december 2015

Volume 46, Issue 1 December 2015
Manlius Pebble Hill School
Brave New World
19 new students from China triple MPH’s international population
Photo by Debora Han
Left to right: Yura ( 全 晓 蕾 , Xiaolei) Quan, Co-President of Chinese Club Justin ( 丁 其 桢 , Qizhen) Ding, and Caroline King enjoy their second meeting.
By Liam Meisner
and Spencer Krywy
The air is abuzz with conversations
in two different languages as
Chinese Club begins. Junior James
( 徐 泽 正 , Zezheng) Xu leads the
small group in a dumpling-making
activity, as he and other Chinese
students argue back and forth in
their native tongue. They contradict
what he says and give the novice
American students their own tips on
how to craft their dumplings.
Students fill dumpling wrappers
with beef, cabbage and vegetables.
Then they fold the wrappers in half
and pinch them shut so that the filling
doesn’t leak out.
While James carries the trays of
dumplings into the kitchen, the rest
of the students— about half international
and half American— talk and
get to know each other, which is the
point of the club: to bridge the gap
between the international students
and the rest of the student body.
Manlius Pebble Hill has the
highest number of international students
it has hosted since the school’s
international program was officially
certified by the U.S. government in
2006. At the start of the year, there
were 28, 27 of whom were from
China. Two of the new Chinese
students returned home in the fall.
These students not only add a
cultural diversity to the school but
also much needed revenue as well.
After the financial trouble the school
experienced last year, the school’s
enrollment dropped by more than
100 students, and the full tuition
paid by Chinese students helps
compensate for that. But such large
numbers add challenges as well, as
the international students tend to
stick with their own as they adjust to
a new country, a new school and a
new culture.
MPH is not alone. In the past
10 years, while enrollment at private
schools has slowly declined, the Chinese
population at these American
high schools has exploded.
According to the Institute of
International Education, the number
of international students in
American high schools tripled from
2004 to 2013. In 2013, there were
73,000 international students in
American high schools— 46 percent
of these students came from China.
Over roughly the same time period,
overall enrollment in private schools
(grades K through 12) declined by
more than 1 million, according to
the National Center for Education
Statistics.
Given the large numbers of new
Chinese students at MPH, some
worry these students will form a
tightly-knit group and not interact
with the rest of the student body.
That’s evidenced in the lunchroom,
where groups of Chinese students
fill one or two lunch tables. It is also
one of the reasons the school caps
its international student population
at 30.
“A lot of independent schools
have to rely on international students’
tuition to support the school,”
“People don’t know you, but they will just help you for
nothing. That’s different from what you would expect in
China.”
-James ( 徐 泽 正 , Zezheng) Xu, international student
said Wei Gao, the International
Student Coordinator. “That’s a fact,
I mean not just MPH... But a lot
of private schools go extreme, they
will have say 100 students in Upper
School, 80 of them will be Chinese.
That is not a thing our school wants
to do.”
Though one of the goals of the
international program is for the
foreign students to experience American
culture, some say it is easier to
spend time with people from their
own country and who speak the
same language as them, rather than
reaching out to people who seem
completely different.
“It’s kind of weird, if you have a
bunch of Chinese kids, and you will
be the one to reach out to the other
American kids and talk to them
instead of talking to people from
your country,” said James, who is
a Chinese student in his third year.
“It’s a pretty hard thing to deal with.”
The transition from living in
China to studying in the United
States is not a simple one. Students
must take several standardized tests
and then apply through agencies
that work to bring international students
to America. Then, students do
interviews and write essays, which,
at MPH, are reviewed by the International
Student Coordinator, Head
of Upper School, and the Director
of Admissions.
Once accepted, students must
be placed with host families, which
isn’t always an easy process. Host
families can be extremely varied;
they can be attentive and generous,
or poorly- equipped to shelter
a foreign student, but the primary
concern many have is experiencing
the real American lifestyle.
Some, including Liam ( 薛 轶 天
Yitian) Xue, a first-year international
student, have had worries about
staying with non-American families
or with too many other Chinese
students. He wants to experience
American culture, but there’s an
adjustment to make.
“I think the most difficulty is the
food,” Liam said. “The difference
between Chinese food and American
food, and I think all international
students have that problem. We
are getting used to having American
food; hamburgers, pizza, pasta.”
Continued on page 7

2
Commentary
The Art of Ballot
Being involved in current events is the best way to maintain a sucessful democracy
By Liam Meisner
When the 2016 Presidential elections
roll around in less than a year,
many current seniors and juniors will
have the chance to vote for the first
time.
And if you haven’t been at least
glancing at a few stories regarding
the Democratic and Republican
Presidential primaries, which are the
selection processes to determine the
party candidates in 2016, sometime
within the next few months might be
a good time to start.
It’s important for citizens to be
engaged with current events, but
studies show that interest is declining
among young people. According to a
2012 study by the Pew Research Center,
engagement in politics among
Americans ages 18 to 29 is lower
than it is for all other age groups, and
those numbers are dropping. In 2008,
35 percent of respondents in that category
said they “followed campaign
news very closely,” but that number
dropped to 18 percent in 2012.
Youth should be informed about
issues that are going to affect them,
said Allison Clarke, Teen Coordinator
at the East Area Family YMCA.
She directs the Youth and Government
program, which aims to engage
young people about politics and
to teach them how to express their
views.
