Etiam erat velit, ultrices et pretium sed, gravida ut ante. Vivamus et felis sodales mi condimentum pulvinar nec et purus. Aenean ullamcorper ultricies nisi, at facilisis nisl vehicula sit amet. Maecenas tempor magna id augue convallis nec pellentesque orci ornare. Sed interdum viverra augue, vel pellentesque metus egestas et. Nullam congue, lectus ut mollis imperdiet, tortor ligula blandit lorem, vel hendrerit nisi justo quis libero. Quisque ac sapien eu sem auctor porta. Fusce lobortis ante scelerisque ipsum porta dapibus. Morbi commodo turpis at eros interdum dignissim. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Sed imperdiet pellentesque feugiat. Morbi commodo libero id neque convallis tempus. Quisque viverra elementum est rhoncus ultricies. Cras eu arcu at tellus commodo tempor. Phasellus feugiat tristique mauris a mollis. Vestibulum sapien diam, ultricies at rhoncus sit amet, feugiat vitae risus. Vestibulum consectetur mauris at justo ornare sagittis.

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Despite claims stating otherwise, it was recently announced via T Magazines twitter account that Vogue fashion editor Sally Singer will be taking helm of the magazine.

Singer is a graduate of Yale University and has worked at Vogue since 1999. Prior to Vogue, Singer worked at New York Magazine, Elle, British Vogue, and the London Review of Books.

Photo via Hammer

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Alber Elbaz always does it right. His work at Lanvin has a universal female draw, with women of all shapes and styles finding something that they not only like, but love. His Resort 2011 collection captured this value with an ease and grace.

Variety was the key to success in the collection. It isn’t hard for Elbaz to design a beautiful dress, but his ability to create such varied looks while keeping in tune with the Lanvin “look”, shows something that not all designers have.

In the Resort collection we saw everything: Edgy trench coats, draped dresses, fully embellished everything, and flower appliqued swimming caps. With all of these looks, whether it be glamorous and decadent or chic and simple, there is something for every woman.

Every season Elbaz reigns over other designers with his woman-conscious clothing, and this Resort season shows to be no different.

Photos via Style.com

PROENZA SCHOULER

The best of collections are those that provide a strong aesthetic statement that corresponds with the designer or house, while still pushing on into new territories of fashion. Proenza Schouler has a certain look that their customers go for: urban, sophisticated, and unpretentious.

For resort 2011, Larazo Hernandez and Jack Mccollough designed a collection that truly fulfilled the purpose of a resort collection. The clothes were cute, accessible, and hip. Short-shorts with oddly proportioned tops and jackets comprised most of the collection, all in strung out, vintage looking prints, but always with a sense of control that give them their charm. With the way that things are going for the Proenza Schouler men, the sky seems to be the limit.

Photos via Style.com

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Rocky Gonet, CHS social worker, retires after 33 years in the Ann Arbor Public Schools district.

Rocky Gonet, a social worker at Community High School, didn’t start out the year thinking he was going to retire. However, after the state retirement incentive and 33 years in the Ann Arbor Public School district, Gonet’s letting go.

As an adolescent, Gonet was plagued by the same troubles as his students.  “I ran with a fast crowd, and school didn’t have much interest for me… It was all about the social part of school, and I didn’t appreciate the academic part until I went to college,” said Gonet.

Throughout high school, Gonet’s parents’ academic expectations were easily achieved. “My family had maybe a different value system. You know they wanted me to do good in school… If I got a C, my mom was really, really happy,” he said.  “If I got a C, then that was like, she’d brag to the neighbors,”

Seventh grade started a cycle of social promotion for Gonet throughout junior high. His chronic truancy led to several petitions filed against him. Although helped was offered, Gonet was unwilling to accept. “It wasn’t that there wasn’t anybody there, it’s just that there wasn’t an impact,” said Gonet.

Due to his attendance and social problems, high school was spent partially in Juvenile Correctional facilities.  “You know…I was a bad guy. I broke the law and the law won,” said Gonet.

Being in the Correctional facilities offered Gonet an unexpected boost in his education. “…then when I started getting locked up, school was really easy, because people weren’t that smart. So I went from being at the bottom of the barrel to being a god damn genius,” said Gonet. By accumulating credit, Gonet was able to graduate high school at age twenty.

After graduating, Gonet drove a Pepsi Cola truck for two years.

