The Oracle (April 2010)

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Henry M. Gunn High School 780 Arastradero Road Palo Alto, CA 94306 Palo Alto Unified School District

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. Postage

YCS/Interact travels to Guatemala pg. 11

Create your own shoe art pg. 21

Volume 46, Issue 7

Team Rocket goes to states pg. 26

Monday, April 26, 2010

http://gunn.pausd.org/oracle

PA I D

Permit #44 Palo Alto, Calif.

780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Cafeteria revamps lunches Emily Zheng

Features Editor

A new make-it-yourself salad bar in the cafeteria greeted students when they returned from spring break on April 19. The bar was created through a joint effort between Student Executive council (SEC), Food Services Manager Denise Boggs, Food Services Supervisor Maria

Turner and Food Service Director Alva Spence. “We met with SEC after the last article in The Oracle about the school lunches,” Spence said. “We wanted to get the voice of the students as to what wasn’t working in the food service and what types of changes that they would like to see so we could begin working to better the needs of the students.”

LUNCHES—p.2

Melissa Sun

Gender enrollment gap in science classes persists Jon Proctor Editor-In-Chief

Last February, Barbie fans around the world voted for the world’s most popular doll to become a “geek chic” computer engineer. Barbie, however, has not always been a tech-savvy role model for young girls. In 1992, Mattel, the creator of Barbie, released the “Teen Talk Barbie,” whose saying “math class is tough” ignited controversy and caused Mattel to pull the offensive dolls off the shelves. Gender stereotypes like this still impact students across the nation.

Palo Alto is a hotbed of technological innovation, but its classrooms host an inequality of enrollment between males and females in computer science, engineering and advanced physics classes. For example, Gunn’s Robotic Team (GRT) has been over 71 percent male for the past three years and the enrollment is 91 percent male in both Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science and Digital Electronics this year.

This enrollment gap is not unique to Gunn and has been around in one form or another for decades. “Half a century ago, there was a similar discrepancy in enrollment between women and men in math and science classes,” AP Computer Science teacher Josh Paley said.

For centuries, females were banned from academic life. Universities were founded as all-male institutions in the 12th century and were not, with a few exceptions, opened to women until the 20th century.

A similar gender enrollment gap is seen throughout the United States. Nationally, 82 percent of the students who took the AP Computer Science A or AB test and 74 percent of the students who took the AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism or Mechanics tests in 2009 were male, according to a 2009 American Association of University Women (AAUW) report. Additionally, boys scored higher than girls on average on the AP Computer Science A, Physics C, Physics B and Chemistry tests by around .3 to .5 points on the 5 point scale. Boys and girls had the same average score on the AP Computer Science AB test. According to the AAUW, this difference in achievement may be caused by the “stereotype threat,” a psychological phenomenon that says that if someone believes he or she is going to perform poorly based on a negative stereotype, then his or her performance will fall. An even larger gap exists between majority and minority students on these tests, according to the 2009 College Board National Summary Report, further suggesting that the differences in achievement comes

from cultural, not natural, barriers.

While a concrete reason behind the enrollment gap between males and females remains unclear, physics teacher and GRT advisor Bill Dunbar, physics and engineering teacher Bakari Holmes and Paley see no difference between the capabilities of their male and female students. “The female students we have are great, but there just aren’t enough of them,” Paley said.

Dunbar, Holmes and Paley believe that the dearth of women in engineering and the physical sciences poses a range of problems including a weakened national economy and an unbalanced education system. According to the National Center for Women Information Technology, there will be 1.4 million job openings for computer WOMEN—p.5

Nine percent of students in AP Computer Science and Digital Electronics classe s a r e fe m a l e.

Passing period re-evaluated Regina Ahn & Annie Tran

Copy Editor & Reporter

The administration is considering changing the 2010 to 2011 bell schedule to include a longer passing period to accommodate students and teachers walking from the science buildings to the parking lot, where the portable classrooms from the Village will be relocated due to construction.

“We wanted to adjust the bell schedule to avoid having students being consistently tardy to class,” Principal Noreen Likins said.

Currently, the Instructional Council is reviewing four different proposals with slightly shorter classes that compensate for a lengthened passing period. All the plans include a passing period that takes place only between back-to-back classes without interruption, such as between A and B periods on Monday morning. The interim between a break and a class (e.g., lunch and F period) would not include a lengthened passing period.

Brunch and lunch will remain 10 and 40 minutes respectively, especially because club meetings and student activities occur during lunch.

The first proposal does not change the current schedule significantly, except that the passing period would take seven minutes instead of five, and students would be released at 2:03 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 3:16 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

BELL PERIOD—p. 2

For The Oracle’s opinion, check out p. 7.

News

The Oracle

Students to compete at National History Day

Every year, the grand prize winner of the History Day Competition wins a chance to have their presentation featured on the History Channel. History Day is a national competition in which students make a presentation on a historical event.

The categories include exhibits, documentaries, performances, websites and formal papers which can be entered with a partner or individually. The History Day Club, supervised by social studies teacher Faith Hilal, will compete this year.

During the process of researching for the competition, students get to learn new methods of research. The students have to deal with constant revisions, research for primary and secondary sources and editing. Students get to choose which category they compete in. “It allows students five different ways to show their research,” Hilal said. One of Hilal’s social studies projects is to work on a History Day entry. For sophomore Michaela Gold, History Day was a great experience because of the information she learned. “I love history, and History Day is a great way to use that passion,” Gold said. For others like junior Willa Akey, the accomplishment in finishing was fulfilling. “When you see the final product, it’s amazing,” Akey said.

The History Day Club has done very well this season with a sweep at the county competition for the exhibit. Twenty-five members of the History Day Club are attending this year’s competition. Winners from the county competition continue to the upcoming state competition held from May 7 to 9 in Pasadena, Calif. Winners will go to the national competition in Washington D.C. from June 13 to 17.

—Elise Lee

New legislation helps students get, pay off loans

NEWS BITES

On Mar. 30, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation that will enlarge the federal loan program.

This law will make it easier for students to afford taking a loan out for college as well as learning a new trade if they lose their job.

The federal government will eliminate fees paid to private banks who currently act as the middleman whenever a student takes out a loan for college. “The banks would usually have a higher interest rate and undisclosed items within their loans to put students into huge debt by the time they graduate for college,” College and Career Center Coordinator Leighton Lang said. With banks out of the picture, the government will give $68 billion over 11 years to expand PELL grants, making it easier for students to pay for loans after college.

For students in California, the Cal Grant gave $1,000 to those applying to community and public colleges.

Students attending private schools will receive an additional $500. However, the Cal Grant is a merit-based scholarships so students are required to meet academic requirements, to receive financial aid.

Obama made his goal of improving education clear when he passed this legislation. “We will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal,” Obama said in his address to the Joint Session of Congress. “By 2020, America will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”

Library to host uncompetitive Poetry Slam

2

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the library has decided to hold a Poetry Slam open to all students on April 30. Each participant will be given a three minute time block to perform any work of their choice.

The slam is sponsored by an unofficial club, the Library Advisory Board (LAB), a group of students who gather monthly to discuss events. “I spent a lot of time in the library so I got involved,” LAB member junior Celine Nguyen said.

LAB, headed by librarian Meg Omainsky, hopes to continue hosting events. “We are not an official club but we are thinking about becoming one next year,” Omainsky said.

The idea of the slam originated from the students. “I did a poetry slam once and it was fun, so I liked the idea of holding one at Gunn,” Nguyen said. Nguyen feels that poetry slams bring more than a poetry reading. “It is just as acting focused as it is poetry focused,” she said.

Unlike most poetry slams, the performances at the LAB’s slam are not competitive. “This event is super low key,” Omainsky said. However, with the help of previous Slam Poetry Club advisor Jessica Hawkins, the event may present a live performance from a nationally recognized Slam Poet.

Although the location is undecided, the club hopes to have it in the Acorn Lounge. “This is our first slam poetry event, but we are hoping to hold many more,” Nguyen said.

Interested students should sign up in the library.

­—­Alvin Man

—Tara Golshan

Courtesy of TheWorkingGroup

A YouTube video about the events at Gunn in response to Western Baptist Church recently reached 192,687 views. Juniors David Williams, Cat Volpe and Tony Bianchini and seniors Robyn Freeman and Sarah Powell perform in the quad. “Gunn Sings Away Hate“can be seen at www.niot.org/niot-video/gunn-high-school-sings-away-hate-group.

Salad bar allows healthier choices n SALAD BAR from pg. 1

One of the main issues that was voiced in the meeting was a desire for more nutritious, fresher and healthier foods. SEC, led

by Food Focus Group members seniors Wook Lee, Jon Proctor and Natan Reddy, suggested a salad bar with an emphasis on fresh and local produce. SEC and the food service staff committed to getting the salad bar up and running by the time students returned from spring break. “As of now, that was the only change made, but this change is a milestone for further improvement,” Lee said. “It proves that the school is willing to listen to changes that students want to see.”

The new salad bar costs $4.25 and offers spring mix greens, spinach, corn, mushrooms, cucumbers, broccoli, croutons, carrots, cherry tomatoes, cauliflower, shredded cheese and four selections of salad dressing. The salad bar’s items are from Fresh Point Produce, which purchases from local farms in Oakland, San Leandro, Salinas and other near-by areas.

On the first day back from spring break, five students made their own salads. The number of salads created increased, with 21 the next

day, and 23 the following. Thirty students made their own salads on May 22. “I think that the addition of the new salad bar is a huge step in the right direction,” junior Howon Lee, who has eaten at the salad bar twice since its introduction, said. “The food is a lot fresher and healthier and it will encourage students to buy from the lunch line more often.”

Spence is also collaborating with the Executive Chef of Sodexo (Sodexo is Gunn’s food provider) to organize an Exhibition Cooking Station on May 12. During lunch that day, the chef will set up a cooking station. Students will be able to see and smell the dishes being prepared. “The Exhibition Cooking Station will not be an ongoing station this year, but hopefully next year it will,” Spence said. “We need to have more people to help us in the cafeteria to make this dream come to life. If the Exhibition Cooking Station works with the help of SEC, I’m hoping that we can try a deli station and a pasta station sometime before the end of the school year, too.”

The main problem facing the cafeteria staff is the lack of manpower. Currently there are only five people on staff, who

work a range of three to six hours a day. The addition of the salad bar raised a proposal for more staff members, but this may be a stretch due to budget cuts. “If we can get more people in here helping us out, and even volunteering for community service, we would be able to provide so many more options,” Turner said. “If we want to add a deli bar or a pasta bar, we will need more staff members.”

Spence suggested getting students to work in the cafeteria in exchange for funds to use for their clubs. “We do this in Martinez Unified School District and it works out great,” Spence said. “The students who work get a free meal and their club gets money for whatever they are normally fundraising for.”

However, this idea is still in the running. According to Turner, the main concern with having students work in the cafeteria is that they may displace positions of others who are seeking jobs. In addition, starting such a program would need district approval as well as California School Employees Association (CSEA) coordination.

Spence hopes that a program like this will be set in place by the coming school year.

Possible changes to bell schedule n SCHEDULE from pg. 1

The third and fourth proposals change the bell schedule significantly. Both of them propose that school should start later, have a 10-minute passing period and have 55-minute class periods. “The latestart idea is interesting, but losing 20 minutes of instructional time per class per week would be especially tough on a science class,” science teacher Laurie Pennington said. “That extra 5 minutes in a period sometimes really makes a difference when you need at least a 5-10 minute buffer for clean-up/ wrap-up. I feel pressed for time as it is now.” The third plan suggests that school should start at 8:15 a.m. and end at 2:10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 3:15 p.m. for the rest of the week. The fourth plan presented a similar proposal

where school starts at 8:00 a.m. and students are released at 1:50 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

The administration is not considering starting school earlier to make up for the longer school day.

School cannot start later than 8:10 a.m., since it would lead to heavier morning traffic with students from neighboring schools. A later start would impact after school sports scheduling and other activities.

Social Studies Instructional Supervisor John Hebert, Pennington and her students, conducted an experiment that determined that walking from S-9 to the tennis courts would be impossible within five minutes. The experiment was conducted under optimal conditions, such as walking in the straightest line possible and not wearing backpacks, according to

Pennington. It took them around six minutes to seven minutes to walk the distance.

Principal Noreen Likins expects diverse responses and seeks to approach them all fairly. “We have to make reasonable adjustments for everybody,” she said.

According to Assistant Principal Tom Jacoubowsky, the Instructional Council will most likely choose the first proposal since they agree that it is the most plausible.

The Instructional Council will make its final decision on the bell schedule at its next meeting on May 5.

Students and staff should send their opinion on the issue to office secretary Martha Elderon at melderon@pausd.org

News

Monday, April 26, 2010

3

Problems on the rise

The Oracle explores various growing issues that humans will need to face for generations to come

Overpopulation will devour resources for the human race Wen Yi Chin

Sports Editor

The 2006 Census estimates the world population to be 6.5 billion and growing at a rate of 76 million people per year. By 2050, the world’s population is estimated to grow to more than 9 billion. With a finite amount of natural resources and only so much available land, overpopulation may cause resource scarcity and possible economic inflation.

The population explosion has been relatively recent. According to scientists from Yale University, overpopulation can be attributed to better food production distribution, an improvement in public health and the reduction of lethal diseases. Farmers have been able to exponentially increase food production over the past 150 years because of the discovery

of new kinds of seed, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and machinery. Additionally, medical discoveries have caused death rates to fall, kept birth rates have high and increased the average lifespan of human beings.

Growing human populations contribute to increase deforestation, global warming, air pollution and desertification.

However, in addition to the myriad of environmental and human rights consequences of overpopulation, the biggest problem will be the dearth of clean water. By 2025, scientists estimate that the 5 million people who live in water-scarce countries will grow to over 3 billion. Although two-thirds of the earth is covered in water, only 0.3 percent of it is available for consumption. In fact, the United Nations predicts that 750,000 children will die each year from diseases related to water contamination from waste. Many nations,

both developed and developing, are “approaching the limits of sustainable water use based on their own renewable resources,” according to a Yale study. At the present growth rate, developed countries’ populations are expected to double in 133 years, whereas developing countries populations are expected to double in just 33 years.

Also, since 97 percent of population growth is expected to occur in developing countries, these budding governments will be faced with mounting economic and social challenges. The growing infrastructure will also lead to waste management problems, which when overlooked, can lead to a worldwide epidemic.

Overpopulation can be abated by increased access to health care, family planning and education to decrease unwanted pregnancies.

Global warming increases frequency of natural disasters Lisa Wong

Reporter

The effects of global warming—melting ice caps and erratic weather—will force Generation Y, people born from the mid-1970s through early 2000, to bear the burden of finding a way to minimize the effects.

The effects of global warming have only recently been discovered. “Before 1960 nobody recognized the relationship between carbon emission and global warming,” Advanced Placement Biology teacher Katherine Moser said.

“Back then, they focused on inventions, not on how much

carbon was sent into the atmosphere.”

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the ice caps are melting by 9 percent more each year. More ice melting will produce more water, in turn creating floods. In the World Book at NASA, scientists predict that the average temperature will rise from 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Flash floods in Ghana and East Africa have affected 1.5 million people and killed more than 300,000 since 2007. Though the floods were expected, people were still unprepared for such devastating results.

“Key crops may be wiped out and our food supply seriously threatened if this weather continues,” director of the

Climate Network Africa Organization Grace Akumu said.

“This is happening even faster than we expected.”

Weather patterns are another cause for concern. Changes in rainfall patterns may increase flooding in different areas.

In 2005, Hurricane Emily killed hundreds of people in Mexico, Honduras and Jamaica and caused damages of up to a total of $1 billion. According to USA Today, scientists have calculated that hurricane durations have increased by 60 percent and average wind storms have increased by about 50 percent.

NASA scientists suspect that as global warming increases, the force of storms will follow.

Deficit burdens next generation, possible solutions explored Arjun Bharadwaj & Divya Shiv Reporters

The United States is currently $12 trillion in debt, a number that is increasing at an alarming rate. “Right now, we are spending more than we actually have, and instead of raising taxes, our country is choosing to borrow money, creating even more debt,” Stanford University political science professor Barry Weingast said.

Advanced Placement economics teacher Phil Lyons believes that this deficit spending, the costs of universal health care, the war against terrorism and numerous tax cuts, present a financial issue that our generation will need to deal with. Our generation will have fewer social services, such as public schools and roads, than the previous generation due to reduced government spending.

The health care bill is one of the newest additions to the deficit and will increase the deficit by $239 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill will try to make up for the lost money by increasing investment income tax for people who make more than $200,000 to 3.8 percent starting in 2018. This plan allows the bill to be budget neutral, meaning health care won’t make or lose any money. In addition, employers who choose to pay their employees’ health care i n stead of the penalty price must pay a higher amount, leaving less money for hiring new people and investments; with less jobs, the economy declines.

However, AP Economics teacher Ronen Habib believes that there are benefits of the health care bill despite its costs. “The new health care bill introduces more competition and prevents private health insurance companies from making astronomical profits by picking and choosing who they want to insure for private insurance,” Habib said. “As

long as they are not regulated to become non-profit organizations, they will make some profits.”

The war against terrorism plays a large role in the deficit. According to CNN, The U.S. government has spent between $700 billion and $800 billion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since Sept. 11, 2001, and this number will only increase as time goes by.

Both Habib and Lyons believe that cutting taxes while going into the war against terrorism was a bad choice financially. “Cutting taxes is a fine proposition, but you have to cut spending as well,” Lyons said. “However, [U.S. Presidents Ronald] Reagan and [George W.] Bush both expanded the government and increased spending while also cutting taxes.”

However, there are solutions to help curb the mounting debt. Starting in 2011, the government will attempt to remediate this financial crisis by freezing all deficit spending. Weingast believes that these broad statements will be hard to accomplish. “It’s easy to say these things, but trying to achieve that goal is politically very hard,” Weingast said. “Republicans do not want tax hikes and want to decrease spending. Democrats, on the other hand, want to raise taxes and increase spending.” According to Weingast, the government can currently do three things: raise the taxes, default on its debt (i.e. not pay for it) or pump more money into the system, which would create inflation. According to Habib, the second solution poses another problem. “A lot of people think that the United States is like a bank—that it’s going to default on its debt, and that’s not true,” Habib said. “It still has a fairly stable currency, and I don’t see the central government collapsing in the near future.”

Conservatives and liberals alike have vastly different solutions to this financial problem. The conservative solution is to curb spending on projects such as the stimulus and health care reform. John B. Taylor, an economist who served with the Bush administration, wrote in the New York Daily News that spending must be cut or else America will be forced to seek aid from China and other countries, which will negatively affect our foreign policy.

