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Festive Fall Fashions

By: Nurary Salina

Most American schools don’t require students to wear uniform in school and CATS Academy Boston is not an exception. Students are perfectly happy with this because they can wear clothes they like or find comfortable (and that conform with Dean Doyle’s dress policy). A lot of famous luxury fashion brands such as, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton recommend keeping office style in terms of choosing school outfits. Following this recommendation, you can easily look stylish, professional, and modern all at once throughout the school year.

Today, I want to talk about the fashion trends to keep in mind for the fall season. I hope this will help you achieve your style and comfort.

The most popular trends of the fall season now are bright, creative outfits, which give you the ability to present yourself and your outfit in the best way.

Popular fabrics to look for are: leather, suede, denim, velvet. A combination of fabrics is welcomed during the fall foliage.

To add originality and brightness to your attire, you may use decorations for your clothes, such as fur finish, ruffles, sequins, flounces and frill. It would be a great decision if you wear a simple white T-shirt and add fur strips on sleeves.

If you want to look up-to-date, then you should probably know that khaki, burgundy, terracotta, red, golden, purple, yellow, brown, pink, deep green colors are the most relevant in this season. Black is not considered a trendy color because fashion experts think that it is dull for fall and spring. But if you are a fan of dark colors, you may use brown or dark blue shades instead of black.

The spirit of 1970s and 1980s will be especially felt this season. Look for the acid shades, metallic shine, asymmetry, floral prints, hippy style, loose silhouettes, denim and length midi to dominate this fall. I hope to see some of you stepping out in some of the trendy looks this fall.

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Cheerleading Comes to CATS!

By: Aleksandra Chernysheva

As years go by, the CATS Boston community does not stop improving: last year we moved to a new campus, built new facilities for sports, we established the school newspaper, and created a student government. This year we intend to do even more.  Among our early but very significant achievements is our first CATS cheerleading team!

It was created by two of our students: Veronika Mikhaylyo (Ukraine) and Nina Sunago (Brazil). Last year they also had the ambition to create a cheerleading team, and their performance at the basketball game was outstanding. This year, it will be even better!

What has actually been done to make the team organization better? First, we  have a professional coach this year, who will guide the team. Second, cheerleading will start at the beginning of the school year, as opposed to the last year.

This year the team will practice twice a week: on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the gym.

You may be wondering, do you have to have certain skills in order to sign up for cheerleading? There are no special skills required, but you should be willing to commit and work hard in order to raise the school spirit.

Why join the cheerleading team? First, it’s good for your flexibility, grace, and physical health. Second, it raises the school spirit, and you can also make new friends. Last, it looks good to colleges that you have been a part of a community building activity(we all know that’s pretty important).

We are looking for  new people who are excited to join us. If you are interested, feel free to contact Nina, Veronika, or Mr. Wilkins.

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Are You Just Getting By? (Tips to Help All Students)

By: Howard Ng

It is not easy to do your best when you are overwhelmed, especially in school, every person has great potential to do well.  Are you simply just too reluctant to stand up in class but realize you could do it? If you want do the best that you can with the gifts that you have then you may be ready to receive some expert advice that could help you perform better and in class. Most of these tips are recommended by teachers and they may be simple or unusual, but they really work!

Mr. Angell, Head of Schoool- “Ask teachers questions, as many as you can, go ask for help”  

  • Although this tip, recommended by Mr. Angell, seems simple, we may have a rather hard time trying to do these things. If you’re a timorous person, fearing that teachers or your peers will criticize you for asking the wrong question, or fear of asking a question that other students have already asked, then that idea in your mind is a total misconception. According to Mr. Angell, “Teachers love you guys to ask questions” if you don’t ask questions, you would have to spend a hefty amount of time to google it yourself and sometimes you still don’t get helpful information. If you ask questions, you can get them answered very quickly.   If you still don’t get it, don’t hesitate or be afraid to ask again until you fully understand the answer. Spend a bit of time and ask your teacher, they are very willing and enthusiastic to help you.

“Measure twice, cut once.” from Mr. Coon, Science and ESL teacher

  • This idiom tells us to essentially spend more time before turning in work, to check twice before submitting a final product. This practice minimizes your chance of making mistakes. It is indeed a fundamental concept that, if we simply spend a little more time, we get better quality work and your teacher will in turn give you a jubilant smile. This could be interpreted as not waiting and spending all night on our essays the day before it is due.  That just really creates panic and anxiety and you cannot really do your best work or refine your work. By taking more time, separating your assignment into parts and making sure to “measure twice” (looking back at it)  basically doing bits of it everyday, you will be putting top quality work into everything for which you will get what you pay for.

There you go! Follow these tips and make the most of them and you will see for yourself a more confident student and, most importantly, you will demonstrate your true potential in class.

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Life Hacks in the Dorms

By: Howard Ng

Although some of you may agree that the dorms are just looking fine and there is nothing you can possibly do to improve it, there are actually a handful of cool tricks and “Lifehacks” that you can consider to make your experience in the dorm fun and memorable.

