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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 Valeria Benitez

After a heated (rivalry you may say, since they are dating) debate this past Tuesday, Cate Turner and Henry Slagle faced off in one of the most anticipated Student Government Association (SGA) presidential elections of the year. By 3:10 p.m., students across campus were anxiously waiting for the results. Group chats (such as my friend’s group chat LEFTBEN) were buzzing anxiously, asking Cate when she would find out if she won. 

In the end, Cate won.

When I asked her about changes she would make if elected, Cate immediately pointed to one policy she feels strongly about: adjusting sit-down exams in the fall. I for one believe this is necessary because sometimes you have a 90 in a class and you don’t want the exam to tank your grade. She told me “sometimes exams can be unnecessary, especially for students who have already demonstrated strong performance throughout the semester and it’s not really fair if the exam brings down their grade”.

Cate shared that she has been working closely with SGA committee groups on an exam exemption proposal. Alongside her committee, she has helped develop an idea that would exempt students who achieve a 92 weighted GPA (principal’s list) during the semester from one sit-down written exam. This exemption would apply only in the fall semester and would allow students to maintain their semester grade in the class they chose for the exam exemption.  

Although the proposal has not yet been approved, it has had positive feedback from the administration. Cate and the SGA committee have already met with school administrators, including Ms. Lucas and Mr. Brunt, and are scheduled to present their idea in a department head meeting later in April (after our research paper is done). 

I then curiously asked Cate who inspired her for this leadership role and who influences her daily. Without a second thought, she told me, “My dad has always encouraged me to strive to be the most influential and effective person in any room.”

Looking ahead, Cate told me she is so excited about the responsibilities of being SGA president. She described herself as someone who likes to stay informed and involved, admitting she can be a bit of a “control freak” in the best way. For her, understanding what is happening across the school and being actively engaged is not just important and it is something she genuinely enjoys. She believes this mindset will help her better serve the student body.

One of the most common questions during the debate centered around accessibility: how can SGA become more approachable for all students? Cate told me SGA is already working on a SGA newsletter, which will be available in the school’s resource tab next year. This way, students don’t have to confront her if they don’t want to, and it can be anonymous.

She explained that this tab on MyLion will serve as an easy and effective way for students to ask questions, share concerns, and stay informed throughout the year. She told me her main goal is to make communication with SGA more open and straightforward.

As for her future plans, Cate emphasized that she wants to listen to people’s opinions. She has already begun gathering suggestions from students in hallways and around campus, writing down ideas and concerns she hears. She plans to meet with Mrs. Hooker early on to begin turning those ideas into action.

At the same time, she acknowledged that leadership comes with uncertainty. Cate told me “ I feel nervous about the level of control I may not have and the adjustments l will need to make”. However, she also recognizes that accepting those challenges is part of growing as a leader.

For those of you who know Cate, her interest in leadership is not new. She told me, “I have wanted to be president since kindergarten.”  Over time, she has discovered a genuine passion for public speaking, joining speech and debate, as well as taking on influential roles within the school community. She believes that being SGA president aligns well with her personality and the qualities she brings to leadership.

Reflecting on the campaign itself, Cate told me running against Henry, she felt a bit nervous and “there were definitely a few moments of awkwardness.” Despite some awkwardness, she felt the debate went well and was pretty civil. Her friends also did a pretty great job promoting her campaign with TikTok edits of Cate on people’s for-you pages and Grace Schmidt going down the hall, threatening people to vote for Cate.

And now, for the question everyone has been waiting for. Lunch. What will lunch be like next year? Well, Cate is already on that. She talked to the head of school, Mrs. Cole, and discovered that the food trucks Henry mentioned might be possible only twice a month. So don’t get your hopes up thinking every Friday next year you will get tacos or Chick-fil-A for lunch.

She told me that lunch next year will work similarly to how it did during the pandemic, with a big white tent on Railey, since the new kitchen will be at the physical plant up by the baseball field. “I’m trying my best to figure out how to limit the time we spend outside for lunch on days where it’s too cold or too hot,” Cate added. 

As with everything else, she is open to any suggestions.

By Isabella Ying

For all the women and girls in our Lovett community, March is an especially sacred time. Because from the days of Sunday, March first to Tuesday, March thirty-first, the United States observes a period of remembrance, recognition, and appreciation for the countless accomplishments of Women in history. From March first to the thirty-first, we celebrate Women’s History Month.

Women have been underrepresented throughout history. Our society is deeply rooted in patriarchy, and when one half of the world wants strongly enough to utterly quash the other half, they will find a way. From antiquity, when women were viewed as legal property of their husbands or fathers to the modern day, ever-present wage gap, the theme has been subordination. Even the mythical Penelope has overarchingly been attributed as a model, an ideal, of submissive obedience, and never her own woman.

But women, as reduced and obfuscated as we are, have certainly done many things. We can thank Ada Lovelace for the inception of computer programming in the 19th century and Rosa Parks for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, just to highlight a couple names.