“Youth need to care about politics
because they are living in the effects
of the political decisions already,”
Clarke said in an email. “For people
who [believe] it doesn’t impact them
until they are an adult, or able to
vote, I challenge them to think about
all the ways our [country’s] laws are
already affecting them.”
Does this mean you need to diligently
follow all the news and polls
and keep up with everything that’s
going on in the world? Of course not:
that’s practically a full-time job. But
pay some attention. Read CNN a bit.
Listen to NPR in the car on the way
to school. Watch a debate.
If that’s not up your alley, there
are plenty of other mediums to
consume news. Social media sites
like Twitter and Facebook are commonly
used by those interested in the
perspectives of public figures, and
Twitter especially offers a wide range
of information.
Richard Adams at The Guardian
provides a list of journalists, pollsters
and pundits ranging from Nate Silver
to Jake Tapper, all of whom offer informative
commentary on the news.
Perhaps the most entertaining
content comes from the likes of “The
Daily Show.” Previously hosted by
Jon Stewart, now by Trevor Noah,
this show combines politics with
satire and lampoons the media and
the events the media covers, all while
remaining informational.
MPH History Department Chair
Matt Spear has some of his own
advice on how to stay connected and
understand the news. He describes
how understanding the context of
different events and trends is important
and that young people should
reach out to those around them to
learn these things.
“Young people are going to
inherit a ‘smaller’ more interconnected
world in which they are going
to need a deeper understanding of
the global community,” Spear said
in an email. “This understanding is
essential for fostering development,
empathy and diplomacy.”
Whatever it may be, do something
to inform yourself about the
candidates and the issues so that
when you go to the voting booth on
November 8th, 2016— or whenever
your first chance will be— you’re prepared
to make an informed decision.
The Big Picture
Holiday Treats
Lexie Wiggins shares her tips on how to craft tasty Christmas goodies
Editor
Debora Hyemin Han
Managing Editor
Sophia Jeongyoon Han
Art Director
Spencer Krywy
Advice Columnists
Daniel Albanese
Christopher Hunter
Staff Writers
Daniel Albanese
Fiona Cardamone
Sophia Han
Christopher Hunter
Spencer Krywy
Liam Meisner
Suzannah Peckham
Advisor
Jeanne Albanese
The Rolling Stone
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Road,
DeWitt, New York, 13214
By Fiona Cardamone
Photo by Debora Han
For many, the holiday season is considered “The
most wonderful time of the year.”
With Christmas movies, songs and treats, it’s hard
not to love this time of year. Lexie Wiggins, a senior
and a huge Christmas fan, has created a baking You-
Tube channel for her Senior Thesis Project, a yearlong
project in which each senior pursues a topic that they
wish to learn more about.
“I first got interested in baking because my mom
would alway[s] bake a lot when I was a kid and I
thought it was a really grown-up thing to do,” Lexie
said. “Now I like to do it as a stress reliever.”
To get into the Christmas and holiday spirit, she
recommends some fun holiday treats that are simple
to make.
The first treat Lexie recommends is a brownie
with a fun holiday twist. This dessert requires brownie
mix, whipped cream or frosting, and strawberries.
First, she said, make a normal brownie batch. Then
cut off the tops of the strawberries and use either
whipped cream or icing and frost around the base of
the strawberry. Then put the strawberry and whipped
cream/frosting on the brownie. At the end put a dot
of either whipped cream or frosting on top and voila,
you’ve made a tasty Santa hat brownie.
Another fun holiday dessert requires a straw or
small stick of some type, Oreos, icing and sprinkles or
other small items to decorate a face.
First, gently insert the stick into the bottom of the
Oreo, just into the cream in the middle.
“Then you stick the Oreo in some icing (preferably
white) and freeze them,” Lexie said. “After they
are frozen you can take them out and stick on some
sprinkles to make the face of a snowman.”
These fun holiday treats would be great to make
on a cold, snowy day in December.
Lexie hopes to post videos to her YouTube channel
(http://bit.ly/1MQBXIQ), once every two weeks.
Each video will present a recipe that she enjoys making.

Students
3
got dates?
By Dan Albanese
Getting dates can be very intimidating, but
once you know to do it, it’s easy.
First, get date seeds. Growing dates in drier
climates is prefered, but anywhere will work.
Make sure you water your date seeds at least three
times a day at first, and put it in a place where
it can get plenty of sunlight. Soon you will have
your own date tree, which will start growing
dates. Date trees are very slow-growing trees, so
do not be discouraged if it takes a while.
Dates are not pollinated by birds or insects,
but instead by the wind. Early each year, the male
plants produce sheaths of pollen. You need to
spread these sheaths of pollen over the female
plants.
Once you have your dates, throw them at everyone.
Establish yourself as the alpha male. Others
will cower to your strength and superiority and
flee the area for their own safety because they’re
probably a bunch of dumb nerds. That’s when
you take advantage of the situation by swooping
in and approaching your target date (the human
kind), and he or she will be impressed because
you just pelted their friends with fruit. This will
totally 100 percent work. Trust me. I’m a scientist.
I know these kinds of things. I do this all the time,
and it works at least, like, 100,000 percent of the
time.
But don’t actually do any of that, though.
That’s not really going to impress anyone anyway.
Just try to be nice and make polite conversation.
Try to find some common interests. Maybe talk
about that date tree you grew. Not many of my
friends know how to grow date trees. That’s pretty
cool. But try not to talk about that too much.
That’s mad boring. Just talk about sports or music
or something. Or better yet, see what they like.
