lh magazine 12/12

DEALING

The Little Hawk Feature Magazine December 19, 2012

4FRENEMIES:

BATTLE OF THE BESTIESBy Lily Howard

An in-depth look at three friendships between City High

students that have turned from sweet to sour in the span

of a year.

FIERCE ELITE BOWS

By Alex PerezRachel Wilcox ‘13 began her small business last summer. Now, her range of customers has expanded to cheerleaders

all over the world.

ON THE COVER:THE DEPTHS OF DEALING

By Emma Baxter A profile that explores the

world of marijuana through the stories of three anyno-mous students living in the Iowa City School District.

SIGNED: PETER LARSENPeter Larsen ‘16 recently traveled to Chicago to

pursue his dream of modeling.

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*WWW.THELITTLEHAWK.COM

1984EVOLUTIONOF THE MAC

By Jason Arnold

MacintoshThe Original

Macintosh Performa

The iMacBondi Blue

iMac G4The Sunflower

iMac G5Behind-the-Screen

iMacThe Razar

With all the hypesurrounding the latest

iPhone and iPad, the LH looks back on where it all

began. The Mac is now the fastest growing computer

on the market, but this sleek product traces back to the garage of two college drop-outs. Those two drop-outs

never imagined just how far their invention would go. 10 years from now, who knows

where it could be? 1995 1998 2002 2005 2012

Macintosh Color Classic

1993

By Sonora Taffa

3December 19, 2012 LH FEATURE MAGAZINE

I don’t think that the govern-ment assistance my students receive should be what they

rely on. They should work to be productive members of society.

Tom Braverman is a true “Iowa Citian”, born and raised. He was a member of Horn El-ementary’s first K-6 class, was bused to North-west Junior High, attended West High, and got his undergraduate degree and Masters at the University of Iowa.

After a brief hiatus living out west in Or-egon and Washington, and after giving up his goal of going into the commercial cut flower production (for environmental reasons), Mr. Braverman took a job working for Systems Un-limited of Iowa City, and found something he really enjoyed.

“I loved working with the adults with spe-cial needs,” he said. “It kind of just felt right.” Subsequently, a friend opened up a social ser-vice agency, where “Mr. B” (as he is affection-ately called) made supervised visits with people who had had their kids taken away from them, along with other criminalized people.

“They didn’t really like me much,” he said. “And frankly, the feeling was mutual.” During this gig, he started his undergraduate education at the U of I. He took a variety of classes, and ended up earning a BGS (Bachelor of General Studies).

“That was really cool because I got to es-sentially take whatever classes I wanted to,” he explained. “But by the end of my time there, I knew that I was really interested in going into education.” Pursuing this interest, he took a job as an associate and paraeducator back at his alma mater: West High.

“I loved working with what we call the ‘moderately disabled’ kids,” he said. “But then, after getting some guidance from other faculty at the school, I decided to go get my Masters in order to really advance my career.” He found his experience back in school somewhat disap-pointing, however.

“The graduate classes I took just involved regurgitation of what I already knew from pre-vious experience,” he explained. “And a lot of it, unfortunately, was simply not relevant in a real classroom setting. It was all just theory, theory, theory.” He finished, though, and ended up with a Masters degree. He then returned to West High, with a new job teaching kids who had a variety of behavioral disorders.

“But that wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a long-term thing.” And indeed, he left the job after 2 years, and took a new one running an at-risk program at West Branch high school, work-ing with teens who were in danger of dropping out and using drugs.

“I was essentially a professional nag,” he joked. He then left West Branch to take a job at the then-new Solon high school, teaching re-source and learning support.

“I absolutely loved the other faculty and the atmosphere of the place,” he said. “But the commute just got to be too much.” Luckily, an-other job opening presented itself.

“Literally on the last day of my job at So-lon, I got wind of a job opening at City High for the moderately disable kids I had loved working with in the past,” he explained. And

after an interview in which he “answered all of their planned-out questions after the first ques-tion”, he was offered the position immediately. Braverman has been at City for 7 years, and was instrumental in starting the Best Buddies club, which matches general education students with those with intellectual disabilities. The club now has over 170 members school wide.