At Lovett, seniors Christina Dahabreh and Katherine Molner formed a unique, all-girls club to stake feminine claim in the world’s most prolific major. Founded in their sophomore year, the Girls in Business club is one of a kind. As tenth graders, Christina and Katherine recognized that they shared a passion in business, and although neither was incredibly knowledgeable in the field, they were certain they wanted to learn more about business. And so was born Girls in Business.

Before GIB’s inception, Lovett already had business-oriented clubs such as LERIG (Lovett Environmentally Responsible Investment Group), or the Wharton Investment Competition. Christina and Katherine realized that if they were to form a business club, it would be overrun by boys, and “the male demographic can’t understand females in the workplace,” Christina knew. This is where Girls in Business stands apart: with “Girls” premier in the title, the club is all-female.

With such a new, radical approach to business at Lovett, it is obvious that Christina and Katherine intended for their organization to turn corners. Since Christina acknowledged that “there are a lot of women who are in the business sector, but not in C-suite,” she wanted GIB to create an environment for Lovett’s girls to learn and thrive comfortably. She affirmed that “you can’t just say ‘there’s equality in business and women and men.’”

For Christina, “ever since I was younger, I knew I wanted to be into business.” Her parents have a family business, and she is their only child. While history says that the son should take over the family enterprise, she has always known that someday, that job will be hers.

At Lovett daily operations depend on female staffing, whether teachers or administration. On March 11th, however, GIB used community time to spotlight a different, equally prominent group of women affiliated with our school: moms. Moms who, in particular, are highly regarded female business leaders. Girls in Business hosted five unique women for the panel on March 11th. These women are Virginia Adams of Ernst & Young, Alicia Tilman of Delta, Alice Park, Wanda Morris, and Deneta Sells.

This panel was the final flourish of the pair of senior leaders’ two years of hard work. In the club’s first year, “we had a lot of people in our club. We met, I think, twice a month, Monday during lunch and we watched Shark Tank videos. We dissected them and it was just like a friendly community,” said Christina. 

But the club quickly realized that they could actually have a voice. The first speaker that they hosted was Amy French, who works in real estate. Ms. French is, according to Christina, “ranked up in the top 2% in Atlanta for real estate agents. And so she came in and that really pushed the needle for our club.” After that, GIB experienced significantly more recognition. Their second speaker was Rebecca Fondell, a vice president at Papa John’s and Lovett mom. Instead of Christina, Katherine, and GIB reaching out to her as they’d reached out to Ms. French, Ms. Fondell inquired first.

Come 11th grade, with the duo taking American Studies and focusing on college applications, the club began winding down. Still, “we wanted to have it in the back of our minds,” Christina said. “Since our junior year, we’ve been thinking about the women’s panel.”

Luckily, Ms. Catherine Jackson, co-founder and president of Mission Mighty Me, a baby food company, also came in to talk to the club. This prompted Ms. Cole to “really get on board with us because we wanted to really expand,” Christina said.

The panel’s planning was no small feat with roots traceable to last November, far before the allotted date in March. “We would love to have a panel where it’s not just a club setting, but we can actually promote our club to the entire school,” they told Ms. Cole over lunch.

Once Ms. Cole gave them the go-ahead, Christina consistently communicated from November to February in preparation for the date that Ms. Cole set for Women’s History Month.

Finally, on March 11th, the time for the panel arrived.

Virginia Adams

The first panelist was Ms. Virginia Adams. Ms. Adams is a Forensic & Integrity Services Partner at Ernst and Young, where she’s been for over two decades. She has a fifth grader, Mitchell, and seventh grader, Hudson, at Lovett. As a graduate of the University of Georgia, Ms. Adams studied international business and finance. She has been at Ernst and Young for over two decades now.

Ms. Adams entered public accounting over 20 years ago at a time when there were not many female partners. In the beginning of her career, “I thought I always had to be out golfing,” she said. Being “the only woman at the table once I got to a certain level in my career,” she felt the need to match the activities of her male counterparts.

But Ms. Adams has never been a golfer, and it never hurt her. Two of her peers at the beginning of her career, also vying for a partner position, golfed while she did not.

But, “many years later, those two individuals, well, one of them actually got demoted, and the other one ended up being asked to leave the firm.” Meanwhile, for Ms. Adams, “here I am in this leadership role that I have for being myself.” The takeaway? “Stay true to your own identity, and not try to be someone that you’re not,” she said. With that in mind, she believes she has found success.

Alice Park

Ms. Alice Park, sitting to the left of Ms. Adams, has been a photographer for the past 20 plus years. Ms. Park’s son Lyon is a freshman, and her daughter Elise is a fifth grader.

When the time came for college Ms. Park chose engineering. But sitting in statistics class in her freshman year, her boredom drove her to existentialism.

“This is so boring,” she remembers thinking. “And I was like, ‘I am so miserable. I picked the wrong school. I picked the wrong degree. What am I going to do with the rest of my life?’” 

She remembers being at her first job, “walking at the edge of a window one day at that beautiful, tall building,” and “thinking that there must be something more to life with this.” Most of all, she remembers how “I felt completely soulless at that moment because I was so utterly unhappy.”