Talking to someone that you are interested in is
so much easier than you think it is. It really is as
simple as just starting a conversation.
P.S. Don’t complain to me when this doesn’t
work.
Q:
Graphic by Chris Hunter
“How do I get a date?”
By Chris Hunter
Well anonymous, you’ve just asked one of the
oldest questions in the book.
It dates back to olden times when cavemen
were first around, and getting a date simply
involved making a fire, at which the ladies would
swoon (not to be gender specific).
Then came the Agricultural Revolution; they
didn’t call it the Fertile Crescent for no reason
(wink).
People were so perplexed with this question
that right after the rule in Hammurabi’s code that
stated, “If a man has accused another of laying a
nertu (death spell) upon him, but has not proved
it, he shall be put to death,” Hammurabi addressed
the issue of getting dates. He stated, “One
must not use vague signals to acquire a date.”
(Slightly paraphrased and slightly made up.)
What many people don’t know is that Christopher
Columbus actually sailed across the Atlantic
Ocean NOT simply to discover a better trade
route to India, but to more importantly impress a
girl. (Source provided by the Internet.)
Now for some actual advice.
When attempting to find a date, people tend
to look for someone unique. So, go out of your
way to make an impression on someone and he or
she will notice you. This shows confidence, and
confidence is what grabs people’s attention.
If you’ve ever observed peacocks in the wild,
you will know that the males flash their feathers
to attract the females. Be the peacock!
In other words, be confident, and if it doesn’t
work out, don’t worry about it. Sometimes things
weren’t meant to be, and that’s okay.
Selfies
You Mean, the PRNDL?
The roads may never be safe again
By Suzannah Peckham
The road ahead is open and
quiet. One or two cars pass going the
opposite direction, their lights bright
one second and gone the next. The
hills of Lafayette roll alongside our
car as we drive on the back roads of
the town. Cows and farms dot the
horizon, and the sun sets halfway
beyond the rolling hills. The trees
that separate the sky from the road
are red and gold. I feel invincible and
free as I sit behind the wheel and
drive.
Yet, my hands are locked in an
iron grip on the wheel. I forgot to
put in my contacts, which means I
can’t see all that well; and in a rush
to leave my house on time, I also
forgot my permit.
That’s the thing about driving:
you can feel totally free and independent,
but also burdened by a great
responsibility. Driving is freedom.
When I sit in the driver’s seat of that
car, I feel as though I can control
anything. In a sense, I can. I control
how fast I go, where I go and even
when I go.
But just one mistake can have
dire consequences. If I pick up the
phone or look the wrong way, I’m
done. The car has the ability to take
away a life, to end the one thing that
is irreplaceable. So, while a huge
weight is lifted off your shoulders
with your new-found freedom, a new
one is dropped directly onto your
head the moment you learn to drive.
I might feel this more than others
because any time I get behind the
wheel, part of me drifts back to that
one time I was in a car accident
when I was 8.
Still, like any other teenager, I
couldn’t wait to drive. This past summer
on August 13, I turned 16, which
meant that I woke up bright and
early and forced my dad to drive as
quickly as he could to the DMV. The
experience was something I had seen
a thousand times in movies as a kid.
The wait was not long at all. I
took my written test in seven minutes
and passed with a perfect score.
After finishing the test, an attendant
behind the counter printed out my
temporary permit.
But contrary to what teenagers
usually see in movies, driving isn’t
just get the car, drive the car. Driving
is repeated efforts to train your mind
to see everything, absolutely everything,
around your car, even in blind
spots, and to see the what-ifs; which
are found just about everywhere.
The first time I went driving, I
drove with my dad and we went to
the DeWitt Cemetery; he said it was
because I couldn’t kill anyone there.
The second time I went driving I
went with my Driver’s Ed class.
That time, I nearly hit a priest, who
blessed himself when I slammed on
the brake.
Since I have gotten my permit, I
have had a few close calls with other
cars, whether it’s turning too fast
into a busy intersection, or failing to
notice another car coming quickly
in my direction. When I take a turn
too quickly or I come too close to
another car, I remember my accident
vividly.
Several years ago, I was in the
car with my family and we were hit
by a truck that skidded into our lane
on an icy highway. I can still hear the
sound of the collision— it’s something
you can’t ever forget. It becomes
burned into your brain, the sound of
metal on metal. I am always terrified
that it will happen to me again
when I am driving, yet that doesn’t
dampen my excitement about finally
reaching this rite of passage.
From that very first time behind
the steering wheel, I have come a
long way. I can drive my parents
home from different places. I can
successfully complete a turn without
panicking and being overcome with
fear of failure.
The fear of an accident will always
live in the back of my mind, but
I will also always cherish the freedom
that the car gives me, because
that’s what driving is— freedom.
Photo by Suzannah Peckham

4
Culture
The Secret in the Barn
The mystery behind what makes MPH’s theater program so good
By Chris Hunter
Fifteen Manlius Pebble Hill
actors stand in a semi-circle on the
stage in Coville Theater warming
up for play rehearsal earlier this fall.
Their director, Corinne Tyo, leads
them through their exercises.
First, the students swivel their
hips in the form of SpongeBob
SquarePants’ “Bring It Around
Town” move. Then, they move their
hands back and forth through the air
like Mr. Miyagi’s iconic “Wax On,
Wax Off.”
While they warm up, the actors
crack jokes with each other and with
Tyo; it seems like they all have been
friends for years. Doing such fun exercises
together helps the actors and
actresses bond.
Like most high schools, the MPH
theater program puts on an Upper
School play and musical for the community
every year. During rehearsals,
actors, actresses, and the tech crew
spend hours and hours together for
weeks, which builds relationships
and tight friendships.
Play practice typically lasts for
several hours every day after school,
and as the day of the play approaches,
cast and crew spend up to eight
hours rehearsing on the weekends.
Such an intense experience with such
a small group creates strong bonds
among cast members that helps make
the theater department’s plays and
musicals among the best in the area.
That’s one of the reasons why MPH
won several awards at last year’s
inaugural 2015 Syracuse High School
Theater Awards.
“I think it’s about our ensemble
and the family feeling that we have as
a group,” said Michele Koziara, the
Performing Arts Department Chair.
“Everyone really pulls their weight
and everyone’s totally committed.”
MPH won three awards out of
the 11 for which it was nominated for
last year’s musical “Cabaret,” which
was directed by Koziara. Koziara
won Outstanding Achievement in
Choreography; Rupert Krueger
won Outstanding Performance by
an Actor in a Leading Role; and the
program won Outstanding Overall
Production of a Musical.
“I knew we had something
special with the cast and crew that
we had,” Koziara said. “I was very
confident with who I had to work
with last year.”
This past October, the MPH crew
performed “The Secret in the Wings”
by Mary Zimmerman. The play is a
re-telling of four lesser-known fairy
tales and included a lot of humor,
some singing and rapping and physical
movements, all of which were
much easier for the actors to perform
since they’re doing it with close
friends.
“This play is very cast-bonding,”
said junior Lydia Kelly. “There’s a lot
of trust within us.”
In the spring, MPH will perform
the musical “Urinetown” by playwright
Greg Kotis. The back of the
script describes it as “A grand and
winking love letter to the conventions
of musical theater, and an untempered
satire wherein no one is safe
from scrutiny. Urinetown depicts a
world wracked by ecological disaster,
caught in the throes of corporate
greed, and ultimately felled by the
best intentions.”
One benefit of a smaller cast is
the ability to choose more off-beat
or artistic plays, which also allows
the actors to really dive into the text.
Koziara said she allows the students
to put their own stamp on their roles,
rather than directing them through
every aspect.
“A lot of schools, because they’re
so big, you have 80 people casts, I
don’t know if they’re able to get that
deep into what the show is about,”
she said.
Tyo, who is also a Syracuse Stage
Teaching Artist, agrees.
“My favorite thing is watching
the actors take on the show themselves
and really molding it into what
they want it to be,” she said.
But performing such shows also
offers challenges. Last year’s awardwinning
production of “Cabaret,”
a musical about a love triangle set in
Berlin in the 1930s, raised some eyebrows.
Syracuse.com even received
a letter from a reader stating that the
content and costumes of Cabaret
was inappropriate for high-school
students. More than 300 comments,
many in support of the play, followed.
Several of the show’s actors
pointed out how much preparation
they had done to ensure the historical
accuracy of the show, including
receiving a lecture from Head of
Upper School John Stegeman on the
Weimar Republic and World War II.
Though some topics are controversial,
Koziara said she uses every
production as a learning experience.
Back in 2009, MPH performed
“Hair;” a musical set in the 1960s
about a man who meets a group of
freewheeling hippies. Koziara said
she had a mandatory meeting with
the actors and their parents about the
play’s content and the fact that they
would be discussing sex and drugs
onstage. Parents are also made aware
of controversial subject matter on
mandatory permission slips.
During preparation for “Hair,”
for example, the cast, crew and pit
band took a trip to Woodstock; someone
from the Veterans Association
came to speak about the Vietnam
War and an expert came to speak
about sex and drug use in the 60s.
When the cast performed “Rent,”
someone from ACR Health come to
speak about HIV/AIDS.
She said there are never any
scenes or productions that are done
just to be controversial and she is
grateful for the opportunities that
MPH allows.
“Here at MPH, I feel like I have
fantastic support for artistic freedom,”
she said.
While there are benefits to the
small cast, there are also challenges,
such as finding enough boys to fill
the male roles. Girls often play male
roles, and boys sometimes play
female roles. But Kelly says that
doesn’t deter the actors and actresses.
“I really trust the people who I
work with outside of school on the
plays because in a way they see me
when I’m most vulnerable,” Kelly
said.
Even with MPH’s financial issues
of last year, there was little change in
the theater program’s routine. According
to Koziara, the MPH theater
doesn’t spend much money. Every
year, the screws and wood from the
previous year’s play are saved and
reused. The theater program is very
green with the materials they have,
and they work with the set very well.
The play and musical change
year to year, but the passion to put on
a good play remains within the artists
who join the cast.
“I still got to hang out with a lot
of these incredibly talented people,
have a great time, put on a good
show,” said senior Seamus Mulhern.
Photo courtesy of Alex Koziara
Left to right: Emery Spina and Maggie Carmen acting out a scene from “The Secret in the Wings.”

Culture
5
MUN-ey Team
MPHMUN expands its fundrasing efforts from one day to a year
MPHMUN hosted a conference on the 70th anniversary of the United Nations.
Photo courtesy of Will Maresco
By Suzannah Peckham
The Manlius Pebble Hill lobby
overflows with chatter on a Saturday
morning in October, as the Manlius
Pebble Hill Model United Nations
(MPHMUN) Conference participants
flood in.