“That’s one of the things we’re most proud of in our department,” he said. Mr. Braverman and Mr. Deniece made the decision to start a chapter, even though the paperwork it involved was daunting. The positive effect it had on the school community was evident soon thereafter.

“The change we saw in our kids started im-mediately,” he said. “It used to be that the only activities [the students with intellectual disabili-ties] were involved in were ones their parents arranged for them, otherwise they were just at home most of the time. Now I saw them out at

“ TOM BRAVERMAN “

photo by Eli Shepherd

A Teacher Profile:

By Renata Stewart

*Continued on Page 14

To get a new perspective on students, check out this inspiring video

recommended to us by Mr. Braverman himself:

4 LH FEATURE MAGAZINE December 19, 2012

FRENEMIESThree students discuss the trials and tribulations of having to keep up good relations with “friends” that they no longer wish to keep.

art by Lily Howard


m o n g the various cliques and friend groups of City High’s student body, there are rela-tionships that are caught in the uncom-fortable state of frenemies. Not friends,

not enemies, but something painfully in be-tween.

“Basically, at this point it’s a situation where I’m forced to be around and interact with some-body that I really don’t like most of the time. So it’s way more convenient to be nice than to just be blatantly rude. Maybe it’s out of guilt but it’s more that it would just be really awkward to be mean to that person,” Adam* said. “But having to listen to him talk makes me want to punch myself in the face.”

A frenemy is defined as a person who has, at one point, been friends with someone, but has now transitioned into be-coming more of an enemy, gen-erally without the knowledge of said friend.

“My frenemy wasn’t always my frenemy, he used to be one of my good friends. He’s always been a person that kind of an-noyed me, but before I had always managed to ignore his flaws and accept them, because you know, I’m a flawed person, and I expect people to accept me,” Charlie* said. “But there came a time when it just got worse and worse. I couldn’t ignore them anymore.”

High school students often go through pe-riods of being annoyed and angry with their friends. Frenemies are much more long term.

“I thought it was just a phase we were going through, and that I would just get over it, be-cause that’s happened with me and my friends before. I’ll be annoyed with them for like a week or two and then it’ll be fine,” Janice* said. “But

this has been like a year, and I don’t even want to look her in the face, I hate talking to her, and I don’t understand how she doesn’t see that. I’ve been blatantly rude to her multiple times and honestly, it’s to the point where I don’t even care anymore, but she still just doesn’t understand. Or maybe she’s ignoring it, I don’t know.”

Usually one event sets off the process of be-coming frenemies and the relationship spirals out of control from there.

“He became this person that I so detested, represented everything that I just hated, and even managed to ruin one of the relationships between me and one of my very best friends,” Charlie* said. “At first he manipulated me and my other friends into thinking he was the good guy in every situation, where a girl broke his heart, or he was screwed over by someone. But then you take a step back and analyse the whole

situation, and talk to the other people involved, and you find out you’ve been played this whole time by somebody who consistently is lying to you, exaggerates, and is a bag of crap.”

People are trapped with these ‘friends’ that they truly dislike because of pity, guilt or even just convenience.

“When he’s there, and very nice to me, I’m not the kind of guy that can be very upfront and rude to people unless I mean it as a joke, of course,” Charlie said. “It’s all because of this frenemy concept where he’ll say a joke and we’ll all laugh for pity’s sake. And it’s terrible, I know, but that’s why he thinks we’re still friends, and I

don’t think he suspects it.”The relationship becomes more and more

toxic the longer the frenemies are forced to stay together.

“I do harbor a little bit of guilt for being nice to him and making him think that I’m friends with him,” Charlie said. “But I can’t go up to him and say, ‘Hey I’m not your friend, I think you’re a horrible person.’ I can’t do that. I guess that’s definitely a flaw of my own.”

They remain ‘friends’ with these people that they no longer get along with mostly because their frenemy doesn’t realize that they are har-boring these negative feelings.

