Legacy
Forest Ho-Chen '22
Honorary Co-Executive Editors. Honorary Leading Editors. Honorary MATES Alliance Leaders, Members of The MATES Alliance Clubs. Members of the George School Community. My Fellow Americans.
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Last year, we were kept apart by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we are back together.
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With meaning, to The MATES Alliance, to the George School Community, to the School.
And with unwavering resolve, that knowledge will always triumph over intentional deceit. As my time at George School comes to an end, I intend to leave my legacy behind. The MATES Alliance clubs and groups of the GS Varsity Science Team, the GS Varsity Math Team, and MATES will all be left in good hands. Each of those groups will be associated with a part of my legacy. (The GS Math and Beyond Club will be split among those three groups.) Now, if I had told you four years ago that George School’s math team would have two years with eight AIME qualifiers – if I had told you that George School would have a member of Team USA – if I had told you that George School would reverse the downfall of the STEM club, reboot our MATES industry, and unleash a great and long stretch of alliance between clubs of the MATES subjects – if I had told you that George School would have many US Science Olympiad qualifiers – if I had told you that George School would be the birthplace of a great publication that would promote the MATES subjects to the world – if I had told you all that, you might have said our sights were set a little too high. But that’s what we did.
That’s what you did.
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One major achievement of my time of learning the MATES subjects at George School was qualifying for Team USA, which is part of my science journey at this school. I started with Intensive Chemistry in my first year, which I did ok in (it’s a George School legend regardless), which sparked my interest in science through both the theoretical and lab parts. Due to wanting “progression” in my course scheduling, I took AP Physics C the next year. This helped me explore a different aspect of science, and it launched my interest in astronomy (this causation has been ignored by everyone though). After being sent home due to COVID-19, I took the required and super infamous Intensive Biology, which wasn’t that hard, and AP Chemistry, which was two years late. The combination of these two led me to explore my strong interest in materials science and engineering at the Garcia Center at Stony Brook University. Although I would very surprisingly decide that it was a good idea to watch a computer representation of brains try and fail to evolve to determine the sign of a number instead of taking a class that would probably talk about how evolution happens, I still continued my journey through science outside of the classroom through the Garcia Center, through the US National Astronomy Olympiad, through Biochemistry Club, through Astronomy Club, and through Varsity Science. Although things have prevented me from continuing learning science (Eastern European wars, for example), I will still learn science anyway, and I certainly enjoyed my science journey at George School.
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In the past, George School has had many qualifiers for the US National Chemistry Olympiad, including Ellen Zhang ‘21, who qualified for this in 2019 at the start of The MATES Era. Although I would go on to qualify for this twice and for the USA Physics Olympiad, I believe that the Astronomy Olympiad was my biggest achievement in Varsity Science. I certainly could not have done these things without the help of my science teachers at George School: Polly Lodge, Chris Odom, Alyssa McGarvey, and Erin Sio, as well as fellow science students Sam Coscia ‘20, Bom Jindanuwat ‘20, Kairo Morton ‘20, Ta Somsirivattana ‘20, Clare Wang ‘20, Ellen Zhang ‘21, Jimmy Ding ‘23, and Vinay Thulasiram ‘23. All of these students helped me realize my ability in science, and it all paid off in the end. From labs as simple as using a spring cannon to shoot a marble into a tube to complex and dangerous labs such as heating magnesium in a crucible, students learned through a hands-on approach, and this went well with George School’s top-tier lectures and explanations. All of this led to George School’s first member of a Team USA science team since the start of The MATES Era. In combination with my qualifications for the US National Chemistry Olympiad and the USA Physics Olympiad, I believe that my Varsity Science career was very successful.
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The second achievement that I’d like to mention are my 2020 and 2021 Varsity Math Seasons. The 2020 season was the second-ever Varsity Math season of the Philly League, and Bom Jindanuwat ‘20, Ta Somsirivattana ‘20, and Anney Ye ‘20 had all graduated, meaning that George School should have had a much weaker team. We were all wondering if we would be able to defend our championship against teams such as the previous number 3 team and one of our rivals, Westtown. We won the season opener, which was also our FSL season opener, against Westtown 34-31/40, but this only put us in third place behind Episcopal and Haverford. We were also going to face Westtown again at the end of the season, so a win by only three points was a bit worrying. However, we later got a 35-15/35 shutout, bringing George School into first place in the individual and team categories.
