Volume 44, Issue 6, March 12, 2014 by El Estoque

el ESTOQUE CANCER ISN’T A MONTA VISTA HIGH SCHOOL ELESTOQUE.ORG

MARCH 12, 2014 ISSUE VI, VOLUME XLIV

SIMPLE

STORY. So we’ll let these students’ experiences do the talking instead. 25 SPECIAL REPORT

Contents NEWS 4

Community support for veterans

Students compete in Intel competition

8 11

LGBTQ community combats ignorance COLUMN: Little Lessons

OPINION 12

Support needed beyond academics

More transparency in sports tryouts

Text speak not a destructive force

COLUMN: No Monkey Business

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 18

Asian underrepresentation in comedy

Evolution of text speak

“

COLUMN: Out of the Blue

Tryouts: Spring sports

Pressure to make varsity

CANCER

Catherine Lockwood| El Estoque

— THE ILLNESS, THE WORD, THE EXPERIENCE — IS UBIQUITOUS

Class unity in foreign language

SPORTS 33

Elia Chen | El Estoque

Amrutha Dorai and Kathleen Yuan | El Estoque Photo Illustration

Boys volleyball tryout process

Tryouts at the club level

SPORTSFLASH

SPECIAL REPORT page 25

Colin Ni | El Estoque

ESTOQUE

21840 McClellan Road Cupertino, CA 95014 mv.el.estoque@gmail.com

Letter from the editor

Editor-in-Chief: Amrutha Dorai Managing Editors: Karen Feng, Jennifer Lee, Athira Penghat, Yashashree Pisolkar Photo Editors: Catherine Lockwood, Colin Ni Copy Editors: Tanisha Dasmunshi, Pranav Parthasarathy Webmaster: Ashish Samaddar News Editors: Maya Murthy, Joyce Varma, Varsha Venkat Sports Editors: Nathan Desai, Mihir Joshi, Sarah Ramos Entertainment Editors: Anjali Bhat, Neesha Venkatesan, Kathleen Yuan Opinion Editors: Ambika Dubey, Daniel Fernandez, Eva Spitzen Special Report Editors: Yuna Lee, Namrata Ramani, Yifei Wu Design Editor: Rhonda Mak Graphics Editor: Shuyi Qi Business Editors: Elia Chen, Robert Sulgit Public Relations Editor: Claire Lu Staff Writers: Alina Abidi, Rochish Ambati, Ashmita Chakraborty, Kristin Chang, Elliot Ki, Colin Kim, Christine Liang, Steven Lim, Alaina Lui, Gabriella Monico, Amol Pande, Neha Ramchandani, Manasa Sanka, Lydia Seo, Ruba Shaik, Harini Shyamsundar, Sophia Tao, Joshua Tsuei, Jady Wei Adviser: Michelle Balmeo Credits Some images in this publication were taken from the stock photography website sxc.hu. 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.

PLATITUDES These are a few of the phrases that came up in our brainstorm for the cover. They all felt wrong; clichés cannot capture the impact of actually experiencing cancer. We released these mock covers online. See them all and more at elestoque.tumblr.com.

HERE ARE A FEW NUMBERS:

f 161 surveyed students, 68 percent said that at least one of their relatives or friends has been diagnosed with cancer. One in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer sometime in their lifetime. When we sent an email to the student body asking whether anyone would be willing to share their experiences with cancer, 15 students came forward. And that’s only the number of students who opened up to us; there are no doubt countless others who continue to carry the weight of their experiences in silence. These numbers are frightening and overwhelming. They reveal the prevalence of this disease, which we often fail to discuss outside the confines of Biology classrooms, on our own campus. But these numbers are also reductive: There’s no way digits can capture how junior Nicholas Egan felt when his father succumbed to lung cancer in 2006, or how senior Emma Lewis felt when her friend passed away from acute lymphocytic leukemia five years ago, or how junior Lavanya Rajpal feels every single day as she fights the cancer that has struck her for a second time. Numbers are simple. Numbers are streamlined. But only stories can capture the complexities of our experiences. We as a staff pride ourselves on being storytellers. We recognize that a well-told story is more

than just words on a piece of paper, that it can be catharsis and therapy and a uniAMRUTHA DORAI fier all at once. We recognize also that this — our special report on cancer at this school, which starts on page 25 — is one of the most important stories we’ve told. In our staff editorial on page 12, we propose the establishment of support groups for students struggling through challenging times. When 68 percent of us are touched by cancer, why do we continue to suffer alone? We hope the stories we present here will serve as the first step in the process of forging a more connected student body. Our goal with this issue — and we recognize that this is a cliché — is to remind you that you are not alone. Clichés came up a lot in our brainstorm for the cover of this magazine. We struggled trying to think of a string of words that would encapsulate what it means to go through cancer, or to have a loved one go through cancer. It seems obvious now that it was a futile task: You can’t distill something like that into a few syllables, just like you can’t distill something like that into a few numerals. Cancer is not a simple story. These students’ experiences aren’t either. a.dorai@elestoque.org

MARCH 12, 2014

NEWS

help from the

HOMEFRONT A rise in awareness about veterans affairs leads to community involvement BY HARINI SHYAMSUNDAR

he Cupertino Veterans Memorial is large and ovular, surrounded in almost every direction by granite walls. In the glow of the floor lights, the white text of the engravings — emblazoned across almost every available surface, each bearing names of lost war heroes — stands out. Bricks and stones mark the path around the enormous, dark statue in the middle of the expanse — a statue called “The Guardians,” depicting fallen Navy SEAL and Class of 1994 MVHS Alumnus Matthew Axelson, as well as James Suh, who fought alongside him.

Colin Ni | El Estoque

EL ESTOQUE

Nine years ago, this memorial was nonexistent. In its place stood a small flagpole with a little bronze plaque fastened into the cement by its base, which read: “To honor veterans.” When Axelson was shot and killed in 2005 during a firefight in his mission Operation Red Wings, his family was shaken. However, while the loss of Axelson was devastating to the family, it also enabled Donna Axelson, Axelson’s mother, to gain a new perspective on the importance of Bay Area veterans affairs. “I think when you lose a family member

heard about the opportunity from her family friend, a doctor there, and she was intrigued. “I knew almost immediately that I wanted to do it,” Rao said. “I told all of my friends, trying to get as many people involved and interested as I could.” As a volunteer, she transported veterans to and from different parts of the hospital, learning a great deal about their experiences and attitudes. “I remember this one veteran who really stood out to me,” Rao said. “I’ll probably never forget this conversation. He was so happy and jovial, cracking all of these jokes,

“NON SIBI SED PATRIAE”

NOT FOR SELF BUT COUNTRY U.S. Navy

or someone close to you who’s been in the military, holidays like Memorial Day, or the Fourth of July or Veterans Day start to take on a new meaning,” Donna said. “It becomes more than just a generic holiday — it has a personal aspect to it because you really have this connection to what it stands for.” In the span of two years, Donna and several other volunteers arranged for and oversaw the construction of the entire Cupertino Veterans Memorial, located in Cupertino’s Memorial Park to honor the lives of American veterans. The park has since become a key part of the framework of Memorial Park. And Donna has since only further integrated herself into the Bay Area veteran community, making it a priority to spread awareness. Every year, Donna and her family hold a golf tournament to support veterans in the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club, the same golf club where Matthew worked as a senior in high school. Beyond family ties The rise in the Bay Area’s awareness of veterans affairs has gained the appreciation and involvement of not only those with close ties to a military personnel, but also of students and adults without friends and family who serve. In an El Estoque survey of 161 students, 12 percent stated that they are somehow involved with the honoring and appreciation of veterans in the Bay Area. During the summer before her sophomore year, junior Krithika Rao spent over 100 hours volunteering in the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. She first MARCH 12, 2014

and then suddenly he told me that he was going to die soon. And it was just so amazing because he didn’t seem upset at all, and it made me realize how satisfied he felt about his life.” High school students such as Rao are not the only Bay Area residents getting involved with veterans’ welfare. Adults like Cupertino resident Robert Hebson are gaining satisfaction from participating in the cause as well. Hebson is an active member of EHC LifeBuilders, a Santa Clara County organization whose focus is to provide housing and other such auxiliary services to impoverished and homeless Bay Area veterans in order to promote stable lifestyles. Part of Hebson’s responsibilities often includes serving lunch to the veterans. “They really don’t say much,” Hebson said. “They’re quiet — shell-shocked, you might say. You can see in their expressions just how much they’ve been through.” His work with the EHC LifeBuilders has made him appreciate veterans’ sacrifices in a way that he had not before getting involved with the cause. “It feels really good to do something for the [veterans],” Hebson said. “Because they really do so much for us.” ‘Lone Survivor’ The influence of veterans affairs in the Bay Area community is not only limited to student and organization-based initiatives, but has also extended to the media. On Dec. 25, 2013, Peter Berg released “Lone Survivor,” a film which takes a very personal approach to recounting Axelson and his fellow SEALs’ story.

Besides opening to generally positive reviews, the movie, a wartime film based on Marcus Luttrell’s 2007 novel of the same name, also significantly contributed to the veterans cause. Throughout the filming process, Berg worked hard to ensure that the film was both accurate and profound in its portrayal of the SEALs. Just a few weeks before the filming was to take place, Berg invited the families of the fallen SEALs to Albuquerque to meet the actors who were going to play them. “I actually had a chance to meet Ben Foster, who plays Matthew,” Donna said. To read “ Alumnus gives life for U.S.A.,” a 2006 article about Matthew Axelson, visit elestoque.org

To get more involved in helping our veterans... Volunteer at veterans affairs facilities like the Palo Alto Health Care System. Send a care package through an organization like Operation Mom. Volunteer at homeless shelters such as InnVision. Help out at Quilts of Valor, which provides quilts for veterans “[My family and I] spent several evenings with him, and we were able to tell him a bit about who Matthew was. When Ben portrayed Matthew’s character, he did a really phenomenal job giving it that personal touch — it makes all the difference.” Donna hopes that the film’s message will give rise to more awareness and appreciation for the sacrifices that veterans make for the nation, and spark involvement the same way it has for her and others in the Bay Area. h.shyamsundar@elestoque.org 5

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NEWS

the making of an

“My dad is a physicist, and my mom is an electrical engineer,” senior Natalie Ng said. “We talk about science and are interested in science news;... I guess there is this scientific aura that surrounds our family.”

BY CATHERINE LOCKWOOD

For the Intel Science Talent Search essay that asked who influenced him the most, senior Nishant Jain wrote about his father, saying he encouraged him to question at a young age.

The Intel Science Talent Search is a national competition for high school seniors in which 300 of the participants become semifinalists and 40 advance as finalists. This year, four MVHS students were named Intel semifinalists, and two made it to the finals. Here, Intel finalist senior Natalie Ng and semifinalist senior Nishant Jain describe their journeys through the field of science.

Jain took a computer programming classes in sixth grade. This was the spark for his project for Intel.

Ng participated in her first science fair in elementary school. She made a geyser with club soda in the first grade. Ng’s father brought her to science fairs at a young age, which sparked her interest in science.

Jain went to his first academic conference, where professional developers and researchers shared their work through lectures, in his sophomore year.

Jain’s first mentor, Dr. William Paul Brown, guided him through his research during his junior year, which he later used for the Intel competition.

Ng worked at the Campbell Lab at Stanford University in seventh grade, where she had the opportunity to research bacterial transformation, but she did not have a mentor working directly with her. As a sophomore, Ng worked at a lab for a company called Ingenuity Systems, where she led a project alongside a mentor. This was her first transition into working with someone who studied the same field as her and could help her through a more complex project.

“I was speechless,” Ng said of her reaction on the phone to being finalist. “She didn’t even have to tell us. She just told us she was from Intel and [my parents and I] just knew.”

“[When I heard the results for Intel], I was honestly just blown away. I didn’t think something like that would actually happen to me, being a semifinalist,” Jain said. “That one day set the tone for this whole year.”

