Features – Page 3 – A Student Publication of the Roxbury Latin School

Facing tough competition, Varsity Hockey never lost heart

By Peter Frates II

The 2020 varsity hockey team finished its season just under .500 this year. This group was led by captains Dante Cuzzi, Joey Ryan, and an experienced crew of seniors. Sam Ginzberg, Matt Traietti, Mikey Jones, Kevin Swan, and Kam Miller, each played a critical role in the team’s success and set examples of hard work for the underclassmen. From the freshman to the seniors, this team was extremely close, partly due to the great senior leadership.

Dr. Esther Duflo gives virtual Hall

By Krishantha Muniappan VI

On April 21^st, Roxbury Latin gathered for its third-ever virtual Hall with Nobel-prize-winning economist Dr. Esther Duflo, to conclude a series that has been focused on homelessness and poverty around the globe. This year, RL has already heard from four other prominent speakers experienced with this theme. The first was Matt Desmond, author of Evicted. The second, Tina Batista, is the director of A Bed for Every Child. The third was Kate Walsh, the CEO of the Boston Medical Center and the fourth, Bill Walczak, the co-founder of the Codman Health Center. Each told their separate stories in an engaging manner meant to educate and inspire their audience. As one might expect, the Nobel prize winner had no trouble meeting this standard with a riveting presentation of her own entitled “Fighting Poverty, with Facts and Passion.”

Reflections on education in the age of the coronavirus

By Ben Crawford II

The coronavirus pandemic has upended many of our daily routines, from the way we socialize to the way we do our homework. However, COVID-19 has also prompted dramatic innovation: the introduction of online learning for high school students represents a major shift in modern schooling, and the new system is forcing us to re-evaluate several aspects of education we previously took for granted. Three changes in particular deserve our consideration.

Class presidents bring their personal touch to virtual homerooms

By Vishnu Emani III

As we’ve all been getting acclimated to the new school environment, we have been trying to make the virtual school experience as similar as possible to what school was like before. Other than the nauseating clanging of the rolly-bags in the hallways and the experience of standing right next to the monstrous bells in the Classics wing, most of the physical school experience is worth trying to replicate. Specifically, I want to focus on how homeroom is being run throughout the different classes.

Time Capsule: Students detail quarantine diversions

One snapshot of daily quarantine life from each grade

By Daniel Berk II

Quarantine can be a tough time. The days feel long, there are no friends to see, and there are few new experiences. If you are running out of things to do while social distancing or just want to hear someone else’s take on life as a quaranTEEN, look no further! Members of each class at RL have answered these three questions:

How do you spend your days?
How do you feel about the virus?
What are some recommendations for things to do?

Watch these video snippets from their quarantines!

Meme Central: Tweets, TikToks and more!

These memes, videos, and fake tweets were submitted by various students from across all six grades.

Faculty Tweets:

Biden’s VP pick is the key to his lock on the presidency

By John and Robert Balson II

As Covid-19 has dominated the news cycle for the past 2 months, the once incessantly followed 2020 Presidential nomination process and election has been largely an afterthought. Joe Biden continued his strong performance after his domination of Bernie Sanders in South Carolina and again the following week on Super Tuesday. Seeing no clear path to the nomination, Senator Sanders dropped out of the race on April 8th, guaranteeing that Vice President Biden would be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020. He will be running, of course, against the incumbent President Donald Trump. One of the last major questions that is yet to be answered is who Biden will select as his running mate. He previously guaranteed he would select a woman, meaning his choice will likely be one of the following: Stacey Abrams, former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia in 2018; Kamala Harris, senator from California and former-Attorney General of California; Amy Klobuchar, senator from Minnesota; Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan; Catherine Cortez Masto; senator from Nevada; or Elizabeth Warren, senator from Massachusetts.

Advice for dealing with quarantine

By Christo Velikin VI

Some stay inside and play video games all day long. Some are outside all of the time. Some are creative with things, and come up with their own fun. Some are optimistic, some are pessimistic. So what should you do during lockdown? Well, in this article, I will give you a couple of ideas about what to do when you are bored at home, which for me is probably 80% of the time.

18-5 season earns varsity basketball a playoff berth, first in a decade

By Tim Smith I

In terms of sheer results, the 2019-2020 varsity basketball team had a historic year. We finished 18-5, with wins over several league powerhouses like Lawrence Academy, Beaver Country Day, and Rivers. The team earned a Class-B playoff berth for the first time in about a decade. In the first round, we were slated to play St. Luke’s School at Cheshire Academy. We fought hard, but ended up losing 47-57. Although we came up short in the playoffs, each of us were proud of the effort we had put in, the results we achieved, and the growth we all experienced as players and people.

Latonics drop new album: “Lose Yourself Again”

By Christian Landry I

After a long wait, the Latonics’ new album is finally here! Lose Yourself Again features songs from the 2016-2017 Latonics and 2017-2018 Latonics. After an unexpected backup in production, the album was delayed significantly, but it was well worth the wait. In addition, the Latonics are now going virtual! This album will be directly uploaded to Spotify, Apple Music, and more, instead of being released as an actual CD. The album art was created by former Latonics member Erik Zou ’19. You can find the tracklist below: