On Friday, March 22, Steinmetz finished 4th in the city for the most Scholastic Press Association of Chicago media awards, beating out Taft, Whitney Young, Pritzker Charter, Phoenix Military, Mother McAuley and many other Chicago high schools. The top award-winners were Jones, Lane, and Payton.
Steinmetz students received Excellent and Superior awards for their special coverage of seniors, sports reporting and feature writing, column writing, staff editorial, layout, and overall newspaper.
Individual award winners were Alyssa Avilez, Adrienne Henry, Rocio Flores, and Nelida Navarro. Co-editors-in-chief Tamara Johnson and Erika Carrasco contributed stories to the special coverage (of 2018 graduates) that received recognition. Dozens of journalism students and Newspaper Club students contributed to the Star staff editorial, and overall newspaper.
The Steinmetz Star has been in print for 84 years, regularly showing that all students are valuable and that their opinions matter. While many other high schools have dropped their newspapers, Steinmetz continues to support student voice, realizing the great benefits to the community that result from a print newspaper that is created by and for students.
]]>Some schools have uniform policy, and Steinmetz is one of them. A Star poll taken last year showed that 93 percent of students dislike the policy; seven percent of students are okay with the policy. Of the students who accept the uniform requirement, most still don’t feel comfortable wearing khaki pants.
The Local School Council changed the uniform policy three years ago to require khaki pants. Prior to that, the “Spirit Fridays” dress code (any pants with a Steinmetz shirt) was the regular uniform policy.
The LSC should drop the khaki pants requirement. Besides the fact that the pants are a sign of elementary, charter or Catholic schools, not neighborhood high schools, the council needs to have consideration on women.
For girls, it’s really uncomfortable to wear light-colored pants when we are on our period because an accident can happen and it makes us feel embarrassed. We don’t want to take advantage of it or say that we don’t want the uniform at all, we would like to just wear any Steinmetz shirt and any other type of pants.
The Star asked other students if they felt comfortable wearing khakis.
“No, I don’t feel comfortable,” senior Kimberly Peralta said. “I’m constantly worrying if I stained my pants. I have to be careful while I sit down. I feel way more comfortable with joggers because khaki pants are too tight.”
In addition to the fit, students dislike how dirty they get.
“It’s hard to find the right size of pants, and they get dirty really fast,” senior Yannaly Alvarenga said. “Also, we have to buy expensive pants because most of the times the fabric is cheap quality.”
Wearing khakis limits students.
“I don’t find comfortable khaki pants,” senior Lesly Martinez said. “I have to fold the bottom of the pants because they are too long. I get paranoiac when I’m on my days because khaki pants are literally close to white pants.”
Nearly all girls dislike wearing the pants when they’re on their period.
“I’m not comfortable wearing them because what if you get your period unexpectedly and if you get stained it would be very noticeable,” junior Erika Nieto said.
Boys dislike the khakis, too.
“I prefer to wear joggers because khaki pants are too tight and they are not comfortable,” senior Daniel Reyes said.
]]>First, ask yourself: What is breast cancer?
What did you come up with? For those of you who don’t know what it is, or happen to know very little about it, keep reading. This could change the course of your life or somebody else’s life.
Breast cancer is when cells divide and grow without their normal control. There are three main types of breast cancer: non-invasive (or DCIS), invasive, and metastatic.
Non-invasive breast cancer, or better known as DCIS, is caused by the abnormal cells that are contained in the milk ducts. These cells have not yet left the milk ducts to invade nearby breast tissue, which is why you may hear the terms “pre-invasive” or “pre-cancerous” to describe DCIS.
DCIS is treated to try to prevent the development of invasive breast cancer, but it can still be found alone or combined invasive breast cancer. Without treatment, DCIS could develop into invasive cancer over time. Invasive breast cancer occurs when cancer cells from inside the milk ducts or lobules break out into nearby breast tissue.
If breast cancer spreads, the lymph nodes in the underarm area (the axillary lymph nodes) are the first place its likely to go. Metastatic Breast cancer (also called stage IV or advanced breast cancer), however, is not a specific type of breast cancer, but rather the most advanced stage of breast cancer.
To put it into a better perspective, stage IV breast cancer is when the cancer has spread beyond the breast to other organs in the body, most often the bones, lungs, liver and/or brain.
