Competition of the Robots

By Julie He ‘23

“Ask not what your robot can do for you, ask what you can do for your robot.”- Mr Palmer

As winter sports come to an end, the St. Mark’s Robotics Team (FIRST 3566/Gone Fishin’) is also wrapping up with its grand finale- a competition. Team 3566 has been a prominent part of St. Mark’s STEM  program since its inception. Robotics provides students the opportunity to work in the STEM field in multiple aspects including building, engineering, and coding. However, robotics requires deep commitment, replacing winter sports and Saturday classes. The robotics team, like other sports, have been working diligently towards a competition at the end of the season. The competition is six weeks long and the SM team will be attending for two weekends with the hope of qualifying for New Englands. Every team at the match will build a robot from scratch that must encounter identical obstacles. This year, challenges include shooting balls into a hoop and climbing monkey bars. The robot that best completes the tasks wins. 

Team Gone Fishin’ this year is composed of a large and talented group of 39 students and 4 teachers. There are also many supportive alumni mentors such as Jason Chen ‘21 who drops by regularly to advise the students. Although a large crew, there are different jobs for every member that caters to their interests. Under the leadership of Carl Guo ‘22, the students split up into groups to work on different components of the robot. The coding team is responsible for coding the robot and making sure it completes the tasks given. Another technology-based team is the CAD team which 3D-prints components that go towards building the robot. CAD (computer-aided design) is a computer-based software that helps users digitally create 3D models. As there are many different parts of the robot, the building team is further split into 4 different groups; field elements, climbing, shooting, and intake. In the lower center, the field elements team has been building a replica of the hoop for the robot to practice on. The climbing team is building the components of the robot that will be climbing monkey bars and the shooting team will build the parts that shoot balls into the hoop. The intake team is responsible for the mechanics that pick up the balls. Finally, the external affairs team, which is often overlooked but crucial, is responsible for the paperwork of robotics. They submit award nominations and seek sponsors. Some past sponsors have been Yamafuji and Bose! With all the teams working hard the past season, everyone is looking forward to seeing their parts coming together for the competition. 

Students on the team have been very eager for the competition, especially after 2 years of quarantine. Reina Wang ‘22, one of the few returning members, is excited for the competition: “I am very looking forward to going back to an in person competition event since 2020. We are very excited to see how our robot performs in the games and hopefully we will all enjoy the experience.” Other members such as Andrew Hung 22’ share similar sentiments:  “I look forward to the culmination of all the team's work coming together and seeing what other teams have to offer. The competition allows the team to really come together and bond, as well as for newer students, understand our competition and the work that they will have to do in the coming years to get even better at FIRST.” 

Although not everyone may be able to attend the competition due to Covid restrictions, the team is still very excited to put out what they have and showcase their weeks of hard work. The practices are filled with lots of energy and excitement, but also stress. With only a few weeks left to prepare, robotics students are working late nights on weekends to make sure they are ready for the big day. With this season’s good preparation and superb leaders, team 3566 is ready to encounter the competition. 

Gray Colloquium: A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Seals

Yoonjeong Yang’ 24

Dr. Lungi Bundone, an expert on Mediterranean monk seal conservation, was a guest speaker for the 2nd annual Gray Colloquium, which was held on December 2. In his Gray Colloquium presentation, titled “Mediterranean Monk Seal Conservation and Monitoring,” Dr. Bundone discussed the obstacles that his Archipelagos team encountered while gathering and analyzing data. In order to monitor and conserve the Mediterranean monk seal, the team developed the first systemic photo identification catalog in Greece. Dr. Bundone’s emphasis on the intersection between science, sustainability, and art has brought new insights to the Gray Colloquium theme of 2021-2022: “Democracy in the 21st Century”.

