A Unique Sport at St. Mark’s School: Casino Night

Written by James Nichols-Worley ’23

What is a sport? Does it involve a ball? Physical activity? Is it stressful? Gambling is a sport in much the same sense that chess or even golfing is a sport.

The Casino Night at St. Mark’s is a revelry of crazy bets and crazier costuming. The dress ranges from a rodeo to a gala to Guy Fieri in Flavortown. Clothing is unique and dazzling. Even the choice of sweats, to swim against the tide, is stylish and cool. The codified uniform of Casino Night is whatever one should wear to have the most fun.

The air in the center was thick. Rock and roll boomed from speakers, from The Blues Brothers to Elton John to the Electric Light Orchestra. The atmosphere of Las Vegas transforms into a small Massachusetts town for one night. Despite the cold weather of January in New England, many students found themselves sweating in the midst of thrills and screams. 

The games themselves oscillate from watching paint dry to a paintball fight. Waiting for a seat at one of the crowded tables is horrifyingly dull. Conversely, once someone finds a seat at a table, they’re unlikely to leave. The games are mesmerizing. “Just one more round,” one says to themselves after already losing $20,000 of funny money. It’s stressful, making life-or-death decisions. Even on the verge of going broke, one still finds themselves gambling high stakes.

Poker, blackjack, craps, a roulette table, and a wheel. Not everything needs skill, but everything needs a bit of luck. The games are encapsulating and a wonderful opportunity to spend time with friends. The “House”, or the chaperone faculties running the tables, welcomed everyone with kindness. One is hard-pressed to find a dealer unwilling to explain the odds of the game, or even how to play it. It is not rare (if not, common) that they’ll advise you from making an awful choice. 

There’s a uniform. A buzzing atmosphere of music surrounds the center. There’s a sense of camaraderie and competition. The physicality is practical, bodily weariness. Waiting is a chore, much like sitting on the bench only to be put on for the final minute. Gambling and betting may not be a sport in the traditional sense, but one is hard-pressed to deny its similarities. At least at St. Mark’s, the casino night was full of excitement and energy, just like any other hockey games or of conventional sports.

Oh, the Places You'll Go...

Amherst College

Babson College (3)

Bates College

Boston College (2)

Boston University (4)

Bowdoin College (2)

Brown University (3)

Bryn Mawr College

Bucknell University

Carnegie Mellon University (2)

Colby College (5)

Colgate University

College of the Holy Cross (2)

Columbia University (2)

Connecticut College

Cornell University (2)

Dartmouth College (2)

Davidson College

Denison University

Duke University (3)

Elon University

Franklin & Marshall College (2)

Georgetown University

Gettysburg College

Hamilton College - NY

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Johns Hopkins University

Lafayette College

Lehigh University

Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Middlebury College (2)

Muhlenberg College

North Carolina State University

Northeastern University (4)

Pennsylvania State University

Providence College (2)

Quinnipiac University

Reed College

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rhodes College

Rochester Institute of Technology

St. Lawrence University

Stanford University

Texas Christian University

The George Washington University

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tufts University (2)

Tulane University

University College Dublin

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Santa Barbara

University of Chicago

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Massachusetts, Lowell

University of Michigan (2)

University of Pennsylvania (2)

University of South Carolina

University of Southern California

University of St Andrews

University of Vermont

Washington and Lee University

Washington University in St. Louis (2)

Wellesley College

Williams College (4)

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

St. Mark’s Takes 2nd Place In Cornell High School Coding Programming Contest

——By Luke Lee ‘20

On Friday, April 5th, six St. Markers drove to New York City early in the morning to participate in the Cornell High School Programming Contest. The contest started at 11 in the morning, so they had to head out early. “I was so tired. I usually don’t wake up that early.” Ryan Paik recalled. Although they were tired because they woke up so early, the St. Markers were excited and thrilled to enter the competition. It was the first time to enter this competition for all of them. They had no idea what to expect. But they knew they could perform because they had worked hard in Mr. Roche’s class throughout the school year.

