The Oracle (March 2007)

Boys’ tennis holds promise

Page 19

Going green

What you can do to control global warming Pages 10-11

Volume 43

New sportsmanship policy a step in right direction

A day of giving Meilin Luh Circulation Manager

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Issue 6

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

780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Palo Alto resident gains government post

Stanford researcher nominated Assistant Secretary of Education Alex Lee

n March 8, students assembled to work on community service projects across the Bay Area for this year’s Service Day, which is hosted annually by the Youth Community Service (YCS) club.

News Editor

Senior YCS president Alex Chang had the help of club supervisor and English teacher Diane Ichikawa in planning Service Day. “YCS members sent emails to centers YCS had worked with in the past,” Ichikawa said. “Projects were decided by whichever center needed help.”

Volunteers signed up online to participate in Service Day. “Even though we weren’t able to get the website up until a week before Service Day, turnout was good,” Ichikawa said. “We were full to capacity.”

The Half Moon Bay event, led

by Chang, is traditionally popular, with 45 students attending. “It was pretty fun, but I liked my freshman year’s Half Moon Bay trip more,” senior Josh Gelfenbaum said. “That year we got to plant stuff and pick up trash. This year we only picked up trash.”

Other events were held at the Resource Area For Teachers, Samaritan House, Inn Vision/ Clara-Mateo Alliance, Rebuilding Together Peninsula Warehouse, Sacred Heart, Menlo Park senior center and the Palo Alto SERVICE DAY—p. 4

Senior Josh Gelfenbaum (left) and junior Aditya Davar (right) pick up trash in Half Moon Bay. Other Service Day projects included sorting clothing and decorating kindergarten classrooms.

Photo by Cosmo Sung

President George W. Bush selected Palo Alto resident Williamson M. Evers on Feb. 8 to be the new U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for planning, evaluation and policy development. Bush nominated 13 people to take positions in various government departments.

As a senior research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, Evers has done a lot of work with the Bush administration. He served on the Bush-appointed Koret Task Force on K-12 Education and was appointed to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. He worked in Iraq as the senior adviser for education for the Coalition Provisional Authority and also served on the Mathematics and Science Scientific Review Panel of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Evers has shaped much of California’s school standards in his many years in education. A member of the panels that review the test questions in history and in mathematics for California’s statewide testing system, Evers also served on the state panel that reviewed the history textbooks under consideration for adoption for California schools. He is also a supporter of the mathematically correct view, which supports teaching students based on standards that the state sets. He applies his views to the mathematics state standards.

Despite his many achievements, many Gunn students are not sure what to expect from Evers. “While his credentials as a Stanford researcher and general administrative educator are impressive, we can’t really know what job he’ll do as the Assistant Secretary,” junior Noah Azarin said. “He still needs to cut his teeth at this new job.”

Other students were not even aware of the change. “I didn’t know that there was even an Assistant Secretary of the Education position,” junior Howard Hsieh said.

Some Gunn teachers were not pleased with Bush’s decision.

Math teacher Peter Herreshoff especially disliked his mathematically correct stance. “I wasn’t impressed by the group that was behind the current math standards in the state,” Herreshoff said.

“They seemed ideologically driven, not driven by research or expertise. The standards seemed to be directly copied out of the bible of math textbooks, as was confirmed to me by one of the people who actually ‘wrote’ the standards.”

While Evers is serving in Washington, D.C, he will be on leave from the Hoover Institute, and some teachers will miss him.

“He’s been very active in shaping the curriculum,” Social Studies Instructional Supervisor John Fredrich said.

Evers is not allowed to comment until he is officially confirmed by the Senate.

New guidelines change procedure for student body elections Carissa Ratanaphanyarat Reporter

Elections for the 2007-2008 Student Executive Council (SEC) are taking place April 18 through 20. “We just finished perfecting the procedures and the positions,” senior Student Body President Nikki Dodani said.

Campaigning for student body offices will last from April 16 to 19. “As far as I know the calendar is the same as last year,” Principal Noreen Likins said.

However, there are several modifications

to the elections. “We’ve clarified some of the rules,” Student Activities Director Lisa Hall said.

One change will be in the way candidates will put up their promotional posters. “Instead of having students stay overnight to put up posters, we’ll be doing a raffle to assign spaces,” Dodani said.

Handouts will also be monitored this year.

According to Hall, students can no longer hand out candy. Nothing adhesive is allowed in the campaigning process this year because, according to Hall, “they made a mess—the

labels fell off of clothes. The stickers ended up everywhere.”

At the same time, some rules from previous years were relaxed. “People can use websites as long as they don’t talk bad about each other,” Dodani said.

The voting process will also differ slightly from the past. “We’re going to extend it over three days,” Hall said. “Students will vote in their science classes. Teachers will get to choose one of three days to vote. Hopefully it will be done before Friday.”

Further, candidates will get more op-

portunities to publicize themselves to the student body this year. “We’re going to have candidates on morning announcements,” Dodani said. Senior historian and videographer Adeline Ducker will be in charge of these features.

Election packets with more information are available at http://gunn.pausd. org/~activities/sac/Elections.HTM. Applications are due March 28.

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The Oracle

District searches for replacement administration

Brian Phan

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Tenure celebration rewards seventeen

This year, 17 Gunn teachers were honored at the district’s annual Teacher Tenure Celebration. Tenure is recognition of teachers who have done well for the past two years and who have proven themselves worthy to continue working in the school district. Throughout the past two years, the selected teachers have undergone many tests, evaluations and training sessions to establish themselves capable of tenure.

“Gunn will have the greatest number of people being honored at the ceremony,” Principal Noreen Likins said. There was at least one teacher from every department being honored. Some of the Gunn staff members that were honored include Spanish teacher Gabriela Dominguez, guidance counselor Kimberly Diorio and social studies teacher Faith Hilal.

The ceremony was held March 13 at the District Office. The principal from each school in the district gave a brief speech about each of the teachers being honored that night.

Code Red training prepares teachers

On Thursday, March 8, the entire Gunn staff participated in Code Red training. The training was held in the library at 2:15 p.m.

Teachers, administrators and other faculty members all watched a one-hour PowerPoint presentation on specific ways to react during an emergency, including how to barricade their classrooms if a potentially harmful suspect was on campus.

During the hour-long training, emphasis was placed on how teachers should be proactive during an emergency instead of just waiting until help arrives. A video clip of an actual Code Red drill in which an entire school participated was also shown.

“The Code Red training was well presented considering the large amount of materials and the constrictions of time,” Spanish teacher Sonia Stroessner said. “It was certainly necessary.”

So far, Gunn has not experienced a single Code Red alarm since the system’s implementation after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999.

Class signups create student stress Students had to gauge how much they could handle in their upcoming academic workload while filling in their class registration forms for the 2007-2008 school year. Incoming sophomores and juniors were taken to the library during their English classes to gain information about classes offered next year. Guidance counselors assisted students in filling out their class registration forms and answered any questions students had about picking classes or the new Advanced Placement (AP) contract.

This year offered some new facets for students to think about.

The administration introduced the new AP contract to reduce the number of AP dropouts and ensure students were making the right choices about college-level courses. By signing the contract, students agree to not drop out of an AP class and move into the corresponding regular class until the beginning of a new semester. “We felt we should be more open about the workload involved in an AP class,” Principal Noreen Likins said. “Students need to consult their parents and consider their other activities before selecting classes.”

The forms were due on March 7.

Students explore cultural roots

On March 29, Japanese 4 and 5 AP will be traveling to the Urasenke Foundation in San Francisco, a foundation that has been providing educational programs and resources regarding Japanese culture for over 25 years. The two classes have been cordially invited by the Information Center of the Consul General of Japan to attend a Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Recognizing that every human encounter is both an important and singular occasion that will never occur again, the Tea Ceremony is a traditional ritual that is significant to Japanese culture.

During the trip, the students will be given a general presentation along with instruction regarding formal sitting position and guest etiquette during a tea ceremony.

For many, this will be the first time attending a tea ceremony. “I really look forward to exploring the beautiful tea garden with my fellow classmates,” Japanese 4 AP student junior Desun Oka said. “I also look forward to learning how a tea ceremony is conducted.”

In addition to the attendance of Japanese 4 and 5 AP students, some Japanese 3 students have also been invited due to availability in space. “I’m excited to be attending this cultural exposé since this trip is generally for 4 and 5 AP students only,” Japanese 3 student junior Josephine Chan said.

The whole trip will last from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

—Compiled by Beth Holtzman, Noah Johnson and Ryan Tan

Chia-Yun Wann Reporter

The search for Palo Alto Unified School District’s (PAUSD) next superintendent began when current Superintendent Mary Frances Callan announced her retirement at the beginning of December 2006.

As the chief educational authority of a school system, the superintendent supervises the schools and makes sure that the schools are advancing toward school board goals.

The process to find an appropriate superintendent will take the entire school year. “Our goal is to be able to announce our next superintendent before the end of the school year, so everyone can know who the next superintendent will be before they’re off to summer break,” Principal Noreen Likins said.

The superintendent position is not open through application. Candidates have to be nominated and must meet with the school board for an interview. Based on community input, school board “headhunters” seek out and invite possible candidates from many districts.

Although a candidate should have proper credentials,

candidates can still be nominated if he or she has had prior experience.

Two open forums were held March 12 and 13 for the purpose of collecting input from the community. “We want to seek input from everyone including teachers, officials, parents and students,” Likins said.

Likins hopes that the next superintendent will be responsive to others’ comments. “A superintendent needs to know how to listen and learn,” Likins said.

Junior School Board Representative Molly Kawahata agrees. “I think that it is essential that the new superintendent is outspoken while still diplomatic and really involved in the School Board of Education,” she said.

The school board was also looking for others to fill positions. It made a sudden announcement regarding its staff on March 13. A 4-1 vote promoted Palo Alto High School Principal Scott Laurence to assistant superintendent. Even though the news is surprising, Assistant Principal Kim Cowell believes it to be a good decision.

“Mr. Laurence is very knowledgeable and extremely capable,” Cowell said.

The board made its decision when it discovered that other districts had been courting Laurence. “Mr. Laurence wanted career advancement, and if he had left it would have been a great loss to the district,” Likins said.

People praise Princess Project’s purpose Tenny Zhang Reporter

The Princess Project is a non-profit organization that provides free prom dresses and accessories to those who cannot otherwise afford them. Its donation drives benefit two sides—dress contributors can clear out their closets and help the community, while receivers can celebrate prom in a fulfilling dress.

The San Francisco-based group focuses on helping local girls. According to the organization’s website, their mission statement is to “promote self-confidence and individual beauty” by giving prom essentials to girls who cannot obtain them otherwise.

Senior Dance Commissioner Emma Quinn worked with Gunn parent Darice Koo to set up the Princess Project at Gunn. “I made it my goal this year to try and make Gunn’s first dress drive happen,” Quinn said.

Knowing that prom has become more costly than ever, Quinn co-organized the dress drive to help girls overcome this problem. “With the ever-increasing costs of limos, tickets and eveningwear, prom can be a stretch.” she said. “But every girl deserves a chance to find a gorgeous affordable dress and go.”

Gunn newsletters and the Titan Broadcast Network invited students to donate their gowns and accessories to the Student Activities Center until March 10. The drive accepted formal dresses in good condition and clean, stylish accessories.

Donators who recycled their dresses and accessories also contributed to a cause. “I thought the Princess Project was a really good idea,” sophomore Nidia Morales said. “It was definitely a win-win situation.”

Gunn’s first dress drive received 10 donations. “We got a small number of dresses and accessories, but I am happy because it’s a good start,” Quinn said.

The dresses and accessories will be transported to a drop-off area in San Francisco. “Ms. Koo will drive the dresses to a designated location,” Quinn

Cosmo Sung

Senior Emma Quinn leads the project in which old dresses are donated to charity.

said. “The Princess Project will sort and distribute the dresses to local girls.”

Eventually, each dress will find a new owner at a March 24 giveaway event organized by the non-profit group. “Girls who aren’t able to afford buying a dress can go to the giveaway event and get a dress with dignity,” Koo said.

Though the Gunn drive is over this year, students can still contribute to the Princess Project by donating money or dresses directly to the organization. Visit www.princessproject.org for more information.

This week’s schedule...

TUESDAY

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English pt. 1 (8-10) Brunch (10-10:15) English pt. 2 (10:15-12:15) Lunch (12:15-12:55) Period E (1-1:40) Period A (1:45-2:25) Period G (2:30-3:10)

WEDNESDAY

California High School Exit Exam hours listed in bold.

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Math pt. 1 (8-9:30) Brunch (9:30-9:45) Math pt. 2 (9:45-11:30) Lunch (11:30-12:10) Period E (12:15-1:10) Period A (1:15-2:10) Period C (2:15-3:10)

THURSDAY

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Period D (7:55-9) Period E (9:05-10:05) Brunch (10:05-10:20) Period A (10:20-11:20) Period B (11:25-12:25) Lunch (12:25-1:05) Period F (1:05-2:05)

News

Monday, March 19, 2007

Green Assembly informs students Andrea Yung

Forum Editor

The prom location became secondary when the Gunn Environmental Club dominated the Green Assembly on Feb. 27 with keynote speakers and movie on 10 easy steps everyone can take to ease environmental stress.

“The purpose of the Green Assembly was to help students realize the gravity of global warming, what the community and school is doing to combat these problems and what actions individuals can take to reduce their impact on the environment,” junior Environmental Club co-president Caroline Hodge said.