Dr. Bundone was born in Sardinia, Italy and later moved to Venice, where he earned a Ph.D. in environmental science from the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. Dr. Bundone is passionate about interacting with and educating the public about science, and he has organized workshops at international conferences over the past seven years. Bundone’s dissertation focused on an evaluation and conservation plan for the critically endangered monk seals in the central Mediterranean. To further his work with the monk seals, Dr. Bundone, who is affiliated with a university as a consultant and anchor, is creating a digital catalog of each individual seal found at various sites, including coastal Albania and the islands around Kefalonia, Greece. He is the founder and president of Archipelagos – ambiente e sviluppo, Italia, an organization dedicated to preserving coastal habitats and partnering with different organizations to achieve a sustainable future. 

Dr. Bundone spoke to those in attendance at the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of '45 Hall about how his Archipelagos team created a digital catalog of photographs to identify monk seals by deploying cameras along the coasts of Italy, Albania, and the Greek islands in the Ionian seas. In order to more effectively cover as much of the region as possible, the team installed 15 different marine caves, each equipped with infrared cameras, at various locations in the Central Ionian Sea where Mediterranean monk seals rest and give birth. He noted that the team has taken great care not to interact with or disturb the monk seals and that the flasks of the cameras were not visible to the naked eye. Since 2018, the Archipelagos team has captured about 300,000 photographs with the cameras. Additionally, during his presentation, Dr. Bundone even taught St. Markers how to identify the Mediterranean monk seals based on their size and proportions, scars, and the coloring of their backs and bellies. When he presented several images captured by the cave cameras, the students did their best to guess the age and sex of the seals.

In fact, Dr. Bundone has been collaborating with students from Barbara Putnam’s studio classes for over three years. With the help of Dr. Bundone, the students have conducted extensive research and have participated in insightful discussions about the threats to the Mediterranean monk seal’s survival and current conservation efforts, eventually incorporating their research on monk seals into paintings that Ms. Barbara Putnam presented at the World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Their impressive artwork, along with educational posters like “Mediterranean Monk Seal Habitat Use in the Central Ionian, Greece,” is on display in Taft. 

The goal of this collaboration has been to fuse science and art in order to communicate critical messages about endangered marine animals to the public. By highlighting the intersection between science and art, this project is pertinent to the theme of “Democracy in the 21st Century.” Democracy depends on science for effectively addressing public problems; art serves as a vehicle to convey diverse perspectives to the audience, fostering the empathy required for democracy. In the case of this project, St. Mark’s students have conducted scientific research and created paintings to address the issue of critically endangered marine mammals, and consequently, their exhibited works have allowed the St. Mark’s community to gain awareness and empathy for the subject.

Dr. Bundone’s insightful presentation was well-received by the St. Mark’s audience. This year’s Gray Colloquium was successful, thanks to the efforts of the hard-working staff and Ms. Sarah McCann, who has worked as a Gray Colloquium Coordinator. The next presentation in the Gray Colloquium will take place on Thursday, January 27th, in the Putnam Family Arts Center’s Class of 1945 hall. The visiting speaker will be Shayla Lawson, an American poet and writer at Amherst College.

You can read more about the upcoming Gray Colloquium speakers here: https://www.stmarksschool.org/academics/signature-programming/gray-colloquium/gray-colloquium-details 

Takeout Boxes: New Option for Sustainability at St. Mark’s

By Suha Choi ‘22

It should be no surprise to hear that COVID has brought many changes to policies at St. Mark’s. In fact, you must have heard it so many times that it’s surprising to hear someone still say it now. But that’s not where our conversation should stop. Among the many changes and trials that our community has endured in the past two years, we can also work to find compelling policies to stick to even after the pandemic ends. One of these new silver linings to COVID policies includes the takeout boxes at the dining hall. Since the week after our return from winter break, these boxes have been present, providing different options for students to eat and manage their safety. These boxes are not only COVID-safe. They can become our community’s next step towards sustainability and responsibility. 