On the other hand, the liberal side feels that it is important to look at the long term picture. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, spending on things such as education will decrease the deficit in the long run. The way to solve the debt will continue to be hotly debated by economists across the political spectrum.

4

The Oracle

The Oracle 780 Arastradero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 354-8238 http://gunn.pausd.org/oracle

Editorial Board

News

What makes students tick?

The Oracle asked 183 students what influences their motivations at school.

What motivates you to do well in school? Please rank from most important to least important (from 1-4)

What is more important to you?

Editor-in-Chief Jon Proctor Managing Editors Sophie Cheng Joyce Liu News Niki Mata Nicola Park Linda Yu Forum Joseph Lin Sarah-Jean Zubair

learning the material 36% getting a good grade 64%

Features Henry Gens Emily Zheng Centerfold Sophia Jiang Alvin Man

How often does the fear of getting a bad grade prevent you from taking risks on assignments?

Entertainment Melissa Chan Tiffany Hu Sports Wen Yi Chin Kevin Gao Annie Shuey Copy Editors Regina Ahn Hannah Plank-Schwartz Alice Yu

rarely 16%

sometimes 57%

never 7% always 20%

Photo Henry Liu

getting into college

parental pressure

friend/peer pressure

What motivates you most to participate in extracurricular activities?

71.6% personal enjoyment 20.8% getting into college 3.8% parental encouragement

3.3% I don’t do extracurricular activities 0.5% peer pressure

personal motivation

How would you describe most students at Gunn when it comes to concern about their grades?

overly concerned

58.5%

reasonably concerned 39.3% somewhat concerned

1.6%

do not care

0.5%

Graphics Nathan Toung Web/Tech Kimberly Han Webmaster Charles Chen

Staff Reporters Krishan Allen, Maya Ambady, Arjun Bharadwaj, Sweta Bhattacharya, Monica Cai, Colin Chen, Eugenah Chou, Samantha Donat, Tara Golshan, Sam Hayward, Mia Howard, Jesse Klein, Eden Lauffer, Elise Lee, Yilin Liang, Nicolas Loyola, Ashley Ngu, Mati Pluska-Renaud, Jennie Robinson, Divya Shiv, Leon Sung, Annie Tran, Lisa Wong, Lisa Wu, May Wu, Kevin Zhang, Lydia Zhang Business/Circulation Managers Jazreel Cheung Anne Hsiao Elaine Liu Photographers Victor Kwok Alan Phan Melissa Sun Jonathan Yong Graphics Artists Kimberly Han Andrew Lee Adviser Kristy Blackburn The Oracle is published by and for the students of Henry M. Gunn Senior High School. The unsigned editorials that appear in this publication represent the majority opinion of the editorial staff and The Oracle's commitment to promoting students' rights. The Oracle strongly encourages and prints signed Letters to the Editor. Please include your name, grade and contact information should you choose to write one. Letters may be edited to meet space requirements and the writer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Letters to the editor and ideas for coverage may be sent to gunnoracle@yahoo.com.

These letters and ideas need not be from current students. The Oracle publishes 10 issues annually. Subscriptions are $40/year.

Construction of new facilities underway Sophie Cheng

Managing Editor

The district will tear down the RC building where the Student Activities Center (SAC) and Special Education classes are currently located and begin construction on a new SAC, a new Performing Arts Building and an upgraded Spangenberg Theater in late 2013 to early 2014.

T h e c o n s t r u c t i o n p l a n s, collectively referred to as the Group 2 Construction Project, will commence after construction of the two-story English and math building, the World Languages building and the existing gym is completed. Once the math classes move to the new two-story building, the Special Education classes will move to the current math building, which will be renamed the Special Education Center.

The construction, which costs about $14.8 million, is funded by the Measure A bond passed in June 2008.

According to Assistant Principal of Facilities Tom Jacoubowsky, the Facilities Steering Committee (FSC) and the district altered the original construction plan to avoid cutting down the oak trees next to Spangenberg Theater. “We were trying to avoid eliminating the surrounding vegetation as much as possible,” he said.

This relocated the new Performing Arts Building from the east side of Spangenberg to the south side, which meant the RC building would need to be demolished sooner, and moved up renovation for Spangenberg and construction for the new SAC and Performing Arts Building.

The district plans to update Spangenberg with an expanded lobby, ticket booth and bathrooms.

“Renovations discussed so far are adding [air conditioning] or replacing the seats,” Palo Alto Unified School District Facilities Management Consultant Tom Hodges wrote in an e-mail. “It will also need some [A m e r i c a n s with Disabilities A c t (A DA)] a c c e s sib i l it y improvements.”

According to Jacoubowsky, the number of seats in Spangenberg may go down slightly because Courtesy of Tom Jacoubowsky o f A D A The district plans to replace the RC building with a Student Activities Cenmodifications. ter and a Performing Arts Building and to renovate Spangenberg Theater.

The new Performing Arts Building will not planned for previously. before construction for the Group 2 be two-story as previously reported, With construction beginning next project starts. “Drivers will be able but will still include higher ceilings year, the district is also considering to drive in, drop students off and turn for the music and choral rooms, different ways to minimize traffic. around in the fire lane off of Miranda,” according to Hodges. “We will Ideas that have been suggested include Jacoubowsky wrote in an e-mail. The have much more storage space and online classes, 0 or 8th period classes school will continue to encourage classroom space, space for breakout and tardy passes for students who take students to get to school by bike, sectionals and practice rooms,” Visual the bus. The district will not begin bus and other alternative methods to and Performing Arts Instructional traffic mitigation until the number reduce traffic in the parking lot and on Supervisor Todd Summers wrote in of cars entering Gunn on a daily Arastradero Road. an e-mail. basis has increased by 24 cars, which The Group 2 project will be up for Once the new Performing Arts Jacoubowsky estimates will happen conceptual approval by the FSC and Building is completed, the current in two to three years. The district is the Board of Education in mid-May music building will be torn down to planning to hire someone to measure and is estimated to be completed open up an entry court to the new the trip count, using a weeklong trial by the summer of 2016. The Group quad. The new quad extending from period to set the baseline for future 3 project, including a new Media the current location of the bike cages years.

Arts building, A and L wing to the science building will still be A d rop - of f ent ra nce wi l l modernization and amphitheater expanded to incorporate additional be available at Miranda Avenue upgrades, will begin after 2018 seating, but to a lesser extent than was beginning in the summer of 2013 once the district finds funding.

News

Monday, April 26, 2010

5

The Oracle examines gender gap in engineering, technology

n WOMEN from p.1

specialists in the United States by 2018, of which 29 percent could be filled by U.S. computing graduates. “It’s where the jobs are,” Paley said. The United States graduates around 6 percent of the world’s engineers, according to Holmes, and 18 percent of college engineering majors are female.

“That’s really low,” Holmes said.

“There are going to be millions of jobs in engineering that we won’t be able to fill if we continue to follow the current trend of engineering graduates. If we limit the pool of engineers to men and a few women, other nations are going to out-compete us.”

A second reason more women are needed in engineering is for the diverse viewpoints they offer.

“If young women don’t take my course, it is impoverished because of the perspective and balance they offer,” Dunbar said. “And if we as a society don’t have female engineers, we are missing out on that perspective and balance.”

Studies show that teams comprised of both men and women tend to be more creative and efficient than all-male or all-female teams. A 2007 article published

by Forbes reported that “mixedgender teams’ technology patents received up to 42 percent more citations than their single-gender counterparts” over the past 25 years. “Diversity is really important,” Stanford University Association for Computing Machinery Student Chapter Chair Feross

Aboukhadijeh said. “If you’re starting a startup, you don’t want to hire people that are just like yourself because then you don’t get a variety of ideas.”

Guidance counselor Myesha Compton believes that part of the reason there are fewer women in engineering is because women feel they aren’t supposed to be there.

“I talked to a young woman last year who was concerned that she wasn’t smart enough to continue in a technical field because she was struggling to get a B or C in math.” Compton said. “She felt that it validated her feeling that she wasn’t supposed to be there.

Given the same situations, I’ve seen her male counterparts continue in the class because they aren’t fighting the same stereotypes.” To counteract perceptions like these Compton suggests that teachers show female role models in class and make a conscious effort to establish a safety net for their female students.

“Most of the engineers I know are guys,” senior Julie Ju said.

“Maybe women just aren’t as interested or exposed to it as often.

Even as children most little boys play with Legos and girls play with dolls.”

Senior Lisa Fawcett noticed the gender enrollment gap in her programming concepts and AP computer science classes but did not let it affect her performance. “I remember being really surprised at how few girls were in the programming concepts course, and

even more surprised when I was sible because interest in engineer- es for any reason they should talk one of two girls in my AP Comput- ing is gender-equal until around to their teachers because we really er Science class, but I got used to middle school when stereotypes care,” Dunbar said. it,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Gunn push males and females in difis a pretty accepting place.” ferent directions. “To reverse the Dunbar, however, believes that trend you have to target girls with the enrollment gap may affect how specific events,” Holmes said. comfortable some of his students “There are false perceptions built are in the classroom. “When I talk into our society that engineers are to my female students, they say white, socially inept males with everything is fine and I shouldn’t pocket protectors. My cause is to worry about the problem of female break those perceptions and give students not feeling at ease in a everyone an equal opportunity inpredominately male classroom, dependent of their perceptions or but I think it is a real problem,” misperceptions.”

Dunbar said.

“If there are girls To excite students and teach in- at this school who coming freshmen about the engi- feel uncomfortable neering courses available at Gunn, taking certain classHolmes has given presentations at middle school industrial technology classes. “I took some girls along with me,” he said. “It’s best to hear it from another girl.” Holmes also plans to hold girls-only engineering nights, work with the Tech Academy, open an engineering camp for 500 middle school students and possibly start his own summer camp for girls interested Top: Many women are majoring in biological sciences, but the areas with the in engineering.

A c c o r d i n g most projected job openings are in math and computer science, indicating a posto Compton sible shortage of job applicants in the latter fields. Data from the National Sciand Holmes, it ence Foundation and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the number of degrees is important to awarded in 2004 and the projected job openings per year from 2006 to 2016. target girls as Graph courtesy of computer science teacher Josh Paley. Bottom: Data from sciearly as pos- ence teacher Eric Ledgerwood, principal Noreen Likins, Paley and the AAUW.

Where will the jobs be?

Women enrollment in Gunn science classes from 2006 to 2010

Kimberly Han

Q&A with Emily L. Allen Associate Dean

San Jose State University The Oracle: Do you see the disparity in enrollment between males and females a problem?

If so, why? What are the social consequences?

Emily L. Allen: Yes, Emily L. Allen and for two different reasons. One is that the economy of the future is going to increasingly need engineers. We can’t afford to leave half the human race out of the human resources pool for engineering. The other reason is that women and minorities who don’t choose engineering are missing out on great career paths which have

good potential for earning a living as well as contributing to society. Mostly they are missing out because there are misconceptions about what engineering is.

The popular concept is the geeky, nerdy, computer-headed genius or the car enthusiast. But there are many many kinds of people who are engineers and many kinds of jobs performed by engineers. Engineers solve all kinds of problems, including issues in energy, sustainability, and biomedical fields. To determine if you might be a good engineer, you could ask yourself, “When I see a problem, do I try to fix it? Am I always looking for a more efficient way, to get something done? Am I a good explainer of difficult concepts to other people?”

TO: What do you think are the best ways to improve female enrollment in engineering?

Allen: I think there are several ways.

Here are some of them: First, sometimes a teacher, such as a math or science

teacher, suggests to a young person that they enroll in an engineering class, and that is enough to convince the student. Even if they decide not to pursue engineering as a career, an engineering class is great preparation for college and for life.

Second, the more exposure people get to role models who look like them, the easier it is to consider that it might be something they could try. So having women engineers speak to students in math class, physics class, biology class, chemistry class (i.e. the classes which are still at least 50 percent women), these are opportunities to plant the idea in a young person’s head that maybe they should give it a try.

Third, women are disproportionately represented in biology and chemistry as opposed to physics and engineering. It is possible that some of the reason for this is that biology leads to medicine, and medicine is seen as a profession that directly serves people, while engineering is seen as a profession that serves “things.” In fact the future of our society depends criti-

cally upon having a technologically educated workforce, and engineers of all types serve people and society, from inventing cleaner energy, and more efficient uses of it, to finding methods of purifying and distributing clean water to everyone on the planet. An engineering degree is also a great preparation for medicine or law or other graduate degrees.

TO: Anything else you would like to add?

Allen: There is a tendency among young women to think that in order to be an engineer you have to be an Einstein. Many girls will decide they’re not “good enough” in math if they get a B, whereas young men will decide to be an engineer regardless of their grades. My message to girls and boys is that in order to succeed in engineering school and in the work place, it takes a lot of different traits including leadership, confidence, ability to communicate, persistence and attention to detail.

You don’t have to be only A+ students or in all AP classes.

—Compiled by Jon Proctor

6

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Forum

Monday, April 26, 2010

7

Bell schedule changes unnecessary, harmful to students

Lengthened passing periods encroach on students’ education, interfere with after school commitments

D

ue to construction in the Village next year, the portables will be relocated to the parking lot next to the tennis courts. At first glance, this seems problematic for students trying to get to their next class on time. However, six members of The Oracle speed-walked from the science building to the tennis courts in four minutes. This trial shows that a change to the bell schedule is not simply necessary.

The administration should not extend passing periods next year because it could cut into class time or lengthen the school day.

The administration has proposed four different ways to change the bell schedule.

The first proposal would extend passing periods to seven minutes, ending school six minutes later on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and four minutes later on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The second proposal would take time out of classes to increase the passing periods to nine minutes. The remaining two ideas take the previous proposal even further, cutting five minutes from each class for 10-minute passing periods. The third proposal would also start school at 8:15 a.m. instead of 7:55 a.m.

Changing the bell schedule is unnecessary when it is perfectly possible to walk between the two farthest points on campus in less than five minutes. The majority of students will not even have to walk this distance to get to class because their classes are located relatively close together. A seven-minute passing period would only increase the amount of time a student spends talking with friends between classes. Students come to school to learn, not to socialize. Two minutes of chatting with friends is wasteful, especially when it extends school. Ending school later would have a snowball effect, pushing back sports practices and other after school commitments students have as well, which in turn would cause them to get home, start homework and go to sleep later.

Additionally, shorter class periods would force teachers to teach at a faster pace in a shorter amount of time, which hurts students because teachers would not have the time to answer additional questions and clarify concepts.

Cutting into class periods only results in having to make up for lost time later. Losing two minutes of instructional time per class each day adds up to four hours and 45 minutes of extra time per class that must be made up, equating to six school days per year.

Losing five minutes would result in three additional weeks of school per year. Removing so much instructional time from the schedule is detrimental to students’ learning and may have legal implications.

If the administration wants to keep the same amount of instructional time for students to learn in the classroom, this time would have to be taken away from school holidays or the summer break.

Starting school later would exacerbate traffic problems that have already been predicted for next year. With Arastradero Road merging into one lane in some parts of the street beginning in August, traffic would roll to a stop. Terman Middle School and Juana Briones Elementary School students also start school at 8:10 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. respectively, so Gunn students would be fighting with them to get to school on time. With so many cars clogging up the road, it will be impossible for anyone to get to school on time. Students would be forced to get up at the same time as if school were starting earlier and simply spend more time sitting in the car instead of in the classroom.

If the administration must change the bell schedule, the first proposal

Kimberly Han

for a seven-minute passing period is the best solution because it does not take valuable class time away from students and teachers and does not interfere with school holidays. However, as long as people use passing periods to get to their next classes without stopping to chat with friends,

the current bell schedule will still be enough to accommodate both students and teachers’ needs next year, and a change will not be necessary.

—Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the staff (assenting: 31; dissenting: 6)

Health care overhaul improves medical coverage, benefits all citizens

Sarah-Jean Zubair The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 makes up the greatest advance in healthcare reform since Medicare and Medicaid were passed in 1965. The former is the main healthcare reform bill while the latter makes adjustments to it. The Patient Protection bill passed without a single Republican vote, the legislature divided along party lines. The American public is no different—according to a survey by Gallup Poll, 49 percent approve of the bill’s passage while 40 percent do not support it, the former made up mainly of Democrats and the latter being mostly Republican. But although it has been politically divisive, the bill’s provisions are undeniably beneficial to all of the American people.

The bill will extend healthcare coverage to people who would otherwise be uninsured or paying large amounts of money for medical care.

The first effects of the legislation, which include tax credit incentives for small businesses to make healthcare more affordable and re-insurance for early retirees on employer health plans, will begin this year. Also, healthcare providers will be prohibited from placing financial eligibility rules as conditions for insurance on their new plans. This will prevent discrimination against lower income citizens when they apply for health insurance, allowing them to choose a plan that fits their personal needs.

One provision of the bill is the extension of young adult and children’s coverage. According to

the U.S. Census Bureau, 13.2 million adults ages 19 to 29 did not have health insurance in 2007.

The new law requires insurers to keep young adults and children under the age of 26 on their parents’ healthcare plan as of this August. This applies to all existing plans on the market unless the child is eligible for an employee benefit plan. As a result, young adults who are not yet self-sufficient in terms of their healthcare will be able to depend on their parents’ insurance for coverage.

The legislation also seeks to cover citizens whose healthcare could, with the current healthcare system, be impacted by a pre-existing condition. According to the 2007 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, 12.6 million adults were discriminated against on the basis of a pre-existing condition. This number does not include the children and elderly adults whose healthcare was impacted because of their preexisting conditions. If someone applies for health insurance with a pre-existing condition, the insurance company can force the applicant to pay more for treatment, refuse to treat the condition or deny them coverage altogether. The definition of a preexisting condition varies by different insurance company policies and can be anything ranging from a genetic predisposition to a certain ailment to an accidental injury, like a fracture. Because exclusions based on pre-existing conditions can result in a lack of treatment of the condition, the person’s health may suffer severely and, in the most serious cases, even lead to death. The healthcare bill’s provisions on this point will prohibit insurers from refusing children coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition starting this August and extend that protection to the rest of the American people by 2014.

Multiple parts of the legislation aim to improve healthcare specifically for lower income citizens.

Over the course of the next four years, Medicaid benefits will be extended to 16 million impoverished Americans. These benefits include clinic

and hospital services for those who cannot afford Healthcare in the U.S. to pay for them. Additionally, $11 billion will • 46 million Americans do not have health insurance. be invested in Commu(US Census Bureau) nity Health Centers to ­• 18,000 people die each year as a result of not having expand their care capachealth insurance. (Institute of Medicine of the National ity by approximately 20 Academies) million patients.