There were two teams representing the Lions: the C++ team and the Java team. The C++ team was: Ryan Paik ‘20, Jason Chen ‘20, and Ryan Song ‘20. The Java team was: Alan Gao ‘19, Chapin Pyne ‘20, and Carl Guo ‘21.

When they got to Cornell around 11, they checked in at the reception and had lunch. At 11:45, they all gathered with all the other teams for introduction, where they were told about the guidelines and rules of the contest. The contest began at 12:30 and was held for three hours until 3:30. After the long contest, the teams had a break until 4:15, when the Awards Ceremony began.

St. Mark’s came back with impressive results. There were 66 teams in total from Northeast. And of those teams, the C++ team came in 2nd, while the Java team came in 6th. Mr. Roche was very impressed with both teams, “They took their day. Only one other team from New York had a better score than them [C++team].” Congrats to both teams for their impressive results on the contest!

SM Hosts Annual Sustainability Conference

——By Rwick Sarkar ‘19

Over 70 students and faculty members from schools across New England came to St. Mark’s on Sunday, April 7 to attend the third annual Independent School Sustainability Coalition (ISSC) Conference. The coalition was formed by Milton Academy students three years ago, and the first two ISSC conferences were held there. This year, St. Mark’s hosted as the coalition grows larger and broadens out of the Milton community. This was by far the largest group on hand for an ISSC conference yet, helping to make the day a success.

Taking the lead on organizing this conference was Laura Drepanos ‘19 who shepherded the larger Students for Sustainability group throughout the year as they devoted much of their time towards planning the conference. Others S4Sers who were heavily involved in the planning of the conference include: Alie Hyland ‘20, Alison Bechard ‘22, Charlotte Bertsch ‘21, Daniela Ortiz ‘21, Jocelyn Cote ‘22, Kendall Sommers ‘22, Lindsay Davis ‘21, Sky Davis ‘20, Eve Elkins '21, Frances Hornbostel ‘21, Elise Gobron ‘21, Nashua Poreda ‘22, and myself. St. Mark’s students played an instrumental role in making the conference happen, including by leading different workshops on divestment, sustainability ground rules, and new ISSC initiatives.

The day began with a keynote address from Nathalia JMag, a Colombian-American fashion designer who believes in sustainable and ethical approaches to creating clothing. She has been on Project Runway and has been highlighted in Vogue after participating in the Helsinki Fashion week. Following her talk, students engaged in a Q&A session with her, learning much about the fashion industry and its role in contributing to a polluted world. It was inspiring to see a young person pursuing their passions while prioritizing sustainability.

St. Mark’s students took much away from the conference, learning about sustainability efforts at some of our peer schools. Some ideas S4S members are particularly excited about include initiatives at Taft School to reduce plastic usage in their Lions Den equivalent and an Earth Day celebration with an outdoor picnic lunch, food trucks, and a reusable tumbler sale. S4S is hoping to bring some of these initiatives to our campus soon. Broader discussions were also had. For example, the divestment workshop group discussed making an action plan as a coalition seeking to divest school endowments from fossil fuels, using the force of a coalition of students across the New England prep school world all calling on schools to take action.

In their first year hosting the conference, St. Markers made the day a one to remember and helped broaden the coalition. Moving forward, St. Mark’s students hope to continue being a driving force behind this all-important coalition of students pushing for a more sustainable future.

Students contacted local companies that prioritize sustainability in making their products and handed out free food samples from these brands at the conference.

Fashion designer Nathalia JMag delivered the keynote.

A group picture in the PFAC lobby at the end of the conference.

Meet the Chileans

By Blake Gattuso ‘20

As the Chilean exchange students from the Grange School have left, I asked them each a couple questions about their experiences at home, at St. Mark’s, and in America, in general.

“What is your favorite activity to do at home?”

I noticed that the Chileans’ hobbies tended to be not too dissimilar from hobbies in America. Sofia Ali-Shah likes to walk her golden retriever while Benjamin Tapia likes to play computer games like overwatch and counter-strike. Maria Retamal and Josefina Perez love to practice sports like field hockey and volleyball, respectively. The warmer climate helps out Mariana Gatica, as she likes to take trips to the beach on long weekends while Benjamin Chan enjoys hanging out with his friends.

“What is a fun fact about yourself?”

Benjamin Tapia believes that socks and sandals are the superior footwear choice, and he logically explains it. He says, “you get the freedom and comfort of wearing sandals without getting your feet dirty.” Josefina has a fraternal twin sister. As a fraternal twin myself, this is definitely the go-to fun fact when the question is asked. Maria does artistic roller skating and Mariana dances flamenco, a dance that originated in Southern Spain. Benjamin Chan acknowledges that Chinese food is not his favorite despite his parents owning a Chinese restaurant and him eating their food almost every day. Sofia did her Duke of Edinburgh award last year, which is an impressive award that acknowledges achievement in teens.

“What is the difference between the Grange and St. Mark’s?”

The students said that the main differences were in the class schedule. There are no free periods at the Grange, and they are mandated to take every class, there is no choice. This means they are taking nine to ten classes at any time, and thus is more stressful. School starts at 7:45 am and ends at 4:00 pm at the Grange as well. They also have an obligatory physical education class in addition to extracurricular sports.

“What are some American stereotypes that you have proven true/false while you have been here?”

Sofia, Benjamin Chan, and Josefina all mentioned that it was an American stereotype to have big food portions, and their experience here has backed this up. Benjamin Tapia took this stereotype one step further, saying that everything in America is bigger. Once again, he proved this true with an interesting factoid about his thirds’ basketball teammate, Logan Matthews’ ‘22, feet:

An American stereotype that I have is that I expect everything in America to be larger. This stereotype has been proven to be correct by Logan's size 17 feet. In Chile, brands usually sell shoes up to size 12.5, which makes it difficult even for me to find shoes (I'm size 13). Which makes me not want to even think about what Logan would have to go through to find shoes his size.

Mariana was grateful that her stereotype, Americans being full of themselves, was proven false in her time at St. Mark’s.

Lunar New Year Celebration: ASA Creates Home Away From Home

By Katie Park ‘21, Amanda Wang ‘22, Suha Choi ‘22

St. Mark’s strives to recognize the diverse culture in our community, and the Asian Student Alliance (ASA) planned and organized a week-long Lunar New Year celebration in an effort to create a home away from home for the Asian students. Lunar New Year is the start of a new year according to the lunar calendar. This year’s Lunar New Year fell on the fifth of February. Many Asian countries including China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam celebrate this holiday in their own traditions. Since culture is so diverse among the Asian countries, the ASA wanted to make sure all the cultures were represented.

To pull off the celebrations, there was a lot of behind the scenes work from the ASA members. Most of the ideas came from the three co-heads of the ASA: Helen Huang `20, Lora Xie `20, and Stephanie Moon `19. They reached out to all the ASA members and encouraged them to step up and get involved. There were four different groups in charge of decorations, logistics, weekday activities, or performances.

The Lunar New Year Dinner on Friday night marked the start of the celebration. Parents and families overseas sent their best wishes to all students at St. Mark’s by video in their own languages respectively. This helped create a family-like atmosphere. There were also delicious traditional Asian foods prepared by Flik Dining, such as Korean style beef, Chinese style dumplings, fortune cookies, Japanese sodas, rice, Shrimp shumai, cooked fishes.

Many  students contributed efforts to noteworthy performances and overall a fun festival! To take a peek, Sophia Liu ‘19 played an elegant piece of music, which mimics the sounds of traditional Chinese instruments on piano. Samantha Wang ’21 performed her magic tricks; she made a red napkin disappear and reappear in her hands. Selina Wu’19, Leean Li’19, Amy Wang ‘19, and Jenny Shan ’19 rocked with two Chinese pop music, with their photos on the slideshow to display their friendship over the last four years at St. Mark’s. Alex Chen ’21, Richard Zhang ’21 and Will Lu ’20 made a famous song named The Drunken Beauty come to life, incorporating both the traditional and the modern elements of music. Thomas Li’22, Lina Zhang ’21, and Waverly Shi ’21 played An Unforgettable Night, a traditional lunar new year song known by all, as an end of the new year celebration.

The chapel service organized by the ASA was another significant event. It was the first year for this service, and Ms. Starry Zhu, the ASA’s faculty advisor, stated that “[they] were trying to balance and recognize the perspectives of Asian students from different backgrounds at St. Mark’s.”