Only a couple of months ago, Ms. Lohwater, a faculty leader for sustainability group S4S, made a school meeting announcement about the concerning amount of food waste spotted at the dining hall. Takeout boxes are a great way to diminish food waste. For those who have small food portions, but get hungry easily, it is very comforting to know that they can eat throughout the evening hours if they feel hungry without forcing in a large amount of food at once. The best part of takeout boxes is that food will be available even after dining hall hours. This is a perfect option for students who are busy during lunch or dinner. Whether they had meetings during lunch hours, or evening practice, or simply weren’t feeling hungry at those times, takeout boxes can provide flexibility for students and create a sense of calm in an otherwise busy and stressful eating schedule. Students no longer have to rush out of the dining hall midway through, saying goodbye to half of their food. This will naturally diminish a lot of food waste at St. Mark’s, that is often caused by how busy St. Markers are.

A concern that most often arises from the post-COVID takeout dining option is that students might no longer go to the dining hall. Close interactions with friends from a day-to-day basis are an integral part of the St. Mark’s community, and there is no need for this to be dismissed. There is a rather simple solution: instead of plastic utensils and paper boxes, we can encourage students to bring their own plates and sustainable food containers. This allows St. Markers to engage in sustainability actively. Further, it’s much easier said than done to clean your utensils after every meal and carry them around your dorms. So naturally, even if this option is available, this won’t bring the end of dining hall interactions. Besides, students are having a more real young adult experience, navigating through different options, and understanding the responsibility behind choices even as simple as dining options. This is also a very simple yet clever way to appreciate the often-overlooked work of our very hard-working Flik staff members.

We’ve come to a point where we know we can do more than survive through this pandemic. Through trial and error, we look for new options that this unprecedented time has unfolded for us. 

The Haiti Partnership: Fundraising Ethically and Sustainably for Haiti

By Madison Hoang ‘23 & Julie He ‘23

Ste.  Marguerite Episcopal School in Haiti

Nestled within the tropical mainland of Southern Haiti is a small village named Latournelle, where the Episcopal school of Ste. Marguerite is situated. Ste. Marguerite currently enrolls approximately 130 students, from kindergarten to eighth grade, and employs 16 teachers. Serving as the direct link between the two Episcopal schools, Ste. Marguerite and St. Mark’s, is The Haiti Partnership: a student and faculty run campus organization that aims to support the students of its partner school, as well as the inhabitants of Haiti, through a variety of on campus projects and activities. Established through the Episcopal Churches Haiti Partnership, St. Mark’s began its partnership with Ste. Marguerite in 2011.  The Haiti Partnership has experienced tremendous success, not only through the Partnership’s fundraising and awareness-building efforts, but also through the support and commitment of faculty, staff and students throughout the school body. The Haiti Partnership has been guided and supported by Ms. Morgan, Reverend Solter and formerly by Ms. McColloch and Dr. Bonhomme, along with approximately 30 committed students.

Unlike most conventional non-profit organizations, The Haiti Partnership is not just dedicated to fundraising efforts and charity. The Partnership is also committed to building an ethical and sustainable partnership with Ste. Marguerite, as well as spreading public awareness about the issues of Haiti. Generally defined, an “ethical partnership” means that a non-profit’s communications with the public, as well as to its beneficiaries, must be transparent, honest, and direct. Following this principle, The Haiti Partnership prides itself on its ability to practice conscientiously and communicate openly with its Haitian beneficiaries, as well as the St. Mark’s community. In addition, the partnership shared with Haiti is sustainable, which ensures that Ste. Marguerite and the Haitian beneficiaries be able to prosper long-term, even without the continued aid of The Haiti Partnership.

Recently, the Partnership has moved closer to this goal by innovating a “loan program” that awards Haitian women with small grants. Though small, these grants can become tremendously impactful; they allow the women to purchase raw materials, which are then turned into hand-made goods that can be sold at markets. By turning a profit on their products, the women are able to effectively pay off their grants, and eventually create sustainable, long-term income for themselves. In addition to supporting Haiti, The Haiti Partnership also aims to impact the St. Mark’s community by spreading awareness about the injustices and difficulties experienced by the country. While this serves the direct purpose of stimulating community involvement with the Partnership’s humanitarian efforts for Haiti, it also encourages St. Markers’ to employ stronger cultural awareness of Haiti and engage in increased cultural exchange with St. Marks’ partner school, Ste. Marguerite. 