“I actually don’t think he suspects I don’t like him,” Charlie said. “I think if he were more intuitive maybe, but as it is now he doesn’t. He has so many of these frenemies that he can’t even keep track, and he also thinks he’s hot shit

and he thinks that everyone likes him.”

People with frenemies find themselves torn between the fact that they are engaging in a false relationship, and the fact that they don’t want to hurt any feelings.

“There’s a part of me that would feel eternally guilty if I just went up and told him we weren’t friends. That’s why I can’t do that,” Charlie said. “There’s a part of me that’s like, well that was horrify-ingly mean, but also a part that’s being horrifyingly mean by not being actual friends with him and lying to him. I’m living a lie when it comes to my relationship with

him.”The major factor that leads to the transfor-

mation from friends to frenemies is an increase in distance between the two parties allowing a new perspective.

“You only get inklings of that when you’re officially friends with them,” Charlie said. “When you’re friends with them you’re kind of blinded by most of their faults. It’s all a little bit obtuse because you’re willing to be friends with them. Once you’re distanced from that, you see. I can’t believe I actually was friends with this person. I can’t believe I fell for his traps.”

*names changed to protect privacy

ABy Lily Howard

“He became this person that I so detested, he represented everything

that I just hated.”


FIERCE ELITE

BOWS


Surrounded by a sea of spandex and sequins, bedazzled scissors in hand, Rachel Wilcox ‘13 is busy at work. A simple pastime turned profit, Wilcox found her niche in bow making. Her

company Fierce Elite Bows is taking the Iowa cheerleading world by storm.

“I used to buy other bows,” Wilcox said. “But they were almost 20 dollars for one bow, which is absolutely ridiculous. I decided to buy one and take it apart and see if I could figure out how to make one myself.”

Wilcox soon found that she had too many bows just for herself, so she decided to sell them to other members of her gym.

“After I figured out I could make them, I set up shop in my basement,” Wilcox said. “I thought I had too many so I decided to try and sell some to my other cheerleading friends.”

The overall review was positive.“People really liked them because they

were cheaper than any other bows,” Wilcox said. “But they were basically getting the same quality product.”

The bow buzz quickly escalated.“People from other gyms have started

contacting me about making bows for their teams,” Wilcox said. “And other teams all across Iowa have asked me. I never thought this would turn into such a big thing.”

Wilcox also buys vendor spots at different competitions across the state to sell her bows.

“Being a vendor is my favorite part of the whole thing,” Wilcox said. “Because people compliment you on all your hard work, and it shows that it really pays off.”

Despite the positive outcome so far, Fierce Elite Bows does face some criticism.

“The owners of my gym hate that I sell bows,” Wilcox said. “Because they sell bows from large vendors, and they think I’m steal-ing their customers.”

Alongside the criticism is competition. “Bow making is a very competitive busi-

ness in the cheerleading world,” Wilcox said. “And since I’m such a small business and I’m in the Midwest, I have a lot of other compa-nies working against me. Some big ones are Wild Bows, Yella Bows, Fierce Essentials and

many others.” Besides cheerleaders, Fierce Elite Bows

have caught the eyes of many others.“People have bought bows for other reasons

as well,” Wilcox said. “Some people buy them as key chains and put them on their keys or backpacks. Some have gotten them for little girls to wear in pigtails and other people have gotten them to wear as headbands and to sporting events and stuff.”

Although fun, Wilcox described the pro-cess of making the bows as complicated and sometimes tedious.

“I make the bows in stages,” Wilcox said. “Right now I make them in seven different stages and it takes about half a hour to make each bow.”

It’s a challenge to find the right balance be-tween school, cheerleading and bow making.

“My bow making gets in the way of school and cheer,” Wilcox said. “A lot of times I will have orders that need to be made within a couple of days, so I’ll bring materials to school with me and make them in class. I also try to make them at the gym sometimes, but the owners want nothing to do with my com-pany so they always get mad at me, which is super annoying.”

