Events – Page 2 – AHS NEWSPAPER

“Can U Do Me a Favor?”: Hacker Pirates AHS Instagrams

October 4, 2024

By Ella Hu
STAFF WRITER

All hacked accounts are managed by the hacker, who turned accounts into baits for money and places to post art content. Many AHS students mentioned receiving DMs on Instagram from hacked accounts asking for $50 or to use their profile picture.

Junior Ana Murray first received a DM from a friend on her Instagram account asking for help, for Murray’s phone number and for her to answer a link sent to her number. Everything happened quickly, and Murray offered her help without suspecting anything. With a hold of Murray’s phone number, the hacker had full access to her information, including access to her passwords and accounts.

STAFF PHOTO / Ella Hu
Sophomore Anya Gorovits receives text message from compromised Instagram account asking for a favor.

“The text sounded normal coming from my friend,” Murray said. “The timing and the tone really sounded like her and something she would say.” Murray followed the hacker’s instructions, which ended up compromising her Instagram account.

Later, she discovered her friend’s Instagram account was hacked, and now her account was too. “After I provided my phone number, I lost access to my account and couldn’t open it,” she said. “The whole thing disappeared, and I started getting weird texts… when I blocked them, I would get another message from a new email or phone number asking for money.”

Principal James D’Andrea was made aware of the hacking phenomenon, which has also been affecting students’ access to their school email accounts. “If students’ Instagram accounts are hacked with their email logged on, they will be locked out of their emails as a protection management,” he said. “A lot of things in the school system are designed to ensure that systems in the school district remain safe from potential cyber-attacks or threats.”

It is difficult for apps to keep up with all the ways hackers can compromise user accounts using unsuspecting messages. However, D’Andrea said, “We know new technologies are developing and evolving so we have to constantly monitor what is happening behind the scenes… it is our priority that beyond academics, students are physically safe… emotionally safe, and ultimately, technologically safe.”

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“I Am More” Art Exhibit Brings Mental Health Awareness to AHS

May 6, 2024

By Tommy Kruecker-Green
STAFF WRITER

The “I Am More” exhibit was hosted in Andover High School library this past month. AHS Health teacher Holly Breen arranged to have artist Amy Kerr’s work displayed as an opportunity to raise mental health awareness among students in an impactful way.

Kerr’s awareness that she was “more” than her mental health struggles led her to embark on a creative project and artistic mission that would help others as well as herself. She would hear people’s stories of challenges they faced and then draw their portraits in places of their choosing that reflected their interests and values, or their “happy places”. The resulting pastel and colored-pencil portraits along with the sitters’ stories have been displayed in a number of venues across New England, including hospitals, schools, malls, government buildings, and libraries.

STAFF PHOTO / Minati Thota
Senior Harini Iyer looking at “I Am More” art exhibit.

Breen learned about the exhibit through The NAN Project, a group that speaks to the school’s junior health classes about mental health and supporting friends in need, and arranged to have it be exhibited at AHS. The exhibit creates an opportunity to promote conversations about difficult topics like mental health, disabilities, and addiction.

“I think it is important to help students learn in different ways. This learning experience helps students gain empathy for those who are living with different challenges,” said Breen.

To that end, Breen made sure that AHS health classes visited the exhibit in the library. Students were asked to write about which portraits they found most impactful. Other classes also went to view the exhibit and discussed what they saw. For many, it did what it was designed to do. It provided an opportunity to initiate dialogue about the complex realities of mental health challenges.

It might seem self-evident that we are more than the sum of our parts, and certainly much more than the challenges that we face. Yet, for many people facing mental health challenges, perspective is missing. Their fundamental being and intrinsic nature is overshadowed by the challenges they face. Amy Kerr’s brainchild, “I Am More,” brings that to the fore.