In 1969, Gonet decided to attend Kent State University after a discussion with his local barber. “It’s interesting …[He] said it was a good place.  [He said] you don’t live that far away, and you’re only an hour from Cleveland.  So the guy at the barbershop said, yeah, why don’t you try Kent State? He knew somebody that went there,” said Gonet.

However, after two thirds of a year at Kent State, Gonet transferred to Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio. He admits the reason had mostly to do with his girlfriend at the time. She later went on to become his first wife.

College gave Gonet a second chance at success. “I was ready to learn. I mean, I enjoyed, I actually enjoyed college,” he said. However learning proved to be a struggle for Gonet. “I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t have the vocabulary or the reading skills, you know, simply because I didn’t read. So I had to work really, really hard in college, but I really liked it and I got to see a different side of life,” said Gonet.

He also appreciated being exposed to new people.  “I got to see people that, you know, had some goals. Some people that…were honest,” said Gonet. His new friendships, along with a relevant education, contributed to making college the best years of Gonet’s life.

Gonet originally expressed interest in becoming a Driver’s Education teacher. But because of scheduling issues, Gonet switched his class load to major in sociology and history.

In 1972, after three years at BGSU, Gonet went on to the University of Michigan. There, he received his masters of social work.  “…I was guided into it. It seemed like an easy transition. You know…[someone said] ‘you ought to be a social worker,’ it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” he said. The idea of working only nine months a year also appealed to Gonet.

That same year Gonet married his first wife and had their son, Rocky. Gonet also has two other children, Kalynn and Nick and his stepson Josh from his current marriage to Marcia Schaffer.

Through his years of college and graduate school, Gonet qualified for the National Defense grant.  The grant gave Gonet a free education, with the stipulation that he worked in the school system afterwards. “That was the one good thing about my education. With my folks not having any money, I never had to pay for anything,” said Gonet.

He began working for the Ann Arbor Public Schools in 1977 as a social worker at Huron High School. For about 3 years, Gonet also worked at several elementary schools. However, in 1981, he made the decision to come to CHS. “Nobody wanted to work here at the time…they had to fill the spot, so I said I would do it,”

Gonet easily adapted to the unique environment at CHS. “I thought it was a pretty fun place to work because nobody bothered ya. I adjusted pretty well to Community High because at the same time, the one thing that it still had, that it still has today is, it’s a pretty student centered building,”

He also appreciated the special bond between students and teachers, “It was very lackadaisical. You know, a person could come in and want to do a CR in drinking coffee, [and we’d] say alright. That’s okay. We’ll get you credit for that,”

At the time, Gonet remembers a negative stereotype associated with CHS, “It wasn’t like it is now, when people want to come here. It had the reputation, not entirely accurate, that it was kind of a burnout school. People used to say you have either burnouts or professor’s kids,”

The culture of CHS evolved with the welcoming of new teachers,  “When we got people like Brian Miller, Judith DeWoskin, Cheryl Grace and Robbie Stapleton, people started to say, you know what, this place needs to change. I don’t know if it was a conscious thing but, it certainly changed,”

After his first few years at CHS, Gonet also became the school court liaison for AAPS.  As the court liaison, he traveled from building to building to discover which students weren’t attending class.  He then proceeded to schedule an appointment with their parents, in hopes of creating a strategy to attend school more regularly.

As a last resort, he would file a petition against them to the court if their behavior failed to change. In current years, the court has stopped accepting petitions due to the fact that the petitions “bog the (courts) down,”

Gonet refused to use lecturing as a tactic. Instead, he draws from his own experiences to advise his students. “I’m pretty honest in terms of telling kids, ‘I don’t expect you to love school. I’m not even gonna ask you to like it,’ You know? I’m just saying its kind of a necessary evil in our culture right now,”

As a teenager who struggled to graduate from high school, Gonet disproves of the new graduation requirements. “I think that the problems pretty much remain the same. You still have a portion of the population that doesn’t go to school. Like I said, we don’t know how to make people who don’t want to go to school go to school. But I think what has changed is the graduation requirements, which makes it harder to recover,”

He believes there is a misconception of students who don’t attend school. “You know, we have this idea that if somebody doesn’t like school, that there’s apparently something wrong with them. You know, you can dislike sports, you can dislike music, you can dislike food, just about anything in our culture and you’re still okay. But if you dislike school, then they’re always looking for some kind of emotional issue that prevents you from really wanting to learn,”

Fifteen years ago, to become more connected with his students, Gonet decided to teach a Psychology and Film class with his second wife, Marcia Shaffer. Psych and Film will continue to be taught by Gonet and Shaffer as a CR next year. “We try to emphasize movies that kids haven’t seen, that are kind of off beat,” said Gonet. Previous movies shown include Rock Tail, Fresh and City of God.