Following endless pondering how “there is so much more in life,” the man who’d eventually become her husband asked her, “if you didn’t have to think about money, if you didn’t have to think about responsibilities, if you didn’t have to think about the expectations from your parents,” what would Ms. Park do with the rest of her life?

She thought back to being twelve years old and holding a camera for the first time. Without a doubt, “‘I would be a photographer.’ And so that is when I took the big leap.” She left the stability of her tall building and corporate pursuits, and leaned into photography. Still pursuing her passion today, Ms. Park could not be happier.

Alicia Tillman

This panel pulled Ms. Alicia Tillman, Chief Marketing Officer of Delta, back to her own high school days. Mother of freshman Will, and junior Riley, in high school she heard that “the most intelligent people in the world are the most well read people in the world.” So Ms. Tillman immersed herself in English.

But “what do I do with English?” she wondered. To this, there was more advice. “You need to pursue a focus in marketing,” her teacher told her. “Because marketing is essentially about telling a story to help someone invest in a product or a service so that it sells a company.”

“I’ve gone through 25 years of business, I was generally one of only a few women in the room,” Ms. Tillman said. Throughout those years, she has learned to not get caught up in her head because that always holds her back. Nowadays, she appreciates how, “women are gaining more prominence and taking on more leadership skills in life, and that is just such a beautiful thing.”

To all the boys in the room, “when you see a girl doing something really well, applaud her, celebrate her, invite her into the room,” Ms. Tillman asks. “Because that is going to make a difference in our ability for women to achieve that level of status that we certainly deserve.”

Wanda Morris

Ms. Wanda Morris began in pre-med, then pursued finance, becoming the first in her family to graduate from college. Then, she studied law. But in the end, she finally found true love in literature as a novelist, and has lived somewhat of a life out of a novel herself. Ms. Morris is the mother of Ashton Hightower, a junior.

Much like Ms. Park, she found in her sophomore year of college that the path she’d set her sights on was not the fate she desired. Sitting in organic chemistry class, Ms. Morris realized that she was not going to become a doctor. Always in the back of her mind lingered her love for reading and writing—but so did her parents’ caution that writers did not make money.

So she sprung for a completely different path. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, but “the whole reading, writing thing that I always loved to do as a kid, I was not getting enough of it as an accountant.”

One day, her friend advised her to go to law school. “Bet,” she said. “I’m going to law school” and quit her job, much to the disdain of her parents. 

Her secret desire to write a book persisted. After a particularly harrowing day, she decided that she would write just one scene. That scene turned out to be a portal, unlocking something in her brain. “I love, love, love this,” she’d thought. So in secret, she continued. Now she is an award-winning novelist. “You don’t have to be one thing all your life. You keep evolving,” she learned. “I’ve been an attorney, I’ve been an accountant, I’m a writer, and who knows what I’ll be in my next chapter.”

Deneta Sells

Dr. Deneta Sells sat next to Katherine Molner on the panel’s other side. Dr. Sells is a Harvard and University of Tennessee graduate, founder of Intown Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, and now the mother of first grader Sarah Elizabeth Sells.

All along, Dr. Sells knew that she wanted to change the world. In her junior year of college, she read a book that said “if you could help little children see and hear and be healthy, then they could be more successful,” she said.

In Atlanta, her neighbors constantly told her that “we don’t have local healthcare and we’re driving to the suburbs. We can’t find anyone who’s nearby.” Meanwhile, all her job offers were 50 miles away. She thought her husband was crazy when he recommended her to start her own practice as a third year resident at Morehouse. But now, her practice encompasses three locations and over 50 employees.

Although she’s faced difficulties being a woman in her field, she’s always knowing that her hard work and training brought her to where she is today. “I belonged,” she had to remind herself.

A sentiment that all these women echoed is that success evolves over time. It is a “continuous quest of defining what makes me happy,” Ms. Tillman articulated.

At this point, for all of the women, success means finding a balance in pursuing their careers and fulfilling their roles as moms. As Dr. Sells put it, “I’m going to do the best I can in all areas that I can take care of people I love, take care of my community and take care of my practice, and for me, that’s success.”

Another group that hosted a panel to highlight women in the Lovett community is SDLC. We got to hear from Ms. Gray, Dr. Lamar, Dr. Harris, Ms. Sant, Ms. Modak, and Ms. Jesperson while enjoying breakfast foods from the Black and female-owned Bomb Biscuits.

Physics teacher Dr. Lamar, history teacher Ms. Gray and history teacher Ms. Jesperson all revealed that at first, they did not want to be teachers. “Never doing that,” Dr. Lamar had emphatically stated. “Famous last words,” she joked. At first, Dr. Lamar wanted to earn her PhD in electrical engineering. Soon, she ventured away from that path and toward psychology and a physics degree.

Seeing so few women in her field, she realized that “a lot of times you see the people who’ve already arrived and you don’t realize that they were in the exact same place, they had the same fears.”