Credit For Life Fair Transitions to Junior Year

May 6, 2024

By Xander MacKay-Kao
STAFF WRITER

The 2024 Credit For Life Fair was held in the Field House on April 10. Ordinarily, the fair is exclusive to seniors, but this year it included both juniors and seniors in an attempt to transition the fair to a junior event.

The Credit For Life fair is a New England-wide organization formed by several banks. Handled at Andover High School by the Andover Service Club, the intention is to teach students entering adulthood financial literacy to prepare them for the real world. With a gift card raffle reward from the Andover Service Club, students are incentivized to complete various stations with a website that allows them to use a realistic salary with realistic expenditures..

The event is run by Social Studies Program Coordinator Gregory Hurley, who is passionate about the ideals of the fair. He said, “I never had anything like it. A lot of my financial decision-making was trial and error with a good amount of error and a good amount of trial.” He asserts that “school is a place to make mistakes, and make mistakes safely. It’s supposed to be a place where you can take risks and it’s okay because we build in ways to support you and pick you up and say ‘Okay, let’s not do that again.’”

Before Hurley, Assistant Principal Scott Darlington ran the Credit For Life Fair. AHS started the Credit For Life Fair in 2017. When asked his thoughts on it, Darlington said, “I think it’s one of the most important things that we do. It’s the one area that we can guarantee every student that they’re gonna have to deal with, no matter how much money they have.”

The fair’s utilization of an interactive website is relatively new, being introduced during COVID-19 due to the necessity for online functionality. Previously, it was done through clipboards and paper.

This year served to transition the fair to junior year to allow juniors to take further classes in the field in their senior year if it piques their interest. This was done through having the fair invite both juniors and seniors. One junior, Wes Aja, said, “I think that it definitely made me more interested but not enough to take a class on it.” Junior Owen Andrade echoed this opinion. Others like Glafira Kiyko said, “Honestly it wasn’t too interesting, I was just getting stickers for listening. It was hard to understand what was going on and the probability of taking further classes [hadn’t] changed.”

In order to handle the amount of attendees, students were asked to register for their careers ahead of time, fixing a recurring issue of students spending the first 20 minutes of the fair sitting around figuring out what job they want.

Andover Debuts in Hollywood Industry

May 6, 2024

By Lojyn Elkotory
STAFF WRITER

Andover stepped into the spotlight of the movie industry as Marvel chose its picturesque locations for filming “Madame Web.” Released on February 14, 2024, the movie showcased familiar Andover settings, adding a touch of local charm to the screen. Andover locals shared their experiences of seeing their town on the big screen.

The movie starred actresses Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and many more. Andover had the honor of providing the setting for the filming of the movie.

Ella Vidoni, a senior at AHS, said she enjoyed the movie. “I’m not very good at sitting through movies, but this one was kind of interesting,” she said. She expressed her amusement with the movie being filmed in Andover, saying, “I thought it was cool. I’ve never really seen Andover in a movie before.”

A local witness of the production, Jackie Salvesen, a Health Education teacher at AHS, shared her firsthand experience of witnessing the transformation of Chandler Road into a movie set. As she drove her husband to work along River Road, a retro diner built on top of Deyermond Field, which is built on a landfill, caught her attention.

“We would [go to] his job through Chandler Road, and we both noticed that there was the structure going up,” Salvesen said. However, to ensure the safety of the production, the film company had to secure its surroundings. Salvesen said, “[she] would… drive by that way and then at some point, they completely shut down that section of the road. I was no longer able to see anything that was going on.”

But why Deyermond Field?

Although Deyermond Field has no previous cinematic history, the field has witnessed multiple changes and usage. According to Jennifer Timpko, a Special Education teacher at AHS and a long-time resident of Andover, in the late 60s, the field was known to be a dump where Andover residents would leave their trash. “It was a field trip every Saturday to dump trash there,” Timpko emphasized. It was later on that the field was transformed from a dumpster into a sports field. The public used it for sports teams such as the baseball and soccer teams. However, in 2016, Deyermond was no longer used.

