Volume 46, Issue 7, April 6, 2016

NEWS

14

Identity theft

04 The impact of lying on college apps

6 Substantial

Substitute teachers’ lives outside of school

15 16

Affirming our race Lying about racial identity isn’t worth it

#HamiltonNotSoWhite 10 Out of the blue

OPINION

A&E

How do you feel?

Students and teachers on leadership

Fixing the college problem College admissions should be based on merit

SPECIAL 20

Mind over matter Looking beyond gender in voting booths

All fun and games Pranks promote bonding, not just harm

17 Under inspection 09 Health standards at local food spots

25

This I believe Exploring where our ideological beliefs come from

26 Down on the ranch Exploring how McClellan Ranch has managed to stay relevant

Popular culture

29 Musical musings

22

Playing in a different key

Hands up

Students and teachers reflect on classroom disagreements

12

24

Curating a perspective The dangers of politics on Facebook

Familiar Tensions Same household, different ideological beliefs

30 Students play instruments from their cultures

32

Makeup your mind

Junior experiments with special effects makeup

21840 McClellan Road Cupertino, CA 95014 mv.el.estoque@gmail.com Editors-in-Chief: Alina Abidi, Kristin Chang Managing Editors: Maya Murthy, Malini Ramaiyer, Sharon Tung, Vanessa Qin Copy Editors: Daniel Lin, Sanjana Murthy Webmaster: Itay Barylka News Editors: Amanda Chan, Avni Prasad, Andrea Schlitt, Caitlyn Tjong Sports Editors: Kalpana Gopalkrishnan, Pranav Iyer, Karen Ma, Aditya Pimplaskar

Entertainment Editors: Ananya Bhat, Neha Patchipala, Ilena Peng, Anushka Tyagi Opinion Editors: Pranav Jandhyala, Tal Marom, Isabel Navarette, Emily Zhao Beats Editors: Aditi Desai, Dylan Tsai Visuals Editors: Fatima Ali, Om Khandekar, Justin Kim Graphics Editors: Elizabeth Han, Hannan Waliullah

2 / E L E S T O Q U E / M A R 2 016

Special Report Editors: Trisha Kholiya, Anjana Melvin, Priya Reddy, Mingjie Zhong Business Editors: Tal Marom, Ilena Peng Public Relations: Shriya Deshpande Staff writers: Vijeet Chaugule, Ada Chen, Jennie Chen, Bill Cheng, Vivian Chiang, Ankit Dua, Aanchal Garg, Sneha Gaur, Sandhya Kannan, Aditya Krishnan, Emma Lam, Stephanie Lam, ZaZu Lippert, Amita Mahajan, Akshara Majjiga, Nanda Nayak, Issra Osman, Renee Pu, Chetana Ramaiyer, Priya Reddy, Sarah Robinson, Zach Sanchez, Derek Shao, Andy Tu, Miloni Vora, Kingsley Wang, Devika Watave, Jessica Xing, Sebastian Zhang, Grace Zhou Adviser: Michelle Balmeo, Paola Luna

SPORTS 33 34

All stars

Softball team plays with no captains

Breathless The process in which athletes overcome asthma

36 On the right track

Custodian Tom Orsua’s transition to coaching track and field

38

Take a walk Where to go for a hike in the Bay Area

Mission Statement El Estoque is an open forum created for and by students of Monta Vista High School. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the journalism staff and not of Monta Vista High School or the Fremont Union High School District. The staff seeks to recognize individuals, events, and ideas and bring news to the MVHS community in a manner that is professional, unbiased, and thorough in order to effectively serve our readers. We strive to report accurately, and we will correct any significant error. If you believe such an error has been made, please contact us. Letters of any length should be submitted via email or mail.

They may be edited for length or accuracy. Letters cannot be returned and will be published at El Estoque’s discretion. We also reserve the right to reject advertising due to space limitations or decision of the Editorial Board that content of the advertisement conflicts with the mission of the publication.

Letter from the Editors This is the last time we, the current editors-in-chief, will be addressing you, the student body. The last time our current staff spent their weekday evenings staring at computers, scribbling on whiteboards and eating breadstick while debating headlines before ending up with a magazine. And it seems appropriate that in our last ever issue, we leave you with the question of where our ideas come from.

Because journalism, from pitching stories to creating graphics to interviewing sources has been nothing if not a constant stream of ideas. It’s not just that our leadership has shaped the ideology of the magazine, which it has. As journalists, it’s difficult to admit we have biases that inform our every move, our every word, the way we interact with everybody and everything. But we do, and it does. What matters is that we’re aware of it, and that we’re open to challenging what we hold to be true. We hope that this is exactly what we’ve done the whole year we’ve been with you, and we hope that you’ve been Corrections from the last issue The number of seniors on the girls basketball team from 2012-2015 were inaccurately printed in “Changing seasons” The correct numbers are: 2012-13: Four seniors 2013-14: Six seniors 2014-15: Seven seniors 2015-16: Three seniors The name of senior Ahmad AliAhmad was incorrectly spelled in the print version of “Ready, set, vote?”.

doing this too.

And though we can offer a few educated guesses, even as people who produce content and report the facts, we still don’t know exactly what drives us toward that content, toward those facts. If you walk into our classroom at any given time, you’ll see an escalating debate between staff members, you’ll witness polite hand-raising abandoned as loud comments pop up across the room, you’ll hear someone say, “I don’t think that’s right.” Or better yet, “I hadn’t thought about that.” So many of our ideas have come from those debates, some that extend far beyond the 9 p.m. deadline when we save our pages and shut down our computers.

ALINA ABIDI KRISTIN CHANG LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

For the two of us, a deadline has come. Not just the 9 p.m. one, but a bigger one. Interacting with our staff this past year has given us dozens of personal identities and backgrounds, hundreds of stories and an infinite number of ideas.

Five nights ago, as we scrambled and rushed to finish this magazine, scurrying from computer to computer and staring at pages in progress until our eyes watered, we thought this was it. We called it our “last night.” There was a sense of finality as the door closed at 9 p.m, a sense that things were somehow over.

But we forgot one thing: this is a two-way street. Our ideas live with our staff now, along with all our future staffs and all our current and future readers, whether or not people agree with them — and if we’re doing this right, not everyone will. As for us, it’s not over either. Our staff’s and source’s ideas stay with us, no matter where we’re going. It never really ends, and for that we’re grateful.

3

certify that all the information submitted in the a other supporting materials is my own work, factually ments will become the properam applying and will not be rethat I may be subject to a range of possible disciplin sion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degr

IDENTITY

Examining how and why we lie about identity on college applications STORY BY KRISTIN CHANG AND MILONI VORA

S

HE REMEMBERED EVERY LIE SHE’D EVER TOLD. Or at least the big ones: the one whole semester of elementary school she claimed to be a robot. The time she lied to her grandmother about being accepted into a prestigious science camp. All the times she said she was walking to her after-school math program and just never showed up.

All these lies, and so many more, flashed before her eyes, like something out of a cliché action movie. But there was no time to think about it now. She clicked submit, then shut her laptop abruptly. Then she opened it back up. The Common Application still glowed on her screen, unsubmitted. There was one last window that popped up, one last box she had to check: a guarantee that everything on her application was true.

Out of all the lies she had ever told, the anonymous senior’s college application was the biggest. By far. She hadn’t fudged or tweaked any numbers — fabricating her GPA or her involvement with a club could be easily proved false with one phone call to the school — but on the non-academic sections of the app, demographics were an appealing loophole.

And so, on her 650 word Common Application essay, the senior mentioned, in one of six paragraphs, a grueling and soul-searching struggle with her sexuality. Specifically, her bisexuality. A half-dozen sentences just vague enough to be plausible: about her family’s close-mindedness (true), her anxiety at school (plausible) and her sleepless nights filled with worries of the future (true as well).

But the truth is that she isn’t bisexual. Or at least she doesn’t identify as that. As a lie, it’s clean: there’s no way to verify sexuality, and it’s not as bad, she believes, as lying about race. In retrospect, she attempts to rationalize it, to minimize it, to normalize

EL ESTOQUE 4 / EL ESTOQUE / APRIL 2015

it. She admits her lie seems coldly logical, She thinks about how she’s never had to maybe a little too methodical, but that’s come out. How she’s never had to question her attraction to someone. Compared to lywhat she believes the college process does.

“It’s about how you look on paper,” she ing about her hours of community service, said. “Everything’s on paper, your race and this lie seemed insensitive at best to the acyour gender too, so those aspects seem also tual LGBT community. very objective…like something to be judged For months, the senior spent hours on online forums, from Reddit to College Confithe same way as grades.”

Detached from human dential, her heart thudding every single time she clicked on a experience, demographic [WHEN YOU thread titled “Lying on college categories felt like empty, faceless labels. That made LIE] THERE’S apps.” Some were from Asian students who had marked it easier to lie: she felt like A LACK OF it couldn’t be worse than Pacific Islander as their race. sneaking a few extra volun- APPRECIATION Some were from students who lied about having an illness. teer hours in. At the same FOR HOW time, she felt guilty of idenMany were prefaced with phrases like “Please help” and tity theft, like she was us- SOMEONE’S ing someone’s experiences caught,” and most comEXPERIENCES “Got ments seemed preachy to her, without permission. almost suspiciously so. “Don’t Her friend once joked HAVE PLAYED that “All’s fair in love do it,” they said, while in the same paragraph stating that and college apps,” and A REALLY BIG though the senior agrees ROLE IN THEIR they had considered it as well.

Two things were overthat this may seem true, whelmingly clear to her. First, it probably shouldn’t be. LIFE. The lie was easy for her, SENIOR no one doubted that lying she admits, precisely be- PRIYANKA AGARWAL would give them a boost. And cause she’s never had to second, she wasn’t the only one who had lied. come to terms with her sexuality. It was so easy for her to claim to be bisexual precisely ACCORDING TO senior Priyanka Agarbecause she wasn’t. She felt like an actor, wal, it’s all too common to joke about claiming the identity but not truly living it. faking your race or gender to boost According to a survey of 335 students, 30 your application. Yet beneath the jokpercent of people believed that it was moral- ing tone lurks something else entirely. ly worse to lie about grades and extracurric“A guy might say, ‘You’re a girl, you’re ulars, compared to 21 percent who believed in engineering, that’s probably why you got that it was morally worse to lie about identity. into a school, and a guy that’s as qualified as According to the senior, this isn’t surpris- you doesn’t get in,’” Agarwal said. “There ing: her own friends believe that lying about is a little bit of resentment when a guy talks demographics is more permissible than fak- about a girl with the same statistics as [him] ing extracurriculars. She herself is less sure. getting in.”

admission process including this application and any ly true, and honestly presented, and that these docuty of the institution to which turned to me. I understand linary actions, including admission revocation, expulgree should the information I have certified be false.

TY THEFT

The problem with joking about apply- ted information about their race. pressured to stand out. ing as a girl, Agarwal believes, is that it can “For example, a student who’s half Japa“Some people looking at their applicainvalidate people with that actual identity. nese and half white will just put Japanese. I’ve tion they might not see that much of the exBeing a girl means more than just a box to seen that happen,” Stiver said. But in the end, tracurricular stuff,” Chen said, “so they’re check off: it means that Agarwal was one Stiver tries to instill one message: Be honest. racking their brains trying to find anything of the few girls in her JAVA class. that they can just throw on there EVAN SCHUSTER l NOUN PROJECT It means that a girl’s often had to that might possibly get them a betwork harder to achieve the same ter chance of getting accepted.” recognition. Even if a girl in the The desperation that students STEM field may have lower grades feel to get accepted into colleges is and scores than her male counterjust sad, according to Chen. of people have lied about parts, to see someone’s statistics “You have to sacrifice personal their sexuality on college without factoring in their identity identity just to go that next stage in apps doesn’t seem fair. life, and that really shouldn’t happen “People’s experiences are imin society,” Chen said. portant,” Agarwal said. “There The anonymous senior couldn’t is a need for girls in engineering. sleep. She was restless, twitchy. She [When you lie] there’s a lack of apwondered why she had lied in the preciation for how someone’s expefirst place: to seem worthy? To seem of people know one to riences have played a really big role unique? But in the end, she’d done in their life.” something hardly unique at all: lie. four people that have And though Agarwal can underFor several weeks after submission, lied on their applications stand exactly why someone might she expected some sort of a sign lie about their identity, she also that someone knew, some invisible can’t ignore how that discredits all whistleblower. the hidden influences on a person’s But it was her own conscience, education. So when a guy says that and good luck, that pushed her to a girl has been accepted to a school withdraw her Common Applicaof people have marked just because she’s a girl, Agarwal tion from the two private schools to only one race on their can detect the root of their resentwhich she had submitted. She didn’t college app, even if they ment: they believe that the system is need the Common App anymore: are multiracial unfair to them. she’d committed to a public school, But according to the anonymous though even as she was celebrating, senior, that’s easy to say when she didn’t quite feel worthy of it. Not you’ve got none of the baggage of because of guilt, which she admits that actual identity. To her, the peomight’ve actually just been her fear ple who complain the most about a of being caught, but because she of people know one to rigged system are the people that felt wearied by the whole process. four people that have lied benefit the most from that system.

