Events – Page 5 – AHS NEWSPAPER

AHS Travels to Portugal this Spring Break

March 20, 2023

By Samantha Sun and Saarvi Deshwal
STAFF WRITERS

46 juniors and seniors will be attending the 2023 trip to Portugal this upcoming April vacation.

The trip is organized and planned by Brian Shea, an English teacher at AHS. “I think oftentimes we get so caught up in our lives that we believe the world is very small and that our town is everything. I want them to see how big the world is, and the possibilities they have, [and also] give them some hope and a vision for what’s possible,” Shea said. “I hope they see themselves as part of a world.”

The cost for the Portugal trip was $4,404, more than the price of student trips abroad in recent years. The trips usually last for ten to eleven days over Spring Break. The travel plans are to take a flight to Europe and a bus to their destination in Portugal.

Shea presented the Portugal Trip to the school committee to gain approval in December of 2021. As one of the teachers who organizes AHS international travel opportunities for students, he talks to the administration and parents, along with advertising to the juniors and seniors. “I try to do something different every year, [I do the] research, I look for a good price, [and] good value for families,” said Shea.

“Portugal right now is pretty hot in terms of travel,” said Shea. “A lot of people are choosing Portugal for its culture, food, art, music. It’s got a vibrancy [and] a rich history.”

Students will be staying in clean, air-conditioned hotels with their peers. They will be busy with activities such as sightseeing, guided tours, and museum visits. “[I am excited to see] the castles, monuments, and historical places,” said junior Raghav Tewari, who will be attending the trip. “[I signed up because] a lot of [my] friends signed up, and I enjoy traveling.”

There are many compelling things to look forward to as a teacher, but Shea said his “favorite part is really just watching the students see and experience [a new] world culture for the first time. [Students want to learn] when they’re traveling and seeing different cultures, [they] are more engaged.”

Planning begins one and a half years prior to the trips. Trips to Italy in 2024 and a 2025 trip to Thailand have already been planned. Students are welcome to sign up by reaching out to Shea. Andover High collaborates with a program called Education First Tours (EF Tours), from which students can enroll for the trip and deposit their money to secure their place. Once the trip is full, a waitlist is kept, if any student were to leave the trip.

“Our tours are educational, with the goal of expanding student perspectives and experiences, and setting them up for success in an interconnected world, through travel,” said Aubrey, a representative at EF Tours. The entire itinerary is planned out, while students do get some downtime, a detailed schedule is arranged beforehand by EF tours.

Last year’s trip for 2022 was to Iceland. “The landscape was unlike anything I’d ever seen in person. It felt like we were on a different planet,” said senior Grace Jungmann. She said her time in Iceland was memorable as it shaped her perspective on renewable energy from power plants. “This was really eye opening for me. Geothermal power isn’t an option everywhere, of course, but it really made me feel like sustainable energy is a reasonable possibility for the future,” Jungmann noted.

These excursions are aimed to teach students about new ideas, possibilities, and all the while enjoying a different culture and environment.

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AHS Musicians Prepare for Junior Festival

March 20, 2023

By Jacqueline Zhu
COPY EDITOR

Andover High School students participating in the Massachusetts Music Educators’ Association (MMEA) Northeastern District Junior Festival will perform on March 18, 2023 at Galvin Middle School in Wakefield, MA.

Auditions for Junior Festival took place on January 28, 2023 at Tenney Grammar School in Methuen, MA. According to Sean Walsh, the fine arts program coordinator at Andover Public Schools, students must be in grades six through nine and participate in a school ensemble, such as band, orchestra, or chorus, to be eligible to audition. Music directors must be active members of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) to register students for Junior Festival.

STAFF PHOTO / Jacqueline Zhu
Nitsan Cohen-Yashar, freshman, plays flute during band rehearsal.

The audition entailed performing two scales and an excerpt of a preselected piece in front of an adjudicator.

“Students get the music in advance, and they work on it independently,” explained Walsh. “They’ll usually have around three to four weeks to prepare the music.”

Auditions are evaluated on certain criteria, which include intonation, tone quality, technique, and musicianship. Students who meet the qualifying score for their instrument, which varies from year to year, proceed to perform at Junior Festival.

“This year, we have 18 students districtwide who were admitted into Junior Festival,” stated Walsh. Five AHS freshmen are among those accepted.

Megan Huang, a violinist, reflected on her experience auditioning for Junior Festival. “When we got there, we basically had a few minutes to practice before our auditions,” she said. “The auditions were short, but they were really nerve-wracking.”

Huang stated that because of her anxiety, she did worse than expected. “I still got in, but I’m not as excited as I should be,” she said.

Violinist Meredith Cummings echoed a similar sentiment. “[The adjudicators] didn’t give us live feedback, but they wrote notes,” she stated. “It was really stressful, because they were just completely silent during the audition. You could hear the clicking of their keyboards as they were typing down their notes.”

In contrast, flutist Nitsan Cohen-Yashar felt more enthusiastic about his audition. “I already knew most of the scales,” he said. “I also practiced the piece beforehand, and it just needed some minor tweaking.”