With all of its rich history, how did Marvel know about Deyermond Field?

Michael Lindstrom, Deputy Town Manager, explained that Andover was approached in May 2022 by a location scout for Sony, one of the world’s largest technology and entertainment companies. “They wanted to film a couple of specific scenes on Chandler Road over by the Deyermond Field, out in the woods around there, and also by the greater Lawrence Technical school on River Road” Lindstrom said. The collaboration between Marvel Studios and the town of Andover not only brought cinematic magic to local streets but also provided economic benefits. According to Lindstrom, the film crew paid close to $70,000 to the town for the privilege of filming in Andover.

Interested in checking out Andover in Madame Web? The film will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray and available for streaming starting this April!

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Murray and Diffenbach Win Close Election for School Committee

May 6, 2024

By Molly Borenstein
STAFF WRITER

In a closely contested election for the School Committee, Shauna Murry emerged victorious alongside candidate Lauren Diffenbach.

The election results showed Murray with 2,391 votes, her counterpart Diffenbach with 1,977, and McCready, a former school committee only around 100 votes below at 1,812.

STAFF PHOTO / Molly Borenstein
A woman poses with a “Diffenbach & Murray” poster.

Murray and Diffenbach are both experienced educators. In an interview with ANDOVERVIEW, Murray specifically mentioned her two decades of service in public schools and believed her background set her apart from other candidates. “Residents recognized the value of having an educator’s perspective on the committee,” Murray said. Diffenbach, also highlighted similar ideas to Murray, believing that her background in education and help from the AEA pushed her toward victory.

Reflecting on her campaign strategy, Murray emphasized the importance of positivity and outreach. “We focused on highlighting my strengths as a candidate and addressing the concerns of our public education system,” she said.

Diffenbach, echoed Murray’s sentiments, expressing gratitude for unexpected community support during the campaign process. “Word of mouth goes a long way, and I will be forever grateful for the outpouring of support that led me here,” she said.

As she steps into her new role, Murray plans to prioritize listening to the community and reflecting on past initiatives. “I want to rebuild the bridge between the School Committee, teachers, and staff,” Murray states, emphasizing her commitment to representing all constituents.

Acknowledging the divides in the community, Murray and Diffenbach express a desire to collaborate with all voices. “As a district, there is a need for intentional work around repairing fractured relationships,” Diffenbach states. “I’m hopeful to increase collaboration and bridge the divides.”

Looking ahead, Murray sees healing as a primary challenge facing Andover’s education system. “We cannot move forward until we address recent tensions,” Murray emphasized. “In my experience working in education, the challenges seen by the public are often indicative of more complicated and deep-rooted challenges that exist within an education system. Up until now, I have only known the surface-level challenges as seen by the rest of the public. My first step is to learn more about those hidden systemic challenges in order to formulate a path to addressing them.”

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Reidy went to Antarctica!

May 6, 2024

By Jiya Jotwani
STAFF WRITER

Minda Reidy, a math and computer science teacher at AHS, was in Antarctica on December 20, 2023.

Reidy signed up to go 2 years ago. In July of 2021, she went on a river cruise and people there were talking about how you could go to Antarctica. It was a new thing at the time, but Reidy jumped at the opportunity.

When Reidy returned to Massachusetts, she presented about her trip in the AHS Collins Center.

Connor McGovern, a freshman at AHS who attended Reidy’s presentation says, “I thought it was really cool! It was really interesting to see sort of like what it’s like there, it’s one of those places where you never really visit.”

In the presentation, she described that while in the Antarctic she learned that the krill (little fish) are food for whales, seabirds, fish, squid, seals, and sharks. However, more and more humans have been going krill fishing because it has omega 3, a fatty acid that supports your brain and heart. But krill fishing takes food away from the animals. This can result in weakening the animals by not having enough food for them. Reidy finds it important for students to understand and wants to spread awareness of this.