  1. Placing dryer sheets on your A/C:
  • Sometimes your room smells after leaving your windows closed, and the most you can do is buy a pricey air freshener to remove the smell in your room. Alternatively, you can use dryer sheets and tape them onto your air conditioner and it is a cheap and creative way to freshen up your room.
  1. Place your phone in a glass to amplify sound:
  • If you are an oversleeper, you should really consider this trick. Simply, place your phone in a glass cup and turn the speaker side towards the bottom of the glass and that acts as a mini alarm clock, in which you can use to make your alarm louder so the dorm parents don’t have to wake you up again!
  1. Set your lock screen to your class schedule!
  • Are you always getting late to class? Having a peek at your student portal before your next class or checking the paper schedule that CATS handed to you at the start of the year is just not “elaborate” enough! Simply, take a picture of your schedule (horizontal picture is recommended) and crop the background then set it to your lock screen. Now you know where you should be going, no more lateness should be expected from you!
  1. Don’t throw away your cardboard boxes, use them for your shoes!
  • Every time you buy stuff online that comes in a box and wonder what to do with the it, in this case, you can actually reuse them and place your shoes in them. Use a longer box that has the width of the length of your shoes and that you can probably fit a few shoes in it. Ain’t it easy, instead using a shoe rack, you can use your boxes and possibly decorate them to make them look fancy, you can even slide them under your bed!
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Metamorphoses- A Contemporary and Intricate CATS Theatre Production

By: Amber Nguyen

Metamorphoses – a collection of Greek Mythologies – with its tales of symbolism and enrapture imageries has come to CATS Boston. The Fall Play directed by Mr. Nathaniel Punches will be a re-telling of these famous stories with an infusion of modern elements. Based on the script written by Mary Zimmerman, the stories of love in various forms will captivate the inner sentiments of viewers. With contributions from many different departments, costumes, music and staging. The play will open on December 8th.

The cast of the show is extremely enthusiastic. Their presence and dedication to their roles brings forth the distinctive psyches of the characters. Seeing how they interact on and off stage gave a sense of energy so fresh it transpired into every line and action. Working with them on stage was not solely about performing, but largely about living the part itself. The play requires the delicate skill of emotion portrayal, and the cast deliveres. There is a rawness in delivery in some scenes, which gives something more natural to the presentations. With a rigorous schedule, the cast is working to their utmost potential to build the play step by step.

Indeed, a show cannot function smoothly without the people who manage everything that happens on the stage. Their job is challenging and interesting. They get involved by making sure every contributing factor to the play such as costumes, music, lighting, and even publicly are ready and on time with top quality. They manage every stride of the production from small to large, determined to bring out the best in the play. Sabrina Kuo– a dedicated stage manager – provided some insights to her role in the play:

“Mostly, I’m working on the schedule for costumes and backstage; but sometimes, I’ll get into the acting work and make sure the cast are working very well and memorizing their lines. The most challenging part, I would say, is to connect with everyone for the overall schedule because some have conflicts with their other activities…I won’t talk about the storyline because there are many separated stories in this play; but I like the play. It’s about love, all kinds of love, about money or romantic love. I really like it (laughs). The thing I enjoy the most about being a stage manager is the ability to connect to people. It’s hard, but it also makes me really happy because I can learn a lot from people, knowing what their personalities are, and making new friends.”

As the school year begins to pick up its pace, so are the creative art projects of CATS Academy Boston. Metamorphoses is the opening shot to this year’s theatre productions aiming for a new take on some complex and surreal ideas regarding love in many forms. It is highly anticipated – and rightfully so – as the premiere date is not far off. Hopefully, the hard work and commitment from every department working on the show will pay off as Metamorphoses take the stage on the 8th and 9th of December.

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CATS Academy Boston Prom 2017

By: Jackie Kovalcin

With the theme “Masquerade Ball” and  title “A Night of Elegance”, the prom had high expectations. And although I can only speak for myself, I’m sure everyone would agree that it went above and beyond in every way possible. It was truly a night of elegance. Prom 2017 was night of beautiful people, great music (especially Miron and Ha), lots of dancing, and a million photographs. From the delicious catering, going all out on the  dance floor, to the photos we’ll have forever, it’s easy to say we made the prom memorable night.

None of this could’ve been done without the Senior Prom Planning Committee who did everything from selecting the location to making sure there was a photo booth for our enjoyment. So for all your hard work, thank you. In addition to live music to kick off the dancing, we were treated to a heart-warming speech given by Jeungsoo Noh, a senior of four years here at CATS Academy, who introduced himself to the crowd as “Jeungsoo the Great”.

And a special congratulations to our prom king and queen Julliana Aya and Luigi Michelin!

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Black Spring Fashion Show

By: Aleksandra Chernysheva

On April 27th, Ms. Jacobson and her amazing fashion students (both from intro and advanced classes) were happy to present their work in a fashion show called “Black Spring.”

Let’s think about what’s a fashion show. Fashion is art, which makes fashion show an exhibition, but an exhibition of what? Of beauty! It does not matter what is exhibited as long as it is beautiful (to my personal understanding). This idea was wholly embodied by Ms. Jacobson. There was every possible kind of beauty: beauty of clothes, beauty of models, beauty of music and dance, and beauty of atmosphere and mood.