• “Over 40 percent of the uninsured do not have a reguMany criticize the lar place to go when they are sick and over a third of the bill for the $938 billion is projected to cost. But uninsured say that they or someone in their family went the payments are carewithout needed care, including recommended treatfully planned so that ments or prescription drugs in the last year, because of Americans will not be cost.” (UN Human Development Report) heavily impacted. Mon• $544 million was spent by health sector for federal lobey for the bill’s expensbying in 2009. (Center for Responsive Politics) es will come chiefly from a new 3.8 percent investment income tax ernments provide for all of their people, not just on individuals and families with incomes of at the privileged wealthy. It is a matter of morality least $200,000 and $250,000, respectively. Startto care for the welfare of one’s fellow human being in 2018, insurance companies will have to ings. Governments have the duty to help the less pay a 40 percent excise tax on plans worth at least fortunate of its citizens by taking a human interest $27,500 for families and $10,000 for individuals. in their welfare. It is morally reprehensible to jusAdditionally, a measure in the bill requires the tify refusing to give someone medical treatment U.S. government to set aside at least $500 million with the excuse that it involves parting with one’s per year for “comparative effectiveness research.” money. Is human life worth less than 3.8 percent This research will be directed at gauging the efof someone’s $200,000-plus income? Today, 83 fectiveness of various medical treatments from percent of Americans have health insurance. That prescription drugs to medical procedures. The stanumber is projected to reach 95 percent as the tistical results of the research will provide a basis bill takes full effect in the coming years. This for altering the medical decision-making process means coverage is extended to approximately so that decisions are dictated by proven treatment 32 million more citizens and the introduction effectiveness. of numerous benefits for those already covered U.S. social services, especially healthcare, pale by health insurance. This legislation benefits in comparison to those of other developed nations every American, regardless of age, position in such as Canada, France and Germany. Citizens life or income. It It’s time that American society of those nations do their duty as countrymen and rediscovered the humanity beneath its layers of pay for social services that benefit people who materialism and greed. might not be able to pay for them by themselves.

By aiding financially disadvantaged citizens, gov–Zubair, a junior, is a Forum Editor.

Forum 8 Faults of tenure system need to be revised The Oracle

Sam Hayward

The tenure system in the state of California has some flaws, but it is still a valuable contract for teachers that should not be abolished.

Here are some ways we could improve it.

First, let’s define tenure. Tenure is the status granted to an employee, usually after a probationary period, indicating that the position of their employment is permanent.

Teachers start their career with a two-year “probationary” period—a time when they can be let go, depending on their performance.

During their probationary period, in the current system, Gunn teachers are evaluated three times in their first two years. If the teachers pass and receive tenure, they are evaluated by the school every other year.

After ten years on staff, teachers then have the option of reflective review, or self-review,

which is done by the teachers themselves.

In order to improve the tenure system, the probationary period should be extended to five years, students should give more input about teachers and the administration should pay more attention to the student voice.

The probationary period for teachers needs to be prolonged to at least five years.

This will prevent schools from giving teachers tenure where in hindsight the teacher should not have been brought on the staff.

Tenure is a lifetime contract; it should be a well-thought out decision. Because tenure is a permanent appointment, making the choice to hire the teacher means that there is no turning back on a decision based on two years of good or bad performance. It is nearly impossible to fire a teacher with tenure without the legal fees going through the roof for the school.

Not only does this place the spotlight on the school administration, but the school’s money is wasted on these cases instead of going to benefit the students in other areas.

Another issue that needs to be addressed in the tenure system is student evaluations.

Student and administrative evaluations should have a larger impact on whether or

not the teacher receives tenure. The students are the customers in the business of education. Their words need to have more weight in the process. Student evaluations should be mandatory for all students, not optional.

There should be a standard evaluation that not only asks if the students enjoyed the class, but brings up topics that are much more important for the success of the students—whether or not the teacher is organized, if he or she is prepared every day, if the teacher is available during tutorial hours, if the teacher is respectful, if grades are given out fairly and if the student would want to have this teacher in the future. If there are consistently poor reviews of a teacher, then the issue brought up by the students needs to be addressed. Teachers could also benefit from this system by finding out what they can improve on.

While the current tenure system is in need of change, there are some benefits that should be retained. Tenure protects teachers from being fired by the administration without a just cause and prevents the administration from firing a tenured teacher to bring in an inexperienced teacher with a lower salary to save money. Tenure also allows teachers

to be more creative during their lectures or lessons without having to worry about getting fired. It allows teachers to explore new teaching techniques to see what works best in the classroom. Tenure lets teachers have the ability to stray away from the normal curriculum or standard ways of teaching to help kids become interested in the subject. It protects teachers from parents that want to fire a teacher even if it has nothing to do with what goes on inside the classroom. Overall, tenure lets teachers explore new boundaries and helps make the classroom into a place of intellectual stimulation and limitless imagination.

The profession of a teacher is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. It requires great patience, great passion and a great amount of responsibility. Tenure is the reward for the diligent, hard work that teachers put into their jobs day in and day out. Yet, the problems with tenure still need to be acknowledged and remedied.

The system is good, but needs to be tweaked to work efficiently.

—Hayward, a sophomore, is a reporter.

The Oracle shares its views on the National AP program

AP system should strengthen hiring regulations

AP limitations on students should be loosened

more underclassmen can go straight to the AP classes and miss the chance to develop their basic knowledge in core classes. They forgo the necessary repetition and experience that is vital for students to solidify their basic knowledge of a subject; without it, performing well in advanced classes is difficult. This applies for not only high school students, but at the college level as well. AP courses are not preparing students for college, but are actually dooming them to fail in the future because they do not have basic skills to build upon as they grow older.

There are certainly aspects of the AP program that are admirable: it allows students to challenge themselves in high school and save money in college. But the problem is the inequality of AP courses throughout the nation.

Some students flourish in the environment and go on to succeed in college. Others do not expect more difficulty in college courses and are completely unprepared for the future.

The fact is that the AP program is like a lottery: either a student gets a fantastic teacher who prepares him completely for the AP exam or he is left to the dogs. There must be more standardization and regulation of those who are qualified to teach. One regulation could be to make sure that teachers have at least a master’s in the subject area that they are teaching. It is true that a master’s is not necessary for a teacher to be knowledgeable in the subject he or she teaches, so teachers could also go through some training that would prepare t hem to teach AP courses.

did not take any APs. Also, AP courses give students a taste of college education in a comfortable high school environment.

According to the College Board’s website, approximately 90 percent of U.S. colleges offer credit for AP courses if students meet the requirements, but each college’s policy varies from school to school. Generally, students qualify for credit by passing the course and exam with a score of three or higher. This enables students to challenge themselves in courses they are interested in instead of spending time taking introductory classes. Students will be able to study abroad or double major while maintaining the possibility of graduating in four years.

People claim that many unqualified teachers are entering the AP workforce. Because there are more AP students, College Board has created regulations to maintain the teaching quality of AP courses. Teachers have to follow guidelines from the manual “AP Course Descriptions,” but can still teach the content using their own methods. To keep the standard, College Board offers workshops, conferences and summer institutes for teachers to help strengthen their teaching.

In fact, high school AP courses may benefit students more than the equivalent college courses. In AP classes, students are able to meet for class every weekday in comparison to just twice a week in college. According to research done at the University of West Georgia, students who meet their teachers every day receive higher grades than those who meet two times a week. Students have more opportunities to participate in class discussions and get help from teachers. Also, they can benefit from classroom experience due to the small class sizes. According to a report published by the Center for School Change, smaller class sizes correlate to higher achievement and graduation rates.

While curbing the number of students may seem like a good idea to preserve the quality of AP courses, it may discourage students from reaching their full potentials and preparing for college courses. Restrictions need to be loosened to give each student an equal opportunity at furthering their education.

Anne Hsiao Advanced Placement (AP) courses are supposed to challenge and prepare high school students for college. But with the nation’s current system, there are huge problems with the standards of AP teachers and student’s basic knowledge.

Although this is not a problem at Gunn, the AP teacher standards in many high schools across the nation are being lowered to accommodate the increasing number of students jostling to take AP courses. The number of AP tests taken each year has increased from 700 in 1986 to 2 million in 2008. This means that there must be a proportionate increase in teachers to compensate for the influx of students. But some schools do not have the funding to hire more teachers and, as a result, might appoint already-hired teachers to teach subjects of which they do not have a deep understanding.

The vast majority of professors in fouryear colleges hold either a Ph.D or master’s degree in the subjects they teach, but a 2002 report revealed that 50 percent of the AP teachers lack a master’s degree in their subjects. This means that the teachers are not as qualified in the subjects as their university counterparts. The level of education is therefore that the students will receive is probably inferior to that which students would receive at a four-year college. If the rate of growth was sustained, there would be a need for 100,000 more AP teachers this year than in 2001. This again brings up the qualifications of these new AP teachers. It is not to say that all teachers are not qualified, but many across the nation do not have the ability or knowledge to teach at the college level.

The AP program was once directed toward students who had proven that they were hard-working and could manage a hefty workload. But it is beginning to become a program that anyone can apply to. AP courses are not only offered to juniors or seniors, but even to freshmen and sophomores in some schools, including Gunn. This means that

—Hsiao, a senior, is a Business/ Circulation Manager.

Jazreel Cheung Imposing restrictions on the number of students who take Advanced Placement (AP) courses prevents students from challenging themselves and expanding their horizons.

Critics may claim that too many students are taking AP courses, causing an overflow in classes. However, many schools are adjusting to the number of students interested in challenging themselves through college-level classes. Many high schools are offering more AP courses to meet students’ desires. According to College Board, 17,374 schools offered AP courses in 2009, compared to 13,680 schools in 2001.

While this is not a problem at Gunn, restricting the number of students taking AP courses prevents students from building a strong educational foundation.

According to a study done by the

Henry Liu

University of Texas, students who take AP courses in high school get better grades in college and are more likely to graduate within four years than peers who

—Cheung, a senior, is a Business/ Circulation Manager.

Forum

Monday, April 26, 2010

9

Administration should ease dance regulations Nicolas Loyola In freshman year, getting into a school dance was as easy as showing your student body card and dance ticket. Those were the good old days, but in the past four years the administration has tightened regulations on school dances to provide a safer atmosphere for students. Police now pat down the male students, and students are subjected to drug tests and a

breathalyzer. All of these protective measures are to make sure students are safe and sober at dances.

While these procedures make getting into dances take longer, it is understandable that the administration wants to keep students safe and away from any illegal substances.

But the administration has taken the regulations too far with their attempt to eliminate the suggestive dance moves from school dances. According to the administration, songs with strong suggestive themes have recently been eliminated from dances and there has been constant frowning upon the “freak” dancing which is now the norm of dances. The admin-

istration should continue to try to eliminate illegal substances such as alcohol and smoking from dances, but eliminating the sex appeal of dances will drive students away and force them to find other possibly more dangerous ways, such as parties, spend their Friday nights.

If you would like an example of a student body turning on the school-supervised dances, you can look at Palo Alto High School.

The student body treats the dances like a joke: attendance is low because instead of going to school dances, students attend outside student dances held at Lucie Stern and Club Illusions. Students set up the dances, offsetting the DJ and facility costs with ticket sales. Ac-

Stay cool with air conditioning

Henry Gens Air conditioning: all the cool kids have it. The Gunn campus, on the other hand, only currently possesses air conditioning apparatuses in the portables, computer labs and modules, a fact that any student can no doubt resent after memories of sweaty afternoons spent in science class.

However, this is soon to be changed with the approval of a new plan to install air conditioning in the L-buildings, math buildings, science buildings and IA building. Approved back in December and recently given the green light earlier this month at a district meeting, the new air conditioning units will undoubtedly assuage the pain of sitting through classes in the warmer weeks of the school year.

Although one must wonder why decades of blazing hot Palo Alto weather rolled by before the administration decided to install air conditioning (especially since Palo Alto High School (Paly) enjoys extensive cooling all of its buildings), this much-belated measure is undoubtedly a godsend. Nevertheless, the expansion of air conditioning on campus raises another heated issue: who actually gets to control the temperature of the classroom?

Air conditioning as it stands now is largely centralized and thus the temperature of each classroom is determined by a single source, not on a case-by-case basis. This has led to freezing classes even on warm days—just ask Social Studies teacher Phil Lyons—and sweltering rooms on the milder ones. A far better solution would be to have the teachers themselves control the temperature in their classrooms via individual thermostats.

Paly itself provides an especially perti-

nent lesson in the value of individual thermostat control. Even though Paly has air conditioning in all of its buildings, the actual service rendered is often sporadic as a result of its centralized system. Having to sit in a classroom that’s more comparable to a meat-freezer than an institution of learning is distracting, to say the least.

The grievances of centralized air conditioning also extend to another area of key importance for any school: the budget.

Paly sported a staggering $644,000 utilities cost in 2008, compared to Gunn’s relatively meager cost of $300,000. Paly uses centralized air conditioning while Gunn utilizes a mixture between centralized and allowing certain rooms a limited degree of control over over the internal temperature. By having the teachers control the temperatures of their rooms independently, much of this cost and discomfort could be easily prevented.

Unfortunately for Paly, decentralizing the air conditioning system is an expensive option.

Now that Gunn is given the opportunity for a campus-wide installation, it should not make the same mistake. As anyone at Gunn can attest, air conditioning is a luxury—and so it should be, not an erratic, excessively expensive nuisance.

—Gens, a senior, is a Features Editor.

cording to numerous students who have attended them, these dances usually get really out of control with illegal substance usage and suggestive dancing.

While it is true that students need to be controlled to ensure their safety at the dances, it should be limited to what is and isn’t legal. Promiscuous dancing is not a crime, and therefore should not be controlled by the administration. Additionally, what is raunchy to the administration is not that sexual to our generation. Who’s to say that freaking is too sexual for students who are about to become adults? High school students are growing individuals who want to express their inner sexuality. Stu-

dents can either do it in a safe and controlled environment or another place that might not be as safe for teenagers.

The simplest way for the administration to get attendance back up from an abysmal dance attendance, such as that of Sadies, is to loosen the strict regulations. Other school administrations’ failures have resulted in cancelled dances, but Gunn should use this opportunity as a chance to prevail. The administration should continue to regulate illegal substances but go back to the old policy with freak dancing where the only rule is the 90-degree rule. ­—Loyola, a senior, is a reporter.

SEC should distribute tap water

Colin Chen Plastic water bottles are corrosive, both to the environment and to the human body. While most students are aware of bottled water’s environmental harm, many ignore the fact that bottled water is not as healthy as water from tap water. Gunn should stop selling bottled water in the SAC and during dances. Instead, cups of tap water, should be given out for free, students should also use the existing water fountains. Tap water is cheaper, healthier, and “greener” than bottled water.

Gunn sells 16 fluid ounces of water to students for one dollar. Tap water, on the other hand, costs only a quarter of a cent per gallon, making it 3200 times cheaper than bottled water. In some cases, bottled water companies, such a s

Andrew Lee

Dasani and Aquafina, simply filter tap water and sell it. You’re getting water from tap in a bottle, so why pay more. Even the plastic that is sold is not worth buying. It cannot easily be reused and becomes a hassle once there is nothing is left inside. It is not environmentally friendly and is only worth five cents, at the reimbursement center, for what you bought with a dollar.

Water in plastic bottles are seen incorrectly as a clean source of water. Filtering water takes out the healthy minerals that tap water provides. Minerals like magnesium, sodium, calcium, and iron are lacking in bottled water. Of course there is also the sale of mineral water, but tap water, in comparison, is much cheaper. Another unhealthy aspect of plastic water bottles is that they leech DEHP. Humans absorb DEHP on a daily basis due to contact with plastics, but large levels of DEHP exposure can lead to problems with the reproduction system and causes gastrointestinal distress, according to epa.gov.

Recycling plastic may feel like a good thing, but it is far from clean. Plastic that is “recycled” is either made into secondary products or shipped to0 the landfill. The darker fact, according to ecologycenter.org, is that plastic used in water bottles must be created using “virgin plastic” which is created directly from fossil fuels. Most plastic tossed into recycling bins are used to create PET flakes that are used to create other products, like polyester and film.

Gunn should stop selling bottled water as a step to becoming a greener and healthier community. Water fountains are placed around the campus and are fully functional.

The water in the fountains is Palo Alto water, which is known to be one of the cleanest and tastiest water source in the world and comes from Hetch Hetchy reservoir near Yosemite. There is no reason to be emptying wallets on something that is essentially free. Clean water does not necessarily have to come in clear plastic. ­—Chen, a sophomore, is a reporter.

10

Forum

The Oracle

Military spending needed for defense Annie Shuey With military spending at an all time high, it’s easy to say the budget should be cut, and cut now. However, the proposed $663.8 billion defense budget’s main expenses for the 2010 fiscal year support all five branches of the U.S. military: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Cutting spending would affect overseas operations in other countries, defense against threats from other countries and deployment of peacekeeping forces in foreign countries. These forces cannot be significantly scaled back without sacrificing the security of the American people and stability across the globe.

Military spending should be dictated by the threat level, and cutting expenditures and setting a hard budget would leave the budget to drive military operations. It is crucial for the military to have the ability to react and adapt quickly to possible or actual attacks. If a military commander genuinely feels the need to conduct multiple operations concurrently and believes they’re all of the utmost importance, he or she should have the funding available to move forward without having to pick between them. More threats should entail more spending, while fewer threats should result in less spending. As illustrated by the serious security lapses that led to the plane bombing attempt last Christmas, our military and national security forces need to stay on high alert, which requires money.

When the American military fully commits itself to a cause, the results are typically successful. After six years of putting the fight in Afghanistan on the back burner, the United States and Germany deployed 4,500 and 3,500 troops, respectively, in a troop surge. The surge showed positive results nearly im-

mediately, and, joined by 20 countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries., U.S. President Barack Obama chose to continue the surge in February 2009. Military successes such as these require money to fund them. Drastically cutting the military budget in an attempt to alleviate the growing national budget deficit will result in inadequate actions overseas and decreased effectiveness. The United States has long been a military superpower, and we cannot take our military strength and security for granted.

While parts of the military spending are used specifically for national defense, according to the Department of Defense, a little over $83 million is devoted to providing troops overseas to help keep the peace, provide humanitarian relief, evacuate endangered citizens or train government armies in volatile areas such as Georgia, the border between North and South Korea (where the military currently operates 87 bases), the highly contested Kashmir region, unstable areas of Africa (including Rwanda, the Congo and Uganda) and in South America, with bases in Honduras and Ecuador among others. The military also maintains footholds in Japan, Qatar, Germany and many other countries across the globe. The apportioned discretionary spending within the Department of Defense budget is commonly used to support foreign aid as well.