Wilcox plans to keep up her business after graduation.

“Fierce Elite Bows is part of the reason I de-cided to go to Iowa,” Wilcox said. “I still want to make bows, and I will still have all my sup-plies at my convenience.”

Wilcox hopes to expand her business in the future.

“When I get out of college and if I’m still making bows, I’ll start traveling to other plac-es,” Wilcox said. “Like to nationals and other larger competitions.”

Even though it’s a small business, Wilcox has discovered that owning and operating your own company is no small task.

“I learned that it takes a lot to own your own business,” Wilcox said. “Even if it’s a tiny one, with a small crowd, you still have to do a lot for customer satisfaction. My advice would be, be prepared in what you’re selling before you actually go public with your busi-ness. Even if you don’t think you’ll be success-ful, you never know what could come of it.”

By Alex Perez

Rachel Wilcox ‘13 is springing into the corporate world with the launch of her own business, Fierce Elite Bows.

SIGNED

photo by Emma Baxter


photo by Renata Stewart

Larsen poses in the studio where he got professional photos done in Chicago. >> courtesy of Peter Larsen

Peter Larsen ’15 doesn’t sit in a chair. He lounges. With his Vans kicked out, one arm hanging over the back of his seat, and a comfort-able smirk in place, he appears impressive and seems to know it. All that’s missing is a photog-rapher.

“My friends had always told me I should be a model, just joking around, but I guess I de-cided to take that to the next level,” Larsen said. “I wanted to try and see where modeling could take me.”

Larsen sent in an application to HOP Models and Talent agency this September without any true expectations. In fact, he didn’t tell anybody he had decided to pursue a modeling job before doing so.

“I was just sitting around my house one day this summer when the company called me want-ing an interview at one of their branches in Chi-cago. I was really shocked,” Larsen said.

Larsen scheduled the interview without his parents’ knowledge for a weekend when his family would already be near Chicago in order to drop his older sister off at Northwestern Uni-versity.

“I guess my parents couldn’t really say no, be-cause we were already going to be in Chicago,” Larsen said. “I kind of sprang the idea on them because I had applied on my own. And I’m a mi-nor, so they were required to come to the inter-view with me. It was actually more nerve racking with them there because I think modeling was a new idea to them. I had been thinking about it a lot longer than they had, but they’re pretty excited about it now.”

Larsen was required to bring pictures of him-self to the interview, which were presented to an agent and then sent to HOP Model headquarters in Atlanta. Although he remembers feeling ner-vous about meeting his agent, Larsen insists the

worst part was having his parents with him.“The agent really just wanted to get to know

me,” Larsen said. “One of the first questions they ask you is whether or not you’re seriously inter-ested in modeling. Lots of kids will come out and say no, it doesn’t matter that much to them. I just think it’s ridiculous to expect to stand a chance to get a job, when you act like it’s not im-portant to you.”

Two weeks after the interview, HOP models called to notify Larsen that he had been hired. The company represents about 30 male models, with branches in Atlanta and Chicago. Larsen has signed a one year contract with them, and is represented in the state of Illinois.

“I was really excited when I found out that they had chosen to rep-resent me. Plus I’ve never had a job before, so it was exciting in that sense too,” Larsen said. “My first photoshoot was also a lot better than I thought it would be. The photog-rapher told me what I needed to do, and the stylist took care of all the clothes and hair. Re-ally, I just had to know how to follow directions and I was fine. I just had to stand there and look pretty.”

Although 15-year-old Larsen is still too young to be hired as a fashion model, he plans to use catalog work as a method to build his portfolio in hopes of one day becoming one.

“I would preferably try to get represented by one of the bigger companies in Chicago like Elite or Ford,” Larsen said. “They have offices all over the United States, like in L.A. and New York. That would be my ultimate goal to work toward over the next few years.”

Although Larsen is ambitious about a future

in modeling, he realizes the industry is very competitive and considers a potential career in modeling realistically.

