by Katarina Nowicki (she/her)

As the Basketball season started earlier this year, many students were disappointed by the “no fans” rule. After all, basketball is one of the most popular spectator sports at Kearsarge — the student section is usually full to the bursting whenever there is a home game. Furthermore, The lack of fans has been noticed by more than just the students. Senior JJ Davis said that “It is very difficult to play games without fans there. Fans bring tons of energy to our games which pushes us to play better… Basketball games also bring the students together and create a better sense of community that we all miss and need after all of this isolation and separation. We need to bring our community back together and bring some energy to these games.” With the goal of getting students to these games and injecting both spirit and community back into the Kearsarge Student Body, the Senior Class Officers decided to do something about this important topic. After forming a rough proposal, the Officers met with Principle Langille and discussed how to get this proposal passed. After much discussion, it was decided that the proposal would be turned into a polished presentation and Mr. Langille would present it to the Critical Decision Unit (CDU) who would be meeting just a few days later. To the Class Officer’s joy, the proposal was accepted and it was decided that fifty tickets would be given out to Juniors and Seniors on a first come first serve basis with mandatory masking and encouraged social distancing. Estelle Chmura, President of the Class of 2022, said that “we were really happy to hear that the proposal got passed. These games are a huge part of student life at Kearsarge  and having students back in the stands definitely raised everyone’s spirits during such a hard time.” Now that fans are allowed at the games, it’s time to get out there and show our Cougar Pride!

by James Rand (he/him)

          Our environment is slowly, yet exponentially, dying. We are running out of water, we are running out of food, we are running out of energy, and sand, and oil, and rare earth metals. We are running out of the resources we need to survive yet we are doing little to nothing at all to stop the disaster that is now becoming unavoidable. 

Occasionally, when I am conversing with peers or reading an article or going on a mask break, an overwhelming weight finds its place back on my shoulders and I feel the need to do something about it. Then the weight gets heavier when I realize I’m a high school student in a world of adults who couldn’t care less what I have to say. In order to do something in this world I either have to scream at the top of my lungs and hope someone influential hears me or go to college and pray I have enough time to earn my degree and still be able to make a difference before it’s too late. There is, of course, the third option: group activism. However, the unlikelihood of that working becomes painfully apparent when you look at the news or talk to people who aren’t as passionate about the environment as you are. You find yourself reading articles about people who say “whatever” or “it won't affect me” or even stumbling upon groups of people who deny that the earth is struggling at all. 

Perhaps the worst part of all of it is the individual losses that bring a giant feeling that should be almost impossible to grapple with into sorrowful bites that barely fill your mouth: trees you grew up climbing begin to rot away before they are supposed to, you start seeing dead fish wash up on the local beech a little too often, less butterflies seemed to grace your yard last summer, animals and plants you used to love have gone extinct and you know your children will never get to see them the way you did. 

How is all of this happening around us yet we do nothing? We don’t care. We don’t see it. Sometimes I squeeze my hands together and pray that by the time I graduate college and finally have the degree and knowledge necessary to possibly change things, there will still be time to make that change. Or even better yet: enough people who feel the same way as I do, so maybe that degree won’t even be necessary at all. 

by Ava Stillman (she/her)

After dealing with this seemingly endless pandemic for over two years now, I understand firsthand how it has affected our little community of students, parents, teachers, and friends. Kearsarge has upheld everything possible, and has remained so much stronger than everyone expected… It’s astonishing! With the position I have in the KRHS newspaper club, I have the ability to reach a good portion of the Kearsarge community, and, with that opportunity, I’ve done a bit of research. It is completely normal to be confused and overwhelmed during times like these, especially because each day brings new changes and obstacles to overcome. With that being said, I think the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming visible. So, I’ve been wondering… How are you, Kearsarge folks?