“We went from a global level with Dr. Schneider’s speech to a community level with the mayor’s speech to a school level with the presentation about the Gunn Green Team and finally to a personal level through the film.”

The film, directed by junior co-president Aja Mathews and filmed by junior Kaitie Macknick, focused on 10 simple changes students could make in their daily lives to help sustain the environment, such as printing double-sided, using reusable water bottles and recycling electronics. The Environmental Club had originally planned to shoot a movie comparing people doing something unhealthy for the environment versus someone trying to aid the environment. “We Assembly guest speaker Stanford Professor of started shooting the first Biological Sciences Stephen Schneider talks about day of winter break, and measures we can take to protect the environment. the actual days of shooting Photo by Matthew Lee were three or four differ-

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ent days,” Macknick said.

Many found the Green Assembly enjoyable, especially during the movie. “I liked the general feeling of the assembly,” junior Noah Azarin said. “The atmosphere the video created was fun and engaging. Whoever put time into making it did a good job—in addition to being informative, the movie was helpful and interesting to the average viewer.”

The Environmental Club also felt successful in promoting sustainability in the environment. “I was really happy with how it turned out,” Hodge said. “I think that we got a really good response from people, and it was great for us to be able to reach every single student in the school. Now all students are on the same page and have a basic understanding of what global warming is, how big of a problem it is and what changes they can make to their lifestyles to help solve the problem.”

The last few minutes of the assembly was dedicated to prom, a much-awaited occasion, which is to be held in the San Francisco Regency Center. “The fact that prom is at the Regency is cool,” Azarin said. “That place is like a hall—we’re actually going to a place that’s designed for this type of activity.”

The Environmental Club’s 10 points for conservation: 1. Use reusable water bottles.

2. Print double-sided or on scrap paper.

3. Use cloth shopping bags.

4. Reduce, reuse and recycle.

5. Recycle your electronics.

6. Buy organic and locally grown foods.

7. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

8. Sign up for Palo Alto Green.

9. Bike, walk and carpool whenever possible.

10. Repeat!

Amnesty International Club raises awareness at assembly Caroline Hodge

U

Forum Editor

ntil last year, few students even knew where Darfur was, let alone the details of the genocide that has been raging there for more than four years. Thanks to the constant efforts of the Gunn Amnesty International Club, students are beginning to realize the conflict’s scope, severity and history.

The Amnesty International Club consists of about 20 students dedicated to stopping human rights abuses worldwide, and is part of a larger organization of the same name. Last school year, the club decided to make the Darfur genocide its major focus, and has held numerous activities to educate students about the crisis and galvanize them into action, including an optional assembly March 1. In the past, Amnesty International has worked with the student body to make hundreds of phone calls through its “Call for a Cookie” events, sold more than 50 “Stop Genocide in Sudan” T-shirts and hosted a teach-in discussion about possible solutions to the conflict.

Since 2003, the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia have been carrying out systematic attacks on the civilians of Darfur, a region of Sudan roughly the size of France.

This major human rights crisis has left 450,000 people dead and 2 ½ million displaced. While the United Nations, African Union and North American Trade Alliance have intervened in the past, they have not successfully negotiated a lasting peace and the atrocity continues.

Amnesty International’s most recent feat was holding the March 1 hour-long assembly at Spangenberg intended to educate students about the background of the conflict and motivations of parties involved. The assembly included a performance of a slam poem about the genocide, a PowerPoint presentation interspersed with short theatrical skits, a speech by a Stanford Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) leader and a question and answer session for students.

According to junior club president Kim Saloner, the purpose of the assembly was not only to help students understand the conflict on a deeper level, but to give them a more human picture of the situation. “In other events, we’ve given kids [phone] call scripts or really basic handouts that tell them a couple of facts, but this time we gave them information about the history—dates, names, things they could identify with—rather than a couple of facts on a piece of paper,” she said.

The club began planning the program in November and

asked teachers to bring their students to the D period assembly or attend by themselves if they had a free period. One hundred and forty-five students and staff attended.

Social studies teacher Arlyn Sharpe brought her freshman World History class to the assembly. Sharpe brought her students because the Darfur genocide fits well into the World History curriculum and because she wants her students to realize the importance of fighting for social issues.

“In math, one times one is still one, but in politics and social issues—any kind of change—one times one is more,” she said. Sharpe plans to incorporate the theme of social action into a future assignment in which students will research an issue that matters to them and take action on it.

Junior Greg Freehling, who attended the assembly with his Philosophy through Literature class, credited the assembly with helping him realize the severity of the situation. “I just wanted to go out in the middle of the assembly and call people and say ‘we need to do something,’” he said. “I’ll probably make one or two calls, and maybe get some of my friends to

do it too. They’ll probably make fun of me for it, but it will give them a little pressure to take some action.”

Heading the assembly effort was senior Darfur Campaign Chair Nathaniel Eisen. Eisen worked with three other club members to create a PowerPoint presentation about the history of the conflict. Interspersed with the slides were one or two line skits, performed by a troupe of 10 club members dressed in simple costumes.

The skits sought to probe deeper into the possible motivations of the various parties involved, including the Janjaweed militia, the Sudanese government and the various international organizations trying to mediate the conflict.

“By presenting it outside the PowerPoint, we tried to show that these were our hypotheses about their motivations—no one can tell with 100 percent surety what their motivations really are,” Eisen said.

The Slam Poetry Club collaborated with Eisen to create a slam poem about the genocide that included lines from interview transcripts with refugees affected by the conflict.

www.irandaily.com

The Darfur genocide has left 450,000 dead and 2 ½ million living as refugees, like these two boys.

The Amnesty International Club is encouraging students to take action to help the Sudanese.

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The Oracle

Teacher art show supports teen crafts AP computer Money raised at one-day event goes to PAUSD student scholarships

the amount of money made. “Our goal is to share work rather than make money,” she said.

The music part of this event, which was organized by PAUSD Music Coordinator Nancy Coffey ,has occurred annually for the last 16 years. Tickets are sold to the general public and the proceeds go to the music scholarships given annually to PAUSD students.

In a similar fashion to the art portion of this one-day event, music teachers of all grade levels in PAUSD performed alongside previous winners of the music scholarship. However, unlike the art section, the concert is marketed towards raising money. Last year the concert raised about $2,000 for music scholarships, but Coffey hoped to increase that this year.

“I’d like to make it three [thousand],” she said. The concert raised around $2,300.

Gunn staff members who performed along with last year’s scholarship winners included choir teacher Bill Liberatore, band teacher Todd Summers and jazz ensemble director Mark Dungan.

All the teachers agreed that the experience is an important one. “I think it’s great to encourage kids to continue with their craft and that’s what scholarships do [for them],” Liberatore said.

Sasha Guttentag Centerfold Editor

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ften we hear of student band concerts or see students’ artwork adorning the walls of select school buildings, but the tables were turned on March 4 as Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) art teachers showed off their artwork and band teachers performed in Spangenberg Theater.

The annual Music Teacher’s Scholarship Concert, hosted by PAUSD, worked with the Art Scholarship Fund, headed by PAUSD Art Coordinator Sharon Ferguson. Art teachers of all grade levels in the district submitted work to be viewed and sold preceding the concert, with 25 percent of the cost going toward the Art Scholarship Fund (which grants scholarships to devoted, skilled young artists attending PAUSD schools).

The works of art by Gunn staff included art teacher Deanna Messinger’s “Global Warming,” an acrylic on raw canvas painting priced at $1,500; art teacher Mark Gleason’s “Juliet,” an oil on canvas painting also priced at $1,500; and photography teacher Wayne Hoy’s “Branches, Corona Heights, 1998” and “Garfield School and Russian Hill, 1998,” two gelatin silver print photographs each priced at $450.

Though the costs appear pricey, they are less expensive than many sold in studios.

Ferguson believes that the most important part about displaying teachers’ artwork does not lie in

“Global Warming” by Deanna Messinger (bottom) was one of several teachers’ art featured at the event. The district uses this event to showcase musical and artistic talents and to raise money for student scholarships.

Photos by Matthew Lee

science begins entrance exam Jonathan Gu

Features Editor

Starting next year, students interested in the Advanced Placement (AP) computer science course will have to pass an entrance exam in order to be admitted into the class. Anyone intending to take the course must complete computer science teacher Josh Paley’s online worksheet before the start of the next school year.

For students who have already taken the introductory classes, the exam is just summer homework and will further ensure that the students gain a strong grasp on the basics of the Java programming language before beginning the advanced course.

Students who hope to skip the introductory computer science courses can sign up for the AP class and complete the worksheet over the summer. “If a student wants to go straight into computer science AP, this exam is very manageable over the summer,” Paley said. Paley recommends that interested students study from “Big Java Second Edition” by Cay S. Horstmann.

Paley implemented this test because he wants all students coming into the AP class to have a solid knowledge of rudimentary programming.

In this year’s AP computer science course, students were divided into two groups during the second semester. Those who completed the introductory course were put into one group, and those who did not were put in another group.

Junior Arnav Shah, who skipped the introductory class and is currently enrolled in AP computer science, echoed Paley’s opinion.

“I think it’s pretty reasonable because there are a lot of people coming that don’t have a lot of experience, and computer science is all about experience and intuition,” Shah said.

Students agree that incoming AP students do not always have a strong enough understanding of programming. “I am for the AP computer science entrance exam because it eliminates goofballs from the class,” senior Ilan Kolkowitz said.

Students serve community

Attention seniors!

n SERVICE DAY, from p. 1 American Red Cross.

Ichikawa, who supervised the club for six years, participated at Sacred Heart, where she sorted clothing and food. “I’ve been to Sacred Heart with YCS and on my own before,” Ichikawa said. “I really enjoy it.”

Students who signed up for a project received six hours of community service. “Most people do it for the hours but I did it for the experience,” sophomore Maria Orlova said. “Working

Before heading off to college, make sure you have fulfilled the following health requirements: • Measles, Mumps, Rubella “MMR” Two doses of the MMR vaccine • Hepatitis B Three doses • Diptheria Amount varies, but usually around six doses • Tetanus Amount varies, but usually around six doses • Polio Four or five doses of IPV vaccine • Hepatitis A • Meningococcal vaccine to protect against Meningitis

at Sacred Heart taught me that a lot of help was needed but there’s never enough.”

YCS, which ran the Jar Wars during Homecoming, will also host the spring dance to raise money for AIDS relief. “It’s a little different this year,” Chang said. “This time YCS will host the dance along with other community service clubs.”

For students interested in more community service opportunities, YCS meets every Monday during lunch in L-4 to discuss service projects.

Contact your physician for more information on vaccines.

—Compiled by Nina Nielepko

Graphic by Brian Phan

Jennifer Lim

Sophomore Leslie Green sorts through clothes donations at Sacred Heart in San Jose.

Approximately 200 students from all grade levels participated in Service Day this year.

Forum T

Monday, March 19, 2007

Fans must show respect

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Immature behavior detrimental to school image

W

ith incidents such as raucous fans cursing at bad calls and audience members throwing trash at members of the opposing team now becoming regular occurrences at sports games, it would be foolhardy to say that people have not lost respect for athletes.

Athletic events at Gunn and around the world have become a hotbed for fans to display questionable behavior.

With all of the unregulated viciousness occurring at sports games, the administration took a step in the right direction to impose stringent rules on the crowd activity during games, specifically the basketball games.

Rowdy and often rude Gunn crowds have become more and more pronounced and prevalent throughout during the years.

Sometimes less harmful jeers, such as “air ball” and “dominated” are acceptable, but during the more intense games, usually against rival Palo Alto High School (Paly), these funny and harmless yells tend to escalate into much more offensive and vulgar jeers of sexual natures. During last season’s home game against Paly, Gunn students yelled at Paly students to “look under your seats,” where packets containing information on STDs had been placed prior to the event. This crude and immature practical joke ended up involving the police, who had suspected that a bomb could have been placed under the bleachers.

The administration made the r ight

move in stopping this inappropriate behavior by increasing the number of administrators that attend basketball games in order to monitor students’ actions and to enforce disciplinary actions on those who misbehave. In addition, the CCS rules and regulations for basketball demand that crowds must behave at all times, or the teams can be penalized or potentially disqualified—by instating such a rule, the administration actually

nishes the name of the school as a whole. If students refuse to respect other schools’ fans and teams, then other schools in return will heckle and taunt Gunn teams. Students must remember to be courteous to players and other teams at all times, even during the most intense games.

Although the rules are “anything goes” as far as NCAA and NBA jeers go, the fact remains that Gunn is a public school, and these same rules are not applicable to Gunn. The Gunn Student Handbook states that students must refrain from profanities and rudeness at all times. Touting “freedom of speech,” students may complain that they should be allowed to say whatever they please, but they should keep in mind that there are rules in place and they have the image of their school to maintain.

Instead of continually attacking other teams with crude sexual aspersions, Gunn students should focus more on supporting their own teams with louder and more positive cheers. If students focused more on the positive than on the negative, sporting games would be much more fun for all students and more encouraging to all teams.

The Opinion of The Oracle

prepares the student body for future CCS games.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Committee and the California Interscholastic Federation are also considering a ban on booing at high school sporting events to further promote good sportsmanship. Unfortunately, the only way to get students to behave properly is by punishing them, and as Dean of Students Phil Winston put it, “If students get a chance to act like donkeys without getting punished, they will take it.”

More importantly, such immature behavior is not only a flagrant violation of rules, but also reflects very poorly on the Gunn community as a whole. Gunn prides itself on the high caliber of its students, but when even a few students act out of line like little children in front of other schools, it tar-

— Un s ig n e d editorials represent the majority opinion of the staff (in a g re e m e n t: 31; opposed: 18).