Eight different schools have
come to participate this year, and
despite the fact that each school is
competing to win the most awards
today, most who have come will donate
to the charity that MPHMUN
is supporting this year: The Glenn
Paige Nonkilling School, located in
the DR Congo, which teaches the
principles of a larger organization
called the Center for Global Nonkilling
(CGNK).
CGNK has spent the last few
decades advocating for a movement
known as nonkilling, which is a
philosophy that teaches the idea of
peace and solving crises in a nonviolent
manner. The school teaches
children affected by war, disease or
abandonment.
“It truly is a great cause,” was
a phrase that resonated throughout
the day.
On conference day, through Jar
Wars and carnation flower sales, the
MUN team raised more than $1,400
for the school. Jar Wars are a conference
tradition in which students pass
jars around their conference rooms
and students drop in donations.
Some donated fistfuls of pennies,
and one participant even slipped in a
twenty-dollar bill.
While it is an MUN tradition
to highlight a charity on conference
days, this year the MPHMUN team
expanded from a single day of raising
money for its selected charity
to spending the entire school year
raising money.
Manlius Pebble Hill has long
been known for its strong MUN
team. The team has won awards
around the world, most recently in
2014, when it won Best Medium
Sized Delegation at the London
International Model United Nations
Conference. But team members want
to show that they’re not just about
debates and conferences. They’re
about much more.
Co-Secretary General Debora
Han said the team has traditionally
focused on those debates and
conferences but hasn’t engaged a lot
with the larger school community.
Fundraising all year will allow team
members to raise more money and
awareness for their selected charity
as well as raise awareness for what
the MUN team does.
“It’s about creating a community
of people that have certain values
and have certain awareness about
what’s going on globally,” said Han,
a senior.
Choosing a charity to support
reflects MUN’s core value of caring.
The charities selected often focus
on the betterment of humanity and
look at the community on an international
scale.
“Our goal is to remind the MPH
community that we have a long
way to go as a people, as species, a
human species,” says Jeffery Mangram,
PhD, the returning coach for
the MUN team this year. “There are
a lot of people outside of the North
American context who are really
struggling.”
The team selected the Center for
Global Nonkilling in March, after
Debora and Sophia Han suggested
it. The proposal was submitted to
the CGNK’s Governing Council
and the MPH administration with
the support and guidance of Sarah
Chhablani, history teacher at MPH
and former MPHMUN instructor.
MPHMUN’s involvement with
the CGNK marks the first time that
the conference has collaborated
directly with a UN organization.
The organization has special consultative
status with the UN Economic
and Social Council and is a member
of the World Health Organization
Violence Prevention Alliance.
By supporting the Nonkilling
School, the MUN team was able
to host its conference with direct
collaboration from the CGNK. The
conference keynote speaker was
even a member of the CGNK’s Governing
Council - Maorong Jiang, an
assistant professor of political science
at Creighton University.
Glenn Paige founded the CGNK
in 1988 after serving in the U.S.
Army for four years during the Korean
War. Paige based his philosophy
on the violence he witnessed in
the war, when he realized that killing
is not the answer to global conflicts.
His hope is that people worldwide
will adopt this philosophy, and apply
it to their countries. The CGNK has
worked with more than 70 countries
to espouse its philosophy.
MPHMUN’s contributions
will go directly to the school in the
Congo, which is a nonkilling school
renamed for Paige. The school was
built in 2006 to create a safe environment
where children who are growing
up in a war-torn community
can learn the importance of solving
issues through the idea of nonkilling.
The school was re-named for
Paige in 2009 and he is grateful for
the support of MPH.
“The MPH charity [drive]
provides great moral and material
encouragement for the development
of a unique nonkilling school which
is among unique CGNK nonkilling
innovations,” Paige said in an email.
“MPHMUN’s charity [drive] will be
a pioneering example of recognition
and support for nonkilling education
by high school students, teachers,
and administrators. Others are sure
to follow MPH’s lead.”
MPHMUN hopes to raise
$2,500 for the school, which will use
the donations to complete its current
project: a passenger-ferry boat that
will help provide a steady source of
income for the operation and upkeep
of the school. Paige said the school
needs $2,660 to complete the ferry
project.
The MUN team plans to host
car washes, serve hot chocolate on
cold days and possibly put together
a carnival in order to reach its goal.
All funds raised will go to Global-
Giving, which will then send its
donations to the school.
“MPH is a very caring community,”
Mangram said. “We want
to show our caring ways by finding
ways to support causes and people
not only locally, but also internationally.”

6
Features
Shelf of Lies
Sometimes, “healthy” is not so nutritious after all
Graphic by Chris Hunter
By Sophia Jeongyoon Han
Low-fat. Made with whole grains.
Diet. All-Natural.
These are some catchphrases food
companies use to draw in consumers
to buy their “healthy” products.
However, many consumers are
suspicious of the claims made by
these companies, and with good
reason. Though the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has guidelines
for these claims, they have no real
way to police them. In addition to
misusing such terms, other marketing
gimmicks that can trick consumers
include highlighting one nutritional
benefit of a product while concealing
less admirable qualities and listing
the same ingredient under different
names.
According to Nielsen Holdings, a
global information and measurement
company based in the U.S., almost 80
percent of consumers rarely believe
the pitches companies make through
their product labeling. Nevertheless,
according to Forbes, the healthy-food
industry will grow to $1 trillion by
2017, since 88 percent of consumers
are willing to pay more money for
food with better ingredients, given
that “they are deemed all natural.”
