Stentorian December 2009

stentoriannorth carolina school of science and mathematics [email protected]. XXX, issue 2 december 2009

the

Mixers Banned on HallsAdministration cites fire safety problems

By Peter McNeary

Earlier this year, the school administration banned hall lounge mixers. The ban was a direct result of safety viola-tions that occurred during the Fourth West mixer that took place at the beginning of the school year.

Attendance levels at the mixer exceeded the legal car-rying capacity of the lounge. The lack of safety precautions became apparent when fog machines set off the fire alarm. Kevin Cromwell, Director of Student Services, explained that while the administration is in full support of the stu-dent body’s right to organize student-run dances, the school does not want to be held liable in an obviously unsafe situa-tion.

“Looking at and evaluat-ing the enthusiasm and student

participation in the fourth west mixer at the start of the school year in the fourth west lounge made us realize that in the long run we want venues where more students can participate and at the same time have a safe environment if something were to occur,” said Crom-well.

Evacuation during the fire drill took over five minutes. Had there actually been a fire, the results could have been cat-astrophic. Despite the blatant disappointment of the student body, students have been very accepting of the ban.

David Stoy, a Fourth West resident and DJ of the Fourth West mixer, understood the reasons behind the ban.

“It was a clear fire hazard. It makes sense. It’s not like it was unjustified,” said Stoy.

Although mixers are no longer permitted on residence

halls, all other forms of dance party have been deemed per-missible provided that they are held in suitable spaces. The misconception that types of dance parties other than on-hall mixers have been banned has become widespread.

“Through SG and through other places, people have come to me to say, ‘you’ve banned DYAO, you’ve banned danc-es,’ but that’s not the case,” said Cromwell.

The school administration wishes to make it known that student are still encouraged to organize parties on campus, but that the regulations for par-ties will be more stringent in the future.

The administration has also made it clear to student gov-ernment that spontaneity also factors into a dance party’s eligibility. Because spontane-ous parties are not advertised

The Fourth West Lounge will no longer be home to the Fourth West Mixer at the beginning of future years. •Photo by David Stoy

Student Researchers Take Projects to SiemensBy JeN Zhu aNd alex lew

Students and administrators alike are proud of NCSSM’s strong record at the prestigious Siemens research competition, a record continued this year by five students who advanced to the regional competition and beyond. But not many students know exactly what research their peers are conducting, or what the Siemens experience is like.

On Nov. 7, seniors Judy Deng, Damien Jiang, Lanair Lett, Jinge Su, and Patrick Yang traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to represent the school at the Region Six Siemens competition. Lett, who took first place, traveled last week to the National Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology, taking fourth place and a $30,000 scholarship in the extremely competitive event.

“It was a great experience,” gushed Lett. It was not all work: one of the days of Siemens

National Finals was dedicated to rewarding the competitors with some fun in New York City. The competition organizers arranged for the student researchers to see a Broadway production of Mary Poppins, go bowling, and visit Dave and Busters. “Everybody [the other Siemens competitors] was shockingly down to earth.”

The other competitors, who won $1000 scholarships at the regional competition, also enjoyed the experience.

“Presenting at Siemens was awesome,” Deng said in an email interview. “It felt good to be knowledgeable about a subject not many people knew about, and to present this knowledge to others.”

Some thought the event itself was anticlimactic. “The getting to it [Siemens Regional Finals] part was a great feeling of accomplishment. The actual experience was actually kind of bland,” Su said.

Students enjoyed being surrounded by other young

researchers. “The other [Siemens Regional Finalists] were awesome. I found it funny that before the competition, everyone was all formal, and at the social afterwards, we all started acting like normal high school students,” said Jiang. “I was impressed by most of the projects; lots were about energy or diseases. I guess Siemens likes those things? But I guess they’re also the most ‘useful’.”

Jiang’s project itself was perhaps less immediately practical. One of few high school students pursuing original research in mathematics, Jiang worked to prove a conjecture about the chip-firing game, an interesting and challenging problem in graph theory and combinatorics.

Student research spanned the gamut from mathematics to biology to chemistry and computer science. Lett’s winning project investigated how the gene HDAC-1

contributes to insulin production, an important question related to diabetes. Su did a purely computational project in finding binding sites that allow the bacteria Clostridium thermocellum to produce ethanol from biomass. Deng and Yang,

who entered as a team, created a novel method for measuring bond strength using ferrofluids.

“I watched a YouTube video about ferrofluids, and decided I wanted to learn more about them,” Yang explained. “So we Googled ‘ferrofluids Duke’ and emailed the first professor that came up.”

Deng also realized the potential of the ferrofluids. “Patrick was interested in this thing called ‘ferrofluid’, [a] really cool magnetizable suspension,” Deng said. “I agreed it was awesome, so we looked up any nearby professors that were working with ferrofluids. [Our idea was to] apply force [to the bonds] using a magnetic field. We create a system where there are many bonds within the ferrofluid solution, and because of some high-level physics, the magnetic field will cause the bonds to break apart.”

Because Deng and Yang increased the magnetic field’s intensity at a constant rate, they were then able to measure the exact force at which the bonds broke. The results were stunning: a method for measuring chemical bonds that could not only measure many bonds’ strengths at once, but also could measure weaker bonds by accounting for “lower forces than previous methods [could],” Deng said.

Three of the five students, Jiang, Lett, and Su, are not enrolled in any research classes

at NCSSM. Deng and Yang are Research in Physics students. They all conducted research over the summer.

Jiang and Lett conducted their research as part of summer research programs. While Jiang went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the highly selective Research Science Institute (RSI), Lett stayed close to home, working with the Science Educational Experience for High School Students (Project SEED) Research Program. “Finding a good summer mentor can probably give you at least as good a chance [at doing well in the Siemens competition] as the R-science kids. Be prepared to put in a couple hundred hours at least, though. And to endure lots of pain when stuff goes wrong, and more pain when you write your paper,” commented Jiang. Jiang later revealed that he spent more than 200 hours preparing for Siemens competition.

Lett agreed, noting that he constantly worked on his research project with eight-hour days and seven days a week over the course of seven weeks.

Five of the sixteen competitors at Siemens Regionals were from NCSSM. Senior Neil Shah, a former NCSSM student, and his partner took 1st place in the team division at Regionals. Shah and his partner won 2nd place at National Siemens Finals.