The Google Form I’ve attached here is an anonymous form in which you can answer some questions about how you’ve been feeling overall, how school is going for you, and what kind of changes you’ve seen while living through the most recent manifestation of the pandemic. All questions are optional, so feel free to answer some and ignore others! Even just a sentence or two will suffice, so don’t feel the need to write an essay. Your answers and responses will not be released; only myself and the rest of the newspaper club will be reading your responses to get a feel for how we’re all holding up! With spring quickly approaching, I’ve heard from many that the warm weather might raise some of our spirits, too… 🌼

Stay strong, Cougars! :-)

Form link!

by Anonymous

In absolutely no way shape or form do I respect the SAT. Regardless of your score on the SAT you can be either an amazing candidate for college or a horrible one, and news flash: your score is not the determining factor. There is a singular argument I have heard on behalf of pro-SATers that I can understand and it goes as follows: “To compare students from totally different high schools, college admission committees can’t just choose the top students at each high school(or at least the ones with 4.0’s); they need some way to compare students from across the nation and around the world.” (Lele). However, something incredibly important to note about many arguments is that the pro-SATer comes from a stance of “SAT is one of the most (if not the most) important part of your application. And to me, that is simply ludicrous. 

To begin, the simple unfairness of the SAT should be proof enough that it does not work as its intended purpose (a level playing field to equally test a students prior knowledge). Instead, it puts a severe disadvantage on minority students such as those who are from low-income families, those whose first language isn’t English, and neurodivergent students. To put this in perspective for pro-SATers reading this: imagine two students going into the exam room together to take the SAT in the same room at the same time with the same materials. They are supplied the same pencils, paper, calculators (although this is not the situation for every exam room, as it is completely possible for one student to have a TI-84 while another student has a simple scientific calculator), and proctor. They take the exam and student A gets a 1510 while student B gets an 890. Immediately you might think “oh, well clearly student A is the better, more competitive student so colleges should definitely choose them over student B”. Now let's look outside the exam room and both students' individual scenarios. 

Student A comes from a middle class family which allowed them to eat a good breakfast that morning after sleeping in the same comfortable bed they’ve slept on all year. They had a safe ride into school from their mother who wished them luck on the exam and gave them a bottle of water and a snack for the break. Outside of the test they are pretty involved in the school; they are on the soccer team, they sing for the choir, they’ve done a couple plays and even secured a spot on student council. They take the test, albeit struggling here and there as anyone would, and during their snack periods they eat a snack with their friends before they go back to the second section. After the test is over they go home and eat dinner with their family as they reassure them that they’re sure their smart kid did well. After all, this was their second time taking the SAT and they’d been working with a tutor for months to prepare for another exam.

Student B comes from a low income family. The night before, they were up for hours anxious about the test and trying to finish the work for their AP class that their teacher assigned them despite the exam in the morning. They finally fell asleep around 3 am, waking up at 7 am to go to school. For the past few days, their mom's car has been in the shop so they’ve caught a different ride into school every day, sometimes arriving late to first period. They called their grandma to make sure she was coming and she confirmed that she was. The student arrived just on time for the exam after running into the building before the test door locked. During the test they tried to ignore the rumbles in their stomach and focus on the test. Focusing in and of itself was difficult as they had an attention deficit disorder which made it increasingly hard to sit still, focus, and succeed without any extended breaks, music, or the ability to speak. When the break came, the room erupted from silence to commotion immediately. Student B attempted to remain calm, despite the fact that the immediate change was ringing in their ear. Barely making it through the break without breaking down, the student began section two a little more rattled than before. They couldn’t finish the test because they were unable to focus and kept feeling pangs in their stomach. They went home to do some homework for the college class they take on the weekends (for which they got the funding for from an educational grant for low income students). Outside of the test they are also involved in their school; they are on the math team, they play an instrument in the jazz band, and they’ve been class president for 3 years in a row. They also have been working towards an early associates degree so college will be less expensive and have taken 6 AP classes as well. They’d been unable to afford a tutor or SAT book since their parents were already struggling with bills, and this was the one and only time they could afford to take the exam.

Although these are not the contrasting situations seen with every single “good” and “bad” test score, it is clear that despite the SATs attempt at being a standardized and fair test, it is not. There are an infinite amount of factors outside of that room that pose too much of an influence for it to be a major component of college applications. Although student B did worse on the SAT, are they not worthy of going to a prestigious college simply because they were at such a disadvantage that they couldn’t succeed that one time? Is student A superior to student B because they did exceptionally well on a test which they have the time and resources to study for in depth? 