Not so fast. Manlius Pebble Hill
Health and Wellness Teacher Lida
Buniak warns that food companies
have been caught stretching their
claims almost to the point that they
are untrue. If a product does have one
desirable “healthy” feature, the companies
will brand that feature heavily.
“They will present that forward
and market that in order to ring in the
consumer,” she said.
Take the Chocolate Chip Clif Bar.
Clif Bar & Company states on the
front of the package that the snack
is made of “organic rolled oats” and
serves as “nutrition for sustained
energy,” but strategically chooses not
to highlight its 23 grams of sugar per
serving. The estimated daily recommended
amount of sugar for adults?
According to the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), 25
grams.
The bar’s protein content? A mere
10 grams. With such disproportionate
content servings, the bar could
be considered no more than a candy
bar, according to Heather Neely,
RD, CDN, a Registered Dietician at
Crouse Hospital.
“If the sugar is higher than the
protein content,” she said, “it is a
candy bar, not a protein bar.”
In efforts to conceal the true
amount of sugar— which any health
expert would recommend avoiding—
some companies use other ingredient
names to make it appear that sugar
isn’t even used, or at least, is not used
as much. According to Prevention.
com, there are 57 different names for
sugar that might appear on a label.
According to the CDC, equally
or even more unhealthy alternatives to
sugar include: high fructose corn syrup,
fructose, fruit juice concentrates,
honey, syrup, corn syrup, sucrose and
dextrose.
Aside from being wary of various
forms of an ingredient, Neely strongly
recommends consumers read out loud
the ingredients listed on the back of a
product.
“If you can’t pronounce it, then
you shouldn’t be eating it,” she said.
For example, MPH’s Campus
Shop sells Vitamin Water Zero XXX
Acai-Blueberry-Pomegranate. Some
ingredients in the drink are: erythritol,
ascorbic acid, niacinamide, calcium
pantothenate, cyanocobalamin and
pyridoxine hydrochloride.
So how are companies like Clif
Bar & Company allowed to use these
tactics and improperly use nutrition
terms on packaging? According to the
Brookings Institute, a private research
organization, the FDA has long had
the power to regulate and investigate
misleading claims on food products,
and the Nutrition and Labeling Education
Act (NLEA) of 1990 further
allowed the agency to “regulate health
claims on food packaging, standardize
nutrient content claims, and
require that more detailed nutritional
information be included on product
labels.”
However, the FDA does not have
an effective enforcement authority
that will motivate food companies
to fix their misleading claims. The
FDA’s strongest enforcement tool is to
send a warning letter, but the company
has no obligation to act upon
that warning.
The FDA can only act punitively
towards a company when a food
product leads to death or is dangerous
to health, which is why KIND
Healthy Snacks, which was sent a
warning letter last March, continues
to sell not-so-healthy bars.
The FDA’s letter to KIND CEO
Daniel Lubetzky expressed dissatisfaction
with Kind for failing to meet
the requirements for a product to be
“healthy,” even though, according to
the letter, KIND bars are labeled as
“Healthy and tasty, convenient and
wholesome.”
According to the FDA, one
requirement for a product to be
“healthy” is that it has to contain less
than 1 gram of saturated fat. The
KIND Fruit & Nut Almond & Coconut
Bar exceeds this by 4 grams.
In addition, many KIND products
failed to meet the requirements
for having “low saturated fat,” or one
gram or less of saturated fat. They
also failed to meet the requirements
of “antioxidant-rich, and “good
source of fiber,” all of which were
terms the company used (and still
uses) on their products.
Low-fat is another term that
companies use to lure consumers to
choose certain products. But MPH junior
Julia Mettler-Grove, who writes
a healthy lifestyle blog, warns against
falling for it.
“[Low-Fat] means [the product is]
going to be higher in sugar content,
which is actually worse for you,” she
said. “It can cause you to gain more
weight.”
But many consumers like Mettler-
Grove are truly seeking healthier
alternatives. Documentaries such
as “Food Inc.” have made viewers
question their choice of meals at fastfood
restaurants. First Lady Michelle
Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign
has encouraged schools to promote
daily exercising and healthier school
lunches. Thousands of accounts on
Instagram and Twitter are devoted
purely to sharing food recipes, such as
the Instagram account “@livingthehealthychoice.”
Clean eating— which
touts eating whole and unprocessed
foods— is a booming trend.
One way to to ensure a healthy
diet is to avoid those labels all together.
“The more we can eat of raw
food, of fruits and vegetables,” Buniak
said, “the healthier we’ll actually
be, rather than things that are in boxes
or bags.”

Features
7
A New Start
With a new Head of School, things are looking up for MPH
By Spencer Krywy
A year ago, Manlius Pebble Hill
was in serious financial trouble. With
a debt of $3 million, no one knew if
the school would open in the fall.
Yet, after a successful fundraising
effort, substantial changes to
the school’s financial management,
and some belt-tightening under a
new Head of School, MPH’s doors
reopened and classes began for the
2015-2016 school year.
Two months into the school
year, Jim Dunaway, who was hired
as Interim Head of School last year,
was named to a permanent position
as Head of School.
Earlier this year, Dunaway said
the goals now are to keep the budget
balanced, increase enrollment and
get the school’s name out into the
community with a new marketing
campaign.
MPH started the school year
with 312 students in grades K
through 12, a loss of 111 students
overall.
But, on the flip side, Dunaway
said that in early October the school
had 40 percent of the overall revenue
from tuition needed to run the
school. Last year at that time, it had
only 7 percent.