Ms. Jesperson first believed that she wanted to work in public history at a museum. However, she “could not afford to stay at my job and pay my bills and my student loans when I got out of school.”

She then pivoted to Bristol Myers Squibb Company and Cigna Healthcare, but after acquiring a part-time job teaching world history to 8th graders and American history to 11th graders, she wondered, “‘What was I thinking with all this drug stuff?’ No, I want to be a teacher,” she said. “And so here I am.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Harris and Ms. Modak both knew that one day, they would be teachers.

Dr. Harris grew greatly as she studied math, statistics, and education, all to prepare herself to be a teacher. “Women who have the foresight to say there’s more life beyond what you see right now was really helpful,” said Dr. Harris, reflecting on how she originally wanted to rush a sorority. She also learned to let go of things, leaving Atlanta and her “Morehouse man” to pursue her PhD in Boston.

Ms. Modak’s mother was a teacher, and so she always admired the beautiful connections she made with her students. After majoring in English in college, she earned her master’s in education and taught for many years at an underserved school in Denver.

Ms. Sant is the outlier of this group, not a teacher in the traditional sense. She interned for the mayor of Athens, but eventually fell into a role in undergraduate admissions, where she learned she loved working with children, in particular by hosting prospective students.

So when she was offered a job with the Governor of Georgia, Ms. Sant declined and opted instead for higher education. Fifteen years ago, she arrived at Lovett, where she worked in college counseling and served as head of the department. For the past five years, she has operated as Chief Engagement Officer.

Something that Ms. Sant has noticed at Lovett is that “when you move up into those leadership-level roles, you see more and more men.” But with Ms. Cole being head of school, Ms. Sant is infinitely grateful “to have a boss who has experienced those parts of life too,” from womanhood to motherhood, she said.

Ms. Gray also spoke of the vastness of male-dominated fields. First, in law school, Ms. Gray’s space was male-dominated. Then, once she decided to focus on history, she was one of the only three females in the 33 person program. But she paid this little heed, because “I was always focused on competing with myself and being my best self and being excellent at whatever I did,” she said. “I wasn’t really paying attention to who else was in that space.”

At the end of the panel, each woman left us with a piece of advice. Ms. Jesperson advised us to “see people for who they are and not as representatives of somebody else.” By this she meant, essentially, to not judge a book by its cover. 

The advice that Ms. Modak shared brought tears to her own eyes when she first heard it from Mr. Reed. “You can’t be a whole teacher and you can’t teach the whole child unless you bring yourself as a whole person to the classroom,” he had said.

Ms. Sant channeled her inner college counselor with the snippet she shared. “You have so much say in how you live your life every day,” she said. “You don’t have to live at the mercy of what you think other people want for you.” Ms. Gray shared words similar to Ms. Sant’s. “You have agency over your life at this very moment. Take it for all it’s worth,” she said. She emphasized that although you can’t control the world around you, you can control how you react to it.

When the mic passed to Dr. Harris, she read her advice off of a napkin, having jotted down the exact wording just moments earlier. “It’ll all be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end,” she shared, earning a nod of appreciation from Dr. Lamar.

Dr. Lamar told the room it’s all about making space for growth. “You can be many things,” she said. “Whatever you think that you are interested in, pursue and don’t think you have to be good at it from the get-go because most of us aren’t.”

By Angelina Ricker

Most of the flyers that go up in the Upper School are promoting plays, clubs, or SGA candidates. So it was a bit unusual when notices about a missing Needoh were posted. 

For those of you who don’t know, Needohs are a kind of squishy fidget toy that the company’s website says “offer a tactile experience that stimulates the senses, making them ideal for focus, calming, or just plain fun!”

With all those benefits, it’s perhaps understandable why junior Lane Rodts was so distraught when hers went missing. 

Lane purchased her Needoh off TikTok shop (not a very trustworthy shopping site if you ask me), and it came with a hefty price. Literally.

“I bought it for 50 bucks in a pack. I don’t really know why I did it, but it was calling my name, and I couldn’t just shy away,” she told me.

When Lane’s Needoh (which actually has a swirl pattern, contrary to the poster showing a plain Needoh) went missing, she contacted her group chat to inform them of her loss. 

It was her friends who formulated the plan to tape flyers around the high school, hoping someone would recognize and return the lost Needoh.

“They were kind of the detectives,” Lane said, “And then the next thing I know, I was sitting in English class, and I looked outside the window, and they were hanging flyers on the hallway.”

Lane told me she was “dying laughing” when she saw the posters throughout the school, but also embarrassed at the same time. Imagine everywhere you look, in big lettering, is your name next to a stress toy, like a wanted poster in the Wild West, except there’s no prize money for the Needoh’s capture.

Lane’s friends were not the only ones determined to get the Needoh back. Once embracing the hunt for the toy, Lane made it her mission to find that Needoh.

“Needohs are rare. I can’t just be giving up Needohs, and if someone stole it, I was going to get down to the bottom of it. I was not playing around,” she said. 

