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ALL ARTICLES NEWS ART & CULTURE ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA FEATURE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY POLARIS EDITORIAL SPORTS ADVICE The Destructive Aftermath of Hurricane Melissa News Akilan Subramaniyan December 22, 2025 READ MORE North's Annual Club Fair News Wardah Khizer December 22, 2025 READ MORE For what is fear, if fear cannot kill? Polaris Jasmine Roberts December 22, 2025 READ MORE Introductory - Ekin Pinar Advice Ekin Pinar December 22, 2025 READ MORE Welcoming Mr. Bracco! Feature Mikayla Aziz December 22, 2025 READ MORE Enjoy the Silence Feature Jasmine Roberts December 22, 2025 READ MORE Zohran Mamdani: Stepping up Socialism Editorial Breena Bernabe December 22, 2025 READ MORE The Return of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Feature Ava Augello December 22, 2025 READ MORE A Story of Good and Bad Polaris Leah Ally December 22, 2025 READ MORE 1 2 3 4 5 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 ... 87

Back to Articles Sports Back to Sections Leaps and Bouts: Adaobi Okammelu's Fencing Feats Rehmat Kaur Volume 5 Issue 4 April 8, 2025 Image Provided by Adaobi Okammelu Adaobi Okammelu started fencing during her freshman year, inspired by her Aunt from Arkansas. After years of trying to convince her mom to let her play a sport, Okammelu decided to give it a try after finding it listed as one of her district’s winter sport offerings. During tryouts, the gym was packed, but only 22 girls were allowed on the team. Then Okammelu realized that she would be “stabbing” people and getting “stabbed.” At that moment, she described herself as “the worst fencer on the team;” however, she had spirit and drive, so she appreciated the opportunity to fence in exhibitions rather than beating herself up for not fencing in official bouts. Fencing is an individual combat that contributes to the overall team score. During a meet, there are three rounds consisting of nine bouts. A bout is a three-minute individual match where the fencer who reaches five points first wins. Each round has three bouts, one for each of the three fencing weapons: foil, sabre, and epee. Sabre is fast paced, with slashes to the opponent's upper body and head. Foil, the most technical, targets only the upper body and excludes the head. The referee is more critical of attacks and movements with foil, as it is the lightest sword. Epee has fewer restrictions, allowing you to hit anywhere on the body without right of way. Foil starts the round, while epee concludes it, leading into the next round. You win the meet by reaching 14 total bouts first. The team that wins the meet by achieving 14 total bouts first wins. Okammelu won about 2-3 bouts out of the entire season which is approximately 60 potential bouts. To prepare for meets, Okammelu finishes long assignments the night before, eats a filling dinner, packs her gym bag with fencing gear, shoes, and medical supplies, and ensures that she gets a good night's rest. After school, Okammelu prepares for fencing by stretching, practicing drills with a teammate, and coaching epee fencers. She leads a prayer before each round to reassure teammates and offer encouragement. Have you faced any challenges in fencing? How did you deal with them? Okammelu: “I’ve faced many challenges, which I can break down into three categories: mental, physical, and social.” When facing an opponent on a 14-meter-long strip, “I experienced anxiety and thoughts about losing, tripping, or stepping into the warning line.” Most of the time, Okammelu felt she was an opponent to herself. She shares “I would beat myself up over losing a bout or letting my opponent get close to scoring when I could have easily prevented it by changing my movements.” Okammelu talks about her experiences in fencing, highlighting what her coach said about the importance of giving oneself grace and not constantly criticizing oneself. Okammelu has experienced physical injuries, but the worst was when she collapsed during the finalist round of the Manhasset tournament, “at that point, I’d been fencing for almost five hours straight.” Despite the pain, she decided to continue with the tournament after receiving a hug from her coach: she placed 4th out of 40 girls! “I’ve never been prouder of myself. Fencing is about pushing yourself, just like any other sport, and I’m glad I was able to continue even when pushed past my limits,” Okammelu remarks. Okammelu elaborates on a social challenge she faces and states, “A social challenge that many of my teammates and I face as well is racism. Our district’s fencing team is one of the few, if not the only, team in the county with more than three black fencers. Over half of our team is black. Due to this, there have been microaggressions from other coaches or opponents, in subtle ways that don’t warrant a yellow or red card for discrimination.” Okammelu recalled an incident where the coach of an opposing team tried to get their teammate carded for the “inappropriate” length of her faux locs, which concerned the team. “I’ve overheard opponents openly pointing out or discussing when my teammates and I wear bonnets or scarves to protect our natural hair. I’ve even heard coaches and parents say to their children, “Don’t lose to someone like her.” Okammelu keep her head held high and expresses, “this challenge is something we all face, in different ways, throughout our fencing—simply because we’re in a sport dominated by people who don’t look like us. The best way we address it is by making sure we win our bouts. There’s nothing we can say to change their mindset, so we prove we’re here to do one thing and one thing only: fence.” Okammelu finds the team to be more like a found family. “Like many siblings, we sometimes get into silly arguments, eat each other’s food as if we bought it ourselves, or decorate each other’s hair with pink bows for our Wednesday meets, when we all wear pink. Our coach is the glue that keeps us together, even if that means rubbing his bald head like a magic ball to give us ‘good luck’ before we go on the strip to fence. When I joined fencing, I didn’t just gain armor and a weapon—I got a family.” Okammelu aims to improve her parries and flushing techniques, which are hand movements used to set up or prevent an opponent's attack. They use parry 6, which involves tightly circling the blade against the opponent's, parry 4, which beats and presses against the opponent's sword while leaning in to land the attack, and parry 8, which involves tightly circling over the opponent's blade, aiming for their thighs. Okammelu also wants to improve her blade work when performing these parries so she can reduce her reliance on performing the same parry over and over. Flushing is a quick move meant to surprise the opponent, and she has only successfully hit her opponents a few times with this technique and would love to master it.” Full Interview with Adaobi Okammelu How have your challenges impacted your motivation to play sports? Okammelu: “The challenges I face only reinforce my goals to be better. Any microaggression or injury I encounter motivates me to show others that I’m good at this sport for a reason—and I want to show them why.” What do you want to see our school team accomplish? Okammelu: “I want to see over half of our team make it to individuals [County Fencing Championships].” What role do you want to play on our district’s team? Okammelu: “While I am currently captain, if there’s a chance to return after graduation as either a referee or coach, I’d love to!” Coach Ferrante, who has been Okammelu’s coach since her freshman year, and according to her, “one of the funniest, nerdiest, and most teddy-bear-like coaches you could ever meet,” constantly pushes her to improve and reach her full potential. He has taught her to be strong and fence aggressively, constantly defends the team during their meets, and ensures they are treated fairly by both referees and opposing coaches. “He’s a great coach, and I’ll be sad to leave him after our last season together.” One major highlight for Okammelu was their meet against Garden City, where they had been ahead by 6 but tied at 13. Okammelu was originally supposed to fence in two rounds but was subbed in for the final round, knowing she would be the last fencer to fight in the final round. In the final bout, she faced a very skilled opponent. With 20 seconds left, the score was tied at 4. “My teammates were yelling from the sidelines, and my anxiety was through the roof.” As the referee began the bout again, her opponent rushed towards her, “surprisingly, I extended my arm and scored the final point. It was one of the most stressful moments of my fencing career, but also one of the best.” What do you want our readers to know about fencing? Okammelu: “Fencing is just as technical and intense as it seems. It requires time and dedication, just like any sport, so don’t be fooled by its elegance thinking it’s soft. Getting hit with a sword isn’t as bad as it seems. Most of the time, depending on the weapon, you’re getting hit in the same areas, and eventually, you get used to it. While bruises do happen, it’s rarely serious. However, epee fencers often find bruises in the weirdest places! Also, we don’t have a boys’ fencing team at the moment, but hopefully, with time, our district will open up fencing to boys as well!” What do you hope for this season, both for yourself and the team? Okammelu: “As this is my final [senior] year, I hope to perform my best one last time for our district’s team. I just want to go out strong with some of my favorite teammates. While I do worry for the team’s success each year as the seniors leave, I can proudly say we’ll be alright—and even better—after this season.” BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections Ducks By Navrosedip Kindles Volume 3 Issue 2 December 23, 2022 Image provided by Elaine Ching so softly floating lovely ripples in the lake Oh my…… such cute ducks! BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles News Back to Sections VSN Future Teacher Club By Alisson Andrea Alas Bonilla Volume 2 Issue 7 June 13, 2022 Image provided by District 230 Valley Stream North High School offers many clubs/activities available for students to enjoy and learn from after school. For example, the Future Teacher Club, organized by two English teachers, Ms. Coleman and Mrs. Modzelewski, is a new club this school year. The club, like the name, is about being a teacher, a future teacher. If you are interested in teaching, this is the club for you. During past meetings, we’ve had guest speakers, for example, Ms. Mulkeen, from the English as a New Language Department, Mr. Jara, assistant principal, former dean, and Spanish teacher, also Dr. Small, North’s principal, Dr. Seinfeld, a dean from Long Island University Post, and Fabayo McIntosh, the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in District 13. We've had speakers with dual certification (not one but two fields or subjects), which is great to have because you can hear from someone who knows about teaching and can give you any tips, warnings, and encouragement. I interviewed Ms. Coleman and Mrs. Modzelewski about the club, and their answers are very easy to understand and give a thorough description of the club. 1. What is the purpose of the club? “ Future Teacher Club is to offer an opportunity for students possibly interested in pursuing a career in education.” 