The Hoofprint - Culture - Issue 6 - April 26, 2012

The Arts Magnet Student Advisory Council (AMSAC) plans to unveil a new mural at BHS on May 3. This mural will be created from pieces that students volunteered to take home and decorate using any media. Senior Cali Kvistad created the overall design of the mural.

The idea for the mural came up in the first month of school when Sophomore Bryce Bishop presented it to the council.

“We decided that we all wanted to create a big project to benefit the whole school and that the mural sounded like a perfect idea,” said AMSAC Chairperson Senior Lydia Wagner.

People had the opportunity to sign up to decorate a piece of the mural the week before spring break, and the pieces were collected by the week of April 16. The design of the mural has yet to be revealed. Members of AMSAC are looking forward to the opportunity that this mural presents.

“We are really excited to get the chance to make a project that both Arts Magnet and normal students get to be a part of,” said Wagner. “It’s not every day that people get to be a part of something that will have a lasting presence in the school.”

Four years ago, Mark Mischke took over as the principal of BHS. This year’s graduating class will be his first senior class that he’s been with all four years.

Along with everything being brand new to the freshmen, Mischke also had to get used to a new school, new staff, and new students.

“When I first started, everything was so new to me as from what to expect. The freshmen class [which is now the senior class] seemed like a really nice group of kids that were interested in high school.” said Mischke.

From freshman to senior year, the class of 2012 has overcome many obstacles and grown together as a class in different ways. The senior class has a great ability to handle tough situations and after four years their maturity level has sky rocketed.

“I am very proud of the seniors and what they have accomplished. I’m proud of the growth I’ve seen in individuals as well, whether it’s a 36 on the ACT or just passing all their classes.” said Mischke.

Connections are one of the most important things in a school. When the students feel connected with the staff it changes the entire atmosphere of the school.

“The fact that he knows everyone shows that he has a passion for his job; it’s more than just a paycheck, he really cares about building us up as people.” said Senior Jake Fredendall.

Along with making great connections, it is also important to listen to the students’ wants and needs, especially if they just need someone to talk to.

I’ve talked to him about personal problems I’ve had and he always listened really well.” said Senior Alisha Cole.

With those connections comes great memories. The senior class as a whole has done some fantastic things together, from cheering on basketball games to the Homecoming King and Queen dance off.

“Class color day was one of my favorite memories. The seniors celebrated being top dogs but they still modeled what I wanted and they were very respectful.” said Mischke.

With graduation in a little over six weeks, stress levels are on the rise, but that still doesn’t shatter the positivity that the seniors have.

“I’m going to miss the positive feel I have when I walk through the senior locker bay area. Another thing I’ll miss are the one-on-one conversations I have. They’re so different now from when they were freshmen.” said Mischke.

“He’s great. I’ve been to a lot of schools and he’s by far the best principle I’ve ever had.” said Senior Kala Czanstkowski.

“He’s the best principle you could ask for because of the amazing connections he makes. He’s young, hip and relatable. He is someone you want to respect, not someone to be afraid of.” said Senior Zach Zumbusch.

Mark Mischke is thankful for the positive impact the seniors have left on Buffalo High School.

“Take as much of what you learned and use it in your life after school. Make a positive difference in the world. Thank you for everything you’ve done and for what you will do to better our world.”

Out of all of the schools in Minnesota participating in the Knowledge Bowl State 2012 meet on April 12th and 13th, Buffalo placed seventh.

“For the past four years, we’ve gotten 8th at state. Our main goal was to break that pattern, to one up the past teams and at least get seventh place.” said Junior Cassidy Brown. “Mission accomplished. In that respect, we were quite successful this year.”

Getting to state was not an easy task, it took four months of hard work and dedication. They barely made it through subregions and regions, making it to state as the wild card.

“I am very pleased with the season. We had twelve seniors graduate last year,” said Coach Peggy Pasche. “This year’s team is very young and inexperienced. It is always a successful season when we go to state.”

Four of the five students on the state team will be back again to compete in next year’s season, however both coaches are retiring this year.

“I will miss them, I have mixed emotions. I will miss that group a lot,” said Pasche.

Pasche has been a math teacher for over thirty-five years in this district and has coached knowledge bowl for twenty-two years. Ms. Schramm will be the new coach next season.