In the past, as well as this year, The Haiti Partnership has successfully raised funds and awareness for Haiti by organizing and hosting a variety of on-campus activities, special occasions, and shows. Smaller-scale projects have included a Saturday class program teaching students Creole (the national language of Haiti), a Haitian Independence Day Fair educating the community on Haitian history and culture, Haiti Partnership-run bake sales at various music and arts showcases and a conversation with Life Skills Haiti guest speaker, Jean Pillard, who shared insightful information about the importance of Haiti’s continued reconstruction.

The Haiti Partnership is perhaps most well-known for three events that are hosted annually on-campus and involve a large proportion of the St. Mark’s community: ‘Play for Haiti’ Day, which raises funds by selling specialized ‘Haiti’ t-shirts and baked goods to the community; service learning trips to Haiti to encourage cross-cultural exchanges between St. Markers and the students of Ste. Marguerite; and the ‘rice and beans’ lunch, which cuts down on lunchtime food costs in order to donate the school’s savings for that day to Haiti. Regardless of their relative scales, these initiatives have truly allowed the Haiti Partnership to continually achieve its goals of spreading awareness and raising funds in St. Mark’s. In addition, these successes have contributed to the longevity of the ethical and sustainable partnership that the Partnership shares with the school of Ste. Marguerite and the surrounding villages of Haiti.

A combination of political, environmental, and health crises in Haiti has made it an especially challenging year for the Partnership. As Haiti is a considerably young country with a unique and complicated history, political unrest looms within the nation; recent rising tensions have posed a great threat to the country’s governance. Under former President Jovenel Moise’s governing, Haiti has seen a surge of gangs and violence in the streets. President Moise also challenged democratic ideals, desiring to maintain his presidential status despite constitutional laws. This, combined with overwhelming dissent from the public, eventually led to the assasination of former President Moise in July 2021, leaving the country in political turmoil. In addition to societal challenges, Haiti is inundated with climatic and environmental obstacles. Many Haitians are still recovering from the 2010 earthquake, which is still regarded as one of the world's most devastating natural disasters. Not only was the earthquake responsible for the deaths of over  200,000 civilians and thousands of injuries, it also uprooted many families’ lives and heavily affected the country's resources and economy. Climate change continues to worsen these problems by increasing the frequency of tropical storms, floods, and heavy rainfalls which wreak havoc on Haitian communities almost annually. To add insult to injury, the recent COVID-19 outbreak has further devastated the Haitian economy and hurt Haitian livelihoods. All of these barriers have made it increasingly challenging for the Partnership to remain in contact with Haiti, send supplies to Haiti, and even host service learning opportunities to Haiti. Therefore, the sustained continuation of the ethical partnership between Haiti and St. Mark’s is greatly threatened. 

Given the challenges faced in Haiti, the contributions of students and faculty at St. Mark’s are crucial to sustaining the Partnership's ethical and sustainable fundraising efforts for Haiti. Raising awareness, participating in school events, and educating oneself about Haiti are all good ways to get involved.  There are many events throughout the school year such as bake sales and Play for Haiti t-shirt sales. The Haiti Partnership also hosts a club at St. Mark’s, currently run by Marianne Lyons and Caroline Sullivan. Given the multitude of opportunities and activities available, The Haiti Partnership would highly value the continued contributions of any and all individuals within the St. Mark’s community and encourages all members of St. Mark’s to attend the Haiti Partnership meetings which are held a few times each month.

