List of 20 news stories.

• 2025 Sideline Essay Contest Winner

  Arjun Agarwal '26
  ‘‘Sideline’ is an annual Essay Competition open to student-athletes attending Hopkins School in New Haven, CT. Founded in 2025, our goal is to provide an opportunity for young athletes to show their skills in writing and literature and challenge themselves with academic rigor. As part of a larger initiative, we aim to uplift the student-athlete community and bring awareness to the many amazing stories that come out of it, including triumphs, hurdles, and more.” - Thooyan Thirumaran ‘26...
  . . .

• Daughter

  Olivia Wang '28
  Wear decent clothing for God’s sake; pop on your retainers, every night, every morning, don’t skip it, don’t have crooked teeth; brush for at least two minutes each time…this is non-negotiable; you must learn to be independent...
  . . .

• Goodbye, Dear Father

  Samantha Aguero '27
  Damian was always sick ever since he turned 13, garnering symptom after symptom. The doctors never knew what he had, they only knew that it stemmed from his heart. Damian was now 17, a drop-out since he had too many absences from school, so he eventually stopped attending. At first, his Father would give him some home-schooled lessons, granted he always seemed condescending when he gave them, but over time he stopped....
  . . .

• The Maker

  Henry Weinstein '26
  The Maker lived a life of creation. The Maker made himself, building each individual part of himself day after day. Every day, The Maker would wake himself by winding himself, the gears in his body activating for the day. The Maker left his house and entered his workshop underneath. Before opening, he would take the zeppelin into the city center, and buy his parts. The Maker was well liked. No matter where he went, the citizens would wave to him. They would discuss with each other quietly, “I wonder what The Maker will create today?”...
  . . .

• 2024 Daystar 3-Sentence Scary Story Winners

  Ravi Camenga '28, Roselyn Shen '27, Rohan Gottumukkala '25
  In the spirit of Halloween, Daystar ran a 3-sentence scary story contest! These are the winners.
  . . .

• All Hell

  Anonymous
  We stayed in the church all day that day. We had the girls and the boys and Old Shay who yells from the back in the morn’, and my John’s dead eyes that stare and stare from the cold box they put him in. The girls in the pews are still in white and they dab at their eyes, and Old Shay still yells to no one but God....
  . . .

• Commencement

  Rebecca Spiewak '27
  A plump woman taps the mic on the stage. She’s wearing glossy black pumps and a plastic smile. I’m sure she’s led the same graduation every year, with only the names changing. But it’s my first time seeing you graduate, my first time seeing you in a while. I suppose that’s what happens when life gets in the way....
  . . .

• Fishbowls

  Natalie Billings '27
  I have a goldfish. I named him Fred. I think he hates me. How could a goldfish not hate me? I took him from his family and stuck him in a tiny glass bowl with nothing but some rocks in it. I feed him his boring fish food. He swims in circles all day long, looking out at my busy, childish room....
  . . .

• The Baton

  Noah Novemsky '27
   It was the second day of a camping trip in Maine with his father when Mr. Walker began to worry. He knew his father was a remarkably fit man for his advanced age, yet the thought of a disastrous fall, an accident slip had lodged itself in his head. The camping trip had been his idea, and his dad had been overjoyed about his proposal. They used to go camping all the time when he was a kid, so he thought it would be a good bonding experience. After all, he and his dad had begun to grow apart as they got older, and he didn’t know how many more chances they would get....
  . . .

• Winter

  Jasper Wong '27
   You’ve seen him there since early November. Always on the bench across from the bus stop, always the same spot, that dark plank that’s always sunny. Always a sweater and sneakers, something casual and modest. Today, he’s wearing a grey-green cardigan, ratty mom jeans, and burgundy Converse. The cardigan’s slightly too big for him and slides off his shoulder; he should be freezing, but he hasn’t fixed it....
  . . .