“Modeling can be a serious profession, so I don’t think it’s anything to laugh at,” Larsen said. “But then again, there are very few professional, full time models. It’s not like I’m planning on moving to Milan and getting a job there or any-thing. Right now for me, it’s kind of like playing soccer. I really enjoy it as a hobby; it’s just some-thing I like to do, so I do it.”

Beyond viewing modeling as a hobby and po-tential career, Larsen also appreciates its worth

in terms of real world experience he can gain while still in high school.

“Like a lot of other jobs kids can have in high school, modeling shows that I’m kind of part of the work force,” Larsen said. “It shows that I know how to act profession-ally, because I had to be interviewed to get

the job, and I have to represent a company well.” Larsen has already experienced some

rejection in his young career, although he does not allow it to affect him. Peak Agency, a model-ing firm that he applied to, told him that pursu-ing a modeling career in Iowa is similar to pur-suing a snowboarding career in Florida. Larsen did not let this feedback discourage him. Instead he found a job with HOP in Chicago, and plans to continue to apply this optimistic attitude throughout his career.

“I think it’s important to not fear rejection, because it happens,” Larsen said. “You can’t let it get to you, because it doesn’t say anything about you other than that you can take a chance. There’s no shame in that. Confidence is key.”

Modeling can be a serious profession, so it’s nothing to laugh at.

- Peter Larsen ‘15

By Sonora Taffa


Pot, weed, dope, grass, Mary Jane. D i f f e r e n t names, but all slang for the same illegal sub-

stance: marijuana. While the act of taking a hit of a freshly rolled blunt may seem simple, the drug is bought and sold in a complicated net-work; a network surprisingly familiar to high school students.

After interviewing students from the Iowa City Community School District, it was clear that many of these teens have been exposed to this substance. Three anonymous students agreed to go on the record and talk about their involvement in the covert world of drug dealing.

Some who are deep in this business didn’t start out with these intentions. All they wanted was a way to cope with the stress in their lives.

“I was really stressed out at the time I first smoked and it proved to be the most effective way to chill out and make things bearable,” Ja-cob* said. He took his first hit at the age of 15, but now considers himself a habitual user. He smokes three to four times a day and spends 60 dollars a week on his expensive habit. This cost is one of his main reasons for selling marijuana.

Others start the habit even younger than this. Zach* was just 11 years old and in sixth grade when he was introduced to the drug.

“Looking back on it, it was probably really dumb,” he said. “I wish I didn’t start that young, but it doesn’t matter now. It’s one of the choices I made and I don’t plan on stopping.”

John Bacon, principal at City High, has per-sonally suffered from the effects of substance

abuse by family members.“I have seen the devastating effects of drugs

up close and personal,” Bacon said. “I under-stand the curiosity and the desire to experiment, the thrill and fun, but I also know it can lead down a dangerous path.”

Bacon feels a “tremendous obligation” to his students, their families, and the community to make sure City High is a “first class high school.”

“It’s my primary goal to make sure we have a happy, healthy, nice environment that every stu-dent feels comfortable in,” Bacon said. “I won’t stand for drugs. You’re putting your body in harm and it’s also against the law.”

Chip Hardesty also understands the prevail-ing feeling most users have, and has experienced this in his time as a lawyer and working with at risk kids. Hardesty feels sorry for kids who have reached the point where they feel like they need drugs to perform and succeed.

“I get the point of view of ‘who am I hurting if I just sit in my car and smoke dope, I’m not hurt-ing anyone by myself,’” Hardesty said. “But the truth is if you could fol-low that dollar to where it goes, it gets into the hands of some pretty bad people quickly.”

Jacob, however, feels differently. “I don’t think my money is going to a bad

place because they get it from Colorado where it’s legal to operate a store,” he said. “It’s like any

other business you feel bad giving money to. Take Petland for example, you don’t like buying things from there because of the poor animal conditions, but you do it anyway.”

Some think that because we live in Iowa, the consequences of buying and selling drugs aren’t as harsh.