Most of the revenue comes in
over time, Dunaway said, not all at
once. The remaining 60 percent is
expected to come in through monthly
tuition payments, he adds. In order to
keep the budget in check, the amount
of money coming in must be balanced
with the money being spent.
To help boost enrollment, Dunaway
is relying on some new ideas,
including exploring new types of
marketing. He said in an email to the
school community earlier this fall
that MPH has partnered with Crane
MetaMarketing Ltd., an agency that
specializes in working with schools
and nonprofits.
He wants MPH to have a
“brand,” something that really defines
the school.
“I want to make sure that there’s
a way we talk about ourselves,” he
said. “That I talk about us that way,
that you talk about us that way, that
your parents talk about us that way.
That we all say, ‘That’s who we really
are.’”
MPH Director of Admissions
Nicole Cicoria has been meeting
with realtors to encourage them to
put the school’s name out there with
prospective clients. Dunaway has
had meetings with the presidents
of Onondaga Community College
and LeMoyne College, as well as the
chancellor of Syracuse University,
to tell them that MPH can be beneficial
to them in the same way that
local colleges and universities can be
beneficial to it.
Dunaway said hopefully these
tactics will help to bring up enrollment,
which will make balancing the
budget that much easier.
With Dunaway confirmed as the
permanent head of school things are
looking in the right direction.
“I’m getting on a plane tomorrow,”
Dunaway said, “and if you told
me beforehand, ‘Oh by the way, this
plane plans to crash land,’ I’m not
getting on. But I got on this plane
because I believe it will fly and it will
soar.”
Continued from page 1
Cecilia ( 张 意 昕 , Yixin) Zhang, a
new junior, voiced concerns regarding
joining a new school so late into
her high school career.
“The community between the old
students is already formed, so it’s
very hard for me to fit in,” Cecilia
said.
Gao has started a mentorship
program which, in addition to
Chinese Club, helps international
students branch out. In the program,
American students in her Chinese
class will partner with a new Chinese
student to work to form a
relationship.
Head of School Jim Dunaway
agrees that fostering friendships
between students is important.
“I think that too seldom those
[international] students and our
local students know each other,”
Dunaway said. “I want a Chinese
teenager to be talking to American
teenagers about what it’s like to be
a teenager in China. Do kids rebel
against their parents there? Do they
talk back to them? Do they drink?
Use drugs? How’s their educational
system different? Do they have pets
at home?”
The point of the mentorship
program is to have American
students usher foreign students into
the “friend groups” of American
students. The American and foreign
student work out a schedule to meet
and spend time together. In late October,
the international students and
their mentors went on a trip to the
Adirondacks, and the group plans
to go on more trips throughout the
year. Gao hopes the mentorship
relationships will help mix things up
in the lunchroom as well.
“Just intentionally seek them
out,” Gao said. “Lead them to your
lunch table and introduce them to
your lunch table.”
Justin ( 丁 其 桢 , Qizhen) Ding
also believes that encouragement is
necessary. He’s in his third year at
MPH and described his efforts to
reach out to the new students and
encourage them to make friends
with American students. He was
happy that there has been some significant
success this year in getting
the “newbies,” as he calls them, to
step out of their comfort zone.
“It turned out we had pretty
good results, like I knew a couple of
kids, I mean newbies, had a really
strong and tight relationship with
American kids,” he said. “They
worked really hard to blend in the
group, and I feel really happy for
them because that’s why they came.”
However, some new students
haven’t felt that they’ve had the
same success.
“It’s a small school,” Liam said,
“but everyone has their friends. It’s
not easy to get into them.”
Despite the challenges, James
and others like the community here,
and have expressed that they feel
this is a good place to be.
“People would just give me tours
on the first day,” James said. “I remember
two years ago when I came
there were ice-breaking activities, remembering
names, having name tags,
getting a tour of campus and stuff.
That’s pretty cool and that’s friendly.
People don’t know you but they will
just help you for nothing. That’s different
from what you would expect
in China.”
Photo by Debora Han
Left to right: Aiden Meyer, Nick Jerge, and Carly Arbon making dumplings
in Chinese Club.

8 Sports
Dazed and Confused
Concussions are in the news more than ever, and schools have their heads up
By Dan Albanese
Concussions. Horror stories are
everywhere. In just the past two calendar
years, four Syracuse University
football players have been medically
disqualified from playing football
following several head injuries. That
means they’ll never play football at
SU again.
The latest Syracuse player to be
disqualified is sophomore quarterback
AJ Long, whose college football
career ended only six games into the
2015-2016 season.
The NCAA defines a concussion
as “a change in brain function
following a force to the head, which
may be accompanied by temporary
loss of consciousness, but is identified
in awake individual by measures
of neurologic and cognitive dysfunction.”
Short-term symptoms include
headaches, blurred vision, nausea,
vomiting, confusion and trouble
concentrating. Long term symptoms
could include things as drastic as
memory loss, dementia, and in some
cases, CTE. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
is a progressive degenerative
brain disease first discovered
in NFL players that has helped raise
awareness of the dangers of concussions
at all levels of play.
Bonnie Adams, MPH’s Registered
Nurse, said concussions can
have vicious short- term and longterm
effects.
“There can be post-concussion
symptoms that go away after a few
weeks,” she said. “There are situations
where it is prolonged over a
month, and we’ve had the case where
it has been prolonged almost an entire
school year.”
