Our Schools in the News: Brittany Woods Students Launch Streetwear Line

Check out this article from the Riverfront Times about two of our Brittany Woods Middle School students!


St. Louis' Hottest Streetwear Line Was Created by Two 8th Graders
Posted By Sarah Fenske on Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 6:50 am

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MXTRO MVB
Gunnar Wurst, left, and Daivion Crawford.

In their artfully layered streetwear, Gunnar Wurst and Daivion Crawford might be any hot young clothing designers on the streets of Soho or Brooklyn — except for the fact that they live in a suburb of St. Louis, and neither is old enough to drive.

Wurst, 13, and Crawford, 14, founded MXTRO MVB in the winter of 2015, inspired by Supreme and the other streetwear brands they stalk online. The way they describe it, the whole undertaking sounds remarkably easy. "Within one to weeks, we made a logo, put it out and got ideas going," Wurst says. They launched their website soon after, initially offering two shirts and two hats.

Since then, they've expanded to add two more shirts, but they've got much bigger plans for the future. Their classes at Brittany Woods Middle School have included sewing (part of the Family Consumer Sciences program) and fabrication, prototyping and modeling (part of their class in Industrial Arts). They want to begin cutting and sewing their clothing — "jackets, pants, and a lot of things that are harder to do," Wurst says. They've been using materials from the Small Business Administration to fine-tune their business model.



PHOTO COURTESY OF MXTRO MVB

Part of their goal is an accessible price point. Their idol Supreme may charge $48 for a T-shirt — if you can even get one; most of the products on his website are in a perpetual state of being sold out — but MXTRO MVB charges $15 for a short-sleeve shirt and $22 for a long-sleeve.

"You see the clothing that kids are into, they go for crazy money," says Crawford. "We're trying to make it affordable."

It helps that overhead is low, of course. They personally took their line's promo photos. They also serve as the models, and found a site that will host their online presence for free. Both set of parents have been supportive. (Wurst's dad teaches industrial design; of his own father, Crawford says, "My dad's into fashion, and he inspired me a lot." But, he says, he doesn't wear MXTRO MVB: "I think he's too old for it.")

The summer could be a big one for MXTRO MVB. Wurst has a trip planned to New York City, and he suspects he'll find plenty of inspiration in the city's fashion district to share with his business partner. The young designers also plan to get to work on that new line of clothing — one they sew, not just have printed.

"Through the summer, we're going to get a sewing machine and get the fabrics to do it," Wurst promises.

That's the thing about being thirteen and fourteen. Once school is out for the summer, you have all that time free .... to work.



COURTESY OF MXTRO MV

UCHS Grad Wins Peace Grant to Train Indigenous Women Leaders

Congratulations to Caroline Martinez, University City High School Class of 2012!

From Bowdain News

Caroline Martinez ’16 Wins Peace Grant to Train Indigenous Women Leaders
March 31, 2016 by Rebecca Goldfine

After her parents separated, Caroline Martinez ’16 left Ecuador for the United States with her siblings and her American mother. She was 16. Now, as her graduation from Bowdoin draws closer, Martinez is eager to return to her home country. Although she has appreciated her college education, she said she has often felt too distant from the cause she’s committed to.

Since she was a teenager in Ecuador, Martinez has been fighting for the rights and welfare of the country’s 14 indigenous nationalities, which include the Kichwa, Waorani and Cofan people. These groups are in danger of losing rights over their land, natural resources, water, schools and medicine. Since coming to Bowdoin, Martinez has seized several opportunities to continue being involved, including using college grants to do sociological research in indigenous communities.

As a child, Martinez’s Ecuadorian father would tell her not to forget that while some of her blood is European, some also comes from indigenous people. “Mestizo people are indigenous people, too,” he would tell her. Mestizos refer to people of mixed heritage, and in Latin America, they often enjoy greater privileges than indigenous people.

Martinez’s dedication to working on behalf of indigenous people, particularly women, received a boost recently when she won a $10,000 grant from the Davis Projects for Peace foundation. The organization supports undergraduates who want to implement projects around the world that contribute to conflict resolution and peace building in some way.

Martinez will use her funding to organize a series of free leadership trainings in the highland communities of Ecuador. With an Ecuadorian partner, Carmen Lozano, Martinez will teach women of all ages, from teenagers and up, skills such as public speaking and how to draft project proposals and implement them. The workshops are designed to encourage women to organize to promote the welfare of their communities. “The workshops will give women a chance to speak with each other about what they face and what they want,” Martinez said.

This summer, Martinez will travel to 14 highland provinces to offer the training. She anticipates that about 200 women will attend. At the end of the summer, she’ll invite all the participants to a great assembly. “The idea is to form a core of indigenous female leaders and this core will be able to teach other, organize and be an advocacy force for women,” she said.