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ll men are created equal.” So proclaims the Declaration of Independence, but for many, lack of opportunities makes a mockery of this idea.

In affluent Palo Alto, scores of students benefit from private tutors, SAT classes and myriad enrichment programs. By contrast, many outside—and even inside—this bubble simply cannot afford these luxuries that clearly boost college prospects. Is it fair and ultimately beneficial for society, then, that these less privileged students be held to the same admissions standards?

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Libby Craig, Eric Johnston, Adrienne Nguyen

Photography Jennifer Lim Graphics

“Fairness” is an elusive concept, but most would agree that a marathon in which some runners start behind others is not fair. By the same token, applying strictly identical admissions criteria to applicants of disadvantaged backgrounds and those who have not faced similar hardships is inherently unfair.

This disparity in starting lines should be redressed by affirmative action that focuses on socioeconomic status (SES), which, in turn, should be evaluated via the totality of an applicant’s family wealth and structure, neighborhood poverty rate, school concentration of poverty and parental income, occupation and education, as suggested by Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation, a public policy research institution.

By way of illustration, if applicants need 100 points out of 120 for admission, most— say, 110—should be based on traditional factors, such as GPA and extracurricular activities. Of the remaining 10 points, nearly all should be reserved for SES with just a few going to race—the latter in light of lingering racial prejudice and in the interest of achieving campus diversity as noted by the Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger when it upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s policy considering race as one factor out of many.

Since the onset of the Civil Rights Movement, the focal point of affirmative action has been race, and rightly

Julius Tarng

Technical

Alex Lee, Dan Li Staff

Business

Nina Nielepko

Circulation

Meilin Luh, Alex Tom

Senior Photographer Christopher Wu Photographers

Matthew Lee, Cosmo Sung

Graphics Artists Dezmon Hunter, Lucy Li, Brian Phan Reporters

Aurelle Amram, Scott Benitez, Aviel Chang, Danielle Edelman, Priya Ghose, Amarelle Hanyecz, Beth Holtzman, Dezmon Hunter, Maya Itah, Noah Johnson, Fi Kazi, Susan Lee, Jocelyn Ma, Alex Rasgon, Carissa Ratanaphanyarat, Ryan Tan, Jeffrey Wang, Chia-Yun Wann, Tenny Zhang

Adviser

—Kang, a senior, is the Editor-inChief.

Percentage of students in the lower socioeconomic half at the 146 most selective U.S. colleges:

Kristy Garcia

Percentage of underrepresented minority* students at the 146 most selective U.S. colleges: 12%

12

Percentage

Percentage

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so. However, although it is naïve to believe that racial prejudice is gone, it is time that attention be shifted to a more general disadvantage—namely, SES—with race being one factor but receiving less emphasis.

For one thing, society has made great strides in looking past skin color. Barack Obama, the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and a 2008 Democratic presidential frontrunner, is living testimony.

And more importantly, mere race no longer accurately represents disadvantage. For example, one could not argue that the children of Senator Obama and his wife, another Harvard Law School graduate, deserve affirmative action’s help over poor whites whose parents did not go to college. In fact, John McWhorter, a black professor who taught at UC Berkeley, lamented that under only race-based affirmative action, preference often “went to ‘diverse’ students of affluent circumstances who were essentially ‘white’ culturally.’”

But despite progress on the racial front, the SES divide runs as deep as ever. In 2004, Harvard Magazine reported that 74 percent of freshmen at the 146 most selective U.S. colleges come from the highest SES quartile, with only 3 percent from the lowest. Does this mean that the well-to-do are smarter and more talented? No. Rather, they, like many Palo Altans, have had much better access to educational resources, and it may have taken less fortunate students herculean perseverance and emotional resilience just to graduate from high school. As such, their less glowing academic records do not mean any less intellectual promise, resourcefulness or potential to contribute to society.

Given what some students of these backgrounds have achieved against innumerable odds, it would not only be unfair but also a waste of human resources to judge them solely on their high school academic accomplishments. Yet we risk doing so without employing SES affirmative action.

As Aristotle said, “the worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal,” and without compensating for SES disadvantages, we are essentially trying to make unequal backgrounds equal. As the guardians of the conscience of society, institutions of higher learning have an obligation to ensure fairness, diversity—and true equality of opportunity for all men.

Graphics by Julius Tarng

Editorial Board

10%

10 8 6 4

4%

2

Current

Under SES-based affirmative action

Source: Richard Kahlenberg’s “Toward Affirmative Action for Economic Diversity”

0

Based strictly on academic records

Under race-based Under SES-based affirmative affirmative action action

* includes blacks and Hispanics

Source: Anthony Carnevale & Stephen Rose’s “Socioeconomic Status, Race/Ethnicity and Selective College Admissions”

Forum

Monday, March 19, 2007

7

Teachers should embrace Wikipedia

Web encyclopedia more reliable, complete than similar sources

Boris Burkov

W

hen a student hunkers down to start a research project, the task can be quite daunting. There are so many books to choose from that it is never clear which one is the right place to start. Mercifully, many years ago, scholars compiled a wonderful resource, the encyclopedia, to make research easier. It is a vast work that fills numerous lengthy tomes, yet it still often lacks vital information. With the advent of the Internet, a shocking new encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has been compiled, not necessarily by academics, but by anyone with the mind to edit or write an entry. This remarkable new technology has been met with a regrettable amount of scorn from the academic community. Furthermore, it is an enormous mistake that most Gunn teachers do not view Wikipedia as a valid source.

The results have been astonishing. With more than 1.6 million entries, Wikipedia stores more information than any other encyclopedia. Ironically, this innovative website has gone undervalued as a tool for research in our schools. Overzealous teachers have banned its use on projects, while rebellious students read up anyway and fail to cite the site for fear of punishment for using so “unreliable” a source. However, the quality of Wikipedia’s information is much higher than one might be lead to believe by detractors.

Most critics of Wikipedia claim that the fundamental problem lies in who writes the entries. Because any web user can compile an entry, critics argue that the information must be unreliable. Also, some fear that users will not cite their sources properly, resulting

in articles that are not useful for research.

However, there are many volunteer editors and moderators who patrol Wikipedia to edit mistakes and fabrications. These editors obtain their position by being productive and accurate users of the site. They also leave notes on pages of sub-par quality instructing readers and would-be editors that “this page needs improvement.”

Even ignoring editors, or assuming there are too few of them to enforce the accuracy of entries, Wikipedia is still legitimate. Most highly in-depth entries could only be written by a collaborative group of experts on the topic, and if bias becomes an issue, moderators step in and lock the article, making it impossible to edit. Because of this collaboration between experts, Wikipedia is much m o r e schola rly than one m ight t h i n k a n encyclopedia written by the masses would be. Why would a person with no knowledge on something as technical as the structure of the engine in an aircraft carrier go through the trouble of writing an article full of mistakes?

In order to ensure the quality of entries, Wikipedia classifies its articles, and the ones that are rated as “good” or those that are featured on the front page are of superb writing quality and contain a thorough bibliography.

These articles are constantly growing in number as they are evaluated and re-evaluated by preset standards of quality. The only serious

hitch that can occur is if an article is subject to intentional vandalism. However, only 8 percent of edits to pages are responses to vandalism, compared to about 50 percent of edits that fix errors in syntax or style, according to Wikipedia. The remaining edits are new additions, which shows that vandalism, subtle or not, does not go unpunished, even thought it is a very small problem when compared to the rapid expansion of the encyclopedia.

Wikipedia’s moderators and editors have come under constant fire for being immature and unqualified for the task, which does rob the encyclopedia of legitimacy,

is an additional check on the power of the so-called immature editors, as readers can know for sure the true education level and credentials of editors, hopefully a step in the right direction in the fight against potential dishonesty and power abuse by editors.

Even the celebrated encyclopedia Britannica hardly holds itself to higher standards than Wikipedia. The encyclopedia consists of two parts, a macropedia and a micropedia. The macropedia articles are long and in depth, with cited sources and expert authors.

These 700 articles roughly correspond to “good” or “featured” quality in Wikipedia, of which there are 1,700 to date.

The micropedia, on the other hand, consists of 65,000 short, unsourced blurbs of no more than 750 words. These articles share the same evils that supposedly plague Wikipedia, yet no one objects to their use as sources. Why should the 1.6 million articles on Wikipedia that have yet to be rated and could potentially be of high quality be maligned for lacking sources, when even Encyclopedia Britannica fails to stand to these standards?

The most important reason Wikipedia should be embraced is the sheer volume of information it offers. Most articles are longer and more detailed than the analogous articles in Britannica. Why teachers are unable to accept this marvelous reference, brimming with detailed diagrams, lengthy, informative articles and citations to other g reputable sources of information such as ofr a.o ficial websites, books and scientific journals di e p is a total mystery. Wikipedia is not something ki wi . to be feared, it is to be embraced as the great w ww new source of information for all people, especially considering and should receive that same recognition in the recent scandal concerning the editor with the classroom. Wikipedia is nothing like its the username “EssJay,” who claimed that he fellow mass written reference works such as had degrees and credentials that he did not. Urbandictionary.com, which are full of proHe has been asked to resign as an editor, fanity and poor writing. It is a quality piece and additionally, Wikipedia is planning to of reference work, and in tandem with other institute a policy wherein users who wish to materials, can be an invaluable resource for say they have expert knowledge on a subject students and teachers alike. must back up their claims with documentation. This rule would have no impact on users —Burkov, a junior, is the associate who do not wish to claim expert status, but Entertainment editor.

Internet valuable campaigning tool in reaching young voters Presidential candidate Barack Obama has a head start with Facebook groups

Aurelle Amram With the hype about the 2008 presidential election, potential candidates from all sides of the political spectrum have begun organizing their campaigns. Getting youth volunteers to help with campaigning is an essential part of running for any office, let alone president. Politicians are always on the lookout for new ways to reach the masses, and Democrat Barack Obama has a head start through Facebook, a popular social networking site with approximately 18 million users. Facebook is giving Obama an advantage among young folk, a huge constituency of the voting population, and the other presidential candidates should use

this effective medium as soon as possible.

Politicians who are not as lucky as Obama to have such motivated supporters already in place can find them by establishing a presence on Facebook, MySpace and other similar websites. By getting teenagers who will be able to vote in the next election to pay attention to their campaigns, candidates have a higher chance of permanently capturing their attention and even gaining their support. Educating and motivating America’s youth about politics is important, and one of the most innovative and effective ways is through the Internet.

Even before Obama officially announced his decision to run, college and high school students founded Facebook groups supporting him.

“Students for Barack Obama,” one of the oldest groups, emerged in 2004. But what is unusual about this group is not its age, but its organization and bureaucracy—it has everything from finance direc-

tors to communications directors dollars through the web, but it took and has helped plan rallies through him over six months to get 139,000 Facebook that included more than web supporters signed on. This 5,000 attendees and an appearance was revolutionary at the time, but

by Obama himconsidering self. Another the fast and younger group, g r a nd sup “One Million port Obama It is evident through the Strong for has already Barack,” is the 2008 election’s early start received, it is largest group nothing spethat the candidates are on Facebook cial. Dean supporting any didn’t know beginning to take their one political how to concampaining to the next candidate, with nect to Interover 300,000 level, and the smart candi- net users, esmembers. date will do it through the pecially teenThese groups agers. Social Internet.” caught the ponet work i ng litical world’s sites are the attention when it realized that best way to reach people on the large numbers of teenagers were internet—over 54 percent of 18- to organizing completely on their 25-year-olds have used one. own accord.

Other presidential candidates, One of the first politicians to like Democrats Hillary Clinton use the Internet to his advantage and John Edwards, have estabwas 2004 presidential candidate lished their own websites. But Howard Dean. Dean raised million most teenagers will not search for

a presidential candidate’s website unless they already strongly support them or know about them.

Candidates who want support from the younger generation need to do so by using a medium that the youth feel comfortable with and already use in large numbers. Phone calls and door-hangers are irrelevant to the teenagers of today—instead, the most suitable medium is the Internet.

Social networking sites are on the rise, and candidates can utilize them to their best advantage. By putting their names and platforms on these specific websites, a large and crucial demographic, teenagers, can be reached effectively and with little cost. It is evident through the 2008 election’s early start that the candidates are beginning to take their campaigning to the next level, and the smart candidate will do it through the Internet.

—Amram, a junior, is a reporter.

8

The Oracle

Oppose the politics of war, not the troops

Forum

Civilians can support the soldiers without espousing the situation

Noah Johnson

A

s President Bush’s tenure comes to a close, the approval ratings for the war in Iraq have continued to fall. According to The New York Times poll this February, 75 percent of Americans disapprove of the current situation in Iraq. With three-quarters of our population against the principle of the war, it is difficult to convince people to support our troops. However, it is possible to be against the war and support our troops at the same time by becoming involved in organizations that benefit soldiers and by staying positive when it comes to our troops abroad.

We often forget that soldiers are Americans because they are so far away. Nevertheless, they deserve the same respect as those Americans who are living in the United States, if not more, because they are risking their lives to serve civilians. Although soldiers may seem foreign when we see them on the news or hear about their deaths,

we cannot forget that they, too, are citizens of our home country.

In addition, military personnel do not have a say in where they are sent or what they are fighting for.