Moving forward with mentorship

s students become more invested in their research, they contact a professor from a college in the area, looking to find someone to sponsor their research, allow them to to work in a lab and become their mentor. Mentors have the experience to prepare them to establish qualified research. “[Getting her first mentor] was really a kind of turning point for her,” said Ng’s mother Lydia So Ng. “Because of that, she really took initiative to learn some more about computer programming with biological data. I think a mentor is very instrumental as far as getting her started in that field.” 7

Though students have strong bonds with their mentors, they often will have to face several rejections before a professor gives them an opportunity to work beside them. According to Ng, it was important for her to find someone who has done research in the field she is interested in and is willing to work alongside her in their lab. “A lot of times you are talking to a professor with a very busy schedule and they are not always going to have time for you,” Jain said. “There is a very small chance they will say yes and you have to jump on that opportunity.” According to Ng, having a mentor helped her

transition into being more of an independent researcher; she needed him less with every year. Mentors teach the student the protocol of writing papers and methods to approaching their findings. “Last year, I was a little more independent because I had footing in the field and I was able to go my own direction,” Ng said. “It was like the inspiration comes within you, but you also have people externally guiding you through having experienced it before.” c.lockwood@elestoque.org EL ESTOQUE

TOLERANCE IS NOT Colin Ni | El Estoque

ACCEP T A N C E When it comes to the LGBT community, are we as supportive as we claim? by Shuyi Qi

fter months of deliberating, an MVHS student, who has asked that we not use his name since he is not “out” at school, decided to tell his parents that he was transgender. After all, they voted for President Barack Obama, are politically liberal and are supportive of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender rights. Surely, he thought, coming out to them would be easy. And it would have been, if they had believed him. “They just don’t really believe that transgender people exist,” he said. His parents also said that he was too cute and feminine to actually be male. They were supposedly tolerant but evidently weren’t accepting. Baffled with such a response, he could only describe his reaction as: “In one word, terrible. I know I’m not very masculine looking, and when people say stuff like ‘You’re so pretty,’ it gets to me.” When junior Soham Chowdhury was 12 and living in Scotland, he came out as gay to his friends. He went through an odd situation as well; although there was no hardcore bullying and aggressive intolerance, an awkward distance grew between him and the rest of his schoolmates. “It was just ‘Yeah that’s cool man’ and walk away,” he said. “It was just, like, a casual cold shoulder thing.” While it seemed “casual,” the blow was not light. “[It made me feel] pretty terrible, actually, because I had pretty good friends before that. Once I actually told people, [they] started becoming more distant,” he said. What the transgender student and Chowdhury experienced could be described by 8

many names: the “cold-shoulder” treatment, the gap-yet-to-be-bridged, the distance-yetto-be-closed. Whatever the correct terminology, this peculiar behavior in which people are tolerant but not accepting of the LGBT is not unheard of at MVHS. Hypocrisy: from high school to humanity According to an online survey conducted by El Estoque with 161 respondents, 62 percent said that students are generally accepting but still distant toward the LGBT community. Thirty-two percent said that in the event that a friend comes out to them, they will still be friends, but there will be a certain amount of awkwardness. “[I think the distance] is just an expected byproduct of what society has been feeding us all this time,” Chowdhury said. Zoom out of the quirks of the day-to-day human interactions within our high school and this “distance” also seem to manifest at

PANSEXUAL a person who is sexually attracted to all or many gender expressions

TRANSGENDER a person who lives as a member of a gender other than that expected based on anatomical sex

the national level when the world watched as the 2008 Proposition 8 garnered a 52.24 percent victory in our blue-to-the-bone state with a 79.42 percent voter turnout, according to the California Secretary of State. Same-sex marriage was thus prohibited in California before Prop 8 was struck down in 2013 by federal courts. “[People] tend to see that just like San Francisco, the rest of California is a hippie place,” junior Ajay Gopinath, who is heterosexual, said. According to the California Secretary of State, only 16 out of 58 counties voted no on Prop 8, thereby breaking the state’s seemingly liberal veneer. Recently, California’s Assembly Bill 1266, which allows K-12 transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their preferred gender identity, has taken hits from opponents who petitioned for the law to be overturned by ballot initiative. On Feb. 24 of this year, the California Secretary of State posted up the final count: the petition was short of 17,276 valid signatures. This tentative supportiveness could be attributed to multiple factors: familial background, societal expectations, etc. Gopinath, however, suggests that the reason is deeper than that. “People want to be seen as more open minded toward new issues,” he said. “But on the contrary, they themselves aren’t fully prepared to agree with those issues although they seem to accept them.” In an exchange of papers published in Ethology and Sociobiology from 1995 to 1996, influential evolutionary psychologists Gordon Gallup and John Archer debated on EL ESTOQUE

NEWS the possible causes of homophobia. Gallup argued that young people are reluctant to accept homosexuals because they fear becoming one themselves. When he surveyed 167 straight undergraduates of both male and female gender to measure their “degree of discomfort,” the students were found to be more uneasy with homosexual teachers, school bus drivers and doctors than with homosexual lawyers, construction workers, bank tellers, pilots, mechanics and sales clerks; the higher the probability of a homosexual coming in contact with children, the more discomforted heterosexuals were. Archer, who argues that homophobia is a product of cultural bias, suggests that a dislike of difference is a characteristic that runs through the veins of human history. And according to psychologist Jesse Bering, who wrote “Natural homophobes? Evolutionary psychology and antigay attitudes” in Scientific American, so is hypocrisy. “The rare batch of data, especially from the psychological sciences, can abruptly expose a society’s hypocrisies and capital delusions, all the ugly little seams in a culturally valued fable,” Bering wrote. The war against ignorance A big part of the answer is simply that people are uninformed about the issue. In the same El Estoque survey, 29.8 percent of students knew the definition of “pansexual,” 27.3 percent knew the definition of “genderqueer,” and 16.2 percent knew the definition of “cisgender.” “Where would they have heard them? Where are they going to hear it, playing Angry Birds?” said Spanish teacher Joyce Fortune, who is the advisor of the Gay Straight Alliance club and identifies as bisexual. “It’s not something that comes up in [students’] everyday lives.” The transgender student said that a lot of people were confused when he came out to them as transgender because their knowledge was based almost entirely on stereotypes, which he suspects is the reason why his parents didn’t believe him when he came out to them. “Sometimes stereotypes [are] too connected with truth to them,” he said. “When you hear ‘trans,’ you automatically think this person totally wants to get surgery… Most people aren’t like that.” People generally don’t know the details. And according to Fortune, some don’t want to know. “People get threatened by new knowledge and new ideas. We like to think we know how everything works, especially with something like sexuality and gender, MARCH 12, 2014

ASEXUAL

a person who is not sexually attracted to anyone or does not have a sexual orientation

BIGENDERED a person whose gender identity is a combination of male/man and female/woman

*Definitions from lgbt.ucla.edu

and that seems really obvious,” Fortune said. “We work it out at a very young age, so it’s very deeply ingrained.” According to Archer, homophobia behaves similarly to xenophobia (the fear of people from other countries), which is a human ancestral adaptive behavior against the threats of invasion and social dissent. A popular belief claims that homosexuality is molded by the environment and not assigned at birth. The New York Times shed light on this nature versus nurture debate in 2010 when it published an article entitled “Can Animals Be Gay?”, which introduced a new kind of poster family for gay marriage by describing a host of same-sex behavior among animals, especially albatrosses. Fortune suggests that people assume others are heterosexual because it is a bedrock of society, which prevents people from fully understanding and empathizing with the LGBT community. “I don’t think your sexuality changes,” she said. “I think your awareness changes.” Just a phase It’s a phrase that was thrown at Chowdhury a lot when he came out to his friends. It’s also what the transgender student’s gender identity was put down as when he came out to his parents. “People have an idea that if you say that you’re [LGBT], you’re crossing some huge line that you can’t go back on,” Fortune said. “It kind of makes you want to tell them to slow down and take their time to make this decision.” Due to the great number of immigrant families in MVHS, it is not surprising that many here are raised in a conservative atmosphere. The subsequent culture clash is represented within these teenagers’ upbringing, which comprises of Old World conservative traditions and New World liberal ideals, often mixing as well as oil and water. Senior Sydney Ji, who came out to their parents as pansexual last year, said that

while their dad’s reaction was favorable, their mom’s wasn’t. “It’s hard for her to understand or even think of the concept of gender identity or sexuality because she has just never been exposed to that kind of idea,” Ji said. “She’s feeling that it’s just young people’s ideas, Westerner’s ideas.” Ji’s mom, Jing Sun, declined to be interviewed for this article. Fortune adds that adults tend to think of their children as, well, children. Coupled with the way sex is portrayed in the media and the hook-up culture in college, it’s not too surprising if adults think that a change in sexuality results from “experimentation.” “[There are] people [in the LGBT community] who think bisexuals are actually gay and that they’re just too afraid to come out of the closet completely,” Ji said. The hypocritical “distance” that exists uncomfortably between the “liberals” of MVHS and the LGBT also extends within the LGBT community itself; bisexuals and transgenders are sometimes branded as “cowards” for supposedly hiding behind an in-between phrase that would protect them from too much backlash. While this conflict has died down a bit now, Fortune said that being bisexual was definitely a phase for some because coming out as gay was often considered dangerous in the past. She also found it harder coming out as a bisexual than when she first came out as a lesbian at age 17. “People who are monosexual [attracted to one gender] get a little nervous when there’s bisexuals running around because... everything is not clear. People like clarity,” she said. Closing the distance The transgender student’s parents still don’t really believe that he is transgender. Chowdhury still hasn’t come out to his parents, whom he says are liberals. Ji’s mother still doesn’t really understand what pansexuality is and doesn’t really want to. The distance exists in small pockets, in the tiny awkward gaps where the stitching comes apart and refuses to close. But if it’s going to, the transgender student predicted, then the only solution is through education and awareness. That, and optimism. “Even right now same-sex marriage is really moving faster than ever since Defense of Marriage Act went down and Prop 8 got struck down. A lot of states have [also] approved same sex marriage,” Ji said. “It’ll continue to change for the better.” s.qi@elestoque.org 9

EL ESTOQUE

NEWS

HOUSE OF DROUGHTS ‘House of Cards’ and California drought remind us to conserve

o you remember the hype surrounding the last season of “Breaking Bad,” occasionally labeled the best television shows ever? The AMC drama was considered the peak of American television. Well, not only was that claim false, but it also only took about four months to disprove as we’ve recently seen another hit show take the world by storm: “Amish Mafia.” On Valentine’s Day, Netflix released all 13 episodes of the second season of their critically-acclaimed political drama, “House of Cards.” In an attempt to avoid spoilers as I’m not too far into the show yet and I’m not a satanic little lessons jerk (right?), I’m not going to jump into the plot. Instead, I’m going to pull a Shaun White and take the easy way out, but mess that up too. One of the easiest comparisons in this context is to place “House of Cards” alongside the former Best Show Ever titleholder, “Breaking Bad.” Both star strong actors as cruel antiheroes. Both focus on the escalation of evil. Both have been noted for their unique and rapid consumptions through Netflix. Both have astounding production value. Most obviously, both concern one of the most important occupations in the country: politics and drug dealing. Even past the quality of the series itself, “House of Cards” is groundbreaking simply due to the way it is distributed. Since it is a Netflix series, it is released only through the streaming site, with all episodes posted on the same day. Like with Flappy Bird, you only have a few days to get started until you’re well behind everyone else. Though Netflix accepted its role as a binge watcher’s paradise a while ago and has marketed other shows in the same format, “House of Cards” has been a big step forward in the over-consumption of television. Two percent of Netflix’s users — or over 600,000 people — watched all 13 new episodes on the weekend of their release. If those people formed a country, they probably could have beaten the United States in the Winter Olympics (after they killed all our political leaders). However, binge watching a show like