2. Why should students consider joining? “Students will have access to presentations and question and answer sessions with education professionals at different levels - teachers of all disciplines, building administrators, superintendents, and college professors and deans. These contacts will provide invaluable resources for interested students.” 3. Can all grades gain from this club? “The club is currently available to students in grades 9-12.” 4. What do the students learn about the educational field once joining? “The students will learn information about the certification process, necessary classes, approaches to student teaching, dual enrollment programs, and more.” I've always wanted to teach, and before joining the Future Teacher Club, I didn't think too much of it. Instead, I thought the feeling would pass and tried not to think about it. After the first few meetings, I decided that teaching is something that I would most definitely do. I've learned so much from this club and met wonderful people who advised and provided us with their knowledge, which has definitely encouraged me to not only want to teach English or History, but to go further because there's more than just teaching a single subject, or two. I would advise anyone who wants to teach to join because it's a perfect opportunity to learn from someone who is willing to guide you, meet wonderful people, learn about our teachers’ careers and how they got to where they are now, and how much effort they’ve put into studying and teaching. Not only that, but some meetings provide snacks! Even if you are in 7th or 8th grade, think of this as a club to look forward to. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Science & Technology Back to Sections Growing Use of Technology in Society Today By Neha Singh Volume 3 Issue 1 November 7, 2022 Image provided by GoodCore Are you becoming more dependent on your devices, just like most people in our society today? Do you find technology more helpful? Has artificial intelligence actually made your life easier? Do you use facial recognition instead of remembering your passwords? Are driverless cars the future you want? Although technology is really useful and helps us in our daily lives, is that a positive thing? Using facial recognition instead of remembering passwords is easier and more convenient but it decreases a person’s memory capacity. Before the advent of our advanced technology, we used to be able to memorize most passwords, but now most people can’t even remember their email passwords. Technology has affected mostly everyone but especially teenagers since they typically use new technology faster and more than adults do. However, do you know about the plus sides of technology in society? Artificial intelligence is now being used in medicine and medicinal research. With complex computer algorithms, computer chip implants can be used to advance people’s cognitive skills. With gene editing, we’re able to reduce the serious risks or development of health conditions in babies. Additionally, with robot exoskeletons, we can increase people’s muscular strength for lifting in manual labor jobs with built-in artificial intelligence systems. Is this really best for our society? Many people have different opinions about where technology should be used. Should we depend heavily on technology in the medical field as well? Or should it only remain for our entertainment, communication, and other daily life tasks? According to a Pew Research Center poll, 46% of United States adults think facial recognition technology is good for society, whereas 56% of United States adults think computer chip implants are bad for society. In the same poll, 30% of United States adults think gene editing is good for society and 30% think it is bad for society, whereas 42% of United States adults are unsure whether robotic exoskeleton is good or bad for society. Could this be due to a lack of knowledge regarding technology among the general population? Artificial intelligence is a fairly new concept in society, and we still don’t know everything about it. Although it is controlled by different computer algorithms, there isn’t always someone monitoring the technology, so anything could go wrong at any given moment. Technology is not 100% reliable, and this can be seen in our everyday lives. How many times has your phone died when you needed it? Or did your computer crash? Or do you have no service? Or the program or application you’re using is taking too long to respond? Although artificial intelligence is different and works through computer algorithms, crashes or hacks can still happen, so is technology really that good for our society today? BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Editorial Back to Sections It’s Okay to Have Friends Jasmine Roberts Volume 4 Issue 4 May 29, 2024 Image Provided by Annie Diep Mental health problems are among the greatest concerns for Gen Z. Maintaining one's mental health is imperative to the mobility of the self; it is the self-care be fore facial soaps and painted lips. Excessive self-diagnosing and negative outlooks on life among Gen Z contribute significantly to mental health concerns. The negative moments of a person’s life are often labeled as “trauma”, even when said “trauma” does not correlate to the scientific studies of how trauma operates. Has mental illness now become trivialized from the point of view of those who are genuinely impacted by it? Is it now “normal” to suffer? Does being happy mean that there is no substance within you, that you aren’t “deep”? Realistically, the world can be bitter and disappointing, and