Would the lie even have made a difLike Agarwal, guidance counference? Would it even have been on their applications selor Clay Stiver believes that lyworth it? ing to colleges is ultimately worse Even now, when she hears the *Data from a survey of 335 students for the student than for the college. pinging alert sound of her email, her Not only are their legal repercussions, such “Just present the information. That’s mind flashes back to the lie she told. Her inas colleges withdrawing their acceptances, what integrity is, to me. It’s being true to box is now flooded with congratulations for but it’s also harmful to students’ self-confi- yourself and telling the truth,” Stiver said. her acceptance, with future plans and the dence. Stiver has encountered a few a inciAccording to Senior Charles Chen, the promise of starting anew. But she can’t help dents in which biracial students have omit- desire to lie stems from applicants feeling but think it isn’t much of a victory. e

SEXUALITY

14%

RACE

8%

MULTIRACIAL

13%

RATE

64%

NEWS / 5

SUBSTANTIAL

Examining the different lives of substitute teachers outside of school STORY BY NANDA NAYAK AND ANDREA SCHLITT

May 3, considered National Teachers Day, is set aside to honor our teachers. However, many students don’t think about the people who come when our teachers can’t— substitutes. Substitute teachers Richard Mendez, Dave Vierra and current student teacher Hannah Gould have had vivid experiences in the field, and continue to substitute for different classes. These are the stories of our substitute teachers.

RICHARD MENDEZ

S

UBSTITUTE TEACHER RICHARD Mendez remembers his first day subbing at Fremont High School, and how worried he had been when he couldn’t find his 30 students. The students were supposed to teach each other material they had learned in groups, and one group of students requested to go outside to teach their part.

“Me being new, I was like ‘Sure, let’s go for it!’ and I unlocked the door.

The students went out, and all of a sudden everyone was gone,” Mendez said.

“I was like, ‘This was not a good idea.’”

Mendez then frantically ran around the Fremont campus looking for the students. Arriving at the field, Mendez, relieved, found all his 30 students, doing the work they were supposed to.

Two years after his eventful first day experience, Mendez has continued to substitute around FUHSD, and attempts to be a

16 6 /E/ ELLEELESSETTSOOTQQ / / S EAPP 2R0I L 1 52 0 1 6 OUU QEE UE

by connecting the problems they have to the problems he faced as a student.

“I see people struggling in math — math was my toughest subject. I hated math, but I went on to college, passed college courses, and I’m able to help them out,” Mendez said. “That’s what I want to be a role model for — to show that you can go from one point to another.”

Regardless of his attempts to be a role model in his students’ lives, Mendez admits that he doesn’t expect to have the same effect on his students’ lives that their teachers do. When Mendez was a student, he believed that a substitute teacher was the equivalent to a free day, and rejoiced whenever the teacher was absent. However, Mendez now admits that the tables have turned, and attempts to grasp why students do not respect subANDREA SCHLITT l EL ESTOQUE stitutes as much as they do their teachers.

“The students are used to a certain role model for all his students. An avid athperson, their teacher. When I come in, they’ve lete, and the current track and field coach already tested the teacher,” Mendez said. at Del Mar High School, Mendez attempts “They already to inspire his know what the students and THAT’S WHAT I WANT teacher doesn’t lead by example. like to do, what TO BE A ROLE MODEL “Grow ing ways they want up an athlete, I FOR— TO SHOW THAT you to act, but for wanted to be like it’s ‘ok. Am I someone, but it’s YOU CAN GO FROM ONE me, going to be ok if tough when you I get away with POINT TO ANOTHER. don’t think you this?’

I know I’m can be at that SUBSTITUTE RICHARD MENDEZ being tested, the level,” Mendez first day, everyday.” said. “I was a Despite the challenges he’s faced and the heavier kid, and I was always trying to get myself more in shape. So when I went to ones that he knows he will face in the future, coach and I saw these kids that looked like I Mendez is always grateful for his ability to used to, I’m like ‘I was just in your shoes, but I educate others and be a part of their lives.

“My family all comes from manual labor went to college for that sport.’ It helps them.” backgrounds, so for me to get here and just Mendez also uses his experiences sit in air conditioning is great,” Mendez said. and attitude as an athlete in the class“I’m happy that I’m in the position that I’m in.” room, and hopes to relate to the students

“

”

DAVE VIERRA

F

ORTY SEVEN YEARS. That’s how long Dave Vierra coached the MVHS football team. But after retiring, Vierra decided to come back as a substitute teacher, to a job he knew he would enjoy. Vierra has

HANNAH GOULD

W

HEN HANNAH GOULD, a graduate in Russian literature and currently a student teacher for World Core, walked into her first class as a substitute, it was a math class.

And she was nervous, really nervous.

“I thought that I wouldn’t know what to talk about and I wouldn’t be able to help the students with anything, but it was way easier than I had imagined,” Gould said.

The teacher didn’t leave a lesson plan for that class, but Gould knew that the students would be good about reminding her about assignments that needed to be completed that day, which happened to be a test. From that experience, Gould realized that substitute teaching was something that could be done without much knowledge about the content, and there was nothing to worry about.

But something that she still finds difficult when substituting is making that connection with students in a short period of time, although she oftens tries different methods to achieve that.

been a substitute teacher for 12 years.

“Each day, I’d try and go out of my way to do something and help a student if they had a problem,” Vierra said, “because it would be gratifying to me.”

But substituting hasn’t been his only endeavor since ANDREA SCHLITT l EL ESTOQUE retiring.

Besides gardening, playing golf and visiting his grandchildren, Vierra is also a member of the Cupertino Host Lions Club, a service group that aids others in need. Every three years, the club takes a semi-truck with donated goods to a Navajo Indian Reservation in Gallup, New Mexico.

It all started 20 years ago when sev-

“It’s really impor tant to just ask the students about themselves and just try to talk to them a little bit when they come in at the beginning of the period,” Gould said.

“Somet imes it helps so they see you as a real person and they know it’s okay for them to be real people too.”

Currently, as a student teacher, Gould also occasionally substitutes for the other periods of World Core that she doesn’t teach. She sees herself as an assistant teacher sometimes, where the students

eral members took a trip to New Mexico to go hunting and discovered that there had been a gruesome traffic accident that had affected a family of Navajo Indians.

Not only had the family suffered horribly from the traffic accident, the club soon discovered that they were poor as well, and lacked many necessary materials.

The accident inspired the club to help the family, and eventually those living on the reservation, by bringing donated goods.

And some of those items come from the MVHS lost and found, where water bottles, jackets and bags pile up after being forgotten on campus.

“At that point, they decided that we’re going to start collecting things and taking them to them, cloth goods, kitchen items, computers and books,” Vierra said, “and it just developed into something huge.”

As for substitute teaching, it has been a rewarding job although sometimes it can be unfortunate to come to school to find out a teacher has first period prep.

“It’s kind of irritating to get up in the morning to find that the teacher has first period prep, so the school lets me come in later,” Vierra said. “I’m very fortunate because the school lets me do that.”

ANDREA SCHLITT l EL ESTOQUE

know who she is and they both know what they should be working on during class.

“I think it goes very smoothly, even when we’re doing different material,” Gould said.

“It’s sort of a nice middle ground between substitute teaching and student teaching.” e

A & N EEW/ S1/7 7 FATIMA ALI l EL ESTOQUE

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Under inspection In light of Tpumps’s recent closure, this is how food facility health inspections work STORY BY DYLAN TSAI

PHOTOS BY ADITI DESAI

On Jan. 21, Tpumps’ Cupertino location was abruptly closed by Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health.

According to DEH inspector Jeff Camp, a food facility is inspected between one and three times a year, depending on the type of facility (coffee shop, fast food, restaurant, etc.). The inspector takes note of any health regulation violations and assigns the food facility a score out of 100, which is publicly released. Some violations, such as inadequate lighting and broken floor tiles, are labeled good retail practice violations and simply lower the score.

Meanwhile, lack of dish soap for dish

washing or deficient sewage backup are categorized as risk factor violations, and require the facility to be closed instantly.

did not fix its hot water supply. Luckily, Tpumps was able to fix its hot water and reopened two days later, on Jan. 23.

But because a food facility can have a great number of good retail practice violations yet have no risk factor violations, it can survive a drastically low score without closure, or be forcefully closed with a relatively high score. Unfortunately, because scores are not often sought out, closures are often students’ only official informants to a restaurant’s structural and health deficiencies. To reveal the reality beyond closures, here are the most recent scores and one violation each of students’ common food facilities. e

FOR MORE INFO elestoque.org

Tpumps lacked hot water — a risk factor violation and instant closure.

However, closures are not very uncommon; there were 19 closures in Santa Clara County during March alone. In fact, the issues Camp sees most often are all risk factor violations.

Nonetheless, Tpumps would have faced a meeting with a DEH supervisor if it

Panda Express

7-Eleven

Chipotle

Tpumps

MVHS

71%

83%

88%

98% 100%

Hot and cold water not always readily available No trash can near kitchen hand sink*

No soap near several sinks Hot water from washing sink is below 100F

No violations

* Many stores have more than one violation reported, so the

shown violation is only one of possibly several violations.

NEWS / 9

#HamiltonNotSoWhite

Allegations of racism over Hamilton prove what we knew all along

I

t’s been kind of a moment for racism in roles for people of color in Broadway America — so far we’ve got a Donald musicals often just don’t exist, and when Trump who doesn’t recognize the KKK, they do they end up as caricatures and a Ted Cruz that wants the stereotypes — far from police to patrol “Muslim the dynamic, complicated neighborhoods” and also charactes their white peers a Broadway hit musical are offered. Even color blind Hamilton. casting comes with its own For all the musical detractors, none of which theater-y uneducated out is more apparent than in there, Hamilton is a rap reactions to the Hamilton musical detailing the life cast: Rob Chernow, the and times of ten-dollar of the Hamilton MAYA MURTHY author founding father (without biography that started it all, a father) Alexander was shocked to see people of OUT OF THE BLUE Hamilton: first Secretary color portraying the roles of of the Treasury. If anyone the Founding Fathers, though remembers their US History, they probably he was easily and promptly converted after remember Hamilton as the guy who was witnessing the incredible talent of shot by Aaron Burr, who is best remembered the cast as the guy who shot Alexander Hamilton.

It’s easy to dismiss this American History: a little more full of “controversy” as the murder than we thought, right? work of a few trolls on But Hamilton isn’t just a musical about the the internet, but the Founding Fathers, nor is it just a rap musical, truth is that racism nor is it just wildly, incredibly successful. isn’t always as easy Amongst all of these, Hamilton’s greatest to identify as Donald achievement is its casting — an entire cast Trump’s ridiculous composed of people of color, except for toupee — often, King George and a few in the ensemble. The it is the poison entire American Revolution and the first freezing our three terms of its aftermath, portrayed by b l o o d , exclusively by people who would not have even been considered human by the law of that day and age.

It is, as one of the Schuyler sisters might say, a revolution (a revelation), especially on a Broadway stage. And of course, as things exclusive to people of color generally are called, apparently racist.