Martinez is going into her project well-versed in the needs of indigenous women. Last summer, with funding from Bowdoin’s Grua/O’Connell and Surdna Foundation research fellowships, and support from a Mellon Mays fellowship, she conducted sociological research in Ecuador. She interviewed 10 indigenous women leaders, aged 40 to 66, about their life stories, and listened to them talk about what has helped them achieve their position of prominence and what has held them back. “My goal was to understand how these women were able to become leaders in their community and be in a position where they could create change for both women and indigenous people,” she said. This year, she wrote a thesis paper for an independent study, outlining the services or opportunities that would help more indigenous women gain influence and also describing what is holding them back.

One of the requests she heard over and over from the women she spoke with was for more leadership training.

After being gone for five years, Martinez said returning to Ecuador was joyful for her. “I felt very happy to be there again. But doing research didn’t feel like enough. I’m not going to just write a paper and that’s it,” she said. She asked herself, “What can I do now that I am outside this situation to contribute to women and indigenous people’s struggles?”

After she completes her summer of leadership trainings, Martinez said she will start thinking about attending a graduate program in sociology in her country. She said there’s no question about her leaving Ecuador again. “It is where everything I care about is,” she said.

UCHS Journalism Students Receive Numerous Awards

University City High School Journalism students received over 30 state-level awards at the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) Scholastic Journalism Day at University of Missouri in Columbia on Wednesday, April 6. Publications students accepted the awards at the closing ceremony where 1300 state-wide journalism students and advisers were in attendance. Congratulations to these outstanding students and their fabulous teacher, Ms. Mary Williams!

2015-16 MIPA State Journalism Awards
[Ratings: All Missouri, Superior, Excellent, Honorable Mention]


Overall Publications Awards:
U-Times Newspaper: All Missouri (Christine Politte, editor-in-chief)
U-Times Online Newspaper: Excellent (Payton Bass, editor-in-chief)
Yearbook (2016 edition): Excellent (Emily Looby, editor-in-chief)

All-Missouri Awards
Newspaper News Story (Borrowed Logo): Christine Politte (editor-in-chief)
Newspaper Editorial (School Spirit Shrinks): Christine Politte (editor-in-chief)
Yearbook Theme/Concept: Johanna Hill and Hannah Fuller (co-editors-in-chief)
Yearbook Student Life Design (Love Actually): Johanna Hill (co-editor-in-chief)

Individual Awards, Reporting:
Excellent, Newspaper Sports Writing: Kathryn Fuller
Excellent, Newspaper Feature Writing: Francene Bethune
Honorable Mention, Newspaper Feature Writing: Jaylen Williams
Honorable Mention, Newspaper News Story: Christine Politte

Individual Awards: Diversity Awareness
Superior, Newspaper Editorial (Straight Outta U. City): Payton Bass
Superior, Newspaper Editorial (Black Students Need More): Payton Bass
Excellent, Newspaper News Story (Fox, Ritenour Students): Kathryn Fuller
Excellent, Newspaper Feature (Black History Evades…): Jaylen Williams
Honorable Mention, Editorial (The Kids Aren’t Alright): Payton Bass

Individual Awards: Design
Superior, Newspaper Design (Homecoming Spread): Christine Politte
Superior, Yearbook Student Life Design: Hannah Fuller
Excellent, Yearbook Student Life Design: Aniya Kendrick
Excellent, Yearbook Academic Design: Cat Hoff
Excellent, Yearbook Sports Design: Cat Hoff
Honorable Mention, Newspaper Spread Design, Christine Politte

Individual Awards: Photography
Superior, Yearbook Photo Essay: Johanna Hill, Della Cox, and Hannah Fuller
Superior, Yearbook Sports Photo: Jermarcus Perkins
Superior, Yearbook Personality/Portrait: Cat Hoff
Excellent, Yearbook Sports Feature: Taneya Parker
Excellent, Yearbook Student Life: Christine Politte
Excellent, Newspaper Student Life: Lucy Wurst
Excellent, Yearbook Student Life: Johanna Hill
Excellent, Yearbook Personality/Portrait: Cat Hoff
Honorable Mention, Yearbook Personality/Portrait: Johanna Hill
Honorable Mention, Yearbook Photo Illustration: Taneya Parker and Hannah Fuller
Honorable Mention, Yearbook Sports Feature: Christine Politte
Honorable Mention, Yearbook Sports Feature: Hannah Fuller
Honorable Mention, Yearbook Student Life: Cat Hoff
Honorable Mention, Yearbook Student Life: Christine Politte (x3)