In the popular movie ‘Mean Girls,’ Janice points out the different stereotyped groups of kids sitting around the cafeteria. Buffalo High School certainly has its own unique version of this scene: hicks, jocks, and band geeks, to name a few. From the outside it seems easy to put each of these into simple groups, but there is no simple way to separate out the mesh of students. Most of these groups are content to stick together; however, members of Arts Magnet not only operate together, but are constantly trying to involve members outside of their own group in order to improve Buffalo High School’s culture.

“Right now AMSAC [Arts Magnet Student Advisory Council] is trying to do projects that help us intertwine with the rest of the school, so we can branch out and create with the rest of the people at BHS,” Sophomore Bryce Bishop said.

Magnet programs were started in public schools as a “significant part of our nation’s effort to achieve voluntary desegregation in schools and help to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students,” according to the US Department of Education. Buffalo High School’s Arts Magnet program offers open enrollment to several districts spanning Minnesota.

“We get kids from across seven different districts [Anoka-Hennepin, Brooklyn Center, Elk River, Fridley, Mounds View, Osseo ISD-279, and Rockford],” Arts Magnet Coordinator Sheri Tamte said. “It’s about 56 kids that normally wouldn’t be a part of our school,”

One of the major guidelines for AMSAC is “to promote the general welfare through broad representation of Buffalo students by participating in originating beneficial projects.” In other words, they plan school-wide events to build better relations between Arts Magnet and the school body at large.

“Anything that Arts Magnet hosts is available to the whole school,” AMSAC President and Senior Lydia Wagner said. “All of our field trips, art troupes, performances, etc. are open to everybody; it’s just hard to let others outside of Arts Magnet know this.”

These activities can range from anything as simple as making the school a brighter place, or going out to the cities for big events. The Twin Cities offer diverse opportunities for students to experience beyond the culture of Buffalo.

“Arts Magnet goes on quite a few field trips that are usually in the Twin Cities, like to the global market. The first time we went, a lot of kids were like ‘where’s the pizza?’ or ‘where’s the American food?’ and I was like ‘guys, we’re at the global market! There isn’t any!’ So that experience added a lot of culture to their lives,” Senior Cali Kvistad said.

Besides taking field trips, Arts Magnet elevates Buffalo High School’s culture by incorporating art projects into the daily lives of other BHS students.

“Arts Magnet started some art troupes at Buffalo High School,” Kvistad said. “The photography and dance troupes are still meeting regularly. The visual art troupe is too, they’re the ones who paint the trash cans and recycling bins around school.”

Just like it’s easy to assume that all members of a clique are similar, it’s easy to overlook Arts Magnet’s contributions to Buffalo High School. A common misconception is that Arts Magnet students are somewhat of ‘outsiders’ to BHS, but in truth, their spirits are wholly in touch with the rest of us.

“We attend the same high school as everyone else,” Bishop said. “Arts Magnet and high school are not separate, it’s all just high school. We have as much Bison Pride as anyone else.”

Sophomore Anna Humphrey is a musician—she decided that for herself early on.

“Before I learned how to talk, I would always sing. Like you know, little kids, they sing all the time. That’s what I would do,” Anna said. “Then when I was three, I actually think that I might have seen someone play the violin, and I was like ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s so cool.’ So I told my parents, I was like, ‘I’m going to play the violin.’ They were like, ‘Oh, really? Ok then.’ So that’s pretty much how it started.”

Thirteen years later, Anna became a successfully competitive violinist and an active member of the Arts Magnet program at BHS.

“I enter in a lot of competitions during the year,” Anna said. “You have to kind of get to a certain level to be able to compete, because otherwise you don’t really have a chance. There’s so much competition in the music world. So it’s really intense, but it’s really fun.”

She is a member of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony (GTCYS), an educational orchestra program for music students throughout the metropolitan area.

“In GTCYS we have six Orchestras, and they’re all by level. I’m in symphony, which is the top one,” Anna said. “Then with auditioning for chair placements, concert master is pretty much like first chair. It’s a big deal to be concert master, and that’s what I am.”

Anna charters a Chamber Music school in the Twin Cities, and she’s a part of a competitive quartet. She enjoys theater and dance as well, and participates in band and choir at BHS.

“I’m adopted, and my birth mother—one of the very few things I know about her is that she sang,” Anna said. “So, you know, of course I’m going to keep that up.”

Her big goal is to have a successful career doing what she loves.

“I would really like to be a conductor someday and travel the world. Do something worth changing the world with my music, rather than being the one who just plays music.”

For Anna, music isn’t just a hobby. It’s not just something she does to pass the time. Music is her life, and it’s her passion.

“I love it so much,” Anna said. “I don’t know who I would be as a person without music. It just makes up who I am. I don’t really know what else I would do without it. I guess I’m good with academics, but I wouldn’t enjoy doing that for the rest of my life. Having a desk job or something like that. Performing is a huge part of what I am.”

Among the students in Buffalo High School there are Atheists, Catholics, Lutherans, Protestants, Unitarians, Agnostics, and more. One of the reasons all of these religious and nonreligious people can coexist with each other is the diversity among the students at BHS.

“I grew up in a Protestant home and agree with their beliefs,” said Sophomore Kody O’Neill. “We believe in the Holy Trinity and that Jesus died for our sins.” Protestantism, though similar to many other Christian variations, has some differing traditions.

“Protestants don’t baptize their children,” said O’Neill. “We believe baptism is a confirmation of faith and that you can make that choice of confirmation when you’re ready.”

Other Christian students, such as Sophomore Tiah Marr, use church to give them a positive outlook.

“I was born and raised in a Lutheran church. It has a nice atmosphere and has a lot of good people to look up to,” said Marr. “We focus more on the positives and having a good relationship with God.”

Teaching Sunday school alongside her mother, Marr believes that Lutheranism is about open-mindedness and positivity.

“People assume that we’re psycho-religious people,” said Marr. “I don’t care if you don’t believe in God as long as you’re a good person.”

Though there are an abundance of students with faith, there are also those that lack organized religion.

“My family doesn’t really go to church,” said Sophomore Wyatt Wentland. “I think God might be a cool person or maybe even a thing, but I don’t think you need to go to a special place to pray or worship to them.”

Though he believes in a higher power, Wentland doesn’t believe people need organized religion to be religious or spiritual.

“[Agnosticism] is believing without having to commit to anything specific.”

There is a common perception that agnosticism is a more “reasonable” position while atheism is more “arrogant,” and many people who label themselves as agnostic reject the label of atheist.

“Atheism is a lack of belief in a higher power,” said Junior Gabe de Sousa. “We tend to choose facts and reason over faith.”

Although he was raised going to church, de Sousa has never really believed in any religion. A common misconception he receives from others about atheism is that he is immoral.

“I’ve heard people say that atheists are not good people because we have no morals and that we think that there’s no reason for living. I don’t try to change people, but I think that the world could be better without religion,” said de Sousa.

“We get away with extreme dieting because that’s just part of wrestling,” said Junior Cedric Jimenez. “It always has been, and always will be.”

Sports can drive an athlete to drastic measures, but what they do is often disregarded with the justification that it’s for sports. For example, wrestlers take on extreme diet and exercise plans, and female swimmers don’t shave their legs during the season until the Section meet. Why are these things socially accepted, when they wouldn’t be if someone outside the team took part in them? Sports culture is unique in BHS, but to the athletes, their lifestyles are completely normal.

“I think everyone just comes to know it’s a swimmer thing,” said Junior Jenna Muntifering, a member of the BHS Girls’ Swim Team. “People get grossed out [by not shaving] no matter what, but that doesn’t stop us.”

Once the swim season starts, athletes on the team stop shaving their legs until the section meet. They also give up a significant amount of time to bond with their teammates and participate in tournaments.

“During swimming, it’s all about swimming,” said Junior Maddi Herzfeld, another member of the Girls’ Swim Team. “You’re pretty much with the girls 24-7.”

When they’re not with their teammates, athletes are focused on eating right and getting enough sleep to make it through the next day. Often, the wrestling team would have twelve hour tournaments on Saturdays, leaving the boys with little energy.

“We had to be up early, so I couldn’t do anything Friday nights because by the time I got home after practice, I just wanted to eat and drink so bad that I’d just have to go to bed,” said Jimenez.

Despite the rumors, members of the wrestling team are not required to take on extreme diets and cut weight during the season.

“Cutting is a decision that each wrestler has to make for himself. It’s not forced on us in any way; it’s a choice,” Jimenez said.

Regardless of what is fact, wrestlers can sometimes receive a bad reputation for being a member of the team.

“The most common stereotype about wrestlers is that we are all homosexuals because we pretty much just roll around on a mat with other guys in tight spandex,” said Jimenez.

This, among other accusations, can turn students away from joining a sport.

“People say swimming isn’t that hard of a sport, or that it’s not as hard as some of the others,” said Muntifering.

However the stereotypes and the talk don’t stop the athletes at BHS. The lifestyles they take on may seem foreign to some, but they generate good results. With spring sports underway, new cultures will be created in the lives of its athletes.

Here at BHS we support a student body that is incredibly diverse, with students from all walks of religious, economic, and cultural life. In fact it is a point of pride to ourselves for being so culturally aware. But what does that actually mean, and why is it so important that we are that way? The Hoofprint set out this issue to answer these questions, by reporting on the culture that makes the environment for BHS so open and unique.

The idea of culture, at least the way we know it as, is not that old of a subject. Culture was first used to define as a universal human capacity mid nineteenth century, and it wasn’t until the 20th century that it was used in an anthropological sense to encompass human activity that wasn’t the result of our genetics. It is a measure of our growth and achievement. The tangible proof of our struggle to adapt to the variable challenges life throws at civilization. To put it simply it is the story of us. That’s why even though this idea of culture is a newer one, it has quickly resonated within our, well culture.

While that’s all pretty nifty to know it still doesn’t really explain the actual importance of remaining open and aware of the groups that surround us. Being told that diversity is important and understanding why we put so much effort in it is essential to building a stronger community here at BHS. This is not an issue that can be thrown on the back burner either. By 2020 the minority groups in America will become the majority, and that means it’s time to reassess what it means to be diverse. The idea of America as a melting pot has limited us because, instead of celebrating differences, it instead forced all the different cultures together and adhered to a dominant culture. Instead it should be seen as a tapestry where each culture is independent but adds strength to the piece as a whole.

At an individual level, accepting culture can help you discover yourself. Your own culture is a foundation for your growth as a person, but by seeing things from the eyes of another culture you can see what aspects would improve you as a person and accept them into the way you live your life. On a larger level, changes to our culture will always play a greater impact than any law or rule. Forcing a desired response can diminish or even harm a cause, but a change in people’s attitudes about a cause will bring the change naturally.

Talking about culture can seem like a subject that just gets tacked on, to meet some bureaucratic quota somewhere, but that doesn’t invalidate the benefits it brings. It is the only way to break our narrow attitudes, and instead build understanding between each other. It can seem scary to reach out, but the best lessons in life don’t come from what we are handed, but from what we make with what we are given.

12:34 pm. Only one more class to go before I’m free to drive home and relax. I sat in Tracy Hulley’s World Studies classroom and glanced at the whiteboard, wondering what we’d be learning that day. On the board, the words “Seeds of Hope” were written. Hulley explained to the class that we would be watching a clip from the popular TV show 60 Minutes about a group of Israeli and Palestinian teens, ages 14 and 15 years old.

The teens took a trip to a camp in Maine and were taught to accept each other for who they are individually, not for what they may have done to each other in the past. The teens were able to create friendships with each other, but they didn’t last. In a follow-up episode three years later, all but one camper said that they could never be friends with whom they once shared a bunk with again.

These teens wrote off an entire group, based off of what a few people had done at some point in the past, and initially, this just seems unfair. 60 Minutes host Morley Safer suggested to one of the campers that each side was breeding another generation of judgement and mistrust. The camper agreed; she was completely aware. How someone can be okay with that is Greek to me. It doesn’t make any sense. In my mind, people are people, and yes, some people do horrible things, but that’s no reason to write off the entire group from which they stem.

This isn’t a problem only in Israel. This is a problem all over the world, the United States included. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States took cautionary measures to protect the country, but they also leaped into a lifestyle of judgement. Many Americans have completely written off all Middle-Easterns and/or Muslims, because of what one small group of terrorists decided to do.

“I don’t think it’s fair to write off all Muslims or Middle-Easterns because not 100% of them were involved in an attack against America,” said Junior Matthew Winter.

I have to agree with Matt. In my opinion, it’s no different than writing off all German citizens because of the Nazi’s extermination of the Jews, or all Christians because of the acts committed by the KKK. It’s absurd, but it’s a reality, and it’s frightening. It saddens me to live in a world so judgemental of the lifestyles others live. Though it sounds naive, I wish that everyone was able to accept one another and put the fighting to a rest.

I guess that’s the goal for Seeds of Hope, too. Whether or not they succeed in mending the gaps between Israeli and Palestinian teens, I don’t know for sure. Success rate is not what’s important. What’s important is opening these teens’ eyes, and the eyes of the rest of the world, to see that in the end, we’re all only human. Each human born on planet Earth is just as much a human as the next, and there’s no justifiable reason to deny that.

