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It's SnoBall Time but, Be Careful

By Antonio Ferraro March 1, 2022

As we all know February is a very important month for the MCI community; not only because of the long awaited break or the wonderful winter carnival, but also, because of our annual school dance, the Sno-Ball. But what is Sno-Ball?

We asked Mr. Buys, an English teacher here at Maine Central Institute, to describe the meaning of the event: “Sno-Ball is a formal dance that involves light refreshments, a DJ and everybody getting down! This year is semi-formal, to accommodate potentially not being able to make it due to the COVID infection."

This year, as mentioned above by our interviewee, in order to take place, some new precautions had to be introduced by our school’s Key Club. An association, formed by students from different years and led by Mrs. Pomeroy and Mrs. Palonis, and the annual organizer of the event. The main differences decided by the Club are: the location, the refreshments, the dress code and the safety measures.

Sophomore Camille Dizon, a member of the Key Club gave some clarifications. “Even though masks are required at all times, everybody who is going to attend the dance will have to test negative in school the day of the event. We also switched the dance to semi-formal from formal, because we don’t want anyone to spend a ton of money on a dress and have all their money wasted, if they test positive.” This, especially the last part, caused a lot of disagreements among the student body of MCI, since many are not willing to undergo the mandatory testing. Unfortunately, as the Key Club explicitly explained, such individuals will not be allowed to enter the gym. Dizon also pointed out that the location was changed, from the Cafeteria to Wrights Gym, in order to be able to maintain the social distance between students. As for the refreshments, the amount simply will be decreased to limit the time without masks and potential exposure.

Us members of the Bell Tower Press are extremely excited for this year's Sno-Ball and we look forward to seeing you all.

Being in the BBT: A Look Inside Life as a Ballet Student

By Jane Mautz & Angelina Ruehlemann February 16, 2022

Most little girls have dreamed of being a professional ballerina at some point in their life. And on the surface it seems like a dream- pointe shoes, tutus, and pirouettes. But do people really understand how much dedication and discipline it takes? What the audience sees is elegance and beauty, but behind the curtains, the reality is pretty grim.

The student body at MCI knows that there is an excellent and very intense ballet program, Bossov Ballet Theatre (BBT). However, most do not know or understand what a ballet student's day is truly like and the struggles they go through. Let’s take a look at how these high school students balance both school and extracurricular activities.

In the Bossov Ballet Theatre program there are currently 13 high school students attending it. The majority of the ballet students are dorm students, there are very few day students. Most of the dorm students found Bossov Ballet Theatre through their summer intensive. Sophomore Maxine Pallante, who is attending her second year as a dorm student at MCI, attended the summer intensive for two years before coming for high school. When Maxine has morning ballet class she wakes up around 6:30 and gets ready for ballet, which usually takes about 20 minutes. When the dancers don’t have morning ballet class, they have an afternoon class from 3:30-5.

Most students at MCI don’t actually know that ballet is a school subject. Every day one ballet class meets periods one and two, which is almost three hours long. Every quarter the ballet students get graded based on how they have been performing in class and what they have been struggling with. This definitely has a negative effect on the dancers, as it can have an impact on your self-esteem, however, it also helps them to strive to become better dancers.

Balancing school work and how busy the dancers are with ballet can definitely be challenging. When it comes time for a performance there are rehearsals right after school until late hours at night, it is hard to get homework done and be able to study. Dancers have made it a priority to be communicating with their teachers as much as possible when ballet starts to get busy. School does come first to all the ballet students. And most ballet students have formed a schedule to get everything done on time and as well done as they would like it to be.

Dancers train in front of mirrors for long hours, scrutinizing every movement and their bodies. They see themselves in the mirror and become fixated on minor imperfections. Since the leotards and tights expose their body shape, it exacerbates the inherent self-consciousness. As a result dancers are vulnerable to body dysmorphia and disordered eating. Statistically, dancers are more likely to have eating disorders than the general population. The comparison that dancers face daily further prepend to lower self-esteem.

Another struggle is that in ballet everyone is very competitive, everyone is striving to perfect their technique. Sophomore Camille Dizon has told us that there is a lot of internalized competition in ballet. Most dancers are constantly comparing themselves to other dancers. They spend hours obsessing about every detail, every imperfection, trying to fix it. ”It can be really frustrating, if you can’t fix what you are doing wrong and it will ruin your lesson” sophomore Jane Mautz said.

Since the Founders Hall is currently under construction, the ballet dancers have their lessons at a local church. This isn’t ideal, since it’s off campus and not very spacious. “Taking the bus or walking to the church takes a lot of time from our classes,” Maxine has explained to us. The space is also very limited, it often feels very cramped which is a huge struggle.

Motivation is a key component for the ballet students. Not only for ballet class and/or rehearsals but also for school. Some ways the dancers stay motivated is seeing a good outcome in something. For example, when you have studied for a test that was extremely difficult and you come out of it getting a 100. Seeing a good outcome in something is a huge part of motivation.

Camille Dizon, who is attending her first year at MCI as a sophomore, says that BBT Artistic Director Natayla Getman has helped the dancers stay motivated in many different aspects. Natayla is a very intense and vigorous teacher. But she is also probably one of the best teachers out there. She knows exactly how to fix what you need to fix and encourages us to become better every day.

MCI's Theater Department Presents: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane!