“You don’t hear about killings in Iowa,” Zach said. “If I lived in Chicago, I would be worried. Money has nothing to do with it here. When you pay a dealer, they just use it to get more weed, nothing else really happens with that cash.”

The reality is that violence follows money and drugs wherever they go. When Hardesty

worked with a program in the southeast side of Cedar Rapids he met a single dad trying to support his four young daughters. One month he couldn’t pay the rent so he borrowed money off the street. Drug money. When he didn’t reach the deadline to pay them back, he got beaten. When he couldn’t pay them back again men came to his apartment at midnight with guns and started banging on the doors.

“Imagine four little girls huddled up in this

apartment,” Hardesty said. “Their dad with a gun on one side and these other guys with guns on the opposite. This is the reality, this is where your drug money goes. And less than a mile away, some teenager who bought the drugs is playing video games in his room and is totally

“I wish I didn’t start that young, but it doesn’t

matter now. It’s one of the choices I made and I don’t plan on stopping.”

- Zach

By Emma Baxter

December 19, 2012 LH FEATURE MAGAZINE11

oblivious.”That’s because many

students who smoke mari-juana aren’t concerned with how their marijuana got to Iowa City. Jacob thinks of the drug world as an empire with a hierarchy. He doesn’t consider himself a “big gun”, but he has close ties to the people who go to Colorado and drive back with incrim-inating amounts of marijua-na to sell into the Iowa City market.

“We live in a college town. Thousands of stu-dents leave for breaks all over the United States and come back with drugs to sell to anyone they know who’s willing to pay for them,” Ja-cob said. “That’s how drugs travel and how they’re so easy to get a hold of.”

Matt* shares the same feeling.

“Once I started smoking I got connections. You find out more about it when you keep doing it,” he said. “I re-alized there is a whole com-munity: the big dealers that bring imported drugs who sell to people in pounds or ounces, and then those people sell to normal buyers looking to buy in grams or quads. There are branches, like a government.”

Although Matt doesn’t deal marijuana, he consid-ers himself a middleman.

“I hook my friends up, I don’t work for anyone, but if someone comes to me look-ing to buy weed, I can place an order for them and take them with me the next time I go to meet my dealer,” he explained.

The primary reason Jacob sells marijuana is to earn easy money.

“When you buy larger quantities of weed, you get more for less money,” he said. “Sort of like buying in bulk. You can get a gram for 20 dollars, or you can buy a bag and get three and a half grams for 60 dollars. It’s just a better deal.”

Matt usually buys a quad (120 dollars worth of marijuana) once a week.

“I smoke everyday,” he said. “I don’t do it for the high though, I mean it feels good but I mostly do it because it helps me concentrate and relaxes me, kind of like a medication.”

Matt says that once he turns 18 he plans on cutting back because that’s when “shit gets real.”

“Dealing would be too much for me,” he said.

“I don’t want to put my family through that. I had a family member who got into some serious drugs and it messed him up for life. I don’t want to end up like that.”

Hardesty, who used to defend criminalized drug dealers, says the most common way of re-ducing or dropping a charge would be to make a deal with the police.

“You’re very likely to be buying from some-one who has been charged in the past, unbe-knownst to you,” Hardesty said. “There’s a rea-son for that. From a tactical level, if you’re facing jail time, you’re going to do anything you can not to go to jail. That may include selling out your best friends. I mean what would you pick, a friend or prison?”

Jacob only sells to people he knows he can trust to “be smart”.

“People who are dumb enough to get caught are idiots in my opinion,” Jacob said. “I’m only

going to sell to people who I know won’t be stu-pid about it. If someone I sell to got caught, they can be tricked into rat-ting on me. You just gotta be ready for that. That’s why I don’t sell to that many people, it becomes riskier.”

When high schoolers “snitch” on their friends, the social consequences can be perilous.

“It’s bogus if you rat on someone. It’s true that ‘snitches get stitches,’” Zach said. “You just don’t do that. I’ve known peo-ple who’ve beaten kids up for snitching.”

The legal consequenc-es of smoking and dealing marijuana often lead to plea bargains.

