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Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections Pep Rally of '24 and Senior Year Cross Country Season Manal Layachi Volume 5 Issue 2 November 25, 2024 Image Provided by Mother of Manal Layachi Senior year has arrived A bittersweet and joyful time Back to a routine Living the dream Homecoming flies by Having the time of my life Pep rally gets me pumped I cannot wait to run and jump As my coach calls out the names of my teammates, He forgets to call mine, But I know he is playing and I have to wait As the only senior on the team, I feel special like a queen When my coach calls my name I run across the turf and accept all of the fame As I run under the tunnel made by my teammates, I feel amazing and great My confidence increases and I celebrate I have been doing cross country for four years Although there will be tears when I graduate, there will also be cheers As I run every day and receive my senior banner, I remember all of my athletic accomplishments without regrets as I am a master I know I did my best and got faster. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Purpose Back to Sections Unknown Study By Elizabeth Andre November 24, 2020 Volume 1 Issue 2

Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections Inspirations Navrosedip Kundlas Volume 4 Issue 2 January 16, 2024 Image provided by Elaine Ching In the quiet of dawn, where dreams take flight, Inspiration whispers, a beacon of light. It dances on breezes, a muse in the air, A spark in the heart, a passion to bear.   In the depths of despair, it's a lifeline of hope, A lifter of spirits, a boundless scope. It paints the world with colors anew, Inspiration, a friend, forever true.   From nature's wonders to stories untold, Inspirations are treasures, more precious than gold. They fuel our ambitions, ignite the soul's fire, A force that propels us to reach ever higher.   In the darkest of nights, when shadows surround, Inspiration's a torch, a love that's profound. With words, art, or music, in all that we do, Inspirations create, and dreams they pursue.   So, cherish these moments, these gifts from above, For inspiration is the heartbeat of life, the purest of love. It's the whisper of angels, the courage to soar, Inspirations are timeless, forever, and more.   In every sunrise and each silent star's gleam, Inspiration resides in life's vibrant stream. A wellspring of power, an eternal muse, Inspirations are boundless, in them, we infuse.   They guide our endeavors, through journeys unknown, Inspirations as captains, our hearts they've shown. In the tapestry of life, they weave, and they blend, A source of creativity, with no limit or end.   So, embrace their embrace, let inspirations ignite, Your spirit and dreams in the day's brilliant light. In the dance of existence, through each twist and turn, Inspirations shall guide you, make your soul burn. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Art & Culture Back to Sections The Artist Perspective By Nehilah Grand-Pierre Volume 1 Issue 3 December 16, 2020 Left: Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai, Right: Original artwork “I am Greater” by Nehilah Grand-Pierre Perspective is what sets aside the artist from the other people of the world. An artist looks at the bigger picture, while attending to the fine details. The artist looks at the struggles and hardships of life, and rather than pointing out the flaws, they highlight the beauty of it. An artist has an outlook that turns misfortunes into masterpieces. I drew inspiration from Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa. The work depicts a giant ocean wave, which I perceive to symbolize the waves that we face while swimming through the ocean of life. The wave is not only great in size, but also great in beauty. Though seemingly terrifying, the wave is beautiful from the viewpoint portrayed in the painting, though the people painted on the boat may not think the same. My piece highlights these concepts as I drew a hand holding the wave, thus suggesting that with the right perspective, we can take hold of our hardships and realize that struggles are our personal opportunities to overcome our fears, worries, and the great ocean of life. As the loveable animated fish Dory once said, “Just keep swimming!” BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections Standing On the Ledge: VSN Mental Health from a Student Perspective By Eva Grace Martinez Volume 1 Issue 6 March 18, 2021 Image provided by Ohio Department of Education When I first entered South Side High school to take my ACT in December, I found myself bombarded with posters and signs advertising their mental health resources. I saw the faces, names, and locations of guidance staff, school psychologists, and various other student support services professionals, just by walking in the front door.  My first thought was: Something must have happened here. Sadly, I was right. A quick google search showed two students had committed suicide in 2019. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the students who died. It is not uncommon for schools and other institutions to respond to mental health issues after a crisis. Studies show that teen suicide rates are on the rise and have more than doubled since 2007. [1] The global pandemic has amplified this particular issue. Students are hurting for so many different reasons. Here is my story: The lowest point I remember came at the beginning of my sophomore year. I dangerously teetered on the edge of an emotional cliff I felt would have been impossible to climb back up. I was sad, anxious and depressed. Despite the helpful efforts of my teachers, my grades were falling lower than they ever had. I was sleeping erratically, either 2 or 12 hours a night. I could not eat; I lost 8 pounds from skipping meals. By November, I was too focused on seeing the next morning to care about whatever work I had been assigned the night before. I sat there, cold, tired, and apathetic to it all, and worse, I refused to ask for help. My talkative and happy demeanor created an easy mask for the problems I was facing. Every potentially concerning thing I said was passed off as “just a joke.” Despite how difficult it is for students to talk about their emotions and problems, I have supportive parents to whom I could turn for help, and I was ultimately able to receive help outside of school. I began treatment, and I can happily say, I am doing better than ever. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of students across the country is well-documented, but difficult to see happening to young people all around us – some who are on our screens only during the school day. Many students have spoken out to their friends or in extra-curricular club settings, saying the pandemic has “sent their mental health down the drain,” or otherwise negatively impacted their well-being. Students around me are voicing deep feelings of loneliness, even writing to the advice column in the North Star to ask about making friends virtually. As a school community, we have to check in frequently with each other because we are not okay. There are many steps a school can take to publicize and destigmatize mental health services at school. Signs around the school communicating facts about how common mental health challenges are can help to take away the shame that I and others feel when they experience symptoms; studies on a national scale show small steps like signage actually work. [2] Small changes or additions can actually have a significant impact. What We Can Do: Some examples of dispensing information widely might include: Posts on teams with the names and locations of student support services personnel to take the place of in-person signage for the many students who are virtual or hybrid right now. Well-documented and well-known protocols outlining the steps students, parents, and teachers can take to get access to school resources in a transparent, simple and confidential way. Increase in overall mental health awareness by holding more, and well-advertised, events to provide support. The Student Wellness Forum over the weekend of March 6th was a good start, and the second in that series is March 13th. We also can introduce a “SAFE” club. “SAFE” stands for Suicide Awareness and a Friendly Environment, this club may also focus on mental health in general, instead of just specifically suicide prevention. This is similar to what was done by students at Southside after both suicides had taken place. [3] A focus on Mental Health Awareness Month this May. We could hold a hallway decoration competition similar to Red Ribbon Week (THIS WEEK!) for drug awareness. We could ask each club to bring up Mental Health as a meeting topic during a meeting in May. For my part, as a leader in The Alliance club here at North, I’ve been engaging with the club’s members in discussions which helped me construct this article, and I feel like if we all work together as a school, every small step we take can add up to a big positive impact on students. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork The Memory Project Back to Sections Willene Exinvil - Memory Project - 2 By Willene Exinvil March 18, 2021 Volume 1 Issue 6

Back to Articles News Back to Sections Adelphi Press Day By Elaine Ching Volume 3 Issue 3 February 24, 2023 Image provided by North Student On February 17th, the staff of North High School’s School News and Literary Magazine, North Star and POLARIS, went to Adelphi University in Garden City to participate in Adelphi’s Press Day, an event in which school newspapers from all over Long Island and beyond gather to work with college professors, collaborate in workshops, and learn how to better their journalistic skills. North students got to dive into the topic of newspapers moving from print to online, the theme of this year’s Adelphi Press Day. Starting off the event, students were sat in the Ruth S. Harley University center. They listened to guest speaker, Chris Corry, a renowned and experienced journalist. Along with other speakers were the Editor In Chief and faculty advisor from Lynbrook High School’s award-winning newspaper, The Horizon . Speakers shared their experiences with the press to further inspire student journalists. After a Q&A with the panel of speakers, students were sent off to participate in two workshops of their choice. For their first workshop, North students participated in #AUPressDay Photo Challenge with Chris Corry , in which students got to learn some fundamentals of photography such as the rule of thirds. In addition, they were taught how to take the best photos, just by using cameras available to them, their cellphone cameras. Students went around campus taking photos and then later reviewed them with other students. For their second workshop, the North Star staff split into two groups. One group going to Finding Ideas: From the News Pages to the Book workshop with Paul Thaler, a professor at Adelphi, where they were discussed how to best use their journalistic skills in order to write for the newspaper and to further improve their writing skills. The other group went to the Share Your Online Successes/ Missteps , where they collaborated with other students in order to discuss their newspaper’s online presence. Due to North Star being an online-only publication , North Star staff took the opportunity to display their website for the other schools. After both workshops, students were provided with lunch by Adelphi and got to watch the Quill Awards, an Awards ceremony where Adelphi chooses school newspaper schools to be honored