A good luck banner was created by Lett’s hall, 4th West, before he left for the National Siemens Competition, which took place Dec. 3-7. They also lined the hall with good-luck balloons. • Photo by Dustin Burleson

beforehand, they are therefore expected to attract fewer guests

and help keep party size under control.

Follow Security Through The Ages At NCSSM

One blue Assistance box and several blue Assistance poles are located around campus. Access pass boxes also serve to ensure security. •Photo by Dustin Burleson

Workservice Inequity: To Three or Not To ThreeBy SeoN KaNg

Work service is an integral part of the NCSSM experience that allows students to give back to their community. The overall system is positive. Jennifer Ashe, the Work Service Coordinator, describes it as “building community and a relationship.” However, work service is not entirely without flaws.

The NCSSM work service guidelines require students to work three hours a week in order to graduate. However, many students do not actually work for three hours every week. In fact, students reported weekly work service amounts of time that ranged from thirty minutes to over three hours.

Ashe acknowledges this fact and says it is fine as long as the supervisor is abiding by general guidelines. The guidelines are fairly general and establish mostly basic protocol.

The inequity may have risen from multiple factors. One possibility is an excess of juniors that need to be assigned

to work service. According to Ashe, sometimes supervisors receive more juniors than they request and thus have too many students and not enough jobs.

Another factor is that supervisors are not consistent in their work service needs. Some supervisors are very busy at certain times and request the necessary number of students. However, during the rest of the time, there are more students than jobs.

“I had work service students at the Bryan Lobby desk for years, and they did homework whenever I didn’t have anything for them to do,” said instructor John Kirk. “The students’ contributions are needed and very valuable, even if they weren’t busy all the time. They were basically on call for when the phone rang, a visitor showed up, to hand out loop tickets, or if I needed them for something else.” But this is not the case in all work service environments.

Biology instructor Leslie Brinson demands full participation from her work service students. Brinson has

requested four work service students this year, even though she occasionally needs more. Brinson almost always has jobs for her work service students,

and when she needs more work done, she borrows work service students from other supervisors in the Biology department.

Brinson explained that she would rather borrow students who may otherwise have no work to do than have too many students and not enough jobs. Brinson is extremely satisfied with the work service system. She appears to be in an ideal work

service scenario, in which time is efficiently spent and the number of students fits the amount of work.

Students had their own

suggestions on how to balance the work service system. “Equalize and have everyone work less,” said junior Tucker Jones without hesitation. Jones suggested lowering the weekly requirement and distributing students so that they are all constantly engaged during work service.

Junior Keagan Sacripanti suggested finding more jobs, and possibly making hall housekeeping a work service assignment.

Concerning the number of work service hours, Ashe says that “as we grow, it’s something we might have to look at.” For now, the solution is in the work service guidelines, which state that students receive a different work service job every trimester.

The idea is that a student who has an intensive work service this trimester may receive a less intensive one the next trimester, though this ‘solution’ is all based on probability. Ashe says that due to probability, equality is established over the course of the year.

Mara Guevarra serves food as part of her workservice. A cafeteria work service student, Guevarra works a full three hours a week. •Photo by Dustin Burleson

By KirBy VarNadoe-ruSS

The purpose of this article was originally to give the in-side scoop on all of the secu-rity breaches that have ever happened at NCSSM. Surpris-ingly, there have hardly been any, even at a school that is so open towards its surroundings. One would think that without a fence and with a lot of out-side access, NCSSM would be unsafe.

“We don’t want people to think that the campus isn’t safe,” said Harry Tucker, Di-rector of Campus Resources. “This is the safest place I’ve ever worked.” So, instead of just a list of scary break-ins, we’ll explore the history of Science and Math security, where it has been, and where it is going.

Of Cameras and Access Passes

At the start of NCSSM in 1980, with only 200 students, campus security consisted of four security officers who worked shifts by themselves. Of course, at that time, there were only the dorms in the BBR buildings. Watts had yet to be renovated.

Doors were left open dur-ing the days and locked at night, residence halls were locked with key pads, and stu-dents only had keys to their own rooms. “The problem,” said Tucker,” was that students could give away the keypad codes to other students, and so any [student] could get in the dorms.”

With the expansion of campus buildings in 1993,

campus security was ramped up to eight security officers, with two officers working per shift.

Students had electronic identi-fication badges, similar to our Stu-dent IDs, which allowed them to enter into build-ings and onto residence halls. However, lost badges were ex-pensive to replace because of the time it took to take a student’s picture and the cost of the electronic chip, and it was unreasonable to think that students would never lose their badges.

2001 brought Tucker, and soon after followed a brand new security system. In 2005, administration issued access passes, which were both in-expensive and small so they could easily be put on key rings, given to visitors, or re-placed. Tucker emphasizes the importance of calling the secu-rity measures “access passes,” instead of “fobs” as they were formerly known, because of a slang meaning of “fob” and the need to be culturally sensi-tive.

One thing that seniors might remember from 2008 is the installment of cameras throughout campus, and how upset their seniors may have been about what they saw as an invasion of privacy.

“Cameras were mainly put in here as an investigative tool,

as a security measure,” Tucker said. “When we gave thought to putting cameras around, we put them on the elevators be-cause of vandalism, and there was a lot of sexual activity go-ing on in the elevator.”

Tucker wanted to make sure that students knew the benefits of cameras on cam-pus. “[We’ve also] solved sev-eral cases of theft of student laptops. We’ve never done one sinister thing with these cam-eras. We’ve helped people find lost things, find stolen things. We’ve used them for law en-forcement only; we don’t use them to watch students.”

Despite administration’s best efforts to assuage student concerns, students last year even made t-shirts that read “NCSSM is watching you” to express their concerns with administrative actions.

“The bad part [about a two-year school] is we don’t get to know you because you’re

only here for two years. The good part is that if we do anything con-troversial there won’t be any grief about it two years from now,” Tucker said. He wasn’t complete-ly joking.

The most re-cent additions to campus secu-rity have been emergency blue lights, which en-able passersby-in-distress to have immediate access to cam-

pus security, defibrillators, in the event that a student or staff member experiences heart failure while somewhere on campus, and campus resource officers, Durham policemen who work around the clock.

Both the blue light and defibrillators are stationed all throughout the school and are easily accessible and user-friendly, while the police offi-cers work in the room behind Bryan Desk.

Of Mishaps and Mayhem

Having described all of the security measures put into place to make the North Caro-lina School of Science and Math a safe campus, it would be inaccurate to ignore some of the security incidents that the school has had.