The $663.8 billion budget is a significant amount of money, but according to a Congressional Budget Office release, it comprises just 19 percent of total government spending this fiscal year. It is also a mere 4.7 percent of the national GDP. While the United States has increased spending by the highest dollar amount of any country over the past decade, it has

Joyce Liu

Kimberly Han

amounted to just a 67 percent increase, compared to China’s 194 percent, Russia’s 172 percent and Algeria’s 119 percent increases in military spending according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which investigates military spending and actions across the globe. Cutting our defense spending could eventually put the United States behind other countries in terms of military strength. The military needs adequate financial support in order to maintain its status as a military superpower.

There are threats to the United States every day, as illustrated by the “elevated” threat level given by the Department of Homeland Security, and any threats could have devastating effects on American lives. After the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, former U.S. President George W. Bush bent over backwards to ensure that there were no more attacks on American soil and Americans were kept as safe as possible at home.

This entailed significantly increasing the military budget, and rightfully so. President Obama and Congress may be trying to close the budget deficit, but the safety and security of the American people is no place for compromise.

—Shuey, a junior, is a Sports Editor.

Srsly? U call this English? ROFL

Linda Yu The modern lifestyle can be defined in one simple word.

Fast.

In fact, as readers peruse through this issue of The Oracle, they’re probably not even reading it word for word. They’re probably not even reading whole articles from start to finish, even though the staff members spent hours crouching in front of the computers and stalking interviewees across campus. And the reason for this? Probably so people can quickly get to the next thing they need to do.

Humanity has become obsessed with speed, and the evolution of language has been no exception. Romeo, upon laying his eyes on Juliet, declared, “See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!/O that I were a glove upon that hand,/that I might touch that cheek!”

Today, an equivalent reaction would just be, “She’s hot.” In written language, long distance communication has evolved from snail mail to instant messaging. Though this new innovation is convenient, it has led to the butchering of the English language.

Ttyl, roflmao, brb, g2g, WTF, srsly? When these acronyms are said out loud, it actually sounds like people have taken a step back to the caveman times when language was still being invented.

While using these new acronyms and phrases saves time, the essence of the English language comes from its sophistication. By shortening the English language, humans are destroying that in which they so pride themselves upon—the ability to use advanced forms of communication.

One may argue that there is little need to pay attention to aesthetics in daily conversation or online, but it is exactly those moments that make language interesting and remind people to appreciate its beauty. Given a choice between communicating in choppy, short words and long, flowing sentences, it’s obvious that the latter is simply more comfortable to type out and read. English, when shortened into Internet jargon, is missing much more than the vowels and the punctuation. It lacks character, weight and most importantly, thought.

Modern society has also confined language and communication. Language used in texting, for example, has largely been shaped by cost. According to AT&T, text messages can be up to 160 characters long, and messages longer than this limit are delivered in separately charged segments.

This has led to a condensation of language

Spark of genius

that is breeding a disregard for proper spelling. The abbreviation “ur,” for example, has become so widely used that many people no longer distinguish between “your” and “you’re.” Though grammar Nazis may continue to note the difference between “your” and “you’re” the layman no longer cares.

Furthermore, online communication has made it easier for people to stay within their social comfort zones. It’s so easy to mask emotions online—for good, or for worse.

Anyone can just type “lol” or “haha” as an automatic response to anything. There’s no such thing as an awkward silence because everyone can say they just went to the bathroom. People who ask their dates to a school dance over the Internet are simply considered lame. Using online communication as an excuse or a crutch can be detrimental to social skills. Building true connections and relationships comes from face-to-face talk.

So, what to do? What’s needed is balance: a language that embodies the artistry, flow and rhythm of William Shakespeare’s time, and includes vocabulary that suits one’s daily needs. Know when to fuse together the sophistication of the past with the tweeting s of tomorrow, and know when to keep them apart. If space is limited, please don’t fall back onto “omg, wut r u doing?” Channel Ernest Hemingway instead.

—Yu, a junior, is a News Editor.

Brilliant ideas are like butterflies—beautiful, elusive and unpredictable. Once you catch one, however, you expect to catch one again, and that begins the problem for creative souls.

Creative folk get a bad rap for being mentally unstable druggies and alcoholics who might cut off their ears, despite their talent on paper. We all know their common fate: once you create your masterpiece, surpassing yourself seems to become more difficult, and you might just go to where madness lies. Think of writers who have their first bestseller, but then fizzle out and never appear in print again.

Whatever happens to these people, and how do we prevent ourselves from becoming like them?

I recently stumbled upon a lecture by Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love) online that helped me discover the answer. Gilbert discussed her attempts at not letting the stress of topping herself consume her while writing her next novel and brought up the Ancient Roman idea of a “genius.”

According to Gilbert, the Romans believed that geniuses were not the people themselves but divine spirits that lived in the walls of a person’s studio and aided with the creativity process. Both the artist and the genius contributed to the outcome.

In turn, the concept that everyone has a genius takes off the tremendous self-inflicted burden of having to create something grand.

You are not solely to blame for any disasters and you can’t take complete credit for any monumental works. Your genius is responsible, too.

Some rational thinkers may feel skeptical about this theory, but I encourage them to consider it and consider that not everything needs to have a rational explanation. If we attempted to rationalize every event in our lives, we might turn into mentally unstable druggies and alcoholics without even creating a masterpiece.

We can apply this idea of a genius to ordinary happenings in our lives. I thought my “Shakespeare is My Homeboy” T-shirt idea for Pandora’s Box was my cleverest idea of 2009—until I found out from the World Wide Web that English nerds around the world had made T-shirts of it ages ago. That’s something else to heed: the Internet often makes your original idea feel quite unoriginal.

Nonetheless, when T-shirt season rolled around this year, I was once again summoned

by Pandora’s Box to squeeze out some creative juices and think up something “good.”

I did not want to be “One-Hit Joyce,” so I squeezed and squeezed but nothing came out. In retrospect, that was as expected, since creativity is an unwieldy beast that comes and goes as it pleases.

Just when I least expected it, I discovered the dwelling of my genius: the tiles of my shower wall. As I recalled the day’s events, I thought about my discussion of William Faulkner with KGB, and my genius pounced.

My lil’ divine spirit seeped into my pores, and we came up with a saucy T-shirt idea for Advanced Placement English students.

T-shirts ideas aside, the genius idea can apply to anything else in life—relationships, sports and even school. Gunn students excel in all different sorts of activities, but we shouldn’t feel pressured to always have to surpass ourselves. My new favorite motto?

Do your best and forget the rest. If something goes awry, at least you did your part, and maybe your genius was just taking the day off.

—Liu, a senior, is a Managing Editor.

Features

Monday, April 26, 2010

11

YCS/Interact volunteers in Guatemala

Volunteers work hard to help rural communities during spring break Niki Mata

News Editor

Seventeen students and two teachers attended the annual service trip hosted by the Youth Community Service (YCS)/Interact club from April 10 to 17, held in Antigua, Guatemala this year.

Every year, YCS/Interact hosts a service trip for students to help rural communities. The main task of this year’s trip was to help improve a local school/community center and its attached library located in a village near San Mateo, Guatemala, 10 miles up from the city of Antigua. “In Guatemala, they don’t have enough money to pay for teachers for a full-day of school,” senior Guatemala team co-leader Tanja Streiff said. “We helped build a library so that children could be tutored.”

The service team was split into two groups of ten and nine students and each was assigned to a separate host family. The team began work soon after arriving.

“We were expanding the community center, by helping lay a foundation and pouring concrete,” team advisor David Deggeller said. “We also set up a library by sanding, painting and installing bookshelves and organizing their books.” Every day, students were split up into groups and assigned various tasks. “We did [jobs] like transporting stones and sand from up the hill, pouring concrete, excavating wood in the chicken coop, and chiseling holes for windows,” junior trip member Anish Johri said. Members also painted the bookshelves as well as the rest of the building.

Children from the ages of four to 14 attend the local school in the afternoons. The school offers them tutoring, help on homework, English lessons and access to textbooks. After work or sometimes during free time, service trip members would play soccer with the locals and work with the kids, tutor them in English or do arts and crafts with them. “I liked working with the children [when we had free time]—We did arts and crafts, played with bubbles, played soccer,” Johri said. “Most of the work was impersonal but when we could, it was touching to be able to work with the kids.” One arts and crafts project included making Mother’s Day cards. “I think the kids enjoyed the fact that we were there to not only help with construction but also to spend time with them,” Libscomb said.

One challenge posed by the trip was communicating with the Spanish-speaking locals. To combat this problem, two main trip members, Johri and senior Yoni Alon, served as translators. “I was glad to put finally put into use the Spanish I had learned,” Alon said.

“Translating was taxing at times, but at the end of the day it made my Spanish much better.”

The service trip also served as a cultural experience. “Guatemala city is relatively close; I like that fact that we were in an antique

Courtesy of Sheena Rogers

Courtesy of Taylor Wallau

Courtesy of Thanh-Ha Nguyen

city, and did some exploring,” Degeller said. Students went on a bike tour through Antigua, took salsa dancing lessons, visited a coffee plantation and local markets and made tortillas. “It was really exciting,” Streiff said. We learned how to salsa dance, which was a lot harder than I had been expecting.” The group also hiked an active volcano called Pacaya, where trip members made smores, and toured Lake Atitlan.

At the end of the trip, Libscomb recalled a bittersweet goodbye.

“Right before we left, they had a ceremony and each one of the kids gave us a rose and a leather craft,” he said. “It was really touching because they had so little and they still made us something.”

The team did not meet the organization’s goal for the project, but made a lot of progress, according

Above: Seniors Sheena Rogers and Jone Saukitoga bond with the Guatemalan children during free time. Bottom left: Senior Sonia Ran helps organize the newly constructed library. Bottom right: The YCS/Interact Guatemala team poses outside of Antigua, Guatemala. This is their first year volunteering in the country.

to Streiff. “The students were so committed to each part of the trip,” advisor Jordan Huizing said. “We just got so much work done, plus they were committed to experiencing Guatemalan culture.” Students also bonded closely with both the team and the locals. “I left with a sense of connection to the city we were working with and Guatemala as a whole,” Lipscomb said.

In Guatemala, the team was placed with the organization La Union, a local Spanish immersion school and travel agency.

La Union placed them under the organization PRODESENH (Proyecto de Desarrollo, Superacion y Esperanza del Nino Huerfano), that assigned the service team to its project, which was run

by Judith Lopez and her husband Juan. The director took on outside jobs and worked incredibly long

hours while his wife managed the school, according to Streiff, in order to fully support many of the children who were orphans. “It’s amazing what they do; theirwhole lives center around those kids,” Streiff said. “They want to provide the kids with as much as they can.”

Planning for the trip began May of last year. Team leaders senior Ariel Ling and Streiff had to choose new teacher advisors and a new location. In the past, YCS/ Interact has held its service trip in Tijuana with the organization Esperanza. However, the school did not feel safe sending students to Tijuana this year due to an increase in drug cartels and a Swine Flu outbreak in the city.

Ariel Ling and Streiff helped pick a new organization, Cultural Embrace, to support the trip at the start of this year. The organization

is based in Houston and hosts a variety of volunteer, service and exchange programs throughout South and Central America, and helped YCS/Interact select its Guatemala service trip location.

Rotary International, a group that works closely with Interact, donated 1000 dollars for the trip.

Additional fundraising occurred individually and as a group. The club hosted a letter-writing campaign, in which trip members wrote letters to their friends and families asking for donations. In addition, the club held two “openmic” nights and a car wash.

Overall, Streiff hopes that students gained a new perspective from the trip. “I’m hoping that most people took away a new way of looking at life and a new appreciation for everything that we’re given here,” she said.

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Features

The Oracle

Dear Bill, Waz up, dude. You know that girl whom you secretly want to ask to the prom? It turns out that she secretly wants you to ask her.

She will tell you so in front of a bunch of people at your ten-year class reunion, and she will ask you why you never asked her.

So think up a good excuse.

She’s as shallow as Mono Lake, and if you had gone you’d have spent all your money on some girl who cared more about how she looked than anything else in the world. As you suspect, it’s better to be a loner than to attach yourself to people whose big aspiration is to be popular.

And you know how you want to design and build space ships and computers and consumer electronics and floats for the Rose Parade? You get to do some of that. And then—NEWS FLASH— you become a high school teacher.

I am not even kidding. You do it because you want to help young people, and it turns out to be quite a challenging job.

Some of your students become high school teachers too. But you’re not a total failure: some of your other students go on to do great things. They do the things that you dreamed of doing and more. Try not to be too jealous.

You will have three terrific kids and a great life.

Now for some advice. Always make good electrical connections.

Buy Apple and Microsoft instead of Atari. Don’t worry about spelling. Take pictures of your projects and save them.

And although Cinni Brown has quite the disarming smile, watch out for that dumpster as you pull out of the parking lot.

—Dunbar, a guest writer, is a physics teacher.

Hey there Noreen!

Here I am in California using a computer and email to talk to you! Never in your wildest dreams would you have believed the way I communicate these days.

No more handwritten letters and waiting anxiously for replies! Everything is instantaneous and online. If you don’t have a laptop, mobile phone, Facebook page and Tweet you’re really out of the mainstream. (I speak a whole new language that you won’t recognize but I’ll explain later). Of course I’m now living in a new country and culture from the one you know but so many things are very different. High school for you means girls only, school uniform and sports on Saturdays. You don’t date (as the Americans describe it) in high school because you just never really meet any boys apart from your younger brother’s buddies (and they are definitely not boys you want to spend time with!) And you don’t drive either but of course teenagers in Britain still don’t have cars at your age so that’s not so different!

You live at a time when the Vietnam War is going on and the struggle for women’s rights and civil rights is underway. You are very much aware of these struggles even though you are not yet actively involved in student demonstrations and protests. These will come later in your life. But I am proud of the way you are paying attention to what is happening in the world and are outraged at what you see daily in the black and white BBC news broadcasts viewed on the ten-inch TV screen after family dinner before you start your homework every night. Of course you and your brother and two sisters have to help clean up

Dear Howard, Earlier this year, a student wore a T-shirt on which was printed, “Out in four years with good behavior.”

Congratulations on being freed from high school.

You undoubtedly feel redeemed from a slave-like existence. High school is a restrictive environment for good reason. Your cerebral cortex isn’t quite ready for the real world.

You have many emotions churning inside you.

Don’t worry. We’ve all been there.

Feeling a bit shy? Don’t worry. You will break out of that cerebral shell and realize that most people respect what you say. But remember, introversion is not the same as shyness and solitude is not the same as loneliness. It’s OK to speak free from fear and it’s OK to be quiet.

and do the dishes after dinner. You all often spend more time arguing about whose turn it is to wash or dry than it takes to actually do the dishes. In time you might get to experience the luxury of a dishwashing machine! You value your studies and you are doing very well in school. You already know that education is the key to moving beyond your workingclass background and to finding work that is rewarding, enjoyable and that can help you make a difference in the world. Be sure to continue to work hard. The university place you want so much and is so hard to earn depends on your A level results. I know you don’t know much about applying to university but teachers at school will help and your sister Liz, who has already gone through it all, will be a great source of information. If you get a place, your education will be paid for in full and your parents won’t have to pay a penny for anything and that’s really vital because you can’t otherwise go to university. Thank goodness for a Labour government that appreciates the value of education and puts its money where its mouth is.

You are so lucky to be growing up in the post-war world at a time when people in Britain understand and support the notion that the good of the community, and of society in general, supercedes the interests of the individual.

You are a really adventurous and pretty independent soul. I know that, as a small kid, your favorite book was the big atlas you four kids shared. You pored over it and planned to see so many places. You started early and took that trip to Austria, staying with a German speaking family in Vienna for a whole summer when you were fourteen. And you didn’t even know any German when you pleaded to be allowed to do that! You went to stay with a family in France for the summer when you were sixteen to improve you French. I encourage you continue to travel and explore new places. There is so much to see, appreciate and enjoy in this beautiful world.

—Likins, a guest writer, is the principal.

Feeling a bit uncertain? Don’t worry. New knowledge will seep into that cortex and melt away those doubts. But don’t get too smug. Most things in the universe are not simple yes or no, black or white, good or bad. There are shades and nuances of meaning and you’ll gain the intellectual tools to cope. It’s OK to question.

Feeling that religion is irrelevant? Don’t worry.

After a while, it gets to your lobes. Talking about God is the key to understanding human nature. God is not a supernatural entity pulling human strings, making bad weather, and causing tectonic movements. God is a force inside every living creature. It’s OK to pray.

The real world is way more complex than attending classes, doing homework, shopping, gossiping, and partying. It’s a real world of career, family, and professional activities, all pulling you in multiple directions and forcing decisions for which only you are responsible. As an adult, no one can tell you what to do. That’s life.

It’s going to be tough, but you will succeed and prosper because the world needs you. Hang in there; you will be free; it’ll be OK. —Selznick, a guest writer, is a teaching aide.

Graphic courtesy of Andrew Lee

Features

Dear Liz, You’re 17 and it’s April and you’re in Spain for the first time. Americans are judged by what Ronald Reagan does as president and shows such as The Love Boat and Three’s Company. You are tongue-tied at first, and awe-inspired by the incredible architecture. You fall in love—with a boy you meet, with the rolling countryside of Andalucia, with lazy strolls along cobblestone streets, with amazing ice cream, and with the affection your Spanish family showers upon you. You have discovered what it means to value a culture. Try to remember that when one lives in a culture it is easy to take it all for granted. We don’t think about everyday things as “normal” or “matterof-course”, because we don’t actually think about them at all. Our clothes, the job to save money for college, the car that you bought and paid for yourself—all of these things are part of your culture, and you never stop to think about how lucky you are to have the opportunities

Dear Sharon, What a night it has been! After all of the nights rehearsing how you would ask Bob to the Junior Prom, you finally steeled your nerve and did it. It doesn’t seem fair that he was able to turn you down­—without a qualm. I’m sure he never guessed at the level of effort and apprehension involved in posing the question.

Wasn’t that the same night you were practicing tomorrow’s candidate speech for the office of Student Body Secretary? I know that your stage fright is sometimes all-consuming; the anticipation of speaking before the entire student body must be unnerving.

I heard that your sister and her new husband had a falling out with your parents on this very same night. Your mother didn’t seem to notice your Mother’s Day present because of the turmoil. I know you worked hard to earn the money for that gift. You had been full of happy anticipation of her reaction. Sometimes, life’s demands and disappointments conspire to erode our self-confidence.