But the hunt didn’t last very long. After all the effort spent on making this into a high school-wide treasure hunt, the results were underwhelming and, honestly, kind of funny.

So, where was the Needoh this whole time? It was in her bag. The same bag she carries around to every class and opens in every class, and somehow she hadn’t seen it. “It was in the back pocket of my bag, but I don’t think I put it there,” Lane said. “So the mystery is: how did it get there?”

Perhaps someone had stolen it and put it back out of guilt. Or perhaps Lane simply forgot where she put it the day before. But in the end, the Needoh was back in safe hands and will hopefully not disappear again. 

Lane says that her friends plan to print out new posters that explain how the Needoh has been recovered, ending the search once and for all.

“It’s just a tragic story about how consumerism is taking over my life,” Lane said, but really, I think this story shows that even the simplest problems can be solved in the most entertaining ways.

By Megha Lakha

Alum Cleo Chang Graham has returned to campus for the first time since graduating in 2015. Her student days are long behind her, but she’s still contributing to the community, this time in her role, helping build the new community center. 

“Right now, we are preparing to get everything ready to tear down the community center this summer and then build up the new Rollins Hall,” Cleo said when I talked her in that soon-to-be-torn-down community center last Friday.

She is a Senior Director for Impact Development Management. “We are in charge of basically making sure everyone is coordinated for everything, so we helped hire the architect,” she said, “and then we also help manage the contractor.” 

Cleo was just about to head into a board meeting when I caught up with her. She told me that her team presents to the board’s Building and Grounds committee. “We give them quarterly reports on how progress is going,” she said.

Cleo’s path to her current profession started when she “took an intro to architecture class with Mr. Z, who is no longer here,” she said. “Then I knew that I wanted to go study some sort of engineering or design.” 

Cleo wanted to go into architecture at first, but then ended up going into industrial engineering instead. She explained how her passion grew stronger after “an internship that I got in college to work on Mercedes-Benz Stadium.”

I wondered if it was strange for her to be back on campus. “I hadn’t been here in probably four or five years after I graduated, but it was bittersweet just to see how things have changed, how things have stayed the same, but then also being part of the next phase of what Lovett will be for the future,” she said.

Cleo has significant connections to the very building she is helping demolish. “The community center was part of my school every year: when I started, that was my kindergarten hall, and then it was my sixth-grade hall,” Cleo, a Lovett lifer, said. “And then when I got into high school, it was what it is now, which is the arts building.”

Being an alum means that Cleo understands traditions, so a huge thing was “preserving the pond, so seniors can continue the pond jump,” Cleo said. She did say that it would be “off-limits for seniors next year during construction, which is unfortunate, but the tradition can continue after the new community center is built.”

During her time at Lovett, Cleo was involved in many activities. “Freshman and sophomore year, I played soccer, and then when I was a junior and senior, I switched over to golf,” she said. “I was heavily involved in the visual arts, so I took photography, basically any art class that was offered.”

Cleo said the biggest change she has noticed since coming back to Lovett is “the flexibility in uniform.” She loves this change “because I think it allows you all to express yourselves.” She told me that when she was here, “Your tennis shoes had to be a specific color and you couldn’t wear anything that wasn’t Lovett-branded.” So, despite the uniform infractions that so many of us receive, we should be grateful that we can wear whatever color shoes we want.

Cleo said that they are on track to begin construction this summer, so she will “most likely be here once a week.”

Cleo is also working on 3 other main projects right now. “One of them is the Atlanta Opera, which is renovating the Bobby Jones Clubhouse, and one with the Atlanta Falcons,” Cleo said. “And then I’m working on a small residential project for a client.” 

This project is close to her heart, of course. “I actually had joined my current company three months prior, found out that we were interviewing for this project, and requested to be put on it just because I told them that I was an alum,” Cleo explained. “I know a lot about the school and know where everything is.” 

So it seems like Cleo has enjoyed coming back to her alma mater, but this time making a big mark on the school.

By Tanisha Naik

The moment when the first FOCUS kid walks through the door of Prom, something magical happens. Nervous glances turn into smiles. Hesitant feet start moving to the beat. Within minutes, everyone is dancing to the music. 

“It’s almost immediate that people start to feel welcome and excited,” Rev Brown told me, echoing thoughts he shared at a recent chapel. 

Every year, the SSB Community Service section transforms the MPR into a space of pure joy for the FOCUS Prom. This special evening provides children with physical and mental disabilities from the FOCUS organization with a prom night of their own.  They can eat snacks, dance, and have a really great time. 

This was Rev Brown’s second year of going to FOCUS Prom. “It’s absolutely incredible because our Lovett kids are super excited setting up and they love making it really special,” he said. 

When the FOCUS kids start showing up, some are ready to go. Other can be a little nervous, but that nervousness does not last long. The energy in the room and the welcome from the volunteers help to transform their nervousness into excitement. 

