SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Features

Welcome Home

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All the buzz for the 2015-16 school year seems to revolve around the new advisory houses. Stemming from a little Harry Potter inspiration, advisory houses are focussed around the idea of raising school spirit. These houses will also be used to incorporate more activities and experiences of a “normal” high school.

So, the plan is that each house will pose as a team, containing a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior advisory. Throughout the year, different events and competitions will take place in which each house will compete for, winning all sorts of different prizes. Points can be gained for students in different categories, academic aspects, school spirit, and just general acts of kindness. Things such as helping to prevent interims within your advisory or supporting your friends at their sports games is enough to gain some points for your team. There will be a final competition at the end of the year to see which house has the overall most amount of points.  The goal is to raise school spirit while encouraging students to not only do their best academically, but as individuals in the school community as well.

“This has the potential to be very powerful.”, states senior advisor, Mark Bey. The key word here is potential. The idea of these houses and all they stand for is a great one, but nothing great will come of any of this unless all students, of all different grades, get involved. “Freshmen love incentives.”, says Freshman Ariana Floores, and that is exactly what is planned. Work for a pizza party, or a surprise as such, within your advisory by limiting interims. All it takes is some participation throughout the school to create traditions that can shape our school as a community.

Ultimately, though, students should want to participate. A complaint heard throughout the school from all different grades is that SLA doesn’t provide a “normal” high school experience, but this is what advisory houses are attempting to fix. “We are a building that doesn’t contain many traditional high school aspects and this is a way of building a culture.”, says senior advisor, Pia Martin. Understandably, this school will never be normal, but this is all an attempt to create our own high school experience with our own culture and traditions.

In the end it is up to all of us students to allow these advisory houses to live up to their potential and expectations and to allow them to be as successful as they possibly can. The first house meetings were a success, so continue to make the most out of this experience and participate in all you can! Also, check in for more updates on advisory houses and all the competitions throughout the school year.

Combatting Stress at SLA

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Arielle Moore

Staff Writer

It’s one-thirty in the morning and you’re still up writing that essay for your History class, but the time doesn’t even phase you. Aah, good ol’ benchmark season and your teachers were not the slightest bit generous this year. Ever since school began, you’ve been moody, tired, antisocial, and irritable. These are symptoms of stress; the one word that affects us high-schoolers the most.

 

But why is that? What causes all of this stress in teens?

 

“Receiving school work I don’t know how to complete even after asking the teacher about it causes me stress,” says sophomore Siani Davis. “It affects my attitude towards my friends and generally how I feel throughout the day.”

 

At SLA, stress also has a four year course. Many upperclassmen say that their stress comes from more specific areas, such as standards and college applications. “Tests stress me out the most,” agrees junior Vaughn Matthews.

 

A universal stress factor among students of all grades is the amount of schoolwork they receive. SLA mentor and advisor Zoe Siswick says: “Students have a high level of stress at times, but in some sense it’s also kind of stress free. They don’t have a ton of responsibilities outside of making sure you’re getting your schoolwork done. The amounts of stress in students sort of ebb and flow depending on the time of year.”

 

So from hearing all that, you’re probably wondering how you can get rid of this wretched stress immediately. Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that while you’re in high school, the chances of you completely obliterating the stress you feel are slim to none. The good news is that there are some easy and quite effective ways to relieve it. After doing some research, I’ve found some ways to lower your stress levels and help you to breathe a bit easier, even with a huge speech due tomorrow.

 

Sleep

Yes, another S word, and one that seems even scarier than ‘stress’. To this day, most high-schoolers don’t even know how to successfully get a full eight-hours; it’s usually a five-hour rest with a series of broken up three-hour after school crashes on the couch. We’ve all been there, having our sleep schedule being brutally slaughtered during the summer and having no way to resurrect it once school starts. It’s a struggle to try and fall asleep (and stay asleep) but I urge you, please do it! Sleeping is vital to your health, and it also makes you feel great when you do. Try turning off your phone fifteen or so minutes before bed, to ease the temptation to use it later on. It really does help and the final result is incredibly rewarding, trust me.

 

Diet

I know, I know, another opportunity for me to sound like your doctor. “A healthy diet and excercise…”. Bleh. I would totally eat a bag of pretzels over an orange any day for a snack. And honey, do it! Don’t skip that 6-pack of oreos to scarf down a head of lettuce. But make sure you’re lessening the amounts of unhealthy foods you eat, and increasing the amounts of healthy ones. Also, make sure you eat a filling breakfast. Eating in the morning, like so many people, makes me feel sick but I have to at least have a banana or a granola bar to start my day. It’s so helpful and it makes you feel great later on, it also keeps your stomach from doing the rumblies before you realize you have late lunch that day.

 

Manage

Organization is key to having a cleanly and neat life. Managing your time, working space, and even supplies will help you feel more on top of things. I know when everything is in its place I feel a sense of calmness even in a chaotic situation. Keeping a planner is a great way to remember what you have to do and it helps to distribute your time thoroughly for each assignment that you’re required to do.

 

Fun!

Maintaining a healthy social life is a great way to A. remain sane, and B. enjoy your teen years! I know being social isn’t for everybody (I didn’t forget you, introverts) but you should make sure that you are constantly making time for fun in your life. Like what I’ve said for many of the items on this list, they definitely aren’t easy to do, but they are very worth it. Got a big test coming up? Of course study and make sure you fully understand the material, but don’t let it consume you! Watch a movie, draw; do something that’s therapeutic to you at least once a week.

 

Stress is a huge part of your high school years, but it’s up to you to determine how it will affect you. Yes, you may have one week to turn a C into a B, but don’t let that be something that you lose sleep over. Understand that school is a very important part of your life and future, but keep in mind that your health is something you should value a lot more. So remember, turn off Instagram a few minutes earlier tonight, drink a few more cups of water, hang out with some friends this weekend, and j u s t  b r e a t h e.

 

Image courtesy of This website

Orange Is The New Black Recap

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If you tune in to any conversation between students at SLA, you will mostly find yourself listening to some talk about movies and tv shows. Scandal, Once Upon A Time, Arrow, Walking Dead, Agents of Shield, and Attack on Titans– students here have a wide range of tastes. But there’s one show that has hit it big with most students: Orange Is The New Black. Those who enjoy the tv show would comment about the crazy shenanigans and problems the characters do and get into. The outrageous jokes as well as just the plot in general. For the past year fans have been on a cliffhanger and have been waiting for what seems like forever for June 12th, so they can continue the story and see what happens in season three. Before you watch season 3, it best to catch up on the past seasons and maybe just read this for a recap of the most memorable things that happened. To prepare for this article, I tried reading episode summaries and picking out the most important parts, but you cannot simply sum up 26 episodes in one article and keep it interesting. Also doing so takes the opportunity to witness it all over again. Instead, here are two that I feel are the most memorable moments of the past two seasons that shows why this show is so interesting and should be watched by all: One of my favorite moments of Orange Is The New Black Season 1 was when Crazy Eyes was Piper denied her a relationship, and eventually told her off So she decides to get up in the middle of the night and walk to Piper’s bunk and pee on the floor while keeping eye contact with the awoken Piper. My second favorite moment of Orange Is The New Black is a scene close to the cliffhanger of season two when Vee is ran over by the van, which is being driven by Rosa who escaped the prison as well. A look into season 3 is what all fans of Orange Is The New Black want right now with June 12th approaching fast. There is said to be more characters, a possibility of Larry no longer appearing. Also Alex is returning. According to (name the source) Faith and Motherhood is the new theme for this season’s plot, which could reveal the arrival of a certain pregnant inmate. No matter what, the season is released after grades are due for the year, so you can binge watch without worrying about being late on your homework!

Where is the Goth Lyfe?

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Staff Writer

Corinthia Bell

Have you ever wondered of the Gothic subculture? Many consider Goths to be creepy and vampirish, but in truth the subculture is simply one where beauty is shown in the darkness. If there’s beauty amongst light and colours, wouldn’t you say there the same for the shadows? This subculture’s fashion always involve black, but there can be a bit colours that suit the colour black, such as red or dark blue. It also involves chokers, short/ long sleeves for the arms, platforms, spiky hair and legs are usually covered with thin laced stockings.

The history how it has adapted to where it is today has came from a range of time periods. Many believe Goth has formed from the punk movement in the 70s, but it actually hadn’t. For this subculture has always been in existence ever since the early 800 A.D.  Of that time, there were Vikings and the Goths were of the Viking groups. Even later around the 12th century, architecture was a popular form of it. But knowing then that buildings, such as Gothic churches, are labeled as Goth then mostly Goth people went into these places. Such people were known as a group and Gothic was their religion. This subculture’s religion believed in Christianity, sharing much doctrines and practices as today’s Christians. They even had tribes or division groups such as the Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians.

So, where are Goths today? To be Goth is presently most popular in Germany and Japan. A main day where Goths are supported, is Goth Day. By supporting, someone gives a share of this beautiful style to all. Goth day takes place upon Friday, May 22. It firstly existed 2009 in the UK only, until a year later when it became universal. The reason of why it takes place upon May 22, is because a BBC radio broadcasted a show that focused on the Gothic subculture and it was on that date, and so as a result it became lovely Goth day.

A quick poll of the journalism class, has showed that if most students were to see someone wearing full black or have a pentagram, they’d assume they’re Goth when they could be of another form of style. Of those styles considered to be wrapped under the Goth package, alone they are their own individual style. Such other styles are known as Emo, Scene, Punk, Pastel Goth, Metal and much more. But of those who attend SLA, there hasn’t been anyone known to be identified as Goth, but however few are identified as emo and punk.

Several students in the class actually said that they thought I was a Goth. However I am just simply a someone who loves the colour black. The outfits I wear are worn by me because I cherish the styles and designs I see my favourite stores offer. I shop mainly upon Hottopic, Forever 21 and a lot of online stores. I always look for black with clothing that has designs of elegance, skulls, floral lace, and lots bands with low collars, long sleeves, oversized sweaters and leg skinny jeans/leggings, as well worn with a choker and black studs.

I personally can somehow differentiate those who are thought of Goth, but aren’t simply by knowing what each of the styles are that exist. For one, Emos are those whom cover an eye with the hair, wear tight pants, with band t-shirts, belts (sometimes) and converses. Scenes are those with much dyed hair that is teased oftenly and coloured clothing worn with black. Punks are those whom have the spiky sometimes shaved hair, spiked jackets bracelets etc and worn with little colour. pastel Goth is same as Goth but with bright kawaii colours and dyed hair. Then lastly metal as in everything bands with the same exact kind of clothing style as metal band members.

With this, such is tells to show that Goths too, have their own substantial gathering where they can truly union with with each other. It also gives way of to showing one’s private personalities. Now that you know what to be Goth is, you can see those no different than you, as someone that has love to show a beloved history.