Alongside the

Monday, April 26, 2010

you have, based purely upon where and when you were born. You’re busy thinking about getting into college, moving away from home and staying in touch with all your high school friends (by landline phone and written letters).

Meanwhile, around the world, in different cultures, the things that interest those people are likely very different. For example, Britain and Argentina are about the go to war over the Faulkland Islands (the Malvinas to the Argentines) and people you will eventually meet in 2009 will know those who die in the battles. Nicaraguans are suffering because of the fighting between the Contras and the Sandinistas. The mother of one of your friends will flee Nicaragua at this time, hoping to build a better life for her children.

What must “culture” mean for these people at this time?

Take a minute to think about your culture, your safe home and full belly. Be grateful that you live in a country that is at peace. Look at the news, think about what is happening to people in far away places and imagine what life must be like for them. Value what you learn in Spain, and take it that next step: to view your own good fortune with grateful eyes.

—Matchett, a guest writer, is a Spanish teacher.

usual pressures associated with challenging classes, peer group maintenance, demanding activities schedules, and a job, is the daily onslaught of constant trials and tribulations. It can seem as though there’s no jumping-off point. The wheels of life’s machinery continue to turn, expressing little concern for their impact on you.

Find someone who can grind those gears to a halt and then listen to the silence. With careful skill, let the textures of nature’s fabric nurture. Whispering whip-poorwills. Salt sands. Lush lambs’ ears.

Take in some inspiration by admiring the gifts you possess. That which comes easily to you may be the very talent that others covet. Don’t trivialize or take for granted the gifts you have inherited or developed. Embrace the good fortune that you might otherwise overlook.

Steer clear of the temptation to view mediocrity as a fault. Mediocrity can mean that now is not the time to invest in excellence with regard to a particular venture. It might mean that this is the best that you can do. Or, it might just mean that mediocrity is a stepping stone on the path to success. Regardless, mediocrity is not to be feared; consider it instructional.

—Yost, a guest writer, is a special education teacher.

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Hello Alejandro, You will be right about everything! The dotcom bubble will burst and you’ll laugh at people who made and lost thousands, Y2K is a joke, your friends/family who get married will inevitably regret it, and throwing a bottle in a trash can will not kill polar bears. You’ll find interest in retail and in education. At work early on, you will try to persuade the Regional Director of Blockbuster that they should have the same policies with studios on DVDs as they have with VHS. They won’t listen, and the very month you quit after seven years, their stock will peak and then freefall year after year, all the way down to fifteen cents. This will amuse you.

There are going to be “friends” around you who will seek your counsel because they think their lives are falling apart, and they will continue to come back to you at each new plot point in their Lifetime Movie-like lives. Get rid of them. They won’t listen to whatever you say and it’ll only stress you out. As an adult, beware of and say goodbye to anyone who wants to know where you are and who you’re with.

No thanks!

Keep your life stress-free. Classes can be repeated, major decisions can be postponed without detriment, and your greatest friends will be those who don’t stress you out or go out of their way to stir up trouble. Embrace “baby steps.” Set out general goals and work towards them one step at a time; if you trip over a step, no problem. Just try again and you’ll do just fine.

Tanner and Andrea will be your best friends, and they will help you be a better friend. Intimacy is great, in moderation; too much will drain your soul. At your jobs you’ll routinely encounter incompetent coworkers and supervisors. That’s okay! They usually realize it and are dealing with their own personal demons. Rip open some scabs and a whole lot of puss comes up. Just smile and let them be. As you’ll learn, yes, you can probably do all of their jobs better and more efficiently, but it’s rude when you point it out to them. Just do your job and tasks, do it well, and only worry about what matters to you and the people you serve, whether it’s customers or students. Trust your judgments and decisions because they’re usually right; avoid working in committees whenever possible. They are death to innovation and progress. A meeting is only worth going to if it can’t start without you. Finally, in 1997 you’ll meet this girl at work. Please, if you listen to only one thing make it be this: she is the devil incarnate. Evasive maneuver!

—Lira, a guest writer, is the Academic Center supervisor.

Graphic courtesy of Andrew Lee

14

Cente

The Oracle

Open the lines of communication Alice Yu & Sweta Bhattacharya

At home, parents and children alike are hesitant to openly approach the topic of drug and alcohol use. It brings a level of awkwardness and uncomfortableness into the atmosphere. To change this, a base of relatability, trust and communication is the key to any successful parent/child relationship. This removes the barrier between the families and allows the child to be educated about these dangerous substances.

Although some parents communicate freely with their children, many parents may often fear that by discussing drugs and alcohol to their children, they will push them closer towards drug and alcohol use. At the same time, the parents maybe scared of knowing about their daughter or son’s involvement with drugs. They want to believe that their child has no participation.

Students, however, seem to have a different take on the subject. Upon speaking with several students, it appeared that many preferred that parents openly discuss the topic of drugs and alcohol. When students are initially exposed to situations involving drugs, often times they do not know what they are doing and do not have any experienced adults go to for advice on how to use the products as safely as possible. If they are thrown into such a situation uneducated, uninformed and unprepared, it may lead them to make even more dangerous choices than if they had any sort of prior background knowledge.

If parents truly wish to protect their children and help them make wise, well-educated decisions, they should communicate with their children. One of the worst tactics, which some parents implement to deter their children from drug and alcohol use, is by instilling worry and fear about drugs into their children. According to Adolescent Counseling Services Site Director Robyn Alagona, adults shouldn’t express their opinions to their kids through fear. Although parents may see this tactic as a good way to ward off their children from drug and alcohol use, the true result has a high chance of backfiring. Apprehensive feelings make a person more susceptible to making unwise and rash choices. At the same time, children become curious about these substances because curiosity is part of the human nature. Then, peer pressure adds on to the curiosity, and the students are thrown into the world of drugs and alcohol without understanding the consequences of these substances.

However, if the adults take a more receptive and accepting approach, they gain the trust of their children, allowing both parties to feel more at ease about opening up and addressing the questions and concerns that they may have otherwise hidden. This allows the student to learn more about the repercussions of drug and alcohol abuse without being forced into making decisions out fear rather than through judgment. If the child does happen to be involved with drugs, the parent should be tolerant about it and, rather than threatening their child, slowly encourage their child to stop.

Either a teenager can enter the world of drugs and alcohol clueless and unaware, which could have disastrous and even fatal results, or they can make rational and thought-out actions. In order to build a strong and lasting bond, parents and children must keep an open relationship and create trust rather than fear. Through increased communication, drug and alcohol abuse will decrease. According to AdolescentSubstanceAbuse. com, between 1998 and 1999, there was a 2 percent overall decrease in marijuana use, and the downward trend continues to this day. Although it will take a while for this problem to change, we can begin to cure these problems in households through open, earnest communication. ­ —Yu and Bhattacharya, juniors, are a Copy Editor and a reporter.

Discourse about inter Let’s talk about sex, baby, lets talk about you and me. The topic of sex is ubiquitous and without it, none of us would be here, yet teens rarely talk about their own sex lives or curiosities, especially with adults. For teenagers, sex is usually talked about in a humorous or biological way.

“It starts in families,” local Marriage and Family Therapist Alice Locke-Chezar said. “If there is discomfort within the family because sex was never talked about, then it is uncomfortable for teens to talk about it with anyone,” Living Skills teacher Lynn Navarro agreed. “Students who participate in my class probably have conversations about sex at home,” she said. Societal influences may cause some people to believe these conversations are uncomfortable. “In religion, pre-marital sex is really frowned upon,” senior Audrey Buatois said.

Locke-Chezar believes awkwardness is almost inevitable at the start of these conversations. In order to avoid an embarrassing conversation, people must build a good, trusting relationship to make communication easier. “It’s not so much about what you say but who you say it to,” Locke-Chezar said.

The adult needs to be someone the teen feels will keep the conversation confidential. “I feel this is the reason people feel more comfortable talking

to a therapist about sex,” Locke-Chezar said. “It’s in our code of ethics that everything is confidential unless life threatening.” According to LockeChezar, an adult should be completely neutral when having these tough conversations.

For Navarro, it is even more important for the adult to not be embarrassed by any question, no matter how ridiculous. However, some students feel that teachers still do not want to know. “You don’t want to intrude on the teacher’s personal space,” freshman David Bell said.

According to Locke-Chezar, it has become the social norm that teenagers should not be having sex. “There’s such a judgmental attitude that teens are worried about facing ridicule if they do open up,” Locke-Chezar said. “Sex is a very intimate act and exposing it to someone else, even if it is just talking about it, makes a person feel extremely vulnerable.”

Some students also fear that adults will judge them differently after they open up about their sexual thoughts.

Imagine talking to a teacher about a sex problem and then handing in an essay on Freudian psychology. Students worry that the conversation could affect their school life because talking about personal issues in a professional environment with teachers is difficult. Some

students feel they are overstep advancing into inappropriate In general, sex is only talk in a humorous manner on a d sis. “I mostly joke around about sex with guys,” Buatois said. The double standard for sex be“If tween males and for females affects the way sex is talked ily about. “It’s more sone cially acceptable for guys to be having th sex right now, so I fo bet they talk about to it more than girls do,” junior Nicole an Grimwood said.

— From a male perspective, girls tend to be more secretive.

“Girls will side step the qu senior Nick Ziebell said.

In contrast, some girls th opposite for guys. “From my tive, guys seem to lie more a being virgins than girls do,” so Lauren King said.

Nonetheless, when stude to open up it seems that m someone they could go to people don’t want teachers k their business,” junior Josh

erfold

Monday, April 26, 2010

Perceiving hygiene through history

Victor Kwok

rcourse explored

pping and territory. ked about daily ba-

said. “Personally, I would talk to Mr. Tuomy. He seems like he would have good advice.” Even though teenagers might not have serious conversations on a day-to-day bases about sex, some are not afraid to open up to their peers “I have a friend who I could f there is discomgo to if someone rt within the famwas pressuring me,” Grimwood said. y because sex was Another difficult ever talked about, topic to talk about is masturbation. Mashen it is uncomturbation is usually ortable for teens poked fun of in our talk about it with society. In PG-13 to R rated movies nyone.” there are usually in— Living Skills teacher nuendos and jokes Lynn Navarro that get the perfect uncomfortable laugh uestion,” from the audience. Historically, superstitions like going blind or hairy hink the palms were started to discourage perspec- masturbation. about not The stereotype in movies and daily ophomore life is that all guys have at least tried it and most do it constantly, while girls ents need recoil at the very thought. “It’s a known most have fact that guys [masturbate] but with o. “Most girls it is never talked about,” sophoknowing more Kela Metzger said. According Jackson to the Kinsey Institute, 98 percent of

15

undergraduate men have masturbated and 44 percent of undergraduate females have masturbated.

“Masturbation is about body exploration and learning about what is pleasurable,” Locke-Chezar said. Teens who are self conscious, especially girls, have an uptight attitude about both sex and masturbation. Masturbation is the safest form of sex, yet learning how to pleasure oneself sexually is the one thing that ‘everyone does but no one talks about,’” Lock-Chezar said. The taboos are so deeply ingrained that few students are willing to do more than joke about it. “I have never met a [Living Skills] class that was willing to have an honest conversation about masturbation,” Navarro said.

Even in the 21st century, sex is an uncomfortable and unstable topic.

From kids to adults, many people do not know how much to share. The taboo surrounding sex goes back a long time, but according to Navarro things are getting better and people are more open now than ever. Abstinence-only programs have been replaced with sex education about contraceptives and honest communication between generations. But the world still has a long way to go before questions and conversations about sex are completely accepted.

—Jesse Klein

In contrast to much of the world, Americans have set strict standards for themselves regarding hygiene. For the most part, social norms push us to prioritize keeping ourselves clean. Many of the taboos in our society regarding bad body hygiene, such as body odor or greasy hair, come with justified arguments; being clean maintains good health and public respect. People who fail to fulfill basic cleanliness “requirements” are often slightly ostracized from society.

America hasn’t always had a reputation for cleanliness.

Early colonists were mocked for their health, and they were, as one English tourist put it, “filthy, bordering on beastly.”

Colonists viewed bathing as therapeutic rather than necessary, and they bathed in whatever was present, like in a river or a bathhouse.

With the turn of the 19th century, a plethora of scientific studies about dirt and bacteria made people more health conscious. Soap, made to wash clothes, transitioned to being used to clean bodies.

Within a short while, Americans became obsessed with keeping clean.

Men who had formerly worn long beards and muttonchops saw them as a place to grow bacteria; a new business look of less facial hair became fashionable. Middle class citizens bought etiquette books as they sought to better themselves through hygiene.

Today, there is a veritable maze of body hygiene taboos we as Americans must navigate to present ourselves acceptably to society. Perceptions of body hygiene in the United States have changed over and over throughout history, and the fears and insecurities we have of being dirty have allowed the media and advertising companies to build on them and present new ways to clean ourselves.

Body Odor Body odor comes from anaerobic bacteria, which are produced when your body doesn’t have enough oxygen, such as when exercising. As

metabolism kicks in, the body rids itself of smelly waste products. Your armpits smell bad in particular because your body emits sex hormones in tense or emotional moments. Just like fingerprints, the smell of our body odor is personal, so while one person may smell like a rose when they sweat, another may naturally smell like onions. Your diet also greatly affects your odor. American society today has forced us to become ashamed of something our body does naturally.

Across the world body odor is regarded differently; many Europeans don’t regard body odor as something that is as offensive.

America’s stand on body odor has translated into, “If someone thinks I smell bad something must be wrong with me, and I need to fix it.”

In an effort to create the leastoffensive solution, we have multitudes of soaps, deodorants and perfumes.

Nonetheless, everyone will encounter a person who has not showered in a few days.

To some people the idea of showering everyday is not necessary. After all, water costs money, so does soap, shampoo and whatever else that person deems necessary to be clean. Factors like working too much and having no extra time, or even simply forgetting, can mean that someone ends up being mocked for their greasy hair and sheen of sweat.

Body Hair Shaving is another of the ever-present taboos in American society. American women were made to think that shaving their underarms was necessary by advertisements starting in 1915. Before WWI, women were undoubtedly concerned with the hair on their heads.

After WWI, sheer and sleeveless dresses became popular, and with that women, constantly yearning to be “hip,” became embarrassed and ashamed by underarm hair. Leg shaving became necessary with the new trend of shorter skirts

and shorts, and along came razors, creams, waxes and laser removal to get rid of unwanted hair. Our body hair is a primitive attempt to keep our bodies warm, so keep that in mind the next time you see someone that hasn’t shaved in a while or doesn’t shave at all.

While our society deems it as “unclean,” women are free to set their own standards for themselves and may choose something that fits their own lifestyle and traditions.

Weight People do not ask each other their weight, as doing so will often result in embarrassment on the askers end and anger on the part of the person being asked.

Why is weight such a concern in our society? According to The National Institute on Media and the Family, television, movies and magazines have increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body image as the ideal for women since World War II. The ideal man is also presented as trim, but muscular.

Women are embarrassed about their weight because they constantly think they need to be much thinner.

W hen a ske d how much weight they would like to lose, the majority of women reply that they would like to lose 40 pounds.

Men are under constant pressure to be physically appealing to women, which means building muscles. In a world where more and more jobs do not include physical labor, exercise is hard to come by and not always easy to fit into busy lifestyles.

At the same time we are presented with food, everywhere and all the time. This combination is America.

While it truly does have health benefits to make time for exercise and eating healthily, we cannot change that fact that companies will find new ways to make us eat more. We may be okay or not okay with our weight, but all in all, going with the flow in America means gaining extra pounds. ­—Jennie Robinson

16

Features

The Oracle

Where are they now?

Uncanny predictions and hilarious memories: pop poll winners enjoy success years later “Most Talented” of 1983

“Coolest Cat” of 1988

“Most Talented” of 2002

Stephan Jenkins When Stephan Jenkins won the 1983 Gunn pop poll for “Most Talented,” he would have never anticipated the success he would have in the future.

Today, the Gunn alum is renowned as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for the band Third Eye Blind. The band formed in the early ‘90s and has now sold more than 8 million copies of their albums Third Eye Blind, Blue, Out of the Vein and Ursa Major. Jenkins also dabbled in acting and is most well known for playing the lead role of Matthew Kane in the 2003 film The Art of Revenge. He now lives in San Francisco and continues to write hit songs for Third Eye Blind. Jenkins is currently on tour with the band across the United States, playing songs from their most recent album.

Shemar Moore Actor Shemar Moore was voted as the “Coolest Cat” for the Class of 1988. In his senior year, Moore was the varsity punt returner for the football team and the varsity pitcher on the baseball team. Once out of high school, Moore began pursuing a baseball career at Santa Clara University but had to quit due to injuries. Moore then began to model to pay for college tuition, which eventually led to his current career in acting. Now, Moore leads criminal investigations on the show Criminal Minds. He has worked on the TV drama The Young and the Restless and was rated one of the sexiest bachelors on Extra. Moore’s student photo features the ever coveted 80’s mullet, moustache look, as well as a developing Afro, which explains Moore’s title within the senior pop polls.

Andrew Willis-Woodward Theatre Bay Area is a theater community within the Bay Area, which utilizes performing arts for the improvement of our society. Andrew Willis-Woodward is a part of this community of actors, featured in performances such as Baby: A Musical and Jubilee. Concerning his ability to act and sing, Willis-Woodward has been regarded a “likable stage presence” by the San Francisco Bay Times. Willis-Woodward honed his musical theater skills by attending several programs at the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco, the American Musical Theater of San Jose and NYU. Willis-Woodward’s senior pop poll epitomizes his current position as a successful actor.

“Class Clown” of 1988

“Most Likely to Succeed” of 1991

“Most Athletic” of 2003

Matt Flynn In any class, there always has to be that one guy or girl who just lights it up. Their behavior can range from downright spontaneous and potentially embarassing comments to just being outrageous.

The master of these antics is deemed senior class clown.

When one thinks about the term “class clown,” success usually isn’t something associated with it.

However, this was not the case in 1988 when Matt Flynn was voted “class clown.” Flynn has gone on to experience tremendous success as the drummer for the hit band, Maroon 5.

After Flynn replaced original drummer Ryan Dusick in 2006, the band produced its second album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, and completed a North American tour with The Hives. In June 2010, Maroon 5 plans to release their third studio album, Hands All Over, which was recorded in Switzerland with legendary AC/DC producer Robert “Mutt” Lange.

Flynn has experienced great success with Maroon 5. It Won’t be Soon Before Long was the number one selling album on iTunes, following its debut, with more than 50,000 digital pre-sales.