NATHAN DESAI

MARCH 12, 2014

“House of Cards” may not be the best idea. Since the show has been renewed for a third season, people who blow through Season 2 in a few days will have to wait almost a year for their next fix. There also reaches a point when viewers are just watching for the sake of finishing the season rather than actually enjoying it, turning into a slob in the process. It’s like when you order anything at The Cheesecake Factory and when your food comes, you realize Christian Bale probably ate here to put on that much weight for “American Hustle” so you guiltily force yourself to finish it instead of enjoying the meal. After you finish eating that Boeing 747, you might want to wash it down with some water. Well, it’s too bad that you can’t because we’re in a drought. Some think that the drought has been caused by differences in air pressure, but my scientific insight tells me that they are wrong. The real reason we are having a drought is because the cafeteria construction workers keep busting pipes open and losing water. Or it’s Jerry Brown’s fault. Well, it probably isn’t fair to blame the governor because he clearly has no idea what’s going on. Back in January, Brown made a little presentation about the drought and used a chart as a visual aid. His chart showed the amount of precipitation for each year since 1970, which is a perfectly fine statistic to use. Obviously, there are fluctuations but the one the governor is pointing at is the extreme dip at the end of the graph: the one for the month-old 2014. Though the image of Brown pointing to the misleading data is comical, it also speaks some truth. The amount of rainfall has decreased in recent years, and he has asked Californians to cut their water usage by 20 percent. So if you’re read-

ing this, please cut your water usage by 21 percent so I don’t have to. Now, saving water is a lot easier said than done, so I have come up with some ways for us (or you) to conserve in this time of crisis. First, don’t drink water. Instead, try a healthier alternative, like Mountain Dew or Red Bull. Next, replace your toilet water with a healthier alternative, like Mountain Dew or Red Bull. That’s where those drinks belong anyway. Last, water your plants and wash your car with a healthier alternative, like Mountain Dew or Red Bull. Nothing helps the environment more than molten metal and dead plants. If anyone questions your behavior, just tell them that I told you to do it. Once you exhaust all the other conservation techniques, you know what to do. This drought is an extremely unfortunate occurrence and it’s prone to continue for at least a few more months. Someone should probably call Aquaman to save us from this disaster because everyone knows that he’s the most powerful superhero. If this is to continue, which now seems likely, where are we going to get our water from? If only there was a vast expanse of water nearby and we had the technology to purify it. Until that happens, we’re just going to have to conserve. Clearly, conservation is the key this month. Whether you’re watching “House of Cards” or taking a shower (or both, I don’t judge) be smart with your consumption. Don’t take in more than you can handle. Or else Frank Underwood may need to have a little chat with you. n.desai@elestoque.org

OPINION

WE ARE STRUGGLING ALONE... ANXIETY

PTSD

BIPOLAR

...

DAD PASSED AWAY EATING DISORDER

Students would benefit from support groups at school

or this month’s Special Report, we asked students to tell us about their experiences with cancer. In response, we got more than fifteen stories, ranging from students with parents at various stages of cancer, to students who have the disease themselves. Reading over all these tales of various struggles with cancer, we wondered where students were going for emot iona l help. What we found sur pr ised us — 80 percent of the students who subm it t e d stories said they don’t look outside their immediate family for support. And this number only reflects the students that reached out to us. It’s very likely that many more students have stories to share about cancer and feel that they have no one to share them with. What this means is that even though

there are plenty of people on campus going through similar struggles, we are failing to use one of our most valuable resources — each other. First, we need a support group on campus for those affected by cancer. We can’t say conclusively that this type of solution would make a drastic difference, but studies by Medical Journal Psycho Oncology in the article “Mind Matters in Cancer Survival” revealed that there is a clear “sur vival ad va nt age for patients randomized to psychologically effective interventions for individuals with a variety of cancers.” This means that cancer patients who participated in some form of group counseling were more likely to recover from the disease. Our survey revealed that 68 percent of students have a family member or close friend who has cancer. This is a significant

just because academic stress is the greatest common denominator, doesn’t mean we should completely neglect other problems that students may be dealing with

portion of our student body and already merits some form of school-sanctioned group counseling. But the issue extends beyond cancer, as it is only one of many serious afflictions affecting students on campus that could be mediated through a form of group therapy. The Community Mental Health Journal found that “schools represent an optimal site for providing mental health services to children and adolescents.” However, the article also said that guidance counselors and school psychologists sometimes fall short in adequately providing counseling, and suggests that schools try group therapy methods as well. Unsurprisingly, MVHS actually already provides plenty of opportunities to deal with academic or stress-related issues in a group setting. For example, Peer Counseling Club recently held a stress seminar, and Student Advocate Richard Prinz regularly holds meditation sessions. Beyond activities directly intended to help students deal with academic dilemmas, many events, ranging from yoga club meetings to dress up days, have been promoted as a way to “de-stress” and escape from academics. Our focus on EL ESTOQUE

EATING DISORDER

ANXIETY

DEPRESSION LEUKEMIA

MOM DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER

DAD PASSED AWAY

BUT WE’D BE STRONGER TOGETHER only helping students deal with academic-re- one. Student Advocate Richard Prinz talks lated problems means that students have to to many students in a counseling setting on deal with other issues, namely personal and topics ranging from depression to anxiety, family dilemmas, alone. But just because and guidance counselors are also available academic stress is the greatest common de- to help students talk through personal probnominator when it comes to student issues, lems. These types of counseling methods doesn’t mean that we should completely are invaluable, and we should continue to make them available for neglect other problems student use. that students may be dealing with. Another problem The truth is, when with our current system is that while counseling we provide platforms options right now usufor students to deal ally involve adults, kids with their problems want to talk to other only in an academic context, we are essenkids. tially telling students To start with, we need a cancer support what is acceptable to OPINION OF THE EL ESTOQUE be distressed about. group. Beyond this, EDITORIAL BOARD we should set up supWe need a support group for students afport groups for other fected by cancer on common sources of campus, and we also students’ problems like need to provide opportunities for students anxiety, depression and familial issues. We to talk about their personal problems in a also should continue to provide the existing opportunities for group therapy. group setting. Unfortunately, right now, the counseling One such opportunity is Challenge Day, opportunities available to students for non- which has long been positively received by academic related issues tend to be one-on- students. But along with praise for Challenge

STAFF EDITORIAL

MARCH 12, 2014

Day usually comes the observation that the positive group bond created there comes only when Challenge Day occurs. We should strive to create this constructive group atmosphere more than just twice a year — and support groups for common student afflictions are a good start. The newly formed Peer Counseling Club also has a lot of promise when it comes to giving students an outlet to share their experiences with others. However, Peer Counseling Club is limited in its state-mandated obligation to report any serious student issues to adults. School-sanctioned support groups would allow students to share their experiences in a group setting without fear of personal information being reported to adult strangers due to the law requiring minors to report serious issues to authority figures. We are a diverse student body, and just as we have a wide range of talents and achievements, we also have a wide range of personal problems. And unsurprisingly, not all of them have to do with academics. By providing platforms to talk about personal issues in a group setting, we can show that we don’t only care about our peers’ GPAs, but also each others’ emotional well-being. 13

CUT ME SOME FEEDBACK

Coaches should provide constructive criticism for cut players BY AMOL PANDE

ryouts are an extremely nerve-wracking time for players and coaches alike. Coaches are trying to construct the perfect team after watching only a few select players practice during optional offseason activities. On the other hand, players must showcase their skills during a short timeframe if they want to avoid being cut. When students fail to make the team, they are left with the idea that if they do not make the team once, then there is no point in trying out later. This should not be the case. Coaches have complete control of who to put on their team and how many players are on their roster. Not every sport can have a huge roster like football or track because smaller coaching staffs cannot manage so many athletes. It would prove difficult to coach up the weakest links on a smaller team because the coach only has so much time to work with players, and must commit energy to the starting athletes. Even worse, coaches endure athletes who don’t work out, don’t respond to coaching, don’t understand the sport, or just think they deserve a spot on the team because they think showing up sporting a pair of Jordans will make them play like Lil’ Bow Wow in “Like Mike.” However, there are candidates who may be less skilled, but are hardworking and will improve given time. It isn’t fair that hardworking athletes are being discouraged from partaking in a high school sport — it isn’t the pros, after all. Athletes shouldn’t be discouraged because they aren’t there…yet. Varsity baseball coach Nick Bonacorsi states attitude is a key attribute to being a good athlete. He has three major expectations for athletes on his baseball team. “Overall it is experience, knowledge of the game, and most importantly, coachability,” Bonacorsi said. Bonacorsi explained that during tryouts, players were evaluated based on how well they responded to advice because players can be developed throughout the year. While swing mechanics are important, enthusiasm and attitude play a role in the selection process, too. A great example of coachability, positive attitude and desire for improvement is sophomore basketball player Golan Gingold. As a freshman Gingold made it through the 14

first cut of tryouts but felt that he would not make the team or have limited playing time. As a result, he quit the basketball team. During the offseason, Gingold worked out consistently, played with students older and stronger than him, and thus gained the necessary skill to play on the basketball team the following year. Gingold believes athletes who work hard will move past those who are naturally talented but lazy. Coaches can help these hardworking students pursue a position on the team through constructive criticism. Our current tryout etiquette can cause players who could improve into great athletes to go unnoticed because of a lack of coaches and time. By not spending enough time telling each of the cut players what they can improve on, coaches fail to foster player growth and ultimately hurt themselves. What coaches could and should be doing is posting what the player did wrong and the ways players could improve after tryouts. There are coaches on campus who do this already, such as varsity soccer coach Pooya Hajjarian. As a youth, Hajjarian was cut from a soccer team and received absolutely no feedback. With MVHS’ soccer team Hajjarian encourages cut players to come out for next years tryouts and gives them pointers on how to improve before then. During his tryout process ,he spends the whole entire week assessing his students instead of coming to conclusions after single days. “I have to make sure that I give the students at least one full week, and I have to make sure I don’t make any decisions after a good day.” Hajjarian said,”because sometimes they just have a bad day. I might have a bad day coaching. They might have a bad day playing.” If coaches informed students post-tryouts of how they could improve, instead of just posting a paper outside the gym, coaches will create stronger future teams. Improving the process of tryout feedback will limit controversy regarding coaching bias and will also allow players who did not make the team to focus on improving their specific weaknesses and be able to help future sports teams. a.pande@elestoque.org

FIVE WAYS COACHES CAN ENSURE FAIR TRYOUTS

1 2 3 4 5

Clearly explain what you are looking for before tryouts begin

Give feedback to athletes throughout the entire tryout process

Don’t make final decisions until the tryout process is complete

Encourage those who didn’t make the team to return next season

Afford equal treatment toward both new and returning players MARCH 13, 2014

Amrutha Dorai and Kathleen Yuan| El Estoque Illustration

SUCH LANGUAGE! VERY ART! Slang enthusiasts — you’re innovators, not idiots BY AMRUTHA DORAI

y now, you’ve probably seen Doge. If the death of English as we know it. Or, as you haven’t, quick explanation: Some Robert McCrum, associate editor of the Britfolks on the Internet thought it would ish newspaper The Observer, put it: “It’s a be funny and adorable to cover photographs coarse vulgarisation, and a reduction of the of Shiba Inus with Comic Sans captions expressive capacity of the language.” detailing the dogs’ internal monologues. While you’re thinking about that, let’s The captions typically read something like, take a break to talk about Shakespeare. Ac“Wow… Such amaze… Very caption.” cording to the website shakespeare-online. The meme, which is admittedly funny com, the Bard invented over 1,700 words and adorable, has spread like Ellen’s Oscar that are commonly used today by “changing selfie. On top of inspiring countless spin-offs verbs into adjectives, connecting words nev(a quick Google search revealed er before used together, addSnoop Doge, Twinkie Doge ing prefixes and suffixes, and and Windoge 7 among others) devising words wholly origiand a currency (Dogecoin, curnal.” This is almost identical rently valued at a tenth of a U.S. to Merriam-Webster’s deficent), Doge has also influenced nition of slang, which reads, Number of words the way we speak in real life. “an informal nonstandard Shakespeare invented I’ve heard phrases like “such vocabulary composed typiaccording to shakespeare-online.com amaze” spoken out loud. More cally of coinages, arbitrarily embarrassingly, I’ve said them. changed words, and extravaThis phenomenon of Doge is representa- gant, forced, or facetious figures of speech.” tive of a larger shift toward text speak, which We would never call “Hamlet” or “Julius also includes abbreviations you’ve definitely Caesar” a “coarse vulgarisation” of the Engheard of, like “LOL” and “OMG.” Forty per- lish language — despite the fact that Shakecent of 161 students surveyed online by El speare actually was a master of the sexual Estoque said that they were somewhat famil- pun, thus literally utilizing “coarse vulgariiar with text speak, and 30 percent said they sations” — so why do we treat Doge and were very familiar. Does this familiarity sig- “yolo” differently? nal a shift toward pervasive (or, rather, more Okay, okay. Obviously “much wow” is not pervasive) teenage idiocy? on the same intellectual level as “Soft! What A common argument against the prolif- light through yonder window breaks?” But eration of slang is that it makes the speaker there’s no denying that both modern slang sound, well, stupid. Another is that it signals and Shakespearean wordsmithing embody