The Story Behind Senior Privileges

By Karry Kim ‘25, Hannah Cha ‘25

In the first week of school as a new third former, my friend and I decided to “explore” the traditional, antique section of the library. After passing the reading lounge section, we walked all the way to the Parkman Room, which we thought looked so grand through the windows of the hallway. When we arrived at the room, we cracked the door open, completely unaware of the senior privilege rules. The room was empty. Little did we know that the space is reserved for seniors; filled with excitement, we went up and down the stairs to the balcony, took a seat in the fancy chairs and couches, and looked into the artifacts displayed on the walls. We admired out loud how old all the books and the room were until a student walked into the room to inform us about the rules of the Parkman Room and the balcony. Like my experience, I have been hearing many stories from III form friends who have been confused about senior privileges, ending up getting attention from all the returners near them.

For those who are new to the St. Mark’s Community, the senior privileges that exist now are:

1. The senior quad (the grass square near the front desk) is only allowed for senior students

2. Platform in the dining hall can only be used by seniors

3. The Parkman Room is reserved for seniors during study hall (the official time is from 7:30 to 9:30) 

4. 6th formers and faculty leave first after chapel

5. Desserts are served for seniors at evening chapel

6. Box seats in the chapel are reserved for seniors and faculty

7. (The study room in the center is not officially a senior privilege but is generally occupied by seniors)

One exception is, if invited to sit in the senior quad or the platform in the dining hall, students of any form are welcome to do so. 

Senior Platform

Mr. Warren, a 1974 graduate of St. Mark explains that during his years in the school as a student, the tradition of the platform in the dining hall did not exist; students of any form could sit at the platform. The platform was built during the early twentieth century when the Dining Hall was renovated to be broadened. On the platform, there was one long table placed horizontally from wall to wall, where the Head of School and his wife with around twenty-five students sat for seated lunch and dinner. It was the late 1980s when the tradition started, as the long table was replaced by the shorter tables that exist in our dining hall now. 

Parkman Room 

During Mr. Warren’s years at St. Mark’s as a student, the tradition of the Parkman Room did not exist either. Instead, the sixth formers used room 136, which is currently used by Ms. Kelly as her classroom, as a sixth form common room. Similar to how students now use The Center as a sort of common room to hang out, sixth form students played games and talked with friends in room 136 during their free periods. 

In the 1980s, as the athletic center was built, the sixth form common room was changed from Room 136 to the Dixon room. The Dixon room was previously the girl’s locker room before the construction of the athletic center. The area was used as a sixth form common room for almost thirty years, until 2012 when the Dixon Room was changed into the Lion’s Den. In 2006, some VI formers requested the school to run a snack bar at the Lion’s Den. When this request was accepted, it underwent a process of renovation by FLIK and became the Lion’s Den today. This is why the door leading to the Lion’s Den has the sign “Dixon Room, VI Form Room”. As compensation for the loss of the Dixon Room, the senior head monitors requested to have the Parkman Room during evening hours. As a result, the Parkman Room is granted to the seniors each year, which is a tradition that remains continuing.

VI Form Room

Room 136 now

Senior Quad

One senior privilege that existed far before the 1970s is the senior quad. It has always been a space dedicated to sixth formers. One unique senior privilege that existed only in the past is that after having seated dinner every night, the seniors were allowed to go to the faculty room to have coffee. Afterward, they often played cribbage, a card game. 

“I believe in traditions.” Mr. Warren says. Following traditions and keeping them is very important, but at the same time, it is imperative that we make modifications to fit the changing world and its values. “There was too much hierarchy in the olden days,” says Mr. Warren. He says that too many traditions and unspoken rules existed in his past years in St. Mark’s as a student, which separated the seniors and the rest of the school. As the Head of School, he looks forward to making 6th formers feel special and feel the responsibilities of being a senior while keeping the traditions small enough to keep the community together. “We always have to look for the right balance between senior privileges and the community as a whole,” he stated.

 As our “Intentionally small, thinking big” school continues to pursue our goal of having an intimate community, we need to continue to find a way that senior privileges could be reasonable for all students in St. Mark’s.