After its release, the album broke an iTunes sale record by selling over 101,000 albums. Flynn and the band visited Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami and New York City soon after the release.

Currently, the band is on a world tour with OneRepublic that began on March 28, 2008.

Anne Wojcicki Each year, when seniors cast their votes for pop polls, one of the most intriguing polls is “most likely to succeed”. The winners of these polls are usually selected because of academic prowess and other notable accolades. In turn, many students believe that the winners will succeed in life. Anne Wojcicki won the 1991 “Most Likely to Succeed” pop poll. “When I won, I wasn’t that excited,” Wojcicki said. “It wasn’t a very fun pop poll and I felt a bit nerdy.”

Wife of Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, Wojcicki is a co-founder of 23andMe, a genetics company that works to deliver genetic information to people worldwide. It enables users to explore their own genome and was named “Invention of the Year”

by Time Magazine.

Wojcicki looks positively on her time at Gunn. “I had a great time at Gunn and I felt there was a lot of freedom to explore,” she said. “My teachers gave me the flexibility to take risks. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I was always interested in science, business and investing.”

After graduating from Gunn in 1991, Wojcicki went on to study at Yale University as biology major. At Yale, Wojcicki was a competitive ice skater and competed on the varsity ice hockey team. “I really enjoyed athletics and the team aspect,” she said. “It taught me how to manage my time efficiently.”

Looking back, Wojcicki has several words of advice for young minds. “It is important to be passionate and find ideas that are truly transformational,” she said.

“Don’t be afraid to take risks.”

Andrew Jacobson Major League Soccer (MLS) player and Gunn alum Andrew Jacobson won the 2003 Central Coast Section Player of the Year Award as well as the 2003 “Most Athletic” pop poll while at Gunn. Jacobson played for the Gunn team all four years and led them to the Central Coast Division II Championship title in 2002. The same year, he also played for club team Palo Alto Crew, which won the Nor-Cal Premier League Championship. Jacobson continued to grow as a soccer player, beginning with a successful career at the University of California Berkeley where he was selected for the all Pac-10 team three times.

While at Berkeley, Jacobson majored in legal studies and seeks to become a lawyer in the near future.

Jacobson moved on to become the 24th pick in the 2008 MLS Super Draft and the 1st pick by D.C. United. He chose to play for FC Lorient in France instead, but was injured and unable to play. In 2009, he returned to the United States and played for D.C. United. Later in that year, he was drafted to play for Philadelphia Union, which is the team he currently plays for.

Yearbook photos courtesy of The Olympian Other photos courtesy of www.contactmusic.com, www.cbs. com, www.theatrebayarea.org, www.yamaha.com, www. ceoworld.biz and flickr user frescoVA

—Compiled by Joseph Lin, Hannah Plank-Schwartz and Kevin Zhang

17

Features

Alum turns photojournalist Melissa Chan

Entertainment Editor

Class of 2007 alum and former photographer for The Oracle, Christopher Wu has made a name for himself in photojournalism. His works have been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Elle Japan, Marie Claire, W Korea Magazine, Complex Magazine and www.Coolhunt.net. His resume goes on to include a list of celebrities including actors John Cho and Jorge Garcia as well as R&B singer Estelle and rapper Pharrell. To top off his list of achievements, he has never taken a photography class in his life.“I try to capture expressions really well at the right time,” Wu said.

He describes his style of photography as photojournalistic. “When I’m with my friends or family, I always try to document my moments with them by capturing stories in my pictures so that I can better remember these times in the future,” Wu said, “I guess I’m what people call ‘sentimental.’”

Wu spent only two years in college. He graduated earlier this year from University of California Los Angeles with a degree in mass communications, a field similar to advertisement. “My major has to do a lot with media and its effects, like how television, the Internet and social networking sites effect their users,” Wu said. “[It] also required me to take interpersonal communication classes that center on face-to-face communicative interaction, like negotiation and non-verbal, body language communications. This really helped me on my photo shoots.”

Wu worked on The Oracle staff for two years as Co-Photo Editor. “[The Oracle] was really what got me started in photojournalism, but not so much in photography,” Wu said.

“Being on The Oracle allowed me for the first time to communicate with a larger audience through my photography. Before, it was just my friends.”

The Oracle’s adviser Kristy Blackburn recounted a particular shot he took for a story about parking tickets.

“He got the reflection of the parking sticker or parking permit in the glass,” Blackburn said. “He definitely

pushed the envelope as far as taking neat, artsy photos.”

Ever since his start at The Oracle, Wu has continued to photograph for both print and online publications. Coolhunt, a popular online destination for fashion, lifestyle and travel information makes use of his keen eye for style. “Christopher is a perfect example of the irrelevance of age and talent,” Coolhunt Creative Director Catherine Yan said. “When I first saw his portfolio, I was thoroughly impressed with his ability to capture the essence of the subject. It is evident in his works that he understands the technicality and creativity of photography.”

One of Wu’s idols is Annie Leibovitz, “I’ve bought her books, studied her photographs and just let myself be inspired by her,” Wu said. “She communicates with her subjects so well and that’s something that I want to improve on.”

With such achievements under his belt at such a young age, he manages to keep himself modest because he knows that he still has much to learn in the field.

“Believing that I’m already an established photographer would be premature,” Wu said. “I’ve only just got my feet wet, but I’m very excited to continue shooting.”

For aspiring photographers and photojournalists, Wu recommended that the best way to start is to get out, meet new people and make an effort to understand them in the process. “At a certain point, photography isn’t just about technical skills–it becomes about communicating with the subjects to evoke their feelings,” Wu said.

“It becomes about communicating with the world my unique point of view.”

As for the future of his photography, the only thing Wu knows for certain is that he wants it to always be a part of his life but not his whole life. “I want my work all over billboards, all over magazines and all over the world,” Wu said. “That’s my plan, and I don’t believe that I need to completely devote my career or my time to photography to achieve that. It’s my passion and I’m not worried about where I’ll go with it.”

Courtesy of Chrisopher Wu

Top left: Gunn alum, Wu poses for a self portrait. Top right: Harold and Kumar actor, John Cho photographed for W Korea at Getty Center. Middle left: Rumi Neely, a popular fashion blogger poses for Elle Japan. Middle right: Madonna’s ex-backup dancer, Mowie, poses for band The Rej3ctz. Bottom: Lost cast member Jorge Garcia on set for Soul Cats.

More photos from Wu’s portfolio at www.christophewu.com.

18

Features

The Oracle

Q&A with Carl Wilkens—Rwandan genocide witness and co-founder of World Outside My Shoes

The Oracle: What brought you and your family to Rwanda in the first place?

Carl Wilkens: We had a job opportunity with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and we had been in Africa for six years. We knew we wanted to go back, so once we saw that there was an opportunity to help achieve peace for a little country in Africa, we jumped at the opportunity. We went there for humanitarian aid to help build schools.

TO: Have you gone back to Rwanda since?

CW: I have gone back twice—once last April for the 15 year memorial and last July when I brought eight schoolteachers there who teach about genocide to visit the different sites and memorials.

TO: Has the country changed?

CW: The changes are easy to see. The capital city has tripled in size and people have cell phones and Internet is spreading to all corners of the country. In the rural areas, at first glance, it seems little has changed, but everyone has health care and there are two times more schools than there used to be. If you take a longer look, there’s more impressive changes. However, the question of reconciliation is going to take many generations. But it’s amazing that there is so much peace in that country today, especially after the terrible shredding of their society.

TO: I understand that Rwanda was a really personal experience for you, so how did you overcome the emotions of talking about your experience to students?

CW: I don’t think I have overcome my emotions in talking about it. Tears still come at different times and it used to bother me, crying in front of people, but then one I day told myself to get over it—being bugged about crying in front of people—it’s not about me and what I’m comfortable or not comfortable with. Being “comfortable” can’t be a guiding factor in my life. You might remember me talking about

Courtesy of Carl Wilkens

Left: Carl Wilkens informs an audience about the atrocities and after-effects of the genocide in Rwanda.

Right: An old photo of Wilkens and his family taken at an airport in Nairobi after the genocide in Rwanda. switching from the word “responsibility” to the phrase “ability to respond.” I have the ability to respond and I’ve got to tell the stories.

TO: How do you suggest high school students take a stance against genocide?

CW: Inform yourselves: read The Translator, by Daoud Hari, and other books on Darfur, research on the Internet, watch films like Darfur Now, 3 Points and The Devil Came On Horseback. Get the word out to others through things like Facebook and MySpace and any other Internet tool and put links on your pages to Darfur stuff. Get acquainted with someone new at school, someone you might not normally hang out with. Pick a day each week that you will be sure and meet someone new or talk with someone you have not talked with in a long time. Remember, we can make a difference at home and abroad at the same time!

Let’s bounce

TO: Would you also consider going to other conflicted regions in Africa to help the people there?

CW: Yes, I often think about going back to Africa to be a part of the local and international community working together to make a difference. For the time being though, I think my work is in schools, and not just in America as we hope to spend some time in Europe and UAE next school year.

TO: How has your experience in Rwanda impacted the rest of your life?

CW: I try to be more intentional about the way I perceive people and try harder to see the good in people. I have a new appreciation and emphasis for inclusion and welcoming diversity.

—Compiled by Yilin Liang

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Entertainment

Monday, April 26, 2010

19

Photos courtesy of Will Escher

Left: Picture Me Broken performs live in front of local fans at Hillsdale’s Hot Topic. Right: Presenting the band from left to right: bass player Austin Dunn, drummer Connor Lung, singer Brooklyn Allman and guitarists Will Escher and Nick Loiacono. Bottom right: Escher feels the beat during performance.

Will Escher shares his musical journey including the signing of his band, Picture Me Broken said. “I’ve talked with lots of artists and deal.” Allman agreed. “He is cooperative and companies all over the place about music and takes what he does seriously,” she said. “Will Entertainment Editor how to improve and have had lots of people completes us as a band and fell right into A melodious hard rock harmony pulses listen to my solo music.” Backed by over place with us which is very important. We throughout the room as junior guitarist Will 2,000 MySpace friends, Escher linked with have all become very close in a short time.”

The bond that has developed between Escher’s fingers duel with the strings of his Pure Volume, where his fans can download tracks for free.

Escher and the rest of PMB, has been partially Studio Les Paul to produce a pinpoint chorus.

More recently, Escher has focused a byproduct of the long hours of practicing and Around him, the 808s flare and the energy h i s e n e r g y t o w a r d t h e “ m e l o d i c performing together, according to Escher. Just skyrockets as the five members of Picture hardrockternativecore” PMB. According in March, PMB performed at five showcases Me Broken (PMB)—singer Brooklyn Allman, to the band, they had at the interactive South lead guitarist Nick Loiacono, bassist Austin been looking for another by Southwest (SXSW) Dunn, drummer Connor Lung and Escher— guitarist for over a Festival in Austin, Texas. make the music that their fans adore. year before they found “We were with some “It felt unreal when Escher has an extensive musical Escher.

“We wanted of our favorite bands,” background. His father, a professional in I was signing my a fuller sound and to Escher said. “That was several instruments, travels around the world be able to recreate the truly one of the most fun signature that I use to perform in foreign music festivals while his nuances of our music experiences.” mother is a Grammy-award winning singer at grocery stores on PMB recently signed and voice coach. “My parents really were the live,” Loiacono said. a real record deal.”

“The best solution was with Megaforce Records, ones that got me into music,” Escher said. adding a rhythm guitar the same label that produced “They both have taught me a lot and showed — Junior Will Escher player.” me the ways of the music business.”

Escher got the With his family’s support, Escher’s own albums for Metallica chance at a trial practice after coming in music career took off at an early age. “In and Third Eye fourth grade, I got an acoustic guitar and contact with PMB’s Allman. ”Everything Blind. “It was started to teach myself,” he said. Since just clicked,” Escher said. Escher joined the crazy,” Escher band officially last February. then, Escher has also said. “It felt Escher currently plays picked up the electric unreal when rhythmic guitar and guitar, bass and drums.

I was signing does backup vocals for “I haven’t taken a my s ignatur e PMB. “Will has filled out lesson on any of the “[Escher] is a super that I use at grocery our sound and allowed instruments I play, I’ve stores on a real record solid guitarist and Nick [our lead guitarist] just been motivated to deal.” to explore some more that pretty much learn because music F o r E s c h e r, lead guitar parts without has really just been on sealed the deal.” however, music is worrying about covering the top of my list for not about the fame the rhythm as well,” Dunn — Guitarist Nick my whole life,” he said. or the fortune— said. “He also has begun Aside from the Loiacono it’s about selfdoing backup vocals, many instruments he expression. “The adding new harmonies and plays, Escher also sings absolute best part and composes his own music. “When most allowing us to emulate our recordings more of music is the fact that kids are on Facebook or enjoying their accurately.” it is an extremely good According to Escher, one of the most weeknight shows, I am on my computer way to express yourself, with my headphones glued to my ears and difficult parts of being in the music business thoughts, or feelings,” he my fingers working the Garageband magic,” is finding people with the same musical said. “I do music because mindsets to collaborate with him, but says he said. it is what I love and Escher shares his talent with the world that he is lucky to have found that in PMB. I feel like it is via the Internet. His MySpace page (www. “We work together on everything and break m a n d a t o r y myspace.com/spelloutlove) features a variety things up part-by-part,” he said. “It’s really for everyone of songs, including covers, originals and just an unbelievable experience to play with in the world collaborations. “I made a MySpace page and a band with so much talent.” to experience PMB, in turn, commended Escher as a tried to collect fans around the world because different MySpace is one of the number one ways of musician and a person. “I sort of have a man types of it.” promotion and getting out there,” Escher crush on him,” Loiacono said. “He’s a super Escher solid guitarist and that pretty much sealed the Tiffany Hu

finds inspiration from the people around him.

“I have lots of different kinds of inspiration but the most important comes from my parents, the kids who come out to shows, and other bands that I look up to,” he said.

Escher’s dedication for his music has not gone unnoticed by his friends or family.

“Will is one of the best musicians I know; he is extremely passionate about his music and is thrilled to be in his new band PMB,” Palo Alto High School junior Wyatt Kozelka said.

Junior Jane Day admires Escher’s musical versatility. “I would describe Will as a kid with a big heart with amazing songwriting abilities,” she said. “ His music ranges from cute acoustic songs to hardcore alternative, and I think it’s really good that he doesn’t fit into just one specific style of music.”

Looking a few years down the line, Escher hopes to further his career and continue his musical journey. “I hope that the future holds many musical opportunities for me,” he said.

“It is what I love to do and just receiving the tiny amount of money I’m making from PMB just feels awesome because it is coming from what I like most about the world.”

Keep your eyes open f o r P M B ’s m u c h anticipated album “Wide Aw a k e ” , coming l a t e June.

20

The Oracle

As seen on campus this spring:

Entertainment

Student Fashion

Miles Matthews Senior

Purple Cap Diamond Supply Co., $48

Jillian Du Senior

Blue Cardigan Forever 21, $10

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Rainbows

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Corduroy Jeans Gift from Sam Zeif

Jerseys

Sneakers True, $50

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with two beef patties and a layer of melted cheddar cheese. The Flying Dutchman may not appear appetizing at first, but the trademark taste of well-cooked beef may change your mind.

Jamba Juice: If you are looking for something delicious and satisfying go with the Thank You Jesus, which is made from lemon sherbet combined with tangy citrus juices. If you have a sweet-tooth try the Strawberry Shortcake. Other flavors include Peanut Butter and Jelly, Sour Patch Kids, White Gummy or Pink Starburst.

Starbucks: It’s one of the biggest coffee chains in the world but Starbucks offers several alternative choices including the smaller “Short” size for those who can’t handle the same amount of caffeine. But if your addicted to the drink be sure to check out the red, black, or green eye drinks which are one, two, and three shots of espresso respectively in regular drip coffee.

If you’re in love with their frapuccino be sure to order a Biscotti Frappucino where they add a biscotti of your choice into any frappuccino. It’s an amazing blend of cookie dough chunks with coffee delight.

—Compiled by Monica Cai, Sam Hayward and Elaine Liu

Scarves

Entertainment

Monday, April 26, 2010

21

Handmade shirts provide creative outlet Elaine Liu Business Manager The empty canvas of the T-shirt is a channel for endless expression. Its ability to become an outlet for personal creativity has enabled senior Miles Mathews to become one of the many students at Gunn who creates his or her own T-shirts.

“I started making [spray paint] shirts when I saw a friend of mine and he told me the process,” Mathews said.

“It was amazingly easy and I loved it.”

Mathews started out small and created several simple designs that he used for himself or his close friends.

“You can express your ideas and artistic talent in a method that others can easily understand,” Mathews said. His materials are handmade and his stencils are original. Matthews originally made T-shirts in his spare time, but this fall, Mathews began his biggest project.

After being impacted by events in the community, Mathews and fellow T-shirt maker senior Sam Zeif collaborated to create a wide-spread distribution of a series of “Talk to Me” shirts. These shirts were all one-of-a-kind but were unified by the same basic stencil of a profiled talking face and the phrase “Talk to me.”

“The main goal of ‘Talk to Me’ was to increase the feeling of security that all students should have with peers,” Mathews said. The distribution was beyond either of the T-shirt makers’ expectations, and Zeif and Mathews decided to have a second distribution.

“The best shirt making moment of my career came with my boy Sam at my side after finishing up our last ‘Talk to Me’ shirt at 2 a.m on a beautiful fall night,” Mathews joked.

Matthews continues his work in shirtmaking but has recently opened up to other processes beyond spraypaint. “I have recently been experimenting with silk screening,” Mathews said.

“It is a much more efficient and professional way of making shirts.”

Mathews believes that T-shirt making will remain a component of his life in the future. “T-shirt making is important to me because it allows me to use my creativity,” Mathews said. “It is the one of the only forms of art where I have found a way to give a vision to the ideas in my head.”

Senior Wook Lee has taken T-shirt design to another level. He recently founded a small commercial website “ByteClothing,” on which he sells his original T-shirts and hoodies.

Lee began learning silk-screening in his graphic design class. “I’ve always been really interested in making my own stuff, so my interest in printing my own shirts came naturally,” he said.

Although the silk-screening process appears difficult, Lee believes that it teaches an important lesson. “I think silk-screening is a constant reminder to me that knowledge is power,” Lee said.

“Before knowing how something works people think the process is difficult and never venture to learn it.” He acknowledges that he felt the same way before he realized he was capable of using the method. “It pushed me to try new things, because they aren’t as hard as they look,” Lee said.

Lee believes that creating personal Tshirt is unique.“Making your own shirt gives you the feeling that you aren’t bound by these clothing brands,” Lee said. “It definitely sets you apart.”

