Expectations were high, but the Boys and Girls Varsity Track teams still managed to surprise with their respective blowout victories over Deerfield on Saturday May 4th. Both Wild Boar squads entered with 6-2 records, and ended the day feeling more than satisfied at 7-2. Boys co-captain Jerry Lee ’13 said of his team’s 106-39 victory, “I expected a victory nonetheless, but I expected a closer one.” Girls’ co-captain Eleanor Kang ’13 added of her squad’s 92-52 romp, “When we first came in, I thought we had a very good chance of winning because we have a strong this team this year.” Lee added, “Deerfield has traditionally been a very challenging team to beat. They’ve usually had a very talented long distance group, and usually when we win [against Deerfield] it’s because of a difference of a few points, because of something the sprinters do, or something the throwers do.”

On Sunday May 5th, the shore of Lake Waramug was lined with cheering fans and rows of tents for the Founders Day Regatta. The Choate Boys Crew team traveled to Litchfield County to compete in the Regatta, where they finished second overall. With nearly fifteen teams competing at the competition, Choate’s top four boats raced to capture the silver, finishing behind the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club.

When you hear about an apprenticeship, it is natural to picture a medieval workshop complete with a master and a younger apprentice. Recently, though, they have been etching their way into modern society—and for a good reason. A successful apprenticeship nearly guarantees a job in a manufacturing field. Although it sounds absurd, an apprenticeship system could be just what the United States job market needs to provide jobs for the younger, underemployed, or unemployed members of this country. Apprenticeship allows one to learn specialized, useful skills that can instantly be brought to the job market. If a new generation of young workers were properly trained, they could successfully revive the aging manufacturing economic sector in this country.

America is fixated on concussions. From professional athletes to young kids, head injuries seem to be the most prevalent—and exaggerated—sports-related injuries in the country. Concussions are not new phenomena; for decades contact sports have been endowed with the possibility of serious head injuries. However, it is only recently that this nation has become entrenched in a dramatized fear of concussions in young athletes. Now, more than ever, young athletes are being diagnosed and treated for harmless head injuries. Considering that research done by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that roughly 90% of concussion cases reviewed by doctors are harmless, it is evident that society has hyperbolized the effects of concussions.

Not every Choate graduate will attend college after commencement. In each graduating class, there are always a few students who take time off before their college matriculations. An individual’s gap year could be spent backpacking in Europe, interning at a company in his or her hometown, or running marathons. The itinerary for a gap year varies by student, but gap years are generally used as an opportunity to relax, recharge, and experience life beyond the classroom.

Choate’s music program will start the fall off on a very different note next year. As choral students learned in an April 12th email from Arts Director Ms. Kalya Yannatos, new full-time Choral Director Ms. Aly Kegel will be replacing current part-time Choral Directors James Balmer and Mary Nelson.

Friday night hummed with harmonies in the Seymour St. John Chapel as the Student Activities Center debuted Acapelooza, an a cappella competition between eight peer schools. The event took place on April 19th, from 7-10 pm. A total of nine groups performed, including two from Choate, the Maiyeros and the Whimawehs. Other participating schools included Avon Old Farms School, The Ethel Walker School, The Hotchkiss School, Kingswood Oxford School, The Loomis Chaffee School, Miss Porter’s School, and Wheeler School. In total, three all-male, three all-female, and three co-ed a cappella groups participated. Tickets were $5.

I was eight years old when my parents told me I would be moving halfway across the world to a country I had never heard of—Saudi Arabia. Back then, all I knew about Arabian culture was what Disney depicted in the Aladdin movies: puffy pants, outdoor markets—which I later found out were named bazaars—expansive sandy deserts, flying carpets, genies in lamps, and the blazing heat. At least it was right about Saudi’s sun.

After what seems like hours of sitting in the PMAC listening to Ned’s athletics messages and Ms. Yannatos’s announcements about upcoming arts events, Mr. Stanley finally comes to the podium with the penultimate announcement: this week’s Choate Talks speaker. The student or teacher walks out, speech in hand. Sometimes it starts out with a joke, causing the entire PMAC to erupt with laughter. But as the giggles settle down, the mood becomes more serious, more reflective. That’s when the power of Choate Talks comes to the fore. Call the speeches mere subjective reflections, or call them personal outlets. Yet by the time they’re set and done they accomplish a single, powerful goal: tying this community closer together.

The final days of one of China’s last two major free-flowing rivers are dwindling. The Nu River, flowing from the Tibetan Himalayas through the jungles of Burma and Thailand, is one of China’s few rivers untouched from human construction. The Chinese government surprised many in March when it announced its plans to revive 2004 plans of building hydropower dams on the upper courses of the Nu.

Garden Party and President’s Cup are traditions that date back to Rosemary Hall and the Choate School, long before the schools’ merger. Though most aspects of Choate, including formal events and meals, have included both genders since the school become co-educational in the 1970s, Garden Party and President’s Cup have remained the only two gender-segregated traditions on campus.

The Day of Silence sponsored by Sexual Minorities and Straight Supporters (SMASS) was not observed in the traditional fashion this year. Unlike in previous years, students observing the Day of Silence did not take a day-long vow of silence . Rather, students donned their blue apparel on Friday, April 19th Unlike in previous years, students observing the Day of Silence did not take a day-long vow of silence.

Dedicated to the victims of the bombing at the Boston Marathon and coordinated by director of community service Ms. Mary Pashley, the Red Cross Blood Drive on Thursday, April 18th drew the largest turnout of any blood drive hosted at Choate in the past thirty years.

“United We Stand” blazed on a video board outside Yankee Stadium between the New York Yankees’ and the Boston Red Sox’s logos. Known as the bitterest rivalry in American sports, the usual Yankee-Red Sox enmity has been on hiatus since the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15th. Many professional sports teams across the country have, like the Yankees, made tributes to the city of Boston in the wake of the bombings.

Earth Day is celebrated around the world every year on April 22, but in a lot of places, like Choate, it is celebrated for an entire week with an array of events, activities, and contests to raise awareness about the fragile circumstances of the globe’s ecology.