Bringing in More People to Main

by Jeamilett Martinez ‘25 and Victoria Merlo ‘25

Many students are wondering who is able to live in the new dorms this year? What are they going to do about West campus? What will the new dorm be called? Why are they building it on the main campus? Well, after talking with Dean Vachris, we discovered there are some new plans this year for the building. 

According to Dean Vachris, we can expect the new dorm to be done by August, 2022. The plan is to get students in the new dorm before the start of the next academic year. As one knows, freshman living on the West Campus is a tradition of sorts, a passageway into freshman year and with fourth formers who either loved the walk or couldn’t get a spot on main. The excruciating long walks passing the pond on cold early mornings is something that all borders could remember. Now, they are going to be moving to Main Campus. Don’t fret St. Markers, not only the rising freshmen will live there, 4th, 5th, and 6th formers would be living there too, along with 12 other faculty members. 

As for West Campus, it is not quite clear what exactly the school is going to do with it, but they appear to be thinking about making West Campus into some type of athletic center. Both Varsity Girls Soccer and Varsity Boy Soccer practice there and in reality no one really goes there besides the fact that they practice or live there.

In the dorms, one of the differences from all the rest is that all different types of forms are going to live there. The 3rd floor is going to be for the new 3rd formers and the other floors would be for 4th, 5th and 6th formers. The most exciting new features included in the new dorm are the much spacious common rooms to hang out with friends, with a kitchen and projector. As for the name of the dorm, it is still being decided, along with other factors that are still in the developing stages. 

You would think that breaking a tradition would be bad, dispiriting West campus since no one is going to be living there. On the contrary though, the building of the new dorm will bring people together and it will finally make St. Marks a school all under one roof.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at St. Mark’s

by Angelica Hiraldo ‘23, Jonathan Hernandez ‘24

National Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place from September 15th to October 15th, is a time not only to look at the contributions of Latinx and Hispanic individuals from the past but also those who are making meaningful contributions today, reflecting and celebrating all of their accomplishments. Here at St. Mark’s, there is no exception. 

Beginning in 1968, Hispanic Heritage Month was observed as National Hispanic Heritage Week but later was expanded to an entire month in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. The month begins on the 15th of September, which is the Independence Day of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, the Independence days of numerous other Latin American countries such as Mexico and Chile also fall in this time period. Thus, with numerous holidays and days of celebration, it is no surprise that St. Mark’s has been joining in the celebrations.

All around campus, students have been celebrating and reflecting in many different ways with the help of Los Leones, the Latinx affinity group at St. Mark's. First, they kicked off the year with a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration with food, music, candy, and meaningful conversations about Mexico’s Independence Day on September 16th. With fun activities and important historical facts, all were able to join in the lively festivities. On September 30th, the group gathered in Ms. Moreta’s (one of the Los Leones’ faculty advisors) for an evening full of music, community building, and empanada, and churro making. 

In addition, the heads of Los Leones, Aime Murillo (V form), and Jonathan Hernandez (IV form), have created a Hispanic Heritage Reading List for the entire St. Mark’s community to explore different cultures and different aspects of the Latinx Identity, some popular ones being The Poet X by Elizbeth Acevedo, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez, and The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The entire reading list can be found here.

As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end, the St. Mark’s community is still highly encouraged to celebrate and explore the different aspects of Latinx culture in the future as well. While we are only in the first month of the school year, there have been many celebrations of LatinX culture at St. Mark’s, with many more to come in the future. 

Extended Orientation

BY Ingrid Yeung ’23

After year-long complications of COVID and difficulties of international traveling, students and faculty members are finally back on campus together in the 2021-22 academic school year to engage in in-person learning. With over 140 students completely new to the campus— which includes new freshmen as well as returning students who had stayed fully remote last year as their first year of school— this year’s orientation is surely different from all other years. Student leaders arrived a few days early, just as in previous years, to receive leadership training and to simply get used to the typical campus life after hybrid learning. Since we have a significant amount of students unfamiliar with campus, not only did the normal orientation run for an extended period, the school rearranged the first two weeks of school to accommodate what we called extended orientation. 