For example, in 2002 when NCSSM first went to electron-ic access with the ID cards, Rick Hess, Assistant Director

of Campus Resources, recalls a time when several students broke into his office, which was located in the ETC build-ing, with a master key.

“[The students] went into [my] office, went onto the computer, and made them-selves ID cards with universal access.”

The stupid thing, Hess re-calls, was that the students left their photos up on the computer screen, so when Hess got back to his office, he knew exactly who the students were. “This was the reason we spent several thousand dollars to change out the locks and to get rid of the old master keys,” said Hess.

Both Tucker and Hess cringed at the thought of stu-dents having master keys, as it is still one of their main goals to get rid of all student-held master keys, whether it is through anonymous turn-ins or catching someone in the act.

Last year, several students were sent home because they were found to have broken into the registrar’s office and gained access to administra-tive passwords. These pass-words enabled students to look at other students’ schedules, and access personal student information.

However, there were sev-eral different levels of partici-pation in the hacking incident, which made it difficult to pun-ish students fairly. “[There were] students who broke in and got the password, oth-ers who went on [Unicenter] 5-10 times, and people who only went on 1-2 times,” said Tucker. See “Security” Page 6

featuresdecember 2009 the stentorian | ncssm�

First ImpressionsBy ade ileSaNNi

Most juniors would agree that upon arriving at NCSSM, they have realized that the school is different than they had expected on many different levels. The juniors here have spent over an entire trimester adjusting to the new atmo-sphere, and along the way they have made some new friends, begun taking more challenging classes and made new realiza-tions about how they can suc-cessfully live independently.

Academics are the main reason why students ap-ply to NCSSM, and many juniors can at-test to the fact that the promise of chal-lenging courses has not been broken.

“Classes are ob-viously much harder than our classes from home but we are be-ing challenged in so many new ways and we are faced with such opportunity to help us suc-ceed so the work is definitely doable,” explained junior Kailey Rose.

Some juniors also feel that in attending NCSSM, their eagerness to learn and to interact with other students has been heightened.

“I [found] the joy and ex-citement I felt as an innocent and naïve second grader….the sense of pure ecstasy mixed with anxiety on the first day when you still don’t know who’s in your class yet, the fear of failure fueling you to strive your hardest to make your teacher smile,” said ju-nior Charlotte Ke.

While many students are very pleased with academic life here at NCSSM, others have not completely been won over by the school’s academic ways quite yet.

“[W]hat I don’t like are those few teachers that do not teach the material and even get confused themselves when try-ing to explain. They are never at tutorial and never seem to have time to set an appoint-ment with you. This is very frustrating for me because I am one who wants to learn in class,” complained one anony-mous junior.

Indeed, many juniors have had trouble coping with new teaching methods NCSSM classes have introduced them to, and others have not been able to take some of the classes they wanted to at all. This prob-lem could be a result of place-ment test scores, classes full of seniors, or schedules that were unable to accommodate the students’ desired classes this trimester.

“[M]y schedule [is] not what I want it to be, but that’s the only problem I have had so far here,” said junior Christo-pher Forcinito.

Along with complications over teaching methods and schedules, juniors have also found dislike for some aspects of academic policy, such as Super Study, oftentimes term-ing it “Stupid Study.” On the other hand, others have found this required period allotted for schoolwork to be more help-ful than hurtful to their work habits.

“Super study helps me get a lot of my work done too[,] and although sometimes I wish I could use my laptop, it’s best that I can’t or else I’ll be on Facebook,” said junior Tasha-na Detwiler.

Lack of sufficient hours of rest is a factor directly related to academic life at NCSSM, and juniors have learned first-hand how students here uphold this fact. Evening classes of-tentimes only add to this truth.

“I usually go to bed between 2:00 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.,” ex-plained junior Katelyn Mont-gomery. Howev-er, her roommate cannot go to bed any later than midnight each night. Many ju-niors have found ways to avoid the notorious all-nighters that NCSSM stu-dents are apt to pull.

“I get enough sleep, usually 7 hours from…12 [a.m.] – 7 [a.m.]. I socialize a lot after 4:30 [p.m.] because I do my work during free periods so I won’t have any afterwards….this school is doable with-out all-night-ers...,” reasoned junior Jeremy McLaughlin, “If you don’t procrastinate

then you won’t have to stay up till 3 every morning,”

Socializing is just as im-portant a part of NCSSM life as academics, and juniors are quick to make sure these two factors are balanced. Dorm life makes this task much easier to accomplish.

“The people on my hall are amazing and it’s like I’ve known them all my life. We get to have closer relationships because we live together,” explained one junior.

“I love living at NCSSM! It’s a really fun experience and

a good way to make friends right away. My roommate and I are always being told that we are the ‘perfect pair’,” re-marked Detwiler. “The only real downfall of living in a dorm is when everyone isn’t getting along[,] but that hap-pens and eventually it passes by. Living at NCSSM also made me a more social person since I am around a diverse group of people all the time who enjoy socializing.”

Brother-sister hall activities have also been well-received

“[We] go to all the sketchy places on campus and yell SKETCH! at any sketchy

couples we find.”Andrew Espenshade

by juniors.“I love our brother hall be-

cause all of the guys are re-ally cool to hang out and joke around with,” said Montgom-ery.

Social activities, including Happy Half, sports events, and clubs, have also contributed to the ease with which juniors have been able to integrate so-cializing into their day-to-day activities.

“I never remember who wins at the volleyball games; I always have fun because of the people more than anything else,” stated junior Chanell Bryant.

Weekend loops to places like Southpoint Mall, Brier Creek, and on-campus events, such as mixers, ivizes, and other events have helped to make juniors more inclined to socialize on weekends rather than stay cooped up in their dorms doing schoolwork all weekend.

Some juniors have even created their own fun-filled weekend agendas.“During late nights when we don’t have check till 12, a few of my friends and I go to all the sketchy places on campus and yell ‘SKETCH[!]’ at any sketchy couples we find.” explained junior Andrew Espenshade.

Juniors have also become accustomed to the distinctive NCSSM student body vocabulary, and they have taken it to heart.

“I would never have used words such as ‘creep’ (creep-ers, creeping), ‘sketch’ (as in stairwell), or ‘fail’ (i.e. epic fail) back at my old school the same way I use them here,” wrote junior Anna Hall.