By signing the agreement to serve our country, a soldier is trusting us to deploy them where they are needed. Likewise, in return for their service, civilians must agree to support our troops wherever they may be. Whether or not citizens agree with a war or its purposes is irrelevant—what matters is that those fighting abroad feel our support.

As simple as it sounds, the most basic way to support America’s troops is to change your state of mind. Soldiers are often thrown in the same bucket as the war itself, when really they are separate entities. Whether it takes watching the evening news or visiting your local veteran hospital, get informed on what soldiers go through on a daily basis.

Besides changing the way we think, it is also possible to support soldiers through becoming involved in soldier support organizations.

Countless organizations focus on the well-being of soldiers instead of the purchase of weapons and artillery, such as the Freedom Calls Foundation, which allows soldiers abroad to communicate with their families through video conferencing technology. Another group, known as Any Soldier, allows anyone to send packages to soldiers

I have been working with students who are coming to my class sick—some even claim they have a fever; they are visibly ill. They say they really just don’t want to miss school, because it’s too hard to make up. Perhaps we could think about some ways that teachers and students can support students to stay home when they are sick!

—Deanna Messinger Visual arts department

Julius Tarng

during their tour of duty. Project Homefront, a campaign run by Home Depot, focuses on building homes for soldiers returning from their service.

Peace activists argue that supporting our troops is the same as advocating the war, but this issue is not about politics—it is about human decency for our fellow coun-

trymen. If a war is being fought for the wrong reasons, are the soldiers to blame? War should always be a last resort, but there should be no punishment for those who choose to risk their lives for the safety of our nation.

—Johnson, a sophomore, is a reporter.

Prerequisite for AP science courses a good move

But, department should add placement test to allow those already qualified

Jocelyn Ma In the past, students could take any Advanced Placement (AP) science class without having prior taken the prerequisite course. The class of 2009 and on, however, will need to take the introductory course before enrolling for an AP. For example, a student who wants to take AP Chemistry will need to have taken Chemistry 1 or Chemistry H beforehand.

Although requiring students to take the introductory science course before enrolling for its AP counterpart will benefit the students as well as the class, students who already have knowledge about the subject material should be able to take a test to skip the introductory class.

Because AP classes cover more complex material than introductory courses, students should be required to take a prerequisite. In 2001,

LET T THE ERS TO EDIT OR!

professor Janet Hecsh and principal investigator already have a better foundation on the basics William Furry co-authored a study on AP par- of the subject class. ticipation in California. Interviews revealed that Although the new system will be beneficial, teachers showed concern regarding the number students who already have sufficient knowledge of adequately prepared students at schools in should be able to take an AP course after passing California that did not require students to take a qualification test. the introductor y Other students could have also course. Only 34 completed work on their own, dispercent of students regarding the need for taking the at those schools reprerequisite course.

Students who have ceived a three or To fix this issue, the science higher out of five. department should design and never taken any basic St udents who administer a test that shows a course are not likely to have never taken student’s familiarity with the topany basic course are ics. Passing this test should be have enough experinot likely to have substituted for the prerequisite ence in the subject to enough experience class when a student enrolls into fully take advantage of in the subject to an AP science course, as the test fully take advanwould evaluate students’ underthe AP science class.” tage of the AP scistanding of necessary concepts ence class. This for the class. As AP courses are adjustment in the science lane curricula should usually classes intended for students planning adequately prepare students. The department on majoring in that field in college, this will help felt that by changing all the AP science classes ensure that students have the necessary skills to into second-year courses, the curricula could be successful. be revised to become more advanced and cover —Ma, a sophomore, is a reporter. more material, especially since students will

We want you!

Write us with your thoughts on The Oracle’s coverage or any other issues you care about. We’d love to hear from you. Email us at gunnoracle@ yahoo.com by April 9 for publication in the next issue.

Coming to school sick is unethical. If students attend school while they are contagious, they are putting others’ health in jeopardy, an immoral deed.

But staying home to recuperate is difficult when students are faced with so much make-up work. Many fight through illness and attend school anyway to avoid the time-consuming process of making up missed work.

To address the problem, Gunn should institute a more comprehensive sick policy.

Adding a rule to the school handbook like “Students cannot attend school if they have a fever of 100 degrees or more” could prevent many sick students from coming to school. While the school expects students and parents to determine whether a student is well enough to attend classes, laying out specific guidelines would engender a healthier student body.

Such a policy must be accompanied by faculty effort to alleviate the stress caused by missed work. Extensions on missed assignments provide only relief and do not resolve the problem. It is unfair to ask students to make up every missed assignment while still managing their current course load. Even if a student has only missed a few days of school, teachers should consider abbreviating assignments or excusing the student from them.

If such a policy were instituted, students would have to avoid abusing it and feigning illness in order to get out of completing assignments.

They should also remember that they have some control over their health—getting enough sleep, drinking lots of water and washing hands can all help prevent illness.

Unfortunately, even the most vigilant hand-washers sometimes come down with a cold and deserve the support of the school in their recovery.

—Hodge, a junior, is a Forum editor.

9 A conversation with comedian Nathan Habib Features

Junior comedian Nathan Habib gained recognition from his Gunn comedy show. He will be hosting his next Gunn show on May 26 with six professional comics.

Senior Nathaniel Eisen, a Features editor, decided to take a peek into the life of this comedian.

The Oracle’s Nathaniel Eisen: What did you do over the February break?

Junior Nathan Habib: I saw Jimmy Gunn headline at a pub at Stanford, and met a lot of comedians. After the show, the guy who runs the pub let me do my own little show.

What was the atmosphere in the pub like?

It was not lively at all. There were about 20 people there. It was more for the comedians than for the audience, because we wanted to try out new material and some worked well and some didn’t work well at all.

What goes through your mind when you feel that your audience is not laughing?

It’s kind of like, “Ah, this sucks, I would rather be somewhere else right now,” but you have to face it. You need to keep going, work harder, and try something new. You can’t let it get to you, you can’t let the audience see that you’re sweating, you have to keep working with it, play off of it.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Do you feel like a member of the local comedy community and what’s that like?

Yeah, I do. I think of myself as the young comic in the community, and it feels good to know that there are a lot of comics who know who I am and appreciate what I do and inspire me to do more. It feels good to know that there is a community of comedians who support each other.

Libby Craig While some people spent ski week glued to the couch and fixated on the TV screen, 21 students and staff members spent five days increasing their knowledge of snow science in a hands-on program at the Tetons Science School.

The school, whose mission is to “connect people to nature through hands-on, minds-on education,” is located in Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. English teacher Tarn Wilson participated previously in a program at the Tetons Science School with another school as a nature-writing instructor.

She introduced the opportunity to Gunn. “I fell in love with the landscape and respected the mission and professionalism of the school,” Wilson said. “For years, I had considered taking Gunn students there, and when I realized that this was the last time we may have a ski week, I knew this was the year.”

What makes the learning experience in the Tetons unique is the application of knowledge. “We explored new aspects of environmental sciences and were introduced to new ways of learning through taking part in research activities and being physically involved in what we were studying,” junior Genna Lipari said.

From Feb. 17 to 22, the group would wake up at 6:45 a.m. from the Jackson campus complete with “green” architecture and research in the fields for about eight hours everyday. Using cross-country skiing and snow shoeing as transportation, the group learned about the ecology of Jackson Hole, discovered how to track animals, and visited an Elk Refuge and a wildlife art museum. They also explored the ins and outs of snow science, such as how plants and animals adapt to winter weather and how to predict an avalanche. “We dug a snow pit to collect samples and visually see a representation of the entire

What are some mottoes you live by?

Well, not Home Depot’s because they say, “You can do it, we can help,” but I don’t want to do it, and they should do it, and that’s what we’re paying them for—and then we can help them by giving them a glass of water or something. Anyway, I live by the motto, “the world doesn’t owe you anything—it’s you that has to go get what you need.” It’s like with the whole comedy thing. I could have hoped that somebody would ask me to do a show, but it’s more about getting your name out there and going to the clubs and performing.

Do you guys talk about anything special even when you’re not on stage?

It’s really cool to hang out with comics. One comedian is kind of like my comedy coach, and every time he ends his show, we go out to dinner with other comics, and the conversations are really lively. It can never get awkward with comedians, because that’s what we talk about.

Does anything upset you about life at Gunn?

The thing that really gets me angry is when I’m walking through the halls and really obnoxious freshman girls yell and it hurts your ears, but that’s a small thing. A second thing that I don’t like is how people base how smart they are by the competition at Gunn. I like the competition, but I don’t understand why people have to know what 10 other people got just so they can say that they did better.

Who is your coach?

Jimmy Gunn. He gives me a lot of advice on what a comedian should do and what a host should do.

What is your opinion of The Oracle?

I love The Oracle. I mean, this is my fourth interview, and it’s going to be my first published article. I hope.

You seem to make fun of your audience in your comedy. Do you think that’s true, and do you think it makes people laugh?

I think there is a certain extent of how much I can make fun of them. If I tell a joke, and I see an audience member come in late, I mean everyone notices it, so you have got to talk about it. It’s not that

Tetons ski trip explores snow science Sports editor

I’m angry that he’s late—it’s that it’s a funny kind of awkwardness. And if someone talks to you during your show that’s where you have to stop everything and have a little conversation.

winter through the layers of snow,” Lipari said.

Educational evening programs filled with discussion of knowledge gathered that day and activities to prepare the group for excursions the next day followed the field explorations. “Highlights include hilarious games and skits, learning about different types of snow crystals, discussing the issues involved with the management of reintroduced wolves, listening to our instructor sing and play the guitar and participating in a touching closing circle in which students expressed gratitude for the trip,” Wilson said.

Science teacher Lisa Wu believes the Tetons trip was a positive learning experience while still providing a nice vacation from school. “It was the perfect balance of education and fun activities,” she said.

The Tetons Science School offers many programs over the summer on ecology and applied field research. Any students interested can visit www.teton science.org for further information.

Graphic by Lucy Li

Photos by Jennifer Lim

You like science?

The reproductive system. I’m just kidding. I think my favorite class would be English because I can express myself in writing or creative projects. Jokes have to have perfect wording because if one word is not right, it can ruin the whole joke. But I don’t want to think about all my classes as [preparation for] “when I’m a comedian.” It’s just that I have the most fun when I compare things to what I enjoy, and that’s comedy.

—Compiled by Nathaniel Eisen

10

Centerf

The Oracle

Bay Area strives for a cleaner future Vivien Tsao

Associate News Editor

From city mayors to student groups, California has experienced a surge of interest in environmentally friendly policies.

Currently, the Bay Area boasts over 850 Green Business Program certified businesses and organizations. Palo Alto accounts for 14 of these businesses.

One of these organizations is the non-profit Common Ground Organic Garden Supply and Education Center (Common Ground), which offers classes in sustainable, organic gardening.

A certified green business must comply with all environmental regulations and take steps to conserve natural resources. At the Common Ground site, environmentalism abounds. “We have low-energy light bulbs, we bicycle to work as much as possible, we cook in solar ovens and we reuse things,” Common Ground manager Patricia Becker said.

“We also make envelopes out of old calendars and pay more for energy to make sure we’re using renewable energy.”

The organization was certified five years ago, and for Common

Ground, the process was easily managed. “We have been a green business even before certification was done,” Becker said. “We just had to fill out paperwork.”

Other businesses, such as Palo Alto’s Green Citizen, take a more active stance on environmental issues. Green Citizen makes recycling electronics convenient and offers an accountability system that tracks every item recycled through the company.

Schools, too, can be considered green businesses. Gunn became the first school to be green certified in 2006. “Gunn became a green business due to the efforts of former Student Activities Director [Nik Kaestner],” Principal Noreen Likins said. “He was very interested in reducing waste and recycling and worked very hard to get Gunn certified.”

Despite his departure, Kaestner’s legacy lives on through Gunn’s distinction as a green business, and the Gunn Green Team works to make the campus more environmentally friendly.

“The Green Team is a dedicated group whose members are split into subgroups dedicated to waste management, recycling, and other topics,” Likins said.

Gunn Environmental Club co-president Emily Viggiano is on the waste committee of the Gunn Green Team. “We’ve been working on selling Nalgene bottles to reduce water bottle waste, and some others have been working to reduce junk mail teachers get in the mail,” Viggiano said. The waste committee’s main goal for next year, she says, is to revamp the recycling system to make it more effective.

The Gunn Environmental Club recently hosted an assembly featuring prominent pro-environment speakers, such as Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto and Stanford Professor of Biological Sciences Stephen Schneider. The club also has a cartridge-recycling station in the Student Activities Center, bags to send old electronics to recycling centers and plans to host events on the quad during Earth Week from April 16 to 20.

Gunn has received accolades within the last two years for its GOFAST program, which actively encourages alternative transportation such as the use of transit, cycling and walking. It has also received a Green Building Award from the San Mateo County.

The city of Palo Alto has also been active. In 2003, Palo Alto began its PaloAltoGreen program to make the shift to renewable energy. Currently, the program boasts 3,851 participants, 15 percent of the energy consumers in Palo Alto. The program has currently saved around 39 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being produced. In 2005, PaloAltoGreen became the first city in California to win the prestigious Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Leadership Award for Outstanding Green Pricing Program and is the most successful renewable energy program in the nation.

Aside from PaloAltoGreen, the city’s utilities department is also engaged in creating more renewable resources through adopting guidelines that seek to increase its purchases of renewable energy to 10 percent by 2008 and 20 percent by 2015, which is more than the amount needed to support PaloAltoGreen homes. Also, a portion of the Public Benefit charge on electric bills is used to build renewable projects throughout California.