1,700

MARCH 12, 2014

the same disregard for convention, the same spirit of invention. So while teen speak may sound stupid, it may not actually be stupid. In fact, according to a 2005 article in The Observer, the quality of 16-year-olds’ writing had actually improved since 1980 despite the increase in the prevalence of slang. A two-year study at Cambridge University found that teenagers in 2004 — despite being 10 times more likely to use colloquialisms in exam papers than their 1980 counterparts — used stronger vocabulary and more complex sentence structures than in the past. Such counterintuitive! Katherine Barber, editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, provided a possible explanation on oxfordlearning.com: “If the kids are picking up new words and new meanings then that means that they’re playing with the language.” In other words, our ability to invent and use slang signifies an understanding of English mechanics — it’s like modern art. In order to break the rules, we must first know how to use them. It’s a Shakespearean tendency, perhaps lacking in Shakespearean execution. That being said, your teachers and future employers probably will not view your daring wordplay as particularly literary. It’s a good idea to restrict your usage of Internet slang to appropriate situations. But you don’t need to feel guilty for contributing to the destruction of the English language because you’re not. You may sound like an idiot, but you’re actually on the cutting edge. Wow! a.dorai@elestoque.org 15

OPINION

YOU CAN’T SAVE EVERYTHING

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try ... I’ve always been sort of self-righteous, even as a little kid. Just take a look at yet another depressing day in my life.

Hey look what I caught!

no monkey business

SHUYI QI

It’s so cute! I’m going to keep it as a pet!

Geez, you’re such a killjoy

Save? Who am I, Jesus!? I’m just trying to make her realize her own immaturity before it’s too late, and you’re saying I shouldn’t do anything?

WELL I HOPE YOU LEARNED Your lesson!

No way! You need to stop catching these things and taking them home!

Every time you do, it always ends the same.

Killjoy!? I’m just trying t-to — I mean how can she be so stupid? I know she’s going to put the box somewhere and forget about it like last time. The lizard is going to die for sure!

Alright, alright. I’ll just keep it for a week and let it go.

Some people are just like that. Sometimes people need to make mistakes to learn. You can’t save everything.

3 weeks later.

Maybe.

Guess what? The lizard died. I just put the box on my bookshelf and totally forgot about it!

But look, I caught this moth! I guess you just do what you can.

s.qi@elestoque.org MARCH 12, 2014

HA HA HMM A&E

Why is there a lack of minority participation in comedy? BY TANISHA DASMUNSHI AND ASHISH SAMADDAR

t’s not something you hear often on this campus: “Sometimes I’ve been the only Asian in the room.” He usually doesn’t notice right away. In fact, the atmosphere is warm and friendly. But in meetings with the MVHS improv team, which practices for a yearly unscripted comedy show, junior Derek Ching often finds himself in an Asian minority. Nine of the 13 regular members of the improv team are white. A few others are mixed race. One member is Indian. That’s a strange situation to imagine at MVHS, where Asian-Americans comprise 80.7 percent of the student population. Surprised? So was Ching. But the racial disparity is apparent in mainstream comedy as well. In 2011, only 2 percent of actors on American primetime television were Asian-American, according to a study conducted at Old Dominion University. In reality, Asian-Americans make up 5.7 percent of our population. The difference — between reality and mainstream media — is what the issue of equal representation is about. The question is, why does this disparity exist? And who is to blame? Low on jokes Ching proposes that the low Asian participation on the improv team may take root from the priorities in Asian culture. “As a small child, I was always interested in [drama],” Ching said. “But along with the general environment, I never took that interest seriously. But upon actually joining, I realized that this is another aspect of my life that I can thoroughly enjoy.” Ching himself felt hesitant about pursuing drama in high school, taking the course as a junior rather than a freshman or sophomore like most other students. “People [at MVHS] might not value [comedy] that much, which is maybe an Asian stereotype, but is somewhat true,” Ching said. “You can see in their decisions and how they are influenced and just their general demeanor. A great many people have told me ‘Oh, you’re in Beginning Drama — why? That class is so useless.’” That may be true of the pragmatism in Asian culture. However, as junior Cathy Ma, a past member of the improv team, suggests, the lack of Asian interest in comedy — at MVHS or elsewhere — may be because there aren’t many relatable Asian-American characters, or stories, in the mainstream canon of comedy. Either there are dynamic white characters or cardboard cut-out minority ones. And it’s difficult for comedy to be impactful when the audience can’t grasp where it’s coming from. “A lot of comedy is born out of suffering and horrible situations, and you’re not going to see the com-

EL ESTOQUE

edy in that unless you have experienced it, too,” Ma said. Drama teacher Sara Capule agrees that shared experience and culture play a large role in making comedy relatable and funny. According to Capule, mainstream entertainment often chooses to appeal to the white population. In 2012, for instance, while the proportion of racial minorities in America was roughly 36 percent, directors from minority backgrounds directed only about 16 percent of primetime television episodes, according to a report released by the Directors Guild of America. That leads to comedy in which other cultures and races are depicted as one-dimensional and stereotypical. “It’s offensive when white people write the scripts and try to put words in minority characters’ mouths because then it becomes the stereotype,” Economics teacher Pete Pelkey said. “Then they become the pimp, the drug dealer.”

producers racing to fill the “diversity quota” that Seinfeld brings up. In many comedy shows, the cast is primarily composed of white men with a token minority member (“The Big Bang Theor y,” anyone?).

Casting color “Do people think it’s the census or something?” asked comedian Jerry Seinfeld, when questioned about the lack of diversity in his web-series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” (which is exactly what it sounds like). Out of 24 episodes filmed so far, 20 have featured white male comedians — but according to Seinfeld, that’s because he doesn’t care to represent “the pie chart of America.” He focuses on what’s funny. But when Seinfeld said that it’s “anticomedy” to focus on diversity quotas, he may have been suggesting that “funny” should be color blind. “In terms of skill sets, it’s not diversity that is the most important thing, it’s who does it the best,” Ching said. “If someone who is a minority but [is] not as funny as someone who happens to be white then that is not fair if you give them more attention.” However, many opportunities are not often provided to minorities, and comedy remains heavily influenced by color. Great roles that are complex and multidimensional are often written only for people who look a certain way. Capule personally experienced this too, during her involvement in theatre. “I’m of a Filipino background, and there are not a lot of people of color in theatre,” she said. “A harsh reality of the theatre world is that it’s based on how you look a lot of the time, to look the way the director wants. And there are not a lot of roles for Filipino people.” Sometimes representation stops being about equal opportunities for storytellers in comedy and it becomes an argument about political correctness. This leads to television

Remaking the stage Improv team captain senior Mikey Goldman and Capule both agree that more time is required to close the racial gap in media. “There’s still that stupid racism in the background, that people don’t really talk about, that’s unspoken,” Goldman said. “And I think, I hope, that in 20 to 30 years we’ll eventually get to the point where everyone gets represented.” Progress is being made. Last year, the sitcom “The Mindy Project” debuted on FOX, starring Mindy Kaling, a South AsianAmerican actress. Kaling plays the lead, not the token “Indian girl.” Not the token minority character. Part of what makes “The Mindy Project” funny is the absurdity — and the multidimensionality — of taking an expected stereotype (an Asian-American who is a doctor) and turning it on its head (a liberal, empowered “nerd” who isn’t at all socially awkward) . That’s what improv team tries to do. “We try to make people go against stereotypes as often as possible,” Goldman said. “It’s funny to see something that goes against what [society says] you’re ‘supposed’ to do.” Goldman, Ma and Ching also find that new media — and the younger generation — is allowing for people of color to have more opportunities in comedy and entertainment. According to Goldman, mainstream media doesn’t allow for that much exposure. A study of Oscar-nominated films from the past 30 years found that of 1,400 speaking roles, only 11.6 percent were African-American, 7 percent were Asian, and Hispanics accounted for 1.9 percent.

IMPROV TEAM

M MARCH 12, 2014

WEEKLY MEETING AT LUNCH ON TUESDAYS IN C209

Outer circle (clockwise from “Improv team”): Megan Chandler, Michaela Murphy, Nicholas Egan, Alexander Pieb, Eric Crouch, Andi Pappas, Madeleine Klein, Zarek Peris, TJ Tarshis, Mallory Strom, Derek Ching, Drama Teacher Sara Capule, Mikey Goldman (Not pictured: Zach Sanchez)

“If you think about celebrity, for instance, who gets nominated at the Oscars, it’s very whitewashed,” Goldman said. “I think there need to be more role models in the media that others can look up to, so that people can say, despite my culture, I can succeed in whatever I want to do.” A new venue There is one place comedians of color are able to get more exposure: YouTube, which helps break down the institutional barriers. No casting or established audiences are necessary to publicize a hilarious video. If aspiring comedians want to pursue their comedy, all they need to do is bring a video camera and themselves. “I think the Internet is definitely giving rise to this whole new wave of comedy,” Ma said. “I think a lot more people are willing to go in front of the camera and then put themselves out there than go in front of someone live.’” On YouTube Natalie Tran of Vietnamese background (Communitychannel), John Luc of both Vietnamese and Chinese ancestry (Mychonny) and Indian comedian Lilly Singh (Superwoman) among others have developed styles of comedy and a fan following that is often related to their culture. Many of them do what Kaling and MVHS improv team are trying: use the same stereotypes about their group to break out of them with their comedy. t.dasmunshi@elestoque.org | a.samaddar@elestoque.org 19

A&E

BRBeep! PAGER DISPLAY

Hades2k via Flickr | Creative Commons by-nd-sa

‘90s

PAGER

“Call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me!” That’s how most teens in the 90s communicated with each other: they paged each other on their pagers, the 90s version of the modern smartphone. Just as the smartphone is heavily integrated into our lives, history teacher Viviana Montoya-Hernandez remembers the pager as a large part of her high school life. “Each person had their own pager code,” Montoya-Hernan-

SEND BUTTON

1990

The evolution of quick communication BY KATHLEEN YUAN

iN MY DAY... PHRASE

PAGER CODE

TEXT TALK

Just kidding

Good night

Hugs and kisses

406

xoxo

Source: angelfire.com, hal0gen.com

dez said. “One of my best friends was ‘70,’ and I was ‘05,’ so we actually had a big, airbrushed poster made that said ‘7005637,’ or ‘best friends, always and forever.’” Individuals had their own pager codes because pagers operated anonymously and one-sided, meaning two people could not otherwise identify the other or immediately respond to received messages.

20 0

PAGER CODES

1. 143 2. 637 3. 823 4. 787312 I LOVE YOU

Ever punched in “07734” on a calculator and shown it to a friend? That’s the gist of pager codes. Here are five other codes that were made daily lingo by the teens of the 90s, otherwise known as some of the youngest teachers on campus.