The regular orientation period looked different from the previous years to facilitate new students to connect with their advisors, teams, houses, forms, and even quad teams before the school officially started. In previous years, the students would arrive on a Thursday, participate in orientation activities tightly packed into two days, and school would formally begin on a Saturday. This year, however, the school hopes to ease the transition into St. Mark’s Schedule to reduce the overwhelming feeling. With all the activities dedicated to including new students into the SM community, the school sought to minimize the feeling of being left out and stressed. 

Extended orientation took up one color block in the regular schedule every day for two weeks also for the purpose of ramping up and giving the students a slow start to the year. Each day, extended orientation took an eighty-minute block, while most activities were intentionally planned to occupy only forty minutes of the block. It gave students and faculty members an extra forty- minutes every day to breathe and break during the first two weeks of school. Not only for easing in, extended orientation also spaced information, which would usually be packed in two days of orientation,  for the students to retain it better. Different extended orientation blocks tackled different areas of concerns, Pathways affinity groups, mindfulness, consent and rules, meeting with PDGs for the third formers, etc. The extended orientation hosted various activities and information sessions that generally would not be part of the orientation in order to inform new students more about the community life in St. Mark’s. To this end, the extended orientation gave the whole school an easy transition into the tightly arranged regular schedule.

Comments and opinions regarding the new form of orientation varied. Some students had fun during the orientation activities, while others felt a little overwhelmed and pressured. Since this is the first year that St. Mark’s tried this new form of orientation, there were imperfections with event planning and schedule communication. However, the school will soon reach out to the community and ask for feedback on the orientation and the change in schedule in hope of modifying it to accommodate the community better. 

Seated Lunch: Will It Happen Or Not?

By Vanessa Leung ‘25

As announced recently, St. Mark’s has moved from COVID-19 yellow phase back to green- the result of a positive COVID case of an adult in the school community. This heightened awareness of following precaution protocols raises questions around the possibility of seated lunch. 

Although there are staggered lunch schedules and chapel in the 1945 Hall in order to prevent the risk of spreading the virus, the circumstances of the school fortunately have not been serious enough to reach the point where people have to be assigned seating while attending lunch or chapel. 

Staggered lunch schedules however, have been created where lunch time for the student body has been separated into two groups to lower the number of unmasked students and faculty in an indoor place. Students with different classes around lunch period have been placed in Blocks A or B and eat at lunch B or A. While it does decrease the risk in an indoor environment, the schedule has been really frustrating for students. In addition to memorizing the color block schedule, students also have to remember their periods of having lunch, which is critical if the student does not want to miss class because of eating lunch at the wrong period. In addition many students aren’t able to sit with their friends who might be in different classes,  

Chapel however, as heard from many of the returning students, in the ‘45 Hall turned out to be better than before when they had morning and evening chapel in St. Mark’s actual chapel. Since St. Mark’s chapel did not meet the COVID-19 air ventilation requirements, the class of 45 hall was chosen as the replacement for real Chapel temporarily. Many returning students stated that chapel space in the ‘45 Hall was less crowded and the seating was not as cramped as before. The ‘45 hall provides more comfortable, wide seats with cushioning which is much more enjoyable to be seated in. Freshman and new sophomores however will sadly not get to experience the feeling of real chapel for now. Chapel in the 45 Hall is not seated; instead students will sit in groups according to their forms. 

While most are still not sure what a seated meal will be like, it will mostly be students sitting on assigned seating evenly spaced out to diminish the contact with one another. This protocol will probably be initiated if circumstances worsen such as multiple positive COVID cases in the community. If seated lunch is going to occur then the staggered lunch schedule will definitely continue, and chapel will likely be cancelled. 

With the help of maintaining safety protocols such as having masks on while indoors , the St. Mark’s community will hopefully soon return back to Green phase, and seated lunch and chapel will never happen.