I request for every teacher, parent, student, or peer to acknowledge that the SAT is a system which benefits a certain population while neglecting to take into account the hardships that other students have to go through just to get into that room. Acknowledge that minority students have statistically lower rates than white, neurotypical, middle class students. Acknowledge that a number you get on a test that falsely declares itself “fair” is not an indicator of someone's value as a student or member of a learning community. Regardless of a person's situation, a single number from a single exam should never be what you use to rate them from “ivy worthy” to “not college bound”. Even if student A had done badly, they could also be an exemplary student and you would be ignorant to ignore that possibility. 

Standardized testing is rigged. Supporting a rigged system perpetuates the inability of many minority groups to enter into spaces which have denied them for so long. If someone wishes to take the SAT, best of luck to them; if someone wishes to abstain, you have no right to think of them as any less of an intellectual for that. If you would like a more formal point by point breakdown of common arguments in support of the SAT please read the SAT Argument Breakdown article. 

P.S. this was not directed towards anyone in particular, but if you think it’s about you, perhaps some reflection on your part should be advised. Thank you.

Lele, Chris. "Why The SAT Is Super Important! (And Why It's Not)". Collegexpress, 2022, https://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/test-prep/blog/why-sat-super-important-and-why-its-not/. Accessed 9 Feb 2022.

by Ava Stillman (she/her)

As most older students of Kearsarge have probably noticed, gas prices have become quite the topic -- It is on the forefront of so many international news headlines. At least in the time that some of us students have had our driver’s licenses, the price of gas has not been this high, and did remain very low for many years. I’d imagine that some students (and adults as well) have been wondering why a single tank of gas can all of a sudden range anywhere from $40 to almost $70. So, the burning question in so many individuals’ minds… What is going on?

Well, for that simple, four-word question, there could be paragraphs upon paragraphs in response. When thinking about gas prices, it’s not as easy as pointing a finger at one group or person. You have to take supply and demand, fuel production and refining, energy markets, and specifically those who are involved in most of the selling and purchasing of the fuel itself into account. Those at the top of the supply chain have the power over the fuel industry. An American Automobile Association (AAA) report from October of 2021 stated that gas prices have hit the highest average since 2014, which was a whopping seven years ago. The national average currently stands at $3.40 per gallon, and the average in New Hampshire stands at $3.44 per gallon. The pandemic’s effects continue to afflict us all, and I’ve heard several students and teachers at Kearsarge discussing the current state of the economy. Many people are getting out more -- Long road trips, flights, and even leisurely drives have been shown in statistics to be occurring more and more as COVID-19’s grip on the world slowly loosens. According to CBS, “The number of vehicle miles traveled measured by the Federal Highway Administration plummeted in spring 2020, but in the last few months, highway traffic was back up to what would normally be seen in midsummer.” The demand for fuel to fill up cars, aircrafts, and other modes of transportation has increased, yes. Supply and demand is a fairly easy concept to understand, and even some international news outlets have been claiming that a “broken supply chain” and “more demand than supply of crude oil” is the cause. In reality, it is, unfortunately, much more complicated.

Simply put, companies in major oil-producing nations are refusing to pump and refine oil. You read that right, don’t worry too much. The oil industry as a whole has utilized a concept called an “artificial shortage”. This is a completely purposeful act against each and every one of the oil industry’s consumers, and is something that has always been very present in other industries as well. The meat and dairy industries are two of the most notable examples. The prices of crude oil and other types of fuel are remaining so inflated because the companies in charge of the production and refining process, such as ExxonMobil right here in the United States, are refusing to do so. Well… why?

The target for most of those companies is roughly $80-$90 per barrel of crude oil. With that hefty price tag, their profit is unimaginably large, and that is, of course, the number one goal of the fuel industry as a whole. It is hurting a massive percentage of their consumer base, but, as most of you should know that have taken an economics course (...or simply watched CNN), big companies want a big bottom line. OPEC nations (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) are driving this force -- Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iraq, Iran, and many more are part of this melting pot. The COVID-19 pandemic destroyed so many of the oil industry’s companies and, therefore, all of the major oil-producing countries want to regain their healthy bottom lines, just like Frank Shirley tried to do. A gold star goes to whomever understands this reference… or at least appreciates that lighthearted bit of humor in the midst of all of this grim writing.