The issues currently at hand are the casting calls for new productions across the country that specify non-white actors for the roles. According to the Actors Equity, the Broadway Union, this violates a clause that forces casting directors to audition anyone that applies for a role. Or, to put it like the screeching anonymous eggs on Twitter: “IF this hAd said ‘4 whites ONly tHEY WooD SAY RAcist!!!!!!!!!!”

Meanwhile, casting calls for other productions read Matilda: Caucasian female. Danny Zuko: Caucasian Male.

Mary Poppins: Caucasian Female.

ILENA PENG l EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION Known as “The Great White Way,”

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everywhere, to the point that we can’t filter it out. It’s groups of people not noticing that most of musical theater is white, that musicals that dare to feature people of color are rare, unfunded and, in the rare case they make it to the stage, unattended.

Hamilton, is very obviously not.

In the current election cycle, over bloated talking heads on our televisions insist that they have no idea why bigots have risen to lead a political party. We have, after all, elected a black President, never mind how we demanded to see his birth certificate.

But modern American racism is less about the big things, as much as it is the little — clutching our purses when we see black men on the sidewalk, asking a latina woman who’s buying groceries for the general location of the butternut squash. We’re a culture of stereotypes that crawl into the our crevices and die, polluting our minds with the stench of their rot. Sometimes, it’s expressed when we blame twelve year old Tamir Rice for having a toy gun. Other times, we try to shut down a musical that has the temerity to be successful without a white person in the leading role.

Ending racism is a slow, painstaking process for everyone involved. The solutions aren’t obvious, or easy to fix, but what I do know is this: draining the poison will look more like people crying and laughing Hamilton, than the just voting against Donald Trump.

The only issue is, I’m not really sure any of us can buy tickets.

Ending racism seems to be more popular than I thought. e

''

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ELIZABETH HAN | EL ESTOQUE

CURATING OUR PERSPECTIVES We can’t ignore the dangers of mixing politics with social media, but everyone’s doing it

A

s we scroll through Facebook, we see tutorials and group photos and embarrassing statuses that remind us of how much we’ve changed in the past few years. But recently, we’ve seen something else emerge in teen social media circles, aggressively and in full force: politics.

In fact, in a survey of 219 MVHS students, 50 percent see social media posts endorsing a presidential candidate every day. Getting our news and perspectives from social media is a relatively new status quo, and as sites become more curatable, it’s easier to see only one type of news. How we see issues, such as our views on presidential candidates, is highly influenced by our feeds, which we determine by the pages we “like” and the people we follow or friend.

Opinionated pieces in social media can put us in someone else’s shoes, but they can also neglect context and the objective truth.

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Social media sites are evolving, and with them, the way we get information.

In Januar y, Facebook launched a trending topics sidebar with news stories. And in October of last year, Twitter created “Moments”, a way to skim aggregated tweets about one topic or issue. Our news is getting easier to digest and easier to share.

Using platforms like Facebook and Twitter to repost articles, debate in comment sections and keep up with the news is becoming increasingly common at MVHS. Thirty-nine percent of 212 MVHS respondents use Facebook to keep up with the news. Put simply, this involvement is a good thing. Most teachers would be ecstatic that we think critically and discuss beyond the classroom.

Although our social media circles serve as platforms to shed light on a wide range of issues, this year’s presidential election is most prevalent.

We have Republicans on campus, but at MVHS, the real debate seems to be whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders on June 7, the day of California’s Democratic primary.

The debate is most visible with the senior class. As they approach voting age and take the required semester of Government, it’s not just the political junkies that champion the discussion.

Many seniors of all academic interests are involved. Some choose to share the occasional article — usually criticizing a candidate’s voting history or the viability of their plans — while others are more hardcore, providing analysis, arguing in debates and advocating for their candidates at all costs, at least online.

This online form of political participation is crucial. In a country where voter turnout for eligible 1824 year-olds is around 25 percent, it’s critical that young voters educate themselves on how, why and who to vote for and most importantly, how it will affect them.

But we must have this discussion the right way. Sharing articles and videos is great, but leaving out context ultimately misinforms voters. The ways in which we do this are countless. We do this by criticizing Hillary for advocating for the 1994 Crime Bill, without mentioning that a majority of black legislators and Bernie Sanders also voted for it. We do this by bringing up Bernie Sanders’ more

moderate approach on gun control, without asking why he isn’t as liberal on guns as on other issues.

This isn’t entirely our fault.

Many of the news sources we share purposefully leave out context. When Facebook started auto-playing videos on our newsfeeds, online journalism evolved. News videos with highlightercolor texts, like AJ+ and NowThis, became common, landing spots among

to follow, read and share perspectives that interest us, and social media websites are catching onto this. Many sites, such as Facebook, have developed algorithms which optimize our feeds to show us more of what we like and less of what we don’t. Online platforms can and should be used to expose ourselves to a wide variety of perspectives. In the context of this year’s election, that means going beyond your circle of OPINION OF THE EL ESTOQUE friends who might support EDITORIAL BOARD the same candidate as the most viewed video publishers on you do. Is getting off of Facebook the Facebook. But both AJ+ and NowThis answer? Probably not. Social media are unapologetically biased publishers: has become the dominant force of they’re liberal propagandists change in our lives and in the world, that should be classified as from regime-toppling revolutions advocacy journalism. to a platform that has normalized This wouldn’t be much of an issue coming out of the closet. But it’s our if what we follow on social media responsibility to not let it give us platforms wasn’t so curatable. We tend tunnel vision. e

O PI N I ON

STAFF EDITORIAL

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW STRONGLY HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES SHAPED YOUR IMPRESSION OF CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES?

35% 27%

17% 11%

1

2

10%

3

4

5

FROM A SURVEY OF 218 MVHS STUDENTS OPINION / 13

The race for admission Lying about racial identity on college apps cheats both Affirmative Action and ourselves STORY BY ELIZABETH HAN AND AMITA MAHAJAN

W

ELIZABETH HAN l EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION

e’ve grown up in a world where demically-matched pairs of young black and we’re taught that “lying is bad.” white men apply for entry-level job openBut when the exings in Milwaukee, act consequences are miniapplicants WHEN WE CHANGE white mal and the benefits add on, with criminal rethe urge to lie heightens and OUR RACE FOR cord were more ultimately, we go against likely to receive what we’ve been taught our BETTER CHANCES callbacks from ementire lives. And for students AT COLLEGE ployers than blacks at MVHS, the line between with no criminal morality and achievement is ADMISSIONS, history. This is yet especially blurred in the case WE STEAL THE another form of the of college applications — afins t it ut iona liz e d ter all, it often only takes a SEATS FROM racism that minoricheckmark next to your race ties face nearly evTHOSE WHO NEED to influence admission deciery day.

AFFIRMATIVE sions.

According to the Why? Affirmative Action.

American Bar AsACTION. The long-debated policy, put sociation, the point into place in 1961 by President Kennedy, of Affirmative Action is typically to increase aims to equalize the playing field for un- diversity on college campuses. Although this derrepresented races in colleges, including is usually interpreted as racial diversity, soAfrican Americans, Native Americans and Latinos. And it does its job pretty well — in 2013, the average ACT score for African Americans was 16.9 while the average score for Asian students was 23.5.

This means that if a college uses Affirmative Action, an Asian student would have to perform an average of 6.6 points better than an African American one to get to the same place. Clearly, the standards for admission for Asians are considerably higher than those of other minorities.

With these statistics before us, we as predominantly Asian American MVHS students sometimes feel cheated out of opportunities to attend top-tier universities.

Yet when we change our race for better chances at college admissions, we steal the seats from those who need Affirmative Action: the victims of the unrelenting institutionalized racism in America.

In fact, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, of 46,000 New Yorkers stopped by the police in 2014, 55 percent were African Americans, 12 percent white and a combined total of 82 percent were innocent. As minorities like African Americans and Latinos face racism in nearly every aspect of their daily lives, it begins to impact their ability to focus on learning.

A study by the University of Pennsylvania Law School reports that when aca-

1 4 /EELL EESSTTOOQQUUEE / A P R I L 2 0 1 6

cioeconomic diversity is another important aspect of varying demographics, especially since more diversity results in more backgrounds and experiences. For instance, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was aided in acceptance to Princeton University by Affirmative Action and now brings a unique perspective to court as she grew up in the Bronx — one that most who grew up in well-off areas fail to understand.

Sure, we live in a capitalist society where greater accolades mean further advancement in said society. Yet as several studies conducted by the Huffington Post and Global Citizen report, low-income students do not have as many opportunities for academic excellence as well-off students from schools in the Silicon Valley do.

So what does Affirmative Action have to do with lying about your identity — specifically your race — on college apps?

MVHS students often forget that they will get into a college, regardless of whether it’s Harvard or UCLA or De Anza. Those who need Affirmative Action to equalize the playing field may not have the opportunity to go to college at all.

You’re also putting your own neck on the line by lying. Most seniors probably remember signing a contract on their college applications stating that their admission to a college will be revoked in case of dishonesty on their apps. So if a college does indeed manage to catch a lie on your app, chances are that they’ll revoke your acceptance immediately. Besides, what if you could have gotten in without lying in the first place?

Here at MVHS, some of us feel that college is the ultimate destination — as if our whole existence seems to lead up to this pivotal moment, utilizing every second of our lives to fill just one more line on our college applications. But once you take a step back, college is just another opportunity. As difficult as it may be to grasp at times, college is not the final hurdle in life — it’s simply a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, Affirmative Action won’t benefit Asian Americans. But it’s not just that - you’re stealing a person’s future.

To them, you are the glass ceiling and the bamboo ceiling in one. You are the only one holding them back. e

All fun and games

Pranks can serve as an effective way to bond and blow off steam STORY BY BILL CHENG AND AKSHARA MAJJIGA ILLUSTRATIONS BY SNEHA GAUR

“It’s just a prank!”

F

OR THE LAST FEW MONTHS, THIS phrase has been making its rounds across the internet. Various content creators like Youtube’s OckTV have used it as the catch-all justification for bigotry, harassment and even molestation. It’s as if they expect to be able to justify poor decisions because they’re in the name of public amusement.

Every year, Vice Principal Mike White reminds the senior class that pranks will not be tolerated at MVHS. There is no such thing as a senior prank, only acts of vandalism. Acts such as these should never be justified, and school policies should always be followed in order to keep everyone safe. While it’s true that pranks can go horribly wrong and it’s important for us to keep White’s words in mind, we don’t have to abstain from pranking altogether. Pranks can be a perfectly innocent way to build friendships and blow off some steam: as long as we make sure to use common sense and ensure that our pranks don’t harm our school or community, everything will go just fine.

Our obsession with dark humor has been common throughout history. During the ancient Roman festival of Hilaria, citizens celebrated the god Attis

52% of students are indiffererent to pranking

with various amusements, including, it is believed, pranks of all types. At the time, pranks like an elaborate masquerade were seen as acts of harmless fun as they were kept within the limits of sanity; danger was thrown aside as irrelevant, and the necessity of distraction and bonding with others was instead seen as the priority.

With the characteristics of recent pranks, it’s easy to make the assumption that pranks are only for the immature.

However, simple pranks can have benefits for even the most sophisticated of us because the laughter that they bring can encourage the release of feel-good endorphins like oxytocin that soothe the muscles and brain.

In many cases, embarrassment seems to be a major side effect of pranks. However, according to Dr. Simon Young from the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, they may not be as scarring as we think.

According to him, oxytocin increases trust in people. This shows that, socially, pranks do more good than harm. In other words, pranks are not something to be shied away from; instead, they should be employed in safe doses to strengthen bonds and hone our sense of caution.

At other high schools across the country, pranks are responsible for wreaking havoc avross campuses. For example, in 2004 at Newfield HS, there was over $15,000 worth of property damage caused by the senior class, which resulted in arrests, fines and suspension of privileges. But here at MVHS, White has only witnessed minor acts of vandalism over the years. He explains that they are more expensive than anything else. It is important for us to realize that there is a zero tolerance policy for pranks for a good reason; a prank is never and should never be an excuse for an unsafe act.

Perhaps we should take the opportunity to consider the true benefits of a harmless prank and try something new. But there is

66%

of students have been involved in a prank

77% of students have watched a Youtube prank

*From a survey of 335 students a fine line between having fun and going overboard. Our goal should be to find a way to express ourselves and embrace the humor of pranks, while avoiding any true trouble or damage. It is up to us to decide if psychological and social benefits outweigh the potential consequences. As long as we stay alert and avoid any foolishness, we can only reap benefits from a little practical joke. It really can be “just a prank.” e

OPINION / 15

FOUR ANSWERS

Perspectives on leadership

Students and a coach discuss the necessity of captains in differing roles

L

STORY BY SNEHA GAUR AND EMILY ZHAO

eadership entails something different to every person. Leaders play unique roles depending on the environment, from being a dominant and assertive figure to being a figure of support and encouragement. We asked four people how leadership affects the dynamics in their settings, whether it be an athletic team, a club or dealing with special needs students.

“Raas is something that’s not part of the school’s curriculum, it’s something we elect to do, so a lot of the times when school gets stressful, some of the girls start slacking off.

The biggest job of a captain is to be someone that they can look up to and be motivated by. I think there always needs to be someone to keep things in order and keep people on track because even with captains, we tend to get off track during practice or waste time. You really need someone that’s authoritative but kind to keep things running smoothly.”

Junior Goonja Shah, captain of Raas

“We do an activity with the students and we’ll guide them through it. While they’re working, the officers go around to the tables and ask questions to help them start conversations. We leave it up to the members to engage the special needs students, and most of them are so easy to talk to once they open up a bit. I think a lot of people at this school would love to approach the special needs kids and be friends with them, and it’s that bridge to say ‘Just talk to them like you would your friends.’”

Senior Hannah Haensel, social manager of Ohana

16 / EL ESTO QUE / APR 2016

“Captains keep up the moral and spirit of the team. The captain doesn’t have to be the best player on the team, but they need to know how to get the team hyped and ready for their next game. You need a captain because if you don’t and your team’s in a slump, there’s no one there to pick you up. But if a team doesn’t have a captain, they all need to step up and be leaders in their own right. If they work together, I’m sure they could get along without a captain.”

Freshman Prateek Kaushik, volleyball player

“Leadership is vital for a team this big. If there’s no leadership, you’ve got 90 people running around with their heads cut off like chickens. No leadership means no one knows when challenges are, no one knows when to show up for practice, how are games going to get set up, who’s putting up rosters, or who’s going to play. So leadership, for the coaches, the captains and the indivudal players need to step up and be leaders for the team because everyone needs to help each other out.”

Badminton coach Evan Blomquist

Fixing the college problem We need to decide what the role of a university is STORY BY PRANAV JANDHYALA

A

t t he end of t he college applic at ion pro cess, I had applie d to t hir te en scho ols.

Ten w it hin t he U.S. and t h re e in t he UK. T he UK ha s a different college applic at ion pro cess. Inste ad of t he Com mon Applic at ion, t hey have UCAS, t he Univer sit y and College Adm issions Ser v ices applic at ion. For my UCAS applic at ion, I subm it te d my SAT, A P test and SAT subje c t test scores and to ok an ent rance exam. I also w rote a 650 word ess ay in which I t alke d ab out my interest in my chos en major ba s e d on t he cla ss es I had t a ken and t he st r ic t ly ac adem ic ex t racur r icula r s I had pur sue d.

T h roughout my UCAS applic at ion, I wa s a ske d to prov ide only one ver y st anda rd ess ay ab out why I generally wante d to st udy p olit ic s and why I would b e qualifie d to st udy p olit ic s at an inst it ut ion of higher le a r ning.

I wa s never a ske d what my favor ite b o ok wa s, what veget able I wa s, what sup er p ower I would cho os e, or what I pre dic te d t he ye a r 2020 would lo ok like. It wa s ex t remely st raight for wa rd.

A nd t his ess ay, along w it h my test scores, were sent to ever y univer sit y I applie d to in t he UK. No supplement al ess ays, no “how did you he a r ab out us?”, no ex t ra se c t ion where I wa s able to list all my ex t racur r icula r s, not hing but what I amounte d to on pap er.

I wa sn’t a ske d ex tensive quest ions ab out my race or sexualit y or even my

financial st at us.

In t his way, I b elieve I wa s put on a level play ing field w it h ever y single ot her applic ant, whet her it wa s t he son of a foreign le ader or a p olit ic al ref uge e. U.S. colleges often adm it to weighing legacy st at us in t heir adm ission de cisions.

E ss ent ially, t he children or siblings of pa st alum ni a re given pr ior it y adm ission. A nd it do esn’t hur t if an applic ant’s fam ily ha s given la rge sum s of money to t he univer sit y in t he pa st eit her. U.S. univer sit ies a re also incre a singly lo ok ing at race and s exualit y in t heir adm ission de cisions in order to diver sif y t heir st udent b o dy. A ll of t hes e prac t ices a re illegal in most ot her count r ies in t he world. UK univer sit ies like Ox ford and Cambr idge consistent ly st and b ehind t heir com m it ment to adm it t ing st udent s in a color blind, income-blind and s exualit y-blind manner. Adm ission de cisions a re ent irely ba se d on mer it, how well a st udent is prepa re d to handle t heir desire d cour se at a sp e cific univer sit y.

After le a r ning all of t his, I wa s relieve d to k now t hat my pre dic te d ac adem ic p er for mance would b e t he re a son for my adm ission rat her t han any t hing els e. W hen t he result s c ame back, I wa sn’t to o sho cke d. I wa s adm it te d where I t hought I wa s going to b e adm it te d ba s e d on my test scores, and I wa s reje c te d where I

PRANAV JANDHYALA THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM t hought I would b e ne a r t he b ot tom end of qualifie d applic ant s. On t he ot her hand, I wa s reje c te d f rom many of my U.S. s afet ies and adm it te d to many of my U.S. re aches. It all se eme d ex t remely random to me.

At t he b eginning of t he college applic at ion pro cess, some of my f r iends lie d ab out t heir race and sexualit y in t heir applic at ions to U.S. colleges. T hough I st ill do not supp or t t heir ac t ions, I under st and t he fe elings b ehind t hem. If colleges a re purely ac adem ic inst it ut ions, why should t hey discr im inate on t he ba sis of income, race or s exualit y? W hy wouldn’t t hey just adm it t he most ac adem ic ally qualifie d st udent s? W hy shouldn’t adm ission de cisions b e purely ba se d on mer it?

Affir mat ive ac t ion and legacy a re st ill in prac t ice b e c aus e many would st ill challenge t he ide a t hat colleges a re purely ac adem ic inst it ut ions.

Some consider t hem pr ima r ily a s to ols to achieve so cial and racial e qualit y. O t her s st ill b elieve t hat t hey should pr ima r ily b e for profit inst it ut ions.

T he UK mo del p oses an ex t reme alter nat ive to what we cur rent ly have, a mo del t hat I b elieve we should accept w it h more op en a r m s.

Adm issions should st ill b e holist ic, but st udent s should pr ima r ily b e adm it te de ba se d on t heir ac adem ic c alib er.

OPINION/ 17

SPECIAL / 19

this i bel was a time of opposition.

Sophomore Ryan Yang struggled to reconcile macroevolution with his Christian background.

Senior Fay Neil questioned her own beliefs because of new perspectives on Tumblr. Sophomore Nicholas Chen found what he read on social media contradictory to his faith in individualism. It was a time of self-discovery.

The future of their beliefs remained uncertain, but their origins stood below it all, fueling exploration. It was a time of exploration. To fully grasp what developed in their minds over the years, the zygotes of their beliefs must be dug up from the wombs of their pasts.

The ruins of the World Trade Center lay in flames on the ground, smoke rising to replace what once stood tall. Mothers, fathers and lovers reduced to limp skinrags spilled across glass, streams of blood curling into fingers that gripped a nation by its throat.

9/11 was a potent ideological catalyst.

For many, it bred islamophobia. But for senior Fay Neil, it formed the base of her identity.

Since she and her family are Muslim, they felt threatened by

IT

20

EL

the very people that seemed to fear them.

It was then that Neil’s mother warned her against using an isolated event to justify such rampant prejudice. Only a child, Neil accepted her mother’s words without question and continued to do so when her mother taught her about equality. Years later, Neil can be heard echoing her mother’s remarks when she speaks up in disapproval upon hearing a homophobic or racist remark.

Unlike Neil, sophomore Nicholas Chen had little influence from his parents, as they didn’t speak of politics. Instead, much of the foundation of his beliefs came from attending school in a mostly liberal environment.

“I’m liberal because everybody here is liberal,” Chen said, “I feel like in a society like America, liberalism is really the only way to go, because America’s a country that’s always changing… it’s always moving forward, it’s always pushing forward.”

At a young age, Chen was instilled with the liberal principle of individualism, which fueled his later explorations. Because of this background, Chen felt that developing his current ideologies was an intuitive process.

With an atheistic father and a Christian mother who did not impose her beliefs upon him, Yang didn’t take church seriously on the few occasions he attended, and based most of his beliefs on science.

However, it was when Yang began regularly attending church that he began to develop his ideologies. Soon, he became interested in Bible prophecies, which caused him to take religion more seriously. Around the beginning of eighth grade, Yang started looking into the Bible’s actual teachings and strayed away from the prophecies.

Yang was no blind follower of Christianity.

As he read God’s words, he continuously questioned them. It was through this process of constant inquiry that Yang gradually uncovered what he saw as truth.

To Yang, there were two biblical teachings that resonated with him most: to love his neighbors and to love righteousness.

“I would say that if there’s anything that goes against the Bible or goes against love, and is not loving to your neighbors...then I’m against that type of belief,” Yang said.

The more he studied the Bible, the more Yang saw contradictions within science. He deduced that because macroevolution stated that everything originated for no apparent

reason, it suggested that life was meaningless.

Yet, he often saw his secular peers trying to enjoy their lives and following morals, which to him, contradicted the implication of nihilism.

The Bible’s idea of a loving God creating earth and mankind just made more sense to Yang, and he accepted the Bible as a more logical source of information.

“If you are an atheist, then what is the purpose of morality?”

Yang said, “They tried to get around that question. If you do believe in a God, any loving God wouldn’t just randomly evolve a bunch of stuff that turned into humans because that’s just too random and it doesn’t make sense.”

While Yang dedicated his time to analyzing the Bible, Chen and Neil pursued their own paths to forging their beliefs. As he read stories posted on social media, Chen started to criticize articles from websites like Buzzfeed and NowThis for over simplif y ing aspects of intersectionality.

Neil, however, took to social media in her own way. Following a friend’s suggestion, she created a Tumblr account and followed users that her friend recommended.

She then discovered articles and personal narratives on political issues like sexual assault. Much like the Bible sparked Yang’s intrigue, social

lieve

Students discuss the origins of their beliefs

media and websites gave Chen and Neil these disadvantages access to a breadth of new questions. were not absolute.

Chen learned of the popular liberal As an example, he theory of intersectionality: the idea that the said that gay men disadvantages of certain groups in society have been shown can overlap into something stronger. For to receive higher instance, a gay woman would have more rates of violence disadvantages than gay than those women, which who were c o u n t e r s only women media’s idea that or only gay. overlapping two While he disadvant aged found many of groups produces his peers adopting a group of even this belief, Chen greater disadvantage immediately in all scenarios. doubted the “Can we model’s simplicity. absolutely say that He was raised women are more to believe in sophomore Ryan Yang privileged or less individualism: looking at privileged than men? people on an individual basis, and intuitively Because I definitely agree came to see the contradictions in the media’s that they are in certain portrayal of intersectionality. aspects, but if you “They oversimplify [intersectionality] ask somebody and they throw people into buckets,” Chen who’s on trial for said. “Then they combine these buckets using a crime,” Chen the intersectional model to try and assert said, “it definitely that certain people are more disadvantaged would be better than others. That’s obviously contrary to to be female than the ideas of individualism, because you’re to be male when putting people in buckets. You’re not you’re on trial.” looking at them as individuals.”

Neil had Chen’s skepticism led him to develop a a different more nuanced look into intersectionality. q u e s t i o n i n g Although he agreed that some groups process.

On were more disadvantaged than others social media, in certain cases, he also believed that she saw a diversity of beliefs.

Tumblr usually supplied liberal views, Facebook and YouTube usually cons er vat ive.

Yet, most of the time, Neil readily agreed with the liberal views, as they harmonized with the background her mother had influenced in her, sophomore Nicholas Chen and rejected the

“

If you are an atheist, then what is the purpose of morality?

“

I’m liberal because everybody here is liberal. I feel like in a society like America, liberalism is really the only way to go.

STORY BY TRISHA KHOLIYA AND SEBASTIAN ZHANG conservative views, as she quickly saw logical errors in them.

“I do readily accept the liberal views that I have on my newsfeed because it’s stuff that I already agree with, so it’s easy to accept it,” she said.

It wasn’t the conservative sources that challenged her liberal background. Rather, it was the liberal sources that made her question how liberal she truly was.

During her freshmen year, Neil believed that in some situations, victims of sexual assault were at fault for provoking the perpetrator through promiscuous panoply, as various social media articles had indoctrinated her with the idea that female nudity was inappropriate while male nudity was acceptable, and even encouraged. She then came across personal narratives on Tumblr of people sharing their sexual assault experiences and explaining that the victim’s demeanor had no connection to the assault.

Weighing that in her mind, Neil decided to reject society’s double standard for dress, and became convinced that sexual assault was always the perpetrator’s fault.

Neil observed something interesting about this case: it was social media that pushed her to blame sexual assault on promiscuously dressed women, but it was also social media that led her to shift that blame onto the perpetrator.

She then realized the diversity of views in social media and the importance of staying conscious when reading it. She now makes sure to research anything that she reads and finds questionable.

Through skepticism and self-examination, respectively, Chen and Neil came to solidify their ideological beliefs. However, Yang finds himself only at the beginning of his path toward selfdiscovery, habitually digging up more unanswered questions as he studies the Bible in his search of his identity.

Students will continue to question, to search, to share. From childhood teachings to books discovered at adolescence, this is the beginning of the next face of the world. e

SPECIAL / 21

hands up

story BY Malini Ramaiyer and Jessica Xing

Teachers and students reflect on how their beliefs resonate in class senior Michael “I’ve just grown from being a part S a n d l e r of a church and talking to people,” disagrees with Jennings said. “The purpose of teaching his AP Economics teacher Pete Pelkey, or isn’t to share those beliefs. However, any teacher for that matter, he raises his it is important for those beliefs to be hand and lets the class know. Sandler has a a part of how I interact with people.” simple policy — While Jennings does not let his personal speak up when views impact how he teaches math, his beliefs other people bleed out through his won’t or when personal stories, or he disagrees. “commercial breaks” “If no one’s as he calls them. raising their Commercial breaks hand, I will probably are anecdotes about participate because Jennings’ life, ranging I don’t want that from his experiences awkward silence in Portland and gaining where everyone new perspective on just stares at the racial identity, to teacher,” Sandler interpersonal stories said. “I feel like about friendship, people are scared to shaping how he talk, while I’m not.” interacts with people.

Beliefs can It is not required be shaped by listening, but Jennings experience, by feels it provides a upbringing, by break from academics. environment — they “I want them to are a sum of what a think about what ENGLISH TEACHER Jireh Tanabe person is. Teachers makes sense for and students, alike, them,” Jennings said. have their own beliefs and ideologies, but “And maybe if what I am sharing opens their what’s in question is how teachers’ beliefs eyes, then that is a good thing.” influence the classroom, and what happens Jennings learned a long time ago from when a student’s ideology clashes with a a teaching advisor that any reaction from a teacher’s. student is a good one. He understands that students can participate in class without MATH TEACHER MARTIN JENNINGS speaking. Jennings has found that not all cites his Catholic background as the source of students are comfortable with raising their his ideologies — his classroom is influenced hands in front of the class and speaking up, by the values he’s learned throughout his life. so he is flexible.

When

“

It is a challenge for me to come up with things in which [students] feel like they can they can still do the assignment, do the thinking and grow from that.”

EL ESTOQUE 22 / EL ESTOQUE / APR 2016

“Even when students moan and groan at the lamest of my jokes, they are at least listening to the joke and are taking in what I am saying,” Jennings said. “There are students who aren’t comfortable with speaking, but they are participating.”

Jennings has an open interpretation of participation, while English teacher Jireh Tanabe considers critical thinking key to participation. With her Chinese upbringing, Tanabe was trained to memorize and repeat information, a “drill and kill” mentality when it came to education. But she soon realized that such rote memorization can be harmful. After teaching at MVHS, she sees that same upbringing manifested in students and structures her class to deconstruct that. She explained that literature requires deeper thinking, reading between the lines and moving beyond what students are comfortable with.

“It’s very difficult for them to move beyond what they’re comfortable with.”

Tanabe said. “It is a challenge for me to come up with things in which they can feel like they can they can still do the assignment, do the thinking and grow from that.”

Jennings attributes much of his beliefs to his religious upbringing, but he does not let it limit his worldview. Jennings generally refers to the class as “Ladies and Gentlemen”.

One student confronted him about what this expression meant to gender. But Jennings and the student could move past it after a talk conceding each other’s point of view.

“We just moved forward, and the next day in class I reassured the person that I cared about all the folks, not only the ones that think like me,” Jennings said, “I tried to

of students feel uncomfortable standing up to a teacher’s beliefs

40%

*according to a survey of 327 students

“

Photo by Malini Ramaiyer

I feel like people are scared to talk, while I’m not... I don’t want that awkward silence where everyone just stares at the teacher.”

SENIOR Michael Sandler

Junior Michael Sandler raising his hand in his AP French class. Sandler is an active participant in class discussion. listen to what they had to say, and they tried to listen what I had to say, and it hasn’t been a problem since.”

SANDLER CHALLENGES THE established authority and a prescribed relationship between teacher and student, unafraid to question what is being taught.

“It depends how they disagree — if there is substance to it, then show me the logic, and if they give a logical point, I can concede a point,” Pelkey said. “If the kids don’t want to listen to anything I say, then that is not disagreeing.”

Sandler believes that he’s in a minority of MVHS who will openly disagree with a teacher, and Pelkey, who taught Sandler, found this to be true as well. The status

quo in a classroom, they both believe, discourages students from speaking out against a teacher’s’ beliefs: whether it be grades, authority, or just public opinion.

American Literature Honors is a class geared towards the Sandlers of the world — junior Dara Woo believes that it cultivates open discussion. She has found it a great platform for her and other students to express their ideas — especially in her class, she finds that whenever the teacher wants to express a controversial idea, they ask the students to discuss it first.

While Tanabe faces students that struggle with her enforcement of critical thinking, Sandler appreciates teachers’ efforts to challenge students and enjoys conversing with them. He makes it a point

to visit most of his old teachers often and he has never developed a poor relationship with a teacher because of his active participation.

Ever since he was a child, Sandler has talked to his parents, his friends and his teachers about the same topics in the same way.

And while fear doesn’t rule his participation, practicality does. Sandler usually tries to assess the value of his contribution — will it be a helpful note or a waste of class time? Having taught JAVA classes for MV Robotics on a ten-person team, Sandler understands the stress of teaching and leading a class. He even notes that in the past, he has detracted from class time.

“If a class was full of me’s it wouldn’t go well for the class, but as long as it isn’t I think it’s fine being that way.” Sandler said. e

SEBASTIAN ZHANG | ILLUSTRATION

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familiar “ What happens when family beliefs clash

STORY BY STEPHANIE LAM AND MINGJIE ZHONG

TO

junior Manya Balachander, applying for a job at Jamba Juice seemed to be a natural part of the high school experience.

Experiencing the workforce, learning to make money on her own. All of it seemed like a good idea—until she asked her parents for permission.

Her parent’s answer was a simple and firm no. Manya’s parents believed that since Manya was a student, she needed to focus exclusively on her school work.

“In my mind [the reason] is fairly easy to see,” said Bala Balachander, Manya’s father. “When you do all these things, being a student, getting a job… your mind is going to be divided. It’s hard to do all [the] things justice.”

But Manya disagreed. She believed that she should be able to balance her academic life along with her social and work life.

“I think the disconnect comes when you grow up in a western kind of high school and western environment, you’re encouraged to explore all these different options, explore what it’s like to be an employee,” Manya said.

To Manya, the word “no” was not only a disappointment, but also a representation of her and her parent’s sometimes conflicting beliefs. The incident with Manya and her parents is just one example of differences in ideology between parent and child. Student exposure to surrounding ideas allows them to create their own beliefs and opinions outside of family about certain topics—even if it goes against the way they are raised.

“I am a very argumentative person, and I think I get that from my parents,”

“

They are Americans in every way, shape and form, but in their core, they are governed by values that are universal Parent BALA BALACHANDER

24 / EL ESTOQUE / APR 2015

Manya said. “I stand up for what I believe in, and my parents taught me that. It’s just that my parents didn’t [foresee] that I [would have] such different beliefs.”

While Manya was asking her parents for a job in her sophomore year, senior Julianna Liu started to rebel a little against her parent’s beliefs in her own sophomore year. Liu realized then that she didn’t have to listen to everything they said. As a result, she disagrees with some of her parents’ views on controversial issues.

“I really got to see what my parents [thought] about certain issues that I’ve always accepted as, “Oh, my point of view should be the same as theirs,” Liu said. “But I’m pretty sure that was the moment I really realized that I was raised to believe in different values than they were.”

One topic in particular that Liu and her parents disagree on is the issue of gay marriage. According to Liu, her parents are not comfortable with the topic of homosexuality and against gay marriages.

Liu, on the other hand, supports both.

Liu’s parents declined to comment.

However, despite the differences, Liu thinks her parents are understanding of the way Liu feels about certain topics.

“Of course there were arguments in the middle,” Liu said, “but we work things out.”

On the other hand, when Manya confronts her parents about controversial issues, she feels that the argument ends in a stalemate. Manya can’t convince her parents, and her parents can’t convince her, although Manya gives herself credit for trying. At least she knows that she has

I think the disconnect comes when you grow up in a Western kind of high school and western environment. You’re encouraged to explore all these different options, explore what it’s like to be an employee. junior manya BALACHANDER

opened up a door of possibilities for her parents to see society through her eyes.

“It’s a process,” Manya said, “I think that [parents] are open to change if you approach them the right way and you are patient because it will take a long time.”

It’s a process that has shown its benefits when Bala admits that he is proud of the way he and his wife have raised their children — even if they do have different beliefs. “[Manya’s mother and I] have no regrets about the way we’ve brought [Manya and her sister] up.” Bala said, “We’re confident that both of [them] will be true to their roots while also being true to their everyday commitments and transactions in the world.

They are Americans in every way, shape, and form, but in their core they are governed by values that are universal.” e

Tension

MIND OVER MATTER There is more to Hillary Clinton than her gender

SANDHYA KANNAN

I

am a female and I don’t support Hillary Clinton.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t make me a Bernie Sanders supporter either. In fact, I am not entirely against Clinton, especially because the other candidates are no praiseworthy diplomats themselves.

Under consideration of lesser evils, I would categorize her as one of the most moderate among the presidential candidates. She holds relatively stable standings in both the Conservative and Liberal parties, her bipartisan fiscal views and, most importantly, her strong ties to corporations. Her ideas for debt-free college and her slight lean towards traditional capitalism are ideologies most moderates leaning-leftward are attracted to.

But what is most concerning is that none of this tends to matter when Clinton’s most emphasized aspect is that she is a female.

She has come closest to becoming the first female United States President. The fact that a female politician has come so near to landing the presidency at all, let alone twice, in the span of eight years further strengthens her position as a female politician, especially in this race. This is not only one of her most easily accessible qualities that supporters use to justify her taking the presidency, but it also creates feelings of obligation for

other women to stand by her in the race without consideration of her shortcomings.

But let’s make one thing clear: history will be made no matter which candidate takes the presidency this upcoming four-year cycle. Whether that page in the textbook is something to frame is an entirely different story, but it will be a four years to remember nonetheless.

Each front-runner has the potential to mark a new chapter in American presidency history: Hillary being the first female president, Bernie the first

SO YES, I AM A FEMALE, AND I AM A CENTRIST LEANING LEFTWARD. BUT IF I DO END UP VOTING FOR CLINTON, IT WILL NOT BE BECAUSE OF OUR XX CONNECTION

Jewish president, Cruz the first Latino president, and Trump the last president.

Just like Obama, Clinton’s more latent positive qualities and concerning negative aspects are being overshadowed by the constant desire to create change in the nation through a historical presidency. She is a well-educated, objectively qualified candidate with seemingly realistic policies, but also with negative baggage. Her lies about her presence during the Benghazi phonecall, her vote regarding the Iraq War, her position in the Irish Peace process and her private-email server scandal prove that she is a truly is a politician before anything else.

Her integrity is no more intact than the majority of her competitors in the race, and her femininity certainly should not be a factor in excusing her exposed wrongdoings. This is what perpetuates the sexist stereotypes that typically separate male and female candidates and allows for ignorant politicians to step up to power and create turmoil during their time in office.

It is uncertain whether Clinton is truly an ideal presidential candidate; regardless, the expectation for me and other females to support her entirely because of the female connection is naive and counterproductive for American politics.

So yes, I am a female, and I am a centrist leaning leftward. But if I do end up voting for Clinton, it will not be because of our XX connection, but because she proves herself to be no worse than her fellow front-runners.

After all, this is politics. e

SPECIAL / 25

Down at THE ranch

McClellan ranch’s constant additions add character STORY BY SHARON TUNG ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DANIEL LIN PHOTOS BY NEHA PATCHIPALA

M

CCLELLAN RANCH HAS REMAINED a constant in the lives of Cupertino residents. Many of the features remain the same from when it opened as a ranch in 1930s, but new additions have been added throughout the years. Modern improvements include an environmental education center, renovated blacksmith shop and volunteer developments at the 4-H club. With the current upgrades, the city hopes not to only educate its citizens about the advancements in natural science, but also the history of the city.

Alongside the other historical structures at the ranch, the Environmental Education Center stands out as a building of definite modernity. Barbara Banfield, who works for the Recreation and Community Services Department, said McClellan Ranch has had environmental education programs since 1976, originally held in a 20-feet by 20-feet garage. However, the small space couldn’t support all the kids on rainy days and the

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building size limited the number of kids the programs can accept.

In 2004, the department received a grant for a new building, but only enough for an uninsulated, prefabricated metal building.

After waiting for the Cupertino City Council to give more funds, McClellan Ranch now has a more advanced building.

“It’s beautiful, it’s attractive,” Banfield said. “It’s better for the environment [than the original 2004 plan], because it’s a wellinsulated building, which means it stays cool.”

The new V-shaped building can channel rainwater on both sides and features solar panels on the roof. The department hopes to add in a rain-capture system soon.

“The environment center is so nice to have,” Cupertino resident Julie Feldman said. “That’s key, because my whole family comes and uses it, learns, and is educated about the area.”

The whole park serves as a nature escape

TOP: The ranch has revamped its environmental center. Not only is it advanced, but its is also better for the environment as its is well insulated and uses solar panels.

BOTTOM RIGHT: The enviromental center hosts activities for children that come on fieldtrips. in a suburban town.

“I think if you were interacting with nature, you can come to appreciate it more and maybe be more respectful of it,” Feldman said. “I know my children have a greater appreciation for nature having this so close to them and access this so quickly. We can walk here a long time.” e

A&E

e

Reforging history STORY BY ZACH SANCHEZ

Barbara Banfield works at the ranch in the Recreation and Community Services Department.

The ranch has recently undergone new renovations.

The McClellan Ranch blacksmith shop might appear to be just another new addition to the Preserve, but any long-time patron of the park will tell you otherwise.

Not only has it remained in the space as an abandoned 19th-century-style shack for the better part of the last 30 years, but according to Banfield, it holds an interesting tale of Cupertino’s history.

Originally, the shop was much bigger, built in the 1880s and located on the crossroads of Stevens Creek and De Anza Boulevard. Established by Philadel-

phia blacksmith William Baer, it became the focal point for metalworking projects in the area, particularly wagon repair.

“When the first Model Ts came, they were kind of motorized wagons in a way,” Banfield said. “They had the same kind of springs old wagons had, and so a blacksmith became the natural spot where they might bring things like that to repair.”

Over time, the shop grew into a garage where the Baer family could fix cars and other machines, but after its founder died, the site gave way to a more modern gas station.

“His son, Charlie Baer, wanted to save a lot of the tools,” said Banfield. “He was interested in preserving the old stuff, but he needed the space for more modern uses. So he built a replica smaller-scale shop on his property.”

After Charlie died, there was little that could be done to preserve the replica, but the City of Cupertino did manage to purchase the antique tools which now adorn the interior of the McClellan Blacksmith shop at an auction.

When it came to the modern renovations,

the city was slower to act, as Banfield said: “I’ve been working here for 30 years.

When I first came, local blacksmithing organizations used to meet here and share techniques. We had demonstrations sometimes for the public. But then, when [the shop] needed a roof, that was probably 23 or 24 years ago, the building department said, ‘You know, this isn’t up to modern earthquake code.’ So they [thought], ‘Let’s wait on the roof.’ They kept just putting blue tarps [over the top]. It took a lot of money to restructure [the building], and what they decided to do is put plywood on the outside of the existing walls and put siding with the same dimensions as the original… now, we’re hoping to get approval to fire up the forge.”

Banfield added that most likely public demonstrations will be held soon once the shop is fully up and running, and as the side paneling becomes weathered, hopefully the shop will look as it did all those years ago when it operated under the Baer family. e

A & E / 27

Nurturing NATURE

BY NEHA PATCHIPALA

The smell of manure lingers in the air as the sounds of goats, cows and horses cut through the dull din of car engines that surrounds McClellan Ranch. The smell and sounds are what volunteers of the 4-H organization experience every time they set foot onto the ranch’s farm.

Rakhay Burtzliaff, a junior at Lynbrook High School has been volunteering through 4-H, a youth organization that focuses on four main areas: hands, heart, head and health, components that are essential to 4-H. The club is also involved in a diverse number of projects, ranging from activities like sewing and beekeeping. “[You can] be hands on with animals, crafting projects like bird housing and bees,” Burtzliaff said. “Basically it’s just a way to introduce the youth to the older [aspects] of livestock.”

Once you surpass 18, you are no longer allowed raise an animal or do any of the projects because it is a purely youth project.

However, if one is still interested they can still continue the project as an adult.

For the past seven years, Burtzliaff has been taking care of the pigs that live on the farm. This year however, she has transitioned

her when she leaves the farm. “[4-H] teaches you a lot of things, even if you’re not interested in animals. They have pubic speaking classes, they have sewing and cooking and things like that” said

“You just develop a bond that you wouldn’t get elsewhere.”

Junior Rakhay Burtzliaff

to raising the market cows, which are sold at the Santa Clara County Fair after being nurtured for eight months.

“Taking care of animals such as these, particularly the cattle, they take two times a day” Burtzliaff said. “You just develop a kind of bond that you wouldn’t get elsewhere.”

But even those who do not enjoy being around animals can find a place at the farm. Junior Alicia Marzoff, who volunteers for 4-H, feels that what she has learned from the organization stays with

EL ESTOQUE 28 / EL ESTOQUE / APRIL 2016

Marzoff. “It definitely helps you … be a better citizen... [When I buy] meat at the store… I know the work that goes into it and it really makes me appreciate things more.”

Marzoff’s mother wanted her to get involved with community service and gave her a choice - either join 4-H or start volunteering with Girl Scouts. She picked 4-H on the pretense that she would be able to work with animals.

Along with leading projects, Marzoff teaches younger

children how to care for horses, chickens and cows. These animals are usually sold for meat at the fair and in return the sellers get money.

“It’s sort of like how typical farming would work” said Marzoff.

e

BOTTOM LEFT: McClellan Ranch is home to a variety of plant specimens, from wild poppies to California sycamores. With over 100 species of wildlife on the farm, today the once-horse-ranch serves as a natural preserve.

BOTTOM RIGHT: The 4-H organization supports many of the programs taking place on the farm, namely caring for the animals and tending to its land. However, 4-H has started a beekeeping project to boost their bee population.

Photo used with permission of Nadia Berndt

Popular culture

Thoughts on class office elections through Wicked’s ‘Popular’

P

EOPLE WEARING PURPLE AND GOLD They were popular! clothes, purple and gold face paint, and holding purple and gold posters The truth of the situation was that the on sticks with catchy slogans; this is what amount of face paint I wore wasn’t going to students now see all around campus. But help me win. If students didn’t want to vote as much attention as the posters draw, they for me because I wasn’t popular and didn’t really don’t make a difference in who wins. really have any particular interest in trying to True; those in class office are intelligent be popular, then no amount of campaigning and spirited students who are great at would make them vote for me. I’m sure what they do. But the that inserting the words “VOTE elections themselves?

FOR ME!!” into every conversation Nothing more than a wouldn’t have made them any fonder popularity contest. of me either.

In middle school, I My campaign video ended up ran for student council being more of a talk with the school twice. And in eighth than a campaign video. My ultimate grade, I ran for MVHS’ goal in this video? To cut it with all class office. I still the self-promo.

ILENA PENG have all my campaign “I’m not the candidate that does videos on my computer the most campaigning and I won’t MUSICAL MUSINGS and watching them is waste this speech talking about rather cringeworthy. why I’m nice and responsible and Not because of my what not. We’re all amazing; the point of slouching posture or the fact that I hate campaigning isn’t to get in your face all the the way my voice sounds on camera, but time and make everything sound better than because of my words. As a naive sixth and it is. Besides, I know you’re all sick of seeing seventh grader, I listened to the teachers posters everywhere.” when they told me that I should sell myself Still clichéd, but I’ll just say it was in my campaign video — put myself in the censored since we had to submit a paper best light possible. copy of all of our speeches to the teachers.

“I am organized, cheerful, encouraging, determined, energetic and dependable.”

Please - It’s all about popular!

That may as well be the most egotistical phrase to have ever come out of my mouth.

I remember being very “I have never been tardy or delayed and tempted to start my speech am rarely absent.” Well, I’m sure students by saying “Hey, I bet you’re cared a whole lot about my attendance. not watching this. And I bet that you checked off Did they have brains or knowledge? the names of all your Don’t make me laugh! friends on that paper in front of you. We all know And what all students know is that this is a popularity contest.” those elections are based off of little more But since this teacher approval thing than popularity. After watching students all existed, I couldn’t really do that. around me fill out those little ballot sheets Looking back, I’m not sure why I wanted before watching any of the videos for two to be in class office at all. I loved being a years of elections, I gave up on those cheesy part of the school, yet I hated the fact that campaign videos. I refused to campaign, to look like you loved the school you had saving for four 8.5 x 11 inch posters. to dress up for every spirit day. So when I Throughout the entire campaign week, I submitted a video file to be broadcast to had friends that would ask me “why aren’t the school during those middle school daily you campaigning?” And one friend that announcements that we all miss, I knew I asked, “If you aren’t campaigning, how are was going to lose the election. I mean, I was you going to win?” by far the most un-class officer-y, un-school

spirit-y person I knew. I guess class office isn’t exactly right up my alley.

But after watching that video and after the election results were out, I still had a few people coming up to me, telling me that my campaign video really got to them, that my video was honest and truthful. And even though the video would’ve contained a lot more bluntness and honesty if not for the teacher approval requirement, it still proved honest and unconventional enough to resonate with someone.

It’s not about aptitude It’s really not about intelligence anymore.

Yet when voting for your class officers this year, please watch the videos. Don’t just check off the names of all your friends and call it done. I know I’m not alone in thinking that class officer elections are a popularity contest.

There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that either, since everyone running in the first place is more than capable of being a great class officer. But just take a moment to realize that maybe less popular students would be discouraged from running since the elections, after all, just a matter of popularity.

Not much can be done about that — high schoolers revering the “popular” is a decades old stereotype — but if you’re going to make elections a popularity contest, at least watch the videos so you can pretend you voted for your best friend because they had an effective campaign. e

ILENA PENG l EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION

EL ESTOQUE

A & E / 29

Playing in a different key Instruments help students connect to their culture STORY BY ADA CHEN AND GRACE ZHOU PHOTO AND GRAPHICS BY ILENA PENG

P

iano, violin, trumpet, cello — these are the instruments we typically hear of as we walk down the halls of MVHS. But the students of MVHS, a mixture of many different cultural

Living in harmonium

and ethnic groups, bring more to the table than just these few instruments. Three students who play unique instruments discuss how their music has brought them closer to their cultures.

Ever since she was four, sophomore Anoop Kaur has played the vaja, also known as the harmonium. The vaja is traditionally played during Sikh worship services, in which religious shabbads (songs) are sung along to the melody of the vaja. It resembles a small piano, but instead of pumping the pedals with one’s feet, the pedals are pumped with their hands on the back of the harmonium, while sitting on the ground.

Even though Kaur initially didn’t want to play the vaja, and, as she puts it, would rather be “doing normal things,” the vaja has grown on her and become a very important part of her life. It has

strengthened her connection to her Indian culture and religion.“When I played the harmonium, I didn’t only play the shabbads,” Kaur said. “I learned about the past priests, and how they played, and how they sacrificed their whole lives for our religion.”

Although Kaur was also introduced to the piano at a young age, she decided that she only wanted to focus on one instrument so that she could achieve full mastery. She ultimately made the decision to quit piano because she felt a closer connection to the vaja.

“By playing the piano, I felt like I was getting distant [from my culture] and the piano was foreign to me, so I just chose the harmonium,” Kaur said. “I feel like with an ethnic instrument, you can gain a special connectivity and it opens more doors for you.”

my daughter to learn this instrument.’”

With its many strings, the gu zheng is similar to a harp. However, it’s played hor izont ally

that means old, and “zheng” represents an onomatopoeia for the sound that the instrument makes. Many of its songs are based on Chinese folklore and history.

So playing the gu zheng also gives Xie exposure to Chinese heritage.

“Right now I’m playing a song based off a true story about two shepherds who were sisters,” Xie said. “This huge snowstorm came, and they risked their lives to save the

Not out of touch Although born to immigrant parents, senior Julianna Xie considers herself very Americanized. However, this doesn’t mean that she’s out of touch with her Chinese heritage. From the time she was six or seven years old, she’s played the gu zheng (Chinese zither). It was her neighbor who first taught her to play.

“My neighbor was actually a guzheng teacher, and one night when we were going trick-or-treating for Halloween, my mom struck up a conversation with her,” Xie said. “She said, ‘I would like

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and has 21 strings instead.

Not surprisingly, the instrument has a Chinese origin. “Gu” is the Chinese character

Destressing with ukulele sheep. They were revered by the government as model citizens because they were able to sacrifice themselves for the good of the government’s sheep. It was kind of funny.”

The story itself is often reflected in the song through changes in tempo, volume, or harmony (or lack thereof).

“During the storm, the music is very chaotic and aggressive,” Xie said. “It’s very loud, there are a lot of notes that don’t really go together, so it’s kind of a creepy noise. But the calm after the storm is really clear as well because all the nice melodies come out then.”

Not only does playing the guzheng bring Xie closer to her Chinese heritage, it also brings her closer to her parents, bridging the generational and cultural gap between them.

“It gives me and my parents something to bond over,” Xie said.

“They moved here when they were thirty, so they’re not that Americanized.

I feel like I’m very Americanized, but then we can bond over gu zheng.”

Junior Cindy Chang started playing the ukulele a year ago, before she moved to the U.S. She was one of many i n Taiwan who had picked up the instrument after a famous singer called Fish Leong used it to perform her song, “Small Hand Holding Big Hand,” in a music video. The song was originally an anime theme song, but the singer had translated it from its original Japanese to Chinese.

The ukulele had become so popular in Taiwan that by the time Chang started middle school, a club had been dedicated to the instrument. Because of popular demand, the school had even hired a teacher specifically to teach students how to play the ukulele. But its widespread popularity caused some unexpected results.

“All of a sudden, this ukulele club was more famous than the orchestra,” Chang said. “In the end, the orchestra couldn’t find enough people because everyone had gone to learn the ukulele, a very simple instrument.”

Because of its sudden surge in popularity, both Chang and her sister were interested in learning to play the ukulele.

They started taking classes together with much younger students to further their interest. Discovering that it was a simple instrument to learn to play, Chang began to move beyond the class, teaching herself and searching for songs she could practice.

However, since she has moved to the U.S., she has spent less and less time playing her ukulele, as her workload and continued to increase. At the time, though, the ukulele was a way for Chang to relax and let go of all the stress she had from studying all the time in Taiwan.

Chang said, “[Playing] the ukulele was very relaxing, and [since] I could play with my younger sister, that made me happy.” e

A & E / 31

E

VERY SO OFTEN, JUNIOR NADIA Berndt can be seen with bloody cuts all over her face, her skin peeling off in a way that would make any who see her do a double take and wince.

While typical high school girls may use light makeup as a part of their daily routines, Berndt uses it as an art medium to transform her face into something else. Using tools like gelatin, silicone and liquid latex, Berndt can make herself become one of the undead.

The application of special effects makeup, otherwise known as FX makeup, is dramatically more timeconsuming than regular makeup, with each look taking Berndt anywhere from two to four hours to complete. However, Berndt still likes it more due to the creative freedom it allows.

“There’s not a lot of wiggle room [in traditional makeup,] you can maybe change up a lip or an eyeshadow color,” Berndt said. “But when you do special effects you can literally change the structure of your entire face, have green skin, or have a really long nose.”

Berndt cites junior Kayla Gottlieb as one of her most supportive friends when it comes to FX makeup. Gottlieb says that Berndt often sends photos of her makeup looks to their group chat and she that she typically reacts to the scary ones by telling Berndt that she hates her. Gottlieb blames a week of nightmares on Berndt after seeing one of Berndt’s gorier makeup looks.

“Blood and gore isn’t really my thing, but it’s still impressive,” Gottlieb said.

Despite the occasional scare that her friends receive from Berndt, they continually support her endeavors.

Junior Jemma Serre is another one of Berndt’s supportive friends. And even though both Gottlieb and Serre don’t consider themselves to be particularly good at makeup or particularly interested in it, both find it very

impressive what Berndt has achieved using nothing more than her face as her canvas.

“It’s really cool… that she’s found that thing she really connects with and that she has that artistic expression with the way that she does her makeup,” Serre said.

Meanwhile, Berndt continues to build on her collection of FX makeup tools and hopes to continue to improve, saying that she’s gotten in touch with a cinematographer to hopefully take her skills and showcase them on a more professional level. And although Berndt might not view special effects makeup as the most realistic career goal, she still considers it to be a true art form.

“You’re basically painting your face and your face is your canvas.” e

Made up of makeup Junior Nadia Berndt defies the boundaries of conventional makeup STORY BY ILENA PENG

Photo used with permission of Nadia Berndt 3 2E/L EELSETSOTQOUQEU E / A P R I L 2 0 1 6

All-stars

SPORTS

Softball team has natural leaders instead of designated captains STORY BY MAYA MURTHY AND SANJANA MURTHY

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Lee, who has been playing on the varsity very high school softball game than through any form of hierarchy.

“Everyone kind of has their own thing,” softball team since her freshman year. starts with a meeting at home plate: two coaches, two players and an Huang said. “Some sophomores already help Whether it’s answering a younger player’s questions or introducing new players to the umpire, deciding which side will bat first me like they’re captains.”

The lack of captain is uncommon, but team’s longstanding warmup traditions, she and agreeing to a clean game. Usually, the players are captains, representatives of the Teixeira chooses to structure his team this sees her assuming the role of captain as akin way to prevent players from deferring to to fulfilling her responsibility to the team: team they lead.

MVHS is an exception, and a successful captains in situations where they themselves it’s something that she was simply expected to do. one at that. The player at home plate before could take control.

“Especially when you’re a senior, each game is usually a senior, casually it’s important to take initiative and called to join coach Ray Teixeira as he “This helps balance things out help lead the team,” Lee said. “Once walks to meet his counterpart from [and] makes it less intimidating for the younger players get to know the opposing side. And yet, despite not having any formalized captain, underclassmen because everyone how the team functions, they can take on the same role when they’re softball maintains a unique level of is seen as equal.” seniors.” cohesion, with older players dividing Not having labels or definitions the duties of captain while providing senior Marissa Lee can be seen as scary and unclear, support to younger ones. but the softball team uses it to their “[Seniors] tend to step forward “Once you establish captains, then peo- advantage, allowing the process of having and take the role and try to motivate and ple just wait for that person to make a deci- leaders to be organic and fluid instead. encourage the rest of them,” Teixeira said.

“This helps balance things out [and] According to freshman Molly Huang, sion,” Teixeira said. “Now, everyone’s going makes it less intimidating for underclassmen there are clear people, sophomores and to lead at some point in time.”

Among the players who have established because everyone is seen as equal,” Lee seniors alike, in positions of leadership whom she can turn to if she needs help. And a natural leadership role is senior Marissa said. e sometimes, players become mentors due to convenience: because Huang doesn’t have a seventh period, she simply sought help from MVHS softball team celebrates with a huddle on home plate. The players who shared her free period, rather

team had a walk-off win against Piedmont Hills on March 25.

Sanjana Murthy | El Estoque

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SPORTS / 35

BREATHLESS Student athletes overcome asthma to stay in sport activities

T

STORY BY KAREN MA AND RENEE PU PHOTOS BY JUSTIN KIM managed to hold him tightly around his

HE REFEREE SAW HIM ON the brink of losing his breath and called the match.

His condition forced him to bow out, resulting in a loss for Kennedy Middle School, an end to his goal of being undefeated and an overwhelming feeling of shame.

It was an intense moment during the match when his opponent

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of, I needed to get used to breathing slightly neck. For an instant, neither breathing nor differently, just knowing that I had less lung capacity that I could speaking seemed possible. work with.”

“I couldn’t continue,” he said, When you’re Crouch’s asthma recalling the dreadful experience.

For wrestler and football asthmatic, there took an even larger toll on his wrestling player senior Eric Crouch and are moments abilities.

Though asthmatics worldwide, being an there aren’t any legal athlete is perhaps the situation when you can chokeholds that result that is the most impacted by no longer push in the constriction of asthma in various forms of oxygen, and the impact exercise and activities. yourself any of asthma on Crouch In first grade, Crouch was further... I’m has dwindled overtime, diagnosed with exercise-induced he still occasionally asthma. According to the Mayo starting to see finds himself to have Clinic, this particular form of trouble breathing. asthma is the narrowing black at the In a survey of airways in the lungs edge of my eyes; conducted from 323 triggered by exercise, people, 29 percent to different extents. this is no longer of athletes have been In elementary safe for me. diagnosed with asthma school, Crouch had at some point in their experienced regular SENIOR lives, and 75 percent of asthma attacks.

ERIC CROUCH asthmatics claim that “It got bad enough that the staff their asthma does not drastically hamper at the principal’s their lifestyle. Sophomore Rythm Matharu is office actually a part of the other 25 percent, as the weight knew me pretty of having asthma continues to manifest itself well in elementary in her everyday life. She was diagnosed in school,” Crouch the middle of seventh grade and not much said. “I would has changed since then.

“Every time I want to even try running have problems just running for a short period, I have to take my inhaler,” around in Matharu said. “Otherwise, I can’t really do the field and it. I can run for maybe like, half a room, and suddenly I would stop then just get extremely out of breath.”

One attack happened just last year, being able to breathe.”

As the years passed, during a soccer match on a scorching day. his asthma attacks became The symptoms began in the middle of the less frequent. Instead of game. Matharu found it difficult to breathe, experiencing attacks caused by found herself unable to continue. Shaking, his everyday activities, due to she sought her inhaler. She ended up going to his cardiovascular development, the doctor that night to conduct a breathing Crouch only felt the effects of treatment, where she was given a strong the respiratory condition at times dose of inhaler and the instruction to miss of severe athletic strain. In high school for a couple days.

On the other hand, for junior Bryce school, Crouch took on football; with the brutality and hardship McNeil, who was diagnosed with asthma of the sport itself also came the at birth, the condition’s effects have made discomfort and inconvenience of a smaller impact on his ability to participate in sports. His case of illness-induced the equipment.

“It’s a very defined constriction asthma only affects him when he’s sick, around your chest,” Crouch said, still, however, making longer exertion while “and so for me, that was a matter playing sports more difficult.

A cross country race in seventh grade was his first and only time experiencing of an asthma attack an asthma attack Wheezing, shortness of that prevented him from finishing the breath, chronic cough race. Now, when and chest tightness he plays soccer, there are times when the effects asthmatic, there are significantly worse than usual — tightening of the chest, are moments when difficulty to breathe — but his inhaler can you can no longer control and mitigate its effects. However, push yourself further. the fact that his asthma can usually be any controlled doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect [It’s] that I can’t him, and certainly doesn’t mean there are breathe, and I’m starting to see black no mental obstacles that come with it.

“When I did cross country, it was at the edge of my sometimes kind of depressing,” McNeil said, eyes; and I know that “like, the one time it happens, to just not be the game is no longer safe for me.” e able to finish a race.”

Although there are no direct impacts to Matharu emotionally, she acknowledges

Symptoms

Bronchus During an asthma attack, airways swell and fill with mucus, causing inflammation that having a somewhat extreme case of asthma has made it challenging for her to pursue numerous activities in her life.

“It’s more difficult to play sports and to do things that you want to,” Matharu said. “You constantly have to have [an inhaler] on you, because there’s the fear of getting an asthma attack during practices and games.”

For these athletes, having to deal with the various extents of the chronic respiratory condition on top of everything else that comes with high school is tough. And while the condition occasionally spurs up feelings of shame, disappointment and melancholy, those diagnosed won’t let it define them, and continue their fight against asthma — whether they like it or not.

“There’s this thing in wrestling [when] you’re so proud of yourself because you’ve done something that was hard and you had never thought you could do before,” Crouch said. “When you’re

RENEE PU l EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION

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On the Right Track

Custodian Thomas Orsua’s journey from high school athlete to custodian, then track coach

STORY BY HANNAN WALIULLAH

I

t’s 3:15p.m.

Custodian Thomas Orsua turns in his radio, rides his white cart to the cafeteria, throws away the trash he collected during the day and signs out. He’s done with his shift for the day. But instead of climbing into his car and heading home, Orsua shifts gears and heads to the locker room to change for his second job.

Now, he’s on the open field, timing, training and encouraging students to improve their personal records.

Photo by Hannan Waliullah Custodian Thomas Orsua rides his cart to the cafetria for rounds afterschool . He then heads to the locker room to coach Track & Field.

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Photo used with permission of Thomas Orsua Thomas Orsua. Custodian by morning, sprints and relays coach by mid-afternoon.

But Orsua’s track story doesn’t begin here. It begins 50 years before, 1964, in Sunnyvale High School (now King’s Academy), where he was a track star.

Alongside him during track meets were his older brother Joey Orsua and his younger brother Charlie Orsua.

Due to Joey Orsua’s prominence on the track team, Thomas and Charlie Orsua joined the cross country team before the 1964 school year began, practicing with the team during preseason practices before even entering high school. During track meets, his brothers would encourage him to beat his competitors and set new records.

“We all helped each other. When Joey was running, Charlie and I were at different corners of the track telling him what’s going on, telling him to start his kick, or telling him other little things,” Thomas said. “He would do the same thing when I was running my race and we would do the same thing to Charlie when he was running his.”

In his freshman year, Thomas took home gold in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) 880m. For sophomore year, he ran the 880m again, taking home the gold in both the SCVAL and CCS. Junior year, he set the mile record for Sunnyvale High School. Then, in senior year, he fell off the radar.

He’d found a girl.

“I started dating. Girls got in the way,” he said. “My coach took me aside my senior year and told me that I had a scout looking at me when I was a junior, and if I had

“[My coach] told me that I had a scout looking at me when I was a junior, and if I had continued running well my senior year as I did my previous three, I probably would have got a scholarship to go someplace.”

THOMAS ORSUA continued running well my senior year as I did my previous three, I probably would have got a scholarship to go someplace.”

But Thomas didn’t do so well, and that was the end of his career as the star of the track team.

After graduating high school, Thomas went to college, but instead of going to college on a scholarship, Thomas enrolled at De Anza College.

After a year, De Anza wasn’t working out for him, so Orsua entered the workforce.

Eight years ago, he began working as a custodian at MVHS after transferring from Fremont High School. For years, Orsua would clock in at 7:15 a.m. for his job, have a 15 minute break, continue his job, have a 30 minute lunch break, proceed with his job,

have a 15 minute break, finish his job then clock out.

But a few months ago, Orsua received an email.

“There was an email that came through and they said they were looking for an assistant coach for sprints and relays,” Orsua said. “And I thought well, I did that in high school so maybe I’ll give it a try.”

It was an opportunity for Orsua to share what he had learned and experienced in his high school career. But he soon learned that there was a lot more to it than just having the previous track experience.

“I had to take some courses on coaching fundamentals, from the California Interscholastic Federation, I had to be familiar with all the articles and bylaws with their constitution,” Orsua said.

“I finished those two courses, took a course on concussions, I’ll be taking a course on cardiac arrest and then I’ll be taking a first aid class.”

It was Mar. 22, the first home meet of the season. As one of the fastest runners passed by, Orsua cheered loudly. Although Orsua was cheering for the person in the lead, he was also watching the other MVHS competitors.

“I want to learn everybody’s name, know what events they’re in, and eventually know their times,” Orsua said, “so I can talk to them and be a little specific, rather than

“Even though he doesn’t really say much, he always there to say good job, with a smile and everything.”

Sophomore Andrea Chang

Photo by Hannan Waliullah Coach Thomas Orsua times his athletes during all their track meets and practices. One of the his goals this season is to learn everyones times. being general about it. I’m getting closer to reaching this goal.”

Orsua is constantly learning. He calls himself a rookie coach, admitting that sometimes, some of the older students know more than he does, but he observes head coach Kirk Flatow. Orsua notices the way Flatow rallies all the kids at the beginning of

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practice, the way he coaches the students, the way he pinpoints weaknesses in even the best of athletes.

“He’s just really supportive,” Sophomore Andrea Chang said. “Even though he doesn’t really say much, he always there to say good job, with a smile and everything.”

Since becoming a coach, Orsua has learned about the amount of organization that goes into each track meet. When he was in high school, the only thing that mattered to him was his own race. But now, Orsua appreciates the volunteers that quickly set up the hurdles, the announcer who runs around with a microphone reminding athletes of upcoming events and even the people whose job it is to make sure the track is clear.

Despite the realization that not every student is going to win and that he has to stay at school for up to four or five hours extra, Orsua can’t imagine letting his job go.

“Every coach is different in some way.

There are the coaches that always push you really hard and always tell you ‘Do better next time’, and there are coaches that tell you ‘yeah, you did really really good,’” Track and Field athlete freshman Evelyn How said. “Coach Tom [Orsua] is like that, he sometimes doesn’t tell you what to improve on, but he just encourages you.”

After this year, Orsua hopes to retire from his job as a custodian and continue coaching track. He also wants to call up his older brother to encourage him to become a track coach.

Although Orsua didn’t continue his track career in college, he wants to encourage them to use their athletic ability to help them propel academic careers, imagining how different life would have been had he been recruited to a college track team.

“I wouldn’t have been here right now. I might’ve gotten married and had a couple of divorces by now, or [I could have been] involved in some sort of corporation zooming to the top and all of a sudden crashed and fell, and I would have been trying to look for another job,” Orsua said.

“But now that I’ve gotten to this part of [my career], I’m glad that I’ve done it.” e

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TAKE A WALK Find out about the best hiking spots near MVHS STORY BY KALPANA GOPALKRISHNAN GRAPHICS BY MINGJIE ZHONG

MISSION PEAK Fremont 21.7 miles from MVHS In one word: Hilly -according to sophomore Ellen Li In ten words: Six mile round

trip hike with iconic pole at summit

STANFORD DISH Stanford 13.3 miles from MVHS In one word: Crowded -according to junior Vanshika Desai In ten words: Paved trails

around radio telescope with moderate hills and views

FREMONT OLDER PORTOLA REDWOODS La Honda 20.1 miles from MVHS In one word: Green

-according to junior Scott Gregory

In ten words: Heavily forested, secluded state park with numerous creeks and waterfalls

38 / EL ESTOQUE / APRIL 2016

Cupertino 4.2 miles from MVHS In one word: Concealed -according to senior Aaron Chen In ten words: Easily accessible dirt trails of varying difficulty with panoramic views

THE TIME I

forgot my equipment

Adults and students at MVHS tell the tale of forgetting gear for an event STORY BY EMMA LAM

ADULTS CAN FORGET Students aren’t the only ones who forget items, adults forget too. Varsity badminton coach Evan Blomquist remembers that in high school, he would forget his racquets.

“My dad had several times when he would [drive] to bring my racquet to matches,” Blomquist said. “It’s one of the most horrible feelings, [you’re] like ‘I have a game today and I don’t have equipment!’”

As Blomquist puts it, forgetting equipment is a “gut wrenching feeling,” because not only are you letting yourself down, but your team down as well. Blomquist recalls when he had forgotten his racquet, teammates would ask if he wanted to borrow one.

As a coach, Blomquist knows that forgetting equipment can be stressful. Blomquist makes sure to bring spare racquets to every game, so if MVHS players forget, they can just grab one.

And the next time you forget your racquet, Blomquist has some advice.

“Don’t panic, and figure out a solution more than worrying,” Blomquist said.

A MIRACLE Freshman Anjali Thontakudi went to Lynbrook High School for a cross country meet that was about 2.1 miles around the school. She had packed her bag ahead of time and began the warm ups with her teammates. After her warm up, she reached into her bag, only to find that she didn’t have her running shoes.

Just her pink sneakers.

Thontakudi still wears the shoes with pride, around campus and everywhere she goes.

But running is a different story.

“I was positive I had my running shoes in my bag,” Thontakudi said. “I started to have a bit of a panic attack.”

She asked around for an extra pair of running shoes; one of her friends gave her a pair. They were the exact same model as the new running shoes she had bought; brand new running shoes that had yet to be worn.

“It just so happens that [they were] only half a size smaller than mine and they fit. they were just a bit tight,” Thontakudi said.

Thontakudi ran the meet with relief and immediately returned the shoes when it ended.

“Coach was like ‘who forgot their running shoes?’” Thontakudi said. “We never explicitly told him [but] I think he guessed it.”

STOLEN She had never thought her shoes would mean so much to her, until a moment of crisis occurred.

For sophomore Mayumi Tabungar’s first semester final for PE dance, she had to get ready for the showcase in which she was performing.

“I thought I had my shoes and then all of a sudden, I realized that ‘Oh they aren’t at home,’” Tabungar said.

Tabungar hoped her shoes were in her locker as she walked to school; when she arrived, her locker was open.

“My locker was open and my shoes were gone,” Tabungar said, “which means someone stole my shoes.”

Tabungar had to grab a pair of dance shoes from the lost and found pile, which ended up being too small for her feet.

She bought a new pair of shoes; She got a 100 percent on her final, yet she still feels resentment towards the person who stole her shoes.

“If you’re out there, buy me new shoes,” Tabungar said.

LOSING IT ALL Sophomore Sharjeel Rahman was sure he packed his bag completely before his soccer game. His game was at a far off location; Rahman woke up late. He hurried into his car, hoping he wouldn’t be late, seeing as how he was the team’s only goalie.

It wasn’t until he stepped out of the car that he realized he had forgotten everything at home.

“I forgot my soccer bag, which had everything in them,” Rahman said. “My cleats, my goalie gloves [and] my sandals.”

Rahman had to tell his coach, who called him an idiot.

“At that moment, I was screwed, because I was the only goalie on our team,” Rahman said.

He was too far to head back home, so Rahman had to improvise. The team was already losing 2-1, and the first half was over.

His team had been doing their best without their goalie, but it just wasn’t working.

Rahman had to borrow cleats from his coach which were too big and he played goalie without gloves.

“I felt great, because I had saved us from losing the game,” Rahman said. e

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