The Paw Print

She is a student during the school year, an ardent traveler and yoga camper during summers. She has a sophisticated taste for exotic foods and can rock on to heavy metal music. She is Natasha Jane Stein,an incoming junior at the New York City Museum School.

Having moved to the Upper West Side from New Jersey just two years ago, Natasha has smoothly adjusted to the Big Apple, soaking in all that the city has to offer her. “There’s so much more to do in New York,” she says. “In my old school, people dressed and acted alike, but in the city,everyone’s different.”

Living in the city has also made it easier for Natasha to enjoy her passion: musical theater. She frequently goes to Broadway to watch musicals. “I’ve seen Spring Awakening at least eleven times,” says the 16-year-old. “My favorite musical is Hair and I’ve seen that four times. I definitely plan to see it again.”

Besides being an enthusiastic city-dweller, Natasha is an avid traveler. This year, she traveled to Ghana on an eye-opening medical mission. “The harsh living conditions of the people made me appreciate living in America so much more,” she says.

Niko Prassas, a senior at the Beacon School in Manhattan is an unassuming yet multifaceted young New Yorker. The first thing he offers about himself is that he’s “pretty into basketball” which, without provocation, is followed up by a personal declaration of his own merits.  “I can beat up most people my size.”

                  Niko’s well-roundedness is manifested in his main interests, journalism and basketball. This combination is one of the paradoxes that Niko’s personality seems to be comprised of. It’s a diverse mesh, but in fact these pursuits harmonize perfectly; hello, sports reporter.

                   Niko’s interest in exploring the world around him in his career could be a result of his international upbringing: he has grown up splitting his summers between New York and Greece,where members of his extended family live. While he feels that his European trips have not notably influenced his interest in journalism, being in countries where he knows not one word of the language and where the people have completely different social norms does motivate him to find different modes ofcommunication. Whether he sees it this way or not, Niko is a citizen of the world.

Claire Feuer spent the fall semester of 2008 in Monteverde, Costa Rica, a place of great natural beauty.  Claire also participated in Spanish immersion programs in Mexico and Spain and is passionate about the language.  Her experience staying with a Costa Rican host family and attending a local bilingual school was challenging, but a lot of fun.Life in Costa Rica is very different from urban New York City.  Claire, who is an only child, had three host-siblings.  People were welcoming and Claire made a lot of friends.  “Its great to feel you can go to a foreign country and fit in,” she says.

Claire will be a rising senior at The Institute for Collaborative Education (I.C.E.),a public middle school and high school in Manhattan.  In a school system that places increasing importance on high test scores, I.C.E. tries to teach their students to think critically and collaborate.  Claire loves her school.  She hopes to continue her education at Tufts University in Boston.Although she has not yet chosen a major, Claire loves reading, analyzing and comparing books.  She also plays soccer on a travel team.  This summer, Claire is attending the College Now journalism program at Baruch College and reporting for The Paw Print.

      Seventeen-year-old Kaulani Gomez lives in Kingsbridge, Bronx and was born on January 2, which makes her a Capricorn. Kaulani was named after one of the Hawaiian Islands. When asked how or why that happened she admits, “My family has a weird tradition of picking names off the map. My sister is named after a city in Mexico.” Kaulani’s favorite hobbies are reading, writing and walking. She enjoys reading fiction; the latest novel she’s read is Room for Love, by Andrea Meyer. She enjoys writing poetry, mainly about life, and short stories. She also enjoys sightseeing when walking through the city

  Kaulani attends the High School of Fashion Industries. Kaulani seems to enjoy her school. “My school is fun and very diverse,” She says. Even though she likes her school she realizes that getting a job in the fashion industry may be difficult. This realization came in her sophomore year when she was given a choice of electives between art and computer graphics. “When I tried art I realized I couldn’t draw and I wasn’t all that good at computer graphics, but I can construct.”

       Kaulani doesn’t have a specific preference when it comes to music. She listens to everything from hip-hop and rock to classic Hispanic music like meringue or salsa. Kaulani‘s favorite seasons are summer and spring because she really enjoys sunny days.