Gonet jokes about the positives of working with his wife.  “Well, like if I’m broke, I can usually get money. Sometimes when she thinks about it, she brings me lunch.  It’s kind of fun; she helps me out with Psych and Film, which was a highlight of working at CHS. I just love that class,”

During his time at CHS, Gonet clearly recalls a few key memories. “The thing that stands out the most is when [a student] came to school on Halloween dressed as a vagina. It was a scandal, and he got sent home. Man, I thought that was one of the highlights, because I thought it was so funny,”

Another way Gonet used to connect to his students was through a weight -training group. “We used to meet at lunchtime, a bunch of guys that were kind of troubled, and we’d just go down to the gym and work out and make fun of each other. That was fun. I’ve had a lot of good experiences here,”

Gonet’s plans for the future include following his continual passion of photography. At age ten, he received his first camera from his uncle, and after sitting in on a photography class in college, he became hooked. “It makes your life so much richer when you’re involved in any kind of art form where you can express yourself. Anything that helps you become more observant of the world around you enriches your life.”

He plans to still teach photography at Washtenaw Community College, a job he’s had for the last ten years. Gonet intends to spend more time with his grandson, and help his oldest son Rocky with his photography business.

As Gonet wraps up the year, he’s come to realize it isn’t such a bad time to retire. “I’m pretty happy about leaving. I had a lot of friends here, but you know, I don’t want to wear out my welcome. As you get older, you start to detach a little bit. I’ve been thinking this is good because I haven’t pissed anybody off. I mean I’m leaving on good terms. I’m leaving on my own terms, so I feel pretty good about that,”

There are many lessons Gonet will take with him from his time at Community. “I think I learned that you don’t take yourself too seriously. I think that’s one of the great lessons,” he said.

Gonet also feels that working with kids has proved to be a rewarding experience.  “What other people don’t get in occupations is to see kids. Not just as kids, but to see how different each and every one is, and how much smarter they are then you thought they were,” he said. “I think I’ve learned a lot about kids, and it helps keep you young,”

As he has discovered through his years, there’s more to school and life than academics. “People are the most important product. It ain’t about math. It ain’t about science. It ain’t about the grades you get. I mean, the main thing is the people that you’re around, cause this is a pretty kind place. This is the kindest place in the district. I learned about kindness.”

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Michael Savage: The Moderate

In a school with overwhelmingly left-wing views it is difficult to retain a different perspective. CHS junior, Michael Savage, has more conservative political views than the average Community student. While attending Community has affected Savage’s leanings, his search for a balanced perspective and conservative roots make him unique. Savage tries to stay as up to date on current events as he can and reads a variety of sources to form his own opinions. Savage is not truly conservative in the grand scheme of things, but his views certainly set him apart from his peers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Jankowski’s stories start off with a memory of his parents being killed in a car accident.  Jacob’s father was a veterinarian and Jacob was attending Cornell University in hopes to follow his father’s footsteps.  When Jacob’s father dies, he finds out that his father was in debt because he was treating animals for free and mortgaged the family home to provide Ivy League education for Jacob.  When Jacob learns about his father’s past, he breaks down and runs away from school, just a little before he graduates.  He jumps on a train, and his adventures begin.  He enters a world of drifters, misfits, freaks and a circus struggling through the Great Depression.  When the owner, Uncle Al, learns about his goal in becoming a veterinarian, he hires Jacob to take care of the circus animals.

As Jacob’s adventure go on, his secrets and details of it unfolds.  He becomes attracted to August, the circus’s mercurial menagerie director, and Marlena, who is an equestrian and eventually becomes his wife.  After Uncle Al purchases Rose, an elephant to replace Marlena’s horse, Jacob focuses his attention to Rosie and coaxes her to perform which saves the circus from the starvation and devastating times of the Great Depression

Gruen does a good job portraying evocative scenes and finely drawn characters in Water for Elephants.  As Jacob battles to maintain sanity, each character from his past is immensely sewn in his memory.  Water for Elephants is a fun book to read for someone who is looking for a historical fiction to read.