with wins in categories such as “Best Layout”, a prize North Star has taken home in the past. News Editor, Everton Prospere, shows the North Star website to other students along with Shinedip Kundlas, Editor in Chief, Kimberly Shrestha, Art Editor, and Christina Ossa, Feature Editor. (Names listed from right to left). Entertainment and Media Editor, Alain Deen, takes a photo of Elyas Layachi, Managing Editor, taking a photo of Everton Prospere, News Editor, during the # AUPressDay Photo Challenge workshop. Photo taken by Augustine Magapan, North Star staff. Manal Layachi, North Star staff, Elaine Ching, Social Media Manager, Navrosedip Kundlas, POLARIS Editor, and Kimberly Shrestha, Art Editor in the Ruth S. Harley University center. (Names listed from left to right) Photo taken by Shinedip Kundlas, Editor in Chief. North Star staff members, Nora Chery, Rachel Ezeadichie, and Manal Layachi in the Ruth S. Harley University center waiting for the event to start. (Names listed from left to right). BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Editorial Back to Sections If Aldous Huxley Were a Mathematician By Lucy Wu Volume 2 Issue 6 April 14, 2022 Image provided by High Times *Note: This article contains minor plot spoilers for Brave New World , the satirical novel by Aldous Huxley. If you would like to preserve your initial reaction to this novel, please refrain from reading this article. During quarter 2, the AP Literature classes, were tasked with reading and analyzing Brave New World, one of the most notable (and existentially terrifying) works of Aldous Huxley. Unlike most dystopian books, the society is not inherently horrifying for its post-apocalyptic citizens or war-torn landscapes, but for their docile complacency and unwavering happiness (for the most part, at least). Certainly, ideas abnormal and even taboo to our modern world including a vehement aversion to literature and maintaining non-nuclear family households were plentiful throughout the novel. But while reading, something else was amiss. The thing that bothered me the most was not the artificial duplication of humans or depriving them of flowers when born. It was not even John’s secretive pursuit of Lenina (which was mildly uncomfortable to say the least). Rather, when introducing the social classes, the basis of the World-State and major source of character tension in the book, Huxley utilized Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons to delineate between the social classes. Alphas are the highest class, followed by the Betas, and continuing until Epsilons, who are the slaves of the society as they are deprived of the most oxygen in the Bokanovsky process (don’t try that at home). Each class has distinguishing characteristics from their cloned appearances to the color uniform they wear, but it is made abundantly clear that being an Alpha is most desirable. Thus, the novel fixates on just a few of the lucid Alpha or Beta men and women of the society. The book piqued my interest because of Huxley’s immaculate attention to detail, unparalleled intention, and hidden meanings peppered throughout the novel. I admired his wittiness like his play on words: instead of “Lord,” the citizens say “Ford” (like the Model T Ford) because technology and automation prevail as their God. Thus, I had anticipated a greater analysis of the classes from Huxley, and not just a quick utilization of Greek alphabet letters. So when he didn’t spend paragraphs and pages rambling on about the ornate class structure, or even scrutinize the viewpoints of each class member closely, I was truthfully, disappointed. For the rest of the novel, this perturbed me: my thoughts ran rampant and my psyche was heightened with unease. I wish I was being hyperbolic (pun definitely intended: get it? hyperbola/hyperbole?) but I’m 100% serious. Ford, the missed potential! What do these symbols really mean? How could these interpretations contribute to the themes present in the overall work? (Sorry, I stole that one from Q3 of the AP Lit exam). Thus, it begged the question: what if Aldous Huxley were a mathematician? But always, permutation matters. In our case, Huxley will still maintain all of his skill as a novelist and philosopher, but his literary choices will be laden with his newfound mathematical skill. peripheral Alphas - Grey Betas - Mulberry Gammas - Green Deltas – Khaki Conveniently enough, in mathematics, there are two forms of the delta symbol: Delta (with a capital D) is the triangle shape, one that symbolizes change over time delta (with a lowercase d) is like a snake, and generally symbolizes a tiny quantity Thus if Huxley were a true mathematician, Deltas would be the instigators for change in the society, as opposed to his fixation on solely Alphas and Betas. He could focus on the plight of the lower classes, Epsilons - Black In my opinion, out of all the social classes, epsilon is perfectly named. In the novel, the epsilons are the bottom of the barrel in society. Trust me when I say you do not want to be an epsilon. They cannot form coherent, independent thoughts, and we repeatedly witness Alphas and Betas mocking them, expressing their gratuity that they were not conditioned to be an epsilon. If that wasn’t enough, they’re even purposely short in stature. But Paul Erdos, the notoriously eccentric mathematician, fondly refers to the small children in his life as epsilons. Thus, epsilons in the novel perfectly match their definition, since they both denote infinitesimal quantities the closest you can approach zero without having absolutely nothing numerically and socially. For the majority of the novel, the classes have minimal intermingling and most do not even talk to each other. But I think Roof deserves a friend, so in terms of proofs, it would have made perfect sense to pair