Reidy describes Antarctica as a whole as an “absolute beauty,” and, “It just is amazing—the serenity, the coexisting with the wildlife—that we can actually do that.”

She saw penguins, orcas, whales, krill, and a vein of copper (a copper deposit on a cliff). Some people on the crew already knew what veins of copper are and were very excited and thankful to get a chance to see one. They only got the chance because the tour crew was adaptable and changed their route everyday due to the environment. If some place was fogged out, they would go somewhere else and plan accordingly. So when Reidy was there for the first time, the rest of the crew was experiencing it for the first time as well. It was a bonding and learning experience as everyone was going through the same shock and joy together.

However, her journey to the Antarctic was not an easy one. She went through the Southern ocean which takes two days in itself, while going through the Southern Ocean, you go through the Drake Passage, named after Sir Frances Drake. He actually never sailed these waters but realized there may be a connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and that’s what is now called the Drake Passage. The Drake Passage is in between the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern ocean and when you go through it you can either get the “Drake Lake” or the “Drake Shake.” The Drake Lake means it’s a calm ride but if you get the Drake Shake, the complete opposite environmental condition, it’s tempestuous and some captains even refuse to cross it when in that state. While going to Antarctica, Reidy had the Drake Lake, but while returning to Boston she faced the Drake Shake. She exclaimed how it was so bad that some crew members got very sick.

STAFF PHOTO / Jiya Jotwani
Minda Reidy presents about her Antarctica trip. In the picture she was crossing the Southern Ocean.

While Reidy was in Antarctica she saw many gentoo penguins. She said that everyone had to to stand 5 meters away from penguins at all times as a way to preserve wildlife. She also said that the penguins were in very noisy colonies and they were very smelly. But she still got the chance to “adopt” a penguin where it stays in Antarctica but is hers. She hasn’t figured out a name yet but plans to soon.

AHS Seaperch competes at regional contest

May 6, 2024

By Anya Gorovits
STAFF WRITER

Seaperch, an AHS club, sent their two teams to a regional competition in Cambridge on April 10th. The Jellyfish, one of the teams, won 5th place, while the other team, the Orcas, tied for 2nd. Unfortunately, neither team qualified for nationals this year.

Seaperch is a robotics competition where high school teams’ robots from around the world are put through complex obstacle courses and are judged on time and completion of difficult tasks. Students use PBC pipes, wires, and motors to create a remotely controlled vehicle. This may sound similar to many other robotics competitions, such as the AHS Robotics Club (ARC), but there’s a catch: the entire competition is underwater.

The team has always scored well and is “pretty exceptional”, according to AHS Seaperch’s founder and advisor, Daniel Donovan.

Seaperch competitions consist of two parts, an obstacle course and a challenge course. For the obstacle course, the robots must maneuver themselves through 5 hoops and back as fast as they can. The path totals around 20 feet. The challenge course, however, is much more complicated.

“This competition, the challenge is modeled after collecting samples using a remotely operated vehicle like a deep submersible,” said Donovan. He chose to start the club after receiving an email from a US Navy representative. The Seaperch program, run by Robo Nation, is entitled to promote students’ interest in marine design.

This year’s challenge course requires the robots to pick up rocks and sensors, open a door, and place the objects inside a small space. They earn points from different tasks and are given 10 minutes to gain as many points as possible. During the competition, students stand on the side of a pool and control their robots as they find their way through the water. There are two competitions each year. Teams first compete regionally, and if they qualify, they compete again at nationals.

Though Seaperch robotics may still sound similar to normal robotics, Seaperch robots don’t require any programming at all. According to Donovan, “Robotics is more complicated. These are simpler devices, but they’re working in a more complicated setting.” Though no programming is needed, students must learn about buoyancy, waterproofing, and how to operate underwater to create a successful robot. They learn a lot about the marine environment as well as engineering.

Most Seaperch members are also in robotics. Junior Canyu Li said Seaperch is “way less time-intensive, and way less material-intensive than normal robotics.” She explained that the more relaxed setting makes Seaperch a very fun club.

Senior Luke Stump describes Seaperch as a “mini robotics,” saying it leaves a lot of room for creativity.

AHS has had a Seaperch team for about 10 years and has placed 1st or 2nd at regionals and gone to nationals almost every year. Nationals typically take place at the University of Maryland. Last year, the team rented a van and drove down to compete. A couple of years ago, the team won 3rd place in the country.

Every Andover Band Plays At All Bands Night

May 6, 2024

By Xander MacKay-Kao
STAFF WRITER

Andover High School hosted All Bands Night on March 28, and every Andover public school band got a chance to perform at the Collins Center.

All Bands Night is an annual concert where public schools in Andover get to have their bands perform a selection from their repertoire. It’s divided into two concerts: One for elementary school and part of middle school, and one for the other part of middle school and high school. Audience members are filtered out in the middle in order to allow enough space for all of the parents of each group. This year the concert spanned two and a half hours, giving every band ensemble a chance to perform at least one song, something that hasn’t consistently been true in years prior.

Senior and saxophonist Alex You said, “It’s an event where the high schoolers get to see their growth as musicians compared to where we came from.”

Not everyone had an experience reflective of the atmosphere of positivity surrounding the event. One senior and trombonist Enrico Panzica said, “It was the [worst] All Bands Night I’ve ever been to. I [messed] up in every single performance, and everyone else did too.”

Other students have mentioned that some call times were pretty intense, effectively requiring students to be at the building from after school to the end of the event at around 9:30.

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Aspiring Musicians of AHS Travel to NYC

January 25, 2024

By Samantha Sun
STAFF WRITER

The AHS chorus, orchestra, and band students will compete in the Heritage Festival in New York City this April, from the 11 to the 14.

The four-day trip includes a grander scale performance and a cultural experience in New York. The New York Heritage Festival is held multiple times a year by WorldStrides, a trustworthy educational travel organization, and allows students to perform at Riverside Church in front of three nationally acclaimed adjudicators.

Each ensemble will have the chance to perform for a fifteen-minute time frame, have a mini-clinic with one of the adjudicators, watch other students perform, and receive a professional recording of their performance.

“We wanted to have an opportunity for our students to travel, compete, learn, and have a lot of fun,” said chorus director Lauren Peithmann. She participated in a similar festival in high school, “[It was] so important to my development as a musician and it inspired me,” Peithmann explained. She is looking forward to sharing this experience with her students.

STAFF PHOTO / Saarvi Deshwal
AHS band, orchestra, and chorus students practice for the Heritage Festival in New York City.

“It’s a cool thing to play for other people and not just for ourselves,” added band director Jeffery Kuchan. “It’s an important thing [to have] our identity as…the Andover community.” This is notably the first chorus, orchestra, and band field trip, and for a lot of students, this will be their first time performing outside of Andover.

Although the performance isn’t until spring, students are working hard and are confident in their abilities to represent AHS. “I’m going to shred on the bass clarinet!” exclaimed sophomore Tessa Helle, a band student who plays the clarinet. Their performance pieces are still undergoing preparations but they are excited to show off what they’ve been working on by the time April comes around.

Meghna Singh-Joglekar, a sophomore and orchestra student, added her input. “I think I’m most excited to perform and see what the judges are going to say.” With the large amount of time and effort students have been putting into their musical work, they are curious about the judge’s feedback and comments.

Lyric Bartleson, also a sophomore who is a part of the chorus added, “I think it’s just a really good experience to give us something besides a concert, something we can work hard for.” This opportunity helps push students to explore beyond the scope of what school ensembles provide and to watch what other ensembles have prepared.

Their performance and evaluation are top priorities, however, the cultural experience is just as important. On their way to New York, they plan to stop by Connecticut where the orchestra and chorus will visit Yale University in New Haven. The Band plans to visit the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford.