Since 2006, Americans’ have been adopting an increasingly negative view of immigration. According a to a 2006 Gallup poll, 68-percent of Americans thought immigration was a good thing four the country. Five years later, that number dropped to 59-percent; a nine percent drop. In another survey, immigrants were asked if they had personally experienced discrimination of any kind. Twenty-four percent of those immigrants answered that they had been treated differently because of their heritage. In 2010 over one million people immigrated to America. The vast majority of these one million came from places so different from here, that they were forced to adapt to a completely new way of living. For the immigrants, living in a country where over eighty percent of the population does not speak their language can be stressful. Senior Farid Arrien is one of these immigrants. Arrien lived in Argentina for most of his life, before moving to Buffalo. In Argentina, he would begin a typical day by going to school. He attended a small school with many students. After school, Arrien would go to his job at a local supermarket, where he would make $2.50 per hour. In the evenings, Arrien’s family would cook a meal of grilled meats and rice, and Arrien would spend his free time relaxing or playing soccer with friends from school. In 2010, Arrien made a 5,800 mile flight to Minnesota. He wasn’t sure what he would find in America. He had heard that Americans’ lives were easy, and that money or food was never a problem. He was worried that he would not fit in with the “rich” kids in school. When Arrien first arrived in Minnesota, he moved in with his uncle, Amir. When he first began school, he struggled to adapt to the new environment. BHS is much different from what he was used to. He noticed that many of the students looked at him strangely, because he looked different than them. Arrien became friends with a few Spanish-speaking students, who welcomed him and made him feel more included. After two years of self- taught English lessons, as well as with the help of some English classes and new friends, Arrien now speaks English fairly fluently. “The hardest part about learning English was learning how to use past and future tenses.” said Arrien. By experiencing America first hand, Arrien’s thoughts toward Americans changed. He no longer thinks all Americans are stuck-up rich people that he had previously heard about, but that Americans are people who go through the same day-to-day troubles he does. Arrien will soon graduate from BHS and plans to go back to Argentina to visit friends and relatives. He hopes that someday he may return to America to work with his cousin on computers. Arrien said, “Some people treat me different just because I’m not from here.”

As he picks up his shotgun, his pulse quickens and an overwhelming rush of adrenaline takes over his body. In an instant, the rest of the world falls away. His nervous stomach has been replaced with the pounding of his heart. All that’s left is him and the target. By instinct, he lowers his face to the shotgun and peers down the smooth barrel. He focuses his eyes on the trap house and shouts, “pull”. An orange disk flies out of the trap house and he takes aim. With a quick pull of the trigger, a loud bang escapes from the gun along with a small metal bullet. Within seconds, the disk has exploded into tiny pieces and Sophomore Kurt Potter has once again won the State trap shooting tournament.

Four years ago, Potter decided to try trap shooting out of boredom at his uncle’s house. He ended up being a natural at it and has been shooting ever since. In the past four years, he’s participated in ten tournaments, has gone to state four times, and has taken first at state twice. He also practices three out of four seasons of the year and is part of a league in the winter and summer.

“My second year of trap shooting, I won state by shooting ninety-eight out of a hundred disks. The other year I had to go into a shoot-out because we tied,” said Potter. “Before a shoot-out I always get a bad feeling in my stomach. Just by closing my eyes and thinking about it, the feeling will come back. I ended up winning that particular shoot-out but I remember my dad telling me, ‘You’ll be fine’, and I answered, ‘No I won’t’.”

According to the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League, trap shooting is a growing sport. In Minnesota, several high schools now offer a trap shooting program. These high schools include Wayzata, Burnsville, and several others. Potter himself has gotten his brother involved and plans on taking friends to try it out.

“I got my little brother into it, and he almost beats me, which is a horrible feeling,” said Potter. “I’m planning on taking friends to shoot this summer. It can be funny watching people shoot for the first time. Especially if they’ve never shot a gun before. It can surprise them by how fun it is.”

Potter’s biggest goal in trap shooting is to shoot a hundred straight without missing one. So far he’s shot ninety-eight and ninety-nine. His secret involves practice, a good gun, talent, and one more key concept.

“I know it sounds weird but I definitely think video games help a lot with trap shooting. It’s good for hand-eye coordination,” said Potter. “Trap shooting is too much fun to not do. I know that I’ll be involved in it for the rest of my life.”