The whole celebration was a great success. Behind the curtain, however, the ASA faced some difficulties. Lora Xie `20 shared that “because the variance among different Asian cultures is so great, and because we do have the subgroup of Chinese international students that outnumbers others by far, it was not easy to navigate the diversity within the Asian and Asian American community.” Helen Huang `20 stated that the most difficult part was “managing time and people because we had several groups working on several different things, so it was hard to keep track with what was happening when and what we still needed the accomplish.” Ms. Zhu shared that she is “very proud of how the ASA members managed to overcome numerous difficulties.”

The ASA members are planning to send out a survey to grasp a better understanding of how the students thought that the event went. So far, Ms. Zhu stated that she “received numerous positive feedbacks from faculty members, students, and parents.” The ASA members are proud of how the Lunar New Year celebration went and are looking forward to planning other events throughout the year.

Blessing of the Animals

By Clara Hua ‘21

The Blessing of the Animals is a tradition that started almost 800 years ago. It is in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, who always called creatures “his brothers and sisters.” He sought to widen the fraternity to include humans and creatures in the same relationship with God. The feast day of St. Francis (the day that he died) is celebrated every year on October 4th, and blessing of the animal services are usually scheduled for the Sunday closest to that day.

Reverend Talcott started this tradition at St. Mark’s in 2009. She thinks that animals are vital parts of our world and our lives, and it’s important to bring our awareness to them. Every year, Belmont chapel welcomes pets from community members and this year we had more than 20 animals, including dogs, cats and even lizards at! Several faculty members and students shared their (or their pets’) experience with me.

“It's my favorite chapel of the year,” said Ms. Caron. “I love seeing my students with their pets. Finn has a great time. It's a little overwhelming for him, but he loves making new dog friends, and he loves seeing all of the students. He was so excited to look out of our apartment window and see the dogs arriving prior to chapel.”

 “Blessing of the animals is my favorite chapel of the year!” exclaimed Sarah Lammert ’21. “ My family is made up of animal lovers. We have four dogs, three goats, six chickens, and a bunny. My first year at St. Mark’s was last year, when I only took one of my poodles. This year my brother joined the school, and we brought all four together. Personally, I love Blessing of the Animals because it allows day students or local boarders to show a little bit of their lives to the boarders who couldn’t bring their pets!”

“I brought one dog with me as Nettie is so afraid of people,” said Ms. Behnke.”Chloe loves “Blessing of the Animals” and it is one of my favorite days. Chloe gets to see lots of dogs she knows and she meets new ones. I also love seeing all the dogs on campus. I am so grateful to St. Mark’s for celebrating this day.”

Tommy Flathers ’21 commented that “[his] dog Claribelle is 11 and a grouchy old lady, so she did not really enjoy the blessing of the animals. She was nervous and hung around the edges. But she did make it all the way through and received her blessing.”

This was not the experience of Catherine Pellini ’20. “Both my puppy Callie and I had so much fun at the Blessing of the Animals last Tuesday. I loved seeing all of the animals and I’m sure she had fun meeting the other dogs! I’m so glad we were able to participate in this amazing St. Mark’s tradition.”

All of us are reminded of the importance of animals in our lives by this tradition. St. Markers (both people and pets) love this chapel a lot, and I bet many of us are already starting to look forward to next year’s Blessing of the Animals!

Perspectives on St. Marguerite's Partnership

By Paige LaMalva ‘20

The St. Marguerite's Partnership is an opportunity for St. Markers to enhance our friendship with St. Marguerite’s, a school located in Latournelle, Haiti. The responsibilities of the partnership are to promote communication, education, and cultural exploration between the two schools. Club meetings involve improving understanding of Haitian culture to members and developing ways to educate the St. Mark’s community about Haitian history and culture. Some of the projects that have occurred are selling Haitian chocolate, running the Haitian Independence Day fair, and sponsoring The St. Marguerite’s Partnership Rice and Beans lunch. The club meets every other Monday from 8am-8:25am in Ms. McColloch’s classroom, Room 128; the student leaders are Haley Dion ‘19, Grant Gattuso ’19, and Kerrie Verbeek ‘19, and the faculty leaders are Ms. Morgan and Ms. McColloch. It’s never too late to join!