By the way, atmosphere was one of the greatest attributes about this fashion show. It was absolutely identical to those professional ones that take place in Milan, Paris with the superstars in the first rows in terms of the effort that was put into it and the pre-performance preparations. However, at the same time the atmosphere wasn’t as disturbing: on the contrary, it was warm, soft, and cozy. We did not even need the superstars or the Victoria Secret models to create our own perfect show. This light professionalism and nervous tranquility, I thought, was fascinating.

I also think that Ms. Jacobson’s classes made a great improvement since the “DiverCity” fashion show last semester. Thanks to Gabby and her new-fashion dress, the fashion lab and the innovation lab are connected now. Thanks to Riya, Gigi, and Lina, who made a fashion show focused not solely on fashion, and thanks to Maya and Gabriel, who enlivened the performance with the pair-walk.

I got the chance to talk to two of Ms. Jacobson’s students about what they found was the best part of the fashion show.

  • “I think that the best part of the fashion show was the making of garments, because I could cooperate with my friends, share the ideas, and simply have fun.”- Maya Alarcon
  • “I think that the best part was that people, who have never sewn on the sewing machine were making their own clothe, their own brands like Gabriel’s dress, Jeung Soo’s design.”- Jeung Soo Noh
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School Year in the Rearview Mirror

By: Jennifer Phan

This has been a year of great changes for our school. The much anticipated location move brought with it a thrilling new beginning laden with possibilities and challenges. Registration problems, schedule conflicts, room assignment mishaps, and settling down in general made the first couple of weeks hectic for everyone. But with patience and collaboration these issues were overcome, and the school year is thus set into motion. The school’s first elected student government as well as returning student ambassadors and peer mentors set the precedent for student leadership on the new campus through untiring enthusiasm and responsibility. The many school activities, trips, dances, and especially the energizing spirit week helped foster a sense of community among students from varied backgrounds and different cultures. This diversity was celebrated through student-led initiatives ranging from mixing dinners, positive messages on posters and murals, awareness-raising presentations, to school-wide participation in the Culture Fair and the Day of Silence. Diversity in passion and talents also had the chance to shine in the many spectacular exhibitions, fashion shows, and concerts: the Community Art Exhibition, Spring Fling, CATS Café, Open Mic, Black Spring, The Sun Arrives Later, and Once on This Island are just a few to name.

This has also been a year of great changes for me.  The much dreaded college application brought with it many trials and tribulations and some triumphs.  Apart from the standard senior struggles – juggling academics, extra-curricular, college application, (what’s left of) my social life, and sleep, this year has also taught me to have patience, for myself and for others, and perseverance, for the now and for the future. Looking back on the road I have taken, I can only say that objects in mirror are closer than they appear. The past seems so distant, yet so present; so much has happened, is two years even a long time?

CATS has been an intersection for my paths and those of the people who I have grown to know and love, and for this I will always be grateful. However, it is time for me to part with them and with CATS, and this is made all the harder knowing that for some this is our last goodbye. But I think I am ready. Not because I do not treasure my time here, for this has been the best and worst two years of life (a grand claim for someone who has yet to live twenty). I am ready because the past two years have prepared me, to the best of my ability, for what is ahead.

It has been quite a ride (at certain points, quite literally). Next stop: ?

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Survival Guide: How to Survive Summer

By: Jackie Kovalcin

With our days dwindling down here at CATS Academy and finals week only a few nights away, it’s easy to catch yourself day dreaming about what summer 2017 will hold. Bonfires, beach trips, and barbecues will soon be the consistency of your days. It has been an honor to write survival guides for this newspaper of ours. Here’s to what is to come, and the amazing things we’ve survived as a community this year.

Stay cool, fool: Global warming is on the rise, and this summer, you’re going to need to be prepared for it. Keep the air conditioning on, ice pops in the freezer, and a pool nearby.

Keep in touch: What a year it has been. Who would you be without the friends-turned-family you made this year? When you eat three meals a day and live with your friends at school, it is a team effort to make it through exams, weekend adventures, and daily life. There’s a certain type of bond you make with the people here at CATS, different than any other. That bond is worth maintaining, trust me. Keep up with WhatsApp, WeChat, Skype, and if you want to be old-school, you could even write a letter.

Have a bunch of fun: These are your months. These three (more or less) months are the only time you are free from the reign of school, teachers, study hours, and homework. Take advantage of this time, and challenge yourself to have the most fun (safe fun, of course) as possible. Travel with your family, try a new sport, hike a new mountain. Create memories.

Write something: This may not be as tempting as the other tips, but I guarantee you that you will thank yourself later. This experience you had during your time here at CATS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And you made the most of it. Write down your favorite memories on the backs of photos, start a journal, start a blog, make a list of names you never want to forget. For example, at the end of every school year I write a letter to my future self, and each year I love to read what was relevant in my life a year ago. I would recommend it to anyone.

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