Where are the Hellos in
the Hallway?: page 5
Dirty Dancing-Crackdown
on Grinding: pago 2
Blackboard Shoves Printing
Expenses on Students: page 4
stentorian
the north Carolina school of science and mathematics 1219 broad street, durham nc 27705
vol. XXVI, issue 3
stentorian@ncssm.edu
December 2005
Julie Brown says goodbye to NCSSM
A paintingentitled “House
Hopping” hangs on the
wall in the office of Ju
lie Brown, instructor of biol
ogy.
The painted frogs jump
ing from house to house rep
resent the ever-changing life
of Brown, who will resign her
position at NCSSM in order to
move to Charlotte over win
ter break. Brown decided to
make the move when her hus
band was offered a job work
ing for Habitat for Humanity in
Charlotte.
Brown will be leaving her
position as a biology teacher.
Over the past three and a half
years. Brown has taught envi
ronmental science, evolution,
anatomy and physiology, and
forensics at NCSSM.
“It has been great. I have
become a much better teacher.
The students here always chal
lenge me and ask good ques
tions,” Brown said.
Brown has taught commu
nity colleges in North Caro
lina and Coimecticut, but she
considers her teaching experi
ences at NCSSM particularly
unique.
“Teaching at a residential
school has been much more
demanding. It takes a lot of
time. I almost feel like I live
here too. I feel much more in
volved and invested in the lives
of students,” Brown said.
Although Brown will be
leaving NCSSM, she will be
taking handfuls of memories
with her.
“I’m going to miss Air Band
so much. I love it. I remember
my first year here, one of the
groups consisted of a bunch of
guys wearing nothing but fig
leaves,” said Brown.
Seniors may remember her
appearaiKe as a prancing uni
corn from last year’s Air Band.
However, most students will
recognize her absence from the
classroom, not from the year-
end celebrations.
“She was so wonderfiil. I
really loved her energy and her
enthusiasm. She was always
well prepared and she made
learning fun. And she’s a real
ly nice person even outside of
class. She was always willing
to help me whenever I needed
it. I’ll definitely miss her a lot,”
senior Peggy McKay said.
Students who have Brown
for second trimester will re-
BniWII MPtimiedsniagsD
Physics floor will miss
Angelina Winborne
P hysics teacher Angelina
Winborne left NCSSM
at the end of the first tri
mester to move to Huntsville,
Alabama.
Winborne taught General
Physics, Physics with Advanced
Topics, and robotics courses at
NCSSM for a total of ten years.
Slie supervised a vast array of
mini-terms, often correspond
ing with Mr. Liles in the art
department. Her favorite course
to teach is optics, and she has a
large interest in Relativity and
Nuclear Physics.
“Mrs. Win
borne was
great,” said
one student.
“She had a
good sense
of humor as
long as you
followed her
rules,” said
another.
Teaching
came natu
rally to Mrs.
Winborne.
“Some things just happen to
you,” she said. Before coming
to NCSSM, she was a teacher
at catechism, where she played
guitar and sang to small chil
dren, in addition to arts and
crafts.
She became interested in
teaching Physics as an under
graduate when she applied for
work study at the University
of Mississippi. She wrote a lab
manual that is still in use to
day.
Winborne has long been a
fan of cooking and gardening
both of which she said she liked
“before they were cool.” She
also likes to engineer rocks, say
"I like to build
stone walls
with rocks that
weigh at least
a hundred
pounds."
-Angelina
Winborne
ing “1 like to build stone walls
with rocks that w eigh at least a
hundred pounds.” Her numer
ous pets include five cats and a
horse named Dancer
Of the six schools Winborne
taught at, she said that NCSSM
stands out as a residential cam
pus where every person that is
here wants to be here, even if,
as she put it, they “moan about
work you give item.” She said
“people here have a sense of
community that you just don’t
find at normal pubhc schools.”
Some students said that
their favorite part of her class
was the ec
centric way
in which sIk
concocted
problems.