Like Evolving Species, Juniors Adapt To New EnvironmentSpirituality is also a life-

style factor that is important to many at NCSSM, but some ju-niors have had trouble finding places of religious worship that work for them.

“It took a while for me to find a church that had a service that actually engaged me,” said junior Lamar Richie. “Only recently did I find a church whose pastor not only preaches to, but also entertains the audi-ence; and that’s what I like.”

Concerning work service, juniors have had mixed feelings. Some see it as a waste of time better spent doing homework early or getting much needed sleep. Others see it as an easy way to build good relationships with teachers, counselors, and other faculty who could possibly play a major role in the college application process.

“I’m really excited about my third trimester work service because it’s counseling. I’ll get to talk to the counselors and hopefully that can lead to some good college recommendations later on,” said junior Kagan Griffith.

Juniors have definitely been challenged by coming to NCSSM, not only in academics, but also in the social, physical and spiritual aspects of their lives. It is safe to say that juniors have been exposed to a world they had never really known before. Many seem to have adjusted to this new world with ease and excitement, and those who are still adjusting are finding harmony between both their good and bad experiences. In a sense, juniors have truly adopted the Uni-spirit after all.

Tired student Michael Parrish awakens to a picture of his family one morning. Homesickness and sleep deprivation are two issues that juniors often have to deal with after moving to NCSSM. •Photo by Dustin Burleson

december 2009the stentorian | ncssmfeatures �

Juniors React to Loss of Tuition GrantBy reBecca hoNg

The UNC tuition grant has benefited many students since its creation in 2003, but today, the class of 2011 finds itself without this incentive to stay in state for college.

This grant allowed students to attend any UNC school with free tuition, as long as the stu-dents applied and met certain academic requirements. It was phased out last year as part of Governor Bev Perdue’s efforts to slim down the state budget.

Students reacted in a variety of ways to the news. “At first I was mad, but then I thought, ‘I don’t want to stay in North Carolina anyway,’” Junior Audrey Timme said, echoing what seems to be a widespread opinion amongst the juniors this year.

“I’m not really disappointed because my intent wasn’t to get a scholarship in state,” said junior Jose Salazar. Salazar,

whose dream school is Duke, said that even if the grant were still available he probably would not have taken advan-tage of it. Josh Chen, another junior, put it more bluntly and said, “I’m not interested in any of the UNC schools.”

After the loss of the tuition grant, many expressed concern

that applications to NCSSM would decrease. These con-cerns were probably unneces-sary. “I’m here to learn stuff,

not to get a free college educa-tion. If the taxpayers of North Carolina are already paying so much to pay for my education [here at NCSSM], I don’t need them to pay for my college tu-ition. If you’re smart enough to attend this school, you should be intelligent enough to get some other scholarships,”

said junior Elizabeth Kelley. In fact, students like junior

Vivek Chavda might find their parents more bothered than

themselves about this topic. “I wasn’t upset about it because that isn’t the reason why I’m here, but my parents probably were,” said Chavda.

Though seniors are happy that their tuition grant is still in tact, they still feel sorry for the juniors. “I think it was unfair that it wasn’t known across the

board that these tu-ition grants were be-ing cut. The juniors are working just as hard as we are, and they deserve it too,” said senior Jasmine Hill.

Though many juniors remain un-fazed by the loss of

the tuition grant, most still agree that it was a unique opportuni-

ty. Attending a UNC school with free tuition is a good bargain – which is why it may have been taken away.

Students have been told

that the tuition grant was cut because of bad economy, but according to Brock Winslow, Vice Chancellor for Institu-tional Advancement at NC-SSM, this isn’t true. “It’s a po-litical football, not [a] financial constraint,” said Winslow of Perdue’s attempts to trim the state budget.

The UNC tuition grant was originally created by then-sen-ator Kay Hagan as an earmark. Ever since its creation, critics have called it unfair. The ar-gument against the grant was that other students outside of NCSSM deserved a chance at this grant also. “If we were to revisit [the idea of having a tuition grant], we would take high academic achievers from other high schools, like vale-dictorians and salutatorians,” said Winslow.

Maybe the tuition grant will be back for future students, but for now, juniors will have work hard for other scholarships.

“At first I was mad, but then I thought, ‘I don’t want to stay in North Carolina anyway.’”

Getting Into College from NCSSM: A Senior’s GuideBy Nathaly leMoiNe aNd

KexiN yiN

Many students fear that getting into college from NCSSM is harder than from other public schools. The tougher curriculum means that

straight-A students receive their first low grades at the school, and many fear their transcripts won’t be up to par. The fear also stems from a myth that some colleges view NCSSM students unfavorably.

It is rumored that students here think prestigious schools such as Ivy League schools dislike us. Colleges like these do have lower acceptance rates, but that is because they are more selective, not because they dislike NCSSM.

“It’s not that [Ivy League schools] are hostile,” says senior Damien Jiang, “People just don’t apply to liberal arts colleges as often. We’re hostile to applying to them.” He further explains that most students apply to rigorous math and science schools like MIT or to competitive, local schools like UNC.

According to matriculation statistics for class of 2009, only

four students enrolled in Yale University; four in Princeton; two in MIT; one in Harvard University; but 136 in UNC-Chapel Hill and 64 in State.

“No college dislikes NCSSM,” reassured Pamela Oxendine of the Counseling

Department. Most colleges are interested because they understand the rigor of courses. For the small colleges and out-of state colleges that are not familiar with the accelerated and demanding courses offered here Counseling Services takes the time to foster a mutual understanding. Nicholas Sanford, senior, agrees and says that apart from the informative senior meetings on college admission, counselors are also there to explain the process to the students and communicate with colleges.

Some seniors, like Teresa Pincus, feel the hardest part of the application process is explaining the difficulties of courses to colleges that are not as familiar with the NCSSM system. “It’s hard transferring the way classes are weighed because some classes like Physics with Advanced Topics are a step above honors but

below AP.” However, Gail Hudson,

Dean of Counseling Services, reminds students, “Each transcript goes out with an extensive explanation of the course numbering as it relates to the rigor of the

courses. Colleges rely on that explanation.”

Colleges in general like NCSSM because students are introduced to rigorous courses that prepare them for college. Kyle Hudson, Instructor of History, explains that at NCSSM students’ grades may go down, but their SAT scores also might go up. Colleges recognize this as a result of a challenging curriculum.