With more than 7 million kids
playing sports, there’s more being
done now to keep kids safe than ever
before. New York state has a concussion
management protocol that all
public high schools are required to
follow. MPH follows the state guidelines,
even though it isn’t required
to as a private school. These protocols
help student-athletes who have
sustained a concussion transition
back to the classroom, as well as the
playing field, with reduced activity
and academic modifications.
Within the first four months of
school at MPH, three students have
sustained concussions.
“The short of it is they are not
allowed to participate or do anything
until they are cleared by their doctor,”
said MPH Athletic Director
Don Ridall.
MPH uses a five-day re-immersion
program to help students get
back into the classroom and onto
the field. Ridall said once a student
is cleared by their doctor, then the
protocol starts with limited activity
and leads up to full activity.
According to the CDC, 1.6 million
- 3.8 million concussions occurred
in 2012, double that reported
in 2002. According to the NCAA,15
percent of students-athletes reported
experiencing a concussion or what
they thought was a concussion.
Cady Ridall, an MPH senior,
suffered a concussion last year after a
kicked ball hit her in the head during
a soccer game.
“My initial reaction was a lightsout
sort of thing,” she said in an
email. “I fell to the ground instantly
and blacked out for a brief few seconds.
My coach, Ms. B, asked me,
‘Are you okay?’ And I remember
Photo courtesy of Concussion mechanics.svg
responding, ‘I think so.’ Tears were
running down my face but I don’t
remember feeling too much pain because
I think I was in so much shock.
I actually went back into the game
and continued to head the ball.”
Don Ridall said concussions have
only come to the foreground of discussion
within the past several years.
“I think what really put the
movement on has been football,” he
said. “Starting from the top to the
bottom, you’ve been seeing more
football players that have been getting
concussions and they’re going back
too soon and causing brain damage
and injury, and in some cases possibly
death, because there was no
protocol there.”
The NFL recently settled a classaction
lawsuit with thousands of former
players who claimed the league
hid the dangers of concussions. Since
then, the NFL has said it is dedicated
to implementing rules and protocols
to help keep players safe.
A new movie, “Concussion,”
starring Will Smith, is an adaptation
of the events that led Dr. Bennet Omalu
to discover the first documented
cases of CTE in ex-NFL players and
Omalu’s critical comments of the
NFL’s handling of brain injuries.
The movie, which will be released
on Christmas, has not been without
controversy of its own. According to
The New York Times, leaked emails
revealed that Sony executives altered
some scenes in the movie to avoid
antagonizing the NFL.
CTE is described by the Center
for Disease Control as progressive
degeneration of the brain with symptoms
like memory loss, depression,
thoughts of suicide, and, eventually,
progressive dementia. There’s news
all the time of ex-football players
who suffer from brain damage and
have become shells of their former
selves. Three years ago, NFL legend
Junior Seau shot himself in the chest.
This may seem like a strange occurrence,
but this is not the first time a
former NFL player has committed
suicide with a shot to the chest rather
than the head. Seau sensed that there
was something wrong, and wanted
his brain to be studied.
The healthy brain of a 65 year old man v.s. a brain affected by CTE.
Dave Duerson, the star safety for
the 1985 NFL champion Chicago
Bears took his life in 2011 by shooting
himself in the chest. Examinations
of both players’ brains revealed
they suffered from CTE.
Researchers in the Department
of Veteran Affairs at Boston University
discovered traces of CTE in the
post-mortem brains of 96 percent of
NFL player brains they examined
in 2015. In total, the research group
found full-blown CTE in the brains
of 131 out of 165 individuals who
played football, ranging from the
professional level to high school.
The NFL isn’t the only major
sports organization enacting changes
to help players. The United States
Soccer Federation recently unveiled
new protocol banning children under
age 10 from heading the ball. Players
are also taking notice of the problem.
U.S Soccer’s Ali Krieger wore a headband
manufactured to help prevent
concussions during international
matches in the World Cup this past
summer. Two girls’ soccer players
at MPH also wear concussion headbands.
At the college level, the NCAA
is also working to keep athletes safe.
Brad Pike, Assistant Athletic Director
for Sports Medicine at Syracuse
University, said the NCAA developed
its concussion guidelines in
2014-2015.
Pike said SU has worked hard to
implement policies to help students
transition back to the classroom and
back to athletics. This past summer,
Pike re-wrote SU’s concussion-management
policy in part to meet the
NCAA’s standards on the return-tolearn
policy and in part just to take a
stronger stance overall.
“A part of our concussion policy
is we have a return-to-classroom,
or a return-to-learn program,” Pike
said. “Basically anybody who gets
a documented concussion by our
doctor, we send a note over to our
learning specialist, who has a liaison
to the Office of Disability Services,
and we’ll make sure that the Office
of Disability Services will help assess
the student-athlete and monitor their
return.”
Pike said if a player gets a concussion,
he or she is out of action,
even practice, for several days until
the player is 100 percent symptom
free.
“Well you can’t put a finite [number],”
he said. “Typically I’d say the
least amount would be a week. Basically
you have to be symptom-free
before you can go into our returnto-play
protocol, so whenever your
symptoms clear, it’s going to take at
least between six or seven days to get
through that progressive return to
play protocol.”
Pike also said that too many
people associate concussions with
only football.
“Everybody wants to just say
football, football, football with concussions,”
he said, “but concussions
happen in all sports.”
Photo courtesy of MPH
Jordan Dunaway-Barlow is one of
two MPH players who wear concussion
headbands while playing soccer.