Moving on. As I’ve mentioned, even here in the United States, important folks at the top of the economic ladder of the oil industry are just refusing to pump oil. We, as the country that formerly outputted the largest quantities of crude oil per year, are not doing anything to solve the problem. Other massive nations that also have the capacity to work towards solving the issue are also turning a blind eye in the name of profits.

The problem is even impactful closer to home -- Large, private companies and firms are investing in the oil industry’s stocks for their profits and are further perpetuating the energy crisis. To conclude this informational article, the issues within the oil industry are not what they seem on the surface. Yes, supply and demand obviously are important, but the most detrimental cause of this international crisis is the fact that the massive oil companies are participating in standoffish behavior. Even in our small Kearsarge community, I hear many students and adults voicing their opinions about gas prices, and wondering what is going on further up the ladder. While corporate greed may not be the entire reason for the increased prices when we go to fill up, it is definitely something that must be discussed more.

by Mrs. Leslie (she/her)

In our last edition, I offered some notes of advice, the main points of which I think are worth repeating here: 

1. Make time for something you enjoy every single day.  

2. Take some time away from your devices.  

3. Engage with your family in a low-key, positive way. 

4. Get outside.  

5. Move your body.  

6. Dial back your procrastinating. 

I’d like to build on those ideas, which I think are applicable to all of us, by offering a few more.

7. Set goals for yourself.  Even if these are small, they help us focus on improvement and progress.  Even if we’re rocking this thing called life, we can all stand to improve.  Consider making them S.M.A.R.T. goals, which you can read more about at https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm, if you want to make them more concrete and less pie-in-the-sky.  

8. Be kind, to yourself as well as to others.  

While we can all stand to improve, we also all have great strengths and abilities.  Acknowledge them and take pride in yourself; it’s important to be a friend to yourself.  Maybe it sounds hokey, but you receive more feedback from your own thoughts than anyone else could ever give you.  Boost yourself up!  Positive self talk works.  

Check out SNL's Stuart Smalley, for a comic take on this.

9. Get involved.

We all have a lot on our plates, and who ever has enough time to do all they want to?  That said, getting involved, whether it’s in a class discussion or with the school play, can help you build connections and interests, others understand you, and expand others’ thinking.  You might use your involvement to improve an issue in the school or your community.  You might start a new club that no one realized we needed.  When you involve yourself, your time can seem more worthwhile and fun, rather than wasted.  

10. Abide by the Four Agreements.  Be Impeccable with Your Word.  Don’t Take Anything Personally.  Don’t Make Assumptions.  Always Do Your Best.

Mrs. Cicoria introduced me to these ideas, which I have posted on my classroom wall, and which you can read more about on Miguel Ruiz’s website: https://www.miguelruiz.com/the-four-agreements.  Applied to any and all aspects of life, they encourage you to think deeply, live well, and maintain a sense of humor.  They aren’t easy to abide by, and I certainly catch myself breaking them often.  But, the fact that I do have them in mind and do catch myself (at least sometimes) when I break them, makes me more aware of and intentional with my thoughts, words, and actions.

by Charlie Pike (he/him)

The point of Unified Basketball is so kids get the chance to have the ability to  play together and it is also about kids who don't typically get the chance to have that experience. The people that are coaching Unified Basketball are Mrs. Gus, Mr. Angus, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Burnes, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Pauling. This is the first year of Unified Basketball at KRHS. The first  game will be on January 13th, and first practice will be January 3rd. They wanted to start Unified Basketball last year. The reason why they couldn't start it is because of Covid. They are really excited to start this year at KRHS. Practices are going to take place during flex. We will be doing  some scrimmages and shooting drills during practice. There will  be three home games and three away games.

by Kayla Wimer (she/her)

