster, and better version of the iPhone, the iPhone 5, which hit the market on

September 21.

Hurricane Sandy arrived late October mak-ing history as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record. Destroying the Jersey Shore, Staten Island, and devastating NYC. This cyclone affected 24 states in total, killing 253 people in seven different countries, and left millions

without power.

Summit High School’s Football team led by coach, John Liber-ato, beat Palisades Park in a shut out 30-0 at Met Life Stadium, claiming the title of NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group 3 Champs. Ending the season with an undefeated record of 12-0.

Obama was re-elected after defeating Romney 50.9% to 47.3% in popu-

lar votes and 332 to 206 in electoral votes.

DECEMBER

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A bus of forty excited Summit High School students left the parking lot early December 19 for the Meadow-lands Center’s Toys for Tots event

This organization’s goal is to give underprivileged children all the joys of the holiday season, priding itself in giving new Christmas toys to the less fortunate, at Toys for Tots events, such as the one SHS attended, or via toy drop-off centers.

The event is split into two sides, green vs. red, green being the older children (7-12) and red being the younger chil-dren.

All the volunteers cheered and sang holiday tunes like “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph” as the kids walked in.

Volunteers were then assigned to dif-ferent schools, and SHS worked with an variety of groups. There were 802 kids in total.

The event commenced with drawing, holiday cartoons, and playing with bal-loons.

The most spirited part of the day was the dancing! There was constant music playing and all the children showed their dance moves.

SHS students, unanimously, found the dancing to be the highlight of the day, “Just seeing these children’s faces light up” Grace Totman ‘15 explains, “made my day.”

At one point, Santa came on the

dance floor and played with the chil-dren; meanwhile, there were characters such as Dora, Winnie the Pooh, Tig-ger, Mickey Mouse, and Elmo walking around.

The eventful day ended with children choosing a new present of their own.

“You could tell that this really changed their holiday season, they just couldn’t have been happier,” sopho-more Mitchell Booth expounds.

Junior Alexa Krain tells, “It was a great experience for not only the kids but us to, we had a lot of fun giving

back.” Juliana Fusco talks about her experi-

ence, saying, “It was really nice how excited the kids were and you could tell it was really special for them.”

Summit students clearly are intent on returning next December and making a difference yet again.

Having a charitable field trip is truly a novel idea and definitely made an impact on both the children and the students.

A new mall, MONDO, has ar-rived in Summit. Its website states it is “a destination for shopping, eat-ing, wholesome entertainment and pursuit of one’s creative self.” The four-story mall features many stores ranging from The Hilltop Shop, to restaurants like Marigolds Café, to music stores like World of Rock. Every Friday and Saturday night, the lower level of MONDO hosts Jam Summit Entertainment, which will feature events like karaoke, open mic, poetry readings, stand up com-edy, and more.

Also, The Film Society of Summit plans on screening indie films appro-priate for all ages. A wide variety of art can be viewed and purchased at Joni Rose Gallery and Chatham Area Artisans Guild Gallery. Handmade pottery, jewelry, glassware, and ac-cessories can also be bought through out the mall. When looking for a workout or just to be active one can check out MONDO’s Authentic Ar-gentine Tango School, LOFT Yoga, or It’s Beyond the Workout it’s ME.

Senior Gillian Dukoff explains, “I think MONDO is a great addition to downtown Summit. I love all the unique stores and it brings a sense of character to the town.”

Smile! (L-R) Meghan Lees, Kanya Dayananth, Amy MacDonald, Julianne Smolyn, Meredith Robertson, and Mitchell Booth all helping out at the Toys for Tots event.

Creative thinking! Located at Memorial Field, Richard Pitt’s abstract, aluminum structures allow the viewer to consider the unimaginable.