enforcing ideas of loneliness or solitude on social media apps and each other can compound the problem. It’s vital that Gen Z young people engage with each other and find healthy ways to cope with the ever-changing world and learn to perceive the world with more optimism. If subliminal messages say much, it is known that drilling negative ideas into the core of the mind will have detrimental impacts. It's okay to touch grass and breathe fresh air, and it’s okay to be that happy person who smiles at a squirrel eating a nut. It’s okay to live in your own little world as time moves on and the flowers in your tiny garden grow. However, please stay informed about wars and famines, and question the system, but don’t forget to do it with a smile and as open a mind as possible. Entering adulthood has its challenges, so let’s not take for granted the time of gold we have now before that gold becomes iron and rusts away. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Science & Technology Back to Sections Snow: The White, Fluffy Killer By Matteo Somma Volume 1 Issue 4 January 20, 2021 Image provided by AccuWeather On December 17th, 2020, here on Long Island we received 5 to 6 inches of snow. Naturally, as children - or even adults, we leaped outside into the snow. Whether to play or shovel, we had some type of interaction with the white fluff. But what many don’t realize is that snow is toxic and might be putting your health at risk. Earth's temperature rises every year rise due to the burning of fossil fuels, car exhaust, nuclear waste, to name just a few. 3.3 million people die from air pollution every year alone. These toxic chemicals seep into the air, polluting our atmosphere where clouds form. The chemicals suck up the water and air in evaporation, creating toxic chemical clouds. As the clouds release rain/snow/sleet/hail, those chemicals come down into Earth's surface, being greeted by the open tongues of children. Tons of little children every year ingest the snow from the ground, and some families even make snow ice cream. While in small doses it causes little to no harm, large consumptions and long-term exposure to snow can be deadly over time due to the numerous chemicals such as methane, gasoline, fossil fuels, and car exhaust. Surprisingly enough, short-term exposure can also cause sickness and infection. Now you might be asking: How does snow cause infection? Well, it's very simple. We live in the suburbs where many of us don’t have much property. Chances are much of the snow on your property has been touched by a snow boot, shovel or snowplow, all of which are non-sanitary and have touched dozens of surfaces, which can lead to infection. All in all, just keep this in mind the next time you’re looking to dine on some fresh snow. I would opt for some water or ice cream instead, which is much safer and much more delicious. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles News Back to Sections Day of Silence 2022 By Eva Grace Martinez Volume 2 Issue 6 April 14, 2022 Image provided by GLSEN Hi everyone! My name is Eva Martinez, and while I am an editor here at NORTH STAR, I am also president of Valley Stream North’s LBGT+ affinity group: The Alliance. The primary goal of The Alliance is to make North a safer space for all students by creating a safe space for its LGBT+ students. Although we have many events throughout the year, such as the participation in the Social Justice Summit, in my opinion, no event is more impactful than the Day of Silence (DOS). Started by a group of students at the University of Virginia in 1996, the Day of Silence has grown into a national student lead movement in high schools and colleges all across America. Organized by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, the DOS is a day for allyship and represents the silencing power of homophobia. This year the day took on extra meaning for North’s Alliance, as many also felt that their silence was an act of protest against Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education Bill,” a.k.a. the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. From a personal standpoint, it is inspiring to see an increase in students participating in the DOS; however, it is still an incredible challenge. During the DOS, all participating members were instructed to refrain from: talking, texting, using social media, miming, or any other method of non-verbal communication. If any of our readers know me in person, they also likely know one other thing about me: I do not ever stop talking. With the added limitation of not being able to communicate non-verbally, I knew I was in for a rough one this year. My primary feeling throughout the day was frustration; being unable to communicate in any way made a large portion of my daily tasks incredibly difficult, and I found myself left with questions in class that I simply couldn’t ask for clarification on. Additionally, several students kindly asked why I was not speaking. However, all I could do was show them my card, which simply says "How can you help end the silence?” Also, to the person I bumped into in the hallway, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude; I just wasn’t allowed to apologize verbally. Yet, my frustrations represented the true point of the DOS. Homophobia, and its impacts, whether socially or legislatively, have a significantly negative effect on LGBT+ students. When those students feel afraid, they may find themselves excluded from the ease of interaction enjoyed by others. Overall, the DOS is a challenging but meaningful event. I encourage those who have any further questions to stop by our next Alliance meeting after the break: Monday, April 25th, room 309. BACK TO TOP