As we plunge into the depths of winter, it’s hard not to notice and appreciate the subtle beauties that arrive alongside the season. The morning sunrise, reflecting off the pristine white snow, which crackles under student tires as they arrange their cars to form pretty pictures in the parking lot (they really aren’t afraid to color outside the lines, either). The warmth that rolls over your face and infuses your bones as you sit down in class in the morning, feeling oddly cozy for a Tuesday at 7:45 (you couldn’t help that you were late… and your teacher understands that the roads were really bad since there was snow accumulation last night of about half an inch). But all of this is a bit overshadowed by the looming menace of spring, which carries with it the idea of finals, AP exams, and cumulative projects for year-long classes. Oh well. I guess for now we better enjoy the grating crunch of sand and gravel underfoot as we sit, shuffling our feet in third period, still blissfully unaware of what this new second semester will bring.

by Mrs. Leslie (she/her)

First Year Seminar is a new class this year, in which most freshmen are enrolled.  It is intended to support students with the transition from middle to high school, through both a curriculum focused on habits of learning and study skills and a guided study period.  This year seemed an especially apropos time to introduce the class, with the challenges presented all last year and the prior spring due to covid.  At the start of this school year, at the very end of August, some of our current freshmen stepped into a school building for the first time in a year and a half.  Who could argue that they would benefit from extra support and guidance in starting their high school careers?

Principal Langille was one strong proponent of introducing the class and supported Ms. Sandy Nelson and Ms. Olivia Kotusky in developing it over the 2021 summer break.  He, and other members of our school community, had encountered the class in other schools and saw its potential positive impacts.  The half-credit, year-long course focuses on the following core competencies: Successful Transition to High School, Self-Awareness and Self-Advocacy, and Community and Social Awareness.  Notably, there is some current discussion of whether the class will remain as it is next year, or if it will change based on this year’s experience.  Stay tuned for updates, or reach out if you’d like to weigh in regarding a future version of First Year Seminar.  

Many sections of the class have included open discussions at the end of each quarter, intended to generate ideas, share feedback, and honor student voices. These discussions have focused on the class itself–successes and possible improvements–as well as students’ general experiences in and observations of the high school.  

Some of the central topics Mr. Sweatt’s class discussed at the end of Semester One were mask breaks and how to make them available but not required for all students every day that weather allows; lunch and the palatability of food available for purchase; and, the school’s daily schedule, with a focus on both the early start and inconsistencies with bells.  

Mr. Gunn’s (formerly Ms. Nelson’s) First Year Seminar class considered pros and cons of, as well as suggestions for, the course.  They greatly appreciated the study hall time provided within the class and noted loving the Biology greenhouse.  However, they noted confusion over our school grading system, highlighting inconsistencies between teachers.  They also expressed general frustration regarding communication, respect (or seeming lack thereof), and opportunities for student voice.

The students in my section of the course had very similar concerns.  They also saw communication–at all levels and between all parties–as in need of significant attention and improvement.  They noted widely varying experiences with the grading system, in regards to clarity of assignments and the competencies they intended to measure or build ability in, teacher practices regarding grading submitted work and giving feedback, and confusion between formative and summative assessments.  Additionally, my class spoke at length about the continuing challenges of covid and keeping up with frequent and changing communication about the school’s experience with and expectations around it.

First Year Seminar, like many classes, is sure to evolve. Again, if you would like to weigh in on its evolution, reach out.  If you would like to discuss any of the ideas broached here, with me or any of the teachers involved with the course, let’s talk.  

by Anonymous

1. Public colleges are becoming more popular for applications as the prices of private schools rise. Public schools have continued to use the SAT as a way to pick who to accept and who to decline out of the growing application pool.

   1. Public colleges look at multiple different statistics to eliminate possible students, not just SATs. So chances are, if you don’t submit your SAT they will just look at your GPA or class ranking. Alternatively, they may look at how you’ve done in upper level classes in particular. Many colleges also care about well-roundedness, so your extracurriculars matter as much, if not more so, than your SAT. The SAT is not the only number they’re looking at on your application, so you’re not going to get thrown out of the application pool for not having taken it (assuming it’s an SAT optional school, if it's SAT mandatory you’d still have to submit it). 

2. Admissions committees have been known to buy the names of students who do well on the SAT, so even if you don’t send your SAT score, they may already know what you got anyway.