Regarding the benefits gained from participating in Junior Districts, Walsh explained that it familiarizes students with the audition process. This aspect is particularly important for those interested in pursuing music as a career.

“If you’re able to play with high-level musicians and work with a master instructor, I think that experience is invaluable,” said Walsh.

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AHS Hosts New England Show Choir Showdown

March 7, 2023

By Xander MacKay-Kao
STAFF WRITER

On March 10th and 11th, Andover High School is hosting the New England Show Choir Showdown, or NESCS. Students can pay $10 to watch the largest show choir festival in New England.

COURTESY PHOTO
From Start to Finish (pictured above) and the other show choir groups will be performing this Saturday and Sunday.

AHS’s Show Choir is made up of three groups that perform through dance and song. Practicing after school, they are Back to Basics (BTB), the bass voice choir, Nothin’ but Treble (NBT), the treble voice choir, and From Start to Finish (FSTF), the mixed voice choir.

A vocal captain and junior, Abinaya Ganesh, said that at Mill City in January, “We did quite well, FSTF got a gold medal… NBT and BTB both got silver.” At Shepherd Hill on February 4th, FSTF got silver, BTB got silver, and NBT got grand champion for the Unisex Division. The medals aren’t given in the sense of 3rd, 2nd, or 1st, but instead in terms of points accrued by the group. They said, “We’re having a really good season this year. I’m really excited.

Preparing for NESCS each year is a long process involving weeks of preparation. Elizabeth Kennedy, the show choir choreographer at AHS, said that they’d been working for the past two months to get groups registered. There needs to be lighting loaded in ahead of time, along with parent volunteers for concessions, ticketing, and the like. Groups often bring a live band and some bring set pieces as well. It’s an adjudicated event, meaning there will be a judging panel providing feedback to each group’s director

Kennedy says, “We got a lot of moving parts to keep track of.

Last year’s NESCS was the first in a few years that was able to be held due to COVID-19. Kennedy said, “Last year’s was great… because of COVID there was a lot of like, ‘Hey, do we remember how to do this?’”

Friday night, March 10, will be the Middle School Division, and Saturday night, March 11th, will be the High School Division. Some of the AHS students will be helping by hosting, meeting with people and directing them where to go. There will be 23 different groups performing over the two days coming from all over New England.

The $10 ticket will be good for the whole weekend.

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Valentine’s Day and Capitalism: The Real Love Story

February 13, 2023

By Naomi Bloom
MANAGING EDITOR

We all know the holiday well. Pink and red streamers thrown across the rails and rafters, heart-shaped decorations plastered up on bulletin boards throughout the halls. If that wasn’t enough of a sign that Valentine’s Day was afoot, maybe the other signs would make it clearer: The sudden uptick of PDA, which is nearly impossible to avoid, or the classmate upset about the lack of flowers from their partner.

While Valentine’s Day can be a wonderful occasion to celebrate a relationship, it is one that has become extremely capitalized on, especially over the last couple of years. According to the National Retail Federation, that spending added up to $23.9 billion last year—the second highest to the $27.48 billion spent on Valentine’s Day in 2020. “Capitalism has done what it has done with every holiday,” said Andover High School senior Andrew Magner. “[It made] it into a day that requires gifts and fancy items.”

Unfortunately, that large amount of spending intensifies and is intensified by the societal pressure and expectation to give gifts, mostly to romantic partners. This occurs even in high school. “There should be no expectation to spend money, regardless of age,” said Diya Ganesh, AHS senior. She added that many students may not have jobs or a source of income, and if they do, they may be more focused on saving it for college or their after school plans. “Showing your love through gifts is not the only way to show love.”

Bar graph of Valentine’s Day spending in the US (Source: NRF)

On that note, some students said that the cost of a gift is not the only determining factor of its value. “I think gifts are a really nice way of showing that you love someone, but I don’t think that it’s the price that matters,” said AHS senior Grace Young. “It’s how personal the gift is because it shows that you thought of them.” Magner agreed, saying, “What really matters is the effort put into it.”

Additionally, there are alternatives to gifts that are not only more cost-friendly, but can be just as meaningful. “The magic of holidays like Valentine’s day is that it is really up for interpretation and can be celebrated in a number of ways,” said Magner.

All of the students interviewed agreed that the most valuable gift on Valentine’s Day is spending time with their loved ones. “I think being present and showing active interest in their personal life shows affection,” noted Emma Pantazi, AHS senior. “I am so much more touched if someone asks me how my guinea pigs are doing than if someone gives me a card.”

Ultimately, though, it is completely up to each person’s own love language for what they choose to do, if they plan on celebrating. “My favorite way to celebrate is to go to CVS the day after Valentine’s Day and buy all the chocolate that is on sale,” said AHS senior Rachel Irza. She also noted that people shouldn’t feel ashamed if they opt out of the festivities.

Magner agreed: “As long as you and whoever you spend your time with are doing something you both enjoy, no matter how big or small, it’s a successful Valentine’s Day.”