Then, they will get the chance to explore the places New York has to offer, such as Times Square, the 9/11 Memorial Museum, a Broadway show, a New York Philharmonic recital, restaurants, and much more.

To help those in need of financial aid and to overall lower the cost of the trip, Tri-M, the music honor society, collaborated to create a series of fundraisers. They sold butter braids which are sweet pastries, for their first fundraiser. Band, orchestra, and chorus students encouraged other AHS students to order these pastries to contribute to the fundraiser.

During the winter holidays, they held a Little Caesars fundraiser where people could order a pizza kit and order it to their house. In the spring, they plan to hold a mattress fundraiser where they are going to have a big expo for them in the West Middle cafeteria. Then perhaps a few restaurant profit shares where a percentage will go towards the trip.

“I strongly encourage everyone to check us out and support us,” said Kuchan.

The final evening they are in New York, there will be an awards ceremony with WorldStrides where all the high schools will gather. To end the night, they will “go on a cruise around Manhattan with dinner and dancing, a nice way to close up the trip,” concluded Peithmann.

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Students learn how to “Stop The Bleed”

January 25, 2024

By Julia Rodenberger
STAFF WRITER

AHS students received certificates in stopping traumatic bleeding after training offered by emergency room professionals during H4 on December 5.

Medical Opportunities Club, led by juniors Laksmhi Jayaprakash and Shriyaa Anandakumar, partnered with the Lawrence General Hospital to host Stop the Bleed: a nationwide campaign sponsored by the American College of Surgeons to address death by blood loss. Abigail Wertz, the program general of the trauma program at Lawrence General Hospital, led the free instruction alongside two emergency room nurses.

Attendees were provided the opportunity to step away if sensitive to gore; however, no real images of blood were shown. Trainers utilized rubber tubes with faux flesh wounds to demonstrate how to administer tourniquets and gauze onto severe injuries including lacerations, impalements, and amputation.

STAFF PHOTO / Julia Rodenberger
Students listen intently to the Stop The Bleed presentation.

Jayaprakash and Anandakumar began volunteering in the Emergency Center at Lawrence General Hospital this past summer, through which they were introduced to Stop the Bleed. “When I took the class at Lawrence General, there were people of various age groups,” Anandakumar elaborated. “It’s not just for students. Anybody can take it; it’s an important skill.”

The H-Block was open to all, drawing students and staff with varying interests beyond traditional medicine. Attendance numbers surpassed 20 participants.

Junior Dylan Moses participated in Stop the Bleed with aspirations to work for the Coast Guard in Search and Rescue. “First aid plays a big role in those fields,” Mose stated.

Moses expanded on the importance of first aid experience for high school communities.

“Unfortunately there’s been a number of school shootings, and individuals with gunshot wounds could be saved through treatment that is taught here,” Moses added. “I just want to be well vested in first aid in case I encounter problems in my life.”

Wertz repeatedly emphasized that traumatic bleeding is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. Following a period of instruction, attendees were able to work firsthand with the faux medical supplies under supervision from Wertz and the two nurses.

While at Lawrence General Hospital, Jayaprakash and Anandakumar also volunteered briefly in the maternity and pediatric centers, respectively. In creating the Modern Opportunities Club in Fall of 2023, they aimed to explore the diversity of careers in the medical field. “We wanted to really delve into that in the club and explore everything else other than just doctor and nurse,” Jayaprakash elaborated.

Medical Opportunities Club meets every Wednesday at 3:00 pm in room 220, with opportunities for members to engage in various research projects. “The first one—you’ll see it on the H block—is a research campaign to analyze vaping in the student body,” Jayaprakash explained. “We’re working with the principal and the school administration to tackle the vaping problem.”
Jayaprakash hopes that Stop the Bleed will become a recurring event for AHS through continued partnership between the Medical Opportunities Club, Lawrence General Hospital, and AHS administration. “That would be amazing,” Jayaprakash said.