   1. This makes a couple assumptions, the first being that you took the SAT at all. If you never took it, they can’t possibly buy your score since it doesn’t exist. Also, the article about Bowdoin doing this (from Bloomberg News) states that they buy the names of those who do well. If you don’t meet that threshold, they won’t see your name and won't see your score, they will just know you got below that threshold. For example, if their goal is 1330 they wouldn’t see the names of kids who got a 1320 or a 900, so they can’t make many assumptions about how well you did exactly just because you’re off the list. This is most likely a way for them to evaluate those who did well. It may give those who got above their threshold an advantage, but as long as the rest of your application is good, it shouldn’t immediately get you eliminated. 

3. Age-old traditions are hard to break.

   1. This argument is built on the foundation of schools not wanting to drop the SAT requirement because it would ruin their prestige, but high ranking schools such as MIT have been gravitating towards SAT optional and have still been admitting quality students. Just because something is a tradition, does not mean it should continue to be one for the foreseeable future, it just means it might take a little more effort to end it.

4. The test measures something important: the ability of the student to study for a specific test. 

   1. Once again this brings up the unfairness of the test. If the whole point is how well you can study, the students who have less time to dedicate to studying are at a disadvantage. Those who have many extracurricular activities, have jobs, have to watch their siblings, don’t have access to SAT prep books, etc. have less of an ability to study, not because they are bad at it, but because they can’t. 

5. Learning how to eliminate wrong answers is a good skill.

   1. It is, but it’s a skill we all learn in highschool through any multiple choice test we take. We are taught how to eliminate wrong answers on tests beginning in middle school. The argument assumes standardized tests are the only way to learn how to do this, but as long as a school has multiple choice tests, quizzes, or exams, the student will learn how to do it through those. 

6. The SAT is a good indicator of how a student will do in the first year of college.

   1. This is a complicated statistic. When you look at colleges, the correlation between GPA and SAT is low. This is possibly because every university has a relatively similar grade distribution, but they pull from different spectrums of the SAT scoring line. A person at Harvard with a 2.5 who got a 1450 and a person from a community college with a 2.4 who got a 1200 would be compared under this stat. However, one would argue that that’s an unfair comparison since Harvard is more competitive and harder on grading that a community college would be. The reason people argue for the SAT as the main numeric is because of resume puffing and grade inflation, but colleges already have a way of finding resume puffing, and a lot of them look at longevity of activities over the amount of them you have. GPA inflation has a pretty simple solution of putting the schools grade distributions on their school profile for colleges to look at. If you look at our school profile, we show the average SAT scores but not the average GPA. I think the idea of showing average SAT is good, because it can show if you’ve done well in relation to your peers, even if you didn’t score well in relation to the globe, but the SAT doesn’t care if you do well considering, they care if you do well at all. School profiles could be used more effectively in order to make GPA and extracurriculars a more reliable indicator of student success.

7. The SAT is cost effective for colleges. 

   1. But what about the students? If there are alternatives, like above, where we make GPA and extracurriculars better indicators, then why force students and their families to pay for College Boards tests just so colleges don’t have to spend a little more time on students before throwing them into their pile of rejects. I understand that they have limited time, but holistic approaches are becoming much more popular in higher ranking schools for a reason: it’s more accurate than a standardized test. If they truly need to throw students out immediately, working on the resume puffing and grade inflation problem would be a much fairer way for students to be evaluated. 

8. Ranking matters and perception is everything. 

   1. This argument is about higher ranking schools being SAT required and holding a certain prestige above SAT optional schools. Though this is slightly true, many students look at a lot more than just the school's SAT requirement to see if it’s a good school overall. Research opportunities, professors, cost, location, graduation rate, acceptance rate, and much more are bigger indicators to potential students of a school's prestige than their SAT scores. Additionally, as stated before, higher ranking schools have been switching to test optional, so this argument is quickly falling behind.

9. The SAT builds character. Rejection is part of life. 

   1. Rejection is part of life. Not everything is fair. You’re right. But in the US there is an expectation of equality, especially in education. Colleges and universities have always tried to be one step ahead of inequality, so why would this be any different. I’m not saying everyone should be accepted into every college they apply to, I’m saying the SAT is an unfair numeric to judge every single student on. If one of your arguments is that the SAT should be unfair, you’re already admitting that it’s flawed. If a university truly wants the best students, shouldn’t they use the best approach to ensure that? College admissions without the SAT is not a participation award for everyone, it is a fairer way to eliminate students who don’t meet criteria, and allow those who exceed it to get accepted regardless of their disadvantages in an unfair testing arena. 

