Features

Arielle Moore

Staff Writer

 

On Tuesday, March 15th, three members of the School Reform Commission gathered at SLA l in order to hear testimony that would inform their decision on whether to keep the school in its  current building. They spoke to a packed house of over 700 SLA community members.

Commissioners Bill Green, Farah Jimenez, and Sylvia Symms were in attendance, as well as Facilities (exact job title? Ask Lehmann) Fran Burns. At around 6:00 pm, the SRC members met at the front of the café, gave a short introduction, and explained the reasoning behind the meeting. They handed out a packet that listed potential sites SLA might move to, including 440 N. Broad Street and the former Vaux High School building at 24th and Master in North Philly.

After their introduction came a long string of testimonials by former and current students and teachers, parents, heads of companies, important representatives from different organizations.

 

Google Education Evangelist Jaime Casap testified via video: “I use SLA as a model for what great learning looks like. I would hate to disrupt that learning in any way.”

Another point that stood out to me and most was from one of the SRC members Sylvia Symms who claimed: “We should replicate learning centers like this around the city.”

 

Both students and their parents were active in asking questions and sparking new ideas amidst the small congregation. You could see that despite their anger, they remained composed and rational as possible.

One of the most interesting and eye-opening parts of the night was when SRC member Bill Green asked the head of The Franklin Institute about if the location would matter if it were in “Sylvia Simms’ neighborhood.

One of the older parents in the audience stood up and argued that one’s neighborhood, (especially one that lots of people call home) should not be considered a place that children can’t earn a decent education and that he owed Simms an apology. Simms agreed and therefore made the statement “We should replicate learning centers like this all around the city.”

The second-to-last testimonial was by senior Katia Hadjeb who told the audience  about her experience at this school and how much it meant to her after leaving her home in Algeria in order to receive a better education.

“If there was a school like SLA everywhere else I wouldn’t have to leave my home,” she expressed. Each story left very few dry eyes in the house and it was really touching to see how much this school has impacted the lives of its students.

Parents who did not have a chance to speak publicly had equally impassioned things to say to SLAMedia.

“It’s the perfect school,” one mother raved. “My child is confident, makes friends, has great teachers and everyone helps each other.” When asked about what would happen if the location were to in fact change, another parent responded: “The location of the other school would tamper with the safety, diversity, transportation and many of the programs that my child enjoys.”

 

So what is to be expected? Currently we are patiently awaiting the SRC’s decision but for further details I sat down with co-principal Aaron Gerwer. “So far, we are guaranteed two more years in this building,” he explained. “If we have to move, then the conversation will be ‘how can we ensure that everybody can get to school safely?'”. This is truly one of the biggest questions on everyone’s minds, but he is confident that the community represented the school well. “I think that fact that people were able to present really good cases showed how thoughtful we are and how committed people are to this school,” says Gerwer. 

 

 

 

Dylan McKeon, Staff Writter

The Robotics Club has been a part of SLA for four years now, and after being founded by Mr. VanKouwenberg they are currently advised by Mr. Kamal.

This year, the team has been working on building robots to compete in the FRC (First Robotic Competition). This year is shaping up to be their best year yet with the team ready to compete in the regional robotics competition, the farthest they have ever gotten in the competitions.

The team met for their typical weekly meeting on a Tuesday. The meeting begins slowly as the group goes over what they need and the plans for the competition before splitting out to work on the various aspects of the test robot. The test robot is to for them to practice driving it around as they can only work on the main robot at the competition. A typical competition involves having the robot run a series of task within a time limit. For information on the robotics challenge this year, the description is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqOKzoHJDjA.

“Our robot is mostly an intake bot to pull in ball and spit them out,” says Mitchell Berven-Stoltz, a senior who has been a part of robotics for all four years. “A key part of the competition is navigating mechanical defences and that is something our robot is excellent at as it is very fast.”

The team is very happy about with how far they’ve come and the work they put into the robot.