Palo Alto will begin new initiatives under Mayor Kishimoto,

who plans to create a “green economy through innovation” and to establish Palo Alto as a leading force nationwide toward more environmental gains.

The state government has been supportive of these actions.

On March 12, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger founded the Climate Action team to reach the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 emission levels by 2020 (a reduction of 25 percent) and to 80 percent below 1990 emission levels by 2050). Current Californian climate action programs have also announced their goals. The Air Resources Board announced cars and trucks must reduce greenhouse gas production by 18 percent in 2020 and 27 percent by 2030. The California Integrated Waste Management Board met its goal to reduce state waste by 50 percent last year through recycling and reuse and plans to reduce greenhouse gases by 300 million metric tons by 2010. The Department of General Services is seeking to reduce electricity used in state buildings 15 percent by 2015. With many more state departments looking for ways to cut waste, California is headed toward a greener future.

The four sources of greenhou Retail Goods

Tr ansportation

Electricity

percent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by retail tr ansportation: 22%

percent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by tr ansportation fuels: 14%

percent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by electricity: 21.3%

pe ca

What you can do to help: Buy local goods as often as possible to cut down on pollution from the transportation of goods. For example, purchase groceries from local farmer’s markets.

What you can do to help: When driving, avoid idling. If you expect to be waiting for more than 30 seconds, turn off your engine to save gas. Drive only when necessary, and enjoy the fresh air!

What you can do to help: Use energy-efficient appliances, compact f luorescent light bulbs, renewable energy or a combination of the aforementioned.

W Th inv ne

How the world is helping: Companies are finding innovative ways to apply hybrid technologies and other gas-saving technologies to trucks, as well as other large-scale vehicles.

How the world is helping: Hydrogen powered cars are coming on the market as well as Pluggable Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), which are hybrids that can be recharged from a standard outlet.

How the world is helping: The FutureGen Project is a project supported by President Bush that will form the first integrated sequestration and hydrogen production research power plant.

H Ne reb an

Flickr photos cou

—Compiled by Dan Li,

fold

Monday, March 19, 2007

11

Nation moves to a ‘greener’ future Amarelle Hanyecz Reporter

Photos courtesy of Caroline Hodge

use gases Industry

Matthew Lee

From bottom left, clockwise: Gunn Environmental Club, Green Citizen storefront, PaloAltoGreen logo and Palo Alto Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector Transportation fuels 14.0% Agricultural byproducts 12.5%

ercent of greenhouse gas emissions aused by factories: 16.8%

What you can do to help: he most effective thing you can do is write to a figure volved in the government. Tell them to petition for no ew coal plants and to enforce pollution fines.

How the world is helping: ew technologies for factories include the process of burning, which reuses heat energy to create more energy, nd the increased usage of natural gases.

urtesy of Yukonwheeler, moma stalker, howie221 and simone

Lauren Krensky, Eric Johnston and Danielle Edelman

Global warming is the increase in the earth’s average temperature, causing rising sea levels, more frequent floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes and tornadoes.

Many organizations and programs nationwide are working to reduce this effect. Step It Up 2007 is an organization lobbying Congress to cut America’s carbon emissions down to 20 percent by 2050.

Much of their work is performed through rallies and protests. On April 14, 2007, Step It Up 2007 is organizing a National Day of Climate Action, during which rallies will be held across the nation.

There are currently 574 actions being planned for it, and one will even be held at the Mitchell Park center.

Terrapass is another group devoted to preventing global warming and reducing the total carbon dioxide emissions created from driving, flying or using electricity. It hopes to reach these goals by rallying, project planning and organizing events.

Terrapass also funds clean energy projects such as the production of wind power, the use of energy from biomass (burned methane from cow manure) and the use of industrial efficiency projects such as waste management.

There is also a system called carbon trading in the United States. In carbon trading, a group, usually a government agency, limits the creation of carbon pollution. Carbon-emitting companies and factories are given an allowance for the amount of pollution they create, and companies that over-pollute must buy credit from companies that underpollute. Thus, companies are rewarded or fined depending on their amount of pollution. Although this system will not be put into effect until 2008, small-scale tests began in 2005 and the market has proven to be attractive and effective.

By acting with Step It Up 2007 and Terrapass, and by following systems of recycling and carbon trading, the nation is progressing toward a cleaner and greener earth.

Fossil fuel retrieval, process and distribution 11.3%

Industrial processes 16.8%

Power stations 21.3%

3.4% Waste disposal and treatment

10.3% Residential, commercial, 10.0% and other sources Land use and biomass burning

—Compiled from the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research Graphic by Brian Phan

Features 12 Young rock band gets off to a rolling start Newly formed local band The Doppler Effect plays for their love of music Stéphanie Keller-Busque

N

News Editor

ever have I enjoyed an interview more than the one I had with the band members of The Doppler Effect.

These high school boys are not only talented musicians but they also have the remarkable ability to entertain and to produce exceptional music.

The Doppler Effect’s members include seniors guitarist Anthony Jewett, bassist Nicky Manthes, saxophonist and singer Tyler Montgomery and guitarist and back up singer Eylon Steinhart as well as their friend, drummer Gordon Lee. The rock band started last year when some of the members performed at the Battle of the Bands under the name “Untitled.” The Doppler Effect as we know it today made its true debut in September 2006. “A bunch of guys were jamming and then they called me up to see if I wanted to do some vocals for them,” Montgomery said. “So I went over and we had our first kind of practice and it kicked off from there.”

Since then, The Doppler Effect has played several times at the Grame Matthew Studio in San Jose and they put on their own free concert in Gunn’s Little Theater Feb. 10

Photo courtesy of The Doppler Effect

The Doppler Effect practices at various times in senior Eylon Steinhart’s garage. The band is planning to hold more shows at Gunn in the future. featuring other local high school bands.

“The concert in the Little Theater was awesome,” Steinhart said. “The crowd was really sweet—we couldn’t have asked for better.

There was so much energy and everyone was really supportive.”

Performing is one of the most rewarding parts of being part of the band for the band members. “People tell us that we’re one of the best live shows they have ever seen,” Jewett said. Jewett, who began playing guitar in

the second grade, says he enjoys performing because it gives him a chance to express his musical creativity to its fullest potential.

Most of the band grew up with musicians in their families and are inspired by the artists they listen to. “I became interested in music probably when I was in the womb dancing to my moms music,” Jewett said. “I am the metal-head of the group, so my background is much more focused on heavy metal licks and stuff, and so it’s a challenge for me to

think of ideas for songs that do not sound like a dying cow.”

Steinhart and Montgomery write about two-thirds of the songs that The Doppler Effect performs. “It’s something of a LennonMcCartney business,” Steinhart said. “We get our inspiration from flowers, peace, rainbows and bad breakups,” he added jokingly.

Even though their end products have proven to be successful, the band does admit that there are disagreements at times. “We argue sometimes and people disagree or are indifferent so it can get a little frustrating,” Montgomery said. The band usually settles arguments by a vote and, according to Steinhart, “a big band wrestling match.”

All of the band players say that they would make music their career if they had the chance to later on in life. Their plans for the present include hosting shows at Gunn and going to a recording studio to make a CD of their songs. The Doppler Effect is also willing to play for anyone who needs a rock band for an event. “If you have some event that needs a rock band, contact us,” Jewett said. “Call us even if you do not want us to play—we love to have a good time.”

The Doppler Effect plays for their love of music and for enjoyment. “The chemistry we have is the best part [about being part of the band],” Lee said.

Student absorbs hidden tranquility

Club of the Month: Carthartic Screaming

Junior gains skills, perspective at Los Altos Hills preserve

Carissa Ratanaphanyarat

helped Chris grow. “He learned how to talk to people that came out for our programs,” Sidel said. “I think that just builds your confidence.”

After six weeks, Sidel offered Yu a job as a paid Deep in the woods of Los Alemployee—greeting visitors at the gate and directtos Hills, six miles south of Gunn, ing them to different parts of the farm. Yu has been there lies a secluded area where working there ever since. cows and sheep roam, tomatillos But Yu has gotten more out of the experience grow and visitors stroll. This place besides people skills. Mostly, he enjoys absorbing is Hidden Villa, an educational the serene setting. “Everything there is completely organization located on 1,600 natural,” he said. “If you close your eyes and listen, acres of open space in the foothills it’s just the most peaceful place ever.” of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Hidden Villa boasts a fairly close-knit community 47-year-old non-profit maintains a Chris Yu (11) of staff and volunteers. There is a mix of younger and farm, an educational garden, three older staff members, with a large contingent of high agricultural fields, more than seven miles of hiking school and college-aged volunteers and employees. “I trails and a hostel. On Sunday mornings, it’s also don’t think age really matters; it’s just their personaliwhere you’ll find junior Chris Yu. ties are all very likeable,” he said. “Everyone there is Yu initially began working at Hidden Villa as unbelievably nice. That’s very rare.” an unpaid volunteer last summer. Yu volunteered Yu has gleaned some knowledge about wildlife at a number of organizations, but Hidden Villa from the other staff at Hidden Villa. In the next few was the one he liked months, Yu hopes best. “Hidden Villa to give tours of the “I think the purpose [of the preserve] is was just the one that farm, once he has the to show the community that this natustuck,” he said. “The time in his schedule thing that’s different to go through the ral piece of acreage exists. Hidden Villa is the atmosphere required training. just wants to teach people about the and environment.

He will continue You have a lot of to work there this earth, about giving back and receiving.” freedom and it’s all —­Chris Yu (11) summer. very loose.”

In addition to At the start, Yu wasn’t exactly clear what Hidden working at Hidden Villa, Yu likes to play classical Villa was about, but working and volunteering there piano and write poetry, short stories and occasional has allowed him to discern the organization’s inten- op-eds for local newspapers. He hopes to become a tions. “Before I started working there, I thought it was screenwriter. somewhere between a petting zoo and a carnival,” Working at Hidden Villa has changed Yu’s ideas he said. “Now, I think the purpose is to show the about where he wants to study after high school. community that this natural piece of acreage exists. “Before I was looking for colleges in cities, like UC Hidden Villa just wants to teach people about the San Diego and NYU, but after being experienced to earth, about giving back and receiving.”

Hidden Villa, I’ve become more interested in some As a volunteer, Yu worked in the Community colleges in Oregon and Washington,” he said. “The Management office, running errands around the colleges in the Northwest have more of a similar farm and helping to plan and market Hidden Villa’s atmosphere to Hidden Villa—they’re more focused first annual Summer Concert Series. Yu helped to on nature.” secure rentals, put up banners, write letters to past After college, Yu plans to continue to work in the concertgoers and draft announcements for the Hidden environmental sector. “Later on, I’m definitely open Villa newsletter. to more environmental jobs and organizations,” he Yu’s boss, Marc Sidel, explained how constantly said. “Everything just seems to be more relaxed and interacting with guests, on the phone and in person, laidback.”

Imagine walking by the amphitheater during lunch one day.

A group joins hands in a circle as they stand in a meditative state in the middle of Gunn’s amphitheater amidst a crowd of curious spectators. Suddenly a screams rips through the tranquil air. This lasts for about three seconds, and as suddenly as it begins, it is over.

The puzzled audience lingers as they realize that they just witnessed the howl of the Cathartic Screaming Club.

Senior Heather Bui initiated the new club at the beginning of second semester. “Every semester I start a new club,” Bui said. After her most successful club, the Pet Rock Club, she decided to start on her newest project, the Cathartic Screaming Club.

“They go down to the amphitheater and scream on Fridays,” English teacher Angela Dellaporta said. “It’s cathartic, which means it cleanses out all your frustration, in theory.”

Caroline Hodge Forum Editor

Reporter

Bui agrees. “The whole idea of cathartic screaming is cleansing your soul,” she said. “It helps to imagine something before screaming. Guided visualization.”

New member freshman Katie Smiley gives further insight.

“There’s this deep, deep feeling inside but the only way we can let it out is to scream.”

Bui founded the club for more than the purpose of self-alleviation.

She wanted to help her peers as well. “I like the idea,” Bui said. “I think a lot of people get stressed out in Gunn, more than other schools. I thought that screaming would help to relieve our stress.”

There are some contradictions to this though. “There are studies done that say that screaming makes you more angry,” Bui said. “It’s kind of an iffy thing. I think that screaming is kind of fun.”

Bui was partly inspired by her mythology class with English teacher Angela Dellaporta. “Aristotle once said, ‘The purpose of tragedy is to effect through pity and fear the catharsis of emotions,’” Dellaporta said.

Cosmo Sung

Club president Heather Bui (center) and fellow club members perform their screaming ritual to let out stress.

13 Teachers showcase creativity outside of Gunn Features

Wayne Hoy

Monday, March 19, 2007

Cosmo Sung

Click. India. Click. Rome. Gunn. For photography enthusiast and teacher, Wayne Hoy, life is all about capturing the moments.

Since the fall of 1968, Hoy has balanced teaching several courses with maintaining his busy agenda as a professional photographer.

Hoy’s current devotion, however, was not reflected in his childhood ambition to be a coal-man. His dream to become a photographer and a teacher did not surface until his high school years at Camden High. “My high school art teacher helped me see the positive relationship between being an artist and being a teacher,” he said.

After being invited by his teacher to the night courses at the Art Department at San Jose State, Hoy noticed that his teacher enjoyed what he was doing. As a result, he decided to earn his master’s degree in sculpture and photography at San Jose State University.

“I believe that many of us are often inspired in our own art by our students,” Hoy said.