• Homework Help

  Ramey Harper-Mangels '21
  (As the lights rise, we see a split stage. On one side is Charlie’s room, as well as Charlie. This side of the stage is a bedroom. There is a desk upstage and a bed downstage, perhaps a chest of drawers or a bookshelf. Everything is neat and efficient. There are a modest number of scholastic awards, as well as a keyboard, music stands, and a couple of instruments. Charlie is working at the desk, and finishes with a flourish. Charlie sighs, stands, files the homework, then crashes on the bed exhausted...
  . . .

• no longer suspended in water

  Anonymous
  The steam surrounding me escapes through the open shower door. Stepping out, I am hit by a wall of cold air. My reflection catches me off guard and I shudder. There is a grown up staring back at me. As I reach for my towel, jarring nostalgia takes over. 

  I am six again. It’s bath time, and I watch my mother unplug the drain. The residue of the day, which was once on my skin, swirls into the abyss. I watch as my bath toys reach the bottom of the tub, along with my whole body. I am no longer suspended in water...
  . . .

• The Guardian

  Evan Migdole '22
  I’ve walked this route at least a hundred times, but this Friday afternoon was different. It started at lunch. My stomach felt strange as if a tornado had moved in and I could barely swallow my waffles and chicken nuggets. My friends were laughing about something, but I was so distracted by my own thoughts, that I wasn’t following the conversation. I usually try not to laugh or smile anyway because of my dimples. I’ve never liked them...
  . . .

• The Monster in the Woods

  Anonymous
  I’d waited a year to see the June sun reflect on the lake—the feeling it brought each summer was indescribable. I stared out the back seat window, letting my phone drop to my lap as the unparalleled sense of belonging overshadowed the blue light’s magnetism.

  “Honey,” my dad said in his irritating, sing-songy voice, “remember to write to us when you get the chance. Your sister cried every day last year because she missed you so much.”

  I stared over at Caroline, her innocent little pigtails protruding from her skull. I wanted to pull them...
  . . .

• Everest vs. the Willpower to Survive

  Arin Bhandari '23
  The clock strikes 1 PM on the upper slopes of Mount Everest as my teammates on the Adventure Consultants expedition and I are methodically climbing the Hillary Step by carefully placing our crampons, which are spikes attached to our shoes to improve traction, on the ice while secured to the rope. When I ascend the final few meters, I see that the summit ridge is covered by an unstable snow formation, which is when denser snow is on lighter snow.
  . . .

• House Haunters

  Lauren Sklarz '22
  The entire world was out of order. 

  This had happened before, but it never failed to catch Isabel off guard. For ten months, she had dealt with the mysterious destruction of expensive art and appliances and the god awful stench of smoke that lingered in the back of her throat. The agency had sent in top-level servicemen to watch for squatters, vandals, anything. But they had come up empty. 
  . . .

• How to Teach History

  Eesha Rao '22
  Harvard historian Donald Yacovone said, “white supremacy is a toxin. The older history textbooks were like syringes that injected the toxin of white supremacy into the mind of many generations of Americans.” Regardless of whether it is because of our history textbooks, our history curriculums, or even our history teachers, it is overwhelmingly obvious that we, the American youth, do not receive an adequate education in our history classrooms.
  . . .

• The Silence of Drowning

  Eesha Rao '22
  A personal flotation device is equipment designed to assist us to keep afloat in  water. Despite their primary use being only to help us, many times, we cast them aside saying that they are too restrictive and uncomfortable. We think that we couldn’t possibly need them because we already know how to swim. We believe that there isn’t any way we could drown because we know everything there is to know about staying afloat.
  . . .

• Untitled

  Eli Calderone '22
  He’d had a bad day and just needed something to make him feel better. He never intended to be stuck on a bridge in a city he didn’t recognize, hoping that someone would notice he was there. James barely knew how he got here. All he remembered was storming out of his house holding a duffel bag of clothes with his father shouting after him, getting on the train to god-knows-where, and then being woken up by the conductor, telling him that they had gotten to the last stop.
  . . .

• To Sing

  Prairie Resch '21
  Molly from the apartment above us is playing piano again, even though it’s long past dinnertime. I don’t recognize the song, but it’s a lovely, full sound, with a swelling of low chords that echoes into our apartment and a higher aria of notes that are harder to hear, but are still there if I listen closely.
  . . .