43 percent of students have used T9

ALWAYS AND FOREVER

THINKING OF YOU

PRESSING 2 COULD MEAN A, B OR C DEPENDING ON THE INTENDED WORD.

(SEE YOU) LATER 20

EL ESTOQUE

Text Talk

The butchered language we use today. Flooded with emoticons, shorthand and Autocorrect.

2000s to present

Favorite emoticons

Autocorrect Like many of our readers, El Estoque has also been a victim of Autocorrect. Here are a few of our own mishaps:

0 00

SENIOR ELAINE TAI “<.<”

SOPHOMORE MICHAEL SANDLER “:P”

FRESHMAN BETTY HUANG “:c”

2011

‘90s to 2000s

The primitive texting language of our middle school days, “Text on 9 keys” or T9 rose to popularity after the turn of the century. Although the great age of T9 has been surpassed by modern text messaging, some students continue to use the former.

SPACE BUTTON

OMG

·Elves toque ·El Eaton ·El Estonia

2010 became an official word in the Oxford dictionary, along with LOL, FYI, TMI, and BFF

Q&A

with English teacher Jessica Kaufman on text talk

El Estoque: What’s your opinion on text talk? Jessica Kaufman: It’s lazy and there’s no tone of voice when you [use text talk]. Sometimes things can be misinterpreted, and if you’re not even typing out the words, then you’re allowing for more misinterpretation. People start [using text talk in daily conversation] instead of just lazy texting, it becomes lazy speech patterns, and then we become less intelligent. EE: Have you used text talk? Kaufman: I think I use “omg” maybe once a year in texting. When I use [text talk,] I actually die a little inside. k.yuan@elestoque.org

MARCH 12, 2014

A&E

it’s a small world Close-knit Japanese classes lead to better learning

n Japanese, seikatsu means life. As Junior Alexandra Bartas sat at her desk writing the word in kanji, the Japanese alphabet that uses Chinese characters, she felt frustrated. Despite carefully copying the strokes on the green sheet in front of her, her characters looked like chicken scratch, Bartas recalled. Bartas was just about to give up on writing “seikatsu” when her Japanese Three teacher Keiko Howard, who had been walking around the room, stopped at her desk. As Howard checked her writing, she sat down with Bartas and showed her how to not only write each character’s strokes but also how to memorize them. Bartas is not the type of person who seeks help often, which is why this experience stood out. It was one of the few times

Photo by Elia Chen.

LANGUAGE

BY ELIA CHEN

when her teacher recognized that she needed help without her asking for it. Because Howard has taught her for three years, Bartas believes that she understands her learning style. “[Howard] knew that I am bad at kanji, needed more help and learned best one-onone,” Bartas recalled. Japanese is the only World Language class that has only one teacher and one class for each level. Meanwhile, MVHS has three Spanish teachers who collectively teach a total of around fifteen classes. Because of the limited number of teachers and class periods, students who take Japanese develop strong bonds with each other and a close relationship with Howard that provide many benefits to learning. “I see that students are less embarrassed

when they make mistakes,” Howard said. “Since they know each other, they know each other’s Japanese level.” One of the advantages to the unity in Japanese class is that students do not feel embarrassed to ask for help from others. Sophomore Apanuba Mahmood, who takes Japanese Two, does not hesitate to ask others for help when she needs to clarification because she already feels familiar with everyone in her class. She believes that this type of familiarity and friendship with classmates is essential for learning. “People ask each other for help because it’s something that you need in this class... I feel like, for this class, it’s easier to learn if you get help from your friends,” Mahmood said. The importance of helping each other in

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class not only applies to Japanese Two but also to Japanese Three. In Japanese Three, students learn kanji, and students who know Chinese help non-Chinese students learn the characters. Another benefit that Mahmood believes is useful to learning is the personalized learning experience that Howard can provide because she has known her students for a long time. “I think its better to have the same teacher for language because then they have a better grasp of your learning curve,” Liu said. “It’s also easier to speak in front of a teacher you’ve known for a while rather than have to get used to a different teacher every year.” Howard believes that because she understands students’ personalities, it is easier for her to help students with course selection and with kanji. When we do kanji activities in Japanese Three, Howard uses her understanding of students’ personalities to pair students up. “I know that some students have bad communication skills but perform great because you do the homework and perform well on tests while other students have good communication skills but don’t do the homework and don’t do as well on the tests,” Howard said. Moreover, Mahmood remembers one in-

stance when Howard adjusted the oral to fit her skill level. Howard knew that Mahmood was going to participate in Japan Bowl, so Howard began testing her on advanced topics about Japanese culture and geogra-

Japanese Two juniors Jessica Chen and Miranda Chen study for Japanese Two during tutorial. Photo by Elia Chen. phy instead of the basic self-introduction questions. Mahmood attributes Howard’s actions to Howard’s understanding of Mahmood’s skill level in Japanese. Besides a more personalized learning experience, another benefit of class unity is that stronger bonds between students lead to increased performance on group activities. “Since [students] know each other from middle school, feel comfortable with each

other, know the schedule, I think that the closeness helps with group projects,” Howard said. According to a study by the University of Sydney by professors Erica Sainsbury and Richard Walker, friendship leads to more productive collaboration and increases motivation within the group because members are familiar with each other’s working styles and ways of thinking. When Junior Rachael Wu, who takes Japanese Three, had to pick a group for her music video project, she already knew who she would work with. Because she had already worked with many of the members before, she knew that they shared similar interests, so they would have a good time doing the music video project together. Their shared interests, like playing Pokemon and watching Youtube videos, helped them cope with the stress of the project without creating conflict. “You know how people work better, and I feel like I know everyone’s personalities,” Bartas said. After Bartas practices kanji with Howard, she practices her kanji on a whiteboard but not before she turns around and corrects another student’s kanji. “There’s no line here,” she said.

e.chen@elestoque.org

PRAMA. A

A sophomore reacts to the three secret rules of prom.

pparently Junior Prom is coming up soon — I wouldn’t know. Mainly because I’m a sophomore, but also because the likelihood of me getting asked out anytime soon has been calculated by a certain reputable sources to be approximately 123,456,789 to one. Maybe I’m not the most reputable source, but you get the idea. I’m not going to JP anytime soon. But the juniors are. Some out of the seniors too — the point is that while I personally might not be running around my bedroom like that chicken who thinks the sky is falling on his head in Chicken Little, I do know a couple people who are. So in the process, I’ve come across several unwritten rules, misconceptions and plenty of prama, then in true outsider fashion wrote my thoughts below.

1. Two girls can’t wear the same dress Yeah I get the whole “I need to look unique and beautiful” part of this rule, but are you honestly going to tell me that two girls wearing the same dress out of like, the 100 attending, is a earth-defying catastrophe? I mean there’s lots of things you can do differently — hair, nails, makeup — and even then, unless the two people are identical twins, they’ll still look different. Then again, I might be feeling completely different this time blue next year. I suppose I won’t know until I’m clawing some poor girls eyes out with my super-sharpened pointed nails of justice, waging war for the honor of my beloved prom dress.

MAYA MURTHY

MARCH 12, 2014

2. Guys’ tux groups are stupid I’m struggling here, because I’m all for gender equality and the belief that boys can enjoy fashion just as much as girls (or if that girl is me, even more than girls). But also, I

just don’t know if there’s enough tuxedo for every person to have their own unique suit. Sure you can coordinate colors, but I always assumed that the ties coordinated with the dress, so I’m really unsure of what someone would post on a Tux group. On the other hand, I just heard that the entire point of the 2015 boys tux group is to make fun of the girls’ group, down to the rules copied, pasted and uncorrected in the guys’ group sidebar on Facebook. If that’s true, then carry on. 3. There’s nothing to do at Prom Well the tickets certainly cost enough for there to pretty much be a guaranteed good time. And apparently there’s food and dancing and friends and even pretty pictures you can buy to keep in your wallet. But you know, if you don’t want to go, don’t go around trying to convince other people to not go. Just...don’t go. m.murthy@elestoque.org 23

The lighting is dim, the curtains drawn, and the room is filled with a musty smell. The soft humming of equipment draws attention to one particular corner, where a web of machines is arranged in an elaborate setup meant to be comprehended and navigated only by a select few. A half-filled IV bag is connected on one end to a drip stand, and on the other, to the arm of a figure laying peacefully in a bed. As a red light buried in the equipment setup begins to flash, the figure slowly rises.

‘I’M BEEPING.’

SPECIAL

Junior Lavanya Rajpal is a leukemia patient, but one who sees the world through a different lens. BY AMBIKA DUBEY AND JADY WEI

he reaches over and pushes a button at her side. “I’m beeping,” she repeats. Not a minute passes, and a nurse rushes in. For the duration of her hospitalization, Junior Lavanya Rajpal came to recognize the beeping as a constant. But with time, it marked a cycle of recovery, reflection and a new perspective, as it had on April 14, 2013.

Diagnosis and Initial Response In the middle of Lavanya’s sophomore year at MVHS, she felt something was wrong. Overwhelmed by constant lethargy and nausea, Lavanya eventually discovered multiple patches of red spots on her skin. Once she began to bleed abnormally after merely brushing her leg on desks or chairs, she was convinced that something was amiss in her body. After calling her mother during lunch one day, her mother took her straight to the hospital. The tests were clear –– it was cancer. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. When Lavanya’s mother, Sohini Rajpal, learned of her daughter’s diagnosis, she was relieved. Lavanya’s particular strand of cancer, A.L.L., was relatively less difficult to treat than the one Sohini had feared her daughter had, A.M.L, and, by the time Lavanya was eight years old, she had already beaten leukemia once. But the side effects of the medications were milder back then. From what Lavanya

Lavanya wore this blue scarf around her head for a period of time after recovery. She often wore it around school to prevent herself from receiving a sunburn on her head.

Ambika Dubey | El Estoque

recalls, her treatment had only involved a few injections and medications. This time, however, the conditions were much more severe. “It was tough,” Sohini said. “[Lavanya] had to wear diapers, couldn’t get up from bed, and there were 90 percent blast cells in her body this time.” Lavanya had no other option but to drop out from school for the rest of the school year because unlike 10 years prior, she suffered many more side effects with her medication, as is common with most teenage cancer patients. “When I was five, l could walk in, get chemo, walk out and get chocolate,” Lavanya said. “But right now, I’d walk in, get chemo, and get wheel-chaired out, and can’t eat chocolate because I’m nauseous.”

Battling cancer Lavanya was sent to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford to undergo chemotherapy in March of last year. After a few days of initial blood testing and vein retrieving, she was strapped onto wires and tubes that connected to various monitoring devices. For the next few weeks, Lavanya remained in the intensive care unit, supervised by doctors and nurses in the hospital. She suffered from multiple needles weaving through her body. One port in particular was one inch wide, and attached to the pulmonary artery in Lavanya’s heart ventricle. “For me, I have Because the medical always been procedure would be hindered by any dosage terrified of going of anesthesia, Lavanya could feel the constant to the hospital and pull of the needle, atgetting a vaccine, tached onto the tissues beneath her skin. but I was okay “For me, I have alwith a one-inch ways been terrified of going to the hospital needle sticking and getting a vaccine,” into my chest.” Lavanya said. “But I was okay with one-inch junior Lavanya Rajpal needles sticking into my chest.” During a stage in her treatment, Lavanya also experienced diabetes as a severe side effect of a particular medication. “The worst thing about that was, people kept on coming in with brownies and chocolate and cookies, but I couldn’t eat any of it,” Lavanya said. For extended hours each day, she could only lie motionless in bed. A patch placed behind her ear prevented nausea but caused blurry vision as a side effect. Gradually, as she regained the clarity of her vision, and as her thumb muscles retrieved a portion of their original EL ESTOQUE

Road to recovery 1997 Born

2002 First visit to the hospital in Tokyo Moved from Tokyo to Mumbai First diagnosis at the age of five

2008

Ambika Dubey | El Estoque

Moved from Mumbai to Australia

2011

Used with permission of Sohini Rajpal

Moved from Australia to California

March 26, 2013 Second diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

August to October 2014

Attended half days of school

December 27, 2013 Intensive treatment complete

As of now Maintenance phase of treatment

Used with permission of Sohini Rajpal

This is a quilt that Lavanya’s sophomore Chemistry class created for her. Over the course of her recovery, Lavanya received encouragement from her friends, teachers and parents.