The other part of the partnership is the opportunity to travel to Haiti. If a St. Marker wants to be fully immersed in Haitian culture, then this is the opportunity! Five or six students get selected each year for this opportunity. Following their arrival in Haiti, St. Markers will spend the night at St. Matthieu, an Episcopal Parish located not too far from the partnership school. During the trip, students will be able to interact and meet with the teachers and students and enhance their knowledge of Haiti. Students in the past have raved about the trip is an incredible opportunity and how they have built strong friendships.Here are some reflections from last year.

Why did you join the Haiti Partnership?

“I joined the partnership because I feel it is an opportunity to have an impact on our small community as well as on another school and on people’s lives there. I also joined because I feel it is beneficial to create diverse cultures and expand the mindset of students at St. Mark’s. By joining the partnership, I am able to inform myself and peers on Haitian culture and struggles. By doing this, we as a community are able to move forward with the intent of always learning and always helping. I am also simply interested in the culture and contrast of Haiti compared to America.” -Kendall Sommers ‘22

“I didn’t know too much about Haiti, so I was really curious to see what it was like. After learning about how beneficial the partnership is for St. Mark’s and St. Marguerite’s, I immediately knew that I wanted to be a part of it to help make a positive impact at both schools.” Elise Gobron ‘21

What was your favorite part going to Haiti?

“My favorite part about Haiti was building relationships with the St. Marguerite’s community. I loved playing games with the children, singing songs, and dancing with the community! Although there was a language barrier, we were able to communicate through music and dance, which was so special!” -Haley Dion ‘19 (student leader)

“My favorite part of the trip was playing soccer with the kids and dancing with them!” -Kerrie Verbeek ‘19 (student leader)

New Mercedes’ Smartliners: A Smart Purchase for St. Mark’s

By Katie Park ‘21

If you have traveled for sports events or field trips this fall, you have no doubt experienced a significant change that has added sparkle to students’ lives: the new Mercedes minivans. A lot of behind the scenes work went into purchasing the vans, and Mr. Kuklewicz, the Chief Financial & Operations Officer at St. Mark’s, walked me through the long process.

“This all started last winter,” said Mr. Kuklewicz. The team that was part of this project included Mr. Vachris, Ms. Kosow, and Mr. Levandowski. They looked at different models including the Dodge, Ford, and Mercedes Benz. They went on test drives last spring and came to an agreement that the Mercedes Smartliner was the best option. Also, the new minivans are all run by diesel engines which are considered to be more efficient than gasoline engines. “That is when we have decided to opt for the Mercedes Smartliner, and we bought four of them,” said Mr. Kuklewicz.

The main reason St. Mark ’s decided to purchase new vans was because the existing fleet was aging. However, the replacement would have never become a reality without the help of various people from the St. Mark’s community. “Frank Hanenberger, the parent of Lukas Hanenberger '19, was instrumental in helping us to arrange test drives with all the dealers,” said Mr. Kuklewicz. The marketing department led by Mr. Cochran was also a huge help in this process, and Mrs. Levandowski was an instrumental person behind the design group. She came up with several designs, and the group decided which was most aesthetically pleasing. “I like the design of the new minivans!” remarked Charlie Rumrill '21.

The new Mercedes vans not only carry athletic teams but also are used for weekends and school field trips. “Ms. Hultin drove one of the new vans when we went on a JCI field trip to the synagogue, and the ride was really comfortable,” said Geetika Surapaneni '21.

“I have heard many positive reactions and last Friday, I heard one faculty member talking about how the teams are really excited for away games now because of the new vans. Also, some faculty members said that the new vans are easier to drive because they feel more like cars,” said Mr. Kuklewicz. The purchasing of the new minivans was indeed a long process, but the one that is worth it.

Some may be wondering what will happen to our old fleet of mini-vans? Mr. Kuklewicz informed the community just this week that Brantwood Camp will be taking two of vehicles that the third bus will be donated shortly after this.