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On December 3rd, 2009, the University of Michigan Depression Center held a peer-to-peer depression awareness campaign conference for students from the area’s high schools.  The conference aimed to educate the students about the stigma, causes and treatments of depression. The ultimate purpose was to inspire the students to raise awareness of depression in their respective schools, and make them be fully equipped to help their peers.  The peer-to-peer depression conference has inspired Community High School, as well as other high schools in the Ann Arbor area, to take action on an issue we all have to deal with: depression.  Our first step in raising awareness about depression was to start a peer-to-peer group at community high school, which allows anyone at community to meet with any of the 9 students who has been exposed to professional education of depression.

The University of Michigan Depression Center started this program because they wanted to raise awareness of depression and lower stigma around depression around local high schools.  The Center will assist the groups in forming a campaign to raise awareness in their schools.   Each high school group that went to the depression conference has to write proposals on lowering stigma in their schools.  The peer to peer mentoring group at community decided that it would help our school lower stigma by having professional speakers who are experienced with depression come in and talk to us about different ways to cope with depression and things that could lead to depression.

About once a month since March, the peer-to-peer mentoring group has been inviting guest speakers from U of M to come talk to students at community high school about depression.  The event is free and provides a free lunch when you attend.  The peers from community encourage everyone to attend these lecture, regardless if you are depressed or not, you could learn something new that might benefit you or your friends in the future.

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Britney O’Neal is already very excited about school coming to an end. “I’m ecstatic. It’s kind of awesome,“ she said. Between summer plans of spending time with her family and friends and grades that are “not at all” where she would like them to be right now. It is”kind of an equal balance” between thinking about summer and school, she said.

Sophomore Lydia Brown with Freshman Caitlyn Fisher

Lydia Brown has a slightly different sentiment about the school year coming to a close. “I think I like not to think about it,” she said. Brown is looking forward to summer for several reasons, one of which being a plan for producing a play over the summer. She is worried about her grades though, and said that they are probably not where she would like them to be. Even so, she is expecting summer: “I’m thinking more about, I don’t know, golly. I think more about school than summer, probably.”

Freshman Gabby Thompson

Gabby Thompson’s summer is packed full with plans: “Random Improve Skits at the Diag, I have to fight, dressed as a ninja, holding a lightsaber, with my friends who are going to be dressed as pirates, I have to play boxer hockey, so I have to get some stuff for that,” she said. Even so, she says she will miss Community over the summer, “I think it’s sad that school is ending, ’cause I’m going to miss all my friends during the summer.”

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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Growing up with the University of Michigan in your backyard, it may seem like an obvious decision for a Community High school senior to apply to U of M. Whether it was merely a backup college, or a lifelong dream, 30-35 CHS seniors applied to U of M this year.

Compared to an out-of-state or private college, the University of Michigan is significantly less expensive. According to U of M, the estimated tuition for freshman and sophomore residents from fall to winter is $11,470, compared to the non-residential freshman and sophomore tuition cost of  $34,748.

While the cost of in-state tuition at U of M is an advantage, some CHS students fear their independence will be jeopardized. “I think if you’re farther away from home, you’re more forced to fend for yourself,” said CHS senior Rachel Stokes, who is attending U of M next year.

Independence was also a concern for CHS senior Nadeem Persico- Shammas’s family. He has chosen to attend U of M next year and plans to continue living with his father because of the convenience and his preference for being alone. “I feel like I’m independent, I just chose not to [move out]. I feel like I could if I wanted to, I just don’t want to.”

CHS seniors preparing to attend U of M also express concern about the transition of going from CHS, where students have a one-on-one relationship with their teachers, to U of M, where they will be one of the thousands of students.

“The biggest concern for me is that I’ll be just one of several thousand students,” said Persico-Shammas.“[However] during campus day, I talked to a bunch of students who went there and how [at first] they felt like that too, but they don’t feel like that now.”

Stokes shares the same concern. However CHS counselor John Boshoven has given her tips on how to make U of M smaller. One of these is to apply to the Residential College. The Residential College is an independent program within the College of Literature, Science and Arts (LSA). The average class size of LSA is approximately 20 students.

CHS counselor Diane Grant hears a lot of seniors say they want the Ann Arbor experience somewhere else. “It’s really hard because Ann Arbor is a city with a university in it, and it has its own personality and culture, it’s not really a replicated thing in other places,” she said.

However, Grant finds that most U of M alums are surprised at how drastically campus life differs from growing up in Ann Arbor.

“They love it because [on campus] you actually don’t feel like you’re in Ann Arbor where you grew up, you feel like you’re in Ann Arbor where you’re going to college. I think it’s a very different experience, partially because of independence and partially because of the high pressure to perform.”

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