Brittany is an active student at Millennium High School. The school paper may be a small production, but Brittany leads the way by taking the initiative to edit articles. And her drive doesn’t stop there.

        In the Foreign Exchange Club, members like Brittany are allowed the opportunity to travel. “Spanish used to be the only foreign language in the school so most of the places were in Latin countries.” In Chile, Brittany volunteered at an orphanage and in Costa Rice, she painted a church. 

        Although she remains involved with student life at Millennium , Brittany has a far commute. “I lived in Harlem until age eleven, then I moved to the Bronx.” Proud of her own identity, Brittany often feels like an outsider in her dominantly West Indian neighborhood. That’s not the only critique Brittany has. “It’s in the BOONDOX!” she exclaims, describing the isolated area.  But Brittany isn’t paying much mind to her neighborhood woes as she looks forward to a career in communications. “There’s so much I want to do but I stick with writing because I like it and I think I’m good at it.”

    Love. I ask myself what is love? And why is it that that word gets thrown around like a volleyball on a hot summer day at the beach? At age 17, I do not know anything about love except the unconditional love I have for my family because that love is undebatable, and undeniable. But what is that love that so many people seem to refer to as they start to grow older and begin to grasp the meaning of life? That is something I am still trying to figure out. 

    So many teenagers these days, including my friends, claim they “love” their boyfriend or girlfriend. I think it’s hilarious that they automatically assume this teenage crush is “love.” I know, I know, who am I to judge one’s relationship and who am I to put an age limit on “love?” The truth of the matter is I don’t have a say on what’s love and what’s not. But I think too often we forget that love is supposed to be an amazingly beautiful aspect to life. So when that word gets tossed into the air, it aggravates me. Its meaning gets lost in the crowd of NYC because it is used way too often.  

    Too often teenagers live in a box where the little holes for them to survive on is their only glimpse of reality. But life is too precious to have love be taken for granted. I believe love is not a gift, but rather a privilege. And when people take advantage of that privilege, it does not become a privilege anymore but rather an everyday thing that just magically is part of life which is NOT the case at all. 

    I think a lot of young teens, especially girls, want this “love” so badly that they’ll go through extremes just to achieve it. Nobody wants to be alone in this cruel, dark world that we live in and nobody wants to go through life’s struggles without a companion, so we constantly strive to find the person best associated with the word “love.” And although it may seem somewhat sad, it’s painfully true. We grow up reading fairytales and watch movies with happy endings but how does that fit into our not-so-perfect world? We satisfy ourselves with this hope for finding love but I think love is not meant to be found. Love is meant to be experimented and love is meant to be expected unexpectedly. 

    I wish more people knew how much love means to me, although I myself can neither define it nor can say I’ve experienced it. The beauty of it is the fact that it can not be seen or distinguished because its form is an invisible coat of transparency.  It’s lack of physical appearance makes up for its emotional attachment. The power of love overshadows all obstacles in life and it is known that love conquers all. But until I can witness it first hand by using my heart as my eyes, I  am not able to say that I agree with its potential to absorb me into its madness.  

    I truly believe that you can’t find love because love is supposed to find you. So stop looking because most likely you’re looking at the wrong places to begin with. When you least expect it, love will come knocking on your door and don’t say I didn’t warn you. Everybody deserves it and someday it will come to us all, but until then, embrace what life has to offer and when it occassionally throws lemons at you, just make lemonade and call it a day. 

 Seventeen-year-old Chanel Samuels, a rising senior at The Beacon School, is a small-time city girl with big dreams. She hopes that someday she’ll become a photojournalist or just a plain-ol’ writer for Fader magazine. But until then, this Harlem girl will continue to build up her fair share of life experience.

  A self-proclaimed party girl who insists that parties allow her “to be with friends in social atmospheres and dance to good music.” Chanel also attempts to balance out her activities. Although dedicated to her partying ways, Chanel is quite the laid-back type of girl at home. Unlike the typical teenager nowadays who spends countless hours watching TV or playing video games, Chanel spends her free time expanding her skills in what she enjoys doing the most—writing. She takes pride in her work and enjoys her English class the most during her days at school. When not in school, she can be found spending time with her beloved family and friends at local parks or even Canada, her favorite place to visit.