Treatments
Every breast cancer — depending on what stage of development that its in — has different symptoms and treatments that go along with it.
Non-invasive breast cancer can only be treated with surgery, whether it’s with or without radiation. After surgery and radiation therapy some women may take hormone therapy and with treatment prognosis/forecast of the final outcome is usually excellent.
The treatment for invasive cancer, on the other hand, includes a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapy. These treatments are designed to remove the cancer from the breast and destroy any cancer that might still be inside the rest of the body.
As of today, there isn’t a known cure for metastatic cancer. The treatment mainly focuses on length and quality of life. The treatment plan is guided by many factors, including the biology of the tumor (characteristics of the cancer cells), where the cancer has spread, symptoms, and past breast cancer treatments.
Men and women affected
Did you know that men can get breast cancer as well as women?
According to the Susan G. Komen organization, it is estimated that in 2019, there will be 2,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer, 500 breast cancer deaths for men, 41,760 breast cancer deaths for women, and an estimated amount of 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer.
Organized to help
Throughout the years there have been many organizations to help aid the fight against breast cancer, one of which has supported and helped me refine my understanding of cancer through this whole learning process. It is the Susan G. Komen non-profit organization, with the help of Ariel Thomas, the community programs manager for the organization’s branch here in Chicago.
The organization was founded by Nancy G. Brinker who made a promise to her dying sister, Susan G. Komen in Dallas, Texas in 1982, that she would do everything in her power to end or find a cure for breast cancer. The Susan G. Komen organization is now the largest and best funded breast cancer organization in the United States.
My aunt, who recently passed away from a late diagnosed breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer, had the symptoms, but never got it checked until it was too late. It was so late that not even chemotherapy would help. After she was diagnosed in December, she passed away six months later in June.
Having someone close to me go through something like this made me realize that I could help someone else and prevent them from going untested.
There are eight main warning signs of any kind of breast cancer:
* Lumps, hard knots, thickening inside the breast area or underarm
* Swelling, warmth, redness or darkening of the breast
* Change in size or shape of the breast
* Dimpling or puckering of the skin
* Itchy, scaly sore or rash on nipple
* Pulling in of your nipple or other parts of the breast
* Nipple discharge that starts suddenly
* A new pain in one spot of the breast that does not go away
For further information visit https://ww5.komen.org; call 1-877 GO KOMEN (1-877-465-6636); or email at [email protected].
]]>Of the 219 students who voted in the Star poll, 74 voted for Eniya, 38 percent of the voters. The second place finisher was Susana Mendoza, who received 51 votes, 23 percent of the vote.
219 students surveyed
Amara Enyia 74
Susana Mendoza 51
Lori Lightfoot 21
Bill Daley 19
John Kozlar 16
Toni Preckwinkle12
Gery Chico 12
Willie Wilson 7
Jerry Joyce 6
N.Sales-Griffin 4
Bob Fioretti 3
La Shawn Ford 2
Gary McCartney 2
Paul Vallas 2
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Our Black History Month hero today is one of the most gifted Americans of the 20th century – Paul Robeson.
He won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University, where he also became a football All-American and the class valedictorian. He earned a law degree at Columbia University while playing in the National Football League.
Paul Robeson
But it wasn’t athletic skills or his law practice for which he became internationally famous; he was known throughout the world for his singing and his acting – in plays and movies. He was a worldwide star.
Paul Robeson used his talents to entertain as well as to organize against racism in the United States and fight imperialism. He was a champion of working people.
He said: “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”
Share your hero
Star reporters would like students and staff to share their Black History Month heroes with us. If you want to contribute to this feature, please comment at the end of this article. You may also meet with a Star reporter in Room 308 during Journalism class, 8th period.
See information on all the Black History Month heroes our students shared during morning announcements earlier this month in this post beneath these 2018 interviews.
Who is your Black History Month hero?
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019
Our Black History Month hero of the day is Fannie Lou Hamer, shared with the Star by English teacher Mr. Sloan.
Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She worked for Black people to be free to vote in the south.
Fannie Lou Hamer
She changed people’s lives with her courage and organizational skills.
She was the leader of Freedom Summer. She also demanded change the structure of the Democratic party so that Black people were represented.
In addition, she helped people gain financial freedom through her organization of business and housing co-ops.
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019
Our Black History Month hero of the day is A. Philip Randolph, suggested to the Star by history and civics teacher Mr. Patner.
A. Philip Randolph
Labor leader and social activist A. Philip Randolph fought for decent pay for African Americans through unionism in the early 1900s.
He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black labor union.
He was one of the main organizers who pushed President Roosevelt to end racial discrimination in government defense factories and to desegregate the armed forces.
A. Philip Randolph was also a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Friday, Feb. 15, 2019
Jackie Robinson is our Black History Month hero of the day.
Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947.
Jackie Robinson transformed baseball and the entire country by becoming the first African-American to play in the major leagues in the modern era.
“By stepping onto a major league diamond as a Brooklyn Dodger on April 15, 1947, he allowed a sport that thought of itself as the national pastime to finally be just that,” sports writer Claire Smith said.
Although baseball was his fourth best sport – he had excelled in football, basketball, and track in college at UCLA – he was one of the best players in the major leagues.
He endured abuse from racist players and fans, putting up with insults, hate mail, and death threats.
“At his best and bravest, showed us all how to be strong enough not to fight back but rather to fight on and on and on,” Smith said.
He used his celebrity to increase awareness about injustice. He fund-raised for freedom riders and lobbied politicians to support key civil rights initiatives. He was a board member of the NAACP and campaigned across the country in support of the movement.
His number 42, is the only number to be retired across all of Major League Baseball. Each year on April 15th, the day baseball players wear the number 42 to honor Jackie Robinson’s legacy.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Back in the days when integration wasn’t fashionable, Jackie Robinson underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness which comes with being a pilgrim walking the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides.”
Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019
Our Black History Month hero today is Maya Angelou, a teacher, activist, artist, actress, singer, dancer, author and poet.
Maya Angelou, poet
She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace, working for civil rights throughout her life. She inspired people with her six-part autobiography that began with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” as well as her poetry, especially when she performed her pieces, as she did at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration.
One of her greatest poems, “Still I Rise,” speaks to the resiliency, strength, and beauty that Black communities continue to show through hundreds of years of oppression and discrimination.
One of her greatest poems, “Still I Rise,” speaks to the resiliency, strength, and beauty that Black communities continue to show through hundreds of years of oppression and discrimination.
Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019
Today’s Black History Month lesson is about historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson and the origin of Black History Month.
The U.S. government officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, but it really started in 1926 when Negro History Week was created by Dr. Carter G Woodson, a historian, author, and journalist educated at the University of Chicago and Harvard. He chose the second week of February because of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
Lincoln’s birthday is today; Douglass’s birthday is Monday.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson
Dr. Woodson created Negro History Week because Black Americans and their accomplishments were largely left out of the educational curriculum of that time; when African Americans were mentioned, it was usually with very demeaning imagery or discriminatory ideas.
According to Stacy Swimp of the Black Leadership Network, Dr. Woodson intended the observance to be a way to “fight back against the institutional hatred of the era and create more accurate teaching of American history. He wanted Americans to understand the strong family values, work ethic, sense of individual responsibility, spirit of entrepreneurship and dignity that was indicative of Black Americans and their African ancestors.”
Monday, Feb. 11, 2018
Today’s Black History Month hero is Ida B. Wells, a journalist who exposed the horror of lynching, something other reporters ignored. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, thousands of lynchings occurred in the south.
Ida B. Wells also taught school in Memphis, TN, and published reports on the poor conditions of the segregated schools. She stood up to racism when it happened to her personally. After she was forcibly moved when she refused to leave a train’s first class car, she won money damages in a civil lawsuit she filed.
Ida B. Wells, journalist
In addition to her influential writing, she became a national and international speaker, raising awareness of the racism in the U.S.
She also worked for women’s voting rights, refusing to have black women marginalized in that movement. She helped found the NAACP, although she stepped back from the organization when she decided it wasn’t militant enough. After she married, she and her husband raised their children in Chicago.
Ida B. Wells died of kidney disease at the age of 68. She left behind an “impressive legacy of social and political heroism,” according to Biography.com.
“With her writings, speeches and protests, Wells fought against prejudice, no matter what potential dangers she faced. She once said, ‘I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap.'”
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The issue includes news, opinion, arts and entertainment, sports and a special 2018 Year in Review section. We also have a lengthy interview with Principal Jaime Jaramillo.
Please share feedback, comments or corrections with our staff.
Page One of the 12-page, Nov.-Dec. 2018 Steinmetz Star
Soccer coach and Spanish teacher Nico Kotcherha has taught for 18 years, although he said teaching wasn’t his original career goal.
“I became a teacher on accident,” he said. “I pursued becoming one anyway because I knew I could get a job. Eventually, I grew to enjoy it and become pretty decent at teaching. I like when the students are enjoying themselves together.”
The Star interviewed Mr. Kotcherha about his personal life and international experiences.
When is your birthday?
February 7, 1971.
Where were you born?
Spain.
Where have you lived?
Chicago, Spain, Indiana, Mexico.
Where all have you traveled?
Europe, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Columbia, Egypt, Ukraine, Morocco
Where else do you want to go?
Japan
What are your thoughts on American kids studying/and living abroad?
I think they should do it if possible; it changes your life.
How did you meet your wife?
At a boat party in Mexico City.
How many years have you been married?
13 years.
What is your favorite meal to eat and cook?
I love to eat at expensive restaurants, especially the ones in Europe. I love to cook whatever my wife tells me to.
What is your favorite drink?
Good wine.
]]>Five of Steinmetz’s top seniors are Chicago Scholars, part of an organization that gives Chicago students a lot of help to succeed, including an extra pair of eyes and hands to excel in their college applications and scholarships.
Seniors Millie Martinez, Frank Cabrera, Michael Sanchez, JayAnn Perez and Abdul Yahya used that opportunity in the process of working toward their post secondary plans.
All thrived at their onsite interviews at the McCormick Place on October 23.
“It was a wonderful experience that let me practice my interview skills and meet with professionals from so many universities while being surrounded by so many inspirational people with strong wills and big dreams,” Michael said.
Abdul added onto that: “Chicago Scholars supported me with the process of applying to colleges and finding the best fit colleges based on my career and financial aid and preparing for onsite admissions.”
Millie got accepted into multiple universities during the onsite interviews, but most special to her was Loyola University, her top choice.
Abdul also got into his top choice, the University of Illinois at Chicago, which he said made his Chicago Scholars experience very successful. Frank got into Iowa State. Michael Sanchez into all of his university choices: Bradley University, Loyola University, Illinois Institute of Technology and DePaul University.
JayAnn got admitted into Dominican University and the University of Iowa.
The students applied to Chicago Scholars as juniors and began getting help in the summer. The website explains the process:
Scholars join College Access: Launch during their junior year of high school. During this first stage, we support our scholars as they apply to colleges, enroll in a best match-fit college of their choice, and begin building their leadership skills.
We match each scholar with a professional college counselor for 8 one-on-one counseling sessions, guide them through a specialized curriculum of college access workshops, and place them in a mentoring cohort with 3-4 experienced adult mentors and 6-7 Scholar peers.
Through this comprehensive support system, scholars submit up to six applications to best match-fit colleges from our list of more than 175 college partners, in addition to any other institutions they choose.
In October, our college partners come to Chicago for our annual Onsite Admissions Forum. Scholars complete up to six, one-on-one interviews with admissions officers, receiving early admissions decisions, scholarships, and early evaluation feedback. Through this process, many Chicago Scholars are admitted to their top-choice colleges long before most students have applied.
We then help Scholars through the decision, financial aid, and enrollment processes to ensure they begin college in the fall following their high school graduation.
The program will help scholars for seven years.
“Through college counseling, mentoring, and by providing a supportive community to our scholars through each phase of our program we ensure that they reach their full potential as students and leaders,” the Chicago Scholars website states.
Chicago Scholars uses three terms to characterize the steps of the students: “College Access: Launch, College Success: Lift, College to Careers: Lead.”
Eighty-six percent of Chicago Scholars graduate college within six years, the organization states.
“According to the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, only 48 percent of their peers earn a degree within six years,” the site says. “Upon graduation, our scholars move into leadership positions across Chicago, helping to drive the economic future of their communities and our thriving city.”
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