Lavanya lies in a bed at the Stanford Children’s Hospital. For over three months, Lavanya rested under the close supervision of nurses and doctors of the hospital.

strength, Lavanya began to play video games, read magazines and watch television once more.

Recovery In August of Rajpal’s junior year, she finally began to recover and returned to school. Rajpal balanced her education and medication by spending half of her time being home-schooled and the other half at MVHS. Rajpal expressed that the school administration was very MARCH 12, 2014

A PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) is attached to Lavanya’s arm. This equipment helps doctors administer her treatment.

flexible about her schedule. “There’s so many people at MVHS stressing over their grades, tests, teachers, but there’s so much more than that,” Lavanya said with a smile. “There’s things you can’t control.”

Support Lavanya was never truly alone in her battle against cancer. Tremendous support poured in from around the world, from friends in continued on page 28 27

SPECIAL continued from page 27 Australia, to Singapore, to India and across the United States. But even beyond friends and family, Lavanya’s teachers and the school administration helped streamline the academic process during and after her leave from school. “Almost all the teachers who I had last year came to visit me in the hospital,” Lavanya said. “Like [math teacher Sushma] Bana came over and told my parents, ‘I can do all your shopping for you if you’re busy.’ Some teachers came over even to my house after I was discharged.” Chemistry teacher Mia Onodera, in addition to being the first teacher to visit Lavanya after her diagnosis was announced, created home labs for Lavanya to complete, and even arranged for Lavanya’s Chemistry class to decorate patches for a quilt that she later delivered to Lavanya in the hospital. The day right before Lavanya learned of her cancer, she looked perfectly normal and delivered a presentation in French class, so when French teacher Sarah Finck informed her students that Lavanya was undergoing chemotherapy, she said everyone was shocked. “Lavanya would always ask her doctors, ‘How long will my treatment take? I have to go back to school. I have tests and homework,’“ Finck said. “I explained to her that I would excuse her from all the exams and assignments. The missing work was definitely not an issue. The important thing is for Lavanya to recover as soon as possible.” Sohini had been documenting the entire ordeal through entries on a blog, which helped family, friends, teachers and even doctors keep up to date on the progress of Lavanya’s treatment. “I followed the blog that [Lavanya’s] mom had created, so I was always updated on how Lavanya was doing,” Finck said. The last entry, entitled “The Mother of all Oscar speeches...”

reads: “Today, 27th Dec ‘13 Lavanya completed the intensive treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia which commenced on diagnosis on 26th March 2013. We have come a long way since then. This long arduous journey was made possible by the two Ps — the patient herself and the people we have as family and friends. My family is full of gratitude and today I would like to thank Sohini Rajpal each one of you who has held our hand, helped with prayers and countless wishes.” Keeping pace with her friends, she walks to class on a regular school day, with an animated expression on her face. As she turns her head off-handedly, she catches your eye. She’s beaming.

My family is full of gratitude, and today I would like to thank each one of you who has held our hand, helped with prayers and countless wishes.

a.dubey@elestoque.org | j.wei@elestoque.org

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extending a

HELPING HAND

Visit elestoque.org to read about MVHS’ contributions to cancer support. Here’s a preview of what you’ll find.

BY SOPHIA TAO

VHS offers resources and support to anyone on campus affected by cancer and other illnesses, though they don’t always use them. El Estoque sat down with student advocate Richard Prinz to discuss some of the options.

RESEARCH ON BREAST CANCER

LOCKS OF LOVE

EE: If a parent notifies the school of the situation, is there a specific process in how the school responds? RP: We check in with the student and ask how they’re doing: Do you need more time, do you want to put things off, do you want to talk to your teachers to reduce the amount of work you have? A lot of times you have to honor the family’s way of going about things. It’s personal, and people are resourceful. You can’t say there’s one way [to help]; we just make services available and try to offer as much support as we can. EE: What do you think we as students, teachers or parents can do for students who are affected by cancer or other illnesses? RP: People don’t walk around wearing signs saying “my father is dying of cancer.” It’s teachers and students noticing changes — being attentive to other people’s emotional states. Just try to offer some conversation … We underestimate our power to change people’s lives and just to be kind. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that. Prinz’s concluding words of advice: Be the change you want to see — that’s the Challenge Day motto. Be more open; talk more about your personal life. That makes people feel more comfortable. How do you really get to know somebody? You model, you open up, share your life with people — not venting, just being in a dialogue with a person. They say that if only one percent of a community starts doing something, it can build up, reach a kindling point and make changes. But it has to come from inside. You can’t legislate kindness or make it a law.

RESOURCES FOR SUPPORT MVHS-SPECIFIC Peer Counseling Challenge Day Counselors

CURE CANCER CAFE

demystifying

MISCONCEPTIONS BY PRANAV Parthasarathy

Cancer is an incurable condition. Heading the list of the Sturdy Memorial Hospital’s page about common cancer misconceptions is the prominent platitude of “There is no cure for cancer.” Which is a half-truth. The statement itself finds its roots upon rocky soil; cures for some cancers such as acute lymphocytic leukemia do exist. However, there isn’t really a cure for cancer because cancer isn’t just one disease.

Cancer is a single disease. “One of the most common misconceptions I have found [from my students] is the idea that cancer is a single disease,” Physiology teacher Jenna Smith said. “It isn’t. It’s a set of diseases.” We use the term “cancer” to refer to any number of distinct harmful forms of uncontrolled cell growth, with each form far different from the other.

Only old people get cancer. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the single greatest risk factor for cancer development is age. According to the organization, more than 60% of cancers in the United States occur in people age 65 and older. However, about 70,000 Americans between the ages of 15 and 39 are diagnosed with cancer each year.

A single event can cause cancer.

OUTSIDE AGENCIES KARA (Grief Support) Palo Alto | kara-grief.org Center for Living with Dying San Jose | billwilsoncenter.org s.tao@elestoque.org

MARCH 12, 2014

NOVEMBER

PARTICIPATION

OCTAGON’S

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El Estoque: Do students approach you to ask for help? Richard Prinz: Often we find that families have already found support. It seems like students are pretty private about it; I don’t think it’s easy in our culture for people to go and ask for help … School is a place to take a break from it. At school they want to be with their friends, and they’re studying and learning. When they go home, it’s usually full on.

NO SHAVE

Smith has found that many of her students think that an isolated incident can cause cancer. According to Smith, such incidents don’t exist: cancer is the compounded effect of exposure to multiple carcinogens in a period of time; most isolated events would be unable to start such traumatic conditions. p.parthasarathy@elestoque.org

SPECIAL

THERE ARE

NO WORDS

Cancer — the illness, the word, the experience — is ubiquitous. According to the American Cancer Society, half of all men and one third of all women in the United States will suffer from it in their lifetime. From campus-wide drives to facts in freshman Biology to students actively attempting to find cures, we hear faceless stories everyday — stories that do not strike us where it hurts, stories that we forget the next day, stories we can only attempt to relate to.

This is not one of those stories.

Loss of friend brings two seniors together BY NAMRATA RAMANI

wice a year senior Emma Lewis visits the Gate of Heaven Cemetery down the street from her home. Flowers and letters in hand, she sits down near the grave that reads “our precious angel Sydney Jane Jones” and updates Jones on boy troubles, schoolhouse gossip and the happenings of the world. Lewis visits every Jan. 24 — Jones’ birthday — and June 15, the fateful day five years ago when Jones passed away from Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Lewis had met Jones in the fifth grade, but it wasn’t until they shared adventures behind the blue curtains of Kennedy Middle School’s drama room during the after school YMCA program when they truly connected. Lewis still remembers the phone call she received near the end of her sixth grade from a sobbing mutual friend, Cupertino High School senior Wendy Gao, who told her about Jones’ diagnosis. Lewis’ first instinct was to find the statistics, to grasp at data that could give an idea of Jones’ prognosis. She learned that Jones’ form of leukemia had a 25 percent survival rate. In Lewis’ mind, however, death was never a possible outcome. In the following months, Lewis went from seeing Jones every day to almost never. Her conversations with Jones’ friends revolved around worrying for her health. Visiting Jones was difficult; the hospital was far and people needed to get flu shots to see her. “I think most of [Jones’] being forgotten happened when she went to the hospital,” Gao said. Lewis and Gao Gao, however, has vivid bring Jones memories of the time she flowers in her visited Jones. She rememfavorite color. bers walking into Jones’ hospital room, the room Jones’ thought to be “pretty cool.” Her hair had fallen out from

the chemotherapy, but was just starting to “I remember that I was talking to one grow back. The usually well-built preteen of the adults, his name was Mitchell, and was skinnier than Gao, something that star- he told me this story about how one of his tled Gao deeply. But nowhere near as much friends had died tragically by falling off as Jones’ first words to her when she stepped a cliff,” Lewis said. “I guess he was tryinto the room. ing to relate to me, but it “I know I’m ugly,” was weird. I think when Jones had said. you’re that age and you Jones went through a go through something like year of chemotherapy, a that, there’s nothing that lung infection and two people can really say to bone marrow transplants. help you.” Gao recalls Jones telling But the the most difher that she was getting ficult part for Lewis was better and that she was grasping the fact that hopeful that she would someone so young could come out of it. go through something so “I would not consider terrible as cancer. In the myself particularly relifollowing months, Lewis gious,” Lewis said. “But found herself reaching out when Sydney was sick, to Gao and her family to I found myself trying to come to terms with Jones’ pray for her to get better.” death. Gao was one of Used with permission of Emma Lewis The following year Senior Emma Lewis visits the the few people she felt Lewis received a sec- grave of her childhood friend, close enough to talk about ond call from Gao and Sydney Jones. Jones with. learned that Jones had “There aren’t many died. Lewis’ initial reaction was to worry friends that can say they’ve gone through about how Gao was handling the news. For something like this,” Lewis said. “I think it’s the next few days, she was numb and in de- made Wendy and I that much closer.” nial about her friend’s death. It was not until Lewis and Gao’s biannual visit to Jones’ Lewis was driving away from Jones’ funeral grave is a tradition that allows them to enfive days after her death that she finally cried. sure that her memory is still preserved. Lewis and Gao describe the funeral Lewis no longer feels the pain like she used as awkward. People were asked to dress to. She says time has helped her heal and in bright colors in order to commemorate that when she now thinks of Jones, she reJones’ life. But for 12-year-olds Lewis and members the positives — their YMCA adGao, it felt like they were stuck in a limbo be- ventures, their bond of friendship and Jones’ tween grieving and celebrating. Feelings of unshakable optimism while going through confusion, frustration and turmoil followed the most painful moments of her life. Lewis through her first year of grieving. “The year after she passed, I used to One of the hardest things for Lewis was think about her every day,” Lewis said. “It visiting the YMCA to tell the instructors has been five years, and I still try to take the about Jones. That summer, she turned to the time to keep her in my thoughts.” instructors to help her cope. n.ramani@elestoque.org EL ESTOQUE

Catherine Lockwood | El Estoque

Junior forced to mature after losing father to cancer BY GABRIELLA MONICO

t was six in the morning, and he woke to a brightly lit room. His mother’s voice was low and harried on the phone. As he looked around his room, a sickening sense of premonition creeped up his neck. After months of watching his father slowly succumb to the inevitable, he waited with a pounding heart and clammy hands for the confirmation. The nine year old crossed his fingers under his bed; maybe his dad had recovered as though he had merely suffered from an extended bout of the flu. But on Jan. 4, 2006 his mother’s trembling voice filled his bedroom. A chill ran down his neck. His father was dead. What junior Nicholas Egan regrets most about the day his father died is being the only family member who did not touch his hand, feel his physical presence one last time. His aunt, grandmother, mother and older brother cramped into the tiny hospital room. His father’s body lay prostrate on the hospital bed, but Egan kept his distance. “My mom kissed him on the forehead, my grandma and aunt touched his hand,” Egan said. “I never touched him the day he died. And I don’t know why.” That was the day Egan realized he was no longer like every other kid in his fourth grade class. His father’s death made him realize the brevity of life and he began to distance himself from the other kids at his school. He preferred to introspect instead of reaching out to the others. While he was never very social in elementary school to begin with, Egan further ostracized himself, at times completely disconnecting from reality. “Before [his death] I had a few friends ... But after that I pretty much isolated myself from everyone,” Egan said. “During recess and lunch I would walk around the track alone instead of actually talking to anybody. I would really try to distance myself from the real world. I would actively try to daydream while I would spend my lunches in class so I wouldn’t have to talk to anybody.” While circling the elementary school track, he blocked out the shouts and laughs of his classmates. He had time to reflect, and would contemplate his life and his father’s life and his family’s life while adding his footsteps to the thousand others that had trodden that same route. At times, Egan admits to having felt jealousy and loss at the realization that he would never have a father to guide him through

MARCH 12, 2014

milestones. He did not talk much to his fa- death made it so he could handle it better, ther before he died, being a quiet and intro- refusing to burden people about the probspective child. Often, Egan wished he had lems in his life. He would stand in front of the talked to his father more, absorbed as much bathroom mirror and tell himself how worthof his wisdom as he could before it was too less he was, how he should have died instead late. He feels like he missed out on too much of his father. But this was done behind closed of the advice and stories his father, a “very doors as Egan refused to burden his family smart dude” according to Egan, had to tell. with his depression. Yet, while Egan struggled to cope with Egan also gained perspective. He would the death of his father, consciously going see people crying at school over a failed test through denial, anger, bargaining, depres- or a rude comment directed towards them sion and acceptance, he realized that he was and he could not help but get angry. growing up a lot faster than everyone else he “Different people have different values,” knew. He shied away from immature jokes Egan said, “but when I see people not feelon the playground and consciously kept his ing confident in themselves or like they don’t space from crying, have the power to tantrum-throwing change something kids. He realized and they’re crying it was easier and about that, I actumore natural to ally get kind of mad, talk to children because they absowho had lost a lutely do.” family member as Egan now realwell rather than izes that he has the those who could power to change only attempt to rehis life, to achieve late to his loss. whatever he wants “The experito achieve before it ence of having is too late. However, lost a parent that this is a new mindset early really shoots that took years of you up in matumaturing to develop. rity really fast,” For years after his faEgan said. “Really ther’s death, depresimmature jokes sion and self-punishI stopped caring ment were a major about, and I was a part of Egan’s life. lot more focused He often punched THE DAY HE than other classand berated himself, mates because I thinking that he had wanted to get stuff failed as a son and AND I DON’T KNOW WHY. done. I realized as a person. These that I’m not going thoughts, while they junior Nicholas Egan to live forever.” still do linger in his Egan had to choose between two different memory, are no longer as prominent as they mindsets as a result of his father’s passing. used to be. He has come to the realization Either he could keep grieving over his loss, that death is not something that should hold or he could be as active as possible with the him back, but something to spurn him forshort amount of time he had before he too ward and make him a more confident and died. These types of thoughts, uncommon in uninhibited person. To make his father –– most young pre-teens, were at the forefront the man who got him interested in science of Egan’s mind and to this day still are. and video games and science fiction novels, While losing a father was a traumatic ex- the man with stories to tell and wisdom to perience, Egan still believes that it served to impart –– proud. make him a stronger person. He dealt with depression his whole life, but his father’s

“

I NEVER

TOUCHED HIM

”

DIED.

g.monico@elestoque.org

MARCH 13, 2013

SPORTS

Mihir Joshi | El Estoque

COACH’S CHOICE B

aseball coaches Nick Bonacorsi and Robert Hoffman (above), much like the those of all other Matador athletics, endure a rigorous tryout process to select the best players for their team. In this issue, El Estoque explores the tryout process — the importance of qualifying for varsity teams, the way one team’s unique process has fostered its success, the disparities between school and club sports. MARCH 12, 2014

LINEUP

34 - The varsity pressure 36 - A unique format 38 - The club advantage 33

SPORTS

VARSITY 0R BUST

Across different sports, juniors face pressure to play on varsity BY ALINA ABIDI AND CHRISTINE LIANG

Rhonda Mak | El Estoque Illustration

nce at a United States Tennis Association tournament, junior Kaholi Kiyonami’s mother hid behind a bush for four hours to watch her daughter play. When her mother congratulated her on a good match, she was confused. Kiyonami asked her mother not to watch because she gets nervous under pressure. Kiyonami explained that, like other athletes, she performs poorly in high pressure situations, which is why she was nervous about varsity tryouts her junior year. “Making the team or not is such a big deal, and when you’re nervous, you play worse,” Kiyonami said. “If a coach was watching me from a bush playing with a friend, I would be way better than at a varsity tryout.” Kiyonami described trying out for varsity her junior year as more intimidating and stressful than tryouts had been in previous years. This increase in pressure is common for juniors. Whether students play one-on-one equipped with a racquet or on a team of 11 with a soccer ball, there’s one mentality present in sports when it comes to junior year — varsity or bust. For juniors, there is a common mindset — 78 percent of athletes who responded

to an El Estoque online survey of 102 students share it — that varsity is the only option. According to junior Brian Fan, players devote so many hours of daily practice to their sports that junior varsity may seem like a commitment not worth making. The usual grade separation also factors in — juniors may feel discouraged to be on a team with underclassmen when their peers are on varsity. Even returning varsity players face expectations to lead their team and be more comfortable doing so on account of their experience. While these are predominant concerns among juniors, other aspects widen the gap between junior varsity and varsity even further. Fan finds that because the vast majority of swimmers train outside of school, there is a stigma for juniors not on varsity, and it can be embarrassing. “A lot of people are from club swimming, so there’s the idea that if you don’t get onto varsity, you shouldn’t be swimming,” Fan said. “It’s not heavy, but the pressure is there.” Fan explained that it can be more of an internal pressure, but there are always expectations for experienced players.

“Every day in club swimming we train for two hours,” Fan said. “That’s a really long time, so there’s the assumption that if you’ve been training hard and working hard, you’re probably going to make varsity. The hours are there. If you didn’t get into varsity, it’s assumed that you’re lazy. You didn’t put in that time or that effort.” Spring sports also introduce a new factor: they start during second semester, after seniors have already sent out their college applications. If a student plays varsity in senior year, he or she would not be able to include that in their application, making junior year the last year for these athletes to indicate that they played varsity. Fan believes that if he does not make the varsity team, he will not be devastated, but he will quit the school team. He would continue to swim outside of school, but would do something more productive with the extra time than swim on junior varsity. “It’s the same time commitment, but it’s not the same prestige,” Fan said. No guarantees The likelihood of making varsity is often based on numbers. Junior Jeremy Wang explained that varsity tryouts for boys volEL ESTOQUE

Raised expectations For sophomore Allegra ZieglerHunts, her status as a returning varsity field hockey player secures her a spot on next year’s team, but does not relieve pressure. Going in next year as an experienced junior, her coaches and teammates expect her to be more comfortable on the team, to play more and to take on a leadership role.

MARCH 12, 2O14

“[Other players] might be looking up to me to know what to do, but I’m not sure if I really want that,” ZieglerHunts said. “I might know the team a little better, but I’m the same age as everyone, and I’ve been playing as long as everyone. I feel like I kind of got lucky being on varsity this year.” Late last August, when ZieglerHunts received the field hockey roster email, she was nervous. She had been refreshing her email in five minute intervals for half an hour, and when the roster arrived at 10:31 p.m., an hour and a half later than expected, she was surprised to find her name on the varsity list. She was scared and excited to play on varsity as a sophomore, whereas if she were a junior, it would have felt like a given. Ziegler-Hunts also plays soccer and did not play on varsity her sophomore year, so she will have a different tryout perspective for the two sports. For field hockey tryouts, she has the freedom to focus more on who her teammates will be and how they will work together rather than worrying about impressing her coaches. However, during the season, she feels that her teammates will expect her to be a leader and to help other players; in soccer she will not necessarily have that role. Like Ziegler-Hunts, freshman Ori Lavi believes that his experience will lead to higher expectations of him his junior and senior years. Playing competitive soccer with De Anza Force presented Lavi with a choice — to play at MVHS or continue to play club during winter. Club coaches offered Lavi conflicting opinions — some advised him to enjoy the school experience, while others insisted that club was more important. Playing club and school soccer during the same season is not allowed, so Lavi had to sacrifice winter tournaments to play at MVHS. This placed pressure on Lavi to do well in school soccer, and Lavi also explained that during the club season, players will compare their

COACH’S PERSPECTIVE

JV field hockey coach Bonnie Belshe

“

percent of athletes would not be likely to play JV junior year From a survey of 102 respondents

school teams. “You have all of your friends on your club team, and you come back, and they say, ‘Hey, are you on varsity or JV?” Lavi

In the last couple of years, we’ve had some juniors that just weren’t at the varsity level, so we wanted to keep them on JV for another year. The goal is not to just be on varsity. It’s to be on varsity with playing time. If you’re on the team with no playing time, it can be really disheartening. That’s hard emotionally on that player, on the rest of the team and coaches pick up on that. We really want to make sure that on varsity everyone is integral and can get in the game and play.

“

leyball were relatively low pressure because there were 12 people trying out for varsity and 12 available spots. Wang was confident that he would make varsity because the numbers matched up. However, this was not the case for girls tennis. According to Kiyonami, there were definitely more students trying out for varsity tennis than there were open spots on the team, and at least five people were cut. While boys volleyball was essentially no-cut, girls tennis tryouts were highly competitive. Kiyonami went to varsity tryouts and noticed that it was silent, except for the sound of a ball bouncing between two returning members’ racquets. “No one was talking,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh god, I need to make it or else I’m going to die.’” After one day, Kiyonami switched to JV tryouts. “I got scared at varsity,” she said. “I thought, ‘Nope,’ and then I left.” Despite two years of experience on JV tennis, Kiyonami decided not to finish varsity tryouts because she believed that even if she did make the team, she would have only been a backup. Kiyonami was also offered a captain position on JV, and since she was not guaranteed a spot on varsity, decided to go to JV tryouts to fulfill her captain duties of helping others and offering tips to new players. “I stopped because I was freaked out that I wouldn’t make it, so I might as well not try out,” Kiyonami said. “It was a mix of ‘I don’t want to know that I can’t make it’ and ‘I’d rather be present for JV because I needed to start being a captain.’” Early on, Kiyonami pressured herself to make the team because she was a junior and because she had experience, but ultimately she found that she had more playing time and was more involved on the JV team. “It was a worthwhile experience, even though I’m busy as a junior,” Kiyonami said. “I would be really proud to be on varsity, but I’m happy to be on either team.”

said. Club teammates who played on varsity raise expectations for players, especially because they have the same experience. Still, Lavi did not expect to make varsity his freshman year — at all. However, after a few days of tryouts, the MVHS coaches decided to pull him up to practice with the upperclassmen. “It was very clear cut if you were going to make the team or not,” Lavi said. “There were a few on the bubble, and the sophomores went down to JV.” He described playing on varsity as surreal but soon realized he could do it due to his experience playing competitively. Lavi explained that his teammates expect returning varsity members to lead, set a good example and help the team out. Lavi will be under pressure his junior year., and so will his peers. However after the time and commitment Lavi has devoted to his sport, he believes the pressure will pay off.

a.abidi@elestoque.org|c.liang@elestoque.com 35

SPORTS

NO CUTS, ALL GLORY

Varsity boys volleyball maintains competitive edge despite informal tryout process BY RHONDA MAK AND YASHASHREE PISOLKAR

quick look at the varsit y boys volleyball team’s record reveals just how competitive the team is. They have qualified for CCS for the past four seasons and went undefeated 20-0 last season. Surely you would expect a highly selective process during tr youts — one with multiple cuts in order to build such a strong team. But that’s not the case. There are no formal tr youts in boys volleyball. Head coach Paul Chiu takes a different approach compared to other varsit y spor ts teams when it comes to orchestrating tr youts. Instead of a t wo-week long evaluation process during the scheduled tr yout time for spring spor ts, he hosts open gyms and skill sessions on a regular basis year round, encouraging prospective players to come in voluntarily to practice. While athletes benefit from open cour t practices, Chiu obser ves the players from afar, evaluating their skills not for the purpose of making cuts, but in order to gauge the talent and commitment within his pool of athletes. Prolonged exposure to the athletes allows Chiu to have a solid idea of the team’s strengths and areas for improvement. Consequently, the tr youts are a mere formalit y, and the team-build-

ing process carries more weight heading into competition season. Hand-picked for the team Chiu’s evaluation of prospective varsit y athletes actually begins as early as eighth grade. Since he also coaches boys volleyball at Kennedy Middle School, Chiu gets to see the group of students that will later attend MVHS their freshman year. In fact, Chiu worked with six of the eight juniors on this year’s team before they even came to MVHS through open gyms he held over the summer before their freshman year. Although Chiu detects a spark in these young athletes, sometimes he prefers to wait patiently until the athlete takes the initiative to approach the team. Senior captain Ryan Manley is one such athlete who has been playing volleyball since his middle school years. Also an active member of club volleyball since the eighth grade, Manley approached Chiu during his freshman year. “I went and found the team,” Manley said. “After a great season at Kennedy [Middle School], I knew that I was defi-

nitely going to tr y out.” As a seasoned athlete, Manley understands many of the behind-the-cour t dynamics that come into play when building a highly-ranked CCS team. Currently preranked fifth in CCS, the boys volleyball team boasts exceptionally skilled athletes — some of whom make the selection decision for varsit y athletes hard on Chiu. The varsit y level is vaguely defined. Unlike varsit y soccer in which athletes

THERE WAS A LEARNING CURVE, AND I GOT OVER IT. junior Kevin Zhang

usually get equal amounts of play time, Chiu provides his juniors and seniors a choice: They can be on the varsit y team but may not get a whole lot of play time, or they can choose to opt out of the team entirely. Chiu expects that players who continue on varsit y will put their best foot for ward and tr y to develop their leadership potential along with their technique. “I usually know my pool of players. I just have to make a decision about which

TRIAL AND ERROR: HOW DO OTHER TEAMS’ TRYOUTS COMPARE? TRACK Tryout period: 2 weeks How they are assessed: There is no deadline for joining track. Interested athletes can sign up for the team throughout the season. Practices are flexible depending on the event, and athletes have the freedom to customize their workout.

Cuts: None

SWIMMING Tryout period: 2 weeks How they are assessed:

The prospective athletes are required to swim in test sets on two Wednesdays comprised of a 4x100 medley. If they make the time – a minute and 30 seconds -- they make the team.

Cuts: 2 rounds EL ESTOQUE

sophomores I’m going to bring up [from JV],” Chiu said. The decision of finalizing the varsit y roster boils down to the sophomores that exhibit talent and master y. While most juniors and seniors have clarit y about their status on the team before the so-called “tr youts” even take place, the sophomores on JV have to prove that they are dedicated and ready to take on the challenge of playing with the varsit y athletes through their per formance on the cour t during practices and games. “[Coach Chiu] has a wealth of knowledge, so [passing] it on to the younger players earlier on before they even come onto varsit y is really impor tant,” Manley said. Junior Kevin Zhang got pulled up to varsit y par t way through the season during his sophomore year. In his ver y first game on varsit y, he had to face Mountain View High School, a formidable team with more than a few strong players. To raise the stakes even higher, Monta Vista was down t wo star ting players. Daunting as it seemed, Zhang stepped up to play as a star ter and blocked shot after shot. With ever y shot he convinced not only himself but also Chiu that he could play at the varsit y level. “It was prett y exciting,” Zhang said. “The challenge was tougher, so I knew I had to step it up. There was a learning cur ve, and I got over it.” Pressure is still on Even though there essentially aren’t any tr youts for volleyball, competition between players is still present. Players compete constantly for playing time. At any given time, there are only six players on

the cour t, and there are 14 players on the team. The system is simple: more skilled players get more playing time, less skilled players get less playing time. After all, the team, having made CCS for four consecutive years, has a record to break and a reputation to live up to. “There’s a lot of pressure,” assistant coach and Class of 2012 alumnus Brandon Tiongson said. “The team’s been really good for the past four years. During practices we practice really hard, and if we don’t, coach yells.” Even though there is no clear-cut tr yout process, Chiu expects that all the athletes will set and achieve high goals. According to Manley, although boys volleyball may be perceived as a less physical spor t compared to football, basketball or wrestling, the team knows that the game is nonetheless intense and volleyball is not a spor t to join just for fun. Granted, fun is a byproduct of per forming well throughout the season. Despite the rigor of the team, drills and practice games do not go long without hoots and hollers from team members at the end of a play. No matter how the play ends, the reaction from the team is the same: high fives all around. Despite Chiu’s untraditional approach to tr youts, he has managed to build an effective team that looks for ward to yet another successful season. “We believe that we are one of the top four teams in CCS,” Chiu said. “At that point it’s ver y competitive. Obviously we have to play well to win CCS and ultimately win NorCal.”

BADMINTON

Tryout period: 2 weeks How they are assessed:

Coach looks for people who have a grasp on the basic skills: footwork, different kinds of shots and teamwork.

Cuts: 2 rounds MARCH 12, 2014

r.mak@elestoque.org |y.pisolkar@elestoque.org

TALKING TRYOUTS

Senior Ryan Bishop

“[Play time] is a pretty direct function of how you play at practice. There are no surprises come game time ... It’s all about how you practice.”

Sophomore Eric Zhang “Since I’m a sophomore, I don’t really get a lot of minutes. Everyone’s goal is to get on the court, but for now I’m just trying to build up my skills playing with the juniors and seniors.”

SOCCER Tryout period: 2 weeks How they are assessed:

Returning varsity juniors and seniors are assessed together while freshmen and sophomores are assessed together. After the second cut, coach asks freshmen and sophomores he deems at the varsity level if they want to move up to varsity.

Cuts: 2 rounds 37

SPORTS

JOIN THE CLUB

BY LYDIA SEO AND RUBA SHAIK

Involvement in club sports may be necessity for varsity admission Catherine Lockwood|El Estoque

CLUBBING Senior Angie Inn practices with her club soccer team on Mar. 3. Inn, who has played club since the fourth grade and MVHS varsity girls soccer her sophomore and junior year, decided not to play varsity this year due to injuries and conflicting schedules.

ne huge hall, more than 30 parallel courts, 300 different teams and thousands of screaming fans. Welcome to the world of competitive club volleyball, where there are no gaudy school colors, no sparse family-filled audiences, no pregame rallies and no post-game interviews by disinterested high school reporters. It’s where the players invest in their sport so much that they’re willing to play outside of the school season and perhaps condition themselves in preparation for varsity tryouts. MVHS offers 21 sports arranged into the fall, winter and spring seasons throughout the school year. Each season lasts about four months, and for the average potential college recruit athlete, four meager months of a school season are simply not enough. Playing a club sport would certainly fill that off-season time void and decrease the fear of rustiness for dedicated players, but in the realm of varsity sports, does that extra conditioning on the club team define a player’s success on the school team? Are club sports necessary for our athletes to play varsity, or is involvement still an athlete’s personal choice?

club soccer respectively, believe it’s a matter of staying in shape for varsity tryouts. “It’s almost mandatory... If you don’t play club soccer, you’re so much further behind everyone in skill,” Inn said. According to Inn, 15 of the 18 girls on the varsity soccer team last year played club, and Sankar said that this year, 9 out of 14 varsity girls on the volleyball team were affiliated with a private club. Junior Chaitanya Adiga, who plays soccer for the school and does not play club, believes that the importance of involvement on a club team depends on the player and is therefore more of a choice than a necessity. Among the players on the team, the majority of whom play club soccer, he has seen that the senior Angie Inn club players are generally more skilled. However, many of those who do not play club are still talented in technique and on a similar level to that of the club players. “I think just being on a [club] team and having practices every week throughout the entire season, just hammering in all that practice, just makes you better, more in touch with your skills,” Adiga said.

Necessity versus preference Seniors Angie Inn and Nikita Sankar believe that club sports are necessary. Inn and Sankar, who play club volleyball and

Easier acceptance into varsity With both Inn and Sankar, there also seems to be a general consensus that playing club sports not only keeps you on

If you don’t play club soccer, you’re so much further behind everyone in skill.

varsity, but is also your ticket in. The intense rigor generally associated with privately organized sports makes the school tryout process look simple. “[Trying out for a club] is like applying to college,” Sankar said. Potential club athletes register for as many sports tryouts as they choose to. After attending the tryouts, athletes then receive offers from the different teams that they qualified for. Their final decision is sealed when they officially commit to the team by signing paperwork. Tryouts are to college admissions as coaches are to admissions officers. Commitment and time are vital for club teams, and unlike high school tryouts, coaches have the opportunity to choose who they want. “The coaches that coach for club teams are looking for specific talent to fill a specific position and they have more options… In a school, since you have a limited number of people, you have to deal with what you have and adapt them to what you want instead of the other way around,” Sankar said. Varsity boys soccer coach Pooya Hajarian seems to be just as selective, although he gives no importance to club involvement. “When students come to tryout for soccer. . . I don’t need to ask them whether they’re part of a club or not,” Hajarian said. “I just want to know a few things: are they coachable, are they going to be a contributing member of this team, and is their skill level high. Are they willing to be part of that team that I want to build?” l.seo@elestoque.org|r.shaik@elestoque.org EL ESTOQUE

SPORTS FLASH

Check out the latest game recaps for spring sports on Instagram @elestoquesports and #EEinstacaps

Winter sports season recap as of March 6 BY SARAH RAMOS

Senior Tiffany Tsai maneuvers around Andrew Hill High School defenders during the first round of CCS on Feb. 25. The Matadors won the match 53-30, with senior Stephanie Jennings contributing 18 points. After having defeated Evergreen Valley High School 44-41 at home earlier in the season, MVHS travelled to play them in the second round of CCS on Feb. 27, losing a heartbreaking 63-62 in overtime. They played poor defense during the first half, ending the first half in a ninepoint deficit. MVHS took their first lead of the match during the fourth quarter, eventually losing by one point. The Matadors ended the season with a 9-3 league record and 15-10 overall. Catherine Lockwood|El Estoque

Senior co-captain Aaron Wu submits his Cupertino High School opponent during a match for SCVAL tournament on Feb. 14. Wu had a bye for the first round, winning this match in under 15 seconds. MVHS hosted the two-day tournament for the first time since the arrival of head coach Kevin Klemm and assistant coach Ian Bork. The Matadors finished third in the tournament overall. Wu and senior Faris Karaborni qualified for the California States tournament after winning CCS.

Colin Ni|El Estoque

Senior Vaish Menon attempts to steal the ball from a Gunn High School defender on Feb. 12. The Matadors won the match 2-0 after GHS forfeited in the 62nd minute. MVHS ended the season 7-3-2 in league and 11-4-4 overall, missing the qualification for CCS by two points. Junior co-captain Brad Ohadi finished as the SCVAL El Camino league leading scorer with 15 goals. The team also qualified to move up to Divison 1 next year. MARCH 12, 2014

Mihir Joshi|El Estoque

s.ramos@elestoque.org 39

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