One student
said that,
with refer
ence to a
D-V-A-T
problem, she
said “We’re
dropping
(anony
mous stu
dent) off a
building today.”
She said that she is “not kid
ding” that students are the best
part of teaching at NCSSM. Her
teaching colleagues have been
like a family to her, a profes
sional world that still seems
very close. “Part of a family is
being dysfunctional,” she said,
with a small chuckle and a tear
in her eye.
For her, there are too many
memories to coimt at the school.
She said that she has high
expectations for the future of
NCSSM. When asked w hether
she would return, she said “Oh
sure, you can’t get rid of me
that easily.”
Peggy McKay, Jessica Hanson, and Margaret Yim get in the
Mardi Gras spirit at LSMSA in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Students give money,
receive ideas at LSMSA
RV Sara Wisk
N ine members of the
NCSSM community
embarked on a journey
to Natchitoches, Louisiana to
visit the Louisiana School for
Math, Science, and the Arts
for several days of sharing
and learning. Students Peggy
McKay, Margaret Yim, Jessica
Hanson, Shelby Currier, Jake
Reardon, Chris Calascione, and
Max Rose left in the evening
hours of Wednesday, November
30th, along with Student Life
Instructors Sue Anne Lewis and
Allison van den Berg.
The journey, which is depicted
by the students in several online
joiunals, got off to a rough start.
When their mini-bus suffered
several mechanical problems,
they were required to spend the
night in a C^rlotte hotel imtil
they got a new bus.
After departing early the
following morning, the stu
dents and SLIs continued their
journey into the Deep South,
witnessing giant peaches in
South Carolina, silting in traffic
jams in Georgia, and enduring
monotony in Alabama.
Finally, the students arrived
at LSMSA in the early hours
of Friday morning, greeted by
their hospitable hosts. After
a short night’s sleep, the NC
SSM students delved right into
student life, taking classes such
as genetics, microbiology, Eng
lish, and theatre.
In the afternoon, they pre
sented a check for over $3,000
to LSMSA. That
amount was raised
by NCSSM students
through the Mardi
Gras celebration to
support the students
of LSMSA who
were displaced by
hurricane Katrina.
Shelby Currier
was able to learn
Six named
Siemens
semi-finalists
RY ’Vtcttor T^tf.u
S ix NCSSM students were
named semifinalists in the
Siemens - Westinghouse
Competition, with one advanc
ing to the regional finals.
Suman Medda advanced to
the regional finals at Georgia
Tech, with his project on coor
dination complexes.
Medda, a Research in
Chemistry student, had plenty
of research experience prior
to entering Siemens. He and
his teanunates placed first in
last year’s NASA NSIP Space
Flight Opportunities Program.
Medda completed his Sie
mens project over the summer
in the Escrow Program at UNC
- Charlotte. He said that he
spent over 400 hours working
on his lab research alone.
“You have to be able to stick
with it,” Medda said. “You have
to be prepared to delve into
sometWng that’s new and that
you’re interested in.”
Seniors Katie Cheng, Da
vid Rhoden, Toan Tran-Phu,
Calvin Young, and Kevin Chen
were the other semifinalists
chosen to participate in this na
tional competition recognizing
achievement in student research
in Mathematics,. Science, and
Technology.
Chen did a project on Re-
combiirant DNA. With no prior
experience, he simply contacted
a professor at UNC - Greens
boro in order to get involved
with research.
“I took embryology and
I got interested in molecular
genetics. I e-mailed [Dr. John
Tomkiel] at UNCG and he just
took me in,” Chen said.
Although Medda did not
advaiKe to the national finals,
these students have continued
an NCSSM tradition of doing
well in the Siemens-West-
inghouse competition. Last
year’s first place winners in
the national competition were
NCSSM seniors Xianlin Li and
Lucie Guo.
ISJI$A
Mipisea
V
; Medda with his Siemens presentation