Shoppers explore vertical downtown

mall

Page 6 January 2013BUZZ

By MEGAN SHAW

By SARINA MUSALLAM

By EMME HARRIS

Holiday field trip presents toys, smiles

Festival eclipses prophecy

Book club reads murder mysteryFor visitors driving through Sum-

mit, there is no way to miss the lively sculptures placed in town. At first they might seem a little far-fetched for a typical suburban town; however, these pieces of art have become part of the town just as much as the Li-brary or Memorial Park.

In 2004, the Summit Public Arts or-ganization, for the first time, installed thirty contemporary sculptures across town. According to the town’s web-site, the City Council hopes the sculp-tures will, “offer the opportunity for accidental encounters between people and art they might not see if it were not installed in a public place… [and] enhance the lives of Summit’s resi-dents, as well as of people who come to Summit to work, to shop, to eat, to worship, or just to visit.” The art-work is usually displayed for about six months and the artist is modestly compensated through donations and grants that the Summit Public Arts receive.

Out of all the art installations within the past eight years, there have been several impressive pieces. Remember the sculpture of the old man throwing out a piece of trash in the mini-park

just down the street from Red Mango? The piece, Holier Than Thou by J Seward Johnson Jr., provided enjoy-ment to passing pedestrians and a friendly reminder to dispose of trash. Moreover, the stained glass windows, designed by Judith Wadia, in the bus shelter at corner of Broad Street and Summit Avenue are another favorite among Summit residents.

Emily Lima, an art-enthused sopho-more, gushes, “I really liked this one sculpture that was in front of the high school a couple years ago. It was trash piles molded and sculpted in creative ways. The piece was so simple yet it had a powerful message.”

Art is open for interpretation; every-one is entitled to their own opinions. There are people in Summit who love the sculptures, and there are those who consider them absurd. However, these opinions give people no right to destroy another person’s artistic work and free expression. Though it might take some time getting accustomed to these modern sculptures, Summit res-idents cannot imagine street corners and parks without them.

Artwork, provocative and pleasant, makes our community special.

By MADDIE SIMKO

Sculpting a cultural physiqueBy XIAOYING YU

Whenever a person reads a book, there is an urge to discuss, but it’s hard to find somebody reading the same book at the same time. A book club solves those problems. Come

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to a meeting, discuss a book, and just have fun speaking freely. The Student Book Club in Summit High School is run by Mrs. Karen Putnam. It meets two to three times a year, and wel-come all students who are interested in reading. The Book Club was established twelve years ago. At first, it was run by the English Department and the library, but now the club is under the library’s purview. There are almost twenty members who attend regularly. They read their books at the same time but independently and, after six weeks, they meet to share their opinions on

the book. They discuss complicated themes and ideas. The Book Club always tries to en-gage students to increase their inter-est in reading and allow them to read books outside of the English cur-riculum. They choose popular books, which young adults are interested in, like the Hunger Games. The current book for members to read is the House Rules, by Jodi Picoult, which is about a teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome, and his experience with being charged with murder.

The most recent meeting was held on January 3, 2013. New members are always welcome. Students wanting op-portunity to choose a new book should see Mrs. Putnam in the Media Center.

Mrs. K. Putnam

This year’s Winter Festival was a perfect wrap to the 2012 school year, allowing students to relax and have fun with a variety of activities. It was organized by the student council, and there was something for everyone. There was basketball, where students would attempt to make shots from half court and win a candy cane prize; also, hula-hoop contests offered a fun diversion. Students in the mood could take fun pictures with friends for only a dollar! An arts and crafts station was set up, and students could also opt to write letters to veterans as a way of giving back. “This is a nice thing to have during

the school day, usually we don’t have time to do anything like this,” com-mented Miena De Jesus ‘15. The only complaint was that there were not enough supplies at the arts and crafts table or enough seats. Delicious cupcakes, baked by junior Abby DePhillips were sold, and were a tasty treat. “They are soooo good!” raved freshman Ariana Tsanas, “I could eat like 20!” Lina Mockute ‘14 says that “The best part about the winter festival was watching Elf, I also enjoyed the fun sports games and the music! Also Abby’s cupcakes were amazing.” This event was such a hit that people think another should be or-ganized during midterms and would be a good way to relieve stress. This certainly surpassed the expectations of most students and they can’t wait for it next year!

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TURF Page 7January 2013

Gridiron leaders score elite honorsTimex and Minimax award Iarussi, Badgley

With another season of high school football in the books and an exciting state championship for the Summit Hilltoppers, this past year has been highlighted by the performances of seniors AJ Iarussi and Mike Badgley. Due to their success on the football field, both AJ and Mike have been recognized for their accomplishments. Iarussi has been nominated for the “Ti-mex Heart of a Giant” award, presented by USA football and Badgley was awarded the “2012 Mini Max High School Award”.

When asked about being nominated for such a presti-gious award, AJ Iarussi replied by saying, “I am very gratefull for the recognition for all my hard work in the tri-state area. ” Mike Badgley had a similar re-sponse when he stated that, “It’s a great honor to be known as one of the top 50 players in the state. But I couldn’t have done it without the team behind me.”

The awards are so prestigious because they are not solely based on physical ability; char-acter plays a large factor in deciding the winners of these awards. According to USA Football, when deciding can-didates for the “Timex Heart of a Giant” award, candidates are selected based on their work

Princeton Day Honors Ice Leader

ethic, leadership qualities, per-formance in the classroom, and their determination to succeed despite any challenges that might present themselves. The requirements fulfilled by each candidate show the tremendous honor bestowed upon those lucky enough to be nominated.

As prestigious as these awards are, when asked if he was happier to have won this award, or to have won a state championship, Mike Badgley

responded by saying, “Defi-nitely a state championship. We have all been working really hard for this [championship] since freshman year and to have finally won it is a tremendous honor.” The “2012 Mini Max High School Award” is awarded to just fifty high school football players throughout the state. The “Timex Heart of a Giant” award selects only ten nominees per week over the course of thir-teen weeks for all of New Jersey,

New York, and Connecticut.Understanding how rare

it is to be recognized like this, Badgley replied that “I look forward to getting the chance to work hard and play at the next level and to show my skills to the nation.”

Both AJ and Mike will continue to play football in college. AJ will be at-tending Colgate University and Mike will be kicking for the University of Miami.

Annabel Sangree, who plays left wing (offense) on the girls’ Varsity Ice Hockey team, is being rec-ognized as this month’s featured athlete for all of the effort she has brought forth so far this season.

She was recently awarded the Christopher Reeve Sports-manship Award after the an-nual Holiday Tournament at Princeton Day School, and was recognized for her skill, sportsmanship, and lead-ership. This is awarded in honor of the actor who played as the first varsity goalie at Princeton Day in 1967, and is presented to play-ers for their teamwork and courtesy on and off the ice.

“I love this team, it’s just so much fun! We’re still fairly new but everyone is so tal-ented and we are improving every year,” comments An-nabel. “Everyone on the team is so nice and we have a lot of fun together, I think we’re go-ing to do some great things!”

Although their season is just starting up, their coach, Mr. Matthew Stanbro, is more than proud. This is the second consecutive year that Summit has been invited to the Harry Rulon-Miller Invitational Tournament, which was held at Princeton Day School on December 8th. With the help of Annabel and the other ris-ing stars on this team, they finished third over all—beat-ing Lansdale Catholic 1-0.

In response to their game, teammate junior Samantha Donohue raves, “Annabel is so much fun to have on the team! She keeps everyone laughing and happy with her constant smiles and is a true asset to our team!”

Make sure to stay tuned to girls’ ice hockey as their season continues through-out the winter—it’s go-ing to be a successful one!