“If you got charged with possession with in-tent to deliver, you could get what’s called deferred judgment,” Hardesty said. “You plead guilty and the judge doesn’t accept it for a couple years. Basically you’re on probation, but then after that allotted time you’re free and it’s wiped off your record of-ficially. It’s a pretty sweet deal.”

However, times are changing. The law used to be that if you got pulled over in a car with marijuana in it everyone would get charged with possession. Now the law

states that the police would have to determine who the actual owner is, therefore not everyone would be convicted.

“You’ll never convince everyone to think one way or the other,” Jacob said. “There will always be people who stereotype and think I’m a drug addict, but laws and people’s opinions are evolv-ing. I feel like people are finally starting to real-ize the direction we’re heading. It’s inevitable.”

The journey marijuana travels is complex and uncertain.

“Where this money goes, who it connects with and how they use it is a problem,” Hard-esty said. “He’s getting it from someplace that doesn’t take too many jumps back to find. Those people have guns, money, and power. It’s a ruth-less business.”

Dispensaries in Colorado sell

marijuana to people with medical

licenses.

Those buyers sell to drivers that transport the marijuana back to Iowa City

They sell to buyers that usually order in

pounds OR local grown dealers sell their

supply to their market

Those smaller dealers sell

to users looking to buy

grams or ounces

The Filter-down Effect

*graphic by Braden Offerman-Mims

*Names have been changed for privacy


all i want for

CHRISMUKKAH

EHoliday season is the most wonderful time of the year. It’s a time of joy and a time for cheer. Corbin and Quincey Scholz spend their holiday a little differently by celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah. By Kellee Darner

veryone knows the typical Christ-mas and Hanukkah traditions. A Christmas tree with lights all around and ornaments hung from branches; tree skirts around the trunk and a topper on the tall-est point of the tree. The nine-branched menorah, a symbol of Judaism since ancient times, is lit one branch at a time for 8 days.

Chrismukkah is a merging of Christmas, which is religiously tied to Christianity, and Hanuk-kah, a Jewish holiday. It is cel-

ebrated in interfaith households where one parent may be of Chris-tian heritage and another parent of Jewish heritage.

“It’s our way of coming to-gether as a family and celebrating a holiday without being religious,” Quincey Scholz ‘16 said.

According to Corbin Scholz ‘13, the name fits perfectly. “We just had nothing else to call it,” Corbin said. “It’s awesome because we get triple the presents.”

Chrismukkah was popularized by the FOX television program The O.C. On the show, the char-acter Seth Cohen has a Jewish fa-ther and a Protestant mother. As a way to merge the two faiths, Seth claims to have “created Chrismuk-kah” when he was six years old. The series included annual Chris-mukkah episodes for every season of its run. Seth explained the cel-ebration as “eight days of presents, followed by one day of many pres-ents.”

“My mom grew up Jewish but she didn’t bring it into our family. She wants us to be able to explore our own beliefs,” Corbin said. “Our immediate family is really the only ones that celebrate Chris-mukkah.”

The O.C. celebrated Chrismuk-kah by displaying both a Christ-mas tree and a Hanukkah meno-rah. Some people have taken this holiday a step further and created Chrismukkah greeting cards and symbols.

For Quincey and Corbin, Chrismukkah has been a time for forming their own traditions.

“We have traditions on each

side of our family but we have our own within our immediate fam-ily,” Corbin said. “Like saying what we’re thankful for before we open our gifts.”

Chrismukkah celebrators give their gifts at different times. If they celebrate Christmas more, the typical time to give presents is Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Those who focus on Hanukkah give presents gradually every day for 8 days, with a greater amount on Christmas day.

“We each have our own meno-rah at our grandma’s house for the 8 days, then we open gifts on the last day,” Corbin said. “We don’t go to a Jewish ceremony nor a Chris-tian church because we’re not very religious.”

Interestingly, it is believed that the spelling of the holiday as “Chrismukkah,” intentionally left out the “t” from Christmas, so that Christian activists would not be enraged that Christ’s name was proclaimed in such a holiday. Some families celebrate Chris-mukkah as a religious holiday while others celebrate ‘just cause.’