While teaching AP Art History and Beginning and Advanced Photography, Hoy tries to bring all his knowledge gained from his experiences into the classroom. “Mr. Hoy always tries to share his passions with his students,” junior Marie Nguyen said. “One

day you’ll go to class to learn about the Baroque era or dodging photos in depth, and walk out an expert on mid 20th century reform movements, the latest jazz band or Norwegian grandmothers.”

Hoy’s method in helping students is not limited to topics in the typical textbooks.

“I take a closer look at the techniques, history and aesthetics of the world’s greatest visual arts,” Hoy said. “I feel most successful when students are inspired enough to have a continuing interest in a subject I have taught. It is rewarding to see students mastering skills that will be valuable to them long after they have left my classes.”

Other teachers laud Hoy for his performance. “He’s always professional and thinking of students, in terms of what’s best,” Visual and Performing Arts Department Instructional Supervisor Todd Summers said.

Currently, Hoy is creating a series of black and white photos called “San Francisco Twilight Studies.” His works vary from images of non-conventional surfaces to sculptural forms and landscapes. Hoy’s photography has been featured in many galleries in the Bay Area, such as Axiom Designs in Fremont and Chandler Fine Art in San Francisco. Outside the United States, his photos are displayed in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

India, China, Japan, Thailand and Italy are just a few of the many places where Hoy takes photographs and learns about these countries’ cultures. “I’d like to travel more and live in Rome for a year,” Hoy said. “It has everything, like ancient ruins as well as Renaissance and baroque art and Italian food, of course.”

Hoy has found a lot of culture on campus as well. “I feel fortunate to have been able to contribute to this institution for so many years and help students realize their own potential,” Hoy said. His work can be viewed at www.waynehoyphoto.com.

—Susan Lee

Lauren Cory

Jonathan Gu

Imagine a job that included seeing the world, working with famous directors and actors and receiving high pay. For social studies teacher Lauren Cory, this was her lifestyle as Hollywood set designer. From traveling around the world to working with dinosaurs, she has done it all.

Cory grew up in Palo Alto under parents with high expectations. “My parents were over-achieving, white Protestants raised in the Midwest,” Cory said. “This means that although they did not have that much personal communication with [my siblings and me], they did expect us to go to college. So all three of us went to UC Berkeley, because we could afford it.”

While at Berkeley, Cory decided to pursue her career in set design. “My design guru at Berkeley had a very good friend who was a top Production Designer in L.A so it was an introduction and it got me into L.A.,” Cory said.

During her career in set design, Cory worked with many famous actors and directors, such as Jennifer Love Hewitt and Steven Spielberg. “Working for Steven Spielberg was better than I knew at the time,” Cory said.

“He allowed enough time for a movie to be

made properly, he paid at the high end and he had a family that he wanted to go home to, so he was organized and we went home by 6:30 p.m..”

A few successful movies Cory has worked on include Disney’s “The Kid” and “Jurassic Park.” “‘Jurassic Park’ was great to work on,” Cory said. “They flew me back to Boston to talk to genetics scientists about the lab, and I got to choose the computers for the set that was the control center in the movie.”

After working in set design and art direction for 18 years from 1981 to 1999, Cory decided to go try her hand at teaching. “Believe it or not, the movie business got very exhausting and became no fun—always panic and the same dire needs,” Cory said.

Before teaching at Gunn, Cory taught at the Salt Lake City School District (SLCSD) and at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). “The L.A. kids were virtually all from working class families and probably the first generation to finish high school, if they ever did,” Cory said. “They dealt daily with issues that most of us in Palo Alto rarely face, but there was a friendliness and warmth in many that is very unique, and I miss them.”

Cory currently teaches AP Psychology and World History at Gunn. “I think every teacher finds areas within their subject, such as history or English, that hold more interest,” Cory said. “I have taught World before and Psychology was my major so both are a fit.”

Students welcome Cory and her enthusiasm for teaching. “Her projects are extremely fun and have [created] a newfound interest of further developing my knowledge in history,” freshman Jamel DeGuzman said.

Sophomore Ann Abraham enjoys Cory’s teaching as well. “Ms. Cory encouraged us to learn more about how our community relates to the past,” Abraham said.

As for now, Cory plans to continue teaching as a career. “Perhaps when I am older, I will go teach in Africa, if they will take me with my walker.”

—Jeffrey Wang

Behind-the-scenes videographer takes steps toward cinema

Fi Kazi Reporter

The majority of the student body has watched the prom video about the “Phantom of Spangenberg.” However, how many of us know about the phantom who orchestrated the making of that movie? Along with many other hobbies, senior videographer Adeline Ducker composes movies about Prom and

Homecoming by acting as a director, script writer, producer and camera woman for the Student Executive Council (SEC).

Creating “Phantom of Spangenberg” was a personal triumph for Ducker. “I love musicals,” she said. “The prom video was a way to get that out.”

For the prom video, songwriter senior Noel Carey worked extensively with Ducker. “She knows exactly what she’s doing as far the camera goes, and making it look great,” he said. “It’s really nice to work with someone who’s as experienced as she is.”

Creating a movie requires time and patience, both from the actors and the director. “She changed the angle five different times,” senior Genessa Matthews said. “It was really interesting to see all the different things Adeline wanted us to do.”

Ducker spent 15 hours editing the prom video, which took three weeks to film.

“There are a lot of times when you film and you realize that something is not quite right,” she said. “That’s happened many

times to me.”

Aside from her SEC work, she also directs movies for her friends and church. This year Ducker will help direct the Gunndance Film festival. “It’s always fun to see what people come up with,” she said. She also works on the animation team with the Gunn Robotic Team (GRT). “It’s fun, difficult and frustrating at the same time,” she said. “It’s a lot of long hours and patience.”

Ducker’s passion for film-making began her freshman year. “I did a video project for English,” she said. “It was another artistic medium where I could express myself.”

Although Ducker is often inundated with projects, she does not have plans for a new film just yet. “I don’t have an agenda,” she said. “I’m just a high school kid with a camera.” Nonetheless, the upcoming scenes of her life will surely include film school. Ducker wants to major in film and direct movies. “How many famous female directors do you know?” she asked. “There aren’t that many.”

When making movies, Ducker looks to

real films for inspiration. However, professional movies use actual film technology, she is limited to digital cameras. She attempts to give her videos the same quality by heightening the contrast and the brightness in order to give it a more fantasy-like glow. “That’s what I did for ‘The Phantom of Spangenberg,’” she said.

Ducker still finds material for her movies in daily life. “I get inspiration from everyday life and school: funny situations, teachers, and students,” she said.

She makes movies for the same reason that many others do—she wants to tell a story and have it heard. After reflecting on the prom video, Ducker felt she accomplished something. “I felt like I did something that had an impact,” she said. “[Freshman] Lido [Giovacchini, featured on p.8 of The Oracle’s February issue] played the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ tune in the morning [after the prom assembly].”

Students can view the Gunn Homecoming 2006 and Prom 2007 videos at www.youtube.com.

Graphics by Brian Phan

14

Entertainment

The Oracle

Ana Kostioukova Entertainment Editor

Photo courtesy of Noel Carey

Bat Boy, played by senior Noel Carey, sips tea in an attempt to fit in with his Southern family.

We thought we saw it all: cabaret dancers and men in drag.

But now the Gunn Theater Department brings us “Bat Boy,” a musical based on a 1990s tabloid story. The main character, a half-bat, half-human child found in a cave in Hope Falls, West Virginia, is struggling with his adoption into a Southern family. The story follows his adaptation to civilization, as the boy battles against his community’s violence and fear.

The lesser-known musical has never been on Broadway, but this does not deter from its appeal to the audience. “It is a relatively unheard of show,” senior cast member Genessa Matthews said. “But it will surprise a lot of people with how amazing it is.”

“Bat Boy” sets itself apart from past Gunn productions, such as “Cabaret,” by implementing an exciting change to the music. “‘Bat Boy’ is kicking out the traditional pit orchestra and replacing it with a pit that is essentially comprised of a rock and roll group with a conductor,” senior Stephan Campbell said.

Despite its bloody appeal, the show also carries a more powerful message. “It’s a rock horror comedy with a great central theme and message to it—about acceptance and embracing the differences that separate people from one another,” senior Noel Carey said.

Since the show’s try-outs in the beginning of January, the cast has attended rehearsal everyday after school. “An immense amount of time and effort has gone into putting this show together,” Carey said. “It is a very challenging show to master in terms of music, dance, costumes and make-up.”

However, the cast feels as though its hard work is paying off. “It’s exciting to go to rehearsal everyday, not knowing what we may discover works really well in the play or what line can be said in such-and-such a way to make it hilarious or very meaningful,” Matthews said.

Another obstacle aside from the demanding work schedule was the challenging requirements set by the production itself. “Very few members of the cast have choral, dance and theater backgrounds,” Campbell said. “That being said, everyone must be able to sing, dance and act.” Even a veteran of the musical scene found the choral work of the musical demanding, but original as well. “Although it can be challenging at times, it’s got a lot of great songs, ranging from rock to gospel,” Carey said.

“Bat Boy” is the last show for many seniors in the cast, including Carey, Campbell and Matthews. “I feel so fortunate to have made so many connections through this show,” Matthews said. “I feel like we have shared a lot together.”

´ At Spangenberg Theatre: March 22 @ 8 p.m. $15 March 23 & 24 @ 8 p.m. $10 March 28 @ 3:30 p.m. $5 March 29, 30 & 31 @ 8 p.m. $10

‘Mothers and Sons’ reflects upon past

topten ways to welcome spring

Thomas Bao

Centerfold Editor

10) Swim on the beach in the 60° F water.

9) Cut physics class for a whole week.

8) Get a new haircut.

7) Enjoy the sunlight at 6 p.m.

6) Get a pair of Rainbows.

5) Start prom dress shopping.

4) Catch a lacrosse game or a track meet.

3) Seniors, take a bath or a yoga class because college decisions are out.

2) Start rehearsing for next year’s Ai bands.

1) Daydream about summer.

—Compiled by Ana Kostioukova

“Mothers and Sons,” the latest short story collection from award-winning author of “The Master,” Colm Tóibín, explores the complex relationships between mothers and sons and the key irrevocable power shifts of these relationships.

Set in Ireland, these nine stories are tinged with intimacy. The prose is simple and matter of fact: “He took her in calmly, evenly, not smily or offering any hint of recognition. Her gaze was almost too open and curious.”

Yet this belies the emotional depth and complexity Tóibín instills in his characters and situations. Furthermore, the omniscience and authoritativeness of the narrator elevates these otherwise casual

observations to profound statements that reveal the nature of his characters.

From the difficult emotions of an abandoned son who has a chance to meet his famed singer mother at a bar to the mother whose husband has become an invalid and her son a depression-afflicted man, these characters are burdened with pasts they would rather not have and decisions they would rather not make. And, often, in the end, these characters choose not to change: “He knew he would have to be careful to say nothing more, to pretend what it had been an ordinary evening. It would all be forgotten; they would play and sing until the small hours. He sat in the car and waited in the darkness for the others to come.”

Here, Tóibín reveals the difficult burdens of the past that prevent people from

doing basic things, such as reveling wit h t hei r friends. It is this “writerly” zoom lens that allows Tóibín to transform the pedantic -to powerful scenes that www.colmtoibin.com evoke one’s own memories.

In the end, though, the everyday aspect of these stories allow the reader to easily relate and form connections with the story, making them that much more personal.

Indeed, these are powerful stories, expertly crafted.

Threadless.com innovates on do-it-yourself shirt designs Alex Rasgon Reporter

Looking for a stylish T-shirt but don’t want to wear the same thing your friends are wearing? Threadless.com is the perfect solution to this problem. The website features hundreds of user made T-shirts that you won’t find anywhere else.

Threadless.com, which was created by skinnyCorp in 2000, is an online crossroads of sorts, where anyone can upload a T-shirt design but only a few get selected to be sold in the online store. The winners are decided by a vote that is open to the public for a limited time and are awarded a cash prize as well as the honor of being featured on the site.

The website is very easy to navigate, and all of its T-shirts are made for both sexes and

available in sizes “small” to “double extra large”. ranging from political humor to modern art , the designs on the T-shirts are the main attraction. It is truly amazing to see the breadth of human creativity poured into one website and distributed around the world. The fact that even amateur artists can upload their art to this website and see their work being worn by others is inspiring.

The artwork gives maturing artists motivation to hone their skills and create art that not only pleases the eye, but pleases us enough to buy it at an affordable price. The website offers the best of both world’s.

Sometimes it is interesting just to see what new and original designs are displayed without buying one. The webiste truly gives artistic inspiration to many.

The prices on Threadless.com vary greatly.

The lowest price for an item on the website was

for guys’ T-shirts, which tend to start at $15, while girls’ T-shirts start at $17. Long sleeve shirts are usually priced at $25 for both sexes, and the most expensive item is a hoodie for $40.

These prices are very fair, and the designs seen on the website definitely make it worth the purchase. However, the website is often out of stock or has a high volume of orders and may take up to an extra 12 days to ship an order. Otherwise, I would recommend this site to anyone looking for something different in his or her clothing reportoire.

The site offers so much to the public in such an original and creative way, it is surprising that there are not more websites or companies that are conducting business this way. The site demonstrates a very original business model, and I highly recommend checking Threadless.com out the next time you want to shop for clothes.

Graphic by Lucy Li

Entertainment

Monday, March 19, 2007

15

brecon welton, senior

alana murao, junior

“I dress by whatever mood I’m in. One day of what I wear doesn’t sum up my style—it’s eclectic.”