A great deal of planning goes into a night of this scale. This year’s Community Outreach Committee, led by Seniors Megan Frisch, Ava Boren, and Shelby Morris alongside Juniors Fannie Bradley, Sonia Kukrega, and Modupe Askedo, did everything from selecting this year’s vibrant Hawaiian theme to helping to reach out to other SSB members to collect more volunteers. Their goal was to ensure every detail was perfect.  

I spoke with Senior Isabelle Cheroff, who gave me more insight into the night. 

The transformation of the MPR began an hour before doors opened, and all of the “members and volunteers help set up all the decorations and just get everything organized and together before the kids show up,” she said. 

She said they had many volunteers. It was “probably one of the best turnouts in years, everyone was really engaged, and it was just great,” she said.  

One of her favorite memories from this year is when the song “Cotton Eye Joe” came on and everyone headed to the dance floor. “Everyone just started to do the dance together,” she said.

From helping plan this event, Isabelle learned that you have to do a lot in advance. “You have to find everything about a month or two in advance, and you’ve got to just keep up communication with people, or else nothing’s going to be done,” she said. 

For Shelby, she really enjoyed getting to dance with all the kids and “building relationships, both with the kids and both with the people from focus, but also kids from other grades who I know very well.” 

Her favorite memory was putting up the decorations and “thinking about how things would go.”

As for Rev Brown’s favorite part? “I really think it’s the best thing that Lovett does,” he said.

By Micah Ingram and Malaya Madison

I’m willing to bet that every single person reading this has either survived or is currently bracing themselves for the most universally awkward rite of passage in the high school experience. 

Yes, you guessed it- the 9th-grade unit on human sexuality and reproduction. It’s that legendary, deeply uncomfortable week where eye contact goes to die, the whole room just gets really quiet, anatomical diagrams become the most traumatizing yet interesting thing, and a room full of teenagers suddenly finds the floor absolutely fascinating.

Of course, while every class is different, every teacher is different, and every student’s experience with this unit is different, the memories seem to last. 

Junior Bridget Valls, whose  teacher was Mr. Crowley, .summed up her experience as: “Helpful and funny.” Sophomore Ella Harvey, on the other hand, recalled the unit as  “uncomfortable and Informative.” Her teacher was Dr. Reynolds.

Though it was uncomfortable, Ella said it was that very discomfort that made it “pretty easy to laugh.” 

We asked if there was a particular moment when the whole class just lost it and couldn’t stop laughing.

Bridget and Ella specifically explained that almost all the activities provoked commotion or laughter from the class. They explained that some of the unique activities that they would do were learning about things like condoms.

But beneath the surface level giggles and the chaos of the hands-on activities, a startling realization began to sink in for Ella. While the girls in the room were familiar, nodding their heads to the information, the boys seemed to be processing entirely new information. Ella pointed out that the huge knowledge gap was more concerning and scary than entertaining.

We asked if there were any words or advice they wanted to share with future kids going into this class. “Pay attention and take notes,” they urged, noting that the information is more than just a requirement for a grade. It’s one of those rare school moments where the “real world” application is immediate and important. Bridget and Ella both expressed that while the diagrams might feel traumatizing now, the knowledge becomes an essential toolkit for life later on.

But the students aren’t the only ones hoping the “trauma” turns into actual education. Jim Crowley, Upper School Science Teacher, also hopes for this stigma to be broken. He pointed out that pop culture can sometimes help with reducing the discomfort around the topic. 

“In today’s music, swearing and sexuality are incredibly common, but sexuality has always been there,” he said, even if it used to be more understated.  ”

If you happen to be in the room next to Mr. Crowley, you will hear all types of music from old hits from Salt-N-Peppa to present-day, like Nicki Minaj or Rihanna.

Mr.Crowley plays music at the beginning of his class during this unit to point out “that there’s this influencing factor beyond what might be your normal parents, or just your peers. There’s this whole bigger world influencing how you view sexuality, and that’s the role of the songs.”

Was it ever uncomfortable for teachers to teach the unit? “You, as the presenter, are a little bit uncomfortable because you don’t know how the audience is going to take things,” Mr. Crowley explained.

To bridge that gap and make the experience less intimidating, teachers have turned to technology to create a ‘judgment-free’ zone. By using a virtual anonymous question box, they provide a safe space where students “can bypass the face-to-face embarrassment and get the real answers they need.”

As students, we sometimes fail to realize that we aren’t just asking our science teachers to explain biology; we’re asking them to explain the world. We are asking them to be mentors and navigators through a minefield of sensitive topics with students who may have been raised with different beliefs and in different cultures.

Mr. Crowley mentioned that he hopes what he says doesn’t upset people, but at the same time, as a teacher, he’s “trying to get students to think beyond their own experiences.”

Plenty of experiences and memories are also created during this unit, including immersive opportunities like pulling all the students up close for a tour of contraceptives or having to blindly draw the male and female reproductive organs. 

All of these experiences are intended to ”break the ice and awkwardness of the topic,” Mr. Crowley said. He also likes to use mixers, where he pulls students together to answer “awkward” but very important questions to encourage camaraderie and lead a deeper conversation where everyone is comfortable sharing their experiences. 