"The SAT Still Matters: 9 Reasons Why – Educator.Com Blog". Educator.Com, 2022, https://www.educator.com/news/the-sats-are-still-important-9-reasons-why/. Accessed 22 Feb 2022.

"How Do College Admissions Officers Decide Who Gets Accepted?". Edmit.Me, 2022, https://www.edmit.me/resources/how-do-college-admissions-officers-decide-who-gets-accepted. Accessed 22 Feb 2022.

News, ABC. "Do SAT Scores Really Predict Success?". ABC News, 2022, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/story?id=98373&page=1. Accessed 22 Feb 2022. 

by Ava Stillman (she/her)

Throughout the insanity of this pandemic and its undeniable effects on all of us, so much of our day to day lives have changed. The pandemic has had inexplicable effects on education, the economy, physical and mental well being, businesses, both big and small, among other things. Since late February and early March of 2020, we have all heard and read countless news stories, and our heads have been jammed full of information regarding COVID-19 and how it will continue to affect all of us. So, as of February of 2022, two years after the first cases began to creep towards the United States… What precisely is going on?

At this point in time, parents of children under the age of five are being further and further encouraged to consider vaccinating their children. The CDC is working day to day to get a vaccine authorized for that age group, and, as of February 4th, only about 30% of parents say that they’ll vaccinate their children. Discussions of mask mandates and vaccine mandates are taking place between U.S. state officials every day, and many Americans are overwhelmed and confused with the constantly changing guidelines and rules. In Denver, Colorado, Mayor Michael B. Hancock announced on the first of February that their current mask mandate will expire on the 3rd. And, with the massive event of the Olympics looming, many are questioning how the mandates and general sets of regulations will affect the games, especially considering that cases are continuing to rise in Beijing, China. On Monday, February 1st, Olympic organizers announced a grim statistic: 71 new COVID-19 cases had been detected over the weekend, with most cases detected upon arrival at the airport.

With so much still up in the air, countless Americans -- and, I’m sure, many individuals here at Kearsarge -- are anxiously awaiting what the future holds for us. We can all just hope that, with the new year being in full swing for almost two months now, things will begin to look up, and perhaps COVID-19 will loosen its grip while we continue to fight back.

by Calvin Smith (he/him)

      Over the last couple of months, Russia has gathered troops on the Ukrainian border. Ukraine used to be a part of Russia until 1991, even now they still fight Russia's influence through trade. Russia first presented the United States with a list of demands. Putin wanted NATO to stop eastern expansion and deny Ukraine membership in NATO. All of these demands are from a Russian attempt to secure interest in Ukraine. Of course, NATO and the United States denied these requests. 

Some Political analysts think that this problem roots back to when the Soviet Union was dissolved in the early '90s. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S and Russia made a deal to denuclearize the country of Ukraine. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula. Russia also backed a Rebellion by pro-Russian separatists. This conflict killed more than 14,000 people in Eastern Ukraine. Ukraine will not join NATO in the near future due to the fear of the Russian Invasion. Hypothetically, if Ukraine were to join NATO then that would cause conflict in Moscow and lead to a Russian annexation of Ukraine. 

In the Spring of 2021 Putin further tested the United States by ordering More troops on the western Ukrainian border. The New Biden Administration dealt with this swiftly by holding a summit between the two leaders. After that Russia Pulled troops from the Western Border. Putin's view on the United States changed after the withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan. Also that the U.S domestic debates are a sign of weakness of the Biden administration. 

Now, if Russia invades could mean a lot of things. Russia would first use cyberattacks to destabilize the Ukrainian government and cause civil unrest. Russia would also cut off specific Ukrainian waterways, therefore, destabilizing trade with other countries. A full-on invasion would be something that Europe has not seen in decades. That would include urban warfare including bomb raids on urban centers and cities. The Ukrainian government would set up a resistance backed up by the United States. The invasion scenario is less likely because of the risks of U.S involvement.