“Certain colleges like Duke, UNC, A&T, and State understand that top-rank students from all over the state come to NCSSM,” says Pam Oxendine of Counseling Services. These students, who may have had outstanding scores at their old high school, may find that they have subpar grades here and begin to stress out.

Students may fret over the effect of their grades on college admissions, but as long

as they improve and continue to test themselves colleges will recognize that and take into consideration a student’s adjustment to NCSSM.

However, students should not get comfortable and feel that getting into UNC or State

would be easy just because a special relationship exists between them and because these colleges are most familiar with us. “Rumors that everyone from NCSSM can get into State and Carolina are not true. Some students have been rejected,” Pincus relates, “Don’t get too confident because the admission process gets more selective and competitive each year.”

Although attending NCSSM is an advantage to college admission because of the tough curriculum, students should not solely depend on that when applying. Colleges distinguish NCSSM as having strong academics and would take the difference in course difficulties into thought for admission, but they also want to see how students are challenging themselves.

College acceptance is still dependent on a student’s GPA,

SAT and ACT scores, essays, recommendations, leadership and community and school involvement. Gail Hudson says, “Basically, colleges are wanting to know if you ‘accept the greater challenge’ and how well you have done with that

challenge.”Apart from the curriculum,

colleges like NCSSM because the students transition better into college life since they have already been exposed to residential life. “They get in there from day one, and they are ready to go,” says Oxendine, “NCSSM has prepared them, so they get involved in more of the social community.”

Kyle Hudson also explains that at NCSSM students have many opportunities for extra-curricular involvement. Colleges look to see if students are able to balance these opportunities and extra-curricular activities with schoolwork.

Overall, there is not a disadvantage to applying to college from NCSSM .As long as students do well, get involved, and challenge themselves, getting into college will not be difficult.

december 2009 the stentorian | ncssmnews features�

Students Teach Eyes To Read Hearts

By Jaehee yoo

For the first time at NCSSM, students this year have had the chance to participate in a number of Electrocardiography 101 sessions designed to familiarize students with cardiology, the study of the heart. Shaivya Pathak and Sandy Kim, seniors, created this course to help students learn the basic concepts of electrocardiography.

Throughout their junior year, summer and the beginning of their senior year, Pathak and Kim carefully designed this project and thoroughly learned all of the materials.

Electrocardiography, also called ECG or the EKG, is a machine-recorded interpreta-tion of the electrical activity of the heart captured over time.

The course was an experi-ment: cardiologists are typical-ly trained to read electrocardio-grams by memorizing different images and the symptoms they most likely correspond to, but Pathak and Kim attempted to teach students to read the imag-es by helping them understand the real meanings of every part of the electrocardiograms.

“Sandy stresses the impor-tance of comprehending the

material; she encourages ques-tions, even when they keep her 30 minutes over, and continu-ally tries to find new ways to explain concepts that we strug-gle with,” said junior Lillian Kang.

Pathak and Kim wanted to know if their students, taught to understand the messages conveyed by the electrocardio-grams, pinpoint abnormalities on an image as accurately as a cardiologist would?

Electrocardiography 101 had limited space; there was a total of eight students en-rolled in the sessions. The stu-dents learned about the heart in depth as well as reading the ECGs (Electrocardiograms) throughout the course’s three-week period of time.

Even though the Electrocar-diography course did not count as a credit, students were ex-pected to spend between one to three hours outside of school, contributing to their studies. Over the course of three weeks, students were exposed to hand models and heart models, also everyday items such as chalk boards and projectors.

See “Hearts” Page 8

Vendors Add Flavor to Happy Half

By Peter McNeary

Student Government has been working to widen the student body’s food options on campus in recent weeks. Although unable to realistically alter the cafeteria’s performance, SG is exploring the idea of businesses appearing at Happy Half.

Student body president Saumil Jariwala is taking the initiative in the effort to attract local eateries to Happy Half. In the winter, students who are not in the mood for food from the cafeteria will be able to buy food on campus at night and have a diverse number of choices.

“It serves as a nice alternative to the PFM without competing directly. I think it’s the future of food options on campus,” said Jariwala.

Optimistic for Happy Half’s potential role in presenting students with food options, SG has already arranged for Devil’s Pizzeria, located on Ninth Street, to sell pizza during the half hour. Ziad Lobbad, the owner of Devil’s Pizzeria, agreed to sell pizza on campus Sunday through Thursday as well as take orders for Stromboli, calzones, subs, Buffalo wings, and pasta

as long as orders are placed an hour in advance.

Before Devil’s Pizzeria started coming to Happy Half, Randy’s Pizzeria had been the only vendor. The pizza from Randy’s has drawn negative feedback from the student body. According to Lobbad, Randy’s has been selling second-rate pizza.

“Randy’s is giving you leftover pizza. They close at ten, and whatever leftover pizza they have, they box it up and bring it [to students here],” said Lobbad.

All of the food brought to Happy Half from Devil’s is made directly beforehand. Students’ visible preference for pizza from Devil’s has already forced Randy’s to sell more pizza per box for the same price as before.

For the first time a few nights ago, Ricky’s Pizza appeared at Happy Half as well. When asked about the possibility of more vendors coming to sell

food, Lobbad threatened to stop attending Happy Half.

“Why do you need 20 vendors out there? It’s silly. If that happens, I will not do it,” Lobbad said.

While competition between vendors is healthy, SG must assess whether or not there is enough demand to support more than the current number of vendors. Only a certain percentage of students choose to buy food each night, and if that percentage is split between three or more vendors, there will not be an incentive for vendors to attend Happy Half. As most students run tight budgets, there is probably not enough money in circulation on campus to keep options open. As SG continues negotiations with vendors, students can look forward to what might be in store for Happy Half.

Students enjoy slices from Devil’s Pizzeria at Happy Half. •Photo by Dustin Burleson

School Welcomes New Faculty and StaffBy laNair lett

Despite budget cuts and a freeze on new hires, the school has welcomed several new faculty and staff members this year.

Ashton Powell is a new AP Biology and anatomy instructor at NCSSM. He attended Colorado College, a small liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, where he majored in Neuroscience.

Powell planned to go to medical school; however, he enjoyed neuroscience so much that he instead took a position at the Yale Multiple Sclerosis Research Center where he worked in clinical trials. Eventually, he attended UNC-Chapel Hill where he pursued his Ph.D. in Neurobiology. Towards the end of graduate school, Powell became interested in the interactions between science, society, and law, an interest he hopes to continue here by offering classes that focus on this subject. He actually intends to offer a seminar this year and is teaching the Mini-Term course “Neuroscience.”