Courtesy of Mathews and Lee

Headline: Painted and silkscreened shirts by seniors Miles Mathews and Wook Lee. Above: Lee models his Dino hoodies. Bottom right: Design of a spray-paint can on Mathews’ shirt. Bottom left: The Dino hoodies are sold for $50 on Lee’s home website ByteClothing.

Students turn their shoes into blank canvases with shoe art Emily Zheng

Features Editor

Junior Bonnie Cardillo was greeted with a wave of compliments as she arrived to school in the morning. “Hey, I’ve never seen that design on Vans before,” someone commented. “Where’d you get them?”

Courtesy of Mathews and Lee

Left: Junior Bonnie Cardillo was inspired to design her Vans with intricate patterns using Sharpies only after being inspired by an article. Right: Sophomore Mona Luo enjoys adding her personal touch to shoes by using an acrylic paint.

another person asked. Cardillo smiled and explained that she designed the shoes herself. On the other side of campus, sophomore Mona Luo walked around in her own pair of self-designed shoes that she had decorated with acrylic paint, and like Cardillo, received many comments on the unique pattern of her footwear.

Though they are complete strangers, Cardillo and Luo are both connected by their distinct hobby of designing shoes or, shoe art. “Shoe art isn’t really anything specific—it’s just decorating your footwear to make something you’d enjoy wearing,” Cardillo said. “It doesn’t have to be really fancy and artistic. It’s really about being able to make a pair of shoes your own.”

Cardillo was inspired by an article about a shoe artist that donated to a hospital as well as her cousin who asked her to help him air-brush and “Sharpie” his shoes. “I began getting really into it,” she said. “I normally draw with Sharpies because it’s cheap and they come in really bold colors that stay pretty well on the shoes.”

Luo’s inspiration came from her artistic background and she designed her first pair of shoes in the summer of eighth grade. “I wanted a pair of unique shoes for my trip to Japan,” she said. “I bought a pair of plain white canvas shoes and it just went from there. When I started, I didn’t think of it as

art, it was just a little crafts project I was doing for fun.” Luo’s first pair of personalized shoes was fish and space themed.

“There was a lone koi on the front of the black shoe and a star falling into water on the front of the blue shoe,” she said. “The idea just came to me. It wasn’t anything deep. It just felt right at the time.”

Luo has since painted three other pairs of shoes for her friends. The themes include evil and cute monsters, colored umbrellas and a peacock feather pattern. “The latest pair I painted was for a friend’s homecoming outfit,” she said. “On white Vans I painted peacock feathers fanning out at the front and coming out from the bottom of the sides and back.”

Cardillo has also designed four pairs of shoes, two for herself, one for her cousin and one for a friend. “The one for my friend was really colorful and geometric, as was the one for my cousin,” Cardillo said. “The third and fourth were for me. One is blue and green with shapes that kind of look like colorful stained glass, while the other is made up of small squares with symmetric doodles.”

According to Cardillo, shoe art is a lowkey and fun way to doodle and decorate.

“It’s fun being able to personalize a pair of basic-colored vans,” she said. “It’s a hobby that you can wear around.”

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Entertainment

The Oracle

Livin’ without my Facebook fix Kevin Gao Mothers have their babies, Ebenezer Scrooge has his money and druggies have their crack. Well, I think it’s safe to say that Facebook is my crack.

I’ve been using Facebook for three years now and it fascinates me how I am able to log in time and time again without having any agenda whatsoever. I would not mind being called a Facebookaholic and can log into Facebook without conscious thought.

I’m the type of kid that keeps refreshing the homepage hoping the red notification flag will appear. Facebook is the reason behind all my procrastintion. (What’s worse is that I feel like I speak for most students on campus.)

When I was faced with the task of deactivating my Facebook for two weeks, all I could think about were the friend requests I would be missing. Though it was a daunting task, I deactivated my Facebook in an attempt to free myself from my addiction.

Life without Facebook is quite the sobering experience. Everywhere I went I would be pressed with the sight of someone’s homepage. The computer screamed at me to come back, but inside I knew I couldn’t.

All I could think about day and night were all the messages, invites and application spam I would be missing. Had someone wanted to post on my wall? Was I missing out on the new scandalous pictures? How far did May advance in Farmville?

Through this eye-opening experience I can honestly say that I have realized that Facebook is half of my life. That is just the saddest part of this whole ordeal: realizing that your life is a website. I constantly find myself referring back to it for everyday tidbits. Without it I can’t remember friends’ birthdays; I can’t read status updates and I definitely can’t know who’s “complicated” with who.

A mere seven days of deactivation passed by, and I could feel the Facebook-shaped hole in my heart. I just felt naked without being able to log in and browse around like everyone around me. I really am a huge stalker just like everyone else, and not being able to partake in the creeping festivities actually depressed me.

All it took was a week for me to throw in the towel and call it quits. Life without Facebook is like being allergic to chocolate.

As soon as I got back on, I made my status, “Kevin Gao, went a week without Facebook and survived.” Much to my satisfaction, I was showered with comments and likes and it pleased me to see that red notification flag increase in integers after days of Facebook withdrawal.

This whole Internet dependency, however, is not entirely our fault. After all, we are part of the new digital generation and the age of technobabble. I just urge people to consider moderation and that too much of anything can be bad. Facebook is here to stay whether we like it or not. From this experience, I learned that people should go check out the world because we should not just chill in front of a computer screens, we should go out and live our lives.

—Gao, a junior, is a Sports Editor.

Bookstore offers unusual experience Know Knew Books is safehaven for bookworms, spendthrifts and students alike Samantha Donat Reporter

Most bookstores are stereotypically labeled as a safe-haven for bookworms and English majors.

However, Know Knew Books, located at 415 South California St. in Palo Alto, is not your typical bookstore. From the welcoming atmosphere to the wide range of merchandise, Know Knew Books appeals to almost everyone.

Walking through the front door, one notices immediately that this is not a mainstream bookstore. Shelves of literature tower overhead from all sides and abstract paintings hang from the walls, while the sound of The Beatles come from a stereo near owner Bill Burruss’s book-laden desk. English teacher and customer Angela Dellaporta compared the store to a labyrinth of books that is easy to lose your way in. “Know Knew Books offers you the pleasure of getting lost and finding interesting, unknown things,” she said.

Recently, Burruss has started adding more than just books to his store to create a more welcoming environment for all types of people. “Selling a diverse range of products gives the store a more receptive, friendly, open feel,” Burruss said. “I don’t want my customers to feel like they’re walking into a liJonathan Yong brary.”

Top: Owner Bill Burrus opened Know Knew Books to Not only does Know offer books for everyone. Bottom Left: The bookstore Knew Books present a houses hundreds of genres for all. Bottom Right: wide variety of items, but Quirky interior design includes a mock crime scene. it also holds numerous events throughout the year. In the past, the ing through books, he goes out to auctions store has held a book signing by children’s around the Bay Area, searching for unusual book author Betsy Franco and presentations additions his store. “Scouting for books by local musicians, artists, poets and actors. is like Christmas for me,” Burruss said. “I The store features tealeaf and numerol- couldn’t have a better job.” ogy readings and a break dancing group Although Know Knew Books offers a monthly. Currently, a collection of artwork wide selection of merchandise, the majority from Firehouse Studios in Berkeley is also of the store is still dedicated to books. Over on display. The store has also welcomed an 100 genres of literature are stocked. Aside animator for the Lord of the Rings movies. from books on hunting and fishing—Burruss According to Burruss, the unique style of is against the killing of animals—books can Know Knew Books sets it apart from other be found on art, cooking, philosophy, travel, chain bookstores. His customers enjoy the reincarnation and just about everything in odd diversity of the merchandise as well as between. the store’s hospitable atmosphere. “There’s The store also suit to student needs. a very relaxed environment in the store,” Students who are looking for particular inDellaporta said. For her, the countless types formation are welcome to find a book, settle of old, forgotten books keep her coming themselves into one of the store’s comfy back. couches and do research without having to Even though business is sometimes slow pay for the material. for Burruss, he loves the job. When he’s Know Knew Books also enjoys helping not in the store helping customers or sort- community organizations and taking part

in community events, whether it be by letting groups use the store as a meeting place, helping them fundraise or simply by inviting local music artist to come in and showcase their talents to customers.

Pricing is better than other chain stores’.

Books and toys are generally about half their normal price. Customers are paying less and they also get a feel for the unique charm and charisma that used bookstores offer. “Browsing through Know Knew Books is like going through a treasure chest,” Dellaporta said, “If you have patience, you can find all sorts of hidden gems.”

Faces in the Crowd: What did you do over spring break?

Jamie Hayward (9) “I went on vacation to Palm Springs this break and had a lot of fun.”

Lauren Garcia (10)

Yotam Kasznik (11)

Chanel Miller (12)

“I completely re-did my room and stayed at other people’s houses for at least 72 hours.”

“I perfected the trick shot, ordered and ate lots of KFC and had all my dreams and aspirations crushed when I went college-tripping.”

“I got shot down by Sprinkles. I hate it when that happens.”

—Compiled by Monica Cai

Entertainment

Monday, April 26, 2010

23

Henry Liu and Jonathan Yong

Left to Right: Junior Cat Volpe directs her cast. Seniors Ariel Ling, Amber Kahn and Neulyn Moss and juniors Tony Bianchini, Brittany Lydster and Alice Walton do a run through during rehearsal of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Seniors Jordan King and Nick Ziebell lead their cast as directors.

The Oracle previews the short plays of six talented student directors Annie Shuey

Sports Editor

One Acts has been a tradition at Gunn since 1984 when theater director Jim Shelby first took over the theater program. According to Shelby, One Acts differs from other school theater performances because it is entirely student selected and directed. “Instead of me making decisions and directing, the students do,” Shelby said. “Students cast, run rehearsals and make thousands of decisions.” This year’s One Acts production features five separate acts, and will run about two and a half hours long.

“They’re mostly funny,” Shelby said.

“But there are also thoughtful ones. There’s a huge range this year, from a play written by Anton Chekov to a student written zombie musical.”

Zombies! The Musical Co-written by seniors Jordan King and Nick Ziebell, Zombies! The Musical is the only musical in this year’s production of One Acts. “It’s very loosely based off [Shakespeare’s] Romeo and Juliet, and instead of humans we chose to use zombies,” Ziebell said. The boy zombie (sophomore Blake Vesey) and human girl (junior Sophie Christel) fall in love against the wishes of their rival families.

“The zombies are sort of misunderstood,” King, the music composer, said. “They’re more down to earth. They’re also vegetarian, which is an interesting twist.”

According to Ziebell, it took the duo between two and three months to write the act. “Writing a musical was much tougher that I had initially anticipated,” Ziebell said.

“Finding the right people for the roles proved to be a difficult process, since we both had such specific visions for the characters in the show, but we are both very happy with our cast and are excited to see them perform on stage.”

King agreed that casting for the act was difficult. “It’s tough to be able to sing, dance and act,” he said. “We looked for people with a lot of energy, and we have a great cast.”

The Bear Senior director Sarah Alcabes was drawn to Anton Chekov’s act The Bear for a variety

of reasons. “It’s big and fun and crazy,” she said. “It’s always moving, and bringing the audience into the story.”

Mrs. Papova (senior Sarah Powell), is a widow who gets into an argument when Smirnov (senior Daniel Wallach) shows up at her door insisting that Mrs. Papova’s deceased husband owed him money.” Wallach enjoys Smirnov’s character. “I love [Smirnov’s] boldness,” Wallach said. “He doesn’t really abide by the social standards we live by today.” The conflict escalates and the act takes a surprising twist towards the end. “They’re both very stubborn characters,”Alcabes said.

According to Alcabes, a challenge the cast will face is keeping the act “farcical, but believable.” Wallach added that “Chekov demands everything be as it is in real life.”

Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Senior director Angela Marcinik first saw a production of Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe in middle school, and the production has stayed in the back of her mind ever since. “It’s a dark comedy,” she said. “It’s based on self-realization and epiphany and common sense. It’s basically stuff you think about and never really know you’re thinking about. It just puts it out there for you.”

Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is an act about Trudy (senior Ronit Roodman), a homeless and “likely schizophrenic” woman who has visions of other people’s lives.“Each character was separately created and written,” Marcinik said. “It’s a really, really beautiful play,” she said.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Junior Cat Volpe decided to take an abstract approach to directing The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. “I read the short story [by James Thurber] in English class and I really liked it, so I adapted and rewrote it,” she said.

The act centers around Walter Mitty (sophomore Eve Kelly) who has wild daydreams.“The play toys with the idea of reality versus fantasy,” Volpe said. She also added that the entire set is made up of one table and two chairs, which prove versatile in each of the nine scenes.

The six person “Dream Team” consists of

juniors Tony Bianchini, Brittany Lydster and Alice Walton and seniors Amber Kahn, Ariel Ling and Neulyn Moss.

This is a Test Senior director Josh Kelly knew he wanted to direct a comedy, so he settled on This is a Test, written by Steven Gregg, because of its relevance to students. “It’s about a girl taking a test in high school,” he said. “She’s having a bad day, and just when you think it can’t get worse, it does. It’s very relevant ­—I’m sure a lot of us have taken really bad tests.”

Kelly was immediately drawn to the script when he read it. “I was reading it, and I just started laughing so many times. The

ideas just started popping.”

With a 16 person “absurdly large cast” for One Acts, “This is a Test” is the largest act of the year. Senior Yvonne Lin stars as Allison, the test taker, and senior Tiffany Chen plays the teacher. “It’s a fun character to watch,” Kelly said of the teacher. “She’s sort of mean without even meaning to be mean.”

Kelly hopes the act leaves an impression on the audience. “I want it to wow people,” he said. “I want it to be an experience.

One Acts shows May 13 to 15 and 19 to 22 in the little Theater.

Tickets are $5.

COLLEGE ADMISSION ACADEMY For High School Juniors Saturday, May 15 and 22, 2010 At Menlo College

www.collegematchus.com contact: david@collegematchus.com / (415) 601-6955

24

Sports

The Oracle

The Oracle staff gets back to business Henry Gens

Features Editor

Badminton

Chances are that any student here at Gunn has at one point listened to complaints concerning the difficulty of the training for the school’s badminton team. To be honest, I never heeded these horror-filled tales. The sport just didn’t seem like it demanded that much rigor—I mean, the rackets are featherlight. Dainty, not daunting.

So it was with a fair bit of confidence that I walked into the gym a few weeks ago to play with the varsity team. I had barely begun the warm- up, however, before I realized that my perception of badminton has been one of the biggest misjudgments I’ve made here at Gunn. By the end of the warm-up, which consisted of several different gym-length aerobic activities, I was already starting to feel the burn in my muscles and sweat dripping down my entire body.

Thankfully, that experience was soon over and I joined some of the other players to practice rallying. That amounted to little more than target practice for whomever I happened to be playing against, as they aptly smashed the shuttlecock onto every part of my body. Head. Torso. Arms. Legs. It didn’t matter. I got hit everywhere by that birdie.

Mia Howard Reporter

Diving

As a competitive swimmer, I always imagined diving to be easy.

The divers had free time to sit on the wall and adopt a team mascot—a frog named Tommy—while the swimmers were busy swimming laps in the pool.

During my practices, I would watch the divers flip off the board with a seemingly effortless grace. I figured that as a swimmer, I would be able to complete a diving practice without working too hard. But after participating in my first diving practice, I will never again consider diving easy.

The practice started out with some dryland workouts focusing on the abdominals and legs. Most of the dryland workouts were linked to their dives. I watched the diving team complete pike stretches to build flexibility, supermans to strengthen their abs for entering the water in a straight position and squat jumps to improve power off the board.

I started out the diving portion of practice with some “easy” dives that the diving team considered a warm up. I failed miserably, shrieking and flailing my arms around before I Eugenah Chou Reporter

Golf

Before practicing with the Titan golf team for a day, I never really understood why people played the sport. In fact, I barely even considered golf to be a sport. Walking around lugging a bunch of expensive clubs in the hot sun never seemed like any particular fun or exercise. Honestly, I’ve always sort of scoffed at the intense amount of concentration (and money) people pour into hitting a tiny white ball. But I decided to try and set out on my quest with an open mind.

My day in the life of a Titan golfer began a little roughly. After digging around my backyard for my dad’s old golfing set to no avail, I arrived to practice at the Palo Alto golf course both late and club-less. Fortunately, golf is a gentleman’s sport and I was able to borrow everything I needed. The

1

It wouldn’t be badminton without the conditioning, though. And the coach was quick to introduce me to a few of the drills that these players participate in on a regular basis. First, we started off with several sets of timed shuttle runs, essentially short sprints back and forth to place birdies on the lines of the court. Let’s just say that I was so drenched with sweat by the end of the drill that I ended up literally sliding across the floor to finish my last sprint in time. Never in my life have I been so sore.

My time spent with the team—more survival than practice at this point—ended on some footwork drills. In these drills, the player is supposed to shuffle and sprint around the court to hit the birdies that the coach drops. It calls for both strong footwork and hand-eye coordination with the racket (of which I sadly possessed neither). It was a sorry spectacle to be sure, but the coach had plenty of additional fun by faking a toss before throwing the birdy to the opposite corner.

All in all, I was just glad to come out of the experience with my life, if not my dignity.

Honestly, what goes on behind the doors of that gym is some fairly intense stuff, and I was sore for days afterward. Then again, it’s not for nothing that the Titans were 6-0 in badminton when I came to practice—their dedication and hard work really pays off.

Victor Kwok

2

even entered the water. I discovered that jumping off the diving board while concentrating on where to enter the water, maintaining correct form and not diving too far was extremely difficult. I decided to take a break as the diving team took turns jumping off the two boards.

One after another, each athlete performed dives that had them flipping in the air, looking like pros. It was at this moment that I decided that divers are extremely courageous. I had no idea what could possess them to voluntarily catapult their bodies into the air on a regular basis, trusting that they would land in the water without belly-flopping painfully on the surface.

The athletes switched to other dives in rapid succession, expanding their variety of dives quickly. I watched as the coach carefully examined their dives and gave them tips on how to improve. I was lucky enough to be granted permission to try a new dive, but it ended in an extremely painful belly flop that was rated a “10 out of 10” for most painful by the divers.

I didn’t participate in all of the practice due to my lack of expertise, but it is safe to say that I will no longer make comments in the future about how “effortless” diving is. nice thing about practicing with the team is that after getting instructions from Coach Chris Redfield, a lot of the sport is self run.

We started by splitting off into three groups to practice different drills. My group began with a “chipping” drill, where the golfer hits the ball into the air to clear it over rough grass or sand. Easier said than done. The very first thing I learned: don’t run on the golf course, even after rogue balls. You’ll get nothing but dirty looks and a scolding.