Mr. Crowley expressed how, from the very beginning, he noticed how when he brought up eyeballs or the digestive system, people were like completely fine, but when he brought up talking about the “v word or p word,” there was suddenly squirming and a silence that says a lot throughout the class. 

But for Mr. Crowley, this reaction isn’t just a classroom quirk; it’s a reminder that drives him to break the generational wall of silence he experienced long before he was the one standing at the front of the room.

He compared his own experience learning about it to the movie “Mean Girls.” Mr. Crowley recalled his own public school education as a rigid lecture delivered by a PE teacher who seemed to find the material as useless as the students did. 

While his past curriculum was defined by a “just don’t do it” approach that strictly avoided anything remotely “interesting” or real, Mr. Crowley refuses to let his own classroom fall into that same trap of silence. He believes that in a society already buzzing with complex opinions, he has a responsibility to replace that outdated awkwardness with actual knowledge, ensuring his students are truly prepared for the world.

Wrapping the interview up, we asked Mr. Crowley what he hoped his students get from this part of the class. “I want them to be updated on current topics and conversations, and I want them to be aware of their own bodies, changes in development, and feel comfortable with those things happening in the time that they’re happening because they’re not all in sync with each other,” he said. 

Perhaps it takes time to reach that comfort, because we had trouble finding current ninth-graders willing to be interviewed, and the ones we did interview seemed a little uncomfortable.

We caught Benny Crane, Phillip Claybrooks, and Zoe Bockel in Dr.Shelander Biology class as they were doing the test corrections for this very unit.

Benny mentioned that “it was cool to learn about our bodies.” Phillip responded, “Yeah, it was a great experience.” Let’s just say they didn’t want to answer any other questions…

Zoe said that her class handled it pretty well until “certain topics” were brought up.

Clearly, it’s a tall order to ask a room full of teenagers to feel “comfortable” with topics that have been taboo for generations, and honestly, the awkwardness doesn’t disappear by itself. 

But it all seems worth it. While Zoe said the experience was very uncomfortable, she felt that it was okay “because I know how my body works,” and she loves to learn more. 

By Maiya Tomlin

As a student with a uniform, I routinely find myself complaining about its monotony until around 7 am every Monday. Thankfully, the weight of choosing a runway-ready outfit every day never weighs on my shoulders to begin with. 

I sometimes feel like a carbon copy wearing the familiar navy polo and dark gray skort, so I like to find ways to make the uniform my own. 

Firstly, it is imperative that my shoe game strikes a balance between being interesting and up to date with the trends. I’ve been rotating between my white, navy, and red Vejas for everyday wear, New Balance 990s for comfier days (which some claim look like ‘grandpa shoes,’ but I never let that deter me), and finally, Birkenstock clogs. Which, yes, those I will admit are grandpa shoes (and, um, technically are not in uniform), and no, they certainly do not fit everyone’s taste. I saw Kendall Jenner wearing them in an Instagram post in 2022 and knew I had to own them. They earn bonus points in my book for their extreme comfort. 

As I walked around the newspaper staff the other day, I (not in a weird way) examined all their feet, specifically the shoes they chose to wear. 

I spoke to Bridget Valls, who was wearing a pair of Golden Goose sneakers. However, these were not your typical Golden Goose sneakers. They were a bit athletic, almost, sort of a combination between regular Golden Goose and the New Balance 990s I spoke of previously, but with a hint of pink. 

On some days, “I’ll wear the ruffle socks with Alexander McQueen’s as well as every other girl at this school,” Bridget told me, jokingly. I’ve definitely noticed ruffle socks as a growing trend on Pinterest, and even more so in the Lovett hallways. I began wearing them to add more whimsy to my high-top Gola sneakers, inspired by 2025 alumni, Lydia Wilson and Caroline Liu. I’ve recently been taking inspiration from my friend, Junior Zarin Sapra, and pairing them with my New Balances. 

Bridget also takes inspiration from those around her. She made note that senior Olivia Jaje is usually the first to show trends. “I feel like she starts a lot of the trends,” she said. “I feel like when she gets a pair of shoes, everyone wants that pair of shoes.”

Then, I noticed sophomore staffer Ella Harvey was wearing a pair of Alexander McQueen’s that Bridget spoke of. “I mean, I try to wear fun shoes and stuff like that.” She, of course, mentioned the shoes she was wearing that day, as well as “the ve– whatever they’re called,” she pointed at my feet. The Vejas, pronounced Vey-HUHZ, Ella. 

Some Lovett girls have let go of hoodies and crewnecks. Instead, they wear cardigans casually, especially on recent spring days. A hoodie is too hot, and just a polo is too cold; just like Goldilocks and the three bears, a cardigan is just right. 

Although Ella is clearly not Goldilocks. She made clear that the cardigan trend is not right for her. “I sort of hopped on it for maybe a couple weeks, and then I hopped off,” she told me. “I run very hot, so I was wearing a very woolly sweater, and I was like, no.” I understood Ella’s complaints, although the brand Kimberly C makes a quite thin cardigan that junior Lane Rodts told me she has been loving lately. 