“After teaching medical and graduate students, high school students are the most engaged and interested, and ask the most challenging questions, so they keep me on my toes,” Powell said. Powell said that this is exactly why he enjoys high school students so much:

it is because they are so open to learning. He concluded that in actuality the most difficult thing was being separated from his newborn son.

Ershela Sims joined the Applied Sciences Program as a Principles of Engineering instructor. Sims holds a PhD as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biomedical Engineering. She is also currently teaching at Duke’s medical school. Being new at NCSSM has certainly not held Sims back from getting involved outside the classroom. Sims has not only agreed to help with the salsa dance for Latin America fest but is teaching a Medical Instrumentation seminar this trimester.

New Student Life Instructors outnumbered new faculty members this year. Seven of the twenty Student Life Instructors on campus, or approximately one third, are new SLIs this year. These SLIs are David Buff of Second East, Gabe Barrientez of Second West, Matt Boerner of Third West, Juan Burns of Fourth East, Fran Peters of Ground Royall, Emmie Corl of First Royall, Linsey Morrison of Third Bryan.

Last year, when Director of Student Services Kevin Cromwell led the interviews for new Student Life Instructors, students were asked to have lunch with the candidates.

The new SLIs have a variety of interesting backgrounds. Linsey Morrison is an NCSSM alumna, and several of the new SLIs have served as Residential Assistants.

Barrientez’s previous work experience includes working for two years at a Methodist children’s home for troubled teenagers. There, he worked as the recreational coordinator, basketball coach, and math teacher. In comparison with his previous positions, Barrientez

really enjoys being an SLI because he has a smaller number of residents so he is able to develop a closer relationship with them.

The new SLIs have stepped up in their roles. As a new SLI, Peters served as SLI of both Ground Royall and 1st Royall until Corl became the new SLI of 1st Royall a few weeks into the school year. Though she is a latecomer, Corl showed her dedication to being a SLI by coming out in full

nerd apparel to the Nerd Day competition. Buff and Burns also regularly participate in basketball games with their halls, gaining admiration from the boys on hall. “He got skills,” commented Antavious Ashe. Burns is also serving as the Assistant Coach of Boys’ Basketball this year.

Though they are new on campus, these recent additions to the faculty and staff have already immersed themselves in NCSSM life.

On the far left, new SLI Emmie Corl dresses up as a nerd with her hall, First Royall, on spirit day.• Photo by Rachel Pollard

news december 2009the stentorian | ncssm �

Gunman Imitators To Do Community ServiceBy daViS goodNight

Two students have faced consequences from school administration for dressing up as and imitating characters in the instructional film “Shots Fired: When Lightning Strikes.”

After the screening of the film to seniors on Sept. 15, at least two students, who have chosen to remain anonymous and whom the administration has not named, dressed up as what they viewed as the stereotypical gunmen from the movie the next day.

The students wore outfits similar to those of the shooter in the movie, consisting of dark clothing, baseball caps, and duffel bags.

They claimed that the pur-pose of dressing up was to make fun of what they viewed as poor acting and humorous characterization in the film. “We had no malicious intent,” said one of the students, “but apparently it was taken that way.”

As the day progressed, students began to take note of the odd outfits. “I laughed

out loud,” said one observer, noting that he had considered dressing up himself.

At the same time, around lunch, an SLI asked the self-proclaimed ringleader to change clothes. After the stu-dent left, the SLI alerted fellow staff of the situation, and with-in hours, security pulled stu-dents out of class and searched them, claiming that the outfits amounted to a security threat.

After the security’s initial involvement, Residential Life handled the issue of discipline. The students were presented with a choice between accept-ing a level and completing a “project for the school.”

All students involved have chosen to complete the project, which will likely involve promoting nonviolence to NCSSM students.

Since the incident and its repercussions, the issue has been hotly debated among students and staff.

One major issue that apolo-gists of the imitators mention is that the students were not technically breaking any rule. While this could be true, the Student Handbook does list

“activities which may place persons or proper-ty at risk” as a potential Level III violation.

Still, debate contin-ues, and most students interviewed believe that the violations did not call for punishment, even if they were in poor taste.

Harold Tucker, Direc-tor of Campus Resourc-es and Security, states that any situation such as this must be treated as a security issue, even if it seems unlikely at face value that students are actually in danger.

He maintains that the movie itself was benefi-cial for students, stating that even if the acting was poor, the message itself was the important part of the movie.

For Tucker, the goal is to keep students safe by treating each possible threat seriously or constantly updating resourc-es for security. Tucker’s office recently installed defibrillators throughout the campus, hoping to provide early response in the

event of a medical emergency, and he considers dressing as a stereotypical gunman as ir-responsible as tampering with a fire alarm or one of the defi-brillators, in that they remove valuable resources that could be used to react to real security

issues.“I admit that I made a

mistake,” says one student. Whether they view it as a mistake or not, the students will feel the effects of their imitation of gunmen through a punishment.

Gunmen in the short film “Shots Fired: When Lightning Strikes” are characterized by baseball caps and duffle bags. • Picture courtesy of timeoutchicago.com

Suicide Awareness Week Makes

By xaVier Jarrett

The members of NCSSM H.O.P.E. (Heritage, Opportu-nity, Progress, and Education) and NIA (a black female youth group named after the Swahili term for “purpose”) were made speechless by the thought of suicide and depression dur-ing a suicide lecture centered around prevention and aware-ness on Wed., Sept. 23.

The thought was a collec-tive one: why? “Why would you want to leave behind ev-eryone who loves you?” asked junior Olivia Harvey. Guest speakers Alfiee M. Breland-Noble, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University Medi-cal Center, and retired high school counselor Kathy S. Poole spoke in depth about the answer to that question along with the prevention of suicidal emotions in teenagers.

Their speech had a specific focus on the rising suicidal rates in the minority commu-nity. Poole knows all too well of this rise in minority suicide. As a black mother whose son, Torian, took his own life, she deals with the devastating im-pact of suicide on a daily basis. In the North Carolina’s Plan to Prevent Youth Suicide book-let, Poole is quoted, “There is a killer on the loose. It is quiet and invisible, because we are not acknowledging its pres-ence and are scared to say its name.”

