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By Audrey Lutz

Ms. Switzer and her History of Nonviolence class made an outstanding art installation depicting a visual timeline of nonviolent movements in American history. The project is the culmination of many years of preparation, research, and development. 

After involving Ms. Story, an upper school art teacher, they decided to make a timeline following events through history. We were standing in front of the artwork when we spoke and she said,  “If I were to go back 20 years when I first started teaching about non-violence I would not have known half of what is up here.”

Each student made individual tiles that show non-violent activists and researched them to gain a better understanding of who they are and how they affected history. I was able to speak with Leah Cox about her involvement with this project. “I was a student in the class, so I helped with brainstorming and making the background,” she said. “If you look at the board, on the far right, there is a collage of non-violent organizations and above it there are doves. I made both of those.” 

Ms. Switzer said that the installation is a way “of visualizing all of the interconnected complexity of non-violence in American history.” Everything is connected one way or another, and this installment shows all of the historical branches. 

As we started the interview Ms. Switzer implied that “Non-violence isn’t just about creating peace and justice, it’s creating conditions where violence is less likely.” This art is meant to show that peace is possible and that people are willing to risk their lives to stand up and say, they want a better society. 

There are 14 different non-violent movements that are represented on the board, but the art piece starts with the Indigenous people in the United States. “What my students discovered is that from a very early point, Indigenous people in the United States had non-violent peacemaking kinds of cultural technologies, and a lot of the non-violence that evolved came from seeing the way the Indigenous people resolve conflict,” said Ms. Switzer. 

The Indigenous people are the true roots of America and the first people to teach non-violence. “Many people think that the Indigenous people were just bows and arrows, but they had such a complex life,” said Ms. Switzer. 

Next, we move on to the Quakers and Anabaptists. “The historic peace churches (the Quakers and Anabaptists) came to the United States to escape persecution.” The Quakers and Anabaptists lit the fire for the anti-slavery movement. “They believed that there is a god and somehow that god is present in all people, so then anytime you’re unjust or violent to another person, you’re being unjust and violent to god. So that sort of theological premise motivated them to confront slavery first.”

Everything is connected in history and this board is illustrating that. “So we have this early women’s movement that starts, and those same women became the leaders of the suffrage movement.” Ms. Switzer then shows me how the branches connect everything together. 

As we keep moving down the boards we are introduced to the pre-civil rights which of course leads us to the all mighty civil-rights movement. They tried to include as much as they could, but the board can only hold so much. The board includes the majority of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. 

Finally, we come to the final board with the Black Lives Matter movement “as the most recent manifestation,” with its focus on anti-racism. “We have anti-racism, kind of having these moments of surging and then receding and then surging over time, but always there.” 

People have always been fighting against racism in history. “A takeaway that one of my students realized is that since the 1600s, there have been people, white people standing against racism, all the way to the current time. And since 1730-1740 every year someone has been born in America who has fought against racism.”

At the end of the final board, there are many pieces of art. “We have this collage of doves and it sort of represents the future for hope and peace,” Ms. Switzer said. There is a collage of different activists, and then finally  a mirror “because we wanted people to get to the end of the installation and say, well what can I do to make a more peaceful future?” 

Under the mirror, it says “The Future of Nonviolence is You.”

This project was a semester-long idea, yet the idea mainly came to fruition right around thanksgiving. As Ms. Switzer usually has a much bigger class she doesn’t do big projects like this one. This year she only had 9 students in her History of Nonviolence class, so Ms. Switzer asked them if they wanted to do something more creative than they normally couldn’t do with a greater number of students. “We talked to Ms. Story and we started brainstorming options. My students wanted to work together so we developed this idea, which was much more complicated than we were expecting and I didn’t know if we were going to finish.”

They started making it right after fall break and only had until exams to finish. “Towards the end of the last 2 weeks of class, this project was all we did. The students came before school, after school, and during lunch. They spent so much time on this and it’s incredible.” Leah Cox, a student who worked on this project, said that “There were times when we would have to come during our free periods, and we would work together and collaborate throughout the whole process.”

As the artwork started to finish they brought in Ms. Story again to take a look. “Once Ms. Story saw the project coming together she said that we needed to get this in front of other audiences.” Then came talk of where this outstanding project could go. They are considering the  Hartfield Jackson airport, which has a section where they display student work; the Center for Civil and Human Rights; and even the history center of Atlanta. “Right now the chief of the marketing department – Janie Beck- is working on finding out if this could be a traveling exhibition.”