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By MEREDITH ROBERTSON

Running Towards a title! Senior AJ Iarussi recieves a hand off from fellow senior Mike Badgley at the State Championship Game at MetLife Field

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Sliding Save! Teia Ross, Brynn Johnson and Anna Johnson make an excellent defensive effort against a formidable opponent

Shut Out! Junior Emmie McCaffery waits for the puck as Summit defeats Lansdale Catholic 1-0

girls. It’s been two points apart the entire time,” explained Junior Josie Persson. Throughout the meet in the sweating conditions of the overheated Y, Summit did not cease cheering. The chant “Hilltop, Hilltop, Hilltop” could be heard from outside the gym doors, and “let’s go Summit!” rang throughout the halls of the building. Even Coach Ross energetically shouted to his swimmers while walking up and down the length of the pool.

Unfortunately the girls fell short of a win in the end. Losing

Pack the Rink! January 11, 2013 at 5:10

vs Princeton High Schoolat Bridgewater Sports Arena

Wrist Shot! Anabel Sangree takes a perfect wrist shot

against Princeton Day School

by a mere 14 points, the score came out to be 77-91, Scotch Plains. We’ll get ‘em next time girls!

Though separated by gender, Summit Swimming is one big happy family that proved to be all for one and one for all. Celebrating the boy’s historic victory as a team, the swimmers cheered their way home. Their other rival, Westfield better look out, Summit has got some serious game. And to all those die-hard SumSwim fans, it was a great day to be a Hilltopper.

“Swimming” cont. from page 1Hilltop! Juniors Maria diMayorca, Kelly Haberl and Josie Persson

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By DAVID MEYERS

Lately, many Ameri-cans have found them-selves being constantly barraged with news of

the “fiscal cliff”. Whether this is on the Television, radio, or internet, it would seem as if most do not know much, if anything, about this impend-ing economic shift. So what exactly is the fiscal cliff? The fiscal cliff is the widely used term for the impend-ing problem that the United States Government faces at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 will be put in place. The Bush Tax Cuts are also going to ex-pire after being renewed by President Obama as well as an abundance of other tax cuts that have the potential to force America into another reces-sion (negative economic growth).

The current National Debt is ap-proximately 16.5 trillion dollars and escalating quickly. On top of that stag-gering figure, our current government spends more money than it can bring in, forcing our country to borrow large sums of capital from China. In order to shrink this looming debt the US gov-ernment has three options,as we see it. The first would be to tax Americans, in the short run this would create high amounts of revenue, however in the long run it would take money away from consumers that would otherwise spend it on goods, which would shrink the economy and cost jobs. The second option would be to cut spending to gov-ernment programs, such feasible paths for this strategy would be to increase

efficiency, privatize certain govern-ment programs such as NASA and the USPS, and cut spending in the mili-tary, social security, and cut foreign

aid. Some drawbacks to this would be that social security is important to many Americans. However, invest-ing in S&P 500 stocks would create a higher return of money, and buy-ing US Treasury Bonds would cre-ate a completely secure way to obtain a higher pecuniary return rate for Americans. Another argument would be that reducing the Military’s bud-get would decrease National Security; nevertheless, the United States spends more on its military than the next 14 countries combined, and creating a defensive military would arguably re-duce spending without compromising national security. Finally, the third op-tion is a mixture of the two strategies.

So far congress has not done much to fight this upcoming financial doomsday. Due to political deadlock between the two parties and their in-ability to reach a compromise for progress, no advancements have been made. Republicans, led on this issue by Grover Norquist and John Boehner have stressed a platform consisting of spending cuts to reduce spending, while taking an “oath” not to raise taxes on any Americans. Democrats, led by President Obama, have stressed an approach built upon taxing the wealthier Americans and also cut-ting some spending. To date, neither side has shown any signs of compro-mise. Although it is not the end of the

world if a compromise is not settled by the end of the year, but it would be better for all Americans if the polar political deadlock was broken.

At this point, many may be asking themselves, “How is this ever going to affect me?” For starters, if the government were to undergo another recession, every American would feel the burden. If the housing mar-ket were to crash again all the prog-ress we have made over the last few years would have been for nothing. Additionally, taxes are estimated to increase by a fair amount across the board. For example, Estate tax would rise significantly and income taxes would rise by 3-5 percent for every citizen on average, including lower in-come Americans and proposed higher sales tax on food and luxury goods. Only time will tell how our economy will fare during the coming year.