After attempting to mimic my teammates and repeatedly having to take the walk of shame to retrieve my golf balls, I learned that the trick is to not force it. As Coach Redfield explained, what you focus on is letting the putter take care of most of the work. Also, your golf grip is critical. Your lead hand, which is actually your left hand for righthanded players, should firmly grip the top of the club. This generates wrist snap, which is essential for power. With this in mind, I was soon chipping away like a pro. Kind of.

Victor Kwok

3

Next, we tackled putting, or hitting the ball short distances. After lining up several balls in a circle about three feet away around the hole, we tried to sink as many consecutive balls as we could. I soon discovered that the key to this exercise is a combination of concentration, focus and more concentration. There is nothing more irritating about the sport than when the ball rolls to

Victor Kwok

a stop just millimeters away from the hole.

To all you golf fanatics out there, I apologize. Prior to actually practicing out on the green, I’ve never given golf players any credit for the great sport they play. It requires stamina, sportsmanship and intelligence about how best to hit the ball. Most of all, however, it takes passion, which is crucial to what I consider success in any sport.

Sports

Monday, April 26, 2010

25

taking on spring sport try-out challenge Reporter

I have done ballet for 11 years, so I didn’t expect practicing with the gymnastics team would be that different. I knew that I would not make a fool out of myself because I am flexible and have good balance. I have done gymnastics before, and can still do a cartwheel and a handstand.

When I got to the gym, I was nervous. We warmed up by running, shuffling and other motion stretches. Then, we sat on the floor and stretched every part of our bodies from our ankles to our wrists. The worst part was the splits. I was in agony. In contrast, the gymnasts were at ease, even though their legs were in a form of relative torture.

At the end of stretching, a coach came up to the team and assigned members to go to the vault, floor, beam or bars. They had a meet the week before, and if they had fallen during the meet, they were told to repeat the trick 10 more times. I headed to the beam, which measured only four inches across. This may seem like a lot, but in reality it is only as wide as a stapler is long. It seemed high, and since I hate heights, getting on was a nightmare for me. I attempted to not fall on my face

Reporter

5

Jonathan Yong

Lacrosse was a completely new experience for me. Sure, I had played a little lacrosse before in P.E., but bear in mind that we were given a lot of handicaps. Lacrosse with the junior varsity (JV) girls’ lacrosse team was much more challenging.

The warm-up that started the practice was fairly simple—just two laps around the grass field. We ran around “cradling” our lacrosse sticks. In order to cradle with the lacrosse stick, I was instructed to move the stick in front of me in a sort of half-circle, keeping the netting facing me at all times.

The team then discussed their most recent game against St. Francis High School with JV coach Olga Galperin. I understood the discussion at first, but once terminology like “quick stick” and “cutting the eight” began to pop up, I was totally lost.

After the discussion, the team and I started doing drills. First, we played “wall ball,” where we caught and threw balls against the wall repeatedly, focusing on becoming more comfortable with our non-dominant hand. I wasn’t half-bad with my right hand and I could almost match the rest of the team. But once we all switched hands, the difference in skill level between me and the other players was pretty embarrassing. They didn’t look like the change affected them at all, yet I could barely even keep the ball in the netting.

Reporter

Victor Kwok

1. Senior Henry Gens lunges for the birdie at a badminton practice. “Badminton only needs four words—two hours of hell,” he said. 2. Gens reaches for a birdie on the floor as part of a conditioning exercise. 3. Junior Eugenah Chou works on her swing. 4. Sophomore Lydia Zhang reaches to catch a pass from a teammate at lacrosse practice. 5. Sophomore Mati Pluska-Renaud takes a swing at a softball practice.

I’m not really into swinging bats and running around to different bases, but when I got the opportunity to spend an afternoon at a junior varsity (JV) softball practice, I thought it would be fun. I wasn’t really sure what to expect at first, but when we started warming up and stretching, my muscles began to loosen up and I was pumped.

First, we picked up a bat for each member of the team and learned how to swing a bat correctly. After that, we had to sprint back and forth a few times until I became out of breath, just to see how fast we could run. We ran over to the back of the softball field, pairing up to practice throwing, pitching and catching.

We started off about six feet apart, then backed up to 100 yards away from our partners.

It took a lot of endurance and toughening up to catch the softballs zooming at me every 10 seconds and I felt bruises starting to form on my arms while my fingers stung.

Another exercise we took part in required a partner to hold up two balls of different colors and throw them both to the batter simultaneously as the batter listened for the pitcher to call

out either color to focus on hitting.

At first, it seemed challenging, but as I warmed up to hearing the colors called out, I focused on one ball before the other.

Next, the coach had us practice stealing bases. This is when players try to run to the next base when their teammate hits a foul. To prepare for covering the field, we practiced catching fly balls from a machine that threw softballs high into the air, frocing us to reach out and dive for the ball. When I finally stepped into the batting cage, it was overwhelming because it was just me and the ball machine. I tried to hit a strong ball in only eight tries because other girls were waiting in line to bat as well. It took a lot of concentration to get me going, but I pulled through.

A huge part of softball is getting down and dirty—that’s why the girls practice in longer pants. It’s also like a game of probability, except you have to make your luck, not wait for it to come to you.

Softball is a sport which makes you look on with awe. These Gunn JV softball players are full of passion, hard work and spirit. I know this season is going to be full of wins.

Softball

Mati Pluska-Renaud

Next, we worked on improving long passes. Every time a player caught or passed the ball, she would shout the other player’s name, making sure that there was eye contact. I was reminded of how important teamwork was in the group. As I ran up and down the field, catching and throwing as best as I could, I felt out of my element.

Having never played a real team sport before, I was unfamiliar with the idea of so much communication.

Since I didn’t have a specific position, I sat out the last 45 minutes as the players “worked around the eight.” Players on offense would pass to each other, while the defense would try to intercept the ball. It became apparent that the drill’s main focus was not only on throwing and catching, but also improving coordination. In order to effectively pass the ball, the offense had to constantly talk, yelling each others’ names and encouraging one another. The defense would shout “got ball” repeatedly when guarding the player with the ball.

After one practice with the lacrosse team, I can tell that they are really comfortable working with each other. At first, I felt like I was intruding on the team. Their training is not only focused on the skills needed to play, but also on the team’s ability to communicate. Even though the team is made up of relatively new players, they already seem comfortable with each other and their coach.

Lacrosse

Lydia Zhang

while doing cartwheels, leaps and somersaults, but I was not successful and ended up with multiple bruises the next day.

Next, I headed to the bars. I was fooled by the ease and grace of the gymnasts, so I didn’t believe the bars would be too challenging. When I attempted one of the simplest tricks on the bar called the back hip swing, I learned that what they were doing was hard and painful. After going around the bar once, the skin on my hips was already grazed. When I got off the bars, I could feel my muscles screaming in protest. The practice was only half over. I was in trouble.

Then, I went to the floor. This was fun because the floor is springy. I attempted various tricks such as handstands and catwheels. Out of all of the events, I liked floor the best because it incorporates both dance and gymnastics.

I admire the gymnasts for the work that they put into perfecting their routines and their courage to pick themselves up each time they fall. This team also has the mental strength to perform well under pressure, and I am excited to see the team win many of their meets.

Gymnastics

4

Maya Ambady

26

Sports

The Oracle

Ultimate team catches them all 1

2

3

Courtesy of Thomas Callaghan

4

Photos by Victor Kwok

1. Three players leap to catch the flying frisbee during practice. 2. Senior Nathan White throws past senior Greg Albrecht’s tough defense. 3. The team poses after playing their first collegiate tournament at the Stanford invite. 4. Senior Jon Proctor goes for a footblock.

Ashley Ngu & Kevin Zhang Reporters

What began two years ago as a casual gathering of frisbee enthusiasts and friends has transformed into a competitive ultimate frisbee team which competed in two major interstate tournaments.

Led by senior captains Nathan White, Michael Norcia and David Hwang, the studentrun team, Team Rocket, has been successful in maintaining a winning record. “We don’t have an official record because we’ve played a lot of college teams that we shouldn’t have played and we’ve lost some against them, won some,” Norcia said. “I would estimate that our record against high school teams is about 13-1.”

The only loss was to their main rival, the Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) team. “Considering they’re a small charter school whose only school sport is ultimate frisbee, have an official coach and their members mostly start playing in middle school, they should beat us dandily,” Norcia said. “We’re definitely going to put up a hell of a fight.”

The team also has two volunteer coaches, Stanford graduate students Thomas Cal-

laghan and David Abram, who help players develop their skills. “They know their stuff backwards and forwards,” Norcia said.

“Thomas is more of the coach-y type and David is more of a player, so combined, they make an awesome coaching team.”

In a recent tournament in Davis, Calif., the team won all seven of its games and placed first. “When they are in sync with each other, it’s a beautiful thing to watch,” Callaghan wrote in an e-mail. “You should come see it for yourself at States. I heard spectators during the semifinal game at the Davis Juniors Tournament describe their play as ‘poetry in motion.’”

Team Rocket placed seventh last year in the States competition, but has high expectations this time around. “Some players already had some experience at the start, and everyone who has come to practices and games has drastically improved,” Abram wrote in an e-mail. “They are now throwing confidently, playing solid defense and looking more experienced than many college players and teams I have seen.” The States took place on Saturday and Sunday.

This is also the first year the squad has been invited to the UPA Western Championships, which will take place May 8 and 9 in

Seattle. It is considered to be the top high school tournament of the year consisting of 15 other ultimate teams from six other states: Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Idaho, Missouri and Nebraska. “We’re going into that tournament with no real expectations of winning,” Norcia said. “I think the tournament is going to be a lot more fun than States because at Westerns, the teams are at a level of competition where if we lose, it’ll be a great learning experience anyways. If we lose to a team at States, it will be more disappointing.”

The unique peer-organized system of the team creates a friendlier and more relaxed atmosphere than most official school sports.

“We’re like a family,” senior Johnny Lau said.

“Everyone knows everyone else.” Callaghan agreed. “The team chemistry is great,” he wrote. “These kids are an absolute pleasure to coach. They are eager to learn, adjust well to feedback and play hard. They are very supportive of each other and cooperative in sharing insights and teaching each other. I love their playful and laid back yet competitive approach. It’s made coaching them very easy, except I don’t understand all their Pokemon references, but maybe that’s for the best.”

Q&A with

Courtesy of Thomas Callaghan

The team’s easygoing attitude is reflected in their team name. Last year, the team called themselves We Throw Frisbee, but changed their name to Team Rocket as part of an inside joke revolving around the Pokemon franchise. Following this theme, their uniforms consist of white t-shirts with a red “R” on the front in accordance with actual Team Rocket attire. On the back is a blacked picture of a Pikachu captured in a net.

Practice emphasizes scrimmages more than conditioning or drills. An average practice will consist of an hour of warm-ups and drills followed by an hour of scrimmages. Attendance at practices and games is completely voluntary; members are involved because they truly enjoy playing the sport and with the team. ”If there are people interested in joining, they should come out and try it out,” Norcia said. “If you are terrible at throwing, believe us, we’ve seen terrible throwers get dramatically better with practice. There are a wide variety of different levels of playing on the team so everyone is welcome.”

Yuhui Chen—Personal Trainer

The Oracle: Do you have any clients that are college or high school students? What kind of exercises do they do with you? How do you adapt to their needs?

Yuhui Chen: I have both high school and college students. Some are doing Yuhui Chen sport specific training. For example, I have one student who plays soccer and we’re working on helping him to perform better and not get injured. Other students are working on muscle and balance. Many students use computers all the time and discover they have very bad posture. Sitting with the head down and slumped in a sofa or chair leads to muscle weakness and overall bad body balance. It’s important to

keep your body in shape so you can keep your body in the right position for better function in daily life.

TO: How does being in shape benefit the average high school student?

YC: Students have many things to balance, such as homework, friends and fitness. A healthy lifestyle for high school students has to begin with a healthy diet. Drinking soda and having chips makes a body more easily stressed, depressed and tired. A healthy diet improves energy, reduces stress and allows for better muscle tone. When you add exercise to a good diet, you will feel your body is re-born, re-energized and your mind will feel sharper. Students may not realize what a positive change they will feel in their overall life if they eat healthy and get good exercise.

TO: What quick workout tips can you give to students with busy schedules?

YC: You can do this simple workout at home. You can do pull-ups, push-ups, squats and lunges in three sets of 12 to 15 repetitions each. These are the basic four exercises you can do at home with your own body weight, no weights. They target shoulders, upper chest, glutes, quad and core. It can raise your heart rate, and allow you to more burn calories.

TO: What is the best way to make workouts more fun?

YC: Usually, I love to listen to my favorite music, with a fast beat.. Sometimes if I workout without music, I take too many breaks or get sloppy. With music, I can set up a 30-minute workout by picking 30 minutes of music.

—Compiled by Lisa Wu

Sports

Monday, April 26, 2010

27

Spotlight: update on spring sports How has the season been so far?

Nick Ciesinski (12) — Boys’ Lacrosse “The lacrosse team is finally starting to click after a few weeks, and hopefully we can beat teams we lost to earlier in the season.”

Shelly Kousnetz (12) — Girls’ Lacrosse

“Our team has been improving, but we have yet to show our full potential. We’ve played extremely competitive teams and we look forward to more challenging teams and hope to see more wins.”

Alex Doundakov (12) — Boys’ Swimming

“The swimming team is doing fine; we’re getting faster every day. We have a ton of swimmers who are looking forward to making CCS this year and we’re all very excited.”

Blake Johnson (12) — Baseball

“We had a slow start to our season but have improved over the past two weeks. If we continue to work hard, a league championship is very possible.”

Alex Lincoln (12) — Girls’ Swimming

Claire Reyes (12) — Gymnastics

“Our team knows what we can improve so we will be working hard to do so. With many more meets to come, we’re looking to place in the top three at the Central Coast Section (CCS).”

Andrew Leung (11) — Golf

“We’ve played some tough teams and have improved on both sides of the field. Now we are looking to rack up some wins and bring up our league ranking.”

“The Gunn golf team is doing pretty well. This year, we have our strongest team in five to six years. Our goal is to not lose any more matches and to finish in the top three teams in our league.”

Brooke Binkley (12) — Softball

Sunny Margerum (12) — Track

“Our team has done great so far.

Our goal is make it into CCS this year and hopefully get to play Paly again.”

“All divisions have been doing well in our dual meets. We hope to place high in leagues and get multiple people to CCS.”

Henry Liu (11) — Badminton “This year, we’ve got a lot of new talent and returning talent.

We’ve been dominating in our meets so far and I think ending the season undefeated is a big possibility. We also have Charlie Yang: the assassin with a racket!”

Bharat Reddy (12) — Boys’ Tennis “Tennis is performing quite well this year. With only seniors, sophomores and one freshman on the team, we have a lot of experience as well as inexperience. We are making a strong push for a high seeding in CCS. —Compiled by Leon Sung

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Sports

The Oracle

Netball

If you think American football is a difficult sport to understand, you’ve never seen Australian football. Easily one of the most confusing games around, Australian football was first played in 1848 when college students played “foot-ball” in a local park. In 1858, the first official match was played between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College.

Australian football is a mix between rugby and soccer, with points scored by kicking the ball though the raised goals on the opponent’s

Cricket

As the name suggests, netball is a sport played with a ball and a net. The game originated in the 1890s in England and is played with a ball and a raised net without a backboard.

The main idea is to score a goal by shooting the ball into the hoop. Netball is often compared to basketball, but the two sports differ significantly when it comes to the rules.

Netball players cannot dribble and are only allowed to take one step while holding the ball. Players are held to a threesecond time limit for possession of the ball until the player must either pass or shoot. Furthermore, only a few assigned players can shoot to score a goal. The rectangular court is

side of the field. Players advance the ball by throwing it to teammates, rugby style, and by running up the field. One can also advance the ball by kicking it to teammates up field. If the player catches the ball on the fly and it travels at least 15 meters, he or she gets a free kick to put it in the goal. Australian football is a full contact sport which racks up injuries for some players, but nevertheless remains a top sport in Australia with thousands of players and even more fans.

divided into thirds with a shooting circle, which designated players must stand in to shoot and score, on either end.

Netball is most popular in England, but is also played in other countries, including Australia and Jamaica. In fact, netball is considered the most popular game for women in Australia and New Zealand. Every four years, the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) holds the Netball World Championships, similar to the World Cup for soccer. The Australian National Team, the reigning champs, will look to defend their title next year when Singapore hosts the tournament.

Australian Football

Cricket, not to be mistaken for the small insect, is a team sport which was created in 16th century England. The so-called “Laws of Cricket” govern the game. Generally, cricket matches are played on a large grass field. Like baseball, cricket is known as a “bat-and-ball” team sport, in which one team bats and tries to score as many runs as possible. The other team bowls, which is similar to pitching in baseball, and fields to try and get the other team “out.” A batsman can become “out” if the bowler bowls the ball and hits one of the three wickets, or three wooden spokes behind the batsman with wooden balls balenced on top. There are various outcomes of the game

Handball is a quick and intense game that uses lots of acrobatics and speed. It is a sport most commonly played in Europe. Handball originated in Europe where its earliest form dates back to medieval France. By the 19th century, there were many evolutions of the game. The most predominant form was from Denmark and was called håndbold.

In 1906, a Danish gym teacher published the first rules for the game. A revision of the rules was published in 1926 and is still used in games played today.

The game is a combination of field hockey and basketball, in which teammates toss the ball to each other to move

depending on the style of play chosen.

While cricket may seem far away and unusual to many at Gunn, some students have had experience playing the sport. Senior Bharat Reddy started playing at a young age. “I go to India often, and when I was four or five years old I saw my uncle play, so that’s how I started watching cricket,” Reddy said. “Then, he taught me how play.” Reddy still plays cricket when he visits India, but has also found other ways to stay involved in the sport in the United States. “Last year there was a cricket club at Gunn that I played in, and I also play with my brother and sometimes my friends, he said.

up the field and then throw the ball at a goal on either end of the field. It is played on a basketball-sized court with a soccer-like ball. To throw the ball in the goal you must be outside of the goalie’s crease, or zone. This leads to various high flying acrobats to fly into the crease while throwing the ball to get the advantage. The game of handball has spread rapidly from Europe and there are teams in many countries around the world. The World Handball Championships are held every two years, and you can also find it at the Olympics. While it is not that popular in the United States, handball continues to grow worldwide.

Handball

—Compiled by Krishan Allen and Nicolas Loyola Graphic by Nathan Toung