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Next, as an unofficial captain of the team, I led the team into the Math Madness tournament season opener, where we had a major 38-20/40 win to start the season. After a bad performance against Agnes Irwin, but still a win, we had a thrilling comeback against Ladue Horton Watkins, winning 39-37/40. This would be the biggest upset until The Shipley Miracle. After Penn Charter, George School was still in first place in both categories, and then after Episcopal, George School still was in first place in both categories. Technically, the Philly League season ended here, but we had a match against Westtown, which we didn’t know was just for the FSL finals. Regardless, I led the team to a 29-10/35 major victory, meaning that we had been undefeated in the Friends League for the first time, captured the Philly League individual and team championships for the second time, and we were in a good shape for Math Madness. Although the team would fall to High Tech 34-36/40, the team would still be ranked 26th in the nation. In Math Madness, I got every question right, a feat that would be matched a year later by Jimmy Ding ‘23 where he got 100% right in the Philly League.
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My 2021 Varsity Math season was also successful, though I was losing my touch with math in favor of science. The main highlight of this was The Shipley Miracle, where Ian Hopkins ‘22 and I encouraged the team to play strong and win. There was also the Purple Comet victory in 2022, where we got 18th in the nation and beat Episcopal 21-16/30 without our two best math students. However, I do not wish to be remembered for other math achievements outside of the Fall Varsity Math Seasons as I believe that they are misrepresentative of my time at George School.
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Finally, in my opinion, the largest impact that I’ve had on the MATES subjects at George School is obvious the start of MATES and The MATES Alliance. Where would this essay even go if MATES didn’t exist? Through MATES, we have given voices to the voiceless and allowed everyone who wants to speak to speak. The MATES Alliance brings together all of the different parts of the MATES subjects, unifying the George School community.
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During my time in MATES, we went from a very strict math publication to a publication that combines all of the subjects in a great fusion of knowledge. MATES has incorporated many different ways of communicating knowledge, including poems, songs, stories, and comics. MATES has also given some of George School’s less known artists a place to shine, as shown through the following submissions:
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Jon Trouba’s Eight Person Bed
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Zane Wasicko’s Magnet Build
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Andrew Miller’s Music Powered Excavator
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Andrew Wetherill's Original Poem
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Zach Kalb’s “The Worst Thing Ever”
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Travis Ortogero's 3 by 17 Rectangle
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At the same time, MATES has done what other publications could not do (or delayed until after we did them). MATES has incorporated “Special Layout” into our articles, as a picture can say more than 1000 words. We have also been able to report on the George School Varsity Math Team and publish their song. In fact, the Area 51 Edition, the E=mc^2 Edition, and the Legends Edition all have songs attached to them (“Danse Bacchanale,” “Spicey Spices,” “For the Past,” and “Hiiiiiiiiiiiii, I’m Rich”), and “Half Notes Get Two Beats,” one of George School’s current best songs, is featured in Max Lin ‘24’s article of the same name. In fact, we even held a song contest during this edition I also provided many contributions to the arts community, which is a new part of the MATES community at George School. Lego Club, Jazz Club, and SRO are all potential members of The MATES Alliance, and they could be officially added to the alliance. It’s also worth mentioning the Publisher’s Alliance, which is an unofficial alliance between MATES, Curious George, ARGO, The Salted Tree, and George School’s History Journal.
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Overall, what I can say is that it is absolutely wrong to remember me as “the math guy.” NEVER CALL ME THAT. My math wasn’t even my best subject at George School. Instead, a correct remembrance of me would be that of an overall MATES student, strong in all of the subjects, a Varsity Math player (nothing much else in math though); a top tier composer and songwriter, a great conductor, and an ok cellist; someone that at least usually knows how to do the job with technology; a city designer, architect, civil engineer, and then switching to materials science and pushing those boundaries; a world-stage Team USA astronomer, a top tier chemistry student, a top tier physics student, a pretty good Earth scientist, and ok at biology; and of course, a student who could bring all of these together, along with writing, and create MATES. This is a much better thing to remember me as.
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But even more, remember my Varsity Math number, 69, and my Varsity Science name, Apollo 11. Many things were created in The MATES Era so far, and I hope that they can continue in the following years. Furthermore, these creations have expanded our horizons and brought us to where we are today, much further into the realm of the MATES subjects and communication that we were when we started. We truly made one giant leap for George School during this era.
My fellow MATES students, it has been the honor of my life to serve as a Co-Executive Editor and a leader. I have one last thing to ask as a leader: Believe in the possibilities that you can do, and do them when you can.
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Thank you for all that you have done.
Forest Ho-Chen, Co-Executive Editor and MATES Alliance Leader, 2019-2022