“I base my style from the Z-Boys era, who were from Dogtown, Venice Beach in the 1970s— skater or surfer, just keeping it comfy.”

Blouse Gap, $20

Anti-label Shirt

Jacket “My neighbor knitted it.”

Belt H&M, $20

“I spray-painted it in my garage.”

Rings “I found these in a flea market in England.”

Jeans

Embroidered jeans Gap, $20

Pac Sun, $50

Boots Nordstrom, $50

Shoes Pac Sun, $25 —Compiled by Stéphanie Keller-Busque Photos by Christopher Wu

‘God of War’ sequel improves on game play Alex Rasgon Reporter

“God of War 2” (GW2), the latest game from Sony for the Playstation 2 is one of the most entertaining and intense ventures in all of console gaming.

In GW2, you play as Kratos, who became the god of war in the last game. However, over the years, Kratos abused his powers and began conquering cities of mortals, killing all in his path. Unfortunately for him, the other gods did not take kindly to his endeavors, and conspired against him to kill him. However, the titan Gaea wants to help Kratos, and instead of letting him die, allows him to escape the fiery pits of the Underworld and reclaim his destiny as a mortal.

This game is rated Mature for a reason—it is extremely violent. Your basic weapon is a pair of swords attached to long elastic chains that decapitate and/or make mincemeat of your enemies. There is a move that allows Kratos to throw an enemy on the ground and break him into many little pieces, and that is just a first level move. It only gets bloodier from there. The blood and gore add to the feel of the game, but is never too overwhelming for the faint of heart.

The beauty of this game lies in its simplicity. It is amazing how all Kratos’ moves are done with three buttons, but over 40 moves can be executed. Aside from the variety of swords and axes, Kratos can use magic to aid him on his quest. Over 30 different magical techniques are at Kratos’ disposal, and all of them are incredibly satisfying to watch and to execute.

Another unique twist to the gameplay is the ability to ride Pegasus, the flying horse. While riding him,

www.softpedia.com

Kratos can jump onto other flying objects and attack them while in the air, and safely return to Pegasus’ back. The game features many challenging puzzles, and there is a strategy guide available for those who don’t have the patience to solve them. The overall difficulty level of the game is definitely higher than most, but is not “throw-your-controller-out-the-window” hard.

GW2 is one of the few console games that chooses to include frontal nudity, but it feels out of place and gratuitous. As Mature rating of this game borders on an Adults Only, in order to purchase it, you must bring your parents with you and they must have a valid ID. However, if you play games—even casually—then pick up GW2, and you will play through one of the most epic games ever made.

16

Entertainment

The Oracle

Nina Nielepko Business Manager

At lunch on April 11, the Italian sun immortalized by painter Sandro Botticelli will rise over the quad. No, Gunn will not be magically transported to Italy—“Botticelli Sunrise” is the title of senior Annika Benitz’s prom dress collection.

“I named the collection ‘Botticelli Sunrise’ because I am very inspired by the flowing, soft fabrics in his paintings,” Benitz said. “I hand-dyed all the dresses, and they are mostly warm, bright colors, reminiscent of a sunrise.”

Benitz created 12 dresses for the fashion show, which will be modeled mostly by upperclassmen. Potential models submit a form, along with photographs of themselves and their measurements. Benitz uses these forms to select models and create dresses to complement the models. Upperclassmen were chosen to model because it is, after all, a prom fashion show, and prom is an event which mostly upperclassmen attend.

“I’ve never done a prom fashion show before, and I thought it’d be fun to do a show entirely of fancy dresses,” Benitz said. “For a lot of people, prom is really important, so doing a show centered around that seemed obvious.”

Benitz’s favorite dress in the collection is orange, with an empire waist, ribbons, a scoop neck and a “Jane Austen feel.” It is similar to the dress she is planning to wear to prom.

Claudia Medina, who has been Benitz’s fashion design teacher and mentor at Gunn, has been helpful in not only inspiring Benitz, but also with designing and sewing the dresses for this show.

Apart from the showcase of prom dresses, Benitz

Matthew Lee

Benitz is hard at work stitching dresses for her prom collection. Students have commissioned Benitz to create unique pieces for their once-in-a-lifetime prom experience. is creating a dress for herself and has been commissioned to create dresses by seven of her classmates.

Benitz charges $75 for commissioned dresses, which take her between two days and two weeks to make, depending on how complicated the dress is. After discussing the desired “look” fabric and color of a dress, Benitz creates a sketch. “After that, we go back and forth until I have a final sketch,” Benitz said. “Then we go fabric shopping and I start sewing the dress.”

“I think that people commission dresses from me because they want something completely original,”

Benitz said. “It’s so embarrassing to show up at prom in the same dress as someone else, and having a dress made just for you ensures that won’t happen. Also, when you commission a dress it allows you to create your dream dress, rather than settling for one you find in a store.” Benitz’s career will not end at Gunn. She has been accepted by early admission to the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and she plans to major in fashion design. “I’m really excited to go,” Benitz said.

“I can’t wait to improve on the basic skills I have and to learn a whole lot more about art in general.”

Frank Miller’s novel hits the big screen

‘300’ breaks records for the month of March, crowds flooding theaters to get a glimpse of gory Spartan tale of bravery in the face of overwhelming odds Aviel Chang Reporter

After months of speculation, director Zack Snyder released “300,” and it has completely lived up to all the hype. Snyder has produced a movie unlike any before it—combining frantic battle scenes, a unique look, a solid cast, and rousing dialogue, “300” is a nonstop adrenaline rush that has already won over American audiences with a weekend gross of $70 million, the highest in the history of March.

“300” is based on the comic book of the same name by Frank Miller (“Sin City”) which is based on the battle of Thermopylae. Miller’s version of the inspirational tale centers on 300 Spartans and 700 Arcadians fighting a Persian army of tens of thousands led by a cruel ruler, Xerxes. The strategic battle site, The Hot Gates, is a narrow passageway that leads directly into Greece. “300” portrays everything from Spartan King Leonidas’s rejection of the Persians’ request for submission to the Spartans’ last stand.

Snyder chose to direct the entire movie in front of a green screen, with all the backgrounds and fictional creatures created by computers. This gives the film an extremely unique and appealing look. This visual sense is complemented perfectly by the style of the continuous battles.

The combat is intense and engaging, and at certain times, the focus shifts to individual Spartans fighting masses of Persian soldiers in slow motion. One might think the unrealistic combat would cause “300” to seem ridiculous, but it is the complete opposite. The ingenious and ultimately awesome style causes the audience to be in awe and yearning for more action after every battle scene.

The way “300” is narrated and told is masterful,

and the audience truly feels what the Spartans are experiencing. This is accomplished through passionate acting and a simple, effective script.

The lead actors, Gerard Butler (“Reign of Fire”), Lena Headey (“The Brothers Grimm”) and David Denham (“Lord of the Rings”) truly impress in their respective roles. Butler, who plays King Leonidas, can be heard throughout the movie stirring up his men with inspirational one-liners such as “Give them nothing, but take from them—everything!” and “This is where we fight; this is where they die!” Headey capably plays the queen back in Sparta desperately trying to convince the council to send more troops. Wenham is the stand-out performer because of the emotion he applies to his role. It is almost eerie how effective his explanations of the scenes are. The cast makes the best of simplistic dialogue with strong performances all around.

What makes “300” so different from other movies today is that it does not hold back. The production company does not try to change Miller’s and Snyder’s vision into a PG-13 movie.

“300” pushes the R-rating boundaries with nudity and extreme violence throughout. Miller’s and Snyder have no intention of pleasing Hollywood or making billions of dollars. They made the epic to their exact specifications. This is why so many people went to watch opening weekend—the public needed a break from the latest mediocre PG-13 horror movie or sub-par comedy being released for the sole purpose of making money.

Snyder has truly crafted a movie that pleases audiences on all levels. With innovative action, strong performance, and an extraordinary appearance “300” is an all-around masterpiece.

http://josephfinn.typepad.com

Sports

Singled Out

Monday, March 19, 2007

17

New faces lead track team Laura Tompkins — Long/Triple Jump

Laura Tompkins began coaching the track triple and long jumpers just this season. Tompkins formerly taught at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo..

She now fills up her time working at her church’s youth group, working with the school of independent studies and she coaching Gunn’s long and triple jumpers. “My husband began coaching here awhile ago and I’ve heard nothing but good things about Gunn,” Tompkins said. “There are a lot of younger athletes,

so I think they need more experience,” Tompkins said.

Tompkins has already witnessed a lot of young talent. For example, sophomore Nathan Ma has been leading the boys in the long and triple jump event this year.

“My biggest goal is to have each person improve and make their own personal records, give everyone a great track experience and hopefully return to coach next season.”

Bruce Hori — Hurdles Bruce Hori, a recent retiree, is no new face in Palo Alto’s high school scene: he taught at Palo Alto High School (Paly) since 1979, coached the Paly track team since 1983.

From 1988 through 1991, Hori had coached the Gunn hurdlers. He now returns to lead them to victory this season.

Hori decided to return to the Gunn hurdling team because he had more free time and needed a change of scenery.

“The other reason being I wanted to see if I can also continue to develop a good hurdle program at a different school,” Hori said.

Hori sees plenty of potential. “Those returning from last year are doing well, and new talent is being developed all the time,” Hori said.

Hori hopes to at least equal last year’s accomplishments at the league meet, which is to have every hurdler place in all divisions, if not better.

Joy Margerum — Sprints

Matth

ew L e

e

New sprint coach Joy Margerum knows what it takes to succeed in track and field. She has coached track and field since 1983 at Los Gatos for seven years, then at Hawaii Prep Academy for five years, then at UC Berkeley for eight years.

She has gone on to coach her sister, Grace Upshaw, a 2004 long jump Olympian, and currently holds the Master’s Track and Field women (ages 40 to 44) American records for the indoor hurdle

Gaurav Shirole Grade: 11 Sport: Track Years participated: 6 (2 on varsity) Events: 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, 100m sprint, 200m sprint Goals: “To be ranked in the top eight for CCS in the 100m and 200m sprint.”

Why he runs: “It is my passion. Running gives you a unique rush.”

Biggest accomplishment: “Winning the San Rafael Twilight Relay my sophomore year.”

—Compiled by Adrienne Nguyen

and women (ages 44 to 49) American record for the 80-meter hurdle.

Margerum was surprised by the athletes’ deft talent and noted their ability to pick up new instruction and skills. “I’ve already seen improvement in flexibility and running mechanics,” Margerum said. “I hope everyone will improve, whether by a hundredth of a second or a second. I want everyone to improver overall and I want to be able to pass on the great tips I’ve learned.”

—Compiled by Alex Tom

Sports Update Baseball: 2-7 Softball: 6-1 Swimming & Diving: 0-1 Boys’ Tennis: 8-0 Lacrosse: 0-1 Track & Field: 1-1 Badminton: 2-1 As of 3/15

Upcoming Games • 3/20:

Badminton at Lynbrook, 3:30 p.m.

Lacrosse vs. Woodside, 4 p.m.

• 3/21:

Softball vs. Los Altos, 3:30 p.m.

• 3/22

Boys’ tennis vs. Wilcox, 3:30 p.m.

• 3/23:

Swimming vs. Mountain View, 3:30 p.m.

—Compiled by Libby Craig and Adrienne Nguyen

Photos by Cosmo Sung and Christopher Wu

18

Sports

The Oracle

Crew popularity spreading Dedicated Titan crew members rise early to row

Crystal Greenberg (12), Softball “We have some new underclassmen that I think will be assets to the team.”

Chris Preston (12), Swimming “We lost a lot of talent last year, but we’ve been training really hard and the good team chemistry will help us out.”

Camille Chesavage (11), Lacrosse “We have a few things to work on, but if we do that we’ll be a lot better team.”

Kyle Einfalt (11), Baseball “Our team is struggling right now. If we manage to pull it together, we can be a good team.”

Jenica Law (12), Track & Field “Overall I think we’ll do pretty well.”

Alex Klein (11) Tennis “We’re probably going to win first in our league and we’re 6-0 so far.”

Jennifer Tsai (10) Badminton “The varsity team needs to work on our shots, but we’ve been working pretty hard.”

—Compiled by Eric Johnston

Adrienne Nguyen Sports Editor

Many students struggle to reach class in time for the 7:55 a.m. morning bell. Others wake before sunrise to reach crew practice at the Redwood City port at 4:45 a.m. Rowing has slowly grown in popularity in Bay Area and many clubs offer non-cut membership.

Although the sport seems relatively simple, it requires immense dedication upwards of 20 hours a week. Crew is a sport of coordination and physical strength. Junior Josh Knowles-Hinrich has been rowing with the Palo Alto Rowing Club (PARC) since this past summer. “Conditioning workouts consist of four-mile runs followed by a stairs and calistenics,” he said.

Knowles-Hinrich practices six days a week, including three morning workouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 4:45 to 7 a.m.

Many times, athletes will train at the PARC fitness center, using ergometer machines to simulate the rowing experience. “Crew takes commitment and a strong personal motivation which I didn’t realize I had until I joined,”

Knowles-Hinrich said.

Despite being largely popular on the East Coast, rowing is still emerging as a competitive sport on the West Coast.

Freshman Natan Reddy rows with the Stanford junior team.

“I row because it’s different than many other sports and pretty unique,” Reddy said.