“What we do here is very advanced and I feel that I’m in a room full of the world’s top genius when I’m here” says Boubou Magassa a freshman. “I feel this place could help me learn and evolve more as a learner”

“We all feel really proud and confident it’s been a lot of hard work and it’s very satisfying” says Michelle Friedman, another senior who has been an active part of robotics since the beginning. “We’ve run the meetings better so people know what their doing, fundraising, all students are more skilled, freshmen are trained better.”

Tobi another full time senior claims the progress is from their improved organization. “We’ve had a rough three years but it’s gotten much easier with Mr. Kamal’s organization, we were really able to get everything together and do a great amount of work” he states.

With the seniors leaving this year, the team has made sure that next year’s team is prepared for continuing the club.

“Since I was a founding member, I am very proud of after three years or arguable failure we are doing very well and have a strong freshmen group to carry on after the seniors leave” says Mitchell

Michelle is also confident in the next generation claiming “There are a lot of freshman and a few juniors, we spent most of this year making sure the team is really strong without us.”

The team just got word that they made it into the District Championship. The competition takes place on April 14 and 15 and will be the last competition for the graduating seniors.

I have always been a fan of K-Pop. At first my fandom was more casual but recently I have found myself in a bottomless pit of K-Pop, and I have the web series After School Club to thank for it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After School Club is a continuous web series where K-Pop stars come to have fun not only with the hosts and their members, but their fans as well. In this series, fans are given a chance to directly speak and have fun with their favorite artists. The hosts of the show are idols themselves, so they understand the struggle of wanting to have fun and are there with the guests to do so. The host consist of Eric Nam (Solo Artist), Park Jimin (Member of 15&), and Kevin Woo (Member of U-Kiss).

 

There are many shows out there in the world of K-Pop where they get to have fun and just relax, but After School Club has something special. Other shows have certain restrictions to what you can expose to the audience. For example, many shows limit how a person can act. If a person wants to act crazy, they should be allowed to, but shows other than ASC do not allow that. Not only that, but they do not have much communication between fans and artists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(In Order from left to right: Eric Nam, Park Jimin, & Kevin Woo) Credits to Arirang

 

If you are into K-Pop or curious to check it out, the show gives you a chance to look at artists and their personalities. You get a chance to see them being themselves rather than them acting through a music video. Of course, K-Pop stars have communicated a lot with their fans, but through ASC, fans get to ask them questions and tell them much they appreciate the artists. You get to have a personal connection with someone you look up to and you could not get anywhere else. In an episode with BTS (Bangtan Boys), a girl named Kayla Quiambao went on hangout with BTS and asked “I love all the songs of the Cypher tracks and I was wondering why there wasn’t a fourth Cypher on this mini album” (their new album”The Most Beautiful Moment In Life Part 2). They answered with “We are going to push you in and pull you back” (basically teasing the fans). From there she requested that they sing a part of “Dope”, which is a track on the mini album. Filled with energy, they excitingly did as requested. Throughout the hangout Kayla, along with BTS had the biggest smiles on their faces.

 

This is such a fun and upbeat show that you get a chance to enjoy and laugh along to. I enjoy watching this show because of the vibrant feeling it gives off. Artists such as BTS & GOT7 get to show off their goofy and loud side without any worries. I personally have never enjoyed watching artists get interviewed on shows because,  of how the environment and attitude that is being displayed, but not with this show. I actually enjoy it so much. Another show, Weekly Idol, is a funny show, and the artists that go on the show have fun, but sometimes the MC’s of the show tend to take their jokes too far to the point where the artists get hurt and/or offended.
I definitely recommend this to the many who are into K-Pop or want to give it a chance. You get a chance to hear the music these artists produce and you also get to know each member as they grow with their career. There are many other reasons for why you should check it out, but you would have to see for yourself.

Everyone at SLA has a different sense of fashion. Whether it’s (describe a couple of specific fashion trends or looks here), students all have their unique and creative looks, no matter what they choose to wear.