The la t -est news in the Royal Kingdom in England is the upcom-ing arrival of a new heir to the throne. Kate Middle-ton, Duchess of Cambridge and wife of Prince Wil-

liam, is preg-nant with her first child. Although it is not officially confirmed, according to examiner.com “the royal baby’s due date would fall anywhere between late May 2013 and the end of July 2013.”

The big news was revealed quite early in Middleton’s pregnancy because she was admitted into King Edward VII in early December for hyper emesis gravid arum according to the Guardian. This syn-drome is an acute morning sickness that

makes a woman dehydrated and unable to keep food down. It is different from regu-lar morning sickness because it is usually just feeling of nausea during pregnancy.

Hyper emesis gravid arum often oc-curs in women who are carrying twins. This has led speculators to believe that Middleton will have two Royal heirs. Also, William and Kate have other family members that have had twins.

Currently the new baby will be third in line for the throne after Prince Charles and Prince William. This will put Prince Harry, the baby’s uncle, fourth in line. Many wonder if Middleton is carrying twins, which one will be in line for the crown first. The York daily record says that the throne will go to “whichever [child comes] out first... UNLESS Kate needs a cesarean section. If so, her doctor could end up deciding the royal succession by determining which child comes out first. Or the position of the kids at the time of delivery could make the determination.”

Unfortunately, we will have to sit back and wait until the baby or ba-bies’ is/are born to find out how the throne will be distributed.

President Obama (right) speaks before Speaker of the House Boehner (middle) and Secretary of the Treasury Geitner (left) during a meeting on tackling the Na-

tional Debt

Summit High School125 Kent Place BlvdSummit, NJ 07901

Principal: Mr. Paul Sears

Assistant Principals: Mr. Anthony Akey & Mrs. Stacy Grimaldi

English Supervisor: Mr. Corey Walsh

Adviser: Mrs. Anne Weisgerber

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Miriam Meller & Carly Nyman

FRONT PAGE Section Editor: Jamie Macpherson

GLOBE: Section Editor: Alex Arias

YEAR IN REVIEW: Section Editors: Lindsay Leiter and Felisa Delli Santi

OPINE Section Editor: Lindsay Leiter

SCREEN AND SOUND Section Editor: Gwen Rogers

BUZZ Section Editors: Felisa Delli Santi & Tommy DiSibio

TURF Section Editor: Stephanie Ollom

Reporters: Emily Harris, Julia Heckelman, Nicholas Lalicato, Carly Leiter, Will Lycan, Max Macpherson, David Meyers, Sarina Musallam, Meredith Robertson, Ellie Schaffer, Megan Shaw, Jackson Sidebottom, Maddie Simko, Emma Standing, and Xiaoying Yu

Page 8 January 2013GLOBE

By WILL LYCAN

Obama,GOP battle as the fiscal cliff looms

By MIRIAM MELLER

A Bun in the Oven: New Heir to Throne Expected

Verve Views: What did you do over holiday break?

The events of December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New-ton, Connecticut will go down in American history in infamy. Verve wanted to use this space to honor ev-eryone who lost his or her life on that terrible day. Twenty children and six staff mem-bers were killed by the gunman, mak-ing it one of the deadliest shoot-ings in U.S. his-tory. That day,

President Obama stated “we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regard-less of the poli-tics.” Stories of heroic stories have flooded the Inter-net and have made a lasting impact on Americans all over the country and citizens all over the world. The family and friends of the victims are in our thoughts and prayers .

In Memoriam

Baby Mama...Duchess is due in the summer

By GWEN ROGERS

“A cruise to Florida”

- Sterling Drake ‘13

“Dog sledding and hiking in Alaska”

- Dylan Diaz ‘15

“Sailing in the British Virgin islands”

- Tyler MacDonald ‘14

“Going to Greece,”

- Michael Facchinei ‘14

“France with my family,”

- Julia Harkins’16

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