Ms. Switzer is so proud of this piece and it has only made her think of what she could do in the future. “I’ve been trying for years to know how to organize this incredibly complex history and the more I taught the more I realized that it’s not just the history of non-violence but the histories of non-violence, and I’ve always struggled to make sense of it all visually. And the fact that they were able to create a way of visualizing it is amazing, not only to me but to them and future students.”

This project was huge, not only for Lovett but for the future of Ms. Switzer’s class. This artwork alone holds so many important people, dates, and moments in history that are not talked about in the history books. 

The students had to work so incredibly hard to get this project completed and it brought them closer together. “I think that this bonded my class,” she said. “We would see one another so much during the day that our close proximity to each other almost forced us to get closer.”

This artwork will be displayed in the art gallery hall until the end of February. After that, no one is truly sure where it will end up but, hopefully, wherever it goes it will inspire people. “We’re trying to create a better world,” Leah said.

By Tanisha Naik

Juniors Wells Stribling and Zara Hebb “have been making bank” selling a variety of sweatshirts with handmade designs. During lunch, in the plaza, I spoke with these two entrepreneurs about their journey and the story behind Little Star Apparel

This idea to start a sweatshirt business came to the two during a lunch at The Daily. Zara had made Wells a sweatshirt with a star on it for her birthday that looks a lot like the ones they produce now. As they chatted and enjoyed their meal, inspiration struck and they thought: “Why not turn this into a business?” 

So they quickly started to brainstorm ideas of things they should make. That simple conversation led to the creation of Little Star Apparel. 

When I asked how they came up with the name, Wells was quick to jump in. “The name was actually my idea,” she said. Wells’ family takes an annual trip to Montana, where there’s a favorite restaurant called Star. 

However, when Wells and Zara tried setting up an Etsy account, they ran into a small roadblock. “We found out we couldn’t use Etsy because we’re not 18, and the name Little Star was already taken,” Zara said. Determined to make it work, Zara started trying random usernames until she landed on Little Star Apparel and then “boom, that’s how we got the name,” Zara said. 

Sewing has been a part of both of their lives for years. Wells has been ewing her whole life but then she took a break for a while. When Zara said she has been hand sewing since she was six,  Wells did not believe her. “You are not a child prodigy,” she told Zara. 

Obviously having a business takes a lot of organization and time. For Zara and Wells, if they continuously work on a sweatshirt, it’s around two hours, but sometimes they have to spread it out over a couple weeks because they are busy with sports and school. They also try to meet most weekends to work on the sweatshirts so that they can split up the work. For example,  “Zara does the hood and pocket stitching, and I’ll do the hearts or stars,” Wells explained. This also gives them a chance to help each other. 

 Their designs mostly consist of a simple stitching on the hood or pockets and either stars or hearts on the sweatshirt. You can check out their awesome instagram page @littlestarapparel or find people at Lovett wearing their designs. 

Some of the work is hand sewn and some is done with a sewing machine. 

As we talked about how their process has evolved over the past few months, Zara couldn’t help but bring up one of Wells’ early attempts at making a sweatshirt. 

“Last year, Wells tried to make one for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and it just didn’t look really hot,” she said with a laugh. Wells was quite offended by this. “ I cannot believe you just said that,” she said. Zara quickly tried to save herself. “You improved though, but I stayed the same,” Zara said. 

Luckily for Wells she has definitely upgraded her materials and is improving her designs. Zara and Wells are open to new designs which are requested by their buyers. They couldn’t tell me where they get their materials from because “It’s classified,” Wells said.  

Not only do Wells and Zara spend hours working on these sweatshirts, Wells donates the proceeds to the Make a Wish Foundation, to help sick children. 

As their business continues to grow, Wells and Zara are always thinking of new ideas. They really want to try “printed t-shirts with cyanotypes where the sun helps create the design.” Wells explained. 

All their designs vary but the most popular is layered hearts, for which they’ve had multiple orders. Their favorite sweatshirts they have made is grey with two different shades of blue stars and the gray sweatshirt with red hearts. 

On their Instagram. You’ll find some pretty cool stories and posts. Zara mentioned about how she has random photos on her phone that she will put on the story with some music. “So if you see a photo of my face really zoomed in with Fetty Wap it’s Zara,” Wells said. 

With the number of orders they are receiving, they’re considering raising prices. “We had like seven orders in two weeks,” Zara said. “And we don’t always want to spend our entire Saturday doing this so people need to understand why we charge what we do because it takes a long time to make these.” They want to come up with a better system that’s more time effective.

As for the future? They plan to keep their business running throughout high school and keep their friendship just as strong. “We’ll keep making sweatshirts and maybe one day, expand to something even bigger,” Wells said.

With their lighthearted banter and awesome design skills Little Star Apparel is off to a great start. 

To order a sweatshirt, check out their Instagram and fill out the Google form in their bio. But act fast! Their designs are in high demand, and they’re not about to spend every Saturday behind a sewing machine.

By Parvi Anand

Early Thursday mornings, the Middle School Math Team, guided by senior Bailey Brunson, junior Merritt Nalle, and middle school math teacher Ms. Adam, fills a classroom with the sound of scratching pencils,  chatter, and occasionally mispronounced geometric terms—like when one eighth grader adorably called “isosceles” as “i-scos-lis.” 

The team, a group of dedicated sixth and seventh graders, meets twice a week in the middle school building to tackle tricky problems, compete in Math Madness competitions, and bond over their shared love for numbers. 

Bailey and Merritt help these students sharpen their problem-solving skills and deepen their passion for math. Whether high-fiving over a correct answer or encouraging teammates to beat their personal bests, it’s clear that for them, math is more than just numbers—it’s a team sport.

When I asked 7th grader Katherine Bell why she joined the math team. Her response was short and sweet, “I love math and it seemed fun.” 

Bailey, a senior in Lovett’s advanced math track, has taken on a significant leadership role with the team. With a background in post-AP math and AP Calculus BC, Bailey’s passion for mathematics has been a driving force throughout high school, both in terms of her personal growth and her interest in helping others. 

“I started working with the middle schoolers in my sophomore year and really enjoyed it,” she shared. “Last year, when our previous leader, Ms. Morgan, retired, I took over as part of my diploma distinction project in math.”

As a leader, Bailey is responsible for planning meetings, coordinating activities, and handling competition registrations alongside Ms. Adam. The team prepares for contests such as Math Counts by solving past test problems and online practice questions. To further support students, Bailey even created a personalized notes packet, equipping them with strategies for tackling tricky competition questions.

Of course, working with middle schoolers presents its own set of challenges. “At first, it was kind of difficult to manage the noise and energy,” Bailey admitted. “Over time, I’ve learned to harness that energy and use it in fun ways, like turning problem-solving into games.” 

This approach has not only made math more engaging but also helped students develop a stronger grasp of the mathematical concepts in a much more enjoyable setting.

Beyond improving their technical skills, Bailey hopes the team fosters a sense of confidence and accomplishment among its members. “I want them to see that they can tackle difficult problems and feel proud of their progress,” she said.

Looking ahead, Bailey envisions continuing her mentorship work beyond Lovett. “I think I’d be really interested in mentoring as a volunteer opportunity in college. I love working with kids, and it’s really rewarding to teach them new skills,” she said. I saw firsthand how excited the students would become when they would gain a point or get a problem right. 

For high school students interested in supporting the math team, Bailey encourages them to get involved as upper school interns. “If anyone wants to help out, they should feel free to reach out to me!” she said. “There are also other great mentoring programs at Lovett, like Girl Talk and Agape, that students can explore.”

By Tanisha Naik

Every year, for my New Year’s resolution, I always decide to make sure my room is clean at the end of each day, and as you can imagine, I fail every year. This year, I decided it was high time for a change. 

Surprisingly, I have kept that promise for all of January.  My mom had constantly told me to clean the room, so when I decided to finally organize it, I was surprised to discover it had made me more productive. 

I wanted to get more perspectives from students to see if they always clean their rooms and if their room affects their productivity. 

Some students like juniors Tori McMillian and Merrit Nalle clean their rooms every day. Junior Gavin Traylor also tries to keep his room organized every day.  Others, like Sophomores Julia Threlked and Lauren Sung, normally clean their room “once every two weeks,” they said. 

For me, one way I always make sure my room is clean is to make my bed either in the morning if I have time or after school before I sit down to do my work at my desk which makes me feel more productive. 

Most students can relate to this, like juniors Carson Pressley and Susan Googe, who make their bed every morning and don’t have to get a reminder from their parents. Junior Audrey Lutz also makes her bed occasionally. 

Lauren tries to make her bed daily, but sometimes, “It’s too hard.”  Lucky for her, her parents are understanding and only get on her when she isn’t busy. 