By Jamie Simeone February 16, 2022

Maine Central Institute is in full swing with its preparations for the Spring Musical, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane! Debra Susi, the head of the arts department at MCI and director at the Waterville Opera House, is currently directing and overseeing the preparations for the play with help from Assistant Director John Buys and some of the MCI student body.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is a touching story about the adventures of a china rabbit who is beloved by a little girl. Edward gets lost at sea on a boat ride one day and ends up being passed through a multitude of different owners as he slowly forgets himself and how to love.

Mrs. Susi explains that all of the pre-production work is done completely by the students. Set construction, sound design (including original music to be played during the play), set furniture, creating all seven iterations of Edward the rabbit, lighting, and costume design are all done by the students with Mrs. Susi and Mr. Buys’ oversight.

Mrs. Susi has been teaching and directing shows at MCI for 25 years, with two to three shows a year. She has shared that her lifelong mission is to, “Build community through the arts.” She explains that theatre allows people to see the world from a different perspective which helps to build empathy. “Theatre combines History, English, and The Arts to help build community,” she explains.

This beautiful story about finding love, and being lost and found again will be competed by the MCI cast and crew during the MPA One Act Competition in late March of 2022.

Snow Days=No School (and sleep)

By Lapo Talamini & Mattia Meucci February 18, 2022

Snow days are one of the more awaited things by students during the winter, especially because they mean no school. They await these days more than their birthdays or other important dates. Generally the communication of the snow days arrives in the morning around six, and immediately the students aren’t tired anymore, and they are able to wake up really early to check their emails. But we are not here to talk about what the snow days are, we want to talk about why they are loved and what people do during them.

The main reason why they are loved is they mean no school, that's different from the weekend, because they are totally random and generally during the week, so they are a sort of midweek break. Just why they are different from the weekends, the activities that the students do are different too; we decided to interview some of them to know what they prefer to do on snow days and that’s what we got.

Predictably the students choose to sleep in the morning, to recharge their batteries from school but also because they woke up early to go to school and for this they are tired. So as said before they sleep until late and when they wake up they do everything except be productive, in fact as they told us they like to spend the snow days to relax or not do anything connected with school. There are a lot of students that go to the gym everyday, and for this the snow days are perfect because generally in these days the gym is open for four hours instead of one and a half. We know that the snow days are random, then the school cannot organize any activities for the dorm students because they can’t predict the future, then the students if they don’t go to the gym and they don’t want to study have to invent some activities by themself, so generally they decide to meet in group in one of the two dorms and watch a movie or go around Pittsfield just for do something.

We can’t think of the snow days only from the point of view of the students, because there is another group of people that have to decide what to do on these days, these are the teachers, especially the part of them that are also dorm parents. In fact if the day before they plan to follow their usual routine, knowing that there will not be students in the dorm, suddenly they have to change all their plans. From the interviews that we did, they said that in reality the day doesn’t change that much for them, because they just have to do the same things that they do during the weekend, hoping that the students will follow the rules as usual.

The last question that we asked ourselves and then also at the students was if they would like to have a remote school day instead of no lessons these days; obviously most of the students answered that they are totally fine without school because all of them like to have a break sometimes, but some of them talked about an idea that was different from what we asked but connected. In fact from some interviews, students had the idea to have a record of the lesson by the teachers in the classroom, that they can watch and follow when they want, maybe also in the next days when they have some free time.

In the end we can say that the snow days are just a small break during the week where students and teachers can rest instead of being worried about school or everything else.

Founders Hall Getting a Facelift

By Jordan Plamondon February 18, 2022

Founders Hall is a building that started the roots of Maine Central Institute and was built in the 1860's. Everyone that has ever been on campus has seen the bell tower right in the center of campus. It is the iconic building and even the logo of MCI. It is loved by many. Over the summer of 2021, Cianbro started construction with just doing the halls and the staircases. The stairs, which were wood, will now be made of steel. The first part of the renovation also included installing an elevator. Then an anonymous donor stepped in to complete the full restoration. This restoration includes new bathroom, air conditioning and improved ventilation, and more halls to get from one side of the building to the other. The storage is being moved to the basement. All the classrooms are being refreshed with new paint and refinished floors.

They are also changing the ballet studio by moving the flooring around so it can become more utilized by others. MCI will be able to hold plays, game nights, and more events on the stage. The plan is to have the building finished by August or September, but due to Covid there could be delays. Hopefully by October it will be completely finished. Students are really excited about getting back into the building and teachers are looking forward to having their permanent classrooms back. Having temporary spaces to teach has been an adjustment. It will be exciting to have this icon that everyone pictures when you say MCI back up and running.

Winter Carnival Around the Corner

By Amelia Alejos Garcia & Nicholas Bruni February 16, 2022

Every winter as the days slowly warm with spring, students participate in the MCI Winter Carnival, which is a long-standing tradition at the school. This year it falls on March 3, 4, and 5, from Thursday afternoon to Saturday. During these three days students participate with their classmates in friendly competitions from games to sports, and in the end, one class will be elected as the winner. After the games, the competitions and the sports, the event culminates with the Sno-Ball, a formal dance where everyone parties and has fun together, and where a Sno-Ball king and queen are chosen. The king and queen are elected through a vote by all MCI students and the two most voted people become the king and queen of the dance.

The games:

• Snow Sculptures

• Softball

• Quiz Bowl

• Volleyball

• Sled Races

• Skit Contest

• Tug-of-War

• Bombardment

• Basketball

• Sno-Ball