Besides shoes and sweaters, I accessorize my uniform every day with jewelry. I typically wear the same jewelry every day, partly because none of it tarnishes, and partly because I’m too lazy to switch it up. On my left wrist, I have my brown leather watch with a pink face from Pascal, paired with two bracelets from Enewton. On my right, I have another Enewton bracelet, paired with another that my mom gave me for 8th-grade graduation. Finally, I have an Oura ring on my middle finger, which, for those unaware, is like a Fitbit or a Woop, but in ring form. 

For necklaces, I keep it simple with a heart pendant my friend, Senior Nadia Infante, got me for my 16th birthday, layered with a gold necklace from Amazon with a pearl in the center. 

Now, the interesting part. In contrast with the rest of my jewelry, I actually switch out my earrings quite often. I have been wearing a pair of dangly pearl earrings with a hint of gold to match one of my necklaces, but it really just depends. When I spoke to Bridget and Ella, they told me they usually stick to simple pearl earrings. 

I was later hanging out in the Plaza with members of my photography class while we waited for the sun’s UV rays to develop our cyanotype prints (long story). We were waiting for a long twenty-five minutes, so I asked junior Hope Maner about how she accessorized her uniform today to pass the time. She leaped to her feet and said, “Let me give you an OOTD.” (OOTD stands for “Outfit of the Day”).

She pointed to her OnCloud sneakers, her Enewton pearls… and her Lovett socks? “What do you mean your socks are from Lovett?” asked Senior Davis Kennedy. “They’re the Lovett cheer socks,” Hope replied. The Lovett cheer socks are part of both the fall and winter cheer uniforms: white ankle socks with dark blue piping around the top. I suppose I did claim that ruffle socks are an accessory, so the Lovett cheer socks must be as well.

I then turned to Davis and asked, “How do you accessorize the uniform as a man?”

“What?” he replied. I don’t think he was expecting to be put on the hot seat. Then Hope suggested, “Davis, stand up and give us an OOTD.”

He pointed to his navy Nike Lovett Basketball sweatshirt, “My sweatshirt’s from Lovett,” he told us. And the sky is blue, Davis. But I kept my remarks to myself, for I did not want to discourage him from continuing his OOTD.

“My shorts are from Peter Millar, and my belt’s from Peter Millar,” he showed us. “I usually somewhat match my belt with my outfit and how I’m feeling that day,” he explained. I asked him to elaborate. “Well, if I wear a light blue shoodie–”

“Shoodie?” I asked.

“Shirt-hoodie,” he replied. 

After searching up images of these on Google, I did recall seeing lots of Lovett boys roaming around in “shoodies.”

“If I wear a light blue shoodie, then I’ll wear my [North] Carolina belt, and if I wear a gray hoodie, I’ll wear my black Georgia belt,” he said. 

Then he finished his OOTD: “My shoes are from New Balance, and my socks are my dad’s from Puma.” As much as Davis tries to pair his belts with how he feels each day, he wishes we didn’t have a uniform. “Because then I would just wear shorts and a T-shirt every day, and flip flops,” he told me. “Sounds a lot better than the uniform.”

I then asked junior Thomas Rhodes about how he picks out his accessories every day. He told me that he doesn’t do anything special besides picking out his belt, and that his favorite belt brand is Peter Millar. “You don’t like Onward [Reserve],” Davis asked. “No, I do, I just think Peter [Millar]’s better,” Thomas responded. 

Now, we’ve learned how students are styling the boys and girls uniforms. But one question remains: how are teachers accessorizing for school? After all, no, they do not have a uniform, but they do have enough barriers for me to consider their work outfits as uniforms.

While I was walking around the newspaper the other day, chatting with Bridget and Ella, Mr. Newman invited me over to speak to him. I asked him how he accessorized today. “Well, a number of months ago, we got an email saying that we had to wear our IDs on a lanyard around our neck,” he explained, setting the stage. “We couldn’t have it hooked to our belts anymore, which I was very concerned about because I thought lanyards and IDs around my neck are super dorky.”

But then he figured that if he had to make the change, he was going to embrace it. That’s the mindset.  “So I heard about this website called Threadwallet, and they’ve got a lot of really nice designs. I’ve got four of them. And it allows me to kind of think about what I’m wearing,” he told me. 

He pointed to the plaid shirt he was wearing. “This is a very busy shirt,” he said, and then pointed to the lanyard he picked out for today. “So this one is a little bit more subdued. It picks up the green in my shirt, and I feel like it’s fun,” he finished. 

Additionally, teachers influence each other’s fashion choices, just like students do. In fact, Mr. Newman told me that he admires Mr. Nascimento’s shoe rotation. 

I will say, as junior year comes to a close for me, I am undoubtedly excited about prom, summer, and turning in my research paper. But more so, I am excited to break the routine I’ve followed for my entire high school career and say goodbye to the gray skort. Come August, I will adopt the plaid senior skirt. I wonder if my Vejas will match?