Most students also try to keep their rooms and lives organized as best they can during the year. Every student is different and each has their approach to the organization either in their 

personal lives or in their rooms. Susan makes a to-do list on her phone in her notes app to keep herself organized. “I like the satisfaction of crossing out tasks because I feel it makes me feel more accomplished,” she said. 

Julia has specific cabinets for her belongings. “I have one for my school stuff and where I put books and so everything has its own space,” she said. Lauren tries to organize her papers and her books in cabinets as well. 

Audrey also has a great method for organization. She likes to tidy up a little every day and by the end of the week, she is pretty much organized. 

While senior Mylee Dubin mostly has a clean room, there are still some corners “that are not clean right now…and won’t be clean for a while,” she said. 

Then there are students like senior Ward Bromstad, who has a different approach to his organization. In fact, “he doesn’t.” He has his belongings scattered everywhere in his room. Ward does his work on his desk in his room which isn’t organized either. When I asked him if he thinks that organizing his room would make him more productive, he simply replied, “No, not really.” 

Overall, it seems like Lovett students believe that a clean room can equal a clean and healthy environment to study and do work. Unless you’re like Ward and can manage without an organized environment. 

This would not be the case for Lauren Sung, for whom room tidiness is quite important to staying on task. “It helps a lot, like 100%,” she said. 

By Ella Kate McCord

As I was walking into the seated area in the cafe, I ran into senior Reeves Malone who was enjoying her free period. 

“I do not have much work to do right now, but I am waiting for my college counseling meeting that is in 15 minutes,” she told me. 

Since I knew that she did not have anything for the next 15 minutes, I decided that I wanted to know more about what she has been doing for the past year and what her involvement at Lovett has been since she got here. If you know Reeves, she is always doing something whether it is homework, studying, or planning something for the week, so these 15 minutes were very rare to come across. 

Reeves came to Lovett from Woodward Academy in the ninth grade and, ever since, has been involved in various activities throughout the Lovett community. 

To start she became involved in Vestry in the 9th grade and has loved participating in chapel, vestry retreat, and more. 

This year, she is a vestry warden which is a big deal!! Only two girls and two boys are picked from the senior class to have this title and she is one of them.

“We meet every Tuesday, lead the vestry group, plan the whole vestry retreat, read, acolyte, and participate in all school chapels,” she said.

Every year the vestry retreat consists of fun activities during the day and at night. The senior wardens are not only in charge of picking out the activities and skits but also the people involved in these events. 

This year, the vestry retreat is “the weekend of February 22nd and I’m so excited. We still have a good amount of planning but it’s really fun because me and Francie [last name] get to plan the skits.” 

On the sports side of things Reeves does cross country in the fall and soccer in the spring. 

She said that one of her highlights of this year was to be on cross country because it’s “fun to be with people that I do not usually hang out with.”

Now that it’s soccer season, she said it’s a very bittersweet experience because she is so excited to play and lead the team, but is very sad because it is going to be her last season ever. 

She was complimentary of the  JV and Varsity soccer teams. “No one is bad and Lovett soccer will stay good for the upcoming years,” she said.

“I think we are gonna be really good again once we get into the groove and understand how people play. We are definitely going to be just as good as last year and have a good shot at winning another state championship,” she said.

When she’s not devoting time to her classes and extracurriculars, she likes to watch her new favorite TV series, Night Agent. It is on Netflix and she said she is obsessed with it. (I am definitely going to give it a try.)  

Looking ahead, she is very excited to see how soccer plays out, find out about college in March, and, of course, participate in all of the senior festivities (especially senior spring break). 

“I am excited to be with the entire class because we do not have a lot of moments with everyone together and it is always fun to be all together,” she said.

By Anna Mefford

This past weekend Lovett students journeyed out to Camp High Harbor at Lake Alatoona for the annual Vestry retreat. “Easily one of my favorite weekends of the whole year,” senior Abby Odegard said. 

Around 150 Lovett students gathered at 8 a.m. on Saturday to head to Lake Allatoona. They took a 30-minute ride to the camp and, once they got there, dispersed into cabins. 

“I was very surprised by how nice and big these cabins were,” said freshman Paige McMillan. 

After plenty of top-versus-bottom bunk arguments, students gathered at the Church to split into groups. The Vestry Wardens carefully chose the groups, which was not an easy task. As a warden myself, I can testify that we spent about two months arranging the groups so that everyone had a friend but was also with plenty of people they did not know from other grades.

One of the main goals of the retreat is to meet new people from different grades and form new bonds you never thought you would have made. 

The groups then dispersed and played about 2 hours worth of awkward icebreakers to get to know each other. 

“Icebreakers are one of my favorite parts about the retreat because while it’s awkward at first it’s the most important part of really getting to know your group,” senior Lydia Wilson said. 

After many rounds of “Chubby Bunny,” and “Human Knot,” the groups all gathered together to announce their team names and eat some delicious lunch with their groups.

“Gotta make sure you fuel up before the big game of volleyball,” senior Thomas Harris said. 

Arguably, the most renowned part of the retreat is the volleyball tournament. Five groups go to the courts and play four intense games of volleyball (one team refs), with Mr. Kennerson and Ms. Howard keeping score.

While the 5 groups play volleyball all the other groups disperse and do activities and talk about the theme of the retreat. This year Rev Brown chose “Call to Service” as the theme of the retreat. 

So, groups gathered together and talked about biblical stories such as the conversion of Paul, Noah building an Ark, and Moses and the burning bush. During their talk, the groups were challenged to build their own version of an ark with just cardboard scissors and duct tape. 

“Special shoutout to Scarlett Rouland who told us about buoyancy and the need to have an air pocket under the ark,” said Charlie Sheets. 

After lots and lots and lots of duct tape, groups took their ark to the cafeteria to see how well their boat could hold up as many pebbles as possible. 

Rev Brown explained how the point of the ark activity was to teach the students that God does not always call the equipped, but he equips the called. 

“I really liked the activity as it was engaging but also had a very good spiritual connection to it as we could experience what it was like to have to adjust to certain circumstances to achieve what was being asked of us,” said junior Mason Bosworth.

The groups then rotated around each of the activities and all gathered at the end to watch the volleyball tournament championship. But before the games began, seniors Corrine Dunlap and Southerland Newton led everyone in the singing of the national anthem, “a classic tradition,” said senior Francie Loven.

Finally, after a very intense game, Group 4 (named “the holy hitters”) came out with a dub and earned bragging rights for the rest of the trip (which they did not pass up). 

“I was very proud of my group and our win,” said junior Knox Amos.

To end the round of games, discussions, and ark building the groups gathered together in prayer, led by senior Hill Mauldin, and then went to dinner. The menu for the night was pasta, grilled chicken, and salad, and was “the best vestry dinner I’ve had out of all my years on the retreat,” said senior Calder Shurling. 

To end the night everyone gathered in the chapel to watch the entertainment and the famous senior skits. The entertainment this year was the Kenn Scott magic show where he showed us many card tricks and how to solve a Rubix cube in under 3 seconds with one hand and eyes closed. After Mr. Scott was done leaving everyone in awe and extremely confused, senior wardens Francie Loven and Reeves Malone took the stage for the senior skits.

“The skits are my favorite part of the retreat and I was so excited to plan them this year,” Reeves said. 

Some of the skits included sibling trivia, couple trivia, bachelor, and the bachelorette. Special shoutout to Senior Thomas Harris who took on the role of “Waldo,” a nature-loving unemployed, very caring man who was looking for a girl to go to the botanical gardens with. 

“I’ve never laughed harder in my life than I did when watching Thomas do the Waldo skit,” said Junior Hollis Fann. 

After the skits and abundant laughter, all the students ventured out to the campfire to make s’mores. Shortly after, everyone sat down and listened as each senior gave a short speech with advice to all the younger grades. 

“It’s never too late to make a change and if you don’t make a change it becomes a choice,” advised senior Sally Berry. 

The campfire brought tears to many as it was the end of their last Vestry retreat. 

“I always would listen to the seniors and never really take in what they had to say because I always thought I had so much time but standing there really made me realize how fast time has gone by,” said senior Francie Loven.

Then, after the fire, the students went back to their cabins and rested up from a long day’s worth of activities. They then were woken up at 8 am the next morning to eat breakfast and venture back to the Lovett school.

When the Vestry Wardens met with Rev Brown after the retreat, he said he thought it was a huge success. He was relieved since it was his first year leading it. But even before we left for the retreat, he was tipping his hat to the student leaders. “I would like to give a shoutout to the wardens for all their help,” he said to everyone before we loaded onto the buses, “and I encourage all to sign up for next year’s retreat.”