Sen ior Li zz Wi nchel l agrees. “It’s different than any other sport that I’ve done,” she said. “You really connect with people on a completely different level. You really bond with the people in your boat because you know they’re working as hard as you are for that last stroke.”

Winchell has been rowing since her freshman year. She now rows with Nor Cal, a club that shares the Redwood City port with PARC. Along with the intense practice schedule, Winchell also trains independently. “Crew is very intense,” she said. “You need to stay in the best shape possible.” To stay fit for crew, Reddy is a member of the Gunn track team.

Crew has two major seasons—Head Season during the fall and winter, and Sprint Season from March to May. Crew races, called regattas,

Photos courtesy of Eliza Henderson and Lizz Winchell

Top: Sophomore Eliza Henderson and teammates race at Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.

Bottom: Senior Lizz Winchell practices with Nor Cal Crew in a double shell at the Redwood City port. occur all throughout the state or nation. Sophomore Eliza Henderson practices with the Stanford junior team. “This past fall, we attended the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston,” Henderson said. Other races include the Long Beach Invitational and regattas in Sacramento and San Diego.

The boats and the regattas vary in length, number of seats and their arrangement. Each shell, or boat, has different formats, depending on the race and number of oars used.

“Sweeping is rowing with one

oar, while sculling is with two oars,” Reddy said.

In the boat, rowers are motivated by the coxswain, who usually faces the rowers. “She is responsible for steering the boat,” Winchell said. They also follow the stroke, the first person in the boat who sets the pace and rhythm for the rest to follow.

Many crew teams are noncut and offer different groups for varying levels of technique and strength. Levels available usually include novice for beginners, JV and varsity.

McGinn steps down as Athletic Director Danielle Edelman Reporter

After 2 ½ years, Athletic Director (AD) Matt McGinn has decided to step down from his post.

He made the decision based on his desire to concentrate more on his personal life and on his position as a coach. “I have two young sons at home and the job took away time from them,” McGinn said. “I felt as though I was missing a valuable part of their life.”

McGinn also chose to step down because he wished to concentrate on being a football coach. “It took away from football during the season,” he said. “I want to work on turning things around.”

However, McGinn admits there are aspects of being AD that he will be sorry to leave behind. “I’ll miss being able to help coaches with their goals and interacting with the coaches in general,” he said.

Besides football, McGinn has several other goals that he was unable to focus on with his many duties as AD. “I’ll be able to help more with the advanced fitness class,” he said. “We’re trying Matt McGinn to get a variety of athletes and I think it will really improve athleticism.”

McGinn feels that his greatest achievement during his time as AD was the improvement of Gunn’s athletic facilities.

“I would say that I was proud of the fact that we [the athletic administration and the Gunn Sports Boosters] were able to get lights for our main athletic field,” he said. “This should hopefully spark an interest in the community to see that we are capable of fundraising and putting those funds into action.”

While the lights were a great improvement, McGinn agrees that more must be done to improve the athletic facilities if Gunn hopes to reach the competitive level of some other school teams. “Some of our facilities, like the pool, are the worst in the entire state,” he said. “Our facilities do not represent those of a high school located in such an affluent area and such a successful school district.”

The new AD has not been chosen yet, but McGinn thinks the process is going well so far. “I’m going to be in on the interviews,” he said. “It will be in good hands regardless of who is picked.”

Though McGinn will no longer have the position of Athletic Director, he will still continue his other jobs of physical education teacher and head football coach and will be able to advise the new athletic director. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I’ll still be available to ease whoever they pick into the job.”

Sports

Monday, March 19, 2007

Kickboxing

Squash

Whether you are looking to get into shape, trying to find an outlet to relieve stress or simply wanting to participate in a productive social activity with friends, kickboxing is a great source of cardiovascular exercise that benefits both the mind and the body.

Senior Judy Sol regularly participates in cardio kickboxing classes at Studio Kicks in Palo Alto. “Kickboxing not only trains and tones you physically, but it boosts your mentality as well,” Sol said. “Cardio kickboxing is kind of like dance, boxing and yoga all meshed together into one workout. The dance helps with coordination, the boxing helps with endurance and the yoga helps with flexibility and stress-relief.”

Senior Katie Yip also attends the Studio Kicks classes along with Sol. “I really like the instructor—he’s good at pushing you,” Yip said. “[Kickboxing] is a lot of fun and it’s a great workout. The most rewarding part about it is that feeling you get after you exercise when you feel really good. Studio Kicks offers a variety of classes and levels.

The studio also holds a range of martial arts classes geared toward children. Visit www. studiokickspaloalto.com for more information.

—Compiled by Stephanie Keller-Busque

A lot of people play squash at Gunn. From just playing on the weekend, to being nationally ranked, each person has his own level of involvement. Squash is basically tennis against a wall.

The Squash Club at Gunn plays every other Friday at 7:30 p.m. on the Stanford squash courts. Everyone is welcome. The Stanford squash coach helps provide the club with the necessary materials for squash. Senior club president Cyrus Varza believes that squash can be a very popular sport at Gunn.

“It’s starting to get big,” Varza said, “I think over time the club will become very large, depending on the enthusiasm of some of the younger players to continue the club.”

Varza is ranked 12th in the nation in the Under-19 age group. “It’s a fun sport especially when I’m playing [well],” Varza said.

“On the other hand, it’s very demanding. You have to travel a lot and if you want to play tournaments, it takes up a lot of time on the weekends.”

There are many more casual squash players at Gunn. Junior Jonathan Popovich plays regularly with the squash club. “I play about once every two weeks,” Popovich said.

—Compiled by Jonathan Gu

Rock Climbing When the mountains of Yosemite are too far away, climbers have an alternative form of rock climbing at some of the local indoor climbing gyms. Rock climbing is a sport for athletes of all builds that challenges one’s strength, endurance and mental control.

Junior Jason Peters is on one of Twisters Gym’s climbing teams and has been involved in the sport for almost four years. “The toughest part is the mental game of figuring out the climb,” he said. “A lot of them can look scary so getting over those fears can be a challenge.”

Junior Alana Murao agrees that the mental aspect of climbing is one of the most important parts of the sport. “People who are weak mentally can’t climb as well because it’s a sport that really puts it all on you,” Murao said. “You have to have that kind of confidence. Climbing really teaches you to trust yourself.”

Both Peters and Murao say they love the fact that climbing is fun as well as a great workout. Local gyms that offer rock climbing are Twisters Gym in Mountain View and Planet Granite in Sunnyvale or Belmont.

19

Bowling Senior Kevin Chung is an amateur competitive bowler. As a member of Palo Alto Bowl’s Saturday Junior All-Stars League, Chung practices once a week. But the league has hit a recent low—lack of membership is causing the group to fall apart. “It would be great if more people could join,” Chung said. “The league is kind of dying because there aren’t enough people.”

Chung has been bowling since a young age and became competitive during the seventh grade. After so many years of participating in the sport. Chung confesses that he is still confused by the technicalities of scoring. “I just look at the screen and what the computer says,” Chung said.

“My highest score was 261, but my average score is probably 160,” Chung said.

261 is good compared to the maximum score of 300. “A 300 is basically strike after strike.”

Chung has not participated in any recent bowling tournaments, but he spoke of the Manteca International Bowl in April. “I’m still considering it but I might sign up for that tournament, it would be interesting.”

—Compiled by Meilin Luh

—Compiled by Stephanie Keller-Busque

Graphics by Brian Phan, Christopher Wu and Carissa Ratanaphanyarat

Boys’ tennis defeats Vikings in close battle Shiv Kachru

Forum Editor

Matthew Lee

Singles No. 1 player junior Alex Liu serves against his opponent. Boys’ tennis currently has an undefeated record.

Varsity boys’ tennis asserted their dominance last week by sweeping Cupertino in a blowout 7-0 win on Tuesday and defeating Lynbrook 5-2 at an away game on Wednesday. These victories brings the undefeated boys’ tennis team to a 7-0 overall record, the best in several years.

The team’s best performances during the Cupertino game came from the top seeds, juniors Alex Liu and Daniel Ugarte. Liu quickly won his match with a score of 6-0, 6-1, while Ugarte won handily with a score of 6-0, 6-2. “Everyone on the team played really well that day,” Ugarte said. “I’m happy to see our progress from last season.”

The number one doubles team of seniors Colin Thom and Craig Kaplan also shut out its Cupertino opponents winning 6-2, 6-1. Other doubles winners were the teams of juniors Andrew Meyer and Bharat Reddy and seniors Jason Lin and Hank OuYang. Lin and OuYang won their first set easily with a 6-1 win, but lost the second set 4-6. They ultimately came back to win the last set 6-1. “We relaxed too much after we won the first set by so much,” Lin said. “But after we lost the second set we realized that we really needed to just focus and play well, and we won our last set easily.”

The Lynbrook match ended with a much closer final score of 5-2. Gunn received singles wins by Rajeev Hareker, 6-1, 6-2 and Ishan Bhadkamker, 5-7,

7-6, 6-3. “Everyone played very well that day,” coach Jim Gorman said. “Rajeev played great in the third singles spot, and Ishan played a great game. He was down three match points in the second set, and ended up winning that set and the one after that.”

Once again the doubles came through as they swept all three matches as Kaplan and Thom won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, juniors Andrew Meyer and Bharat Reddy won 4-6, 6-2, and Lin and OuYang won 6-2, 6-4, giving Gunn the depth to pull out the victory.

Gunn is in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, and the victory over Cupertino brought them to a perfect 4-0 in league play.

The win over Lynbrook was especially significant as they are in the upper division De Anza League. “So far, we have beaten three upper division teams, and that is a huge confident booster for our team,” Gorman said. “These are big wins for us, and is a big step up from last season.”

Gorman is confident in his team’s ability to carry them to win the El Camino Division. “I would really like our team to win the Division, but the big challenge is going to be beating Paly again,” Gorman said. “Last week, we scraped by with a 4-3 win against them, so it will be tough to beat them again.”

Team members are also pleased with the way that the season is progressing. “The tennis team is doing great this year, and our team has improved a lot,” senior Evan Chen said. “Jason Lin and Hank OuYang have won all their matches this season—they are the difference makers on our team.”

20

Sports

The Oracle

NCAA predictions Stephen Salazar

Neither of last year’s national finalists—Florida or UCLA— will even make it past the Elite Eight (second regional round).

In this year’s tournament I see Kansas, Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio State in the Final Four.

Kansas and Texas will then be eliminated and in the championship game Ohio State University will come away with the title over Wisconsin. After being disappointed in football for the NCAA championship, the Buckeyes will redeem themselves in this tournament.

As far as upsets and Cinderella stories stand, Winthrop has a shot at the Sweet Sixteen but won’t be able to get past Wisconsin, the number two seed, in that round. The number 12 seed, Long Beach State, shows promise with explosive guard Aaron Nixon, and the team will also be able to out-rebound its opponents effectively (they average 37 team rebounds a game). They have some of the best team play in the NCAA, and are capable of pulling a few surprises in the tournament. The (LB State) 49er’s, however, will end their superb team play in the Sweet Sixteen to Ohio State.

For local Stanford fans, I’m sorry to say that the Cardinal was not be able to make it past Louisville (as you all found out).

The Cardinal could not utilize its size advantage against Louisville, and it could not come away with a win. Though the Cardinal was able to pull of a few upsets during the season, it has proven once again that it cannot reflect its regular season performance in the tournament (where it really matters).

UCLA showed tremendous promise and poise for most of the season, but near the end its progress seemed to slow down.

In the Sweet Sixteen, the Bruins are going to be knocked out by either Pittsburg or VCU. Florida will be eliminated in the Elite Eight, most likely by Maryland since none of the other three possible teams show promise.

—Salazar, a junior, is an Entertainment editor.

A brief history of madness Scott Benitez Reporter

Who’s your pick for March Madness? Are you rooting for a top seed with a high chance of winning, or a number 16 seed hoping for a Cinderella story and major bragging rights? The chance of picking the right team to go all the way is just one of many reasons why the entire country gets captivated over the NCAA tournament.

March Madness was created in Illinois around the turn of the 20th century. There was a pretty small basketball invitational in Illinois each year, which became more popular. The truth is that March Madness did not start out with college basketball. The first March Madness was held in 1908 with the area’s local high schools. The tournament started before television was invented so the popularity spread by word of mouth. Each year, March Madness grew and attracted new fans.

Henry V. Porter was an executive secretary at the Illinois High School Association who wrote an article for the Illinois Interscholastic about the invitational that had swept the country off its

feet, which he called the March Madness. The name has stuck with the tournament ever since.

The first college basketball game ever played was in Madison Square Garden between Pittsburgh University and Fordham University. Spectators who watched the game instantly fell in love with college basketball. Basketball’s popularity skyrocketed from there and is higher today than ever before.

Some people watch the games for pleasure, while others bet on the games. Sports Internet websites offer ways to bet on one’s favorite team.

Many kids fill out brackets with their friends or co-workers have a little competition with each other at work.

The first round occurred on March 15 and 16, with the second round on the 17 and 18. The finals will be held on April 2.

The single elimination nature of the tournament makes it even more intense because any team can go home at any time despite its regular season record. While college football is also popular because of the Bowl College Series, only basketball offers a complete tournament to announce a winner.

www.southcoasttoday.com

Which team do you think will win it all?

Georgetown

Florida

Hemanth Komdapalli (9)

Rachael Fleischmann (10)

Florida

Stephen Strnad (11)

Ohio State

Akila Subramanian (12)

Kansas

Mark Hernandez (teacher) —Compiled by Adrienne Nguyen

Graphics by Brian Phan