As the school halls empty, the sound of clicking of keyboards fills C-119 as debate co-captains Mahi Shah and Cyrus Esmailzade prepare for their next debate tournament. In quiet moments between their intense discussions and strategy sessions, there’s a shared sense of pride and determination to surpass their accomplishments. Emerging from their underdog status with their strong commitment for debate, the duo’s resilience and evolving chemistry have inspired the team. Despite their initial challenges, the duo has excelled in national debate tournaments, fostering a winning team spirit. Even tho ..read more

Gallery • 9 Photos Midway Staff Lisa Tao was elected all-school president for the 2024-25 school year. After a two weeks of campaigning followed by a final day of voting, students in grades 9-11 elected a new student government for the 2024-25 school year, with seniors Lisa Tao as all-school president and Joshua Carter as all-school vice president.  “I have a few ideas,” Lisa said. “One of them would be to create a way for people to be able to access information about university and AP courses, to have that information be more accessible. Another one is to facilitate more open dis ..read more

Tracy Aiden, a Laboratory Schools teacher for Nursery 3 through kindergarten students, has been selected as one of 30 finalists for the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Winners are expected to be revealed in early May and will receive a $5,000 award along with a sabbatical opportunity at Northwestern University.  Ms. Aiden, who has been a teacher at the Laboratory Schools for six years, credits her nomination to her students.  “I couldn’t do a lot of what I do without the great kids in my class who were curious and wonder and want to make change, but also without the re ..read more

The Midway’s 2024-25 editors have been appointed. Jaya Alenghat, Chloë Alexander and Clare McRoberts will be editors-in-chief, and Mia Lipson will be managing editor. New section editors include Light Dorhn, arts and entertainment; Victoria Washington, city life; Skye Freeman, features; Edward Park, health and wellness; Taariq Ahmed, news; Kabir Joshi, opinion, and Milo Platz-Walker, sports. Clare, who served as features editor this year, hopes that as editor-in-chief she can foster a communal environment where all team members feel valued.  “I’m really hoping to, within our team, expand ..read more

Edward Park When the coronavirus pandemic forced the potential of many students to sit stifled in their homes, Asa Bordelon dusted off the hardly used sewing machine he’d received for Christmas in 2019 and began experimenting with it. The days flew by as he taught himself how to sew by machine and by hand, how to develop his own patterns and threading styles.  Asa, now a junior, joined the high school theater costumes department just last spring and is the only male student actively involved in costumes this year, fusing his interest in fashion with his love for history.  With each ..read more

Loud music, bright colors, and happy people fill the streets of Chicago every June for Chicago’s Pride Parade. The parade is always a huge celebration that packs the streets with people that covers the city with rainbows and streamers. This year’s Pride Parade, set for June 30, has faced some serious challenges. Due to new city legislation, the parade will be shorter this year, cutting down the number of parade participating groups by 35%. All of the schools that had marched in 2023 were cut from the parade. This caused outrage among the school community and general public, because while these ..read more

As the tennis team begins packing up to leave practice, the squeaks of shoes on the court and the rhythmic thud of a tennis ball hitting a racket remain. As the sun begins to set, junior Dash Smith stands alone on the court, tirelessly hitting ball after ball, showing his dedication to improving his tennis skills. Dash is currently ranked 11th in Illinois as a three-star recruit in the common rating system for student-athletes. Dash’s journey to becoming a standout tennis player has been marked by significant milestones, including his first victory over a four-star opponent.  “The first t ..read more

TikTok — a Chinese-owned app used by 170 million Americans, including most teens — is probably going away. But it likely won’t happen soon. On April 24, President Joe Biden signed a law, passed by Congress days earlier, that would ban the app within a year unless sold to a non-Chinese company. The law states that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, must sell the company within a year or risk a ban in the United States. While the bill was passed this week, many complications such as finding a buyer and court challenges could add months of delay to the final sale. For 75% of teens, TikTok is the ..read more

One year ago, the online information rating system NewsGuard identified 49 news sites appearing to be entirely or almost entirely written and developed by artificial intelligence software. Now, as of April 15, the platform has identified over 800 sites currently promoting false accounts created by artificial intelligence appliances and operating with little to no human management.  The rise of AI in recent years has made the invention and implementation of such mock sites more accessible — and misinformation far more prevalent — than ever before. It is important to stay informed with accu ..read more

It’s March 2020. As the school was about to close down for what was then expected to be just two weeks, college counselor Patty Kovacs made plans to bring a van to school for one sole purpose: saving her plants.  The rest of the school’s plants didn’t want to get left behind, so they hitched a ride. “All of these other offices started giving me plants to take care of and bring back to school when we were open again,” Ms. Kovacs said. “That wound up to be a year and a half later.” Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, houseplant sales have increased across the United States. After m ..read more