Although at peace with To-rian’s death, Poole still won-ders what happened. She had never known her son to have suffered from depression,

the leading cause of suicide. He had seemed as healthy and active as every other 15-year-old. His emotional mood swings were always what she considered to be normal for an adolescent boy. Only a few of his risky behaviors ever stood out as strange. However, on July 16, 1996 he committed suicide. “We thought his life was really in order and that he was doing very well. I never saw it coming,” said Poole.

Torian’s death shook the people closest to him, but opened the eyes of his peers. They began to take on efforts to keep his memory alive. The “Yellow Ribbon Day” came into effect. The initial Yellow Ribbon Program is a national suicide prevention cry for help. If at any time a person is feeling depressed or suicidal, he or she has the option of us-ing a Yellow Ribbon card. It is a way to say, “I need help.”

The “Yellow Ribbon Day” at Torian’s previous high school had a similar impact on H.O.P.E and NIA mem-bers. Everyone took a card and pledged to be there when needed by others or use their card without fear. “Every time I do a presentation, it’s in his honor and his memory,” said Poole while handing out extra cards.

Although suicide can strike anyone, as Breland-Noble and Poole made clear, those who go through with suicide often are American Indian and ho-mosexual teens. The reasoning behind these demographics is lack of support not only from society, but family as well.

“I believe that the home environment plays a large

role in suicidal tendencies,” said junior Jordan Joyner. As stressed by Breland-Noble in her speech, suicidal people just want the pain to end. They don’t want to necessarily die.

Poole closed the lecture with a few final remarks di-rected towards the members of H.O.P.E. and NIA. “Take the Yellow Ribbon pledge. Call 1-800-SUICIDE if some-one needs it. Be there,” she said. Although the message had been a somber one, it was clear that the every student present was impacted in some way. Poole directed the group in a verse of “Lean on Me” as each person reflected on how he or she had been affected.

Students ThinkSecurityContinued from Page 2

Students who were in-volved in the incident con-fessed that they were just in-terested in seeing each other’s schedules, and did not have any malicious intent.

An incident on the perime-ter of campus in 2007 was the cause of our “no perimeter af-ter dark” rule. Students were allegedly held up at gun point by a group of people who got out of a car on Sprunt Ave.

Other than that, the only other security breaches of NCSSM have been committed by expelled students or potential applicants, one hacked into the NCSSM system to try to tamper with the profile of other applicants.

In one event, a dismissed student came back during the

Speakers emphasized the importance of not being shy around people who are suspected of being suicidal. It is important to speak up to and reach out to peers suffering from depression. • Picture courtesy of www.health.mil

summer to steal mass amounts of technological equipment.

In all, Tucker wants to em-phasize that most of the secu-rity that is put in place to keep students from breaking into things is as a result of things we’ve done in the past. When asked about threats to campus security today, he mentioned the unknown. “Even though you try to prepare for what might happen, the unknown is difficult to prepare for.”

“Overall this is a wonder-ful place,” Tucker continued. “This school does not reflect a regular high school, because this is a group of talented and gifted students who want an education and aren’t interested in doing criminal activities. The problem is that you’re cu-rious and that it’s a challenge to you. You’re both intelligent and teenagers.”

december 2009 the stentorian | ncssmnews�

Brother-Sister Halls Almost Win SomethingBy Vlad KroKhMal

Tuesday, September 15th featured two intramural sports matches, one between 2nd West and 2nd Hill North at 4:30, immediately followed by a match between 2nd Bryan and 3rd Beall. Coincidentally, the finals featured 2nd West and 3rd Beall, a brother-sister hall pair. This phenomenon produced excitement due to the possibility of the first brother-sister hall IM soccer champion duo in recent NCSSM history.

The men’s finals featured an unexpected turn of events. Johnathan Lara of 2nd West scored an early goal and held the advantage for most of the first half. Yet Jake Emerson of 2nd Hill North retaliated with an unexpected goal right near the end of 1st half. Sec-ond half began with fierce at-tempts by 2nd West to regain advantage that were thwarted by 2nd Hill’s goalkeeper Leo

Daniels. Yet, 2nd Hill was able to sneak a goal past the 2nd West goalkeeper in the second half amidst the confusion of a corner kick. The competition became intense when Coach Gonyeau announced three minutes remaining. 2nd West

moved up all of their players to offense and began desperate attempts to score. The whistle blew and the match ended as did 2nd West’s dreams of be-coming IM soccer champions.

The women’s finals imme-diately succeeded the men’s

By courtNey aPPlewhite

The Ladies’ volleyball team had a stand-out season with 15 victories, advancing to the second round of playoffs and only 4 defeats. The Lady Unis opened the season with a big victory over Cresset Christian Academy, 3 games to zero with scores 25-16, 25-19, 25-10. The ladies also attended the Eastern Alamance Tournament where

they played against teams from all divisions and won 2nd place overall.

Leading the board in of-fense were seniors Mireille Pardon and Colleen McGuire (captain), with over 30 com-bined kills in only three games. With five seniors and several talented juniors on their side, the team stayed competitive within the conference. “We have a tall offense and people

willing to dive after everything on defense,” said McGuire.

Libero Rebecca Overcash proved McGuire correct in a competitive game against Ce-dar Ridge in which she dived into sideline chairs to make a pass. Overcash was rushed to the hospital for stitches while the Unis went on to win the tight match 3 games to 2. Overcash made a speedy re-covery and only a few games

finals. The match pitted 2nd Bryan – a hall noted for its skilled soccer players – against 3rd Bryan, an unexpected chal-lenger. To match 2nd Bryan’s soccer prowess, 3rd Beall held numerous soccer practices and was actually able to beat 2nd Bryan earlier in the tourna-ment. Both halls came to the IM fields to win, and by the end of the 2nd half the score remained zero-zero. The game was decided by shootouts. The first three penalty shots were tied and the game went into sudden death penalties. Sara Eagle scored her penalty shot, while 3rd Beall scored none, thus gaining 2nd Bryan the Championship trophy.

No matter the outcome, both matches were unpredict-able and even matches. All four teams practiced hard to come this far.

“I was really proud of ev-eryone, especially seeing how

much effort everyone put into practices and games,” said Yusra Iftikhar, the captain of the 3rd Beall team.

Although 2nd West and 3rd Beall were not able to achieve their desired brother-sister hall IM Soccer Champions status, it was interesting to see both halls support each other and learn from each other through-out the season.