 

But where do people get their clothes and accessories? There will be times where a person can walk up to you and say “where did you get the jacket?” or “where did you get those shoes?”, sometimes you will even catch yourself asking the same questions. Which is why I came up with this survey–to find out where SLA gets its style.

 

Up to 150 people took the survey and the results were expectedly unexpected. There was an equal amount of people who went shopping a frequently and others who rarely go shopping.

 

Along with that, many of the students here are influenced by not only what they like, but by fashion trends and celebrities, “Kanye West and Luka Sabbat. They are both fashion moguls and my idols, they influence many aspects of my life, fashion being the main one.” said one survey taker.

Many of the people who shop at the stores they do, shop there because of the prices.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, almost 100 people at our school shop at Forever 21 and exactly 100 shop at H&M. Following those two front runners, many people shop at other stores such as Kohl’s and Target.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for shoes, a good amount of people shop for shoes at Foot Locker the most. When it comes to other, people shop at Thrift Shops, Target, & Payless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it comes to accessories, many people shopped for them at their favorite shops, but there was less of a clear front runner for this category. From there as seen above, Michael Kors and Claire’s are the most popular shops.

 

With all of this put out there, just know that many people here are no different than you are. Of course shopping wise they are not because we all go into a store liking what we see. We just leave with something different in our hands and make it our own. So next time you see someone and wish you had the nice shirt they had, know that they probably bought it at the same place you went shopping last week!

Staff Writer: Dylan McKeon

The Fourth Floor SLA’s art and literary magazine is an impressive story of success showing just how far a student run project can go in only three years. The magazine has allowed students to show their creativity to the rest of the school since its start in the Spring of 2013 by Leo Levy and Anna Sugrue.

“I was the chief editor of my art and literary magazine in middle school and I really enjoyed having that job and being part of the club in middle school,” said Sugrue. “I noticed that we didn’t have an art and literary magazine at SLA and I thought it was the perfect place for one”.

Sugrue knew she couldn’t do the project alone. “I teamed up with Leo since I more writing oriented and he’s more art oriented.”

Levy knew that there would be lots of students interested in the project. “Because of the philosophy of the school their are tons of really creative minded students here but their isn’t any infrastructure or platforms for that creative community to be together on so we figured we would build something that would bring the creative people of SLA together.”

The Fourth Floor has made several evolutions over the year, most notably working with the local publishing company The Head and The Hand to publish several studen short stories in a series of chapbooks, which were then sold in a vending machine located in the third floor ballroom.

“We’re also open to further permutations and were been considering what more the Fourth Floor can do for SLA in the coming years,” said Levy “We’ve considered opening gallery shows or creating some form of space for artists and writers to come together but we’re see what happens.”

The two are currently in their senior year and are making plans for continuing the project after their graduation.

‘We have been working with the underclassmen in the club for the last year to make sure they are prepared to take on leadership of the magazine, for our duration it has been entirely student run, funded, and operated and we would like to continue that so we’re working with specific students and the group as a whole to give them the tools to continue where we have left off.” said Levy. “I’d say all things considered I feel very comfortable about leaving what were made in the hands of people who will do a good job continuing it.”

“Our fall / winter issue was almost completely designed by a group of sophomores with Leo as the chief designers. Leo worked as the guide and editor but they did most of the work and will do a lot of the work in the Spring issue as well so we’re feeling confident about leaving.” says Anna

Looking back on the project Leo reflects on one of his favorite pieces.

“I remember one of the biggest surprises for me was when I first saw the eyes ended up going on the cover of our first issue and I was not anticipating that. They were so beautiful and unique and made me feel validated in doing the work I was doing.”

The winter issue of the magazine will be distributed next week, and the next issue will be published in late May or early June. Students can submit pieces of art and writing to the Fourth Floor at “the4thfloor@scienceleadership.org”.