him with a delta, since they are both small forces in an oppressive society. Moreso, -------------------------- As a bonus, I’ll resolve one of our heated debates from class. John, our protagonist in the second half of the novel, is described by Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, as merely an experiment because he enters the World-State as an outsider from the Reservation. This led to the seeds for an analogy; if the society is the overall experiment, is John the independent or dependent variable in the trials that are the different colonies? As a result, John represents Keep in mind, in order to truly quantify the accuracy and magnitude of the effect, there must be a large sample size or n tested. To avoid erroneous conclusions and implications of causation rather than correlation, Mond must repeatedly test John’s presence in nearly identical societies, always checking for confounding variables. Control variable? Control group?? Existential negation In technical writing, we call this proof by contradiction. For instance, (There are many other methods to discuss, but we’d go through the entirety of mathematics before we finished.) I understand my demands are great, given the parameters. After all, Huxley is a philosopher, a constant in his writing, and not a mathematician (but one can dream, can’t they?). And to give credit where credit is due, he certainly gets some things right, such as the epsilons (roof!). However, by happenstance or intention, we may never know. Certainly, I believe peering into the lives of the other caste classes would prove illuminating, but alas, where is the political commentary in that? But my initial question lends itself to asking: what if Huxley were an economist? Or a priest? Or even a genetic engineer? How drastically would his social classes change if so? What does it all mean in the context of the novel? But after exploring the intricacies of mathematical social classes, I think such questions are best not pondered. Instead I suggest, “don’t give a damn, take a gramme” of soma. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Portrait Back to Sections Stern By Luiginna Frederique January 20, 2021 Photography Volume 1 Issue 4

Back to Articles Sports Back to Sections Interview with Volleyball Star Alessandra Llubit By Argelina Jeune Volume 2 Issue 4 February 10, 2022 Original photography by Alessandra Llubit Alessandra (Ally) Llubit is a senior and has played volleyball for all four years of high school. It has taught her how to be a teammate and friend. Not only has it helped her grow physically but mentally as well. North Star interviewed Ally to understand her perspective on her experience over the past four years. What do you like about your sport? Volleyball has always sparked an interest in me. This is a sport that involves teamwork and I have a lot of love for my team. Compared to the other sports I play, volleyball comes more naturally to me. Since I have also played volleyball for around seven years, I have gained a lot of confidence and experience. In my opinion volleyball is satisfying to watch and play and will always be my favorite sport. What has your sport helped you learn about yourself? Playing volleyball has helped me realize that I love being a part of a team. This year's season in particular was so special, and I believe it had to do with the bond that my teammates and I created. I have learned how to pick my teammates up and to never give up on them through playing this sport. If even one player is down and not performing at their best, I was able to comfort them while giving them a pep talk and get their head back in the game. How has this sport shaped your life and you as a person? I believe throughout the years of playing volleyball I have gained a lot of leadership skills and I have become more vocal. I feel that playing sports in general can help you communicate better with others, especially with team sports such as volleyball. As I have played more games, I have become stronger mentally, allowing me to focus and relax during nerve-racking moments, such as playing this year's playoff game. What will you miss about playing at North? What I will miss the most about playing at North is definitely the team aspect. I have gained many long-lasting friendships playing volleyball. Especially this year's team, there are many sophomores and juniors and I never expected myself to become so close with them. Because of the bond we all had between us, we gained plenty of trust while learning from one another, and it all showed in the fact that we won conference champions. In addition, I will miss the guidance and encouragement that Coach Parisi provided all these years and Ms. Parisi plays a big part in my success as a volleyball player. What do you look forward to in college? College has caused me to experience a variety of emotions, such as excitement and stress. Throughout the application process, I have felt the most pressure and stress I have ever experienced in a while. However, wondering what my future may hold is still very exciting and anticipatory. In addition to being more independent and being able to make new friends, I am looking forward to having more freedom. The college experience overall is quite thrilling, and I cannot wait. Do you plan on continuing to play this sport? Although I have thought about playing volleyball in college, I decided not to play division volleyball, but instead to play club volleyball. Volleyball is not something I plan to play seriously, but only for fun, since I know I will still be drawn to the sport. In general, I enjoy playing the sport, so I don't plan to completely give it up. North Star would like to thank Ally for the time she spent answering the questions for this interview; we wish her luck in her future endeavors. BACK TO TOP