      Not only does Chanel enjoy the company of those who are “funny, not too loud, but also not too shy,” she enjoys listening to R&B and up-and-coming hip-hop artists.Her most memorable day was meeting Ne-Yo, a well-known R&B singer/songwriter, while he was performing at a club three years ago. Chanel is one of the lucky few to have had the one-in-a-lifetime opportunity of meeting a celebrity

 Alicia Proto was born on August 27, 1992 and grew up in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. Her rent-stabilized apartment has allowed her family to afford the costly (and trendy) downtown area. Before Alicia was born, her mother had trouble conceiving a child and decided to adopt. During the adoption process, Mrs. Proto became pregnant with Alicia, but followed through with the adoption process. Alicia is only five months younger than her adopted sister, and declares that they feel like twins.When they were in ninth grade Alicia’s sister was sent to boarding school; she misses her sister and looks forward to her visits.

       Alicia entered School of the Future as a rising sixth grader and remained there through high school; she cannot wait to graduate next spring. “I have very close friends at School of the Future, but I really need a new environment,” Alicia admits. Alicia is able to find a new atmosphere through extra-curricular activities. She worked for the writing program High 5 during Junior year, which entailed writing reviews of theater performances. The program allowed Alicia to watch all kinds of theater, both on and Off Broadway. “High 5 really taught me to appreciate more types of theater. Great productions are not just on Broadway,” Alicia exclaims.

      Alicia has never left the U.S and plans on dedicating a year to traveling before college. Her temple offers a trip to Israel for nine months in which students live in dorms and on a kibbutz, while participating in community service programs. “I’m so excited,but it might be hard because I’m a city-girl,” she explains. Alicia plans to continue her travels after college (preferably a SUNY) to discover more cultures, and break out of her downtown bubble.

“Tech kids are really smart, but they’re also really dumb,” she says affectionately about her peers at Brooklyn Technical High School, the school she’s called her second home for the past three years. $0$0          Her name is Christina Gee and in ten years she sees herself graduating from the University of Chicago and “writing on the side,” she explains, her stylish bob swaying as she speaks.       $0$0          Although she is the editor of her school newspaper’s Arts & Entertainment section, Christina is more delighted to talk about her love of Brooklyn’s promenades or generally, her love of water. She’s unsure of Venice’s geographical location but does fantasize about one day rowing down the city’s famous waterways.        $0$0        When talking about her favorite film, The Lake House, Christina reveals herself to be quite the romantic. “It’s nice to know someone you don’t know is taking care of you,” she says, referring to the main characters who fall in love despite the fact that they’ve never met in person. Perhaps that statement can also be applied to her sentiment for her second family, her step team, who she likes to refer to as her “big sisters.” It’s obvious by the way Christina’s eyes light up when talking about her teammates that they’ve become like siblings, showing that what this intelligent, driven, confident girl values most is friendship. $0$0$0$0$0

Fiona Glisson is a rising junior attending LaGuardia High School of the Arts, where she has been part of her school’s pit orchestra since February and is majoring in Instrumental Music. She plays the piano, since last September, and the harp, since 4th grade. “Although it may be hard, I try to practice my instruments everyday,” she says with confidence. In fact, she is involved in the American Harp Society, a place where students are encouraged to play and cherish the harp in addition to acquiring the composition skills that will enable them to create music scores that are suitable for the harp. Fiona’s role within the American Harp Society was to design their signature T-shirts as well as to prepare for the upcoming Harp Community Conference of 2011.

Adding to her musical talents, her hobbies include writing and participating in her school’s French club. She would like to leave New York for college and has had dreams of attending Harvard University ever since a visit to the campus where she was pleasantly surprised  by the sincerity and kindness of a security guard.

Splish splash, splish splash! Water sports are what she likes to do best and she was on the swim team in her middle school. On July 4th, Fiona and her father went to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn to boat with her father’s friend. This shows her true affection for water. Also, Fiona likes to ride her bike and watch TV when she is at home. I’m sure she will live happily ever after making music and enjoying the cool refreshing sensations of the water.