“We lost in a really close game to Royall last year and we finally claimed the cham-pionship this year,” said Jenina Rivera, the starting sweeper for 2nd Bryan.

2nd Bryan was finally able to secure the soccer champion-ship, after being less successful last year and prove once again the hall’s dedication to school spirit and athletics. Both soc-cer champions demonstrated skillful performance and start-ed the intramural sports off on an amazing beginning.

Lady Uni Volleyball Squad Spikes its Way to the Top

later returned to her defensive position.

Losses against Southern Vance and conference rival Raleigh Charter did not put a damper on expectations for the girls. Hannah Wyatt (captain) commented, “We [had] a stron-ger team than we’ve had in a long time. We... had our ups and downs over the [season] but we still [had] the potential to do great things.”

A key factor in the success of the team was their support from fans, especially the Uni Boys. The group wore t-shirts with the number of a player on the back and letters on the front, altogether spelling “Go_Unis!” The Uni Boys attended almost every game.

The Lady Unis ended the season with a close loss in the second round of the champion-ship playoffs.

Erica Konczal reaches over the net for the volleyball, while teammates Emily Revelle and Jordan Blanchard wait, prepared. •Photo by Britt Brown

2nd West displays brotherly affection and support for one of 3rd Beall’s IM games. •Photo by Dustin Burleson

december 2009the stentorian | ncssm sports �

By eMMa hawKiNS

There are many rumors floating around about the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu. I heard that if you catch it, you turn it into a pig. I also heard that a symptom of swine flu is that your breath smells like bacon. But perhaps the scariest rumor is that if you say “swine flu” three times, a pig will attack you. After being informed by my mother that none of these were true (and beaten by my editor into submission), I managed to find enough courage to write this article on the H1N1 virus and the drill the school meant to have.

The H1N1 drill was a plan to prepare for the H1N1 virus’s effects by selecting some students to skip classes on predetermined dates.

Those students would be given notes and assignments via the internet, and the school was to measure how effectively the students were able to catch up.

The idea was to prepare teachers for the possibility that students in their classes would be absent for long periods of time, and make sure that teachers were ready to catch students up with notes and homework.

All UNC system schools are doing a drill similar to this. And it only seems even more important now, with the H1N1 virus reaching pandemic proportions. On my hall alone, there have been six girls either sent or choosing to go home for flu-like symptoms. In one week, there were twenty-seven students sent home by the clinic.

The H1N1 Drill That Never “Flu”

By BeN gellMaN

“Bienvenidos a Español. Keep working hard. You are the best.”

These are the words that greet me every time I go to Spanish class. These words aren’t on a chalk board or hung over a door. They’re on my web browser, on a state-run web site. This is my life as an Intermediate Spanish student. Instead of having a person in front of me teaching, I have words on a page and the occa-sional audio clip explaining the week’s lessons.

I miss the old format of class, because I don’t think the online format is well-suited for a foreign language. The class is titled Intermediate Spanish, yet we hardly ever speak Spanish. We meet in a classroom once a week, but even during this time we barely speak the language. I don’t think I’m making a radical claim when I say On-line Spanish is an easy class, one I could have taken back at Hickory High. But I didn’t come to Science and Math to

take easy classes. I came here to be challenged. I signed up to take Spanish to learn Span-ish, not to learn just enough to pass a multiple choice test that has unlimited submissions or to use the Internet to find the right words to use in a written assignment.

While online instruction may work for something like a history class, foreign languag-es suffer when taught online. We hardly ever speak the lan-guage, so it’s easy to put off all of your work until two hours before it’s due. Even if you don’t turn in an assignment, you’re still given a sixty.

While I understand that the school is in the middle of a budget crunch and that hiring instructors is expensive, Span-ish is not a subject that should be taught online, and I think that students suffer as a result of not having a class that is taught entirely in person. I be-lieve that we should go back to the old way of teaching Span-ish, with a teacher, a lesson plan, and three or more in-person classes a week.

Say Adiós To Online Spanish

Reynolds 1E2E2D attempts to set a World Record by hosting a food drive sponsored by the Foodbank of NC in the spring. It will take several trucks full of food to come close to breaking the record.

HeartsContinued from Page 5

These sessions took place in room 336 of the biology department on Tuesdays from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Thurs-days from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Fridays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

In referring to the results of their project, Pathak is pos-itive but a little uncertain.

“The students’ scores show

that the mini-seminar was an effective way to teach stu-dents about certain aspects of the electrocardiogram. The students were actively en-gaged and were not afraid to ask questions or argue with us. [However,] no real de-finitive comparison can be made between the cardiolo-gists’ scores and those of the students because of the lack of scores from the cardiolo-gists.”

The drill was never put into effect here, because we were thrown into a very real situation. Students were being sent home by the score for flu-like symptoms. These include fever, body aches, nausea, chills, and congestion. Many of these symptoms can be explained by things having nothing to do with the H1N1 virus. For instance, a calculus class is not complete unless I go through at least four of these symptoms.

However, the clinic thought, as a precaution, that sending students home would be for the best, which is why the drill never went off as intended; just as holding a fire drill is useless in the middle of a fire, preparing teachers for sick students while many of our classmates were already at home sick would have been

pointless.Nevertheless, Dr. Warshaw

said that the faculty has responded adequately to the situation despite the lack of a formal drill. Sick students have for the most part caught up in their classes. Warshaw admitted it could have gone better, though.

Senior Raven Foust, for example was sent home for three days.

Though she managed to catch up on course material, her teachers did not provide the necessary resources while she was off campus and she had to make up two missed tests and labs.

Of course, missing those tests and labs was unavoidable, but until Foust turned them in, they went into the computer as zeroes, thereby skewing grades.

S t e n t o r i a n Staff

Editors-in-Chief:Alex Lew

Kirby Varnadoe-RussJennifer Zhu

News Editor:Avani Uppalapati

Features Editor:Peter McNeary

Opinions Editor:Emma Hawkins

Sports Editor:Vlad Krokhmal

Lifestyles Editor:Lanair Lett

Photography Editor:Dustin Burleson

Advisor: John Kirk

Thoughts? Com-ments? Want to

write for us? Send an email to stentorian@

ncssm.edu!

SLI Gabe Barrientez uses an ear thermometer, which is deemed to be more accurate, to take the temperature of student Clare Howerton. •Photo by Dustin Burleson

opiniondecember 2009 the stentorian | ncssm