Got Milk? Campaign

*I may have forgotten a couple things about the intro but it's late so go ahead and ignore that for now*

Submitted to: Got Milk? Campaign

Submitted By: Uni High Swim Team

Executive Summary

The University Laboratory High School’s (UNI) girl's swim program is rigorous and challenging but also extremely rewarding. Our swimmers are talented individuals who all come from different backgrounds and leave everything they have in the water. It is common that after a practice, the girls will have some sort of snack or drink to get protein in their bodies. Chocolate milk is the most popular refueling method. Especially after morning sessions of dryland (weights and core exercise), chocolate milk is essential for recovery and starting the day right. While morning practices are never easy, our team is known for our hard working mentality and ability to endure through tough sets. If some members are struggling, the rest of the team will go out of their way to encourage them and make sure they make it to the end.

Additionally, our team prides itself on our academic excellence. When it comes down to supporting our swimmers, we always make sure that everyone is maintaining their schoolwork and can ask their teammates for help. As a result, we are one of the few teams in the state of Illinois to be named the Gold Scholar Team by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association of America (NISCA), an honor only given to teams with an average GPA of 3.75 or higher. Our swim team pours a lot of effort both swimming and in school and thus have developed a work ethic much greater than the average team.

Above all, our main goal is to make sure everyone feels a part of the team and has fun. With this in mind, one thing we always like to have is a team uniform that represents that attitude. Every year, we pick out new swimsuits for the team and find designs that are fun while maintaining our competitive edge. Unfortunately, due to having to replace them every year, the swim team budget takes quite the hit. For this reason, the Uni High girl’s swim team invites The Got Milk? Campaign to consider a grant of $500 to afford equipment and further our team’s fundamental ideals of community and teamwork.

Needs Assessment

Recently, the University Laboratory High School in 2015 announced that there would be no more fundraising on school property due to financial and tax reasons. This led to many clubs being shut down, budgets being cut, and teams having to survive on money raised by the PFO (Parent-Faculty Organization). Many teams are able to get by with the little money left since they have reusable uniforms, but the swim team does not have that option. Since we must replace our swimsuits and caps every year, we lose on average about $1000 each year on equipment alone. In order to preserve our bank account, the team has taken measures to try and fundraise outside of school but the number of opportunities to do so has dramatically decreased. Thus, the importance of fundraising has skyrocketed and has led us to consider outside help. With the Got Milk? Campaign’s aide, the equipment needs of the Uni High swim team can be met and will further our progress as one of the top swim teams in the area.

Superhero Movies: R-Rated

The recent success of Deadpool has evoked a phenomenon within Hollywood studios.

Batman News/ComicBook.com/Collider

Say goodbye to the typical PG-13, cliched superhero films and hello to the edgier and adult superheroes of today. No longer will there be the generic villain who strives to achieve “a better world” by mindlessly destroying cities or whatnot. Instead, this new R-Rated universe will allow studios to delve even deeper into the comic books and uncover villains that were just a little too villainy for their younger audiences to handle. Movies can move past pitting the protagonists against some inherently evil dude with no moral compass whatsoever. Now, these R-Rated films, while allowing us to see a more mature superhero, can invest in the bad guys and make them just as iconic as their counterparts.

This is already happening in television. For instance, Jessica Jones, a show about a former superhero with super strength and her struggle with PTSD, assault, and rape, features a villain known as Killgrave (played by David Tennant). Killgrave has the power to control people with his words and uses that power to abuse and manipulate people on his quest to control Jessica. Within the first episode, when Jessica Jones is tasked with finding a missing person, there are already elements of a R-rated nature that constantly overshadow the show (i.e., language, sex, violence), but it’s the ending that really takes that extra step that changes the series from being mindless action and cliched subplots to something truly dark and powerful. Nothing is what it seems and ultimately leaves the viewer questioning what is going to happen next.

No longer are the boundaries set on what can be allowed on the main screen. Instead, audiences are given the given the chance to be a part of the story and develop alongside the characters. With the R-Rating, that doesn’t necessarily mean that audiences will like them or be able to identify with them. Rather, they will be caught in a gray area where the distinction between good and evil is blurry and they must decide who is right and who is wrong. Either way, the ability for superhero movies and TV shows to take that next step into a more adult setting has the potential to break the superhero film industry.

Certainly, there are cons to making films R-Rated. For one, studios lose one of their biggest markets: children and teenagers. Although teenagers can kind of make their way around this one, most pre-teens or younger will not be able sneak into the movies quite as easily. The reason the PG-13 movies have been so successful is that they’re fun for everyone. Kids can root for the favorite hero and watch them smash things while older people can enjoy the comedy and (again) the action. The reason it is so hard to change the superhero formula is because it works. If movies start excluding that audience, superhero genre actually loses appeal. Superheroes are meant to be an escape from society: a fantasy that problems can be solved with one swing of some guy’s hammer.

At the same time, as people are fed the same plot over and over again, change is inevitable. It’s a matter of whether studios can find that balance between their older and younger audiences. As far as R-Rated superhero films go, while they have their faults, they provide more opportunities than the current system offers. Does that mean audiences will be overrun with R-Rated films? Maybe. Either way, superhero movies are here to stay, but they now have the chance to entertain audiences in completely new ways.