“We keep it kinda private and not religious,” Quincey said.

Corbin would like to continue celebrating Chrismukkah in the future.

“I hope to keep the tradition of Chrismukkah in my family in order to bring my family together but I also don’t want to force reli-gion on my kids,” Corbin said. “I would like to celebrate it some day along with my kids and my imme-diate family so the ‘Chrismukkah family’ can grow.”

December 19, 2012 LH FEATURE MAGAZINE 13

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basketball games and other school activities, and that was so cool to watch.”

And beyond these activities, Braverman really started to see a culture shift in those matched up in one-on-one friendships.

“When people started introducing their Best Buddy as their ‘friend’ was when I really noticed what an impact the club was having,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about. Everyone has feelings and a right to belong.”

Braverman and his colleagues have worked hard to create “a positive educational experi-ence” for all of their students in the classroom as well.

“It’s all about striking a balance between functional and core academic skills,” he ex-plained. “How is mainstreaming a kid and put-ting him in calculus beneficial when he doesn’t know what 2+2 is? That just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.” So, as a team effort, the spe-cial education staff works together to create a curriculum that fits well with their students.

“We modify the core curriculum a lot, but it’s still a lot of the same stuff. We read the same novels as all the other classes, like Fahrenheit 451 and To Kill a Mockingbird, we just go a lot

slower,” he said. “And in my opinion, we get a lot more out of them.” Though Braverman quite clearly loves his job, he admits that there are certain challenges.

“Of course, working with students with in-tellectual disabilities definitely requires a high level of tolerance,” he said. “Everyone has a breaking point, and sometimes you just have to walk out of the room for a second.” But with a goal in mind, Mr. Braverman and his colleagues work together to make sure that the lives of their students are improved both in the short and long run.

“I want to see that we have made a differ-ence and improved both their vocational and functional lives,” he said. “We want to help them be productive members of society, just like all the other kids.” And this process of teach-ing and preparing is one that is reciprocal for Braverman.

“I learn just as much from my students ev-ery day as they do from me.”


“I want to see that we have made a difference and improved both [my

students’] vocational and functional lives.”

- Tom Braverman

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OPENING

SOON!!! Short’s Burgers EASTSIDE

Bringing a little bit of downtown IC to the Eastside! 521 Westbury Drive * 319.338.7743 * One door north of Anytime Fitness

Formerly Mexico Wayne’s (for 6 days)

*We serve local, 100% corn-fed black angus beef that

arrives fresh, never frozen*

*Also serving all-natural grilled chicken breasts and homemade vegetarian, black bean burgers*

*Our buns are baked daily and our fries are hand-cut

daily and seasoned to perfection*

Check out a sample of our menu: Dundee Burger

sautéed mushrooms, bacon, fried egg, garlic aloli, American cheese

Beaconsfield Burger bacon, cheddar, barbeque sauce

Sac Chicken Sandwich grilled onions, Swiss,

teriyaki sauce, wasabi mayonnaise

Hardin Chicken Sandwich buffalo chicken, grilled

onions, lettuce, tomato, bleu cheese

Jackson Junction Black Bean Burger: salsa, pepper jack, avocado mayonnaise

Cheese Fries: green onions, sour cream, choice of bacon, chili or Short’s sauce

Monday Night’s: $6.00 Burgers Tuesday Night’s: Half price Mexican

Wednesday Night’s: Portion of profits goes to a local organization—contact us

for info!

Additionally, we will serve a Kid’s Menu, Chicken (Dylan) Fingers, wings, salads and

some items from our former Mexico Wayne’s menu!

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Like us on Facebook Short’s Burgers—Eastside and follow us on Twitter @shortseastside to get updates on our Opening Day…

Let’s Go City High Little Hawks! The School That Leads!

Serving lunch and dinner

Beer Battered Pork Tenderloin w/ mustard, pickles and onions. An Iowa favorite!

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